caustic-caffeine

Latest Posts by caustic-caffeine

Man do I have a hella backlog (forgot I had a tumblr. Oops)

I’ll prooooobably post some stuff soon? Maybe? Been more active on my instagram lately (though that isn’t saying much, I don’t post very often there either LOL)

Literal definition of spyware:

Also From Microsoft’s own FAQ: "Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. 🤡

Bumping this now since Cecie’s sheets have been added!

Redoing my character references (including redesigns as needed). After I finish Cecie’s, I may reblog with more info on the three’s dynamic 😌

[Edit] Cecie’s is now attached! Now that I got the M3 completed I’ll be taking a break from sheets to do some scenes. Though many more reference sheets will be made in the future…

Cecie’s Lament Characters

Francis, the demonic warlock patron.

Maddox, the half-elf wizard-turned-warlock.

[Edit] Cecie, the elf soothsayer.

A brief note on elves and demons (under the cut):

Elves:

My elves age differently from humans, maturing far slower and then leading prolonged lives. The average elf’s life expectancy sits in the 500s, though some have far exceeded this thanks to good medicine and magic practices. In elf-dominant cultures, an elf isn’t considered an adult until their 80s, at which point they will leave the home and venture out into the world to gain broader experience (and find a specific skill to hone in on). Trips like these often take decades to complete, with 20 years being considered on the short side.

Half-elves live shorter lives, but have the same maturation rate as full-blooded elves. They are still expected to participate in the same customs as full-blooded elves (if they want to be “respectable”, anyway). For Maddox, that means that he left the home in his early 80s and became a mercenary until his 110s (at which point he returned home for Cecie’s sake).

Demons:

“Demon” is just a shorthand term for all entities who were created to be or transformed into the servants of a deity. There’s a lot I could share about them, but I’ll save that for a separate post in the future (if folks want me to share the lore, or if I feel like doing it myself.)

“Demons” in my worldbuilding are not connected to Christianity, or any other real-world religion. They share some superficial similarities, but with vastly different origin stories and mechanics.

Did some writing while procrastinating on drawing Cecie’s reference sheets. It’s rough, and I haven’t decided if it’s canonical or not, but here’s a concept for Cecie and Francis meeting (written from Francis’s POV):

Featuring: Cecie (she/they), Francis (they/them)

Mentioning: Maddox (he/him), Inanna (she/it)

With Maddox’s help, I’ve gained a decent grasp on the local language and culture. While before I had to use magic to surmount the language barrier, we now converse quite comfortably in his native tongue. I’m teaching him the Primordial language, too, but that one will take longer for him to master. Until I learned about his people’s customs, I had remained in isolation, not wanting to embarrass myself (or worse, garner suspicion of my origins).

I decided I was now ready to pay a visit to someone important. Important to him, and revered by the general public. Although Inanna had been keeping tabs on her for a while, I’ve never properly met her. Today, we’re going to fix that. Maddox was able to pull some strings to allow her and I to meet privately, so we wouldn’t have to be wary of the eyes and ears in her walls. I do wonder what he said when first mentioning me to her.

She had an ethereal sort of beauty, like she was standing with one foot in the realms of the arcane. She was always immaculately dressed; thick white hair braided to frame her face, modest but elaborate clothing draped over her figure to add to her mystique. Her kind grey eyes often seemed distant, as if she was listening to words the rest of us cannot hear. She carried herself with poise and grace (and forearm crutches, sometimes). She was one of the few people I struggled to read, her fair face a perfect mask of calm. It’s needless to say that she caught my eye, especially after Maddox told me about her unique gift and the people who abuse it.

I strode into the room, idly examining my nails, stopping when I saw that the woman had already arrived. She sat on the couch with her legs folded and hands clasped in her lap. When I entered, she appeared to snap out of a daze, eyes boring into me with surprising intensity.

“Francis.”

“Cecie.” I settled in the plush chair adjacent to her, getting comfortable, with my eyes never leaving hers.

“Tell me why I’ve been seeing you every night in my dreams for the past six months.” Cecie’s voice is soft, and delicate, but no less serious. I carefully controlled my reaction, not wanting to betray anything incriminating.

“I don’t know, Cecie. That could be caused by any number of things. I’d have to see your dreams to give you a definite answer.”

“You’d… be able to do that?” The tone of her voice shifted ever so slightly. I raised an eyebrow. “As in, see my dreams? I thought only I could...”

The corner of my lips quirked up as I responded. “Yes. Though, I won’t without your consent. I wouldn’t want to violate your privacy.”

