#i was able to review it and make changes before i submitted it

[two-calicos-in-a-trenchcoat]

AHH

The fucking hiring agency website man istg

They fixed my legal name on the tax forms

So I managed to get those filled out

And now its just stuck in a never ending loop of reloading the page and when it does load nothing works

[zhongrin]

— a short and casual genshin impact otome game.

⟣ 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 ⟢

┊ (Windows 🪟, Linux 🐧, or Mac 🍎 only!)

◇ 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬? ◇

Just a simple something I had in mind for a Genshin otome game... I have 0 attention span, 0 time, and 0 knowledge to write and build a full-fledged 3D game with intricate stories, plot, and mechanics. This is just a simple visual novel with a streamlined plot and partial voices. You should be able to complete everything in like... 30 minutes long in total. Might be less, even.

◇ 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐬 ◇

The game will contain the following: established relationship, FLUFF, comfort, lots of pet names, suggestive themes, lots of kissy sounds on some routes, implications of violence (not towards player), a sprinkle of protective behavior

◇ 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 ◇

Zhongli, Xiao, Childe, Diluc, Kaeya, Itto, Kazuha (Zhongli is selected by default because who doesn’t love geo daddy???)

◇ 𝐰𝐡𝐨'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫? ◇

This is a very self-indulgent project, hence the dialogues were written with fem!player in mind. It will contain suggestive themes, so please be aware of that before downloading / playing!

◇ 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲? ◇

Yes, it's totally free - in fact, I do not accept payment.

◇ 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲? ◇

Click the link to download the appropriate file based on your OS. Only Windows, Linux, and Mac are supported. No, I won't release it on other platforms.

Open the game, and you’ll find that it’s pretty straightforward. Customize your profile, select your love interest, then start the game.

There are no wrong answers and the love interest can be changed anytime (just go back to main menu and select the character’s picture on the right side).

◇ 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐢 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬? ◇

You can personally send links to this post / the game’s itch.io page to your friends via DMs, but outside of that (reposting), NO. For example, posting about this on Reddit is prohibited.

◇ 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞? ◇

This is a super casual project.

Scripts are not proofread. Probably lots of grammar mistakes.

Novel format without narration (full dialogs).

There are no actual sprites, just official art and something akin to a speech bubble to cater to the characters’ changes in ‘expression’.

There are voices, but only partial - mostly just grunts, chuckles, kisses, and stuff. I’m using JP voices EXCEPT for Itto because Max Mittelman is a gem. No, I will not add other languages' voice versions.

Sound cues and voices are quite important for this game so I recommend using headphones.

Depending on when you open the game (morning, afternoon, nighttime, midnight), your currently selected love interest might greet you differently.

To reiterate, there are no wrong answers.

Selecting all talk/act options for a character will unlock a small event where they'll give you unique gifts.

I lowkey have so many ideas on how to expand on this in terms of gameplay and options but let’s be real here it probably won’t happen lol why can’t my brain be this creative when it comes to work

◇ 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬??? ◇

No... That said, anyone can literally say that. Please be responsible for your own actions.

I have also released other games on the same itch.io profile, so this isn't my first rodeo. Feel free to check the reviews on those before making your decision if you're wary about downloading!

◇ 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬 ◇

hyv please don't sue me i gain 0 dollars for this and i just wanna simp in peace

⟐ 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚝𝚜 🄸 𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑.𝚒𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚏𝚒𝚕𝚎 🄸 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 ⟐

© zhongrin | 2022 ◆ do not repost or share without permission. reblogs much appreciated. feel free to reach out to submit suggestions, feedback, comments, or if you just want to talk!

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #6 – Exordia by Seth Dickinson

This is a book I have been looking forward to for quite literally years, from someone who is easily one of my favourite working authors. I also read the short story the book was expanded out from before I even knew it was going to be a book, and so went in spoiled on the broad strokes of what turned out to be the climax of the whole thing. All to say my opinion on this is unlikely to match that of the typical reader, I guess.

Anyway, Exordia is a glorious spectacular mess that has no right to cohere anywhere near as well as it does. It’s target audience is small, but I’m certainly somewhere in it. Please ignore all the marketing it’s so bad you have to wonder if someone at Tor just has it out for the author.

Exordia is a, well, a profoundly difficult book to give any sort of plot summary for. The first act involves Anna, a 30-something survivor of the Anfal Genocide now living a rather unimpressive life in New York City, until one day in the early 2010s she sees an alien eating the turtles in Central Park. Then there’s a cat-and-mouse hunt between terrifying alien snake-centaurs for the future of free will in the galaxy, and the plot jumping to kurdistan, and six more POV characters from as many different nations, and nuclear weapons, and oh so many people dying messily. The first act is an oddly domestic and endearing piece of table setting, the second is (to borrow the idiom of the book’s own marketing) Tom Clancy meets Jeff Vandermeer or Roadside Picnic, and the third is basically impossible to describe without a multipage synopsis, but mostly concerned with ethical dilemmas and moral injuries. It’s to the book’s credit that it never bats an eye at shifting focus and scale, but it does make coming to grips with it difficult.

This is, as they say, a thematically dense book, but it’s especially interested in the fallout of imperialism. The Obama-era ‘don’t do stupid shit’ precise and sterile form of it in particular – the book’s a period piece for a reason, after all. The ethics of complicity – of being offered the choice of murdering and betraying those around you or having an alien power with vastly superior destructive powers inflict an order of magnitude more misery to you, them, and everyone in the same general vicinity to punish you for the inconvenience – is one that gets a lot of wordcount. It is not an accident that the man most willing and able to collaborate with the overwhelming powerful alien empire in hopes of bargaining some future for humanity is the National Security Council ghoul who came out of organizing surveillance information for the drone wars. It’s also not a coincidence that the main (if only by a hair) protagonist is someone with a lot of bitter memories over how the US encouraged Iraq’s kurdish population to rebel in the ‘90s and then just washed their hands and let them be massacred (the book couldn’t actually ship with a historical primer on modern kurdish history, so it’s woven into the story in chunks with varying amount of grace. But it is in fact pretty thematically key here).

Speaking of complicity, the book’s other overriding preoccupation in (in the broadest sense) Trolley Problems. Is it better to directly kill a small number of people or, through your inaction, allow a larger number to die? Does it matter is the small number is your countrymen and the larger foreigners, or vice versa? What about humans and aliens? Does it matter whether the choice is submitting to subjugation or killing innocents as a means to resist it? What about letting people around you die to learn the fundamental truth of the cosmos? Does the calculus change when you learn that immortal souls (and hell) are real? This is the bone the story is really built around chewing on.

All that probably makes the text seem incredibly didactic, or at least like a philosophical dialogue disguised as a novel. Which really isn’t the case! The book definitely has opinions, but none of the characters are clear author-avatars, and all perspectives are given enough time and weight to come across as seriously considered and not just as cardboard cutouts to jeer at. Okay, with the exception of one of the two aliens who you get the very strong sense is hamming it up as a cartoon villain just for the of it (he spends much of the book speaking entirely in all caps). There definitely are a couple points where it feels like the books turning and lecturing directly at the reader, but they’re both few and fairly short.

The characters themselves are interesting. They’re all very flawed, but more than that they’re all very...embodied, I guess? Distracted with how hot someone is, concerned with what they ate that morning or the smell of something disgusting, still not over an ex from years ago. Several of them are also sincerely religious in a way that’s very true to life to actual people but you rarely see in books. The result is that basically comes as being far more like actual humans than I’m at all used to in most fiction (of course, a lot of those very human qualities get annoying or eye-roll inducing fairly quickly. But hey, that’s life). Though that’s all mostly the case at the start of the book – the fact that the main cast are slowly turning into caricatures of themselves as they’re exposed to the alien soul manipulation technology is actually a major plot point, which I’m like fifty/fifty on being commentary on what happens to the image and legacy of people as they’re caught up in grand narratives versus just being extended setup for a joke about male leads in technothrillers being fanfic shipbait.

Part of the characters seeming very human is that some (though by no means all) of the POVs are just incredibly funny, in that objectively fucked up and tasteless way that people get when coping with overwhelming shock or trauma. It’s specifically because the jokes are so in-your-face awful that they fit, I think? It manages to avoid the usual bathetic trap a lot of works mixing in humour with drama fall into, anyway.

Speaking of alien soul manipulation technology – okay, you know how above I said that the points where the book directly lectured the reader were few and far between. This is true for lectures about politics or morality. All the freed up space in this 530 page tome is instead used for technobabble about theoretical math. Also cellular biology, cryptography, entropics, the organization of the American security state, how black holes work, and a few dozen other things. This book was edited for accuracy by either a doctoral student from every physical science and an award winning mathematician, or else just by one spectacularly confident bullshitter with several hundred hours on wikipedia. Probably both, really. I did very much enjoy this book, but that is absolutely predicated on the fact that when I knew when to let my eyes glaze over and start skimming past the proper nouns.

