@melindrea@wandering.shop
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

melindrea

@melindrea@wandering.shop

Programming polyglot with a soft spot for Python, PHP, Linux and automation. Also, I write Viking & Folklore fiction.

Co-sinner: https://wandering.shop/@knaveofswords

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

mem_somerville, to history
@mem_somerville@mastodon.social avatar

ICYMI: if you are a textile artist, you might appreciate this piece by Elena Kanagy-Loux.

"My Grandma’s Doilies Are Not a Joke

When will art institutions finally pay respect to our foremothers’ artistry?"

https://hyperallergic.com/906788/my-grandmas-doilies-are-not-a-joke/

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@mem_somerville The two things that turns me off of a crafter/their patterns/their youtube channel the fastest ...

  1. "not your grandma's"
  2. g*psy (the second word because it is considered a slur by many Romani)

I unfortunately never learned to crochet from my grandmother, but she was absolutely an artisan, and so was my mother. nowadays I crochet, and am flattered that when my family wants crochet, they ask me.

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@mem_somerville What kind of absolute bullshit "teehee, oh, you thought fibre arts could have value? lulz!" of a "joke" was that? >.<

I like reminding people that much of what we know about the Battle of Hastings (1066, the Normands conquering England) ... was because women made a tapestry of the battle.

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@mem_somerville (technically embroidered, which apparently doesn't match the definition of tapestry, but ...) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“Society of Authors survey reveals a third of translators and quarter of illustrators losing work to AI”

We all know how crap generative images are but machine translation seems to be outright declining. Google Translate now thinks “skógarþröstur” in Icelandic means “woodpecker” https://downthetubes.net/society-of-authors-survey-reveals-a-third-of-translators-and-quarter-of-illustrators-losing-work-to-ai/

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@baldur A friend of mine has also complained about it--among other things that they can't anymore suggest improvements/change specific words in the way they used to be able t.

jf_718, to actuallyautistic
@jf_718@mas.to avatar

For me to understand how autistic/allistic brains differ I think of the Motorola 68000 CPU family vs Intel x86 in the 16 bit era. There was equivalent software on either but you couldn't directly run x86 code on a 68k machine; it was doable with an emulator at a great cost in performance. Allistic people expect us to run x86 code and we have to run x86 emulators (masking) to do things their way. Burnout cripples our CPU then emulators crash.

Anyway, it makes sense to me.

@actuallyautistic

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@jf_718 @actuallyautistic I agree that's a pretty decent analogy. There's no perfect ones (apart from, y'know ... comparing autistic people with allistic people, but that's not very helpful <.<), but I think the concept of "we're forced to run apps/programs through an emulator to 'pass'" at least gives an idea for people who know about that kind of systems.

melindrea, to fiberarts
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

I am currently quite annoyed with myself >.>

I was working on a shawl using a modified pattern (I'd added more stitches at the beginning and end of each row, so had to rewrite parts of the pattern). This is the third I'm making, and almost done with it ...

and that's when I realised that I'd accidentally for all three shawls had turned celtic weave into cables 🤦‍♂️

It still looks good, just ... 😑 @fiberarts

melindrea, to random
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

I don't know this person, but it occurs to me that if people are blocking their domain due to the spamfest, they won't see this!

nddev, to actuallyautistic
@nddev@c.im avatar

We had dinner with some friends this evening -- five of us in total. After discussing it with Helen earlier in the week, I came out to them as autistic.

I got an interesting set of reactions. Angela (a former headteacher, who I thought knew more about autism) said: "but you're so social." So I said a few words about masking and learning to spend time in company. Lesley replied: "you should have known him when he was young. He was really quite odd." (No, it's fine, we have that kind of relationship.)

I told Angela I thought she'd known for years, and she said she'd suspected it, but only because of my unusual walk. So, if you really want to pass as NT, you need not only to avoid ticcing and stimming, and make eye contact, and say the right things at the right speed, and pull the right faces, but also to get your walk right. Who knew teachers specialised in gait analysis?

So that's it. I'm committed. I'm now. 🙂

@actuallyautistic

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@nddev @callunavulgaris @riggbeck @actuallyautistic

I used to love walking on my toes (I don't as much nowadays) and hate wearing shoes. AFAB, but non-binary.

autism101, to actuallyautistic
@autism101@mstdn.social avatar

Watching the same show over-and-over again is one way I regulate the autistic side of my brain. But the ADHD side sure gets bored sometimes.

Do you watch any shows on repeat?

@actuallyautistic

image: @NoNonsenseND

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@autism101 @actuallyautistic As far as I know I'm not ADHD, but I have some traits. In particular, I'm occasionally in the state of:
Watching new thing? No! I don't know what's going to happen!
Watching thing I've watched before? Not! I know what's going to happen!

melindrea, to random
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

Feb 1st

Hello I'm an inspirational butterfly who goes through various arts-and-crafts. Currently working on 2nd pass of a novella I started years ago:

It's set in a haunted forest and written in first person, leaning heavily into Norse folklore while being explicitly set in a contemporary setting.

Main character is vaguely based on me (except late teens), with pain + being queer.

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

Feb 2nd

Do I feel one should force oneself to continue a book that might be "garbage"? Well, that frankly depends.

I don't write garbage. If I feel like a thing of mine is garbage, it's because it isn't going to work out, so while I might be able to write it later, at this point I can't and shouldn't.

Now, this doesn't mean I think everything of mine is sunshine and roses--writing requires a lot of work, and early drafts need polishing, sometimes a lot. But not garbage.

