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grysbok

@[email protected]

I’m a systems librarian in an academic library. I moved over the Lemmy after Rexxit 2023. I’ve had an account on sdf.org since 2009 (under a different username), and so I chose this instance out of a sense of nostalgia. I do all sorts of fiber arts (knitting, cross stitch, sewing) and love dogs.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

grysbok,
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Ohio is a perfectly nice place filled with perfectly nice people. Exceptionally, creepily, contagiously nice.

grysbok,
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By “they elected Hamas” you mean maybe 15% of the current population? That’s a broad brush you’re wielding.

(Based on 70% of the population of Gaza being under 30 years old, meaning they’d have been 13 or under in 2006, when the last election was held. And Hamas got ~45% of the popular vote in the 2006 election.)

grysbok,
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Thanks for the clarification. It’s hard to tell these days and I don’t always have the spoons/mental bandwidth for it.

grysbok,
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Congratulations! I’m wicked happy for you, Internet Stranger :) and hope you a smooth recovery.

grysbok,
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I’ve worked in a public library and we were fine with food as long the patrons cleaned up after themselves and it wasn’t something like a full pizza. We got salty when folks just left trash on the tables.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

It always weirds me out that the first school shooting I remember occurred a few bit over a year before Columbine. Heath High School, December 1997.

Black Mississippi Woman Discovers the Police Who Were Asked to Help Find Her Son, Were Also Responsible for His Death (www.theroot.com)

After more than 7 months, specifically 172 days, Bettersten did not hear one update about the whereabouts of her son. As any loving mother would be, she figured that she would never learn about her son’s fate. She would call the Jackson Police Department often asking for updates, but the lead investigator would tell her there...

grysbok,
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Drunk driving isn’t an accident.

grysbok,
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I do. I left my pour-over coffee maker at the office, so I make do with instant coffee. It’s… ok, if I drown it in almond milk.

grysbok, (edited )
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

My mom bought a form antique store/hoarder’s storage building that felt haunted, on account of still having all the stuff inside. It was full of interesting coincidences, like when you’d cut yourself on something you’d find a first aid kit in the next box. Or when my aunt from Ann Arbor came down to visit and we found a set of post cards from Ann Arbor, MI. Also, the painting of a lady hung up above the ceiling via a nail through her chest was a bit creepy.

What I’m saying is that ghosts can be a comforting concept and find you bandages.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Look into textured vegetable protein, too. It doesn’t have much taste of its own, but gives a ground-beef-like texture when you add it to pasta sauce. Wicked cheap, when you take into account that it’s dehydrated.

Edit: good room temperature shelf life, too.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Silly nosy question: what do you get out of Adderall? I’m prescribed ADHD meds and don’t get any recreational benefit from it, so I’m just curious what I’m missing out on.

grysbok, (edited )
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Sounds like you use it for about the same reason I do.

Talk to a doctor! I found it much less stressful than I expected it to be. I started meds last year and my consult and check-ins have been all online. The biggest problem has been, ironically, remembering to take my meds constantly consistently.

I’m a serial hobby-starter, but not a project-finisher.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I wonder how much of the rise in reported latex allergies is the prevalence of tire bits in the environment. Iirc, some of the rise is from increased awareness and some is it attributed to increased latex glove usage in medical settings due to the AIDS epidemic. But are tires also a relevant factor?

(Am latex sensitive, have never used latex gloves even in an educational setting because my high school chem teacher was allergic so we had nitrile in the lab)

grysbok,
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They all look pretty happy 😊

[USA] Massive emergency alert test scheduled to hit your phone on Wednesday. Here's what to know. (www.usatoday.com)

“Get ready to not freak out. On Wednesday, October 4 at 2:20 p.m. ET, every TV, radio and cellphone in the United States should blare out the distinctive, jarring electronic warning tone of an emergency alert.”

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

fnord

Florida school district orders librarians to purge all books with LGBTQ characters (popular.info)

Librarians in public schools in Charlotte County, Florida, were instructed by the school district superintendent to remove all books with LGBTQ characters or themes from school and classroom libraries. The guidance by Charlotte County Superintendent Mark Vianello and the school board's attorney, Michael McKinley, was obtained by...

grysbok,
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Even those in heterosexual relationships could be bi.

grysbok,
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I’m a Southern transplant living in New England for the last couple decades and I’ve never thought of “y’all” as being indicative of right-wingedness. I use it all the time and it doesn’t feel like anyone thinks anything of it.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

My understanding:

  • you: the person I’m talking to
  • y’all: the group of folks I’m talking to
  • all y’all: y’all, plus anyone else that could possibly be addressed by me (everyone in voice range)

(Agreeing and using different words to say the what I think is the same thing)

grysbok,
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My last company did this. They’d also send out surveys and training from addresses I didn’t recognize, so I’d report those, too, only to be told they were legit 😂

‘Life or Death:’ AI-Generated Mushroom Foraging Books Are All Over Amazon (www.404media.co)

Many mushroom identification and foraging books being sold on Amazon are likely generated by AI with no human authorship. These books could provide dangerous misinformation and potentially lead to deaths if people eat poisonous mushrooms based on the AI’s inaccurate descriptions. Two New York mushroom societies have warned...

