oh, mama raised me well

they finally paywalled tweetdeck, tho i did find a workaround to it

- right click, 'inspect'
- click on the 'console' tab
- scroll to the bottom and paste the following:
document.cookie = "tweetdeck_version=legacy; domain=.twitter.com; path=/; expires=Fri, 16 Aug 2024 05:55:18 GMT;";

- hit enter, then refresh the page or navigate to 'tweetdeck.com'

either way, even with a loophole, it's frustrating. i've been using tweetdeck for years now and it's a much nicer twitter experience AND i use it to manage multiple accounts and local ohiofurs stuff x_x

bluesky has been a nice alternative, feels more early social media where not everyone has bought into it yet. so a more curated selection of people actually interacting. but still kind of lacking in a lot of features that come packed by default in a lot of social media. or features that you think would've been on the assembly line after seeing what twitter does right and wrong - stuff like a dedicated media feed, a feed for your tweets vs. retweets, maybe even a gallery kind of thing for artists idk. there's good tools for creating these things on bsky, tho, so maybe they'll be implemented into the site by default eventually

EDIT 8/22/2023: looks like the console code isn't working anymore, but this is a loophole:
https://softantenna.com/blog/oldtweetdeck/

The Strange Appeal Of Mystery Flesh Pit: How Trevor Roberts Built The Wildest Theme Park In All Of Fiction

The whole thing packs a snapping satirical bite with an endless supply of ironic dichotomies: a disarming park mascot known as “Caver Coop” contrasted with man-eating creepy-crawlies scuttling within gloomy folds of tissue; corporate partnerships with AT&TT and Coca-Cola juxtaposed against enzyme pockets waiting to turn hapless visitors into quivering puddles of raw genetic material.

Trans Teen Hatches Nefarious Plot To Undergo Years Of Medical Treatments And Counseling To Win At Swimming

“It’s oh, so simple: several years of sweet-talking medical professionals, receiving hormone therapies, and enduring complex gender-affirming surgeries, and that swimming trophy will be mine!”

Sex Ed Books Don’t “Groom” Kids and Teens. They Protect Them.

When right-wing groups petition and protest to get sex education books off the shelves of school and public librarians, this is the effect. It stops the most vulnerable people in our society from accessing the tools and language that can help them. It helps to shield and hide abusers. It communicates to children suffering from abuse that they are shameful, and that it’s not safe or polite to speak out about.

Anti-Fascist. Armed to the Teeth

The John Brown Gun Clubs operate independently but share a similar ethos: Direct action to counter the threat of the far right, and their members are dedicated to anti-fascism, anti-racism, and anti-bigotry. Most groups I spoke to emphasize that showing up armed is only part of their work, mentioning supply drives for unhoused people during Texas’ deep freezes and other mutual-aid events. “The gun stuff doesn’t exist without all this other stuff,” says one JBGC member who goes by the name Accountant. “If we’re going to be carrying guns, there has to be a community reason for it.”

50 years after release, Disney’s Robin Hood is still a life-changing furry phenomenon

Katav approached the film similarly through their childhood experience. “Robin Hood was very much my window into a world where animals spoke and acted like people do. These were characters who could do people things — shoot a bow, dress in drag, play badminton, etc. — but they still could be a beautiful array of species. In my conservative upbringing, this was a window into a world otherwise, a world like our own but different, where there could be more and freer self-expression.”

Debunked: No, 80% Of Trans Youth Do Not Detransition

Ken Zucker’s research on transgender youth was performed in 1995, a time when youth could not legally or medically transition. In fact, trans youth in that time likely all “desisted” for some time because of bullying, lack of access to care, and severe repression. I myself grew up as a transgender youth in that time period and I “desisted,” one of the many reasons I am writing this article.

Swearing Like A Sailor May Not Be Such A Bad Thing

“There’s a point where it’s just more efficient to say, ‘F*&^ you,’ than it is to hit somebody,” adds Jay, a world-renowned expert in cursing. “We’ve evolved this very efficient way to vent our emotions and convey them to others.”

Lawrence library’s ‘Left Between the Pages’ exhibition offers unique snapshots of community

Every day, approximately 2,000 items are returned to the Lawrence Public Library. Many items — notes, drawings, postcards, photographs and much more — are left between books’ pages.

