Looking for something? You can find my books here! My recipe book and worldbuilding compendium are both free to download PDFs. Please have fun with them!

If you really like what you see, tips as always are appreciated (especially now that my work situation is very unstable and rent is coming up)!

Stay safe, eat well, be kind. ~Tal

yeeee I got my bound copy of the cookbook 😗 looking forward to digging into this.

constantly thinking about nora and dima being besties

[reference]

Link to the gay porn library of Alexandria.

Happy pride.

the future is now

are people that lazy to need this

While I’m sure there are people too lazy to spin a fork, keep in mind people like this person who may be suffering from arthritis or a neurological disease or nerve damage or a thousand other conditions that might impair their ability to do things as simple as spin a fork to eat spaghetti. 

These are used with people who can’t grip well: 

This is for Parkinsons’s: 

For people who can’t even bend their joints: 

Here’s a product that guides your hand from your plate to your mouth 

This one holds a sandwich 

Like I get it. I used to see things like the fork and think “that’s fuckin’ lazy” or that product that holds a gallon and you just tip it and pour. But then I started working around the disabled and impaired and found out that these products aren’t meant for lazy people, they’re meant for people who need help. 

So maybe next time you see something, instead of thinking “Wow, are people that lazy?” just be grateful that you’re able to do the things you do every day and take for granted, like being able to feed yourself and wipe your own ass because you have enough coordination and bendy joints to do it. 

This isn’t specualtion either; the majority of products from commericals that we think are funny or silly are autally MEANT for hte disabled.But they are marketed towards the abled because the disabled aren’t considered a viable enough demographic on their own. the Snuggie for example? Created for wheelchair users.

This is actually really nifty.

oh my god of course the snuggie was for wheelchair users

The fact that anyone buys these products besides disabled people drastically lowers the price of them. These would normally cost hundreds if not thousands if dollars. Because if spent time and money creating it, the company wants to get more than that back. And they can’t do that if they sell and market these primarily to disabled people for $20-$40 a piece or whatever. They’d lose money on production. If they can sell hundreds of them to everyone, they can lower the price drastically and therefore disabled people don’t die while trying to scrape up the money to buy these things and be a bit more independent.

I never considered that last part and that’s actually genius

Like yeah, a handful of people ARE that lazy.

But those are the people who use these products even though they don’t need them and thus allow the price to be lower for those who DO.

So honestly in this case good bless the lazy and those prone to gimmicks because they are invaluable to the elderly and disabled in this sense.

@thebibliosphere Look! People learning about disability and why to be kind!

The normalization of disability aids needs to be a thing precisely so they can cost less.

Really fucked up actually that the "you are valid" culture which, usefulness and uh, validity thereof aside, was intended to provide some some perspective for people who may have been blamed for harmless things they could not control morphed into "if strangers on the internet do not constantly tell me I'm good and perfect they are the oppressor" and "even constructively and gently telling me that I hold some power and responsibility to seek a better situation is an unspeakably cruel act."

Once, in an argument with my therapist about a decision I made to antagonize my mother, I snapped, "My feelings are valid," and he shot back, "They're valid because they're real, but that doesn't make them rational."

It was a more nuanced and tailored conversation after that, but that particular quote struck me especially and made me realize how often I was conflating "valid" with "reasonable" or "justified."

i hope this doesn’t need to be said but just in case

you might have seen people talking about sudowrite and/or their tool storyengine recently

and just like… don’t. don’t do it. don’t try it out just to see what it’s about.

for two main reasons:

1) never feed anything proprietary into a large language model (LLM, eg ChatGPT, google bard, etc.).

this means don’t give it private company information when you’re at work, but also don’t give it your original writing. that’s your work.

because of the way these language models work, anything you feed into it is part of it now. and yeah, the FAQ says they “don’t claim ownership” over anything and yeah, they give you that reassuring bullshit about how unlikely it is that the exact same sentence will be reconstructed—

but that’s not the point.

do you have an unusual way of constructing sentences? a metaphor you like to use? a writing tic that sets you apart from the rest? anything that gives you a unique writing voice?

feed your writing into an LLM, and the model has your voice now. the model can generate text that sounds like it was written by you and someone else can claim it’s theirs because they gave the model a prompt.

don’t feed the model.

