I really love Jack Vance’s world building. His Gaean Reach setting gives an endless variety of cultures, customs and beliefs. And the Dying Earth novels formed the basis for magic system of DnD.

But the real treasure is in how he can let these worlds come alive with his descriptions. Often he would spend a whole paragraph describing something that will never be part of the story but manages to perfectly set the tone of the local atmosphere.

I grew with these books (thanks to my dad’s impressive personal SF library) and they’ve always managed to spark my imagination like no other book.

I use a large folded microfiber towel as knee support in pilates. It’s not as spongy as a normal towel but soft and supportive enough for those exercises that put a lot of stress on my knees or tailbone.

Trollivier

@Trollivier@sh.itjust.works

That’s an interesting topic, because I had my idea from a dream I had last night. Not the most original image, but it was fun to try and reproduce something from a dream.

I recently travelled to Europe, and I’m a big tall guy and was really uncomfortable for 8 hours of travel. And last night, I dreamt that I was in a slightly futuristic plane, that was much wider than regular planes. It had 12 or 16 seats in width, with enough room to be comfortable. The top half of the plane was made of glass and we could see outside.

The plane could take off from an inclined platform, most like Princess Vespa’s ship in Spaceballs :)

Here’s what I was able to do. The only difference with my dream is there should be many more seats per row.

Prompt : The inside of a very wide airplane. It doesn’t look very futuristic, just slightly better than today’s planes. The top half of the plane is made of glass, and we can see the a clear sky through it. It’s very sunny inside. The floor is covered with blue carpet. The seats are individual, all aligned, about a dozen per row, and they are white and blue. The plane is full of travelers. People have screens they can use for leisure.

Itrytoblenderrender

@Itrytoblenderrender@lemmy.world

I prefer mass transit, but with style :-).

Made with comfyui. The workflow is embedded in this picture (Catbox)

Deceptichum

@Deceptichum@quokk.au

✧✨🌿Allo🌿✨✧

@allo@sh.itjust.works

Thelsim

@thelsim@sh.itjust.works

Prompt oil painting, sci-fi, A woman lounging in a golden barge, the barge is filled with velvet cushions, a robot pilots the barge, in a neo-classical architecture canal with crystal clear water, high detail, god rays, painted in a neo-romanticism style --ar 2:1 --dref https://s.mj.run/EINA45dcR5Y --v 6.1

merde alors

@merde@sh.itjust.works

JAW DROPPER

Maurice le tombeur did spare no expense for his golden shoes and shorts. He likes to make jaws drop on his daily commute to village bakery for his baguette. He also fills his pockets with golden glitter—Everytime he takes his wallet out, people think it’s magic✨

A small side note on that 30% ruling, it’s only for highly skilled workers, so there are some requirements to meet.
Also, you’d best not boast about it to your Dutch coworkers if you want to make friends over here :)

Since most games are often mentioned on the internet, I’m going to reach waaaaaaaay back to my childhood and mention Cartooners:

This was a game for kids to make their own cartoons. I spend so much time making all kinds of funny and weird stories. It was very basic, but it had me giggling every time.

The Netherlands is generally quite friendly towards (English speaking) immigrants and expats. Almost everyone speaks English and no one really bats an eye at a non-Dutch resident in most of the major western cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, etc.)
Housing is terrible though, prices are high and it’ll be hard to find something nice. One advantage for you (or any US resident), is that you’re exempt from the inburgering exam. Which means that you won’t have to learn the language and won’t be tested on your integration in Dutch society.

My partner is from abroad and they’ve experienced living here as quite pleasant. They weren’t exempt from the exam though (different non-EU nationality), which was a bit of a nuisance. But in general, reception was positive. They’ve been living here for over 16 years now.
But like most of Europe, we’ve got a far-right government right now, so there’s a lot of anti-immigration talk going round. Of course it’s only aimed at what they think are the “wrong” (Middle-Eastern and African) kind of people, so I doubt Americans would ever have to deal with it.

It was entirely in midjourney, I used the new external editor they’ve released last month.

I’m not a native English speaker, but I always thought an expression like “oh boy” was more self-reflective. Like you say it more to yourself than to whoever you’re talking to.
In which case, the other’s gender shouldn’t really matter?
In any case, I personally don’t feel insulted or misgendered if someone uses it in a conversation with me.

Prompt oil painting, sci-fi, A woman lounging in a golden barge, the barge is filled with velvet cushions, a robot pilots the barge, in a neo-classical architecture canal with crystal clear water, high detail, god rays, painted in a neo-romanticism style --ar 2:1 --dref https://s.mj.run/EINA45dcR5Y --v 6.1

Well, you could argue that this is more about making it as opulent as possible?
Anyway, it’s been a few weeks, I’m sure we’ll see some fresh ideas :)

That’s a great challenge!
Would you mind adding [Community Challenge 57] in front of your title though? It would make it in line with the other challenges and easier to spot.

Edit: Thanks!

Sounds like fun!
You can make your own post for it, we’ll pin it when it’s up. Feel free to copy the format of the current challenge.

Great!
@SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works, it’s your turn to make a new challenge!

I got into Stardew Valley literally by accident. As in, I twisted my ankle during a winter vacation and got stuck indoors for a week while my family was having fun outside. All I had to entertain myself was my laptop and this farming game I recently bought on a whim.

I didn’t see the fun in it at first, but I liked the music and eventually the grind kind of clicked for me. Wake up, water plants, sell stuff, explore a bit, go to bed, repeat. It helped that my other choices for entertainment were a bit limited at the time :) But once the daily tasks become routine, you kind of zone out during that part and think ahead of what you want to do for the rest of the day. Maybe explore that cave a little more, or go fishing for that fish you need for the community center, etc.

But I can totally understand if it’s not your thing. I might not have enjoyed it so much if I wasn’t chair bound for an entire week with nothing else to do…
Erm…
That’s not the most glowing of endorsements when I write it out loud :)

What I’m trying to say is, for me it was a bit of a barrier to get through, but after that it’s such a cozy game to spend some time in. And it kind of has this nice reward cycle that makes me go “just one more day” a LOT of days :)

Yea, lets make it official from next challenge onward.