Pleonasm

"Pleonasm is the use of more words or parts of words than are necessary or sufficient for clear expression: for example black darkness or burning fire. Such redundancy is, by traditional rhetorical criteria, a manifestation of tautology, and might be considered a fault of style."

[ms-demeanor]

How do you feel about driving?

I can drive, I am good at driving, I enjoy driving.

I can drive, I am good at driving, I do not enjoy driving.

I can drive, I am bad at driving, I enjoy driving.

I can drive, I am bad at driving, I do not enjoy driving.

I haven't learned to drive, I think I would enjoy driving.

I haven't learned to drive, I do not think I would enjoy driving.

I can't drive anymore, I was good at it, I enjoyed driving.

I can't drive anymore, I was good at it, I didn't enjoy it.

I can't drive anymore, I was bad at it, I enjoyed it.

I can't drive anymore, I was bad at it, I didn't enjoy it.

Remaining time: 21 hours 48 minutes

[alexanderwales]

Here's a legal PSA:

If you've committed a crime and a detective gathers everyone involved in the room, especially if he's not actually a detective and is instead a novelist, puzzle-setter, psychic, fake psychic, dog, chess grandmaster, etc. ...

YOU SHOULD NOT CONFESS.

Every year, hundreds of people are put away by non-traditional "detectives" who have either inserted themselves into the case or are working with the police in a dubiously legal capacity as advisor. In 99% of these cases, the murderer gives a full confession even though the evidence against them is circumstantial at best and often requires a long just-so story which can only guess at motive.

If this happens to you, stay quiet, do not attempt to defend yourself or talk your way out of it, only say "I want a lawyer".

Now if you find yourself being investigated by a boy genius, magician's assistant, anthropologist, classics scholar, or philosopher, it's likely that refusing to talk to the police (or investigator with no legal authority) is merely the end of the second act, and by the end of the third act they will have you dead to rights.

YOU SHOULD STILL NOT CONFESS.

Make them take it to court. Force the eccentric detective and his straight-laced police partner to take the stand and explain their methods to a jury of your peers. Have your lawyer look at the chain of custody on the evidence, especially if you believe it to have been handled by someone who has only bumbled into detective work through their natural charm and/or unique set of skills and outsider perspective that come in handy more often than they should.

Know your rights. Don't let eccentric detectives put you away.

[teaboot]

“Why are you scared of dating” I’m not scared of dating, I just haven’t found anyone’s company to be more enjoyable than my own. And also I don’t care

[justlightmeonfire]

I just don't want anyone to steal my very cursed amulet

[teaboot]

Also the amulet

[whimsicalmayhem]

Is that you talking? Or the amulet? Are you SURE a new hand doesn't want to touch the beacon?

[teaboot]

The amulet and I are not currently looking for a third

[madeofklay]

I saw this perfectly in my head and had to recreate it

[teaboot]

Holy Shit

[apolladay]

Employed people, if everything you needed to live comfortably was automatically paid for, would you still work at your job? (Read all options)

Yes, as many hours as I work now, even if I didn’t get paid

Yes, less hours than I work now (more than 50%), even if I didn’t get paid

Yes, less hours than I work now (less than 50%), even if I didn’t get paid

Yes, as much as I work now, but only if I still get paid

Yes, less than I work now (more than 50%), but only if I still get paid

Yes, less than I work now (less than 50%), but only if I still get paid

No, but I would work a different job (that’s socially mostly considered a ‘real’ job)

No, but I would work a different job (that’s socially mostly considered ‘not a real job’)

No, but I would contribute to society/the community in some other way

No, and I would not contribute to society/the community (even though I can do so comfortably)

No, and I would not contribute to society/the community (because I can’t do so comfortably)

I don’t have a job/results

Employed people, if everything you needed to live comfortably was automatically paid for, would you still work at your job? (Read all options)

Yes, as many hours as I work now, even if I didn’t get paid

Yes, less hours than I work now (more than 50%), even if I didn’t get paid

Yes, less hours than I work now (less than 50%), even if I didn’t get paid

Yes, as much as I work now, but only if I still get paid

Yes, less than I work now (more than 50%), but only if I still get paid

Yes, less than I work now (less than 50%), but only if I still get paid

No, but I would work a different job (considered a ‘real' job)

