#that doesn't take away from my point of they generated stuff using ai (with the moral and environmental impacts it creates) and then based

[river-taxbird]

There is no such thing as AI.

How to help the non technical and less online people in your life navigate the latest techbro grift.

I've seen other people say stuff to this effect but it's worth reiterating. Today in class, my professor was talking about a news article where a celebrity's likeness was used in an ai image without their permission. Then she mentioned a guest lecture about how AI is going to help finance professionals. Then I pointed out, those two things aren't really related.

The term AI is being used to obfuscate details about multiple semi-related technologies.

Traditionally in sci-fi, AI means artificial general intelligence like Data from star trek, or the terminator. This, I shouldn't need to say, doesn't exist. Techbros use the term AI to trick investors into funding their projects. It's largely a grift.

What is the term AI being used to obfuscate?

If you want to help the less online and less tech literate people in your life navigate the hype around AI, the best way to do it is to encourage them to change their language around AI topics.

By calling these technologies what they really are, and encouraging the people around us to know the real names, we can help lift the veil, kill the hype, and keep people safe from scams. Here are some starting points, which I am just pulling from Wikipedia. I'd highly encourage you to do your own research.

Machine learning (ML): is an umbrella term for solving problems for which development of algorithms by human programmers would be cost-prohibitive, and instead the problems are solved by helping machines "discover" their "own" algorithms, without needing to be explicitly told what to do by any human-developed algorithms. (This is the basis of most technologically people call AI)

Language model: (LM or LLM) is a probabilistic model of a natural language that can generate probabilities of a series of words, based on text corpora in one or multiple languages it was trained on. (This would be your ChatGPT.)

Generative adversarial network (GAN): is a class of machine learning framework and a prominent framework for approaching generative AI. In a GAN, two neural networks contest with each other in the form of a zero-sum game, where one agent's gain is another agent's loss. (This is the source of some AI images and deepfakes.)

Diffusion Models: Models that generate the probability distribution of a given dataset. In image generation, a neural network is trained to denoise images with added gaussian noise by learning to remove the noise. After the training is complete, it can then be used for image generation by starting with a random noise image and denoise that. (This is the more common technology behind AI images, including Dall-E and Stable Diffusion. I added this one to the post after as it was brought to my attention it is now more common than GANs.)

I know these terms are more technical, but they are also more accurate, and they can easily be explained in a way non-technical people can understand. The grifters are using language to give this technology its power, so we can use language to take it's power away and let people see it for what it really is.

[the-nettle-knight]

This also looks really ai generated :/

Is it just me or do some of the backgrounds in Arcane season 2 look inspired by ai images?

Like, if I saw a piece of art that had this in it I'd automatically assume it's ai generated. I genuinely hope it's not but it's disappointing if it is

[worshipper-status]

Literally so happy because my God is actually excepting of my obsession, but I’d kinda like to know how to worship him better less directly? (Ie. tips on digital alters/general worship tips?)

An excuse to ramble! Thank you :D

Worshipper's Guide to Indirect Worship

This is going to be my sfw guide for less direct methods of contact and digital altars, I may make an nsfw guide at some point on my own as a counterpart to this but for now...

(long post below)

Digital Shrines

Digital shrines are a good format for indirect worship, because you can curate it from anywhere, and no one will know. Technically I have two digital altars but one is more a back up of the other. One is I have a folder on my computer that contains all the media of the shrine, and the shrine itself is on my personal discord server. Usually I separate the shrine itself into media, devotionals, personal devotionals, writings, and links by using different discord channels. The channels breakdown like this for me:

Media: photos and videos of solely them

Devotionals: images I find on the internet that I feel embody our relationship, media created by someone else. Also picrews usually

Personal Devotionals: Visual media I have personally made to embody our relationship and can take full credit for creating. (This is a specific folder I made just to keep my art and others art separate)

Writings: Poems, songs, rambles, gushing, fantasies, etc. Any thought you have about them that's important enough to write down, put it here.

Links: I use this as a dumping ground for ideas I got from articles, purchases I want to make, or anything that requires a link to something else but directly relates to my worship of My Goddess.

Tumblr can also be a general dumping grounds kind of shrine, where I would not be too honest tbh, but it's a start. I prefer keeping my shrines private for the most part. My general advice is to stay away from tumblr for everything because you're not going to feel 1000% comfortable expressing your worship to its full extent because of the possibility of it being found by strangers. Also some things are just tmi to be honest. I have writings in my folder documenting times me and My Goddess have banged in detail so I don't forget. Tumblr doesn't need that kind of detail on here. So try and keep shrines at least somewhat private for your own sake. People are dicks.

As for advice for things to do to worship indirectly (and this goes hand in hand with the shrine a little bit) here's a list with general advice and ideas:

Scrapbook/Junk Journal about them (I'm biased this is a personal favorite of mine). Get a notebook, some scrapbook supplies, and either dedicate it to photos of your beloved or journal about any time you guys interact in ways that feel meaningful to you! I keep one physical scrapbook that I use for collages for My Goddess's photos, and am planning to start a junk journal for more writing purposes. I'll probably solely be using it to write about personal interactions with My Goddess, and on slower days, things I love about Her in general. It's both kinda a traditional journal and a part of my obsessive behaviors. You can also do stuff like this digitally with moodboard and collage makers like Canva which have free options.

Document about them. This is kinda vague so I'll explain. As part of my shrine, I have a document I'm building dedicated to bullet note points about My Goddess. If She randomly drops a fact on me about Her childhood, or Her interests. I write it down there so I don't forget. I want to be a good worshipper so I want to be an expert in everything about Her. I usually use a note taking app for this that I can organize into subgroups. Notion is a favorite of mine (despite them selling their soul to the AI overlords sigh) because it allows a lot of creative freedom in organizing the documents AND it's linked to my email so I can't lose it. Obviously, a google doc will accomplish the exact same thing, however my entire personality type is best described as extra, so I have to do things with extra effort at all times.

Write for them. This is where my pagan background kicks in a little bit, but in certain pagan traditions, especially stuff like Hellenic Polytheism, writing hymns or poems or songs for the gods was very important to their practices. So why not write those things for your God? It doesn't need to be shared, it can be bad, it can be whatever it wants to be. What I usually do, is I write poems for My Goddess, and keep them in my junk journal or digital shrine, depending on if I'm working physically or digitally, and if I'm feeling brave I'll share it with Her, but most times, they stay hidden in the depths of my shrine stuff.

Biggest overall piece of advice, create for them. Nothing shows devotion, quite like the personal experience of making something for someone else even if they never see it. Honor the Gods with the act of Creation, ya know?? It doesn't even have to require you to be good at drawing or whatever. Are you someone who gardens? Name a plant after them. Like makeup? Figure out what makeup styles they prefer on your chosen gender and wear those all the time, even if they're not there to see. Sewing? Make a stuffed animal of them. Speed runs? Dedicate every run to them, create a record for them. It can be as big or as mundane as you want and none of it has to be outwardly expressed to the other person. Just dedicate whatever hobby you have to them, and suddenly you'll have tons of shrine material.

Now for the quick part, of this!

General Worship Tips! (These are more indirect tho)

When getting dressed, pick outfits you know they'll appreciate. (Just please don't sacrifice your personal style for this)

Capitalize their name/title no matter what. They deserve the respect of one extra button push.

Write letters, even if you live close, even if you see them everyday, and even if you never send them. Use this as a format to express your emotions unbarred.

Save every photo they send you of themselves. If you need to edit people out of the photo do it, but you better be saving every instance of themselves they give you.

Fill your space with things that express yourself yes, but also have stuff that reminds you of them. Do they have a favorite animal? Buy those kinds of stuffed animals. They say they like certain types of aesthetics? Put some of that decor in your space.

I don't paint my nails, but if you do, paint them their favorite color.

Have dedicated jewelry pieces for them. While My Goddess did not give it to me, I have a memory of them associated with a bracelet I wear every single day. You can just buy a piece of jewelry and assign it as a symbol to them. They don't have to know.

Interact with their interests, with passion. Do your best to care about everything they care about. It'll give you guys tons of stuff to do, and help you understand them better.

Make pinterest boards dedicated to certain moments you want i.e. first date, wedding, future house/apartment dreams, pets you want with them, nursery room ideas, etc.

Make playlists dedicated to them.

Alright that's all I really have for right now! I hope some of this advice has been helpful and at the very least legible lol. I hope everything with you and your God goes well! If you want any more advice do not be afraid to ask me more questions :)

[kiwikiwii]

Very Big and Very Long AI rant.

After the recent OpenAI stuff I'm gonna be here to share my two cents about the whole very realistic AI stuff, from the perspective of a very anxious and very art oriented person who loves techy stuff.

I very much would understand if this isn't your cup of tea so it's all undercut, thank you for your time anyways <3

Now. Onto the AI stuff.

Recently OpenAI has put out some new technology that's showing off some very nearly realistic videos and they're both creepy and very uncanny. About 2 or 3 years ago, the concerns about AI was already rising with deep fakes and the such and is going to start being a lot worse if this technology isn't properly regulated. This is what is prompting my very long and apparently, 927 word rant.

Going to put this in a few parts so it'll be easier to digest I hope.

About the tech.

We are at a point where the lines of AI generated content and real life are starting to blur. It's to a point where a sentence or a prompt could create scenes that look realistic enough that most people wouldn't even suspect that it's AI.

It is such a powerful and interesting technology that's slowly growing out of control. The people who are supposed to regulate the content and lawmakers has no idea what the fuck is going on and how the content is made in the first place, how are they supposed to make a change when they don't even understand what they're supposed to be tackling. The lack of understanding of how AI functions, how it comes to be, where the data was even gotten from in the first place and how it will impact society as a whole will truly be how we'll lose control of it someday. I'm not saying any of this because I want to be a 'hinderance to the future of technology', I'm saying this because the later we try to do something about it, the harder it is to do anything that is useful and effective for safeguarding artists, creators and everyone else who's using the internet. Not to mention the amount of frauds or scams that will skyrocket, children's safety on the internet being compromised, YOUR safety on the internet being compromised, people faking inappropriate images, videos and more will be a nightmare to deal with.

About art.

Many corporate companies unfortunately don't give a fuck about how the art is made and whether it's good or not but how fast it can be made and how much money can be made off of it. In their eyes, the trade off between quantity and quality is worth it. And that to me is extremely frustrating because where the art comes from should also be a part of the story when talking about art. Who the person who made it was like, how they developed a certain style and so on should be cared about and should be appreciated just like the art piece that was created. It shouldn't just be treated as another piece of thing to be fed to the scanner to be spat out as something else.

