#random samples at the museum

[pipunculidae]

AWW YEAH (pipunculidae)

[tozettastone]

To celebrate your recent vacation, what are the akatsuki’s dream vacation? You can choose if this is a modern au or not!

Vacation is... no longer recent, which tells you how long I took to answer this. Sorry to anon!

AKATSUKI: DREAM VACATIONS EDITION

Tobi

Obito goes back to Konoha and blends in, passing among the people who live in the village like he still belongs there. This absolutely enrages him. He likes to watch people do all the things Rin won't. It's at least 75% self harm. The remaining 25% is just getting the opportunity to play cruel pranks on random strangers who happen to live in the village. Please get some goddamn help, Obito.

Pein

With regard to the context of how tired and pained he seems in canon, Nagato would benefit most from a staycation in which he decouples himself from the black receivers for a while. Just let him lie down and rest for a while. Get him a snack. Maybe a Fujikaze Yukie marathon? Her movies are very idealistic, that's pretty appealing.

Konan

Don't tell Hidan, but she's going to the Land of Hot Water. For the hot springs! She's going to go to an extremely advanced hot springs/spa type place and plant herself there for at least a week. The Land of Hot Water is perfect because, although it's not the closest beautification/wellness/relaxation retreat featuring hot springs, it has the benefit of now being utterly without a regular shinobi presence — so there's no reason for any wayward spymasters to be taking a work trip out that way. Listen, she lived with Jiraiya for three years. She's kind of got bathhouse trauma.

Zetsu

He rarely gets sent to locations frequented by civilians. His vacation is people-watching at the daimyo's court! It's a little like a butterfly house and a little like a performance. He spends the whole week murmuring quietly to himself (the only company he needs) about the intrigues and intense social politics he's observing.

Sasori

Museums and ancient sites. He has very strong feelings about the decay of these sites and objects over time and their methods of preservation and restoration. Sometimes he's genuinely fascinated to see what people are doing to preserve objects that are, like, 3000 years old and made of wood? There's always more to learn. But sometimes he steps into a municipal museum and he feels bitter and vastly superior. What are they even trying to do here?

Deidara

Okay, Deidara's DREAM vacation is just following Sasori around on HIS vacation and blowing up every site he visits to make a point about the inevitability of entropy. But since he's not actively trying to pick a fight, you'll probably find him squatting in some derelict and abandoned place, planning an enormous performance. It's not always about the size of the explosion — bigger is great, sure, but there are considerations of other qualities. Deidara truly is never happier than when he's plotting something that will go off with a REALLY big bang.

Itachi

He lives a life of excitement, noise and frequent disappointments. For his dream vacation he will have the time and the leisure to take a quiet and sedate little tour of the world-famous teahouses in Tea country. He will sample all of the seasonal wagashi, drink all of the tea, and enjoy the peace, quiet and rest. He will slowly hike between his planned inns during the day. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. It's a nice bit of countryside...

Kisame

He may want to STAY on a boat and have all the privacy of his own little home on the water and get to take it wherever he likes, but Kisame is not a quiet fishing trip guy. He's an Adventure Activities Holiday kind of guy. He will be grudgingly paying the absurd dock fees to leave his little boat somewhere for a few days just so he can trek over a mountain and go white water rafting or some shit.

Kakuzu

Kakuzu... doesn't take vacations. They're expensive and he doesn't really see the point. If he wants to go somewhere, he'll find work there. However, arguably, his life is just one long vacation at this point, since 90% of what he does is travel to exciting new locations to kill people. That aside, he will always make time to visit a rare book fair if one's in town. An easy, lucrative contract, an interesting old book, cheap accommodation and good weather to travel in: that's what he wants.

Hidan

Hidan's idea of a vacation is going to large, crowded cities and gifting them himself as their brand new urban legend/local cryptid/serial killer. His best holiday to date has been one in which his latest string of murders started a riot: 15 dead, 47 wounded, janitor very unhappy. Praise Jashin, he's been trying to top that high ever since.

Orochimaru

Orochimaru will spend the week lying on a pristine, private beach, sunbathing. He will bring one of his beloved little minions as a personal attendant to bring him cocktails on a schedule and to present an easy target for his amusement (it's important that it be someone he knows and likes — he enjoys provoking people he likes, not strangers to whom he's indifferent). He will definitely get bored of tormenting his attendant and lazing about within about three days, pack up and leave, sure. But the R&R portion of the trip is actually very rewarding. Sometimes you just need to sun yourself on a rock for a few days.

[moldypaintbrush1942]

Some Spengler headcanons I came up with at 3:00 AM last night.

Some NSFW ones at the end, just fair warning:

Also these are my head cannons considering only the first two films as canon:

And trust me they’ll be more where this came from:

Headcanons

Doesn’t drink alcohol

Never has quite gotten used to using the fire pole

Likes to look at toys in stores and will fiddle with them curiously if given to him

If he ever became a parent he would absolutely go overboard buying the kid toys (as much for himself as for the kid)

Doesn’t like touching strangers, avoids handshakes

Only child. Come on, just look at him.

Really enjoys music and keeps up to date with current artists and songs, just not outgoing about it.

