Reblog this with a Wolfstar fic rec that is (a) not written by you and (b) under 300 kudos.

I'll go first...

bg3challenge | favorite act | act 1

The midjourney stuff just reminds of when we were trying to find a new platform to host the ao3 donation form, and companies kept trying to tell me about all their "ai" features that would track donor engagement, and figure out the optimal pattern to email individual donors asking for follow up donations, and all the ways they suggest we manipulate people into staying on our websites. It was a great way to filter out who either wasn't listening to us when we described our ethics and donor base, or just didn't believe us.

Now granted ao3 is a unique case based on a) the amount of page views we get in any given time period and b) the fact that most donors absolutely do Not want to be identified as such anywhere, (the default "list of recent donors" module got nuked Immediately) but it surprised me some that the concept of "donors who value their privacy and would be furious at even the whiff of AI" is unique. Some of us really are just existing in different worlds.

Op's tags

#I just started dropping '2.5 Billion page views a month'#into conversations as early as possible bc they would Not believe me otherwise#it was right up there with having to say 'csam attacks' to get them to take my compartmentalization of information concerns seriously#turns out those are the magic words#otw#op

The last part was kind of insane, honestly. When we started changing platforms for the donor database, I kept telling them that yes I was aware we already had an account for the volunteer database, and no that could not be connected to the donor database. And they said yes fine sure and then connected them anyway. And I called them back and said, excuse me, I'm confused, I can see both databases. And they said, well, yeah, but it's only you, someone has to be able to see both databases to give other users access. The other users can't see both. And I said, no, we have been asking for a completely separate database. I should not be able to see both. And they said, you are one organization, one organization can't have two databases. And I said, last year someone used our volunteer email list to commit approximately one thousand felonies. Please feel free to imagine how much worse it could have been had they had a way to use volunteers' email addresses to get their legal names. We do not want this to be something anyone can do no matter how much we trust them. Let me describe those felonies to you in more detail. And they emailed me two hours later and said, you can have two separate databases.

This post feels like watching an iceberg go by in clear water. The amount of stuff going on beneath the surface of AO3 just astonishes.

(ID in alt)

Mary Oliver, Sleeping in the Forest

-Medusa-

I've had this sitting around as a sketch for awhile, finally had time to finish it! Hoping to do more mythology illustration this year.

To The Substitute Art Teacher - Jordan Bolton

Why would you hide that in the notes

I want an ice maker and enough room in the freezer for a pizza and that is IT.

I want the dumbest fridge you got. Gimme the orange tabby of refrigeration. I want my fridge to pull the wrong lever and turn my enemies into llamas instead of killing them. I want the following features: keeps things cold, has compartment that keeps things colder, a door that opens and shuts.

"Here at Stupid Jeff's Dumb Appliance Warehouse we sell the dumbest fucking appliances. Check out this fridge. This fridge won't ask you about your day, this dumb fucking fridge doesn't know what an Elon Musk is and won't fucking tell you what bullshit that dumb monkey is slapping into his phone today when you try to get some fucking milk. We took out all those "smart" electronics and in their place we put a loaded Glock 9mm that is put right up to that light that turns on when you open the door, which is the smartest thing in this fucking stupid fridge and let me tell you that fucker is on thin goddamn ice, if it gets too smart and tries to turn on before you open that door, the Glock will blow it to hell. Speaking of ice, this stupid fridge makes it. It makes ice, it keeps things cold, it comes with shelves. It's sturdy enough that when your ex comes back to your place looking for their stuff that they think they left behind like nine months ago and they know that you don't have it, but they wanted an excuse to come start a fight with you and throw a chair at your head but miss you and hit your fridge MICHAEL, this fridge will keep trucking because it gives zero shits and it only lives to keep things cold. Come to Stupid Jeff's Dumb Appliance Warehouse, if you ask us if we have an app, we break your kneecaps."

J. K. Rowling and Neil Gaiman are such a funny contrast to me, like Rowling: Oh, and by the way, I put gay characters in my books. People: Is there anything... showing that? Rowling: No. Also trans women don't deserve respect People: wtf Gaiman: Here are some immortals that transcend all human concepts of gender and attraction who use a variety of pronouns, and also some clearly canon human queers. People: Are the immortals queer? Gaiman: That is an entirely valid way to view them. Other people: Ugh, pushing a modern woke agenda. It used to be- Gaiman: Fuck you

Rowling made us believe that she believed in love, then slapped a bunch of conditions on it and savaged my loved ones. She broke my heart.

