Anything for Stories

Rachel | Writer, artist, line editor | Follower of the Way † | Chaos gremlin | Multi-fandom aficionado | On a journey to tell stories through words and visual art, no matter how long it takes or what kinds of learning, research, or blood sweat and tears it requires | Action/adventure fiction, generally with a superhero twist

[hold-fast-to-hope]

So I have had this word web on my heart for a while, ever since @queenlucythevaliant pointed out that Proverbs 31 is treated as a Text Applying Only to (Married or Future Married) Women and I thought "too true — shouldn't this be about the Church?" Unfortunately I have no skill in making webs so you will have to put up with me using bold and not-bold regular Tumblr text instead.

A wife of noble character who can find?     She is worth far more than rubies.

This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

Her husband has full confidence in her     and lacks nothing of value.

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

She brings him good, not harm,     all the days of her life.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

She selects wool and flax     and works with eager hands.

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

She is like the merchant ships,     bringing her food from afar.

The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.

She gets up while it is still night;     she provides food for her family     and portions for her female servants.

Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.

She considers a field and buys it;

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

    out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes?

She sets about her work vigorously;     her arms are strong for her tasks.

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.

She sees that her trading is profitable,

For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.

    and her lamp does not go out at night.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

In her hand she holds the distaff     and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.

She opens her arms to the poor     and extends her hands to the needy.

All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

When it snows, she has no fear for her household;     for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

She makes coverings for her bed;     she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Her husband is respected at the city gate,     where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever.

She makes linen garments and sells them,     and supplies the merchants with sashes.

Make tunics, sashes and caps for Aaron's sons to give them dignity and honor./But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light./Honor one another above yourselves.

She is clothed with strength and dignity;

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

    she can laugh at the days to come.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

She speaks with wisdom,     and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

She watches over the affairs of her household     and does not eat the bread of idleness.

On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.

Her children arise and call her blessed;     her husband also, and he praises her:

“Many women do noble things,     but you surpass them all.”

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;     but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Honor her for all that her hands have done,     and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!     For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad     and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come,     and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean,     was given her to wear.”

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.)

---

taken from Proverbs 31 and Ephesians 5, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 15, Revelation 21, Acts 2, Matthew 13, 1 Corinthians 9, Hebrews 12, Matthew 13 (again), Matthew 25 (twice), Acts 2 (again), Galatians 3, Colossians 3, Revelation 4, Exodus 28/1 Peter 2/Romans 12, Ephesians 6, Romans 8, Titus 1, 2 Thessalonians 3, Revelation 19. All quotations NIV.

[odyver]

alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

please rb for larger sample size!

Question 1/3

What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?

under 18, AI is a net positive

under 18, AI is a net negative

18-29, AI is a net positive

18-29, AI is a net negative

30-45, AI is a net positive

30-45, AI is a net negative

46-60, AI is a net positive

46-60, AI is a net negative

over 60, AI is a net postive

over 60, AI is a net negative

Remaining time: 4 days 19 hours

[odyver]

Question 2/3

How often do you visit or interact with museums/archives (whether in person or online)?

Frequently (multiple times per month)

Often (multiple times per year)

Occasionally (a couple times per year)

Rarely (once every couple of years)

Never :(

Remaining time: 4 days 19 hours

[odyver]

Question 3/3

If you saw a museum was using AI in exhibits, marketing, research, etc., would you be more or less inclined to visit that museum?

under 18, more inclined

under 18, less inclined

18-29, more inclined

18-29, less inclined

30-45, more inclined

30-45, less inclined

46-60, more inclined

46-60, less inclined

over 60, more inclined

over 60, less inclined

Remaining time: 4 days 19 hours

Thank you for helping with this data collection. Please rb for as big a sample as possible!

🫶

[twiststreet]

She got the idea for the study while walking with her advisor at Stanford to discuss her thesis topic, and the paper she eventually published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology in 2014 is sharp enough that it should have ended the seated meeting on the day it came out.

She ran 4 experiments on 176 people. Same person tested twice. Once sitting, once walking. The creativity tasks were the standard ones psychologists have used for decades to measure how good a brain is at generating novel useful ideas.

81% of participants in the first experiment produced more creative ideas while walking than while sitting. In the second experiment, 88%. In the third, 100%. Every single person walked into a more creative version of themselves. On average, people generated 60% more novel useful ideas the moment their legs started moving.

