I’m going to start this post off by saying that I write fic, and I know the pain of putting something out there and not getting a response. It sucks and it hurts and it puts a dent in my self-confidence. If I have the choice between posting a work on AO3 and getting only comments or posting a work on AO3 and getting only kudos, I’ll probably choose comments let’s say 8 times out of 10.
But with that in mind, posts that attempt to shame or guilt readers into commenting don’t actually work.
Negative reinforcement (in the form of shame, guilt, or other worse emotions) doesn’t make anyone wantto do the thing. It just makes them want to avoid the guilt, etc. Rather than encouraging someone to talk to you about your writing, you’re making that person want to avoid you so that they don’t have to feel bad. That’s just human nature.
I’ve said before that I think a lot of writers are looking for community rather than comments, and I still think that’s true. The reason I love both writing and receiving comments is because it makes me feel like I’ve made a connection with someone. I may never know their real name or what they look like or where they live or anything else but what fandom we have in common, but we’ve reached out to each other in this text-based medium and we’ve shared words that made each other feel something.
I know that these posts are written out of frustration or loneliness or needing support or a hundred other reasons I could list off the top of my head. But when I read “you should be grateful for the things I give you and show me proper appreciation” it just reminds me of my parents telling me to clean my room or to follow the rules while I live under their roof.
It’s so much more vulnerable to admit, “I don’t know if this story is any good and I really wish someone would reassure me right now.”
It’s much harder to say, “I feel so alone in this fandom, and I want to make friends with someone.”
It’s difficult to admit, “I worked so hard on this for so long and I’m so tired, but if someone out there likes it then all of that effort will be worthwhile - and if no one says anything, then I’ll feel like my effort was wasted.”
I’m not trying to shame the people who made those posts, and if that’s how this comes across then I’m sorry. I’m just trying to explain why I think those posts will harm more than they help.
I also hope that any readers who see this post will understand that those writers are just people who are feeling a lot of different ways, and they’re venting their frustrations. I’ve been there. I’ve reblogged those posts before when I was feeling frustrated like that too.
If you’re able to comment, those comments are appreciated. If you’re not able to comment (for whatever reason), that’s okay too. ❤️
I feel like I should make a post about this because it’s not something that’s very well-known, and that Americans in particular may need to know about given the uncertain state of our healthcare system at the moment. I’ve wanted to write this out for a while, It’s kind of a long post, so sorry about that!
If you have an emergency and have to go to the hospital, you’ll owe the hospital a lot of money. (I got into a car wreck and broke my ankle and my arm. My hospital bill was around $20,000)
You’ll also owe the ambulance provider, if you need one. (My ambulance bill was about $800)
You may get separate bills from the anesthesiologist or surgeon. (My anesthesiologist bill was $1,700)
You may need follow-up appointments. (My orthopedic surgeon billed me for the appointments and his surgery together and it was about $1,000)
You’ve also got to pay for medical equipment you need afterward, like crutches or a walking boot. (Mine cost about $75)
Altogether, I ended up with almost $24,000 in medical debt from one car accident. That’s a really scary number for someone like me who makes $10/hr at a 12 hour a week job.
I got my debt down to $1075 by making some phone calls and submitting some paperwork.
The first thing I did was contact the hospital. They don’t make it easy to find, but many hospitals (perhaps most hospitals?) have financial assistance programs for people who can’t afford medical bills. I don’t make a lot of money, and I have bills to pay, so they were able to help me. I called the billing department and asked if they had any assistance programs for low income people who can’t pay their bills. I had to call multiple times, and I got transferred in circles by people who didn’t know what I was talking about. Finally, I got an appointment with someone in “Eligibility Services” (I don’t know what other hospitals call it, if it’s something different). I had to bring my pay stubs and copies of all of my bills. When I got to the hospital for the appointment, nobody knew what I was talking about so I had to wander a little to find where I needed to go. I spoke with the guy in Eligibility Services, and I waited for a decision on how much of the bill they would forgive. A month later, I got a call telling me it was totally forgiven.
I did the same thing for my ambulance bill and my anesthesiologist, but the process was a LOT easier. I just had to mail some paperwork and it was totally forgiven.
I didn’t bother with the medical equipment suppliers, since the bills came from separate companies and I didn’t feel like going through the process twice for $75. I was assured at the hospital that they had similar programs for debt forgiveness, so I could have probably avoided paying that too.
