#I’m from the southeast btw

[meanderingstream]

I was one of these drama kids my sophomore year. Ours was not at all based on popularity, but just who signed up for it in theatre class. Honestly it was super fun.

The fire department brought out pre-crashed cars to the school parking lot, and we put on some fake blood on our faces and on our old T-shirts. Then we got in the 2 cars and they put smoke bombs like they use to test ventilation ducts under the hoods. Then the fire department went around the road, all the seniors were filed in to sit on some portable bleachers nearby, and then the emergency vehicles would rush back in with their sirens blaring and act like it was a real emergency scene.

Some first responders went to help and check on the girls in the car who had hit us, while the others came to get my friend and me. I was pretending to be passed out in the car who had gotten T-boned, and a firefighter climbed in the back seat, threw a fancy blanket over me and my passenger, and then they cut us out with the jaws of life. It was pretty awesome, though a little disappointing I couldn’t see anything due to the protective blanket.

They helped me onto a stretcher and put me in the back on the ambulance, and then I went out the side door to hide behind it so I could watch the rest of the performance, where they zipped my friend up (most of the way) in a body bag and had a teacher playing her mom come running up and sobbing for her baby. I think the driver of the other car was handcuffed and put in the back of a cruiser.

Then the officers who ran the program gave a short talk about the importance of not driving drunk or distracted, and everybody went back to class. Us theatre kids had the rest of the period to clean up and debrief with each other, then we went back too.

I was only a little disappointed I didn’t get to be a part of it on the year the med-evac helicopter came, but it was busy with a real emergency my year. Another year though, the drama teacher got his 4 year old daughter to play a part in it, and she had a great time playing pretend.

To be clear, everybody knew it was a theatrical performance and there were never any attempts to disguise that. Unlike some other commenters, our school didn’t make us pretend to be dead or wear white face paint or black shirts or something for the rest of the day. We even came out and bowed at the end just like at the end of a play, and then everyone including us actors returned to class normally (after we’d cleaned up a bit of course).

WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU AMERICAN EDUCATION SYSTEM?!!

[trappolia]

are you of the swedish variant perchance

alas no 💔 however, i was colonised by them

[l00106]

IDK IM SOUTHEAST ASIAN AND YOU GIVE THE VIBE THAT YOURE ALSO SEA??? HOPEFULLY IM CORRECT (I’m Malay btw ehehehe feel free to guess which country)

NO FUCKING WAY BRO MIGHT KNOW MY ADDRESS ATP /J Tbh u r the only person that can guess im from SEA and the exact country ☠️ this is insane wtf what a coincidence omg SEA GANG YURR 🤞

[arkipelagic]

https://www.tumblr.com/arkipelagic/751684903699103744/a-lot-of-those-who-insist-that-filipinos-are

i've always wondered why, when some ppl find out similarities bw ph and pacific islanders or latinos etc, do they come to the conclusion that "filipinos aren't actually asians" as opposed to "these ethnic/racial terms don't mean mutual exclusivity in language/culture" or "race is not really determined biologically/by ancestry." sometimes it feels like they just don't like being called asian.

thanks for all the resources u share btw, they're rlly helpful

i’ve been a part of filipino circles both online and in person where i found many of these people, usually filipino diaspora in north america, reject being asian. because they are filipinos raised in the united states and canada, i suspect their dislike for the category asian stems from a sense of alienation from other asians in their proximity.

in north america, asian typically means east asian. filipinos are one of the most visible diaspora in north america yet are usually the only maritime southeast asians around. they compare themselves to other asians, ie people with heritage from the sinosphere and indianized mainland southeast asian cultures, and do not find similarities between themselves and the rest. that makes them think, well obviously i can’t be asian then! or: well obviously i’m not just asian!

in my own family, at least those who were born and raised in the united states, they are the latter. especially with filipino settlers in hawaii who mimic pacific islander motifs as substitute for so called “filipino tribal tattoos.” if you go through facebook and instagram for these tribal tattoo businesses, you’ll see what i mean.

in comparison with filipinos in singapore or australia/new zealand, i hardly see diaspora claim they are pacific islanders. that is because they are either so exposed to the many ways asian cultures can look like (ex: singapore is populated by malays, chinese, and indians) that they do not develop identity crises over what a real asian is, or they are too close to real pacific islanders like cook islanders, māoris and samoans to even think of passing themselves off as one of them.

[forgotten-elves]

So, this a huge WIP that I've been planning since rumors surrounding the newest expansion pack started going around. And it is meant to go with the For Rent EP (if the leaks are accurate), so I won't be starting this legacy until after that releases and I'm certain I want to buy it. (If I don’t buy it, I’m still doing the legacy, just deviating from my original plan).

