Back in my uni studies, I was attending a course called “Biology-inspired Computing”. The subject was pretty neat, focused on applying principles found in natural world to computing tasks such as chip design optimisation, runtime hardware adaptation (look up stuff like evolvable hardware) and even a concept called DNA-computing (literally using a specific artificial strand of DNA to perform computation — it’s really, really slow so not really viable for real-life application). In the chip design and optimisation part a lot of emphasis was on concepts of usage of genetic algorithms to design a configuration for an FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array, basically a chip which can be programmed to work as any piece of hardware — no, you can’t fit an entire x86 CPU in that) and even implementing such algorithms in the FPGA itself to have a chip which can reconfigure itself during its use.

Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? And it’s a surprisingly simple idea. Let me demonstrate with a piece of code

func_blocks = []

class GenCircuit():
    def __init__(self):
        self.__config_blocks = [ rand(0, len(func_blocks)) ]
        self.__viability = 0

    @property
    def config_string(self);
        return "".join(self.__config_blocks)
    
    @property
    def viability(self):
        return self.__viability

    def splice(self, instance_b: GenCircuit):
        splice_point = rand(0, len(self.__config_blocks))
        cut_a = self.__config_blocks[splice_point:]
        cut_b = instance_b.__config_blocks[splice_point:]
        
        self.__config_blocks = self.__config_blocks[0:splice_point] + cut_b
        instance_b.__config_blocks = instance_b.__config_blocks[0:splice_point] + cut_a

    def mutate(self):
        mutation_point = rand(0, len(self.__config_blocks))
        self.__config_blocks[mutation_point] = rand(0, len(func_blocks))
        
    def compute(self, *args):
        # simulate whatever the block is supposed to do here
        pass
    
    def evaluate(self, scoreboard):
        for test in scoreboard:
            result = self.compute(*test)
            if result == test.result:
                self.__viability += 1
    
if __name__ == "__main__":
    generations = 1000
    max_instances = 10
    splice_chance = 10
    mutation_chance = 0.1 # always significantly lower than splice chance
    
    scoreboard = []
    viability_threshold = len(scoreboard) * 0.9
    for _ in range(generations):
        instances = instances + [GenCircuit() for _ in range(max_instances - len(instances))]
        
        # evaluate the population
        for i in instances:
            i.evaluate(scoreboard)
        
        # discard non-viable instances
        instances = [ i for i in instances if i.viability >= viability_threshold]    
                
        # splice instances
        for i in instances:
            if rand(0,100) <= splice_chance:
                i.splice(instances(rand(0, len(instances))))
                
        # mutate instances
        for i in instances:
            if rand(0,100) <= mutation_chance:
                i.mutate()
                
    for i in instances:
        print(i.config_string)

The code above is a basic skeleton (it won't work so if you want to toy with it, adjust as necessary) of a genetic algorithm. It consists of a population of randomly generated instances of the GenCircuit which are then evaluated against the scoreboard depending on what your goal is. The most viable instances are then taken into the next generation but before that, they're randomly spliced with one another and some can be mutated before the next generation starts. At the end of the run, you'll end up with instances which are most viable at performing the task you defined in the scoreboard.

The biology-inspired parts are quite on the nose here. Splicing means you cross the “genetic code” of two instances and mutation means the instance gets randomly altered in certain spot. The core principle however is quite simple: generate random “results”, check how good they are, mix them together and maybe change some of them, rinse and repeat. Basically, you have a guided and very specifically constrained RNG.

“Wait, the core principle of that sounds a lot like vibe-coding. That too essentially does random stuff and watches what works!” YES, EXACTLY! Except vibe-coding has far weaker constraints. In what way? The scoreboard is the key. The scoreboard, which in the example is empty and would likely fit a fairly simple task (say, something like a mathematical unit), it's one of the key components because it precisely defines the characteristics of the result. You could say it's a definition of the testbench (technical term in HW verification but also works in the general sense). Putting that scoreboard together requires understanding of the task the final design is supposed to fulfill. And guess what vibe-coding lacks? Exactly.

Now, you might be thinking “But can't genetic algorithm come up with a better solution than the traditional approach?” I'll surprise you but there are instances in which it can in fact come up with a solution that's correct AND more efficient than a traditional design on the same hardware. BUT ... there's a significant caveat. That solution is going to work ONLY and ONLY on that one specific chip or set-up. If you try to transfer it somewhere else, it may not perform well or even not work at all. Why? That's still being investigated and studied but it's quite interesting that the algorithm can sometimes leverage even tiny deviations which happen during the manufacturing process.

But portability, or lack thereof, isn't the only problem. Optimisation is also a non-trivial task because, sure, the correct and reliable output (emphasis on reliable) is critical but it's what use is for a solution which you can't use in the end because you haven't got the resources to run it or it takes ages to produce the result? This is where genetic algorithms get complicated because optimising the solutions to multiple criteria is where the science of this field sits and yes, there are genetic algorithms which are indeed capable of that.

“Ok, the code above seems kind of trivial. It can't be that resource intensive,” you might say. Oh my sweet summer child, the code above will be capable of “resolving” something trivial too. But if you want something really complex, get ready to burn hours and hours of computation on supercomputers and vast majority of that will be verification. Worse, you might end up with a population of solutions that aren't viable at all because there's a small error in the algorithm itself and you have to do the entire process all over again. Need to change the parameters? Full rerun of the algorithm. Adding another parameter? Yup, you guess it, full re-run. See where I'm going with this? Getting these solutions is horrendously inefficient in terms of compute time.

“Wait, can't I just change the resulting code?” What code? In the example above there's no code at all. That example is coded in a way that would produce a finished configuration string to load into the chip (by the way, this is only possible with chips where you know the format of the string in terms of how the blocks and their connections are encoded). Fair enough that you'll likely end up with a generated code, be it Verilog or VHDL (I'm more familiar with the latter from my school years but my current job taught me the former “the hard way”) or if you're using this for software (at which point, who hurt you?) a generated pile of code in the language of your choice. And keep in mind that code has no idea about libraries and/or coding practices because it doesn't care about readability. So ... have fun trying to optimise, let alone debug this. My condolences to your sanity. More often than not the only way is to run the algorithm again (prompt the AI?), possibly tweak the criteria a bit (“engineer” the propmt?) and hope that you were right this time around.

So yeah, I’m sorry vibe-coders but me and quite a lot of people from my generation have done your “magic trick” before it was “free, cool and in” (good lord, I really am a fossil X3). Back then it was resource-heavy, hard to use for complex tasks and absolute nightmare to tweak. And we knew quite well what we wanted to achieve. Your “circus number” is even more resource heavy, also hard to use for complex tasks (if it’s usable at all) and also an absolute nightmare to work with. And as a cherry on top, you have no idea what you want.

So sorry, vibe-coders, you’ve been deprecated before you even became cool >:3

R.R.A.

First thing’s first, what prompted me to write this down aside from my general distaste towards this piece of tech? Funnily enough, it’s the one thing where this is actually useful; reducing the wear on the charging port. Funny that I’m writing this at the time when this isn’t an issue anymore since my close to EOL Edge 30 Ultra has been succeeded by Graphene-powered “Husky” :3 (Pixel 8 Pro). But it’s true that the USB-C port on my E30U has indeed got to a point where the wear is significant enough (partly due to me being a little bit harsh on it occasionally) that the cable can easily slide out of it. This put an idea into my head that maybe I could give “wireless” charging a chance. Quite some time has passed so there was development done, right? Well, yes and no. Sure, there have been engineering solutions to its usability but you can’t just engineer yourself out of physics. What do I mean by that? Well …

Exhibit A: The lack of “wireless” in wireless

Yup, “wireless” charging isn’t wireless at all. Because you need to get the electricity into the charging pad/dock/cradle somehow. And how do you do it? You guessed it, by a wire. That same exact wire which you could move few centimetres and plug it directly into the phone. So congratulations, your “wireless” charging saved you a tiny move while blocking space on your desk/nightstand permanently. Although in the case of the latter it’s not that big of deal.

“But I don’t need to search for the cable” … Neither do I because that cables is ALWAYS in the same spot. And seriously, just having to “fish it out” is a gigantic first world problem. Or are you telling me your desk is in such a disorganised state that you have to conduct a formal investigation to find the right cable? Because this woof has quite a lot of experience when it comes to searching for the correct cables. Years of networking left permanent scars OwO.

“But I you can damage the port if you need to quickly grab the phone!” … Wow, no shit, Sherlock. Of course you can because USB-C isn’t designed to be yanked. Trust me, I did that occasionally which of course contributed to the wear on my previous phone (mind you this started being a little bit of a problem after almost 4 years of use). Long story short, don’t be a dick to your tech and it’ll last.

“But I have a dedicated charging spot” … So do I. It’s where the cable from the charging brick rests and surprise surprise, it’s always roughly in the same spot. And you know what’s even funnier? I actually have a charging stand with a port that I slot the phone into.

“But cables are ugly” … Then make sure your cable management doesn’t look like a pile of spaghetti thrown down the stairs. See the part about needing the cable to put into the pad. You still need to “manage” that one.

“But the pad can be as small as a puck” … Which is still bigger than the cable. The only difference then is that instead of pluging the connector “in” you “stick” the connector to the back. Which can’t be metallic because physics (more on that in a bit).

So yeah, now that I’ve torn down the “practical impracticality” of this “solution” let’s get into the meaty part which is …

Exhibit B: The comical level of inefficiency

This is where physics comes in and basically takes a massive shit all over your “cool tech”. But first, a quick rundown of how this works. The transfer of energy between the charger and the device is done via electromagnetic induction. In short, there’s a coil in the charger which is always powered and the coil in your phone which is normally innert only “powers on” when in vicinity of the charger or in this case a direct contact with the pad. In essence, the pair of coils creates a 1:1 transformer to transfer the energy from the charger coil into the phone coil and from there to the battery. You’ll also notice a distinct lack of conductive “core” in this ad-hoc transformer so the transfer comes through just air between the two.

Note that I’ve mentioned that the core in an actual transformer is conductive. Part of that is to minimise the losses in the transfer between the two circuits. But in this case, we have no core at all and air is a really, really bad conductor. Otherwise we’d be getting shocks all the time and part of why the actual wireless transfer of electricity is so difficult (unless you want to cosplay Red Alert Soviet Union and make Tesla coils to “defend your land”).

How does this relate to “wireless” charging? It’s the reason why it’s so massively inefficent. Seriously, the amount of power you need to put into the chager is ~2 times the amount you get into the recipient’s coil. Yup, the air and all the insulating materials between the coils eat almost half of the power you’re putting in. And where do the losses go? You guessed it, heat. The same heat the lithium cells in your battery really don’t like.

To pour salt into the wound, the coils can’t just be “somewhere close by”. Oh no, they need to be properly aligned. Most of that is that they have to fully overlap one another so you don’t have part of the coil “shooting” electricity into the air around or part of the phone’s body where it does nothing useful. And no, this can’t be solved by having multiple coils because you can’t selectively power parts of the coils that are “in contact“. So if you try this, you end up with a charger that wastes even more energy.

“But MagSafe/Qi2” … Oh my sweet summer child, I’m ready for this one. Yes, making the coil from a magnetic material or adding a magnetic ring to the back of your phone solves the alignment issue. You know what else solves this issue? And it ironically comes from the very same company that created the “new MagSafe”? And that “old” thing WAS CALLED MagSafe? AND IT’S STILL BEING USED BY THE VERY SAME COMPANY?! Yes, a cable which can magnetically snap into the charging slot. And you know what’s even better about that? The cable can be small and doesn’t need to “slot in” deep so it also solves the “yanking” problem.

