recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Hunter

*Class: Hunter*

Hunter intro

## Martial Tradition

Hunters work in tandem with their animal companions, using whatever tricks and guile they possess to survive in the wilderness.

**Equipment:** Huntsman Training

**Sphere:** Beastmastery [Handle Animal]

**Variable:** Gain 2 of either the Scout sphere, Trap sphere, an additional Beastmastery Talent or an additional Equipment Talent.

## Spellcasting Tradition

Hunters use an ancient style of magic known as Wild Magic or Wilderness Magic. This makes use of specific leaves, berries, mushrooms, stones, silt and animal bits and droppings to create salves, poultices, powders and foods that allow the user to channel magical effects when smoked, ingested or scattered. These preparations require intimate knowledge of the region's flora and fauna to produce properly, and their effects are particularly potent when used on the local wildlife. The effects that this magic can produce are similar in scope to The Way, the magic performed by druids, and it's believed that the origins of the Wild Magic tradition lay in old druidic teachings.

**Drawbacks:** Material Casting, Prepared Caster, Skilled Casting (Survival)

**Boons:** Wild Will

**Spheres:** Alteration, Divination, Enhancement, Life, Mind, Nature

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Animal Shaman (Mind), Bodily Enhancement (Enhancement), Medicinal (Life)
Rogue

*Class: Unchained Rogue*

Criminals, pickpockets, thieves and vagabonds, Rogues come from the underclass of the Kingdom of White, generally living as highwaymen who move between towns or thieves lurking in the rougher parts of the Castle City. Whether simply bad actors or driven to do what they need to to survive, Rogues know how to get what they need, get out of trouble, and end a fight quickly if it starts, one way or another.

## Martial Tradition

Rogues don't have a formalized fighting tradition, but there are certain tools of the trade that any scalawag knows how to make use of. Rogues come from a varied background and will bring their own unique talents to the way they operate, but they always know at least one way to fight dirty.

**Equipment:**Rogue Weapon Training,

**Variable:** Gain the Scoundrel or Fencing sphere.

**Variable:** Gain access to 2 spheres of your choice.
Shifter

*Class: Shifter*

There are those in The Kingdom of White and it's surrounding wilderness who are afflicted with a sinister condition. It is unknown if it is an ancient curse, some magical disease or the signs of an auspicious bloodline. They do not hold to their natural forms, their flesh shifting and changing into something unnatural and beastly. Some choose to try to hide their nature, while others embrace it wholeheartedly, flaunting their powers of transformation with reckless abandon. Regardless of how they choose to live or what they choose to use their powers for, these beings are collectively known as Shifters.

## Spellcasting Tradition

**Drawbacks:** Draining Casting, Painful Magic

**Boons:** Fortified Casting

**Spheres:** Alteration, Divination, Enhancement, Life, Protection

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Lycanthropic (Alteration), Beast Soul (Alteration), Bodily Enhancement (Enhancement), Personal Magics (Enhancement), Regenerate (Life), Limited Protection [Ward] (Protection), Protected Soul (Protection)

## Backgrounds

Humans-

Halflings

Elves

Half-Elves

Dwarves

Half-Orcs
Druid

*Class: Druid*

Caretakers of the wilds, Druidic orders have existed in some form or another since before the Kingdom of White was founded. Closely attuned to the natural world, Druids have a powerful sense of what is happening to the land around them. Some believe that Druids can speak to plants and animals. While this is not exactly true for most Druids, they do possess knowledge and intuition about the world that allows them to interpret any disturbances caused by the activities of the civilized races, and solve the problem however they see fit.

## Spellcasting Tradition

Druids practice a magic they call "The Way" or sometimes "The Old Way," (usually when talking to spellcasters from The Black Tower.) They draw their powers from their connection to nature, using the natural forces of the earth, sky, plants and animals against any who would disrupt the harmonious balance.

**Drawbacks:** None

**Boons:** None

**Spheres:** Alteration, Divination, Enhancement, Life, Mind, Nature, Weather

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Animal Shaman (Mind), Bodily Enhancement (Enhancement)

## Backgrounds

Druids generally come from the wilder places of the world, although there are some raised in civilized society who hear the call of the wild and reject their former lives.
Bloodrager

*Class: Bloodrager*

Magical bloodlines, although rare even within The Kingdom of White, do flow within the savage peoples outside the boundaries of civilization. Many of the barbaric peoples born into a magical lineage never realize their magical gifts, the harsh conditions they live under forcing them to focus on the physical worlds of survival and war. Still, for a rare few barbaric warriors, the rage that burns within their hearts ignites a fire, allowing them to tap into their magical heritage and channel it through their own body.

## Martial Tradition

Bloodragers fight with instinct, brutality, and the weapons of their homeland, while incorporating their spell casting into their fighting style. They use Charisma as their practitioner modifier.