The book has a fairly complete narrative arc in its own right, but the ending also screams out for a sequel, and quite a lot of the weight and meaning of the book’s climax does depend on followthrough and resolution in some future sequel. Problematically, the end of the book also includes a massive increase in scale, and any sequel would require a whole new setting and most of a new cast of characters, so I’m mildly worried how long it will be before we get it (if ever).

The book is also just very...I’m not sure flabby is the right word, but it is doing many many different things, and I found some of them far more interesting than others. I’m not sure whether Dickinson just isn’t great at extended action scenes or if I am just universally bored by drawn out Tom Clancy fantasies, but either way there were several dozen pages too many of them. The extended cultural digressions about the upbringing and backstories of each of the seven POVs were meanwhile very interesting! (Mostly, I got bored of the whole Erik-Clayton-Rosamaria love triangle Madonna complex thing about a tenth of the way into the book but it just kept going.) It did however leave the book very full of extended tangents and digressions, even beyond what the technobabble did. Anna herself, ostensibly the main protagonist, is both utterly thematically loadbearing but very often feels entirely vestigial to the actual, like, plot, brought along for the ride because she’s an alien terrorist’s favourite of our whole species of incest-monkeys. The end result is, if not necessarily unfocused, then at least incredibly messy, flitting back and forth across a dozen topics that on occasion mostly just seem unified by having caught the author’s interest as they wrote.

It’s interesting to compare the book to Anna Saves It All, the short story it was based on – quite a lot changed! But that’s beyond the scope of this already overlong review. So I guess I’ll just say make sure to read the book first, if you’re going to.

[kimyoonmiauthor]

I thought it might be fun to list "Best cultures for", imo, BTW, doesn't include SK in most cases.

So using my Anthro degree for something. This is Academic interest. I'm only giving the loose reasons why. I'm not particularly promoting fetishization here. I'm saying, do the research into this specific culture for this specific cultural aspect. rather than blind worship.

Agriculture

Of the three major regions, (West Asia, Southern China-ish, Meso America/Northern South America) hands down, The Americas.

I mean, if you look at the genetics and origin of the potato, that itself is super impressive. Through domestication alone, they managed to make the potato grow in all environments, AND changed the amount of genes the potato has. !@#$ What? Really? And then you have things like Amaranth, corn, squash, beans of different kinds, quinoa, tomatoes which is related to nightshade, which is used more than eggplant worldwide, and Sweet Potatoes which they gave to Polynesians. Also single handedly through the Potato and Sweet Potato saved China, Korea, Ireland, and several other places from famine, thus also helping to end the slavery cycle in Korea, China and Japan. I mean... who are you going to rank the highest in that case?

Second place ranking I have to give to Western Asia. Daaaaamn, you have wheat, oats, barley, sheep, goats, cows, horses (supposedly), pigs. That's pretty impressive.

Third place Southern China—rice production, most of the world's commercial flowers, soybeans, a lot of the fruits including citrus. You also get honey.

Honorable mention to South Asia for Chickens. (Indonesia and India specifically)

Despite this, apples are my favorite fruit. lol I need to eat a Courtland apple please. I can eat them by the bushel.

Sea navigation

Hands down, Polynesians, beats the pants off of everyone else by a nautical league. When you can feel sea currents with your hands, be able to get your people first to the South Pacific from China, and then navigate ALLLLL the way to the Americas and beat Europeans, Yes, definitely they get the crown several times over. I mean... think hard about it. When you memorize stick charts, casually and then don't have them at sea and sometimes your tattoos are only brief reminders, FLOORED.

Make Europeans in the same time period look terrible.

House design

I'm looking at passive solar, specifically rather than aesthetics. For me, this is kinda toss up. Indigenous peoples rocked it pretty hard, especially in the South West US into Mexico region. They were exceptionally good at regulating air flow. But Koreans invented underfloor heating. And Chinese figured out Feng Shui which is just Passive solar+ a bunch of other stuff that's practical. (Such as your bathroom shouldn't be above your kitchen). But I have to admit I also admire some of the Indian Passive solar efforts (subcontinent). This one is hard to decide. But if you're researching, I'd look there.

Gender

My favorite to point to is Bugis people of Indonesia. 5 different genders. Freaking awesome. Of course it's a bit disciplined these days by the government, but it's worth investigating.

As I wrote before East Asian gender systems of the past were often more fluid and flexible and still are compared to European ideologues.

Clothing?

No one has impressed me that much, tbh. It's a pick and choose. I can choose the most impractical, but not the one that wins my heart for inventiveness.

Crakows, though, crack me up every single last time. Especially for the Phallic nature and that they were associated with men. But that's on the impractical list. That's also why I submitted it for review on History Hit's fashion list. I haven't gotten over it since I first saw it, I think it was on a Dan Snow documentary about British kings. I mean look at them and resist laughing your butt off.

Religion

I personally think that real Voudoun is much cooler than what's in the movies, which is really racist 98% of the time. It is a Synchronized religion, and it is Christian-based in some ways, but c'mon, look it up and be impressed.

BTW, I really dislike the conflation of zombies with Voudou, granted as an outsider, since it belongs to Bokor and is a warning against *becoming a slave* not about white people trying to shoot zombies with grey and darker faces because OMG, slave uprising psychology.

Zonbis, are cooler than zombies since it's about overcoming and resisting masters, rather than about masters mass killing their slaves, which is what the later meaning seems to say. Ad Zombie movies are at their best when they symbolically get the original concept and meaning. So like becoming a work drone.

^^ I still have a soft spot for Muism as a Korean, but ya know, Korean. I lean towards liking shamanism, probably because of the historical acceptance of LGBTQIA and disability.

Shamanism is also appealing in some ways because often shamanism says that if everything in your life is going wrong, then that might be a sign of powers or spirits calling to you, rather than saying in the old Christian ideology that you've sinned deeply, so you need to repent.

But this is usually not what people are asking about when they are thinking about religions. They usually want the polytheistic, Jade Emperor, Greek, Roman, Egyptians, Norse route. Or Monotheism. Kinda dull, really. Where are the other types in fiction. I mean, Druids?

Give me some totemism for once.

Government System

Look up Wigan Council. I might also be biased towards it because of Gaya, but it's a way to play with things and also allow for more LGBTQIA royalty. Royalty without autocracy?

Inventions?

Hands down, no doubt, Islamic Empire. I mean, when you have Automatons without electricity, you're winning without question. When your people are inventing surgery, calculating the size of the Earth, allowing women to read, learn and write, inventing the lens, which is the cornerstone of so many inventions, and you got Europe's Bacon by inventing the Scientific Method first, historical crush does't cut it. I mean, when you can calculate a pointed arch, do geometric mosaics with mathematical principles, I am floored beyond reason.

Conclusion

This isn't to say I'm not impressed by specific things from other cultures as well, but this is broad strokes. Vedanta Hinduism, for me, is impressive from India. And I really like the practicality of Hanbok. (Why hanbok over hanfu is a long, long post) And I've raved over kimchi before multiple, multiple times, more than you know (quora... I think I have the most answers and I also answer with the food science of Kimchi down to the bacteria.) BTW, dumplings are damned clever.

What are your favorite culture for specific things from those cultures? Would you choose different cultures for each of these things? If so, why? What impressive things have I missed that have floored you?

[cloudyskies-starryheavens]

Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Fabulous Life

By Rachel Renee Russell

Eighth-grade Nikki Maxwell transfers to a new middle school and is forced to navigate making new friends, developing a new crush, and dealing with a bully.

All of my reviews are spoiler reviews! Read at your own discretion.

This is one of the books I've chosen to reread. I haven't picked up this series in probably eight years. It's one I loved reading in middle school, and I was able to get pretty far into the series before ultimately having to drop it. But I'm back, baby!

I'll come out and say it--I had somewhat low expectations for this book. I worried that my nostalgia may have clouded some of my positive judgement towards the series as a whole. I worried that it would be a shallow story about shallow, dramatic teenage girls and my memory had embellished any short comings. But I was pleasantly surprised!

The story was paced incredibly well with a great mix of comedic slice-of-life scenes as well as holding a genuine plot. The art was amazing (although I did notice that I have a newer edition of the book, and I'm super curious if the art style was updated since the second book I own has a very different art style) and fit the story excellently.

I totally forgot how mean MacKenzie is! I believe she has a bit of a redemption arc in the later books, but she is downright evil! Despite that, it can be fun to watch her be a foil to Nikki. I especially liked the part where Nikki was trapped inside MacKenzie's house with her little sister, Brianna, it had me rolling! And despite being nervous about shallow drama, this book has a talent for stressing me out. In a good way! I was feeling it when Nikki had almost everyone in school wanting unique tattoo designs. As someone who's into art, I've noticed how often people underestimate how long the creative process takes!

