#I know not everyone has the skills to make things like websites and that's completely fine.

[glitchy-haha]

Okay so I am actually geniuely trying to make a fanfic site for myself and after trying to research how to do so and found out on reddit of all places that personal fanfic websites were legit a thing back in the early days of the internet and now I'm sitting here furious because the entire idea of making your own fanfic sites for your own fics is actually so cool!!! Like what the hell happened why did we stop doing this?!?!

[prettieinpink]

Being that girl once again- back to school!

It’s back to school season everyone, and my favourite times of the year. In this post im going to give you stuff to do for back to school + advice in specific areas of your school life! I hope everyone can take away something from this post <3 

THINGS TO DO BEFORE BACK TO SCHOOL <3

Revise your past term content in your core subjects, ensure there’s nothing you do not understand(it’s better to understand now than have to understand later)

Review what you are going to be learning for this current term in your core subject, you don’t have to study it, just familiarise yourself. 

Catch up with your friends- hang out, call or text before the new school term. My favourite thing is to create predictions of drama, couples etc in the upcoming term w my girlies!

Create SMART goals for you to achieve that term, in any aspect you want. I say; 1 goal for academics, 1 goal for social and 1 goal for extracurriculars/sports. 

Clean your room !! do a deep clean and declutter. E.g wipe down all surfaces, hover pillows, vacuum floor, clean mirrors, take out any clothes you dislike

Do an everything shower + face masks!!

ACADEMICALLY

Everyday afterschool, revise everything that you’ve learnt today + the things that you struggle on

Anytime you get homework, complete it as soon as possible. Most of the time, it’s easy and non time consuming. 

Create study guides for exams/tests while actually learning instead of when the assessments are actually coming up. It saves you a lot of time, which you can use for studying effectively.

If you don’t already, have a specific learning/studying style that works for you. E.g flashcards, blurting, mind map, spaced repetition, the feynman technique. (ofc you can have multiple). Just know the pros and cons of each studying technique. 

Or, what I do is that I assign specific studying techniques to different subjects e.g science - blurting, HASS - flashcards, maths - the feynman technique. This may be different to what you have the most success learning.

Have a place, time every day or at least most days, where you can study without distractions. I like to study at the library afterschool, it’s chill and literally void of any distractions.

The only advice in which i’ll say is not optional– do practise questions under the said test conditions. Stop using websites, listening to music, being on your phone etc. Get in the zone and transfer the environment. 

SOCIALLY

Make an effort to say hi or goodbye to some people, even if you do not know them that well. If you’re up for it, ask them how they are going or how their day has been.

Start remembering names and birthdays. This will literally make people like you so much more, it’s so simple but people swoon over this. Process names in your mind and write down birthdays in your calendar. 

Don’t be afraid to talk to others. Most people do not care if you talk to them, and some are glad that you talk to them. This is how people become well-known or well-liked. 

Watch videos on how to converse with people you do not know well effectively and become close with them. TED x has a lot of videos on this, and are usually helpful. 

Don’t try to fit in with the crowd. It’s so draining, and even if you think they do, they most likely dislike you(sorry!) . Instead, find/be with your people. 

Join a club/extracurricular. You meet so many like-minded people this way, while still developing your own skills. I say everyone should at least have one solid extracurricular. 

If you are in a talking stage, three weeks is enough time for him or you to decide if you’re willing to date them. It’s not the 1920s anymore, we have imessages, facetime, skype and others to communicate and get to know each other without contact

Call out your friends if you notice them doing something toxic or generally anything they shouldn’t do. E.g gossiping, getting mad at others, bullying someone. If they continue, it will influence you in the long run.

MENTALLY 

Reframe your mindset. I know most of us do not favour school, but do not dwell on negativity and find ways to be positive/neutral about your circumstances. You’ll feel so much better.

Detach. Detachment is literally essential in highschool, there’s so much drama and most likely you will somehow get tied up in it. Stop absorbing what happens and let it influence you, observe what happens and learn from it. I have a post on this here. 

Start saying affirmations everyday. I know affs are usually viewed as a manifestation thing, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be a simple one minute way to cultivate a neutral/positive perspective of yourself. 

Journal. Things will happen, so journaling is a great way to discuss your circumstances, feelings, trauma, relationships etc and develop a sense of identity at the same time. I have a post on this here. 

Meditate. It can be go-go-go constantly, but just take a break and gain some mental clarity and see how much better you feel decluttering your mind. 

Embrace a change and growth mindset, especially in an environment where we are constantly required to adapt. 

PHYSICALLY

Start stretching.. seriously. You sit at a desk for like 5 hours a day excluding lunch and recess, everyday, which is of course going to do a number on your body. It can relieve pain in many different areas.

Have at least 1 form of exercise you do everyday. I know being students, we have to sit at a desk constantly. But, do not give up on practising good exercise habits. Not only can it help with results, it’s good for you.

Get the recommended sleep of 6-8 hours per night, which is good quality sleep without disruptions. It helps with long term memory and you’ll feel better. 

Start packing healthy but tasty lunches to school instead of buying. You’ll save so much money in the long run, and it’s better for your body. 

BEAUTY 

Get your uniforms tailored just a bit. Not too noticeable, but enough that it fits better on your body. Especially for button formal shirts, as they make you look 10 times as bulky than what you actually are. 

Buy new jewellery, earrings, necklaces or whatever you’re allowed. Subtle but noticeable jewellery makes girls look so pretty.

Learn new hairstyles!! Don’t just wear the same hair everyday, mix it up, it’s fun and makes you look attractive. 

Get a good eyebrow gel + clear mascara. Legit life changer, I look so much better everyday because I look put together without make up.

apply  vaseline on areas you would apply highlight, but avoid your eye area. 

Have a good skincare regime!! Being a student is stressful, getting pimples is a sign of stress. 

Okay that's it. Happy back to school everyone! Here’s an affirmation for you <3

I am intelligent and capable. I am skilled and confident in my abilities. I am perceived well by others. I am healthy. I am wealthy. I am looking for this term to be full of good grades, vibes, friends, growth and fun. 

[boreal-sea]

So something I realized watching a few videos and reading a few articles is that most of us aren’t angry at the idea of AI in general. Many of us are excited to learn about AI systems that can identify cancer better than doctors, for instance.

What we’re angry about is generative AI being used to destroy the jobs of artists (and I mean all creatives here), who have already been dealing with their work being devalued by modern society.

And I’m not sure how to deal with it. I do remember learning that when photography became a thing, many painters were horrified and terrified of would erase the art of painting. It didn’t obviously, and in fact photography because a whole new art form.

I grew up during the birth of digital art. I distinctly remember the phase digital art went through where many people declared it to not be “real art” and that it was “cheating” etc. I’m sure other millennial artists also remember this transition. But graphic designers pretty quickly adopted digital tools, and websites like DeviantArt popped up, and I don’t think there are too many people nowadays who would say a digital painting isn’t “art”. Still, I do imagine there is a gulf between how some people would view the “artistic merit” of a 3 ft tall oil painting hanging next to a 3 ft tall print of a digital painting, even if the subject and styles were similar. So the worries that digital art would erase physical painting was also proven false. And for the record, I think digital art is 100% art. The merit of digital art is equal to that of physical art.

On the other hand, I can’t say these changes didn’t affect older forms of art. Like, photography did affect the world of painting. I don’t have statistics, but it seems like it probably affected the world of portraiture the most. And I wonder if many of the 20th century art movements were influenced by photography. None of my art history classes touched on that and it’s kinda weird to me. There is definitely something about a Dada or cubism or surrealist painting that transcends beyond what a traditional photo of a landscape or a portrait can do. There is no location in the real world with actual melting clocks or people whose faces show multiple angles at once.

And then there was the digital photograph that changed everything again! Film has become a niche art form.

There were specific kinds of jobs lost due to the digital transition, too. I’m thinking of things like murals being replaced by printed banners, or book covers often being done in photoshop. Oh, and that’s another tool that was faced with fear: Photoshop! There was a fear it would destroy the need for professional photographers because everyone could just fix their own photos. Turns out nope, and in fact people skilled in photography and photo editing are still in demand. And of course there’s the loss of 2D animation in favor of 3D animation, the loss of practical effects for digital, etc.

And you might argue that in some of those cases people can tell corners are being cut and that they won’t stand for it, but Marvel movies still make billions of dollars so…

So I don’t know what’s going to happen with AI art. I am NOT saying “all current artists are stupid and wrong, in the future history students will laugh at how stubborn they were to resist this idea”. AI art is not comparable to photography or digital painting.

With a photograph, you still need to compose the image in the frame, you need to position yourself in the real world, you need to know your equipment, whether you’re using film or digital. You also need to know how to process that photo either in the dark room or in Photoshop. These are skills the average person does not have. You cannot tell an AI “that shot was good but can you increase the contrast?” It’ll just produce a completely new image.

I read an article about an art director who was encountering difficulties as the department tried to incorporate AI. They got back first drafts of art ideas from the people employed to work with the AI, gave critique, and the second round was just completely new images that didn’t include the suggestions… because they couldn’t. AI does not understand color theory. It does not have the ability to take critique. It can’t slightly alter the layout of a design.

And all of that applies to painting too. AI (currently) can’t do what a trained art student can do. It doesn’t know that to create a sense of atmosphere you should make distant objects bluer. It doesn’t know how to use human physiology and psychology to draw a viewer’s eyes across a large painting to reveal a story.

AI also can’t replicate INTENTION - and intentionality is a HUGE part of art. WHY an artist chose those colors, that medium, that composition, those tools, why they chose to display it a certain way, why the composition is like this instead of that - all of that adds meaning to the painting that you can’t get with AI.

(Yes, there is an absolutely valid field of art critique that evaluates a piece of art on its standalone value and the message it conveys without the context of the artist’s intent, but that should be compared to the analysis that DOES include the artist’s intent! That comparison can bring about so much understanding!)