Cecie grew quiet, eyes now fixed on a faraway point. She idly twirled a lock of her hair in her neatly manicured fingers. I’ve intrigued her, I can tell. And she has intrigued me.

“…Interesting. I’ve… I’ve tried showing others before, but… it never seems to work. They aren’t able to discern what they see, and… sometimes I can’t, either…” Cecie sighed wistfully, falling silent again.

I’m more than a little surprised that she admitted this so quickly. From what I’ve heard, Cecie hasn’t ever struggled to understand the signs she sees. She’s always been held up as being the flawless mouthpiece of the Divines. I can’t help but wonder how much of her image has been fabricated by the ones around her. Who Cecie is, behind the veil.

I reached out and gently took one of her hands in my own, tracing the lines of her palm with my thumb. Her hands were soft, and cold, and trembling ever so slightly, like she thought I wouldn’t notice her anxiety. She glanced back at me, startled by the contact.

“I can help with that… if you’ll allow me to.” I was close enough to smell the faint scent of lavender that clung to her skin. The soothing fragrance suited her perfectly. “You aren’t the first seer I’ve met in my time.”

“I…” Cecie pursed her lips, brows furrowed. “…Who are you, Francis?”

“A friend, if you’d like me to be.” I lowered my voice, matching her soft tone. “I don’t want to overstep my bounds, but.. I will say that Maddox has shared some about your situation. And… I understand how it feels.”

Cecie’s eyes widened as she took in a sharp breath. She gripped my hand tighter than either of us expected her to. “Wh- what did he say about me?”

“Essentially, that you live with overbearing relatives and haven’t had much of a say in what goes on in your life. He didn’t go into specifics.” I gave a wry smile, somewhat regretting having brought the topic up. Alas, it was bound to happen at some point.

“…He told me that you’d be able to help, if I reached out to you. I… I want to believe him…” Cecie trailed off, attention returning to where our fingers were now intertwined. Unsure what to make of me.

Now I knew I had her hooked. The desperation in her voice was well concealed, but not well enough. This is the voice of a woman who is desperate to live. A voice I’m all too familiar with.

“Then allow me to prove him right.”

I also designed a new character who I’ll be playing in a TTRPG. This character is separate from my worldbuilding (though perhaps I’ll integrate them into my world in the future).

Meet Maeve, the porcelain doll automation!

Redoing my character references (including redesigns as needed). After I finish Cecie’s, I may reblog with more info on the three’s dynamic 😌

[Edit] Cecie’s is now attached! Now that I got the M3 completed I’ll be taking a break from sheets to do some scenes. Though many more reference sheets will be made in the future…

Cecie’s Lament Characters

Francis, the demonic warlock patron.

Maddox, the half-elf wizard-turned-warlock.

[Edit] Cecie, the elf soothsayer.

A brief note on elves and demons (under the cut):

Elves:

My elves age differently from humans, maturing far slower and then leading prolonged lives. The average elf’s life expectancy sits in the 500s, though some have far exceeded this thanks to good medicine and magic practices. In elf-dominant cultures, an elf isn’t considered an adult until their 80s, at which point they will leave the home and venture out into the world to gain broader experience (and find a specific skill to hone in on). Trips like these often take decades to complete, with 20 years being considered on the short side.

Half-elves live shorter lives, but have the same maturation rate as full-blooded elves. They are still expected to participate in the same customs as full-blooded elves (if they want to be “respectable”, anyway). For Maddox, that means that he left the home in his early 80s and became a mercenary until his 110s (at which point he returned home for Cecie’s sake).

Demons:

“Demon” is just a shorthand term for all entities who were created to be or transformed into the servants of a deity. There’s a lot I could share about them, but I’ll save that for a separate post in the future (if folks want me to share the lore, or if I feel like doing it myself.)

“Demons” in my worldbuilding are not connected to Christianity, or any other real-world religion. They share some superficial similarities, but with vastly different origin stories and mechanics.

IVE BEEN WAITING ALL YEAR TO POST THIS YOU DONT EVEN KNOW

why yes I AM making boop gifs from screen recording

shitty chronic fatigue pro life tip:

listen to death metal when you’re trying to stay awake to work on something!

i’m only half joking

that’s what i’m doing right now and it’s 1) quite a good time, i love metal and 2) actually helping me get something done that i’ve been meaning to get done for weeks :)

I'M CRYING WHY DID TRUMP TAG PAPYRUS

[Blanche]

Extremely rough late-night sketches for me to get to know one of my MCs (info post to be shared sometime later).