**Equipment:**Gain either Tribal Training (If Human), Dwarven Heritage, Elven Heritage or Orc Heritage

**Spheres:** Berserker

**Variable:** Gain either Unarmored Training or Arcane Armor

**Variable:** Gain 1 of the following spheres: Scout, Barroom, Beastmastery, Gladiator

**Special:** Non-Dwarf Bloodragers who take the Barroom Sphere gain the Teetotaler drawback.

## Spellcasting Tradition

Bloodragers draw the magic of their bloodline forth to affect reality in an incredibly stressful process similar to sorcery. While they suffer the same physical hardships to make magical effects manifest through their own blood, the scope of bloodlines that can manifest through battle rage and the control Bloodragers possess over their powers are both much more limited. While unable to further exert themselves for more powerful bursts of magic, Bloodragers are able to tap into their magical reserves more easily as they become wounded in battle, unleashing the magic latent within the blood flowing from their wounds.

**Drawbacks:** Draining Casting, Painful Magic, Magical Signs, Somatic Casting (2), Strenuous

**Boons:** Deathful Magic

**Spheres:** Alteration, Destruction, Enhancement, Life, Protection, Time

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Beast Soul (Alteration), Lycanthropic (Alteration), Personal Magics (Enhancement), Regenerate (Life), Slow Recovery (Life), Limited Protection: Ward (Protection), Protected Soul (Protection), Personal Time (Time)

**Special:** Bloodragers selection of Blast Type talents is limited by their originating tribe.
Rondure Realm Wiki

## Rondure Realm

Rondure Realm is a fiction novel series written byV. K. Boy.

## Plot

Rondure Realm is a prodigious place where the dreams of man are made possible. It's an RWG that captured the hearts of billions of people all around the world. Due to various dismal circumstances, a young boy, Dane who doesn't have any worth mentioning dreams and who has no experience in playing virtual reality games will end up playing Rondure Realm. Thereupon, his life will turn in ways that none would imagine.
Warpriest

*Class: Warpriest*

Warriors, orators and zealots, warpriests are the frontline between faith and heresy. Though members of The Church, most warpriests actively serve in the White Army as combat medics and their abilities are often instrumental in suppressing the barbarians, heretics and monsters that claw at the fringes of the Kingdom of White. A select few warpriests instead serve in the Whiteguard, serving to protect the Church's interests or even assisting the Inquisition with prominent threats.

## Martial Tradition

Unlike paladins, Warpriests receive their martial training in The White Army as footsoldiers, learning to protect themselves and command others. They use wisdom as their practitioner modifier.

**Equipment:** Armor training, Shield Training, Knightly Training

**Variable:** Warpriests gain either the Shield Sphere or the Warleader Sphere

 Spellcasting Tradition

Warpriests draw strength from their devotion to The White, and are granted powers through ritual prayer and worship collectively known as Holy or Divine magic. Unlike Oracles, they must channel their power through Holy Symbols. The teachings of the church, coupled with this process, enables Divine practitioners a different suite of mystical capabilities than those chosen to wield the power of The Light directly, although their ability to unleash the destructive power of The Light is much more limited in scope.

**Drawbacks:** Focused Casting (Holy Symbol), Prepared Caster, Verbal Casting

**Boons:** None

**Spheres:** Conjuration, Destruction\*, Divination, Enhancement, Fate, Life, Light, Protection, War

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Aligned Combatant [Good] (Destruction), Luminous (Protection)

**Domains:** Community, Glory, Good, Healing, Law, Nobility, Protection, Sun

\***Special:** Warpriests may only take blast type talents that fall in the Light, Force or Sonic blast type groups.

Warpriests who follow The White may only channel positive energy.
Sentinel

*Class: Sentinel*

 The Indigo Guard specializes in siegecraft and engineering. To this end, their soldiery practice a fighting style very different from the rest of the Army, one focused on intercepting foes who would disrupt the siege crews. Sentinels are the elite front line troops of any Indigo Guard formation, designated to hold steady and protect the vulnerable crews behind them at any cost.

## Martial Tradition

Sentinels don heavy armor and wield reach weapons to better withstand charging enemies and threaten a greater area. They're also trained in either restricting enemy movement or better protecting themselves in a fight.

**Equipment:**Pikeman Training, Armor Training, Shield Training

**Variable:** Gain either the Lancer sphere or the Shield Sphere
Mortia

Mortia is the name of the great and gargantuan continent that the humans live on. It's mostly seen as an empire-Mortian Empire- that's comprised of vast number of kingdoms but only five of them are considered as the major ones: Ethens, Westees, Naredus, Sayri and Nuclezon. Each of those five have control over some minor kingdoms, and doesn't have control over a few kingdoms.

Countless number of clans live on the continent, in the empire.
Bard

*Class: Bard*

Talented tricksters, bards are the tale tellers of The Kingdom of White, and the tales they tell can be quite tall indeed, though the height of the truth can be difficult to discern from just their words. Bards are generally beloved by the population, for they bring stories of adventurers and happenings from across the kingdom, and there's few better forms of entertainment than seeing a traveling stage troupe or listening to a wandering minstrel sing ballads by the light of a campfire beneath the glow of a full moon. Free spirits and fiercely individual, bards have their own reasons for becoming adventurers, but for many they seek out adventure for inspiration's sake. Many are the common folksongs of brave adventurers in the kingdom who were originally penned by the bards who witnessed the events of their songs firsthand, and who's inspirational music and magic was instrumental to the success of those legends in the first place.