Gaiman picked me up, dusted me off, said, “it’ll be ok,” and ran me through with a flaming sword. Then he looked me in the eye and said, “don’t worry. I’m writing a happy ending. I’ll pull the sword out in a few years, one way or another.”

And I believe him, even though he’s a writer and writers, like demons, lie. Long live Neil Gaiman!

OP what if I cry

reminds me of

the shellfish allergy NO NO FUCKING S HRIMP OR HE D IE post

I think you might be looking for my ADHD reward system? It should come up when searching my blog. (ADHD not required to benefit from using it. Executive dysfunction is a mother fucker that manifests in many forms. If ADHD life hacks help you, godspeed.)

Also, speaking as someone who worked myself into a prolonged bout of depression and suicidal ideation last year that I'm still not recovered from, I'm going to go ahead and say there are times when you need to take breaks for the sake of your mental wellbeing. And sometimes that includes accepting not having the mental energy to write at all.

Sometimes people need the creative outlet, and it can be healing and cathartic. Other times you run the risk of continuing to exhaust an already depleted energy source that desperately needs time to rest and heal.

Wich I know might not be particularly helpful if you've got a deadline looming, but again, as someone who severely fucked over their mental health last year by keeping to a deadline that was harmful to my wellbeing, I’m going to stress again that nothing is as important as doing what keeps you alive and sane. If things get done slower, they get done slower. The main thing is they get done, and you're able to (hopefully) enjoy it.

If you're in a place where it’s more “I don’t know how to jump-start my brain again,” start with small goals. 500 words a day, is more progress than 0.

Heck, 100 words is a whole-ass drabble.

Celebrate the things you do manage to do instead of the things you don’t. And if you don't manage to do anything today, there's always tomorrow. And the day after that, and the day after that.

Yes!!! All of this! And not just to writing, but to anything.

When somebody tells you that it’s okay to take time away if you need to, it’s never just about your physical health. There’s mental health, emotional health, the person who you want to (but aren’t ever required to) help with’s health, and even more that I probably don’t know or remember at this point.

I have a phrase that I commonly use when I don’t understand my emotions, and later was approved by a therapist. “Emotions are complicated.” What I mean by that is it can be hard to understand emotions, disabled in a way or not. Sometimes it’s harder for others, and that’s okay. But if I meant it just for me, I would of added “for me” at the end.

So if you feel like you can’t write some days, that’s perfectly okay and valid! You are NEVER required to work on a project you started, writing or something else. It’s meant to be for fun! It does not matter if you’re overwhelmed, having a bad day, just not up to it at the time, or something else. Take your time.

And sometimes it’ll end up lasting for several days. Sometimes you don’t feel good enough or up to doing the thing for days at a time. That’s okay. You’ll end up getting back at it. And if you don’t, then that’s alright too.

Doing something you enjoy should never feel like a chore or a requirement. Because then it’s not something you enjoy, even if it’s just at that time. Every single bit of you is worth more then whatever you enjoy doing.

(Ps. If something doesn’t work for you, don’t give up! Nobody is the same, so how you deal with things won’t be the same! Just because one thing doesn’t work for you won’t mean something else won’t. So keep trying different techniques to help, even if you don’t have that disability!)

Source

© VALERIO VINCENZO Website | Facebook | Twitter

I am American and I have never seen photos like this. I had no idea there are borders like this. Even though I LOVE the idea of open borders, I am staring at these pictures like “wait…people can just…walk across some stones or grass and BE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY??? and nobody stops them?? how does that WORK?!” So you can tell that my country’s propaganda has gotten to me by convincing me that this CAN’T work even though…it…obviously can. These pics just seem unreal to me. I’ve been taught my whole life that this can’t exist. In 27 years no one has ever sat me down and gone, look, here’s how it is elsewhere. It isn’t impossible at all.

I want to add something, but I’d just be restating what they said. I.. didn’t know peace and kindness like this was possible.

All of the above, and …

Why did the chicken cross the road?

To get to Belgium, apparently.