The strange and very Albertan history of the Cadillac Ranch

Kissel, who’s 32, remembers learning the Cadillac Ranch in phys ed. The singer went to school in St. Paul, a town roughly two hours northeast of Edmonton. But he’d memorized the steps and music before the Cadillac Ranch was one of his class requirements. “I mean, it was played at every wedding,” says Kissel. “I’ve got such a big family with endless cousins. You play the Cadillac Ranch at about 10 p.m. and you just watch the dance floor get flooded. Whether it be a live band or a DJ, it’s the song of the night.”

Leading Neo-Nazi Website Is Now Publishing in Spanish

The Spanish site also includes appeals for donations and unpaid articles, and a forum where people complain about Chile and Argentina filling up with "negros," referring to people from Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay.

Puritanism took over online fandom — and then came for the rest of the internet

Older Gen Z and younger millennials who learned the language of social justice on Tumblr are now teaching younger generations how to wield those concepts for ill. “I think they grew up with faux activism as it was starting online,” Aburime told me, “where it was like, ‘if you like this, or if you don’t do this, you’re a bad person,’ when it’s just cartoons at the end of the day.”

Girl, 9, accused of being trans at Kelowna track meet

Starr said the man's wife then started calling her "a genital mutilator, a groomer, and a pedophile."

still trying to make an attempt to try and post here more (failing). the instantaneous-ness of twitter/insta/whatever is a real draw lol. i gotta sit down and upload images, write a post, kind of get my thoughts in order instead of just spitting off whatever's on my mind

i think i need both, tho, tbh lol

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work is STILL recovering from the ransomware attack. they're basically having to rebuild backend stuff from scratch. as of this past saturday, we still don't have printing from staff computers, but almost all the public pc's are back up. but still no color printing, no scan to email from the copiers, etc. a lot of interoffice extensions are still down, as is our intranet. it's been a ride, for sure






last weekend, we went to the botanical gardens in cleveland for friend sam's birthday - tony and i had never been (surprisingly!), so it was nice little trip. i was very enamored by all the grown over archways and hidden paths and treehouses and YOU COULD CATCH THE FROGS IN THE POND IN THE CHILDREN'S GARDEN FLGKDJGLDJ which is exactly what friend chris and i did when we discovered this information

afterwards, we hit up the only culver's in the area on the way home

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i got my contributor copy of 'until it breaks', a zine organized by knifeorchid! i submitted a greyscale variant of my 'marrow made a wife of eve' illustration. you can grab a copy of the zine over here (heed the content warnings)!

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quiz that was going around twitter for a hot minute. you can find it here. tracks pretty well for me, tbh. i'm overall comfortable with my gender/body/whatever. i just wanna be, like, a liminal creature basically, but i also don't feel like i need to, like, LABEL that??? idk, i'm just kinda like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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i had to buy finn a soft cone b/c he's been scratching himself all up behind his one ear and when he has it on, it's just the best thing to watch. he has absolutely zero issues wearing it, i think sometimes he kinda likes it, but it also means just lots of pictures like the above where he's just zoned the fuck out with his one brain cell looking like a jaunty little court jester

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i whipped up a neat little brochure for folks to put around anthrocon next weekend (bummed about not being able to go) and hand out at the ohio furs meet on friday



(click thru for full view)


i think they'll be a fun little souvenir lol - inside has info about upcoming meets over the next two months and the outside has info about the local groups and stuff

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books and music time!

🕮 The Pervert
🕮 Pinky & Pepper Forever
🕮 Karmen
🕮 It's Lonely at the Centre of the Earth (this was SO good)
🕮 The Passageway
🕮 Friday #1
🕮 Carole & Tuesday Vol. 3
🕮 The Department of Truth, Vol 1: The End of the World
🕮 Ten Days in a Mad-House
🕮 Shubeik Lubeik
🕮 Queenie: Godmother of Harlem


🎶 Sarah And The Safe Word - Old Lace
- - - Give me the strongest stuff you got / I need to feel something again / Before they use me all up

🎶 Kiki Rockwell - Burn Your Village
- - - You do not dance everyday with the fear / Of living in headlights, the hunted, the deer

🎶 The Happy Fits - Mary
- - - But can’t you see you’ve made a terrible mess? / Oh, you feel like a loner, you feel like a lonely little lamb

🎶 Sarah and the Safe Word - The Louisville Shuffle (RIP)
- - - Rest in peace to the me that you had in your head.

