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braincert · 1 year

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Embrace Microlearning: Unlock the Future of Online Education

In today's fast-paced world, traditional learning methods are rapidly evolving to meet the changing needs of students. One innovative approach that has gained significant momentum is microlearning. With its bite-sized and targeted content delivery, microlearning is revolutionizing online education. In this blog post, we will delve into the concept of microlearning, explore its benefits, and discuss how it shapes the future of education. Get ready to unlock the power of microlearning!

What is Microlearning?

Microlearning is an educational approach that delivers small, focused, and easily digestible modules of learning content. Rather than overwhelming learners with lengthy courses, microlearning breaks down complex topics into bite-sized pieces. By delivering information in small, targeted doses, microlearning promotes focused learning, encourages knowledge retention, and accommodates the shorter attention spans of modern learners. It also leverages multimedia elements to enhance engagement and interactivity.

The Advantages of Microlearning

Microlearning offers a range of benefits to both learners and educators. Firstly, it boosts learner engagement by presenting information in easily consumable formats that align with their preferences and learning styles. Microlearning also promotes knowledge retention by focusing on specific learning objectives and providing repetitive reinforcement. In addition to it, it offers flexibility, allowing learners to access content anytime and anywhere, fostering just-in-time learning.

Implementing Microlearning in Online Education

To effectively implement microlearning in online education, it is essential to set clear learning objectives for each module. This ensures that the content is focused and aligned with desired outcomes. Instructional designers and educators should carefully curate concise and engaging microlearning content that captures learners' attention and delivers vital concepts effectively. LMS platforms provide a centralized hub for learners to access and complete modules while offering educators valuable insights into learner progress.

Overcoming Challenges and Future Possibilities

While microlearning offers numerous advantages, there are challenges to consider. One challenge is curating high-quality content that effectively conveys essential information within the limited timeframe of microlearning modules. Maintaining consistency across modules in terms of design, voice, and learning objectives is also crucial for a cohesive learning experience. Looking ahead, the future of microlearning holds exciting possibilities, including its integration with emerging technologies such as augmented reality and artificial intelligence, which can further enhance the interactivity and personalization of microlearning experiences.

BrainCert: Empowering Microlearning

BrainCert, a leading virtual classroom and learning management system, plays a vital role in supporting microlearning initiatives. With its intuitive platform, BrainCert provides a range of features and tools that enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of microlearning experiences.

One of the key benefits of using BrainCert for microlearning is its content creation and delivery capabilities. The platform allows educators to create engaging and interactive microlearning modules using various multimedia formats. From video lectures and presentations to interactive quizzes and assessments, BrainCert offers a versatile set of tools to design compelling microlearning content.

To Conclude:

As we conclude this exploration of microlearning, it becomes clear that this approach holds immense potential to revolutionize online education. By embracing microlearning, learners can experience engaging and personalized learning journeys, while educators can witness enhanced knowledge retention and learner satisfaction. The future of education lies in microlearning's ability to cater to individual needs, foster continuous learning, and adapt to the ever-evolving digital landscape. Let's embrace microlearning and unlock a world of limitless educational possibilities!

#elearning #edtech #education #gamification #learning management system #assessments #virtual classroom #educators #math stuff #course creators

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carionto · 3 months

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Too tough for paradise

One peculiar side effect of Humans hailing from a Deathworld is that their biological well-being is partly dependent on some degree of microscopic hostility from the environment and what they consume.

It is normal among most species that, should their surroundings change to more hospitable conditions, their minds and bodies would feel relief and be under less stress. However, as with any changes, if they deviate too far too quickly from their normal, you risk damage from a sudden shock to the system.

___________________________

Abigail "Abby" Hostaz had been legally grounded by the Gyin-Trov due to her, ahem, "expansion of business" without the right permits. Not that she bothered to learn that nobody outside Human controlled space in the Galactic Coalition would allow the creation of a deadly asteroid race track AND let sentient beings directly pilot ships through it.

Hell, finding an Alien crazy enough to partake in an activity even most Humans consider insane is one in a trillion. She still did find seven non-Humans, so that math actually is within a reasonable margin. Everything else is not reasonable.

The local Gyin-Trov government learned of the true nature of her activities when a rogue asteroid suddenly appeared on their threat detection systems. The unnatural change of course quickly pointed to where she had set up her latest "thrill track", which the authorities rapidly dismantled, impounded her vessel, named "Victor", and put her under house arrest in the Human embassy awaiting the conclusion of the investigation and subsequent trial.

While station based embassies are effectively fully contained perfect habitats for the respective species, planet based ones tend to adopt a lot of the local elements and integrate what they can simply due to proximity and availability.

Humans, the resourceful buggers that they are, used everything the planet had to offer (that wasn't outright lethal to Humans, which in the case of the Gyin-Trov homeworld were only a few pollen producing crops found in the poles of the planet).

A combination of a almost perfect temperature range (near constant lows of 14C at night, highs of 21C mid-day), slightly higher moisture levels, and bio-engineered local flora that made the water into this somewhat thicker soup containing virtually every nutrient, vitamin and mineral a carbon-based lifeform could ever want, leaving little for the digestive system to tackle. Heck, just being within a field of such plants lets the body absorb everything for healthy survival.

In short, the Gyin-Trov homeworld, also named Gyin-Trov, is as close to Utopia as you can get.

Aaaaaaand Abby is not having a fun time there.

It's not like she was imprisoned - she was allowed to wander around the city and surrounding area under light supervision, she even had her cat, Hector, with her. But there just wasn't enough excitement to be found anywhere.

They had arcades and various physical activities, but she never felt her body grow tired after hours of competitive gaming and contests. No feeling of hunger or exhaustion ever disturbed her focus. The only thing that kept Abby from becoming, essentially, a zombie perpetually engaged in whatever activity was most fun at the moment was the inherent nature of the Human brain - it gets... wobbly after a while and needs sleep.

Not even a week had passed and people noticed Abby had become... different. No strong reactions to anything, no outbursts of some crazy ideas, just a general positive but not quite cheerful apathy. The Human ambassadors had experienced a much milder version of this, and it is theorized that they did not deem it as concerning due to the simple fact the ambassadors always had something to do, and more importantly - something that put their minds, if not bodies, to the test. Regular challenges, worries, and stress from work in general kept them on edge in some ways.

Abby was just waiting around, "put on vacation" as one of the ambassadors had put it. After a couple of more days of this peace, she seemed more like a automaton than anything else. Mindlessly going from place to place, trying out whatever activities were available, but clearly none offered anything close to the level of excitement and danger she had grown so used to. Not even the flawed thirty year old Human body she was in offered any surprises or discomforts.

Everything was just perfectly fine.

When the paperwork finally cleared and she was issued a fine and formally banned from engaging in any construction efforts in Gyin-Trov controlled space, she was reunited with Victor, and the personality changes she had undergone during her short time were seemingly instantly reversed.

Once she was in her ship and the self-diagnostics showed a few blinking lights, Abby immediately became energized and took action. Breathing in the recycled air with a hint of dry rust made that old bruise on her right side make itself known again. She pulled an all-nighter making repairs and "adjustments" to Victor and collapsed from exhaustion on the hard floor.

The next day, she was already near the border to neutral space when she noticed a dwarf planet with a rock formation in the shape of a trebuchet (very vaguely, if you squint really, really hard, and imagine half of the parts), and that gave her an idea.

