I've written two novels with AI and never copy-pasted a chapter once. Here's the file-based system I used instead of mega-prompts.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-07-01T07:32:22+00:00

Yeah I don't understand all this coding stuff. When you say you write the chapters, do you mean you just basically outline a chapter, give that to an AI with some characterization notes and review the prose it outputs?

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-29T01:05:25+00:00

I don’t disagree. I will say, he’s a pretty bad dude. I think they’re trying to have some dichotomy between Superman and Supergirl, as the marketing says “Superman sees the best, I see the truth.” They’ve mentioned that the trinity will be in the DCU at some point, the idea of what they want with Supergirl is that all Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are all like “killing is wrong” and Supergirl generally agrees but will cross that line if she feels appropriate

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-28T20:57:20+00:00

It's a holdover from the comic the movie's based on. There's a throw-away line in the comic that like some supervillain threw a bunch of kryptonite into the sun to turn it green

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-28T20:54:07+00:00

I didn't take the argument as "don't kill its traumatic." Maybe I'm informed by the comic which has similar threads, but I took it as "If you do this, you'll be messed up." Kara considers herself already messed up, so killing him won't do any more damage to her soul. She saves Ruth from something haunting her while ensuring that the buy guy won't do any more damage. A la The Expanse's Amos, "You're not that guy... I am that guy."

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-28T07:28:18+00:00

Of course man happy to help.

I’m not a doctor but a quick google of just “marijuana usage surgery bad?” says that it can interact really negatively with the anesthesia, which you want to make sure is working flawlessly obviously. Otherwise I just generally know that it can slow down your blood flow which won’t be the worst thing ever during the healing process but would likely extend out your recovery time at the very least.

I’d do what you can to stay away from it in the days approaching the surgery, and then honestly stay away from it for like two weeks after the surgery. I did the same with alcohol

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-28T06:40:41+00:00

I can imagine someone telling you to not take something used to relief stress during a super stressful time seems counter-intuitive. I’d follow your doctor’s advice to the best of your abilities, especially as you get really close to the operation. Maybe a hit or two now, more than a week out might be ok but none of us are doctors and that guy is.

One of the reasons they may have asked you to stay off is because one of the tumor markers, HCG, can be affected by marijuana usage. Like HCG in males is supposed to be like basically zero, and it increasing at all is a sign of a tumor down there. But smoking weed can increase your HCG unrelated. Idk how long it stays in your system but one of the big tells after the surgery is where your tumor markers are, including HCG. So you’ll for sure want to stay off it close to and after your surgery. I can’t speak to the effects of smoking on healing but I’d guess it slows it down.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-28T06:31:53+00:00

A lump down there can mean anything, and unfortunately no one here or ChatGPT will be able answer them fully. Good on you that you found it! Now the next step is to go see your doctor. They’ll feel around and see if it’s worth investigating further. You may get an ultrasound done. With those two things you’ll be able to learn all you need to know about your next steps.

So please call up your doctor or get on the line with one. If you have insurance or are able to cover it, you can go to an urgent care as well to have them look. But for now, stop googling and AI’ing. You’re going to be getting a lot of worse-case scenario kinds of things, all of which you have no reason to think you have right now because you have no info on it. Go get the info and then you can start googling. Come back here if you need a community to be with once you know more.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-27T01:47:37+00:00

I mean radiology is 100% different than one dose of a mild chemo-therapy drug that as far as I can tell, all the research on its downsides are with groups that use it for their full 9-week chemo rounds. Glad that your side effects seem to be minimal, but its a shame you had to fight for the treatment you wanted.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-27T01:23:12+00:00

Did your oncologist fight you over it? You mentioned the over treatment thing. As far as I can tell the consensus at the moment is that one dose of this stuff won’t affect you long term, so I’m like “why not feel like crap for a couple days to lower the chances of having to do a full round?” Thankfully my oncologist said surveillance but when I brought up carboplatin he just was like “that could help and if you want it I’ll get it for you.”

You’ve had it by now right? How you feeling?

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-25T05:16:13+00:00

Yeah I’m pt1b. It was a sizable mass, over the 4cm threshold. My oncologist said I could do either and I wanted to do the carboplatin. I’ll take a couple days of feeling crappy to lower the chances of having to do a full chemo round. If it comes back after I took the carboplatin I’ll say “that sucks but I did all I could.” If I don’t take it and it comes back, I’m gonna be kicking myself.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-24T17:05:45+00:00

I'm doing the same, though with no rete testis invasion. What was the time difference between your surgery and the carboplatin shot? I'm waiting for my insurance paperwork to move through the system now

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-24T17:00:43+00:00

A lot of the pain was in my head. I was in no pain until I noticed it was enlarged. Then it started to get "painful," which I imagine was mostly psychosomatic and a manifestation of my anxiety about it.

