#2019 year in review

[rattanwhip]

Year in review 2024 🎉🎉🎉

[raymuratadraws]

2018

2019

[batsplat]

i also think that marc’s single minded focus leads him to ignore people who are significantly less talented than him (no offense). it seems like there are some people who would LIKE to beef with marc, but he simply catalogues their crimes against him (or however he sees it) and uses that as motivation to very tidily beat them. and maybe vale was more ready to “stoop to their level” so to speak — although, like you said, MOST of his feuds were with quite talented riders

(follow up to this) all of them were quite talented riders! but again, what you're talking about can really be explained through competitive necessity. marc's career has quite a few seasons where he's well clear of the field and quite a few seasons where he's not competitive at all, whereas valentino has far more seasons where he's top three of the championship without being completely dominant. that's the thing right, marc's spats aren't with riders he's currently engaged with title fights in. and valentino wasn't doing all that much stooping either - he too has various minor spats of the marc variety... but they've been forgotten about because it just wasn't that serious. all of valentino's major feuds are with riders he got into title fights with

I'm not saying that marc isn't single minded or that he isn't arrogant, because obviously he's both of those things. and yes, he does tend to adopt quite an isolationist approach in that he mostly keeps the grid at a distance. and yes, sometimes riders criticise him and he mostly does not engage. but at the same time, all the spats you're thinking about here just aren't the kind of things that escalated into feuds for valentino either, so you're comparing apples and oranges really. the closest point of comparison we have is valentino's rivalries with biaggi/sete escalating and marc's with dovi not doing so... but like. marc isn't ignoring a string of provocations in that rivalry. there's just more compelling reasons you can point to for that not escalating, like the competitive stakes in the marc/dovi rivalry or indeed dovi's personality. you can also point to valentino being more proactive in the biaggi rivalry - but valentino wasn't stopping at that point. he didn't have some divine insight to know his talent levels were greater than biaggi several years before they began competing on-track. when he triggers that feud, he is for all intents and purposes the underdog in that dynamic

the closest you get to a marco bezzecchi-type situation for valentino is... I mean, honestly even melandri is pushing it because that guy was at least runner up to valentino and theoretically might have come to pose a competitive threat - but notably, that's actually a dynamic where you can say valentino was going by the marc playbook in brushing off questions about the conflict, kinda just ignoring it was happening while going about his business. valentino also wouldn't beef with an alex rins equivalent, not at the 2019!marc stage of his career, unless there were a compelling competitive justification... likewise, valentino isn't notably more proactive in roughing up dani and casey in 2006 than marc is with fabio in 2019 - they go about it a little differently, yes, but broadly it's on the same reasonably muted level of shenanigans. marc has more low level beef with various riders on the grid than valentino did, partly just because he's less well-liked in general, but he's not been put into situations where that was ever going to escalate into a full-blown feud. now, if you put jorge in these scenarios then, yes, I imagine that absolutely could get... unpleasant, and he's got more of an inclination to punch down anyway. but valentino? nope. remember, he generally had a reputation for being an affable rider and getting along with most of his competitors. obviously we focus more on the feuds now because they're so flashy and memorable, but that's a very very long career - and one that's reasonably light on any major beef with anyone who wasn't one of his main career rivals

anyway, look, again I'm not saying you're wrong necessarily in that marc is more inclined to withdraw than valentino is. and he DOES have some alien-based tunnel vision, hence dovi not getting any attention in his self-produced documentary. or that thing he's been doing in pressers this year where he starts reminiscing about fighting the aliens at any conceivable opening while a deeply unaffected pedro acosta sits next to him. like, I do agree with you about what marc's working process typically looks like, I just don't think it's really the reason why he's been slumming it on the feud count. valentino himself tended to brush off most instances of his competitors being critical towards him because he could afford to, and only got into feuds against rivals who were broadly speaking on his level. in valentino's feud with casey, valentino didn't have the option of dismissing casey. there was no stooping involved - because casey was not a less talented rider than valentino. casey's the extreme example, but it's true in general of valentino's rivals. yes, the working process might look different, but broadly speaking marc and valentino were exactly as likely to start feuds with riders they have never been in a title fight with - aka not at all. marc might be more inclined to cut himself off from the rest of the grid than valentino was, but unfortunately he's also had rather an easy task on his hands in that regard. he's not had anyone both willing to beef with him and capable of posing a significant enough competitive threat (when he himself has been competitive). shame, really

[lebada]

is it crazy to say pop is more back than its been in a decade....