Is guilty of trying samples of his mold, spores and fungus, as a treat

Definitely autistic just undiagnosed in his time

Low contact with parents

Did not have a lot of friends as a child. Many parents actively kept their kids away from him

He hates baths. This is random I know. It’s just the vibe.

Couple headcanons

Enjoys brushing his girlfriend's hair.

The first time he brings his girlfriend to his apartment he probably spends like two-three hours showing her and explaining his collection of mold, spores and fungus.

Kind of obvious but museum dates are an absolute must with him.

Generally a good listener.

Would take a while to warm up to physical touch but after he does he loves it.

Not very touchy in public. He wouldn’t want to hold his girlfriend's hand walking down the street. But he is touchy in private.

Would make a lot of sly dirty jokes towards his girlfriend. Usually science jargon. The kind that make your eyes roll into the back of your skull.

Has a bad jealousy streak / becomes jealous easily. Stems from insecurity.

Does not personally want kids but would be willing to have them if his girlfriend / wife wanted to or would be step up if an accident happened

NSFW headcanons

He’s not very hairy

Boob man all the way

Has a very average libido but goes through periods where he wants it more often, usually simultaneous with periods of him being busier or more active at work

Usually the initiator

Would like doctor roleplay

Would like his girlfriend on top

Definitely a “fuck out his work stress” guy. Whenever he’s frustrated or stressed by work, being intimate helps him relax and clear his mind

He’s easy to get excited

Would love kissing his girlfriend's neck / shoulders / clavicle

He doesn’t sweat a lot during sex

[nicki0kaye]

random Kallus hc inspired by someone else's post #1

Kallus' method to resist interrogation is to recite mentally and verbally some form of rhyming verse, the more complicated the better so he has to focus on his diction

I've never realized how well this pairs with @sidhebeingbrand's hc that Zeb loves Old Lasana poetry until right the fuck now, bc I consider Kallus just. Bereft of most understandings of art, both bc of his home-schooled background but also bc the Empire expects he have no vices to distract him from his work, and clearly art is a vice he has not earned.

It's also one of those things where he defies expectations bc he cannot name a single piece of high art, not an opera or a piece of classical music or a well respected novel. All the media he consumed before the Empire was either extremely niche to his region of Lower Coruscant or squarely pop-culture.

BUT him having this method of resisting interrogation even from a force user means he has to know some form of poetry beyond the shitty death metal he was obsessed with as an edgy gangster teen (we will have to leave the Void Screamers genre for another day, its quite involved)

So Kallus definitely knows some complicated tongue twisting poetry and prattle songs, most of them inherently nonsensical like the Jabberwocky or satirical like the Museum song in Barnum (fun musical about a terrible fucking person) , of which I actually rewote the first lines in an RP;

quite a lotta Ryloth terracota, living lava from the flanks of Shu-Torun. Statuary. Sample Bantha dairy. See the Temples tumble and the clone war start.

[bonesandthebees]

500 words on the Lovejoy concert: go

500 oh god oh fuck

Glasgow was a really fun concert!! Though it’d probably rank as one of my lower ones just bc I didn’t do the whole queue all day experience so it felt a lot shorter to me (and also it was such a huge venue)

I originally debated doing the all day queue bc I was selling my ticket to a Twitter mutual of mine I’ve met up with at concerts before, and they were planning on queueing all day. But when my alarm woke me up around 6 am I texted them asking what the queue was like and they said their friends held a spot for them at 4 am and they were 24th in the queue. Like, what.

So yeah I decided that wasn’t how I wanted to spend my last full day in Glasgow lol. Instead I took a tour of a whisky distillery (I do not like whisky but it’s Scotland so I figured why not) and got tipsy off the whisky samples they gave us. Then I went to a science museum across the way from the distillery (technically it’s meant for kids but it’s meant for adults to enjoy too) so I was just slightly drunk playing around with interactive science exhibits and befriended one of the staff members lmao

ANYWAY then around 4 I got to the venue and got in line (doors opened at 7). Got some takeaway from a nearby restaurant and ate it in line, it was very spicy but it kept me warm bc it was raining so I wasn’t complaining. Then I just kinda hung out there and chatted a bit with the girl behind me! We ended up being next to each other at the actual gig and became buddies which was nice and I was actually closer to the stage than I expected to be. Also I got tired of the ‘someone holds pictures up to the crowd on their phone and lets them cheer and boo respectively’ bit that happened at a few lovejoy gigs this past year, but it was pretty funny when someone held up the Scottish flag for everyone to cheer, and then the English flag for everyone to boo (and ofc I joined in)

It was SO HOT. At first I was glad bc as I said it was raining outside so I was shivering by the time we got in, but it didn’t take long for it to get sweaty. Loupe as an opening act was SO good. I’d never heard of them before but their music was so good!! (also the lead singer and the bassist were both so pretty I was having such a gay moment). Then Goodkid performed and tbh I know a ton of Lovejoy fans love their music but I’d never heard their stuff before, but I get it now they have such a fun sound and great energy!! Definitely gonna save some songs from them when I get around to it

Then lovejoy was fantastic as always. Although we were only about 3 songs in when someone fainted and everything had to stop. I couldn’t see what was going on from where I was but I hope the person’s okay! This was my 5th lovejoy gig but it was the first time someone’s fainted at one I’ve been to.

