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laughhardrunfastbekindsblog · 1 year ago

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Lost and Found

Summer of Bad Batch 2024 | Week 2 | Prompt: Comfort Zone

Summary: Tech had only lived on Pabu for a short while; but as soon as he saw it again, with the knowledge that his family was somewhere down there, waiting for him, he knew: he was home. POV: Tech, Crosshair, Phee (Word Count: 5397)

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Tech sat back in the passenger seat, datapad resting on his lap, his eyes burning slightly from fatigue after having spent the past few hours of the trip researching the habits of a specialized breed of hounds called lurcas. He had wanted to pilot the ship himself; but Omega had been so excited to show him firsthand how much she had progressed with the skills he had taught her, and he just hadn’t been able to say no. Besides, his piloting skills, while still more than adequate to handle flying especially during a non-combat trip like this, were mildly hampered by the nerve damage he had sustained to his left arm – he could still use the appendage, thankfully, but it remained significantly weaker than his right arm and fatigued rather quickly.

He remembered the flying lessons with Omega so well now - those were among the clearest of his memories, memories it had taken him well over a decade to recover.

There were still some small pieces of his life he couldn’t remember. How he had survived the fall from the railway was one of those pieces: apparently he had been delirious, or so he had been told, when the small band of native Eriaduans – intelligent beings, though so primitive and so reclusive with their dwelling places hidden deep in the forests that the other intelligent species on the planet paid them no mind – had found him; and he had sunk into a coma for months, before waking to realize he had no idea who he was, though thankfully he still knew how to speak, understand, and read Basic.

It hadn’t helped matters that he could barely see anything… until a few days after waking, when he had discovered that looking through a piece of curved glass brought his vision into sharper focus; and with this observation staying forefront on his mind, as soon as he was able to start hobbling around on his own, he had proceeded to gather materials and construct himself a pair of spectacles without really consciously thinking about how to do it, almost as if… as if he had done such a task several times before.

This had seemed so familiar, and he had learned very quickly to lean into familiarity as far as he could in his efforts to rediscover himself. It had been this feeling of familiarity that had drawn him, like a moth to a flame, to the recently downed shuttle near the natives’ village. It had been this feeling of familiarity that had guided his hands and his thoughts as he had successfully repaired the shuttle. It had been this feeling of familiarity that had led him to decrypting and reviewing the mission reports and data logs in the shuttle’s databanks; and he had found he recognized the basic facts of the Clone War and the aftermath, he knew the Empire went against everything he stood for, he remembered flashes of battles and he knew he must have been involved in the war somehow, though he didn’t look much like the clones who had formed the GAR. But, while most of his procedural memory had remained intact, and his semantic memory had returned at a rather astonishing rate as he researched what he could from the databanks, the brief flashes of episodic memories that he did have, much of the knowledge he remembered… there had been no context for it. He hadn’t known how he fit into it, or who or what had been important to him. And it seemed that the more he tried to consciously hold on to the personal memories in order to analyze them, the more quickly they slipped away altogether; faces and names in particular remained frustratingly out of reach. So he had soon learned to let these images, these episodic memories flicker across his mind without trying to think about them.

Still, he had kept leaning into the familiar as much as he could for countless months, and as the forests of Eriadu had become increasingly known to him, he had resigned himself to living out the rest of his life there… until Imperial soldiers had begun searching the forests for rebel cells, and he had intuitively known he should not be discovered. The native Eriaduans had refused to leave the planet with him, and he had let it go, knowing chances were high that the Imperials would leave the natives alone so long as he wasn’t with them. And so he had followed the feeling of familiarity that prompted him to pilot the shuttle, leaving Eriadu behind and entering the somehow reassuring white void of hyperspace.

The next decade had been a blur as he found and settled on the remote planet Tintha. He had been drawn to one of the tiny towns there, where he eked out a living doing what he had recognized best: engineering, mechanics, tinkering, decrypting, exploring, researching. What’s more, he had realized these things weren’t just familiar – he enjoyed all of it.

But he still hadn’t known who he was.

His skills, already appreciable on their own but even more noticeable given how secluded the planet was, had drawn the attention of a few influential people first on Tintha, then the wider system of Torus, until one day a man with cybernetic implants and the rather cryptic name of Echo – no surname – had visited him to ask for assistance decrypting information that turned out to be top-security Imperial intelligence. Then, after posing some rather probing questions about who he was and where he had come from - questions he couldn't very well answer - Echo had abruptly asked if he would agree to meet a young pilot named Omega to assist her with a rather more complicated task. He had agreed to meet the pilot, but hadn’t wanted to commit to joining the Rebellion – of course these strangers were rebels, he had figured that much out, though Echo had mentioned nothing by name – sympathetic though he might be to the cause. Besides, Echo and Omega kept acting so strangely around him, as if there was a lifetime of secrets they wanted to tell him but didn’t dare mention.

Well, most people seemed to act oddly around him. Or maybe he acted oddly around people. That awkwardness was all too familiar, and he had a feeling that things had always been this way, even before losing his memories.

Still, both Echo and Omega, these strangers he had only recently met, felt so familiar to him; and, following his usual method of leaning into familiarity, he had trusted them enough to let them take some scans and a blood sample – “Maybe we can help you find out who you are, in exchange for your help,” they had said. And he had allowed it; of course he had run his own blood sample before, but these rebels likely had access to more databanks than he did on this remote planet.

And then Omega had asked for his help recovering recorded data from an extremely familiar pair of broken goggles. And the first item he had found was the old back up copy of the picture of Clone Force 99, taken shortly after Echo had joined the squad.

And he had started to remember.

“Omega?” he had said tentatively, gently, turning his gaze to the tall, confident, energetic, brilliant woman next to him, so similar yet so different from the adolescent sister he had so quickly grown to love all those years ago.

Omega had instantly known that he remembered her – really remembered her, and her eyes had filled with tears. “Yes, Tech, it’s me,” she had whispered.

Tech.

Yes, that was his name – finally, he could remember his name. The Eriaduans had called him a term in their native tongue – Esha’Nu, Lost One – for so long, and he had gone by the name of Nu for years here on Tintha. But upon hearing his real name, it had been as if all – well, almost all – the discrete and nonsensical and decontextualized flashes of memory started clicking back into place.

His follow up question, however, had had nothing to do with the return of his memories.

“You recovered all this recorded data years ago, didn’t you?” he had asked Omega shrewdly.

Omega had laughed. “Yes,” she had said, nodding – and then her jaw had started to tremble as tears began streaming down her face. “It… it was all we had left of you. I had to find a way to restore it all, and I did. But,” and she had sat up straight, clearing her throat in an effort to stop the tears, “I was hoping that maybe the goggles or the pictures would help jog your memory, more than just being told you were a clone.”

All those years – his family had believed him to be dead.

If only he could have remembered who he was sooner. But there was no way to change that now. He had lost so many years with his loved ones - which meant there was no time to spend wallowing in regret over the lost years, over circumstances he had had no control over anyway. And a lot of the old memories were still frustratingly distant, vague, unclear - he had to address this issue before turning to the task of catching up on all the developments he had missed with his family.

“I would prefer to keep these to review the information when you go back to your mission for the Rebellion, Omega,” he had said matter-of-factly, indicating the goggles.

And Omega had smiled. “Tech, you are my mission now.”

Reviewing the recordings with Omega and Echo had done wonders in further clarifying Tech’s memories. He had lived for years trying to rediscover himself and had even been partially successful, though, despite Echo’s and Omega’s reassurances, he now knew his mind wasn’t nearly as exceptional as it had been before – still genius-level intellect, perhaps, but he recognized he couldn't retain quite as much information as he had before the fall and his mental processing speed was slower. But all of that hardly mattered. What mattered was that, now, he could remember at least 85% of the life he had forgotten; he could recall nearly everything, including that fateful choice on Eriadu, his final glimpse of his family before everything had faded to blackness.

Or what he had thought would be his final glimpse.

Tech, his eyes closed against the glare of the ship’s interior lighting, now smiled. He was with Omega and Echo now; he would be reuniting with his other brothers soon; there were certain friends he hoped to meet again eventually.

He was about to see his whole family again.

“We’re coming out of hyperspace now, Tech,” Echo called over his shoulder from the co-pilot’s seat next to Omega.

Still smiling, Tech opened his eyes and walked to the front of the flight deck, staring into the white blur of hyperspace for several seconds until…

There was Pabu.

He had only lived on the planet for a short while; but as soon as he saw it again, with the knowledge that the rest of his family was somewhere down there, waiting for him, he knew: he was home.

