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Lynn, QC, PH.

I edit and proofread academic papers and books. I write here and elsewhere. I also talk way too much about P-pop and beauty pageants over at Pop and Pageantry.

Get in touch if there’s a project you think we can work on together.

Category: Stuff I found online that’s cool

  • milin woolfelt is stop-motion felting magic

    milin woolfelt is stop-motion felting magic

    Mrs. Apple is living the cozy cottage life we all aspire to.

    The Youtube algorithm somehow thought I needed something cute and inspiring to watch and gifted me with milin woolfelt.

    milin woolfelt features a show called Brambly Hedge, with a bunch of stop-motion animation shorts and starring Mrs. Apple and Mr. Apple. The creator is based in Taiwan, and their channel description says everything is 100% handmade, no AI involved. Which is such an incredible relief. It’s hard to enjoy anything cute nowadays because you always have to stop and scrutinize each video and image and creator bio to check if it’s actually AI.

    Anyway, Mrs. Apple and Mr. Apple live in a lovely little cottage, where Mrs. Apple does a lot of baking. Each short runs less than two minutes because I can imagine that felting, doing the animation, and shooting and maybe reshooting scenes take a lot of effort. Still, there are a lot of details to take in. I’ve gone back to one part of a video several times just to watch the wool felt moving like flames on a stove.

    If this channel has a lesson to teach, it’s probably for the viewer to slow down, appreciate what’s there, and learn to take a closer look at details. I’ve seen a few comments hoping for more videos with a longer runtime, and I feel the same because everything is just unbearably cute and heartwarming and I want more of it. But the creator seems to be producing the videos by themselves, so while I’d love to see more of Mrs. Apple and Mr. Apple’s life together, these tiny glimpses into their world would have to do for now.

  • A tribute to one of my all-time favorite tools

    A tribute to one of my all-time favorite tools

    Journalist Taylor Lorenz tweeted about the difficulty of figuring out a hex code for a color using GenAI, and people are rightly roasting her for it.

    Some people have suggested using an image editing software—even something as simple as MS Paint—and using the eyedropper tool to pinpoint the color of your choice and the software will simply indicate the hex code. Basically, people are suggesting that she use ANY available tool instead of GenAI to figure it out.

    Me, my favorite resource for this purpose has always been Colour Swatches by Lindsay Marshall, Professor of Educational Practice in Computer Science at Newcastle University. I never can remember how I found this page all those years ago, but trust that it continues to be my go-to page for color hex codes. It’s surprising and also endearing to see that it hasn’t changed one bit since I started learning HTML.

    So yeah. My point is, other tools are out there if you need them. You don’t HAVE to immediately turn to GenAI for what you’re looking for.

  • CreepyLink makes me chortle

    And in yet another installment of “You can really just do whatever on the Internet,” I present to you CreepyLink, a funny take on URL shorteners, except this one actually makes them longer in some cases and MORE SUSPICIOUS in all cases. This is what I love about websites like this one. They don’t HAVE to serve any other purpose other than to make you say, “Haha that’s so cool I love it.”

  • Today’s find: some fucking good websites

    Motherfucking Website

    Better Motherfucking Website

    Even Better Motherfucking Website

    That’s it, that’s the blog post.

    No, seriously, I know I talk so much about how I miss the old Internet, but you really CAN just build a website like these and fill it whatever you want, and you don’t have to make it look and work like every other site nowadays. As long as it works and presents clearly what it needs to present. These three are battling for website of the year in my book.

  • Hello again, Orisinal Games

    Pocketful of Stars, my beloved.

    One of the things I tried learning when I was still thinking about being a web developer was Shockwave Flash, which eventually became Adobe Flash Player. I took a short course at a place called ICS Here, if I remember correctly, and I learned to make a few animations but never really did anything with the skill.

    So I always used to admire anyone who was able to make complicated animations and actual games. Flash games were a huge thing in the early days of the Internet, and it was kind of a sad day when Adobe ended support for Flash Player. NationSquid on Youtube talks more about the death of Flash games. While Flash did present a few security issues, all I can really think about it is that it allowed so much creativity and it being discontinued has meant the loss of quite a significant chunk of Internet history.

    One site that contained a lot of Flash games was Orisinal Games by Ferry Halim.* There are a lot of cute, cozy games on there with the most adorable art. I decided to check it out tonight and found that THE GAMES ARE BACK thanks to a Flash emulator called Ruffle. I will forever thank these games for giving me a taste for cute and cuddly art, and for helping me kill time in a calm, soothing way any time I was bored at work.

    *I can’t be the only one who remembers Orisinal. Do leave a comment if you played the games too.