I've really been wanting to add a story-based berry legacy to the gameplay I share on this blog, and I've always wanted to open an alien-owned bakery in the Sims, so with the rumor mill speculating about buildable apartments and a possible Thailand/Southeast Asia themed world, I finally settled on the Very Berry Legacy Challenge by @laulauccfinds (LaulauPlays on youtube, idk if they have another tumblr handle, apologies if I used the wrong one). Here is a link to the rules: Very Berry Legacy Challenge 

And a link to LaulauPlays channel:

I was also inspired by a townhouse build by kikoi builds. [Home Chef Townhouse || HOME CHEF HUSTLE || The Sims 4 Speed Build - NO CC] They used the Home Chef Hustle stand to create an open-window shop on the bottom floor of a townhouse. And I knew that idea would be perfect to implement in Gen 1's first home.

My founder is named Raspberry Mochi (which may be subject to change). She's an alien occult, and though she's starting out with a small apartment and home shop, my goal will be to make enough money to move out and buy a bakery. Her first pet will be a goat. I haven't thought of a name yet, though. (Btw, all the screenshots are from my building/play-testing save. I haven't started playing the legacy)

I want the whole atmosphere of the first generation to be cyberpunk-inspired. A futuristic, somewhat grungy, neighborhood primarily inhabited by alien and occult immigrants. The background sims will be a mix of berry and banilla, depending on their species.

Sorry for rambling, I'm just very excited for this legacy, and still have a lot of work to do to get ready for it.

________________

And as always, a link to my Masterlist 

[faithfromanewperspective]

yk I’ll bitch about purity culture as much as the next person but, it’s kinda pissing me off the way exvangelical and christian atheist spaces seem to centre the white western experience like yes I get shamed when I post a picture in a bikini or am ever intimate—emotionally or physically—with anyone—but for the most part THAT’S BECAUSE MY FAMILY IS FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA. like as much as there are pockets (and I can’t generalise the whole area. there is a lot I love about my cultural mishmash) that really value community and stuff that I love in order to facilitate that it seems, our whole culture is about masking. If you unmask you’re all western and individualist (sorry for just trying to SURVIVE when it’s impossible to connect with anyone like this).

and so no matter how much I see of ‘oh the bible doesn’t actually say don’t have sex before marriage and modesty is about not flaunting wealth’ (both of these things are true btw) it’s not gonna combat the shame that comes from nowhere near Christianity. My mother and I both found liberation in Christianity actually and guess what. we want to call out the church for abusing power too. we would know about that wouldn’t we?? and yet all the relatable stuff about rediscovering your sexuality and whatever just ends up being really culturally insensitive and exclusionary. because we’ve given up so much and yeah we want to give up our shame but not our honour, we want to feel successful in our culture in the ways that honour who we are, and have that be enough to fit in that the ways we don’t don’t matter. we want to share in the liberation we have because of Christ. but now it’s hard to fit into spaces that agree with us on these foundational things because they’re so fucking white.

and I’m ready to blame it on colonialism. this isn’t an ‘oh asians are the worse perpetrators of purity culture’ post—there’s nothing about not tempting men to sin or whatever, it’s the very fact that if you’re a woman you’re expected to be moulded into whatever society wants of you and if you’re a woman of colour it’s even worse. and yet no one wants to talk about that. about how my grandma married my granddad because how could she shame her family name by having anyone THINK that she fucked a guy and led him on and then left him even if 1) that’s how dating works, even in the 60s and 2) their sex life is none of anyones business and definitely not mine. because all these toxic systems of family honour and stuff that we’re rightfully wary of—what else do you have when your homeland is constantly invaded and when you have to work twice as hard to get recognised in the same jobs as white people thus the stereotype of the Asian nerd?? we just all want dignity in one way or another and people of colour are gonna want even more to be seen as proper when we’re already marginalised.

and so if you’re trying to create a more welcoming environment for us, do better. Asian churches tend to have that same shame and honour culture creep in, don’t you think we might want spaces to recover from that?? while holding onto our liberation because of our faith but not losing our identity in our ethnicity?? and also. don’t you think we know how to do better when we have seen the contagious trauma of people having power over our people who then go and try to do the same to each other to try and appease them and convince them we’re good? don’t you think it should be the people on the other side of this white supremacy and colonialism that might have the answers on how to solve it without making it worse?? because we’re seeing the same pattern again and again and we’re fucking sick of it.

