The fact that this joke is from the very first episode (which aired in January 1997) is messing with me.
This is like gallows humor now that Dale’s voice actor just passed away
Wait what????
Holy shit…
Like the guy said. Sometimes the things you need to do to heal might feel silly, but don’t let that stop you.
Heal yourself.
This is so beautiful and affirming.
Dying over Textual healing and Much uwu about nothing.
Sewing Machines & Planned Obsolescence
I've got these two sewing machines, made about 100 years apart. An old treadle machine from around 1920-1930, that I pulled out of the trash on a rainy day, and a new Brother sewing machine from around 2020.
I've always known planned obsolescence was a thing, but I never knew just how insidious it was till I started looking at these two side by side.
I wasn't feeling hopeful at first that I'd actually be able to fix the old one, I found it in the trash at 2 am in a thunderstorm. It was rusty, dusty, soggy, squeaky, missing parts, and 100 years old.
How do you even find specialized parts 100 years later? Well, easily, it turns out. The manufacturers at the time didn't just make parts backwards compatible to be consistent across the years, but also interchangeable across brands! Imagine that today, being able to grab a part from an old iPhone to fix your Android.
Anyway, 6 months into having them both, I can confidently say that my busted up trash machine is far better than my new one, or any consumer-grade sewing machine on the market.
Old Machine Guts
The old machine? Can sew through a pile of leather thicker than my fingers like it's nothing. (it's actually terrifying and I treat it like a power tool - I'll never sew drunk on that thing because I'm genuinely afraid it'd sew through a finger!) At high speeds, it's well balanced and doesn't shake. The parts are all metal, attached by standard flathead screws, designed to be simple and strong, and easily reachable behind large access doors. The tools I need to work on it? A screwdriver and oil. Lost my screwdriver? That's OK, a knife works too.
New Machine Guts
The new machine's skipping stitches now that the plastic parts are starting to wear out. It's always throwing software errors, and it damn near shakes itself apart at top speed. Look at it's innards - I could barely fit a boriscope camera that's about as thick as spaghetti in there let alone my fingers. Very little is attached with standard screws.
And it's infuriating. I'm an engineer - there's no damn reason to make high-wear parts out of plastic. Or put them in places they can't be reached to replace. There's no reason to make your mechanism so unbalanced it's reaching the point of failure before reaching it's own design speed. (Oh yeah there is, it's corporate greed)
100 years, and your standard home sewing machine has gone from a beast of a machine that can be pulled out of the literal waterlogged trash and repaired - to a machine that eats itself if you sew anything but delicate fast-fashion fabrics that are also designed to fall apart in a few years.
Looking for something modern built to the standard that was set 100 years ago? I'd be looking at industrial machines that are going for thousands of dollars... Used on craigslist. I don't even want to know what they'd cost new.
We have the technology and knowledge to manufacture "old" sewing machines still. Hell, even better, sewing machines with the mechanical design quality of the old ones, but with more modern features. It would be so easy - at a technical level to start building things well again. Hell, it's easier to fabricate something sturdy than engineer something to fail at just the right time. (I have half a mind to see if any of my meche friends with machine shops want to help me fabricate an actually good modern machine lol)
We need to push for right-to-repair laws, and legislation against planned obsolescence. Because it's honestly shocking how corporate greed has downright sabotaged good design. They're selling us utter shit, and expecting us to come back for more every financial quarter? I'm over it.
My Mum had an Singer treadle machine on a wooden stand, inherited from her mum, my Gran. According to Mum, Gran got it "the year old King Edward died", meaning 1910.
Machines like that weren't cheap (up to a couple of months' average wages) so it probably did dual service as a household machine and in my Grandad's saddlery shop.
As @viridianriver mentions about their machine and which I saw done more than once (repairing my leather schoolbag, for instance) it could put a needle and a waxed linen thread through thick leather with no effort at all, and do it fast.
The only update Mum gave it, sometime around 1975-ish, was an electric motor with variable-pressure foot-pedal, though she still preferred the treadle or even the hand-wheel for delicate work.
About that same time Dad bought her a fancy new Brother machine which could do all sorts of tricks, but it was only ever used for fancy work, and not much of that since Mum already had years of practice on the older machine.
The Singer even folded down into its stand, which had its own corner in the living-room and doubled as a table for a flower vase, so was also handier to use.
Like so...
Clever…
Mum's Singer was running like a sewing-machine (hah!) right up to her death in 2007, and my sister still uses it now and then.
Nearly 115 years isn't a bad service record. These machines are solid.
here's your fucking feedback @staff
list of problems the removal of icons causes:
- i cant see my friends
- ruins the sense of community
- can't tell at a glance who's online right now and what they're interested in
- literally cannot tell without scrolling back up who put a post on my dash if it has a single addition attached to it. or like. 2 paragraphs in the op.
- i cant click my own icon at the top of the dash to quickly view my own blog
- can't tell who someone used to be if they change their username
- squashes the margins between the menu and posts, making the whole dash feel more cramped
- ruins the quick visual cue of how long each post is and where it ends when you're trying to scroll past ones youve seen before
- people put a lot of creativity and individuality into icons, and now i never see them
- makes people who primarily reblog instead of make their own posts all but completely disappear
list of problems solved by removing icons:
- ?????
