#the algorithm just worked out like that…

[hrrtshape]

read this if you're confused about persistence, if you've been affirming for months and nothing's shown up, if you're wondering whether you're doing something wrong but can't figure out what. not a method post. not a technique post. just what’s actually going on when it's not working yet.

ok. so. hi. this is going to be messy and probably upsetting. not because it's dramatic. don't flatter it. but because it's honest. and honesty gets weird when you're dealing with a field that's still so underexamined. we're all just poking the edge of the simulation with a biro. and maybe i should leave it alone. maybe i'm overcomplicating again. maybe this is one of those moments where i should just shut up and script and go to bed. but. no. i can't. i don't know how to shut up about this. and maybe this isn't even the truth. maybe this is just one lens. but fine. whatever. here it is.

context: someone asked me today. "how do i force myself to shift in a short amount of time?" (@srcerers this is your fault....affectionately) and i was writing the usual. the "correct" answer. if you decide it, it's done. if you say you shift instantly, you do. period. PERIOD. done and done, tried and true. the golden assumption + confidence = success formula.

and then i spiralled. because i've been saying that for months. and yes, i've shifted. yes, i've seen results. but before that???????? i spent ages deciding. persisting. affirming. knowing. and still. nothing. and no, this isn't about pedestals. this isn't about wanting it too much. this isn't a fucking disney villain song about obsession. this isn't "just let go babe." no one here is pacing the astral gates with mascara running. this isn't longing. this is clarity. this is when you know it's yours and reality still has the audacity to play pretend.

you're not begging. you're not desperate. you're just wondering why the algorithm is lagging. and you're allowed to. you're god, and the lights are flickering. you're allowed to knock on the wall and ask why.

and sure. someone might read this and say "you were overthinking." or "you were still checking the 3d." but it's not that. this isn't panic. it's not frantic. it's the calm after the calibration. this is what happens after you stop checking. after you stabilise. after you fully assume. when you don't need results to believe. but they still don't come. and so you ask. not because you're doubting. because you're refining. it's not sabotage. it's devotion. it's wanting to understand the edge of your own dominion.

and the thing is. in the past, i wasn't hoping. i wasn't tiptoeing. i was in. all in. clearly, absolutely. no checking. no waiting. i wasn't treating the assumption like a wish. i was living like it was already law. so i continued in this spiral. because if you're god. if your thoughts create. if you say "i am in my dr" now and you mean it, like actually mean it, shouldn't that be enough?? i say this confidently, because after shifting so much, yes, that is indeed what happens. but. for people who haven't experienced that privilege. like. confidence plus assumption equals done. right??? so then why not. where does the decision go. does it just evaporate. does it fall behind the couch cushions of the multiverse. in what fucking universe do you decide something every day with conviction and it still doesn't root. how does that not calcify into fact.

so let me give you a scenario. maybe it's you. it was definitely me.

you're affirming day and night. not hoping. not wishing. knowing. you've decided you are in your dr. period. you walk like it. talk like it. feel it. you're not checking for results. not looking over your shoulder. not waiting for it to kick in. because it already did. your inner world is loud. it's screaming this is it. i'm there. not even zeus could knock me off the road because as god is my witness, i am in my goddamn dr.

and, nothing. no hogwarts. no mansion. no parisian cigarette moment with my boo in the rain. just your room. your walls. your body. again. again. again.

and it doesn't make sense. because the law is the law. you're god. your thoughts create. shifting is instant. so what the fuck is happening.

and look, i used to think there were only two ways to persist. either you're in power mode, clean, cold certainty. emotionally detached, i've already shifted, i'm just reinforcing it. or you're in panic mode, still affirming, still assuming, but there's this silent grip underneath. if i stop deciding this, it'll fall apart. and yeah, on the surface those feel like two different planets. one feels sovereign. the other feels shaky.

but if you strip the tone out of it, if you stop obsessing over how it sounds and just look at the architecture, both are assumptions. both are decisions. both count. because the law doesn't care if you're cool about it or crying about it. it only cares that you're doing it. that it's declared. that it's held. so if both modes are valid, then why do they sometimes fail????????

and this is where it started to come apart for me. because both 'i've already shifted' and 'i need to keep deciding' are still assumptions. one just feels better. it's smoother. but structurally, they're the same. and if the panic one isn't checking, if it's clean panic, if it's quiet panic, it should still land. it should still work. but sometimes it doesn't. and that's what broke the seal. because if it's not about hope, not about doubt, not about waiting, not about checking, and you're affirming like a master shifter, what the fuck is it? and i'll be using me as a poster child of examples and say that, hey, although shifting is now easy for me - i still struggle with manifestations. so. why???

and that question is the reason i'm even writing this at all.

so now maybe you're thinking (if i hopefully have not fully gutted your brain as i have with mine while writing this):

maybe it's because i'm doing it from panic, not power. maybe i'm secretly doubting. maybe i haven't let go. maybe i'm still in the waiting room. maybe that's because i keep looking at the 3d.

