For All Of Our Treasonous Deeds

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I am not immune to the allure of novelty seasonal ice cream flavors. (I still think fondly of the pint of pumpkin sp-ice cream I got one year that managed to nail the right amount of pumpkin (some but not too much) and the right amount of spice (less cinnamon than that, no even less) that I like.) I bought this one on impulse today because they didn't have Tillamook brand chocolate ice cream at the store when I was there. I give it a 3/5.

This ice cream says it's "sugar cookie dough flavored" but it basically tastes like sweet cream with extra steps. It does have cookie pieces in it, which I admit are interesting: they are very crunchy, almost like the crystallized chunky sugar on top of sugar cookies rather than the cookie itself, which is impressive to manage in ice cream (since crunchy add-ins often get soggy and lose the crunch). However, despite their food science genius, I personally prefer my ice cream not to have too much texture in it, so it's more of a detriment to my enjoyment than a boon.

The quality is basically Tillamook standard: very creamy, soft straight out of the freezer, and definitely on the sweet side. I like Tillamook in general and this flavor does have the things I like about it, it just also has the crunchy cookie bits and a lack of interesting flavor, so I'm pretty whelmed by it. Not underwhelmed, but whelmed.

Verdict: try it if you looove sweet cream ice cream, Ben & Jerry's flavors with pretzel bits, large sugar crystals. Steer clear if you don't want to be bored by your ice cream, dislike things that are too sweet, only enjoy crunch when it's expected.

I saw Madame Web tonight. It was... bad. It was TREMENDOUSLY bad. It was barely even bad in a fun way. There were 5 people total in the audience, which makes sense for a showing of a bad movie at 9:20pm on a Friday evening (although the film itself, it turned out, didn't start until about 9:45, which. Yeesh.), but was still fewer than even I'd predicted (my number guess was seven PLUS me and my roommate).

( I'd say "highlights" but what I'd MEAN is "lowlights" )

I want my $15 back. I also might watch this movie again and write fanfic about it because there's so many elements that could be good, if only they had bothered to make them good.

Not my usual day of the week for this, but I have some stuff that's been LANGUISHING plus some time-sensitive stuff so. Linkspam time!

• A Jargon-Free Explanation of How "AI" Large Language Models Work (scare quotes mine) – does what it says on the tin. Really worth reading, this is THE article that made me understand how LLMs work. I'm still a little fuzzy on image generators, but I think it's important to have a decent grounding in this stuff since it's (apparently) not going away quite yet.

• Reward for reading the above: Relevant XKCD that suddenly makes sense once you understand the basics of pretrained neural networks

• A research study with a survey on fans' thoughts on AI & its use in fandom. Saw this link posted in one of my discord servers, thought I'd share it around, see if we can't expand the sample pool somewhat, lol.

• Muttersprache, a funny little Ace Attorney fic. Klavier & Apollo-centric, pre-slash I think, but the IMPORTANT part is Klavier being the MOST Committed To The Bit

• Moneybags Flash Exchange is currently in noms/sign-ups. I am currently ALL GEARED UP to think about heists, cons, schemes, hijinks, etc, with a get-rich-quick bent, and I want more people to sign up for the exchange so I will have more money-themed works to read when it's done. Tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell your dog!

stuff I've posted recently (...ish)

• Rediscovery of the Family – outside POV on War of Wrath–era Elrond & Elros; part of my quest to Make Them Worse
• Avowed – original sci-fi disaster lesbians after disaster breakup
• Lips Never Touching – Jennifer's Body post-canon reunion between Jennifer & Needy (whom I am convinced are soulmates)
• Hand in Hand — Murder Mayhem fill, wherein there is no concrete evidence that Lucy and Mina are lesbians. Or that they kill people.