- who the fuck was asking for this
- ive never in my life seen a website or app that has profile pics forcibly HIDE them, so i guess you did it you made the dash unique again in the worst way
here's some more feedback: maybe when you run an a/b test you should, idk, actually have a feedback form people can fill out about it somewhere
cosigned
It's not exactly what you mean in that it's not specifically for this a/b group thing but...
THERE IS A FEEDBACK FORM YOU CAN FILL OUT!!!
Click Help at the bottom right of the screen (might have to scroll a little bit to get it)
At the top of your screen, tap Contact Support, and it will open a sidebar.
On the Choose a category for support option, choose Feedback.
Fill out the rest of the form with your feedback and be as civil as possible while getting your points across.
If you're on mobile:
Tap the profile button, then enter your settings.
Under General Settings, which should be the first option available to select, scroll down until you see Help.
Scroll the page to the bottom until you see Contact Support, and tap it.
And like on desktop, you select Feedback from the dropdown menu for Choose a category for support.
I have no idea how effective this is, but considering it's one of the few ways to actually contact staff and support that gets you a response (you'll receive an email reply eventually!), it's worth a shot
I'm a survivor of the terror attacks who lived 4 blocks east of the World Trade Center. I lost my home that day, spent years homeless and destitute, and I carry a Zadroga Act diagnosis of 9/11-connected PTSD. If anyone who's doing this RP needs character coaching or if you need help with authentic scenarios, I'm available for consulting services at reasonable rates. DM me here or leave your number on the men's room wall at any leather bar and it'll get to me in 24 hours. Happy 9/11 y'all, and remember fireworks are unsafe and illegal in most jurisdictions.
i've just had a terrible idea
i present to you the mona lisa:
ok so, for the last few hours i've been making this code that organizes the colors in drawings:
(mostly @metukika's bc her works look really dope and i don't have many like that ;_;)
and these things feel like something that would be sold as a "deconstruction of classical paintings" like the "the kiss" by Klimt, "starry night" by Van Gogh or "Girl with a pearl earing" by vermeer
i can imagine going to an art gallery and finding stuff like this, made by someone who thinks they are so so smart
Ok but this is actually phenomenally cool OP, and a terrific tool for explaining some of the weirder aspects of color theory, especially how to translate color from traditional media to digital.
I'm working on the teaching plan for a digital painting class I'm going to pitch to my illustration school, and I was wondering if you had something I could use to show this concept to the class? (In exchange for full credit and money of course)
“LOL. You think your vote matters? ROFL and LOL.” Yes, I am aware my vote carries less and less relative power the more people I’m voting with, but unlike your glorious violent revolution, it actually exists.
The Glorious Violent Revolution fantasy is the Rapture for leftists.
#you heard me#I'm not kidding either#the whole thing and attitude towards is is remarkably similar#you think we haven't noticed the almost lurid fascination and desire to watch the guillotine massacre away#in much the way that the “elect” would be sitting there watching the rest of us “sinners” burn in hellfire for a thousand years?#and how little thought is put into how you're going to pull off this revolution without causing a famine?#or “what next”#look I have no love for the status quo as it is#but I'm going to look askance at any plan that considers a global famine “acceptable collateral damage”#and whose default response to everyone who doesn't get in line with the program is Mister Guillotine#or really take into account that humans are quarrelsome as fuck#this isn't me defending the status quo#this is me saying grow the fuck up#you're not going to build a better world by murdering your way there and you can't purge humanity of it's bad habits with the headman's axe
You know what the real glorious revolution looks like? It looks like writers and actors on the picket lines every day, Starbucks and McDonalds and Wendy’s workers walking out of work until they get conditions that aren’t working inside of an oven, UPS workers fighting to get AC in their vans for increasingly hot summers and also driving around in ovens. It looks like kids walking out of schools and into congressional halls in support of their friends being increasingly silenced and threatened for their race, gender or sexuality. It looks like people getting arrested for handing out warm meals to the homeless. It looks like people risking their lives, homes, and jobs to prevent a forest being bulldozed so a fascism training ground for foot soldiers gets built. It looks like several thousand people fighting and getting imprisoned and murdered so their lands aren’t co-opted for one more goddamn oil pipeline. The “glorious revolution” is dozens of actions happening all around, right now, on dozens of fronts. Just because it isn’t violent is no reason not to pick a front and join in.
*touching his extremely defined six pack* who did this to you.....
*gently lifting a cup of water to his lips* it's going to be okay. *choking back tears* just a few more sips and then we'll get you a sandwich...
Reblog to give a glass of water to every dehydrated actor with shrink wrapped abs whose life was endangered for a shirtless scene
reblog to shrink wrap their director forever
Someone made Felonies Georg into a graphic. Bless.
ofhobbitsandwomen-deactivated20
oatmeal cookie haters can’t touch me. i understand things about this world you never will