Anyway I’m going to end this post now because it has gotten WAY too long. I focused mostly on painting and photography in this post because those are my particular fields of speciality, but this applies to ALL ART. It applies to music and writing and scripting and acting and composing music and just. Everything. All art.

I don’t think there are any forms of art AI doesn’t threaten. Now granted, AI can’t currently pick up a paint brush. It can’t use a crochet needle. It can’t hold a camera. And maybe there will be some sort of return to physical media in response to AI produced digital art. Or maybe there will be a response in digital art to stylistically distinguish it from AI in a way AI can’t reproduce. I’m not sure what will happen. Maybe some proof the image was digitally painted by a real person, somehow. Or that it’s a real photo, or a real article. I saw someone mention there may end up being labels like “100% human made” like we do for organic food lol. Maybe work in progress videos or photo metadata will become more commonplace as evidence of authenticity.

Anyway, NOW I’m ending this post. Whew.

[greenplumbboblover]

Interests & Hobbies - Update post

Hey everyone!

First things first, sorry for the wall of text!

I know quite a few of you have been wondering about this project, if not been REALLY patiently been waiting for it! That's why I figured I'd make this post.

A bit of backstory:

I have, in all honestly, been working on it for 2 years. Except, that because the mod has SO MANY features, I kept making tiny mods that then get shelved because I wanted to get back to the interests & hobbies mod. But obviously that's part of the mod and... argh! :p You can see how I got stuck in this creative loop. And I would then be happy to just quickly make something like a bus manager, or a RPG manager or a thirsty sims mod or randomly deciding to create a sims website (as you casually do clearly lol). Because that was a bit of an escape for me. Though, this morning, I was talking to someone about this and the mod's progression. How I was just completely thrown out of the creative process and that I just didn't know what I wanted to do...

Basically, out of that conversation the following question came, which was:

So, what have you finished already, then? Given that you've been working on it for so long?

So far, I've done:

Assignment of a hobby lot. Sims of that interest will also visit that lot.

Sims will pursue their hobbies inside their house/garden/lot. (i.e a sim with a gardening skill, will garden their garden.)

Your sims can have an interest and a hobby (duh).

The environment hobby currently has a working hobby challenges.

Getting interested in a field can be done through the phone or computer. (or starting on certain items of that hobby).

Your sim can get magazines of that interest/hobby. This will increase their interest each time they read it.

Learn which interest that sims knows of the other sims. Just like with traits. ;)

A way to make it so that custom content items are considered hobby items as you place them down. And therefore give your sims interest points too.

Certain conversation topics can now be considered interest related conversations.

Which... I know doesn't sound like much, but the *amount* of technical background stuff is absolutely insane :p And that took me more time debugging and error fixing than I've ever done with any of my mods!

So with that said. I want, not only apologise for taking so bloody long to get this mod out of the door, but also share what's going to happen next.

So what now?

As you can probably tell, the basics are (almost) done, as well as the basic mechanics. So, what I think I want to do is the following:

Release the mod this year, with the current features I just shared that are done, and all the other features that were in the document, I'll work on separately. I guess, they function as DLCs for the mod? Or expansions, I guess? :p

That way, I feel less stressed, and you get to give it a try! :) In the end I keep forgetting I'm only one person, and I can finally sleep at night lol

hopefully that's okay with you all!

[suryp]

Date: unknown

Year: inconsequential

Region: central Tartyryn straight

The snow crunches beneath our feet, the wind howls like the devil, and while we all show fear, I've reason to think my brothers know not that we walk over a frozen sea, more than 30 metres deep with fish heavier than our entire platoon. I doubt my commander knows, either, but that suits our real mission just fine.

The mission. Ha. Everyone knows the only safe spots for a town are off shore, we've already done the math, there's nothing out here worth finding.

Good thing Commander Reijean is such a greedy fuck, then.

"HALT!"

Thats him right there. Most would say he just wants to prove himself, but I know better. All humans hide their worst traits, tone 'em down for the public. We're all worse than we seem on the outside.

"..."

"whats out their c-"

"shut your trap private, I won't have my skill split be-"

*Crack*

"Mission complete, I suppose"

In an instant, Clark pulled out the rifle on his back. it was cheap shit, like all the gear for this trip was, but He's among the best "weapons guys" I've ever met.

Fortunately, the gun jams, and he vanishes into the blizzard.

"Clark? Buddy? Clark? Clark!"

"Circular formation, weapons up, we are-"

"...Commander?"

Just a few more to go. Our platoon used to be larger, but wandering for days on end through an empty void of ice and snow will take its toll. Just a few weeks ago, we might've won this fight.

Good thing banshees are smart, then.

"SpLit up!"

"Commander?"

"Split Up!"

"h- He's right. we're no more than a larger target like this."

"Just gotta find the right time for it."

Sabotage wasn't the plan, and it leaves a bad taste, but there's nothing for it.

"Now."

"..."

"..."

*Cr'Ack*

"..."

*Crunch*

"..."

And finally, a blood curdling scream cut short, by a few extra holes in the lungs.

I stand up, spread my arms wide, and make myself the most clear and easy target I can."

-...-

Two hours later

The blizzard dies, I see my siblings dead in the snow. Three have a mulch of bone and Metal shards, alongside frozen blood, in place of their heads. Commander has a crushed neck. Charlie's kevlar is punched through, frozen blood all along his chest.

There's a sixth carcass, some ornitherian, I think, though it's hard to tell considering how much was eaten. The ribs are gone, and only Two and a half legs remain.

I begin to walk off. A meal, even the frozen remains of a hippogriff corpse, is the last thing I d-

*crunch*

"..."

"you not fight me. why?"

"..."

"all humans try to kill us. take sea from us. take tyk'yk from us."

"...take egg from us."

"..."

"you not fight. why?"

-

alright thats a wrap! The official intro to Fisher and the Flame and the world of... well, I suppose she doesn't have a real name yet but hey, we can make this work.

for a bit of context regarding appearances, if you need that, "Ornithere" and "Hippogriff" refer to pterosaurian animals, most similar to (and heavily based on) Trollman's "Cuvier's Isle" a small spec one-shot. It does not refer to the serinean animals of the same name.

Banshee are a bit easier to describe, being a rough combination of Utahraptor osstramaysi and a Leopard Seal, very similar to @tales-of-kaimere's *Updated* xuul design, along with the Adzakoordu and the White Cockatrice, as well as the Tamakai.

The narrator, Jake Fisher, is getting a drawing, by someone who appreciates men far more than I.

now go read about kaimere on Keenan Taylors twitter, bluesky, deviantart, and youtube channel, along with trollman's various sickass works on the same websites.

-

edits: minor word changes, removal of unneeded dashes, and Commander is now cishet, because killing the first queer confirmed in story feels a bit too rude.

Reijean is still his name tho, since there has to some reason this unit was sent out.

also added a new tag. sorry y'all.

(im just gonna use the most extreme and broad tags that, since im exceedingly apathetic but do want to tag things correctly)

[smash-64]

2024 Game of the Year Countdown Honorable Mention: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Nintendo Switch, 2023

I feel like I’ve played this game before…oh, right! I did! It was 2018 and the game was called The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. 

Now that at least one person is furious with me, I have to say that I did not hate my time with Tears of the Kingdom. I just don’t think it lived up to the immeasurable hype that I heard from critics, websites, YouTube, and friends. I don’t think I heard a single person say a single negative thing about this game for two months after it came out. I even heard people singing its praises multiple times on NPR, one of the last platforms where I’d expect to hear video game reviews. 

So, let’s start out with the things I liked after the cut, because this is going to be a super long review, for those interested.

I adored exploring the Gerudo Desert, as I did in Breath of the Wild. The Gerudo are a really fun and interesting group, and I spent significantly more time here than anywhere else. It was nice to see Link welcomed into town as the one male with a hall pass, since that meant I didn’t need to make sure to always don the disguise outfit. (Although it’s silly to put on the full Yiga Clan garb and get tossed into jail!) The addition of a subterranean area in Gerudo Town was also cool and helped add to the lore of the Gerudo having a long history. The bright colors and designs of the town, clothing, and the equipment were also still present and welcome. And seeing Riju grow into her role as leader was both cool, as she packs a wallop with her thunder attack, and reassuring as she was fairly self-conscious and unsure of herself in Breath of the Wild. 

The Yiga Clan are also still around, and I found them more interesting than in BotW. I wish we had a little more from them, but they’re supposed to be in disarray after we crushed them in BotW, so it wouldn’t make a ton of sense from a narrative standpoint.

Music was generally pretty good, especially in the more plot-centric sequences. The classic Zelda swells and melodies bring emotion to the forefront, most notably nostalgia. The credits music ties the whole experience together. Can’t really go wrong with a Zelda soundtrack, although it was a touch less subtle than Breath of the Wild.

Tulin was a really refreshing character that somehow struck a balance between over-eager young bird with skills, and annoying kid. In fact, he’s one of the only kid characters I genuinely enjoyed from start to finish in any game. He’s determined to help his village, prove himself, work as a team with Link, and follow through with his new role once you complete the Wind Temple. 

Finally, the characters themselves all seem to have had a bit of a glow-up, design-wise. Everyone looks great. There’s also a focus on making characters stand out more, with more unique designs and more plot relevance. Some have more of a part to play than others, but there were seemingly fewer one-off interactions in TotK. Many sidequests have multiple parts to them that occur across the map, so expect to see characters popping up more than once.

Something that has undoubtedly stood out thus far in my review is how often I have referenced Breath of the Wild. It is fully unavoidable to review Tears of the Kingdom on its own. It looks, sounds, feels, and plays like Breath of the Wild. I have heard criticisms of Majora’s Mask from some people who claim they couldn’t enjoy it as much as Ocarina of Time due to the reuse of assets, claiming it was too similar, or even lazy (which just proves they don’t know the actual history of Majora’s Mask, but I digress). But even those critics have to recognize that Majora’s Mask shares little beyond the reuse of assets as the game is fundamentally different on so many levels. 

