#and the tools that I have developed to communicate happen to involve the use of extremely accurate language to avoid any misunderstandings

[vampirebeverage]

That thing that people do when they hate that you use "big words"¹ because it makes them feel small, fragile, and insignificant, so they decide that you're doing it on purpose to make them feel that way rather than accept their own feelings of insecurity?

Bane of my autistic existence.

People have been doing that to me since I was a child. Adults did that to me when I was a child.

The sad part is that I don't consider myself to be of exceptional intelligence. I might be very slightly above the mean, I suppose? I know what actual intelligence looks like, and the people I consider to be exceptionally intelligent are like... particle physicists and rocket scientists.

If someone is made to feel insecure by ME of all people? Bit sad. I don't even work at CERN, bro. I'm not that clever. If I'm your idea of a smart person, that tells me how many actual smart people you have encountered (few).

¹ - These are just normal words like "incongruous" or "antithetical" that you can usually glean the meaning of from context clues, unless you have an immediate emotional reaction to seeing a word you don't know which causes you to become enraged for some fuckin' reason... idk man.

[kunaigirl]

Happy Disability Pride and awareness month! Let's talk about Epilepsy!

Hi there! I got tired of seeing my condition (that impacts my literal every day life) being left out or forgotten about during discussions about disabilities, so I made my own post about it! Let's go!

First Off! What the heck is epilepsy? Epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder in the world, and it's a chronic medical condition. Epilepsy is a brain disorder that causes recurring, frequent, triggered, and unprovoked seizures to occur.

The official Epilepsy Foundation describes seizures as follows: "Seizures are sudden surges of abnormal and excessive electrical activity in your brain, and can affect how you appear or act. Where and how the seizure presents itself can have profound effects...Seizures involve sudden, temporary, bursts of electrical activity in the brain that change or disrupt the way messages are sent between brain cells. These electrical bursts can cause involuntary changes in body movement or function, sensation, behavior or awareness." (Source link)

Sounds like a lot of fun right? This is our life. Even with medication, we can be VERY limited to what can be safe for us. Seizure medications are NOT a cure, they only exist (at least as of now) as a tool to help have your seizures less often, or be triggered less intensely. Even on medication, seizures can still happen.

If you have epilepsy as a child like I did, it impacts your entire growing and developing experience. I spent MANY times as a child in and out of hospitals, neurologist and specialist offices, an getting so many EEG tests done. The pain of scrubbing the glue out of your hair for DAYS is horrible.

At a young age my seizures were so frequent and serious, it impacted my brain's ability to retain information. I had to re-learn the names of things at age 8 and 9. I had to re-learn HOW TO READ at age 10. I had to be home schooled because the public school system of my state at the time refused to work with me. I have VERY distinct and vivid memories of crying over my little baby ABC's book that I needed as a 4th and 5th grader. I knew I should've known this by this age. I knew that at one point I already did, and it was TAKEN FROM ME.

As an adult, I'M NOT ALLOWED TO DRIVE A CAR. And I can NEVER go to see a movie in theaters or go to see concerts or live music. There are entire TV shows I don't get to see. I can't go to clubs, arcades, dances, or raves. I miss out on A LOT of fun things. I always do, and I'm WELL AWARE of the fun I'm missing out on. The social, casual, and fun life experiences I'll never get to have. That WE'LL never get to have. And oh yeah! Seizures can KILL SOME OF US. Yep.

And the list goes on, and every person with epilepsy experiences it differently. There are multiple different types of seizures you can have, they're NOT always convulsing on the floor. For example, I have complex-partial-myoclonic-seizures. Meaning my muscles DO twitch when I have seizures, but I'm not always completely unconscious and sometimes I'm even able to stay sitting up. However, I'm still very "off" and can't focus or remember much for a good while after the fact. I can't talk or communicate during one, even with my slight bit of consciousness.

My experiences are not universal, I just wanted to talk about it and bring it up. It helps to talk about it even a little bit. Here's more about different kinds of seizures. Here's more about common seizure triggers. Here's more about CORRECT seizure first aid. And here's more general information/resources.

Please stop leaving us out of disability awareness. Please stop ignoring us or saying we're "not really disabled" or anything else like that. Please. Why does it always feel like the only people who care about epilepsy, are people WITH epilepsy? We're so tired of being ignored by others who don't have our condition.

If you're an epileptic person reading this, I see you. I love you. You're so strong, we all are. I believe in you, I believe in us. We're so much stronger than we get credit for, and it's going to be ok. Your anger and frustration are valid. Your emotions and struggles are real. You're valid, and I see you. Hang in there, we got this.

[askagamedev]

From past responses you clearly have some experience with the console cert process. I was wondering: why do so few games offer cross platform play? Does the cert process become disproportionately more difficult when communicating to other systems becomes involved? Or is it just a difficult feature from a purely engineering pov? Thank you!

There are two major groups of hurdles to crossplay - technical and political. Both of these issues were primarily ironed out by Epic in late 2018, and then they opened up the doors for everybody else by releasing their set of crossplay tools and tech to the public for free.

On the technical side, the various walled garden networks - PSN, XBL, Nintendo Online - each have their own set of protocols, ports, technology, etc. They do not talk to each other or transfer information in the same way. There's a good reason for this - they weren't built by the same people or using the same technology, so their internal workings are all different. In order to solve this, the any third party developer needs to build a system that can take data from any supported service and translate it in real time so all players on other platforms understand what's happening in the game. This requires a fairly hefty engineering effort.

On the political side, console platform networks are walled gardens that generate a lot of revenue for the platforms. Every sale within that walled garden typically earns the platform owner a 30% cut. This is why they can afford to sell game consoles at a loss, they hope to make it back from their users. Allowing other players on other platforms to play with their users takes away from their exclusivity. This attitude permeates their certification rules, which are then enforced on all third party developers. Even now that crossplay is allowed, there are a lot of rules in place about things like communication between platforms (e.g. Rocket League was not allowed to let Playstation players communicate with PC players because of potential content ratings).

In 2018, Epic pushed to allow crossplay for their lifestyle game juggernaut Fortnite. Microsoft had already been dabbling in that arena by allowing Xbox to play with PC players (since most players ran on Windows anyway, so they were both Microsoft platforms), but Sony refused. Epic smoothed this over by paying Sony a significant sum of money to 'make up for lost revenue' and developing their own tools and technology to handle the technical issues of allowing crossplay. Sony begrudgingly agreed, so Fortnite went crossplay. Then, in typical fashion, Epic released their entire suite of crossplay tools to the public for free. Games like Dauntless and Rocket League soon followed to crossplay, and by 2019 Sony had changed their stance to accept crossplay.