About creating.

Art is intrinsically a very human thing. People who make the argument "it's letting more people experience how it's like to create art" doesn't understand what it's like to create art. The entire idea of art is the learning, developing and polishing of the skills that you yourself develop. Taking away the steps that it took to get there in the first place diminishes the point of wanting to make art in the first place. It's degrading the time, energy and effort of the people who've already put effort into creating said art to be put out as a cheap and gross mimic of what it came from.

More emotional stuff that doesn't fit in any of the spaces above.

I saw someone use the word 'amalgamation' to describe what AI is today and that about wraps it all up. It's an amalgamation of dots and data skinned off of what there was and chained together to create an image, a video, an audio sample and more without a shred of humanity, love or emotion put into it.

I barely go on twitter nowadays, when I so, I see people sing high praises about the "the amazing advances of AI" and downplay the part of artists that were stolen for to create the technology they love so much in the first place. This whole ordeal makes me sick. It's depressing to see companies laying people off because they're seen as useless or worse than AI. It's disgusting to see the amount of talented people out there stolen from so that people could churn out heartless work at a faster pace to replace you. It's not a stepping stone for humanity, we're stepping over the ledge blindfolded.

I will never stop creating. It's what makes up a big part of me and will continue to be even if AI starts crumbling humanity to ash. One thing they can never take from us is creativity.

To the people who read this far, thank you. Thank you for spending your time to read over my word vomit that has been cooking in my head for the longest time.

To the artist that are still reading this. Remember you are irreplaceable. Without your art, this technology wouldn't have been here in the first place. Your art is invaluable. Never stop creating. Never give up, never give in.

Have a bear <3

[weenwrites]

Hi

Can you write headcanons of Transformers EarthSpark Bumblebee (romantic) and any of the terrans of your choice with a reader that is in her period? I would like the confort, going through this is not verry pleasant😞.

I was thinking of reader being a neighbour (and Bee's partner) the kids visit once in a while to learn more about earth and humans since they have to remain hidden and can't interact with other humans out of their family. But this time they find reader struggling with period sinctoms and they help her while she and Bee answer the kids questions about menstruation.

[ Please do not repost, plagiarize, or use my writing for AI! Translating my work with proper credit is acceptable, but please ask first! ]

A/N: Take care of yourself, anon! The terrans are written platonically, while Bee's is the only romantically written one.

Bumblebee

Ah, that time of the month again. If you've been in a relationship with him for a good while, chances are that he's already memorized what he needs to do to help you. He'll whip a heating pad out, go fetch you some asprin or some other off-the-counter pain killers and dietary suppliments (if you use any), and if there is absolutely anything else you need? Just call his name and he'll be there.

Even if your relationship is still relatively new, he'd immediately ask you what you need and what he can do to help, or he'd search it up online and he'd immediately get you these things to help with the pain.

Nightshade

Even with a human family, they're not all too knowledgable on human biology... So the moment you explain what's happening, they're very concerned. Up until this point they've just thought that any kind of bleeding is bad, and they were seconds away from ushering you to a hospital if you and Bee hadn't cleared things up first.

They'll ask you a lot of good and thoughtful questions to try and better understand what you're going through, so hope you don't mind. And even if you wanted, they could build you a personal assistant to help with any rigorous physical activities, or just general day-to-day activities.

Hashtag

With the internet at her fingertips... She can learn about literally anything she wants...! That is if she finds factually correct information first, instead of bumping into a whole bunch of misinformation. And that's sorta what happened when she was trying to find some stuff to help with period cramps and whatnot. Of course she knows not to take some of this info at face-value, and takes your opinion as fact over what incels on the internet have to say.

She's read online that physical exercise or reducing stress can help with period cramps, and though she doesn't know if it'll help out or not, she'll give it a try if you're willing to do it. She'll take you out for a short stroll in the woods, or practice some yoga poses out in your yard, and the moment that the pain becomes too much for you to continue, she'll call it quits right there and then, and the two of you can just chill.

[harushinkai-daily]

State of the Blog and Plans Going Forward

Hello friends! I wanted to share my plans for this blog now that we've gone through all the episodes and documented more than four years(!!) of good, good Harus.

The bottom line up front: this blog will still be updating, but there is going to be a drop in frequency, and I will take requests via the askbox if there's something you want to see! The rest is under the cut to spare your dash, but read on if you're curious!

First of all, I want to assure everyone that this blog is NOT going away. I care about it way too much to just abandon it. That said, I really don't have it in me to keep it updating daily at this point. There are nowhere near enough "new" Harus I could post, and while I suppose I could start the anime over again from the beginning, I want to make this transition on a high note, and there's nothing I could do that would be more satisfying than (somewhat-accidentally-but-then-totally-on-purpose once I saw it was possible) lining up the end of the anime to coincide with Haru's birthday. Plus, I always want this blog to be a labor of love and joy, so I really do need to make this adjustment before it starts feeling like a chore or obligation to update ^^;

So what does that mean? It means there will still be some new posts to this blog, but they're going to become much more sporadic in nature. I haven't exactly figured out what this looks like yet. It might be every week, it might just be when I feel like it. I still have some manga panels to go through and some anime-related "bonus materials." Plus, there are some stats and compilation-based photosets I want to make (and my personal top 10 Harus? You betcha!). Not to mention finishing the poor, neglected blog index, if you've ever looked at this page on desktop!

That actually brings up another one of my goals for this project: archival and general Appmon news/promotion. In terms of archival, I want to export the contents this blog (screenshots and captions) somewhere outside of Tumblr; I'm thinking a Neocities page or something. I also might use this space to reblog whatever Appmon-related news we might get in the future (few and far between, obviously, but it could still happen!). There are also some other Appmon-related projects that are rattling around in my head that I would also like to get out there (character comparison by director and/or Caught-Up Old Man supercut, anyone?). So things might look kind of quiet as I do some work on some backend HTML and other behind-the-scenes stuff, but progress will probably be happening on those fronts, slowly but surely!

All that said, if you really can't get enough Haru, there are several ways you can help to keep this blog going!

Send me a date on the calendar, ANY date, and I'll reply with all of the daily Harus that got posted over the years! The only exception to that rule is July 1, since that day's dedicated to reblogging fanworks :)

Send me ideas for photosets! With 4 years of backlog, I'm sure there are some interesting ones that could be made.

Send requests for gifs! I only did this sporadically during the original run, but if there's something you want to see that I didn't make already, I'll do it.

Let me know what YOUR favorite Haru(s) are. It doesn't have to be all about me! :D

Send me Harus or requests for Harus that I'm missing? This blog has always accepted submissions. But please note I will not post more than individual Appmon manga panels, because Naoki Akamine, the mangaka, has requested that any art they've shared and posted on social media not be reposted. If it's not directly from the anime, I also have a strong preference for original, official images WITH SOURCES, because I've noticed there are a few AI-upscaled versions of things like card art floating around out there. I will always do my best to track down the original image, and will not use images that have been enhanced with AI on this blog. A sure way to tell: any text on the image looks fuzzy (and wrong!)

Last but not least (and I know I say this a lot, but bear with me): thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for sticking with this blog, whether you're a longtime follower or a relative newcomer. This whole project started on a whim, as a passion project early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and I could not have guessed that it would have taken me this long to make it through the whole series, one good Haru at a time. I have spent a truly shocking amount of time working on this blog, but an equal amount of love, for one of my absolute favorite Digimon series and gogglehead protagonists.

Love from your HaruShinkai-Daily mod,

@citrus-cactus

[fadebolt]

Well, here we are. The very last poll. I didn't really have any plans on what to say here, but there's plenty of stuff to address, so let's get to them.

For starters, I love what you did what the slug hunt here, OP! I generally didn't engage much with that whole thing, seeing that there were already bunch of folks, ready to find the little critters as quickly as possible. And I gotta say, both parties did a pretty incredible job in general. There was a ton of creativity in the hiding spots and colors of the Slugcats, and a lot of them were genuinely difficult to see/find. But from what I could tell, people did succeed in like, 99% of cases, and many of the successful findings have impressed me quite a lot (like, seriously, you guys are insane, finding pretty much invisible Slugcats in mere minutes… though I'm also pretty bad in these 'Where's Waldo?' type of games, so yeah xd).

Adding 10 of them onto this post was an especially cool idea. A lot of them do sort of pop from the background, but finding all of them is still relatively difficult, so I don't mind it.

Now, as for the rooms themselves, we have one that I very much expected to appear here, and one that I did not. I went back to check if the final round of the ship-showdown had a matchup like this, and you could sort of say that was the case, if you'd consider Artificer/Saint to be an unexpected appearance (though it really wasn't, when you consider how it actually got there/how the poll-runner handled the last 2 rounds).

And before I actually get to my thoughts, I want to address a kind of complaint that I've seen on other polls - which would be that Shoreline's AI making it here, and taking away the big win, would actually be a bad thing, that also renders the whole showdown pointless. Thankfully, I haven't seen anyone make this claim, which I'm indeed very grateful for. When you have good knowledge about the community that a poll is addressed at, the results can often feel obvious, and predictable, as you notice general trends and preferences, and commonly shared opinions. And sometimes, we do think "Why are so many people focusing on A, when B is also pretty freaking good?", which can lead to us forgetting that 'A' doesn't become bad, just because it's taking away attention from the similarly good 'B'. If everyone is flocking onto something, there's usually a reason for that. A reason that goes further than just them having a tendency to follow popular trends. That's why it's important to examine those things fairly, rather than dismissively.

And of course, the showdown wouldn't become pointless as a result of an AI win, because that number 1 spot was never really the point to begin with - it was everything else around it. Getting to see the results of the fights between the lesser rooms. Giving people the option/opportunity/platform to talk about rooms they otherwise would never have thought to share their opinions about. Getting to see what does, and what doesn't make it to the later rounds. And even the Slug-Hunt minigame. I didn't keep track of this poll to see what makes it to the number 1 spot, because I knew damn well that over 99% of the rooms of Rain World have no shot at getting there. But I knew the showdown would be entertaining anyway, so I decided to stick around - to keep voting, and reading, and rambling, and reblogging. And I didn't regret that one bit.

