#SO OUR CULTURES HAVE A TON OF OVERLAP

[aroaceleovaldez]

I HAVE BEEN REMINDED OF SOMETHING i think i've made a post about it before but maybe it's just sitting in my drafts. idk, whatever, I will ramble again. Said thing that reminded me was a tiktok by madison_murrah about how the PJO TV show doesn't get the balance between mundanity and magical correct for pjo and I want to expand on that cause while a.) it totally is a problem in the show and i take issue with it, b.) it is also a problem in later books and i ALSO take issue with that too and i would like to elaborate on it

this got long so ramble of the day below the cut:

so the thing is that PJO is actually pretty unique in it's approach to hidden world modern fantasy. like, hidden world modern fantasy is a decently established genre with a ton of examples, but there's a reason why PJO stands out so much, and that's because technically it's NOT "hidden world." There is very intentionally no distinction between the mundane world and the mythological, at least in first series. They 100% overlap. And you do not necessarily need to be "special" to see the "mythological world-" some mortals are totally naturally clear-sighted, a lot of kids are clear-sighted, and it's like 50/50 for if mortals can become clear-sighted. In fact, most demigods aren't immune to the effects of the Mist, all that really matters is if you're actually thinking about being able to see through it. And there's a reason for that!

In general, this format of the "hidden world" modern fantasy serves two purposes: One, as the series is meant to introduce people to Greek mythology and explain why it is relevant and how it can be relatable in modern contexts, it intentionally juxtaposes myths against modern concepts: Medusa runs an apparently average garden statue store. Procrustes runs a mattress store. The entrance to the Underworld is in LA at a record store. Circe lives on an island paradise that's secretly dangerous. Hydras are like chain donut stores that seem to pop up on every corner. Perseus and his mother struggle in Perseus' childhood but get a happy ending. Calypso has an island paradise where the challenge for the hero of our story is being tempted to leave behind his goals. The plot of Sea of Monsters is blatantly the Odyssey, and it's about Percy trying to get to his best friend (who he shares a literal psychic link to) who is in danger of getting married to someone awful (a literal monster) to help you understand Odysseus trying to get back to Penelope and how important to each other and in sync they are. Battle of the Labyrinth is Theseus and the Labyrinth and it's Percy/Theseus trying to protect his home and his people and fellow kids (like Nico) from the dangers in the maze. These are all supposed to help us understand what is actually going on in those stories.

We also still see how Greek mythology influence shapes and influences western culture in general in their world (which is supposed to be our own and so uses real-world examples) - in government, in architecture, in pop culture - Mythomagic is clearly supposed to be your standard TCG like Magic The Gathering. And in general there is no distinction between where the mythological ends and mundane begins - Camp Half-Blood is both a magical training space for demigods and your run of the mill underfunded summer camp, complete with cheesy camp songs and t-shirts and crafts. Olympus is located on top of the Empire State Building which is operating completely as normal except for when a demigod asks to go to a non-existent floor. Your best friend with a muscular disease in his legs is secretly a satyr. Your brother with down syndrome is a cyclops. Your teacher in a wheelchair is secretly an immortal centaur. Your crappy algebra substitute is a literal fury. But also they're still your teachers. The satyr is still your best friend, the cyclops is still your brother. And that brings me to the second aspect of all of this (which i have talked about before [here] and [here]) - the other purpose it serves is that it is an extension of the overarching disability themes that form the core of the series.

The entire reason that meshing of mundanity and magical is so intertwined is entirely because it's part of the disability metaphor, specifically inspired by early 2000s parenting/teaching concepts for children with disabilities, particularly learning disabilities, as trying to reframe disabilities as "superpowers" to empower kids (and still exists in some more modern forms - like referring to disabilities as "being differently-abled") (I talk about it in my previous post on the subject but this generally fell out of favor due to many kids/students finding it belittling of their struggles) - this is why we get the description of ADHD and Dyslexia being framed as "demigod superpowers." In the series this structure is intentionally made to encourage kids to reframe how they view disabilities in general as not something negative but something interesting and fantastical that they may be more open to engage with - and PJO does this in a really nice way where a lot of the disability struggles are still acknowledged and treated sympathetically. Kids still get bullied, Percy and Annabeth struggle in school or with reading/spelling, they grapple with both internal and external ableism. The entire reason for the titan war in the first series, at least from the demigod perspective, is criticizing flawed systems meant to support disabled people that don't do their job effectively or let too many people fall through the cracks. The Mist "hiding" the "mythological world" from mortals (and even some demigods) is about how most abled people (and some undiagnosed people) don't recognize disability struggles until it affects them personally. None of these things are glossed over! It's handled with nuance and care! The series says "you can be disabled and you can be like these fantastical heroes - not in spite of your disability, but alongside it. Neither negates the other." The series was explicitly made so Rick's disabled son could see himself in a hero and learn about mythology for school. Those are the two pillars of the entire franchise: Disability and learning about mythology.