All the while, Hector the cat did not exhibit any noticeable changes during his stay with Abby on Gyin-Trov. Maybe just a few more hours of sleep per day than normal.

#humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #humans are deathworlders #humanity fuck yeah #carionto #story

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nesonkin · 3 months

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Obviously a 10-hour indie game with a story to tell is not going to go too deep into linguistics (not that it needs to) but I very much appreciate how the way we learn different languages in Chants of Sennaar is connected to the culture of the people that speak that language.

Bards are very big about beauty, artistic expression and class oppression, so, of course, you're going to learn their language mostly through theater plays and people mocking you.

You don't really get to talk to Alchemists, but much like their whole thing is about sciences, you mostly learn their language by looking through maps and diagrams, solving math puzzles, and even being tricked into directing your attention to the clock (a game design trick that is so simple but effective it's actually hilarious). You can say that level is my favorite.

Warriors shout commands and Anchorites were isolated into the virtual world, so the process is automated through a series of word connecting puzzles.

Can't put my finger on Devotees. I would say primarily socialization, as the very first puzzle that lets you into the town is about lending a hand to another person (same with the mysterious kid helping you enter the Abbey).

I just love this game, okay?

#chants of sennaar #chants of sennaar spoilers #this is based off my experience with the game

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doctorofmagic · 7 months

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Why magic in the MCU has failed

I remember the "good" old days when Doctor Strange was about to debut back in 2016. I was obsessed with spotting every single little magic detail in the MCU in the hope that magic would slowly grow in status and importance, only to give up after so much disappointment.

But the major issue? The moment Feige stated that every side project was a part of the MCU. People who experienced phase 1 and 2 will remember that magic was a taboo. "It's just science we don't understand yet". While it's a common line quoted by Marvel's greatest geniuses, we all know it's pure arrogance on their part. Otherwise, they'd be doing what magic users do.

It was not MCU's case. Magic was INDEED treated as science. From Ghost Rider's portal being reproduced by a robot through the Darkhold to Wanda's powers being a product of an experiment but not explained at all. From a loooong season of Cloak and Dagger taking its time to finally introduce magic elements to Nico's staff almost falling to the same old "technology" trope. From whatever is happening in Asgard to Loki's limited magic. It's frustrating, but we'd still find a way to turn the tables, right? The Dark Dimension was introduced (twice?), the (third) Darkhold was finally attached to Chthon, Morgana and Lorelei debuted, Nico's powers were finally acknowledge as magic... So what happened?

My best guess? Structure.

There's no structure to define what is magic in the MCU. Doctor Strange (2016) tried. Really hard. And, although it got several things right, it failed in two fundamental aspects: pre-established comic book knowledge and magic deities.

Remember how we got three Darkholds? The first was just so detached from magic that it became a book used to create a VIRTUAL world in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. The second was used by Morgan le Fey, but how was she associated with the Dark Dimension? Moreover, that was NOT the Dark Dimension from the first DS movie (or any comic book, really). Its last appearance, as seen in WandaVision and DSITMOM, finally mentioned Chthon, but it literally did NOTHING it was supposed to do. That MCU!Wanda has nothing to do with her 616 version, this is not new. But if we're going to use comic books as foundation to adapt a story, the very bare minimum you can do is do it right. Point is, the book does corrupt people, but it's because of Chthon's influence and his connection to Wanda. Where's Chthon in the movie? The corruption was badly explored and her journey towards evil and redemption doesn't make any sense from a magic point.

Now, the "main" magic cast in the MCU could have worked... Except that there's little to no information regarding how Kamar-Taj works as a temple/school for new sorcerers. And worse even, magic isn't connected to its deities. Sure, there were a few name drops, but does it explain where it comes from? And who chooses the next sorcerer supreme if the Vishanti isn't involved?

The truth is, magic was all over the place, and the creative minds were either too oblivious to the importance of learning about how magic works in comics (to the point of adapting a second Dark Dimension that has nothing to do with the original one) or too shy to introduce a magic hierarchy (as in, deities).

There's an actual attempt to create this structure now, but it's too late. Sure, you can ignore past tv shows, but the mess remains. Eternity was supposed to be an abstract entity, deeply connected to magic, cosmic aspects and life itself.

Loki is still so embarrassing because the very foundation of Asgardian mythos started wrong (and why is that? Because no magic, of course!). While I find funny that Stephen trapped Loki in an endless freefall, there's no way the god of stories would be humiliated like that. Loki being taught magic by his alts is infuriating (and it's, again, mostly illusions).

Remember when Stephen was beaten by math? That also happened.

This is the moment I completely give up to see magic portrayed at its fullest, in all its beauty and complexity. Because it's not treated the way it deserves. It has never been.

And here's my boldest take: if you really wish to see the full potential of magic in the MCU, go for What If. The price you pay, the cosmic proportion of being misused, the creative elements... It's all there. Which is sad because it's not the main timeline. Anyways, this is it.

PS: This post may age poorly as DS3 comes out in 20 years. Let's wait and see.

#ds3 being my only source of interest regarding magic bc agatha and loki are NOT it #i keep loosing #mcu #mcu discourse #analysis #magic

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theresattrpgforthat · 1 year

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Hi there! Do you happen to know any good ttrpgs that can be run with 3 people (gm included if there's a gm) virtually and is light on math/crunch? Bonus points if it's scifi or fantasy. Double bonus points if there's minimal prep

THEME: Light 3-player Games

Hello friend, I’ve got a number of fantasy-themed games that you might like to check out. If you want some non-fantasy options, check out the bottom of this post!

Wickedness, by Nightling Bug.

Wickedness is a peculiar tabletop game written for exactly three players and one tarot deck, with no dice and no GM. Together, you'll form a coven between three mystical archetypes (the innocent and gentle Pure Heart, the volatile, revelrous Wild Spirit, and the uptight, scholarly Old Soul) and try to keep your world of magic and mystery in balance with the mundane world, in spite of its ignorance, poverty and violence.

This game uses tarot cards and draws a lot of inspiration from Belonging Outside Belonging Games, so there should be little to no math or crunch required. As a GM-less game, you might want one person to read the book ahed of time, but character generation and setting are figured out at the table, at the beginning of the session. I like the fact that the author provides pick-lists to choose from: it means that players will have a quick list of options to choose from rather than writing a bunch of abilities out of thin air.

The playtest in the game page shows three people playing it virtually, possibly on Roll20, so it looks like running it online is totally doable!

What’s So Evil About Necromancy? By Tyler Magruder.

Take the role as the product of necromancy (undead), the practitioner of necromancy (necromancer), and the guide (GM) and trade roles multiple times over the course of play.

What’s So Cool… games are pretty rules-light most of the time: you write down a few details and descriptions for your character, and roll 2d6 whenever you want to do something risky. You get +1 for advantages, and -1 for disadvantages. 8 or higher? That’s a success!

What’s So Evil About Necromancy? builds on this framework and adds bits and pieces that allow players to switch roles throughout the course of play. The game is meant to be expandable, so if you want to write lore or expand upon the rules, there’s room for that! The game is pretty light so running it online should be easy, especially since there’s very little character maintenance as written.

If you want more ideas about how to play with necromancy, or if you want to flesh out a setting to play in where necromancy is rampant, you could flip through In Play Issue 2: Necromancy, by FKR Collective, for ideas.