The skeptical question is the obvious one. Maybe it was the fresh air. Maybe it was the scenery passing by. Maybe it was the change of environment doing the work, not the walking itself.

Oppezzo killed every one of those explanations with one experimental decision. She put people on a treadmill facing a blank wall. No scenery. No fresh air. No environmental change. Just legs moving in place while staring at white drywall. The 60% boost held.

Then she ran the experiment that closed the case completely. She took participants outside in two conditions. Half of them walked through a Stanford courtyard. The other half were pushed through the exact same courtyard in a wheelchair. Same outdoor stimulation. Same scenery passing at the same speed. The only difference was whether the legs were moving.

The walkers produced dramatically more novel high-quality ideas than the wheelchair group. The outdoors did almost nothing on its own. The walking did everything.

She also tested the opposite kind of thinking. Convergent thinking. The kind where there is one right answer and you have to narrow down to it. Word puzzles where 3 words share a hidden fourth word that connects them. The seated participants did slightly better on these. Walkers got slightly worse.

Walking is not a general intelligence enhancer. It does one specific thing. It opens up the divergent search inside your brain. The part that generates options. The part that produces unexpected connections. The part that takes a problem and finds five ways into it instead of one.

When you need to converge on the single right answer, sit down. When you need to find the answer in the first place, get up.

The mechanism is now well understood. Walking selectively activates what neuroscientists call the default mode network, the system inside your brain that runs when you are not consciously focused on anything. The DMN is where mind-wandering happens. Where memories cross-reference each other. Where ideas that have been sitting in separate folders inside your head finally bump into each other.

When you sit at a desk and force yourself to concentrate, you suppress the DMN. When you walk at a natural pace, the executive part of your brain gets just busy enough handling the walking that the DMN comes online and starts doing the work that focus was blocking.

The most useful finding in the entire paper is the one almost nobody quotes. The boost did not turn off the moment people stopped walking. Participants who walked first and then sat back down stayed elevated. Their next round of seated creativity work was still significantly better than people who had been sitting the whole time. The rest lingered for at least several minutes after the legs stopped moving.

You do not need to do creative work while walking. You need to walk before the creative work. The brain holds the state.

Edited down a long tweet. (x)

[rainintheevening]

Okay, we got a new one, boys.

[fleshengine]

Close enough welcome back Chekov's gun.

[comma-souptra]

Prev you can’t bury this in your own tags

[justbreakonme]

I also like the idea of showing something as a problem before it’s shown as a strength. Almost every character trait has two sides, and by showing the “bad” side first, it sets things up to not only make sense, but to also be very satisfying.

[fudemushi]

If you met someone with the same last name as you, how surprised would you be?

Not at all, it's very common

A little surprised, but wouldn't immediately assume a connection

I would be surprised and assume there was some relation

I would be very surprised that I *hadn't* met this person, we must be related

Does anyone else with this last name even exist?

Voting ended onJun 3

[dykealloy]

I call this the create a new problem technique

[a-silly-poll-side-blog-yay]

do you have some crazy family lore

yes

no

no but i know someone else's crazy family lore

results

Voting ended onJun 3

[a-silly-poll-side-blog-yay]

do you have some crazy family lore

yes

no

no but i know someone else's crazy family lore

results

Voting ended onJun 3

[finrallover]

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗ a franky franklin analysis ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

I think what Franky says here is so interesting and gives such great insight about his character.

Because firstly, he's an informant, so he's someone with connections and information, so of course he knows this country like the back of his hand. But this threat, almost, that he could disappear for good without even WISE being able to track him down, is aura-farming, yes but also genuinely so incredible.

When we see Franky for the first/only time in Loid's flashback, he looks to be a relatively new recruit who wants nothing to do with the military or the war, hence the desertion.

(He honestly reminds me a bit of Usopp in One Piece, who is one of my favorite characters, so I might do an analysis on that in the future)

Anyway, despite seeming scared and cowardly, Franky's not stupid. As seen in these pages below.

When he's talking to Loid, it's very clear that Franky is a deep thinker and that he's thought long and hard about this conflict, and how stupid the whole thing really is. Comparing it to Loid, who is frankly (haha see what I did there) acting the way you would expect Franky to be i.e. taking it at face value and not looking too much into it, well it makes everything much more compelling.

Franky is often a gag character, getting into silly scenarios and usually ending up as the butt of a joke. Loid is a master of observation, and always analyzes situations from every angle possible before making a move. Yet, in this moment in their past, Franky is the the introspective one while Loid can only see things as black and white. Good and bad.

