#regularization machine learning meaning

[getreview4u]

(via All you need to know about Machine Learning | meaning, tool, technique, math, algorithm, AI, accuracy, …etc)

[marklikely]

hey what is going on in tech right now that we keep having to do this "new buzzword dominating every conversation you have" thing every year

[phantomrose96]

The conversation around AI is going to get away from us quickly because people lack the language to distinguish types of AI--and it's not their fault. Companies love to slap "AI" on anything they believe can pass for something "intelligent" a computer program is doing. And this muddies the waters when people want to talk about AI when the exact same word covers a wide umbrella and they themselves don't know how to qualify the distinctions within.

I'm a software engineer and not a data scientist, so I'm not exactly at the level of domain expert. But I work with data scientists, and I have at least rudimentary college-level knowledge of machine learning and linear algebra from my CS degree. So I want to give some quick guidance.

What is AI? And what is not AI?

So what's the difference between just a computer program, and an "AI" program? Computers can do a lot of smart things, and companies love the idea of calling anything that seems smart enough "AI", but industry-wise the question of "how smart" a program is has nothing to do with whether it is AI.

A regular, non-AI computer program is procedural, and rigidly defined. I could "program" traffic light behavior that essentially goes { if(light === green) { go(); } else { stop();} }. I've told it in simple and rigid terms what condition to check, and how to behave based on that check. (A better program would have a lot more to check for, like signs and road conditions and pedestrians in the street, and those things will still need to be spelled out.)

An AI traffic light behavior is generated by machine-learning, which simplistically is a huge cranking machine of linear algebra which you feed training data into and it "learns" from. By "learning" I mean it's developing a complex and opaque model of parameters to fit the training data (but not over-fit). In this case the training data probably includes thousands of videos of car behavior at traffic intersections. Through parameter tweaking and model adjustment, data scientists will turn this crank over and over adjusting it to create something which, in very opaque terms, has developed a model that will guess the right behavioral output for any future scenario.

A well-trained model would be fed a green light and know to go, and a red light and know to stop, and 'green but there's a kid in the road' and know to stop. A very very well-trained model can probably do this better than my program above, because it has the capacity to be more adaptive than my rigidly-defined thing if the rigidly-defined program is missing some considerations. But if the AI model makes a wrong choice, it is significantly harder to trace down why exactly it did that.

Because again, the reason it's making this decision may be very opaque. It's like engineering a very specific plinko machine which gets tweaked to be very good at taking a road input and giving the right output. But like if that plinko machine contained millions of pegs and none of them necessarily correlated to anything to do with the road. There's possibly no "if green, go, else stop" to look for. (Maybe there is, for traffic light specifically as that is intentionally very simplistic. But a model trained to recognize written numbers for example likely contains no parameters at all that you could map to ideas a human has like "look for a rigid line in the number". The parameters may be all, to humans, meaningless.)

So, that's basics. Here are some categories of things which get called AI:

"AI" which is just genuinely not AI

There's plenty of software that follows a normal, procedural program defined rigidly, with no linear algebra model training, that companies would love to brand as "AI" because it sounds cool.

Something like motion detection/tracking might be sold as artificially intelligent. But under the covers that can be done as simply as "if some range of pixels changes color by a certain amount, flag as motion"

2. AI which IS genuinely AI, but is not the kind of AI everyone is talking about right now

"AI", by which I mean machine learning using linear algebra, is very good at being fed a lot of training data, and then coming up with an ability to go and categorize real information.

The AI technology that looks at cells and determines whether they're cancer or not, that is using this technology. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is the technology that can take an image of hand-written text and transcribe it. Again, it's using linear algebra, so yes it's AI.

Many other such examples exist, and have been around for quite a good number of years. They share the genre of technology, which is machine learning models, but these are not the Large Language Model Generative AI that is all over the media. Criticizing these would be like criticizing airplanes when you're actually mad at military drones. It's the same "makes fly in the air" technology but their impact is very different.

3. The AI we ARE talking about. "Chat-gpt" type of Generative AI which uses LLMs ("Large Language Models")

If there was one word I wish people would know in all this, it's LLM (Large Language Model). This describes the KIND of machine learning model that Chat-GPT/midjourney/stablediffusion are fueled by. They're so extremely powerfully trained on human language that they can take an input of conversational language and create a predictive output that is human coherent. (I am less certain what additional technology fuels art-creation, specifically, but considering the AI art generation has risen hand-in-hand with the advent of powerful LLM, I'm at least confident in saying it is still corely LLM).

This technology isn't exactly brand new (predictive text has been using it, but more like the mostly innocent and much less successful older sibling of some celebrity, who no one really thinks about.) But the scale and power of LLM-based AI technology is what is new with Chat-GPT.

This is the generative AI, and even better, the large language model generative AI.

(Data scientists, feel free to add on or correct anything.)

[hairmetal666]

Everyone in the league knows about Eddie Munson. He has the makings of a great pitcher, except for the fact that his slider has a 75% chance of sliding too high and his fastballs mostly end up in the dirt. His technique is wild, flailing, unrestrained. Which is why Steve is beside himself when he learns about the trade.

The owners, they think that Steve being the best catcher in the league means he can work with Eddie, settle him, make him a real prospect. Steve's input isn't needed with the decision already made, but Munson--with all his tattoos piercings and leather--looks like he'd rather hock a loogie at Steve than take directions from him.

And Steve is the best in the league, the glue that keeps the team together. They're a well-oiled machine, and Eddie is--Eddie is a squeaky wheel.

They meet for the first time, briefly, in the locker room. He's seen the guy before, of course, but now, like this, he can't help but be intrigued by his pale skin and long curls and brown doe-eyes, his lightly muscled frame. And they're in the locker room, Eddie with just a towel around his waist, exposing his toned chest and stomach and the black swirl of his tattoos.

"Steve Harrington!" Eddie reaches out a hand. "Great to meet you, man."

"You too. Excited to have you with us." The handshake is quick and firm and Steve is trying not to be surprised about how excited and genuine the guy sounds, keep his mind away from thinking of how Eddie is naked aside from the towel.

With only a few weeks until the start of the regular season, Eddie starts pitching to Steve. And Steve, he so expects Eddie to fight and grumble and refuse, that his head sort of spins when, on the first day, Eddie claps him on the back with his glove, says, "where do you want me, cap?" and that's that.

He wants to say that they dislike each other, that they're a bad fit, that Eddie is full himself and refuses constructive criticism.

Instead.

Instead it's easy.

Eddie doesn't complain, doesn't argue, just watches Steve, learns him, takes his advice and notes and implements them as much as he can. They like each other, have an easy rapport, get each other. He's tight with all the pitchers, but Eddie is different. They settle each other.

They're best friends. They hangout constantly. And he doesn't have a crush; he doesn't. It would be unprofessional. They're best friends.

But sometimes, sometimes he thinks he catches Eddie looking at him. It's impossible. Of course it's impossible. Eddie couldn't be into the guy Sports Illustrated called "baseball's Ralph Lauren model" in the intro to Steve's Body Issue photo spread. And it doesn't matter one way or the other because Steve won't make a move. He won't jeopardize the team like that.

They don't touch. He touches everyone on the team, often, and Eddie particularly is a physical guy, but aside from that first handshake, he keeps his distance. Steve's afraid--even though it's silly, he's afraid--that once they start touching, he won't be able to stop, and he can't let that happen.

The team is good, competing for first place in the National League. Eddie's success has made everyone else better.

It's late July, they're in first place in the league, and Eddie's pitching a perfect game. There's only been 24 perfect games thrown in the history of Major League Baseball, but it's the eighth inning and Eddie's doing it.

A pitch goes wild, veers high over the umpire's head. Eddie's shaken, Steve can tell with how his fist tightens compulsively around the ball. The next pitch swings wide, towards the batter's knees.

The count is at 2 balls, no strikes, and he can see, even from behind home plate Steve can see, that Eddie's losing it. He heads for the mound, refuses to let it end like this. He closes the distance between them, has a quick internal debate before he puts his hand on Eddie's lower back. They've never touched, this is it, this is--warmth bleeds from Eddie's skin, through the fabric of his jersey, goes straight to Steve's head.

Eddie frowns. "I don't think I--"

"You're going to do it, Ed. I know. I can feel it." He pats his chest, over his heart. "It's gonna happen."

Eddie's breathing settles and it's only then that Steve realizes he's rubbing circles into Eddie's back with his thumb. He's not sure when he started, doesn't want to stop, loves being able to feel.

"Okay," Eddie says.

"Okay."

