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meejijis · 2 months

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I'm going to say it right now but I really heavily doubt once SK flowers is done airing it's final episode next week, we aren't going to get a new anime announcement regarding the other spinoffs and TSS. As much as I love to see the spinoffs getting animated as well as wishing to see my biggest huge OTP's happy moments and such with their older versions in animated form, it all comes down to how well a anime series REALLY does in Japan including money as well. And honestly, I am not 100% certain how popular SK flowers is in Japan but I have this very feeling it's... Not that popular at all on a wide scale.

Sure they have good well pacing in the anime this time, the animation is good and feels somewhat improved since they have the good amount of budget for it, and the way the staff/director handled it overall is pretty enjoyable to watch (and loved that they expanded/throw in stuff that weren't in the manga to make it even more better) While the anime itself does has it's ups, there's also the downs and that is again, being how well received it is in Japan. I have my doubts that we are never going to get the other spinoffs animated and SK in general will never get any other anime adaptions ever again because of these following factors:

According to both websites,animestore.docomo.ne and nico nico douga is where jpn fans would vote which animes are more favored in the specific season and year, in both of these lists, SK flowers is nowhere near ranked on the top numbers as they are either listed in the 27th place, 36th place or in 45th place.

(Keep in mind that these screenshots are took on 3/26th/2024)

SK flowers does not have a lot of merch being made while it aired. On the other hand, a lot of merch was being made and produced during the time SK reboot aired.

Low engagement of numbers from fans and viewers. When the announcement and anime came out, there wasn't a big wave of fanarts coming out. There aren't as many big huge numbers of engagement either from the official anime twitter where whenever they tweeted out news regarding flowers anime, the numbers on the RTS and likes aren't that insanely high as the numbers were in sometimes 50 to about 100+ but not of thousands and thousands of numbers in the engagement (The same is also applied to the SK hashtag too, new flowers episode would drop and only few hundreds of numbers of fans commented/reacted but not on a higher scale of thousands or more)

Those are all of the things I've noticed and it's why I hold strong doubts we will never get RC, marcos or TSS adapted or any other SK stories getting another anime adaption ever again. That is, unless if the bluerays / DVDS, the upcoming drama CD's as well as other new potential merch (that might be made after the anime is done airing) gets sold well or heck if they even all get sold out then we might have a potential future for SK sequels to live on in the anime department. But for now, we'll just have to see where the future goes.

I bet my money next week when the final SK flowers episode airs, we are likely going to get a new announcement of SK TSS returning with a new manga but under a new title lol

#my text #text #skf #meej woes about anime and mangas #doubt it will ever happen but haha what if next week when flowers end the next new announcement is a new spinoff but it focuses #on the blank period era but it's JEANNE AND renmeis backstory is in this. ok im joking imfao as if takei cares that much about jeanne #i dont believe in the rumors that says jeanne is his fav character when that man literally torn a family apart and made them suffer #AND killed her off.#I can only dream lol. .........unless?

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asklittlepip · 1 year

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It’s been a crazy week huh? I’ve got lots to say, so let’s go!

First off, AI “art” is an abomination, and the only reason to not abandon the idea entirely is because the singular way it can be useful is as a tool an actual artist employs to make some minor corrections, like noise cancellation. That’s it. But simply writing better algorithms for those might be all that’s needed..

Using it to generate imagery (and by that I mean, it’s stealing things it copied from prior inputs) is lazy, stupid and devoid of any kind of soul or meaning. Every single other potential use is harmful. Unless it’s going to be used as this sort of tool, it should be burned in the bin with those and we can all move on. Not all tech is worthwhile; need I remind you of self-destructive DVDs?

In my world, one of my old routers died after six years of heavy service, so I got this beast, the GT-AX11000, and the performance improvements are so tremendous I’ve made it my home’s primary connection point.* Not only am I getting the full download speeds I’ve been paying for instead of slightly lower, sometimes it’s even a few megabits higher on wired connections (like to my PC), and the triple-band setup helps devices throughout the house stay connected seamlessly. Very happy with it, and before you ask, yes I use the Merlin firmware suite as well. Being able to switch back to the standard UI instead of that stupid “gamer” one it defaults to would be reason enough!

* = The router & cable modem are on the 2nd floor in a corner, so I have another access point and a repeater boosting signals downstairs due to it’s location not being optimal. We have cameras outside that also require a connection, so the WiFi radius needs to extend beyond the house on top of that. Physically moving it makes interference worse as there’s an insane amount of traffic for a suburban area, and also results in wires going all over my room, so it stays put.

Slaver, son of slavers continues to fuck the birdsite. Here’s his plane status, btw. I’d care about his privacy if he gave a damn about ours. And don’t tell me the richest man in the world can’t afford anything; he could literally solve all sorts of global issues single-handedly, but won’t. None of them ever will. Fuck ‘em.

Grifter uses NFTs to launder money. Film at 11. The less I have to talk about that loser, the better...

