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We meet again - (2023)

[ai-chatter]

Howdy

I'm under the weather right now, sitting up in bed, but I should be back at work tomorrow. It is heartening reading your kind notes and comments. The support for the Good Omens graphic novel is amazing.

I do feel tremendous pressure to make everyone happy, and I know that's not possible. Someone somewhere is not going to like this little detail, this creative decision, that costume. That's just the way it is, and it is 1000% even more intense because the fandom loves the story so much and they want what's best for it. And that's a good thing.

Naturally, my primary thoughts are making Neil Gaiman and the Terry Pratchett estate happy, and the chips will fall where they may elsewhere.

There are little changes I feel it is important to make, such as body language, as I need to be more expansive in a static medium like comics to convey life more than one would require in prose. So if someone is described as sitting, I am likely to have them get up and walk around.

Or not.

It depends.

Things in the show won't be in the book, because Gabriel, heaven and hell aren't depicted in the book.

But things in the book are in the graphic novel, like the Bikers of the Apocalypse, and trees growing uncontrollably, and a big pile of fish.

I sometimes feel a bit pecked at over it all, but who wouldn't.

But I also recognize I have a wonderful project to work on and I am so grateful for the enthusiasm and support.

I need to take some drugs, take a nap, and maybe I will have the energy for a little work in a couple of hours.

Take care.

[ai-chatter]

Consider the source - but this still seems positive

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Cults: Good Omens 2 Edition

I did it for The Mandalorian, why not here? Anyway: SPOILERS.

I'm not going to go much into this. This is going to be in my super vague "review quickie" style because this just came out and people are very sensitive to spoilers (myself included when I've not seen a thing, so I get it). But I want to talk a tiny bit about one part of the show that has a few people kind of ruffled.

Let's talk about two things that are kind of the same thing: religious trauma and specifically being forcibly evicted from your religion or cult.

No matter how toxic an environment your religious/spiritual home might be (assuming you have one and value that), a spiritual home be it a church or a commune or a temple or a yoga studio can become the absolute core of your very being. People flip the script on their hierarchy of needs for it. They'll give up basic aspects of safety and security for it. They'll give up food and sleep for it. They'll sacrifice shelter for it. For very spiritual people, their spiritual home is more important than any other earthly thing. This is why religions, even the most benign - are so dangerous, and cults take that even further.

Now, imagine you do something that upsets your religion. Maybe it isn't even a big thing. Maybe you think you've done something right. Or maybe you were just being yourself. Maybe you discovered a crime and came forward about it, only to find out it was being covered up by the church. Maybe you fell in love in an environment where love was not allowed. Oh no, now you're no longer allowed to be a member of the group. You're kicked out into the wide world. No longer allowed to be with the spiritual family you've known, you've been told is the best, the most correct, and possibly been with your whole life.

It gets worse. It's not just that your physical body is no longer allowed near the place that was your home or the people who were your family, but your very spirit is considered doomed and damned. The whole reason you GAVE and GAVE and GAVE of yourself - SALVATION - is now lost. Your whole existence has been made pointless on earth, and your afterlife will be a torment.

Basically? You're fucked, and it must be your fault.

And time passes. Maybe you find a new place and new friends and maybe you make a life for yourself that makes sense and that works.

But then? Someone from your old spiritual family comes to you and says, "Hi, guess what, we forgive you. You have a place with us still. It's ok. You're forgiven; you're safe."

It's easy for a lot of people to say "fuck no, I wouldn't go" if you've never been in that position. Which I find really hilarious honestly. A lot of people think they would NEVER allow themselves to fall in and out of a toxic relationship like that. And then I watch people say they're going to quit some social media site a hundred times before getting back on it a week later, so... yeah. Don't judge lest ye, etc etc.

The cult I grew up in had a bit of a joke. Not a good joke, just an in-joke. When kids turned sometime around 19-20ish a lot of them left. Not all of them, but a lot of them. But by the time they were 25ish? The majority of them came back. We called it the 5-year break.

People sometimes come home even when that home is imperfect. Or has hurt them. Even hurt them a lot. It is, after all, home.

I chose to leave, of my own volition, as a teenager, when it was in its dying stages, and I had already spent years faking belief. Faking the concept of a "spiritual home". I was always an atheist; I was just there for friends. For a person who actually believes, who feels god and faith and whatnot, it's just not that easy. My mom cried for weeks apparently at the first cracks in the foundation when I was 11. She was raised in the cult, too. It was almost all she knew. Her mom got her in it when she was just a little girl. When I left I still had everyone I loved, and I had no faith to lose. It was easy for me. I got lucky. Not everyone does. In fact, most people do not.

It is not unusual for people who are taken out of cults by their families or kicked out of cults by leaders, to go back in if offered a chance. Just like it is not unusual for victims of domestic abuse to return to their abuser. It might not be a "safe" space, but it is an understood space, and in the case of a cult, it is a place where even if they feel danger to their body, they might feel that is where their spirit is most safe.

So, Good Omens 2.

You're really surprised that an angel still has enough faith in God to want to help do Their good work? Honestly? Come on.

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Thought this one is both inevitable but also interesting

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I quite like the idea behind this one

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Not fully reliable is just about the same as you could say about ChatGPT.

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I have no words, except that whoever is scrutinising that legislation better be very well clued up on AI Ethics!

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Well, this article absolutely shows the some of jobs at risk from AI

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Tony Stark’s Lab: A Love Story

So incredibly happy to share my gorgeous commission from the amazingly talented @sreppub ! The idea was for a stevetony commission that did not actually feature the two of them, but instead showed the progression of their relationship in representations of Tony’s lab. I wanted it to be a fun little endeavor for any stony shippers who saw these pictures to be able to see all the little ways Steve came into Tony’s life and slotted right in. There are a bunch of fun details!! <3 

It turned out so lovely and I am so pleased! Thank you so much!

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Will be good to see this put through its paces, see how good it is

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2022/chatgpt-questions-predictions-ethics/?itid=mr_5

Still mostly in holiday mode, but this one is interesting on what rules are needed for AI chatbots to track their accuracy and biases.

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Woke up with a painful thought and now must share it with all of you:

Cassian, lying broken and near death at the bottom of the data tower on Scarif, thinking of Jyn up at the top alone, Krennic on her tail, knowing he needs to help her, and whispering to himself:

“Climb.”

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I mean why not - can't be worse than listening to King Charles III

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An education news site looks at ChatGPT implications.

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The wild world of PromptBase, the eBay for generative AI prompts

Links from Fast Company don't look great, so here's the link to this article which is for selling AI prompts!

https://www.fastcompany.com/90825418/promptbase-generative-ai-prompt-marketplace