Steve removes his hand, heads back to home, still tingling with the warmth of Eddie's body even as he crouches behind the plate.

He closes out the inning with three definitive strike outs. The crowd goes wild.

They take the field for the top of the 9th, the crowd is screaming, ready for this, the energy zipping through every player on the field.

It goes by in a blur. Nine pitches. Eddie's perfect game is wrapped up in nine phenomenal pitches.

As the ump calls the last out, there's a moment of complete and utter quiet in the stadium, Steve's heart a pounding hum in his ears, before pandemonium breaks loose. There's screaming, fireworks, someone is crying--

All he can see is Eddie. Eddie's who's thrown his glove to the dirt, is barreling towards him with a triumphant smile bright on his face. Steve stands, runs to close the distance. He sees the moment that Eddie decides to jump into his arms, catches him easily--will always catch him--but his legs are tired and the momentum gets him, sends them tumbling back into the grass.

They're both yelling, laughing, smiling hard enough to hurt. Eddie's hair has fallen out if its tie, tumbling around his shoulders, and Steve gazes at him, can't help it, in this moment can admit that he's so, so astronomically in love.

It's only then Steve realizes that the laughter's stopped, that Eddie's gazing back. Brown eyes shining bright with happiness, cheeks flushed pink, lips parted. Thoughtless, he reaches up to caress Eddie's cheek.

The team reaches them, streaming around them, yanking Eddie and Steve to their feet. The celebration stretches around them, the moment slipping away. He wants to finish what they started but there are interviews, champagne showers, congratulations, that keep them apart. Sometimes, from across the room, their eyes meet, and there's heat there that's new, that sparks something low in Steve's gut.

Hours pass, and finally he finds himself alone in the locker room. He's just pulled on his t-shirt when the door shuts behind him. He spins, finds Eddie, waiting, watching.

He crosses the room without a word, can't not, not now, not after everything. They grapple for a second, the wanting so strong that it takes a second to settle, to find each other. They kiss hard, desperate, seething with desire.

Steve hopes it never ends and it doesn't, just tapers into soft kisses, gentle nips. He can't bring himself to step away.

"Is this for real ?" Eddie whispers.

"I've been insane about you since the trade."

Eddie's smile is blinding. "I used to have those pictures of you--the ones with the little red shorts?--in my locker in the minors. Feel like I'm living in a dream right now."

It lights him up inside, knowing that Eddie wants him, has wanted him. "Let me take you home and show you just how real it is?"

He snorts, but his dimples deepen, eyes shining. "What a line, sweetheart."

"Yeah well, the baseball field isn't the only place where I hit home runs."

[criibibi]

Synopsis: After losing so much, Spider-woman learns to just keep moving. Only for her to end up somewhere far from home. Her first agenda is figuring out where she is, and how to get back. The only problem is that she ended up somewhere fictional (to her). Playing hero with Batman was not in her bingo cards this year. Hopefully she will be able to make it back home before she catches unwanted attention.

Masterlist: Prev; Next;

Chapter 3 - Weak and Alone

The hairs on your body stood up for a good while before you could relax again. You didn’t know meeting the yellow bat would be this fucking terrifying. Like, c’mon man! You fought many weird, crazy, dangerous, and scary things in your life as a hero, why was coming into contact with one of this world’s heroes that terrifying?

And besides this guy was just- is just a human, not a mutated creature or even an alien, just a regular human like you. But something about him just- put you off.

Crime in the mornings are so rare, how bad was your luck for it to happen when you were there? Wrong place and time, maybe? Or your luck is just shit and that’s that.

You don’t even question how this guy found you-er the robber. Even if he was in the area, Oracle or the other Robin must have been on surveillance duty or something. If you recall only two of Batman’s wards are mostly the “man in the chair” type. Oracle because of what happened to her with the Joker and one of the Robins because he’s one of the smartest ones. Or something like that.

Regardless, you’re okay now. That’s all that matters.

Hands in your pocket you remembered you looted the guy earlier. Taking out  some cash you realized this guy had money. He had three-hundred, so why try to rob a convenience store? Well, whatever, not your problem.

You’ve become really good at pushing your problems to the back of your head.

What is now your problem is finding a library. Lifting your mask back on your face you continue to march forward, regardless of direction. Picking a random bar from your snack bag, you begin to eat it under your mask to calm your stomach so you can think.

“Okay, cheap food and non perishables are what I will live off of.” You don’t plan to stay in this wack world for long, so saving money is key. “Next, find layouts, maps, anything to get a semblance of where I am and what I can do. I need information, and lots of it. Third, I need a generator to power my gizmo. Finally, supplies to build a GHM. ‘Go-Home’ machine.”

So far things are looking very bleak but that's okay. No worries. Um, on the bright side, you haven’t glitched at all, so your gizmo watch isn’t totally off the record. As long as it’s still connected and alive, you’re sure Miguel can find your signal.

You did just suddenly disappear during a fight that was basically your mission that Miguel sent you on. That means Miguel already knows of your unfortunate case and should most likely be looking for you, right? 

He wouldn’t abandon you, right? He’s the one that recruited you after all! He came to you. He knows of your existence and predicament. You have somewhat of a mentor and student relationship for fucks sake! He wouldn’t leave you stranded in favor of his issues with Miles…right?

You’re not getting forgotten… right?

You matter…right?

No! You can’t think like this! You also can’t put all your spiders in one web. You need more options, alternatives. Whether Miguel is looking for you or not (you choose to believe he is), you need to find a way to either go home or get in touch with him.

You gotta do things your own way.

You’re smart, resourceful, use your brain! 

You’re good at improving, inventing, and repairing- a tinker if you will. Taking things apart, fixing what’s broken, or building things. That’s one of your strong suits- it’s time to use that big beautiful brain of yours to find out what’s wrong with this watch.

So in order to do that, you need materials. So how would a broke but smart pretty woman such as yourself find materials that won’t catch the eyes of the batsonas? Simple. One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.

That’s right baby!

A junkyard. 

Now to find a junkyard, you need a map. So to a library you go!

With newfound determination and energy, forgoing any unsavory thoughts and focusing on buildings and landmarks.

Getting pretty far into the city you managed to find a public library and mentally fell to your knees begging to all the gods to not run into any and all of the bat family here.

So you pass through the automatic doors and immediately feel relaxed. Honestly being in this world makes it hard for you to even feel safe when everything and everyone could be a potential danger to you.

Not to mention how quickly and easily some of the criminals can escape. You reeeeeally don’t want to face the villains of this world. You’d rather your own Vulture than their Scarecrow or whatever. 

Giving the librarian an award winning (and non suspicious) smile, you made your way over to the row of computers. Sitting further away from the camera, you sit down and stare at the dull desktop.

“Okay, good, I’m here, no bats in sight, now what?” Feeling slightly overwhelmed you took a deep breath and then checked the date and location. 

Reading the latest news was beneficial, now you know just who is in Arkham and who’s free at the moment. Thank the gods that the Joker is locked away. You really aren’t ready to face the big bad baddies of this world. 

Soaking in as much information as possible, for hours you learned the latest news, Batman sent the some criminals to Arkham, Bruce Wayne hosting a charity event in a couple of months, Dick Grayson is coming to Gotham (why?), Lex Luther’s recent scandal, Superman saves the earth (again), Damian Wayne’s anticipated art museum opening. Wow, nothing interesting. 

Nearing four hours just sitting there, you decide to call it quits and pull up maps one last time. Double checking your information you make sure that everything was like you never touched it and thensome. 

Waving good-bye to the librarian you headed off to the large junkyard you found. The walk was pleasant and free of crime. Fuck you daylight robber. Though you know it isn’t true, crime happens everywhere and anytime, just some are quieter than others. 

Arriving at the junkyard, you realized just how ginormous it is. Walking around you spot an abandoned warehouse, where equipment usually is stored and you jump with glee. Knowing there are no working cameras around here, you rest easy knowing you can just go ham on tinkering to your heart's desire.

Setting your bags down, you look around. There are tools that were left behind and you were ready to kneel and thank the gods. Looking at the equipment and workbench, you’re thoroughly pleased with what you have to work with. Shedding your hoodie, you step outside and into your paradise.

Finding many useful and discarded materials you quickly get to work in picking apart metals and material. Dragging them inside the spacious warehouse you go back and forth picking and dragging materials.

And the day flew by, just like that. It’s already late afternoon and you looked over your work.

You’ve made great progress with gathering materials. Having a mountain inside the warehouse to work with and on the workbench there was already something in the making. You’re building what is essentially a charger and beacon for your web watch. 

