Notices by Dr. Zalka Csenge Virág (tarkabarkaholgy@ohai.social)

Can a biology person explain this? It looks neat.

#nature #trees #biology #question #image

Finally made it to the new Ethnographic Archives.

Upside: they have a digital catalog instead of a card catalog now

Downside: one search loads in 2 minutes

#research #folklore #ItsSomething

- Who are we?
- TODDLERS!
- What do we want?
- NOOO!
- When do we want it?
- NOW!

#parenting

If you have anxiety and also a small child, you can choose between exhaustion and caffeine-induced anxiety attacks. Those are the two options.

☕️

#parenting #anxiety

I think this is the most badass photo I have ever seen.

Lucy Schwob, alias Claude Cahun, French-Jewish genderfluid surrealist artist, in her 50s, after being released from Nazi prison. For years during the occupation of Jersey she ran a covert pamphlet campaign with her girlfriend.

She is holding a German eagle between her teeth. She got it from a German soldier who tore it off his uniform.

From Paper Bullets by Jeffrey H. Jackson

#image #resistance #history #queer #lgbtq #books #bookstodon

@GreenSkyOverMe Apparently there are several different kinds. But I'm going to ask my OBGYN about it at one point

I am going from curious to furious

For the "What" people:

Generally when you are on antibiotics, they kill off a bunch of useful bacteria in your body too. So I was always told by doctors not to forget to take probiotics to help with the digestion issues. But as far as I can tell it doesn't seem to be a practice to warn vagina-having people that antibiotics kill off the OTHER flora in your body as well. Go figure.

Me: Mommy is very tired. Can mommy please have five minutes of calm and quiet?

Child: Sure thing, Mommy!

Also child: Sings LA LA LA in a high-pitched voice and slowly unspools all the toilet paper in the bathroom

#parenting

It's still #Tarotember, which means people are re-designing tarot cards in various ways. This is my take on The Devil, inspiried by listening to other parents on the playground.

(I understand The Devil as a card for things that limit and constrain you. Such as peer pressure and expectations.)

#tarot #parenting #image

A few years ago I did a reading challenge where I read a folktale collection from every country around the world. It took 5 years and it was an amazing adventure.

My other ever-favorite genre to read is women's memoirs and (auto)biographies.

My brain is low on dopamine.

You can see where this is going...

#books #bookstodon #AmReading #reading #WomensHistory

I hate it when I talk about AI "art" and how awful it is, and people respond with "Oh, but it will get so much better at it! It will be able to create amazing stuff, not just creepy images!"

I. Don't. Care.

I want stuff made by thinking, feeling, flawed humans. That's the whole point. I don't care how good AI is at "art". I don't care that "writing a good prompt is difficult". I really don't. The problem was never the quality to begin with.

#AI #art

Also, unpopular opinion:

Trad publishing's preference for easily marketable tropes makes the use of AI easier.

Multiple people I know have been told by publishers that they need to "describe the manuscript in three common tropes" or "as a combination of two popular books/movies" in order to be marketable. The more formulaic something is, the easier sell. They were told to tweak stories to fit into a trope.

This, #AI can do easily. But it's not even an AI problem. It's a marketing problem.

And finally, a #StorytellingPSA:

There is no such thing as "I generated a new folktale with AI!"

(Yes, someone has actually tried to convince me AI will make me new folktales to tell.)

That might be a tale, but it's not "folk." Folktales are part of a community's oral tradition. They work because people have told and told and retold them. You can't plonk a chunck of text down and call it a folktale. Connection is the whole point.

/end rant

#AI #storytelling

Hungarian #FolktaleMoment:

Three princes set out to seek their fortune. One is seeking the Gold Forest, one is seeking gemstones, and the youngest is seeking... knowledge.

The fun part is, the literal word used for the third is "ancient stories", but it is also the term we use for prehistory.

So basically, Prince No. 3 is a storyteller and an archaeologist.

I love this.

#storytelling #archaeology #folklore #folktales

I finally found an Emperor tarot card I can get behind.

#tarot #cards #shiny

So The Very Hungry Caterpillar got translated to Hungarian as The Insatiable Caterpillar.

#bookstodon #books #kidlit 🐛

Me, watching a trailer about a movie where Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans fight for the attention of the same woman.

(Because apparently someone successfully pitched that concept.)

#cinemastodon #movies #romance

@GreenSkyOverMe electric sockets and appliances

@wallacewords ... also if your actions to secure the Toddler are not tactful enough, they will Rage