SomeAmateur
@SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on Sometimes I use ChatGPT to generate the stories that I would write but can't. Does anyone have tips on writing better after using ChatGPT for generating stories? 2 hours ago:
My apologies, in that case it was a different Dylan!
- Comment on Sometimes I use ChatGPT to generate the stories that I would write but can't. Does anyone have tips on writing better after using ChatGPT for generating stories? 13 hours ago:
Once there was a commenter named Dylan.
Dylan wanted to become a writer. Oh, the tales he wished to weave! The worlds he could build! But there was a problem. He didn’t quite know how to write. Now, though he was no dummy. He could use a pen and paper or type on a keyboard just like you and me, if not better! But the problem was stories don’t write themselves. That takes practice and effort.
“How dreadful!” He thought. “But I have an idea! I’ll ask friend Chad to write for me. He’s a clever lad! He’s read everything ever put to into writing so he’ll know just what I’d like to do.”
So the next time they met, he asked him. “Chad, I’m trying to write a story…” And he would describe the tale he sought. The world that seemed so vibrant in his head. Chad set to work and finally handed him a page. “Like this?”
It wasn’t quite what he wanted. Not at all. It was rather bland, to be honest. Chad was smart all right, but he was no mind reader and was more inclined for cubicle work anyway.
Chad apologized “I’m sorry Dylan, but if you ever find the type of story you’re looking for I’d love to read it!”
So Dylan set off for home, dismayed. “How…” he thought. “How can I get these stories out? I still have never written a story in my days!” he wished for an easier way. Some way to unleash his thoughts…
He set to it. He sat down with a pad of paper and a keyboard and his favorite drink and he dared himself. “20 minutes. That’s a start. I’ll sit here and write for 20 minutes and we’ll see.”
The minutes goaned by and his brain seemed to creak and sputter. Like the dust of ages wearing off and tiny sprouts of beauty taking their place, but not blooming. Soon there it was.
And it was horrendous. It was like a stick figure. No, not even. A rough sketch of a stick figure. But it was his. And from then on, he wrote when he could or when inspiration struck. Sometimes when he thought inspiration would never be seen again but he sat down anyway out of spite.
He took notes when ideas did eventually sprang up, like that brilliant one on lunch break! He made characters and gave them life. One page turned to a few. Revisions were made, how foolish he was at first! He formed and shaped his world. Add a little, take some away. Again, again!
In time, his good time he had it. A complete tale! And it was beautiful, not because it was new or revolutionary or witty. But because it was his.
- Comment on Are defense attorneys ‘good people’? 15 hours ago:
Look at how many arrests take place in the US. Basic googling gives me 10mil in 2019.
People talk shit on how bad police departments are. So how many people got arrested, accused of something they truly didn’t do?
That’s why. Their job is to provide pushback, to play devils advocate to make sure a case is more than just blind accusations. A defense attourney is there to keep a prosecution from turning into a witch hunt.
- Comment on Sway 16 hours ago:
Same!
- Comment on What is hubris as an adjective? 3 days ago:
Prideful?
- Comment on Hooch! 5 days ago:
Grandma’s couch and cell structures, the only places UCP works
- Comment on What's the deal with people liking old devices? 6 days ago:
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Cheap. Why spend the high prices of modern stuff when you can salvage old things for little to nothing. People will give you tons of outdated things if you ask nicely.
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Less wasteful. If you can keep old stuff going, you keep it out of a landfill. It also means less new production is needed. In other words…
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Says fuck you to corporations. Right to repair is a thorn in the side of many greedy business models that push cheaply made products made to be tossed and replaced over and over.
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It’s someting to tinker with. Some people just want plug and play, but others want to rig up some crazy rigs and keep them going just to challenge themselves and get bragging rights
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Vibes. Some people are into old school film cameras, or arcade cabinets, or classic cars, or retro fashion. Playing with relatively ancient technology is just another way of keeping the good parts of the past alive.
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- Comment on If I decided to convert from [insert lack of religion] to Amish, would they allow me to bring my Casio graphing calculator to continue my math studies? 1 week ago:
The thing about amish is they accept or reject a tool or technology based on whether the community will benefit or not. So a few may have cell phones, or get to use tractors etc.
But it varies a lot from community to community. I’ve seen amish run electronic distribution companies (miller tech), side by sides, e scooters and even one amish guy tearing it up on a One Wheel.
- Comment on That's how the world works. 1 week ago:
That’s the thing, they didn’t think society was going to fail, even though they’d been through the depression, a world war, the oil crisis, blizzards etc. They weren’t the only ones either, they were essentially in a suburb and they knew their neighbors well
- Comment on That's how the world works. 1 week ago:
Prepping gets a bad rap from the crazy people building bunkers and zombie traps that people saw on reality tv.
I look at what my grandparents had. They had a garden and canned quite a bit of stuff. They had tools and enough stuff on hand to do basic maintenance and repairs on roofs, plumbing and cars. They sewed quilts and baked their own bread regularly. They had enough cash saved to make sudden purchases for anything else. They had a shotgun for emergencies.
That doesn’t sound crazy or paranoid, but resilient. I know most people can’t do all of that but it would be nice to get closer to the mindset that governments and companies are nice but may not always be able or willing to help you.
- Comment on I am an American. I used to be proud of my country. Now it feels like a turd circling the drain. Is there anything going on behind the scene that America is actually doing good in? 1 week ago:
The US military is well known for flushing money down the drain in contracts and keeping old systems running beyond their intended lifespan. The US production of replacement ships and aircraft is taking a long time.
China is building new ships and aircraft like crazy. For example in 2025 the US Navy commissioned a whole 2 ships, a sub and a frigate. China built 18, including a new carrier.
GDP or not, China is making it happen.
- Comment on I am an American. I used to be proud of my country. Now it feels like a turd circling the drain. Is there anything going on behind the scene that America is actually doing good in? 1 week ago:
They better figure defense out too, China isn’t building a massive military for nothing
- Comment on Why are people so rude on Reddit compared to the Fediverse? 2 weeks ago:
yep the smaller subs feel like a whole different website. The main pages have so much political doom and rage bait in my experience.
- Comment on How come in American classrooms they make another language an elective. Why not teach our kids as many languages possible that way if we go somewhere we will kind of have uper hand? 4 weeks ago:
We do, but like anything else you learn the basics and a few classes won’t make you fluent. You need immersion to get good and if you don’t use it you lose it.
The people that use it are already in a multi language home and took the class because it’s super easy. Just about everyone else won’t use it at all outside of the classroom so everything they learn fades quickly
- Comment on How come in American classrooms they make another language an elective. Why not teach our kids as many languages possible that way if we go somewhere we will kind of have uper hand? 5 weeks ago:
Go on radio.garden and try to find foreign language music. My point is it’s wild how much English has become a common language worldwide, even if it’s not the first language
- Comment on learning to play an instrument on your own, but how/what? 5 weeks ago:
Kazoo for the meme videos
- Comment on How does one country prepare to fight the other? With out spies? Like Iran is fortifying against a US strike. But how do they know what we will strike with and vice versa all thru history? 5 weeks ago:
War gaming, which is basically thought experiements with some rules and writing down results.
If red team had this stuff and blue team has that stuff what would you attack and how would you defend it. If you lost it what would you do to make up for it?
- Comment on What does the process of disobeying illegal military orders look like? [US] 1 month ago:
You get orders to do a thing (“blow up that orphanage soldier!”)
You ask for clarification (“that looks like a civilian target, do you mean the outpost next to it?”)
Get claification that confirms unlawful order (“No the orphanage full of kids, level it.”)
You are OBLIGATED BY YOUR DUTY TO INTERNATIONAL LAWS OF WAR to reject the order (“Negative, I cannot do that”) and to report others who obey unlawful orders, outside of your chain of command if neccesary (“Fine, I’ll get someone else to destroy it, you’re finished.”)
Then you’ll likely be pulled from your unit, and face court matial where the situation will be investigated like most other court cases. (“There was an outpost nearby but the orphanage was not a legal target”)
- Comment on Is it weird that whenever there's an internet disruption, the first thing that I assume is happening is war, civil unrest, or government censorship, or some sort of conspiracy happening? 2 months ago:
Nope! If other nations can do it so can the US. They might be more localized and subtle or maybe they can track traffic on the internet well enough that they would prefer not to.
- Comment on The fifth pocket 2 months ago:
Instead of mandatory military service have mandatory conservation service?
- Comment on The fifth pocket 2 months ago:
It also works for zippos, airpods, pocket watches, meshtastic nodes, hand warmers, and dime bags!
- Comment on Why do some car lovers oppose bike infrastructure, when more bikes would mean fewer cars on the road? 2 months ago:
They don’t ride bikes and they don’t see many people riding them for practical uses (work, shopping etc) so for them it’s hard to sell the idea of bike infrastructure (that they think is for mainly recreational riders) making their commute slower and not the best use of tax money.
I get how this is flawed thinking and I want more pedestirian and bike friendly areas, but that is their perspective.
- Submitted 2 months ago to internetisawesome@sh.itjust.works | 1 comment
- Comment on Does anyone else feel like "analog" stuff is more "tangible"? 2 months ago:
Right a big selling point for digital was the ability to make a ton of copies and not have to physically store it in a file cabinet or something
Back in the day there was a fire where they stored military records and a ton of “permenant” records went up in smoke
Really you need the ability to have both in case one fails
- Comment on If WWIII broke out tomorrow do you honestly believe america would win? 2 months ago:
Some people think it goes to nukes immediately. I don’t think so. It will stay sidelined like chemical weapons that were used in WW1 but avoided and unused in WW2.
The US does not have the industrial capability that it once had and has struggled with manufacturing of electronic components. Now maybe that can be changed, but maybe not fast enough to matter. But as far as current capability they can still kick ass and are the only nation that has proven ability to project military power worldwide. As long as logistics keep up they can kick serious ass.
China makes a ton of stuff already, and that would make a hell of a wartime production rate that can scale too. Their military is untested, but large, new and growing. They are the gorilla in the room.
But there’s also the chance of everything falling apart where most nations desintigrate into a long term state of fracture with infighting and homeland problems overriding any possibility of winning a global fight, and therefore preventing a large world war like we’ve seen in the past. Rand calls it neomedievalism
- Comment on What do all the subgenres of music mean? How does anyone make sense of them? 2 months ago:
- Comment on How do you build and cultivate revolutionary optimism, given what's happening in the US? 2 months ago:
The best thing to do right now is to work with others and help build your local community so you have people and resources in case of hardship or emergency. Build and grow things. Be peaceful but have a plan if trouble comes to you.
- Comment on Too goddamn cold for this shit. 2 months ago:
Ice isn’t so bad unless you step on smooth rocks
Humans: Lets make EVERYTHING like smooth rock!
- Comment on How will the Military be after this mess with Trump? 3 months ago:
When it comes to domestic use america’s military is finding themselves in a bind. I don’t think we’ve seen a president that has pushed so hard for military use in relative peacetime. It’s coming into more and more conflict with how the military has been trained and the principles they are held to. I think that internally the military is taking a hard look at what they can and should do about this.
They all took oaths. Enlisted members say this
“I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Those regulations include the laws of war. All military members get yearly training on this. What is and isn’t a combatant, what is and isn’t a lawful order etc. This includes a duty and obligation to disobey illegal orders, but usually the process is to get clarification from one of their officers. An officer’s oath of enlistment looks like this.
"I ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. "
Note there is not a President mentioned there. The enlisted have a duty and obligation of the enlisted is to ultimately disobey illegal orders, but officers play a key role in leading those units. Enlisted members rejecting an order from some officersn is one thing. Officers, or many officers rejecting an order is another.
I think what we are seeing is a careful balancing act. The military is going where they are told to go, but maybe not send as many or be as aggressive as they administration would like. Stay involved enough to not be outright fired, but try to hit the brakes on this mess and internally pushing back.
- Comment on same shit every day, on god 3 months ago:
I wonder if nuclear would get more traction If it was pitched as enhanced steam power instead