Then we resumed and in between songs the boys would start playing this instrumental track I didn’t recognize, but I filmed each time it happened bc it didn’t just sound like random jamming. I sent the clips to firesnap after the gig and she and I both agree it sounds like snippets from a possible new song so… :)))

Also Lovejoy covered The Killers at my gig which was so good. At first I was confused bc it was a mashup with cause for concern so I got hyped thinking it was cfc and then Wilbur started singing different lyrics but it slapped so I’m so glad I got to see that in person.

Anyway overall really good gig!! Also I wasn’t getting shoved nearly as much as I have at American gigs so shoutout to the Scottish for that

Is this 500 words? Is this more? I don’t feel like plugging it into a word counter so this is what you get lol

[megumi-fm]

12th to 19th Dec || 137-144 of 150dop

hi. i've been gone a long time. I wasn't doing really well for the past week, so i just put up my progress on Notion to update it here later.

📋 Tasks

📂 Notion Setup ↳ for daily journalling (yes it's ponyo themes xD) ✅ ↳ tv/movies tracker 📝English Proficiency Test ↳ apply for exam ✅ ↳ sample practice (listening and reading sections) ✅ ↳ check writing samples ✅  ↳ write exam!! ✅ 🩺 Radiomics Projects ↳ read BCR base paper ✅ ↳ check out automatic segmentation options ✅ ↳ check out radiomics extensions and pyradiomics ✅ ↳ lots and lots of voice calls and meetings xD

🎨Personal

⛲ Going Out ↳ visited an Art Museum with my best friend ↳ went for brunch to an art cafe with a friend (and tried key lime pie for the first time! it was very good) ↳ got boba with a friend and visited an indie bookstore with a friend and bought a book 📺 Shows this week ↳ Cherry Magic JP ✅ ↳ My Demon 🔽 ↳ Last Twilight 🔽 ↳ Perfect Marriage Revenge ✅ 📟 Cool Links and Videos ↳ The best explanation on the Monty Hall Problem ↳ Sleeping Beauty Problem(i am so confused) ↳ Dan Ariely and data manipulation in psychology studies ↳ Anwn Ddu, the Wikipedia King that doesn’t exist ↳ Korea’s King, a 2 Part Documentary ↳ An Inverse Turing Test: How Random Chance is not really random 👟 Lots of walking

29-36/final42 // so close! just another week!!! let's go!!

[moononmyfloor]

Hi Producer (正好遇见你) Infodump

Disclaimer: I have no idea about the accuracy of the information shared in the drama, I'm merely transcribing for future reference purposes. Proceed with caution!

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Ep 26-27: Stage Costumes and Props

Stage outfits worn when performing Chinese traditional operas, since the Song and Yuan dynasties, a fixed pattern has been established gradually. Characters with different titles, social statuses, and personalities dress up differently so the audience can tell the disparities. Thus, there's a saying in the industry that a torn costume is better than the wrong costume. Following the rapid development of Chinese traditional operas during the Ming dynasty, the quality of headgear, costumes, and boots were improved considerably. Their design focused more on elegance and luxury.

Production of Suzhou stage costumes and props took off during the middle of the Ming dynasty. They're closely related to the development of Kunqu opera.

Designs, also known as outlines- In response to the different characters, various costume designs will be made. Dragons and phoenixes, flowers, Ruyi pattern, flowing pattern, and so on are commonly seen in such costumes.

Stitching, a process to create holes on the paper sample according to the design, to ease the foundation process.

Foundation process, a process where the foundation is applied on the fabric that they're going to embroider on through the holes.

Embroidering, a sewing process that uses threads of different colors. For stage costumes, the dazzling gold and silver threads are commonly used.

Flattening, a process where you apply glue evenly onto the fabric with a glue knife to flatten the embroidered patches evenly.

Cutting, a process where you cut the entire fabric and embroidered patches into desired sizes.

Completing, a process where you employ all kinds of sewing and gluing techniques to complete the costume.

Currently, all the stage costumes and props include headgear, boots, weapons, accessories, and headwear. These six main types cover over 1,000 kinds.

It's a shame that most of the crafts have gone extinct but as much as possible textual research of stage costumes is done, such as visiting museums in many cities to observe the preserved stage costumes in hopes of replicating something up to the standards of which of the Qing dynasty. That's a difficult task as the exquisite and luxurious stage costumes back then were produced by imperial craftsmen.

This episode truly felt like the epitome ofYu Zheng going Nudge, nudge, aren't I the most awesome costume drama producer? especially with the characters saying stuff like this lol🤭

Right now, there are stage prop and costume factories that take custom orders from film production crews. Celebrities may visit for personal requirements and many others out of admiration. To preserve texture and quality, outfits are made by hand for most parts. They have warehouses for costume design manuscripts. Best attempts are made to replicate the stage costumes of the past within reason such copper jewelry plated with silver as it costs too much if made with silver entirely. And handicrafts like velvet flowers take up a long time and has high labor costs. So most costume drama crews prefer a cheaper option like beaded flowers.

