esteefee (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
esteefee) wrote2025-05-28 09:28 pm
esteefee) wrote2025-05-28 09:28 pmit's getting bad people
Hostess Donettes claim to be "America's #1 Mini-donut" but I don't remember there being a nationwide referendum. Just another example of the rampant corruption going on right before our very eyes.
kaffy_r (kaffy_r) wrote2025-05-28 08:24 pm
kaffy_r) wrote2025-05-28 08:24 pm
Entry tags:
Dept. of Kitchen Work
Orange Cake and Daily Tasks
Very quickly, because I'm busily rewatching a Korean music group challenge show (because of course I am), I wanted to announce to a waiting world that the second time I baked this particular orange cake, it was just as good as the first time. I am satisfied.
Today was supposed to be the first day that I gathered up all the paperwork we need to prepare Bob's Canadian permanent residence application. I ended up dealing with other things, but I hope it wasn't just a case of me trying to avoid a tough job. It's undoubtedly not nearly as tough as my fears make it seem. I'm going to do my best tomorrow to get the job done. Then Bob and I will figure out the following day's tasks wrt the application. We figured that we'd try to tackle one job each every day, and we're going to try to stick to that.
Well, except for me, obviously. Sigh.
Wish us both luck tomorrow.
Very quickly, because I'm busily rewatching a Korean music group challenge show (because of course I am), I wanted to announce to a waiting world that the second time I baked this particular orange cake, it was just as good as the first time. I am satisfied.
Today was supposed to be the first day that I gathered up all the paperwork we need to prepare Bob's Canadian permanent residence application. I ended up dealing with other things, but I hope it wasn't just a case of me trying to avoid a tough job. It's undoubtedly not nearly as tough as my fears make it seem. I'm going to do my best tomorrow to get the job done. Then Bob and I will figure out the following day's tasks wrt the application. We figured that we'd try to tackle one job each every day, and we're going to try to stick to that.
Well, except for me, obviously. Sigh.
Wish us both luck tomorrow.
Lynn | Settiai (settiai) wrote2025-05-28 08:05 pm
settiai) wrote2025-05-28 08:05 pm
Entry tags:
Oops?
"I'm exhausted from not getting enough sleep, and my spoons are gone after the hell that was work today," I said yesterday evening after getting home from work.
"I have so many things that I need to get done this evening, but I don't have the energy right now," I said. "Plus my head's really starting to hurt."
"You know what?" I asked myself. "A short nap will be the perfect solution."
Spoiler: it was not the perfect solution for accomplishing things yesterday evening. Why not? Because instead of it being a short nap, it turned into a full night's sleep.
Oops?
Seriously, I didn't even turn out the lights. I curled up on top of the comforter on the bed. I wasn't even under the sheets. And I still slept for hours.
Luckily, I woke up for something like twenty minutes a little before midnight. That gave me time to take care of a couple of things that I really had to do, and then I was able to at least turn out the lights and such. But, yeah. That wasn't exactly what my plan was for yesterday. It's certainly what happened, though.
"I have so many things that I need to get done this evening, but I don't have the energy right now," I said. "Plus my head's really starting to hurt."
"You know what?" I asked myself. "A short nap will be the perfect solution."
Spoiler: it was not the perfect solution for accomplishing things yesterday evening. Why not? Because instead of it being a short nap, it turned into a full night's sleep.
Oops?
Seriously, I didn't even turn out the lights. I curled up on top of the comforter on the bed. I wasn't even under the sheets. And I still slept for hours.
Luckily, I woke up for something like twenty minutes a little before midnight. That gave me time to take care of a couple of things that I really had to do, and then I was able to at least turn out the lights and such. But, yeah. That wasn't exactly what my plan was for yesterday. It's certainly what happened, though.
the_shoshanna (the_shoshanna) wrote2025-05-28 06:10 pm
the_shoshanna) wrote2025-05-28 06:10 pmI want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike
When I was ten years old, friends and I came back from seeing a James Bond movie and were playing at James Bond on our bikes, and I swerved too sharply, fell over, and broke my left leg. I broke both the fibia and the tibula, in fact, but they were clean breaks, very tidy. Hurt like screaming hell, though. As was the custom of the time I was the hospital for several days and came out in a full-leg cast. My father, who lived some distance away, couldn’t get there right away and sent me a dozen roses in the hospital, which made the whole thing absolutely worth it; I had never felt so grown-up!
But that was the end of my bicycling career. For fifty years.
Now, however, I've moved to a small, mostly flat, navigable city, and I want to try getting back on that literal-not-proverbial bike! I fairly often have places to go and errands to run where driving feels silly but walking might take juuuuust too much time, and a bike seems like the obvious option. But do I want to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a new bike and run the risk that I won't enjoy it, or feel safely balanced after so long, or whatever, and will in fact end up not using it much? I do not.