No, but I would work a different job (considered ‘not a real' job)

No, but I would contribute to society/the community in some other way

No, and I would not contribute to society/the community (even though I can do*

No, and I would not contribute to society/the community (because I can’t do*

I don’t have a job/results

Voting ended onMay 30

* so comfortably)

[podcastwizard]

you don’t realize how important lunch is until you’re wandering around thinking about how unloveable and untalented and uniquely cursed you are and then it’s 4pm and you finally eat lunch and you go Oh. oh right.

[fresh-prince-of-denmark]

Listen companies releasing half-baked games that require paid DLC to feel complete is bad but can we all agree it was objectively funny for Dragon Age 2 to lock the only straight character behind a paywall.

[anti-capitalistlesbianwitch]

This Doonesbury abortion cartoon was originally written by Gary Trudeau in 2012, in response to a Texas law requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion. It was banned from many major newspapers, and they ran syndicated cartoons in its place.

Now seems like an appropriate time to bring these cartoons back, with the passing of Texas’ new law requiring the burial or cremation of miscarried or aborted fetal remains. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if Trudeau decides to write the sequel.

(Source)

[whatbigotspost]

God. You’ll have to excuse me openly weeping atm. I remember being horrified when that law hit the books here.

I had no idea how much worse it would get in 10 year’s time.

[recents]

i Love that anders’ clinic delivers babies and treats STDs. thank you for calling planned parenthood of Kirkwall. we are one guy in the sewer. they’ve been trying to catch him for Years . for birth control inquiries, press 1. for hormone therapy, press 2

[otomeisekais]

[mikkeneko]

#….what the heck is dragon age about???

[syn4k]

burning text gif maker

heart locket gif maker

minecraft advancement maker

minecraft logo font text generator w/assorted textures and pride flags

windows error message maker (win1.0-win11)

FromSoftware image macro generator (elden ring Noun Verbed text)

image to 3d effect gif

vaporwave image generator

microsoft wordart maker (REALLY annoying to use on mobile)

you're welcome

[mmelete]

[carby]

[contemptible-scoundrel]

I attempted to rob a man at zweihanderpoint but unfortunately he pulled out a pike and gained the range advantage, giving me no choice but to flee

[borninwinter81]

A reminder: Terry Pratchett's work was dark as hell

Something that I've seen in a large number of criticisms of Good Omens S3 is that Terry Pratchett wouldn't have written it that way because it's "too dark", and that Terry was lighthearted and funny, and clearly all the humour in the novel came from him and all the dark bits came from Gaiman.

This is an old misconception which has been around since the publication of the novel, and I think the people saying that possibly aren't very familiar with Terry Pratchett's work, or at least only surface level familiar. At times it can be easy to miss because of the humour, but Terry did dark better than almost any author I've ever read.

The first time I read this passage in Nation it was like being hit in the face with a brick.

Nation is a book that I've seen negative reviews of because it isn't funny, and they're correct, how could a novel which opens with almost all the inhabitants of an island being killed be funny? But it's also one of his best novels. It feels very much like a novel he wrote to house all the rage he felt after his Alzheimers diagnosis, a rage which is palpable in that quote above.

But to go back to his more humour driven works, read the section in Reaper Man where Death can't muffle the sound of the sand in his Lifetimer running out. Read Night Watch where Vimes is going through the torture chamber at Cable Street (actually the whole of Night Watch is pretty damn dark). The opening of I Shall Wear Midnight (which I won't go into because TW, but some of what happens is so horrific in a very real-world sense that I couldn't quite believe I was reading it, especially in what was intended as a series for children). The part in Thud where The Summoning Dark meets The Guarding Dark, Vimes' inner Watchman, who is there not to keep darkness out, but to keep Vimes own darkness inside. Many other instances.

Make no mistake, I still don't like how Good Omens ended. I think it highly unlikely it would have ended that way if Terry were to have had anything to do with it because he was a far better writer than that (though of course none of us know that for sure, and even if he had written it that exact way it would still be bad and absolutely gut the message of the novel/S1).