**********

Crosshair, standing outside the Archium with Wrecker and Hunter, saw the ship approaching and suddenly felt like he would throw up.

Ridiculous, he scolded himself. He had been impatiently anticipating this reunion for weeks, ever since Echo and Omega had told them the unbelievable news that they had found Tech, alive – a blood sample and a clone identifying code scan had definitively confirmed it. And, even more miraculously, they had been able to help Tech remember his true identity.

Crosshair had searched for happiness and peace for so long, and had finally found it in abundance with his family after their victory on Tantiss.

It had taken months, but he had eventually come to terms with the fact that Tech was gone.

It had taken even longer, but he had eventually let go of the guilt and regret he had felt over Tech’s sacrifice to save the entire family – including him, Crosshair – on Eriadu.

He hadn’t thought it possible to ever feel more happiness, until he and Hunter and Wrecker had received Omega’s transmission, her words only barely intelligible given the sheer amount of glee in her voice, that Tech was alive.

Crosshair had been in shock – all of them had been – until Wrecker had broken the stunned silence with an enthusiastic whoop so loud the ceiling of their cabin had actually shaken; and Crosshair hadn’t been able to stop smiling as a wave of almost giddy relief had washed over him while Hunter had eagerly inundated Omega with follow up questions. The next few weeks had been a whirlwind of preparation and discussion – they had to make up an extra bed; what kind of food did Tech like to eat now?; would it be a good idea for Tech to meet Batcher right away or should the hound stay in the back room?; would the reunion be too overwhelming?; they should ask Shep and the other Pabu residents to allow the reunion to be private; would it be too calm?; what was he like after so long, and would it be too much to take in given how much they had changed? But in spite of the busyness, Crosshair couldn’t help but feel that the days were passing by far too slowly: he wanted to see his brother now.

Well, “now” had finally come; and, standing here as Omega’s ship came in to land, Crosshair thought of the last time he had seen Tech, and his heart sank. Their parting on Kamino had been rather less than amicable on his, Crosshair’s, part, even as his brothers had invited him to rejoin them. Crosshair had just stood there sullenly on the platform, refusing to even look at his brothers as Tech had turned first to prepare the Marauder for departure while the others had followed one by one. Even knowing then that his commitment to the Empire meant it was highly unlikely he and his brothers would willingly cross paths, Crosshair had never really thought that critical moment could be the last time he would see Tech.

For years since the devastating event on Eriadu, the idea of the family ever truly being whole again had been an impossibility, even as they all did their best to honor Tech's sacrifice. Now that the impossible was suddenly imminent, Crosshair wanted so desperately to see Tech again, but he had to wonder: did Tech really want to see him? After all, if he, Crosshair, had just gone with his family after they had saved his life on Kamino, Tech would never have needed to sacrifice himself on Eriadu, and would never have been lost and alone for well over a decade.

After all Tech had been through, did he want to have Crosshair back as a brother?

The ship’s ramp lowered, and Crosshair suddenly found he couldn’t move as he saw Tech slowly descend. Omega had told them that the primitives who had helped Tech on Eriadu hadn’t exactly had the best medical equipment, and Crosshair could clearly see this to be true given the multiple prominent scars crossing Tech’s face, the pronounced limp that bore evidence of once-shattered bones in his right leg and pelvis that hadn’t quite been set properly, and the slight yet still noticeable weakness of his left arm that hung rather limply by his side. What’s more, Tech now wore thin-rimmed spectacles, his hair was slightly longer and liberally streaked with gray, and the wrinkles developing around his eyes and mouth were readily apparent despite the scars.

Wrecker, tears already pouring down his face, bounded forward to pull his brother into a bone-crushing hug, and didn’t release him until Tech managed to wheeze “Wrecker” in a voice indicating impending risk of suffocation. Hiccupping slightly, Wrecker set Tech back down on the ground and stepped back to allow Hunter, a warm if somewhat shaky smile gracing his face, to grasp Tech’s forearm and clap him on the back in Hunter’s signature greeting.

Crosshair hung back, rooted to the spot, hopeful and happy and scared and apprehensive all at once. Tech’s voice was the same, he had the same welcoming closed-lipped smile, he appeared as calm and quietly happy as he had ever been when near the squad – his family.

But Crosshair hadn’t been part of the family when Tech had fallen. Tech had spent months thinking Crosshair hated them all, yet had still wanted to rescue him, only to sacrifice himself and be left behind…

Tech abruptly looked over and met Crosshair’s eyes, and his smile widened as he relinquished Hunter’s arm and limped toward his youngest brother.

It was now or never: Crosshair had to say something.

“Tech,” he croaked.

“Crosshair,” Tech returned casually. “Omega told me you had returned.” And he placed a reassuring hand on Crosshair’s shoulder in greeting.

Crosshair wasn’t really the hugging type, and he certainly wasn’t one to initiate a hug. Neither was Hunter. Or Echo, for that matter. Wrecker and Omega were the only ones who gave hugs freely and without hesitation. And Crosshair knew Tech had always been the most touch-averse of all of them; though, according to Omega, Tech had readily accepted and returned her hugs as she had been growing up.

All of this passed through Crosshair’s mind as he stared in near-shock at his long-lost brother, the one he had thought he would never see again, the one he had wanted so desperately to reconcile with…

Crosshair couldn’t help it: before he even realized what he was doing, he had wrapped his arms around Tech’s shoulders and was hugging him with all the strength he possessed.

What was worse: he was crying. He, Crosshair, the one who prided himself on being more emotionally stoic than even Echo, the one who had made it through Tantiss and beyond without letting one stray tear leave his eyes (that one time on the Tantiss bridge didn’t count, that was rain, not tears), was now sobbing so hard onto Tech’s shoulder he was positive that, any moment, his brother would awkwardly pull away to avoid being drenched.

Instead, Tech gingerly placed his hands on Crosshair’s back, and lightly returned the embrace.

“I’m happy to see you too,” Tech said quietly.

All of Crosshair’s anxiety, doubt, and fears were erased, washed away by sheer relief, gratitude, and joy.

No matter what had happened before, they were still family, they were still brothers.

Tech was home.

**********

Phee approached the door of the cozy, well-lit cabin tucked against the mountainside, striding confidently and resolutely up the path; yet she paused ever so briefly to take a deep, calming breath before opening the door and stepping inside.

Hunter had contacted her a few weeks ago to inform her that Echo and Omega had found Tech, alive and relatively well, but having spent the past near decade and a half since Eriadu as an amnesiac. He had now recovered his memories, he knew who he was and who his family was, and he was coming home.

“He asked about you, Phee. He wants to see you.”

Phee had agreed to return, but had told Hunter it would be some time before she had wrapped things up enough to come back to Pabu. In truth, she ended up taking far more time than she needed to conclude her business and make the trip to the island planet. She had never been through the ordeal of losing one’s own memories and identity, living lost and alone for years before rather abruptly rediscovering them; but she could well imagine that such an experience would be overwhelming at minimum, and intuited that it would likely be best for Tech to have time to reconnect with his family first.

Besides, she needed some time to figure out how she felt about all this.

She had always liked Tech. Even in the very beginning, when his awkward and seemingly know-it-all behavior had initially turned her off, she couldn’t deny she had felt an instant and persistent attraction to him; and as time had passed and she had come to know him better, the attraction grew, and what had at first been rather annoying traits and quirks of his became endearing. After she had introduced his family to Pabu, she and Tech had spent more time together and had certainly grown close, close enough that her liking of Tech had turned into – well, she wouldn’t have called it “love” at that point, but definitely a hope that their solid friendship could soon become much, much more, could perhaps become love.

And then Tech had died, and Phee had been devastated, but she had hidden her feelings as best she could – after all, she had just been a friend, she wouldn’t lose her cool and make Tech’s bereaved family feel obligated to comfort her. And besides, she still liked the band of misfit clones that were Tech's siblings. And so she had continued to do what she did best – liberating ancient wonders – while also dabbling in much riskier intelligence acquisition and prison breaks in order to help Tech’s family save their imperiled brother and sister. And then she had subsequently maintained her friendship with the family, visiting Pabu frequently for their sakes as much as for Shep and Lyana, all the while knowing deep down that she was doing all of this as much for Tech’s memory as she was for the sake of her own friendship with his siblings…

Okay, fine, she had loved Tech, loved him as far more than a good friend. And knowing now that he was alive, with an airtight reason for having not shown up before now, and was asking to see her – well, all those feelings were reawakening at a frighteningly quick pace.

Thing is – she had fallen in love with the Tech of over ten years ago, before he had spent years not knowing who he was and therefore quite possibly discovering new things about himself in the interim. Would she, could she still love him as he was now?

