#I have to renew the domain anyway so

[prettygirlgerard]

okay I’ve decided im gonna revamp Texas is forever dot com entirely so it can be the digital zine and essay collection like I always wanted

[enlightenedrobot]

Other Characters you can legally use for your Mickey Mouse project

Mickey Mouse is in the public domain, as is Minnie Mouse and Peg-leg Pete. There's some caveats to that, and I talk about that more in this other post, but for now, let's talk about other characters who you can also use to fill out the cast.

These characters should all be in the public domain, though some characters still have treademarks. I'll get into how to use them safely as we go. Anyways, let's start.

Other Disney Characters

Disney obvciously doesn't advertise this, but there's actually quite a few Disney originals who've actually been in the public domain for a while.

The Mad Doctor never had it's copyright renewed, and so it's very technically the first Mickey Mouse cartoon to enter the public domain. Keep in mind, the version of Pluto featured in the short isn't in the domain just yet, but the Doctor himself is free to use.

What's funny is that Disney would later use a version of Doctor for Epic Mickey. Obviously don't use that version of the character.

Aside from the Mad Doctor, we also have Oswald and Ortensia

Yeah, as it turns out, Oswald's been in the public domain for quite a while, but he's still trademarked by Disney. Easy recommendation... use the original "fat" design of the character and have him go by Lucky.

But before Oswald, we have the Alice Comedies

Everything about the Alice Comedies is Public Domain for a long time, and the Disney corporation very rarely acknowlege these characters existence. Which is a shame because These shorts were some of the first shorts Walt ever produced, and they have the unique gimmick of featuring a live action girl in an animated world.

Everybody already knows about Oswald, but nobody talks about Oswald and Mickey's older brother from these shorts, Julius the Cat

Like... yeah no, it didn't all start with a mouse. Or a rabbit. It started with a cat.

Foxy and Milton Mouse

Both Foxy (top) and Milton (bottom, pictured with his girlfriend Rita Mouse) were characters created by Warner Brothers and Van Beuren respectively to cash in on Mickey's success, and both characters are also in the public domain.

In fact, all Van Beuren cartoons are apparently in the public domain, and I encourage you to find their cartoons and use them as you please.

Fleischer Characters

Betty Boop is probably in the Public Domain, but there's a few caveats with this. From what I can tell, the name Betty Boop is trademarked, but the character herself isn't. Most of the old Betty Cartoons are free to use, but newer incarnations, including the versions used in 1985's The Romance of Betty Boop and 1989's The Betty Boop Movie Mystery are still very much under copyright.

To avoid any legal trouble, I have two big recommendations. Although everybody remembers Betty as having Black hair, in one of the few early instances of Betty being shown in color, she's actually depicted as Redhead.

This is Betty Boop in 1934's Poor Cinderella, and her hair color is pretty clearly red.

The other option is to just make her black.

Though there's been some debate as to whether Betty Boop was intentionally modeled after Esther Lee Jones or not, there's still no denying the influence of Jazz on the character. Betty Boop is a Jazz singer and is often depicted dancing to Cab Calloway. Hell, the Betty Boop musical features Jasmine Amy Rogers as the titular character.

Betty Boop aside, there's an entire world of defunct Betty Boop characters who are definately public domain, including Bimbo and Koko the Clown.

Next year, Popeye's also gonna enter the Domain. So keep an eye out for him too.

Anyways, these are my picks, but obviously this list isn't meant to be comprehensive. There's a ton of old cartoon characters out there who can be freely reinterpreted into newer works. Feel free to add your own favorite public domain cartoon to the list.

[bloop-bl00p]

Rewriting Sir Pentious justice for the snake boie

Doesn’t anyone find it weird how we’re gonna have the backstory of everyone in later seasons?

Not only do they hardly follow the redemption aspects but they also give us little to nothing about the characters. I can buy that Heaven is corrupt and/or unfair but rather than having Adam throwing curse words and profanities every five seconds, why not show it in elements of the main cast backstory?

Reveal that they were essentially in unjust situations where they had no other choice but sins to survive, the type of stories that’ll make the audience think “Is Heaven fair in its judgment?” then you have the reveal that the system is corrupted. It feels like common sense to me.

Anyway, Sir Pentious wasn’t that much of an asshole in my rewrite, we understand why he acted the way he did but he still fucked up.

Madhav Karmakar was born in 1858. He was an Indian migrant in England who wanted to follow a partnership in engineering. Studying hard and else he worked ten times harder than the other students due to prejudice regarding his origin.

He made his way into a prestigious university and went out with his diploma ready to show off his skill but generally still faced racial discrimination. Throughout his life, Madhav had to do everything in his power to completely suppress anything that tied him to his country, fully adopting British mannerisms and culture, suppressing his accent, and else. At 17, he became an apprentice and started studying Mechanical Engineering, ending officially his studies at 24.

His hardship allowed him to work alongside others to develop steam machines and various ways of transportation. Despite having clearly mastered, and even ameliorated his domain, Madhav still had fewer opportunities compared to his colleagues and was paid less than the other regardless of the amount of work he put in.

What was first jealousy due to the unfairness of his situation quickly became Envy directed at his white counterparts. He started slowly destroying the reputation of his associates mostly by secretly sabotaging their work in various manners, introducing faulty designs, tampering with documentation, sabotaging equipment and tools, and anything really just to make himself feel better.

It lasted for years until one of his sabotages cost him his life. In 1888 at 30 years old, he caused one structure to collapse and the debris fell on him breaking his legs, he died screaming for help under the remains and suffocated because of the dust.

A few years following his arrival in Hell, he used his ingenuity to create steampunk-style machines in order to conquer territory. Problems, most of the lands were already owned by powerful Overlords. Madhav overestimated his inventions a lot so he got his nonexistent ass beaten all the time. He even gained the nickname Sir Pretentious though he still tries and insists on being called by his real surname (nobody does.)

The dude persisted, gaining the reputation of the village fool. Surprisingly for everyone he finally managed to get his hand on a very small portion of a territory… only for it to be snatched away by a punk rookie a week later. It would be easy for any Overlord to step up but they have their own business to take care of and some find it funny to see those two quarrel all the time.

Bit of a fun fact:

→ If I had to redesign him, he’d be fit with a large figure, we’re talking of the man who built this alone…

.. I doubt the egg boys can lift things too heavy considering they are fragile. So yeah, Madhav isn’t a twink.

→ The egg boys aren’t literal eggs just small mechanical robots he built to be his minions, if they were to break they’ll be gears everywhere but he could still rebuild them later. He wishes he could make them a bit smarter.

→ Snakes are very often associated with lies and manipulation and everything related to it. That’s what Madhav has been as a human, an envious liar. But, snakes can also symbolize renewal and rebirth in other cultures, and since he’s gonna be the first redeemed it kinda fits. I don’t know if Viv knew this but shout out to her if she did.

→ Keeping the romance with Cherry, I can appreciate a really good Enemy to Lover but the way it was framed feels like Cherry only got interested when she learned he had two dick, which feels icky and disingenuous.

So, I thought of slowly making their relationship more of a “Are they fighting or flirting” type of thing. That and having Cherry make comments between their fight like “You’re getting better at this!” which flatters Madhav because he never really had recognition for his fighting skills or invention.

He’s still a bit stuck in the old-timey way of courtship, and considering those things could last 3 to 4 years, with him you can expect the slowest slow burn possible. Anyway, he still respects lots of British traditions, being a regular correspondent and sending letters and gifts. I can see him asking to go on a walk or organize Rendez-vous to learn more about Bomb when his rivalry gets more friendly.

→ His obsession with fighting Alastor comes from the fact that he didn't manage to get up the stairs as quickly as the deer did. So he’s envious and seeks to beat Alastor in a battle to prove he’s the superior one, but he loses every time. His last chance is to side with the Vees, but Vox doesn't even bat an eye when he is near. So just imagine how ecstatic he was when Vox proposed to him to be a spy. While the first weeks were fine, he found himself getting attached to the staff more and more. It was a genuine environment where few people actually recognized him as the brilliant engineer he was (I thought he could actually help with the hotel construction since the building is old and all) and they actually called him by his name.

