Ask Shi'vanu Legacy

In the face of the rising Sith menace, a young Force-challenged padawan must learn to master his gift at the side of his Jedi Master. By the twist of cruel fate, a Jedi youngling is ripped from the Force and his future, and raised by the Empire as an Imperial Agent. A mother, forced to abandon her son, must helplessly watch as he is manipulated by destiny, while she struggles to provide for him in secret as a smuggler ... Two destinies, two futures, and the ties that bind them all. This is the Shi'vanu Legacy. Ask/RP blog for the Shi'vanu Legacy from the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. Tracking the tag: askshivanulegacy

[dduane]

Oh, BTW...

Judge Gives Final Approval of $1.5 Billion Anthropic Settlement

Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín approved the landmark settlement in the class action copyright lawsuit on Monday. Authors and publishers are e

Anthropic illegally downloaded some 500,000 titles, and 92% of those eligible for an award—both authors and publishers are entitled to payment—had opted into the class action. Martínez-Olguín denied all but two requests to opt out of the agreement. “We applaud the court’s final approval of this settlement, which represents an important victory in the larger battle to hold big tech accountable for its unscrupulous appropriation of intellectual and creative properties that clearly belong to authors and publishers,” said Maria Pallante, president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, in a statement. Pallante praised the court for recognizing that downloading from pirate sites “is not a choice we should simply accept as an efficiency for the infringer; on the contrary, it’s abhorrent conduct that should never be normalized.” She also argued that fair use should not be extended to allow tech companies to copy copyrighted materials, and that tech giants should look to licensing agreements to train their AI models.

Now we'll see how long the payouts take to come through. I had between a half and two-thirds of my lifetime output stolen by these schmucks, but payouts from many of those thefts will be split 50/50 with the publishers. (Which strikes me as fair enough.)

So the waiting continues. Meanwhile, so does work...

[socialpants]

And now we gotta run the same class action suit again, but this time about physical books!

AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop

ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”

[halfawakehomebodypotato]

Look, I'm not going to pretend I wasn't in fandom spaces I had no business being in back in the wild west of early-aughts internet — but I at least had the self-awareness to shut the fuck up and lay low.

Minors invading adult spaces have gotten way too bold about policing ADULT content.

[askshivanulegacy]

Nobody should know your age.

If you are telling people "DNI, I'm a minor!!!!" for whatever reason, you have just outed yourself and made yourself a possible target. Don't be dumb.

No one should be worrying about minors in ANY Internet space EVER. Minors seeing or not seeing objectionable content is nobody's problem.

[skelotan]

Thanks for reading. <3

[depsidase]

[notthatblairwitch]

[askshivanulegacy]

@dingoat :P

[unheardoracle]

Your dialogue is stiff because everyone is being too honest

Great dialogue can come from radical emotional honesty. But in most real conversations, people

dodge questions

answer indirectly

lie (badly)

change the subject

crack jokes to avoid serious answers

lie (convincingly)

say half of what they mean

tell the truth but get so anxious/angry/defensive others now think they're lying

If your dialogue feels unnatural, it might be because everyone is saying exactly what they think, or articulating their thoughts too well. Try letting characters hide things instead.

Subtext is where tension lives.

[herowyn]

5 0    Y E A R S    A G O

[dollsahoy]

if you see a long, snarky, entertaining post about some esoteric topic posted by the blog materialist-scumbag, some of you might want to be aware that the blog is generating content with Anthropic's Claude

The About page does say there is a human editor who works to make sure what the LLM generates is accurate, but also acknowledges that the editor doesn't know everything, so can't guarantee the final post has complete accuracy

[dollsahoy]

I didn't specifically say it was the Longhorn cattle/tick post, because every post on that blog is the same kind of lengthy snarky esoteric topic format, but that appears to be the only one that's broken containment

[askshivanulegacy]

That's the one I saw. Plus he will make some half-baked argument about it being "real" because "AI sources from the Internet" or some such derivative thing, so "didn't you learn something?"

But he doesn't post or reference source material. He doesn't tell you up front that AI generated it. He forces you to go down the rabbit hole of reading something "interesting," thus wasting your time, only for you do (maybe) discover in the comments that it was AI all along. And that's when he twists the hook in your flesh with his other excuses to get you to think "maybe AI is good and factual, actually."

It's not. AI lies like a rug because it is fundamentally incapable of keeping something accurate and truthful. You will not know what's true and what's fake, especially because these are such niche topics.

Don't fall for the trap. It's total gaslighting. If he couldn't bother to research and write something himself, you certainly don't have the time to bother reading that slop.

He's a liar and a scammer. It's disgusting. Block and report.

[lauralot89]

FDA issues most serious recall alert for potato chip brands over salmonella risk

Estimated 650,000 bags of potato chips are affected as US agency upgraded recall of popular brands made by Utz

July 2, 2026

Manufacturer Utz issued a voluntary recall in May for varieties of its Zapp’s and Dirty potato chips products, citing the possible presence of salmonella in dry milk powder sourced from a third party used to make a seasoning ingredient.

An estimated 650,000 bags of chips with best by dates ranging from 27 July to 31 August were believed to be affected.

The affected products are: Zapp’s Brand Bayou Blackened Ranch Potato Chips (1.5oz), Zapp’s Brand Bayou Blackened Ranch Potato Chips (2.5oz), Zapp’s Brand Bayou Blackened Ranch Potato Chips (8oz), Dirty Brand Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips (2oz), Zapp’s Brand Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips (1.5oz), Dirty Brand Maui Onion Potato Chip (2oz), Zapp’s Brand Big Cheezy Potato Chip (2.5oz), Zapp’s Brand Big Cheezy Potato Chip (8oz), and Dirty Brand Sour Cream and Onion Potato Chips (2oz).

