I have a short video to post but the server won’t let me upload to share here. What am I doing wrong? Any advice please… thanks #retoot #help #video #needadvice #needhelp #mastodonhelp

Any makers here? Need a quick bit of writing knowledge from any craftspeople! What's something a potential customer might say that proves they don't understand your craft, and it's frustrating to hear it all the time?

e.g. For dice makers, it would be hearing someone ask "are they balanced?"

#CandleMaking #LeatherWork #3DPrinting #Sewing #Blacksmithing #Crafts #Makers #Making #AmWriting #NeedAdvice

I want to shout this information from the hilltops. I think I might know how to take him out of his position of power (a position where he can continue to prey on people.) But it would involve putting my name out there.

But this dude seems lawyered-up. My question is, what can I expect in terms of retaliation for brining this information to light, and ideally ruining this guy's (lucrative) career? #Help #NeedAdvice #HowToStopAPredator

Are there people here that have recently took their #Brompton #bike on the #Thalys? I will be doing that in June, but the information about how to do it is confusing. For instance, the Thalys website says that a folded bike is considered as luggage when it is no more than 75x53x30, and Brompton is that... almost but not quite (it is 59x57x29). Also, some sites insist that the bike must be covered, yet I find pics of uncovered ones in the luggage slots everywhere. #Help! #NeedAdvice #DareToAsk

#Writers, I have a question/ #NeedAdvice . A small indie publisher bought 3 poems from me in 2021 for an anthology, and paid me appropriately. The original publisher no longer exists with the same people, but has been renamed. They want to give the anthology a facelift under the new publisher and have asked if I would agree to this.
Can I:
• simply tell them my original contract does not extend to reprints under another name
• deny permission to use the works or negotiate a new contract?

One-Sided Friendship, AmeriKKKan Style

Dilemma: How do I reach a self-described "progressive" who speaks, votes, & bullies the "uppity" like MLK's #whitemoderate?

How do I ask them why USians who quote #MLK and do service for his birthday become ENRAGED when a #POC, as #DrKing did from a Birmingham jail in1963, talks about the obstructive reality that well-meaning whites (or so they say) have been to us for more than 400 years?

SICK of bowing and scraping to protect the feelings of those who simply don't think or truly care about the real-life reality of daily suffering endured by the working-poor service class, particularly if those unlucky Have-Nots are Black or brown. Do they care about their inferior, less privileged friend? If so, only conditionally. "Be smooth and whitelike, er, CLEAN like Obama, so you fit in, but know you'll never be accepted or equal. Yes, existence is hell, the daily microaggressions will push you to an early grave. But don't show them that. They won't like it and and they only care that YOU care about THEM. Just smile and serve them and look like you're enthusiastic. Make sure THEY get what they need and say how great THEY are."

Yuck. Hard as hell to be melanated in a white country.

Now, there are nice people among the Unwarranted Default and some want nice things for the lessers. Some have really good intentions to make things peaceful (negative peace), in the "Negroes and mulattoes, don't you make waves, now" sense. "We need change, but not too much or too fast, we can't handle that, and you'll be ok... We'll tell you what's good for you. Now, just keep praising us, being grateful that you're enslaved here, er, a citizen, and voting Democratic! And get to work, I need a latte!"

Karen and Ken's alleged good intentions are nice, and thanks for them, but if you're telling people who don't consider you an ally that you are whether or not they agree, if you're telling them to vote for and praise the very entity hurting them, their family, and their community the same way it has done historically... the very entity promising no one's standard of living will change (as if that is a good thing), I question your intentions and your friendship and decency. Is there any other option?

Update: Replied to the outrage from a "friend" with a ridiculously measured, polite, respectful, reasonable, almost deferential -- omg, that was difficult and humiliating -- response and rebuttal. They responded with "eff off." This is a friend?

Look, fellow POC: If you make a member of the #UnwarrantedDefault nervous, if you don't play your role as they expect and demand, with RARE exception, they will not listen to you, they will not care (or perhaps they will treat you badly because they know deep down that the system is wrong and the question and their complicity with evil will be too overwhelming for them to bear). In most cases, they will insult you or dump you. One way or another, ultimately, they will hurt you. That's how this country WORKS. Happens in one-sided friendships where the societally inferior person doesn't always grok the power dynamic. Happens in MARRIAGES; talk to me about mine. Woe to those who don't submit to the Unwarranted Default. Those you thought were friends will remind you of the pecking order SUPER quickly, even as they are SHOCKED, SHOCKED that you would DARE think such a pecking order exists in the Greatest Imperfect Union on Earth. They mean well, or think/say they do. But they do harm and they will cause pain in order to keep the AmeriKKKan reality that plagues you far away from them. Likely for their own sanity. So protect yourself. Never silence yourself or play Stepin Fetchit. But know that if you do share your honest concerns, a real friend, even if they disagree, won't attack, they will try to understand. They will listen. They will have your back even if they don't agree. And these real friends are EXCEEDINGLY RARE. Proceed with all caution.

