In the previous post, I explained how to hide presentational SVGs using aria-hidden="true".
That's a reliable technique, but sometimes I see developers use role="presentation" instead, which may or may not work as expected.
Before I show you where it fails, let's first try to understand the difference between role="presentation" and aria-hidden="true".
aria-hidden="true"
According to the spec, aria-hidden indicates, when set to true, that an element and its entire subtree are hidden from assistive technology, regardless of whether it is visibly rendered.
The following heading is visually accessible, but hidden from assistive technology.
Screen readers skip both elements entirely and don't announce anything.
role="presentation"
According to the spec, the native role semantics of an element with role="presentation" (or role="none", which is a synonym) will not be mapped to the accessibility API.
This means that the main difference from aria-hidden="true" is that role="presentation" only removes the native role of an element, not the element or its children.
Instead of something like "heading level 2, Hello World" a screen announces “Hello World” only. So, in terms of semantics, this element isn't a heading anymore but just static text.
<h2 role="presentation">
Hello World
</h2>
Images are different
Images are an exception, as noted in the ARIA specification.
In HTML, the <img> element is treated as a single entity regardless of the type of image file. Consequently, using role="none" or role="presentation" on an HTML img is equivalent to using aria-hidden="true".
Just because that's true for images doesn't mean that it's always true for SVGs.
Where role="presentation" fails (your expectations)
If you put role="presentation" on an unlabelled SVG without any text nodes, VoiceOver, Talkback, JAWS, and NVDA will ignore it.
So, that's fine, but if you provide an accessible name for the SVG, all screen readers I tested, except JAWS, announce the SVG regardless of role="presentation".
You can see how role=presentation doesn't always remove an element entirely from the accessibility tree.
Conclusion
If you want to remove an element from the accessibility tree, use aria-hidden="true". For img elements, you can use an empty alt attribute, alt="". Although role=presentation works for images, too, avoid it to avoid causing confusion with your colleagues.
PS: Screen readers used for testing: VoiceOver, macOS 26.3, Chrome 145, VoiceOver, macOS 26.3, Safari, Talkback, Android 16, Chrome 145, JAWS 2026, Windows 11, Chrome 145, NVDA 2025.3.3, Windows 11, Chrome146, NVDA 2025.3.3, Windows 11, Firefox 147, Narrator, and Windows 11, Edge .
My blog doesn't support comments yet, but you can reply via blog@matuzo.at.
In which we find out the writers of this show must really like both Thornton Wilder and the last two seasons of Angel: The Series while having issues with one particular Voyager episode, or rather its aftermath. Also, at last, at last, SOMEONE is back an my screen!
First K-9 fic I posted since the tags got wrangled :D Ooooh the delicious luxury of having the ship name auto-complete... 🫦 especially when it's long af XD
I guess I'm celebrating by creating even more character/ship tags haha. Hello hello, Eden cast! Welcome to AO3 ;) To win your hand | K-9 | Ren/Oboro/Fujimaru/Kagari + one-sided Sasakura/Fujimaru | 2.2k words | rated T
Summary: Jin can sew himself back together, but he can't regrow a missing hand like some kind of lizard. Now, he has a choice: either get used to it, or go search for his missing limb. Easier said than done.
I got up at 10:00 this morning and had breakfast and coffee, and then showered and dressed.
Then I crossed my fingers and went down to the laundromat, hoping my laundry would be done. It was, so I paid and brought it home.
I put it in my room, put the cart away in the kitchen and then left to go over to meet mashfanficchick.
We met at Cobblestones and had lunch there. I had their Philly Cheesesteak sandwich which was delicious, and I really splurged and got a green mimosa for a drink.
After lunch we looked over zer lease papers, and ze signed them, and then we went back to zer place.
I heard from Funko, they are refunding my money because they are out of the Stephen Colbert Pops. So, in frustration I went to Ebay and found it there. I was pretty sure I'd be able to. There was a markup of course but it wasn't too bad. So I ordered one, because dammit, now I really really want that Pop!
We hung out for awhile after that. Theo called and ze talked to him. At 7:00 I Teamed the FWiB from my phone.
At 8:00 we watched 911, it was a pretty good episode. At 8:30 I called Middle Brother. He went to dinner for one of the residents birthday and had a good time. Then we watched 911:Nashville which was so-so.
We had some snacks for dinner, and then we watched this week's episode of Will Trent on Hulu, which was very good.
After that I Ubered home, and fed the pets, and started here. The computer has been awful, I had to restart it twice so far.
Gratitude List:
1. The FWiB.
2. Clean laundry which was done on time.
3. Yummy lunch.
4. Good TV.
5. Going to get the Stephen Colbert Pop one way or the other.
Here is the cover, which could have shown off the books a LOT better.
