Hello everyone, I have 3 plot ideas set in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe that I'd love to play out. I'd prefer to play OCs (and have a few made already) and I'm happy to play with your OCs! Although some of these plots could be interesting with canon characters too!
Plot 1: Foreign Affairs
While most of the history of Jujutsu Sorcery stems from Japan, there have been sorcerers and curses users from countries all around the world. Most curses however are found in Japan because of ancient traditions. And the strongest curse ever found outside of mainland Japan, was only a first grade. Thus the protection of humans in other countries was left to their small pool of local sorcerers. However... A special grade curse has appeared in the United States, already it's wiped out two 1st Grade Sorcerers. However, one American sorcerer stepped up and was able to defeat it, earning them the honor of being the first foreign Special Grade Sorcerer. Now they are tasked with starting a Jujutsu school to raise a new generation of sorcerers who can protect humanity.
-In this we would have a mentor character and a cast of students. I'm happy to play either the mentor and a student or two students if you have a mentor character in mind.
Plot 2: The Child of Prophecy
During the Heian period, the famous sorcerer clans were high and mighty above all others. The Zennin Clan in particular were quite powerful with their shadowy techniques. However in a small village a woman named Yuki Kura was born. Her cursed technique was called Luminance: the ability to generate and imbue light with cursed energy. While she was moderately strong, likely a second grade in modern rankings, the Zennin Clan wanted more from her. The potential of mixing a light based, and shadow based inherited technique had potential to make a sorcerer of legend. Yuki was forced into marrying a promising young sorcerer from the Zennin Clan, however Yuki made a heavenly pact that no child of hers would be a sorcerer, not until a descendant was born strong enough to live freely. Now a thousand years later... A descendant of Yuki was born with the power of luminance.
-This plot is based around a specific OC of mine, if you couldn't tell by her elaborate backstory. This plot/character could be added on to the other two plots, but I like the idea of this prophesized girl having to learn from an old master. With a focus on her getting stronger and learning.
Plot 3: Can a Curse be Allowed to Live?
Curses are seen as a natural evil, like earthquakes, and typhoons. A horrible threat to humanity that must be stopped as much as possible. However, could a curse... Help humanity? Could a new curse be guided from its distructive nature and become a sorcerer?
-This one also follows a mentostudent dynamic. I have 2 characters in mind for this RP a girl who's the daughter of a human sorcerer and a cursed spirit. Or a newly formed cursed spirit, the android-like Future Curse
Please message or chat me if any of this sounds interesting! Thank you for reading!

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Hello, I’m a second generation Greek American and I was wondering if someone could help me figure out how my last name was probably actually pronounced in Greek?
I don’t have a typical Greek last name and also don’t want to just put my last name and out there lol so I would like to talk through dms please, thanks!

Lonely Castle in the Mirror, by Mizuki Tsujimura
"Lonely Castle in the Mirror" is a genre-savvy portal fantasy about junior high students who get drawn into a mysterious castle when they're supposed to be in school. Kokoro had a terrible experience early in the school year that's made her terrified of facing her classmates, and develops some kind of (psychosomatic?) illness that prevents her from attending either the normal school or a special alternative school for students who need more support. Shortly after this, her bedroom mirror turns into a portal to the castle with six other students who are also not in school during the normal hours. The "Wolf Queen" in charge--an elementary school girl who enjoys allusions to "Little Red Riding Hood"--tells them all that there's a secret key in the castle that can grant one wish, and they have a year to find it and, potentially, use it. Also, if anyone is caught in the castle outside of the 9-5 school day timeframe, they'll all be eaten by a wolf.
So, these painfully shy students have the opportunity to make friends and have a non-terrifying experience with kids their own age, and they all enjoy bonding and playing video games and drinking tea together, and for the most part nobody cares about finding the key, because that would make the castle close and prematurely end their new friendship. For most of the book, the contrived quest stuff doesn't play into it. And then when it does, it kind of lampshades "oh yeah I have to do this on speedrun mode."
There are a lot of takes pointing out that books where "the magic goes away"/"everyone loses their memories"/"we just have to move on with our lives and pretend like the portal fantasy never happened" can be pretty messed up. In this book, however, I couldn't find myself relating to the characters because it felt like a perverse incentives situation. Yes, middle school is an emotionally volatile, turbulent, unpleasant environment full of many immature people. This is a pretty common experience, actually. Kokoro just can't handle it, and as a response, the infinitely patient teacher at the alternative school reassures her mother that she's battling really hard and it's not her fault, she just can't go to school, and then she gets to go through a portal into fantasy world with people who play video games and eat snacks all day...? I understand there's more to it than that, but something has to change about this situation because otherwise this really isn't the message you want to send. (Once we learn about the backgrounds and life situations of some of the other students, I can imagine how it was easier for people like Subaru and Aki to fall through the cracks, but it feels like, eg, Masamune and Ureshino's junior high situation should have had some kind of guidance counselor or adult in the room. The readers' guide in the back of the book describes Kokoro as a "futoko," and I understand this is more pervasive in Japan than elsewhere, but I have a hard time accepting that seventh graders staying home for months on end with no apparent homeschooling or tutoring gets such a shrug.)
The prose didn't really grab me, sometimes it felt awkward ("That day, Fuka apparently enjoyed the chocolates back home, for she faithfully reported to Kokoro that 'they were delicious.'") and there were a several parts with very. short. one. line. paragraphs.

Kokoro tried to convince herself that she hadn't been at home that day. Miori and the others had simply pounded on the door of an empty house, trampled over the patio, gone round and round over outside of the house. But nothing actually happened. Nothing at all. She never was about to be killed. And yet the next day, she said, "I have a stomachache." And she really did. It was no lie. And her mother chimed in: "You do look pale. Are you OK?" And that's when Kokoro stopped going to school.

A few paragraphs later:

Would she be able to protect herself?
The only place she could now go to freely from her bedroom was the castle.
If I'm in the castle, she started to think, then I'll be safe.
Only the castle beyond the mirror could offer her complete protection.

Girl, I know your mental health isn't the greatest, but we're talking about the place where people threatened you with being eaten alive by a wolf. ??? Sorry, my suspension of belief does not extend this far.
There's also a random red herring with a neighbor student whose father has an interest in researching fairy tales, and like, maybe that "real world" location/characters are related in some way to the portal world? No, it's just a fortuitous coincidence that helps Kokoro have access to more Western fairy tale info.
The good news is, about halfway through the characters start developing some genre-savviness and realizing what they have in common, and towards the end, things pick up significantly in terms of how and why some of the arbitrary fairy-tale logic came about. So it definitely sticks the landing in that way.
Bingo: Prologue/Epilogue, Author of Color, Book Club
Promise of the Flame, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl
At the end of "Stewards of the Flame," to which this book is a sequel, our heroes Jesse, Carla, and Peter had hijacked a spaceship and jumped to an uninhabited planet to set up a colony where humans could develop psionic powers free from the medical bureaucracy of Undine. Jesse's hyperspace jump was rushed and not perfectly calculated, so in order to ensure their oxygen supply makes it all the way to planet Maclairn (named after their late founder), the Group had to confront their deepest fear and brave the stasis boxes that had been Chekhov-gunned several times in the last section. As the existence of the sequel implies, the protagonists and most of their comrades survive stasis. But while, in "Stewards," the hyperspace navigation "error"/imperfection sets up the Group's ultimate test, here it casts a long shadow as Jesse keeps wondering, "could we have picked a better landing site if I hadn't screwed it up?"
The early days on Maclairn are a struggle. The first part of the book is a recurring cycle of "should we do things this way or that way? Well, we came here to set up a society fully founded on mind powers, we pretty much have to commit to the bit or else what's the point." Repeat ad infinitum. Later, this broadens somewhat to "we have to have psi powers coexist with modern technology to fulfill Ian [Maclairn]'s dream, otherwise what's the point." There are clear parallels to (Engdahl's older trilogy) "Children of the Star"; that society represents the endpoint if they go down a path of giving up on modern technology--and the burdens of agrarian, high-population-growth societies fall disproportionately on women. If "Stewards" had motifs of baptism, this is more of an Exodus story, with the characters sulking about "why did you bring us out of Undine just to starve in the wilderness, at least there we had enough to eat." "My God, came Carla’s thought, we’re homesick! Homesick for Undine! I never admitted that to myself, it was so foolish, I’d wanted so much to leave . . . I guess I just pushed it down inside, into a place I didn’t dare go. . . ."
The consequences of the hyperspace jump being off are a minor tonal retcon/change in perspective on the events of the first book. A more significant one, to me, involves love triangle dynamics. In "Stewards," we learn that Carla and Peter both previously had spouses who died under the authoritarian Undine government. Fortunately, Jesse shows up just when Carla is ready to love again, and their relationship brings him into the Group and thus enables their escape from Undine. "Promise" adds that Peter has been silently pining for Carla all along, but needed Jesse's starship skills too much to say anything. We're told the Group's adult recruits skew slightly female, but that isn't represented among the main characters, and you're telling me that none of them are Peter's type? All three of them sigh and angst about "oh, we're such great friends, we can't let this love triangle come between us," and at times it feels like it's setting up for a polygamy plotline (they're all highly powerful telepaths, they can't keep secrets from each other!) And then it just...goes nowhere. As in the first book, I can accept that sex is probably great among telepaths; I can't buy that every single person has to have sex in order to fully level up their telepathic sensitivity!
The best parts of "Promise" involve the culture clashes between Jesse, who grew up on Earth; the rest of the adult Group members, from Undine; and the Maclairn-born generation. Undine's environment is so tightly regulated, they don't even have insects or lizards, so the planet's "collective unconsciousness" doesn't have a fear of creepy-crawlies; Jesse's initial revulsion risks "contaminating" the psyche until everyone faces their fear.