Most "friends" will disappoint you in the end cos doing otherwise is too big a lift for them to manage. My parents warned me 50 years ago. Turns out they were correct.

#MLK #navigatingwhitesupremacyforthenonwhite #conformordie #dontmakethemnervous #mindyourplace #illtellyouwhatsbestforyou #nolongeragoodone #plantationnation #CentristsAreTheRealDanger #ListenToPhilOchs #PhilOchs #AreFriendsFriends #CharlieBrownIsOverLucy #GreenPartyOnly #BlackLivesMatter #dilemma #needadvice

#needadvice #teampodcast

looking for a lavalier microphone

- will record voice for podcasts

- to be connected to a zoom h4n (xlr wellcome)

- able to be plugged to a hf system for public presentations too

#needadvice
looking for a lavalier microphone - record voice for podcasts
- to be connected to a zoom h4n (xlr wellcome)
- able to be plugged to a hf system for public presentations too
#teampodcast

Etiquette question: my sweet father got me a beautiful handcrafted purse in Italy. It's gorgeous. But I can't bring a purse to my job (we do inventory in several different stores each day and have no central office, lockers, or a place to keep things safe) so I haven't carried a purse in more than a decade. It's lovely, but I will probably never use it. But I'm afraid it would be cruel to give it to someone who WILL use and appreciate it. But I do want it to be used. #NeedAdvice #Gift #christmas

For the benefit of people like me who nothing about hardware keys and might be revisting their entire password vault situation for reasons, is there a good primer on hardware keys, vendor / product recommendations, and other bits of wisdom to impart on a lay person whose already doing the work to migrate passwords and adding 2FA where absent?

#Cryptography #Passwords #Vaults #LastPass #NeedAdvice #LazyWeb

#needadvice

Scenario: You've worked at a place you enjoyed for about 2 years. You enjoy the remote work and literal virtual option, there's been ups and downs this last year but it's starting to feel like it MAY settle in the new year. Then your boss announces in the last town hall of the year that due to the economic uncertainty of 2023 he will be making tough decisions and we can expect an email with details. You've also been working 50 hours weeks for three months straight. Do you...

a manual on how to make friends and exist among other people without deleting myself in the process would be so nice right now! being human is a lot harder than it looks. #MightBeAutistic #NeedAdvice #SocialAnxioty

now I'm thinking... should I rename the Pangcah attire study to general cultural attire study to include more outfits? that'd be more fun imo

#MastoArt #art #DigitalArt #AskFedi #NeedAdvice #culture #folk #traditional

Need Christmas advice!
I want to gift something special to my brother this year, but I don't know what to do.

I cannot send anything physical due to costs of international shipping and I don't think it's even supported in here.

Should I opt for a special drawing? That's pretty much the only thing I am good at.

If funds will be great this month, should I opt for a giftcard?

He's pretty much a Nintendo guy like me. I am hesitant of gifting a game as he has enough of them and no time for playing them.

TBH if I could I would gift him a week off work :blobcatcoffee:

Any advice?
#NeedAdvice #Christmas #Xmas #gift

so I splurged and bought a #spinolution #spinningwheel even though I totally didn't need another wheel. But my question for any #pollywog owners is: what the heck is with the tension system?? I'm not a new spinner, by any means, but I am having a lot of trouble getting this wheel to take up yarn! I've never had this much trouble before... #fiberarts #handspinning #yarn #needadvice #irishtensionmaybe?

#NeedAdvice #FeralCatFood :
So I moved from country life back to city life. There is a beautiful #FeralCat that comes in my yard. I think the former owner may have fed him/her? I put some #Thanksgiving chicken out in a pie tin by my front door 2 nights in a row. The cat ate it. I only know about #dogs. So what is a good food to provide a feral cat for a person living on a modest fixed income?
Also what to use for winter feeding? I live in NW PA. We get #LakeEffect #Snow

Gardening people: we have one of these outside our museum, but the weather is expected to turn cold this weekend. What is this even called, and can it survive indoors over winter in a sunny window??

#Plants #Gardening #NeedAdvice #GardeningMastodon

@JillBallAu with my Scottish maiden name and Scottish born grandfather I felt .scot was appropriate 😂 does your server affect who you see on #mastadon ? #needadvice

Is there a good piece of software (linux, mac) with usable gui that allows me to create a private root CA and sign private HTTPS/SSL-certificates? I want so add only one root certificate for all my devices.
#NeedAdvice #Encryption #NetworkSecurity #Software #Linux #MacOS #Certificate #HTTPS #sslCertificates