Thinking back again to an artist publicly insulting and blocking his would-be commissioner for using AI slop in lieu of a reference. Yeah, there are some problems with our current actualization of generative AI. However, I find the diatribe about it tedious, narrow, and maybe a bit conceited. After letting this marinate for a couple years, I think I can accurately state exactly what it is that bothers me about how shrill and rabid the opposition to generative AI is.

My generation had the pleasure of experiencing the death of the artisan. Scumbags in ivory towers manipulated the flow of money, hiring overseas sweat shops and using financial pressure to secure commercial compliance so that they could pocket the difference; for everyone else on the planet, life got substantially worse. Creativity and skill were drained from countless crafts. In a market that's global for corporations but local for the actual population, those who fit best into the role of artisan quickly found themselves in a grossly over-saturated luxury market that was unlikely to let a beginner break even.

So, when an artist takes a belligerently haughty attitude towards anything and anyone even adjacent to generative AI, I wonder just a little bit what dollar store they got their kitchen knives from. Were they there for the cutler, the cabinetmaker, the confectioner, the potter, the glassblower? Of course not, because the distribution of wealth won't allow it. But as soon as business finds a way to mass-commodify illustration, the tears that the rest of us had to swallow turn to unbridled and largely indiscriminate vitriol. And for the record, the correct response to receiving an AI-generated reference pic is: "Thank you, but before moving forward using this generic and kind of problematic reference, might I interest you in a commissioning a professionally made alternative?"

"But—but—but... copyright!!!" I assure you, corporate copyright abuse has been no more kind to craftspeople than it has to other artists (see: Temu). Our goddamned civilization has been stolen—don't unload on your fellow wastelanders for scavenging the ruins.

To investigate and apply appropriate discipline to politically motivated cases of bad faith abuse reports. You know very well who is doing this, and you know very well why. You also know that their heroes' endgame does not entertain the continued existence of 'perverse' communities like this one, or its members for that matter.

Bad actors here have flipped the hate speech/affiliation rules and twisted them into a weapon against those who oppose an ideology of hate, and this must not stand. Scrutinize accounts which file a suspicious number of reports, and investigate whether a slew of reports against a given account are plausibly supportable or simply brigading. Abuse of the rules should be a violation of the rules.

Nothing angry (excepting a side note of my utter disdain for Hideo Kojima), nothing controversial (unless you're more uptight than I am); just an aesthetic opinion. I've been listening to the soundtrack of Terranigma again, and I just feel like it's worth stating that it is one of the best games ever made. It's the final installment of the not-entirely-official 'series' including Soulblazer and Illusion if Gaia, it features an outstanding soundtrack, and it's a beautiful example of the monomyth subverted to inflict exquisitely beautiful suffering upon the player.

Terranigma has character development, and it's harsh. Games don't usually like characters that grow. Take FF12, for example. Vaan is an obnoxiously creaky camera dolly, and he stays that way. Hell, Balthier is so genre savvy that he knows this, and regularly chews on the fourth wall about it. Basically, though, nobody undergoes much character development in that game; either they're already a capable adult, or they're Vaan. Nobody gets literally slapped for being an immature narcissist (including Vaan, somehow), and they certainly don't learn anything from it. And to be clear about this judgement, I actually like FF12. In spite of Vaan. Seriously, fuck Vaan.

Terranigma contains one of the most shocking villain death scenes I've ever witnessed. It didn't need 64 bits of gore porn to make its point. All the hatred that you feel for this character suddenly transforms into visceral horror at the inevitability of what's coming. That carried some weight in a genre where 'death' is commonly a function of 'cleanly ceasing to exist as a function of the plot'.

And then there's the ending. The absolutely masterful unfairness of the completely logical sucker punch conclusion, and the playable full-circle epilogue that leaves you in control of the when but not what happens, followed by one final moment that leaves you stuck in an eternal cliff hanger of faint hope. This game still haunts me.

