#also i'm sick of googling shit about California

[walking-existential-crisis]

Might listen to the voices and write a Top Gun selkie AU because it's been plaguing my brain for several months

[seriously-mike]

Midha and Stoica are not the only ones who view AI regulation as existentially for the industry. Open-source AI has powered the most thriving Silicon Valley startup scene in years. Opponents of SB 1047 say the bill will benefit Big Tech’s closed-off incumbents instead of that thriving, open ecosystem.

From Gizmodo's article on new California bill designed (essentially in practice, let's cut the bullshit here) to give the major players like Microsoft, Google and Midjourney the monopoly on AI.

Because hey, I said it multiple times and I'll say it again: all the attempts at curbing AI development were dictated by either those who want to maintain the monopoly, like Microsoft by way of OpenAI, or those who want to jump on the AI bandwagon, cash out and kick everyone else off the bandwagon, like Manbaby McEmeraldmine.

I pointed out how full of shit the "miraculous" Nightshade is. It doesn't protect your art from the corporations by design - if it did, it would be SLAPPed into oblivion under flimsy pretenses like "unlawfully reverse-engineering proprietary software". Now we have a horde of Butlerian jihadists, egged on by self-proclaimed "AI experts" whose "expertise" ends on listening to sales pitch bullshit and reading decades-old science fiction novels, push an act to punish AI developers "for the potentially catastrophic dangers of their AI systems". I'm sorry, what "potentially catastrophic dangers" are we talking about in regard to tech that nobody trusts to do serious work? Are they expecting an explosion of fad diets involving rocks and Elmer's glue? Do they really think someone's gonna measure an important structure in kilotomatoes and uses a buffalo heart tomato as a reference instead of cherry tomato or the other way around? Are they preparing for airline chatbots stating it's okay to bring gallium, firearms or explosives onto an airplane?

"Potentially catastrophic dangers" is the usual term of "we have no idea how to grab you by the nuts and bring you to your knees, so we're making some new bullshit up". This can be compared to papal bulls against railroads or any homicidal bullshit the Khmer Rouge cooked up when left unattended. This is what the conservatives are making up in response to transgender people existing, and homosexual people existing in earlier decades, and women wearing trousers even earlier. Alarmist bullshit based on some sick fantasies, with no base in reality at all.

And who sponsors this bill? Oh boy.

Demis Hassabis (CEO, Google DeepMind)

Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI)

Bill Gates (Gates Ventures)

Kevin Scott (CTO, Microsoft)

That's just the beginning of the list. We will be fed a lot of corporate bullshit about how the billions of dollars the corporations have mean that every half-assed algorithm they push is perfectly safe, but basement-dwelling nerds who own nothing but a gaming PC and a box of Kleenex should be essentially forbidden from tinkering with open-source algorithms, because, uh, reasons. Like, cutting into a $250 million a year profits of a corporation.

But, the list doesn't end here. Who also signed the laughably brief and meaningless statement by, hahaha, "Center for AI Safety"?

Ya-Qin Zhang (Professor and Dean, AIR, Tsinghua University)

Yi Zeng (Professor and Director of Brain-inspired Cognitive AI Lab, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Xianyuan Zhan (Assistant Professor, Tsinghua University)

Albert Efimov (Chief of Research, Russian Association of Artificial Intelligence)

Alvin Wang Graylin (China President, HTC)

Jianyi Zhang (Professor, Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Institute)

Hongyi Zhang (Research Scientist, ByteDance)

Amazing, all of them not just outside of California, but also outside of the US and with a stake in AI research performed by US' direct economic competitors. This reminds me of the recent revelations about "Green" parties and movements in the EU, chiefly Germany, who received covert funding from Gazprom for fucking decades, all in the name of opposing clean nuclear energy and buying more and more Russian gas to be used for generating energy in the EU.

