#...AND finances‚ which is everything in this book

[pegasusdrawnchariots]

Make a poll of your Top 10 Ships so your followers can vote for their favorite!

Well, now that it has apparently been ONE MONTH (🫠), I am here. @clareguilty thank u so so much for the tag & if u wish to do this ship meme again, pls consider yrself duly tagged! Apology offering 🫶

Ur right, 10 IS a lot & it took me a while but we got there! & only doubled up once!

Yes, these are largely canon ships. I'm a woman of simple tastes. (Non-canon shippers, teach me yr ways...)

Tagging @ninadove @oatflatwhite @coldforest @ratherembarrassing @pixelated-glitter

@justbecringe @dying-suffering-french-stalkers @longagoitwastuesday & whoever else wishes to play — just say I tagged u! Enjoy (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[friendlyneighborhoodshark]

"How to Life" Masterlist

Cleaning and Tidying

Make your bed in the morning. It takes seconds, and it's worth it.

Reset to zero each morning.

Use the UFYH 20/10 system for clearing your shit.

Have a 'drop-zone' box where you dump anything and everything. At the beginning/end of the day, clear it out and put that shit away.

Automate your chores. Have a cleaning schedule and assign 15mins daily to do whatever cleaning tasks are set for that day. Set a timer and do it once the timer is up, finish the task you're on and leave it for the day.

Fold your clothes straight out of the tumble dryer (if you use one), whilst they're still warm. This minimises creases and eliminates the need for ironing.

Clean your footwear regularly and you'll feel like a champ.

Organisation and Productivity

Learn from Eisenhower's Importance/Urgency matrix.

Try out the two-minute rule and the Pomodoro technique.

Use. A. Planner. (Or Google Calendar, if that's more your thing.)

Try bullet journalling.

Keep a notebook/journal/commonplace book to dump your brain contents in on the regular.

Set morning alarms at two-minute intervals rather than five, and stick your alarm on the other side of the room. It's brutal, but it works.

Set three main goals each day, with one of them being your #1 priority. Don't overload your to-do list or you'll hit overload paralysis and procrastinate.

If you're in a slump, however, don't be afraid to put things like "shower" on your to do list - that may be a big enough goal in itself, and that's okay.

Have a physical inbox - a tray, a folder, whatever. If you get a piece of paper, stick it in there and sort through it at the end of the week.

Consider utilising the GTD System, or a variation of it.

Try timeboxing.

Have a morning routine, and guard that quiet time ferociously.

Have a folder for all your important documents and letters, organised by topic (e.g. medical, bank, university, work, identification). At the front of this folder, have a sheet of paper with all the key information written on it, such as your GP's details, your passport details, driving licence details, bank account number, insurance number(s), and so on.

Schedule working time and down time alike, in the balance that works for you.

Money

Have. A. God. Damn. Budget.

Use a money tracker like toshl, mint, or splitwise. Enter all expenses asap! (You will forget, otherwise.)

Have a 'money date' each week, where you sort through your finances from the past seven days and then add it to a spreadsheet. This will help you identify your spending patterns and whether your budget is actually working or not.

Pack your own frickin' lunch like a grown-up and stop buying so many takeaway coffees. Keep snacks in your bag.

Food and Cooking

Know how to cook the basics: a starch, a protein, a vegetable, and a sauce.

Simple, one-pot meals ("a grain, a green, and a bean") are a godsend.

Batch cook and freeze. Make your own 'microwave meals'.

Buy dried goods to save money - rice and beans are a pittance.

Consider Meatless Mondays; it's healthier, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly.

Learn which fruits and vegetables are cheapest at your store, and build a standard weekly menu around those. (Also remember that frozen vegetables are cheap and healthy.)

Learn seasoning combinations. Different seasoning, even with the exact same ingredients, can make a dish seem completely new.

Misc

Have a stock email-writing format.

Want to start running, but find it boring? Try Zombies, Run!.

Keep a goddamn first aid kit and learn how to use it.

Update your CV regularly.

Keep a selection of stamps and standard envelopes for unexpected posting needs. (It happens more regularly than you would think!)

[dirtyheathencommie]

DEAR EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED HOMESCHOOLERS

I’ve gathered some resources and tips and tricks on self-educating after educational neglect. This is only what I did and what I know helped me. I’m about to graduate college with honors after having no education past the age of 9. I wouldn’t be here without the following. Everything is free, and at/well above the standard for education in the US.

The holy grail: Khan Academy. Nearly every course you could take is available here, in order and by grade level. Their open-source free courses rival some of the college classes I’ve taken. This is your most solid resource.

For inattentive types: Crash Course offers a variety of courses that are snappy, entertaining, and extremely rewarding. They work for my ADHD brain. They also have college prep advice, which is essential if you’re looking to go to higher education with no classroom experience.

To catch up on your reading: There are certain books that you may have read had you gone to school that you’ve missed out on. This list is the most well-rounded and can fill you in on both children’s books and classic novels that are essential or at least extremely helpful to be familiar with. You can find a majority of these easily at a local library (and some for free in PDF form online low key). There are a few higher level classics in here that I’d highly recommend. If it doesn’t work for you, I’d always recommend asking your local librarian.

*BE AWARE* The book list I recommend suggests you read Harry Potter books, and given their transphobic author you may or may not want to read them. If you choose to, I’d highly recommend buying the books secondhand or borrowing from a library to avoid financially supporting a living author with dangerous and damaging views.

TEST, TEST, TEST: Again, Khan Academy is your go-to for this. I don’t personally like standardized testing, but going through SAT and ACT courses was the best way I found to really reveal my gaps so that I could supplement.

Finally: As much as you can, enjoy the process. Education can be thrilling and teach you so much about yourself, and help shape your view of the world. It can get frustrating, but I’d like to encourage you that everyone can learn. No pace is the perfect pace, and your learning style is the right learning style for you. In teaching yourself, be patient, be kind, and indulge in the subjects you really enjoy without neglecting others. You are your teacher. Give yourself what others chose not to.

[sprintingowl]

Deadball

Deadball Second Edition is a platinum bestseller on DrivethruRPG. This means it's in the top 2% of all products on the site. Its back cover has an endorsement from Sports Illustrated Kids.

It's also not an rpg I'd heard about until I discovered all of these facts one after another.

I was raised in a profoundly anti-sports household. My father would say stuff like "sports is for people who can't think" and "there's no point in exercising, everything in your body goes away eventually." So I didn't learn really any of the rules of the more popular American sports until I was in my mid twenties, and I've been to two ballgames in my life. I appreciate the enthusiasm that people have for sports, but it's in the same way that I appreciate anyone talking about their specific fandom.

One of the things that struck me reading Deadball was its sense of reverence for the sport. Its language isn't flowery. It's plain and technical and smart. But its love for baseball radiates off of the pages. Not like a blind adoration. But like when a dog sits with you on the porch.

For folks familiar with indie rpgs, there's a tone throughout the book that feels OSR. Deadball doesn't claim to be a precise simulation or a baseball wargame or anything like that---instead it lays out a bunch of rules and then encourages you to treat them like a recipe, adjusting to your taste. And it does this *while* being a detailed simulation that skirts the line of wargaming, which is an extremely OSR thing to do.

For folks not familiar with baseball, Deadball starts off assuming you know nothing and it explains the core rules of the sport before trying to pin dice and mechanics onto anything. It also explains baseball notation (which I was not able to decipher) and it uses this notation to track a play-by-play report of each game. Following this is an example of play and---in a move I think more rpgs should steal from---it has you play out a few rounds of this example of play. Again, this is all before it's really had a section explaining its rules.

In terms of characters and stats, Deadball is a detailed game. You can play modern or early 1900s baseball, and players can be of any gender on the same team, so there's a sort of alt history flavor to the whole experience, but there's also an intricate dice roll for every at bat and a full list of complex baseball feats that any character can have alongside their normal baseball stats. Plus there's a full table for oddities (things not normally covered by the rules of baseball, such as a raccoon straying onto the field and attacking a pitcher,) and a whole fatigue system for pitchers that contributes a strong sense of momentum to the game.

Deadball is also as much about franchises as it is about individual games, and you can also scout players, trade players, track injuries, track aging, appoint managers of different temperaments, rest pitchers in between games, etc.

For fans of specific athletes, Deadball includes rules for creating players, for playing in different eras, for adapting historical greats into one massively achronological superteam, and for playing through two different campaigns---one in a 2020s that wasn't and one in the 1910s.

There's also thankfully a simplified single roll you can use to abstract an entire game, allowing you to speed through seasons and potentially take a franchise far into the future. Finances and concession sales and things like that aren't tracked, but Deadball has already had a few expansions and a second edition, so this might be its next frontier.

Overall, my takeaway from Deadball is that it's a heck of a game. It's a remarkably detailed single or multiplayer simulation that I think might work really well for play-by-post (you could get a few friends to form a league and have a whole discord about it,) and it could certainly be used to generate some Blaseball if you start tweaking the rules as you play and never stop.

It's also an interesting read from a purely rpg design perspective. Deadball recognizes that its rules have the potential to be a little overbearing and so it puts in lots of little checks against that. It also keeps its more complex systems from sprawling out of control by trying to pack as much information as possible into a single dice roll.

For someone like me who has zero background in baseball, I don't think I'd properly play Deadball unless I had a bunch of friends who were into it and I could ride along with that enthusiasm. However as a designer I like the book a lot, and I'm putting it on my shelf of rpgs that have been formative for me, alongside Into The Odd, Monsterhearts, Mausritter, and Transit.

[dailyrothko]

No, the Popularity of Abstract Art is Not the Result of a CIA PsyOp

If you are unlucky enough to move around the internet these days and talk about art, you’ll find that many “First commenters” will hit you with what they see as some hard truth about your taste in art. Comments usually start with how modern art is “money laundering” always comically misunderstanding what that means. What they are saying is that, of course, rich people use investments as tax shelters and things like expensive antiques and art appraised at high prices to increase their net worth. Oh my god, I’ve been red-pilled. The rich getting richer? I have never heard of such a thing.

What is conveniently left out of this type of comment is that the same valuation and financial shenanigans occur with baseball cards, wine, vacation homes, guitars, and dozens of other things. It does indeed happen with art, but even the kind that the most conservative internet curator can appreciate. After all, Rembrandts are worth money too, you just don’t see many because he’s not making any more of them. The only appropriate response to these people who are, almost inevitably themselves, the worst artists you have ever seen, is silence. It would cruel to ask about their own art because there’s a danger they might actually enjoy such a truly novel experience.

When you are done shaking your head that you just subjected yourself to an argument about the venality of poor artists plotting to make their work valuable after they died, you can certainly then enjoy the accompanying felicity of the revelation they have saved to knock you off your feet: “Abstract art is a CIA PsyOp”

Here one must get ready either to type a lot or to simply say “Except factually” and go along your merry, abstract-art-loving way. But what are the facts? Unsurprisingly with things involving US government covert operations, the facts are not so clear.

Like everything on the internet, you are unlikely to find factual roots to the arguments about government conspiracies and modern art. The mere idea of it is enough to bring blossom for the “I’m not a sheep” crowd, some of whom believe that a gold toilet owning former president is a morally good, honest hard-working man of the people.

The roots of this contention come from a 1973 article in Artforum magazine, where art critic Max Kozloff wrote about post-war American painting in the context of the Cold War, centering around Irving Sandler’s book, The Triumph of American Painting (1970). Kozloff takes on more than just abstract expressionism in his article but condemns the “Self-congratulatory mood”of Sandler’s book and goes on to suggest the rise of abstract expressionism was a “Benevolent form of propaganda”. Kozoloff treads a difficult line here, asserting that abstraction was genuinely important to American art but that its luminaries, “have acquired their present blue-chip status partly through elements in their work that affirm our most recognizable norms and mores.”

While there were rumblings of agreements around Kozloff’s article of broad concerns, it did not give birth to an actual conspiracy theory at the time. The real public apprehension of this idea seems to mostly come from articles written by historian Frances Stonor Saunders in support of her book, “The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters” (New York, New Press, 2000). (I have not read this 525 page book, only excerpts).

The gist of Ms. Saunders argument is a tantalizing, but mostly unsupported, labyrinthine maze of back door funding and novelistic cloak and dagger deals. According to Saunders, the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), an anti-communist cultural organization founded in 1950, was behind the promotion of Abstract art as part of their effort to be opinion makers in the war against communism. In 1966 it was revealed that the CCF was funded by the CIA. Saunders says that the CCF financed a litany of art exhibitions including “The New American Painting” which toured Europe in the late 1950s. Some of this is true, but it’s difficult, if not impossible, to know the specifics.

Noted expert in abstract-expressionism, David Anfam said CIA presence was real. It was “a well-documented fact” that the CIA co-opted Abstract Expressionism in their propaganda war against Russia. “Even The New American Painting [exhibition] had some CIA funding behind it,” he says. But the reasons for this are not quite what the abstract art detractors might be looking for. After all, the CCF also funded the travel expenses for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and promoted Fodor’s travel guides. More than trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, it was meant to showcase the freedom artists in the US. enjoyed. Or as Anfam goes on to say, “It’s a very shrewd and cynical strategy, because it showed that you could do whatever you liked in America.”

