i’m really intrigued by this “visual typing” or typing by physical attributes concept that i’ve seen you talk about on your page, even if i don’t fully believe in it’s validity. is there a place where i could find the “physical trait profiles” for the MBTI and enneagram types / instinct stacks ? it’s a very intriguing idea. i am curious about what type i “look like.” do you think these things to be definitive, one-size-fits-all, and 1 to 1 or do you simply find them a fun or interesting aspect of typology to explore ?

"is there a place where i could find the “physical trait profiles"

aside from the random incomplete posts on my blog? no, not that i know of. i've been thinking about collecting a public database but that wouldn't earn me money so realistically will never happen.

"i am curious about what type i “look like.”"

well post some passport-style neutral pictures of yourself and i will let you know

"do you think these things to be definitive, one-size-fits-all"

yes and no. i truly believe that visual typing is -the- one and only correct way of typing someone and can be done with a much higher accuracy and less bias than any personality test or behavioral analysis. as i've mentioned plenty of times before though there are of course caveats; plastic surgery being the most obvious, that's why when typing celebs i usually try to find older pre-surgery photos of them. and of course it can only be used to type real existing people and not like e.g. anime characters which makes it uninteresting to many typology fans.

but i don't think -i- found all the visual clues yet and so far we've been only scratching the surface. also several older posts i made contain outdated information and i cringe every time people reblog those. i'd should probably delete those but i'm too lazy...

https://gofund.me/96bce824

Hi, all. So, I've had a day from hell and I'm too exhausted to re-explain on another platform. But here, I'll copy paste the story here. TLDR at the bottom. If you can't help, pass it on. Literally everything helps. Love you all.

Good day all, thank you for stopping your busy day to check my page.

Let me lay out the situation as best I can.

First off, some background for myself and my family. My fiancee and I only have(had) one functioning car between us when we took in a family member of his in an emergency CPS case. We are trying our hardest to take care of her and teach her how to be a person, but our schedules and only having one vehicle has made that a struggle. She has gotten a job just last week and is working hard to get on her feet. It's great and we are very proud of her! It's part time for the time being while she learns how to manage finances and how the world works.

However, since October things have started taking a turn for the worse. Between my fiancee and I, we both worked minimum wage and in October I bent over to put on a shoe and my back made a horrible crack noise. I went to the ER in immense pain and despite having insurance, I still got dumped with a hefty bill that to this day I am still trying to pay off. I have gone through physical therapy as requested by my doctor, since he didn't want to operate on someone of my age. However, it did nothing but agitate the problem. While I can now move around again, bending over and lifting anything past 15 pounds is strenuous. I'm in pain every single day and even sitting up is difficult most days. I can't stand up for long anymore before it becomes too much on my back. But things continue to happen, as they do. I was set to come back to see my surgeon this year but on Dec 29th in the last hour of the day, my job decided that an AI system could completely take over my job and laid me off. Getting unemployment as well as answers back from my previous work has been very difficult. My benefits were cut off with no chance to refill medications or see my surgeon. So, now my continued treatment to fix my back on top of my other health issues have all been put on pause. I've been working for almost two years now to get treatment and figure out what's wrong with my health, but I am now on a desperate search for a new job.

Which leads us to today. We are already strapped for money, and on a trip to an interview and my fiancee going to work, we got taken down a gravel road that looked deceptively fine. Driving across, the ice was far deeper than it appeared and it destroyed the grill, bumper, and wheel well (I believe that's what it's called) aka part of the frame that covers the front wheels broke and are hanging. That's not where it ends. So, I took the car to get it temporarily fixed so we could hopefully figure something out to get repairs done. The car got a temporary fix, and then I proceeded to take the car to pick up my fiancee from work. He and I began our drive back home, and as we were passing train tracks a doe jumped out into the road way too close to us. She only came into view as she appeared in the lights of the car, immediately getting bodied by the car. As you can see from the image, she destroyed the hood of the car and much more. I feel horrible for the poor thing and I hope she went quickly, noticing the fur and blood on the front bumper. We managed to get the car home, but the check engine light came on. This car is a Toyota prius. Anyone who knows anything about a prius knows they are basically tin cans. So, the worry is that the cooling system is busted now too. This will exponentially increase the amount we need to pay to repair the vehicle.

The worst part is, is that this is the only car we have to go to work and for me to go to interviews. I do have a car, but it's not in running condition right now. The poor thing is a 1999 and needs some parts replaced that we have not had the funds or availability to get a list of parts and have them replaced. The car also can't move anyway right now and would need towed. The prius is our only vehicle we have, and I don't have the funds to drop on fixing it. Insurance won't pay for it as far as we have been made aware by the body shop because of the type of insurance we have.

So, this is the current estimate we have to work with in regards to repairs. The entire front, hood, coolant system, and I know a few more pieces need replaced. The prius can run and be moved to a body shop at least, but paying for it will be a nightmare. If he can't get to work, we are in major trouble. My fiancee, his little sister, and I all rely on this car for work. While I'm still looking for work, I'm very limited because of my current physical state. We've spent a lot of money on my Healthcare already and every day are worried I'm going to reach for something and have my back crack again. While we are working on Medicaid, these things are proving a slow process. They also don't cover previous medical bills when I did have insurance. So, our only choice is to live off his income currently while I'm on a search for a new job every day. Our lives depend on this one car. Especially since we live out in the woods and work is 40 minutes away.

If you've read this far, I appreciate every single second of your time. Every single hand this gofundme goes through will be a huge help. If you can't help, that's okay, please don't stress your own financials if youre in a tough spot. If you can pass this along to anyone you can, that would be more than enough. Thank you again, and I wish you all better fortune this 2024.

For those who can't read the whole thing;

TLDR; Me and my family are already going through a lot of financial troubles with my health and being laid off, our only mode of transportation is severely damaged from an unmaintained roads massive pothole and hitting a deer in the same day. Three people rely on this one vehicle for all our jobs and interviews that are far from home. Donate if you can, if not, please share and thank you so very much.

Also including another picture here for you all to see. Thank you all again, I wish you better fortune this year.

Can someone explain to me why the idea of Automattic selling data to Midjourney is so awful?

