310 results for “dark_levi”
Day 25 of #Arttrober is Katsuragi Misato of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Evangelion was an anime that was evangelised to me a little too heavily, leading me to decide not to watch it. While I would like to think that I'm mature enough to be beyond such contrariness now, it nevertheless remains the case that I have not watched Evangelion.
Hmm. I seem to struggle with dark hair. Not my best work.
#Drawtober #Inktober #Arttrober2026 #MastoArt #FediArt #Anime #NeonGenesisEvangelion #Misato
Your art history post for today: by Jean-François Millet (1814–1875), Haystacks: Autumn, 1874, oil on canvas, 33 1/2 x 43 3/8 inches (85.1 x 110.2 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. #arthistory #painting #oilpainting
From the museum: “In Autumn, with the harvest finished, the gleaners have departed and the sheep are left to graze. Beyond the haystacks lie the plain of Chailly and the rooftops of Barbizon. The loose, sketchlike finish of this work is characteristic of Millet's late style: patches of the dark lilac-pink ground color are deliberately exposed, and the underdrawing is visible, particularly in the outlines of the haystacks and the sheep.”
So yeah I spent a week redesigning my website. I merged my personal website into it - so my photos, and lists of my favorite games / shows / movies and albums, are now here as well. One website for everything.
Light mode is now the default, but dark mode is still available. Some of the more personal articles are split into a new journal section.
10/25: Join us in watching trek episodes playing on the H&I network, using the hashtag #AllStarTrek and group @startrek. Watch along on the H&I network or stream along!
Winn on her rise her power!
If you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to me or @lxskllr my partner in Trek! 😀
TOS (8ET): Devil in the Dark
TNG (9ET): Parallels
DS9 (10 ET): In the Hands of the Prophets
VOY (11 ET): Demon
ENT (midnight): Bounty
#StarTrek
#StarTrekTOS
#TOS
#StarTrekTNG
#TNG
#StarTrekDS9
#DS9
#StarTrekVOY
#VOY
#StarTrekENT
#ENT590
Polkadot's Foundation warns the Fearless Wallet browser extension leaked private keys from February 2025, with eight users reporting unauthorised transfers of 17,286 DOT. Affected versions exfiltrated recovery phrases. It surfaces after a Polkadot upgrade cut DOT unstaking from 28 days to two, shrinking the window owners need to react. https://cryptoslate.com/a-20-month-polkadot-wallet-breach-reveals-the-dark-side-of-faster-crypto-withdrawals/ #Web3 #Blockchain #Security
November 1st, 2026. It has been one week since the event. Dread keeps me up at night, which I know excaberates the problem, but no matter how much my conscious mind tries to convince my subconscious that it would be better to sleep, despite everything, it fails miserably, and so I lie awake until my body capitulates.
My dreams anticipate reality. In them I am chased relentlessly. Dark shadows lurk in darker shadows, a world without light or mercy, dead silent but for the yowls of my hunters. Clawed darkness crawls towards me, reaching for me.
I awake bathed in sweat, and without thinking, my hand reaches for the clock. 5:13 I read before cursing myself. I should have stayed still; I should have gone back to sleep, to the imagined torture, but instead I moved, and when I move, they come.
I try to close my eyes again, try to pretend, but it is too late. With my eyes closed, I feel the weight crawling over the sheets, then pressing down on my chest, making it difficult to breathe.
A paw boops my nose. Calm at first, then more and more insistent, and when I give up, at 5:21, I curse William Willett and go to the kitchen to fill the bowls.
Panicked this morning as I exited the bathroom and spotted the clock on the landing.
I was all "shit, where's the morning gone? How long was I in there?" until I realised we switched from BST to "dark and miserable till March" overnight.
Stay safe out there, people. You got an hour back!
Very cool "Humble Bundle":
EC Archives (Not the full set - but the *important* ones: Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror, and Haunt of Fear. .PDF format.
$18 (USD)... (compare to a-zon $13+ each - and I'm not sure if proprietory (sp?) format or not)...
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/ec-archives-tales-from-crypt-dark-horse-ec-comics-books?hmb_source=&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_1_layout_index_1_layout_type_threes_tile_index_2_c_ecarchivestalesfromcryptdarkhorseeccomics_bookbundle
Saturn and 4 Icy Moons in Natural Color
This approximate natural-color image shows Saturn, its rings, and four of its icy satellites. Three satellites (Tethys, Dione, and Rhea) are visible against the darkness of space, and another smaller satellite (Mimas) is visible against Saturn's cloud tops very near the left horizon and just below the rings. The dark shadows o...
More: https://images.nasa.gov/details/PIA00400
Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
#dione #voyager #astrodon #astronomy #astrophotography #astrophysics
Good morning Fedi friends. Sunday morning, the day most people sleep in - me at 5am - wide awake &. Mind you it wasn’t a bad sleep a little restless because it was warm & having shoulder issues, but that’s not unusual.
I stood on the back lawn pre dawn watching the stars fade & noting some very dark clouds low in the sky, such a lovely quiet time of day. Rain is supposed to be arriving later this morning, quite a bit apparently. If not, I’ll be watering later.
Anyway I’m up, I’ve had tea, toast & coffee. That’s all I’ve done though. I intend to do yin yoga class soon I feel in the need of some gentle exercise. Then as it’s Sunday I’ll be off to visit my sister. I’m supposed to be going out for a family dinner this evening but at the moment I’m thinking I might beg off as I’m not in the mood. I’ll see how the day progresses.
