#which isnt a programing language

[venomgender]

NOT THE HTML HELP MEEEE

[auxins-insanities]

cooking up something about how Dark isnt as pure evil as ppl thing so heres a couple points i have

considering chosen's treatment by alan, it would make more sense for him to start the blackfire attacks out of anger. dark, being the younger of the two and being used to just being told what to do, went along. ← weaker point but still worth saying

we never see chosen trying to stop dark in the balckfire attacks. its not until the virus that he stepped in

speaking of the virus, chosen didnt know that dark was planning in massacring sticks. he just assumed this [the worst case scenario] and judged dark accordingly.

based on his body language, dark seemed to expect chosen to like or at least appreciate the virabot. when chosen first told them to not send the virabot, they looked genuinely confused

in ever fight between chosen and dark (except in ava 3, when dark was simply following their programming), chosen throws the first punch. ← also a bit of a weaker point bc chosen's trying to stop dark from whatever they're doing

dark did not know of the cg's existence until the showdown. he sent the virabot to destroy alan's computer, not hurt other sticks.

the one time he DOES try to hurt them, it's when they jump at him like "fight me". and like. you run up to a most likely mentally unstable person with a deadly weapon, tell them to fight you, and you expect to win???? you expect them to not hurt you??????

imo their deaths there were kinda on them but whatever

going back to the whole virabot thing, my guy was just trying to get closure for him and chosen????? like. him disintegrating the globe means world destruction but that could also mean destruction of the web

all of dark's portals were to websites which abence would affect humans, not sticks. never once did dark actually launch an attack on the outernet. he and chosen hurt sticks, yes, but they were also website sticks

yeah uhhhhh thats it for now :P

[king-candybug-backup]

Ugh thinking about my au again.

I know I keep framing it as 'Turbo gets humbled but at the cost of trauma' which, it is but its so much more than that!

I made this au because I wanted to experiment with the idea of malicious games.

See, the movie has this underlying theme of "stick to the program", "dont mess with the program" y'know do the stuff your game tells you to do.

But what if the program was not so innocent?

What if your programing said to kill players with seizures?

I was mainly inspired by a very underrated creepypasta called Sonic_Pendrive_Azul (AKA Sonic. Exe if it was good). In the titular pendrive is a Sonic ROM hack DESIGNED to kill players with seizures. I saw that & thought 'huh what if that kind of game was in the Wir universe '

And BOOM my au was created.

This will be elaborated in the next chapter once I FINALLY FIGURE OUT HOW TO WRITE DIALOGUE THAT ISNT ON THE NOSE PLS HELP MEEEE

Sorry if its incoherent English isnt my first language lol.

Killswitch's 1# glazer

DON'T WORRY YOUR ENGLISH IS FINE! <333

AND YOU SURE CHOSE THE RIGHT GAME FOR IT LMFAOOOO

[vanilla-voyeur]

[Image ID: The Am I a Joke to You reaction image/. End ID]

Python: My syntax is so natural, you're basically writing pseudocode!

Inform 7:

[nickmedia220]

28/3/25 AI Development

So i made a GAN image generation ai, a really simple one, but it did take me a lot of hours. I used this add-on for python (a programming language) called tensorflow, which is meant specifically for LMs (language models). The dataset I used is made up of 12 composite photos I made in 2023. I put my focus for this week into making sure the AI works, so I know my idea is viable, if it didnt work i would have to pivot to another idea, but its looking like it does thank god.

A GAN pretty much creates images similar to the training data, which works well with my concept because it ties into how AI tries to replicate art and culture. I called it Johnny2000. It doesnt actually matter how effective johnny is at creating realistic output, the message still works, the only thing i dont want is the output to be insanely realistic, which it shouldnt be, because i purposefully havent trained johnny to recognise and categorise things, i want him to try make something similar to the stuff i showed him and see what happens when he doesnt understand the 'rules' of the human world, so he outputs what a world based on a program would look like, that kind of thing.

I ran into heaps of errors, like everyone does with a coding project, and downloading tensorflow itself literally took me around 4 hours from how convoluted it was.

As of writing this paragraph, johnny is training in the background. I have two levels of output, one (the gray box) is what johnny gives me when i show him the dataset and tell him to create an image right away with no training, therefore he has no idea what to do and gives me a grey box with slight variations in colour. The second one (colourful) is after 10 rounds of training (called epoches), so pockets of colour are appearing, but still in a random noise like way. I'll make a short amendment to this post with the third image he's generating, which will be after 100 more rounds. Hopefully some sort of structure will form. I'm not sure how many epoches ill need to get the output i want, so while i continue the actual proposal i can have johnny working away in the background until i find a good level of training.

Edit, same day: johnny finished the 100 epoch version, its still very noisy as you can see, but the colours are starting to show, and the forms are very slowly coming through. looking at these 3 versions, im not expecting any decent input until 10000+ epochs. considering this 3rd version took over an hour to render, im gonna need to let it work overnight, ive been getting errors that the gpu isnt being used so i could try look at that, i think its because my version of tensorflow is too low. (newer ones arent supported on native windows, id need to use linux, which is possible on my computer but ive done all this work to get it to work here... so....)

how tf do i make it display smaller...

anyways, heres a peek at my dataset, so you can see that the colours are now being used (b/w + red and turquoise).

[rocambolestim]

rocambolestim's super duper cool awesome mega stim gifmaking tutorial!

[plaintext: rocambolestim's super duper cool awesome mega stim gifmaking tutorial!]

what you need:

a pc w/ a good amount of storage

a video downloader

honeycam (gif making program)

ezgif (helpful site which has many tool inclduing a gif optimizier if your gif is over the 10mb limit)

hello everyone, this is my own attempt at making a gifmaking tutorial, today ill be using an instagram video as an example. make sure your device has a good amount of storage avaliable. (please note some of the wording might be off since english isnt my first language & the honeycam interface in the screenshots are in bulgarian so its translated)

download your video. since im using this extension, click on this button. it will download your video

or you could just use an instagram video downloader site instead of an extension to download the source vid (pro tip: always use an adblocker so annoying ads wont show up on some of these sites)

2. open up honeycam (you can download it here) then click on edit.

then it will land u on this page.

now click on file & now click open and choose the video file you downloaded.

tadaa! you now opened your gif file!

since its already square shaped, ill skip this step, but if your video is in a non square size, you can crop it by clicking this icon

3. filtering the footage (optional)

im gonna filter the footage first before making it into several diff starting points, click on this icon! (the magic wand w/ sparkles) it is the filters option.

boom! we're now in the filters section, so ill click on this box which says multiple filter, i even put some filters which i commonly use as shown here as an example. then press ok to save it.

then ill press save & download the filtered footage as an mp4 file just incase + before i make it into gifs

4. making the gifs

alr alr, so this is where the fun part starts of gifmaking.

click on this icon (cut frames)

and it will bring u up to this menu!

now u can cut any part of the video, then press ok.