Not siding with Vox will be the first step to his redemption, renouncing to act of his envious feelings and focusing on what he already had rather than seeking to destroy those above him.

→ His lisp gets worse when he’s lying, he obliviously maintains a whole evil British persona in his quest for respect so as he slowly starts to get genius he’ll slowly start to speak with more ease.

→ Regarding how he’ll appear once in Heaven, he’ll be a human. I find it strange that you don't get to get your human appearance once saved. Viv said it herself, the reason why sinners look like that is because their appearance is in correlation with their sins, life, and the ways they die. It’s a way to mock them.

If this dude or girl gets redeemed, they’ll stay on a couch and that’s just sad, imagine you die go to Hell redeem yourself and you're still a furniture. Anyway, Madhav will get his human form back but with hints of his demonic form.

Kinda like Lovesart23 you should go see her videos and rewrite.

[tymime]

Public Domain cartoon characters from the Golden Age of Animation (and beyond)

Revised and expanded version of this post: https://tymime.tumblr.com/post/648495121557585920/instead-of-whining-about-mickey-mouse-not-falling

While Mickey entering the public domain is exciting and all, I do think a lot of people are overlooking the many other animated characters that are available to use in their creative works. This list isn't entirely exhaustive, but it does highlight some of the most interesting and/or appealing characters, as well as ones that have the potential to be so.

Koko the Clown

One of the oldest cartoon stars from the Fleischer studio, almost all of Koko's silent-era cartoons are PD, and have been for quite some time. A handful of his appearances alongside Betty Boop are also PD.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Oswald's PD status has been greatly overshadowed by his fellow Disney star Mickey, but I believe that he deserves more recognition. All of the shorts produced by the Disney studio are PD as of this year, and let's face it, those are the only ones most people care about. Pegleg Pete's bear design is also PD.

Keep in mind that the blue shorts that Oswald wears in Epic Mickey and elsewhere are likely copyrighted, so I recommend steering clear of that.

I'm also not entirely sure you can use the name "Ortensia" for his cat girlfriend, since that name first appeared in Epic Mickey also. She was called "Kitty" back in the day, among other things.

All of Van Beuren Studio's cartoons

The Van Beuren Studio was active during the rubberhose era, and their cartoons, especially the earlier ones, are like a cruder, possibly even more bizarre cousin to Fleischer and Disney. They went bust in the late 1930s, and no one renewed the copyright later on, so the entirety of their output is PD.

Their most notable characters include Tom and Jerry, a pair of average Joes who always get into strange adventures. They shouldn't be confused with MGM's Tom and Jerry, and in fact they were called Dick and Larry when their shorts were rereleased for the home-movie market in the 1940s.

Also notable is Waffles and Don, who are basically just animal versions of Tom and Jerry. You might consider these two as a better alternative, just to avoid confusion.

There's also Cubby Bear, a pretty blatant Mickey Mouse clone, but unique enough that I don't think anybody’s going to confuse the two nowadays.

In the previous post, I mentioned a rumor that Disney threatened legal action over the character, but I can't find the source for that now. I may have been thinking of Milton Mouse, who was so extremely similar to Mickey that they actually did sue the studo for copyright infringement. So maybe don't try selling any Milton merchandise...

Finally, there's Molly Moo-Cow, who appeared in several Rainbow Parade cartoons in the mid-to-late 1930s. Molly is arguably not the most interesting character, but I have a fondness for her since we grew up with one of her shorts on a VHS tape.

Toby the Pup

Another very obscure character, about half of his cartoons are lost media. The little that does survive is hard to find online, but I think his design has appeal.

Dr. XXX

Disney's The Mad Doctor was never renewed for reasons unknown, though some speculate that the studio thought that the cartoon was too scary and decided to let it go. Fortunately for us, that means that this iconic character is now in the people's hands.

Goopy Geer

Goopy appeared in the three Merrie Melodies cartoons alongside his unnamed girlfriend. Despite his name and appearance being similar to Disney's Goofy, he actually made his debut about a month before (Goofy was named Dippy Dawg at the time anyway, so it was undoubtedly a coincidence).

Claude Hopper

Claude appeared in a single Looney Tunes cartoon in 1943 called Hop and Go, alongside a pair of Scottish rabbits who antagonize him. The cartoon ends with a very unfortunate depiction of Tokyo being blown up (World War II was still going on at the time), so it's no surprise that Warner Bros. decided not to renew this one. Despite that, he has a very appealing design (imo), so I think he has potential. (Also, he's voiced by Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Goofy!)

Private Snafu and Mr. Hook

Snafu and Hook were created for the US government, so according to the law are automatically public domain. The shorts were made to be shown to members of the US army and navy respectively, in order to teach them valuable lessons for fighting in WWII, but are nevertheless hilarious cartoons- animated by the Looney Tunes team with scripts by Ted Geisel- aka Dr. Seuss!

The Dover Boys

Also of note are the ComiColor cartoons from the Iwerks studio, Rainbow Parade from Van Beuren, and most of the Color Classics by Fleischer. These don't have any especially memorable characters in them, but I thought I ought to mention them.

Yes, Tom, Dick and Larry, Dora Standpipe and the villainous Dan Backslide are all public domain. A bunch of YouTube Poops were created after this fact was discovered by the internet a few years ago.

How Warner Bros. could ever let this one get away I'll never know. Their loss is our gain, I suppose.

Caveats and other concerns

Krazy Kat

Felix the Cat

All of the strips up to 1928 are definitely fair game. According to the Public Domain Superheroes wiki however, the entirety of the strip's run is PD. I'm not sure if it that's true, but the Fantagraphics collections don't credit any newspaper syndicate, so it seems likely. (Apparently the copyright status of newspaper comics are a whole can of worms on its own...)

At any rate, the strip's cast was pretty well set in stone by 1928, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. A large number of animated shorts starring Krazy are also PD, but those were pretty much in name only.

Flip the Frog

Felix was pretty much the first cartoon superstar, and almost all of his Golden Age appearances are PD now. Keep in mind that this does not include elements from the 1950s cartoon like his magic bag, or from The Twisted Tales of Felix, as amazing as that series is.

The character's name and appeance are still trademarked by NBC Universal however, so you might be able to use him in a minor role, but not much else.

I'm uncertain about this one. According to most sources Flip is PD, but according to the Thunderbean Blu-ray collection he's copyrighted by the Film Preservation Archives, whatever that means. Additionally, Flip himself is supposedly trademarked by Leslie Iwerks, Ub Iwerks’ granddaughter, though no one seems to be able to confirm that. I don't know how the trademark hasn't lapsed yet, considering that Flip hasn't appeared on any official merchandise or anything in decades.

Bosko and Honey

I believe there's nothing stopping anyone from using Bosko's classic design (later appearances at MGM and in Tiny Toons are still copyrighted), but the character himself is a bit problematic, considering that it's all but stated outright that he's a blackface caricature. Use with caution.

Foxy and Roxy

Noveltoons

Like Goopy Geer, Foxy appeared in three Merrie Melodies cartoons. Roxy's name originates from an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures however, so keep that in mind. Though I'm not sure what else you would call her (or if Warner Bros. would even care). Supposedly her original name was "Fluffy", but I can't find a source for this.

Like Bosko and Honey, later appearances in Tiny Toons are still copyrighted.

Noveltoons was a series produced by Famous Studios, the successor to the Fleischer studio. The characters include Baby Huey, Herman the mouse, Blackie the sheep, Little Audrey, and of course, Casper the Friendly Ghost. Only a small handful of the shorts are PD though, and Casper is trademarked, so one's options are limited.

Ginger Nutt (and rest of the Animaland cast)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

This one I'm not entirely sure about either, but Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus has long been a staple of grey-market tapes and DVDs, so I'm just going to assume all of the Animaland cartoons are also PD. Considering that the series wasn't very sucessful, and is very obscure nowadays, it seems pretty likely.

