#Solve PDF Problems

[sexygaywizard]

Please stop trying to nerdsplain to me what being a comp sci major is like I literally have an AS degree in compsci 😭

[kitschke]

bug reports are like: client is ANGRY that pdf machine not working. and you ask how did they use pdf machine. and they say they were trying to generate a 1000 page pdf obviously. like any rational person would do. but of course since corporation getting $$ for pdf machine and its Tax Season then client becomes source of truth who we must appease at all costs

[pickle-wiggler]

I have FINALLY problem solved my way into being able to print this fanfiction so that I can bind it into a book for my mother…. Life has never been more beautiful

[iocheaira]

me looking around the supporters section at a soccer game for a new franchise: is NO ONE going to start a supporters group????? this is texas do you seriously expect me to believe that not one former drumline person is present????????

[kierongillen]

I was recently in a pub, talking to a friend about their collapsed game of Dungeons & Dragons. I was somewhat frustrated by their tale of woe – perhaps the most common tale of woe. I imagined all these decades of people wasting time, just waiting for that one player to be free on Friday.

I decided to solve their problem by writing a patch for the 2024 edition of the D&D Players handbook.

There's a PDF to download in the link

Print it out and slide it in after Page 8.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Coping Mechanisms

Researchers have identified over 400 different coping strategies and presented multiple classifications for healthy coping styles (Machado et al., 2020).

They can be viewed on the coping strategy wheel and have been divided into 5 broad styles.

Unhealthy coping, on the other hand, involves maladaptive responses and often leads to a cycle of increasing distress (Skinner et al., 2003).

Unhealthy coping mechanisms involve behaviors that provide short-term relief but may exacerbate distress in the long run.

Substance abuse, avoidance, self-harm, and negative self-talk are among the most common examples of unhelpful coping strategies (Klonsky, 2007; Skinner et al., 2003).

These strategies often impede emotional processing, worsen our stress, and hinder effective problem-solving. Unhealthy coping mechanisms can lead to a cycle of negative emotions, decreased self-esteem, ill health, and even physical harm (Suls & Fletcher, 1985; Zuckerman, 1999).

Coping is an essential psychological process for managing stress and our emotions (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2004).

Coping consists of our “thoughts and behaviors mobilized to manage internal and external stressful situations” (Algorani & Gupta, 2021, p. 1).

Coping mechanisms are psychological strategies that can entail thoughts or behaviors designed to manage stress, adversity, and emotional challenges.

Healthy coping involves adaptive strategies that foster our long-term psychological well-being, while unhealthy coping encompasses maladaptive approaches that can lead to negative outcomes.

Healthy coping strategies, such as relaxation, seeking support from our loved ones, and positive reframing of unhelpful cognitions, are designed to foster resilience (Compas et al., 2001).

Such coping promotes emotional regulation, enhances problem-solving skills, and cultivates a sense of self-efficacy and learning. In that way, it contributes to our long-term wellbeing and thriving.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[ettinjiggywithit]

Hey folks! I'm crowdfunding a reprint of Hard Wired Island, my cyberpunk TTRPG. Backers can get a discounted physical copy or just a PDF!

Hard Wired Island is a retrofuture cyberpunk game, inspired by 90s anime. It's set on a space station orbiting Earth in an alternate 2020 where a meteorite strike supercharged public interest in space exploration. The player characters are regular Grand Cross citizens doing their best to live their everyday lives while fighting for the station's future.

This 400-page game includes:

An easy-to-learn system where social actions and problem-solving skills are at least as important as hacking and getting into fights.

An alternate 2020 setting in an O'Neill cylinder near Earth.

Descriptions of the many locations of Grand Cross, from the busy downtown Voyager Ward to the high-tech parkland of Mariposa to the Agriculture Ring that feeds the station.

Seven Occupations, including the Fixer, the Hacker, and the Influencer, along with a plethora of character options.

Over 100 detailed NPC descriptions, from corporate heavyweights to android crime lords to just regular citizens of an Earth-orbit city.

A flexible mission prep system that allows characters to adapt their plans on the fly without wasting their earlier efforts.

A wealth system that tracks the financial burdens placed on you by the capitalist system you live in.

A cybernetics system that doesn't dehumanize you for installing augments.

A lot of great art from a lot of great artists.

No genAI because we're not gormless hacks.

The game released in 2021 to great reviews. We sold out of print copies long ago and people keep asking us for more, so now's your chance!

[friendlyloner]

So in love with stitching this. I love the color palette and the design's ability to transition through it with no confetti just excellent and deliberate color choices. Think I'll do an update when I complete each set of 10 rows. I'm such a nerd for tidy incremental progress pics.

This pattern is Phases of Change by @8pxl

Navel gazing and a backside below the cut

Thinking a lot about methodology as a stitcher this morning. Came up because the other cross stitcher in the monthly craft hang out has encouraged me to try out Pattern Keeper a few times and I've been resistant but unable to articulate why. So I've had a little think about it and my conclusion is there are two reasons, one simple and one complex that builds out from the simple.

The simple reason is I started working from PDFs of patterns before cross stitch tracking apps were widely available. I'd more or less already figured out how to make it work for me when they came along so it feels a lot like solving a problem I don't have. If it ain't broke...

The complex reason is that as a process not a product stitcher a big part of what I really enjoy about cross stitch is the little challenges of figuring out my methodology for each project. I like working on a variety of different things and have found that different pattern design styles usually work best with different styles of stitching. I like the challenge of tailoring my method of stitching to best suit the pattern. There's usually some trial and error at the beginning but when I lock in on what works the happy brain feels of finding the right workflow are intoxicating.