2) the other reason is that sudowrite scraped a bunch of omegaverse fic without consent to build their model and that’s a really shitty thing to do, because it means people weren’t given the chance to choose whether or not to feed the model.

don’t feed the model.

also this.

don’t feed the model.

I want to say that with trans folk now being at risk of the fucking death sentence in Florida....

The time for community is Now. The time to start planning and organizing how to get our rights back is NOW. bring it up at your local LGBT craft events or book club or support group or whatever. Tell your friends. Spread the word. And maybe see which ones will have the safety and resources you'll need should a Lavender Hunt happen in your area.

And on the scarier end of reality....

This is fucking terrifying. Lots of people are at risk. Personally, I'm terrified this rhetoric will spread much like Trumpism did. I'm scared for my gf and I'm fucking scared for myself because we know historically that it isn't just trans folk on HRT or drag performers that they go after.

And you have every right to do whatever you need to protect yourself.

I'm not going to shame folks who quit HRT, who take the rainbows out of their bio, the people who start saying partner instead of revealing a gender, or anyone else taking a few steps towards the safety that the closet provides. WE shouldn't.

I fucking love you. And we'll be okay as long as we're together, okay?

We keep us safe

This is what I'm talking about for the people unaware.

I looked up the lavender scare last night and was sadly unsurprised to see that the last time the community came together...was a lavender scare.

Pride was a riot because the government started doing to us then what Florida is doing to us now. It was triggered when a man was fired from his job on grounds of being gay and tried to take it to court.

This is why we have pride. This is why "think of the children" is/was an awful rhetoric to push at leather daddies and drag queens. It's not just a bad opinion or stupid discourse, it's a talking point for the right wing to justify fucking kill us.

It was never "just discourse" it was a right wing psyop to cripple us from coming together to fight against attacks just like this.

Your enemies aren't other queer people with labels you don't like. Those are your allies. Because you know who else doesn't like them?

Nazis.

And they don't like you either even if you have a "normal" queer identity and you don't make it "your whole personality" or whatever.

You're both still queer. And that's all they care about. Trying to placate bigots wont save you. Quit playing the part of "acceptable gay" and throwing everyone else under the bus.

Besides, that they WERE thinking of the children when they started those riots dressed in stuff that makes you squirm. They were thinking of You. Of your life. Your children. Queer children.

Hey y'all please reblog this version so people can see the article and explanation, there are a few confused people only seeing earlier versions that dont explain the connection/threat because it doesn't have the article.

An interstate rainbow railroad.

For those unaware that's this. It's been done before.

A lot of people are scared. And I really, really want you to know that the riots started because someone scared asked for help and people answered

It wasn't organized. It just happened. People decided to risk it at a moments notice.

This is ours. And we've done it before.

Stormé Delariverie, the Stonewall Lesbian that triggered it all.

And everyone who was there for her.

Were just like us

So how do we do this?

I played that level in Mario Kart but that was it. I wanna be there for you, we all do, how do we do that?

I bet one of us could call and just ask. Who doesn't have anxiety. Oh wait it's posted on their site :)

Kinda reads like a How To 👀

Find your niche and offer it.

People need help, you figure out how/who can, and then you follow through.

What can You do?

Because you are not nearly as powerless as they want you to believe, especially with some help.

Massive Minnesota W read em for yourself

I was planning to drop the items from the linked tweet thread onto this post, but there are SO MANY new bills that it became a wall of text - line after line after line of incredible things Minnesota has enacted in a single session.

I'm.... actually blown away. the political landscape often feels so hopeless, but the DFL pulled themselves together, getting every member on board for these changes - real changes that are going to protect health, keep people out of jail and housed, and improve work conditions massively. this should be a beacon for every other state democratic party - change doesn't have to be incremental. things can get better and they can get better right now. get crackin'.

But voting doesn't matter right? Imma bookmark this post and show it to any leftists who say that from now on.

Democrats held a ONE seat majority. Judy Seeberger (democrat) won her seat with just 321 votes. 321.

opens box that reads "i wanna draw again". inside lies a note. the note says, "mental illness and difficult circumstances have taken years of interest, accessibility, and skill away from me. i want to forgive myself for that. i want to heal my relationship to my hobbies. i want to feel connected to something that once made me feel good, but the cyclic discouragement is difficult to overcome." i turn over the note. on the back it reads "wannta drawe sexy bodies awooga"

girlboss? no. girlworkers. girlunion. we have nothing to lose but our girlchains.

can we keep some of the girlchains for sex stuff

Source

Let’s go!