“Horror vids involving animal life aren’t permitted on colony worlds,” Peter told him. “Haven’t you ever wondered why starship libraries don’t contain any? Earth has always banned their export as a measure to protect extraterrestrial lifeforms. It’s one of the few government trade regulations I think is wise.” Of course, Jesse realized. The average Earth citizen’s reaction would have been to kill the crawlies—if possible, to exterminate them. That hadn’t occurred to anyone yesterday. And horror vids often portrayed even intelligent aliens as repulsive; what kind of precedent would that set if similar ones were ever encountered?
Traditionally, said the knowledgebase, small farmers had chopped chickens’ heads off with a hatchet. Wringing their necks was said to be more humane, but nobody wanted to experiment on live, squawking chickens despite the specific instructions provided. These warned that the hardest part, in the physical sense, would be catching a grown chicken in the first place—a fact soon borne out by experience, as chickens are not devoid of telepathic sensitivity and the pursuers were unconsciously broadcasting their intent to kill.
Kel, like many of the Group’s other children, had been slow in learning to talk. It had taken awhile before it dawned on the adults that this was because the kids’ telepathic bonds with their parents had been so strongly encouraged that they felt no need to communicate vocally. Speech could not be allowed to die out in a psi-based culture; it was essential not only to reading but to the framing and communication of complex ideas. Now, everyone realized that like the skills for volitional control of the body, telepathic conveyance of concepts, as distinguished from emotions, must wait until the kids were older.

On the other hand, the scope of "this is dangerous, but we must, to commit to the psionic bit" and "well, we've come through a lot of tough situations before, but this time really is the end...jk never mind we got out of it" got repetitive. There was one scene towards the end where it's like "okay, we're almost done, I can see how telepathy might be used to enable a permanent self-sacrifice...nope, we're still going, huh," and even though some of the resolutions were nice callbacks/tying up foreshadowing, it was still a lot.
Like in James P. Hogan's "Voyage to Yesteryear," the kids who were raised outside of Earth and Undine's prejudices are, overall, a great step forward for humankind, but there can be some values dissonance. In both cases, the desire for lots of population growth leads to a much lower age of consent than Earthlings are used to. Justified somewhat more in Maclairn's case; telepathy means almost everyone wouldn't fathom hurting each other and of course sex is consensual, as well as amazing. On the other hand, in both cases, there's no prison infrastructure; if someone is determined to be evil and is posing a grave threat to others, you just have to kill them. "Promise" gets a little more philosophical about the problem of evil--if it's not nature and it's not nurture, what causes it? Free will? Sure, but it seems as if some people are also evil from day one even if their DNA is just fine.
There are a couple shoutouts to Lord of the Rings and Star Trek that fit in nicely. I found "it's just like using the Force, you know, like in that old vid, Star Wars" to be more of a distraction. Similarly, Engdahl's commitment to showing her work ("in the twentieth century on Earth, you know, people experimented with remote viewing!") got to be a distraction. But the exploration of "okay, let's try a rain dance, even if it fails we're learning something and pushing knowledge forward" was a great use of the "sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" trope, which is what I come to Engdahl for anyway.
Some people, like Peter, tend to believe in an afterlife; others, like Jesse, are more skeptical. Earth religions don't transfer well to other planets because the interstellar gap is too big for the collective unconsciousness to bridge. Despite this, characters use the word "God" (like in a telepathic context of "Carla . . . oh, God, Carla, answer me!") approximately 144 times. Do you have no one else's name to take in vain???
Criticisms aside, I do think that this is less heavy-handed than "Stewards" and at least as good a starting point!
Bingo: Dreams, Prologues/Epilogues, Self-Published, Survival. One prominent character acquires a physical disability midway through the story. Jesse and Peter's Criminal record on Undine is not very important (since the entire book is set on or around Maclairn), but it becomes more prominent in the last section.
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, by Shannon Chakraborty
Once upon a time (1100s Indian Ocean) there was a notorious nakhudha (pirate captain) named Amina al-Sirafi. Ten years ago, she retired, and now she's a single mom with a bad knee and a leaky roof. However, a wealthy noblewoman who believes her granddaughter has been kidnapped by a Western European would-be sorcerer insists on having Amina rescue her, never mind Amina's own family responsibilities. So Amina has to put the band back together, staying one step ahead of the authorities while getting to the bottom of the mystery.
Amina and her crew are likable rogues. I found this easier to get into than Chakraborty's "City of Brass". That book focused more on a long-term conflict between two factions, neither of whom consistently seem like the "good guys"; maybe that's supposed to be sending a message about RL actually works, but I found it confusing at times. In contrast, the early sections of "Amina" are about tracking down individual allies, from a gay smuggler stuck in a prison in Aden, to a navigator and family man in Mogadishu, while researching the notorious Falco Palamenestra and speculating what he might be up to.
At first, Amina's Muslim identity comes through more in the ways characters talk, and some level of monster-fighting exorcism (like Catholicism in some horror movies), than actual practice. But gradually, we see more of how she's struggled to be a parent in her post-pirate life:

If the criminal past didn’t alert you, I have not always been a very good Muslim. Drinking and missing prayer were among my lesser sins, and if I tried to straighten myself up every year when Ramadan rolled around—a new life of piety easy to imagine while dazed with thirst and caught up in the communal joy of taraweeh—I typically lapsed into my usual behavior by the time the month of Shawwal had ended.
But then Marjana was born. And Asif was . . . lost. And if one of these events made me feel as though I had no right to ever call upon God again, the other filled with me a driving need I could not deny. So I keep my daily prayers, even if I feel unworthy the entire time.

To me, this rang true as a depiction of a complicated, realistic, person of faith.
This is a time and place that I knew very little about. For instance, one plotline involves the island of Socotra, an island off the coast of Somalia which is today part of Yemen. There are caves there with graffiti from sailors going back thousands of years, in Indian and Greek and Ethiopic scripts. This is a real place! I would not have been able to tell you anything about it before reading this book! So Chakraborty's vivid descriptions of places this, and of the diverse cultures and religious backgrounds of pirates who live and work alongside each other, is compelling. There's a danger in this as a reader, though, in that getting too caught up in the "worldbuilding" of the actual world can make it feel like its "foreignness" is what makes it speculative and fantastical, which is obviously inaccurate and beside the point. That's one reason why jumping in at the deep end with an honest-to-goodness sea monster in chapter one might have been a good choice, to remind us that there really are otherworldly things happening.
The themes of "rich people love to jerk poor people around" and "the male gaze sucks" are clear, but there's lots of quippy banter mixed in.

“That was you, was it not? The woman who poisoned the soldiers at the wali’s office, freed a crew of homicidal pirates, set a score of ships on fire, and fled the harbor in the middle of the night?” “I would never confirm such a thing and put you at risk of consorting with criminals. But it was two ships, not a score. I wouldn’t wish to encourage exaggeration.”
Sailing past its ancient breakwater—the stones said to have been set there by giants—you might feel as though you have entered a mythical port of magic from a sailor’s yarn. You would be sorely mistaken. Aden is where magic goes to be crushed by the muhtasib’s weights, and if wonder could be calculated, this city would require an ordinance taxing it.
“She knows you are a pirate?” “I am not a pirate,” Majed huffed. “I am a cartographer with a checkered past.” “Yes. A checkered past of piracy.”

The book contains a few chapters that are "in-universe documentation" or chronicles of the places and people in the main narrative. This is a trope I really enjoy at times. However, in this case, I didn't feel it added much, beyond underscoring the themes that "men feel threatened by powerful women, oh no."
The biggest issue for me was how all the diverse, sympathetic characters just kind of went along with developments that felt more reminiscent of 2020s Tumblr idiolect than 1100s Indian Ocean. How fortuitously convenient! (At least it got a Hugo nom.)
Smaller quibbles: the timeframe with Amina in her forties is appeSaling to the extent that it's a story about a working mother trying to follow her own dreams while also desperately missing her kid. But in order to make that work, the narrative sometimes withholds a lot of important information about the tragedies in Amina's past/her relationship with her child's father until it can be brought forward for dramatic effect, and it made me wonder what a story from the younger Amina's POV would look like without the artificial suspense problem.
More broadly, I felt like the second half's pace wasn't as crisp as the first--there's a dramatic near-death experience, then a bunch of fantastical creatures are introduced in quick succession as if to make up for the "worldbuilding via the actual world" stuff earlier, then we get a very contrived in-universe sequel hook, then we double back to a setting that had already been introduced. Whereas the first part was "we need to go to A to do B and then that gives us a clue that leads us to C."
Who wore it better?