When an actor appears on the stage with these outfits on, the audience will know the title and the personality at first glance. It's completely different from some modern TV series. They don't dress in accordance with dynasties or characters. A random and wrong costume may look fashionable, but it won't fit the character and the plot itself. And overdoing the designs brings underwhelming results as when you are performing wearing them, overtly vibrant and exquisite designs will steal the spotlight from you. It's not the glorious look that decides its value. Anyway, we don't understand them.

I liked the following part a lot tho, it felt quite reasonable and moving. Especially as someone with 2x as my NORMAL watching speed, I know I still care for the meta details and the reason I watch fast is not because I don't care for the effort and research that went into a production.

Next year, online video platforms will launch a 4X speed function for all TV dramas. One might think that no one will be interested in Chinese operas is they've never spent time in a traditional Chinese theater before. There are rarely fans of Chinese opera nowadays.

It takes tens of procedures to making a stage costume. We need to focus on every single detail and can't rush things. But people are always in a rush. Making props and costumes by hand isn't efficient, and there's little demand. Many people wonder if the younger generation is willing to pick up this craft? What if such an excellent craft does go extinct? People always say that productions like this are slow and can't adapt to the era of machine production.

Many adapted historical tales are quite interesting not just because it touches on people's sentimentality. If their sentimentality can be used advantageously, that means people are still reminiscing about the past. However, this method will come to an end one day as a show is just a show. It has no way to save all those crafts that are going to vanish soon. Even if all these crafts will disappear after a century, we still hope that people will know that we once spent half a day just to make a fold or spent one and a half years just so we could produce one piece of stage costume.

What do we call this? We call this a craft. We call this a legacy.

China is a country with a big population. As long as there's one person who likes traditional crafts and is willing to learn, the legacy won't disappear.

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Rose-purple satin female Kao costume

Embroidered with phoenix and peony patterns in flat gold that was made during the Guangxu period of the Qing dynasty. Every detail has been carefully recorded so the future generation could refer to it. The Chinese opera industry is developing. There are many newly adapted versions of historical operas. When designing costumes, aesthetic standards of the younger audience and the requirements of various kinds of stages both are taken into consideration.

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Cixi watching the opera

-Showcasing the contrast of costumes and performances of Southern and Northern operas

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Beijing silk figurines

To make these, one must know sculpting, painting, and design of outfits. Similar to stage costumes and props, it's a fusion of many traditional crafts. But not many are aware of this. Most in the field do this as a hobby because in China, people aren't aware that these are not the work of craftsmen, but artists.

It got the name because the whole figurine is made with premium silk cloth and silk gauze. Beijing silk figurines were invented back in the Tang dynasty in Northern Fujian, when people used paper to make animal dolls. The craft continued to develop until the Song dynasty. People started using silk to make human figurines.

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More Misc. Crafts

Featured in the timestamped vid below such as:

Sandpainting, Suzhou Embroidery, Hokkien Lacquer Thread Sculptures

Many consider that sand animation originated in Hungary. Although Ferenc Cako did turn sand animation into a modern performance, traditional sand animation originated in China. During the Song Dynasty, there were stories of people writing on sand and so on.

Suzhou embroidery is one of the Four Great Embroideries of China along with Hunan's Xiang embroidery, Guangdong's Yue embroidery, and Sichuan's Shu embroidery. The Suzhou embroidery is detailed and subtle. In May 2006, it was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage.

Lacquer thread sculpture originated in Quanzhou of Fujian. It has existed for over 1400 years. The craftsmen must use the fine thread of lacquer and specialized techniques to create these resplendent patterns. Every piece is one of a kind.

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Making Liuli Glass

The ancient process of making colored glaze was very complex. The colored glaze was born in the fire and drowned in water. It takes dozens of processes to complete such as: detailing the wax pattern, casting the plaster mold, coloring, firing in the kiln.

Normally, steps involved in the making of colored glazed are designing, making of silica gel mold, making and detailing of wax patterns, the making of plaster molds, and being fired in a kiln, removing the plaster mold, sanding, and polishing.

Timestamped Documentary segments:

Props and Costumes Craft

Of Traditional Opera Theatre

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More Hi Producer posts

[bookloure]

Books finished in May| May has been a good month, but I'm also ripe for another social media break! When I took a month break last March, I decided I will do it periodically—quarterly, in fact. So I'll be gone again for a bit in June, from the third week (because I still have a book to review) up to the second week of July. Sana afford ko mag sabbatical chz.

Now let's talk about books—the highlight is I discovered that I loooove body horror because of a random eARC I got. The cheka part is that I gave my first 1star of the year. Anyway, here are the 10 books I finished this month, ranked:

4.5⭐

📱 Kindred by Octavia E. Butler - It has been forever since I stayed up late because I can't put a book down. This totally did it. Of course I felt shit the next day, but damn it's so worth it!

4⭐

📖 It's A Mens World by Bebang Siy - It's a collection of the author's personal stories chronicling her girlhood in Manila. Funny, relatable and quite charming, but also dark in places.

