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Sapphire

@sapphirespectre.bsky.social
201 followers 652 following 473 posts

Now that people are here: I'm a Trekkie, Whovian, book nerd, knitter/crocheter, sewist, occasional gardener, frequent baker, and undiagnosed but pretty sure there's some ADHD at the VERY least (I have more interests and minor hobbies than I've listed).

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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
I've repeatedly pushed back on encouragement to use an internal Ai because there's simply no use case where it's better than years of personal experience in actually doing the job. I could use Ai to write emails but they'd be worse. Running creative works through Ai for no benefit is worse.
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Nicolas Hénin @nicolashenin.net · 17/09/2026
Nice campaign by the Norwegian Consumer Council about the declining lifespan of products. Enjoy!
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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
OMFG WOMEN: IT'S OK TO AGE AND GAIN WEIGHT COMPLIANCE WITH FASCISM WON'T LET YOU LIVE LONGER OR BE HAPPIER FUCK ALL THE SYSTEMS THAT WANT YOU TO HARM YOURSELF FOR THEIR APPROVAL (this psa brought to you by *the emmys*)
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Mine is like 3% liking stuff, 2% thanks for showing it to me I guess, 95% THIS IS HORRIBLE WHY WOULD ANYBODY LIKE THIS HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME. But in that 95% there's been some stuff that migrated later to the approved list so... We keep at it.
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Fire Breathing Unicorn @firebunicorn.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
I feel like my life as an Oregon Trail Generation (Xennial if you must) parent is a neverending stream of: "introduce my kid to something cool" / "break their heart as we both learn the cool person is, in fact, very un"
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daryl "rupert pumpkin" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
GDT's reddit AMA spitting fire www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...
reddit comment: 

Hello! Did you intend the ending of Pan’s labyrinth to be real or in Ofelia’s mind?

Guillermo Del Toro's reply: 

My interpretation, and it's exclusively mine, is that it's real.

Because there's two things. One is what people call “The Shining Question.” The Shining Question is, Who opens the door for Jack to get out of the fridge? And Ofelia is in an attic with a guard outside her door, and she draws the door with the magic chalk, and she shows up in the labyrinth. So, the only way she could have gone into the labyrinth is the magic chalk. And the flower is real at the end. The flower that blooms in the dead tree. And the reason I think it’s real is because—and this is why I'm in favor of the human factor in art—I think that art does transform the world. You know?

Think about it for a second. One of the goals, with all this movement, is to make you believe that art is vulgar. That art is nothing special, and anybody can do art. That is like me telling you that I'm faster at running than Usain Bolt but I “run” in my motorcycle. Well, that's not the same. That’s not the same at all.

Art is important, and they want you to believe it isn't. It's part of the idea of control. The goal is not to have artificial intelligence. The goal is to foster natural stupidity. The goal is to foster you not looking for answers, and to trust yourself entirely to an engine. Look at the way we are dipping our toes into these things. We are starting to ask the machine, Is this true? For now, there's a correlation between reality and what the answers of the machine are. For now. But soon, we won't even investigate further. We will be told it's true. And if the machine is in the hands of somebody who should not be trusted, then your reality has been completely and utterly fucked. Because your intelligence ends at the question. You don't seek the answer. It's given to you.Q: You recently mentioned that AI creates 'semi-compelling screensavers' and that you'd 'rather die' than use it. As a filmmaker who relies heavily on practical effects and creature design, what do you think is the biggest thing lost when a computer generates an image instead of a human hand?

GDT:

The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don't think about without that process. Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there's a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%. I'll give you an example with the Pale Man.

We sculpted it as an old man, with a face. And then I said, Let's take out the face. This happened because I saw a photo of a manta ray and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. That combination, which happened at two different times during a week or a month, are not permutations that are chemically part of an equation. They are alchemy. And then I said, Take out the face, and then I said, Let's put the eyes on the hands. This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it's not linear.

AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done. Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.