What really changed my heart toward this story was the ending. Everything seemed to be going wrong. Nikki's new friends were being unfair to her, she's being relentlessly bullied by an entitled little biatch, she's being pressured by the whole student body of her new school, and her art piece she wanted to submit to the art competition was destroyed. I could feel the pain and distress Nikki was going through, and I completely understood her wanting to drop out of school. But her friends came through for her in the end! I literally started crying when Nikki walked in to see the art show and saw that her friends had worked to submit her artwork as a surprise. And she won first place! Chloe and Zoey are not my favorite characters in this series, but they really pull together sometimes and show that they are true friends to Nikki. And of course Brandon helped! We like Brandon in this household.

Overall, an excellent read. It was everything I could have asked for in a story like this. It had nostalgia, comedy, great art, cute boys, and all the feels! I 100% recommend for all ages, especially middle school girls!

✩✩✩✩✩/✩✩✩✩✩

5/5 stars!

Read from 7.17.24-7.24.24

[four-loose-screws]

Blog Update 2024.2.15

Hey all, a lot has been happening fast in my life, so it's time for another update!

TL;DR / Updates on translations:

Bad news: I have not been able to respond to asks or work on other translations projects AT ALL, because my personal life is BANANAs busy right now!

Good news: I'm about to put my 2 weeks in and accept a new job offer, so changes are coming! Also, after translating FE2 Book 1, I'm getting better at handling the high-level writing of the FE2 novels, and Book 2's translation is coming along much more smoothly. I do not foresee getting behind on FE2 or FE6's novel translations at all.

I apologize for having to ignore asks for so long, but here's to a better future! Cheers!

Long story / why my non-novel translations upload schedule has suffered recently:

First, I had to hold off on moving back to Japan until further notice. A family member's health is declining more rapidly than initially expected, so I'm staying in the US for now. I still have a job application open that would send me over in March 2025, if I was accepted... but I may reject it and apply again for another year's cycle. Not certain yet.

That being said, my current job's conditions have continued to get worse. It's not too bad of a gig. Co-workers are very kind, lots of WFH, and I'm good at my assigned tasks. But the work has piled up and up with zero pay increases, positions have been cut around the office when the staff we originally had arguably wasn't enough, and quality of non-salary benefits has decreased. Plus, it's not a Japanese company, so my Japanese is getting worse.

There's tons of Japanese companies around me - meaning there's no reason why I should feel the need to stay chained to an American company. Especially one I keep giving more and more of myself to, for no improvements in return.

So last week I reached back out to some of the Japanese recruiting offices in the US, and in exactly 1 week I already have an offer! Better base pay, better hours, overtime pay, guaranteed bonuses, guaranteed yearly raise reviews, initial summary of benefits looks better... all for the same line of work! I did ask myself "Why didn't I do this sooner?", but building up skills and experience for a few years before jumping ship, is never a bad thing!

I just promised the recruiting company that I would keep my 1 other scheduled interview this week before making a final decision. Still going to submit my 2-3 weeks notice to my current company on Monday. (May work a few days longer based on what I end up arranging with my next company.)

Will this help me have the time in the day to regularly complete and upload non-novel translations? Only time will tell, but my personal life needed a change, and I'm getting it! Whoo-hoo!

[morallysuperiorlips]

Accepting Crit as a Writer (or creative person in general!)

One of the biggest challenges I have faced (and honestly, still face) as a writer and artist is the dreaded CONCRIT. I still post my stories and art, but I shy away from viewing comments or messages about it because I DREAD the idea of seeing something about "what I could do better" or "what sucks."

But on that same note, how do I improve unless I get that crit?

The hard truth is that criticism is a necessary part of the creative process. You will never get better without it!

But while it might suck to receive, there are things I've done to help lessen to blow of it, and even decide what is and isn't worth listening to.

The primary thing I do is consider the source. In my years of writing and submitting things to contests and getting my work ripped apart, i’ve learned that just because someone might be a good writer themselves does not mean they’re a good reader/critique-giver (and no, that’s not to say they’re illiterate. It just means they might miss context/not understand the themes you’re going for, etc.). I try to figure out if there’s merit to the critique based on who gave it (i.e. is this someone who’s word I immensely value? Is this someone who might know what they’re talking about? Do they have the story’s overall meaning/theme/idea at heart and is it showing in their critique or has there been something that they might have glazed over?)

Answering those things usually allows me to venture forward with sorting through what works and what doesn’t.

One time I had a pro playwright critique my play and he absolutely shredded it and indirectly told me I should stop writing while I’m ahead. While it devastated me in the moment, I eventually decided that a washed up old playwright judging a high school competition 1.) Shouldn’t be the one to wreck me and 2.) Didn’t offer anything constructive that was worth accepting into my rewrites, because I realized that he also just didn’t like my subject matter; it very clearly made him upset. So, he was nobody to me, he didn’t like the topic, and thus, his critique did not have my story’s best interest at heart, therefore his critique was useless to me.

I’ve also gotten crit on short stories from people who weren’t very good at picking up on context clues, so they criticized things that would have made sense if they read between the lines (which, no offense to anyone, but as a pro reviewer, you should be able to do that lmao). Granted, this is case by case because sometimes I DO need to make things more clear even if it is subtle, and I’ll usually go about that if I see the same critique on things I thought were evident enough over and over again. But a lot of times, it’s a matter of “this particular reader missed something that I haven’t noticed being missed before and therefore the crit is useless to me.” If they can’t be bothered to try to make as full sense as possible to the story to give me crit, 8/10 the crit has no value to me bettering it. But again, that can be case by case, and I would be very careful about applying this advice to any crit you get.

In that same vein I’ve also had people make WILD accusations/reads/predictions and immediately say it needs to be “fixed.” That’s usually crit that I toss too, because you cannot please everyone, and people read things differently. But if it’s not a consistent issue, and/or completely goes against the grain of the story, it’s not useful critique to me. It’s not a blaring issue that needs addressing, the specific reader just has tastes and that’s okay!

All of that to say, when it’s evident the person understands what’s going on, has an idea of what I'm trying to accomplish in the prose, or grasps my themes, then I’m more open to accepting their crit and chewing on it, even if it is a one-off “I’ve never had that issue raised before.” That still leaves room for things to be tossed but it still gives me a lot of food for thought and might drive me to make some changes I might not have previously considered, which is never a bad thing. In fact, it usually works out even better than before!

If it’s something I keep hearing about, then yeah, I’ll go and change it. If it’s something that’s pretty polarizing in where some readers like it and some don’t, I’ll gauge what works better for ME, the writer. If it’s one-off things, I’ll consider the source. If it’s devastating blows to my ego and story, I’ll consider the source.

I feel like accepting critique is a bit of an art form and definitely doesn’t happen overnight. I learned all this from YEARS of threatening to quit writing over the slightest “I didn’t like this” and even then I still have a knack for taking it personally. The important thing to know, no matter how deep down inside your passionate soul it is, is that crit is necessary to growth, and a necessary part of the process!

P.S. Another thing I like to do is make fun of silly crit. Fun fact: my Tumblr tag, morallysuperiorlips, is based off of a piece of criticism I received that I have memed to absolute shit among my friend group. So, you could always just do that too to make yourself feel better :)

[br-amblinghostcat]

I straightened my collar nervously as I stood to the side of a large stage, waiting to be called to the podium. This conference had the potential to change the world. This invention had the potential to change the world. Would everyone accept it? Or will it be dismissed as unfeasible and left to fade into obscurity? I heard my name called as if from a great distance, and I hurried forward, nearly tripping on my own lab coat in the process.

I cleared my throat before I leaned forward to the microphone. "Citizens and Science are seen as worlds apart. As if distinct species, citizens see science as too confusing, and scientists see citizens as too far removed to understand their work. But scientists may benefit from the observations that citizens make of the world in their every day life! And citizens may benefit from being able to see simplified explanations for the world around them! But how can we connect both citizens and scientists to the world and to each other? What tool may we use to bridge the gap, to enrich both citizens and science?

I propose a tool, updated by scientists and citizens, edited and curated by professors, to connect us in understanding our world. This tool will use state-of-the-art object recognition to connect citizens and scientists to the species they are observing. Once recognized, this tool will display previously curated data on the species, while giving them a space to input their novel observations. This tool will update anywhere and anytime with our new uplink technology, to keep citizens and scientists connected even in far flung environments! In the case that this tool cannot identify what is being scanned, a query entry with the submitted observations will be generated for review by other scientists or professors, in order to either correct its category or to create a new species entry.

This tool boasts unparalleled accessibility, using plain non-jargon language in its UI and professor-generated species data, so that even children can benefit from this tool to learn about the world around them, and even for them to log their own observations!

With your help, we can all work together to use and update this tool to its fullest potential, to connect our region, and even the world, and our understanding of it."