[vapaus-ystavyys-tasaarvo]

Continuation of the timeline of French history for Les Mis Letters: 1807-1815

Okay I'll be honest, I really do not care about most of the First Empire era, so apologies if I’m just straight up skipping half of the years and making this look really dumb.

Long story short: Napoleon tried to take over the world, managed to conquer like half of Europe, pissed everyone off, then eventually around 1811 or so the French finally started getting tired of the conscription and the endless wars (which had been going since 1792), and... idk, a lot of important stuff happened, but I don’t care. Somebody else can fill these in if they want.

1807

1808

1809

1810

1811

1812: France invades Russia which goes well at first but they get stalled just long enough that winter happens and then it's not so great anymore

1813: France not doing so hot anymore but Napoleon refuses to negotiate

1814: France very much not doing so hot anymore, Paris is occupied by Austria and Prussia and Napoleon finally abdicates, Louis XVIII ascends to the throne, Napoleon exiled to Elba, the Charter of 1814, the congress of Vienna begins

1815: Napoleon escapes from Elba and returns to France on 1 March , reaches Paris on 20 March, reclaiming his throne as Louis XVIII flees, beginning the Hundred Days, the shortlived Charter of 1815, congress of Vienna ends, battle of Waterloo and the end of the Hundred Days, return of Louis XVIII (and the Charter of 1814), Napoleon exiled to Saint-Helena

All of this (except the Saint-Helena bit; he’s still being held in England at this point, I think) happens before The Fall (the next book in Les Mis). So this is where we are now: Napoleon got defeated and the Bourbon royal family came back, then Napoleon came back for a bit and the Bourbons left again, then Napoleon got defeated for real this time in Waterloo and the Bourbons came back again. So now we have the Bourbons and the Second White Terror and France is currently occupied by the allies:

ID: a map of France in 1815-1818, showing the zones of occupation by the various allied forces, notably with Britain holding Normandy, Prussia and Russia most of the rest of the north, and Austria most of the east, including the southeast. Image from Wikipedia.

(If you want to know more about this particular period btw, The Siècle Podcast is a great resource. I mean 1814 onwards specifically.)

[thebendsbyradiohead]

lmao so it was pouring rain today in greece so i couldn’t do shit but play the sims 4 & in one of the expansion packs they have a dubrovnik-like city included among the options & a presumably croatian family called markovic with a mom, dad & a kid

i decided to throw in some drama so i hooked up the dad w this actress i created who already had a baby from another guy & had him impregnate her AND his fiancee so that on the day of the wedding they would get caught cheating & the wedding would be ruined. it rained & his fiancee gave birth right after from the stress it was very dramatic. she was going to keep him in the house for the kids’ sakes but he started a kitchen fire & that was the last straw for her

meanwhile she’s a working single mom of two kids & absolutely losing it so she starts to hook up with santa claus for stress relief & wouldn’t you know it, she gets pregnant! santa is a bit blasé abt the whole thing but now she has a teenager, a toddler, and another baby in the house that she has to manage herself! so i was like i gotta lock santa DOWN.

unfortunately, he’s into long distance low commitment gfs which i should’ve known since he only comes once a year. i move him in, force him to propose & everything is gucci. he gets the mom pregnant AGAIN (these are all on the first try btw this bitch is fertile) but this time the wedding goes swimmingly & in fact, the ex husband is the officiant since santa became good friends with him even tho the mom stjll hates his guts

meanwhile, during all of this child neglect between fucking santa, going to work, & feeding babies, the first child/daughter becomes a lesbian obsessed with vampires & on a rainy thundery night who knocks upon the door but vladislav klaus? obvi i can’t miss a chance like that so i invite him in & ask him to turn her! so now they got a carmilla in the house feeding on santa bc she hates that he replaced her dad

her brother has it WORSE though. not only is his name severin but his mom completely ditched him after he grew up to look after santa’s babies & now he’s displaying lack of emotional control & he even has an earring at age 8. no one in that family is beating the lgbt allegations. so even though he is a chess prodigy & always picks up after himself, nobody gives a shit bc he doesn’t have those aryan lapland genes that santa brought & his mom resents him for being poor southeast european trash

finally, santa’s kids, frederick & fiona frost, are getting all the cuddles & toys the other kids never did & will reign supreme over severin once i move out his sister into the vampiric lair & leave his sorry ass to be cinderela’d by santa & his mom. i bet he wishes he moved in with his deadbeat dad in his studio now

p.s. apparently in the sims even if u turn a teenager into a vampire they still keep growing so sadly i can’t create a claudia scenario but i’m kinda glad bc now i can realize my original plan of the daughter (tomi, the game named her that don’t @ me) fucking her dad’s baby mama that he left HER mama for, tying up this family tragedy in the most fucked up bow. fin

p.p.s OH and i forgot to add, when the mom had the first santa baby (heh) she was sooo exhausted she passed out & severin just LEFT the house as a toddler & walked all the way to some random beach to shit his pants there & then a lady on a bike hit him on the way home akclwndlwnc