And then, you know, I’m enjoying the new Warcraft expansion, happy with the new patch’s raid boss (!) in Fallout 76 and it’s associated Nuka-Cola themed content with most of it actually new (!!) instead of copied from 4, and all that.

Oh, and lastly... the king’s back! Now can we just get rid of Bobby, please?!

#politics #ai art #twitter #fuck elon #fuck trump #activision #world of warcraft #warcraft #activision-blizzard #blizzard #fallout #fallout 76

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poppiesandpromises · 2 years

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My favorite game is playing two truths and a lie with people who don't know I'm playing it with them. I've lived a wild life, especially when I was a teenager and early twenties, so it gets fun. I'll let you in on the fact I'm playing this one time because it sounds like you've had a rough week.

1: I lead twelve drunken and stoned 19 year olds from a houseparty on a four mile walk. We went to a closed hotdog shop that my friend had a key to at midnight. We had backpacks full of liquor, taking shots and dodging police the whole way. Once we got there we watched Cars on DVD, and invented insane hotdog combinations, including a double hotdog burrito, then walked back still drunk at seven am.

2: I was trying to get into an underground punk concert one time but I didn't have any money for the cover charge, and they weren't letting anyone under the age of 18, I was 17, in the building. After some deliberation with the bouncer I managed to convince him to let me in by gifting him a small pipe bomb (very small) and six tabs of LSD. He wasn't convinced that the bomb was actually real, so I took the other one I had and used it to blow up a mailbox a few streets down. He let me in after that, and after making sure I didn't have any other weapons or explosives.

3: I used to break into abandoned houses with my band and play neighborhood block parties charging a $10 cover. We would invite other local bands to join in the fun and advertise the parties on craigslist. We would use vehicle jump boxes as power sources for our equipment and would play until the cops showed up, usually about two or three in the morning. When they arrived we had a team of friends who would each grab a piece of equipment while the cops were busy dealing with the crowd and throw them into the vehicles out back and speed off. Never got caught.

Which one is the lie?

Oh my gosh this is fun! I'm guessing #2 only because I know that if I ever attempted to use a pipe bomb I would lose a limb. Whichever one it is, I am so impressed at the amount of intricate detail you put into it. Also, now I know to be wary if you ever share stories in sets of 3!

Thanks for this! 🖤

#Asks #Lets-dance-to-joy-divison

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penname-artist · 1 year

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Life Updates (Jan. 2023)

(Dated as such because I presume I’ll do more month-to-month updates, assuming I’ve anything update-worthy. Highlighted the section’s themes cuz I bounce a lot and there was a lot to cover for this month)

My commissions have been doing well as of late. I wouldn’t say they’re “booming” per se, but I have two done and two right behind them. Getting onto a real schedule has its ups and downs, though. For one thing, remembering to block my time for work (espeeeeecially for logging commission times) has been challenging. Nevertheless, I’ve done the thing, and I’m being good and making myself not work on the weekends and only putting in my work toward the week days.

That said, this Monday (the 16th) will probably be busy. Next to those two commissions, I have a pair of videos (which aren’t even mine, they’re my father’s) to edit for posting to help him advertise somethin-or-other. I really need to work on my own videos for my channel and get my setup back (the camera holder thingy I use when doing speed art has been moved since I replaced my floor last year and I still haven’t put it back) BUT, because Monday already has three to four projects in it, I’m not gonna push it. I know what I’m like, I want to do everything at once and then I don’t do any of it.

Which ALSO reminds me of the Dusty Collaboration project that I intended to do in August last year and never finished. My plan on that, going forward (and I’ll go back and poke the members of this project and re-ensure everyone is still on board with this) is to do it this August instead for the Planes 10-year anniversary. Because, you know, it’s TEN YEARS. That’s fucking INSANE.

Now mental health wise...well it’s kind of a mixed bag. I definitely feel a lot better and more alive right now than I had working 36 hours a week and wasting away in a chair. I have all of my side hobbies in the same place and I can add to them and work on them in my own time (and literally, I have a lot of fucking hobbies. In this room alone I have two dozen someodd video games, board games, card games, stacks of books I’m addictively reading, piles of crochet projects and yarn, a desk full of art materials, another desk full of writing materials, and now I’m putting in a TV and DVD/CD player for television and music). It’s also given me enough motivation/inspiration to do the things I’ve been actually wanting and needing to do - like make money - more effectively. So on that front, all is well and good.

But, the rat situation from a few months ago is still going on. And I literally have no fucking idea what it is or why it is and what we can do to stop it. I literally don’t even know if it’s a rat anymore. I never hear any active chewing or scratching, all that I hear is the movement of an animal from one end of the bedroom all the way around to the other, and the occasional bump of something in the wall as it hits it. A pair of times I’ve heard some weird squeaking like it’s a baby animal of some sort, but only a teeny tiny amount of times. And the other day I discovered a cat outside my window, so NOW I’m thinking he’s sneaking into the house walls to hunt and just fucking with me. Or it’s something else, I literally have no idea. Either way, I have slept with the wax melter light on EVERY night for the last month or so.