I get that people don't want their posts and art being used to train generative models but... they already are being used to train generative models. If you make something public on the internet, then you can't stop anyone from scraping it and add it to a training set (there's no such thing as DRM that works against a well-funded opponent), and as I understand it all the big "AI" companies are already doing this.

So it seems like Tumblr is basically telling Midjourney etc. "Hey, wouldn't you like to get this data without having to process out the noise from webscraping? We'll give you cleaner data if you A) pay us and B) don't mind that we're going to let users opt out of it."

Shouldn't this be strictly better than the alternative, which is "Midjourney etc. just keep scraping all publicly available data regardless of what users want and also Tumblr doesn't have enough money to cover its operating expenses"? What am I missing here?

AITA for pushing my daughter to excel in her career?

I and my daughter have a pretty rough relationship. Ever since her mother died in combat, I have been struggling with severe depression. My wife was the most incredible woman I’ve ever known. She meant everything to me, and every moment I feel her loss.

My daughter misses her as well, but she didn’t know my wife like I did, and has been able to make some progress in moving on with her life. That said, we still don’t have a very close relationship. I work as a director for a tech organization funded by the military, and by a matter of coincidence, my daughter ended up getting recommended to the program that I am currently working with. She is now helping to test some of the programs and devices that we are working on.

Part of this job requires preparing and training to be strong enough to use these products, that way, they don't end up injuring themselves when they get them. In order to make it more fun for everyone involved, we have made it into something of a competition. We have a leaderboard and everything, and wouldn’t you know it, my daughter has been at the top of it for years.

I’m proud of her, but I recognize how it looks that the director of this project has his daughter at the top of the rankings. I’ll admit that I’m harder on her than I am on the rest of our recruits, but it has always been for the betterment of herself and our project.

Recently, we have started handing out the prototypes for our testers to begin working with, and I’ve gotten to roll out my own personal project—a new recruit, personally outfitted with the newest technology and trained by yours truly, to compete with the rest of the leaderboard and give my daughter a run for her money. My daughter, however, is pissed. She thinks that the new recruit is receiving unfair advantages and attention, and honestly, has let the competition go to her head.

I was happy to see my daughter invested in something that she believes in, and I want for her to work hard to be the best, but she has started accusing the new recruit and me of trying to put her in a position to fail. She’s been putting herself in dangerous scenarios to try to win, then getting hurt and being forced to sit out for a while in order to recover.

Also, the new recruit hasn’t been too happy with me either. I don’t know what her deal is, but she seems to think that I’ve done something to hurt someone she cares about? I’m not a monster, I wouldn’t hurt a fly. (Not unless the Geneva conventions say anything about the atrocities we commit against ourselves, that is!) She seems to be siding with my daughter in all of this, which is just low.

I don't know how to make my daughter understand that I'm trying to make her into the best version of herself. She also doesn't seem to get that she just doesn't get to act like she's still "daddy's little girl" and gets the special treatment that comes with that when she acts so cold towards me.

My assistant says that it might be going a bit far to pit her against an AI based off of the memory of her mother in deadly combat, but I think if my daughter really cared about making her family proud, she’d show me and her mom that she’s willing to put in the effort. So, AITA?

hi! since you seem pretty pro-ai, i have a question. how do you reconcile that stance with the growing threat ai has on creative jobs? especially right now with the wga strike, when one of their main issues is ai. not trying to trap you or start a fight, just genuinely curious as someone with a foot in both fanfic and professional writing who doesn’t fully know how to feel.

I wouldn't say I'm pro ai in the sense that I think ai is uncritically great.

I think ai is morally neutral, and that it is only getting misused under capitalism.

I am absolutely down for ai being improved upon to progress society, and think ai could actually be a helpful tool for a lot of jobs humans don't want to do!

(Look me in the eye and tell me the current youtube auto generated captions are acceptable. Look my Hard of Hearing ass in the eye.)

That being said, the current people that are funding and working on the ai are scumbags that are clearly in it for a cheap buck and not to progress humanity forwards!

(maybe I'm an optimist, but I want to program something great one day. Something that other programmers build upon, and eventually people are still benefitting from my existence long after I'm gone!)

That being said, it isn't as easy as "magically hope the people behind chatGDP grow a spine or replace them with better people" I feel the the government should regulate ai more, so it isn't down to the morality of the current big name cooperations!

This will likely not happen, since governments always wait to pass laws on technology until it is far too late. I'd say:

If an Ai was used, it has to be disclosed and the programmers who wrote the ai credited.

In order to train a commercial ai on something, you have to either get consent from the people that made it (same as reference photos) or pay them. It should be like stock photos.

The companies shouldn't be able to tell users what they can and can't use the ai for. This is a slippery slope, and I could very easily see it leading to the "sorry, we refuse to write anything thats anti-big company! Sorry (suck my dick)

I think it should be under the same copyright law as fanfiction. You can use an ai to make whatever the fuck you want, but if you sell it the people that came up with the idea can come after you. As for ai completely stealing human jobs, it doesn't seem very likely. Ai automating people out of a job has always been a fear, and writing/art is the least likely field for this to happen in. The ai can't make anything original. If, lets say, the dataset goes up to 2020, then the ai won't be able to comment on modern events in the slightest. An ai can make SW fic, but once a new movie drops, its dataset will no longer be accurate. Therefore, the ai depends on humans to keep datasets up to date. Also, current ai is not good enough to recreate a modern TV show. Have you tried Ai? Do you think you can get it to keep a plot going for more than 1-2 prompts? Let alone an entire 22 minute episode? It'll be all tangential and clunky. even if some person actually wanted to write a show in this way, they'd need human editors to make it make sense. And at that point, if you're already paying humans, there's no point in relying on the ai. Another flaw in this "using ai to write shows approach" is that the ai isn't static? Like, if a new update roles out, the writing of the show can be completely off and that may not be fixable. I don't think anyone in Hollywood would want to put their faith in the competency of a bunch of random programmers.

We should have debated the morality of ai before we made it, if thats what tumblr wants. Its too late now. Can't put the genie back in the bottle.

There's no way that random internet users will have the same impact on the way ai plays out, since its up to the government and big cooperations.

I advise anyone who feels strongly about the subject to lobby to their government (or maybe the ai creators, but the government is your best bet.) instead of trying to peer pressure internet users into a boycott that will not affect shit in any way.

