@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Giselle

@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk

I love movies, language, crafts, photography, history, politics, UK culture, and quirky things. I rediscovered going to the cinema in 2022 and want to do some catching up! Luckily I live in London with its many cinemas.
I also knit, quilt, sew, adore pattern drafting and learn French right now (and will share some phrases I like. #FrenchPhrase). Love museums and historical sites.

I first joined Mastodon April 2022.
.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Giselle, to ai
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

So, AI scraped content from content creators and will now destroy their business. Traffic from Google to one of scraped sites catered by 96%. That is absolutely disgusting abuse of power. Will we soon get only a few websites we can go to, the biggest ones, because everyone else went bankrupt?

What a dystopian future #AI #Google

I'm gonna find out what other search engines there are that don't scrape. I am enraged.

This is a gift article link:
[The Washington Post]
https://wapo.st/3WDpAi8

Giselle, to random
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

HP Printer wants you to do what?? "Rent" your printer? It then automatically orders new ink when it thinks you're close to running out (what could possibly go wrong), and you get an allowance of only 20 pages a month, charging same: B&W/colour.

They've lost their tiny little minds, why would I want to do that? Printers are already riculously expensive to run so when I had to replace my colour HP, I've gone with a B&W Brother printer.
I won't buy HP ever again.

https://lifehacker.com/tech/hp-wants-you-to-subscribe-to-your-next-printer

Giselle,
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

The other thing that horribly expensive printers lead to for me is that I reduced printing as much as I can. I need to print sewing patterns I get emailed as a pdf, I print the part of a knitting pattern with the chart that I don't want to fire my phone up for every five mins, plus I can mark off my progress, - things like that.
I used to print lots but then you have to do something with all that paper! No thanks. I scan these days to get rid of paper, I no longer print lots.

Giselle,
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

I think printer companies shoot themselves in the foot with charging an arm and a leg for ink, a subscription scheme like that is even more money grabbing. We no longer need to print backup/"safety" paper copies because of cloud backups of our digital files; we do a lot more online and don't use mail.
This feels like HP doing the Kodak thing when they couldn't imagine that people might not need their product anymore.

And this is all just so alienating.

Giselle, to Recipes
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Now that I know that there are AI generated recipes out there (recipes!?!), with weird photos because they are also AI generated, I'm much more inclined to go with the recipe sites I'm already aware of. And if I get tempted by others then only those that don't drown in ads, that would likely be the tell.

Giselle, to random
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

It is a great thing to give blood. I've signed up and hope to go for my first appointment soon. Unfortunately I've been away and had a massive cold but should be good to proceed soon.
Found this article, very interesting:

BBC News - The day I found out I had special 'neo' blood
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-68205015

Giselle, to goodnews
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

This website about positive news is such a breath of fresh air. What a nice change to the usual doom and gloom!
I loved reading that HPV vaccinations work: no new cases of cervical cancer in young women in Scotland who are vaccinated. News about solar farms, cold water swimming and early tests for Alzheimers is great to read. There's more in this article, and lots more on the site:
https://www.positive.news/society/good-news-stories-from-week-4-of-2024/

Giselle,
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

And would you know it?! Positive News are on Mastodon! That's even better news. Their handle is: @PositiveNewsUK

Edited: I meant "even better" , not "when better", dah!

Giselle, to random
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Oh good, I love it when a plan unexpectedly comes together! The plan was to make a veggie stew in my slow cooker, which I did. I also wanted to use up one of my older foodstuffs that must still be okay. I needed a can of cannelloni beans for the stew and lo and behold! The beans were one of the items I wanted to use up. They had a best use date of Jan 23, still perfectly okay.
So pleased when two things come together in a win win!
The stew was good, will use more tomatos next time.

Claydisarray, to movies
@Claydisarray@socel.net avatar

It's Thursday! Here's a throwback to some of my pop culture posters 💙

My poster for Nuts in May with my models of Keeeef and Candace Marie
My poster for Frank with my model of the character
My poster for I May Destroy You with my model of Arabella

Giselle,
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@Claydisarray
They look really great!

