Imagine 141 Moving Into A Quaint Little Town Post Retirement And You’re The Only Baker In Town. You

Look at that; yet another reason to hare AI...Someone remind me why its everywhere again?

Generative AI Is Bad For Your Creative Brain

In the wake of early announcing that their blog will no longer be posting fanfiction, I wanted to offer a different perspective than the ones I’ve been seeing in the argument against the use of AI in fandom spaces. Often, I’m seeing the arguments that the use of generative AI or Large Language Models (LLMs) make creative expression more accessible. Certainly, putting a prompt into a chat box and refining the output as desired is faster than writing a 5000 word fanfiction or learning to draw digitally or traditionally. But I would argue that the use of chat bots and generative AI actually limits - and ultimately reduces - one’s ability to enjoy creativity.

Creativity, defined by the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus, is the ability to produce or use original and unusual ideas. By definition, the use of generative AI discourages the brain from engaging with thoughts creatively. ChatGPT, character bots, and other generative AI products have to be trained on already existing text. In order to produce something “usable,” LLMs analyzes patterns within text to organize information into what the computer has been trained to identify as “desirable” outputs. These outputs are not always accurate due to the fact that computers don’t “think” the way that human brains do. They don’t create. They take the most common and refined data points and combine them according to predetermined templates to assemble a product. In the case of chat bots that are fed writing samples from authors, the product is not original - it’s a mishmash of the writings that were fed into the system.

Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is a therapy modality developed by Marsha M. Linehan based on the understanding that growth comes when we accept that we are doing our best and we can work to better ourselves further. Within this modality, a few core concepts are explored, but for this argument I want to focus on Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation. Mindfulness, put simply, is awareness of the information our senses are telling us about the present moment. Emotion regulation is our ability to identify, understand, validate, and control our reaction to the emotions that result from changes in our environment. One of the skills taught within emotion regulation is Building Mastery - putting forth effort into an activity or skill in order to experience the pleasure that comes with seeing the fruits of your labor. These are by no means the only mechanisms of growth or skill development, however, I believe that mindfulness, emotion regulation, and building mastery are a large part of the core of creativity. When someone uses generative AI to imitate fanfiction, roleplay, fanart, etc., the core experience of creative expression is undermined.

Creating engages the body. As a writer who uses pen and paper as well as word processors while drafting, I had to learn how my body best engages with my process. The ideal pen and paper, the fact that I need glasses to work on my computer, the height of the table all factor into how I create. I don’t use audio recordings or transcriptions because that’s not a skill I’ve cultivated, but other authors use those tools as a way to assist their creative process. I can’t speak with any authority to the experience of visual artists, but my understanding is that the feedback and feel of their physical tools, the programs they use, and many other factors are not just part of how they learned their craft, they are essential to their art.

Generative AI invites users to bypass mindfully engaging with the physical act of creating. Part of becoming a person who creates from the vision in one’s head is the physical act of practicing. How did I learn to write? By sitting down and making myself write, over and over, word after word. I had to learn the rhythms of my body, and to listen when pain tells me to stop. I do not consider myself a visual artist - I have not put in the hours to learn to consistently combine line and color and form to show the world the idea in my head.

But I could.

Learning a new skill is possible. But one must be able to regulate one’s unpleasant emotions to be able to get there. The emotion that gets in the way of most people starting their creative journey is anxiety. Instead of a focus on “fear,” I like to define this emotion as “unpleasant anticipation.” In Atlas of the Heart, Brene Brown identifies anxiety as both a trait (a long term characteristic) and a state (a temporary condition). That is, we can be naturally predisposed to be impacted by anxiety, and experience unpleasant anticipation in response to an event. And the action drive associated with anxiety is to avoid the unpleasant stimulus.

Starting a new project, developing a new skill, and leaning into a creative endevor can inspire and cause people to react to anxiety. There is an unpleasant anticipation of things not turning out exactly correctly, of being judged negatively, of being unnoticed or even ignored. There is a lot less anxiety to be had in submitting a prompt to a machine than to look at a blank page and possibly make what could be a mistake. Unfortunately, the more something is avoided, the more anxiety is generated when it comes up again. Using generative AI doesn’t encourage starting a new project and learning a new skill - in fact, it makes the prospect more distressing to the mind, and encourages further avoidance of developing a personal creative process.

One of the best ways to reduce anxiety about a task, according to DBT, is for a person to do that task. Opposite action is a method of reducing the intensity of an emotion by going against its action urge. The action urge of anxiety is to avoid, and so opposite action encourages someone to approach the thing they are anxious about. This doesn’t mean that everyone who has anxiety about creating should make themselves write a 50k word fanfiction as their first project. But in order to reduce anxiety about dealing with a blank page, one must face and engage with a blank page. Even a single sentence fragment, two lines intersecting, an unintentional drop of ink means the page is no longer blank. If those are still difficult to approach a prompt, tutorial, or guided exercise can be used to reinforce the understanding that a blank page can be changed, slowly but surely by your own hand.