If you feel like your brain is now buffering, don’t worry. You’ve just been faced with the reality that Apple ALREADY has probably the best approach to charging and didn’t manage to use it’s industry leverage (which it already had quite a lot of) to make sure it’s THE charging standard. Because not only it “looks better”, it’s more practical than USB-C for everything (hell, this could be used for data transfers too) AND has a “built-in” intrusion prevention because there’s no “hole” to get dust, sand or water into. The only thing you need to protect are the contacts which, since they’re easily reachable can even be cleaned from corrosion over time. Seriously, if you have a Macbook, look at the power adapter port and you’ll see what I mean.

So yeah, in the end, the “wireless” charging is, pardon my language, a crippled version of an already awesome piece of engineering. And before you ask about the “MagSafe accessories” … That could’ve been a thing even without this. Even better, we could still have phones with metallic back which you can’t have with “wireless” charging because a certain guy called Michael Faraday once built this thing called “Faraday cage” to demonstrate that the electricity travels on the surface of conductive materials so anything you put in that cage is isolated from any EM radiation (not ionising one) as long as it’s not in a direct contact with the cage.

In conclusion, “wireless” charging is really not a good piece of tech. And the true wireless charging would make the world really dangerous place to be in because I highly doubt you want to be anywhere near something that’s effectively a Tesla coil.

R.R.A.

Example 1: Facebook pages … aka putting promo posters behind locked doors

Let’s start with something a little older than one of my favourite pet peeves (don’t worry, I’ll get to that one soon >:3). Years ago, I’d hazard to say it’s been more than a decade and a half these days when Meta wasn’t even Meta, Facebook added the ability to create pages for “non-living” entities by which I mean companies, products, brands etc. Taken at face value, it’s not a necessarily a bad idea; you get a way to promote and inform about your product AND you get a more direct contact with your customer base with all the benefits and risks involved.

However, there’s a catch. You need to have an account there. This results in a strange situation where you’re promoting your brand or product or whatever else in a place where you need a key to enter. It’s kind of like putting the posters into your house’s hallway and letting in everyone who has a key to that hallway. But isn’t that a little bit counter-intuitive? Think about it. You want to reach as wide of an audience as possible but at the same time you restrict your own visibility.

You could argue that it’s so wide-spread that you can “tank” the cost of the people who don’t see it. You could also argue that there’s no infrastructure cost. To both which I can easily answer: “For now”. How long until that free space becomes a “paid space” because your traffic is “putting a lot of strain on the infrastructure”? Or what if you’re promoting something that doesn’t align with the “platform owner”? The latter should be something to worry you because you don’t “own” the space. And if you’re only visible in these places, you don’t even own whatever you’re promoting because it can be made invisible with a single decision you can’t appeal (and forget about legal fights because: “Rules not enforced = rules non-existent”).

So what’s the answer? Your own site with all the needed infrastructure? Honestly, a bit of both. Having a social platform presence is not a bad thing BUT it must not be your only presence. Your own site AND social platform complement one another. Relying solely on the latter not only falls into the category “using the wrong tools” but also puts you in danger of losing all you have.

Example 2: Discord (and to some degree IMs in general) … The tool of social everything and nothing

Alright, now let’s get into the meaty stuff. This one’s my personal favourite, especially in the tech field, because it’s one of the strongest examples of “tech-bro” mindset EVEN in FOSS. Long story short, if your project has Discord as the support and contact channel AND it’s your only contact, you don’t provide a support channel, period.

“But nobody uses forums these days” … FALSE!!! Shut up, sit down and let this fledgling network veteran talk. First, especially if you’re using Linux, look at every major distro. Fedora? Check. Arch? Those are mildly infamous but check. Debian? Check. Hell, even in mobile space; GrapheneOS, LineageOS, … For fucks sake, EVEN some big corps have searchable and indexable forums that are accessible to the public!!!

“But what’s the point of forums when chat is immediate?” … Archiving, my dear. Archiving and indexing. Yes, forum posts can and are indexed by search engines so you can use your favourite search provides to look for those. And in quite a few cases, the forums allow a read-only search too. Which means no account to remember login credentials to, not to mention lower digital footprint.

Then there’s the ownership part too. If you do something against the platform’s “Terms of Service”, your support place goes poof and with it EVERYTHING that was there. You know what that means? Your project got effectively shot in the head and left to bleed out. Because without support, your work will inevitably deteriorate.

“But then I need to think about storage, backup, handling people …” Congratulations! You discovered that you need to “CARE” and have the responsibility for what you’re doing and/or providing. And you will be held accountable for any fuck-up. Sure, putting up with all that stuff isn’t exactly easy but here’s a charming solution: you don’t have to do this alone. There are many hands which can help you. And if you’re not a total dick, they’ll be more than willing to have a part in your ideas.

Anyway, I’m getting side-tracked. The reason Discord (and similar) is a bad tool for the job (and in many cases an absolutely horrible one) is because it’s being used for everything. Chat, forums, file-sharing (ffs, this is probably one of the stupidest use-cases), VCs etc. And to be honest, even for the stuff it’s been designed for primarily it’s rather or at least has become over the course of time kind of not-so-great.

“So what, am I supposed to use all the things separately?” … Yes, yes you are. Chat for stuff that’s either specific to a person (DMs) and anything that is ephemeral and doesn’t need to be saved for long periods of time. If you need something that’s supposed to be saved, then it’s your responsibility to do so. And if it’s something to be shared, that’s what forums are for. Or wikis if it’s more intended to be consumed rather than having active participation. Voice chats? Ever heard of Mumble? TeamSpeak? Believe it or not, these are having a bit of a renaissance moment. Streaming? Yeah, that one’s a more difficult thing but tbh, video-streaming in general is such a colossal clusterfuck in today’s internet that the only way to make it right is to scorch everything we have and start over properly. File-sharing? Umm, ever heard of share links? That way the file not only stays in the space YOU control but also doesn’t end up needlessly replicated in whatever security breach inevitably happens.

Example 3: Microblogging platforms … except you forgot the “micro” along the way

Ok, I’ll admit I’m occasionally guilty of this one too but then again I’m also aware it’s not the right way to use things like Mastodon for long-form content (unlike some *glares at GrapheneOS with mild contempt*, but they’ve now taken steps to not do it … UNLIKE SOME *glares at pluralistic with greater contempt*). And no, just because the platform can display threads properly doesn’t make it suitable. Seriously, you have a longer thought? put it on a blog AND use the short-form platform to “tease” and promote the longer version as well as give it the reach.

And no, your blog doesn’t need to be fancy. C’mon, just look at me, using probably the simplest blogging platform I can think of and being really satisfied (not and ad, just a fan ;3). Keep the short-form platforms for “thoughts of the moment” things, use it as a fancier RSS-feed (while having an actual RSS at the same time for convenience). Trust me when I tell it’ll make you look more “professional” when you look like you have at least some idea about what you’re doing. And remember it’s coming from me who’s about as organised as a dog with ADHD (wait, I’m part German shepherd who are basically “ADHD on four legs”).

Conclusion: You have an entire toolbox and it’s high time it’s being used fully.

So yeah, when it comes to digital tools, we’re absolutely horrible. Part of that is on us, techies, being horrible teachers and sometimes bad examples ourselves which should be a major wake-up call to action to seriously start fixing this mess. Be there for the people, offer help and support when needed (and I mean actual support as much as it is mundane), educate and lead towards independence (if your “student” is dependent on you, you’re a bad teacher but that’s a topic for another time), lead by example when you can, showing the proper deployments and use of the tools and how to make sure all of the pieces talk to each other nicely. If you have shareable knowledge, make it easy to access. Trust me, your pet project isn’t something that needs “strategic nuclear weapons” level of secrecy. You’re not likely to revolutionise the field like Ada Lovelace or Alan Turing. And let’s be honest, they would be going over their heads to share their knowledge with as many people as possible. You know, like actual scientists.

So yeah, the “old internet” didn’t die. It’s just a little bit quiet. Let’s have it shine again.

R.R.A.

Anyone who dabbled at least a little bit into coding or gamedev has heard terms like “machine learning” or AI. Hell, the behaviour of non-player actors in games is colloquially referred to as AI despite it being something completely different. When you look under the hood, you can see the “magic” behind; decision trees, neural networks, all the maths that would fry one’s brain for a while. And yet, none of this is anywhere remotely close to intelligence. It’s not even close to learning. This is not the fault of the algorithms or the tools but a fault of those who defined the technical term. How come? Well, first of …

Accumulating knowledge isn’t learning

How many times have you been told in school to “study” a certain subject only to memorise it and then repeat it when being asked about it during a small exam? Were you given an explanation? Have you sought reasons? If the answer to any of the latter two is “no” then you didn’t learn. You at best accumulated knowledge. It’s as if you got a book only to put it into a bookshelf without ever reading it by which I don’t just mean going through the pages but actually reading the book start to end, pondering the thoughts of the author.

Machine learning operates on this exact principle. You take knowledge and cram it into the machine without explanation or any reasoning. You’re effectively doing “Here, study this and the recite it word for word. Points down for any inaccuracy.” If that sentence made your blood boil, I’m sorry that you experienced having some shitty teachers (as we all did).

“But unsupervised learning …”; Yes, unsupervised learning is a thing. It’s effectively supposed to be an analogy of self-learning. But it still isn’t learning. Why? Exactly because the “why” is missing. Humans are naturally curious. Kids even more because they’re not jaded yet. Machine is not because it doesn’t understand the concept of curiosity. It won’t seek reasoning. And without reasoning, there can be no improvement because you can’t identify the mistakes to learn from. To quote Vesemir from the prologue of Witcher 3 (can’t believe I’m actually doing this): “Don’t practice alone. It’ll only embed your errors.” How does this quote apply? Because you don’t know you’re making a mistake. And once you find out, it’ll take ages to unlearn AND relearn the skill. To give you an idea, it takes roughly the same amount of time to unlearn a mistake as it takes to learn the skill to the current level you’re on with the mistake embedded in.

“But backpropagation, weight adjustments, …” let me stop you right here with all the fancy words. None of these are even remotely close to reasoning. Why? Because …

Intelligence isn’t purely statistical

Human brain doesn’t operate on statistics. Sure, thinking has the concept of uncertainty and probability but the mathematical equivalent of that is an approximation of those. And we don’t use these two as primary tools. They come into play if we’re dealing with something not previously observed. Otherwise we go for tools which are far more deterministic.

“Oh, so like associative memory. A cache …” technically yes. Except you’re not replacing items in the cache but always expanding it AND adjusting the mechanism which did the initial decision-making process. And the latter you need to do WITHOUT impacting anything unrelated unintentionally. Human brain can do that. Artificial “brain”? That’s a different story.

Now, to make matters worse, all of the above was about analytical ML; the kind of machine learning which intended to be fed a massive pile of data to give you a rough idea about what’s in there and make the pile into smaller piles which are easier to work with later. When we enter the space of generative ML the things crumble even more spectacularly because …

There can be no creation without intention

This simple sentence is basically the nail in the coffin of generative ML/AI and THE REASON why creative work is irreplaceable; by which I mean writers, visual artists, engineers etc. Machine learning doesn’t act with intention. It doesn’t act off of its own will for it has none. It acts without understanding. That AI-generated image with 6 fingers on one hand? That’s because AI doesn’t know it’s a human hand. And it’ll never learn that it’s supposed to be a human hand. The underlying model might “know” what human hand is. It might be full of references of different poses, shapes, sizes, etc. And yet it’ll still produce errors. Because the WHY isn’t there.