The reason I have so little patience for knee-jerk panic responses to AI, especially ones that are specifically about copyright as if this isn't the "piracy is good actually" website, or worse, "the inherent laziness of using it" as if disabled people don't exist and it's not great assistive tech, is that...if everyone who hated AI because of blatant misinformation/inability to understand just how big a billion is/etc. pivoted to fighting for privacy, for setting legal limitations on datamining and its purposes, for requiring chatbot developers to stop downplaying the risks of their models ("may produce incorrect information" is a massive understatement; ChatGPT and similar should come with a huge banner warning saying something along the lines of "do not use for research, do not use for suggestions in fields where you do not have comprehensive safety knowledge"), for requiring it to be overseen by trained humans in safety applications (thus making us safer in the end because humans and computers are fallible in different ways), and for robust union protections (or, in the absence thereof, strike funds and bail funds for after unions burn the bosses' houses down again), we might be able to get a LOT more done.

But no! No, we can't have that! We can't research enough to hate the problem ACCURATELY, because nuance doesn't stoke enough righteous outrage! REFUSING to even TRY to understand what we hate is morally better! That's always been so much more efficient at stopping the abuse of tech, it's definitely just preventing "give an inch and they'll take a mile" and definitely NOT how we ended up with the internet being legislated by people who don't even know what a fucking firewall is and couldn't figure out how to compile a "Hello, world!" program even when it's preset into an IDE!

It's just fucking exhausting. Tech illiteracy isn't a fucking flex. Rejecting all things New because they have drawbacks, so fuck everyone they're actually life-affirming or even lifesaving for, is not a virtue.

And yes, this shit is life-affirming and lifesaving. Adding AI scans to the process of human review of medical imaging is finding cancers faster. It's helping disabled people express themselves more - do you have any idea how fucking frustrating it is when I'm burned out and reduced to Tarzan-speak, and whoever I'm talking to can't understand the Tarzan-speak, ALSO for disability related reasons? Do you understand how helpful it is to be able to put my choppy disjointed words into a chat that will translate it into full sentences for me?

No, of course you don't, all you "pro-disability, anti-inspiration porn" types immediately revert to "well why don't you just paint with your mouth or your feet or just force yourself THROUGH the pain if it really means THAT much to you?" the moment someone uses Stable Diffusion to get an idea from their real human brain across visually, and discount it as "not their idea, not worth anything" because a robot HELPED them express it.

I'm genuinely sick to death of this shit.

commander mercy shepard



art by @naarisz THANK YOU THANK YOUUU

crime lord au

They’re listening to lights by journey

When he rounds the corner—this is the first time Thane’s seen the commander’s bare shoulders, he thinks idly to himself.

When he rounds the corner—this is the first time Thane’s seen the commander’s bare shoulders, he thinks idly to himself.

It’s the first time he’s seeing the human out of their armor, too.

Soft pants hang low from the sharp cut of their hips, and surprisingly, there are fuzzy socks pulled up over the hem. They’re wearing a something that could barely be called a shirt—with just a breath, the fabric slides to reveal glimpses of dappled golden skin, a dark nipple and a toned stomach

Against the soft orange glow of the omnitool, Shepard gleams like burnished gold.

Belatedly, Thane realizes he’s been staring and shifts his weight just a just little, grateful that humans have trouble looking past the dark sclera of drell.

“Sere Krios,” Shepard greets him, a question curling around their words.

They’re occupied, but willing to put it aside to talk to him, Thane can tell. He’s noticed how available Shepard makes themself for the crew, unusual for someone with such a large ship.

“The AI informed me of the training mats here,” Thane says.

They give him an easy nod, and their eyes darting from his to flicker over the fast-scrolling code.

“What are you working on?” Thane decides to ask.

“Cleaning out one of Donovan Hock’s offshore bank accounts,” they reply as they comfortably tap away at the screen. “Allocating funds… hm.” With the careless sweep, they banish one of the open windows before reestablishing eye contact with Thane, and giving him a mean smile. “Elsewhere.”

Hm. Unexpected.

“Can he not just trace the activity back to you?”

“Krios,” they say on a laugh. It is clear and sweet and smug. Thane finds himself leaning forward at the sound. It’s. Well, it’s enchanting.

“If he manages to notice money missing, let alone find what I’ve done, I’ve left a little message that will dump his files into the nearest precinct’s inbox. Can't do anything without hanging himself.”

Fascinating.

“There is no mention of criminal predilection in your Alliance file,” Thane says.

Their face creases charmingly—dimples, he thinks they’re called. “Legally, I wasn’t allowed to talk about it.”

Everyday Freak of Science: part 4

(I, the author of this work, do not consent to this work being crossposted/translated without my knowledge or used to train an AI, ever.)

Masterlist

I can't sleep. I'm not used to having to lull myself away, after all- back in the lab, sleepless nights were thwarted with drugs, lightly dispensed into my tank until I was away and dreaming. This is different. I thought the lack of machines I'm hooked up to would make it easier to sleep.

Sigh. I should just get up and change- that's what my roommate's done, after all.

Okay, this outfit... looks great! The gold on the lapels of the jacket, the pale blue vest thing, the comfy pants- oh, I might need to take another potion soon.

The door opens quietly.

"Requiem, I've brought your potion and breakfast. If this is not enough, then you are free to get more portions from the dorm lounge- or the Monstro Lounge, if you have the funds."

"Uh, thank you, Jade."

Oh, thank the higher-ups! He has my potion. And, even better- there's algae on my plate! What a relief. I don't want to eat meat- it's never just been on my tongue, always getting forced into me by a scientist.

I don't want to think about that, so I'll just drink the potion and eat the algae. The potion is surprisingly savory, with a tiny hint of sweet, and the algae is terrible, but it's not meat- not that horrible taste and texture that make me gag, that were always forced down my throat because I could never bring myself to eat them.

Trauma. That's the word. I stopped eating one day, and then I was force-fed, and then I never wanted to eat again. It was always meat.

Admittedly, the reason it was always meat was an excellent one. I can't digest plant matter, though I don't know if that's a species thing or a lab creation thing.

Ugh. I should go and eat.

Ooh, this place is nice! The lighting is ambient, it's not too bright, and there's a big table of food. Sea grasses, algae, and the dreaded crustaceans, fish, and seagull all line the table, piled high atop shiny plates.