no. stop. cut it out. that's noise.

you can be in panic. you can be in power. it doesn't matter. if you are persisting. assuming. deciding. then it should work. that's the rule. that's the contract. it's not a myth. it's not a loophole. it's not some cult-coded trick line you chant and hope it lands. it's the structure. it's the law.

i kept trying to find a reason. maybe it's density. maybe it's linear cause and effect, like flipping a light switch and expecting the bulb. but loa doesn't work like that. and shifting definitely doesn't. it's not circuitry. it's not push-button response.

if you are the light, then the switch shouldn't matter. you're not triggering something, you are the trigger. you're the source. the mechanism. the whole #&*!$%@ circuit board. so what's jamming the signal. if it's not doubt. not timing. not belief. then what.

and here's the closest thing to an answer i've got (half consolation, half theory, fully an attempt to keep myself from throwing my laptop across the room):

you've already shifted. you just haven't caught up to yourself yet.

i know. i hate how that sounds too. it's vague. it's annoying. it feels like spiritual scaffolding. but it's not. or i at least hope it's not.

when we say shifting is instant, we don't mean the wallpaper peels itself off and your mom turns into dumbledore. we mean the moment you decide, the reality activates. the coordinates reroute. the entire grid adjusts.

it's as if you are rerouting a train track mid-motion. you're still moving. but you're not on the same line anymore.

the problem is, we expect the scenery to change with the switch. and sometimes it does. but sometimes it doesn't. and that's because the 3d isn't a flatscreen. it's not theatre. it's not performance. it's a mirror. and mirrors don't update because you want them to. they update because you've changed so deeply that they literally can't reflect the old you anymore.

so when you say "i am in my dr" and it doesn't look like your dr, that's not proof it failed. it's just a delay. you're already in the new field, but the particles haven't aligned. and yeah, that's maddening. because your body feels the shift. your head knows it. but your eyes won't show it. and then you start to doubt. not openly. but subtly. in the quiet. in the repetition.

so. what can i sum up. persistence is not about time. it's about saturation.

it's not about hours logged or how many affirmations you can fire off in a spiral notebook. it's about how deep it goes. how thick it sticks. and no, that doesn't mean screaming it louder. doesn't mean performing it. it means not needing to say it at all. not because you gave up. not because you're done trying. but because it's default now. baseline. unconscious. it is. not a spell. not a statement. just identity.

shifting isn't something you win. it's not a trophy for spiritual discipline. it's a symptom. a side effect of self-recognition so total, so absolute, that there's no room left for contradiction.

so yeah. both "i've already shifted" and "i need to keep deciding" can work. panic or power doesn't matter if the persistence is clean. if you're not checking. not looping. not measuring the silence. but if you're still waiting, even subtly, even spiritually, it's not saturation. it's performance.

and that doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. it just means you're still becoming. still burning off the part of you that thinks shifting is something to win, not something you already are.

and yes, some people shift instantly. some people shift after six months of saying "i'm already there." and they're not better than you. they're not more "aligned."

they just hit saturation faster. their idea of "this is true" had less gunk to burn off.

you say: but i'm god. i decide. why hasn't it happened yet?

and i say: it has. if it feels like it hasn't, you're still relating to it like something outside you. you're still watching for it.

reality isn’t late. reality isn't anything. it just reflects. it doesn't show up when you're ready, it has to show up when you're being. not when you want. not when you wait. when you are.

if it's not visible yet, it's not because it's in transit. it's because you're still checking. you're still measuring. you’re not failing. you're not early. you're just still treating truth like a method.

and truth isn’t a process. it’s a position. a posture. you don't need to persist for six months. you don't need to reach peak saturation like it’s a score. you just need to stop making realness conditional.

stop affirming like you're earning it. start assuming like it's breath. like it’s done and there’s nothing to explain.

because shifting isn't slow. it's not cumulative. it’s not linear. it’s identity. the second you say: i am - it's done.

not "on its way." not "almost here." and certainly not "it's glitching."

done. and if you're still asking when, then you haven't decided. not really. so stop trying to time it. just be it.

and look. i still believe shifting is easy. because it is. i've done it. i know it's not in charge. but sometimes it's not about method. it's about the silence in between. and that doesn't make the law wrong. it just makes the process actual. i'm not saying shifting or manifesting is hard. i'm saying that staying loyal to the truth when it hasn't shown its face yet takes a different kind of strength.

you don't have to overanalyse it.

but you're allowed to want to understand it.

that doesn't undo the truth.

it just lets you live inside it better.

[renee561]

Maybe if readers treated writers like people instead of machines and gave us some engagement instead of demanding more from us, we'd be inspired to write more and update more frequently.

Unfortunately, we're treated like machines of free content, that by the way is laborious, because the algorithm infected your brain and rotted it, you turn to the machine to feed you crap instead of idk being apart of the community and not just a whining baby about stuff that's supposed to be fun and not like a second, third, fourth job which how most writers view a hobby now. Because there is little reward to posting.

