val-ritz

[val-ritz]

It’s a common misconception that there are no wizards in the midwest USA. The truth is there are plenty, they just use their powers exclusively for making new and fucked up kinds of salad

[val-ritz]

I know these are kinda out of fashion but I still think they're really fun.

Spin the wheel to figure out what fantasy job you have!

[val-ritz]

[val-ritz]

Sitting with your discomfort isn't supposed to be about wallowing in guilt or ruminating on all of the things you've done wrong. It's about handling your feelings with mindfulness instead of trying to seek emotional relief through absolution or forgiveness from the person who made you realize there's a problem.

If you have been ruminating on the things you've done wrong or on the ways you're privileged, and you've been using this to feed a narrative that you're an inherently bad person, understand that this is unhealthy behavior and it does nothing for the people you want to help. Here are some tips to help you stop ruminating.

[val-ritz]

"these researchers published a paper on something that literally any of us could have told you 🙄" ok well my supervisors wont let me write something in my thesis unless I can back it up with a citation so maybe it's a good thing that they're amplifying your voice to the scientific community in a way that prevents people from writing off your experiences as annecdotal evidence

[val-ritz]

Would you consider what you do science communication, and if not, why not?

I think I would! Like, I'm not the one doing the research itself. I can't read classical Greek. My job is to read scholarship by experts, and tell people what they say.

[val-ritz]

"I would never-"

You would if you were tired enough. You would if you were hungry enough. You would if your mind and body had been worn down enough, through pain or disease or toil or violent struggle. You might if you were put on the wrong medicine, or you got the wrong kind of head injury, or you were forced to choose between someone else and yourself. You might if your livelihood was staked on it, or all your hopes and dreams. You might if you didn't know what else to do, if it's what you were taught or if nobody taught you anything else.

I have not been worn down in most of these ways. I have lived a remarkably privileged life. But I have been worn down in some ways. And they were enough to teach me that in the wrong circumstances, any of us can become someone we don't want to be. It's worth keeping that in mind.

[val-ritz]

in a medieval groupchat nobody would make fun of your typo they would just assume that its a new spelling youre going with and roll with it

[val-ritz]

I found a TTS voice that was perfect for an audio version of this post.

[val-ritz]

Deep Blue is 30 years old and was capable of defeating chess grand champions. It could be housed in a single cabinet.

ChatGPT spans untold data centers devouring massive amounts of electricity and it got its ass whipped by an 8 bit gaming console from the 1970s.

[val-ritz]

fabulous creature?

[val-ritz]

Via stavvers.bsky.social: "ea nasir is back baby awooo"

[val-ritz]

No tech CEO or NYT bestselling novelist will ever match the creativity of a humble French postman who decided on a whim to spend thirty-three years building a surreal, majestic palace with the bricks and mortar of his dreams.

[val-ritz]

[val-ritz]

oh no! the black metal band i googled has a "controversy" section of their wikipedia page! oh no!