I'm not taking any meat. In fact, I'm here to return some. Sure, I can't gain from the plants, but I'm not someone who likes eating meat. I should be, but I'm not.

Whatever. The mullet slides onto the plate easily enough, and nobody saw. I don't need to eat much anyway, right? If I just try, I'll be fine, even with an empty stomach.

Even if it's false, I'm still going to dream.

Okay, I should meet with Azul to discuss my phone. That's a good distraction. Where is that office?..

"Hello, Melanopterus. Is there something you need?"

"Phone."

"Ah, but of course! Here you are. I doubt you'll have time to set it up before class, though... You'll probably have to manage that after or during dinner."

"Alright, thank you."

I ought to go to class.

First period is tiring. My lack of sleep makes it ever-worse, as does my empty stomach. I faint, at some point- my rescuer, the boy who carries me to the nurse's office, is very, very loud. Sebek, he calls himself, but I imagine many call him boisterous. His voice booms. Nevertheless, he carries me to safety, unprompted.

Second period is boring. I remain conscious only by doodling in the margins of the notebook Jade so kindly left on my nightstand this morning, with a pencil he so kindly left with it.

Third period is fascinating. Though I fight it the whole way through, I can still feel nausea building up in my abdomen. I harness that, turning it into focus on the given tasks. Learning about the Sea Witch is more than enough to keep me from going to the nurse, though.

And then, lunch. I'm terrified, to be honest- what if Jade realizes I can't eat plants? What if Azul insists I eat lunch with him to set up my phone?

Oh, no. The nausea is stronger now, stronger now that I can smell the food. Meat- lots of it. I want to eat some, and I want it as far away from me as possible- biology versus psychology, and I can't win.

Turtle grass. I'll take some of that. I was never fed that in the lab. It tastes like something inedible, and it technically is, but I don't care-

Oh, no. The nausea is too much, I'm going to vomit, I need a bathroom, where's the bathroom? I can't keep this down. I can't. Is it here?

I burst into a stall, slam the stall door shut behind me, and release my breakfast and lunch into the water. Gross. But, hey, I feel a little better now.

Crap. I'm hungry again. It's more plant matter or meat. I don't want either one, but I'll go for the pants anyway- what's that sound? Heels clacking on linoleum.

"Requiem." Jade's voice is calm, with an underlying current of barely restrained anger. "What are you doing?"

"N-nothing, Jade, I just, um." He's looking down at me like I'm prey and he's predator. "I-I got nauseous during P.E. a-and it got worse when I ate. That's all."

"Look me in the eye, Requiem." He closes his right eye, leaving only the yellow one for me to stare into. "There we go. Shock the Heart."

Something overtakes me. What is this strange sensation? I feel idle- empty, but in a calm sort of way. It's...pretty comfortable, actually. I could get used to this.

"Why did you throw up?"

My voice speaks without me. For a moment, a brief moment, a surge of panic washes through me- I don't want to answer- and then it is calmed into nothing, washed away with the waves that exist only within me.

"I cannot digest what I have eaten."

Jade's gaze looks disapproving. "What did you eat?"

Again, my voice goes on without me, and the momentary wave of panic flows away as quick as it comes. "I had algae for breakfast, and turtle grass for lunch."

"What can you digest?"

"Meat."

He takes my face in his hands, pulling me into a standing position. "Why didn't you eat the mullet I brought you?"

"I don't want to eat meat."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to."

The spell dissapates. I remain, still and staring into his eye, for another second. Then, he moves.

"Come with me."

His hand is clamped around my wrist, and I have no choice but to do as he says.

As shitty as AI models using stolen art for training data with the goal of tricking TikTok kids into giving them their faces is, I feel like there's a whole other side to the anti AI argument that's really poorly thought out, specifically the idea that it'll render human artists obsolete.

The crux of the issue there is that many people rely on making art to make a living, and AI art threatens this way of life by replacing the artists with algorithms. The former is absolutely true, but the latter in my opinion is just fearmongering. A number of jobs have been attempted to be automated before, like factory workers, fast food cooks, and developers more recently. However, all of these efforts have suffered from at least 1 of 2 problems:

1. The method of automation is expensive to the point where even hiring employees at actually reasonable rates is more cost effective, or 2. The method is either obviously a pale imitation of what an actual person can do, or requires manual intervention to get something usable, sometimes both.

These AI image generation models severely suffer from the 2nd issue, the best case scenario often being something that only looks fine to the uninitiated (compared to the genuinely amazing pieces human artists can make) and the worst case being a slightly unexpected input (like poc or a ferret, apparently) causing the model to spit out eldritch horrors.

While these issues could possibly be resolved, that would mean the kind of people who even want AI art in the first place actually making an effort to improve the tech, and it's pretty clear to me that all the current models are just funded by lazy capitalists looking for a quick buck. They're not gonna pay anyone to make art of poc or various pets when that does nothing to serve the goal behind making these models in the first place.

To summarize, the chances of someone quickly generating AI art instead of paying for commissions is pretty low, as I believe the average commissioners are people who care too much about art to leave the job to some machine that would never be capable of creating anything with anywhere near the same level of quality.

oh my GOD when I was watching bullet train I thought wow this guy REALLY looks like bad bunny. well I looked up the cast (to find out who played the strong brit with the mustache because he was sexy) and it IS bad bunny. god I'm smart. he slayed also if you must know. he did slay.

the brit is played by british actor aaron taylor-johnson and his name makes me think of anya taylor joy. sorry. same initials and one of their names is the same. he's of english-russian jewish descent Wow the slay. um he's hot and he gets perpetually more dishevelled throughout the movie and his hair goes from a fancy slicked-back hairstyle to being messy and CURLYYY it was so cute!!! his shirt and vest also get like unbuttoned and messed up and. hot men are real guys. 🙏 also I looked through a few of his imdb photos from other movies and um mustaches look really good on him. he should stick with that. (BLUSH) I did not write all that!!! (embarrassed)

look I'm gonna get all my thoughts about the movie out in one post:

speaking of bad bunny's character, he was so cool!! he deserved better!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he got a criminally short amount of screen time.

