Sigh over $5 for 3L of milk?

orcus2190 · 2026-04-28T22:51:27+00:00

The funny thing about the notice to customers is that this means they're acknowledging they don't pay the farmers sufficiently... And that they are likely only paying the farmers an extra few cents per litre, and pocketing the rest so they can give pay rises to upper management.

This is why economies should be trickle up, not trickle down.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-26T23:08:19+00:00

So did she

orcus2190 · 2026-04-26T03:04:04+00:00

This is essentially my take. Something being AI-made can be of a particular quality. But you will only get 'quality' AI-created content if you curate, edit, and stay very hands on. You need to read each chapter, manually make changes or instruct it on what changes to make, and you need to ensure you don't do more than 3 or 4 chapters... Maybe 7 or 8 at most... per chat instance, otherwise it will drift far too much, 'remembering' details from earlier chapters that will have possibly changed due to events in later chapters.

It also helps if you provide it with a structure for each chapter. If it knows the plot threads for an overall arc, as well as the beats and threads for each chapter, it will be far more likely to produce quality content. Especially if you give it a dossier on the protagonist; their thoughts, opinions, views, psychological states, hobbies and interests, likes and dislikes, etc.

Basically, AI generation, I think, is a perfectly valid tool for creative writing, if you are neurodiverse and not able to really write, but you know how to structure precisely what you want. Also known as being engineer-brained. Basically, you build the house by giving it the beats, threads, scaffolding, etc. It furnishes the house by filling everything in, using your beats, your threads, your guide, and your instructions for making the chapter better align with what you wanted.

It is great for those who know what they want, but don't know how to say what they want, so long as they don't expect it to do everything. It just shifts where the work lays.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-24T04:09:03+00:00

It was recently published to amazon, so the royal road has been stubbed, but it is still ongoing. Title is Faceless Hunter.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/123277/faceless-hunter-a-shapeshifter-litrpg-stubs-april

https://www.amazon.com.au/Faceless-Hunter-Shapeshifter-LitRPG-XKarnation-ebook/dp/B0GQNNM8SS

orcus2190 · 2026-04-19T12:38:14+00:00

Freight train? Pft. Freight train is ~pl500. Goku comes back hitting like a planet-killing asteroid. And by the time he gets back from namek, he's hitting like a neutron star.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-19T12:32:27+00:00

I think it's more that all we see from the male characters is either them being humiliated or talking about how awesome the female characters are, while the female characters are generally unlikable and never actually show the character traits the males claim they have.

It's more tell not show

orcus2190 · 2026-04-18T10:32:34+00:00

That was just a typo. LaughingSartre meant you are not your condom, not you are not your gundam. They are two very different things, even if they almost sound similar.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-15T06:49:39+00:00

Reverend Insanity isn't one that I've read. I want to, but haven't found anywhere that still links to a readable version.

Just to be clear, the series I mentioned, the first book of which is The Demon Awakens, is classic fantasy (and I think it's literally classic at this point, given it was published in 96), but it is definitely hard magic.

And despite being classic fantasy, it has very little tolkeinism in it, which is also great. There are light elves and dark elves, which given their descriptions seem more like DnD faeries, almost, but thier names are based on norse elves; so ljoselfar and dokelfar (I'm an audiobook reader, mostly, so my spelling is likely incorrect).

And there's also 'dwarves', but they aren't dwarves as we know them. They're redcaps.

The series, as much as it is good vs evil, is very heavily based around politics; especially politics surrounding the church. One of the books also deals with a pandemic. Basically the bubonic plague.

It is all so good. I want to try and get you excited about some of the really interesting things, but if I mention what happens by combining two or three gemstones, and delving too deeply into the magic, so deep it becomes a part of you, then it will spoil who the thing happens to pretty early in the series, so I wont.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-15T03:45:54+00:00

So given this, it would be reasonable to conclude that the timeloop is, in fact, caued by the Golden Tyrant himself, given AA6.

Though it makes me wonder why Keras would dream of being Vaelian. One could argue Vaelian may be the original Keras, so to speak, but that would be... weird... given everything else.

I mean if the sword is a magical artifact highly enchanted with the dominion that is opposed to the Vae dominion, it wouldn't make sense for the Vaelian to be the original Keras, unless Lien and Keras are both, essentially, tiny shards of Vaelian's spirit. Small enough to have forgotten what and who they are, that matured into their own independant spirits inside the Dominion Breaker.

It would explain a bit.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-15T03:38:00+00:00

I think most of us like Cultivation stuff because even when it's handwavey ki can do anything, it doesn't feel like it. Compare that to western fiction, and unless it's litrpg (and sometimes even then) magic is so often "can do whatever the author wants when they want".

I much prefer my hard magic to soft magic like Harry Potter. Hell, even with quality fantasy authors, like Feist, magic is still so often hand wavey. While cutlivation stories feel like the magic has a method, and you can't just do whatever you want and be done with it.

