Just a human doing human things

Because Neve Gallus.

[jouskaroo]

Unfurling Like a Fist

She is here.

Omg you guys!!

I've been talking about this character and this story FOREVER it seems, but being perfectly honest--I could keep going. I love her.

Now you can love Tavi Mercar, too! Unfurling Like a Fist is Tavi before everything. It follows her at intervals through her childhood and into her teen years. ULaF happened because giving Tavi a happy childhood was, for me personally, non-negotiable. But a few questions arose early on, especially given the dire circumstances of Veilguard and the emotional weight of the game's events: 1.) How the heck does a kid raised in idyllic circumstances learn to stand on their own well enough to successfully lead a team of professionals through the end of Veilguard? 2,) And what might Tavi's motivation be to become a Shadow Dragon?

I love Tavi's story and I'm hella proud of it. I owe a debt of gratitude to @the-sparrohawk I don't think she knew what she was in for when she initially agreed to beta read this work, but I'm so glad she did. It would have been much weaker, wordier, and had a ton more spelling errors without her input and guidance. Sparrowhawk, thank you. Infinite thanks for your kindness, for the generosity of your time (during Lucanis week, even!!) for your patience, and for your directness. It was amazing. YOU are amazing, and I appreciate you more than I can possibly say. For any Emmcanis shippers or Spite fans (heck, even if you're not!) please go read the_sparrowhawk's writing. It's so, sooo good. I love this story and I'm proud of it, but her writing has a degree of 'crafting' I'm ridiculously envious of. Seriously. READ IT! Also, huge thanks to all the other writers in my orbit. You're all such a fucking inspiration I can't even begin to tell you.

[butterflyinthewell]

You have been booped by this empty wrapping paper tube.

Reblog to boop all of your followers with it.

[yelenhol]

It’s getting hot here😳

Commission for @duckie19 Thank you for commissioning me❤️

[8nin]

hey sorry i acted weird the other day i was trying so hard to act normal that it backfired

[rosalesbeausderholle]

One thing that worries me about the use of AI is whether or not it can worsen people's dementia and alzheimer's in the future. When my grandmother was first diagnosed, we got her math activity books. Now, my grandmother never had a formal education, but we did our best to keep her sharp, get her to do math and writing activity books, sudokus, playing board games that required some level of strategizing with her. Her family is prone to alzheimer's and dementia (both her siblings had it and deteriorated very very very quickly, which yeah, scares the shit out of me being her granddaughter) but she was the one whose mind lasted the longest, she only passed away two years ago, at 88, ten whole years after her initial diagnosis and sure, she had forgotten things, recipes and where she put her glasses and appointments, but she never forgot any of us, ten whole years in, she still remembered us. Now, this may have been luck, but doctors always said the constant mental work + companionship + medicine helped her a lot. So I'm thinking, these people who are now relying on AI for everything, from email-writing to thinking what's for dinner to casual conversations, I've even seen people rely on it to calculate what time they should leave their house if they need to be at a place at a specific time and their commute lasts X number of minutes. As if that's not... the simplest math operation possible? You shouldn't even need a calculator for that!!! Idk I don't know how long it'll take us to see the effects of this + exposure to brain-rotting short form content that is completely meaningless + people addicted to right-wing conspiracy style media. Idk I'm very worried. Please, read, read complicated books! Take up a book on philosophy and try to decipher it and make your own opinions on it, please buy a maths activity book and relearn how to do math, please get a hobby that involves lots of thinking and concentrating. PLEASE!!!

[notalotgoingonatthisinstant]

As a neurologist, I’ll give you the pretty name for it: cognitive reserve.

The way I explain it to my patients is that our neurons don’t regenerate. They make connections with each other and that’s it. If you don’t use your brain, they make fewer connections and, if one of them dies, you’re gonna miss it, because that was the only one that knew how to do X. Now, if each one of them has many, many connections, you won’t notice the difference when one of them dies. The others pick up the slack.

As of 2024, 45% of dementia risk factors are modifiable. Relevant to this conversation, 5% for less education and 5% for social isolation.

We absolutely are going to see the reflection of this, but it’s gonna take decades and it’ll be too late. So, for the love of your brain, pretend that it’s a muscle and make it work. People complain about “when am I ever gonna use this maths formula in my life?” You’re not. You’re teaching your brain to think logically. Those sinapses will be there for when you need to figure out your week’s schedule. English classes taught me how to interpret data and how to convey it in this text so it’s clear and you understand what I’m saying, not because I needed to justify why the curtain is blue.

