Auburn Scallon

@wsauburn

Guidebook author, localization editor, and @Unbreaking.org contributor. I’m into pop culture, performing arts, politics, podcasting, critical travel writing, & conscious language. they/she.

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¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y wsauburn.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· 20d

Ha, a fun thought exercise. I’m going with: Scooter sun Kermit moon Starter & Waldorf rising

Scooter, a stage manager in glasses & a green bomber jacket holding a clipboard

Statler & Waldorf, the two old, grumpy muppet guys who heckled from a balcony

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· 26d

Oh yeah, this broke me in 2020. I went to some of my favorite spots to compare the difference & convinced myself I was in an apocalyptic movie. Sending love + whatever you need to survive to all those affected this year. 😷

Side by side images of the same wooden pier and street lamp. On the left, you can see a skyline across the water. On the right, it’s a hazy yellow/beige hellscape and the skyline is invisible through wildfire smoke

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Jul 9

Horrifying indeed, for the teens it happened to & the potential. With alt text + the @latimes.com story: www.latimes.com/business/sto...

Screenshot from LA Times article

Headline: Waymo reports teen riders for bad behavior and delivers them to the police

Photo: white Waymo on a city street in daylight

Caption: A self-driving Waymo vehicle in San Bruno, Calif. (Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Jun 28

I just keep thinking, “this is likely to be the coolest summer for the rest of your life.” (But doesn’t have to be! www.sunrisemovement.org)

Screenshot from weather app for Pilsen, Czech Republic showing 103F, high 105, low 71, chance of rain 6%

Screenshot from weather app for Pilsen, Czech Republic showing 39C, high 41, low 22, chance of rain 7%

Screenshot:
June Weather in Pilsen, Czechia

Daily high temperatures increase by 4°F, from 68°F to 72°F, rarely falling below 57°F or exceeding 84°F.

Daily low temperatures increase by 4°F, from 49°F to 53°F, rarely falling below 42°F or exceeding 60°F.

For reference, on August 5, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Pilsen typically range from 56°F to 76°F, while on January 20, the coldest day of the year, they range from 26°F to 35°F.

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Jun 21

Advertise your Bluesky account with a Simpsons GIF. (And learn enough about any travel destination to not be a menace on arrival! 😅)

The Simpsons car driving on top of a monument. Caption of Lisa saying:

“(GASPS) DAD:
YOU'RE DRIVING ON AN ANCIENT ROMAN AQUEDUCT!”

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Jun 18

I had very similar thoughts visiting a Czech publishing museum — my back hurt just thinking about lifting a slab of metal every time you wanted to change fonts or hit enter!

An old-fashioned slab of metal with various letters used for a printing press.

Marketing poster for a centuries-old metal typesetting machine”Intertype” machine.

Around the illustration are claims like “Speedier, Simpler, More Modern, Less Trouble, More Reliable, Less Repairs, More Economical, Less
Expense, Better, Cheaper”

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· May 8

Literally included this screenshot in recent contract negotiations to narrow the AI language. Thanks @kashana.blacksky.app!

Reskeet from Kashana Cauley. Original post from the Guardian is an article asking “There's a lot to hate about Al. But what if there was a mindful way to use it?”

Quote text says “What if there was a mindful way to steal people's art, pollute Black neighborhoods, and raise everyone's electric bill?”

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· May 5

Fashion comes around every few decades: Janet (1993), Burlesque (2010)

Janet Jackson’s 1993 Rolling Stone cover, she’s in jeans and topless with her hands over her head with two hands from behind covering her breasts

Christina Aguilera in Burlesque wearing a black sequined leotard with white handprints across the ass.

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· May 3

Also, fun fact, I realized one day that I subconsciously hum the Super Mario Bros theme song to myself while doing math problems. Would love to know the psychology behind that.

Super Mario Bros screenshot, a world of bricks and floating mystery cubes that a plumber in overalls bonks with his head to win prizes. Describing video games is weird, man.

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· May 3

Imagine Indiana Jones, but without the snappy dialogue, saved on a floppy disk for the Commodore 64 and a joystick. If you understood all of that, have you scheduled your colonoscopy yet?

Cover of the 1980s video game Pitfall! With a guy swinging on a rope over an alligator filled pit in a jungle. Want to go under instead of over the alligator pit? There’s a ladder underground (because all jungles have basements), but it leads to a brick wall hiding a scorpion. Danger around every corner!

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Apr 25

Oh hey, I know her! Part of a cool project, too. parkways.seattle.gov/2023/09/15/m...

Wooden sculpture of a giant troll with long hair from sticks, eyes closed, playing a wind instrument. She stands in a park on a bed of fallen autumn leaves near trees, bushes, and a giant stone. She looks serene, not scary.