For what it’s worth, Saunders’s book was eviscerated in the Summer 2000 issue of Art Forum at the time of its publication. Robert Simon wrote:

“Saunders draws extensively on primary and secondary sources, focusing on the convoluted money trail as it twists through dummy corporations, front men, anonymous donors, and phony fund-raising events aimed at filling the CCF’s coffers. She makes lengthy forays into such topics as McCarthyism, the formation and operation of the CIA, the propaganda work of the Hollywood film industry, and New York cultural politics—from Partisan Review to MoMA to Abstract Expressionism. Yet what seems strangely absent from Saunders’s panoramic history, as if it were a minor detail or something too obvious to require discussion, is the cultural object itself: The complex specifics of the texts, exhibitions, intellectual gatherings, paintings, and performances of the culture war are largely left out of the story.”

Another problem with the book seems to be that Saunders is an historian but not an art historian. For me, I sensed an overtone of superiority in the tale she’s spinning and most assuredly from those that repeat its conclusion. The thinly veiled message of some is that if it were “Real art” it would not have had be part of this government subterfuge. The reality is very different. For one thing, most of us know it is simply not true that you can make people devoted to a type of art for 100 years that they would sensibly hate otherwise. Another issue is that it’s quite obvious none of the artists actually knew about any government interference if there was any. Pollock, Rothko, Gottlieb and Newmann were all either communists or anarchists. Hardly the group one would recruit the help the US government free the world of communism. Additionally, this narrow cold war timeline ignores a huge amount of abstract art that Jackson Pollock haters also revile and consider part of the same hijacking of high (Frankly, Greek, Roman, or Renaissance) culture. If you look at the highly abstract signature work of Piet Mondrian and observe the dates they were painted, you’ll see 1908, 1914, 1916. This is some of the art denigrated as a CIA PsyOP, 35 years before the CIA even thought about it. Modern art didn’t come from nowhere as many would have you believe to discredit its rise. There was Surrealism, Dada, Bauhaus, Russian futurism and a host of other movements that fueled it.

Generally, people like to argue. On the internet, “I don’t like this” is a weak statement that always must be replaced by “This is garbage” or my favorite, “This is fake.”

It’s hardly surprising that the more conservative factions of our society look for any government involvement in our lives to explain why things are not exactly as they wish them to be, given the (highly ironic) conservative government-blaming that blew up after Reagan. In addition, modern fascists have always had a love affair with the classical fantasy of Greece and Rome. Both Mussolini and Hitler used Greece and Rome as “Distant models” to address their uncertain national identity. The Nazis confiscated more than 5,000 works in German museums, presenting 650 of them in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art, 1937) show to demonstrate the perverted nature of modern art. It featured artists including Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee, among others. The fear of art was real. It was the fear of ideas.

To a lot of people on the internet just the mentioning a “CIA program” is enough to get the cogs turning, but as with many things, the reality of CIA programs and government plots is often less than evidence of well planned coup.

The CIA reportedly spent 20 millions dollars on Operation Acoustic Kitty which intended to use cats to spy on the Kremlin and Soviet embassies. Microphones were planted on cats and plans were set in motion to get the cats to surreptitiously record important conversations. However, the CIA soon discovered that they were cats and not agreeable to any kind of regulation of their behavior.

As part of Operation Mongoose the CIA planned to undermine Castro's public image by putting thallium salts in his shoes, which would cause his beard to fall out, while he was on a trip outside Cuba. He was expected to leave his shoes outside his hotel room to be polished, at which point the salts would be administered. The plan was abandoned because Castro canceled the trip.

Regardless of your feelings on this subject or how much you believe abstract art benefited from government dollars, Saunders herself quotes in her book a CIA officer apparently involved in these “Long leash” influence operations. He says, “We wanted to unite all the people who were writers, who were musicians, who were artists, to demonstrate that the West and the United States was devoted to freedom of expression and to intellectual achievement, without any rigid barriers as to what you must write, and what you must say, and what you must do.” Hardly the Illuminati plot we were promised.

In 2016, Irving Sandler, author of the book that started Kozloff tirading in 1973, told Alastair Sooke of The Daily Telegraph, “There was absolutely no involvement of any government agency. I haven’t seen a single fact that indicates there was this kind of collusion. Surely, by now, something – anything – would have emerged. And isn’t it interesting that the federal government at the time considered Abstract Expressionism a Communist plot to undermine American society?”

This blog post contains information and quotes sourced from The Piper Played to Us All: Orchestrating the Cultural Cold War in the USA, Europe, and Latin America, Russell H. Bartley International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 571-619 (49 pages) https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20161004-was-modern-art-a-weapon-of-the-cia https://brill.com/view/journals/fasc/8/2/article-p127_127.xml?language=en https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/learn/schools/teachers-guides/the-dark-side-of-classicism https://www.artforum.com/features/american-painting-during-the-cold-war-212902/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html https://www.artforum.com/columns/frances-stonor-saunders-162391/ https://www.artforum.com/features/abstract-expressionism-weapon-of-the-cold-war-214234/ Mark Rothko and the Development of American Modernism 1938-1948 Jonathan Harris, Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1988), pp. 40-50 (11 pages)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Antiusurpation and the road to disenshittification

THIS WEEKEND (November 8-10), I'll be in TUCSON, AZ: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

Nineties kids had a good reason to be excited about the internet's promise of disintermediation: the gatekeepers who controlled our access to culture, politics, and opportunity were crooked as hell, and besides, they sucked.

For a second there, we really did get a lot of disintermediation, which created a big, weird, diverse pluralistic space for all kinds of voices, ideas, identities, hobbies, businesses and movements. Lots of these were either deeply objectionable or really stupid, or both, but there was also so much cool stuff on the old, good internet.

Then, after about ten seconds of sheer joy, we got all-new gatekeepers, who were at least as bad, and even more powerful, than the old ones. The net became Tom Eastman's "Five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four." Culture, politics, finance, news, and especially power have been gathered into the hands of unaccountable, greedy, and often cruel intermediaries.

Oh, also, we had an election.

This isn't an election post. I have many thoughts about the election, but they're still these big, unformed blobs of anger, fear and sorrow. Experience teaches me that the only way to get past this is to just let all that bad stuff sit for a while and offgas its most noxious compounds, so that I can handle it safely and figure out what to do with it.

While I wait that out, I'm just getting the job done. Chop wood, carry water. I've got a book to write, Enshittification, for Farar, Straus, Giroux's MCD Books, and it's very nearly done:

https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Adoctorow+%23dailywords&src=typed_query&f=live

Compartmentalizing my anxieties and plowing that energy into productive work isn't necessarily the healthiest coping strategy, but it's not the worst, either. It's how I wrote nine books during the covid lockdowns.

And sometimes, when you're not staring directly at something, you get past the tunnel vision that makes it impossible to see its edges, fracture lines, and weak points.

So I'm working on the book. It's a book about platforms, because enshittification is a phenomenon that is most visible and toxic on platforms. Platforms are intermediaries, who connect buyers and sellers, creators and audiences, workers and employers, politicians and voters, activists and crowds, as well as families, communities, and would-be romantic partners.

There's a reason we keep reinventing these intermediaries: they're useful. Like, it's technically possible for a writer to also be their own editor, printer, distributor, promoter and sales-force:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/19/crad-kilodney-was-an-outlier/#intermediation

But without middlemen, those are the only writers we'll get. The set of all writers who have something to say that I want to read is much larger than the set of all writers who are capable of running their own publishing operation.

The problem isn't middlemen: the problem is powerful middlemen. When an intermediary gets powerful enough to usurp the relationship between the parties on either side of the transaction, everything turns to shit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/12/direct-the-problem-of-middlemen/

A dating service that faces pressure from competition, regulation, interoperability and a committed workforce will try as hard as it can to help you find Your Person. A dating service that buys up all its competitors, cows its workforce, captures its regulators and harnesses IP law to block interoperators will redesign its service so that you keep paying forever, and never find love:

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2024/02/13/1228749143/the-dating-app-paradox-why-dating-apps-may-be-worse-than-ever

Multiply this a millionfold, in every sector of our complex, high-tech world where we necessarily rely on skilled intermediaries to handle technical aspects of our lives that we can't – or shouldn't – manage ourselves. That world is beholden to predators who screw us and screw us and screw us, jacking up our rents:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/yes-there-are-antitrust-voters-in

Cranking up the price of food:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

And everything else:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

(Maybe this is a post about the election after all?)

The difference between a helpmeet and a parasite is power. If we want to enjoy the benefits of intermediaries without the risks, we need policies that keep middlemen weak. That's the opposite of the system we have now.

Take interoperability and IP law. Interoperability (basically, plugging new things into existing things) is a really powerful check against powerful middlemen. If you rely on an ad-exchange to fund your newsgathering and they start ripping you off, then an interoperable system that lets you use a different exchange will not only end the rip off – it'll make it less likely to happen in the first place because the ad-tech platform will be afraid of losing your business:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-shatter-ad-tech

Interoperability means that when a printer company gouges you on ink, you can buy cheap third party ink cartridges and escape their grasp forever:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Interoperability means that when Amazon rips off audiobook authors to the tune of $100m, those authors can pull their books from Amazon and sell them elsewhere and know that their listeners can move their libraries over to a different app:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/07/audible-exclusive/#audiblegate

But interoperability has been in retreat for 40 years, as IP law has expanded to criminalize otherwise normal activities, so that middlemen can use IP rights to protect themselves from their end-users and business customers:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

That's what I mean when I say that "IP" is "any law that lets a business reach beyond its own walls and control the actions of its customers, competitors and critics."

For example, there's a pernicious law 1998 US law that I write about all the time, Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the "anticircumvention law." This is a law that felonizes tampering with copyright locks, even if you are the creator of the undelying work.

So Amazon – the owner of the monopoly audiobook platform Audible – puts a mandatory copyright lock around every audiobook they sell. I, as an author who writes, finances and narrates the audiobook, can't provide you, my customer, with a tool to remove that lock. If I do so, I face criminal sanctions: a five year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine for a first offense:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

In other words: if I let you take my own copyrighted work out of Amazon's app, I commit a felony, with penalties that are far stiffer than the penalties you would face if you were to simply pirate that audiobook. The penalties for you shoplifting the audiobook on CD at a truck-stop are lower than the penalties the author and publisher of the book would face if they simply gave you a tool to de-Amazon the file. Indeed, even if you hijacked the truck that delivered the CDs, you'd probably be looking at a shorter sentence.

This is a law that is purpose-built to encourage intermediaries to usurp the relationship between buyers and sellers, creators and audiences. It's a charter for parasitism and predation.

But as bad as that is, there's another aspect of DMCA 1201 that's even worse: the exemptions process.

You might have read recently about the Copyright Office "freeing the McFlurry" by granting a DMCA 1201 exemption for companies that want to reverse-engineer the error-codes from McDonald's finicky, unreliable frozen custard machines:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/28/mcbroken/#my-milkshake-brings-all-the-lawyers-to-the-yard

Under DMCA 1201, the Copyright Office hears petitions for these exemptions every three years. If they judge that anticircumvention law is interfering with some legitimate activity, the statute empowers them to grant an exemption.

When the DMCA passed in 1998 (and when the US Trade Rep pressured other world governments into passing nearly identical laws in the decades that followed), this exemptions process was billed as a "pressure valve" that would prevent abuses of anticircumvention law.

But this was a cynical trick. The way the law is structured, the Copyright Office can only grant "use" exemptions, but not "tools" exemptions. So if you are granted the right to move Audible audiobooks into a third-party app, you are personally required to figure out how to do that. You have to dump the machine code of the Audible app, decompile it, scan it for vulnerabilities, and bootstrap your own jailbreaking program to take Audible wrapper off the file.

No one is allowed to help you with this. You aren't allowed to discuss any of this publicly, or share a tool that you make with anyone else. Doing any of this is a potential felony.

In other words, DMCA 1201 gives intermediaries power over you, but bans you from asking an intermediary to help you escape another abusive middleman.

This is the exact opposite of how intermediary law should work. We should have rules that ban intermediaries from exercising undue power over the parties they serve, and we should have rules empowering intermediaries to erode the advantage of powerful intermediaries.

The fact that the Copyright Office grants you an exemption to anticircumvention law means nothing unless you can delegate that right to an intermediary who can exercise it on your behalf.

A world without publishing intermediaries is one in which the only writers who thrive are the ones capable of being publishers, too, and that's a tiny fraction of all the writers with something to say.

A world without interoperability intermediaries is one in which the only platform users who thrive are also skilled reverse-engineering ninja hackers – and that's an infinitesimal fraction of the platform users who would benefit from interoperabilty.

Let this be your north star in evaluating platform regulation proposals. Platform regulation should weaken intermediaries' powers over their users, and strengthen their power over other middlemen.

Put in this light, it's easy to see why the ill-informed calls to abolish Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (which makes platform users, not platforms, responsible for most unlawful speech) are so misguided:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

If we require platforms to surveil all user speech and block anything that might violate any law, we give the largest, most powerful platforms a permanent advantage over smaller, better platforms, run by co-ops, hobbyists, nonprofits local governments, and startups. The big platforms have the capital to rig up massive, automated surveillance and censorship systems, and the only alternatives that can spring up have to be just as big and powerful as the Big Tech platforms we're so desperate to escape:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

This is especially grave given the current political current, where fascist politicians are threatening platforms with brutal punishments for failing to censor disfavored political views.