5. exporting the footage

export your gif by clicking save then click on the save menu the gif option & resize image & set it to around somewhere in the screenshot (u can resize it if u think its too big or too small), it will be saved in the honeycam folder by default, so click the option where it says see in folder to drag & drop it onto a new post. optimize the gif via ezgif's optimize option to lower its filesize so it isnt over the 10mb filesize if the gif has too many frames and/or if its too long

6. (idk what to call it)

repeat the previous steps (5 & 4), and dont forget to link the gif's viddeo source if you post a gifset, have a great gifmaking experience, bai bai!!

[gifset from the tutorial will be added soon as a link for u to check it out!]

update: gifset from tutorial can be found HERE!!

[ghost-jester-sys]

this post isnt meant to hurt anyone, but as far as i can see i feel it needs to be said

i saw a post talking about different nicknames for alters, which is fine and honestly sweet

but i personally feel we need people to step away from language like "clones" when it comes to that (for context this was one mentioned in the post)

more specifically, i feel it needs to be recognised that this "clone" idea is (for us, this doesnt apply to everyone) sometimes used in programming and tbmc to impart "clones" of individuals into systems.

i do not at all want to gatekeep the term "clone" for referring to alters, but i think it blurs the meaning of what an alter is since they arent all a carbon copy of eachother, or the body.

there may be copies of the same alters in some systems that can semantically be called "clones" i wont dispute that, but i believe there needs to be some recognition of what that word actually means when referring to alters as a WHOLE. the use of it in the context of the post i feel removes any meaning behind the actual word itself

adding on to this, that same post referred to alters as "alter egos" among some other language that is used in more outdated medical docs

i by no means want to demean any systems experience, but i think there does need to be some recognition given to the fact that that term (and others) is outdated medically and may have been used to diminish systems experiences in the past

[akookminsupporter]

[230912 RM Weverse Post/Letter]

🐨 hello.

it’s my last birthday in my 20s.

I’m not sure if it’s because of my occupational characteristic, but it feels that a bit of shyness accompanies the day called birthday. even though i think that its a day that isnt too big of a deal.. i feel so happy and blessed that so many people send their sincerest congratulations/wishes.

Time to time, i think that love is something that gives/creates a name to someone. to where kim namjoon becomes ‘kim namjoon’. and its all because of you, that although it is just one day out of the many 365 days in a year, 29 year old me isn’t just a day that’s passing by.

Although i want to be a person who can be as honest as one can be, i wonder, to what extent, could the existence of the intangible and tangible relationship between fans and artists possibly go beyond and reach up to. Can everything just be accepted under a kind apparition called love? im still experiencing times where expressing my inner thoughts honestly becomes an achilles heel, and honesty becomes a wound, but im still not sure.

I had said in the past that i was sad that it was growing harder to talk. I feel that statement still stands true. but still, ive grown calmer. because i received all the sincereity that one may or may not receive in one’s life in the form of a large downpour, i regarded pessimism and futility to be cool, but i realized that im also someone who is optimistic. Isnt this a miracle. lately ive been living with the phrase, ‘why not’. i want to live by sharing the optimism that ive received from the people around me. And im also pressing down and holding onto my next songs that will be released someday.

Yes. could i show honesty in a more beautiful method than with music? its a truth everyone knows but it feels as if its still not enough. Thats why i sometimes wonder if i became bts because of this. because i wanted to do so in various ways. whether it be through programs, interview, or dance, whatever it may be.. how blessed of a life this is. And wherever i am, these things make me want to see it clearly with my own two eyes and ponder.

they say its destiny when things coincidentally overlap. they also say coincidence is also fate disguised as coincidence. And i think thats of a similar reason as to why im writing this letter to you. it feels as if i would have wrote this letter on September 2023 regardless of which version of me i would have been. every time, my birthday letter is describing the place that i have arrived at, just in a different language of love each time. because of all of you, im living really well. i want to live well. i just want to tell you every time, that im loving you with the best version of myself. Although i cant hug each and every one of you, my heart/feelings exceeds those feelings. no matter what appearance i may take, i wont ask for you to love me. but i will put in the effort that reflects how much <love> i have received.

the last birthday of my 20s is going smoothly like this. let us be healthy and happy for a long time, no matter what sky we’re under. lets meet again after some time passes.

Sincerely wishing you an early, if not a belated, happy birthday to you as well !

thank you.

-namjoon

Translation: @/miiniyoongs

[blairwitchapologist]

hi um re: your irish authors rec post, i took an irish history/language/study abroad program in college and discovered during that several of my faves were irish lol. which is just an aside, because id love to recommend The Gathering by Ann Enright (a family drama, very melancholic and a little intense while also being just abt an irish family's dynamics, but its still one of the most beautifully written books ive ever read and some phrases from it i carry with me and think of almost daily) and In the Woods by Tana French (more of a mystery type book, and i havent read her later works but In the Woods and the next one or two she wrote are EXCELLENT, they feel as comforting and accessible as a good paperback airport bookstore mystery but theres also some truly haunting stuff and her prose is wonderful. also the characters are kind of beautifully sad and a little fucked up but in an endearing way). hope this isnt weird lol and best of luck on your irish authors search, im sure youll find a wealth of enjoyable work :)

no literally thank you so much i’m so excited to check these out!!! i have read a few irish authors in the last two years (colin walsh, louise kennedy, sally rooney obvs, just read my first claire keegan) and realized this weekend how much i really love irish authors lol so i’m really excited to dive into more in 2025!!!! 🫶

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

more elaboration on the machine!gabriel au:

gabriel is cut off from the divine light and it causes his body to start breaking down; his body no longer produces blood, nor is his heart beating

he is fortunate enough to realize this in time to start replacing himself with machine parts, which run off the last of his blood long enough for him to replace them with more, etc...