I didn't even have time to exhale before the room exploded in the sounds of camera shutters and exclamations. The room spun with the flashing lights and bursts of excited "Professor! Professor!", as I gripped the podium to ground myself. Only in my wildest dreams-- this reception-- I narrowed my focus to a nearby young reporter with an outstretched microphone, and took a steadying breath. "Yes?"

"Professor Oak! I don't think you mentioned what this tool is called?"

I gave a small huff of a laugh. "I-I didn't? It slipped my mind. This tool is called the illustrated Pokemon Encyclopedia, or Pokedex for short."

[kghncanonzine]

👑 APPLICATION ADVICE 🌿

Hello! We are so glad you want to join our zine! I’m Mod Anna, in charge of writing and organization. We decided to share advice on what we look for in applications, as well as how the application is formatted. If you’ve applied to a lot of zines or none at all, we hope you’ll read through this information to guide you through our application process. First things first: a link to our info sheet is here. BEFORE reading this post, look at our FAQ and contributor application requirements. A lot of your questions will be answered here already. It helps mods if you examine our provided information before asking a new question.

Before opening the application, I suggest you know which pieces you are using to apply. An organized portfolio and strong submission pieces do a lot for ensuring we can give your application the dedication we want to in our reviewal process. If your links don’t work, we won’t be able to give you a fair review. AO3, Google Drive (with the correct sharing permissions), and any other free online portfolio will work. If you’re worried about your links working, you can check their access abilities using an incognito or private tab. Each applicant will be sent a copy of their responses so you can ensure you submitted the correct ones. For other portfolio suggestions, I will include more information later in this post.

For the application itself: our first question on the application confirms you are 18+ before applying. If you are not of age, we will not be able to accept you. If we find out you have lied, you will be disqualified from our project and likely future ones the mod team runs. I apologize if you want to join but are under 18—but this rule protects us and you to comply with labor laws as much as we can. The next few questions will ask you for general information. Your credit name, pronouns, social media links (if you have any) and a discord username. We will be communicating zine information through a Discord server, so please ensure you have an account.

Social media follower count will not be conducive to our choice for acceptance. For me, if I want to see more work from the applicant, I may check their social media if their portfolio is too small. The issue with a Certain Social Media Site, formerly known as Tw*tter, is that it does not organize your work well (i.e. RTs are hard to sort through from your personal work). I would suggest a blogging site, like tumblr, with a tag we can filter through. AO3 is similar with sorting capabilities, so you may wish to share yours even if you choose a different portfolio format.

Choose the zine position you will apply for. If you have more than one you wish to apply for, submit more than one application. If you are accepted, however, it will only be for one position. The pinch hitter question is pretty important. If we have a contributor fall through, you may be messaged to work on a shorter timeline. We have a few options of how you’d like to be considered as a pinch hitter, such as if your decision changes whether you’re accepted or not. I personally have been a pinch hitter more than once; it’s fun, it’s rushed, but it’s a job that a lot of people don’t always appreciate. Nonetheless, this answer will not affect your acceptance status.

Next is your submissions. For your submission links, artists are recommended to use Google Drive links and writers are recommended to use AO3 or Google Drive. You don’t have to host them on these sites, however, please make sure your links are easy to access and use. The harder it is for us to find your work, the less time we will be able to review it. You will also be asked which part of our zine you’re interested in creating for (Karasuno, Pro Leagues, JNT/Olympics) and whether you wish to create for our potential NSFW add-on. Page artists will be asked if they want to be our cover artist.

Each person will be asked about portfolio and submission links. The next section will help with choosing your pieces. Please include any content warnings in the space provided and keep this section SFW.

𝐒𝐔𝐁𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

GENERAL OVERVIEW: If you have pieces that feature Kageyama or Hinata, especially concerning their relationship, I recommend using those for your submission pieces. This way we will be able to understand how you portray them, and how we see that fitting in with our project. A zine team wants a range of contributors. The more flexible your work is while maintaining a consistent style, the better we’ll be able to see you creating a page we want to print. If you choose to submit pieces from other fandoms, ensure there’s a reason why you want to include them. Whether they resemble a way you’ll draw them or write their characterizations, you want to target your pieces toward showing off your capabilities, not limiting them. It is not recommended to include drafts or sketches of your work in your portfolio. We want to see what you can develop in full for our zine.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PAGE ARTISTS: Choose pieces that are as current to your developed artistic style. The way you color, render, line, light, and form will all be taken into consideration. You want at least 1 piece, if not all 3, to have full backgrounds. Your compositions and detail will be important, i.e. if you have characters in similar poses or simple backgrounds, we won’t be able to see the full range of your skill. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR MERCH ARTISTS: Along with the above section, please ensure you have as many polished merch designs in your portfolio, if you have them. The more you have, the better we can see what merch item you would best create. If you apply to both positions, I don’t recommend an overlap between your main submissions—you can include them in your portfolio, but try to tailor your application to the merch aspect versus as a page artist.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WRITERS: As a writer myself, I may be biased in saying that a writer application is the hardest to craft. For one, if you don’t have KageHina pieces, the mod team has a weaker understanding of how you would write these characters in their canon scenario.

If you have any polished KageHina pieces, it is imperative you include at least one. Otherwise, if you have written any characters that emulate their personalities or how you would write them, or even other characters in the Haikyuu!! Universe, we will accept these as well. The better the mods know the characters, the more they’re likely to judge your piece fairly. As a side note, I will include other fandoms the mods are familiar with so you can determine if you have any pieces of fandoms outside of Haikyuu!! that would fit what you wish to portray in our zine.

For writing, determine the kind of relationship you want to portray in a potential zine piece. Getting together, hurt/comfort, established relationships, fluff, humor—all of the tropes you want to include and how you write them, pick the pieces that best represent them. Characterization, setting, fluid writing are all important and ultimately, the way the piece makes a reader feel. As applicants, we do not get to explain what our intent is with a piece; all we have is the work, and how a mod enjoys your pieces. Here, range is important. If your pitches are angsty, you’ll want an angst submission. If you want to write humor, the same thing. We will do our best to determine different applicants and their goals to create a cohesive, flowing piece that portrays Hinata and Kageyama in their canon element.

Pay attention to word count as well. We are aiming for 1.5k-3k word pieces for the zine. This means you’ll want at least one finished piece in this length and excerpts of this length. We will only read a max of 5k per piece so keep this in mind during your selections.

Final Points to Make your Application Stronger: we are forming a zine about KageHina in canon. Do you have pieces of them younger in Karasuno or older in JNT? You may want to include these. Especially when it comes down to your pitches in the next section.

As a final reminder, keep all pieces SFW. The NSFW portion follows a similar format, of course, but this is an optional application. You will want to include Mature or Explicit work for the NSFW part of our application.

𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐅𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐎

This is where you put your pieces that are the strongest outside of your main submission. I would recommend Google Drive Folder. For all applicants, when we review more of your pieces, we will be able to give your application a more thorough look. Just as a reminder, organization does matter. If you have extra pieces you wish to show off, this is when you would include them. I recommend a Google Drive Folder because, although more work to put together, we will be able to sort through your other pieces quicker. You could include a list of AO3 links with details about each fic, you could include full excerpts, you could include more of your range in artwork.

𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒

I love reading creative pitches. I love seeing the passion a contributor has for the zine or for the characters themselves! Feel free to think about what you wish to create for this project. Try to keep them at a reasonable length, but still detailed enough that we can see your vision. This will not determine your acceptance but it does help us figure out which part of the zine we’d like to see you write or draw for. Make sure to submit and ask any questions or comments you have. We will answer them on our twitter if we feel them relevant. You will receive a copy of your responses, too.

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍

Thank you so much for reading this, frankly, verbose post. I appreciate your attention to your application and I hope this soothes some of your worries. We are so excited to see all the lovely applications! No matter what happens, we are so happy for your passion for this project.

Much affection, Mod Anna

𝐎𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋: here’s a list of fandoms the mods have been involved in, just in case you want to pick pieces outside of Haikyuu!!

Boku no Hero Academia

Given

SK8

Buddy Daddies

Jujutsu Kaisen

Bungou Stray Dogs

Demon Slayer

Miraculous Ladybug

MXTX’s works (TGCF, MDZS, SVSS)

Ace Attorney Series

Our Flag Means Death

Good Omens

Ted Lasso

Spy Movies

Percy Jackson Series

—Reblogs are appreciated, thank you! @zine-scene @atozines @fandomzines @zinefeed

[melloggd]

Review: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies

Capcom • Capcom • 2013 • Nintendo 3DS Read it on Backloggd: (x)

As fans of the series are likely well aware, this fifth game marked the point when a new team took over Shu Takumi's darling mainline series of murder-mystery games. Takumi was preoccupied with Ghost Trick, the Professor Layton crossover game, and later Great Ace Attorney, and the team he previously led for the series' fourth game had kind of just dissolved after finishing up. So, the team behind the spinoff Ace Attorney Investigations duology ended up taking the reigns of the main series. What this boils down to is, that this marked the first time that two different teams were making Ace Attorney games in parallel with one another: The Investigations team now making this game, led by Takeshi Yamazaki, and Takumi's team releasing The Great Ace Attorney just two years later.

