talayse

[talayse]

Had a coworker tell me they hadn’t texted once because of the time. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

I stared at them through the dawning realization that they lived in a world where that was remotely possible. “My phone is on do not disturb if I’m sleeping. Why would I let random texts wake me up? My sleep is important.”

Equally baffled they replied, “What if someone at work needs you?”

“I am not a manager. No one at work will ever need me badly enough to interrupt my sleep. If I’m not working then there’s no reason to be calling me.”

“Not even if you need to cover?”

I laughed, “I don’t need to cover. They could ask me to cover but good luck getting ahold of me if I’m sleeping.”

They looked distressed at this idea.

To console them I added, “I have important people like my mom and my wife set to override. If they call they get through no matter what.”

There was a small pause before they asked, “You can do that…?”

So friendly reminder. Become unreachable. Work does not need you that badly. Sleep.

[talayse]

"next time, log in faster with fingerprint/face/iris recognition!" how about i keep typing my password like i have for the past 25 years and you fuck off

[talayse]

Sometimes an episode is just so stuffed with really good line deliveries theres nothing i can do except put em together in a compilation its out of my control im powerless to stop it. Goodbye.

[talayse]

the trees you grew up with have not forgotten you. their branches still whisper your name in the breeze and their roots remember the paths your feet once traced through their shade.

[talayse]

new tag game: the thing you most often pretended to be as a kid—whether it was a horse, a bride, a queen, a specific character, a knight, a lawyer, a baby, anything—is symbolically representative of you currently. what is it for you?

[talayse]

Reblog and you’re guaranteed to be successful at whatever you do next!

[talayse]

[talayse]

[talayse]

Toshiro Mifune as Tajomaru RASHŌMON / 羅生門 (1950) dir. Akira Kurosawa

[talayse]

this 'being really tired after work' thing is really getting in the way of this 'pursuing my artistic hopes and dreams' thing has anyone else noticed this

[talayse]

On the scale of Lan Wangji to Xiao Jingyan how soon can you recognize your beloved who has completely changed their appearance

[talayse]

I bet it’s sooooo fun to be an actor and getting to pretend to be another character in a body swap/possession/shapeshifting plotline. you’ve gotten to watch your coworker play their role for so long and now you finally get a chance to do their silly voices and mannerisms

[talayse]

little known fact, once you are older & no longer in school, time stops being real. did that thing happen one year ago? two? five? a few months ago? who knows. 

[talayse]

...what if job listings were honest?

[talayse]

If the US passes their ID law I'm seriously considering cancelling my internet service and telling the provider it is due to that law . . . It's a sad state of affairs but I honestly think companies losing money is what will undo these laws.

I have a suggestion for how to fight all the tech bullshit coming at us from all sides right now, but people aren't going to like it.

Like, yes, yes, use VPNs, use Linux if you understand that, get Raspberry Pi if you can afford it, practice cybersecurity as much you can, check your settings constantly, don't use AI, etc etc etc

But... a better solution is in fact to just... be online less.

I know I am saying this on tumblr. I also know that tech bros have spent years perfecting algorithms to make them addictive as hell. I know there is an isolation/loneliness problem in a lot of Western society and possibly elsewhere, and so the internet/tech/AI can seem like a solution.

But it is a solution tech assholes have offered us after removing so many other solutions, and things are not going to get better with these same horrible people in charge--and they are actively tightening their grip.

So I don't mean this in the bitchy sense: we all need to log off and go touch grass.

I did that this week. Or at least, I started cutting back more. And it's tricky because I am already someone who doesn't take my phone with me everywhere, and even with this, it has become ingrained in me when even *remotely* idle or bored to check my phone. I ended up leaving it in another room and not allowing myself to go into that room.

You know what happened? I got restless, so I started doing stuff around the house. Which was satisfying. I don't mean just cleaning. I mean I fixed little problems that had been driving my crazy.

The next day I ran a bunch of errands. Then I set up a new project to start.

