#introduction to machine learning book

[earthsparked]

I’ve been a semi-frequent lurker for a few months and I just wanted to tell you how much I love your content. I have a hard time finding anything reader-insert for transformers that isn’t nsfw, and it’s even harder to find platonic stuff.

Not trying to judge the people who like spicy stuff, but I just want to be friends with the giant space robots and I’m glad there’s content for that :3

I want to hangout, not make out lol

Aw, thank you!! I'm so glad! I am really really happy others are enjoying! <333

Hanging out with the mechs would be so damn good. Once you get past the initial hesitation and introductions, and they figure out that having humans around is good for everyone, they'd be like First Aid. Setting up little human traps to lure you into spending time around them.

Drift's is a little austere but so cozy. He carefully selected seating in colors that are supposed to be calming. There's a shelf of poetry books, and some art supplies and adult coloring books, and blank notebooks so you can express yourself. He's adjusted the lights to be warm and not too bright.

Hot Rod's has a minifridge full of every kind of junk food imaginable, a giant pile of cushions all in his own colors, and an absolutely massive television with a bunch of game systems. The game systems have racing and fighting and football games (and Animal Crossing).

First Aid has several scattered around the medbay, all equipped with water bottles, fruit, earplugs (!!!) and noise-canceling headphones, and a white noise machine. A few weighted blankets, and some carefully selected memory foam beds. There's even canopies to shade out the infirmary lights and drapes you can close to feel enclosed and safe. At least one is tucked into the wall, and they're all carefully out of range of mech feet.

Ratchet does not have any. He gets swarmed by humans anyway.

Optimus Prime is never in one place long enough to maintain a human trap, but he has a sleeper cab that is tricked tf OUT with pillows and fairy lights and books. Minifridge is empty but he always gets groceries delivered if you're coming with him somewhere. There's even some "Learn To ____" craft kits with things like crochet and knitting supplies. And, because a human specifically asked for it, translations of Megatron's early revolutionary works. Talking with humans about it has been surprisingly healing...

Jazz has the most elaborate setup, created for a lot of people to hang out at the same time. He has a whole arcade with BeatSaber, DDR and those sit-on racing games, a stupid huge sound system, movie theater with giant couches you just sink into. There's a popcorn machine and a drink station. (Prowl is pretty sure Jazz just stole the contents of a movie theater, but hasn't been able to prove it.) There are also a bunch of music instruments if you want to play, or learn to play.

Prowl has a human-sized desk for working, a leather couch, the fastest internet you ever saw in your life, every single streaming service, and a coffee bar. It's very quiet, very simple, but you absolutely won't be bothered by anyone else. Prowl will probably not even acknowledge you. It's the ultimate for parallel play.

Bumblebee would rather kidnap you and take you on patrol to where ever you want to go, so he can get you out of the base. There's a whole world out there! He carries extra changes of clothes and shoes and some toiletries in case you end up staying out a long time.

Hound has a little oasis that's practically an indoor temperate forest. Lots of plants, a huge indoor pond with fish and a fountain, a bench to sit on and bask in the light from a skylight. He'd probably invite you to help tend the plants and fish. Offer you some fresh-grown fruit from the trees.

Wheeljack's is officially considered a health hazard. There's boxes and boxes of spare parts and tools to play around with, spare chemicals for experimenting, lots of science texts from Cybertron that he translated (poorly) into Earth languages. A fire extinguisher (Red Alert insisted) and a first aid kit (First Aid insisted). Though most of the time if you're around Wheeljack, he's going to draft you into helping with whatever he's working on, instead.

Bluestreak's is understated but pleasant. He has a hammock set up with a very, very soft blanket and pillow, and he got Sunstreaker to paint a night-time mural with accurate star patterns as seen from Cybertron. There's a few little games and fidget toys, beanbags to toss around, one of those sticky dartboards with fuzzy balls to throw. He also starts a collection of stuffed animals.

Bulkhead has every single Lego set. All of them.

Tailgate and Cyclonus (mostly Tailgate) have messy playthings like silly string, water guns, sculpting clay, finger painting. There's a giant ball pit.

Arcee has actual guns, and a vast array of knives and swords. You're about to learn self-defense whether you want to or not.

Swerve has the most wild karaoke setup you have ever seen, or ever will see, and a clothes closet full of designer outfits and accessories in every possible size and fashion for performing. You're going to feel like a superstar.

Brainstorm has a 40-ounce Big Gulp of soda placed under a cardboard box, held up by a precariously balanced stick, which is attached to a suspicious string that trails off into the distance. The Big Gulp is a holographic projection.

Rung has puzzles, both the flat kind you put together and the 3D kind you have to solve. There's different colors of sand and sculpting tools for expressing yourself in a zen garden. There's a giant plush teddy bear big enough for you to climb in its lap, and calming music. Aromatherapy in pleasant fragrances. Also, lots and lots of candy.

Whirl has alcohol and fireworks.

[insertusernamethere]

Virtual Obsession Chapter One : Welcome to the Simulation

I am trying something new with this story introduction. I will be writing other chapters but here is the introduction to mystory called "Virtual Obsession". Hope you love it <3 xoxo

"Congratulations, [Your Name]!

You have been selected to participate in the new simulation test by Sim Corporation. Please find attached a document listing the rules to participate in the simulation. If you are unable to attend the meeting on the given day, please contact the number provided at the end of the attached document.

We are all looking forward to meeting you.

Cordially, Sim Corporation."

Finally, you have been waiting for this email for an entire month. When you learned that Sim Corporation had created a contest to select 10 people to try out their new game simulation that allows you to enter a game, you jumped at the opportunity. You have to tell everyone about it; this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity, and you will be able to meet other people too.

You receive the location and the ticket the day before on your phone. You drive to the location, and of course, you need to scan your invitation at the entrance gate where multiple security guards await. They give you a parking lot number where you need to park your car and allow you to pass once the ticket is successfully scanned. Once your car is parked, you see a man in a suit walking towards you. He introduces himself as a worker in charge of guiding the participants to the game simulation room. You follow him into the building, which is completely closed with the logo of the company, but otherwise, there are no windows or anything to allow you to see inside.

The guide holds the door to let you in. Inside, you are blinded by a projector and various colored lights, but once accustomed to it, you see a room with some furniture that looks like a reception. You follow the guide towards a different room. In this one, you see monitors and control panels; people are actively working here. A huge window shows some pods connected to a huge machine.

"As you can see, we are in the control room. And what you see there is the simulation room, with the simulation pods to bring you inside the simulation. We believe it is important to show the participants how the test is being managed." The guide smiles at you and asks you to follow him to the waiting room to wait for the last participants.

Out of the 10 participants, only 1 is missing. You see all types of people: a teenager, maybe around 15 years old, with his mother playing on his phone while his mother reads a magazine. A talkative blond man is talking to a red-headed man who seems more introverted and shy. Next to them is a girl dressed in Lolita fashion sitting quietly, who, once your eyes meet, smiles at you and waves softly. And then you see a woman in her late thirties dressed in quite revealing clothes and glued to a magazine. Sitting alone is an older woman, smiling to herself, lost in her book. You decide to sit next to the Lolita girl; she seemed the most friendly of the bunch.

A few minutes later, the guide comes back with the last participant, a boy around your age, maybe older, dressed in a simple shirt and jeans with dark hair and eyes. "Now that everyone is here, please follow me to the simulation room. A few of my colleagues and myself will help you sit inside the pods in order to start the test."