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Apr 8

I keep noticing The Cranberries “Dreams” (1993) popping up in recent soundtracks—going on 4+ decades, and featured in both BH90210 & 90210 (much to my own xennial delight) What are some equally ubiquitous cinematic songs?

Cast of the Testaments (2025) spinoff from the Handmaid’s Tale, school hallway full of teen girls dressed in ‘plum’ colors.

Cast of Derry Girls (2018) posing in green school uniforms

You’ve Got Mail (1998) Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan sitting on a park bench, her holding a potted plant

Ted Lasso (2020) Jamie Tart in a pink sweatsuit with a rope around his waist, pulling Roy Kent on a bike through an English street

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Mar 29

Quality signage at the #NoKings protest in Seattle.

Sign of a grumpy black cat drop-kicking a crown. Underneath says NOPE and then Since 1776 at the bottom

A drawing of a hand with a blue suit sleeve reaches in from the side, holding a yellow pawn chess piece. The red King chess piece is teetering on edge because thepawn is knocking it over.

Artistic painted sign of ice cubes sitting in a pool of blood. Overhead are wispy clouds against a blue sky

Someone holding a cardboard sign that says Make Orwell Fiction Again over a red triangle

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Mar 26

So lovely that it deserves Alt Text. There’s a great BlueSky setting that reminds you to add it before posting images. Settings > Accessibility > Require alt text before posting

How to Be Happy

1) Wake up to the sound of the ocean on your white noise machine. It is too expensive

2) To do the real thing, you must swing your legs out of bed and shout "Ah! I am alive!" with just enough

3) Jubilation at the small things: coffee, cream, banana, the way your son pronounces cauliflower like

4) Call a flower by what it is: a little rage. Remember her bloom is not performing. Remember before you

5) Begin your big, important life

Kate Baer

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Mar 15

Search your camera roll for ‘hell’

Angelica Houston as Mortician Addams knitting with a smirk on her face. Text says “Oh I’ll make it weird… I’ll make it weird as hell”

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Mar 12

Nope, but I can match it! I had an easier time if I looked at the top of the screen 🤷‍♀️

Screenshot of test results

Your AEoK JND

0.0062

Better than most. You can see differences that half the population would swear don't exist.
Your opinions about colour palettes are now legally binding.

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Mar 11

Same (with a bonus typo as proof of angry humanity 🤷‍♀️)

Screenshot of email

Subject: OPT OUT

Do not ever include Auburn Scallon (or any journalist, editor, author, or human of were being real) in your bullshit Superhuman Grammarly program-or any other "Al" tool you come up with.

I'm so sick of tech companies stealing from underpaid, overworked experts and not even having the decency to ask for forgiveness OR permission.

Fuck everything about this,
Auburn Scallon

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Mar 11

Screenshot of Debbie Downer with a caption “That’s AI”

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Feb 21

This reminds me of Prague’s longest escalator, the Náměstí Míru metro stop. I lived nearby and once got curious how long the (stationary) ride actually took, so I filmed it ~2:20 mins! 🇺🇸 Wheaton = 230 ft 🇨🇿 Náměstí Míru = 285 ft

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Jan 31

With Alt Text so that all users—including colleagues at @discojourno.bsky.social—can read it. Any chance you’d be up for turning on your “Require Alt Text” settings to set an example for inclusive journalism?

The Society of Professional Journalists strongly condemns today's arrest of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort in connection with their reporting on a Jan. 18 demonstration at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Arresting newsgatherers violates the public's foundational democratic right to full, fair, comprehensive and contextualized accounts of daily events. Journalists are not the story - they are the eyes and ears of the public. A democracy cannot function when journalists face handcuffs for bearing witness.

"By egregiously flouting the constitution, the Trump administration is threatening speech rights more broadly," said SPJ National President Chris R. Vaccaro. "If they can arrest reporters for doing their jobs, government officials can arrest anyone speaking in public in ways that the government dislikes, regardless of a person's motives or reasons for speaking."

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Jan 29

This sucks, thinking of (all of) you

Grey and white cat on a blanket, giving a side eye to any assholes who try to divide us and our neighbors

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Jan 24

With AltText Settings > Accessibility > Require Alt Text Before Posting is a great way to help us all avoid forgetting and keep journalism inclusive

SOCIETY OF
PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS

The Society of Professional Journalists calls on the Trump administration to remove the fake image that the administration apparently doctored and published online to make a Minneapolis immigration enforcement protestor appear to be crying during an arrest.

The Committee also calls the Trump administration hypocritical for decrying "fake news" while knowingly distributing an image of attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong that misrepresents reality and pollutes public understanding.

The SPJ Code of Ethics, often referenced as the gold standard of journalism ethics, reminds journalists to vet all information and avoid press release journalism that merely regurgitates official sources.

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Jan 10

Moving from my Emmy-winning, hospital-based, competency-porn comfort watch to my long-running, evening-soap, hospital-based comfort watch. Who says the golden age of television is over?