## Spellcasting Tradition

Bards wield a unique form of magic known as Spellsinging, or Spellsong. They are able to manifest certain magical effects within those who hear their musical performances. While this form of casting is somewhat more strenuous than what more dedicated magicians would be used to, by intertwining their magic with their musical performances Bards are able to maintain ongoing magical effects much more easily than other spellcasters, often without anybody even noticing.

**Drawbacks:** Verbal Casting, Somatic Casting, Skilled Casting (any musical Perform skill), Focus Casting (Instrument)

**Boons:** Easy Focus, Virtuoso

**Spheres:** Enhancement, Illusion, Fate, Life, Mind, War

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Battle Manipulation (War)

## Bard Races

Bards are generally uncommon, and no race within the Kingdom of White has particularly strong bardic traditions beyond each producing bards of various skill and notoriety. Individuals by nature, every bard's story is truly unique, and there is none in the world better qualified than they are to tell it.
Swashbuckler

*Class: Swashbuckler*

Although the northern seas have lain quiet from enemy ships for nearly a millennium, the Blue Guard still patrols the waters protecting coastal villages and fishing boats from would be pirates or any hostile creatures that may emerge from beneath the depths. Counted among its soldiers are the few exceptionally daring individuals who've come to be known as Swashbucklers. With reputations for engaging in reckless and daring behaviour, their skill, luck and panache are the only things that determine whether they brilliantly succeed or fail spectacularly.

## Martial Tradition

Swashbucklers are trained in the fighting style of the Blue Guard, skilled in the specialized armaments and athleticism to fight effectively aboard ships.

**Equipment:**Pirate Training

**Spheres:**Athletics Sphere, Expanded Training [Climb, Swim and Leap packages]

**Variable:** Gain one sphere or martial talent of your choice
Elementalist

*Class: Elementalist*

Elementalists form the core of the Violet Guard. They are trained in the Black Tower but do not learn the wide array or deeper understanding of magic that wizards and arcanists do. Instead they are taught the fundamentals of magic and a narrow scope of magic deemed relevant to a battlefield scenario. They practice these spells over and over until they can perform them releatively easily and without consulting a spellbook. They typically focus on a specific type of destructive blast and sharply hone their skill with it, hence the name "Elementalist," although they are also sometimes referred to as "War Wizards" due to their role in the military and battlefield training.

## Spellcasting Tradition

Elementalists practice a specific type of magic called "War Wizardry." While it lacks the versatility of standard Wizardry, because of constant, disciplined practice and a much narrower focus, War Wizardry has fewer of the spellcasting difficulties that can make normal Wizards a liability on a hectic battlefield. Elementalists are also practiced in wearing armor, although it still must be nonrestrictive and lightweight to not disrupt their magical gestures.

**Drawbacks:** Verbal Casting, Somatic Casting, Prepared Caster, Material Casting

**Boons:** None

**Spheres:** Destruction, Enhancement, Protection, War

**Sphere Drawbacks:** None
Paladin

*Class: Paladin*

Paladin intro

## Martial Tradition

Paladins are holy warriors trained by The Church to be self sacrificing protectors of the helpless and the innocent. They use charisma as their practitioner modifier.

**Equipment:** Armor Training, Knightly Training

**Spheres:** Guardian

**Variable:** Either Expanded Guardian or Defend Other from the Guardian Sphere or Shield Training from the Equipment Sphere

## Spellcasting Tradition

Paladins draw strength from their devotion to The White, and are granted powers through ritual prayer and worship collectively known as Holy or Divine magic. Unlike Oracles, they must channel their power through Holy Symbols. The teachings of the church, coupled with this process, enables Divine practitioners a wider array of mystical capabilities than those chosen to wield the power of The Light directly, although their ability to unleash the destructive power of The Light is much more limited in scope.

**Drawbacks:** Focused Casting (Holy Symbol), Prepared Caster, Verbal Casting

**Boons:** None

**Spheres:** Conjuration, Destruction\*, Divination, Enhancement, Fate, Life, Light, Protection, War

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Aligned Combatant [Good] (Destruction), Luminous (Protection)

\***Special:** Paladins may only take blast type talents that fall in the Light, Force or Sonic blast type groups.
RWG

RWG means Real World Game. It's a new genre of games created after the release of Rondure Realm. Though it's a virtual reality game, it's connected to the real world in many ways like time for a prime example and the uniqueness of it's just like Earth. The one who named this genre was Comel Klien, one of top game critics. Some players don't accept it, saying that Rondure Realm has no set genre. But many mouths speak of this as the genre during their communications.
Halflings

Banding together in small communities burrowed into the ground, halfling towns are generally peaceful, orderly places where nothing much ever really happens. Most halflings want nothing more than a peaceful, quiet existence and tend to look down on rabble rousers, ne'er do wells and "weirdos" as undesirables. For this reason, many adventurous halflings have strained relationships or loose ties to their family at best.

