I don’t have a full picture idea yet, but I would probably upload art/ projects/ WIPs. I also was considering adding writings, but I’m not sure if there would be enough there to have a section for writings.

I definitely don’t have as much to share as others, but I would like to see the Internet become a less centralized space.

An author I follow on Bluesky has been talking about neocities a lot and it seems pretty silly and fun. You probably need to be signed in to view this, but you can see her talk about the process here.

As I have gotten more and more exhausted with modern social media, I have contemplated building my own simple website (think neocities), but have been hesitant to put much of myself out as I do not want to feed the AI slop machines.

Nepenthes is encouraging since I could see it being able to protect text in a way “glazing” (ie Nightshade) cannot.

Hopefully AI companies cannot sidestep this as easily as ROBOTS.txt…

As disappointed as I am with the name Switch 2 being so plain and ordinary versus their previous sequel consoles (Super NES, Gameboy Advance, Wii U); with the console being so similar to the Switch (1), I think they’d have another Wii U situation on their hands if they did have a more clever name.

If someone told me this was a mid-cycle refresh, I’d probably believe them; but maybe the official launch reveals will change my mind…

TYSM ❤️

Thanks! I really appreciate it ❤️

They were a lot of work, but I’m quite happy with how they turned out.

I finally finished all my Christmas cards and got them sent out today.

I always forget how much work it is to use the vinyl cutter and how annoying my printer is, but I think they turned out well in spite of several technical issues.

I wish I could say I was surprised to see Disney pulling such a transphobic and cowardly move, but it’s certainly not the first time they’ve done it.

I hope negative backlash can effect some change within Disney, but seeing as they didn’t learn their lesson with Moon Girl, I wouldn’t hold my breath…

That’s a pretty big question, with a couple of different interpretations. If you are asking how I handle thinking about the passage of time, the easiest answer is to make it tomorrow’s problem. This is probably not the healthiest answer; but it doesn’t pay to stress over inevitabilities, so I just do my best to put them out of my mind.

If you are asking the best way to utilize your time, my recommendation is to start focusing on yourself immediately. It’s very easy to prioritize work by staying late or overworking yourself to make your bosses happy, but no amount of overwork will ever satiate your company; it will only serve to drain the life from your body. It’s very important to set firm boundaries with your job. I, personally, will not even look at my work phone or computer the minute I leave the office (on Mon-WFH days) and have a hard stop every day at 5PM unless agreed upon well in advance. You lose so much time and energy to your job that just standing firm on your boundaries can be a huge QoL boost.

Please also do your best to cultivate a creative outlet as a hobby. A lot of people don’t think they are/can be creative, but anyone can be creative if they find the right outlet. It could be art, sewing, crochet, music, writing, or even creative programming. The important thing is to find a way to explore your feelings and do something productive with them. In my experience, I am often the most vivacious are when I am making art in one form or another; I highly recommend it.

The concept of banning books has always been ridiculous to me. Even if you don’t agree with what’s in the book, just… don’t read it…?

Banning books only serves to control the actions of others, so I applaud this law for protecting Californians from bigots looking to control them.

It is also worth noting that this article points out that half the censored books had marginalized communities as their subjects. If you really want to piss off one of these book banning bigots, be sure to read books from marginalized authors; and make sure your legislature knows you don’t approve of book bans.

I’ve seen some interesting takes on this elsewhere as well. If Twitter is making the legal argument that all the accounts belong to them explicitly, would that make them responsible for all the content they host as well?

They basically get away with all the hate speech and copyright infringement because they are considered a “safe harbor,” not the owners of the content themselves; but if they’re the owner of the content, the safe harbor status might not apply…

While the fact that Twitter is run by a flagrant right-wing fascist who would do anything to help other major right-wing fascists is nothing new, I did think this was an interesting look at the state of social media.

The idea that you can never own your own account (and likely, by extension, anything you post on said account) really drives home the point that the Internet as it is now is basically wholly owned by a handful of corporations.

I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to reach the point of everyone making their own silly little sites again. It seems like social media is now required to drive views, so the artists who need views for sales will always need to be on social media.

Luckily, decentralized social media is on the rise. Lemmy, while still comparatively small, has a fairly active user base; and while Mastodon has not (and likely will not) ever be mainstream, even Bluesky is technically decentralized as well (I think).

Having said all that, I would very much like to see people making their own sites just for things they enjoy. It’s surprisingly not that hard to do as long as you don’t need it very polished.

I’m not super plugged into the world of music, so you know it’s bad when I’ve heard someone got owned so hard they’re suing over it.

I’m honestly not even sure what the end goal is for Drake, since all he is doing is bringing it to the forefront of the public consciousness again. (I guess he must have been impressed with how well similar tactics worked out for another musician, Barbara Streisand…)

That is really the term. Of course, every time a new wave of users join, they always say they’ll never call them “skeets,” but they usually change their mind in time.

In my personal opinion, I actually really appreciate them being called “skeets.” It kind of serves as a reminder that they are not to be taken seriously. I also appreciate that calling them “skeets” will help deter large corporations from joining for some time. (What company wants to be associated with a social media site where the posts are a tongue-in-cheek reference to ejaculate?)

I think (/hope) trolls are going to have a pretty hard time gaining traction on Bluesky. As you’ve mentioned, the block lists are quite effective; but also the lack of algorithm helps too. No matter how many likes/reskeets an offensive skeet gets, I will never see it unless someone I follow specifically reskeets it themselves.

With this in mind, most people seeing the trolls’ posts will likely only be the trolls themselves. Of course they can hop into the comments of a popular skeet; but once they are blocked by the original poster, their skeet becomes removed for everybody.

From what I can tell, the enhanced moderation tools combined with the followed-only feed should make being a troll on Bluesky much harder…

It seems like Twitter may have passed the thermocline and now seems to be hemorrhaging left leaning users.

What I found interesting about this article was how the right leaning users are likely to follow them because they need the left leaning users for engagement. I suppose on some level it’s common sense. Truth Social and Gab never took off for a reason; but it’s still interesting to think about.

Some Representatives are making statements, though I’m not sure what it would take to have this officially dealt with.

Right now, the declaration is still pretty new; but I bet if you contacted some of the local LGBTQ+ orgs in your area, they might know of demonstrations that are being organized currently.

I don’t think the Old Testament is particularly anti-trans either. Most Republicans use the Bible as a way to launder their own hateful views, but I doubt if they’re even remotely religious at all.

I wonder what kind of reaction you would get from a Republican Representative if you told one that Speaker Johnson is violating women’s spaces by making a rule that forces men to use the ladies restroom and that it makes you very uncomfortable.

I do worry that could backfire and they might just make a secondary rule punishing trans men, though…

I usually try to call my Representative and Senators during my commute. The only tricky part is remembering the bill numbers.

I have the distinct impression I’m going to have something to say to them every day over the next four years…