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♥ mixed language
I was watching a Chinese vlogger open some mail and she was like, "If you can guess what's in this, leave a comment," and I immediately thought, "yi ben livre." Which is a combination of French and Chinese that I blame on Language Jones because youtube had just shown me a thumbnail of his video "Stop Mixing Languages." (And he speaks French, which I assume was the connection my brain made, since when I started learning Chinese it was ASL that I kept substituting with, probably because it was my most recent non-native working language.)
♥ language in dreams
The other funny thing about that is that it's a reminder of how differently we think, since I know a lot of people don't think in words and I definitely do. The other day I saw a discussion of dreaming in non-native languages, and several advanced language learners seemed convinced this phenomenon is either imaginary or "bogus" (not sure exactly what they meant by that), despite multilingual people assuring them it's real and normal. I remember my glee the first time I woke up and realized I'd been dreaming in Chinese. But I know a lot of people don't remember their dreams, either, so it must just be different brains with different experiences.
♥ AI face editing
Relatedly, I hadn't noticed any AI face editing until tonight, when I was watching my one of my favorite Taiwanese vloggers and suddenly thought, "wait, that's not a real face shape." (China has a relatively extreme "beauty filter" culture, and constant exposure to it may make people more likely to slide across the line from "very idealized" to "straight up anime" face without realizing it.) I googled AI face editing, and now I can't stop noticing people's teeth. I hope that passes quickly.
♥ AI face editing and faceblindness
Oh, but also, I found a helpful English video about a Chinese demonstration of AI face editing (the comments were definitely from non-Chinese viewers), and it included a demonstration of live AI face-swapping at the end. I'm faceblind, which I didn't think about at all until the face-swapping demonstration, because the face-editing was very clear to me. I could easily see the difference between the edited and unedited faces. But I could not see the difference between an original face and a face swap. It was amazing: the narrator would be like, "here's a Tom Cruise face swap" and I was like, "it's the same guy," and then the narrator would be like, "and here, obviously it's Scarlett Johannsen" and I was like, "what obviously; what are you talking about, it's obviously the same person."
So anyway, I don't know what that means, except that there's something different about AI face editing that's visible to me as a faceblind person in a way face-swapping isn't. (By comparison, I mean, I've never recognized editing without a comparison until tonight, and this wasn't "that face looks edited" or even "that face doesn't look real," but literally "that's not a normal human face shape." It looked perfectly real, it just wasn't biologically possible.)
♥ training with the pup
Finally, Daphne and I met with a dog trainer today, and as I told Marci, "I was impressed by him." She was like, "That's not a reaction you usually have to men." I know. So rare. (I often get along better with old men, and he says he's been training for 50 years, so maybe the pattern holds.) On the strength of our first meeting I agreed to a few "private" classes rather than a group class. No money was exchanged until the end of today's session, so I don't want to gush until we meet again, but he did everything right in the initial evaluation.
I was watching a Chinese vlogger open some mail and she was like, "If you can guess what's in this, leave a comment," and I immediately thought, "yi ben livre." Which is a combination of French and Chinese that I blame on Language Jones because youtube had just shown me a thumbnail of his video "Stop Mixing Languages." (And he speaks French, which I assume was the connection my brain made, since when I started learning Chinese it was ASL that I kept substituting with, probably because it was my most recent non-native working language.)
♥ language in dreams
The other funny thing about that is that it's a reminder of how differently we think, since I know a lot of people don't think in words and I definitely do. The other day I saw a discussion of dreaming in non-native languages, and several advanced language learners seemed convinced this phenomenon is either imaginary or "bogus" (not sure exactly what they meant by that), despite multilingual people assuring them it's real and normal. I remember my glee the first time I woke up and realized I'd been dreaming in Chinese. But I know a lot of people don't remember their dreams, either, so it must just be different brains with different experiences.