For halflings, one's outward appearance to the community is paramount, and one of the most desirable qualities is reliability. Most halflings work family farms, tend family businesses or inherit family titles, caring little for what it is they do in favor of the dedication, efficacy and dependability with which they execute their profession. For this reason most halflings are seen as somewhat singularly minded, often viewing the world through the lens of their profession.

Halflings are not tireless workaholics by any means, however. They enjoy relaxation time alone or with a small number of close friends, but as the circle of guests for any event becomes slightly larger the formality of the affair, even simple tea, begins to increase, and one's status within the various social circles of halfling society can suddenly be put on the line during what was supposed to be a quiet meal between friends. For this reason the drunken carousing and partying of other races is often eschewed for devotion to personal hobbies or intellectual pursuits as a method of unwinding. Halflings are most at ease when they are set about a task, rather than engaging niceties or navigating the minefield of extended social interaction.

Halflings also form the majority of residents in the urban slums of the Castle City, colloquially known as Smalltown precisely for this reason. Halflings are much more content with smaller living spaces than the larger races of the Kingdom, and so the cheaply priced lots and houses of the congested district became quite appealing to them. The intermingling of these city dwelling halflings and the humans who lived amongst them due to poverty has led to the halfling language becoming a sort of thieves cant, and while most halflings aren't criminals, their close association with the rough part of town has led to many erroneous stereotypes about them within the city walls. Of course, some halflings *are* criminals, and those who set upon that path find themselves with a natural advantage for moving about undetected, slipping in and out of tight spaces, and scraping through dangerous situations by the skin of their teeth.
Rondure Realm

Rondure Realm, also known as Rondurealm is the one and only RWG of the world that changed the lives of many and the fate of the world itself. It's created by Luther and Jane, the former took care of the coding part while the latter took care of its structure and all of its setting.

Rondure Realm was initially called as The Orb, but its name was changed when the first and final stable version was released.
Separation

This page is about using separation as a strategy to help handle conflicts.

## Examples of separation

Some are less severe, some are more severe,

   and some may even require the use of force:

* different spaces (real or virtual), rooms, relocate
* relationship breakups, divorce
* mute or block people on the internet
* restraining order
* escort away, forceful separation
* imprison, banish
* seceed

## See also

* The Main Options in Human Conflict
* The Edges and Foundations of the Good World
* Boundaries, personal boundaries
* Meta-Utopia
Why Perfect our Internal Data and Processing?

Basically, we have goals, drives, desires, motives, and we want to achieve or satisfy them. But the natural world is not ordered to our desires.  Hence the development of internal data processing in animals to do the work ourselves.

The better we can know the right thing to do in order to satisfy our goals, the more successful we will be.  (see also:  paved with good intentions, and True Moral Facts).

To get an idea of how much advantage this all gives us, see "Mechanists" as the "bedrock of civilization"

A deeper question might be "but why is the universe like this?  Why isn't it the way we desire it to be?"  For that, see:  entropy, natural undesigned universe

We can think about the future, we want each point along that timeline to be good for us, we can imagine and discover means-ends chains to produce that result at future times.

hard to do it all on our own, and conflict can arise. Useful to be able to build reason-chains in other people's brains, or have them do it for us, hence language and also division of information processing labor.
Cleric

*Class: Cleric*

Holy men and interpreters of God's will, Clerics are the ministers of The Church of White Light. They preach the teachings of the church, perform ceremonies and holiday celebrations and, when called upon, serve to exterminate the evils that menace those beyond the glow of God's light.

## Spellcasting Tradition

Clerics draw strength from their devotion to The White, and are granted powers through ritual prayer and worship collectively known as Holy or Divine magic. Unlike Oracles, they must channel their power through Holy Symbols. The teachings of the church, coupled with this process, enables Divine practitioners a different suite of mystical capabilities than those chosen to wield the power of The Light directly, although their ability to unleash the destructive power of The Light is much more limited in scope.

**Drawbacks:** Focused Casting (Holy Symbol), Prepared Caster, Verbal Casting

**Boons:** None

**Spheres:** Conjuration, Destruction\*, Divination, Enhancement, Fate, Life, Light, Protection, War

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Aligned Combatant [Good] (Destruction), Luminous (Protection)

**Domains:** Community, Glory, Good, Healing, Law, Nobility, Protection, Sun

\***Special:** Clerics may only take blast type talents that fall in the Light, Force or Sonic blast type groups.

Clerics who follow The White may only channel positive energy and must select the Life sphere for their cleric bonus talents.
Ranger

*Class: Ranger*

Intro

## Martial Tradition

Rangers often operate alone, keeping their distance and studying their surroundings and enemies before striking to end things quickly.

**Equipment:** Huntsman Training

**Sphere:** Scout

**Variable:** Gain one Scout and one Equipment talent of your choice

## Spellcasting Tradition

Experienced Rangers use an ancient style of magic known as Wild Magic or Wilderness Magic. This makes use of specific leaves, berries, mushrooms, stones, silt and animal bits and droppings to create salves, poultices, powders and foods that allow the user to channel magical effects when smoked, ingested or scattered. These preparations require intimate knowledge of the region's flora and fauna to produce properly, and their effects are particularly potent when used on the local wildlife. The effects that this magic can produce are similar in scope to The Way, the magic performed by druids, and it's believed that the origins of the Wild Magic tradition lay in old druidic teachings.