Make your brain know how to do different things. Logic games, puzzles, taking care of a garden even if small, planning a church’s event or birthday, learn a new instrument, learn a few words in another language, look at a calendar every day, do some manual labor if possible. Do not, I repeat, do not let your brain get rid of sinapses by letting AI do everything. Your brain uses 20% of your body’s energy — do you really think it’s going to maintain connexions that aren’t in use?

Most cases of Alzheimer’s are sporadic, meaning no family history. Family history of a first-degree relative with Alzheimer’s starting before they were 80yo increases your risk in 2-3x on average.

TLDR: Yes. From the knowledge we have today, AI will increase the number and severity of dementia cases.

[elfroot-dispute]

Griffon Age: a Dragon Age fangame is OUT!

Help Assan fly through different worlds, avoiding enemies and collecting valuables to achieve the highest score. Play in Challenge Mode, where levels get faster and longer each time, or cruise along at a set speed in Zen Mode and relax.

Find the game here!

The game can be played in the browser, on mobile (be sure to enable mobile controls in the settings first), or it can be downloaded for PC.

Have fun, and please let me know what you thought!

[twinkboobs-deactivated20250801]

i wish people were nicer about the whole transgender thing

[writingdose]

how to write, a step-by-step guide from my personal experience

open your draft

stare at the screen

cry

[cinewhore-deactivated20211003]

[dalishious]

A list of malevolent spirit (demon) ideas

(* = canon)

Abuse, Aggression, Allure*, Angst, Anxiety, Apathy, Arrogance, Atrocity, Audacity*

Banality, Bedlam, Belligerence, Betrayal, Brutality

Callousness, Caress*, Chaos, Conceit, Confusion, Contempt, Control, Corruption, Craze, Cruelty, Cynicism

Death, Decay, Deceit, Defeat, Defiance, Denial, Depression, Desire*, Despair*, Despondence*, Detachment, Devious, Disappointment, Disease, Disgust, Disruption, Distress, Domination, Dread

Ego, Embarrassment, Enmity, Entropy, Envy*, Erasure, Esurience, Expiration

Failure, Fanaticism, Fear*, Feebleness, Ferocity, Filth, Flirtation, Foolishness, Forlorn, Forsake, Frailty, Fright, Frivolity, Frustration

Ignorance, Illness, Impudence, Impulse, Indolence, Infection, Injury, Insatiation, Insecurity, Intolerance, Isolation*

Gloom, Gluttony, Grave, Greed, Grief, Grime, Grudge Guilt

Hanker*, Harm, Hate, Hindrance, Hollow, Horror*, Hostility, Hubris, Humiliation, Hunger*, Hurt, Hybris*, Hysteria

Impatience

Jealousy, Jilt, Jinx

Lament, Languish, Laziness, Lethargy, Loathing, Loneliness, Loss, Lovelorn, Lust, Lying

Macabre, Malevolence, Malaise, Malice, Manipulation, Mayhem, Misery*, Menace, Mess, Mockery, Mourning

Naïveté, Necrosis, Neglect, Nemesis, Nervousness, Nihilism, Numbness

Obscurity, Obsession, Offence, Omen, Oppression, Ornery

Pain, Pandemonium, Passivity*, Perversion, Pessimism, Pillaging, Prejudice, Pride*

Rapacity*, Rage*, Regression, Rejection, Regret*, Remorse*, Renege, Repulsion, Revenge, Revolt, Rue, Ruin, Ruthlessness

Sadness, Scarcity, Scorn, Shame*, Sickness, Sloth*, Sorrow, Spite*, Stress, Strife, Suspicion

Tension, Terror*, Threat, Torment, Torpor*, Torture, Tragedy, Trauma, Treachery, Treasure*, Trickery, Tyranny*

Vanity, Venality, Vendetta, Vengeance*, Vexation, Vice, Vile, Violation, Violence, Virulence, Vulgarity

War, Waste, Weakness, Weariness, Wickedness, Wilting, Withering, Woe, Worry, Wrath

Yeverous

Zealotry

---

[Benevolent list]

[sjdsjkdlskdas-deactivated202012]

adhd is so funny it's like being possessed but with myself

[welpnotagain]

me, desperately: can we please get something done?!

my inner demon, who is also me: IF YOU LIKE PIÑA COLADA

[emmavakarian-theirin]

surprise neve photodump for @rookgallustroublesomehousehimbo :)

[moss-sprout]

I'm starting a collection

[postcardsfromheapside]

"Warrior types don't do it for me" okay because this man is over here at a desk making stacks of biological sketches and notes, idk maybe get you a LI who can do both AND his tits are out the entire time.

[oopsallabominations]

[starplanes]

Celebrate Black history month by tuning in to some excellent fiction pods by Black creators!

[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)