If anyone has any insight on this, let me know.

Calvin and the Colonel

Now here's an interesting case. An all-time classic Christmas special, and yet large parts of it are PD because they accidentally put the wrong date on the copyright notice. Instead of the Roman numerals MCMLXIV (1964), it reads MCLXIV (1164), and according to the law at the time, that meant that the film immediately went into public domain.

Of course, Rudolph himself is still copyrighted, and will be until 2035 when the original book falls into the public domain. Even then he's likely to still be trademarked. Not to mention the songs featured in the '64 film will be copyrighted for a long time afterward.

Still, this means that anyone is free to use all the other characters, including Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, King Moonracer, Clarice, and all the Misfit Toys. It's a wonder no one seems to have taken advantage of this. And of course Santa and his reindeer have been PD for ages, especially Santa since he comes from folklore- and you can't copyright folklore.

This cartoon is based on and stars a lot of the same voice cast as the old-time radio show Amos and Andy, which, while not overtly racist, featured white actors pretending to be black. The cartoon obviously has animals instead, but still, tread carefully. Someone is bound to point out the characters' history.

Hoppity Hooper

Another one I'm not sure about. The Public Domain Superheroes wiki has characters from this show among its articles, but I wasn't able to confirm if it really was PD. It was created by Jay Ward, the same studio who made Rocky & Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle, but was also a huge flop for some reason, so that may be the reason why they let the copyright expire. Again, I'm not sure, but no one seems to care that the entire series is on YouTube, so who knows?

...Well, there you have it. Lots of obscure and forgotten toons waiting to be rediscovered and reused! If anyone has any more info or corrections, leave me a comment. I'd love some clarification on some of these.

[noraiir-arts]

Does anyone else have very complicated ways of shipping?? like when i say "i ship them" i don't mean "oh they love each other so much they kiss each other and will be together forever" i ship characters but in a way that's unique to only them and/or only in certain scenarios

Like, for example Zelink- I think pre-calam zelink was one sided, i dislike post-calam zelink, but i sort of like totk zelink (yes i know they are the same two people) but only certain dynamics??? but i also think that its the type of love that goes unsaid, they just look out for and support each other, maybe its not entirely romantic but they are closer than friends. It's the type of closeness you can only get by knowing that no matter what lifetime you are in the other will always be there. I don't think its necessarily the type where they hide behind pillars to make out, or try to stay in a committed relationship, but more of a tired love, one that has been renewed throughout hundreds of lives, each time being something different.

But take skyward sword, i believe that it's easier to see romantic zelink here

or Miphlink - I don't really ship this, but it's a tragic one-sided love story that Mipha knew was doomed from the beginning. The other woman. Was never given enough time to tell Link how she felt, yet even if she had time he might not have returned her feelings. Now he barely remembers her. Maybe 100 years later she's a little embarrassed of herself, of what she wrote in her diary. Maybe it was a simple crush, mistaken for undying love and has dwindled over the past century. But now it's a sad love, the type where she grieves for what used to be, and what never will. But after being saved from Ruta she switches her sights towards the domain. She can see how much her brother has grown and is so proud of him. She knows Link will never remember her fully, but maybe it's for the best. No matter what, she will always be there to heal his wounds.

Tbh i was dragged into Revalink kicking and screaming, but now it's one of my favorites. - Their dynamics work so well, but oh no it's so sad. Started from a one-sided "rivalry" to some sort of friendship. Link never hated Revali, he didn't even dislike him. And Revali just wanted Link to be impressed, to understand why he was chosen for his role as pilot, and he wanted Link to prove himself to Revali (honestly i can go on a on about why revali was harsh to link in botw if anyone wants me to) But over time they both start to realize that they are more similar to each other than any of the other champions. They weren't born into noble families or blessed with magic. Revali learns about the vigorous training Link underwent after pulling the sword, and Link learns that Revali isn't the son of the elder or was an important figure in his village before becoming a champion, but a simple warrior just like Link. Their friendship grows and they become a great team, surprising mostly everyone. Maybe it grows into something more. Maybe neither of them know it. Maybe they just never admit it. Revali knows Link doesn't remember him. He doesn't want him to. He tells Link not to go asking about him to the princess. It's for the best, he will still be there to help Link after all. Maybe it's cruel to keep him from knowing. Well, Revali will be gone soon anyway. Maybe he hopes that Link will at least remember good things about him.

Honestly I love revalink aus, they are my fav!!

I think of Zelimpa (aoc) like a mix of how i described miphlink and revalink but im too tired to explain it rnnnnn

oh also urbosa/zelda's mom but i think that goes unsaid

but anyway these are just a few. Most of the time i can't use words to exactly explain something pictured in my head, (synesthesia is so silly) but i tried my best

[jovenshires]

hi katie jovenshires im a big fan. if ur ok with sharing, what ships are in the botb au and what are the vibes for each 👀

thank you so much!! <3<3<3

hmm i've been thinking about this and i think i'm only deadset on spommy, ianthony, kolivia, and amangela as far as like. my canon goes. not sure what if any other ships im gonna include... ive gone back and forth with shaymien and shaynse too but not sure!!

but, i will say, for the most part the edits are mostly left up to interpretation so you can all decide whatever ships you want really!! (or if you don't want any ships at all that's cool too <3) like i've said to me the botbau is a little collaborative barbie world that we can all make whatever we want out of. like i told someone the other day - if you wanna write a fic or make an edit or something for this and it doesn't exactly line up with what i might write or think ab the au... PLEASE go for it. it is out there, public domain now, do with it what you will. and i will love and eat it up no matter what!!

as for the vibes in MY head, i will throw them under the cut so this post doesn't get too long KFNLKNKFNF

spommy: i've covered this a little before here so if you want the full version check that out but BASICALLY spommy is kind of rivals-to-friends-to-lovers except tommy has an Extremely one-sided beef and spencer just thinks he's cool and wants to be buds. eventually spencer wins him over and then... uh oh! love! once again skimmin some details that, if i ever Write A Fic for it, will be spoilers. but that’s the idea you know

ianthony: taking this directly from my dms to lilac but basically. ianthony botbau my beloveds....... to relearn how to co-pilot something with someone that should come so second-hand to you but you're both different people now but your feelings carry through anyway for who they were and are and will be........ yeah theyre everything to me. in a way it's a mirror to life/what actually happened to them with smosh (art imitates life) but the divorce era was even MORE famous because they're like a household name so it was a lot more pressure. idk yet if they were together beforehand and then broke up and now they're getting BACK together or if they had unresolved feelings they never dealt with and now they're struggling to reconcile them with their renewed friendship AND reunited band/the fame that comes from that... but either way they are Messy. im obsessed.

kolivia: kolivia in this au fascinates me because in my head keith is kind of known for being a player and fucking around but i think he stopped that Ages ago because. these two are basically dating. like they don't put a label on it and it's not public and i don't even know if THEY know how in love they are. but they live together. they sleep together "just to blow off steam" (come on now). they don't date other people. everyone can see it but them type beat. olivia's like "he's not my boyfriend" and then picks up the phone and is like "hi baby do you want chinese for dinner" NDLFKNANKSFLN like they are exclusive and they have deep feelings for each other but they are both so deeply in denial that they swear they're not dating. they have realistically been in a relationship for like five years.

amangela: RIVALS TO LOVERS AGAINNNN i have talked about this one a Lot with baflegacy bc like. they are my roman empire. at least these two have met on multiple occasions and actually fought with each other - they keep meeting at gigs/in bars and bickering. angela "clearly abba is the best band ever" giarratana and amanda "WHAT about fleetwood mac you DUMB ASS" lehan-canto. like they meet a bunch and EVERY time they end up bickering. meanwhile angela keeps seeing thirst traps of amanda on tiktok and being like "why are all the lesbians obsessed with her she SUCKS" and chanse and arasha, who have heard this three million times, are like "yeah okay buddy whatever helps you sleep at night." meanwhile amanda is living her bliss <3 and then they realize they're both in battle of the bands and uh oh! things come to a head!