Anyone who tells you that "it's only censorship when the government does it" is badly confused. It's only a First Amendment violation when the government does it, sure – but censorship has always relied on intermediaries. From the Inquisition to the Comics Code, government censors were only able to do their jobs because powerful middlemen, fearing state punishments, blocked anything that might cross the line, censoring far beyond the material actually prohibited by the law:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/22/self-censorship/#hugos

We live in a world of powerful, corrupt middlemen. From payments to real-estate, from job-search to romance, there's a legion of parasites masquerading as helpmeets, burying their greedy mouthparts into our tender flesh:

https://www.capitalisnt.com/episodes/visas-hidden-tax-on-americans

But intermediaries aren't the problem. You shouldn't have to stand up your own payment processor, or learn the ins and outs of real-estate law, or start your own single's bar. The problem is power, not intermediation.

As we set out to build a new, good internet (with a lot less help from the US government than seemed likely as recently as last week), let's remember that lesson: the point isn't disintermediation, it's weak intermediation.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/07/usurpers-helpmeets/#disreintermediation

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en (Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

[homesick4la]

complicated — hamzahthefantastic

1. pushing it down and praying

contains: a little cheating..smoking, some nsfw content but nothing crazy

summary: after half a year of no contact, you run into your ex at a party.

a/n: kinda got this idea from the lizzy mcalpine song bc i am obsessed with it. so listen if you haven’t lol. also i decided to split the fic but it’s only gonna be two parts!

it’d officially been six months since you and your ex boyfriend went no contact.

the first few months were hell for you.

of course, you went through the stereotypical phase of eating ice cream and crying to rom-coms directly after your break up. but that short-lived phase gradually shifted into one that was much more melancholic once the two of you decided to go no contact.

everyday that you woke up, you were engulfed by an emotional numbness. a dull pain that served as a constant reminder of your grief.

you were grieving what the relationship was and what it could’ve been.

you had always envisioned your future with hamzah in it which is why the lack of communication between the two of you left you absolutely soulless.

you had never experienced such an intense love before him. everything was picture perfect in the beginning. it was even better than the movies.

but after two years, the miscommunication between you to became destructive.

things that should have been minor disagreements escalated into full blown arguments. you’d yell over each other, ignoring each other’s feelings and growing overwhelmingly defensive.

eventually, it became exhausting. you were both so angry all the time and too stressed with work or school to address it properly.

ultimately, you two mutually decided to call it quits. additionally, you later agreed that going no contact would be the best option for both of you.

now, half a year later, you were finally trying to move on.

after reading an endless amount of self-help books, you learned that after experiencing every stage of relationship grief (which you had), you theoretically should be ready to search for love again.

despite your reluctance, your best friends had forced you to join all the dating apps- urging you to hook up with someone new to get your mind off your ex.

it took days of swiping left on men that were literally the epitome of a walking red flag for you to finally find a man suitable enough to go on a date with.

his name was matthew. he recently graduated from college and instantly started a 9-5 working in finance. he spent his free time hiking. he had a golden retriever.

he was kind. he was stable. but he wasn’t hamzah.

you two had gone on a few dates. you had even hooked up after a couple of them.

as guilty as it made you, each hook up was spent closing your eyes- imagining hamzah on top of you. that it wasn’t matthew deep inside of you but it was hamzah; the one that knew your body like the back of his hand and knew just how to please you every time.

you were giving your all to this “moving on” stage but you simply weren’t satisfied.

that being said, when matthew had asked you to attend an old friend’s party with him on your last date, you politely agreed.

now here you were, shuffling through a crowd of sweaty bodies with a man that barely knew you guiding you by your waist.

“how do you know the host again?” you ask, nearly yelling over the music that was blasting through numerous speakers.

“he’s a friend from my hometown, remember? from ottawa?”

“right, right. i remember now.” you look up at him. you did not remember.

you two make your way into the kitchen. he pours shots of vodka into red solo cups and hands one to you.

you feel the familiar burn of alcohol stinging your throat as you down the shot.

“you look gorgeous tonight by the way. forgot to tell you earlier.” he tells you, running his hand up and down your waist.

hamzah would’ve told you earlier. he would’ve been kissing up and down your neck before you even finished your makeup while getting ready. reiterating how beautiful you are each time his lips left your skin.

fuck. there you go again. comparing everything matthew said or did to hamzah.

he’s not in your life anymore, you think to yourself. it’s time to get over him.

“thank you.” you answer matthew, mustering up a smile.

“you ready to go meet my friends?”

“yeah, let’s go! i’m excited to meet them.” you were lying straight through your teeth. but you continued to put on this enthusiastic act simply because he was nice.

he leads you to the main room where you meet a couple of his hometown friends. one named kyle. another named josh.

they were essentially carbon copies of matthew. frat bros that grew up and became finance guys.

you quietly listen as the boys catch up on one another’s lives.

until something, someone, catches your eye.

hamzah. he was across the large room with his back faced toward you. but it had to be him.

you could recognize the shape of his shoulders and you knew that those dark curls stuffed under a camo hat could only belong to him.

you stomach drops. somehow, you had never ran into him since the breakup.

the sight of him mixed with the alcohol made you sick to your stomach.

“hey”, you tap on matthew’s shoulder. “i’m gonna go find a bathroom real quick.” you explain.

“okay, just come find me when you’re done.” he replies before resuming his conversation with his friends.

you turn around, walking in the direction of a long hallway that you knew must have a bathroom.

you turn the doorknob of the first door you find and miraculously, it is a bathroom.

you clutch onto the counter, letting out a sharp exhale.

one of your hands grips to your stomach while you continue taking deep breaths.

in for 4. hold for 7. out for 8. you repeat.

a breathing technique that hamzah had taught you.

you hear the doorknob rattle. before you can say anything, the door is being launched open.

“oh shit! sorry!”, you hear a familiar voice as the door is being pulled closed again. “wait- y/n?”

the voice belonged to mandy. hamzah’s bestfriend’s girlfriend. you forgot that her and martin were from ottawa. they must’ve known the host of the party.

she steps inside, shutting the door behind her.

“are you okay? what’re you doing here? i haven’t seen you in so long.” she pulls you into a hug.

“yeah i’m here with some guy i’ve been seeing. but i saw hamzah and just needed to take a sec.” you explain during your embrace.

she pulls away, looking in your eyes.

“did he see you?”

“no, he was facing the other direction.”

“oh okay”, she nods and looks down.

“yeah. i haven’t seen him since we ended things so, it gave me a bit of panic attack.” you chuckle awkwardly.

“i’m sorry, y/n. break ups suck.” she pauses, “when i went through my first break up, i saw my ex at an amusement park about a month after. and i got so upset, i threw up in front of one of those stupid basketball games where you can win a big teddy bear.”

you laugh at her story, “seriously?”

“yes! it was so bad, the worker ended up giving me one of those huge bears out of pity!” she exclaims.

once your laughter dies down, mandy breaks the silence once again.

“he still talks about you, you know. every once in a while.”

every once in a while. you had thought of him every single day.

“every once in a while?”

“yeah. seems like most of the time it’s too hard for him to talk about. but sometimes, he can’t help himself.”

maybe he did think of you as often as you did.

“anyway”, she continues, “whose this new guy?”

she smirks teasingly.

“ugh. mandy, he’s so boring! but he’s so nice! he’s just- he’s nothing like hamzah. i don’t know- he’s really sweet, it’s just not, exciting? i guess?”

she nods. “well, if you want my advice..i say you shouldn’t stay with someone just because they’re nice to you. a lot of people are nice. only a few people will make you feel ‘sparks’ or whatever.”

you nod understandingly.

god you missed talking to her.

“i gotta get back to martin but if you want to talk to hamzah, he went out on the balcony. and let’s not have to run into each other at a random party to catch up again, ‘kay? text me.”

“okay.” you hug her tightly, “we’ll go for coffee soon.”

she smiles before exiting the bathroom.

you look into the mirror, trying to decide if going out on the balcony is a good idea.

“fuck it.” you whisper to yourself.

you didn’t know when you’d ever get the opportunity to speak to hamzah again. you had to go out on that balcony.

you walk out of the bathroom, sneaking past matthew who was still deep in conversation.

turning the corner past the main room, you find the sliding glass door to the balcony.

there he is. alone. sat on the small balcony, lighting a joint that hangs between his lips.

with his camo hat he wore a pair of dark wash jeans and white t-shirt.

you take a deep breath before reaching to slide open the door.

his head instantly whips towards you, his eyes widening a bit.

“hi.” you break the silence. you feel awkward. what are you supposed to say to someone you’ve been completely heartbroken over for the last six months?

“hey.” his eyes soften as he speaks.

“i, um- ran into mandy. she told me you were out here.” you explain to him.

he nods slowly. “come sit.” he pats the space on the floor next to him.

you do as he says. plopping onto the ground and pulling your knees to your chest.

he takes a drag from the joint between his fingers before pulling it out and handing it over to you. you two had shared a joint countless times during your relationship, making the action feel natural.

you bring the joint to your lips, sucking on it for a few seconds before blowing out the smoke and handing it back to him.

“how’ve you been?” he asks.

his voice was calm. you wondered how he could act so nonchalant in this situation.

“i’ve been okay. school’s been stressful.” you say, trying to avoid ranting about the emotional turmoil you’ve experienced since you two separated. “how about you?”

“good. just working a lot. martin and i upload multiple times a week now and run the merch ourselves so it’s been busy, but it’s fun.” his face lights up as he talks about it. he’d always been passionate about his career.

“that’s great, hamzah. i still remember when you had him up on that cracked screen just to have him on the pod.” you laugh.

“oh god, it was a shit show trying to get that thing to run properly.” he chuckles at the memory.

it falls silent for a moment.

“you still gonna become a journalist?” he asks, cocking his head to the side while looking at you.

“that’s the plan, yeah.” you answer.

“good. you were always good with words.”

“yeah?” you smile.

“of course, it’s why i was always calling you smarty pants.”

you chuckle at the nickname you’d forgotten about.

“i thought you were calling me that because of my attitude.” since childhood, you were teased for being bit of a know it all.

“i mean- yeah that was part of it.” he laughs, “but it was mostly because of that big brain of yours.”he taps his pointer finger to your temple.

“well, i don’t feel very smart these days.” you admit. “my grades have been slipping.”

“seriously? how come?”

“just had a rough last couple months.” you try to remain vague.

“your new guy not keeping you happy?”

your eyes widen. how did he know about matthew?

“did you see me with him inside?”

“yeah. i was about to walk into the kitchen when i saw you two together.”

you exhale deeply. “oh, uh. sorry about that.”

“answer my question, y/n.” his voice was low, serious.

“what?” your voice tinged with confusion.

“are you happy?”

you think for moment. you could lie, tell him you’re happy, let him believe that you’ve moved on. but everything in you wants to be honest with him.

“i’m trying to be.” you respond quietly before taking the joint from his hands and up to your mouth once again.

his eyes were glued to you as pushed the smoke from your mouth, like he was studying your face.

“that guy’s not right for you.” he shook his head as he spoke.

“hamzah, you don’t know him.” you’re not sure why you feel the need to defend matthew but you do.

“i can see what kind of guy he is—the kind that can’t even begin to grasp the complexity to you.” he explains.

“you’re high, hamzah. and you’re jumping to conclusions.”, you shift your position on the ground, “based on looks, might i add. didn’t they teach you not to do that in elementary school? the whole don’t judge a book by its cover thing? did you tune that part out?” you say as you stand from your spot. it pained you how well hamzah could read people- how accurate his description of matthew was.

“baby all this rambling makes it seem like you’re avoiding the truth—that he’s not good enough for you. and you’re not happy. i mean has he even noticed how long you’ve been gone?”

you forgot how stubborn this man could be.

you let out a defeated sigh. “it’s none of your business, really. and you’re right, i’ve been gone too long. i should get back to him.”

you steal the joint from his hand and take one last drag before you start to walk back towards the sliding glass door. you hear hamzah rise to his feet behind you.

“y/n, wait.”

you turn around, facing towards him again. “yeah?”

“i’m sorry. i shouldn’t have said that.” he apologizes.

“s’okay.”, you shrug your shoulders. “it was nice running into you.”

he nods agreeably.

you turn back around, beginning to accept that this was it. your last few seconds with him before you were back to no contact.

your hand reaches the sliding glass door, about to pull the door open when you hear hamzah’s voice once again.

“y/n, don’t go.”

don’t go.

“what?” you question, furrow your eyebrows.

he takes slow steps toward you, ditching his joint by throwing the remains of it to the floor.

he keeps walking towards you until you’re just a foot apart. he grabs your hand, pulling you to him and shifting your bodies so your lower back rested the black metal railing of the balcony as he stood directly in front of you.

his face was inches from yours. you could so easily lift your head and kiss him.

“come back to my apartment with me.” he whispered.

“why would i do that?” you replied, feeling the pace of your breath quicken due to the close proximity.

“because you miss me.” the corner of his mouth upturned into a cocky smirk. “and i miss you.”

you were speechless. all you could do was stare into his eyes, trying to decipher whether or not those words had actually just left his mouth.

you swallow harshly before speaking, “i’m here with someone else, hamzah. i’m going home with him.”

you try to stand your ground, but god you wanted to give in.

he scrunches his nose and shakes his head as he places his hands on the metal railing behind you, trapping you between his arms.

“but he doesn’t know you like i do.”

before you can respond, you feel his fingers brush your hair away from the side of your neck.

he places his hands on waist as his head falls to your neck, his plump lips hovering above your skin. your head instinctively leans to the side, giving him full access.