[richardmurrayhumblr]

2019 Tumblr Top 10

1. 741 notes - Apr 21 2019

2. 120 notes - Oct 5 2019

3. 117 notes - Sep 10 2019

4. 113 notes - Jan 14 2019

5. 108 notes - Oct 3 2019

6. 89 notes - Nov 7 2019

7. 72 notes - Sep 8 2019

8. 69 notes - Nov 9 2019

9. 68 notes - Sep 27 2019

10. 67 notes - Aug 12 2019

Created by TumblrTop10

[manonamora-if-reviews]

New Year's Eve, 2019 by Autumn Chen

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game See other games by Autumn or follow @cyberpunklesbian

============= Synopsis

Social gatherings are not your preferred activity. But this one is obligatory, and it threatens to ruin you. You are Karen Zhao, a senior in college who is home for winter break, and seeing your old high school friends for the first time in years. You are not ready, not even close, but perhaps you could make the best of it. Two endings, many paths to arrive there.

============= Other Info

New Year's Eve, 2019 is a Dendry* game, submitted to the 2022 Edition of the SpringThing. This game is a sequel to Pageant (review). *Autumn is also an unofficial maintainer of the Dendry format.

Status: Completed Genre: Dating-sim, Slice-of-life, LGBT

CW: social anxiety, panic attacks, depression, family conflict

============= Playthrough

First Played: June-2022 Last Played: 31-May-2023 Playtime: around 1h (1 full playthrough - 1 half-assed) Rating: 4 /5 Thoughts: A science-type forgets how to human, has a panic attack at a party. May or may not be fine at the end.

============= Review

Jumping a few years into the future of Pageant, Karen Zhao comes back, more anxious than ever, for a short evening, celebrating the turn of a new year*. Stuck in a house out of social obligation, Karen has the option to interact with a cast of familiar faces, go down memory lane, or hide from everyone as best she can to avoid starting a panic attack before the clock strikes twelve. How ever will she cope????? *and what 2020 brings... rolling eyes

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

The one thing that I love about Autumn's games is how real the characters and their interactions feel. NYE19 is no different, continuing on the tradition of anxiety-inducing situation and self-deprecating humour bordering on self-loathing. But unlike its predecessor, Pageant, NYE19's tone translated less as slice-of-life-of-a-stressed-teenager-trying-to-make-it-through-the-semester-oh-god-is-she-having-a-panic-attack-again-just-kiss-her-you-dummy and more of this-is-what-a-college-student-forced-to-come-home-for-the-holidays-special-sitcom-epidose-feels-like. From the really awkward meetings with your old high-school friends (or did you date them? or were they crushes?), to the adults hounding you with questions about your future, or your family wanting to uphold a certain image around people. It's a party we've all been to, it's the kind we wish we didn't have to stay...

And Karen, our favourite anxious lesbian, does too. From the start, she warns the player she does not want to be here, really does not find having to engage in small talk (especially with people she's lost touch with), and actually wishes being anywhere but at this party. It is awkward to interact with people you knew (or more than knew) some years prior but with who you have lost contact (life...), finding how they have (not) changed, and how they've been fairing compared to you.

During the span of an evening, you meet (again) Emily, a trans woman (out of the closet then?) who helped you in Pageant to win (kinda) said pageant; Miri, your best-friend, who tagged along for the party because she did not want to be at her family's party* and became the social butterfly you could not be; and Aubrey, your high-school rival, who seems to still be doing just as well with her Harvard education, her Harvard boyfriend**, her probably-perfect-looking Harvard life... You also get to roam around the party daydreaming nihilisticly about the state of the world, hide in the basement to watch a MCU movie and be cringe to your brother, stuff yourself with food*** to temper with your imminent anxiety attack, play some mahjong and lose badly, hide in the bathroom and take selfies sending your into some self-loathing, play some games on your phone****... *the reason is pretty unclear, even with the option of confronting her. **who the fuck brings up the election topic on a New Year's party?!?!?! The gall of that man... ***which of course, I did... ****that one is hella meta, since you can play IF games AND a Pageant-like dating-sim

Whatever you do (especially your interactions), you are constantly reminded of your shortcomings from the past and how you let your anxiety cause the dwindling of your relationships. Your past haunts your every move and your every thoughts, and being in the presence of people from your past makes it all the worse for your mental being.

Half-way through the game, you sit down to have some dinner, forced at the kids-but-not-really-kids table where all your (former?) friends are interacting. It is very awkward, with Aubrey forcing everyone to introduce themselves as if they were having some sort of team-building meeting, her boyfriend forgetting about the No-No-Conversations (Politics-Religions...)... You can choose to participate in the conversation, eat, or listen, but no matter what happens, you will leave the table before the meal/conversation is over, leaving the party as well to go for a walk.