So what was the shift, then? At what point did Loid become Twilight, a master of espionage, who overthinks everything? Sure, Handler trained him and made him into the spy he is today, but there had to have been some moment that made a light go off in his mind. That made him think that this war, this conflict, is just two sides fighting over control, the concept of power, with no care for those who get caught in the crossfire.

Well, I think meeting Franky was that lightbulb moment for him.

(Kind of similar to the moment where, in FMAB, Riza meets Winry for the first time, and the two are so impacted by this moment, that they alter their styles to resemble each other. Riza grows out her hair, while Winry pierces her ears. A small moment that had a rippling impact)

┈┈・୨ ✦ ୧・┈┈

For Franky, working for WISE could be a more dangerous choice than it is for Loid, in some ways. Like, this is Franky's actual home; where he grew up, fell in love for the first time, where his family lives, etc. etc.

Loid goes into this field because he wants to create a world where children do not have to cry. But we still don't know why/how Franky ended up as an informant, apart from him mentioning that he wants to be "rebellious", which is probably just scratching the surface of his past.

Because sure, Franky alludes to his hopes; he says he's tired of all the fighting and wants peace. But the path from being anti-war to becoming an informant is not a linear one.

My hope is that Loid sought Franky out after becoming a spy when he needed intel, or someone on the inside. Years have passed, but when the two see each other, it's like they're transported back to when they first met on the battlefield.

Loid asks if Franky will be an informant, but he says he doesn't want to get mixed up in something like this. Franky starts to walks away, with Loid trailing after him, but, somehow, Franky vanishes. Loid is so confused because he's memorized the roadplans and schematics of this area, and there's no feasible way Franky should've been able to evade him, let alone disappear entirely.

"Not so high and mighty in my neck of the woods now, are you?"

Loid spins around and sees Franky lounging on a fire escape about two floors up, looking entirely too pleased with himself. If Franky had been holding a pistol, he would've had a clean shot. Stabbed, or rather, shot in the back, as it were.

But Franky doesn't have a weapon, unless you count the endless knowledge in his mind. And Loid, or rather Twilight, well he isn't giving up that easy, either.

"Think of all the good we could do. How many lives could be saved!"

Franky lets out a hollow laugh. "Why would I care about the lives of random civilians? It's not like those in charge cared about me when they killed all of my friends."

Well, that, at least, they shared in common. Two people on opposite sides of a needless conflict, having lost everyone they had ever cared about. And yet, they keep on living.

"I lost all of my friends in the war, too. And my mother."

Loid's never actually spoken these words aloud before. It wasn't a secret, not to those at WISE who had been keeping tabs on him, at least; but it wasn't something he went around advertising. He kept the memories of his mother and friends close to his chest, even if the details of their faces faded more and more with each passing day.

It's silent for a beat, as the two think about those they've lost.

Loid speaks first.

"Look, I know it won't be easy, and you will undoubtedly be putting your life at risk. But the promise of peace, a world where no child has to cry over senseles violence, isn't that the kind of future you want to create?"

Franky rolls his eyes, his feet dangling through the bars of the fire escape. Loid looks at him intently. Sure, he could find another informant, get intel from antoher source. But Franky is kind of person they need on their side if there's even a chance of maintaining peace between nations.

Franky sighs, waving a hand in the air.

"God, you're so sentimental, pulling on my heartstrings like that."

"Fine! I'll help you," he declares at last. Loid allows himself a small smile, as Franky starts fidgeting with his hair, realizing the disaster he just signed up for.

Loid lets out a short laugh, thinking back to the scrawny deserter he met in the forest ages ago. That was the first time he ever thought this conflict wasn't just black and white.

"But just remember," Franky states, pulling Loid from his memories.

"I know this country like the back of my hand. If I wanted to disappear, even WISE wouldn't be able to find me."

Loid flinches, taking half a step back.

"How did you know I'm a part of WISE?"

Franky grins, certain this won't be the last time he surpasses Loid in skill.

"You still have a lot to learn."