“does he know how much you like being kissed right here?” he whispers softly, feeling his lips move on your skin as he speaks.

he presses his lips to place where your neck and shoulder meet, remembering how much this spot had an effect on you.

you shut your eyes in utter satisfaction. you hated how much of an effect he had on you.

you bring your hands to his neck, then weaving your fingers through his curls as he continues kissing, sucking, and nipping at the sweet spots on your neck.

his hands float down, gripping onto your hips- another minuscule touch that he knew drove you crazy.

with his hands on your hips, he pulls your bodies closer. suddenly, the thought of matthew has completely vanished. you’re completely caught up in hamzah, and it felt so good- indulging in his recognizable scent and familiar touch.

you let out a soft moan as his hand falls to your ass, grabbing it shamelessly.

“hamzah, hamzah— i can’t, we can’t do this.” you say breathlessly, using your hand to tap on his chest.

hamzah steps back, his breath unsteady as watches you carefully, his gaze lingering on your lips. for a moment, you think he isn’t going to say anything— that he was just going to turn around and walk away.

but then he leans, his voice low “meet me outside in five.” his tone carrying both a question and a promise.

you feel a rush of nerves as he walks away, opening the sliding glass door and slipping back into the crowd.

you stay out there for a moment, catching your breath.

you shouldn’t go. you know you shouldn’t.

but you couldn’t stop thinking about the way he looked at you.

next part: with you all night

a/n: yuppppp part two coming very very soon and it’s gonna pick up right where this leaves off. sorry if this is long and boring, tbh i just needed something to distract myself from everything going on lol…k bye muah

[stellarsagittarius]

🧭 8th House: Your Biggest Challenges in Astrology 🧭

[You can book a personal reading with me, kindly check the pinned post <3]

Masterlist: All my astrology posts at one place

8th House in Astrology rules over everything that is the considered to be the challenging parts of life. It has positive connotations in a way that through these challenges we find our brightest light. The lessons in the 8th house present themselves through our connections with other people, whether its physically, mentally, emotionally or even spiritually. Because through our connection with others we learn about life. 8th house is also connected with debts, other people's resources, being involved in drama, but that's a topic for a different day. Let's see how you can use your 8th house to navigate your challenging lessons, so that the outcome is positive and growth oriented.

See where the ruler of your 8th house falls:

Check 8th House Sign (ex. Libra) -> Sign's Planetary Ruler (ex, Libra is ruled by Venus) -> Which house the ruler falls into (ex, Venus in 4th House)

The signs and their rulers: Don't use Uranus, Neptune and Pluto as rulers of any signs. Firstly it lack proper credits, and second it's just not it (found after 1700s). We rather rely on the Traditional Astrology that has been around for millenias (since about 2nd Century CE). It just makes so much more sense (I'm going to make a long detailed post about this).

Aries, Scorpio: Mars

Taurus, Libra: Venus

Gemini, Virgo: Mercury

Cancer: Moon

Leo: Sun

Sagittarius, Pisces: Jupiter

Capricorn, Aquarius: Saturn

If you have your ruler of the 8H in the 1H, all the lessons that you experience lead you back to yourself. It's an extremely self-development oriented aspect. Your challenges and lessons shape the way you view the world. So whenever such lessons strike, seek to understand how it alters the way you understand reality and life itself. These challenges are presented to you so that you can understand no one but yourself, better. You might have a bit of insecurities and self esteem issues, that result from challenging experiences. Seek to nurture yourself in whatever way you feel the most comfortable, and put your beliefs + values first and foremost.

If you have your ruler of the 8H in the 2H, you are here to practice healthy give and take. You experience people meddling in your business all the time. Perhaps you are always stuck with people using your for your resources or material possessions or simply taking more from you than they can ever return, vice versa. Your lesson is to prioritize yourself, but also not be greedy or manipulative with others. Try to not overly attach with material outcomes, and you shall see a much better flow of finances, resources, etc. Seek healthy ways of intermingling with others, of trading and making deals. Don't lessen your personal value for anyone.

If you have your ruler of the 8H in the 3H, your biggest lesson is to express your thoughts and ideas in a better way. If you have your Mercury here *as the ruler, then it means literally speech issues like stammering or even difficultly concentrating. If you have Moon here *as the ruler, then inability to express your emotions into words. Beware of gossip or spreading misinformation, and also consuming information that is unverified or unconfirmed, since you are much more prone to issues with miscommunication. Seek journaling or writing as it can help you regulate all those thoughts in a better way. And don't hold yourself back from speaking up.

If you have your ruler of the 8H in the 4H, you have this sense of privacy that you seek to protect at all costs. The issues you regularly struggle with have to do with being vulnerable and not being able to open up, or opening up too much with anyone. There could be issues with the home and family life, perhaps there are people constantly prying over your personal life or violating your boundaries, or some of your family members being a pain in the butt. There are many ways to tackle these issues, but the best one is too have proper and healthy boundaries, because you are not everyone else's business. Seek close and trusted people to confide in.

If you have your ruler of the 8H in 5H, you might struggle a lot with either being too serious or not being serious at all when it comes to life's pleasures and fun. Striking a balance is the key. People also take advantage of your light-hearted nature, therefore your must have healthy boundaries that allows you to protect your creative and happy space. People can meddle between your kids or your creative endeavors. Your biggest lessons come from you learning how to rely on your creative self expression. Do not be afraid to shine. Your light is very strong and you deserve to feel the best. Seek to explore cool forms of expression and prioritize your inner child.

If you have your ruler of the 8H in 6H, you are meant to prioritize your routines and learn how to be a more grounded/organized/productive person. The thing is you don't need to burn yourself out or push yourself to do tasks/things that simply aren't working out, just for the sake of it. Instead, set systems that actually suit you. Do not make grand resolutions that you actually cannot put to ground. You have a bit of challenge with the material realm, either being too obsessed with perfection or being super disorganized. Some can even have a bit of health issues. Seek balance and create a healthy lifestyle that you actually enjoy living with. Build systems and not routines.

If you have the ruler of your 8H in 7H, most of your challenges and transformative situations in life has to do with others. These could be relationships, partnerships, friendships and family. Through people, you learn and grow. If you have your Venus in the 7H *as the ruler of 8H, you experience very life changing things in regards to romance and building connections with others. If you have Mercury in the 7H *as the ruler of the 8H, you experience difficultly expressing yourself with others. If you have Moon in the 7H *as the ruler of the 8H, you may have attachment issues. So seek healthy forms of communication, expression, etc. Try to learn the healthy patters of being in relationships and don't hold onto people that stall you from moving forward. Easier said than done, but even being aware of yourself helps a ton!

If you have the ruler of your 8H in 8H, you might go through a lot of shitty situations, but you are tough af. This is actually a pretty good aspect because your challenges don't leak to other areas of your life. The only area it affects, ie, the 8H, is about getting involved in other people's lives deeply, psychology and the occult. So you may resort to things like shadow work, alternative healing, etc, to help you transmute all this shadow into light. With this aspect you need to make sure that you don't make 'healing' your entire identity or make your pain your identity, especially if you have a major planetary ruler such as Sun or Moon. You are here to learn about the deeper parts of life, and that is not always dark and shadowy. Sometimes the lessons you learn from other people can be your most motivating teachers in life. So, take it easy. It happens for you, not to you.

If you have the ruler of your 8H in the 9H, you are here to literally find the light at the end of the tunnel. If the 8H is about the shadow, 9H is about the light. Your lessons give you a really big opportunity to go towards the brighter side of things. And at the same time these lessons are very much ingrained with becoming more open minded with life, being interested in learning about life on a higher level such as philosophy or self development. On the other hand, these challenges can also be related with foreign travel, other cultures, higher education, global media platforms, philosophy, etc, so make sure you tackle these accordingly. You struggle more with letting go and getting "lucky" in life because you tend to get comfortable in the uncomfortable side of life. Seek to expand beyond your challenges, and resolve painful situations by connecting with your spiritual/religious side.

If you have the ruler of your 8H in the 10H, you biggest challenges steams from your career and public reputation. You tend to be a bit more secretive about your life when out in public, or simply view others as prying on your private life. People might become manipulative with you when it comes to your career and you might be prone to people spreading batshit about you all the time. There are a lot of ways these events can be tackled, but one of the advice is to not let others know information about your work or achievements unless they are someone you trust A LOT. People can use you to gain some type of fame or take credit for things they didn't even do. You publicly go through tough things, whether that 'public' is just relatives or a few friends/acquaintances. People always get to know about your challenges and lessons for some reason. So, be careful of how much you let random people know.

If you have the ruler of your 8H in the 11H, you experience a bit of similar situation as the ones who has their ruler in the 10H, but the difference is, people use your issues to propel themselves forward in some way or the other. For the 10H persons, people only spread rumors about them and talk about their issues. But for you, people use it to their advantage. You might have a bit of challenge with making genuine connections with others, as in networking and socializing (not personal relationships). These people can use you to advance their career, use and exploit your ideas and work to give themselves a boost. And you might also struggle with creating long term plans and holding your visions. So the advice for the manipulative people part is that hold on until you actually know that someone is trustworthy. And even then, don't tell them everything about your plans and your dreams. 11H or not, some people are very quick to take advantage of our dreams.

If you have the ruler of your 8H in 12H, first of all I want to do is give you a big hug! *sending a virtual hug*. The reason I say this is because both these houses have a reputation for bringing a lot of intense and transformative situations in a person's life in a variety of ways, but not everyone is able to instantly identity these toxic patterns and help themselves get out of it. With this placement your biggest challenges have a deeply rooted karmic hint to them. And almost all the time, it requires for you to understand what that karma is and end that cycle so that you can grow. Based on the planetary ruler in the 12H your situation can be the most intense to least intense, but what is asks for you is to identity the subconscious/subliminal patterns that keep you stuck in life, and transmute them into healing. Take it easy, don't make 'healing' your entire identity. Focus on grounding and your well-being, first and foremost.

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for more Astrology content 🏹✨️!

[anonymous-existences]

Chapter 1 : "Dan you Stupid Fu—"

Dan Phantom/Bruce Wayne, from this prompt of mine: Dad!Dan so Uh here's chapter 1:

[𝙹𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙾𝚞𝚝𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝙶𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚖 𝙲𝚒𝚝𝚢, 𝙼𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛'𝚜 𝙼𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚛]

Dante was with Ellie and Danny, Both had been de-aged because of the GIW and the Fentons, Vlad was still recovering after risking his life to get Danny and Ellie out of the Facility. Dante is now Required to Step Up as the Co-CEO of Dalv. Co. "Has Doing business always been this stressful? I have twins to take care of Sam—" he says in the phone in a tired father tone. "Suck it up, it's a good thing Clockwork is actually helping you and I'm helping you through the Galas and the Schedules you have. Just imagine How Vlad does it." Sam rolled her eyes and laughed. "Have Hope Dante. You can do it. I BELIEVE IN YOUUU!" Tucker yells through the call.

Clockwork looks at Dante and smiles, he was acting as Dante's assistant, although dante is good at the organizing and handling everything. He's not very good with kids. It's a good thing that jazz is there to babysit actually when she can— it's just that she Goes to Work to Arkham and the kids likes to eat the ectoplasm corruption stuff that surrounds her whenever she comes home ... When she <em>Does</em> come home which is rare but welcome. "How's Vlad resting?" Dante asks Clockwork and Clockwork just hums as he handles all the extra paperwork with ease and in a fast pace.

"Frostbite has informed me and I know myself that he'll wake up in approximately... 2 weeks. Do not worry Dante about your children, the Observants are very fond of them when dear little Jasmine is not around and tend to care for them and educate them with humane books. If they didn't I would have banished them back to the Infinite realms." Clockwork chuckled and hums in amusement. "First I become a Ghost King for Danny, Second I become the Co-CEO of Dalv. Co. Three I become a Dad to Twins. Fourth, My Technically Dad Vlad Masters is in a comatose state, and fifth the GIW AND FENTONS still want me and the kids dead." Dante groans. "Sixth, you have to socialize and attend Galas for your Technically Dad Vlad Masters" Sam Adds and he hears Tucker just laughing on the other side of the phone.

Dante let his head fall on the Table as Clockwork chuckled and Took his paperwork and helped him handle them. "Thank you Mentor..." He groans tiredly. "Remember Little King, We still have a gala to attend for Tonight and as Always Jasmine has said she will attend with you to help you escape when possible and if you want to leave smoothly and you need not worry as Sam Manson and Tucker Foley have their day offs today and are willing to babysit the two Little Demonic Chaos Spawns that is the Prince and Princess." Clockwork reassures Dante and pats his head softly.

Dante groans and just Clockwork raises his head and puts a pillow under him, He just goes to take a nap at his desk which he really deserves as he's already very tired from everything. How could this all start because of Danny trusting his Mother and Father?.. Disgusting people. Nocturn who also decided to temporarily work for them and in a human disguise decided to help Around in Dalv. Co. Especially with Finance and now he's official the CFO of the company which has been a great help.

How did Vlad handle all this again? Surely he slept, surely he wasn't always handling everything by himself. If he was then now Dante respects the Man for Handling all of it himself and not letting exhaustion take over his whole soul and Body functions.... Dante soon fell asleep on his desk and Nocturn came over to help suck out the nightmares he occasionally experiences and suffers through, "Clockwork do you think he'll get through two more weeks or are you planning something?" Nocturn asks with an amused smile.