This will give out a signal for Miguel to latch onto and discover your location. The only issue is if Miguel is looking for you, this will help greatly. The other issue is, you need energy, and lots of it. Sunlight here would suck with how gloomy Gotham can be.

So direct sunlight can’t be its only source. 

Regardless you’ll fix and create the panels anyways. For now, since it’s late, you’ll take a break and fix this place up. 

Sike, you just make a web hammock on the ceiling and web your bags to the wall next to you. After discovering the owner of the motel tried to get inside your room (that you fucking paid for) while you managed to finally catch some Zzz’s, it was decided to just leave.

Though you still need food and a place to do your necessities. Maybe you just have to suck it up and go through the centers here.

Sighing in the silence, your mind began to spiral.

The warmth and comfort of uncle Ben as he took care of you when you had nightmares, the gentle embrace of aunt May when you had succumbed to fevers, and the loving presence of Peter Parker when you were at the brink of it all.

You miss them, god you fucking miss them! You hadn’t felt those things in years, not after closing yourself from everyone when you lost them. Sure you had the mentor and student relationship with Miguel, but you never let yourself get close.

Not with Miles and the others, because you felt like a protector, a role model, someone who can’t show weakness.

Not with the hundreds of other Peter Parker’s either. Those Peter’s are just as smart, charming, dorky, and special as your Peter Parker. But they aren’t your Peter Parker. And they never will. Your Peter was even more special, more smart, more charming, more dorky, more charismatic, more everything! He was everything! And then… he left.

No, he didn’t leave.

You just couldn’t save him. You must not have been enough for him. You had seen the signs! You could have done something! But you didn’t. You got complacent, cowardly. Afraid to lose what you have. 

Uncle Ben’s death taught you to treasure what you have before it’s taken away. Aunt May’s death taught you to keep things as they are, so they don’t break. You vowed to never make those mistakes again.

So when you met Peter Parker, you made sure he knew just how much he meant to you. How special he was, and how important he is to you. You weren’t blind, you noticed the painted smiles he wore at times. How life seemed to be dragging him down. But you were too afraid, too complacent. You didn’t want to tip the scales and possibly break something too fragile. You never pushed, or prodded because you knew if someone did that to you, you’d leave.

But the most important thing was that Peter isn’t you. Peter was strong, faaaar stronger than you, he isn’t glass. He held on for soooo long, and still tried to hide his pain from you. But you knew. You also knew that Peter knew that you knew. You just never pushed.

Peter Parker’s death demonstrated just how powerless you are. How much of a coward and paranoid you became. If you just talked to him, maybe he would still be alive. 

With you…

Maybe, you would have accepted his confession once you mustered up the courage to take a leap and accept his feelings for you.

Just maybe.

But, there is no maybe anymore. There will never be Peter Parker and You. Because there hasn’t been another you so far. 

And you live with that guilt and hatred towards yourself. But if Peter’s death taught you anything else, it’s to keep moving.

You have to keep going, for Peter’s sake. And for your sanity.

Because the more time you spend in this universe and not in your own, where you can visit Ben, May, and Peter’s graves, you are slipping ever so slightly.

You’re losing your fucking mind.

You just want to go home.

-

“Nothing Bruce. It’s only been a day but so far nothing.” Catwoman’s sharp voice cut through the silence.

Batman doesn’t reply in acknowledgement but nods and leaves the rooftop, leaving Catwoman peeved.

“I told you I’d keep looking, maybe it was nothing. You’re just too paranoid.” She huffed before going her separate way.

Batman felt his eyebrow twitch. First, this disturbance that apparently leads to nothing (that’s not true, he can feel it.) Then it’s news about a freak who caught two crooks beating a civilian. At first he didn’t pay it any mind until they kept spouting about a person in a suit shooting a sticky substance.

Gordon couldn’t get a sample because of how sticky the substance was and only for it to dissolve thirty minutes later. Jim Gordon also couldn’t add anything to this person’s claim because it was night and dark and he could only see the silhouette of the person.

But then again, that’s just two things that were off. A coincidence sure, but he doesn’t really believe in coincidences. Not in Gotham.

Placing his hand on his earpiece he spoke, “Anything?”

“Nothing to note. Maybe she’s right. What if this shift was just a coincidence?” Oracle replied.

“Not likely,” He heard her huff, and he sighed. “But not impossible either.”

Oracle would take that over a paranoid Batman any day. It’s the closest thing to an agreement then she will ever get. “I’ve been scanning the whole day but so far, nothing. Not even something similar.” She mumbled to herself.

Just as she takes a small break and sips on water, she hears footsteps approaching.

“How can I help you, Duke?”

“Hey, sorry to bother you if you're busy. Looks like you could use a break.” He replied.

“Honestly, yes. With the whole issue near the East End, I need it.” Barbara swirled her chair around to face Duke.

Duke rubbed his neck in apprehension. “Did you-”

“Find anything?” Oracle finishes for him. He nods. “No. Scanned her face and everything but nothing came up. Then I checked beyond, outside of Gotham. Truly nothing. She’s a ghost.”

“Or, maybe a survivor?” Duke proposed.

“Possibly. Many trafficked survivors and escapees have made it to Gotham.” Barbara entertained the idea.

“Do you know where,” after a hesitant pause he let his hand fall to his side, a slight glint in his eyes that went unnoticed. “She is staying?”

“She was staying at a motel near Park Row. She hasn’t returned since.” This was cause for alarm for Duke but he kept it in.

“Where-” He tried.

“Relax Duke. You know most would call this- what’s the word, ah, stalking.” Barbara teased, causing Duke to flush slightly.

“You’re right. I just…” He straightened up before he chuckled at his memory of you. “I never got her name.”

“That’s cause she never threw it. Not even the guy from the store got it.”

“Alright, thanks though.” Duke nodded and headed out.

Barbara bid him well and returned to the screen. Wondering how you, a random civilian, caught Duke’s attention. But then again, after scanning your face on the screen she too couldn’t help but find herself unable to look away. 

And yes, you could say that you’re pretty, she can see that, but there is just something about you that makes you different and she can’t figure out why. Just what about you has her curious. But then again you are a civilian and she won’t mix personal interest with work. 

Despite parading that Bruce was being paranoid about the disturbance in the air. It was strong enough to send an alert to her, and it could be something dangerous. But it happened so fast that you could blind and you would miss it.

For now, the thought of the pretty civilian will be put on the back burner, but not forgotten. She’ll get to you when she solves this stupid case in front of her. That and the mysterious spider person that three people (not including her dad) apparently saw.

“Coincidence? Probably not.” typing the keyboard she clicks enter and watches the monitor scan Gotham for the same frequency as the disturbance to see if she can put up anything, even a trace.

Nothing.

Clicking enter, she watches the screen again.

Prev; Next;

I realized have like ZERO outline for a fleshed out story sucks balls. Well, let's see where this goes together. I ordered some Signal/Duke comics and I am excited to see them arrive. Anyways, which new bat person do you think you'll meet next? There is only one right answer and it isn't Duke.

You're name isn't Tinker, but it's probably what I'll use as your alias.

[mindfulstudyquest]

“ dopamine detox ,, and why you should delete all your social media right now

"just five more minutes" and then you end up scrolling on instagram or tiktok for hours. i know that feeling. even if you know rationally that focusing on the really important things ( such as studying, working, learning from books or whatever ) is much healthier for you and your future, you can't help it.

you know that start studying for the exam you have next week will benefit you much more in the long run, but you still prefer watching tiktoks and scrolling on instagram. you could say that is pretty obvious: one activity is easy, and doesn't require much effort, whereas the other one is difficult and implies that you are focused.

but it's actually like this? so then why some people manage to be consistent in studying, or working, or exercising? they simply just have more motivation than you? and how can you start having the same motivation as them?

to answer this question, we have to take a look to a very important molecule produced by our brain: dopamine.

dopamine is often considered a pleasure molecule, but it's a false belief. dopamine is actually the molecule that makes us desire things, and it's that desire that gives us the motivation to complete every kind of task. for example, your brain doesn't release dopamine while you're eating a cheesburger, it releases it while you're going to mcdonald's to buy it, because you anticipate that the food will make you feel good, even if it actually makes you feel worse.

to your brain, it doesn't matter if the high-dopamine-activity is damaging to you.

your brain organizes priorities based off how much dopamine is expecting to get:

if an activity releases too little dopamine, you won't have the motivation to accomplish it.

if an activity releases a lot of dopamine you'll be motivated to do it, and repeat it over and over

so, which activities releases dopamine? basically, any activity where you can get an immediate potential reward releases an high amount of dopamine. but if you know that there's not an immediate reward invoved ( such as in studying, where the reward is in the long run ) your brain will not expect to release much of it and you'll be less motivated to do that task.