[wuahae]

OMG OKAY CAT STRAP IN BECAUSE THIS IS GOING TO BE A RANT

i cannot. actually believe that blue box bitch is making hui compete on bp999 after being in the military for two years. what the fuck. as a ptg fan it is super discouraging to see and i’m rlly worried about the future of pentagon :((( the gp999 contract was an exclusive 2.5 year contract, and if it’s the same for bp, then hui will not have been in a comeback for pentagon for nearly FIVE YEARS !!!!! being a uni is like being punished by god for real

also, this minghao thing hurts bro. ik he probably didn’t say it with the intention of being malicious but that does not change the fact that the sentiment is harmful… idk man, feels bad lmao. i’ve struggled w body image issues my whole life and to hear something like that come from minghao makes me feel uncomfortable and rlly insecure. never would have expected that from him (or any of them) but tbh that’s probably my mistake lol

sorry to dump all this on u and i’m sorry i’ve been m.i.a 😔😔 my tiny lil dumb brain is not working lately so i’ve been trying to take it easy ahdhsh ilysm cat 💛💛💛 take care of urself -🦁

i’m strapped in!!

THE BLUE BOX FJWKFKDK and yeah ,,,, i heard it was gonna be a full 7 year contract this time with the first half promoting only with the new group and the second half promoting with both your own group and the bp999 group?? but like idk i hope he pulls a nu’est where he gets super super popular and makes it to the end and then he doesn’t get voted into the final group wkhdwkkfwk but honestly we never know what the situation is until the show comes out with his interview :/ i’m not even a uni (real) i’m just a casual fan but its just so ….. 😭 btw the fact that hwanhee and xiao from up10tion who debuted around the same time as ptg are here too ,,,,, the trainees are about to get shown up!!!

and ok. when i first saw it the minghao thing was really disappointing to see and i know that this is said all the time but it doesn’t make it less true ,,,, east/southeast asian culture tends to carry the sentiment that being bigger is inherently bad and it’s not surprising that there was a clip of him saying those things and repeating that rhetoric when its the culture he was raised in.

BUT. THIS IS A REALLY BIG BUT. i also heard people saying that it was a mistranslation and the clip that went viral is actually not showing the full context? (p.s i don’t want to seem like i’m defending him or excusing minghao if he really did say those things but i’m just relaying what i’ve seen!) but basically the translation on the video kind of misconstrues what minghao was saying. the full context was that minghao was asked what advice he would give someone who was skinny and wanted to gain weight, and then asked for advice for someone chubby who wanted to lose weight. minghao then says that what’s most important is loving yourself, because when you love yourself you can know what’s best for yourself, whether it be exercising to gain, lose, or maintain your weight. and that initial thing where he says “stop eating” is said like . jokingly/sarcastically, because the host had previously said that he lost 15kg in one month from not eating and minghao was just referencing that again (and also after he says the joke he gets serious and says that this sort of thing was something he can’t just say carelessly, which is why he goes onto explain his actual answer and advise). the overall message he was trying to say was to love yourself no matter what size you are.

even so, i doubt minghao is completely guilt free in what he said (even if he didn’t mean it like that), especially since he’s still implying there’s a certain “body type” that’s considered healthy(?). but again, if it comes out that minghao really did say it like that then i’m disappointed but not really surprised, but also i think we shouldn’t jump to conclusions before getting all the facts straight :’)

[brokensenseofhumor]

Okay so uhh HI welcome back to THE PIMON THEORY today we have a BONUS episode, 6.5!!

Chapter 35 spoilers btw!

Once again, shoutout to Alex Scanlations and Taochan!!

Theory 1: Pimon and Ambrose went to Duke of York’s Royal Military School

Ok, so, remember episode 6 where I found out Pimon and Ambrose met at an army school? Well, I may or may not have found the army school in question.

Everyone, I introduce y’all to: The Duke of York’s Royal Military School!

Duke of York’s is a private boarding army school, located in Southeast England, and was founded in 1803.

Given the year of foundation and the location, it’s very much possible that Pimon and Ambrose met as students in the Duke of York’s.

