NaNoWriMo Replacement Challenge

Hey y'all I don't know if anyone would be interested in this but ever since I saw NaNoWriMo's bad, wishy-washy take on AI generated writing I felt so very heartbroken because the challenge is a lot of fun and they ruined everything with this insane unwillingness to stand against AI stealing and destroying creative writing.

SO!

I went and designed a firmly anti-AI replacement challenge with exactly the same goal as NaNoWriMo, to write 50k in a month, except it's gonna happen in October.

I made a lil poster for it, some stickers, drew a lil mascot, and I'm thinking it could be a fun way for people to still take on the NaNo challenge without having to swallow the heartbreak of their pro-AI stances.

I called it OctoWriBo, October Writes Bookies.

Does this sound good to anyone? I'll put a poll and if people seem to like it, I'll make a blog for it and start posting some cute stuff so we can all vibe with our writing and ignore this betrayal.

The people who have picked 1st person are psychopaths actually

I wouldn't say psychopaths. If I have to read someone's name 8 times a paragraph so I don't get confused when there's shit like "She looked at her fondly and with slight trepidation. She was always interesting to her but also incredibly intimidating" then I get annoyed. Also, some of us like to live vicariously through the characters. You let me know where I can find a demon orgy or a realm of fairies or anything else I've enjoyed in 1st person POV and I'll stick to 3rd person forever. Maybe chill calling people childish for enjoying things

2nd person :)

[Id: post on bluesky by user joekatz45.bsky.social that reads "Seriously. Pick an aspect of Project 2025 you don't like. Write up 200 words TOPS on why you don't like it. Submit it to your local paper. They often publish these online, too, so you can give it a bump on social media when it runs." End id]

For my American writer friends on here: something you can do that could help in the coming election if you live in a small town - especially a red-leaning one.

Posting this to tumblr because I know people here are actually capable of writing 200 words lol.

PROJECT 2025 IS NOT THE OFFICIAL PLATFORM OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY YOU BUFFOONS

IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TRUMP

HE DIDN'T WRITE IT

Facts about Project 2025, in bullet point format since this is the piss on the poor website:

Woman voting for trump lol

Why do I even write? I'm not profound. I'm not clever. I'm not good. What arrogance must I have to put my thoughts on paper, cloak them in metaphor, and assume anyone else could get something out of it?

There's a great Matt Colville rant about this exact thing that single handedly gave me the courage to try writing something. Thanks for reminding me to rewatch it.

So this video genuinely made me think about some stuff, especially because it's primarily centered on tabletop role-playing games.

See, I love running TTRPGs. I think that my campaigns are great. I think that my players are going to love whatever I put in front of them. I'm completely confident that, no matter what idea I have, it'll be a hit. And I'm usually right. This is not arrogance, or hubris, or whatever. This is confidence built up over nearly a decade of being the central (often only) GM in my playgroup.

I also talk philosophy with a lot of my friends. I have stances that I'm willing to defend and that I think are important for people to hear. This is what I was raised to do, more or less. Find the truth, analyze the facts, and have confidence in anything I say.

But my family was very science-oriented. Even taking philosophy and mathematics courses in college was a bit of a rebellion. Art was never really on the table for me, and it was in 2021 that I decided that I should be an author (and I only later started putting in a lot of work). I'm new, and I know it, and that makes me insecure.

I don't know why my brain constantly translates this into the idea that I don't have anything worthwhile to communicate. I obviously act like I do in other areas.

Why do I even write? I'm not profound. I'm not clever. I'm not good. What arrogance must I have to put my thoughts on paper, cloak them in metaphor, and assume anyone else could get something out of it?

There's a great Matt Colville rant about this exact thing that single handedly gave me the courage to try writing something. Thanks for reminding me to rewatch it.

The haunting ancient Celtic carnyx being played for an audience. This is the sound Roman soldiers would have heard their Celtic enemies make.