🎶 Haunted Like Human - Run Devil Run
- - - Don’t think God’s got any part of it, no holy books or ancient tongues / There’s bottle of fire in her hand, and there’s fire in her lungs

🎶 Taylor Swift - Hits Different
- - - Bet I could still melt your world / Argumentative, antithetical dream girl

i'm awake too early. took a sick day but woke back up around work time anyhow, so i'm just putzing around online

Toxic Positivity: When Nice Isn't Kind

You don’t have to reduce love to trivial smalltalk. If you want, set that boundary and watch what happens in your life. The people who don’t love you will be put off, and the people most willing to love you will be attracted.

this one above got a WILD spectrum of commentary on it in the chats i shared it in. made me wonder if we were reading the same words, tbh. it's been fascinating to see

some random responses from the various discussions. no shade to any of these individual people, just noting the juxtaposition of opinions

- I'm glad I don't know this person, they sound like the biggest killjoy in the world
- It really articulates what I’ve already been thinking
- it's a little "stop being happy, people are dying"
- i mean i find that stuff annoying, too. it feels like a way of making things about yourself while pretending you’re being altruistic or nice.
- Jesus. I’ve never seen someone so upset over random compliments to the general public
- nobody drive by cares about 1000 people at once in any meaningful way, it’s just making noise for no reason
- I think the person who wrote that got some deeper issues than just being annoyed because it’s a random compliment XD
- Superficial, generic messages like the one that kicked off this article are one of the things that's made sites like Facebook unusable; it becomes 80% meaningless fluff and no actual content. And using it to change a topic of conversation is just selfish; "I'm uncomfortable, so I'm going to derail the entire chat to better suit myself instead of coming back when the topic is more relevant to my interests."
- I feel like the kind of person who's writing this has a lot of free time on their hands lol
- It really articulates what I’ve already been thinking
- it's also full on armchair psychiatrist nonsense
- This is the kinda stuff that needs to get talked about more. I don’t feel more loved when people throw that out there. Personally I feel more isolated because a random person in a chat or a TikTok video is the only way that’s been communicated and makes me feel even more alone
- Not gonna say they're an asshole. I don't know them enough and I can't judge it from one post. I can say it is quite a rant and seems to do a lot of assuming and projecting.
- It's kind of selfish, really. "I'm uncomfortable, so I'm going to derail the entire chat to better suit myself."
- Tl;Dr I don't think they're malicious just that they lack social skills and awareness

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Moms for Liberty Has Aggressive, Predatory Tactics—and They’re Working

Ingram was also doxxed by members of the group because of his off-duty activism around removing local Confederate monuments. “I received death threats like, ‘he shouldn’t be breathing, much less teaching,’ as well as people emailing my principal and our superintendent that I should be fired for ‘indoctrinating children’ and teaching ‘CRT.”

As Rail Profits Soar, Blocked Crossings Force Kids to Crawl Under Trains to Get to School

An eighth grade girl waited 10 minutes before she made her move, nervously scrutinizing the gap between two cars. She’d seen plenty of trains start without warning. “I don’t want to get crushed,” she said.

The Trees That Miss The Mammoths

Today, the evidence of human impact is all around us, but now we know that even the most pristine of wilderness areas have many missing pieces. We’ve learned to see the ghosts of the lost megafauna in the rotting fruit, poor dispersal, and useless thorns of Osage-orange, Kentucky coffeetree, honeylocust, and others. But what are we still missing?

Calvinism and the American Conception of Evil

Calvin believed that humans were fundamentally depraved and incapable of being good. Only God is good and only by God’s direct action could a human think or act with moral goodness. Without God’s intervention, humans are left in the clutches of Satan, who would use humans for evil purposes. The world is infected with sin, because this is Satan’s world, and the devil “howls outside the door.”

i really feel i should stress sometimes that this is absolutely how my brain train of thought works and often how i talk irl when i'm on a tangent lol the boundary is paper thin and i don't try to Look Presentable online in my 'speaking' mannerisms lol

i just was reading over the last entry and i'm like yeah this makes perfect sense a little rambly, but that's okay it's a ramble. and then i was like 'god this would be awful for someone else to read it's a mess'

this is definitely why, after some time, microblogging sites worked best for me haha just chucking random shit into the void with no care for how it's constructed. YOU figure it out i know what i'm saying

Thinking I might start using this again. Dunno if I still wanna crosspost to LJ - I really don't use it anymore and I should probably make a line in the sand, download my archive, and point stuff elsewhere lol. But I'm kinda wanting to long form journal again and I've been playing around with other platforms (pillowfort, for one), and it's kinda not what I want when, in my heart, LJ is what I want.