┈┈・୨ ✦ ୧・┈┈

thanks for reading <333

[five-six-two]

‭‭Colossians‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬-‭22‬ ‭NLT‬‬

[hapalopus]

[winterinhimring]

#what happens if cala gets a gun (via @cemchelarna) trick question: Cala already has Avada Kedavra so the plot does not change. XD

[irishironclad]

[iibislintu]

i quoted the spiders georg post in statistics class without saying spiders georg and it was fun to see most people in the room look bewildered at the thought of eating spiders, and two people looking like

[kat-of-letters]

i know that “don’t harass people for being weird, they might be autistic!” is a fairly popular take on here. but as a Certified Autist, i’d like to add that harassing allistic and/or neurotypical people for being weird is also bad, and should not be done

and before you come in with “yeah, you never know who is and isn’t autistic, and you shouldn’t force people to out themselves!” i want to say two things: one, i agree. and two, even if you could magically avoid ever harassing a single autistic person, it still wouldn’t be okay to go after NTs for being weird. they’re people, janice. they’re allowed to be really invested in naruto

[blujayonthewing]

#stop playing the game of ‘who is it okay for me to hurt?’ #the answer is no one #the answer is ALWAYS going to be no one #none people is the correct number of people to hurt [X]

[mademoiseli]

Streaming's really convenient and all, and I really do appreciate it. Some of my all time favorite movies or shows I discovered thanks to streaming, whether they were new movies/shows that were created for a specific platform, or an older piece of media I had somehow missed. But.

I miss when everyone in the family would gather around to watch the same show at the same time.

I miss when there was a good amount of really good shows on cable that most everyone around the country would watch together.

I miss when people could reasonably keep up with the shows their friends and family would recommend.

I miss when people didn't have to worry about spoilers as much because everyone would watch the new episode at the same time.

I miss when a "big episode" or a holiday special would be announced and everyone would anticipate it.

I miss when filmmakers would make more films (and specifically holiday films) aimed at the whole family, and not just hyper-specific target demographics, because it was assumed that the whole family would watch them together on the big screen, and later watch it together at home on the small screen.

I miss the sense of (offline) community surrounding film and television.

[mademoiseli]

In a similar vein, I miss when a good movie that did poor in the box office would get redeemed by dvd sales.

I miss anticipating the release of a dvd or blu-ray of a new movie, or the release of a special-edition dvd or blu-ray of a classic, because that was the only way to watch it at home aside from catching it on tv occasionally. I miss the art of the dvd menu and spending hours watching all the bonus features, and playing mini-games if the dvd featured some.

I miss how common it was for tv shows to also be released as dvd sets. I miss when people didn't have to worry about a favorite, obscure, streaming-only-show being wiped off the face of the earth because it wasn't successful enough.

[aphantimes]

🫵 YOU. STOP WHERE YOU ARE

say something nice about prev!!! find something cool about them!! give their blog a skim!!

compliments are FREE TO GIVE so GIVE THEM OUT. pls. thamnk. (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

[anythingforstories]

I’m all for holding AI-generated writing in contempt.

But I also hold the “OH NO WE GOTTA BEND OVER BACKWARD TO AVOID SOUNDING LIKE AI” mindset in contempt, too.

I’ve heard so many people say, “Don’t use em dashes! It’ll look like AI!”

But like. AI uses the word “and” a lot. Should I stop using the word “and”?

Of course not. That’s stupid. AI strings the word “and” into its sentences because real people include the word in their sentences a lot, so the statistical probability it’ll show up within the sequence of words is high. AI algorithms are just mimicking the training data.

Em dashes are the same way—after all, they're the best piece of punctuation (in my humble opinion). Of course AI uses them, because we use them.

Now, if Susan on Facebook suddenly starts writing like a corporate copywriter, sure, that's an "AI tell" (because SO much of the AI training data came from corporate copy since it's freely available online, and it would be weird for Susan from Facebook to freely decide to mimic that style). But if the corporate copywriter is writing like a corporate copywriter... that's just what they went to college for, bro.

If we always adapt our writing to avoid looking like the algorithms that mimic their training data (our writing), the algorithms will adapt. Then we’ll be avoiding the next “tell” in a few years, and then the next, then the next.

Then people in 50 years will wonder why we wrote like weirdos back in the '20s (and it’s because we were bending over backward to avoid em dashes and clarity).

We don’t even know how long text-generating LLMs will continue to have the same presence. And if/when their cultural significance fades, I don’t want to have upended my entire writing style to avoid people thinking I use that sloppy tech.

So writer: Write the way that makes sense. <3 Don't fall to the AI techbros that make you think you're nothing without their fancy algorithm, but also don't fear the AI witch hunters (lots of whom are only hopping on the hype train anyway; I'm guessing they'll forget about this soon enough).