#This doesn't even get into the accessibility issues

[sage-nebula]

I've watched pretty much all of Jenny Nicholson's videos (despite not being into most of the things she's into) for a variety of reasons, but one of the reasons I watch her content is because I think that she seems like a truly stand-up kind of person. Of course, given that she is a person creating content for YouTube, we're only allowed to see the version of herself that she wants us to see. I'm under no illusions about that. But the version of herself that she presents to us, the viewers, seems to be a person who is not only genuinely passionate about the things she discusses (and honest about why she'll hold back on discussing certain topics when fans of those topics can be awful about it), but also who considers the experiences of (for lack of a better phrase) the average person when it comes to the theme parks and other experiences that she reviews.

Three specific instances come to mind: one from the Evermore video, and then two from her most recent Star Wars hotel video. (Side note: she was so, so right that Disney marketing is stupid as hell for not letting influencers et cetera use the common names for things. The average person doesn't know what "Galactic Starcruiser" is, but will understand "Star Wars hotel." Get it together, Disney.)

In the Evermore video, Jenny talks about how she emailed Evermore Park ahead of her visit to try to get more information prior to her visit. Things like whether there was a dress code, what she could expect when she arrived there, information that should have been readily available on the website but wasn't. She mentions that she could have mentioned that she's an influencer and that she probably would have gotten a response (because they never emailed her back), but that she deliberately chose not to.

"So I did attempt to email ahead of my visit, trying to ask basic questions about the park and inquire about renting it out. When I did that, I was intentionally vague; I didn't link my channel, and I didn't use my primary email. And I sort of suspect that if I had done the whole influencer song and dance -- said my channel name, my subscriber count -- I might've had better access to the park, and perhaps even a better experience. But that wasn't the point. I didn't want to call ahead. I'm the mystery diner! I'm the undercover boss! If you can't deliver an equivalently good experience for all guests, that's on you and your business." [x]

Then, in the Star Wars hotel video, there were two instances in which Jenny had to reach out to Disney customer support for assistance, and received absolutely nothing in return. The first was when she paid for a photo taking service, but had absolutely no photos taken of her. When she reached out to Disney customer support for a refund, they refused to give her said deserved refund. The second instance was when she had purchased a large droid figure from the hotel, and had it shipped to her house via the Disney shipping service. The Disney shipping service inputted her address incorrectly (in fact I think she says they put in a completely different address altogether), so her droid was lost. Once again she reached out to Disney customer support to find out what she could do about this expensive item she had purchased, only to be told that they couldn't do anything to help her.

In both cases, Jenny took to twitter to post about how Disney was refusing to a.) issue her a refund for a service she paid for but never received, and b.) help her receive an item she'd paid for but never received. Both times, Disney reached out immediately, issued her the refund, and overnighted her lost item. Jenny correctly identifies that they only did this because she's an influencer with a large twitter following, and has this to say in the video:

"They didn't even ask for my phone number. Like someone at Disney just did the legwork to go into the database, look up my booking info, find my phone number and then call me within a day of the tweet going out. And the person who called me was really nice, and I'm thankful he cared to resolve it. BUT, I just always feel very cynical when I try to resolve issues through the appropriate channels available to all customers and nobody will help me until they find out I'm an 'influencer.' I spoke with several other guests who got [the photo taking service] and had the exact same problems as me, and they never got refunds." [x]

And

"But then after I tweeted about it on my twitter account with a lot of followers, Disney suddenly resolved it and they sent me a replacement. They actually overnighted it to me. And along with it they sent a lot of miscellaneous goodies which I really appreciated. So here again, I feel if this had happened to anyone without a lot of twitter followers, they would have had a significantly more frustrating experience." [x]

I feel that this post will probably read as giving Jenny kudos for doing the bare minimum. And I think that on some level, that's true. But it's true because nowadays, many influencers won't even do the bare minimum. They would have Disney immediately issue them a refund, or overnight the droid to them with the additional goodies, and then make posts gushing about how great Disney's customer service is, despite knowing full well that the (again for lack of a better term) average person who doesn't have a huge internet following would never receive that kind of support from Disney. Similarly with Evermore, most influencers would call ahead and flex their follower count to try to get a bespoke experience to then show on their channels. They wouldn't want the same experience everyone else gets. That won't generate good content, in their eyes, and besides, they're better than that. Don't you know who they are?