nearly everything releases some amount of dopamine, even drinking water when you're thirsty, but the highest amount of it is released when you're getting a reward randomly, for example while playing on a slot machine. even if you loose money, you eventually expect to get a bigger reward.

therefore it is not so surprising that the most additive social networks ( tiktok, instagram, pinterest ) are designed as slot machines. you don't know what the next post or video will be, but you expect something great, so your brain releases a large amount of dopamine.

in today's society our brains are overloaded with stimuli that induce an unnatural production of dopamine ( scrolling on social media, playing video games, watching internet pornograhy, etc. ).

it's frightening that people don't know how harmful this lifestyle is: our bodies have a biological sistem called homeostasis, which means that our bodies keep the internal physical and chemical conditions at a balanced level, whenever an imbalance occurs, our bodies adapt to it, for example, when it's very hot our body temperature rises and we start sweating to cool down.

but homeostasis manifests through tolerance too. for example, someone who hardly ever drinks alchool will be tipsy after one beer, on the other hand, someone who drinks alchool on a regular basis will need two, three, four beers in order to get drunk, because their body has developed a tolerance to it. it's not much different with dopamine.

so if you get used to large amounts of dopamine, you won't be able to do the things that you did before, because they don't produce as much dopamine and it's more difficult to motivate yourself to do them. once your dopamine tolerance gets too high, you are no longer able to enjoy low dopamine activities.

as if you were a drug addict, there's only one way to get out of it: you have to perform a dopamine detox. you have to avoid all high dopamine activities in order to allow your body to adjust to a normal level of dopamine production and start finding motivation again in the things that improve your personal growth.

it's not easy, you will be nervous and frustrated, maybe you won't make it through a full day without social media, but day by day it will get better and better, and eventually you'll be able to appreciate small things again.

imagine that you're eating your favorite food - for example, chocolate cake - every single day. after a while, chocolate cake doesn't taste good as before, even if it's literally the same cake. on the other hand, if you eat it once a month, it will taste great, because it's not something you've gotten used to.

this is exactly what dopamine detox does. be safe guys, and start recovering now.

[ source: https://youtu.be/9QiE-M1LrZk ]

[solecist]

more context for 악어(acau)'s translation (troubles? future troubles?)!

@blockgamepirate mentioned pronouns in context of translation in a reblog and that got me thinking about a bunch of things lmao but mostly about 반말 (banmal).

악어 decided really early on into his experience with the translator to try to use banmal bc he felt like the translator was picking up on it better, and he probably thought this because of two things:

banmal is usually shorter than 존댓말 (jondaemal) which is the polite/default way of speaking. and when i say default i mean my parents sometimes use it to refer to each other. it's more than just politeness, it's also a certain amount of respect? with younger people (high school, college, maybeeee graduate student age) people tend to use banmal with friends. older people use banmal to talk to children, and children use banmal except when talking to older people. i think the easiest way of showing just how much shorter banmal is, is to use "안녕" (korean "hello") as an example. "안녕" (annyeong) is actually banmal! you absolutely wouldn't say this to someone you've just met - you would say "안녕하세요" (annyeonghaseyo) which is jondaemal. but do you see how the second is three syllables longer? there's more of a margin of error with three more syllable and that's why the machine translator doesn't work as well with jondaemal.

The most casual way of speaking banmal uses pronouns. korean doesn't have gendered pronouns really, and the pronouns it does have seem. rude? generally? children use pronouns a lot and adults use pronouns when speaking to children but otherwise.... if you're not friends (and young honestly have yet to find an midsized (40+) adult regularly use pronouns) calling someone "you" is like. an insult. it works (that is, it doesn't feel like an insult) in 악어's stream for me because it felt like he was speaking in a significantly simpler/slower register after a while? like the register you'd use for kids. but i did want to put it out there! because if you're trying to learn korean through 악어's stream, you're probably listening to him use banmal! and that's just something to be aware of.

more pronoun thoughts! in terms of gender - korean doesn't have gendered pronouns. the closest you get in third person is something like "that girl" so machine translate will almost never get it right. it will default to masculine (in my experience) or the first person ("i" "me") so that's something to keep in mind. honestly my dad often defaults to masculine third person pronouns because he forgets pronouns are gendered in english and that there's more than one of them lmaooo. korean does gender relationships A Lot (oppa is the one that most people will know - brother from female speaker to older male listener) but pronouns wise there's. no gender oop.

i just wanted to put this out there because as 악어 becomes more a part of the qsmp community, we'll probably slowly pick up on the more regular patterns of awkward machine translation from an east asian language to english, and more specifically from korean to english. and if it's confusing that's ok! assume good faith - 악어 from what i can tell isn't a streamer who'll use insults a lot or curse, and his normal way of speaking to his audience is very soothing/polite/jondaemal, so i hope that people keep watching him throughout this introduction period!

[midnight-shadow-cafe]

The Perfect Blend

Pairing: Johnny “Soap” Mactavish x Plus Sized! reader

Warnings: FLUFF WITH SOME SPICE, mentions of insecurities but don’t worry, Johnnys got you

Authors Note: I hope you enjoy, Johnny is a flirt

Word Count: 1.1k

Masterlist

MDNI18+MDNI18+MDNI18+MDNI18+MDNI18+

Working at the local café, you’d grown used to the ebb and flow of regulars, but John “Soap” MacTavish was something else entirely. He started coming in daily, his presence impossible to miss. With his mohawk, sharp jawline, and unmistakable Scottish accent, he wasn’t exactly inconspicuous in your quiet town. He ordered a black coffee and whatever pastry you had on special, always giving you a grin that felt like a secret shared.

By the third day, you found yourself looking forward to seeing him. And by the end of the week, he’d struck up a conversation.

“Dinnae worry, lass, it’s no’ gonna bite ye,” he teased, watching as you wrestled with the coffee machine.

“Oh, yeah?” you shot back, grinning as you finally got it working. “I’d like to see you handle it, Mr. Action Hero.”

He chuckled, a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “Ye think I can’t take on a wee machine?”

Setting his coffee in front of him, you raised an eyebrow. “Pretty sure my job’s safe, but thanks for the offer.”

It surprised you how easily you could talk to him, even with the little voice in the back of your mind reminding you of how you looked. You knew you weren’t exactly the “type” most men chased after, and sometimes you’d catch yourself wondering if he was just being friendly. But each day, Soap peeled back more of your usual defenses. You learned he was in the military, though he kept the details light, and he discovered your passion for baking and your dream of turning the café into a full-blown bakery. You found yourself feeling more comfortable around him, even daring to hope that he might actually see you as more than a barista.

One morning, while the café was unusually quiet, Soap looked at you intently, a warm smile softening his face. “Ye know, I keep comin’ here fer more than the coffee, lass.”

Your heart skipped a beat, but a doubtful thought crept in. You forced a chuckle. “You don’t have to say that, you know.”

Soap leaned in, his eyes holding yours, steady and sincere. “I mean it. Ye’re somethin’ special—honest, strong… and ye make a mean scone. It’s rare to find someone like ye.”

The way he said it felt like he saw past all the worries and insecurities you tried to hide, and for a moment, you let yourself believe it.

A week later, Soap finally asked you out. After agreeing to meet him at a nearby restaurant, you spent the afternoon trying on outfits, feeling a bit ridiculous for being so anxious. You’d always been self-conscious about your size, and though you knew how to dress in a way that made you feel comfortable, a part of you worried if you’d look good enough standing next to him. Soap was so handsome and fit, the kind of man who could make anyone do a double take. As you caught sight of yourself in the mirror, that old, familiar doubt crept in.

But when you met him at the restaurant, his face lit up in a way that made some of your worries fade. He greeted you with a warm smile, eyes soft as he looked you over. “Ye look beautiful, bonnie,” he said, so genuinely that you almost believed it.

“Thanks,” you managed, feeling a bit shy under his gaze.

Once inside, though, the attention he attracted became hard to ignore. People’s gazes seemed drawn to him, admiring and a little starstruck. And standing next to him, you felt more aware of yourself than ever. You noticed the way others’ eyes slid past you and lingered on him, and though he stayed focused on you, a knot of insecurity twisted in your stomach.

After the food arrived, Soap caught the way your gaze drifted down, shoulders tense, hands fidgeting with your napkin.

“Ye alright, lass?” he asked softly, reaching across the table to squeeze your hand.

You mustered a weak smile. “I’m just… not used to this kind of attention, I guess.”