This also very much is why my backs end up being pretty tidy looking usually, as that is also a fun little brain teaser challenge for me.

Case in point:

All this to say, the mental work of thinking all this stuff through is a big part of what I enjoy about stitching and I don't want an app to do it for me.

If I really want to get up myself about it I would also bring in blah blah neuroplasticity blah blah societies increasing dependence on computers to think for us doom doom learned incompetence ai skynet end of civilization as we know it..

But I think we've all had enough of that.

[monstersdownthepath]

Monster Spotlight: Mezlan

CR 14

Neutral Medium Ooze

Bestiary 6, pg. 186-187

This one has been a long time coming. The Mezlan are one of my favorite monsters across all Bestiaries, past and future, for more than a few reasons; namely body goals, but we'll get to that. However, the Mezlan are the proud owners of one of the most obnoxious images to peel out of the PDFs in both of their appearances (Bestiary 6 and Adventure Path: Shattered Star: The Dead Heart of Xin), coming with so much artifacting that I was instantly put off by the effort needed to get them into a clean state. I COULD use their art from Second Edition, but I like this version more; it's got more elegance.

But anyway, enough about my difficulties, and onto the difficulties the party will be facing if they encounter a Mezlan! The Mezlan as a whole were created in ancient Azlant by powerful mages to serve as spies, assassins, saboteurs, or retrievers, and if you want to know what it looks like when a Mezlan is on a mission, I heavily suggest watching Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Far from some mindless Constructs or Ooze monsters guided by programming, Mezlan possess the sharpened minds and powerful souls of ancient Azlanti soldiers, spies, or mages (sometimes to the point of having class levels from their old bodies) and bodies which require no food, water, or sleep. Thankfully, just a few hundred of them still exist, and for each one that sells its skills as a mercenary or an assassin or maintains memory its pre-Earthfall orders and purpose, there are Mezlan content to live out mundane lives, serving no master but themselves.

This post is not about the latter. Prepare yourselves, this one's a little longer than average.

For those on the Mezlan's hit list, it is exactly as terrifyingly inevitable as the T-1000, the creature able to bypass any barrier in its way so long as there's space for even a single finger to slip through, its entire body liquefying to slip through or past any impediment. They are faster than you'd ever think they could be, moving at 40ft a round and having the capacity to generate additional specialized limbs to climb or swim at 20ft/round, giving them incredible all-terrain capabilities. They also have the power to freely shape their Morphic Body into ANY Medium or Small creature in the game with little restriction, including into specific individuals if they so desire. No matter what form they're in, they maintain enough superhuman strength (30) to throw entire grown human beings around with a single hand... but they have the intelligence and wisdom to know when subtlety will get them what they want.

Having thousands of lifetime's worth of patience and experience, Mezlan are almost never going to make a bold move when a careful one will suffice. They're more likely to bide their time, waiting somewhere nearby and listening to local conversation, building their plan slowly. Their Versatile Speech allows them to understand and speak any language they hear being spoken for at least 2 minutes (1 minute to understand, 1 to speak) without needing to be part of the conversation, letting them easily fit into any city in any country either as a tourist or a local. When solving problems without (and sometimes with) violence, their Skill Pool also lets them make any skill check untrained without suffering a penalty for it, and upwards to 5/day they can add a +4 to any skill check, giving them a reasonable chance at succeeding most rolls they make, especially if they've already got sizable ranks; a basic Mezlan has Escape Artist +9, Linguistics +11, Perception +20, Sense Motive +20 on the "defense," and Bluff +14, Disguise +25, Stealth +25 on the "offense" side of their skills, for reference, though many have additional class levels to augment specific skills further.

But let's say that their skills finally get them to their target! Their victim likely won't know what hit them, as Mezlan all come equipped with +3d6 Sneak Attack to augment whatever weapon they wield, more than likely dispatching most low-level creatures they may want out of the way... especially if they're attacking with their high-damage Morphic Weapons, capable of shifting their limbs into any number of implements of death which all deal 2d8+10 damage. They're not helpless from a range, either, and can shape their limbs into ranged weapons when needed, firing projectiles made of their own matter for 2d8+10 damage with range increments of 60ft, though their Point-Blank Shot and Sneak Attack incentivizes them to be much closer.

Even without switching to ranged attacks, Mezlan can still startle people who think they're safe from its Sneak Attack. Once per round without restriction of whose turn it is, the Mezlan can stretch its limbs out and make a Morphic Weapon attack on any target within 15ft. Anyone unaware of their extended reach will learn of it quickly when performing any AoO-drawing action, which can be devastating for any close-range caster who just lost their best spell... not that it had a high chance of working, given that Mezlan have 25 Spell Resistance. And speaking of spells, a Mezlan that secures a spellcasting ally can use Spell Storing to keep upwards to 10 levels-worth of spells inside itself as long as it needs, ready to spring out whenever needed. There is a little bit of ambiguity on whether or not the ooze can absorb hostile spells, seeing as how it has an entire sentence devoted to how it can lower its SR and ready an action to absorb an incoming spell, so I choose to believe it CAN overtake and absorb hostile effects IF it wastes its entire action to do so, but a less lenient DM can simply decide that Mezlan can only absorb spells from allied casters.

