@zdl@mastodon.online
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

zdl

@zdl@mastodon.online

Half-German, Half-Chinese, Half-Canadian, all-bad at math, currently living to her consternation in the People's Republic of China.

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

kassiamelnik, to random
@kassiamelnik@mastodon.de avatar

Whoa, such a warm welcome, so many nice people! Thank you everyone! Please keep recommending other artists to connect with :)

You asked me to share more about ceramics, so here it goes

I am trying new bowls, I call them nuts. This texture is obtained by applying slip (liquid porcelain) with a brush to the surface of the product. Very meditative process.

I took all this out of the kiln yesterday. Now sanding and glazing.
Maybe I'll have time to fire everything next week.




Same bowl, but turned a bit
Multiple unglazed cups and bowls on the table. Forms are really hard to explain, but there are some which are part spheres, others are wavy

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@kassiamelnik If you can explain how the ceramics people at Jingdezhen make transparent ceramics, that would be nice. It baffles me to this day.

The style of pattern is called "rice grain" and its finest examples are fully transparent at the "rice grains", not merely translucent. I've attached a photo.

I know it's not embedded glass. This stuff is eggshell thin in the highest quality grade and there's no bulked out place where flakes or sheets of glass could be.

interpeer, to random
@interpeer@chaos.social avatar

You may have seen the EFF awards opening. You can nominate projects that have made contributions to ensure technology contributes to Human Rights.

I'd like to encourage you to nominate the @librecast project. Just like Interpeer, they are a Human Rights project at heart, and express this through technology.

Thank you!

https://www.eff.org/nominations-open-2024-eff-awards

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@interpeer @librecast Isn't the EFF that organization that's run by a sex pest? Or am I confusing it with another group?

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@interpeer @librecast Ah. FSF, yes. I lose track of all the TLAs and FLAWs in use in the computer world. My apologies.

mrundkvist, to Metal
@mrundkvist@archaeo.social avatar

Is it that the psychedelic doom metal festival I'm attending tonight is on the premises of Stockholm's most well-known club, on a boat? I asked Rob Halford, and as he donned a sailor's cap he told me, "Yes, my son. It is metal."

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@mrundkvist Anybody who thinks gay people can't be metal has never seen or heard Halford.

The Metal God.

juergen_hubert, to random
@juergen_hubert@thefolklore.cafe avatar

Thought of the day:

The primary problem with late-stage is not that it is a market economy, but that it incentivizes eating the seed corn.

"Why should I care about next year's harvest when using the seed corn will improve the profits in this quarter?"

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@juergen_hubert That is the analogy I've always heard, yes. And it's not just capitalism, sadly. The huge famine caused by the Great Leap Forward was partially the result of similar perverse incentives (motivated differently) that resulted in food being forcibly removed from "recalcitrant" peasant farmers and resulting in an enormous disaster that had an impact that rings through to today.

I blame ideology in general, myself, with capitalism merely being the dominant one now.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@juergen_hubert One of the worst things was the campaign against the sparrows¹. Not only was there a drought at that time, and not only was the idiocy of the second Five Year Plan in full swing (complete with the bookkeeping fiascos of the first), but in the middle of this, the government decided that sparrows (!) were a threat to grain stores.

So they ordered them killed.

Which meant they didn't eat locusts anymore. To predictable effect.

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_campaign#Sparrows

zdl, to random
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@dansup @dansup The alt text on the post https://pixelfed.social/p/zhang.dianli/699843661291068434?fs=1 doesn't seem to be showing to me for some reason. I'm using Firefox if that helps. A friend I asked to check can see it using Chromium, however.

Do you have any advice?

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@dansup @dansup Thanks!

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@skry @dansup @dansup That's how it used to work for me, but isn't working now.

Weird.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@skry @dansup @dansup OK, problem over. "Did you turn it off and turn it back on?" solved it.

I closed Firefox and reopened it and I have alt text again.