The full page ad for Connie Mason’s Shadow Walker on the inside cover:
And in case you were wondering: here is the HAUNCH-TASTIC COVER:
There’s a LOT of wind in many of the DeSalvo pictures in this issue, and it is a blessing for him that no wind machine was present whilst he was wearing a loincloth.
Behold: Mustache.
LOOK how uncomfortable that must be, and they have to act like they’re super into each other while perched on some stairs.
And then there was this discomfort from the I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter launch party:
The senior brand manager at Lipton dipping Susan Paul – this makes me so very uncomfortable on a professional level.
What is on John DeSalvo, and where is that wind coming from?
I LOVE THIS IMAGE OF JANE AUSTEN BY A POOL!
Here is how it appeared in the magazine – inside a browser window!
Time for some 90s covers!
What’s going on with her neck? Is she ok?
That hair color is green, and that dog is very cute.
WHENCE doth this WIND ARRIVE? Also, I’d like to know the conditioner regimen here.
Slightly blurry, but FULL O’ SMARM is Cleve.
No shirt, no idea on shoes, full mullet – I wouldn’t serve him.
Again with the conditioner, but ouch that tree bark.
That poor horse wants to be elsewhere.
I’m really not sure what this was all about, but you could buy these photos.
It looks like he was sawed in half, right? What is up with his mid-section?
You can see why I thought at first glance that these were Indigenous American headdresses and was aghast. They’re mardi gras masks, which, thank heavens.
Also, all the pleated jeans and baggy sweats! Oh, my, the 90s were a time.
What did you think of today's episode? Got ideas? Suggestions? You can talk to us on the blog entries for the podcast or talk to us on Facebook if that's where you hang out online. You can email us at sbjpodcast@gmail.com or you can call and leave us a message at our Google voice number: 201-371-3272. Please don't forget to give us a name and where you're calling from so we can work your message into an upcoming podcast.
Title: Crushed by a Helicarrier Fandom: Marvel 616 Rating: G Content notes: None apply Summary: icons of Superior Iron Man and Steve Rogers fighting just before the Incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610 happens and they're smushed by a helicarrier and they both perish
I saw this on Facebook today: It's a bewildering concept. This may be my favourite boardgame, well, after Scrabble, but a movie? Of course, as a card carrying nerd [it's my library card] I would watch a movie of a bunch of people on an old style train, playing Ticket to Ride.
if I could travel anywhere, where would I go/what would I do?
I mean, honestly? I'm kind of boring. I'd go back to Spain and spend a week or two doing nothing more important than eating good food and visiting all the historical sites, maybe hit up Portugal while out there.
Max wants to visit Japan, someday I would like to visit Chile, but like — for the most part, "go back to Europe now that I'm older and theoretically have money" is near the top of the list. :D
Anyway, er — the sourdough adventures continue! I made crackers from discard (very good, worth doing again), and today I experimented and did a weird loaf (this recipe).
It's very high hydration, which means it stuck awfully to my brotforms, but I'm going to drop it for next time, I think, and try again. "Next time" as in, "I'm probably going to make more bread this weekend, because Why Not".
We are moving ever closer to the cranberry walnut loaf of my dreams, which is the Important part. :D
One of today's garden crafts was making a worm bin. You can buy commercial ones, but they're expensive. All this took was a few minutes to set it up. (See the House Yard and the Water Garden.)
We’ve been dealing with a troublesome intern. He keeps giving senior members of the staff unsolicited advice, corrections, and “tips” about everything from life lessons to ways for everyone to do their work. He’s been told many times that it’s inappropriate and that other members of the staff are uncomfortable with it but he keeps doing it. How, as a manager, can I deal with this situation without making it difficult for the intern? I’m afraid I will shatter his self-esteem as it’s seems fragile despite the over-confidence.
You’re not doing him any favors by dancing around it! Since softer conversations haven’t worked, the kindest thing you can do at this point is to be blunt and straightforward. Lay out clearly what he needs to stop doing, and don’t pull your punches when you say it. Otherwise he’s going to keep repeating the behavior at future jobs and it will impact him longer-term than it will at an internship. The whole point of interning is to learn this kind of thing when the stakes are lower than they will be later on.
If you’ve already been very direct and it’s still happening — i.e., you’ve given him clear directives to stop doing XYZ and he’s continuing it anyway — then you should reconsider keeping him on. Your job isn’t to protect his self-esteem at the expense of letting him aggravate everyone else.
