Slongi and Stew

Author of The Ashen Tales Saga.
Dad and Son Gaming in 4K on YT.

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

🔥 The Ashen Tales – Book 1 is live.
Silent gods. Broken thrones. Rune-marked flame that remembers more than it should.
If you like Sanderson’s magic, Gemmell’s grit, or stories where legacy burns louder than prophecy—
Step into the fire.
Details below. 👇

#FantasyBooks
#FantasyReaders
#FantasyDebut
#WritingCommunity
#EpicFantasy
#KindleUnlimited
#IndieFantasy

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

@_0fux_ @PSA_Sitch @Friended4Ever Listened to it at work today.

Sitch sounded so upset; I stopped listening and put on the video; I thought brother Sitch was so angry he was going to put on his camera to give Adam proper laser eyes.

Turned out mommy and other mommy stayed together for the kids. Haha.

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

A little fun Friday AI fun with one of our Thumbnails.

Make sure to check us out when we are live on Youtube.

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

Go show the Gaming Grabdpa some love!

Slongi and Stew approved!

[gaming grandpa @gaminggrandpa3]

Grandpa's Adventure On Pokopia Live ! 👴 Lets Repair The Cruise Ship https://t.co/RqEe0H5tbP via @YouTube

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

@WhickTv @BoxLoner Your blind spots brother Whick?

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

@_0fux_ I concur.

I think we are a species that was just smart/lucky enough to get to complex systems and have found out we are not quite good enough at complex systems to get to the next level.

It is super interesting to observe. 👍😁

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

I like your birthright citizenship suggestion.

Regarding the candidate vs the voter responsibility.

I work as a chemical engineer; and manage very complex systems (at least, most mortals would consider them very complex).

When we are recruiting new candidates; we check if the person has an engineering degree; their GPA and any relevant experience, and during the interview process you get a feel for how they handle complexity.

I think civilization/governance has gotten to a level of complexity where there are super few candidates that have the intellectual horsepower to be able to vote on a bill; with an understanding of secondary and tertiary impacts.

This is why I would like extensive testing of candidates; not “are they popular” or “are they in my tribe” but purely “do they have the horsepower to understand the problem and the assess good/bad potential outcomes”.

I explained it like this to my 17 year old (he has recently started showing an interest in governance).

In Washington we have an extremely complex system; and we send simple people (not unintelligent; just not capable of understanding such complex systems) and when you give a simple person a goal of working on complex problems; there is a tendency for simple people to make complex problems more complex in an attempt to make things work; whereas an appropriately complex systems thinker can work on complex systems whilst simplifying them in a way that the normal person can understand them more easily.

This is why I lean toward being a minarchist (not monarchist, haha). The states are simpler complex problems than the nation.
I think the country continues happily for a few more centuries if the states had more power than the federal government and the federal government only takes care of truly national things (borders; defense, international trade deals…” as well as having a role in interstate negotiations if two states are having a disagreement.

I know that my preferred system is unlikely ever to be used; but as someone who has spent 30 years working with complex systems, I have seen how systems finally collapse under the weight of their own complexity.

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

I would have happily got rid of the 16th first; but after watching recent events/debates I am thinking the 19th would be on my list to be chopped; as well as reducing voting eligibility across the board.
As someone who has never and will never vote; I wish more people would follow my lead.

I know people often come up with “people should pass a civics exam to show they understand how government works before being allowed to vote”

I am leaning toward “yes the citizen should be able to pass that test; additionally the candidate should have to pass a much more detailed exam to see if they have any idea on how governments work; as well as showing an understanding of economics; governance and many questions on how complex systems work”

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

@AuthorTRobare Elon Musk loved our books so much that he contacted us on two separate Elon accounts; and he was good enough to offer his marketing team to market our books for a small fee.

😅

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

We used GPT 4.0 to assist writing our first novel. 50-100 word detailed prompts to generate ~500 words per scene.

We used GPT 5.0 to assist writing our second novel. We used some longer prompts (1,500-2,000 words) to generate full chapters (~3000 words)

We found AI to be a super helpful tool; keeping it on track and maintaining continuity was much easier on the newer models.

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

@Friended4Ever LOL; this drives me nuts. I wish they would maintain a similar standard across the board… they always start from a position bigotry of low expectations; but forget it when it is inconvenient for want they want to do. 🤮

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

@DarranSF One of our characters “Ashenvael” has a name similar to my gamertag “Akumastew”; when signing some of our side books “spells; recipes” etc I sign it as Akumastew rather than Ashenvael; as the cursive makes it look very similar.

To date; 1 reader asked if that is what we did.

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

We used ElevenLabs for our first book. $200 spent and a lot of afternoons. It was pretty good.

ElevenLabs had a server issue and we lost a lot of our book; they returned our credits (nice touch) but whilst we were waiting we tried XAi text to voice.

1,000,000 characters for $4.20; so about $3 for the full book.

I would say ~95% of the quality of ElevenLabs at 1-2% of the cost.

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

@_0fux_ Yeah; that is a solid explanation. I suspect in a few hundred years a lot of historians will study the success/failure of the long march. I am going it ends in failure 😁

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

As the current undefeated World Champions of Chronicles of Myth. (DaveCon 24 and 25), we strongly support this message. 😁

Check out @JayMac_Slacking’s TTRPG, it is a ton a fun; and this is coming from some who had never played as TTRPG games before.

[Adam Friended @Friended4Ever]

A friend of mine is developing a tabletop role playing game called CHRONICLES OF MYTH! Check it out: https://t.co/Mh6AoV9tIb

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

As the current undefeated World Champions of Chronicles of Myth. (DaveCon 24 and 25), we strongly support this message.

It would be fun if we did a play through on the second channel you guys have where you sometimes play games; once JayMac has a more polished product .

If you had a couple of open seats for that event; Slongi and Stew would gladly take part.

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

@_0fux_ Oh yeah; the COVID handling could be a thing. Could be biased with the post hoc reasoning with it being so long ago now.

[Slongi and Stew @SlongiAndStew]

@_0fux_ One of the saddest part of my existence is; almost every day I find myself wasting a brain cycle as I have a daily “Hasan is an ass-pipe” thought.