ysobel: (Default)
I keep not getting around to posting here. Not sure how much is "typing is hard" (this entry took an hour! On my tablet, which I can type on faster than on my computer!) and how much is just being out of the habit.

Ended up not doing turkey day at my dad's, mostly for mental health (I have Opinions about people who choose not to get vaccinated during a pandemic "because freedom", and I didn't want to spend the entire time watching what I said) but also because... I'd made a comment on twitter about wanting to do Hanukkah this year, so my dad offered to do latkes and candles last Sunday, aka the first night, and sent me home with the menorah and candles and some thanksgiving leftovers, which ended up being pretty close to perfect.

The candles, incidentally, claimed to be dripless. They... uh... well... weren't. I'll upload photos at some point.

I'm also sort of getting into Yiddish on duolingo, though I'm shaky on some of the alphabet (duo uses the Hebrew lettering for Yiddish, not the transliteration into Ronan lettering) ... I've got the consonants pretty well, but the vowels are killing me. And for the language itself, it's Germanic enough that I'm both doing okay and hella confused. There's a vowel shift going on, making words sound like other words.

From memory -- at least in the Hungarian Yiddish dialect duo is using, the word for "you" is /dee/ instead of German du. The word for here is either /du/ or /doh/, i forget which, instead of German da, and I keep wanting to translate doh as there (German dort). I also get into trouble with /vee/ and /voh/; in German the first (wie) is how and the second (wo) is who, but in Yiddish /vee/ is who. (Amusingly, how many -- in German wieviel -- sounds like wiffle, just with v instead of w.)

It's kind of like the German interference I had learning Russian. The word /ya/ is yes in German and I in Russian; /da/ is yes in Russian and here in German; all very frequently used words. So inevitably I'd use the wrong one ...

Sometimes it's not confusing between words, just hard to remember. I can after a second remember that /daan/ in Yiddish is your (in German it's dein, pronounced /dayn/ rhyming with wine) but trying to generate the Yiddish is harder, both because remembering THAT the vowel shifts isn't the same as remembering HOW, and because the vowel letters are hard for me to remember.

Anyway, at least duolingo has taught me how to say that things like "a zebra in a pyramid". So helpful?

(Ok to be fair they were teaching similar-to-English words for alphabet practice .. /a zehbra een a piramid/ or /a kehmul een London/ are easier to decipher than, uh, other things.)

+ + +

Totally unrelatedly, the Babylon 5 rewatch I'm doing with my mom -- so slowwww because I have limited mom stamina, especially when she Lingers so one episode takes 2-3 hrs of mom exposure, and she doesn't want to watch separately -- got to A Voice in the Wilderness, which is one of my favorites from S1. I'd forgotten that was the episode with the Ivanovo-is-God speech, lol. Also Londo's Hokey-Pokey rant.

Next up is Babylon Squared. Also among my favorites!

(Shadows and Portents is up there too, although in rewatch I got annoyed at the cc text -- when the Centauri dude is laughing about how his seer aunt predicted he'd be killed by shadows ha ha how silly, and he ends up being killed by a mysterious vessel later that episode, snd the point of him disbelieving the prophecy to begin with is that he thinks she means shadows, i.e. darkness on the wall, not knowing that the Shadows are an old race recently reawaken ... and the first time around that's what the viewer thinks too. Only, the closed captioning text capitalizes "Shadows" in that line...)

B5's special effects and title sequence both look 90s as hell.

+ + +

Speaking of my mom ... she wants to know what I want to do for Christmas. My gut reaction is "introvert party with me and the pets where I play animal crossing and watch die hard and nothing else" but I don't think she'd be happy with that, lol. I'm just ... idek. I'm cynical about how commercialized and ubiquitous Christmas is these days, carol singing makes me miss the harp I can't play any more, there's no magic any more, and I realized one of the things making me dissatisfied with Christianity is that if Jesus fixed things (and I know that's a big if but it's also central to Christianity) why are things so fucked up. And my increasing dissatisfaction with Christianity means that the "prepare for and celebrate the birth of the Baby Who Will Save The World" aspect of Christmas is less gripping, and the family aspect of Christmas is awkward when my mom is a lonely energy suck and my dad is married to someone who thinks I hate her and my sister has kids who are cute but exhausting, and I'm an introvert anyway, and I'm awkward about giving and receiving gifts. And there's also the "pagan holiday they got papered over with Christianity labels" factor, and my increasing awareness of Shitty White-People Behavior.