“Omega says he was a little different when she and Echo first found him; but now that he’s recovered his memories, he’s become much more like his old self,” Hunter had said. “Still some differences – he’s definitely quieter, doesn’t interrupt nearly as much, not much of a risk-taker, insists he’s not as brilliant as he used to be…”

“So he only rates four times higher than genius intelligence level, instead of five?” Phee had quipped.

“More like only nine times higher instead of ten, by Echo’s estimation, but you get the point,” Hunter had replied levelly. “And… well, you know clones were engineered with accelerated aging…”

“Old people don’t scare me,” Phee had scoffed lightly. “I still talk to you, don’t I?”

And Hunter, rolling his eyes in exasperation, had chuckled in reply.

She wanted to stay in love with Tech, and nothing Hunter had said to describe Tech’s current state had indicated he had drastically changed. But there was also the fact that Phee still didn’t know for sure how Tech had felt about her – she had become well accustomed to Tech sometimes being oblivious to social cues and “normal” social interactions, but he had been almost uncharacteristically standoffish during their last parting, and while she had brushed it off at the time as Tech being Tech and resolved to have a definitive discussion with him as soon as he returned… well, he had never returned.

If he hadn’t returned her feelings then, what were the chances he would now?

But hey, Phee thought practically here in the present, as she stepped over the threshold into the cabin, it’s not like I’ll be any worse off in the romance department than I am now. Holding out a hand to prevent Batcher from knocking her over as she closed the door behind her, she glanced around, nodding at Omega, Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair, and Echo, who were all seated in their customary places around the central open-floor room, before her eyes fell on the sixth figure just a few feet away from Echo...

There he was, seated at the small table that bordered one side of the room. She recognized him instantly: still bespectacled, still with piercingly intelligent yet warm brown eyes, still on the lanky side, still with his hair slicked back off his forehead making his hairline more pronounced; though now with a scarred face, graying hair, even more of a tendency toward hunched shoulders, and more wrinkles around his eyes and mouth.

In other words, he was even more handsome than ever.

And he was looking right at her, calmly regarding her with his typical thoughtful expression.

Phee, being herself as always – no point in pretending to be anyone else, after all – fixed him with a sarcastic stare.

“Well, look who’s finally decided to show up.”

“Better late than dead, I believe is your phrasing,” Tech replied steadily. “Or it used to be.”

Oh stars, his voice - his confident, soothing, practical voice - was the same…

And yet, steady though his voice may be, there was a hint of hesitation in his eyes, and Phee suddenly realized: he was just as uncertain about how much she had changed, as she was about him.

Well, she’d just have to show him who she was.

“That phrase still holds true,” she conceded airily, sitting in the chair across the table from him and leaning back, crossing her arms. “Good to see you all,” she addressed the rest of the family.

The others greeted her in return; and, determined to make this visit as natural as possible, Phee forged ahead to engage them in light conversation, not leaving Tech out but not focusing specifically on him either. Hunter, as could be expected, seemed to pick up on her intention first; and with their combined efforts, Wrecker soon stopped glancing meaningfully between Tech and their guest and instead joined in the discussion, with Echo, Omega, and even Crosshair then following his lead.

Apart from interjecting a few minor corrections to some details Hunter and Wrecker elaborated on regarding events on Pabu over the past few days, Tech seemed content to just soak it all in, quietly watching the scene while idly stroking Batcher who had serenely parked herself squarely next to his chair.

Then again, Tech had always been most at his ease around his siblings. It had taken weeks on Pabu before Tech had started to seem more relaxed around Phee, even as he had given every indication that he wanted to be around her; and it had also taken her some time to come to terms with what she had initially mistaken to be mixed signals.

Phee was glad that Tech had so quickly readjusted to life with his family. And maybe – just maybe – this could mean he may soon be comfortable around her again.

It was nearly half an hour before the brothers and Phee had caught each other up on recent happenings – well, all recent happenings apart from the most significant development, which was currently sitting right across the table – and Phee turned to Omega, who was still laughing over Wrecker’s retelling of the latest fishing expedition gone wrong.

“Omega,” Phee said, “I want to hear all about your rebellious exploits before you disappear again.”

“Some of those exploits are supposed to be classified, Phee,” Omega replied solemnly.

“So?”

Echo glowered, but Omega broke into a grin. “We’ll catch up as far as I’m allowed,” she promised, before her eyes darted briefly to Tech and she added, “Later.”

Phee, knowing it was time, took the hint and turned to directly face Tech. Crosshair, of all people – bless that man, though of all Tech’s brothers Phee would never have thought that Crosshair could be so insightful in situations like this – rather forcefully drew his siblings’ attention away from the table’s occupants by complaining loudly about the current toothpick shortage on Pabu. Tech, still engaged in his siblings’ discussion, opened his mouth – probably to explain precisely why certain supplies were low on the remote island while the galaxy at large was at war – but promptly turned his attention to Phee when she spoke.

“I see Batcher has taken a liking to you,” she said casually.

Tech smiled a bit as he glanced down at the aging hound. “I have always been fascinated by creatures of all kinds, but I never saw the purpose of maintaining one as a companion,” he said conversationally. “This has been especially true the past few years – there was no reason to permanently take on the care of an animal when I didn’t really know who I was. Even now I can’t say lurca hounds are of a temperament that would make them my first choice of pet. But this one in particular is exceptional. Omega did well domesticating her.”

The more Tech talked, the more Phee's spirits rose; but she kept her demeanor relaxed and straightforward. “Yeah, Batcher is fine, but Mel is the closest thing to a pet I’ve ever wanted to have. Apart from her, I’ve pretty much always travelled alone.”

Tech glanced at her with an openly interested expression.

“You haven’t taken up traveling on a permanent basis with any other pirates or smugglers since we last spoke, then?” he asked.

Cheeky. Phee raised a brow at him, immediately recognizing the reference to their last conversation – the one she had replayed countless times in her head in the intervening years – but now wanting to hide the fact that she was simultaneously impressed, shocked, and strangely elated.

If he not only remembered their last conversation but was now willing to reference it, could that possibly mean he had loved her too?

But she had to stay cool. “I believe I was the one who told you not to run off with pirates or smugglers while you were gone,” she retorted.

“Yes, well, there were surprisingly few members of either category in the vast forests of Eriadu, or on a world as remote as Tintha,” he returned a trifle stiffly, in the manner Phee recognized as the one he used when he knew he hadn't picked up on all the subtext of a statement but still felt obliged to respond. “I couldn’t have run off with one even if I had wanted to.”

Phee smirked. Tech might be able to recite all the definitions and detailed components of flirting like the walking dictionary/encyclopedia combined that he was, but he would never be able to effectively put flirting into practice. And she loved him for it.

Oh, yes, she still loved this man. She couldn’t wait to get to know him again.

And it was her turn to answer the question.

“Well, you know, there was one man I would have considered traveling with on a permanent basis,” she said, deliberately borrowing Tech’s own words. “Not a pirate or a smuggler, but a handsome fella, strong, brave, wicked smart. He disappeared, though, and for a long time I thought he’d never come back.”

Tech surprised her by looking almost… disappointed? “Oh, I… didn’t know that,” he said, as if at a loss for words. “I… I hope he returns someday.”

Oh, poor Tech – okay, now was obviously not the right time for teasing or subtlety.

“In case I wasn’t clear,” she said slowly and distinctly as she leaned forward, rested her arms on the table, and caught and held Tech’s gaze, “the man I was talking about is you.”

Surprise, relief, uncertainty, and hope all passed over Tech’s face in equal measure before his expression settled on unreadable, and he was silent.

And Phee was suddenly acutely aware that, despite the low voices in the background indicating Tech’s siblings were ostensibly still talking amongst themselves, all ears were open and straining to keep track of this particular conversation.

Shaking her head slightly as she chuckled, Phee pushed her chair back from the table. “Let’s go for a walk, Brown Eyes.”

Tech readily agreed, his expression brightening as a small hopeful smile dawned on his face; and when she took his hand as they exited the cabin, he didn’t shy away.

@summer-of-bad-batch

#summerofbadbatch2024 #week 2 #comfort zone #the bad batch #star wars the bad batch #tbb tech #tbb crosshair #tbb phee #tbb omega #tbb echo #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #fanfiction #tbb fanfiction #tech lives #techphee #techphee forever

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nofomogirl · 3 days ago

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A Brief Introduction to Gender in Slavic Languages

I dedicate this post to all non-binary people in general, and non-binary people whose native language is a Slavic language in particular. I love you and support you!