Once again...

GIF: A lossless 8-bit colour image compression format which supports transparency and animation. Best suited for solid fields of colour with hard boundaries, like comics.

JPEG: A variably lossy 24-bit colour image compression format. Best suited for photographs or art featuring gradients and/or soft transitions.

PNG: A lossless 24/32-bit colour image compression format, loosely analogous to a combination toaster/vacuum cleaner. Quite specifically not designed for printable graphic standards, and featuring non-standardized compression algorithms of wildly variable efficiency with a resultant file size typically 800% to 900% greater than a virtually identical JPEG. Best suited for artists who hate learning about the digital basics of their craft, fail to grasp the concept of keeping separate web and print-quality files, and who don't have to pay to keep the lights on.

I may have some medical stuff going on, but it's less than I feared, and the doctor isn't particularly alarmed by anything just yet. I have some imaging and lab tests coming up. The most terrifying issue—a hard peanut-sized lump on the palm of my left hand—is apparently most likely a something-or-other adhesion. Changes to my sciatica aren't noteworthy, and while I have (probably) correctly identified a misplaced suture tail, it is most likely 'encapsulated', and thus not a threat to health even if it's not super comfortable. At the risk of sounding optimistic, so far so good.

And just to prove that I'm not a pod-person doppelganger, I want to reinforce my dour aura by going off on a disconnected tangent and grousing that I'm reasonably certain 'viking metal' does not, in fact, mean bog standard 'brutal' metal with a reverb-heavy "O O O O O O D I N N N N N N" growled over it at random intervals. Like, dude, not even Sleipnir, Grendel, or Sigurd? Even Yggdrasil has its low-hanging fruit, man...

1 league = 4.83Km (3 miles)

'20,000 Leagues Under the Sea':

20,000 x 4.83 = 96618Km (60036 miles)

Circumference of Earth = 40,075Km (24,901 miles)

Captain Nemo is lost as fuck.

I don't have what you'd call a comfortable relationship with Imgur. I've long had a problem with the proclivity of their vaunted 'usersub' for arbitrary gatekeeping, and their community abuse of the downvote button as a means of curating objective fact. However, since their acquisition by Medialab and certain other geopolitical events, the traditionally left-wing platform had gotten distinctly... heavy-handedly policed in regards to criticism of right-wing politics.

This got me questioning the vulnerability of uncooperative platforms to fascism-friendly capitalist takeovers. Is it a valid concern, that any Rupert Murdoch or analogous dirtbag can just buy forums which stand in disagreement and shut down dissent?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d323QgrARHo

Hold the tzatziki.

Name: La Chouffe
Nationality: Belgium
Type: "Blonde"
ABV: 8%
Reason for selection: There is a gnome on the bottle. Presumably. Could be a redcap, I suppose.

This bottle has... coordinates? 59°09'03.4"N, 5°44'45.0"E. This appears to be open water in the North Sea, Norway. However, coordinates at the top of the actual brewery website give a location in Houffalize, Belgium, close to a beer shop and a street with a suspiciously similar name. Hell, I'm just gonna link the site.

https://chouffe.com/en-us/our-beer/la-chouffe

Pouring develops a comical amount of quite robust head. The appearance is golden and rather cloudy. Aroma... sour beer, not especially distinguishable to my philistine nose. Flavour... This is not... bad, but it's somewhat unsettling at first. It tastes like someone used to make violins, then decided to try beer for a change. Lightly sour, well balanced bitterness, cleanly sweet, with a very forward note of spruce pitch. Ingredient list includes coriander... okay yeah, I get that now that the flavour source is specified. So, we're kind of a gruit hybrid, which is neat. I'd say the mouthfeel is sort of midrange, neither heavy nor particularly light. It's worth noting that A: the strong alcohol content is not immediately obvious to the palate, and B: this comes in a 750ml bottle. Make of that what you will.

The bottom line: Interesting and well crafted. 4/5 questionable fae.

