design comm for a mimic mage with both angelic and demonic elements
As Google has worked to overtake the internet, its search algorithm has not just gotten worse. It has been designed to prioritize advertisers and popular pages often times excluding pages and content that better matches your search terms
As a writer in need of information for my stories, I find this unacceptable. As a proponent of availability of information so the populace can actually educate itself, it is unforgivable.
Below is a concise list of useful research sites compiled by Edward Clark over on Facebook. I was familiar with some, but not all of these.
⁂
Google is so powerful that it “hides” other search systems from us. We just don’t know the existence of most of them. Meanwhile, there are still a huge number of excellent searchers in the world who specialize in books, science, other smart information. Keep a list of sites you never heard of.
www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.
www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.
https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.
www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.
http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.
www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.
www.pdfdrive.com is the largest website for free download of books in PDF format. Claiming over 225 million names.
www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free
is the world really such a terrible place? yesterday i asked if oat milk was extra and the barista said yes so i said ok just regular milk then and when she gave me my chai latte she whispered “i used oat milk ;)” doesnt that make u want to live another day?
What We Possess: A Ghostly Story Telling Game by Publishing Goblin — Kickstarter
On October 30th, What We Possess is coming to Kickstarter Oct 30th.
This Ghost Story Telling Game is a gm-less experience for 2-7 players. Players are given their method of death, a location they're trapped in, and a gathering of mortal and inanimate vessels in their space. They then take turns setting scenes for the living vessels, creating a story for the space, ultimately trying to uncover the mystery at the center of their story.
As players feel they've uncovered something about the mystery, they gain Clue cards that help them find details in the story, until they ultimately solve the mystery.
Games typically take 1-2 hours, and at the end, players are invited to share what happened to their ghost, and the vessels still in the space.
A meditation on life and death, an improv game, a story telling experience, What We Possess is, as your ghosts will find, what you make of it.
Also tagged in here is the 2nd Edition of ZOETROPE, the time travel card-based role playing game, available as a pledge tier and add-on. If you think What We Possess sounds delightful but maybe a bit too somber, ZOETROPE has all your time travel shenanigans covered!
What We Possess: A Ghostly Story Telling Game by Publishing Goblin — Kickstarter
Idk why im never satisfied with her design but this is pretty close i think
Might make this an Actual AU 👀
Today, the average upper class faildaughter is usually forced to become a social media influencer, denied her ancient right to claim the position of “true stewardess” of Nineigara, the tutelary goddess of dairy products, as was customary under the divinely guided rule of the dynasty of Isin. Shameful!
They feeble on my cursed one till the magnificence of my spells deter them
[CORE_SOUL: On]
You are nowhere. There is nothing.
In truth, you are likely in your body, hopefully where you last left it, but you cannot tell at this time.
[DIVINATION_MODULE_v3.5: On] - It will take eight minutes to gain visual input in the right eye. It will take an hour and five minutes for [AUX_AUDIT_PROC_v9] to come online. Heat a tortoise shell and observe the cracks for more information.
You are glad Lady Yukari made it so that this is what typically comes online first. It usually gives you something to look forward to. Though it would perhaps be nicer to be able to see or move first. However, you know from experience that these are some of the more difficult parts of a shikigami to make work.
[CHEN_CONNECTION_v12: On] - She is fast asleep. No further information.
This is the only part of yourself that you made largely on your own. Naturally, it is the least functional. It was worse in the past though.
[...]
[ROCK_GAP_SIMULACRUM: On]
In place of this there used to be a gap connection to the outside world. Lady Yukari called it a "Load Bearing Coconut", even though it was clearly connected to a rock. However, it apparently shattered last year, which of course caused practically everything to either malfunction or break completely. This is a replacement she made. This increased loading time, as did all the previous band-aid fixes over the last several centuries.
[...]
[OLD_REPURPOSED_MODULE_(REPLACE_THIS): On]
[SENSE_INPUT_BUS: On]
[SMELL: On]
[VISION_R: On]
The left eye for some reason always takes at least a few more minutes to come online. Lady Yukari has not been able to explain why that is to you.
You know that you are in fact in your room, and you know that eight minutes have passed. Little you can do with this information for now, since you still cannot move.
You should change your duvet cover later today. This one needs to be washed.
