The Man Who Wants AI to Help You ‘Cheat on Everything’
Apr. 23rd, 2025 02:30 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
404media_feed
Last month, Roy Lee was suspended from Columbia after he was accused of using AI to “cheat” on technical job interviews for Amazon, Meta, and TikTok. On Sunday, he announced that he raised $5.3 million to start Cluely, a new startup that aims to allow users to similarly “cheat on everything.”
Cluely went viral when it launched earlier this week thanks to a commercial Lee posted on X. In the video, Lee bumbles his way through a date. A large UI sits between him and his date, feeding him information about the woman’s interests and coaching him on how to talk to her.
In an interview, however, Lee told me that his AI tool is not really cheating.
“Initially it will feel like cheating, but if we win, nobody will think this is cheating,” Lee told me.
Cheating or not, after testing Cluely myself, I’m not sure it will help anyone land a job.
“Everytime you ask me something I just hit command+enter and you can’t really see that I’m using it and you also can’t really see that I’m reading any responses, but Cluely is kind of just sitting here, helping along,” Lee said when I spoke to him on Zoom on Tuesday.
Lee wants people to use Cluely on “Sales calls. Meetings. Negotiations,” the “manifesto” on the software’s website says. “If there’s a faster way to win—we’ll take it. We built Cluely so you never have to think alone again. It sees your screen. Hears your audio. Feeds you answers in real time. While others guess—you’re already right.”
Cluely is out. cheat on everything. pic.twitter.com/EsRXQaCfUI
— Roy (@im_roy_lee) April 20, 2025
Cluely’s viral video racked up more than 10 million views on X. A lot of the reactions were negative.
I guess I just didn't fully grasp how many losers there are in the world. Like I knew there were a lot of losers out there, but the amount of losers that would have to exist to, one, make this product feasible and, two, to make this ad's existence possible is hard to process. https://t.co/RxM8X8wgAW
— Ryan Broderick (@broderick) April 21, 2025
I don’t understand why a guy would commission an expensive commercial about his AI app in which he goes on a date, lies to a girl about his age, pays for her fancy dinner, and then despite all this couldn’t get laid. He willingly chose this script. Can someone please explain? https://t.co/by5PE2Ghcb
— Eli Schiff (@eli_schiff) April 21, 2025
Lee said he expected the critiques that he’d created a dystopian piece of software that would “destroy the human connection and the essence of humanity.”
“I’m pretty comfortable taking that negative PR,” he told me.
Cluely is the latest attempt to bring large language models into the “real world” after products like the Humane Pin and Rabbit R1 were widely hyped but were widely disappointing. It’s also reminiscent of a project that Joseph wrote about out of Harvard, where students put facial recognition software into a pair of Meta smart glasses.
“The second realm of negative feedback is that ‘cheating is inherently unethical and immoral.’ This is where we’re trying to do a lot of reframing around what exactly defines cheating, what cheating really is, and what cheating will look like in a future that is AI native,” he said.
Lee also went viral earlier this year when he used an AI program of his own designed to pass the brutal technical interviews of Amazon, Meta, and TikTok. He claimed he landed gigs at several of the companies but didn’t take any of them. Instead he uploaded a video of himself using the tool to YouTube and used the buzz to launch Interview Coder, a commercial version of the software.
At the time, Lee was a student at Columbia, and someone sent a letter to the university claiming to be a concerned Amazon executive. The letter accused Lee of “cheating” in the interview. Columbia took disciplinary action. Lee dropped out of the University and struck out on his own with another former student Neel Shanmugam.
Interview Coder worked by watching your screen, pinging ChatGPT, and then giving you an answer to the coding problem it saw in an overlay. Cluely is the same thing but the use case is expanded beyond code.
I tried out a test version of Cluely in a mock interview with Emanuel Maiberg. We pretended Emanuel was interviewing me for a position at 404 Media and I used Cluely to shape my answers. Emanuel would hit me with a basic interview question: “What are your strengths? What do you need to work on?” And I’d hit “command+enter” after he spoke.
Then Cluely would answer the question it had just heard Emanuel ask me and put its answers in an overlay at the top of my screen. It would come in two pieces: a bright white script I could read verbatim and a darker piece of text below that explained the AI’s reasoning. Because of the way Cluely is programmed, it doesn’t show up in recordings or even screenshots.
It also wasn’t that impressive. A few questions into the conversation and Emanuel and I realized it was just feeding me ChatGTP answers to the questions as if I’d typed them in a browser. It also took 20 seconds each time to generate, with Emanuel and I staring at each other while we waited. Not the kind of thing that would work in a real world situation.
Lee said that the company’s top priority was removing latency from the system and that it moves much faster if the user turns off screen recording and just has Cluely listen. I asked if his software was just pinging ChatGPT on the backend. “We have a bit of fine tuning that happens and there’s a couple of other models going on, but essentially yes,” he said.
Cluely’s major innovation is user experience. Most of the systems it's using already exist. “The only thing the product really showcased [in the commercial] was ChatGPT in your glasses,” Lee said. “The only reason it was sort of crazy was because it was just a different experience layer. I think it would be foolish to think that there is a future where ChatGPT doesn’t come in your glasses.”
Lee described himself as an AI maximalist. As I transcribed this part of our conversion, I remembered that Lee had Cluely overlaid on his screen, helping him craft his answers as we spoke, meaning some portion of his answers were crafted by AI. “I think the pessimistic case is to think, ‘Okay, now all of humanity is just gone and there’s nothing I can do. I’m just going to be a walking flesh machine for AI to regurgitate AI’s thoughts,” he said. “I don’t think that’s what makes us human at all. In fact, I think the true essence of what makes us human is our taste and our preferences and our sparks of inspiration and thoughts. That’s just supercharged by AI.”
What we have seen from AI so far, though, is that it gives a sheen of sameness to everything. There are some creative people who have found uses for generative AI, but they have often incorporated it into their ideation process and then use their own creativity or taste to create a finished product; Cluely is being developed for time-sensitive, real-world uses where there is unlikely to be much time for refinement.
Both Lee and the marketing copy for Cluely hammer home that technical innovations are often thought of as cheating. Math teachers worried about the advent of calculators. “I would really question whether you think what we’re doing and enabling here is cheating,” he said. “I think, fundamentally, the product is not different from a better version of ChatGPT voice mode.”
I pointed out that his own marketing for Cluely says that the software allows users to “cheat on everything.”
“It’s a viral hook and it’s super tied into my origin story with Interview Coder, right?” Lee said. “We want to make everybody use AI. We are true AI maximalists.”
I asked him to tell me his vision of the future.
“I will never have to remember when the American Revolution was,” Lee said. “I will never have to remember what the capital of Wisconsin is. Every single thing that is rote memorization, that relies on facts that you don’t need in the moment, that are not intrinsically necessary for a human to learn, you won’t need that anymore.”
“Entire school systems will be gone. The entire K-12 education. Everybody sits in a room eight hours a day, takes multiple choice exams. In my future, everything we understand education to be, will be completely gone.” He said that people will explore whatever topics they want from the earliest ages in the “most efficient way possible.”
“History will be on the side of the maximalists,” he said.
According to Lee, 80,000 people have signed up for a free Cluely account. An additional 700 are paying for it.
Wednesday wishes Will S a happy 461st birthday
Apr. 23rd, 2025 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oursinWhat I read
Made a rather slow progression through Li, Wondrous Transformations, and finished it, a little underwhelmed somehow. Some useful information, but a fair amount of familiar territory.
As a break, re-read of KJ Charles' Will Darling Adventures, Slippery Creatures (2020), Subtle Blood (2020) and The Sugared Game (2021), as well as the two short pendant pieces, To Trust Man on His Oath (2021) and How Goes the World (2021).
Then - I seem to be hitting a phase of 're-reading series end to end'? - Martha Wells, All Systems Red (2017), Artificial Conditions (2018), Rogue Protocol (2018) and Exit Strategy 2018), and the short piece Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (2020).
Also read book for review (v good).
Literary Review.
On the go
Martha Wells, Network Effect (2020).
Up next
Predictably, Fugitive Telemetry and System Collapse.
Still waiting for other book for review to turn up, but various things I ordered have turned up, so maybe those.
larryhammer… that money just can’t buy
A few links some of you may appreciate:
Sometimes you just need to watch a video of 24 hopping baby goats. (via)
Incidental Comics gives us a handy guide to Proofreader’s Marks. (via a friend)
First footage of live colossal squid in its native environment.
---L.
Subject quote from Can’t Buy Me Love, The Beatles.
A few links some of you may appreciate:
Sometimes you just need to watch a video of 24 hopping baby goats. (via)
Incidental Comics gives us a handy guide to Proofreader’s Marks. (via a friend)
First footage of live colossal squid in its native environment.
---L.
Subject quote from Can’t Buy Me Love, The Beatles.
'They Sometimes Worry That I’m Dead Already:' Deep-Sea Fishers Fight for Wi-Fi
Apr. 23rd, 2025 01:13 pm404media_feed
Adrian Basar did not want to become a distant-water fisherman. With 22-hour workdays and pay of around 450 dollars per month, it’s not the most glamorous—or fulfilling, or generally safe—job. But Basar took it to help support his seven-sibling family. One of them is currently in university, studying mathematics.
“I support them so they can go to school,” Basar told me, speaking in Indonesian through an interpreter. I met him at a major seafood industry conference last month, where he and another fisherman had come to tell corporate executives about their lives on the ships.
“I took these steps because I figure, if I can support them, they can get a better education than I did,” he said.
Basar is part of a distant-water fleet of Indonesian migrant fishermen who work for Taiwan’s massive fishing market. They fish thousands of pounds of tuna that is sold all over the world, including in some cases to U.S. consumers.
But for 10 months out of the year, when he’s out at sea, Basar can’t talk to his siblings, or anyone in his family, because he’s not allowed to use the Wi-Fi on the ship.
“I think the companies that don’t want to put Wi-Fi on their ships pray for things not to be revealed,” Basar said. “There are many companies that don’t want Wi-Fi.”
A coalition between a self-organized Indonesian fishers’ union, a Taiwanese human rights group and multiple global labor organizations is trying to change that.
The “Wi-Fi Now for Fishers’ Rights” campaign, which has been organizing since 2023, wants to make Wi-Fi access a standard in the industry, both to help improve working conditions through union organizing and to allow the workers to have contact with other human beings for more than two months per year.
A fishing port in Taiwan. Photo credit: Global Labor Justice
“We spend a long time in the ocean,” another fisherman, Silwanus Tangkotta, told me in Indonesian through an interpreter. He recalled one of his voyages that had lasted over a year. “For more than one year, I didn’t have any contact with my family. When I came to shore, I didn’t know that my family member had passed away. My family is very worried. Three or four years, no news—they sometimes worry that I’m dead already. So, Wi-Fi is very important.”