So, uh... Did Disney seriously adopt Lone Digger as Zootopia canon, or was that just a really well made parody?

.....Okay, but can I keep the actual 'classic'? The one that doesn't hurt my brain with senseless crap invented by the people who didn't think "user interface" was a cool enough term without ramming an "X" into it sideways? I ask because I don't really trust that this is going to be more than a colour scheme, and I have this fear that I won't be able to undo this change given the high pressure we've had to abandon the nice, clean, readable classic interface.

You know why you never see anyone using hammer/pliers multitools? It's because they're outstanding at multidisciplinary uselessness. Tools tend to evolve to the point of peak usefulness; major changes beyond that point just make them less useful. FA's UI (NOT "UX") hit the point of near-peak utility some time ago. So, can we please have the assured and meaningful choice of a layout and colour scheme for generations prior to one that never knew anything more sane?

Every time I use this damned thing, I remember how dangerous my ignorance was. Critical kitchen information kiddies...

Kitchen ranges commonly come in two flavours: electric or gas. Both usually have a drawer at the bottom.

What you may not know, if you grew up with the other kind of range, is that the purpose of this drawer differs between types. In an electric range, the bottom drawer is used to store pots and pans. However, in a gas range, this drawer is for fucking setting shit on fire. Gas ranges don't have an upper burner/element. The broiler is underneath. You and the fire department are welcome.

Thanks for the game. Um... It was a good run, honestly. But I think I've seen everything within Hello Games' ability and comfort zone now. I'm saying this goodbye for my own sake and my own accountability, and I'll try to keep negativity out of it. NMS isn't just a game—it's an experiment, and we've all been both subject and observer. We've learned what will make us feel something, and what may fall flat. We better understand the challenge of persistence in an effectively unlimited game world. Perhaps some day somebody will take these lessons, and apply them to a new universe of greater depth and different priorities. When that day comes, may we meet again under a living sky.

Signing off.

16-16-16-16

Well thank god I'm a hoarder who keeps old parts "just in case," or I wouldn't have been able to replace the shredded seat washer on the tub's hot water valve at 9:30 in the evening. How I (or somebody) managed to jam it right into the stem is... probably why apes don't do plumbing. Light touch, you dumbass...

Lately I've been noticing a trend when I search with DuckDuckGo. DDG omits results that are unfavourable towards tech giants to a highly conspicuous degree which can only fairly be described as "evasive." Even the AI assist makes a blatant display of creatively misinterpreting questions that have inconvenient answers about tech companies like Google or Amazon, and if pressed about the reason for dodging it gives a limp "some people criticize DDG regarding unspecified partnerships, but DDG is 100% committed to your privacy (except for that one time that we failed at hiding what we did with Microsoft, whoopsie!)" non-answer.

Bye, then.

I've switched to Brave, and by god, wouldn't you know that there's more to the Internet than Amazon and Youtube? I guess maybe it's not the net that's been shrinking lately—it's the gate.

https://search.brave.com/

No more loyalty to those that sell us like chattel.

To whom it may concern,

The use of implied consent to unannounced privacy policy changes is a big problem. First, it's shirking the moral—and, according to the FTC, legal—duty of the company to keep users informed, passing the buck and expecting users to engage in either a hypervigilant or oblivious role. Secondly, in an increasingly authoritarian and callous political arena which notably has long been openly hostile to both the furry and LGBTQ+ communities among others, the failure to pro-actively keep users informed of well-highlighted risks poses a potential and grave danger to liberty and perhaps even life. Agreement to policy changes must be informed and explicit. Furthermore, it would behoove the administration to develop an emergency strategy to protect users in a worst case scenario.

Maid Marian (Disney's Robin Hood): If you're Gen X, straight, and you're furry, this is why. You know I'm right.

Mrs. Brisby: This lady was the awakening of my weakness for vulnerable but ultimately indomitable female characters. Can you lift a concrete block with the power of love (and a mysterious amulet imbued with the power of some unspecified eldritch source)? Thought not.