Giselle, to random
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

So Twitter got itself payment processing licences in a number of US states. Huh. I would have a question if I lived there. Why on God's green earth would I want to entrust my finances to Twitter? Why would I want to trust Elon Musk with my money or data? There's just no way. I want to stay away from that place and that guy's power trip as I possibly can.
So it's not exactly banking but apparently PayPal like payment services like Venmo. It is still a hard no from me.
Not even if hell froze over.

consumablejoy, to knitting
@consumablejoy@wandering.shop avatar

I’m interested in this skirt but I’m concerned that it would take me forever of repetitive knitting to do it. Thoughts? https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/giverny-3

#knitting #FiberArts @knitting

Giselle,
@Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

@consumablejoy @knitting
Knit purl ribbing can go quickly wrong where you end up with half a row of wrong stitches and have to tink back. I'd be reluctant to do a whole skirt. And the price for this ebook is pretty steep. Are there lots of other patterns in it that you want?
If you want a skirt like this I would start at the hem and see how you get on. Once you get to the waist shaping you could use a smaller needle as needed. Knit a facing that you can fold down and put an elastic in.

alexandra, to random
@alexandra@social.lol avatar

deleted_by_author

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    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @alexandra
    I use * Google Keep notes a lot, for to-do lists (checkboxes that push the checked item under the unchecked items!), you can copy quotes or mid-length notes (without check boxes), even save images. Unfortunately not many templates.

    • Notion, I use it for everything that's not Keep Notes. Everything!!
    • Pocket
    • Meetup
    • Habitica: gamify your tasks (tho I've gone off it a bit, still can be fun)
    FanCityKnits, to knitting German
    @FanCityKnits@troet.cafe avatar

    Diagonal pockets in - always sounded like a nightmare to me.

    But hey, look at the pictures: it's absolutely doable. In fact, seems rather easy actually.

    Taking note for my next cardigan.

    https://www.interweave.com/article/knitting/knitted-pocket-techni/

    @knitting @fiberarts

    What's your recent lightbulb about knitting?

    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @FanCityKnits @knitting
    My recent knitting lightbulb moment was the Italian cast-on. Once you knit at least the first row you see how great this looks, and how stretchy it is. To my shame I have to admit that I tried this method once a very long time ago and I didn't like the winding yarn around the other bit of yarn, it felt too rudimentary to me. Or maybe I didn't pay enough attention to alternating the two parts, I ripped it back before I'd have seen how great CO is. Doh. Better late > never

    hobbitswife, to random
    @hobbitswife@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    Hmm, how do I compile a Christmas list for me when I don’t really want or need anything?

    A donation to the local foodbank is already on the list as is a planting trees in Africa charity.

    Managed to add a purse, a phone case and an iPad case but I’m stumped now. We’re comfortably off and don’t need others to buy us anything but they want to.

    I hate receiving tat so would rather have nothing or a charity donation, but get told that’s not what they want to do.

    What on else can I ask for???

    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @hobbitswife
    Do you want to spend time with the potential gift givers and they could give you a "voucher" for it? Like: going out together to watch a film at the cinema (either with getting a ticket for you or going Dutch), or a voucher for going on a walk together... Or whatever it is like you might like to do together with them/that person?

    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @hobbitswife
    Or even things like: "I'll walk your dog/look after your budgie for x amount of time", do your ironing for an hour twice next year.. Knit you mittens if you tell me the pattern and yarn (colour) to use...
    Lots of possibilities.

    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @Vinnyboiler @Emperor
    Thank God it's been rejected! There's a good (YouTube?) report on the Las Vegas sphere: whoever does concerts or events for it, has to carefully design a performance which will be tailored specifically for that venue and nothing else. Who is going to be able to do that? Very few bands and musicians would be able to, or willing. Maybe they could get some Las Vegas style entertainment set up that keeps running for a long time, but in London? Nah.
    Good decision by the mayor.