♥ AI face editing
Relatedly, I hadn't noticed any AI face editing until tonight, when I was watching my one of my favorite Taiwanese vloggers and suddenly thought, "wait, that's not a real face shape." (China has a relatively extreme "beauty filter" culture, and constant exposure to it may make people more likely to slide across the line from "very idealized" to "straight up anime" face without realizing it.) I googled AI face editing, and now I can't stop noticing people's teeth. I hope that passes quickly.
♥ AI face editing and faceblindness
Oh, but also, I found a helpful English video about a Chinese demonstration of AI face editing (the comments were definitely from non-Chinese viewers), and it included a demonstration of live AI face-swapping at the end. I'm faceblind, which I didn't think about at all until the face-swapping demonstration, because the face-editing was very clear to me. I could easily see the difference between the edited and unedited faces. But I could not see the difference between an original face and a face swap. It was amazing: the narrator would be like, "here's a Tom Cruise face swap" and I was like, "it's the same guy," and then the narrator would be like, "and here, obviously it's Scarlett Johannsen" and I was like, "what obviously; what are you talking about, it's obviously the same person."
So anyway, I don't know what that means, except that there's something different about AI face editing that's visible to me as a faceblind person in a way face-swapping isn't. (By comparison, I mean, I've never recognized editing without a comparison until tonight, and this wasn't "that face looks edited" or even "that face doesn't look real," but literally "that's not a normal human face shape." It looked perfectly real, it just wasn't biologically possible.)
♥ training with the pup
Finally, Daphne and I met with a dog trainer today, and as I told Marci, "I was impressed by him." She was like, "That's not a reaction you usually have to men." I know. So rare. (I often get along better with old men, and he says he's been training for 50 years, so maybe the pattern holds.) On the strength of our first meeting I agreed to a few "private" classes rather than a group class. No money was exchanged until the end of today's session, so I don't want to gush until we meet again, but he did everything right in the initial evaluation.
Works are due July 11 at 8pm EDT. Here is a countdown.
We hope the creepiness is coming along nicely!
We hope the creepiness is coming along nicely!
(![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
notalwaysright_feed Jul. 8th, 2026 03:00 am)
notalwaysright_feed Jul. 8th, 2026 03:00 am)Read Not Exactly A Prints Charming
Customer: "I want [decent-sized print job]. I'll need it done immediately."
Me: "No can do, I'm afraid. We close in ten minutes, and I have several other jobs I need to complete tonight for collections first thing tomorrow. I can take the order now and have it done by tomorrow afternoon."
Customer: "Well, that's not a very good service."
I wonder how many people go to a casino or play the lottery on July 7. Seven isn't my lucky number. And now I'm thinking about the calendar in general and when the 7th day of the 7th month would fall if we had a cycle of 28 day months (1 would have to have 29 and then still the leap month, whenever. Somewhere around where June 25 is now, I think. It's too late in the evening to do math.)
I started another rewatch of "Heated Rivalry". Maybe I should be watching Shoresy instead. Or old PWHL games. It's only July. There's two months and twelve days until the first pre-season game. That's a long time.
Mom's doctor is not wanting to do surgery. He slapped a different brace on her that she has to wear for six weeks and they'll assess the progress (or lack thereof) at that point. She should have insisted that they put her name in now and if she doesn't need it, she can cancel. No point in having to wait another six weeks if they decide to do it. It's so dumb.
That's all I've got for now. See you all tomorrow.
I started another rewatch of "Heated Rivalry". Maybe I should be watching Shoresy instead. Or old PWHL games. It's only July. There's two months and twelve days until the first pre-season game. That's a long time.
Mom's doctor is not wanting to do surgery. He slapped a different brace on her that she has to wear for six weeks and they'll assess the progress (or lack thereof) at that point. She should have insisted that they put her name in now and if she doesn't need it, she can cancel. No point in having to wait another six weeks if they decide to do it. It's so dumb.
That's all I've got for now. See you all tomorrow.
Tags:
- hockey,
- random,
- rl,
- television
This is today's freebie. It was inspired by a prompt from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gs_silva. It also fills the "Ambiguous Situation" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Hazbin Hotel Fest. This poem belongs to the series Schrodinger's Heroes.