Lastly, on the side of financial state, we’re still going by the skin of our teeth at the moment, but I suppose it’s working. Dad’s jumping between fixing cars (which he knows) and trying to do real estate (which he does not know as much - also making money from that takes significantly more time and less consistency) and I’m only just now starting to scratch into my savings for things.

My biggest focus aside from my commissions and things will probably be getting my license and then finding a second job somewhere, hopefully art-related (please), between now and May. That is, assuming that I’m still not quite making enough to be comfortable. I’m teetering on the edge of qualifying for making money through Youtube, and commissions are making a fair bit of pocket change right now, but even that plus my work income right now is about half of the rent money for the month. I did say I’d give myself until April to do this, because I can make it that far on savings alone, comfortably and without much fear. BUT, nothing and no one can break until then because I ain’t got no insurance for shit anymore. *punches body* Stop being stupid!

(oh yeah physical health wise I still get occasional noodle days where my body is just, non-functional and I’m just kinda made of limp noodles. Not often, but, it does happen. I dunno man, maybe it’s just a normal thing, who knows.)

That’s all I can think of for the time being, y’all. I’m gonna work on this immediate stuff first and then hopefully I’ll have room to put out some videos for you guys. And, there’s fanfics to look forward to! If anyone remembers Night on the Bow, a project collaborated by Ivory, Shu, and yours truly, we’re making another one! It’s a beefy fic too, so hang onto your hats... ;)

There’s tons more in the wings but I can’t even remember what lol, but it’ll get there when it gets there!

Take care y’all and have a nice Sunday, til the morrow!

-Pen

#personal #updates

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fostersffff · 2 years

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Hello! I’m an insane man who purchased Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water on blu-ray from eBay last year for an amount of money I’m embarrassed to disclose. I did this because I was under the impression that this series- which was last made available in 2014- would probably be in license purgatory for quite some time. Gkids then announced a few months later that they had plucked it from purgatory, and would be doing a new blu-ray released that was downscaled from a 4k rescan of the original film elements.

After realizing that nobody else was doing it, either because they lacked the materials, means, interest, or any combination of the above, I realized I could do a side-by-side comparison of these two releases! This won’t be terribly in-depth, just a few quick shots from the intro to see the difference.

First up, the logo! Simple white text and clouds on a deep blue ocean and sky clearly highlights the first big difference between the two, which is color. Compared with the Gkids version, the Sentai version looks a little washed out. However, I believe this has less to do with the resolution the footage was scanned at, and more to do with the other big difference between the two...

Digital Noise Reduction, or DNR! If you’re unfamiliar, DNR is the process of removing film grain from older works, and it’s a contentious subject. Most people are cool with getting rid of the grain, but purists will cross themselves at the mere thought of it. The reason for this is that the process of removing grain can also unintentionally smudge detail, which is less noticeable in still shots like the above, but more in heavily animated, less intricately detailed shots, such as these:

I’m not sure how clear that is considering the low detail of the gif format, but you can see a little artifacting around the characters’ linework and shadows in the Gkids version compared to the Sentai release. I can also tell you the Sentai version gif is actually larger in filesize than the Gkids version because of the grain, because it prevents the Sentai version from having color banding as aggressive in the Gkids version, but that’s really only a concern if you’re making gifs yourself.

Now, generally speaking, anime distributors are careful about the application of DNR, so in the grand scheme of things, these are just nitpicks between the two. And ultimately, nitpicks that don’t matter, because if you want to check out Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, of course you’re going to buy the easily available and reasonably priced Gkids release, and not hunt down the out of print, significantly more expensive Sentai release. And if you already happen to have the Sentai release, you’d probably never even think about double dipping for the Gkids release anyway.

This was mostly an experiment for me to see how much better the image quality was on the Gkids version, and as best as I can tell it’s “more color saturation, less grain” where the Sentai version is “less color saturation, more grain”. The most crucial thing is that they’re both native HD, so as far as I’m concerned, you’re a winner either way if you own the blu-ray. Maybe upgrade if you have the original ADV DVDs.

(Oh, and as far as extras go: both versions have a five minute promotional video from before the series aired, as well as a commercial from before the series aired. The Gkids version comes with a physical art booklet, and the Sentai version includes a clean version of the OPs and ED, but they’re upscaled kinda poorly from the DVD quality, which is why they’re not present at all on the Gkids release)

#Nadia #Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water #Gainax #Hideaki Anno #anime #blu-ray #comparison #Gkids #Sentai Filmworks

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94erz · 2 years

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There’s something genuinely disgusting how so much of the Memories content used to be uploaded for free on YouTube, but once the company realized fans were desperate enough and they could make more money off of them they instead rarely update the account and sell that content instead for insane amounts of money. 7 CDs and roughly 9 hours of content and watch it be over $100 between the price of the item and the inflated shipping and handling when it could be fewer hours, more free content on YouTube, less CDs, and cheaper item and S+H like these Memories DVD’s and Blue-ray’s used to be.

