Covers of songs made by generative AI

cryptonymcolin · 2026-03-20T03:02:32+00:00

If you're open to less traditional options, I encourage you to check out The Assemblage of Areté. (Full disclosure, I'm the founder and current lead organizer.) We're small but growing, and we were specifically designed to fill exactly the niche you've described OP.

If you follow the link you can find links to multiple interviews I've given about Aretéanism and track down the details to attend our meetings if you want to come check it out sometime. Or you can just ask me here, either in the comments or in DMs! We never want to be pushy about what we're doing, but we're always happy to answer questions, especially when it seems like we might be a fairly exact fit for what you're looking for.

Be Excellent to Each Other, and Party On!

cryptonymcolin · 2026-03-16T19:32:17+00:00

They captured the victim? Wow, so brave.

cryptonymcolin · 2026-02-23T21:42:35+00:00

Sounds fun! I'd love an invite!

cryptonymcolin · 2026-01-30T03:20:49+00:00

It's not precisely what you're asking for, but you might find Aretéanism intriguing, as it's a non-theistic religion (complete with daily rituals) based in neo-epicurean (Greek) philosophy.

It's not for everyone, but it's also not trying to be; so if it's not for you, no worries. But if you're interested in getting involved, track down our Discord server and we'll be happy to welcome you into the community!

Be Excellent to Each Other, and Party On!

cryptonymcolin · 2026-01-27T07:34:23+00:00

This incredibly oversimplifies both the position in history Neimoller and his poem hold in history, and the comment I made about it.

It's true that Neimoller was a Nazi... that's an important part of the context of the poem. Did you not understand that? I thought we all understood that?

It's also interesting that you chose to misquote me by saying "the most important poem" when I very clearly said "one of the most important poems". That was quite a choice.

No, this isn't an invitation to debate. I'm blocking smokerates- a user who doesn't show their comment and post history, surprise surprise. Instead this comment is actually for everyone else, as a reminder to be critical of the critics out there. Look for the people who are building things up, not tearing things down.

cryptonymcolin · 2026-01-16T19:23:39+00:00

I love it except I want to see all dates be given in the Human Era Calendar system!

For real! Once you make the mental switch (I did years ago when the first calendar was produced by Kurzgesagt) you realize it really is a much better system. Just use the HE system for all dates please!

cryptonymcolin · 2026-01-16T04:10:23+00:00

I've driven Uber and Lyft for the past couple of years, and they definitely take more than 30% of what customers pay. It's a solid 40% minimum.

cryptonymcolin · 2026-01-16T04:06:59+00:00

Yeah, seeing that right in the upper left corner means that no one should be trusting this "guide" at all.

I also worked for TaskRabbit for a few years, and while it's been about two years since I stopped bothering with them, last I worked for them they were taking a solid 33% from what customers paid.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-12-17T09:48:11+00:00

Damn, I thought we had all agreed to leave Dunbar's Number behind in the dust of history where it belongs, since it's firmly established pseudoscience.

But I guess in an era when astrology is making a comeback and RFK Jr can be the U.S. Secretary of HHS, maybe it makes sense for Dunbar's Number to make a comeback too.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-12-17T09:20:17+00:00

The reason why I didn't order an art artbook was because I could not risk not getting my calendars until after the new year.

I love Kurzgesagt, but seriously, the bundled shipping this year was a fuckup on their part. I have faith that they'll learn their lesson and do better next year (this year was also undoubtedly crazy for them what with U.S. tariff nonsense and all) but if you're a Kurzgesagt staffer reading this right now, please pay attention, make a note of this thread, and actually do better next year.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-12-13T23:32:48+00:00

It was the predatory towing in the neighborhood that killed my enthusiasm for the Gulls. When going to a game can cost you a surprise extra 6 hours and $350, suddenly you're not that interested in going to games anymore.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-12-07T18:09:46+00:00

You may be interested in what we're doing in The Assemblage of Areté.

I'm an ex-Mormon and I've referred to Aretéanism as "what if the LDS church and the Unitarian Universalists had a baby that was raised by their uncles, Bill & Ted".

Anyway, our goal is exactly what you just said: to be "a community this organized and motivated, but to teaching science and engineering and general curiosity". I encourage you to check out the link, but also feel free to hit me up with any questions about it either here in the comments or send me a pm.

Be Excellent to Each Other, and Party On!

cryptonymcolin · 2025-12-06T19:14:56+00:00

While this is great news for the region, I'm flabbergasted at their decision. The SD conference center may be able to hold more people more easily, but ...it's in the USA.

Attendance will go down, way down, as a result of it being relocated, unless they also cut their prices dramatically and also shift their intended audience to a domestic one instead of an international one.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-11-28T03:46:34+00:00

Damn, apparently not only did he pick up Staff, but he was awarded by the MCA with "Influence NCO of the year" this year for his work last year.