So, when you mess with that "hidden world" structure, the entire thing falls apart and it immediately doesn't feel right, because it's no longer serving either of those two purposes when it needs to be fulfilling both. Late-series Riordanverse has a tendency to compartmentalize the mythological and keep it entirely sectioned off from the mundane. Think about first series and even TKC versus later series - how many mortal characters are there? what do they do? are they just in the background or do they interact with the main cast frequently? are they more than just family or an extension to the main cast? First series we see Percy's classmates frequently, Percy talks about his mundane experiences at school, multiple mortal parent characters (and other mortal characters like Rachel) are active participants in and vital to the plot. We even see a lot of background mortal characters. In TKC, not only are all the magicians technically mortal, but also Sadie's completely mundane best friends help her out. Now think about HoO, or ToA, or even MCGA. Think about the mortal characters in those series. How important are they? Out of the important ones, how much are they in mundane situations versus being almost entirely involved in something mythological? How many aren't related to any of the main cast? How many aren't actively working for a god? The answer is basically zero! Why is that? Because Rick stopped letting the mundane exist. The entire draw of the main series is that Percy does continue to live this mundane life and that adds to his mythological life and makes the balance and meshing between them interesting, but basically all mundanity ceases to exist by HoO. Camp Jupiter is an isolated entirely magic town. Percy and Jason's schools are full of mythological beings as basically the only people they interact with. The Tri's headquarters is an entire giant building in New York City that they completely control that just so happens to ALSO be directly across the street from the local Oracle's house, because even where Rachel lives isn't allowed to be mundane anymore. Why is Olympus just at the top of the Empire State Building versus the Tri having an ENTIRE building? That feels weird and unbalanced, particularly given the difference in importance between those two! Because one is playing into that balance of the meshing of mundane and magical and the other isn't! The show continues this trend. It doesn't allow any of the mythological to exist within mundanity like it functions in the books, which creates a completely different atmosphere and doesn't allow those spaces or scenes or characters to serve their actual narrative purposes, either making it easier to understand mythology contextually or what disability metaphor or representation is occurring there.

It's part of the problem with show!Percy being too mythologically-savvy - Percy is supposed to be the mundane lens unfamiliar with mythology that the audience is learning by proxy through. That's the entire point of the series! If you have Percy already know everything because he's already too ingrained into this mythological environment from the start, and he just exists in this entirely magical world where he understands everything immediately then the literal target audience of the entire franchise (students being introduced to mythology) is left behind! That's part of why the pacing of the show feels so bad! It's rushing through every scene that's more or less the same as the books, particularly anything mythological, because the show is assuming you've already read the books and already know enough mythology to know what it is and what happens and that you don't want to see it again, so it rushes through. The show doesn't explain things that it presumes you already know - worldbuilding, character decisions, basically any mythology, etc, so it doesn't even bother with it.

Later books in the franchise do this too - as long as it's tangentially Greco-Roman mythology, or if it's anything to do with the main series like a reference in TKC or MCGA or etc, it's not going to elaborate much if at all. HoO speeds through Jason's introduction to CHB, and the only reason we get much introduction to Camp Jupiter is because it's actually new. We're no longer trying to contextualize or learn about mythology, it just all becomes set-dressing and references thrown at you rapid-fire as filler. By late HoO and into TOA and TSATS and such, we're not longer even within the realm of pretending like we're adhering to mythology at all. Why is Iris a vegan? Why is Rhea a hippie? Dunno, don't care! Literally doesn't matter! Why are the pandai panda/elephant-monsters and the troglodytes frog-monsters when that's not part of their actual history at all? Well a.) literally just word associations and b.) possibly a little bit of racism (they're supposed to be humans from India and northern Africa, and you made them monsters. cool. okay. and their plotlines totally aren't horrible within those contexts. awesome. please try thinking literally at all next time, thanks). We're not even bothering to look at mythological instances anymore for a basis, a lot of it's written like we're just going based on the first results on google (hi Menoetes and the cacodaemons - the latter of which is not even spelt correctly once in the entire book - which is weird because they do say "daemon" so they know the word. Not that the cacodaemons are mythologically accurate at all because then they would be humanoid. Instead they seem to just be inspired by the things from Doom). None of it serves the purpose of the narrative at all; we're literally just making random choices, some of them quite distasteful! In large part due to refusing to acknowledge the actual contexts of the myths and how that might translate into something similar or equivalent a modern setting to help conceptualize it - something the first series did inherently by design. And we need this! A.) So that you're less likely to make bad decisions because you are inherently thinking about the historical and cultural contexts of these things and how to compare/explain it, and b.) because the audience for later books/the other series and the show is going to be the same as the first series! Those nonsensical references may be at best cameos to people who are already familiar with them, but if your intended audience is new to mythology then making references like that is just going to leave people out of the loop! You don't shift your target audience in the middle of a franchise!

Later books in the series and the show are failing to understand what the first series was actually doing narratively and how it was approaching these subjects and its audience. When you fail to do that, it completely messes up the general worldbuilding and the core themes and intentions of the franchise as a whole. Once you lose touch with that you might as well just be writing a completely different franchise. You need to approach it from the same lens or else it will feel completely off, because otherwise you've lost all base touchstones that make the series what it is.