he confronts v1 again and loses badly, too badly to run away, but isnt killed. he doesnt know why. he starts to follow v1 around and live off of the blood it leaves in its wake

he studies it Obsessively looking for the answer of why its so powerful and why it didn't kill him

v1 is aware of gabriel following it and doesnt care. it spared him bc there wasnt any blood to be gained from killing him and it doesnt care about him at all; complete and total apathy

gabriel barely beats v1 at their fourth battle, but spares it when its at his mercy. he sees this as repaying his debt. v1, who has already mostly flushed their other meetings from its memory, doesnt understand this perspective, but accepts it along with gabriels offer to accompany it

they venture deeper into hell together. gabriel is satisfied with the resolution of things between himself and v1, but is now filled with the same hunger as the other machines, and must continue killing for fuel. he retains all of the guilt he previously had about this. v1 on the other hand is physically restraining itself from attacking gabriel; its programming constantly informs it that a. gabriel is the largest source of blood in the vicinity and b. gabriel is the largest threat in the vicinity. v1 is aware that it shouldnt act on these impulses but isnt sure what other perspective to view their relationship from.

v1 cant communicate to be clear. it doesnt speak or write and it doesnt know any form of sign language and it isnt programmed with human body language. gabriel is just tagging along with this murder machine and being like. boy i sure hope i read this situation correctly

[mzhydes-funtimes]

So ive wanted to make a better sequel to PVZ using PVZ 2 and pvz 1 plants, sort of combining the mechanics and stuff bc 2 is too littered with ads and goes wayyy too fast to really enjoy the grind of pvz so ive been trying to find the most fun and not op plants from 1 and 2 to put into a fangame and i think i found the plants i want

Now im going through and marking where i want plants to be unlocked and have to figure out the sun distribution, i think im going to go woth the PVZ 3 way of marking 1 2 and 3 sun which the conversion would be 1 sun = 15 sun from pvz 1, 2 sun = 25 from pvz 1 and 3 sun = 50 sun from pvz 1, obvously this isnt an exact conversion but pretty much small sun is 1 sun normal sun is 2 sun and large sun is 3 sun (so for example small sun shroom produces 1 small sun or 1 sun, sunflower produces 1 normal sun or 2 sun, primal sunflower produces 1 large sun or 3 sun, but twin sunflower would produce 2 normal sun, as an example, it night be confusing tho, lmk if so)

This would mostly be for my own counting sake and i would probably simplify it to classic mode or have it be an option when actually released, but otherwise i have some fun combos and have some mechanics from pvz 2, for example a Beach world, a desert world, a snow world, then a disco world and portal world in the post game with the power tiles, sun tiles, and the portal minigames from the og.

The main plants that i put in are, of course, the iconic ones like peashooter, chomper, wall nut, from pvz 1, the icons from pvz 2: Bloomerang and Bonk Choy, and 2 plants from the 2 pvz 3 betas, those being Bamboo Shoots and Sawgrass.

But yeah i have the plants that i may put in it in a google doc and is seperated by type and element (if applicable) for example: Sun, Pea, Pult, Nut, Melee (plants like spikeweed, bonk choy, and celery stalker), Bean, Shroom, Vine, Mint, Instant, then, Ice, Fire, Electric, Shadow, Goo, then Misc for plants that dont fit anywhere else like bloomerang, Blover, imitator

My only problem is i dont know how to program and it feels like it would be very frustrating so i may just do it in some simple language first after i finish concepts and preplanning, since thats the most fun, and arguably best part

Aka the research and planning (only problem with planning is it inevitably goes wrong lol) fuckin love research holy shit idk why its often very boring but very intriguing

[seatail-mc]

I have no idea what's going on in the server or fandom rn cause of school, but I was thinking about this today

Are there any theories why the "binary entity" isn't actually made of binary?

Like I'm pretty sure that name was given to it by the players because its username was in binary, and there's no official title for it from the federation, so it could be irrelevant

But still

The "binary entity"/"code monster" isnt actually made up of binary numbers itself??

And at first I thought that was a recent change when the texture updated, and I thought maybe its evolving or something

But apparently its always been like this???

There have always been 3s and 6s and 5s etc it was just harder to see when it was completely green

If it was never binary... what was it meant to represent? Like the green is Matrix-y but the original Matrix code stuff wasn't just numbers

And I (a computer science student) dont know of any programming languages ("code") that consist only of decimal numbers, not binary or hex or anything

So im curious

It could also be "code" in the sense of like a cypher or something, which is not my area of expertise lol

(Obviously this could all just be a design choice and irrelevant, but I thought I'd throw it out there)

[styxnbones]

Hey I need to warn you about a fascist blogger who is spreading some serious bullshit here in the vtm fandom on Tumblr. Normally I would say you could just block this loser, but his takes are some of the worst I've ever seen or imagined.

I know there is a lot of wiggle room in world of darkness due to the massive amount of lore produced over the years, but this r4cs0 guy is taking his fascist fantasies to the extreme. First of all, he hates everything other than mummies, because he says mummies are "less whiny" than all the other supernaturals and that every other type of supernatural believes that everything went wrong when we invented indoor plumbing. He explicitly hates all werewolf content, but only because he thinks the writers stole their ideas from Captain Planet and werewolves are therefore "woke!" And he really hates bisexuals, not just in the game, but just in general.

But the end goal of this guy seems to be recruiting people to play a game he plans to run, but he's going to force the players to enact his fascist bullshit. He wants the players to play as mummies, but impersonate a coterie of anarch Kindred. The mummies will secretly team up with the Society of St Leopold to create a program through the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Ottawa to grant a "special dispensation" to bisexual Catholics that agree to send DNA samples to the Vatican Bank in Rome. The SI will use these blood samples with a new technology they developed to determine who in Ottawa is being fed on by vampires, which the mummies will then use to overthrow the Camarilla and seize praxis for themselves.

But the kicker is that the real goal behind all of this is to capture sheriff Qui, who r4cs0 wants to punish for being bisexual. He plans to enact a ritual to banish him to the underworld by burying him upside down and allowing wolves to eat his lower legs, which apparently means you can't run away from wraiths anymore or something. This dude is literally only playing vtm so he can engage in homophobia, transphobia and dendrophobia!

glad to know im a big enough blog to finally start getting insane language model anons. or freaks committed to the bit enough to learn wod lore as a prank.

apparently this bot/loonie has been going since at least 2021 and the dendrophobia isnt just a typo/mistake from the ai

[dryramengurl]

Random facts about my sgrb ocs cuz not

Edwin

Edwin used to babysit 3 year old Alex when she was 12 shortly after the rose's disappearance since edwins mom worked at the edf (who wasnt the best person)

And Alex used to help her with homework, since shes smart.

I can't get the image out of my mind of a 3 year old helping a 12 year old on division.