Additional source with more details!:

After months of fighting for a fair contract, thousands of union Disney World employees in Orlando approved a new union contract with Walt Disney World on Wednesday [March 29, 2023] that delivers wage increases for all of the theme park’s union workers and paid child bonding leave.

Out of 12,650 workers across Disney World who participated in the single-day vote (not an easy feat to arrange), 97% voted in favor of the contract.

A group of around 200 Disney World workers — or "cast members," as they're referred to by the company — at the Wyndham Orlando Resort and Conference Center in Kissimmee Wednesday night celebrated the vote.

"When we fight, we win!" the group chanted, to applause and cheers from a room emanating with high energy after a high-stakes fight.

The new contract was negotiated by the Service Trades Council Union, a coalition of six labor unions that altogether represent about 42,000 Walt Disney World employees across the parks, ranging from workers in attractions to housekeeping, transit workers, food service workers, character performers and more.

The agreement raises Disney World’s minimum wage to $18 per hour, up from $15, by the end of the year.

Non-tipped workers in job classifications that currently earn Disney World’s minimum $15 hourly rate — such as union dishwashers, as well as some of Disney’s costuming specialists, custodial workers and laundry workers — will see a raise to $17 per hour minimum, immediately upon ratification of the contract.

They’ll also receive retroactive pay equal to $1 per hour extra (a $16 hourly rate) dating back to Oct. 1, 2022, when the unions' last contract expired.

Across the board, Disney World cast members this year will see a $3 per hour raise minimum in 2023, with some job classifications seeing more. Over the life of the contract, effective through October 2026, workers will see a wage increase of between $5.50 to $8.40, with that range varying by position.

That means, by the end of the contract, Disney World will have a minimum wage that's more than double what it was a decade ago, when the minimum hourly rate for cast members was less than $10.

"It's a historic amount of money," Nicolle Mischer, a cook at EPCOT Festival Kitchens and Unite Here Local 737 union member, told Orlando Weekly of the new raise. "It's been a long hard fight, but it's so rewarding to know at the end, that we continued the fight and we continued to push the company to do the right thing as far as, you know, making sure their cast members are taken care of," she said.

Personally, as a mother who will see her pay rise $4.10 upon the contract's ratification, Mischer's looking forward to not having to work as much overtime. She has sometimes worked upward of 60 hours per week just to pay the bills.

She's looking forward to having more time to spend with her musically inclined 15-year-old, who's in marching band, symphonic band and jazz band — and to have the time to perhaps volunteer to go on their trips as they travel to play.

The raise offered in the new contract, Mischer said, will give her a chance to breathe, "not having that heavy weight of working all those extra hours."

Another new addition to the contract — not offered in prior contracts — is eight weeks of paid child bonding leave (family leave) for full-time workers, employed for at least one year, who either give birth to a child, become a parent, or adopt or foster a new child under the age of 18.

This was something Sean Hopper, an employee at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge in Disney's Hollywood Studios and a Unite Here Local 362 shop steward, previously told Orlando Weekly was especially important to him...

Tiara Moton, a cook of 15 years, said that as the mother of a 3-year-old, that paid child bonding time is an amazing achievement for the unions, joking that for her, the pandemic was her "child bonding time."

"We deserve this. We worked hard for it," she said.

Pictured: Tiara Moton (middle) surrounded by Disney World workers in union shirts in Central Florida on March 29, 2023.

When we organize, we win

This vote of approval on this new contract, considered a victory by union leaders, comes nearly two months after thousands of workers stood together and rejected a worse offer from Disney that would have offered just a $1 raise in the first year of the contract for many, albeit with a similar $5 increase over the life of the contract.

Although some union workers, such as culinary staff, would have seen a higher raise under that agreement, workers almost unanimously rejected it in solidarity with those who wouldn’t.

Out of 14,263 workers who voted on that last agreement, 13,650 — or 96% — shot it down.

A couple weeks after, Disney came back with a worse offer that would have offered a higher raise upfront — a $17 minimum hourly rate for those making $15 — but would have decreased the amount of retroactive pay workers would have received, earning backlash from union leaders.

The new agreement, approved by workers Wednesday, restores that back pay.

Union organizers and other union leaders in the parks have been organizing behind the scenes of the Most Magical Place on Earth to negotiate a new contract for union workers since August, ahead of their last contract’s expiration on Oct. 1...