The reason for leading with this context, is because I find the contrast between these games to be inherently fascinating. That despite being fundamentally "the same kind of game" they had such different directions as to lead to two wholly different experiences for wholly different players.

Looking at Takumi's games and history in interviews, its clear to me that he values "The Puzzle" above all else (he IS a magician in training, fun fact!). The feeling of working things out in your head, drawing conclusions wholly on your own and submitting your answer to see the game react in amazement at your ability. Ghost Trick and the existence of Herlock Sholmes in general make this the most apparent, but in my eyes "The Puzzle" is only a piece of what makes Ace Attorney what it is, and it is only thanks to Takumi's direction that it has become a focus in his games.

All this build-up, is just to say this: Yes, Dual Destinies easily has the least interesting gameplay in the series. Yes, it will often make it plainly obvious what the solution to a puzzle is, moments before its time to submit the answer. BUT: I believe this is because Yamazaki's priorities were elsewhere in production. In my eyes, Dual Destinies focuses far more on its own narrative, mysteries and character drama than it does puzzle-solving, detective sleuthing and experimenting with game mechanics. This in my eyes is neither "better" nor "worse": Its just the result of a CHANGE in direction. But it IS a change that happens to be to my preference.

For instance: There's no Soseki Natsume-type case here that, as Takumi loves to do, exists SOLELY to be a fun puzzle to unravel. Instead every case feels as if it has more of a point to it narratively, having them all fit together well thematically. Characters return, dynamics are explored, themes reinforced in interesting ways and generally I rarely got the sense that--story-wise-- my time was being wasted with any of the cases I was playing. This was an issue I felt plagued AA3, despite its attempt to be dramatic and conclusive. Its mainly because of this new direction that I feel Case 2 in this game is the worst one: It seems intentionally set up like a "puzzle-box" mystery typical of the most devious puzzles in AA1-3, yet as I've explained that kind of focus is not one Dual Destinies typically wants to have.

Because of the baggage that both the series' prior game and Capcom high-ups gave the team, Dual Destinies' story was almost destined to be one that attempted a lot of things, yet I don't think I could have predicted that it'd pull those things and more off...surprisingly well. I know the whole "Dark Age of the law" setting has been derided by a lot of fans, but what I found especially commendable with this direction was that they used it as a tool to go in and clean up a lot of things that...Apollo Justice just kind of handwaved away. Like...if Phoenix was disbarred and shunned away from the law world for seven years, how was he able to set up all that he does to take down Kristoph in the end of Apollo Justice, including the debut of the wholly untested Jury system? Why was Phoenix so casually doing extremely shady things both in the development of this system and while in court in Case 1? And, of course: Why was a supposedly story about Apollo becoming the new face of Justice instead written to secretly be about Phoenix being this mastermind?

By retroactively framing Apollo Justice as ALSO taking place during this Dark Age, suddenly things begin to click: Apollo defending nothing but criminals in that game becomes more than a neat coincidence, and Case 3 in that game suddenly becomes more about showing that corruption. The grimy world of Apollo Justice aside, I find all the cases in Dual Destinies in some subtle way show how the perception of the law has changed (which is a big part as to why Case 3 is my favorite in the game). The world itself hasn't changed: People's perception of it has. Culprits commit crimes not because they're in a position of power to where they're able to get away with it (AA1) or because they seek revenge (AA2), but simply because they now feel its the easiest way to solve their situation: because the current law system will not catch or punish them. Kristoph in AA4 is an excellent, shining example of this, going to lunatic lengths to commit a crime because he knows that a law world run the way it is in this age will never catch him.

Dual Destinies shows a world where people see little benefit in being truthful, because their "champions of truth" in the most recent times were also the ones who used fake evidence in a murder trial, who defended nothing but criminals for a whole game's time, who deprioritized their duty as a lawyer over playing in a rock band - and one of them was even convicted of murder themselves.

That's a really cool yet understated part of Dual Destinies: Almost every character, new or old, are hiding away the truth or their true selves, not because they have done anything, but because they are afraid of what will happen once that truth is revealed. They're scared of what honesty will do to themselves, their relationships, and their careers, and instead keep it to themselves. Because to them, what happened to Phoenix, their guiding light in an unjust world, seven years ago, was the truth about him coming out, and as soon as it did his career and public perception of the law plummeted. This feeds into Blackquill's backstory as well and how he willingly turned himself in as a murderer, rather than having him be exposed: The moment these guardians of the law world come clean about their honest nature, the world came crumbling down, thus a world of secrecy and distrust was seen as the only way to live.

In terms of playable characters, I feel like the 3DS Home Menu diorama best showcases the game's direction: With Phoenix's story now told (and told again) with AA1-4, and Apollo having been introduced, its his and Athena's story now being told with Phoenix as mentor and motivation. Apollo and Athena are shown fighting in court, with Phoenix at home in the office. This is even reflected in the ending cutscene of the game, with Apollo and Athena being the ones celebrating as Phoenix just watches and smiles. The Dual Destinies the title is referring to is the two young lawyers overcoming their inner doubts and no longer hiding from the truth, no matter how scary it may sound, thanks to the help of their mentor, channeling Mia's positive mentorship.

I've heard people (mainly Athena fans) say the game feels crowded because of the trio-setup, but I find everyone gets a very comfortable slot in to tell the cohesive story. Phoenix is a passive figure as the plot delves into Athena's life alongside Apollo's inner turmoil. Given that AA4 didnt really...establish much of any goal for Apollo beyond meaningless family relations, this game works as a springboard for him, with a character moment so perfectly executed and befitting of him that he shot to the top of character popularity polls after launch. Following AA4 up with another game just starring Phoenix and Apollo and..."exploring" those family relations could've been a safe and easy direction to go in, yet Yamazaki's team committed to an ambitious idea of two kinds of character growth: DUAL DESTINIES, so to speak.

This is why I don’t mind Apollo’s “new backstory” in this game being so brief and, in a sense, discardable. Because the point of the backstory is to drive his actions and growth as a character: Not to give him a goal to pursue. You aren't meant to sympathize with him on a personal, "I-knew-how-good-of-a-guy-your-friend-was" level, because you're just observing the mental effects its having on Apollo, and trying to help him from the perspective of two people who really don't know the pain he's going through. Its what starts his internal turmoil and it does that well.

And putting a bow atop of it all is presentation that feels almost a cut above Ace Attorneys typical stellar pedigree: The composer of AA3 paired with the sound director of AA4 leads to whats pretty easily my favorite sound in the series, narrowly beating Great Ace Attorney purely by the element of variety. One of my biggest issues with AA4 was just how...dislikable a lot of the interacting cast was (again, is retroactively made more interesting with the Dark Age framing), and Dual Destinies remedies this with some absolute top-of-the-line new favorites (Simon + Case 3 my beloved) All the characters animate beautifully, and I admire the restrictions the team placed on themselves regardless: Characters like Filch and Fulbright will still snap to animations to retain the snappy timing of the original games, something I felt The Great Ace Attorney was comparatively lacking in due to reliance of "natural" motion-capture.

But then we come back to that point, that interesting contrast in direction: The Great Ace Attorney’s character models have far more detail and a whole new sense of fluidity, giving it more of a sophisticated feel, wheras Dual Destinies’ more simple designs and harsh cuts lend themselves to a different vibe altogether. The game’s anime cutscenes are a great example of this. The simpler designs lend themselves nicely to the occasional shift, and it does wonders to help drive the story. TGAA gets half as much cutscene runtime and accomplishes precious little with it, mostly just feeling jarring and out of place; Again, different direction.

So let's summarize: A fantastic story that retroactively makes the Ace Attorney game I have the most issues with click better and established three Top-5 favorite characters, paired with the best soundtrack in the series and a really nice visual direction for the mainline AA series. And crucially, while as I explained before the game fumbles in puzzle design, it NEVER shows its hand too early. This is my distinction between “the puzzle” mentioned earlier and "the mystery”, and the mystery is always excellently paced out across each case whilst driving a good story to boot. The points at which the game nudges you toward what to pick aren’t several steps before said event occurs, but rather often right after a major new unveiling has happened within the story. THIS is why the handholdy design doesn’t bother me.

Neither Takumi or Yamazaki had an easy task on their hands. Takumi had to introduce and build a whole new world, knowing full well it and its new characters, story and games would likely always live in the shadow of what would occur in the mainline series. Yamazaki, on the other hand, had to tie together the tangled web that Apollo Justice established, and carry the torch of the mainline series forward with a wholly new team with a distinct new flavor for the series, whilst also making an impactful game in its own right for both new fans and old. The results of both efforts are ones that, in a way falter where the other succeeds. Dual Destinies just so happened to land on the side of the pond that I happen to vibe just a bit more with, with all due respect paid to Takumi’s equally impressive effort.