(Random idea I had was what if Edwin had a tooth gap, inspiring shinys tooth gap.)

There's a running joke between me and my best friend about what if Edwin was actually comically buff underneath her jacket, which isn't Canon but is funny to think about.

Besides being the creator of Light and an engineer, she's also a jet pilot.

Sharron

In 2022 when I first made Edwin and Sharron, Sharron was orignally going to get attached to thunder instead of shiny and was constantly hanging on him, going to the point of asking him if he would be her dad, all because he saved her from falling off the railing once.

Thunder had no idea how to act about this and was constantly trying to shake her off or begging shiny for help.

Though Sharron has stayed the age of 7, I've boosted edwins age up to 22. (Their mom sure waited a while)

Light

This girl went through no redesigning. I'm still considering whether she should get a Parasite that configures a kaiju inside her chest cavity at the moment, if you have watched the second Pacific Rim you'd see where I got the inspiration.

The chest cavity is for easy access to her engine for repair and for rescuing people who didn't evacuate.

In fact, if some citizens irritate her with her screaming and complaining she'll just scoop them up and shove them inside.

She calls Edwin "mum" 24/7 instead of her name, which Edwin is very concerned about and weirded out by considering she never programmed her to call her that.

Noric

This girl will kill for bacon .

She loves it with all her being, even though she litterly feeds off bombs.

This was inspired by when I was watching vines with my best friend and that one vine popped up.

"Can I have some bacon?"

"Watcha gonna give me for it?"

"I'll give you my dog"

"Ok."

**SNATCH**

Noric is fascinated by humans and isnt a pro with English, so while talking, she'll either get words mixed up or pause for a brief period trying to remember the words.

So thunder's way of speaking easily stumps her.

".....is he speaking another language?"

Because of this and her lack of some knowledge on humans, Shiny constantly trolls her with fake facts about humans.

"Did you know humans can fly?!"

"THEY CAN!?!?" *chucks a citizen*

"WAIT WAI-"

Thas all buh byeee

[pesterloglog]

Dave Strider, Dirk Strider

Act 6, page 7917-7922

DAVE: damn

DAVE: and i thought our houses were pointlessly tall before

DAVE: it just doesnt stop from keep constantly getting more and more vertically enormous

DIRK: Shit is downright precipitous at this point.

DIRK: Like, upways.

DAVE: haha yeah

DAVE: we made sure as fuck not to come right out and literally describe that building as tall

DIRK: Hell yes.

DIRK: Who needs small and serviceable adjectives when the most ass-backwards way of saying a thing is right there, tantalizingly hidden within the vast ocean of language.

DIRK: Like a treasure in a huge shitty clam.

DAVE: we are way on the same page philosophically here

DIRK: Who is surprised by this?

DIRK: Zero people, is who.

DAVE: sounds like a club for losers to me

DAVE: theyre lucky they dont have any members, otherwise theyd all be lame as hell

DIRK: Yeah.

DAVE: so uh

DAVE: why do the houses need to be so tall again

DAVE: i never actually understood that

DAVE: except to reach the gates but once we all figured out how to fly and shit that became so pointless

DIRK: Yeah. After a while in the game, building kind of stopped mattering.

DIRK: Except near the end. Getting them to the top is just a point of completion.

DIRK: Then you dump the grist rig on top of it, apparently.

DIRK: That lets the thing spray out all the grist from the hoard in the planet's core, kind of like a huge oil derrick I guess.

DAVE: oh

DAVE: how do you know this

DAVE: do you guys have like a manual or

DIRK: I'm in communication with Arquiusprite.

DIRK: He's working on it now.

DAVE: so youre in communication with him like...

DAVE: RIGHT now?

DIRK: Yes.

DIRK: Via my shades.

DIRK: Which he incidentally used to be.

DIRK: Like, as a computer, which he lived inside as my Auto-Responder.

DAVE: right

DAVE: and

DAVE: uh

DAVE: why... did you make that thing again

DAVE: not that you ever told me before

DAVE: 'again' is just like a stammering tack-on to that sentence so as to try and not sound too fucking rude

DIRK: I don't think it's a rude question. It's perfectly fair to wonder what was going through my head when I made him.

DIRK: I've spent a lot of time wondering about that myself.

DAVE: so you just

DAVE: straight up programmed a copy of your brain

DIRK: There was some programming involved, but also a bit of cheating, through the mapping of a captchalogued ghost-imprint of my brain.

DIRK: I guess part of it was just about trying to understand myself.

DIRK: But I don't think I would have put it that way at the time. For a while I insisted he was meant to be a "debate partner" or some horseshit.

DIRK: I was pretty young, and had some stupid ideas.

DIRK: About irony in particular. But also a lot of mostly faux-intellectual thoughts on a wide variety of topics.

DIRK: Like philosophy, consciousness, programming, identity, history, ancient pop-culture... really it ran the full gamut of pretension.

DIRK: Not that I don't still find that stuff interesting. I'd just like to think I'm somewhat less full of shit about it all now.

DAVE: yeah me too

DAVE: i mean, about my interests and stuff

DIRK: Creating him was an interesting exercise I guess, but over the years I came to see his development as one of my biggest mistakes.

DIRK: He sort of turned into a monster. But I could never bring myself to get rid of him, or even really blame him for being an asshole, because he wasn't actually that different from me.

DIRK: Like, by definition.

DIRK: He seems alright as Arquius though. At least it keeps him busy, obsessing over his muscles, asking for milk and shit like that.

DAVE: hmm

DAVE: i guess i started some projects i regretted

DAVE: but nothin like making a milk weirdo eventually exist

DAVE: it sounds fucked up but is also kind of an awesome story in its own way

DIRK: I guess so.

DAVE: maybe im lucky i was never that good with computers

DAVE: now computer ART thats a different story

DAVE: ok it actually isnt i fuckin suck at that too

DAVE: but dammit i try my best and make some magic happen at least in my own mind so maybe thats good enough

DIRK: It certainly worked out for you in my universe.

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: i mean

DAVE: i DID captchalogue my own ghost brain once but i didnt know what to make of that and thought it was kinda weird so that never really went anywhere

DAVE: probably for the best

DIRK: It definitely is.

DIRK: Tinkering with your own mind, or identity or whatever... it's a dark road to go down.

DIRK: There are enough splinters of everyone running around out there as it is, just as a natural byproduct of our reality. For me in particular. Probably for you too, as a time player.

DIRK: That process doesn't need to be encouraged or fucked with.