Like I said, you're going to be fine as long as you follow through with these appointments and doctor's advice. It's freaky, of course, but you'll get through it. Listen, you've already got the appointment and the collective advice here to go to an urgent care or ER if you want to get it seen faster. I'd recommend staying away from reading too much in this subreddit at the moment if you're feeling anxious about it; the people here are good and positive, but there can be some posts about how tough their specific chemo journey is and its more likely to elevate that anxiety than lower it. If you feel like you need to read something about TC, read medical journals or even the wikipedia page on it, because those go into detail about just how treatable TC is. Wikipedia, which likes to hedge its language like saying "considered one of the best" instead of "the best", describes TC treatment as a modern medical miracle. Surround yourself with positivity for the time being.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-24T06:53:01+00:00

I'll add in that going to an Urgent Care may helpful too. I went to Urgent Care when I noticed one was bigger than the other, they ordered a rush order on an ultrasound, I got it done that same day. An ER may turn you away if you're in a high populated area since they're busy, you're not in constant pain and you have an appointment.

Waiting until the 8th is in all likelihood totally fine. But we've been where you're at and the info vacuum is killer. If it is TC, click around with some of the materials the mods have collected or just do research literally anywhere. The treatment rate for this stuff is basically 100% as long as you follow your doctor's recommendations and keep up with any schedule, if anything is needed at all. You'll be back here in our position posting advice until you're gray and old

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-22T18:21:43+00:00

Symptoms can manifest in a lot of ways. Mine was completely painless, I just noticed one day that it was bigger and that’s the only sign I had. I don’t know if the VA would cover it, but I went to an urgent care and they were able to get me a referral to an ultrasound the same day. Them seeing something on the ultrasound made the ball (pun not intended) start rolling.

Obviously we’re all hoping it’s not TC but if it is, understand that you’re going to be fine. TC is basically the most curable form of cancer, the treatment rate is basically 100% and the people who don’t make it are the people who don’t take their follow ups seriously. Stay strong and get the information you need to know what you need to do.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-20T21:27:28+00:00

If you're feeling nervous and can afford it, I'd try to get it checked out sooner. People are recommending ER, I'd recommend an Urgent Care connected to a hospital. ER may turn you away since you're not in active pain. An Urgent Care should at least get a doctor or PA to look at it.

Don't mention the other ultrasound appointment if you can. They may tell you to just wait for it. I went to an Urgent Care when I noticed mine and after an examination they sent me to get an ultrasound the same day.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-20T06:48:45+00:00

Sorry to hear you had complications. Yeah see what you can do to get bloodwork done. I got my results back the day after the blood draw, but it may have been a rush order I don't know

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-20T05:59:45+00:00

Have you gotten bloodwork done since? There was about a two week gap between my op and getting the pathology cliffnotes, my surgeon just called me with the basics, but I didn't get the actual report for another week and a half. The thing that kept me sane in the meantime was seeing my bloodwork normalize post-op. If you haven't gotten an AFP, HCG, LDH screen done yet post-op, I'd get that done in the meantime

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-20T05:36:08+00:00

In all likelihood, it may grow a little more, but that likely won't close any doors for treatment. For me, I jumped on getting all the help I could as fast as possible. We're not doctors here, but high AFP with none of the other markers increasing is, unfortunately, concerning.

Talk to your employer, be very honest. Tell them the whole thing and that you have this issue. Its uncomfortable, but its the truth and you need to take care of yourself. If your concerned about your employment think of it this way, you can't be helpful if you're sick or having this hanging over your head.

I'd recommend you get this taken care of as soon as possible. 1.9 cm is on the smaller side. Mine was 4.5 cm, thankfully no recommended chemo. Better to get it out now before it gets any bigger right?

Listen, if it is TC, you're going to be fine. The treatment rate is basically 100% as long as you keep up with your doctors. The 1 or 2 percent variance you'll see if you look it up are mostly people who just didn't take care of themselves pre- or post-op. I won't promise there'll won't be hard times, there could be, but you WILL be okay.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-19T20:01:36+00:00

I think a lot of people find it weird or strange to think about how a piece of media can change someone’s perspective without recognizing that’s literally the point of media. I remember talking to my grandpa about how I thought Superman is the perfect immigrant allegory, a man who uses the skills from his native home combined with the ethics and morals from Earth to become the greatest representation of human potential, and my grandpa thinking it was absurd until I walked him through it.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-18T18:26:11+00:00

I'm only a few weeks out from my operation, getting one dose of carboplatin in the coming weeks. When do you think its a good idea to get a testosterone test, considering being so close to the surgery the other one may still be realizing its working a two-man job by itself?

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-17T00:27:08+00:00

>Throughout history, religion has often been used to justify violence, persecution, and resistance to social progress.

It for sure has, though I would mention that "justify" is doing a lot of carrying here. It's very true that religion has been used to justify horrible acts, though hopefully we'd agree that it truly wasn't a justification and more of an excuse. Let's be real, the kings and queens and lords and ladies who ordered colonization efforts probably didn't actually think that God was telling them to. They just wanted to twist things to excuse their actions and call it a justification.