Tears of the Kingdom is so similar to Breath of the Wild, I find it hard to not look at the whole game as anything other than a massive DLC. We’re on the same map. We’ve got towers and shrines all over, and while they’re not in exactly the same spots…they’re not that different and serve the same purpose. Zelda needs rescuing. Ganon(dorf) is the bad guy. Enemies are the same. Controls are the same. It felt like I was playing the same game, maybe just a different post-game story. 

The addition of the sky islands and the ill-lit underworld were so underwhelming to me that I never felt compelled to explore beyond a few minutes, aside from when I was forced to do so. I just didn’t find anything interesting about them at all. It was difficult to even get to the sky islands in the early game, and once I finally made my way there, I was expecting unique weapons and enemies, or powerful ingredients for cooking. I got neither, so I don’t really see the point. Perhaps I missed some massive highlight, but I have yet to hear about anything that would make me seek out some special, far-flung sky island for amazing content. 

The same goes for the dark abyss area, which I heard was this hugely fun land to explore. When I got there, it was just…dark. I couldn’t even see anything off in the distance to entice me into exploring, and the light seeds you get don’t travel very far, nor do they light very much of the area around you, so you’re still stumbling around and hoping to just chance upon something. As a result, I didn’t do much of anything down there at all. 

The Zonai tech was a huge letdown, too. I didn’t exactly adore the magnetism, bombs, stasis, etc. from BotW, but it was serviceable. This new stuff in TotK was downright not fun. When I see people building these huge, elaborate devices with fans and batteries and whatnot, I honestly cannot fathom the enjoyment they’re getting out of it. It got to the point where I just never did any shrines ever again. I’d find one and activate it as a warp point, and never go inside because they were annoying chores. 

The new tech felt gimmicky at the best of times, too, and I was disappointed that the developers clearly focused so much time and effort on it instead of…anything else. Being able to throw random objects onto a sword isn’t as interesting as discovering well-crafted weapons that have a bit of lore or culture behind them. Instead, we just get a couple of very basic weapons and are expected to combine them with random monster parts to make stronger ones, but they always end up looking held together with paper clips and bubble gum.

Perhaps my time playing games from Falcom’s Trails series has bled over and corrupted my ability to fairly assess the storytelling and writing in other games and series; and while there was definitely a bigger focus on story in TotK than BotW, I still found the story to be lacking. Maybe it was just my disinterest, but it came off as very underwhelming to me. I liked individual moments, like Riju standing on her own or Zelda actually playing a part in the plot, but the overall story just didn’t click with me. It all felt like something I’d already done before.

I found the difficulty in this game to be a bit of a mixed bag. I welcomed some of the more difficult enemies and the increase in the number of boss fights, in general, but the final gauntlet was such an enormous leap in difficulty that it was ultimately the thing that made me put the game back on the shelf for about five months. I was getting bored with the game, skipped both the Goron and Zora areas, and was forced to fight their bosses at the end of the game as a result. This was definitely a difficult surprise since I had no tips from the respective champions, and while I did manage to scrape through, I never felt a sense of accomplishment, only frustration and annoyance. I appreciated the option to skip Divine Beasts in BotW, but this felt like a harsher punishment in the endgame.

Even in BotW, I was never one for “proper” Zelda combat, with parries and such, not to mention being moderately underpowered. So brute forcing it was kind of my MO, and TotK very clearly doesn’t want you to do that. As I’ve gotten older, I enjoy Hardcore Gamer Moments™ less and less and I think my favorite thing to happen to video games is the difficulty slider that allows me to choose the type of experience I have. Work and life is stressful and I don’t generally want my games to be the same. Or, at the very least, I’d like the option to choose.

Now, I must admit that when I got frustrated and put the game back on the shelf, I wasn’t really intending to ever return to it because I wasn’t having fun. However, after five months, something changed and I was open to making another attempt. The water and fire temples were extremely unenjoyable experiences, with the very long, drawn-out quests for the Spirit Sage and Master Sword being only slightly less chore-like, and this has essentially always been the case with Zelda dungeons for me. I almost never enjoy them, which explains why the list of Zelda games I like is shockingly short. I actually gave up on the Master Sword quest because it involved expanding my stamina gauge, which meant completing shrines and I hated shrines in this game, so I said screw it.

However, I did beat the game. I sought out the temples I originally skipped, finished them, and headed back to Ganondorf for a second attempt. It was definitely easier, but still a jump in difficulty compared to the rest of the game. I didn’t feel satisfied with the fights, only annoyed that I had to be troubled to finish them at all. 

My last real gripe is just how this game is essentially one massive roadblock. Every single thing you want to do will be locked behind having to complete some OTHER quest first, which is supremely annoying and a complete break from what Breath of the Wild was. I found myself just wishing I was playing Breath of the Wild instead, which cannot be a glowing endorsement for Tears of the Kingdom.

I can’t say I regret playing TotK and I didn’t hate every minute I spent with the game, despite some of my grumblings. It didn’t reach the heights of BotW, but I did spend over a month playing it, when it’s all said and done. I still like the open world Zelda aspect and the art direction is still top notch. Nintendo always puts their A Team on Zelda projects, so it’s never a franchise you can ignore, even if individual games don’t do it for you.

[stormdragon23]

Solo Leveling Novel Rambles starting from chapter 10 and up to chapter 12

(I should probably mention the chapter numbers I’m using are based on Tapas’ chapters, so it’s off from the actual chapter numbers)

Sung Jinwoo being reminded of Lee Juhee when he gets healed by the status recovery alsjdfa I wish more of their relationship was shown

Oh, the Rune Stones. Kind of forgot about them. I really like the background info on them though and how rare they are. Kind of want to explore that subject a bit more

I like how the novel spends some time explaining the skills. They were glossed over in the manhwa and anime, so by the time they were brought up, I didn’t even remember them

Jinwoo getting mad at the System because it’s not giving him any instructions about what anything means aksjkaksa I can relate to that though. I like step-by-step instructions. Also, him wishing he lifted the bed to test his strength before he spent his stat points is relatable haha Hindsight is 20/20

So far, Jinwoo in the novel seems more strategic than the manhwa? It speaks about his thoughts a lot more, so that may be why, but the manhwa seems to be more of him figuring out problems as it goes rather than taking the time he needs to figure things out

Jinwoo’s moments of excitement are so cute. He’s testing out his new strength after using the stat points and apologizes for making a mess when a nurse scolds him. I like Jinwoo’s sense of humor too. He seems easy to connect with in the novel compared to the manhwa. I love the art in the manhwa though, so you win some, you lose some

He seems a lot more grateful to be able to level up as well. In the manhwa and anime, he was more like “Oh thanks for saving my life. And the upgrades are nice too” while in the novel, he seems so excited about becoming stronger

Jinwoo doing research and the process behind it is something I really like seeing. Apparently, there are websites you need a Hunter’s license to access? I guess the license comes with an ID number or something? I don't think there was much of it in the manhwa. It would have been nice to see the forum in the manhwa though

Oh, Jinwoo noticed the sword in his inventory sooner than in the manhwa. I think I personally prefer the novel version of that since the manhwa seemed like too much of a coincidence.

I like Jinwoo's self-reflection after being betrayed in the double dungeon. While the manhwa does mention that Jinwoo wants to get stronger and not take unnecessary risks, I don't think it ever mentioned Jinwoo made the decision to no longer be necessarily kind. It's definitely shown later on in the manhwa which I found selfish yet understood why, but seeing the novel going into detail about it makes it clear about the reasons behind some of Jinwoo's decisions later on.

Oh, there's a conversation involving that one nurse that was pretty much forgotten in the manhwa. It's confirmed again that the S-Ranks are kind of seen as monsters, and the public doesn't know much about them. Baek Yoon-Ho is also mentioned! Although it's spelled as Baek Yun-Ho. At least his name is more recognizable than some of the other ones I've seen so far.

So the ranks of Hunters are visible for everyone to see? I guess that information isn't completely private. It does help with making sure people are telling the truth about their rank though

Okay, I can see why they dropped this part with the nurse in the manhwa lol I don't like it. This nurse girl wants to take advantage of the situation to have the chance to befriend an S-Rank. I mean, other people might do the same, but that doesn't mean it's not selfish.

Jinwoo says that his body has also changed drastically, even before he does the D-Rank dungeon, and notices the other nurses talking about him. He doesn't seem as dense as I thought he would have based on how he was in the manhwa

The chapters are split weirdly, so I'm actually around chapter 8 of the novel? They probably did it so that people would have to spend more. I'm choosing the free option though, so it doesn't really affect me that much, but the numbering is confusing

[izicodes]

do you have any advice for someone who kinda "failed" to break into tech and is still in the medium-level for learning. i feel like i've spent so much time (years) on this but haven't made much progress. how do i really get into it and stay in it? love your blog btw. i'm tempted to start one of my own but my projects are a mess and ugly 😭

I'm sorry to hear that you feel like you haven't made much progress in breaking into tech. It's important to remember that everyone's journey is different, and it's never too late to start or improve. But then again, you have spent years learning and you want to into the tech industry.

The obvious advice would be don't give up. My dad has been studying to get into Cybersecurity since the early 90s and he just got into the industry this year. He never gave up - family to look after and he could study like the other students in his university course because the large majority of them were single 18-22-year-olds who their only responsibility is themselves. Don't give up and don't compare yourself to other people.

You've got to look at what has been holding you back. Health issues, work issues, money? Can't study full-time or even part-time if you need to pay the bills.

Even if you can, are you consistent with your studying? We all know consistency is key. Studying for one week but don't study for 2-3 weeks won't work. I know the type of learner I am - if I don't code or study every day, even just for 30 minutes, then my tendency to procrastinate will increase a lot and it'll all go downhill from there.

Know your strength - build on the skills you are good at. Believe it or not, I know a developer I met in a discord server who only uses HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build websites and webpage themes for clients as a freelancer and he's doing really well. It's because he realised that he's really good at those three basic languages and he worked really hard to excel at them. Expand on what you know best.

