LX

Obviously I'm selecting 'Prefer not to say' on any field that's an option. Gender, sexuality, age, email address, existence. I'd prefer not to tell you a damn thing, but here we are.

Suddenly needing to check my email for a login code whenever I log in to anything feels like being punished for other people refusing to use password managers.

Sometimes I have imposter syndrome. And sometimes I hear an advert that basically says “Is the world too noisy and overwhelming? Buy our kettle, it makes soothing sounds!” And I realise that EVERYBODY is an imposter and nobody really knows what they are doing. Only an imposter would make that advert

It was just one straw, I don’t know why the camel is being so dramatic

Ever downloaded a kindle book as a file you can actually transfer around and store and keep? Ever been vaguely surprised that Amazon let you do that?

Yeah, they're taking that feature away on Feb 26th. Get them downloaded now.

YouTube video by ManicStPreachersVEVO Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next (Official Video)

Never mind the chorus, the TITLE sticks in your head.

“Nay”, he whispered, horsely.

Fridge Raiders are just chicken Wotsits

You know what, actually, relatable.

Ultimately it doesn't matter - whether they're a bot, about to try to sell you a management course, or both, they're not worth engaging with.

None of the common livestock animals (horses/donkeys, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens) are native to the Americas. I have this information and don't know what to do with it, so I guess I'll just pass it on. It's your problem now.

Nowhere does the Dead Internet theory feel more real than LinkedIn. I genuinely can't work out whether the blandly hype toxic positivity is ChatGPT output, or just indistinguishable from it.

Minotaurs in D&D get a racial bonus to escaping from labyrinths, and this annoys me more than it should.

She sells shell companies in the Seychelles.

Nothing makes you curious to look something up than being told 'don't look this up'. Which is, I suppose, the basis of the Cthulhu systems.

Scrolled past this and double backed thinking 'how did they get that wallpaper' before seeing who the post was actually from, hah.

I grew up near a patch of genuinely dangerous quicksand! The local lifeboat station had a hovercraft for dealing with it. Still a very real threat mostly mitigated by people being smart enough to stay well away.

Mostly.

I suppose appearing ad-riddled and spammy is better than appearing dead? But the end result is the same. Appalling signal to noise ratio, and disengagement.

Got frustrated with Facebook showing TWELVE posts from pages, groups, and people I have never interacted with between every post from a friend, and found a way to filter them out.

Revealing that they do it because my friends don't really post anything anymore.

Nor do I, to be fair.

News photo of a burning Cybertruck outside the doors of Trump Towers Las Vegas.

My favourite part of this very real photo, accompanied by CCTV footage of the cybertruck just exploding out of nowhere, is how nobody is questioning why a cybertruck would just explode out of nowhere.

The fact that Redditors have staunchly refused to learn how Markdown works over the last 19 years (and the new site actively hides the option from you, annoyingly) makes it so much easier to spot ChatGPT copy/pastes. Gippity LOVES Markdown. If their post is nicely formatted, they didn't write it.

a bald man in a red shirt wipes his face with his hands ALT: a bald man in a red shirt wipes his face with his hands

Sanderson has his 'always another secret', but Pratchett remains the king of 'always another joke'.

I've only just now noticed that the dwarf who brings the printing press to Ankh-Morpork is Gunilla Goodmountain.

Goodmountain.

Gutenberg.

What it looks like when someone drops a pin on the map

Stafford Beer famously said that the purpose of a system is what it does.

It follows that the purpose of the Loud Environment Warning on an Apple Watch is to let you know you are using a hand dryer.

If you see this, quote reply with your first anime ever

Really, anything where there's substantial feedback on what was accomplished. Listening to speech is slow - I don't want to listen to a voice read out every detail of my lunch order, billing details, and delivery address. I can scan the page for anything that isn't right much more quickly.

Science: Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.

Engineering: Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall bend that lever.

Viewer discretion is not advised.

The Triton statue in Valletta, Malta.