    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @Vinnyboiler @Emperor @NickwithaC
    Plus: ticket prices would have to be really steep to make back construction and running costs. With the way prices for everything are skyrocketing (have you seen how much basic food costs these days?), who could afford them? It would become a white elephant very quickly.
    On top of the light pollution...

    openculture, to random
    @openculture@toot.community avatar

    A Determined Art Conservator Restores a Painting of the Doomed Party Girl Isabella de’ Medici: See the Before and After

    https://www.openculture.com/2023/09/art-conservator-restores-a-painting-of-the-doomed-party-girl-isabella-de-medici.html

    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @openculture
    Heh, "The face was too blandly pretty, “like a Victorian cookie tin box lid,”"- "" Victorian" was the exact description that I thought of when I saw the bland and kitschy image on the left. The after image is very striking, Isabella must have had quite a strong personality. I'm so glad this was restored. 19th century overpaint, pshaw... Horrible.

    Giselle, to books
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    On no, I just made the mistake of looking for Kaje Harper's recent book Rocking Karma on Kobo. Can't find it (darn. Definitely not shoving any money Amazon's way. That's a hard no). So of course I got several daily deal books, plus a Cynthia Harrod-Eagles that I don't know yet (War at home), and THEN I discovered a Murder Bot book by @marthawells that I had no idea exists! Be still my beating heart...! So of course I'm spending way more on all those than I set out. Ah well.

    mythologyandhistory, to random
    @mythologyandhistory@mas.to avatar

    Katalin Karikó & Drew Weissman just won the in Medicine for the discovery of two mRNA vaccines against !

    It's neat that something we all of an actual concept of, and that affected all of us so fundamentally, was just honoured :)

    Also, Karikó is the first woman to get a Noble Prize in Medicine since 2015!

    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @mythologyandhistory I was so happy to hear it! I am fascinated by mRNA (the concept, how it works), research into using it against other diseases is really intriguing. I hope they get somewhere with cancer or other conditions.
    We got very lucky that this was available for getting developed in time for Covid, very lucky.

    Giselle, to random
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    A Haunting in Venice, I thought it was quite a good film but it didn't resonate in a huge way with me. I wanted to see it because I'm very into cozy mysteries right now (I loved Knives Out!), but it wasn't very cosy. It made me jump quite a few times, in a jump out of your skin kind of way. I guessed some surprises and the solution, but pleased with that.
    The reason for the "supernatural" perception by Poirot was a good one.
    I liked Camille Cottin and Jamie Dornan a lot, and the kid! ...

    feditips, (edited ) to random
    @feditips@mstdn.social avatar

    There are many ways to discover interesting accounts on here. How many of these have you tried?

    1. Follow hashtags
    2. Join groups
    3. Follow people, they share posts by others
    4. Use FediFinder to discover Twitter people who are also on here
    5. Browse directories
    6. Follow curators
    7. Browse trending posts & hashtags
    8. Use StreetPass for Mastodon to discover website accounts on here
    9. Hang out on Local & Federated timelines

    More info on how to do all of these at https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-find-accounts-to-follow-on-mastodon-and-the-fediverse-how-do-i-find-my-friends/

    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @feditips A useful tip is also to look for toots you find interesting and look through responses to find people to follow. And if you want to animate people to follow you: respond to an interesting toot, or engage someone with a (thoughtful) question. Engagement is what works wonders.
    Or respond to someone's question, particularly of new joiners (look at the relevant hashtags)

    NatureMC, (edited ) to FiberArts
    @NatureMC@mastodon.online avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @BluRae @NatureMC @sewing The notched shawl collar view is really cute.

    NatureMC, to random
    @NatureMC@mastodon.online avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    Giselle,
    @Giselle@mastodon.me.uk avatar

    @NatureMC That reminds me a bit of a past handicrafts teacher who should have never been given a job in school. She held up the project of one girl in class and went on and on how awful it was. Horrible person. I wanted nothing to do with any crafts until my peer group picked up knitting and I followed suit. So I luckily outgrew my loathing, love all kinds of different crafts today. Some teachers should never be teachers, their natures make them unsuitable.

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