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falkner(I had downloaded a less-than-legal-copy of the game because I did want to try out the game ASAP, but then proceeded to sink almost seven non-stop hours into it. Fine, Level-5 can have my money now.)
bluedreaming![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
voiceteam Mystery Box 2025 sign ups opened this weekend, and this is the first year I won’t be joining team kpop. (But team kpop will likely still happen! I do have details if anyone is interested.)
Our team doesn’t have a name yet as we’re still polling suggestions (voting will happen next) but I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes. 🐡
🐘 🦋
jajalala( The unfortunate pervasive issue )
Uughh there's some relief (it's been weighing on me for awhile), but mostly I feel like a dick. Firstly for not addressing the issue sooner when it might have been possible to work through it, and secondly for letting things go so long and get serious and investing all that time when I realized things weren't quite clicking on a deeper level, and thirdly just because breaking up with someone makes me feel like an asshole in general 😭.
Well! With the new free time from no more date nights, I can work on projects and connect with old friends. My master's will be done soon (mid December), so around Christmas I'm gonna have a crazy explosion of free time... plenty time to write fanfics, do other projects, and maybe if I'm feeling up to it try dating again in the new year. We'll see!
kallowayWhile helping with some errands, I got to visit an Aldi's for the first time. Prices are good and everything I bought has been fine. The main thing they have against them is that they open at 9AM. I suppose if I calibrate lists properly, I can make a quick trip in during the week when I'm out for other reasons. (I also want to go to the fancier grocery this week! But I also want to finally get to the Lebanese restaurant in the same plaza so that will be closer to a lunch-time trip. Maybe Wednesday.)
I am in the planning discord for a new online BL convention. The project came from a conversation on reddit about how a lot of virtual conventions are centered on daytime North America and aren't as accessible for Asian/Oceanian/European fans. (I had mentioned that I'm in NA but not on NA daytime hours, so different boat same river, or something? Anyway, if anyone would like an invite to the planning discord, LMK.)
I've mostly finished up Blade King, a SNAA model kit. He was certainly an adventure and while he certainly isn't perfect, I'm pleased with how he turned out. (He's also huge, though. I don't know where he's going!) I also mostly finished up HG Blue Frame 2nd, who I started earlier in the year and stalled out on. I've misplaced her markings, however. I know they'll turn up, so she can just go on the shelf as-is for now.
So far for the nerd convention, I've dug out some Transformers and some Monster High dolls. Need to match up accessories and cards and whatnot for them if I can. I just have way too many bins of this stuff. It'll be good to downsize... (Hopefully 2026 can be the year of doing a few more shows and getting rid of a few more things?)
bluedreamingauthor_by_night shared a fun talk post on fictional_fans:Were you an early adopter, or did it take you a while to start posting? Were you writing fanfic elsewhere at the time, or were you not into fic yet? How has your writing changed since the first fic you posted? Do you even use Ao3 now, or do you post somewhere else?
It was fun thinking of a response, especially since I recently did so much spreadsheet work for my own fics. Lots of interesting responses to read!
alisx
Was talking to someone the other day and they mentioned Rogue Trader had DLC out. Apparently when I bought it I did so with the season pass, so . . . time for a re-play!
lannamichaelsFree Bird (Lynyrd Skynyrd) has now joined Breakfast In America (Supertramp) in the storied annals of: *actually pays attention to the lyrics for the first time* this song's about WHAT?
"Lanna, what did you think Free Bird was about?"
IDK, SOMEONE WHO LIKES TRAVELING!
bunn( Cut for photos )
azurelunaticSince the dryer had been leaving unsightly rust streaks on all the lights, I have not been subtle in my campaign for a new one.
Delivery is scheduled for today, of a dryer with a steam cycle but without wifi.
rodoThen Tuesday hit. Instead of the regular two and a half hours of commute, it was five. And until the last couple of hundred meters, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it. Like, when the train finally started, the train driver told us he didn’t know if we’d make it to the end. It was a broken interlocking system. You know, the brand new one that went online last month… In the end, I crashed so badly, physically and mentally, I would have had to call in sick if it hadn’t been for my boss mercifully granting me home office for the rest of the week after I told him my usual train wouldn’t run for the rest of the week and I’d have to take an earlier one. It took me all three working days and two pain pills to regain a semblance of functionality.