Hope you all enjoy your #Sunday whatever you’re up to 🌻. #EarlyMorning #Exercise #Family.
I think it's time for this little fellow to go and find a new nerdy home.
Got this Chumby back in '09 when I worked for Ubuntu and the Chumby was a brand new child of the nerd universe.
I have used it in the beginning but it's now living in a dark box in the back of the cupboard where it feels lonely and underappreciated.
Are you willing and able to give him a new home where it can once again be useful?
Questions?
Boost welcome!
#Waldspaziergang heute Abend
Es war schon dunkel, als ich den Weg zurück zum Haus hochging. Der helle Schein der neuen Kopflampe, die ich mir gestern gekauft hatte, traf auf ein Paar smaragdgrün leuchtender Augen.
-
#ForestWalk tonight
It was already dark when I walked up the path back to the house. The bright glow of the new headlamp I’d bought yesterday met a pair of eyes that glowed emerald green.
#caturday #heute #Wald #Natur #Abend #today #walk #woods #nature #evening #CatsOfMastodon
My favourite apple tree (the one outside my office window) has fallen victim to storm Boelo 😢. It is still standing but it has lost a main branch and is now very lopsided. The trunk is hollow so it’s pretty vulnerable. It is laden with fruit as the variety is late to ripen. I started picking them today with the intention of making cider. I will need to look into propagating it fairly soon, just in case we lose it. No idea how mind.
It was like a little whirlwind came through. My husband had gone out to get something from his workshop just before it got dark and I was preparing dinner. There was then a great swirling wind that threw leaves at the kitchen window, which was weird. It’s in a sheltered spot, the main wind direction coming from the opposite side of the house. I remember thinking that he’d picked the wrong time to go outside. When he came back in he said that he rushed into his workshop as he saw a ‘ball of rain’ come over the field. The branch came down just after.
"In the room where Seti’s sarcophagus would have lain was a deep blue star filled domed roof...The guide said that a raid on the tomb orchestrated by the priests seeking money to gain political power stripped the pharaohs of their sacred and eternal powers. He said it wasn’t just the priests who had stolen from the pharaohs with their organized raid. It had also been the common people, the ones who supported the afterlife preparation industry." #travelfiction #shortstory
HIMMEL UNTER BERLIN VOL. 3
Die Geschichte von HIMMEL UNTER BERLIN beginnt in den 1990er Jahren. Damals war es eine intime, experimentellen Bewegung, die im Prenzlauer Berg in einem Luftschutzkeller - nur für Eingeweihte - entstand. 2002 wurde die Ausstellung von der Polizei geräumt.
20 Jahre später gab es dann ein Comeback mit HIMMEL UNTER BERLIN VOL. 1, 2023 VOL. 2 und 2026 VOL. 3 - immer in geheimen Industrie-Locations, deren Adresse die Besucher erst 48 Stunden vor dem Ausstellungsbesuch erfahren.
Dazwischen gab es mehrere Ausstellungen mit ähnlicher Ausrichtung - THE DARK ROOMS, mal in einem alten Kino, einem Turm, einem alten Hotel am Ku’damm…
Heute ging es also in HIMMEL UNER BERLIN VOL. 3.
Dort angekommen, erhält man einen Grundriss der Location, im Nachhinein kann ich aber sagen, dass der Plan nur ein nettes Andenken ist, in den Räumen nützt er nichts, man wird aber durch Pfeile gut durch die Dunkelheit geleitet.
Spaceships and the Stars
Do you want to read some books full of spaceships? Check out the Spaceships and the Stars bundle on itch.io, running from October 24 – November 25. Get 21 books for $21.
I’ve added “Adamere in Swan” to the bundle, a novelette that takes places a few years before Corners of the Deep Dark. The ebook’s had a bit of a facelift, so the internal styling matches the novel and it uses the same cover font Addison Smith did (though the letters remain unskewed and they still sit on an unmodified stock image).
Cover image: DM7. #BookBundle #itchIo #scienceFiction #shortStory
Halloween Horror Movie Review: Carrie (1976)
Title: Carrie
Release Date: November 3, 1976
Director: Brian De Palma
Production Company: Red Bank Films
Main Cast:
Synopsis (via Letterboxd):
Withdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers, things take a dark and violent turn.
My Thoughts:
I had made it this far in life without ever reading Carrie or seeing any of its adaptations in movies, TV, or even the musical! And yet, Carrie is so steeped in the cultural milieu that the story is nonetheless familiar. There were some surprises. For example, I had no idea that the cast is stacked with familiar actors such as Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, P. J. Soles, and John Travolta.
The less pleasant surprise is that the opening scene is set in a locker room where purportedly high school girls cavort around fully nude. It’s really creepy and gross and sets a bad tone for a movie that’s all over the place. Sometimes it’s a teen sex comedy, sometimes it’s an after school special, and sometimes it’s stealing the Psycho sting for unearned jump scares. At its heart, this is a movie about abuse – Carrie’s mother justifying physical and psychological torture with Christianity, the bullying by the popular girls, Billy hitting Chris, and even the “nice” teacher Miss Collins drilling and slapping students.
There are two things I liked about this movie. First, there’s Sissy Spacek’s performance, expertly capturing the shyness, ignorance, and off-putting nature of the lead character. I like how she researches her telekinetic power at the library, and gains confidence to assert herself against her mother. And no matter how evil her mother gets, she still craves her physical affection and approval.