Poster of The Pitt with multiple doctors standing over a person on a stretcher.

Poster of Grey’s Anatomy. Three management docs (Webber, Bailey, and Altman) look out from the observatory over a crowd of series regulars in scrubs and white coats below

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Jan 5

Not sure this is fixable on your end, but this is where the link sends me 😢

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Dec 2

The power of art stretches wider than we can imagine. With alt text + a source: lithub.com/how-tom-stop...

Pic of print newspaper article f on the Times of London:

Headline: Saved by Stoppard

Sir, In 1993 my wife and I went to see the first production of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (obituary, Dec 1), and in the interval, I experienced a Damascene conversion. As a clinical scientist I was trying to understand the enigma of the behaviour of breast cancer, the assumption being that it grew in a linear trajectory spitting off metastases on its way. In the first act of Arcadia, Thomasina asks her tutor, Septimus “If there is an equation for,
a curve like a bell, there must be an equation for one like a bluebell, and if a bluebell, why not a rose?"

With that Stoppard explains chaos theory, which better explains the behaviour of breast cancer. At the point of diagnosis, the cancer must have already scattered cancer cells into the circulation that nest latent in distant organs. The consequence of that hypothesis was the birth of "adjuvant systemic chemotherapy", and rapidly we saw a striking fall of the curve that illustrated patients' survival. Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia.

Written by: Michael Baum
Professor emeritus of surgery; visiting professor of medical humanities, UCL
Ir.

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Nov 30

Casting rumors are already swirling…

Inflatable frog costume (popularized by Portland ICE protesters)

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Nov 20

With alt text

Screenshot:

Dallas Morning News, the paper confirmed
Wednesday.

Author: Rachel Behrndt
Published: 10:29 AM CST November 19, 2025
Updated: 10:29 AM CST November 19, 2025

DALLAS - In one of the first official actions as the new owners of The Dallas Morning News, Hearst will lay off 26 people, according to the Dallas News Guild, the paper's union.
The layoffs eliminate the Morning News' entire copy desk, including the sports copy desk, and outsources the paper's print page production, the guild said in a social media post. The action violates the union's collective bargaining agreement, the union said.

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Nov 12

Repost with an iconic fictional band

The Max Reno band from the cantina of “Return of the Jedi”, includes a blue elephant-like puppet playing a circular keyboard, a tall yellow alien with a long snout, and a pinkish guy with a wind instrument

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Nov 11

The power of a good editor (with alt text). WA State House Rep @jayapal.house.gov has some notes for the NYT newsletter “The Morning”

Screenshot of The New York Times
“The Morning” marked up with red pen edits:

A group of eight Democrats broke with their party [edit: caved] to vote Republicans, 60-40, to start the process of clearing the gridlock that has shuttered the government for more than a month, [edit: as Trump threatened to illegally withhold backpay from] hundreds of thousands of federal workers furloughed, [edit: illegally withheld SNAP benefits from] millions of hungry Americans at risk of losing food assistance, and [edit: illegally stranded] millions more stuck at airports.

The spending agreement will still need to be debated and passed by the Senate, approved by the House and signed into law by President Trump. [edit: I'm a HELL NO.]

Here's what we know right now:

• The spending agreement would fund the government through
January and give federal workers back pay.

• It would not automatically [edit: do nothing to] extend health care tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year, greatly increasing premiums for millions of Americans.

Democrats spent weeks arguing that those subsidies were a crucial piece of any agreement. The deal allows the Senate [edit: a worthless pinky promise] to vote on them later, If they pass, they still may not survive a vote in the House. [edit: while Mike
Johnson wont allow a vote on extending them.]

• It would reverse layoffs of federal workers made during the insists he
shutdown. [edit: which was illegal anyway!]

Continued screenshot of NYT
Morning News

Senate Democrats who joined [edit: caved to] Republicans said the shutdown had become unsustainable. "A lot of people are being hurt," [edit: and will be hurt worse when their premiums skyrocket!] said Senator Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats and voted to [edit: betray working people] reopen the government.

(The administration has threatened to punish states that try to send food stamps anyway.)

But many in the party were livid at the eight senators who backed down, primarily because the deal [edit: highlight] does not protect health care subsidies.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the minority leader, said House Democrats could not back the deal for that reason.
"Donald Trump and the Republican Party own the toxic mess they have created in our country, and the American people know it," he said in a statement.

[Edit: EXACTLY! This is a Republican Shutdown and Trump is inflicting maximum pain — we cannot back down and give them this win at the expense of the American people. But Democrats have to learn to actually fight back.

Auburn Scallon@wsauburn· Oct 27

It’s the most wonderful distraction of the year… the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 😁 www.comedywildlifephoto.com/gallery/fina...