( Read more... )
gs_silva. It also fills the "Ambiguous Situation" square in my 6-1-26 card for the Hazbin Hotel Fest. This poem belongs to the series Schrodinger's Heroes.( Read more... )
Tags:
I have several pictures of the "coyotes," but none at the top of my camera roll, so I searched my photos for "wolf" (since that's what these coyotes look like to me). My photos turned up an actual Irish Wolfhound, whom I don't remember meeting at all, along with several pictures of Mimi running, which I found hilarious and charming.
Then I searched for "coyote," and lo, this picture came up.
( coyote and friends )
One of our neighbors has two cardboard "coyotes" that she puts by the river to keep geese from coming up on the banking. Apparently real coyotes move, so the geese are more convinced by this ruse if the coyotes are not in the same place every time they pass by.
The same neighbor also has a hammock, hence my explanation, "She says the rent to sit in the hammock is to move the coyotes, so I moved a coyote."
(I first encountered the coyotes years ago, at night, while I was out walking with Mimi by flashlight. I genuinely though we had come upon a live animal and I quickly scooped Mimi up and backed away. Mimi was completely unworried, which I admitted after the fact should have been a clue.)
Then I searched for "coyote," and lo, this picture came up.
( coyote and friends )
One of our neighbors has two cardboard "coyotes" that she puts by the river to keep geese from coming up on the banking. Apparently real coyotes move, so the geese are more convinced by this ruse if the coyotes are not in the same place every time they pass by.
The same neighbor also has a hammock, hence my explanation, "She says the rent to sit in the hammock is to move the coyotes, so I moved a coyote."
(I first encountered the coyotes years ago, at night, while I was out walking with Mimi by flashlight. I genuinely though we had come upon a live animal and I quickly scooped Mimi up and backed away. Mimi was completely unworried, which I admitted after the fact should have been a clue.)
Tags:
Having just finished the rough draft of a Project Hail Mary fic, as is customary, I'm obligated to ask if anyone knows where I can find an icon. I've checked ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandom_icons and I'm sure there's another place or two someone else already knows about.
I've got to figure out a title, so thankfully, I'm not in a huge rush.
fandom_icons and I'm sure there's another place or two someone else already knows about.I've got to figure out a title, so thankfully, I'm not in a huge rush.
(notalwaysright_feed Jul. 8th, 2026 01:00 am)
notalwaysright_feed Jul. 8th, 2026 01:00 am)Read Chance Of Them Understanding Is Below Zero
I worked at a call center for a credit union. I had a customer call in one day complaining.
Caller: "Thanks to you, I have insignificant funds!"
How to fake it in society, KJ Charles
We breed lions: confronting Canada’s troubled hockey culture, Rick Westhead
The husbands, Holly Gramazio
Evil under the sun, Agatha Christie (re-read)
The ark
The Sittaford mystery, Agatha Christie
Till we have faces, CS Lewis
How to Fake it In Society, KJ Charles. Titus is a humble shopkeeper who makes paints for artists, who ends up marrying a wealthy woman on her deathbed in order to ensure that her relative (who may well have had something to do with there being a deathbed the first place) is disinherited; struggling with his sudden elevation, he is thrilled when Nicolas-Marc, Comte de Valois de la Motte, a fashionable French escaped aristocrat with a Mysterious Past offers to help him make his way in society. But Nico is a con man barely a step ahead of some very nasty gangsters, and while he hoped to salvage himself with Titus’ money, his new feelings for Titus make it impossible to admit the truth… This is fine. It’s competently put together and I like the paint details but something about this pairing didn’t quite fire for me, the ending tipped a little too far into farce complete with one too many pantomime villains, and basically I think KJ likes con artists and scammers a lot more than I do.
We breed lions: confronting Canada’s troubled hockey culture, Rick Westhead. Solid, painful documentation of the casualties of Canada’s approach to (men’s) hockey, from juniors to professionals, emphasising the gate-keepers who could (but don’t) change their approach. Pretty awful subject material, with all the sexual assault, misogyny, bullying, homophobia and hazing that you’d expect; it’s about culture, and about those who enforce it, but also those who chose to look away or not look deeper, and how much damage reverberates through the system.