The other good thing is the prom scene which is familiar to those who haven’t even watched the movie. The movement of the camera around Carrie and Tommy as they seem to be actually connecting is wonderful, as is the ominous lead to the bucket of blood. And of course Carrie’s revenge filmed in split screen as she walks through the flames is iconic. I guess I just wish the rest of the movie had been filmed so artfully and given support to the underlying themes instead of wooden dialogue, clumsy tonal changes, and vulgar titillation.
Rating: **
#BookAdaptation #HalloweenHorror #Horror #MovieReviews #Movies #Thriller
Cutting edge science reporting. (What's the conversion factor between kg and Eiffel Towers again? Oh yeah, 10.5 x 10^6.)
"...[neutrino detecting equipment] JUNO’s improbable scale – complete with a detector weighing as much as three Eiffel Towers..."
--from New Scientist, current issue, "Are we about to solve the greatest mystery of the neutrino?"
Once we solve the great mystery of dark matter, we'll be able to calculate the age of the cosmos in bananas per lettuce head.
Second Death
Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. Today, I thought I’d share a little horror short that I wrote a while ago and couldn’t decide what to do with. I hope you enjoy it!
Second Death
He felt the spark of consciousness fill his mind. He was aware now.
He tried to move but found that nothing worked; even the muscles that lifted his eyelids failed him. In fact, every muscle in his body was frozen. He was paralysed, though by what or how, he could not say.
His mind was sluggish and foggy, his memory having all but failed entirely, depriving him of the knowledge of who or where he was, but leaving everything else. The only reasoning for his current situation that he could come up with was that he had been in some sort of terrible accident, perhaps having been run over by a horse and buggy, and was now lying on some bed in the London hospital, a poultice wrapped around his head. The streets were a mess with horses and buggies these days. He knew that, at least.
The fact that his mind had woken before the rest of his body did not frighten him. He knew this sort of thing happened every day in London; people being brought to the hospital in all manner of conscious states, and since he felt no pain, he was certain that somebody was taking very good care of him indeed.
As he lay there, waiting for his body to catch up with his brain, some vestigial ember, a flicker of activity deep inside his mind, sparked, sending images rushing to the fore. A jumble of faces accosted him as his memory began to slowly filter through the abstract dam that had thus far held it back; women in long grey dresses with white aprons and white caps, and men, some old and bearded, some young and clean-shaven, but all wearing dark clothes. Somehow, he knew they were doctors and nurses.
However, since waking up, he had heard no doctors or nurses—nor anybody else for that matter—coming to check on him. Had he been forgotten? Had they left him alone, thinking that he might never wake? His heart began to quicken at the thought that he might actually be stuck like this forever, that he might be trapped inside the confines of his own mind, his own mental walls slowly closing in on him. Surely, he would begin to disappear into insanity.
The thought of being left in his current state until his body died of starvation and dehydration filled him with anxiety. He had to wake up. He had to force his mind and body to work in unison once more. He had to move, somehow; his very survival depended on it.
Forcing his mind to work harder, he saw flashes of whitewashed walls and long, narrow corridors, and at first, he thought perhaps he might have been conscious upon his arrival at the hospital.
As sensation began to return little by little to his muscles, it occurred to him rather suddenly that there was a lack of sound. For a brief moment, he considered the fact that he may have gone deaf; he had known it to happen with head injuries, although he didn’t know how he knew, but the sound of his own breath leaving his lungs quelled the fear instantly.
He was further relieved when he began to wiggle his toes, and further still when his fingers began to twitch. With each passing moment and every twitching phalanx, he felt the fear of his being trapped inside of himself ebbing away.
Straining, he tried to open his eyes. He felt his lids fluttering, but everything remained dark. As he tensed and released each muscle in his legs and arms, still unable to fully move them yet, he willed his eyelids to cooperate—but darkness remained absolute. He tried again, and again, panic surging as he considered that he may have gone blind; he knew this, too, could sometimes happen with head injuries and again, how he knew this eluded him.
As his heart quickly became a bass drum inside his ribcage, threatening to burst out at any moment, adrenaline surged through his body, and he felt his spine twitch—he willed his body to sit up, but the most he could manage was a slight raising of his head. He tried to gather himself, taking a deep breath, and then tried again, straining against himself as he attempted to fully reconnect his mind with his body. Drawing on every ounce of strength he could muster, he tried again, straining, straining, straining and… yes… yes… and…
He jerked upward and—SLAM! His forehead collided painfully with something solid. The impact caused a spark, and in an instant, everything came rushing back. He was Eliot Smith, a doctor at The London Hospital. The adrenaline had acted like coal being shovelled into a waiting empty furnace; his whole body was mobile now; he could move his arms, his hands. He reached up, frantically exploring the area around him.
As he felt the silk lining, the unyielding wood. The truth slammed into him with cold brutality—he had been buried alive.
Terror consumed him. He screamed and clawed desperately, tearing at the lining and wood until his fingers bled. He pounded, kicked, and screamed until he felt his heart burst painfully in his chest. And with one final gasp of horror, he fell silent again—this time, forever.
The End.
Thanks for reading, if you did. I appreciate your time, and I hope you enjoyed it!
As ever, thanks for stopping by!
Until next time,
George
© 2026 GLT
#death #horror #horrorStory #shortStories #shortStory #stories #writing
The Greenland Diaries: Day 77
Last night, I’m not sure what happened, or why there were people moving through the area in the darkness, but around midnight the shadows were flashing with popping gunfire and small explosions. I followed the sounds of the bullets, and they bounced off of everything in hollow glances and pings. A few even hit the shed. I covered Snowy with my backpack and put her around my chest.