We're still not done, though. More names I'd like to point your attention to:

Vitalik Buterin (Founder and Chief Scientist, Ethereum, Ethereum Foundation)

Thuan Q. Pham (Former CTO, Uber, Board member, Nubank)

Josh Wolfe (Co-Founder & Managing Director, Lux Capital)

Miles Palmer (Founder, 8 Rivers Capital)

Crypto bros, bank board members, vulture capitalists, in one word: frauds. They want a return on their investment in the major corporations and can't afford any more shocking reveals that shitposts from Reddit are served as genuine advice and that corporate data models still contain shittons of copyrighted images from Disney et al. They also can't afford localized open-source models cutting into the corporate profit margins by virtue of barely working and still providing comparable results for less.

Don't get duped, folks. This bill is just another corporate-sponsored hit piece, and basted in alarmist bullshit three feet thick.

[wheredidthepeepeego-mp3]

LOOKING FOR A VERY INVOLVED BETA READER

Looking for a beta reader for:

Title: If We Never Make It Back to California: I Want You to Know I Love You (First of a series, unfinished)

Fandoms: Gravity Falls, Invader Zim, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (The second part involves The Owl House but the second part isn't public yet)

Other info: Before you ask, I don't have Discord.

Rated M, because I curse so frequently and there's some pretty involved angst and violence, but sexual material is kept to the absolute minimum because I'm NOT very comfortable with sexual content involving characters that are minors in canon. There's also very in-depth discussions of eating disorders, gender dysphoria, and slef-harm. Warnings include Graphic Depictions of Violence and Major Character Death.

The fic is intended for those who have seen Invader Zim in its entirety, and know important context from lost/deleted episodes. ETF and the comics, however, aren't really brought up in the fic. It will likely be confusing to those unfamiliar with Gravity Falls. You could possibly read and understand it if you haven't read JtHM or it's spinoffs, but it probably would hit a little harder if you're at least somewhat familiar with JtHM, Squee, and I Feel Sick. Lots of references to other cartoons.

Genrewise, I'd consider it a mix of just straight up fluff with angst. It has an underlying murder-without-much-mystery plot but it takes a backseat to some mundane, everyday things at times. It's a future-fic that I try to make somewhat trope-aware. It has a crossover ship (Dipper Pines x Dib Membrane) that very much started for Crack Purposes but at this point I'm extremely invested.

Summary (directly from AO3): "Featuring my horrid music taste, eighteen-year-old Dib Membrane drives across states to visit West Virginia, home of his future college. Professor Membrane doesn't approve, and complications arise after his mysterious and conveniently-timed death. But there's always a pair of paranormally-disadvantaged twins across the country for Dib to rely on. They always have their own problems, though, and the involvement of some of Dib's interesting extended family isn't helping his relationship with Dipper Pines- or maybe her relationship? Not even Dib knows. Either way, there are many possibly murderous road trips to be had, body insecurities to be unsuccessfully avoided, the occasional romantic drama for shits-and-giggles, and a coffee-shop side plot here and there.TL;DR: Dib and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Summer"

Common problems you may find: This is my first big fic and I'm not an experienced or "good" writer. I try to keep my spelling and grammar intact, though. I get ranty and occasionally stray out of character, though I try hard to keep it in character, because then what's the point of fanfic? I use crutch words like "smiled" and "sighed" a lot and I feel I may have pacing issues. I'm asking for a beta because I have no idea where these issues actually are, if I use them too much in certain parts, etc. I'm a panster and I tend to DUMP text on the page, accounting for the hefty word count I may need help knowing how to combine scenes or plot points. I also generally like knowing when I've accidentally done something rude, had a plot hole, or made a stupid/juvenile mistake. I also need new chapter names because I started the fic a long time ago, and chose exclusively lyrics from really cringey songs and haven't bothered changing just about anything. Plus I need to get some good foreshadowing in for part two.