QuestFellows, by Penflower Ink.

QuestFellows is a GM-less collaborative story-telling and role-playing game for 2 or more players, based on the Four Points RPG System. QuestFellows combines the atmosphere and themes of classic high fantasy adventure, with a narrative, player-driven and fully cooperative role-playing experience.

This game is what you want if you’re looking for a classic fantasy game. It’s GM-less, so like other GM-less games, it should expect the group to learn how to play together, which usually lend themselves to little prep beforehand. It also provides you with form-fillable character sheets and game instructions that allow for online dice-rollers. This is an excellent option for folks who want an setting akin to the stereotypical fantasy world but who don’t want to give one person the burden of being a GM.

POWER | WISDOM | COURAGE, by UnabashedlyRose.

POWER|WISDOM|COURAGE is a GMless game for three players about being chosen by the Light to face off against the Shadows and save your home from destruction.

It's also a game about defying expectations and resisting the control of any of these so-called gods.

This game pulls greatly from the themes of Legend of Zelda, with a focus on a trio of heroes and reincarnation, as well as going to fight against a devastating Darkness. The three characters are provided with predetermined stats according to the virtue they most embody, as well as a series of pick-lists to determine their motivation and background. The setting feels pretty abstract, so you can decide the details of it by yourselves, or perhaps with a world-building game to accompany you, such as Questlandia 2nd Edition, by turtle bun. If you want a game that is epic in scope, this might be the game for you!

Games I’ve Recommended Before

Poutine: Deep Dish Nine, by The Kinematic Cafe.

Anyone Can Wear The Mask, by Jeff Stormer.

#dnd #game recommendations #indie ttrpgs #tabletop games #three player #gm-less #fantasy

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tippenfunkaport · 9 months

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Official Dreamworks Digital SPOP Releases

I put a bunch of these in other posts I've posted before or things I queued up to post later when i was archiving everything form the Twitter account but since we were talking about this I might as well collect them all in one post...

The She-Ra Page on the Dreamworks activity center links to many (some of the links are broken) of the official digital merch they made.

There are Zoom backgrounds, watch along bingo cards, recipies, and some printable paper craft things like the mini-figs from Roll With It, the She-Ra Sword, and the valentines (which also include a papercraft model of Bow's arrow).

The She-Ra virtual reality room which is kinda boring but props to them for trying, I guess.

For use with VR set ups, obvs, but you can view it in a browser as well.

Want something really random? Scholastic had a math handout they did as part of their newsletter for schools featuring Marcus Scribner as Bow. Brand synergy is a mysterious thing.

The text version is here if you prefer to read

Lastly, there was a handout on how to read First Ones language also done by Scholastic to cross promote the books...

There was also a paper hand out they had at the Scholastic booth at cons and I actually own that but I don't have time to find / scan it at the moment.

There was an official She-Ra Instagram filter (beloved of my children) which is alas no more but you can see their IG story about it here (assuming that link works?)

And, of course, there is the sticker app which is still available in an app store near you and I uploaded most of the stickers from it to Tumblr a while ago as well.

Lastly, a lot more of the printable crafts they did can be found on @dreamworksshera which is the official tumblr of the show. There's a pattern to make Bow's shirt, Spinnerella themed pinwheels, a Sea Hawk flag, Netossa net and Mermista smoothie that I remember off the top of my head. Unfortunately, whoever ran that account did not understand tagging at all so they are very hard to find but such is life!

cc-ing @n7punk and @clarenecessities just since this conversation is all over the place and confusing as hell

#spop #shera #she ra #marcus scribner #dreamworks #scholastic #official merchandise #bow #long post #i am nearly positive there are more scholastic handouts but I haven't been able to find them

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mllemaenad · 4 months

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Having now listened to all of The Magnus Archives ... hm, yeah, I think they made it out all right in the end. And I don't just mean that in a soppy I-can-only-stand-happy-endings sort of way (although, it's been a crappy few months, and to be honest I wouldn't mind a happy ending), but because I think there's a really satisfying conclusion to John's character arc if he finally figures out how it all works.

Er. John? Jon? I have seen it spelled both ways, and now I am confused. And the character seems to be named after his creator, which is not making me less confused. But the transcript uses "John", so I will go with that.

John's core problem is that he is constantly trying to take control of his life and his choices, but is never able to do so because the narrative won't let him. He undoubtedly makes several rash decisions that the audience can guess won't end well, but even in cases where he sits down and attempts to make the best choice possible he ends up playing into the hands of his enemies, because they are able to tightly control the information to which he has access. Things that seem rational based on what he knows end up being terrible choices, because of how well curated "what he knows" happens to be.

There's a thing a lot of the characters do, where they describe the logic of their world as akin to dreams or nightmares:

SIMON No, no, no, you’re right, of course. The thing you have to remember is that no one actually knows how these things work – not really. There’s always been plenty of theories, of course, and over a century or two you do start to get an intuitive feel for it, but… there’s really no hard-and-fast rules. The powers, or entities, or fears, or whatever you want to call them, are bound up in emotion. In feeling. How they exist, what they can do, how they interact with the world… it all makes about as much logical sense as a nightmare. [MARTIN INHALES] Which is to say, there is a certain sort of emotional logic to it all: things feel like they flow together in a way that makes sense, but if you try to stop and do the maths, then it all comes apart. At least, in my experience. – Simon Fairchild, doing the exposition for characters and audience alike. Big Picture

But, as Simon points out, the trouble is that none of them really understand what they're talking about. Few people in this world seem to dedicate actual time to understanding it – most are either seduced or destroyed (or some weird combination of the two) by the power that comes with worship and terror.

So they get close, but they miss the point: it's not dream logic, it's story logic. There's a reasonable amount of crossover, of course: both deal in emotion and theme and imagery. We'll forgive a plot hole or continuity error in a story if the narrative feels right, and nobody is surprised if their dreams don't have coherent worldbuilding in them. But stories have purpose in them in a way that dreams do not. They're trying to say something that you need to think about. You can't really tell somebody about a dream without imposing narrative logic on it that wasn't necessarily there when you dreamt it, and most dreams simply fade away into nothingness once you've had them. But a narrative is shaped, and if it's good it can live virtually forever. You can't control a dream, but you can and should control a narrative.

That's the thing John finally works out.

I mean - of course it's got story logic, right? It's a story. It's a piece of fiction, so it's got themes and tropes and character foils and recurring imagery and all that jazz. But beyond that, it is a story made up of a patchwork of other stories: most of the episodes contain a little self-contained supernatural story with its own protagonist and its own ending; over the top of that lie a series of recurring characters who pop up across multiple episodes, and whose personal stories you can learn, and who will intersect with each other to build a historical narrative that explains how we got here; and on top of that are the characters who live closest to the present – John and whichever assistants are still alive at any given moment – and their struggle to deal with all this.

It's that patchwork that makes up the net in which John is caught for most of the series: because he is only able to follow the narrative, he is not able to control it. Yes, he is directly manipulated by actual characters in the story – most prominently by Jonah Magnus and Annabelle Cane – but it is mostly the story itself that keeps him locked in place.

In most cases, there is nothing whatsoever he can do about the various events that take place in the story. He's almost always reading about something that happened anywhere between years and centuries prior. Even when he's acquired enough information to understand what's happening in these stories he can't do a single damn thing for the characters. They either made it out on their own or they didn't.