Fortunately this city has a couple of nonprofit bike repairing and reselling organizations! So I stopped by one of them this afternoon and chatted with the head mechanic, and he picked out a bike for me from their (all donated) stock on hand, and we verified that it fits me. It needs some repair work and tuning up, which they will do over the next couple of weeks (him: "There's about six bikes ahead of you in line." me: "It's been fifty years, another two weeks is not a problem!"), and they asked for $125-$175, according to my ability to pay. I wasn't able to actually test-ride it, since it has no tires at the moment, but I was able to balance pretty well; I do feel pretty confident that I haven't forgotten how to ride a bike.
(And this time I hope to learn how to shift gears, too! Kid-me's bike was a three-speed and I just left it in second all the time.)
Now I just need to get a helmet -- which I do know to buy new/unused. And a lock. Whee!
But that was the end of my bicycling career. For fifty years.
Now, however, I've moved to a small, mostly flat, navigable city, and I want to try getting back on that literal-not-proverbial bike! I fairly often have places to go and errands to run where driving feels silly but walking might take juuuuust too much time, and a bike seems like the obvious option. But do I want to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a new bike and run the risk that I won't enjoy it, or feel safely balanced after so long, or whatever, and will in fact end up not using it much? I do not.
Fortunately this city has a couple of nonprofit bike repairing and reselling organizations! So I stopped by one of them this afternoon and chatted with the head mechanic, and he picked out a bike for me from their (all donated) stock on hand, and we verified that it fits me. It needs some repair work and tuning up, which they will do over the next couple of weeks (him: "There's about six bikes ahead of you in line." me: "It's been fifty years, another two weeks is not a problem!"), and they asked for $125-$175, according to my ability to pay. I wasn't able to actually test-ride it, since it has no tires at the moment, but I was able to balance pretty well; I do feel pretty confident that I haven't forgotten how to ride a bike.
(And this time I hope to learn how to shift gears, too! Kid-me's bike was a three-speed and I just left it in second all the time.)
Now I just need to get a helmet -- which I do know to buy new/unused. And a lock. Whee!
autobotscoutriella (autobotscoutriella) wrote2025-05-28 06:29 pm
autobotscoutriella) wrote2025-05-28 06:29 pmEntry tags:
(no subject)
Managed to get Parts 1/2/5 of the PWKM catalogued on the spreadsheet! Tonight I think I'll take a shot at getting part 3a finished since parts 3/4 are both partial, and then I'm thinking maybe I'll skip to more recent parts and work my way backward for a bit.
But for now...Sonata editing. Check back in an hour to see if I managed to do at least the Daryan section.
But for now...Sonata editing. Check back in an hour to see if I managed to do at least the Daryan section.
ffutures (ffutures) wrote2025-05-28 07:30 pm
ffutures) wrote2025-05-28 07:30 pmEntry tags:
Another Repeat Bundle - Sine Nomine
This is a bundle of "system-agnostic" material for RPGs in a wide variety of genres from Sine Nomine Publishing:
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Sine2025
Last time I said "There's some good stuff in here, but a lot of it has been in previous bundles - if you've bought many of them it may be a good idea to cost out whether it will be cheaper to buy the remaining things that you want piecemeal, rather than getting the whole bundle." That still applies, but if you bought this bundle in 2023 there's no need to look, you've already got all of it.
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Sine2025
Last time I said "There's some good stuff in here, but a lot of it has been in previous bundles - if you've bought many of them it may be a good idea to cost out whether it will be cheaper to buy the remaining things that you want piecemeal, rather than getting the whole bundle." That still applies, but if you bought this bundle in 2023 there's no need to look, you've already got all of it.
Vridelian (vriddy) wrote2025-05-28 05:50 pm
vriddy) wrote2025-05-28 05:50 pm
Signal boost: Claims of Hidden AI Bots on Discord: An Explanation
thebiballerina wrote up a really nice explanation of what is going on with the hidden AI bots on Discord, with links and citations, explaining what the bots can and cannot do.The image editing tools being discussed here are user applications. These particular applications are more visible due to being promoted by Discord, but they operate the same as other third-party user applications. The individual user has to choose to enable these applications, and choose which images they use them on, entirely at their discretion. It is functionally equivalent to saving the image to one's computer and uploading it on another website.Link: Claims of Hidden AI Bots on Discord: An Explanation
A user application cannot read content in a server of its own accord, and thus cannot "scrape" a server for AI training data.