His expression softened as he took in your discomfort. Without another word, he squeezed your hand again, his voice gentle and reassuring. “Tell ye what—how about we get the food to go, aye? We’ll head back to mine, and we can eat in peace.”

You felt a weight lift, and a real smile tugged at your lips. “That sounds perfect.”

Back at Soap’s flat, he made you comfortable on his couch, draping you with a warm blanket and setting out your takeout on the coffee table. The night drifted into easy conversation, shared laughter, and soft moments as you both settled into the comfort of each other’s company. With him there, you began to forget your insecurities, feeling more like yourself again.

As the evening wore on, Soap’s gaze grew warmer, more intent. He leaned in, his thumb brushing softly along your cheek. “Ye know ye’re incredible, aye?” he murmured.

A blush crept over your cheeks, and you glanced down, feeling a bit shy under his gaze. “I’m just…me.”

Soap’s hand slid to cup your face, lifting it so you met his eyes. “Ye’re so much more than that, bonnie. Every bit o’ ye—yer kind heart, yer strength, the way ye light up a room… and aye, ye’re beautiful.” He brushed his fingers along your shoulder, his gaze traveling down with a look of genuine admiration. “Every curve, every smile… I wouldn’t change a thing about ye.”

The sincerity in his words washed over you, and you felt yourself softening, the doubts easing. Slowly, he leaned in, pressing a tender kiss to your lips. It was gentle at first, but then his arms wrapped around you, holding you close, and his kiss deepened, filled with a warmth and affection that made your heart race.

In his bedroom, his touch was reverent, every caress slow and purposeful, each movement designed to show you just how deeply he cared. His fingers traced down your arms, across your back, lingering over the curves you’d always felt so self-conscious about, yet he treated them with such tenderness that you felt truly cherished.

“Ye’re perfect, bonnie,” he whispered, his gaze full of admiration as he took you in, letting you see just how much he meant it.

That night, every touch and kiss was a quiet reassurance. He adored you for who you were, without reservation. And with each passing moment, you felt that love settle, knowing that, in his eyes, you were everything he wanted. In his arms, every doubt melted away, replaced by a warmth that felt as deep as it was unshakeable.

Hope you enjoyed! Please consider liking and reposting! -Midnight💜

[cosmossystem]

running list of things i've learned from making my patch pants:

if you use canvas for your patches, the edges will start to fray. this is inevitable. i'm sure there is some way around this but i haven't figured it out yet. i'm thinking maybe a glue stick or fray check along the edges right after cutting the patch could work. of course, that might be part of the look you're going for, so it might not bother you too much (personally idc lol)

don't bother with fabric markers. they bleed and they won't show up on black fabric and they look like shit. acrylic paint markers are a GODSEND, use them. some are better than others, so try around to see what works for your fabric. i use top notch in white and it works for me.

also, if you use acrylic markers, be careful of it seeping through your material and onto the surface behind. i've ruined my desk this way.

no markers? try just regular ol' acrylic paints. works pretty good too, just keep in mind that it will make your patches stiffer and crack a lot more. also might not be waterproof--but who cares, really.

don't want to freehand all that text? USE STENCILS!!! you can make your own with tape and an exacto knife (apparently, i've never tried) or you can do what my lazy ass does and just buy a bunch of premade letter stencils. it also makes working with acrylic markers much easier.

if your material is black, or if you have a lot of black areas, you can use a sharpie to fix any mistakes. i usually do this to make my edges sharper. go over the area several times if you need to. it smells horrible but it works.

your patches will inevitably start to come off, especially around areas that crease (for pants, that's hips and knees.) that's part of life. there's a few things you can do to make them last longer. if you use a sewing machine, try using something other than a straight stitch, like a zig-zag stitch. if you stitch by hand, try doubling up your thread or double-sewing the edges using a combination of different stitches. i've had the best luck with a very close whipstitch. of course if the patch is beyond repair, you could always just take it off and replace it with something different (ship of theseus that thang!) you could also maybe get away with using embroidery thread but depending on your patch material, it may make it harder to work with.

also, i know this is kind of cheating, but you don't have to just decorate with patches. i added a bunch of safety pins and it adds a bit of Flare. that also means i have a free safety pin whenever i need it! (often)

these rules are not set in stone and you should experiment to see what works for you!!!

if you have anything to add on please feel free :)

edit for the love of GOD stop mentioning hemming in the notes. like i said, i specifically didn't want to include it in this post because hemming is A) a pain in the ass, and B) not accessible to everyone. i mentioned alternatives to hemming in my reblog, but here they are again:

a lighter or fray check (be careful with this and make sure you won't accidentally ruin your material or set something on fire. also please research how to do this correctly. don't blame me if you set your jacket on fire)

glue stick or liquid glue (this one might depend on what kind of glue and fabric you use as well)

interfacing (thank you to someone in the notes for mentioning this because i totally forgot about it and interfacing isn't my specialty)

liquid stitch or other forms of fabric glue (i actually had no idea this existed, thank you to the notes again)

again, stitching the patches on very closely. i use a close whipstitch for mine.

similarly, a blanket stitch on the edges before sewing the patch on (technically this is a form of hemming, but i'll allow it)

[smellslikebot]

"how do I keep my art from being scraped for AI from now on?"

if you post images online, there's no 100% guaranteed way to prevent this, and you can probably assume that there's no need to remove/edit existing content. you might contest this as a matter of data privacy and workers' rights, but you might also be looking for smaller, more immediate actions to take.

...so I made this list! I can't vouch for the effectiveness of all of these, but I wanted to compile as many options as possible so you can decide what's best for you.

Discouraging data scraping and "opting out"

robots.txt - This is a file placed in a website's home directory to "ask" web crawlers not to access certain parts of a site. If you have your own website, you can edit this yourself, or you can check which crawlers a site disallows by adding /robots.txt at the end of the URL. This article has instructions for blocking some bots that scrape data for AI.

HTML metadata - DeviantArt (i know) has proposed the "noai" and "noimageai" meta tags for opting images out of machine learning datasets, while Mojeek proposed "noml". To use all three, you'd put the following in your webpages' headers:

<meta name="robots" content="noai, noimageai, noml">

Have I Been Trained? - A tool by Spawning to search for images in the LAION-5B and LAION-400M datasets and opt your images and web domain out of future model training. Spawning claims that Stability AI and Hugging Face have agreed to respect these opt-outs. Try searching for usernames!

Kudurru - A tool by Spawning (currently a Wordpress plugin) in closed beta that purportedly blocks/redirects AI scrapers from your website. I don't know much about how this one works.

ai.txt - Similar to robots.txt. A new type of permissions file for AI training proposed by Spawning.

ArtShield Watermarker - Web-based tool to add Stable Diffusion's "invisible watermark" to images, which may cause an image to be recognized as AI-generated and excluded from data scraping and/or model training. Source available on GitHub. Doesn't seem to have updated/posted on social media since last year.

Image processing... things

these are popular now, but there seems to be some confusion regarding the goal of these tools; these aren't meant to "kill" AI art, and they won't affect existing models. they won't magically guarantee full protection, so you probably shouldn't loudly announce that you're using them to try to bait AI users into responding

Glaze - UChicago's tool to add "adversarial noise" to art to disrupt style mimicry. Devs recommend glazing pictures last. Runs on Windows and Mac (Nvidia GPU required)

WebGlaze - Free browser-based Glaze service for those who can't run Glaze locally. Request an invite by following their instructions.

Mist - Another adversarial noise tool, by Psyker Group. Runs on Windows and Linux (Nvidia GPU required) or on web with a Google Colab Notebook.

Nightshade - UChicago's tool to distort AI's recognition of features and "poison" datasets, with the goal of making it inconvenient to use images scraped without consent. The guide recommends that you do not disclose whether your art is nightshaded. Nightshade chooses a tag that's relevant to your image. You should use this word in the image's caption/alt text when you post the image online. This means the alt text will accurately describe what's in the image-- there is no reason to ever write false/mismatched alt text!!! Runs on Windows and Mac (Nvidia GPU required)

Sanative AI - Web-based "anti-AI watermark"-- maybe comparable to Glaze and Mist. I can't find much about this one except that they won a "Responsible AI Challenge" hosted by Mozilla last year.

Just Add A Regular Watermark - It doesn't take a lot of processing power to add a watermark, so why not? Try adding complexities like warping, changes in color/opacity, and blurring to make it more annoying for an AI (or human) to remove. You could even try testing your watermark against an AI watermark remover. (the privacy policy claims that they don't keep or otherwise use your images, but use your own judgment)

given that energy consumption was the focus of some AI art criticism, I'm not sure if the benefits of these GPU-intensive tools outweigh the cost, and I'd like to know more about that. in any case, I thought that people writing alt text/image descriptions more often would've been a neat side effect of Nightshade being used, so I hope to see more of that in the future, at least!