The only thing I couldn’t get taken care of was the surgeon/follow-up appointment cost, but they were able to put me on a no-interest payment plan.
Medical debt is scary because it’s something that can come from stuff that’s already really scary. I didn’t need the burden of $24,000 in debt on top of trying to get around on a crutch with a broken arm (it’s not easy, believe me!).. but I can’t imagine what it would be like with a bigger debt or a more severe medical emergency. I see lots of people in even worse trouble than I was in, both financially and medically. Please know that there are options for you when that GoFundMe doesn’t do enough. Even if your income is higher than mine, it’s worth a shot even for partial debt forgiveness.
I drew some fanart for a grate story by Blueseabird2 on ao3. It’s called “Grave Promises” and it’s one of my favourites. It’s got amazing writing and the best mix of all the emotions and interesting plot. Go check it out and give the autor some love 🧡
this is great, because as far as i know, one of the reasons cats like to knock things off counters is because it gets a large reaction from us. they don’t realize that it’s an unhappy reaction - they’ve just discovered that they can exert a unique kind of agency over their world.
imagine if you walked into a room and there was a button on the wall. you’d want to press it and see what happened. if it did something like make a beep or change the lights, most people will immediately press it again in response, testing out whether it happens again, or what the pattern is.
so the cat is like, huh, wonder what happens if i do this - and then it gets a Big Reaction! it is having a major impact on its environment! cool! wonder if it happens every time? OH IT DOES! this is fun!
and then the dog is getting treats, which dogs hella like. double enrichment! A+ video.
And this also gives humans animal tv.
I love how the cat watches the dog gobble down almost a whole fistful of the shit the cat is dropping on the floor before the cat goes ‘hang on, maybe this is edible’
today in “google AI is fucking useless because it hallucinates things that never happened”, i bought a couple CVS thermometers that have both been acting up, tried to search if there had been a problem with the whole product line:
there is no record of this product recall. it did not happen. the date “feb 8 2024” is the date someone listed a thermometer for sale on ebay.
Google’s trying to save you the time spent clicking on a site full of AI-generated SEO garbage by presenting the AI-generated garbage right up front! Such efficiency.
I was under the impression that we did know why: AI isn’t actually a brain and can’t actually think or understand information, so it has no concept of something being true or not, or what markers indicate truth or falsity, or how to synthesize information. It’s putting a bunch of words in a jar, shaking the jar, and then dumping it out, and acting like that means the jar knows how to talk.
Like, in this case, OP asked for information about a recall. The AI knows that, throughout the entire internet, the word “recall” usually is surrounded by information like a date or a number, so it gives you a date and a number. It doesn’t know what a date is or what it’s for or what it means. (It also apparently doesn’t know the difference between “recall” as in “removing a dangerous product from the shelves” and “recall” as in “remembering,” since it smooshes the two together)
okay, i’m really confused. we know llms are at least potentially smarter than that; see for instance this recent paper on identifying meanings in modern LLMs. and yet, this does seem to have been unable to figure out the difference between the two senses of “recall”. but that’s ridiculous, they’ve been able to figure out and explain puns for a while now.
but also just in general, be aware that the state of the art is moving pretty fast these days. no idea what the fuck google is using here.
anyway, it’s not as simple as “can’t think or understand information”. they’re certainly not reliable about it, but like. neither am i.
i think the world doesn’t know what it really means to live in a theocratic dictatorship. Let me tell you about our experiences living in the islamic regime of iran.
1. Your parents were born to muslim parents so they’re automatically muslim. You’re automatically a muslim too. You didn’t choose your religion and you can’t opt out of it or you will be executed.
2. The compulsory hijab law makes you a criminal if you choose not to wear hijab even tho you didn’t choose to be a muslim and you don’t consider yourself a muslim but the regime has forced you into that role whether you like it or not. And when you ‘break that law’, they can do with you as they please.
3. little girls as young as 7 yrs old are forced to wear hijab at school even tho the islam itself says the age is 9. and all the schools are gender segregated so imagine how they force you to get used to hijab even when you’re just surrounded by other girls. And all day long at school they tell you horrible stories about what will happen to you in hell if someone sees even a strand of your hair.
4. the regime modifies all the textbooks, story books, cartoons and movies to represent the ideal woman with full on hijab. The iranian media is ordered to photoshop every photo of a woman that may be showing a little skin. And if they’re iranian, no hair is supposed to be seen or that will be photoshopped away. Women are mostly excluded from billboards and tv commercials.