DAVE: for real

DAVE: my bro did cool things with computers too

DAVE: i mean nothin like making a clone of his brain or anything thank god

DAVE: just some absurd bullshit with web bots and stuff mostly to help prop up his various "enterprises"

DIRK: You mean the porn stuff?

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: but with puppets of course

DAVE: it was always about the puppets

DIRK: Naturally.

DAVE: he made all these porn bots that would just talk to each other in a chatroom endlessly

DAVE: all like gettin each other riled up about squishy bottoms and whatnot

DAVE: actually it was pretty entertaining to watch them go at it for hours

DAVE: i think they may have been teetering on the threshold of SOMETHING resembling self awareness?

DAVE: except they only seemed to apply that faculty to reach even more heightened states of sexual excitement for a bunch of nude soft puppets

DIRK: That sounds...

DIRK: Oddly rewarding.

DIRK: I mean, not to say he wasn't still a douche.

DIRK: But as a pastime, cultivating a group of earnest, erotic puppet-loving chatbots sounds so much more relaxing than painstakingly constructing a version of your own brain, and then arguing with it for years thereafter.

DIRK: Almost like tending to a little flock of pigeons.

DAVE: yeah you know he did some cool things

DAVE: it wasnt necessarily all inherently terrible

DAVE: things i would really appreciate under better circumstances

DAVE: he definitely had a lot of drive and also some uh "ideas" that warranted a certain amount of respect i guess

DAVE: he just

DAVE: maybe should not have been allowed near a child?

DAVE: sall im sayin

DIRK: Sounds about right.

DIRK: We really don't have to talk about him anymore though, if it is going to stir up more bad shit for you.

DAVE: nah im alright

DAVE: i think that is all mostly out of my system

DAVE: i mean not forever because i dont think thats how things work

DAVE: i just mean my venting fit is over and im probably good for another 16 years or so and i can return to being mostly deadpan and rad

DIRK: Ok.

DIRK: Well, in sixteen years, if you need someone to vent to again, let me know.

DAVE: sure

DAVE: assuming we havent been killed by like 10 jacks before that i will

DAVE: you certainly seem to be the right guy for that

DIRK: For what?

DAVE: i mean like the most suitable recipient of my hysterical fits on that particular subject

DAVE: there is no way i would ever tell karkat all that

DAVE: i mean maybe some stuff but not ALL the stuff its just too heavy

DAVE: i certainly wasnt gonna mention the stuff to rose or john or jade or whoever else

DAVE: if i was ever gonna do one of my patented acrobatic pirouettes off that particular handle to anyone it really only could have been at him

DAVE: except he was dead

DAVE: and even if he wasnt and i did say all that shit

DAVE: theres no way it would have resulted in anything resembling reconciliation

DAVE: which i think

DAVE: was something i kinda needed

DAVE: but didnt realize it

DAVE: so....

DAVE: thank you for being a really plausible stand in for him who i could rip to shreds??

DAVE: while still being basically innocent of all that terrible garbage

DAVE: so you end up sorta being like an avatar for him that is much easier to forgive

DAVE: i mean

DAVE: maybe FORGIVE isnt the right word because im not sure he deserves that and anyway it doesnt matter because hes been dead for years and at this point is just an irrelevant deceased weirdo who doesnt matter anymore

DAVE: i guess i mean coming around to a place where i dont have to feel rotten all the time anymore

DAVE: and i guess im lucky i got to blunder into a reality that just happened to have the exact right version of a dude which made that possible for me

DAVE: sorry this fuckin ramble is really getting away from me

DAVE: i have no idea if im making sense anymore

DIRK: I think I get it.

DIRK: And sure.

DIRK: You're welcome for me existing.

DAVE: hey can that be like

DAVE: the motto on our family crest

DIRK: I think it already is.

DAVE: all that melodramatic sadbabble aside

DAVE: i think its perfectly cool if youre still curious about your adult self

DAVE: and i dont mind tellin you more stuff about him if you want

DAVE: i know im still wondering about what my adult self got up to

DIRK: Yeah.

DIRK: Well like I said, any time you want to know more, feel free to ask.

DAVE: kay how about

DAVE: we do this thing

DAVE: when i met roxy we did a thing

DIRK: A thing?

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: its called the lightning round

DIRK: That does sound like a Roxy thing.

DIRK: Does it by any chance involve asking a rapid-fire series of questions, some of which end up being a bit too personal or invasive?

DAVE: well yeah when she does it

DAVE: we could be chill though

DAVE: when it comes to asking about each others secret crushes and shit

DIRK: Then I guess I will disclaim in advance that I don't have any, and I don't care about yours even if you do.

DAVE: it is settled then on the fact that we are a couple of cool dudes who know where to draw the line on certain topics

DIRK: Cool.

DIRK: So how do we start.

DIRK: Whose lightning round is this, mine or yours?

DAVE: it can be yours go ahead shoot

DIRK: Ok.

DIRK: How...

DIRK: Did...

DIRK: He, um,

DIRK: Come to "adopt" you?

DAVE: i was a baby and i came down to earth on a meteor while riding a pony with a pink heart on its ass

DAVE: he found me in a crater on top of a dead pony and gave me a lil baby pair of shades that look exactly like the ones youre wearin now

DIRK: I see.

DIRK: So you decided to ditch those shades for the aviator glasses?

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: years ago john got me these for my bday

DAVE: it might have been like an "ironic dare" to wear them i dont remember

DAVE: but when i got em i was like hell yeah im wearing these

DAVE: gonna rock these fuckers til the end of time

DAVE: they were ben stillers

DAVE: like literally

DAVE: they actually touched his weird sort of gaunt face in one of his films

DIRK: Wait...

DIRK: THE Stiller?

DAVE: yeah

DIRK: Incredible.

DIRK: Also, such a shame what happened to that poor man.

DAVE: wait what happened to him

DIRK: I can tell you when it's your lightning round.

DIRK: Or mine. Whatever. I'm still not sure whose lightning round it is when you're the one asking questions.

DAVE: dunno ask roxy

DIRK: Ok. Anyway, didn't mean to interrupt.

DAVE: but yeah we would send each other stuff sometimes

DAVE: me and john

DAVE: well we all would

DAVE: usually absurd birthday packages and such

DIRK: We did that too.

DIRK: Except I had to send things through time.

DIRK: Always had to figure out stuff small enough to send through the sendificator, even if it was piece by piece.