Occasionally the story moves closer to the present, usually at season end but in a few other places as well, but even then he is still following behind the narrative. The story isn't about him, but his predecessor: "Why was Gertrude Robinson murdered? What did she know?" He is following the story of a dead woman. Her story is well and truly over, but he cannot catch up to the end of it.

Because the thing about the Archivist is that – well, it’s a bit of a misnomer. It might, perhaps, be better named: The Archive. Because you do not administer and preserve the records of fear, John. You are a record of fear, both in mind as you walk the shuddering record of each statement, and in body as the Powers each leave their mark upon you. You are a living chronicle of terror. – Technically John speaking, but in practice Jonah Magnus monologuing about his evil plan. The Eye Opens

His whole purpose in the story is to read (or on a few notable occasions hear) something bizarre, express a general "What the actual fuck was that?" and move on, without any ability to act on what he has learned.

But there is logic to their world. Season five – well, technically the finale of season four – turns the implicit into the explicit.

It does tickle me, that in this world of would-be occult dynasties and ageless monsters, the Chosen One is simply that – someone I chose. It’s not in your blood, or your soul, or your destiny. It’s just in your own, rotten luck. – More of Jonah Magnus being smug. He does go on a bit. The Eye Opens

The thing is, though: you aren't a Chosen One unless you're in a story. That's a narrative archetype. Even if you attempt to impose the idea on a historical event, you're only doing so retroactively by slotting a person into a particular narrative framework that probably does not match reality. It's unsurprising that Magnus had to build his horrifying fantasy world out of the trappings of a quest narrative: his whole power base is built out of collected stories. But if that's the world you make, you end up with a very specific set of rules.

Consequently, John spends much of the season explaining why they have to follow the rules of a quest narrative in order to actually go anywhere.

ARCHIVIST (heh) You see that tower, way off in the distance? MARTIN (don’t like where this is going) Yeah. (beat, sigh) It’s watching us, isn’t it? ARCHIVIST The Panopticon and the Institute. Merged into something entirely new. MARTIN (splutter-scoff) Wai– what? No, there’s, there’s no way we can see it from here. We – We must still be a hundred miles from the border, never mind London! ARCHIVIST You could see that tower from anywhere on Earth. And it can see you. And if you walk towards it, eventually you’ll get there. But you have to go through everything in between. [Pause.] MARTIN (bright) You’re being ominous again. ARCHIVIST (ah!) Sorry. Sorry. MARTIN What do you mean ‘everything?’ What’s out here? [The Archivist inhales. As he does so, there’s a sort of creaking – and then we hear the weakest strains of bagpipes beginning to fade through.] ARCHIVIST Nightmares. Come on, that trench is our first. – John, taking a turn at the exposition. In the Trenches

Dreams don't work that way – or at least they don't have to. Dreams can drop you into any situation and pull you out of it again with neither logic nor explanation. But if you are heading to a dark tower to confront an evil wizard ... well, then, everybody knows that you have a lot of walking to do. That you must meet friends and foes along the way and fight smaller battles before you fight the big one. It's how it goes.

It's even more explicit – almost painfully so – when dealing directly with character development.

ARCHIVIST Alright. [MORE WALKING] Next one’s through here. BASIRA Next one? ARCHIVIST Her latest victim. [DOOR IS WRENCHED OPEN WITH A METALLIC CREAK] [MARTIN REELS, SOUNDS OF FLIES BUZZING] Recognise her. BASIRA … No… I don’t think I do. ARCHIVIST That wasn’t a question. It was an instruction. We can’t move on until you do. MARTIN John, what are you getting at? ARCHIVIST This isn’t just a journey through spaces. – Basira preferring not to do introspection in a literal hellscape, but John has worked out the narrative rules so it's confront-your-past day in the apocalypse. The Processing Line

John is not wildly unusual in being a specific person's Chosen One: you can make the word "destiny" do a lot of work, and the poor bastard in the role is as often as not the favourite of a god, or the only child of a king, or the last of something bearing the duty of a larger group.

He is somewhat more unusual in being two people's Chosen One, and somewhat moreso again by being broadly opposed to the thing he was chosen to do. But the core thing is that this is a known role; it's a structure you can work with. Eventually. When you're in a position to do so.

Martin figured it out a season earlier.

MARTIN It’s not him! It’s not anybody. It’s just me. Always has been. I… When I first came to you, I thought I had lost everything. John was dead, my mother was dead, the job I had put everything into trapped me into spreading evil and I… I really didn’t care what happened to me. I told myself I was trying to protect the others, but… honestly we didn’t even like each other. Maybe I just thought joining up with you would be a good way to get killed. And then… John came back, and… and suddenly I had a reason I had to keep your attention on me. Make you feel in control so you didn’t take it out on him. And if that meant drifting further away, so what? I’d already grieved for him. And if it meant now saving him, it was worth it. When you started talking about the Extinction, though… you had me actually, then, for a while. But then – (laughs sardonically) then, you tried to make me the hero. Tried to sell me on the idea that I was the only one who could stop it. And that I’ve never sat right with me. I mean, I mean, look – look at me, I’m not exactly a – a chosen one. But by then I was in too deep. So I played along. Waited to see what your end game was, and here we are. Funny. Looks like I was right the first time. It’s probably still a good way to get killed? – Martin explaining that he was just stringing the villains along. Panopticon

The thing is, he is Peter Lukas's Chosen One. The reasoning behind it is cruel, but I can think of a few stories about gods making bets on what humans will do. But he works out what kind of story they're trying to tell him, and turns it to his advantage.

This is a good one. Everybody knows this one: one of the characters is betraying the others and working with the villains. It isn't because he wants to; it's because his hand has been forced. But it's a trap. It will get him killed. It will get his friends killed. The villains are lying to him about what they mean to do and how far they mean to make him go. The audience knows this, but the characters just keep digging their holes deeper and deeper ... until the sudden reveal that it was a con all along. The "traitor" never intended to turn on his friends. It was part of the plan. It's a classic. It's basically the plot of The Sting. Who wouldn't want a turn at being Robert Redford?

And it works. Martin gets everything he wants out of that ploy: Lukas is destroyed, "Elias" is unmasked as Jonah Magnus, John makes good on his earlier commitment to run away with him, and he skips the eye gouging. You can't fault his results. The problem is, Martin is a secondary character. He doesn't quite have the narrative weight to resolve the primary conflict. That plot revolves around him but the plot does not, so in the longer term, things continue to get worse.

But he does prove it can be done. If you recognise what kind of story you are in, and the different ways that kind of story can go, you can grab on a narrative thread and steer it in a direction that works for you.