But Jenny, despite her follower counts, keeps it real. Yes, she appreciates that Disney did give her the deserved refund and did send her the droid + gifts. But she also points out, both times, that if she'd been a person without a large twitter following, they would not have done that, and people in the exact same position she was with the photo service didn't get their deserved refunds. With Evermore, she didn't call ahead because she DOES want the same experience everyone else gets. She wants to be able to give a genuine review. Whether that review is positive or negative is dependent on the business itself.

Again, this probably seems like giving Jenny kudos for the bare minimum of decency. And I agree that on some level it is. But I also think that, in today's day and age, we really don't get that with a lot of influencers, who are in it for the sponsorship money (and who get their egos way inflated), and so it's nice to have a reviewer / theme park influencer who is honest with her opinions, and who recognizes that yeah, Disney did give her special treatment, but that it shouldn't have been special treatment, that they should be helping all of their guests like this, through the normal channels that she tried using, and they are a shit company for not doing that.

I just really appreciate Jenny.

#jenny nicholson

[toriangeli]

Armand's red flags in 2.02

You know how people kept accusing Lestat of isolating Louis from his family? And then Louis actually kept visiting his family, so if Lestat was isolating him, he did a really shit job of it?

Yeahhh. Armand shows us how it's really done.

Disclaimer: Armand is my favorite, precious boy, and I will defend his right to be as fucked-up as he damn well pleases, but he is indeed very fucked-up. So don't come at me accusing me of being biased in favor of Lestat (and even if I was, so what? this is Tumblr, not BBC News). I love Lestat, I love them all, but Armand is my trash son and if he isn't horrifically fucked-up on the show like he is in the books, it's a massive betrayal of the complexity of his character and the logical outcomes of his background. He hurts, and like any creature in pain, lashes out because of it. He knows how to do all kinds of diabolical shit, but he doesn't know how to be a person, and that's why I love him (trying to remember who the Youtuber was who said, "No one's a hero, everyone's a victim" about this series because they were so right).

First off, Assad is truly phenomenal at creating this effect:

If you don't suspect Armand of the shit he's about to pull, it's not your fault. This is how he is. Part of it is real innocence, in a way, or perhaps an inverse of innocence--he doesn't realize this shit isn't normal.

So it's very striking to me how Armand laid the foundation for his relationship with Louis so subtly and early on. He approached Louis in the park while he was alone, Claudia nowhere to be seen even though his invitation was for her as well. Claudia would ask questions. Armand wants to dangle the carrot before any questions are fired off. By the time anyone in the coven actually speaks with Claudia, she is already sold on them all. There is no time for her to form suspicions. With Claudia on board, Armand has free access to Louis. She feels at home with the coven, so she's not watching Armand too closely.

Then at the Delacroix mansion, Armand warns Louis against the rest of the coven. He says "a few of" the coven members are unforgiving, though he doesn't say who, which would be useful information if Louis is to defend himself (spoiler alert: it's all of them), just tells Louis to close his mind to the others. So Claudia is with the rest of the coven, while Louis is available only to Armand. Armand does not give this warning to Claudia. The only person she can hear it from is Louis, who she won't believe. They're now spending time apart, weakening the link between them. Armand knows he can seduce the hell out of anyone he desires, and once he does that, all he really needs is to break the filament binding Louis to Claudia and he's got what he wants.

He also warns him not to contact Roget again, which is probably good advice, but what Armand knows that Louis doesn't is that Lestat is alive. And Roget is the one person in the world Lestat would be able to contact if he could. So in the unlikely event that Lestat gets the chance to call Roget, Louis will not hear of it.

In just a few sentences, Armand has managed to distance Louis from Claudia, Lestat, and everyone else in the coven.