📱 Welcome To Your Body: Lessons in Evisceration, edited by Ryan Marie Ketterer - Before this book I already had an inkling that I like body horror—Grease by Junji Ito and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata are two of my favorites, but this book gave me different flavors of body horror and I enjoyed sampling every story. Of course, I like some stories more than the others, but as a collection I honestly will give this 5 stars. It reminded me of Deesha Philyaw's "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies" in the sense that it feels very much like a cohesive collection. Top tier!

📖 Tao Sa Prowa: Mga Tala, Mga Taon by Allan Popa - Another stunning collection. It's a series of seemingly random vignettes on different aspects and phases of life, that is, until I came to the titular piece—then it morphed into a rounded collection. And the theme is revealed. I would say it's similar to Saglit: Mga Ala-ala't Muni by Rofel Brion, but (10x) better.

📱 Frieren: Beyond the Journey's End Volumes 7&8 by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe - I adore this series so much!!! It's starts in the end and shows the reader how we carry the people we meet to the future even though our time together is over. I tear up a lot reading this manga lol.

📖 Asintada: Mga Tula by Lilia Quindoza Santiago - Simple. Pero pag tinamaan ka bubukol for sure.

3⭐

📱 Giraffe and a Half by Shel Silverstein - Minsan trip ko lang bumasa ng children's book. Solid naman ito hehe.

📱 Sheets by Brenna Thummler - Loved the art style, the story, not so much.

1.5⭐

📱 🎧 Bel Canto by Ann Patchett - So disappointed with this because it's a highly anticipated read. I guess I'll just put my Goodreads review here: The writing is gorgeous because it's Ann Patchett, but I did not connect with this for some reason, so I was already planning to give it 3 stars... but then I found out what Peruvian historical event this book takes inspiration from and it just left a bad taste in my mouth the erasure and co-opting of POC stories and histories. I wouldn't have learned about the Lima Hostage Crisis if not for other Goodreads reviews. You'd hope that the telling of these stories would help shed light, but the author swept the Peruvians under the rug instead. In their own story. Very British Museum behavior.

And that's a wrap! 🌯 I already cried to LOTR: The Return of the King, so June is already going so well lol.

[irritablepoe]

RANDOM JOHNNY LORE DUMP

GO

hmmmmmmmmm ohhh!!!! yesss i have a funny lore thing, so i had biologie leistungskurs, and bc we were a really small course (10) we got through the learning material quite fast. this meant we were able to make a field trip. but we didn't go to the museum or sth like that no no. the teacher ordered a small bus where us 11 people fit into. then we drove to some small hut in the forest and yes this sounds really fucking scary and tbf if they'd wanted to, we'd be dead and no one would have found us, we were so far from any civilization istg, but well, nothing scary happened. quite the opposite.

so. this hut was a research station for the lakes that are somehow special, it'd take a while to get into that and i don't quite remember, but basically there were three professors that researched there and held regular classes in a small lecture room. there were quite a few dead stuffed animals (idk how you call these in english) and like. everything was really fucking old, it literally looked like a classroom from old movies yk.

but yeah, we stayed there 3 days, 2 nights. one of these nights we spent in this very classroom instead of sleeping, someone explaining sex and stuff to someone very christian (this was very fucking funny, i shared a room with her and she later told me that she "knew everything already and that she just didn't want to be seen as someone who would know" like okay wtv idc, she is kind of a bitch but yk she never did me wrong or sth), me with a book and judging, my friend with his switch. we also had a drawing competition and everyone was hella biased bc they thought i was good at drawing "bc i'm a nerd" or sth and therefore thought mine was the best?? this was also funny. there was also a really thick fog outside also during the day and when we drove out onto the lake in two small boats we told each other ghost stories or tried to scare each other while we were analysing the water and the ground samples. idk how they saw me beforehand but after that i feel like they respected me at least a tiny bit more

[supersabbatical2024]

4/17/24: I am really loving my new French tutor, T'Choupi! I meant to post his(?) pic yesterday, but instead chose to post a mistakenly taken selfie, which was dumb. Anyway, we are still quite jet lagged but my travel partner is awesome at handling this stuff. He suggested we don't go to ANY museums today and instead we ambled around Aix and ate pastry and napped...SO fun!!! We walked around the corner from our place and checked out the "Casino," a local supermarchè and despite its name, there were no slot machines there. We bought 17 different kinds of cheese to sample, French deodorant for each of our kids (long story don't ask), some fresh fruits, and snacky items. Those who know me (and why would you feel obligated to be reading this if you didn't), know that one of my top travel activities is visiting the local grocery. Best way to sample the local fare, or at least the most popular junk food and candy, like the Danette milkshake. On the back of the bottle is their commentary on American “monuments” (icons?) versus those of “l’Hexagone,” which I guess refers to France and the hexagonal shape of this country…has anyone heard that reference before? I had not. In any event, Danette believes that l’Hexagone lacked anything like the “monument Americain Milkshake!” And now they have created it: << le lait secouè >> !! I liked it, but it ain’t no Village Ice Cream’s MCR!!!* (*Midnight Caramel River, Claude’s fave back in Maplewood).

We tried to walk back to the Nespresso store, but wound up going in circles and never found it, even with the google map. Claude began questioning his bat echolocation skills, but I knew it was just around a corner that we were not noticing. I was actually right, and we got back to it later, when we would sip our 4th cup of coffee with a petit square au chocolat mixed in. Buzzzzzzzzzz!