ANNABELLE We found the one we believed most likely to bring about their manifestation. We marked him young, guided his path as best we could. And then, we took his voice. ARCHIVIST No… ANNABELLE His, and those he walked with. We inscribed them on shining strands of word and meaning, and used them to weave a web which cast itself out through the gate and beyond our universe. So that when the Fears heard that voice, and came in their terrible glory, they might then travel out along it. Or be dragged. BASIRA Is she talking about the tapes? ARCHIVIST Yes. – In which Annabelle explains why there are tape recorders everywhere. Connected

You can say voice or tapes, but that's missing the point: it's stories that will carry these beings out of the world. Two hundred odd narratives about godlike beings with insatiable hunger and Lovecraftian pretensions who can travel to other worlds when the denizens of those places hear the tales. That has its own uncomfortable implications, sure, but if you've been paying attention you know something else about those stories:

ARCHIVIST Statement ends. (sigh) One thing that always strikes me when I read statements like this is… the bias of survivorship. With one or two notable exceptions, the only statements the Institute receives are those where the witness has successfully escaped whatever terrible place or being has marked them for a victim. I wonder how many don’t make it out. How many of those shapes in the water were once just like Mr. Shakya. – John is being gloomy, but he has hit upon an important point. Submerged

They are largely stories in which humans beat the monsters. They are stories about how to survive. You can do a horror story with a catastrophic ending, of course. It can have a great impact. But probably not two hundred of them in a row. That would be hard going on the listener: another week, another corpse. So these are largely hopeful stories – with those noted exceptions, of course.

I've seen the memes: I know Joshua Gillespie, who beat a coffin that wanted to consume him with a bowl of ice, is a favourite. Of course he is: that's genius. Or Dylan Anderson, who just ... covered a homicidal pig in concrete. Characters like Gerard Keay and Adelard Dekker are attractive because when they arrive on the scene, the supernatural becomes no more than another problem to be solved with just the right application of human ingenuity (and Dekker, notably, is probably the source for the concrete trick – you cannot fault results).

There are two possible threads to pull on here: you can pull on the thread of supernatural horror, or the thread of human resourcefulness in the face of adversity.

SASHA Why record it? ARCHIVIST What? SASHA Before, in the office. It, it was stupid going for the tape recorder like that, and then when you dropped it out there – ARCHIVIST I said I was sorry. If I’d known Martin had another one stashed in here, I never would have… SASHA No, it’s, it’s fine, just… I just don’t understand. I thought you hated the damn thing. You’re always going on about it. ARCHIVIST I do! I did. I just… I don’t want to become a mystery. I refuse to become another goddamn mystery. SASHA What? ARCHIVIST Look, even if you ignore the walking soil-sack out there, and the fact that we are probably minutes from death, there is still so much more happening here. MARTIN I’m not sure we can really ignore the – ARCHIVIST Every real statement just leads… deeper into something I don’t even know the shape of yet. And to top it all, I still don’t know what happened to Gertrude. Officially she’s still missing, but Elias is no help and the police were pretty clear that the wait to call her dead is just a formality. If I die, wormfood or… something else, whatever, I’m going to make damn sure the same doesn’t happen to me. Whoever takes over from me is going to know exactly what happened. – John, making bad tape-recorder related decisions. Infestation

And there is mystery. That is another thread you can pull on. Because in the end, Gertrude wasn't a mystery at all. Her activities, her personality, her associates, her strengths and her weaknesses are all pretty well documented. She's dead on the floor with three bullets in her. She's the reason they're in this mess, because she did the thinking Jonah Magnus could not and set him on his path. She would hate that with every fibre of her being – but it is known. What you know about her is that she failed, and she died.

John is wrong, in the above, because of course he is. He doesn't know anything yet, except that his workplace is probably evil and currently full of worms. He hasn't worked out the story logic, yet, and he doesn't yet see the difference between knowing and understanding.

Mystery. What if? That's a powerful plot thread you can pull on, if you're in the right place and you are desperate enough.

There's what he can't do, in the end. He can't trap the weird fear entities in the world and starve them to death. Annabelle knew exactly what buttons to push to get him heading in that direction, sure, but it was never going to work. I don't even mean the business with the lighter, although that's the practical way this was set up. I mean this is a five-season series in which the temples of these dark gods are repeatedly destroyed by fire, book burning is a recurring motif, and "What if we made it explode?" is always a solid cross-generation Team Archives plan. For heaven's sake – The Magnus Institute has basically the same fatal flaw as The Death Star. We're blowing it up in the finale. We just are. It's that kind of story. It doesn't matter what he wants. There was never anything there for John to pull on.

But this?

ARCHIVIST Do it! The knife’s just there. Let them go. MARTIN [Tearful] I’m not going to kill you! ARCHIVIST Cut the tether. Send them away. Maybe we both die. Probably. But maybe not. Maybe, maybe everything works out, and we end up somewhere else. MARTIN Together? ARCHIVIST One way or another. Together. – Absolute last-minute planning, because that's how they do things. Last Words

It can seem to come out of nowhere, unless you've been watching him put it together. His world runs on narrative logic. He is the Chosen One atop a burning tower, on a terrible quest. He's faltered a bit, at the last minute, because if you don't shake hands with Frodo Baggins on the way past you are not respecting your ancestors. He's aware of most of this because he's spent most of the season tiredly explaining to his travelling companions that, yes, the journey is a damn metaphor. He is backed by dozens of stories where people escaped at the last by determination, or connecting with their loved ones, or just ... not being all that interested in worshipping dark gods.

Magnus is dead. The entities are packing their bags and running for the exit. There is no one left to care what he does next – except Martin, who would also like a way out of this mess. He has spent years struggling to understand what kind of story he's in and what his role is supposed to be, but now he gets it and is finally, finally the person in the room with a bit of power.

He does not say "Maybe the girls will dig us out of the rubble and we can go home and pretend this never happened". That would be the best possible result for them, of course, but it wouldn't work. No one would believe it. But what he can do is follow the example of all the people that came before because, crucially, "Fuck it, I am not dying today because I don't want to" and "Look, this is the power of love and I am holding on to it in the face of the worst crap I have ever seen" really are the strategies that work. And now he's in the one moment of the story where there is no one else's story left to precede him. This is the only moment in the whole series where the story is really his, and he can decide what happens next.

And what happens next is a question. The question is "What happens next?" It is a thing that is ongoing, rather than a thing that has ended.

I've no doubt he created more problems for himself, and for Martin. You grab that narrative thread and you are literally asking for them: even the kindest of stories won't give you a "happily ever after" until you have solved The Problems. You would only pull that one if you were desperate, but under the circumstances it was probably warranted.

But maybe, this time, they can run ahead of the narrative instead of behind. That makes all the difference.

#the magnus archives

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alex51324 · 5 months

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I'm doing some planning for Baking Week, so I thought this was a good time to remind people about my cookie book.

(It's a a Google doc, but I call it a book to be fancy.)

At Christmas time, I bake 2-3 batches of cookies a day in the week leading up to Christmas, to share at my family's big gathering at my grandmother's house on Christmas.

In 2020, we of course did not have the big gathering, so I wrote up a bunch of my usual recipes to give out virtually. I updated the book a little bit last year, adding one new recipe and correcting a couple of errors. There's nothing new this year, but it's still there, with about two dozen recipes, including a couple for vegan and gluten-free diets, and a couple for dogs.

It says Christmas Cookie Book at the top because that's what my family celebrates and when I bake them, but they're mostly all-occasion cookies. I'm always making them for a crowd--in addition to platters for the party, I also do take-home bags for about 10 or 12 households, depending on who shows up--so I gravitate toward recipes that make a substantial batch and aren't especially fussy.

See below the cut for the recipe for my favorite walnut cookies!

Walnut Balls

This recipe makes a truly massive amount of cookies. Even when I’m baking for everybody, I usually do a ¾ batch—those amounts are shown in parentheses. Of course, you can also halve the recipe, but I think you can figure out the math on that one yourself!