[thezombieprostitute]

Tech Tuesday: Lloyd Hansen

Summary: It's your first week on the job and you find yourself having to deal with a very angry higher up.

Warnings: Power imbalance, Yelling. Please let me know if I missed any.

Tech Tuesdays Masterlist

You were grateful for the minimal fallout from the ticket you apparently shouldn't have accepted. When you talked to Syverson the next day you learned that Mr. Hansen has a mean reputation and only more experienced IT personnel were to respond to his tickets. Thankfully there was no retaliation from Johnny either. He took the lecture from Syverson and apologized to you for putting you in that situation.

They had both given you confused looks when you assured them it hadn't been so bad. Yes, he was very loud and very angry, but it wasn't anything too bad and the anger was rarely directed at you. Really you were just grateful there wasn't any ill will from Johnny because you were a goody-two-shoes or tattletale. You'd had more than enough of that in school.

After a few days, Mr. Pine visited you. "We have an interesting note from Mr. Hansen. On his latest ticket he added a note to 'send the Maestro'. Would you know anything about that?"

"Um, well, Mr. Pine, um, when I fixed his laptop, he, um, mentioned something about me being a maestro."

His eyebrows raise in surprise, "that is quite unexpected. Not that you're so talented, but that he's so complimentary."

Not really knowing how to reply, you simply shrug your shoulders.

"This will certainly be coming up as a good thing on your performance review," Mr. Pine continues. "But I don't know that having you answer all of his tickets would be good policy. With your permission, I'll add you to the roster for dealing with Hansen, but it certainly wouldn't be fair to have you be the sole person responsible."

"That make sense, Mr. Pine. And thank you."

"Not a problem," he nods. "Looking forward to your insights on that upcoming project for the CFO."

You get back to focusing on your work until lunchtime. You've have to set alarms to remind you to eat. It's irritating to get startled out of your focus, but it really is healthier to take regular food and bathroom breaks. The exit to the break room takes you past Mr. Pine's office. There's some very loud yelling coming from there and it looks like Mr. Pine's assistant is almost in a panic.

Not wanting to get in trouble you walk faster towards the little kitchen for your lunch. Keeping an eye on the time you sit and try to enjoy your simple sandwich with a side of grapes. Not much, but it's satisfying and healthier than relying on the vending machines.

"Maestro! There you are!"

You head shoots up, eyes wide open as you recognize Mr. Hansen's voice. "Y-y-yes, Mr. Hansen? Sir? H-how can I help you?"

"Pine might decide that others answer my tickets but you're going to take all of them. Tell the other minions in your department that you'll take the tickets I create. I don't doubt they'll happily let you do so."

"Sir, Mr. Hansen, I really can't do that," you entreat. "I work for Mr. Pine and Mr. Syverson, not you. I have to follow their orders, Sir."

You see his mustache twitch in irritation, "let's see if we can fix that." You're at a loss for words as he storms out of the break room.

Tagging @alicedopey; @delicatebarness; @ellethespaceunicorn; @icefrozendeadlyqueen; @jaqui-has-a-conspiracy-theory; @late-to-the-party-81; @lokislady82 ; @peyton-warren @ronearoundblindly; @stellar-solar-flare

[peppermintquartz]

Some headcanons:

Buck hates Tommy's habit of leaving his mugs around the apartment/house. He's found mugs in the bedroom, the living room, the garage, next to the sofa, on top of the washing machine... This bad habit leads to their first fight, where Buck says something pretty cutting about Tommy not giving a shit about how he leaves messes for others to deal with

In the end Tommy has one single large mug with his name on it that he drinks out of at Buck's place, and he has to circulate the house before he sleeps to put away his mugs if Buck's staying over at his place

Tommy hates when Buck puts down one of Tommy's hobbies, even if Buck doesn't mean it at all. It feels patronizing when Buck's all "I think there are better ways to spend a weekend than see a bunch of sweaty guys in spandex pretend to fight" when Tommy asks if Buck wants to watch WrestleMania with him

Tommy ends up watching it with Eddie and happens to mention this when Eddie asks why Buck isn't there, and Eddie picks up on the underlying upset. He tells Buck that sometimes, what seems stupid to him is just Tommy's way of asking to spend time vegging out together, and that Buck should have at least given it a shot before shooting down the suggestion

They each get annoyed by the way they fold the laundry. Tommy does it army style, Buck does it Marie Kondo style, and to keep the peace they sort out the clothes into respective piles before folding them

Channel surfing. Tommy knows what he enjoys so he has just those few shows that he watches at specific times, and if there are MMA fights or NBA matches he wants to watch, he marks them out on his schedule. Buck's interested in lots of stuff and just surfs through all the channels until something catches his eye. Usually it doesn't bother Tommy much but this one occasion, Tommy's like "can't you pick something and stick with it?" And it's the critical tone that ticks Buck off, and that leads to their second fight, where Tommy snaps that Buck never seems to know what he wants

Maddie gets the brunt of Buck's rants (over the phone or in person), Eddie a close second, while Tommy works it out of his system by pummeling a heavy bag and then he calls Chimney (and later Bobby) to ask how to explain himself in a way that Buck would understand

They know exactly how they can hurt each other because they've learned a lot about each other. And they both give each other the cold shoulder after their arguments but they also can't bear not seeing each other on their days off

The good thing is, they're both mature enough and know the danger of their jobs enough not to hang on to their resentment for too long. Usually, they apologize a maximum of two shifts later

Makeup sex is fun, but they both agree that's only in small doses. Regular happy sex is better

[whatsa-bi-as]

3 months

GN!reader x Kim Seungmin

plot; Seungmin falls for a local barista not knowing that they fell first

genre; fluff

warnings; reader is described as wearing a dress and having tattoos. Heavily implies that the reader has seasonal depression

word count; 2.6k

networks; @kflixnet and @k-labels

proofread; by me

masterlist is here

There was no worse pain than the sharp winter wind. It cut across your thighs like knives and left every part of exposed skin feeling frostbitten. That’s without mentioning the rain that fell constantly; not a day would go by without drops of ice water melting into your skin and leaving your hands red.

In between the rain and the cold, it was also dark. The sun already set as you were on your way to work, forcing the streets to be lit only by fluorescent streetlights. It was an ugly scene. The cold, dark streets held no laughter despite being filled with smiling people only three months before.

Three months can be a long time but when you’re in the monotonous routine of, class, work, home, repeat, the days begin to bleed together meaning that the high of summer feels like yesterday and the darkness of winter seems never ending. 

When you were living at home three months felt like forever. It was 90 days of family dinners, laughter, and chaos. Now you’re on your own? It was 90 days of dark and quiet. 90 days of no sleep, of stressing about deadlines, of dealing with things you never thought you’d have to. It’s odd how 90 days could mean so much, feel like so much time, but now it’s just gone in what feels more like 90 seconds.

Work was not much better; being a barista was exhausting. Always having to smile, having to deal with people who barely see you as a person, it was enough to drive anyone insane, but you had to pay the bills, so here you were clocking in for your 7th shift in 8 days. You had been put on the close shift, so hopefully it would go quickly, and you’d be able to put some music on and focus on getting the tasks done. 

The tables were cleaned, chairs were stacked, and it looked like you’d be able to lock the doors as soon as the clock hit seven. That was until four boys came through the door. They looked like nice people but that wasn’t enough to stop the annoyance from rising as they had come in at 6:52 pm. Eight minutes, that was all, a tiny blip in the 129,600 minutes that had melted together over the past few months. 

One of the boys looks around and his face just drops.

“Are you closed? We are so sorry if you are!”

You look around, tempted to say yes, to get them to go so you’ll be able to leave early, but all of them look so awful about the possibility of being an inconvenience.

“You got here just in time. We close at 7.” 

It was definite that the customer service smile didn’t hide your annoyance, but it was a good enough attempt.

“Thank you! We’ll make it quick.” The taller one replied.

And they did make it quick. Ordering four drinks, paying with one card to save time, leaving as soon as they got their drinks. They were the perfect late-night customers; you couldn’t complain about the interaction at all. Did it take you a little longer to close? Well, yes, but that was mainly the coffee machine so you could just go on your phone.