Zacari Edwards, a senior strategist for Global Labor Justice (GLJ), which has taken on the Wi-Fi campaign, said the lack of internet access on ships makes it difficult for any sort of union organizing to take place.
“ We have the unions, but then when they’re out at sea, at their place of work, where the companies need to know what the working conditions are, they’re isolated by design,” Edwards told a group of seafood executives at the Seafood Expo North America conference in March. The Indonesian fishers’ union, Forum Silaturahmi Pelaut Indonesia (FOSPI), first organized 18 years ago.
"We cannot ask for help, we cannot use our phones. But the captain is in charge, and the captain can use it. The only one that has access is the captain.”
“ Workers can’t contact their unions,” Edwards continued. “It just seems a bit nonsensical to me, especially when it is an easy ask, it’s an ask that’s been delivered clearly. I really do doubt the validity of any company’s human rights protections policy when they’re not addressing that ‘black box’ place at work.”
The fishers’ working conditions are often grim. Basar, for example, said he works 22-hour days, often with broken equipment. The ship’s food supply is also usually made to last for three months, which means that the fishermen must eat fish bait for the remaining seven. Without Wi-Fi, Basar said, he can’t communicate with anyone outside of the boat, either about his working conditions or anything else.
“No one can actually oversee what’s going on on the ships,” Basar told me. “We feel very isolated out there. We cannot ask for help, we cannot use our phones. But the captain is in charge, and the captain can use it. The only one that has access is the captain.”
In some cases, the lack of Wi-Fi is a legitimate medical concern. Under international law, all workers aboard a vessel must be given reasonable access to communication, particularly for medical reasons. Basar lost a friend to illness on the ship last year, because he could not contact anyone in the outside world to try to get him medication. Tangkotta lost two fingers to a slamming door in a storm, and couldn’t get access to medical treatment for two months. For the first month, he kept working.
“ It was really terrible and scary because I could see the bones coming out,” Tangkotta said, speaking to the same group of seafood executives. “There was a lot of blood, and I had to take care of it myself with limited resources. I did a surgery by myself using nail clippers and toothpicks, and it took four days. Maybe if I had Wi-Fi, I might have been able to contact someone to help me.”
But technology isn’t the problem. According to GLJ, there’s no difficulty in putting Wi-Fi on boats—around 60 percent of the boats they’re involved with already have it installed.
“It’s not a barrier to get the technology installed,” Edwards said. “But [FOSPI] has reported back that only about two percent of all the vessels their members are on have reported any form of access.”
And according to a GLJ briefing paper, there’s no cost barrier to installing it either. For example, Iridium Communications, one of the major technology companies that provides maritime Wi-Fi, has a total cost of $14,960 for installation and the first year of fees.
“The costs of installing Wi-Fi and the monthly fees…are within an affordable range for the Taiwanese distant water fishing industry,” the briefing states. “The construction fee for a small tuna longline fishing vessel is around $500,000 USD.” The monthly fee costs are also equivalent to the salary of one worker aboard the ship.
“The problem is when access to Wi-Fi on the high seas is not embedded in an agreement,” Edwards said. “You’re always going to lose it when the workers need it most. We see it get switched off. We hear those stories from fishers.”
Global Labor Justice has proposed a set of Wi-Fi guidelines for Taiwanese fisheries to sign on to, in order to have some form of legally enforceable agreement. Those guidelines suggest a minimum of 3GB free per month per worker, with more data purchasable. With a crew of around 15, that would amount to a total of 45GB per month, or 450GB for a full trip. For comparison, an average household in the U.S. uses a minimum of 500GB per month.
The guidelines also include equal access regardless of crew rank and guaranteed data privacy, and stipulate that any data used for health issues should not be deducted from a worker’s data allowance.
As of now, though, those guidelines do not constitute a legally enforceable agreement. To get one, a trade union representing the fishers would have to sign agreements with individual Taiwanese fisheries, or possibly the Taiwanese government.
“ We as fishermen, we do not need empty promises,” Tangkotta said. “We need full protection that is real, starting with the access of Wi-Fi that is free, that is guaranteed on all vessels. If I had the Wi-Fi, I’d be able to reach my family.”
what i'm reading wednesday 23/4/2025
Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:39 amlirazelWhat I finished:
+ More than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI by John Warner, which I LOVED. When I say I recommend this book to everyone, I mean that I am following you around your house or place of employment with the book in my hand trying to push it into yours. That kind of recommendation.
This book just bursts with humanity, which is the highest compliment I can give a book. I love all the different things it's doing, weaving lots of strands together while still being fairly short, incredibly clear, and very readable.
The premise is, "People are saying that AI has killed the English class essay. How should we react to that?"
Warner's answer, "Good riddance to the English class essay!" (He has written an entire book about how terrible the 5-paragraph essay is that I can't wait to read.)
He starts with the question: "What is writing for?" To communicate, obviously, but that's not all. Writing is a way of thinking and feeling, and he talks about how important experience and context is to writing. He's very clear about how what AI does is not writing in the way that humans do and he's pretty forceful about how we need to stop anthropomorphizing a computer program that is incapable of anything like intention. He discusses what AI does and what it doesn't do, asking, "What are the problems it's trying to solve? Which of those problems is it capable of solving? Which can it definitely not solve?"
And he also asks, "Why do we teach writing to students? What do we want them to learn? And are our assignments actually teaching them that?" Warner, a long-time writing teacher and McSweeney's-adjacent dude, hates the way writing is taught and he's very persuasive in convincing you that we're going about it all wrong, teaching to the test, prizing an output over process, when the process is every bit as important as the output. He has lots of ideas about how to teach better that made me want to start teaching a writing class immediately (I should not do that, I would not be good at it, but he's so good at it that it energized me!) and I am convinced that if we followed his guidelines, the world would be a better place.
He also talks about the history of automated teachers and why they don't work and spends several chapters giving us ideas to approach AI with. He's like, "Look, if I try to speak to specific technologies, by the time this book is published, it'll all be obsolete and I'll look silly. So instead I'm going to give us a few lenses through which to look at AI that I think will be helpful as we make choices about how to implement it into society." He is a fierce opponent of the shoulder-shrugging inevitability approach; he wants us--and by us, he means all of us, not just tech bros--to have real and substantive discussions about how we are and aren't going to use this technology.
He's not an absolutist in any way; he thinks that LLM can be useful for some kinds of research and that other, more specific forms of AI could be really useful in contexts like coding and medicine. I agree! It's mostly LLMs that I'm skeptical of. He's very fair to the pro-AI side, steelmanning their arguments in ways that the hype mostly doesn't bother to do. (Most of the people hyping AI are selling it, after all.)
Throughout, he insists on embracing our humanity in all its messiness, and I love him for that. Basically this book is a shout of defiance and joy.
Here's some quotes I can't not share!
et cetera
As I said on GoodReads, this should be required reading for anyone living through the 21st century.
+ I've also started a Narnia reread for the first time since I was a kid. I have now read the first two and I had opposite experiences with them: I remembered almost everything from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and almost nothing from Prince Caspian. This is no doubt the result of a combination of a) having reread one way more than the other as a child and b) one being much more memorable than the other.
There were a few tiny details that I hadn't remembered from TLtWatW, like the fact that Jadis is half-giant, half-jinn or that it's textual that the Turkish Delight is magicked so that anyone who eats it craves more. But everything else was very clear in my mind: the big empty house, the lantern in the woods, Mr. Tumnus, the witch in her sleigh, the conflict over whether Lucy is telling the truth, the Beavers, Father Christmas, the statues, Aslan and the stone table, the mice and the ropes, waking the statues, etc. This book is so chock-full of vivid images and delightful details that truly it's no surprise that it's a classic. Jack, your imagination! Thank you for sharing it with us!
PC, on the other hand, is much less memorable, imo. Truly the only thing I remembered going in was the beginning where the kids go from the railway platform to Cair Paravel and slowly figure out where they are. That is still a very strong sequence! Oh, and Reepicheep! Reepicheep is always memorable! But there aren't nearly as many really good images in this one as in the first one.
That said, there were a few that came back to me as I read: Dr. Cornelius telling Caspian about Narnia up at the top of the tower, the werewolf (it's "I am death" speech is SUPER chilling), everybody dancing through Narnia making the bad people flee and having the good people join. AndBirnam Wood the trees on the move! Tolkien must have loved that bit! I'd forgotten that Lewis did it too!
It seems really important to Lewis that there be frolicking and dancing and music as part of joy, and I love that. Both books include extended scenes where the girls and Aslan and various magical creatures are frolicking. There's also a very fun bit where Lewis describes in great detail the different kinds of dirt that the dryads eat which adds nothing to the story but is so weird and fun that you don't mind. He clearly had a blast writing that sequence.
But still, this book just isn't nearly as compelling as the first one, imo. It's fine! I don't dislike it! But it doesn't fill me with warm fuzzies the way the first book does.
Both of the books are told in a style that is very storyteller and not novelist. The narrative voice is absolutely that of an adult telling a child a bedtime story, which is charming and also absolutely the reason so many people have so many formative memories of being read these books aloud. They lend themselves to that so well!
But of course the down side is that there's very little real characterization. On the whole, this is fine, because that's not the point. But it does make me appreciate writers who can do both even more. There is character conflict (should we believe Lucy? Edmund's whole arc; etc.) but the characters are very loosely sketched. What do I know about Caspian except that he thinks Old Narnia is super cool? Not much! Frankly, the dwarves in book 2 are, besides Reepicheep, the strongest characters.
I actually think the Aslan dying for Edmund bit is not as heavy-handed as it could have been as an allegory. Like, yes, it's very much matches up the Passion story, but the idea of a character dying in another's stead is universal enough that I can see how those who weren't familiar with the New Testament just totally accepted it and didn't find it confusing.
I found the sequence in PC where Lucy is the only one to see Aslan much more heavy-handed in a "you must be willing to follow Jesus even if no one else will go with you" kind of way. There were a few lines that made me say, "Really, Jack? You could have dialed that down a notch." I do super like that Edmund was first to see him after Lucy though!
So yeah, I look forward to seeing how I feel about the coming books. I remember the most of Dawn Treader and am looking forward to Silver Chair more than the others. The only one I'm dreading is Last Battle, for obvious reasons.
What I'm currently reading:
+ Voyage of the Dawn Treader! The painting of the shiiiiiiiip.
+ More than Words: How to Think About Writing in the Age of AI by John Warner, which I LOVED. When I say I recommend this book to everyone, I mean that I am following you around your house or place of employment with the book in my hand trying to push it into yours. That kind of recommendation.
This book just bursts with humanity, which is the highest compliment I can give a book. I love all the different things it's doing, weaving lots of strands together while still being fairly short, incredibly clear, and very readable.
The premise is, "People are saying that AI has killed the English class essay. How should we react to that?"