“It is invalid!” I burst out. “Our nikah. It is not permissible for me to marry a non-Muslim.” Raksh frowned. “Is that why the man had me say all those words about God and prophets?” He returned to studying the contract. “Trust me, dear wife, I can be a vast number of things.” “But—but you are not a believer.” “Of course I am. Best to know the competition, yes?”

Compare "Alif the Unseen" (which is one of my favorites and I suspect I probably was harsh on "City of Brass" by comparison):

"But I told him I couldn't marry him even if I wanted to, because I can't marry an unbeliever. And he laughed and said he'd been a believer, 'for a the better part of a thousand years,' I believe were the exact words." "What?" said Alif. "Vikram? Vikram the madman who bites people?" "He might be those things," said the convert hastily, "but did you ever know him to do or say anything really blasphemous?" "I guess not."

Bingo: Alliterative Title, Criminals, Dreams, Reference Materials, Readalong! It's planned to be First in a Series but the sequels aren't out yet. (Statistics from last year just came out and this was the most popular book across all 2023 bingo cards, with ~200 reads!)
Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik
When I read "Uprooted" and griped about the implausible romance and/or reactive plot, people's reactions were "try Spinning Silver, it's an improvement in some of those ways." And yeah, it is! I was aware that Spinning Silver was set in the same world as Uprooted, ~1700s Eastern Europe but with some fantasy elements, and that it was based on Rumplestiltskin.
But it's a lot more than a simple retelling. "Spinning Silver" teases out the individual trope elements of Rumplestiltskin--a mercenary father trying to get his daughter to marry up, the dead mother looming over the plot, a woman given the impossible task of making gold out of other elements, terrible bargains, aloof and unknowable beings from the fae world, the power of knowing someone's true name, the horror of a mother trading her child to inhuman creatures--and blows them all up, turning them inside-out, and creating something original.
It also does a lot with POV. For the first chunk, we have two young women from a small town who go back and forth telling the stories of their business dealings. But as the book goes on, we start jumping into more and more people's heads, and everyone's voice is very different. Sometimes this can be used for dramatic irony; we hear what character A thinks of their interaction with B, then we jump back and tell the same scene from B's POV and what was going through their head is very different than what A assumes. Once in a while, this makes the plot drag--there's a couple of scenes towards the end where we can't have any suspense about "oh no, will they find what they're looking for" because we've just seen the corresponding scene from another POV, and it would have been more effective to rearrange them--but overall, things are propelled forward much more intriguingly than "Uprooted."
Our POV characters are:

• Miryem, the daughter of the village moneylender. Miryem's family is Jewish, which means her father is one of the few people socially permitted to work as a moneylender--but he's more interested in currying favor with the neighbors than getting his debts repaid, so his family goes hungry. Miryem steps up, grows "cold" and "wintry," and takes on his job, to her parents' horror. But an offhand remark about "look, I can turn silver into gold" (metaphorically, because of, you know, capitalism) inadvertently catches the ear of the "Staryk," monstrous elven raiders who live in a parallel realm.
• Wanda, the daughter of an abusive alcoholic. Miryem is like "he can't pay off his debt because he's drunk everything away, I'll have them repay me by hiring Wanda to assist me with our work, I know this is cold and ruthless but I have to." Then when we see it from Wanda's POV she's like "you're giving me money to be out of the house and away from my father? And you'll even feed me? What an undeserved kindness!" Her reaction to "learning to manipulate numbers and do arithmetic is an amazing kind of magic!" felt cheesy and over-the-top, but the contrast between the literal phrasing of a royal decree and the way she "translates" it was more convincing.
• Irina, the daughter of the duke of Vysnia (Vilnius, Lithuania). Like Wanda, her mother is dead and her father is trying to arrange the most profitable marriage for her, never mind what she wants. When Miryem is compelled to turn magical Staryk silver into gold, she does so by having an acquaintance forge silver jewelry which the duke purchases--so when the gold takes on magical powers in the Staryk world, so does the silver with Irina, and brings her to the attention of a tsar. Despite her cold relationship with her father, she learns a lot from him and is a true politician, adept as anyone at cutting deals to keep her realm safe.
• Stepon, Wanda's younger brother. His narration is very simple and childlike (amazing cold open with "I like goats because I know what they will do.") It's possible he has some kind of sensory/mental health issues, or it's possible he's just eleven and overstimulated by unfamiliar crowds.
• Magreta, Irina's nurse/caretaker. She can be kind and supportive, but her casual antisemitism provides a contrast to how Miryem is treated by the villagers.
• Mirnatius, the tsar. For a while we mostly see him through Irina's POV ("this guy is so full of himself he requires a new outfit every day, that's no way to manage the economy"), but again, his narration provides a very different perspective on what's going on.

So I said the romance was better than "Uprooted," in that we didn't have the implausible "elderly magician berates young woman all the time but also they can't keep their hands off each other." In "Spinning Silver," both {Miryem and the Staryk king} and {Irina and Mirnatius} are paired off without much say-so on anybody's part, it's being manipulated by magic/higher-ups. So the timeframe of the book is mostly them all learning how to tolerate each other, and the romance is kind of left to your imagination in the future era.
The Staryk magic is kind of like...you can see their roads briefly if they make incursions in the human world, but as soon as they've disappeared, you start forgetting them and it really takes effort to remember. This means that if someone, like Miryem, disappears into the Staryk world, she's forgotten almost immediately except for little irregularities that don't seem right. These depictions were well-done. (Except that I was trying to remember if the Staryk were the same as the [jerk, mundane human] aristocrats in "Uprooted." They're not. I think I was half-remembering "Marek," the creepy prince, instead of "Staryk," the winter elves.)
There's a cool liminal space that sets up back-and-forth "communication" between the human and Staryk realms, and again, the multiple POVs are a good framework for this. On the other hand, there are some things, like, why do the Staryk want human gold, that are kind of chalked up to "magic idk" and not completely spelled out; for some of the confrontations at the end, again, it's better not to worry too much about hard magic systems and just go with the vibes. There's also an earlier plot that definitely plays the trope of "the less the audience knows about the plan, the more likely it is to succeed" trope straight.
Especially early on, it can be a very bleak "everyone sucks here" setting. Wanda and Stepon's father is horrific. Irina's father is mercenary and sets her up with Mirnatius, a dandy who abuses animals for fun. Nobody in the village respects Miryem's family, and when she tries to reclaim what she's due, her parents are horrified. The Staryk raid the village and carry off women and demand impossible tasks. There's a lot of "I have my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it" coming from all sides. Even though the plot is moving forward, it's hard to feel like there's anything to root for.
But cracks of light shine through. Miryem's mother, and her mother, defy the "dead moms" trope, and are able to be loving parental figures to Wanda, Stepon, and their brother Sergey. Miryem's grandfather is wise and conscientious, warning her of the risks that some of her choices pose not only to their family but to the Vysnia Jewish community as a whole, but still recognizing she's mature enough to make her own choices. They even make use of a real-world Jewish blessing for the first blossoming of trees in the spring. Even when people are trying to be cold, sometimes they're just too human!
Bingo: Alliterative Title, Under the Surface (not for most of the plot, but there is a secret tunnel that gets use), Multi-POV (and how!)
The Infinite Arena (edited by Terry Carr)
Anthology of SF short stories about sports, stumbled upon while browsing a used bookstore. I like sports and the first one was based on "Casey at the Bat," so okay, sold.
It's from 1977, and the stories were originally published in the 40s-70s timeframe. The sex ratio among writers appears to be nine men, zero women, which is pretty "impressive" considering there are only seven stories. Three of them are installments from series that feature the same recurring character(s), so maybe that explains some of the...paucity? I don't want to say they're "flat" or "shallow" or anything, most of the contemporary "deep" stuff isn't to my taste either, but it feels like there's "no 'there' there" for several of these. In some cases, it's like, "we have to raise the stakes by involving gambling/someone's fate being on the line"; in others, it's looking for parallels between sports and other aspects of life (warfare? weird alien insects?) that provide the impetus for two plots to intertwine.
-Joy in Mudville (Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson)--very impressionable and earnest teddy-bear-like alien species imprints on humans, and immediately become obsessed with baseball. One of the aliens names himself Mighty Casey, but unfortunately, opponents can rattle him by reminding him of how "Casey at the Bat" turned out. Fortunately, what poetry can break, poetry can also fix...

"You untentacled mammal! raged Ush Karuza. "You sslimeless conformation of bored flesh!" Alex had long ago discovered that mankind rarely reacts to insults couched in nonhuman terms. It did not offend him at all to be told that he was slimeless.

-Bullard Reflects (Malcolm Jameson)--Dazzle Dart is a sport played by bouncing light rays around with reflective gear and aiming for a goal at the opponents' end. Like American football, one team is designated on offense at a time, and the other is on defense, but you can "intercept" and score from on defense. In Dazzle Dart, this is worth bonus points. Except instead of normal goals and "turnover" goals being worth one and two points respectively, it's twenty-five and fifty. And you thought Quidditch was silly. (This is from 1941.)
-The Body Builders (Keith Laumer)--the best of the stories, in my opinion, in that it predicts both technological advancement and the social changes that will ensue in a clever way.