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[weirdmageddon]

ok. let's finally talk about this thing i've been wanting to go public with for ages

so i am not a fan of needing THC to help me curb the embarrassment i have in being happy talking about my real realll special interests, because perceived rejection of my interests feels like rejection of myself since i put so much of myself (my time) into them. i anticipate rejection from others because the stuff i find myself occupied with is detached, abstract, highly technical, or niche, and i'm aware of the surrounding cultural assumptions. some of them, and the level at which i am in involved in understanding them, are really specialized or esoteric, so even opening up about them is like "fuuuck im gonna be made fun of or it’s gonna be too technical that they zone out and dont understand why this is so meaningful to me" ive even posted about that feeling before.

see if i start accumulating too much self-context made in my own mind without sharing it i start to feel more and more isolated from other people around me, that they’re not seeing the full extent of what im seeing myself. i don’t share it, because i fear rejection or superficial judgments in other people’s eyes (probably because it’s happened to me and i’ve seen it happen to others). but at the same time it has to be shared with more people around me or else i feel like i have an intestinal blockage in my mind. what happens is my mental colon explodes from all the shit accumulated over time and vou get a post like this. i’m sorry for that mental image btw. anyway back the point of this post

anything where i can systematize archetypes in real, everyday situations has always been my strong suit. so when people ask me my hobbies im like ... uhhh what am i supposed to say? i analyze stuff about the world and rotate it in my mind. when carl jung wrote there are “as many archetypes as there are typical situations in life” i know exactly what he was talking about.

i’ve been toeing the line to really talk about this thing for two years, so let me tell you about socionics. if you already know what im talking about i love you. if you don’t (or even if you do, keep reading there’s probably stuff you don’t know in here), it is part abstract cybernetic model, part jungian concepts, part philosophy of information exchange. it classifies how people communicate and exchange information. it was created in eastern europe in the late 70s, developed primarily in the 80s-90s by other authors and it’s been an endlessly fascinating, elegant, and reliable tool for me.

usually people dismiss personality typology systems because the mbti became so watered down and pop-culturally saturated that people seemed to collectively take a stance of not taking anyone that genuinely cares about it seriously, or at least that’s the impression i got.

(btw — i need to go on this brief rant — i will never forgive 16personalities for being the big five rebranded and people thinking it's mbti. 16personalities gives you your big five type. they explicitly state on their website that they don’t borrow any concepts from jung. -A and -T don’t exist in the mbti and correspond directly to low and high neuroticism respectively. i figured out myself they mapped each letter dichotomy to the other four measures on the big five: extraversion (I/E), conscientiousness (P/J), agreeableness (T/F), openness to experience (S/N). which is stupid and it’s false advertising. take 16p and a big five test see for yourself how they match up. your personal mbti type can be different from its correlated big five type. the actual mbti using jungian concepts as a base is alright though. oh, and the best neo-jungian mbti stuff is by far michael pierce’d takes on it. if you actually fw that heres a carrd i created a few years ago about the cognitive function axes.)

but i always end up going to the bottom of the iceberg in anything i get really into, and i basically integrate it into my own understanding of the world around me for a while. maybe it was because i had a bad experience genuinely talking about it a few years ago from some people who made superficial judgments about it that made me sort of quiet about my interest in typology systems. i assume it’s because myers and briggs used the tool towards racist ends; it acquired negative connotations, bullshit intuition supremacy, and left the study of psychological types tainted in the united states. even if the individual’s study of the system is neutral, unbiased, out of pure curiosity as a way to classify and relate different personality structures to each other, as was the case with me. in addition to 16personalities being an invalid “mbti” test that bought their way to the front page of google, and rampant superficial information at all levels of study, finding anyone who was into it like me was basically impossible. the reason i have a preferred interpretation of jungian + mbti concepts is because i’ve tried different ones on and sensed how well they conform to reality as a way of describing phenomenon, ditching old ones that werent as clear. michael pierce’s i’ve found are the closest to what i sense jung's intentions were. (actually quite likely this is something i would attribute to being because all three of us are types LIl (and also all infj too, how about that?) brain-to-brain communication LII (carl jung) to LII (michael pierce) to LII (me)). so i felt like michael pierce kept the things that worked in real life and ditched the things that didn’t, leaving behind his elegant integration of the concepts.

anyway, i was under the assumption that anything that could be mistaken for it—which socionics often is at a glance—would be dismissed out of hand, even though it’s entirely different. plus, there’s all the context i’d need to clarify about how “it’s different from the “fun” unserious pop-psych mbti and also absurdly more technical” and what's the point in doing that if they don't respect you enough to hear you out anyway? so it just made me closed off.

they share a common ancestor though. the concepts are still based on carl jung’s book ‘psychological types’ which is why there is some shallow overlap, but the scope, structure, and application of it is different. i feel like this system is a lot more “living” and relevant to real interactions and communication between people in our everyday lives. i am always seeing specific examples of these concepts in play in real life and in characters depicted in media. it’s also been more empirically studied and successfully implemented over in eastern europe, and has gone under constant development and contribution. while since the 50s, mbti had crystalized and become stagnant with diverging interpretations to the point where it’s become basically meaningless to try to talk about because nobody can agree on concepts or semantics; there are virtually no distinctions between “schools” or “models” to differentiate interpretations — (although i have my preference for what i think are the most meaningful and reasonable one; as i said, that goes to michael pierce.) eastern (not so much western) socionics is incredibly more well put-together than mbti or kiersey for squeezing the potential from jung’s original ideas, and goes much deeper. that said, i will ALWAYS advise self-studying typlogy concepts over taking a test. the algorithm of a test can never possibly know you and your individual biases in interpreting the meaning of the words better than the knowledge you just have about yourself. if you learn the theory underlying it you will actually learn about yourself and others and it will actually mean something to you instead of a being an empty decoration for your profile.

here is a comparison chart i translated into english so you can get some idea of where these systems actually differ.

Букалов, А. (2019). On the advantages of socionics over other post-Jungian typologies. Socionics, Mentology and Personality Psychology, (6), 5–7. Retrieved from https://publishing.socionic.info/index.php/socionics/article/view/2603

for me it’s been super insightful applied to real life. it is like a toolkit for interpreting why some people just rub me the wrong way and our communication feels disjointed. or why some people pass my vibe check to enter my personal inner circle and i feel like talking with them is easier and not an uphill battle. who i feel drawn to and want to get to know better. to deconstruct why i and other people interpret information in the world the way they do, and how that explains the kind of people i end up curating in my life. it has put into words the concepts i haven’t been able to find the words for beforehand, and thus enables me to retrospectively pinpoint exactly what unconsciously makes people feel more at ease or why communication is just easier with some and why it’s harder with others, regardless of any other factors. there are other factors of course, that are the result of unique circumstances—nurture, culture, and upbringing—and i of course account for those, it’s not as pertinent to me as the framework that provides the skeletal structure regardless of those individual variations that are simply already a given for me. that was actually the whole point of its creation.

the system gives me a common language to communicate these ideas with, at least to the few people i talk to who have learned it, but i can adapt the concepts in how they relate to specific circumstances and convey it to a lay audience. i’ve been doing just that to explain why, of the people who have been made aware of the hs rarepair john-aradia, i have seen no one object to it, and instead, everyone i saw found it intriguing the more they thought about it, even when they initally thought was “so random”. and i realized, “hey wait! i know how to explain that!”, but that's in another post i've been working on.