And how does he do it? By making sense, basically, by preying on Louis' preexisting (and sensible) fears about the coven. It makes sense for Louis to be on his guard. But Armand has set it up so he appears to be "different" from the rest of the coven, the only one Louis can trust, while issuing vague warnings about everyone else. And while Armand in the book is a pretty hands-off leader with the TdV, don't think for one second he can't do anything to protect Louis and Claudia himself. Here, he's acting like he has no sway with these people. He does. No matter what he says, he does.

So yeah. I'm really impressed with how smart the writers are being about this so far.

#armand #iwtv #amc iwtv #interview with the vampire #louis de pointe du lac #theatre des vampires #tayatra day vompeer #claudia de pointe du lac #lestat de lioncourt #lestat does not think ahead far enough to be machiavellian #like fr #people are overestimating him #but also he's prone to throwing himself off the slippery slope from time to time and climbing back up in shame and regret #armand just does not know right from wrong #iwtv spoilers #iwtv book spoilers

[miguel-manbemel]

There's one thought that came to me today about Sanders Sides, and specifically the nature of the Sides. So many people have missed one important, crucial point about the Sides. They're not human, and I don't mean that they can shapeshift, appear and disappear and all that stuff. I mean that each of the Sides represents just one limited zone of c!Thomas' psyche, and therefore they're only confined to that zone of Thomas.

What does it mean to judge them as humans? It means many people demand of them the complexity of action humans have, the same capacity to grow and evolve as if they were a fully fledged human, and that, my friends, just cannot happen, because it's not in their nature. I'll try to explain my point. We've seen the Sides learn and grow from different situations they went through in the past, and I say "have we?"

Don't mean they didn't go through the situations, I mean, did they really get a long term growth? In some cases they did, in others, the growth was incomplete or null, because the Sides are only able to grow in their own area of action in Thomas' psyche, and will remain, not oblivious, but, like that student that simply doesn't get how to solve a problem at school, and tries and tries to solve it right, but it just doesn't stick in their head. They will only learn the part of the solution in their area of expertise, and the rest will simply not stick at all.

For instance, Virgil knows if he causes a panic attack, Thomas will suffer and that will help no one, but he just can't help it, it's in his nature to cause panic attacks if the conditions are met. Other example, Roman knows that too much fantasy can be harmful, it can disconnect you from reality and that can break Thomas' heart. He knows, he's been told, but he can't help it. He's literally Thomas' dreams. Same way, Patton cannot escape the morality he was created with during Thomas' growth, Janus can't help making Thomas deceitful, Remus will show his creative thoughts at all cost no matter how it makes Thomas suffer, and Logan will always have problems to put feelings in the equation when trying to find solutions to an issue.

Does that mean that the whole show is a lie and the Sides are hopeless beings that can't learn from their mistakes? Not entirely, because when they face issues, they all face them together as a team, they go through them together and find a global solution that can help Thomas grow.

Then why do they revert back after learning so much about Thomas in the past? As I said, any item the Sides are not capable to learn according to their nature will not fully stick and they'll be prone to repeat problematic attitudes, even if they try not to.

What can be done then? The solution comes from Thomas. The Sides are Thomas and Thomas is all of them, and most important, he knows, or is learning, how to combine the different aspects of himself. In another analogy, the Sides and Thomas are like an orchestra and the orchestra conductor. Each instrument has only access to their partiture and can only play their own sound, even if they know how they're all supposed to sound together, only Thomas has the full information of the song, and only he can tell any of the Sides when to play and when to stand back.

To be fair, Thomas still doesn't have the full partiture ready, he's still writing on the fly, that's why the song is incomplete and both the Sides and Thomas are still struggling, but as the series goes on, the song keeps writing itself, slowly but surely and when it's complete, Thomas will have the full song and will learn how to make their Sides sound perfect in harmony...

Well, most probably, the song will never be fully complete or perfect, but eventually it will reach a grade of completion enough to make Thomas and his Side harmonious enough to make good, melodious songs. That is, eventually, Thomas will know how to be the best of a person he can be, because no one is perfect, but he will learn how to feel good enough, and how to be happy with himself and get as best as he can be.