Word Count/Update Info: Word count is 104,965 on AO3 but I will send you the link to my Google Doc, where it has the ongoing word count. You will see part two on the doc, but I am only concerned with part one for the time being. I update at least once a month, but sometimes two or three times. The fic is VERY close to finished and my projected word count for part one is 110,000.

What I'll do in exchange: My pretty exhaustive list of fandoms (both past and present) is: BoJack Horseman , Creepypasta , Daria , Doki Doki Literature Club , Five Nights at Freddy's , Gorillaz , Gravity Falls , Happy Tree Friends , Helluva Boss , Homestuck , Invader Zim , Johnny the Homicidal Maniac , Moral Orel , My Little Pony , Percy Jackson/Related R Riordan Books (it's been a while though) , Phineas and Ferb , Saw (Movies) , South Park , Team Fortress Two , The Amazing World of Gumball , The Owl House , Undertale and Deltarune. The only things I'm not comfy with are pornography specifically of real life people, pedophilia, incest, or underage. But otherwise that's alright. My max word count is 150k but other than that I will beta read anything in those fandoms.

Thank you!

[westiec]

June 17: Chengxian 💜🖤💕

childhood friends to lovers/QPPs, ace Jiang Cheng, bi & aro Wei Wuxian, modern AU

(A/N: If you're wondering about a certain other someone, he will have a wonderful, full life of his own in Suzhou in this AU but is not in this story. 💙 There are some brief mentions of offscreen ace-antagonism, not by anyone we know.)

Read on ao3

Jiang Cheng had been Wei Ying's best friend in the whole world for his entire life.

Okay. Well, not quite his entire life, but certainly since Wei Ying’s parents moved to California when he was little little, which was about as far back as Wei Ying could remember anyway. Wei Ying’s baba and Jiang Cheng’s baba had grown up in Wuhan together and been best friends when they were kids, so naturally, when Wei Ying’s family moved into the same neighborhood as the Jiangs, it made perfect sense for Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng to become best friends too.

It was Jiang Cheng who had taught Wei Ying that he didn't have to be afraid of dogs, by introducing him to Princess, Jasmine, and Lil' Love. Lil' Love lived up to her name, coming and quietly sitting in all her fluffy glory on Wei Ying’s lap every time he went over to play.

It was also Jiang Cheng who Wei Ying got drunk with for the first time. They snuck booze from the cabinet where Wei Ying’s parents kept it and laughed at the faces each other made with every shot until they stopped tasting the harsh burn, and then laughing more just because.

(Wei Ying’s mom had not laughed, not at the time, when the two teens had been sick as anything the next morning, but instead made them a gloriously greasy late breakfast and gave them lots of advice about proper hydration.

Then she told Jiang Cheng’s mom and let her scold them.)

It was Jiang Cheng who came out first, their first semester in college, when he told Wei Ying he didn't think he wanted to have sex with anyone, ever, and asked if Wei Ying thought that meant no one would ever want to date him. Wei Ying hugged him tight and told him he didn't know about everyone out there, but he knew Jiang Cheng was the best guy in the world and would be an awesome boyfriend, and he'd fight anyone who said differently.

Jiang Cheng found a group on campus for third culture LBGT kids, and Wei Ying went with him, as a supportive ally.

Which was how Wei Ying figured out that he was not just a supportive ally.

In listening to the others talk about orientation and identity and attraction and cultural expectations, Wei Ying realized that what he'd always assumed was normal—finding all kinds of people physically attractive, regardless of their gender—was actually his bisexuality. So that was kind of cool.

"So yeah, now we can be queer together!" Wei Ying said, when he excitedly shared his newfound realization with Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng snorted. "Yeah, 'all' and 'nothing,'" he joked.

It was Jiang Cheng who'd helped him practice what to say to his parents when he wanted to change his major at the end of sophomore year, and Jiang Cheng who reminded him to eat and sleep and "take a fucking break, Wei Ying," those next couple semesters when he took way too many hours so he wouldn't have to rack up a whole extra year's worth of student loans to finish his new degree plan.