According to Wikipedia, Duke of York’s school only accepted either children of former/current servers of the British army forces or orphans, and did not accept civilian children until it was granted academy status in 2010.

I’ll assume that Ambrose got in due to his father serving in the British army, while Pimon’s family bribed him into the school (since he is (presumably) Japanese and was presumably at least acquainted with the Yakuza by then).

If you want to read more about the school, here’s the Wikipedia link!

Theory 2: Pimon’s past and his relationship with Ambrose, part 2: Bromantic Boogaloo!

So this one’s gonna be a continuation of episode 6’s theory regarding Pimon and Ambrose’s 50-year-long friendship, bear with me here y’all, I’m cooking.

More evidence that Pimon has always been the way he is, courtesy of Ambrose

Apparently, Ambrose also hasn’t changed since army school. Ig that means Ambrose has always been an optimistic yapper

And here, Pimon questions the war between The Five Grand Organizations and The Royal Dragoons, presumably claiming it useless as a whole. Pimon, you’re a fictional character, you can just say that you really want to kiss Ambrose.

So yea, with this information, it’s more than certain that Pimon and Ambrose kept in contact after army school and even amidst the war between The Five Grand Organizations and The Royal Dragoons, and know about each other’s positions in their respective groups. And even then, they’re basically best friends.

By god, forget about Pimon and Arthur being toxic yaoi, let Pimon be happy and let him kiss Ambrose, expect a oneshot about them on Ao3 from yours truly later.

Welp, that’s it for now, folks! We’ll (hopefully) be seeing you on Episode 7! Sayonara!

[wandagcre]

You got it! I’m Colombian, Shakira and Kali Uchis are my moms! jk

No but you actually got one of your guesses right, I'm just not going to say which one 😼😼

Which part of Southeast Asia are you from btw?

-🍓

no wayyy ngl colombian women are hot 😭 well, south american ppl are based on my experience. anyway you haven't mentioned what height and age are you yet...

i can't really say it in here. guess you'll know it if you ever get to dm me 🤷🏻‍♀️

[spaceheelies]

Do you attempt btw to explain in the paper why Marsh seems obsessed with the fact that Robert is blonde blue eyed and white? While The Beetle envies his whiteness?

tbh if people are interested i would love to post the paper somewhere and make it available so people can read it! i would love to be indulged in my mad ravings about what robert holt represents, and the historical context of the 1890s that likely informed his characterization.

i think the emphasis on holt’s white skin, fair hair, and blue eyes is pretty self-explanatory and you are definitely onto something. in my interpretation, the beetle’s 2 main victims - holt and marjorie - are stand-ins for pure white british masculinity and femininity respectively, both at risk of being tainted by the threat of the hypersexualized foreign Other. although, there is a good case for british norms being threatened from the inside as well, since holt is already in dire straits before the beetle appears due to recession/the failure of his government, and marjorie has been enabled by the men in her life to act beyond the social use-value of her gender (i.e. they have “let” her be a #girlboss). marjorie’s blonde hair is emphasized a lot too if i recall.

it’s very telling that, despite coming from Egypt, the beetle is given no definitive racial identity. holt describes it as basically a mish-mash of racialized non-European characteristics (“beak-like nose”, “blubber lips”, etc). i’m pretty sure sydney atherton just dubs the beetle “the oriental” or “my oriental friend” due to its racial ambiguity, which makes it kind of a universal avatar for orientalist stereotypes and a fear of racial mixing. “the orient” at the time basically just meant any place that wasn’t western europe or the americas. the beetle coveting holt and lessingham for their undiluted whiteness and using mesmerism to render them powerless is a gothic reversal of the relationship between the english and what is supposed to be a colonized subject. there would be something very unsettling to the victorian reader about these white men being exoticized and subjugated the way colonial subjects in foreign locales typically were. to me it’s reminiscent of, say, southeast asian or north african women being described in exotic or sexualized terms like “caramel skin” or whatever. there was a lot of anxiety around colonial reversal in Egypt in particular due to constant revolt in Egypt and the Sudan that had started basically as soon as British occupation did. a Mahdist uprising that resulted in significant british military defeats and the death of a prolific general named Charles Gordon was still ongoing when The Beetle was published in 1897. Cairo was also a popular destination for sexual tourism the likes of which Lessingham partook in, and that in itself was a source of anxiety about like libidinous non-white temptresses preying on our innocent white British men, and potentially sending them home with venereal diseases. some sources even equate the beetle’s mesmerism to a metaphorical form of syphilis

i think it’s also worth noting how holt’s english identity seems to disintegrate after contact with the beetle. when he breaks into lessingham’s house, paul basically tells him “i can tell you’re english by your facial features”, but changes his story and tells champnell at the end of the book he couldn’t tell what nationality holt was, symbolically stripping his british identity from him. there’s a whole lot of obvious dehumanizing of holt as well. marjorie even says she can’t tell holt is a human being at first when he’s found lying in front of the lindon residence, because he’s caked and mud and has - perhaps significantly - scraped most of his (white) skin off escaping from lessingham’s house.