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Robert Evans wrote a post on it and did multiple podcast episodes.

The TL&DR is that AI-generated children’s books are crap, without a coherent storyline or any literary niceties like “foreshadowing” and “beginning middle and end”. Kids are still learning what stories look like, so if you hand them AI-generated stuff they might know it’s unsatisfying, but they can’t put into words why their books are wrong.

grysbok,
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I remember liking Feedly, but it’s been forever since I’ve used rss for anything other than podcasts.

grysbok,
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It looks like the house just has a weird roofline, and the doors go to storage in the eaves. It’d look less wonky if the built-in storage was shelves or something instead of these mini doors.

grysbok, (edited )
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Seconding the honorific “Mx”. From what I’ve seen, it’s decently well-adopted in the non-binary community. I’ve not seen it much used outside of that community–it seems to be used mostly when someone ‘needs’ an honorific but doesn’t fit into the 1950s list. I’ve heard it pronounced “Mix” and “Mux”. I tend to go with “Mix”.

IRL, I’ve used “Hey, you” and “Yo!” when hollering at folks I don’t know (example, “Yo! You dropped something!”)

Sidenote: As a nonbinary person, I prefer not being given an honorific over being given the wrong one.

Minirant not directed at OP: And omg, if you need to go with a feminine honorific and you don’t know whether the person is married, go with Ms, not Mrs. or Miss. The connotations of the wrong one are just creepy.
Not married and called Mrs=“Hey, you’re too old to be unmarried. Please feel judged about your relationship status”
Married and called Miss=“Hey, you’re too young to be married. Please feel like I don’t respect you as an adult.”
In all cases Ms=“I don’t know and/or care about your marital status and I’m trying to be polite”

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Not really. There’s plenty of gender-neutral names, some you wouldn’t expect. The names Ashley, Chris, Harper, Morgan, and Stacey are all gender-ambiguous (Showing my white American background with this list). Plus, people can have genders that don’t match their name.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I’m wicked sorry, I don’t have a good answer. You could try Mx and see how it feels. I’ve dropped sir/ma’am for folks that I know, or that appear my age or younger. I still use it for older folks I don’t know out in the wild.

I, personally, never take offense at being misgendered in a Southern accent if I’m called “ma’am”. I grew up in the South and to me it just feels like someone’s trying their best to be polite and I take it as intended. Sometimes I also just misparse it as “man”, which feels a bit informal, but whatevs. Miss still feels creepy, but I get that less now that I’ve hit 30.

If you’re working at a drive through where there’s a customer/service worker dynamic, I’d 1. go with ma’am or sir 2. accept it if someone corrects you, and 3. recognize you’re more likely to be yelled at by someone for using a ‘new-fangled honorific’ than for misgendering someone.

Edit: Oh! I have replaced “Thank you sir/ma’am” with “Thank you, kindly” and that seems to work for me.

grysbok,
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I grew up with Mrs and Ms pronounced nearly the same, so I get the pronunciation confusion.

grysbok,
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My understanding is that patents are to protect novel new ideas. If something’s already bean described in fiction, what innovation is protected by the patent?

So, I’d think “it’s a tablet” wouldn’t be patentable because that was described in Star Trek. But, "screen technology blah that makes tablets practical "would be patentable.

Neat post on related topic: fia.umd.edu/answer-can-science-fiction-stories-be…

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I’m not saying that devices described by fiction are patentable based on the description in the fiction. But, those descriptions could be used to prove that the ‘invention’ is too obvious to be patentable. Page 7 of this document from the USPTO going over what ‘prior art’ is suggests that fiction can be used as prior art.

grysbok,
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Inventions need to be non-obvious (35 U.S.C. 103: Conditions for patentability; non-obvious subject matter) in order to be patentable. Prior art can be used to show that an invention is obvious. The prior art doesn’t need to rise to the level of detail contained in a patent to be prior art.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I apologize, I don’t think we’re disagreeing. Fiction can, but often doesn’t, describe something in sufficient detail to be cited as “prior art” during a patent application or dispute. It comes down to how broad the claims are in the patent.

