wobblydev - Tumblr blog

[wobblydev]

natalie, i must know why you reblogged this panel in particular.

Before The Strike, page 76: "Kotsara"

BTS updates Wednesdays when i can

ko-fi.com/wobblydev

Full comic so far

[wobblydev]

POINT AND LAUGH

[wobblydev]

i have too many followers so i will.do a giveaway now !! put in yhe comments and rebolgs what you blog about and who you are and stuff and if you are a lucky chosen one you will get a nrew people following you who would enjoying seeing that !!

[wobblydev]

[wobblydev]

Em Hoover in our WORK issue.

[wobblydev]

Technophobes need to apologise for "just put it in plain English you stupid machine!" because, well for one the decline in accurate error messages in favour of simplicity has contributed to the rise of tech illiteracy, but also because now whenever an "app" has a net connection error it will pop up a box saying something like "oo ooopsie! Your super duper feed went poo poo. We'll try again soon!" which having said to me by a corporation is about 8 million times worse than having to hear the word "network".

[wobblydev]

nah this gets its own post:

imagine that someone comes up and compliments you on something - maybe it's your hair, your voice, your clothes, whatever. And you thank them and plan to move on. Then they ask for a little bit of your hair and you go, "okay fine, it's not gonna really hurt to give that" so you give them a couple strands. you'll grow more. whatever.

next week they come up to you again with a clone of your body that they can control like a puppet. "I liked you so much I wanted my own version of you so I can see/hear/talk to you whenever I want!" you would react with horror, right?

Art is inherently a personal creation; the things that you feel, the things you have lived through, your emotions and your skills and your past will affect what you make and how you make it. There is a bit of 'you' in everything you make, and the analogy above is what generative AI feels like to me as a creator. And I'm just a writer/artist. My art isn't a direct representation of me. If I was a supermodel or a voice actor or anyone in the public eye, my analogy is even more spot on with how viscerally horrifying it is to watch someone make a "you" that they can get to use to make whatever they want. say whatever they want. be whatever they want.

and then you have to listen to the people who make or use the clones brag about how much time and money they're saving by making all these clones (who they don't have to treat like people and who can't say no) instead of asking you to do the thing you're best at, at enormous environmental cost to create and power the damn things, all so they can make profit with no effort selling a thing wearing your face...

... so, yeah. I get a little mad about generative AI sometimes.

[wobblydev]

Hey FW! Just wondering what you used to make your wobblydev website?

hello fellow worker! i used to write my sites by hand in a text editor but i began using wordpress a few years ago. i host the sites myself, so automatic doesn't see any of my money.

maybe one day i'll learn drupal and move away from wp entirely, but i admit i like the rich plugin community it's got.

fuck matt mulenweg.

[wobblydev]

oh goodness, thank you so much! i'm afraid this thing will haunt me for years, not months. i've sort of bitten off way more than i should try to chew, but here we are

Before The Strike, page 80

BTS updates Wednesdays? (when i am able, and i was able!)

ko-fi.com/wobblydev

Full comic so far

[wobblydev]

I've seen a lot of posts talking about the merits of joining a union even if you don't have a job, but I've never seen one that answers my main hang up, so I'm just going to ask, what if I absolutely could not pay dues? I can't work due to disability and I can only survive thanks to the support of family, as a result I rarely have any money at all. Is it possible to join a union if I can't afford to pay dues, and if not are there other ways I can support them?

a very good question, i'm so glad you asked. dues are a mechanism of democracy within the union structure, so to join a union there isn't much way around that. however, there are things you can do to support unions without spending a dime.

if you see unions trying to spread the word about an action, or a campaign, signal boost them where and how you can.

unions and adjacent groups, such as the Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee, will perform what's known as a phone or email "zap" where a mass of people will contact a target to make their voices heard about an issue. joining in on those actions is always an enormous help.

solidarity union organisations like the IWW are always looking for people to help with the myriad tasks it takes to keep things running. folks i know who were ineligible for membership still volunteered their time and efforts in research, or submitting FOIA requests, or maintaining spreadsheets. they didn't have voting power in union business, but if the branch is amenable, why turn away people who want to help the work along?

what do you enjoy doing? do you stream? do you write? do you draw? do you sing? how might you direct a portion of your creative energy to supporting emancipation work?

i may be an old union thug, but i admit there are also different ways to organise for change outside of a dues-based structure. others will know more about this than myself, but there are affinity groups all over the country who don't collect money from members.

what are you passionate about? disability rights and liberation? queer liberation? prison abolition? is there a group in your area or online that is doing the work to make real change in a sphere that is important to you? if so, reach out and see if you have the capacity to assist with that work.

this is all very vague, and i hope others will see this question and offer their own suggestions. anything you do to help will be wonderful, in whatever capacity you are able. we need all of us, and none of us need to solve these problems alone.