But to say Terry Pratchett didn't write dark shit does a huge disservice to one of my favourite authors of some of the darkest shit I've ever read.

[littlefingies]

Sorry for us politics posting, but we have until May 22, 2026 to submit public comment to the FCC:

More info from GLAAD:

https://glaad.org/fcc/

They have some good tips about writing a comment and protecting your privacy which, fuck it, I'll just paste here:

Providing an email address is optional. If you have concerns about privacy, you may use your initials or public address in your local area, such as City Hall. Do not use a joke name. It diminishes the comment’s credibility.

Your submission does not need to be long. A single, well-reasoned paragraph is sufficient.

Do not copy/paste a template comment. The FCC values unique perspectives, and an original comment carries significantly more weight in the public record. You can explain why this matters to you without revealing private or sensitive personal information.

Here's what I said:

“Free speech is a fundamental American freedom. I do not need a warning about seeing queer people, much like I do not need a warning about women, veterans, or any other group of people.”

Here's the link to submit your comment by May 22:

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express?proceeding%5Bname%5D=19-41

[sillysiluriforme]

Improving your art skills isn’t easy; it takes a lot of patience and dedication but it is extremely straightforward. It’s all grinding until you understand 3d shapes, light, color harmonies, and composition ratios. I got good at the process. If I wanted to focus on improvement instead of making comics I could go back to that at any moment.

My issue is that I can’t figure out a good equivalent to that kind of practice with writing ? Like idk. Do I do a bunch of object descriptions ? Do I do a scene with a restricted vocab ?? I don’t knowwwww

It’s hard finding useful advice because online creative spaces are full of self taught “just have fun and be yourself” type people and it’s like. I will have fun later. Right now what I need is to figure out the writing equivalent of filling a page with cubes at different angles.

[wisteriasymphony]

I think the people responding to this with some equivalent of "read more!" are missing the point a little. That would be closer to going to an art museum and looking at Old Masters paintings and trying to think of what you like about their styles—Which can be valuable, yes! But isn't grinding.

Grinding would be word sprints. NaNoWriMo was killer for this before their whole operation went to shit, but the good thing about that is that they never had copyright over the concept of writing fast. The numbers you go for can be a little arbitrary at first as you figure out what specifically works for you, but 15 minutes is usually the average from what I've seen? Maybe you can get 500 words in 15 minutes. Maybe you can only get 200. Either way, you're exercising the muscles that get ideas from your brain out onto paper.

Here's some other ideas I came up with for more specific exercises:

Wordsketching for Settings

Go outside (or stay inside?), practically anywhere. Sit down and angle yourself in a way that lets you get a good view of where you're at, and then pick the first things that jump out to you about the place you're in and describe them in 2-3 sentences. Then, figure out what you're drawn to next and write sentences about that. Make sure you add what you feel in that moment (Is the atmosphere uncomfortable? Is the place hot or cold? Humid?), what the place sounds like (People talking, or cars, or animal noises...), so on and so forth. This is very similar to the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique, so you can even work off of that structure if you'd like, but this is specifically to help you get better at describing settings.

As far as fanfic is concerned, I think the genre as a whole skimps on atmosphere and setting a SHIT TON. If you want to elevate yourself, let the pacing of your work slow down for a second and dedicate some time to really orienting your blorbos in a specific space. It does a lot for the tone of the work, and... if you want to play ball with the big boys you need to start thinking about things like tone and atmosphere when writing.

Transcription for Dialogue

This can entail you writing down what your family says at the dinner table like a creepy weirdo, or transcribing movie dialogue or anything of that nature. The purpose would be to get used to how conversation naturally flows between two or more people (turn-taking, interruption etc.), and furthermore getting a sense of how human beings naturally talk to each other. I've written down things I've heard people say in public before for no better reason than thinking "Oh! I could totally see [X Character] saying that!". Whatever hangups you may have over this sick linguivouyeristic perversion are much less important than the tragedy of filling your work with Incorrect Quotes -style unreadable garbage. It's like eating your vegetables.

Wiktionary Challenges for Word Choice

Just spamming the "random word" button on Wiktionary will give you instances in every language Wiktionary has in its database, so this one requires a little more work to be helpful, but in lieu of that you can look through stuff like Categories or Thesaurus Entries!

Let's gather a few fun words to demonstrate.

Okay, this should be more than enough for some sentences describing a setting out in nature! Blunket is making me think this takes place at twilight... And I like alliterating, so let's mash it to make the semi-redundant phrase "blunket-blue" just for some flair.

The copse laid still. On the bank of the meandering creek, the rabbit flattened herself out against the soft grass, her luculent eyes darting back and forth over her surroundings. What she could see of the copse looked mostly the same: Twisting shrubs the color of ash, blunket-blue grasses, an invisible wind brushing over all that stillness and pressing flat everything it could. Her nose twitched. Until the last blushes of rose drained from the evening sky, the rabbit would keep herself fixed in that spot on the riverbank and wait.

Boom! Those words are suddenly in your arsenal to use whenever you want, and you additionally have a reference point to remember what they mean if you forget. I think the only thing I could add from here is that reading your work aloud can help you monitor the way you chunk out your sentences and clauses, but that's more closely related to editing help and, again, not grinding exercises.

[cosmonaut-observer]

If you live in the UK you need to see this

Protect Internet Freedom from now until forever. It's important existentially! Americans stand with UK citizens in our struggle against government censorship

[russettrush]

Growing up in the online world: a national consultation

We are consulting on further measures to prepare children for the future in an age of rapid technological change. This includes potential ag

Got the link via @finalducc

If you live in the UK, please be sure to take part in this!

[lilithsaintcrow]

"This week I discovered the same pattern, executed by Google. Google Chrome is reaching into users' machines and writing a 4 GB on-device AI model file to disk without asking."

Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent. At a billion-device scale the climate costs are insane. — Th

Google Chrome is downloading a 4 GB Gemini Nano model onto users' machines without consent, with no opt-in, no opt-out short of enterprise t

[jenroses]

pretty sure I did the chrome//flags thing a while ago, but also i switched to firefox, which is not without the occasional bullshit, but is vastly less bullshitty than chrome. This is why I treat genai "features" like the invasive blackberry bushes they are: cut, root, burn, and vigilantly watch for new shoots to uproot. I'm 54 years old and the world got by fine without genai for most of my lifetime.

[sniperct]

tags via@KKglinka #psa#having read the article#it's not clickbait#chrome is reaching#across all chromium browsers#to link a prepatory structure#this malware packet#will therefore occur#with all chromium browsers#it has nothing to do#with the actual ai interface#instead chrome is either#using your personal computer#as part of a cloud server#the way bitcoin malware works#or it's recording your own#actions on the computer#with a continuously active#background module#either way#that's malware#a 4gig trojan virus

[spyndylle]

The only ways to make the deletion stick are to disable Chrome's Al features through chrome://flags or enterprise policy tooling that home users do not generally have, or to uninstall Chrome entirely

...

Adding the file took zero clicks. Removing it requires (a) discovering the file exists, (b) understanding what it is, (c) navigating into a hidden user profile path, (d) deleting it (and on Windows, also clearing the read-only attribute first), and (e) accepting that Chrome will silently re-download it on next eligible window unless the user also navigates chrome://flags, enterprise policy, or platform-specific configuration tooling to disable the underlying Chrome Al feature. None of those steps is documented in the place a normal user looks - none of them is even hinted at in default Chrome.

[kuttithevangu]

Sometimes I think people’s complaints about queer genre fic boil down to them wanting litfic and not knowing there’s queer litfic. If you wish to read about sad lesbian adjunct professors having unsatisfying sex, rejoice! NPR has reviewed it for you

[apolladay]

Setting aside any positive or negative nationalistic feelings, and ignoring the subject matter of the lyrics, do you think your country's anthem is a good song?

They should be dropping it in the club

It's great

It's pretty good, maybe not the best

It's just okay

It kinda sucks

It sucks definitively

I genuinely believe it's the worst one out there

Nuance/other/my anthem is bald

Voting ended onMay 12