The original recipe for this cookie is a thumbprint cookie: you poke a little depression into the top of each ball before baking, and then after baking, fill it with icing or jam. You can do that if you want—I make them plain because I like them better that way.

4 sticks butter (3 sticks)

2 cups brown sugar (1 ½ cups)

4 eggs, separated into whites and yolks (3 eggs)

2 teaspoons vanilla (1 ½ tsp)

4 cups flour (3 cups)

1 teaspoon salt (3/4 tsp)

1 pound walnut meats, finely chopped (3/4 pound)

Note: If you have a food processor, use that to chop the walnuts. You want them about as finely chopped as you can get them—like, just a little chunkier than cornmeal.

1. In a big mixing bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar.

2. Add egg yolks and vanilla. Beat until creamy. (Put the egg whites in the refrigerator for now.)

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.

4. Add dry ingredients to the big bowl. It works best to do it in 3 or 4 batches, mixing after each addition. (2 or 3 batches if you’re doing a smaller recipe)

5. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for several hours. (I sometimes shape it into logs first, which makes the shaping step a little easier, but you can also just cover the bowl with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge.)

6. When your dough is done chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. The walnut-and-egg-white coating on these can get messy, so it’s a good idea to line the baking sheets with parchment if you have some. You may also want to put down a dish towel or some plastic wrap/wax paper on your work area.

7. Get your egg whites back out, and beat them until they start to get a little foamy. A mixer with a whisk attachment is best for this; any other mixer is second-best. If you don’t have a mixer, you will get a workout.

8. Get the dough out. Shape it into balls about 1 inch in diameter.

9. Dip each ball into the beaten egg whites, rolling it around to make sure it’s totally covered. (I usually have the egg whites in a smallish mixing bowl, and I put about half a dozen dough-balls in at a time, and swirl the bowl around to coat them.)

10. Roll each ball in the finely-chopped walnuts, pressing firmly to make sure they stick. (I usually have the walnuts in a shallow dish like a salad plate. I’ll put several dough-balls in there and heap the walnuts on top of them, then squeeze as I pick them up to put them on the baking sheet.)

11. Place the dough balls on your baking sheet. These don’t spread out much, so they don’t have to be far apart—an inch is plenty.

12. Bake for 10-11 minutes, then set out to cool.

#cookies #baking #food #christmas #holidays

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milcnasuarez · 4 months

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⸻ ana de armas, 35, cis female, she/her // in the AVONLEA TERRACE neighborhood of Covington, you’ll find MILENA SUAREZ who’s lived there for FOUR YEARS and they spend their days working as the OWNER OF THE PURRING CAT and HACKER. They’ve been described as INTELLIGENT, FEARLESS, BLUNT, and AGGRESSIVE by the people that know them. This is her story.

Triggers: knives and violence mention

Born and raised in the well known city of Havana, an affluent neighborhood called Miramar in Cuba, Milena was one that never quite fit into any setting. Even as a baby it was painfully obvious, to the disappointment of her parents, that she was nothing like them. One classification would be that Milena was an introvert and growing up she didn’t like to play with others and kept mostly to herself. It was an immediate challenge for her socialite mother, she had a hard time finding footing in motherhood since her life was all about the town’s social calendar and making sure her family was well thought of and regarded. Most of the time, when Milena was young, she went along with what her parents wanted and requested of her as far as dressing and acting a certain way. She couldn’t quite comprehend their meaning, on a personal level, of blending into the expectations of society and having an image to uphold.

Most of her knowledge growing up came from books, rather than learning in a social way from other kids and adults. She immersed herself in books, it didn’t matter the subject as long as it was based on facts, that’s what she was interested in. Milena was pretty much self-taught growing up, being sent home a lot since grade 6, the girl honestly didn’t have much of a choice. Teachers and parents had no idea what to do with Suarez. She hardly spoke and when she did it was always something foul. Only did what she wanted to do, and if she wasn’t given any other choice, it ended with swinging fists and biting. Believing that there was no other choice, her parents took her out of school. They were too engrossed in their own lives with the fancy gatherings and travels for her father’s banking business he had started before moving to Miramar from Madrid.

They gave up on her, they didn’t even bother to home school her, which was actually heaven to Milena with being on her own and only having to worry about herself. She became smarter over the years, not only in reading, but in math also and her memory became sharp. Milena could remember facts only after skimming over it once, could read at an exceptionally quick rate, and taught herself virtually anything by devouring books on whatever subject was interesting and available.

Milena’s parents pretty much let her do what she wanted when she became a teenager. As no one wanted to deal with her mouth or having to clean up a mess. When she was 15, Milena cut her own hair and started to carry knives and dress too provocatively. Of course, this was something that the Suarez parents didn’t approve of, they worried about their own reputations and as soon as Milena turned 16, her parents kicked her out, leaving her only with a bag of clothes and the shoes on her feet. This only fueled the fire that was burning inside of Milena.

For some time, all she did was travel and bounce around from place to place with her stick tied handkerchief. It was hard, a major struggle with no money and no real social skills, so Milena often did whatever she had to do to survive. Whether that was stealing, fighting, or doing a number of various illegal tasks to make any sum of money. She never really stayed in one place too long, eventually leaving Cuba all together and bounced around the United States in the same way that she had within her own country. Life on the streets and as a wanderer were the cause for Milena to hone her skills in fighting, because it was always a fight to stay alive when living on the streets and starving. She began to collect knives, and to this day usually has one on her at all times, likely tucked away somewhere completely unnoticeable.

Born tough was one thing but by the time she’d made her way to Las Vegas, at age 19, she’d become an absolute pro on survival. She was savvy enough to have a collection of small illegal tasks to make money here and there and when in Sin City, not too long after turning 20, Milena decided to stop struggling from small job to small job. Using her intelligence and natural but supreme computer skills, Milena stole a laptop and furthered her brief earlier teenage stint as a hacker and started siphoning money from banks and corporations into a few different offshore accounts of her own, making herself rich. It took a good year to build up accounts the way Milena wanted, learning her way around the various computer systems in the world, before she was able to build a decent paper trail to give background to her sudden wealth. Milena even went as far as gaining American citizenship, teaming up with a forger.

Once she felt confident in what she had, she opened a lounge called Snake Eyes in Los Angeles and it was successful, especially with Milena devouring knowledge on how to properly run a business. Eventually trouble caught up with her, still considered a little green in the hacking world, she had made some mistakes and began to be pulled in for questioning by the FBI. They didn’t have much more than suspicion on her, at least nothing to give her any hard time over and at that point Milena could afford a top notch lawyer. Still, the series of being brought in for questioning got under her skin and she decided it was time to make some changes. She sold her lounge in Los Angeles and moved east, finding a city where a little sin might be welcomed. Atlanta, Georgia. Quickly after settling into Covington, a town just an easy drive outside of the big city, Milena converted a beautiful home in Avonlea Terrace with a secure work space for her computers, Milena bought a building and opened up a strip club called The Purring Cat in Atlanta.

Business went well, both her strip club front for official income and her illegal businesses. She learned from her mistakes in the past and cleaned up all errors made, making Suarez even harder to keep watch on. The FBI and maybe other branches of law enforcement had Milena on a “watch list” with her being considered on a list of the top hackers in the world but with her being that good at what she did behind a computer meant that anyone beneath her level of expertise wouldn’t have a clue on how to track her. It left Milena feeling comfortable, not over confident, she had read that that was usually one of the major downfalls.

