Weekly Update - 286 - 9/1/25

It's September already. How?

Comics this Week?

God Slayers - It actually ended up being a much busier page than I thought, so idk if I'll be able to finish it this week or not. I'll try but no promises. It'll probably depend on what else demands my time this week.

Solipsus - Yes. Should be pretty easily doable. Might not even take long.

Sona bonus art? - I think I should be able to finish it this week, but only because there isn't a ton left to do on the... four or so variants I have planned.

Patreon changed their UI again. Everything said above this line is now free -- I think? Lol. Which is basically what I want, because that's the important stuff. So... what is even the point of making these posts paid any more? It's not like I ever have anything worth saying anyway. I guess any time I start rambling it's good to hide that part behind a paywall, if only to limit the number of people who know the truth about how batshit I am.

Speaking of batshit, GS: TTRPG - Combat redesign is kind of minimally implemented atm. But I still need to go over all the other sections and fix everything that it broke. The joys of making critical core design mistakes early in the process and their cascading dependencies.

Impromptu Rant/Ramble?

Also, speaking of the em-dash, I'm genuinely amused by the people who are freaking out any time they see em dashes, just because so many people don't understand how useful this little piece of punctuation is. All the endless Tiktoks of people acting as if it's a surefire way to detect AI written text. I'm fucking old, and I learned to love em dashes literally a billion years ago, and authors across the globe would probably stand behind me in favor of their use -- in English at least. They're simply better at breaking up sentences and paragraphs than a comma ever could be. They're far more flexible and they are easier to read than even the glorious semi-colon. Frankly, in my experience, I don't even think AI overuses em-dashes to any appreciable degree -- and I think humans should use them FAR MORE.

I think I've blathered about it before, but the thing you REALLY got to look out for, if you're seriously trying to detect AI writing, is when the AI does this SUPER OBNOXIOUS thing where it goes "It's not just <normal sounding description word>, it's <weirdly bizarre overemphasis term.>" That one drives me fucking nuts, and nobody seems to be talking about it and AI uses it ALL THE DAMN TIME. "It isn't just a chair, it's a cradle." "It isn't just a door, it's an invitation." "It's not just an explosion, it's chaos." "This isn't any mere crystal, it's a relic." IT'S A SHITTY WAY OF DESCRIBING SOMETHING, IT ADDS NOTHING AND IT MAKES ME FUCKING BARF.

AI is so fucking bad. I once enjoyed RPing with it for a time, but I got so sick of hearing the same god-damned repetitive mechanical statements it makes over and over again, I just can't stand it any more. And I swear each new model is only getting worse. Now when I'm watching a youtube video I'll start to detect hints of that (NOT THIS, IT'S WHOA) shit in the script and I have to click away because I feel my last briancell (sic) shriveling up every time I hear it. So save the em dash, PRESERVE the em dash, love the em dash, and everyone needs to cancel the fucking "It's not just <Blank>, it's BLANK" horseshit that AI uses at the end of every godsdamn paragraph.

I've said it a thousand times, if humans are good at anything, it's pattern recognition. And if machines are good at anything, it's generating patterns. My once cautious optimism towards this technology has collapsed of late. Even in regards to its use in coding, which my husband was once a proponent for, but even he says it's getting worse in that regard, not better, not that corpos give a shit. And I don't know that I see a world where AI technology will ever be useful in the creative space. It's kind of fun watching it flounder and struggle to take root though, despite the ever-increasing rate at which it is being shoved down our throats. Hopefully that continues to remain the case.

Bleh, there's some more raw, emotionally-charged, half-formed thoughts on a topic I probably don't fully understand. Hopefully nobody ever reads these. Well, I know my parents still read them but nobody else probably should subject themselves to this torture.