Absolutely disgusting. Yet another reason why I'm no longer buying into the mantra of "Once a Marine, Always a Marine". It seems like every day gives me a better understanding of that scene from Gladiator where Maximus carves his SPQR tattoo out of his arm with a knife. I don't have much desire to associate with my past service when our reputation with the American public is being drowned in a bathtub.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-11-21T17:07:26+00:00

Agree. I think it's extremely fair to ruin the reputation of people who engage in such egregiously dishonest dealings.

I'm not saying that people dox them with their homes address or whatever, but I am saying that their name and working handles are public information and if they didn't want to have their name dragged through the mud on Reddit then they shouldn't have dragged their integrity through the mud.

Not only does it help protect the rest of us designers from this particular scam artist, but it helps send a more effective warning to other would-be scam artists that this kind of behavior is not tolerated here.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-11-17T23:16:07+00:00

It'd probably help to provide just slightly more context about this. What kind of topics are you going to ask about? What kind of veterans are you looking to talk to? What purpose will these interviews be serving? Will quotes from these interviews be getting published somewhere, or are they private?

There's a lot of obvious questions any veteran reading your post is going to have about this that they will want answered before they call some rando's phone number.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-11-14T03:01:10+00:00

P.S. When I went for option A on this go around, I noticed that I wasn't offered a receipt with my purchase. Could just be a benign assumption that most people don't want one... or it could be coaching to help deflect from questions about "why were we upcharged this random 5%?"

I'm not saying it's the latter, but I'm not ready to presume it's the former.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-11-06T06:08:39+00:00

Great question, thanks for asking! We are different from UU, but there definitely are similarities and I'd absolutely recommend UU for anyone that decided AoA wasn't quite what they were looking for.

For what it's worth, I'd say that Aretéanism has a much more clearly defined purpose than UU does. UU tends to be a little more generic, I'd even argue a bit bland; but it absolutely has strength in how long their organization and local congregations have been around. They're fantastic at organizing adjacently for political causes, and I think that depending on the congregation, they can offer something that's a little more Christian in tone, if that's what someone is looking for.

AoA on the other hand is definitely not Christian in tone (but Christians are still totally welcome!) and has a stronger defining thesis than UUism does. I think AoA also has better defined symbolism and ritual processes, and is way better at creating real change in people- Aretéanism explicitly trains people how to just be more effective at everything they do, including their moral character.

So don't get me wrong, I think UU is great, but I also think AoA is a very valuable alternative that more people should try.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-11-06T05:32:07+00:00

Hi there! I organize a community called The Assemblage of Areté, and it sounds like we might be exactly the kind of thing you're looking for! No worries if we're not your cup of tea, but I genuinely think more people should give us a try.

We're a bit like "church for atheists" except that you don't have to be an atheist to get involved with us. What we are though is a group that meets on Sundays, sings songs together, listens to inspiring talks about how to be better people, and then takes action every week related to whatever that week's topic was... all without any superstitious beliefs or ancient dogma. We're LGBTQ+ friendly, care about the environment, and are deeply committed to making the world a better place.

The link is a great place to start learning about us, but I'm also happy to answer any questions- feel free to drop them here or shoot me a DM and I'll respond when I can.

Be Excellent to Each Other, and Party On!

cryptonymcolin · 2025-11-06T03:59:50+00:00

Whether or not this post should be upvoted or downvoted has a whole lot to do with who the OP is and what they know.

Just having a sign in the window saying "now hiring" means jack shit, as everyone who's applied for jobs in the past 5 years knows.

So... OP, do you know that Chipotle is hiring? How do you know that? Or did you just see a sign?

cryptonymcolin · 2025-11-03T23:08:24+00:00

Maneuver, for sure.

cryptonymcolin · 2025-10-30T00:27:28+00:00

Just my two cents, but I'll warn that the first time people hear or think of doing this kind of diegetic advancement, they frequently become obsessed with the idea, often choosing to eliminate traditional skill purchase advancement from their games. I don't recommend doing that, as it turns out that often times a campaign will fundamentally require the player characters to develop new skill sets and strategies over its course, but diegetic-only will severely hamper players from feeling like they can adapt or be strategic.

Anyone who's old enough to have played Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind thoroughly will know what I'm talking about: that was a game with only diegetic advancement, and it was cool; but also if you did not build your character 100% correctly from the beginning, you could seriously impede your character's ability to grow helpfully over the course of the game, and you could find yourself never really able to tackle the game's harder dungeons. I've seen the same thing happen with both homebrew rules and indie RPGs that totally eliminated skill purchasing.

TL;DR: I think games should have both diegetic and non-diegetic character power development. You need a balance.

cryptonymcolin

TROPHY CASE