I've seen several versions of the following meme in the past few months:

"Non-binary in [insert a Slavic language] is [word for "non-binary" in masculine form] or [word for "non-binary" in feminine form], depending on the person's gender."

And I cannot express how much I hate that lame fucking thing!!!

In case you didn't get it, the message is that even if people come up with words like "non-binary", it is not possible to actually use them without conforming to a gender binary anyway.

And yeah, it's not always shared with malicious intent. I have seen it used as an example of very real struggles non-binary people need to face, how they're constantly forced into cathegories that don't fit them, a kind of "we are fucked by languages, aren't we" dark humour thing etc.

Unfortunately, more often than not, the underlying sentiment seems to be that you can make up fancy words, but you can't escape the reality that you're either a boy or a girl.

Even though it's glaringly false, who cares, right?

And I mean both the small-minded belief and the meme itself.

I genuinely believe that it was originally written (1) by a person whose first language is English and who doesn't have a good feel of how gendered languages work, and (2) about a non-Slavic language, maybe Spanish or French? Oh, and also (3) a person who is unkind, or stupid, or both.

Anyway, in celebration of Pride Month, here is a crash course on gender in Slavic languages for all the language nerds and gender nerds, with love.

Lesson 1 - How Do Gendered Languages Work?

In a gendered language, we can divide all words into three groups: (A) those that have no gender at all, (B) those that have one fixed gender, and (C) those that can take any gender and therefore have multiple forms, one for each gender.

Group A consists of words like prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, and many verb forms. They and only they are truly genderless, in the grammatical sense. The category of gender doesn't apply to them at all, the same way grammatical tense does not apply to nouns.

Group B is basically all the nouns. Every noun has a gender that is its fixed grammatical property. When you check a noun in a dictionary, it will tell you what gender this specific noun is.

Group C can be defined as "words that are somehow grammatically linked to the noun". Like adjectives and some verb forms. They always "borrow" the gender of the noun they are describing. This means that while they don't have their own gender, they always exist in a gendered form.

Lesson 2 - Grammatical Genders in Slavic Languages

For singular forms, there are three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Yes, let me repeat it: THREE genders, including NEUTER.

This is true for every Slavic language I am aware of. Not all of them use neuter gender to the same degree; some pretty much replaced it with masculine, but at least in theory, it is always there.

(I am not getting into plurals here. For many reasons.)

That means that every singular noun is either masculine, feminine, or neuter. It also means that every adjective has three singular forms - masculine, feminine and neuter, and when you want to use an adjective in a sentence or a phrase, you need to pick the form that matches the noun it's meant to refer to.

Lesson 3 - Grammatical "Gender" vs. Actual Gender

(This is the part that I've noticed people whose native language isn't grammatically gendered - like English - struggle with a lot, and easily misunderstand.)

There is a significant overlap between grammatical gender and biological/semantic gender but they are NOT the same thing.

Yes, for living beings, especially people, grammatical gender aligns with their actual gender. Words like "man", "boy", "father", "brother" etc. are grammatically masculine. "Woman", "girl", "mother", "sister" etc. are grammatically feminine. Also, every male name is grammatically masculine, and every female name is grammatically feminine.

However, there are words whose grammatical gender diverges from the actual gender of the person they describe.

For instance, in my mother tongue, the word for "human" is grammatically masculine, and the word for "person" is grammatically feminine; however, semantically both are gender-neutral, can be used for anybody, and it is in fact very natural to use them for anybody.

Let's look at a sentence that translates to "My bother is a very calm and patient person". The word "my" will have a masculine form, because it refers directly to "brother", which is a grammatically masculine word. But both "calm" and "patient" will take feminine forms because they refer to the word "person", which is grammatically feminine.

We are talking about a man, but proper grammar requires us to use feminine forms. It is not jarring. It is not "woke". It is a normal way to talk and has always been.

We could change the sentence to "my sister is a very calm and patient human" (it sounds a bit odd in English for some reason?) and then we would be in a reversed situation - "my" will be feminine, but "calm" and "patient" will be masculine. So now we are using masculine forms to describe a woman, and again, it is 100% normal and common.

In both cases, even though we use words whose grammatical gender diverges from the actual gender of the person we are talking about, we are not misgendering anyone.

And that's because grammatical gender isn't actually a gender. It isn't even called that in my mother tongue, but rather by a word that more accurately translates to "kind" or "type". It's just a grammatical category.

It's a topic for a whole other post, but this is especially true for inanimate objects. I sometimes feel that native English speakers have a hard time understanding that just because, say, "table" is grammatically masculine, and we use "he" instead of "it", we do not actually perceive it as a male or attribute it with some masculine qualities... We really don't.

OK, so about that meme...

Let me quote it again:

"Non-binary in [insert a Slavic language] is [word for "non-binary" in masculine form] or [word for "non-binary" in feminine form], depending on the person's gender."

Do you see where the issue is?

Yes, the most infuriating and glaringly obvious mistake is omitting the neuter gender.

Even though I still suspect that the meme might have been originally about a language like Spanish or French, which do indeed have only two grammatical genders, and yes, jokes and memes get "adapted" for other countries/languages/cultures all the time and it's not uncommon for it to be really forced and just not work, I still cannot excuse the level of wilful ignorance necessary to make the Slavic version of this specific meme and still conveniently only mention two genders.

If we correct it:

"Non-binary in [insert a Slavic language] is [word for "non-binary" in masculine form] or [word for "non-binary" in feminine form], or [word for "non-binary" in neuter form], depending on the person's gender."

it's suddenly not that "funny" anymore, is it?

But it gets even weaker when the more subtle stuff enters the chat. Let me remind you that in gendered languages, gender is a plain grammatical category.

"Depending on the person's gender" sounds dramatic and may not be technically wrong, but it actually should be "depending on the noun's gender".

So if we correct it again

there's nothing left that you can poke fun at because this is how EVERY ADJECTIVE WORKS!

If your language isn't gendered, it might seem like some kind of paradox that the word "non-binary" exists in masculine and feminine forms, or that it somehow undermines the meaning of the word "non-binary". But it really isn't and doesn't. Every adjective has masculine, feminine, and neuter forms. Every single one. Not just "non-binary", but "masculine" and "feminine" too. All of them do.

Adjectives don't have their own gender and always take the gender of the noun they refer to, regardless of their meaning. Take that, non-binary people!

Also, please note that when we replace the word "person" with a more accurate word "noun", the stupid joke doesn't even work for French or Spanish or other languages with only two genders? Because even if you can't say "I am non-binary" without being forced into a gender binary (which, again, in Slavic languages, you totally can thanks to neuter gender), you can always say "I am a non-binary person" and you are no longer forced to misgender yourself.

Thank you for reading.

#linguistics #languages #slavic languages #gendered languages #gender in language #non binary #enby #genderqueer #overcomplicated review of a bed meme

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feyosha · 1 year ago

Note

Is there any regulations against having an explosive aura around your home? Like an aura that just explodes anyone who tries to enter without permission?

So far, no wizards have come close to my home. So no remains I have to clean up. Yet.

Well, we’ll have to do an inspection, naturally. We’re not so much about what you do as we are about how you go about it, you know? but here’s some things you can do in the meantime to help make sure everything goes smoothly:

How’s the line work on your sigils? You didn’t just freehand it, did you? You remembered to use the-(wait hold on let me check… my scrolls… here we go. ah yes) You used chalk containing Salt of Titanium, right? If you’re using that cheap Carbonate of Shellfish chalk you used in school you’re gonna melt your fucking doorframe. Don’t want that.

How specific were you in your targeting parameters? How did you define “anyone?” Don’t make me summon the ghost of Diogenes to teach you a lesson about the shortcomings of morphology based targeting parameters! He’s an ass and it’ll ruin your day. First of all any Wizard with a basic polymorph will be able to circumvent it if you made it too simple. Second, if you don’t restrain your semantic envelope, the spell will get… interpretative. That’s always bad. Ætheric background field operates on Monkey Paw logic. Do not invite interpretation.

How did you define your duration? Did you account for spariotemporal distortions from other nearby enchantments? Doesn’t do you any good if you explode people who broke in 2 weeks ago. And if you manage to somehow flip your past/future polarity and start targeting anyone who might break in… no.

We do not punish people retrocausally.

Got it?

(Ahem) anyway

So, I could drop by… hmm.

6th Saturday of the month work for you?

I’ll arrive around 11:75.

Bring a raincoat.