While a petite woman with a love for knives most never took her as a serious threat, which was a mistake when rowdy and rough patrons of the club came in and created chaos and havoc with the way they hassled the women and other patrons of the club. After her security got themselves beat in a fight against the guys of the group that wanted to push their way around when trying to kick them out, Milena got involved. Not only did one of the members end up with multiple stab wounds and a stay in the hospital, Milena shut down all their accounts and turned over paperwork on major assets the men owned. Their houses suddenly getting notices for foreclosure and cars and bikes being repossessed, Milena made it clear that while they could out muscle her, she could easily destroy every little bit of their lives while she sipped on a glass of wine in her desk chair.

Sometimes the really bad offenders got to see how easily she could tear every bit of their life apart. She liked to exact vengeance from behind her computer. For a cut or a hefty sum Milena will take on an odd hacking job here and there but mostly she enjoys sitting back and running her club.

#covingtonintro #( 📌 pinned post ; )#( there's nothing scarier than a woman who knows the power of her flames ; )

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lexart-io · 6 months

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What's the best reference to get AI art started on your own PC? Aside from online services of course.

Broadly speaking, it can be a little tricky to set up if you're not already fairly computer literate because running machine learning stuff on your computer is A LOT more involved than just installing a program. But, there is one program in particular that I think makes this as easy as possible. Visions Of Chaos (click that link and scroll to the bottom for the download link) is a completely free and constantly updated generative art program that includes a massive variety of AI art tools, as well as other cool fun generative/math art functionality. After downloading and installing it, be sure to follow the additional instructions (this link will take you to those instructions) for setting up the machine learning environment on your computer so all of the AI stuff works. VoC is an incredible piece of software and is how I first started playing with a lot of this stuff. It includes virtually all of the major (free) AI art tools in existence and the author is constantly adding more as new tools are created. And this extends beyond just rendering images to AI generated video, music, etc, etc. Installing VoC is a fantastic way to start playing around with everything on your own computer without needing to understand how to install each individual tool on its own.

VoC also has its own Discord server with an active community who are always down to help, share ideas, etc.

#digital art #ai #artificial intelligence #generative art #ai art #synthography #stable diffusion

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zedecksiew · 2 years

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D&D's Obsession With Taxonomy

Like virtually everybody else in the TTRPG space I downloaded One D&D's playtest document to see what the fuss was.

One of the eyebrow-raising bits in that document is the boxed text titled "Children Of Different Humanoid Kinds":

"For example, folk who have a human parent and an orc or an elf parent are particularly common. Many other combinations are possible ... Finally, determine the average of the two options’ Life Span traits to figure out how long your character might live. For example, a child of a halfling and a gnome has an average life span of 288 years."

Many people have problems with this passage. I can see why. But when I read it I laughed.

Of course D&D would handle this thing this way.

"Determine the average of the two options' Life Span traits to figure out how long your character might live"; the ludicrous math precision of "288 years"?

These bits are quintessential D&D.

"D&D is racist!" discourse returns again and again, like a pair of annoying missionaries.

(I've used this metaphor before. I'm pleased with it. I will repeat it as often as people repeat "D&D is racist!" discourse online.)

But a conversation that Flo began on Discord about the thoul has given me a way to talk about "D&D is racist!" in a way that doesn't bore me.

What is a thoul?

"Thouls are magical crosses between ghouls, hobgoblins, and trolls. In spite of their ghoulish blood, they are living creatures, not undead."

Gus points out that "thoul" is likely a typo -- "transcription error (first use of thouls replaces 'toads' as entry above 'ghouls' on table transferred from Monsters and a treasure to ready ref sheets)"

(Here's a fun link about the thoul's possible origins.)

The Discord conversation descends into laughter.

Flo: "I think D&D does not need as many humanoids as it has."

Here's my thought:

D&D is racist is really: D&D is obsessed with taxonomy which is really: Nerds are obsessed with taxonomy

People arguing over the differences between a wyvern and a dragon; or

People insisting that Tolkien made a categorical distinction between orcs and goblins (no, he did not, go read "Lord of the Rings" again); or

People arguing about whether "Star Wars" is science fiction or science fantasy, and then arguing about the boundaries of science fantasy; or

What Are The Differences Between High Fantasy And Low Fantasy

Etc, etc, etc.

All of the above cliche-nerd-arguments are about more-or-less arbitrary distinctions. The utility of these categories tend to be vastly overblown.

Categories are useful.

There is a distinction between performance art and the performing arts because they arise from separate traditions; ditto the many strains of music genre.

But these are useful precisely because they communicate a history of people exercising agency -- creators choosing to define themselves in relation to history / tradition / peers, letting those things define their work.

Categories are subjective actions, not objective facts.

What the nerd approach to taxonomy ("a dragon is NOT a wyvern!!!") does well is make a field of knowledge / phenomena predictable, quantifiable: "This is the way the world is."

Therefore fully understandable: "I know the world."

Therefore possible to act on: "I know what do with the world."

You can solve it, apply best practices to it, optimise it, own it, possess it.

Definitive taxonomies like "goblin / hobgoblin / bugbear" is better for you because then you can shorthand these creatures into three separate and discrete scripts.

Instead of: "goblin people come in a lot of different sizes -- some are big, some are puny, some are kind, some are not -- it all depends. You got to just pay attention to each one."

Which makes things messier, more unpredictable, meaning you have to pay attention, exercise discretion / empathy more, possibly accommodate new perspectives.

"I know the bugbear better than it knows itself, I got this." vs "Okay so how do I get to know Ms Goblin better?"

When I posted these thoughts to Discord, Marcia observed:

"The connection between taxonomy and power, that nerds find it empowering to possess an abstract knowledge which they impose onto things, seems related to what has been identified as phallic desire ..."

(Meaning that this blogpost should really be titled D&D's Obsession With Phallic Desire , for maximum clickbait -- but this is Marcia's thought, don't wanna steal her thunder!)

One advantage to quantifiable, objective, abstracted taxonomies in games:

It helps with logistics in play.

The mental load for players in TTRPGs is already so high -- at least it is for me, weak-brained nerd as I am; I need some shorthand just to help my imagination along.

BUT!

If helping with mental load was the purpose for D&D obsessive taxonomy -- it'd be way simpler than it now is???

Tracking all the split hairs between D&D FINAL EDITION's ten thousand different Conditions is empathically not making play easier.

Back to the thoul. Gus again:

"Thouls - my take is they are interesting as a set of mechanics - but incoherent as a creature. The need to justify their abilities via existing monsters makes then nonsensical- better just to have them be some sort of manifestation of goblin magic or science ... That D&D chose instead to taxonomize them says something about D&D."

The thoul's "part ghoul, part troll, part hobgoblin" thing is much like the "half-dradkin half-celestial ranger 5 / paladin 7" NPCs you see in mainstream RPG adventure-path-type books.

Which is much like: "determine the average of the two options’ Life Span traits" and "288 years".

Aesthetically and ethically incoherent; mechanically convoluted -- but absolutely sensical if your purpose is to safeguard access to a highly taxonomised "objective" worldview.

Nerds don't mind figuring out complicated fractions of abstract objective absolutes. Because this means you can still ultimately sort reality into absolutes.

You can still grasp (in all senses of the word) the world.

