@junipersky Kids in high school you lowkey had a squish on?

Hey all, there is a fundraising campaign going on in the community of survivors of long-term residential “treatment programs” for teenagers that aims to provide a prom-style party for those who did not have a chance to have this experience in their youth, because they were taken by force from their homes and missed some or all of their high school years.

I won’t personally be attending, but I really believe in the people hosting it and the cause of making a great memory to help heal past trauma.

Here’s my donation link if you’re interested in giving a little, or here is the campaign homepage where you can donate without the reference.

I do not believe there is any difference in where you donate, but we were told in the committee to sign up for our own personal links and share them, just for clarity.

Finished Love Between Fairy and Devil. Is there a reason they can’t say angel? Because they clearly mean angel and not fairy.

Anyway

crying

That was me for like the last five episodes. I really liked it. Was there filler? Yes. But they took a trope and I think did some clever things with it. There were REASONS for things and I’m sure I missed a lot of stuff that was coded in there that a regular Chinese audience would’ve picked up on, but I thought it was really well done.

And that budget! So many gorgeous costumes!

Definitely recommend even if Orchid’s dumb voice grated on me for most of it. And that’s not me being mean, she’s definitely doing a dumb-girl bit with it and uuuuugh.

I am always a sucker for an All Loving Hero though.

And Jieli is the best character (though the Black Dragon was close second). Should’ve been more Jieli!

@Solstice As someone who has pulled 6 foot monsters outta drains in my house, this is advice people need to take…

@Cobalt I say they deserve the trauma for snooping. 😠

@junipersky die

@Cobalt Good luck with the move. Hope it goes smoothly for you.

God’s Demon, by Wayne Barlowe.
I’ve always been fascinated by depictions of Hell and this one is particularly vivid, unsettling, and just cool. The story centers on a remorseful demon who wages a war to redeem himself, with the help of Lillith and the damned soul of Hannibal of Carthage. The author also did a series of paintings about Hell and the characters that are amazing.

@TNP Howl

Obviously, this is an extremely complex issue. Animation studios have been using computer aided art for quite some time, but the technology is now becoming accessible to the everyday person. If you want an excellent example of ‘AI’ assisted art being used as a tool by artists, take a look at the interviews with the creative team that produced Klaus.

This technology is currently putting people out of work and it won’t be getting better as developers continue to refine these programs. Concept artists are the most endangered by this as the companies that utilize their services have already begun trimming departments down. A couple of artists with a few machines can turn out as many (if not more) works than an entire team could.

There is a bit of solace to be found. Even if you ignore the legal precariousness, these programs are far from perfect. It takes time and effort to prompt the computer to get exactly what you want. Even after the ‘art’ is generated, it still requires a degree of touching up. Not everyone has the skill set to do this, but… the gap between semi-professional artists and everyone with a computer is beginning to close.

The threat of automation is here and it isn’t going away. Professions that people assumed were safe are not. We’ve needed to have a serious conversation about this for years, but we won’t see anything actionable until it’s far too late. Much like a number of the other extremely predictable assumptions that academics have been warning us about for decades.

If you want to do something against it, make certain not to buy into companies that are trying to run a profit on these programs. Not only will you be slowing the progression of digital art automation, but you’ll also be saving yourself cash. The majority of those paid ‘programs’ are really just a branch of Stable Diffusion…which is a program you can download to your machine for free.

Happy New Years all you glorious weirdos

Every body is different, so what works for some might not for others.

That said!

I don’t know if what I was doing was actually Keto or not… it sounds pretty close, but was called… Slow Carb, I think?

Basically, it was 0 carbs for 6 days a week, so you do end up in a state of Ketosis, but so long as you dont eat carbs, you can eat however much you want, so you’re not going to be in starvation mode. Probably.

Anyway, on the 7th day you are free to just fuckin’ destroy yourself. Drink a whole keg, if you want, your body can only process so many of the carbs before you’re back on 0 intake.

It’s a pretty big yo-yo of weight loss, but you always end up losing more over the 6 days than you put back on during the 7th. I lost 50 lbs over the one month I was able to keep at it, but haven’t been able to do it consistently since. ALAS.

While I, being from and in one of the places that are Not-The-United-States, don’t typically celebrate Thanksgiving, I do find it a fine time to remember that for which I am thankful.

I’m thankful to be alive, which hasn’t always been a sure thing. I’m thankful to be reasonably successful at my studies. I’m thankful that I have a healthy family. But mostly, I’m thankful that I have ample opportunities to use my hereditary privilege to better the lives of others.

BURSTS THROUGH THE WALL

Hey, so it wasn’t me for once. So let the memes flow!

When the world goes up, I like to imagine what weird shit will manage to live in the wreckage we leave behind.

Like mimics.

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Goddamn, it’s already been four years?

Fuck.

@Wuff That was awful!

@Arkandel YES!