Props to whoever recognizes the dialogue I’m referencing in the fourth image :)

feeling very frustrated about the ways people are talking about hurricane Milton. lots of needless, borderline fear mongering language with very little actual helpful information.

information about Milton that might ACTUALLY be helpful:

Hurricane Milton is shaping up to be the third strongest hurricane ever recorded.

Make sure you have an evacuation plan if the order is given or if you've already been told to leave.

WUSF

County-by-county evacuations for Hurricane Milton

Hurricane Milton is triggering evacuations in counties along Florida's west coast. Here is a list of orders and shelter information.

there is also a code for free Ubers to evacuate effected counties, as well as shuttles from evacuating counties to nearby storm shelters

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Use this code for free Uber rides to shelters in evacuating Florida counties

If you are in one of the Florida counties under a state of emergency due to Hurricane Milton, use this code to get a free Uber ride to a she

ABC Action News Tampa Bay (WFTS)

Hurricane evacuation shuttle will be available Tuesday for residents in evacuation zones

Residents needing transportation to a shelter can use a shuttle service, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management

Prepare/secure your home

WESH

Where to find sandbags in Central Florida ahead of Milton

Find sandbag locations to prepare for the heavy rain.

Sarasota Magazine

Ahead of Milton, Sarasota and Manatee Counties Open More Sandbag Locations

Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall on Wednesday. Here's where to get sandbags if you need them.

Find your nearest shelter and be prepared to leave

If you want to stay in the loop about the hurricane, WESH 2 News has ongoing coverage ad-free on YouTube.

YouTube

Tracking Milton: Live coverage as hurricane heads for Florida

As Hurricane Milton churns in the Gulf of Mexico and threatens Florida's coast, the National Hurricane Center says it is closely monitoring

General resources/information:

fema.gov

3622

Please for the love of God stop preying on people's fears and causing panic. Know what resources are available to you and how to access them. If you approach this hurricane carefully YOU WILL BE OKAY!!!!! YOUR LIFE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE RUINED!!!

Please link other resources you find or think other people might find useful!

so i caved and now have a sideblog for the arcana: @vesuvian-vampire

dunno how active i’ll be on it but i figured i might as well make one just in case! i’m generally not a fandom person so the main purpose for the blog right now is to document my style studying, once i get around to doing it

because yeah. i’m challenging myself to try to emulate the game’s style. all art i post on that blog will be adhering to that challenge!

Trick or treat, but we pull up a UNO reverse card (whatever that does, we've only once played UNO and forgot everything about it), and we give you this plastic pony we took a photo of once at night.

He says you seem nice so he won't eat your soul :33

i humbly accept this marvelous gift 😁

TRICK OR TREAT

treat!! have this funky bat!!!

here’s my entry for “screenshot redraw” btw :)

this october i’m playing the game of “casey didn’t want to choose just one prompts list so instead he picks from several that they found that intrigued them”. here are some of the lists i’ve found or was told about, just for funsies!

as yall can see i am partial to goretober prompts, but throw any at me :)

this is adorable. consider my asks OPEN for trick or treating 😁

please can we do inbox trick-or-treating this year. can we make that a thing on tumblr. please please please please please

this october i’m playing the game of “casey didn’t want to choose just one prompts list so instead he picks from several that they found that intrigued them”. here are some of the lists i’ve found or was told about, just for funsies!

as yall can see i am partial to goretober prompts, but throw any at me :)

SOS

Hello. It’s Mahmoud Khalaf from Gaza. Unfortunately, donations to my family evacuation and reunification in Ireland campaign have slowed down significantly. I was wondering if you could please reblog my donations post and help me boost my campaign and achieve my final goal.

Be our lifeline of hope after we were deprived of it! Be the light for a better life for my family at the end of this dark, gloomy, gory long tunnel of death, pain and torture. I live in Ireland now far away from my family in Gaza, and I say it to myself every day: My family deserves better. As explained in my post, vetted buy el shab Hussein and nabulsi #151 on the Vetted Gaza Fundraisers List. Recent Post title: Help Me Evacuate My Family from Gaza and Reunite with them in Ireland. Link to my post: https://www.tumblr.com/supportgaza/762249046198009856?source=share

I hope that you and your family will be able to be reunited, as whole and happy as possible. Best of luck!

Read their full post here!

Crikey

AI worse than humans in every way at summarising information, government trial finds

A test of AI for Australia's corporate regulator found that the technology might actually make more work for people, not less.