That means the Sides will learn how each can help the other Sides in the areas they lack expertise so they don't repeat the same mistakes from the past. But they must learn to work together to reach that goal, they can't do it each on their own. When they learn this ultimate lesson, everything will get better for Thomas and the Sides.

#thomas sanders #sanders sides #sanders sides essay #virgil sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #character thomas sanders

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

The show made such a big deal about Ladybug leaving Paris for a week-end in Hack-San without informing Cat Noir beforehand and yet it never said anything about Cat Noir never telling Ladybug that he's gonna leave Paris for a week-end in Backwarder ... or that he's supposed to leave Paris for a few weeks in the S4 finale ... or that he's supposed to move out of Paris permanently in S5. The hypocrisy seems palpable.

In my opinion, it's actually not hypocrisy. At least, it's not hypocrisy in the grand scheme of things. When you look at the series as a whole, it turns out that this is just another case of inconsistent writing because the show does punish Chat Noir for leaving without warning Ladybug, but only when the plot needs to punish him. Let's go over the facts in chronological order!

In the Shanghai special, Ladybug and Chat Noir both leave Paris without warning each other or Master Fu and it's not just fine, it's the right move as they're magically where they need to be for the fight of the day. Neither one of them gets mad at the other for their actions. The issue isn't even brought up.

In Backwarder, Chat Noir leaves Paris without warning Ladybug and it's treated as a non-issue.

In Startrain, Ladybug and Chat Noir both leave Paris without warning each other, but Marinette visits Fu first and gets the horse miraculous so that she's okay to leave. When she learns that Chat Noir left without warning her, she doesn't seem even remotely phased.

In the New York special, Chat Noir leaves Paris without warning Ladybug. This is Very Bad as Paris was left undefended and he knew that was going to be the case. This is a fair critique at face value, but Ladybug is the guardian at this point and has instant access to the horse miraculous, thereby negating the issue, a fact that is never discussed. Fun fact: this is the only instance in the entire series where one of them bothers to tell the other when they're leaving Paris.

In Hack-San, Ladybug leaves Paris without warning Chat Noir and it understandably causes tension, but Chat Noir ends the episode absolving her of any guilt even though she could have transformed and left him a message to warn him that she's assigned a temp hero her Miraculous. A thing we know they can do since this season literally starts with Ladybug playing messages from Chat Noir on her bug phone. She's also the guardian at this point, so she could have taken the horse with her and teleported back or even just taken the horse in case Alya ran into trouble. (Do you see how the lack of consistency just builds and builds the more they ignore established logic?)

The last few episodes of season five see Chat Noir fully aware that he's being shipped off to London and then actually getting shipped off to London, a change that he never informs Ladybug of even though she will now be truly alone. The show never addresses this and treats it as a non issue.

As far as I can recall, those are all of the instances where this issue could have potentially come up along with the various ways the writing handled the issue. As you can see, both Ladybug and Chat Noir behave recklessly when it comes to leaving Paris. They pretty much never let each other know when it's happening, but whether or not that's a bad thing is entirely dependent on what plot the writers want to tell. So hypocrisy on the writer's part, sure, but I'm not gonna give Chat Noir that label when Ladybug is arguably equally deserving.

This isn't as egregious as lore inconsistencies like the way split up amoks and akumas work, but it's still a very clear case of establishing rules and then ignoring them because the writers do what they want! Who needs narrative consistency and good world building?

