Christian Hendriks

I have also been wondering about this, though I suspect it is similar to the perennial use of "Bronze Age": it's meant to invoke ideas of civilizational and scientific progress, maybe? As though development in materials and in food production maps onto moral development? Just a guess, though.

A cool as hell white rocketship (kid's sized) with a teal stripe. It has a barrel shaped body, a silver nose cone, two engines tucked against the sides, and three fins. It's sitting in my living room. It looks COOL AS FUCK!!!

Same as last pic, but EVEN COOLER because it's viewed from behind to show the lights from the jet engines and the lights on the dashboard.

Paint progress on the kiddo's birthday party space ship

Okay, this is the very rare Substack post that's worth loading the Nazi newsletter site for. I am *incredibly* surprised I kept about 90% comprehension until I hit the 1100s.

Oh, thank goodness. I was worried you might feel like I was ragging on your idea. Thanks for hosting!

Gods Must Give: An RPG Blog Carnival Post I don't generally care for the idea, seen in some fantasy stories, that the gods need worship. I've been meaning for a while to write something about this, but as it happens Sean Holland, who at their

As my contribution to this month's RPG Blog Carnival, hosted by @sea-of-stars-rpg.bsky.social, I wrote about my mild dislike for the high fantasy trope that gods need worship and outline one possible alternative, in which gods need to perform miracles: advantageonarcana.bearblog.dev/gods-must-gi...

I love it when I see a post saved. More, maybe, than when someone likes a post. I really feel that I have provided something of value for someone (even if it is just pointing at another post or resource).

If they could make a girl out of owls, she would be indistinguishable.

Attn: @tznkai.bsky.social, as well. I think you'd be interested, esp. w/r/t your complicated feelings about PRINCESS MONONOKE.

YouTube video by ReligionForBreakfast What Fantasy Gets Wrong About Sacred Groves

I was quite interested to watch this video about what sacred groves are really like (including regional/cultural differences): youtu.be/3rmBNS86Byc?...

The host makes note near the end that this information might be of use for fantasy settings, and I think other #ttrpg people can get use out of it.

Ah. I see the distinction you are drawing, but I also think it runs against natural language uses of "goal," so you'll probably continue to have trouble being understood. I'm not, however, sure there's a better alternative.

I am using the word "intuitively" on purpose, there, though. That's an intuition, not a position I have reasoned myself into.

(I genuinely do not know enough about how rewards work in brains vs. how reinforcement works in LLMs to guess how close that analogy really is, and I also intuitively feel like intention requires something more than just operant conditioning. I don't know I'd say amoeba have intentions.)

Is that what they are, or is that just how we talk about them?

That closing quotation mark was meant to include "parrot." Whoops.

You cannot say that of an LLM, which has no motives. Maybe the "stochastic" parrot phrase was never meant to go that far, but it does seem different to me. A parrot is solving a problem, maintaining a relationship, or potentially playing when it speaks. An LLM is doing none of those things.

Re: parrots, though, we know some of them use the words they mimic in ways that suggest they have some understanding of their use (not necessarily meaning) and, therefore, are goal-oriented. That is, some parrots imitate a specific sound in a specific context in order to achieve an end.

Not as many as I'd like, in part because what you said in the quoted thread is correct: we don't have very good models of animal intelligence, and certainly not shared ones. Probably we just don't have good (shared, non-specialist) models of intelligence, full stop.

This year's Bloggies Nominees Over 90+ blog posts. And a surprise category for 2026.

The Bloggies Nominees are here!

We are 1 week away from voting, so I need everyone's help spreading the word. Congrats to all the nominees and blogs submitted—this last year was incredible. Forming the lists was equal parts rewarding and painful.

www.explorersdesign.com/this-years-b...

(Am I good at making fried rice? Not really. But! I was still happy to eat it!)

The "and it's not something you'll want to have more than once a week" thing is also so weird. I know there are people who do not eat leftovers but *I* was raised to believe that a good dinner also makes two or three lunches, and I have definitely made enough fried rice for a week before.

What is up with Google Drive today? Is it misbehaving for anyone else?

Unrelated to museums or Unsplash, @perplexingruins.bsky.social allows use (incl. commercial use) of a number of art assets here at the $2.50 tier on Patreon. That might be something to look at.

bsky.app/profile/perp...

Honestly, why not? You might as well.

Esoteric and Exoteric Traditions in the Lakelands In the broadest strokes, there are four approaches to understanding, avoiding, confronting, and harnessing the Weird: scientific experiment, exoteric tradition, esoteric tradition, and invented

Another post about my ttrpg setting, detailing the different traditions that player characters (or their enemies) might follow in the Lakelands: advantageonarcana.bearblog.dev/esoteric-and...

Take me down to the Parallax city where the far moves slow and the near moves quickly

Oh, I had almost forgotten about that. The month-long sermon series was common enough in the church of my undergraduate.

friends if you are into comics, Stephen is very cool and chill

Actually, poking around, many art museums have work on Unsplash. That is very much combining my two main approaches to finding art for my game blog: classical art and work on platforms like Unsplash.

The Blue Grotto, Capri Albert Bierstadt (American, 1830-1902); an oil painting of a flooded cave, with a small half-circle of light in the distance (about along the bottom third line, near the centre), as though daylight enters through the cave's mouth, reflects off the water; stalactites hang from the cavern ceiling; overall, blacks, greys, greens, yellows.

As a TTRPG-relevant example, the Walters Art Museum has posted Capri Albert Bierstadt's *The Blue Grotto*: unsplash.com/photos/GqIVW...

Find it here: unsplash.com/@thewalters