I was so worried that a shot would pierce the shed and split one of us open.
I hugged up so tightly to her, she would lick my face through the backpack as the thunder of distant mortars and rockets threw tree branches everywhere. They sounded hollow and rocky, like skeletons were trying to swallow up the shed and pull it away. A few times I shifted to the other wall and buried us beneath the boxes of supplies and gallons of water.
I heard machines rolling through the streets, hundreds of them. The pavement cracked and moaned against their heavy treads. The grinding was so intense, I thought the earth was going to fall apart and my house, shed, and everything would be swallowed up. It’d be nice to go out that fast. It’d be nice to avoid the shadows and wild claws.
The Drum still beat behind the whirlwind of gunpowder. I stayed still the entire night as the shooting raged. Seldom did I hear a gun or cannon stop firing to reload. It was like they were spending every inch of ammunition on this battle. I know the Unnamed aren’t overt and present when you fight them. I’ve been lucky enough to fight them in close quarters. At a distance, they’re nearly impossible to see, especially in the dark. How could these people fighting them possibly know where they were hiding?
Around four in the morning, they finally stopped their fighting, and the world returned to the Drum and the silence between each beat. There were no illusions or Unnamed sulking around the empty spots of crumbled houses or caved-in walls. I stayed up all night watching them, but there was nothing. Only the bugs brewed about in aimless clouds.
In the morning, I scouted the area for traces of the battle. I looked for bits of fresh rubble, empty bullet casings glittering in the sun, and bits of torn clothes with inky blood beneath their layers. There was nothing though, not a single crater in the ground or pulverized wall from any of the nearby houses. In previous battles, I’d find this debris so fresh, it’d be shedding dust in the sun like wayward dandruff.
There is nothing though, no sign of the previous night’s battle.
I walked around the block three times with Snowy, looking for the smallest, most minuscule remnants of the battle. Nothing moved. Only the trees and sheets of thick grass shook against the breeze. The plants always look like they’re ready to bubble and burst.
I stopped searching in the late afternoon. It had been an illusion. It was all part of some massive trick by the Unnamed and their unseen allies. When I wandered back home with a worried Snowy, I saw the kid from before. He had been following me the entire time, dodging behind the houses like I used to do when I played with Nerf guns when I was his age.
I bet he regrets any imaginary nightmare he played war with now, the apocalypse was too real
“Don’t get tricked by the battle, they’re illusions too,” I yelled, as he ran away from me. I hope he listens. I don’t know why he always runs.
I’m not going to hurt anybody.
#apocalyptic #books #fiction #horror #journals #monsters #novels #reading #writing
Samhain, All Saints Day, All Souls Day
🎃Whispers of the Ancestors: Carrying the Light of Remembrance 💀
Día de los Muertos Creative Healing Workshop
A POP-UP OPPORTUNITY“In the darkest forest, the smallest gift of love can illuminate the path home.”
About the Workshop
As the veil thins during Día de los Muertos, we gather to honor those who came before us—our loved ones, our ancestors, and the enduring bonds that death cannot sever.
Join Robin B. Dilley, PHD, for a soul-nourishing creative journey centered around the tender Slavic folktale of Vasilisa the Beautiful and Her Magical Doll. In this timeless story, a dying mother leaves her young daughter a small, hand-crafted doll—a sacred family heirloom imbued with a mother’s protection, wisdom, and intuition. As Vasilisa embarks on a daunting journey filled with trials and shadows, the doll becomes her quiet guide, whispering light into the dark.
Grief and love are two sides of the same thread. Together, we will weave story, sacred craft, and remembrance to carve out time to:
Honor & Remember: Celebrate the stories, spirit, and memories of your departed loved ones.
Connect & Listen: Tap into ancestral wisdom and intuition as a source of comfort and guidance.
Heal & Transform: Transform grief into creative expression in a supportive, compassionate space.
Whether your grief is fresh or an old companion, this circle is an open hearth for your heart to rest and remember.
Event Details
What to Bring (Optional)
✨ Spaces are limited to keep our circle intimate. ✨
Reserve your spot today to step out of the everyday world and honor the roots that nurture your soul.
Reflective Labyrinth for All of You
7e1caa91-c189-4709-9d34-9057318c92e9.pngDownload #DayOfTheDead #grief #Labyrinths #PERSONALGOWTH #Samhain #spirituality #Storytelling #VasilisaSDoll #Workshops
Toss Your #Apples When You Notice These 5 Red Flags
Nothing spoils a snack—or a pie—like a bad apple.
By Patricia Kaowthumrong
Published on October 9, 2026
Excerpt: "Tips for Storing Apples So They Last Longer
If you’re stocking up, start with apples that store well. Tart, thick-skinned varieties tend to last the longest, including #GrannySmith, #McIntosh, #Fuji, Rome, #PinkLady, #Braeburn, #Crispin, Gold Rush, #Winesap, and Jonathan. Some even become sweeter and more flavorful with time. Thin-skinned varieties, such as #GoldenDelicious, generally aren’t as well suited for long-term storage.
"Apples also love the cold. For everyday storage, tuck them into your refrigerator’s crisper drawer, ideally away from other produce that can speed up ripening. Under the right conditions—around 30 to 35 degrees F with high humidity—apples can stay fresh for six to eight weeks.