#ml writing critical #ml writing salt

[teamsasukes]

people rightly criticize how team 7 reacted to sasuke's pursuit of justice for his clan, but one thing i feel is always overlooked in these discussions is how sakura literally is not granted the option by the narrative to learn about what sasuke has been through — not in the way that naruto, kakashi, or even team taka are. throughout all of part 2, she is operating under the assumption that sasuke killed itachi and then turned on the village for no apparent reason.

in part 1, she offers to help sasuke with his plan to kill itachi and even says she'll come with him so he won't have to handle a clearly dangerous and unstable sannin alone. she tells him she wishes he would be more open with her because she wants to understand what he's going through. (all of this stands in stark contrast to naruto, who says he'll break every bone in sasuke's body to bring him back, or kakashi, who projects his own traumas on to sasuke.) then in part 2, she can't bring herself to hurt him despite ample opportunity and even though (as far as she knows) he's become a violent criminal. throughout the series, she's averse to inflicting harm on others (aside from the punching naruto gag). is it really so unreasonable to imagine that if she knew sasuke was avenging the state-sponsored genocide of his clan, she would respond differently? with more empathy and compassion for his circumstances, and anger of her own towards konoha?

#people never factor this into their sakura discussions and it does upset me #like no offence but no one raised in konoha is going to have a political awakening where they realize how awful the system is #without some major catalyst (ie what happened to sasuke's clan) and she never gains access to that information #it's also been pointed out that her speech to him at tvote2 is really stupid and like. i agree #but if all she knows about the situation is from naruto and kakashi @ sasuke saying he's given into hate or whatever #of course that is going to be her response? like what else would she even say. she doesn't know what's going on LMAO😭 #don't get me wrong i think in canon (pt1-2) their relationship has a whole body of issues but a bunch of them are intrinsically tied to thi #uchiha sasuke #haruno sakura #sasusaku #this is not really a shipping post but that's my tag for their relationship in any form sorryyy #naruto meta

[sga-owns-my-soul]

as someone who has been misdiagnosed at best and fully ignored and not believed at worst about my health issues, it's really frustrating when people tell me i don't really have something unless a doctor has diagnosed me. doctors don't believe i have any issues to begin with, why are they supposed to be trusted over me?? like i get they have degrees but idiots get degrees literally all the time. idk it's just really frustrating when i tell people i have food sensitives and they don't believe me unless i can procure an allergy test. i tell people i have chronic pain and unless a doctor told me that, it doesn't count. i'm not allowed to identify as autistic until a doctor tells me i can. like i get looking something up once isn't the same as a medical degree but idk can we maybe just. stop pretending doctors are the only ones capable of telling what's wrong with someone? can we maybe trust that sometimes people do actually know what's going on with their body and their health?

#and there's also the whole thing about like #insane amount of ableism in health care #i can keep a full time job so clearly i don't have any health issues #my anxiety isn't debilitating bc i can deal with it most days (ignoring the days i can't breathe and i get severe chest pain) #my back pain doesn't prevent me from moving so it's not real (ignoring the times it does stop me from moving bc it's so bad) #i can still sometimes eat food and i'm not Eating Wrong so i don't actually have digestive issues #like i'm just. i'm so tired #i don't even bother going to doctors anymore #bc it just gives me anxiety and stress and they never help #i've seen so many and they all just brush me off #i just. i'm so sick of this #can we stop needing access to a whole history of medical records to believe people have health issues #can we just. not be assholes #please #im so tired #chronic illness #not stargate

[suncaptor]

the covid vaccine really destroyed any last chance at a life I could have ever had huh.

#i really think i could have made academia work if it were just the psychological issues I was coping with #granted the main problem is i keep getting sicker and sicker due to the constant trauma and lack of living security #but until the vaccine i was fucking. making it work. but when my physical body gave up on me too it's just too much now #i could have probably have even found a way of compensating out the severe trauma from last year but my body just. doesn't work. #it's really really devastating #and i can see now it's not something that can be fixed #i can't be fixed #but like I can't keep living like this. i just i really can't. but i can't do anything that's required to survive. i'm not physically #capable. and I understand now that it's not something I'm ever going to heal from #and maybe i could get better enough to live a life worth living but that would only be if I had access to security and resources I do not #and will not have. #the thing is everyone always wanted me gone and society fucking does too i'm just a fuckign cockroach #but sometihng has to change. and if there was a way to fix it i would have by now. i would have. #delete #vent #tw suicidality

[straydogged]

:( it figures, I finally got my shoulder back in place with the help of a supportive pillow and a heat pack to make the muscles relax, and now it feels like it might be slipping out again because I am no longer holding myself up by a pillow.