On the flip side, you could look at job postings around where you live or nationally in your country and see what skills/languages/technologies they ask for the most for hiring developers. Example: I live in the UK and a couple of months ago when I was actively looking for a new Frontend Dev job, I saw that Vue.js, React.js, and PHP (besides the usual HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) were asked for the most. If I wanted those jobs, I would learn those technologies, create a few projects to showcase my knowledge in them, and start applying. That could be one way to break into the industry.

Another way would be certificated. Bootcamps, online courses, or in-person courses like university or community colleges. Yes, they say that you don't always need a university degree to get into tech but some kind of education you've gone through that is tech-related e.g. Google courses or the Frontend Dev course that Meta is providing (paid). My colleague completed a computer science degree but he then did a bootcamp and he completed and that's how he landed the job where I work. So even graduates are getting further education. If you can't afford the massive fees, Udemy is a great place to get courses. And don't be shy with the Havard CS50 course videos they have on YouTube - free and you get a certificate free as well!

The advice I give might not work if you haven't identified why after all these years you haven't gotten your foot into the tech industry. This is no way intended to be rude, but if another person who had the same amount of time you studied, and they have gotten a tech job in that time, what makes you different? Goes back to what I said about the things that are holding you back. Some of the reasons are inevitable like health but you need to keep making that effort!

If you need help, you need to ask. Find a mentor or support group. Having someone to guide and encourage you can be incredibly helpful. Look for a mentor or join a support group where you can connect with others who are also learning and growing in tech. You can search for them online, some people offer advice for CV/Resume help or real "getting into tech" advice on places like Fiverr or Upwork or just google for some consultants online. They would cost obviously but if you're really struggling, this might help. After completing bootcamps, they tend to help you get your first job etc so they might be worth considering!

The last bit of advice is do you have a portfolio? No no, like a proper one where you feel confident enough to give to family members, friends, and potential employers? No? Either learn to build one (free of charge) or hire someone to build it for you (costs money) A portfolio is a great way to showcase your skills and projects to potential employers. Even if your projects feel messy or ugly, focus on highlighting what you learned and what you accomplished.

Obviously, I gave hints of advice more towards Frontend Dev because that's what I know more of but you can alter the advice to whatever niche in programming you're into. Remember, breaking into any field takes time and effort. Stay motivated and focused on your goals, and don't be afraid to reach out for help or support when you need it. Good luck!

** I'm not the best at giving advice but I hope this helps 💗

[transmandrake]

I really like neocities as a concept but something rubs me a bit wrong about it also. I think its that a lot of people are fed up with the new, sucky internet, and so.... are going back to replicating the old, often suckier internet.

I dunno. Can we make something new instead of just recreating old stuff. I don't really have a solution to it just. Man so many of these hurt my face.

Its not perfect but a big reason I'm using wordpress instead of DIYing it, aside from being way quicker is jus... theres so many more quality of life things I can install. Tooltips. Accessibility. Toggles. Like I know (At least. I think it is) all html and css all the way down (always has been) but this is different beasts.

I also am slightly peeved by the insistence on learning to code. Excellent skill yes, but I do wonder how many people are aware you... don't have to? Its like yes learning to cut a potato up and cook it is a very good skill but there is such a thing as bagged chips you can do in like 5 minutes. And you arent like. Lazy for finding learning to code too much of a wall to making a silly fun website for yourself. Its just that all the places that have website builders want to rip as much money out of you as possible so its either forking out on hosting and a domain so you can actually do what you want or. Well learning to code I guess. Immensely thankful neocities is even a thing but its not really... the solution? The barrier of entry may be free but its higher.

I think everyone deserves the cheapest, most flexible, and intuitive way to express and contribute to the web as possible. Really I feel like the only way to combat a handful of sites inevitably becoming the only things you see is a complete rethinking of how the internet even works, but thats neither here nor there. I'm definitely not knowledgeable enough to even attempt to think about if thats possible.

Yes I know theres different web thingies that do things differently but I havent really encountered any that feel like theyre not just. The resucitated corpse of the old internet

[lonelypep]

as anyone who has tried to learn an art could tell you, your taste in the craft will always accelerate faster than your actual skill. and now, dear tumblr users, i have reached this point. my taste has risen meteorically, and is now exploring the cosmos. my actual skill at anything has been left choking on pathetic, earthling dust.

as such, the specter of perfectionism has once again reared its head.

it sits at the helm of my creative synapses, acting as an infernal judge dictating the quality of everything i make. and unfortunately, the specter is a pessimist, a real “glass half-empty” sort of guy.

in a lot of ways, i’m a real hypocrite. i’ve encouraged nearly everyone i’ve met in the past year to pursue some sort of creative effort. and when they jokingly retort “oh id only make garbage,” id unleash my whole spiel on the topic: “it doesn’t have to be good! self expression is important! the greatest poets were spitting drivel at first! van gogh’s first painting is probably a complete piece of shit!”

and then, after the spectral, infernal judge/helmsman hasnt sent anything good out in a while, a second ghost, that of self doubt creeps in. and i question if i even enjoy making, if im so obsessed with the result. have i chosen the wrong profession? have i ever had an original thought in my entire life?

it’s time i mention the most popular thing ive ever posted on this website: a complete ranking of every super smash bros character, ranked by how good of a meal i think they would bring to a potluck.

i got the idea for this post after babysitting my young cousins, playing super smash bros with them. after a while, i got a character with a charge move, and said “hang on, let me cook for a bit.” they’re young, so they took this completely literally with “you’re not cooking anything.”

the entire night i was plagued, thinking about what smash bros characters would actually cook meal-wise. i wrote the entire thing in 2 hours, and i was sloppy with it. i got the numbers for the characters wrong multiple times, and i didn’t even go back and fix it. and yet it’s my most popular post, it has over a thousand notes.

my point is that your best ideas aren’t something that will shine on you like the light of god. they’re things that you’ll randomly think of while sitting on the toilet, which is even better than the light of god i think. and there’s value in all of your ideas. not just value for random tumblr users, but value for yourself.

originality is overrated anyways. i haven’t necessarily said anything original here, but it was worth it to me! i’ve reasoned through a writer’s block! i’ve made a thing! it’s worth it to me!

just make things. every single idea a person can have is precious. it’s all valuable in some way. you’re creative, even if you don’t know that yet. you’re an artistic genius whether you like it or not, you simply have no choice. so just make.

and i don’t think this essay will solve all block forever. obviously not. i’ll be scorned by the evils of perfectionism again. probably later today. but just do what you need to, take a break, take a walk, rewatch everything everywhere all at once, take a tumblr break. this is fun, remember?

[jjaybrown4-blog]

Chinese Zodiac Legacy ChallengeChinese Zodiac Legacy Challenge

Thanks to the idea from an anon on tumblr, I’ve decided to make a second version of my zodiac challenge that focuses on the Chinese Zodiacs.

For those who don’t know, the Chinese Zodiacs are representative of an entire year, not a month. So, for example, I was born in 1997 and I am born in the year of the Ox. Twelve years in the future (2009) was the next year of the Ox. The zodiacs are similar in the way that they each have certain personalities and whatnot, but unlike the Western Zodiac, the Chinese Zodiac uses animals to represent each of the twelve main personalities, rather than planets.

As far as I’m aware, I don’t think this challenge has been made, and I’m thankful for the anon’s suggestion to make this! The original was really fun to make, and I hope that everyone enjoys this challenge as well. This is also going to be a 12-generation legacy, with each generation representing one of the different Chinese Zodiacs.

Side note: This legacy is not meant to misrepresent or offend anyone. The generations are being based off of descriptions of the zodiacs from this website https://www.chinahighlights.com/tra...chinese-zodiac/. Feel free to read up more about each zodiac to get a better sense of your sim’s personality! I greatly encourage you to research the signs more because they are very interesting.

Starting out: Feel free to make your founder however you’d like. Traits for each heir will be listed in their section, but their looks are up to you so feel free to get creative! You’ll start out like a traditional legacy on one of the 50x50 lots (or 64x64 if you’d like). Here is a link to Pinstar’s legacy rules. http://www.simslegacychallenge.com/...hallenge-rules/

General Challenge Rules: No money cheats Mods such as MC Command Center is allowed (and encouraged) but not necessary No mods that give you a clear advantage over people who don’t use it CC is allowed Although you have to start out on a 50x50 lot, you will be moving in certain generations. If you don’t complete one of the goals for the generation, you lose the challenge. Honestly this is the only way to fail the challenge, other than not producing an heir.

Generation One: Rat “With strong intuition and quick response, those born in the year of the Rat always easily adapt themselves to a new environment. With rich imaginations and sharp observation, Rats can take advantage of various opportunities well. Rats have strong curiosity, so they tend to try their hands at anything, and they can deal with it skillfully. A lack of courage, as well as good command skills, Rats are not capable as leaders. Opportunistic and picky as Rats are, they do not have broad minds, but a narrow view. Rats are kind, but sometimes impolite to others. People of the Rat zodiac sign usually sleep late, for mice are nocturnal animals.”

You can say you’ve never really been the time of person to commit yourself to a certain thing. Whether it be a romance, a job, a hobby, whatever; point is, you get bogged down if you’re forced into doing the same thing too often. You are intelligent and talented, but you bore easily and like to learn and experience many things at once, despite how overwhelmed you get. You can be kind of insensitive sometimes and can come across as rude or that you think you are better than others, but in all reality you are a bit of a coward and are just shy and prefer to avoid confrontation. You’ve always wanted a family, but can you handle it?

Traits: Noncommittal, Genius, Loner Aspiration: Renaissance Sim Career: Due to your aspiration, you’ll be changing your job a lot, so you can pick.