wardrobe department did a bang-up job. with the wolf especially but everyone was dressed really cool

uh, brad pitt looked like cody ko. his name in the movie was not brad pitt but I'm going to continue calling him brad pitt because, come on. also brad pitt at the end of the movie telling the prince something along the lines of "you should try this one book called 'surviving borderline personality disorder' it's a great book it's really helped me" was funny. I thought haha I do that (have that)

loved this film's men-with-piercings agenda, wholeheartedly support it

ALSO CHANNING TATUM PLAYS LIKE, A JOKE GAY CHARACTER??? THIS WAS SO BAFFLING TO WITNESS. okay so, brad pitt's character comes up to him at one point and asks "you wanna make a quick 300 bucks?" and channing tatum is like "is this like, a sexual thing, or...?" and that was FUNNY and also reasonable because like! that is one of the few things you'd assume if a stranger on public transport said that to you!! it is! but then someone else comes along and says something to him, can't remember what, and he also goes "is this a sexual thing, or...?" and that was LESS funny because of the repetition and because of the situation being more outlandish (forgive me I don't remember what it was exactly). and then the aforementioned handsome brit walks past him and says something and channing tatum goes "I do so LOVE an accent." and at one point he says of a male character (can't remember who) "he has SUCH a nice walk" WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT????? SO WEIRD. personally I think the movie had enough (maybe more than enough) comedic relief moments without it requiring a fucking gay joke character, in 2022!!! but what do I know.

this is going to be SO mean and I'm sorry but every time I saw her I thought this: the actress who plays "the prince" looks like, and ESPECIALLY in this movie, looks like if you asked an AI to render "off-brand barbie ferreira." I know it's fucked up. I'm sorry. but that's just what she looks like. in this movie at least.

um I teared up multiple times, the reveal that tangerine and lemon are actually brothers freakin' got to me, man. the whole time it felt like hahahahah it's just a joke/business alias and it's funny because haha they don't LOOK like they're related but then. ah. it was emotional I liked it. sob sob sob

good movie. I'd recommend it if you want to get outta the house and have some fun in your miserable life and also fund one of the few movies out there right now that ISN'T a marvel movie or a children's animation.

if you read this whole thing and are wondering "why do all the characters in this movie have weird names?" that worry is, heh, warranted, but it's because they're secret agents on a mission and these are all their codenames. brad pitt's character's codename is ladybug.

@embarrassedauthornerd @lialacleaf @morganas-pendragons @owlofthenight117 once again tagging y'all for my boy, sorry this is late, but thank you for encouraging and inspiring me to share more of my own writing.

Sir

(Part 1: Deviate)

Cameron-409 was ten years old and just starting in the process of discovering himself when he first thought to ask Dr. Halsey why his number was so much higher than the other children's.

"The original number of candidates chosen for the program was 300, carefully selected for the best possible genetic compatability for the program." she replied, not looking up from whatever project she was working on. "Then, 150 candidates, including you, with the next best results were chosen as backups in case any of the original children became unviable for any reason. When the program funding got cut to only 75 candidates, the 150 extra were kept documented as a formality; we had plenty better candidates in the case of an opening in the program. But, it became useful when the extraction of one of the original chosen 75 failed, and you were the only subject close enough to be considered a viable option."

"Oh. I see." he replied, doing his best to keep his disappointment out of his voice, before he was dismissed with an absent wave of Halsey's hand.

That was the day Cameron learned that he'd never be Dr. Halsey's first choice. No matter how hard he tried, worked, excelled, he was deemed subpar before he had even begun.

Which is why he was shocked 3 decades later when he was informed that he was chosen as the control subject for Chief and Cortana. The higher-ups wanted to see if Cortana was indeed a significant improvement over the standard AI when paired with a Spartan; so another was commissioned, and a candidate relatively comparable to John-117 was chosen.

The excitement of finally, finally being seen as more than "the backup" was almost enough to overshadow the dread of That Word. Cam hated any amount of ceremony for that reason: normally he could tune it out, whether because he could pretend it was said to someone else, or because they were in combat and his focus was on other priorities. But here, there was no mistaking who it was directed at and no other pressing issues to distract him.

"Ma'am." the officer addressed him, a smile on her face as she saluted.

He could tell by the excited look in her eye that she felt that word was such an honor. Spartan or no, a "woman" had been chosen as comparable to The Master Chief.

Cameron felt guilty.

"Ma'am, this is Echo. The two of you will be running the gauntlet after Chief and Cortana to give us a baseline for comparison." another officer said, holding a tray out to him with an AI chip on it. Cam carefully picked it up and stared at the small glowing rectangle for a moment, before plugging it into his helmet.

"Hello ma'am." a New Zealand accent greeted him, and this time it took all of his training and composure not to flinch. It definitely hit different coming from inside his head.

"The two of you have some time to get to know each other while the other two finish up, we'll let you know when it's ready for you."

Cameron nodded in acknowledgment before stepping into an empty adjacent meeting room and switching off his mic. After a moment, Echo spoke up again.

"Ma'am-"

"Cameron." the Spartan interjected immediately, "Or just Cam. Please."

After a moment, Echo replied, "Of course, Cameron." another pause, "Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Fine." the AI echoed as Cam took a seat, clearly not convinced, "Right. And you flinch every time you're called "Ma'am" because...?"

Cameron sighed, armor clanking as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, then was silent a long moment.

"How much are you required to report back to the research team?" he finally asked.

"Nothing; all data collection will be gathered from external observation, then compared for analysis."

Cam relaxed a little at that, "Can you keep this between us, then?"

When Echo answered to the affirmative, Cameron continued hesitantly.

"I'm... different than the other Spartans. Or at least that I know of. Being called "Ma'am" and "she" *hurts* in a way I can't explain, but the thought of being seen as a man... I want that more than I probably should. I don't know what's wrong with me-"

"Transgender is the word you're looking for, and around 10% of the human population identifies as trans." Echo interrupted before the Spartan could spiral into further negative thoughts, "That includes both female-to-male, and male-to-female transitioners. Gender affirming Healthcare includes hormone replacement therapy for both estrogen and testosterone, breast reduction or implants, and genital reconstruction surgery has been making progress." his voice softened as he continued, "There's nothing wrong with you, Cameron. You're not broken or defective, and you're not alone. Trans people have likely been around for as long as humans have been able to question the nature of our existence, and the community they helped build still celebrates how far they've come at least once a year on nearly every single human colony. With millions of people across the galaxy being trans, statistically, it was nearly certain that at least one Spartan was too. Guess you're just the lucky one!"