5. imagine going to work or meeting up with a friend when suddenly the morality police kidnap you in broad daylight and force you into a van to take you to a station where they will treat you like a criminal and if you don’t agree to get humiliated and do as they say, they will put you in prison. And in case of Mahsa Amini and so many more before her, they will beat you to death. My sister was barely 18 when she got kidnapped and they didn’t let her call home and she’d been so fucking scared and we had no idea where she was. Imagine all the psychological trauma.
6. If you’re in a car and not wearing hijab they will fine you and seize your car. So when u get into a taxi the driver will ask you to keep your hijab on otherwise they’ll get fined. And if you refuse they’ll ask you to get off the car.
7. And its not just about hijab. In Ramadan, they get even more vicious. If they catch you eating or even drinking water on the street they will give you lashes as punishment and even imprison you for breaking the law. If you work in a state-owned company it’s even worse. They will close the cafeteria and take away the water dispensers. All restaurants are banned from delivering food before iftar. It’s a fucking mess. Everyone has to pretend they’re fasting or they’ll be severely punished.
8. And how could I forget about this! iranian women are banned from singing! the islamic regime prohibits women’s singing voices to be heard by men so imagine the horror of having 50% of the population banned from ever becoming a singer. If they identify a female singer in iran, they will take her to jail and force her to repent her sins in the most humiliating way so that she will never dare sing again.
9. And every time the regime gets wind of a private gathering of men and women trying to have fun and live their fucking private lives, the police crash the party and take everyone to jail bc the Islamic regime bans iranian men and women from having fun.
10. Did you know that the islamic regime doesn’t allow women’s faces to be printed on their obituaries or headstones? They put a flower for our faces instead and if they see a headstone with a woman’s face printed on it they’ll smash it to pieces. That’s how religious dictatorship continues to oppress and erase women even after their deaths.
11. For some reason, women aren’t allowed to ride motorcycles and the government won’t issue any license for them. In some cities, women are barred from riding a bicycle.
So if you see Islam has become for many iranians a symbol of oppression and torture and discrimination, that’s why. The regime uses islam as a weapon to silence and punish anyone who opposes them. You can love islam all you want from the safety of your home in a free country and talk about how kind and benevolent the religion is, but in iran, it’s a whole different story.
Our economy is fucked. All govt officials are corrupt as fuck. Most websites are banned in iran. Even tumblr is banned. The world has cut the iranian ppl from many services. We don’t have intl credit cards like visa card. Amazon doesn’t do delivery to iran. We cant get netflix, spotify or even a gamepass subscription. we don’t get any Apple services here. iran isn’t listed as a country you could choose when signing up for a lot of services. and when we decide to leave iran and escape this hellhole, every country out there will make it sooo much harder for us to get a visa just bc we had the misfortune to be born in iran at the wrong time.
This is the story of iran for the past 44 years. Held hostage by a corrupt regime that uses religion to suppress and torture the people and being abandoned by the rest of the world bc our lives don’t matter.
Please be our voice. Once they shut down the internet completely and silence our voice, they will start slaughtering us to stifle the protests just like they did in 2019. Please help us. We want this fucking regime gone.
^^Everyone should read this before talking about Iran and islamic “repooplic”
Oh and i should add:
This corrupt fuck of a regime has been destroying our country’s culture and resources for 45 years!
They have been destroying forests to build luxurious villas for themselves. They literally dried up lake Urmia and the Zayanderood river with their lack of management
The actions of the islamic republic led to the demise of the last Persian cheetah in Iran, named Pirooz. The species is critically endangered
Our historical landmarks are slowly decaying because this anti iranian regime just doesn’t care about Iran’s culture
We suffer from serious water shortage especially poor provinces like Balouchistan because the mullahs keep drying up the lakes
And don’t get me started on how they are destroying our culture. We barely celebrate our many Persian traditions. Islamic republic has always been trying to “islamize” Iran, meaning the want to erase our Persian culture. They have been trying for years to “modify” or just remove our celebration of the persian new year Nowrooz.
This year the mullahs literally BANNED everyone from celebrating “sizdeh be dar”, our ancient tradition of hanging out with family on the 13th day of the new year. They closed up all the parks, cafes and restaurants to prevent people from going out! Can you imagine how FUCKED UP this is???
This is why we say مرگ بر جمهوری اسلامی
Really great information above about living in this prison, now let me add a bit more how they have FUCKED with literally everything.
