truly one of the most demoralising things about being in the job market atm is "only successful applicants will be notified" is practically a universal standard. so you spend hours, sometimes days filling out applications, writing CVs and cover letters only to be ghosted as the only form of communication. Not even a "thank you but this time you've been unsuccessful" email. You're in a constant state of "did I not get it or have they not contacted me?" and you just have to eventually conclude you were unsuccessful without so much as courtesy, "sorry, but thank you for your application." A literal thankless cycle for months and months and months. You'd think with all the ways to automate these processes they would at least have the time, means and decency to acknowledge your submission and let you off the hook, but no. You're just in limbo in every possible way in the name of "efficiency". Solidarity with everyone going through this because it is truly dehumanising and demoralising to work so hard on putting yourself forward constantly without acknowledgement or useful communication of any sort for long periods of time, and most ppl simply will not have any compassion for what that's like.

Slow night at work, but there's a chance one of the monarchs is going to emerge this evening so I keep walking down the hall to see the display.

Today's update:

love the genre of discourse that’s like “the world used to be [thing it never was] but now society is [I’m over thirty]”

evergreen post

I do think the ability to emoji-react is a net win for human communication. not only does it give you an outlet for 'I see and acknowledge this but don't have a verbal response' but it also adds a pleasing alethiometer element to things

my coworker announces that he's off to the dentist. someone reacts with a tooth emoji. is this a statement of dentist solidarity? a wish for my coworker to return with more (or fewer?) teeth than he set out with? simple word association? who can say

Love it when a character is like “I can tell you’re trying to smooth talk me and I’m fully aware you’re trying to manipulate me but it’s working. Keep complimenting me.”

Ah, you’re trying to flatter me. My one weakness! Keep going.

Also picking up new books you’ve never heard of before because the premise sounds neat or the cover is pretty or it’s on a themed library display or you’re just trying to read your library’s entire catalogue of 90s cyberpunk is just fun. Sometimes it’s not your thing but you get to mull over new ideas or the diversity of people and opinions and thoughts in the world. Sometimes you discover your new favorite book of all time

Everyone should say what new favorite book they found this way in the tags!!

I literally just saw this call for people to share short blog posts about how they discover books!

Well I would give a medieval peasant some spaghetti.

1. They don’t have forks. I would hand them a fork with it and see what they do.

2. They don’t have tomatoes. This is something they can never experience again

3. I would let them keep the plate because it’s a nice plate and I think they’d like it

i love it when a post comes with its own FAQs

what the fuck do you mean they didn't have tomatoes

Tomatoes are not native to Afroeurasia and generally wouldn’t have been available on that continent before the Colombian exchange. When we refer to medieval peasants we’re usually referring to the poor of Europe and west Asia between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of what we now call the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. A time before the so-called age of exploration and colonization brought food such as tomatoes, maize, and potatoes to Afroeurasia and domesticated animals such as pigs and chickens to the Americas. European cuisine of the poor and rich alike before the Colombian exchange would still have been tasty with their wide selection of game meat, herbs, vegetables, and grains, but tomatoes would not have been available to them and that’s why I want to give a medieval peasant a plate of Italian-American style spaghetti with marinara sauce just like dad used to make

wait so. italy? i guess it’s not called afroeurasitaly, but…so “italian” food used to not have tomatoes? until they came from the americas? and they they what, decided “hey let’s just rebuild our national identity around these tasty christmas tree ornaments”? centuries of italy were lasagna-free and i’m just supposed to accept this

They had lasagna. It just didn’t look like what we think of lasagna today. It was more like layers of flat noodles with spices and cheese on a plate that you ate with your hands rather than a baked dish.

If you look at ancient Roman food there’s certain things we’d recognize as “Italian” like olive oil or fermented fish sauce or cheese but the flavor profile is completely different and pasta isn’t anywhere to be found. They also had herbs and spices that have since become unpopular or even gone extinct.

A lot of things we view as unmovable and unchanging about certain culture’s cuisines are incredibly recent developments. Modern Indian cuisine for example can be traced back to a singular guy in the 16th century. And these days lard is considered to be integral to making tamales but that wasn’t used until the Spanish brought over pigs and cows.

Food culture is something that can change very rapidly. Sometimes within a single generation. People generally use what they have available and what’s available can change at a moment’s notice.

This feels like watching a clown get questioned by the crowd before they pull out a history textbook and proceed to whack the audience repeatedly with it

That sums up pretty well what it’s like to be me yeah

The thing about people using delusional as an insult or "delulu" as the trendy new term is that sometimes I really want to sit someone down and tell them that I think they're genuinely delusional and that they can get support and help if they're living with psychosis and that they absolutely aren't alone but even the most neurodivergent-positive person will respond as if I'm calling them the most horrible words in existence.

Delusional is a neutral term. Being delusional is a neutral state. When you contribute to the stigma around delusions and being delusional, you are stealing valuable language from people dealing with psychosis and people who are seeking help and support for the things they're going through. And as a delusional person, it really fucking sucks.

I’m currently trying to convince my roommate to seek some help about exactly this kind of thing and the biggest battle I’m having is over the idea that they’re delusional and how they can’t be because they’re not a bad person and why would I say that and it’s genuinely very frustrating because I’m not criticizing them I’m saying “I see you struggling and I want to help”

Yes, yes, this exactly! Like the stigma around delusions and psychosis in general is so fucking bad that even SUGGESTING someone could be experiencing psychosis is seen as an attack on their character, their morals, and their ability to exist around other people. It's such a painful thing to deal with and it means that a lot of people who could be getting help, taking medication, going to therapy, building support systems, finding coping skills, etc are instead just suffering as their mental state gets worse and worse.

So many people are unable or unwilling to get help and live with the stigma and mistreatment and so many of those people end up reaching a breaking point where they hurt themselves or others. So much pain could be avoided if we as a society talked about psychosis openly and honestly and stopped tolerating ableist language that demonizes people just for existing.

Also picking up new books you’ve never heard of before because the premise sounds neat or the cover is pretty or it’s on a themed library display or you’re just trying to read your library’s entire catalogue of 90s cyberpunk is just fun. Sometimes it’s not your thing but you get to mull over new ideas or the diversity of people and opinions and thoughts in the world. Sometimes you discover your new favorite book of all time

The thing about people using delusional as an insult or "delulu" as the trendy new term is that sometimes I really want to sit someone down and tell them that I think they're genuinely delusional and that they can get support and help if they're living with psychosis and that they absolutely aren't alone but even the most neurodivergent-positive person will respond as if I'm calling them the most horrible words in existence.

Delusional is a neutral term. Being delusional is a neutral state. When you contribute to the stigma around delusions and being delusional, you are stealing valuable language from people dealing with psychosis and people who are seeking help and support for the things they're going through. And as a delusional person, it really fucking sucks.

From Octavia Butler’s notebooks, 1988

I knew I was getting close to Textile City. I could see their monument, a colossal weaving device, looming in the distance.