[nycnomad]

We went to California for my work trip, and it really was great leaving from our little airport with its 7 gates down here in Florida. (I didn't get groped by TSA!) We spent 4 days in Napa, visiting the vineyards where we're members, drinking so much great wine, and eating so much great food, then my work event went great, and then we went back home to NYC for two weeks for Thanksgiving with my husband's family and to see all of our friends.

It was a little peek into what our life might be like if we lived in Florida full-time and just went back to NYC now and then. We went to our usual bar trivia and some movies at our favorite theater, but then I also went to a 2 Michelin star $700pp tasting menu with one of my co-workers (work paid, don't worry!) and we went to one of the holiday markets with my husband's sister who was in town from Poland. So, partly everyday things and partly NYC-specific things! I'm a little jealous of our friends back there hanging out without us, but I'm also very happy right now to not have any social responsibilities and to be able to eat a little lighter and focus a little on my YouTube channel (that's been growing!).

Anyway, I was inspired to post because I woke up this morning and the sun was shining in through the balcony doors, and I stood in front of them and watched the ocean waves hit the beach as I put on some pajama pants. And I love waking up in my NYC apartment, too, but there's something special about walking around with no pants with my wide open windows and knowing that no one can see me! 🙂

Also, we bought our first-ever air fryer, and because my husband loves a gadget, he's almost exclusively been the one to use it. And because it keeps setting off our smoke alarm, he's been obsessively cleaning it. He does a ton around our house in NYC, but cooking and washing the dishes is usually my domain! It's been a nice break for me.

And one more thing: I need to renew my passport, so yesterday we took my photo and then went to Walmart to get a money order to send with my application, and then we went to Office Depot to print out my application, and then we went to CVS to print out the photo, and then we went to the post office to mail everything. And everywhere we went, people were SO NICE. Employees went out of their way to help us at every store, like they were just INTERESTED in us and doing their jobs. People said hello to us when we walked into the stores. There are of course amazing employees in some NYC stores, but a lot of people act like saying hello to you even when you're literally standing in front of them at their register is just out of the realm of possibility. I don't know if people outside of NYC just have better manners or are just less tired because they don't have to deal with as many customers, but it is REFRESHING.

Okay, enough of my blathering, off to read your posts!

[noidretina]

Idea that I had(I know it's never going to happen) for a permanent Genshin Impact feature:

PvP. Okay, not direct pvp because clearly having people clash against eachother with 6-digit numbers and 5-digit health pools simply isn't going to work, and any amount of nerfing damage would still make it painfully Pay-to-Win.

So here's the idea: Both players have a deck of cards pertaining to enemy creatures. They start off by drawing cards and selecting a limited quantity of them. Then the round starts and both players play off against the selection chosen by their opponent.

This could be done in two ways:

The domain is separated by a transparent wall, so if one player finishes a round before the other, they can look at the other player

Both players are in a shared space, and enemies towards both sides can attack and be attacked by both players.

In either case, a player achieves a 'win' state if they defeat the opponents placed by the other player.

Players accumulate points the faster they complete their objective. After a few rounds, a winner is declared.

This seems like it would still be on the Pay-to-Win side, but let me explain a bit further about reward distribution.

After a winner is declared, both players' points are added to a UI system that resets weekly, monthly, or every version. The winner is given a static addition to the points for winning, but both players get points, as to prevent all-or-nothing Pay-to-Win madness.

Every so-many points gets you a level, which grants you new cards for more enemy choice variety, Character EXP materials, Talent Materials, Weapon Ascension Materials, Weapon EXP materials, Mora, Artifact EXP materials and Sanctifying Elixir(s). Things to make the grind to build characters feel less grind-y without spending more resin.

It would also include a one-time debut reward for accumulating your first so-many points in the form of primogems and/or intertwined fates.

If a single player mode is added, it would simply be the player against preset groups of enemies. The player would not know which preset of enemies they are facing against until their party is set for the match; same as in two-player mode.

This was a fun idea to have, and while it's unlikely to happen, I may want to consider something similar for one of my own game ideas(if I can figure out multiplayer, that is). I'm also thinking from the perspective of a developer, and considering things that Genshin would actually consider. Obviously, adding another renewable source of primogems would be a huge investment that may very easily result in lost profit, which is why I'm hesitant to include it. However, I wanted to ponder an idea with more sustainability than the TCG, as the only lasting reward for the TCG is more currency that is exclusively used for the TCG. So, beyond the one-time rewards, the only reason to play the TCG is for the TCG itself(and if you're really desperate, battle pass). I want something more sustainable and more unique.

Hell, maybe it's a worthwhile idea to have resin able to be spent here, and having the rewards for getting levels be whatever rewards you would've gotten for doing any artifact/talent/weapon ascension domain of your choice. This alone would make it much more sustainable than certain artifact domains. It's already fairly lengthy to find a few co-op people to challenge a domain from before 4.0. This would allow you to reap the rewards of a preferred type while still allowing players to be co-op butterflies. (or I guess pvp butterflies).

One complication that I can imagine however, is simply having two parties of four in a domain, as well as duplicate characters in a domain. But let's be real here. Again, this is an idea, not a demand, and we are long overdue duplicate characters in domains anyway, especially considering regular co-op has no problems with it.

Rambling aside, this would be a cool idea!

[kindred-spirit-93]

Sup, it's me Anon

I actually did have an idea for a webcomic way back. Imagine Hera leaving Zeus with just a suitcase and her loyal attendant Iris, navigating modern Greece and self-reflecting on her life, while Zeus plots to win her back.

This concept draws inspiration from Pausanias's Descriptions of Greece, where Hera crashes the wedding of Zeus to a wooden cult statue of. I envision Hera as a blunt Dorothy-like figure (Golden Girls vibe, with Wendie Malick's voice).

As a young ambitious goddess, Hera declared herself goddess of the starts and the galaxy, experimenting with primal forces—mashing matter under its own weight or flinging it into the heavens.

Despite her formidability, she won Zeus' heart (they had a secret affair, hidden from Rhea while he was still married to Leto) Hera was thrilled to become Queen of the gods but grew disillusioned when Zeus deemed her interest in primordial laws "unfit for a queen." He reassigned her domain to domestic bonds, making her the Goddess of Marriage.

Hera tried to conform but struggled with Zeus' infidelity, which brought her deep embarrassment. Feeling unable to embody her assigned role and domain, Hera dealt with her issues with Zeus' mortal lovers and demigod children by revisiting her old passions, by making constellations (if you know how most constellations are made in mythology you'll get it).

In recent years, Hera has seemingly calmed down, growing apathetic towards the mortals (with whom she always had a complicated reputation). She now believes the rest of the gods should follow suit.

I imagine her reflecting on a lot of thinks, Her foster mother Thetys and her relationship with her actual mother Rhea and her relationship with her husband and sons. (Hera being the favourite child of Chronos will also be very important) She has a salad with Apollo, Aphrodite is her loud daughter in law. She lives with her sister Demeter for a bit (I imagine her to be quite free and open with her sexuality)

I imagine that some gods choose not to have a human form, Zeus gave up and just floats around as a sentient cloud. Mainly because I find the concept of a human looking woman being married to a small cloud funny.

Athena is worried because a bunch of weird creatures and snakes starting to rise from the ground, Hera seems to be too relaxed with that situation.

The underworld basically acts as an office comedy, so imagine the whole underworld to be set up like the Office.