2. Is there anything worth saying to my manager after a coworker was laid off?
I work for a medium-sized company in an industry that has had a rocky few years. We’ve had two rounds of layoffs per year in the three years I’ve been there. The previous layoffs didn’t directly affect my team, which has historically been a little undersized compared to the amount of work it does.
But recently, one member of my four-person team was let go and my manager, grandboss, and great-grandboss all separately asserted that no further layoffs were planned (they say this after every layoff) and I am a valued member of the team (ditto), and asked me to share my feelings and any questions not related to immediate logistical needs.
I let them all know that I was personally bummed and professionally concerned but didn’t have any non-logistical questions, which seemed to fall a bit flat. I just … couldn’t think of anything to ask that they would be able to answer, and didn’t see any point in burdening them with the actual intensity of my feelings (very sad! extremely anxious!).
Are there any questions I could ask and expect a meaningful answer? Is there some etiquette around asking the non-meaningful questions anyway? I came out of all three conversations feeling like I’d missed the mark.
Most likely they were hoping you would ask things that they could give reassuring-sounding answers to, so they could feel confident that they had left you reassured. When you didn’t do that, it felt like the conversation “fell flat” because they were left to sit with the knowledge that you’re probably still uneasy. Which you presumably are! And which they shouldn’t be trying to reassure you out of unless they truly have extremely solid, insider knowledge that more layoffs aren’t going to hit your team. And maybe they do have that knowledge, but it’s very unlikely that there’s anything they could say on that front that you’d find believable; that’s just how it goes when a company has two rounds of layoffs per year for three years. The discomfort is theirs — because it’s an inherently uncomfortable situation — but it doesn’t need to be yours.
If you really wanted to ask something, you could have asked how you could be confident that more layoffs weren’t going to hit your area (which is probably what they were expecting you to ask) but the problem with that question is that you can’t put real weight on the answer. Maybe your remaining team is safe now and maybe they have a business explanation for why, but there’s no reason you should believe that, even if they say it, since it sounds like they offer false reassurances after every round of cuts.
3. I have bad breath and have to meet with clients
I have recently developed tonsil stones. While this is otherwise nothing more than a slight annoyance, it comes with the embarrassing symptom of truly horrifying bad breath. I’ve tried mints, gum, mouthwash, you name it. Nothing seems to make it go away completely. I’m in a public-facing role and I meet with clients and small groups throughout the day.
How would you handle this? Wear a mask? Live off of Altoids and hope it masks the odor? Be up-front and apologize? I cringe with embarrassment every time I have to be in close quarters with a client.
When someone feels self-conscious about something extremely noticeable, I’m normally a fan of just mentioning it so it’s out of the way (for example, this person who was in the middle of dental work and interviewing while missing several front teeth — ooh, and the first update ever published on this site was from someone in a similar situation), but for some reason with this I feel like it’s more likely to make the other person more uncomfortable than if you didn’t mention it. I’m curious to hear other opinions on that, though.
If you’re up for wearing a mask, that would almost certainly help. Alternately, yes, Altoids (or a similarly strong mint) right before or during a meeting. And can you arrange your chair so that you’re not as likely to be breathing right in their space? (Last, probably doesn’t need to be said, but talk to your doctor! Tonsil stones can be treated.)
4. Can we consider leaves of absences when deciding on raises?
My employer has an annual raise cycle that we’re coming up on where any employee who is meeting expectations is generally given a raise. They are merit-based in that employees who do not meet expectations in their annual performance review do not qualify, and managers get a budget of X% of their total team’s salary to divide among individuals as they deem appropriate. In the training for this year’s merit cycle, HR recommended that raises be prorated for hires during the year (reasonable, in my opinion) and for leaves of absence (outrageous, in my opinion).
Is this legal for them to do? It seems like it would disproportionately impact women taking leave to have children, and leaving it to manager discretion seems extra dicey.
Federal law says that employees who were on FMLA or parental leave for part of the year are entitled to any unconditional pay increases that cover that period (like if everyone is getting an X% raise), but when it’s performance based (e.g., dependent on productivity or meeting specific goals) employers are allowed to factor in time away from the job, as long as they do it equally for all types of leave. In other words, they couldn’t decide to prorate raises for people who were on maternity leave but not do the same thing for someone who was out on a different type of leave.
I was supposed to get together with my friend Doug last night. He was coming up here. I was working in the office, but I had more than enough time to get home and eat supper before he arrived. He messaged me at 6:10 saying he was done eating and I could come anytime. Shit. I was supposed to go there. So I jumped in the car and got there a little before 7.
My main problem was that if I'd realized, I would have just stayed downtown after work, had dinner, worked a little overtime, and still been to his place in plenty of time. But going home, and then back past the office to get to his place, I wasted nearly an hour in the car.