The sample Mezlan has Chain Lightning, Dispel Magic, and Mage Armor prepared, the last of which is almost overkill since Mezlan start with 30 AC, but more AC for hours a day is hard to say no to. If they have a caster ally, or are a caster themselves, Mezlan could have more or less anything tucked away for later use, as their Spell Storing allows them to absorb spells from ANY class or casting method, be it arcane, divine, or psychic, and they can also absorb spells from scrolls they may find. Given their ability to disguise themselves, a Mezlan could easily feign injury and absorb incoming healing magic provided by soft-hearted apothecaries and priests, storing it for any true injuries they suffer later! The ball is truly in the DMs court, and Mezlan can store spells for years if they must, pulling them out only in the most dire of circumstances.

And we haven't even touched on what's important: Resilience. Like the T-1000, a Mezlan can pull itself together from basically any level of damage, shrugging off wounds that would kill a lesser creature in just a few rounds as holes close, wounds knit, and limbs reattach or regrow entirely so long as its Regeneration 5 keeps ticking. A Mezlan also benefits from its Ooze traits, making it impervious to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, stunning, and all forms of precision damage and critical hits. It can't even be flanked! But besides these written defenses, one of their most potent defenses is actually entirely un-written, as it relies on their appearance: In their true form, Mezlan appear to be glowing blobs of magma with visible heat trails rising from their body, and this is extremely valuable for them and should be emphasized by the DM, because an uninformed party would think that Cold damage would be their key to stopping the creature permanently, like cooling lava! Unfortunately, Mezlan cannot be killed by anything but Acid damage, a weakness they try and carefully hide (or protect themselves from via Spell Storage) lest the humble Acid Splash be used against their helpless remains.

But even this isn't the end. Unlike the T-1000, no method to permanently kill a Mezlan yet exists, with only plot contrivance and DM permission allowing one to be put down forever. Slaying one merely renders it dormant, its remains seeping swiftly into the environment, where it regenerates over the course of ten years. Thankfully, this imperfect replication has a very high chance of wiping out the Mezlan's memories, including its orders, and may simply see the creature laying low for several years to recuperate. In either case, though, players can rest easy knowing that a splash of acid will both thwart its plans AND keep it out of their hair for a long, long time.

Just pray the DM doesn't do a sequel campaign.

You can read more about them here.

[book-of-forbidden-knowledge]

How to Become an Occultist:

An easy (?) step-by-step guide.

SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD?

There's no easy step-by-step guide to the occult; someday I'd like to write a course on it for my patreon, or maybe a book. But for now, I'll give the short version:

I’m just going to say upfront, research is the enduring and eternal step. You can’t become an occultist without doing research, and you’re never going to stop doing research. I have a list of pdfs of classic occult texts and grimoires here, and a recommended reading list here.

Step 1: Pick a tradition, practice, or subfield.

The first step is to know what you’re signing up for. Western esotericism is a large field with lots of different subsets. Here’s just a few of them:

Witchcraft: A broad umbrella term that covers everything from historical folk magic, to Wicca and its offshoots, to modern WitchTok folk magic, and beyond. “Witchcraft” has become something of a general term for pop-occultism in recent years, and it’s what people tend to see first. Witchcraft seems more folk-magic-focused than some of the other fields, but that’s not universally true. Modern witchcraft is almost the melting pot of the Western occult tradition, so, if you’re able to find good reading material, it’s a good place to start.

Wicca: Wicca is an neopagan religion founded in 1951 by Gerald Gardner. Wiccans worship a God and a Goddess, practice magic, and call themselves witches. The ritual structure of Wicca is largely inspired by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (see below), but it also takes inspiration from folk magic, witchlore, early anthropology, and a bunch of other things from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Wicca is probably the best-known occult religion, and it’s mostly responsible for the association between witchcraft and paganism in pop culture.

Ceremonial Magic: Ritual magic or “high magic,” mostly codified in the Renaissance era by grimoires like The Lesser Key of Solomon. This kind of magic is characterized by the evocation and binding (summoning) of spirits — angels, demons, “olympic spirits,” and so forth. One can theoretically command these spirits to do one’s bidding. Modern magicians who work with demons typically fall into two camps: traditional Solomonic magicians who believe that the demons need to be bound and controlled, and demonolators who worship and work with the demons the way witches might work with pagan deities. Also in this subfield is planetary magic, rituals that exploit the powers or influences of the planets by using the tools associated with each one and doing rituals at particular times on particular days, etc. Enochian magic, a system of communicating and working with angels developed by John Dee and Edward Kelley, also falls into this category.

Folk magic: Folk magic or “low magic” is a catch-all term for magic practiced by average people to solve everyday problems. This is your healing magic, love magic, apotropaic (protection) magic, luck charms, spells to find lost objects, curses, etc. etc. Almost every culture has their own local form of folk magic, but there are also some ideas and techniques that are consistent across most of them (e.g. “like attracts like”). There’s also considerable overlap between folk and ceremonial magic; sometimes the only real difference is the social class of the practitioner.

Hermeticism: A system of philosophy based on the Corpus Hermeticum, a set of ancient Greco-Egyptian philosophical dialogues about the nature of the universe. It’s a short but dense text, not the simplest introduction to occult philosophy, but still worth reading because of how influential it was. It’s the loose basis of a nineteeth-century occult society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which is the great-grandfather of most modern occult societies (including Wicca). The HOGD was concerned with a lot more than classic Hermeticism; they also practiced ceremonial magic, astrology, alchemy, and mysticism. Golden Dawn liturgy is so common in modern occultism that you should probably look into it, whether you plan on practicing it or not.