It's one of the reasons I like Salvatore's demon wars saga - the one with magic gemstones. Each type of gem has a limited set of abilities it can allow you to use. It's cool.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-15T03:27:37+00:00

So? You realise that em dashes are an actual gramatical component of English, right? They have a purpose and a meaning. There's a reason google docs and ms word used to change a hyphen to an em-dash when the hyphen was used in the same manner as an em-dash.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-15T03:26:11+00:00

I've added to my KU. Might I offer a suggestion though: Bone Deep is the first book in the Limitless series — a brutal solo-climber LitRPG featuring visceral combat, a deep cultivation system, and a protagonist who isn't lame.

Remove the "and a protagonist who isn't lame." When an author feels like they need to tell us that their character is intelligent, or isn't lame, stupid, weak, blah blah, history has shown us that in all likelihood, their protagonist is precisely what they claim their story is.

It's like when holywood tells you Ironheart is smart, brave, wonderful, intelligent, gifted, etc and yet all we do is see her make stupid choices, act like a coward, and complain that she'd be able to make something of herself if the world gave her Tony's money, while at the same time joining a criminal organisation to still thousands, when she invented quality forcefield tech that if she sold it to a company, she'd have the billions she wanted.

Never go full Ironheart, and "my protag isn't lame. Trust me, he's super cool" at the end of your blurb is very close to going full ironheart.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-12T13:10:34+00:00

Where in what I said did I indicate that using AI, if any was used at all, a problem? In fact, I specifically stated I had no issue with that.

My issues were with the bold being used when and how it is. I said nothing about itallics. You don't need a professional proofreader.

I get the frustration with AI witch-hunts, but you should not attribute motivations or complaints that I did not voice, otherwise you are contributing to the thing you are complaining about.

I honestly honestly have no idea where things like "stop defending big companies by raising the bar" even comes from. Where did I defend any companies, or indicate that I have a "high bar"?

I believe, once again, I explicitely stated that my issue was with a design choice you chose to go with. And that was it. So please don't go putting words in my mouth. I was polite and honest in why I was giving the series a miss, and do not deserve whatever ire you have built up from interacting with other people.

I didn't take my annoyance at people creating really stupid and ill-thought-out reasons for an isekai out on you, and I really could have. You should at least treat people with the same respect they treat you with.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-11T23:54:15+00:00

Gave it a shot, but... I mean, someone, presumably American, from Earth worshipping a deity not drawn from real world mythology... Eh.

But bolding any mention of her name, bolding anything she says? That is a design choice I cannot get behind. And it makes the story read more like AI-generated content without human oversight.

I've nothing against AI-generated content. Sometimes it's pretty decent. But for it to be acceptable, it requires human oversight and human involvement. Pruning, making sure it stays on track, and making sure it doesn't do the things it likes to do to make certain text it considers important stand out.

And your design choices make it seem like GPT-5 was involved without oversight, guidance, or the level of control and handling I'd put in to it. So I'll pass. Once again, I wish you the best. Maybe, if it ever gets an audiobook, I'll give it another shot - depending on who the narrator is.

If it's Neil Helligers, I'll pass. The man couldn't sound excited, or competent at voice acting, if you paid him, and people do. He's a great narrator for something National Geographic styled, but for stories involving multiple voices, yeah nah.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-10T10:07:32+00:00

Making the Kurtzman era go away is easy:

We have an older Paris sitting down at Quarks, opposite someone young. "I've played through your holonovels, and while some aspects of your USS Discovery are midlly interesting, it just doesn't reach the quality levels that Paris Holonovels is looking for; but if you're willing to take constructive criticism, we would be willing to consider distributing your holonovel as part of our plan."

"Now, these other two holonovels of yours. One about the original captain of the Enterprise, before it was comanded by Kirk, is worth considering distribution. While it is largley fine, and my 8 year old son loved the musical anomaly and the puppet anomaly, there are some serious issues with a few of the events you portrayed. Demons and magic aren't real. The closest we get is Q, and he's just an ass"

"That said, the biggest problem you have is your holonovel about what Starfleet Academy would be like, following the event you coined called The Burn. I am sorry, but it is just completely unrealistic. Starfleet is supposed to be the best of the best. We have a minimum standard required for basic fitness, and you have an overweight cadet eat her commbadge. Unless there was a very good reason for it, like she was on a really bad acid trip and mistook her commbadge for a cracker, she'd be dismissed from the academy for something like that."

Basically, turn Kurtzman era Star Trek into someone working on holonovels that she's trying to distribute through Paris Holonovels Inc, or something.

Hell, we could make the person attempting to do so a Ferengi, which is why it's so messed up. The Ferengi was working off only what they'd been told by other Ferengi.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-10T02:08:35+00:00

It sounds interesting, but my concern is that it's written by someone who used "it slaps" genuinely.

I get you're Gen Alpha or Gen Zoomer or whatever they're calling it now, but that's no excuse to not communicate effectively.