[i was actually originally writing this post in the middle of said aradia and john analysis but i felt like there was way too much i wanted to talk about as its own thing. i figured people are going to be reading that post for john-aradia explanation, not public updates about my mind. i just didn’t want to rewrite this to account for the context because the point i made was still relevant]:

but now i’m thinking okay… i’m talking to a bunch of homestucks. why am i prostrating myself here? why am i so defensive? they’re probably creaming their pants at the idea of another symmetrically divisible system of classification to get their hands on. homestuck itself is founded upon a bunch of ideas with symmetrical divisions and classifications (divisible products of 2). aspect dichotomies, quadrants, cards, black-white, yin/yang and literally countless other abstract systems. if there is a common word to refer to these sorts of things, please let me know.

but in socionics terms, all of this sort of stuff i’m refering to would be within the domain of extraverted/black intuition (Ne) information, and classifying or positioning someone within those frameworks would be introverted/white logic (Ti). you can read more about these “elements” here. homestuck has familiarized you with notionally irreducible aspects present in everything, dual yin/yang forces permeating everything, so if you understand all of the sorts of abstract classification systems in homestuck you’re basically already 75% the way to fundamentally grasping model A socionics. it is way more structured and stable than the typologies in homestuck though. but you will perceive there to be similarities in the need for archetypal/thematic sense skills.

if you want to learn socionics, for the love of god start here. there are many weak places out there to start out with that will set you up with a faulty and loose understanding, but school of classic socionics is the best foundation to start with. i saw it emerge from the beginning when it was founded, having been part of it since late 2022.

this is an introduction to SCS, what makes it special, and and how differs from other socionics schools. i find SCS to be the most comprehensive, and i’m active within a side discord to discuss theoretical constructs related to model A. i’ve helped find the links between some concepts in model A that weren’t fully substantiated in augusta’s original works, specifically the importance of the asking/declaring reinin dichotomy, how it fits with regard to the rest of model A’s structure, how it underpins the ring of social benefit (which was missing from her writing), and how it can be used as an information element charge just like positivist/negativist can (i.e. all process types have positive asking Ne (+Ne? and all result types have negative declaring Ne (-Ne!). i’m still working on transfering my essay on that to a document.)

i know the intricacies of this system like the back of my hand but yeah i never post much about it because it’s so niche and i dont know who would even want to hear it besides people who i already know would, like in that small specialist group, but they actually been quiet lately even though i’m still active in there sharing things i realized. and i even feel alienated in most casual socionics discussion groups, especially larger ones. i need people who can match my freak about it.

because i have nowhere else to talk about it i’m starting to feel guilty yapping my friends’ ears off about it when i deconstruct everything i come across in light of this system like i’m being annoying about it. but at the same time when im doing that i am constantly reinforcing the merit of the system in successfully finding some dynamic i see in the drama of real life in connection to some idea from the model. i can immediately lock on to the core principles that are at play in any situation, validating the patterns that have been observed by others. by what measure do these people / characters / groups relate to each other, how do we define the specific “feeling” of the energy between them together? i could do a socionical analysis for anything that captures my interest.

it’s also been incredible for self-insight. i can now accurately explain my thought process.

i can change my perspective of the scope of my thinking on different levels. depending on the urgency of a situation developing around me and my respect for other people’s time, i can expand my reasoning from splitting hairs at the smallest pedantic specifics—although i prefer not to, to the most holistic global hard binary 0/1 (no/yes) judgment.

it’s fractal-like; once i know how to classify and compare the features of something to another, everything else with overlapping logical relationships instantly rises up in the same way, which of course is what leads to me having insights that reinforce the potential inherent in the things around me, because my way of thinking is isomorphic. i also experience strong animated mental imagery accompanying my conscious thoughts about these systems, minimalist shapes or lines of the barebones motion happening. i feel like my mental activity and what i actually write down is trying to capture what im seeing in my head.

i prefer to be brief, but that requires sharing contexts with someone. once i've established similar ways of talking about the same thing with someone so that we’re on the same page, our messages basically become exchanging code words with each other. all of the potential densely packed into these efficient little terms.

the effect is that i am reducing the amount of time and energy i have to spend trying to explain things to someone. i just want to communicate easily and be understood by the people i talk to so that i can enjoy my time with them. this is why i felt like such a long, clarifying, in-depth post was necessary, which would rip the bandaid off and pull it all up at once, instead of on a private, individual-to-individual level. i had to have it engraved somewhere i could just point someone to instead of repeatedly having to explain the same thing over and over cause that’s a waste of time and energy.

in fact, that revelation i had about myself just now can be explained by model A too! my own type is LIl and this type’s id block houses the information elements +Te! → +Ni?, which aushra describes as “The quality of deeds and actions and the efficient expenditure of energy in work—only performing for what is truly necessary—leads to peace of mind in the future.”

or, for example, coming at it from another angle, here is an older post i made before i was even aware of socionics. i was already talking about my experiences, patterns of thinking and self-awareness in a way that was so on the nose for a socionics analysis.

is that not the clearest example of phase 2’s sensitivity (for me it is information about sensorics)? -Fi? → -Se! superego block, anyone? and did you see how much i gave attention to the time i spend working; +Te! -> +Ni? id block? [information element descriptions here]. you could also derive the progression of the information metabolism stages in my own psyche (phase 1: Ethics -> phase 2: Sensorics -> phase 3: Logic -> phase 4: Intuition).

(from The Characteristic of SLI)

so through socionics it’s like i can find an explanation for just about everything i observe in others and myself just because i’ve extrapolated the logical relationships from that system and can isomorphically apply them to anything.

and i don't say that lightly! i'm not saying anything in this post lightly. like i have a degree in biopsychology from an honors college (ncf; yes, the liberal arts college desantis got his soulless hands on because it was “too woke"). having taken courses in statistics, research methods in psychology, and others, i know all about proper research design (and designing them myself). and of course i ended my four years there with my undergrad thesis, examining temporoparietal synchrony in autistic individuals when working alone and together, where for months on end i was doing nothing but reading and interpreting the validity of research papers. i even deconstructed poorly designed psychological constructs commonly used in autistic research in mine.

i also took personality psychology as a course during my time there. i got a birds eye view of most of the popular paradigms and still felt like i was more knowledgeable in the discourse behind some of the topics we glossed over since the course material was more of a broad comprehensive thing than an in-depth one for anything specific. in totality, all of the models i read about in relation to each other seemed so fragmented into different cuts and perspectives in trying to understand and find the patterns in people’s mental life. and yet none of the models i read about hold as as great of an everyday explanatory power as socionics does for explaining ways of thinking, people's proneness to certain tendencies, and the energetic tension that happens between certain people.

people can say otherwise that it’s pseudoscience. even though there are numerous studies built on real-world observations, the large-scale statistical data like from victor talanov. there's school of system socionics who emphasize its practice. it would be impossible to add all the evidence i can to support my claims to this post but you can see for youself - there are still countless new articles being published from different authors. regardless of that, even if it isn't accepted within the rigors of “scientific canon” i really dont give a fuck since it absolutely does indeed have explanatory and predictive power, and that’s all i care about. i’m confident in this not only through firsthand experience, the ability to frame what i know to be true about the real world within it and have it successfully describe those things, as well as talking to other people about my observations.

additionally, i see people make conclusions about interpersonal dynamics where they unknowingly repeat information that can be derived from socionics concepts.

something i noticed a LOT and ive repeatedly thought about and come to the same conclusion multiple times is that i think i naturally might "embody" the most optimal ways of interacting with other people for myself. it gives me insight into the nature of the personal relationships that i already procure in my life, but it’s not really a self-fulfilling prophecy because i dont use socionics to prescribe who i "should" be friends with. that's silly. thats a silly thing to do because people do have idiosyncracies that don't perfectly align with a system if you rigidly adhere to it, so you're bound to be set up for failure if you try to force that and you will be disappointed. it's better to let these feelings happen naturally without pretense, because that's where the observations that fuel my insight comes from.

i have a subconscious sense for who i will be able to get along with in the long term almost instantly without the need for any kind of system, just based on their actual mannerisms and “vibes”, but that alone is not good enough for me, i want to know why. socionics just gives me tools to figure out why so that i know what im dealing with and its not just ineffable energies, but i can put a name to those energies to think and talk about it and compare and discover patterns in what ive curated in my inner circle over my life, what i feel drawn towards. and indeed i do find plentiful amounts of recurring patterns. the simplification and abstraction is not to destroy the soul and expression of individuals but to wrap my head around them and understand them deeper in relation to everything else, including myself.

i am aware it can be confusing for many people which turns them away. but if theres any questions you have or youre confused about any concepts i can answer them

but yeah um, i’ve really only scratched the surface of this cognitive cybernetic tool. if you are genuinely interested in what i have to say and want me to talk more about it please openly tell me since i’m not a mind reader! i assume disinterest by default.

anyway if you got to this point thanks for reading. i wanted to just put it out there for context about any posts i make in the future. just stating my honest thoughts and whats been occupying my mind for the past two years.

be on the lookout for the john and aradia analysis soon where i’ll use it in practice to deconstruct some things about those characters. and if you’re coming to this post from that analysis after ive posted it, i’m sorry this post is so long in the middle of an already long-ish post. i just thought the context was important.