Sorry, @dansup, for wasting your time.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@skry @dansup @dansup I broaden that to "computers". 🤣

If cars were as reliable as computers we'd still be using horses.

zdl, to random
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

I wish I could credit this clever work of art. If anybody knows, I'll edit with full credit.

zdl, to random
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

For "reasons" I was reminded of the (now-distant) past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLKNzBgUCKQ

Still one of my favourite acts of subversion in China.

chgowiz, to random
@chgowiz@dice.camp avatar

With the amount of coverage that Google's 'udm=14' URLparam is getting, and the fact that its probably getting used alot, I have to wonder how long it will be before the Big G turns it off, because they want the AI to win.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@chgowiz What does udm=14 mean?

ex, to DuckDuckGo German
@ex@chaos.social avatar

Was war eigentlich gestern bei , & co los?
Ich finde nichts in der Presse dazu, nicht mal bei den Fachzeitungen.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@ex Bing's API was malfunctioning and since DDG uses Bing...

lonespelunker, to RPG
@lonespelunker@mastodon.social avatar

Continuing to replace the AI-generated images in my game now that I understand how problematic it is.

It's turning out to be making my game better. Below is a comparison between the AI image I'd generated (on the left) for a snowy outpost and what I drew (on the right).

The AI version is evocative enough, I suppose, but it's obviously AI generated. And the image on the right is MUCH closer to what I envisioned for the scene (despite my art skills). I like mine better.

#rpg #scifi #solorpg

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@lonespelunker Thank you for doing this, and I think your art is FAR superior to the AI dross.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@lonespelunker Keep it up! It only gets better and easier! (I don't do visual arts, but I do music. I know how this goes. 🤣 )

jemmesedi, to Aesthetics
@jemmesedi@c.im avatar

@pixelcats
@s1m0n4

🧵 1/3
Do you remember how we were discussing taste and evaluation a little while ago?

In connection with issues we talked about, this is the kind of story that interests me:

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/apple-music-top-100-albums-ranks-lauryn-hill-the-beatles-b2550215.html

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@s1m0n4 @jemmesedi @pixelcats Well, it's a fine point, but poutine is made with cheese curds, not cheese. Cheese curds are far milder than even the mildest cheese and have a really nice nutty flavour without the hint of sour that even the mildest cheeses have. Further they have a more interesting texture.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@s1m0n4 @jemmesedi @pixelcats If you don't eat a pig-out plate full, I think it is, yes.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@jemmesedi @s1m0n4 @pixelcats Mayonnaise is far superior as a fries topping than ketchup.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@pixelcats @TheLastOfHisName @s1m0n4 @jemmesedi I had my first fries with mayonnaise in Germany. Now if it's available as an option at all, it's my topping of choice (ignoring the "ew!" faces the ignorant around me make).

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@jemmesedi @pixelcats @s1m0n4 Coming back to taste, https://pixelfed.social/p/zhang.dianli/699843661291068434?fs=1 has another example of cultural taste vs. personal preference.

You'll notice in that photo-essay that I refer to a "wash". This is a technique (primarily used in China, but also in a few other places) that eliminates some of the acrid tannin from tea: that horribly acidic bitter flavour that mars a lot of tea, especially when over-brewed.

I know people who PREFER tea to be flooded with tannin. (I call them "weirdos".)

timbray, (edited ) to random
@timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

Do you know someone with significant quality-of-life problems due to Long Covid?

Boosts appreciated.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@timbray @Craftycat @megahertz It's about half as effective at protecting yourself as it is at protecting others.

Which is to say that it's not ineffective, but it's at peak effectiveness if all parties are wearing masks, and it's less effective at protecting the wearer than it is at protecting those around the wearer.

michelemccarthy, to random
@michelemccarthy@c.im avatar

scary lawyerguy:

Of the many double standards employed by the media, Biden needing every speech to be some combination of Lincoln and Cicero while Trump's public appearances are 90 minutes of word salad, non sequiturs, and dictatorial musings that get no push back, is among the worst.

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@WizardBear @michelemccarthy Not "regardless of". "Because of".

jemmesedi, to kpop
@jemmesedi@c.im avatar

I''m one of what seems to be a small minority of Kpop fans in not liking aespa -- Supernova.

This experience brings me back to questions that I consider frequently:

  • Do we really believe that taste is purely subjective, as is so frequently affirmed in pop culture media?

  • Does it make sense to say that one can have defective taste or in some way be mistaken in one's artistic preferences?

#Kpop #PopularCulture #Aesthetics #Taste #Normativity #Aespa #Supernova #GirlGroups #PhilosophyOfArt

zdl,
@zdl@mastodon.online avatar

@jemmesedi The Immigrant Song.

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