like is it obvious how i could have written a 20 page paper on this man and how dirty everyone did him. i’m bouncing around my enclosure rn anon you opened the floodgates

[kulay-ng-banaag]

Yeah, it’s technically inaccurate to talk of a “precolonial Philippines” because the name itself literally came in at the onset of colonization. That’s on top of the modern geographic confines of the archipelago we know now as the Philippines.

I feel that this will be PhD-level research (because I need to look for resources in languages I have absolute zero fluency in, and in places that need me spending a lot to travel to and from there), but as far as I could mindlessly look up online, I bumped into Panyupayana as a supposed name.

Joefe B. Santarita, “Panyupayana: The Emergence of Hindu Polities in the Pre-Islamic Philippines.” In Cultural and Civilisational Links Between India and Southeast Asia: Historical and Contemporary Dimensions, ed. Shyam Saran (Singapore: Palgrace Macmillan, 2018), 94.

The same version of the map was in K.M. Panikkar’s Survey of Indian History, but as far as I got to quickly scan through it, the author doesn’t discuss the specific Indian literature they sourced the name from, nor even mentions Panyupayana anywhere else in the same book. The only other (secondhand) source cited doesn’t exist — in the sense that if it was accessible online, that’s been obliterated. Basically, I’m in a dead end in terms of reading more into this. The other thing to note is when these claims were published — which was a time of burgeoning Asian unity. Not bad in itself, just understand that nationalism can get ugly real quick.

Anyway, I roll with having a precolonial Piri for shipping excuses. 😭 Personally, I treat historical accuracy as a tool to supplement whatever themes & ideas I want to entertain in storytelling.

Otherwise, I’m entertaining — for lack of a better term — Philippine OCs. I’m obsessed with how ethnolinguistic groups are also called nations. I just don’t have the (luxury of) time to develop them, let alone draw them. I wouldn’t call them a “family” either, in the strictly biological sense. Maybe, at least, not all of them have that particular relation. But I will say that the general dynamic they have with one another, including Piri, is more or less the kind of chaos and drama that can happen during family reunions. I know my Filipino homies should get this.

Btw, for resources on precolonial history of the Philippines:

William Henry Scott is your token guy. Barangay: Sixteenth-Century Philippine Culture and Society is pretty much textbook material, but he also has Looking For The Prehispanic Filipino and Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History.

The Boxer Codex

Antonio Pigafetta, The First Voyage Around the World, 1519-1522: An Account of Magellan's Expedition

F. Landa Jocano, ed., The Philippines at Spanish Contact: Some Major Accounts of Early Filipino Society and Culture

Blair & Robertson is research-beginner-friendly, but it's not only 53 volumes (plus 2 as indices), it's not the most reliable either because it's compiled and edited by Americans, so biases might have twisted things here and there.

P.S. Keep in mind that most of them are concentrated within the Visayas and central Luzon areas!

ive been wondering about how philippines childhood would be lately because while i think its not lore-accurate or historically accurate for him to represent the entirety of the archipelago precolonially, the "england-america" route of spain raising him also feels inaccurate in a way

my personal hc is that he appeared after spain arrived on the islands, but there were other nations inhabiting it beforehand doing funny and crazy history stuff. it might be fun to explore the topic through ocs, but there is so little info i could find about precolonial ph :(

idk, filipinos and phili-fans, what are your headcanons? 🤔

[akatsuki-shin]

I... I don’t often call out anyone specifically using social media before, but... I saw this among the reblogs in my first post about MXTX novels English release announcement and I feel that this is just too much...

I’m not going to tag this with the fandom tags because this is literally just my personal rant, and I don’t want unpleasant things to appear when people are happily browsing the tags.

I also censored the person’s blog name. It’s not like I want people to mass attack them.

But I do have some things I want to say about this kind of mindset.

And this is gonna be a long post, so I’ll cut it with "Read More” later below as not to disturb anyone’s browsing experience.

Why do they have to split the books into multiple volumes?