[ineffable-endearments]

Crowley and His Plants in Season 2

I've got this complicated post about Aziraphale and the bookshop brewing, but I want to give Crowley and his plants their own post.

It's really important that Crowley hung onto his plants for juicy characterization and symbolic and thematic reasons. It's a major character development portrayed with relative subtlety, an excellent example of Showing, Not Telling, and I think it's a thrilling sign for Crowley's character development.

Before having a chance to think about it, I thought keeping the plants in his car was a funny and odd - but sweet - detail to include. In fact, it was so sweet that it was one of those "felt like fanfic" things!

In Season 1, and in the novel, the plants were very much there for trauma reenactment, for Crowley to vent his hurt and fear and anger and betrayal onto. In a sense, they seemed to be Crowley's way of roleplaying with himself, if we assume they were only sentient because Crowley thought of them that way. Through the dynamic of yelling at his plants, which he assumed could understand him, Crowley could emotionally act out both the terrified, powerless plant (subconsciously) and the big scary entity threatening it with destruction (consciously).

If we take everything at face value, we can also guess that Crowley disposed of plants that he no longer liked because of their imperfections, which would seem to imply he didn't have much of an attachment to them. Where they went doesn't matter that much to this particular line of theorizing. He could have given them to his elderly neighbor, he could have plunked them in a community garden, he could have left them on a doorstep, he could have shredded them in the garbage disposal. In any case, they were gone from his kingdom.

And after Season 1, I wondered if he would care to keep the plants if he wasn't using them to act out trauma anymore.

But in Season 2, the plants are in fact the ONLY thing from the flat that Crowley has hung onto as he moved into his car. Sure, it's possible that he has other possessions squirreled away somewhere and he just carries the plants around because they need sunlight, but most of the other possessions go unmentioned, so we have to guess that the plants are specifically important. They're also important enough to follow him into the bookshop and back to the car instead of just staying in the car for the trip to Edinburgh.

We also don't see a single instance of Crowley berating the plants in Season 2, but they do still express his emotions somewhat (shaking when he's afraid). He still has whatever subconscious connection to them he was experiencing before. Notably, there's at least one scene where a brown spot is visible on a plant, so whatever Crowley's doing, he's not getting rid of the plants like he used to.

This seems like an obvious example of Crowley's attachment to Earth condensed into a handy symbol. Crowley has started to admit to himself that he cares about these helpless living things, that he just likes them for their own sake. They're not a sign of a job well done for Hell. They're not a memory of Aziraphale. They're not a tool to make life easier or numb the pain. They're just Life On Earth and Crowley likes to have them.

Crowley has gone from using his plants as a tool for trauma reenactment to holding onto his plants because he has a genuine attachment to them. And, for a character whose arc I believe is going to involve forming more outward connections to others, that's a big deal.

Crowley's still got a ways to go. He's carrying these plants around, but the Bentley can't be an ideal environment for them. The whole process of driving them around, not to mention bringing them in and out of the bookshop, has to be kind of awkward for Crowley, too. It's very reminiscent of a character whose attachment to Earth is ambivalent, but who is moving in the right direction.

I wonder what'll happen next. His progress could be relatively linear, wherein he just goes off and forms more connections to humans on Earth after Aziraphale goes back to Heaven.

My suspicion, though, is that he will return to Hell with the specific goal in mind of thwarting the Second Coming and possibly trying to bring the entire system crashing down. In this way, Crowley experiences a massive setback in his position (he wants to be on Earth, not in Hell!) but is actually demonstrating a redoubled dedication to Earth and humans, so what he's doing is not backsliding. Compare it to Season 1, when Crowley is charged with delivering the Antichrist and complains, as late as the Antichrist's 11th birthday, that he didn't want to be involved, that Hell shouldn't have chosen him - when Hell choosing Crowley was the only reason he was ever in a position to try to thwart Armageddon.

But that's a lot of speculation. The point is, the plants are a meaningful connection to Earth and Crowley is taking care of them.

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Robust Support: Strong community and resources available.

How to Use an ERC20 Token Generator

Creating tokens is simplified with these tools. Here’s how it works:

Specify Token Details:

Decide on a name and symbol.

Determine the total number of tokens.

Utilize the Generator:

Access an online generator.

Enter your token information.

Deploy Your Token:

Review your settings.

Launch on the Ethereum network.

Features of ERC20 Tokens

ERC20 tokens provide essential features that enhance their usability:

Standard Operations: Includes transferring and checking balances.

Smart Contract Compatibility: Integrates easily with smart contracts.

Security Assurance: Utilizes Ethereum's strong blockchain security.

Reasons to Create an ERC20 Token

Why create your own token? Here are some compelling reasons:

Raise Capital: Launch an ICO for funding.

Build Engagement: Offer rewards to your community.

Drive Innovation: Explore new blockchain applications.

Challenges to Consider

Despite the simplicity, some challenges exist:

Knowledge Requirement: Some blockchain understanding is needed.

Security Concerns: Vulnerabilities can be exploited if not addressed.

Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring adherence to legal standards is vital.

Best Practices for Token Creation

Follow these tips to ensure a successful token launch:

Code Audits: Regularly check for security issues.

Community Involvement: Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments.

Stay Updated: Keep abreast of blockchain trends and legal requirements.

Conclusion

The ERC20 Token Generator empowers you to create and innovate within the crypto space. Whether you're a developer or entrepreneur, it's a powerful tool for blockchain engagement.

Final Thoughts

Embarking on token creation offers a unique opportunity to explore the digital economy and its possibilities.

FAQs

1. What is the purpose of an ERC20 Token Generator?

It’s a tool to create custom tokens on the Ethereum blockchain easily.

2. Do I need technical skills to create a token?

A basic understanding of blockchain helps, but many tools are user-friendly.

3. Can I trade my ERC20 tokens?

Yes, you can trade them on crypto exchanges or directly with users.

4. What costs are involved in token creation?

Creating tokens incurs gas fees on the Ethereum network.

5. How can I ensure my token’s security?

Perform regular audits and follow best practices for security.

Source : https://www.altcoinator.com/

[windvexer]

I really don't think animism is that easy of a worldview to adopt, actually, either that or I'm just bad at it

Shortly after embracing the animism worldview, and this is a true story, I had a meltdown over whether or not my soup spoon was mad at me for not asking it for permission to eat my lunch.

Witchcraft and spirituality are supposed to make you empowered, you say? Nonsense, I say. Try being paralyzed over your increasingly soggy bowl of cereal because you're too exhausted to perform spirit work to request permission from cutlery. That's real witchcraft.

And if I asked the spoon for permission, what did that say about my treatment of the bowl? Of the milk?