But I'll probably end up doing something with my mom anyway.

+ + +

For some reason I am remarkably chatty today. Talked my aides' ears off; even posting here is a reflection of that. No clue why but it's better than the sheer exhaustion I've mostly been feeling.

Yay I guess?

+ + +

Got Covid booster today. In home, which was nice and convenient. My initial vax was J&J so I asked for (and got) Pfizer.

Yay for another layer of Swiss cheese protection, boo for needing it.
ysobel: A man wielding a kitchen knife and making an adorable yelling face (rage)
You know the shitshow that is Ravelry's new look? Which was causing eye strain and migraines and seizures? And the site updates since then have all used perky icons (that are in some cases impossible to determine the meaning of) rather than bullet points?

It just got worse.



I'm shaking too hard to transcribe, but summary -- form letter response from Cassidy saying NuRav isn't causing medical issues, people are just spreading malicious lies.

Or, as [twitter.com profile] ktb38 says:

Ravelry is now sending out a form letter.
Saying there are no problems with the updated design.
Everyone who has problems is lying.
The disability community is lying, according to ravelry.
Share this. Tell everyone what ravelry is doing.
#ravelryaccessibility #ravelry


I'm pretty much in shock right now. Of all possible responses from C, this was not even imaginable.

I fully expect rage tears later, but right now I'm just ... numb.

Edit with transcript:

Ravelry's updated design does not cause seizures, migraines or other medical issues.

The Epilepsy Foundation did not "call out" Ravelry. Angry users stared [sic] a letter writing campaign and the foundation published their warning based on these letters without any verification or research, as appears to be their policy. A medical doctor who specializes in migraines and seizures has said that he does not believe that Ravelry is causing seizures or migraines. We have found zero evidence that there is anything about the new design that causes migraines or seizures.

I would like people to consider their sources before spreading false information.

Cassidy
ysobel: (fail)
So the fucking disaster that is Ravelry's makeover

that is literally giving people migraines and seizures

and not usable by screen readers

has not been rolled back, or de-animated, or in any way made accessible

and there's been no explanation

the front page still has just a chirpy twee "explanation" of the redesign with stuff like "We tried a bunch of different approaches but ended up with a simple misshapen circle with the r in it. Like the primary logo, we kept the secondary mark simple so that it could be flexibly used. We affectionately call her "Lumpy" :)" and "We already had our cinnamon color for the logo, and now we needed some color friends." (the logo is coral not cinnamon) and "we didn't want the colors to follow current web trends in color schemes" (coral/teal is not unique) and "I can't stress enough how much hard work, thought, and love went into the new look."

there have been daily feedback threads that pay lip service to "We also will not permit accessibility issues to be dismissed." but also say "We understand that those of you giving feedback in this thread would like us to make the Classic Ravelry site the default site. We feel that keeping Ravelry’s New Look as our default, with an option to opt-in to the Classic Ravelry look as we improve the new site, is the best option." and there are no answers or explanations for anything, so it has the feeling of shouting into a void

this is not the first time rav has had accessibility issues, but holy fuck this is just a dumpster fire

I am so very out of cope
ysobel: (Default)
1. Still alive. More or less.

2. Finished my cactus bunny. It's frickin' adorable. Next up: prototype of a doll I'm designing. It is a person in a wheelchair, but more of a centaur-esque hybrid than a person and a separate chair, because really my chair is my legs. Concept art on my instagram.

3. Either I've been having more drastic reactions to low blood sugar, or I'm just noticing it more, but holy crap does my mood plummet if I go too long without eating. Today I was deep in lethargic anhedonia (not sure how much is depression and how much is blood sugar) and i had to force myself to eat because I knew food was good but I wasn't hungry and nothing sounded good, so I shoved food down and then twenty minutes later was feeling a lot more human. It's a little frustrating having to think of foods, because I don't always get hunger signals. And because I can't get stuff out myself, I need to remember to have sides leave something out where I can get it but the pets can't, and then I have to remember to eat it and also hope it still sounds good.