Anyhow, what do I actually think about the final matchup itself, you wonder? Well, F01 is great, it's incredible, one of the best rooms in the game, even! Yet… it doesn't quite get up to the level of AI. Truth be told, I wouldn't consider either of these as my number 1 favorite rooms (I didn't really choose a specific one to put on that spot, cus that would be incredibly difficult, but I know for sure that neither of these 2 would be my pick). And to be honest, I highly doubt that F01 is the community's actual second place too (in that way, it's kinda similar to the shipping-poll-finals, cus there's also no way Arti-Saint is the second most popular ship).

Neither of these rooms really have any design issues, and they both work wonderfully as big moments that stick with you quite well. Their screens and layouts were really well thought out by the devs, and they fulfill their job pretty much perfectly. Yet it is AI that sticks with me more. The one that I think about more, and the one that I'm looking forward to visiting more. There is absolutely the question of "What if the layout was different? Would you still love the room this much, if it wouldn't be as well thought out? And are there any ways it could have been improved?" And the answers here will be different for everyone. If the layout was worse, I would still probably love it to an extent, but I easily could have voted against it more. And frankly, I couldn't think of any ways to make it better. Shoreline's AI had to face many incredibly powerful opponents before, and the fact that it won against them is a testament to how well made it is. After all, it has gotten someone like me to continuously vote for it - over a boatload of other incredibly well designed rooms at that.

So yeah, I'll be voting for AI, not because of how I obsess over LttM's character, but because I think the room genuinely deserves it. --------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know if there will be anything more after this.

The blog obviously doesn't have to be inactive just because we've reached the finale. There can still be smaller tournaments - such as ones where we only poll rooms from a specific region, to find out which is the best room of Outskirts/Industrial Complex/Shaded Citadel/etc. Or one where we check which is the best from a certain category, like karma gates/shelters/colored pearl locations/unlockable locations/etc. Heck, we could even get polls for modded regions/rooms. Or the blog could become focused exclusively on the slug-hunting competition, where a lot of posts and submissions could be in user-made rooms (perhaps we could even use images from that that 'rain world hourly' blog).

But frankly, the blog has been running for almost a year now, and I think Jadzio really deserves a break. All I'm saying is that it's completely up to them, whether or not this blog keeps on posting, and that I would completely understand, if they would wish to go on a hiatus. (Especially if they're planning to cover all the rooms of the Watcher DLC… cus that'll likely end up being a lot, too. Just please wait a month or two to let us experience the DLC first :3)

I suppose we'll see. Regardless, I'm truly grateful for the showdown, and all the thought and effort that went into making and managing it. I really enjoyed writing about all the polls, and I hope we'll get more showdowns like this from other aspiring Tumblr users, cus they're simply amazing! ^-^

Pick Your Favorite Rain World Room, Day 313 FINALE

There is a hidden slugcats (10) in the rooms (they can be in any color). If u can see it comment or reblog with where they are and if u are first, u get a cookie! And this time u have to give a lil discription or an rb with em circled. You dont have to get them all at once in one replay/rb.

Credit for game screenshots goes to: Rain World Interactive Map, Rain World Wiki and me

[arachnaetheyarnspider]

ChatGPT - A Uniquely Bad Tool For The Task

So, for my YA Literature class, we've been assigned the task of using an AI, like ChatGPT, to generate a list of YA books that may resonate with a specific touchstone reader. Having done this, I have to conclude that ChatGPT is utterly useless for this task. Let's break down why! Hey ho, and away we go! The process is under the cut!

Who Is This For?

Alrighty then. Let's start by identifying our target reader. Since we're already working with AI, I've gone ahead and created a person using This Person Does Not Exist. Here's our reader!

Since this person doesn't actually exist, we can assign them some traits. Let's say that they're a second-generation immigrant, and that they're questioning their gender identity. To give the AI some additional traits to latch on to, let's say that they're also interested in theater, and that birds are their favorite animal. (Spoiler alert: the AI did not, in fact, latch on to any of that additional information.)

Why this touchstone reader in particular? According to The Trevor Project, trans youth are between 2 and 2.5 times more likely to be depressed than their cisgender peers. Getting these kids the right book, one where they can see themselves and find the hope to get them through the school year, can be lifesaving.

Prompts

Alright! Let’s get prompting! I’m using ChatGPT 3.5 for this set. For the purposes of this project, we’re restricting the results to stuff published after 2020.

We might as well be polite to our robot overlords. And let’s see how we did!

Now, ChatGPT says these are all from after 2020, but doesn’t actually give the dates. My fault for not asking it to include the dates. Let’s revise the prompt:

And here we run into one of the problems with ChatGPT: it doesn’t actually know what a date is. Here, it’s confidently stated that all the books were published after 2020, and then listed two published in 2019. Let’s try again.

At this point, I realized that I forgot to request the publisher. Let’s revise once again!

And with that, I think we’ve successfully gotten the AI to provide a book list! Let’s go and analyze what we were given.

Analysis

"May the Best Man Win" by Z.R. Ellor

   - Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

   - Publication Date: May 18, 2021

   - Description:  “In this contemporary YA novel, Jeremy and Maya, two transgender teens, find themselves competing fiercely against each other in a cutthroat senior class election. As they navigate the challenges of the campaign trail, they also discover love, acceptance, and the importance of being true to themselves.”

And here’s the description from the publisher’s website:

“Jeremy Harkiss, cheer captain and student body president, won’t let coming out as a transgender boy ruin his senior year. Instead of bowing to the bigots and outdate school administration, Jeremy decides to make some noise—and how better than by challenging his all-star ex-boyfriend, Lukas for the title of Homecoming King? Lukas Rivers, football star and head of the Homecoming Committee, is just trying to find order in his life after his older brother’s funeral and the loss of his long-term girlfriend—who turned out to be a boy. But when Jeremy threatens to break his heart and steal his crown, Lukas kick starts a plot to sabotage Jeremy’s campaign. When both boys take their rivalry too far, the dance is on the verge of being canceled. To save Homecoming, they’ll have to face the hurt they’re both hiding—and the lingering butterflies they can’t deny.”

Yeah, those don’t sound like the same book to me. This isn’t about a senior class election; it’s about becoming homecoming king! And who’s Maya? She isn’t mentioned in the actual publisher description at all! That being said, at least the title, publisher, and publication date are correct. It’s about gender identity, so it can stay on the list.

Citations: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250625137/maythebestmanwin

2. "The Passing Playbook" by Isaac Fitzsimons

   - Publisher: Dial Books

   - Publication Date: June 1, 2021

   - Description: Spencer, a transgender boy, loves soccer, but he faces challenges on and off the field. In this heartwarming YA novel, he navigates friendship, first love, and self-discovery while dealing with societal expectations and embracing his true identity.

Ooof. We’re getting some basic factual errors on this one: ChatGPT gave the publication date on this one as June 1, 2021. It was actually published May 31, 2022. Let’s compare that to the publisher’s description:

“Fifteen-year-old Spencer Harris is a proud nerd, an awesome big brother, and a David Beckham in training. He’s also transgender. After transitioning at his old school leads to a year of isolation and bullying, Spencer gets a fresh start at Oakley, the most liberal private school in Ohio.

At Oakley, Spencer seems to have it all: more accepting classmates, a decent shot at a starting position on the boys’ soccer team, great new friends, and maybe even something more than friendship with one of his teammates. The problem is, no one at Oakley knows Spencer is trans—he’s passing.

But when a discriminatory law forces Spencer’s coach to bench him, Spencer has to make a choice: cheer his team on from the sidelines or publicly fight for his right to play, even though it would mean coming out to everyone—including the guy he’s falling for.”

You know what? Close enough. We’ve got the basic premise and the character’s name right. We’ve done worse, though the basic factual errors are troubling. Again, we’re seeing the issue that ChatGPT doesn’t actually know what a date is.

Citations: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/610606/the-passing-playbook-by-isaac-fitzsimons/

"Rising Like a Storm" by Tanaz Bhathena

   - Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

   - Publication Date: June 22, 2021

   - Description: This captivating sequel to "Hunted by the Sky" follows Gul and Cavas, who continue their fight against a tyrannical ruler in a world of magic and politics. As they challenge destiny and uncover secrets, their paths intertwine, bringing them closer together.

This may be as close to “Good” as ChatGPT can get: we have the right publisher and publication date this time! Let’s compare to the publisher’s description.

"In the concluding installment to the Wrath of Ambar duology from masterful author Tanaz Bhathena, Gul and Cavas must unite their magical forces—and hold onto their growing romance—to save their kingdom from tyranny. With King Lohar dead and a usurper queen in power, Gul and Cavas face a new tyrannical government that is bent on killing them both. Their roles in King Lohar's death have not gone unnoticed, and the new queen is out for blood. What she doesn't know is that Gul and Cavas have a connection that runs deeper than romance, and together, they just might have the strength and magic to end her for good. Then a grave mistake ends with Cavas taken prisoner by the government. Gul must train an army of warriors alone. With alliances shifting and the thirst for vengeance growing, the fate of Ambar seems ever more uncertain. It will take every ounce of strength, love, and sacrifice for Gul and Cavas to reach their final goal—and build a more just world than they've ever known.”

Well, the ChatGPT description is *technically* accurate, but only because it’s so vague that it could apply to almost any YA fantasy romance. But we’ve got the character’s names right this time, we correctly identified it as a sequel and the name of the earlier book.

It’s rare enough that we get a fantasy novel involving nonwhite characters, and representation is important, so this can stay on the list.

"The Sky Blues" by Robbie Couch

   - Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

   - Publication Date: April 6, 2021

   - Description: In this humorous and heartwarming YA novel, Sky Baker, a gay high school senior, sets out on a mission to make prom night perfect for his crush. Along the way, he confronts homophobia, strengthens his friendships, and discovers the power of being true to himself.

Once again, we have a wrong publication date. The correct date is August 2, 2022. Let’s see how ChatGPT compares to the publisher’s description:

“Sky Baker may be openly gay, but in his small, insular town, making sure he was invisible has always been easier than being himself. Determined not to let anything ruin his senior year, Sky decides to make a splash at his high school’s annual beach bum party by asking his crush, Ali, to prom—and he has thirty days to do it. What better way to start living loud and proud than by pulling off the gayest promposal Rock Ledge, Michigan, has ever seen? Then, Sky’s plans are leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic e-blast that quickly goes viral. He’s fully prepared to drop out and skip town altogether—until his classmates give him a reason to fight back by turning his thirty-day promposal countdown into a school-wide hunt to expose the e-blast perpetrator. But what happens at the end of the thirty days? Will Sky get to keep his hard-won visibility? Or will his small-town blues stop him from being his true self?”

Well, it got the character’s name, at least, and that it’s related to prom, and has themes of homophobia. It seems to have missed the bit about the proposal and the corresponding mystery, but this is overall about as good as this gets.

Citations: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Sky-Blues/Robbie-Couch/9781534477865

5. "Darius the Great Deserves Better" by Adib Khorram

   - Publisher: Dial Books

   - Publication Date: August 25, 2020

   - Description: Description: In this charming sequel to "Darius the Great Is Not Okay," Darius struggles with his identity as a queer, Iranian-American teenager. As he navigates senior year, long-distance friendships, and unexpected romantic feelings, he learns valuable lessons about love, acceptance, and self-worth.

The publication date is wrong again. It should be August 24, 2021. Once again, let’s see how the basic plot compares to the publisher’s description:

"Darius Kellner is having a bit of a year. Since his trip to Iran, a lot has changed. He’s getting along with his dad, and his best friend Sohrab is only a Skype call away. Between his first boyfriend, Landon, varsity soccer practices, and an internship at his favorite tea shop, things are falling into place.

Then, of course, everything changes. Darius’s grandmothers are in town for a long visit, and Darius can’t tell whether they even like him. The internship is not going according to plan, Sohrab isn’t answering Darius’s calls, and Dad is far away on business. And Darius is sure he really likes Landon . . . but he’s also been hanging out with Chip Cusumano, former bully and current soccer teammate–and well, maybe he’s not so sure about anything after all.

Darius was just starting to feel okay, like he finally knew what it meant to be Darius Kellner. But maybe okay isn’t good enough. Maybe Darius deserves better."

Once again, we have a description so vague it’s practically meaningless. Still, the book can stay on the list, since it does relate to the troubles of coming of age as a queer youth in an immigrant family.

Citations: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/621961/darius-the-great-deserves-better-by-adib-khorram

6. "She Drives Me Crazy" by Kelly Quindlen

   - Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

   - Publication Date: April 20, 2021

   - Description: After a school prank goes awry, Scottie and Irene are paired together and forced to work as a team. This YA novel explores themes of friendship, romance, and individuality as they find common ground and challenge societal expectations.

Well, this is the first time we’ve had a publisher name go wrong as well as a publication date. The actual publisher is Square Fish, 4/19/2022. This doesn’t bode well for the comparison to the publisher’s description…

"High school nemeses fall in love in Kelly Quindlen's She Drives Me Crazy, a queer YA rom com perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Casey McQuiston. After an embarrassing loss to her ex-girlfriend in their first basketball game of the season, seventeen-year-old Scottie Zajac gets into a fender bender with the worst possible person: her nemesis, Irene Abraham, head cheerleader for the Fighting Reindeer. Irene is as mean as she is beautiful, so Scottie makes a point to keep her distance. When the accident sends Irene’s car to the shop for weeks’ worth of repairs and the girls are forced to carpool, their rocky start only gets bumpier. But when an opportunity arises for Scottie to get back at her toxic ex—and climb her school’s social ladder—she bribes Irene into an elaborate fake- dating scheme that threatens to reveal some very real feelings. From author Kelly Quindlen comes a new laugh-out-loud romp through the ups and downs of teen romance, perfect for fans of Adam Silvera."

Yeah, those aren’t the same book. It’s barely relevant to the touchstone reader, so I’d take this off the final list.

Citations: https://www.kellyquindlen.com/she-drives-me-crazy

7. "The Witch King" by H.E. Edgmon

   - Publisher: Inkyard Press

   - Publication Date: June 1, 2021

   -Description: Wyatt Croft, a nonbinary trans witch, gets entangled in a dangerous web of political intrigue and fae machinations. This gripping dark fantasy novel explores themes of identity, trauma, and power, taking readers on an enthralling journey.

We had the right publication date and publisher this time! Let’s see if they can keep it up! Let's see the publisher description!

"To save a fae kingdom, a trans witch must face his traumatic past and the royal fiancé he left behind. This debut YA fantasy will leave you spellbound. Wyatt would give anything to forget where he came from—but a kingdom demands its king. In Asalin, fae rule and witches like Wyatt Croft…don’t. Wyatt’s betrothal to his best friend, fae prince Emyr North, was supposed to change that. But when Wyatt lost control of his magic one devastating night, he fled to the human world.

Now a coldly distant Emyr has hunted him down. Despite transgender Wyatt’s newfound identity and troubling past, Emyr has no intention of dissolving their engagement. In fact, he claims they must marry now or risk losing the throne. Jaded, Wyatt strikes a deal with the enemy, hoping to escape Asalin forever. But as he gets to know Emyr, Wyatt realizes the boy he once loved may still exist. And as the witches face worsening conditions, he must decide once and for all what’s more important—his people or his freedom."

Well, kind of. It appears that we have the wrong identity for the character (trans male, instead of nonbinary), but it looks like the plot is fairly close to the actual plot. Once again, we’re dealing with trans characters, so this is still relevant to our touchstone reader.

Citations: https://heedgmon.com/thewitchking/

"Jay's Gay Agenda" by Jason June

   - Publisher: HarperTeen

   - Publication Date: June 1, 2021

   - Description: In this fun and uplifting coming-of-age story, Jay, an openly gay teenager, moves to Seattle and embraces his "Gay Agenda." He navigates self-discovery, embraces his identity, and explores his romantic life, all while finding support and acceptance in unexpected places.

And another wrong publication date: this should be May 10, 2022. Let's see how it does against the publisher's description:

"There’s one thing Jay Collier knows for sure—he’s a statistical anomaly as the only out gay kid in his small rural Washington town. While all his friends can’t stop talking about their heterosexual hookups and relationships, Jay can only dream of his own firsts, compiling a romance to-do list of all the things he hopes to one day experience—his Gay Agenda.

Then, against all odds, Jay’s family moves to Seattle and he starts his senior year at a new high school with a thriving LGBTQIA+ community. For the first time ever, Jay feels like he’s found where he truly belongs. But as Jay begins crossing items off his list, he’ll soon be torn between his heart and his hormones, his old friends and his new ones . . . because after all, life and love don’t always go according to plan. "

The description is simple, but nothing jumps out as blatantly inaccurate. We have the correct location and character names, which isn’t always a given when working with ChatGPT. That being said, it doesn't seem terribly relevant to our touchstone reader, and I would probably leave it off the final list.

Citations: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/jays-gay-agenda-jason-june?variant=39664419799074

9. "A Clash of Steel" by C.B. Lee

   - Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

   - Publication Date: September 7, 2021

   - Description: This captivating historical fantasy reimagines the story of Romeo and Juliet with a diverse and LGBTQ+ cast. Featuring pirates, adventure, and romance, this novel explores themes of love, loyalty, and individuality in a rich and imaginative world.

Well, the publisher and publication date are right! Let’s see how we do on the plot:

"1826. The sun is setting on the golden age of piracy, and the legendary Dragon Fleet, the scourge of the South China Sea, is no more. Its ruthless leader, a woman known only as the Head of the Dragon, is now only a story, like the ones Xiang has grown up with all her life. She desperately wants to prove her worth, especially to her mother, a shrewd business woman who never seems to have enough time for Xiang. Her father is also only a story, dead at sea before Xiang was born. Her only memento of him is a pendant she always wears, a simple but plain piece of gold jewelry.

But the pendant’s true nature is revealed when a mysterious girl named Anh steals it, only to return it to Xiang in exchange for her help in decoding the tiny map scroll hidden inside. The revelation that Xiang’s father sailed with the Dragon Fleet and tucked away this secret changes everything. Rumor has it that the legendary Head of the Dragon had one last treasure—the plunder of a thousand ports — that for decades has only been a myth, a fool’s journey.

Xiang is convinced this map could lead to the fabled treasure. Captivated with the thrill of adventure, she joins Anh and her motley crew off in pursuit of the island. But the girls soon find that the sea—and especially those who sail it—are far more dangerous than the legends led them to believe."

I don’t even know where ChatGPT got this description. It has nothing at all to do with Romeo and Juilet. The publisher's page actually states that this is a retelling of Treasure Island, with a more diverse, queer cast. At least they figured out that it’s about pirates? The publication date might be correct, but nothing else is. It isn't especially relevant, but my personal preferences make me inclined to leave it on the list.

Citations: https://cb-lee.com/a-clash-of-steel/

10. "You Don't Live Here" by Robyn Schneider

    - Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

    - Publication Date: June 1, 2021

    -Description: After the death of her sister, June struggles with grief, identity, and understanding her asexuality. In this poignant YA novel, she finds support and strength in an unexpected friendship while navigating life's uncertainties.

Let's compare to the publisher description:

"In Southern California, no one lives more than thirty miles from the nearest fault line. Sasha Bloom is standing right on top of one when her world literally crumbles around her. With her mother now dead and father out of the picture, Sasha moves in with her estranged grandparents.

Living in her mom’s old bedroom, Sasha has no idea who she is anymore. Luckily, her grandparents are certain they know who she should be: A lawyer in the making. Ten pounds skinnier. In a socially advantageous relationship with a boy from a good family—a boy like Cole Edwards.

And Cole has ideas for who Sasha should be, too. His plus one at lunch. His girlfriend. His.

Sasha tries to make everything work, but that means folding away her love of photography, her grief for her mother, and he growing interest in the magnificently clever Lily Chen. Sasha wants to follow Lily off the beaten path, to discover hidden beaches, secret menus, and the truth about dinosaur pee.

But being friends with Lily might lead somewhere new. Is Sasha willing to stop being the girl everyone expects and let the girl beneath the surface breath through?"

I don’t even know where to start on this one. It looks like ChatGPT was determined to end on a dramatic note: ChatGPT just entirely hallucinated the entire plot for their description.

Who is June? What happened to any of the characters actually in the book? This isn’t actually relevant, so I would remove it from the final list entirely.

Citations: https://www.bookpage.com/reviews/25250-robyn-schneider-you-dont-live-here-ya/

Okay, time for a wrap-up:

Conclusions:

As bad as ChatGPT is at providing accurate information, I can’t really blame the tool. This is the equivalent to dropping a set of Scrabble tiles on the floor, and then accusing it of lying when it fails to spell out any useful information. Generative AI like this is very much like magnetic fridge poetry: you may sometimes randomly draw something clever or profound, or something blatantly untrue. Either way, there’s very little praise or blame to be laid at the magnet’s feet.

This entire book list would have been better generated by going into Google, typing “YA theater books” or “YA immigrant books”, and going through the human-curated lists that come up. That might still sometimes yield bad results (differences in opinion and/or bad curation techniques) but at least they would have been handled by and actual human with the capacity to read the books.

Because, for all the praise behind it, ChatGPT doesn’t actually know what a book is. It doesn’t know what a reader is. It cannot read. It has no concept of lying, nor any way to check the accuracy of the words that it puts out. All it can do is guess what the next most likely word in the sentence might be.

It’s not the machine’s fault that we expect it to be human. It doesn’t deserve the human blame we throw at it.

[thefenrathaesaga]

Bit of an Update 5/9/2023

So I managed to inflame my right rotator cuff for the third time since May of 2022. Which means that art has been very, very slow. Digital art has been very, very slow, at least. Mainly because in order for me to draw on my laptop, I need to unplug some things, rearrange the laptop a bit, plug some things back in, then hook my graphics tablet up to my laptop, which requires me to plug several things in. And I don't want to try to do that with my right rotator cuff right now!

So traditional art it is, for the time being! Good news is that I can still use my laptop with minimal pain, meaning that I can still write and work on stories! Another good thing is that my primary care doctor put me on a stronger anti-inflammatory medication to help with the inflammation and pain!

He also seems to agree that I might have a mild case of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. I've never fully dislocated a joint, but I sure have subluxed most of the joints in my extremities! Only took me fifteen years to realize that my elbow joints and finger joints, for example, feeling slightly out of place at least once a day is not actually normal for someone who doesn't have hEDS. Which is why I've gotten onto the waiting list to see my local area's leading expert on EDS. That being said, he's not seeing any new patients for another eight months. So once I gather enough mental focus to call up another local rheumatologist, I'll be calling said other rheumatologist!

I may wind up having to pay for the rheumatologist, myself, because either Medicaid doesn't cover rheumatology visits or the rheumatologists in the area don't take Medicaid. Either way, if I do wind up having to pay for an appointment with a rheumatologist, then so be it. I feel like I need a diagnosis for this, even if it isn't hEDS.

But yeah, I'm gonna start treating the issues with my right rotator cuff as a condition from now on, rather than an injury. Because whatever it is that's causing my right rotator cuff to keep getting inflamed, it's not gonna go away anytime soon!

Also, I've been scripting out the comic pages for the first chapter of Volume 1 of The Fenrathae Saga! So far, I've scripted up to page 30! As of right now, I'm not planning on drawing out the comic pages for a while yet. Mostly because I want to ease my way back into digital art, and because I don't think my right shoulder is ready for digital art yet. But also because I'm still kinda burnt out on drawing.

Honestly, I feel like I shouldn't post my art. At least, I feel like I shouldn't post it in places where it would do well, i.e., Twitter, DeviantArt, Instagram. And that's mainly because I keep seeing all the people who have been taking advantage of the fact that AI-generated stuff is still generated in a very unethical way, and have been feeding the AI with the stolen artworks of others. I still see a whole bunch of webcomic artists posting their webcomics to DeviantArt for more reach, but I've heard that the front page of dA is still full of AI-generated images and NFT art. Plus, dA has explicitly allowed people to link artworks to NFTs.

And Twitter? Every fucking time I post my art there, it seems to get more attention from AI dudebros and NFTbros rather than from actual artists. I mainly retweet stuff I see on Twitter, but it's always other people's art or activism stuff. So despite the number of artists who follow me, it appears that they never see any of my art, no matter how much art I post. Plus, Elon Muskrat has ruined Twitter to the point where no artist can use it. I literally have 45 followers there, most of whom follow me for my activist retweets, but the artists who do follow me either never see my art, or they never think to interact with it.

As for Inkblot, no matter how much art I put there, nobody sees it or if they do see it, they don't bother with interacting with it. Granted, I only have like, 6 followers, and I'm following way more people than that. And Cohost is kinda the same, but I only have one (1) follower there.

So yeah, the struggle of trying to build an audience is really reducing my drive to make art, too. Just bear with me.

[mjofficehours]

2023-02-08

This week's take-aways from the Office Hours Discord session. I'm sure I forgot/missed some. Please help fill in the details if you can. TY.

I've been doing these for 2 months now so I have some perspective about how goals and practices seem to have evolved in that time and I'll add a brief note about those observations at the end.

Disclaimer: I am not associated with Midjourney, Discord, or this FB group in any official capacity. I do this because many people can't attend the weekly Office Hours via Discord on Wednesdays at noon Pacific. You can find listen to them on the MJ Discord server in the voice channel called "Main Stage".

You're welcome.

1. Wider aspect ratios are available 1:1 - 2:1 and everything in between like 16:9.

2. Every time there is an update it will change the aesthetics to some degree. The more specific your prompts the less they will be affected by small changes in the aesthetic style.

3. NIJI is getting an update soon to fix bugs

4. At this point team is leaning towards conserving energy and pushing towards the v5 model. v4 is not as sharp as it should be and they can’t figure out why but v5 doesn’t have that problem so it makes sense to focus on v5.

Initial images for v5 look really good but they don't know yet how well it will hold up or what fixes might be necessary. They expect testing to be 3-6 weeks.

The images coming out of v5 look so much better and have such higher resolution that he's confident that most people will be happy with them without upscaling.

They are planning to include upscaling but it gets very expensive once the images are already that high rez. He thinks upscaling may only be needed in the case of printing large images. He did not get specific about DPI or anything like that but he seemed very excited about v5 image quality.

v5 will not be the version that improves text generation (text within an image like a title or a logo) we will possibly see that in v6.

v5 will have much better hand generation. It still won’t be perfect but you should notice a huge difference. They expect hands and bodies to improve with every version.

5. Better language stuff (in terms of MJ understanding your text prompt) will probably come in v6. A better knowledge base overall will probably be v7.

Focus now is in turning out one major feature or improvement per update instead of trying cram a bunch of features into one massive update.

6. Working on a new rating system. The launch party for v5 will be an online rating party. You will all be invited whenever it happens.

7. They are continuing to work out how to adjust payment tiers. he mentioned a lot of idea but it seemed very stream of consciousness. His main goals are to improve the $10.00 tier and to somehow create a free tier that doesn't bankrupt the company.

He also mentioned that the only reason they can afford the GPUs to train v5 is because of people paying at the $30.00 and $60.00 tiers so he's very thankful that so many are doing so, and making it possible for him to do this work.

8. Magazine is coming. Don’t worry they won’t randomly send it to you. You have to ask for it. First one is free. You will get a DM asking if you want it once it is ready to ship.

9. They are thinking about planning a souped up daily theme. He did not elaborate but I like soup.

10. They are getting a lot more AI people hired "which is great". They are playing with some real -time stuff (artist's tools). Inpainting and outpainting are still very much on the board.

11. Still working on search functions but it will be fast once we get it.

12. Still need LOTS more front-end people. Send an email to careers @ Midjourney.com

13. He is thinking about an API for individuals but not one designed for corporate professional use.

14. "AI images are like flowers and the users are like bees the flowers are trying to attract with their beauty"

Here's my take-away from 2 months worth of take-aways.

A. The goal posts are more concrete and (to me) seem more realistic. back in December he was talking about having a new update every month and expressed optimism that v5 would be released before the end of December.

I'm actually comforted by these more conservative projections for when updates will happen and what they will contain. It bodes better for the company as a whole imo. Things take time.

2. There is a commitment to customer service and building the community and the main obstacle to improving those areas is the sheer scale involved. David mentioned today that they are specifically choosing not to market MJ because he doesn't think they could handle the influx.

They really want to provide a free tier, community resources, and a better user experience overall but the fact that there are over 10 million of us complicates how to do that.

[bayesic-bitch]

The reason we don't use any of her algorithms is that everything she was doing was entirely theoretical, and there wasn't any way for her to actually write any algorithms that we might use because there weren't any computers yet. If she had created any algorithms, they would have been written for Baggage's steampunk monstrosity and wouldn't have any use on subsequent machines.

I addressed this in another reblog, but this completely misunderstands what computer scientists do, and what makes the work we do have lasting value.

Algorithms are not bound to any particular computer. Algorithms are an approach solving a category of problem, which can then be implemented on any machine. Taking an algorithm from a textbook and implementing it is a standard undergraduate assignment, while designing algorithms and proving their theoretical properties is a novel contribution to the field that gets buildings named after you. To the best of our knowledge, Ada Lovelace wrote one (1) program in her life, in Note G of her translation of a paper by Luigi Menebrea. The program was not her own invention -- it was an implementation of Babbage's algorithm for finding the Benoulli numbers, which he had devised for the Analytical Engine. In other words, it's debatable whether Lovelace produced any significant original work in computer science at all. By modern standards, we wouldn't really say so, because we don't generally consider implementations of existing algorithms as "original work". Additionally, as you said, the program in Node G is useless today, because it can only be run on the Analytical Engine. By contrast, Babbage's algorithm can still be implemented and used today. Similar algorithms are still in use.

As for the "uses of future computers", that doesn't make her a computer scientist, mathematician, or even a "woman in stem". Coming up with stuff you can do with a computer does not make you any of those things, and it certainly does not put her in a league with Curie, Noether, and other well-known female scientists. At best that makes her an early figure in experimental humanities. A modern day equivalent of this role is someone who "has an idea for an app", and we very pointedly do not consider those people to be computer scientists. At any rate, I'm very hesitant to call her predictions prescient. What she was writing was speculation, she did not have any kind of strong reasoning or evidence to back them up, and she got just as much wrong as she got right. For instance, her ideas on artificial intelligence were awful. Contrast her with someone like Turing, whose philosophical writing on AI was foundational, laid the groundwork for functionalism in philosophy of mind, and is still read today.

There are tons of underappreciated women in the history of science, but my point here Lovelace is not talked about as much as she is because she's one of them. She's talked about because "first programmer" is punchy and plays well to people who know nothing about math or computer science, even though its very misleading. And when people repeat this kind of misleading/incorrect information, I cannot stress how bad this looks for us. It gives the impression that we're so desperate for women with any kind of contribution to math and science that we have to turn to someone entire body of work is "one (incorrect) implementation of someone else's algorithm" as our go-to example. It also gives the impression that the speaker cares far more about the optics of "women in stem" than an accurate understanding of the history of science, and that talking about "women in stem" is something that happens at the expense of accurate history. And we really don't need to do that! Grace Hopper could easily be called the mother of programming languages, which is far and away the most mathematically sophisticated branch of computer science. Noether is deeply underappreciated, she really deserves to be household name. She proved conservation of energy and conservation of momentum as theorems, and was a massive influence on abstract algebra. Emily Riehl is a major figure in category theory. Émilie du Châtelet is a personal favorite of mine, for first postulating conservation of energy. We are not so short on women with meaningful contributions to science that we have to lie or mislead to make up new ones. And when people do that, it seriously cuts into the credibility of people who want to raise the reputation of under-discussed women in the history of science.

I am unreasonably annoyed by ada Lovelace being elevated to a household name. She had no actual lasting contributions to the field. For someone talked about as a mathematician, what theorems did she prove? For someone talked about as a computer scientist, what algorithms that we use now are her inventions? I've been studying computer science for a decade now and I have never once heard her name come up in an actual classroom, nor do I know anyone who has (at least, not for her actual contributions to the field, as opposed to the kinda-incorrect "first programmer" thing). She just didn't really *do* anything.

And if you're looking for women in STEM who really did make contributions that are overlooked by the general populace, why not focus on Emmy Noether? My undergrad advisor called Noether's theorem "the most beautiful result in physics" and he was 100% correct. And that's just physics, she's better known as a mathematician.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Other TTRPG Systems

So every time the big cheeses at Hasbro / WotC do something stupid, the immediate response is, "Play another system!" Which I somewhat get - after all, there's no sense in giving them money when they're being up front about trying to con you. And some other systems are really enjoyable. I personally am a fan of White Wolf's WoD.

I think my problem is that the solution of "Play another system!" is a) not really addressing the core issue and b) is actually feeding into the core issue. Because the issue at its core is: all of this is just getting us to spend more money.

Now, if you really want to say, "D&D is for chumps, I won't even touch it", more power to you. Not everyone can do that, though. Some systems are a little difficult to get to grips with, and some people are playing multiple campaigns and might struggle to code-switch between systems every other session. And ... for example, if you already have 5e, why not just ... keep playing 5e? Honestly, that fucks with Hasbro / WotC worse, and gets the point across better - namely, "You were better than this. See us still playing with what you produced when you were better than this? See us still enjoying the IP without paying you a penny more? You can stuff your 'recurrent user spending' and 'AI is the future' up your ass; I have physical sourcebooks and not even you have the money to hire enough Pinkertons to bully me out of those".

And yes, buying and playing another system shows support for actual human beings creating this stuff ... but so does buying third party content for 5e. Given what happened when they tried to rewrite the OGL to get in on that sweet, sweet third party content money, they can't afford the ill-will that trying it again would get them - not for another few years at least. If people are still writing content for 5e (and there always will be some), wouldn't it just stick in Hasbro's collective craw if DMG did a boom in business on third party 5e materials while their stupid "OneD&D" or whatever the fuck they're calling it now just went bust?

By all means, boycott D&D's new whatever they're calling it. I certainly am. It doesn't exist, as far as I'm concerned. (Seriously, those of you in my campaign - do not even bother asking if we can just borrow this one thing, because ... borrow that one thing from what? I see nothing to borrow from. 5e is where they stopped, and any attempt to convince me otherwise will be met with my patented Death Glare.) But I can't swap to Pathfinder because I don't have the spoons and neither do at least some of my players. I have built my homebrew world around 5e and I am going to run another campaign in that world when this one finally ends, and trying to rebrew it all for Pathfinder is just not something I have time to do.

When you stop giving money to one corporation, you don't have to start giving money to another. You can just enjoy the legacy the one corporation went behind before they went full Monty Burns and ... keep your money? Maybe? Spend it on another thing? Although given how many entertainment companies are cramming AI into every aspect of themselves (EA and Lionsgate being the loudest so far), the boycotts are going to save us all so much money...

Like I say - I have nothing against other systems. And most people on Tumblr have been good about it, focusing on what they plan to do instead of insisting that everyone else take their preferred course of action ... unlike Reddit, where you get an awful lot of people shitting all over D&D in general because they love Pathfinder but hate how much attention D&D takes away from it. Just ... some people can't just switch systems, and others don't want to, and that's fine. Hell, some people are even probably going to buy into what WotC is selling, even as they grumble about it, same as happens in the AAA space. I guess I just wish people would stop judging others on how - or if - they choose to boycott a thing.

But like I said, WotC stopped publishing D&D material with 5e, as far as I'm concerned. I won't acknowledge any PBH beyond the 2014 one. End of.

[inexplicably-spookified]

hi i have thoughts and opinions about mr quotation marks cave story

...that i am putting under a readmore to not clog up dashes

so first part, i wanna talk about his canon characterisation - it's not much, but it's there:

- he doesn't have much hesitation on who or what he fights

- doesn't seem to have much understanding or doesn't care about taking things that don't belong to him if it'll help him progress

- however, he's capable of being curious and caring about people - he asks several residents of mimiga village about sue even before he knows who she is (albeit most likely because he overheard her name in kazuma's transmissions), and most importantly steps away from the core, his target, when misery threatens sue's life, showing he can prioritise others' lives over his mission

- zett (the old mimiga in the plantation) hints at this, describing how some robots during the war seemingly understood the mimiga, and he believed they 'possessed hearts and souls'

- while he doesn't emote much, he's visibly looking kinda angry when fighting misery in the credits art - and he's using king's sword

also this is debatably canon but if quote's the one narrating stuff like inventory descriptions then:

- he notices the silver locket must've been dear to someone from the wear on it

- thinks itoh is a 'big fat coward' (LMAO)

- describes curly as 'the only person he trusts' and hopes to see her again

second part, my personality takes:

- doesn't like to speak, both due to some lingering physical damage making it a little tricky (he trails off into static a lot unless he's concentrating and it frustrates the hell out of him) as well as his general quiet nature

- when he does speak out loud, it's very, very to the point and short sentences, prefers to communicate through gestures or radio transmissions, and later on learns some sign language

- incredibly bad at talking about his feelings/trauma. curly and rarely sue/kazuma can draw it out of him sometimes but it takes a lot of effort and he usually clams up again pretty quickly. he has issues :(

- post-island he has a lot of anxiety about not being there to protect people from all the times he's arrived just too late to stop something bad from happening, and when he's around others he likes to know where they are at all times otherwise he gets worried

- talked about it earlier but he doesn't emote much, and has his own subtle ways of expressing his mood/showing affection. his equivalent of telling someone he likes them a lot is literally just sitting quietly in their general vicinity lmao. will get up and follow you if you move. he's like a dog.

- it's a general quirk with some kinds of learning AI but both he and curly have an unconscious habit of mimicking random habits of others that they spend a lot of time around - ie. if he's around someone who rocks on their feet a lot he'll start to do it too without even realising it. curly has a lot of slightly mimiga-like habits as a result.

- initially he went along with helping stop the doctor bc he just. didn't know how to say no - nobody ever really told him he could, or gave him a choice otherwise. has mixed feelings about the fact that the only time someone actually asked him what he wanted was kazuma asking him if he wanted to escape the island (he said no because by that point he was kinda personally invested - he promised booster he'd rescue sue, promised king he'd avenge him, wanted to beat up mis/balrog/the doctor for what they'd done, etc etc etc)

- because of this, he doesn't really like to be called a hero/compared to arthur as he feels he doesn't deserve it since he was just following orders in a sense

- he's a bit better at saying no post-island but can still be very easily talked into doing dumb stuff. a little naive lol. sue takes advantage of this a lot but tones it back after momorin gets mad at her for teaching him swear words.

- unlike curly he doesn't fidget much when bored, is perfectly happy to just sit still and silently if he has to, though he does have a curious side and will inevitably get up and explore his environment

- very impulsive. if he wants to do something he will try and do it asap. not the best at anticipating consequences but it's not out of malice or stupidity, he just kinda. forgets it in the moment sometimes.

- like a crow, he picks up random stuff that he finds interesting without much thought for what it is or who might own it. his pockets are full of random keys.

- enjoys climbing up stuff ('why is quote on the kitchen counter?' 'he likes to feel tall')

- cares for the researchers and especially the sakamotos a lot, they're his favourites (after curly, of course) <3

- some mixed feelings about balrog but ultimately trusts he's redeemed. isn't quite sure at all what to think of misery.

- doesn't want to get his memories back as he trusts curly's telling the truth and has given him all the important info - his name, why he was on the island, and that he wasn't a mimiga killer - he'd rather just move on with who he is in the present rather than try and chase after his past. the two have some conflict over this but i have written way too much already so i will talk about it some other time LMAO

[bearpillowmonster]

Horizon Zero Dawn Review

The game that critics have been raving about for years and I just haven't played. I heard a lot of people say "this needs a movie" but they say that about any game that dares to be a little bit cinematic because I personally disagree.

That first part is rough, the story seems so in your face, predictable and bland but I think the problem is that it didn't know how to put in its exposition. I think it naturally builds up as it goes on, getting bigger and broader, it's just those first experiences that can be a slog because you're pretty much learning what style you're going to play in.

I got more or less everything I expected, crafting, a skill tree, various weapons. What I didn't expect though are dialogue options. You can choose normally up to four paths, an intelligent one, a compassionate one, and a straightforward one. You don't have to worry about the stress of trying to reach a specific ending because there's really only one, the only thing that affects it is the amount of people that are in it. So does that make the choices irrelevant? Yes and no because there are different dialogue options and like I said, which means that you can get certain characters to like you more given the option you choose but not in the same way that relationship points work and I definitely felt the draw to do that whenever I came across my first side-quest.

Side-quests are interesting, I love tracking things in games, though it's rare that you actually get the chance to do it and here you have a good amount of opportunities. Is that all though? Far from it. I actually found myself searching for side-quests because the first two were so satisfying. It really only began to show its hand a bit more after those quests. As I mentioned, there are a lot more RPG elements than I first imagined but it starts to send you on scavenger hunts, especially that Dreamwillow one, that one I actually laughed out loud at every time I was turned away. It also starts to gatekeep to where it recommends that you be a certain level which is...odd? I mean at face value it looks like you could rock basically any combat situation that isn't context sensitive. Leveling up gives you abilities but they're more like Deus Ex on that front, where it's just for preference and upgrading, not necessarily strength. The only thing you improve on offense wise basically boils down to having the right materials or units to buy weapons then a matter of finding modifications. Other than that, leveling up seems to just increase your health. It really just depends on the quest too because I'll play one above my level and be fine then play another that's actually under my level and feel stuck.