Warner's answer, "Good riddance to the English class essay!" (He has written an entire book about how terrible the 5-paragraph essay is that I can't wait to read.)
He starts with the question: "What is writing for?" To communicate, obviously, but that's not all. Writing is a way of thinking and feeling, and he talks about how important experience and context is to writing. He's very clear about how what AI does is not writing in the way that humans do and he's pretty forceful about how we need to stop anthropomorphizing a computer program that is incapable of anything like intention. He discusses what AI does and what it doesn't do, asking, "What are the problems it's trying to solve? Which of those problems is it capable of solving? Which can it definitely not solve?"
And he also asks, "Why do we teach writing to students? What do we want them to learn? And are our assignments actually teaching them that?" Warner, a long-time writing teacher and McSweeney's-adjacent dude, hates the way writing is taught and he's very persuasive in convincing you that we're going about it all wrong, teaching to the test, prizing an output over process, when the process is every bit as important as the output. He has lots of ideas about how to teach better that made me want to start teaching a writing class immediately (I should not do that, I would not be good at it, but he's so good at it that it energized me!) and I am convinced that if we followed his guidelines, the world would be a better place.
He also talks about the history of automated teachers and why they don't work and spends several chapters giving us ideas to approach AI with. He's like, "Look, if I try to speak to specific technologies, by the time this book is published, it'll all be obsolete and I'll look silly. So instead I'm going to give us a few lenses through which to look at AI that I think will be helpful as we make choices about how to implement it into society." He is a fierce opponent of the shoulder-shrugging inevitability approach; he wants us--and by us, he means all of us, not just tech bros--to have real and substantive discussions about how we are and aren't going to use this technology.
He's not an absolutist in any way; he thinks that LLM can be useful for some kinds of research and that other, more specific forms of AI could be really useful in contexts like coding and medicine. I agree! It's mostly LLMs that I'm skeptical of. He's very fair to the pro-AI side, steelmanning their arguments in ways that the hype mostly doesn't bother to do. (Most of the people hyping AI are selling it, after all.)
Throughout, he insists on embracing our humanity in all its messiness, and I love him for that. Basically this book is a shout of defiance and joy.
Here's some quotes I can't not share!
"Rather than seeing ChatGPT as a threat that will destroy things of value, we should be viewing it as an opportunity to reconsider exactly what we value and why we value those things. No one was stunned by the interpretive insights of the ChatGPT-produced text because there were none. People were freaking out over B-level (or worse) student work because the bar we've been using to judge student writing is attached to the wrong values."
"The promise of generative AI is to turn text production into a commodity, something anyone can do by accessing the proper tool, with only minimal specialized knowledge of how to use those tools required.. Some believe that this makes generative AI a democratizing force, providing access to producing work of value to those who otherwise couldn't do it. But segregating people by those who are allowed and empowered to engage with a genuine process of writing from those who outsource it AI is hardly democratic. It mistakes product for process.
"It is frankly bizarre to me that many people find the outsourcing of their own humanity to AI attractive. It is asking to promising to automate our most intimate and meaningful experiences, like outsourcing the love you have for your family because going through the hassle of the times your loved ones try your spirit isn't worth the effort. But I wonder if I'm in the minority."
"What ChatGPT and other large language models are doing is not writing and shouldn't be considered such.
"Writing is thinking. Writing involves both the expression and exploration of an idea, meaning that even as we're trying to capture the idea on the page, the idea may change based on our attempts to capture it. Removing thinking from writing renders an act not writing.
"Writing is also feeling, a way for us to be invested and involved not only in our own lives but the lives of others and the world around us.
"Reading and writing are inextricable, and outsourcing our reading to AI is essentially a choice to give up on being human.
If ChaptGPT can produce an acceptable example of something, that thing is not worth doing by humans and quite probably isn't worth doing at all.
"Deep down, I believe that ChatGPT by itself cannot kill anything worth preserving. My concern is that out of convenience, or expedience, or through carelessness, we may allow these meaningful things to be lost or reduced to the province of a select few rather than being accessible to all."
"The economic style of reasoning crowds out other considerations--namely, moral ones. It privileges the speed and efficiency with which an output is produced over the process that led to that output. But for we humans, process matters. Our lives are experienced in a world of process, not outputs."
et cetera
As I said on GoodReads, this should be required reading for anyone living through the 21st century.
+ I've also started a Narnia reread for the first time since I was a kid. I have now read the first two and I had opposite experiences with them: I remembered almost everything from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and almost nothing from Prince Caspian. This is no doubt the result of a combination of a) having reread one way more than the other as a child and b) one being much more memorable than the other.
There were a few tiny details that I hadn't remembered from TLtWatW, like the fact that Jadis is half-giant, half-jinn or that it's textual that the Turkish Delight is magicked so that anyone who eats it craves more. But everything else was very clear in my mind: the big empty house, the lantern in the woods, Mr. Tumnus, the witch in her sleigh, the conflict over whether Lucy is telling the truth, the Beavers, Father Christmas, the statues, Aslan and the stone table, the mice and the ropes, waking the statues, etc. This book is so chock-full of vivid images and delightful details that truly it's no surprise that it's a classic. Jack, your imagination! Thank you for sharing it with us!
PC, on the other hand, is much less memorable, imo. Truly the only thing I remembered going in was the beginning where the kids go from the railway platform to Cair Paravel and slowly figure out where they are. That is still a very strong sequence! Oh, and Reepicheep! Reepicheep is always memorable! But there aren't nearly as many really good images in this one as in the first one.
That said, there were a few that came back to me as I read: Dr. Cornelius telling Caspian about Narnia up at the top of the tower, the werewolf (it's "I am death" speech is SUPER chilling), everybody dancing through Narnia making the bad people flee and having the good people join. And
It seems really important to Lewis that there be frolicking and dancing and music as part of joy, and I love that. Both books include extended scenes where the girls and Aslan and various magical creatures are frolicking. There's also a very fun bit where Lewis describes in great detail the different kinds of dirt that the dryads eat which adds nothing to the story but is so weird and fun that you don't mind. He clearly had a blast writing that sequence.
But still, this book just isn't nearly as compelling as the first one, imo. It's fine! I don't dislike it! But it doesn't fill me with warm fuzzies the way the first book does.
Both of the books are told in a style that is very storyteller and not novelist. The narrative voice is absolutely that of an adult telling a child a bedtime story, which is charming and also absolutely the reason so many people have so many formative memories of being read these books aloud. They lend themselves to that so well!
But of course the down side is that there's very little real characterization. On the whole, this is fine, because that's not the point. But it does make me appreciate writers who can do both even more. There is character conflict (should we believe Lucy? Edmund's whole arc; etc.) but the characters are very loosely sketched. What do I know about Caspian except that he thinks Old Narnia is super cool? Not much! Frankly, the dwarves in book 2 are, besides Reepicheep, the strongest characters.
I actually think the Aslan dying for Edmund bit is not as heavy-handed as it could have been as an allegory. Like, yes, it's very much matches up the Passion story, but the idea of a character dying in another's stead is universal enough that I can see how those who weren't familiar with the New Testament just totally accepted it and didn't find it confusing.
I found the sequence in PC where Lucy is the only one to see Aslan much more heavy-handed in a "you must be willing to follow Jesus even if no one else will go with you" kind of way. There were a few lines that made me say, "Really, Jack? You could have dialed that down a notch." I do super like that Edmund was first to see him after Lucy though!
So yeah, I look forward to seeing how I feel about the coming books. I remember the most of Dawn Treader and am looking forward to Silver Chair more than the others. The only one I'm dreading is Last Battle, for obvious reasons.
What I'm currently reading:
+ Voyage of the Dawn Treader! The painting of the shiiiiiiiip.
Podcast: Cops Are Using AI Bots to Surveil People
Apr. 23rd, 2025 01:00 pm404media_feed
We start this week with Emanuel and Jason's big story on Massive Blue, a company that is selling AI-powered undercover bots posing as protesters and children to the cops. After the break, Sam tells us about visiting the millennial saint. In the subscribers-only section, we talk business and the state of 404 Media.
Listen to the weekly podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism. If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player.
- Leaked: Palantir’s Plan to Help ICE Deport People
- ICE Plans Central Database of Health, Labor, Housing Agency Data to Find Targets
- This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops
- I Went to See ‘God’s Influencer,’ the Millennial Saint Carlo Acutis
- How 404 Media Is Navigating 'Economic Headwinds'
tea!
Apr. 23rd, 2025 09:02 amjazzfishWhen I'm traveling I bring a travel electric kettle, because I hate when my tea tastes like hotel coffee. I don't bring loose tea and a teaball, or even disposable teabags, because that's too much mess/hassle for a temporary space.
Instead I drink bag tea. Usually Stash Double Bergamot Earl Grey, though this time it's Bigelow Constant Comment because I haven't had that in at least a decade.
Today I realised: I drink flavoured tea when I'm traveling because the questionable flavouring masks the sense that the tea itself just isn't that good.
Better than No Tea, though.
Instead I drink bag tea. Usually Stash Double Bergamot Earl Grey, though this time it's Bigelow Constant Comment because I haven't had that in at least a decade.
Today I realised: I drink flavoured tea when I'm traveling because the questionable flavouring masks the sense that the tea itself just isn't that good.
Better than No Tea, though.
>INVENTORY
You are carrying:
No tea
>TAKE TEA
No tea: dropped.
--Adams/Meretzky, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The OTW is Recruiting for Open Doors Import Assistants and Fanlore Policy & Admin Volunteers
Apr. 23rd, 2025 12:17 pmotw_news_feedAre you interested in the rescue and preservation of fanworks? Are you a good wiki editor? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!
We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:
- Open Doors Import Assistant – closing 30 April 2025 at 23:59 UTC [or after 35 applications]
- Fanlore Policy & Admin Volunteer – closing 30 April 2025 at 23:59 UTC [or after 40 applications]
We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don’t see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.
All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.
If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.
Open Doors Import Assistant
Do you enjoy spreadsheets, self-paced projects, and helping protect fanworks from getting lost over time? Are you interested in the rescue and preservation of fanworks? Do you still guiltily—or not so guiltily—love the first fanwork that opened your eyes to fandom?
Open Doors is a committee dedicated to preserving fanworks in their many formats, and we’re looking for volunteers to support this goal. The work we do preserves fan history, love, and dedication to fandom: we keep fanworks from offline and at-risk archives from being lost, divert fanzines from the trash, and more.
Our import assistants contribute to our goal by:
- Importing works to AO3 from rescued digital archives and fanzines
- Searching AO3 for existing copies of works that creators have already uploaded themselves (to prevent us from importing duplicate versions when we import an archive)
- Compiling and correcting spreadsheets of works from an archive to be imported and/or tags to use on those works
- Copyediting/proofreading works from fanzines that have been scanned from PDFs (to ensure that the scanned works were transcribed properly by the software we used)
The training is self-directed, and so is the work for the most part, though we also have weekly working meetings/parties for people to all chip in and work on tasks together! Import assistants can generally alternate the types of tasks they work on. At any one time, we usually have several tasks of different types available.