I think people treat animism sort of as paganism lite, like you get all the mysticism and wonder of everything being alive, without actually having to like pick a pantheon and research specific gods and spirits. Sort of like easy magic - all you gotta do is believe.

I'd actually like to propose that adopting a worldview that everything might be alive is in fact terrifying and requires a lot of forethought, integration, and personal development in order to internalize in a way that makes your life better instead of worse.

And after several years of soul-searching, experience, and a heaping dose of UPG, I've come to the following conclusions that has helped animism move away from a destructive force in my life and into a stable platform that inspires harmony and communication.

Here are my thoughts on it. Take what you will and leave the rest behind.

No, not everything is alive.

The reasons why I believe this is a whole metaphysical discussion, but no. Not everything is alive. Plastic sporks mass-produced in a factory are inert hunks of matter. There is no point in that process where the spork gains a soul.

(Mass-produced tarot decks, runes, wands, pendulums, spirit boards, etc., roll off the factory line with about as much soul as a spork does, by the way)

In fact, not even lovingly hand-crafted things are automatically "alive," not even lovingly hand-crafted magical tools.

It actually takes a lot of work to imbue life into an object, so much work that it's not easy to have happen on accident.

This ain't a post on how to alive an object, but suffice to say if you've really set your heart on it, it's not that complicated.

It's just also not really that easy to do on accident.

You can use your magical bell, wand, tarot deck, etc., for years, and they will simply never become alive.

Spiritual life doesn't "just happen" just because you interact with something a lot and involve it in a lot of energy working or magic or whatever.

You are not in a perpetual mating dance with your magical tools. They are not in a state of permanent ovulation. You are not the spirit of divine fertility. You're not going to accidentally put a soul into your tools.

Objects can appear to gain personalities and aliveness, but that doesn't mean they're actually alive or sentient.

I'm not sure if this is necessarily discussed enough, but an energy reader's (/spirit talker, same thing really) personal beliefs play a huge role in how they personally perceive the energies and spirits they're interacting with.

For example

If I tell you, "spirits are not real, even things which appear to be spirits are just complex layers of energy that, like a computer program, can mimic life," (and you believe me)

There is a really heckin good chance that even if a fully-formed spirit being approaches you and says, "hey, I'm the spirit of that tree over there," you'll just say, wow, this pattern of nonliving energy has a call-and-response inquiry style; I can ask it questions and due to its friendship-oriented programming, it will give me responses back. Neat!

Or, on the other hand,

If I tell you, "spirits are incredibly real, in fact literally all energy is just a spirit in one form or another, and every object and living thing and area and concept you can imagine has a spirit within it," (and you believe me)

There is a really good chance that even if you encounter a very typical, mundane, and nonliving energy pattern , you will say, wow, this is a very precious and smol spirit, its favorite color is red and it likes being taken care of. It's alive in every meaningful sense of the word!

When, in reality, you are anthropomorphizing a nonliving object and reframing this has warm, cozy vibrations into "this object has preferences and needs," which is exactly how we get to having a panic attack over forgetting to ask your spoon for permission to eat cereal.

Which is all to say, just because objects you regularly use may gain unique energy signatures and repeatedly respond the same way under the same circumstances does not mean they are alive, any more than a baseball bat making a loud sound when it hits a baseball means that the baseball bat is alive and yelling.

Even if things are alive, it doesn't make them complex or self-aware

I just don't know how to step this out because it seems incredibly self-evident, but people really are out here acting like just because something is imbued with spiritual life it gives them the depth and mental complexity of a very advanced brain, like a pig or a dolphin or a 45yo human from Fresno, California.

You can, through willful magical action, imbue life into a tool. But that doesn't spontaneously create a self-aware, fully-formed being with a human-like mind.

Spiritual life can be as simple as a single-celled spiritual organism that eats one kind of energy and poops out another kind. Just because it's alive doesn't mean it's psychologically complex and emotionally advanced.

Even if it's complex and self-aware, that doesn't mean it has human concerns or needs

So the problem comes when people decide that all life must in some form or another reflect their own personal understanding of the human condition, so if something gains sufficient complexity it must mean it's essentially human.

Which is how we get to, "now that I've ensouled my tarot deck it will feel taken advantage of unless I take it out on a friends date and watch a movie with it, because it's a complete human trapped in a deck of cards. My tarot deck prefers Film Noir and fruit-palate desserts, and needs me to be a good listener."

(Protip: spirits can take many forms. Just because a spirit appears to you as a human doesn't necessarily mean it is human)

And because people really do believe stuff like that, they then get to, "oh my god, I wasn't performing mindfulness enough while I took my tarot deck out to the park, it's offended at my inattention and that's why my readings aren't working,"

Because there's nothing better than your spirituality making you feel like you're the problem friend desperately seeking approval from a group of cool kids who could take you or leave you.

If your animism makes you feel like you have to prove yourself to inanimate objects, it might be helpful to reconsider your worldviews.

The idea that anything could be alive is not the same as everything is alive, and even if everything is alive, the spectrum of aliveness shifts greatly from a single nonsentient repeating pattern, to bona-fide biological organisms.

Animism can be a wonderful worldview that encourages us to consider that the world around us is imbued with life. But that doesn't mean that your socks have opinions about your feet.

(inb4 "but this isn't what historical animism is, real animism was agreed to by our ancestors in a prehistoric Zoom call and there's only one right way to do it!")

[neonswitchhouse]

Hey, I love your posts on Pop culture paganism, it's been helping me a lot. I just wanted to ask, how do you deal/cope with the insecurities that come with working with the "villains" from sources?

I find myself drawn to villains moreso than heroes, and I feel more at home with them. However, I get so insecure about it, especially when interacting with other pop culture practitioners. I would love any advice you might have about this, and if you already posted about this, my apologies - Clementine

Hey there! I briefly went over villain work and some of the drawbacks in a previous post, but to get a bit more in-depth (and since that post is a bit older nowadays) I'll try to give some tips.

So I've always been a villain-worker since I started on this path from jail breaking dogmen, ghostly mobsters, mutated fishmen, and lately a brief foray into eldritch horrors, obsessive lovers, and streamers that would get banned from the Home Depot for the inappropriate use of hardware tools. And what I can say is in a sense that it sadly "comes with the territory" or is the "nature of the beast" per se.

A majority of villains either may prefer isolation due to their "nefarious" schemes and plots or nature of their work and need to keep a low profile, while others just might not be used to being out-there due to a number of reasons including being ostracized or "othered" in their sources. From my observations, this may oftentimes also happen for those who are fans of the character as well in the "othering" sense in that they might not feel as at-home as say, protagonists fans, or even being accused of condoning a characters actions or behaviors just because they're a fan of theirs in let's say some more toxic fandom spaces as of late.

So the best advice I would have is to simply embrace it. Be open about it and develop your confidence and brazenness. Those who understand and feel the same way will flock to you naturally and form a small community of sorts. And those who don't well, as long as they mind their business they can go on their merry way; no one's forcing them to go down the same path or be involved with the same characters. Share your experiences working with them to help others feel comfortable and be more open as well (that's what we try to do ourselves anyway ^^;;)!

The isolation or the "othering" is part of the reason I would only recommend villain work to maybe intermediate or at least somewhat experienced practitioners, but it can also be a deeply rewarding and intense path to those who feel drawn to it. Embrace working with your beloathed beloveds; be open about your experiences good or bad.

Besides, not every villain is 100% "evil" and not every hero is 100% "good". Plus there's that whole rejection of "black vs. white" "high vibe vs. low vibe" thinking that should hopefully be in most folk's approach to witchcraft and paganism as a whole. It's all gray and subjective, baybay.