With their new deal, Disney's cast members in Orlando hope they'll be able to spur change across the tourism and hospitality sector, which makes up roughly one-fifth of the Central Florida region's workforce.

Universal Orlando (which is non-unionized) recently announced a $17 minimum wage for its own workforce this year, and some smaller companies have also moved to offer workers something closer to a living wage.

Food service workers at the Orange County Convention Center, represented by Unite Here Local 737, also won their own historic contract earlier this year, winning an $18 minimum wage this year, up from $13.

When the STCU won a $15 minimum wage at Disney during the last contract cycle, back in 2018, that prompted other employers (including Universal) to follow suit, eventually, with their own raises.

Mischer, the cook at EPCOT, said this agreement opens the door not just in Central Florida, but across the state, and potentially across the country,  with Disney widely considered an industry leader. "I believe that other companies will see and take the lead that Disney has, you know — the steps that Disney has taken to make sure their cast members have taken care of."

"When we come together, when we unionize and organize, this is what we can do," said Henry, speaking to his fellow workers. "We are changing the future of the Central Florida. The state of Florida right now. Tonight. Don't ever forget what you've done tonight."

-via Orlando Weekly, 3/29/23

Ok, so something I've noticed that is utterly baffling to me is that all the Americans I know primarily dry their clothes using a machine called a dryer. I don't even own a dryer. So, I need to know:

Wanna be radicalized?

We sent our kid off to Germany for a year as an exchange student.

As a foreign national, you have to buy into their national health care plan, because you don’t pay taxes there to support it.

Wanna know what it costs to buy into Germany’s health care for a year for a healthy 18yr old?

a solid YEAR of “everything is covered, no deductible, no copay, we don’t send bills?”

$500.

for. a. whole. year.

folks you need to understand that the eradication of trained artists and designers is a much, much, much bigger threat to arts and culture than IP laws.

why do you think is it that every movie poster the same collage of a bunch of faces? why does every website made after 2015 look the same and rendered unusable by the same ugly pop ups? why does it keep getting harder to differentiate the apps on your phone? Why can't the back of the book just fucking tell you what the book is about?

look I'm a graphic designer. when I started studying design I had clear career goals. I spent like, thousands of hours on studying effective visual communication, psychology, history, grid systems, color theory, typography, print and digital design techniques, accessibility like whatever I believed would make me better at design I poured myself into it.

and within the span of like. five years maybe. 90% of design work disappeared. By the time I graduated there were basically no graphic designers. After 2012 Every company decided that design itself is trivial and true designers should know how to code. And manage social media. And do video editing. And copywrite. and this. and that. and. and. and. and as previous generations of visual designers and illustrators retired, the people who had the luxury of putting all their time into developing specific set of skills, they were replaced with tech grifters and designers who were forced to learn a dozen different skills and were at best mediocre at everything.

my job is not threatened by AI automation because it has already been ruined by automation through canva and bootstrap. and no one even tried to put a stop to it because good design is hard to understand and easy to imitate. so people started to imitate the visuals of previous good design and thought that was all there is to design. and after 10 years of copies of copies of copies we're all asking each other: "why does everything look the same"

now illustrators fear the same will happen to their field. and some of them want stricter copyright laws rights, because there is nothing else that can protect their work. "theft" is the only legal protection they have. and yeah, IP laws suck. but it's better for them to defend their labor using shoddy laws than not at all. and if you allow unimaginative grifters to displace artists from the few creative fields where they still work you won't even have a reason to worry about IP laws.

I’ve gone to the women’s restroom a lot in my life, and not once have I ever seen genitalia besides my own while there. No penis, no vulva, nothing.

I’ve literally seen a bathroom full of baby lizards, one time a whole fucking fish on the floor, and someone come out of the stall with a plate, knife, and fork like they just ate a meal before I’ve seen genitals. Why would I ever be worried about seeing some woman with her cock out

I've used the men's restroom a lot in my life without stalls and not seen genitalia. Even when lined up at the urinals with no barriers between them.

It's almost as if most people don't want to share what they're packing with the rest of the room.

And most people don't want to look.

Really the only time you're going to see something is if you're trying to see it. And that says more about you than the people whose privacy you're invading.

You can't go peeking at other people's genitals and then get mad at them if you see something you don't want to see