@gabboman@dgar
Lord Kelvin: "Oh, I didn't see you still using relative degrees over there. Me? I use this new thing called absolute units. But you've probably never heard of it." #Humor#Humour#Temperature#Hipsters#AbsoluteUnits
#Dgar Now telling Greek mythology stories and listening to:
Daedalus
~ Dgar ( @dgar )
Daedalus, according to Greek Mythology is the founder of carpentry, father of Icarus, and a renowned craftsman and inventor, among other things.
After attempting to murder his nephew in a bout of jealousy by trying to throw him down from The Acropolis, he fled Athens and found refuge in Crete.
The King of Crete, King Minos, welcomed him, hoping to employ his extraordinary craftsman skills.
In other news, Poseidon, god of the sea, was keen for some good, old fashioned animal sacrifice. He gifted a bull to King Minos to sacrifice, but the King thought he’d keep this awesome specimen, and instead sacrificed a less impressive bull from his own stock. Poseidon lost his shit, as Greek gods often did, and put a curse on the Kings wife, Pasiphaë, that would cause her to lust for the Bull he had gifted her husband.
So Daedalus turns up and the queen asks him to build a cow suit.
And he does.
So she does.
And then Pasiphaë gives birth to the Minotaur, half man, half bull.
King Minos loses his shit this time, as the Kings of Ancient Greece often did, and ordered Daedalus to build the Labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur. Then, Daedalus, and his son Icarus were themselves imprisoned in a tower, as they would not be allowed to leave with knowledge of the queens escapades and the Labyrinth.
It was here, in the prison tower, that Daedalus would build the wings for Icarus and himself, and convince plans to escape the tower and fly away from Crete, across the sea, to freedom.
Icarus looked over his wings, as his father, Daedalus, tightened the leather straps that held them on.
They had been planning this moment for months. They’ve been collecting the feathers, treating their candle wax, building the wings and keeping them concealed from the guards. Daedalus, now double-checking the straps of his own wings, indicated to Icarus to ascend the final flight of stairs to the tower roof, and followed behind him, carefully making sure their wings don’t catch on anything.
The sun was high. Icarus squinted as they came onto the roof. The ocean sparkled as the breeze rippled the water. Icarus could hear the waves faintly beneath the sounds of the guards enjoying their lunch below. They’ll be distracted, unlikely to look up from their food.
Daedalus turns his son to face him. Suddenly a guitar riff is playing. Icarus is concerned that the guards have discovered their scheme. Fear fills his eyes. Daedalus holds him firm, nodding slightly to the beat of the riff.
His father breaks into song, and Icarus realises he’s in a musical.
Listen to this song, a song about the advice Daedalus gives his son, Icarus, before continuing with the thread.
Soundcloud is filled with artists all trying to be heard, looking for their audiences. It’s difficult, and can be disheartening when you put yourself out there, when you feel as though you’re unable to get any traction. Some give up, leaving digital memorials of their musical dreams across the site. Others press on, digitally busking in a cacophony of a million other bedroom performers and creators.
If you spend any real time on Mastodon, you will discover that some people take their #AltText very seriously indeed, and some may wonder "Why?".
Mastodon tries to be a place for all people, where everyone can have a voice, connect with like-minded people, and catch up on news and current events, regardless of ability. There are many vision impaired people who follow me now, and I try to make sure that my #AltText serves it's intended purposes.
Here is my approach.
Imagine you are describing the image to a friend with perfect eyesight, but is sitting out of view of the picture, like a friend on the other side of your desk who can't see the screen. Tell them the point of the picture, why it's there, what it means in context to the toot.
This example photo may have alt text as follows: A colour photograph of a black Steinway Grand Piano, with lid open and keyboard of black and white keys exposed. The branding "Steinway & Sons" can be seen written in gold above the keys and on the side of the piano which sits on gold coloured wheels, off-centre in the photo to the right, upon a red wood herring bone patterned floor. A white cornice separates the floor from the grey wall behind the piano which only takes up about one third of the entire frame of the photo.
This kind of description is overkill if none of that description is relevant to the original toot, especially if you were explaining this toot to a sighted friend.