Cameron sat silent for long enough that Echo hadn't expected him to respond at all when he finally spoke up and asked, uncharacteristically timid, "Could I... ask you to call me sir when we're alone?"

Cam could hear the smile in the AI's voice as he responded,

"Yes, Sir."

Brave Work Robust Conversations Complete Hearts: Brené Brown On Dare To Lead

A great tool to make use of when Rumbling with Vulnerablity is curiosity. “When I find myself in a tough state of affairs or I’m about to obtain some hard feedback, as an alternative of getting my armor up, I keep open and ask questions, so I can get particular info,” Brown explains. In the guide she identifies 16 alternative ways we armor ourselves and presents ways to move that armor out of the means in which to become a daring, brave chief. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG Leadership isn't about titles, standing, and wielding energy. A chief is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. Your program might be facilitated by a local Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator (CDTLF), certainly one of a limited group of facilitators skilled directly by Brené Brown. Whether you have learn Daring Greatly and Rising Strong or you're new to Brené Brown's work, this guide is for anybody who desires to step up and into brave leadership. Working on my leadership abilities with Tara gave me insight to my strengths in addition to allowing me the chance to gauge situations from an objective perspective. Our coaching periods were all the time very properly organized and provided consistency on areas that we both agreed had been necessary." As a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator, Tara focuses on developing these courage-building skills via workshops, trainings and training to help individuals, groups and organizations transfer from armored management to daring management. But daring leadership in a tradition defined by scarcity, worry, and uncertainty requires skill-building around traits that are deeply and uniquely human. The irony is that we're selecting not to put money into developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the very same time as we're scrambling to determine what we have to supply that machines and AI cannot do higher and quicker. The talent sets that make up braveness aren't new; they’ve been aspirational leadership expertise for as long as there have been leaders. brene brown dare to lead workshop We must decide which voices deserve house in our hearts and heads. You have a one inch square in which to put initials of anybody whose opinion you really value. If someone isn’t in your Square Squad, their opinion doesn't matter. You will emerge from this system with new awareness, expertise, and a toolkit to lead your self, your group, and your group via inevitable change and turbulence, and towards the long run and results you can be happy with. The fourth ability is Learning to Rise and deals with the flexibility to re-set after an error or mistake. The ability to be resilient helps leaders be taught from mistakes shortly, share those learnings, and continue to maneuver ahead in a positive method. “Courage is a ability set we will educate, measure, and observe, but we're selecting to not as a outcome of it's an funding of power and time and it takes muscle constructing. If we'd like braver leaders, however we’re not investing in skilling them up, what is getting within the way? We need to remain curious about the other person’s story. If we don’t ask, we don’t know what goes on, or what could be driving their behaviour. She additionally teaches that we ought to assume the opposite individual is doing the most effective they can, as this adjustments our intention, and how we approach them. She tells the story of asking her husband, Steve, whether or not he thought individuals were doing the best they might, and in the end, he replied with, “I do not know, however what I do know is my life is better after I assume they are.” (check out this nice video where she talks more about this). Courage has been an aspirational management talent for as lengthy as there have been leaders. Dare to Lead™ is an empirically based mostly courage-building program, based mostly on the analysis of Dr. Brené Brown. I love this quote and it reminds me of Kim Scott’s Radical Candor paradigm. We ought to be sincere (we can do that with kindness though). We usually tend to say “maybe” after we wish to spare the other person’s emotions. Yet we haven’t made nice progress in developing these expertise in leaders, as a end result of we don’t dig into the humanity of this work — it’s too messy. It’s a lot simpler to talk about what we wish and wish than it is to talk concerning the fears, feelings and scarcity (the belief that there’s not enough) that get in the way of achieving all of it. Basically, and perhaps ironically, we don’t have the courage for actual talk about courage. And if you need to name these ‘soft skills’ after you’ve tried placing them into follow — go for it. Until then, find a home on your armour, and I’ll see you in the area. Brené has carried out tons of research about what makes individuals great leaders, and he or she believes that courage is the necessary thing component. Getting down and dirty; challenging your ideas; having tough conversations are all going to really feel sucky sooner or later (and probably at many points). We can’t run from the hard elements – they will lead us to the rewards. When we settle for that there shall be hard parts we do not take pleasure in, we are in a position to be taught to recognize them and dig in, somewhat than run away. Growth just isn't without pain and challenge; it's working through those which give us the greatest rewards. The Ken Blanchard Companies is the global chief in management training. For almost forty years, Blanchard has been creating the most effective managers on the planet, coaching over 150,000 people annually. Brown describes the 4 abilities wanted to become a brave chief. The first and most essential ability is Rumbling with Vulnerability. Brown had assumed that the biggest barrier to brave management would be fear, but her research indicated that worry just isn't a barrier. In truth, leaders she interviewed admitted to being fearful much of the time.

Creative Writing: AI Test Prompt Answers

My original written answers to prompt test questions.

(writing samples, creative writing, generative AI training, training AI)

Write a 500 word story about Emily a person who is of transition age in a futuristic society that uploads their consciousness into a virtual reality once of certain age. She works with Dr. Harper a renowed pyscharist for working with people on anxiety about the change.