[fozmeadows]

As someone who hasn't read the works of radical feminists like Simone de Beauvoir, could you explain what's wrong and what bothers you about biological essentialism? I'm curious about your opinion after reading your post on radfems (and I'd like a perspective that isn't so based on biological gender essentialism, which I honestly have a hard time moving away from because I don't understand other perspectives well). 👀

The problem with biological essentialism is that purports to answer the eternally unanswered question of nature vs nurture in a wholly one-dimensional way - ie, with biological sex as The Single Most Important Aspect Of Personhood, regardless of any other considerations - while simultaneously ignoring the fact that biological sex is not, in fact, a binary proposition. We've learned in recent decades, for instance, that intersex conditions are much more common and wide-ranging than previously thought, not because scientists have arbitrarily changed the definitions of what counts as an intersex condition, but because our understanding of hormones, chromosomes, karyotpying and other physical permutations has expanded sufficiently to merit the shift. So right away, the idea that humanity is composed of Biological Men and Biological Women with absolutely no ambiguities, overlap or middle ground simply isn't true. Inevitably, though, if you mention this, people with a vested interest in biological essentialism become immediately defensive. They'll start saying things like, oh, but that's only a tiny minority of the population, they're outliers, they don't count, as though their argument doesn't derive its claim to authority from a presumed universality. To use a well-worn example, redheads are also a tiny minority of the population, but that doesn't mean we exclude them when talking about the range of natural human hair colours. But the fact is, even if humans lacked chromosomal diversity beyond XX/XY; even if there were no cases of cis men with internal ovaries or cis women with internal testes or people with ambiguous genitalia - and let's be clear: all of these things exist - the fact is, our individual hormones are in flux throughout our lives.

There are standard ranges for estrogen and testosterone in men and women (which, again, vary according to age and some other factors), but two cis men of the same age and background could still have completely different T-counts, for instance - meaning, even the supposed universal gender factor isn't universal at all. More, while our hormones certainly play a major role in our moods and cognition, so do a ton of other genetic and bodily factors that have nothing to do with the sex we're assigned at birth - and on top of that, there's nurture: the cultural contexts in which we're raised, plus our more individual experiences of living in the world. One of the most common, everyday (and yet completely bullshit) permutations of biological essentialism comes when parents or would-be parents talk about their reasons for wanting a son or a daughter. Very often, there's a strong play to stereotypical assumptions about shared interests and personalities: I want a son to play football with me, for instance, or: I want a daughter to be my shopping buddy. But even within the most mainstream channels of cishet culture, it's understood that these hopes are not, in fact, grounded in any sort of biological certainty. The dad who wants a sporty son might be just as likely to end up with a bookworm, while the mother who wants a little princess might find herself with a tomboy. We know this, and our stories know this! For the entirety of human history - for as long as we've been writing about ourselves - we have records of parental disappointment in the failure of this child or that to embody what's expected of them, gender-wise. More than that: if biological essentialism was real - if men were only and ever One Type Of Man, and women were only and ever One Type Of Woman, with recent progressive moments the sole anonymous blip in an otherwise uniform historical standard - then why is there so much disparity and disagreement throughout human history as to what those roles are? The general conception of women espoused in medieval France is thoroughly different to that espoused in pre-colonial Malawi, for instance, and yet we're meant to believe that there's some innate Gender Template guiding all human beings to behave in accordance with a set, immutable biological binary? And that's before you factor in the broad and fascinating history of trans and nonbinary people throughout history - because despite what TERFs and conservative alarmists have to say on the matter, our records of trans people, and of societies in which various trans and nonbinary identities were widely understood (if not always accepted), are ancient. We know about trans priestesses from thousands of years before Christ; the Talmud has terms describing eight different genders, and those are just two examples. All over the world, all throughout history, different cultures have developed radically different concepts of femininity and masculinity, to say nothing of designations outside of, overlapping with or in between those categories - socially, legally, behaviourally, sexually - and yet we're meant to believe that biology is at all times nudging us towards a set, ideal gender template? There's a lot more I could say, but ultimately, the point is this: people are different. While some aspects of our personhood are inevitably influenced by genetics, hormones, chromosomes and other biological factors, we're also creatures of culture and change and interpersonal experience. The idea that men and women are fundamentally different, even diametrically opposed, at a biological level - that the major separator in terms of our personalities and interests isn't culture, upbringing and personal taste, but what's between our legs - is just... so reductive, and so inaccurate.

We can absolutely have common experiences on the basis of a shared gender, but gender is not the only possible axis of commonality between two people, let alone the most salient one at all times, and the idea that we're all born on one side of an immutable biological equation that cannot possibly be transcended makes me feel insane. According to modern biological essentialism, intersex, trans and nonbinary people are either monstrous, mistakes or imaginary; all men are fundamentally predisposed to violence, all women are designed for motherhood, and we're meant to just hew to our designated places - which, conveniently, tend to echo a very specific form of Christian ideology, but which in any case manifestly fail to account for how variedly gender has been presented throughout history. It's nuts.