#feyosha #wizardposting #magitechnobabble #FeyOSHA Inspection guidelines #wizard #arcane jargon #free range sustainable shitpost

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darkmaga-returns · 7 months ago

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4 December 2024, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

The 557-page U.S. House Select Committee, two-years-in-the-making, investigation titled “After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward”, confirms that covid-19 resulted from a lab-accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was sub-contracted and funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) through Eco-Health Alliance, Inc., to create and produce a new and more dangerous (“gain-of-function”) virus, though “The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Rejected EcoHealth Alliance, Inc.’s DEFUSE Proposal [for this research,] Because of a Lack of Gain-of-Function or Dual Use Research of Concern Plan” — and, so, the NIH was actually recklessly even less concerned to protect the public’s health than even the U.S. military itself was (though this report avoids explicitly saying that), and the full report does explicitly say that “Dr. Anthony Fauci Played Semantics with the Definition of Gain-of-Function Research,” and that “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many scientists and government officials categorically denied that taxpayer funds were used for gain-of-function research in Wuhan at the WIV. These assertions rested on semantics and the misapplication of understood definitions.” So, they are saying (without being explicit about it) that Fauci was lying in order to ‘justify’ taxpayer funding of this basically biological-weapons research.

Here is the press-release about the full report:

——

FINAL REPORT: COVID Select Concludes 2-Year Investigation, Issues 500+ Page Final Report on Lessons Learned and the Path Forward

The single most thorough review of the pandemic conducted to date

2 December 2024

WASHINGTON – Today, the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic concluded its two-year investigation into the COVID-19 pandemic and released a final report titled “After Action Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward.” The final report will serve as a road map for Congress, the Executive Branch, and the private sector to prepare for and respond to future pandemics. Since February 2023, the Select Subcommittee has sent more than 100 investigative letters, conducted more than 30 transcribed interviews and depositions, held 25 hearings and meetings, and reviewed more than one million pages of documents. Members and staff have exposed high-level corruption in America’s public health system, confirmed the most likely origin of the pandemic, held COVID-19 bad actors publicly accountable, fostered bipartisan consensus on consequential pandemic-era issues, and more. This 520-page final report details all findings of the Select Subcommittee’s investigation.

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calderawizard · 2 years ago

Note

Elaborate on why the Tumblr post was used in your classroom

It's a pretty good introduction to the idea of semantic issues, which we briefly covered in the first lesson of the unit on personal identity.

The idea that went with the post was basically that in philosophy, you will encounter a lot of issues that are caused by the language we use, and these are different from the philosophical issues that we genuinely haven't solved yet.

For example, the post proposes that the ship of Theseus is a semantic issue. It's not that we don't know whether the ship is or is not the same, it's that we need to distinguish between two kinds of identity (that the post calls tribberly and quonk). If this is true, then we can solve the problem by improving our language. If it is not, the problem requires genuine philosophical thought.

Distinguishing between issues that are semantic and issues that are not is therefore very important.

This is a pretty convoluted explanation, but I think it gets the point across. Evil Wizard's post sums up the idea of issues caused by our language in an easily accessible way.

Personally, I think that the Ship of Theseus thought experiment is best used to get people to think about what identity is. It's not a problem you're meant to solve, it's a problem that's meant to reveal something about your perspective in the way that you answer.

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sathcreation · 3 months ago

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Full Stack Web Development Coaching at Gritty Tech

Introduction to Full Stack Web Development

Full stack web development is the backbone of the digital world. It refers to the practice of developing both the front-end (client-side) and back-end (server-side) portions of web applications. A full stack developer is equipped with a broad set of skills that enable them to design, build, and maintain fully functioning web solutions. In today’s technology-driven era, businesses of all sizes require versatile developers who can handle a variety of tasks. That’s why full stack development skills are in incredibly high demand For More…

Why Choose Gritty Tech for Full Stack Web Development Coaching?

Gritty Tech stands out as a leading provider of full stack web development coaching. Our program is designed for absolute beginners, intermediates, and even professionals seeking to upgrade their skills. We provide hands-on training with real-world projects, personal mentorship, and the latest tools and technologies in the field.

At Gritty Tech, our mission is to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Students not only learn to code but also understand how to architect scalable applications, work collaboratively in teams, and navigate the fast-paced world of tech.

What You Will Learn at Gritty Tech

1. Front-End Development

The front end of a website or application is what users interact with. At Gritty Tech, we teach students how to build stunning, responsive, and highly interactive user interfaces.

HTML5 and CSS3: Students master the foundation of web development by learning semantic HTML and styling with modern CSS techniques.

JavaScript (ES6+): Our curriculum covers core JavaScript concepts including variables, functions, loops, promises, and event handling.

Frameworks and Libraries: Students dive into React.js to build dynamic single-page applications (SPAs), and also get familiar with tools like Bootstrap and TailwindCSS for faster UI development.

Version Control: Git and GitHub are integrated into daily lessons to prepare students for collaborative coding environments.

2. Back-End Development

The back end is where the real magic happens. Gritty Tech’s coaching ensures students can build and maintain server-side logic, databases, and APIs.

Node.js and Express.js: Students learn how to create fast and scalable server-side applications.

Databases: Hands-on experience with both SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL databases (MongoDB) is provided.

Authentication and Authorization: Students learn how to secure applications using JWT, OAuth, and session-based authentication.

RESTful APIs and GraphQL: Students are taught how to design, develop, and consume APIs that follow industry standards.

3. DevOps and Deployment

Deployment is a crucial part of development that often gets overlooked. At Gritty Tech, we ensure students know how to get their applications live.

Cloud Platforms: Training on platforms like AWS, Heroku, and Vercel.

Docker Basics: Understanding containerization to build, ship, and run applications seamlessly.

CI/CD Pipelines: Students learn the basics of Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment to streamline project updates.

4. Soft Skills and Career Coaching

Technical skills alone aren't enough. Gritty Tech coaches students in communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and job preparation.

Resume and Portfolio Building: We guide students in creating standout tech resumes and robust portfolios.

Mock Interviews: Regular mock technical and behavioral interviews prepare students for real-world job opportunities.

Networking Tips: Strategies to grow professional connections within the tech community.

Gritty Tech's Unique Approach to Full Stack Web Development Coaching

Project-Based Learning

Our approach is learning by doing. Students work on multiple projects throughout the course, culminating in a capstone project that demonstrates their full stack abilities. These projects mimic real-world business scenarios and equip students to showcase tangible results to future employers.

Mentorship and 1-on-1 Support

Each student at Gritty Tech is paired with a mentor who provides personalized guidance, career advice, and technical support. Mentors are experienced developers working in top tech companies who bring industry insights to the table.

Up-to-Date Curriculum

Technology evolves rapidly, and so does our curriculum. We continually update our materials to include the latest frameworks, tools, and best practices in the industry. This ensures that students are job-ready upon completion of the program.

Community and Peer Learning

Students at Gritty Tech are part of a thriving community. Weekly coding challenges, hackathons, and group projects encourage collaboration and foster a supportive learning environment.

Flexible Learning Options

Gritty Tech offers both full-time and part-time coaching programs to accommodate different schedules. Whether you’re a college student, a working professional, or someone looking for a career switch, we have a path for you.

Real Success Stories

Graduates from Gritty Tech have gone on to work at companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and various startups. Our alumni consistently praise the program for its practical focus, excellent mentorship, and supportive environment. Success stories range from complete beginners landing their first junior developer job to seasoned professionals pivoting into tech leadership roles.

Curriculum Breakdown

Module 1: Introduction to Web Development

History of the web

Overview of front-end vs back-end

Setting up a development environment

Module 2: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Basics

HTML semantic elements

CSS Grid and Flexbox

DOM manipulation with JavaScript

Module 3: Advanced Front-End Development

React.js fundamentals

State management with Redux

Testing with Jest and React Testing Library

Module 4: Back-End Development and APIs

Building REST APIs with Express

CRUD operations with MongoDB

Authentication strategies

Module 5: Advanced Back-End Development

GraphQL API development

Websockets and real-time applications

Performance optimization

Module 6: Deployment and DevOps

Deploying to Heroku and AWS

Docker introduction

CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions

Module 7: Capstone Project

Planning and architecting a full stack application

Development sprints

Final project presentations

Technologies Covered

Front-End: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript (ES6+), React, Redux, TailwindCSS, Bootstrap

Back-End: Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, GraphQL

Tools: Git, GitHub, Docker, AWS, Heroku, Vercel

Testing: Jest, Mocha, Chai

FAQs About Gritty Tech's Full Stack Web Development Coaching

Who is this course for? Anyone passionate about technology! Whether you're a beginner, an entrepreneur, or a professional seeking a career change, Gritty Tech's coaching is ideal.

Do I need prior coding experience? No prior experience is needed. We start from the basics and progressively build up to advanced concepts.