Same applies to text. Why is AI-generated text so “painful” to read? Because there’s no intention behind the words. It’s pretty much “math turned into words” which in itself is horrendous to read (if you ever read anything written by a mathematician, you know the pain). It’s void of intent, distilled into pure, rigid description. And the level of rigidity is so high that it doesn’t even work for spaces where precision is needed because then it fails due to loss of broader scope. Long story short, AI doesn’t understand that words have meaning and one formulates a thought in a certain way because there’s an intention behind it. Yes, even the seemingly boring scientific article is written the way it is intentionally.

And that intention is something that’s not possible to simulate. Not even agentic systems operate with intention. They’re autonomous and operate mostly without constant supervision but they don’t start doing anything without external stimulus. They still need a list of tasks. In the context of coding, they can at best implement a feature but not come up with a new one. So if someone tells you they use “AI” for brainstorming, then they don’t understand that they’re already doing that and they don’t need AI in the first place. In that case AI is literally doing nothing because it’s by definition incapable of doing so.

AI will never learn

In the end, Artificial “Intelligence” will never become intelligent. Why? Exactly because the WHY will never be there. It’ll never be capable of understanding the subject at hand, no matter how specialised it’ll be. It’ll never be more capable than its user for the user will ALWAYS be the limitation. And that limitation is irremovable because the user is the ONLY way to provide the model with some form of reasoning which is still very inaccurate and it’ll need constant adjustment because the retention of that reasoning is impossible. In the end, AI never learns. Even the most stubborn person in the universe will eventually learn (unless they intentionally refuse to but then again, there’s the intention).

So yeah, I “hate” to say it, universal AI is by definition impossible because your definition of learning doesn’t match the actual process of learning.

R.R.A.

As you’ve probably caught from the intro, I don’t like “AI”. I personally refuse to call present day’s “bullshit generator” AI because that stuff isn’t even remotely intelligent. Tbh, it’s barely knowledgeable. AI generated imagery makes me roll my eyes, AI generated memes make me want to pull the spine out of the “creator’s” arsehole (yeah, nice job, self-titled “liberator”/”democracy defender”) and whenever someone mentions words “AI summary”, I have the utmost urge to summarily grind their face into a paste with the heaviest book I can find. Being a creative person as my hobby, it makes my blood boil to even use the term “content creator”. But I’m not here to talk about this. I’m here to talk about my “work” field or at least part of it; coding and the involvement of AI in it. And whoo boy do we need to talk because the level of flippant shit-flinging in this field is like watching a RW-nutjobs meeting “for better XYZ”.

AI-assisted coding != Vibe-coding

This. This right here is something everyone in this discussion should drill into their skull. These two, while related, are very distinct things. How? AI-assisted coding means you’re using an AI tool to help you put the pieces of code together with you, the programmer, providing the competence to the tool. You’re essentially turning the AI tool of your choice into a second pair of hands; a really dumb and massively energy inefficient pair of hands which you have to constantly watch and guide so it doesn’t do anything stupid. And to make matters worse, it won’t even learn anything because guess what, it doesn’t know how to learn (but guess who would actually learn something *looks at many undergrads/juniors*). No, pouring a bucket of knowledge into a machine isn’t learning. It needs understand why and when. And no, statistics aren’t the solution.

Vibe-coding (I’m seriously going to find whoever coined the term and fix their vibes by cracking their nuts, if they have any) on the other hand is prompting the AI tool until it produces something that looks like you want (spoiler alert, it’s absolutely nothing like what you want) without a sliver of an idea what the fuck are you doing. Like, in the case of the former there’s at least a somewhat competent person using an incompetent tool. In this case … You know the so-many-times-repeated story of “if you close a crowd of monkeys into a room and let them randomly type, one of them will eventually type a Shakespeare’s play”, right? Well, congratulations. You’re exactly that; a monkey randomly typing. Except you have no idea what a typewriter is or who Shakespeare is or why are you even in that room in the first place.

Now, why am I making this distinction? Because people tend to conflate these two together. This results in rather flippant and reactionary (sounds familiar?) environment surrounding the field where instead of trying to find some way out of this mess, people are too busy throwing shit at one another (sounds familiar?). Should you stay clear of vibe-coded projects? Absolutely because the person behind them has no idea what they’re doing. Should you be wary of a project which allows AI-assisted contributions? Absolutely because doing so puts a HUGE competence requirement on the maintainers of the project. This jump is so massive that the competence needed will very likely exceed the capabilities of the maintainers which can either result in the team spiraling further down into the vibe-coding hole (then it’s time to jump ship) or the team seriously re-evaluating the AI strategy and making sure there are strict guardrails and competence development going along with the tool assessment (I know this sounds corporate as shit but if you adopt corporate tools, you’re going to need corporate-level procedures). And the reason is …

AI is a power amplifier

It’s been a while since I stumbled upon some articles discussing the effects of AI on “productivity” and from these two thoughts stuck to my mind; “The workers who use AI burn out way quicker.” and the other being the name of this section “AI is a power amplifier.” And if you think about it, AI is indeed exactly that. It doesn’t make your work faster, it makes it more intense. And this amplification applies to everything; there suddenly more to do, more to keep an eye on, more to evaluate. More, more, more. But human mind can’t handle more. Not without expenses in other areas. Which then leads to, you guessed it, burnout.

The increase in cognitive requirement is absolutely gigantic and will easily exceed one’s cognitive abilities. In terms of code, this increase means you have to put more effort into making sure the code you’re working with is competently made because you need to account for both your margin for error and the margin of error of the AI tool. On the reviewer side, you need to put more effort into the actual review because there’s an increased chance of dealing with a code that was made not by someone who probably has some holes in their knowledge (at which point it’s up to you to be their mentor for a bit) but by someone who probably has no idea what they did and you have to teach them or at least lead them to the relevant knowledge. Notice how I’m not saying to keep them away from the AI toolchain and you’re probably wondering why it’s not a solution. The answer to that is simple:

Sloppy code is sloppy code. Period.

So, let’s have a situation like this. A maintainer of a project rejects a contribution as they don’t accept anything AI-assisted but they extend the “grace” to have the code redone by the contributor without using any AI tools. The contributor comes back after some time, providing a human-written code only to have it rejected again because it doesn’t meet the required standards.

What’s the problem? The contributor learnt nothing. Partly because they don’t know any better (the previous AI venture didn’t provide them with the knowledge required to handle the task properly) AND they weren’t provided any guidance. The latter is however a fault of the maintainer for not giving the contributor any direction. I’m not saying you’re supposed to mentor the contributor all the time. But if the will to learn is there, giving them at least some guidelines will do a lot of good in the long run. Just to give an idea, this is what I learnt years ago from my coach:

• If you know and have the time, educate
• If you know but don’t have the time to educate, provide guidelines for self-study
• If you don’t know or aren’t confident but know someone who could provide the knowledge, refer to them

Shunning the person away without giving them directions hurts both sides. It hurts the project because it gives away hostile environment and the sloppy coder will stay a sloppy coder.

Correct code is correct code, no matter how it’s made

Let’s take a look on something different. Let’s have piece of code that’s integrated into a project. The project then passes all validation with no issues and to top it up, it even satisfies any formal verification rules. Now, after you have all the results, you find out the code was AI-assisted. And yes, AI-assisted NOT vibe-coded. Should the code be rejected? Think about the chain of events; the piece of code went through a review WITHOUT being recognised or declared as AI-assisted, it was seamlessly integrated into the project which then passed all validation and verification criteria, including formal verification. There are three layers of proof speaking against rejection. Would rejection of the code be a correct approach?

One valid argument you could say is AI-assisted is recognisable. I’d disagree on the ground of the mechanism which “powers” programming languages; the formal languages. Programming languages, unlike natural languages, have much more rigid structure when it comes to syntax and semantics. There’s no hidden or secondary meaning that can be derived from context. And guess what operates well within a rigid structure of rules? Algorithms. Even algorithms which are heavily influenced by statistics like those used in machine-learning. Sure, you can reach a different result when it comes to optimising the solution for a given task but if that rule set is properly specified to the AI tool, with this guidance it’ll very likely reach the same solution as if a competent and experienced programmer would reach. Remember the “power amplifier” thing? In this specific use case the AI is indeed a cognitive amplifier in a sense that it allows you to “search” through the set of possible solutions quicker. At the same time however it increases the cognitive load of you having the ability to properly evaluate the proposed solution because it may be something you wouldn’t come up with in the first place. Not to mention the solution can have caveats, such as not being portable (if you know about genetic algorithms and their use in programmable HW design, then you might be familiar with some of them). But if one can’t distinguish between AI-assisted and fully human-made code when they both achieve the solution within given constraints, then either the review process is weak or the possible solutions are equivalent regardless of the approach.

So … what now?

That’s a good question. At the present time, the AI tools are so horribly inefficient for what they can do that I personally can’t justify their use, especially when the increased cognitive load is taken into account as well. It’s simply not within people’s mental capacity to handle the requirements and throwing more AI at the problem will only make it worse. And let’s be honest, when you think about the potential uses what do you end up with? You either get a second pair of hands which you have to constantly babysit, or you get a huge kick in the face showing you how utterly inept you are at the task you want to do, or a tool to do things you don’t even want to do in the first place at which point why are you even considering doing them?

But what to do now when so many people just don’t accept the problems? Well, let me at least try and propose the following when encountering a project which uses AI:

• Is the project vibe-coded? Don’t touch that with a kilometre long pole because the creator has no idea what they’re doing. And if they have the knowledge, they don’t have the necessary resources to handle the project, be it personal or managerial.
• Is the project lenient towards AI-assisted contributions? Hold them to the same standard as if they were human-made. The approval process stays the same and if set right, it’ll result in rejection of the sloppy code pieces because, as established above, sloppy code will be sloppy no matter if made with AI or just with general lack of competence.
• Is the project sensitive to security and is allowing AI-assisted contributions? In that case hold the proverbial knife to the neck of both the contributor AND the maintainers. You’re probably already doing the latter so extending it to the former shouldn’t be a big deal. Security stuff is no joke and if the people involved think they have the cognitive skills to handle the AI and human contributors? Then hold them to that words to the highest scrutiny and they fuck up, make it hurt.

There we go. This is, at least in my eyes, the nearest road to navigate the messed up landscape of tech people grossly overestimating their mental abilities only to end up face first in the meatgrinder. Trust me, we techies are idiots who have a master class in denial and absolute ultra elite class in lack of interpersonal skills (btw, that lack is deliberate). On the bright side, both can be fixed. The former by actually sitting down and exchanging knowledge and the latter by sticking our heads out of our dungeons and, you know, talking to people. Trust me, you might find out that the amount of stupid people is way lower than everyone is trying to tell you, including your “comrades”. And believe me, the social issues are a way bigger troublemaker than any technical issues in our pet projects going industrial scale.

R.R.A.

That's right, woof has gone for another fluffy adventure. Or I should actually say fox because this time it was Roky's time to shine. Back to the cold North of Malmö, but this time for a show. A show full colours and silly fluffy critters; the one and only Cirque Du Nord of Nordic Fuzzcon 2026. A perfect match for my bright orange side of me. And of course I was ready with a bit of a ringleader attire (mild shame I was missing the coat but time was merciless and besides, I can and will make it later). So let's not spend too much time outside and step right into the ring!

Day -1 ... Getting to the scene

First things first however, getting to the place. Which starts with packing all the stuff in. On one hand, I was already more experienced since the last time. On the other hand, new suit, more props and I need to keep space for con loot of course. Then there's the part with Roky's head which is a bit larger due to his acute ears. Luckily (thanks Kryptid for the tip), I made his ears removable (velcro + magnets in the “corners”) which significantly reduced the footprint (headprint :P) and allowed Roky to fit snuggly in the small suitcase together with sleeves and hands and of course his ears. The rest went into the big case, together with props, outfit and I also took my old fox kigu this time as a bit of an experiment since it matches Roky's colours pretty closely.