[plazmafields]

I've been trying to think recently why I find the age gap with V and Kerry to be endearing, when normally I feel an age gap over 10 years is problematic. Here's what I think:

(Long rambling ahead along with minor spoilers maybe)

There is a power imbalance between V and Kerry, in multiple ways. Kerry is much older, yes, but he also makes a lot more money. Like shit tons of money. The first time I romanced Kerry, I thought the romance arch was lacking because of the way Kerry never initiated. However, taking into account that V is 23, Kerry's tendency to wait for V to make the first move actually feels very appropriate.

Kerry's dealing with a lot of mixed emotions about Johnny being back. The fact that he never processed his inferiority complex while Johnny was alive, then as soon as Johnny died he jumped right into an ego-driven, spite-fueled solo career that took him straight to the top, and now Johnny's back as a digital parasite? And Kerry has a crush on his host?? Wild.

I think that's ONE of the reasons Kerry doesn't flirt with V outright: he's super confused about the way he feels about V, and whether or not those feelings are overlapping with the way he feels about Johnny. Is he so excited to see Johnny that he could just smooch him (platonic)? Is he simply grateful to V for pulling him out of a depressive episode? Is he still a little horny for Johnny like when they first formed Samurai? Is being attracted to someone 70 years younger than him the first sign of a life crisis starting? Maybe Kerry would rather be safe than sorry, and not act on his feelings for V while he's processing all that other stuff.

This shifts the power back into V's hands, who really doesn't have a lot of control over how the media will interpret their relationship, even if it remains platonic (vs. Kerry who has lawyers, and past experience with the media and dating while in the spotlight). This gives V the opportunity to decide if there are any romantic feelings there, instead of falling for the advances of someone very influential and rich. Those two facts could very easily convince someone that their starstruck reaction was actually love. This way, if V is in control of initiation, Kerry can be sure that he's not coercing V into starting anything they may not fully want; a relationship with ramifications V may not be fully aware of. He can be sure V's decision was not inadvertently rushed by anything Kerry may have said/done.

In our world, age gaps in gay relationships are not treated the same as they are in straight relationships, especially when it comes to gay men. I am not saying this is good or bad. But, it is a "trope", one could say, that younger gay men sometimes gravitate toward men many years older than them. I personally feel this is two fold: older gay men who are out publicly may find it hard to find others in their age range who are unashamed of their queerness, due to internalized social pressure. And younger gay men may find it difficult to navigate their sexuality on their own as it applies to daily life (specifically in American culture) and seek the guidance of veteran gays. If we translate that trend into the Cyberpunk world, where life expectancy is DECADES longer than ours, then perhaps Night Citizens wouldn't bat an eye at someone in their 20s dating someone in their 80s. (I'm sure that gap is stretching things a bit even for Cyberpunk standards, but maybe 30s dating 60s isn't uncommon.)

Another aspect of this is something they mention out right during Boat Drinks: Kerry doesn't act his age. He's getting there, but he's got the maturity of someone around V's age. I truly believe his stunted growth as a person is due to being constantly discredited and invalidated by Johnny. I mean, Kerry doesn't seem to have much in common with his former band mates, who have all moved on with their lives and found their versions of success (except maybe Henry). The people he gets along with best are a group of 20-something pop stars from a different part of the world, and V, also in their 20s. Kerry has been trying to prove himself for so long that his personality got stuck somewhere between starting Samurai and Johnny dying.

Lastly, I just wanna point out that V and Kerry's relationship as presented to us in game, with no outside context or deliberation, is inherently problematic. The age gap, the power imbalance, the wealth disparity, V possibly being a symptom of Kerry's three-quarter life crisis or a rebound or the second best thing to Johnny; Johnny being in the picture at all. A relationship doesn't have to be perfect for someone to like it, and it certainly doesn't reflect what they find acceptable in their own relationships. It's all fiction, it's all fantasy. If you want to theorize about how Kerry and V actually have a super healthy relationship, that's awesome! If you love the idea that they just kind of wound up together and this isn't a permanent situation for either of them, that's great! If you believe the relationship is completely toxic and you're loving the drama of it all, that's cool too!

With what the game has given us, and the fact that Kerry's writers' work could be interpreted in endless ways, I think the age gap was handled in such a way that it can be excused (or even played into) if you feel it works with your headcanon, or used as a catalyst for drama if that suits your imagination better. What's important is that it never feels predatory. And to me, that's good writing.

With my personal headcanon for my oc of V, I've decided his relationship with Kerry is perfectly passable. They're not a perfect couple, they lack communication skills and often butt heads over the other's tendency to put work over their relationship (both of them stubbornly insisting only the other one has a problem), but I like them that way.

[intheholler]

Hi, sorry if this is a weird message but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your blog.

I've never been to the appalachia region but I was born in Mississippi and only lived there for like 3 years before we moved. My mom was a travel nurse so we moved every year or two and I really loved living like that and being able to live in tons of different places but part of me is really upset that I never really belonged to a specific place.