I feel its best summarized with this: TGAA’s new mechanics like the Jury and Herlock Deductions lead to deviously clever puzzles and fun character interaction. AA5’s Percieve/Mood Matrix are very lacking in substance, yet are both used to pull some of the series’ best storybeats with incredibly satisfying ludonarrative harmony. And just the fact that Dual Destinies even HAS those abilities, on top of it all, to me speaks volumes on how passionate the team was to honor and respect the old, push forward with the new, and give it their all.

[Playtime: 35 hours] [Key Word: Admirable]

[eenslaved]

Hello…is today the day of book launch? I’ve only been waiting since March 😊🥹🥰🫠

I'm so sorry! I tweeted about this last week but when I was editing the book details, I hit submit before I uploaded the final manuscript. That locked me out of making any edits to the book while Amazon reviewed the changes, including being able to upload the manuscript.

It's been uploaded and reviewed and ready to be delivered to devices on June 22!

Preordering still available for Sweet Tidbits or you can just get it when it is released this Saturday!

[whencyclopedia]

The AI Revolution is Here

By Jan van der Crabben

The image above was not painted by J. M. W. Turner or another 19th century artist, but entirely created by an artificial intelligence (AI) called Midjourney. All I did was to tell the AI to create: “Painting of the Pyramids in Egypt, Turner style, with Nile River and palm trees in the foreground.” It was also entirely free to create it. 

While my AI image of the Pyramids is not perfect, I think that it is a good indication of where we’re going within the next decade. The Great AI Revolution is upon us, and I believe it is going to be of similar historical importance as the invention of the printing press and the Industrial Revolution.

This article is mostly about the future, but it wouldn’t be published here if it wasn’t also about history. So please bear with me while we explore the significance of this moment in history that we inhabit.

I have been thinking about the implications of this for a while (more about that later), but first I want to share a framework with you that has helped me greatly make sense of the historical significance of what’s happening with AI right now. It was developed by Ben Thompson of the Stratechery blog (which I highly recommend to everyone interested in the tech industry). Thompson’s framework  is primarily concerned with creative works such as writing and art, but it can be applied to the production of things, too. He identifies five stages in the production, transmission and consumption chain:

Creation: Having the idea in the first place and working it out.

Substantiation: Turning the idea into reality, such as writing an article or painting an image.

Duplication: Printing the book, newspaper or posters.

Distribution: Getting the finished products to the customer.

Consumption: Allowing the customer to read or purchase the product.

Throughout history, humankind has worked to eliminate bottlenecks in this chain. The invention of writing solved the consumption bottleneck: Before writing, people had to meet in person to exchange (consume) ideas and information. The next great innovation was the invention of the printing press, which solved the problem of duplication as the copying of books became faster by orders of magnitude. Over time, publishers (newspapers in particular) developed better techniques of distribution, aided by the innovations of the Industrial Revolution, such as railroads. However, it was the internet that finally solved the problem of distribution, reducing its cost to zero and putting many newspapers out of business.

This leaves us with two bottlenecks in the transmission chain of ideas: creation and substantiation. While the creation happens in our heads, the substantiation aspect has until now required at least one human to write the article, paint the painting, program the software… you get the idea. That is about to change as artificial intelligence is now able to write and translate texts, create images, read text, transcribe speech, program software, and much more. New applications are being developed at a rapid pace.

I have followed the progress of many of these aspects of computing since the 1990s, and the progress we’ve made in the last 30 years has been stunning! Computer voices used to be robotic, now they are almost human. Today we can give an AI the outline of an article, and it will do an acceptable writing job that requires only some human editing. The images the AI creates are missing key details, but they do convey the desired idea. Things will continue to improve at a rapid pace. 

World History Encyclopedia has particularly benefited from advances in translation. When I first tried computer translation 30 years ago, the result was unreadable. Now, thanks to AI translation, our translation editors are able to review submitted translations in any language, including ones they don’t speak, as we’ve built a system that reverse-translates to English and allows our editors to compare it with the English original paragraph by paragraph. Surely, we may not be able to judge the linguistic quality of the translation, but we can tell if it’s accurate or not. Conversely, our in-house translators can get an English article translated at the click of a button, and all they then need to do is verify and edit the AI translation to bring it up to our standards.

The demand for human translators, artists, writers, data analysts and programmers and other professions is going to drastically decrease over the coming decade, and other jobs will follow suit. In the past, if I had an idea and I couldn’t draw or paint, I could not create the painting. Now, I can ask an AI to do it for me instead.

This will open up possibilities undreamed of and create new jobs that we cannot even imagine yet. To get an idea of what’s already possible, watch this Youtube video where someone explains how he created an entire graphic novel in one day using AI to generate both images and text. Within the next few years, the potential of what we can do with AI will grow exponentially. Google and other companies are already working on AI models that will be able to do more than one thing (e.g. write, paint and speak, not only one at a time) and that will be able to use their existing knowledge to learn new skills more quickly.

That does not mean that humans will have nothing to do. As with the Industrial Revolution, the people who used to do the job will instead be controlling the machines to do the job faster. That is a different skill in itself: While I managed to create images that looked sort of acceptable but not quite right, it is a skill to guide the AI into generating truly beautiful pictures such as this painting of a woman or this painting of a tower. Equally, we would not rely on AI translation for our articles on World History Encyclopedia without having a human review and edit them. AI is a new tool that will help us create things, just like a machine does, but it is still us humans who will need to make it do what we want it to do.

No article about AI would be complete, though, without also mentioning the inherent risks. It is unlikely that the Terminator movies will come true and the AI will rise up against us. A much more real and current issue is related to how AIs are trained using data available on the internet. We all know that the internet contains many bad things that we’d rather get rid of, such as sexism, racism and xenophobia and there is the risk that once AIs are used by everyone, they may inadvertently reinforce the human biases and negative stereotypes.

The rise of AI is also likely to result in staggering improvements to the human condition and if the current trend continues, as I am sure it will, we will see even greater change than people saw during the Industrial Revolution – and it will happen a lot more quickly, too. History is happening in front of our eyes.I thought it would be fitting to end this article with an AI generated image. The prompt I used was: “Workplace of the future.” It looks decidedly retrofuturistic, doesn’t it? Maybe it says more about humanity’s collective thoughts regarding the future than about the AI itself…

[rainsandrains]

John Keats and Atheopagan Sainthood

So, I recently changed my PhD topic somewhat - from my perspective it is a drastic narrowing down of my original topic, but from the faculty's perspective it's a change of topic that required rewriting my proposal, submitting it for review, etc. It got accepted, so after a year of limbo and depression I have a new supervisor (which should make a big difference to my ability to jump through the arbitrary academic hoops while my keeping both my academic integrity and my mental health intact) and renewed motivation for my work.

My new project is on John Keats and parasocial interaction. I'd love to chat about it if anyone is curious, but that's not really the point right now. The point is: I am SO happy to be reading and writing about Keats again. I feel like my interests in Keats and in paganism have been complementary in a way, whereas previously I felt like my spiritual life and my academic life were vastly different, often competing, spaces. I have a couple of thoughts I wanted to share, and would love to hear what people think.

1) the idea of "saints" from an Atheopagan perspective. I toyed with Keats as an "ancestor" of sorts, specifically with his idea of Negative Capability (see below) as a sacred concept, but it never felt quite right. I know I COULD see him as an ancestor, especially as I enjoy writing poetry and think I'm reasonably good at it, at least some of the time. But still, it never stuck. Today, the word "saint" came to mind, and I really like that. First, a saint is someone you look up to, not just for their accomplishments but for their suffering and faith (or, for our purposes, dedication to their values etc) throughout it. Keats suffered plenty - not just his own infamous early death to TB but by losing multiple family members to it as well. He also suffered the slings and arrows of the classist reviewers and such, and that caused him to doubt himself a great deal. And yet, despite all this, before he died at just 25 he had written poetry that has been beloved for two centuries, inspiring to many, and that is extremely beautiful. He trained to be a doctor originally, and in Aileen Ward's essay on Keats and the idea of fame (in 'Critical Essays on John Keats, edited by Hermione De Almeida, available to read on archive.org for free) she discusses his internal battle regarding what his ambition should be: he wanted to be of service to others, and felt guilty that he was pursuing poetry rather than medicine, yet felt a calling to poetry he couldn't ignore. Ultimately, he seems to have mixed the two: on good days, he saw poetry as a way to be of service, and honestly I think he succeeded. So, Keats was dedicated to his values (service to others, and the value of beauty (one of the Atheopagan pillars), as well as others) throughout a great deal of suffering, and I find that greatly inspiring.