And to make things interesting I imagine Hestia to be an antagonistic (not villainous) figure - dead set on keeping the family unit together

Basically it's a whole shit pot of ideas, and it just felt a bit too ambitious at the time. But those were my ideas

ANON U GIVE ME LIFE!!

i have no idea what i did to deserve this goldmine of asks but im incredibly grateful and super jazzed to see where it goes!

definately need to do more reading (if u have any suggestions or places to start ill be eternally thankful, as of now i read stuff from theoi on study breaks) but i cant promise anything bc i go off of vibes mostly lol

anyway golden girls esque the office sitcom slice of life it is!

im familiar with the crashing the wedding myth (shout out to osp's red for introducing me to greek mythology!) and suggest it be the straw that breaks the camels back;

like shes only *just* reconciled with zeus and maybe theyve even renewed their vows and hes off wooing someone else and she just packs her shit and leaves (i like this better than a grand gesture to win her back at the very end so well start with what was supposed to be a happy ending and watch it go from there)

adore the idea of hera tapping into primordial stuff (anon ur mind is so cool like what) spending time perhaps with the primordials kinda in parallel with how zeus was raised by gaia iirc, maybe she chills with nyx and tartarus and the primordial eros idk regardless

--

perhaps this experimentation and determination to carve a space for herself in the fabric of the world they inherited is what captured zeus' heart (in the mythos he was married to metis first and then themis and then after raping hera they marry in part due to heras shame but i need to go double check on that one. afaik he was ever married to leto.) anyway hera sees it as a power up that could be exactly what shes looking for and agrees to an affair bc she doesnt want to be held down

they is in loooove and its interesting to see their dynamic (as much as i love to dunk on zeus he was the god of fate law and justice etc afterall so id love to see how theyd work with eachother and grow into their domains alongside one another). this leads to their marriage and things slowly start to go down hill when heras experimentation makes him paranoid of her own infideilty (how ironic and hypocritical lol) he seeks to contain her and decrees her domains will be that of a 'traditional' wife and queen and the thrill wearing off.

her escapism is connected to the cosmos and the void she once strived to be a part of. she wishes to be set free of all that chains her down, but in her mind duty is above her own needs (its been drilled into her) and she knows opposing zeus is a losing fight (maybe this is after her attempted coup too so now shes just burnt out and tired of trying. or maybe shes just biding her time whos to say…)

super cool i think to have the goddess of maternity and marriage be conflicted about her own mother(s) and marriage i think its a great way to explore the complexities of both and makes for some commentary and possibly a side of comedy. identity crises hera halleujah amen

--

maybe iris says something in passing one day and shes just like you know waht fuck him and fuck this i too am a daughter of cronos and i inherited this earth as well, i shall do what i please everything and one else be damned. slay i guess lol

hera chooses a human form and stubbornly refuses to go back to her divine one and zeus likes chilling as a cloud except mortals cant see him in that form.. so basically visual comedy of goddess as a human living her best life and zeus in both fondness and exasperation tries to win her back but hes a poofy wisp of air. idk that dynamic has a lot of potential too lol

hera even as a human is still careless of sorts towards mortals (my girl is fighting her own demons aint nobody got time for their drama and shenanigans) but her maternal side comes out every so often when she sees a kid with dreams and less than encouraging environment and guides them behind the scenes in little ways. idk i want to see hera as more than a jealous and petty figure and more complexity in general.

--

i guess her first pit stop would be to hades, her brother hasnt seen her since the end of the titan age so hes shook and skeptical (what did zeus fuck up this time?) and shes like can i crash? *blank stare*

stoic persephone watches them whisper shout about 'order and responsibilities' and shes like u know what im taking u to nyx you two should have some tea and shit talk zeus and u will feel better. heras like bet.

iris and hermes take over the narrative maybe bc i need to see more of them together honestly, hermes gives intel from the heavens and zeus' goose chase and iris is so done with everyones shit but is also very close to hera and tries her best. shes a good friend to hera i like her ^-^

hestia being the family therapist hell yes! then maybe she snaps and tells everone off, hair bursting into flames and things melting around her and everyone agrees to a truce of sorts. idk im working on it

--

also this is what mortal hera looks to me:

(credits to SelahSketches on x) zeus fucked up so hard lol look at my girl!

[zinjanthropusboisei]

wow! would you mind saying a little more about what risk communication is and what you like about it? it sounds so cool!

Sorry to answer this a full 5 months later but I have chronic bad-responding-to-things habits...I remember getting this around the beginning of the semester when I was talking about teaching risk comm for the first time, and then the East Palestine derailment and the Turkey earthquake happened so I went "oh I need to write a really in-depth and thoughtful response about the societal importance of risk communication"...aaand then I didn't oops 🤷‍♀️

But anyway, the short answer is that risk communication (as an area of research and as a practical discipline) shares a lot of DNA with science/environmental/health communication (and academics will have all sorts of fun arguing about how to classify them in relation to each other, ie "is risk comm a subfield of scicomm" or vice versa), but risk comm is explicitly oriented towards using what we know about communication (how people act, how they process information, the psychological/sociological/cultural/institutional influences on communication, etc) to help protect people and what they care about. "Risk" in this context is broadly defined as the "things, forces, or circumstances that pose danger to people or what they value," so very broadly looking at the ways people respond to uncertainty and danger. As a result, risk comm tends to take a very discipline-agnostic approach in looking for social science insights into risk-related problems, and also aims to bring together insights from across topical domains like climate change, health, natural hazards, etc rather than looking at them in isolation.

So for me personally, I think of myself as a risk comm person rather than scicomm or environmental, even though the underlying topics (renewable energy, climate change, earthquakes) that I study would fit me into either one, because it implies a particular perspective about what I'm trying to achieve and how I go about it.

[circular-time]

Unsolicited Rec: My webhost of 20 years — I owe them my soul

Hey if anyone is looking for a webhost for their websites, blogs, a shop front, public or password-protected file storage, mailing lists, or would just like to have their email in reasonable privacy where Google can't scrape it, I just noticed my old webhost ICDSoft is having a 75% off sale so your first year is $2/mo, renewing at $80/year, + (last time I checked?) $5 for domain name registration.  I think they were $60 per year when I started 20 years ago, and they just keep adding more storage space and tools (eg social media backup & sync)

Their dashboard has oodles of tools for setting up various types of websites and things with acronyms somebody more techy than me would appreciate, Their online documentation and tips blog and 24/7 tech support are great and — no really, they are GOOD. I foisted my mom on them decades ago after she asked me about starting her business website, and they've been her tech support ever since.

Which is where the soul-iou comes in.

ANYWAY, ICDsoft has never let me down in 20+ years, they protect their servers from attacks so I've never been hacked or had downtime that I know of (knock wood), and they are literally the only company I trust.

[Above: screencap of the top of their order page listing some features of basic account.]

This is not a paid shill. I've just been thinking about renovating my old websites and dormant blogs because of recent Tumblr posts talking about the good old days when the web wasn't consolidated, owned, sandboxed and mined by social media companies and Google.

Think of it as a community garden, where you pay a fee for your plot and do the gardening yourself, but there's a couple on-duty gardeners to keep out pests, maintain the hoses and fences, and advise you on projects or even help you set up your beds.

[flowerandthesongstress]

The (renewed and shortened) Masterpost of 2020-2024, i.e. Muh Stuff In English.

The majority of my works are heavy on subtext. Some are allegories. Most are roman-à-clef aka autofiction.

Immigration, ‘otherness’, and the search for belonging are the ever-present themes in everything I have ever written, so I’ll omit the repetition; they’re there by default, always.

My writing is free and hopefully will always remain so. But please be considerate and remember that ‘free’ does not equal ‘public domain’ or ‘free to reuse, repost, plagiarize, or skim for ideas’. 'Free' in this case means that 1) I'm lucky enough to afford not to monetize my writing, and 2) I write things that are too personal to monetize them, anyway.

Before contacting me, please🙏 read the annotation at the end of this post, starting with the words in red. Seriously. I BEG you. Please don't skip it.

The short version:

—some of the stuff remains here. I also post gifts and request fills to that account once in a blue moon.

—some stuff was transferred out of sight to here and/or locked to users only.

—some request fills and short stuff (under 15k words) can be found through #mywritingupdates tag.

—85% of the other stuff now is, and will likely remain, available only via poking me through my contacts (and not being a fantastical douchebag, because fantastical douchebags are the reason why this hoop had to be hung).

