Hello, darklings!
Look at this beauty I caught a pic of a month ago! I had to move her. She scared my roommate.
I have been a busy goblin, getting things repaired, reorganized and painted with the house, working overtime, beta-reading, and trying to get my 21 year-old-spawn to adult. It’s left me little time for watching shows or playing games, though I did start with a new virtual-ran tabletop RPG with a Victorian era horror and gumshoe theme to it.
I’m also playing a game of annoyance with the big A of zon. Their bot flagged my book review for “community violations”. I and others cannot see the violation, and, of course, their automated message doesn’t point out what is in violation. I have been emailing all month every 5-days to a week and attempting to get answers, this last time text-chatting with a rep on the matter. Just… being a very polite pest.
Am I looking to win something? No. Do I think they’ll actually fix the issue? Not at all. But I intend to pester them with it, without getting anyone in trouble at their work if I can help it. Because if they did this to me, they’re doing it to others for certain, and I want to see at what length they will go to insistently ignore me, or say they’re looking into it without getting back to me, or if they’ll ever remove the violation on my record due to an AI bot’s failing.
I want to gauge how bad they are at resolving this issue. I’m not measuring if they can fix it. I’m measuring how poorly they don’t.
Now, of course there are other places to post book reviews. I currently have a long list of places that I intend to research when time allows to see what the best places are for showing what books I loved, especially without dubious AI censorship. I want to have other places to post in confidence aside from GR so others can view what I think of a book and where I can find honest reviews to read myself.
I want to know where the best sites are to help promote an author’s work.
I’ll keep you all posted on how it turns out with Azn company and definitely what my research turns up on book review sites. In the meantime…
Working On:
I’ve not had a lot of time to work on things, and I still have no idea what I’m doing for November writing.
No, I am NOT utilizing nanowrimo dot org. Frankly, flock those asshats. Their policies to protect predators without oversight in their forums, expecting their regional volunteers to shoulder legal blame for their failings, and promoting AI writing (writing, not as an assistant tool) is abhorrent. My group and I will be doing our own writing challenge, entirely separate from them, alongside my regional nano group that has separated from the organization alongside hundreds of others who are doing the same.
We’ll keep the joyful spirit of the challenge, returning to the roots of what made it great, but we’ll have no part in a corporation who protects predation and promotes AI over actual writing.
Research History This Week That May Have Put Me on a List (or confused whoever monitors me):
Dutch accents, names, and victorian era clothing.
1890s dress and drinks
Women’s financial and property rights through the ages
Mercury poisoning
Syringe, blood draw, and hypodermic needle history
Doctor bag contents in the 1890’s
Traveling and travel times in 1890’s Europe
Writing Whoops:
“Appreciable” does not mean someone or something is pleasant. It means a noticeable difference in measurement/value/impact. So someone can make an appreciable difference that we can appreciate, but they are not, themselves, appreciable.
Things my AI bot has overheard:
“Why is it ****ing 80 degrees at the end of October? This is bull**** even for Missouri!”
Oak mites?! You mean to tell me we survived mosquitoes, ticks, and chiggers just to be bit up by oak leaf itch mites?
“I just gave you the busy bone less than five minutes ago. How is it gone?”
“Guess what? Tonight is fresh peanut butter night!”
“Aw yes, the skeleton’s have arrived.”
“The spray bottle in the bathroom—It is NOT water.”
Beasties Update:
All the pets are doing good! AND… I have THREE possums. I suspect Pocket grew up, returning as quite a large marsupial, and the two younger ones might be related. I have no proof. Just fanciful thinking. One of these times, I really should set up a game trail camera.
Watching, Reading, Playing:
I joined an online RPG that will use the Night’s Black Agents’ system, which even after first game seems like it’ll be quite the blast. I’m not sure how often we’ll meet for game, but I’ve been wanting to explore different board and RPG tabletop systems, so this is a great opportunity to see how some of the mechanics work and how role play layers with it.
I’m still also in a Ravenloft virtual tabletop RPG, too, and really dig the new D&D 5E. I’m looking forward to seeing the new rules for 2024 PHB. We’re almost on our way to kill Straud. My shadow monk gnome is very excited to see what kind of mayhem she and her friends can unleash on the bloodsucking lord of darkness.
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