First, you do realize that the original Chinese version and other languages versions are also in multiple volumes that don’t always be published on the same date, right?

SVSSS has 3 volumes, MDZS has 4 volumes, TGCF has 5 volumes.

With the English release, both SVSSS and MDZS get +1 volume while TGCF gets +3 volumes.

Why you ask?

Have you ever considered how long a single Chinese word would be if written in alphabets?

The word “人” in Chinese only needs 1 (one) character, while in English it would translate to “P E O P L E” = 5 (five) characters.

The word “知己” in Chinese only needs 2 (two) characters, while in English it would translate to “C O N F I D A N T E” = 10 characters, or “S O U L M A T E” = 8 characters.

Now apply this to an entire novel. FYI, TGCF has more than 1 million word count in Chinese, so you can do the math by yourself.

I mean, just go watch the donghua or live action in YouTube. One single sentence in the Chinese sub is often translated to two or more lines in the English subtitle.

And have I mentioned that the English release will have:

Glossary

Footnotes

Character Guides

And I’m going to repeat this once again: In China and other countries that already get their official releases, it is also NOT always all released on the same date as a single set/box.

So yes, (not) surprise! For the Chinese release and official releases in other countries, you also often need to purchase multiple times, pay shipping fee multiple times, and wait for certain period of times until all volumes are released.

It doesn’t only happen to MXTX novels, it happens to almost all novels, be it danmei or not.

Why don’t they just wait for translations to finish and release it all at the same time/as a box set? Why the span of two years?

On my part, I already say above that in China and other countries that already get their official release, it’s also not always published all on the same date.

Other than that, I’m not an expert at book publishing, much less when the publisher is not from my own country. But maybe consider the following:

They’re releasing 3 (three) hugely popular IPs all at the same time. Maybe the preparations take more time and effort to ensure everything is flawless?

Since it is very rare (or maybe never, cmiiw) for danmei novels to be published in English, maybe the publisher is testing the market first? Because if they already release them as a huge bundle from the start and it somehow flops, the loss would be very big. If it works well, then good! Maybe for future danmei release, they will consider making a box set or releasing them within shorter timeframe. 

In terms of marketing, if they wait another 2 years to release it all at once, will the momentum still be there? You can say “so in the end it’s all about money”, but if not sales number and money, what else should the publisher expect to receive for their work? They’re already putting a lot of effort buying all three IPs from the Chinese publishers, proofread or even translate some from scratch, pay translators, editors, illustrators, printing companies, etc. If it’s not selling well simply because they release it at the wrong time, aren’t all these efforts going to be wasted? And you can bet there will be no more danmei published in English if their first try already flops merely because of losing the momentum.

Are there any other rules or regulations they need to comply that prevents them from releasing everything in one go? But once again, even in China and other countries, it is also not always all released in one go, so this argument is already invalid from the start.

But they make it so expensive like this!

I’m sorry to break it to you, but I’ve compared the prices to MDZS Japanese release + TGCF Thai release and... The price isn’t really that much different.

Btw, I’m using Google’s currency converter, in case anyone wants to know where does my calculation comes from.

Okay, so here’s MDZS Japanese version from CD Japan:

One volume of MDZS Regular ver. cost 1760 yen. This is 15,96 USD before shipping. There’s only like $4 difference.

There’s also the Exclusive ver. that cost 3660 yen (32,92 USD) but we’re not gonna talk about that because they’re basically making you pay for the bonus, which is some acrylic panels and illustration cards.

Now here’s TGCF Thai version from Sense Book:

Translation using Google Chrome page translate:

One volume of TGCF costs 360 baht. This is 10.77 USD before shipping. So there’s about $9.22 difference.

Again, notice the difference of word/sentence length in the Thai words and English alphabet.

"But there’s still difference in price and other releases usually gets merchandise!” - Correct me if I’m wrong, but the US is probably one of the most expensive countries in the world. Do you think the materials, printings, and manpower cost is the same with other countries? Especially compared to one in Southeast Asia.

“But it’s xxxx times more expensive than the original Chinese version!” - Excuse me, the original Chinese version doesn’t need to pay for translators, proofreaders and editors with multilingual skills, and purchase the IPs? If you think it’s more worth buying the Chinese version, then by all means go ahead.

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

Some last words...

I’m not looking down on those in difficult financial situation, but hey, I’m not filthy rich either? I come from a third world country and even if I’m a working adult, I’m still in working middle class + I got my parents to take care of. My country’s currency is literally just a tiny 0.000069 USD per 1 Indonesian Rupiah.