Man if I heard that shit while descending upon a strange land with my brethren I'd straight up dig a hole to die in right the and there, fuck the emperor fuck the gods that's a warning straight from the bones of an older evil and whatever is coming is worse than death

I'm a little bit obsessed with the different strategies cultures have for scaring the piss out of their enemies on the battlefield.

Another great example is the polynesian haka. I love that they do it before rugby games. It's awe inspiring and seems to actually intimidate the opposing team!

We should bring back other ancient war intimidation tactics for sports. I want to hear Scottish footballers play this before games.

hey my besties who live in red states: id like you to go out and vote anyway.

yeah, the electoral college means your vote doesn't count unless you win your state. it's a terrible undemocratic bullshit system. it's not going to change before this election,* so there isn't much point in complaining about it right now.

if you hold the belief that there's no point in voting because your voice will just be downed out by a chorus of bigotry- chances are other people in your state feel the same way. and because those people are not voting, it's impossible to know how many of you there are. the reason it's important to vote EVEN WHEN YOU KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE is to make this number public.

when the minority in a state still goes out to vote:

- other members of the minority party know they aren't alone in their state. this encourages MORE people to vote in the next election

- the majority candidates are forced to divert some of their campaign resources away from swing states to secure a state they were already going to win

- the minority candidates are encouraged to spend some time campaigning in your state instead of abandoning it as a lost cause

- assuming you also vote in local elections, the minority is more likely to win representatives in the house

- who knows there might be so many of you that you fucking flip it by mistake

there has been a 700% increase in new daily voter registrations in the few days since Biden dropped out of the race.

thousands of people are deciding, right now, that voting is worth it. some of them live in your state. there is going to be a spike in blue votes across the country. this election is going to have the youngest voter turnout in history. this is the best possible time to join them. join us.

what have you got to lose? one afternoon?

Wizard Fact #1: The dumbest wizard is still smarter than the most intelligent king.

Hello WLWs (Wizard Loving Wizards)

I like to think I have a nuanced and measured response to AI generated imagery but one thing that makes me disproportionately mad is AI aesthetic images and especially nature images on my dash. I unfollow over reblogging that shit and block over posting it.

Accounts that post a lot of low quality un-credited imagery will inevitably end up posting a lot of generated images. So maybe we can harness the outrage over AI to finally make it socially unacceptable to reblog from content slop troughs.

No, no, this isn't an AI-generated image! It's a 220 million-year-old petrified log located in Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, USA. This park is famous for its vast petrified wood deposits. Petrified wood forms when minerals replace the wood fibers over millions of years, resulting in fossilized wood that can be as hard and colorful as gemstones. The log in the picture is entirely replaced by quartz crystals, making it sparkle in the close-up view. This log, dating back to the Late Triassic Period, about 225 to 207 million years ago, serves as a fascinating reminder of the ancient forests that once covered this area.

Yes the fuck this is AI I can tell because of the way that it is

This isn't even from a recent image generator this looks like the shit Midjourney was pumping out when it was first released.

Look at this shit. Poor robot doesn't know what a plant is.

BUT ALSO if it's not AI, show me other photos by this photographer, because when I look up Ceausu Cristian, I can't find any. In fact, when I reverse-image search this all I see are identical Facebook posts with different copyright claims. Most of them are posted on pages alongside other obvious AI stuff for religious boomers. There's even another generated image clearly from the same set:

^ this is also fake generated garbage

Here are some real pictures of Petrified Forest National Park by photographer Joseph Corl

See how beautiful and majestic this shit is? If you want to post beautiful desert scenery the images are out there and free to use with proper attribution.

By the way this isn't the only generated image on OPs blog. There are also some shitty photoshop jobs. I normally just block and move on when I see undisclosed AI imagery but "this isn't AI!" pissed me off.

@desert-love is a type of account called a content aggregator. Most of their posts are just stolen from other parts of the internet, mostly Facebook. I urge you to stop interacting with accounts like this. If you see a pretty picture online, at a minimum, check the account that posted it. If it's all low-effort un-credited images with marginally related tags? That's just spam. Please don't reblog that shit I will unfollow you.