(As an aside, I would discourage the use of AI prompt generators - these often use prompts that were already created by a real person without credit. Prompt blogs and posts exist right here on tumblr, as well as imagines and headcannons that people often label “free to a good home.” These prompts can also often be specific to fandom, style, mood, etc., if you’re looking for something specific.)

In the current social media and content consumption culture, it’s easy to feel like the first attempt should be a perfect final product. But creating isn’t just about the final product. It’s about the process. Bo Burnam’s Inside is phenomenal, but I think the outtakes are just as important. We didn’t get That Funny Feeling and How the World Works and All Eyes on Me because Bo Burnham woke up and decided to write songs in the same day. We got them because he’s been been developing and honing his craft, as well as learning about himself as a person and artist, since he was a teenager. Building mastery in any skill takes time, and it’s often slow.

Slow is an important word, when it comes to creating. The fact that skill takes time to develop and a final piece of art takes time regardless of skill is it’s own source of anxiety. Compared to @sentientcave, who writes about 2k words per day, I’m very slow. And for all the time it takes me, my writing isn’t perfect - I find typos after posting and sometimes my phrasing is awkward. But my writing is better than it was, and my confidence is much higher. I can sit and write for longer and longer periods, my projects are more diverse, I’m sharing them with people, even before the final edits are done. And I only learned how to do this because I took the time to push through the discomfort of not being as fast or as skilled as I want to be in order to learn what works for me and what doesn’t.

Building mastery - getting better at a skill over time so that you can see your own progress - isn’t just about getting better. It’s about feeling better about your abilities. Confidence, excitement, and pride are important emotions to associate with our own actions. It teaches us that we are capable of making ourselves feel better by engaging with our creativity, a confidence that can be generalized to other activities.

Generative AI doesn’t encourage its users to try new things, to make mistakes, and to see what works. It doesn’t reward new accomplishments to encourage the building of new skills by connecting to old ones. The reward centers of the brain have nothing to respond to to associate with the action of the user. There is a short term input-reward pathway, but it’s only associated with using the AI prompter. It’s designed to encourage the user to come back over and over again, not develop the skill to think and create for themselves.

I don’t know that anyone will change their minds after reading this. It’s imperfect, and I’ve summarized concepts that can take months or years to learn. But I can say that I learned something from the process of writing it. I see some of the flaws, and I can see how my essay writing has changed over the years. This might have been faster to plug into AI as a prompt, but I can see how much more confidence I have in my own voice and opinions. And that’s not something chatGPT can ever replicate.

SOMEONE ALREADY CRACKED THE WEBSITE AND GOT A MAJORITY OF THE SECRET CODEWORDS! I'm putting them all here in image form because there's a crapton, have fun!

6 images in all, you'll probably have t. Save them and zoom in. Go nuts ya'll!

People post Greece as an aesthetic whether it's our mythology or our beautiful islands. Now we need you more than ever. Our country is literally burning, we have no help, no resources and new fire fronts are developing each hour and heading towards villages. People and animals are in danger. The fires are not going out and it's windy. Please share this, spread awareness. Greece is always first to send help when other European countries are in need of help. Please share.

Ace folks are queer. Die mad.

There are still apparently folks (some with genuinely good intentions, some just looking to outrage farm) who don't get why asexual/aromantic folk belong in queer spaces.

I'm ace. So if you keep saying "Someone explain it to me!" here's your explanation, right from the source:

The queer community (at least in my part of the world, yours may be different) is for anyone who doesn't fit into 'standard' cis/hetero norms. Ace people are not attracted to the people we're 'supposed' to be. This often leads to very different values and lived experiences from cultural 'norms.'

It's a different experience than many other LGBTQ+ people have, yes. And it's easier to hide in straight spaces. But it's also easier to hide in straight spaces as a bisexual, cis woman than as a trans woman, or a lesbian woman, or any number of other things. Our camouflage options don't define us, just as they don't define you. You do not become a bush when you put on a ghillie suit. Is my experience different from yours? Probably. BOTH of our experiences may be different from a cis gay man's. That doesn't mean his experiences are invalid, unworthy of support, or not in need of protection.

Exclusionist takes stem from the same attitudes conservatives have about women's clothes. I'm not kidding (and I grew up in that space so @ me at your peril). If a conservative person lived in the 1920's, women shouldn't wear pants. Hardline view right there. But in the 70's and 80's jeans and trousers had become so normalized only the MOST conservative groups had any kind of opinion on them, and nowadays skirt-only groups are even rarer.

Exposure and experience made those garments cultural standards instead of something scary and new.

The same thing happens in all spaces, including queer culture.

Ace/aro folks aren't new to the planet, but we've only gotten any significant attention relatively recently. Because people may have to stop and consider out experiences instead of nodding along and going, "Yes, I know what gay generally means," the natural instinct is to push it away.

Challenge that instinct.

We're a community, not a clone factory. We're supposed to be celebrating diversity this month, not playing Mean Girls and defining our moral superiority by who we exclude.