This also leads to some funny images like: GuEsS wHeRe ThE bOrDeR Is XD

this is real, but it also gets at why hopeful stories are so important - its real hard to make a better world if you cant even imagine it existing

Schengen Area my beloved

aziraphale's infatuated little side eyes at crowley

First off, thanks for the response, and thanks as always for being honest, passionate, and detailed; discussing the issues without judging the people (except Michael Grant, because fuck him).

Second, for some context, I took two and a half psych classes before realizing that counseling was not something I could do for the rest of my life, took the easy way out, and switched to aerospace engineering.  All my other experience has been on the receiving end, dealing with my occasionally misfiring brain, so I have enormous respect for you experience, education, expertise, and accomplishments.

I’ll start by saying that I pretty much agree entirely with your points about the validity and potential harm of the MBTI.  I didn’t know how much financial motivation there was, given that my investment was three books that were probably less than $10 collectively from used book stores, but I certainly believe it.  Also, my first introduction to the test was a Facebook link from maybe 11 years ago, and I distinctly remember basically messing with my answers to see what resulted in a changed type.  Basically I hold no illusions of the descriptive capabilities of the MBTI, and reject any prescriptive or proscriptive capacity its adherents may claim.

All of that said, I want to offer my small counterpoint as to why I have a small soft spot for Keirsey, in particular.  Thanks to poorly understood messages from a religious upbringing (along with a fair amount of bullying and social isolation), I basically internalized the concept that I wasn’t allowed to have any sort of personality.  When I finally started receiving effective counseling in my early twenties, I was basically all over the place in terms of development.  In that setting, Keirsey’s work gave my an initial framework and vocabulary to start building some sense of personal identity with.  As with any theoretical framework, as the data came in, the framework was adjusted, and I developed a better understanding of myself beyond, and even contradictory to, that initial basic concept, but I feel that without the fairly simple starting point, it would have taken a lot longer to get where I am.

Again, I’m coming at this from the perspective of an engineer, where we commonly use models that we know don’t accurately represent the systems we’re working with (especially as students), but it allows us to make a start and build the necessary tools to come back and create a more accurate representation.  An inaccurate model can still be useful as long as its inaccuracies are recognized and accounted for, but no matter how much we love our models, it’s generally recognized that reality loves to not fit into our tidy little boxes.  Of course, human psychology is much more complex and intricate than nearly any system that engineers work with, and it requires much greater care than simple mechanical, electrical, or chemical processes.

At the end of the day, I’m glad I’m dealing with the relatively simple task of helping humanity reach other planets, and I’m glad people like you are working to make sure we have a humanity that is worthy of this planet, let alone others.

Also, thanks for pointing me towards the Five-Factor Model, I’ll have to check it out.

I was 1000% the same way as you: wandered into psychology out of curiosity and vague therapy intentions, realized pretty quickly that I have no counselor in me.  I did end up veering into the “creepily study human behavior through human experimentation” side of the field rather than leaving entirely, but nevertheless I Feel You.

I also spent somewhere between days and months when I was in undergrad writing detailed descriptions as to which MBTI profile best described each of my OCs the best.  I seriously think I sat there and took a free knockoff version of the MBTI a good twelve times for the twelve main characters of my original fiction series.  It wasn’t until I was in my 400-level Psychometrics class that I has a “Whaddayamean, the MBTI’s not valid?” moment.  If I recall correctly I spent a while hunting down more information in an effort to prove my professor wrong after he first told us that it wasn’t internally consistent, couldn’t predict human behavior, didn’t distinguish between personality types, and was unable to do 95% of what it promised.  Obviously I came around after I read more of the science, but obviously I’m also a contrarian little shit at heart.

Anyway, thank you for being so understanding that I had so much rambling about a test that no one has any reason to believe isn’t a valid personality measure.  Part of the reason I go on so much is that it really isn’t clear from any information I can find on a quick Google search that MBTI actually is for-profit junk science.  So it’s almost more reasonable to conclude that it’s valid than otherwise.  Often the only good information on psychological measures is in these fucking papers on how papers psychologists write about how the L2-MLM ANOVA with MLE after MNAR of the FAE suggests S1 processes within ELM/HSM are only quasi-reflexive in light of GSR-R yadda yadda so forth…*  The Giving Psychology Away movement is, shall we say, a work in progress.

Keep reading