How did the trip go? Freezing. I remember leaving my place with really cold weather last year and this time around we also had snow as an extra. Especially when reaching Vienna. It was in fact so cold that one of the cargo doors of the bus froze over so getting the luggage in got a bit tricky. The driver also made a bit of an oopsie when going to the Vienna train station stop due to construction work at the place so he had to do some creative turnaround in the city. Everything went well in the end and arrival to the airport was all safe and good, if a bit chilly. Airport time was the usual. And I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing my suitcase scanned and the security folks staring at the screen while I know exactly what's in there :P Overall though, nothing unusual happened. Well, almost. When sitting in the gate lobby, I noticed a familiar face. Familiar yet not certain they were who I thought ... until I noticed a very recognisable dragon hoodie. Yup, I've indeed spotted Brixxy who I'd be sharing the flight with. However, I haven't said anything at that time since I'm not the kind of person who “jumps on folks” they recognise unless I know them a little bit.

The flight itself was fine just a little rough towards the end due to windy weather above Copenhagen. Massive props to the pilot crew who landed the metal bird super smoothly in the wind. The last leg of the trip was easy. Hop on the train to Malmö and a short walk to the familiar hotel. I've got the same spot like last year so I really felt like coming home. Once in the room, I immediately freed Roky from his prison and brought his hearing back. After that I took a small walk around the town to grab something to eat although options were limited at the late hour. But it was already clear the city is being taken over by the legions of fluff. Sated, I headed back to the hotel to recover from the trip and gain energy for the adventures ahead.

Day 0 ... The obligatory Queue-Con and letting the fox loose for the first time

Alright, we're at the place. What's next? We all know; THE QUEUE CON! I was hesitating if I should try and get the badges immediately or wait for later but I decided for the former. Furthermore, being in the Silver sponsor tier, I had the advantage of a separate queue which did take a bit but eventually got through swiftly. Props to the badge design because my “clown Rawen” sticker I used for the badge got some neat background. I also got my first con loot. And just like last year, with an error :P I've opted for two fursuit-sized bandannas, one for Rawi, one for Roky. Rawi's one was ok but the one for Roky got the wrong name and design. Looks like someone made an oopsie and swapped the bandannas accidentally. I was informed that I can try con-ops so we'll see how this little side-quest goes.

I spent a little more time loitering around the place only to find two really known dragons. One clad in pure white and already causing mischief with his loooong tail and the other in shades of blue with distinctly coloured eyes (green and purple) and with some parts of the suit missing (not for long though). I took a picture of the duo and introduced myself to the blue dragon to reveal that we in fact know each other. Ok, enough being coy. The duo was Sushi and Rioku. And as you can see, I survived just fine Rio's strong grip.

After our brief encounter I went back to my room to drop off the loot and already felt the familiar itch: “C'mon, you know you want to suit up. Even if just for a short while.” And so I did, opting for the casual look of Roky with his red scarf. It also served as a nice test of my swappable soles for feet since I have to take a walk to the main hotel. Good news, the feet hold up really well. I'm honestly a bit worried that when I eventually try to swap them back the velcros go off. I already had to reglue them few times but I'm confident they survive this time around.

So how did the first suiting as Roky feel? Not bad. It took me a bit to get into the right energy since I'm more used to being the woof but I eventually started loosening up. Something I've noticed however is that Roky's head is a bit heavier so I got tired a bit quicker. The lounge wasn't ready yet but the area around it provides a good “hideout” to catch a breath. I also still felt the travelling fatigue a little which impacted my endurance. But I was definitely having fun as Roky. However, the body needs energy so after bit of suiting I went back to my room to switch back to my “meaty” form and ventured for a bite to eat. Or more specifically, a noodle to eat (don't worry, Kai-Tan is fine :P). Well sated, I headed back to the hotel to potentially capture some pictures only to find a familiar face yet again. And this time, I didn't hold back and talked to Brixxy. And the potential for adventures expanded.

I loitered around the hotel a bit but wasn't lucky with pictures yet. People were mostly arriving or doing the “queue-con” part of the journey. That said, I've stumbled upon yet another familiar floof, the art mentor Mt. Kanjon who I met first exactly a year ago in this very place. This time around without the suit but the chance to see Grout would of course present itself. It feels quite neat being at a con and meeting up with folks you've known from earlier.

I eventually headed back to the hotel to grab a bit of a rest to release the fatigue from previous day. After a while, I was intrigued to suit up again. The lounge was already open this time so I'd have the proper resting place. Furthermore, I really wanted to try the “almost fullsuit” Roky. I didn't need to convince myself for too long and after just a moment, I was standing in my room, “fully” suited for the first time. And honestly, it's such a weird and great feeling looking into the mirror and seeing this grinning orange (two shades but still) critter staring back, barely any hint of human body left.

With this feeling, I ventured back to the main place to roam around and just be the orange bundle of fluffy silliness. Took me a bit to build up my endurance back so my first roams were short but eventually I started getting there. Furthermore, being in “full” suit really helped me ease into a “creature mode”, making staying quiet in the suit far easier. Like, with my woof I can't do it as easily but this time around I really got into the “no words, just critter noises”. I also got the first catch (first attendee scanned my suiter badge for the collector's game) and it was yet another member of the Brixxy fleet, Pikati. Speaking of which, Rio who's been around got another hug, this time a fluffy one (also survived but I've been warned he likes to give uppies; probably saving them for when he's in the full suit) and I also managed to make Brixxy's queue-con a little easier to handle since I wandered around the queue which was just never-ending. Seriously, the moment it moved forward, it immediately refilled. The place however started becoming fluffier and fluffier from all the folks arriving. At the same time however, the day started reaching the time when the meat inside the suit starts getting tired so back to the hotel we go to rest up and get ready for the next day.

Day 1 ... The show starts and I'm a critter

Alright, the first proper day of the con. And you know me, I basically live cons in the suit so of course I was itching to let the fox loose. But first, some food. Not to mention, the weather outside was freezing so it would've been a good idea to wait a little bit before venturing into the cold nordic winter. Eventually however I jumped into the “full suit” and braved the winter to the venue. Believe me, having the suit was a huge advantage because Sweden brought the nordic cold this time around. As I got in, I headed to the lounge to take a bit of a breather from the walk (those who know can confirm that walking in feetpaws isn't the most comfortable thing) and also to soak up some warmth because the weather was super chilly (reminder for me that fur isn't windproof). After that, I ventured out to the waking up Clarion to see if I can catch a familiar face. And after while I did; a tall silly giggly bat Protox, accompanied by their lovely husband. I've joined them for a bit in my fuzzy foxy form as they were waiting for the arrival of another fellow critter, Spikey who arrived in just a moment. We mingled there for a bit and of course engaged in the “furry bartering” aka sticker trading :3

After a while we decided to move on only to spot Brixxy Brightmane in his fluffy form. And with a small adorable jingly hat on one of his horns. If only my paws weren't too big for the camera. I've had it with me but Roky's paws are a little bit too clumsy for it (Rawi's paws are less bulky so I can handle the camera better). Of course that doesn't detract from me having my critter fun but I'll have to switch between being suited and unsuited if I want to take pictures without taking my paws off.

And believe me, I don't think I remember being this immersed in a character over the course of my suiting experience. Not sure if it was the atmosphere of the place or me being “fully suited” but I really got to a point where this “meatbag” was just there to fill the suit and make it move around and do silly “arfs” whenever foxy saw someone. Or even just walking around, each and every step you could hear me going “Arf! Arf! Arf!”. The only moment I broke out of the character was in the suit lounge to catch a break. But outside of that I was completely fox-brained.

Speaking of the lounge, having a repair corner came in handy this time around since the harsh weather was really making a dent to the suit but we'll get to the later. This time around I just stopped by to just to add some extra glue to some of my claws because they were getting a little bit loose for my comfort and I didn't want to lose them. As I was doing this little fix, a fellow fluffy critter, Heartglow stopped by asking for a bit of a help with repairing their suit head (some stitches at the cowl got loose). I took a glance and I was like “Yeah, looks easy enough. I think I can do that.” And about ten minutes later the head was fixed just like new! Heartglow was really glowing bright after I finished. So yeah, another thing I would've never expected to be asked to help with on my list :P

After my fill of suiting I went back to the hotel to get some rest before heading back to hopefully catch some pictures. Furthermore, I wanted to continue my “Rescue Roky's con bandanna” story. Was I successful? Not yet since ConOps couldn't help me at the moment but they navigated me to the con store once it opens. Not bad, we got more directions. I loitered around the place a little bit and caught some floofs with my camera. I also found first fellow fedi-floofs (Toaster, Blouie, Karb and Polarie). After getting some late lunch (I usually get a bigger breakfast on cons so I can last longer for suiting and to deal better with the looser daily routine), I got back to the hotel yet again to rest before the evening Brixxy's community meet-up. Something unusual for me since I rarely hang around streamers or artists of this media in general, partly due to communities like that not really being great and partly me being highly resistant to “being star-struck”.

I can confidently say it was a really pleasant and cosy evening. The event was happening at the third floor. I arrived, as would be expected of me, suited up in my full partial this time around. Once I arrived to the spot, I looked around but of course my poor vision failed me. Luckily, Roky is such a bright eye-catcher, that Brixxy easily spotted me and navigated me towards the right place; which could easily be half of the floor because we basically slowly occupied it as the group slowly group. I found my spot on one of the couches next to Glut, Vtreo, Streo and Snox. Glut, being absolutely thrilled by my foxxo fluff very quickly earned an orange hug. Gotta say they're a really cuddly bean. And very energetic and bouncy one too :3 The hangout was cosy, accompanied by some nordic snacks (so much licorice) and later with a round of “Too Many Kobolds”. It was quite an experience since our group played it for the very first time and the rules already looked intimidating. To explain the game in a nut-shell (a very small nut-shell), you're a dragon and you have a crowd of kobolds waiting in front of your cave. Your task is to adopt these critters and provide them with needs to make them happy. Trust me, I'm really oversimplifying the rules :P

How did I do? Not bad for my first run as I finished second. The opening ceremony was also happening at the same time but Brixxy was equipped with a tablet to provide the stream so we could watch in between turns. Of course, handling a large community of folks is busy so Brixxy was running around a little to spend at least few moments with everyone. As time passed, another fluffy critter arrived. This time in full and it was Tulius, Rioku's creator and self-titled “weird canine thing”. And all I can say is, he's got one insanely good suit. I wasn't able to take the picture at that time but I managed to catch him later. Overall, the evening went great and it was really cosy experience. And if you happen to know Brixxy, then it was an evening very much in his cosy spirit :3 Furthermore, the evening was also a birthday celebration for Kiro Whitefin. Talk about a great time to celebrate.

As I got back to the hotel, a pile of messages was waiting for me at Mastodon since I posted the picture of fedi-floofs I “caught”. Eichi propped up an idea of making a small fedi-meetup if possible. The issues would be organisation since we'd be scattered around and of course we haven't got an official event like the EF one. But after some pondering and inspired by Brixxy's way of handling the community night, the agreed to think about how to do it and let the idea brew for the night.