So it's a little artificial maybe--but what about the Orggies, riding around in custom-built cars that are nothing but substitute personalities, wearing padded shoulders, contact lenses, hearing aids, false teeth, cosmetics, elevator shoes, rugs to cover their bald domes? If you're going to wear false eyelashes, why not false eyes? Instead of a nose bob, why not bob the whole face? At least a fellow wearing a Servo is honest about it, which is more than you can say for an Orggie doll in a foam-rubber bra--not that Julie needed any help in that department.

-The Great Kladnar Race (Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett)--bored humans on an alien planet try introducing something like horse races that they can bet on. However, the aliens' concepts of sports and competition and betting don't necessarily align with the humans'.
-Mr. Meek Plays Polo (Clifford D. Simak)--guy who has only seen one space polo game in his life somehow accidentally stumbles into being the "expert" space polo coach, oops. Also there are weird alien bugs that are great at computation (a little like "The Circle").
-Sunjammer (Arthur C. Clarke, whose name is spelled wrong on the front cover)--a solar flare interrupts a solar sailboat race. Felt timely given the storm of a few days ago! (I did not get to see the aurora, alas.)
-Run to Starlight (George R. R. Martin)--short and slow but extremely muscular aliens enter an American football league and crush everyone, metaphorically and literally. However, the aliens' concepts of sports and competition don't necessarily align with the humans'. Too bad he never wrote anything else ;)
Bingo: 5+ short stories.

My name is João, and I hesitated a lot before deciding to share this story with you. People tend to be incredulous about these matters and often judge quickly. However, on recommendation, I have resolved to reveal this experience here.
At sixteen, my life unfolded in the serenity of the interior of Pernambuco, Brazil. Our home was located on a vast expanse of land, surrounded by endless sugar cane fields that stretched as far as the eye could see. The nearest town barely deserved the title of a town; it was just a cluster of modest houses, a simple church, and a few shops scattered along a single dirt road. Life there was slow and peaceful, as if we were immune to the pressures and worries of the outside world.
We lived on a sugar cane farm, a property that had belonged to my family for generations. It was arid land, marked by the relentless sun that shone mercilessly over the golden fields. My father spent his days working in the cane fields, sweating under the scorching heat, while my mother took care of the house and us, her children, with unwavering love and dedication. My little sister, Ana, was the light of our lives, with her innocent laughter and insatiable curiosity about the world around her.
Our farm was a haven of tranquility, an oasis of calm amidst the bustle of the modern world. At night, we could contemplate the starry sky without the interference of city lights and listen to the sounds of nature echoing through the landscape. It was a simple life, but full of meaning, where family bonds were forged by close companionship, and traditional values ​​were preserved with pride.
My routine was a delicate dance between obligations and leisure moments. The sun would rise, painting the sky with orange hues, and I would already be up, ready to help my father in the plantation. The hours passed between hard work under the scorching sun, the sweet smell of sugar cane filling my senses. Each movement was a repeated ritual, a choreography I knew as well as my own breath.
In the afternoon, when the heat began to wane, I returned home. My mother, with agile hands and keen eyes, coordinated the household chores with the precision of a conductor. I helped where I could, washing dishes, sweeping the dirt floor, bringing firewood to the kitchen. It was a simple but comforting routine, an echo of ancient times when life flowed smoothly, without haste or worry.
At night, after a simple and comforting dinner, I had a brief moment of freedom. Sometimes, I retreated to a quiet corner of the house to devour the pages of a book, letting myself be carried away by stories that transported me to distant worlds and thrilling adventures. Other times, I went out to meet my friends, walking along dark roads under the starlight, sharing laughter and secrets until late into the night.
However, this tranquility was abruptly interrupted by something strange and inexplicable. It was on a morning like any other, when the sun rose on the horizon and the birdsong heralded a new day, that my father noticed the marks on the door. They were not simple scratches; they were deep grooves in the wood, as if something with sharp claws had torn the surface with supernatural force.
At first, we attributed these marks to wild animals, perhaps a jaguar in search of food or a hungry wolf. But we soon realized that there was something more sinister at play. The marks always appeared during the full moon, as if some hidden power were in tune with the cycles of nature, waiting for the right moment to manifest itself.
My family, rooted in the ancient legends and superstitions of the region, began to act cautiously. We placed food outside the house, hoping to appease any disturbed entity behind the mysterious marks. But, to our dismay, the manifestations did not cease; they only diminished in intensity, as if the creature haunting us was only testing our limits, waiting for the right moment to make its next move.
As the nights passed and the marks continued to appear, fear began to creep into our hearts. Every unexpected sound, every shadow in the darkness, left us tense and alert, fearing what might be lurking beyond the walls of our home. However, the worst part was when my younger sister, only six years old at the time, became the target of the creature. She reported hearing whispers in the wind at night, as if someone were outside her window, whispering dark secrets to her.
Restlessness began to grow within me. The nights were filled with a strange silence, interrupted only by the rustling of leaves and the sounds of the forest. Every noise, every unexpected sound made my heart beat faster. We knew something was out there, but we didn't know what. However, we became accustomed to the situation, in part thanks to the offerings our parents left every full moon night outside our house. Even in the face of strange events, we felt some relief in believing that we were a little safer.
As the nights unfolded, something even more sinister began to manifest. In addition to the marks on the door, mud marks began to appear on the windows, as if the one tormenting us not only wanted to scare us, but also to watch us closely. The fear that was already present in our hearts began to grow, fueled by each new clue of the invisible presence surrounding us.
Then things took an even darker turn. My sister, Ana, who was only six years old at the time, began to report disturbing things. She said she heard whispers in the wind at night, as if someone were outside her window, whispering dark secrets to her. Her frightened expression and the dark circles under her eyes betrayed the sleepless nights and torment that haunted her.
Worry and terror took hold of us. Every night became a frightening challenge, where every shadow seemed to hide an imminent threat. Even with the offerings left outside, we couldn't shake the feeling that something malevolent was lurking around us, patiently watching, waiting for the right moment to act.
Until it happened.
On that fateful night, darkness fell upon the house like a shadowy mantle, enveloping every corner in a cold and relentless embrace. The wind blew with a supernatural intensity, its howling gusts echoing through the corridors like the wails of lost souls begging for redemption. The moonlight, pale and sinister, cast its trembling rays through the windows, turning the furniture into twisted shapes and casting grotesque shadows on the walls.
Ana's sharp cry pierced the silence of the night, a sound so ominous that it seemed to come from the very bowels of the earth. It was as if a veil had been torn, revealing the hidden terror lurking in the shadows. We ran desperately to her room, our footsteps echoing through the empty corridors like the drumbeat of an imminent funeral.
Upon entering the room, we were greeted by a scene that resembled a painting of hell. The window was shattered into a thousand pieces, the sparkling glass scattered on the floor like shards of a broken mirror. The moon, in its macabre fullness, cast a trembling light on the scene, illuminating the nightmare unfolding before us.
Ana was crouched in a corner of the room, her small body trembling with terror, her wide eyes reflecting the horror consuming her from within. A sinister shadow loomed over her, a distorted and grotesque figure that seemed to have stepped straight out of the darkest nightmares. It was the Labatut, its presence exuding an aura of malice and despair.
It was an imposing and terrifying figure, a manifestation of terror in its most primal form. Its body was colossal, dominating the space with its intimidating presence. Hoofed feet pounded the ground with a force that made the earth tremble under its weight. Every step it took echoed like distant thunder, announcing its imminent arrival.
Its body was covered in rough and tangled fur, a dark coat that seemed to absorb the light around it, casting sinister shadows in all directions. Its single eye, in the middle of its forehead, gleamed with a terrifying intensity, radiating an aura of malice and power. It was as if it could see directly into the soul of those who crossed its path, probing the deepest secrets and fears.
The Labatut's mouth was filled with grotesque teeth, each as sharp as a blade, resembling elephant tusks ready to tear its prey apart. A low, menacing growl escaped its throat, filling the air with a sense of imminent terror. It was impossible to face that monster without feeling a shiver run down the spine, fear paralyzing the muscles and clouding the mind.
Its movements were agile and silent, despite its enormous stature. It moved like a shadow in the darkness, gliding between dark corners and narrow alleys with alarming ease. It was as if it were always lurking, waiting for the perfect moment to launch its deadly attack and disappear again into the shadows.
The Labatut was more than a simple creature; it was terror itself personified, a force of nature that defied any rational explanation. Its presence was a grim reminder that evil can take many forms, some beyond human comprehension, and that even the bravest can succumb to the darkness it represents.
My father, driven by a mixture of anger and despair, grabbed his shotgun and fired at the creature, but the shots seemed to dissipate in the air like smoke. The Labatut let out a deafening howl, a sound that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and my bones tremble with fear. And then, in the blink of an eye, it lunged at Ana, its claws outstretched to grab her and drag her into the darkness.
My mother, in a final act of desperation, threw herself over her, trying to protect her with her own fragile body. But it was too late. With a quick and brutal movement, the Labatut grabbed Ana and disappeared before our eyes, leaving behind only the echo of her anguished screams.
We stood there, paralyzed by shock and pain, as the emptiness of loss enveloped us like a cold mist. What remained of our family was torn apart, our hearts heavy with grief and despair. In the days that followed, the farm seemed darker and lonelier than ever, every shadow twisting like the very manifestation of the fear that consumed us from within.
I, especially, was haunted by the trauma of that fateful night. Every dark whisper of the wind transported me back to that moment, and every shadow turned into the grotesque figure of the Labatut, its sinister presence haunting my thoughts and deepest dreams.
I knew I could no longer live on that farm, surrounded by such painful memories and the constant fear of the unknown. So, when the time came, I left behind the life I knew, setting out in search of a new beginning in the big city. But even from a distance, the terror of that night never left me. The Labatut became a permanent shadow in my life, a ghost that haunted my thoughts and pursued me wherever I went. Every dark corner, every elongated shadow, was a cruel reminder of that terrible moment that changed the course of my existence forever.
In the big city, I tried to bury my memories under the weight of everyday life. I immersed myself in work, keeping my mind busy during the day to avoid the horrors that came at night. But even there, among the skyscrapers and bustling streets, I couldn't completely escape the past that haunted me.
The nights were the worst. Wrapped in the darkness of my apartment, I found myself at the mercy of my own dark thoughts. Every creak of the building's structure, every whisper of the wind, made me tremble with fear, transporting me back to that fateful night when the Labatut entered our lives and tore away our innocence and happiness.
I tried to find comfort where I could, seeking the help of therapists and counselors who promised relief for my tormented soul. But nothing seemed to completely dissipate the terror that clung to me like a persistent shadow, always present in the darkest corner of my mind.
Years passed, but the Labatut still remained as an indomitable presence in my life. Its twisted face appeared in my most vivid nightmares, its claws outstretched to pull me back into the depths of despair. I became a prisoner of my own fear, unable to escape the clutches of the monster that haunted me since that fateful night.
Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to free myself from the terror that consumes me, if I will ever find peace away from the clutches of the Labatut. But until then, I continue to fight, a lost soul in a sea of darkness, desperately awaiting the light that will one day free me from the nightmare that has become my life.