We write for ourselves, we post for the community, but when the community stops coming we stay home and write for us and keep it to ourselves.

Then you get whiny babies crying, there's nothing for me anymore. Well you're the problem. But your solution is to take out the writer instead of thinking hey! I can maybe comment on someone's work and maybe they will feel inspired to share with me their stories.

And no i don't mean demand for more, like actually engage with the writer.

Maybe if people updated more we wouldn't turn to ai

You’re a pathetic, impatient loser. Fanfic writers owe you nothing, and their writing is their own, not yours to do with as you choose, you entitled brat.

[nondelphic]

Where I’ve Been and the Future of nondelphic

TLDR; I’m coming back to this blog.

I’m so nervous to post this I literally had to take a nervous shit after drafting this post just THINKING about posting it but uhhh…

Long time no see!

It’s been well over 3 months since I posted regularly on this account. I never intended to take a break, but I got overwhelmed.

I started this account in the middle of August of 2024 with a very specific niche that, if you have seen my posts before, will recognise. 

Honestly, it started mostly as a distraction from my real-life problems. I’d began writing again last spring after a long time of writing block due to anxiety, depression, and getting used to my anti-depressants. Suddenly, I went from not being able to get out of bed to being able to get out of bed just to write. It became an escape. Just like writing fanfiction used to be when I was a pre-teen.

Through that, I rediscovered how much I actually love writing and creating. And when that happened, I also started craving community. I’ve never really had writing friends (the few I had were short-lived), and I found myself missing that connection.

That’s kind of where this blog came in. It was an experiment, not something I intended to take seriously. Just a low-effort, continuous space online that wasn’t too personal but could resonate with a wide diaspora of writers. Somewhere people could see themselves in my posts.

I’ve always been in fandom or hobby spaces online in some form—grew up in a developing tech society with zero internet safety guidance, so my relationship with social media is honestly decent, all things considered. But in recent years I’d mostly been a consumer rather than a creator. And I missed that. The active partaking. The sense of community. The external validation from like-minded strangers (very Gen Z of me, I know).

And also, it gave me something to do over summer, which is the worst time of year for me. I’ve struggled with seasonal depression for years, and writing got me through the worst days of my summer uni break. But it also stirred up so many thoughts and ideas I wanted to share.

So I committed to not only starting a blog about writing, but updating it continuously, with a fixed set of posts to be posted everyday. 

Part of the experiment was personal, but another part was professional. As someone studying and working in media and social media (amongst other things), I know how algorithms work. I understand how consistency, timing, and frequency affect reach and engagement. So I also wanted to test a theory—that’s not really a theory—that if you just post a lot, at the same time, every day, you’ll see growth.

And it worked. I gained over 4,000 followers in just six months.

Numbers aren’t everything, but I won’t pretend it wasn’t validating. Especially when I’d never had a following before. People were engaging, reblogging, sending kind messages. I felt seen, and I felt like what I was making had value.

It was also fascinating to experience it from both sides, both as the creator and as the media nerd in the background mentally noting what worked, what flopped, and why.

Everything was going great.

So why did I disappear?

Well, first of all, my seasonal depression carried on to constant depression and major social anxiety during autumn and into winter. I slept all day. Didn’t go to school. Could barely leave my apartment to go grocery shopping. All I did was write and update this blog. Make sure I had enough posts queued for the coming week. 

I had some visible breaks on this blog which I always announced. “sorry can’t post rn i’m stressed need time to update my queue”. Which was true, and I felt proud of myself for being transparent about it.

But the more my following grew and the more people interacted with me, the more I started doubting myself. I don’t know if it was my anxiety, depression or probable ADHD being the culprit of this, or just plain old imposter syndrome, but I started dreading opening tumblr.

I love coming up with post ideas for people to go “omg are you inside my brain rn?” or “I love your blog, your posts make me feel seen,” and I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with everyone visiting this blog. Yet, with the growing eyes on this page, I just felt this impending fear that someday it will all be gone.

So I do what I’ve always had a habit of doing! I self-destructed. And left this blog with the excuse (to myself) to work on myself and come back stronger.

And I guess that sorry excuse has kinda come true, although at the time, I was lying to myself. This post is literally me announcing I’m coming back. But back when I abandoned this blog, I, with a heavy heart, was really planning on not coming back. The more the weeks, and then months stretched on without opening tumblr, a growing guilty conscience brewed inside of me.

I’d open the app, stare at the little icon, and immediately close it again. I didn’t know how to explain myself without it sounding dramatic or like I was attention-seeking. And the longer I waited, the harder it got to come back.

Because what do you even say after months of radio silence on a blog that wasn’t supposed to mean this much to you in the first place?

But the thing is it does mean something. And even when I tried to let it go, I kept thinking about it. I’d see something funny and think, “that would make a good nondelphic post.” I’d draft ideas in my nondelphic ideas google docs, fully knowing I wasn’t posting them, but unable to turn off that part of my brain that wanted to connect with other writers, other people who got it.