Oh, and then I found out that my usual train won’t run for another month, because absolutely nobody understands the train company’s emergency schedules, myself included. So, yeah, I think that was it as far as my grand Yuletide plans are concerned. Especially since I’ve already been through more than half the trains not running for a month once, and the ones that do run… well. I expect a few more Tuesdays, and hardly any free time.
In other news: I think I’ve finally got my first slightly wanky programming opinion. Usually I’m the person who says do whatever works for you, but even I have my breaking point. If you’re going to type anything slightly challenging any, why are you even using TypeScript? JavaScript is right there and there’s nothing wrong with it! (Guess who’s had to delint somebody else’s codebase this week...)
jesse_the_kfrom someone who's a realist-for-now yet also wants to believe.
Adam Engst on Can Agentic Web Browsers Count?
tl;dr No, given a readily available data set on a webpage, they can't.
The sweetest and scariest part was his sympathy for Copilot's very anxious inner monologue as it tried to come up with answers while working to a deadline that nobody had created.
When it comes to system prompts, the anxious tone of Copilot’s internal responses suggests a “ship now, apologize later, if you’re caught” system prompt that, if reflected in a real-world workplace, would be problematic. Obviously, AIs don’t have feelings that can be hurt and won’t complain to HR, but such a culture tends to encourage people to cut corners and make poor decisions that compromise quality and customer service. If Copilot is any indication, the same is true for AIs.
alisxI’ve noticed — especially in my life, I’m not sure if it’s commonplace for everyone else — you kind of go in a circle. You start off liking all this shit as a kid, and then you’re told to grow up a little bit, and you go until you reach a point. Then you go back to the shit you used to like as a kid and realize, Hey, you know what? This is more me than I have been for the past couple years.
Giallo Julian on becoming .
The next lines of this quote link this feeling to nostalgia, which . . . kinda? But as someone who is a known Nostalgia Disliker, I actually think this whole phenomenon is something else.
When I was a kid I had this folder of quotes, and one of them — which, ironically given the above, I think I got from a Vampire: the Masquerade sourcebook, and they got from somewhere else in turn — was something along the lines of we don’t really change as we get older, we just become more the people we are. And I think this progression some people go through, of “enjoy The Thing, discard The Thing as cringe/childish, rediscover The Thing,” is more related to that than it is nostalgia per se. Particularly for people who were in some sort of alt subculture in their teens, then shed that to “fit into” the corporate adult world in their twenties, before realising that was making them feel miserable and false, to the point that, by the time they’re in their thirties or later, they run out of fucks and just go back to what they really had always enjoyed.1
The reason I wouldn’t call this “nostalgia” exactly, is because nowadays “nostalgia” tends to be a toxic force in pop culture. It’s wanting things to return to a false past, to a childish lack of accountability, and to undo aspects of (specifically) social progress. But the rediscovery I’m talking about isn’t that. People who go through it — and I’d say Grim Beard, the guy being interviewed in the linked article, is a pretty Ur-example — are usually pretty upfront about the fact that a lot of the things they enjoyed as a kid were, uh. Not always great? Both in quality and in attitude to, for example, marginalised people. And rediscovery isn’t a return to how things were so much as it is picking the things that were cool and did work and bringing them forward in ways that discard the parts that weren’t and didn’t. Like, you can wear leather coats in summer and sunglasses at night without all the weird fucking racism and misogyny and shit. You can enjoy your old 90s eXXXtreeeme!!! media for the fun schlock it is without going to bat to defend its gross bits and/or creators. Like. I promise these are things you can do. That people are doing! And, importantly, you can make new things with modern sensibilities that nonetheless have the same vibe and joy as whatever it was that made your heart go hell yeah as a child.2
Like I said, I don’t think this is nostalgia, exactly. I don’t think we really have a word for whatever this is. But it is definitely a thing, as I think a bunch of middle-aged Millennial goths, punks, emos, metalheads, weebs, and furries are discovering . . .
- Yes. Hello. Hi. ↩
- Unless, I guess, it really was just the gross shit that made your heart sing, in which case, in the words of the Immortal Mr. Lynch . . . ↩