Alchemy: A historical practice that is at once science, philosophy, art, and poetry, alchemy is a thing unto itself. The short version is that alchemy is early chemistry. Alchemists’ attempts at understanding how matter worked was understood to be a philosophical study of the nature of existence, on both a physical and spiritual level. That’s why the goal of alchemy is called the Philosopher’s Stone. The Philosopher’s Stone is allegedly a perfect substance, crystallized divinity, that is able to physically and spiritually perfect anything it comes in contact with. Alchemy is very complicated and hard to understand without diving deep into it, but some alchemical imagery and maxims (“as above, so below”, solve et coagula) have made their way into the general Western esoteric sphere.

Thelema: A religion developed by Aleister Crowley in the early twentieth century. It combines Golden Dawn material with a lot of Crowley’s own personal philosophy and general edginess. Its core tenant is “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” which means that one should always follow the guidance of what Thelemites call the “True Will,” the divine intention of one’s Higher Self. Its most important foundational text is a short, cryptic… poem, I guess?… written by Crowley, called The Book of the Law.

Chaos Magic: When Thelema meets postmodernism, you get Chaos Magic. Chaos Magic is more of a philosophical approach to the study of magic than a particular practice. It does away with the pomp and trappings of ceremonial magic and cuts right down to the basics, the magician’s relationship with their subconscious mind. That makes it very straightforward, but also difficult, because you can’t rely on any of those more complex tools. Chaos magicians (or “chaotes”) interpret belief as just another tool, so, they aim to pick up and put down different beliefs and traditions at will, based on whatever suits them in the current moment. The only specific practice associated with chaos magic is sigils, a symbol or other abstract representation of one’s desire that one uses to cast a spell. Chaotes tend to be deliberately haphazard — they have a “fuck the rules, do what you want” kind of attitude.

Satanism: The best-known of the spookier, edgier, “left-hand path” occult traditions. There’s two main varieties of Satanism, atheistic and theistic. The Church of Satan or LaVeyan Satanism (after its founder) is atheistic. It uses Satan kind of like a mascot for their beliefs of self-indulgence and free will. Although they don’t believe in any gods, they do practice magic; it’s mainly Golden Dawn material with an edgy “black mass”-style twist (like invoking demons, using a naked woman as the altar, etc.) The Satanic Temple is also atheistic, and it’s not really an occult society. It’s more a political activist group that fights for religious freedom in the United States. Theistic Satanists believe that Satan is an actual entity, and usually believe that he’s a positive being that represents free will and enlightenment. Some are demonolators, meaning they evoke and work with the demons of traditional ceremonial grimoires as though they’re gods (some believe that they literally are gods). The majority of Satanists are pretty chill. Very few believe that they worship literally evil entities.

That’s just scratching the surface, and keep in mind that this is all in the realm of Western esotericism. It’s a huge field. I recommend having an idea of what you want to study going in, because it’s a lot of material, and it’s easier to find good sources if you know what you want to focus on. Speaking from my own experience, I wish I knew what my options were going in.

Step 2: Learn a divination method.

Every occultist needs some kind of divination method. There are potentially thousands, but I’ll give you some of the big ones:

Cartomancy is card reading. There's lots of different kinds of cards: tarot cards, oracle cards, Lenormand cards, you can even use normal playing cards. It's a super common and super popular method. Tarot is definitely the most popular system. This method is easy to learn and very accessible.

Cleromancy is divination by lot, or casting objects onto the ground — dice, sticks, bones, stones, etc. — and reading the random pattern they make. There's lots of different types. This method is very old and very common. One of the more popular methods nowadays is casting runestones, which use Norse letters.

Scrying is gazing into a blank object until you see visions projected onto/into it. The object can be a crystal ball, a black mirror, a bowl of water, even a dark window or a blank wall (though that's not particularly mystical). Scrying is often used to see spirits in ritual magic. I can't scry worth a damn, so I can't tell you more than that. It's worth trying if you're a visual person, though.

A pendulum is a stone or other heavy object on a chain. You can use it to answer yes/no questions. Lots of crystal shops sell fancy pendulums, but you could just use a pendant. You say to the pendulum, "show me my yes" and "show me my no." Usually the "yes" is going around in a circle and "no" is going back and forth, or vice-versa. Pendulums are fun, but not super reliable because you can influence them easily. I wouldn't interpret any answer a pendulum gives you as final.

Oneiromancy is dream interpretation, and it’s another ancient method that’s used all over the world. I don't have significant dreams very often, though, despite my best efforts. With the abundance of other methods, I don't recommend relying solely on this one.

Automatic writing or “free-association writing” is my personal preferred method. It’s writing a question, and then writing whatever comes to mind as the answer, regardless of whether it makes sense. This technique is very, very effective for me, and has triggered full-on mystical experiences more than once.

Astrology is also a type of divination that involves interpreting the position of the stars and planets on the 2D plane of the sky to learn about the future and/or about specific people. It’s a much more complicated system than horoscope apps make it look. Practically a necessity for planetary magic, but in this century, you can be a wizard without being an astrologer. It’s good to have at least a foundational knowledge of it.

Different methods are useful for different things. Automatic writing and scrying are good for talking to spirits. Astrology is pretty useless for talking to gods, but is a good way of determining the outcome of your spells and the various influences upon your life at a given point. Cartomancy and cleromancy can be used for either, with some benefits and drawbacks. I recommend playing around with different methods to find one that works for you.

Step 3: Develop basic magical skills.