I've seen people in Discord servers share User IDs (a string of numbers) to ban them, and then more people showing up with even more IDs to ban. I don't know if in the backend, the server owner can see the "name" of the user being banned this way (and then confirm that it's an AI bot name), but for me that reminded me a bit too much of when Twitter users had to share blocklists for bots and those lists then had legitimate users added to them in order to silence them. Either way, as per the article, the banning does nothing as the app can still be added AND the bots only see the data that a user specifically shares with them (like a photo a user explicitly uses with the app).
I also appreciated the pointers to Discord's terms around using data for AI training, which I wasn't aware of. Very informative post.
neonvincent (neonvincent) wrote2025-05-28 11:18 am
neonvincent) wrote2025-05-28 11:18 am
Did you miss me?
I was busy preparing to travel and then traveling, so I skipped posting here.
Annie D (scaramouche) wrote2025-05-28 08:19 pm
scaramouche) wrote2025-05-28 08:19 pm
Not really Star Wars
I saw a poll on tumblr not too long ago, asking if people read their own fics. My guess is that one of the assumptions underlying the poll is that it's narcissistic to enjoy something you created yourself, which in my opinion is a crying shame of a stance to have because the author knows exactly the kind of characterisation and level of drama you like! And will avoid the squicks you do not!
I make this post because Andor brought interest back to some of the Rogue One fics I posted way back when, despite them being Baze/Chirrut and not Cassian-focused. I've gotten some lovely new comments and kudoses, and decided to check said fic out because I hadn't looked at them in years and... gosh, I wrote this? (This fic in particular, which is set just before the Battle of Scarif.)
I wasn't intimidated by canon lore and tried to fill the logistical issues of the movie and choreographed all these jokes??? How did I do that! (The implication being, I WISH I could turn this kind of ability on like a switch instead of staring sadly at a blinking cursor in a Word doc.) Past!me knows exactly what I like! Plus nothing that happened in Andor contradicts this fic as far as I can tell, which is magic.
I make this post because Andor brought interest back to some of the Rogue One fics I posted way back when, despite them being Baze/Chirrut and not Cassian-focused. I've gotten some lovely new comments and kudoses, and decided to check said fic out because I hadn't looked at them in years and... gosh, I wrote this? (This fic in particular, which is set just before the Battle of Scarif.)
I wasn't intimidated by canon lore and tried to fill the logistical issues of the movie and choreographed all these jokes??? How did I do that! (The implication being, I WISH I could turn this kind of ability on like a switch instead of staring sadly at a blinking cursor in a Word doc.) Past!me knows exactly what I like! Plus nothing that happened in Andor contradicts this fic as far as I can tell, which is magic.
Vridelian (vriddy) wrote2025-05-28 07:32 am
vriddy) wrote2025-05-28 07:32 amEntry tags:
Beta-reading on Ellipsus
That's another post that was due back in January ;) I mentioned that I'd asked beta-readers if they would be up for trying out Ellipsus with me for beta-reading the Cursed Witch. Unfortunately, after a couple of them agreed and started, I ended up having to ask folks to use another platform.
I know a few people in my circles are using Ellipsus for writing - if some of this information is out of date, let me know! From extracting the beta-reader comments and feedback this month, I think the pieces that are deal-breakers for me are still present. I still massively support Ellipsus and the stance they're taking against generative AI. We need more small independent writer-friendly companies like this.
As an additional note, if you stay subscribed to the email "welcome" sequence after joining, at the end they send you a friendly email from one of the co-founders asking for feedback, which I did share. I received a very gracious reply explaining what they were working on at the moment and when they'd hopefully get to these issues. I understand the need to prioritise, and I'm totally rooting for them.
Having said that, here's why Ellipsus didn't work for me for beta-reading compared to a tool like GoogleDoc or LibreOffice.
Finding the changes
( Read more... )
Can't see both comments and in-text suggestions at the same time
( Read more... )
Email stuff, minor and a bit annoying though not a deal breaker
( Read more... )
So that's been my experience! The third one can be avoided with some email filtering, but from starting to incorporate comments and feedback from beta-reading this month, I believe the two deal-breakers are still a problem. However, this is all for a very specific, "beta-reader" use case rather than actual writing. I understand Ellipsus is an amazing GDoc replacement for that use case, and excellent for real-time collaborative writing. If you've been looking for GDoc alternative for your writing, one that doesn't feed your work to an AI training corpus, consider it!
And if you're using Ellipsus already, would love to hear about your experience so I can understand better what it does well and less well, and more easily recommend it when applicable to people looking for a new tool :)
ride_4ever (ride_4ever) wrote2025-05-27 05:17 pm
ride_4ever) wrote2025-05-27 05:17 pmEntry tags:
Fannish 50 Challenge 2025: Post # 17: Postal Mail from Fen
April-May mail from fen!