I ghosted my own blog. And I won’t pretend I had a huge dramatic epiphany or breakthrough that led me back here. Just the quiet realization that I missed it. And I have better routines now. And expectations. That make it impossible for me to turn into the same all-or-nothing approach to this blog I had during my darkest days. Don’t worry, I’m still deeply insecure, anxious and depressed, so my self-deprecating posts will continue as scheduled! But I’ve found other coping mechanisms that don’t rely on…….. Tumblr’s algorithms.

I don’t need to be 100% healed or consistent or perfect to post. And everyone who has sent me a message during the time I’ve been away that I’ve been too scared to reply to has assured me of exactly that. Maybe I can just… come back. A little softer. A little slower. A little more human.

I’m not sure what the future of this blog looks like exactly. I don’t have a new “post 10 times a day” strategy lined up. But I do know I want to write again. I want to talk to you again. I want to rebuild what I tore down with my silence. Not out of pressure or expectation, but because I want to.

So this is me, stepping back into it. One foot in the door. No grand promises, just a little wave from the threshold.

Hi again.

I’m coming back soon. How soon? I think it’s best to not make any promises, but I’ve committed to coming back now, so I’m still gonna promise “soon.”

Also, genuinely thank you. To everyone who reached out in my DMs or sent something to my ask box while I was gone: I read every single message. Even if I didn’t respond, I saw you. My heart felt so big reading your well wishes and worries. Like genuinely, I didn’t know this little corner of the internet could hold so much kindness. So thank you, from the bottom of my stupid overwhelmed heart.

See you soon ♡

xoxo nondelphic

Ps. I’m gonna write another post over on @rebellenotes in the near future for anyone curious about what I’ve been up to in the last few months.

[cosmic-giraffe]

So I read that stupid fucking callout doc on Von and I'm gonna say my piece on it.

For those unaware, a doc was shared today that accused Von of using generative AI in her art. For the Tetro sprites, for her own personal art, and for paid commissions by fans.

As any self-respecting artist should agree, generative AI is a soulless, plagiarising waste of energy that is devoid of any artistic merit and should be shamed.

But I absolutely 100% believe that not only has Von not used AI in her art in any degree, but that the doc was made in bad faith.

I won't be refuting the doc point by point because it's 1 1 5 F U C K I N G P A G E S L O N G, but because it's also almost 1am for me and I'm too aggravated to sleep because of this whole mess.

The doc was pointing out "inconsistencies" in Von's art, claiming that she drew characters differently each time, the anatomy was fucked up, the finer details melted into each other and other stuff like that.

First of all, Tetro Pink's sprites were all drawn 2-3 years ago (iirc), and any anatomical mistakes can just be chalked up to a younger, inexperienced artist getting their anatomy wrong or not taking into consideration how hair falls and stuff like that. Given how 90% of the doc's grievances involved poorly drawn hands and impossible hair physics (in a FUCKING ANIME STYLE, WHICH IS NOTORIOUS FOR NOT BEING REALISTIC), it's pretty obvious that they're nitpicking.

Secondly, the accusation that Von's newer art is using a higher quality generative AI engine to pump out her art. This is especially heinous to me because it's literally JUST AN ARTIST IMPROVING HER SKILLS?????????

What really annoyed me too was them tearing apart Von's flowerbed thumbnails, claiming that they were "too different" from the current Pink sprites of each corresponding character.

Von has said repeatedly that the thumbnails were drawn concurrently with the series, yet again an example of her improved skills showing in her newer work.

Thirdly, Von has admonished use of AI repeatedly and threatened to kick people from the Discord server for doing such things, especially in regards to feeding her own art to an algorithm. During the lead-up to the Chapter 4 trial, somebody didn't want to access the official flowerbed thumbnail locked behind Von's ko-fi, and so fed a prompt involving her art into a generator and shared it gleefully in the server.

This is a huge slap in the face to her, as well as every other artist whose years of hard work and blood and sweat and tears have been reduced to a mess of pixels and algorithms spewing out something that vaguely resembles their art.

It's just so aggravating because this doc's author is claiming to "spread awareness" but it's fucking obvious they're jaded and wanting to tear down a small independent creator.

SOMETHING THAT DR FANS ARE FUCKING NOTORIOUS FOR.

They're so entitled, so selfish, so DESPERATE for attention that they'll mock and ridicule the creators that are making huge projects accessible to them FOR FREE, just because they feel like they can.

It's insulting, it's unnecessary, and I hope Von is looking after herself because the way things are looking, none of us deserve Tetro if this is how we allow our community to attack and dog pile the person kind enough to share her passion project with us when she's under no obligation to do so.

