#advent 2019

[unreesonable]

[dribs-and-drabbles]

The Thai Communal Wardrobe item #29

He's Coming to Me ep 1:

Wolf ep 9:

for @lurkingshan from @waitmyturtles 💙

[dragons-bones]

So yesterday I made my Bedraggled, Forlorn Fox the "mouse"/mascot of the semi-heretical (depends on who you ask) church I'm building halfway between London and Hell! He is very sweet! (And wants me to spend the proceeds from the collection plate on improving the church because how dare he not have a better quality of pillows and toys and food.)

My church is also dedicated to a saint I made myself! It's got five skulls! I got a skeleton with seven necks, and stuck on some duplicated skulls from my counterfeit head of John the Baptist via eldritch science. Didn't have enough bone fragments, though, so I couldn't do the full seven I wanted, and just slapped some balls of stygian ivory onto the remaining two necks to make them look like spinal protrusions.

Gosh I just love how extra unhinged I sound when I talk about this game. :D

[regicidal-defenestration]

Having a Seeking alt is so funny like here is the account I created to have fun playing a game!, and that one is the character made intentionally to go through The Untold Horrors

[forabeatofadrum]

El WooWoo! Thank you @quizasvivamos (how the tables have turned) and @cutestkilla for the tags.

I am still working on [REDACTED]. It's a-going, nothing else to say. So instead I am back with a philosophy talk! The last time I did this, I mentioned Cartesian Dualism and the epilogue of my Snowbaz fic Time After Time.

We're going to Klaine fic now! We're talking about consciousness, mind, cognition etc. in class. Who has a mind? Who can think? Who has consciousness? These are all broader questions, but last week and today we applied these questions to machines and AI and we had a lot of amazing discussions about it.

But one moment stood out to me.

I'm going to put it under the tags and a cut, but if you're interested, feel free to read on. It's going to be about Myosotis sylvatica, and it's spoiler-free!

And now, the weather: @jinglejavey @coffeegleek @otherworldsivelivedin @caramelcoffeeaddict @sillyunicorn @dragoneggos @raenestee @tectonicduck @nightimedreamersworld @urban-sith @thnxforknowingme @captain-aralias @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @justgleekout @cerriddwenluna @tea-brigade @ivelovedhimthroughworse @bookish-bogwitch @confused-bi-queer @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @1908jmd @special-bc-ur-part-of-it @larkral @wellbelesbian ​ @artsyunderstudy ​ @martsonmars ​ @facewithoutheart ​ @shrekgogurt @rockitmans @bitbybitwrites @blackberrysummer @whatevertheweather @theotherhufflepuff

Someone argued that the fact that we might not be able to fully communicate with machines doesn't rule out that machines can think. Think of animals. We understand that animal minds work vastly different from human minds and yet we do not discredit them as cognitive beings. In fact, we even attempt to communicate with them. We all know Mimi is a good girl, after al #MimiFanclub!

And someone argued back that we do not have the same emotional bonds with AI as we do with our pets, which made me laugh, because it made me think of the original Mimi: Blaine's personal AI in Myosotis sylvatica. The whole point of Mimi is that Kurt is weirded out by how Blaine's phone seems to have replaced a pet.

(For the ones who don't know the context: the story takes place in 2027 and in this year, there is a market for personal AIs, since the AIs from big companies aren't privacy-safe. With your personal AI, that you can install on all your smart tech, you own your own data. This is why many people like this.)

Yes, Kurt has his own AI as well, but again, Kurt's from 2012, not 2027 where personal AIs have become a standard. You know, I always say that I wrote this technological world that would be slightly weird but also highly realistic for a near future. I wrote it in 2019, way before ChatGPT and crap.

There was also a mini discussion on ethics, because I also talked about how everything is done from our phones now and all I could think of was "ah yes, like the Springo". Apparently some want to get rid of public transport tickets and replace them with "checking in with our phones", which is fun, because Kurt bemoans the loss of physical MetroCards in this fic.

But yeah, back to Mimi (and Lizzie, Kurt's AI). It was just really interesting, because if we believe in Dennett's intentionality theory of cognition, then we can argue that Mimi and Lizzie do have a mind of sorts. Dennett's 'intentional stance' basically says we, human beings, ascribe intention and all other cognitive processes to other people. I assume that you, the person reading this, have the cognitive capabilities to read it and process what you're reading. I assume that people in the Netherlands made a conscious decision to vote (or not) today. I assume that my teacher know how to check the time while lecturing.

And so on. Dennett says that this is how we interact with each other as conscious beings. But you can make this broader: you can ascribe these cognitive things to objects as well. You can assume that a machine or AI (like Mimi or Lizzie, or ChatGPT) has intentions, thoughts, feelings, desires, etc. If you can do that with ease, then it's probably right.

