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DeltaAro

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Everything posted by DeltaAro

  1. ๐Ÿซ OMNOMNOM The day the weight loss resolution of the new year come to an end.
  2. Hi, are you an Elgfrรณรฐi? ๐ŸฆŒ

    1. organs and bone

      organs and bone


      yes,ย but think more like the White Stag but with a skull for a head c:ย 

  3. ๐Ÿ‰ Happy Lunar New Year! ๐ŸŒ‘

  4. This is great, thanks for sharing! I searched for a higher resolution version. Here there are even more!
  5. There sure are creative prompts. But when you use a random computer-generated prompt, the generated image may still be interesting, at least for me it sometimes is. And that's 100 % without human input. I believe that in the best artworks all aspects of it, from the material ๐Ÿ–Œ๏ธ (digital, LOL), the colors ๐ŸŽจ, to the style, the composition ๐Ÿ‘ฉโ€๐ŸŽจ etc. to finally the content or the idea, fit together as a unified whole. Obviously, if they fit is very totally subjective. So for me, to really get what I want, I have to draw it myself. Obviously, I still don't 100 % get what I want, because I'm lacking in skill. But my deficits are the lesser problem than AI having a "mind of its own". -- Now, the progress in AI image generators for the last 18 months is simply insane. My first attempts were positively ugly, but now I wish I had that technical proficiency. The amount of drama in the meantime was similarly insane... ๐Ÿ™„ e.g. the Wacom - "dragongate". (the main manufacturer for graphics tablets using ... AI art ! ๐Ÿซฃ), Wizards of the Coast using AI art, firmly denying it, etc. I don't intend to make any money from my "artworks" and don't care that much about feedback. AI doesn't take anything from me, and therefore I still try to learn to draw better. But no matter how chilled I am about this, I feel the hostility. The constant suspicions "Is this AI", the flame wars, the name-calling, etc. There are also many shady self-promoters in this AI war, who lack the necessary knowledge about the complex legal, technical and ethical issues involved, and promise "the simple solution". Think twice before supporting anyone.
  6. It includes (modern) aesthetic attraction but goes beyond that, because it also includes the "beauty of the soul". So ... I agree that "aphobic" is too strong. There should be other ways to appreciate Beauty. But still, Eros is so important for Plato, since at least it's the most common or obvious way how we get reminded of the realm of the forms, and the process gets kick-started. This works since Eros is so strong. But that's also why I find it odd that Plato reduces Eros to seeking Beauty (even if his conception is broader). Why should the "ugly, shaggy dark horse" of the soul-chariot (which symbolizes the appetites and lust) be so susceptible to Beauty? From my modern view, it is not. And Eros is strong, because sexual (and romantic) attraction is usually strong, but not aesthetic. While sexual/romantic attraction sure correlates with aesthetic attraction, it's e.g. not that rare to get sexually attracted to people who are not considered beautiful. I mean persons (ok, usually women) called "skanky" or "trashy". Apparently and for whatever reason, it's bad to be sexually attractive when you aren't beautiful. ๐Ÿ™„ This is tricky, since Plato's conception of Beauty is so broad, and he regards Beauty (and Truth) as expressions of the Good (which is certainly not something we believe nowadays). The question is if those other relationships are strong enough for us to trigger that process of remembrance. He calls Eros a divine madness* after all. * Therefore, I find it forgivable if aros use that word madness when talking about romance. Yes, yes, it should certainly be avoided because of the saneism. But allos call it that way, including the founder of Western philosophy, so it's to be expected that some aros just say "Love is madness? Oh, I agree." BTW, in Phaedrus the speech of Lysias sounds like some very romance-negative disgruntled aro wrote it.
  7. Originally, I thought that gender at least had some vague relation to femininity and masculinity*. Then xeninity came a long and at this point, I just give up. I don't understand "gender" and opt out of it. * But what even is femininity and masculinity? A set of attributes, behaviors, and roles? In that case, they are Mandelbrot-like complex, with exceptions and exceptions to exceptions. E.g. The Warrior is the archetype of masculinity: the male symbol โ™‚ represents the shield and spear of Mars. But ok, there are female warriors, what to do with them? We expect them to wield elegant "feminine" weapons like rapiers or naginatas. Not a war hammer! So you can at least be feminine in your unfemininity. Amazing. I would say it's more than not caring, since I prefer to not be regarded as having a gender. I have a rather androgynous appearance, but tend to be more likely identified as male. But this comes naturally. I don't have any desire to do any drastic steps; in this sense, I don't care enough. Regarding gendered products, I can use any. Still, I find those giant megacorporations aggressively pushing gender into my face really annoying and "boycott" them. ๐Ÿ™ƒ Why is CK One the exception, not the rule? It's so old-school, but "One for all" really resonates with me.
  8. It depends on the overtone. For french kissing, I don't get much out of this sensory experience. I do it, because it's expected. Overall, I don't understand why people value it so much. I partly associate it with romance, since open-mouth kissing is done for its own sake. In my teens, there were all those student couples that smooched around at 7:30 A.M., 1 meter outside the schoolyard (it was banned on school grounds). I just found that weird. Over time, I associated open mouth kissing more with sex, and softened my attitude towards it.
  9. There is obviously nothing wrong to regard this as just something sensual. But you can be 100 % sure that people outside the aro-ace community won't understand. Cuddling naked will be categorized as something very sexual or even as foreplay. I'm very sorry this happened. It's very risky to talk about mental health problems, especially violent thoughts. Many people don't understand it and come to the wrong conclusions if they don't have experience with it. For example, most laymen can't differentiate between Harm-OCD (characterized by having intrusive fears that one may do violence to someone), which is harmless (because it is caused by pathological doubts, without any real urges), and dangerous homicidal ideation caused by psychosis, which may be acted upon. So one really should be very careful here. Also, many people struggle to keep secrets and suddenly people know about your problems who shouldn't. I absolutely hate this character flaw, but it is pretty common. A therapist OTOH, even if they don't have so high moral standards, will maintain confidentiality just to keep their job. Sorry that I can't give you any more positive advice. I probably didn't tell you anything new. ๐Ÿ˜”