**Drawbacks:** Material Casting, Prepared Caster, Skilled Casting (Survival)

**Boons:** Wild Will

**Spheres:** Alteration, Divination, Enhancement, Life, Mind, Nature

**Sphere Drawbacks:** Animal Shaman (Mind), Bodily Enhancement (Enhancement), Medicinal (Life)
Drake Thorn

## Introduction

**Drake Thorn** is a District Attorney for the Los Santos Department of Justice. He is a former (rather unsuccessful) Defense Attorney, who still made his way into the DA's office and was able to prosecute some criminals very successfully already.

## Biography

Drake came to Los Santos somewhere in 2018 trying to set foot as Defense Attorney. Due to the well known lawyers Leon Church and Bishop Kane being able to satisfy the demand already, while being more experienced than Thorn, he was not able to get a decent number of clients on his retainer.

With the third revision of the DOJ in Los Santos, Thorn made his way into the DA's office. In the beginning he was often seen on ride alongs with Officers of the SASP, gaining a lot of experience that way. On his first official day of court as an ADA, he was able to pull through all three cases successfully, one of which with a plea deal before the trial started.
Jewel Casting

*Jewel Casting* or *Gem Casting* is a magical practice wherein the caster coaxes the inherent magical properties out of certain precious materials to achieve a desired effect. It is mainly practiced by those who've studied magic in The Black Tower of The Kingdom of White. Such casters typically require material components to work their magic, which are described below. A valuable gemstone can be used to manipulate magic at a rate of approximately 1sp per caster level per ability used, after which the magic that lends it its shape and beauty is fully drawn out, leaving a worthless residue behind.

## Diamond

#### *Light - Illusion - Time*

Diamonds are used to manipulate the fundamental perceptions of the universe, bending light, altering the passage of time for certain creatures as well as forging all manner of illusions. A magically consumed diamond burns out and becomes a brittle piece of coal.

## Amethyst

#### *Dark - Death - Destruction*

Amethyst is used to evoke terrible power from within it, unleashing darkness, destruction and death upon the caster's enemies. A magically consumed amethyst drains its color to white, becoming a brittle piece of ordinary gypsum.

## Ruby

#### *Protection - Enhancement - War*

Rubies represent strength and can be used to bolster the caster, their allies, or their equipment in various ways. A consumed ruby shatters, splintering into worthless shards of hardened clay.

## Sapphire

#### *Mind- Telekinesis- Divination*

Sapphires are used in the casting of the magics of the mind, their deep blue color aiding the caster in staying calm and focused. When spent, a sapphire will melt into a viscous pool of deep blue crystal slag that gradually dries up into a bit of coarse sea salt.

## Emerald

#### *Creation - Alteration - Warp*

Emeralds control the magics of the physical, altering the bodies of living creatures or pulling things through space or into being from the aether. A fully consumed emerald rusts through completely, typically breaking down and dissolving into worthless copper dust.

## Gold

#### *Any*

Gold is an inherently magical substance, but it's material stability makes drawing the magic out of it much more difficult and less rewarding than using gemstones. A caster may use gold to cast any sphere effects he knows, but requires a gold piece per caster level per ability used. The use of gold coins in this manner is a criminal offence, and prohibitively expensive for most, and thus goldcasting is typically only done in experimental or emergency situations. Any gold used for casting loses its luster, becoming an equivalent amount of darkened lead.
I successfully installed Django

Using what I learned from installing tensorflow, it was easy to install django (I checked their tutorial, just to be safe) and I had no problems.

Here are the commands I used (in **bold**), I cut out all the other stuff that came up on the command line:

Starting by navigating to my Anaconda3 Scripts folder, probably necessary to use the conda script:

```
(C:\Anaconda3) C:\Users\Brian>**cd C:\Anaconda3\Scripts**

```

Then I use conda to create a virtual environment called "dj1", and install python 3.5 there:

```
(C:\Anaconda3) C:\Anaconda3\Scripts>**conda create -n dj1 python=3.5**

Proceed ([y]/n)? **y**

```

Then I activate the dj1 environment:

```
(C:\Anaconda3) C:\Anaconda3\Scripts>**activate dj1**

```

Install django with the *correct* pip (as I learned while getting tensorflow to install):

```
(dj1) C:\Anaconda3\Scripts>**C:\Anaconda3\envs\dj1\Scripts\pip install django**

```

Then I use this command, just because it's a quick way to check that the installation indeed worked:

```
(dj1) C:\Anaconda3\Scripts>**django-admin --version**

1.11.7

```
Inland Empire

originally posted on my wordpress blog here.

more recently, i found an article online that discussed Inland Empire, and it seemed quite familiar, and i suspected it may have given me some of the ideas in my interpretation below. I can't find the article now [and i can't remember anything about it], but i'll link it here if i find it again...

## My old blog post

The movie Inland Empire seems to be difficult for people to understand, but I have a lot of ideas about it.