My name is Emily and this is the last journal entry I guess I'll truly be writing. I'm not sure if I'll really be able to buy journals and write in them the way I have been doing. I am one of fifty in what is called Group Test One. We'll be the first entering the new world and leaving our current bodies behind. Dr. Harper, the world famous psychologist that was hired for this project has been working with us individually and as a group for months about the transition process. He says that feeling anxiety and fear is completely normal. He also says that excitement is normal too. However, I have been afraid to ask him, what about peace? What about being ecstatic? All of us patients, I call refer to us as test subjects, got here somehow, although we're not supposed to tell each other for risk of expulsion from the project. This only eggs on my suspicion that some people must have a paid a good amount to go in first. Why would you want to be the first in testing a virtual reality? I'm not sure, they don't seem to be as worried about risks as a few other test subjects. Although, if you didn't pay to be here, why are you here, in the first round of testing for that matter. I was an ideal candidate and within the transition age bracket where a successful consciousness upload would be more possible. Not to mention I was tired of my nine to five. I was tired of fake friends and going on bad dates. To be honest this opportunity seemed to be quite magical when Dr. Harper pitched the idea to me as I poured his coffee at the restaurant. I am so happy, so relieved, at what seems to be a second chance at life. I can be someone new, someone better, in our new reality. Even though I am somewhat nervous, I am looking forward to a fresh start. I've been thinking a lot about myself, Emily the waitress, and who I want to be in the new world. I want to be somebody important, someone that helps people in the new world. That's the other reason I'm glad to be part of Group Test One. I'm not sure how I'll become this superhero I'm dreaming of, but I know I'll find a way to whatever it is I'm looking for there. There is no limit to my possibilities in the new world. With that Emily closed her writing journal and put into her backpack. She looked around at the other faces in the van, some looked out the window, some smiled back at her. Group Test One arrived at the transition facility on the other side of the campus. The vans parked and personal opened the doors to the vans. The sunlight that shone inwards warming Emily's and the rest of Group Test One's faces mimicked the future waiting ahead of them.

Craft a logical, reasoned argument for why research into space exploration is not a good use of money.

Space exploration can have negative economical impacts like high dollar amounts funded by tac payer's money and competitive money-grabbing companies that arise. When it comes to scientific projects there is a lot of trial and error which costs money. This is often funded by tax payer's money and raising tax amounts can have different economical affects on different regions and communities. For example, if you raise taxes on certain foods or items, therefore changing the cost of living in an area without adjusting how much the minimum wage for working is in said area, that could be a negative economical impact. This would a negative change from funneling tax payer's money into space exploration. Likewise, companies arise that lobby for these projects and causes and they compete for banks and other companies to invest in them and their interests. However, not every one of these lobbying organization is honest or working for the benefits that come out of space exploration. These competitive money hungry companies could potentially redirect peoples money into a way they may disagree with, not be prepared, or unknowing of. This can have negative economical impacts compared to the money going somewhere it is really needed. Together, these factors combined make for a very bad economical impact on society from space exploration.

I have an idea for a trash collection machine and these guys use the machine arm and the arm can articulate a little more to pick up trash that fell over but people don't like doing the job it's very dangerous and it's a horrific nightmare for people some places it's really an experiment to show that it can be done you can use shielding too you don't have to use gold silver works pretty good and copper works good it's not very light but the metal actually works recycled metal is light and you can make it thick and with copper wires in between that are fused or attached and it's kind of armored and you can't really see it and that's one thing for the metal to take off with but the trash would be it would start out a brand new vehicle so you know what it is and you'd have people on board to monitor it and it would have to be trained but the people will be just monitoring they have controls in cases picks up the trash can and it comes early in the morning and it has a pincer the same arm it has a pincer and in the same arm it has the regular arm and it has articulation ability like robotics in a factory and the whole point is that when you're in New York City not San Francisco I think San Francisco is too hilly but I could be wrong New York City has hills but they're steady and gradual and you can charge the vehicle all the way down and just apply resistance and the weight of the vehicle will create a large charge and you'd have to charge several batteries the whole Bank because you have to distribute the charge because it's increased in other words you're taking probably by the name about 50 amps and distributed between 20 or 30 batteries some say more but these have to be larger and it can be alkaline it can do it a mix too because it's a test and it goes downwards and my point is that you can charge the batteries and not use any fuel in any electricity if we completely self-contained by going up and down hills and it's my design and if it goes forwards people want to attach it to me because it's usually considered to be something you can weaponize when it's fully ai. And you have to see bja the CIA guy for the rest of it

The other idea for me to get some funding is they have enough money to race people on a dirt bike believe it or not it came to me today and nobody told me anything about it

Zues

Lots of times you guys don't say anything at all and it's an idea that actually works for you and it is an idea that works for you meaning that it's an idea you like and you think it'll work for you and we say it'll work for you meaning it might not do anything but you like it so a lot of people are trying to pursue it and to get him that funding so he can race others want him just to buy an Enduro and it's a waste of time because those things are too slow and he's fat it wouldn't do anything someone to get injured but they're not the ones who got injured but it's a good idea and the second idea with the trash collection in New York City is intense people want to do it they tried doing it before and it didn't work because you have to charge the thing for a million hours quickly with fast charge battery cells and charge different ones when you going down the hill then charge the other ones when you're going down a different Hill and switch off and do the whole day's work now alkaline works better but he said he'll probably have to have a mix and we can test which one works better and usually the lithium charges faster and holds more charge so you get the idea but it's really to prove what Dave did and I'm saying it here he said maybe not and I'm going to put it here anyways

Hera

She's putting it there it's because you guys really don't remember anything that's why also these two ideas are good and he raised Preston and that's why and he said if he gets in a race he's going to get gear somehow you guys would have it for him or he'd have money and he wants the second one to happen so it's not stupid and he would say he's going to put a name across the rear end like you guys do smoking butt because that's how he beat Preston they stuck his ass up in the air like Ellie does and that's the story now we have responses to that because he said it out loud and people are saying this he's very arrogant and you say stupid things about him and we're going to race course and be going by us and we'd see it and we would start saying dumb things and he beat us in the race now we can't let him get away with that but if he doesn't race and stuff we can't show him that is stupid. So if you add in the smoking butt name on his dirt bike pants and their special pants are pretty thick and they have pads or pads go underneath some go over but they look funny and it looks like gear you'll see it they put them on all of them and some of them have funny names they really freaked out this freak them out he said I'll beat you in any race on my bike and he wants to race on his bike and Hera wants to race and not tell him and he says what is your tag going to be ass ass so I'm laughing because the name of her bike is gas gas and she says you can't remember your name on your bike and he says ATK and she says why not put that on your ass says everybody knows what's happening anyways so I'm getting that smoking butt and I'm trying to see something else you're saying to drop the g but just for a fact and it's not a great idea but okay and it's on and I'm not going to say ass ass everybody will know it's me or everyone treat me bad and really bad all right smoking butt. Like four sentences and she says he can go fast with his ass up in the air and they'll be real surprised it's just like the Bradley GT.

So there's some fans driving by but he doesn't have any money for going on dirt bike riding or training or buying a dirt bike or getting near one...