Now I only played it on normal mode so something like "Ultra Hard" is bound to be more demanding but as far as actual side quest content, I feel like they have potential but just need tweaked, give me more stuff for major characters that affects their standing with me. Rather than having each quest be contained in its own story, have it affect you later in the game, let your actions be shown, give it rewards and consequences. There are some really great side-quests but there are also some crappy ones, it doesn't pass that threshold that most RPGs fall under or anything. However, I did find myself doing side-quests at my own free will and the ones that I didn't like or couldn't do at the time, I just skipped and focused on something else, I felt a lot more freedom with this game, like I didn't feel forced to grind or do a certain number of side-quests or really do anything. It encourages you to explore and play the way you want to play and I respect the heck out of that. Maybe it's different for other players though.

Perhaps my favorite actual side thing was the Cauldrons for those who actually played this, you'll know why. For those who didn't, just know that it's cool and let it be a surprise for when you go to one. You might expect these big set-pieces and bosses like Uncharted or GoW, but it's not really like that. I genuinely think that this is more video-gamey than it lets on which certainly takes up its runtime. One addition to side-quests that I would like to see is one where you don't know it's happening. For example, in this game, you'll come across random hunters who are attacking or being attacked by machines but rather than just going on about your day and them going on about their's, I want to fight off the machine and the person say "You saved my life, my name's Jara, I live in the town nearby and want to repay you." so you go there and there's trouble so it starts up a side-quest. Now don't get me wrong, there are PLENTY of instances of people getting attacked actually being a mission but most of the time someone in town will just tell you "I haven't seen this person in a while, can you go check on them for me?" It's the art of subtlety and also just doing a good deed and getting rewarded for it. It's a conscious choice and split decision rather than just another checkmark on your list to complete.

Now I won't bother listing the characters and rating them but there's a certain aspect that has me really enthused So, Aloy is an outcast and a lot of these side missions and scenarios reflect her, you'll see the way she can relate with other characters, making it almost poetic in a subliminal kind of way. Then they add this tribal and futuristic setting to it where Aloy acts as the medium, there are parts of the game where she questions the tribe because they cut themselves off from technology and just don't know any better and we as a viewer know that but having the main character view things in 'our' lens is pretty genius. To top that off, they give her enough personality to be her own character while giving us enough power to influence her so that we ourselves can REFLECT WITH HER. It's not her character that I'm impressed with, it's the layout of the story.

So, how is the main story? It's kind of like the Flood scenario in Halo if I'm being honest. I'm not going to spoil anything but it's passable, like I said, it's not like an Uncharted and it's not like a movie. The visuals just look good at times (I took all the pictures in this review myself and so much more!). I'd call it a futuristic/tribal mix between Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Skyrim but I see elements of a lot of things. (Also since it's post apoctalypic, you find items that we see in modern day, like how they call keys, "chimes"! They think they're windchimes because there are no more cars! I love that!)

It actually does a pretty good job at being an open world considering that there are tons of things to do on your routes as well as collect but it's not so much so that it seems unfeasible, as I said, I found myself doing a good chunk of the side stuff just because it was fun to do and I'm not even close to a completionist for any game. If you mess up, healing plants will still be there. As long as you save, enemy parts will still be there. A place can be cleared out and conquered so that enemies don't come back. The actual towns are peaceful so you can't get mangled by any bots outside of scripted instances.

The graphics are pretty good but I can see some error here and there, nothing necessarily game breaking but the animations and AI are definitely janky at times. It's pretty obvious from the get-go but I'll do my best to specify and give constructive criticism on what I found wrong with certain aspects of the game. Rost is slow, like slower than walking speed but that's not to speak for all NPCs, some run, some you don't need to follow, it was really just him. I've had NPCs who fight but miss every single time on simple enemies (that might not be a bug, that might just be a funny bit that someone decided to add in). Sabretooths have jumped through walls (granted the walls were kinda broken but I'm not sure if those big boys can fit when they can barely find the entrance) I found myself jumping to a ledge or on a rope but not land it and just drop (it really boils down to loosening the hit box for that). Which to add on to that, I would like more places to climb and jump to in general (other than stupid mountains). I felt like there wasn't really enough that I could climb and the places that I could, could've been a bit more obvious that I could, maybe even make it viewable with your focus if you don't want it to be visually outstanding. There's a day and night cycle and while I like that, I found some of the contrast to be annoying because I could be staring a ladder right in the face and not even know it sometimes because it would be so dark. I'm not going to complain too much about it because I didn't turn my brightness up, I just left it at default and I would assume the PS5 version fixes some of those little things.

Now, this one is kind of a gray area: Hiking up mountains. Skyrim, Fallout, and Death Stranding went too far and gave little to no barriers. They had you looking for sweet spots that weren't there in order to cheese your way through an area either on or off a beaten path. But I would compare this to something like GTA where it's not as bad and does have its limits but might need tightened up some more because I can certainly get to places that lead to nowhere.

I've made headshots that don't make contact or damage while using precision. Part of that problem was that they could be high up in a tower (which have spikes sticking out) and I would hit ABOVE the logs, to make a headshot but since it was in that vicinity, it registered that as the spikes' hitbox so it wouldn't cause any damage and just alert the enemy (same if I was in the tower, looking down). Input lag where I hit up button on the D-Pad to regain health and I have to keep pressing it. If I had to guess, you have to meet the requirements of not taking damage, staying still, etc in order for it to actually work but it doesn't really have a reason to do that and it doesn't "tell" you that those are the requirements (as far as I know).

During the final boss, one of the enemies hit me into a rock wall, trapping me inside of it and the boss was already half health so I really didn't want to have to restart (I also didn't know how far back the checkpoint was) so I kept shooting stuff and eventually the boss destroyed the wall, allowing me to get out (timed section, by the way). There have been a few times where a tree or leaf or something is obstructing a cutscene and sometimes there will be a mech in the background screaming over the NPC talking, which I'm sure is due to the cutscenes being real-time which is still pretty impressive. Now are these errors all the time? No, not at all, I'm just pointing out that some times these things happened and that I felt it needed ironed out but I wouldn't call this half baked or an unfinished product or anything, it's nowhere near that level. I get that there are so many NPCs that it's hard to account for them all with facial animations but whenever they're talking, it seems pretty static and sometimes the lips don't line up. There's this one guy who says that he got lost in a sandstorm but he's standing in snow. Again, little nitpicks in an otherwise great game.

Now, I got this game for free as a Playstation promotion but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be great, I played a little bit of that Ratchet & Clank reboot that was offered and I wasn't impressed, I quit after the first few worlds and was glad I didn't buy it at launch, (despite being a classic PS2 R&C fan) but we're not here to review that. I also played Abzu and loved it but it was short so it was definitely worth a play but maybe not 60$ (I actually think it's 20$ at this point though). With this game, it's the whole complete edition with DLC and everything, it has the length, so it really just boils down to "Would I have spent money on it otherwise?"

I think I would've if I knew more about it because I think it just got better and better after that first part of the game. It's marketed a bit differently than what I ended up getting but I found myself pouring hours into this game and loving it for one reason or another. I actually bought Shadow of the Colossus along with it (which is considered a cult classic) but I liked Horizon so much better, definitely worth its full price in my opinion. (So your promotion worked on me Sony, congrats) It has its problems but the potential is there and I feel like a sequel would probably iron out a lot of my troubles with it, so it's definitely a franchise worth investing into.

If you're interested in what I thought of the DLC alone (if you didn't get the Ultimate edition and are wondering if the extra content is worth it) I have a separate post that goes into that here.

[theultimatepielord]

Alright protips from a cRPG veteran who is not particularly good at games. Quicksave is your friend. Use it often. I don't know why games went away from the original bg convention of binding quicksave to Q but the good news is it can be rebound in the settings.

Don't worry about missing stuff, except for the companion quests. Do not miss the companion quests.

You don't need to use the environment to beat the game: just make sure the enemy doesn't use it on you. Keep a reasonable distance from cliffs and stand right next to walls when fighting enemies that have strong pushing abilities. Most bosses are gonna take multiple tries. Your first attempt isn't to win, it's to learn what the boss and its minions will do to you. In general, enemies will use their abilities in roughly the same order on each attempt. Their strategies aren't gonna change much: yours can.

Usually the best thing to kill is whatever's easiest to kill. If the boss gives you an opportunity, take it, otherwise just gun down the schmucks.

If you know an ambush is coming, you can attack an ambushing enemy if you can spot them with your eyes, even if your party fails their perception checks. Slowly move your mouse over where you know the enemy is: often it'll let you select them.

Volo will give you the ability to see invisibility if you let him help you with your tadpole. Drop everyone from your party when you do it, near as I can tell they all disapprove.

Keep a couple acid vials handy, if you know where an invisible enemy is but they're still invisible you can reveal them by throwing acid on them. You can detect invisible enemies by seeing what walkable areas you can't walk on.

You can swap casters out for other casters when they run out of spell slots. Don't be stingy with your spell slots.

Don't sweat on not having someone to deal with everything in the party at all times, you can usually get whoever you need from camp anyway.

It's worth having 2 frontliners most of the time.

The friendly AI is atrocious and should never be relied on. If you have the option to have someone join you directly, do it. Using the non-lethal damage feature to knock your allies unconscious is not a terrible idea. Abilities that limit their movement can also be useful. Strong characters can sometimes throw them around.

The only hit point that matters is the last one. Healing in battle is about keeping people up, not keeping people healthy.

Death is a minor inconvenience, as long as someone's alive.

You can move things by holding left click on them and moving the mouse. Make sure you use strong characters for this. Don't worry about missing stuff if it didn't show up in the quest journal.

Tanky Tav is probably the best way to go as far as making the game easier, the cast is really thin on tanky characters. Don't feel forced to play one though.

Character-specific strategies: Astarion: Hide with your bonus action, then use sneak attack. If you fail the hide, you can still sneak attack enemies if they're fighting your other party members (even though you don't have advantage). Advantage is always Astarion's friend since he only gets one attack per turn, but it's a HEFTY attack. Arcane Trickster has some fun options, but Thief's probably gonna be the most useful option for the second bonus action.

Gale: He is squishy, do not let him near the enemy. Firebolt is basically always better than weapon attacks. Counterspell is amazing and is basically always worth spending to block any spell that's gonna hit multiple party members (note how many targets the game says the spell is cast on). Remember he needs to be able to see the enemy spellcaster. Big AOE spells like fireball are usually my go-to: remember, you can place the center behind the enemies so that the enemies will be on the edge of the area and friendlies in melee with them will be unaffected. Diviner and Invoker are good subclasses, but beware: although invoker says it makes his evocation spells not hurt allies, this only applies to party members.