"Want to keep a big apple haul even longer? Choose firm, unblemished fruit and wrap each apple individually in non-glossy paper, then layer them in boxes and store them in a cool, dark place, such as a basement or garage. And hold off on washing them until you’re ready to eat or cook with them; keeping their natural protective coating intact helps them last longer. "
Learn more:
https://www.allrecipes.com/sign-your-apples-are-spoiled-12161474
#SolarPunkSunday #FoodWaste #Apples #StoringTheHarvest #FoodPreservation
#cybersecurity #internet #online #anonymity #tor #vpn #hacker #knowledge #knowhow #education #learn #hacking #isp #tracking #surveillance #nsa
Hey, Hack Besties! 💻🖤
Okay, besties. We STILL have confusion about when to use a VPN and when to use Tor for anonymity. So here’s the final boss guide. Lock in, take notes, and touch some knowledge. This is all exam material. No cap.1) Tor Only: The OG Stealth Mode 🧅
Just using Tor already protects you from many threats. It can actually be safer than adding a VPN to the mix. More layers don’t always mean more security. Sometimes, extra layers just mean extra trust in another company.Bonus: Tor can also help you get around geo-blocks. Region locks? Not today, bestie.
2) VPN → Tor: The ISP Blocker 🔐
This combo makes sense when you don’t want your internet provider to see that you’re using Tor.Let’s say your opp is the NSA. 💀 They might be watching your ISP. If they see you connecting to Tor every time you post something on the Dark Web, they can connect the dots. That’s a correlation. And correlation can put you on their radar.
A VPN before Tor can hide your Tor usage from your ISP. Your ISP sees the VPN connection instead. Big difference.
This setup also helps when your network blocks Tor. Public Wi-Fi networks sometimes do that. Hotel Wi-Fi said “no Tor”? Just another network boss fight.
3) Tor → VPN: The Website Bypass 🌐
This setup can make sense when a website blocks Tor connections.If your VPN doesn’t require you to log in or identify yourself, the VPN might not know who you are. But don’t assume you’re automatically anonymous. Payment details, account info, and other data can still expose you.
With Tor → VPN, the website sees the VPN’s IP address instead of a Tor exit node. So the website may not know you’re using Tor.
But here’s the catch: your VPN can see your connection. You’re shifting trust from the website to the VPN provider. Choose wisely, bestie.
Final cheat code: 🧠
- Tor only: Simple setup. No extra VPN provider to trust.
- VPN → Tor: Hide Tor usage from your ISP.
- Tor → VPN: Reach websites that block Tor exit nodes.
And remember, besties: No setup makes you 100% invisible. Every tool has limits. Know your threat model before you go full cyberpunk mode. Class dismissed. 🖤💻
Previews, Pre-Season, Betas, and Opening Nights
There’s an old saying in the theatre biz. No show is ever really ready on opening night. It’s a cliché that has seen it’s time pass in the big money commercial circuit because so many producers run lengthy preview weeks, charging essentially, but not quite, full price to avoid reviewers publishing their criticisms until the show is officially open. The preview process began lengthing after the days of out-of-town tryouts came to an end, although we see that still happening occasionally as larger regional theatres will debut a work, allowing it to still be worked on, hoping that it will one day make it to Broadway.
There was a famous production of Eugene O’Neil’s play Hughie, starring and directed by Al Pacino, that ran in previews for almost a month before finally opening. That led to a critic from Daily Variety breaking the only after opening night embargo a week early since the announced limited run would end up with less “real” performances than those in previews after the show officially opened. The show would go on to extend the run a couple of times.
In smaller circuits the cliché still lives on, simply because of a lack of resources to run many preview performances in front of audiences to really gauge reaction before it officially opens. A show can look great in final dress rehearsals, but it’s never complete until there’s a paying audience of strangers sitting in the dark to tell if it works or not. The ever-present lack of time still breathes life into the cliché in ways that offer both hope and anxiety behind opening night curtains around the world.
In the professional sports world teams play in a pre-season or spring training games that don’t matter while the players tune up for the real thing. Although in most of those types of meaningless games it’s really more like watching players audition than it is anything else. Occasionally a budding star emerges, but that’s atypical. Early “real” season games that do count (at full price) are when teams find out what they have, leading knowledgeable sports viewers knowing when it is time to pay real attention to a team’s chances or not.
Those are two interests in my life. I’m a theatre professional (and geek) and I watch sports. Another is my interest in tech. In tech we have betas. Or we used to, when that was mostly for software. Now we’re just in previews, pre-season, or perpetual betas forever for both software and hardware. Which is somewhat understandable, yet weird, perhaps ironic, but ultimately a joke on the paying public, given the pace in which things are always advancing in tech, including the pace and price of advancement.
We never seem to reach opening night, opening day or the end of a beta period in tech. Instead products and software are released incomplete, occasionally followed immediately by “leaks” that suggest the company that just took your money for it’s latest best product ever is working on fixing the things they knew were wrong for the next version when they released the product you just payed for.
But you’re going to love it.
It’s easier to swallow with software. It’s a bigger pill that sticks in the craw with hardware.
It used to be that betas were for working out bugs. They still are to a degree, but now they’re just the next show in a never-ending season, or the latest minor-league call up. But you still pay full price for the game when the team needs to put a not ready for the big leagues pitcher on the mound just to fulfill its obligation to play the announced season.
