Poem for the Reader

by Alex Dimitrov

Since we'll likely never be together anywhere but here -- what season are you most alive in? Is the morning blue or green? How would you use freedom? What part of your body do you trust the least? Permanent rain or never-ending snow? When are your most difficult hours? Would you want to know who you were before this? Why or why not? And now that there's fire -- the bridge or the river? More money or love? Do you sometimes avoid happiness? If asked, would you return? To Earth or anywhere else?

I think B'Elanna deserves to bite anybody she wants, actually. At any time. Doesn't have to be a particular reason. She could also kill someone if she'd like.

Sisko would have allowed it, as a treat.

A PULSE. A BEAT. A SONG. LISTEN TO THE UNIVERSE SING.

Thing about this genre of family is they're perfectly congruent when you remember it's about the drama of dressing up

@kaity--did

Hate it when TikTok farm cosplayers and cottagecore types say stuff like "I'm not going to use modern equipment because my grandmothers could make do without it." Ma'am, your great grandma had eleven children. She would have killed for a slow cooker and a stick blender.

I’ve noticed a sort of implicit belief that people used to do things the hard way in the past because they were tougher or something. In reality, labor-saving devices have historically been adopted by the populace as soon as they were economically feasible. No one stood in front of a smoky fire or a boiling pot of lye soap for hours because they were virtuous, they did it because it was the only way to survive.

Taking these screenshots from Facebook because they make you log in and won't let you copy and paste:

Manifesting for some intrepid web developer to build a plug-in in 2026 that disables and turns off all AI. Images, “assistants,” summaries, everything, all of it on every site and every app. Let me use my own brain. Let me wander the vast expanse of the desert unmolested by Satan.

I was going to put this in the tags but actually I'm much too invested in the story of the Fisherman's Friend lozenges

they were invested in the coastal town of Fleetwood in Lancashire in 1865, and only started to be sold outside the town in 1963 thanks to Doreen Lofthouse who married a grandson (Alan) of the original inventor (and later married his nephew Tony after divorcing Alan)

the fishing industry in Lancashire has been declining for decades, and she invested the profits of the business back into the town - contributing a lifeboat, floodlights for the local football team, a children's playground, and the refurbishment of the local hospital

when she died a few years ago she left 41 million pounds to a foundation she had set up to continue supporting Fleetwood

A pleasant young American(?) blogger on my dash has discovered fisherman’s friends so I think the origin story should go around again

@kaity--did

youd think a band named violent femmes would be made up of violent femmes. but it isnt. its dudes

Do we count this as a passive rickroll?

link to post

A very important addition from Rian Johnson himself

the ladies call me a verb the way I'm irregular, tense, and moody

official linguistics post

GenAI v. not GenAI round up.

So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.

Pro GenAI websites/Programs:

Neutral ground:

Strong positions against AI:

Scrivener (Creator vowed against AI) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company.

LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Word. Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)

Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener) for the same features of Premium. You choose.

yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener which is saying something.

Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a British-based company.

Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the Creator,is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.

Clip Studio Paint added AI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean.

Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. US company. Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts.

Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.

Krita open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.

Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ person took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.

Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)

Affinity (Designer, etc) swore to be AI-free and does Vector and Photos. The UX is messy, I dislike the program and regret paying for it. Inkscape and Krita are better UX and do the same thing. The forums aren't as friendly since there has been an onslaught of people seeing it's supposed to be a replacement for Photoshop and Illustrator, but the programmers aren't present. The people on the forums are often on edge about this assertion. And the capabilities of the program don't outshine basically Krita or Inkscape capabilities (both free). What is usually intuitive is not. UK company. If you're going to pay for a program, go for Clip Studio Paint which rivals Corel Painter.

Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation.

Handmade vowed against AI and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)

Proton (to replace Google Suite) as suggested by SF Stories (see reblog) Vowed against AI. They are missing a spreadsheet, but have online and offline capabilities, plus a built-in VPN.

But you need a pro website...

https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html

which will poison the algorithm

Take Away:

The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.

And why not help that along?

I don't want to give cancer to poor people [Link] or make the planet burn faster [Link]. So GenAI collapse is everything I dream of. GenAI apocalypse is not.

You can add Procreate to the anti AI list. They have vowed time and time again when people ask that they will not use AI in their software.

Will also add that elllipsus has options for sharing work with Betas and getting comments in-line wjth the text, a lot like google docs does.