#the state of my shoulders is. every time I think too much about it I get stressed #idk how I'm gonna wear a backpack for school hahah #maybe I need to look into a shoulder brace or something. kinesthetic tape doesn't mix well with my skin; I've tried it and it's not worth i #I wish I had a doctor holy shit!!!!! #idk how I'm supposed to get one when the organization that is SUPPOSED to match people to doctors straight up told me #that I would have to go to multiple walkins with the same issue in order to be fastracked to have a proper doctor #guys. I have a complex multisystemic genetic condition that requires a joint effort by multiple specialist to properly manage. #which. by the way. it has not been. I have recieved zero support from my doctor who I saw when I lived in [redacted] #even after I was diagnosed! and she fought the diagnosis so hard and gaslit me constantly only for the geneticist to tell me that he was #without a doubt certain that I have hEDS. it took SIX YEARS to get off the waitlist for him. #sorry I'm getting off topic #I just. I need a lot more medical support than I can access and it scares me and makes me want to cry #I don't know how to manage or recognize when something is wrong with my body because of the gaslighting and the medical neglect #and the thinking my body was completely normal so never really questioning symptoms #:( #I need to stop before I make myself even more upset

[l-e-g-i-o-n-losh]

Why are dc and marvel making it so dang difficult to pay them money

#trying to sort an issue w that subscription dads getting for bday #marvel doesn't actually have any step in the purchase process to INPUT a promo code #and dc wont even let me SEE the purchase PAGE guys cmon 7 day trial is cool & all but im trying to access the Actual Product You Sell. #i just want to binge some ock & doom whys this so complicated #songs that the hyades shall sing

[knife-at-a-knife-fight]

you’re in my DMs.  I’m being ignored by accessibility while five different people in the past month have suggested i talk to accessibility (each suggesting it for a different reason) 

we are not the same. 

#they really stick HARD to the 'DOCUMENTED disabilities' thing #everyone else always says they're there to help with accessibility needs for people who need it #none of them seem to get that it's not 'people who need it' #it's people who can get enough doctors to sign off on it #and historically #i'm not a person who is great at receiving medical care #i had a doctor bandage a laceration with 80% clear tape straight on my skin #i had one who told me the results of a scan and simply said 'it's nothing' when we both agreed that we could feel SOMETHING there #there was the ten month long sore throat of 2018 that i was twice told wasn't strep #they didn't test for anything else #my doctor's office was closed the day i really needed to know if i was up to date on tetanus #practitioners' incompetence doesn't diminish the extent of my issues #it just renders me ineligible for accommodations #and if they are completely useless for basic physical health concerns #what's the point in trying to address things that wouldn't show up on a scan? #if we can't agree on whether or not the lump that we feel exists #then how the hell am i supposed to convince them to do an MRI for an issue they'd LOVE to call hysteria if that was still allowed #and that's not even touching on the affective disorders #or the sensory based ailments #mine

[mordcore]

Why white people don't like to talk about race: A Theory.

definition of "racialization" for the sake of this thread: for me what it means when a person gets "racialized" is that they are being put in a box labelled with whatever race people decide to assign them from the outside and kind of objectified/reduced to that label. i'd also argue that there are different degrees of this experience.

being racialized fucking sucks. if you're a person of color, i don't think you need me to tell you.

but most of us white folks probably don't experience it a lot. being confronted with the fact that i am white; based on my skin color which is: innate, out of my control, undeniable and immediately obvious to everyone who can see me; that is uncomfortable! even more so if it comes with being put in a box/assigned the label from the outside, and all the assumptions that might carry. i'm not sure if i understand the topic of white guilt very well, i believe it has something to do with the awareness that our ancestors or even just people in our "box"/racial category have done or are doing awful racist things, and with feeling guilty about it, but obviously incapable of changing other peoples past actions, which creates a conflict -- me personally? i refuse to feel guilty for things i had no part in. or i try to at least. but it is a sore spot and accusations of being guilty for being white hurt, and sometimes i also misinterpret things to be accusations when they are only pointing out this conflict to me.