Of course, there is a lot of criticism on this intentional stance as well. When it comes to ascribing these things to objects, then which objects do count? People can imagine a conscious machine, robot or AI (hi, Mimi!), but if I were to say "Your fork has a conscious mind", you might wonder something is up with my mind. In this line of thinking, you can already wonder if you can even ascribe these things to a machine or AI in the first place.

(To be clear, I wrote Mimi and Lizzie as unconscious objects. I am of the belief that AI, robots and machines aren't conscious, we just program them to resemble consciousness.)

But even if you don't believe that machines have a consciousness, like I do, it is undeniable that people can form a bond with objects. Heck, I even wrote a whole paper on that. We antropomorfise the shit out of objects and we did that even before we had ChatGPT. I know someone who has named her bike and how many of us have felt genuinely saddened when, for example, our favourite mug broke?

Anyway, that's all for this philosophy talk. Now I will return to fighting ableism in philosophy! Bye, bye.

[icharchivist]

I think there's something pleasant about slipping back into an old hyperfixation

Sure, it feels like you can never truly escape and reality is a joke, but it's warm and comfortable and familiar, like putting on a shirt you used to love wearing but then it kinda slipped into the back of the closet

Sorry about your emotions though

NO YEAH I AGREE

Like it's pleasant but also bittersweet, it's remembering all sort of things you might have forgotten, and why it was so important to you back then and also right now. It can be introspective, just as much as it can be familiar.

but god do you suffer and god do you end up thinking there is no escape from your fate. It's really 'oh no i'm back on my bullshit' type of experience. It's nice but goddamn.

[emaya-chan-the-potato-headed]

"I'm a reliable reindeer!"

[abs0luteb4stard]

W 🎄 T C H I N G

[queenbee7599]

flashback to december 2019 when i had a little mole magnets advent calender

[mylittleponyoh]

Desk Mess CC Kit by MylittleponyOh

Hi Simmers !

Today is the big day ! The REVEAAAAL of my secret project. Because yes I've been working days on this 15 objects kit !

A little lore about the Desk Mess CC Kit : Maybe you know it, maybe you don't I AM FRENCH. And I play The Sims since... I am 11 or 12 yo. When I discovered the great world of custom contents, I was awestruck. So, I started downloading a loooooot of them. Never thinking one day I would make my own. Then in Covid 2020 I tried Blender. And a new world opened to me. It was hard. But I am very stubborn. I failed a lot. But I kept trying. So the first time I successfully added MY OWN CC into MY GAME and it worked I thought, OK THIS IS IT. I WANT TO LEARN MORE. You are going to ask yourself, why is she telling this. Why being French has something to do with this CC Kit, and I'll tell you why. As a Sims 4 addict, I watch a lot of content about Sims 4. And I have a favorite French Youtuber I follow since 2019 @kapands ! I loved her content so much, I followed her on Twitch. And I loved even more the community there. I was so happy to add my contribution to the 2024 secret Advent Calendar the community is gifting her. Following her all these years, I knew custom content was taking a great place in her way of playing The Sims 4. So I challenged myself (really afraid to fail) to create a CC Kit centred around one of her character : Bella. (2nd gen of the Into The Forest Challenge).

🔗Kapands Into The Forest Legacy Challenge 1st Episode

I wanted to thank Kapands, because she has created this awesome community I am proud to be a part of. Because she is kind and real. Because she adresses important subjects of life into her game. And also because she works so freaking much !!!!

What you need to know before downloading :

The following objects are Base Game Compatible

Bella's Comfy Chair, Bella's Desk, Bella's Rug, Bella's Cable Management Plugs 1/2/3, Bella's Cable Management Power Strip, Bella's Sticky Notes Block, Bella's Wall Planner, Bella's Wall Notes, Bella's Mug, Bella's PeachPad, Bella's Mini Maple Tree.

The following objects Request a specific EP

Bella's Diary (Parenthood), Bella's Pen Pot (Backyard Stuff)

T.O.U

Recolors are allowed, but do not include my mesh.

All recolors must include credit and link to my original mesh.

Do not reupload and claim as your own (i'll know it).

Do not reupload behind any paywall.

Download here (the all collection in one click)

Download here (pick & choose)

Join me on Patreon ( it's free !)

Click here to check out all my previous custom content !

✨ If you have any trouble with any of my cc, please reach out to me !

✨ Special thanks @syboubou for the help with the Bella Mug and helping the modders in general ! You are wonderful !

[evolutionsbedingt]

One of the few fics I wrote for Sherlock way after it was cool and that still has a very soft spot in my heart! I get kudos on this series every now and again and I'm glad people are still finding and liking it!