What kind of support will I receive? Students receive unlimited mentorship, access to a community forum, weekly live sessions, and career coaching support.

How long is the program? Our full-time program runs for 16 weeks, and part-time options extend up to 24 weeks.

What happens after I finish? Graduates are equipped to land roles such as Front-End Developer, Back-End Developer, Full Stack Developer, and even specialize further into DevOps or Cloud Engineering.

Conclusion: Launch Your Tech Career with Gritty Tech

Becoming a full stack web developer is one of the most rewarding career moves you can make today. With Gritty Tech's comprehensive coaching program, expert mentorship, and project-based learning, you won't just learn to code — you'll learn to think, build, and grow like a real-world developer.

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litnerd · 3 months ago

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Study update - semester break (feb/march 2025)

Hey ho y'all. I haven't updated in a while so here's what's been going on:

- somehow survived all my exams. Got a 2.7, a 1.3 and a 1.7 in German and a 4.0 (pass) in the only English literature course I was taking (more about that later lol)

- I passed my German sign language exam

- I'm now taking an online Korean course and it's still a lot of fun learning Korean. I will probably do the higher level one too once I've finished this one.

So, let's continue with what my next university semester shall look like once the break ends in April. These are my courses (after page break) :

- German main lecture

- German linguistics 1.2 (seminar)

- German Mediävistik (medieval German) (seminar)

- medieval German lecture

- German literature (seminar)

- German sign language 2 (lecture)

- German sign language 2 (seminar)

- Medieval English (basically swapped modules to take this instead of semantics and pragmatics, which was the course I dropped out of last year. A man gotta admit his defeat...)

- Medieval English (lecture)

- British Cultural studies (lecture)

As you can see there are quite a few lectures awaiting me next semester... and my attitude towards lectures has never been good. I tend to just. Not go.

Remember how I wanted to talk about my 4.0 in my English literature exam, which was an insane close call? Yeah. I went to 2 lectures and paid attention to...like...half of ONE of the lectures. I studied day and night for 2 weeks straight to somehow squeeze all the information in my head and SOMEHOW I managed to pass even though I hadn't read any of the books we were supposed to read. In German we call this Bulimielernen aka you stuff yourself with information to puke them out during the exam and forget about them immediately once the exam is done. It's always been my problem that I do this. I'm the king of procrastination and it tends to somehow work out for me (I'm very good at memorizing things, have always been great at vocabulary tests for example) but this time it was extremely, extremely uncomfortable and nerve wracking. I don't want to repeat these two weeks ever again in my life. Never. I also feel like this way of consuming information is slowly but surely ruining my ability to remember anything at all. Might also be adhd but I have serious concentration issues.

So with this disclaimer. Here comes my plan for next semester (and the preperation before the semester)

Preperation:

- go through all the old sign language slides to refresh my knowledge before the course starts

- fix my sleep schedule. YES I AM STILL AT IT but I know I can do it. I've done it before.

Semester:

- read all the books for cultural studies immediately

- go to all the lectures (or at least!! to medieval English, medieval German and British Cultural studies!)

- do homework

- prepare for seminars (it makes it so much easier, I noticed that during my German literature seminar last semester and I'm doing the same thing for Korean atm cause attending the lessons would be way too stressful if I didn't do it)

- do sign language exercises regularly

- start preparing for exams at least 3 weeks prior (this plus going to the lectures is kind of the most important point. 3 weeks isn't that long but for me personally it's the max time I've ever spend in preperation for any exam (my A-levels) so it has to suffice for now.)

So. Yup. There we are. Idk when you'll get the next update but this is it for now. See you!

#no social media #study blog #study motivation #university #university student #literature student

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govindhtech · 9 months ago

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Advanced Google Cloud LlamaIndex RAG Implementation

An sophisticated Google Cloud LlamaIndex RAG implementation Introduction. RAG is changing how it construct Large Language Model (LLM)-powered apps, but unlike tabular machine learning, where XGBoost is the best, there’s no “go-to” option. Developers need fast ways to test retrieval methods. This article shows how to quickly prototype and evaluate RAG solutions utilizing Llamaindex, Streamlit, RAGAS, and Google Cloud’s Gemini models. Beyond basic lessons, it’ll develop reusable components, expand frameworks, and consistently test performance.

LlamaIndex RAG

Building RAG apps with LlamaIndex is powerful. With LLMs, linking, arranging, and querying data is easier. The LlamaIndex RAG workflow breakdown:

Indexing and storage chunking, embedding, organizing, and structuring queryable documents.

How to obtain user-queried document parts. Nodes are LlamaIndex index-retrieved document chunks.

After analyzing a collection of relevant nodes, rerank them to make them more relevant.

Given a final collection of relevant nodes, curate a user response.

From keyword search to agentic methods, LlamaIndex provides several combinations and integrations to fulfill these stages.

Storing and indexing

The indexing and storing process is complicated. You must construct distinct indexes for diverse data sources, choose algorithms, parse, chunk, and embed, and extract information. Despite its complexity, indexing and storage include pre-processing a bunch of documents so a retrieval system may retrieve important sections and storing them.

The Document AI Layout Parser, available from Google Cloud, can process HTML, PDF, DOCX, and PPTX (in preview) and identify text blocks, paragraphs, tables, lists, titles, headings, and page headers and footers out of the box, making path selection easier. In order to retrieve context-aware information, Layout Parser maintains the document’s organizational structure via a thorough layout analysis.

It must generate LlamaIndex nodes from chunked documents. LlamaIndex nodes include metadata attributes to monitor parent document structure. LlamaIndex may express a lengthy text broken into parts as a doubly-linked list of nodes with PREV and NEXT relationships set to the node IDs.

Pre-processing LlamaIndex nodes before embedding for advanced retrieval methods like auto-merging retrieval is possible. The Hierarchical Node Parser groups nodes from a document into a hierarchy. Each level of the hierarchy reflects a bigger piece of a document, starting with 512-character leaf chunks and linking to 1024-character parent chunks. Only the leaf chunks are embedded in this hierarchy; the remainder are stored in a document store for ID queries. At retrieval time, the vector similarity just on leaf chunks and exploit the hierarchical relationship to get more context from bigger document parts. LlamaIndex Auto-merging Retriever applies this reasoning.

Embed the nodes and pick how and where to store them for later retrieval. Vector databases are clear, but it may need to store content in another fashion to enable hybrid search with semantic retrieval. It demonstrate how to establish a hybrid store in Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Vector Store and Firestore to store document chunks as embedded vectors and key-value stores. It may use this to query documents by vector similarity or id/metadata match.

Multiple indices should be created to compare approach combinations. As an alternative to the hierarchical index, it may design a flat index of fixed-sized pieces.

Retrieval

Retrieval brings a limited number of relevant documents from its vector store/docstore combo to an LLM for context-based response. The LlamaIndex Retriever module abstracts this work well. Subclasses of this module implement the _retrieve function, which accepts a query and returns a list of NodesWithScore, or document chunks with scored relevance to the inquiry. Retrievers in LlamaIndex are popular. Always attempt a baseline retriever that uses vector similarity search to get the top k NodesWithScore.

Automatic retrieval

Baseline_retriever does not include the hierarchical index structure was established before. A document store’s hierarchy of chunks enables an auto-merging retriever to recover nodes based on vector similarity and the source document. It may obtain extra material that may encompass the original node pieces. The baseline_retriever may retrieve five node chunks based on vector similarity.

If its question is complicated, such chunks (512 characters) may not have enough information to answer it. Three of the five chunks may be from the same page and reference distinct paragraphs within a section. The auto-merging retriever may “walk” the hierarchy, getting bigger chunks and providing a larger piece of the document for the LLM to build a response since they recorded their hierarchy, relation to larger chunks, and togetherness. This balances shorter chunk sizes’ retrieval precision with the LLM’s need for relevant data.

LlamaIndex Search

With a collection of NodesWithScores, it must determine their ideal arrangement. Formatting or deleting PII may be necessary. It must then give these pieces to an LLM to get the user’s intended response. The LlamaIndex QueryEngine manages retrieval, node post-processing, and answer synthesis. Passing a retriever, node-post-processing method (if applicable), and response synthesizer as inputs creates a QueryEngine. QueryEngine’s query and aquery (asynchronous query) methods accept a string query and return a Response object with the LLM-generated response and a list of NodeWithScores.

Imagined document embedding

Enveloping the user’s query and calculating vector similarity with the vector storage is how most Llama-index retrievers work. Due to the question’s and answer’s different language structures, this may be unsatisfactory. Hypothetical document embedding (HyDE) uses LLM hallucination to address this. Hallucinate a response to the user’s inquiry without context, then embed it in the vector storage for vector similarity search.