But here we are instead, and fans eat that shit right up.

Makes me even more angry that here they’re selling a total of 7 discs in both the DVD and blu-ray option WITH a digital option (which will be the exact same price as the DVD option) yet we can’t even get a single fucking CD for Jack In The Box, j-hope’s MUSIC! But since they’re entertainers now the music isn’t the focus anymore and fans get nothing.

#Sab talks BTS stuff

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videostak · 10 months

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p sure my moms drunk tonight T-T or atleast being weird and slurring her speech a lot idk its hard to tell anymore tho i dont kno when she wouldve even got stuff i guess she went w/ my younger sister and her friend to the grocery store so maybe then? idk tho i feel like she didnt but shes def weird she came into my room earlier to try to tell me that she was gonna give me a 50$ a week allowance for the errands i constantly have to do and i was just like umm no we should talk abt this another time. i hate it cause that seems normal enough and soemthing someone would totally accept until u realize its more hush money than anything and her just trying to pay me off to put up w/ the way she is its like annoyyying and also 2 our family is like not doing good on money i mean we’re still getting by but like kinda always have to be careful and for my mom to just throw that at me is insane. like makes me wonder why shed even do that then next day warn us all that things are gonna be tight w/ money lol and then like if i were to have taken the money (im not going to obv) but if i did she’d then like hold it against me if i ever call her out on her shit like act like i have to be grateful sooo ya. i hate the way my mom is cause like on days like this when i just have to do shit nonstop she praises me endlessly but then the moment i voice my problems she threatens to kick me out and acts like im the most ungrateful slob of all time. genuinely hypocritical like she really tries to gaslight me into thinking i do absolutely nothing around the house anytime i get annoyed that no one helps around and that im the one who gets chewed out for the house being a mess but then once the dust settles and i havent complained for a week or month or so then she tries to give ME big lectures on how grateful she is and how ia always do stuff w/o complaining and how she wants to send me large amounts of cash to keep up the good work it just makes me siiiick. like makes me feel like frowing up. anyways idk me driving and everything like being able to drive my siblings places normal style and also me hoping i can go to the movies w/ my mom like that independence makes it not feel as crushing as it used to. and like ill have to see how this record store thing goes and if not i can find a job somewhere hopefully soon. thinking abt how transparent my moms intentions are sometimes makes me reallly feel sick tho but like ultimately it doesnt seem to affect me as much as it used to like idk it means nothing to me cause i dont have to rely on her and have gotten better at standing my ground more often both w/ her and w/ my dad and realizing how useless it is to pick sides or to even defend someone in dishonest ways etccc excited to watch playtime tomorrow hopefully idk im gonna go to the mall then watch playtime the criteiron dvd then the brazilian one and see if anythings different in like quality n stufff. and also wanna watch lovers live :)

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europeanpsycho · 10 months

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Initially, I was at some sort of flea market/fair skimming through clothes at a stand. I told my mother the owners charged you insane amounts of money for shirts with uncredited fan art. I specifically mentioned Litchi Hikari Club merchandise; the stand also sported dvds and some memorabilia. Then I was still looking at clothes in an enclosed space, racks upon racks of hanging fabric. At some point most of the clothing (notably swimsuits) fell from one of the racks next to me and I stood in my place. A woman got there and started picking everything up and I asked her if she needed any help, she replied why I was only asking it now that she was already there cleaning up instead of doing it myself before. She seemed to be in a light mood and didn't actually expect me to do so. Then I was walking through a place that I recognized as a school, a private one I had to stay in apparently. I think I was immediately picked on and pissed off by a girl named Caterina, with straight brown hair and glasses, because she resurfaces in the dream multiple times. I was dressed in 2018 nugoth attire that I wouldn't actually wear, I had a collar and I think my hair was much longer. My attitude was more than aggressive which does concile with my actual brain, I was a full blown delinquent here though. I walked through the cafeteria and I couldn't find any plates, only cutlery; I roamed around the food area deeming it as bland and almost deserted and I saw my childhood best friend there. We squeaked and talked almost beaming. She had much darker hair and had gotten wittier. I wanted to get a chicken cutlet before I cut one in half and saw it was yellow on the inside. Having a piece between my teeth already, I walked out of the food area through the cafeteria tables (the room was extremely dark and poorly lit, seemingly without windows) right toward a small bin for organic waste and I spat the chewed up cutlet in it. There was a collective gasp and Caterina went "you're unacceptable, (my name)" so I walked up to her, snapped my plastic knife in half and told her I was going to slit her throat. I had a longer speech prior to this because the rest of the cafeteria attendants seemed to appreciate what I was saying standing up to this Rule of Rose -type thing. Caterina had talked much more as well, and her vitriol was evident. I pointed the knife shard at her neck and a male teacher that looked like Peter Lorre that was sitting next to her simply sighed and looked elsewhere. I didn't stab her. Everyone walked out and I was in another room an various girls walked up to me, one with long light brown frizzy, wavy hair telling me something regarding Caterina smirking. Another with bright pink hair, 3/4s in braids and a section loose, wearing a pink sweatshirt and blue jeans appeared and we simultaneously complimented each other's hair with the same words. We laughed and she talked about how a man paid her a private jet to get here and how the jet was divided in quarters yet no one died. I though about all the friends I could make in this school and of how I wanted to dream about it again. I knew I was in a dream and I thought about waking up visualizing a clock made out of dolls, their legs pointing at the numbers. I think I woke up still in a dream, reading about how that was a school for vampires out of a fantasy saga for young adults or even teenagers. I still wanted to dream it again. Bitter.