The USPS damaged one of my pieces of mail so badly that I couldn't read the signature because that part of the postcard was torn off -- and it's a wonder that the postcard ever got to me at all since the part with my last name and half of my street address and half of my zip code and the entirety of my state was torn off -- but I recognized the style of the message as one written byelayna, an amusing comment about having a vision of Fraser gaining some kind of super-powers caused by getting an electrical shock.
From "across the pond"smallhobbit sent me a card for "National Greeting Card Day".
minoanmiss sent me two postcards for "National Poetry Month," one with a poem by Emily Dickinson and one with a poem by Mina Loy.
My "MFU cousin"vysila sent me a box full of zines.
And ION about the USPS: two cards that I mailed to fen at the winter holidays in 2024 were returned to me by the USPS in 2025. One was a fairly quick return, as the card I sent tolauramcewan came back to me within one month. The other card, the one to ver_verlain and Rebel, was returned to me FOUR MONTHS after I had mailed it and it had stripes of black marker on it and the "Title IX" stamp was defaced.
The USPS damaged one of my pieces of mail so badly that I couldn't read the signature because that part of the postcard was torn off -- and it's a wonder that the postcard ever got to me at all since the part with my last name and half of my street address and half of my zip code and the entirety of my state was torn off -- but I recognized the style of the message as one written by
elayna, an amusing comment about having a vision of Fraser gaining some kind of super-powers caused by getting an electrical shock.From "across the pond"
smallhobbit sent me a card for "National Greeting Card Day".minoanmiss sent me two postcards for "National Poetry Month," one with a poem by Emily Dickinson and one with a poem by Mina Loy.My "MFU cousin"
vysila sent me a box full of zines.And ION about the USPS: two cards that I mailed to fen at the winter holidays in 2024 were returned to me by the USPS in 2025. One was a fairly quick return, as the card I sent to
lauramcewan came back to me within one month. The other card, the one to ver_verlain and Rebel, was returned to me FOUR MONTHS after I had mailed it and it had stripes of black marker on it and the "Title IX" stamp was defaced.
autobotscoutriella (autobotscoutriella) wrote2025-05-27 06:08 pm
autobotscoutriella) wrote2025-05-27 06:08 pm
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Apparently my power is out, so I will be staying at the bookstore for the rest of the evening or until it comes back on. I'm not exactly getting anything written, but I also don't want to turn off the computer, so...here I am!
I really need to buckle down and work on Sonata, but I'm not feeling the kind of subtle editing that this chapter needs right now (some rough stuff going on IRL that's making it hard to focus). So instead I'm writing Klavdarpollo accidental kitten acquisition, working on the PWKM spreadsheet, and playing around with an Ace Attorney/Texts From Last Night Tumblr blog.
(Apparently my mental solution to "I'm nostalgic for 2011" is to just...do the stuff I was too shy to do in 2011, LOL.)
I really need to buckle down and work on Sonata, but I'm not feeling the kind of subtle editing that this chapter needs right now (some rough stuff going on IRL that's making it hard to focus). So instead I'm writing Klavdarpollo accidental kitten acquisition, working on the PWKM spreadsheet, and playing around with an Ace Attorney/Texts From Last Night Tumblr blog.
(Apparently my mental solution to "I'm nostalgic for 2011" is to just...do the stuff I was too shy to do in 2011, LOL.)
oracne (oracne) wrote2025-05-27 04:01 pm
oracne) wrote2025-05-27 04:01 pm5 Things Always Make a Post!
1. I participated in Science! This involved an MRI of my right calf while at rest and before, during, and after doing a minute of movement. I got paid, and used part of it to finally buy the Shape Note song book a college friend (from choir) worked on. The next step is to try and make at least a few of the monthly sings in my neighborhood this summer, while I'm off from regular choir.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
mx. tozka (tozka) wrote2025-05-27 12:47 pm
tozka) wrote2025-05-27 12:47 pmEntry tags:
landcomm, free covid tests, zines
I'm working on my write-up of Wiscon 47 (including a massive list of interesting links and book recommendations), but for now: here's some links to look at!
Interactive multi-fandom challenge community![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
lands_of_magic has been reborn at seasons_of_fandom and will start accepting new members in June.
Here's a great Tumblr blog featuring diverse Murderbot fanart/fan creations.
VidUKon (a fanvid convention!) is happening May 30-June 1; online tickets are £20, or if you'e in Bristol and want to attend in person it's £50!
( More under here! )
Interactive multi-fandom challenge community
lands_of_magic has been reborn at seasons_of_fandom and will start accepting new members in June.Here's a great Tumblr blog featuring diverse Murderbot fanart/fan creations.
VidUKon (a fanvid convention!) is happening May 30-June 1; online tickets are £20, or if you'e in Bristol and want to attend in person it's £50!
( More under here! )