Writer's Guide 101 (Wattpad Edition)

LXXV. News UPDATES (JUN ~ AUG)

Whew! From the big AI scare to the inevitable TikTok ban, here are your hottest news ☀️🔥

📚 Big Bad Wolf Event At Glorietta

A local book fair taking place at the Glorietta Activity Center and Palm Drive Activity Center from June 19th to 26th. This partnership is in part of Ayala Malls' broader advocacy: "BookLat: Open. Imagine. Discover."
The name "BookLat" is a play on the Filipino word buklat which means "open." There is a wide range of affordable books for different age groups. It's not just made for buying books but also forming a community of readers.
Ayala Malls is going "Beyond Books" by championing a donation drive and encouraging customers to share a book for every purchase in support of Ayala Land's undertaking to foster early childhood literacy.
This project aims to collect 20,000 books that will benefit kindergarten to third grade students in public schools around the Ayala area.

🏳️‍🌈 International Pride Day 🏳️‍⚧️

Every year on June 28th, the world celebrates alongside the LGBTQIA+ community as we promote tolerance, love and learn more about them.
Now, for a brief history, the day was inspired by the Stonewall riots that broke out on the same day in 1969. One of the targeted places was the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar located in Lower Manhattan, New York City.
It's important to know that everyone can celebrate Pride Day regardless if you're straight or somewhere in between. It should be inclusive, not exclusive only to gay people. As simple as respecting someone's pronouns and giving support to your LGBTQIA+ neighbors could mean a lot!

🤖 Cara vs. AI

There is a new social media app called Cara that has invited a lot of users, especially artists. It was launched in January 2023 and just this month, it's already racked up 650K users. This was following the news that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and I think ArtStation have been found to be using people's posts to feed into their AI systems.
It's been reported that Cara is equipped with Glaze and Nightshade technologies to protect your artworks from getting stolen by AI.
Now, hear me out as I give my overall take on this. It's important to be skeptical as I often hear new platforms pop up only to die out instantly (ehm, Threads). You also have to consider what platforms are gonna suit your needs.
If you're relying on art commissions or looking to get hired, it's important you have a main platform that creatives and non-creatives use as well. Not everyone is gonna be onboard with Cara and know how it works. You gotta be where many people are even if it means staying on Facebook or Twitter.
Also, these social media giants should give everyone around the world the easy option to opt out or now allow AI to use their posts. So far, only the EU and America get the opt-out feature albeit it being deemed useless by others.

☠️ Adobe AI Lawsuit

As much as we can all agree that Adobe Photoshop and other softwares tend to be the standard in the creative industry, it's one thing when you found out the same company has access to all your works (including confidential documents) being fed into AI.
This is just my speculation but I think the ones being affected are users who have paid subscriptions. I am just glad to be using an old pirated version 'coz there's no way I'm spending bucks on some subscription that also uses AI.
Seriously, why are companies so obsessed with AI nowadays? It's like the dystopian version of Digimon where technology tries to run the whole world. Adobe did make an apology and it's pretty bad.
Once they start saying that they have trained AI to not use personal data, that's when I immediately become skeptical. You guys are better off using some free software on your tablet.

🎬 Inside Out 2 Just Saved Pixar?!

Let's all take a break from AI stuff to talk about something a little positive. If you think Pixar sucks right now, the sequel to "Inside Out" just shattered the box office with a whopping 650 million dollars!
The film shows Riley who had just turned thirteen. She had found some new friends at school. Of course, this introduces us to new emotions named Anxiety, Embarrassment, Ennui and Envy. I haven't seen it yet but I'm very excited to see it soon.

🇺🇸 TikTok Is Getting Banned in the US

Uh-oh! Hold on to your phones, kids, 'coz it is likely that TikTok will get banned in the US.
TikTok and its parent compant ByteDance are facing a potential ban which is due to a law signed by President Joe Biden, which can impact other foreign-owned apps in the country. This was following the concerns about data privacy and national security issues.
I can imagine tons of these cringey TikTok influencers flocking to other sites and posting videos of themselves freaking out now it's gonna take away their livelihoods.
If you're one of those honest people who consider TikTok to be pretty important for your business or discussing serious issues that needed attention, just know that it's not the end of the world. Let's hope there'd be a much better and safer replacement for TikTok that folks in the US can get onboard.

🕋 Heatwave Killed Thousands of Hajj Pilgrims at Mecca

Every year, a lot of Muslims around the world flock to Mecca which is located in Saudi Arabia. One of the five pillars of Islam is to visit the sacred birthplace of Prophet Muhammad. All Muslims are required to go through this ritual at least once in their lifetime.
Of course, it can get pretty hot especially during the summer. Over a thousand pilgrims (and one of them being a Filipino expat) died following a heat wave. Around ten countries had reported 1,081 deaths so far. Many unregistered pilgrims weren't allowed in any air conditioned spaces.
The others scour every hospital and asking for help online in hopes of finding missing relatives. This summer, I hope you guys stay hydrated and look out for each other. If you're one of those affected, you have my condolences ('-ω-'( _ _ )

💥 2024 San Diego Comic-Con

Listen up, nerds! Comic-Con is gonna be on July 25th - 28th. To those who don't know, this event is especially dedicated to comic books, movies, anime, creators and sci-fi fans alike. It's gonna take place at the San Diego Comic Center in San Diego, California.

🇯🇵 Terminator Anime Coming This Summer

Netflix has announced that the "Terminator Zero" anime series will premiere globally on August 29th. The series will have a total of eight episodes and will be part of the overall Terminator universe. However, it will focus on these new characters.
Production I.G. is in charge of the animation, with Masashi Kudo (the character designer behind Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War) as the director. The synopsis is this:

In the year 2022, a future war has raged for sexades between the few human survivors and an endless army of machines. In 1997, an AI known as Skynet has gained self-awareness and started a war against humanity.
Caught between the future and past is a soldier sent back in time to change the fate in humanity. She arrives in 1997 to protect a scientist named Malcolm Lee who works to launch a new AI system to compete with Skynet's attack on humanity.
As Malcolm navigates the moral complexities of his creation, he is then hunted by this assassin from the future which forever alters the fate if his three children.

🐧 Welcome To Glitch Inn!

Of course, how can I ever forget GLITCH's new monthly service called Glitch Inn? According to their official website, Glitch Inn is a cozy space made for fans and creators as they share behind-the-scenes of their favorite shows.
For US$10 per month, you also get to gain access to their Community Discord, games and events. I know people are kind of iffy of this being a paid service but at the end of the day, they're an indie studio in need of money. All that money goes out to the animators.