Reranking LLM nodes

A Node Post-Processor in Llamaindex implements _postprocess_nodes, which takes the query and list of NodesWithScores as input and produces a new list. Googles may need to rerank the nodes from the retriever by LLM relevancy to improve their ranking. There are explicit models for re-ranking pieces for a query, or it may use a general LLM.

Reply synthesis

Many techniques exist to direct an LLM to respond to a list of NodeWithScores. Google Cloud may summarize huge nodes before requesting the LLM for a final answer. It may wish to offer the LLM another opportunity to improve or amend an initial answer. The LlamaIndex Response Synthesizer helps us decide how the LLM will respond to a list of nodes.

REACT agent

Google Cloud add a reasoning loop to its query pipeline using ReAct (Yao, et al. 2022). This lets an LLM use chain-of-thought reasoning to answer complicated questions that need several retrieval processes. Its query_engine is exposed to the ReAct agent as a tool for thinking and acting in Llamaindex to design a ReAct loop. Multiple tools may be added here to let the ReAct agent chose or condense results.

Final QueryEngine Creation

After choosing many ways from the stages above, you must write logic to construct your QueryEngine depending on an input configuration. Function examples are here.

Methods for evaluation

After creating a QueryEngine object, it can easily send queries and get RAG pipeline replies and context. Next, it may create the QueryEngine object as part of a backend service like FastAPI and a small front-end to play with it (conversation vs. batch).

When conversing with the RAG pipeline, the query, obtained context, and response may be utilized to analyze the response. It can compute evaluation metrics and objectively compare replies using these three areas. Based on this triad, RAGAS gives heuristic measures for response fidelity, answer relevancy, and context relevancy. With each chat exchange, the calculate and present these.

Expert annotation should also be used to find ground-truth responses. RAG pipeline performance may be better assessed using ground truth. It may determine LLM-graded accuracy by asking an LLM whether the response matches the ground truth or other RAGAS measures like context precision and recall.

Deployment

The FastAPI backend will provide /query_rag and /eval_batch. queries/rag/ is used for one-time interactions with the query engine that can evaluate the response on the fly. Users may choose an eval_set from a Cloud Storage bucket and conduct batch evaluation using query engine parameters with /eval_batch.

In addition to establishing sliders and input forms to match its specifications, Streamlit’s Chat components make it simple to whip up a UI and communicate with the QueryEngine object via a FastAPI backend.

Conclusion

Building a sophisticated RAG application on GCP using modular technologies like LlamaIndex, RAGAS, FastAPI, and streamlit gives you maximum flexibility as you experiment with different approaches and RAG pipeline tweaks. Maybe you’ll discover the “XGBoost” equivalent for your RAG issue in a miraculous mix of settings, prompts, and algorithms.

Read more on govindhtech.com

#AdvancedGoogleCloud #LlamaIndexRAG #Implementation #Deployment #VertexAI #GoogleCloud #DocumentAI #Geminimodels #REACTagent #Automaticretrieval #LlamaIndexSearch #RerankingLLMnodes #news #CloudStoragebucket #technology #technews #govindhtech

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sucharitadas · 9 months ago

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Best ways to learn programming

Programming helps to stand Software Industry at its best.The best way to learn programming depends on your goals, preferred learning style, and prior experience. However, here are some proven steps that work for most beginners:

1. Choose a Language

Start Simple: If you're new to programming, start with a beginner-friendly language like:

Python: Great for beginners due to its simplicity and readability.

JavaScript: Useful for web development and has a lot of practical applications.

Focus on Goals: Choose a language based on your goals (e.g., Python for data science or web development, JavaScript for front-end development).

2. Learn the Basics

Syntax and Semantics: Understand how the language works, its syntax (the structure of the code), and how to write simple programs.

Core Concepts: Learn about variables, data types, loops, conditionals, and functions.

3. Use Online Resources

Interactive Platforms:

Codecademy: Offers interactive coding lessons in various languages.

FreeCodeCamp: Provides hands-on coding practice and projects.

SoloLearn: A mobile-friendly app with bite-sized lessons.

Tutorial Websites:

W3Schools: A beginner-friendly platform for web development languages.

GeeksforGeeks: Great for tutorials and code examples on various programming languages and topics.

4. Work on Projects

Start Small: Begin with simple projects like a to-do list app, calculator, or personal blog.

Build Real Applications: As you learn more, focus on building real-world projects to solidify your knowledge (e.g., a portfolio website, a game, or a chatbot).

Contribute to Open Source: Participate in open-source projects to learn from real-world code and collaborate with others.

5. Practice Coding Daily

Consistency: Dedicate time each day to write code, even if it’s just for 30 minutes.

Challenges: Use platforms like LeetCode, HackerRank, or Codewars to practice solving coding challenges and improve problem-solving skills.

6. Read Books and Documentation

Programming Books: Some great beginner books include:

“Automate the Boring Stuff with Python” by Al Sweigart

“Eloquent JavaScript” by Marijn Haverbeke

Official Documentation: Reading the official docs for the language you're learning is a good way to understand core concepts more deeply.

7. Learn Algorithms and Data Structures

Why Important: Algorithms and data structures are essential for understanding how programs work efficiently.

Courses: Platforms like Coursera, Udemy, or edX have courses on algorithms and data structures.

8. Take a Structured Course

Online Courses: Enroll in a structured course to follow a learning path:

9. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail

Debugging: Mistakes are part of learning. Spend time debugging your code and understanding where it went wrong.

Problem Solving: Learn to think like a programmer—focus on how to break down problems and approach solutions step by step.

Bonus Tip: Be Patient and Persistent

Programming can be challenging, but with consistent effort and curiosity, you’ll steadily improve.

#programming #business #python #javaprogramming

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marryslittlelambs · 1 year ago

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Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten

Kindergarten is the first year of formal schooling. Teachers focus on children's physical development, social and emotional development, language and literacy, and thinking (cognitive) skills.

In language arts, kindergarteners learn the alphabet and how to print letters in upper and lower case. They also begin to recognize and count numbers.

Language

The language skills children kinder bring to kindergarten predict how well they will perform in reading and math throughout school. This is why many teachers emphasize kindergarten readiness – helping children develop the basic abilities they need for learning.

Language includes speech sounds and patterns (phonetics), words and their meanings (semantics), and systems for combining parts of sentences to convey information (grammar). Research has uncovered diverse developmental trajectories in early childhood.

During the kindergarten year, your child will learn to recognize and name uppercase and lowercase letters, match letters to their sound, write simple letters and words, and use their knowledge of letter names to begin reading. They will also be able to compare sizes of objects and groups, count and understand simple addition and subtraction.

To help children feel more confident and competent, they will have the chance to use their home language during play and group activities. To support this, classrooms display family photos and everyday items from all children’s cultures in learning centers and at child’s eye level.

Math

In kindergarten, children should develop a foundation for math that includes counting to at least 20, recognizing numbers 11-19, understanding number order and basic addition and subtraction within small groups. They should also learn to identify shapes and patterns, compare objects and groups, and begin an introduction to geometry.

They also should begin to understand probability, which means how likely an event is to occur. This is an important concept that should be based on real-world experiences and can help kids make sense of things around them.

As in the language arts, teachers should emphasize hands-on activities and make learning fun to foster enthusiasm for these subjects. Kids should be encouraged to make sense of their world and become comfortable with resolving problems and persevering in the face of difficulties. Research suggests that early learning experiences, such as kindergarten number competence, set children’s developmental trajectories in elementary school mathematics (Karmiloff-Smith, 1998).

Social Studies

Social studies includes learning about people and their communities. It also includes learning about the United States and other countries, history, geography, civics and economics. Educators use the social studies curriculum to teach children about their world and how it works.

Young children's natural curiosity is best nurtured by integrating social studies with reading and other content area topics through projects, hands-on activities and classroom centers. Research suggests that integrating social studies with language arts improves student understanding of the content and enhances learning in both disciplines simultaneously (Mindes, 2010).

KinderSocialStudies provides engaging and exciting educational resources that provide students the opportunity to learn about their world and the people in it. Each unit contains a list of objectives, "I can" statements, vocabulary, activity lesson plans and all necessary student follow-up practice sheets. The lessons are designed to work within a daily routine and can be adapted for both nonwriters and writers alike. The units are divided into five themes: Rules, United States/Community Helpers, Maps, Cultures and Economics.

Science

Many kindergarten science experiences involve observing kinder, classifying and making collections of objects. These are all critical aspects of learning science that support children’s development of scientific concepts, skills and understanding.