As always

Stay safe, have fun, stay spooky <3

[peonylover2]

Uncontroversial opinion

In the middle of the whole gaza protests and the people, us, citizens trying to constantly have the politicians hear us, the law, anyone up there, i would love to say a few words as a paralegal.

The government has made it clear that it is not going to listen to the people. In law, patterns in behavior give alibi. You get me?

Ex: if someone keeps saying “ in case of emergency call 911” but everytime you call your call gets disconnected on purpose, phone operators tell you rudely to piss off cause is it really important? DV? Well doesn’t everyone get a slap or two sometimes from their spouse? You must have done something.

Now after a few times say 3, you develop a reaction to the action. You stop calling.

Now the law (as it should work, common sense) can’t prosecute you. You have your reason. No matter what, you don’t get through to 911 for help because of “ negligence “ from the government’s side. The government can’t argue that you should have called in case of emergency. It is their fault for making a pattern that violates trust. And when said trust gets violated the logical answer because “ whats the next thing that you could do to get help in emergency?” Be it having to act by yourself or call a neighbor, steal a car to bring a sick person to the hospital.

Patterns are alibi.

So here is the government one in case of politicians

First you try the politician. Protests, calls etc. Let your voice be heard.

Now the burden lies on the government to act right. Government doesn’t? You have to go to step 2

In case the government doesn’t help we enter the emergency contact. The law. The law has eyes ( they are people too obv and internal communication in the ministry of justice) have to step in, the people are demanding help, action or aid. DO YOUR JOB OR ELSE.

Law doesn’t help or can’t ( the law have been weaponized against the people by abusing it and not judging right as to scare people off using the one tool that is meant to help them. Also the civil consent to follow the law in exchange for protection. We won’t hurt the politicians if the law is there for us. Which hasn’t been happening and take us to the last step)

Each to their own within medium amount of reason.

You are allowed, with to just get involved. ‘Harassing a P?’ No big deal. Just don’t go overboard too much. Beating them up is, surprisingly is still within reason.

Politicians don’t get to pick and choice when to use to cry “ but i am a civilic servant! You shouldn’t hurt me! “ to protect themselves. Remember, patterns. They made their reputation, their actions and negligence are what matters .

Common sense IS the law.

[ideahat-universe]

About that Roadmap...

So I think now is a good time to talk about what the future of Palworld should be. Yes, I'm aware of all the negatives that people have said about Palworld but I REALLY like the monster catcher genre, so I just want Palworld to be a better game rather than a game that has to be cancelled because it supposedly used AI or is an genuine example of plagiarism (which from the definition of the word is a semantic argument outside of literal theft).

I can't chastise people who are being short with Palworld too much because I was literally that kid that said Digimon was a knockoff of Pokemon.

I refused to watch it and argued with anyone about it. Once I actually watched the show I realized that it had nothing in common with Pokemon (no monster collection, real stakes, character development, and villains that are a real threat) and when years later Pokemon just so happen to discover the idea of Mega Evolution I was like "This is what we've come to huh? Will Pikachu be wearing jeans next?" but I really like Mega Evolution in Pokemon and play Romhacks specifically because they have Mega Evolutions in them so it's like, I don't really care who had the idea first, I care about how the idea is implemented.

So on that note, if the Palworld devs want to improve the game (after patching things up of course) the best course of action is to be more like Rimworld. Specifically Raids.

Raids are a really powerful narrative device in Rimworld. Sure Vanilla rimworld is dominated by the killbox strat but even with that, enemy raids can still erupt from the ground and drop from the sky and that's what Palworld needs.

Pathing is always going to be a bug bear and I imagine pathing patches and pathing mods will have to work together to make it really work but a good work around for raids that take place at hard to traverse areas would be drop ships.

Imagine the Syndicate driving their legally distinct LAAT, and in order to end the raid you have to destroy the ship but while the ship is there it's spawning enemy pals and humans with guns basically every 15 seconds and initially drops like a dozen of them on top of you.

What if a subterranean vehicle just bursts from the ground, destroying everything in its way and it has a big door and just a bunch of humans and pals (that can fit in the ship so small ones) just piled out and start attacking?

Raid Bosses are supposed to be a thing and I don't know how they will manifest that gameplay mechanic but it's important that raids can fuck your shit up. Might even be spicier if your pals could be killed or kidnapped in a raid that goes really bad.

Now the Palworld devs said they want to make PVP work and not have it fall apart like Rust and previous imitators have. I looked into Rust PVP, I reflected on the many years I've spent playing PVP games.

And I just have no idea. The only thing I can think of is "Make it like EVE online." Because EVE online has this limitless skill ceiling and is basically untouchable for new players but by the same token there are tools to enable newcomers to start playing the game without much issues and the community molded itself into safe and unsafe zones and raids are these really extensive affairs that involve dozens of people fighting for weeks on end. Form alliances, breaking them up, etc.

I don't know how to put that into Palworld other than make every place outside of the safe zone territory an area where you can build a base, but you can only personally build 4 bases. Other players have to build bases and you have to take those over but when you raid a lower level person's base your level is made equal to them.

And maybe, I dunno, once you start taking bases from other players the risk of your own base being raided by AI multiplies (in terms of frequency and power), and if any player claims your base afterwards in your absence (or as a result of your defeat) then they get the pals that were stationed for that base. So new players can get high level Pals by just waiting for AI raids to attack unattended or poorly defended bases.

And there's no fast travel so once you get really far away from your base you better learn some tech to help you get to a base fast if you want to actively defend it (There's like maybe a period of 30 seconds where the base is being converted where if you show up the conversion is paused in a battlefront sort of way).

The idea is that much with the main game, you are going to slip up. The AI is going to get lucky and someone is going to steal your progress and you can either sign a truce with them or you can get revenge. And that sort of repeats over and over again until everyone gets bored or one player somehow rules the entire map.

That's my idea. That's what I do here. If anyone makes use of this idea for anything, I don't need credit, I don't need money, Just send me a slice of Pepperoni Pizza and we'll be good.

[greatwyrmgold]

A lot of stories with nonverbal characters will give them some sort of character arc about gaining the "courage" or whatever to speak. Sometimes this is an explicit goal of the character or their friends, sometimes it just happens over time. Either way, it's annoying at best. (See this post about Komi-san Can't Communicate for more information.)

I'm pretty sure Shizuka Yoshimoto from The 100 Girlfriends Who Really [...] Really Love You won't do that. Her introductory episode ends with Rentaro finding a text-to-speech app that she can use to communicate, which is a lot more convenient than her previous method of nonverbal communication (flipping to a relevant passage in her favorite novel and pointing to it).

Shizuka getting a better tool for communication isn't a problem, of course. But I'm not sure how to feel about the series's use of that tool. It's basically just used as an excuse for Shizuka to talk like any of the other girls, with basically no problems.

No conversation ever moves past her while she's trying to respond; It only takes her a fraction of a second to select whatever text she wants to say, and everyone follows the script. She never has anyone talk over her on accident, not even Karane, who rarely uses her indoor voice. She always has her phone out, TTS app at the ready. The limitations of the app never impede her ability to communicate clearly. And so on. Hell, in the episode I paused to write this rant, she takes her phone to the pool, so that conversations involving her don't have any unwanted friction.

