DnD n other geek things

Spoons can be used pretty much anywhere.

Carnival tickets are only good for the carnival, and it’s only in town for a limited amount of time.

of course it's the groceries but it isn't just the groceries, it's everything. now it is $25 for you to eat at chipotle. you remember when they were famous for their portion sizes (and their food safety issues). you were a hungry college student and could actually-afford to eat there. these days the food is worse and the price is higher - why not just go anywhere else?

you have just a quick question for your pharmacy so you look at their website and even do battle with their chatbot but inevitably the answer isn't there. you try calling customer service. you listen to first a long automated message telling you to go online and try the website first. you listen to an AI voice named Jan or Kelly as she asks you to state the nature of your request and hems and haws and says i'm sorry, i don't think i'm understanding. you try pressing "0" and saying "speak to an operator" and "talk to a representative" and "live agent". she never connects you. if literally one person spoke to you, you'd have been able to resolve this in approximately 15 minutes. it has now been an hour and Jan/Kelly's server farm is out there somewhere ruining the environment while she fails to do her job.

you watch as more and more corporations choose shady business practices - are caught on camera doing so - and discover that no legal action has been taken. that the company is calling the obvious and deliberate action "a sad accident." you watch people point out that "black friday sales" are literally more expensive than the original price. you watch as someone shows an email that is literally violating consumer safety laws. you watch as someone blatantly commits fraud.

but who are you supposed to call about that? there are no regulations anymore. they're free of that nasty "red tape" republicans hate so much. food is spoiling on the shelves and there is cesium in your shrimp. everywhere you look, the same dedication to the shareholders. everywhere you look, the prices get higher while the product gets worse.

they can keep doing it forever, right! they can just keep doing whatever they want, forever. infinite money glitch.

and the thing is: you were okay to pay a certain amount to watch a movie for the experience (and of course that one moment with nicole kidman). you understand that verizon has always been evil; you weren't expecting a rapturously friendly experience. you came from a family where money was always tight: you have always been trying to "do the right thing". the coupons and the price-matching and going to twenty stores just to find 6 different things.

as an adult: actually, you are okay to spend a little extra if the product is nice, if you are given something wonderful. if it is worth it.

but now the bag is half-empty. now the clothes are ever-thinner. now they release the game half-finished with the attitude of: whatever, you'll buy it. the technology that used to last you 5+ years now falls apart in the second month due to a known manufacturing error that you have to pay to resolve. the gas monopoly quietly installs a new "smart meter" that artificially raises your costs by 300 a month. the trip to disney is not magical; it is expensive and hostile. you are priced out of your own life in order to worship the shareholders.

you do the capitalist thing: you take your business elsewhere.

"my name is pattie gonia and i'm backpacking 100 miles in drag to try to raise $1,000,000 for 8 outdoor nonprofits. here goes nothing."

Post by @ pattiegonia.

An adult human being should be able to decide what to have for dinner. Yes, some days it's rough and you don't wanna, but the point is, you can do it. And if you can't, you can learn. Hell, make post-it notes with dinner options, stick them on a dart board, and on days when you really can't decide, throw a dart.

You'd really rather put these decisions in the hands of an AI? As in, a company? And you don't see the issues with that? You don't see how easy that makes it for companies to manipulate you, influence your choices and your spending and your entire life?

And if your mental health relies on talking to a robot about your issues "because it listens and cares" - no, it doesn't. It can't listen. It can't care. It's lying to you. It's parroting phrases said by other people in similar contexts. It's an elaborate predictive text machine.

And again, you're just giving all of this information about yourself to a company. A company that wants to make money and likely has no compunctions about selling your data. You're trusting a software run by a company. And you don't think that'll be used to manipulate you? I've got a bridge to sell you.

What you need is actual human connection with other humans. And if you don't know how to connect with other humans then it's time to learn. Start by caring about other people. Take a genuine interest in them. Listen to them. That's how you connect. Not by treating others as entities to dump all your issues on or monologue at about your boring life. Sure, character.ai will put up with that and humour you, but there's literally nothing genuine about it and you will never ever learn to make actual friends.

Relying on genAI for any of this means you'll never learn, in fact you'll get worse, and if genAI ever goes away or you find yourself without access to a computer/phone/internet or the people running chatGPT or character.ai take down the website or put it behind a paywall, you'll be completely adrift. You are handing control of your life over to a piece of software run by a business. Instead of developing skills and independence you're just handing control over to someone else, someone who by the way does not care about you, someone who's only here to make money.

"But some people need--" to stop infantilising themselves, to start taking responsibility and control of their own life, to realise that they have agency and power, to learn that agency and control are not the same as blame and guilt and that someone trying to help them reclaim control is not trying to blame them for their situation.

Open computer settings

Click on Accessibility on the left-hand menu

Scroll down the Accessibility menu and click on the Keyboard Option

Under the "related settings" tab, click "Typing" which should have a description of "spellcheck, autocorrect, text suggestions."

Turn off the AI "correct misspelled words"

and most importantly: turn off Typing Insights.

[ID: a screenshot of the above mentioned Windows 11 settings, showing that Typing Insights is now turned off, with the following description from Microsoft: "Windows is using artificial intelligence to help you type To help you save time and type efficiently, Windows can learn to suggest words, autocorrect spelling mistakes, and interpret swiped typing. Take a look at the insights below to see up-to-the-minute stats on how Windows has learned to improve typing for you. These stats are stored only on this device and Microsoft does not collect the typing insights data." End ID]

"But Mx. November, it says right there Microsoft doesn't collect the typing insights data!"

I mean, yeah, it says that..... for *now.*

It also only specifies that Microsoft themselves don't collect it, and they wouldn't have made this something that I was automatically, secretly opted in for without my knowledge if they didn't have something to be gained by me not knowing it exists!

I only found this because a cat walked on the keyboard and turned on Filter Keys and while trying to figure out why my keyboard was just making chirping noises instead of typing, I happened to click on "typing insights" by accident.