  10. Oh no, I missed it. ๐Ÿ™ I always forget to check it since I only subscribed to PS Plus Essential for Online Gaming. ๐Ÿ… Didn't this come out ... 9 months ago? Have they finally fixed all the bugs? ๐Ÿ˜„ So many different games and all the same issue: they were released in an obviously unfinished state. We really shouldn't accept this! Let's not preorder anything or convince ourselves that when we read about "tech issues" it won't be that bad! OK, on February 29th, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will come out ... <preorder> ๐Ÿƒโ€โ™€๏ธ It would be very aro to get the romance to glitch.
  11. Now playing Lords of the Fallen again. Back in November, I soon put it down soon, because of the abysmal performance. Not that the performance is good now, it is merely fixed to the point that it's playable. It uses Unreal Engine 5, which excludes many people with less powerful hardware. I guess, to really have fun with it, you need an RTX 5090 ... oops, that's not available yet. ๐Ÿ™ƒ Not much exaggeration! The PS5 also has serious problems to handle this engine. All this for marginal improvements in the graphics. So the game itself, I otherwise really like it. The mechanics with Umbral (the realm of the dead, that runs parallel to the normal world Axiom) is really cool. You can get killed, and it's not over yet, you end up in Umbral, which is more hostile. Only if you get killed again there, you respawn. The NPC dialogues and quest lines are wonderful. The world is really vast and immersive. Also, the way the background story is handled, by the umbral stigmas that allow one to relive past traumatic events, is great. The difficulty is considerably easier than Lies of P, but I'm glad it is, because you fight against the jank and frame drops. It's kind of heart-breaking because they obviously had a grand vision for this game. It's epic in size, and you can see the enormous work that was put into it. But it is so dragged down by the poor performance and general clunkiness. Lies of P was smaller and used Unreal Engine 4. It has great performance, is challenging for the right reasons and super-polished, and because of that the much, much better game than LOTF.
  12. From a Western perspective, it is a very small step. But from a world-perspective, it is big. The turmoil that Fiducia Supplicans caused, e.g. in Africa proves this. Many bishops there reject it (one has to remember that in some of those countries, homosexuality is illegal, so they obviously have a "reasonable excuse"). In theory, the traditional Natural Law is still the orthodox doctrine, and its principles remain unchanged since the 13th century: any sex except vanilla hetero is unnatural โ‡’ sinful. The reality is very different, of course, since in many Catholic parts of the world nobody believes that anymore, including the clergy. E.g. in Belgium they even have a liturgy for same-gender couples. So they genuinely* approve you being LGBTQ+ in those countries. I guess Fiducia Supplicans was an attempt to reconcile those very different standpoints. Otherwise, many dioceses (Belgian, German, etc.) would be in an obvious state of "heresy". * not in the "love the sinner, hate the sin" manner
  13. Emotions don't work logical. Normally, I'm just as said as if some random stranger died. Which means I'm not sad. I just can't be sad about every death that occurs in the world. But there are sometimes special broadcasts when a celebrity died, and they perhaps were genuinely decent persons but had a life full of tragedies, and now they even died. E.g. Sinead O'Connor. So that can make me sad. There's another, more selfish way that celebrity deaths can make me sad. They just trigger the sobering realization that change is unavoidable. But I guess I want to live in a continuous present. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ So if it was a really important celebrity, I feel sad because of this. I mean those institutions, like David Bowie, that even your grandma knows.
  14. My sister loves those games. She intensively played Sims and clocked 1000 hours in Animal Crossing. And she really, really likes the romance in Harvest Moon. She told me so much about her achievements to get the hardest marriages in Harvest Moon. ๐Ÿฅฑ๐Ÿ˜ด ๐Ÿ˜ฌ I tried to get into it but don't understand the fascination ... ๐Ÿ˜… Oh yes, that cheat. I vaguely remember some absurdly huge Tiki-like house my sister built. ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ‘IMHO, some games really overdo it with the compulsion loop.
  15. I love cats, too. I've rarely seen house cats used as aro pride animal, though. More felines in the broad sense because the tiger is well-established. Source: Queerappear PS: why does this tiger not need a space helmet? ๐Ÿ˜„
  16. I don't think he's so amazing and instead extremely controlling, possessive and unhinged. I would interpret this as a thinly veiled threat. ๐Ÿ˜ข You should take this seriously because active suicidal ideation can develop from it, which is dangerous. You being aro is the least of the problems here. It would be one thing if you were 20 years old, harmoniously together since 2 years, and both be totally on board with marrying and having children. One could still make a case it would be ill-advised ... but why not. Instead, you're a minor and together since 4 months - there's nothing remotely reasonable about his plans. Oh, and then are all the other problems... Obviously, there's no way to salvage this. And your friends suck, since they totally buy into all his nonsense instead of supporting you. You should safely dump him remotely and then strictly avoid him. Don't even break up with him face-to-face - as psychologically unstable as he is, this is potentially dangerous.
  17. Kodaka Hasegawa from Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends. Aromantic or grayromantic.
  18. Milius in Rebel Moon. Played by non-binary actor E. Duffy. This is canon, according to Jack Snyder.
  19. Crona ftw, they're just wise & realistic about things!
  20. Yes, beginning with the word ๐Ÿ’”, it's so ridiculously overdramatic that it isn't serious but rather cutesy. In my naivety, I even thought it would be interesting to experience heartbreak. Because I had those images of slightly melancholic teenagers in pajamas in mind, eating chocolates and being very authentic with their feelings. But if romance gives all those positive feelings, how can the experience of romantic loss not also feel very bad and take their time? My cousin is similar. She complained to my sister, "Are you seriously still not over it?" and it was four weeks (ok, at least four, not ONE!!) after her 3-year relationship ended. But she just looked a bit unhappy and quiet at my grandma's birthday. The same cousin, by the way, is very "concerned" that I don't know what I'm missing out on regarding romance. I've read that one can expect it to take 3 months to fully heal, if it was a long-term relationship. But it's difficult to find any good data, it's all very vague. E.g. what exactly is a "long-term relationship"? This topic is seriously under-researched. Actively ruminating about the meta-questions like "how long will it take to get over it" is probably just adding unnecessary pressure. TW: scary truth (maybe read it if you feel better) Another thing: if you fantasize about getting back together, I'd try to avoid this. Not talking about thought suppression, which is counterproductive, but rather not actively engaging in such fantasies.
  21. Happy New Year 2024! ๐ŸŽ†๐ŸŽ‡

  22. Exactly. the idea of friendship as a universal phenomenon is so strong that the first thing people mention when talking about aplatonism is the possibility of having friends without attraction. Because there's no way someone could ever dislike and/or reject friendship. Friendship is always good and healthy (let's ignore the abuse and manipulation that can and do exist in platonic relationships), not like all those other (inferior) type of relationships. [heavy sarcasm here] I think a crude version of "Natural Law" or the naturalistic fallacy is behind that, which is still an important intellectual undercurrent of Western societies. Vegans (yes, I know ... plz stick with me) are often advised to take B12 supplements that in the past were either synthetic or produced by GMOs (not true anymore, we now have 100 % natural B12). Of course, animal feed always contained synthetic B12, which was conveniently ignored. But for some reason, this supposed unnaturalness was regarded as the killer argument against veganism: "Hey, veganism is bad and unnatural because you need unnatural B12 supplements!" ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™€๏ธ Back during the fight for marriage-equality, this Natural Law stuff also reared its head again. There was a group of "Natural Law" academics, who wrote lots of amicus briefs to the Supreme Court, how horrible same-gender marriage would be because ... "It's unnatural". (I reread some of that history because of the recent Vatican decision to bless same-gender couples, against which many of the same people protested, too, of course) One of them, John Finnis, had constructed a complex theory around it, which postulated "seven basic goods" of which one seriously was ... friendship. So it is that deeply ingrained. Friendship, the basic good - like self-preservation! I mean, nobody cares about that, they care about his homophobia (understandably). But for us, it's interesting because it shows how those bad ideas have the same root. I also must admit that I assumed that friendship came just 100 % "natural" for humans. So yes, for the majority, it's unironically inconceivable that one could reject friendship. If you say that, they hear: "Hey, I don't need to eat, I do photosynthesis". After a break-up, alloromantics feel sometimes jaded for some time and perhaps experience a glimmer of insight into the (romance-negative) aro mindset. But for friendships there is no such experience, there are break-ups of course, but those will be squarely blamed on the specific friend. That was quite meandering and long, thanks for reading it.
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