[PROPRIOCEPTION: On]
[TASTE: On]
[SOMATOSENSORY: On]
Your eyes are very dry, much like every morning. They open automatically when you first awake, but you can only blink voluntarily. Not an urgent fix, since this cannot cause you any damage, it's just unpleasant.
[FIXUPS_v3: On]
For the time being, you are stuck staring at the ceiling. Yukari told you once that body motion and eye motion are controlled largely separately in humans, but this is not the case in your body. You cannot move your eyes until the bodily output bus comes online.
[...]
[FIXUPS_B_v5.5: On]
[MOTOR_CONTROL_CORE_v4: On]
This part will help you coordinate your movements once you are able to move.
[FIXUPS_C_v4: On]
[MOTORICS_STABILISER_v2: On]
[...]
[BODILY_OUTPUT_BUS: On]
[GAP: On]
At long last. You blink and rub your eyes in an attempt to get rid of the dryness. You finally sit up. You get up from your bed.
What is this gap for, in any case?
You should probably start going about your day.
You look around your room for what might be your hairbrush. None of your visual processing modules are on yet, and so identifying objects is difficult. Also, your left eye is taking a while to start working. Nevertheless you find what you figure is a brush - it is about the correct lenght, has one thinner part that may be a handle, and a wider part bearing what might be the hairs. Using the same memorized motions you've used for centuries, you brush your hair.
Maybe you should leave your room. Might be good to try to cook something, or if your object identification processing module isn't on yet by then, maybe get a drink.
You walk towards what seems like a door. You look over it to make sure it is not your closet door. The shape of the handle seems right for the one you are looking for, so you start walking towards it.
[FIXUP_OVERHAUL_v0.99: On]
Suffering a momentary lapse of consciousness, you crash right into the door, and fall onto the floor.
This was an attempt of Lady Yukari's to eventually replace all the overly big "fixup" modules with some more streamlined implementation. This giant module, currently attached somewhere around the other fixup and motorics modules, is the result. Frankly, you would be better off without it.
You get back up and open the door.
[VISION_L: On]
[SPEECH_MOTORICS_v2: On]
Took a while. You walk out of your room and head to the kitchen, using your mental map of the house, walking carefully, since your ability to notice obstacles by sight is still impaired.
You enter what you're fairly sure is the kitchen. Probably best you do not cook just yet. You remember Yukari recently purchased some outside world drink. You could try that, to pass the time.
It is bottled, so you look for a bottle, and a glass to pour the drink into. You find objects identifiable as such.
You pour yourself a glass. Isn't this smell strange? You take a sip..
You spit it out. This is vinegar. This was not the right bottle.
[AUX_VISUAL_PROC_OBJECTS_IDENT_v4: On]
This would have been very useful a few seconds ago.
[STAR_MAP_HD: On]
[CLOCK: On] - It is 7:21:30.2912 am
You are unsure what the star chart is for, and every time you asked Yukari, she just chuckled and refused to answer.
You hear a sound behind you in the kitchen. Laughter?
You look in the direction of the sound. The source of it is some sort of person. You cannot tell apart faces yet, but they are wearing one of Yukari's dresses and have blond hair, and so you easily conclude this is probably Lady Yukari.
YAKUMO YUKARI - [Unintelligible]
You cannot yet process speech, so you don't know what she is saying.
YOU - "I'm sorry, Lady Yukari. My auditory processor is not on yet, and so I cannot understand you."
The person you presumed is Lady Yukari laughs again.
You sigh.
You used to be able to do a lot of this processing with the core soul alone, didn't you? Has your core just lost its functions, as it could rely on all the auxiliary processors?
Not that it matters.
You come back to the stove to cook breakfast for yourself, Lady Yukari and Chen. By the time you are done, most modules should be on.
Ok but like. What the fuck is there to do on the internet anymore?
Idk when I was younger, you could just go and go and find exciting new websites full of whatever cool things you wanted to explore. An overabundance of ways to occupy your time online.
Now, it's just... Social media. That's it. Social media and news sites. And I'm tired of social media and I'm tired of the news.
Am I just like completely inept at finding new things or has the internet just fallen apart that much with the problems of SEO and web 3.0 turning everything into a same-site prison?