You can argue that there’s nothing wrong with the way things have evolved in tech because the financial equations are different. It requires a substantial upfront investment to create, produce and deliver new technology. You’d be mostly wrong, but you can argue it. Most of the costs in show biz happen upfront before a show even gets close to an audience, hopefully a large enough one in a long enough run to recoup the initial investment. It is a different equation in sports.
The release of Apple’s iPhone Duo strikes me as an interesting entry in this evolution of consumer dynamics. Soon, perhaps too soon, before the product was released to the general public, leaks popped out that Apple was working on tweaks to two of the major criticisms of the device for the next generation — a larger model and adding FaceID. That followed criticism from reviewers.
In general, most tech reviews I read, watched, or listened to made it very clear that the iPhone Duo was a first generation device with some rough edges that wasn’t for everyone, especially at the entry price. I can’t judge those reviews myself since I haven’t seen the product, but they mostly seemed very similar and to my mind fair. Some, sounding more like theatre critics or sport writers I’ve known, were more harsh, delivering criticism that might have prompted a closing notice being posted before intermission or an early game benching.
Here’s where my three interests diverge a bit. In theatre the show can close early if it’s savaged or not enthusiastically endorsed by reviews. In sports a pro team can retool a bit by trading or signing free agents midseason. Tech companies have to play out the run with tech hardware until the next generation is ready.
Given the leaks following the reviews I find it sort of funny that I’m in a place of feeling a bit sorry for the carriers that are offering great deals on the iPhone Duo subsidized by a three year contract. That’s a tough sell to anyone who pays attention, though admittedly most won’t if they’re hot to trot for the new shiny folding phone from Apple.
It’s my hunch, and only a hunch, that Apple knew these criticisms were coming. Even so, it’s one thing to prepare the next version hoping to make changes that advance a platform, it’s another to make them in reaction to negative press once the product is unveiled. It sets you up in the next round for being congratulated for fixing what was wrong the last time.
In the theatre if a joke doesn’t land, you can replace the joke in previews. In sports you bench a player or fire a coach. With tech hardware it’s not that easy changing things before it becomes a punch line. (See the Vision Pro.)
My second hunch, only a hunch, is that the iPhone Duo will eventually become a successful part of Apple’s lineup and get past what feels like a rough opening. I don’t think it will enter into Vision Pro punchline territory. Critics of all human endeavors need something to criticize as much as companies need to produce the next thing. It’s a symbiotic relationship that feeds on itself. And the always distracted general public has short-term memory bordering on amnesia.
It’s my wish that tech companies, like theatre companies and sports teams, would figure out a better path to the success they seek. Sure, you might be able to fool some of the people all of the time. But for the most part folks figure it out on their own. Some of the time. And that some of the time is what everybody on the producing end of things counts on.
Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above. This site does not use affilate links.
#Apple #iPhone #iPhoneDuo #reviews #Sports #Tech #technology #TheaterOfTheMind #Theatre #Writing
Blog: What the Heck is With the Malfoid Meme?
Generally, I am not a fan of fanfiction. In theory, it’s an excellent way to learn how to write stories and characters, and it serves as a creative outlet. Heck, when I started learning how to write stories as a small child, I was largely writing fanfiction. And, in some cases, the fan’s work may even be so good that it rivals the original work that it was based on.
In practice, however, as beneficial as fanfiction might be for developing writers, it has become largely synonymous with degeneracy with how much of it is smut. Just look at 50 Shades of Grey, which started as a Twilight fanfic, but ended up becoming a best seller infamous for being porn geared towards women. Or the Harry Potter fanfic My Immortal, which has become a meme for its poor grammar and spelling, laughably edgy main character, and, naturally, smut-laced plot lines.
I could go on with even more examples of famous fanfics – some of which have even been published as books- that give fanfiction a bad name. However, within this quagmire of filth are a few hidden gems. A recent example of this was The Other Bennet Sister, a delightful Jane Austen fanfic available on Amazon that focuses on Mary Bennet, the often-forgotten sister of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. It’s a fun, cute story that does justice to Jane Austen’s work and explores a character who plays a minor role in the novel, giving her her own voice and storyline.
However, besides The Other Bennet Sister, there is a new fanfic that has taken the Internet by storm and that is the Malfoid trend. At first, I had no idea what the heck it was or why I was getting recommendations for it on my For You page. I thought it was just another Harry Potter fan coming up with a gender-bent Draco Malfoy x Harry Potter fanfic, which is nothing really special. That ship has been a thing for years. I had no idea what the hype was about or why major streamers like Nux Taku were reacting to it.
Then I went on a deep dive after hearing about how important this Malfoid movement has become to Gen Z men.
Apparently, the Malfoid trend started when a fan artist drew a picture of Draco Malfoy as a female and named her “Malfoid” back in 2024. The name itself was interesting because in internet slang, “foid” has come to mean “biological woman.” Thus, it’s been argued that Malfoid isn’t necessarily a gender-bent version of Malfoy from the books/movies but is her own new character that replaces him.
From there, the original Malfoid picture has gone viral as people have used her to create the ideal heterosexual fanfic between her and Harry Potter, that in many ways improves upon the original story. The entire dynamic is changed between Harry and Draco, now that Draco is a biological female. Malfoy’s petty and effeminate actions make more sense in the context of the character being biologically female, and in the case of a relationship between Malfoid and Harry, the fandom says that it makes a more compelling love story than the one we get in the books or movies.