Clockwork smiles back cheekily, "I always have a plan for something." Both Motherfuckers Laughs and Sam and Tucker on the phone still are just dead silent as Sam shakes her head in disbelief and Tucker holding back a smile. "Make it Gay." He mutters on the phone Jokingly, "Well Maybe I should!" Clockwork laughs and Nocturn holding back his own laugh as he can imagine Tucker just dumbfounded as they heard a smack on the other line, presumably Sam smacking Tucker for doing and saying something absolutely stupid Infront of these 2 men who they still label as "Potential Threat" in Danny's Book of Rouges along with some others. "We'll be there at 9 before the Gala." Sam reassured the other Ghosts before hanging up.

[𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚂𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝙽𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝, 𝙶𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚖 𝙲𝚒𝚝𝚢]

"Remember what we discussed?" Jazz asks as she fixes Dante's tie. "Yes, no growling, no hissing, no biting, no excessive flirting, no cursing the living daylights out of people, no letting my emotions get to me and No mentioning of Vlad being sick and just tell the others that do ask that he's on vacation in the Himalayas." Dante lists from the top of his head. "And Don't interact with the Wayne's because?" Jazz adds on, "Because they're Nosy. Got it." Dante just looks determined to get through the night. "Tonight I am your sister because I always was and will be your sister. And Tonight clockwork is merely your butler. And Tonight we will ALSO make sure that you don't get swept away by some hot guy in a suit because you're a simp for people that are both muscular and have a thin waist." She strikes a warning glare at him.

"Yep yep." Dante nods as she pats his chest when she finished fixing his tie. "And if you see a handsome Badboy guy DO NOT, and I shall say again DO NOT introduce them to me because I will fall for them on the spot. Noted?" Jazz says also trying to be single for as long as Possible and Dante laughs whilst nodding which made Jazz smile as she had successfully comforted and made her brother smile once again. Clockwork was smiling pleasantly as he watches the two siblings in the backseat. "We're arriving soon <em>Madame Masters & Sir Masters</em>" Clockwork says with a teasing tone as both tenses up on the spot and fixed their clothing and straightened their backs.

The two out on their poker faces and Dante made sure his pure white long hair was neat and calm unlike it's usual messy and Flame-like appearance, Jazz made sure she looked presentable as to make connections with being a doctor of Arkham Asylum. "We're ready." She smiles gently and lowere her eyelids, to look almost as if she's judging or mesmerized by the sight of anyone or even possibly bored, either way her expressions screams "mysterious lady" which made Dante snort. "You look like you're about to fall asleep—" Dante was holding back his laughter and Jazz pinches his side, "ow—" he yelped as he too straightened his expression to look more charismatic and sociable. Also for the sake of connections.

Clockwork parked Infront of the venue and Opened the door for them as they walked side by side with her arm gently and subtly wrapped around his, it's become almost common fact and Implied that Dante Jamie Masters("37" yrs old) was albino because of his Pale Skin, Pure White hair and Red Eyes that is littered with his long white lashes whilst Jasmine Aqua Masters(21 yrs old) Took after her mother's features. Oh to be Rich and Successful, Both These two hated the attention directed to them as Both of them Stood Out with Ease, Jasmine having a Firey Like colored hair and Dante's supposed Albinism made the pair of siblings stand out more than they'd like be.

"Remember the List Dante." She mutters and Dante nods with a soft gentle smile he always saw Vlad use when socializing with people of high society. Hours Passed within the Gala and Jazz was Slightly and mentally panicking as she could not spot where Dante's outstanding white hair could be but she continued to chatter around with the ladies with ease, the ladies being pleased by her manners and "mysterious elegance" she mentally rolled her eyes at that. All that She's doing today is for her remaining family. Dante, Ellie, Vlad and especially her Precious Baby Brother Danny. She keeps a mental note on why she is doing this at all times. But she finds it pleasant to talk with the ladies about girls stuff such as Makeup and Fashion and especially Art. But occasionally they would ask About her job at Arkham Asylum, she would tell them her achievements.

How she has backhanded knocked out Joker who had tried to escape and saw her as his first target and out of instinct she slapped him with the back of her hand and he dropped on the spot that was always Amusing. Or how she was the one to release and Help Harley become a 'better person' esque. Somehow Jazz thanks her childhood being a messy fighting ring 90% of the time as because of that she can effectively pull out a weapon faster than her targeters or The rouges of Arkham Asylum could.

Wait.

She's getting distracted.

Where the Fuck is Dante.

[𝙳𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎 𝙿𝙾𝚅, 𝙱𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝙷𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙶𝚊𝚕𝚊 𝚅𝚎𝚗𝚞𝚎]

Dante thinks he must've drank too many wine glasses, although he kept his composure he found himself chatting with a man who jazz told him not to converse with but here he is. Now... Both of them were making out in the halls where no other people visits, Dante carried them up pinning them to the wall.

Them being Bruce Wayne, he's especially light for Dante's Inhuman Strength. "My— Wow— you're actually very strong just like your size—" Bruce says unexpectedly, both Men drunk.

Was Bruce Wayne always this hot? Jesus Christ. Ancients help him, he's losing sanity and making out with Bruce Wayne in the Gala where Jazz, his sister had told him not to MAKE OUT WITH ANYONE INSIDE. Well you know what. Fuck it. "You're light for someone your size." Dante says softly leaning to Kiss the Back of Bruce's Palm and licking his fingers. "If we want to continue this we could atleast get out of here don't you think?" Bruce pulled Dante's tie and Dante just growls under his breathe taking Bruce Aback. Dante smirked and Took Bruce Away and out of the gala through the backdoors.

Sorry Jazz, I'm gonna do something Naughty tonight. Dan thought to himself as he chuckled and called an Uber To take them to the nearest fkn 5 star Hotel. Bruce was amused and they waited until they got to their hotel room before Continuing what they were doing.

[𝙱𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚝𝚘 𝙹𝚊𝚜𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚎]

"Clockwork did you plan this?" Jasmine glared at Clockwork who was driving her home after 4 hours of her trying to look for Dante only to find out he's left with Bruce Wayne.. BRUCE WAYNE OF ALL PEOPLE!! THE PEOPLE SHE WARNED HIM NOT TO FUCK, FLIRT OR INTERACT WITH! "I'm getting a migraine..." She stated massaging the bridge of her nose and sides of her forehead as clockwork merely chuckled.

She knew it. Clockwork knew this would happen. Oh Clockwork you— Jazz just groans and upset. "How long will he be gone at the very least?" Jazz asks calmly and tiredly. "Tomorrow by 6 PM." Clockwork smiles cheekily which in turn made jazz groan louder but tried to calm herself and keep herself composed. Alright Jazz just Calm down. You can do this. You can not Not Slap Dante's Head later for his stupidity, he's your brother you can do it later, just calm, you can handle this, you can smack the shit out of him later anyways. Jazz took a deep breathe and smiles, "I shall Beat the shit out of him later!" She smiles excitedly which made Clockwork look at her visibly Bemused.

As they reached the Manor, Danny and Ellie were waiting for Jasmine and Their Dad But got upset when it was only Jasmine who came home, the twins thinking Dante is too busy to come home again. "Oh no little Danny and Ellie(Both 8 years old)! Your Daddy is not at work! He's just preparing a surprise for the both of you tommorow okay?" She smiles gently reassuring them and they're brightened up again. "Okay!" They jumped and said in unison, Jazz swears if they had tails it'd be wagging and it made Jazz's Heart have a cuteness overload.

"My Exact reaction when they started calling me Auntie Sam-sam and Tucker as Uncle Tuckie." Sam Manson (19 yrs old) Chuckled and Tucker Foley(19 yrs old) groggily following behind her, "they're quite tiring but it's worth it" Tucker Yawns and Sam laughed at him before kissing Danny and Ellie's Forehead. "I'll be heading home now, my Little Aria(Pet Pigeon) must be waiting for me" she coos as she walked off waving goodbye to the kiddos who were waving goodbye back. "Me too Jazz! I miss my couch and my Tools." Tucker laughed and followed Sam to His Car, Both going to the same college just different majors, the two drove off back to the city and Jasmine cooing over the twins who giggled happily in her arms.

"Don't worry Okay Ellie and Danny? Your Daddy will come home by 7 PM tommorow! I promise!' She reassures them! "What Surprise Will Daddy give?" Danny asks Expectedly with a very cute high tone and Jazz swears her heart is about to explode. "It won't be a surprise if you two know now doesn't it?" She chuckled and the twins looked at each other expectantly and nodded in agreement, the twins held Hands throughout the day not letting go of each other and truly attached by the hip.

The two chattered about their day with Their Uncle and Auntie as Jazz listened through still in her fancy Dress, she tucked the two to bed before she went to her bedroom to finally change.

She is so going to Beat up Dante once he calls her.

[𝙽𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝙳𝚊𝚢, 12:58 𝙿𝙼]

Dante flutters his eyes open to the hot sun peeking through the window curtains.. Dante groans but stopped still when he felt movement beside him, he faces his head to the side and sees. BRUCE WAYNE??? on his Arm sleeping. Resting. Messy Looking and Probably still naked. Dante combs his hand through his hair as he stared at what he calls "Majestic Man" that is Bruce Wayne. "Fuck... What did I do last night." He Groans and slowly but gently sat up as to not disturb The Sleeping Bruce Wayne. He stood up from the bed as he processed what the fuck he did to get to this moment and went to the Hotel Room's Kitchen. And started cooking something up just to relieve his stress.

Soon Later about an hour, Bruce woke up. He groaned.. his back was sore. He looked around the bed and slowly sat up thinking the person he Fuck must've left him— but nope. "Oh good morning." The Albino(?) possibly Meta-Human Man was staring at him fully clothed ,looked like he didn't look tired at all and had prepared food for him. 'is this what aftercare is?' Bruce asked to himself mentally as This Man Puts the Bed Foldable Table Infront of Bruce and Literally served him, home cooked Breakfast in bed.

Did he accidentally get married whilst drunk?? Bruce was bemused, cautious but also felt fucking stupid but he's calculating everything he needs to say from now but he totally didn't have a contingency plan for this occurrence. "Sorry for going too rough on you last night, Kinda lost my Temper and Control—" The Suspected Albino Meta-Human, Dante Jamie Masters as Bruce Recalls was Apologizing as he scratched his nape. "It's quite alright, Thank you for serving me a meal so early in the morning—" Bruce tried to play it cool and smiled but damn. His body felt numb. How long did they go for?

"I can help you get out if you wish! And dress even!" Dante smiles at him softly and even kissing the back of Bruce's Palm. Bruce is totally unprepared for any of this happening as he did not expect to get princess treatment by a possible One- night stand. Goddamn. He hopes none of his kids find out. This would be the most Embarrassing story that his kids will poke fun of him about if they ever found out what this man did and He hopes that Dante also doesn't tell anyone.

Meanwhilst Dante was already totally smitten with the man and Jazz told Him that he should be polite and Kind to those he wants to court and Somehow... Dante has a feeling that he should take some toys home for his kids... And oh god Jazz is going to kill him.

Oh god, the Ghostly Courting Methods Shall start today. WHOOOO!!!

[roosterforme]

The Intern Prologue | Rooster x Reader

Summary: You barely have a minute to yourself after graduating at the top of your Ivy League class before your father insists you find an internship. Your days of lounging by the pool and partying are numbered as he has an endless parade of his colleagues visiting the house. But one of them is familiar to you in a way that warms your skin just like the San Diego sun.

Warnings: Language (eventually 18+)

Length: 1800 words

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female Reader

The Intern masterlist. Check out my masterlist for more. Banner by @mak-32

"We need to start talking about your summer internship."

You had been home for less than one full day, and your father was already on his favorite topic of conversation: your future as a business mogul poised to take over his empire.

"Can we talk about it tomorrow, Daddy?" you asked, flashing him your sweetest smile as you yanked your sunglasses down lower on your nose. It was the end of May. You'd just graduated with top grades and a master's degree in business analytics and finance from his Ivy League alma mater. You were doing everything you could to uphold the family name as his only child, but you just wanted one day off before you got fully immersed in his world.

He sighed and glanced between you and the enormous pool behind the house you grew up in just outside San Diego. "Tomorrow morning. We will talk about it at breakfast," he said sternly. But then you watched his features crack into that soft smile he only ever shared with you. "I'm really proud of you, Sweetheart. You'll do big things."

Your annoyance with him melted away. "Thanks, Daddy." Most of your motivation to succeed came from him and his own personal success, but he worked nearly all the time. You would find a way to balance out a summer internship along with hanging by the pool and partying with your friends. You'd spent years perfecting this routine in college so that you graduated first in your class while still devoting your weekends to your sorority sisters and fraternizing with the fraternity boys.

Your father kissed the top of your head, and once he was gone, you rolled onto your belly. You wanted to feel the glorious heat from the California sun on every bit of your skin. While you enjoyed the different seasons on the east coast and the beautiful Ivy League campus, you certainly missed this weather. You were half tempted to untie your bikini top now that you were alone, but your father always had a parade of his colleagues and employees coming through the house to talk shop. And a lot of them were older and ex-military, and your dad would have a fit. You smiled, because that made you want to do it even more.