**[Lots of Spoilers!]**

Most of it might be just an imagined worst-case-scenario that the frightened and distrought Lost Girl has running through her head during the night.

The vast majority of the film is not an objective perspective.  That Lost Girl scene might be, and I also think a few other small scenes are fairly close as well.  For instance, when the pregnancy is announced when they are sitting at the table.

One large arc of the story is “the secret”, and that’s mostly what I’ll talk about today.  We first hear of it near the start when the rabbit says he has a secret.  In my opinion, his entrance into the sitcom accompanied by bizarre cheering represents the decision to create the secret.  I think this is the Lost Girl’s decision.

Soon after this, the new neighbour visits Nikki.  I think Nikki here may be the mind of the Lost Girl (or part of it), and the visitor represents another part of the mind of the Lost Girl, she could be the troublesome thoughts about the situation that she is being confronted with.  She lives in the small woods, it’s difficult to see her house from the road, therefore she is related to the secret.

“Not through the market, but through the alleyway behind the market.  This is the way to the palace.”

She parks in the alley because there’s always parking there.  Then she sees the sign Axxon N, and begins remembering something.  Information that she had chosen to hide from herself, purposefully.  (the secret)

But she finds out the secret.  Was she, in fact, seeing another man? Yes.  Though for a while she didn’t know which came before and which came after:  the need to screw people for money (she needed to because she was pregnant), or her infidelity.  But her husband knows for a fact that he cannot father children.  So it was her infidelity which came first.

She sees Axxon N and she finds out the secret.  She says “I’m a whore” and then mocks her methods of fooling herself (“Where was I?”).

This underhanded way of making money (trying to get to “the palace”, or to Inland Empire) is called “going through the alleyway”.  And recall that scene in the woods, her husband was unfairly abandoned by someone who left for Inland Empire.  It was her.  She realizes this and perceives herself as villainous (represented by her slow nightmarish run towards the camera with the jumpscare closeup, then it cuts to a scene of her face shocked by seeing this).  She surpressed reality, was hypnotized by the Phantom as well, and this came back to hurt her (stab her in the gut).

There’s more I could go into, but that’s enough rambling for today.
A lot is due to Naturalism being true

The Natural universe shows no signs of being designed.  Least of all, designed for life.  Life as we know it can hardly survive anywhere in it.  And where we can survive, it is a struggle against nature/entropy:  starvation, extreme weather, other animals trying to eat us to survive.

Entropy may be vital to the very concept and possibility of a life form, and the "law" of increasing entropy may be a defining feature of a natural undesigned universe. [I haven't seen it discussed, but it seems to me that something akin to Newton's Laws of motion are required for the "law" of increasing entropy to hold. More specifically, maybe it's the symmetry of action and reaction, like in his 3rd law. Random musing, that symmetry makes the "arrow of time" seemingly disappear in physical laws themselves, yet the emergent behavior known as entropy is what people say causes the arrow of time to appear!]

And it may be why information processing is needed at all, and why intelligence is needed at all.  Why bother with thinking if the universe just gave you what you wanted anyways?  And why would an individual separated from the environment ever come to exist if it didn't need to separate high entropy from low entropy? And like that thing I read one time, rather than asking why we sleep, ask why do we awaken? Why is that needed?

And, life is mortal, we have a limited time to work towards whatever degree of perfection or satisfaction we can.

Many of the important features of life are so linked to naturalism, even besides rationality.  Even among mere plants:

* [again] why would an individual (separated from the environment) ever come to exist if it didn't need to separate high entropy from low entropy?
* why would the living thing need to reproduce itself, if it were created by some god?  Our cars don't give birth, nor do they grow on their own.
* why have a species? Why not just one big perfect one? Or every individual completely different from each other?
* why consume food and produce waste? Why aren't they just artistic sculptures? Or magically alive despite no metabolism of physical substances from low entropy to high entropy?

Supernaturalist hypotheses turn out to be unable to answer these kinds of questions. At best they can make endless excuses (that often don't make sense). But without proof that the excuses are true, that just means they have the same number of questions to answer, but now they are all of the form "how do you know that this excuse is true?" And then they can't answer this new vast set of questions.
Alchemist

*Class: Alchemist*

Honing their craft in The Black Tower, Alchemists are not spellcasters, but instead practitioners of a very particular science known as alchemy. By combining reagents in precise order, under specific conditions, alchemists can produce items and materials with truly wondrous effects.

## Spellcasting Tradition

Alchemists are not spellcasters, and do not use the spheres of power system for their formulae as a result of this. They simply prepare formulae, bombs and extracts as described in their class entry.
Alien: Covenant

Buncha random thoughts [is the name a reference to the game Halo?]