The other thing about saints is that, from a Catholic perspective at least, they're meant to be able to intercede on our behalf. Of course we don't believe in that sort of thing - but perhaps, in a ritual context, there could be some use for a metaphorical or imaginary intercession. I'm not sure precisely how this would look; I've never found ritual easy, it doesn't come naturally to me. But there could be some value in "invoking" the "spirit" of Keats to aid in a task, to making a talisman related to him that you keep around when struggling with a task you feel he could help with. I don't know.

2) Negative Capability as a sacred concept. There are several sections of his letters that are taken together in the many interpretations of the idea of Negative Capability, but the main one is this: "I had not a dispute, but a disquisition, with Dilke upon various subjects; several things dove-tailed in my mind, and at once it struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously—I mean Negative Capability; that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the Penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half-knowledge. This pursued through volumes would perhaps take us no further than this, that with a great poet the sense of Beauty overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all consideration." I actually want to quote my college chaplain on this, from an email exchange in June 2021. I hope he wouldn't mind! After relating it to some aspects of Christianity, he wrote: "Our own struggles do not become easier when we accept the mysteriousness of them, but we do perhaps save ourselves an extra level of pain in denying ourselves the possibility of being “content with half knowledge”. It also might help us support those who are suffering more if – unlike Job’s companions in that extraordinary book about suffering – we resist the temptation to try to wholly explain or fix something through a delimited vision of our own rational capabilities. In simple terms I guess we’re talking about a posture of humility!" Negative Capability has been interpreted in various ways by different critics over the years. I personally like Walter Jackson Bate's interpretation, which is based in part in ideas about empathy and the imagination (the latter of which being a vital concept to Keats and to most, if not all, Romantic poets): “into the Imagination’s apprehension of an object are woven the very subtlest threads of association” which “escape the scrutiny of the intellect” but are picked up by the intuition. (Bate, Negative Capability: On the Intuitive Approach to Keats, 1939 - I think also available on archive.org) Moreover, he defines Negative Capability as “an acceptance […] of the particular, a love of it and a trust in it; and an acceptance, moreover, with all its ‘half-knowledge’, of the ‘sense of Beauty,’ of force, of intensity, that lies within that particular and is indeed its identity and its truth, and which ‘overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all consideration.’” I love this - Negative Capability not as a commitment to agnosticism in all things, nor as a fanciful belief in whatever feels beautiful (as it can easily sound like he's saying) - Keats studied chemistry and botany in his medical training, and was certainly not anti-science - but, from a moral and artistic perspective (which were greatly intertwined in the cultural view of the "artist" or "poet" at the time), accepting mystery, humbly accepting what we don't know, and letting our sense of beauty (which I read as encompassing gentleness, softness, solidarity, vulnerability, kindness, radical acceptance of self and other...) "obliterate" the capitalistic and religious concerns we've been raised to see as reasonable.

I hope that some of what I've said made SOME sense. Much, much ink has been spilled trying to parse what Keats means on this topic and others, so please don't take my interpretation as any kind of authority. I just find the concept fascinating, and inspiring, and beautiful, and... maybe sacred.

3) FInally, the thing that actually prompted me to write this in the beginning: Keats and paganism. Specifically, quoting from John Barnard in his essay in De Almeida's book cited earlier,

"Keats owned a copy of William Godwin's The Pantheon: or Ancient History of the Gods of Greece and Rome… (1806), a book aimed at the young reader and published under the name of "Edward Baldwin." Godwin writes: '[...] it is a delightful thing to take a walk in fields, and look at the skies and trees and the corn-fields and the waving grass, to observe the mountains and the lakes and the rivers and the seas, to smell the new-mown hay, to inhale the fresh and balmy breeze, and to hear the wild warblings of the birds: but a man does not enjoy these in their most perfect degree, till his imagination becomes a little visionary; the human mind does not have a landscape without life and without a soul: we are delighted to talk to the objects around us, and to feel as if they understood and sympathised with us: we create, by the power of fancy, a human form and a human voice in those scenes, which to a man of literal understanding may appear dead and lifeless.' Hence, according to Godwin, Greek religion 'gave animation and life to all existence: it had its Naiads, Gods of the rivers, its Tritons and Nereids, Gods of the seas, its Satyrs, Fauns and Dryads, Gods of the woods and trees, and its Boreas, Euros, Auster and Zephyr, Gods of the winds.'"

Keats was evidently inspired by this idea - we do see it also in other Romantic writers as well, for example Percy Shelley (who married Godwin's daughter and was a big fan of Godwin as a young man), but Keats's approach to paganism has inspired me in my Atheopaganism a great deal, and this passage in Barnard helped me to understand why. Keats writes about Apollo a great deal, which makes sense as Apollo was god of both poetry and healing - and often he figures himself as an Apollonian devotee, both in lighthearted and more serious ways. I don't get any sense from his writing that Keats believed in Apollo, but the way he writes about him is so evocative that it makes me wish the god was real sometimes... that passage in Barnard made it make sense to me: Keats felt (intuitively, in a negatively capable way) the interconnectedness of life on Earth, the vitality of the natural world, and paganism was the way he was drawn to express it. Ancient Greek and Roman religion (and art, and everything) was fashionable at the time, which likely influenced his choice of gods (because those would have been the books available to him at the time), but in general Keats uses pagan imagery to reflect the "visionary" quality of his imagination, an imagination that enables him to feel the vitality, the beautifully interconnected life, all around him. Isn't that what we're doing as Atheopagans, whether we use metaphorical deities in our practice or not? Godwin wrote that we imagine the natural world to be sentient and alive - well, we know it's alive, even if it's not all sentient in the same way we are. I see what Keats is doing as an 18th/19th century version of what I see in Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life, or Robert Macfarlane's writing on landscape, or the music of Spell Songs, or Robin Wall Kimmerer's approach to the natural world. It's beautiful.

[lgcmanager]

ACTING MISSION 016

SCHEDULE TYPE: TRIMESTER ( PART 1 OUT OF 1 )SCHEDULE RESTRICTIONS: Cannot be paired with another trimester schedule, unless stated otherwise. for reference as to whether your muse is eligible for this event, please click over HERE.

all of the models are called to a meeting with their managers, BYUN MIDO, HAN YOOHWA, KIM DONGSUN, and SEO HEEJUNG. not wanting to waste any time, the managers begin going through everything that will be happening in the new term.

DORMS

HEEJUNG begins to tells them the rules and information regarding housing, “in the past terms, we’ve allowed everyone who has joined legacy agency the option to stay in dorms or find their own place. however, due to the incident that happened a few months ago and how our bosses have been telling us to be ever so more watchful towards all of you, we’ve changed our rules. similar to last term, every person who joins the subsidiary will stay in the dorms for one term. if you have been under probation before, then that will last two terms — one for the term where you were under probation and another to follow every new person that joins us.”

“for the ones that have gone through one term in this path without any warnings, punishments, or scandals during that time, they will be given the option to live offsite. those of you confirmed to stay will be able to move into your new dorms starting from today. otherwise, for those of you who have chosen to stay in your own place, you will need to pack up and leave your current dorms starting from today as well. and just like AECHA has said in the past, just because you aren’t under our watch 24/7 anymore does not mean that you can go crazy. if we hear of any inappropriate behavior, you will be immediately brought back to the dorms.” DONGSUN looks at each one of the actors, making sure that they know and are aware of the new dorm changes.

SNS

HEEJUNG stated, “sns is important for exposure for our actors. however, it’s not absolutely imperative, so the rules haven’t changed. you’ll be permitted a PUBLIC INDIVIDUAL INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT after meeting certain conditions. first, you must have completed a full trimester in this path and second, you must have at least 6 posts on the legacy entertainment account already. this just gives us comfort that you know what is or isn’t appropriate. for those of you who are eligible for an account, the information will be provided to you shortly. again, as with the dorms, this privilege can be taken away if you decide to do some funny business.”

DEBUT CONTRACT

“now we’re almost done with the basics, but there’s one legal matter that we have to cover right now.” HEEJUNG turns to look at YOOHWA and MIDO, who is giving the contracts to some of the actors. “please read and review through the new terms and conditions. once you are done, sign and return the contract to me or DONGSUN as soon as possible. it doesn’t have to be done right now, but the sooner the better because your modeling career will be starting soon and we want to make sure this is done in a seamless manner.”

( this is just an ic note, there is no need to submit this ooc )

FANSITE ( OPEN EVENT 6 )

for the ones that have joined the path, they will be eligible to participate in OPEN EVENT 6, where they can post content for the fansites! more information about this can be found over HERE.