In addition to divination, you’re going to need some other basic skills. The most important one is meditation — if you don’t know how to meditate, learn. Meditation doesn’t have to mean sitting still. I definitely can’t sit still; I meditate by pacing back and forth. Anything you can do to lull yourself into a trance state can work, even singing in the shower.

You’ll also have to practice visualization, imagining your magic as though it were something tangible. For example, a lot of ritual formats will begin by asking you to imagine a white circle of light around yourself, or imagining taking each of the four elements into your body. Next is energy work — manipulating these imaginary forces and seeing how they affect your body, your emotions, other people, and the external environment.

You’ll also have to learn the basics of how to conduct a ritual, and gather your basic tools (which don’t have to be fancy or expensive). Rituals can feel awkward and silly at first, but that changes with practice. The basic point of a ritual (“supernatural” stuff aside) is to create the conditions to put yourself in a particular state of mind.

Finally, magic requires a lot of introspection and self-awareness. You have to really know what you want, not just what you think you want. And when your magic is successful, you have to have the humility to not have it go to your head (or else you’ll be afflicted with the dreaded “Magus-itis”). And that’s without going into the fact that ritual can drag up some intense stuff. Work through your shit, do your Shadow work. It’s hard, but it pays off in the long run.

Step 4: Practice a simple ritual.

Once you have some basic skills, it’s time to try your first ritual! You’re not going to want to try anything that’s labor-intensive or life-changing. Save the demon-summoning and stuff until later. The first ritual you do will probably be a banishing — a simple spell that’s intended to clear the space of any spiritual crap. Ideally, it should be used before and after every rite. Even if you don’t believe in evil spirits or “negative energy” or anything like that, a banishing is like the magical equivalent of turning it off and back on again. It’s a systems reboot. It wipes the slate clean. You’re gonna want to know how to do that, so you can 1. know what a space feels like when it’s free of influences, and 2. put down whatever you call up. It’s a good first thing to learn because it’s so essential, and also because it’s almost guaranteed to have no major repercussions.

The standard banishing ritual in the Western esoteric tradition is the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (LBRP), which is from the Golden Dawn tradition. It consists of intoning or “vibrating” the names of God and invoking the angels of the four directions. If that’s too Abrahamic for you, there are plenty of other variants that use different divine names. The Wiccan “circle casting” is essentially the same thing, trimmed down a bit. If the LBRP doesn’t appeal to you, there’s plenty of other banishing rites out there.

The first full ritual I did was actually a simple variant of the Wiccan “Drawing Down the Moon” invocation. I remember really feeling something the first time I did it, and that was enough to convince me that I wanted to continue.

And there you have it, a step-by-step guide to becoming an occultist, as simple as I can make it. Keep it simple to start, take your time, do your research. Whether you want anything specific out of occultism, you want to satisfy your curiosity, or you just like the idea of being a wizard, it’s fun to study magic.

[mollyjames]

One problem I've been slowly contending with as an artist who is attempting to make her living online has been this idea of Friction. In this case, Friction just means anything that gets in the way of a person reading my work or giving me money.

Strangely, these two things are about equally difficult. There are plenty of people who would very much like to give me money, just as there are plenty of people who haven't gotten around to reading my comics but would like to. And the only reason they haven't is because of Friction.

So let's quickly talk about points of friction. Let's say I upload a full comic book for free to itch.io, for anyone to download to any device, and then they can download it at their convenience. Sounds easy, right? Well, no. First, the way they heard about that book was most likely through my tumblr account, which means they first have to click on a link to leave tumblr and go to a different site. That's already a major point of Friction. If someone is browsing through tumblr on the bus on their way to work, or as a means to unwind from a stressful day, they are very unlikely to want to leave tumblr and commit an unknown amount of time to a separate activity. Then that person has to decide they are willing to download the files as presented on itch. If they have an account they have to login. (Although in many cases they will already be logged in.) Finally they will have the pdf, but then they have to open the pdf at which point they will see the document is 186 pages long at which point they might well decide actually this is too much trouble right now and do something else.

And this comes around to why tumblr is actually a pretty good platform for comic artists. If I upload a couple of pages in chunks at a time, people will read them as they scroll by. That's a point of Friction already mitigated. If they liked it, or their curiosity is piqued, there might be enough interest for them to click the link that takes them directly to the beginning of the comic (also on tumblr), and they can then read it from there. Or else they might make a mental note of it for later, and the next time they see a comic chunk might be the time they have a moment to see what my comic is about. All in all pretty painless.

Unfortunately, with money that's less the case. If you think about the first example, it's not hard to see why. First I have to get someone to click on my patreon link. Then they have to make an account. Then they have to add their payment information. All of these are points of Friction that exist. What's worse is the existence of Anticipated Friction, which essentially frontloads all of that work onto the first point. This makes it very very difficult to get someone to click on any external links in the first place.

This isn't like... a call to action or to shame tumblr users for not reblogging posts by the way. That's not something I can control. It's just an interesting problem to try and solve.

[monikatouhou]

the problem of terrible uni library ebook reading sites could be solved completely if we simply abolished copyright and let us download pdfs

[niteshade925]

April 14, Xi'an, China, Shaanxi History Museum, Qin and Han Dynasties Branch (Part 3 – Innovations and Philosophies):

(Edit: sorry this post came out so late, I got hit by the truck named life and had to get some rest, and this post in itself took some effort to research. But anyway it's finally up, please enjoy!)

A little background first, because this naming might lead to some confusions.....when you see location adjectives like "eastern", "western", "northern", "southern" added to the front of Zhou dynasty, Han dynasty, Song dynasty, and Jin/晋 dynasty, it just means the location of the capital city has changed. For example Han dynasty had its capital at Chang'an (Xi'an today) in the beginning, but after the very brief but not officially recognized "Xin dynasty" (9 - 23 AD; not officially recognized in traditional Chinese historiography, it's usually seen as a part of Han dynasty), Luoyang became the new capital. Because Chang'an is geographically to the west of Luoyang, the Han dynasty pre-Xin is called Western Han dynasty (202 BC - 8 AD), and the Han dynasty post-Xin is called Eastern Han dynasty (25 - 220 AD). As you can see here, in these cases this sort of adjective is simply used to indicate different time periods in the same dynasty.

Model of a dragonbone water lift/龙骨水车, Eastern Han dynasty. This is mainly used to push water up to higher elevations for the purpose of irrigation:

Model of a water-powered bellows/冶铁水排, Eastern Han dynasty. Just as the name implies, as flowing water pushes the water wheel around, the parts connected to the axle will pull and push on the bellows alternately, delivering more air to the furnace for the purpose of casting iron.

The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art/《九章算术》, Fangcheng/方程 chapter. It’s a compilation of the work of many scholars from 10 th century BC until 2 nd century AD, and while the earliest authors are unknown, it has been edited and supplemented by known scholars during Western Han dynasty (also when the final version of this book was compiled), then commented on by scholars during Three Kingdoms period (Kingdom of Wei) and Tang dynasty. The final version contains 246 example problems and solutions that focus on practical applications, for example measuring land, surveying land, construction, trading, and distributing taxes. This focus on practicality is because it has been used as a textbook to train civil servants. Note that during Han dynasty, fangcheng means the method of solving systems of linear equations; today, fangcheng simply means equation. For anyone who wants to know a little more about this book and math in ancient China, here’s an article about it. (link goes to pdf)

Diagram of a circle in a right triangle (called “勾股容圆” in Chinese), from the book Ceyuan Haijing/《测圆海镜》 by Yuan-era mathematician Li Ye/李冶 (his name was originally Li Zhi/李治) in 1248.  Note that Pythagorean Theorem was known by the name Gougu Theorem/勾股定理 in ancient China, where gou/勾 and gu/股 mean the shorter and longer legs of the right triangle respectively, and the hypotenuse is named xian/弦 (unlike what the above linked article suggests, this naming has more to do with the ancient Chinese percussion instrument qing/磬, which is shaped similar to a right triangle).  Gougu Theorem was recorded in the ancient Chinese mathematical work Zhoubi Suanjing/《周髀算经》, and the name Gougu Theorem is still used in China today.

Diagram of the proof for Gougu Theorem in Zhoubi Suanjing. The sentence on the left translates to "gou (shorter leg) squared and gu (longer leg) squared makes up xian (hypotenuse) squared", which is basically the equation a² + b² = c². Note that the character for "squared" here (mi/幂) means "power" today.

This is a diagram of Zhang Heng’s seismoscope, called houfeng didong yi/候风地动仪 (lit. “instrument that measures the winds and the movements of the earth”).  It was invented during Eastern Han dynasty, but no artifact of houfeng didong yi has been discovered yet, this is presumably due to constant wars at the end of Eastern Han dynasty.  All models and diagrams that exist right now are what historians and seismologists think it should look like based on descriptions from Eastern Han dynasty. This diagram is based on the most popular model by Wang Zhenduo that has an inverted column at the center, but this model has been widely criticized for its ability to actually detect earthquakes. A newer model that came out in 2005 with a swinging column pendulum in the center has shown the ability to detect earthquakes, but has yet to demonstrate ability to reliably detect the direction where the waves originate, and is also inconsistent with the descriptions recorded in ancient texts. What houfeng didong yi really looks like and how it really works remains a mystery.

Xin dynasty bronze calipers, the earliest sliding caliper found as of now (not the earliest caliper btw). This diagram is the line drawing of the actual artifact (right).

Ancient Chinese "Jacquard" loom (called 提花机 or simply 花机 in Chinese, lit. "raise pattern machine"), which first appeared no later than 1st century BC. The illustration here is from the Ming-era (1368 - 1644) encyclopedia Tiangong Kaiwu/《天工开物》. Basically it's a giant loom operated by two people, the person below is the weaver, and the person sitting atop is the one who controls which warp threads should be lifted at what time (all already determined at the designing stage before any weaving begins), which creates patterns woven into the fabric. Here is a video that briefly shows how this type of loom works (start from around 1:00). For Hanfu lovers, this is how zhuanghua/妆花 fabric used to be woven, and how traditional silk fabrics like yunjin/云锦 continue to be woven. Because it is so labor intensive, real jacquard silk brocade woven this way are extremely expensive, so the vast majority of zhuanghua hanfu on the market are made from machine woven synthetic materials.

Chinese purple is a synthetic pigment with the chemical formula BaCuSi2O6. There's also a Chinese blue pigment. If anyone is interested in the chemistry of these two compounds, here's a paper on the topic. (link goes to pdf)

A list of common colors used in Qin and Han dynasties and the pigments involved. White pigment comes from chalk, lead compounds, and powdered sea shells; green pigment comes from malachite mineral; blue pigment usually comes from azurite mineral; black comes from pine soot and graphite; red comes from cinnabar; ochre comes from hematite; and yellow comes from realgar and orpiment minerals.

Also here are names of different colors and shades during Han dynasty. It's worth noting that qing/青 can mean green (ex: 青草, "green grass"), blue (ex: 青天, "blue sky"), any shade between green and blue, or even black (ex: 青丝, "black hair") in ancient Chinese depending on the context. Today 青 can mean green, blue, and everything in between.

Western Han-era bronze lamp shaped like a goose holding a fish in its beak. This lamp is interesting as the whole thing is hollow, so the smoke from the fire in the lamp (the fish shaped part) will go up into the neck of the goose, then go down into the body of the goose where there's water to catch the smoke, this way the smoke will not be released to the surrounding environment. There are also other lamps from around the same time designed like this, for example the famous gilt bronze lamp that's shaped like a kneeling person holding a lamp.

Part of a Qin-era (?) clay drainage pipe system:

A list of canals that was dug during Warring States period, Qin dynasty, and pre-Emperor Wu of Han Han dynasty (475 - 141 BC). Their purposes vary from transportation to irrigation. The name of the first canal on the list, Hong Gou/鸿沟, has already become a word in Chinese language, a metaphor for a clear separation that cannot be crossed (ex: 不可逾越的鸿沟, meaning "a gulf that cannot be crossed").

Han-era wooden boat. This boat is special in that its construction has clear inspirations from the ancient Romans, another indication of the amount of information exchange that took place along the Silk Road:

A model that shows how the Great Wall was constructed in Qin dynasty. Laborers would use bamboo to construct a scaffold (bamboo scaffolding is still used in construction today btw, though it's being gradually phased out) so people and materials (stone bricks and dirt) can get up onto the wall. Then the dirt in the middle of the wall would be compressed into rammed earth, called hangtu/夯土. A layer of stone bricks may be added to the outside of the hangtu wall to protect it from the elements. This was also the method of construction for many city walls in ancient China.

A list of the schools of thought that existed during Warring States period, their most influential figures, their scholars, and their most famous works. These include Confucianism (called Ru Jia/儒家 in Chinese; usually the suffix "家" at the end denotes a school of thought, not a religion; the suffix "教" is that one that denotes a religion), Daoism/道家, Legalism (Fa Jia/法家), Mohism/墨家, etc.

The "Five Classics" (五经) in the "Four Books and Five Classics" (四书五经) associated with the Confucian tradition, they are Shijing/《诗经》 (Classic of Poetry), Yijing/《易经》 (also known as I Ching), Shangshu/《尚书》 (Classic of History), Liji/《礼记》 (Book of Rites), and Chunqiu/《春秋》 (Spring and Autumn Annals). The "Four Books" (四书) are Daxue/《大学》 (Great Learning), Zhongyong/《中庸》 (Doctrine of the Mean), Lunyu/《论语》 (Analects), and Mengzi/《孟子》 (known as Mencius).

And finally the souvenir shop! Here's a Chinese chess (xiangqi/象棋) set where the pieces are fashioned like Western chess, in that they actually look like the things they are supposed to represent, compared to traditional Chinese chess pieces where each one is just a round wooden piece with the Chinese character for the piece on top:

A blind box set of small figurines that are supposed to mimic Shang and Zhou era animal-shaped bronze vessels. Fun fact, in Shang dynasty people revered owls, and there was a female general named Fu Hao/妇好 who was buried with an owl-shaped bronze vessel, so that's why this set has three different owls (top left, top right, and middle). I got one of these owls (I love birds so yay!)

And that concludes the museums I visited while in Xi'an!

[algebraic-dumbass]

this might be a dumb question but like. how do you learn math without a class/curriculum to follow. i have a pretty solid calculus understanding and I want to pursue more advanced math but like im not sure where to start. what even is like category theory it sounds so cool but so scary???. do you have any recommendations on specific fields to begin to look into/whether its best to learn via courses or textbooks or lectures/etc.? any advice would be super appreciated!! dope blog by the way

thanks for the compliment!

first of all it's not a dumb question. trust me i'm the algebraic-dumbass I know what I'm talking about. okay so uh. how does one learn math without a class? it's already hard to learn math WITH a class, so uhhh expect to need motivation. i would recommend making friends with people who know more math than you so you have like, a bit more motivation, and also because math gets much easier if you have people you can ask questions to. Also, learning math can be kind of isolating - most people have no clue what we do.

That said, how does one learn more advanced math?

Well i'm gonna give my opinion, but if anyone has more advice to give, feel free to reblog and share. I suppose the best way to learn math on your own would be through books. You can complement them with video lectures if you want, a lot of them are freely available on the internet. In all cases, it is very important you do exercises when learning: it helps, but it's also the fun part (math is not a spectator sport!). I will say that if you're like me, working on your own can be quite hard. But I will say this: it is a skill, and learning it as early as possible will help you tremendously (I'm still learning it and i'm struggling. if anyone has advice reblog and share it for me actually i need it please)

Unfortunately, for ""basic"" (I'm not saying this to say it's easy but because factually I'm going to talk about the first topics you learn in math after highschool) math topics, I can't really give that much informed book recommendations as I learned through classes. So if anyone has book recommandations, do reblog with them. Anyways. In my opinion the most important skill you need to go further right now is your ability to do proofs!

That's right, proofs! Reasoning and stuff. All the math after highschool is more-or-less based on explaining why something is true, and it's really awesome. For instance, you might know that you can't write the square root of 2 as a fraction of two integers (it's irrational). But do you know why? Would you be able to explain why? Yes you would, or at least, you will! For proof-writing, I have heard good things about The Book of Proof. I've also heard good things about "The Art of Problem Solving", though I think this one is maybe a bit more competition-math oriented. Once you have a grasp on proofs, you will be ready to tackle the first two big topics one learns in math: real analysis, and linear algebra.