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

feb 3

For me, I'd want an editor who is capable of helping the story to be better while still in my voice. I have heard of editors inserting their own voices and suggesting changes that wouldn't make it better in the author's style, but rather make it different.

I can actually use an example of an "editor" doing that to my work (in quotation marks because it was me >.<): I "fixed" grammar, and rewrote this and that and ... completely destroyed the story. It wasn't my voice.

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

Feb 4th:

I mainly use Scrivener to write, though I've also used google docs on occasion when I've been away from my computer.

For me, my favourite part about Scrivener is that it can handle writing in segments. i don't start at "chapter one" and then write in order until "the end", but rather "okay, this scene this happens, that scene this other thing happens", which gives me a bunch of fairly disjointed documents that I can move around into an outline that I'm good with.

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

Feb 5:

Can I feel the emotions of the characters as I write them?

Yes and no. Especially in the early drafts I tend to aim for not going too deep into things, but during revision I try to get into it. I will often close my eyes to imagine being where the character is: smell, hear, taste, see what they're sensing. Which includes physical sensations and mental thoughts.

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

Feb 6

in the particular story right now, I might be tempted to write the story of Gjermund Trollbane. He was part of a group of warriors that entered a creepy forest (somewhere in the Scandinavian iron age) to kill the giant who was trying to take over their part of the world.

We don't get much details about him--only meet him momentarily as he and his allies are still haunting the forest (though this doesn't mean they failed, only that they didn't make it out).

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

Feb 7

I write because ... I have to. When I get the want to write (it tends to be cyclical what type of art/craft I'm into), then I need to write.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

It turns out cassowaries have been domesticated—as guard-fowl.

I figure some brave soul grabbed one of the GIANT LUMINOUS NEON MARKER GREEN eggs (the colour of "do not fuck with me for I am deadly" in nature) and ran away with it. Then it hatched, and they fed the giant murder chicken that kept following them around.

<supervillain>
When I get my island volcano base the inland jungle will be patrolled by giant murder chickens LOYAL ONLY TO ME! Take that, laser-sharks!
</supervillain>

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@cstross I feel this is something I either should or shouldn't share with one of my RPG groups.

Facts:

  • My character has bought guard geese
  • Another character is planning on learning a craft that can create/manipulate living things
kitoconnell, to queer
@kitoconnell@kolektiva.social avatar

Apparently the " is a slur" discourse is back on social media and look, y'all, we settled this in the 1990s. Get with the century. We have a right to reclaim these words and we already have. Get the fuck over it, and accept my queer as fuck self or get into some therapy.

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@kitoconnell I think that to me what really drove home things is someone pointing out that the "queer is a slur" crowd often either (on purpose) leaves out part of it ... or has been taught by the people who leaves it out.

Queer is a slur ... for the kind of lesbian (which are not all!) who also considers bi and/or trans people to not be part of their community. Us reclaiming queer is us going "we don't need to tell you all our labels", which exclusionist people don't like.

janellecshane, to random
@janellecshane@wandering.shop avatar

learn the mammals with the help of dall-e3!

https://www.aiweirdness.com/learn-the-mammals-with-dall-e3/

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@janellecshane I have heard of people having trouble when to stop writing the word banananananana ... but this is the first time I've seen Ä or Ö with more than 3 dots (generally there's supposed to be only 2 <.<).

Check the BÖBRÅ and the VÄRN

theautisticcoach, to actuallyautistic

Where are my hot sauce lovers?

What are some of your favorites?

Share below :)

My favorite ones out there come from the brilliant team at Swet in Belgium

@intergalacticmegallama are my hot sauce lovers?

What are some of your favorites?

Share below :)

My favorite ones out there come from the brilliant team at Swet in Belgium

@actuallyautistic

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@theautisticcoach @actuallyautistic
when we had more hot sauce at home (we don't at the moment for ... no particular reason, we just haven't gotten it since the last batch was emptied), we loved both Chalula (or however it's spelled) and Sriracha.

lowqualityfacts, to random
@lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social avatar

Starting next week, Youtube will begin playing five minute unskippable ads that are just a video of their CEO telling you why you're a bad person and that he hates you.

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@lowqualityfacts up until the content of the video, I was sighing because it seemed so likely.

lowqualityfacts, to random
@lowqualityfacts@mstdn.social avatar

I'm surprised that so many people don't know this.
https://patreon.com/lowqualityfacts

melindrea,
@melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

@lowqualityfacts I'm amazed Martha Washington is still up for that

Tattooed_mummy, to random
@Tattooed_mummy@wandering.shop avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    melindrea,
    @melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

    @Tattooed_mummy It is absolutely delicious to eat it like that. It's kind of like chewing gum, except that most of the flavouring is liquid (and you occasionally need to watch out for the wire that the honeycomb was built on ... and/or a dead bee, though the last is quite rare)

    johnshirley2024, to random

    I heard a joke last night, "How do you become a millionaire? You start out a billionaire and then invest your money in wineries." A variant I'm sure must be going around: "How do you become a millionaire? You start out a billionaire and invest your money in Twitter."

    melindrea,
    @melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

    @johnshirley2024 The variant I've heard is "how do you make a million? You start out with two"

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

    I have a purple toothbrush and I do not know what this means.
    https://patreon.com/lowqualityfacts

    melindrea,
    @melindrea@wandering.shop avatar

    @lowqualityfacts the preview was 100% chef's kiss.

    "toothbrushes are 50% less likely to commit aggravated assault than people who own red"

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