That thought is safer / more advantageous than: "yeah you just gotta deal with things being a messy soup, people are not lines of code, you gotta pay attention to everything in its own context."

This is turning out to be a post assisted by Discord chorus.

Re: the drive for taxonomy-based worldbuilding -- and concurrent to thoughts about how Non-Diegetic Objective Maps Are Naff Actually -- Ava:

"the whole "fantasy worldbuilding, with its concrete ontologies and god's eye histories and maps replicates + reifies colonial epistemology" was the whole deal of my thesis."

(Ava you need to write a blogpost about this thesis!)

Re: literal scientific taxonomy -- Dan:

"D&D's obsession with taxonomy is weirder to me than normal taxonomic obsessions because of how hard it tries to ape natural sciences and then leaves out every possible interesting thing actually studying ecology could lead to."

Which sparked a discussion about the politics of binomial nomenclature, how there's a great deal of re-classification going on in scientific fields.

Syd:

"there’s actually been a lot of big reshuffles that have come out of the fact that people realized certain classifications had been from phenotypical similarities (physical characteristics) but not genotípicas relationships. And even when it isn’t political in the sense of changing names that we’re given as honorifics there’s actually a huge pushback just from people who think it shouldn’t change bc that’s historically how it was, even if it doesn’t fit our current models of what taxonomy is actually useful for in ecology and biology."

Something something, categories are subjective actions, not objective facts, something something.

Flo, with the final word:

"It's the same thing that gives the Internet sandwich discourse. 'Is x a sandwich?' A sandwich is not an objective fact. A sandwich is an idea. A sandwich is a category we choose to make."

( Image source: https://dmdavid.com/tag/the-strange-mystery-of-the-dd-monster-called-a-thoul/ )

#fantasies #rpgs #d&d #racism #taxonomies #discord #discourse #monsters #nerds

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csuitebitches · 1 year

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January Monthly Checklist

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I have two types of goals - non negotiable (daily goals) and add ons (monthly goals). You can see more here.

Daily Goals:

Reading

My read for this month:

• Ancient wisdom for modern times - Anjana Chokshi

Working out:

Minimum days of working out : 20 days

Meditation

10 minutes consistently everyday : 20 days

Brain games (mental math)

Mental math everyday: 25 days

Add Ons:

✨Career, Conferences and Learning :

* January 1: My family business’s founding anniversary event

* January 7: An Ivy League’s Economic Forum (international)

* January 8: Launching my free newsletter for you guys!

* January 10: Attending a virtual conference about a scientific study on happiness

* January 11: Attending a session for the first time by an organisation I’m a part of, for future CEOs

* January 20: hosting the first session of my start up resource initiative that I’ve founded

Online course

* Emotional intelligence course on Futurelearn

Philanthropy

* Charity work (waiting for approval from a couple of charities I’ve reached out to)

My Weekly Newsletter (!!)

* Launching my weekly Sunday newsletter on January 8th 2023

* Creating 4 newsletters

Beauty

* Manicure

* Schedule a massage

✨How I Found Out About These Events

1. Sign up for existing organisations and charities in your city.

2. Look up online constantly for events happening near me. My country has a very popular events app that we use to go for all sorts of events (entertainment, music, conferences) so finding these out are quite easy.

3. Newsletters. Newsletters of the local art museums; banks; charitable institutes; B School events…. The list goes on.

4. Starting an initiative. If you can’t find one around you, create one. Get a couple of your friends to help out and create something beautiful!

#c suite #powerful woman #ceo aesthetic #personal growth #that girl #productivity #strong women #getting your life together #feminine energy #balance #social calendar #conferences #events #socialising #connecting #January 2023

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herrscherofmagic · 2 months

Text

does anyone else get that weird feeling when you can look at a bajillion different art styles and go "yeah that's neat! love it! so cool!" and then as soon as you do absolutely any of your own drawing, there's just a constant alarm going off in your head saying "THIS IS INCORRECT AND IF YOU DON'T FIX IT, IT WILL LOOK TERRIBLE AND ANATOMICALLY INACCURATE" despite it being nothing different from all those other art styles you see and love??? like "uncanny valley" but w/ all your own artwork and almost all the time

like I was just thinking about this, because there's lots of awesome artists I follow on Instagram & Tumblr that have interesting styles that don't necessarily follow real-life human proportions. It's often different variants of anime art but that's not always the case, and across pretty much all these different styles you have different things like how the contours of the face are (i.e. chin, cheeks), or the size/spacing of eyes, or the way the mouth is drawn

but it's just occurred to me that whenever I draw, there's pretty much always a constant nagging feeling, that I have to fix every anatomical or rendering mistake and if I don't then it just won't look "right", and that's one of the biggest things that stops me from completing 99% of my art

like earlier today I posted a 10-minute sketch, and it was obviously not "good anatomy"- it was pure vibes, just drawing what felt right in the moment and immediately posting it without trying to correct anything at all. and as soon as I did it, it hit me- that was probably the first time I've ever just created a piece of art for fun with virtually zero concern about "accuracy". Everything else I ever work on is always constantly drawn-out and changed and modified endlessly because it never feels "correct" and I don't feel like I can proceed with it.

today I've spent more than 3 hours just practicing how to draw heads, and it was the same thing. I was doing okay, but it took ages to get through even the simple parts like drawing straight from an anatomy ref. and it drives me insane not just because of perfectionism or whatever... but the fact that there's not a single "correct" human figure.

There's a ton of natural variation in how people appear, that's why we're all unique ffs! Different people have differently-shaped faces, their noses look different, their cheeks are different, their foreheads can be different, the wrinkles or freckles or eyebrows or eye shape or X Y Z are all varied and unique among different people.

Of course there are certain basic proportions and principles, you don't put someone's eyes on the back of their head, but I know all the basic proportions at this point and I've made a ridiculous amount of figure drawings both live and from photo, quite literally hundreds of drawings ranging from 1-3 minute gestures all the way to 1-, 2-, 3-hour-long works.

So why is it that no matter who or what I draw there's always that piercing & uncanny feeling? that i'm never able to capture a likeness of someone whether real or fictional, whether I'm trying to draw realistically or stylized?? it feels like I'm still getting something fundamentally wrong all the time even when I've studied all the basics and so much more, and even when my own professors look at what I do and say it's correct.

it's probably the autism, since there's a ton of other things in life where I appreciate predictability and uniformity and certainty. math problems have correct answers, essays can have certain types of analysis, machines can be described in terms of mechanical principles. But art isn't like that, and I've had similar issues w/ my art classes before, I just never quite thought of it from this specific perspective. I knew I struggled with open-endedness in projects, but this feels like something even deeper and more infuriating than that >.>

going back to that sketch, I can look at it and see obvious simple mistakes that I didn't bother to fix because I kept it strictly to 10 minutes. the chin is an obvious one, for instance, and the eyes could be better too. but I don't want to go back to that artwork, partially because it's just a 10-min sketch and it's not really anything that profound, but also partially because even though I know I can make it better I'm scared that as soon as I start messing with it I'll never be able to look at it comfortably ever again because it'll always feel incorrect. Not incorrect because I didn't care but incorrect despite me caring so much. which feels so much worse than just making a silly mistake when you're drawing normally.

#rant post #vent post #long post #okay i think that's all the obligatory tags?#tumblr tags still confuse me tbh

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