that I have worn so many winters out

But I see a lot of takes from anti-AI people that regard LLMs as like. An actual intelligence. I see regular posts on tumblr and Bluesky that go something like "you didnt write this, AI WROTE IT FOR YOU". I went to a webinar for work that was supposedly about how to train library patrons about the misinformation that AI can spread - and the presenter went off on a 10 minute tangent about how these evil chat bots must have sentience because they made a teen kill themselves.

I feel like this is an incredibly harmful and reductive line of reasoning bc it shields the discussion about how these LLMs are coded by developers to behave in these ways, based on specific input and learning data. This is not some evil robot usurper that can be defeated by us just not using its evil robot powers. AI is a symptom of a larger disease in which the sexism, venture capital economy, lack of ethics in STEM education and training, and profitization of personal data of the field of tech metastasized. But these issues will still exist if ChatGPT closes tomorrow. Data centers will still exist - bc while AI uses a lot of power and water, so does most of the things we do online - and the panopticon of government surveillance wants to keep all of this information, AI or not.

If I'm not the best-dressed man at the on-site quarterly financial planning meeting, I'll *die*.

I am normally not a fan of shiny ties, but this one is an exception. It's this shimmery copper in person.

1940's-ish vibe - please don't drive me crazy by calling this Victorian or earlier. This is also all separates and not a suit. (Jacket and trousers would match if a suit, and there would be some cut differences, fwiw.)

It was a 2-day planning meeting.

These are vintage (1950s) "doeskin" (combed cotton) waistcoats. West of England and Dunn & Co. are two labels here. I see them pop up fairly frequently on ebay and Etsy.

Oh yeah --

Every time I post about these, it's new to someone, so here's from this morning's prep for work: if you have a problem with your neck being a bit too large for your dress shirt, you can get collar button extenders for that top button. Your tie will look a bit looser, but a collar bar helps hide everything. (Similar exists for waistbands.)

Genly does come from Earth, a place where his sex/gender and those associated characteristics (male) are perceived as the default gender. While penises are surely sexualized on earth (lmao), I think there’s something to be said for how, like, “female” characteristics are said to be seen as like, invoking lust or having a taboo (“female presenting nipples” considered mature on tumblr 💀 for example) surrounding them. Then you also add in our world how trans people are treated — like, for example, the idea that a transgender woman might only be transitioning / wearing women’s clothes / etc. because she finds some kind of sexual pleasure in it — and then you look at how Genly is perceived, as if his existence by inhabiting a sex [and being visibly as such] is in of itself an act of sexual gratification rather than just an alternate (on Gethen) mode of being.

And then you have Estraven one sidedly (for most of the book) glomping onto Genly, and I feel like the reason Estraven could look past Genly being A Pervert (and An Alien) is because Estraven violated the hegemonic social contract in similar ways (his incestuous vow of kemmering with Arek and then Arek’s resulting suicide, even like - iirc, you’re not supposed to vow kemmering to someone a second time? But he still tried with Ashe.) Like, Estraven is not having the exact same experience here (his sexuality is more “deviant” than his gender/sex) but maybe it is similar enough for him to immediately lock on to Genly beyond any urge towards perverse fascination.

(and something interesting about shifgrethor is that you can be like “hold up let me be real with you for a second” to at the very least you friends/allies by “waving shifgrethor” which … I mean yeah you probably wouldn’t say this directly but in terms of masculinity performance … you may be able to trust there are people who you can just “speak directly” (express emotions, etc.) to, instead of having to perform?)

$456/$10k

"My name is Andrej. I'm broke, unemployed and chronically ill (long COVID), and my older sister is also unemployed and disabled due to medical malpractice. She has been dealing with severe chronic back pain since 2021, when she started having sudden and horrific back pain, hip pain and right leg pain, to the point where she was incapable of moving. Her general doctor gave her painkillers that barely worked; the PT she tried didn't work, either, and other doctors ignored her or refused to take her seriously. We live in Serbia, where it's a struggle to set foot in the exam rooms of free public doctors, because the wait times are notoriously bad, so we were forced to seek treatment in private clinics unless we wanted to wait months for an exam.

maybe there will be a background at some point but for now it’s quite finished. also it took me soooooo long to finish this im proud

"two are one, life and death, lying together"