Some themes seem like a combination of Blade Runner and Gladiator:

* Blade Runner
	+ similar ascension narrative of an evil artificial being
	+ (they fool the eyes? just thought of this now)
* Gladiator:
	+ farmer Maximus VS the power hungry Commodus (both have their own kind of ascension), and the farmer space colonists [and Take Me Home Country Roads, a song which could even relate to Maximus]
	+ Not sure what to make of this lol:
		- busy bees
		- bed bugs bite

So, like, what if Roy Batty killed Maximus and became Cesar? [not exactly]
Ladder of Social Feedback Mechanisms

## Ladders ranking severity

Perhaps something like this, from least severe to most severe:

* regular conversation
* correction
* criticism
* ostracism
* ridicule
* hurtfulness
* the legal system
* military

Partly inspired by the pyramid diagram in Vsauce's video "the Science of Awkwardness" that ranks:

* self-consciousness
* etiquette
* laws of the state
* laws of science

Julia Galef has also written about something similar, consequences for speech:

* no consequences
* individual social consequences
* official social consequences
* legal consequences

Maybe could also rank stuff like friendliness-unfriendliness/rudeness/harshness/hurtfulness, maybe also bluntness...

## Ranking information content

Least content would be something like a simple "ur wrong!" without saying why. See "name calling" and Aggregation.

## See also

* The Main Options in Human Conflict
* Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement
* Boundary Setting vs Tone Policing
Building the Perfect Context to Live In.

Your inner self is not enough to ensure stuff like a good life (see individual VS context). So here I'll try to figure out some of the context side of things For short term opportunities, see Short Term Humanism Opportunities.

## Basic foundational stuff

*See main article: The Edges and Foundations of the Good World*

Not every context is good to live in. And people disagree about courses of action. But at the foundations, we have to have some agreement on some minimal things. And then within that broad context, upon those foundations, different people can try to build more specific contexts that suit them even more precisely.

## Beyond foundational stuff

*See main article:  Building Beyond the Foundations Towards a Personal Utopia*

Perhaps building upon foundations is a bit of an iteration of building the foundations themselves. That is, build the next broad context(s), one of the foundations for the subset of the world you'd want to live in. And so on.

## Analyzing into dimensions

Thought of a spectrum (it's probably not perfectly arranged or defined):

* "lone wolves"
* random acquaintances
* immediate biological family, or a few friends
* """network"""
* chosen family
* support system
* community
* business?  corporations?  do they belong on this list?  or do they branch off?  no connection?  maybe a parallel list that goes from "personal projects" to "community projects" and up to national projects?
* Utopia (alongside other utopias within a meta-utopia)
* meta-utopia

Can split into many more spectrums that might be more well defined.

* number of individuals
* stuff about the connections between people (who is connected to who, what those connections are like)
* alignment, mutual understanding

Also, at some point it makes sense to consider systems of parts where the "parts" are themselves groups of people, rather than individual people.
January 2018

*For my past, see My Autobiography.*

I was looking forward to the town hall on the 11th, about the upcoming Alberta election.  The one thing I wanted from it was the beginning of long term collaboration.  Alas, that didn't really happen.  All I got was the email of one of the speakers, which I tried contacting and got no reply [Update May 7th 2018, I received a generous reply this morning, my email was found as the speaker cleaned out her inbox].

I also tried to start a political wiki, there seemed to be some interest in a facebook group I'm part of.  No one has joined the wiki yet.  I also went to a U of C political club, and got no results there either.  Maybe people will be more interested when the election is coming closer.

Met with my APEGA mentor, and he helped to narrow down my search to the kinds of jobs I would actually like.  He also suggested I get a learner's license, so I'll be working on that.

I uploaded a few photos to my DeviantArt.  I've also drawn more rough drafts of pictures I could complete, and done some story writing.
Rape Culture

Here are my criteria for what the term “Rape Culture” refers to:

1. memes and attitudes etc. (“culture“) (or configurations thereof, including absences)
2. that are incorrect/immoral
3. that are related to rape, sexual assault, and consent
4. and may contribute to problems related to rape, sexual assault, and consent

So the debate over whether Rape Culture “exists” are usually baffling to people who understand this.  *Obviously* we can see that attitudes and memes exist for any given subject.  *Obviously* some of them can be wrong.  *Obviously* errors can be harmful.

What people really should be arguing about is not whether it exists,
but whether a particular meme or attitude is actually correct or
incorrect.  That’s the part that matters.

And there’s plenty of well-informed writing on that matter.  I might gather a bunch to post later.

For other examples of the “\_\_\_\_\_ Culture” terminology format, see:
“ownership culture”, “blame culture”, “ask culture”, “guess culture”,
"Just Culture", etc.
The consumer / production hybrid industries

Here I outline one of the trends in media that evolved to fill the new ecosystem of user created content, what for now I will call consumer production [i dunno, that sounds backwards][..."prosumer"?].  Back in the day, I expected YouTube videos to be full of home movies, or at least original creations by the users. I never expected so much to resemble talk-shows (but run by younger people).

Things like:

* reviews
	+ movie reviews, game reviews, etc.. People talking about media that other people made
	+ unboxing videos, reaction videos, and reviews (and analysis) of non-media products
	+ debunking videos

Then there's the rise of video game streaming.