We grabbed a little late brekky from a recommended patisserie—a jambon n mushroom toasty thing, mini quiche, and 2 pain au chocolats. We ate on our back terrace in the shade, and napped on a chaise with our feet sticking out in the sun…☀️ (those minstrel--I mean Mistral--breezes can be chilly!!)

After our rest by our sweet little piscine (thanks T’Choupi!) we got up and out again to forage for more tasty stuff for dinner at home. We had to be back at our pad in the evening for my ONE and only zoom meeting I agreed to attend during our time away. Claude also agreed to attend one meeting—no big deal.

In any event, our second foraging trip led us down the street to a random boulangerie, just to check out the bread situation for tomorrow morning (when Claude will wake up early and prance down the street to retrieve our croissants and sweet treats before I awaken). But why not sample the pastry now as well, and what a delicious whaddyacallit it was. Elephant ear? Starts with a 'P'? Anyone? I can't stop now to figure it out, or I'll never get to bed.* But we shared it as we wandered around some more, and shortly thereafter, we bumped into a charcuterie (which is not hard to do around here). We grabbed some jambon and saussison sec, and across the street, we bought a baguette and a unique looking olive bread that was sort of trying to shape itself like a soft pretzel. All of it was just great, and wonderful to sit and munch at the kitchen counter, drinking rosè while listening to a webinar about the future plans of the NCJW/Essex, the org I have been volunteering with for (has it really been?) 7+ years. Good night!!

*Palmier!!

[whatisthedeal]

Remember when the stupidly rich did cool things with their money that benefited the public? Like build and stock gorgeous public libraries or buy vast tracts of land to turn into nature preserves? Instead of buying their third $20m super yacht?

I swear, if I ever were to achieve even entry-level rich I’m using it to fund all the little science research projects I can. Seriously. I’d figure out the best way to give others money that doesn’t cause THEM additional tax burden, then set up a Go-Fund-Me type website for small-scale science research and get to giving.

Did you know the average cost of a summer dinosaur dig is just $10k? $10k??? Boom. Done. All of them funded. Have fun and good luck. What’s next?

Random guy #2 wants $25k to spend a year in the Costa Rican cloud forest collecting ground samples to analyze the environmental DNA? Here you go. Let me know when you need help getting the samples analyzed.

Ms. ADHD needs $15k to help make ends meet while she turns her hyperfixation towards detailed analysis of one small part of the public data gushing from the James Webb space telescope? Can’t wait to see what she finds.

Red state science teacher needs $3k to take school kids to the local science museum/ discovery center? Restricted anonymous donation complete.

Blue state math teacher thinks $5k will let them develop a program that converts the intangible concepts of math into physical models and items students can experiment with? No clue what that means but have fun go nuts. Oh you need a 3-printer and printing materials too? Thanks for asking, here’s another $3k.

[brendleellipsis]

21 38 44?

21. What I love most about myself?

Not gonna lie, it's really tough for me to answer this one without sounding conceited. So... I guess I'll say that I really like how thoughtful I am. While, yes, this does translate to being considerate or caring, I mostly mean it in the sense that I am literally Full Of Thoughts, all the time. Sometimes that can kinda suck, but for someone who wants to write stories for a living, I think it's good that I think so much about so many things.

38. My childhood career choice?

I've wanted to be a writer ever since I was a little kid. But when I was an even littler kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. Hot take: space is rad as hell.

44. A random fact about anything?

When I was in middle school, I took a field trip to Atlanta, Georgia. While we were there, we visited the World of Coca-Cola, a sort of museum for the soda brand. It... really doesn't make sense out of context. Or in context, to be honest.

Regardless, there is a room in that museum that houses a Metric Fuckton of sodas from all around the world that people can have little taste-test samples of. And on that day, 9 years ago, I tried every single one. I can't find an exact number, but Google tells me there are over 100 kinds.

Word of advice: don't.

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

random escape

It was going to be brutally hot today so I went out early for a walk and got caught in a tremendous but brief thunderstorm.

After lunch we were finally en route to the pool when someone biked by and let us know the pool was closed due to a power outage. Graham took Hannah to another pool while I cooked for the week and then two hours later, they came home and we made a dash to the art museum to see a sampling of opera performed by a local company. Hannah was a little restless but it was air conditioned, she had a snack, and was definitely attune to all the performances (and didn't laugh like Jacob did 30 some odd years ago when he went to see opera for the first time).

[believerindaydreams]

in my somewhat random sampling, I think this may just be. all maritime museums.

[govindhtech]

NeurIPS’s Investigation Into Current Trends in AI Research

Future of AI in NeurIPS

In order to enhance generative AI, robotics, and the natural sciences, NVIDIA researchers are working with academic institutions all around the world. More than a dozen of these projects will be presented at NeurIPS, one of the leading AI conferences in the world.

NeurIPS, to be held in New Orleans from December 10–16, brings together specialists in computer vision, machine learning, generative AI, and other fields. NVIDIA Research is going to showcase a number of advancements, including novel methods for converting text into pictures, photos into 3D avatars, and specialized robots into machines with many talents.

