a little psa about Christmas and Chanukah because it’s that time of year again
People who celebrate Christmas: this is for you. It’s not an attack, nor is it saying that Christmas is bad or that you shouldn’t celebrate it! It’s just a few notes by a tired Jew on how you can change your language and behavior to make the Christmas season even though Christmas is still over a month out a little less exhausting for the Jews in your life.
The holiday season: Calling this “the holiday season” and using other related terms bothers me to no end. Imo it’s not actually better if you sprinkle in a menorah or two. It doesn’t matter that much what you call it or what religious iconography you include, we know it’s a Christmas party; even if you include other holidays, it’s just because they fall near Christmas and therefore must be important. Please, just call it a Christmas party. There’s nothing wrong with a Christmas party!! Go for it!! Have fun, I mean it!! Just don’t pretend it’s something that it isn’t, because that doesn’t make me, at least, nor other Jews I’ve spoken with, feel much more included. It just confirms that you fundamentally do not understand what it’s like to live as a non-Christian in a Christian society, and you’re more interested in appearing as if you do than actually making an effort to.
Chanukah misconceptions: Chanukah is not about peace and love and family. You’re just copy-pasting Christmas themes. The only thematic overlaps are a) hope and miracles, and b) bringing light to a physically dark time of year. Chanukah isn’t Christmas. It’s hopeful and positive, yes, but it’s also yet another reminder of the cycles of trauma in our history. It’s about yet another time they tried to kill us and yet another time they failed. It’s about resilience and resistance and an uncrushable spirit. It’s about the impossible victory of the underdog. It’s also not even that big of a deal in Judaism. In fact, it’s one of the most minor Jewish holidays. People only think it’s important because they associate it with Christmas. Come back for the High Holidays or even Pesach, those are the real deal.
I have so much legitimate disdain for anyone who uses ChatGPT at the collegiate level. If you're a kid in high school who just wants to graduate and get out, I can understand that, but if you're in college, you (or your parents) are almost certainly paying enormous sums of money for you to be learning how to think. It's disrespectful to other students who spend hours working on assignments as well as professors who spend hours grading them.
It just sickens me. Everybody does it. The kids on scholastic probation. The kids in the honors program. There's little to no integrity, at least where I'm going to school, and it makes me wonder if I'm more idealistic than I thought, going into higher education and expecting other people my age to want to learn instead of regurgitate. I know college students cheat, but this is a different kind of cheating, and it's more widespread than any other sort I've heard of.
It's not just usage of it in college that's disturbing, though. Thousands of people at this very moment are writing some legitimately important email using ChatGPT. They're messing up details. They're pasting in whatever the machine spits out. Just like students submitting AI-generated papers to their professors, they have no concern for the person on the receiving end of their incomprehensible word mess. Perhaps even more worryingly--perhaps in a new low for the human race--they have no concern for their own humanity. They will submit the thoughts of a language processing model as their own.
While not all AI usage is evil, presenting the words of an AI as your own is terrifying on a fundamental level. The world is about to feel so much more hollow, and some of these people will surely complain about it in twenty, ten, or even five years, but I heavily doubt I'll have any sympathy for them.
tv shows will have little girl characters whose main trait is interest in tea parties and stuff but the little actor is like 9 and mm no sorry. by that age they are roleplaying historical warrior cats during the hundred years war
phestarr is all dry now! the near last step was to sew everything back on. i was originally going to bug my great aunt to help me with it but i actually managed to do most of it myself! the feet went on easily, the tail... was going to need work.
i kept the original tail fully intact, but never ended up using any of it 🤣 soo, whoops.
to make the tail i followed moriah elizabeth's yarn pom pom tutorial with a few extra steps.
i create wefts by cutting 6 strings of each color, then tying them together in the middle. i brush the yarn from bottom to top with an old pet brush until the yarn looks like hair! i used a few rubber bands to keep all the knots together, sewed all the knots into a tight, tight gather, and then dipped the whole thing in glue, adding extra layers of sewing as i went along. then i sewed the tail wefts to the fur hole!
now all thats left is to sew the stomach pouch back in, and dress them up in their pins! lets see the final look!!
the pin broach i made em are ooak custom pride pins! it has most of their flags! and xey can now accompany me to my summer job where i sell these broaches, and model them for me! :3
now, the hard part... i took phestarr's battery cover off AGES ago, and at this point i can't find it anywhere. how shall i solve this issue i wonder... hmmm... stay tuned!
Your art is absolutely amazing!!! I just spent like an hour going through your art and your tgcf tag reblogging everything and wanted to let you know your art style is so good! I love your xie lian especially!!!! 💜
AHHH (⸝⸝⸝- ᴗ -⸝⸝⸝ ;) i LOVE spam notifs haha thank you for all the wonderful tags you've reblogged with!! here's a gege i don't think i've posted, thank u for loving him (he's a mess but he's OUR mess)! 💗