You spent all morning and most of the afternoon laying out by the pool with a book that wasn't holding your interest and your enormous water cup. You only ventured inside to get lunch where you waved off your father's chef when she tried to make something for you. It was her job, but you were twenty four and far less helpless than your father when it came to most things around the house. You made a sandwich and took it back out to the pool where the groundskeeper was testing the water. 

Everyone here was calling you 'Miss' which was already getting on your nerves. Nobody cared who you were when you were strolling through campus at the University of Pennsylvania, because their mommys and daddys were even wealthier and more famous than your dad. They just called you by your first name and let you blend in. 

"Miss, the pool chemicals look good," the groundskeeper told you. "Enjoy your swim."

Before he wandered off to work on his next chore, you called out, "Thank you." The funny thing was, your dad never used the pool. All he did was work. He probably only kept it open for the past six years while you were away in Philadelphia just in case you wanted to use it when you were home on breaks. 

And that's what had you walking over to the edge and dipping your toes in the water. There was a bit of a chill to it, probably because the sun had warmed you to your bones. Goosebumps ripped along your skin, and your nipples furled softly in your bikini top. You were suddenly very aware of your body as you heard your dad's booming laughter coming from inside the house along with dress shoes on the Calacatta marble floor. 

You swirled your toes around again as you turned to look through the open French doors at the group of men and women all in black suits. Most of them were as old as your dad with graying hair and scowling faces that conveyed how little they appreciated having their time wasted. All except for one. He was younger and taller than the rest, and he was the only person you knew by name. You hadn't seen him since you were home in December, but Bradley Bradshaw looked just as good now in his navy blue suit as he had with a glass of champagne and pink cheeks in his silk Fair Isle sweater at your father's holiday party. Maybe even better.

Now that he was a mere fifty feet away from you, it surprised you a bit that you hadn't really thought about him in months. His brown eyes met yours and he took a few steps to separate himself from the group. He shot a crooked little grin your way, and you smiled back before your eyes shifted to the pristine pool water. 

That night had been fun, even though your dad insisted you wear a modest forest green dress instead of the black one you brought home from Philadelphia. The champagne and mulled wine made it almost entertaining for you to drift from one of his geriatric colleagues to the next, intentionally asking them almost bizarre questions just to see how they would react. But Bradley had been there, and when you asked him if he'd ever had wine from Domaine Tropez in the south of France, he responded in a deep rumble of a voice saying, "I have a box of wine in my refrigerator that just says White Wine on the side of it. Does that answer your question?" 

You couldn't remember the last time someone made you laugh so hard, and he didn't look at you like the spoiled brat you almost enjoyed playing the part of.

"The vineyard sent me a bottle of rouge for my birthday. Want to try it?" you had asked him, feeling a little drunk and silly as he set his empty champagne flute on a passing tray. 

"You want to waste it on a guy who drinks boxed wine?" he asked, his voice impossibly deep and his mustache twitching with amusement. "I thought you were supposed to be smart. Your father talks about you all the time."

You had been about to take him by the hand and lead him to the kitchen where you'd stashed the wine so your dad wouldn't drink it, but then Bradley got pulled into a conversation with someone else. But you felt his eyes on you frequently throughout the night. And he did make it a point to say goodbye to you, letting you see those rosy cheeks up close one more time.

Just then you were jolted back to the present as you nearly toppled into the pool. Your father's voice carried outside, inflection full of pride as you heard him say, "My daughter flew back last night. Graduated top of her class with the same degree I earned. Following right in my footsteps, if you can believe it. Higher marks than I ever had."

There was some soft laughter and words of congratulations aimed at him, even though you were the one who had worked so hard. You rolled your eyes and planted both feet on the edge before diving as gracefully as you could into the pool. You swam nearly all the way across underwater, grateful for the bit of silence as you collected your thoughts. The water cooled you without being cold enough that you wanted to get out, and when you surfaced, you took a deep breath. 

Everyone seemed to have moved along from the open French doors, probably heading deeper into the house toward your dad's study or his conference room. You swam off toward the pool float that was drifting along in the shallow end, and you pulled yourself gracelessly up onto it. Just as you were fixing your bathing suit, about to settle in for another hour of sunbathing, a shadow crossed your face, and you nearly landed back in the water as you jumped.

"Congratulations."

It was Bradley Bradshaw standing over you with his hands on his narrow hips and his tie loosened in a way that you couldn't stop looking at. You desperately wished you had your sunglasses to help shield your eyes from the bright light as well as the fact that you were on the verge of checking him out. 

"Heard you graduated with a splash," he added, smiling as you dipped your foot in the water.

You rolled your eyes and settled back against the raft. "Crazy, isn't it? There's almost nothing you can't accomplish when you set your mind to it and have a billion dollar bankroll behind you, just helping you along the way."

His laughter made you feel warmer than the sunshine. "Are you daring to call yourself privileged?" He kept his eyes on yours, and you were impressed that they weren't straying south.

"Are you daring to say you aren't, Mr. Bradshaw?" you asked him with a smirk. "I didn't know you could buy Armani suits at JCPenney. I guess even an Ivy League valedictorian can learn something new every day."

He rubbed his hand over his lips and mustache to try to hide his amusement, and you wiggled back against the raft with a smile of your own. You weren't sure what possessed you to talk to him like this; he was your father's colleague after all. But you felt validated as he squatted down in his three thousand dollar suit to test the water temperature with his hand, because he shook his head slowly at you and said, "I'm impressed you even know what a JCPenney is. You're a bit of a brat, aren't you?"

Now you were the one trying to hide your smile behind your hand. "Don't get it twisted. I've never actually been to one. But all the prep school kids used to talk about shopping for suits off the rack along with knockoff handbags just to rile up our parents."

You thought you heard him mutter the word brat again as he stood. "Well, as much fun as this has been, I'm not dressed for swimming, so I guess I'll go find the other Armani suits and get back to work instead."

"Shame, that," you replied, clicking your tongue. "Bring your Armani swim trunks next time and stay a while."

Now that he was standing at his full height, his gaze slowly drifted down your body, and his cheeks turned ruddy just like they had after an evening of indulging in champagne last December.

"Maybe I will."

------------------------

Stay tuned for chapter one. We're about to go on an adventure. Thanks to @mak-32 and @beyondthesefourwalls

PART 1

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[guxciestone]

🔮 ❛ SR JUPITER THROUGH THE HOUSES ༉‧₊˚ ˚୨୧

(solar return chart)

💜✧

‎ ‎

‎ ‎

❝ what is your abundance for the year? ❞ ✧ ೃ༄

‎i hope you’re having an amazing day. if you have an post suggestions i’m glad to consider them. enjoy <3

‎

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jupiter in the 1st house

This is an indication that you’ll find abundance and expansion in your outlook, appearance, personality, and how others and life treat you this year. You might notice that your mindset is leaning towards positivity, faith, and optimism this year. It may be easier for you to look on the bright side and for things to go your way. More luck than usual is usually what comes with this placement. This year you’ll feel like you can take on the world. You might want to expand your horizons and try new things, whether that be your social circle, career life, family life, spiritual life, or emotional life. During this time you’ll notice that you don't take things as seriously. It can be easier for you to recover from setbacks. On the other hand, be careful about overindulgence because this placement is notorious for allowing you to gain weight easily or become lazy and arrogant.

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jupiter in the 2nd house

This shows that you’ll find abundance and expansion in your finances, material possessions, and skills. It is possible that you might land a new job opportunity or discover an incredible source of income for yourself. Perhaps you experience some type of financial windfall. You might suddenly gain more physical items as well such as a new house, a new car, or or new clothes. This placement is useful for when you want to build on your skills or abilities to land your desired career because it is easier for you to do so. For example: If you want to get a job as a chef, this is the perfect year to enroll in culinary arts classes and practice. However, be careful with how you handle your possessions this year because it could easily fluctuate and you could become impulsive with your spending habits. Do not overspend or buy things that are unnecessary.

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jupiter in the 3rd house

This year is the year in which you find abundance and expansion in your mind, learning processes, communication, and peers. You’ll see that this year you’ll feel a strong need to expand your mind and learn things. Perhaps you’ll begin to read more books, study harder in school/college, enroll in a class, or watch more informational videos in your freetime. If you are in school, your grades may be significantly better than usual and there’s luck in your academic opportunities too. There is a possibility that you seem to be more extroverted and desire to be more social this year. You are charming and more witty, perhaps making friends through your peers. You could expect yourself to want more reflective and thoughtful talks with people this year. You might also be capable of handling more tasks than usual. You are able to be busier in your daily life because you mostly have a lot to do. However, it is almost impossible to get to know everything at once. It is important to slow down this year, and don’t overwhelm yourself with tasks.

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jupiter in the 4th house

This is an indication that you’ll find abundance and expansion in your family, home life, and sense of security. It is possible that your family life is relatively happier, brighter, and more stable. There could be increased peace in the home as well. It could be that most family troubles are going away significantly. There could be something expanding your family life as well–perhaps a new baby, new money, or even a new home or home renovation. There could even be small changes in the home such as making a new flower garden, painting the walls of your room, and much more. For the older individuals, perhaps you are considering retirement to where you can finally enjoy the fruits of your labor.

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jupiter in the 5th house

This shows that you’ll find abundance and expansion in your joys, self-expression, and casual relationships. It is possible that you could be trying new hobbies and aspirations, expanding your personal interests to learn more about things. This placement also calls for you to enjoy yourself more often. Perhaps you are going out to parties more, spending time with friends, having more crushes, or engaging in casual relationships. You could also notice that you are yearning to show yourself more, taking yourself out of your comfort zone and trying new versions of expression. It could be that you might get a new tattoo, a new style, or try different people than what you are used to. This placement is useful for you if you want to win the lottery within the year. This placement is also great for when you want to win the lottery.

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jupiter in the 6th house

This year is the year you’ll find abundance and expansion in your daily life, health, work, and routine. This is a time where you probably want something more out of your day-to-day habits, perhaps you strive to become more busy and fill up your to-go list during this time. You could be busier this year, especially at your work. Perhaps you are working more often and get recognized at your job for your hard work. It is also the case that you could even start an exercising regime, schedule more meetups with peers, or eat more exciting foods. On the other hand, it is important to be careful about overindulgence and laziness in your routine. There could be overeating involved and weight gain is more possible.

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jupiter in the 7th house

This is an indication that you’ll find abundance and expansion in your interpersonal relationships, your environment, and others. This placement is victorious for bringing in a new relationship or even a proposal if you are in a long-term relationship. If you are already married, the benefits of being with your spouse will show this year. You’ll notice that in general all of your relationships with others will improve. You are getting along with others and others are getting along with you. You may even meet significantly more new people this year. There is a possibility that you are more social, charming, talkative, and extroverted too. If there are any business partnerships or alliances, you’ll see that you’ll reap the success of it when you cooperate with them.

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jupiter in the 8th house

This shows that you’ll find abundance and expansion in other people’s possessions. During this year, it is possible that you’ll receive a gift from someone at some point. This could be an inheritance, monetary settlement, or even something you begin to own after a divorce–such as a house, car, kids, or even huge sums of money. If you receive huge amounts of cash this year, make sure to manage it successfully by hiring a financial manager or putting all of the money into an account. This placement is also known for when you are making huge purchases such as buying an estate. Your intimate relationships are also more apparent this year, especially towards your spouse or loved ones.

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jupiter in the 9th house

There is a strong need to search and expand on a higher understanding of the divine this year. Perhaps you are stepping into a new religion, learning about new religions, becoming a meditator, or getting more in touch with your higher self or spirit guides this year. You’ll find that you also desire peace and sanctuary more too. This is one of the perfect placements for when you need guidance and messages from your guides because you are more than willing to connect with them. There is also the possibility that you are willing to learn much more in general. You might engage in learning new things on your own. Perhaps you found new academic opportunities such as joining a college or enrolling in a new class. You could feel the urge to travel as well.

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jupiter in the 10th house

This year is the year you’ll find abundance and expansion in your reputation, image, and career life. It is notable that you’ll more likely find better career opportunities within the year. Perhaps you get a job promotion and land a new job with better payments. You could have a chance to expand your career as well. If you own a business, you are more than able to expand your business success and popularity. In regards to your reputation, your image is in luck because you’ll notice that you are more popular and this could help with any venture you are pursuing. This placement is great for fame in extreme cases.

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Jupiter in the 11th house

This is an indication that you’ll find abundance and expansion in your goals, friendships, and dreams. It is possible that you have more prominent goals than usual and you will benefit from these goals directly. There’s an opportunity to go after this goal only after a significant sacrifice in an area of the individual’s life. There is a possibility you will have to fight for what you want, but since luck is on your side in this area, it’ll be much easier and worth it. You’ll also find that your social life is more apparent. You might gain new friends or your friend group is more stable and tranquil right now.

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Jupiter in the 12th house

This shows that you’ll find abundance and expansion in your spiritual self, unconscious, and hidden parts of yourself. This placement indicates that the universe will most likely have your back entirely this year. You’ll feel more connected with your higher self and your spirit guides. Your shadow work journey, discovering ignored parts of yourself, self-discovery journey could be significantly easier to go through and deal with since the universe can give you more apparent messages during this year. At the same time, you are more willing to dive into those parts of yourself even without the help. Self-isolation for concentration for oneself is common.

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[pilfappreciator]

Part 1 | Part 2

WAKE UP BABES!! DINNER IS SERVED!!!