And the second thing is the loss of the apprenticeship that one has as an artist. You're never a master; you're always an apprentice. This is a kinship I have with, for example, Chris Nolan. When he showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him—because we were talking about practical effects, and how great it is and that we both always use a maquette or a model—and I asked him, How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

And you're gonna find that 30% of a great image occurs accidentally. You know, either a drop of water hits the lens, or the camera shakes. I remember when in 1993, '94, Jim…
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Honestly I think I do too! I definitely have "ask other people about themselves" on a mental checklist for conversation, but I'm not always sure I remember to DO it. (My natural inclination is that, via the back and forth of conversation, they will then take a turn, and the question is a formality.)
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
I'm not super bothered about the kissing of the puppet, but I feel like the intention was that Spock doesn't see her as a puppet, only as T'Pring, soon to be back to normal. (Thinking that thought felt awfully close to "doesn't see race" and I'm not loving it.)
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I looked it up and there was something about a book that came out in 2020, which I definitely didn't know about but might dig up if I can convince my kid (who is of the right age) to read them.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The topic is parenting using generative AI. Yes, surveillance tech is bad. In fact, I dislike it even in the small scale of household parenting choices. I'm not sure why you're trying so hard to have an argument here?
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I think we're having a pancakes and waffles conversation - what I'm saying is that privacy in public spaces are an entirely different conversation from the initial comment I was responding to.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I mean, gross, but public spaces are public spaces. As a parent I want my kid to have private things *from me* like activities with friends that I don't need a report on.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I remember the name Singularity but not what it was about. There was a period where I read everything of his I could get my hands on, though Interstellar Pig was the one that really stuck with me.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The backstory here is that the author was working on two different series-s at the time and had to prioritize one so the choice was to prioritize the one that was selling better. A huge shame imo!
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
That book remains my primary example for avoiding series that are in-progress.😅 I bought that one with my own money when it was brand new as a child and I was almost done with high school before book 2 came out. The 4th book was the first book I bought on Audible when I was a grown adult w/a house.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Wrinkle in Time is a top one for me. Narnia, very much. But, VERY importantly, the works of Bruce Coville didn't make me feel less alone in the world but gave me hope that I might not always be. Especially Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher and (separately) the My Teacher Is An Alien series.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
This was such a good book! I remember vividly being up late into the night reading it and being so creeped it by it. And then I read it again.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This is so bleak. But I guess now every time I worry I might be messing up as a parent I know I'm doing better than these folks? I am so creeped out by wearables constantly listening to me, an adult, it jar feels like SUCH an invasion of privacy for a child. Jfc.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
It really is! Definitely worth the time. Raising a GenAlpha, I'm regularly confronted with the fact that I spent a lot of time watching reruns and gaining cultural context that way, and it takes more intentional exposure and explanation now.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Spouse and I "made" our kid listen to it on a car trip last year. We ended up pausing a lot for questions about cultural context (kiddo was like 9? And had no idea about anything from false eyelashes on up), but we all enjoyed it! It was one I reread a bunch and spouse just remembered loving it.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
(To be clear, I didn't have a problem with the premise. I like Trek being weird and silly at times. I just found it really boring?)
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Well... that puppet episode sure was a thing they filmed and then gave us to watch.
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Nicky @nickydubois.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Romans didn’t know the empire was collapsing, all they saw was puppet episodes of Star Trek.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
YES, this is part of why I was so excited to get this. We're a family of 3 so I'm always searching "small batch" recipes or scaling down, but for this I don't have to and that's just so much easier for me. (All the rest, like sourdough advice, etc. is also so delightful!)
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It's Pipes, Mum! Pipes is here! @scriblit.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
The Amidala talking to Anakin meme. 
1st panel, Anakin asks 'do you like plums?'
2nd panel, Amidala says 'yeah, I'm actually saving some for breakfast'
3rd panel, Anakin stares
4th panel, Amidala looks horrified
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Metin Seven, Moon Child's dad 🌝 @seven.eurosky.social · 18/08/2026
Social media post, describing a routine…