I'm not saying that Shizuka should be socially paralyzed by the limitations of her accessibility device. But it didn't have to write those limitations away, either. Komi-san's titular character has to pull out her notebook and write with it to communicate, which is sometimes inconvenient or faces difficulty (e.g. if she can't find a pen)...well, until she just talks all the time. Anyways, Shizuka doesn't even need to do that much.

Aside from being a bit more realistic, that little extra bit of friction makes her friends putting up with it mean something. It can be inconvenient for Komi's friends, but they put up with it because they are her friends. Intentional or not, it kinda feels like Rentaro's girlfriends put up with Shizuka because talking with her is never inconvenient, because Rentaro found that app for her to use. And that is just...depressing.

100 [...] Love You doesn't tie Shizuka's character development to her ability to speak out loud, either causatively or symbolically, and that's good. But it also just erases any obstacles her disability might give her, and I don't think that's good.

EDIT: Probably should have added this while it was in the queue, but by the end of that episode, Shizuka's phone ran out of batteries when she was trying to call for help, a problem which was solved by Shizuka vocally crying for help. One step forward, one step back.

[spewagepipe]

Plumbing the Depths: Low Trust "Traditional", Part 3: What is Trust?

Hamilton says that blorb is a "low trust" style, and FKR is a "high trust" style. He also clearly thinks that one is bad and the other good, respectively, but when he attempts to explain why he thinks this, it's as if he loses all capacity for rational thought. His sentences become incoherent, and he derails into an oblique reference to an OSR-versus-Forge beef that hasn’t been relevant to anyone in over a decade. So let's lend him a hand with this.

As a game design concept, Trust encompasses both it's normal vernacular meaning, and also a specifically game-related meaning: Trust is the extent to which everyone at the table is "on the same page" – we're interested in telling the same sort of story, we're cognizant of what one another are hoping to get out of the game, and we're going to try to make decisions that help one another achieve those hopes. This all sounds great, right? A recipe for a fantastic time.

So, of course, here's the problem: a "high trust game" refers to a system that can only be played in a high trust environment. If we have differing expectations, if we miscommunicate, if someone happens to be in a bad mood – the game falls apart around us.

A low-trust game, by contrast, is a game for which "trust" is basically irrelevant. The game states its own expectations, it outlines the procedures of play, it provides incentives to reward the desired player behaviours – you can play it with complete strangers or even with people you don't especially like, and it will still function (and, if it's a good game, it might even be fun). You can also, of course, play it in a high-trust environment, and that might enhance the experience considerably – but that's not a prerequisite.

Almost (almost) every game that has ever been designed by humans is a low-trust game. Chess, poker, pick-up sticks, kick the can, celebrity, tennis... any game with clear rules and clear objectives is low-trust. High-trust games do exist though! Captain May I?, Simon Says, Dungeons & Dragons, and countless theatre/improv games depend heavily on trust, and can strain or erode the trust of participants if not played carefully. One common feature of many (but not all) of these games is the fact that they involve placing one participant in a role of authority over the others. The risk that this "game master" could abuse that authority creates an inherently trust-testing situation.

FKR and OSR theorists will almost always treat "low trust" as a kind of disparaging remark, but it's a bit like someone who lives in a lean-to being snobby toward someone living in a brick house. Low-trust games are harder to build, but ultimately way less fragile.

And good news! Nowadays, RPG communities have developed folk rituals like "session zero" and safety/communication tools to shore up the weaknesses of high-trust games. It's not a silver bullet, but sometimes, all you need to do to convert a high-trust game into a low-trust game is to write these techniques and procedures into the rulebook.

[epicthundercat]

Welcome to the TUMBLR resurrection.

If anyone can revitalize this wonderful creative space it's the very real and very valid artists over at Web3. Why?

Well, simply because we are used to tackling social norms and working toward positive change in the greater creative community. What drives many of us is the idea of giving artists a real livable wage and taking out the middle men that take huge profits. Here in Web3 artists are able to be their full creative selves and create beautiful wholesome communities that are all working together to change the world and increasingly impact the world around them.

Some background of who I am:

I started as a traditional water color artist when I was a young child and as I grew attended very real, very in real life art shows and conventions. While these were fun, they were not sustainable for me as an individual with children who worked full time and was in college. I did not have the resources or means to pay an event over 200 USD just to make very little profit over the course of 3 days while ignoring my job and children. I actually switched my major in college under the assumption I would never be able to make money with my art because it felt as though it was not sustainable. I went as far as to get a Masters in Mental Health in order to survive.

Fast forward to 2021. My friend called me up and told me about this silly concept called "NFTs". I honestly laughed at first. It sounded silly and ridiculous. He had no intention of actually selling anything. However, I began to deep dive and as I learned about the activism involved and the underground movement toward artistic independence I began getting exciting. I have always believed in art as a tool for healing and wanted to help artists thrive.

I do not expect all artists or art collectors to understand our space we are building here in Web3 but it won't stop, the technology exists and it is part of the growing future as more artists are onboarded every day.

What is next? We need to work on growing Web3 communities and branching out by onboarding artists from more traditional backgrounds as well, this has already been happening and will continue but it brings into question more topics such as sustainability and longevity. We want Web3 to be a safe and comfortable place for artists to hang out and engage with others. This is key for survival in any business. You want to surround yourself with other like-minded change leaders and work toward positive change in a way that benefits everyone.

To those reading this outside of web3. Here are some things I want everyone to know:

Environmental issues:

1. Recently, the ETH merge has further improved any concerns surrounding environmental factors so artists need not worry any longer. However, I am aware the media has not shown nor specified this fact. Also, for artists still concerned there is tezos as an option as well which is an even more affordable option when it comes to blockchain art, and it has little to no impact environmentally. Also, Keep in mind any VISA transactions you make also uses electricity to process the payment. It is wonderful being mindful and changes are being made everyday to make crypto more and more environmentally friendly.

Scammers:

2. While there are scammers all over online (check your email) we should not allow scammers to set a narrative for artists and art communities. They are not a part of what we do or what we are building. Scammers will come where there is money. However, we need to focus on the underground art movement and scammers will disappear as web3 advances and securities are increased.

Diversity

3. Most of Web3 consistant of people from all backgrounds, areas of the world and various social demographics. I have spoken with people in India, UK, Australia, Canada, USA, Mexico and many other places. There are even initiatives to help those in rural and developing nations sell their work as they are in dire need. There have been sales and movements for the folks in Ukrane and those right now in Iran. Many of us have donated money to causes and worked hard to make the world a better place.

Web3 is a great place to be once you find your community. It consists of leaders from all over the world working hard everyday to make art more accessible to those from different areas, backgrounds, abilities and even to those struggling with disabilities who are unable to attend art shows. If you are a fellow creative its worth finding your passion and heading into Web3. We will welcome you with open arms.