Advent Fanfiction Frenzy 08.12.2019

The First Threads of a Network by Nantai

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Sherlock (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade Additional Tags: Case Fic, Pre-Season/Series 01, Christmas, murders, Crime, POV Greg Lestrade, BAMF Mycroft Holmes, BAMF Greg Lestrade, Divorced Greg Lestrade Series: Part 1 of The Network Summary: Gregory Lestrade buries his Christmas in paperwork as usual when he gets called into the Chief Superintendents office only to be told to drop his current case by a mesmerising stranger. Of course, Greg cheerfully ignores that order.

(Once upon a time a gift for the lovely @reynardinepttr)

[londonfoginacup]

Hello and welcome (back) to Londonfoginacup’s 25 Days of Christmas Fic Recs!

The first day of fic recs is, traditionally, the advent fics! This way, if you so desire, you can take some from previous years and read a chapter a day to experience them the way they were meant to be! These are all the ones from the previous year-- I used to try to list ALL the advent fics that exist, but unfortunately (fortunately) there are WAY too many of them now for that to be practical!

share my breath - for all our versions that were too scared to touch | childofthelarents Harry/Louis | Zayn/Liam | 47k | 26/26 Chapters

they're singing 'deck the halls' (but it's not like christmas at all) | whateverthecalamity / @christmassavestheyear Harry/Louis | 24k | 24 Chapters

The Magic Within You | Darling28 Harry/Louis | 107k | 25 Chapters

Lonely Cards Club | HelloLovers13 / @HelloLovers13 Harry/Louis | 25k | 25 Chapters

You Ain’t Gotta Feel Fear Just Mingle | LadyLondonderry / @Londonfoginacup Harry/Louis | Niall/Zayn/Liam | 32k | 25 Chapters

Snow In Love | lululawrence / @lululawrence Harry/Louis | 33k | 25 Chapters

We Can Roll in the Darkness | LetTheMusicMoveYou / @letthemusicmoveyou28 Harry/Louis | Zayn/Liam | 29k | 25 Chapters

'tis the damn season | YesIsAWorld / @louandhazaf Harry/Louis | 17k | 25 Chapters

I Really Like Your Styles: The Baking Advent-ure | homosociallyyours / @homosociallyyours Harry/Louis | 34k | 25 Chapters

Be Merry All | justanothershadeofblue / @zjofierose Harry/Louis | 30k | 24 Chapters

For more Christmas fic recs: 2023; 2022; 2021; 2020; 2019; 2018; 2017

[igorlevchenko-blog]

Dragon Age: The Dwarves of Orzammar

Digital paintings. Late 2018—2019. Portrait of Kardol (bottom left) was made in late 2022 amid the advent of AI, promptly rendering such portraiture largely a pointless endeavour.

P.S: Feel free to repost, reupload etc.

[rockethorse]

Stocking Stuffer 1/5: A Bajillion Random Painting Recolours

Happy Holidays to all! While I'm proud that last year I finally managed to achieve a longtime goal of sharing a full TS2 Advent Calendar, I'm simply not gonna be able to pull it off this year. Nonetheless, the holidlay spirit has encouraged me to finish up and share a couple of things before the end of the year! I'll be sharing five little gifts over the next few arbitrary days. First up: A BUNCH of Maxis painting recolours.

One recolour each of A/B/C Stroke (yes, I still enjoy playing with these as three separate paintings) using vintage matchbook covers designed by Saul Bass for The Ohio Match Company.

Two recolours +frames for Abstrutionism; "Poppy Cake" by Adolf Fényes (1910), and then this edit of Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth (1948) to include Bella Goth (the original Tumblr poster has deactivated).

A recolour of Anonymous Masterpiece with these two digital paintings by user chestnutroan featuring their farmer Sim and his two alien daughters.

One recolour of the Arghist Soldier with "Friday Nights" by Deborah DeWit (2006), perfect for your novel-enthusiast Sims' reading nook.

One recolour of City Skyline with a fruit & veg painting by Twitter user snail_soup (you can buy a real print of this too if you like it!)

One recolour of the Fourth Element wall scroll with "From Stardust to Stardust - Raccoon" by user ArtOfMienda.

Four Vegetables recoloured with four deliciously juicy tomato paintings by artist Leah Gardner.

Geometry 101 recoloured with a beautiful palette knife painting by Lynn Boggess.

Two recolours of Grilled Cheese (you all know what Grilled Cheese looks like, c'mon); one vintage ad for Hollywood Diet bread which I cleaned/redrew to remove text/graphics, and then "Cloud Rows" by Ivan Eyre (2004).