I know a lot of writers stick to gdocs for thaf specific feature but you dont have to!

Welcome to the BGC: Bead Grid City. All the heaven, all the time.

merry christmas everyone !! i did a mini photoshoot with Odo and Julian in their christmas sweaters under the tree :) 🎄🎁

IT’S HERE!! 2025 Star Trek Christmas has dropped!

We do not do elf of the shelf but our house does have borrowers. Penny knows that if she leaves a mess out at night the borrowers will take that as a sign that they can have it and take it into the walls to build their homes

This teaches her to out her stuff away at the end of the night or I chuck it out and also sometimes she wakes up and yells "HEY ELEVES I LEFT YOU SOME STUFF!" And it is hilarious

Penny: THE ELVES HAVE ONIONTIZED

My mom on FaceTime: ???

Me: I had to explain to Penny how the borrowers are part of the elf union and so they go to North Pole the last 3 weeks of the year so no one ever has to work too much over time and that's why they haven't taken mommy's wrapping paper or scissors or anything else I've left out... shes trying to explain the elf union to you.

Penny: THEY GET PAID EXTRA CAUSE OF THE ONION

I'm in tears 🤣🤣🤣

My friend worked with the People With AIDS Coalition in 1990 and found this while cleaning out some old folders. I can't stop thinking about it.

image description: photographs of a document from the People With HIV/AIDS Action Coalition, by Michael Kearns, titled: "The Dos and Don'ts of Throwing A Memorial."

"Life is laughter amid a rosary of deaths" -- Federico Garcia Lorca

Remember pot parties and dinner parties? Saturday night orgies and Sunday morning brunches? Birthday bashes and other fashionable fetes?

Well, forget 'em. What you're likely to attend—and throw—during the '90s are Memorials (aka Celebrations of Life). Having become a Veteran Memorial Giver, I've compiled a few guidelines. Am I serious? Dead.

Do check dates to see if there's another Memorial (for someone more famous) on the same day. Don't start on time—give people a chance to be phony.

Do keep the memorial indoors. Don't go to an idyllic park (especially not Griffith).

Do use the deceased's phone book to compile the guest list. Don't invite anyone who's only listed by first name and number of inches.

Do invite enemies of the deceased (they'll have a final opportunity to be resentful and jealous). Don't introduce more than one person as the deceased's "best friend."

Do keep the Memorial brief (remember: most of the guests attend two or more of these things on weekends). Don't allow out-of-work actors to speak extemporaneously.

Do display a photo of the deceased. Don't choose the one with the double-headed dildo.

Do provide a guest book. Don't provide trick pads.

Do provide live entertainment. An Earth Mother chanteuse (flown in from New York) would be divine. Don't, if you resort to tapes, use "That's What Friends Are For," Judy's "Over the Rainbow," or any Stephen Sondheim.

Do, if serving food, serve up a bowl or two of AZT capsules next to the nuts. Don't set out boxes of Kleenex (even if the deceased's shrink insists).

Do macaroons. Don't do balloons.

Do have an out-of-uniform nurse in attendance (with some of the guests, a seizure is just a heartbeat away). Don't have parking attendants.

Do mention the word AIDS repeatedly. Don't be polite.

Do invite the family (especially the homophobes, if any). Don't protect them.

Do discuss politics. Don't discuss religion.

Do small talk (if you're apolitical). Don't ascribe meaning to the weather ("God must be crying, too," "The sun is shining for our boy," "The smog is as heavy as my heart.")

Do, when eulogizing, exaggerate. Don't, however, use "best," "greatest, "finest," or "most important." (You're bound to be challenged).

Do acknowledge VIPs in attendance—especially if they've made it to 40. Don't introduce more than five former "significant others."

Do something literary (perhaps a selection of Whitman). Don't quote Louise Hay

Do dress up (no 501s, please). Don't do drag.

Do wear bright colors. Don't insist the guests "wear something white."

Do honor most of the deceased's requests. Don't, however, show those slides (we've all seen them—at least once) from his three faaabulous trips to Europe.

Do make a note to yourself to plan your own memorial. Don't let it fall into the hands of your incompetent friends (who may not read this list).

And finally, when it's over:

Do remember why you threw the Memorial. Don't forget how much you love your dead friend.

Do hear his laugh. Don't let go of the memories.

Do cry. Don't tell anyone how much.

Reprinted with the permission of the author and EDGE magazine. /end description.