And then I still had work to do, that I would get done after he left, which would have been probably around 9:30. But I didn't leave his place until almost ten. And then got stuck in traffic because the freeway closed for nighttime construction. So I logged on to work at 11:00. Only did 40 minutes.
It was all very annoying. I was looking forward to meeting Doug because I needed a break. All that extra kinda canceled out a lot of that break. I worked almost 11 hours today, and then had to take care of some CoPA stuff.
Today I took some pictures around the yard and did a couple of garden crafts. These are from the house yard and savanna. (See the Worm Bin and the Water Garden.)
Today I took some pictures around the yard and did a couple of garden crafts. These are from the house yard and savanna. (See the Worm Bin and the Water Garden.)
I caught up with my mom today about my retirement. Yes, it took days to talk to her about it. Though she might have heard it a few days ago from my sister.
My mom's not the most in-touch person anymore. She lives with my youngest sister, which is probably also the only reason, short of moving to a managed care home, she doesn't perish of self-neglect. She keeps odd hours and doesn't like to answer the phone.
Nobody else in the house answers the phone, either. The landline phone, that is. Everyone else has a mobile phone and views the landline as a laughable anachronism. The landline's there for my mom, who doesn't have a mobile phone and doesn't want one. And despite being the only person in the house who'll use it, she almost never answer it when it rings.
Getting in touch with my mom often involves several steps:
Call the landline phone. Nobody answers.
Often try step #1 again a few hours later, or earlier the next day, with the same result.
Text my sister to ask if they're at home and when mom's even up. Ask her to tell mom to answer the phone.
Sister texts me back a few days later to say mom has tried calling me but keeps getting a busy signal. NOTE: my phone is a cell phone with call-waiting and digital voicemail. Aside from when a system wide failure occurs, callers will not get a busy signal. Mom's dialing the wrong number.
Sister writes my number on a piece of paper for Mom and makes sure she can read it. It's the same number I've had since 2005. It is not one of the older numbers Mom might still have in her address book.
We finally get in touch.
So, we finally chatted today. She's happy for me but also feels old that her kids are now retiring. I get that. I suggested she look at the positive side of it: she's lived long enough to see the first of her kids retire. My dad didn't live that long. He was older than her, but she's now 2 years old than his age at death. I didn't remind her of that. But I did I remind her she's lived long enough to see her first great-grandchild. Of course, that great-grandchild's grandma is my sister. My younger sister.
**Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.
This post covers Wednesday and Thursday.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
WEDNESDAY
I was up early to do laundry. Don't normally do laundry in the middle of the week but with the masterclass on Thursday and having been sick last week, I thought it prudent to do it.
It was a cloudy, cold, and dreary day, so I mostly stuck to indoor activities. Winter is a bummer like that! But I am behind on Foodie Finds, plus wanted to run the masterclass thing once more and pack for it. Forty-eight minutes, which is a bit long but I have nearly 90 minutes this time so that's still just fine. And my voice felt pretty good at the end! I am trying to remember to relax my throat and not allow the fight-or-flight access to those throat muscles.
In the afternoon the sun came out for a glorious millisecond, so I went outside to just walk in it! No destination and not enough time to actually do anything. The result was I did end up buying perhaps more candy than I ought to have :p I've been jonesing for Swedish Fish for the longest time. Also, the last two weeks were very stressful and perhaps my soul wanted some consolation foods. Chatted via text with Jameson...he is getting our faux hardwood floors installed tomorrow. He took a bunch of "Before" photos and I can't wait to see the "After!" It's going to take a few days as they're doing it in sections so that will probably be in a separate post.
Back at the hotel, lunch and a nap. The nap felt very good for once. The evening show was nice, audiences here are like they were in Texas, with lots of people interested to come see the band and interact with us :) The show went mostly-well, though my lips and back of my throat are constantly dry here and it can be frustrating when your body won't do what you're asking because of outside factors like that :/ I slather chapstick on night and day, and drink loads of water and use throat spray...not sure what else to do except keep trying!
After the show while walking back, I had some deep thoughts about this masterclass. I had looked up pictures of their current trombone studio, and there are 17 students...FIVE of whom are women!! (photo courtesy IUP Trombone Studio)
Now, not all of these kids are MAJORS...some of them just enjoy trombone and participate in the studio because of that. But the fact that there are this many women on trombone AT ALL is a definite improvement. When I attended IUP, I was essentially IT. My friend Lauren played trombone as well and we'd practice together, but she was an ed major. As far as ensemble work and studio and a performance track, I was The Token Chick. And that has been true throughout all of my education and performance history.
