#like plumbers and stuff.

[gov-ontario-transit-official]

Neat thing

If we do more transit, we could reduce cars on the road and thus have to invest less in car infrastructure, meaning more people want transit and letting us invest more in transit. At least I'm pretty sure how that works. Wow, someone qualified should run this account huh. It's a good thing that'll never happen.

[inkskinned]

the rise of AI art isn't surprising to us. for our entire lives, the attitude towards our skills has always been - that's not a real thing. it has been consistently, repeatedly devalued.

people treat art - all forms of it - as if it could exist by accident, by rote. they don't understand how much art is in the world. someone designed your home. someone designed the sign inside of your local grocery store. when you quote a character or line from something in media, that's a line a real person wrote.

"i could do that." sure, but you didn't. there's this joke where a plumber comes over to a house and twists a single knob. charges the guy 10k. the guy, furious, asks how the hell the bill is so high. the plumber says - "turning the knob was a dollar. the knowledge is the rest of the money."

the trouble is that nobody believes artists have knowledge. that we actively study. that we work hard, beyond doing our scales and occasionally writing a poem. the trouble is that unless you are already framed in a museum or have a book on a shelf or some kind of product, you aren't really an artist. hell, because of where i post my work, i'll never be considered a poet.

the thing that makes you an artist is choice. the thing that makes all art is choice. AI art is the fetid belief that art is instead an equation. that it must answer a specific question. Even with machine learning, AI cannot make a choice the way we can - because the choices we make have always been personal, complicated. our skills cannot be confined to "prompt and execution." what we are "solving" isn't just a system of numbers - it is how we process our entire existence. it isn't just "2 and 2 is 4", it's staring hard at the numbers and making the four into an alligator. it's rearranging the letters to say ow and it is the ugly drawing we make in the margin.

at some point, you will be able to write something by feeding my work into a machine. it will be perfectly legible and even might sound like me. but a machine doesn't understand why i do these things. it can be taught preferences, habits, statistical probability. it doesn't know why certain vowels sound good to me. it doesn't know the private rules i keep. it doesn't know how to keep evolving.

"but i want something to exist that doesn't exist yet." great. i'm glad you feel creative. go ahead and pay a fucking artist for it.

this is all saying something we all already knew. the sad fucking truth: we have to die to remind you. only when we're gone do we suddenly finally fucking mean something to you. artists are not replicable. we each genuinely have a skill, talent, and process that makes us unique. and there's actual quiet power in everything we do.

[sentientstump]

goodbye waynehouse, i have a job now

[depoteka]

the older i get the more impressed i am by people who do any "regular" manual work that doesn't require uni education. if somebody told me they're a lawyer i'd yawn but if somebody said they're a shoemaker's apprentice my face would look like this 😮

[fiestylittlebeetle]

Drives me insane that Ben showed empathy for Malware for all of 5 seconds when he was 10 and all he needed to hear was an adult telling him some bullshit for him to be "nevermind"

Actually this is now a rant about how the adults in bens life fucking suck. Literally every adult he knows besides his parents, manipulate him all because he has the Omnitrix so they feel like they have to mold him into who they want

Like granted he's often times a rebellious shit but he does take stock in what adults in his life tell him he needs be

[m00nc4kes]

on todays episode of the fanfic author curse:

my apartment building burned down-

I MEAN WHAT THE FUCK

[bluastro-yellow]

get it Kim has a lot to unpack do you get it

it's imperfect I'll never polish it just take it as it is I should have put aerostatics not airplanes...

[lady-of-the-spirit]

Apparently unpopular opinion (based on two different fics I read) but I don't think the newsies would feel betrayed if they found out Katherine is a Pulitzer. Jack reacted the way he did because it was already an upsetting situation and Pulitzer manipulated the situation and the reveal to feel like a betrayal. I think with the combination of the boys and Katherine bonding in "King of New York" as well as Katherine doing everything she could to help the newsies, she's proven herself to them enough that they wouldn't care.

Frankly it's more realistic that she would tell them and they'd be like "Man your dad is a real piece of shit. Sorry about that."

[theswedishpajas]

Can’t believe I forgot to post this the other day

[kellyscowboy]

THE STRIKERS

a newsboys band au

jack kelly: leader singer, plays the electric guitar

david jacobs: band manager, plays piano on occasion if needed

racetrack higgins: drummer

albert dasilva: bass guitar

crutchy morris: publicist, runs the social media

katherine plumber: back-up vocalist

[snakeeyesdraws]

I'm about to crash so I don't have the proper words but I just rewatched the 1993 Mario movie and I think I was lied to about it because it is SO entertaining and hilarious. Not a good Mario movie, but a good goofy 90s movie

[nudibutch]

i am so powerful i installed 3 new shower liners on our shitty clawfoot tub shower rod ring thing even with my fucked up collar bone AND we now have a pulldown shower head so i can rinse the tub 😭

[heartbeetz]

Wait. I made Amy interested in bugs bc 1) it fits the personality I want her to have and 2) it was directly inspired by my own interests at that age. But I just realized something. Anton's in demolition in the new game, but he was in pest extermination in the first one (several years prior in-universe). She absolutely would've gotten into bugs just from hearing about her dad's work.

[katya-goncharov]

I've got myself into a potentially awkward situation because someone is supposed to come into my flat sometime this afternoon to look at the plumbing, and I said they didn't need to ask my landlord for the key because I'd be in. but also I have an online training session for my new job from 1-3, so if the person shows up before that's over then I don't know how I'm going to let the plumbing person in at the same time!

[deux-jared]

speculating about ibxtoycat is insane bc he shares so much personal information but also it’s ibxtoycat so everything about him is insane and unreasonable.

[newtness532]

i just had to put my hand in the hole in the bathroom floor to try and clean it. i had gloves and a trash bag on my hand, my mom on video call telling me what to do and i cried the entire time. 0/10 experience, do not recommend.