4. It doesn't help that my roommate tends to cook uber-healthily, and sometimes the "roast chicken and/or roasted veggies and/or sautéed kale and/or roasted potatoes and/or plain quinoa" gets a little ... boring. I'd rather have that than the polar opposite, and I'm in favor of generally eating healthy but with exceptions. And when I've forgotten food so nothing sounds good anyway, "oh hey i could have plain almonds for a snack" is kind of ... less appealing than usual. (Almonds are okay but not my favorite nut, and they're better salted; these are basically tasteless wood). It has the appeal of sawdust. And I have a voice in my head saying I should be eating super healthy anyway because that's the only way to keep my weight down or whatever, but it's a lot easier to eat when I actually want to eat.

5. I've also been in a funk lately. No energy to speak of, no enthusiasm for anything, no desire to crochet or read. I have theoretical desire to watch stuff on Netflix but that ends up not happening. I don't know how much is situational stress (chair, aide issues, generally not having reliable comfort) and how much is my depression changing its presentation and how much is blood sugar stuff. I should probably talk to my doctor, because there might be a medical issue behind it. I've had depresssion a long time, but it mostly manifests as self-hate and lack of energy, not lack of desire.

6. My iPad may be dying. Boo.

7. What is it with people doubling down on racism o.O There is a designer on Rav who makes really pretty stuff who is now on my never-buy list for being a total asshat. Short summary: she designed a shawl with a racial slur in the name, tried to openly circumvent the automated "no racist language" filter while mocking said filter, persisted in re-uploading it with problematic names, and is now claiming persecution.

Longer version, content warning for racial slurs (largely Rroma-related) --

Read more... )

Anyway, where was I...?

8. Duolingo streak is up to 933. Woo. I'm thinking of trying again to tackle German. (Advantage: I have some stuff already ingrained. Disadvantage: that stuff is from twenty years ago, so is wildly out of date as well as rusty. Also, Spanish, which I'm lazily refreshing, is more useful around here.)

9. My side K has never seen Princess Bride. I am making her watch it soon. I keep wanting to make references to it (we were talking about something the other day that reminded me of Vizzini logic, a "something is X and also not-X" type of joke argument; I do not think [thst word] means what you think it means; something being mostly dead) and then remembering she wouldn't get it.

10. I am also going to have her watch Into the Woods -- the good one of course, not the recent abomination of which the ONLY redeeming value is Chris Pine's Shathering in "Agonny", and I still can't fucking believe they didn't include the reprise augh -- but that's less urgent. Also I don't actually own the DVD of it. Yet. I look for it at every library book sale (they have dvds and cds as well as books). One of these days it will be mine ... mwahahaha.
ysobel: (Default)
So ... Netflix has a new-ish show, Afflucted, that I've been waffling in whether or not to watch. It advertised as a documentary following people with chronic illnesses. I wasn't sure, in advance, whether it was going to be sympathetic or dramatastic.

It's the latter. In a "oh it's all in their head" way. And it deliberately twisted the stories of *everyone* involved, who were misled about the purpose of the show (documentary ga reality tv) and were basically abused by the production staff.

https://medium.com/@afflicted/the-truth-behind-netflixs-afflicted-92e92d32cd7c is worth reading. If links to essays written by the participants, detailing the experience and also the facts that got left out about things like, oh, say, actual diagnoses and actual medical info and actual *everything*.

I am Not Impressed.
ysobel: (Default)
Okay, I have to rant: I watched a movie on Netflix (which is a fairly common occurrence) and it is *bad*. Not the fun cheesy kind of bad, not the "so bad it's almost kind of good" bad, not even the "fascinating train wreck" kind of bad. Just ... bad. And bland. And I would rather have spent my time watching paint dry.

It's called "Brace for Impact", only that's not really the proper name, and the summary on Netflix is misleading to some extent.

Read more... )

Profile

ysobel: (Default)
masquerading as a man with a reason

June 2025

S M T W T F S
123 4567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 6th, 2025 05:55 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios