#my art capabilities are exponentially increasing

[umblrspectrum]

i am SO FUCKING POWERFUL MY EGO IS THROUGH THE ROOF

[randomrainman]

the trivialities of human existence (part one: puerile meanderings)

"The Universe is a yawning chasm, filled with emptiness and the puerile meanderings of sentience."

Pictured: a multidimensional space jellyfish. Art by onikafei

Back when I heard Ulyaoth utter this cryptic phrase while playing Eternal Darkness on my GameCube in my precocious (and heavily indoctrinated) late teen years, certain thoughts did come to mind, yet its gravity did not manifest itself until much, much later.

Little did I know that the story of my very existence would be carved from a quote from a Lovecraftian survival-horror game.

We don't mean a damn thing, even though many of us believe the contrary.

How many of you have grown up reinforced with the idea, whether through parents, friends, or anyone, that you are a unique snowflake and have immense inherent value due to your humanity? That you are irreplaceable, or that we're individually "fearfully and wonderfully made" by an unseen infinite and emotionally unstable dude, who also somehow cares about your particular situation on a speck of dust in the middle of the universe?

If only due to your genetic encoding, yes, you are, by default, "unique", as any being of sentience is, and once you have sentience, you do have a right as an individual to live whichever life deemed fit until you no longer have it. That said, you are not special. You're just ... you.

Pictured: a sea of bipedal organisms somewhere on Earth, rendered in glorious 1p. Image credit: WIQN

"But Mom told me I'm special!"

As of November 15, 2022, the Earth's population has ballooned to 8 billion people, and has increased by a whopping one billion people in the span of 12 years. For an even more mind-blowing perspective, our population in 1950 was only 2.5 billion people, and remained below 1 billion until 1804. It has been projected that our population will cease to grow in 2086, once it has reached approximately 10.4 billion. This near-real-time perpetually adjusting population growth calculator fascinatingly illustrates this statistic.

Pictured: instant gratification. Image credit: FE News

The thing to understand is that, despite this being an age of instantaneous data sharing and social media exploitation, it is exponentially more difficult to truly stand out, especially since you're having to do amongst a vast ocean of ever-increasing billions with accesses to the same platforms. Even if you are not a completely average person and do possess some remarkable attributes and work hard at your craft, the overwhelming likelihood is that your capabilities will fly under the radar unless you encounter a particular set of circumstances that propel your craft to another level, or your work is so far beyond anything anyone has seen that you have no choice but to become lionised. Even still, exceptionality is no guarantee that you will see success in your lifetime: history- and genre-defining icons such as Vincent van Gogh and Franz Kafka left this ethereal plane almost completely unrecognised, and their legacies consist nearly entirely of posthumous recognition.

"I am a legacy" -Kendrick Lamar

Pictured: me, taken by me, edited by me, and uploaded to this article written by me, Clayton Jones Images.

There is a lot of "legacy" talk: it seems that, whether subconsciously or not, many have come to terms with their own insignificance within this mortal coil; they seek desperately to carve out their own niche within the annals of history, despite having done nothing noteworthy and befitting of remembrance. To this end, they typically relegate this task to their descendants, hoping they will somehow keep them alive for eternity (despite that not being their purposes, but I digress).

No, I didn't die in 2019. This is my dad's casket. For the love of everything, do not put me in a casket or hold a funeral for me, or I will haunt you.

Gone ... and totally forgotten

The uncomfortable reality is that, regardless of any efforts to the contrary, almost everyone, to include exceptionally wealthy or otherwise outstanding individuals, will be completely forgotten within around 2 or so generations (though this figure varies slightly). An infinitesimal amount of people are remembered throughout history, and even fewer are revered. You might be one in a million, but not in the Aaliyah way.

Many, understandably, want to feel as if they're a part of something greater -- to belong, whether in life or in death. Many defer to religion to provide this sense of greater meaning to what would otherwise be without; looking forward to a place such as heaven can provide them with a sense of hope, even if they inevitably just return to the place from whence they came, regardless of their circumstances. To that end (heh), the way that I have resolved to reconcile this apparent meaninglessness is to fill my fleeting existence with as many joyous and personally fulfilling experiences as possible before until I inevitably suck up more dirt than an excavator.

I seek only to create things as often as I am inspired, to travel this planet extensively, to learn new things, and to enjoy the company of those who I deem worthy of my time. Money is important if it is to create additional positive experiences, but peace of mind does not possess a price tag. If I am to be remembered in any way, let it be for the things I have created, and perhaps as an inspiration to live as one chooses.

Because life is fast, and it can pass you quickly before you have even had a chance to live it.

사진: 서울 남산제2호 터널

|the kid|

[janushawkins]

American Wand Cores: The Big Four (Canon)

While in Britain the “big three” are nearly the only wand cores seen, the american “big four” are more accurately the most powerful and often held in highest regard, but they are not even remotely the only cores used.

Horned Serpent Horn

An exceptionally powerful core, horned serpent wands are quite rare, and unheard of outside the american continents. Horned Serpents themselves are quite diverse, but may usually be grouped into either saltwater or freshwater serpents.

Horned serpent wands of any variety are very powerful in all areas of magic, they have a knack for magics to do with water and perform especially well in transfiguration and divination. 

Horned serpent wands are capable of warning their owners of danger by emitting a low musical tone. They are also unique in the behavior between twin cores, if two wands of horned serpent horns from the same serpent work together for a singular goal (often in combat) their power is increased exponentially.

Rather like the Ilvermorny house named after the creature, horned serpent wands prefer owners who are intelligent and quick-witted. However, their preferred owners are not bookish scholars who stay shut in a library all day, but rather creative and innovative individuals who enjoy exercising their mind and putting things they learn into practice. Absorbing information like a sponge, these wixes brilliant in subjects they find interesting and above average in those they don’t. They are constantly thinking. Wixes chosen by these wands are absolutely brilliant and fiercely independent.

The type of horned serpent has some bearing over what they look for in an owner as well. Horned Serpent horn wands from a salt-water horned serpent are playful in nature, and look for owners who share that lighthearted playfulness, these are extremely imaginative, spirited and outspoken wixes.

Fresh-water horns, on the other hand, seek owners who are pragmatic, secretive and a bit slow to trust. These wixes are often very cunning and patient.

Horned serpent wands are sensitive to Parseltongue and vibrate when it is being spoken. It is possible they favor owners capable of speaking in parseltongue.

“I like to keep a special eye on students who are chosen by these wands. I keep track, in a notepad in my desk drawer--right next to my paints and emergency bertie botts--of what individuals have wands from the same horned serpent, and watch patiently for the day when they discover the peculiar connection of their twin wands. Interestingly, if they do not already know each other, it seems they always naturally gravitate towards one another, becoming incredibly close and often becoming the best of friends or incredibly close partners.” - January Hawkins, Resident Wandmaker, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Thunderbird Tail Feather

One of the most powerful cores available, Thunderbird feather’s are somewhat rare, and make for mighty wands with power and range rivaling that of the british Phoenix feather wands.

Thunderbird feather core wands are incredibly powerful in most if not all areas of magic, and are especially good for transfiguration magics and any magic to do with weather, air and travel. Owners may have an exceptional talent for flying.

As powerful as these wands can be, Thunderbird feather wands are uniquely difficult to master, perhaps retaining the original creatures independent nature. However, once mastered they bond with their owner for life, and their allegiance is almost certain to never change.

Like  Thunderbirds themselves, these wands can sense danger and may preemptively cast curses to protect themselves and their owner, acting independently.

It is very rare to be chosen by a thunderbird wand, even most of those that match up to the cores preferences aren’t chosen, these wands wait for someone truly extraordinary, with the potential for greatness. Thunderbird feather wands seek owners with an adventurous spirit, as extraordinarily free and independent as the creature they came from. These wixes are natural travelers and loath having to stay put, always aching to explore the next horizon. Daring, adventurous and curious, they refuse to hold still or conform to any stifling rulesets. With the soul of a wanderer and the skills to seek the unknown, these individuals were born to run.

“When I say they’re picky, I mean it. I’ve gone 3 years in a row without a single thunderbird feather wand choosing a student, I’ve still got over half my original stalk! But when a student is chosen by one of these wands, I know they are destined for truly great things, those kids will see the world over and make a huge impact on it. I also know their restlessness is going to give the teachers hell.” - January Hawkins, Resident Wandmaker, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Wampus Cat Hair

Though a very powerful core, wampus hair wands are rather uncommon due to the incredible difficulty and danger of procuring the hairs. 

Wampus wands are quite powerful. They are renowned for their flexibility, becoming very strong in any forms of magic their owner favors. This core is also very good with magics to do with the mind, especially legilimency, and it can produce mind altering effects both dazzling and horrifying. 

Enchantments and charms created by wands with this core are known to be very long-lasting.

Wixese chosen by this core are often bold and always enigmatic. Possessing a somewhat nebulous view of good and evil, these individuals reject simple dichotomies of light and dark. However, this does not mean that they are evil or without conscience. Rather, they prefer a more complex morality that bases right and wrong on cause and effect rather than convention and idealism. Because of this they are more willing than others to use dark magic. They are also often fiercely protective of those they have accepted on their own, using any means necessary to defend what they hold dear.

Dripping charisma, these wixes have an intense presence, able to grip the attention of any room they enter. They have an air of unpredictability, as they fluctuate between decisions and emotions based on feedback from their environment. Constantly adapting to the current situation.

Wixes chosen by Wampus hair wands also tend to be incredibly resilient, able to survive more than most.  There is a trend of some level of magic-resistance in these wixes, It is unknown whether this is a pre-existing trait or one gained by bonding with a wand with this core.

“Just how a student chosen by a wampus hair wand will turn out is, ironically, black or white. While it is true that their complex and adaptable morality does not necessarily lead them down a dark path, I have seen many wixes chosen by a wampus hair wand become truly evil individuals. There are, however, a great many who have become heroes and healers, genuinely good people. One thing is absolutely certain, Owners of wands with a wampus hair core will always, ALWAYS go on to do great things, whether good or bad they will always be extraordinarily powerful, very likely passing into legend.” - January Hawkins, Resident Wandmaker, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Snallygaster Heartstring

A somewhat fickle wand core whose tendency towards change can make it difficult to master, Snallygaster Heartstrings are nonetheless the most powerful of the four major wand cores in North America, and have been highly prized in the american wizarding community. 

However, Snallygasters are not as plentiful a species as dragons, and the fact that taking this wand core requires killing one is causing a decline in their numbers, and as consequence a decline in snallygaster wands. There have been petitions to have this core banned in order to protect the species and many young wixes have taken a disliking to it.

Similar to Europe's dragon heartstring wands, wands with this core create some of the most dazzling and powerful spells. They can be considered a jack of all trades, as they perform admirably in every area of magic. It also excels at combat magics, and offensive spells often pack quite a punch. This wand does seem to be easier to turn to the dark arts.

For some reason, the visuals of spells cast with wands with this core are heightened. Light’s are brighter, colors are more intense and flashes are more erratic. These wands are also often incredibly sturdy for the wood they use, and almost impossible to break, no matter their flexibility.

Owners of wands with this core should have a firm hand to temper the wands fickle nature. This wand’s preferred owners are driven, ambitious and often focused on uncovering hidden truths. With unbreakable resolve and a deep curiosity, these wixes are natural born investigators, almost unstoppable in their pursuit of truth. 

This core suffers no fools, and refuses to work for individuals it sees as dim, lazy or lacking in sufficient drive. Wixes it chooses are often wise and animated, but if something doesn’t effectively capture their attention they will grow bored quickly and become restless, wishing to be anywhere else but where they are. 

These wixes are superb spellcasters who take very little time to master new magics, but this gift is more often attributed to being a natural with magic than an excellent study. It can seem that they were born with a wand in their hands.

“Even I’m growing uncomfortable with this core, I’ve been considering refusing shipments of it, or even snallygaster wands donated by other wandmakers… maybe the feather? It wouldn’t be as power-... but… we wouldn’t need to kill any… Um… So this is the last one we’re talking about today? I can just go now? Great, I’m gonna go find some… uh… I’m gonna try something-- bye!” - January Hawkins (he just started rambling about feathers and disaperated, wtf is with this guy?)

[militant-holy-knight]

American Founder and second U.S. president John Adams once extolled his era. Some called it The Age of Reason. It was a time in which people were beginning to know more about their world than they ever had before. Knowledge was increasing at an exponential rate, and this filled the air with excitement. The Old World – Christendom, led by the Catholic Church – was on its way out. The Enlightenment was well underway to shape the West forever. Adams, a Unitarian, was greatly pleased that men would be able to lead their lives and their own society on the basis of their own conscience.

He then less than halfway joked that, just maybe, something bad might arise from the movement of his day:

“The world grows more enlightened. Knowledge is more equally diffused. Newspapers, magazines, and circulating libraries have made mankind wiser. Titles and distinctions, ranks and orders, parade and ceremony, are all going out of fashion. This is roundly and frequently asserted in the streets, and sometimes on theatres of higher rank. Some truth there is in it; and if the opportunity were temperately improved, to the reformation of abuses, the rectification of errors, and the dissipation of pernicious prejudices, a great advantage it might be. But, on the other hand, false inferences may be drawn from it, which may make mankind wish for the age of dragons, giants, and fairies.”

Indeed, a great many false inferences were drawn from the Enlightenment. This period in history, which shaped America herself, started a downward spiral for the West that appears to have no end. Adams was right. In spite of himself and everything he achieved for the United States, times have definitely grown darker, and the cause for our empire’s downfall can be traced to its own blueprints.

As a result, the people in our day have a great need for escape. Over two centuries later, men find themselves at odds in a hateful world ruled by principalities and powers that are insurmountable. The people have been force-fed “the progress of civilization.” So now there are vast entertainment industries that produce escapist literature, film, music, and games to help people flee from the madness of their overlords. Over the centuries, they’ve carried the label of Romantics, Decadents, Symbolists, Counter-Culturists – they all run from the oppressive boot that shoves them onward to a destiny they didn’t ask for. They seek to escape from forced rationalism into something mystical.

Our Imaginations Must Be Free, Not Trapped

The mind can tolerate a wasteland for only so long. Men require a pilgrimage and retreat. Otherwise, one settles for vice and debasement. Experiencing wonder is necessary for a mature mind. It is not enough to be raised in a plain fashion, learning good moral habits to live by as if it’s all a simple matter of hygiene. Becoming a lawyer for “what’s good and what’s bad” does not securely instill the Faith in children, who, above all, are in the business of make-believe. No, we must leave the districts and subdivisions gerrymandered in our brains. We must fly above the rooftops from our suburban bobo communities. We’ve got to run for our lives into something fresh, new, and perhaps even dangerous:

“At first they had passed through hobbit-lands, a wide respectable country inhabited by decent folk, with good roads, an inn or two, and now and then a dwarf or a farmer ambling by on business. Then they came to lands where people spoke strangely, and sang songs Bilbo had never heard before. Now they had gone on far into the Lone-lands, where there were no people left, no inns, and the roads grew steadily worse. Not far ahead were dreary hills, rising higher and higher, dark with trees. On some of them were old castles with an evil look, as if they had been built by wicked people. Everything seemed gloomy, for the weather that day had taken a nasty turn. Mostly it had been as good as May can be, can be, even in merry tales, but now it was cold and wet. In the Lone-lands they had been obliged to camp when they could, but at least it had been dry.”

–From The Hobbit

Perhaps it is true that people are considered respectable when they “never have adventures or do anything unexpected.” Maybe it is true that the majority of people value someone who never breaks a taboo and can be counted on to be consistent and predictable. And, after all, even Puritan-loving John Adams will tell you that obscure men are hardly ever honored. Conformity and monotony are what the world tells you it wants. But this mode of dry, uninspiring, Dudley-Do-Right, unimaginative thinking is like planting seeds in depleted soil:

“[T]he seminal ideas of Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, only properly grow in an imaginative ground saturated with fables, fairy tales, stories, rhymes, romances, adventures–the thousand good books of Grimm, Andersen, Stevenson, Dickens, Scott, Dumas and the rest. Western tradition, taking all that was the best of the Greco-Roman world into itself, has given us a culture in which the Faith properly grows; and since the conversion of Constantine that culture has become Christian. It is the seedbed of intelligence and will, the ground for all studies in the arts and sciences, including theology, without which they are inhumane and destructive. The brutal athlete and the aesthetic fop suffer vices opposed to the virtues of what Newman called the “gentleman.” Anyone working in any art or science, whether “pure” or “practical,” will discover he has made a quantum leap when he gets even a small amount of cultural ground under him; he will grow like an undernourished plant suddenly fertilized and watered.”

–Ryan Topping, Renewing the Mind

There has been a war against fantasy, a war against wonder. And yet, those who wonder and philosophize are superior to those who despair cluelessly. And only someone who does not know everything has the capability to wonder. Therefore, what better place is there to explore than fantasy? The realm of fantasy is a place accessible to all, and as it is ever changing, we can never hope to know everything about it. The Land of Faerie, as Tolkien called it, transports and uplifts us. It renews us. It waters the soil of our minds, and it serves as a much needed respite from the godless demands of the world.

Fantasy’s Ultimate Effect

John Adams ridiculed imagination. He joked that Shakespeare could have been an electioneering agent. In his view, “superstition, prejudices, passions, fancies, and senses” were weaknesses to be manipulated, preventing you from ever having what he considered liberty. Adams believed that fantastical thinking was forced upon the West in order to control the people. This is all a grievous error. “For God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

It is the imagination that enables us to survive in today’s wicked world. We have a sense of wonder that rationalists like Adams cannot understand. This sense of wonder is what prepares us for understanding the wider world and what it means. The vast majority of people who fall away from the Faith or refuse to consider it lack wonder. As a result, you have a large portion of people in the West who fall into hedonism. They try to numb their own senses as they struggle to follow the crowd – as though they were swimming among a school of fish.

“Fantasy, horror, and science fiction, apart from allowing an author to comment on things in a way he normally could not in mainstream writing (so much of which is garbage anyway) – it breeds a sense of wonder. And ladies and gentlemen, if you do not have a sense of wonder, you cannot really understand the Catholic faith. You’ll just be ‘Oh well, the bread and wine turn into the body and blood of Christ.’ You may actually believe that, but if you don’t have a sense of wonder?

“Listen, ladies and gentlemen, what is more amazing? The idea that with a wand I could wave, everything would start dancing around the room? Or that Christ Himself comes down onto the altar and becomes bread and wine that we are able to receive into ourselves? Which is more wondrous?

“If I already have a sense of wonder, then I can look at this incredible gift that God has given us. And the fact [is] that every single Mass that has ever been, or ever will be, or is being said at this moment across the globe is one with every other – and with the Crucifixion, and with the Last Supper. That’s astonishing. That’s absolutely amazing. And I have a sense of wonder that prepared me for that – to make it go from a mere set of things I learned in school and home to being a living reality that dominates my life. …

“[U]nless we approach our faith with that wondrous quality, it will grow old and tired. That is not a fault of the Faith. That’s our fault.”

–Charles Coulombe, “Off the Menu,” July 16, 2018

Being good “to be good” is not enough. John Adams thought so, but his Puritanical sensibility was mistaken. Man lives his life on a quest. He is not meant to run from his imagination and all that is mystical. He is meant to explore with awe and curiosity. His heart is meant to be lifted, not shackled.

A strange and exciting land lies before man when it comes to fantasy. We go to that place because it presages the Land Beyond we all hope to emigrate to, Heaven itself. “And Jesus calling unto him a little child, set him in the midst of them, and said: Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-3).

[dishonoredrpg]

NAME: Valeria Valmont AGE: 27 ALLEGIANCE AND OCCUPATION: Revolter, second in line to the throne after the Emperor ABILITIES: N/A PRONOUNS: She/they FACECLAIM SUGGESTIONS*: Luma Grothe

*This character is related by blood to The World and The Emperor. Faceclaim adjustments may need to be made during acceptances!

HISTORY.

Your mother is a ghost. A shroud. On the nights you walk the battlements to clear your head you swear you see her, or a fragment of her. A piece. She always looks like the grand painting hanging in the entry hall, wearing her heavy armor with her sword at her side -- it’s the one you’ve been looking at your entire life, since you were brought to Castle Tyrholm after her death when you were a child. The sight of her used to be a comfort, a reassurance that for whatever reason she would not let you go no matter what. Now... now, you’re not so sure. You ask her what it means that she’s there, but she never speaks. Her gaze only fills with despair before flickering out of sight, disappearing when the wind picks up. You never see her in the corridors, or the throne room. Only on the battlements, a reminder that whatever it was she was doing whilst she walked the earth is not done. It sounds stereotypical, but you might have to take up her mantle, her sword, her shield. You lay your head down at night and ruminate on it, grind your teeth together and flex your fingers, try to push the resentment and sorrow down. All your life your Uncle, Septimus, has treated you like the firstborn child -- even over his own son. It showed in small ways, in the beginning. Spending more time with you than he did his own children, making the effort to find you the best tutors, the best trainers. He drilled in you a willpower he seems to lack, and it is that willpower that carries you through the day-to-day. You train and teach yourself how best to hold a blade, how not to lose a fight, how to lie through your teeth for the sake of diplomacy.

It’s all the things your mother often spoke about hating while she held you in her arms. You’d never understood why anyone would abdicate the throne, then, but it’s starting to become clearer. As you grow, the pieces start to put themselves together. Your Uncle may very well have killed your mother. He’s a poor king, incapable of ruling much less raising a capable heir -- so maybe he stole you away to ensure that you would take the crown over The Emperor. The more you consider the reality the more obvious it becomes, the more the anger inside you threatens to boil over. A grief you’ve never had before suddenly makes its way into your possession, fills your hands and your heart and your head. You watch Septimus sit on his throne and laugh off the concerns of his underlings and his people and it only grows worse. You stand by when he calls on you to sit and walk like a pet bird on display -- my dear Chariot, look at you -- and you stand by when your mother makes you ghostly appearance on the battlements. These days, all you’ve taken to doing is staring at one another, wordless, unable to say all the things you want to for fear of the guilt frothing over and spilling out of your mouth. All she does is look at you, as if to say you know what you have to do. And now, you’re sure of it, you finally do. You’re going to kill your king.

CONNECTIONS.

THE WORLD + THE EMPEROR: The best way to describe your relationship with your cousins is tense. Some days, all is well, and you’re able to share a meal together or go hunting and laugh into the air like there’s never been a problem in your life. Other days, you can barely stand to be in the same room at the same time. The World, at least, extends an olive branch; you’ve taken to looking at her like a little sister, feeling a pang of protectiveness when anyone so much as speaks out towards her. The Emperor, since his return from Koldan -- he’s been different. He was jealous before, yes, but now his efforts to undermine everything you do have increased exponentially. You cannot say a word without him interpreting it as a fight you want to pick, even if you’ve grown tired of the childless games. You know that, realistically, in light of your new goal, they could end up your opponents. In spite of your strained relationship, you’d like to see them get out alive.

THE EMPRESS: You’ve never quite been able to parse what it is, exactly, that she sees in you, but there’s something. You get along well, can spend hours discussing art and history and politics -- she’s certainly more of a ruler than her husband will ever be, that’s obvious -- but sometimes she looks at you and seems sad. It could be pity, you’ve never been the best at reading emotions. As of late it’s only gotten worse, and with tensions rising among the court and both of your workloads growing, with less and less time for conversations about mundane things like the book you’ve been reading or the painting she’s working on, you fear she might say something to you that you don’t want to hear. Does she know? How could she possibly know?

THE DEVIL: They are the key to your endeavors. The Devil has a wealth of knowledge and information that you couldn’t possibly dream of. Every suppressed uprising, every attempted coup, every silent opponent... they know the names, the faces, the histories. You’ve never been particularly close to them, historically speaking, but you’ll do what it takes to get close if it means finding the answers you’re seeking. You’ve been lying to them for a few weeks, now, about rumors to the South of another Koldam situation, if only to peak their interest. They’re not the best conversationalist, but if you can hold onto them for long enough, there’s some sort of spark. A fire. From that fire stems a closeness which will hopefully earn their trust. Once you have that, you’re going to ask them what they know and pray that you’ve done a good enough job for them to tell you the truth: did Septimus kill your mother?

THE CHARIOT IS CURRENTLY TAKEN.

[the-noodle-king]

Team SLVR, some of my first OC’s kinda ever. I originally planned on doing proper drawings of them but I haven’t been back to doing those in a long while now, so I figured I’d post up their new designs and their finally designed weapons.

I’m not going to dwell on everything wrong with their original designs/drawings, because dunking on my past self’s art and design choices is not productive to growth. However I do actively enjoy thinking about character design, and there are a few big changes from the original designs to the new ones worth talking about. But I’ll keep it short.

I’m gonna put that, and then character details and stuff about their semblances and weapons under the cut.

Their original colour schemes were so messy and all over the place, ignoring the core theme of RWBY character designs; each character has a colour that represents them. Sand’s design has more red and purple in it than pale yellow, Lime’s is completely the wrong green, Violet’s is also the wrong purple, and there’s way too much of it without proper variation or dispersal throughout the design, and then Rouge’s is the only one with gold instead of Silver, their team colour. Completely ignoring all of the issues with the designs themselves, the colour language is completely off, and for something so integral to the very concept of RWBY OC’s to be so wrong, was my biggest issue with these original designs, when I finally came back to them

Hence, the colour overhaul in the new designs! I gave them all monochromatic eyes and hair, matching their personal colours. Sand has pale yellow eyes and hair, Lime has a bright acidic green, Violet a light purple, and Rouge a bright red, and then these same colours are pulled down throughout their designs, head to toe, and then broken up by a couple shades each of creams through dark greys and black, and finally they all have silver accents. Sand is the leader, and he’s meant to be a lighthearted and approachable character, so he has a bulk of lighter colour on his top half, with his personal colour covering what would otherwise be a large amount of black on his boots. Lime is practical, pragmatic, straightforward; she wears more armour, but also more of her personal colour is on show. Violet is outwardly timid, but also very powerful, her clothes are baggy and her colour seems to box her in and drown her out somewhat. And Rouge is a rogue, he’s sneaky and works in the shadows, so his personal colour takes a backseat to the bulk of black in his outfit.

And now for actually character stuff rather than just design rambling ^_^;;

Team SLVR (Silver) is based on mythical beasts/monsters of legend, and alongside team BDNA (Belladonna), who were based on various famous/archetypal witches, they were intended to be rivals for Team CRSS (Cress), to form a narrative of the fairy tale heroes against witches and monsters; with the obvious caveat of the witches and monsters being people with human feelings and motivations, and ultimately having more in common with each other than against. 

Sand Martichoras:  Sand is based on the Manticore, and his Semblance ‘Venom Lash’ presents itself as his Aura manifesting a large, spectral scorpion tail from his lower back; Venom Lash can be used to strike with the tail itself in order to poison a foe and drain them of their strength, or Sand can channel it’s power into his attacks, imbuing his dust shells with the same poisoning quality. His weapon, The Scorpion Stinger, is a weighty spear with a wide flat spearhead more appropriate for sweeping attacks than thrusts, and on the opposite end is a shotgun. It can be snapped in half to use both simultaneously, and can then be used like nunchucks or even as a grappling hook with the cable connecting them. Sand is the leader of Team SLVR, he’s confident but lighthearted and easy to talk to. Some would say he’s overconfident, or even vain, but for the most part he gets along with everyone he meets.

Lime Gorgana:  Lime is based on the Basilisk, as well as Medusa, and her Semblance ‘Eye of the Gorgon’ presents itself as a pulsating green glow all about her, and her Aura manifesting several hissing snakes all around her head; Eye of the Gorgon is a powerful semblance which Lime struggles to control, it being able to activate without her meaning to when she becomes overly emotional. Eye of the Gorgon petrifies Dust, rendering it inert stone; when it is directed, it can petrify a controlled amount up to quite a great distance away, so long as Lime can see the container the Dust is in or the person carrying it. However it also petrifies Dust immediately around Lime as well, in a very small area while it is being carefully controlled and directed, but in a larger one when she loses control of it; regardless it means she cannot use or even carry any Dust of her own. Her weapon, The Serpentine Fang, is a simple one, owing to it’s inability to use Dust; it’s base form is a lithe, collapsible rapier which pairs elegantly with her arm-mounted shield, then it’s scabbard doubles as either a large, weighty cleaver, or when the rapier is inserted, as a substantial greatsword. To compensate for her inability to use Dust of any kind, Lime has trained her body to be a powerful and adaptive weapon all it’s own, equally skilled in the use of her shield, hand to hand combat, the rapid, flowing motions of combat with her rapier, and the devastating, crushing blows of her greatsword. Lime is the second in command of Team SLVR; her and Sand often disagree about many things, but they also trust each other explicitly. She is very levelheaded, and very pragmatic and practical, some would even call her cold blooded for some of the decisions she’s made in the heat of combat, but her skill with strategy is unquestionable .

Violet Wolfsbane:  Violet is based on the Werewolf, and her Semblance ‘Lunar Frenzy’ manifests as her Aura expanding to project the shape of a spectral, bipedal wolf about her. While her Semblance is active Violet loses control, going into a frenzy, her expanded Aura protects her from a greater range of attacks and it hardens itself against damage, allowing her to fight for much longer than otherwise; it also gives her enhanced speed and strength, allowing her to leap and bound across great distances and rend through strong defences. However it comes at a great toll, draining her strength and expending her Aura, meaning that once it runs out, she collapses, often unable to even remain conscious, making it’s use in actual battle extremely high risk. Her weapons are The Violent Renders, manacle-like wrist bracers with crescent blades on their sides which can rotate and open out into tiered claws for varied uses, such as slashing, stabbing and rending. In their expanded state, the blades can also be detached from the manacles to be swung by cables at distant foes. Violet is timid despite her height, often walking hunched over or standing with all her limbs angled inwards, as if trying to make herself smaller, and she speaks with a soft voice. She is afraid of her Semblance and doesn’t like using it, but Sand, Lime and Rouge have helped to bring her somewhat out of her shell and have attempted to instil more confidence in her, especially with regards to her power.

Rouge Entigo:  Rouge is based on the Wendigo, as well as the Jackalope, and his Semblance ‘Blood Hunger’ manifests as his Aura taking on a mottled black and red effect, with spectral antlers atop his head and pitch black eyes. While Rouge is channelling Blood Hunger, he is able to cannibalise his own Aura to exponentially increase his strength, as well as to perform other feats he is not otherwise capable of; By taking large chunks of power from his Aura at a time, Rouge is able to perform short range teleportation (only to a location he can see) or he can cut a similar portion off of another persons Aura; he can also corrupt Dust to significantly weaken it’s effects, or temporarily prevent the activation of someone else’s semblance. If someone else is willing, they can feed their Aura into Rouge’s, allowing him to devour it to use Blood Hunger more, or for longer. Rouge’s weapon is a shortsword/large dagger called The Happy Rogue, which can expand out into a lightweight hand scythe, or can be split into a pair of thin daggers, which can still then be expanded into a hand scythe/handaxe combo. As well as their obvious offensive capabilities, Rouge often uses The Happy Rogue for climbing, liking to take advantage of terrain for stealth as well as combat. Rouge is a prankster on the surface, but underneath he has quite an aggressive side, and has a penchant for violence. He and Lime were childhood classmates, and learned and trained together long before Team SLVR was formed, and while he doesn’t showoff his fighting skills nearly as much as she does, they’re equally matched when it comes to combat.

As individuals they all possess powerful semblances, versatile weapons and impressive fighting capabilities; together they are a formidable team, they work well together, and close ranks around their personal weaknesses. But they all have weaknesses that the rest of the team can’t cover for; Lime can’t use her semblance while near the others, or she risks petrifying their Dust, likewise Sand’s Semblance risks Poisoning the others, Violet’s semblance has a short shelf life in combat and if she drops at the wrong time she becomes a big liability, and while Rouge’s has the same problem, he can also take power from the others to extend it, heightening both the risk and the reward. Their strength as a team comes from knowing each others limits, weaknesses, and boundaries, and trying their best to work within and around them.

[happymetalgirl]

Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas

No vocalist this decade has been more innovative for extreme metal as Travis Ryan has with his diversity of snarls, growls, and screams stretching into uncharted melodic territory on the past few Cattle Decapitation albums, and no other band has been more vital and consistently creative for deathgrind as Cattle Decapitation has been for a long time now. The band have always taken a particularly uncomfortably gnarly and confrontational approach to the dicey topics of human mistreatment of animals in the food industry and the many despicable facets of species exceptionalism that humankind has operated under since the advent of mass industrialization, and their gratuitously grotesque and brutal musical and lyrical approach to such disgusting topics honestly couldn’t be more fitting for each other. I just recently picked up a physical copy of the band’s third LP, Humanure, and, looking at the lyrics, holy shit do they fit all too disgustingly well with the now-iconic cover art.

As the band’s sound has become grander since then, more stylistically unique, more polished, yet no less brutal than the goregrind on which they built their foundations, Cattle Decapitation have shifted their lyrical focus to the grander scope of self-driven environmental catastrophe and the worst case scenario of human extinction as a result of humankind’s own ecological carelessness. The band took a tremendous leap forward from the already tight and deathly goregrind of The Harvest Floor on 2012’s Monolith of Inhumanity, with Travis Ryan’s expansion of his harsh melodic range being a huge factor in that growth. But the rest of the band grew tighter and more capable of dishing out extremely intricate and technical agression at frightening speeds, and both Monolith of Inhumanity and the band’s 2015 follow-up, The Anthropocene Extinction, showed just how unbelievably versatile Cattle Decapitation could be with this style of music. I don’t want to get too hung up on reminiscing on the quality of old work with more of that quality packed into the band’s longest album to date to discuss at hand, but I don’t want to simply brush over and understate how immense the band’s past two albums have been for them and for extreme metal in general.

With Monolith of Inhumanity, Cattle Decapitation put on an absolutely baffling exhibition of a wide array of compositional protocols and instrumental and vocal techniques that broadened not only their horizons, but the horizons of deathgrind as a genre, of melody without compromising on brutality, especially on the vocal front. The band took their sickening brand of goregrind to its classically brutal extreme on the increasingly slow churn of “Forced Gender Reassignment” and the nasty grinding of “Projectile Ovulation”, but the band really pushed the boundaries of melodic terror on the vocal front on songs like “A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat”, “Your Disposal”, and “Kingdom of Tyrants”. The song with which the band really shattered the genre’s ceiling on melody was the strangely, astonishingly beautiful “Lifestalker”, on which Travis Ryan harnesses his filthy blackened snarl into a melody so emotive it’s hard to believe a band so focused on powerfully merciless brutality penned it. The album was a huge progression for Cattle Decapitation and for deathgrind, undoubtedly my favorite of the genre.

The band sought to refine their frenzied and newly dynamic grind on The Anthropocene Extinction with generally longer and more grandiose compositions like the monumental “Manufactured Extinct” and the gloriously grinding “Plagueborne” and “Pacific Grim”, while staying true to their gory roots all throughout and making sure to deliver more directly deadly blackened grinders like “The Prophets of Loss” and “Mutual Assured Destruction”. And the band did indeed give their already impressive and elevated sound an even more magnificent and grandious edge that generally isn’t associated with Cattle Decapitation or grindcore. As its title suggests, The Anthropocene Extinction marked an increase in the band’s urgency about the consequences of humanity’s careless abuse of resources and destruction of crucial ecosystems through industrial overconsumption. The band on their most recent past album sounded at least panicked and eager to call for whatever possible to mitigate the disastrous effects of humankind’s mistakes. Four years later, however, Cattle Decapitation are far less optimistic about the outcome of mankind’s abuse of its planetary home and certainly not any more sympathetic towards our species’ continued heedlessness in the face of scientific consensus on the forthcoming destruction and collapse of civilization as we know it.

As grim and forthrightly convicting as Cattle Decapitation have been in the past about how much needs to change to avoid disaster, the band sound more pessimistic than ever on Death Atlas, forecasting more than forewarning of the impending deathly consequences of our species’ prolonged malignant negligence. They play with a distinguishable air of numbness to sorrow as though the long foreseen end has already begun and that humanity is too late. Travis Ryan dips into melodic harshness more on this album than he did on even Monolith of Inhumanity, offering up eulogy after merciless eulogy for a dying species and a slowly (but not so slowly) burning world.

Indeed, Travis Ryan meditates harshly on the inevitability of the universe’s snuffing out of life grown out of control on the blackened melodic doomsday prophetics of  “The Geocide” on which he ominously sings “The universe it always find a way to purge / the sustainably inappropriate numbers that once surged”, and he is even more hopeless on the following track, “Be Still Our Bleeding Hearts”, which he opens with the line, “Every new life is a tragedy in waiting” and on which he breaks out another nastily sung/snarled melodic chorus of apocalyptic embrace over blackened deathgrind that reaches for the upper echelons of the band’s widely encompassing sound. Ryan had stated before the album’s release in a promotional interview that he wasn’t going to focus so much on overpopulation as much on this album being that he has said his piece thoroughly on albums past and that the valid ecological problem is being misdirected by modern eugenicists, yet here he calls (probably in defeated exaggeration) for mass human death, stating “Every new death is a step toward preservation”. He once again concludes in dismal defeat that “Human life is simply not sustainable”.

Ryan continues on his frustrated raging over humanity’s exponentiating population on the following song, “Vulturous”, on which it becomes clearer that he is not taking the warped, racist approach to this topic and is rather eulogizing the willful and self-inflicted destruction of so-called advanced cultures by their short-sighted capitalist urges, as evidenced by the lines “A horrible ghastly proclamation / That profits dominate what’s right” and the painfully and intentionally ironic “Living for ourselves / Anything at any time / as of tomorrow we will die”. Clearly these lines are not pinning the blame for catastrophic climate change on the usual, lower-consuming scapegoats of fascist eugenics, but rather the capitalism that exploits them and those doing the scapegoating and those who keep it in place because they have something to gain from it. Musically, the track is one of the more demonically sinister cuts on the album, with Ryan giving a particularly eerie, menacing, death-summoning vocal performance.

Indeed, while I am talking a lot about Travis Ryan’s lyrical contributions and one-of-a-kind vocal performances, I would hate to overlook the solid and vibrant instrumental foundation the rest of the band continue to provide him and Cattle Decapitation. Longtime drummer David McGraw’s jaw-droppingly lightning-injected performances continue to shine as one of the band’s major instrumental attractions as he absolutely punishes his kit at ungodly speeds with awe-inspiring technicality. Similarly fast-paced and technical strong-work continues to flow like a gushing torrent of hail from storied lead guitarist Josh Elmore and newly arrived rhythm guitar supporter Belisario Dimuzio, who together drive the album’s (and the band’s) likely under-appreciated emotional dynamic through their interplay between colossal eruptions of infernal guitar distortion and ashen atmospheric dissonance with cleaner tones when the time is right. And new bassist Olivier Pinard provides the essential foundational accents to meticulously track and support the maddeningly technical rhythms above him in the mix, and even surging up to the forefront of the mix when the rest of the band is at a lower instance of acceleration to provide his own moments of spotlighted technical brilliance as well. Together the band have continued to hone the already highly perfected form of epic deathgrind that they and no one else can channel.

Backed by particularly vicious grinding instrumentation, Travis Ryan continues to count down to calamity on “One Day Closer to the End of the World”, at first seemingly welcoming with open arms “the end of all life of this fucking planet” in a storm of hardcore-influenced guitar work, but clearly lamenting, as the song progresses, mankind’s seeming “Lust for dying” and the terrible, suffering-filled end it has set up for itself, as he closes the thundering instrumental chaos by characterizing humanity as “Out of breath, out of time - a species out of its mind”. This bend toward self-destruction is further examined throughout the more direct, technical blackened death metal of “Absolute Destitute”, which is mostly spare of the previous tracks’ melodic niceties and summed up nicely and poetically by the lines “A life in love with despair / in a world beyond repair / A global consensus that the powers that be are against us”, and Ryan essentially calls time on humanity’s soured reign over planet Earth on the fittingly apocalyptic-sounding melodic vocal and guitar dissonance and rhythmic crashing of “Time’s Cruel Curtain”, whose tragically cathartic and enigmatically beautiful sonic hideousness as a result of is truly a tough thing to describe, probably best likened to a fire-scarred martyr desperately sacrificing themselves one last time to no avail.

Travis Ryan shifts his mournful tone to a more critical one on the ruthlessly rapid-fire “Finish Them” as he concludes that “Now we see that the true evil has a face / Now we know the devil is the human race” as David McGraw’s dynamic playing shines at the track’s particularly fast pace, and Ryan subsequently imparts, furthermore, a stern warning to the opulent elites that those whose world they’ve ruined will be coming for their hides on the similarly high-octane percussive hurricane and roller coaster riff-fest of “With All Disrespect”.

Ryan does return to his more usual classically colorful beckoning of death on the surprisingly infectiously hook-laced, old-school (for the band), and darkly comedic “Bring Back the Plague”, which is an exaggerated call at wits end for exactly what the title implies, but musically one of the band’s most unique songs and a certain standout on an album filled with impressive tracks.

The band also includes a few shorter interludes to break up the relentless deathgrind, “The Great Dying”, “The Great Dying II”, and “The Unerasable Past”, which are strung with excerpts detailing the sequences of events that have led to humanity’s current predicament, including “55 Languages of Planet Earth” from NASA’s Voyager Space Probe on the intro track, “Anthropogenic: End Transmission”.

On the titular closing track, Travis Ryan offers his last sorrowless dirge for humanity as he screams “We deserve everything that’s coming” across the epic nine-minute firestorm of crunchy guitar riffage, furiously firing double-bass, and biblically monolithic death howls that wrap the album up in cinematically grand fashion without sacrificing any of the brutality of the band’s grind. And while the song’s second half isn’t quite the dizzying crush the first half is, the gradual fade out into an operatic lamentation for a biosphere’s graceless end is a fitting one for the image of the Earth humanity’s last days careening away into the void of space in abject meaninglessness to the rest of the universe and whatever may fill humankind’s empty place at square one of rebuilding a new civilization.

Given how greatly I still admire Monolith of Inhumanity and the Anthropocene Extinction obviously my expectations for death Atlas were pretty high. Yet Cattle decapitation still managed to surprise and around me with melodicism greater than even that which characterized Monolith of Inhumanity, incredibly surprisingly infectious hooks, and gripping, terrifyingly bleak prophetic lyricism amid consistently thrilling instrumental performances that continue to prove what a tremendous force to be reckoned with and what an important band Cattle Decapitation is and has been. While Cattle Decapitation are far from the only band addressing the huge, overbearing impending doom of environmental Armageddon, and while the novelty of the melodicism of the band’s terrifying assault and nauseating goring has worn off since Monolith of Inhumanity, Cattle Decapitation has expanded it to further elevate the grandiosity they cultivated on The Anthropocene Extinction to produce a swan song for the planet unlike any other. Truly, there are few bands more important today for metal than Cattle Decapitation is, and there is no situation more dire than humanity’s arrogant and self-assured loitering on the brink of civilizational downfall. And while a deathgrind album probably isn’t the kind of art piece that will pull humankind back from the edge, the uncompromisingly ugly and truly hellish portrayal of the world’s collapse on it makes Death Atlas the album the world needs and humanity deserves for its compounded failures. And I also suppose it’s quite fitting that the band releases this album on America’s frustratingly ironically times national holiday of celebrating capitalist consumerism after a day of supposed giving thanks whose tradition is warped to hide its ugly genocidal historical origin. Undoubtedly one of the most crucial albums of its time, one of the year’s, one of the decade’s, and Cattle Decapitation’s best.

And I count the days ‘til we expire for always/10

[nighttimepixels]

ok but fell!maddie owning a bunch of goats as pets? sounds kinda passive-aggressive towards the former royal family of... goat-looking individuals... (or is it just me???) also wanted 2 say im, as always, in lov with your designs and backstories. i wonder what the worst of both maddies has been? the experiments leading to their soul/weapon obssession have been kinda vague and it's like. please elaborate more on them--? all your characters are super great, my heart be calm. ty for your time!

✧∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿

It absolutely is a minor flipping off towards the former royal family, heh. Fell!Maddy just also happened to really love those tiny goats in the end though, unironically, so she’d also completely murder anyone who threatened them. Then again, they are curiously strong and capably pygmy goats so - really, even trying to mess with them behind her back might be a bit of a death sentence before she even catches you >v>;;;

Also, oh man, bless you anon, I’m so happy to hear that ;v; I’ll post Fell!Maddy art soon, I think you might like the twists with her design, heheh.

As for the worst of both Maddys- ooo, that definitely depends on whether we’re talking pre- or post-surface. I did leave the experimentation things a little vague, it’s true, didn’t want to wax on gayly if no one was interested-

To begin to broach it, well, let’s just say both Maddy’s have a higher LV. Maddy’s is higher than most Underground with the exception of the Queen, a wizened turtle crone in Waterfall, and her old fiery bartender friend, but Fell!Maddy’s is astronomical.

More below the cut! :D

Maddy had to make some hard decisions and fast. EXP is a tricky thing to measure sometimes - while gaining it via murder’s obvious, there’s philosophical debate amongst monsters as to whether letting someone die in front of you by negligence counts. So she was already a bit hazy... but after the accident where Alph died and she was only able to save the perseverance soul, a lot happened... fast.

With all but one of the souls gone, monsters began to Fall in droves. They’d held out so long, and yet now, the thing that was so close - well, they’d effectively lost nearly all their progress, and it took a harsh, sudden toll. Maddy, already overexposed to human soul magic, already snapped over the edge...

She made some decisions.

Whereas Alphys in UT tried to experiment to save monsters that would’ve died otherwise regardless and then turned recluse when it all went to hell, Maddy - with concentrated perseverance strapped to her back - didn’t do that. But that didn’t mean her first experiments went well... Or prettily.

She still sees the dust on her hands. It’s part of why she doesn’t take off her gloves any more - the grit of it between her phalanges... the screams, the melting of monsters she had known for years, the haunting whispers that echoed in her maddened skull...

Hundreds of monsters went through her lab before she at last was... successful. To a decent degree... not even entirely. She didn’t stop, and it was a blessing and a curse - for years, no one wanted to venture close to her new lab in Snowdin for fear of being forced to hear the screams that had been so common in the beginning...

There’s more detail to be had there, of course, but it was at that point that she started to expand her work, to restore and improve power and eventually literally construct a mini sun to power and light the Underground and turn it into a technological paradise. By that point, though, she truly earned the mad part of Mad Scientist - while chaotic good in alignment, there’s true chaos there. She’d do anything for the betterment - had done horrors for the betterment, the survival of monsterkind. There’s so much unsaid there but... as a taste... well, when someone’s done that much just to cure what was effective a plague of Falling, what else might they do...?

As for Fell!Maddy, well, she already lived in a kill or be killed world. It wasn’t about snapping and throwing away her morals - though, by all means, she did have them... just in a way that suited her world. She was loyal to her sister and their bond was unbreakable, and to those few that earned a decent measure of her trust she repaid in kind. She’s got her own fiery bartender that acted as partner in crime, and is now that and business partner as well. A few scattered allies - friends was pushing it, but you do what you can. She was always good to kids, or at least gave them the proper chance to get out of the trouble she’d find them in by running away with a kick to the butt and a gruff shout-

But after the accident, well...

See, the only soul Fell!Maddy saved was Kindness. Not perseverance.

To a monster in a Fell!verse, especially to someone like Fell!Maddy who’d always craved that unattainable, compassionate connection with someone, something just for her and soft in comparison to all her world’s hard edges...

Nothing could be more covetable.

Fell!Maddy guards the soul she saved fiercely. No one else can touch it, and since then literally no one has seen her without that soul near her.

With the souls lost, rather than a plague of Falling monsters, her underground faced a sudden civil war. Riots were everywhere, any semblance of tenuous ‘peace’ lost as no one agreed on what to be done. Her experiments began quickly - taking monsters on the brink of death or Fallen, and experimenting. Seeing what power monster souls could have, and what exposure to a human soul might do- what tech she could develop, how she could test the limits of space-time with even just that extra boost... For a long time her lab was more secret and impossible to find, but there was a part of Snowdin even the most grizzled of monsters didn’t dare venture to for the sheer horror of the screams and the darkness of the atmosphere under the exponential EXP increase.

In the end, Maddy was able to develop tech, weapons, means of manipulating space-time that allowed her sister to throw a coup from within the ranks of the Guard, toppling the monarchy and wresting control for herself. The civil war was put to a bloody and tense end, but in it’s wake she purposefully allowed a black market/underground to rise - secret fights and games of strategy played, dust spread in back alleys - in a world like theirs, malcontent was inevitable, so her sister used it to focus on the lower echelons and the harsher proclivities rather than turning up to the overarching leadership.

Fell!Maddy, of course, took up her own position as people learned they could turn to her for all manner of things done... for a price.

Her lab and home in Snowdin is connected by a terrible warping of space-time to her sister in the Capital; such a broad instantaneous reach keeps Fell!Maddy’s sister’s grip on the Underground ironclad and even begrudgingly respected. Meanwhile, Maddy’s lab is more visible, with a ‘lobby’ of sorts for business fronts with her fiery bartender friend.

No one wants to visit the depths of her lab- not lightly.

Her technology is magitech, and unlike anything the Underground had ever seen - and she develops some of it at the cost of soul power itself... of course, not her own, and not at the expense of her precious, protected soul. No, making a deal with her is far more intense than a blood debt. You’ll get what you ask for, and the impact of her work is all over the Underground - the place is practically cyberpunk now.

But people, when they’re not calling her the Mad Scientist of Snowdin, have a tendency to call her the Reaper in her position as mob boss. After all... she’ll come collecting, should you fail to pay the life debt you owe her.

~~~~~

And of course, that’s just underground ;D both of them get up to more and even wilder experimentation above ground once their respective barriers are broken - but I’ve rambled enough for now, so feel free to send more asks if you want more info on either of these mad skeletal scientist ladies  _(┐「ε:)_♡

[feel199x]

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚apple of my eye ˚୨୧⋆｡˚ ⋆ Chapter V

gang!au, gang member!han jisung, underground band!au, florist!reader  

I  II  III  IV V VI VII VIII IX X

a/n: this chapter is written a little differently, most of the action will be happening in the upcoming chapters. okay stays im the writer and I Am: Anxious  

masterlist

warnings: alludes to drugs (selling), blood bruise mention, gun mention, and themes of stalking and abuse

                               ┍━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━┑

 Minho had always been the head between the two of them. Jisung had always been much too emotional. It wasn’t that he wasn’t smart- Jisung had a showcase of talents, a variety of things that he was incredibly good at. It never used to be a big deal, not before they had started the ‘band.’ The nine of them had always been best friends, growing up the same block in a not so great area of the city? They knew, even as children, that they needed each other. Their chances as a group were far better than their chances as individuals. When they were younger, Jisung always got crushes easily. And it wasn’t the kind of thing was he would get one and then leave when someone else caught his eye. No, he fell in love with the strangest things. At least, what Minho considered strange. Jisung had gotten crushes on the little things that people did. Minho remembered that once, he had ended up confessing to someone in high school because of how they laughed. Because Jisung adored making them laugh. Within this same field, he had always been the more empathetic of the group. One day, while the rest of the boys played tag around the playground, Jisung came crying over. A bird’s mother had dropped the baby bird, and in its weak attempt to fly- it died. And Jisung was crying, sobbing over the fact that there was nothing he could do to save the bird. No one but Chan knew how to comfort Jisung properly, and even then it would take a while.

It had always been endearing, a charismatic character trait until their band. It started sophomore year of high school. Really, it turned out they were all inclined to the arts when they had taken a music and dance class in middle school. But that wasn’t the sort of thing you could be proud of, not around here. Eventually, the school pulled the funding for the class anyway. But their passion hadn’t died, and instead of meeting up to play rough or cause trouble in some public places, they san, dance, rapped. It felt transformative, and when they got their first gig- an underground club agreed to let them perform their music, they were over the moon. It was all the group of boys could talk about, becoming the conversation topic sooner or later.  

Minho had known that the club would’ve been sketchy- every underground club around here only had one to be underground. And even if the rest of the boys pretended not to be aware, he was. Their performance was lively in the beginning, everyone pouring their soul into the performance but even when they realized that there was not-so-discreet deals, the passing of handshakes, angel dust crumbs still lingering on people’s nose. Maybe it was because they had nothing to compare it to at the time, but the crowd was nothing they’ve ever seen before. They were dancing, shouting, screaming the lyrics. Maybe it was wrong, they all knew there was something immoral about this- but they had never felt so accomplished. Misguided as they were, they all had an idea about what they were getting themselves into.

Jisung had mixed feelings, after the performance he was crying again. Both out of happiness, the thrill of singing, rapping, dancing- performing with an audience. But he felt as if he had wronged them somehow. As if he was the one selling them the packets, and soon, too soon, he would be. Jisung was the only one on the fence about doing so, even after the entirety of the group had decided: it was wrong, but necessary. There were worse they could do. Even the youngest had come to that conclusion in a matter of a few weeks. It wasn’t that they tried going it by the traditional way, uploading it online- seeking companies. But if they didn’t reject them altogether, producers would want to cut members of the group out. And it was nine or none. Chan, who was usually composed, would cry after they had gotten rejected- or if someone had said that a group member ‘just didn’t have it.’ It felt as though it was a failure on his part.

Until one day they just had enough.

Jisung had come around eventually. And quickly, very quickly, they had risen in popularity. They were a regular at NOT!, an underground club that had become exclusive when they didn’t have enough room to house all their fans. Stray kids, their self given name, were still giving their all within each and every performance. But behind the scenes, there they were moving and selling packages like there was no way they could be caught. But, this life was missing its flaws. One night, an incident occurred- it had to happen sometime. They were just lucky that no one had died. Shots were fired in NOT!, and although no one had died, it was enough to rupture chaos within the mix of sober and high people.

Jisung had cried that night.

It was only later that they learned that members of N/S had found their way into the club. The boys weren’t stupid, they knew it was risky to sell in their vicinity- but what they weren’t aware of, was how risky. As their popularity with the locals and city folk arose, so did the competition against N/S. And N/S didn’t appreciate it, not one bit. That night, everyone had looked over to Chan and Woojin, hoping they would have some type of answer.

But they didn’t.

The club owner made a suggestion to them, an offer. That night, each boy, regardless of license- left with a gun. They had reached the point of irreversible change. They were in it for the long run now, and there was no backing out. Tensions grew and grew between the two gangs, even though Woojin and Chan refuse to call it that. To them, Stray Kids was a band, and it was just a band. But they had collected fans, ones that could relate to their cause and because of that, they considered the tension between Stray Kids and N/S their fight to win, too. But they refused to stop making music, stop trying to be successful within their own realm. The boys began to leave behind the dealings, reduced the number of packages they moved. But the tension in the city was growing until it smothered everyone. But N/S didn’t care, and one day the unpredictable happened. A black car drove by and ended up hitting Jisung in the side of his thigh. Everyone was livid then, even after Jisung had fully recovered. Now, it was decided, that it was shoot on sight.

 Jisung didn’t cry that night.

 So, when Jisung talked about ____ so dreamily, the group had some major concerns.

“I understand, I know you really like them,” Chan was staring at his laptop, composing a new song as Woojin played some notes for him on the piano, “But it’s risky, you should wait until things die down.” Woojin played a melody and nodded his head. “I agree, this isn’t something you should be considering right now,” Woojin added, “We can still meet them ___, but you’ll have to distance yourself after that.” As if the last part hadn’t quite registered, Jisung immediately became hyper-active again, scrambling notes for lyrics in a notebook, all about ___.

It wasn’t that Minho didn’t like ___, they were a good person. They were kind and mellowed Jisung out. It was good to see a little more emotional ever since the drive-by. But Minho always thought when Jisung didn’t.

“You shouldn’t get ___ involved,” Minho sat Jisung down, “It’s already dangerous for you. You’re always talking about how anxious and careful they are, how much they care about you. You can’t involve them.”

“But I’m not,” Jisung said curtly, “I’m going to be careful.”

“You can’t promise anything, not when you know what we do.”

Minho felt like he was the only one willing to face reality, aware of both the damage and good they were doing. The good and evil they were capable of. He was the only one of the few who had come to terms with his mortality, the others opting to live in a dreamscape.

But nightmares would soon trespass.

The night of the flower shop incident, things had gone to shit real fast. The number of gunshots had increased exponentially, the feds cracking down on everybody. But somehow, never being able to find enough, the truth hidden somewhere in angel dust. The boys had chosen to go off the grid and warned Jisung if he didn’t, then ___ wouldn’t just be missing Jisung, they would be mourning over him. So he chose the lesser of two evils, disappearing in the dead of night.

Minho wasn’t usually one to act outside of the group’s decision, believing that for everyone to be able to get along- cooperation is key. But he thought it was strange, each member experiencing some sort of life-threatening event once leaving the karaoke bar? And ___’s shop getting the worst of it? So, before the boys woke up, Minho made his way to the flower shop.

He hadn’t expected to see you though, and he most definitely didn’t expect to have you caught in the crossfires. And once Minho had told the group what happened, there was no stopping Jisung from returning to the shop.

Very few times had Minho seen Jisung angry, and never, never had he seen Jisung as enraged as he was that night. Jisung was nearly fuming, Minho could imagine steam coming off of him. And as Jisung found the ex, sleeping in your bed, after obviously going through your stuff- being an awful, disgusting creep. Jisung had nearly killed him and would have if the guy wasn’t a good fighter. Jisung dragged him out of your room, and he toppled down the stairs like a bag of bricks. He had finally decided to run off, and Jisung was too angry to be relieved that the guy didn’t have a gun, or any weapon to fight back. This feeling in Jisung was primal, but the adrenaline had to come down sometime, and then, and only then did Jisung feel the pain of each cut and bruise that he had gotten, but not earned.

But he wanted to see you, he wanted to see you more than anyone he had ever wanted to see before. It was all he could think about as he toppled down in the guest room, hearing your cries. Even after he left that morning, he traced his fingers on his lips still thinking about you. He decided that he’d rather be beaten up several more times than ever have to see you in that state again. It became his mission, his life’s goal to take down N/S. It wasn’t easy, and after hearing that you were going to return to your beloved shop. He knew it was in vain, but he had to attempt to stop you- he couldn’t live with himself if he hadn’t at least tried, but that was before this. He would’ve never thought about this, not even in his nightmares could this have been happening.

You were in his arm, caught in a chokehold. Tears streaming down your face, gasping for air. The gun digging into the side of your head as Jisung pulled out his gun, pointing it at him.

“Go ahead,” he was laughing, face bright and happy, “But I’m not leaving without ___. To love and to hold, in sickness and in health. Up in heaven, or down on this hellish earth.”

Jisung didn’t know what to do, tears in his eyes as he shook, arms and beloved biceps trembling. He brought it down, face contorted with anger. And he watched, angry tears pouring out of his eyes as he watched you be taken away

.                            ┕━━━━━━━✿━━━━━━━┙

[samy-bct]

Reflection

Another year is coming to a conclusion, and so is the last semester of being a second-year student. Time does fly faster than the thoughts of man, saying that I learnt and have done things that I have never have thought I would be capable of doing. Comparing my project and personal development to the first semester of this year and the second semester, I have learnt and gained skills than I ever could in the first semester. In this semester I learnt what real game development looks like and playing a substantial role in the team that has a similar work ethic as you. Going from working on a 2D game in the first semester to a  3D game it was quite a game changer and a whole different way of thinking and skill set that I needed. In the start of the semester i didn’t know what i was  doing this semester until I was approached my Mathew and after he explained his concept I was sold and joined his pre-existing team from last semester. Now thinking back I was wise to join their group because I have learnt quite a lot in a short amount of time. Looking at my workflow, there were things that I had done right and things I have  done not entirely wrong but they caused me to lose track of time a little. As I took electives that coincidently complimented my studio project which allowed me toI pulled ideas and influence from different disciplines such as game design (Play methodology -Art and Design Paper) and 3D modelling, texturing and all components of working in a 3-dimensional space (Synthetic Realities-Creative Technologies paper). The major disadvantage I discovered that I can be a little stubborn in my ways and can take my time to realise something that was quite obvious. This was shown when I was figuring out how to do the textures. I did exhaust all my options and resources that I have known an figured out that any of the new software have come across wouldn’t help me and the software that I had already some skills with can do what I wanted. This is a character flaw I have to work on If I am to continue successfully down the road of becoming a”Creative Technologist”. Things take time to learn thus I realized this semester to first discover if a software can help you then learn it (this is talking from a student's POV were time is gold). Looking at the project as this is still in its beta form, thus if I am was to work on this project again firstly I will have to further increase my skill set as an artist and a game designer. To carry on a project from one semester to another you need to always up your“Game” you have to refine and review the existing and make exponential strides in the project by the end of the new semester, For that to transpire I will have to develop myself further first. Looking towards the future, as I stated I will be on a shelf improvement journey both skill wise and personal attributes wise. This will help with my journey down the road of becoming “Creative Technologist” even though this year I have come to realize what I would like to specialise in for the future which is in the area of game design and world design that doesn't mean I have lost interest in everything else. Creative technology allows you a safe haven to test out your skills and to a certain extent test yourself. Why be one thing in life? It's boring when you can be what you want to be and have a skill set like a toolbox full of different disciplines. This semester has given me a newfound respect for the people in the industry who are in the serious fireline and have no time mistakes and redos. Time is a foe that you can’t beat. Thus, you might as well learn to work with it (Samy.2018)

[kolajmag]

Kolaj Magazine is the world’s only internationally-oriented art magazine dedicated to contemporary collage. Subscribe, order a copy, or collect back issues HERE

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Strange Diary, or How to Make a Collage

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[harrybushelldesignblog]

DES240 Assignment 2 (unfinished)

Review of Work in Progress

Week 5 (first week of assignment): After studio 5, I began to sketch some very basic ideas down, but mostly focused on researching my specific statistic further. Along with this, I brainstormed ideas for what my GIF could be based on, with my original concept focusing on exercise. I chose to use food as characters in my GIF to avoid potential upset. 

Week 6 (second week of assignment): After discussion about the sensitivity present in my statistic, I decided that the best approach for this GIF going forward was to ensure that respect was kept, and that it should be approached in a manner that will not cause any upset or controversy. With this, I began to research the causes of my statistic in order to approach potential GIF ideas from a different perspective. After researching the causes, I found that unhealthy food and it being a cheap and easy way to feed yourself and your family was the most common cause. With this, I began to develop a different perspective on my GIF, removing the idea of using exercise as the base and instead focusing on food shopping. I created storyboards that show a few ideas, mostly centering around unhealthy food being chosen over healthy food. 

Week 7 (third week of assignment): This week I created my original pixel sprites for my GIF, which through feedback from the class in Discord, I edited accordingly and saved for use on my GIF. Through discussion with Jacky, we decided that an obvious barrier or divide between the cheap unhealthy food and expensive healthy food should be incorporated into my GIF to represent the divide between the two. With this, I created a few more storyboards, which featured my created sprites and a divide between the food groups. I did this in a few different ways, and after further discussion, I decided that using different leveled shelves was the best way to go about incorporating an obvious divide. 

Week 8: After discussion with Caleb in our 8th studio, I designed a few more pixel characters, attempted to add depth to my background, experimented with different ways of ensuring the GIF looped, and wrote my guest lecture reflections. Studio 8 was immensely helpful thanks to the feedback from Caleb, and I felt that this was my most productive week. Once I had formed all of my assets, I began properly attempting to code my GIF. I found this quite difficult, but got to a point where I had the fast food randomly generated on the bottom shelf each time, and had everything positioned correctly on the canvas. 

Week 9 prior to studio (final week): Not much work was done this week due to personal problems. However I was able to get some writing done and format my blog post. 

Reflections on Guest lectures

Guest 1 - Blockchain | Cryptocurrency | NFT’s by Fabio Morreale

Prior to Fabio's lecture, I had never heard of NFT’s or blockchains, and had very basic and limited knowledge on Cryptocurrencies. The concept and reality of making money solely through code and numbers, along with the fact that NFT’s are online artwork that sell for thousands of dollars is quite mind blowing, and I still don’t quite see the point in purchasing an NFT, although it seems to follow the same motivation as purchasing physical art. Along with this, Cryptocurrency doesn’t make much sense to me either, as although Fabio mentioned it, I still don’t understand how a currency can be created and suddenly grow in value as it is purchased by more and more people. The fact that popular crypto like Bitcoin is so highly valued at the moment confuses me, as I don’t really understand why there is a demand for it in the first place. 

Fabio's proposal of a decentralized financial system is interesting. Essentially removing the middle man (banks in this instance) is a valid idea, and would allow money to flow without a dependence on corporations, along with removing the dependence on corporations for storing data etc. However I believe that this would negatively affect both my own scale and on a global scale. Negating powerful and proven corporations opens up the market and peoples data to everyone, or at least to people capable enough to figure out how to access it, and although this is happening now, I have a much greater faith in powerful corporations to protect my data than I do in protecting my data myself. Furthermore, removing these corporations would be detrimental for the short term economy, as jobs would disappear and money plus data for people who aren't really equipped to defend themselves would essentially be easy meat for more capable hackers. I believe that there is a place for a financial system and that these corporations are important for both myself and the world.

Guest 2 - Data, ML & Ethics By Daniel Wilson

Daniels' lecture on ethics was really interesting and very eye-opening. The presence of bias in almost every aspect of day to day life, shown by the splayed data presented by Daniel was pretty surprising, and in some ways disappointing. Daniel mentioned a confusing divide in ethical systems, pointing out that companies must provide information that they are using a certain system but also have systems that must check that this system is being used correctly. He also talked about misinterpretation due to accidental system malfunction, which, despite being created on accident, can still form inappropriate consequences despite the bias not being recognized by the creator. For example, someone creating a survey could be unaware of the multiple genders considered today, and could create something for only male and female, due to the creators outdated knowledge. Thus creating accidental bias. This idea is very important in terms of the future of ethical systems, as being aware of all biases will hopefully mitigate accidental unethical consequences in the future. Coming to this point will be quite difficult, as society continues to grow and incorporate, new biases will spring to life. Despite this, efforts to negate as many biases as possible is the best way to stay ethical now and in the future.

  Research Summary 

- Why does this statistic exist in its current state in 2021?

My statistic - 1 out of 3 adult people in NZ are obese exists due to multiple reasons. However, through my research, I found that commonly, unhealthy eating habits, and the ease of access to unhealthy foods like fast food is too easy and cheap, thus leading to more vulnerable groups struggling with obesity, as healthy eating is too expensive and seemingly not integrated into day to day life. The ease of access to unhealthy food is the main catalyst for the existence of my statistic in its current state in 2021. 

A lot of the blame is placed on cheap fast / unhealthy food, and in the discussion of obesity in children and young adults, a lot of the blame is on the advertising for unhealthy food, as it is too appealing and false. There’s an appetite to clamp down on unhealthy food marketed to kids. Cartoon-covered packaging for sugary cereals, Disney-branded biscuits with collectible magnets, TV ads for unhealthy products at peak viewing times for children. Not to mention, junk food marketing online and fast-food joints sponsoring sports teams. It’s almost impossible to avoid unhealthy food being peddled to teens and kids. Young adults and children are a lucrative market for food companies. As they not only influence what their parents buy (pester power), marketers also bank on shoppers sticking to buying habits they acquired when they were young, hence the progression into unhealthy adult diets.

- What are the interconnected and contributing factors behind this statistic?

The contributing factors behind this statistic is the exponential growth of cheap, processed food, and it becoming a multi-billion dollar industry. As time has passed, processed food has become cheaper to manufacture and deliver around the world, resulting in a massive contribution towards obesity within the general public. This is the most prominent contributing factor behind why 1 in 3 adult New Zealanders are obese.  

- How has this statistic evolved through history?

The NZ Ministry of Health stated that “the overall prevalence has remained relatively stable since 2012/13, however there was an increase between 2011/12 and 2019/20 for adults aged 45–54 years and 55–64 years.” and according to a report written by the NZ Ministry of Health between 1977 and 2003, obesity increased by around 6% from 1989 to 1997 over all adult ages. Both of these statistics provide relevant evidence that the obesity rates in New Zealand are exponentially increasing through history, evolving into more and more of a threat to New Zealanders.   

- What is the future prospect of this statistic? 

If nothing is changed in regards to NZ’s struggle with obesity, then the statistic will continue to grow, as the prospected future formulated from the data collected from the past shows a continual exponential increase in obesity rates amongst NZ adults. An increase in obesity for adults would most likely work perpendicularly with obesity rates of children, as both have been exponentially increasing to this date.    

Copy of code so far (not properly working, however the layout is there)

int numPoints = 10;

int[] posX;

int[] posY;

int xValue = 0;

PImage shelveBackground;

PImage burger;

PImage cookie;

PImage lollipop;

PImage cart;

PImage[] displayImage;

int timer = 0;

int counter = 0;

void setup() {

  size(1000, 1000);

  shelveBackground = loadImage("DES240Assets/background3.png");

  burger = loadImage("DES240Assets/burgerboy1.png");

  cookie = loadImage("DES240Assets/cookieboy1.png");

  lollipop = loadImage("DES240Assets/lollipopboy1.png");

  cart = loadImage("DES240Assets/bigcart.png");

  posX = new int [numPoints];

  posY = new int [numPoints];

  displayImage = new PImage[numPoints];

  for (int i = 0; i <numPoints; i++) {

    posX[i] = int(random(100,width-300));

    posY[i] = (690);

    displayImage[i] = burger;

          }

  for (int i = 3; i <numPoints; i++) {

    posX[i] = int(random(100,width-300));

    posY[i] = (670);

    displayImage[i] = cookie;

      }

  for (int i = 6; i <numPoints; i++) {

    posX[i] = int(random(100,width-300));

    posY[i] = (620);

    displayImage[i] = lollipop;

      }

  for (int i = 9; i <numPoints; i++) {

    posX[i] = (-50);

    posY[i] = (620);

    xValue= 0;

    displayImage[i] = cart;

xValue++;

  }

    }

void draw() {

  image(shelveBackground,-550,-250);

  for ( int i = 0; i < numPoints; i++) {

    displayImage[i].resize(350, 0);

    image(displayImage[i], posX[i], posY[i]);

  }

}

Statement of Intent (for how I wanted the finished GIF to be)

My GIF represents the statistic 1 in 3 NZ adults are obese in an empathetic and lighthearted manner. Although the issue is serious, I thought the best way to avoid any accidental distress or disrespect was to keep the GIF focused on one of the main causes of the statistic, and to keep it brightly coloured and playfully animated to maintain respect and allow the GIFs message to be seen without causing controversy. With this in mind, I used toy-like pixelated food character models to represent the GIF. From the research I conducted on my project, I found that cheap unhealthy food and how easy it is to buy, cook, and eat is the most commonly blamed cause of obesity in NZ. With this, I designed my pixel sprites for the statistic, with 2 ‘healthy’ foods being an apple and carrot, and 3 ‘unhealthy’ foods being a lollipop, burger, and cookie. This was done so that the 1 in 3 ratio was shown in the GIF, with each shelf representing part of the statistic. The ‘unhealthy’ food was placed on the bottom shelf to emulate how easy it is to access it, and a ‘SALE!’ text is imprinted on the shelf to represent the lesser price of it. The ‘healthy’ foods are placed on higher shelves to represent the opinion that they are harder to access, whether it's financially or due to a lack of nutrition knowledge. The GIF shows a shopping cart moving across the screen from left to right, and as it goes, unhealthy food is placed in the cart, while healthy food is left on the shelves. This is to represent the appeal of unhealthy food to a shopper, and to represent what is proposed by my research. The GIF loops by a robotic arm restocking the shelves once the shopping cart reaches the end of the screen, as both a way to show supply and demand of unhealthy food, and also to ensure the GIF loops from start to finish. 

Draft of how the GIF would look

References 

RNZ. (2019, October 13). The true cost of a disordered food system: a panel discussion. https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/otago-university-panel-discussions/story/2018716711/the-true-cost-of-a-disordered-food-system-a-panel-discussion

Obesity Prevention Strategies. (2016, April 12). Obesity Prevention Source. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-prevention/#:%7E:text=Choosing%20healthier%20foods%20(whole%20grains,%2C%20and%20other%20%E2%80%9Csit%20time%E2%80%9D

Obesity statistics. (2020). Ministry of Health NZ. https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/health-statistics-and-data-sets/obesity-statistics

NZ Ministry of Health. (2004). Tracking the Obesity Epidemic: New Zealand 1977–2003 (No. 24). https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/trackingtheobesityepidemic.pdf

[oguntewomen]

Artificial Intelligence & the Future of Work in Social Enterprises

Today in London, our Ogunte #ImpactWomen #GoodBreakfast audience wanted to know more about Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the truth, the misconceptions, and how we can use them in our social enterprises, and shape the future of work. Here’s the summary of our session, packed with resources!

This session was hosted and animated by:

Karen Rivoire, Chief People Officer at Purpose in Action, (Sony, Microsoft Reactor, Unilever, WPP), passionate about human interaction, organisational health and the future of work, focused on Augmenting human capability with intelligent systems,

Be Kaler, Founder and Director of Futureheads Recruitment Ltd, Founder and Director of The User Centred Design Society  and a Trustee to Hope For Children

Servane Mouazan, Founder and Director of Ogunte CIC, specialised in Women in Social Enterprises, and Lead Partner at Conscious Innovation.

1. First a bit of myth debunking

It’s important to explore what Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are really about, and what they can and can’t do.

“Artificial intelligence is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. In computer science AI research is defined as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals”

Read about the fascinating history of Artificial Intelligence starting in Antiquity.

Then have a look at this A to Z cheat sheet about the terms that are frequently used and misused on the topic.

2. There is Weak AI and Strong Ai

AI is not limited to a story of robots. That would be a pretty simplistic way to describe what it is…

So let’s distinguish Weak AI (very narrow, what Artificial Intelligence is today), Artificial intelligence which is specifically programmed and focused to execute a narrow task effectively.  Fos instance: only facial recognition or only internet searches or only driving a car

We are far from taking over the world!

There might be some AI applications coming together and solve big problems, however we are not there yet …

The Future of Life Institute (a volunteer-run research and outreach organization in the Boston area that works to mitigate existential risks facing humanity, particularly existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence) say that to have a realistic time line about the developments in AI, you need to at least double your time expectations to see any substantial developments.

And then there is “Strong AI”

The main vision is to develop artificial intelligence to the point where the machine's intellectual capability is functionally equal to a human's.

We can see efforts in applications wishing to mimic humans. Yet we are not talking about mimicking the way humans think and do.

“Humans are not necessarily a superior species. It’s our ability to deal with complexity that is interesting and using tech to augment this, is useful. However we need to be very mindful to the decisions we make,” says our guest Karen Rivoire.

An algorithm is a list of rules to follow in order to solve a problem. Algorithms need to have their steps in the right order to work properly.

They also depend on the information input. If it is biased, the output will be biased too.

We have handed over decisions to algorithms we wouldn’t have let go off  in the past.

As technology develops, our host Karen insisted there is still time to influence the development of the technology, but we need to get involved now. Our knowledge of communities, our proximity, our connections, are of key importance.

At the moment some organisations are using technology to research and solve issues in health, science, energy consumptions and more, such as Deep Mind (acquired by Google in 2014).

One of Deep Mind’s approaches is to use AI to deliver better care for conditions that affect millions of people worldwide.

3. So what do I do first?

Remember that an algorithm is a programme. We can not programme human brains into 1 and 0s. THE PROGRAMMING doesn’t solve the problem.

Start with understanding your own data. Does it fit your purpose?

Audit your organizational processes, what needs to be more mindful, where you need more evidence, more automation, more learning. Look at your values, your identity, your emotional intelligence (how you develop it how you use it) and how inclusive you are in your operations and impact.

Remember that your expertise in social innovation, and your purpose-led work is as important as technology.

Your input and actions need to be personalised and fair but only with great customer insight and coherence.

Finally, technology (good data and analytics) can reinforce value-driven leadership.

Karen advocates using the P.A.I.R. methodology

Purposeful

Adaptive

Intersectional/Inclusive,

Resilient

and to encourage staff and stakeholders to immerse themselves into a life-long learning mindset.

Questions samples:

How am I protective of my own data?

How much do I know about the data I have in house?

What do I want to learn?

How can I best use data to serve the participants in my purpose-led organization?

How does it help me to work towards a positive and intersectional social impact?

4. Explore the AI protocol.

Robbie Stamp, Chief Executive of Bioss International (working around judgment and decision making), gives an overview of the Bioss AI Protocol in this video.

Think about your Artificial Intelligence systems...

- Is the work they are doing Advisory? Does it inform your judgement? Is the decision eventually made by humans.

- Has the AI been granted Authority over any human being?

- Have you granted the AI Agency? Can it commit resources without human intervention? (Like in the Stock Exchange, or agency to machines to write code or repair their own code...)

- Application: are we clear when we abdicate responsibility to a machine... (eg a driverless car making decisions whilst you are doing something else and not paying attention to the core task as you’ve abdicated responsibility)

- Accountability: all humans have some sense of responsibility (albeit imperfect!) An AI cannot be accountable in the way humans currently are. Can it ever be?

5. Immerse yourself in AI world through powerful connections and reading

Hoover on the names to open links

Inspirational Women (What would we do without them... )

Cathy O’Neil : Mathbabe.org Weapons of Math Destruction.

Catherine Helen O'Neil is an American mathematician and the author of the blog mathbabe.org and several books on data science, including Weapons of Math Destruction. Some AI stuff has been created without basic Math foundations nor statistical ground. Cathy challenges this.

Kate Crawford – ate Crawford is a leading researcher, academic and author who has spent the last decade studying the social implications of data systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

We programme codes with huge bias in. Kate challenges that.

Joanna Bryson Polymath psychologist and computer scientist.  Associate Professor in the Department of Computing at the University of Bath, Joanna works on Artificial Intelligence, ethics and collaborative cognition. She asks: How to use tech to become even more human?

Tabitha Goldstaub Co Founder of CognitionX, a Market Intelligence Platform for All Things Artificial Intelligence enabling people and companies to educate themselves and get community led recommendations on how to deploy AI.

Martine Rothblatt The founder of Sirius XM satellite radio, Martine Rothblatt now heads up a drug company that makes life-saving medicines for rare diseases (including one drug that saved her own daughter's life). Meanwhile she is working to preserve the consciousness of the woman she loves in a digital file ... and a companion robot.

Networks:

TechSheCan: a diverse range of organisations who believe that together we will make a much greater impact to address the root cause of the problem. (Video and video transcript)

AiforGood Artificial Intelligence for Global Sustainable Development

TeensinAI exists to increase diversity and inclusion in artificial intelligence

Reading

Exponential View newsletter: Azeem Azhar's wondermissive on technology, the future & society.

Tim o’Reilly: What’s the future and Why it’s up to us

The Benefits and Risks of Artificial Intelligence

Pete Trainor:  An author, applied Artificial Intelligence designer, technologist, accidental polymath, mental health campaigner and co-founder of Us Ai. He talks all over the world on creative & social technologies, data, Ai and the physiological & psychological effects on their audiences.

Read Futureheads’ Be Kaler’s write up on the hype / trust issues around AI.

Read OECD’s white papers on the Future of Work, and the list breakdown of routine and non routine jobs that will stay or go in the near future.

Events to attend

·  Internet Freedom Festival- Valencia, Spain- Yearly event every March.

·  RightsCon  Tunis 2019.

·  Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and  DeepMind on The role of Citizens in Developing Ethical AI

·  Get a nano degree at General Assembly and explore learning at Udacity’s School of AI

There are many ways we can help you grow your social venture or impact on women and girls, check out @Ogunte services here.

[deuce-duce]

Courage To Grow

Before I continue forward small disclaimer. Lol! During these activities I will be going over I’m usually listening to music. Music helps me maintain the mood and vibration that I have achieved through resetting and feeding my mood!

Picking up somewhere, where I left off, begins with feeding my mood by feeding my mind. For my mood essentially dictates my productivity tactfulness and my ability to absorb new information and skills so that they might benefit me when the right situation arises.

When I am in a bad mood I’m unreceptive, nothing flows and Murphy’s Law begins to take full affect (anything that can go wrong, will go wrong)!! Things escalate, much quicker and always seem harder or more complicated then they need to be.

If my mood regulates what Im able to accomplish, then I better learn how to regulate my mood!! There are many different ways to enhance your mood and overall well-being, which I’ll discuss later. Right now I just want to explain how I get myself out of bed everyday with tenacity and a positive outlook to keep fighting the good fight!

Before I jump into that I have to explain a little... re.... wi....nd....!! To the 28th of January 2021.

So I really wanted to write on the 28th... I had it all planned out and really thought I would be able to pull it off. Unfortunately all the things I had grown accustomed to remaining the same and being unchanging i.e. the little things, were suddenly causing me discourse. I won’t bore you with the specifics, in reality the people involved don’t deserve the time attention or energy. Let’s just say I was In a place I’m not in very often because of how it makes me feel. Amidst the noise and haste I was still able to get done a couple of the things I needed to, laundry & a couple other things for work.

Off to work I went!! Frustrated and irritated... UGH.... shortly after embarking on my commute to work I was about to enter the park, then right in front of me were two pairs of birds soaring through the sky. These birds stayed in their pairs but would separate from the group and then reconvene. Immediately I completely forgot about the irritation and frustration and was ear to ear hahaha even after the birds were out of sight I couldn’t stop smiling! I think this was my sign that what I have been telling you is correct! For it really is the little things, the silver linings that really make the cloudy days worth living! It also gave testimony to even though my life has been really hard it truly is SO.... Beautiful!!

After a hellacious day at work LOL (really wasn’t that bad) I was walking home and as I cut through the park like any other day I crossed the Good Bridge and then the other as I was crossing I was looking down and realized that the ground and the water were glowing almost! I stopped dead in my tracks looked up and was confronted with the bright beams of January’s full moon! Dubbed the Wolf Moon. Now although this next part is just a coincidence, Metamorphosis was playing and the last verse had just started... I’m sure you know what happened next... I turned on my camera and took pictures!! Lol when my camera came on the music turned off I was like awe.... in disappointment but then all I could hear was the rushing sound of the river and felt at peace within myself! It was really cool! after I finished taking pics and continued walking I couldn’t stop looking at the 🌝 and then the clouds blew in front of it and it was gone... hmm.... maybe there really is a Man on the Moon...! The other strange part about this coincidence was it was literally in the same place I saw the 4 birds soaring earlier that day.

When things like this occur I never really quite know how to explain em. I feel crazy right now explaining this to you and what happened because of how far fetched it sounds and I definitely could be compounding events associating meaning with events that aren’t even meaningful. But being aware of synchronicities and patterns is the key to hearing that which is never said... “ohhhh 💩 did he just say he hears things that aren’t said... like hears voices...??? CRAY!!” But then again your opinion doesn’t matter this is my story and this is what happened to me. I think it’s cool and crazy tbh but definitely worth it for me to share. Once again I’ll reiterate the song Be Aware by SOJA. I could also go into telling you how powerful the moon is and how it affects our planet and population but I’ll let you ✔️that out on your own. Once again it’s the little things that really are the big things... sometimes we’re too concerned with things that maybe we shouldn’t let consume us that we miss on that which is going on around us. #stayinginthemoment

The 29th was a day spent enjoying all the things I like doing. I had a day off so I spent it listening to some new music sleeping... I even spent some time in the gym. Thought about writing on both the 29th and 30th but just wasn’t feeling it... and if you haven’t grasped it yet I’m definitely hooked on a feeling... it was also important for me to pay homage to modern day Kings. ❤️✊!! Then the 31st rolled around I worked something like 13 hrs and really didn’t think I would be putting my best foot forward if I did... and so I wait! Besides what better day to write then 02-01 of 2021 unfortunately they are coming at me like machine guns and couldn’t pull it off! But hey there’s always today and really it couldn’t be more fitting 2-2 is always a great day to drop. So before I go any further I just would like to say... thank You for without you there would be no me no 2-2 so I will salute you and bid you adooo all in one motion, Cheerio!!

Alright enough 🤡’in around... back to moods. As I’ve started discovering and uncovering that which keeps me in a state of tranquility, promoting spiritual growth and elevation of my consciousness I have changed a lot of what I follow on the Gram. Of course I still follow a lot of scantily clad lasses for I am a man... I just decided I should follow more of what makes my soul smile as well. To me that’s many different kinds of art; fashion, jewelry, photography, music, nature, awakening as well as different opinions and perspectives. Why?!?! Even though I might not agree or resonate with another’s opinion or perspective it’s still good to know. My English teacher would always drive home the point of the more ya know... the more ya know... I thought it was just so you could be a well refined individual but there’s more to it then that by increasing your knowledge you begin cultivating that which is called an open mind. Which could also be the opening of your 3rd eye. But we will discuss that after I explain how I get myself out of bed each day with tenacity and and a positive mindset to take on the day and continue fighting the good fight!

Why the Gram??? There’s so much free thought on there that you literally could jump down rabbit hole after rabbit hole increasing your knowledge, know how and giving you subjects and skills to research on your own. Sometimes I watch movies by accident and then it’s almost like I was meant to watch that movie at that time... it’s crazy (Avengers End Game) 😭😭 so if a movie is calling out for u to watch it you probably should. 2 things I can’t stress enough!! Learn about that which speaks to you and moves you not someone else for your individuality is the most valuable thing you will ever have in your life. Is it good to learn about things others know YES! But if you realize that it’s not providing you with anything and your just not feeling it... then... just let it go keep what you have learned but don’t put a lot of effort into it. Focus on what moves you. Stress point 2 when learning something new there are going to be things your not going to understand anytime that happens to me I open up a browser and figure out what is being discusssd or described. So that I have a better understanding of something. If you need to you can always ask someone as well but if it doesn’t make sense and doesn’t add up keep doing your own research!! I guess there are three points to make 3rd is question Everything!! Literally everything, when something is off or doesn’t sit right with you there is usually a reason. I realize this is a lot to throw at you all at once but this is what I notice in myself and what i do so hopefully something can benefit you.

When learning new things, it at times can be discouraging maintaining the information what I have done that works for me is associating what I’m learning with something I already know. For instance I have a really hard time remembering peoples names so I’m working on associating peoples names with people I already know. Start with small stuff that’s easy to remember and gradually build because although things are different and may seem complex the fundamental components and principles involved apply to most things. Once you figure those things out!! You’ll be boooommmmiiiinnnn! Because you’ll be able to apply what you already know to what your learning... snowballs after that!

After I hit my ceiling in new information I just stop we all have our moments where we’re just like ugh!! That’s enough!! causing me to get my rear in gear!! Now that I’m out of bed it’s time to use what I have learned maybe not that day but I try to practice putting the things that I have resonated and agreed with into action. This solidifies what I have learned and opens my mind for more information. When I do this, it is what exponentially feeds my mood for that day and the next!! For it reassures me that I am capable and worthy! Giving me the confindence in myself to do it again the next day, boosting my confindence skills and the feeling that I can believe in myself once again!!

The one thing that I had to learn while going through this process was to be gentle on myself. Before I would get angry anytime I didn’t understand something. I would curse myself saying your so... stupid!! I realize now that was only causing me to lower my vibrational frequency making it even harder for me to learn anything new or... remember and use that which I already knew. So be gentle with yourself... you owe it to yourself and your worth it!

I’ll end with something I have kind of always known but choose not to practice. The most important thing you can do every morning is hydrate hydrate hydrate!!!! Then moderately caffeinate. I’ll explain why this is important on my next post. I can’t tell you when ... that will be... I’m going to plan for tomorrow but as we know... things don’t always go as planned

Have a great day everyone

🦅🌝

Songs for today

Courage to Grow ~ Revolution

My Life Alone ~ SOJA

Being Me ~ Jack and The Weatherman