To apply for this role, you must be at least 18 years old and legally of age to open explicit fanworks in your local jurisdiction.
If you’re interested, click on through for a longer description of what we’re looking for and the time commitment. For your application to be considered, you will be required to complete a short task within 3 days of submitting your application.
Applications are due 30 April 2025 [or after 35 applications]
Apply for Open Doors Import Assistant at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Fanlore Policy & Admin Volunteer
Do you have an interest in preserving fannish history? Do you have an interest in wiki editing, or writing help documentation? Fanlore is recruiting for Policy & Admin volunteers!
Fanlore’s Policy & Admin volunteers are responsible for dealing with all the behind the scenes stuff to ensure that Fanlore runs smoothly. We respond to questions and complaints; shape Fanlore’s policies, tutorials, and guidelines; and assist Fanlore gardeners and other editors. No extensive experience is required—just a strong interest in documenting and preserving fandom, good communication skills, and a willingness to work with a team and further Fanlore’s mission. Join us!
Applications are due 30 April 2025 [or after 40 applications]
Apply for Fanlore Policy & Admin at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Insomniacs After School, volume 9 by Makoto Ojiro
Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:54 amjames_davis_nicoll
In which the weather does not conspire against Ganta and Isaki, although other things do.
Insomniacs After School, volume 9 by Makoto Ojiro
DINOSAUR COMICS COMES OUT AS DEEPLY AMBIVALENT ON THE SUBJECT OF "TASKS"
Apr. 23rd, 2025 12:00 amdinosaur_comics_feed| archive - contact - sexy exciting merchandise - search - about |
| ← previous | April 23rd, 2025 | next |
April 23rd, 2025: Hey, did you know I wrote a choose-your-own-path STAR TREK: LOWER DECKS book last year? Well GOOD NEWS EITHER WAY, it's a finalist for both a Hugo and an Aurora award! That is extremely awesome and I'm very happy. If you've ever wanted to read an interactive AWARD-NOMINATED Star Trek comic, might I recommend WARP YOUR OWN WAY?? – Ryan | ||
Childcare Options You Can Afford with the Child Tax Credit
Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:00 ammcsweeneys_feed1. Grandparents who are alive, healthy, live nearby, and agile enough to get down onto the floor to clean up meals and snacks but not too agile that they would rather be out walking their shih tzus, biking across the Dutch countryside, or doing literally anything else with their time.
2. A parent who can exclusively work from home and their company will happily pay them to jiggle their mouse every hour, leaving plenty of time for the toddler’s requests for the parent to sing twenty-eight rounds of “Down by the Bay.”
3. A Swedish au pair named Maja. Her family is independently wealthy, and she’s just doing this “job” so she’ll have something for her college applications. All she asks is to stay in the guesthouse (that you definitely have) and be paid in Mint Oreos.
4. A community college student named Maya, whom you have scammed into coming to your house every day to be your unpaid intern. She mistakenly believes she will receive credit for a class entitled: “Early Childhood Development and Perpetually Sucking Mucus Through a Straw.”
5. A beautiful bisexual named Mia, whom you and your partner are pursuing on Bumble. Mia adores children, is CPR certified, has tons of experience babysitting her nieces and nephews, doesn’t need to be paid, because she was an early investor in crypto, and is over the moon about the idea of being in a throuple. If only Mia existed.
6. A woman who is mostly a stay-at-home mom, except she works at a seasonal Christmas store two weeks out of the year, so the child tax credit covers exactly what daycare costs for that merry and bright fortnight.
7. A mom who wanted to go back to school to become a dermatologist, but given the cost of childcare, the only thing that makes sense is to stay at home and promote a mid-level marketing skin care scheme on Facebook.
8. A man who is a stay-at-home dad, except when the tax return arrives, he takes the entire amount of the child tax credit, claims it as his pay for a job valiantly done, and then blows it all at the blackjack tables on a weekend guys’ trip to Reno.
9. A McDonald’s that has one of those ball-pit play spaces you can deposit your kid into on your way to work. You must be okay with many people being around your kid (while no one specific person watches out for her safety). Think of this as the McVillage approach to childcare. Includes a steady diet of floor McNuggets.
10. A toddler who is brought to the mom’s office and expected to stay under the desk like grandma’s shih tzu. The kid invariably roams free and clogs the toilet with a toy train. When the mom’s boss tells her this can not continue, the mom delivers a tearful Oscar-worthy speech about how the toddler is her emotional support animal. The boss then gives a standing ovation and says, “Of course your child can stay.”
11. A toddler who is an eighteen-month-old Matilda-level genius; fully capable of getting herself all her own meals and snacks, reading to herself, and changing her own diapers. In return, she asks that you deposit fifty dollars per month into her 529 college account, which she set up herself. Also, she does your taxes by telekinesis.
12. Mary Poppins, who accepts payment in the form of Lucky Charms, applause for her songs, and a smartphone so she can go on Hinge dates with local chimney sweeps.
13. Mary Poppins, on Amazon Prime.
14. Larry, grandpa’s shih tzu. Larry is just like Lassie, if Lassie didn’t understand the command “Get help!” and got distracted by discarded Popeye’s containers. Larry’s vet bill for getting his stomach pumped after he eats a bag of diapers actually comes out to the exact amount of the child tax credit.
15. A baby-proofed home, two nanny cams, and Larry’s doggie bowl filled with Cheddar Bunnies.
It's no better to be safe than sorry
Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:18 amrolanniWhat went before ONE: I've shifted some furniture, and I think we're good for tomorrow. There's plenty of room to get the old machines OUT, and the new machines are smaller, ergo.
My one -- well, two -- remaining worries are (1) timing (no phone call from Home Despot yet) and (2) where am I going to put the cats while this is going on? Rookie has an Unhealthy Interest in the front door, so I don't quite trust them all to just run downstairs like sensible cats...
I guess I could try to toss them into my bathroom, though catching Tali isn't by any means easy...
What went before TWO: In case anybody cares, kinematic equations are those equations that can be used to predict unknown information regarding an object's motion. If you know three of four variables, then the fourth can be calculated.
The four variables are: displacement, time, acceleration, velocity.
My head now hurts, but the worst part is that I'm pretty sure I don't have enough of a grasp to actually use this information for what I thought I wanted to use it for.
When they tell writers to "Write what you know"? What that means is that you'll spend a lot of time reading about Z until you know (enough about) Z to write about it.
What went before THREE: Tomorrow! I can look for the delivery of my washer and dryer between the hours of 7:30 and 11:30!
Sigh.
In other news, the lawn guy -- that is to say, One. Single. Guy. with a blower on his back, has been doing Spring Cleanup at my place since 1:00. I'm getting a *little* tired of the noise, though honestly it was perfect for doing ASL. I can't imagine where the lawn guy's head is. He is wearing earphones, but The Long Back Yard really IS long, and four hours is a LONG time to vacuum leaves.
Well. I have Imposed Structure on the WIP. I was going to read through it to make sure it made sense this way, but, um. Maybe tomorrow. While I'm getting up early and waiting for the delivery guys. And, hey. An "early" delivery means I can start in washing clothes before moonrise.
For lunch, I made some kind of bean stew that turned out really well, which is good, because I have a lot left over.
EDITED TO ADD: And help has arrived for my Lone Lawn Guy in the shape of another guy and a truck with a serious vacuum, which is sucking up the Big Pile of Leaves in the driveway.
Wednesday. Sun coming up bright and ambitious.
The Wait for the Washer hasn't quite started, but I thought, just in case I happen to be first on the list, that I should be awake. So! Kettle's on for tea, and Classic Rewind is on for music.
As soon as I have my tea, I'm hitting the comfy chair -- no better not. Better find something to eat. Anyway, first thing up, after caffeine and breakfast is a review of the WIP in its adjusted shape.
I've unplugged the resident washer and dryer, but the delivery crew better -- ah, "Werewolves of London" on the radio -- have a wrench, 'cause there's No Way I'm getting the hoses off of the washer.
That's all I've got this early.
Here -- have a picture of the Long Back Yard.
...I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's and his hair was perfect...
EDITED TO ADD: This Just In! Delivery now scheduled between 9:30 and 1:30. So clearly, I'm not the first on the list. Also? Plot Twist! I need to have an adult present to sign. I wonder if the next door neighbor's home.
Today's blog post brought to you by Ah-Ha, "Take On Me" (I have always loved this video, but then, I tend to like stories about people Becoming...)
Wednesday Reading Meme
Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:13 amosprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Agnes Hewes’ The Codfish Musket, third and last in her trio of boring 1930s Newbery Honor winners. I can only imagine that the committee felt that the “Rah rah MANIFEST DESTINY” message was good for the Youth, because my God these books are dull. How can books be so dull when there are so many deadly conspiracies?
But maybe it’s because Hewes is actually not great at deadly conspiracies. The best part of this book by far is the non-deadly middle, when our hero Dan Boit goes to Washington and accidentally becomes Thomas Jefferson’s secretary after he finds Jefferson’s lost notebook full of observations about when the first peas come up and the frogs start peeping.
In modern-day Newbery Honor winners, I finished Chanel Miller’s Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All, a short and charming tale in which Magnolia and her new friend Iris try to return orphaned socks from Magnolia’s parents’ laundry to their owners. In the process, they explore New York City and learn more about the denizens of their neighborhood.
I also read Susan Fletcher’s Journey of the Pale Bear, about a Norwegian boy accompanying a captured polar bear to England as a present for the king. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Fletcher wrote a related picture book, but that focuses more on the bear’s experiences, while this is more about the boy and the boy-meets-bear of it all. Who among us has not wished for a bear friend!
What I’m Reading Now
In Our Mutual Friend, Lizzie Hexam’s father has DIED. This may be a lucky escape for him, as he was about to be arrested on suspicion of murder (at the word of his wicked lying former business partner), but I’m very concerned what will become of poor Lizzie.
My suspicion that Mr. Rokesmith is in fact the dead John Harmon has only grown stronger as he has insinuated himself in the Boffin household as an unpaid secretary. What is his ultimate goal here? A more suspicious soul than Mr. Boffin might wonder who on earth would offer himself up as a secretary without pay, and consider the possibility of embezzlement, but blessed Mr. Boffin is not concerned a bit.
What I Plan to Read Next
Onward in the Newbery books! I am ten books from the end of the historical Newberies, and I intend to finish the project while Interlibrary Loan is still alive.