- Epic Thundercat

[thedreadvampy]

someone tagged it like, complaining UGH CAN'T BELIEVE WE LITERALLY HAVE TO EXPLAIN CRITICAL THEORY FOR PEOPLE TO GET IT and I regret to inform you. yeah dude. when somebody doesn't understand a thing sometimes this is because somebody needs to explain it.

none of us are born with the complete works of 20th century literary theory embedded in our brain. all of us have to learn through having ideas explained to us, whether by teachers or by the writings of other theorists (and. again. academic reading is a skill that has to be developed.)

a lot of people on this website are like 14. a lot of people on this website have not had an academic education past high school. a lot of people on this website have devoted their time and energy to different skills. I grew up on a steady diet of academic art criticism and I still didn't read anything to do with gaze theory or death of the author until I was in undergrad. not because I was stupid or anti-intellectual or incurious but literally just because in all the stuff I was finding it hadn't happened to cross my path yet.

it doesn't mean there's no problem with throwing around terminology and ideas wrong bc you don't understand them, but if that's happening somebody needs to at least try to explain why that's wrong. I'm a big believer in not using terms if youre not sure if their meaning, but you don't know what you don't know, and somebody yelling at you won't help you understand where you've gone wrong

idk while "fuck you I won't do Learning, Learning is a tool of Bourgeois Oppression" is a worryingly potent type of anti-intellectualism at the moment, I honestly think "pfffft why would we need to explain this is only an 8 page essay it's only a 25 page manifesto can you believe this 12 year old hasn't read Capitalist Realism yet what a fool. what an absolute rube." is one of the attitudes doing the most harm to education and understanding.

like fuck me man can we respect that there are specific skills involved in reading, understanding, applying and communicating theory? if you've got these skills that's fantastic! try valuing the work you put in to get those skills and understand not everybody has had the opportunity, resource, time or inclination to get there yet, and if you would like more people to have those skills and understanding you have to recognise where support and teaching and encouragement would be useful instead of sneering from your high horse.

and like yeah it's not always your responsibility specifically to teach. and sometimes people do just choose to ignore available information. some folk straight up don't want to learn and are proud not to. but that surely just means we should appreciate when people are looking for an explanation and trying to understand.

"I can't believe we have to explain things to people who don't understand them" fucking hell.

[sinister-faye]

Gamedev update

The good, the bad, and the revelation.

Hello my fellow artists, gamedevs, and other folk who stumbled upon this.

Tldr; I have to stop Armageddon ignition til I have more time and a team, but I have other things I want to release to help me get funds to help with both problems.

Here is the long version:

It's been a spell since the last update. The delays are complex and fairly personal. But the conclusions I've come to on the other side of my chaotic life are going to shape what this solo dev project will ultimately become.

The good

So for the longest time I kept hammering away at my game while having some blinders on. One core belief I held was that I was going to do this all solo. While writing and planning a game that I needed 12 voice actors for at a minimum. (The full weight of that dichotomy crashed over me later, don't worry.) Watching my first in game cutscenes and hearing either a soulless bot spit out the lines, or my own attempts at doing multiple voices, raised some flags in my mind. But I still pressed on. I just needed to work on the game every day.

I also wasn't seeing as much growth in followers with my various blogs or twitter. Sure I made posts. But they seem to blather about nothing and I never have anything other than a screenshots to hype my game.

Life then forced a large break on my time. A month and a half long break that was personal, and a little painful still. This forced break I took helped me see my process and allowed myself to do some introspection on my marketing, presentation, and my goals.

The good news is the game is still gonna happen, and I'm still going to develop it. But...

The bad

Because of this vague event in my life my time is now strained In a way that will prevent me from working on this game enough to make any meaningful progress. And this time constraint won't loosen for at least a year. I want to come back to it. And I have a plan to come back stronger.

During my month long interlude I had some time to think about each thing I could improve on.

1. Better content: guys I'm verbose. And I'm sorry I'm verbose. I really should have been a writer or a philosopher. The accounts I see with the most growth get that growth from .gifs. if I can't sell the idea in a gif I won't post it. Unless it's a bigger how to, or post mortem.

2. Solo development for a game is only good if the game I am making has 1 or less voice actors.

3. Art as a medium is under attack and we need to build groups to make it through. Solo dev only helps a solo person. Team efforts can help teams of people.

4. I talk a lot of talk. Boy do these words I say allude to a lot, without revealing a thing. Even this post assumes that there is a major audience clamoring to hear any small update. I need fans first.

Through all the navel gazing, the most important thing I Learned is that I need to start building a community, but the life event left me a little despondent . Most of my time was spent healing and getting back a good headspace. Now I'm refreshed and ready to use what little free time I have towards making a studio that is a group effort.

The revelation.

During my break I saw the writers strike, I saw the actors strike, I saw rights being pillaged from our livelihoods inch by inch. And I saw people win to get a fairer share. In order to complete Armageddon ignition I'm going to need money to properly pay some voice actors, I want to get more people involved. I finally started a game that I think will see the light of day. But I no longer want to be a hermit about it. And I want a team with more perspectives than my own to help me.

There are too many companies bleeding creative teams dry for "content", there are too many ceo's who look for tools or pipelines that completely remove humans to save a buck for the next quarterly earnings.

My goal has shifted from producing a game as a solo creative to building a company. A group of people who share in the earnings of their product, rather than some white dude who went to Yale and learned that slashing jobs makes the next quarterly earnings look a little better and gamed his own paycheck to give him more money than they ever "saved".

But I don't have the funds now, nor do I want borrowed equity for this thing. If I'm going to build up an organization that is more artistic focused, rather than profit focused. I can't do it on debt that can be leveraged to destroy a queer, story driven studio.

So in order to get a cash flow started I found something that I can do with my much leaner free time. This is going to be an animated project that can, on paper and not just in my head, be developed and maintained by a solo artist.

This time I'm going to release the videos and let the work speak for itself, rather than wax on before it's even done. Once I have some time back I'll try to make a post mortem.

So as far as timelines go. This is going to push back this game indefinitely. But I hope to utilize this time to actually build something that can benefit the game industry. And build a better game in general.

The next blog should be coming with enough detail to sell you on what I have cooking.

See you soon

[planet4546b]

ok if the first resonance was in 2018 (?), but the tech in s/n is based on like radio-era tech. what happens to the stuff in between. like does it fade out of use or become impractical etc etc. feel free also to just use this as a pass to talk about whatever tech u want actually <3

HI LUNA <3 so theres actually 3 parts of this answer:

its impractical

its been 200/300 years and most of it has rotted

thematic reasons. and also vibes

i used to have some macguffin-y answer to this about how the resonance fucked with existing tech but thats lame. in actuality people just had to adapt + learn to survive + start rebuilding pretty quick and most of that didnt involve upkeep of most technology. pair that with large cities + population centers becoming the most unstable places and the overall collapse of infrastructure (no one to keep power plants running) and in the time directly after the resonance 1. a fair amount of tech is nonfunctional and 2. most of it isnt particularly useful when you're trying to build housing and get food and not have your whole town vanished eto another dimension.

by the time a lot of places were becoming more stable, a lot of the tech had started rotting out, and the functional knowledge of how to repair it had mostly been lost. its also important to keep in mind that becuase of what all was happening during the resonance, if you go into an old building to try to find old tech, you're just as likely to find a refrigerator as you are to find some random ass device from another universe that you don't recognize. telling the difference, and being able to find the right library from the right universe with the right information about how to repair it (let alone the right tools or parts!) is like . next to impossible.

at the point in history that we're at, enough 'new' tech has been developed for the specific purposes that are needed that old stuff is pretty irrelevant. this does change depending on the specific purpose - no one is using cars, because travel is dangerous, but traditional internal combustion engines are still in use in some agricultural equipment, etc. a lot of the new tech is me putting random words together and saying 'hey, that sounds cool!' and not knowing more about what it does past that khgldsjag (how does 'a predictive engine run on quantum anomalies' work?? fuck if i know!). but what can you do!!

the thematic reason is that a lot of signoise is about failures of connection and communication. there's plot reasons that people can't be able to contact others easily, or to be able to travel easily, but also 'not being able to go home' and 'not being able to communicate with others' is a LOT of the point. so the more tech i can take out that functions for communication the more fun im gonna have yippee!!!

ty for the question as always ilu <3