Inkdreams...

This is a long read, but worth it. Some takeaways:

-Don’t use “buy now pay later.” The fine print isn’t what it seems.

-The fine print on medical financing, store credit cards, and contactless payment is also not what it seems.

-Payday loans are still predatory, even when offered by your employer

-Rewards programs are an income stream for the companies that run them. The points systems are manipulated so that the house always wins. They depend on people leaving money in rewards accounts and not in interest-bearing traditional bank accounts.

-Electronic payment apps like VenMo are not banks. You don’t earn interest. Your money is not protected.

-Your financial information is not private if your money is not kept in a regulated bank.

-None of this is regulated by the FDIC. Your money is not protected if it is held by a non-bank doing banking business. Our economy is not protected from the collapse of financial institutions that are not banks.

-The Biden administration was making progress in increasing accountability for non-banks operating as predatory financial services providers. The current administration is reversing those protections to favor corporations.

Oh boy.

 A third of younger Americans hold their savings on nonbank tech platforms like Venmo

PEOPLE! DO NOT LEAVE YOUR MONEY IN VENMO OR APPLE PAY OR ANY OF THIS SHIT. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GO FIND A REAL BANK OR A CREDIT UNION.

If Venmo were to close tomorrow all your money would vanish. There's no insurance or guarantee on any of these things. I know banks aren't great but legit banks will have the "FDIC insured" logo on their doors and websites, which means if my bank goes under tomorrow I still get my money back. Also I guarantee you there is a credit union somewhere in your town, go find it.

You can leave some money in Venmo or Apple pay or whatever, but NOT ALL OF IT for the love of God.

If you don't want to deal with the large banking industry i get it. Go sign up for a local credit union. They're FDIC insured, your money stays local, and you can personally get to know and talk to your bank.

ok then why didnt you

love love love this

Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi scans

quiz: why do lobsters have one claw bigger

They evolved to handle different prey. the larger crusher claw cracks open ahrder prey like a molar tooth, whilst the smaller pincer claw rips apart soft prey similar to an incisor tooth.

theyre lobsided

oh I see! yay!

CHATGPT IS NOT A SEARCH ENGINE

CHATGPT IS NOT A SOURCE OF INFORMATION

CHATGPT IS NOT STUDY NOTES

CHATGPT IS NOT A WRITING TOOL

CHATGPT IS NOT YOUR FRIEND

(You’ve chosen to not remember this part.)

Look, it’s a weird hill to die on, especially when I don’t really explain, but children deserve to experience fear, disgust, and discomfort in safe scenarios where they can process those sensations.

Media for children used to be scary and that’s important.

“Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” ― C.S. Lewis

the long awaited sequel

In a recent poll, American think that:

People vastly overestimate the general knowledge of the average American, let alone political knowledge and critical thinking skills. We live in the consequences of the children left behind.

Tip for people who like to shop to raise their mood, if you have access to a library go borrow something instead. You can walk around the aisles, pick out a couple things that interest you, if you prefer online, you can browse the catalog and place a hold. And if you're like "well I'm not that into reading" check out what your library actually has cause many of them have movies, cds, and video games too plus some libraries also have a "library of things" at mine you can check out a telescope, gaming systems, art supplies, tools, toys plus some libraries give you access to things like 3D printers. I've met so many people who didn't realize their libraries had a bunch of stuff like that. It can save you a lot of money, plus you get to help a public service. Also it's a great way to meet new people and make friends as an adult

Your news this week in a form not written to make you feel like shit: Unfortunately the Vine reboot is AI free because it is being done to train AI. Sorry.

I don't normally vague quite this directly, especially on posts I think are liable to spread, but quite a lot of people who saw the OP I'm referring to here have thanked me for sharing the information neutrally (hi prev, sorry I just happen to be jumping off here because I was thinking about it anyway)

I am a PTSD sufferer, and one of the symptoms of PTSD is hypervigilance. Constantly watching your back, constantly aware of any shifts in mood in a room, always paranoid, always looking for the other shoe to drop— its not a fun way to live, and it is not a sign of a healthy mind. You should NOT be constantly checking every single piece of good news you recieve, you are allowed to be happy about things you see in passing, and a lot of the time, they are good things, or maybe you can get good things out of them. Despite the probable side effects of this project it IS going to restore a massive amount of lost media to the web, so we'll get to have that, even if we're not actually going to get a platform safe from AI influence altogether.

And this could still be jumping to the worst case scenario. We haven't seen a TOS. sure, this company does AI training elsewhere, but every tech company in the world does that, so maybe this is unrelated. Do I believe that, no. But it's not stupid to hope for it. Hope is never stupid.

Also, the sources for this aren't actually that easy to find. It's like four pages deep to get from the new diVine company to the sponsor of the company to their other projects to the section of their other projects that mentions AI. It took me a bit, and I KNEW IT WAS THERE.

So, in summation: yeah, this is probably a con. It's a major bummer, because this is a difficult time to be on the internet, and we deserved a W. I think we're just gonna have to pick our favorite album and movie releases to get us through, and let go of the hopes of AI free social media for a little longer. But at least some lost media will be restored, and remember— none of you were stupid for being optimistic about this. We can have nice things. They'll just have to wait a little while.

As with EVERYthing I goof on in this strip, I am someone who has been guilty of doing this in my work, and have of plenty of my own peeve-worthy art habits. I was born in the 70s, grew up in the 80s, but was a teenager in the 90s, so the boom of the Image Comics founder's work hit me square between the eyes, and was a big influence on my attempts at superhero comics over the years.

this almost makes me want to go back to law school

The fucking clown shoes

No Homo We Smokin Penisas

I am having a full throttle giggle attack…I am dying. I need to get off this app & get chicken & pasta stat!!!!

So so so fucking real

the co-founder of 'crips for esims for gaza' and disability advocate, alice wong, has died according to her twitter account.

alice's disability advocacy naturally led her to palestine solidarity as the quote from the blog post announcing 'crips for esims' illustrates:

since december 2023, crips for esims for gaza has raised well over $3.1M and bought and maintained over 5,000 esims, undoubtedly saving lives.

in the past few days there has been intense winter flooding in gaza. donate to honor alice wong's memory–to keep people connected, to give disabled people the tools to advocate for themselves, to refuse to let palestine be silenced.

Humans are good sometimes actually

Cleaning gets easier when you remember it's a thing you're doing to make your life less miserable, and not a thing you're doing as punishment

You can stop in the middle of cleaning!?

Yes! Because it's not a goal to be achieved, but a cycle!

Instead of seeing the house as clean/not clean, it helps a lot to see cleaning as a constant upkeep of your environment. Taking care of your home, and of yourself, is a good thing!

(still unlearning the guilt and anxiety associated with cleaning. it's an uphill battle.)