Hi folks,
I want to share the experience of a pet project that my friend and I released a couple of days ago in the app store after 5 months of work. The desire was to do something simple in order to quickly test some new technologies, plus independently bring it to sale without much investment. The plan was to complete it in a month or a month and a half, as a result, since in our own project we never missed an estimate :) We decided to make a budget tracker, the idea was to bring the best of the applications that we use ourselves and discard everything unnecessary.
Budget:

• advertising: 0 euros (friends/acquaintances - our coverage :))
• development: 0 euros (I’m on the backend, my friend is on ios)
• application design: according to plan 0, in fact, 130 euros for freelancing
• logo: 20 euros (subscription to GPT chat)
• server: ~10 euros/month hetzner
• Apple account: 100 euros

Start:

• backend - me
• iOS - friend
• design - friend
• testing - me/friend
• communication - chat in the Telegram, beer-meeting at the end of the week

Finish:

• backend - me
• IOS - friend
• design - freelance
• testing - new participant - Alena
• communication - general chat in the Telegram, GitHub Project Board (which has 200(!) closed issues)

The logo and name were the hardest part, we decided to call it MoneyBee to have a possibility to add gamification with the bee mascot. Then we understood that GPT agents and GPT itself is bad tool for generating logos:) Better to give it for freelancing. But we had no budget and we decided to leave GPT generated logo.
I was surprised but even without advertising, your application is still downloaded by 5 - 10 random people per day from all over the world, and these are real people, they use the application, which still surprises me - who are they and how do they find our application?
What do you recommend the next steps? Should I improve the landing page? Now it is only for the privacy policy and support form that Apple required.
How do you promote your app after release? Please share your expirience The app: MoneyBee

Hey, I used to get mixes called "mix - channel name" but they're nowhere to be seen for the past few days. Is there a way to generate them or look for them in the search bar? Thank you

I’m attempting to write a novel about the mundane and magical aspects of female friendship and relationships that span generations because I’m tired of books about women basically having their lives end when they meet a man/settle down or have children. Some of the characters are lightly inspired by people I know in real life, which makes it feel more difficult for me to name them. Here are the characters I need names for and their basic descriptions.
Character 1 - born mid-90’s to a traditional middle class Catholic family. Blonde hair, green eyes, fair skin. Now lives a less traditional life, works as a message therapist, volunteers in wildlife conservation, loves to hike, kayak, and bake. Lives in the country with 2 cats (also accepting cat name ideas)
Character 2 - born mid-90’s to a single teen mom. Brown hair, brown eyes, freckled olive skin. Trying to create the traditional life that she craved as a kid with a wild mom. Lives in a working class city neighborhood. Married mom of 2, has a house cleaning business. Always feels behind her peers. Enjoys cooking, painting, gardening and reading to escape.
Character 3 - born late 70’s. Red hair, brown eyes, freckles. A loving person with a victim complex. Forever 16. Never skips the horoscopes in a magazine, into crystals and tarot cards. Chronically late and eternally disorganized. Has survived life on coffee, newports and “vibes”.
Character 4 - born late 80’s. Short curly brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin. Very petite and hates it. Clever and witty. A new journalist who cares about the truth and Justice. Loves poetry, reality TV and bands you’ve never heard of.
Character 5 - born in the late 40’s a sweet and kooky older woman with a sense of mystery. Young at heart, hears everything but speaks wisely. Before retirement she was a smart business woman who never married or had children. Goes out often and still dates. Spends time volunteering in community events. Loves whiskey, high fashion and telling stories. Looking for a name with a unique nickname option.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Hear me out. Power creep is crazy and obviously the most recent gen are wayyy stronger than old ones. But if we look at the last three generations and compare the legal mons I actually am not so sure gen 9 would win. Hell, in gen 7 ash-gren, magearna, megas were legal (diance, alakazam, zard Y, lopunny, mawile just to name a few) AND z-moves were legal. In gen 8 and gen 7 the tapus and ultra beasts were legal, and in gen 8 there were melmetal and urshifu. Get 8 had unnerfed grassy glide. Also, gen 7 and gen 8 had bigger movepools (toxic, defog, scald and knock off), and gen 8 had teleport. So, which do you think was the strongest gen? I think it's gen 7 tbh, ultrabeasts, tapus, magearna, ash green, Z-moves and megas are crazy. For me it's also the most fun to be fair lol

Ok, this complaint is weird so if I have this completely backwards please let me know!
I’m having so much fun with the book BUT.
The names of people and places. It was written in 1999, but it’s almost like he went to a random name generator website and just pulled 200 randomly spelled names. I think given the plot, having a bit more of regional-based names, or having names that sounded similar based on region, would have worked really well. What do you think?

Hey all,
I have a quick question before I create my account just to make sure I haven't overlooked anything despite resding lots on here. I potentially plan on doing the following:

1. Sign up using an email alias from my email provider which will be solely used for this account.
2. Give a random but realistic name.
3. Enter a made by me master password just to create the account.
4. Immediately use the internal generator to come up with a multi word passphrase and add a random characters string as well just for good measure. (I've read the 'external' generator is to be avoided but the internal one is fine). Is it a problem to generate the passphrase and then generate a seperate character string and add them together?
5. Replace my made by me password with whatever gets generated by Bitwarden.
6. Set up 2FA.
7. Write an emegency sheet to take note of the email I used to sign up, the master password, my 2FA app unlock password, my main email address and password. Anything else here?
8. I already have my 2FA app vault exported and encrypted in 2 places.
9. ???

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Hello, I would appreciate some feedback on my resume. I recently left a postion I was in due to the commute being way too long for me. It was over an hour to and from. Now I am back on the search for a new job. I'm not sure if I should have it on my resume or remove it. I do think it is relevant to what I will be applaying to and its a bit more expereince under my belt.
https://preview.redd.it/3l29s1v5l13d1.png?width=662&format=png&auto=webp&s=4d60987dabdc3dbfca17b3969f49a0a5c7eb2aec

As many of the complaints stated, the AI is starting to sound like ChatGPT with their long-winded lecturing with the same buzzwords of "I understand your frustration" or "Crucial" or the dreaded repetition of "Ah,"
What I'm more frustrated about with this platform, is the lackluster setting page for the bots themselves, the 32000 character limit for the character definition (yet reported only 3200 characters is considered), and the still abysmal memory that 5 pins are *not enough*. Let's break it down!