DAVE: nice

DAVE: one time it turned out we ACCIDENTALLY sent presents through time

DAVE: i mean not literally, more in a roundabout way

DAVE: we all sent john a rabbit

DAVE: but all three rabbits just turned out to be the same damn rabbit

DAVE: because of stupid time shit

DIRK: Once I deliberately and quite literally sent a rabbit through time.

DIRK: It was a robot.

DAVE: wow

DIRK: He was a loyal friend to Jane. I don't know what happened to him though.

DAVE: yeah i dunno what happened to johns rabbits either

DAVE: rabbits am i right

DIRK: I hear you, man.

DAVE: what next

DIRK: Hm.

DIRK: You say he owned Cal as well?

DAVE: yep

DIRK: Did he come down to Earth on a meteor with Cal too?

DAVE: i think so

DAVE: that was a long time ago

DAVE: kinda weird to imagine him strutting around with that puppet as a kid in the 80s

DAVE: or maybe just kinda funny actually

DAVE: he sure held on to it a long time

DAVE: must have gotten attached at a really early age and just never let go

DAVE: i guess you fell to earth with one of those things too?

DIRK: Yeah.

DIRK: But if I came to Earth on a meteor the same way you all did, then I guess I just got dunked right in the fucking ocean.

DIRK: Which makes sense. One of my earliest memories is of using Cal as a flotation device.

DIRK: So he sorta saved my life in a way. I guess I bonded with him too, the way your bro did, even if that sounds a bit stupid.

DIRK: Then again, it didn't help matters much that I lived alone in the middle of the ocean. He was my only real life friend. I mean, until I built some new ones.

DAVE: hmm wait we fucked up

DAVE: i asked you a question its not my turn

DAVE: keep firing

DIRK: Ok.

DIRK: How did your bro die?

DAVE: he died fighting one of these jacks

DAVE: at this point i almost forget which one

DAVE: no wait

DAVE: ok yeah it was the omnipotent dog one

DAVE: the jack from our session

DAVE: he was fighting like a lesser form of him and then jack got extra prototyped by dog powers and then got outmatched and stabbed with his own sword

DAVE: pretty sure davesprite was fighting with him and almost died too but then it turned out he didnt

DAVE: but now im at least 99% sure that davesprite is DEFINITELY dead and wont suddenly reappear as a stupid surprise or anything

DIRK: I hate stupid surprises.

DAVE: word

DIRK: So, you said he "trained" you.

DIRK: I'm guessing that means he knew what was coming?

DIRK: Or, some things about your future, at least?

DAVE: seems that way

DAVE: not sure what he knew or how he knew it

DAVE: all our guardians seemed to know bits and pieces of stuff and did vague mysterious things to prepare

DAVE: to this day i have no idea if he was training me to fight lord english or if he even knew who that guy was on any conscious level

DAVE: or it was more like general purpose training to be able to survive some hard shit after the end of the world happened

DAVE: youd have to ask him but thats impossible

DAVE: i do know he managed to get the drop on a meteor before i entered the game

DIRK: What?

DAVE: as far as i can tell he stood on top of it and split it in half with his sword

DIRK: Um,

DIRK: Not to be too much of a wet blanket on that rad as fuck anecdote, but that sounds kind of far fetched.

DAVE: yeah it does doesnt it

DAVE: but then again so does a baby getting dunked from space in the ocean then floating on a weird doll and then growin up by himself with no adults around

DIRK: That's not far fetched. It was pretty straightforward.

DIRK: I think I just found a building poking out of the water, climbed up, then I just started foraging for food in there like a feral infant.

DIRK: Supplies which I'm sure your adult self must have left behind for me, seeing as he clearly must have known some things about the future too.

DIRK: Speaking of which, maybe it's your turn now?

DAVE: yeah ok

DAVE: questions about me hmm lets see

DAVE: ok FIRST the fuck of all

DAVE: what happened to ben stiller

DIRK: He was deemed a heretic, and was crucified on the Washington Monument by some clowns.

DAVE: wow

DIRK: Due to his dedication to freedom and peace, he came to be seen as a martyr, and then a holy figure.

DIRK: He was left on the monument as an example to all, but thousands of faithful gathered below to gaze up at his pious, sort of gaunt face.

DIRK: For years thereafter, his followers would carve stone busts of him in his memory, capturing the piercing glare of his final expression.

DIRK: But they were all smashed to pieces by the presidential church.

DIRK: That religious movement didn't last very long.

DIRK: Rumor has it the batterwitch had a lot of experience crushing righteous insurrections.

DAVE: did my adult self get pissed about stiller

DAVE: i bet he got pissed

DIRK: Yeah. There was a whole series of final insults that led to his active rebellion, instead of just producing subversive media.

DIRK: At one point, the witch "remastered" all of his films to clean up all the shitty artifacts, and released them in stunning high-def quality all over the world, using a rational business model and everything.

DIRK: That REALLY set him off.

DAVE: what the fuck

DAVE: how fucking dare that woman

DAVE: so then he tried to kill the batterwitch right

DAVE: who is the same exact alien as the condesce in this session??

DIRK: Yes. Same one.

DIRK: And yeah, he teamed up with Rose from the same era.

DIRK: They supposedly put up a good fight, but both died.

DAVE: so...

DAVE: does john know that he is literally about to go fight betty crocker yet or what

DIRK: I have no idea.

DIRK: I really don't know John at all, or any of your friends.

DIRK: I know Jane was the heiress to the Crocker brand. Uh, obviously? It is her name after all.

DIRK: Was John the heir to that empire in his universe?

DAVE: nah

DAVE: i mean not to my or his knowledge

DAVE: he just fuckin hated that company for some reason

DAVE: i think his reason was literally as mundane as just being slightly overexposed to cake

DAVE: thats classic john though he doesnt get pissed about anything except for the absolute dumbest shit

DAVE: but i guess his instincts were right in this case

DAVE: maybe we should just

DAVE: not tell him

DAVE: that hes fightin crocker i think the poor dude has probably had enough mental breakdowns for one adventure

DAVE: we all have

DIRK: I'd like to get to know him.

DIRK: Not to mention Rose and Jade. Would have been nice to hang out and chat, in a circumstance where we weren't supposed to prepare for an imminent deadly struggle.

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: well i guess we could have hung out there a few minutes longer

DAVE: i mean you wouldnt have got much outta jade who is stuck in perma-nap mode

DAVE: just like old times i guess

DIRK: Huh?

DAVE: she used to sleep a lot

DIRK: Ah.

