SeraphineBlackheart

Good evening…

The year 2023 is coming to an end (good riddance, I hate this year), and with it some other things as well. This Holiday Season also brings some changes, some big, some small, some instant, some delayed. Let’s get it started then.

1. Wysp, my beloved Wysp of many, many years, is gone. And it went down while I was away. I only found a note.

Wysp was one of my favourite sites. It was small and not all that popular with the crowds, but it had quite some community and you could find all sorts of content in there. And now it is no more. Yes, Wysp, you were good, and I will miss you dearly!

2. This one’s about Transformers, and not really a new thing, but more of a consequence of the old thing.

For a while now I’ve been telling everyone who asked, that my TF: P fanfic series is concluded, closed and won’t be continued (all stories need to come to an end at some point), but while it’s still one of my most popular series of fan fiction and fan art, it will be moved to the end of my gallery, and considered archival. This means: no updates for the e-books, and moving on.

3. Placeholder images will be changed (again), the old ones will be deleted.

And that’s it, at least for now.

Cheers!

-SB

Hello everyone!

Bet you thought that I was abducted by aliens or struck by the Allmighty. Nope. I’m still haunting this site (and this world).

So, to cut the long story short, I’ve been gone for half of the year because I’ve moved to a new place and… well, been busy. A lot. More than a lot. It’s a mess. I don’t have any proper internet access and run out of mobile internet that is limited but also flickers out of existence on a whim. And without going into any details that no one cares about, it won’t end any time soon.

So, this was me, giving an update and a sign of life (if you can call it that). I’ll see if I can appear more often.

Cheers!

SB

Or few words on how our brains will atrophy.

I just read an article about AI generated content. You know, AI generated imagery, text and music (I don’t know if the music AI was launched yet or not). And I recalled that not so long time ago I’ve read an entry here, in DA, about it too. It made me think of “The Time Machine” by Herbert George Welles.

I think that before I proceed, I should put a disclaimer here: I am an AI supporter, but as “AI” I understand actual synthetic life forms; not bunched up algorithms formed into a clever tool that is being called an “AI” but isn’t really.

Now, that this is out of the way, let me continue.

It is scary. It is scary that we allow computers to do everything for us nowadays. And no, it’s not the same as industrial revolution or even automatization of factories. Not even introduction of house appliances and PCs!

Machines made our workload lighter, house appliances allowed us to save time, computers made us work more efficiently and also introduced new forms of entertainment.

But these “AI”s are a trap. If it goes as it does now, computer algorithms will replace our thinking and creativity. We will be reduced to thinking in prompts!

And let me remind you, dear reader, that what makes us humans is our ability to think and create, to deal with difficult problems with the power of our grey matter, overcome these obstacles with our imagination and ingenuity. We create tools to help us, but not to solve our problems for us. In the end, it is our brains that do the “heavy lifting”.

These “AI”s replace our mental work-out. No longer we need to compose the words, seek out fancy words to give our thoughts elegant form. An algorithm will do all the heavy thinking for us.

No longer we need to consider shape, texture and lighting, seek out angles and composition of a scene in our painting or drawing. An algorithm will do it for us.

And so, no longer we will develop our own style, an algorithm will allow us to just copy any style we like.

No longer we will need higher brain function, an algorithm will think for us.

And so, after millions of years of evolution of an ape evolving into a human, a human will devolve back into an ape. We already see the first signs of it: people no longer required to use proper words to express themselves if it’s easier to just screech, no longer use substantial arguments if it’s easier to throw accusations, no longer use civilized discussion if it’s easier to start a brawl. Let’s go ahead and just quit using our brains altogether.

Oh, and while we’re at it, maybe you should read “The Time Machine” too, and think about Eloi and Morlocks… The intellectually degraded, air headed Eloi and technologically adept Morlocks. Which one would you rather be?

-AB

I was about to write about something else, but… This morning, early in the morning (it was dark still) I was leaving a market with my groceries and locking my shopping trolley back, when I met a zombie…

She was wearing a dark jacket and tight leggings with a sign of her having a close encounter with the pavement (dirty snow, not a stain, but it stuck to her) and in her hand was a smartphone.

Now, anyone who ever been to Lidl knows that they have entrance and exit, and you cannot leave by entrance nor enter by exit door. She was so engrossed in whatever she’s been looking at, that she nearly rammed the exit door.

That made me think about all the idiots with their noses in their phones, scrolling through their dashboards on their facespace or mybooks or whatever social media they have, oblivious to the world around them.

What if internet died?

What if there was some sort of worldwide server failure that would put the World Wide Web out of order and would require a couple of days or perhaps weeks to fix, forcing people to make do without it? What would internet zombies do?

Dear goodness! They would have to actually… actually start to look around themselves, pay attention to their surroundings, watch where they’re going? Incomprehensible!

