Vicky Learns To Hustle

I encouraged my mother to dig my brothers' teddy bears out of the attic (I never gave mine up; it went to college with me). When each turned 50, she gave them their old teddy bear. I have pictures of them with huge smiles on their faces, holding their old teddy bears.

When my father turned 70, my mom and I gave him a "vintage" (anniversary edition) Slinky, a miniature Radio Flyer red wagon, a bag of marbles, Silly Putty, and a couple of balsa wood airplane kits, and he loved them.

tl;dr: use proton mail. i’m not gonna gatekeep this info. it does not require a cell phone number, so it’s my go to for patrons in this situation!!! while i am acutely aware of the harm done by the digital divide & how many people are getting left behind as our world gets increasingly tech dependent, the situation is not hopeless. there ARE provisions in place to help the people most affected, and those provisions are usually wearing glasses & cardigans & sitting behind the circulation desk

Her and Grandpa were in a relationship with their best friends

The four of them have been in a relationship since they were teenagers

They flipped a bottle cap to see which girl the boys would marry

Their children could have either man as their biological father but their biological mother is the mum that raised them

The ultimate middle class fear; working class people having political power

The fear of the mythical 6ft bald headed cockney bloke down the pub -who they think will be running the country under Reform lol as if that party is not directed and run by privately educated bellends, and won't be chock full of privately educated poshies like all of the other political parties

Ironically, hard light is bad for recording sexy time.

It will highlight every pore, every vein, every wrinkle on your nutsack.

@draconic-dm

I hope you don't mind, but I'd like to ask you a favor.

In the future, before you accuse artists of using AI, just do a tiny little bit of research. Look at their other work. You can even ask them privately if you word it nicely.

I don't say this to shame you. I am guilty of the same thing. I accused someone of using AI in much the same way you have.

I was scrolling through photos in a Facebook product photography group. I saw an amazing photo and the photographer said it was his "first time" doing product photography. But his technique was very advanced. I told him he must have used AI because it takes months or even years of training to get that good.

But then he showed me all of his RAW files and I felt pretty bad.

He *was* lying.

Apparently people will say they did something for the "first time" to get extra clicks and attention. I discovered he had been doing product photography for years when I found his website.

But he was not using AI and I falsely accused him without checking first.

My big issue is your confidence.

100%, right?

The photo in question was taken in November 2013.

You can see my 2013 blog post with my original edit here.

It looks a little different because I was not great at photo editing during that period. But it's fundamentally the same photo.

Also, here is the last image I took of Otis the day before he died.

You'll note the date stamp is 2021.

My dog wasn't even alive when genAI was released for public use.

0% AI was used.

“He is exactly the poem I wanted to write.”

Often quoted as if it’s romantic. But here’s the thing