Agnes Hewes’ The Codfish Musket, third and last in her trio of boring 1930s Newbery Honor winners. I can only imagine that the committee felt that the “Rah rah MANIFEST DESTINY” message was good for the Youth, because my God these books are dull. How can books be so dull when there are so many deadly conspiracies?
But maybe it’s because Hewes is actually not great at deadly conspiracies. The best part of this book by far is the non-deadly middle, when our hero Dan Boit goes to Washington and accidentally becomes Thomas Jefferson’s secretary after he finds Jefferson’s lost notebook full of observations about when the first peas come up and the frogs start peeping.
In modern-day Newbery Honor winners, I finished Chanel Miller’s Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All, a short and charming tale in which Magnolia and her new friend Iris try to return orphaned socks from Magnolia’s parents’ laundry to their owners. In the process, they explore New York City and learn more about the denizens of their neighborhood.
I also read Susan Fletcher’s Journey of the Pale Bear, about a Norwegian boy accompanying a captured polar bear to England as a present for the king. If this sounds familiar, it’s because Fletcher wrote a related picture book, but that focuses more on the bear’s experiences, while this is more about the boy and the boy-meets-bear of it all. Who among us has not wished for a bear friend!
What I’m Reading Now
In Our Mutual Friend, Lizzie Hexam’s father has DIED. This may be a lucky escape for him, as he was about to be arrested on suspicion of murder (at the word of his wicked lying former business partner), but I’m very concerned what will become of poor Lizzie.
My suspicion that Mr. Rokesmith is in fact the dead John Harmon has only grown stronger as he has insinuated himself in the Boffin household as an unpaid secretary. What is his ultimate goal here? A more suspicious soul than Mr. Boffin might wonder who on earth would offer himself up as a secretary without pay, and consider the possibility of embezzlement, but blessed Mr. Boffin is not concerned a bit.
What I Plan to Read Next
Onward in the Newbery books! I am ten books from the end of the historical Newberies, and I intend to finish the project while Interlibrary Loan is still alive.
workaday Wednesday
Apr. 23rd, 2025 07:50 ammarcicatSince I took an extra-extra-long weekend, this will be my first day at work this week. ::laughs nervously:: I'm sure everything will be fine!
Due to various reasons (okay, one reason, which was that I felt sick and thought coffee might make it worse), I haven't had coffee since Sunday. I miss it! Really hoping today's the day.
(PS: That heating pad from Christmas is REALLY coming in clutch this week.)
Due to various reasons (okay, one reason, which was that I felt sick and thought coffee might make it worse), I haven't had coffee since Sunday. I miss it! Really hoping today's the day.
(PS: That heating pad from Christmas is REALLY coming in clutch this week.)
Reading Wednesday
Apr. 23rd, 2025 07:03 amsabotabby Just finished: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad. I don't know what else to say about this scathing, perfect little book beyond that I wish I could make everyone in so-called Western civilization sit down in a chair with their eyes forced open, Clockwork Orange-style, until they'd read it. Until they make this atrocity fucking stop. It's one impassioned cry in the midst of genocide but it's a very powerful cry.
The Dragonfly Gambit, A.D. Sui. I have mixed feelings about this novella, which is a military sci-fi about a pilot, sidelined after a career-ending injury, who plots an elaborate revenge against the empire that blew up her planet. I first encountered the author at the same event where I first encountered Suzan Palumbo, and this could be a paired reading with her book Countess, only I read Countess first and preferred it. Which is not to say that this book isn't good, because it really is, but it's a bit inevitable to compare two anti-colonialist lesbian revenge fantasy space operas that end in tragedy that came out the same year, y'know?
My main criticism is that it suffers from the same issue that a lot of space opera suffers from, which is that there's a big universe and a limited cast of characters, doing all the things. The genre wants scrappy underdogs with interpersonal drama, but it also wants its protagonists in positions of power, which you can do in longer-form work but is challenging in a first-person novella. The Third Daughter is very hands-on, and it's implied that Mother is as well, but at least the former is ludicrously incompetent for someone running a massive empire. Which is to say that if you've blown up someone's planet, you probably shouldn't promote three young people, all of whom are childhood friends, from that planet into critical military positions. Especially if you're going to fuck at least two of them.
That said, I like the romance in this one more, if you can call it a romance; it's wonderfully toxic. And the ending is a gutpunch.
Currently reading: Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. This continues to be excellent. One thing that I think is really cool about it, among the many things that are cool about it, is that she's decided to capitalize the word Black in all instances, not just where it applies to humans. Which has the intended effect of anthropomorphizing the creatures she writes about in a way that identifies them as the racialized Other, and thus part of the struggle for liberation. Look, this is poetry about marine biology, I'm going to basically love everything about it.
Lost Arc Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa. I just started this one last night but we have a future Lagos that is mostly underwater, save for five skyscrapers. Which is a cool enough concept that I'll overlook that the book starts with both a dream sequence and the main character dressing for work. I'm into the worldbuilding so far.
The Dragonfly Gambit, A.D. Sui. I have mixed feelings about this novella, which is a military sci-fi about a pilot, sidelined after a career-ending injury, who plots an elaborate revenge against the empire that blew up her planet. I first encountered the author at the same event where I first encountered Suzan Palumbo, and this could be a paired reading with her book Countess, only I read Countess first and preferred it. Which is not to say that this book isn't good, because it really is, but it's a bit inevitable to compare two anti-colonialist lesbian revenge fantasy space operas that end in tragedy that came out the same year, y'know?
My main criticism is that it suffers from the same issue that a lot of space opera suffers from, which is that there's a big universe and a limited cast of characters, doing all the things. The genre wants scrappy underdogs with interpersonal drama, but it also wants its protagonists in positions of power, which you can do in longer-form work but is challenging in a first-person novella. The Third Daughter is very hands-on, and it's implied that Mother is as well, but at least the former is ludicrously incompetent for someone running a massive empire. Which is to say that if you've blown up someone's planet, you probably shouldn't promote three young people, all of whom are childhood friends, from that planet into critical military positions. Especially if you're going to fuck at least two of them.
That said, I like the romance in this one more, if you can call it a romance; it's wonderfully toxic. And the ending is a gutpunch.
Currently reading: Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs. This continues to be excellent. One thing that I think is really cool about it, among the many things that are cool about it, is that she's decided to capitalize the word Black in all instances, not just where it applies to humans. Which has the intended effect of anthropomorphizing the creatures she writes about in a way that identifies them as the racialized Other, and thus part of the struggle for liberation. Look, this is poetry about marine biology, I'm going to basically love everything about it.
Lost Arc Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa. I just started this one last night but we have a future Lagos that is mostly underwater, save for five skyscrapers. Which is a cool enough concept that I'll overlook that the book starts with both a dream sequence and the main character dressing for work. I'm into the worldbuilding so far.
Aurora Australis readalong 1 / 10, The Ascent of Mount Erebus
Apr. 23rd, 2025 12:27 pmspiralsheepAurora Australis readalong 1 / 10, The Ascent of Mount Erebus, post for comment, reaction, discussion, fanworks, links, and whatever obliquely related matters your heart desires. You can join the readalong at any time or skip sections or go back to earlier posts. It's all good. :-)
Text: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/The_Ascent_of_Mount_Erubus
Readalong intro: https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/662515.html
Reminder for next week: Midwinter Night, a short poem by Ernest Shackleton:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/Midwinter_Night
The Ascent of Mount Erebus, written by Tannatt William Edgeworth David, who also wrote the later published Narrative of the Magnetic Pole Journey about the same Nimrod Expedition's successful first visit to the magnetic South Pole (which was also the world's longest unsupported sled journey until the mid-1980s).
This is a ripping yarn of exploration and adventure with detailed descriptions of mountain walking through snow and ice, much specialised vocabulary about frozen landscapes and volcanic geology, and outbreaks of self-deprecating humour. Very much in the tradition of travel writing about extreme exploration (later perfected by Shipton and Tilman).
( Info and links )
( Quotes )
Hurrah! Champagne all round! :D
Text: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/The_Ascent_of_Mount_Erubus
Readalong intro: https://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/662515.html
Reminder for next week: Midwinter Night, a short poem by Ernest Shackleton:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Aurora_Australis/Midwinter_Night
The Ascent of Mount Erebus, written by Tannatt William Edgeworth David, who also wrote the later published Narrative of the Magnetic Pole Journey about the same Nimrod Expedition's successful first visit to the magnetic South Pole (which was also the world's longest unsupported sled journey until the mid-1980s).
This is a ripping yarn of exploration and adventure with detailed descriptions of mountain walking through snow and ice, much specialised vocabulary about frozen landscapes and volcanic geology, and outbreaks of self-deprecating humour. Very much in the tradition of travel writing about extreme exploration (later perfected by Shipton and Tilman).
( Info and links )
( Quotes )
Hurrah! Champagne all round! :D
Wednesday Reading Meme & Books 15, 16 & 17 of 2025
Apr. 23rd, 2025 07:26 amspikedluvWhat I Just Finished Reading: Since last Wednesday I have read/finished reading: Mourn Not Your Dead (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie, Gin and Daggers (A Murder, She Wrote Mystery) by Donald Bain, and Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes and Tea Series) by Rebecca Thorne.
What I am Currently Reading: Dreaming of the Bones (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie (with The Nightmare Before Kissmas (A Royals and Romance Novel) by Sara Raasch on the back burner).
What I Plan to Read Next: I have another book out from the library.
Book 15 of 2025: Mourn Not Your Dead (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) (Deborah Crombie)
I enjoyed this book. The case was interesting. ( spoilers )
I have the next book in the series out from the library already, so I'm going to continue reading it for now; I liked this book enough to give it five hearts.
♥♥♥♥♥
Book 16 of 2025: Gin and Daggers (A Murder, She Wrote Mystery) (Donald Bain)
Wow, was this bad. I recall reading a later book in the series for a book bingo square and I didn't remember it being this bad, so hopefully he improves quickly. There were a lot of inconsistencies with the tv series and he really doesn't have a feel for the characters. Yet. (I talked specifics at this week's Monday [Fandom] Madness post, if you're interested in reading more.)
If I weren't reading this series for the sole purpose of seeing what details he adds to Jessica's life, I'd probably quit now. (I read a blog post that mentioned Jessica and Frank living someplace else before they moved to Cabot Cove, which made me curious if it came from the books and what else might be in them.) I'm only giving this book two hearts.
♥♥
Book 17 of 2025: Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes and Tea Series) (Rebecca Thorne)
I really enjoyed this book!( spoilers )
I'm looking forward to reading the next book (when the two libraries that have it take it off the ‘new and popular' list); I'm giving this book five hearts.
♥♥♥♥♥
What I am Currently Reading: Dreaming of the Bones (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) by Deborah Crombie (with The Nightmare Before Kissmas (A Royals and Romance Novel) by Sara Raasch on the back burner).
What I Plan to Read Next: I have another book out from the library.