Real analysis is about sequences of real numbers, functions on the real numbers and what you can do with them. You will learn about limits, continuity, derivatives, integrals, series, all sorts of stuff you have already seen in calculus, except this time it will be much more proof-oriented (if you want an example of an actual problem, here's one: let (p_n) and (q_n) be two sequences of nonzero integers such that p_n/q_n converges to an irrational number x. Show that |p_n| and |q_n| both diverge to infinity). For this I have heard good things about Terence Tao's Analysis I (pdf link).

Linear algebra is a part of abstract algebra. Abstract algebra is about looking at structures. For instance, you might notice similarities between different situations: if you have two real numbers, you can add them together and get a third real number. Same for functions. Same for vectors. Same for polynomials... and so on. Linear algebra is specifically the study of structures called vector spaces, and maps that preserve that structure (linear maps). Don't worry if you don't get what I mean right away - you'll get it once you learn all the words. Linear algebra shows up everywhere, it is very fundamental. Also, if you know how to multiply matrices, but you've never been told why the way we do it is a bit weird, the answer is in linear algebra. I have heard good things about Sheldon Axler's Linear Algebra Done RIght.

After these two, you can learn various topics. Group theory, point-set topology, measure theory, ring theory, more and more stuff opens up to you. As for category theory, it is (from my pov) a useful tool to unify a lot of things in math, and a convenient language to use in various contexts. That said, I think you need to know the "lots of things" and "various contexts" to appreciate it (in math at least - I can't speak for computer scientists, I just know they also do category theory, for other purposes). So I don't know if jumping into it straight away would be very fun. But once you know a bit more math, sure, go ahead. I have heard a lot of good things about Paolo Aluffi's Algebra: Chapter 0 (pdf link). It's an abstract algebra book (it does a lot: group theory, ring theory, field theory, and even homological algebra!), and it also introduces category theory extremely early, to ease the reader into using it. In fact the book has very little prerequisites - if I'm not mistaken, you could start reading it once you know how to do proofs. it even does linear algebra! But it does so with an extremely algebraic perspective, which might be a bit non-standard. Still, if you feel like it, you could read it.

To conclude I'd say I don't really belive there's a "correct" way to learn math. Sure, if you pursue pure math, at some point, you're going to need to be able to read books, and that point has come for me, but like I'm doing a master's, you can get through your bachelor's without really touching a book. I believe everyone works differently - some people love seminars, some don't. Some people love working with other people, some prefer to focus on math by themselves. Some like algebra, some like analysis. The only true opinion I have on doing math is that I fully believe the only reason you should do it is for fun.

Hope I was at least of some help <3

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

Mandatory rant about kaveh’s 2023 birthday letter incoming!!

Kaveh and Alhaitham’s birthday message subject lines are seen to mirror the other through their usage of punctuation, as Alhaitham’s subject line reads as: “…” as opposed to Kaveh’s: ‘!!!’.

A sense of familiarity evoked in their current living situation emanates from these mirrorings and within this message. Kaveh writes about him bringing coffee beans “home” in order to try, and then follows this with: “we compared the taste of each, we decided that this was the best”. Through Kaveh’s explicit usage of the word “home”, it is evident that the “we” refers to him and Alhaitham. This description establishes a sense of domesticity, only to be achieved in a mutually agreed ‘home’ as opposed to a ‘house’.

It is relevant to reference Kaveh’s understanding of “home”, as in a place in which words are not necessary and link it to the idea of companionship being more important than understanding. The latter idea consists of supporting a person, regardless of the ability to empathise with and relate to their particular struggles, should be valued over attempting to be understood by people who are not willing to listen in order to understand - established by Kaveh’s mother within his hangout.

In this, Alhaitham is offered as a companion to Kaveh, where he cannot empathise with Kaveh’s artistic and idealistic struggles, but he is willing to listen to him over offering empty words which cannot solve Kaveh’s particular problems.

Kaveh’s understanding of “home” as a place in which people are at ease with each other and support another regardless, can be seen within his relationship with Alhaitham.

Kaveh and Alhaitham split the chores according to Alhaitham’s character stories; they both make attempts to decorate the house; presumably they eat dinner together, according to Alhaitham’s Story Quest where he excuses himself in order to have dinner, only to talk to Kaveh; the two can be seen to share a study; when ordering out, Kaveh orders extra for Alhaitham – a common enough occurrence for Alhaitham to be confident in relying on this; and for Kaveh’s birthday they try coffee beans together to determine the best ones to send onto Kaveh’s friends - Kaveh’s close friends who are also Alhaitham’s.

Rather than the “cold” and “lonely” house which Kaveh was left with after the passing of his father and departure of his mother, this conjures the image of warmth and familiarity. In this, it can be inferred that the two have created a home together.

(Update: For more analyses like this, the essay this is taken from is now uploaded! It can be accessed here and here as as a pdf <3)

[aw-colorcat]

Full Scan of Digimon Coloring and Activity Book from 2000

From solving the MATT maze to coloring a weird-looking tokomon, there’s tons to do in this activity book! Places to download ⬇️

This is done to the best of my ability with a scanning app on my iPad. Some pages have faint patterns in the background, which didn’t always show up properly in the scan. Also this book is 96 pages long, so it is a large file and may take time to download.

On the internet archive

PDF on Jumpshare

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if there are problems with the links or uploads! (Yes, even if you see this years from when it was posted)