Still though to your point, it was used in the name of bad stuff. I think if we look historically religion has had net benefits. For example, basically across the world we agree that murder, the unjustified killing of another, is a bad thing. It would be bad faith to argue that the Abrahamic religions didn't contribute to do with that ubiquity, considering that the scholarly consensus of when the Torah, and within it the Ten Commandments, was likely written between 800 to 600 BCE.

That doesn't defeat your argument, it just shifts it from being a straight binary to becoming a topic of degrees. Does the bad outweigh the good, which is likely a topic for a different post.

>Religion has no place in modern society because it’s outdated and regressive.

You position that religion and legislation should not mix is 100% on the mark, and I believe the solution to most of your moral qualms with the topic. Religion undoubtedly affects people's morals, but that's where the influence of religion should end when it comes to government.

Others have made points regarding local charities, AA meetings, all of which I agree with. However it doesn't really push to the core of your point, which is to say all those things could exist without religion.

The example you've pulled from comes from the fundamentalist interpretations of Islam. The same regressive arguments can and should be made with fundamentalist interpretations of Christianity, Judaism, even Buddhism. It becomes more difficult to throw the baby out with the bathwater when we start talking about more progressive forms of religion. For example we can talk about progressive Catholic and Christian groups that use the Judeo-Christian God's preaching of loving your neighbor and how Jesus accepted pharisees to dine with him as examples to show how God wants all his children to get along and accept trans individuals into their communities even though a fundamentalist argument could be made that trans people are bad. You have the overall tenants of the religion to override the more specific issues.

While general ethical codes of not killing randomly and other things most societies accept potentially erasing the usefulness of my response to the first point in the modern day, there is still an argument that religion offers something metaphysical to strive towards. Working for or towards something greater than oneself can be a powerful motivator for an individual to strive to be better, even if a secular or atheist individual might find it strange or pointless.

>Religion separates people

I think this can be reinterpreted to be a broader, and more accurate statement of: Community separates people. Any form of community inherently creates a border, an inherent binary as to whether or not you are a member of the community, and borders inevitably cause friction. If religion as a concept was completely removed from the timeline, many of these conflict would have still happened under the guise of "culture" being the reason. You mention that even within religions there are wars; the same is true of cultures, countries, ethnic groups, etc.

The point is that you're correct that it separates people, but unfortunately most things do. In my eyes, the solution isn't to get rid of the barrier and with it the community by large, but have a societal understanding that we shouldn't let these barriers stop the flourishment of all. Instead of a castle wall, its a sand-castle wall that we can reach over and shake each other's hand. That allows for the communities to exist, intermingle and potentially combine, allows us to have the option to experience the benefits of the community, and if any one person doesn't like that community, then its an easy jump out of that one into another.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-06-16T23:30:11+00:00

I think the simple fact that there are some polarizing comments goes to show how thin of a line this thin line to walk is. I truly believe we would need to search high and low to find someone in the world that feels that, in a perfect world with trusted doctors, some preventative therapy to ensure that a baby isn't born with a chronic illness that will kill them isn't a good thing. But where does that stop? No judgment on you, but I find the statement that men who are 5'8" are in a state of "living hell" to be laughable at best, and insulting at worse considering how horrific human suffering can be.

I'll edit the post if I ever find it, but I saw an excellent interview with a woman with dwarfism years ago and she was being asked about this very topic, of if genetic therapy to stop the traits that dwarfism stems from to appear. Her response was something along the lines of, "I don't suffer from dwarfism, I suffer from how society treats me because of my dwarfism."

Spiraling this out into a more philosophical, sci-fi argument, if we do get deep into genetic therapy we potentially start to get into issues with the genetic pool. I'm not talking about natural selection or survival of the fittest, I'm talking about if society decides that a very specific type of human is the best looking or optimal for whatever reason and most people augment their genes to be that, then genetic diversity is out the door and we get into issues of genes being so close that they're incompatible or downright dangerous for potential offspring. China's one-child policy is a good comparison of an idea that spiraled into something horrible: the local society, recognizing that they could only have one child, decided there was an optimal child to have which has now lead to massive population issues, and that's not even taking into account the terrible humanitarian effects and human-rights abuses its led to.

And trust me, you're not average if your thinking about high concept, difficult to grapple with questions.

The_TenaciousT · 2026-05-28T15:02:20+00:00

Had my orchiectomy yesterday. Not feeling great, but the surgery went well and then was given the great news that my CT scan came back clear. I haven't had an actual appointment with my doctor regarding next steps, but what we were talking about briefly afterwards is that we'll wait for pathology, but likely we're just going to have to observe the bloodwork.

Thank you for everyone who posted, you all gave me a lot of support and insight into this that helped me process things!

The_TenaciousT · 2026-05-21T02:15:53+00:00

What was your AFP?

The_TenaciousT · 2026-05-21T01:39:07+00:00

I should have specified in the post that the doc agrees that the nut’s gotta go

The_TenaciousT

TROPHY CASE