I'm realizing that this is related to what bugs me so much about genAI in the context of interpersonal communication, too. I just want to know that you actually MEAN it, that you're engaged in life the way I'm engaged in life...not as a thing to be avoided or monetized, but lived.
It's harder to think about the CNN r@pe story alone than it is to think about it after reading this article. Reading this will fill you with alternating feelings of rage and hope. Don't look away.
#oldmagic #witches #witchsky
elaynekalila.substack.com/p/what-happe...
Hooray, it is fixed! Office is now 70F!
Add in the stories about the "online rape academy" and I just...ugh. Men. Be better. Be worthy of the attention you're so desperate for.
(I know some of y'all are actually wonderful people, but I'm currently not feeling especially confident about the percentage.)
(But on the revulsion front in particular: I just feel so bad for actually-heterosexual Gen Z women, if those bros are at all typical of their generation. My ace-ish bi self would just nope right out of opposite-sex relations entirely.)
If I can’t know whether you’re saying something because you mean it, or because you’ve colluded with someone to make a bet on the interaction, that’s just…what a waste of our precious lives, you know?
It’s all just so intensely, astoundingly, disgustingly cynical and sad to me.
Turning every interaction you might have into an opportunity to bet on outcomes you attempt to control, and by doing so, render all of it meaningless?
Turning LITERALLY ALL OF LIFE into the most fucked up version of fantasy football? Life itself as a thing not to experience, but to engage with only for the sake of winning bets and making money?
Watched the John Oliver episode about prediction markets last night and my overwhelming reaction was one of just absolute sheer revulsion towards the Polymarket-Kalshi bros whose videos were shown throughout the story.
Today it’s >60F in our offices in the WSAP. It’s a “heating issue that will take time to fix.” I’m just straight-up working with my coat on this morning. At least I wore my handwarmers that are easier to type in! Here’s hoping my classrooms are warmer, at least!
I mean, I wasn’t necessarily expecting that just knowing how vulnerable I am would lead students to mask up if they weren’t required to, but damn, that was a HARD reality to experience in my own classroom with students who I cared about.
My “hard lesson about humanity that I’ll never forget” came when my uni eliminated the masking requirement and told me I should just inform my students I’m high risk and offer them masks (at my own expense, of course)…only to follow their advice and have exactly zero students take a mask.
Looking back, it was the adjustment back to in-person-everything that I found harder (yes, mid-2020 was hard, but I’m a homebody and there was a “we’re all in this together”-ness that was totally gone by ‘21).
But! I do really love not being sick ALL the time the way I was pre-2020. Yay masks!
This little piece has been quite fun and hard to learn with how equally active and interwoven the two parts are…it’s like playing a violin-viola duet, except I’m BOTH violin AND viola!! (My left hand would still much rather be facing the other way; piano feels so unnatural to my violin hand!)
Wrapped in a blanket because after a day in a freezing cold office, I can’t warm up, but hey, I managed an almost-clean recording of this little Bourée by Krieger that I’m learning, so that’s neat!
Yeah, I’ve never quite got over the profound moral injury aspect of watching so many Americans absolutely refuse to even mildly sacrifice to help others during Covid - watching MAGAs somehow become even more evil was radicalizing.
And now the bastards are trying to destroy MRNA research.
And now it’s 64F. Thank goodness for my “office blanket” (actually a worsted weight wool shawl) and wool mitts!
Now it's only 65 degrees in my office, and exactly zero of the 9 grad students who were registered for the workshop I was running today showed up. That workshop is literally the only reason I'm on campus today rather than working from home, where I have control over the temperature. I am...grumpy.
Walked through a snow squall to get to my office this morning, which is annoying because it's April 20th, but this is Western NY, after all.
It's now only 67 degrees in said office, which has been reliably over 70 degrees all through the winter. I do not like this. SO COLD.
New post on my #knitting blog: an almost finished sweater, and other updates from the past week.
Good things: Kiddo set a PR at her first track meet of the season! I got to visit a campus art festival and buy a print from one of my former students! I learned from a weaver at the art festival about an upcoming fiber festival! And it became gorgeously sunny in the afternoon!
Oooh, that's a really great suggestion, though I'm not sure I have the skills to pull it off!
If I had to guess, I'd assign the blame to friction from my backpack straps, actually.
Oooh, yes! I watch them and think “she makes it look so simple!” and then I try to do it and feel like my fingers don’t work!
Feeling very pleased with myself because I left my hair down today, but then it was approximately a million degrees in my classroom so I braided it and pinned the braid up into a bun sans mirror and it actually looks good. (Last time I had long enough hair to do this regularly was ~14 years ago!)
Ah, I didn't realize that! (I've been teaching all day so just had a chance to check in!)
I also got almost nothing from FB and literally nothing from IG from the same post when I posted it there, which surprised me!
An observation: I posted this at the same time here and on Mastodon, and got a TON of great advice over on Mastodon, and absolutely nothing here. It's entirely possible that I have a more handmaking-forward social network on Mastodon than here, but I'm sure there are other factors too. Interesting!
I am holding up a green dress, and my hand is partially visible through the hole that’s forming under the arm opening.
Went to put on my linen dress this morning and discovered this under the left armhole. Advice? I’m a very curious and interested total newbie when it comes to mending. I do have some of this fabric leftover, which I hope helps? But anyway, advise me, wise people!
Probably shouldn’t have started with two full miles of walking, ha!
Took advantage of the nice weather on a work-from-home day and walked to the library (~1 mile away). First time wearing my Chaco sandals since Fall. I always joke that I have to “break my feet in” after winter and sure enough, I’ve got a gnarly blister on my right big toe where the strap crosses it.
Yeah, my kid is awesome at being a team player, musically! I keep trying to tell her how special that is…she tends to undersell herself because her current solo repertoire isn’t as “impressive”.