Woke up early, nervous for this masterclass, but it wasn't until 2:30 so I had the whole morning to center myself. Stole some peanut butter from free hotel breakfast. Typed up this post, watch on the Ring doorbell as the flooring guys arrived and loaded their stuff into the house to tear up our old carpet and install the new flooring. Exciting stuff!
And RE: yesterday's thoughts about female tromboning, posted this:
Ate lunch a little early because I had to walk to pick up the rental car around noon. They scared me at first by saying they didn't have any rentals available, then when my face fell and I immediately pulled out my phone to call Budget, suddenly they "found one." Hmmmmm. Regardless, got a car and got to Indiana, PA right when I wanted to, a little before 2pm.
On the drive back, Jameson updated me with The Floor Situation at the house. Here is a picture partway through. I had thought he was only doing the living room and kitchen, but I guess it's going to be the whole house!!!
The big grey area is where the carpet was, and where the man is standing is the tile that you've always heard me say I'm mopping :p He's breaking it apart. It took them essentially the whole day, and they did the living room, dining room, bathrooms, and kitchen. I don't think he's having the bedrooms done just yet.
Another pic of the living room floor and the piano covered in plastic.
They're supposed to be finished tomorrow but we'll see what happens!
I returned the rental car just slightly late due to rush hour traffic. Walked back to the hotel and ate dinner (thank you, Past Me, for knowing I'd probably be late and prepping dinner for Future Me!) and then it was pretty much straight to the theater. Another good show, another stellar audience who cheered loudly for Gaston and Be Our Guest :)
In closing, here's a lovely picture that someone (Pittsburgh Cultural Trust?) took of our logo truck right outside the Benedum Center.
Friday: One evening show. I want to do a Foodie Find for breakfast or lunch, and some thrifting or a walk! No other plans.
Saturday and Sunday: Two shows each day, no real plans. Might try to see/do something on Saturday morning because the weather is supposed to be nice and I'm mostly feeling better.
Like many people, I just finished watching A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It was a good, self-contained little series, and even if you’re still burnt out on the Game of Thrones universe, you’ll enjoy it. I assume they’ll go on to make more and more until we hate it, but just watch season one and move on with your life. Interestingly, I think there’s something appealing about Ser Duncan as an example of “connected masculinity” but I need to chew on that more.
First, we need to talk a little about IMDb ratings. These are powered by users adding star ratings for TV episodes and movies they've watched, providing a number out of 10. These are collated into an overall score, prominently displayed on the IMDb page for the particular show or movie. Most people probably don't even look at it, but for some people, it's a point of pride.
This rang a bell for me because, as the article notes, for a brief period Heated Rivalry shot to the top of this particular ranking, until a bunch of bad-faith 1-star reviews knocked it back to a 9.9/10 (will there be a week where I don’t mention Heated Rivalry in this newsletter? who can say). Breaking Bad's "Ozymandias" had held the top spot, essentially unchallenged, for over a decade. What’s followed is not about a celebration of excellent pieces of television. It’s coordinated bombing campaigns. The only real winner in the current example, as the Yahoo piece dryly noted, was Six Feet Under — a show that ended in 2005 and quietly climbed to the top of the chart while everyone else was busy torching each other's ratings.
best finale of all time and i’ll fight you over it
Cardiff University's Dr Lucy Bennett put it well in that same piece: "Once taste is turned into a scoreboard with ratings, competition then inevitably follows." Which, yes — but I'd push that further. Competition doesn't just follow. It replaces something. In the war to protect a number, the actual shows get swallowed whole. Nobody in these review threads is talking about what made "Ozymandias" so devastating, or what any of these subsequent shows did differently. They’re just defending territory. The number had stopped being a representation of the thing and had become the thing itself.
This is exactly what Eunice Braga was writing about recently in fan/work, in a piece that's been stuck in my head since I read it. She was specifically talking about AO3 — about fans who've started obsessing over their comments-to-hits ratio before they even publish a fic — but the diagnosis applies everywhere. She talks about quantification fixation, and traces it to something bigger than fandom: the broader cultural pressure that says nothing is worth anything until a metric confirms it. "Things can no longer exist," she writes, "until there are charts and statistics backing up their existence."
On film Twitter, it drives me nuts when people talk about movies in this way: This movie had x amount of production budget, so it needs to make $____ billion to make money. As a moviegoer, that’s not my problem. That’s a shareholder problem. My problem is just making sure that when I do go out, I watch something that I’m entertained by, struck by, or moved by. If I’m a film buff, maybe I’d want to go to movies for more than that but trying to make this the norm for even the most casual of moviegoers just breeds a mindset that art, media has to be ‘worth it’ to be seen.