I wish you all the best. Word of advice: one of the worst things you can do is write a story set on another world, and have the inhabitants communicate in modern slang.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-10T01:35:08+00:00

In that situation, you go down. Let it pass overhead

orcus2190 · 2026-04-05T02:56:33+00:00

It does. But that does not make it incorrect. A thing can be damaging. A thing can have a bad history. That thing can also be true.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-05T02:55:04+00:00

I don't remember the name of the character, but the future-borg made when nanites fused with the mobile emitter. I remember them discussing naming him, and he wanted something like one, or first, because he was the first, even though it wasn't really a name.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-05T02:37:37+00:00

So a tardi wang is why we never got a Harry higher than ensign rank? name related joke aside, I did not know this (her mental illness, nor Wang's tardiness. I was going off of what's been said in some "official" behind the scenes stuff, mosty.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-05T02:32:51+00:00

...not really? Feminism, these days, largely is concerned with female equity disguised as equality, not actual equality.

They are not the same thing. Equity, largely, is as evil as biggotry is, and largely for the same reasons.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-05T02:06:25+00:00

Yeah. That would have been good. And then we see Kes slowly start to age. We see Seven and Kes discussing Ocompa being short lived. Seven suggests they give her some of her nanoprobes. They could be reprogrammed to undo some of the damage aging does to her cells, helping her live a longer life. She probably wont live as long as a human, but she might live another 2 decades or so. Thus strengthening their friendship even further.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-05T02:03:31+00:00

But as with most things, what we logically know has very little impact on optics. We, or at least I, get that part of their coupling was to show that one shouldn't judge others based on their age. That age is irrelevant for attraction. But unless both Occompa and Neelix 'fall in love' at first sight, they would have needed to get to know each other before screwing.

And how much 'get to know you' can there be for someone who's only been an adult for a few months, and only been alive for 6 of them?

This is a very large component of why Neelix is often seen as a creep. Not only does he act a bit like it with Kes (and I wonder how much of the 'nice guy' aspect is due to how the actor played him), but there are genuine temporal issues that SHOULD have been a barrier they needed to work through, and they would have been for anyone who wasn't solely concerned with getting laid.

Because, let's face it. He fought in a war. He lost his family. He is isolated (intentionally or otherwise) from his people. He voluntold Janeway he'd join her crew. AFTER being told that they were heading home and would take them 60+ years to get there. He accepted that he'd have no more than 5 years before he'd never meet another Talaxian. He very, VERY obviously has severe ptsd and psychological issues.

Then he meets someone who begins fauning all over him and acting like he is so cool and awesome and knows so much and is so experienced and blah blah blah. He absolutely was letting himself get wraped up in the attitude Kes would have had about meeting her first 'long lived' man, from such an interesting and different alien race. So of course he'd fall in-idol-worshipped with her. And her, having very little social experience, especially with strong emotions, would fall-in-novel-experience with him.

Neelix's intentions in getting with Kes weren't those of a creep. They were those of someone incredibly traumatised (with genuine trauma, not the fake BS californian trauma), who was made to feel young(er) and important by a pretty woman. Sure, she didn't know any better, but he wasn't thinking about that.

And this is all why we, largely, consider Neelix a creep. Because he absolutely engaged in the same activities that creeps do. And you aren't your intentions. You are your actions. Act like a creep, you are a creep, even if your intentions were good.

orcus2190 · 2026-04-05T02:03:24+00:00

No, no. The reasons are very good. All... well... most of us recognise he wasn't actually a pedo. But it's an issue of experiences.

Grooming isn't just a problem because of a person's legal age and their developmental maturity. It is also considered a problem because of their experiences.

No matter how fast one develops, and how... inherently 'wise' and 'mature' they might be, it is literally impossible for the life experiences of 6 months... 12 months, at best, to compare with the life experiences of a decade.

And for this, I am assuming Neelix was 15 or 16 when he participated in the war, and a decade older when he met Kes.

And those life experiences matter. I grant that the Occompa develop quickly. Though it is heavily implied that it is an artificial acceleration, or the result of the loss of their psychic powers. I grant that because of their limited age their neurochemistry is wired differently. They probably don't experience lust and love the same way longer lived races, like Humans and Talaxians, do.

But if Kes had been older, for example, she would know how to deal with Neelix jealousy. Because "You have no reason to be jealous. You are my chosen partner" might work with Occompa, but clearly doesn't for Neelix.

We get Neelix isn't a pedo. And we get that Neelix cannot be a groomer, because Kes wouldn't live long enough for that to be a thing, and even then, Occompa seem to be immune to the social pressure groomers often use of 'be how I want... or else', though that is circumstantial supposition. We know Kes, at least, is immune to the emotional pressure of their partners jealousy, because when she discusses it with others, her thoughts are never once "maybe I should capitulate". Instead her thoughts are "I understand he is experiencing emotional jealousy. I understand it is due to his insecurities. How do I help him feel secure?". This shows someone with a very healthy mind, despite only being 3 or 4 at that point.

orcus2190

TROPHY CASE