As for this love story, it has been surprisingly wholesome. Though fanfiction is notorious for being disgusting, any sexualization of Malfoid by the internet (particularly by OF girls) has been largely rejected by the men who are the primary fanbase of this trend. They love the story for its traditional gender roles, compelling romance, and culmination in marriage and a family, and see the sexualization of Malfoid as a middle finger to that. One X user even went so far as to say:
Another X user also explained in detail what the Malfoid trend rules are, saying:
Okay. So let’s lay out the rules then.
Now, does this mean that there is absolutely no sexualization of Malfoid within this trend? No. Unfortunately, while doing research about this topic on X, I ran across several posts where the character was absolutely hypersexualized (which is disturbing given that the character is technically a minor even in the fanfic). Thankfully, most of the comments were reacting with disgust towards the creator putting the content out there.
Moving on from that, however, the love of the story for its overall wholesomeness has caused the tagline of this fanfic to be “Yearn.” It is an encouragement for men to yearn for the good in the world and the things beyond themselves. It’s not there to fulfill a man’s fantasy as we so often think of it. It’s become a cultural wakeup call to get men to rise up and fulfill their higher fantasy of providing for and protecting a woman. It accomplishes this by being a traditional romance story, where both the man and woman are virtuous, and through their love, defeat evil. Malfoid, though still portrayed as powerful, is still in need of Harry.
Even better is that this story is not only inspiring men and women to put themselves out there and work to become the best they can be, but it’s also helping them become creative again. Almost everyone in the new Malfoid fandom is getting in on writing fanfics, adding to the story, and even creating short episodes of what a Malfoid T.V. show would look like using AI. And, frankly, the AI episodes of the Malfoid saga really make me think Hollywood is doomed because while you can tell its AI, people have been given the power to make the adaptations and stories that they want to see for a relatively low price.
Until next time,
M.J.
#Blog #BookReview #Books #Fanfiction #fiction #HarryPotter #JKRowling #Malfoid #Memes #OpinionPeice #Review #Writing #X
"Enterprise IT isn't Broken—Its Game Mechanics Are Just Trash": Inside Erkki Laine's Tri-Axial Engine
Why do smart engineers and expensive AI agents make catastrophic production decisions? Because corporate governance is designed like a terribly balanced strategy game. We sat down with the Finnish architect who recoded the rules using Nash Equilibrium, 3D collision physics, and hardcore RPG logic.
TURKU, FINLAND — If you read enough enterprise governance documentation, your brain eventually turns into grey SharePoint sludge. It is a joyless world of RACI matrices, annual spreadsheets, and committee meetings where twenty people spend an hour debating a change ticket none of them actually understand.
Then you open the technical specifications of the Business Impact Governance Framework (BIGF) by Finnish ICT architect Erkki Laine, and something weird happens.
Suddenly, you aren't reading bureaucratic filler anymore. You are reading about Autonomous Agentic Meshes, Tri-Axial Actuation Boundaries, Hardened Meta-Governance Layers, and Cryptographic Canonical Decision Records.
Wait a second. Is this an enterprise IT framework, or the patch notes for a hardcore tactical RPG?
"Honestly, there is very little difference between leading a party through a lethal boss fight in a tactical RPG and keeping a multi-cloud production environment alive at 3 AM," Laine says, leaning back with a coffee mug while three dogs patrol his home office perimeter. "In both cases, if your buffs are fake, your map telemetry is fogged, and your party members are secretly sabotaging each other for loot, you are going to wipe."
We sat down with Laine to unpack how an obsession with tactical role-playing games, grand strategy, and mathematical game theory led him to build a deterministic runtime engine that is quietly making traditional ITIL bureaucracy obsolete.
Level 1: Solving the DevOps "Prisoner's Dilemma"
Viti Magazine: Let's start with human behavior. Why do traditional ITSM and GRC processes fail so miserably in the real world?
Erkki Laine: Because legacy governance assumes you can fix structural conflicts by writing a politely worded PDF policy and ordering people to "collaborate." Anyone who has ever played a grand strategy game or studied basic Game Theory knows that's delusional.
Look at a standard IT organization. Developers (Dev) and Security/Governance (Ops/Sec) are trapped in a textbook Prisoner's Dilemma:
Both sides play their dominant selfish strategy, and the organization gets the worst possible collective outcome: miserable lead times, shadow IT, and rubber-stamped risk theater.
Viti Magazine: And BIGF fixes this without holding a single team-building workshop?
Laine: Workshops don't change payoff matrices; code does. In BIGF, we replace the political negotiation with a deterministic Policy Gate at the runtime boundary. Security encodes the exact mathematical thresholds into the engine once. Dev knows the exact rules before they even commit code.
Neither side can bluff, cheat, or play politics. The moment the deployment artifact and telemetry satisfy the mathematical equation, the gate opens in milliseconds. By changing the rules of the board, cooperation automatically becomes the Nash Equilibrium—the only winning move for everyone.
Level 2: The Tri-Axial Engine (3D Collision Physics for Risk)
Viti Magazine: People analyzing your v2.3 and v2.4 specifications have pointed out that your "Tri-Axial Actuation Boundary" looks suspiciously like a 3D game engine.
Laine: (Laughs) Guilty as charged. In a 3D game engine, every object exists on X, Y, and Z coordinates. As long as your character stays inside the playable room, you can run, jump, and cast spells freely. The moment you try to walk through a solid wall or step off the edge of the map, the physics engine triggers collision detection and stops your movement vector cold.