Importantly, my stress levels went down, and I called people I know to actually like, talk. And made plans to go hang out with another person.

And it meant that Silicon Valley freaks were not monitoring every single thing I was doing and trying to manipulate me into certain moods to make me buy things or to keep scrolling.

We need to stop being online so much. We need to go out into the world, and painstakingly and with much embarrassment and failure (probably, at least at first) rebuild connections and groups and support systems.

We need to step away from the social media for our own peace of mind but also, importantly, because we are being dicked around by Google and other tech companies because they think we have no other options.

But we do. Genuinely, not to be an old, and I do like having access to information and fun memes on my phone, but I think "the internet" being a single spot in your house as it was in the 90s and early 2000s meant it was much, much harder for "the internet" to become your entire world.

They monopolized the internet. They limited social media to a few platforms, most owned by the same people. They have started intensely censoring content for both sex and politics. They track everything. Privacy has become a luxury. They are altering Youtuber's faces and words with AI without their consent. And they are trying to make us all stupid and dependent on them.

And they don't care about our emails and calls. They just don't. But they do care if we stop using their shit products, even if it just means we use them less.

Brief segue into Target talk: Target's sales were already bad before the boycott, but the boycott is hastening their demise, and I don't think they can come out of it. But what was important about the boycott is that it *broke the Target habit.* A lot of shoppers got in the habit of wandering around Target and buying more than they needed. It was a weirdly pleasant, social experience for a lot of people. (Or seemed to be.) Then Target ruined the experience through various corporate retail decisions, but shoppers kept up the habit--until the boycott.

The boycott meant people stopped going to Target once a week, and it turns out, that's all it took to break the habit for most people. They might still go to Target once in a while, but it's not a *habit* anymore. And those people are saving money, and they are happier.

That applies here. Start putting your phone down more. Start using social media less, or some social media less.

Someone is going to yell at me about this being ablest or how I don't understand being a lonely queer in a small town. And... lonely queers in small towns can still "fall in love" with an AI chatbot. No one is safe from this manipulation. In fact, the lonely and isolated are more vulnerable to it. And yes, doing things for free is hard in many places in America, and phones feel like free entertainment. (And breaking from the endless scrolling is haaaaard. I get it.) Accessibility is an issue, particularly in some states/cities compared to others.

Instead of endless scrolling, read fanfiction. Read a book. (This one doubles as another way to fight fascism. Yes even romance books. Even YA. Even horror. All of it. Free books are available. Novel-length fanfiction exists. And if it's not what you want, write it yourselves.)

Play video games. If you are in the US, you can get some from your library.

Make stuff! Pick up a hobby! You will suck at it at first, but the trying is glorious. (I saw a post yesterday about how cheap embroidery is. I would agree.) You can sometimes get tools at the library too. Youtube does have how-to videos, but you know I'm gonna also steer you to libraries again. I like how-to-craft videos on Youtube and I love supporting those creators, but I do want to encourage you to leave the house more.

Check your local library's events page for free stuff to do--especially for teenagers and for parents with small kids.

Draw; you aren't going to get better until you start. Visit a park or the beach or a local river front or zoos or museums (look online. Many do free or discount days.) Arrange movie nights with your friends. Garden. Grow kitchen herbs. Do stuff that is not online, or not entirely online. Set a timer or use apps to force you to get your ass off social media and TikTok after so many minutes. Do what you gotta do to break the habit.

Learning to do stuff and practicing sucks at first, but then it's so much better!!! It's fun and rewarding! And it helps you learn how to do other things! It makes you more resilient and adaptable!

Retrain your brain to find happy chemicals in other things, and while you do it, piss off a data-scraping tech billionaire. They aren't going to change anything unless forced to.

[talayse]

Please reblog for reach. This poll is probably going to get passed around Kansas residents more than non residents but I need imput from both parties

[talayse]

For my next trick, I'm going the fuck back to bed