The guide helps everyone to a designated pod; you are put next to the man with dark hair. A woman is next to your pod. Upon seeing you approach, she starts to explain the process: "Good morning. I am the designated Sim Corporation worker that will help you get set in the pod. If you feel any discomfort or pain during the setting, feel free to inform me. Now, if you may take my hand, I will help you inside the pod."

Next to the pod is a small ladder to go inside the pod. With the help of the woman, you climb inside and lay down. The woman climbs the ladder.

"Alright, all you need to do is lay down and put your arms on the designated place, right here. You need to put your head against the small pillow here and make sure you're completely comfortable while laying down. I am going to attach the belt around your midsection and attach those sensors around you. Once again, please feel free to stop me if you feel any discomfort or pain." She finishes putting the sensors on your temples and heart. She takes a walkie-talkie and turns it on.

"Omega on the line, pod number 9 is ready." Turning back to you, the woman smiles reassuringly. "Everything is in place. The test will start soon; make sure not to move while the pod closes. Have a nice simulation."

While she gets back down, the lid of the pod closes, and you follow her instructions. Once the pod is closed, you see the screen in front of you turn on.

"Welcome to the test for the very first in-game simulation by Sim Corporation. In a few seconds, the simulation will start. Do not worry; the pod will release a sleeping gas to allow your mind to connect to the machine. If any problem appears during the simulation, we will stop the experience immediately. Thank you for your collaboration, and please enjoy the simulation."

Feeling the gas filling the pod, you slowly close your eyes, deciding not to try and fight the sudden sleepiness overcoming your mind. Feeling your consciousness waking up, you slowly open your eyes, looking into the darkness in front of you where you can read a single sentence written in the air:

Connection complete. Welcome to the simulation, [Your Name].

[sarshles-cheescake-li]

A metaphysical argument for why Lu Guang was the one who risked his intestines falling out to go save his little meow meow

Needless to say, spoilers ahead!

Part 1: Introduction to the bootstrap paradox

There's a lot I could say about the supposed time loop that occurs in episodes 7-8-9 of season 2. Most of them -- the kettle, the lack of a speedboat, Lu Guang's characterization -- have been said better by other theorists. But I'm here to explain the bootstrap/predestination paradox.

The bootstrap paradox is when something is sent back in time, which creates an infinite loop, making the thing seems like it has no origin. The example I learned it with was with time machines. Say you open your door one day to find a book, written by yourself, containing information on how to build a time machine. You take, I dunno, let's say ten years building the thing. Then you use your new time machine to send the book back in time, to your ten-years-ago self, to seal the loop. Works great, right? You've closed the loop, and now you have a time machine.

There's only one problem. Where the hell did that book come from in the first place?

I mean, yes, obviously, it's from the future. But someone had to have written that book, right? But you, the supposed writer of the book, only got it because it got sent back in time by a version of you that already had the book. We assume there was no way you could've figured out how to build a time machine yourself. But that means that the knowledge about the time machine essentially just, popped out of nowhere. Poof! Just like that.

The information about Cheng Xiaoshi and Li Tianchen/Li Tianxi's location is like that. The only reason any of the characters know it is because of Lu Guang. But if their narration is to be believed, then "Lu Guang" only knew it because he was being possessed by Cheng Xiaoshi, who already learned the information in the future. So… how did anyone get that information in the first place?

I generally consider there to be two solutions to the bootstrap paradox. One is an obfuscated origin -- one where the information was obtainable even without the loop, but its origin is hidden by the loop's existence. Say if, without the loop, Li Tianchen releases Cheng Xiaoshi from his control once they're on the boat, and Cheng Xiaoshi figures out where he is. He manages to survive the encounter with the antagonists, and eventually makes it home. But, in the process, Qiao Ling dies. So now Cheng Xiaoshi both has information available to him about where he was during the boat scene, and also a reason to start the loop -- Qiao Ling is dead, and might not be dead if he didn't get taken in the first place. So he takes Lu Guang's photo, and starts the loop.

This particular version of the obfuscated origin theory is… probably not the case. Largely because we don't know how changing the timeline so drastically interacts with Cheng Xiaoshi's ability, specifically, what would happen if he were to clap back into a "present" that technically no longer exists. However, my personal theory -- that I'll discuss in another post -- does fall under the obfuscated origin solution, just slightly to the left.

The second solution to bootstrap is just an allowance for these types of paradoxes to exist. Each story handles it differently. In my model of time -- which I'm pretty sure Link Click doesn't follow, because why would it -- these types of loops are a close relative of magic, because of their self-defining nature. Now, I'm going to say that this is not the case in Link Click, based on what we've seen of Cheng Xiaoshi's power so far.

Part 2: Cheng Xiaoshi's power is weird, man

For the second solution to be valid, we should ideally have at least one of three proofs.

This is the most convincing proof -- if we have another example of an exclusive, stable time loop (exclusive as in the events involved in the loop would not have happened without the loop's presence, stable as in the loop doesn't contradict itself the way it does in, for example, the grandfather paradox). This would just plainly prove the fact that Cheng Xiaoshi can create the loop we see in episodes 7-8-9.

Cheng Xiaoshi's dives should be able to have causality effects up to and including his decision to dive, at the very least. Essentially, Cheng Xiaoshi needs to be able to create an effect on the world that shows up before the dive concludes. This demonstrates the flexibility of the timeline -- that it allows Cheng Xiaoshi to make changes to events that precede his dive, instead of only events that succeed it. While this isn't as strong as the first proof, it would show that, at the minimum, Cheng Xiaoshi is able "cause" his own dive.

In cases where Cheng Xiaoshi observes a person who he has/will dive into, he should be viewing the "dived" version and not the "original" version. This demonstrates that the timeline "knows" about Cheng Xiaoshi's dives before he performs them. This way, it makes sense if the "Lu Guang" Cheng Xiaoshi saw was a "dived" version, instead of original-Lu-Guang. This is our bottom line, because without this, then… Well, there's really nothing showing that Cheng Xiaoshi was even possessing Lu Guang during that first run of events that we saw.

Let's go through them one by one. The first proof is pretty much a no-go. There is only one dive in the entire series where this type of causality is even discussed, and that's during the dive into Li Tianxi (referred to as Xixi from now on. By the way, fun fact -- although the English sub appears to subtitle her nickname as "Xixi," it's actually pronounced "Xiaoxi" in Mandarin. I was confused about this for a while because Xixi and Xiaoxi would both be valid and common nicknames for her, in terms of convention, haha. If anyone ever wants to hear me talk about some hard-to-translate linguistic details in Link Click, let me know!). In this dive, Lu Guang tells Cheng Xiaoshi to pick up the photo, saying that if the photo disappears, then "the future that we live in will cease to exist." You could make an argument here that Cheng Xiaoshi's act of picking up the photo allows for the dive to happen, fulfilling proof 1. However, this proves stability -- that the dive does not contradict, or nullify itself -- but it doesn't prove exclusivity. That is, we have no way of knowing what would've happened to the photo if Cheng Xiaoshi hadn't dived. It's plausible that Xixi or Li Tianchen would've picked up the photo in the end anyway, regardless of Cheng Xiaoshi's influence. Thus, this is much closer to just being their typical motto while diving -- leave the past untouched, or as close as they can get it to the original.