If someone were to try and patent “sliding doors”, a patent examiner could point at Star Trek and say “Sliding doors are already described in published material, your invention is not original”.

If someone were to try and patent “Mechanism X, used for making sliding doors slide”, that might be patentable because Star Trek (and other published material) didn’t describe Mechanism X.

grysbok,
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It’s like someone tried flipping the house, then got bored partway through. OMG these unfinished windows.

grysbok,
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When they removed the sticks of RAM they also removed the slots the RAM goes into.

Edit: like removing the light bulb socket to change a light bulb.

grysbok,
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I’m with you. I didn’t manage to get through the whole thing.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I’m on 37.5mg Venlafaxine for the second time–tried Zoloft for a bit in between. What’s wicked weird is that the first time I was on Venlafaxine I got brain zaps from missing a dose. This time I don’t and I kind of miss the built-in kick in the pants to take my meds.

When I got off Venlafaxine XR the first time, I weaned myself off very slowly. At first, I counted down the tiny pellets in the capsules, then I got a medication scale. I was able to avoid brain zaps.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I always describe the brain zaps like this:

You know how it feels to take a rubber balloon and rub it against your hair? That staticy feeling? It’s like that, except inside your skull.

Edit: For me, it wasn’t painful. Just very wrong and bad and a sensory nope-nope-nope. It went away within maybe 15 minutes of taking my meds.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Venlafaxine did help. The first time I was on it, I remember walking down the sidewalk and just doing of double-take of “oh, this feeling. I think I’m happy. This is what ‘happy’ feels like. Weird.”

I haven’t had anything so flagrant this time (and the flavor of stress I’m under is different), but I think it helps with my anxiety.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Dual-purpose architecture is hip?

Judge partially strikes down Georgia ban on giving voters food and water in polling lines (www.cnn.com)

A federal judge on Friday narrowed a section of Georgia election law that banned the practice of handing out food and water to voters waiting in line to cast ballots, as well as halted enforcement of a requirement that voters put their birth dates on the outer envelope of their ballots.

grysbok,
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I can’t help but feel this is an optimistic view. There’s plenty of things everyone has to do in America that are still much more convenient or differently funded in rich or white areas. For example, going to school or getting government ID.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

If the voting experience is sufficiently onerous, people will still not vote and pay the penalty (or go to jail). Then it’ll be just another tax/burdon on people in disadvantaged areas.

Looks like Western Australia charges $50 for repeated failure to vote. $50 Australian ($31 USD) to not take off work to stand in line for 3 hours getting sunburnt? That’s less than minimum wage in my state. It would make financial sense to just go to work and pay the penalty, ignoring the less tangible potential long-term benefit of effecting change in favor of paying rent.

grysbok,
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This comment made my Internet today. 🏆

grysbok, (edited )
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I firmly believe that lack of exposure to people of different cultures or races leads people to be racist and not necessarily realize it. If you’re never around X, how can you know you have an inappropriate reaction to X?

To illustrate this, I didn’t know about my escalator phobia until I moved away for college. I entered the mall, saw these moving stair-things, and felt a deep fear in the pit of my stomach. I hadn’t seen an escalator since I was a toddler and, if you’d asked me on high school, I’d have denied having a phobia.

(I’ve successfully worked on my phobia over the last decade, showing that changing inappropriate reactions is possible)

grysbok,
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I don’t believe ignorance or lack of familiarity is the root of all racism, or even most, just a factor in some of it.

I grew up in a practically all-white school system because I grew up in a practically all-white rural county. I had to unlearn a lot of things when I move to New England. A lot of people never leave their comfort zone.

I believe exposing kids to people from varied backgrounds helps them not grow up to be bigoted. I don’t believe it’s fair to expect minority kids to represent their minority–I had a small taste of that growing up with an unusual last name and accent in my town. I don’t know how to reconcile those two beliefs.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I read an article about it recently. If a student asks to be called by a name other than the one they were registered with (for example, Benjamin asks to be called Ben or William asks to be called Sir Buttface) the school is supposed to inform the parents and get approval. A “side” effect of this is outing trans kids to their parents.

grysbok,
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Kids get named Montana, Washington, and Indiana. “Florida” could be an ironic nickname for any of those.

grysbok,
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Midnight nap?

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Fingers crossed.

I “mod” r/ambridge, a community for fans of the The Archers radio soap opera. The drama is limited to discussions of plot. The most I’ve ever had to do was mark a post as a spoiler. Jazzhands.

I also tried getting folks to move over to Lemmy, but no dice.

grysbok,
@grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

True. I made feddit.uk/c/ambridge , on a UK instance, because the radio drama is wicked British.

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