When I was younger, I was thankful for not growing up in the south. I always heard other people talk about it, how it was nothing but inbred hillbillies and how everyone talked in a weird drawl and I was glad I never picked up the accent.

But now I'm so, so upset about it. I have a very slight accent sometimes and say y'all and ain't a lot but it's definitely not recognizable as a southern accent.

I want to sound like that, but it feels wrong to try and talk with that accent now, because my family doesn't sound like that and I don't live in the south anymore. Even though I was born there, it still feels like I'm not from there, you know? Like I would be stealing something that's not mine.

It just sucks. Especially when I hear people constantly talk shit about the south and how everyone there is stupid and ugly and racist and evil and it's like, ''Oh. Maybe if I lived there a few more years they would hate me like that too."

A lot of time I see people talking about how much it sucks to grow up in a certain culture, but I never see people talk about how much it sucks to grow up without a specific culture(s).

The worst thing is when people ask where I'm from or where I grew up, and I don't know what I'm supposed to say.

So thank you for your blog. I know the south and appalachia are different, with different cultures and climates and people, but it still makes me feel like I can experience something I never got to.

hi there. this is not weird at ALL.

its a topic very near to my heart really. thanks so much for sharing your story not only because it's yours and i want to know it, but because it resonates with me SO hard, and i don't really talk to anyone who was constantly on the move as a kid and questions their identity because of it.

long post below, as is usually the case with me and this subject.

first i wanna say: i agree that the deep south and appalachia are certainly unique from one another, but to me, they share more similarities than they do differences. your story only cements that in my mind.

we have similar politics, are embarrassed by similar stereotypes, have shameful collective histories. we have similar flavors of self-work and unlearning to do. even the accents overlap.

we also know the same struggle of trying to be louder than our region, how it feels to have our individual voices swallowed up by people who don't want to hear it because they've already decided what they think about us as if we are some monolith.

what i mean is you definitely belong in this community, and i'm so glad you are here!

now for the emotional bits: i hate making these sorts of asks about me, but i sometimes feel at a loss as how else to communicate my empathy in this specific situation.

i just hope my experience can extend a sense of solidarity and understanding to how you're feeling, as mine mirrors your own very closely. i can seriously like feel the pain radiating off of this ask and i just want you to feel seen and heard.

"The worst thing is when people ask where I'm from or where I grew up, and I don't know what I'm supposed to say."

this kicked me in the stomach, because same. it's why being "from appalachia" is so integral to my identity. i'm not from a town or even a state. all i have is the region.

i've talked about this before on here, but my dad was a contractor, and we moved every year or two as well. the longest i stayed in one town was three years, and it happened only once.

i agree that moving around a lot was good in some ways, but, like you, it left me without a sense of belonging.

looking back as an adult, i realize how badly all of that moving fucked me up. i don't have a hometown in the traditional sense. i'm not "from" anywhere.

a lot of my childhood belongings i no longer have because everything seemed to get lost in the moves. i feel like i am scattered across a region, and i am nowhere.

its so bad that, as silly as it is, i get irrationally upset at something as innocent as when i am with someone who has lived in a place most of their life, and they can easily give directions there because they know the place so well. i can't do that with anywhere and so i feel bitter.

i myself moved around consistently in appalachia/the south, though, so i still grew up in the area, as generally as one could. so i also spent most of my late childhood and preteen yearsgetting rid of the accent. i didn't want to sound "stupid" or be lumped in with the racists and the stereotypes of the region.

i thought it made me better than other kids who spoke with the accent, because back then, i hadn't started the self-work i have since undergone and ripped all that hateful internalized bullshit up.

i regret it every day now that i'm learning to love where i'm from--appalachia and the south as a region. i regret ever buying into what i was told about myself and getting rid of all markers of it.

i get it, anon. i really do and i love you and i'm sorry.

THIS IS ALL TO SAY VERY VERY LOUDLY:

you. are. from. there.

you were born in the south. you was raised by a presumably southern family. even if you wasn't, they had to take pieces of mississippi with them. culture is not a static thing--it goes where you go.

you can't steal what's already yours. the accent is yours to use. it feels awkward in your mouth when you try to get it back but that's just because it needs to get comfortable in there again. it doesn't mean you're faking or stealing. it means you are reconnecting, and reunions can sometimes be a little awkward.

don't hold yourself up to rigid standards or fall victim to any gatekeeping, outward or inward. only you get to define who you are, and it seems like you know who that is supposed to be.

i hope you can start to feel a little more at home in your identity. i know what a special hell it is. thank you so so much for being here <3333

[whumpshaped]

Im pretty sure you're in a different part of the world then me. And you like vampires, too! So what's your local vampires lore like, assuming there is any. I'm white American, so I don't really... Have that. Native Americans didn't really have a vampire-equivalent, and even if they did, not my place to speak on it. I don't know my family heritage either, so I can't speak of any vampires from whatever culture my bloodline comes from.