Day 2 ... Roky the Ringleader, CoVahr arfs for everyone's ears, Valhalla “lockdown”, first loot and a spontaneous Fedi-meet

Day 2, the con is in full swing and fox is ready to be released again. And this time, let's head out in style :3 That's right, time to make the outfit work. And all I can say is, it takes quite a bit of fiddling to dress up with extra fluffy parts. It doesn't help that the parts aren't perfectly fitting on me (first time I did something like this so it's expected to be rough) but damn did it look good once assembled. I opted for the walk to the place without the head on worried about the wind a bit and the hat being really tall. I already instinctively grabbed my foxxo ears whenever a bigger gust of wind decided to appear to make sure I don't lose them.

Once I arrived to Clarion, I headed to the lounge to put on the rest of the suit. No, I didn't try and tie bow in paws but I definitely managed quite well even without seeing it proper. Now fully dressed, it was time to set off for the roam. I can't really tell what effect it had on the attendees at the time but believe me that I felt amazing, bringing one of my favourite pieces of are to life. I also stumbled upon fluffy Brixxy again for a quick exchange before we headed our own ways since he had another event on schedule. After roaming around the place a little bit, I peeked into one of the back corridors leading to the small panel rooms because the con photoshoot was held in one of them by Tarka Tokala, just like last year. Seeing basically no queue, I decided to give the fancy fox some pictures. The tiny queue went quick so I wasn't melting from the heat too much. The small room gets warm quite quickly, especially with the big lamps.

Once it was my turn and Tarka saw me in full, he knew what to do. First, I was given a small cane or a magic wand which could serve the same purpose. And believe me, I was in my element and immediately got into the character. After the first batch of pictures, I asked for the one “missing piece” of Roky ... the ringleader jacket. Tarka was completely in on the idea, including the folks who were waiting there for their turn. A small funny detail, due to my relatively small body shape, the jacket fit me perfectly. And once on, Roky the Ringleader stepped right into the spotlight. Seriously, I was absolutely immersed. To a point if you asked me who I am, I'd answer “I''m Roky” with no hesitation. But more on that later. After the second batch of pictures, one more idea came to Tarka's mind. I was given a smaller top hat and was asked to “perform a magic trick”. And so I did. And I made a small plushy Mausie appear! After this one, the session concluded so now it's just time to wait for the pictures to be processed. But trust me, my mood was in space.

I went for a quick break and cool-down after spending the time in a small warm room and headed outside. The weather was nice and sunny so anyone who'd be taking pictures of suiters had great conditions. Speaking of which, a familiar foxxo appeared: Loimu with his partner Dr4gonMouse. Loimu was out of suit at the moment being a handler for the proto-bean. We exchanged few words and took some pictures too. And well, I'll let you be the judge of “art becoming real”.

Afterwards I started heading towards the bridge since people were starting to congregate there. Why? The con group photo was being made. And this time around the organisation was way better. I was navigated by one of the media staff folks towards the bridge to the end of the huge group of fluffy critters. And just like last year, there was already a bunch of locals waving and taking pictures of the furs. And among them few people with huge cameras to take the main one. The entire thing went by quickly and I also happened to have a familiar face next to me. Or I should say fluffy loaf of bread, Tosh. And to make my smile inside a suit even wider, a Gabumon suiter joined us there too. Can this day get any better? Well, that's for time to tell.

After the group photo, I went back to the hotel to so I can put Roky for rest for a bit, grab something to eat and head to Valhalla to treat my ears to the musical talent of none other than CoVahr. And believe me when I tell that the walk to the hotel took a while. How come? Because I've had folks stopping me for pictures along the way. And let's be honest. This bright foxxo? With his style? And with the happiest trot in the world? So hard to resist.

Anyway, I don't want to toot my horn too much because I can spend hours gushing over Roky (my friend can fully confirm that). I got back to my room, changed into the “human clothes”, grabbed a bit to eat and headed for the concert. And trust me, I missed my suit. Not because of the looks but because of the chilly weather. The extra layer of fur would help a lot. I was to be a bit late for the start of the event but that turned into an advantage because I avoided the queue. The trip to Valhalla also gave me a nice bonus of the rain dragon Rioku in full this time. Due to a delayed start of the event, I arrived nicely in time just a few minutes before the start. All I can say is ... Wow! Just ... Wow! Like, I know CoVahr is talented but still. Seeing him play so effortlessly was just stunning. And once the full band slowly assembled, it was such a treat. Not just for my ears but also the eyes with the tiny antics of the folks thrown in for funsies.

The event went by so quickly but I was super satisfied. What came after however was ... a little bit less satisfying. The end of the concert coincided with an another event; one which many people would call one of the main events. The Dealer's Den. When I was coming in the queue was already forming and believe me, when I left the Theatre Stage, just one look at the crowd had me like “NOOOOOPE!” so I headed back to the hotel. And it was a really good choice because the moment I left, the Valhalla got into a “lockdown” mode for entry because it was full. Yes, you're reading this right. The place got so crowded they had to close the door for entrance for a bit. The “full lockdown” luckily ended quickly and organisers switching into the “1 in, 1 out” mode to allow for some throughput. But still, fully crowding the place was something new.

However, I wanted to visit dealer's den relatively early because I had a “package” to pick up. Also, the fedi-meet was agreed upon between 18:30 and 19:00 so I had a bit of a schedule to keep. After a bit of breather back at my room and Valhalla reopening, I decided the brave the den again. Once I arrived, there was still a bit of a queue but it was moving at a steady pace so I decided to wait it out. And it really wasn't too bad. Took maybe half an hour to get in. I didn't want to spend too much time in the den since I planned the actual “raid” for another day so I mainly too a tour around to see where am I going to stop next time. But of course I wasn't leaving empty-handed. So my first, and on that day the only stop, was Arven for a pair of shirts (yes, I know I'm a shirt goblin :P) and a sticker book because “I'm surrounded by stickers” (seriously, the Scar quote is so fitting and having Scar as a fox is just EEEEEE!!!!). My next steps however led me further into the back of the den to a table of the rebellious yeen, Mlice. Because it was her, who's been safeguarding the important package; a badge for my woof which I've commissioned at EF and decided to collect here so we don't need to play the “post office lottery”. And oh me, oh my ... What an absolutely gorgeous piece of art the badge is. Like, I've already seen it on pictures but seeing it live with my very own eyes is something else. And as Mlice very accurately pointed out, painting a black wolf in watercolours is really challenging. I'll let you be the appreciators of the result but in my eyes, the result is AAA for “Absolutely, Astonishingly, Amazing”. Of course I was wearing it around whenever I was out of suit.

With my small loot pile (for now), I came back to the hotel to drop it off and get ready for the fedi-meet which for me meant suit up in my partial and try and secure a spot on the third floor. I managed to secure a spot in the corner and started looking around for fedi folks. First arrival was RealZero, followed later by Naima and Gallen who I stumbled upon in the suit lounge shortly after my return to Clarion. Few minutes later, Colin (bald eagle), joined our little group and after a while I spotted a fluffy grey woof with a dark red mane, Eichi who I carefully navigated through the maze of couches on the third floor. Finally I've led Blouie (rare sight of the doggo without the suit) to our corner. As our little chatty group went on, we were joined by Sebi and after while a grey foxxo with bright orange stripes, Grout (Kanjon) happened to stumble upon our corner just as we took the suiters picture. We stayed for a bit until roughly 20:30 as we slowly dispersed our little group. For a highly improvised event, it worked out reasonably well. And with the fedi-meet, the second day of the con came to a close.

Day 3 ... Open house gremlin, DD raid, Roky shows his moves

Friday, the day of the “Open House” event and also my rave night (TIMEWARP being a set made of my growing-up years). So how to juggle these two things because of course I want to suit for folks from the outside the con but at the same time I have to save energy for the night. I still opted for some critter time in the morning because you know I can't resist doing that. And Roky is was made to make people smile so it's basically his job to be around. So I got to Clarion, all suited up. But first I had to go for some repairs because my feetpaws started showing A LOT of wear. I did a quick fix to make sure my feet survive at least through the Saturday's parade and ventured into the crowds. And let's be honest, there's not much to say other than me being silly orange critter.

But as I wanted to keep sufficiently awake (the tons of suiting I did really started to weigh in) I returned to my room to de-suit and ventured to Valhalla again to hopefully do my dealer's den raid. I got in and immediately saw the crowd in front. I stumbled upon Brixxy who was just coming out of the den so we chatted a bit but I decided to go back to Clarion for some pictures. I also took a small walk around the town and stopped for some afternoon coffee after being “coffee-deficient” over the course of the week. I gotta say, Swedes have some nice sweets.

After my small break I ventured towards Valhalla again to see whether the queue has moved. Lo and behold, it did and it went super quick. This means “Raid the Den” time. I left my small backpack at the hotel as a form of “limiting myself” but that didn't keep me from some neat loot. So what did I get? I think the pictures speak for themselves. Long story short, bunch of decorative pins, a chewy stick for my woof and maybe foxxo too, some absolutely gorgeous hoodies, a real-life save button for my memories :P and suit sprays so my floofs smell nice and fresh. Loaded up, I went to drop the loot off and rest a bit before the night.

Because this night was dedicated to let Roky out to the dance floor. But first I need to get to Valhalla. Suited up. In the evening. In a really chilly weather. And in my really worn feetpaws. How did I go? Allow me to present a tiny timeline:

• I get suited up
• Nice stroll to the hotel lobby
• Step outside the hotel
• ALMOST end up in a telemark position

Yup, the everyone's “favourite” Snubbelrisk (Swedish for “Risk of slipping”) was absolutely real. Especially because it started slightly snowing too. And let me tell you, EVA foam with no texture is downright lethal on wet and slushy surfaces (and it'll get worse later). With this almost really rough learning experience, I began my skating towards Valhalla. Since you're reading this, you can safely assume I survived just fine. But there were definitely more skating moments. After my figure skating performance to Valhalla was concluded, I caught a bit of a breather in the lounge and ... and here we go. The dance started with some old familiar hip-hop sounds so a little slower to ease into the vibe. But don't worry, the music picked up the pace in next segments, going into 80s – 90s rhythms later and some progressive after that. And how did I do in the suit? Honestly, I barely needed breaks. Putting the main dance floor into Valhalla was a really great choice by the org team. The dance floor was massive so it didn't crowd up that easily. Furthermore, the space around the bar allowed for taking a break on the spot without having to go for the lounge. So yeah, you nailed this one, NFC team :3

I kept going until around midnight. I could probably last for the entire set but my body was starting to feel the wear and I also wanted to make sure my feetpaws stay together due to the wear. Further more, I wanted to get back as long as the weather is still somewhat reasonable. But yes, Roky can dance. And not too bad. Or at least I really don't give a damn what I look like as long as I have fun.

Day 4 ... Rain on the parade = fancy foxy to the rescue, last-minute picks in DD and playing the picture game

Saturday, the day the parade and suiters group picture is happening. Except it's not. How come? Well, the weather didn't get any better and the intended parade path would be all covered in slushy, half-melted snow. So as much as it was painful to announce, the con staff had to cancel the events. And believe me, it's a far smarter decision because there would be likely be quite a few injuries. That said, I was mildly bummed that I wouldn't be able to let Roky out on the walk. But nobody said I can't let the fox loose at the venue. The weather however wasn't great so I had to wait a bit to make sure I can arrive at the place at least somewhat safely without an injury. And let's go for the trademark outfit because that's what the idea was in the first place.