Bruce/Brandi x Reader: part 2

Includes: GN! Reader, Vacay Lovers, polyamory, relationship headcanons, slight Bruce Jr. slander

💜 These two took things slow when they were wooing you, you better BELIEVE they're gonna do the same once you've actually been bagged

🧡 I MEAN DON'T GET ME WRONG!! They're not any less passionate about you or anything, but like... c'mon. They're middle-aged, run a full time business and are married with kids. They've got a lot on their hands already so chances are they're not immediatly urging you to move in with them or just straight up sign marriage documents (sorry to disappoint u_u)

💜 But like I said: this doesn't mean they're not good lovers

🧡 In fact I'd say in my entirely unbiased opinion that they'd make fantastic lovers! Wonderful! Superb, even!

💜 So naturally, once you find yourself added to the relationship? Expect all that supportive energy thrown your way too lol

🧡 No matter what endeavor you choose to pursue, rest easy knowing you'll have your own personal cheerleaders having your back at all times. You got a hobby you're really into? SAY LESS BABES!! Gift-giving is Brandi's love language so you bet your ass she's buying you everything you could possibly need. Wanna pursue some form of higher education, maybe get some fancy degree? BOOM, you've just signed yourself up for study sessions with Bruce

💜 (I mean like... he might not be much help if you're studying for something shmancy like law or medicine, but he will happily hold and read out flashcards for you :3)

🧡 Or maybe you just wanna help out around Vacay Island which? Yes hello they would love that??

💜 Running a business is no easy feat so the couple definitely welcome the extra set of hands (paws??). If you're more social and outgoing then chances are you're out on the front lines with Bruce, taking orders for food, welcoming guests and getting them settled in, leading activites like volleyball or the weekly shuffleboard tournament, etc.

🧡 Obviously if you'd rather remain behind the scenes, you're more than welcome to join Brandi on her end of things. Making food, booking guests into their rooms, keeping track of all the finances, etc.

💜 Maybe you're crap with spreadsheets and numbers and just wanna like... keep her company while she works at her desk? Grab her some refreshments every now and then?? Maybe even offer a shoulder massage once you've noticed she's been hunched over for too long???

🧡 I swear this woman will cherish you forever

💜 Whether you're another troll like Bruce or a fellow Vacationer like Brandi, the way you spend time with either of these two can differ

🧡 If you're on the smaller side? Bruce just enjoys getting to hold your hand while walking alongside you on the beach. The man spends pretty much all his time around literal giants and it can get a little overwhelming sometimes, so he can definitely appreciate having someone around who's more on his level (hehe). Brandi on the other hand just thinks your small size is cute! Hands down one of her favorite things is when either you or Bruce (OR BOTH) just like? Casually hitch a ride on her shoulder?? Or she'll hold you both in the palm of of her hand and just go "omigosh it's totally like holding a couple of grapes haha :D"

💜 Reader POV: Ah yes. Me, my boyfriend, and our giant girlfriend/wife

🧡 On the flipside, if you're closer to Brandi's size? This woman is taking every available opportunity to take full advantage of the fact. She's laying kisses all over your face, running her fingers through your hair, cuddling with you after a long day of work, etc etc. Technically speaking she COULD (and DOES) do all this regardless of how big/small you are... but at the same time it's just soooo much easier when she doesn't have to constantly watch herself so she doesn't accidentally crush you ://

💜 Meanwhile Bruce is just like "if either of you DO crush me... you won't hear any complaints from my end, just sayin"

🧡 Man is horrendously down bad 😳

💜 Last post i was like OUTINGS WITH BRANDI, but this post?? SURFING LESSONS WITH BRUCE! This man will not rest until you know how to ride a wave, okay, he is DEDICATED. Once you've gotten good enough, expect regular invites to the beach so you two can hit the ocean asdjahdslak

🧡 I like to think that even while running a business and family, Bruce and Brandi are still perfectly capable of maintaining a healthy love life— both with each other and you. Partly because they're just that in love but also cuz they don't let ANYTHING get in the way of weekly date nights (yeah that's right, plural)

💜 Bruce, on the phone: "Hey honey, me and (____) are outside the resturaunt. Where are you?"

"Oh, I'll probably be a few minutes. Bruce Jr. just set off a firework in the kitchen, you know how he is. But you two should go get us a table while you're waiting!"

"Alright, we'll see you later, love you :)"

"I love you guys more~"

🧡 And then Bruce just... hangs up and leads you inside the resturaunt, meanwhile you're just?? Very concerned????

💜 Dates with these two are pretty casual ngl. Neither feel the need for extravagant displays of love, so chances are the three of you are just spending some quality time together. Chillin at home without the kids, cooking/baking food together, watching reality TV

💜 (Tbh there's probably some trollverse version of The Bachelor/Bachelorett and lemme tell you that these two EAT THAT SHIT UP)

🧡 Of course if you wanna go out somewhere fancy then no worries!! Your girl Brandi knows the downlow on all the hottest spots in town and Bruce likely has enough connections to get you three reservations at even the fanciest restaurants

💜 Simply ask and these two will find a way to get it done <33

🧡 LOTS OF FAMILY OUTINGS WITH THE VACAY LOVERS HOUSEHOLD!!!

💜 At some point in the relationship Bruce will approach you and go "Hey, our son Benni has a dance recital tomorrow, did you wanna come?" and the second you say yes is the second you offically become a permanent member of the family. You are joining their monthly family camping trips. You are helping Brandi make cupcakes for school soccer games. You and Bruce are sitting down with the kids for homework help

🧡 Hopefully you've got good memory cuz you're gonna need to memorize 13 different fast food orders whenever the kids drag you to Bergen King askdhalslk

💜 Speaking of the little shits

🧡 You thought you were spending a lot of time with them BEFORE you were smoochin their parents?? Well congrats because the second you start becoming a permanent member at the dinner table, expect to have all 13 of them constantly hanging off you

💜 Maybe one of them needs your help practicing a new move they've learned from their martial arts class, maybe another wants someone to listen as they info dump about their latest hyperfixation, or maybe they just need help kickstarting their underground fireworks selling business

🧡 Cough cough (Bruce Jr) cough cough

ASJKJDHALJSKD THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN, I LOVE THESE TWO SO MUCH!! There were a for more headcanons i wanted to touch upon but the post was getting long lol. Definitely plan on doing more for them tho so no worries uwu

but i mean like if you guys got prompts/questions then go ahead, my asks are open 👀👉👈

[mxchxelschmidt]

Hi! Hope ur doing well!🫶

Could you do something where he’s stressed out and snaps at yn but then he makes up for it?:)

Stressed Mike! Snapping at the reader. This ended up being 100% domestic fluff bullshit and I’m here for it honestly. Hope you enjoy anon! Hope you have a good night.

At this point you two didn’t even remember why the argument started. Well, Mike didn’t, you did. It had been an hour and a half and Abby was hopefully fast asleep in her room instead of pressed up against her door listening to you two bicker not unlike a married couple.

He was stressed about finances and the new clubs that Abby wanted to join and the money it would cost to have her in those clubs. You saw an opportunity to help so you told him that you would take care of it. He didn’t seem to like that option so he was fighting it with everything in him trying to keep you from making the decision to help out.

You two had been living together for some time now. You already helped with bills and rent which had been a weight off of Mike's shoulders so you didn’t understand why he was fighting this so hard.

“Mike, I can help out with this. I want her to be happy just as much as you do, and if getting her into these clubs will make her happy then so be it.” You say settling down on the couch hoping this would put an end to the argument.

He’s not budging though. He’s got that look on his face, that stubborn ass look where you know he isn’t going to give in or give up on his point.

“You’re not understanding. I have to take care of her. She’s my responsibility.” His words feel like venom and you’re not sure why it’s hurting you that he’s talking like this.

“Mike really, it’s not a big deal for me to help out and get her into those clubs, I care about both of you-“

He doesn’t bother listening to your justification and he spits out, “We aren’t a fucking charity case!”

And you feel your blood run cold as soon as the words leave his lip. It feels closer to a punch in the gut and you know he doesn’t mean it but at this moment it’s hard to see the other side. It’s hard to see why he feels the need to be so mean when all you want to do is help.

When you stand up from your place on the couch next to him you feel your blood boil. You didn’t want the conversation to end up like this but Mike crossed a line, one that you would never.

“I don’t see you as a charity case Mike and I don’t see Abby as one either. I hope deep down you truly know that.” If your anger is bad enough you just go calm. This is one of those times. You walk away and go to the kitchen to begin doing the dishes, anything to distract you from what he just said to you. Anything to help you calm down a little bit before you said anything you would regret. You would rather count backwards from ten than allow Mike to feel the way he just made you feel.

So you do the dishes, plain and simple, no passive aggressive loudness. Just doing the dishes normally until you’re done and the kitchen is cleaned up from dinner. You shut the light off in the kitchen and make your way to yours and Mike’s bedroom and you change out of your regular clothes, getting into pajamas. Mike doesn’t look up from his lap as you pass by him in the living room and you want to turn around and say something, anything to him, but you stop yourself. You grab your book off the bedside table and turn the lamp on to read a chapter before bed. You hope Mike is cooled off enough when he comes to bed to not try and continue the argument.

When you finally settle into bed to actually sleep, Mike hasn’t returned from the living room. You don’t make a point to go looking for him and you want him to have all the space he needs. You hope it’s enough to make him rethink what he said.

You want to sleep but it’s hard to when you’re fighting with Mike like this. The only arguments you ever really have are about finances, and you wanting to help out with those finances that are stressing Mike out.

You’re finally asleep by the time Mike comes to bed and you aren’t sleeping soundly, but you are asleep and that’s the best you can do right now.

You don’t hear the alarm clock going off the next morning to wake you up but you feel Abby’s hand on your shoulder gently shaking you awake, “Wake up…. We have something to show you.. You have to wake up…” she says quietly not wanting to completely scare you to death.

You open your eyes and look at her with a smile, “Good morning, hows my favorite girl doing?” You ask and sit up in bed rubbing your eyes as you come back to reality.

She grabs your arm and pulls like a little kid on Christmas morning, “Come on, I want you to see what me and Mike did for you! You have to come to the living room now.”

You laugh and nod, almost forgetting about the argument you and Mike had the night before. You stand up out of bed and let her pull you to the dining room. You round the corner and a beautiful display of paper flowers decorating the room comes into view. They are hung up unevenly on the walls and you can’t help but admire what you believe to be Abby’s handiwork.

On the table you see a candle at the center of two plates stacked with fresh pancakes. Abby takes you to your seat and pulls it out for you like it was rehearsed and you give her your politest, “Thank you, madam.”

She scurries off in the direction of her room and you hear the door shut, presumably with her inside.

Mike soon emerges from the kitchen wearing your apron with a sheepish smile on his face, “Listen, I just want to say I’m really sorry for how I behaved last night. I shouldn’t have been so stubborn and I definitely shouldn’t have been fighting in front of Abby. Most importantly, I shouldn’t have said something so thoughtless and hurtful. I know you don’t think we are a charity case.” He sits down across from you and scoots his chair in so he is facing you straight on.

You give him a nod to continue talking, you’re ready to listen now.

Mike lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and continues, “You’re family. I love you a lot, and you’re family now. I shouldn’t have gotten so defensive when all you were trying to do was help. I am so sorry.”

You think for a moment and then allow your hand to stretch across the table reaching for his, “Okay. It’s okay Mike.” You take his hand in yours and give it a reassuring squeeze. “I forgive you. I’m also sorry for pushing you on something you were uncomfortable with. It wasn’t my place.”

He shakes his head and looks you in the eyes, “No it is your place, or rather it can be if you want it to be. You’ve been around for so long and I don’t want you to go anywhere, if you want to be apart of Abby’s life in that way then I should be greatful, and I am.” He says sincerely.

You give him a grin and he pulls your hand up to his lips to press a kiss gently to the back of your knuckles.

Moments later you hear Abby’s door open and she scurries through the living room to your side she wraps her arms around you and leans her head into you, “Can I please join art club with Sophia, I told her I would so that we could hang out more,”

Your smile grows even more and you wrap your arm around Abby hugging her close and nodding, “Of course you can Abby we will take care of it for you, won’t we Mike?”

He looks at you from across the table and nods, “Yeah Abby, We will take care of it.” And in that moment you feel at home with this little family you joined. You feel like it’s starting to fall into place.

[astroismypassion]

✨PART OF FORTUNE IN SIGNS AND HOUSES SERIES: 3RD HOUSE✨

Credit goes to astrology blog @astroismypassion

I'm continuing with asteroid Part of Fortune series in signs and houses. Next one is in the 3rd house. Asteroid POF shows how you build material wealth, how you feel abundant and even around which people you feel the wealthiest or the most abundant.😀

PART OF FORTUNE IN ARIES IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Aries and Gemini Sun people in your life. You create wealth by journaling your goals down, writing it on paper, when you come up with new, fresh ideas that have a niche for something. You are most abundant when you make new close friends, but also low key when you are able to outperform them a little bit. You are abundant when you have friends that you can learn from, friends that make you ambitious and driven. You need new starts in thinking, expressing your opinion, ideas, beliefs.

PART OF FORTUNE IN TAURUS IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You could discover abundance by preparing meal plans for others or even writing your own recipes or put a twist on them. You feel the wealthiest when you have Taurus and Gemini Sun people in your life. You may also earn money by giving financial advice or how to budget. You are very organised when it comes to your finances and it comes more naturally to you than other people. You can also prepare an enjoyable fitness plan or workout plan that isn't restrictive for those around you.

