I've yet to experience the new user interface for Mastodon but from what I'm reading it's garbage for now. I'm using two apps, Tusky & Trunks, for most of my experience for the last few days.
By being sick I haven't gotten on my laptop for days. I'm worried now by what I might find.
Ugh. All fevers are the worst. A low grade one makes you feel bad but at the same time you want to get out of bed. It's an illusion. Things ache. My eyes burn. My coughin jags sting my throat and lungs. :(
I came home yesterday thinking that someone's perfume had set off a bad allergic reaction. Thirty minutes from walking through the door the coughing, the body aches, and the general ill feeling of the flu began. I'm so glad I got the flu shot months ago. I feel bad but it's not the worst flu symptoms I've ever experienced.
☹️🤒
I'm seeing comments left and right, memes in reality, that ever since the Ukranians took out a Russian data center the number of rage bait comments on social media has died down.
Has this been anyone's experience?
I'm really only on Mastodon. I'll peek at Facebook twice a week.
I truly hope that this is the case.
I know that the advertising dollars love long periods of interaction. YouTube videos that never get to the point and that use empty words are part of that. The trolling that happens in comments is another part. And for a good decade I've suspected that the rage bait in the comments could be bots trying to increase engagement.
Please, do tell me it's true. I want to believe that the din and cacophony of angry and stupid comments is mostly bots.
I just had the most surreal experience. I was leaving a review on an Amazon item and had used the phrase, "I doubt any human eyes reviewed these images", when the webpage completely froze. I had to close the tab and surprisingly enough I had to sign back into Amazon.
My gut reaction is that they have an LLM keeping people from bashing products that may have been produced by generative AI.
I was reviewing some horrible, vintage inspired Christmas Cards that were full of design choices no human artist would chose. It feels like anything that has graphics on it that's from Amazon lately is full of this trash.
Why in the hell would they go to all of this AI trouble when there's already in the public domain excellent images from the 1910s and earlier? (Rhetorical question. No need to respond.)
Over at Metafilter.com I found this great article on the WB cartoon by Chuck Jones, 'What's Opera Doc.'
First the full cartoon can be found here: https://vimeo.com/444002896
If you've never seen it, or if it has been decades since you've watched it I'd say go and lay your eyeballs on it now. It's a classic.
The article is here: https://animationobsessive.substack.com/p/why-whats-opera-doc-looks-like-that
It lays out details that made this the most expensive Bugs Bunny cartoon, and how the team cheated the bean counters to get it made.
(Edit: It's worth reading the discussion over on Metafilter. Other great Looney Tunes cartoons are discussed along with links.)
Here's my wish, that all of the fun memes and videos that I share with others off of #Mastodon with others via text will get them to look into joining an instance.
I mean, they get to view the content without an account. If they look deeper into it (and they listen to my proselytizing about it) they'll see what a less stressful and joyous experience that could be theirs.
RE: https://mastodon.online/@jon_alper/117275598738094995
This documentary is long. I've been watching in between chores. Some of the things I knew already but there's a lot about Silicon Valley I didn't know.
RE: https://flipboard.social/@CultureDesk/117334441450864576
The trailer on the YouTube site has a low viewership score. Let's see if we can boost the viewership #Mastodon.
Let all of your friends in Texas know that Jimmy Kimmel's interview with Talarico will air on YouTube. They should seek it out and discuss.
Wherever you are, talk openly about what you do and don't like about the politicians, the politics, and everything. Don't worry about people's feelings. Momma was wrong about not talking politics in the house. Just don't attack the people around you and talk about how things have affected you.
As Americans we've lost the ability for family discourse. It's a shame. Too many years of not calling dad out on his bigotry. Or mom out on her generalizations.
Let's go out there and make these midterms count for something.
I've grown to dislike hearing people say, "next (day of the week inserted here)". People believe they're being accurate or something but they're not.
Where I grew up when someone said something like "let's meet next Thursday" then it would mean "not this Thursday but the Thursday after next". If you did mean to meet on the next coming Thursday, then you'd say "let's meet this coming Thursday."
I discovered later that many in the country literally mean this coming Thursday if they said, "next Thursday". WTH? Then just say, "this Thursday".
It's the context from where we grew up. I get it.
But what always frustrated me was trying to show people how their "next Thursday" could be misinterpreted. I'd have people stare at me blankly when I tried explain how my version is correct as well.
In the end, if I hear someone use the term such as "next Thursday" I hold their feet in the fire and force them to give me an actual date.
/pedantic rant of old man
I just discovered that the Japanese have this great word, Nagori. [Edited to correct spelling.]
Nagori is savouring what you know to be ending.
It's dancing to the final song at a wedding. It's waking up in your childhood bed for the last time before heading to college. It's looking at the mess of wraping paper the children left Christmas morning before going to the kitchen for breakfast.
I never realized it before but my joy at seeing the thunderstorms that mark the end of the summer where I live is Nagori. The night temperatures cause the need for a light jacket. Things change and some anxious trees put a pop of fall color into their canopy at this time too. It's the final days of summer and I love this time, and the memory of what summer was for the year.
May you have a lovely experience with nagori as well. Savor the changes in your life and enjoy the moments before they end.
Peace.
No matter which state in the USA you live, go and check your voter registration. Do it now.
For Texas you have until Oct 2nd to register for the upcoming midterms. I'm only assuming it's the same for everyone else.
Then make a plan.
For my state (edit: in New England) early voting happens the week before November. I'm lucky too in that I can vote at any of the polling places. If I wait until election day I must vote at the polling place designated for me.
It's likely different where you are. Search and find out.
You get extra street cred if you invite friends to go to the polling place with you.
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trans-wnba
A good article on transgender men and women in sports. I'm going to add some of my own thoughts in a bit once I formulate them better. But in essence, MAGA has touched on a point that many won't think through.
With sexual assault on women the way it is, many of our wives and daughters will agree completely with the ban to keep our daughters safe. They pull from their own experiences and don't see the nuanced issue for what it is. The doctors, the sports officials, and the fellow athletes should be the ones making the decisions. Not the politicians and the scare mongering tactics they use.
I just made a donation to my instance. It's not possible for me to do it monthly, but like at my older instance I plan to donate something a couple of times a year.
I implore anyone using an instance to search out how to give a few Euros, Bucks, Benajamins, Luchre, bags of loot or what have you. It keeps the lights on and keeps things healthy.
I love the fact that Mastodon just works in your phone's browser. I mention this because Tusky is having issues logging me into my new instance. :(
Maybe it's time to try a new Mastodon app? Or is it a problem with my account being too new on this instance?
I'm excited to discover the answers! App search is underway. It's been a long time since I tried anything but Tusky.
I jut moved from toot.community over here. I'm more of a booster than content creator. I enjoy #art, #FountainPens, #bicycles, #satire, #TheOutdoors, riffing on the Orange Cheeto, #science, #cats, #culture at large, and the world in general.
I believe we're here for more than pulling down a paycheck. Our lives need to give back in some way to future generations and those currently around us. How to do that is a discovery I'm currently on.
Oh, damn. I have more than a 500 character limit on this instance. This could be bad news for my tendency to ramble and be too wordy.
I hearby promise to keep my thoughts to a respectable length, like the {CHAUCER} CANTERBURY TALES.
(Edit corrected the title.)