[gailynovelry]

The fastest way to accomplish The Project is to cease being afraid of The Project. The Project cannot maim you. The Project cannot kill you. The Project is more afraid of you than you are of it. It is okay if The Project turns out differently from how it was in your head, and it is okay if it has flaws. You are capable of engaging with The Project.

[promptcalender]

How I ethically use genAI for my writing:

ChatGPT in particular has been so incredibly helpful in my writing process! It works perfectly in fueling my undying hatred for the slop plagiarism machine. Spite has been my singular motivator as I spend every day loathing the amount of AI covers and slop books flooding the market. AI has done what no motivational video on YouTube has managed to do: it has motivated me to sit my ass down and fucking write because I am a writer and'll be damned before I let some second hand thinker get the last laugh

[Prompt Calender: July 16th, Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day]

[misscrazyfangirl321]

Being an adult will have you unironically craving a vegetable

[misscrazyfangirl321]

Being an adult will have you unironically sad about a parasite outbreak in fresh vegetables.

[marithlizard]

(via bsky)

In case anyone hasn't heard, the cyclospora outbreak affecting tons of people in the US right now is coming from Taylor Farms produce. Best to stay away from bagged lettuce and prepared salads completely right now, but especially the ones mentioned in the screenshot:

Taylor Farms Earthbound Farms Little Salad Bar (Aldi) Marketside (Walmart) Kroger House Brand Target private label greens Costco salads and greens etc Trader Joe's chopped salad kits and fresh produce Fast food: McDonalds, Taco Bell, (Yum! Brands), Chipotle, Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, Olive Garden, Top Golf, Red Lobster, Burger King, etc.

This is not the first time I've heard about a Taylor Farms foodborne illness outbreak. I stopped eating their salads after reading a description of the conditions in their facilities. Doesn't sound like they've improved anything.

We need a fully funded and staffed FDA, and regulations with teeth - and that's exactly what we don't have under Trump. To make things worse, the CDC is no longer tracking these outbreaks. We're on our own.

[prismatic-bell]

HOLY SHIT THIS EXPLAINS WHY I GOT LAID OFF

TAYLOR FARMS WAS OUR BIGGEST CUSTOMER

(By like...a lot. Probably 85% of the jobs I ran were Taylor Farms.)

Outbreak is considered to have started 1 May, I was laid off on the 27th. That would do it.

HEB-branded greens also come from Taylor. Simple Truth Organic is also a Taylor brand sold exclusively through the Kroger conglomerate.

CANADA, THIS MEANS YOU TOO. I used to run English/French bilingual product for EBF, and I shipped to the Baja California warehouse right alongside the stuff for the US.

[corvidcall]

to anyone in the areas impacted by the wildfire smoke, my #1 biggest piece of advice as someone whos been dealing with wildfire smoke in the NW united states for years, is build yourself a Corsi-Rosenthal Cube

they perform as well as expensive HEPA air cleaners, and are comparatively VERY inexpensive. all you need is a box fan, 4 air filters, a piece of cardboard, and some duct tape!!!!

i think it took us maybe a half hour to put ours together, if that, and we replace the filters every 3 months. it's really made a HUGE difference, both when the air quality is bad, but also with our allergies

[o0fyuu0o]

Saw these easy to read instructions on Twitter. Stay safe 💚

[sun-cheyne]

Also just a handy, DIY air filter in general, if a bit bulky. For a less bulky and cheaper (but also less effective) solution, you can simply tape one filter to the fan, cut a shroud if you'd like.

[snowriddenwolf]

just FYI, this is quite literally what the climate scientists at my work who specialized in wildfire smoke impacts recommend. it works great, it's cheap to make, and it will make a noticeable impact on your air quality.

[mechanicalriddle]

i have asthma & keep one of these running in my room perpetually. after I set it up the difference in my sleep quality was pretty much night and day. Dont waste your time on proprietary air filters; SIMPLY bust out the duct tape

[lynayru]

I've been posting wips and and doodles over on Bluesky and thought I might as well toss them up here too. I'm trying to remind myself this blog was meant for wips and sketches and not a gallery of finished works. ^^;

[mad-hare]

in love with this Norwegian trotter named Express Go that’s won 7/7 races so far, is only 14.2hh, and has taught herself to duck down her head to give herself super speed (and lengthen her stride I guess)

[hunter-rodrigez]

So I do 3D modeling and printing as a hobby, and a few weeks ago I designed wheel guards meant to prevent office chairs from running over cables and clothes... or your pet's tail.

I got the idea from cowcatchers old locomotives used to have.

Anyways, yesterday I uploaded the model to Thingiverse, and just hours after uploading it, the Community Relationship Manager of the whole website left a comment suggesting I enter the model into a competition that's currently being held on the site.

So I did... and now it's in third place not even a day later. First place is $500, but the competition still has a month to go.

Then the Community Manager contacted me again, telling me they want to feature my model in an upcoming design promotion.

Just, what is happening? I mostly made this thing for myself in, like, an hour, and now it's suddenly super popular? This is all a little bit overwhelming 😵‍💫

Other models I worked on for weeks didn't get nearly as popular. I swear, it's impossible to predict what people will like.

Anyways, if you want to print the wheel guards yourself, you can get the model here or here.

I also made a quiet version you can stick furniture felt pads on.

[these-violet-delights-fic]

People love simple, extremely practical things. I hope you win!