It was Jiang Cheng who graduated first, on a gorgeous blue-skyed sunny day in May, and Jiang Cheng who suggested Wei Ying keep living with him at his new apartment, so he wouldn't have to try to find a one-semester lease until he finished in December.

(They renewed the lease together every time.)

Jiang Cheng ribbed him playfully each time Wei Ying met someone new, but he was always there each times things fizzled out after a few months for reasons that never quite made sense to Wei Ying.

Jiang Cheng occasionally dated too, and Wei Ying was glad he never did have to fight anybody—though he did drive Jiang Cheng to the emergency room the time he came home with split knuckles from punching a guy who, "seemed to think I didn't know my own mind about certain things."

But dating sucked for everybody, right? It wasn't like Wei Ying or Jiang Cheng were in any hurry to settle down and do the whole spouse and kids thing or whatever. Wei Ying tried to imagine it and just... couldn't, though the image of Jiang Cheng with a baby was admittedly pretty cute.

~

It was not Jiang Cheng, but Jiang Yanli, a few months after she proposed to her girlfriend and they started planning their wedding, who Wei Ying finally asked, "Yanli-jie, how does a person decide someone else is their person?"

Jiang Yanli looked across the room to where Jiang Cheng was showing her soon-to-be-wife how to put side spin on a billiards ball and smiled. "I think you just know," she said. "You meet someone and you get to know them, spend time together, then one day you realize you love them and want to build the rest of your life with them."

Wei Ying wrinkled his nose. "I dunno if it works that way for me. Just some random person? I've never met anyone I can imagine wanting to live with all the time. Well, besides—huh..." he cut off suddenly and darted a look over at Jiang Yanli, who just calmly sipped her drink.

"Have you ever told him that?" she asked, after a moment where Wei Ying reassessed his entire life and dating history. "I think he might appreciate hearing it."

"I... huh. Yanli-jie, you're kinda blowing my mind here," he complained.

"I gathered," she said wryly, before fixing him with a smile that made all the hair on the back of his neck stand up. "Of course, I trust," she told him, "that I do not need to explain to you of all people how very dearly I hold my didi's happiness and well-being."

He swallowed and raised three fingers in the salute he'd used ever since the summer that—hah—he and Jiang Cheng had decided as kids that they would make their own oath of brotherhood like the heroes of their favorite show. "I, Wei Ying, swear to you that I would kick my own ass before I did anything to hurt him."

Jiang Yanli leaned over to knock her shoulder against his and nodded. "That's what I thought."

~

Turned out, dating Jiang Cheng didn't suck at all.

It felt easy in a way Wei Ying’s past dates never had, less like trying to keep up with a game whose rules everybody knew except him, more like... well, like spending time with his best friend in the whole world, but on purpose. There was also a tension in the back of Wei Ying’s mind that seemed to have lifted, though he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was that had gone.

It was Jiang Cheng who helped him figure it out.

"I think it's that now I'm able to count on this. On us," he said, when Wei Ying brought it up. "Before, whenever you went out with someone new, I wondered if this would be the time you'd find someone to fall in love with and leave me behind."

"Aww, Chengcheng! I would never!"

Jiang Cheng huffed and rolled his eyes, but his cheeks were pink. "Well, I know that now," he said, a pleased little smile breaking through his attempts at a scowl.

"As long as you're sure—" Wei Ying began, still getting used to thinking about himself with the word "aromantic." Still a so very sure that Jiang Cheng deserved to be fallen in love with.

"Hey!" Jiang Cheng cut him off. "None of that. I know you. And I know you don't see it this way, but I personally think it's pretty damn romantic that you choose to love me, on purpose."

"I simply have exquisite taste in life partners," Wei Ying sniffed, embarassed the way he always got when Jiang Cheng declared something he'd done "romantic."

