If any of you find yourself in my neck of the woods, Zimman's in Lynn is highly regarded:Originally Posted by iris lilies
https://www.zimmans.com/products-and-services/fabrics
If any of you find yourself in my neck of the woods, Zimman's in Lynn is highly regarded:
https://www.zimmans.com/products-and-services/fabrics
True. I guess the diehards can also travel to 7th Ave in NYC.
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
www.silententry.wordpress.com
Do you still sew garments, Iris? Or what do you generally buy fabric for?
My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already!
I never sew garments. It is all household sewing for me: pillows, window treatments, bedding items, Napkins, table coverings, and a few craft things like doll clothes and flower show backdrops.
I'm pretty much the same way, and honestly, I really haven't been finding much I want or need from Joann for quite some time. For instance, I was looking for real gingham a few years ago and could only find cheapo printed gingham rather than real woven gingham there or at the local craft place. (I was taking a class on Chicken Scratch).
I ended up ordering from Etsy. I purchase a good deal of supplies from that site. I also could only find batiste there.
ETA: I also find good fabrics at our thrift shops.
My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already!
The last few times I went to a Joann's, their stores were a chaotic mess. We have a 60 yr old fabric store here (one half of it is quilt fabric) that until recently was a time capsule full of musty 1980s upholstery fabric. It has recently been purchased and is slowly being cleaned up. For decor projects, I have good luck with Spoonflower. The quality of their fabric is great so far and shipping is quick.
As part of keeping my job, I have to go to continuing ed type seminars, and lately they have all been about AI and how we should use it more. That is upsetting enough, but in yesterday's seminar, the guy started telling us that we all should be very polite when interacting with AI, that we will get better results if we are polite to it. (I am not making this up.) All I could think of was we were being told to be polite to our eventual overlords, to keep any resistance to its use out of its cumulative "memory" or whatever it has. The worst part was that I navigated away from the screen because I was so irritated, and then it locked me out of the meeting, so I don't know if I will even get the credit for sitting through that drivel.
yikes,Tybee, that would be annoying. I Was exasperated with ChatGPT when I queried some simple facts about the current president of the United States, as I detailed here, and was rude to chatGPT. But really I was not using ChatGPT appropriately. The questions I asked were more appropriate for Google, just simple factual questions. I guess I should use ChatGPT to synthesize information across the Internet and present a coherent response in multiple paragraphs.
how do they want you to use ChatGPT more often?
They actually don't want us using ChatGPT, but rather Microsoft CoPilot because it will "forget" what you feed into it if you have a paid subscription. ChatGPT will "steal" anything you put in it, which is problematic from the standpoint of FERPA.
They have rewritten curriculum so that now in my comp class, for example, they are encouraged to learn to use AI "responsibly." All three of the major assignments have AI components. So now to make room for all that AI, there is much less on grammar and citation, which they desperately need. Students even tell me that in the last week's feedback, that they want less AI and more of the traditional curriculum. And for students to ask for more grammar, you know it's bad.
The push is also for us to start using AI to grade. They are very gingerly about this as they know it will get our backs up, but that was yesterday's seminar, on how to program AI to write your feedback to students for you, to make you more "efficient." I am getting sick to my stomach just writing that out.
The big push is to make it so you aren't really teaching, but AI is teaching and you are pulling all the levers and setting up the AI so that you can handle more classes, more students, at the same salary, and they have to hire fewer faculty, and finally AI is "teaching" the class. At least that is my admittedly pessimistic viewpoint. It's the same as firing the fed workers and replacing them with AI, the same thing Catherine has referenced about what is going on with the techno rulers.
Anyway, I am starting to feel like I am working in the Matrix.
Oh tybee, I feel for you. It is NOT a good thing. But it is certainly the way those in charge seem to think. No respect for teachers or education. I'm glad I retired. Good luck with keeping your sanity.
There are currently 3 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 3 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote