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.

IMG-3136.jpg

IMG-3137.jpg

IMG-3139.jpg

Goddamn, it’s already been four years?

Fuck.

@Wuff That was awful!

@Arkandel YES!

@Coin said in House of the Dragon - Discussion:

I mean, Joffrey spoils the end of House of the Dragon in Game of Thrones.

Will that fucker’s evil never end?

@Jennkryst said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:

Tangentially related, FLGS had their annual Great Pumpkin sale, where I picked up the One Ring core book, so now I am almost REQUIRED to gripe about how we need a Middle Earth MU. Preferably with the lewdest of Elves, to annoy @Arkandel.

I’ve played on Shang, so I shall say no more.

Oh no. 😞 I’m so sorry for their loved ones. They were a good person.

I’m only four episodes in because I’m watching it a bit at a time with my partner (which slows my progress down, but eh), and holy hell I am impressed that they’re maintaining the level of consistency with the animation and music and punchiness and it just oozes neon-soaked crass beauty and ultraviolence and this is like watching a modern take on one of those old 80s OVAs I used to pick up at Blockbuster when I was way too young to actually supposed to be renting them, and, and, and…

I am vibing so hard on this show, to the point of run-on sentences.

Edit: Aw, it kinda wobbled a bit at the end for me, but I still had a blast for the overall package.

I made a 30% return on my AresMUSH RP. I even had an incredible two-scene downstream after 5 concurrent dice rolls allowed me to synchronize the RP Hooks.

Wait, this thread is about RL gambling? Oh, never mind.

@Snackness I think we need to call in @hellfrog to tell us everything we need to know about smolfrog.

@crawfish

Whoa yeah, no kidding. They recapped those at lightning speed!

I read lots of things, mostly fantasy and SF, but also poetry, literary fiction, trashy pop romances, history, non-fiction. I love a smart style and a voice that brings out an interesting character. The last couple years, I’ve been able to read nothing but comfort reads. I’ve given a lot of thought to what makes these comforting to me, and I think it’s some message of “No matter what the rest of the world says, you have a place here. This is your home.” A couple favorite series that I’ve found recently have been Victoria Goddard’s Greenwing & Dart, and Martha Wells’ Books of the Raksura. And then there’s Everina Maxewell’s Winter’s Orbit, a book I’ve read 5 times since last October, and I almost never reread anything. For comfort reads, I also recommend reading cook books. Just slowly wander through the stories, ingredients, and instructions, and really enjoy the pictures.