This is where things get interesting. Emily asks whether she can come along, and agreeing or not will give you very different outcomes. The latter will find you wallowing about your loneliness and how devoid of human connections your life is (much due to your own actions), while the former has a more hopeful and levelheaded conversation (leading possibly to a relationship...). With each still, and throughout the whole game, Karen goes on an introspection about the seemingly importance of human interaction, how easy it is to fuck up things, and the transactionality of relationships, all wrapped in a nihilistic and fatalistic bow (everything goes wrong, even if you do the right things).

Even if this sounds all depressing, it strangely is not. I found myself giggle at some passages*. The dry self-deprecating humour is honestly hilarious (especially the Narrator's comments). At any moment, I was expecting a laughing track to cue. Or maybe I was just playing this with a strange mood... * You have committed CRINGE. Kevin may not remember this, but you will. don't worry, game, I will remember...

The game is also very meta about what it is trying to convey. From playing a dating-sim game within an essentially dating-sim game, to the commentary on human interactions being comparable to dating-sims in the optimisation of [emotions/variables] to get the best possible outcome through a sequence of actions we hope is the correct one while we play a dating-sim where the sequence of choices can be optimised to get that "good ending", the story and the gameplay play quite interestingly on each other to get those points across.

Still, unlike other works from Autumn, while I enjoyed myself playing it, it didn't have the same impact on me. I didn't click as much with it as her other games, and felt a bit unsatisfactory? by the end of the playthroughs. The game has some strong moments, especially the part outside of the house, and some funny moments during the roaming around before dinner/before the countdown, but at other moments, it felt hollow. Maybe it is because of your limited agency in the way you interact with others or act, since Karen is an anxious and socially awkward person who has a hard time expressing her feelings and thoughts. Maybe it is because some of the characters you interact with and the way you defined your previous relationships don't feel as fleshed out (Miri and Aubrey comes to mind*, especially compared to Pageant or even Emily). Or maybe it is Karen's blasé look on dwindling and lost relationships that ticked me** that only allows her to have superficial contact with people (aside from Emily). Or maybe it is the more fragmented type of different gameplay/mechanics that didn't work as well as the Storylet format of Pageant***, or the more linear work of GG and the war. Or maybe because the end was a bit too abrupt... *I was wondering if you could choose to have had a relationship with either of those as in Pageant, but you can only with Emily **was it because the game called me out of doing the same as Karen did to some friends from school? Who knows... ***yes, it's bad to compare games that are inherently different...

There is a wonderful sentence from the post-mortem that really encapsulate the vibe of this game, and strangely reminds us of the hope Karen feels just before returning to the party... and this is where I will be ending this review: The past is inescapable, but the future is not entirely determinate.

There is still time...

Some loose points:

Dendry has some really interesting customisations, from the addition of backgrounds to extra assets in form of character portraits, putting the game in a strange text-only choice-based/visual novel limbo.

The conversation bits, especially the dinner between the gals, have such BPH vibes, which is not surprising, since his work is mentioned in the influence for this game. (with the character portraits style and the formatting of the dialogue with the colours (though the grey for Emily was a bit hard to read).

I really liked the inclusion of the Chinese characters in the dialogues in Chinese. This was only included on the first few lines in Pageant (continuing only in italics), but this really helped distinguished better the conversations in English and the ones in Chinese.

As with Pageant, some choices are worded in a way to form a full sentence or complete a thread of thoughts. I liked that.

[squirrellyshorrorreviews]

Funhouse (2019)

When 8 celebrities from around the globe are invited to compete in an online reality show, they soon realize that they are playing for their very lives, as those voted off suffer horrific consequences, broadcast live to the entire world.

Director/Writer: Jason William Lee (Director/Writer), Henrik Santesson (writer)

Production House: Ti Bonny, Sandcastle, Invention

Runtime: 1h 46m

where to watch: hulu

score: 6/10

A fun take on Reality TV-meets-meatgrinder slasher movie.

I thought this movie was fun! As a youngin’ I was really into those quasi-exploitative reality Tv shows where you put a bunch of terrible people in a house together, so there was a punch of nostalgia to it for me.

the set up/formatting and editing of this makes the whole house situation feel like a Saints Row mini game and honestly I was living for it.

It’s a torture porn movie, but it knows what it is and refuses to take itself too seriously. It’s villain is your typical try-hard “I’m deep” type of nerd. But, again, in a fun way.