The second Gotvand Dam
It was built by Ahmadinedschad, in 2011
Why did it damage the ecosystem, you might ask?
There’s a well known Salt mine near the point of this dam. There has been warnings about this but the dam was built anyway because they can steal money from the project. Anyway, now the river had breached into to salt mine, and sweet water is now salty.
My father is from Khuzestan province and you can search some old b&w footage of native nomads of the area at the end of summer and winters. The flow of the river, the woods around them, 99% of them are gone now.
Mind you, Khuzestan province is on a green Plainfields, home to brown bears, wild boar, wolves, foxes, porcupines, hares, snakes, wild goats, stags and etc. that are so few or wiped out.
As mentioned above, lakes have been dried, rivers too. The country is in a warning state of famine. Cities like Balochistan are poor, so poor they beg for water from travelling cars, even willing to sell their infants.
It was so depressing when I traveled through there and saw it with my own eyes.
Minimum wage is half a dollar per hour, but then every necessities is as expensive as its american counterpart and not a good quality.
Many Balochistanians don’t have iranian or Pakistani birth certificate, but gov is paying Afghanistans with iranian ID and use them in votes or protests in their favor (mourning for Imams, protesting against the world and etc.) where they need the numbers and the videos, faking people’s participate.
Queerphobia is mandatory, even though transexual and transition is legal, the legal process takes 5 to 10 years. I have few friends who are transgender, and one of them, after years of fighting and attending courts and visiting gov doctors, got his permit so he can wear men’s clothing, without morality police kidnapping him because he has female on his id card.
First time I was confronted by morality police was when I was 9!
Yes, girls are forced to wear hijab at schools, but I was a small looking kid, and still they dragged me to a van. If my mother didn’t swipe me away, gods know what kind of trauma they would’ve inflicted on me. (I still shiver whenever I remember her grip on my wrist and glare at morality police in any encounter.)
Historical sites have been vandalized recently by basij (their own forces) and they put the blame on people who were protesting at the time.
1- people were protesting to save persian culture, not harm it
2- the places were guarded and closed at time so only their forces could get in.
remembering the time i drunkenly told a stranger i was a trans man and he started going off about alpha sigma and beta males and how each one was equally important no matter what anyone says and that i shouldn’t feel pressured to be a strong alpha male because emotionally intelligent beta males were just as important
like he was supportive which was nice but. ????????
“The world’s coral reefs are close to 25 percent larger than we thought. By using satellite images, machine learning and on-ground knowledge from a global network of people living and working on coral reefs, we found an extra 64,000 square kilometers (24,700 square miles) of coral reefs – an area the size of Ireland.
That brings the total size of the planet’s shallow reefs (meaning 0-20 meters deep) to 348,000 square kilometers – the size of Germany. This figure represents whole coral reef ecosystems, ranging from sandy-bottomed lagoons with a little coral, to coral rubble flats, to living walls of coral.
Within this 348,000 km² of coral is 80,000 km² where there’s a hard bottom – rocks rather than sand. These areas are likely to be home to significant amounts of coral – the places snorkelers and scuba divers most like to visit.
You might wonder why we’re finding this out now. Didn’t we already know where the world’s reefs are?
Previously, we’ve had to pull data from many different sources, which made it harder to pin down the extent of coral reefs with certainty. But now we have high resolution satellite data covering the entire world – and are able to see reefs as deep as 30 meters down.
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Pictured: Geomorphic mapping (left) compared to new reef extent (red shading, right image) in the northern Great Barrier Reef.
[AKA: All the stuff in red on that map is coral reef we did not realize existed!! Coral reefs cover so much more territory than we thought! And that’s just one example. (From northern Queensland)]
We coupled this with direct observations and records of coral reefs from over 400 individuals and organizations in countries with coral reefs from all regions, such as the Maldives, Cuba, and Australia.
To produce the maps, we used machine learning techniques to chew through 100 trillion pixels from the Sentinel-2 and Planet Dove CubeSat satellites to make accurate predictions about where coral is – and is not. The team worked with almost 500 researchers and collaborators to make the maps.
The result: the world’s first comprehensive map of coral reefs extent, and their composition, produced through the Allen Coral Atlas. [You can see the interactive maps yourself at the link!]
The maps are already proving their worth. Reef management agencies around the world are using them to plan and assess conservation work and threats to reefs.”
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