Book 15 of 2025: Mourn Not Your Dead (A Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Mystery) (Deborah Crombie)
I enjoyed this book. The case was interesting. ( spoilers )
I have the next book in the series out from the library already, so I'm going to continue reading it for now; I liked this book enough to give it five hearts.
♥♥♥♥♥
Book 16 of 2025: Gin and Daggers (A Murder, She Wrote Mystery) (Donald Bain)
Wow, was this bad. I recall reading a later book in the series for a book bingo square and I didn't remember it being this bad, so hopefully he improves quickly. There were a lot of inconsistencies with the tv series and he really doesn't have a feel for the characters. Yet. (I talked specifics at this week's Monday [Fandom] Madness post, if you're interested in reading more.)
If I weren't reading this series for the sole purpose of seeing what details he adds to Jessica's life, I'd probably quit now. (I read a blog post that mentioned Jessica and Frank living someplace else before they moved to Cabot Cove, which made me curious if it came from the books and what else might be in them.) I'm only giving this book two hearts.
♥♥
Book 17 of 2025: Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes and Tea Series) (Rebecca Thorne)
I really enjoyed this book!( spoilers )
I'm looking forward to reading the next book (when the two libraries that have it take it off the ‘new and popular' list); I'm giving this book five hearts.
♥♥♥♥♥
Mystery Challenge: Babylon 5: Missing
Apr. 23rd, 2025 12:14 pmbadly_knitted posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fan_flashworksTitle: Missing
Fandom: Babylon 5
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Garibaldi.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 300
Spoilers/Setting: Grey 17 is Missing.
Summary: Garibaldi usually loves mysteries, but he could have done without this one.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 477: Amnesty 79, using Challenge 475: Mystery.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Babylon 5, or the characters. They belong to J. Michael Straczynski.
A/N: Triple drabble.
( Missing... )
Interesting Links for 23-04-2025
Apr. 23rd, 2025 12:00 pmandrewducker- 1. I just donated towards the Good Law Project's trans rights fund. I urge you to do likewise.
- (tags:law CrowdFunding uk transgender rights )
- 2. Bigots who hate one group increasingly hate all of them. (bigotry now correlated 70% with conservatism)
- (tags:bigotry society USA psychology )
- 3. Gow long does it take to create a new habit?
- (tags:habits psychology )
- 4. The complex origin story of domestic cats: Research points to Tunisia
- (tags:cats prehistory archeology )
- 5. Edinburgh's second home council tax charge raises £2.7m
- (tags:housing tax edinburgh )
- 6. The Gruen Transfer is consuming the internet
- (tags:ux socialmedia )
Tags:
- archeology,
- bigotry,
- cats,
- crowdfunding,
- edinburgh,
- habits,
- housing,
- law,
- links,
- prehistory,
- psychology,
- rights,
- socialmedia,
- society,
- tax,
- transgender,
- uk,
- usa,
- ux
Days of Darkness, Streets Like Wine (Angel)
Apr. 23rd, 2025 05:42 ampolyrecsdaily_feedDays of Darkness, Streets Like Wine (Angel):
Days of Darkness, Streets Like Wine by James Walkswithwind. Shrift: This story is PG, but it’s damned good — more Suffering!Wes, but I like that. Good Wes POV.
Kenya’s solution to teacher shortage: Embrace AI
Apr. 23rd, 2025 10:00 amrest_of_world_rss_feedSylvia Osewe, an elementary school teacher in the Nairobi area, loves seeing her students learn and grow. But at one time early in her career, she nearly quit. “I had...
Chinese sellers and U.S. buyers prepare for the end of ultracheap shopping
Apr. 23rd, 2025 10:00 amrest_of_world_rss_feedPhillip Dampier, in Rochester, New York, spends up to eight hours a day on Chinese shopping sites, and has already shelled out about $3,500 on electronics and home goods. He...
Just One Thing (23 April 2025)
Apr. 23rd, 2025 12:22 pmnanila posting in awesomeersIt's challenge time!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Comment with Just One Thing you've accomplished in the last 24 hours or so. It doesn't have to be a hard thing, or even a thing that you think is particularly awesome. Just a thing that you did.
Feel free to share more than one thing if you're feeling particularly accomplished! Extra credit: find someone in the comments and give them props for what they achieved!
Nothing is too big, too small, too strange or too cryptic. And in case you'd rather do this in private, anonymous comments are screened. I will only unscreen if you ask me to.
Go!
Onyx Storm: Chapter 45
Apr. 23rd, 2025 04:05 ampenwallaViolet is having the dream about the venin sage that she's been having for like. 2 whole books. Which she insists is just a dream. Even though we figured out it wasn't the first time it happened. Instead of using her supposedly good brain to figure that out, Violet unwraps last chapter's mysterious package.
( pausing the plot for...lingerie )
( pausing the plot for...lingerie )
Adam & Eve: Summer Lovin’
Apr. 23rd, 2025 08:00 amsmartbitches_feedThis post is being sponsored by AdamandEve.com and they’ve offered us a coupon code for the Bitchery!
Here is the most important information:
AdamandEve.com is offering Smart Bitches readers 50% off a single item plus free standard shipping in the US and Canada with code SMART. Please note: certain exclusions apply, but the coupon covers most of the store.
If you’d like to see some of the toys we’ve featured in previous posts, check out our Adam & Eve tag!
I’ve titled this post “Summer Lovin'” as a reminder to, if you can, slow down and take some time for yourself (and/or your partner) during the lazy season. Also, yes…I hope the song is stuck in your head.
This post is extremely NSFW! You have been warned!
…
Loveline: The Traveler – $64.99 $32.50 – 50% off with SMART coupon!
This is a sleek and discreet travel vibrator with ten different vibration modes. It also contains a hidden compartment, if you wanted to fill it with lube or toy cleaner without worrying about the 3oz liquids limit. Very clever!
…
Eve’s Triple Pleasure Gift Set – $89.99 $45.00 – 50% off with SMART coupon!
I personally think this is a fantastic deal! Three toys for under $50?! I also find them to be super cute, if aesthetics matter to you in terms of toy choices. The set contains three separate bullet vibrators with different tips for a variety of sensation. I myself am a bullet evangelist and I’m tempted to grab these for myself.
…
Dolce Thumping G-Spot Vibrator – $99.99 $50.00 – 50% off with SMART coupon!
I’m really digging the design and color palette of this one. This vibe has two distinct sensations. One is vibration and the other is a thumping mode; both have ten different patterns each. Please note that this is only compatible with water-based lubricants.
…
Maia Shroomie Mini Wand Massager – $59.99 $30.00 – 50% with SMART Coupon
For all you readers who love a bit of whimsy, check out this mushroom-inspired vibrator! This one boasts 15 stimulation modes and is rechargeable. I honestly hate messing around with batteries, as inevitably things will die mid-use/ Nothing kills the mood quite like hunting for AAAs in your junk drawer or figuring out which remote to steal them from.
…
Slay Amaze Me Mini Rabbit Vibrator – $39.99 $20.00 – 50% off with SMART coupon!
Honestly, I could do a whole post on cute toys that look like other things. (Should I?) This rechargeable vibrator can run up to 90 minutes on a single charge, which is hella impressive. Plus, it’s waterproof and comes with a variety of vibration settings.
…
Thank you to Adam and Eve for the coupon, and for sponsoring this post!
Don’t forget – AdamandEve.com is offering Smart Bitches readers 50% off a single item plus free standard shipping in the US and Canada with code SMART. Please note: certain exclusions apply, but the coupon covers most of the store.
I hope you’re able to do something special for yourself this summer! If you have other recommendations from Adam & Eve, please leave them in the comments below.
Black Cherries by W. S. Merwin
Apr. 27th, 2025 04:13 amconulyLate in May as the light lengthens
toward summer the young goldfinches
flutter down through the day for the first time
to find themselves among fallen petals
cradling their day's colors in the day's shadows
of the garden beside the old house
after a cold spring with no rain
not a sound comes from the empty village
as I stand eating the black cherries
from the loaded branches above me
saying to myself Remember this
*******
Link
toward summer the young goldfinches
flutter down through the day for the first time
to find themselves among fallen petals
cradling their day's colors in the day's shadows
of the garden beside the old house
after a cold spring with no rain
not a sound comes from the empty village
as I stand eating the black cherries
from the loaded branches above me
saying to myself Remember this
Link
rainy custom icon
Apr. 23rd, 2025 03:54 amsetsuntamew posting in iconsI'm back at it with another freebie, but this time it's something that reminds me of rainy season I'm in right now~
request your own @vogliaa
request your own @
vogliaameme: fic writer questions
Apr. 22nd, 2025 09:04 pmgorgeousnerdcontinuing the "this would be too long as a thread on bluesky, so here it is as a dreamwidth post" idea i mentioned in my last post.
i’m also going with a bonus idea: if i like a long meme with numbers, i won’t try to get people to ask me all the questions and i’ll just do the meme. honestly, when i do a meme like this, i’m lucky if i get one reply! no reason to wait, you know?
anyway, here's the meme. let's go!
( fic meme. )
i’m also going with a bonus idea: if i like a long meme with numbers, i won’t try to get people to ask me all the questions and i’ll just do the meme. honestly, when i do a meme like this, i’m lucky if i get one reply! no reason to wait, you know?
anyway, here's the meme. let's go!
( fic meme. )
[Books] Conclave - Richard Harris
Apr. 22nd, 2025 11:00 pmyuuagoAs mentioned previously, after watching the film, I decided to check out Conclave by Robert Harris.
There are a few differences between the novel and the film, but mostly they're minor changes (Lawrence = Lomeli in the novel, Benitez is Filipino in the novel rather than Mexican, etc). I do seem to recall that the turtle scene wasn't in the book; I'm kind of surprised that they added that for the movie, but it was a lovely character moment and Benitez looks kind of like a romance film protagonist in that scene, so I'm certainly not complaining.
Some of the scenes were more effective in the movie than the novel, I think. But that could be due to acting and directorial choices and so on. The one that comes to mind is the saying grace scene after Benitez is introduced to everyone - in the novel, Benitez just says the whole thing, and that's that. But in the film, he pauses after saying the usual spiel, and everyone thinks he's finished and starts to sit down - but then he continues, thanking the Sisters and reminding the others of the impoverished etc, and the effect is very striking.
There are some differences between the novel and the film that I did find interesting, even if the change doesn't affect the overall plot.
( Continued, spoilers )
Overall, I wouldn't say that the novel is a must-read if you liked the film, but I enjoyed it a lot and I think that if you wanted more after watching the movie, it's a good direction to go. Plus you get more into Lomeli's (Lawrence)'s head, etc. On the reverse, I don't think I would actually recommend it without seeing the film first, because the film really is rather good and there are a few things that I thought it did better. (Though I might be biased.)