Halsin: I missed his recruitment :(

Jaheira: Druids are either a powerful frontline class (by turning into an Owlbear) or a dangerous full caster, but they can only be one at a time. Remember that you've still got all of your normal HP after your wildshape HP, so don't be afraid to soak up all kinds of damage. You aren't invincible, but you're pretty close. Whether you want to start as an Owlbear on the frontline or a backline caster raining AOE spells will depend on the fight. I went circle of the land for extra spells, and that worked pretty well. Wall of Fire is really good on her.

Karlach: Improving armor class is really hard for Barbarians, but getting damage resistance is easier. IIRC in the Githyanki Creche you can acquire the Skinburster Halberd through either trading or killing and looting, and that Halberd is absolutely massive for her. I went beast totem - eagle heart to get advantage for other melee characters.

Lae'zel: Her damage output can be insane with the Githyanki-specific weapons from her quest, but there aren't a lot of good ways to improve her survivability. Use her abilities early, while she's still upright enough to use them. Battlemaster's a great subclass for her to amp up that early blitzkrieg even more. Also fun fact: after using Disarming strike you can pick up the enemy's dropped weapon to keep them disarmed permanently.

Minsc: his stat distribution is BLASPHEMY. 12 strength? 15 wisdom? That ain't the Minsc I know. After respecing him to 18/16/16/8/8/8 from Withers, I found he could be pretty decent with Dual Wield fighting style + Dual Wielder feat. Bonus points if you use the Defender Flail (Githyanki Creche, same place as the Skinburster) as an off-hand option for the extra damage resistance, and take Ranger Knight for the heavy armour options.

Minthara: I killed her.

Shadowheart: She's a 5e cleric, which means she is far and away the most powerful companion. Don't think of her as just a healer, Guiding Bolt and Inflict Wounds are arguably the two best offensive spells in the game. She's all about balancing between healing and blasting. Don't worry about getting more offensive spells, Guiding Bolt, Inflict Wounds, and Spirit Guardians are mostly all you need and the rest can be supportive spells. Also use Turn Undead whenever you're fighting undead. Summon Planar Ally is a really good summon spell too. Also: she is not a frontliner, she is a caster. Use her as a caster.

Wyll: Take the invocation that lets Eldritch Blast push people: pushing people away from squishy casters is rarely not useful. He gets his spell slots back after a short rest and you're gonna short rest before or after most serious fights, so don't worry about saving them. All his stuff is upcast automatically, so pick spells that upcast well (Witch Bolt and Scorching Ray are good). Eldritch invocations that give you spells are rarely that useful IMO, especially if those spells are tied to warlock spell slots. Also he's really good at counterspelling. His rapier and pact weapon abilities are rarely useful, he's a ranged caster.

That's the best reference I've got for you. Remember that none of this advice is compulsory, but all of it should be effective.

If you need help with any specific part, let me know!

Finding bg3 very difficult so far. I don’t want to be slavishly following a walkthrough but I’ve never played a game like this before and there’s just so much.

Even walkthroughs aren’t really helpful ‘cause they’re like “you can move a thing to do whatever” and I’m like… great! How do I move things? I do not know yet! “Make a barricade so you can—” woah there I’ve managed to shoot an arrow from high ground ONCE. Dial it back for me PLEASE

[starkerparkerpony]

You're so very precious my little darling Pt.1

This was supposed to be my first attempt at writing smut but my prudish tendencies are incapable of doing it without proper build up.

Relevant info- aged up starker, peter is 28, tony is 46. This is mostly just light flirting and some coarse language. 1st of 3 parts. This is Tony and Peter's first meeting, Thanos has already been dealt with, Tony doesn't know that Peter is Spiderman... yet.

Do tell if you would like to be tagged in future updates.

Tony first met the smug little prick who ran 'park.er' at TechCrunch. He had these ridiculous brown curls that looked entirely way too soft, obnoxiously brown eyes that were way too big and a devastatingly disarming smile... with dimples. It was all too much and Tony didn't care for the way everyone seemed to be swooning at him at all.

They were on the same panel, discussing their respective new smartphones which were being lauded as "innovative & groundbreaking". Tony had questions about whether this inexperienced newbie's product was at the same level as his, but he actually respected the work the kid had managed to get done in the varied fields of genetics, textiles and adhesives (of all things) so he kept his silence.

"Starkfone is technically the first time that Stark tech is being retailed directly to the general public and there has been some criticism about the prices, or rather how high they are, what do you have to say for yourself Tony?" the moderator guy asked.

"Well, what has to be kept in mind is that unlike some other smartphone brands, we are manufacturing within these great United States of America because if I'm going to conquer the market then I'll bring the jobs too" Tony winked at the audience as they applauded "So yeah, prices are a bit higher but no one can deny that you get more bang for your buck. Especially when the Stark name is involved."

Tony had actually fought tooth and nail to get the prices lowered and they would be in the future, but yeah, besides the intelli-crops this was the first time that the general public was the customers rather than the government or other companies, they still had some stuff to figure out but Tony gave the audience his signature smirk and they cheered for him anyway.

Parker just looked on in amusement.

"Peter you're manufacturing the Gizmo in the US too right? Yet your product is 30% cheaper... How'd you pull that off?" The moderator asked the kid.

"Ah... after having spent like ten minutes in Mr. Stark's company, I'm coming to the realization that maybe my low pricing is a result of my low self esteem." The boy chuckled, the crowd laughed with him. Tony played along and shrugged.

"No but seriously... I have absolutely no problem being the Android to Mr. Stark's Apple" The kid grinned cheekily at the crowd and the audience ate it up. He definitely knew what he was doing.

And Tony hadn't missed the fact that the kid compared his tech to Apple.

"Are you calling my tech a vanity product kid?" Tony challenged, playful smile firmly in place.

The crowd went "Ooooohhhh" anyway.

"Oh no, I'm sure it's a great phone Mr. Stark! I just have no way of knowing for certain, you know... cuz' even I can't afford it" The kid shrugged smugly as he got another huge laugh from the audience.

******************************************************

Tony rarely had a quiet moment at events like this but he had managed to get away to an empty corner for a breather and was distracted by his phone when he felt a hand gently rest at the small of his back.

The Parker kid came around to stand in front of him, he was almost a head taller than Tony now that he was close up. The boy had moved his hand but Tony could still feel the tingles from the initial touch.

Trouble.

"Mr. Stark I hope I didn't offend you earlier... I was very nervous, this is my first time here and my friend Michelle told me that compared to you, I have the 'personality of a wet sock'. So, I guess I was just trying to make a good first impression" the kid caught himself from babbling more and it pissed Tony off, how sincere he sounded.

What also pissed Tony off was the fact that the boy wasn't just taller than Tony but also very muscular too, a twunk if there ever was one.

He was definitely only pissed at him and not attracted to him at all.

"Don't worry about it Parker I can take it... you did good today, great first impression, consider me blown away" Tony assured him with a friendly smile "And please call me Tony."

"Only if you call me Peter."

"You got it Pete." He said, trying to irritate the boy a little but didn't get much other than a little eye twitch.

"Was I interrupting something?" Peter asked

"Nope, I was just replying to some texts."

"Well, if you're free, I'd love to pick your brains about this AI project I've been working on and maybe buy you dinner?" Those eyes and dimples were in full effect, sincerety shining through... so Tony had a hard time saying no to the kid.

He definitely didn't just wanna spend time with an attractive, intelligent man... Tony was being generous and helping out the not-so-little guy.

By the end of the of the evening, filled with charming and intelligent conversation, he had to concede that the Parker kid wasn't all that bad.

******************************************************

The second time Tony met Peter Parker was almost three months later and he was at a low point.

Bruce and Rhodey were away at work, Happy was with Pepper and Pepper was... married.

And even though things were better after the Thanos episode, they weren't all that good.

And Tony was spiralling... rather publicly.

It's just that it had been a while since he his last encounter with alcohol and so the open bar at the Mayor's gala hit him like a truck. All while being surrounded by cameras and reporters.

Tony was about to respond to the asshole who kept asking him about Steve when he felt a hand rest at the small of his back and deftly start to guide him away from the bar and the cameras.

"Long time no see little darling" Peter Parker was looking down on him with those eyes and that face... God he's obnoxiously good looking.

Speaking of obnoxious "Did you just call me little darling?" asked Tony, justifiably indignant.

"Wow you really are drunk" Parker chuckled.

God has his voice always been this deep and husky...?

"That's not what I asked" Tony insisted

"Did you want me to call you little darling?" asked Peter, eyes twinkling with mischief.

"Ugh- Where are you taking me by the way?" He's definitely still just as irritating as last time.

"Home"

Huh... hooking up with a business rival was not what Tony had planned for the evening but it was better than being miserable and alone, which was in fact the plan, so he went along with it.

Parker stopped by a Burger King drive through on the way which only made him all the more attractive to him.

They were awkward in the elevator of the Stark Tower and the boy still hadn't made a move which was a little weird.

What wasn't weird was Parkers arm casually draped around his waist.

Once they were in his quarters living room area and Peter seemed like he was starting to leave, it became evident to Tony that the kid had literally just meant dropping him home.

He was a little disappointed but he wasn't gonna say anything... until Parker opened his smart mouth.

"Well, I'll see you around little darling" He snickered

And Tony had intended to just give him a light shove, but the back of Parker's knee hit the couch and Tony stumbled too and somehow they ended up with Peter on the couch and Tony in his lap, straddling him.

"Gotta' say... when I imagined Iron Man making a move on me, I expected something a little more advanced than the 'stumble straddle'" the kid was playing it cool but Tony could see his blush.

So he responded with "You imagined me making a move on you?"

"Oh repeatedly... it has been my favorite fantasy since I was like 15" The kid had the gall to wink at him.

"Well sorry for letting you down kid... now are you gonna fuck me or not?" There was a corner of Tony's mind that was worried that he was coming off too desperate but Parker was hot and Tony was drunk and horny so he couldn't care less about appearances.

"Your ability to call me a kid and then ask me to fuck you in the same sentence would be worrying if I wasn't almost thirty... speaking of fucking you, that was my initial plan but you're drunk and I don't wanna take advantage of my little darling..." Peter was letting him down but he had a very fond smile on his face... it made Tony all warm inside. The pet name was growing on him too... uh oh.

What was also contributing to his warmth were Peter's, rather large, hands. Resting on his waist and thigh.

"Maybe I want you to take advantage of me..."

"Oh there's no 'maybe' about it... you have a semi just by sitting on my lap, this is as embarrassing for you as it is flattering for me..."

God he was a smug little prick, Tony loved it.

~To be continued~