In addition, kindergartners explore the characteristics of living things. They learn about how living things grow, adapt to their environment and have specific needs. They also discover that non-living things can be classified as well.

Teachers should balance these explorations between life and physical sciences. Some teachers shy away from the life sciences and lean toward the physical, a decision that leaves out explorations that are of great interest to children.

#children kinder

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c0nfuzld · 1 year ago

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Things that my parents did that taught me really valuable life lessons and I just now realized it:

My dad had a game we always called “idiot learns to high-five”, basically, my dad would always say “teach me how to high-five” and we’d give him a vague answer along the lines of “slap my hand” and he would. It would just be the back of my hand, then we’d say “no, the front of my hand” and he’d slap the back of his hand to my palm.

Lesson learned: Semantics. If you’re telling someone to do something a specific way, no matter how simple YOU may think it is, they might not think of it the same way, so specify the semantics, if they knew already they get a reminder, if they didn’t, they do now.

#parenting #life lessons #childhood #high five #semantics

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b-stokes-arts246-03 · 2 years ago

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For Project 5, I can say that it was mostly easy because I got to pick an item that most definitely resides on my Christmas list, a.k.a HOODIES! I believe that hoodies are a type of clothing that can be dressed up and down, so I felt like this would be a great choice for the assignment. However, creating a syntax for 4 completely different designs proved to be my challenge. My teacher suggested visualizing myself describing this product to someone who hasn't been on Earth. Basically, they can't differentiate the hood from the front pocket. So, I did the best I could by using numbers, units, and the easiest words I could think of. The semantics of the project came easier because I could describe the hoodies in a way as if I saw them in person or online. Similar to what I learned from syntax and semantics, is the main idea in this week's reading. In this, I learned that graphic design can't go on without all of its parts, more specifically the "geeky" part. Two figures, Frieder Nake and Mark Webster, emphasized algorithmic thinking as being the geeky part of the design process, which leads me to agree based on not only this lesson but similar situations as well.

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theroundbartable · 11 months ago

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I vaguely remember this scene and while I was confused at his reaction too, I think it makes a lot of sense in hindsight.

This scene is followed directly by Uther scolding Arthur for the very same thing. Because it's not Merlin's responsibility to make sure the keys are safe, it's Arthur's. And Arthur knows this. He knew this would happen. I'm not even sure Merlin is supposed to have the keys in the first place because Merlin is a servant. They were keys to the vaults, why would a servant have those keys? (Or guard them. He's not a guard, what's he supposed to do?)

I'm of course just spitballing here, so my guess is as good as any. (Also it's what I like to believe, so you can ignore this. Haha XD)

I believe Arthur gave Merlin a responsibility he shouldn't have. And I believe that he knew what the repercussions would be should Merlin fail. He knew what he was doing and already feared this could happen but he gave Merlin the chance to prove him wrong.

In that case, the trust he gave Merlin is far bigger than we realize, at a time where Arthur is the most self conscious. Arthur's fear of his father's reaction and him mirroring Uther's reaction exactly show us precisely where Arthur's mind is in the moment.

This scene is meant to show us that Arthur is not ready to be King. He doesn't fully trust his own choices, he's afraid of the mistakes he makes and lashes out when he feels cornered. We know Arthur. Were Merlin really the one at fault, Arthur would shrug it off or beg his father not to be too harsh on "this idiot". But the failure (again) isn't Merlin's.

What Arthur is experiencing then is a kneejerk reaction at his internalized fear of punishment and failure.

Arthur's punishments isn't physical, never is in the series, it's verbal. It gnaws on his self worth, it humiliates him in public and distances him from the person who's opinion he most values. And this punishment, this behavior, is something that's become a habit.

Something we often don't realize when we have reactions like this (I'm speaking from experience) is that the reason we do it is because we repeatedly direct the punishment we see around us at ourselves, in one form or another.

The most prominent time I remember I had a kneejerk reaction like this was when I was 12. I remember this vividly because my teacher humilated me for it in front of my class. (He got distracted half way and so the whole point got lost in a debate about German semantics.). I'm 25 now, but I still remember WHY I lashed out. And the reason was because this friend told me I would have to hold a presentation in the next class. And I was terrified. Not of the presentation itself but my father's reaction. I didn't bother my parents with my grades around that time, but I knew how they reacted when my brothers hid their Fs from them, or caught off school letters etc. Etc. . So, because of that, instead of getting punished by my parents, I would always punish myself. I'd scream at myself (internally so I wouldn't be heard) or hit my head against the wall (physically), hit myself with a book, pull my own hair until I cried or something similar. Just so I wouldn't be a disappointment. So I would memorize my English vocabulary better. Which is why, when my friend basically told me I was going to fail in the next class and it was my own fault for not being prepared (I had missed the previous lesson because I'd been sick), I reacted like I always reacted. Just that the book didn't hit me, it hit her. And I could do nothing to stop it. And believe me, I was trying. (I slowed the book but it was too late by then.) And now imagine a 12 year old trying to explain to their teacher, in front of their entire class, why they hit their friend on reflex. (Only good side is, I never hurt myself again after that because I was afraid I could hurt someone again. So now, my kneejerk reaction to failure is freezing in place.)

I think that Arthur has the same problem here. He's lashing out at his friend because Merlin is there and Arthur can't scream at himself. The scene change to Uther shows that that's what he meant to do. It's a reflex and I think that Merlin, as his friend, knows this. And that's why they move on after that so easily. (Arthur has yet to learn how to apologize. And Merlin is far too forgiving at this point in time.)

I think Arthur does this quite often in the earlier seasons actually and I don't think he can help it. This isn't a reaction that you stop having because of development. The reaction itself develops. Like mine went from physically assaulting myself to freezing and simple isolation, Arthur's changes in a similar way. But the fact remains that there IS a reaction that will come out of nowhere at times. There a days that are easier and then there are days that aren't.

With Arthur, the need for a reaction dies with his father so he later directs his need for approval at other people. Agravaine, Gwen, Merlin. But those are people who react quite differently than his father did, so Arthur unlearns this bad habit. Although it's still there, especially in the scene when Arthur kills the King of Caerlon (Annis' husband.) because he's still trying to prevent that sort of punishment. Or in that scene when he remembers how he failed to control the knights that then killed a whole druid camp. There, Arthur's reaction is isolation. But he's self aware enough to deal with those feelings (with Merlin's help), while he isn't in the very beginning.

So, I sort of disagree with you OP. As always, that doesn't make your point any less valuable than mine, nor any less right.

Arthur's reaction simply makes sense to me. And I wanted to share with you why I think that. It makes Arthur so much more human to me. And so incredibly relatable. And it highlights what a good friend Merlin is, when he sees through the attack and recognizes Arthur's fear and pain for exactly what it is, rather than take it to heart. (This is one of the strengths that Arthur recognises in Merlin too, but thats a whole different kind of worms.)

Merlin rewatch -- S2E11: The Witch's Quickening

I hope the writer didn’t make Arthur so flippant in this ep… one second he and Merlin bantered like usual and the next Arthur made everything Merlin's fault and he kept shouting. It's so unnecessary. Both of them forgot it the next second so no personality growth, and those aren't even comedic scenes.

At least made Merlin's mistakes more ostentatious so that Arthur's reaction was harsh but not unwarranted.

-- He blamed Merlin for not locking his chamber's door but when did any of the rooms were locked in Camelot? In Mordred’s 1st episode where Merlin actually stole his keys he didn't think of Merlin at all. Also shouldn't there be a guard for security?

-- Morgana said no one was in her room but maybe she just didn't notice because the intruders were good at it. Merlin could still be speaking the truth.

-- Maybe Gaius ' supposed 'informer' forgot to mention the direction of one crossroad, it was hardly Merlin's fault.

-- Making the weakest person (from Arthur's view) protect the crystal doesn't make any sense. If the writer wanted to make Merlin hold the crystal just let him nick it from Arthur. He did that all the time.

It's nice that Arthur covered for Merlin in front of Uther, though not enough to counter other awful scenes. Unlike other circumstances when Merlin got accused Arthur believed it was Merlin's mistake this time but was still willing to take the blame because he knew an angry Uther could do far worse than shouting at Merlin. (Less shouting would be better though) Merlin's little smile when he looked at that scene was beautiful. I guess another plus point for Arthur was that he didn't suspect Merlin steal the key when he believed Merlin was the only one who had access. But Arthur never really suspected the people he knew.

Also, Arthur's "You ever put me in that position (lying to Uther for Merlin’s crime) again…" hits hard. Oh Merlin.

[S2E11] [other episodes]

#bbc merlin #merlin Meta #personal #delete later #maybe

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