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max four skills of your choice Don’t get married, have at least two children with different partners. Date around a lot, go on at least one date a week. Each date can be with the same person or different people, up to you! Feel free to have a hobby that can make money (painting, writing, gardening); you won’t be making much money at the beginning of this generation due to needed to job hop

Generation Two: Ox “Oxes are known for diligence, dependability, strength and determination. Having an honest nature, Oxes have a strong patriotism for their country, have ideals and ambitions for life, and attach importance to family and work. Having a desire to advance and great patience, Oxes can achieve their goals by consistent efforts. They are not influenced by others or the environment, but persist to do things in accordance with their ideas and capabilities. Before taking action, they will have a definite plan with detailed steps and add their strong faith and physical strength. So people of the Ox zodiac sign enjoy great success as a result. The most disadvantageous trait in Oxes is poor communication skills. They are not good at communicating with others, and even think it not worthwhile exchanging ideas with others. They are stubborn and stick to their own ways.”

Stubborn, persistent, overbearing. Many of your classmates would have described you that way, but you personally like the words ambitious, overachieving, and powerful to use for yourself. You can be a bit of a know it all and tend to stick to your beliefs, even when they’ve been proven wrong. However, you have grown to learn how to convince others to believe what you say (even bordering on manipulation at times). Outside of convincing people of things, however, you loathe conversing with others and would much rather spend time doing the things you enjoy, which includes working hard at your career. You grew up in a family that didn’t have the greatest time with careers, as your single parent had several careers throughout your childhood. You don’t want that. You want better for your children; to have enough money to see them succeed. But although you do truly love your children, you don’t get attached to others easily and they are no exception. You want them to succeed and do well, but you aren’t there for them when they need you because you are working. How will this affect the white picket fence family that you wanted?

Traits: Ambitious, Self-Assured, Family-Oriented Aspiration: Successful Lineage Career: Critic

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max your career (either branch) Max the Logic skill and one creative skill (painting, cooking, guitar, whatever you’d like) Get married at a young age to your high school sweetheart. Start having kids immediately, four in total. You don’t get along with your spouse and fight a lot, but you’re not allowed to divorce them. It would ruin your white picket fence fever dream. Never become more than “friends” with your children (i.e. good or best friends). Make your children do their homework every night and all school projects; children must have A’s in school before they can age up to teen. Teens must have a job and at least a B grade in school before they can age up to YA. Become good friends with all of your grandchildren.

Generation Three: Tiger “People born in the year of the Tiger are brave, competitive, unpredictable, and self-confident. They are very charming and well-liked by others. But sometimes they are likely to be impetuous, irritable, and overindulged. With stubborn personalities and tough judgment, tigers work actively and boldly express themselves, and do things with a high-handed manner. They are authoritative and never go back on what they have said. With great confidence and indomitable fortitude, they can be competent leaders. They will not make preparations for anything, but they can handle anything that comes along.”

Even though you don’t want to admit it, you grew up a lot like your parent. You’re stubborn and confident as well, but you tend to want to work with others and crave social interaction. You want to be the best, but not in the same way as your parents; you want to have it all: a good career, a loving spouse and children, and a great social life. You enjoy get togethers and parties, and you are very popular amongst your coworkers and friends. Some would even say you were the leader of the pack.

Traits: Outgoing, Self-Assured, Hot-headed Aspiration: Party Animal Career: Detective. Once you reach level five of the career, quit your job and become a politician.

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max the Politician Career Have at least a silver medal on each kind of party Get married, have a kid, then get remarried and have more kids (number is up to you.) Have 1 BFF and three Good Friends Be the leader of a club with eight sims and buy all of the Clothing and Decor perks, display them around your house

Generation Four: Rabbit “Rabbits tend to be gentle, quiet, elegant, and alert; quick, skillful, kind, and patient; and particularly responsible. However, they might be superficial, stubborn, melancholy, and overly-discreet. Generally speaking, people who belong to the Rabbit zodiac sign have likable characters. When meeting trouble, Rabbits can handle it in an orderly way; when encountering tough difficulties they are never discouraged, but are persistent to seek solutions. So they eventually achieve enviable success. Rabbits are faithful to those around them, but reluctant to reveal their minds to others, and have a tendency to escape reality. They are too cautious and conservative, which means they miss good opportunities.”

If there was ballet, you would have done ballet since you were a child. You are graceful and calm, but you have your moments where your insecurities take over you and you can become a bit gloomy. You love the arts and are more of a homebody than your parent, and love spending hours reading and writing stories and poetry. You are generally a positive person and enjoy having a small group of friends that you can go get coffee with and discuss books, rather than attending parties. You can be a bit skittish, though, and you like the finer things in life. There’s a side of you that you hide from the people you know, however; you may just not be as sweet and innocent as you seem.

Traits: Bookworm, Gloomy, Materialistic Aspiration: Mansion Baron Career: Criminal

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max the your career (either branch) Have two good friends Marry and have five children with the same spouse Do not let anyone find out about your career. If they do, you need to get rid of them. Threaten them, erase their memory (if you are an alien), or kill them off. No one can know who you truly are. Buy something new (worth at least 500 simoleons) every week

Generation Five: Dragon “Among Chinese zodiac animals, the Dragon is the sole imaginary animal. The Dragon is the most vital and powerful beast in the Chinese zodiac, although with an infamous reputation for being a hothead and possessing a sharp tongue. In ancient times, people thought that Dragons could control everything in the world with their character traits of dominance and ambition. Gifted with innate courage, tenacity and intelligence, dragons are enthusiastic and confident. They are not afraid of challenges, and willing to take risks. However, the dragon is sometimes regarded as aggressive, and angry dragons are not open to criticism. They don't consider themselves irritating and arrogant. Instead of following tradition, they strive for a smooth future.”

Your parent made you sick. Being a criminal and being so materialistic was not how you wanted to be like, so you rebelled at a young age and, as a teen, ran away to start your life anew. The only things you took with you were a few photographs of you and your siblings, and some things of your parent’s that you could sell for cash. You can be a bit reckless and impulsive, and you don’t like thinking things through, tending to follow your gut rather than your brain. You want a big family like what you came from, but you were going to make the money to raise your kids honestly.

Traits: Hot-Headed, Good, Outgoing Aspiration: Big Happy Family Career: Retail Store Owner

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max the your career (either branch) Max Charisma skill Run away as a teen, starting over. (You don’t have to bring family photos with you, but you do have to bring the Knight of the Octagon Table and other things with you that you can sell. Do not sell the Knight of the Octagon Table.) Cannot go to school except on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Must do homework every night, however, and remain at least a C grade in school. Open a retail shop once a YA (can sell whatever you’d like) Get married halfway through young adulthood to a friend from high school Have four kids Have a garden with at least four perfect Dragonfruit plants

Generation Six: Snake “In Chinese culture, the Snake is the most enigmatic animal among the twelve zodiac animals. People born in a year of the Snake are supposed to be the most intuitive. Snakes tend to act according to their own judgments, even while remaining the most private and reticent. They are determined to accomplish their goals and hate to fail. Snakes represent the symbol of wisdom. They are intelligent and wise. They are good at communication but say little. Snakes are usually regarded as great thinkers. Snakes are materialistic and love keeping up with the Joneses. They love to posses the best of everything, but they have no patience for shopping. Snake people prefer to work alone, therefore they are easily stressed. If they seem unusually stressed, it is best to allow them their own space and time to return to normal.”

You grew up to be a very laid back and easygoing person. You love nature and you know the value of a dollar, which can sometimes lead you to being a bit frugal. You are also a bit of a hoarder and love collecting things, and if someone even brings up getting rid of something, you aren’t too pleased with them. You are seen by many as wise and intelligent, and you definitely are. You are in tune with yourself and the natural world around you. You are very mysterious and a private person however, so while people spill their problems out to you and you help them, you don’t tell anyone about yourself.

Traits: Vegetarian, Materialistic, Loves Outdoors Aspiration: The Curator Career: None

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max Wellness skill Keep all of the plants from the last generation and expand the garden to include at least four perfect orchid plants Do not hire any services; everything must be done by your sims. (Exception: babies can be sent to daycare while your sims are at work/school or on another lot.) Complete any collection. You must be BFFs and know all of your partner’s traits before you can be romantic with them. Have two kids.

Generation Seven: Horse “People born in a year of the Horse are extremely animated, active and energetic. Horses love to be in a crowd, and they can usually be seen on such occasions as concerts, theater performances, meetings, sporting events, and parties. With a deft sense of humor, Horses are masters of repartee. They love to take center stage and delight audiences everywhere. Sometimes, the Horse is a little self-centered, but it doesn't mean that s/he can not be interested in others' problems. Horses are really more cunning than intelligent, and that is probably why most Horse people lack real confidence.”

You were that kid in school. You know, the one obsessed with horses. Your favorite toy was a horse, and you carried it around with you everywhere. Eventually you grew out of this horse phase (thank god) but you still loved the roots that the past few generations had of living off the land and running a farm. You are energetic and fun to be around, and you love to joke around and make people laugh. You found out by the time that you were a teenager that the farm life wasn’t for you, and you decided to focus on something that you were good at: bringing joy to other people through witty jokes and karaoke fails. You love seeing others happy, but at what expense?

Traits: Goofball, Gloomy, Active Aspiration: Joke Star Career: Entertainer

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max your career (either branch) Never get married, have a one night stand that results in pregnancy You can have a live-in datemate, however, but you two can never actually get married Write in a journal every night Go jogging for an hour every day Max comedy and charisma skills Pass down your favorite horse toy to your only child

Generation Eight: Goat “People born in a year of the Goat are generally believed to be gentle, mild-mannered, shy, stable, sympathetic, amicable, and brimming with a strong sense of kindheartedness and justice. They have very delicate thoughts, strong creativity, and perseverance, and acquire professional skills well. Although they look gentle on the surface, they are tough on the inside, always insisting on their own opinions in their minds. They have strong inner resilience and excellent defensive instincts. Though they prefer to be in groups, they do not want to be the center of attention. They are reserved and quiet, most likely because they like spending much time in their thoughts. Goats like to spend money on fashionable things that give them a first class appearance. Although goats enjoy spending money on the finer things in life, they are not snobbish.”

You are not a snob, per se, but you definitely have an eye for the expensive, lavish ways of life. You love to spoil your spouse and your children, and enjoy giving gifts. You just can’t help that you want to appear wealthy, even if you aren’t. You are kind-hearted and love volunteering with your family to make the world a better place.