> turns on my computer
> disables a new Al feature that was turned on by default
> opens my email
> disables a new Al feature that was turned on by default
> launches a software
> disables a new Al fea
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
My pre-order arrived today and I thought it was just going to be me who was excited, but my kid saw the photographs/recipes and now I'm not so sure. I've already gotten demands. 🤣
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Weeble Spleen @weeblespleen.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Star Trek and Doctor Who are both shows that are BETTER when the budget is $0
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Yes, I can't shake the feeling that they retroactively convinced themselves they had to have done it. But at the time there was no reason they HAD to - if they didn't, would the time line have changed? Maybe! But they should have been forced, not actively chosen genocide.
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penguinaph.bsky.social @penguinaph.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
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Mike Bithell @mikebithell.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Game design and fiction writing are, for whatever reason, two jobs that most people think they could do instantly at a high standard, with zero experience or evidence. I don’t know if it was a smart idea to focus on both as a profession. Certainly an occasionally frustrating idea.
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Todd Vaziri @tvaziri.com · 16/07/2026
“A.I. Movies” www.tiktok.com/@americanbar...
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
There was that time I found A Judy Blume book way in a top shelf away from all the other Judy Blume books. It being so out of place made me super curious to know why even though I wasn't a huge fan. Yes, it was Wifey. It was educational😅.)
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
But she DID read me *aloud* the Harper Hall trilogy in the Pern books and I remember her being like "oh no, what have I done" and skipping a bit of the third book. 😂😂😂 And by the time I was 10 I was rereading the main series. So, you know, still weird. (Also...
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
This is my favorite meme format and it made me laugh extra hard bc my mom was a huge fan of Clan of the Cave Bear *and*a librarian, so the rule was kind of "if you can read it, you can read it"... But she was so awkward about those books in specific I have spent 30 years NOT reading them. (Cont'd)
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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
"Hiring of college grads is down across the board. But certain majors are able to access opportunities in a wider array of industries, new LinkedIn data shows." ENGLISH ENGLISH ENGLISH 69% VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS 68% www.forbes.com/sites/courtn...
The Most Versatile Majors Chart, TOPPED BY ENGLISH and VISUAL&PERFORMING ARTS
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I'm incredibly sad to read this. I read so much of her work as a child and teen, after I saw one of her books (Dragon's Blood) adapted for CBS Storybreak, and was SO delighted to find the Dinosaur books when my kid was in preschool. What an impact. What a life.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
(Just thinking back to my own childhood and what kinds of behavior in movies I failed to pick up on, not saying it's something people old enough to be in a class shouldn't learn to pick up on!)
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
This is baffling to me as an adult in my 40s, but looking at my kid I'm wondering if it's as glaringly obvious IF the first time you see JarJar you're under the age of 15 AND have never met a person with anything like that much accent. (Presumably people talking a class on star wars already saw it?)
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aslynn is just a ghoul 👻 @aslynnromano.com · 24/05/2026
“bluesky is a bubble” discourse has me wondering if the people who make that complaint realize what it says about them To me, the “bubble” narrative is spoken by people who are willing to tolerate a hostile world filled with abuse without consequences just because you can gain access to someone
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
There: making and forwarding ASCII art, building a website on angelfire with self-taught HTML, asking a/s/l in chat rooms on IRC, using Yahoo to find resources for essays AND for information about favorite bands. The minute tech has something to offer, I'm there.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
More of this energy, please.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
The way she HOLDS HIS HAND AT THE END. I'm screaming. Is he your boss or are you guys mommy???
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
I'm in an adjacent field and let me tell you, we have to handle things like this in a case-by-case *if anybody notices it* basis. Authors are supposed to disclose but historically I've seen authors swear they don't need permission to use Mickey Mouse imsges so... My trust in authors is shaky.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
I'll own that I've never encountered a mechanic who wasn't willing to run a test (and charge me for it), but that plays into the second scenario, you can't just choose to go elsewhere to find a doctor who cares in many places in the US.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
The problem isn't so much the lack of/inability to diagnose, it's dismissing the patient without even considering that they might be reporting something real.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Alternatively: I can choose a higher quality mechanic for my car. I'm not limited to which mechanics I can choose or who will even see me. I had a friend who was bleeding for over a year, she saw every GYN in her area who would take her and was told to lose weight. It was cancer.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
The difference is Jiffy Lube is a quick oil change shop. Seeing a GYN for endometriosis and being blown off is like seeing a transmission specialist and having them tell you your car is shifting just fine without even turning the key, let alone trying to drive. Multiple times.
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
I couldn't say for sure what recipe I used! But they were so satisfying to make, just from the ambition point of view. I was also excited to find out I'd actually been to the shop listed as best in my state in your other link(I would drive WAY out of my way to go there when I lived close enough 😅).
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Sapphire @sapphirespectre.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Their top one is Ray's and that was my thought for the best one I've found in a store. (I don't claim to be an expert, but I've made my own bagels in the past by hand including the boiling and everything.)
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