In The Beginning (+frame) recoloured with "Little Thief" by Courtney / Trash Kitty Art (also available as an affordable IRL print).

Kitten vs. Yarn (+frame) recoloured with this goache painting by user ieafy.

"Until Tonight" by Mark Grantham (2019) slapped on Lady On Red.

Two recolours of Living Room; "Midwestern Summer Fun" by user ink-the-artist (you may wanna zoom in for a surprise), then "Girl On A Swing" (2000) by Andrew Macara.

One recolour of Marketing Print with the Beatles as drawn by other Beatles. I don't remember who drew who because I'm actually not much of a Beatles fan but I thought these sketches were really darling.

In Memory of Johnny Gnome (+frame) recoloured with a piece by Emma Roulette.

A recolour of My First Holiday with art from Twitter user heikala_art.

On Pointed Toes (+frame) recoloured with this digital painting by Twitter user catwheezie.

I fell in love with this Guinness ad so I tweaked it from the photo to fit on the Route 66 poster, then made an accompanying Simlish option.

A single Scruffles recolour (+frame) with this adorable cow illustration by Twitter user poodlewool.

Four recolours of the Sim Noir pop art print; three pieces by Al Parker I found through this Tweet (with some English removed) and then an edit of the original painting to look passingly familiar...

Two recolours (+frames) of Snoozing Enemies; "The Cat on the Pillow" by Adolf von Becker, and "Sleeping Sasha" by Lena Rivo.

Stiller Life (+frame) recoloured with this oil painting of McDonalds by artist Noah Verrier.

Two recolours (+frames) of Stumped Hound; "Shadow" by Tianyi Zhou and "cat falling off table" by user anasauruss.

The Muse recoloured with this Juxtapoz magazine cover by artist Josh Courlas.

And lastly, three recolours of Untitled (the Bella Goth pop art painting) with works by Hiroshi Nagai.

Download All Paintings @ SFS

[forabeatofadrum]

I'm having a Thought again, because yeah, I killed Google because of privacy reasons but maybe I should've killed it because of all the AI bullshit as well.

It's quite interesting that I did have the 2020 vision and knew that AI was going to become bigger in the 2020s, but I took it in a completely different direction. In Myosotis, due to the privacy stuff, personal AIs became a thing to ensure people's privacy and ownership, whereas in reality, AI loves stealing stuff and has become some sort of legal plagiarism machine.

You know, in the Myosotis universe, Google fucking dies because of privacy reasons and then users started abandoning Google Services en masse, but maybe I should've done it for marketing reasons because absolutely fucking no one likes YouTube's adblocker policy.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hello ☺️ first of all, I'd like to THANK you for all those ficrecs, thanks to them I've discovered many awesome stories!

I know it may be early for some,but do you happen to have a Christmas fic rec list? I am desperate for some bitter sweet Christmas stories 👀

Hey Lovely!!

NEVER too early! This is the perfect time to start is early December if you want a month of fuzzy feels!!!

Check out these lists of mine to please you!

Christmas Fics (Dec. 2017)

Christmas: Oblivious That One or The Other is In a Relationship

Christmas 2019 Part 1 (All Bookmarks XMas and New Years)

Christmas 2019 Part 2 (Marked for Later)

G / T / K+ Rated Christmas Fics (Dec. 2018) (Updated Dec 2021)

Community Recs: Christmas 2020 (Updated Dec 2021)

Christmas Trees / Decorating

Christmas-Time Love Confessions

Christmas & NYE 2023 Pt 1: Bookmarks & WIPs

Christmas 2023 Pt 2: Marked For Later

New Year’s Fics (Jan 2018)

New Year’s Fics (Jan 2023)

Hot and Cold Fics (June 2022)

And if anyone has a NEW fic this year that they or wrote or want to promote, please let us know!!!!

EDIT: AND just for shizz and giggs, here's some other people's lists I've reblogged in the past:

SilentAuror’s Fics 2019

Johnlock Comes A-Wassailing (Chriscalledmesweetie)

bluebell’s Sherlock Winter Holiday Bingo Contest 

apliddell’s Christmas fics

ineffable husbands Christmas fics (additions to my lists)

favourite johnlock christmas fics by starfleetholmes

Non-Christian Winter Holiday Fics

A J. Baillier Christmas Fic Package

A Very Johnlock Christmas by a-different-equation

Some Christmas Fics by discordantwords

Five Festive Fics Friday by 7-percent

calaisreno’s Christmas Fics 2021

Silent Auror’s Christmas Fics

Khorazir 2021

Calaisreno 2022

Berty’s Festive Fics 2022

helloliriels holiday list

thegildedbee 2023

Christmas Advent Pt 2 (swissmiss)

Mystrade Holiday Collection 2024

Enjoy!