Traits: Good, Creative, Art Lover Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire Career: Painter

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max your career (either branch) Become an art collector (have one room on the house dedicated for all of the pieces of art you’ve either made or bought) Master Painting skill Volunteer with your family once a week Paint a portrait of your spouse and your children Marry and have three kids

Generation Nine: Monkey “People born in a year of the Monkey have magnetic personalities and are witty and intelligent. Personality traits like mischievousness, curiosity, and cleverness, make them very naughty. Monkeys are masters of practical jokes, because they like playing most of the time. Though they don't have bad intentions, their pranks sometimes hurt the feelings of others. Monkeys are fast learners and crafty opportunists. They have many interests and need partners who are capable of stimulating them. While some like the eccentric nature of Monkeys, others don't trust their sly, restless, and inquisitive nature. Although they are clever and creative, Monkeys can't always exhibit their talents properly. They like to accept challenges and prefer urban life to rural.”

Traits: Goofball, Genius, Foodie Aspiration: Chief of Mischief Career: Tech Guru

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max your career (either branch) Move to San Myshuno as a Young Adult (take the Knight of the Octagon Table statue with you) Max the Programming, Mischief, and Handiness skills Learn all of the new recipes from City Living Earn the Spice Hound and Chopstick Master traits Marry and have two children Make sure all of your children learn all of the recipes you’ve learned

Generation Ten: Rooster “People born in a year of the Rooster are very observant. Hardworking, resourceful, courageous, and talented, Roosters are very confident in themselves. Roosters are always active, amusing, and popular within a crowd. Roosters are talkative, outspoken, frank, open, honest, and loyal individuals. They like to be the center of attention and always appear attractive and beautiful. Roosters are happiest when they are surrounded by others, whether at a party or just a social gathering. They enjoy the spotlight and will exhibit their charm on any occasion. Roosters expect others to listen to them while they speak, and can become agitated if they don't. Vain and boastful, Roosters like to brag about themselves and their accomplishments. Their behavior of continually seeking the unwavering attention of others annoys people around them at times.”

Traits: Self-Assured, Active, Dance Machine Aspiration: Vampire Family Career: Entertainer

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max your career (opposite branch from generation seven) Make and run an athletic club, purchase all of the energized mood perks and the fitness skill perk Max fitness and dancing skills Become a vampire because you are obsessed with your eternal youth Only have one biological child, but adopt twins You can choose to get married or not

Generation Eleven: Dog “Dogs are loyal and honest, amiable and kind, cautious and prudent. Due to having a strong sense of loyalty and sincerity, Dogs will do everything for the person who they think is most important. As Dogs are not good at communication, it is difficult for them to convey their thoughts to others. Therefore, Dogs tend to leave others with the impression that they have a stubborn personality. Born with a good nature, Dogs do not tend to be criminals or seek dishonest gains. They just need a quiet life and a good family and, therefore, forget the ugliness and evil on Earth. Dogs are always ready to help others and do not care about their own interests, but if they find themselves betrayed by cunning people they will feel shocked and hurt. When thrown into doubt, Dogs think the world is evil and complicated. Then they criticize sharply when giving comments on something, and infer all things are according to their pessimistic point of view.”

Traits: Bro, Good, Gloomy Aspiration: Soulmate Career: Athletic

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max your career Fall in love with a human and cure your vampirism to be with them Stay married to one person, no matter what Own several dogs (Pets EP) Have a “pack”, aka four to five friends that you can really trust Be BFFs with your spouse Have four kids

Generation Twelve: Pig “Pigs are diligent, compassionate, and generous. They have great concentration: once they set a goal, they will devote all their energy to achieving it. Though Pigs rarely seek help from others, they will not refuse to give others a hand. Pigs never suspect trickery, so they are easily fooled. Generally speaking, Pigs are relatively calm when facing trouble. No matter how difficult the problems are Pigs encounter, they can handle things properly and carefully. They have a great sense of responsibility to finish what they are engaged in.”

Traits: Good, Glutton, Loves Outdoors Aspiration: Soulmate Career: Culinary

Goals: Complete your aspiration Max your career (either branch) Have a garden with one of every plant (excluding plants from GTW and OR) Max cooking, gourmet cooking, and baking skills Host a gold level dinner party every Friday Have a large amount of friends (at least three) Never marry, but adopt one child

[continuations]

Lessons from a Voyage

I have just returned from an exciting voyage: crossing the Atlantic on a sailboat. You can find updates from along the way on the J44 Frolic website, Twitter/X and Instagram accounts. In this post I am gathering up my lessons learned. Some of these are just about sailing, in particular passage making, and some are broadly applicable life lessons.

Offshore sailing is intense. I always had great respect for offshore sailors, and in particular solo sailors, and this voyage has only deepened that. To be successful requires lots of different skills: navigation, sail trim, anchoring/docking, mechanical, plumbing, electrical (AC and DC), fishing, cooking. Not everyone on board needs all of these but it is good to have all of them as part of the crew, ideally redundant. If you want to follow exciting single handed racing, I highly recommend the upcoming Vendée Globe race. On each of these skills, experience makes a huge difference. Going into this adventure there was a lot that I understood theoretically but had never done (I had zero offshore experience). So I was thrilled to do this with my friend HL DeVore who has extensive offshore experience, including two prior Atlantic crossings.

Technology has made passage making much easier. The voyage also increased my respect for what it took to cross the oceans in the past with minimal technology. We had access, via Starlink, to up-to-date weather information. We had redundant chart systems including on board but also on our phones, so we knew at all times where we were and how quickly we were making progress. We had a fantastic auto pilot that was able to steer accurately even in fairly confused sea states. We were able to make fresh water on demand with an advanced filtration and desalination system. We had fresh food in a fridge and frozen food, including ice cream (!), in a freezer. We had an electric kettle for fast water heating. An ice maker to add ice cubes to our water. A hot pot for making rice and other dishes. You don't have to go very far back to get to a time when none of this was available. And yet people crossed the oceans routinely.

Clear and non-defensive communication is essential. Everything on a boat has precise terms to identify what it is and what action is supposed to be taken. It is essential to learn this language to be able to communicate quickly and precisely. There are some areas where different sailors will use different terms and so it's good to converge on terminology for the boat. Beyond precision it also matters that communication has to be non-defensive. Everybody on board can speak up at an moment if they see or hear something that others should know. And when someone speaks to you, you always acknowledge that you have heard and understood by saying "copy." For example you might say "small craft 5 boat lengths out at 2 o'clock" and helm will acknowledge with "copy" even if they have already seen it. So much miscommunication can be avoided simply by acknowledging what has been said.

Alertness is crucial. Always be on the lookout for things that look or sound strange. A line hanging slack that is normally tight. Or a clanging noise that wasn't there before. All of this requires a high degree of alertness and also intimate knowledge of the normal state of the boat. For example water flowing by the boat often makes a gurgling sound when you are below deck and close to the sides. But at one point I heard a gurgling sound coming from an unusual location. We investigated and it turned out that a hose had come loose and we were spilling fresh water.

Know your boat inside out. Some people may be tempted to buy a new boat for an adventure like this. But every boat handles differently. And new boats often have small issues that will only bet detected while out at sea. We bought a used J44, a boat that my partner in this adventure has been sailing for over a decade. We then completely overhauled the boat and took it on several shake down cruises and races, with the ultimate pre passage shake down being the Newport Bermuda race. You also want to know the details of systems performance. For example fuel consumption of a diesel engine varies non-linearly with RPM. For example on Frolic the fuel consumption goes up by 33 percent from 1800 to 2000 RPM.

Life is supported by systems. Spaceships are called ships for a reason - they are both life support systems for humans. The ocean is not quite as uninhabitable for humans as space but it is definitely not where we can live without technology. Our water maker was a great example of that. In its absence we would have needed to bring a large quantity of freshwater along and hopefully catch rainwater (we would likely have to ration water which risks being dehydrated). Systems need redundancy in case they break and you can't fix them. We always had some water in jugs to tide us over, but we also had a mid sized and even some handheld desalination systems).

Observation matters. It is always important to complement what electronic systems spit out with what we can observe directly. Modern weather forecasts are amazingly accurate. But local weather can still differ significantly and sometimes forecasts will be wrong. It really helps to understand the weather at different scales, from the very large (the entire North Atlantic), to the region you are in (e.g. the Azores), down to the specific location. Another example of a system that helps tremendously but needs to be complemented with observation is the Automatic Identification System (AIS). It uses VHF to communicate the identities of boats, along with their location, heading, and speed. This makes it much easier to identify and avoid potential collisions. When we were approaching Portugal we had to cross through shipping lanes and it would have been much more challenging without AIS. But we did encounter two cargo ships that were not properly broadcasting. One was highly intermittent (and would only show up on our chart plotter occasionally), the other one not at all. We encountered the second one at night and had to fall back to visual observation and hailing the other vessel.

Slow is fast. Take the time to talk things through, such as a spinnaker take down. This means making sure everyone understands their role and the sequence of tasks. Prepare everything that can be prepared, such as getting any lines properly coiled that need to run out or having sail ties at hand. Move deliberately around the boat . Something going wrong is not only dangerous but will usually take a lot more time to fix than getting it right in the first place. This is even true when something has already gone wrong. We did great overall but did wind up with one accidental jibe. The instinct might be to rush and fix that immediately but it is much better to take the time to make sure everyone is ok, the boat is ok, and then make a plan to jibe back in a controlled fashion.

Preparation requires anticipation. We were incredibly well prepared. We had all the tools and parts on board we needed. We had all the medications on board to treat everyone on the crew for a variety of thankfully small issues. We had enough fuel to get through some of the light or no wind stretches. All of this was the case because we anticipated what the problems might be that we could encounter. You can't get stuff onto your boat once you are in the ocean. Our planned path via the Azores is notorious for people running out of fuel or food or both because of the extent of the Azores high.