Kanga: ...Okay, listen. She is a gentle, loving mother figure with hips for days. You know I'm right.

'Girl Squirrel' (Disney's Sword in the Stone): ...You too. You know I'm right. Don't even try lying about it; when her heart broke, your heart broke.

Squirrel Girl: Maybe not really a crush, I'm just a fan really. That said... Have you seen her in Marvel Rivals? Other heroines would wish they were drawn like that if they weren't mostly so damned basic. I know her whole schtick pseudo-canonically precludes a movie, but I'd sure as hell watch it if there was one. It'd probably just be like 'Dude, Where's My Nuts?' Worth it.

Stith: Sir, yes leg-mommy Sir! Sorry! Right away, leg-mommy Sir!

Silvia 'the Grey', Phoenix of Strife: Hello, my name is: PYGMALION

Filia Ul Copt: A hot temper, a charmingly naive adherence to the perception of 'good', and a fantastic tail. With a pretty pink bow. She has a beautifully operatic shrieking voice when she's angry.

Jillas: Kinda spoilers. Well, I never said they all had to be female, now did I? Perfect blend of cleverness and madness. Also, the strength of his spirit was sufficient to completely alter the shape of the Gorun Nova in a way that not even Lina Inverse could do, and he did it accidentally just by holding it. Also, Jillas is a fellow Filia fan, so exquisite taste.

Freya Crescent: Very spoilers. Thighs that could crush a dragon, and have very possibly done so on more than one occasion. Freya is a member of an underdog race regarded by many as "vermin." She turns to the lie she keeps telling herself to keep going, then she gets up and goes on. Her home is destroyed and her people are slaughtered. She turns to the lie she keeps telling herself to keep going, then she gets up and goes on. Time after time she loses everything, so she turns to the lie that she keeps telling herself to keep going, then she gets up and goes on. And then the lie catches up and turns out to be a twisted truth not worth going on for. Then... she gets up and goes on. Even hopeless and bereaved and faced with the impossibility of rebuilding a future for the remnants of her people, she goes on. I cannot properly express how beautiful this character is to me. Like, it's one thing to say "I have the hots for this character." It's another thing entirely to say "I would prostrate myself at your feet, my Queen." This is probably not healthy, but ah, what an exquisite madness.

"2. Changes to These Terms of Use

We may revise and update these Terms of Use from time to time in our sole discretion. All changes are effective immediately when we post them, and apply to all access to and use of the Website thereafter.
Your continued use of the Website following the posting of revised Terms of Use means that you accept and agree to all changes. You are expected to check this page each time you access the Website, so you are aware of any changes, as they are binding on you. "

Expected to check this... let's see... 7000+ word megalith of impenetrable legalese, to see whether and how you've peddled our personal data to the tangerine diddler who totally has no interest in using information granted under dubious consent to unperson 'deviants' (read: anyone using the site), and you want us to do it every damned time we visit the site?

You know what? Fuck you. You will be replaced by someone in a nation and by an owner less eager to go down on Daddy Trump's syphilitic little weird mushroom dick.

I would like to create a distinct language and runic script for an ancient race of godlike avians. This is to be a largely tonal language, using sounds that a human cannot easily or accurately replicate; maybe similar to a whistled language, but with overtone. The script must consist of talon strokes and possibly wing buffeting. Because of the physically coarse nature of this medium and in order to differentiate from yet another alphabet-in-costume 'rune' set, this script shall be similar in nature to musical notation, representing a language of chords which produce complex meaning from interwoven melody. This, of course, means that the species is alien in its way of simultaneous multilinear thinking. Relates back to godlike status? Hyperdimensional living quantum computers?

Also, this entire endeavour is in the interest of generating excessive canon for a personal OC that nobody knows or gives a flying fuck about. What am I doing?