Some go further:

* Captain disillusion combining debunking with actual recreations of special effects. And also combining documentaries of movies with recreations of special effects. And entertaining writing
* Even video game streaming can be quite involved. Streamers can get pretty fancy with the display that they put around the video game footage and video footage of themselves
	+ Vtubers
* Some crosses right into investigative journalism, like Sarah Z
* Do fan-made projects, like fanfiction and fan art count?  They at least seem related.  Some of these projects can be quite involved as well [link to page of fan creations].

and then there's shaun, making "cinimasins is wrong about everything" videos
My Prequels for Star Wars

Ok, been thinking about this again, seeing stuff reminds me of it. I wish I could find that one youtube vid I found years ago with people saying their ideas of how the prequels should have been. I liked their ideas.

Maybe no Jedi Knights ever train other Jedi. Just the guru sage types like Yoda do training. So Obiwan's attempt to train Anakin is his own hubris or something.

For whatever reason, lightsabers are "a Jedi's weapon" (the weapon of a Jedi Knight, to be more specific), no one else, not even the Sith, use them. Are there even any Sith other than Darth Sidious? Sith, or at least Darth Sidious, are more like evil sorcerers. Think Saruman in his evil tower. Vader has a lightsaber because he used to be a Jedi, and kept it. However, Yoda does not use a lightsaber, he is more nonviolent, like Dali Lama or whoever.

Probably only "Knights" decided to use weapons. Before that, they were probably mostly peaceful adherents of the Jedi religion. But for whatever reason (rise of the Empire? or did the Empire only rise after the Jedi died? Concurrently?) they decided to crusade for a cause. Probably to oppose the evil sorcerer?

Jedi Knights wear armor. Perhaps white or silver, and perhaps somewhat shaped like the chest-plate that Darth Vader has. Maybe capes as well. Not sure about "samurai"-type helmet, maybe? Star Wars is full of helmets.

Obiwan and Anakin meet both as adults. Anakin is a pilot. Obiwan is already a Jedi Knight.

I wonder if Obiwan's training could be written into story. Might be too similar to Empire Strikes Back.
Figuring Things Out

I tend to divide this into:

* Figuring out what to do
* Figuring out what is true

Though note that the two are not so different from each other:

## The equivalence of decision-making and figuring out what is true

* Decision-making/problem solving is just figuring out what is true:
	+ What *is* the goal to achieve, or problem to solve?  What *do* you want?
	+ What options are available?
	+ How do things work?
	+ What will the actual effects of a choice be?
	+ Which option best satisfies what you wanted to achieve? (Choose that one)
	+ Did it work?
* Figuring Out What Is True is just decision-making/problem solving:
	+ deciding which things to investigate/research, calculate, think through, or test
	+ figuring out *how* to investigate/research, calculate, think through, or test them

Of course these labels and phrases are used for different things (like, generally, "decision-making" means there is an action at the end that needs to be done outside of your head, while "figuring out what's true" might just update your internal beliefs regardless of whether a specific use for that information is known yet).

See also:

* methodology, in Theoretical Knowledge
* Truth
Effective Communication

Effective communication (communication that effectively communicates the intended meaning) is vital in the practice of honesty, cooperation, conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and general philosophical discourse.

I'll have to write here about clear communication, who is responsible for successful communication, and ways that some people fail, or even excuse poor communication.

A strategic guide to technical communication, 2nd edition, is a good guide for communication skills. Maybe I'll write a summary of it from my study notes.

## Distinctions

To communicate something, there must be a clear distinction between what you mean to communicate and what you do not mean to communicate (if it's plausible that your audience wouldn't know).

Precise distinctions are also necessary to make truly accurate descriptions, and so on.  Failure to make true distinctions indicates ignorance, confusion, dishonesty, or other errors (and can pass errors on to others).

## If you must use abstractions...

Use clear, concrete examples to illustrate abstractions.  Otherwise it won't be clear what you mean, and mix ups will result. In important real world matters, it's best to use real world examples to ensure your abstraction matches reality, and is not a conflated memory or false interpretation (these happen a lot, I know because I find them in myself when I make sure to look).

## What about...

Some communication I'll need to write about:

Various dimensions of communication that depart from "literally seriously true" etc.

Non-literal communication:

* figurative, hyperbole, metaphor, analogy
* fiction
* humor, joking, not being "serious"
* irony, sarcasm
* some examples of "double entendre" euphemisms

Meaning that is non-analytic:

* choice
	+ changing the meaning
	+ creating new meaning
* deferred meaning (meaning will be created at a different time/place)
* more than one meaning ("double entendre" etc.)
* contradictory statements
* meaning that is incidental (including coincidental or unpredicted meaning)

Non verbal:

* well-defined non-verbal communication (like smiling, stamping feet)
* behaviors (actions or inactions) that have not been assigned a definitive meaning (in this case, it is still possible to hypothesize what the behavior means, but these interpretations can be quite speculative) or has such meaning despite being assigned some other meaning

## See also

* my "name calling" and "good generalizations" pages, and avoid misnomers!
* A strategic guide to technical communication / Heather Graves and Roger Graves. — 2nd ed
* Equivocation, a major source of error which should be avoided
* Division of Information Labor, from Simple to Advanced
* In Defense of having big/serious/difficult conversations in writing