#dream diary

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etsyteesfashion · 10 months

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Top Pitbull straight outta rescue shirt

That’s better than DVDs – in fact I’d go so far as to say it’s strictly better because a Blu Ray can do everything a DVD can and more. But it’s not a gamechanger so there’s no truly compelling reason to upgrade from DVD to Blu Ray. What this means is that Blu Ray has become the Pitbull straight outta rescue shirt Furthermore, I will do this luxury home video product and people with spare cash and willing to pay extra buy Blu Rays. The cost-conscious get cheaper DVD players and play cheaper DVDs on them, and see no major reason to upgrade. Meanwhile DVD controls the budget end of the market because it’s cheaper and almost as good. Or at least DVD did. Streaming has seriously taken market share away from both (as it too has significant advantages), and I suspect this will lead to Blu Ray outlasting the DVD. If you want cheap entertainment there are streaming services (many of which have higher video quality than DVD). If on the other hand you’re splashing out on physical media you’re into the luxury part of the market anyway so you’re less likely to save money by going for the cheaper DVDs. Seriously, I subbed to the 4K version of Netflix for a year and the extremely small amount of content at 4K was insane. The 4K movies were stunning. The only reason I watched all four seasons of The Black List was because of its incredible 4K videography. It was so violent I had to stop watching, anyway, but the point was, it was visually spectacular.

Buy this shirt: Click Here to buy this Pitbull straight outta rescue shirt

Home: https://etsytees.com/

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lord-radish · 1 year

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I've been thinking about ChatGPT and AI a bit lately. There's a lot of angles to it that I think fall by the wayside, and I want to really get into how I feel.

Like as a technology, AI-generated text and art is really interesting! We fed a computer so much external stimuli that it can receive a text prompt and generate a brand new image with elements that it associates with the text prompt. Ten years ago, the most we could get was a fuzzy outline, like a dream. Now you can get noticeable, recognisable images. That's insane.

AI Dungeon is awesome. ChatGPT is one thing, it's a step above Cleverbot, but with its drawbacks (absorbing so much of Reddit that it has the capacity to be bigoted, and having to be "shackled" in a way not only to prevent bigotry, but to avoid lawsuits when people ask it how to make napalm). And then there's the question of how both programs got that information that they're trained on, which is where my support begins to slip.

Because technologically, I do think AI generated content is really fucking interesting and cool. There's actually something to it as opposed to some horseshit like NFTs, which was selling a problem for it to be a solution to. It was greed and misinformation with negative practical use - it complicated the process of tying purchases to an account by inventing a series of different platforms and accounts tied to different fake currencies. NFTs had no practical use and continue to have no practical use, it literally just exists for the sake of profiteering.

AI, as a technology, actually has a point. It is actually something of an achievement, and it actually produces something of interest, or even value - art as viewed by a computer.

But with the AI boom - which feels like the NFT boom all over again, being the hot new tech bandwagon every corporation is jumping onto - new questions arise such as surveillance and automation.

Surveillance is inherent to the nature of neural networks. To train an AI, you need to feed it an unfathomable amount of content for it to form context clues and define a "vision". ChatGPT was trained on Reddit, to my understanding. AI art needs a ridiculous amount of art. Things that you made are being taken, without permission, to inform these machines.

DeviantART - who are bad enough already, what with owning everything you submit to their website and selling original designs to companies like Hot Topic without crediting or paying the original artists - announced their own AI art program that would be trained on the entire DeviantART portfolio. If you as a content creator don't consent to your work being used for that, there's almost nothing you can do.

Automation, on the other hand, isn't inherent to AI-generated art. That is a human issue - or rather, a corporate issue. Because anyone who's even remotely clued into this shit knows that AI art, either visual art or written content, has noticeable tells and flaws. It's fun, but you can't replace the entire spectrum of human expression with an algorithm.

The issue comes from companies like Ubisoft, Netflix and other massive media conglomerates who immediately jumped to AI as a cheap "baseline" writing tool, choosing to lower their employed writers to the level of revising AI-generated text. Not only are they lowering pay, but they're lowering/eliminating residuals on top of what is already an ongoing attack on art in the name of greed and profiteering.