Every single fandom merchandise that you see me bought, either I’ve saved up for that or I sacrificed other things to buy that. I just don’t show the struggle to you guys because why should I? I’m just here to have fun about the fandom I love, not to flex my struggling financial condition.

These official English release of MXTX novels? All 17 books are going to cost me almost HALF of my monthly salary. But hey, I think it’s a good thing that they didn’t release it all at once, so that I can save up between months to purchase them all and plan my spending better.

If you feel the price is expensive, especially if you have to ship from outside North America, consider the following:

Book Depository provide free worldwide shipping

The books’ ISBN numbers are all available in the publisher’s website, just show it to you local bookstore and ask if they can order it for you

Plus, there are already hundreds of generous fans doing free giveaways in Twitter, even the publishers are helping to signal boost this. You can go and try your luck if you’re really desperate.

Lastly, I know how much love we all have for our favorite fandoms, but remember that fandom merchandise is NOT your primary needs.

You are NOT obliged to purchase any fandom merchandise if you can’t afford it and you should ALWAYS prioritize your primary needs.

Also, if you still want to read the fan-translations that are still available, alright go ahead. But remember that the translators themselves already said fan translations in English are now illegal. You can read it. We all consume pirated contents at one point. But don’t flex about it and diss the official release just because you can’t afford it.

I don’t know if the person who made that reblog tags are going to come at me or not, but even if they do, I literally don’t care. I’m not gonna waste my time arguing with someone with that kind of mindset and will block them right on the spot.

Also Idgaf if they call me out or talk behind my back, I literally don’t know them, so I don’t care.

End of rant.

[thoughts-of-ongoing-life-crisis]

Alright yall, I’m about to drop some FACTS on you and then make you question your existence.

Let’s start off. There is a spider called Toxeus magnus that is native to Taiwan and Southeast Asia. It’s a jumping spider that looks like an ant/is an ant mimic. What’s interesting is that they produce ‘milk’ similar to mammals.

So this spider feeds its young via milk glands. (First it leaves droplets of it for the young, but eventually they start eating it straight from the mothers body)

Anyway, this gave me a nightmarish idea. 💡

S p i d e r m i l k

It would be incredibly hard to harvest because tiny. Which would make it extremely expensive, like billionaire expensive. But it is theoretically possible to harvest the spider milk for human consumption. Why? I don’t know. It just sounds like something people would do. Also bragging rights.

Their milk has roughly 4 times more protein than cows milk btw.

[akiisalotl]

❛ :: ᴡᴇʟᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴀᴋɪ's ʙʟᴏɢ ⇐

┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───┐

ｎｏｔｅｓ

└─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───┘

➹ ✧ i made this acc so i can document my manifestations + witchy studies !

➹ ✧ any info i say here aren’t necessarily reliable and it is for personal purpose, not educational :((

➹ ✧ i’m not a vvv consistent person (but i try not to ^_^”) person so there will be times i do not update when i am not doing my daily manifestations/studies or not in the best mood to do so

➹ ✧ i am a baby witch, i am currently studying the basics and taking care of my crystals so pls don’t rely if i say some info abt it !

➹ ✧ not a professional manifestor btw !

➹ ✧ you are FREE to give me tips and nice comments (i would love to hear from u vv much) ! i will not tolerate comments that are aggressive or rude.. so pls be kind !

➹ ✧ i would love to interact with anyone ! ask me anything nice and I don’t mind at all <3

➹ ✧ no judgement allowed here pls ! i’m still learning ><

┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───┐

ａｂｏｕｔ ｍｅ

└─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───┘

➹ ✧ call me aki !

➹ ✧ she/her

➹ ✧ 16

➹ ✧ feb aquarius, taurus moon and gemini ascendant

➹ ✧ a good ol’ southeast asian girl

➹ ✧ i draw and play the piano as my hobby

➹ ✧ pink and yellow is my fave color

➹ ✧ i love dogs, rainy days, food and sumikkogurashi

➹ ✧ i go by the moon/star (+ maybe rain) aesthetic theme because it gives me comfort

┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───┐

ｄｎｉ

└─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───┘

➹ ✧ people, things, and events that are low-vibrational/have negative energy

➹ ✧ doubtful people and assumptions, it discourages me a lot

➹ ✧ rude and disrespectful ppl, again, no judgement here pls

➹ ✧ racists

➹ ✧ sexists, homophobes

➹ ✧ pedos, no nsfw and asking of very personal and weird questions

➹ ✧ religious hypocrites (it’s annoying.. seriously)

➹ ✧ gatekeepers (ppl who are vv unwelcoming)