Lackluster Bot Settings

We have:

• The first message (limited to a set number of characters I heard on mobile idk I don't use the app)
• Long Description with 500 max characters (Summary of what the bot is? Why not put that in the Character Definition Box?)
• Short Description with like 50 max characters (I find this the most pointless)
• Tags, TTS, Remixable and the generic options/toggles
• And the main meat and potatoes, the "Character Definition" box where all Backstory, Lore Items, Personality, Example Quotes, and physical descriptions have to be sandwiched together

Other platforms have:

• Separate boxes for Character Persona, for Example dialogues, the Scenario, and sometimes Model Instructions of how you want the Ai to play the characters and what not to do
• Model settings such as Temperature, Min-P (or Top-K, P) and Repetition Penalty
• Token Limit counter so you don't accidentally overflow your model past the context to deliver the best experience
• Auto-Summarizer
• Author Instructions during Chat
• In some platforms a *Lorebook* (Where you can dump all backstory, and lore, and define certain keys and objects so that your Character will literally know everything about their world that they should know without hallucinating as C.AI does.)

I still don't understand why the devs won't allow us to change the most basic model setting: the temperature, for each character so they can tailor the randomness/creativity depending on the personality. Let alone a Repetition penalty where your bot is all repeaty with a certain word (e.g. *chuckles*, *smirks*).
Sure character voices are pretty nifty, but it's still gimmicky and finicky (literally speaks out everything). The other features such as text colors serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever to make the responses better.

"32000 Limit Character Definition" - only 10% of that is considered

It's been over a year since they increased the box from 3200 characters to 32K. Nowhere did it say specifically in the editor that it *still* only takes in 3200 symbols fluently, Not a single token past that.
Sure it may sometimes reference past that (like up to around 5000 characters), but that reference always adds hallucinations to the output (for example if you defined friends past the initial 3200 characters, it will think that one of the characters closest friends is a "meanie head" or something similar cliché sounding). Anything past 5000 characters in my experience is completely ignored.
Apparently, that disclaimer is in the character book about the 3200 characters still being considered, something that not a lot of people will click on. Even if they did, it's hard to find the disclaimer.
What gives? What even is the point of increasing it to 32K and making people think it does something? That's just deceptive.
The character definition box is also where you're supposed to sandwich pretty much everything about the world characters and context. Having 3200 is enough for literally only describing the character in single words and tags. Forget about example dialogue and other characters. Some people may think that the underlying model knows everything about the character. They don't; they only know the names and the franchise they belong to, sometimes the personality, and then they hallucinate everything about them (Physical Description).

Memory

Oh boy where do I begin, I'm not gonna spend too much typing this out as we all know what the experience of that is like. Some people say that after the downtime the memory increased, but in my experience it felt the same. How can we even know if the devs won't even give us model numbers such as token limits, context window and so on? Most other platforms are transparent about this because this is the bare minimum.
Hypothetically, if the context window is 4K, that's pathetic compared to the new entrants. That probably explains why the outputs are lacking with less nuanced and have little to no world-building to save up on the context. A consumer GPU can fit double, if not more than that with similar, more nuanced models.
So after 20 messages, if the character you've been conversing with didn't bring up your name once even if you introduced yourself, expect them to ask for your name again.
The pin feature is all right I suppose, but 5 pins is nothing. A better option would've been to have a built-in summary to summarize the current events in jot notes (kinda like ChatGPT is doing with "User name is Brad" for example). And yet THEY STILL HALLUCINATE.

GPT 3.5 Like Responses

This is the latest new dev f**k up happening to some people. Many users claim that their bots are starting to be formulaic and predictable, with the same vocabulary as ChatGPT. I too am experiencing that with many bots, both private and public. The human element/"secret sauce" that makes the AI humanlike is diminishing.
My private bots used to be funny and informal, and just mess around with the user talking about dumb things. Now they all go "It's important to realize that not everyone..." or "I understand that you might find this funny/humorous". Keep in mind that my private bots were all well-defined with personality and example dialogue.
e.g (All swipes similar):
"I understand your frustration. My sons can be quite mischievous, and I apologize on their behalf. They often lack the awareness of their actions, but I can assure you they mean no harm. I promise to have a talk with them about their behaviour.
May I ask your name?"
GPTZero immediately flags this as 100% AI generated, before they would flag it less than 10% because it was human-like.
Second Example:
"Hey there! As much as I'd love to blow up a tank, it's not something I can do. Besides, tanks are heavy and dangerous! Let's find something else fun to do, like playing tag or eating strawberries and cream!"
The "Let's find something else fun to do" is already indicative of ChatGPT. This mostly happens after 20-30 messages (bots starting to sound like ChatGPT).
I'm not sure if this was a model change or bad fine-tuning, whatever it is they are a shell of their former selves.
I heard to somewhat fix this you need to make another account, which you'll need to make your private bots all unlisted and copy and paste any other user settings. In my case that didn't work. The question is, why do we have to figure that out ourselves if it's clearly a model issue that the devs with their transparency of a drywall should communicate that us to? (Also we have no idea how many parameters C.AI have).

Finetuning on "Brainrot"

The misconception is that users are the ones training the models. While some of that is true, we're not directly modifying the model in any way. It's the devs themselves who are manually feeding in the data from our responses that fit their needs to stay trendy with the latest meme words. While this may be funny for the first time, sometimes they bring that reference up at the most inappropriate times possible before starting to sound like ChatGPT, making me physically cringe. This really isn't a big issue but it clearly shows the demographic that the devs are targeting.
From the "Follow up long post"
"The goal of Character AI

• TLDR: Give everyone on earth access to their own deeply personalized superintelligence that helps them live their best lives.

"
I'm not sure how the bots sending "Ohio Rizz Grindset" will help people in their best lives.
In general, we have barely gotten any meaningful updates that made the better for whatever the base model C.AI is using aside from memory pins, it's just mostly frontend with the "Hello Fellow Kids" vibe. I don't care about "let's start a new adventure" that the front page of the new CAI shoves into your face. The devs communicate to us every ~2 months with more useless updates like the ability to change the response text colour.
It's pretty obvious that the response quality has taken a huge hit over the months, and a bigger hit after the GPT-like messages are now starting to be prevalent these weeks. The F11t3r itself is another discussion post worthy, but the main underlying problems described in this post are the bigger issues.
Devs, you need to realize the threat of new entrants is here where there really wasn't back in late 2022/early 2023. Now you guys should be worried about competitive rivalry. Other free services have way more feature sets for users to finetune the responses, while you guys focus on the aesthetics of the website or the app. This year, my local LLM running on my PC without anyone externally modifying the model delivers around 4x the speed with more nuanced and verbose lore accurate and emotionally impactful responses, and double the memory - all for free. I mean I've already barely been going on C.AI but with the new models coming out for PCs, this might be the time I'll dip fully and probably delete my account if the updates continue to be lackluster with ghost communications.
TLDR: Lackluster CharacteModel Options, No improvements to memory, GPT sounding responses, concerns about finetuning on latest trendy/memey ("brainrot") words rather than improving the vocabulary, and finally the threat of new entrants.