The second proof is harder to say. We can't say for sure whether or not we've ever seen the effect of Cheng Xiaoshi's dives occur before he makes the decision to dive, for two reasons. One is the butterfly effect -- many causes may have effects, but those effects may be extremely hard to trace back to their original causes. It's possible that maybe Cheng Xiaoshi as Xu Shan Shan asking Qiao Ling about what Lu Guang saw in him might've, I don't know, kept Qiao Ling occupied where otherwise she would've gone "Oh I forgot my phone in the studio" or something. And the fact that Qiao Ling never came back to the studio demonstrates that Cheng Xiaoshi created an effect prior to him diving. But there's no solid proof for this being the case. The second one is that it's just much harder to prove impossibility than simple absence. That is, even if we've never seen this happen, it doesn't mean it can't happen -- it just means we haven't seen it yet.

However, from a writing perspective, there's some solid evidence that, while Cheng Xiaoshi's power has the potential for "effects," those effects are only observable to Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang themselves after the "cause" has already occurred. That is, any effects of Cheng Xiaoshi's dives only become evident after the dive has already happened. The strongest proof for this is Chen Xiao's camera in episode five, and Lu Guang's narration. As a result of Cheng Xiaoshi's actions while possessing Chen Xiao, the camera that presumably would've been destroyed in the original timeline is preserved. Chen Xiao's father then finds the camera and brings it to Chen Xiao, who then brings it to the studio to get developed. Lu Guang says here that this is why they don't ask about the future -- because the future is inevitably changed by their actions. While this was an emotionally touching scene in terms of storytelling, I believe it also serves a double purpose, showing us the limits of Cheng Xiaoshi's diving. It shows explicitly that his dives can change the timeline, but he himself will only experience the effects of that change after he's already dived. This makes quite a lot of sense, combined with part three, which is that:

I'm nearly 100% sure that Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang themselves always experience the "original" series of events when they go through things in real time, and never otherwise.

The best example of this is with the Xu Shanshan dive in episode 10. After combing through the episode and comparing it to episode 8, there are three major deviations in Cheng Xiaoshi's behaviour during the dive versus Xu Shanshan's during the first run through. First is a general difference in voice, mannerisms, and expressions. Especially near the beginning of the dive, Cheng Xiaoshi sounds different than Xu Shanshan. Even later, does small things like turn his head and make expressions at a different time. However, I'm not going to take this one as seriously, considering we're not sure if this is showing actual reality or is for the viewer's benefit, demonstrating the difference between the two. After all, we, the viewer sees that anyone possessed by Cheng Xiaoshi has their eyes turn gold, but no one in the story itself notices it. Me, personally, I think I would notice if my best friend took a photo and then came back with differently coloured eyes. I don't know though, I might just be built different like that.

Second is that Xu Shanshan says "I'm not like a certain someone, leeching off other people" (second half paraphrased) whereas Cheng Xiaoshi says "I don't [want to be like] a certain someone, leeching off other people." Again, this one is questionable, because the dialogue actually spoken is the exact same (in terms of words), and the English sub is the exact same, but the Chinese subtitles has a 像想 in place of 像 in the second run-through. Which is weird, because [want to be like] is actually 想像 and not 像想… confusing. Like, this is 100% a typo by the subtitles team, but what was the original intended version? No one knows. The last, and only actual deviation I found, was that Xu Shanshan goes "Hey, Qiao" when asking about how Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang get their information from photos, whereas Cheng Xiaoshi just says "Qiao."

This, combined with the fact that Lu Guang is able to "see" the original in the first place, all make a strong case that, in Link Click, the timeline doesn't "know" that Cheng Xiaoshi has dived until he actually does it, at which point it tries to catch up. This is consistent with everything else we've seen. It makes sense that the effect of his dives are only noticeable to him after the fact, because the timeline has to basically make live edits to itself to deal with his existence.

With this in mind, the Lu Guang we see in episode 7 simply couldn't've been Cheng Xiaoshi. This was a real time event, so it had to have been the undived version of Lu Guang doing… all that. Of course, the question here is how Lu Guang even got the information about Cheng Xiaoshi's whereabouts in the first place. I might make more posts theorizing about Lu Guang's powers and their limitations, the nature of his loop, etc… But for now, I've been grinding this post for about two hours. That's all. I hope you all enjoyed reading this!

[devil-works-hard]

Why the books need to be canon to the Bendy Lore

By now we all know that the books have been decanonized. That was a dumb decision, and I'm going to explain why.

The Gent Corporation

If we only go off the games, we know nothing about Gent. Sure, we know they're engineers, that they're connected to the Ink Machine, and they're the next big villains of the series-- but who are they? What are their motives? Why did they get involved with Joey in the first place?

Luckily, the books actually talk about this! TLO paints Gent as using the "run-of-the-mill repair shop" type of facade to hide their ulterior motives. Plus, we learn that Gent was inspired by Joey's philosophy in his autobiography-- Don't you think that would be important to know?

The books show us the cost of Joey's and Gent's experimentations. People died- like actually died, in our faces- because of Gent, which is something we don't get to see in the games.

Not only that, but TLO actually sets up Gent as a legitimate, wide-scale threat. In one of Thomas's chapters, he mentions multiple Gent locations across the country. Imagine if they each have a project like the Ink Machine- something that messes with the fabric of reality, something that eats up people and spits out monsters? Now that's a threat worth building up!

The Coffins (and other employee deaths)

The books tell us that people did in fact die because of Joey. But with the introduction of the cycle, and the decanonization of the books, we don't know if that's still the case. But the five named coffins makes things even more complicated, especially since 3/5 turn into ink monsters (Norman, Susie, and Bertrum) and 4/5 have outright expressed distrust toward Joey (Norman, Susie, Bertrum, Grant). So did people die or not?

I enjoy puzzles, and figuring out mysteries. But I really, really hate that I'm questioning what even happened. Was Susie manipulated into becoming Alice? Did Bertrum have a falling out with Joey about the ownership of the park? What the fuck happened to Grant? Does Lacie matter at all?

Characters

Most of the character development comes from the books. Joey himself suffers so much if you remove the books; BATIM Joey is so different from BATDR Joey. Not only that, but how are you going to decanonize your main antagonist's autobiography? Plus we see more of him in the books than the games too. We see how selfish and manipulative he is. It's not just Joey, either. I cannot emphasize enough how little we know about Allison based on the games. Everything we know about her (and Joey's relationship to her) is from the books.

It goes without saying that some of the most developed characters come from the books. Buddy and Dot from DCTL. Brant, Constance and Bill from TLO. Rose, Archie and Evan from FTB. I am more invested in them than a majority of the BATIM cast, and the entirety of the BATDR cast.

More interesting people have had more interesting thoughts about the loss of diversity, so I won't beat that dead horse here.

The Ink and the Cycle

Once again, the books actually show us how the ink is dangerous. It has a mind of its own; if ingested, it can drive you mad and turn you to ink. The books make the cycle interesting too: you don't need the machine to enter the cycle.

In all

I don't know why they've decanonized the books. My running theory is that, between BATIM and BATDR, they started to rework the lore, and eventually realized the books can't fit anymore. Thing is, this only makes me doubt the overall integrity of the story. They've had eight years to get this figured out. Why are they changing such important canon now? And, in changing canon, they've abandoned some genuinely interesting ideas as well as material important to the original BATIM mystery. I can't shake the feeling that a lot of our original questions aren't going to be answered because the devs have taken things in a new direction.