According to Jan Kautz, vice president of learning and perception research at NVIDIA, “NVIDIA Research continues to drive progress across the field including generative AI models that transform text to images or speech, autonomous AI agents that learn new tasks faster, and neural networks that calculate complex physics.” “These projects, which are frequently carried out in conjunction with top academic minds, will help accelerate the development of simulations, virtual worlds, and autonomous machines.”

Imagine This: Enhancing Diffusion Models from Text to Image

The most often used kind of generative AI models to convert text into lifelike graphics are diffusion models. Researchers from NVIDIA and academic institutions have worked together on many initiatives that enhance diffusion models and will be showcased at NeurIPS.

The goal of a work approved for oral presentation is to enhance the comprehension of the relationship between primary entities and modifier words in text prompts via generative AI models. Although current text-to-image models that are asked to depict a red lemon and a yellow tomato might produce images of red lemons and yellow tomatoes instead of yellow tomatoes, the new model examines the syntax of the user’s prompt and fosters a relationship between an entity and its modifiers to produce a visual representation of the prompt that is more accurate.

SceneScape is a novel framework that will be displayed as a poster. It uses diffusion models to generate extended movies of 3D sceneries based on text prompts. The project creates films of art museums, haunted houses, and ice castles (seen above) by combining a text-to-image engine with a depth prediction model to enable the videos retain consistent, believable-looking environments across frames.

NVIDIA Research Products at NeurIPS

A different poster outlines research that enhances the generation of ideas by text-to-image models that are seldom observed in training data. When such pictures are attempted to be generated, the end result is typically a low-quality image that does not precisely match the user’s request. In order to assist the model discover suitable seeds random number sequences that direct the AI to produce images from the designated unusual groups, the new technique makes use of a limited collection of sample photos.

A final poster demonstrates how a text-to-image diffusion model may generate missing pieces and produce a complete 3D representation of an item by using the written description of an incomplete point cloud. This might aid in the completion of point cloud data gathered by depth sensors and lidar scanners for robotics and AI applications including autonomous vehicles. Because objects are scanned from a certain angle for instance, a lidar sensor placed on a car would only scan one side of each structure as the car drove along a street collected imagery is sometimes partial.

Character Development: AI Avatar Development Advances

AI avatars generate and animate virtual characters, generate text, and translate it into voice by combining many generative AI models. Two NVIDIA papers at NeurIPS provide fresh approaches to increasing the productivity of these activities.

A poster outlines a novel technique for creating a 3D head avatar from a single portrait photo while preserving accessory and hairdo characteristics. This model offers high-fidelity 3D reconstruction without further optimization during inference, unlike existing approaches that need several pictures and a laborious optimization procedure. The avatars can be animated using a reference video clip in which a person’s movements and facial emotions are transferred to the avatar, or they can be animated using blendshapes, which are 3D mesh representations used to depict various face expressions.

Another poster by NVIDIA researchers and academic partners uses P-Flow, a generative AI model that can quickly generate high-quality individualized speech in response to a three-second reference cue, to develop zero-shot text-to-speech synthesis. P-Flow has superior pronunciation, human resemblance, and speaker likeness as compared to its more modern, cutting-edge equivalents. Almost instantaneously, the model can translate text to speech using a single NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPU.

Advances in Robotics and Reinforcement Learning Research

NVIDIA researchers will present two posters in the domains of robotics and reinforcement learning, showcasing breakthroughs that enhance the generalizability of AI across many workloads and situations.

In the first, a methodology for creating algorithms for reinforcement learning that can adjust to novel tasks is presented, all the while avoiding the classic issues of data inefficiency and gradient bias. The researchers demonstrated how effectively their approach worked on a number of benchmark tasks. It is based on a revolutionary meta-algorithm that can produce a robust version of any meta-reinforcement learning model.

Another addresses the problem of object manipulation in robotics and is written by an NVIDIA researcher and partners from a university. Previous AI models that assist robotic hands in grasping and interacting with things are capable of handling certain forms, but they have trouble with items that are not included in the training set. To help the model more quickly adapt to new designs, the researchers develop a novel framework that assesses how items across various categories are geometrically equivalent. Examples of such things include pot lids with identical handles and drawers.

Boosting Science: AI-Accelerated Physics, Environment, and Medical

Additionally, papers in the natural sciences on physics simulations, climate models, and AI in healthcare will be presented by NVIDIA researchers at NeurIPS.

A group of NVIDIA researchers developed the first deep learning-based computational fluid dynamics method on an industry-standard, large-scale automotive benchmark. The neural operator architecture they proposed combines accuracy and computational efficiency to estimate the pressure field surrounding vehicles, accelerating computational fluid dynamics for large-scale 3D simulations. Compared to another GPU-based solution, the technique reduced the error rate and achieved 100,000x acceleration on a single NVIDIA Tensor Core GPU. Researchers can use the open-source neuraloperator library to integrate the model into their own applications.

ClimSim is a big dataset for physics and machine learning-based climate research that will be given in an oral session at NeurIPS. It was developed by a partnership of climate scientists and machine learning researchers from universities, national labs, research institutes, Allen AI, and NVIDIA. The high-resolution dataset spans the world over several years, and machine learning emulators developed with that data may be used to enhance the realism, accuracy, and precision of already in use operational climate simulators. This can aid scientists in making more accurate forecasts of storms and other dramatic occurrences.