The husbands, Holly Gramazio. Lauren, single, is met one night at the door of her flat by her (previously unknown) husband Michael. When he pops up to the attic to change a lightbulb, another husband comes back down; and, every time Lauren gets one up into the attic, she gets another one back, while with each new husband her own life and those of her close friends also change. It’s a great set-up and it rattles along (what if one of the husbands is awful? What if they move away from the flat?) for the first half before running off the rails a bit in the second. Lauren meets a husband to whom the same thing is happening (also, unlike Lauren, he’s about 50:50 whether he ends up with husbands or wives), which was great, but then things go wrong with a husband Lauren loses whom she wanted to keep, and in response Lauren does some pretty terrible things and it’s hard to know how terrible the author thinks they are. I see the author is a game designer, but the book is pitched as “how to choose when there are so many options” dating app rom com rather than “if I treat other people as NPCs how can I do this ethically, especially if I can just reset everything”, which is what I would have liked her to explore more.
Evil under the sun, Agatha Christie
The Sittaford mystery, Agatha Christie
Evil is Poirot staying in a sunny seaside house in Devon when the alluring Arlena, who is having an affair with another woman’s husband, gets herself strangled, and Sittaford is a standalone murder in a snowstorm that took place at the exact time as a group of related people were having a seance and the table spelled out MURDER and the name of the victim. I liked the ideas behind the solution of Evil while not finding them entirely convincing; Sittaford is solider in that respect, but neither are top-tier.
The ark, Haruo Yuki (trans. Jim Rion, who does the Uketsu books). A group of friends exploring the wilderness find a strange abandoned bunker; when they go down into it, an earthquake traps them. The only way out would require one of them to stay behind and face certain death. Helpfully, someone then commits murder; if they can work out who it was, they can force that person to stay behind, although this assumes a) they cooperate and b) whoever it is stops killing more people…
I did like the atmosphere in this, although it could have done with more pace and a lot less “we’re being murdered so let’s split up and go to places individually”. The characters aren’t that well-developed, but there is at least depth to some of them, and the final twist is satisfyingly dark.
Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis One of those books I’ve always meant to read but never got around to before (I think I first read about it in Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, which means it’s been at least 30 years of good intentions. The Cupid and Psyche myth, retold from Orual’s (Psyche’s older half-sister) point of view, with and gosh Orual is a fascinating protagonist, flawed and believable, and a product of her society even when she breaks from it (I note that Joy Davidman was at the very least the first reader on this and at most a co-author). The way Orual’s realisation of how her (selfish) love for others has hurt them reverberates.
We breed lions: confronting Canada’s troubled hockey culture, Rick Westhead
The husbands, Holly Gramazio
Evil under the sun, Agatha Christie (re-read)
The ark
The Sittaford mystery, Agatha Christie
Till we have faces, CS Lewis
How to Fake it In Society, KJ Charles. Titus is a humble shopkeeper who makes paints for artists, who ends up marrying a wealthy woman on her deathbed in order to ensure that her relative (who may well have had something to do with there being a deathbed the first place) is disinherited; struggling with his sudden elevation, he is thrilled when Nicolas-Marc, Comte de Valois de la Motte, a fashionable French escaped aristocrat with a Mysterious Past offers to help him make his way in society. But Nico is a con man barely a step ahead of some very nasty gangsters, and while he hoped to salvage himself with Titus’ money, his new feelings for Titus make it impossible to admit the truth… This is fine. It’s competently put together and I like the paint details but something about this pairing didn’t quite fire for me, the ending tipped a little too far into farce complete with one too many pantomime villains, and basically I think KJ likes con artists and scammers a lot more than I do.
We breed lions: confronting Canada’s troubled hockey culture, Rick Westhead. Solid, painful documentation of the casualties of Canada’s approach to (men’s) hockey, from juniors to professionals, emphasising the gate-keepers who could (but don’t) change their approach. Pretty awful subject material, with all the sexual assault, misogyny, bullying, homophobia and hazing that you’d expect; it’s about culture, and about those who enforce it, but also those who chose to look away or not look deeper, and how much damage reverberates through the system.