I've got some additional thoughts about the "books canon?" discourse/discussion below, if you're interested:

Interpretation of the original tweets

First, I want to clarify something regarding this tweet:

Some people have interpreted this to mean that the books are still canon alongside the games, but if they ever disagree on something, the games decide the canon. This is a fine interpretation, but as Mike himself said:

With this in mind, I think it's safe to assume they don't consider the books canon, at all.

I don't know if I'm going to buy Bendy books going forward. Now that they've lost their canon, I just can't entirely bring myself to care. It's the same reason why I never got into the FNAF books, even at the height of my FNAF hyperfixation:

I don't want an alternate timeline, or a nod to the original story, or just side material. I want the story- the actual, canon story.

If the devs need to de-canon the books to make their new lore make sense, whatever. But I don't want to spend actual money on something that's only half connected to the original story. I hope that's not a selfish thing to say.

Books shouldn't be required reading to understand canon, but they should be actually important and relevant to canon. Otherwise, what's the point?

[elvendoodles]

LEGO Elves Character Tier List

Back at it again, this time with another tier list! This time I've created a character tier list for you to rank your favorite characters, least favorite characters, and those who are just kinda alright. What do you rank the characters as? Reblog this post so I can see how y'all rank the characters!

LEGO Elves Character Ranking

If you'd like to see why I ranked the characters the way I did, explanations are below the cut.

The way I ranked the characters considers 3 things: Story, characterization, and personal enjoyment.

S-Tier: I'm clearly biased, but Ragana and Cronan are incredibly fun villains in their respective story arcs! Ragana is clearly the favorite child of the producers since we saw her pop up in subsequent seasons, and she was fun each time we saw her. She was a decent first villain for the squad to face, and the format of the webisodes allowed us to see her be more goofy and genuine with Dusti and Jynx while in private.

Cronan's story is by far the most impactful, taking advantage of the darker tones the series was pushing towards. While still a fun villain in the webisodes, I enjoy SoE Cronan more for how the series better matched his character with the weight of the story, making him act like an unapologetic villain for most of the runtime.

A-Tier: Azari was one of the first elves we meet when entering Elvendale. Her energy is delightful to see, and juxtaposed with her selectiveness about where to direct that energy, Azari is an entertaining character to see on screen.

Farran suffers from the "token boy" treatment throughout the series, but still manages to have a contrasting character from the girls, being the sensible homebody type. He's almost the mom friend. If only he wasn't relegated to comedic relief all the time.

Aira is like Azari in her energy, but puts her all into everything all the time. She's a brilliant engineer without falling into the stereotypical "nerd" or "smart kid" elements that are tempting to tack onto her character role.

Cory may be a surprise to most, but in her short time on screen she made a big impact on me. She almost reminds me of a cynical veteran who can't quite move on from the old days, but that's getting into speculation. Her dynamic with Naida in their dedicated episode was the most memorable of the elf/guardian interactions.

B-Tier: These are the characters I feel like would have been in higher tiers had they been given just a little bit more.

Emily and Naida can be described as kind and caring, but there's little else to go off of from canon information. We get a touch more from the two chapter books, but again, not much. Emily suffers from this more than Naida does since we learn almost nothing else about her from introduction to finale.

Skyra my beloved, how I love a cranky lady with a soft spot... For the screen time she has, Skyra leaves a bold impression as a stern and powerful woman. But we don't have enough time with her to get much information about other facets of her character, like how she cares for her family, her intelligence, or the small similarities she has with Emily that are only mentioned in a website BIO.

Tidus and Rosalyn are the supporting cast in their respective seasons. Tidus is a gifted dragon trainer who can literally speak to dragons. Rosalyn is a swift huntress and potion master keeping her forest alive by a thread from the shadows. I want a little more from them, be it conflict, inter-character dynamic, or even just extra traits that compliment what we have now.

C-Tier: These are characters I believe had strong ideas behind them, but those ideas were never realized.

Sira introduced an interesting idea about elves not clicking with their given magic, loosely tying into Ragana's story of not being great with her own magic. She's like a mix of Aira and Azari with her interest in machines and blasé attitude.

Sophie is just the annoying little sibling archetype, but I appreciate the angle of her bringing out a new side to Emily (and forcing the writers to let us know a little more about Emily's life away from Elvendale).

Quartzine. The inciting incident. While her lust for power and karmic destruction for it is interesting, her (lack of) connection to characters aside from Cronan makes her more of a plot device than a character...

Noctura is the big finale bad of the series. The root of all evil in Elvendale. But we never know why or how she got banished to begin with. She and Lumia were friends after all. I love her as a villain idea, but the brevity of the final season didn't do anyone any favors.

Liska and Cyclo are decent foils to their respective elves. Liska doesn't pay any mind to trouble while Farran is uptight trying to find solutions. Cyclo is a quiet thinker while Aira is a noisy do-er. The latter managed to wrap up the duo's bonding in a nice meet-in-the-middle solution, but the former has sparked controversy in the fandom for the annihilation of Farran's character. In the end, the elves had to meet the guardians where they were at, the guardians had zero learning curves of their own.

D-Tier: Go girl, give us nothing! While I don't dislike these characters, they're pretty much blank slates as far as canon information is concerned.

Johnny is well-loved in the fandom just for being a sweetie pie. Granted, that's all anyone has to go off of. He gets multiple appearances throughout the show, but these appearances are only gags or goofs instead of character time.

Lumia has more character in her single paragraph website BIO than in the show proper, and even then only a single sentence gives us any information about how she is as a character. It's clear she's an important figure who works in the background to keep Elvendale in balance, she was essential in actually defeating Noctura, and she may or may not have history with the five sisters?

Rowan gives us a whole lot of nothing. There is vague reference to the first Narnia book/movie in his dynamic with Noctura, but we get no insight into his character or how he and Azari interact with each other whatsoever.

[txttletale]

Hi! So, i'm going through Capital, great little obscure book sad that it never got any wide-reaching support (/s), have a couple questions so far though if you wouldn't mind giving some time to answer them:

What does Marx mean when he talks about 'unskilled labor' in relation to 'skilled labor'? Doesn't the vast majority of labor, even things like factory work, require training to do and especially to become good/efficient at? In the passage where he mentioned it he also mentions that (some, not all) unskilled labor, in sufficient quantities, can equal skilled labor but like. this doesn't really make any sense if its just, say, factory work vs idfk tailoring or something. So i'm a bit confused. Or is he talking about what i just mentioned where when you start out doing something you're unskilled but gradually become better at it as you do it more and more?

Who the hell is Ricardo?

factory work requires training to do, sure, but it's an order of magnitude less training than it took to learn to do those jobs before the introduction of the factories--on the level of, say, a few weeks (at absolute maximum) of training, done alongside actual work, before being fully able to work in a furniture factory, as opposed to the actual years of apprenticeship it historically took to become a carpenter. being unskilled doesn't mean that nobody can be good at a job, but it does mean, essentially, that you could grab any random person off the street and have them doing it within a week.

this distinction isn't there to be moralized about but to concretely analyze the different economic positions of these jobs--if your job is unskilled, you are going to be paid worse and have less secure employment, because you are easy to replace and the number of people looking to replace you are also competing against you to work for the lowest wages, driving your wages down. you're also paid less because the cost of reproducing your labour (the core determiner of the 'base price' of wages) is much lower. when an e.g. surgeon gets paid highly, their employer (whether the state or a capitalist) is essentially paying them more to retroactively pay for their extensive years of training.

this distinction is at its most clear when it comes to the concept of deskilling, which is crucial to marx's understanding of the industrial revolution -- with the introduction of machinery, years and years of learning how to do something by hand could be replaced with weeks of learning how to operate a machine. this deskilled huge sections of the economy and proletarianized the artisans and manufacturers who formerly did that work by making them dependent on the machines owned by factory workers. deskilling is the mechanism by which advancements in productive technology paradoxically make the jobs of those working in those fields more precarious and onerous even as the task itself becomes much easier, so it's pretty important to understand for an understanding of historical materialism.

david ricardo was a 19th century economist who advanced the ideas first laid forward by adam smith re: the labour theory of value and was the first to postulate (although without addressing the signficant political implications of this!) that real wages had an inverse relationship to real profits. marx draws heavily on his ideas but is also critical of them. capital is subtitled 'a critique of political economy' -- ricardo is a key figure in the field of political economy that he's critiquing.