this conflict is likely a part of the discomfort associated with being in the "white" category. now i know most white people don't get confronted with racialization very much, and maybe that is why so many of us struggle to act normal when we do. i also don't know how accurate my theories are and how much i can generalize my observations about myself, because of my specific trauma about the topic. idk if other white folks feel the same as i or the same level of it. but i think we could benefit from observing without judgement, in ourselves, how it feels to be categorized as white from the outside. do i have a knee-jerk reaction to it? what is my first impulse when this happens? am i trying to push any feelings away? which ones? why? is there an inner conflict?

for example, i feel a conflict between my need to be/believe that i am a good not-racist person, and my feelings of discomfort about the topic, that i try to push down because i feel like it doesn't fit who i'm supposed to be, therefore inadvertently deflecting whenever someone is trying to have a productive conversation. or out of fear of doing that, i fall into the fawn trauma response and feel like everything i'm doing is wrong, and like feeling like that is also wrong, and there goes the spiral.

i believe that most of us white people would benefit if we ask ourselves these questions, and our friends and loved ones of color might also benefit if we do, as well as antiracist activism in general.

#damn that was a tough nut to crack #to access and understand these feelings in myself i mean #ive been struggling with this topic for years and oh yeah i had to work through some trauma first to be able to even get here #despite what my fawn response is trying to tell me i think this is a good thing to have written and that i will not be punished if i pub #lish it #and despite it being 2 am i wrote something that seems coherent! whoa! #i actually typed into a text editor for 2 hours until i had sorted my thoughts and worded the point i was trying to make #and then i pasted together the relevant paragraphs #adhd hack discovered! #i've also decided not to disclose the 'specific trauma about the topic' #because i realized i feel the need to prove.. something? #basically it's an impulse that doesn't seem productive to the point i'm trying to make so i left it out #it was interesting to type it out though cause ive never. done that before. to see it all in one place is weirdly cathartic. #uhm ANYWAY #my stuff #white guilt #white fragility #btw i believe that mocking these feelings is counterproductive to solving these issues #i know it did set me back! #target audience: white people who want to do better and dont know how. secondarily; anyone who is interested in the topic

[welcome-home-official]

I don't know what I am going to do. I can't keep living in a near-constant state of exhaustion and immense physical pain after every day I work. It's not even surviving at this point.

#getting disability is almost impossible unless you're halfway to being comatose #I want to die so bad but if I go to a psych ward I can kiss my shitty minimum wage job goodbye #and I'm 9/10 going to lose internet access and my pets when I come back home because both things are privileges in my families' eyes #its not the internet causing my issues its years of untreated PTSD that they think I don't need because I'm out of a bad home #Newsflash mental illness doesn't go away even when you're removed from a bad environment #not like this environment is any better #it still sucks living here #on top of me being really sick and with no real cause found yet #im tired of being a burden and being hated for it

[softceleste]

So casually just posting this video in case any of my mutuals have actually used OpenAI / ChatGPT:

#this is actually wild like ??? holy shit it should NOT be this easy to get to anyone's billing info on anything #how absolutely careless do you need to be respond to a bug bounty about this with 'this isn't an issue' holy shit ???? #this isn't even the only data leaking going on with chatgpt atm too like.... god this company is so fucking reckless but I digress #anyway doesn't impact me whatsoever I've never used it but in case anyone is affected <3 #(anyway tl;dr anyone can access your billing data / address if they get a certain link <3)

[millermenapologist]

Fandom friends, we have won the battle (although we definitely did not win the war).

Yesterday, I wrote this post about lore.fm, an AI scraping app that was being marketed as an accessibility tool. Now, the person that has been promoting this app decided, in the light of plenty of backlash, to backtrack and pull it down, as they "feel uncomfortable" with how authors reacted to it.