The long version:

Beauty and the Best friends forever — Gen, F/M/M, rated T. Word count: 75k. Themes: found family, abandonment issues, patience, depression, the power of friendship, Everything About The Shithole Is Either Ridiculous And Stupid Or An Evil Void Of Horror. Tagged as ‘if you only read one work by me’, not because it’s the best I've written — far from it — but for other reasons. The designated talking animal: a few demonic chickens.  

The Largest Eggplant in the Valley — F/M, rated E. Word count: 110k. Themes: ADHD, executive dysfunction, honesty, communication, compassion fatigue, hospitality, cultural stagnation, expressing yourself through fiction, traditions and superstitions, breaking out of intergenerational trauma. Is the dorkiest, sweetest, cutest thing I’ve ever written. The designated talking animal: a bear. (removed as of 2024, with a fool's hope for better times) Available on request (see the pinned post for contacts and all that). (the remaining carcass). (playlist)

Hive — F/M/M, rated E. Word count the tractor is okay, but he runs on soup, not on gas: 128k. Themes: CPTSD and recovery, when it's not my paws aching, it's my tail falling off abandonment issues, capitalism, societal pressure, and I barely catch mice anymore found family, urbanism vs ruralism, personal growth through emotional support, I recently started moulting social anxiety, Hey You Check Your Internalized Misogyny, environmental issues, hereditary my nose is cold and my shagginess has increased mental illnesses. /I doubt that any passerby was reading Hive for allegories, so let's just leave *that* historical layer be... Yet if you caught it, the drinks are on me. All of the drinks, bruh. And ALL of the ice cream. / AMt🐝 series. the shopkeepers here know me and give me juicy bones for free The designated talking animal: a cat. (playlist)

Wrong Shoulder — the beequel; F/M, F/M/M, rated DIAF. Word count: 270k. On the surface: three people (last seen beekeeping and prettying up a hamlet), each with their individual ongoing grievances and fresh traumas, meet and hit it off in a vast resort hotel situated in a charming coastal town. Following at their heels are an overly cheeky voice and the mysterious number 20, but the latter feels natural somehow. Underneath the surface: several mindscape allegories awkwardly climbing atop one another in the name of self-therapizing + a nesting doll of story layers (or is it). Themes: internalized ableism, recovery from addiction, making friends with the Shadow Self, creativity vs consumerism, My Life Results Tripled The Year I Gave Up Hope And That One Other Thing. The designated talking animal: the same cat, but he’s now a bipedal and rants at everyone. He's also totes getting a cute girlfriend or two. AMt🐝 series. Available on request. (see the pinned post) (the same playlist)

Don’t Remember — F/M, F/MMM, F/F, F/F/M, FF/MM etc, rated Very E. Word count: 90k (WIP, but it's plotless smut/domesticity). Initially a parody of the godawful ‘aunt polly writes poly’ ‘reverse harem’ ‘genre’ that got popularized and westernized on wutpad; somehow turned into a straightforward depiction of an adorkable ND polycule living a wholesome rural life and being happy. Contains all of the compersion and hugs (and recipes? and gardening tips?!). This one is just for funsies and comfort. And for bleaching my brain. The designated talking animal: a unicorn. AMt🐝 series. Available on request (see the pinned post).

Lawful Status — F🥺M🥹. Rated: yes. Word count: 90k (WIP). Just a slow-burn romance between a teenage girl and a demon, with some wholesome family dynamics, taking place in an urban fantasy, nothing else, pinky swear... damn, almost kept a straight face 😆. It's an allegory of Inner Child Therapy. Also, I'm keeping count of how many tropes I can rip apart in this one. To then resew them into a soft warm blankie. I love this work so mUCH and it actually is the best I've written in English so far, it's a goddamn cabbage. The designated talking animal: the previous unicorn's better-coping brother. AMt🐝 series. Available on request (see the pinned post).

Frogs all the way down — F/M/M, rated M to E. Word count: 33k (WIP but it's an anthology). a toxic cesspool traumatized me so much that now I can only touch it through the double-padded cozy soft protective gloves graciously provided by a friend Yo dawg, I love your fanfiction so much that I’m writing fanfiction of your fanfiction, and it's about a character writing fanfiction. Themes: ADHD, executive dysfunction, personal growth, friendship, emotional support, processing trauma through fiction, communication, honesty. The designated talking animal: ow maaan where do I even friggin’ start.

The not-so-Great Filter — F/M, rated E. Word count: 105k. Themes: dealing with the loss of a parent, lookism, culturally ingrained fear of intimacy, Adulting Be Hard, existential nihilism meets tacos, Sad Clown Paradox meets the Fermi Paradox, East meets West but they're both Asia, My Life Results Tripled The Year I Gave Up Hope And That One Other Thing. The designated talking animal: ‘Not this time’. ;-) (playlist)

Until You Meet Yourself and to get you home — F/M, rated T to E. Word count: 40k. Just a bunch of one-shots, mostly written as gifts for my SO. Themes: insecurities, social anxiety, non-verbal communication of affection. (removed as of 2024, with a fool's hope for better times.) Available on request. (the remaining carcass) (playlist)

Pelicans, shmelicans! — F/M, rated T to M. Word count: 16k. Themes: childhood friendships, peer pressure, Being a Teenager Is Pain, anger management.  

FatS — F/M, F/M/M, rated E. Word count: 280k. Themes: CPTSD and recovery, insecurities, personal growth, personal accountability, Organized Religion Bad, mood disorders, colonialism, psychedelic drugs, Why Our Brains Can't Communism. The designated talking animal: suspiciously absent, unless you count the guy in the cat t-shirt. Removed (reasons), available on request.

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

Please also note that I am NOT in any fandoms or interested in any 'blorbos'; merely using ready-made worlds sometimes, as handy outlets to channel personal stuff and write my loved ones into them*. And occasionally attach funny ears to said loved ones. Point being, you don’t need to be in any fandoms or know any canons in order to read and understand, either. Another important point, though: if you are strictly after fanfiction and blorbos, then I am not your gal. As in, I am not the author for you and you are not a reader for me.

* as there's been some substantial confusion, I'm editing the post to explain what I mean...

It's very handy when one doesn't need to labor over twenty archetypal background characters and a detailed infrastructure. A ready-made world: get to write and process your personal issues through that writing without bothering to invent where the grocery store is located. Super mega convenient. 

Or so I thought.

I have since realized my mistake, my ignorance, and my naiveté, and how they were caused by a different cultural context. I have since withdrawn — after going through a brutal bout of culture shock — and corrected that unfortunate mistake, via deleting everything I could still delete and building all of the necessary ‘infrastructure’ at home; as in, I created my own world that metaphorically represents my brain, with every aspect of that world signifying one of my brain areas and/or functions, and with everyone I know written into that world as fixtures. And I just quietly churn out novels set in that world and then share those novels with friends and loved ones and friend-shaped people who poke me directly. Or with no one at all (in which case the novels in question are simply not on this list).

To reiterate: 1) I am fandomless. That fictional thing you think I'm invested in? I'm not invested in it. In fact, that thing may be a trigger now (exempli gratia: a certain farming simulator). That 'blorbo' you think I like? I do not. I like real non-fictional people. I prefer to write various fictionalized versions of my relationships with them. Why do this? In very-very short: fear. Existential fear. Fear of loss, fear of their death, wanting to tuck us away into better places where we're safe from both, because there's magic there etc. Another example: I love to metaphorically kill off a certain country, sometimes in the silliest ways possible, every chance I get (I'm sorry for what I have been doing to Lewis all this time... I made my own idiotic old-fart 'mayor' to repeatedly kill off now; minus the joke in Eggplant, I'm not sorry for that, I love that joke and we still quote parts of it at home) for the purposes of emotional catharsis. In reality, that country is an evil gerontocratic dictatorship that wants me and my loved ones dead. Laughter helps sometimes. Stuff like that... As I said, it's for self-soothing. Coping. Dealing. Attempts at trauma recovery. Terror management. Call it whatever.