I picked up some black currant syrup the other day, thinking it might be useful for wine making. Just one problem: preservatives would do a real number on yeast, and the regulation and enforcement of ingredient listing is kind of a joke. I've previously been nastily chastised by a corporation (Keurig Dr Pepper) for daring to ask whether one of their products (Tahiti Treat) contains an ingredient (citrus fruit) that would make my elderly mother horribly sick, so I wasn't very hopeful when I reached to the importer, S&F Foods, for confirmation about the ingredients listed on their bottle.

A few hours after sending my message I received word that they were requesting the information from the manufacturer, and about 24 hours after initial contact I had confirmation all the way from Slovenia that because of the high sugar content the syrup doesn't need any other preservatives. So that's pretty cool.

I'm aware that I have a serious negativity problem, and just wanted to make a deliberate effort to share something that I'm grateful for. There's still some good in the world.

A seax is a viking weapon that can be used as a tool.
A knifr is a viking tool that can be used as a weapon.
A puukko is (probably) the descendant of the knifr.
A squirrel tail or blacksmith's knife has nothing to do with vikings.
A rail spike knife is an outstanding conversation piece.
A rail spike is not made of magical super-steel.
A kunai is a multi-purpose Japanese trowel.
A bo shuriken is a Japanese throwing spike.
'Ninja tools' were mostly just tools that you could carry without being executed for it.
Naruto is a dumpling.
The food item of the same name is also a dumpling.

This question is proving difficult to frame in a way that search engines can fully understand.

Context: I'm thinking about 10,000 year warnings, and how they need to survive both culturally and physically. Some of the ideas I've heard for material are frankly pretty dopey; bone sometimes lasts tens of thousands of years under the right conditions, so... good candidate, and totally does not carry a weird unintended context. Another bizarre suggestion: laserdiscs—because that technology lasted so long the first time, right?

My thinking is that a meter-long prism of glass with a message cast inside would not only protect that message, but would also carry the context of the (somewhat) advanced society that could create it. Simply engraving the message isn't good enough, as thousands of years of erosion could obliterate it. Therefore: is it reasonably possible to make a precise two or three part glass casting, capable of displaying readable figures under several centimeters of transparent glass?

Anyways, why one meter long? Well, that offers valuable cultural information, and a baseline for safe distance denoted as a binary number. I'm also thinking that (maybe) Carbon-14 could be used in a radioluminescent component to underscore the "we know what we're fucking talking about" message for thousands of years, and if paired with a similar non-reactive component of identical mass it could also serve as a reference point for dating purposes depending on the technological advancement of the discoverers. Further such components of appropriate mass could be used to denote site decay benchmarks. This entire line of thinking, of course, renders my entire question moot, as it would make the 'prism' into more of a jar. Well... there you go, then. Now I just need to know if Carbon-14 is energetic enough to visibly excite phosphor, and search engines are kind of sucking at answering that question as well.

I believe that the Philogelos (supposed world's oldest joke book) is a mostly—if not completely—fake translation. Too many of the jokes fundamentally rely on modern English words and phrases to work. Also, there are multiple references to things that did not exist on that continent at that time. So...

Sometimes I sort of start caring about an artist, and then sometimes they... disappear. Is koh okay? I have enough sleuthing skills to know that he's probably alive, but but after he shut down his account, it just sort of left me haunted. I know he was in pain, and I can kind of relate. I don't understand why he put so effort much into... deleting his existence in the context of this fandom. I just hope he's okay, you know? I wish he knew that some people remember and care. I miss your legend, man.

Found another reason to be mad at the previous occupant. Stepped out onto the joist of a deck I'm demolishing to get some measurements, and suddenly there was no joist. Apparently Captain Cerebrum 'fastened' the structural member by toenailing it in with a single fastener. I managed to avoid any breaks, impalement, or serious lacerations or abrasions, but I am reminded that I must never underestimate the inspiring stupidity of the confidently wrong.