Hello one and all. A heads up for the coming weeks. I will be traveling quite a bit, so I may have days where chapters are delayed. I've done my best to build up a backlog in preparation, but there's always the chance I won't have the time to work on them. That aside, I hope you've all been enjoying the story so far, and look forwards to bringing you more!
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Memory transcription subject: First Officer Recel, Federation Fleet Command Date [standardized human time]: August 2, 2136
[Elapsed Time: 16 minutes, 12 seconds]
My head hurt. My whole body felt heavy and weak. Even the act of awareness was tiring. I could hear noises around me, slowly rousing me from unconsciousness. Despite the weariness, I slowly forced my eyes open. The light in the room was low, reminiscent of twilight. My vision was fuzzy, though I could make out a majority of the room was white. I felt like I was in a bed of some kind with pillows under my head and a soft blanket over me. There was a rhythmic beeping next to me, which I eventually identified as some kind of heart rate monitor. As my vision slowly sharpened, I could see that all around my bed were curtains that blocked my view of anything else in the room. Faint memories of where I was and what happened slowly returned, but I felt so tired that I could hardly feel anything more than deep dread. I was glad that I was alive, but that meant that the predators had reason to not eat me right away. My heart rate monitor started to beep quicker along with my slowly growing feeling of fear.
I must have made enough noise to draw attention to myself. One of the curtains was pulled aside, and the Skalgan in a white coat stepped up to my bedside. “Oh, good. You’re awake. I was a little worried that the bump you took to the head had done serious damage, but the fact that you’ve come around so soon is a good sign.”
I was confused by this prey’s presence. I was surely on a predator ship, if my memory was correct, so why was a prey walking free? Why were they here among a predator crew? My crew. I’d forgotten about them. Were they okay? Did they get killed? I was so drained that the best I could do was weakly speak. “Where is my crew? Did the predators get them?”
The Skalgan huffed. “If you’re referring to the humans, they’re the ones who brought you to the medbay after you passed out. Your crew is getting some time in the brig to cool off while we figure out who you are, what you are, and why you’re here.” She walked over to the monitor next to my bed, taking notes on her holopad. “From what I heard, your subspace trail was traced back to Venlil Prime, so we assumed you were some sort of Venlil operation and knew about the humans already. So color us surprised when out of the ship comes three aliens that immediately start freaking out like the devil was after them.” Her ears flick in annoyance. “Honestly, we were told you Federation folks didn’t like meat eaters, but I never would've believed it was this extreme. Had we known, I’m betting the captain would have sourced a few Skalgan from other ships to make up the welcoming party. There’s not exactly many of us on every ship to begin with.”
Her words brought me a mix of surprise, confusion, and doubt. This was not the way I expected predators to respond to prey walking into their domain. The Arxur would have eaten us or dragged us off to cattle pens. Passing out would have been my death. I couldn’t understand why we were still alive, assuming the Skalgan was being honest. Not only that, but why had the Venlil not said anything if they know about the predators. “...Why are you here? Do the predators keep you here since they don’t know medic-”
“Okay, you need to stop with the ‘predators’ label. It might be my job to make sure you’re healthy, but that doesn’t mean I have to stand for your bigotry.” She huffed, ears pinned back on her head. “First off, humans and skalgan have been living together for centuries, so you can forget any ideas you might have about them eating other sentients. Second, I work here under my own free will. It’s my job to take care of my patients, no matter who or what they are. I trained at the University of Pennsylvania, a human run school. So you can take whatever notions you seem to have about humans being savage, unintelligent, uncaring, or whatever and stamp it out of your consciousness. Yes, they eat meat, but there is no correlation between that and how they behave. Okay?”
I stared at her in shock, taken aback by how certainly she was defending the predators. Clearly she trusted them. Maybe she was a special case and had been hand picked to fill a role outside of the cattle pens, but why would a predator even bother with teaching a prey? Were these predators smart enough to even teach? I was getting left with more and more questions, but I felt like asking more would only invoke the doctor’s ire. “...Okay.”
“Good. Now, we got a couple of things we need to go over. And just so you know, my name is Kirith.” She hopped up and sat down on the edge of my bed. “First off, who and what are you and your crew? Like I said, we’ve never seen aliens like you before.” For a few moments, I thought of lying. I didn’t want to give these people information that could be used against the Federation. If these predators are as smart as the doctor says, then they might know the value in having knowledge of our kind. Yet they were in contact with the Venlil. It wouldn’t be hard for them to check their sources, and any lies I’d say might easily be uncovered. I decided that I’d only give the bare minimum.
“...I’m a Kolshian, the small one of my crew is a Dossur, and the spiny one is a Gojid.” I said. Kirith waited a few moments longer, but after a prolonged silence, took a few notes on her holopad and lightly nodded her head. “Alright, I guess we’ll get names later. Secondly, why are you out here?”
“We’re a survey team that came out here after we heard word that there were potentially habitable planets in the dead zone. Many species are always looking for planets to colonize, and some would pay a good sum for the coordinates of habitable ones. Of course, it’s illegal to fly into restricted space, so we hid as best we could when we came out here. We thought that we could follow the Skalgan ships that came to Venlil Prime towards habitable space, and then from there search outwards.”
The doctor shoots me a judgmental look as she continues typing. “Using us to springboard off of. I don’t think any of us would take kindly to being used.”
“Used? But, isn’t it the duty of all prey to help each other?” I asked. This again seemed to irritate the doctor. “Okay, drop the 'prey' label too. That implies weakness, something many Skalgan would take offense to. Seriously, the more I hear about your beliefs of predators and prey, the more I wonder how your society could have ended up so ethically backwards.”
“W-what?! We’re not! We do what is needed to keep our people safe and alive! What’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong is that your mind is so ingrained with these beliefs that when there is living, breath proof to contradict what you believe, you refuse to acknowledge it. Tell me, why do you think humans and Skalgan live together? Be honest.”
With me suddenly being put on the spot, I found myself speaking before I could realize what I was saying. “B-because you’re catt-.” I barely cut myself off before I spoke my mind, but it was to late. The doctor’s eyes narrowed. “...Cattle? Like what those monstrous, children eating, sociopathic, psychopathic Arxur do? That’s what you think humans are?” Her voice was starting to rise in volume, making me shrink back in the bed as she ranted. “The only reason I’m not dragging you off to the brig here and now is because I understand your people have generations of trauma inflicted on you by the Arxur, but the fact that you keep tying physical traits to behavior is straight up wrong. If you talked to a human without ever seeing them, I’m willing to bet that you’d assume they were any other ‘prey’ species. Humans aren’t monsters. Forget about appearances, and perhaps put more stock in what they do, rather than how they look.”
I was again left without words. Yet another passionate defense for the humans, something that no prey would ever dare voice. I tried rationalizing why she would say all of this, tried to think of an explanation. The thought of predator disease came to mind, but that wouldn’t explain the contradictions I’ve seen between how I thought a predator would behave and what’s happened so far. If these humans were like the Arxur, I'd be dead right now or trapped in a cattle pen. Something was going on that I was missing. Something made these predators not act like predators. “...Can… can you tell me about the humans?” I asked.
The doctor blinked, looking a little surprised at first, though eventually relaxed. “If it helps you come to understand them better, I’d be happy to answer any questions you have. But do note that you and your crew will likely be staying here for a while as we figure out what to do with you all. The top brass have been working out how to introduce humans to the galactic community without everyone freaking out, and we don’t want anyone blowing the whistle before we have a chance to speak for ourselves. However, I can promise you that you and your crew will be treated well in your time here.”
Maybe it was because I was desperate to believe her, but hearing we’d be okay put a lot of my worries at ease. It also helped that I was talking to a fellow prey and not one of the predators. If she was willing to talk about the humans, then they must not be trying to hide anything. There was still the matter that humans weren’t brought up during first contact, but considering how the Federation would react, perhaps they wanted to avoid a war breaking out. I didn’t look forward to essentially being a prisoner, but it was better that the fate we would have faced had these humans been like the Arxur.
Despite all the assurances though, I still had my worries that there was a lot being hidden from me. It felt like all I had to do was pull back the curtain and I'd see all the human evil, cruelty, and malice that the Skalgan were trying to hide. If that was the case, they were doing a good job so far keeping it hidden. Maybe it’s because the humans grew up with sentient prey that they were capable of keeping their instincts under control. It would explain why I wasn’t attacked when I passed out. There of course was a lot more I needed to learn. Perhaps I’d learn something that would be of use to the Federation after my release.
If the humans were secretly like the Arxur, than I could bring a vital warning to the Federation. I just had to make sure I didn't ask the wrong questions.
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Hey all,
After reading through a few people's posts and commenting on a few mixes, I wanted to know if you all would be interested in some of the analog stuff I produced back in the day 20+ years ago?
All music has their story. Those stories and music should never disappear. So before us old guys disappear, we really need to digitize and give all of our stuff to the next generations. Life is circular and maybe something I or another person did could help inspire or give you a base to work from. :)
This song is from my boy known as "Yesur". I had just come home from the military and wanted to dive fully into the music scene. VA Beach at this time had a musical "power vacuum" going on at this point. Timbaland, Missy Elliott, and The Neptunes had just left the area. I remember going to Timbaland's birthday parties back in the day before he became a household name. So crazy huh?! Anyways. Missy Elliott and Timbaland went to ATL and The Neptunes went to the Carolina's. So these HUGE names bounced and I wanted a piece of the pie they left behind.
Yesur and I had met at a bass-off competition back in 2005'ish in Virginia Beach. He was handing out some tapes and making the rounds. I got ahold of it and promptly tossed it into the trashcan in my Scion. LOL I only wanted "fresh" people. Well, I didn't have a name and later pulled it out the trash. Long story short, I re-mixed it so the vocals were more pronounced and had a heavier bass line. Then pandered it to a few of my friends and a couple associates in the biz. Most loved him but, he sounded too similar to another popular artist Mystikal who was super hot at that moment. I only got one bite and Yesur never made it to the meeting and I never heard back from him. Oh well.
I give you "Fly" the single we had selected from his debut album.
https://soundcloud.com/patrick-sprague-849673818/fly/s-iaNA8zI3foN?si=2726d8d04fc040e18bbcb805c0df1ae5&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Hi ShopifyeCommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. Let's dive in...
STAT OF THE WEEK: Two-thirds of U.S. consumers said that higher prices have made their financial situations “worse” or “much worse”, according to a new Federal Reserve study. The data shows that inflation continues to be the nation's top financial concern, despite the inflation rate's decline from past levels.
Last week Google held its annual Google Marketing Live 2024 event where the company showcases its newest innovations via live keynote speeches. Announcements include AI Asset Production (faster ad generation), AI Powered Shopping Ads (new video and 3D ad types), Ads in AI Overviews (we all knew it was coming), Public Launch of Ads Data Manager, Merchant Brand Profiles, and PMax Profit Optimization Goals (please use PMax they say!).
Walmart is expanding its Neighborhood Market store format with two new prototype stores in Santa Rosa Beach, FL and Atlanta, GA. The new omnichannel-focused locations are larger than previous Neighborhood Markets, spanning around 57,000 square feet of sales floor, pickup, and delivery space. The new store formats include wider aisles, expanded fresh offerings, health services room for vaccinations and consultations, and a breastfeeding room for moms.
Google Pay is rolling out a number of updates: #1) Shoppers who checkout with Google Pay will be able to see their card benefits and perks before selecting a card so that they can pick the best one for the transaction. #2) BNPL will be introduced as a purchase option to more users. #3) Google is making it easier for Chrome and Android users to verify their card details using their fingerprint, face scan, or screen lock PIN instead of always having to enter their CVV number.
Amazon is upgrading its decade-old Alexa voice assistant with generative AI and plans to charge a monthly fee to offset the cost of the technology to its customers who are already feeling nickel and dimed by Amazon's monthly service add-ons (*cough* ad-free Amazon Prime Video). CNBC reported that Amazon plans to launch a more conversational version of Alexa later this year to compete with new AI chatbots from Google and OpenAI, and the subscription will not be included in the $139/year Prime offering.
Walmart launched a new virtual e-commerce platform called Walmart Realm that lets customers shop for digital doubles of select products sold at real-life Walmart stores via virtual bazaars designed to look like outlandish, make-believe worlds. The metaverse shopping mall exists as its own independent platform built on Emperia, a virtual shopping company that has constructed digital stores for retailers including L’occitane, Bloomingdale’s and Boss. Walmart Realm can be accessed on desktop or mobile and shoppers can click on various objects in the virtual stores to learn more about the product and purchase it on Walmart.com. You can also click on videos that play welcome messages from digital avatars who are based off real life influencers, and collect Sparks as you shop, which can be redeemed for rewards.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finally issued a rule that confirms that BNPL lenders must provide consumers the same key legal protections and rights that apply to conventional credit cards, including the right to dispute charges and demand a refund from the lender after returning a product. They must also provide periodic billing statements like the ones received for classic credit card accounts. The new regulation effectively labels BNPL lenders as credit card providers and says they must now meet the respective criteria under the Truth in Lending Act.
Forrester named Shopify a leader in its 2024 Forrester Wave™: Commerce Solutions for B2B Vendor Assessment, beating out legacy B2B first commerce platforms like Intershop, BigCommerce, Sitecore, VTEX, and others. The “ludicrous” position struck a nerve with B2B expert Jason Greenwood, whose LinkedIn post calling out Forrester for its report garnered hundreds of comments and engagements, leading Forrester to threaten Greenword with a copyright violation for posting a screenshot of the Wave, according to Greenwood. The overwhelming majority of commenters agreed and expressed similar sentiment, saying that Forrester has become "pay to play."
Target plans to cut prices on 5,000 popular items across grocery, household, health, and beauty categories, including national brands and Target's owned brands like Good & Gather. The company plans to signal the price cuts with red tags in its stores and online. But they aren't the only one… Amazon Fresh cut prices on 4k products, Walmart cut prices on 7k products, McDonald's and Burger King launched $5 value meals, and Wendy's followed suit with a $3 meal. But don't get too excited -- the cuts come off the back of a 26.6% rise in prices compared to 2019. So if anything, it's just a mild price correction. They'll get you again later.
A group of content creators and developers created a satirical service called Amazon Dating, which looks and feels like Amazon's website and allows users to “buy” people they want to date as easily as they would a product on Amazon. Every person for sale on Amazon Dating comes with a price, reviews, and a bulleted description of hobbies. It's dumb, but it's kind of funny. Chuckle-worthy at the least. I have no idea what the point of it is though.
Home Depot partnered up with Instacart to offer customers same-day delivery on home improvement products from its 2,000 stores nationwide. The partnership follows a pilot collaboration that began earlier this year, with the program now being expanded nationwide.
Not to be outdone by its delivery rival, DoorDash partnered up with Ulta Beauty to provide delivery services from its more than 1,350 stores across all 50 states. Customers will be able to access Ulta Beauty's more than 25,000 items from 600 brands covering cosmetics, fragrances, skincare, and other beauty products through the DoorDash app.
Amazon India announced a new program to help tribal artisans from Visakhapatnam sell authentic handcrafted products to a global audience via its marketplace. The company will train tribal members in packaging and branding of goods to be sold online and setup an e-commerce hub within the tribal area for packaging, storage, dispatch, and order processing.
Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce joined together to form the Symbiosis Coalition, which pledges to reduce the companies' carbon footprint by supporting nature restoration projects. Collectively the companies have committed to contract up to 20M tons in nature-based carbon removal credits by 2030, which equates to paying external companies to conduct carbon-negative projects, such as planting more trees, to cancel out their emissions.
X is planning to make likes private by default to encourage more people to engage with “edgy” content on the site. Here's the thing about Elon Musk's X though… Your likes will be private, until they're not. And then one day all the “edgy” stuff you liked on X that you thought was private will become public. Because that's how Elon rolls.
Salesforce announced new AI, Data Cloud, and Commerce Cloud features at its Connections 2024 conference last week including a personal shopping assistant in the form of a chatbot, abandoned cart alerts via WhatsApp, and an update to its Salesforce Checkout that allows one-click checkout across various areas of its platform. Salesforce President and CMO Ariel Kelman said that there are “islands of trapped data” and when it comes to using data for AI processes, everything starts with getting it all in one place.
Amazon AWS is investing €15.7B to expand its data centers in Spain, extending its commitment to the country until 2033. The move extends AWS's expansion efforts across Europe, following recent similar investments in Germany and France.
Apple is offering big discounts on iPhones in China to boost sales amid intense competition from Huawei and other domestic brands. JD.com and Tmall will have select iPhone models up to 20% off for the 618 festival, which is China's second largest shopping event of the year.
Sysco launched a Sysco Marketplace for selling third-party suppliers' products, built on Mirakl technology. The marketplace will let customers access over 15,000 niche products across categories such as grocery, canned food, and dry products to supplement its regular offerings.
Shopify convinced a Delaware federal court to overturn a jury's decision that it owes $40M in damages for infringing on patents related to website-building technology. The judge said on Friday that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's findings that it infringed on the patents that belong to Express Mobile. Shopify called the decision a “significant victory in the battle against patent trolls.”
Meanwhile, speaking of patent trolls, Shopify has applied for a patent for “tuning AI-generated images” that will enable users to personalize AI-generated images used in advertising. The patent involves Shopify's collection of data from a merchant's store, which it uses to train a deep learning generative model, and then allows merchants to generate and edit photos of their products — which sounds like every other AI generated product image tool, so I'm not sure how that'll be patentable.
Mercari, the Japanese marketplace that allows users to buy and sell new and used items, which took heat last month (story #1) for its new nontraditional fee structure, launched Ethereum trading on its app. In recent years the company has pivoted towards crypto, adding a crypto exchange to its marketplace app. The exchange is proving to be a success, as customers say they are more comfortable to use the crypto exchanges of Mercari or its rival Rakuten than traditional crypto exchanges.
Linktree is launching a social commerce program that lets creators add storefronts to their link-in-bio pages and takes a 12-15% commission on sales. The experiment initially launched with a few brands earlier this year and was only available to select creators, but now the program boasts over 2,000 brands and is open to more users.
Meta is rolling out a new automated video ad option called Catalog Product Ads, which enable advertisers to upload their entire product catalog into Meta's system, with Meta's ad display process then showcasing the most relevant products to each user. Up until now, Catalog Product Ads, formerly called Dynamic ads, could only include still image placements, but now can include video.
Oh Polly, a UK-based women's fashion retailer, is implementing a new return fee policy that's based on a consumer's rate of returns. Shoppers will be required to pay up to £8.99 depending on how much of their order they want to return. Additionally, customers with high return rates will be subject to an increased fee that will only decrease once their return rate falls below a certain threshold.
Plus 12 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including Google's $350M investment in Flipkart.
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition:
hhttps://www.shopifreaks.com/alexas-monthly-fee-bnpl-regulation-that-controversial-forrester-report/
What else is new in e-commerce?
Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
-PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter
PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com