[on-a-lucky-tide]

ai use in education especially just infuriates me — i don’t understand how people think it’s ethical to market towards people knowing it’s going to impair them later in life. it makes it impossible to learn anything by yourself and i think it’s frankly cruel to try and push it on people

i have friends who the second they dont understand work will just throw it into chat gpt and write out the answer without a second thought, but you’re not gaining anything from that

like maybe it’s just me, given the majority of skills i have i’ve had to develop myself or with minimal help, but the thought of handing in work that not only just isn’t mine, but has had no human touch full stop makes me feel a little sick

like i love writing essays!! why would i take that from myself and let myself lose that skill?

This hasn't happened overnight. It's been a project of the ruling classes for the last ten years; to dumb down the masses. It makes me sound like a conspiracy theorist but hear me out. Making people depend on AI has been part of the wider "dumbing down" of the average person:

It takes a soundbite to spread a stupid idea: "vaccines contain dead babies" (RFK) and then an absolute essay to debunk said idea. The average person won't read the essay because their literacy is shite or they can't be bothered, so the soundbite gets absorbed into their psyche.

I teach more and more kids that can't read because their parents can't read. If you look at the average literacy rate of adults, that's also tanking. If they read at all, it's unchallenging stuff like Richard Osman or whatever his name is. Easy, digestible, unchallenging.

Anti-intellectualism is spreading. You can't trust "experts", they're part of The Establishment. They just want to dupe you. You don't need education, you can get big on social media (knowing you can't, they want you to work in a factory and shit out babies and they know the uneducated and impoverished have more babies).

Algorithms make you think "success" is about "getting lucky"; talent and skill are things you're born with, so you're either lucky or you're not. Tough shit.

Don't read. Don't educate yourself. Don't question me. Stay at home. Get pregnant. Clean girl aesthetic. Accept your station. Accept low wages. Accept that you need to be working inside our system by our rules that are made solely to disadvantage you for our profit.

Education has always been the key to breaking free of the shackles, because education allows you to ask the right questions, to fight back against rhetoric and challenge lies.

As a kid, I slept on the floor in my sister's room in a tiny fuckin' hovel as we hid from my sperm donor. The message from my mum was always the same: you work hard at school because this will not be your life. She wasn't perfect, but that was a working class ideal when I grew up. Now, they're duping the working class by replacing education with hate and algorithms into walking right back into their fuckin' cage. Beveridge is shitting himself with rage right now, I swear to god.

AI is not a cause, Non. It's a symptom of a much bigger disease. Rightwing ideology fighting for its life. The more educated you are, the more the tenets of rightwing ideology lose their grip. For it to survive, it needs you stupid.

[is-this-ai-generated]

AI generated verdict: provable and confirmed

long post incoming. sorry (not actually sorry).

tells: this was a tough one, at first glance, to point out any one aspect that made me go "that's definitely genAI." chiefly, the subject matter was that special kind of uncanny that triggered my brain to look deeper.

i couldn't find the smoking gun on a cursory investigation with just my eyes. nothing like "that guy's got 7 fingers and an extra arm" here. as such, i speculated that it was done by a very proficient user of genAI, someone who has a lot of experience in crafting prompts and iterating on output.

but that didn't stop me because the uncanny feeling was pretty intense.

in the end, the major things that tipped me off were meta-contextual in nature, if we were to assume this was a real photograph: the practicality of the object, and, crucially, the presumed level of media coverage of the object, were it to exist in real life.

much like with the egg salad machine post from last year, it boils down to two questions: "would this object feasibly exist in the real world? and if so, would it cause media stir/considerable attention if it did?"

put it simply: if you see an image purporting itself to be a real photo and your immediate reaction is "wow! that's really cool, i've never seen anything like that before in my life! it's really impressive, even!" my tip is to reverse-image-search it, to be safe.*

(*if you care, that is. all my posts are written with the assumption that you're reading them because you want to avoid getting tricked by genAI.)

and if, by image-searching said image, you are unable to find any article, no matter how big or small, highlighting its existence, and yet it's somehow all over social media, you can allow yourself to feel suspicious. because it is.

so in my search, predictably, i could not find any such article anywhere about this supposed object. but i did find the inspiration that this image seems to be based around.

there appeared to be a set of arcade cabinets that were carved from marble mentioned in a handful of niche gaming publications and/or other dubiously verifiable outlets in 2023... except it wasn't actually carved from marble. it was an earlier instance of genAI images for proof of concept purposes.

on to the source of the image itself.

source: it required a bit of deep-diving in multiple reverse-image searching platforms to drill down to the original poster.

eventually, i was able to uncover the following account on twitter: https://twitter.com/goo_vision

further than that, i was able to find the original tweet in which they posted this image: https://twitter.com/goo_vision/status/1909308836143362139

this account is self-identified as an "artist and designer" and states that they use "generative AI tools" in their bio. the poster also appears to get a fair amount of AI haters in their comments, to which they've replied defending their use of genAI in their works. lastly, they also post multiple images that all share a very similar theme repeatedly within a short period of time (such as 20+ images of various types of "arcade or media cabinets made of unusual materials"), a hallmark of iterative genAI images.

