#Automated Texting

[snarfflarf]

Asking BG3 characters to pick you up pads: Round 2

[disease]

LIST: iOS SHORTCUTS

• Spotify to MP3 | "Download Spotify tracks to MP3." • All Media Downloader | "This shortcut helps you download content from social media apps." • Web Services | "Customise the internet for you." • Better GIF Maker | "Convert videos and live photos to GIFs at highest quality using ffmpeg" • Water Eject | "Powerful water ejection system." • Paywall and Cookie Bypass | "Bypass website paywalls and cookies." • iUtilities | "The only shortcut you��ll need" • Reverse Image Search | "Search by image instead of keywords" • Google Translate | "Quickly translate using the Google Translate API" • iTweak Final Version | "A Jailbreak Alternative With Multiple Features!"

...WHAT ARE SHORTCUTS?

for those unaware: the pre-installed Shortcuts app on iOS/macOS/iPadOS can potentially be a life-changing application in regards to digital productivity.

it's utilized as a hub for your collection of shortcuts and automations. shortcuts allow for just a single click—which many times is conveniently incorporated onto your "share" sheet option panel—to execute one or multiple actions; automations are chosen commands that run at specific/relative times of day without prompt.

people tend to overlook the Shortcuts app due to its available "gallery" of shortcuts being rather limited... with the only other option provided being to build these desired actions yourself, which requires the skill of digital coding. however! that's where RoutineHub comes in: it's a website allowing users to share their own complex shortcuts, free of charge, and has a large selection to choose from.

RoutineHub: Shortcuts {by Popularity}

[muaka-safari]

May I ask, did you get around to writing that essay about ga-matoran in Metru Nui and their connection to the Great Temple? Not expecting anything! Just curious!

Oh, I think I wrote a bullet-pointed list on ga-matoran and their connection to the Great Temple, specifically looking at how it affects their concept of gender here, but I never wrote anything long-hand.

If a quick rundown is what you're looking for, follow that link. If you do enjoy long(ish), rambling essays from someone making far too extensive headcanons for fictional worlds, read on.

So. Ga-Metru. The metru of the ga, the metru specifically for the ga, that metru. Now, I could launch straight into the impact of Ga-Metru being Mata Nui-favoured... but this is my essay, so I'm gonna roll this a bit further back and delve into a possible reason of why Ga-Metru is favoured.

Because I have a personal headcanon that Ga-Metru's favoured status was very much a byproduct of the natural resources.

Look at it this way: You need to build a protodermis purification facility on Metru Nui. You've already built the forges and furnaces; now you need to be able to source the building material for these smithies. So you need somewhere with a lot of liquid protodermis readily at hand - somewhere, for example, like Ga-Metru.

And then, because you probably shouldn't put all your important masks in a place full of burny, melty fire, you store your kanohi mask here (instead of Ta-Metru) as the other major building in this budding metru.

So, ta-da, you now have your second major site in Metru Nui, and over time that becomes Ga-Metru, home to the Ga-Matoran. Second-eldest metru, not out of any holy significance, but because it provided an important resource.

Time passes, and your purification/storage facility becomes a place of spiritual importance. I mean, it makes sense. It's an old, vital building, storing items of power, and isn't the hot, noisy space of Ta-Metru, plus the act of purifying carries a kind of holiness to it.

So, the next logical train of thought: if Ga-Metru is home to the temple of your god, then - obviously - god must like this metru best.

Next, next logical train of thought: if Ga-Metru is the favoured metru, then those who live there must be Mata Nui's favoured matorans. Or, at least, they are spiritually closer to Mata Nui, living basically on the doorstep of your connection to him.

By this point, matoran have certainly been granted sentience, and with that comes all the messy irrationality of thinking for yourself. What a lot of religions like to do is recognise those singled out, spiritually, with a title. Father. Reverend. Back in the medieval era, catholic priests were called "Sir" the same way a knight was.

Regardless, the point is: you need a name or a title to recognise that Ga-Matoran are different. And (headcanon going strong here) because Matoran weren't programmed with a sense of gender, they only really have "he/him" for daily use, with "brother" as a title of respect.

So language does what it always does in these circumstances - it adapts. Except, well, the Matoran may not have a concept of gender, but the Great Beings who created them did. So, somewhere in that pesky programming and superfluous data, there's a not-memory of "sister" being an equivalent title to "brother" - they don't understand how it relates to gender, they just know it feels right. And with "sister" comes the pronouns "she/her" so suddenly you have a whole metru with their own special pronouns and titles.