ACTING WORKSHOPS

“the lgc agency managers and i have reviewed everyone's performances so far, minus the ones who have recently joined us. we’re happy to say that the actors have been doing a good job meeting our expectations. while that is great, we still encourage everyone to take this bit of time to continue attending your regular workshops. with many of our actors currently filming martine corporation among other activities, we’re in a bit of a lull until the year end ceremonies happen.” DONGSUN explains the situation to all of the actors present. “so to find a happy balance between everyone’s schedules, we have modified the training schedule a bit so that there are more acting workshops for you to choose from.”

starting from now until the end of the term, lgc agency will be offering supplemental acting workshops to encourage the actors to work on areas that they might be interested in ( or are hoping to improve on ).

here are a list of workshops that will be available during that time ( they will rotate throughout the next few months ):

acting techniques ( method acting, meisner technique, etc. )

audition techniques ( learning how to prepare oneself for auditions, or how to breakdown a script, etc. )

cold reading/sight reading ( how to prepare for the text, which includes reading, analyzing, memorizing, and delivering the text )

improvisation ( specifically geared towards commercial acting )

scene study ( exploring different kinds of scenes for plays, television, film, analyzing/rehearsing that content, and then performing it in front of the class )

vocal ( how to use your voice, diction, singing, etc. )

at the end of the term ( before the actors go on their vacation ), they will each be asked to write an entry reflecting on the workshops they’ve taken and expressing their strengths and weaknesses as an actor.

ACTING PROFILE

in the past we’ve had the MODELING PORTFOLIOS where you are asked to create their model profile based on a series of questions. for the ACTORS, we are offering something similar to that to help us gauge the types of film works, characters, and genres that the actor might be interested in.

for this section, please answer the following questions in a separate post and use the hashtag lgc:actporfolio001.

if given a chance, would you be interested in being a part of a musical?

3 genres that you would enjoy the most?

3 genres that you wouldn’t enjoy as much?

3 character tropes that you would be interested in portraying?

3 character tropes that you would dislike portraying?

list 3 of your favorite fictional characters from any work ( eg. movie, drama, animation, musical, play, etc. )

out of the four options, rank them in order based on 1 being the most important part to 4 being the least important part in deciding whether to take a specific acting project; character, storyline, staff ( eg. if the director/writer is someone famous ), money.

do note that the post will NOT be counted for activity! however, you will receive +5 ACTING POINTS upon completion!  please submit the following form on the points blog before NOVEMBER 11, 2023 11:59PM EDT.

MUSE NAME ∙ ACTING PORTFOLIO (Q4 2023) - PROFILE: +5 acting [ LINK ]

PROJECT ??? & TEMPORARY DORM ARRANGEMENTS

near the end of the meeting, DONGSUN will inform the actors that during the week of DECEMBER 4, they will be skipping out on any individuals they may have for a special schedule. all of the models and actors will be residing in the lgc agency dorms during that week so that it’s easier to accompany all of them to their schedule. aside from that, no additional details are revealed as to what it is except that for one of the days, they are expected to wake up at 3AM in the morning.

during this time, the dorm arrangements are as follows:

APARTMENT 301

ROOM A: HAN JISOO, KIM JINHYUK, YOO HAEMIN

ROOM B: CHO MINKYU, LIM SANGHYUN, SEONG BYUNGHO

ROOM C: CHOI JAEHYUN, KIM JINYOUNG, MOON JINO

ROOM D: MANAGER KIM DONGSUN, MANAGER NAM JINHO

APARTMENT 302

ROOM A: KIM JINSEO, LEE HYUNSOO, ZHENG LEO

ROOM B: HAN SEUNGHYUN, HOU MINGHAO, YOON MINJAE

ROOM C: MANAGER KANG DONGHA

apartments 301 and 302 are next to each other and unlike the typical lgc agency dorm layout, it’s arranged differently to accommodate all of the actors and models in the subsidiary. 

APARTMENT 201

ROOM A: SHEN JUNYI, BAEK SEONA

ROOM B: SOMSRI SOFIA, YANG AERI

ROOM C: SHIN JIEUN, XUE YIRAN, ZHENG AMELIA

ROOM D: MANAGER SEO HEEJUNG, SHIM JOOHEE

APARTMENT 202

ROOM A: AHN YEIN, AYUTTHAYA MAYA ROOM B: PAK JIHAN, LEE HANBYUL

ROOM C: MANAGER CHOI INYOUNG

ROOM D: MANAGER BYUN MIDO, MANAGER CHOI INYOUNG

apartments 201 and 202 are next to each other and unlike the typical lgc agency dorm layout, it’s arranged differently to accommodate all of the actors and models in the subsidiary. 

WRITING REQUIREMENTS

ACTING WORKSHOPS: write a 4 replies ( 2 posts per mun; 8 lines minimum ) with another ACTOR about anything related to the workshops for +10 ACTING ! ** all of the martine corporation cast members can only do this once while everyone else can do it twice **

BONUS: continue a previous Q3 thread ( cannot be a shapn/lgcu thread ) with 4 additional posts ( 2 per mun ) to receive +8 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE ANYWHERE and +4 NOTORIETY ! the new posts have to be posted sometime between now and NOVEMBER 18, 2023, 11:59PM EST. ** only for actors who have participated in WRITING CHALLENGE 002 **

please use the hashtag lgc:actingmission for everything related to above. once you are done, please submit the following form ONCE on the points blog. you have until NOVEMBER 18, 2023 11:59PM EST to complete the writing requirements.

MUSE NAME ∙ ACTING MISSION 016 - ACTING WORKSHOPS: +10 acting [ LINK ] ** all of the martine corporation cast members can only do this once while everyone else can do it twice ** – BONUS: +8 ( skill points distribution ), +4 notoriety [ LINK ] ** only for actors who have participated in writing challenge 002 **

[crystaldivination]

─ 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 ─

(𝖾𝗑𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗇𝗀𝖾 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖽𝗂𝗇𝗀𝗌)

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[literaticat]

I don't particularly like selling on proposal. For my fourth book, my agent says we aren't going to submit anything to my editor until fall. If I write an entire manuscript by then, can we submit that? Or will my agent still have me do a proposal (I assume because it's faster for my editor to review/easier to take to higher ups) even if the manuscript is finished?

My love, you know that this is YOUR book, YOUR career, and your agent wants (or SHOULD want) to do what's best for YOU... right?

Now here, I'm assuming that when you say you don't like selling on proposal, you mean, "I don't like selling a book that isn't done, because then I feel pressure in a weird way about finishing it, and I'd just rather know the whole thing is done and is just what I want it to be before I sell it"*** -- which is FAIR ENOUGH, to be honest!

So if you know that about yourself, just have a conversation with your agent about that. It doesn't have to be dramatic -- just, "Hey, I really don't like selling on proposal, it makes me feel [some kind of way], I'd prefer to wait until I have a full ms. I'll aim for that by Fall." And if you finish the ms (or get it close enough that you are comfortable, anyway), great. And if you don't, your agent can wait to send it. If your agent/editor would rather just have a short sample and synopsis to "take to the team" just because it's faster, that's fine, you can give them the first couple chapters and whip together a synopsis or outline or whatever, but you'll know that the ms is actually done, your agent and editor will both know that the ms is actually done, and that will be one less thing for you to worry about, and you'll be able to get to the editorial stage much more quickly.

COUNTERPOINT: I don't know you or your sitch, obviously. But it has to be said: There is a POSSIBILITY that your editor won't WANT the manuscript you just spent months writing, or that their team won't go for it, or whatever. This is one part of "selling on proposal" that is good -- if the editor or publisher doesn't want the book, or wants it but in a different way, you haven't just invested months and months of effort writing the whole darn thing, so it's much easier to pivot. Your agent, knowing this, might feel like, hey, wouldn't it be nice to know this and get it sorted out BEFORE You write the whole thing? Which, hey, I can also feel that, it's a reasonable position (and indeed, that's why many writers WANT to sell on proposal when they can!)

COUNTERPOINT TO THE COUNTERPOINT: OK, but if the editor doesn't want this book, and it's REALLY the book of your heart, you don't WANT to change it dramatically or write something different entirely, then it's better to have a full ms, because then if the editor turns it down, it will be easier to try and sell elsewhere. I generally only go out on proposal when an author has a relationship with that editor (OR they are extremely well-published, great track record, "famous", etc). If you've only ever worked with one publisher and aren't established like that, it will be easier to sell to somebody else if you have a full.

Anyway, these are all points for you to ponder, but I don't think there's anything wrong with having a discussion with your agent, being candid about your preferences, etc. Maybe they will have compelling reasons for you to do it "their way" that I don't know (because your situation is known by them and not by me!) -- so, you know, having the conversation is great -- but ultimately, you and your agent are PARTNERS, and you are the deciding partner.*****

--

*** (umm if you have some OTHER reason why, or this isn't what you mean at all, then IDK!)

***** (Some people say, "YOUR AGENT WORKS FOR YOU" -- but I don't like the implication that you are your agent's boss, any more than I like your agent being YOUR boss -- neither of you is the BOSS, you are both working TOGETHER for mutual benefit! That said, your agent is your fiduciary and is acting on your behalf, which means they can give you their best advice and wisdom, but ultimately, they shouldn't be doing things in your name that you don't want them to do!)