The husbands, Holly Gramazio. Lauren, single, is met one night at the door of her flat by her (previously unknown) husband Michael. When he pops up to the attic to change a lightbulb, another husband comes back down; and, every time Lauren gets one up into the attic, she gets another one back, while with each new husband her own life and those of her close friends also change. It’s a great set-up and it rattles along (what if one of the husbands is awful? What if they move away from the flat?) for the first half before running off the rails a bit in the second. Lauren meets a husband to whom the same thing is happening (also, unlike Lauren, he’s about 50:50 whether he ends up with husbands or wives), which was great, but then things go wrong with a husband Lauren loses whom she wanted to keep, and in response Lauren does some pretty terrible things and it’s hard to know how terrible the author thinks they are. I see the author is a game designer, but the book is pitched as “how to choose when there are so many options” dating app rom com rather than “if I treat other people as NPCs how can I do this ethically, especially if I can just reset everything”, which is what I would have liked her to explore more.
Evil under the sun, Agatha Christie
The Sittaford mystery, Agatha Christie
Evil is Poirot staying in a sunny seaside house in Devon when the alluring Arlena, who is having an affair with another woman’s husband, gets herself strangled, and Sittaford is a standalone murder in a snowstorm that took place at the exact time as a group of related people were having a seance and the table spelled out MURDER and the name of the victim. I liked the ideas behind the solution of Evil while not finding them entirely convincing; Sittaford is solider in that respect, but neither are top-tier.
The ark, Haruo Yuki (trans. Jim Rion, who does the Uketsu books). A group of friends exploring the wilderness find a strange abandoned bunker; when they go down into it, an earthquake traps them. The only way out would require one of them to stay behind and face certain death. Helpfully, someone then commits murder; if they can work out who it was, they can force that person to stay behind, although this assumes a) they cooperate and b) whoever it is stops killing more people…
I did like the atmosphere in this, although it could have done with more pace and a lot less “we’re being murdered so let’s split up and go to places individually”. The characters aren’t that well-developed, but there is at least depth to some of them, and the final twist is satisfyingly dark.
Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis One of those books I’ve always meant to read but never got around to before (I think I first read about it in Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin, which means it’s been at least 30 years of good intentions. The Cupid and Psyche myth, retold from Orual’s (Psyche’s older half-sister) point of view, with and gosh Orual is a fascinating protagonist, flawed and believable, and a product of her society even when she breaks from it (I note that Joy Davidman was at the very least the first reader on this and at most a co-author). The way Orual’s realisation of how her (selfish) love for others has hurt them reverberates.
I thought thought surely my ac was going bad. It was blowing coolish air, not very vigorously, but I had it on from 3:30 yesterday to after 12 today, and my room temp was still high.
About an hour ago I realized I had turned the button the wrong way. Ye gads!
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About an hour ago I realized I had turned the button the wrong way. Ye gads!
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Tags:
(notalwaysright_feed Jul. 8th, 2026 12:00 am)
notalwaysright_feed Jul. 8th, 2026 12:00 am)Read A Friendly Reminder To Get That Coworker A Cookie
One of my managers is a big fan of "friendly reminder" emails. Sometimes they are important, but most of them are petty things that could be addressed privately… or not at all.
(notalwaysright_feed Jul. 7th, 2026 11:00 pm)
notalwaysright_feed Jul. 7th, 2026 11:00 pm)Read Unexpected Comeback In The Bagging Area
I've just moved to a new neighborhood, and I'm walking into the local grocery store for the first time. As I'm passing the checkouts, I overhear:
Customer: "Well, the customer is always right, though, so can't you just do it?"
Asked by blackcatofmisery: If you could pitch your ideal series, what would it be about?