DAVE: but yeah there wasnt much time except for like a bunch of heys and oh nice to meet yous

DAVE: and also i think i would have still been a shitty train wreck socially if we all just hunkered down right then and there for another extensive round of freestyle paltalk

DIRK: Right, I was kind of nervous about lingering there for more than a minute too.

DIRK: Mainly because of Jake.

DIRK: I didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

DIRK: I think I have done enough of that.

DAVE: i guess jake was kinda like your john of the group huh

DAVE: wait that was a pretty dumb observation never mind

DIRK: Nah, sounds about right.

DIRK: Seems like John was your close buddy growing up, and Jake was mine.

DAVE: john and i never really had anything like a falling out

DAVE: except for not talkin to each other for a few years on account of being on a meteor and boat respectively

DAVE: but i guess you two had some buddy troubles or somethin?

DIRK: Yes. A lot of buddy troubles.

DIRK: I vaguely touched on it earlier. I was a really bad influence in his life.

DAVE: what happened

DIRK: A lot of things, that were mostly my fault.

DIRK: Basically, I think I bullied him into dating me.

DIRK: Although I had plenty of "help" from my Auto-Responder.

DIRK: There were a lot of insane plans that he hatched on my behalf.

DIRK: But in fairness, I went along with them.

DIRK: To this day, I can't really tell how much of that bullshit was his doing, and how much was mine, which I've just covered up through denial or selective memory.

DAVE: wait

DAVE: you

DAVE: you dated jake?

DIRK: Yeah.

DIRK: That didn't last long though.

DIRK: It was really lopsided and kind of forced.

DAVE: ...

DAVE: so

DAVE: you

DAVE: ...

DAVE: hmm

DIRK: What?

DAVE: nothing

DAVE: i think were breakin one of the rules here

DAVE: this tangent got too personal

DIRK: Oh yeah.

DIRK: I forgot we weren't doing that.

DIRK: Anyway, carry on. You were asking about adult Dave?

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: so that covers how he died

DAVE: taking a futile stand against some unbeatable foe

DAVE: cant say im too surprised about that cause what else is even new

DAVE: what about his early life though

DAVE: guess i arrived around the same year my bro did in my universe?

DAVE: just came down on the same dead horse i rode in on

DAVE: into a world full of opportunities

DAVE: how did i get started

DIRK: His early life isn't well documented.

DIRK: There's hardly anything to read about him until he broke into show business with a few obscure projects at the turn of the century.

DIRK: It all snowballed from there.

DAVE: i guess the one thing we know for sure is i didnt find a kid in a crater and take him under my wing

DAVE: that was probably for the best

DIRK: Heh.

DAVE: actually maybe its better that most of his story is left to my imagination

DAVE: kinda like how you said you spent a lot of time thinkin about him

DAVE: filling in the gaps of his ridiculous exploits

DIRK: Right.

DIRK: There's certainly a lot of lore to work with.

DIRK: Urban legends and stuff.

DAVE: like what

DAVE: actually wait

DAVE: dont tell me

DAVE: at least not now maybe down the road it would be cool to hear some

DAVE: i think id prefer to fill in the blanks myself for a while

DAVE: really it sounds dope as hell to imagine that sort of blank canvas life

DAVE: dropped on earth as a kid in the 70s or 80s or whatever with no bossy adult to reel me in

DAVE: and just having to figure stuff out

DAVE: especially knowing that many years later it all worked out ok

DAVE: really wonder what i did

DAVE: was i like some homeless eighties ragamuffin???

DAVE: jesus christ that sounds fairly adorable if so

DAVE: maybe i slept in an alley on a bed of rubix cubes and alf merchandise

DAVE: or maybe i offered my old school rap services for food

DIRK: Like, through a shitty cardboard booth?

DIRK: You know, like the one from the fuckin' Charlie Brown comics.

DIRK: "This is what the refrance," FYI.

DAVE: yes exactly

DAVE: this sounds like exactly the life for me

DAVE: what if without a penny to my name and the wind at my back i hopped a boxcar to the big apple

DAVE: because as a dumb child i naively believed thats where they made all the apple juice

DAVE: id be sorely disappointed when i got there but it wouldnt matter because id probably scrape together a living on off off off broadway like...

DAVE: making shitty cartoons

DAVE: on stage

DAVE: and saying

DAVE: you guys

DAVE: this will be SO much funnier once the internet happens TRUST ME

DAVE: then the aristocratic patrons of fine theater just shrug and dump their shillings into my orphan hat

DIRK: It sounds to me like you've been reading up on the urban legends already.

DAVE: hahaha

DAVE: i wonder if he had like

DAVE: friends

DIRK: It sounds like he knew a lot of people, at least later in life.

DAVE: sure

DAVE: i mean im sure he knew rose at some point because obviously they teamed up

DAVE: but as fairly old people?

DAVE: it sounds as though they only knew each other as a result of their notability

DIRK: This seems likely.

DAVE: i mean more like the friends i grew up with

DAVE: he couldnt have grown up with john or jade as friends because they were already old by the time he got there

DAVE: this cool 80s kid fantasy was probably just a lot lonelier than ive been picturing in my sweet daydreams

DAVE: i didnt even have the MAYOR god what a nightmare now that i think about it

DAVE: i wonder if all he cared about was making ludicrous shit and fighting evil pastry moguls

DAVE: do you know if he had any other interests

DIRK: Like what?

DAVE: i dont know

DAVE: did you ever read any urban legends about.....

DAVE: paleontology

DIRK: Paleontology?

DAVE: yes the scientific study of dead shit

DIRK: Not that I recall.

DAVE: hmm

DAVE: i guess he probably didnt do anything with that

DAVE: what a shame

DAVE: maybe he never even got the idea since he had completely different experiences

DAVE: but if i were suddenly dropped back in the 20th century id probably look into it at some point

DAVE: i dunno how though

DAVE: i think it would be mainly like

DAVE: some sort of theraputic interest

DAVE: something relaxing to think about instead of a bunch of ironic and stupidly ambitious objectives

DIRK: Yeah, like the porn bots.

DAVE: yeah exactly

DIRK: Maybe some day, when we're both old men, you can live a quiet life tending to your fossils, and I will do the same with my dear collection of simple-minded chat robots fixated on puppet ass.

DAVE: sounds like the fucking life to me

DIRK: What was the lightning round question this stemmed from again?

DIRK: I forget.

DAVE: dunno

DAVE: maybe were tapering off with the lightning round stuff anyway and its just naturally deteriorating into regular dudechat

DIRK: Maybe.

DIRK: You sure you don't have anything else before we say it's officially deteriorated?