"You do," Jiang Cheng agreed. "Someone told me a long time ago I was the best guy in the world and would make an awesome boyfriend, and that he would fight anyone who said differently."

Wei Ying laughed. "That's you and your sister I've promised to kick my own ass if I ever break your heart, then. Guess I'll just have to keep you forever."

"Damn right, you will," Jiang Cheng agreed, grinning smug and happy and breathtakingly beautiful. Wei Ying leaned across the couch to give him a sweet, closed-mouth kiss—the kind Jiang Cheng had shyly admitted he actually did like, a lot—and smiled too, at how lucky he'd gotten to be with his best friend in the whole world for his entire life.

🖤💜

Today's (extremely long!) thread was inspired by this WONDERFUL art of ace Jiang Cheng and bi & aro Wei Ying! Go give Midori some love on Twitter!

I spent a nonzero amount of time googling to double check when various terms and flags came into vogue, so if you're wondering, WWX & JC were in college in the early 2000s, before the ace and aro flags were designed. By the time they get themselves figured out, they can get their cute wristbands.

...which, yes, means these dingdongs spent about a solid decade living together before realizing that was what they wanted to do forever. 😉

This also means Jiang Yanli and her unnamed wife here are getting married between when California started recognizing same-sex marriages in 2008 and the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling in 2015! THIS SHIT'S RECENT!!!

Happy Pride, thank you for reading, check out more LGBTQIA+ sweetness on my #PrideMonthSnippets Masterpost!

[clumsyclifford]

okay i have things to say about blink:

boxing day was not convinced the first time i listened to it but i love it now? i like that it's not as loud as some others like it's just slightly calmer

heaven loooooooove this. the lyrics are so good? adore it so much

on some emo shit oh yes. this one. vibe with it so much. have had it stuck in my head for like a week now. excellent drumming i think. also love songs that feature specific parts of cities

after midnight excellent lyrics. but music-wise not my fav but like it's still great though

home is such a lonely place soooo niice. adore it. "i love the lightning but hate the rain" good shit. i just noticed i like a lot of songs of california so i should listen to that album completely too..

she's out of her mind i love this one so much i can't even say. both "she's antisocial" and "babe i'm sorry but i'm crazy tonight" are very relatable statements

feeling this again really nice drumming and i like the lyrics but not exactly my cup of tea (though give it like 2 weeks and i'll love it probably)

black rain lyrics are so great and i love the build up to the chorus. also i have to google the drummer (i know literally nothing about blink except that mark hoppus is in it don't judge please)

pin the grenade i adore this one so much. 'if you're gonna kill me baby please just do it slow' i love that lyric sooooo much love the entire song an unhealthy amout probably

roller coaster sooo good. damn i don't even know why i didn't listen to blink sooner this is all so good. my fav lyric here is "i had that dream about you again where you drive my car right off a fucking cliff" idk why. love it

i really wish i hated you okay so i knew this one already but like !!!! love it so much. i'm repeating myself but lyrical content? 10/10. though i have listened to that song too often in the last 3 months so i'm a little sick of it

hungover you such a great song too i love the whole hungover/alcohol theme in the lyrics so much? that sounds weird but i hope you know what i mean 😅

darkside love the pace of this and the drumming is so good again? lyrics are also top tier again.

okay this is a long message that is actually just supposed to say that i'm now very much in love with blink-182 (and their drummer especially whom i still have to google) and am very grateful for your amazing recs 🙈 -fiancee

god fiancee it’s so sexy of you to actually LIKE almost every single song !!!!!! also i have to say of all songs to not love, feeling this is a heartbreaking choice, BUT i will get over it. though i do hope it grows on you because i fucking love that song.

and the DRUMSSSSSSSS i know i FUCKING love blink drums. the drummer’s called travis barker yes he is a king <3 that is literally all i know about him but once again i bet heath would have more information

extremely good takes overall fiancee and as usual i adore hearing your thoughts on my various recs so this was wonderful to read i love you!!!!! very much