And once a number can be defended, it can also be attacked. Not just by rival fandoms, but by people with no interest in the art at all. The Last Jedi was review-bombed by a coordinated bot campaign on Rotten Tomatoes, with a member of the alt-right later publicly taking credit for it — the stated grievance being that a Star Wars film had a female lead and a Black protagonist.
bet ur fun at parties
The Rings of Power was flooded with one-star reviews before many of its critics had watched a single episode, with reviewers openly angry that the show had cast actors of colour in a franchise they had decided belonged to them. The Little Mermaid collected 47,000 one-star ratings on IMDb after Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel. Ghostbusters (2016), Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, They/Them — the list goes on, and the pattern is identical every time. An announcement is made. A Telegram channel mobilises. One-star reviews arrive in waves, often before the thing has even been released. IMDb puts up a notice about "unusual rating activity." The number gets dragged down. The campaign declares victory.
What's striking, when you put it next to the Breaking Bad/Game of Thrones situation, is that the mechanism is identical. In both cases, people aren’t using a rating to express an opinion about a piece of work but to prosecute a position — about hierarchy and who gets to be on top. The Breaking Bad fans protecting "Ozymandias" and the people review-bombing The Little Mermaid are doing the same thing. The difference is that one is petty(? I guess?) and the other is a hate campaign. But they share a foundational belief: that the number is the battlefield, and winning on the scoreboard is the point.
Nowhere is this more visible — or more complicated — than in K-pop streaming culture. ARMY, the BTS fandom, essentially industrialised fan chart participation. Streaming parties. Coordinated YouTube guidelines ("watch at 480p minimum, don't mute, take breaks between replays so the algorithm doesn't flag you"). Internationally pooled funds to buy downloads that count toward Billboard charts. A former Spotify employee told Billboard that when K-pop fandoms arrived, it was "like nothing that any chart-juicing machine had ever done before — just on a completely different scale." Bernie Cho, a Seoul-based music industry executive, described the mobilisation of top-tier K-pop fan clubs as resembling "the impressive precision of an elite military operation."
But if the number is what your love gets translated into, what happens to everything that can't be translated? The song that didn't get the streaming party treatment or the fic with a low hit count. The film that got review-bombed before anyone saw it. The metric absorbs all the oxygen, and the things that resist quantification — weird, small, difficult, new — get starved of attention. K-pop streaming culture and far-right review bombing are obviously not morally equivalent. But they both treat the number as the goal, and they both reshape the infrastructure of how culture gets seen and surfaced. Spotify and YouTube have had to change their algorithms repeatedly to fight back against organised streaming. Rotten Tomatoes routinely has to disable user ratings.
When we organise our relationship to art around rankings and metrics, we lose the critical vocabulary for talking about why something matters. If the question is always "is this rated higher than that thing?", we never have to answer the harder, more interesting question: what does this actually do? What does it ask of us? What does it feel like to spend time with? "Ozymandias" is one of the greatest hours of television because of the specific way it collapses Walter White's self-delusion in real time — not because of a number that a bunch of strangers assigned to it on a website. The number can't hold that. Which is just another way of saying: we need to actually engage in criticism. To have opinions with thought and reasoning behind them, not just rankings.
time for a rewatch
Ok, but here’s where things get a bit tangled. You’ll all know that one of the phrases I reflexively deploy when people are being annoying about the objects of others’ fannish interests is “let people enjoy things”.
On its face, it's just a plea for basic tolerance: don't march into someone's enjoyment of a thing and pick it apart because you don't share their taste. Nobody wants to know that you think Taylor Swift is mid, actually. Maybe you loved Wuthering Heights (hi luce). Stop judging people for cosplaying on their weekends, or being into LARPs.
But "let people enjoy things" has drifted a long way from that reasonable starting point. It's now thrown around just as often to shut down any critical engagement at all — including from people who are deeply invested in the thing being discussed. Point out a structural problem in a show you love, and someone will tell you to let people enjoy things. Write thoughtfully about the labour conditions behind K-pop idol culture, and you're not letting people enjoy things. Ask whether it's healthy for a fandom to define collective worth through chart positions, and — you guessed it.
The phrase has become a way of framing all criticism as hostile intrusion. It’s why I call this newsletter “What you love matters” instead, because your thing does matter, and you’re right to love it. But it doesn’t mean that thing is flawless or unable to be interrogated. The fans most aggressive about treating cultural metrics as a battlefield are often the same ones quickest to invoke "let people enjoy things". The deeper problem is that "let people enjoy things" implicitly frames criticism and enjoyment as opposites. They're not. Genuine criticism — the kind that asks what a work is doing, what it's asking of its audience, why it matters or doesn't — is itself a form of serious engagement. And it often leads to more people discovering something and enjoying it, not less. And yet real critics are being laid off, music criticism is no longer cranky. (It’s Not) The Death of Criticism (Again):
To be a critic, in any of the various and sundry ways in which one can now exist in that role, is to engage with art. That’s really all I think criticism is: sustained, considered engagement with art. It can be, but does not have to be, an ultimate judgement: read this, not that. Thumbs up or thumbs down. I’ve had people ask me before, “Was that a negative or positive review?” Both? Neither? It was a review. Like a book, you read it and make your own decisions about it.