We're watching TV and movies - easily accessible content - disappearing from digital services which operate at a fraction of the cost as, say, DVD manufacturing. And while licensing rights and all that is one thing, the reason stuff is disappearing is because companies are using them as tax write-offs. You straight up cannot access shows on digital platforms because a company like WB/Discovery wanted to avoid losing money. That is literally the only reason.

And I think the push towards AI-generated scripts stems from that greed, as well as these big network dickheads wanting their NFT moment, or their Bitcoin moment. They want to use the latest fad to get attention and fuck over their employees for profit, and then when AI as a serious proposition goes belly-up - which is absolutely going to happen, because AI-generated content isn't financially viable - they hire the writers back full-time for the same reduced wage they implemented during the AI bubble.

I don't think it's ChatGPT's fault. I blame Ubisoft for spearheading the movement to shift writing staff to revising AI-generated content. I blame every media company who followed suit, and for fucking writers in the ass for decades regarding residuals. We're seeing industries like video games and movies making billions of dollars a year in profit - not revenue, profit - only to condemn years worth of entertainment as a tax write-off and jump on a fad as an excuse to further degrade the working conditions of an essential work force.

And yet with that being said, I do have more specific issues with AI generated art that I'm going to get into.

AI prompts can get flagged by whatever software is being run, and those flagged prompts are being managed by human teams. There was a news story the other day about a team of African content moderators who were being denied counselling and other healthcare options despite being inundated with sexually explicit, violent, illegal and morally upsetting content for the entirety of their work day.

Companies that run AI art programs hire cheap labor, expose them to the most uncomfortable and harrowing content that the programs can produce, and refuse to pay for counselling when those workers are traumatized.

AI-generated art is a boundless medium, for all that can entail. As it stands now, AI art is being misused by corporations - in an effort to make it more consumer friendly, some of the poorest people in the world are being exposed to the worst possible creations of these programs. That's a decision that someone made for AI art to be commercially viable, and it's fucked up. Companies are trying to fuck over writers and artists so they don't have to pay them - again, that's a decision that a whole lot of rich jerkoffs decided on.

AI-generated content can produce just about anything, given that it's trained with enough material to form context. But "anything" means ANYTHING. It can roleplay as your grandma or pretend to be another person ala Cleverbot, or it can generate hate speech. It can show you a picture of Mesapotamian Spider-Man, or it can show you a depiction of a sex crime. Those are huge risks, and in trying to shackle the less savory aspects of AI-generated art, more people are explicitly and purposefully exposed to it, and subsequently exploited when it becomes "too expensive" to take care of them.

I think that AI-generated art is a really interesting topic. I think it's an incredible technology. I think it's being used incorrectly, and I think it has some deep flaws that call into question whether AI generation - whether its output is moderated or not - is ethical or conscionable. And it bothers me to see it reduced to "AI art is soulless and devoid of meaning, only people can make art".

Like the only reason AI art is being championed by rich dickheads is because it saves them money. Everyone knows that AI tech isn't good enough to replace human creativity. There's only a push to replace human content creators because it's cheap.

I also think seeing the possibilities of a computer generating art is incredibly fascinating! Like no, I'm not gonna buy it as a print and hang it on my wall. But the fact that a computer program was able to pull so many elements together and create an image that's even remotely as coherent as it is? That's fucking insane and cool.

It'll never replace human art, and I kind of take issue with the idea that AI art is bad because it's "soulless" or somehow "lesser", as if the point of AI art is the same as a person drawing a picture. I think companies who focus more on profit and who don't know/care enough about the craft of making art or writing are the ones devaluing the work of artists. Those companies using AI art as if it's even remotely comparable is an insult to actual artists, I can agree with that. But the AI itself isn't the problem, it's how it's being used.

Rather, AI art has a whole other set of ethical quandaries relating entirely to itself - such as consent to use pre-existing artwork to train AI programs, the existence of hate speech within the program and how to deal with it, the surveillance capabilities of a machine that absorbs everything you feed it, and the exploitation of people who work on the backend. It's an incredible technology, but to make it work - and especially to make it palatable to the public and to corporations - there are so many ethical concerns to AI art that get swept away by surface-level "can a robot write a symphony" takes.

In short, the topic of artificial intelligence and the ethics of using it to create art is a broad and messy topic, and I think there are arguments that are applied broadly to AI that are mis-attributing broader problems to AI itself. There's a whole world of ethical concerns and discussions relating to AI content generation itself, and I think that those concerns aren't as prevalent when the focus is on attacking AI for decisions that boardrooms chose to make. There's so much more to talk about.