[wobblydev]

Before The Strike, page 80

BTS updates Wednesdays? (when i am able, and i was able!)

ko-fi.com/wobblydev

Full comic so far

[wobblydev]

give me strength to draw bts tomorrow

[wobblydev]

Genuine question. Why should someone who is freelance, self employed or unemployed join the IWW as the ad suggests? Wouldn’t a collective benefit or pension plan suite them better?

There are a lot of reasons someone might join the IWW despite not having typical employment. For one, the only way the working class can enact change is to work together against the capitalist system. Whether you have regular employment or you're totally unemployed, you're still working class if you don't own capital, and your class interests align with those of employed workers in your community. It benefits the entire community when wages are high, worker safety is enforced, and bosses are kept in line.

Joining, paying dues to, and attending meetings with your local branch gives that branch more worker power and more funding. Having more worker power and more funding helps the union fight for bigger and better changes and reach more workers.

For freelancers, joining the IWW can give you a community where you can get advice, compare rates to make sure you're getting a fair deal, recommend gigs or publications to each other, warn each other about predatory ones, and otherwise build solidarity. As an example, I (the social media volunteer typing this) have personally used IWW freelancer connections to help figure out what rates I should charge for commissions.

On a practical, day-to-day level, the union also always needs volunteers to do things like manage social media, maintain websites, facilitate meetings, organize events, keep track of bank accounts, and any number of other logistical and clerical tasks. If you want to help support unionized workers and workers trying to unionize, joining the IWW and helping with those tasks can be an incredible way to build community, organize workplaces, and support actions like strikes.

[wobblydev]

what is your relation to the IWW? are you just a menber and active supporter, or is there anything else to it?

I've been a wobbly for many years now. My activity in the union waxes and wanes with my energy and time. I have held officer positions in my local on and off throughout my involvement.

More and more I believe in the organising model we employ, especially in this climate where the NLRB may not be long for this world. Feel free to ask questions about the union. If I don't have a good answer, there are many esteemed wobblies on this platform who can help.

[wobblydev]

this is codename 😸

https://grinningc.at/

it took me way too long to develop and I honestly don't know what it's for. It's just a website, but now that tumblr is sort of a transphobic nazi haven, if you would like to come hang out there and roleplay or chat or whatever, you're welcome. It's invitation only, so message me here if you would like to join. Despite myself I am still developing it, there's functionality i still want to add, like rolling dice, or conlang support.

Maybe it's my attempt at recreating a facsimile of the old internet.

[wobblydev]

Genuine question. Why should someone who is freelance, self employed or unemployed join the IWW as the ad suggests? Wouldn’t a collective benefit or pension plan suite them better?

There are a lot of reasons someone might join the IWW despite not having typical employment. For one, the only way the working class can enact change is to work together against the capitalist system. Whether you have regular employment or you're totally unemployed, you're still working class if you don't own capital, and your class interests align with those of employed workers in your community. It benefits the entire community when wages are high, worker safety is enforced, and bosses are kept in line.

Joining, paying dues to, and attending meetings with your local branch gives that branch more worker power and more funding. Having more worker power and more funding helps the union fight for bigger and better changes and reach more workers.

For freelancers, joining the IWW can give you a community where you can get advice, compare rates to make sure you're getting a fair deal, recommend gigs or publications to each other, warn each other about predatory ones, and otherwise build solidarity. As an example, I (the social media volunteer typing this) have personally used IWW freelancer connections to help figure out what rates I should charge for commissions.

On a practical, day-to-day level, the union also always needs volunteers to do things like manage social media, maintain websites, facilitate meetings, organize events, keep track of bank accounts, and any number of other logistical and clerical tasks. If you want to help support unionized workers and workers trying to unionize, joining the IWW and helping with those tasks can be an incredible way to build community, organize workplaces, and support actions like strikes.