A poster revealing an AI algorithm that offers individualized predictions of how a patient’s dosage of medication would affect them is being presented by NVIDIA Research interns. The researchers examined the model’s predictions of blood coagulation for patients receiving various therapy doses using actual patient data. Additionally, they examined the new algorithm’s predictions regarding the levels of the antibiotic vancomycin in patients who were prescribed the drug, and they discovered that the prediction accuracy was noticeably higher than that of earlier techniques.

Read more on govindhtech.com

[ecofinisher]

Old Screenshots from the Sims games I kept in some file on Facebook 😂

I don't know, where to start, so I just go with Sims 3, then 4.

The camera was on a closer angle, so you can't see, what exactly was up. The pose is the failed giving flower options and it looks like she's shocked about seeing something.....interesting.

Talking about interesting areas......when WA wouldn't be such a jerk at glitching, when moving to Egypt or co. I would go with the current family I'm obsessed with to accomplish the missions. I did make Ayesha Ansari learn Kung Fu and randomly, they would do certain poses, when left alone. Durning a conversation, she was having she happened to do that and at the same time Xander began chuckling and I paused at this moment. This is how I accidentally created this weird moment 😂

During my teenhood, she gave me this sporty chick vibe, which I kinda was back then. I never knew any female fictional character from Disney or anywhere else, to which I could relate with. I forgot, what happened here, eventually, it was a romantic action.

You sure remember times, when you visited another family, for whatever reason a Sim would be invisible and interactions would look messed up, depending on what you would order them to do with other characters. Here she was making up with "air"

JAMIE, WHAT THE HECK? (Also, second Sim was invisible)

I did notice the girl sometimes go out off the house before going to bed, but I thought it had something to do with the imaginary friend. Once I followed her and she climbed on the double beds from the outside 🤨 Without the windows I could sell it as a boulder hall sample.

I don't remember, what happened here, but her neck needs to see the hospital.

The fear in his eyes is visible. What are you supposed to do, when he says no? Not that funny, but accurate, when asking the "future" father-in-law for the daughter's hand.

I took last time this picture to make a series to troll people, but I never noticed Simis roll his eyes 😂

I spoiled the surprise, so full revelation.

Another naturally happened pose. Parker got scolded for skipping school and seconds later his "flirty trait" just kicks in. 😂

Dog Maro is done with her owner's new baby. I love how a dog thinks of "begging for a promotion" I guess, dogs can as their "boss" for "treats" right? (The dog also seems to my eyes unmotivated, when zooming in)

Talking about dogs, another time I did get into a downloaded household and wanted the girl to go out with the sim Ethan Bunch. For some reason (I had started a new game) he was already dating the Sim River McIrish, which happened to be our neighbor. I stole Ethan away from her and visited her the other day, only to be hated by her and I thought about "making her pay back" by fighting her. What happened? She kicked my Sim's butt every flippin' time! Amazing, I didn't think Sims with the good trait would give you such a hard time - Returning back to the picture, after the fights I still didn't win, so out of boredom I went to torment her with our dog and when he locked her up by the corner she broke the fourth wall in fear 😂😍 So precious, she knew it was "someone else"

One bad thing about owning horses (Or unicorns) in a lot with a low place for them is the random glitching, that may occur sometimes. They would get stuck between walls and he was somewhere by the terrace. I moved the unicorn into the bedroom to take pictures and this one gave me vibes of Donkey from Shrek. (Just imagine the unicorn speaking with Eddie Murphy's voice) 😂 "Hey girl. I'm hungry. Have you got some carrots or some freshly-baked waffles?? Maple syrup on top of that would look delicious!"

I was working years ago on a story and used Sims screenshots to make it. During the work I was admiring the weird decor of the museum and when I was working on a fire scene at the museum, I pulled a Sim around the museum and ended up putting her in front of a toilet, 😂 It looks hilarious for some weird reason.

Natural reaction. Don't know, what happened nor what triggered it.

When you can't have the CC's you want, but you have a plan B....

Natural reaction as well or anything from moviemaker-cheats. I only used fainting as a movement, but if the face belongs to any of the existing commands.....I'm clueless.

Sims never had a height slider, but you would always know, that adults are taller than teens. Weirdly this fail made me question, why EA never added a height slider. (At least we know Parker is a smoll dude 😂) Believe it or not, I didn't cheat here, Parker just didn't obey my commands and went to sit down there and for whatever reason Michael sat there as well. This is what we got in the end.

Sims 4 had some funny ones back then, when I got the game. This was me zooming from another POV into a Sim before her getting pulled into a smooching session.

One of the family members I didn't really care for passed away in the fire, which still was active on the time the Grim Reaper appeared to pick our Sim up. He seemed surprised.

WHAT THE HELL.

At some point I didn't know Sims could walk around naked and allowed them to do that xD And as you see, we know who in this relationship wears the pants......uh literally? She's not wearing clothes, but like she's the boss you know..... goodbye, I'm heading out of here.