#long post #artificial intelligence #ai art #I'm open to different perspectives so don't drop a nuclear bomb on my ask box please #this is just an opinion that I have at the moment. as things change my viewpoint will change accordingly

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coll2mitts · 1 year

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#85 The Wayward Cloud (2005)

Back in 2020, I was attempting to review the movies on the Rotten Tomatoes list by the order that they appeared (separate from the muppet side-project, cause that needed to be dealt with all at once). It was because of this one, #85, that I gave up on that notion entirely because I could not find this movie anywhere. The Wayward Cloud wasn't offered on any streaming sites unedited, I couldn't pay to rent it, and I couldn't buy it anywhere because the DVD was region locked. Even attempts and um... *acquiring* it online were futile because they did not contain English subtitles. Every time I would schedule out what movies I wanted to work on next, this was a uncompleted black spot in a sea of easily attainable media... that is until a few days ago when I found it on internet archive for free, god bless.

This is not the most bizarre musical movie I've ever watched (it's pretty tame compared to Dancer in the Dark and The Lure), and to Oklahoma!'s credit, not the only one about pornography. It is unique in the fact that I'm pretty sure it's the only one with a 10-minute real-time rape scene. I'm incredibly fascinated how this very quiet movie that features a lot of softcore porn shares a spot on the same list as 8 muppet-based movies, is all I'm saying.

The Wayward Cloud focuses on two protagonists, Hsiao-Kang and Shiang-chyi, who live in separate apartments of a shared building. In the opening scene, an unknown actress dressed as a nurse is being force-fed watermelon before getting railed by Hsiao-Kang on top of it. We discover, because of a legendary drought, that watermelons are cheaper than buying bottled water, so people are encouraged to eat or drink the fruit to hydrate themselves. The symbolism of the watermelon is pretty overt, as a television news program states that gifting this big red fruit means you're wildly in love. Shiang-chyi is scarfing watermelon down in her living room alone, while Hsiao-Kang is literally fingering one on top of a moaning lady. We discover that Hsiao-Kang works as an actor in seemingly very low-budget porn films, so his passion is only faked for the benefit of the camera. He reveals how lonely he is with his situation through a lamenting love song.

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Shiang-chyi discovers Hsiao-Kang asleep on a swing in the park, and after stealing his drinkable water she decides to wait for him to wake up so she can ask him if he's still selling watches for money. Afterward, he assists her in removing a key of hers that has been stuck in the asphalt outside of their building, and once freed, the pavement gives way to a spring of water, representing the desire that has now been released. Her internal monologue reacts in a completely normal way, by interpreting this act of kindness as a declaration of love.

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The musical numbers are a dramatic contrast to the rest of the movie, as they are colorful and surreal. The juxtaposition between the lived reality of the characters and their energetic inner monologue is really vast and jarring.

I'm not quite sure why this statue of Chiang Kai-shek gets all Shiang-chyi's love and affection, unless it's ironically, or to symbolize her giving everything to a man who's literally giving nothing in return. Taiwan has been gradually moving the several statues they've erected of Chiang to a specific memorial garden in Cihu as their attitude toward the exiled military leader has changed. This one at the National Palace Museum has migrated locations since this movie came out, living in a much less conspicuous place outside of a different building.

When Hsiao-Kang goes back to Shiang-chyi's apartment, he attempts to open a locked suitcase of hers while she gives him insane amounts of watermelon juice he ultimately pours out the window when her back is turned. They make a meal together, and we discover she is very bad at cooking, setting the greasy noodles on fire and attempting to douse it with water. The hot veggies they place on the noodles make them move in a very unsettling way.

I'm genuinely curious if they started a fire on purpose, because it sounds as if the director writes a very loose screenplay and a lot of shit is improvised.

When the two part he doesn't kiss her or anything. In fact, he manually presses her elevator button to send her on her way. Then she gets to lay in bed and listen to him have sex with someone else from the apartment upstairs. Honestly, I don't know how more clear this guy could be that he's not interested in her.

It's impressive how absolutely unsexy they make the softcore porn look in this movie. It's mechanical and awkward. The director himself describes sex as difficult and "rarely joyful", which, I feel, says a lot about him and less about society in general. He believes filming sex this way exposes it for what it really is as opposed to how Hollywood makes it seem.

Because the pacing of this movie is so slow (this is on purpose, put a pin in it), here's a rapid fire interactions list to keep this moving:

Hsiao-Kang climbs up a wall and Shiang-chyi force feeds him watermelon.

Shiang-chyi proves to be the worst cook ever yet again by freeing a bunch of crabs in her house. After Hsiao-Kang comes to the rescue, they then eat the crabs in such a disgusting manner that I'm forced to believe this is someone's fetish.

Hsiao-Kang smokes a cigarette from in-between Shiang-chyi's toes before falling asleep under the dining room table. This is the first inkling that perhaps he does like her as he touches her legs in a comforting manner as opposed to his usual indifferent demeanor.

The two protagonists go on a date, I think?

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Hsiao-Kang avoids Shiang-chyi in the hallway because she's wandering around pretending to be pregnant with a watermelon. Imagine you're some random tenant and you hear someone screaming from the stairwell and you discover it's some lady pretending to give birth to a fruit, istfg.