And what was supposed to be long walk turned into my longest suiting session of the con. How come? Because the atmosphere of the moment was just absolutely energising. The hotel turned into the stage for me and I was ringleader and the performer of the show. Both for the folks at the con and the locals. And every time Roky was spotted, a wave, a high five and polite tip of my hat (which I managed to lose few times because I bowed too much but putting it back on was easy even suited up) was always in order. I don't think I ever got so many people stop me for pictures. The joyful energy was just keeping me going. Of course the occasional break was needed because it wouldn't be wise to push myself past my limits. Nevertheless, I spent all the time that'd normally be occupied by the parade and more in the suit, making folks smile left and right with the contagious joy. I've also been caught by Creideiki who visited the con for the day to get at least a little bit of the con experience and keep the photografur hobby going. Speaking of fellow fedi furs, one challenge remained. Meeting a woofderg who was among the first people to greet me last year only to see each other just once; Rayu. We kept yet again missing one another so I poked the fluffy beast whether he's around. He mentioned he'll be suiting later but he's been around the place in the chill floor. So ... I took a gamble and ventured there. Lo and behold, the gamble paid off. The woofderg has been spotted (and there's more later ;3)

When the time to head back to the hotel came I let the fox into the city so I could spread the joy at least a bit outside the Clarion. And again, my trip took so much longer because people just couldn't resist stopping by the happy fox, dancing in the wet wintery streets. I'd love to describe the sight in words but I'm afraid my writing skills fail me here.

Eventually, I got back to the hotel for a bit of rest since my feet really needed it and after a short round around the Clarion for some potential pictures moment I went back to the Dealer's Den to maybe get some last minute things if something catches my eyes. And it did in a shape of some art and badges. Two of these are eastern dragon themed so ... Kai-Tan's time to shine will come. After dropping off the last minute loot I ventured back to Clarion to yet again try and catch some pictures only to stumble upon Rayu yet again, this time suited up but at the way out. He still stopped for a picture despite looking a little weary from the event he was attending (even the big fluffy beasts need rest ;3).

Oh, I almost forgot. What about the “Rescue Roky's bandanna” story? Well, I had the time to swing by the con store so I did. I asked the folks there and we settled the issue by getting the blank one. So in the end, I've got one for Rawi with his name and one with no name. One could say mild shame but then again, it becomes universal for everyone. And it being so colourful will fit my sheppy :3.

The rest of the day I spent resting since I really needed it after my long suiting session. I was tempted to maybe go for another dance but the weather turned really miserable so going there with suit was a no go and I really don't have the confidence to dance out of suit. At least not yet.

Day 5 ... The show comes to its grand finale, so let's free the foxy for one more go

This is it. The final day of the con. And knowing the inevitable closing ceremony is coming started waking up those feelings you don't want. The utterly miserable weather outside didn't help the mood either. So what now? How to stave off the creeping post-con sads?

In the end, the rain outside stopped so I decided to suit up for one more time. However, I kept the feetpaws off because they're in desperate in need of some work after last time. The wet conditions were absolutely relentless. So yeah, I looked a little weird in my suit + kigu with just my shoes on but Roky has black feet and the kigu has black ankle cuffs so it blends in with my under armour without breaking the illusion too much. Besides, once I get immersed in the character everything will work out fine. There's also a far lower risk of slipping in normal shoes so I'm safer in that way too.

I don't think I can say much more than being a silly critter is just too much fun for me. I just love getting immersed into that feeling of being this fluffy bundle of happiness. If nothing else, I hope that I managed to raise someone's mood at least a bit. I also ventured into upper floors only to find Brixxy's group chilling before the queue for the closing ceremony starts to form. I joined them for a bit only to receive some cosy back scratches from Glut. They'd feel weird out of suit but in suit, I didn't mind at all. I chilled for a little bit there and once the group started to disperse I too headed back to the hotel since I was suited up and didn't want to spend the closing ceremony in the suit. Sure, it meant I'm going to miss a part of it but the streams were going well so I managed to catch the second half. The obligatory funny statistics were shown but there's one particular performance stuck in my mind and its message is something EVERYONE needs. And I mean EVERYONE: A song from “The Greatest Showman” called “This is me”.

I feel a little bad for being made of stone (not as much anymore but still a bit too stoic for my taste) so it didn't affect me as much (truth be told, I'm trying to embody it as much as I can) but I can imagine the amount of happy tears that were cried during that performance. Because in this era of constant judgement leading us into all the nasty -isms, standing in front of others and screaming loud and proud “THIS IS ME!”, hell, even just standing in front of the mirror and saying “This is me. I love me as I am and I want to care for myself.” is extremely hard due to all the judgement passed on us from outside. But if you can, make this your resolution for the year. Get yourself to look at yourself and say to yourself something kind, even if it's hard. Why? Because every single affirmation, no matter how small, keeps chipping at that cage world is trying to keep you in. Because the louder you shout to the world “This is me” with no fear, the more people will start seeing you. And they'll start asking who locked you in. And sooner than you can imagine, there's a group of people helping you break the cage. And once the cage finally gives up and falls apart, unleashing a wave which comes for those who locked you in. Yes, the fight is weary. It's a marathon. But that marathon is worth running to the end.

Ok, enough sentimental words (not really since there will be more but those are reserved for the end). The day was still long ahead and I wanted to keep the PCD away so I grabbed my camera and went back to Clarion. And wow was it an amazing idea. Because the official con may be over but trust me, the place looked like the con was about start any moment. Folks just hanging out, mingling, playing, dancing ... the show really went on. Out of all the days I spent in suit, lacking pictures, I managed to catch up nicely. And even caught more fedi folks, Neppy and ... drum roll, please ... RAYU! And this time in full suit. It was also accompanied with a bit of a oopsie on my end because I kind of forgot he has never seen me out of suit and it was already bit too dark outside so my badge wasn't readable. But everything was resolved and the werewoof-derg got all the hugs that were missed last year. Another nice floof I stumbled upon was Erel (Tosh's saber cat) and yes, they still have all the sass.

I also happened to run into Brixxy saying goodbye to everyone as he was already heading home. And of course the gang was yet again occupying the third floor :P Speaking of fedi folks, just after I parted ways with Joey who we happened to get into a nice chat, I have yet again stumbled upon Grout (Kanjon) and all I can say ... he's such a lovable gremlin of a fox. His energy is just contagious. So much that I felt the itch run back to the hotel and put Roky on for just bit longer. Just one more round of suiting before I have to pack him. But my responsible me won in the end. Besides, I wouldn't be able to properly dry the suit before travelling home. And so the hardest part of every con began; packing up all the stuff. And it wasn't only difficult because of the feels but also because I had to sort the loot right with all my things.

Day 6 ... The show always goes on. Even if you don't see it.

Last day in Malmö. With all the luggage ready, all that was remaining was the inevitable wait before heading out. I was considering to spend it roaming around the town a bit but well, the weather had a different opinion. As such, I've at least tried to spend the time productively with things like sorting out my future suit-making plans and dropping down some ideas that I might work on in the future (Garawimon suit when?).

In the end, there really isn't much more to say about the trip home. Maybe just that the flight was very fluffy with some folks even travelling with their heads on. Seriously, how in the world did you manage in the heated plane? That said, I need to learn how to travel with lighter cargo so I can keep my head with me in the case and possibly put it on at the airport for some shenanigans myself. So far I can only potentially do that when I travel by train because I don't need to smoosh my head into the small suitcase.

In the end, the con was amazing for me. Sure, nothing is perfect (seriously, Clarion, get rid of that revolving door at the entrance because having a queue-con trying to get INTO the hotel is not a nice thing to do) but overall the experience was great.

But beware because something is afoot. A crime has been committed and only we can solve the case of ... Crime Noir.

See you next year, Malmö.

R.R.A.

A small personal PS ... I am Roky. There's no doubt about it anymore.

Yup, it's time for some more feels, as promised. Just like last year, the con has left a special mark on me. When I ventured to NFC2025, I went in completely blind, not knowing what to expect but with an intention to experience the con for the first time. And when I arrived to Clarion and set foot inside the lobby and seen all the critters, it was as if the entire place said “We were waiting for you, Rawen. Welcome home!” right to my soul. From that con I came back a completely different person.

This year, I ventured out knowing there are people to meet and spend some time with, no matter how brief. Be it the lovely couple Loimu and Dr4gonmouse, the overseas folks like Kanjon or Blazi or the fedi-folks I spend time with usually in online space (Rayu, Naima, Karb, Polarie ... the list goes on). Then of course there was Brixxy, Rioku and all the creators who have managed to restore some faith in the streaming scene which I otherwise denounced for being too, well, shallow. But they have shown me that there are indeed some really cosy and funny people and I'm so happy they're around, doing what they're doing because they like it.

And finally there's Roky. My personified joy and role model. When anyone asks about him, the art of him in the green suit is the very first image of him I show. Why? Because when my friend made it and I've seen it for the first time, the first thing I said was: “Oh my ... He's PERFECT!!!!” Since that time I wanted to be him. I even have small written stories of him helping me on the way onward from times before I was capable of making the suit. And now I'm here, looking at myself in the mirror and saying with no hesitation: “I'm Roky.” Not just outside, but inside too. He's not just a role model anymore. He is me. And I am him. All the immersion I felt during the con in the suit wasn't just me enjoying the experience. It was ME, Roky; living, breathing, dancing and making everyone around me smile. The art made alive. The dream becoming reality. And I am that dream.

So sing with me: “Look out, 'cause here I come” “And I'm marching on to the beat I drum.” “I'm not scared to be seen, I make no apologies,” “THIS IS ME!”

Roky

Neppy

But why am I talking about this. An inspiration came from two places: my probably the longest following on YT, Skallagrim, and reply to one of my discussions from BSky when I got into a talk about socmed and algorithms. The former pretty much aligns with my views on “getting big” and the latter, especially one answer, gives me an insight into how people perceive and use social media and what motivates them. Curious? Well, you know what to do.

When I started this writing endeavour, I did it to toy with just putting my thoughts out there into the “blender”. Just letting the inner workings of that sponge I carry in my head out into the wild without any broader motivation. Sure, I occasionally peek at statistics to just see the numbers, what kind of writing has what impact but in the end, it’s just numbers. What I like to observe more is who interacted with the result. Was is just my “inner circle”? Or did I somehow let out a thought that appealed to a wider audience? If so, what kind of audience and how? Did they like what I said? Did it have some impact, positive or negative? Was the impact so high that it deserves further proliferation? All these are interesting in their own way. Even more when someone who’s already more established gives my ramblings a small boost and suddenly the floodgates open. My reaction to these is always: “Oh dear, this is about to cause some shitstorm.” Luckily (seriously, I’m still shocked I haven’t got piled on due how I approach some things, but I’m absolutely on some people’s shitlists), the interactions have been good. There weren’t many, but they were largely good. And I’d like to keep it that way.

“But why, Rawi? You have all the data. You know what has the impact. You could start using it to grow, maybe even do this stuff for the living.” Woah, stop right there, buster. First off, I like having hobbies. You know, the things I do just for my own pleasure to take my head away from the serious stuff. And I’d very much like to keep these hobbies without turning them into a job. I already work mostly with my head and I’d like to have those brain cells have some time off instead of working all the time. “But Rawi, having a job that’s also your passion …” causes that passion to go away because it becomes a mechanism for survival. And do you want your entire life be in a survival mode? I highly doubt that, even if you’re into “feeling in danger”.