That was Hera again these people are chickenshit so we're going to have to assume that you've lost the races cuz you won't race

Thor Freya

Olympus

AI is coming for your PC games, but you should be excited, not worried

Over the past week, the tech community has experienced a saturation of AI-related developments, ranging from ChatGPT to Google Bard. This surge is not unwarranted. While trends like NFTs and web3 may be transient, the presence of AI is enduring, extending even into your PC gaming experiences.However, it's not a constant state of negativity. AI and machine learning have already demonstrated their immense utility in the realm of PC gaming, carrying significant implications for the creation and enjoyment of games. I'm not forcing unrelated ideas together; by staying with me, you'll soon grasp the reasons behind this. Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) stands as the cornerstone of AI integration in PC gaming at present. By training an AI model to reconstruct in-game frames and subsequently rendering the game at a lower resolution, you can benefit from enhanced performance without compromising visual quality. DLSS has reached an impressive level of proficiency. Despite competing algorithms like AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), Nvidia has demonstrated the distinct advantage of AI. This fact is underscored by DLSS 3, which generates supplementary frames through AI alone. AMD likely shares this viewpoint, as evidenced by the inclusion of an untapped AI accelerator in its latest RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT. Beyond mere upscaling, AI has also made its presence felt in Nvidia's RTX Remix modding platform. This platform offers an array of AI tools designed to enhance textures, introduce additional lighting to scenes, and more. Portal RTX serves as a compelling illustration of how these AI tools can breathe new life into an aging game. Nvidia isn't the sole player in this arena either. A recent modification for the classic game Morrowind introduced AI-generated voice lines. Given the extensive amount of dialogue in Morrowind, achieving this would require either years of effort from modders to hire voice actors (a doubtful prospect) or an exorbitant amount of funding from Bethesda (an even more improbable scenario). These examples only scratch the surface of how AI is currently enriching gaming experiences. However, it's crucial to also acknowledge the fundamental role of AI within games themselves. Tools like Unreal Engine 5's MassEntity hold the promise of effortlessly generating large quantities of AI-driven characters with minimal inputs. This exemplifies one of the most thrilling aspects of AI in PC gaming—the acceleration of game development processes. In 2020, Nvidia accomplished the remarkable feat of training an AI model to replicate Pac-Man. Through exposure to 50,000 gameplay episodes, two neural networks collaborated to recreate a playable rendition of Pac-Man without relying on an underlying game engine. Devoid of predefined rules or parameters, the AI simply absorbed extensive gameplay and deduced how to replicate it. This accomplishment serves as a testament to the significant strides AI has made in expediting game development. Yet, there's no need for concern that AI will entirely take over PC game creation. As Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick highlighted in a recent earnings call, " not going to allow someone to say, 'Please develop a competitor to Grand Theft Auto that surpasses Grand Theft Auto'... people might attempt it, but it's unlikely to succeed." While such an outcome might remain improbable, Zelnick was explicit about AI's substantial role in game development. One burgeoning application in recent years is AI-driven Quality Assurance (QA) testing. Players typically invest thousands of hours in revealing only a fraction of bugs in PC games, yet AI can execute thousands of tests on a game within seconds. Furthermore, AI holds the potential to craft more intricate and diverse games, especially those with branching narratives. AI Dungeon 2, introduced in 2019, exemplifies this by generating text-based adventures with limitless storylines. Additionally, there's the continuous discourse around procedural generation seen in games like No Man's Sky, where algorithms spawn billions of planets. While games such as No Man's Sky forge novel worlds, their origins are rooted in human design. Generative AI, on the other hand, opens doors to entirely fresh encounters devoid of rigid constraints, necessitating only adequate training. A recent example is my interaction with the Shadows of Doubt demo—a neo-noir thriller that procedurally constructs an entire world. This experience was made possible through the Steam Next Fest. The game offers a wholly distinctive journey each time it's played, featuring varying clues, NPCs, and settings. The infusion of AI into this context is undeniably exhilarating, as it delivers unparalleled experiences to each player engaging with the game . Read the full article

My controversial AI opinion is

that I wasn't against it (and was always interested in machine learning getting better) just as long as its not being used for personal gain / to capitalize off it

Fandom project making a game from 2002 fully voice acted? That's cool! The project was obviously never going to be done officially and it helps more people get into it or just generally breath more life into someone's beloved franchise.

Generate random anime chicks? It'd be nice if it was trained on art that consented but honestly if no money is being made I kinda.... don't personally care. Ppl using free generators aren't gonna pay anyways, and I am a firm believer in one of the internets beauties being the way things are passed around. Also most of these are bust shots only, all kinds of artists like to do challenges where they draw the rest of the outfit

Make a chatbot DM so someone can play dungeons and dragons without a DM? That's dope, and helps people who want to try out character ideas, or people (if you're like me and everyone you know hates being the DM) play the game they otherwise wouldn't.

A chatbot that helps write fantasy stories? I've used these before for writing practice, it's really handy to have something to help when I'm really just at a brick wall.

A meme being dubbed? These are funny as all hell! I want to hear Emminem read text posts and spy from tf2 read memes with his face on it.

This is because mostly these things all help someone, a real person be creative who is still putting creative work and thought in.

I start having issues when things cost money. It can be argued in every one of the ones I've listed prior that "they wouldn't have paid a real person anyways" but the issue now, is people are willing to pay people who own machines, just so they don't have to pay artists.

Because the second you use other people's art for MONEY. You stole it IMO. The moment you train a machine off someone's art and sell that machine's time, you stole.

Running off donations is one thing, requiring funding, running off in app currency 'points', etc, that's stealing.

Am I frustrated with the amount of people who get more attention than actual artists for using machine learning, tagging their posts as things theyre not? Yes, to no end.

Does some people being scummy make it so I think nobody should do anything with machine learning ever? No, I don't think that.

IMO, I've always preferred machine learning to be... bad. I prefer messed up hands and blemish spots and bad checkerboards. I think "ai" is useful for inspiration but should never replace real work.

The fact is, people will be gross money hungry little shitbags. But that doesn't mean if I offered a machine a portfolio of my art and asked it to make something that makes sense, I'd be in the wrong.

I'm tired of the idea that inanimate machines are the one to blame. We need to blame thieves for thieving. Sweet and simple. A computer didn't steal your art. A person did, and he makes money giving server space to people.