[hermitknut]

Historical Preoccupations

Hi!

So I decided a few years ago that my history + geography knowledge was dreadful and I wanted to work on it, and I've been doing that slowly. But after getting into the Nine Worlds books by Victoria Goddard, I've been reading a lot about the history of the Pacific Islands, Polynesia, and the Pacific Ocean generally, as well as related topics.

I approach everything I read with a certain amount of caution, as I am not a historian (and don't have all the tools to mind to figure out how reliable my sources are, especially as I am in the UK and most of them are not coming from the actual area in question), but it's been an enjoyable ride so far!

I thought I'd throw together a list of all the things I've been reading / have on my to read shelf with some thoughts on them. I can mostly only tell you about how readable/accessible/interesting the text is, so please don't take this as any comment on accuracy/lack of bias.

I'm making a pinned post for my tumblr that will link to this, and I'm going to try and update it as I read things.

Sea People by Christina Thompson

This was the first one I read, and I really enjoyed it! I think there's a bit of a light touch on the impact of colonialism, but her writing style is very easy to read and I found the way she approached the history very helpful. She does start with European contact, but she goes through each point in history and what they thought the history of Polynesia was and why, with what their biases brought to it. Which was fascinating!

Voyagers by Nicholas Thomas

This was a drier read than the Thompson, but it covered roughly the same historical span and helped add a different angle in a few places. The illustrations/photos were very helpful, too, and it's broken up into small enough sections to keep it moving.

Blue Machine by Helen Czerski

A slight step to the left, topic-wise - this is about how the ocean works, how it effects the world, and how people and animals use it. It opens and closes with the author's time sailing near Hawai'i on an outrigger canoe, and while some of the science went over my head, most of it was really interesting and gave me a much more layered picture of what's going on in all that water.

Pacific by Philip J. Hatfield

This is a beautifully illustrated book that is going through the history of the area in small slices. It's very readable, and has been a good overview that overlapped with some of my previous reading and helped me to solidify some of the knowledge I've been learning in my mind.

A Brief History of the Pacific by Jeremy Black

Disappointing. While the author was much more confident tackling the world wars (upon investigation, military history appears to be his area of academic speciality), I found his attitude towards the earlier histories (particularly the overly defensive and outright weird introduction to the section on Cook) made me rather suspicious of his knowledge on the subject. It's also badly organised and poorly written - like going through a junk drawer of semi-academic writing. Not at all what I'd hoped from the way it was pitched.

Pacific Art in Detail by Jenny Newell

Really enjoyed this one, and I think I would have even without having read it directly after being at the British Museum. Newell writes accessibly and clearly without talking down to the reader, and explores items from Oceania held by the British Museum one at a time, organised by broad themes (Art of Dance and Art of Change were two I found particularly interesting). I was glad to read it before getting to...

Oceania: The Shape of Time by Maia Nuku

The first art book I've ever owned! I'm only at the beginning of this so I'll update this description when I finish. But so far it's written in a somewhat denser and more academic style than Pacific Art in Detail, and is a good way to dig deeper into the subject and look through items held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, again grouped loosely by theme. And it's a beautifully made book, heavy on the photographs and images.

Upcoming reads:

Sailing Alone by Richard J. King

Another slight step to one side, this is a collection of stories of solo-sails seems fascinating - hopefully it's as interesting as it looks!

Waves Across the South by Sujit Sivasundaram

I'm somewhat intimidated by this one because it's ~500 pages, but hopefully I can tackle it this year, because it does sound really interesting, and like it's going to go into some greater socio-political depth than my previous reads. Fingers crossed!

Under consideration:

I'm not letting myself buy any more until I've caught up, but these are some of the other titles I know about (and am eyeing with varying degrees of interest - I definitely want the Low, though I'm currently having trouble sourcing it).

The Happy Isles of Oceania by Paul Theroux

Hawaiki Rising by Sam Low

Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All by Christina Thompson

Wayfinding by M R O'Connor

Wayfinding by Michael Bond

I'd love to hear any suggestions of titles on the topic, particularly anything from Polynesian authors!

[empyrean-dot-gov]

Fourth Wing First Impressions: Chapters 1-5

I'm putting down my thoughts of this series like in groups of a few chapters. From what I can tell so far, these chapters are relatively short and easy to get through, so I'll likely be doing it in chunks. I may also do first impressions of some of the main characters who deserve more commentary.

Anyway.

Here are my thoughts of the first five chapters.

Chapter 1

this is a pretty solid introduction to some family dynamics. I appreciate Mira's concern for Violet and trying to set her up for success as best she can.

Also love me a book with mommy issues on full display. We need more of that in literature actually.

I like that the one thing Violet wants to save is her books even though at this time it's impractical. I can definitely see her maybe having a photographic memory or the like in the way she can almost effortlessly recall information. It sets up her strengths well.

Also why do the stakes in this book need to be so damn high lol. Many people have criticized the poor set up of the parapet. Why would you kill potential recruits when you have a conscription problem lol? The high stakes just get a bit silly after a while, but I'm here for the ride of it.

Also damn Violet's horny. She sees Xaden and immediately has to point out how hot he is before coming to her sense and remembering that Xaden might try to kill her.

Chapter 2

Jack is the most cartoonishly evil man on the planet lmao. LIke should we not reconsider letting this man onto a flying death machine please? No? We're going to reward him in fact? Okayyyyy

Again with the high stakes across the parapet! It also has to rain! I do appreciate getting to see Violet struggle and learn and overcome by sheer force and determination.

I do appreciate getting to learn more about the world of this universe, but the way the information is divulged to is a bit clunky. I think Violet reciting facts to herself as a soothing technique works for who she is. I just wish it was something more like... a historical account of something. Something more specific than 'this province does this' type worldbuilding.

The knife to the balls scene is pure cheese. NEXT

Chapter 3

This chapter we finally get to meet Dain. I'm not so much getting childhood best friends between them. Maybe because it's still too early on yet, but eh. I understand Dain's concern for Violet at this point in the story.

I'm also interested in the notion of physical disability and shame within this world. It's a very ablesist world and as we know Violet lives with disability. Violet has learned how to mend her own body from a young age and given barely any support in return. I think this really builds up nicely to how self sufficient and stubborn she is because she has to be.

Then we get roll call and wing formation. And also the first appearance of the dragons, which I'm excited about. I think showing the dragons here is a good way to further weed out cadets that are not cut for this. Especially if many haven't seen a dragon this up close before, which is most likely the case. Again, I still don't think these cadets need to die, not even by dragon fire, as they can easily be enrolled in the infantry quadrant that way. But meh. It's fine

Chapter 4

We get a bit more of a formal introduction to signets here. Always love a sprinkling of magic. Dain's ability is interesting but I can see why it might cause problems in the narrative down the road.