Safety is not negotiable. Our default was to wear harnesses when on deck and to clip in. The only times we would not do that was during the day time in extremely calm sea state while motoring. All it takes is one wrong step for someone to go overboard. And at night or with six foot waves it is not only hard to see someone, especially when the boat is flying along at 10 knots, but also tricky and dangerous to get back to them and get them back on board. Another key rule is "one hand for yourself and one hand for the boat." This is where the expression "single handed" sailing comes from. I violated this rule once by trying to bring two bags below at the same time (coming back to the boat at the dock). I missed the last step down the companion way, twisted around and fell backwards into the galley, hitting my head on the stove. I was lucky and came away with some scrapes and bump on the back of my head but it could have easily ended badly.

Good food makes everyone happy. We were fortunate to have my son Peter Wenger on board as a chef. He had pre-cooked some meals which we carried in our freezer. But he also made many wonderful things fresh, such an incredible Mahi Mahi ceviche from a fresh catch. And of course my personal favorite: French toast for breakfast.

Great on shore support really helps. There is some fear associated with being far out on the ocean where help can be a long way away. And so it is wonderful to have strong on shore support. Psychology really matters for well being and stress. When I fell down it was great to do a call with med team and get concussion assessment. We relied on Katie and Jessica from Regatta Rescue for medical support. They were terrific and also had put together an incredible med kit for us to bring along. We also got daily macro weather updates from Ken McKinley at Locusweather. Finally, it was fantastic to have family emotional support, in particular from Susan "Gigi" Danziger, who also helped with logistics, such as getting to Newport, and joined us in Bermuda, for cruising in the Azores, and in Lisbon upon arrival.

All in all this passage was an incredible adventure and I feel fortunate to have been able to experience this passage. I hope this will not be my last one and am already thinking about what bringing the boat back across the Atlantic might look like. In the meantime I am keeping my fingers crossed for a safe passage of Frolic through the Straight of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean.

[navi-sakura]

( A meeting. Listen in? )

"Everyone's all here."

"We didn't get any new requests, did we?"

"There's something else we need to talk about..."

"...and it's regarding Futaba."

M-me?!

Please don't tell me...

"It's nothing about that... I just saw that you've been posting about a new game."

...

"Persona 3 Reload, correct? That 'Persona' in the title caught our interest."

"And then you were sent that Persona Q2 game, yeah?"

She already sold it.

( Ren lets out a little groan. )

"Is something the matter?"

"No, it's nothing."

"Regardless, this Persona series of games has piqued our collective interest."

"Let us procure Persona 1, Persona 2, Persona Q, and Persona Q2 so that we may grasp the entire narrative."

"That sounds like a bit much..."

"I can't find anything online about it."

Well, they were probably sent from another universe.

"Honestly, I completely forgot we were dealing with the multiverse now."

"It's through that new Mementos thingy, right?"

Actually, it's through a website that Futaba joined some time ago.

"It's where she met that Pokemon, remember?"

"Oh right, Emma!"

"Who were they, anyway."

"You know, you could ask them yourself."

"I-I'll think about it."

"There's one more thing I wanted to ask, Futaba. Is Apathy Syndrome part of that game?"

...Yeah?

"That means the events of the game mirrors our own reality. The Dark Hour, Tartarus, Apathy Syndrome..."

"You know about this?"

"...Sis got Apathy Syndrome. Dad did some investigating and had a few leads, but everything went back to normal before he could come to any conclusions."

"Shit..."

( Everyone is silent. )

"Futaba, can I... watch you play? I want to know what happened."

Would... streaming be okay?

"That's fine."

"If it's streamed, we all could probably watch as well. How about it?"

"I'm interested."

"Yeah, we can make it a watch party!"

"That could be fun."

"I'd enjoy that!"

"Watch party? Sounds good."

Haha, get ready to behold my skill!

[wirewitchviolet]

Some thoughts on Nazi morale

That earlier reblog about bullies and leverage coupled with some recent news coverage has me in the mind to do a little public educating about the complete lack of a spine any given nazi out there has, the weird rituals and behaviors this leads to, and how some basic knowledge about all this leaves them a completely toothless threat in the vast majority of situations.

The really important thing to remember here, and I always have to remind people I’m not saying this to be mean, but because it is true, and genuinely important to understand, is that to become a nazi you first have to be just the most absolutely pathetic loser in the world. For real, it’s baked in. They have this whole mythology about their own innate superiority and right to rule over everyone else in the world based on some pure magical bloodline BS, but that’s inseparable from the fact that none of them actually have any sort of real power or success or happiness or friends. It’s not some class of nobility making stuff up about traits they have that justify their position. It’s just pathetic losers imagining all this secret untapped potential they have and then a whole second set of fictional beliefs about how everyone else in the world is keeping them back from realizing that potential by cheating at life somehow, all as a pretense for how they’re going to actively do every underhanded thing they can to get to their “rightful” place.

The two important takeaways here are that from the get-go the whole experience of being a nazi involves just this constant immersion in propaganda, self-delusion, and keeping up kayfabe that they have no barometer for what the reality of any situation is (our enemy is simultaneously weak and strong, etc.) and that there are in fact many very real reasons a given nazi’s life falls so short of the life they tell themselves they “should be” living which they’re never going to examine.

All in all, they just... don’t do well in reality. They don’t know anything, they have no social skills, they don’t really have the drive to actually do anything with their lives. They need hype and propaganda like a normal person needs oxygen. And while they’re never going to sit down and really self-reflect on that, they at least get that getting all hyped up and having people cheer them on is important for some reason or other. So here’s how that works out in terms of interactions with the real world.

Most of the time, a nazi just kinda sits around in their little isolation bubble where they don’t interact with anyone besides other nazis, and most of that is one-sided in the form of watching propaganda videos and following simple instructions. Every so often, one of them gets hyped up enough by the bootlicking the rest do to delude himself into thinking he has some sort of actual power to flex, and it’s time to plan an attack. “An attack” can take a lot of different forms. Might be a big organized effort to do something that gets national media coverage, might be terrorizing a single arbitrarily selected teenage girl. Might be a weird elaborate prank. This year for pride month for instance, some nazi had the bright idea to set up a website selling poison as fake HRT drugs and having followers hype it up with impersonations of trans people. The one important thing though is that unless the target is proven and tested as “safe” previously, it’s always going to take the form of something with basically zero risk of blowback or personal harm.

Letter-writing campaigns are a very popular choice. It’s pretty trivial to set up a burner e-mail account (or several thousand even) paste a form letter in, and hit send. Tracing it back to you would be a huge pain, and not something most people would even be inclined to do if you don’t use overtly violent language. This has been the absolute backbone of nazi attacks for the past decade or two at least. Other stuff gets more sensationalized, but if you look at the internal operations of something like Gamergate, 98% of it has always been form letters addresses and quota goals, trying to get various organizations to make public statements or fire people they’d arbitrarily chosen to target.

Now, this is the really important part. People often mistake nazi letter writing campaigns or similar activities for the real thing. When actual normal people organize a letter-writing campaign, it’s collective action. Can we show that enough people care strongly about this thing the company is doing that they reconsider if it’s worth it? If so, hey, mission accomplished, score one for direct feedback over flawed marketing research, everyone moves on with their lives. I feel like legitimate letter writing campaigns are pretty passe, with social media attention grabs having taken over the niche (which nazis will also imitate, but random burner accounts have less impact there). Still, people in positions to field these e-mails are largely still trained, I assume, with metrics like “if X number of e-mails come in griping about something, tell management, we’ll do what we need to to shut people up.”

Nazis however do not organize campaigns like this for the same reason, and capitulating is a tremendously bad idea.

Nazis do letter writing campaigns as a safe form of organizing an attack. It’s testing the waters. The entire purpose is to determine if and how the target will react to what perceived weight they are able to safely through around. If they go, “hey, video game company, apparently one of your employees once did a risque photo shoot, are you OK with values like that?” or “I don’t like seeing a bunch of queer pride stuff when I walk into a store” those aren’t customers you have to worry about losing if they don’t get what they want. That’s a predator in the woods staring you down to see if you’re going to hold your ground or if you’re going to try to run.

See, the whole “our enemies are both weak and powerful” thing completely destroys nazis’ risk assessment capabilities, so they’re relying on yours instead. If they try to scare you with a letter writing campaign about lost sales (or for that matter, if they’re trying to scare you with anonymous letters threatening you with violence), they aren’t making a demand. They’re asking if you are afraid of them. Because if you’re afraid of them, that means they can escalate to attacks that carry more personal risk to them, with the confidence that you aren’t going to fight back.

So what happens is you have the mistaken impression that you can just fire this one employee or pull this one marketing promotion and that’ll be the end of it, but now suddenly you have people showing up in your spaces acting violent. Not so violent it’s likely going to lead to a physical altercation (they’re still testing the waters and building up to that), they’re probably just going to shout slurs at your actual customers to scare’em off, or camp out like they own the place, maybe they smash up some products on shelves if they’re feeling really spicy. And if you don’t respond to THAT in a way that makes them think twice about messing with you, they’re going to keep on escalating, with threats to your employees and families, actual physical attacks, maybe some fires or bombs.

Also every time they take a bite out of someone and it doesn’t turn out to be more than they can chew, it’s just this huge rallying moment they use to do more recruiting and pushing for bolder attacks elsewhere, so they just become more of a threat to the whole world because you went and flinched.

On the upside, you can pretty much always deescalate things no matter how far they get just by demonstrating you aren’t afraid. You just have to do two things. Forcefully rebuke them, and loudly and publicly acknowledge that what you are doing is showing nazis that they can’t push you around. No euphemisms. If you don’t explicitly specify “nazis” or some more specific organization (Proud Boys, TERFs, whathaveyou) they’re going to internally spin that as you secretly being on their side. People constantly falter here and get stuck dealing with the same attacks forever as a result.