Why on earth were we managing enterprise production risk on flat, two-dimensional Excel sheets when operational reality is three-dimensional?
In BIGF, every operational decision—whether triggered by a human engineer, a CI/CD pipeline, or an autonomous AI agent—is evaluated in real time across three orthogonal axes (B × S × T):
Authority = f(B, S, T)
θ threshold, calculated via deterministic 10^-4 fixed-point arithmetic).As long as the combined coordinate stays inside the Tri-Axial Actuation Boundary—the "playable room"—execution flows at full automation speed. The millisecond a rogue AI agent tries to walk through the wall because the CMDB telemetry (T) is stale (θ < 0.8000) during a degraded state (S), the physics engine hits it with a deterministic 403 Hard Halt.
No invisible clipping through production walls. Fail-Closed in authority, every single time.
Level 3: Mechanism Design—Making Lying Mathematically Stupid
Viti Magazine: One of the most ruthless parts of your repository is the Cloud Procurement and Change simulation logic. You use "Mechanism Design"—essentially reverse game theory. How does that stop people from gaming the system?
Laine: Every veteran architect knows the oldest trick in corporate IT: if you want to buy a shiny new cloud tool or push a risky change without triggering a three-month security review, you just lie on the intake form. You tick the box that says "Low Business Impact / No Critical Data," get your rubber stamp, and connect it to core production two weeks later.
In game theory, that's an incentive-incompatible mechanism—the game rewards dishonesty.
With BIGF's Mechanism Design, lying on day one is operational suicide on day two. Why? Because the intake declaration isn't filed away in a dead Word document; it compiles directly into the live Runtime Control-Plane.
If a team claims their new service is "Tier-4 Non-Critical" just to bypass procurement scrutiny, the engine automatically assigns that service a Tier-4 actuation ceiling. The first time that service tries to make an API call to a Tier-1 customer database at runtime, the boundary detects the structural mismatch and severs the connection instantly.
You don't need compliance police chasing people with clipboards. You just design the game mechanics so that telling the absolute truth upfront is the only way your software gets to run in production.
Final Boss: Agent-to-Agent (A2A) Combat in the Mesh
Viti Magazine: Let's talk about the endgame: version 2.3 and autonomous AI agents. Everyone is rushing to deploy "Agentic AI" in ITSM. What happens when machines start playing against machines?
Laine: That is the ultimate boss fight of 2026 and 2027. Right now, vendors are selling autonomous buyer-bots, capacity-scaling bots, and incident-remediation bots. What happens when a Cost-Optimization AI Agent (whose reward function is to kill idle servers to save money) collides at 2:00 AM with a Resilience AI Agent (whose reward function is to spin up redundant nodes for DORA compliance)?
Without a deterministic referee, those two probabilistic models will enter an infinite loop, hallucinate authority, and DDoS the enterprise from the inside.
In BIGF v2.3 (Autonomous Agentic Mesh Governance), agents aren't allowed to negotiate based on LLM "vibes." Every Agent-to-Agent (A2A) interaction is governed like a high-stakes multiplayer match with strict cryptographic rules:
B × S × T) deterministically resolves who has priority based on governed Business Impact master data—not who has the most aggressive prompt.Viti Magazine: So if BIGF were a video game on Steam, what genre would it be?
Laine: For the people still trying to run modern cloud infrastructure with manual CAB meetings and color-coded spreadsheets? It's Dark Souls on permadeath mode.
For the architects who actually implement a deterministic control-plane? It's Factorio meets Baldur's Gate—a beautifully automated factory where every belt is balanced, the party buffs are mathematically verified, and the goblins get vaporized at the perimeter before you even have to roll initiative.
Ready to patch your enterprise game mechanics?
Stop playing corporate Prisoner's Dilemma with Excel sheets. Google Erkki Laine BIG Framework to explore the open-science specifications (v2.3 Autonomous Agentic Mesh Governance, v2.4 Reference Architecture, and the NIS2/DORA Alignment series) or test the Interactive Runtime Control-Plane Simulator directly on Zenodo and GitHub.#architecture #ai #devops #gametheory #software #coding #development #engineering #inclusive #community
VITI MAGAZINE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW | GAME THEORY & ARCHITECTURE
☕ Morning everyone!
Fairy tales were pretty gruesome before Disney got hold of them! 😂
I'd love to see what horror writers could do with Cinderella. I doubt the ugly stepsisters would get a happy ending! 🔪
#CoffeeWithDarkHolme #DarkFairyTales #HorrorFiction #BookLovers
🚨 KeePassXC 2.8.0 is out with several security fixes and a major move to Qt 6
Release: https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/releases
https://keepassxc.org/download
The update fixes CVE-2026-69150, a use-after-free triggered when importing a crafted legacy KDB file, along with multiple additional browser integration, memory safety, and Windows security issues that are still awaiting CVE assignments.
Security fixes include:
• Crafted KDB import use-after-free
• Browser entry reference injection
• Out-of-bounds writes in native messaging
• Weak Pageant shared-memory mapping names on Windows
• Integer overflow and out-of-bounds read in the legacy KDB importer
• Improved clearing of decrypted database fragments from memory
KeePassXC 2.8.0 also adds remote database synchronization, configurable shortcuts, SSH key generation, Wayland Auto-Type support, Linux Quick Unlock, and native Windows Arm64 builds.
Made some more prompt changes to the Threat Feed.
It should now produce better titles and descriptions, while also improving category and country accuracy.