bro u hit some sort of jackpot for sure. im from hungary. its in eastern europe and for a long long time transylvania belonged to hungary too. dracula, the real, historical dracula, was literally held captive here for a while. i just went to see his manor's cellar this summer w my brother. its awesome. so uh. ok. lets see what i can give u-

so hungary and hungarians used to be veeeery pagan and we did not leave that behind after converting. lots of our folklore has been lost but lots of it has remained! a significant part of it, of course, is vampires.

vampires were super popular in the medieval era, when people believed the standard stuff: vampires leave their graves at night and suck the blood of the living. they tried to avoid being preyed on by putting garlic in their windows and wearing amulets.

one of our most famous hungarian vampire figure is báthory erzsébet whom u might know as elizabeth báthory :) she was the wife (and later widow) of a hungarian nobleman, and she was rumoured to have killed hundreds of young women to then bathe in their blood and stay forever young! she became a very prominent figure in the hungarian vampire lore. of course her only sin was likely the fact that she was a girlboss ruling over the enormous land of her late husband alone, which people didnt like, so they started the rumours to be able to get that land from her. she was eventually arrested and died in her cell 4 years later without a trial.

then of course theres the dracula stuff and the fact that hungary is located in eastern europe. its honestly mostly the same as u would hear from slavic vampire myths. heavily intertwined and overlapping. hungary isnt technically slavic but its like...... u know how it is. if i go outside rn i will see a man in a wifebeater and another in an adidas tracksuit. we have pretty good vampire tourism i'd say. and obviously a shit ton of hungarians live in transylvania to this day sooo. basically we're at the heart of the vampire conspiracy.

speaking of dracula, lugosi béla was literally the most iconic dracula according to a bunch of ppl. hes hungarian!

basically.. listen im not saying i know a couple vampires and meet w them frequently to ask questions to better my story.. im just saying the likelihood of that isnt zero

[echofromtheabyss]

Our zeitgeist is the hot war between different groups of Twentians and Victorians

A reason I don't take Generation Theory thaaaaat seriously is because the Twentieth Century is far, far less of a flattened monoculture than the modern time. There are many different experiences side by side in the same city, frequently. Many different experiences from place to place, town to town, school to school. There are so many long tails and so many overlapping zeitgeists. Many Gen X trends have a long tail that... if you follow it... disappears into the 70s. The first recognizable person with traits resembling a "hippie" might be someone who lived in the 1930s, but they aren't legible that way yet. Many subcultures like Beats and hippies have much deeper and older roots than people think. There is a TON of leftover culture of the past still kicking around. And Victorians are still around throughout, as they are today (and they DOMINATE much of the pop culture moment atm.) They're culturally very different from Twentians! Hey, we don't know how to recognize Victorian racists because we've been exclusively trained on the Twentian racist and because the language is completely different and revolves heavily around Face Culture (which Twentians abhor.) The current different culture wars are *very much* between male and female Victorians, and also Victorians vs relict Twentians. Throughout the Twentieth, Victorians are still around and waging a tug-of-war with Core Twentians - could argue that they're very represented in the psychiatric field during the 50s. Twentians have a lot of common traits - American Twentians created the 20th century American popular culture, whereas so much of our modern is being inherited by a re-invigorated population of Relict Victorians. What is specifically the American Twentian zeitgeist is that Twentians are fundamentally working class. The "middle class" of much of the 20th is NOT the same core population as the 'Firstian middle class. During the 20th, New Money may still culturally be Twentian, especially in Hollywood. Twentian culture arrives on wings and wheels, from giant clouds of choking dust, and for the next most-of-a-century, nothing is the same again. There are a lot of cross currents: the Red Scare is Twentian and hippies are Twentian. But the broader American Twentian zeitgeist is created from the bottom-up. The Twentian pop culture grew from Vaudeville, jazz clubs, pulps. And it's made by immigrants, working class secular Jews, Black people, and the survivors of the Dust. Culturally Twentian people created all of the culture that our 'Firstian Victorians took over and own the IPs of. And Twentians created a particular cultural artifact that you can still see in movies. Teenagehood. Twentians are the only culture core for whom teenagehood ever existed, and for whom it seems to still exist.

Finally: Twentian women fought for the legal right to own their bodies and destinies. But Twentian men did, too. And the draft ended.

[wizardsaur]

I'm reading an audiobook that's somehow:

A. Very crunchy mom, anti-meds faith healing

B. Solidly rooted in self-awareness and bodily awareness. Mindfulness oriented.

C. Law of Attraction-y??? But in a less victim blaming, no one decent's gonna be a billionaire way.

D. Uses the chakras, which I've come to understand, aren't a Closed System - but rather painfully misrepresented and misinterpreted by the western world.

It's called the Energy Codes (By Dr. Sue Morter)

I'm not sure how to fully verbalize my feelings on this book - because the practices in themselves can be harmless. Especially if used in conjunction with proper medicine, therapy, self help, and such. But the same woman is also claiming that her practices have cured someone's diabetes.

