sparrowshift

Lol everyone is scrambling at my job too. But I'm happy because I've been pushing for this stuff for years. Also feeling a teensy smug because any sites I worked on were much, much better than everyone else's in the department at the outset.

To be fair to them, they were kind of tagged by my larger organization, with actual accessibility experts, to be the accessibility point person for my smaller department. So this isn't really why they were hired. But still! They're supposed to do training and look things up properly!

This isn't writing some dumb little email, where details and facts don't matter! This is like putting up giant rocks to block people from entering a building.

In the second case, I argued with our digital accessibility liaison because I said (correctly) that we cannot rely on auto-generated YouTube captions to meet ADA standards. Later, they said they looked it up and I was right. Where did they get the wrong info? ChatGPT.

In the first case, a tool in our content editor automatically added (wrong) alt text without my knowledge. We sometimes forget alt text, but I have bots to catch empty alt text. They can not do that if it's been filled automatically with AI slop.

There have two digital accessibility near-misses at my job recently and they both happened because of AI and I want to bite anyone who suggests relying on AI for something this important.

My dad is visiting my uncle and apparently they watched The Lobster, because now I've gotten two separate texts from them wanting to discuss The Lobster.

Another ICE case! Murphy's owners fled the state and couldn't take him with :( Murphy is dog/cat/kid friendly and just an all around good boy. He is being dropped off today, if anyone can say YES! Email fostersupport@thebondbetween.org!

The ICE surge in Minnesota has meant dogs losing homes. If you can foster Murphy, get in touch at the email listed.

We both may have been a little tipsy because we almost never drink alcohol.

Ate a fancy tasting menu for our anniversary, and the best part is they had to change up the dessert because they ran out of ingredients, so I got to spend the rest of the night making Mr S crack up by whisper-yelling "WHERE THE FUCK ARE THE STRAWBERRIES, CHEF!"

Little old ladies with walkers going down to the Home Depot to protest because you shall welcome the stranger and also fuck ICE.

Old Polaroid-y colour photo a model of the front half of a Tylosaurus in water. It could be styled as leaping, otherwise it frankly looks like it’s wading out of the water. It has a row of frills on its back, mouth open with very thin teeth, and vaguely human eyes

We’re obsessed with this Tylosaurus from the Saint-Vrain Zoological Park, South of Paris, that opened in the mid-1970s and closed in 1999.

The site has remained in an abandoned state, and it seems that this and various other prehistoric statues are still there!

Fuck you tell me this after I use the last of our (pretty old) supply to make chocolate chip cookies

Excerpt from The Country of the Pointed Firs: "behind its bushy bit of green gardens, in which all the blooming things, two or three gay hollyhocks and some London-pride, were pushed back against the grey-shingled wall. It was a queer little garden..."

Okay I get word meanings change over time but the sheer density here is excellent. Also til there's a flower called London pride!

Interesting. I do think there's perhaps some element of "it's sketchy to make someone who died horribly a romance protagonist," but the portrayal is flattering. Plus historical fiction has always been a thing and people don't really complain about that aspect of it.

I loved it, really blazed through it, kind of surprised it seems to have had mixed reactions? The other two books are very different, haha, but also recommended! Three Bags Full was a lot weirder than I was expecting (a good thing)

Donate to Help The Tartan Skirt Go Digital, organized by Julia Gordon Hi, I'm Julia Gordon and for several years in the 90s I was involved in working for wide… Julia Gordon needs your support for Help The Tartan Skirt Go Digital

A small but deeply meaningful local project - digitising issues of 90s Scottish trans magazine The Tartan Skirt so all of us can access them.

It's a really modest fundraising target with a significant outcome, please share or contribute if you can!

Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Story, by Leonie Swann

The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley

The Invisibility Cloak by Ge Fei, translated by Canaan Morse

I've read three fiction books so far this year and I'm pretty happy, 2025 was not a good year for fiction for me. Plus they were all excellent. The books:

Clay sculpture of two neon gummy worms poking up from cookie dirt soil. Neon heart sprinkles and a dollop of whipped cream decorate the soil as well. The entire "dessert" is placed in a white espresso mug with a painted blue polka-dot pattern. A hand holds the cup in front of a snowy forest.

Clay sculpture of multiple anxious-looking garden eels, both spotted and striped, poking up from sand along with small shoots of coral. The "garden" is displayed in an ornate sugar bowl with a floral pattern. A hand holds the bowl in front of a snowy forest.

Clay sculpture of three happy garden eels in the colors of the Gay Pride flag, "planted" in sand along with small bit of coral. The sculpture sits in a large white mug with a pink floral pattern. A hand holds the mug in front of a snowy forest.

Good morning all!

My shop update is live!

Visit www.eclecticclay.com to take home some eels - anxious or joyful - or be the first to own a Gummy Werm Dessert Garden!

Five classes I took in undergrad:
-From Existentialism to Cyberpunk
- The Historical Imagination
- Ecology of Coral Reefs
- Metaphysics
- Bioinformatics

3rd Annual Doll Symposium March 13,14 Hosted by the Department of African and African American Studies, Duke University. For more details and registration, please visit blackdollsymposium.eventbrite.com

#dollsky The Black Doll Symposium is back on March 13 & 14! It's virtual and completely free, all you have to do is register and they'll send you a zoom link.

blackdollsymposium.eventbrite.com

I have a phone back but in the five days I was phone-less I read two books and knew true peace, became a better person, etc.

I don't even mind them tagging along when we take my son to the zoo or park or something, but I feel like 60% of my weekend is breakfast, followed by a long chat with tv in the background and simultaneously running after my son in a house that's not mine.

I love my husband. His family is also very kind to me and help a lot with my son. But also we have breakfast with them almost every weekend and if there's a special event at their house (birthday, etc.) my husband is like "whelp we still gotta get breakfast, I guess we're going two days in a row!" 😭

Two red knit hats with red braids and tassels. One slightly bigger than the other.

Spent the day making some hats. Used an Addi knitting machine. Finished 4 red and 2 blue. Need to add some details tomorrow. I’ll be handing them out at a protest Saturday.

5 Calls Spend 5 minutes. Make 5 calls. Make your voice heard.

Have social anxiety and hate being on the phone? 5 Calls lets you look up your reps, click on the issues, provides contact AND a script that you can just read if you don't know exactly how to frame what you want to say. Feel too stilted for you? You can still read the script and reword.

5calls.org

Would it be gauche to print it out and drop it in her mailbox with a "you see this shit"

My new phone isn't getting here until tomorrow this is serious I just saw someone in the mom group that's charging $50 for a "Galentine's Mom Social" and I can't text my neighborhood friend about it so I will probably die

BREAKING: The Senate just blocked a bill that would have renewed ICE's budget without real, enforceable changes.

This is a direct result of hundreds of thousands of people across the nation demanding that our Senators vote no.

The idea that success belongs to the toughest people with the fiercest attitude is the same nonsense that animates Hegseth’s DoD. Success belongs to the people who have the best sandwich-distribution system.