Fandom used to understand this instinctively. The long tumblr essays. The metas on livejournal. The comments that clocked something in a book that the author hadn't consciously put there. The forum threads that turned a single scene over and over until everyone understood it differently. That is all criticism, in the broadest and best sense of the word. None of it would show up in a comments-to-hits ratio or move a decimal point, but it is the thing that made the numbers worth anything in the first place. Ironically, the massive influx of new and old fans into the Heated Rivalry fandom has brought a swathe of that back on tumblr and I’m loving it:
god i love fans
When we replace that kind of engagement with scoreboard-watching — and then insulate the scoreboard from scrutiny by telling anyone who questions it to shut up — we don't end up with more enjoyment. We end up with fandom that's optimised for winning and increasingly bad at saying why any of it matters. The number went up. Nobody won anything.
more good stuff
it’s album rollout time for Harry’s latest Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally. Watch him on Brittany Broski’s Royal Court, he’s adorbs.
loved this interview with author Brian Raftery about his new book Hannibal Lecter: A Life about the beloved fictional serial killer’s enduring legacy — including which actor played him best (no question it’s Mads, sorry to the rest of them).
That there have been two high-profile examples of this kind of radicalizing joy on the largest possible stages in less than a month feels like a balm for the relentless shit we have been living under as ICE has destroyed our communities. It is a reminder that even right now, even as the fight rages on, there is time for joy, there is time for art, there is time to celebrate difference and self, and to insist that you too can be free.
finally, in my lego city
vacuuming the rug
forward this email to someone who needs to watch harry on royal court.
I applied to volunteer for Special Events for the Humane Society (fits better with my schedule, and I'm less likely to wind up with another pet) and an organization that provides books to prisoners, which is right up my alley. The books for prisoners people emailed me back right away.
Overslept until 7:45 AM. Today is a pajama day for me.
At work, the conversion to the new ticketing system seems to be going well.
The dogs wouldn’t come in until 11:15 AM.
I way overslept my nap at lunchtime.
The cats like the bed that I bought for the top of my desk upstairs. And I haven't even plugged it in yet! I need to rearrange stuff.
I need to log back on tonight to make up my nap time.
The lamp that I liked is pending sale, but I found another one that's similar. I need to figure out how much cash to get so that I can buy furniture this weekend. $185. I’ll need to break some bills. Oh, plus $15 for end table?
I got my new ergonomic keyboard. I need to set it up.
I screwed up and forgot to soak the cat dishes. Did so and fed Lily. Submitted a grocery list for tomorrow. Fed the rest of us.
Note to self: Scan music (done) and do French homework tonight. It turns out that I don't have French tomorrow, so while I started the homework, I'll finish it on the weekend.
This short memoir follows Jones' early life growing up as a gay Black kid in 1990s Texas, through his college years and young adulthood struggling with feelings of unbelonging and uncertain identity.
The core of the book is his relationship with his mother, who died of heart disease when he was 26. She was an iconoclast, breaking with her family's conservative Christianity to become a Buddhist, and insisted on doing things her own way, including raising her son on her own. The dynamic between them is complex; he loves and respects her, and in many ways they're close and protective of each other, yet he doesn't feel truly seen by her. His sexuality is part of the barrier—she doesn't reject him, but is resistant to talking about it—and I also got a sense of her as a person who held others at arm's length because intimacy scared her.
But Jones is not too afraid to write about his most vulnerable, self-destructive, and howlingly painful moments. ( cut for content: gay bashing ) It doesn't read like he's being too harsh on himself, and it doesn't read like he's trying to make himself look good. It reads like he's found a narrative arc in what really happened rather than editing events into artificial tidiness.
Jones is primarily a poet, and the book's emotional clarity and concise lyricism bears that out. The material is heavy, but I didn't find it depressing. Rather, I felt that the fact that he's now able to write so honestly about what he's been through demonstrates that he's achieved what he's been longing for: knowing and sharing who he really is. He doesn't need to spell out that this happened for him, because when you read the book you're holding the evidence of it in your hands.
This morning in the gym, a woman some decades my senior was doing a virtual training session with another woman in between our age brackets, though closer to her than me. I could hear and see them and they could see and hear me, but it wasn't an issue - I just grabbed a kettlebell and moved to the other side of the room.