why is that a hallmark? when you request a genAI create an image based on a text string/prompt, it will often produce multiple feasible images that it "thinks" match to what you asked for. the user can then rate each image, if they so choose, to help educate/train the algorithm to be more accurate in the future. it looks as though this user may be using midjourney (or something similar; i'm guessing midjourney because it's really good at replicating photorealism) to generate these images and are picking through the ones they like best. pretty standard stuff, nothing out of the ordinary there.

bottom line is that this is another example of someone on tumblr reposting something they found elsewhere and not only not giving appropriate backlinks to where they found it, but also failing to tag it appropriately as genAI.

alright, this post is long enough. if you have questions about this one, or any other posts in general, feel free to send me a message; asks are open.

and as always, my ever-present disclaimer for my blog: I do not make these posts to drum up drama, call for brigade-ing/trolling of any identified sources, or insinuate any sort of moral failing on anyone whatsoever for reblogging/liking these images. i also do not make these posts to "dunk on" genAI users or enjoyers.

I created this blog to educate those who want to learn about what to look out for when it comes to AI generated images, how I come to my conclusions, and the tells they can look out for in the future. I do not condone any measure of harassment, bullying, or hate mail sent to the originating artist(s) that may be identified in my posts. this should also not be used as a jumping off point to harass or send hate mail to any blog I reblog from, either.

please check my pinned post for more info on how I run this blog.

[motorsportbarbie13]

an update

i feel silly doing these bc on one hand i'm like 'eh who tf cares about what my plans are for writing the next few weeks/months' and on the other hand, i know i hate when authors go from writing consistently to radio silence so...idk. it feels self indulgent and a touch self centered.

but i digress

i'm tired guys. tired of pouring my entire creative soul into these fics and not seeing the engagement. i've whined and moaned about it enough so i'm sure you're like 'jfc shut tf up and get over yourself' (which i mean, fair lol). the thing is, i do write for the love of writing but i also don't want to waste my time if it's not well received. there is something so depressing about spending HOURS on a chapter and having it barely break 100 notes. i know it sounds entitled and it probably is but thats how i feel. its not anyones fault and i know my writing isn't going to be for everyone. it's just...frustrating to go from writing very well received/popular fics to...nothing.

i don't know what's changed that's effected my engagement so much but i've tried everything to capture that magic that my early writings had on here and nothing is working.

i feel wrung out creatively. and also i've noticed a spike in my anxiety around social media lately. i've deleted almost everything off of my phone. and its FREEING. like, i tend to hyper fixate on something to the point where it's just not healthy for me and i think i need to take a bit of a break from online spaces, F1 spaces specifically. i'll still be HERE on tumblr but that's about it.

so what's next for the next few months for me? im going to take it easy, be kind to myself, let the inspiration come as it wants. i have a kernel of an idea for a lando fic but i won't be posting it at all until it's completely finished. probably later this summer. i have plans to work on a little collab project with another writer on an oscar fic too. that'll probably happen later this summer too. and i'm going to rewrite A Package Deal as a OC fic that goes deeper and is longer. That will be posted on AO3 sometime this summer too. i'm also wanting to go and work on the novel i wrote last summer and get it ready for publishing? my goal last year was to have it ready to publish by this summer break in august but i won't be ready for that, so new goal! next summer, the goal is to have it published.

so like, i'll still be around. i'll still be here. i'm still writing. i'm hoping a bit of an absence will maybe reset my algorithm too? lol maybe the tumblr gods will be kind to me again in a few months?

anyway. sorry if this is cringe and embarrassing. i just needed to kind of get it all out. my asks are open if you ever want to chat. <3

[qoldenskies]

I rlly like your takes on disaster twins, do you have anything to say about them that u haven't yet?

mmmm hmmmm

admittedly i dont always fw the whole "donnie uniquely understands leo/knows him too well to take his bullshit lying down" take (in the right hands it can be good though) because i think it doesnt really align with how clueless he can be, plus there are several examples of leo very successfully manipulating him in the show. i think donnie's downfall comes with the fact that he thinks he knows leo well enough to know when he's lying, which means he could very well be blindsighted by a lot of the baggage he kept well-hidden (and even then i think people oversell the amount of baggage leo actually has, but he can very well develop some lmao).

because i do think donnie is considerate, but that doesn't make him perceptive. leo is street smart and cunning and he knows to expect the unexpected and work around it. i mostly see donnie's perceptions of his brothers as almost,,, algorithmic. he expects repetition, pays attention to the way they react to things and dont expect them to stride out of his boxes. i could see him genuinely underestimating how unpredictable leo can be, and that's a big reason leo knows how to manipulate him. plus i like when leo gets all conniving and nasty when he's upset sometimes i think its fun +++ the miscommunication is more juicy for angst, donnie does not react well to change and i think that includes in his brothers. i think it'd make him hysterically upset if he thought he suddenly couldn't understand them, because it goes outside of his social script and makes him feel helpless.

i think if ANYONE can uniquely read leo and cut through his shit, it's raph. which i think is a funnier dynamic because leo tries to play 4D chess and raph is just like "Stop"

[bellenotthebeast]

Heyyyy so I’ve seen a lot lately and I wanna throw in a little something. You don’t have to listen but I’d like you to.