Artificial intelligence is worse than humans in every way at summarising documents and might actually create additional work for people, a government trial of the technology has found. Amazon conducted the test earlier this year for Australia’s corporate regulator the Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) using submissions made to an inquiry. The outcome of the trial was revealed in an answer to a questions on notice at the Senate select committee on adopting artificial intelligence. The test involved testing generative AI models before selecting one to ingest five submissions from a parliamentary inquiry into audit and consultancy firms. The most promising model, Meta’s open source model Llama2-70B, was prompted to summarise the submissions with a focus on ASIC mentions, recommendations, references to more regulation, and to include the page references and context. Ten ASIC staff, of varying levels of seniority, were also given the same task with similar prompts. Then, a group of reviewers blindly assessed the summaries produced by both humans and AI for coherency, length, ASIC references, regulation references and for identifying recommendations. They were unaware that this exercise involved AI at all. These reviewers overwhelmingly found that the human summaries beat out their AI competitors on every criteria and on every submission, scoring an 81% on an internal rubric compared with the machine’s 47%.  Human summaries ran up the score by significantly outperforming on identifying references to ASIC documents in the long document, a type of task that the report notes is a “notoriously hard task” for this type of AI. But humans still beat the technology across the board. Reviewers told the report’s authors that AI summaries often missed emphasis, nuance and context; included incorrect information or missed relevant information; and sometimes focused on auxiliary points or introduced irrelevant information. Three of the five reviewers said they guessed that they were reviewing AI content. The reviewers’ overall feedback was that they felt AI summaries may be counterproductive and create further work because of the need to fact-check and refer to original submissions which communicated the message better and more concisely. 

3 September 2024

PLEASE DON'T SCROLL PAST

TIME SENSITIVE

Help me help my former coworker cover the last of her medical expenses and leave the greedy hospital for good!

The last post lost traction 4 days ago, and I had to dip into my savings AND take out loans instead to help C pay to get discharged. Only for the hospital to keep surprising us with even MORE hidden charges! 😡😭

C's region's local government does NOT offer aid for these types of situations, and she is currently estranged from her family.

If you don't believe me, here's the full story in parts:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

⏫ Translation in alt text, just tap on "ALT" on the lower left corner of the images to read.

She needs to pay $152 (₱8,800) within the deadline the hospital gave her, which is 3-5 days from yesterday (August 7 our timezone), so the latest due date is August 12 our timezone. That would be August 11 in most places across the world.

I also want to be able to help C get back on her feet after she's finally freed from the hospital, so she'll need help covering food, lodging, and other misc expenses. I believe $50 (₱2,900) will cover that for a while.

Please, we are getting desperate. Neither of us have the means to cover this at the moment, and we'd appreciate if you can reblog this post if you see it.

$0/202

(₱0/11,716)

Pαyραl

She doesn't have a P*yp*l account, so I use my account from my more active days as an artist and act as her proxy.

Everything here will be sent to her ASAP.

Please do not tag this as d*nations or the like.

Please share this post when you see it!

commission for @nightrainsoldier :D

Here's your Daily Reminder to Click for Palestine!

>First, we’ve discovered that about a quarter of all the internet connection in or out of the house were ad related. In a few hours, that’s about 10,000 out of 40,000 processed.

>We also discovered that every link on Twitter was blocked. This was solved by whitelisting the https://t.co domain.

>Once out browsing the Web, everything is loading pretty much instantly. It turns out most of that Page Loading malarkey we’ve been accustomed to is related to sites running auctions to sell Ad space to show you before the page loads. All gone now.

>We then found that the Samsung TV (which I really like) is very fond of yapping all about itself to Samsung HQ. All stopped now. No sign of any breakages in its function, so I’m happy enough with that.

>The primary source of distress came from the habitual Lemmings player in the house, who found they could no longer watch ads to build up their in-app gold. A workaround is being considered for this.

>The next ambition is to advance the Ad blocking so that it seamlessly removed YouTube Ads. This is the subject of ongoing research, and tinkering continues. All in all, a very successful experiment.

>Certainly this exceeds my equivalent childhood project of disassembling and assembling our rotary dial telephone. A project whose only utility was finding out how to make the phone ring when nobody was calling.

>Update: All4 on the telly appears not to have any ads any more. Goodbye Arnold Clarke!

>Lemmings problem now solved.

>Can confirm, after small tests, that RTÉ Player ads are now gone and the player on the phone is now just delivering swift, ad free streams at first click.

>Some queries along the lines of “Are you not stealing the internet?” Firstly, this is my network, so I may set it up as I please (or, you know, my son can do it and I can give him a stupid thumbs up in response). But there is a wider question, based on the ads=internet model.