After that night, those four boys became regulars, sometimes they would bring other people but there would always be at least one of them there to say hello. You didn’t really give it much thought but after a couple weeks you realised that the feeling of impending dread had lessened. The wind was still as bitter, and the cold was still cutting but the feeling you got when you saw them was like the one that the sun brought in the spring.

You had realised what they had come to mean to you, as much as almost strangers can mean to someone, because you had learnt their names. It was never really a priority for you to learn customer names, you could recognise regulars from their faces, and you would only remember other people if they were rude. This was only a job, you didn’t see any point in putting in that much extra effort, but these boys felt different.

There was Hyunjin, he’s the tall one, very nice but can be incredibly chaotic. Dances everywhere he goes to the point you think he might try and get you to do a Tik Tok with him next time they come in late.

Then there's Felix. He has these adorable freckles and the brightest damn smile you’ve ever seen. He only laughed when you tried to do an Australian accent after you heard his so he might be too nice for his own good.

Next is Han. His name is actually Jisung, but you have never heard any of the main four call him that. You only know what his name is because he came in with some other people, who were equally as nice. He is just as chaotic as Hyunjin, but Jisung is just worse at hiding it while in public.

The final one of the four was harder to pin down. He was cute, nice, and the perfect customer but he never really joined in when the other three were messing around. You knew that they were all the same age but that was about it. He was the cutest by far and you’re not afraid to admit that you had a bit of a crush on the mystery man. 

From what you’ve learnt his name is Seungmin and he’s a singer. That's about it. The other boys have called him ‘puppy’ but that's just confusing, so you let that one go. Ironically it's the one that you want to know the most that you know the least about.

The boy continued to be a mystery as winter turned to spring. Flowers bloomed and the sun shone bright, but you knew next to nothing about Seungmin. 

Your mom would say the change in seasons brought change in the times, it sounded like superstition or star signs, but it gave you hope that as the days grew longer your relationship with him would grow stronger.

That said the warmer weather did bring a warmer attitude, you were happier and that could be seen through the way you treated others with kindness no matter how they first approached the conversation. You complimented little girls in summer dresses, made small talk with other tired students, and even chose to take the high road against a few particularly difficult customers. It was a complete 180 from how you had been for the past few months, but it was a welcome change.

This made someone look at you in a different way. The boy had never really thought of you in more than a friendly way but seeing you smile, and watching as you took the everyday into your stride, well he started to reconsider your place in his life.

Seungmin was happy on his own. He never really bothered with relationships, instead he watched the ones around him. He saw how Hyunjin was able to get any girl he wanted but chose not to take things too far, how Jisung could make anyone laugh just by being himself, and how Felix could make someone's heart flutter by smiling. It made him slightly sick watching girls fawn over his best friends, but it was just part of life.

That's not to say Seungmin couldn’t get girls, if he tried to he definitely could, he just didn't want to. There was no reason for him to go on dates and try to find ‘the one’ when he had so much life left to live. 

But there was something about the way your eyes sparkled when your coworkers made you laugh, how you excitedly showed how your dress has pockets every time someone gives you a compliment; there was something comforting in how happiness just seemed to pour from every part of you. 

He remembered when you had first met, that late night where the boys had spent far too long practising for a competition, desperately needing coffee. You had looked so done, ready to curl up into a ball and sleep for eternity, but you still let them order even though you closed in eight minutes. It was that night Seungmin knew that you were a good person, but he was not prepared for the way you would make him feel just a few months later.

Smiling when he saw that you were, laughing at the jokes you made, wishing he could talk to you more, he knew what this all meant. In spite of him being fine alone, Seungmin wanted to be with you. He wanted to hear you sing from the kitchen on a Saturday morning, he wanted to see you in his clothes, he just wanted to be yours and for you to be his.

It had been three months since the sun began to shine again. There were still days where the wind cut into your soul, but it was healed by the bright blue of the sky. The rain fell but it was a welcome coolness against the heat that beat down; the days had gotten brighter and longer, and you could feel the darkness leaving. You were living in light, and it made you shine even brighter than the sun.

You had grown closer to the boys you would now class as friends. You found out that they were all dancers, that Felix was bilingual and was teaching the others, and that Seungmin was single. That last piece of information was the most interesting and your reaction brought out some teasing from Jisung and Hyunjin.

“Someone’s gone shy. Does someone have a thing for little Seungmin?” 

Of course it was Jisung who had to bring it up first.

Trying to keep your cool and not make a complete idiot out of yourself at work you keep your hands busy making their drinks before you reply.

“And what if I do? Would it really be that bad?”

The boys were slightly stunned, not really expecting you to admit to having feelings for their friend. For two very chatty people they were left speechless; do they try to set you two up? Or is that just meddling? Do they push him to make a move? Or would that just drive him away? There was so much that they could do but they weren’t sure that any of it would be a good move to actually get you guys together.

“No. I think you guys would be a good couple. You’d balance out his grumpy pretty nicely.” 

“Seungmin’s not grumpy he’s just an introvert Jisung, not everyone can be friendly all the time.”

By this point you had finished their drinks and knew that this conversation was coming to a close.

“I think I know you guys pretty well by now and that if you’ve decided to meddle then there's not much I can do about that. Just, don’t make me look like an idiot, whatever you guys decide to do.”

The boys took their drinks and shared a look,

“Don’t worry no matter what we do we’ll look like idiots. Well, Jisung will at least.”

“I would be offended but that’s just true. I can’t really disagree with that.”

After that day Seungmin seemed to always be with them and even introduced you to the other members of his dance team. Chan, Minho and Changbin were so sweet you didn’t know how they dealt with the younger four that you had met before. When you met Jeongin you began to see why. It’s as if the younger five took all of the chaotic energy that eight boys would create. It was a weird dynamic but seeing the difference in the way they acted made you laugh every time more than one of them came in.

They were all so nice, and cute, but it was Seungmin who had your full attention every time he came to the shop. When you heard the door open and saw his face you knew that your shift was going to be a good one because he was there, even if it was just for fifteen minutes.

It was when summer reached its peak that you began to get closer. You would talk about whatever came to your mind; he asked you about your tattoos and you’d ask about why he chose that hair colour. It was a nice routine that you had made.

That was until one hot June day he went quiet and very shyly asked.

“So… are you dating anyone?”

You guys had never really talked about relationships, it was just not something that had come up over your friendship.

“Oh um, no. I’ve had a thing for someone for a while, but I don’t really know what to do about it.”

“Does this person know that you like them?”

It was odd to hear that from the boy you liked but you weren’t sure if you should give anything away, so you tried to stay calm

“Well, some of his friends know but I don’t think they’ve told him anything. At least I hope they haven’t.”

He stayed quiet for a while; it looked like he was taking a moment to think things over. It was a nerve wracking 30 seconds.

“Why don’t you tell him? What's the worst that could happen?”

“You really think I should tell him I like him?”

He smiled at you, and you felt your heart skip a beat. His smile was the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.

“I think you never know what could happen. Take a chance and see what comes.”

Looking in his eyes you could tell he wasn’t lying. He just wanted you to take a chance, to see what would happen if you threw caution to the wind.

“Alright then. I like you. Like a lot. I have pretty much since you came in that night.”

All he did was smile. He stayed quiet but there was no pity or sympathy in his eyes, he looked happy. After a minute he got up, still smiling, and asked for your number.

“Why?”

“So that we can organise a time to go out. On a date.”

“Oh, okay then yeah!”

After that day you and Seungmin’s relationship flourished.

You officially began dating in September, just as the leaves turned orange and the wind began to chill. So as autumn turned to winter you didn’t feel the cold the same way you did the first time you met your now boyfriend.

The wind was still sharp, the rain still cold, but when you went home you knew that Seungmin would be waiting for you. The boy could make the coldest weather warmer, his hands warmed yours and his hoodies kept you comfortable wherever you went. The boy you had met in the darkest three months you had ever experienced was able to change your life. 

The next time it felt like there was no hope he was there to remind you that there is. He made your flat feel like home, and the days that were once silent were loud with laughter and music. He warmed your soul in the coldest time of the year. 

You never thought that a barista job would mean you’d meet your soulmate but it’s odd how life can change in just a short amount of time. Three months can feel like forever, but with Seungmin by your side three months disappears in a blink of an eye.

[hedgiwithapen]

we provide... beverage

(coffee shop au!) "Hardison." Eliot says, measured and even. " What's the rule?"

"Look," Hardison responds, holding out the drink placatingly. "Just try it. it's gonna be the perfect winter drink, I'm telling you--"

"We spent a fortune on these espresso machines, do not! Use the steamer! On your damn! Orange! Soda!" 