There are a few differences between the novel and the film, but mostly they're minor changes (Lawrence = Lomeli in the novel, Benitez is Filipino in the novel rather than Mexican, etc). I do seem to recall that the turtle scene wasn't in the book; I'm kind of surprised that they added that for the movie, but it was a lovely character moment and Benitez looks kind of like a romance film protagonist in that scene, so I'm certainly not complaining.
Some of the scenes were more effective in the movie than the novel, I think. But that could be due to acting and directorial choices and so on. The one that comes to mind is the saying grace scene after Benitez is introduced to everyone - in the novel, Benitez just says the whole thing, and that's that. But in the film, he pauses after saying the usual spiel, and everyone thinks he's finished and starts to sit down - but then he continues, thanking the Sisters and reminding the others of the impoverished etc, and the effect is very striking.
There are some differences between the novel and the film that I did find interesting, even if the change doesn't affect the overall plot.
( Continued, spoilers )
Overall, I wouldn't say that the novel is a must-read if you liked the film, but I enjoyed it a lot and I think that if you wanted more after watching the movie, it's a good direction to go. Plus you get more into Lomeli's (Lawrence)'s head, etc. On the reverse, I don't think I would actually recommend it without seeing the film first, because the film really is rather good and there are a few things that I thought it did better. (Though I might be biased.)
askamanager_feedThis post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.
It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…
1. My boss says my salary research is wrong because our benefits are so great
I recently received a promotion with a significant increase in job responsibilities and found myself negotiating salary for the first time in my career. My state requires salary ranges to be posted with job descriptions, so I have a good idea what other companies in our industry are offering for my role and my years of experience, and I asked for a similar amount, about 10% higher than what I was offered. My manager wanted to know how I came up with the new number, so I pointed out these job postings. She responded that the total compensation I was being offered, including benefits, was already equivalent to the amount I was asking for, so there was no need to increase the offered salary amount.
I understand where she’s coming from; we have very generous benefits, including regular bonuses and multiple reimbursement programs for a variety of qualified expenses, and total compensation is a way to quantify those extra dollars. But in my mind, these benefits are not the same as guaranteed pay. Bonuses are dependent on the company’s profits, and I won’t receive the reimbursement funds unless I incur the relevant expenses. Not to mention that the market rates I’m researching are base salary and I don’t have any way of knowing what the dollar value of another company’s benefits would be for a more equivalent comparison.
Is this normal to consider total compensation when negotiating a salary? Am I too focused on the base salary number? I generally consider benefits as more of a happiness boost than a monetary boost (and this is the first time I’ve had benefits that result in me receiving cash payouts), so maybe I need to adjust my mindset. But I feel like my manager is using the company’s benefits package to justify giving me a salary that is below market rate. I’m wondering how I can approach this better at my next salary review.
Ha, no, the value of your benefits package isn’t supposed to be used like that. Your boss is comparing salary plus benefits at your current company to salary alone at another; it’s apples and oranges (or cash and scones?). For all we know, the other companies’ benefits packages could be the same or better than your company’s is! It sure is convenient for her to use that to swat away the comparisons, but it’s not at all accurate to do that.
Bonuses could be an exception to that if your bonuses are extremely reliable (although still not ideal for the reasons you point out), but “we reimburse a lot of expenses that you may or may not incur”? No.
The next time this comes up, you could say, “I appreciate our benefits, but ultimately salary is the most important piece of compensation for me, and that’s what I’m focused on.” You could add, “I can’t include the value of our benefits package without comparing it to the value of theirs.” (And really, she’s practically begging you to go out and learn more about what the competition is offering.)
Related:
can I include the value of my benefits when I talk about my current salary?
2. Can you call out sick for flight anxiety?
This is a hypothetical, but it almost happened. I just had a weekend social obligation in another city that required two flights each way. (These were domestic flights within the U.S.; my local airport doesn’t have direct connections to the destination city.)
At the gate for the first flight back home, I was feeling very anxious about the flight and almost bailed to rent a car and drive back. If I had done this, I would’ve had to miss one day of work.
Ironically, that flight ended up being super smooth. But if I had gone with my idea, would I have legitimately been able to call out with a sick day, on the grounds that flight anxiety is anxiety and therefore a mental illness?
In theory, in a perfect world where everyone understands anxiety and there’s no stigma around mental health? Sure. It should qualify.
In this world, though, the wiser move in a lot of organizations would have been to just say your travel arrangements got messed up, you were having to rent a car to get back, and you’d need to use an additional day of vacation to do it.
3. My boss won’t let me send client reports until he reads them, but he never reads them
My boss is generally fantastic and supports my professional growth and allows me flexibility in working hours and leeway to manage my clients as best I see fit. However, he has one frustrating area of micromanagement that is causing me workflow issues and I don’t know how to move forward.
Our organization’s clients receive quarterly reports on the performance of their products, which I spend about a day each quarter compiling. My boss insists on seeing the reports before I send them to clients. This is despite me never having an error that needs correcting in the five years I’ve worked here.
The issue is that he is swamped and it takes him forever to get round to checking and approving the reports. Currently, he hasn’t yet looked at my 2024 Q4 reports, and the Q1 reports for 2025 are now also waiting for him to check. When I finish a report, I email him with a link to where it’s saved. I remind him about checking the reports at least twice a week in our standing meetings, and he says he’ll do it that day but gets distracted by more urgent priorities and the client reports get pushed to the bottom of the pile. My clients have been asking for the 2024 Q4 reports for a couple months now and I have been giving them vague promises of “soon.”
Telling clients that the reports are ready but I’m not allowed to send them until I get my manager’s approval makes me sound incompetent. However, being months late sending the reports also seems unprofessional. Every time I finish the quarterly reports, I ask if I can send them to clients, and every time he says “I want to do a quick read-through” and then sits on the reports for months. Do you have any advice on how I could do things differently to get a quicker response? Going to his boss feels like a nuclear option as they’re very senior. I don’t want to stop doing the reports as the clients like them and I find it a useful exercise to see how the products are performing. I just want to send them out reasonably soon after the quarter ends!
Have you laid out for your boss that clients keep asking for the reports and you’re concerned it looks bad to keep delaying and then never send them? If not, do that! And then say, “Since I’ve never had an error in the reports in the five years you’ve been looking them over, could our system be that you’ll have a week to look them over, but then I’ll send them at that point if I haven’t heard back from you? I could give you a heads-up the day before. Otherwise they’re not getting to clients in enough time for them to be useful, and I worry we’re making ourselves look bad by delaying them when people keep asking for them.”
If he doesn’t like that, could you pull the latest report out in your standing meeting and ask him to go over it with you right then and there so you can put it to bed?
4. I flamed out at my last job, but there were mitigating circumstances — can I apply again?
I worked for two years at one of the largest and best employers in my field. During my first year, I did well: received good feedback from managers, got good reviews, had my contract renewed for a second year. During my second year, things took a turn: I struggled, got assigned a new manager in case that would help, was put on a PIP, and ultimately let go.
The thing is, there were mitigating circumstances. Starting right at the year mark, I had a series of crises: three pregnancy losses, a surgery, and then a flare-up of a chronic condition so severe that I had to take leave to get treatment. Needless to say, this drastically impacted my work performance, and though my bosses knew what was going on and gave me some grace, I wasn’t able to do enough to mitigate the damage, and they let me go.
The good news is, I did get treatment — and what’s more, got an actual diagnosis (which I’d never had before) and got medicated, also for the first time. The difference is night and day. I didn’t realize how much my chronic condition had been impacting my work performance until suddenly it wasn’t any more. In my new job, I’m excelling again, and it feels easy in a way it never has before.
I’d like to apply for a role with this org again. I know from reading your site that the phrasing “had some health challenges that have since been dealt with” can go a long way towards explaining resume gaps. But as I understand it, that’s usually done in interviews. Is there a similar way to professionally bring up this situation in my cover letter as a way of basically saying, “Yes, I know my records show I was let go, but the situation was very circumstantial and truly won’t happen again”? Having been a hiring manager, I understand not wanting to take a risk on a candidate with a poor internal record, but as an applicant, I’d love to be considered for the role given that I’m now in a very different life situation and the difficult circumstances are unlikely to happen again.
It’s pretty hard to apply at an organization that fired you for poor performance (despite the mitigating circumstances!) so I wouldn’t rely on a cold application and an explanation in your cover letter. Instead, can you get in touch with your last manager there and share the situation? You don’t need to get into private health details but a general description of what happened, that it’s now resolved, and how well you’ve been doing since might go a long way. You can then say you’d love to come back but understand the previous situation might be an obstacle to that, and do they have any advice on whether, given the circumstances, there might be a way to be considered again? They might or might not be able to help, but that’s going to give you a better shot than just applying cold will do (and that manager will definitely be asked about you at some point if you did get considered, so you might as well talk with them and get them briefed ahead of time anyway). Good luck!
5. Employer wants to photocopy my Social Security card
As part of a starting a recent job, I went through the usual onboarding processes. I’m aware the purpose of the I-9 form is to verify eligibility to work in the United States. My understanding is, and always has been, that presenting these ID’s is sufficient to meet the requirements of the I-9.
Recently, I was asked to provide a photocopy of my Social Security card. The HR person was vague when questioned, only saying, “For company security reasons.” They apparently keep a filing cabinet with these. This is questionable to me and possibly a security risk. Is it legal for a company to request and keep photocopies of sensitive documents such as these?
Yes, it’s legal and not uncommon. Many employers keep copies so that if they’re ever audited, they can show that they did in fact check your documents and record the information correctly. The government’s guidance to employers on this says, “You may make copies (or electronic images) of the documentation you reviewed, but must return original documentation to the employee. If you make copies, they should be made consistently for all new hires and reverified employees, regardless of national origin, citizenship, or immigration status, or you may violate anti-discrimination laws.” They’re also required to keep the copies as secure as the I-9 itself.
For what it’s worth, a photocopy of your Social Security card doesn’t really make you more vulnerable to identity theft than the I-9 itself does, since an identity thief only needs your card number, not an image of the actual card (and that number gets recorded on the I-9).
Car stuff sorted...
Apr. 22nd, 2025 09:16 pmmistressofmusesI mentioned that last night the truck very suddenly started sputtering and running extremely rough, and the check engine light came on.
We took the truck over to a local auto parts store to get a read on the code for the check engine light. They said the most likely culprit was an ignition coil, causing misfires in one of the cylinders. That was one of the potential things I'd seen on the list of possible causes for the rough idle. Pretty firmly on the lower end of the middle of "how fucked are we," so that was a relief. (So glad it wasn't "fuel pump" money.)
So we took it to the usual shop we use. They said they wouldn't be able to get to it tomorrow, and they would have to do their own diagnostic rather than relying on the code, which was fine. They'd give me a call tomorrow morning to let me know the results of their diagnostic and talk costs and recommendations and such.