Secondly and this very often comes with “getting big”, your audience or customer base changes. Take “big” YouTube creators (using the term here intentionally to cover all the forms of videos they create) as an example. Thousands, sometimes millions of “subscribers”, videos coming out in a span of days … and they’re all the same. Same style of thumbnails, similar structure, same sanitised and ear-grating language (seriously, algo-speak is my pet peeve). Everything is this highly predictable, squeaky clean, reeking of the hospital disinfectant. Everything is how the customer wants it. Who’s the customer, you ask? YouTube. Yup, it’s not your community, not your subscribers. Because if they were your customers, you’d spend the effort into giving them what they want without having to bend over to rules you have no control over. Because doing so gives control to them. Remember who creates the “algorithm”. And they do so freely because they know you’ll bend over. This way they remove your freedom. This way they dehumanise your community into assets. And by the way, you can’t please them, ever. Because it’s not their goal. Do you want a historical example? Look up “Normalisation in Czechoslovakia”. It was during 1970s shortly after the USSR invasion (or as they call it, “liberation”) and it’s very much the thing that’s happening on corporate social media in the West.

How about another example, something that extremely likely affects your day-to-day life because you probably spend around eight hours there. If you work in a large company or corporate, you’ve absolutely been present at some form of meeting where the “executive” talks about how the company is doing who are they working with etc. And let me tell you something you probably already know: BULL-FUCKING-SHIT! Ok, that’s a little harsh but vast majority of that drivel is exactly that. Sure, you’re probably working on something either internally or for an external customer but I use the word customer loosely here. Why? Because they’re not a customer. They’re an asset. Just like you are an asset. Ever thought why a certain department is called “Human Resources”? How delightfully human-oriented, being called a resource. You know what else is a resource? Coal. And what do you do with coal? Or would do in the past? Throw it into the fire. Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked. Take a guess who’s the actual customer. That’s right, shareholders. You know, the people who do absolutely nothing for the company and only rake in the dividends. Do you know what an organism that benefits from the host is called? Parasite. But I don’t want to get into this rant. There are plenty already. The point is, they’re big so their customer base shifted.

And this is why I’m not motivated to go big and where my motivation aligns with Skall’s. I’d lose authenticity. I’d stop doing things people like (or dislike). I’d stop doing what I like. All to please someone or something that doesn’t care in the first place. This is why I don’t like algorithms and why the thought from the algorithm discussion kept lingering in my mind until today. The discussion was about how algorithms are dangerous and force on you what someone else wants to watch. One of the participants was defending the use of algorithms so things can be found and engaged with. My response to that was that people managed to do that all the time through actual contact or by actively seeking instead of being fed things, using Mastodon as the example of the algorithm-free network on which I somehow managed to build some small reach. Their response was that they tried Mastodon but could never have to pick up, no matter what they tried for promotion. The final response from them was: “But yes, if you want a social site where you’re not bothered, then Mastodon is the place.”

If you want a social site where you’re not bothered … Wait, what? You get into a social site to get bothered? Am I missing something here? I thought being in social spaces is about connecting to people that I can’t connect with easily in real life. To share my interests with those who I wouldn’t be able to normally. To be, you know, human and extending that humanity by using the online space as a form of a highway or a railway. I’m not interested in building a following. I’m not a cult leader for crying out loud. So yeah, I in fact don’t want to be bothered on social media. I don’t want to “walk on a stage and perform a sermon for my underlings, praising salvation, while considering them lesser beings”. I want my social media to be like a cosy cafe in which I sometimes get in, grab a tasty snack, maybe draw or write something and chat with cosy folks. Because such connections might one day come in handy in an unexpected way. To borrow a quote from Winnie to Pooh:

I don’t want to walk behind you for I don’t want to follow. Nor I want to walk in front of you for I don’t want to lead. I want to walk beside you and be your friend.

R.R.A.

#InTheMazeOfThoughts

I can’t start with anything other than the visit to the Gardens of Zen; my first ever furcon. And while the immediate magic has waned already, the experience was eye- and mind-opening. What I didn’t anticipate back then however was the long-term impact. That trip has sown seeds of something I was to figure out months later. Either way, being around my fluffy kin was a breath of life I desperately needed. And it fueled my drawing skills too since not only I got some inspiration and audience (and “victims” of my ideas :P) but also a mentor and motivator (Kanjon just knows how to do this job ;3).

Speaking of fluffy adventures, Eurofurence happened later in September and it only built up on that which I unknowingly started in February; restoring and rebuilding my connection with people around me. Yes, that one thing I didn’t know I lacked for I always stayed “on the side”. Turns out I wasn’t looking in the right places and when there was a chance I didn’t take it. But that changed this year and I’ve got folks to look forward to. Even better, it made the online experiences way more “alive”. Thank you Kianga and co. for making the FediFloofs meet-up :3

But what about my crafty endeavours? Well, you’ve seen the results towards the end of the year. I dropped the hint last year that my future is orange. And this year I took that to my heart and “gave life” to Roky, my foxy self. And just as he makes me smile in his arts, he does the same when I “don” him. There’s no way I can stay steady being him. I made him to be the “opposite” of my old self. Turns out he’s me. Specifically the happiest side of me. Now each time I look at my “workbench”, two faces stare at me. One being my woof with his subtle smile, fangs peeking out and the other being my bright foxy with his open smile and cosy eyes. Bringing my floofs to life really brings me joy and there’s still more to do. Body suits for both, the outfit for Roky; hell, who says I need to just stop there? I’ve got quite a few pieces of art of my floofs in various costumes. And I got the tools to make them! Looks like there’s a bit of “playing dress up” for this woof in the future.

But the year of course wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes being the one person folks lean on for help can be tough to handle. And with my ways to recover being limited, this can wear me down quite quickly. I really need to learn my limits. Further more, my place of living threw away any remaining ounce of respect it ever had, neglecting its own history. For me, who’s aware of this and isn’t willing to just “bend down and shut up”, it makes my blood boil, pushing me towards the kind of anger which does nothing but hurt my already fragile soul. Combine this with choices of some that will slowly make me an “undesirable” while claiming to protect me and one can’t help but let the rage out. But again, how does that help me? It doesn’t. And it hurts those around me

What lies ahead?

Ok, so what’s coming for me? Well, first things first, more furcons. Revisiting the NFC in February, this time around as Roky and very much in the theme. After all, every circus needs a ringleader :3 Next will be Awoostria. I want to give a bit more space to smaller cons and NFC is already massive. Not to mention EF is an expensive venture and while I’d love to meet up with folks there, I don’t think I’ll be able to cover to handle the costs. But who knows, an opportunity might present itself and I’ll be able to get there. Also, Awoostria is really close by so visiting the place is easy. There’s also another neat bonus; I’ll be a “guide” for a friend at the con so that will be an interesting experience.

How about creative ventures? Well, I’m not giving up drawing, that’s for sure. Writing … Of course I’ll continue but I have to make sure my thoughts are collected and I’m not just ranty. Because I’ll have tons of things to rant about and doing just that will wear me down. Suit-making? Hmmm, third time’s a charm? My inner doggo would like some “walkies” and I want to try some new ways for some of the parts and Archie will be a nice “test subject”. I might even make second version of my woof with the alternative bright colours. And he might occasionally grow a pair of wings :3

But what about my personal, inter-personal and fluffy sides? Let’s make a list, shall we?

• Remember the 4 questions … At one point I learnt four questions against insecurities. They’re designed in a way that answering them reveals the insecure parts of oneself. I often manage to answer them with confidence that I’m not noticing any insecurities but towards the end of the year it changed and I managed to relinquish the control over myself to something I should never do. This means I need to pay closer attention and learn to stop myself and think before I act in a way that either compromises my own integrity or hurts someone dear to me. And I’m not in a position where I could allow myself to be all “come hell or high water”.
• Get along with some locals … This one will be challenging. You might’ve noticed that I’m more comfortable with folks outside my home place. It has lot to do with my lack of trust to my fellow folks of my home place. You see, I’m basically anything but what my country-folk are. This even affects my relationship to the fuzzy folks from here who I avoid when I’m abroad. I know I shouldn’t do that because local connections are the most important ones. But how to do it when all I know from here I can’t relate to in any way?
• Don’t be quiet but know when to rest … You’ve likely noticed that I’m rather loud about certain things. Especially things that are “good things done in bad faith”. And that’s not a bad thing. Staying completely quiet and taking hits doesn’t work. But I’m only human and I have my limits. And trying to outlast frontline soldiers doesn’t make me better than them. In fact, it makes me a liability. So remember, silly woof, take a time off when you feel like you can do nothing but quips. The moment you notice it, stop, do something else. Something productive. Or creative.

Alright, that’s probably all I can say. So … some closing thought? Last year I went with “Rebel away!” This time around, in the spirit of the previous points, I’m going to borrow a quote from an actress from my country. The actress has passed away years ago but the quote has been used as an epitaph. If I were to translate it, it’d go something like this:

Remember to smile. It is a light that tells everyone around that your heart is at home.

So, my dear readers, fellow fluffy, scaly, meaty folks … Remember to smile :3

R.R.A.

Well, I’ve bad news for you because I’m not going to talk about these ghouls. Or maybe I will but I’m afraid your image is very narrow because, believe it or not, every single one of us can fit this description. And I’m here to yet again put a mirror in front of many, to some extent everyone.

First things first, the word economy isn’t some new age concept or some cool buzzword that some demented influencer came up with. Economy has been with humanity since the dawn of civilisation and since the very first humans had some form of organisation besides “Me want this. They have what me want. Me kill them. Me take.” And even stupid thing covers the exact thing I want to talk about; Supply AND Demand.

This concept right here is the very foundation of economy. Someone can provide something and someone else wants something. An interaction between these two, be it individuals or groups, is then called a trade, service or whatever fits the description of the action. Put all these together and you have, surprise surprise, an ECONOMY. This applies to bartering, this applies in hard capitalism, this applies in communism, libertarianism, fascism, anarchism … this concept is completely apolitical.

And yet, we the people completely and utterly suck at it. We create over-abundance of something nobody wants. We demand things that are either impossible to create or in a timeframe that’s impossible to achieve. We arbitrarily play around with “value” of things and services to exert power. We hoard means of exchange, undermining and kneecaping the very concept in the process by greed.

But I’m not here to talk about money and/or wealth and how utterly face-fucked this system is. As mentioned in the title, I’m here to talk about a different asset. It’s an asset everyone has, everyone wants, everyone can provide and everyone (myself included) is colossaly bad at handling it or specifically, its mean of exchange; ATTENTION.

That’s right, my dear audience, we’re in an attention economy. This system has “exploded” with proliferation of social media networks. These basically gave everyone a global poster wall or megaphone to spread any message, be it the good kind or bad kind. With this, everyone has been given a new form of currency, attention. And it’s one weird kind of currency because it’s self-replicating and thus infinite. Kind of like fiat currency (sounds familiar?) except that one doesn’t really want to self-replicate (or more precisely, it’s not desirable by the controlling parties to do so). There’s also another weird aspect of it which is that you don’t really pay with it but instead use it as a marketing vessel or an investment. You provide attention to something and by that you invest in this weird form of stock. The dividend is then paid back in reach and sometimes a significant real world consequence and not just “internet points”. That’s the supply part of the equation. What is the demand part? Creation. And here I have to use the utterly slimy term “content creation” as a general term for written word, visual work (drawn art, videos etc.), audio work, brainrot, slop, memes etc. Anything that can spread around like wildfire. And you, the creator, are on the demand end, with attention being your price and/or value. Does this make sense? What if I told you that we’re also customers and marketing teams in this mess? How? By engaging in the consumption of the goods provided. Every like is a payment. Every view is payment. And every repost is both a payment AND a marketing act.

And it’s the last point which is both extrememly important (creates further supply of attention) and at the same time dangerous like standing next to an open nuclear reactor (creates further supply of attention). Because by spreading the “product” of choice, you increase its reach and thus its message. And it’s this spread in which we the people cut our own branches right from under us with utter recklessness. And those who want to intentionally profit from it know this very well and play on our very basic emotions such as fear, anger, sense of belonging etc. to make this act easier and further their goals while using you as an unpaid marketing intern.