Hsiao-Kang is having problems getting it up, so he imagines his co-star with a traffic cone bra pleading for him to get hard.

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Hsiao-Kang and Shiang-chyi make out in the Adult Film section of a video rental place, and I am in my own personal hell because watching people kiss is the grossest thing ever to me.

On their way home from gettin' freaky in public, they walk around town with her standing on top of his feet.

The end of this movie is... something else. I was pretty much just letting this film happen to me up until this point. Like sure, it's slow and a little strange, but whatever, it's got to be someone's jam. But then... but then.

Shiang-chyi finds one of the porn actresses passed out in the elevator, and instead of calling for help she drags her into her apartment. While this poor woman is laying passed out on the floor, Shiang-chyi starts eating watermelon while slowly realizing that one of the videos she rented features this mystery woman and Hsiao-Kang. Shiang-chyi finds one of Hsiao-Kang's co-workers, and they drag the actress up to his flat and try to rouse her. When that fails, the men take her clothes off and position her on the bed to film a movie anyway.

The climax of this film is the rape scene, where Shiang-chyi watches Hsiao-Kang film a video with his unconscious co-star, seemingly bearing his baggage to Shiang-chyi. This is perhaps a way for him to explain why he's been so distant, or to reveal a part of his life he hasn't overtly told her about. Shiang-chyi assists with the movie, moaning loudly to help Hsiao-Kang get off, and he rewards her by abruptly grabbing her face and making her swallow his cum, as if to say, here, now you can have all of me. Literally. She cries out of relief I'm assuming, and it's awkward as fuck to watch. It's also framed like we should be celebrating that these two have finally discovered and accepted each other, because the credits come in with a happy song, which I guess could be read as ironic? Maybe this whole thing is intended to be horrifying and not merely uncomfortable, but Shiang-chyi's active participation in the act makes me think that it's not meant to be read that way. And if that's the case, I'm left wondering why we had to witness a rape for their mutual understanding to happen. Did the director think this was rape?

I tried to search for the directors intention from this but all I could find were reviews of this movie that described how the last scene is meaningful and touching like a bunch of people didn't just rape a girl on camera.

The important story here isn't necessarily the romance whatever the hell is happening between the two main characters. The director of this movie Tsai Ming-liang, is one of the standout auteurs of "Slow Cinema", so the point is more about the vibes than the plot. There are a lot of shots in this movie of characters unceremoniously eating watermelon, staring at the ceiling, looting through garbage, walking through hallways, and they're all designed to convey how lonely these characters are. He absolutely succeeds at this, as the great majority of this film is well-framed wide shots of Shiang-chyi existing alone in the world, rarely encountering other humans, and having no friends to speak of. Hsiao-Kang seems to want to be left alone, but is constantly pursued by this woman, and by nature of his job, begrudgingly performs sexual acts on camera. Tsai Ming-liang's movies focus on this dichotomy between wanting to find someone to relate to while being comfortable being alone. The two protagonists are filmed with a wall dividing them in several scenes as if they want to connect, but are incapable of doing so.

Watermelons represent the passion one feels, and Shiang-chyi is constantly sloppily eating it, forcing its juice upon Hsiao-Kang who doesn't want it, making out with the rind and pretending to give birth to it in an hallway. When she discovers the porn actress passed out in the elevator, when retrieving water from the fridge, a watermelon rolls out and cracks on the tiled floor, forcing her to eat it when she drags the woman inside her apartment. She gluttons herself in it, and only stops when she realizes that this actress has been fucking the man she's been lusting after. Conversely, Hsiao-Kang only partakes in the watermelon in his or Shiang-chyi's fantasies, as he must feel as if his current lifestyle prevents him from acting on any genuine feelings. It isn't until the last scene that he is open to having a real human connection with someone. Y'know, directly after raping his costar for money.

But in being alone, it seems like both the protagonists completely disregard the wellbeing of those around them, since their singularly focused on themselves. Shiang-chyi hordes an insane amount of drinkable water to the point where she cannot store anything in her refrigerator and is forced to bathe with toilet water in her bathroom because her tub is filled with bottles. In a decidedly unchill move, Hsiao-Kang decides to bathe in the building's water tower since his body is covered in watermelon juice and the taps are turned off, contaminating a considerably valuable and finite resource for his own personal comfort. I can only assume their treatment of the porn actress is only further evidence of their disconnect to humanity in general.

I'm not necessarily sure if we're supposed to root for these two crazy kids to figure this shit out, because ultimately I left this movie feeling bewildered and slightly angry. I'm not writing off all slow cinema, but I'm not sure I'm interested in watching any more Tsai Min-liang films lest I'm confronted with another 3 minute shot of a woman crying with some dude's cock in her mouth.

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#100 best musical movies of all time rotten tomatoes #unwarranted opinion

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