Hardison wilts. "It's good, though! Orange with cloves is a perfect winter flavor combination, it's traditional, it's--"

"It's carbonated!" Eliot says. "No. Do not add it to the menu. I swear to god, Hardison, do not--"

"Please?"

Eliot stands very firm. "No. We agreed. Parker handles the money, I make the coffee, and you-- you make sure the equipment doesn't break, and that means both wear and tear AND you putting Orange soda through the-- I can't believe I'm even having to say this. Why am I having to say this? did you learn nothing from the Gummy frog mochas?"

"Oh, are you bringing those back?" A customer asks from the other side of the counter. The guy smiles sheepishly. " Sorry, don't mind me, I can wait. I just.. those were actually really good, can I...?" he trails off, looking between Hardison's pure elation, and the look of absolute murder on Eliot's face. "Right, no, uh... one.......regular mocha?"

Eliot goes to make the drink. Parker slips behind the man, borrowing his wallet long enough to learn his house is about to be foreclosed on. Medical bills for a sick aunt climbing higher. 

Well, they'll fix that. One mocha, and a mortgage, coming right up.

[qqueenofhades]

https://www.tumblr.com/qqueenofhades/751102464296665088

*Puts on old man costume*

"Back in my day, we used to cheat and procrastinate like real people! With copious amounts of bullshitting and pulling things out of our asses at the last minute! Secretly sneaking in little things written on our hands or in our phones fer tests and shit! Heck, maybe we didn't even NEED to cheat because it turns out we actually knew stuff, we just didn't know we knew stuff until our last minute papers got a good grade anyways because our shit actually had some analytical relevance borne from deep in our psyche, but we just didn't realize it because we had massive cases of imposter syndrome where we thought everyone else was smarter than us, while overlooking our own abilities!

Now these newfangled ChatGPTs are just taking the easy way out of the easy way out! What's up with that!? These new procrastinators and cheaters make us look even worse than we already do, cuz they ain't even doing the work of not doing the work! And y'all can't even say that you can learn from it in the art of bullshittin', cuz that's not even YOUR bullshitting, it's someone else's bullshitting mangled up with hundreds of other peoples' bullshittin'!

Feh, kids these days!"

*Takes off old man costume*

Addendum: old man anon griping about cheating with ChatGPT does not endorse cheating or procrastinating. I'm just being silly.

I mean... at least with regular old-fashioned cheating, also an academic tradition since time immemorial, at least you're engaging with the material somehow. You are putting your own two god-given eyeballs on that and using your own ickle brainikins to do SOMETHING with it, even if that something is morally questionable. We've all seen the elaborate cheat devices where someone managed to engrave all the exam answers onto a pen or a pair of socks or whatever -- at least that person went in and used their initiative to remember information SOMEHOW, and to do it under their own power. Now, yes, it will get you into trouble, and yes, there are plenty of conversations to be had about accessibility and the fact that not everyone learns by sitting in a room and being lectured at and then having to regurgitate it all from memory with no notes in a final exam, which is why there is a whole thriving field of educational pedagogy and best practices and how to accommodate students with different learning styles and etc. etc. I sometimes see AI framed as "uwu accessibility issue :(" and like... cmon. There are educational professionals who spend their whole lives and careers working out how to shake up the traditional learning format and present material in an engaging way and teach students how to think and write and otherwise be academic and rigorous. And like, if you're voluntarily in this space, then we presume you WANT that instruction! Not to just sit around and whine about how we aren't catering enough to you personally and this means you should get to use the Bullshit Plagiarism Nonsense Machine to never ever think at all!

Now, I will say that the naivete around AI is not only limited to students. I was in a department meeting yesterday where the literal associate dean of the college seemed startled to discover that AI might not be a) totally reliable b) able to totally replace lesson planning and evaluation/grading by an actual human professor (after several faculty members pushed back, shall we say, briskly on the idea that it could). Plenty of people still think it can just magically solve Academia (or /insert field here), and those are not just limited to clueless undergraduates. And yes, undergraduates are clueless in different ways and for different reasons in every era of the world; it is likewise an academic rite of passage. But I still cannot for the life of me understand why you, in ye olde benighted 21st century, would pay tens of thousands of dollars and/or accrue it in debt to go to college, to learn nothing, to whine and blame your professors for "not designing assignments well" (when again, every remotely decent educational professional agonizes for eons about how to do a good job of this for all kinds of students), to insist it is your entitled right to use the Bullshit Plagiarism Nonsense Machine, and then presumably be /shocked pikachu face/ when you don't learn anything and spend your time posting idiot takes on the internet. I mean. The state of critical thinking is /waves hand/ Already So Bad, and the AI craze plays directly into that by fulfilling the insidious fantasy that the hard things in life aren't actually hard and don't have to be learned by patient and careful practice. And that is just. Yeah. C'mon.

(I realize this was a funny/lighthearted ask, but yeah, we can consider this one old man turning to another old man on the park bench and making a joke, and the other old man bellowing YOUTH THESE DAYS!!! and scaring all the pigeons and/or passersby. Ahem.)

[dystychiphxbia]

☆ - Gym crush! pt. 3

this sucked but im so busy with uni aaa

gn!reader

characters: isagi, reo, nagi

Isagi Yoichi:

this guy is new to the gym

he catches your eye, mainly because his form is horrifying at first

where did bro learn how to squat...

you try your best to help him!!

and wow he learns super fast

like...when one is new to the gym they usually progress fast but he's on another level...

you are honestly impressed

and he's so nice too??

except when he has progressed enough to attempt a pr...yeah it's the same level of focusment as when he's playing football

and he can get angry at you for bothering him

but he will always apologize afterwards and say that he just really needed to focus

he really enjoys your company...he was a blushing mess when you first approached him and he still struggles to keep his composure when your hands accidentally touch

always spots for you but first you have to teach him how to do it

definitely talks about you to his friends

they try to get him to ask you out but he always says that you are just his gym crush, no way you return his feelings (but you do)

and your thighs...he WILL be looking at them.

Mikage Reo;

now let's be real...this guy has his own personal gym for sure

but let's say one of his friends drag him to a regular gym....for plot reasons

rich boy is shocked

but you catch his attention...you are so elegant...you dont fit in with all the gym bros

now the problem is he wants to talk to you...would it be weird? can he just invite you to his gym instead?

he overthinks too much

you notice him too, he looks out of place and his gym etiquette is lacking

he forgets to rerack his weights and you immediately go remind him

"oh...im used to not having to rerack them at my own private gym...thanks for the heads up."

nah not the entitled rich boy

but you are a bit jealous...especially when you are waiting for the leg press to be free

reo hates working out in a packed gym but he just cant get you out of his mind even couple days later

his friend says you come often during the peak times and always seem pissed off about having to wait between machines...

so, he returns to the gym once more with a plan

and there you are....waiting for a free squat rack

you were quite surprised to see him...why would a rich boy with his own gym return to a regular gym during peak hours?

once you start racking your weights, reo comes up to you asking how many sets you have left

"bro. i just started. you saw me." "well lemme squeeze in between ur sets yeah?"

you dont like sharing. but the gym is packed. so you give in.

reo keeps talking to you and you realize that he's actually nice

sure he's rich and entitled and has no clue about how the life of a poor commoner is, but you enjoy talking with him

and the way he throws in a few flirts, and makes sure to compliment you...you are a goner

you end up doing your entire routine with him, getting to know him more

you can't help but notice the way he looks at you...and your body

by the end of the workout, he drops the big question

"wanna ditch this gym and workout at mine?"

he promises you can workout for free...ofc you say yes cause that means you can save money

so you save money and he gets to see you almost everyday...an ideal situation!

honestly in the end you care more about seeing reo than saving money...

Nagi Seishiro;

nah who got this man to the gym

again...let's say a friend forced him to come along...for plot reasons...

he does not want to be there

like yes he has his goals that he wants to achieve, but a packed gym is just too much

you see him occupying a machine you need for like 10 mins just being on his phone so you go up to him

he's confused but lets you have the machine, he wasn't really using it anyway

honestly he seems kinda lost

like he doesnt actually know what to do. since he was already dragged to the gym, he should do something useful but he doesn't know what

and you notice...and kinda feel bad for him...he looks like a lost puppy

so!! you help him out!!

you dont know much about football but you help him figure out what he should do at the gym to improve :)

he actually appreciates your help. and you see him come to the gym more and more

this is nagi we are talking about so it's a miracle that he actually keeps coming back

but the thing is that he really wants to see you!! you motivate him

you always smile so brightly when you see him. he just can't get enough of that smile.

everything is less of a hassle with you around!