Also when I say “forcefully rebuke them” there’s a lot of ways you can do that, but you will need to step it up based on how far you’ve let things go. If you’re just course correcting because you realized you caved to a nazi letter writing statement, a big public retraction should have you covered. If they’re showing up on your doorstep in riot gear, you might need to get a little physical. You don’t have to like, walk up to whoever’s at the front of the crowd and see how many times his head bounces when it hits a concrete slab (although I’m sure that would be quite effective. You can literally throw a milkshake at one of these losers and he’ll start crying and run away like you threw a brick.

[burgeoning-ambition]

hi, I am going to be an incoming freshman in the fall and i want to study japanese but i don’t have a lot of experience with the language.. what are some tips you have for a beginner in the language ?

Good luck with your freshman year! Here's some advice I thought of that might help you:

The biggest tip I have for someone starting out is to learn hiragana and katakana first. You can learn it incrementally, or all at once (each method works better for different people!), but the sooner you can read kana and don't need to rely on romaji (romanized spellings of Japanese words), the better. In my experience it helps with overall pronunciation skills and reading speed to really get kana down strong!

If you have language gen ed requirements you need to fulfill or want to minor/major in Japanese and want to/plan to take Japanese classes your university offers, my next tip would be to find what textbook they use and give it a look! Some universities won't list the textbooks you'll use until pretty late in the summer, but they'll show up eventually. I think it's always a good idea to flip through the textbook you'll be using before the semester actually starts (even if you're just reading through the sample pages websites offer) so you have an idea of how much time you'd need to give yourself to do assigned readings if they appear or other things like that. With language textbooks specifically, I think it also helps show you if this textbook works well with the way you learn language! A lot of textbooks will be different, sometimes in pretty subtle ways, with how they teach material. It may be helpful for you to see how info is presented in your school's chosen textbook so you (roughly) know in advance if you'll need to find supplemental material or ask a lot of questions in class because of how the textbook is written.

Also, whether you're taking formal classes or not: don't be afraid to ask questions! Don't be afraid to ask questions during lectures if you're confused, don't be afraid to reach out to others who are studying the language if you're self-studying and need help, etc.! Nobody is going to care, and if people do, that's a them problem. There's never anything wrong with reaching out to people for help, and most people love to help others! Learning is easier when it's collaborative, trying to do everything alone is hard; even if you only talk to TAs and professors and never your classmates, that's better than trying to do everything by yourself! Although I would recommend at least trying to find classmates you fit in with and working with them.

Don't be afraid of speaking because you have an accent. I know tons of people who avoid practicing speaking because they're embarrassed about their accent or how they can't pronounce a certain sound exactly right or anything else like that. Don't let that hold you back! If your pronunciation is terrible, how will it improve if you don't practice? And everyone has an accent! There's no such thing as unaccented speech, so don't feel ashamed just because your accent is more "noticeable" than somebody else's. If you can't pronounce a certain sound in the language, that's fine! If you grew up learning a language where that sound literally doesn't exist, it'll be hard (and in some cases impossible) for you to pronounce that new sound! And that's completely fine! You shouldn't hold yourself back from learning and practicing because of something like that. People will still understand you if you're making an effort, even if you can't pronounce that one sound. It's okay to not sound perfect. It's okay to not sound like a native speaker. You're learning.

Other tips I have for Japanese specifically:

If you're self-paced or looking for extra material, put keigo (formal/honorific language) on a back burner. You don't need it immediately, and in Japan people are generally going to be very forgiving about keigo mistakes as long as you're behaving in a respectful way (even native Japanese speakers mess up keigo! It's like, a key part of the job-hunting process for lots of new college grad-aged Japanese people to make keigo mistakes- it's associated with being young, haha). It shouldn't be your top priority, and it'll be easier to learn when you know a lot of the grammar that keigo expands on.

Practice reading and writing often! Kanji are very much "use it or lose it", so it's a good idea to find fun ways to practice reading and writing so you can stay consistently exposed to the ones you know. Most textbooks will have you write Kanji several times after learning them and then do some reading/writing practice with full phrases as well, but make sure you keep up with using them after you learn them or they'll just evaporate from your mind.

Practice speaking and listening often, too, but don't get too worried about perfect pitch accent when you first begin! Japanese is a language with a pitch accent- it isn't tonal like Cantonese or Mandarin, but words will have a specific pitch structure. You'll likely hear this when you listen to native speakers, especially if you're specifically listening for it, but when you're a complete beginner you don't have to worry about it. It starts coming more naturally later on, and it's easier to practice it when you have a strong grammar/vocab foundation. Some people say it's super important because the pitch is the only way to tell homophones apart but... People aren't stupid. People understand context. No one is going to assume you meant to say something that makes no sense, when you could've said something that makes complete sense. People may ask you to repeat yourself, or you might encounter a couple of rude people who intentionally misunderstand you, but generally, people are going to understand what you meant to say based on the context. Don't worry about it when you're still learning how to say "good morning"

I hope those pieces of advice help! I know many of them were more about mental hurdles with language learning than they were about objective aspects of Japanese, but those were the important things that came to mind, haha. Feel free to ask me or anybody else in the Japanese langblr community for more help if you have specific things on your mind!

[naharie]

Some rambling thoughts on AI

I've seen a lot of strong reactions to recent AI innovations, whether it be people excited and enthusiastic declaring we are witnessing a new age, or those afraid, angry, or both, at what is and will happen. (And quite a number of the latter, especially on Tumblr.) And to some degree, both sides are understandable. AI can in fact, be used both for great good, and for great evil. However, the reactions of both parties are skewed and will almost certainly not get them to the goal they want to reach.

Since this is Tumblr, let's start with the negative side. What does this group want? For AI to be stopped from replacing human roles and jobs, especially creative ones. The general idea seems to be that we need careful and fairly immediate regulation (or some would argue a wholesale ban) of AI.

The first problem I see with regulating or banning AI is that it's incredibly unlikely to happen, at least in the US where many such companies are based. Mega corps already spend billions in lobbying for tax law changes and cuts, keeping down minimum wage, lowering what they have to to for employees, and really anything that will let them make even a little bit more profit. And like it or not, the reality is that in the long run it costs less to buy the machines, develop the software, maintain the machines, pay for electricity, ..., than it does to pay actual humans with the appropriate skills. (I know this doesn't talk about how well this is or isn't working for various fields, but we'll get to that later, trust me.)

Secondarily, unless the legislation was thorough (which is unlikely, for the same reasons as #1), companies will either find a loop hole to practically keep doing things exactly the same way. Or they'll do what they do with anything else they don't want to get in legal trouble for: outsource it. If the US bans or heavily regulates AI but doesn't carefully regulate the transmission, transport, and use, of AI goods, mega corp will simply move some of its servers oversees to somewhere without those rules, as a likely example, India.

And thirdly, it's delusional to imagine that even if thorough legislation is passed that it will actually mean all that much to mega corp. The fact that it would be illegal would not stop them in the slightest. If you have someone lived under a rock your entire life and don't believe me, go look up the union busting tactics and techniques used by big companies, restaurants, stores, and more.

Enough about that for now, though. Let's look at the other side, at least briefly: the people who are wholesale for AI. What do they want? The increased growth of AI, and for AI to become a much more integral part of our everyday lives. How is this to be done? Hype, throwing money at AI companies, and a lot of development work to build tooling on top of AI.

Now, what problems are there with this plan? As someone who likes having a least a little bit of privacy, where do I even begin. Perhaps with that. If AI is fully integrated with society, to a point where it is expected, the same way many businesses and websites expect you to have a smartphone, in many ways, privacy will be gone, at least so far as you relate to the government. If you somehow don't believe that modern governments spy on their citizens, even through corporations, I would advise you to learn about what happened with Snowden. He himself admits that it's not just the US, and even if it was, they collect about everyone, regardless of country, and then share it with the relevant government so they can get permission to keep doing it.

The second glaring issue that has yet to have a complete solution offered is the power cost of AI. Public data sources show that global power consumption went up by 25% just between 2000 and 2021, and it only continues to climb. And how, you may ask, is this power generated? By using (mostly burning) non renewable fuel sources. More than 60% of all the power in the world comes from non renewable sources. But what does that have to do with AI? AI is usually accelerated using either a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit (a.k.a a graphics card)) or dedicated hardware. In other words, some of the most power hungry computer hardware used by normal machines. There is only a finite amount of traditional fuel sources left, and the more power we need and generate from them, the less time we have left. I'm not saying countries shouldn't switch to nuclear. What I'm saying is that they seem to be unfortunately reluctant to, and if we don't, the other renewable sources will not keep up with AI, and we could potentially see a massive power crisis.

And that's not even speaking about stolen jobs. I think for this audience, I don't need to. People already know what's happening with WGA and artists, and if you don't, a quick google search should enlighten you enough our purposes.

So, what's the actual status of AI? Well, that depends on what field you are looking at. AI text generation/chat bots are doing...somewhat okay. What they can do is impressive, but still has lots of points of failure. And at least in the case of ChattGPT, OpenAI has admitted that they are nearing the limits of their current method. AI video generation is a new field and still has a long way to go before it becomes very promising at all. AI video manipulation is approaching realtime capability on modern hardware, AI sound work begins to equal that of less trained humans.

And of course, AI art is doing just fine for itself, thank you. They all have their limits of course. One big one for AI art is the limited number of tokens/words and therefore complexity of the prompt given. There are ways to partially mitigate this, but nothing complete yet. As an example, try to generate an image for the following prompt: "A cat on a skateboard riding a dragon, that is Smoug from the Hobbit, burning down a forest on the mountainside while flying down toward the lake on laketown, while in the bottom right corner there is a circle showing laketown where Bard stands at ease, holding out his bow and a singular arrow, looking out towards the mountain." Then, if you have enough money, hire an artist to make you a picture from the same prompt. It's not even a competition, one of them is clearly better, and its the artist's.

But wait you may say, this isn't a complete essay. You left out some of your proofs, arguments, and conclusions, and left us with something incomplete. To that I say: you are right, this is not an essay, it is a rambling combination of thoughts I've had, and I made revisit these points in the future if I or anyone else cares.