And, ta-da! Matorans have now accidentally ungendered gendered pronouns.

I also think it adds an interesting sense of irony for any (head)canons that Ga-Matorans consider themselves above or better than other Matorans (because then their importance is built on a coincidence, rather than actual Mata Nui favour) but that's for another day - or for other people to take a crack at, if they'd like. (I know I've certainly seen some interesting posts about Ga-Matoran self-importance!)

I personally was just fascinated by the fact that the "female" Matoran are the "holy" Matoran, despite gender being nonexistant, and examining one possible reason for Ga-Metru gaining its favoured reputation. (What can I say? I love clawing my way into the cracks of existing world-building.) Feel free to agree, disagree, whatever, but these are my personal headcanons and I hope people enjoyed reading about them!

[apollo-zero-one]

Everybody talking about how lucky PC players are to get to play 1.6 but I've seen no one mention that aaaallll the mods don't work now and it's the first time some of us have played unmodded in years, I forgot how hard the beginning of a new save is 💀

Also hey if you can and want to, I bet your favorite mod creators would love some donations as they work on updating compatibility! I know that's what I'm doing today!

[ink-asunder]

The worst thing about burnout is that you have to abstain from "optional" practoces that are necessary for your recover and mental health (hanging out with friends, playing games, going out on walks, leaving the house to do things you like), but you still have to do the essential, exhausting drivel that made you burn out in the first place. Go to work. Go to school. Go to one million doctor's appointments. Because if you don't, you either die or lose access to a vital thing keeping you alive (money, healthcare, etc).

(Btw this post is about physical chronic illness/physical disability related burn out and health crashes. I'm eating once a day. There is no accessibility tip you can give me that will enable me to rest and recoup more effectively. I am having a health crisis.)

[benotafraid111]

[bastart13]

Combining work coding with my hobbies is the best thing! I've learnt how to extract text from images/video and I've managed to transcribe ~10 Love & Legends episodes in less than a day :D

[dykefish]

FISH U LIKE APHMAU?!??!?!

wherhe The hell haveyou been for the past like 3 months

the answer is YUH HUH. i watched her when i was small and tiny, and i tend to revisit things when im feelin low and a couple months ago was particularly tumultuous, so i revisited mystreet and now im watching through the whole series with one of my boyfriends and drawing zane literally everyday

[nordfjording]

police, banks, legal actors: never ever ever pay demands sent to you by text or phone. signed invoices only. get receipts.

collection companies: if we send a text with a sum and a bank number but no other information, people will surely pay

[mckitterick]

[silusvesuius]

nelvas Problematiq*eyes roll back into my skull* *falls flat on my face with cardboard cutout physics* ((7 hours later)) *wakes up in barren wasteland* I know everything now.

[savrenim]

heyyyy so psa to fanfic authors out there: I got a very polite comment on a fic of mine this morning (from a verified ao3 account) asking if they could feature my fic on their youtube channel, and would only do so with permission and would give me full credit and link me.

obviously, I went and checked out the channel myself, and it was a content farm with clickbait titles that technically did "feature" fanfiction: every video was an automated/ screen-to-text reader reading the fanfic in full out loud over??? some video game???? and then linking the author and the fic in the comments, for authors that had agreed to identical comments to mine. not sure if they would have agreed if they'd realized that they'd received an automated comment on their fic, replied as if it was a human being, and then likely an automated process popped out the video of a screen-to-text reader directly reading their fic with no commentary or other fair use edits over possibly even stock footage??? given that these things are 2-4 hours long and the channel is posting a video every day???, for whomever owns the channel to get advertisement money.

so just. check and make sure it's a human being that actually wants to talk about your fic and not someone farming for content if you get a comment asking if you'd be willing to be "featured" on a youtube channel.

[age-of-moonknight]

“The Once and Future Knight,” Phases of the Moon Knight (Vol. 1/2024), #1.

Writer: Erica Schultz; Penciler: Manuel García; Inker: Sean Parsons; Colorist: Ceci de la Cruz; Letterer: Cory Petit

[bunabi]

someone close to me wants to use AI to illustrate a tarot deck and idk how to warn them of how terrible this idea is without sounding unsupportive