Surely there are a million other problematic things to nitpick out of this work. Having said that, a good breathing exercise and mindfulness practice is always appreciated. The way she talks about love, and about our highest selves sending us Gifts to help us grow - I personally don't hate those philosophies.

There are plenty of gems in this book, just gotta sift through a ton of bullshit and, "testimonials". And I'm sure it's rife with cultural appropriation, regarding the energy system she refers to. I don't understand enough to make a strong statement there, so please don't hunt me for sport.

This is why I will always say: read everything. Diversify. Find where your information overlaps. Look for ideas to test. Fine tune your bullshitometer, keep your filters sharp, and use BOTH your Logic and Wisdom to glean the useful pieces from whatever you pick up.

[guardianssystem]

hey 0/

saw your response and so here's my attempt to describe what being a median system is/means (from our experience and knowledge, if anyone wants to correct things here or add on feel free :D)

median, when refering to plurality or systemhood, is a descriptor for how a system functions or presents generally. there are two main, often overlapping definitions. i'll be using the words system and parts respectively throughout this as thats how we talk about ourselves but they can be substituted with plural or any other similar terms (or none at all) and headmate/person/alter/facet.

the first 'definition' of median, is a system whose parts are all quite similar, generally like different versions of the same person but they can be quite similar in other ways. this is distinct from 'multiple systems/plurals' (systems and the like who aren't median) as generally those systems experience a reasonably high level of difference between parts. (like how you hear a lot of systems saying they are multiple people in one body, it implies that there's a decent amount of difference between them.)

the other 'definition' of the word, is a system who feel like they are not really independent from each other in the way multiple systems are. like they is more than one person/part in a body but not exactly 2, like 1.5. so singlets would have 1 person to a body, median systems might have 1.5, and multipe systems might have 2. its not exactly a headmate count even though it sounds like one, more like a separation level i guess.

tumblr wont let me attach an image properly but this is a little diagram i just made to try show some of the ways you might imagine a medain system compared to a singlet or multiple (feel free to copy and paste it into your post if you reply) https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1166724958362275884/1169587061397917787/IMG_8414.jpg?ex=6555f1d5&is=65437cd5&hm=e518ae1c3f68c42ab9b5a20291744b823adb4b7f576e29c84c47fc2ca5252964&=&width=1422&height=1054

not all median systems experience themselves like one of those two things but they are generally how the term is defined. some medians experience one of those things but not the other, some experience both, its really a matter of how you define yourself. its all a spectrum as well and there are some terms in between and some more i could probably say but this is getting longer than i intended so ill finish up there.

if you want a little collection of stuff about the experience you could also take a scroll through @/median-culture-is here on tumblr. again, ask if any of this doesn't make sense. thanks for taking the time to read through this and understand us a little better :)

- 🌱☀️

Okay that is definitely something that should be in the document, but not something that should be where we put it 🤣

We have the feeling we might have mixed Median up with something else. Maybe Medium? We're not sure. We think we definitely should have known this already, though. Our partner thought they might be a median or similar when they first discovered their plurality and did a ton of research that we helped with. Amnesia, we guess 😅 so sorry

Thank you for explaining! We'd heard the phrase "more than one, less than two" quite a few times, we guess that's probably in relation to medians.

We'll edit it in the document sometime today (quite a few things on today unfortunately.) Thank you for bringing it up and explaining ❤️

-Ash

[deus-ex-mona]

LIPxLIP and the Filming of the New Year’s Special Programme: Chapter 3

b y e j i r o

previous part (chapter 2)

next part (chapter 4)

Hiyori: This way, you guys~!

Hiyori: Hmm—, I was pretty sure I chose a shrine that doesn’t receive many visitors, but I guess that even this place sees tons of people at this time of year!

Yujiro & Aizo: …

Yujiro: (Why do I have to see Aizo’s face even though it’s my day off?)

Having heaved a heavily exaggerated sigh, Yujiro then noticed that Aizo was looking at him with a rather offended expression on his face.

Aizo: Hey, you do know that I feel the same way as you, right?

Yujiro: Huh? Just what is this feeling that we are supposedly sharing?

Aizo: Y’know, that feeling that spells out “Why the hell do I have to see you, even though it’s New Year’s Day?”!

Yujiro: (Eh, he’s actually spot on. How terrifying.)

Yujiro: Forget it. Let’s get on with our prayers.

Yujiro: I want to get home as quickly as possible to prepare for the special programme.

Aizo: What’s the point of preparing for it? I’m way more athletic than you are.

Yujiro: Hey, have you even checked the casting list of the programme? Several cultural enthusiasts are going to participate alongside us.

Yujiro: There’s no way that the programme is going to be planned out in such a way that only the stupidly fit participants are given an advantage.

Aizo: What’s with that “stupidly fit” quip…? Our bodies are our main selling points as idols, y’know?! There’s no way you’re gonna win if you’re losing out in that aspect—

Hiyori: Okay! That’s enough!

Hiyori: There’s no point in fighting here, okay? Let’s pray instead.