Of this video, it's very important to highlight a couple of things:

the video is 3 long minutes of guilt-tripping: she keeps repeating that her (and her team, whose existence wasn't disclosed until yesterday: this app was marketed as being a sole woman's pet project) wanted to do good and create an accessibility tool. This comes with the underlying layer that all the authors who rightfully decided to defend their creations are ableist and in the wrong. It's a manipulation tactic;

there is no acknowledgement of the fact that the app was created by a team that specifically works to create apps that generate AI stories;

there is no explanation as to where the money to fund this app is coming from, and we all know that, when you're not paying for the product, you are the product;

this is backtracking, not genuine conversation: since the other day, the videos promoting this app went viral on r/Ao3, and plenty of people began contacting [email protected] to ask for their works to not be included. Then, the news spread on Tumblr too. They originally thought they could get away with "legally" stealing as much material as possible, and had to cut the project short because authors were doing everything in their power to stop them. The decision to take the app off for "reassessment" doesn't come from the goodness of their hearts.

At this point of the conversation, I think it's clear that the entirety of the project was relying on the perceived naïveté of fanfic readers and writers, who are oftentimes seen and stereotyped as being silly teens and not adults with real jobs and real knowledge of the law. When they saw dozens, if not hundreds, of authors contacting them to ask their works to not be featured, some of them threatening legal consequences, they had no other choice but to backtrack.

For now, the issue is closed, but don't think it'll be forever. Know your rights, even if you're "just" a fic author, and defend yourself and your works too from these scummy companies that see us as nothing but machines that churn out material for them to steal and profit off of with no consequences.

#fandom #ao3 #lore.fm #archive of our own #fic #fanfic

[chiyana]

the anxiety

she mounting

#I'm paranoid my coworkers don't like me #I'm still getting used to stuff and what's needed #and everyone seemed friendly and responsive when I first joined #but now not nearly so much #and the one I work directpy with who has like 3y seniority on me #idk I feel like she's keeping a hypercritical eye on me? #like if she feels I'm not actually working or helping enough she gets sort of catty #like yesterday there was the major Outlook outage so I couldn't do much all day #and when posting the eod thing to the group #she made this comment like 'I'm guessing you didnt manage to actually work on anything' #and like??? yeah??? I couldn't access anything because the email system was down #what do you want me to do??? #she apparently didn't have any issues and was able to work nonstop aaaaaaaaall daaaaaaay #and like congrats ig #but this was literally and completely out of my control #I can't control Microsoft's systems and I have no say in who gets to access it while it's bugging out and who doesn't #she's made a comment before about how I was supposed to be jelping her but she didn't know where I was #even though I was in the inbox helping #and yeah I was slow at first and focused on the wrong things but I'm getting better and faster #but there's kinda fuck all I can do when we get an email every 1-2 minutes #I can't tell if I'm being paranoid or overly sensitive or if she's just going through it or what #but I'm just #really disappointed because I was excited for this and I feel like I wasn't really given any grace #and now I've got a bunch of heqlth issues that are going to require taking time off to try and get them sorted #and I'm reqlly worried about that just making everything worse ajd everyone thinking I'm unreliable or unhelpful #like I'm sorry I really am trying to help but my liver is kind of exploding and it's making shit difficult??? #i don't know #i'm just do tired and anxious and upset #ignore the typos #or don't i guess

[renthony]

One way to be an ally to disabled queer people:

If you want to attend a pride event, ask about their accessibility plans and policies.

Ask about their covid policies. Ask if they are accessible to mobility aid users. Ask if they will have strobe lights, if there will be bathrooms, if there is water. Make the event planners consider who they may have left out, even if the person being left out isn't you. Have your friends ask as well. Help create a demand. Help get conversations started. Help people see where things could be more accessible.

Because when we, the disabled, ask these questions? We're much more likely to get ignored, and much less likely to be heard when we raise hell.

So help us raise hell when we need it. Demand to know why your local Pride event isn't requiring masks, or is charging for water, or doesn't have wheelchair ramps, or whatever other accessibility issue you catch.

Stop leaving us behind. We need your fucking help.

#original post