PART OF FORTUNE IN GEMINI IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Gemini Sun people in your life. You are tthe wealthiest when you have lots of friends that you learn from (but also teach them) and when you belong to different friendgroups. You could attract wealth by talking, having a social media account about teaching people when the new interesting spots in your neighbourhood, local town are, because you sure know the best ones!

PART OF FORTUNE IN CANCER IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Cancer and Gemini Sun people in your life. They literally bring wealth to your life. You could give advice on parent child relationships, you may also be an excellent tutor, teacher to elementary and high school kids, even children. You may be excellent at writing a children's story. You could also attract wealth by talking, speaking about your family, since you have very interesting home life with lots of adventures. You receive wealth from your mother or a female sibling, cousin.

PART OF FORTUNE IN LEO IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Leo and Gemini Sun people in your life. You make money via life couching, joining politics, with public relations, speaking, marketing, web design, making posters, content for others. You could earn money with videography, daily blog, because you have an exciting life. You might also start a platform for other people and helping them discover their vocation, profession or introducing everything it take to become an event planner, producer etc., basically showcasing which steps you need to take.

PART OF FORTUNE IN VIRGO IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Virgo and Gemini Sun people in your life. You make money via tutoring, helping others with home chores, home work, selling e-books, pdfs, selling your study notes, starting a podcast. Another placement that is great for introducing your profession to other people.

PART OF FORTUNE IN LIBRA IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Libra and Gemini Sun people in your life. You make money via translation, speaking or using foreign language at work, for your job, starting a business with a sibling, having a social media platform. You may start your own book club and make money through it. You could write reviews on resturants in your local city. You are good at finding a sponsor for your activities or selling something creative that you make and enjoy doing.

PART OF FORTUNE IN SCORPIO IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Scorpio and Gemini Sun people in your life. You make money via writing erotica (shocker I know, but you definitely have writer potential), talking about mental health. You would be able to write profound blog posts about astrology, tarot. You can give great advice on counselling, be an intimacy coach or a sex educator, relationships expert.

PART OF FORTUNE IN SAGITTARIUS IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Sagittarius and Gemini Sun people in your life. You make money via furthering your education, taking a course on something, learning a new language, expanding formal and non-formal education, teaching elementary and high school kids and helping them with homework. Ahh your stories are very inspiring to people, even just hear about your past life experience.

PART OF FORTUNE IN CAPRICORN IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Capricorn and Gemini Sun people in your life. You make money via publish research papers, e-books. Also, take your parents' advice more often, they could introduce you to a money making opportunity. You can give great advice on parent child relationships or write a guide or a self help book for those in need.

PART OF FORTUNE IN AQUARIUS IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Aquarius and Gemini Sun people in your life. You make money via online, social media, via friends (because they tell you about job opportunities the moment when you need it the most), having an online small business, selling bracelets, earrings, necklaces. You are abundant when you discover a niche in your field of interest. You have a higher chance of finding a sponsor for your activities.

PART OF FORTUNE IN PISCES IN THE 3RD HOUSE

You feel the most abundant when you have Pisces and Gemini Sun people in your life. You make money via tarot, selling your poetry, writings, marketing, doing fotography for someone or audio production, video editing. You feel abundant near a body of water, taking frequent showers, making a difference in other people’s lives, selling your ideas or advice.

Credit goes to astrology blog @astroismypassion

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Yanis Varoufakis’s “Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism?”

Monday (October 2), I'll be in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab. On October 7–8, I'm in Milan to keynote Wired Nextfest.

Socialists have been hotly anticipating the end of capitalism since at least 1848, when Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto - but the Manifesto also reminds us that capitalism is only too happy to reinvent itself during its crises, coming back in new forms, over and over again:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/books/review/a-spectre-haunting-china-mieville.html

Now, in Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, Yanis Varoufakis - the "libertarian Marxist" former finance minister of Greece - makes an excellent case that capitalism died a decade ago, turning into a new form of feudalism: technofeudalism:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451795/technofeudalism-by-varoufakis-yanis/9781847927279

To understand where Varoufakis is coming from, you need to go beyond the colloquial meanings of "capitalism" and "feudalism." Capitalism isn't just "a system where we buy and sell things." It's a system where capital rules the roost: the richest, most powerful people are those who coerce workers into using their capital (factories, tools, vehicles, etc) to create income in the form of profits.

By contrast, a feudal society is one organized around people who own things, charging others to use them to produce goods and services. In a feudal society, the most important form of income isn't profit, it's rent. To quote Varoufakis: "rent flows from privileged access to things in fixed supply" (land, fossil fuels, etc). Profit comes from "entrepreneurial people who have invested in things that wouldn't have otherwise existed."

This distinction is subtle, but important: "Profit is vulnerable to market competition, rent is not." If you have a coffee shop, then every other coffee shop that opens on your block is a competitive threat that could erode your margins. But if you own the building the coffee shop owner rents, then every other coffee shop that opens on the block raises the property values and the amount of rent you can charge.

The capitalist revolution - extolled and condemned in the Manifesto - was led by people who valorized profits as the heroic returns for making something new in this world, and who condemned rents as a parasitic drain on the true producers whose entrepreneurial spirits would enrich us all. The "free markets" extolled by Adam Smith weren't free from regulation - they were free from rents:

https://locusmag.com/2021/03/cory-doctorow-free-markets/

But rents, Varoufakis writes, "survived only parasitically on, and in the shadows of, profit." That is, rentiers (people whose wealth comes from rents) were a small rump of the economy, slightly suspect and on the periphery of any consideration of how to organize our society. But all that changed in 2008, when the world's central banks addressed the Great Financial Crisis by bailing out not just the banks, but the bankers, funneling trillions to the people whose reckless behavior brought the world to the brink of economic ruin.

Suddenly, these wealthy people, and their banks, experienced enormous wealth-gains without profits. Their businesses lost billions in profits (the cost of offering the business's products and services vastly exceeded the money people spent on those products and services). But the business still had billions more at the end of the year than they'd had at the start: billions in public money, funneled to them by central banks.

This kicked off the "everything rally" in which every kind of asset - real estate, art, stocks, bonds, even monkey JPEGs - ballooned in value. That's exactly what you'd expect from an economy where rents dominate over profits. Feudal rentiers don't need to invest to keep making money - remember, their wealth comes from owning things that other people invest in to make money.

Rents are not vulnerable to competition, so rentiers don't need to plow their rents into new technology to keep the money coming in. The capitalist that leases the oil field needs to invest in new pumps and refining to stay competitive with other oil companies. But the rentier of the oil field doesn't have to do anything: either the capitalist tenant will invest in more capital and make the field more valuable, or they will lose out to another capitalist who'll replace them. Either way, the rentier gets more rent.

So when capitalists get richer, they spend some of that money on new capital, but when rentiers get richer, them spend money on more assets they can rent to capitalists. The "everything rally" made all kinds of capital more valuable, and companies that were transitioning to a feudal footing turned around and handed that money to their investors in stock buybacks and dividends, rather than spending the money on R&D, or new plants, or new technology.

The tech companies, though, were the exception. They invested in "cloud capital" - the servers, lines, and services that everyone else would have to pay rent on in order to practice capitalism.

Think of Amazon: Varoufakis likens shopping on Amazon to visiting a bustling city center filled with shops run by independent capitalists. However, all of those capitalists are subservient to a feudal lord: Jeff Bezos, who takes 51 cents out of every dollar they bring in, and furthermore gets to decide which products they can sell and how those products must be displayed:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

The postcapitalist, technofeudal world isn't a world without capitalism, then. It's a world where capitalists are subservient to feudalists ("cloudalists" in Varoufakis's thesis), as are the rest of us the cloud peons, from the social media users and performers who fill the technofuedalists' siloes with "content" to the regular users whose media diet is dictated by the cloudalists' recommendation systems:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

A defining feature of cloudalism is the ability of the rentier lord to destroy any capitalist vassal's business with the click of a mouse. If Google kicks your business out of the search index, or if Facebook blocks your publication, or if Twitter shadowbans mentions of your product, or if Apple pulls your app from the store, you're toast.

Capitalists "still have the power to command labor from the majority who are reliant on wages," but they are still mere vassals to the cloudalists. Even the most energetic capitalist can't escape paying rent, thanks in large part to "IP," which I claim is best understood as "laws that let a company reach beyond its walls to dictate the conduct of competitors, critics and customers":

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Varoufakis points to ways that the cloudalists can cement their gains: for example, "green" energy doesn't rely on land-leases (like fossil fuels), but it does rely on networked grids and data-protocols that can be loaded up with IP, either or both of which can be turned into chokepoints for feudal rent-extraction. To make things worse, Varoufakis argues that cloudalists won't be able to muster the degree of coordination and patience needed to actually resolve the climate emergency - they'll not only extract rent from every source of renewables, but they'll also silo them in ways that make them incapable of doing the things we need them to do.

Energy is just one of the technofeudal implications that Varoufakis explores in this book: there are also lengthy and fascinating sections on geopolitics, monetary policy, and the New Cold War. Technofeudalism - and the struggle to produce a dominant fiefdom - is a very useful lens for understanding US/Chinese tech wars.

Though Varoufakis is laying out a technical and even esoteric argument here, he takes great pains to make it accessible. The book is structured as a long open letter to his father, a chemical engineer and leftist who was a political prisoner during the fascist takeover of Greece. The framing device works very well, especially if you've read Talking To My Daughter About the Economy, Varoufakis's 2018 radical economics primer in the form of a letter to his young daughter:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374538491/talkingtomydaughterabouttheeconomy

At the very end of the book, Varoufakis calls for "a cloud rebellion to overthrow technofeudalism." This section is very short - and short on details. That's not a knock against the book: there are plenty of very good books that consist primarily or entirely of analysis of the problems with a system, without having to lay out a detailed program for solving those problems.

But for what it's worth, I think there is a way to plan and execute a "cloud rebellion" - a way to use laws, technology, reverse-engineering and human rights frameworks to shatter the platforms and seize the means of computation. I lay out that program in The Internet Con: How the Seize the Means of Computation, a book I published with Verso Books a couple weeks ago:

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

[thesensteawitch]

What Change Is Coming Toward You? 🍀🧹✨

Pick A Pile Reading

(Left To Right- Pile 1, Pile 2, Pile 3)

Hello, Senstea SOULS!

This is a collective reading with written and an audio message which you'll find at the end of this blog. So take what resonates and claim this reading in the comments!🫶🏻

Also, feel free to DM me if you wish to book a TAROT READING WITH ME !✨

BOOKING FORM • RATE CARD • TIP MY BLOG

Take a deep breath before you start reading.🪄

Pile 1

A drastic shift of energy is happening in your life. It seems you felt really stuck in a connection. You've thought of everything when it comes to this person. All possible scenarios have been exhausted. It was a tough way to come out of something until you had nothing left to give. But it's over now. Suddenly the energy will shift from you having nothing to everything. Luck is on your side, especially when it comes to finding love in the area of your life you most desire. You seem to be having zero hope toward finding the one. But something positive is happening behind your back (in your favor), which will surprise you. Keep wondering what it could be, but it's going to be better than you ever imagined.

You may be seeing numbers- 1010, 222, 11

In the END of this blog you can find the audio message about how you will feel after the change enters your life and what signs you will see as a confirmation.🫶🏻 (Time Stamp- 00:00)

Pile 2

You're about to begin a new journey. The path that was meant to be walked by you is now ready to be explored. You've always wanted something more out of life. There was a feeling of emptiness within you. Without meaning, you do nothing. You're about to find the emotional fulfillment and the deepest meaning in something that you are about to pursue in your path ahead. It's going to be magical, vast, and mysterious. Expect to live in the enchanting world that you once thought existed when you were a kid. A lot of mind-blowing ideas will be sent to you by the universe. You're centered and grounded to receive the downloads from the universe without any blockage. You'll now realize why it was necessary for you to be alone. Why were you kept away from people? Because only you can realize your purpose. God wanted you to be in the quiet so that you could listen to the purpose of your life. Your vision is expanding.

You may be seeing numbers- 555, 3939, 111, 333.

In the END of this blog you can find the audio message about how you will feel after the change enters your life and what signs you will see as a confirmation.🫶🏻 (Time Stamp- 1:19)

Pile 3

You've been waiting for your life to change. I feel there's an opportunity right around the corner, and you know it. But you don't know if it's really that good as it claims it to be. You're juggling between two thoughts, jobs, or wishes. You're trying to keep your balance, not letting your hopes high. You're in self-delusion. Your mind is playing tricks with you. What is coming towards you is going to give you the epitome of success or happiness. Until now you have been struggling to make your ends meet (be it in love or finances), and suddenly you will be surprised to see the amount of fortune this new opportunity is going to give you. Don't try to sabotage your success. You deserve it. You were living your life for less than what you deserved. Thinking won't help you. Just listen to your intuition and let this opportunity come to you. You're about to be blessed. Your intuition knows what's coming towards you, but your mind wants to keep you safe by sending false messages. It seems you'll be receiving two blessings.

You may be seeing Numbers- 1010, 234, 432

In the END of this blog you can find the audio message about how you will feel after the change enters your life and what signs you will see as a confirmation.🫶🏻 (Time Stamp- 2:20)

Here is the AUDIO MESSAGE!⭐🌈