Mom loaned us her second car, since Taylor doesn't typically go in to the office anymore, so we could get around until then.
-
Turned out Jaspurr was at the vet (same vet that we were at yesterday) for surgery. :( Poor boy had a lump on his abdomen, so they were removing and biopsying it.
Got the excellent news that it was just a fatty lump, and did not need to be biopsied!
-
I was just about to take a nap, when the auto place called. They were able to get it in today (initially I was told it was the main tech's day off, so couldn't get it looked at until tomorrow; apparently someone else was available today!)
They did not think it was the ignition coil, they thought it was the spark plugs. They wanted to replace the spark plugs plus do an injector system service. I misheard the initial quote and thought it was super high, like four figures; it was not, haha. It was within the general range I'd been expecting. (Which I wasn't *delighted* to pay, but when I balked at my misheard price, he offered a discount to bring it down slightly, ha.)
They got the work done by the end of the afternoon, but when he called back he said the spark plugs hadn't fixed the issue... because it turned out it was the ignition coil. *Facepalm* (They say that the coil was fine when they tested it earlier, because they swapped a good coil for the potentially bad one, and the problem persisted, which was why they'd ruled it out; maybe the coil and a spark plug both failed?)
They replaced the spark plugs and the ignition coil. He gave us the coil at-cost (which was cheaper than we could have gotten it if we'd bought it ourselves; we priced them at the auto parts place when we got the code read) and didn't charge any extra labor for it. He also completely comped the system service that they did, so the total wound up only being $14 over the original estimate. In exchange for the discount, he just asked that we leave a nice review, which I did.
The truck is now running fine! It might be even smoother than it was prior to the problem starting last night; it hadn't been having issues that made me want to take it in, but occasionally a little roughness that I wasn't noticing this evening. So perhaps that coil had been on the way out for a while.
Not the best timing in the world, and I spent a good part of last night and this morning fighting through the chest pain and horrible nausea and prickling scalp of massive fucking anxiety, but I'm glad it's sorted out, that it didn't happen at a *worse* time.
We took the truck over to a local auto parts store to get a read on the code for the check engine light. They said the most likely culprit was an ignition coil, causing misfires in one of the cylinders. That was one of the potential things I'd seen on the list of possible causes for the rough idle. Pretty firmly on the lower end of the middle of "how fucked are we," so that was a relief. (So glad it wasn't "fuel pump" money.)
So we took it to the usual shop we use. They said they wouldn't be able to get to it tomorrow, and they would have to do their own diagnostic rather than relying on the code, which was fine. They'd give me a call tomorrow morning to let me know the results of their diagnostic and talk costs and recommendations and such.
Mom loaned us her second car, since Taylor doesn't typically go in to the office anymore, so we could get around until then.
-
Turned out Jaspurr was at the vet (same vet that we were at yesterday) for surgery. :( Poor boy had a lump on his abdomen, so they were removing and biopsying it.
Got the excellent news that it was just a fatty lump, and did not need to be biopsied!
-
I was just about to take a nap, when the auto place called. They were able to get it in today (initially I was told it was the main tech's day off, so couldn't get it looked at until tomorrow; apparently someone else was available today!)
They did not think it was the ignition coil, they thought it was the spark plugs. They wanted to replace the spark plugs plus do an injector system service. I misheard the initial quote and thought it was super high, like four figures; it was not, haha. It was within the general range I'd been expecting. (Which I wasn't *delighted* to pay, but when I balked at my misheard price, he offered a discount to bring it down slightly, ha.)
They got the work done by the end of the afternoon, but when he called back he said the spark plugs hadn't fixed the issue... because it turned out it was the ignition coil. *Facepalm* (They say that the coil was fine when they tested it earlier, because they swapped a good coil for the potentially bad one, and the problem persisted, which was why they'd ruled it out; maybe the coil and a spark plug both failed?)
They replaced the spark plugs and the ignition coil. He gave us the coil at-cost (which was cheaper than we could have gotten it if we'd bought it ourselves; we priced them at the auto parts place when we got the code read) and didn't charge any extra labor for it. He also completely comped the system service that they did, so the total wound up only being $14 over the original estimate. In exchange for the discount, he just asked that we leave a nice review, which I did.
The truck is now running fine! It might be even smoother than it was prior to the problem starting last night; it hadn't been having issues that made me want to take it in, but occasionally a little roughness that I wasn't noticing this evening. So perhaps that coil had been on the way out for a while.
Not the best timing in the world, and I spent a good part of last night and this morning fighting through the chest pain and horrible nausea and prickling scalp of massive fucking anxiety, but I'm glad it's sorted out, that it didn't happen at a *worse* time.
One of my students offered me blood
Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:50 pmcornerofmadnessIn learning that I'm severely anemic and might need a transfusion (we were talking about hepatitis C and transfusions in micro) he offered me a pint of his blood if we were a match (we are) Hopefully I can avoid the transfusion but that was touching and I appreciate it and I wish all of us could have empathy like that.
I forgot to say yesterday that I was very sad to see Pope Francis passing. I grew up Catholic. He was the first Pope I actually liked. I thought he was a very good man. But since I waited a day I can add how much of a shit stain Marjorie Taylor Greene is as she's been vocally celebrating an 'evil man's' passing. People like her make me hope there IS an afterlife... I just hope that the church doesn't swing back ultraconservative again. Regardless, RIP Pope Francis, we're poorer for your loss.
Rocket is home. He looks good except his face is swollen. I think they were pulling a lot of ticks off him (so much for that 30$ tick medicine) He's already insisting on going out so good wishes for him everyone.
So fannish 50 I had something else in mind, can't remember what it is and now I'm doing this because I had planned to do this last week and forgot. Every so often I like to share the newish stuff I find on YouTube in way of fan creations. look at some of this cool stuff. Fandom is really embracing the music and animation side of things. Prior to this all we had was AMVs (which are lovely too) but I haven't see this level of music since the filk music from the 80s.
I'm in love with this and jealous too but then again I'm not an artist so no one is going to dub my art but I love it.
Axel is a fan voice actor known for doing Arackniss and someone did some more music for him.
Oh geez has a lot of music
And it's a part of this, over an hour of fan music for The Owl House
I might have shared this before but this Gravity Falls/Hazbin Hotel mash up is delightful
And I'm pretty sure this was shared but it popped back up and I love it.
I forgot to say yesterday that I was very sad to see Pope Francis passing. I grew up Catholic. He was the first Pope I actually liked. I thought he was a very good man. But since I waited a day I can add how much of a shit stain Marjorie Taylor Greene is as she's been vocally celebrating an 'evil man's' passing. People like her make me hope there IS an afterlife... I just hope that the church doesn't swing back ultraconservative again. Regardless, RIP Pope Francis, we're poorer for your loss.
Rocket is home. He looks good except his face is swollen. I think they were pulling a lot of ticks off him (so much for that 30$ tick medicine) He's already insisting on going out so good wishes for him everyone.
So fannish 50 I had something else in mind, can't remember what it is and now I'm doing this because I had planned to do this last week and forgot. Every so often I like to share the newish stuff I find on YouTube in way of fan creations. look at some of this cool stuff. Fandom is really embracing the music and animation side of things. Prior to this all we had was AMVs (which are lovely too) but I haven't see this level of music since the filk music from the 80s.
I'm in love with this and jealous too but then again I'm not an artist so no one is going to dub my art but I love it.
Axel is a fan voice actor known for doing Arackniss and someone did some more music for him.
Oh geez has a lot of music
And it's a part of this, over an hour of fan music for The Owl House
I might have shared this before but this Gravity Falls/Hazbin Hotel mash up is delightful
And I'm pretty sure this was shared but it popped back up and I love it.
Fandom stuff
Apr. 22nd, 2025 08:23 pmsnickfic- I signed up for seasonsofdrabbles. Come join me! So I have someone to write for.
- After my firsthurtcomfortex idea got increasingly complicated with less and less direct h/c, I now have a new idea that is directly h/c and much simpler. Which is great, because I can tell it's going to be a long 'un. (That's why the writing period for this exchange is so long, right? Because h/c takes lots of words??) So now I have 400 words, and the deadline isn't for like six weeks! Woo!
seasonsofdrabbles. Come join me! - After my first
hurtcomfortex idea got increasingly complicated with less and less direct h/c, I now have a new idea that is directly h/c and much simpler. Which is great, because I can tell it's going to be a long 'un. (That's why the writing period for this exchange is so long, right? Because h/c takes lots of words??) So now I have 400 words, and the deadline isn't for like six weeks! Woo!
Road Not Taken
Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:12 pmsettiaiI was feeling nostalgic, so I pulled up Road Not Taken and played it for a little while earlier. It took a bit to get back into the swing of things, but I started to remember some of the hidden details and combinations after a while.
It's been ages since the last time I played, and I'd forgotten just how much I love it. It's so helpful if I want to turn off my brain for a little while. I can't believe it's been over a decade since it was first released.
It's been ages since the last time I played, and I'd forgotten just how much I love it. It's so helpful if I want to turn off my brain for a little while. I can't believe it's been over a decade since it was first released.
Time For Another One Of These
Apr. 22nd, 2025 07:43 pmastrogirlChapter 6 of "Congratulations on Your Apotheosis" is up. And leaves me feeling like I really should apologize to the characters.
Recent Reading: The Starless Sea
Apr. 22nd, 2025 06:39 pmrocky41_7 posting in booksThe most recent commute audiobook was The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern, of The Night Circus fame (although admittedly I have not read that one yet). This is a fantasy novel about Zachary, a young man swept into the drama of a secret underground society and the mysterious figures who surround it.
I finished this book on Sunday morning, catching the last 7 minutes of a whopping 19-hour runtime over breakfast, and since then I've settled into a relative disappointment. On paper, this book has so many things that should make it an ace in the hole for me: Book lovers! Cats! Secret magical societies! Queer characters! Women who are something Other taking control of their destinies! And yet, overall, this book just did not land for me.
As is a risk, I think, with all stories that are about the power of stories, The Starless Sea comes off a little pretentious and self-important. It is a book lauding the unmatched importance of books. I felt aware at various points throughout the book of how hard it was trying to appeal to people like me, who would enjoy the idea of a dark-paneled underground room with endless books and an on-demand kitchen, and this sense of pandering did take away from it at times.
However, it also does some interesting things with regards to what it is like to be the person in a story (such as the fate of Eleanor and Simon, once their part in the story is done) as well as the risks of valuing preservation over change and growth. Without giving too much away, there is a secret society in decline, and a woman so determined to prevent its downfall that she ends up causing significant harm to the organization she's trying to save because she is unwilling to accept that an end comes for all things. I enjoyed this theme and I felt like it was echoed well throughout the story, and in many ways it's easy to sympathize with her ultimate goals, if not her methods.
( Read more... )