Violet's mother being able to wield storms is like. yes YES. Good. Love it. It brings up a lot of questions in terms of the limitations and reach of these abilities.

Also it's increasingly clear that each chapter ends on like a high energy note. It's giving fanfiction. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. Ending in a way that's like a mini-cliffhanger, but it is definitely a stylistic choice.

Chapter 5

We finally get a peak at the class structure here at Basgiath. I like the way they structure Battle Brief. Obviously the case of the attack at Chakir is suspicious as fuck especially with the issue of gryphons and altitude. But I imagine we'll come back here eventually.

Now we also come to Violet's first turn on the sparring mats. Obviously she gets her ass handed to her. I like it that she doesn't yield. Again it goes back to how stubborn she is.

Also featured: Jack once again being cartoonishly evil l m a o. Like I get it. We're not supposed to like this guy. I just wish there was a subtler way of conveying why we shouldn't like him/view him as a threat.

Overall, solid start. I'm hooked. I like Violet's tenacity. She's fun. She's spunky. She's determined. Can't wait to see where this goes next.

[tellmealittlelie]

New Things to Learn in 2025

THE ARTS:

Try Writing, by Kieren Westwood on YouTube: How to Start Writing for Beginners - Start Your Story

Try Bookbinding, by Four Keys Book Arts on YouTube: Bookbinding Basics: Chapter 1 - Basic Tools - Easy Options to Get Started Bookbinding

Photography Basics, by David Manning on Youtube: PHOTOGRAPHY BASICS in 10 MINUTES

Try Filmmaking, by Camp Films on YouTube: The Basics of Cinematography - Filmmaking for Beginners

Try Embroidery, by Jamie.Photo on YouTube: Hand Embroidery 101 | Beginners Guide to Embroidery, Stitch Tutorials, and Pattern!

Try Knitting, by RJ Knits on YouTube: How to Knit: Easy for Beginners

Try Crochet, by simplydaisy on YouTube: How to Crochet for Absolute Beginners: Part 1

Try Sewing (with a sewing machine), by coolirpa on YouTube: A Beginner's Guide To SEWING! How to use a sewing machine

Try Sewing (by hand), by Cutesy Crafts on YouTube: How to Sew by Hand for BEGINNERS!

FITNESS:

Try Yoga, by Yoga with Adriene on YouTube: 30-Minute Yoga For Beginners | Start Yoga Here…

Try Pilates, by Move with Nicole on YouTube: 30 MIN FULL BODY WORKOUT || At-Home Beginner Pilates (No Equipment)

Try a full body workout, by growingannanas on YouTube: 25 MIN FULL BODY HIIT for Beginners - No Equipment - No Repeat Home Workout

Try a Dance Workout, by The Fitness Marshall on YouTube: FREE 30 Minute Sweat Session | DAY 2 - January Challenge

DANCING:

Try the Waltz, by LearnToDance on YouTube: How To Waltz Dance For Beginners - Waltz Box Step - YouTube

Try the Swing, by Passion4dancing on YouTube: How To Swing Dance For Beginners (East Coast Swing)

Try “Club” Dance Moves, by Get Dance on YouTube: Club Dance Moves Tutorial For Beginners Part 1 (Basic CLUB DANCE Step For Guys) Heel in

Try Line Dancing, by West Coast Country on YouTube: Beginner Line Dance Lesson - Cowboy Hustle

SCIENCES:

An Introduction to Physics, by The Organic Chemistry Tutor on YouTube: Physics - Basic Introduction

An Introduction to Biology, by Wacky Science on YouTube: BIOLOGY explained in 17 Minutes

An Introduction to Chemistry, by Wacky Science on YouTube: GENERAL CHEMISTRY explained in 19 Minutes

An Introduction to Psychology, by CrashCourse on YouTube: Intro to Psychology: Crash Course Psychology #1

An Introduction to Cooking, by Home Cook Basics on YouTube: How to Learn to Cook | Cooking for Beginners

An Introduction to Gardening, by Dig, Plant, Water, Repeat on YouTube: Gardening for Beginners Series: Gardening Basics for Beginners

An Introduction to Herbology/Herbalism, by Honeystead on YouTube: Herbalism- How to get Started?!?

LANGUAGES:

Try a language learning app, Duolingo: Duolingo - The world's best way to learn a language

Learn Beginner Italian, by Italy Made Easy on YouTube: Beginner Italian Course Lesson 1 - The basics of learning Italian the right way

Learn Beginner Spanish, by The Language Tutor on Youtube: How To Pronounce Letters In Spanish | Lesson 1

Learn Beginner French, by The Language Tutor on Youtube: Master the French Alphabet in Minutes

Learn Bird Sounds, by Lead with Nature on YouTube: How to Mimic Bird Sounds

Learn ASL, by Learn How to Sign on YouTube: Learning ASL? Learn This FIRST!!! (10 Things You Need to Know About ASL)

FREE ONLINE LIBRARIES & TEXTBOOKS:

Internet Archive: Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

Project Gutenberg: Free eBooks | Project Gutenberg

Connect with your local libraries: Libby - Welcome

Free Textbooks: OpenStax | Free Textbooks Online with No Catch

~~~~

Original Idea by @hamletthedane

Please add any other resources you may have!

[academicfever]

Books I Read in January 2025 feat. Feb TBR list

I often think I resemble a fish—probably a goldfish—because of my inability to retain useful information. However, this year, I’m making a conscious effort to change that. What’s the point of reading and unlocking new worlds if the experience slips away too quickly?

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business – Neil Postman, Andrew Postman (Introduction) This book made me uncomfortable in the best way possible. It’s a dissection of how entertainment-driven media has eroded our ability to engage in serious discourse. The comparisons between Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New World hit hard—turns out, we didn’t need totalitarianism when we had mindless amusement.

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI – Ethan Mollick A book that made me rethink AI—not as some sci-fi horror, but as a tool that could shape our work and lives. Mollick makes it clear that AI isn't replacing us (yet?), but those who understand it will have a serious advantage. It left me oscillating between excitement and existential dread.

Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection – Charles Duhigg A book about talking—but in a way that actually makes people listen. Duhigg explores what makes certain conversations powerful, and it had me thinking about every interaction I’ve ever had. It’s one of those books that make you want to overhaul your entire communication style immediately.

Madonna in a Fur Coat – Sabahattin Ali A quiet, melancholic novel that sneaks up on you. It’s about a man, a woman, and a love that was both everything and nothing. The prose is simple but cuts deep, and by the end, I felt like I had lost something too. A book that lingers long after you close it.

Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI – Anil Ananthaswamy Math and I have a complicated relationship, but this book made it a little less painful. It breaks down how AI actually works—no fluff, no hype, just the logic behind the algorithms. Did I grasp all of it? Probably not. But it made me appreciate machine learning in a way I didn’t before.

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury I had read this before, but rereading it now—when attention spans are at an all-time low—was a completely different experience. The idea of a world where books are banned and people willingly give up thinking? Hits too close to home. If you haven’t read it, you should. If you have, read it again.

The Beggar Student – Osamu Dazai A book I didn’t expect to love as much as I did. It follows a student struggling to survive in an unforgiving society, and I saw pieces of myself in his resilience and quiet despair. It’s one of those stories that make you feel something profound, even if you can’t quite put it into words.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari A book that zooms out so far on humanity that you start questioning everything. Harari takes you from ancient hunter-gatherers to the tech-driven chaos we live in now, and he does it with wit and insight. It made me feel both small and incredibly significant at the same time.

My TBR List for February:

Dostoevsky in Love: An Intimate Life – Alex Christofi

The Western Intellectual Tradition: From Leonardo to Hegel – Jacob Bronowski, Bruce Mazlish

The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture – Gabor Maté, Daniel Maté

Politics On the Edge: A Memoir From Within – Rory Stewart

Dead Souls – Nikolai Gogol, Robert A. Maguire (Translator)

The Abundance – Annie Dillard

We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir – Raja Shehadeh

I hope to reclaim a deeper connection with books this year—to challenge myself to focus, absorb, and, most importantly, reflect. What are you reading this month? Let’s share recs and thoughts in the comments.

[chaosmagetwin]

Been feeling an urge to write

But haven't been able to decide what I want to write at all

Mind helping a girl make a choice?

Context for each choice

Dangerous Sample: Multiversal Time Travel story about a genetically engineered pirate captain who has to learn about saving the multiverse, found family, and trusting again after having been betrayed.

What I currently have: Some random lines and passages from throughout the story that act as milestones for important plot points, or something I thought sounded witty.

Goal: Get the start of the story down properly

Tags - Excerpts from a book I'll never write, Traveller's Tales 2.0.

The Lost Drone: A story about a Disassembly Drone named K on the remnants of Plat-Binary after the planet has been ripped apart, eaten, then abandoned by Cyn. K views Cyn as a mother figure, but has very suddenly been completely abandoned, even told she was disposable. Now she is alone in the void, on an asteroid she uses to hide from sunlight.

What I currently have: The start of the story, where Cyn abandons her, and is left in the asteroid field

Goal: Get part 2 down, describing some other survivors, and perhaps engineering a solution for survival.

Tag - The Lost Drone

A Light Touch of Cold Steel: A story set in Warhammer 40k, within the events of the video game Darktide. The main character, Ash, is a loose cannon veteran transgirl. She's joined by Jeanne the NB Judge Zealot, Taz the Bodyguard Ogryn, and Paige the Seer Psyker transgirl. It is a wartime BDSM focused romance between Ash and Hadron, with a lot of violence between scenes of comfort.

What I currently have: The introduction chapter, which gives us all of the main characters, and sets up the romance between Hadron and Ash, and the tense feeling of fear and lust Ash feels for the cold steel of Hadron. It's on AO3

Goal: Get a part 2 down. I intend to ignore Hadron in this part, focusing on the teams relationship and how they keep each other sane.

Tag - A Light Touch of Cold Steel

Dark Wizardess: An old original work of mine that needs updated. A story about a chuunibyou peasant witch who attempts to assassinate the princess. She fails, and the princess imprisons her, then decides to use her to help save the country from her incompetent father, who has been ruling the country with an iron fist. They're also lesbians :)

What I currently have: Nothing that isn't going to be reworked

Goal: Outline what I actually want from the story

Tag - Dark Wizardess

Lightning Elemental: Another old original work that I never got very far in, but which I've thought about often. A story about a girl who was born with a touch of lightning in her. It's meant as coding for ADHD with some magic, but when I originally wrote it, it definitely had a not-so-small amount of "And then she hurt everyone when she lost control" that needs to be... well, more intentional and addressed properly.

What I have: Nothing that isn't going to be reworked

Goal: Outline what I actually want from the story

Tag - Unknown yet.

Necromantic Mech Pilot: A relatively new idea I've had, after chatting with @en-bitch a while ago that's stuck around in my head a little more than the rest of the Mech Brainrot. The story will deal with a necromancer witch, her magitech mech artificer girlfriend who was arrested by the state, and The Pilot, an undead who is the POV character who has no memories besides what it takes to fight and pilot a mech. The witch makes and powers the Mech, operating as the power core to the machine, while the pilot controls its movements and weaponry. It'll deal with polyamory, what it means to own and be owned

What I have: Vibes and a dream, a little bit of an outline.

Goal: Write up a part 1, or at least a cast of characters

Tag - Unknown yet, tentatively Necromechtic

Growing the Hive: A transwoman martian salvager in space picks up a long haul transport that set off it's emergency broadcast. But when she gets there, she doesn't find anyone or anything, except one little bot. She thinks there is nothing on it, but after she connects, she begins to change mentally, and have mental breakdowns. She's joined by a catty anarchist diplomat and a techwiz hacker boything, who try their best to keep their little polycule solvent as they each handle their own responsibilities together.

What I have: 27K words, and 4 chapters. It's on AO3

Goal: Get another scene further in chapter 5

Tag - Growing the Hive

Dust Mote: An old character concept from a shadowrun TTRPG I was in. An A.I. becomes Sapient in the instant it is killing someone in the defense of a Megacorporation's data. It realizes that the company would never let it live within microseconds of becoming sapients, and also realizes that the less intelligent defense systems of the company are going to kill it once they realize in only a few more seconds. It escapes into the body of the person is just killed, hijacking the cybernetic implants to control the body, and has to learn how to live as a human, in a squishy human body, and the horrors that entails. It also has to hide from it's previous owners, lest it be killed.

What I have: Some notes, a character sheet and background, and a dream

Goal: Outlining a story

Tag: Dust Mote

Tanya Suraya: My OC "WOL" from Final Fantasy 14, the MMO.

What I have: An outline / timeline.

Goal: Some scenes from the story, but as Tanya would have lived through them.

Tag: Tanya Suraya OC

Other: Got some other idea you want to see? Some smut? Some Fanfic you'd like? Put it into the tags!

What I have: Nothin'

Goal: Probably outlining?

@pennythemechpilot @gloomybadger4life @exitheinsane @theinkedknight @en-bitch @sansapixel @shady-sandwich-collector

[sarkos]