>I’m afraid I passed the You Wouldn’t Download A Car point back when I first installed ad-blocking plug-ins on a browser. But consider my chatty TV. Individual consumer choice is not the method of addressing pervasive commercial surveillance.

>Should I feel morally obliged not to mute the TV when the ads come on? No, this is a standing tension- a clash of interests. But I think my interest in my family not being under intrusive or covert surveillance at home is superior to the ad company’s wish to profile them.

>Aside: 24 hours of Pi Hole stats suggests that Samsung TVs are very chatty. 14,170 chats a day.

>YouTube blocking seems difficult, as the ads usually come from the same domain as the videos. Haven’t tried it, but all of the content can also be delivered from a no-cookies version of the YouTube domain, which doesn’t have the ads. I have asked my son to poke at that idea.

even worse when you take meds and after you wake up you’re still migraining anyway

it should be illegal to take a nap and still have a headache when you wake up. like no i shut it off and back on again why are you still here

woah this character is so cool i wish they were covered in blood their whole body trembling with a look of absolute horror on their face as theyre struggling to breathe in panic

Took my tiny child with me to the Halloween store. Walked in and immediately realized it would be a terrible mistake.

They had those jumpscare machine things everywhere, lots of spooky noise machines, scary looking animatronic things, crazy decorations, just the whole 9 yards and then some. I immediately went to turn around and leave when I heard a noise coming from my arms.

My one year old child who gets scared if we cough…. was laughing.

She makes this precious “eee!” sound and starts vibrating when she sees something she really likes, usually an animal or a balloon, and she points right at the big zombie thing by the door and does that. I carry her in past a huge 10 ft tall Pennywise inflatable, and she smacks me to tell me to stop so she can look. She ponders him for a moment, and his glowing light-up eyes, then points at his hand and shouts “BEEM!” Which is her word for “balloon.” She made us stand there under Pennywise for at least 3 minutes, which is a really long time for a one-year-old.

Then, she begs to get down, so I let her loose and she just books it all over the store. Finds the creepy demonic looking babies and shouts “BABY!” then gets this confused look on her face and tries to wipe the “dirt” off their faces. Decides it’s not worth it, goes and picks up a severed hand decoration, hands it to me and says “hand.” Yes, my dear, it is a hand. And yes, that severed foot has “toes,” you’re very right.

Finds the wigs, runs down the aisle shouting “hair! hair!” and grabbing her own sparse little headfuzz so hard I think she’s going to rip it all out. Then she found the speaker in the wall that was blaring Monster Mash and she demanded I pick her up so we could “DANSSSE”. But she got distracted by the big spider decorations, which she christened as dogs by running toward them and barking.

She ran up and down the aisles of costumes touching the fabric and making her little “tss tss tss” giggle that she does when she’s having Much Too Good a Time. Every so often she’d stop, look back to make sure I was there, and point at something and vibrate with her aggressive “EEEE!”

A man turned a corner wearing one of the creepy latex masks. He immediately started apologizing to me, saying “I’m so sorry, I’m looking for my friend, I don’t want to scare her.” Meanwhile my child is standing there looking up at him with the most confused look on her face. Not scared, just confused, like he is so dumb and she can’t figure out why he would want to make that stupid face for so long. But he rounds another corner all hunched over, she flaps her arms and sighs, and takes off to go scream at the creepy lawn decorations.

When it was time to go, nothing could convince her to come to me willingly, so I had to promise her one last look at the balloon man while I picked her up against her will. Pennywise placated her, and we left the store with a smile on her chubby little cheeks. She demanded we wait and watch the big inflatable-flailing-arm-tube-man out front, the one that was bright orange and had a jack-o-lantern face, and she bounced and wiggled and danced in my arms despite its fan being louder than the loud motorcycles that scare her on our walks. She waved bye-bye to it as we left for the car.

Basically, that was the cutest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life, and it’s so crazy how so many things are culturally taught and kids are just… immune to that. All she saw was bright colors and things she recognized and could name, in a place she could explore and touch. She has no concept of clowns being scary or zombies being A Thing or what constitutes “creepy” and “spooky” and “gross.” To her, a severed arm with gore hanging out the end doesn’t represent pain or violence, it’s just “arm,” and it’s got some weird stuff on the end that’s funny colors. They’re just things, there’s no context for it.

The world is weird and beautiful and it’s so cool to see it through the eyes of someone who is so New to this planet and hasn’t been influenced by society and culture yet.