This movie is excessively violent nonsense and it made my inner adolescent very happy.

if you’re looking for a deep horror movie THIS AIN’T IT, but if you’re here for a good time and don’t want to think too hard or pay too close attention, this is your movie.

[imaginary-wanderer]

Or when you correct a French language question in the application test of your company...

[good-omens-heritage-posts]

good omens heritage post

A History of Good Omens

On May 30th, Good Omens director Douglas Mackinnon, author Neil Gaiman, producer Rob Wilkins, and actress Adria Arjona (Anathema Device) joined us for a video Answer Time and shared things like their favorite scenes, scariest filming moments, and top five earthly pleasures. The show launched the following day and sponsored a site-wide takeover for 24 hours. This Year in Review, Good Omens has dominated across the board, resulting in #1 rankings on multiple lists. Here’s how we got there:

The Story

It was a wild year for Good Omens, both in your hearts and on our rankings. The title first appeared in 2017 at #19 on Year in Review’s Books list and moved up eight spots to #11 in 2018. Things were quiet with the series until the show premiered on May 31st, and Aziraphale and Crowley entered the television sphere. The show debuted on our weekly Fandometrics lists the following Monday, June 3rd, 2019. That week, #Good Omens was the second-most-talked-about thing on all of Tumblr, between Marvel and Captain Marvel. It took the top spot the following week, reigning at #1 for nine straight weeks until Taylor Swift came for the crown on August 26th. It was truly a summer of angels and demons.

The Authors

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett have also long been Tumblr faves, appearing at #8 and #7, respectively, on the 2015 Top Authors list. After the list returned from its 2016 vacation, Neil took a bit of a dip to #9 in 2017, and to #11 in 2018. In 2018, Terry also returned to the list at No. 16. This year, they are back to back at the top where they belong. Neil Gaiman has had a big year on Tumblr—he’s answered more than 1,000 questions on his blog, @neil-gaiman​​, since January 2019.

The Ship

People have been shipping Aziraphale and Crowley since as early as 2001, with people on LiveJournal calling them ineffable since 2005. Ineffable Husbands was solidified as their ship name when it began to trend in March, coinciding with the release of the first trailer. By June 3rd, the pairing had debuted at #1 on the Ships list, where it stayed for twelve weeks, until September 9th when it was displaced by Reddie (Richie Tozier & Eddie Kaspbrak) after the release of IT Chapter 2. 

Ineffable Husbands is the ship of the year for multiple reasons: they are an angel and a demon—not human, and therefore not defined by their gender or sexuality, they’ve spent 6,000 years taking risks to help save each other, a love that surpasses the end of the world. They also have completely opposite approaches to plants, which @dotstronaut​​ captured perfectly in the ship’s top post from 2019.

[aeolianblues]

I’ve been trying to find a moment to finish rid draft and publish this review since SEPTEMBER!!

Need a minute to go through the setlist again, get into that mind space once again and go back through some personal footage. Never seem to have a moment!!

I’ve been writing… for thirty days! And then another 30; it’s been 2 months.

[pyroclastic727]

re: rate my professor post... 58 is not over half of 120

And why? Why do you care? Even if 58 is not over half, isn't it meaningful that 48.3% of the ratings were only one star? How many were two? How many were three? Regardless, I got the total number wrong, it was 134 ratings, so the real total was well under one half. Does this make him a well-rated professor? The typical professor at my university gets around 10 to 50 ratings. Doesn't it say something that the sample size was so big, that people go out of their way to rate him? What about two-star reviews? Those are close to one-star, those also show a poor professor. Even if the specific number was incorrect, let the sentiment be observed! The majority of people dislike his teaching methods. 58% gave him one or two star ratings. Look at this distribution. Does this look like respect? Does this look like fun? Does this look like I'm having a good time in this class? Or does it look like I put eight goddamn hours a day into this class, take extensive notes in and out of class, scour the internet for tutorials, time myself on practice exams, do extra problems out of the book, debate with classmates to deepen my understanding, all to pass this godforsaken class because the professor is so terrible that I cannot attend class, do homework, and study my notes like I can for any other class and still pass? So, forgive me for forgetting a number, dear anon, oh wise anon. I'd like to see you hemorrhage grades on questions you answered correctly that the professor got wrong, I'd like to see you cancel plans with friends repeatedly because the study hours required exceed any level of clever time management you've devised thusfar, I'd like to see you dig through the internet and the textbooks and any resource you can get your hands on to compensate for the wrong and confusing lectures he pumps into you during class. I can't spend all my time fact-checking silly little numbers on the internet, because I spend all my time studying for this fucking class. Do not talk to me again.