DAVE: k heres a curveball

DAVE: what the fuck are you wearing

DIRK: My prince gear.

DIRK: You know. Leggings, slippers, the poofy asshole pants, a hood with some sort of cloth tiara deal embedded in it.

DIRK: Basic stuff for princes, apparently.

DAVE: huh

DAVE: gotta say

DAVE: some of these god tier ensembles really are...

DAVE: something

DIRK: I thought I hated it at first.

DIRK: But over the couple hours I spent flying back, with time to think about all sorts of stuff...

DIRK: It kinda grew on me.

DIRK: The asshole pants are pretty damn comfortable, so I dunno if I even care how stupid they look.

DIRK: And I *am* kind of an asshole, after all. So who am I to complain.

DAVE: i thought the same thing about my cape outfit at first

DAVE: felt like some bozo from the renaissance festival

DAVE: like maybe i should get on a horse and sing a shitty ballad

DAVE: but then it grew on me pretty quickly

DAVE: hardly ever took it off in three years

DAVE: youre right its comfortable and theyre fuckin magic pajamas or whatever and they start to feel like part of who you are after long enough

DAVE: i mean they are supposed to last you forever right

DAVE: kinda by definition since they come along with immortality

DAVE: maybe part of their magical nature includes this insidious quality where they grow on you

DAVE: or not i dunno maybe this is bullshit and ill just wear some normal person clothes when this is all over

DAVE: what about you are you gonna wear god duds forever

DIRK: Nah. I'm sure I'll wear regular stuff again at some point.

DIRK: If a shirt with a hat on it can be deemed regular.

DAVE: im cool with deeming it as such

DAVE: yeah maybe youre right and we should all stop dressing like tools from an infinite magic slumber party for floundering teens

DAVE: and just look like standard floundering teens

DAVE: some of the getups are pretty out there

DAVE: jakes tho...

DAVE: uh

DAVE: damn??

DIRK: I...

DIRK: Yeah.

DIRK: That page costume.

DIRK: I'd have commented on it, except that would've been casting a stone through a particularly fragile glass wardrobe.

DIRK: So... I just flew away.

DAVE: yeah there was uh

DAVE: some palpable awkwardness there

DIRK: Hm.

DAVE: sorry im still

DAVE: tryin to

DAVE: like

DAVE: wrap my head around

DAVE: ...

DIRK: What?

DAVE: uh

DAVE: dammit

DAVE: ok i guess i might have to break one of our lightning round rules

DAVE: only a little tho

DAVE: i hope

DIRK: About what?

DIRK: The personal stuff?

DAVE: yeah

DIRK: That's fine.

DAVE: ok maybe im not even asking you anything

DAVE: maybe this is just a starting point to ramble to myself

DAVE: on a certain topic

DAVE: i think...

DAVE: there is a SLIGHT chance...

DAVE: i may be the biggest idiot in the world

DIRK: ?

DAVE: when it comes to understanding some things about my bro

DAVE: some pieces i never really put together

DAVE: about him

DAVE: until maybe literally right now

DAVE: which i think makes me an objective dumbass

DIRK: What does this have to do with me and Jake?

DAVE: idk

DAVE: nothin

DAVE: maybe i dont wanna ask you anything about jake

DAVE: maybe ill just keep abiding by the code of basic dude manners on that

DAVE: if i bother skirtin the line of this rule maybe id rather ask you other stuff instead

DIRK: Like what?

DAVE: like

DAVE: um

DAVE: say one of your best friends is a knucklehead you havent seen in three years

DAVE: and unless you use ultra direct and explicit language he just wont put two and two together himself

DAVE: and also say ANOTHER best friend is a girl you feel like you had kind of a special relationship with but you ALSO hadnt seen in three years

DAVE: and shes asleep

DAVE: but at some point shell wake up and youll have to talk to her

DIRK: ...

DAVE: this is dumb im not making any sense

DAVE: lemme start over

DAVE: ok lets say

DAVE: way back whenever

DAVE: howww

DAVE: ...

DAVE: how did you tell your friends

[gemsofgreece]

Oh my goodness hello i am the person that asked you about the interview with the greek teacher and those tips were so helpful! I am incredibly interested in the Byzantine period, particularly the hagiographical literature, the letters of Philes and Psellos, and the Greek Orthodox tradition in general and the incredible history with iconography. So i will most definitely be mentioning those! Im so sorry i should have specified; i dont speak a word of Greek haahaha im applying to study the language (from scratch of course) and literature of Medieval and Modern Greek so that should cover the Byzantine period onwards i believe? Just wanted to say thank you so much for the tips i will be sure to express my appreciation for the culture. My biggest worry was that i'd really butcher a name of some sort haha! Your blog is quite wonderful, its actually what sparked my interest in the language and culture (i speak a few other European languages already so id be studying them alongisde Greek hopefully) I just hope they'll see that i have the linguistic ability because the alphabet is of course different to the latin alphabet and the language isnt very closely related to other European languages so fingers crossed i guess! This is quite a long message i apologise but I wanted to say thank you for everything! I hope to report back in about 6 months time with an acceptance letter... thanks again! much love x

Well if you say those same things to them plus some emphasis on the things I advised, you don’t have to worry one bit! You could also use your knowledge / studying of other languages as proof of your skill in linguistics.

You should also not worry that regardless of how many languages you know, Greek will be so monstrously hard that the professor will have doubts you can make it. As foreign alphabets go, the Greek one is the closest one to Latin and it has only 24 letters, half of which are the same with Latin. In fact, perhaps you have the time to learn it before the interview, it might help you feel more prepared and confident. And yep it is a challenging language but there are several challenging languages out there, there isn’t, like, anything inhumanly hard about it. Since you are already acquainted with other European languages, you will certainly find especially its vocabulary but even its grammar much easier than other non-Indo-European languages like Arabic, Chinese, Japanese etc And, in general, it is hard but not as hard as its reputation suggests. Some Slavic languages, Finnish and Hebrew are about as hard, give or take. And Greek is closer to the Romance languages than these are, so it might actually be easier for you.

Yes, my understanding is that your studies will include Byzantine and Post-Byzantine eras. I am not sure how modern it will get. But my guess based on what you told me is that they are probably teaching both Modern and Koine Greek. Honestly, these studies sound pretty cool. I think they will be fun!

I am also incredibly moved that you feel like the blog inspired you to want to explore this field of history and art! I hope this journey will be really rewarding for you.

Looking forward to your future report about your acceptance to the program 😁😁😁