Always funny to see Japan described as “Western” specifically to distinguish it from the PRC. If you start in Beijing and want to get to Tokyo, which way do you go?
japan is actually a small island in the caspian sea
Remember to wash your sheets. I am begging you to wash your bedding
And in general, clean your furniture and upholstery. Dust, dirt, odors, sweat, and animal dander all build up. It is terrible for your skin. And it gets worse over time. Particularly dirty furniture’s smell gets on everyone and everything it makes contact with. I recently overcame a rash i am positive was from sleeping on grimey furniture.
“But girlstink” NO. there is a very clearly defined line between “stinks good” and “fucking reeks.”
Spritzes of Vinegar and water kill bacteria. Sprinkling baking soda on things, letting it sit for an hour or so, and vacuuming it up kills odors and further cleans. Throws, blankets, and fabric covers allow you to decorate while also having a layer of protection that is machine washable for convenience.
I hope this helps someone who needed to hear this or never learned this.
In the mid-2000s there was a brief fad in Australian government messaging where they went out of their way to insult the public as much as possible.
This fad eventually died out after the tourism board attempted the same style of messaging in the UK, causing a minor scandal which led to the head of Tourism Australia, Scott Morrison, getting the sack.
The first time we drove past the “don’t drive like a cock” sign, my mum looked at it was immediately SO confused - after all she’s a good semi-conservative Christian woman. My brother and I knew it right away but for the next half hour she guessed literally EVERY other word for cock (don’t drive like a rooster, chicken, hen, chick, bird, fowl, poultry) trying her goddamned hardest to make the sign make sense until my - at the time - eleven year old brother got fed up and yelled COCK at the top of his lungs from the back seat.
My mum was FURIOUS - we weren’t even allowed to say “heck” - until she realised he’d just been telling her what the sign was, and for the rest of the three hour trip our good semi-conservative Christian mother proceeded to amuse herself by muttering “cock” under her breath and giggling like a teenager every time she did.
We still bring it up every now and then. So that particular advertising campaign has been making my family laugh for over a decade.
This one was always my favourite, though:
Reblogging to make sure this excellent story is seen
Jesus Christ returning from the dead: “You know what’s weird? Drunk driving gets you into Valhalla. It’s a huge problem tbh, they’re trying to fix it.”
jobs for autism boy NO phone call NO schedule NO talking to people NO emails NO computer programming or sex work NO becoming a youtuber NO starting a band NO leaving my house NO one gets mad at me. $27 per hour please
AI isn’t a threat to creative professions because it can actually make passable art that humans enjoy (it can’t). It’s a threat because in a capitalist system, employers would do literally anything to not have to pay humans living wages (or any wages, let’s be real).
We’ve been in a productivity boom for the past 60 years, but the one area where production cannot become more efficient is the arts. It takes the same amount of time to write a novel or compose a symphony now as it did a hundred years ago. That’s just the creative process.
AI represents a shortcut to making art that has had executives salivating since LLMs and AI art generators hit the internet. It means more content faster with the benefit of not having to provide salaries, sick days, parental leave, time off, or healthcare. It means not having to deal with unions and labour laws. It means cutting humans out of the most fundamentally human activity we do – making art.
All those headlines and clickbait articles about AI annihilating the human race are a hyperbolic distraction from the actual problem we may soon be facing where people won’t have the possibility of supporting themselves making art (not that it’s particularly easy to do as it stands).
If making art becomes a luxury only for the affluent, we will stop hearing the voices, stories, and perspectives of marginalized people. And our cultural tapestry will stop being so vibrant, diverse, and vital.