Surviving the Cold: Tips from an old hag

I'm hearing some of ya'll are losing power when it's below freezing. This is terrible, and I am sorry.

If you have time to prep, do it. The Red Cross has several excellent pages on this stuff. If not, work with what you have.

As someone who has survived being snowed into a house without power in subzero temps, here are some suggestions (generally useful even if your power is on):

Light candles: I suggest sticking to small tealights, tapers, or jar candles to avoid building up smoke. Keep them ON a table or tray and AWAY from anything that might dream of catching fire (remember, kids, dust is flammable... as is pet hair). These won't provide the heat a fireplace would, but they will do SOMETHING.

Don't take off your shoes unless you're putting on thick slippers: Frostnip is a bitch and I get it every other year because I'm a dumbass. Learn from my pain.

Cover windows and doors: You know those heavy carpet wall-hangings that are so popular in the northeast parts of Europe and Russia? Those bitches are functional. If you have spare area rugs, comforters, or blankets, tape or tack them over the Ice Portals.

Don't run down your phone battery: Yeah, it's boring, but don't scroll TikTok unless you KNOW you can recharge at will. I had a friend get trapped on the road and I had to organize a whole rescue posse in the dark of night. She only had enough juice for one call. That call probably saved her life.

If it's safe, spend time elsewhere: Become Walmart's resident ghost. Inspire dread in your small town coffee shop's baristas. The library always welcomes hapless ghouls. Better to haunt public spaces with hair you haven't been able to wash for two weeks and smelly clothes than become a statistic.

Layer the fuck up: Multiple socks. Fingerless gloves over regular gloves. Two undershirts, a long-sleeve concert crew neck, you highschool spirit t-shirt, that shirt your friend keeps forgetting to pick up, a thin sweater, a thick sweater, the Horror Your Loving Auntie Knitted Just For You, your old button-up, and a coat. Get a hat. Add a blanket - it's a cloak now. Be ridiculous. Make it weird. Be the junk lady from Labyrinth.

Do not drink booze: Alcohol will make you feel warm while compromising your actual body temperature. Save the schnaps for the party when the power's back.

Ask for help if you need it: Remember how I mentioned the Red Cross? If you need a warm place to shelter until the power's back and you don't have safe family/friends, they can help. Your county may also have emergency shelters in place. Those aren't just for unhoused folks. If you need them, use them, and ASK FOR HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT.

IVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS

Gentle Witchcraft

Just a collection of witchy things that give off a gentle, loving energy without being focused on self love or romantic love specifically <3

It’s the little things:

Gentle little witch things to do

Witchy blessings

I AM… spells

Witch’s morning routine

Glamours:

Glow like the moon

Shine like the sun

To radiate a loving aura

Spells:

To attract kindness

Soft shores bath spell

Quartz wellness bath

Here comes the sun

My love soothes you pet spell

Dandelion wish spell

Restful sleep and sweet dreams

Rose water spells

Room healing spell

Ease the pain

Tarot spreads:

Good morning!

Reduce anxiety 

The new you

Let go and grow

Sigils:

Shimmer and shine

Radical softness

To promote peaceful feelings

Inner peace

I will make it through this

I am comfortable in my own skin

And then this one is my full name, I love both very much ♡ Just surprised there isn't more poetry consodering the rest of my pinterest

rule: go to Pinterest, search “[your name] core aesthetic” and create a moodboard from the first nine images. no need to mention your name!

personal playlists i’ve made that might fit your niche

a country playlist for a friend who is playing rdr2 but doesn’t actually like country

soft pop bops

bad 70s/80s music that i love a lot

early 2000′s nostalgia playlist for kids that were born 1995-1999 and dont fit with millennials or gen z

classical bops that didn’t need to go that hard

That pleasure dom Kyle thought has me thinking about pleasure dom Kyle who knows you've had a hard day at work and is ready for you when you get home. He's sitting on the couch, there's an old comfort movie of yours on in the background, and he's got a cushion by his feet all ready for you.

A smile, warm and welcoming and he says: "Come and kneel for me, precious."

and you do, hardly remembering to kick off your shoes before you all but collapse to his feet in trained submission. You wrap your arms around the back of his knees, lay your head on his lap and allow yourself to fold around his warmth with the low sound of the TV in the background. Kyle wraps a warm, comforting hand around the back of your neck- a reminder of his presence, of who you belong to.

and you just...float. You allow yourself to drift into that fuzzy sort of headspace where everything else becomes so unimportant compared to Kyle, to being just like this for him- sweet and gentle at his feet and being good for him the way you're supposed to be. Kyle strokes a thumb against your nape in slow, deliberate circles- petting you into further relaxation under his touch.

Once he deems you finally pliant enough, it's easy enough to maneuver you onto the couch and spread your legs for him so he can really get to work- offering slow, gentle, rolling orgasms that have you whine and mewl under his clever tongue. He calls you his sweet thing, lovie, doll, and by the end you're floating so blissfully in the haze of your orgasms, in the pleasure of being good that it takes all your effort to allow him to dress you in PJs and settle you both back down for a long, well deserved nap.