More like they would start riots, because they’re brainless muppets that are so hooked up on being on-line at all times that they cannot even imagine the world without checking your status or whatever every minute of the day. And yet, that’s how people lived before, that’s how people lived not so long ago, maybe 15 years ago? Hell, I lived most of my life like that, and I miss the time when you were not expected to carry your phone with you everywhere, be on a digital leash like a good, little brainwashed sheep.

Recently, having some time on my hands (or more like on my head), I’ve been doing some thinking about last year and all that it had brought us (not all that much good, that’s for sure). And as a certified procrastinator, I allowed my mind to wander to months, and that led me to months’ names. Being a bilingual (and if you squint, you can even call me a polyglot), I couldn’t help but think about how their names differ in different languages. So I decided that perhaps instead of doing some house chores, I could scribble some stuff about month names (procrastinator, remember?).

So here I go!

So, let’s begin with the year’s start, and with me being European, I’ll go with Gregorian calendar (which is derived from Julian calendar). It is pretty much the international calendar, but for the sake of clarity I will give a quick introduction to the Gregorian calendar:

• - it is a solar calendar,

• - it has 12 months,

• - seven of these months have 31 days,

• - four months have 30 days

• - one month has 28 days (or 29 in leap years)

• - thanks to its construction months do not “wander” across seasons, and it won’t have to be corrected for a very long time (it errs 1 day every 3322 years, Julian calendar errs 1 day every 128 years).

• - the months can be addressed by their names (preferable) but also by numbers.

I

The first month of the year, 31 day long. In English, it is called January, derived from Latin (as in most western languages). But in my language, Polish, we call it Styczeń, the name coming from “tyka” a pole or stick. In Old Polish it was also called Ledeń, Tycznik, Godnik. In modern Czech, it is called Leden (Polish and Czech languages being closely related).

II

The second month of the year, 28 (or 29) day long. In English, it is February. In modern Polish it is called Luty, and the name comes from an old word for a frigid weather. It used to be called Sieczeń, Siczeń, Strąpacz in Old Polish. In Czech, it is called Únor.

III

The third month, 31 day long, known in English as March, in Poland it is called Marzec – both names derived from Mars (the Roman God, not the planet). But in Old Polish, it was called Brzezień, from the Birch trees. In Czech, it is called Březen ‘till this day.

IV

The fourth month, counting 30 days. In English called April. In Poland, it is Kwiecień – the month of blossoms. In Old Polish, it was also known as Łżykwiat/Łudzikwiat or Dębień (the latter from the Oak tree). In Czech, it is called Duben.

V

The fifth month of the year, counting 31 days. It is called May in English, Maj in Polish, but in Old Polish it was called Trawień – the month of grasses. In Czech, this month is called Květen (because of the blossoming flowers).

VI

The sixth month of the year counts 30 days. It is called June in English. But in Polish it is called Czerwiec, from the name of an insect Polish cochineal which was used to produce rich, deep red pigment. It was also known as Ugornik or Zok. In modern Czech, the month is known as Červen.

VII

The seventh month, counts 31 days. In English, known as July. In Polish, it is Lipiec, from the lind/basswood trees. In Czech is it called Červenec.

VIII

The eight month, counting 31 days, is called August in English. But in my language it is called Sierpień – the month of sickles, because that’s when the harvest begins. In Czech, it is called Srpen – practically the same.

IX

The ninth month, counts 30 days and is called September in English. In Polish, it is called Wrzesień, from blossoming heathers. In the past it was also called Pajęcznik from the thin strands left by ballooning spiders. In Czech, it is called Září (from the breeding season of the red deer).

X

The tenth month, counting 31 days, is called October in English. In Polish, it is called Październik, that is the month of the shives (left from flax or hemp). Alternative names were also connected to shives, just a different spelling. In Czech, it is called Říjen and is named after ruts left in roads by wheels.

XI

The eleventh month, counts 30 days and is known as November in English. In Poland, it is called Listopad, the month of falling leaves. And in Czech it is called exactly the same.

XII

The twelfth and last month of the year counts 31 days. It is called December in English. In Polish, it is called Grudzień, the word derived from gruda – a rock hard frozen earth. It used to be called Prosień or Prosiniec. In Czech, it is called Prosiniec.

It the end I arrived at a conclusion, that it’s a crying shame that most of western languages ended up adopting Latin month names (and yes, Polish language did the same for not just one, but two month names, so woe to us, I wish we could use the old names for March and May). I mean, how is that even logical to stick to calling the twelfth month “Tenth” (because that’s what December means)? Same goes for September, October and November!

I know that’s the names everyone uses and are used to. Changing them would be awkward for everyone for a long while. But think how much more beautiful languages would be, if people, instead of just following the Latin, retained or developed their own names for months, ones that would better connect to their culture or nature surrounding them.

The words we use have a huge influence on us, on our minds and our perception. Ugly words take us down, and beautiful ones lift our spirits.

Use words wisely, folks! (I think I’ll be procrastinating on the names of days of the week next.)

-A