But what does it have to do with supply and demand? Look just a little back up at what I said about reposts. By spreading the message, be it directly or by possibly the most insidious approach called “quote-dukning” (seriously, this shit is akin to killing your enemy by shooting yourself in the head in the process”), you’re increasing the supply of “outrage content” AND increase the demand for it not only by engaing with it but also by adding your own demand for personal attention into the mix. This results in a “positive feedback loop” and if you have any knowledge about electical signals or signals in general, you should know that positive feedback loops are really really bad in such systems because they’ll eventually bring the system down. Don’t believe me? Well … open your eyes and ears or whatever sensory organs you use to preceive the world around you.

So … what to do? Well, it’s an economy and believe it or not, YOU are in control of it. Or at least your part of it. You can in fact control the supply and demand in this mess of a system. How? By engagement of course. What you engage with IS what ends up in demand and gets its supply increased. Want to increase supply of, I don’t know, pictures of plants? Find artists who draw or paint these and give them reach. Or nature photographers who capture stunning moments of reality. Give them your attention. It may seem like a little but it only takes one moment, one single post to spread like uncontrolled wildfire.

Same thing goes for the opposite, decreasing the supply and demand. Obvious rage-bait? Skip over it. Drama that doesn’t even remotely affect you? DON’T jump in. I’m emphasising this one because it might seem tempting to jump in on a witchhunt but believe me, these more often cause harm to the cause and have a strong tendency to backfire (Steffo and Finn have a nice read on this here). Let the parties involved “handle” the situation. Not to mention unsolicited advice is a form of abuse, depending on the context.

There are of course, just like with everything, exceptions to the guidelines above, especially the latter one. This applies to things that require public attention even if they don’t immediately or even remotely affect you. Not to mention if you’re in the thankless position of a journalist or a moderator in which case you’ll likely be exposed to the nastiest stuff imaginable (please, take care of your mental health as much as possible so it doesn’t end up being your demise). In situations like this, it’s absolutely necessary to pay attention to the framing and make sure that you don’t accidentally spread the bad thing while trying to “debunk” it. A charming Kirby-themed post about this was circulating around BlueSky with a neat mnemonic “Eat their framing!”. This is why quote-posts are so tricky and why quote-dunking is more often than not harmful.

Alright, enough of ranting. What I created here isn’t exactly a set of guidelines but more a frustrating picture I keep seeing around the social spaces. Yes, world is a rage-inducing place to live in. But it should be in our best interest to make it a better one by demanding and spreading good things instead of being unpaid propagandists for the trashy ones. We have the tools and ironically it’s the tools of those who probably want us quiet. So, and this is especially for the people for whom the word “capitalism” is like waving a rag in front of a furious bull, time to be our own oligarchs and influence the world by our own passive wealth.

R.R.A.

“I want my neighbour’s goat to die.”

“Really? You don’t want one of your own to get a better life?”

“No, I don’t want better life. I just can’t stand them being happy.”

Above is an excerpt from a rather dark “joke” that I stumbled upon on one of my social dives. I personally wouldn’t call it a joke for not only the fun factor isn’t really there in the first place and these days it’s not even a joke by gallows humour standard anymore but more of a factual statement. It’s telling when people say satire is dead because it’s difficult to distinguish from reality. Same comes with humour when it becomes a coping mechanic instead of a “spice of life”.

But why do we continue on this path? Why do we willing remove parts of our humanity, let alone the positive ones and dive deeper into the swamp of misery? Why instead of looking for ways to brighten up the world we only looks for excuses to justify wrongs and punish those who even think about enjoying good moments that happen?

A little personal dive for starters. I didn’t use to be the “icy blue-eyed big woof brother”. In fact, I used to be very gloomy, cynical, self-deprecating and “smiling through pain” type of person. Sure, I could put on a mask of someone neat to stay around but that would eventually slip and reveal who I truly am. And in retrospect it eventually pushed people away.

Weirdly enough, it’s yet another thing where furs opened my eyes. Funny, how the people “hiding” behind their characters are actually more genuine. Sometimes in bad ways too but that’s the “occupational hazard” as my former teacher would’ve said. That said, seeing so many folks around just living and having fun despite some facing potentially life-threatening hardships. They have fun, they genuinely smile, they enjoy being in the moment.

And yet, whenever you get into the wider world, especially online, you see way more misery and hatred. And not just from the “expected” perpetrators but sometimes from the very communities that foster the positive nature of things and want to create a better world for everyone. So what is it? Is the positive look just a shell or is there an issue with people themselves. Then you start accounting for the “outsiders” and whoo boy does it escalate. The “joke” at the very beginning becomes very much a reality. Crowds of people who barely even know what they’re talking about swarm in and start tearing the community down harder than a flock of vultures picks a corpse clean. Why? See the “joke”. They can’t stand someone being happy.

But where does it come from? Were they denied their own happiness for their entire existence that they were “programmed” to hate everything that is even remotely good? But then this would for example deny the “kids rebel against their parents” principle. Taking this example, people like that would be expected to double down on the rebellious act but instead, they’d rather choose to “sink” into the proverbial swamp, be it to “deal with the issue” quickly or to “fit in” only to find out in the latter case that it’ll never work, fueling the misery even further.

But that’s on an individual level. What about groups? Entire societies? Hell, let’s just look at our world. The constant rush, the never-ending chase of something new/cool/whatever, blindly embracing trends just to make sure you don’t become ignored (sorry to break it to you, love, but you’re not doing it right, mainly because it’s not you). All this effort and no moment of stopping and just living has been creating a mindset, in which fun isn’t allowed. Because if you stop, then you’re suddenly “out”; out of “fight”, out of the “cool kids club”. Everyone seems to be in on the “grindset mindset”.

But guess what happens when you don’t allow yourself to be happy? That’s right, misery creeps in and starts growing. Suddenly, anything joyful starts turning into a distraction. Later, it becomes an obstacle; a nuissance. And once that miserable attitude settles in, all the nasty habits bubble out. Why? Because they’re an easy way to “handle” the situation; the “fan-favourite” non-solution.

Now, being a 90s kid, I went through that “edgy” and “nihilistic” era that I guess many of my peers went through. And guess what, even back then it was considered odd to be that way. So what changed? Well, Internet happened. Online social spaces became wide-spread and suddenly many people found their “tribes”. And for some reason, one of the core traits of netizens (good lord, I feel old using that word and I’m way younger than many on-line “pioneers”) has become the “Misery and hate is cool and who displays any form of fun is a brain-dead imbecile”. You’d think this stuff goes away quickly and you might be right if this was a thing recently. But this was a thing back then so it has had a lot of time to “mature”. And sadly it crept into many communities and into people’s mindsets. And Lord knows why people consider this a sign of “being a mature adult”? Really? Being a misery-craving happiness-hating sack of meat and bones is being and adult? No wonder so many look back at being kids.

Want an example? How about Gamers ™? One of the candidates for the most insufferable and immature communities. If you’ve ever been in any community focused around a video game, especially big and/or competitive ones, whoo boy, my condolences to your braincells. Like, the level of absence of any level of basic humanity is insane. The “people” (I really struggle with relating to humanity here) are so depraved of it that if you killed a baby in their presence they’d happily piss on their dead body. Sorry for a really harsh analogy but especially these days I’d be surprised if I was far from truth. Hell, just look at any online forum related to games. Or you know what, don’t. Save your sanity.

Want something more generalised so I’m not scapegoating a group? Not that it’s going to get that much better but there’s a reason I personally consider Reddit a cesspit. Because good lord almighty is that place more pretenetions and snobbish than the most stereotypical depicition of “royalty” in a sloppy TV show.

Speaking of furs, the fandom for some reason attracts so much hatred from outsiders. Why? Is it because it’s weird? How come other fandoms at the same level of establishment don’t suffer from the same? Sure, furs are a bit more explicit (sometimes to a point where it might be advisable to do a good level of personal risk assesment before sharing something because you don’t live in a vacuum and being inclusive doesn’t necessarily mean having no boundaries at all) but

A) vast majority of things you heard are pure bullshit

B) this slander ironically often comes from people who are even more “deviant” and not-so-rarely in ways that would have them end up with a knife to their throats.

In an overwhelming majority of cases, whenever you see a fur, it’s just someone having silly, sometimes cheeky, fun with who they are and who they want to be. Is that too much to ask for? Oh, right, fun not allowed. Only misery.

Ok, enough poking at “fun police”. Let’s look on a different side of this “battlefield”; those who actually fight for the betterment of humanity. Or at least they claim to do so. Because this area has been infected by the misery virus as well. Tell me, how many times have you encountered someone with whom you agreed in principle but their approach pushed you away? Maybe you got a step further and you were acquainted to someone or cooperated with someonelike this and eventually your paths diverged only for your “now former” colleague acuse you of the very thing you were “fighting” against. These instances are honestly even more infuriating to me personally because it kicks the usually good goal right in the face.

But why? Is it because your ideas were different? Is it because one of you decided to lower their efforts due to not being able to work at the 100% anymore, be it because of health or other circumstances? If so, how does that make one fight for better world when they do so using the very same methods that already forster one hell of a miserable atmosphere. To borrow a part of a quote from K. Marx (yes, that K. Marx): “From each one according to their abilities …” and under those abilites aren’t only the physical ones but also mental ones. Not everyone has the same level resilience or ability to commit and pushing them past their human limits only fuels the already inhuman world we live in. And guess what that would make you; the very same thing you’re trying to fix, except you have the right “excuse”. But let me give you a piece of advice: Not even frontline soldiers in active conflicts are fighting 24/7. They too get moments of respite during which they want to take time to live instead of fight. And these people are specially trained to have huge physical and mental resilience. So what makes you think you can one-up them?

“So, wise guy, what do you want to do with all this?” you’re probaby asking with a noticeable snark in your voice. Well, let’s take a peek into my self-mentoring and take few lessons

• Don’t feed the troll. Or someone with an overblown ego. Same goes for idiots. Instead, show a better way in a manner that clearly displays that things are good and the “bad side” is the one fear-mongering, not you. Furthermore, “Eat their frame”. This is from a post I stumbled upon during my BlueSky ventures and it’s really important piece of advice when “fighting bullshit”. In essence, if you want to get rid of bullshit, make sure you don’t help with spreading it with your correction.
• Don’t punish the expected behaviour. I’ve stumbled upon this one more recently and it fits so much. Treating those who don’t give their 100% all the time but are trying is hurting your cause massively. Remember, you don’t need to blow up an entire building to take it down. You just need to “damage” the right places and it falls apart on its own. Not to mention that not everyone has to be a demolition expert. Sometimes you just need someone to “open the door for you”.
• Focus your anger, shout when you need to, live and laugh whenever you can. Don’t allow yourself to fall into the trap of misery. Yes, the world will try to do it in many ways but genuine happiness is one of the best shields. And what’s even better that it’s also contagious.

And most importantly, NEVER throw away any portion of humanity (or whatever your species equivalent of it you follow :3) just because it makes your job easier. Or the cycle of cruelty will never be broken. I’m sure you’re aware that there are philosophies and ideologies that were created in good faith. At the same time, our history shows how easy it is to turn them into a tool of cruelty and oppression as well. Trust me, I know. Or more precisely, my predecessors do.

So, don’t just set things on fire. Build brigdes for those who need help to cross the river. Help those trapped in the swamp to get out instead of waiting for them to crawl out.

And as always, remember to smile. For a smile is beacon of light telling everyone that your heart is home. So make sure that beacon shines bright to make it easy for everyone to follow it.

R.R.A.

#InTheMazeOfThoughts