Again, this is something I'm not quite sure how to answer by not having specific details or even a fully formed idea of what my ideal series would be about. Sorry this was lackluster of a response to your question. :(
Asked byverdande_mi: What film/series reboot that didn't happen do you wish had gotten a proper chance?
Well, as I keep saying, I'm tired of reboots. We've been living in this age of rebooting/remaking everything underneath the sun that if there was something that I had initially wished had been rebooted, I'm glad that it wasn't because it most likely wouldn't live up to expectations or further expand upon the original and just be another disappointing cheap cash grab. Although I will say, while I was indifferent towards it, I'm bummed about the BTVS sequel reboot, New Sunnydale, if only because the circumstances of how it was axed before it even got the chance to air makes me incredibly bitter and upset on behalf of SMG and the rest of the new cast who were excited and hyped up for it. Would it have been good? Hard to say without having seen anything, but it deserved to at least have that chance.
In addition to this, I also think that the Tomb Raider 2018 movie with Alicia Vikander should have gotten its franchise, as it was based around the 2013 reboot games. It was already greenlit for a sequel and ready to go, but then the pandemic hit and whatever contract deadline that was supposed to be met was missed and so it was silently cancelled. I thought the movie was fantastic, and I was yearning for more, and we deserved more, dammit.
blackcatofmisery: If you could pitch your ideal series, what would it be about?Again, this is something I'm not quite sure how to answer by not having specific details or even a fully formed idea of what my ideal series would be about. Sorry this was lackluster of a response to your question. :(
Asked by
verdande_mi: What film/series reboot that didn't happen do you wish had gotten a proper chance?Well, as I keep saying, I'm tired of reboots. We've been living in this age of rebooting/remaking everything underneath the sun that if there was something that I had initially wished had been rebooted, I'm glad that it wasn't because it most likely wouldn't live up to expectations or further expand upon the original and just be another disappointing cheap cash grab. Although I will say, while I was indifferent towards it, I'm bummed about the BTVS sequel reboot, New Sunnydale, if only because the circumstances of how it was axed before it even got the chance to air makes me incredibly bitter and upset on behalf of SMG and the rest of the new cast who were excited and hyped up for it. Would it have been good? Hard to say without having seen anything, but it deserved to at least have that chance.
In addition to this, I also think that the Tomb Raider 2018 movie with Alicia Vikander should have gotten its franchise, as it was based around the 2013 reboot games. It was already greenlit for a sequel and ready to go, but then the pandemic hit and whatever contract deadline that was supposed to be met was missed and so it was silently cancelled. I thought the movie was fantastic, and I was yearning for more, and we deserved more, dammit.
Tags:
I meant to post last night but I could barely keep my eyes open so I went to bed early (and missed a super rare Mets comeback in Atlanta!) and slept for 10 glorious hours! I felt great at work today, and got some stuff done, and made some suggestions about the September board meeting agenda that I am sure the CEO and the Chair will not like, but they wanted to get radical and also not overrun the meeting time by 45 minutes again, and I offered a good way to do it to my boss. We'll see if anyone bites.
I am off tomorrow for the dentist - it should just be a cleaning (though I am braced to hear I need yet another crown) but I am always so tired when it's over. And my team meeting on Tuesday got cancelled so I am tempted to take next Tuesday off since I'm already off Wednesday (my birthday), Thursday, and Friday of next week. My boss was like, sure! but I'm still thinking about it.
I thought I had something else to post about but I can't remember... oh right, I finally watched Project Hail Mary the other night. I enjoyed it but it was too long. And there was not enough Eva Stratt, who was the best thing in the movie.
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I am off tomorrow for the dentist - it should just be a cleaning (though I am braced to hear I need yet another crown) but I am always so tired when it's over. And my team meeting on Tuesday got cancelled so I am tempted to take next Tuesday off since I'm already off Wednesday (my birthday), Thursday, and Friday of next week. My boss was like, sure! but I'm still thinking about it.
I thought I had something else to post about but I can't remember... oh right, I finally watched Project Hail Mary the other night. I enjoyed it but it was too long. And there was not enough Eva Stratt, who was the best thing in the movie.
*
Tags:
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