[fruitwoodmac]

an update on my black mirror watch-through

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

Arw you really the author John Green? The same person who wrote The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska?

Yes, but I published one of those books 19 (?!?!?!) years ago and the other 12 (!?!?!?!?) years ago. What have I been up to since then?

My brother Hank and I started Good.store, which delivers high-quality socks, coffee, and soap to your home and donates 100% of its profit to charity. Through good store, we've raised over $7,500,000 to support efforts to radically reduce maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, where as recently as 2019, one in seventeen women could expect to die in pregnancy or childbirth.

(In fact, technically I am here on tumblr as an unpaid intern for the awesome coffee club, which you should really sign up for if you like ethically sourced coffee that tastes delicious and doesn't enrich billionaires.)

I wrote the novel Turtles All the Way Down and then had a little existential crisis and wrote a nonfiction book called The Anthropocene Reviewed, the latter of which is my first book for adults and my first attempt to write as myself.

I helped produce made a movie adaptation (streaming now on Max!) of Turtles all the Way Down.

I helped raise my kids and supported my spouse as she wrote her book You Are An Artist and created a PBS show about art called The Art Assignment.

I ran the educational media company Complexly and the merch company dftba.com while my brother had cancer.

I bought around 2% of a fourth-tier English football team called AFC Wimbledon. Wimbledon are different from most football clubs because they are owned by their fans, each of whom gets one vote in the club's leadership regardless of how much money they put into the club.

I became obsessed with tuberculosis, the world's deadliest infectious disease (it will kill over a million people this year despite being curable), and how TB both exemplifies and reinforces human-built structures of injustice, which is the subject of a book I'm writing that will come out next year.

[nyancrimew]

almost a year after i released a 2019 copy of the nofly list for journalism and research there is now an in depth paper on the ethno-religious over-representation in it. very interesting read, and confirms much of what we already suspected!

Garofalo, M. (2024) “Singular Purpose: Calculating the Degree of Ethno-Religious Over-representation in the US No-Fly List”, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy. doi: 10.5204/ijcjsd.3069.

[leowhite092]

Tobacco smoking pipe of the year 2019 - Stanwell!!

Tobacco pipes offer aficionados several benefits and opportunities of a pleasant smoking experience that comes along with the pipe they buy online; Stanwell tobacco smoking pipes range from very affordable prices up to expensive status symbols – The Stanwell featherweight best reflects the true character and style associated with each user respectively. 

Stanwell featherweight 199 stan4 is as the name implies a very light-weight pipe. The Stanwell filter pipes are designed by Danish pipe maker Johannes Gaarn, who is the grandson of the famous Poul Rasmussen. He has been artistic in creating designs with distinct speciality in every make. His latest tobacco smoking pipe has been awarded the Stanwell Pipe of the year 2019.

The perfect blend between quality construction, modern design, affordability and price tag all combined into this great value bowl sitter pipe delivers excellent taste native piped in Denmark since 1942; finished in smooth walnut colour accented by black highlights.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

No Doubt - Just a Girl 1995

"Just a Girl" was released as the lead single to American rockband No Doubt's third studio album, Tragic Kingdom (1995). The ska punk, pop-punk, alternative rock, and new wave song with sarcastic lyrics was written by Gwen Stefani and Tom Dumont, and produced by Matthew Wilder. Lyrically, "Just a Girl" is about Stefani's perspective of life as a woman and her struggles with having strict parents. "Just a Girl" was the first song Stefani wrote without the assistance of her brother Eric.

"Just a Girl" received positive reviews from music critics, who commended the feminist lyrics and Stefani's vocals. The single is typically regarded as being the breakthrough that popularized No Doubt. It became their first charting single in the US, peaking at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and entering the Alternative Songs, Hot Rock Songs, and Mainstream Top 40 component charts. It also reached the top ten in several other countries, including Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, and the UK. On the 1996 year-end chart in Australia, "Just a Girl" was ranked as the 22nd most-successful song of the year. In New Zealand, "Just a Girl" peaked at number nine and was 1996's 25th best-selling single.

The song was featured in '90s cult hits Clueless (1995) and Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion (1997) — movies that served as power-players for unlikely female heroes. Stefani's aim at a male-centric world ended up being one of the most prominent feminist anthems of the '90s — it's a song that stands out now as the music industry's misogynistic outlook continues on. The song also appears in the film Captain Marvel (2019). In March 2023, the song was covered by Florence and the Machine for Showtime Networks' series Yellowjackets; their version appears in the trailer and soundtrack for the second season.

"Just a Girl" received a total of 84,3% yes votes! Previous No Doubt polls: #265 "Sunday Morning".