The trainer let out a gasp and said, "Look at that girl's hair!" She'd seen my braid hanging down, and couldn't help but comment.
I won't lie: it's pretty wonderful to have something about myself that catches complete strangers' attention in a charming, positive way. And I won't lie: it was a superb moment to hear someone call me a girl. Affirming and euphoric.
1. I had another nice WFH day today. I had a web meeting at 4pm, and that would have been a web meeting even if I'd gone in, so no reason to go. Now that I'm not doing stuff that really heavily relies on accessing our system which can only be accessed from home by remoting into a PC at the store, it's nice to be able to work from home at least a couple days a week.
2. I went to the tattoo place today for my appointment but ended up not getting any work done today. She looked at my leg and said it's healing well, but the skin is still not fully back to normal, so we should wait to do the touch up. I told her I'd be in Japan for the first half of April, so we agreed to see how it's looking when I get back and do it then. The tattoo place is only about 15-20 minutes away (and today was good traffic both ways) so it was no bother going in, and I was glad to have her look at it. I told her I'm really happy with it, even how it is now. It really only has a few spots that need to be touched up. On the bottom front there's a bit where the marker she used to draw the lines still shows, and on the back there are a few bits where skin shows in between the color bands. But all of that is only noticeable when you look close, so I'm fine with waiting until after our trip.
3. We had two beat up cardboard cat scratcher/loungers that we replaced with the new wood/sisal ones, and one we just put in the recycling, but the other one we put out for Tuxie to see how he'd like it and he is a big fan. It can't be used for scratching anymore, but he loves it as a lounger and has been using it every day.
Did you know that bathing suits used to have buttons? Back when they were jumpsuits or dresses, buttons helped with the fit. And you can still get patterns for that if you're into historic sewing or want to go swimming without exposing a lot of skin. Here's an example of a reproduction pattern from 1872. Thanks to atherleisure for the fun historical tip.
Title: A Way of Her Own Fandom: Women's Soccer RPF Pairings: Hope Solo/Kelley O'Hara Characters: Hope Solo, Kelley O'Hara Rating: G Length: 324 words Summary: Hope constantly faces criticism about her nature. Kelley reminds her not to let them affect her.
You may request 3-10 fandoms and offer 3-10 fandoms, with at least 1 relationship and 1 epistolary type in each request and offer.
Requesting or offering the same fandom more than once is fine, as long as your overall signup meets the 3 unique fandom requests/3 unique fandom offers requirement.
There is a known AO3 bug where typing into the box does not make the relationship show up in the dropdown. In that case, please copy and paste the relationship from the tagset, exactly as it appears there; this should save. If you still encounter issues, please let me know in a comment or by email or PM, and I can manually add it to your sign-up after sign-ups close.
Signups will be open until Mar 7, 11:59PM UTC (countdown).
Some notes on DNWs:
If you routinely DNW 1st or 2nd person POV, please consider waiving or clarifying the DNW (e.g. 'DNW 1st/2nd POV when outside of epistolary sections') as epistolary fic frequently uses these POVs.
Please ensure your DNWs do not conflict with your signup. For instance, do not DNW a relationship or epistolary category you request.
If you receive an assignment where the recipient's DNWs contradict the signup, the signup takes priority. If the DNW is the only relationship or epistolary category you matched on, please contact me for a new assignment.
Final Nominations Changelog
&/ is not accepted in this exchange. These relationships have been removed:
So, I was reading a Thread where a guy was warning about old drives, and how they might not last very long anymore because of degradation of the components used in them.
So, while looking for a mouse this morning, I dug up 2 old HDs (circa 2010?) and two external HDs and figured I'd kick them started and see if they worked.
And I just found the MOTHERLODE of photos!
Dating back to 2011! Including ones of my old cat, and the parentals' old cat, and friends' children as babies! WOW.
And old trips! Including a few that I thought I'd lost forever!
(Apparently, I have always taken lots of photos of builidngs!.)
Also, boy was I skinny!! Either that, or the camera made me look skinny. Oh, younger me, why did you not realise? XD
Illustrated with TV-series screencaps again. Also, I decided to be self-indulgent and throw some of my own fanart in there.
I have a large but poorly-organized heap of “ideas about How To Fix These Books.” Might round those up and make a post about them at some point? TBD. For the main liveblog of the trilogy itself — this wraps it up.
Miscellaneous. Eclectic. Random. Perhaps markedly literate, or at least suffering from the compulsion to read any text that presents itself, including cereal boxes.
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
matuzo_feed![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Amanda and I are traveling back to June 1997 to discuss:
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