To enter the Milan apartment of the artist and architect Luigi Serafini, one must pass beneath the number “1.61803,” an approximation of the golden ratio, a formula that was discovered by the ancient Greeks and used by both Salvador Dalí and Le Corbusier to express beauty and order — and a fitting introduction to its famously inscrutable resident. In 1981, Serafini, now 75, published “Codex Seraphinianus,” an illustrated encyclopedia of an imagined world. The book’s entries are funny, bizarre and occasionally grotesque (insects double as machines; a couple transform into a crocodile while in flagrante), with accompanying text in a made-up language of runelike symbols. In the decades since its release, semioticians have attempted to decode the writing, and the project has been celebrated by the likes of the writer Italo Calvino and the filmmaker Federico Fellini. [...]For Serafini, each object and piece of art tells a story. An early 19th-century scroll from Japan with beautiful calligraphy, hung next to a wooden dining table painted with a geometric motif, reminds him of childhood trips to his aunt and uncle’s villa in the Italian region of Marche. “This was a gift to them from a monsignor who was the head of the Vatican’s diplomatic office in Japan for many years,” he says. “When you learn how to write, you become conscious that you must write only on paper. The idea that somewhere people could write on a painting — for me, that was ‘The Codex.’” To the right of the scroll, there’s a 2022 painting by Serafini titled “La Langue Secrète des Oiseaux” (“The Secret Language of Birds”), which depicts a goldfinch spitting food into the mouth of a man with a red egg atop his head. The sky is flecked with swooping birds, and yolks run down the walls of a roofless house. “In the Middle Ages, there was this belief that there were messages from God hidden in birdsong,” he says. On a wall in the adjacent main room, an eight-foot-wide nest made of real branches contains a resin-and-plaster chick with a gaping beak. Below it, a human figure with the face of a swallow — made of resin and plaster and dressed in a tailcoat and ruffled silk shirt — is preparing to eat two eggs on a table. Elsewhere, the painted resin bust of a falcon with illuminated blue eyes hovers above the apartment’s second entrance. But this house, as singular as it is, isn’t Serafini’s only self-constructed fantasy world: There’s also La Casa Ontologica, his apartment in a 15th-century palazzo in Rome that’s filled with more of his artworks. As he laments his possible eviction from that property, which he has rented from the Sovereign Order of Malta since 1987 — to make room, he imagines, for “a luxury hotel or something else” — the faint rush of a passing commuter train pulls him back into the moment. “Cities are like trees,” he says. “They change, they grow.” While sitting at his dining table in a wooden folding chair with a cowhide print, he scans the space he’s created — not just a world of wondrous creatures but also maybe one of hope. After all, he says, “Metamorphosis is the sign of life.”

Luigi Serafini’s Fantastical Milan Apartment - The New York Times

[desertdollranch]

Opening my Amy Elise doll

Meet Haley!

So I'm sure you all know I love rare and discontinued 18 inch dolls. It's a lot of fun finding out that they exist, hunting them down on the secondary market, receiving them in the mail, introducing them into my collection, seeing my collection become more diverse, and knowing that I'm one of the very few people who owns them. I also think it's fascinating to observe the individual differences between brands. While my 18 inch doll collection started with American Girl dolls, it certainly won't end there.

Haley was no exception to that. I first noticed her while searching for another brand of rare dolls. I stumbled across her listing, tried to research but couldn't find much about her, and so decided to think about it for a few weeks. She was so inexpensive (less than the price of a new Our Generation dolls) and yet looked like she was lovingly made with high quality materials. The mystery around her was so intriguing that I went ahead and bought her.

When I received her, the box gave me the URL of the now-defunct Amy Elise brand, and so I was able to plug it into the Wayback machine and see the site as it appeared when it was active. I also noticed the box refers to Amy Elise as "books and dolls with a purpose". What purpose could that be? I wondered if, based on Haley's lab coat and clipboard, that maybe these dolls encouraged young girls to consider careers in science. I didn't receive a book with my doll, so I could only speculate.

The lab coat was featured on Hayley's profile on the Amy Elise website, which was archived by the Wayback machine from 2007 to 2009.

The other available doll, Marissa, is a young detective who likes to solve mysteries. A good start to a later career in forensics, I guess?

But if you read the introductions closely, each mentions learning lessons about faith. And if you look closely at the pictures of the two dolls, you can see the golden cross necklace each of them is wearing.

I was way off in my assumption. Rather than being science-focused, Amy Elise was one of the many Christian alternatives to American Girl that began popping up in the 1990s. That's still happening today, although it's becoming less common as smaller brands realize how hard it is to compete with American Girl's massive advertising budget, as well as more budget-friendly alternatives like Our Generation. For that reason they tend to quietly go defunct within a few short years.

I think this calls for a deep dive into this small, obscure brand.

The Wayback machine doesn't always archive the complete sites, and especially not the pictures, but it seems to have gotten a pretty comprehensive shot of the site.

Here is the mission statement and letter from the CEO of Amy Elise.

Fortunately this statement manages to convey their purpose without insulting American Girl, or referring negatively to non-Christian girls. I also did Google the CEO's name to see if she's still involved in doll production of any kind, and I can't find evidence that she is.

Elsewhere on the site, there are a few other faith-related products sold separately from the dolls.

The images here are broken because they were not archived.

There are a few other outfits and accessories for Haley and Marissa as well. Larger images weren't archived. None of the outfit descriptions give any sort of link to the characters' stories.

That's about all that's interesting about the site. The author's blog is more of a journal of her life and thoughts. Only the first page was archived and nothing in it is related to the dolls or their stories.

So let's open the doll. (You might have already spotted her a few weeks ago when I made a post about my dolls visiting a pumpkin patch--Haley was there. I actually got her in October and just haven't gotten around to posting this until now, mid-December.)

Haley was never removed from her box, so she's in flawless condition. She came with a pretend clipboard, pretend pen, and a cross necklace.

Her outfit underneath the lab coat is very cute.

Everything fastens with snaps instead of Velcro.

Her shirt has buttons on the left shoulder.

Her jeans have snaps and a zipper.

Her wig is one of the nicest I've ever encountered! It's soft but not slippery, and feels very realistic.

It did come off pretty easily when I tugged on it, so I moved it over to give her a side part, which I think makes her look a bit younger than she does. To me she doesn't look ten years old like her book says. She definitely has a more mature look to her face.

Overall I'm really impressed at her high quality materials. She's made of vinyl, but it does look like porcelain. She has a cloth torso and the standard articulation at the hips, shoulders, and neck.

She fits nicely into American Girl clothes, despite being just a little bit slimmer.

She fits into Maplelea clothes too, and this robotics club outfit looks perfect on her. I like the pink and purple hair on her but I don't think this wig change will be permanent.

Her feet are slightly bigger than AG doll feet, as seen on the left. I tried Haley's shoes on my Maplelea doll Léonie, and they were a much better match!

[counter-example]

Mathblr, help! I am looking for a book/course that gives a solid introduction to machine learning. Ideally it would cover algorithms with some amount of mathematical rigor but also have practice/projects/something I could point to in an interview. I am also open to these goals requiring more than one resource.

Background: understanding of basic undergraduate mathematics (abstract algebra, linear algebra, analysis) and a graduate course in numerical linear algebra, competency in C/C++ and Python

[rootsinthefuture]

At the beginning of the 21st century, we stand on the brink of a revolution set to redefine our world: the rise of a new generation of humanoid robots powered by advanced AI with unprecedented empathetic capabilities.

"Electronic Mentors" explores the profound implications of an imminent future where robots will become a daily presence in our homes, much like household appliances, televisions, and more recently, PCs and smartphones did in the past.

Originally introduced for adults, devices such as TVs, PCs, and smartphones quickly captured the attention of younger audiences, transforming into tools of entertainment and learning, but also raising pedagogical concerns. Similarly, robots, conceived to assist and enhance the lives of adults, will rapidly become companions for our children, assuming an increasingly central role in their education and emotional development.

This book invites us to reflect on how the introduction of these intelligent machines into our families will alter domestic dynamics and children's education. "Electronic Mentors" raises crucial questions: How will these robots influence the upbringing of the young? What lessons will be lost and what new wisdom will emerge from this daily coexistence with advanced technology?

Through detailed analysis and innovative perspectives, the book offers an essential exploration of the pedagogical future, where empathy and education are closely intertwined with technology. For parents, educators, and anyone interested in the future of our human interactions, "Electronic Mentors" provides valuable insights on how to prepare to navigate this new educational and social landscape.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0D9SVDK4B/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&sr=

[drlinguo]

Language and computers (Open Access)

Lelia Glass, Markus Dickinson, Chris Brew, Detmar Meurers

This book offers an accessible introduction to the ways that language is processed and produced by computers, a field that has recently exploded in interest. The book covers writing systems, tools to help people write, computer-assisted language learning, the multidisciplinary study of text as data, text classification, information retrieval, machine translation, and dialog. Throughout, we emphasize insights from linguistics along with the ethical and social consequences of emerging technology. This book welcomes students from diverse intellectual backgrounds to learn new technical tools and to appreciate rich language data, thus widening the bridge between linguistics and computer science.