I’m thankful that I have quite a ‘you control the media you consume’ mindset. You know- I say what I want, I respond to what I want and I ignore what I want. Because I can. It’s my account, it’s my phone and it’s my time out of my life.

And I’d like to help more people take on that mindset.

Ignore them.

You responding to the rage bait and to the haters is only giving them more things to hate on you (and unfortunately the rest of us) for. And even more unfortunately not only does it give the fans a bad rep but the drivers too. Which again- feeds the hatred.

Rage bait exists to drive up interaction. You’re giving them what they want and in turn it only increases the amount because it works.

They’re playing you like a mindless puppet unfortunately. But you and I both know there is a person behind this screen who can think for themselves.

It’ll take some time but eventually they’ll stop and go because you’re on a different ‘for you page’ or perhaps they all got bored and moved on. And all you’ll see is people talking about the hate. Or no hate at all. And let me say- it’s so much better.

Your social media is catered to you and you only. The algorithm exists because it wants you to be on the app for as long as possible. You responding to stuff you don’t like is only going to send more things you don’t like your way. You’ve been scrolling for hours, you know how it works. Just scroll.

The block button exists for a reason. I promise you won’t miss anything important if you block someone. The internet always talks. If you don’t like someone they probably won’t like you either so do both of you a favour and block them.

Let the haters and rage baiters play themselves. While we’re thinking of the positives and having fun.

Because they’ll know at the end of the day- we support who we want and they’ll be thinking about the person they absolutely despise rent free in their own heads.

Let them get mad.

[mangionebabymama]

when i think of doctor!lu, i think of lu with a phd (hey). i’m inclined to say it would be in stem—something like bioengineering, specializing in informatics. but, considering that he was traveling and writing and speaking to writers in the months before his arrest, i also tend to think of him as a phd-in-philosophy type guy. being more nitpicky, maybe something on religious studies / theology (in an alternate universe where he went down on a god rabbit hole that he started from that essay he wrote when he was in high school. maybe it’s my predisposition for priest!luigi. hi, flig!) lu in humanities is fun because it feels divorced enough from real luigi without it being a completely off-base characterization. would be a little bit of the mad genius trope, maybe? granute-stained hands in hair, hunched over a desk in his study. writing with a set of pencils he hides behind a bookend on his library shelf. talks about civilizations and god as the sun, god as a son, posits god as the computer by the end of it. his writing nods a lot to his engineering background so maybe it’s lots of philosophizing algorithms, information, structure, efficiency, sufficiency, all in the context of religions and the communities they sustain. (i think this is a lot of evo psych already, anyway, just from a theological standpoint.) hell, maybe he’s an anthropology guy somewhere in there. he just seems so much more like a research doctor to me than a proceduralist, you know?

I wish I had more to add to supplement this, but anon, this is just PERFECT and I couldn’t agree more!! One thing I will add, though, is that since he has such a natural inclination and openness toward the humanities, even while being deeply immersed in the sciences, I’ve always wondered: if he hadn’t majored in Comp Sci or had such a rigorous course load and lab work every week (bc when you're STEM, you stereotypically don't have a life anymore lolol take it from firsthand experience), plus the added pressure of a Master’s… I could absolutely see him double-majoring. Like, imagine him pursuing something STEM-related and philosophy, a lil B.A. and B.S./B.S.E. in his name If he had followed his heart’s desire, he totally could’ve knocked out both, no question.

He definitely feels more like a research doctor to me, like someone who’d be actively conducting studies, collaborating with colleagues across disciplines, doing fieldwork, and maybe even contributing to academic and research journals on the side. I can just see him thriving in that kind of environment where curiosity, discovery, and intellectual exchange are constant.

@fligniuz hey twin, get a load of this about our fav super hot n sexy nerd in academia

[lilu787788]

I feel a quiet yet undeniable irony in the fact that the most fervent critics of Aleksander have become his most reliable promoters. While they insist they want him gone, canceled, buried beneath fake moral outrage and threads on TikTok or Tumblr, the truth is far more amusing. They are actually one of the reasons why the Darkling remains one of the most talked-about and beloved characters in the Shadow and Bone universe.

Today, I won’t focus on his supporters and our boundless love for him or our understanding of his actions. Instead, let’s turn our attention to the ones who drip venom.

From a purely technical standpoint, social media platforms thrive on engagement. They don’t stop to examine whether a post is righteous or malicious. They don’t ask if your opinion is virtuous or vengeful. All that matters is how many people interact with it. A post screaming “Stop romanticizing the Darkling” accompanied by clips of his darkest scenes will reach just as many people as a fan-made tribute. Why? Because controversy ignites attention. Comments flood in, people argue, repost, and reply. The algorithm watches the chaos and concludes: this character matters. Let’s show him to more people.