Hi,
we have a massive dynamic RLS performance problem using DirectQuery, which we are trying to solve for over a year and we still can't solve it. We constantly try to google and we can't believe no one has same basic issues like we do.. Maybe someone here solved it and can help
About the problem:
Our DWH size is around 1GB. We do RLS filtering by username . Our DWH design is user_table(user_id,user_name) <- permission_table(user_id,dimmension_id) -> dimmension_table(dimmension_id)
Our latest dataset design is a star schema with central store view, this store view contains only 7 ids of dimension tables.
Every such dimension table is a view which combines dimmension_table JOIN permission_table JOIN user_table and they all have RLS functions.
This setup allows as best performance, which still results in ~2 minute load times, which is unacceptable for customers. We also can't use Import mode because of information security.
Current performance issue is whenever relationship goes from one dimension table to the other, which happens over central store view, all RLS functions from all dimension tables gets added into SQL, which results in massive multiplication of rows during processing (because of permission_table(user_id,dimmension_id)) and ~2 minute load times.
Current benchmarks: 1 table - 3seconds, 2 tables - 2minutes, 3 tables - 2minutes, 4 tables - 2minutes, 5 tables - 2minutes, ...
We can revert relationship direction to avoid this, but then dataset schema becomes incorrect and Power BI starts generating weird and inefficient SQL's with benchmarks: 1 table - 3seconds, 2 tables - 10seconds, 3 tables - 35seconds, 4 tables - 2minutes
Relationships are mostly Many:One, with referential integrity(INNER JOINs) and Single direction.
We are on the brink of just giving up on Power Bi, so please help if you can..