#and also just their personal journeys in general

[b4ddprincess]

I hope that everyone who reads this feels a little bit of peace of mind. I know how unbearable it is to want to have the life of your dreams right now! That anxiety and despair won't help at all. Nor will continuing to do what doesn't resonate with you, seeing countless success stories and each time trying to do the same as them. It's always like that, right? That's what most of us do, it's like being in a loop, I say this because this year I became pure consciousness several times while trying to induce it, whether through lucid dreams, sleeping affirming, some of the times I just came out of the state of pure consciousness without affirming anything because I felt so peaceful (and it didn't last long either).

Exactly 4 days ago I almost to induce pure consciousness again while listening to this audio that leaves me super relaxed

https://youtu.be/DMQjwuU_4c4

(not that to induce pure consciousness you need something like that, just relax your body and take your focus off thoughts related to anxiety, just relax)

and I relaxed so deeply, I relaxed my body and mind while daydreaming but as soon as I started to feel the symptoms it was so intense, like falling, spinning and being sucked at the same time. and I focused so much on the symptoms that I ended up losing focus and consciousness returned to 3D.

but I remembered when I was a beginner in all this and I read a blog (if I find the link I'll put it here for you)

https://at.tumblr.com/princess200417/697183954837569536/h6gg9e7y98bg

in which the blogger said the following

"Sit down or lay down in the most comfortable position to you

Start breathing in and out slowly and imagine/picture a black space or a black hole or just a black image in general ,so this can help you in feeling closer to void (ofc it's not necessary)

Now start AFFIRMING I'm void or any other blanket void affirmation/affirmations of your personal preference"

She also said to make affirmations during the day, such as "Void is instant easy and simple ," "I am God," and I remembered that when I did this for the first time, I was a little sleepy. All I did was read this blogger's post again, lay down, and close my eyes. I didn't think about anything. All I did was affirm without forcing myself. The symptoms were so intense. However, I wasn't anxious or desperate.

So, I didn't care about the symptoms. I kept affirming. I remember that the way I induced pure consciousness was so fast. I just hadn't affirmed anything because there was nothing I wanted to manifest. Then I just affirmed that I was going to go out, and when I did, I realized that I was still asleep. Then I woke up. Some time later, I did it again and manifested that I was going to pass a very important test for me. And guess what? I passed all the tests.

And now remembering this I feel upset with myself, for having consumed too much and having let things get out of control and become a little difficult. Until a while ago I was telling myself that I would manifest my dream life, but I was always putting it off until tomorrow and it was always like that, 5 months went by while I was procrastinating. Now I realized how much time I wasted, and I feel upset with myself. But I remembered that I have already induced pure consciousness, what is getting in my way is despair and anxiety, but now I will control this and manifest my dream life, I will send you my success story very soon :)

I hope this is like a little warning to everyone who is on this journey, I know that everyone's circumstances may be as difficult as mine, but never give up. Try to stop this despair, focus on who you are. You are gods, the co-creator of your own reality, don't give up and don't put off until tomorrow what you can and have the power to do today!!!

congrats on inducing pure consciousness and passing your exams!! it may not be your dream life, but hey! you still have a testimony to share, and ik you'll share your dream life testimony soon!! 💗💗

just apply your reminders, and ik i'll see your next success story! don't stress urself either! 💞

[munadyke]

hmmmm!

[warlordfelwinter]

i just love how Spiky the tieflings are

[flower-sniffing-friend]

my biggest secret is that way deep down i have the slightest desire to like birdflash. wally is so midwest, upper-middle class conservative that wally having to unpack all that and deal with the anger that comes from dick just being too damn attractive would be really interesting (and funny)

the problem is i don't like wally :(

[no27-autonation-honda]

thank you to everyone who gave me advice on preparing for my first ever Tisha b’av service last night! I was surprisingly well prepared and it was a beautiful service

[imaginarypasta]

is/at being all i can think about is difficult because i am fundamentally very chatty. every piece of art i have ever seen or read i have a thousand thoughts about it good and bad i’ll talk your ear off. and i sit here and it’s all i can think about. but i have no thoughts to wrangle about it. and this is the biggest compliment i think; it literally left me completely speechless. it’s been months for me to process it and still if i want to talk about it it’s like “agghhhh” is all i can say. it’s so self-contained and like. literally all i can say is that im speechless.

[astrxealis]

okay rambles but i started creatively writing in like ... 5th grade? and. oh god just a little encouragement to anyone looking to get into writing or insecure or whatnot, but HELLS, maybe it's to he expected with my (obviously) very young age and inexperience with writing then, but my writing was really. yeah. Yeah. but then i'm what... a lot older now, obviously, and my writing has gotten leagues better. i'm probably not a good example for this bcs childhood years development stuff are different etc etc BUT practicing writing more and whatnot really does go a long way :]

[floralovebot]

Do you think the fandom is too hard on Sky?

Mmm, no and yes?

I think people have a lot of good reasons to hate or just kinda dislike Sky. Even if you ignore the Diaspro situation, he has a lot of moments where he just... isn't great (to say the absolute least). Spying on Bloom, immediately assuming she's going to cheat or leave him, directly saying she can't hang out with other guys, implying that he can't trust Brandon, making fun of Stella, literally everything he says to Riven. And I mean that's like the major stuff off the top of my head yknow? Sky just isn't a great person and while he does get called out, it's never in a way that would actually make him change his behavior.

However, I think people also exaggerate his actions and intentions a lot. Instead of recognizing that Sky has practically no control over his life and that he couldn't just break up with Diaspro or tell Bloom the truth, a lot of people make him out to be some serial cheater that always intended to cheat on Diaspro or lie to random girls about his identity. Or when people think he's the worst friend ever because he occasionally doesn't trust people when his entire life he's been at risk of assassination and people getting close to him to yknow. kill him. Like no, implying that Brandon is a spy or that Riven wants to murder people isn't cool. But he's also only like that because there's a history of people trying to kill him, not because he just hates everyone.

Listen, I'm not saying that Sky is a good person or that his actions are justified OR that he's a horrible person who deserves a shit ton of hate. But I think the fandom in general tends to go with very absolutist claims when it comes to Sky. It's either he's the worst character ever and deserves to die or he's a misunderstood baby who's better than Riven. It's literally always one of those two - no in between. Imo, there are reasons to dislike Sky but the fandom also heavily exaggerates the reasons and makes him out to be much worse than he actually is. And on the other side, it's also annoying when people completely ignore all of his faults just to make him look better. He's just as complex and nuanced as the rest of the characters and acting like he's either 100% Evil or 100% Innocent is never fun (for him or any other character).

(i didn't really know how to fit this in but I think a lot of sky discourse also comes from riven stans which makes the situation so much worse. like it's never a fun discussion or debate, it's always just "well he was mean to riven so he deserves to die actually" which then makes riven antis foam at the mouth so they start to defend sky Exclusively to make riven look bad, not because they actually like sky. it's a mess man)

General disclaimer that this is just my opinion and I'm not trying to force it on anyone and it's fine if you disagree.

[astranauticus]

idk what is it about that one throwaway line from han sooyoung about her writing 10 chapters in one day that finally broke me but oh my fuckin god i love her so much

[dbphantom]

Thought process: wow I have so many tabs open on my Firefox what the hell was I do-

Carry on.

[blujaydoodles]

What's Aubree's coolest story about how she got one of her scars? (Besides the one she doesn't talk about)

"Although, really it's a bit of a stupid story if I'm being honest, but the scar's cool as hell and that counts for something, yeah?

“It was one of my first jobs with a trade caravan, just as an extra pair of hands-- green as I was, they wouldn’t have hired someone like me as an armed guard even if I’d thought to offer back then, but it’s easy enough to prove I can haul shit around, and not a lot of folks are keen to take the pass north of Stormridge in any case so they were happy for the extra help.

"We were five days into the Wildcrest Mountains-- about halfway through. It was just starting to get into nightfall, and we were trying to push through to a sheltered spot one of the guards knew was a little ways ahead to camp for the night, when we heard the howlin up in the ridges, and comin down toward us.

"Now, we get wolves out in Crickhollow, sometimes; usually just one by itself skulkin round the pastures, and if they can catch em in time it mostly only takes a few dogs to run em off back where they came. We’d spotted some goblin scouts makin eyes at the caravan a few days earlier and spooked em away easy enough with a bit of barkin of our own, so when we heard the wolves I figured I knew what we were in for. But let me tell you: wolves in the mountains are different than the ones you get round halfling country. It’s cold, and hard, and it makes em strong, and it makes em hungry.

"We had six armed guards with us, proper kitted with swords and shields and all, and of course I was out there with Corker, hangin back a bit just not to get underfoot of em. They were spreadin out to circle the wagons, but the wolves had the jump on us and came leapin out the dark before we were ready. Biggest godsdamned things I ever saw! One slipped through and went straight for the horses, but I was ready for him-- hit him midair and sent him reelin away, and I figured that’d be the end of it for that one. Turned around and saw another one was lungin and snappin at one of the guards-- skinny lad called Derek-- and had him in a bad way; it’d got him offbalance, and looked about to take him down. I was to em before I could even think-- well, what else could I have done? The wolf had got its teeth in him, but it didn’t see me coming-- I hauled off-- WHACK-- cracked him square in the face, must have damn near caved his skull in! Just as he was getting his bearings, and I was pulling back for another swing-- the bloody bastard I’d clipped earlier came in from behind and sank every damn one of his teeth into me, and dragged me to the ground.

"Well, Derek managed to get his feet under him in time to stop the other one from jumpin in and tearin my damn guts out, but only just. The one that had me by the shoulder had a death grip on me-- I was swinging Corker round like mad, but I couldn’t get any good blows in like that, on the ground and backwards and with only one arm. Still put in a fair fight, for all that-- I was snarlin like a beast myself, grabbin for its face with my left hand best I could. Then suddenly he dropped me, yowling somethin awful. Another guard, big fella called Radimir, saw him layin into me and ran him straight through. Good thing, too! If I’d been alone out there that would have been it for me. Stupid way to learn not to put your back to a wolf, but it’s always better to have friends to back you up anyway. Especially when you’ve got more muscles than good sense, haha!

"Anyway, the rest of the pack did take off after seeing we could put up more fight than they wanted-- they’re tough, not stupid. No one was hurt except a couple of the fighters and myself, and we made it to the outpost just fine. I hadn’t really imagined I’d be spendin my first couple weeks in Pelora laid up all in bandages with a broken collar, but hey, it gave me a good story for breakin ice at taverns. Bit more impressive to talk about than this-- [she points to one mark among many on her arms, brown with age]-- that I got trying to help with the bakin when I was six…"

[ifeelfreewithoutmyshoes]

I love just randomly getting a realization as to why someone/thing has been annoying you

[three-plums]

i'm not much of a sci-fi person just because i've never really found those types of questions interesting in a fictional context... if that makes sense. as far as narratives go i'm more interested in the old grrm-ism "the human heart in conflict with itself." but. the extent to which dbh pissed me off has made me start reading and watching sci-fi like a lunatic.

[engagedtobefree]

The past several days have been a whirlwind of emotion. I started with disbelief that quickly blossomed into grief, that then even more quickly bottomed out into rage, that then softly melted into emptiness. Then the cycle repeated. Now I am here and I don't know what shifted, but somehow I balanced myself out.

It's like I'm sitting here and I'm pulling the dagger out, the dagger that I had my hands on, the dagger that someone else had their hands on too, and it hurts. It does, it fucking hurts. There's a lot of blood, it's all mine, but the wound has been cauterized. I've stopped bleeding. Now there's just the wound to take care of.

I've been reeling. I've been trying to pinpoint the place that hurts the most, then I realize that the wound is everywhere. It's all over me. The wound is so big that maybe I am the entire wound.

For a long time in my life, whenever someone hurt me, I'd also hurt myself in turn. Doing that almost killed me. I have worked really hard at walking away from punishing myself unnecessarily, and I've come a really long way. I don't hurt myself like that anymore. When someone hurts me, I can defend myself better now, or even cut them loose, or at the very minimum work on healing myself rather than hurt myself further. But there are still times where I'm complicit in allowing someone to hurt me. I am kind, hopeful, empathetic, and naively trusting even when I try to have my guard up around everyone I meet. It's like finding that soft spot on the belly of the beast; I have my weaknesses and I don't know for sure but, I think that they might be plainly out there for others to see. They know where to stab. They know what would hurt me the most. Then they take that lunge and jab.

I wrote in one of my fits of rage: I want payback, I want it to hurt. But I don't. I could never do that to anyone. I want to nurse myself back to health after this. I don't want to be like any of the people who have wronged me, who have hurt me in cruel and senseless ways. I can point out all the wounds and scars, and you can ask me how many I've avenged. I'll point to none. I'll drop my hands. I'm soft, I'm sensitive, I'm a very vulnerable type of person, even if I don't always come across that way in real life. But one thing I'm not is broken beyond any sort of repair. Pieces break off and I put them back on, and it doesn't always look great, but I put them back nonetheless. The pain changes me, morphs me into this new creature that I have to get re-acquainted with, and then in the end, I see the beauty. I see that putting myself back together has been the best decision I could ever make. That the hurt and the pain and all of the shit has never made me throw those pieces at someone else in a vile attempt at revenge. I rage and it lasts a day or a few days, then I allow the real feeling of grief to take over. I don't like it, but I'd rather be hurt than doing the hurting. It's become apparent to me recently that not everyone is like this. Some people let the pain harden them or they go out and they hurt others in turn. I always assume the best of people, but I have to recognize that not everyone wants to be or do better, they just expect it of others. I never want to turn into that type of person.

It's very strange how I've arrived to this place of wanting to heal after only a few days. I think in some way, that has to be a testament to how much work I've already done in the past. The thing happens, I feel it as deeply as I can right afterwards, and then I put on my work boots and get to work.

Honestly, as much as my life has felt really shitty since the new year has began, I kind of needed this wake-up call. I needed the push. I needed someone I trusted to betray my trust because I have been overly-focused on that aspect in my life. Not just the trusting, but the other people. I observe people a lot, I observe interactions as they are taking place, I look for any details, I play it all back later. I look for what it tells me about myself. I look for how it can make me better myself, how I can show up better. But sometimes I look too hard out into the world and not enough within myself. I look for the answers and solutions in other people, and it's not there. It's never going to be there. Then my progress gets stifled because I forgot to apply the changes I wanted to make because I started focusing too much outwardly again. I've been slowly realizing that but haven't been able to make that shift fully until now. I needed the hurt and the misplaced trust because I haven't been trusting myself. I've been hurting myself by doubting myself and by not turning inward as often as I should. I'm changing that now.

This is a time I need to retreat. I need to be quiet and listen to myself and myself only. I'm looking at all of these people and situations in life, some more than others, and trying to figure out what everything means and it's exhausting. I'm exhausted. I want to take off those observation glasses and simply look now. Just see people as they are and allow them to show up in all of their messy ways just like I do. That doesn't mean I'm going to tolerate being treated poorly, but I can at least stop trying so hard to figure out whether I can trust someone or not. The answers don't lie in my overthinking. I have to stop focusing on what other people are doing, what they're giving, how they're communicating, what they're being clear on, how they're showing up. I need to focus on giving my 100%, what I'm doing, what I'm giving, how I'm communicating, what I'm being clear on, how I'm showing up. I need to stay soft, but I also need to open. The outside stuff at this point matters less than anything else ever could. What I need I already have. What I'm looking for is already here. I have to keep reaching towards it, and one day, someone somewhere is going to reach back towards the same thing, and I know this will all be worth it.

[vagueiish]

i’m probably gonna take the semester off - and maybe even just….not go back at all, ha ha, what’s another failed attempt at college? - but i still want to be productive and learn/do things rather than sit around gaming and daydreaming with my free time.

so…small list of things i wanna do this year because i don’t want to overwhelm myself:

learn to art (so i can make comics and other things i want)

write more (and also better)

exercise more (wanna get stronk and also flexible and also cardio)

learn to computer (comptia a+ cert or equivalent level ish) (sub goal: finally start building my own pc)

get into painting minis (bought an airbrush, babey, just gotta Do It)

learn python

work through the odin project

read more

maybe consider a new, better paying job??

[ktempestbradford]

I have been on a Willy Wonkified journey today and I need y'all to come with me

It started so innocently. Scrolling Google News I come across this article on Ars Technica:

At first glance I thought what happened was parents saw AI-generated images of an event their kids were at and became concerned, then realized it was fake. The reality? Oh so much better.

On Saturday, event organizers shut down a Glasgow-based "Willy's Chocolate Experience" after customers complained that the unofficial Wonka-inspired event, which took place in a sparsely decorated venue, did not match the lush AI-generated images listed on its official website.... According to Sky News, police were called to the event, and "advice was given."

Thing is, the people who paid to go were obviously not expecting exactly this:

But I can see how they'd be a bit pissed upon arriving to this:

It gets worse.

"Tempest, how could it possibly--"

source of this video that also includes this charming description:

Made up a villain called The Unknown — 'an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls'

There is already a meme.

Oh yes, the Wish.com Oompa Loompa:

Who has already done an interview!

As bad (and hilarious) as this all is, I got curious about the company that put on this event. Did they somehow overreach? Did the actors they hired back out at the last minute? (Or after they saw the script...) Oddly enough, it doesn't seem so!

Given what I found when poking around I'm legit surprised there was an event at all. Cuz this outfit seems to be 100% a scam.

The website for this specific event is here and it has many AI generated images on it, as stated. I don't think anyone who bought tickets looked very closely at these images, otherwise they might have been concerned about how much Catgacating their children would be exposed to.

Yes, Catgacating. You know, CATgacating!

I personally don't think anyone should serve exarserdray flavored lollipops in public spaces given how many people are allergic to it. And the sweet teats might not have been age appropriate.

Though the Twilight Tunnel looks pretty cool:

I'm not sure that Dim Tight Twdrding is safe. I've also been warned that Vivue Sounds are in that weird frequency range that makes you poop your pants upon hearing them.

Yes, Virginia, these folks used an AI image generator for everything on the website and used Chat GPT for some of the text! From the FAQ:

Q: I cannot go on the available days. Will you have more dates in the future? A: Should there be capacity when you arrive, then you will be able to enter without any problems. In the event that this is not the case, we may ask you to wait a bit.

Fear not, for this question is asked again a few lines down and the answer makes more sense.

Curious about the events company behind this disaster, I took myself over to the homepage of House of Illuminati and I was not disappointed.

I would 100% trust these people to plan my wedding.

This abomination of a website is a badly edited WordPress blog filled with AI art and just enough blog posts to make the casual viewer think that it's a legit business for about 0.0004 seconds.

Their attention to detail is stunning, from how they left up the default first post every WP blog gets to how they didn't bother changing the name on several images, thus revealing where they came from. Like this one:

With the lovely and compact filename "DALL·E-2024-01-30-09.50.54-Imagine-a-scene-where-fantasy-and-reality-merge-seamlessly.-In-the-foreground-a-grand-interactive-gala-is-taking-place-filled-with-elegant-guests-i.png"

"Concept.png" came from the same AI generator that gets text almost, but not quiiiiiite right:

There are a suspicious number of .webp images in the uploads, which makes me think they either stole them from other sites where AI "art" was uploaded or they didn't want to pay for the hi-res versions of some and just grabbed the preview image.

The real fun came when I noticed this filename: Before-and-After-Eventologists-Transformation-Edgbaston-Cricket-Ground-1024x1024-1.jpg and decided to do a Google image search. Friends, you will be shocked to hear that the image in question, found on this post touting how they can transform a boring warehouse into a fun event space, was stolen from this actual event planner.

Even better, this weirdly grainy image?

From a post that claims to be about the preparations for a "Willy Wonka" experience (we'll get to this in a minute), is not only NOT an actual image of anyone preparing anything for Illuminati's event, it is stolen from a YouTube thumbnail that's been chopped to remove the name of the company that actually made this. Here's the video.

If you actually read the blog posts they're all copypasta or some AI generated crap. To the point where this seems like not a real business at all. There's very specific business information at the bottom, but nothing else seems real.

As I said, I'm kinda surprised they put on an event at all. This has, "And then they ran off with all our money!" written all over it. I'm perplexed.

And also wondering when the copyright lawyers are gonna start calling, because...

This post explicitly says they're putting together a "Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory Experience" complete with golden tickets.

Somewhere along the line someone must have wised up, because the actual event was called "Willys Chocolate Experience" (note the lack of apostrophe) and the script they handed to the actors about 10 minutes before they were supposed to "perform" was about a "Willy McDuff" and his chocolate factory.

As I was going through this madness with friends in a chat, one pointed out that it took very little prompting to get the free Chat GPT to spit out an event description and such very similar to all this while avoiding copyrighted phrases. But he couldn't figure out where the McDuff came from since it wasn't the type of thing GPT would usually spit out...

Until he altered the prompt to include it would be happening in Glasgow, Scotland.

You cannot make this stuff up.

But truly, honestly, I do not even understand why they didn't take the money and run. Clearly this was all set up to be a scam. A lazy, AI generated scam.

Everything from the website to the event images to the copy to the "script" to the names of things was either stolen or AI generated (aka stolen). Hell, I'd be looking for some poor Japanese visitor wandering the streets of Glasgow, confused, after being jacked for his mascot costume.

HE LIVES IN THE WALLS, Y'ALL.