“Try our ai-powered-” and I’ve stopped reading. You’ve instantly lost me. I don’t trust anything that labels itself ai-powered. I’d rather deal with something that’s squirrel-powered. Like Norm. I trust Norm. He won’t try to sell my data.
i don’t think spending more time on something on its own inherently makes that thing any better. because i’m not protestant
i sometimes see videos of digital artists being like “here’s a tip on how to draw x thing faster!” and it’s like, tracing over stock images or free 3D assets from the clip studio store. and the comments are filled with people saying “no that’s cheating!!” can we be so real with ourselves for just one second. how is this cheating. it’s not a competition. nobody is getting an award. i don’t care if Samantha the digital artist traced a png of a chessboard instead of freehanding it—i see no reason for her to work harder arbitrarily for the same exact outcome
You may think the phrase “He’s just a little guy” comes from internet memes, but you would be wrong.
The true origin of the phrase belongs to celebrated author Tamora Pierce, in her 1983 novel Alanna: The First Adventure, when Gary says, “Still—what can Alan do for you? He’s just a little guy”(49).
Thus, whenever we say of someone or some creature that they are “just a little guy,” what we are really saying is that they are a short redheaded knight-in-training with some sort of Gender going on who will kick your butt given half a chance.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. May we all be the little guys we wish to see in the world.
Pierce, Tamora. Alanna: The First Adventure. New York, Random House, 1983.
Mira listens to all kinds of music. Every genre, old and new, obscure to mega popular. She just loves being well versed in anything music. She makes playlists to keep all her favorites organized. One for every mood, subcategorized by any number of factors. She makes playlists for her girls too. It’s one long playlist (technically 2, one for each Rumi and Zoey) where she’ll add songs that reminds her of them. Songs she thinks they’d enjoy, even songs she wishes to hear them cover imagining how great their voices would sound on specific verses. Playlists that have grown several hours long over the years she’s known them.
Lately every song she’s added to these playlists have been love songs. It’s not unusual for her to add the occasional one here and there, especially to Zoey’s playlist cause she loves those kinds of songs the most. But for it to be every song, that’s highly unusual. Maybe it’s the algorithm that keeps feeding them to her, or maybe it’s a sign of something she’s been ignoring…
The last few days Rumi and Zoey constantly have their headphones on around the penthouse. While doing chores, when they’re working out, even when they’re just hanging out either in their rooms or on the couch. Mira will see Zoey with her over ear cans, and Rumi with her sleek earbuds constantly on. She wonders if they’ve joined a book club or something without her and they’re listening to the audiobook.
One day she can’t take not being able to talk to them for longer than a few minutes during meals, and she yanks the things off their ears. “What the hell have you been listening to all week?” When she puts them up to her ears she hears music, songs she’s familiar with cause she is the one that introduced them to them. She’s confused, she knows they listen to her recommendations often, but for a solid five days?
“You just added so many new songs recently…” Rumi begins to explain with trepidation. Zoey fills in the gap, “and they’re all so specific…we’ve been trying to figure out if there’s something you’re not telling us…”
Mira is even more confused. When she adds songs to their playlists, she’s fairly absent minded about it. She just gets the initial impression and adds, not at all under the kind of scrutiny she has when making her own mood lists.
“Are you not aware that every song you’ve added for the past couple weeks have been love songs?” Zoey asks. Rumi adds, “It’s well over 45 songs at this point.” An unusually high number of tracks to be added in such a short time span, normally its just a few a week, less so when they’re busy. “Are you secretly seeing someone?” Zoey asks in the smallest voice, as if she’s afraid to hear the answer.
Mira nearly gets sick at the thought. “No! Of course not!” Rumi looks at her like she doesn’t believe it. Mira hangs her head and sighs. She can’t ignore it any longer. “Those songs remind me of you…because I-I love you.”
Rumi and Zoey exchange a look, their faces light up like they’ve cracked the code. All the time they spent listening was to determine if their hypothesis was correct. And here Mira has confirmed it. They both crush Mira in the tightest hug possible. “Oh wait!” Rumi excitedly exclaims as she pulls away. “In that case, here.” She takes out her phone and presses a few buttons. Mira’s phone chimes in response and Rumi motions for her to look at it.
A notification with a link to a shared playlist titled “if it’s true 💜💗💙” from collaborators Rumi and Zoey appears on her screen. It’s nearly 50 songs long already, and based on titles alone, Mira has a good idea what kind of songs they are. She gets up and walks to her room without saying anything. Rumi and Zoey follow her confused. Mira grabs her headphones and connects them to her phone right away, she turns to the girls who look at her with a mixture of excitement and disappointment. “You got to spend nearly a week with my confession, let me at least get the afternoon with yours.”
“But we could be kissing instead.” Zoey whines, which makes both Rumi and Mira laugh. Though Rumi very much agrees. Mira crosses the room and kisses each of them, long and slow, but nothing too scandalous just yet. She really does want to listen to their playlist first. “One playthrough, then Ipromise.” She ushers them out of her room, and her cheeks burn upon hearing Zoey quietly scold Rumi “this is your fault, you should’ve sent it later.” (“It was your idea!” Rumi protests with just as much exasperated annoyance at not getting to keep kissing Mira instead. At least they had each other…)
When I was in high school we did an english unit on Octavia Butler and the teacher told us hey btw. You should call her “Butler” in your essays. Sometimes students call female writers by their first names unconsciously, but that’s not acceptable. If you wouldnt call them William or Ernest you shouldn’t call her Octavia.
And I was like cool whatever I was gonna call her Butler anyways. But that moment has stuck with me for my whole life because once you start seeing ppl calling women by their first names where men would be called by their last names you literally never stop seeing it.
