Self Appointed Starco and Covy Captain

KOSA IS MOVING FORWARD IN THE HOUSE!

It's part of a package called the KIDS Act, filled with digital ID and age verification and censorship!

MAKE THOSE PHONES RING!! CALL YOUR HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES ALL WEEK

202-224-3121 i HIGHLY encourage everyone to read the bills in the KIDS Act, because you will be doing more than 95% of people who read and introduce these bills

Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortensen all taking the piss out of Orlando Bloom for going on about a cracked rib too much, while Orlando Bloom desperately tries to wriggle out of talking about it (special mention to Elijah Wood’s “oh it hurts, babes, and I can’t ride the horse, babes” and Viggo Mortensen’s “they can be very fragile, elves, especially the…Mirkwood strain…”)

Ian McKellen commenting that “they never did find any suitable underwear for Gandalf…”

Dominic Monaghan going on and on about how Viggo Mortensen apparently had a crush on one of the Rohirrim extras (who like a lot of the Rohirrim extras was a woman in a fake beard) while Vigoo Mortensen just mutters “one could perhaps say something about Mr. Monaghan’s…proclivities…”

Dominic Monaghan’s imitation of John Rhys-Davies ordering food at a restaurant for the whole cast. “You have partridge? BRING THE PARTRIDGE!”

John Rhys-Davies talking about an incident with the Lothlorian boats and saying “if an elf and a dwarf are in a boat…and…the boat goes under…let us say that the blame was not placed on the elf” while Orlando Bloom splutters “he’s a big guy, man!” 

Elijah Wood talking about how the hobbit actors shared a trailer with Ian McKellen and sometimes they would hear inarticulate bellows of protest from his side when they played loud music in the mornings

Viggo Mortensen talking about how, while filming with those same boats, Kirin Shaw (Elijah Wood’s scale double) started telling him “if the boat tips over…save yourself…I can’t swim.” 

Elijah Wood describing how Sean Astin would try to direct the helicopters to land while they were on location, while the other three hobbits were screwing around and throwing pinecones at each other

Christopher Lee recounting how he had so much trouble going up some steps in Orthanc with his long robe that he stopped in the middle of the scene and said, “I cannot get up these goddamn steps, Peter.” 

Viggo kissing Billy Boyd square on the mouth during the filming of Sam’s wedding

The whole thing where Viggo and the stunt men would smash their foreheads together as a greeting and then one time Viggo did it to Orlando Bloom and left a giant mark

When he filmed fight scenes Johnathan Rhys-Davies would hit every single stunt man consistently

Viggo would LITERALLY just go and fish in the river while they were filming

That one video where I think Billy and Dominic are comparing their dicks

when they were filming the bit at the end of Fellowship where Sam runs out to the boat, Sean Astin unfortunately ran right onto a shard of glass that was on the bottom of the lake and hurt his foot badly enough that they had to chopper him out to a hospital.

when readers choose to engage with a story, they're investing their limited time in an unknown outcome. they might like the story, they might hate the story, it might be the greatest thing they'd ever read. but part of the social contract between readers and writers is that it is the writer's own original writing. it is their effort that they are offering in exchange for the reader's attention.

the heart of fandom is that it is a community of people who are putting in labour for no outcome other than human-to-human enjoyment. no one is earning money. no one is "getting" anything out of participating in fandom other than comradery and community.

when people use AI to generate writing and don't tag it, there is an act of deception. it's not a story written by a person, but content generated by a machine. it is taking reader's attention under a false pretext.

my threshold for what i am willing to read if it's written by a human is completely different than if i know it's AI generated. a human with a beautiful unhinged brain may bring a brilliant horniness to a trope that i'm not otherwise that fond of and make it well worth the time to read it. a human can write a story with a take i've never considered before, or a perspective so unique it changes the way i see things.

AI can't do anything new, because it is simply averaging out everything that humans have already written.

when readers choose to spend their limited time writing comments to authors, they need to know if they're commenting on someone's actual writing or something generated by AI. it is absolutely true that some people are happy to read AI generated stories. but I'll see comments on stories that are clearly AI generated talking about how great the writing is and how much they admire the author etc. and it is my guess that at least some of the people wouldn't have chosen to leave that feedback in that way if they'd known the story was AI generated.

people can and do choose to spend their time on things created by AI. but AI can create more content than humans would ever be able to engage with. which is why we need to know if something is AI generated or not.

a human's writing is something that we can't get anywhere else. part of the deception in not tagging that something is AI generated is that we all have access to the same AI apps. do i want to read the slop churned out based on your prompts? or do i want to feed in my own prompts to get slop that is more specifically tailored to my taste? (i mean, i don't. but hypothetically.)

i think there are a lot of good reasons not to use AI to create fic (environmental, writing is great, the joy of the craft etc.), but at the end of the day, that's a choice everyone is going to make for themselves.

If it spoke for itself, tagging it as AI would be trivial. a non issue.

The counter-argument: Not having UBI is in the interests of those in power who want to do anything to the people they are in power over in order to remain in power.

They use the money to pay the first and last month’s rent on a better apartment. They buy school supplies and clothes for their kids. They go to the doctor for preventative care, seek mental health support, and get their kids glasses. They start a retirement fund. They can afford better quality food and repairs on their homes, appliances and cars. Many use the money to start a business or invest.

Know what they tend NOT to do? The vast majority do not buy drugs, they don’t drink it all away, they don’t gamble it away and they don’t blow it all on scratchers, iPhones or garish clothes. They aren’t disincentivized to work. None of those things are morally bad or wrong, but they are the most common arguments against UBI: “MEEEHHHHH WE CAN’T GIVE PEOPLE FREE MONEY THEY WON’T WORK AND THEY’LL BUY DRUUUUUGS!” Take a wild guess who is most often accused of spending money on drugs, scratchers and jewelry. Yep, POC. The mythical “welfare queen” we were all told to hate is a racist stereotype based on a handful of anecdotes during Reagan’s presidency and perpetuated by conservative white people who can’t handle the concept of sharing resources with someone who might be a little poorer, sicker, or darker than they are. Using the term “welfare queen” is a good indicator to me that they watch Fox “News” every day and haven’t had a thought of their own since the Gulf War.

And if you’re further confused, I recommend this video for details:

The Rodeo Rule: you only have to do it for the first time once.

The Rohan Rule: if you are at a social function full of new people and you want to be liked, find someone doing important work like setup or food prep and offer to help.

The Tutorial Mode Rule: to navigate an unfamiliar situation where you fear you will mess up an interaction, preface the interaction by mentioning that you've never done this before, and let them know if you have a specific concern or question.

The Rocket Science Rule: most new things you want to try seem very complicated but are simple when taken step by step.

The [X] Will Remember That Rule: if you need to make small talk with the same person on a regular basis, try to save one fact or current event in their life from a given conversation and bring it up next time you talk.