#'my side'

[butchtwelfthdoctor]

the minisodes and Aziraphale's understanding of moral grey areas

ok so i was explaining the entire plot of s2 to a friends yesterday, and realised something about the minisodes that is so obvious in retrospect-

in a companion to owls, Aziraphale spends most of the time wondering about what is actually right or wrong and what god really wants and so on - of course, by the end he sees that you can do something 'bad' (like lying to thwart the will of god) and not be entirely a bad person for it - starting to see that moral greys exist, but Crowley has to really really encourage him to do it

in the resurrectionists, the first half he's on 'this is entirely bad', is presented with a grey situation by Crowley (& Dalrymple), but immediately goes straight to 'this is all good' - by the end, he sees that really it was neither (sort of) - but once again, crowley has to really prompt him into seeing the nuance

but, by the end of the 1941 minisode, he says 'well, maybe there is something to be said for shades of grey' - almost completely umprompted by Crowley. he doesn't need convincing, or Crowley to tell him that he can't do bad things cos he's an angel (which Crowley doesn't believe, surely, but he can convince Aziraphale into doing most things by telling him that), he just. accepts the moral grey of everything that just happened. (and presumably apologises for making Crowley shoot at him. or something. he does the dance at least)

this is showing the progression in Aziraphale's character - he goes from being fully convinced he'll become a demon for lying one (1) time to save the lives of children, to at least trying to see how something as initially 'completely bad' as bodysnatching can be an attempt to, in his words, 'alleviate human suffering' (good, even if he missed the point), to being able to say that he, an angel, can do things that aren't purely good. seemingly without any major anxiety over it either. and largely unprompted.

his character is not fully developed yet, and he's still pinging wildly between viewing everything as good/bad heaven/hell demons/angels, and moral greys, nuance, and 'our side'. but he is getting there. slowly.

[miri-draws]

I've been grunklepilled.

[pumpkinhrat]

[temporalteardrop]

bass makes a dollar. i make a dime. that's why i think about lesbian sex on company time

[astronomical-bagel]

[spookberry]

🌲 Oregon Miku 🌲

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

if I've learned anything from grad school it's to check your sources, and this has proven invaluable in the dozens of instances when I've had an MBA-type try to tell me something about finances or leadership. Case in point:

Firefox serves me clickbaity articles through Pocket, which is fine because I like Firefox. But sometimes an article makes me curious. I'm pretty anal about my finances, and I wondered if this article was, as I suspected, total horseshit, or could potentially benefit me and help me get my spending under control. So let's check the article in question.

It mostly seems like common sense. "...track expenses and income for at least a month before setting a budget...How much money do I have or earn? How much do I want to save?" Basic shit like that. But then I get to this section:

This sounds fucking made up to me. And thankfully, they've provided a source to their claim that "research has repeatedly shown" that writing things down changes behavior. First mistake. What research is this?

Forbes, naturally, my #1 source for absolute dogshit fart-sniffing financial schlock. Forbes is the type of website that guy from high school who constantly posts on linkedin trawls daily for little articles like this that make him feel better about refusing to pay for a decent package for his employees' healthcare (I'm from the United States, a barbaric, conflict-ridden country in the throes of civil unrest, so obsessed with violence that its warlords prioritize weapons over universal medical coverage. I digress). Forbes constantly posts shit like this, and I constantly spend my time at leadership seminars debunking poor consultants who get paid to read these claims credulously. Look at this highlighted text. Does it make sense to you that simply writing your financial goals down would result in a 10x increase in your income? Because if it does, let me make you an offer on this sick ass bridge.

Thankfully, Forbes also makes the mistake of citing their sources. Let's check to see where this hyperlink goes:

SidSavara. I've never heard of this site, but the About section tells me that Sid is "a technology leader who empowers teams to grow into their best selves. He is a life-long learner enjoys developing software, leading teams in delivering mission critical projects, playing guitar and watching football and basketball."

That doesn't mean anything. What are his LinkedIn credentials? With the caveat that anyone can lie on Linkedin, Mr. Savara appears to be a Software Engineer. Which is fine! I'm glad software engineers exist! But Sid's got nothing in his professional history which suggests he knows shit about finance. So I'm already pretty skeptical of his website, which is increasingly looking like a personal fart-huffing blog.

The article itself repeats the credulous claim made in the Forbes story earlier, but this time, provides no link for the 3% story. Mr. Savara is smarter than his colleages at Forbes, it's much wiser to just make shit up.

HOWEVER. I am not the first person to have followed this rabbit hole. Because at the very top of this article, there is a disclaimer.

Uh oh!

Sid's been called out before, and in the follow up to this article, he reveals the truth.

You can guess where this is going.

So to go back to the VERY beginning of this post, both Pocket/Good Housekeeping and Forbes failed to do even the most basic of research, taking the wild claim that writing down your budget may increase your income by 10x on good faith and the word of a(n admittedly honest about his shortcomings) software engineer.

Why did I spend 30 minutes to make a tumblr post about this? Mostly to show off how smart I am, but also to remind folks of just how flimsy any claim on the internet can be. Click those links, follow those sources, and when the sources stop linking, ask why.

[hinamie]

trick or treat!

[ispyspookymansion]

stream i am the prayers of the naive on ao3 dot com

[papirfecni]

drunken caitvi at da club……….

[canisbeanz]

Silly doodle bc it was the first thing I thought of when I saw Pomni.

[yuri-puppies]

original post

[ponpasta]

google. show me this gu

[owldart]

New Miku trend?? Sign me UP

People are drawing Hatsune Miku in some of their culture's most iconic looks and I couldn't resist drawing Tlingit miku!!

[honestlydarkprincess]

standard ear piercings count

each hole counts as one piercing to me (except for like connected piercings like the industrial)

*bonus points if you tell me what piercings you have

edit: accidentally skipped 19, so sorry if you have 19 piercings just round down or up, up to you