And just like that, the critics end up doing something incredibly beneficial for Aleksander. It’s no wonder that the very people who tried to ruin his image are refreshing it for a new audience. In fact, they do it so consistently, it starts to make you wonder — is it really hatred, or something more complicated?

You don’t keep talking about a character who bores you. You don’t quote him, you don’t edit his scenes, and you don’t spend hours crafting multi-slide condemnations of someone you’ve supposedly forgotten. What they call denunciation is starting to look suspiciously like obsession — the kind that seeps under your skin and never truly lets go.

Characters that spark this kind of discourse are rarely forgotten. History is full of examples. Characters like Kylo Ren, Loki, Paul Atreides, Roy Batty — they are morally grey characters. What made them endure wasn’t just universal love. It was, and still is, the endless debate about who they were, what they did, and whether it was justified.

Aleksander belongs in that pantheon — not despite the arguments around him, but because of them. A clean-cut character, widely accepted or rejected, fades fast and is forgotten even faster. A character that divides opinions becomes legend. And what a beautiful kind of legend it is.

As is often the case in fandoms, the harder one side pushes, the stronger the other becomes. Every angry thread accusing Aleksander of emotional abuse, manipulation, tyranny, or worse leads to thoughtful essays defending his actions and exploring broader themes of military history and moral ambiguity. Fans respond not out of wounded loyalty but because the discourse gives them a stage. It gives them a chance to analyze a character whose actions can be interpreted through lenses of trauma, politics, survival, and love. That kind of complexity is irresistible to anyone who finds depth more compelling than labels.

Even the idea that Aleksander must be “defeated” by discourse is unintentionally flattering. It means he still matters. It means his presence is still felt. He still haunts the narrative, the fandom, and the people who claim to despise him. Meanwhile, characters who once caused outrage but now gather dust have truly lost. The silence that surrounds them is the only kind of cancellation that works.

Aleksander, on the other hand, is alive and well. He’s reposted and reinterpreted every day, still lighting up the collective imagination of those who cannot let go — those who love him, and those who hate him.

In the end, the critics — the antis — are not destroying him. They’re giving him the spotlight, the platform, the legacy. With every hashtag, every frame, every outraged paragraph, they solidify his place in fandom culture. They remind the internet that he’s worth talking about. They remind the studios that he draws attention. They remind the fans why they fell in love with him.

The louder the outrage, the more irresistible the puzzle becomes. Why? What? When? And just like that, people start to discover him — and in most cases, they fall in love.

So truly, I thank them. They make sure he’s never forgotten. They feed the algorithm. They expand the discourse. They build the myth.

Aleksander doesn’t need to defend himself. His critics are doing all the work.

And to make this boring post a little more fun, here’s a set of cute graphic showing the popularity of Shadow and Bone characters over the past 12 months 😊

[colesabi]

okay, I’m cackling at this eBay listing. Those images are masterpieces.

this one!!!

This seller has my utmost respect. We are kindred spirits.

[badgopher]

Friday

"Does table salt go bad" and "first amendment text" and "richmond virginia suburbs" and other things I've asked the Internet this week.

It was almost warm enough a couple days this week to make park days a thing. I tried. My toes got cold.

I think banning TikTok as it exists today is probably a good idea, but the law to effect that change seems to be in conflict with the first bullet point in the bill of rights. If we lived in a time where precedent mattered, I might be more bothered about how this all plays out. Will the government give TikTok assurances they wont enforce the law that the government enacted to oust them? Who knows. Does it matter? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ At the end of the day, I think I'm mostly just sad about my TikTok (maybe?) going away.

Booked a trip to (the suburbs of) Richmond, VA for the middle of February. A couple nights in Tuckahoe and a couple in Chester. Mostly just a vibe check. I'm hoping to settle on a plan by early March.

[work stuff.]

Rachel Platten is coming to town in March and it took me all of about 12 seconds to buy a ticket this morning, even though I haven't listened to her music in ages.

I have so many pictures to sort through and scan. And a bunch of laundry to fold.

Maybe this weekend.

It could happen.

[bogkeep]

for my fellow fans of longform video essays about media you may or may not be familiar with. i just watched laura crone's new video that's four and a half hours long and it's mostly about a book + tv series called the magicians, but ALSO the advertising/recommendation culture around books, and i really enjoyed it. i think i especially enjoyed it because i have been craving some Deep Thinks about like, what people criticize about booktok but without making it "it's uhhhh it's bad to only read bad books!" and i found this video both refreshing and insightful. i will give a CW for mentions of That One Wizard School Series, including in the title. just so you don't get jumpscared

[beatcroc]

there are simply so many things about ""fandom"" that are profoundly baffling to me

[childhoodcarnage]

who is this?? could you actually credit me in the description? i would understand if i was a big creator and my pics were everywhere but they’re not. so it feels more personal…