2) if you understand and accept that, I would be happy to hear from you and would absolutely love to have you as a reader 🤗

3) however, if you're only after fanfiction and light entertainment and certain names—as in, if you wish to commodify me and separate me from my stories—then I'm not the writer for you and you're not a reader for me, and we should just go our separate (pun intended) ways asap.

4) sidenote: if you are a good person who is invested in a Thing I never heard of, I can actually acquaint myself with the Thing and write something for you! There's been multiple precedents. Not like I'm against the general idea, and I love writing requests and making good people smile and feel happy. But, dear fren, please understand that me doing so would not mean that I am now invested in the Thing. I'll just hand you a lopsided gift (it will likely be something comedic), give you a hug, and go back into the sandbox in my dark corner. Safer this way.

back to the main page

[batboyblog]

Wha your an inspiration! Also sorry I meant to say what things will you see in your lifetime enter the public domain bsbsbhsbs should have said that! Anyways I'm happy to see the final stuff from the 1920s finally be layer to rest and enter the public domain by 2025! Also should more people be hyped and anticipated for the Steamboat Willie (1928) or The Opry House (1929) in your opinion/thoughts?

Anyways, what your top 15 most anticipated and hyped things whether it be cartoon/film, book or something else that will enter the public domain? Wah so sorry for so many questions dvbdbdd qwq

Things I'd like to see in my life time? well I did bring up a New Hope because I could live to see that enter the public Domain, I'd be in my 80s so it could happen. I'd love to see the end of the 95 year copyright, which would be the same year as Star Wars, in general I'd love for the law to change to something more reasonable because right now.... when the 95 year copyright term runs out we could be looking at works under copyright for well over 100 years, for example George Lucas is still alive if he died tomorrow by my math Empire would be under copyright till 2099, since he's a healthy (as far as I know) man in his late 70s he could live another 10 or 15 years (maybe even 20+) expending the term deep into the next century.

On Mickey Mouse, thats a tricky question. The Issue is the difference between Trademark and Copyright. Copyright is ownership of the whole idea in all contexts, while trademark is limited to images and words (or phrases) used for marketing. SO for example you could do a "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" style movie and have Mickey (and/or Minnie) show up. However Disney still holds/will hold the Trademark because those can be renewed endlessly, so you wouldn't be allowed to use his name in the title, or say his name in the trailers or any marketing. My question and I don't know is how much of the image do they own? could you use him in Steamboat Willie form? I would guess no, I think you'd be barred from using his image in marketing but I'd also guess you'd have a legal fight with Disney trying to use trademark as copyright.

in any case I think... there's a big big Disney community and I'd guess the first effect would be fan art and unofficial merchandise blowing up big time.

top 15? hmmm well I'll stick to stuff coming out in the near-ish future, I'm very unlikely under current laws to live to see Harry Potter become public, but that'd be a trip to see.

The Hobbit (1937): thankfully Elves and dwarfs were not made up by Tolkien so fantasy can basically steal his ideas freely but it's very clear we've all been playing in JRR's sandbox since at least The Lord of The Rings of not the Hobbit so releasing this out into the wild will be amazing also hobbits which he did make up (and also Ents, and the Uruk-hai) to finally be allowed to appear in all the fantasy literature that has elves and dwarfs.

The Wizard of Oz: Of course the original book by L. Frank Baum has been public for years and years and nothing stops any one from trying to make another one, and some have. See "The Wiz" and also "Wicked" but the 1939 movie remains a triumph and a huge piece of cultural history, I'm unsure what could be done with it, but you know

Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Captain America: I mean this should shock no one that this is something I want to see. But I think... Superman and Batman in particular are SUCH a universal part of our culture, you can stop randos on the street who have NEVER read a comic and say "what is Batman's name?" or Superman and they can answer, they can tell you Superman's powers. I think in terms of universally known and recognizable pieces of pop culture... I mean nothing else under copyright today is as big of a pop icon as they are they are as part of the basement of our popular imagination as Dracula, or Santa.

I'm sure a lot of other stuff but I think I've gone on long enough

[theloudestsongs]

There's so many real facts about this story that are hilarious and stupid, so why do you feel the need to post fake ones? Let me just debunk this...

X.com is not currently owned by Musk. It is held by a domain registrar (I believe GoDaddy but I'm not entirely sure). Meaning as long as he's hung onto this idea of making X Corp a thing, he couldn't be arsed to pay the $15/year domain renewal.

Every domain in existence is held by a domain registrar. That is how domains work. You go to a registrar and buy a domain and they register it for you. Elon bought the domain in 2017 and has controlled it since. It took them a day or two to get x.com redirecting to twitter.com, and some visitors saw a GoDaddy parking page at times. Parking pages are a normal thing that appear when a domain is not properly configured; they do not mean that the domain owner has lost possession of the domain.

The act of sending a tweet is now known as "Xeet". They even added a guide for how to Xeet.

No, this was a hoax. Snopes link.

He still plans to call his streaming and media hosting branch of the company as "Xvideo". Nobody tell him.

This sounds completely fake and I can't find a source for it.

The rebranding has been stopped in Japan as the term "X Japan" is trademarked by the band X JAPAN.

No, the rebranding has not been stopped in Japan. The official account @TwitterJP was formerly named "Twitter Japan", and is now weirdly named just "Japan". However, nothing else about the rebrand has been stopped. And anyway, the @TwitterJP account has been almost entirely inactive since October 2022.

The official account is still @twitter because someone else owns @X and they didn't reclaim the username first.

What?? Why would Twitter not be able to modify any Twitter account as it pleases? (sure enough, they have since taken @x from its previous owner.)

The logo is 𝕏 which is the Unicode character Unicode U+1D54F so the logo cannot be copyrighted and it is highly likely that it cannot be protected as a trademark.

True, the X logo can't be copyrighted. Neither can the Facebook logo, the Apple logo, the Amazon logo, the Microsoft logo, and countless others; they are all too simple to exceed the threshold of originality required for copyright. Being able to copyright your logo is not very important, and has no bearing on whether or not you can trademark it (which is very important). While there has been a lot of news about competing trademarks for the name "X", I haven't heard of any competing trademarks for X's logo design, so they should theoretically be able to trademark the logo.

Outside the visual logo, the trademark for the use of the name "X" in social media is held by Meta/Facebook, while the trademark for "X" in finance/commerce is owned by Microsoft.

This is not explicitly false but it's misleading. Meta and Microsoft (and many others) each hold a trademark on the name "X". Note: "a trademark", not "the trademark". Many companies can hold a trademark on the same name without issue as long as they are used in different scopes/contexts; this is why your local grocery store is allowed to sell apples without Apple suing them. Microsoft's X trademark relates to Xbox and video games, not "finance/commerce". Perhaps you were confused, as all trademarks relate to commerce in the sense that owning a trademark gives you exclusive rights to a particular mark in commerce (meaning, Apple has the exclusive right to sell goods and services branded "Apple", but they can't stop the name from being used for other purposes; for example, they can't stop me from mentioning it in this blog post).

I slept in and just woke up, so here's what I've been able to figure out while sipping coffee:

Twitter has officially rebranded to X just a day or two after the move was announced.

The official branding is that a tweet is now called "an X", for which there are too many jokes to make.

The official account is still @twitter because someone else owns @X and they didn't reclaim the username first.

The logo is 𝕏 which is the Unicode character Unicode U+1D54F so the logo cannot be copyrighted and it is highly likely that it cannot be protected as a trademark.

Outside the visual logo, the trademark for the use of the name "X" in social media is held by Meta/Facebook, while the trademark for "X" in finance/commerce is owned by Microsoft.

The rebranding has been stopped in Japan as the term "X Japan" is trademarked by the band X JAPAN.

Elon had workers taking down the "Twitter" name from the side of the building. He did not have any permits to do this. The building owner called the cops who stopped the crew midway through so the sign just says "er".

He still plans to call his streaming and media hosting branch of the company as "Xvideo". Nobody tell him.

This man wants you to give him control over all of your financial information.

Edit to add further developments:

Yes, this is all real. Check the notes and people have pictures. I understand the skepticism because it feels like a joke, but to the best of my knowledge, everything in the above is accurate.

Microsoft also owns the trademark on X for chatting and gaming because, y'know, X-box.

The logo came from a random podcaster who tweeted it at Musk.

The act of sending a tweet is now known as "Xeet". They even added a guide for how to Xeet.

The branding change is inconsistent. Some icons have changed, some have not, and the words "tweet" and "Twitter" are still all over the place on the site.

TweetDeck is currently unaffected and I hope it's because they forgot that it exists again. The complete negligence toward that tool and just leaving it the hell alone is the only thing that makes the site usable (and some of us are stuck on there for work).

This is likely because Musk was forced out of PayPal due to a failed credit line project and because he wanted to rename the site to "X-Paypal" and eventually just to "X".

This became a big deal behind the scenes as Musk paid over $1 million for the domain X.com and wanted to rebrand the company that already had the brand awareness people were using it as a verb to "pay online" (as in "I'll paypal you the money")

X.com is not currently owned by Musk. It is held by a domain registrar (I believe GoDaddy but I'm not entirely sure). Meaning as long as he's hung onto this idea of making X Corp a thing, he couldn't be arsed to pay the $15/year domain renewal.

Bloomberg estimates the rebranding wiped between $4 to $20 billion from the valuation of Twitter due to the loss of brand awareness.

The company was already worth less than half of the $44 billion Musk paid for it in the first place, meaning this may end up a worse deal than when Yahoo bought Tumblr.

One estimation (though this is with a grain of salt) said that Twitter is three months from defaulting on its loans taken out to buy the site. Those loans were secured with Tesla stock. Meaning the bank will seize that stock and, since it won't be enough to pay the debt (since it's worth around 50-75% of what it was at the time of the loan), they can start seizing personal assets of Elon Musk including the Twitter company itself and his interest in SpaceX.

Sesame Street's official accounts mocked the rebranding.

[robertsmilejones2432]

PRIDE IS NEXT MONTH AND THIS IS 1 OF MY 2 SITES MY OTHER WEBSITE IS DOWN AT THIS TIME BECAUSE I WAS 😟 UNABLE TO RENEW THE DOMAIN DUE TO ME BEING IN THE HOSPITAL 🏥 IN APRIL 2024 I WONT BE BASHING GAYS OR WRITING ✍🏿 ANY AMUSING ARTICLES BECAUSE MY TIME IS DEVOTED TO READING 📖 AND STUDYING 📑 AT

YES 👍🏾 THEIR ARE MANY THINGS I SAID ABOUT LGBTQ+ AND THINGS THEY DID ALSO TO ME LIKE 👍🏾 STEALING A COMPUTER 💻 THAT WAS 😟 NEVER 👎🏾 DELIVERED TO ME A FEW YEARS BACK ANYWAY SOME OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA I HAVE CAN BE FOUND IF YOU SCROLL 📜 DOWN TO ABOUT THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE 📃 WHERE YOU WILL SEE A PYRAMID MADE WITH 13 STARS ✨ MY ARTICLES ARE MOSTLY HILARIOUS 😆 BUT I WOULD NOT SPEND EONS OF TIME ON MY SITE I ADVISE YOU TO SPEND INSURMOUNTABLE TIME STUDYING 📑 AND READING 📖 AT TO LEARN THAT MUSLIMS ARE THE PROBLEM SO IS POLITICS AND PAUL

[hide-away-wally]

You know, tumblr is still kind of good, actually. I suppose if you consider what became of twitter, the bar is quite low, but it's too bad that long form blogging started to be seen as "passé" at some point in the not too distant past.

I vaguely remember when the format was still quite relevant. I had one when I was in college. It was a WordPress site. It started as a free one, the sort that was hosted on the WP servers, but I eventually got all weird and entrepreneurial, what with trying to start up a literary magazine from scratch and so on, so I discovered how web hosting worked, and learned web design, and eventually had my own custom Wordpress installation hosted on a shared server.

I honestly kept that same host for two decades, which makes me feel sad and old. I've been running out of money, and possibly time, and I didn't renew the subscription this month. I just couldn't. My custom email address, the email address I'd been using for those same two decades, is dead now, but it occurred to me that I never got emails I was genuinely interested in anymore. It was just there for password retrieval, spam, and random notifications from various corporate entities. I don't mourn my websites and such, but it's obviously a problem to have the email down for too long. So I caved ... though I didn't renew the same host. I started paying them 8 bucks a month way back when, and I didn't even notice how it gradually became over 20. I shopped around, and found something that was 12 bucks for the YEAR. Now, that's only the first year, but I don't give a fuck, a deal's a deal. That's a huge saving. Anyway, the problem is that my domain names are hosted elsewhere, and I forgot the password ... and the email the domain registrar has on file to sent reset links and such is the DEAD email address. So fuck me, I guess. I've reached out to them and sent them my ID and all that garbage, so hopefully their "ownership" department can sort this little Catch-22 out eventually...Serves me right. But I digress. Nobody read the blog I used to publish back in college, of course. Same as this one. What in this case is largely by design, back then was a source of anxiety for me. Harper and I are both artists, or were. And I began to realize just how much our civilization despises artists fairly early on. It only tolerates us when we generate capital, specifically for the benefit of non-artists. So at the time, I was quite afraid of what obscurity and failure would do to me. Rightly so, of course. It did everything I was afraid of, and so much more. I remember coming down to the front desk to consult with an acquaintance who was working the night shift there, picking her brain about all the blog stuff, how to actually build an audience and so on. She gave me all sorts of advice, bless her, but I just couldn't properly understand or apply it. Something about tecnorati, and some other website that was kind of like reddit but not quite, and aggregators, and maybe actual reddit? I was asking her specifically because she had a semi "successful" blog at the time. I can't remember what it was about. Something to do with nature, maybe? Hiking? Fishing? I don't know.

Come to think of it, I can't remember what mine was about either ... Which is only striking me as a bit odd. It was probably garbage, to be fair. I am sure that's the reason. It couldn't have been much good if even its actual author can't recall. If I had to guess, it was basically just like this ... a lot of ramblings and digressions, except now there's at least a nominal "focus" ... kind of.

I probably haven't changed or grown all that much ... For much of your life, you look back on your younger self, and you often think "wow, I was one silly and goofy piece of jello back then, and I am so glad I grew out of that phase." At some point that seems to have changed for me. I begin to realize that the old me was never a terrible person by any stretch, even if I was a bit cringe and made mistakes and all that, but I felt like a terrible person, all the damn time, especially when I was depressed. And I still feel exactly the same way now, like a terrible person. Except I can tell the old me wasn't that. They were just naive and innocent and still had hope.

Depression is one hell of a killer, you know. Over the past few decades, people seem to have made it out to be the "acceptable" mental illness, or a "universal" one. Depression and anxiety are used as the butt of self deprecating jokes by people who don't actually understand what they are. PTSD is another one. People think that watching a scary movie or weird commercial qualifies as "childhood trauma." Oh, honey, that's sweet. That's precious. I've got OCD too ... people still think it means you're meticulous or like a clean room or some shit. The reality is so much worse. The constant intrusive thoughts. INTRUSIVE thoughts, not impulsive ones. It's not a compulsion to say or do something goofy for your friends to laugh at. It's vivid images of people you love being slowly tortured and cut open by indistinct perpetrators, so violent and horrid that you WINCE, at least once an hour, its detailed worst case scenarios, atomic bombs, home invasions, gruesome accidents, running through your head multiple times a day, so immersive that you have to shake and shake and shake till you can push it loose. I've got all the good "acceptable" ones. The so called "treatable" ones. The ones it's supposedly okay to talk about, except it really, really isn't. It really, really isn't. Harper had 'em too. Harper was the only friend I had who actually got it. The rest have gone away. I am left in the underworld all alone. Fuck em.

Depression is one hell of a killer. Real trauma is one hell of a killer. There is no healing. I know that now. No recovery. There are occasional remissions and relapses, and then there's death. Fuck, what was I talking about. Eh. Clearly, I am not well.