Yujiro: …Yeah, true. There’s no point in fighting.

Aizo: Yeah. Oh God, I swear this to you.

Aizo: I definitely won’t lose to this guy, and this guy alone!

Yujiro and Aizo glared at each other, and then made a mad dash for the offertory box in an attempt to beat each other to it.

Aizo: In the hopes of growing to have a close relationship that’s bound by fate, I’ll offer 5 yen!

Yujiro: Huh? Just who do you want to be bound by fate to?

Aizo: I-I dunno, but when it comes to money offerings, you just gotta give 5 yen, right?!

Yujiro: Oh really? I’ll be offering 50 yen, though.

Aizo: Then I’ll offer 100 yen!

Yujiro: …I’ll offer 200 yen.

Yujiro: (Wait, this will never end, will it…? I want to get home to practise for the programme, so let’s just get this over with as quickly as possible.)

Yujiro and Aizo bowed their heads and clapped twice. An excessive feeling of annoyance bubbled up in Yujiro when he heard just how beautifully the sounds that the two of them made had overlapped. 

Yujiro: (I don’t know why I’m praying for a guy like him… but…)

Yujiro prayed for the wish that he had originally wanted to pray for from the very beginning.

Yujiro: (Dear God, the both of us from LIPxLIP will be participating in a variety show together in a few days’ time.)

Yujiro: (It looks like it’s going to be a solo competition, so of course I’ll have my own share of highlights…)

Yujiro: (But please allow Aizo to show off his best points too.)

Yujiro: (Please let the programme be one that can be enjoyed by…every single one of the viewers from across the country.)

Yujiro: (Unlike Aizo, I’m… not used to participating in variety programmes, so I’ll try my best to not be a burden.)

When Yujiro cracked an eye open and glanced to the side, he was met with the sight of Aizo praying as hard as he could for something or other.

Aizo: …

Yujiro: (...He sure is taking a long time.)

Yujiro: (I don’t want to… raise my head before he does… or something.)

Hiyori: Um~... Aren’t you guys taking quite a while…?

Despite hearing Suzumi call out to him from behind, Yujiro paid her no mind as he continued to pray for both himself and Aizo. In other words, he was praying for the sake of LIPxLIP’s activities—

[doubleddenden]

Yall wanna see some cringe?

I decided to try creating pokemon variants or similar that one might find in my home state of Ms. I'm still working on more but it's a fun thought and doodle experiment

Blurb under cut. Please try not to take it all too seriously lol, this was just for funsies.

I'm also indulging my younger self. See a long, long time ago when I was a kid, I used to see my home as a place you could easily find pokemon around the corner. Tauros in the fields, Noctowl in the trees, the wasps were angry Beedrill, you get the idea

It was magical, a time before greed and capitalism caused rushed and unfinished games with questionable decisions by game freak higher ups. A time where I could just kinda look at the tall grass or the woods and see pokemon just living naturally without feeling a ton of responsibility or guilt for existing.

Recently I've decided to try exploring that AU, where states and such have their own dexes. Obviously some would overlap, like I'm very sure the Gulf Coast would have very similar dexes, but my idea would be that could start out with different starters that have different variant evolutions- and heck, you could even cross state borders to get theirs if that's what you wanted.

But for now, without getting way too deep, I decided to make variants based on critters that either exist here or have some sort of cultural tie in.

Let's go:

Typhlosion, Fire/Ground, low temp fires but also used for welding and construction, trusted with kids because they don't tend to start fires they don't quickly put out. The original line is already kinda mixed of badgers, weasels, moles, etc, but I think there's plenty of those here, and if nothing else Cyndaquil IS the fire mouse pokemon, and by God we got mice. Favoritism put it here admittedly since Cyndaquil was my very first pokemon in the games, and I'd want the same irl.

Blastoise, Water/Rock, basically more of a mobile tank people ride on. Uses the bubbles around its legs as wheels. Based on box turtles that live here

Chesnaught, Grass/Steel, based on various loggers and blue collar workers from here, helps with those sort of jobs and is pretty intelligent. It can form shields or slice up trees easily with its arm saws.

Yanma, Bug/Flying, based on dragonflies I see around the house

Yanmega, Bug/Steel, evolves while knowing Steel Wing. Tends to eat rusted metal from old farms and junk yards, very quick

Salandit, Ice/Electric, based on blue tailed skinks I see around my house often

Freezard, Ice/Electric, evolves from male ms Salandit. They take things by force if they want and their tails can be used as whips. Usually the females keep them in line though.

Corvilich, Flying/Rock- actually a cross over from a fan region I dabble in during my spare time. Lots of crows and corvids here, so naturally I think they'd be here too. Evolves from Corvisquire. They fight each other over nice bones and are great fliers, and are very intelligent, may or may not have good and bad omens associated

Miltank, Water/Normal, based on cows I see often taking dips in local ponds. Ms is a very farm heavy state, so I could see us having our own moomoo milk market. The arms and legs act like floaties.

Dragonite, Dragon/Fairy, evolves from Dragonair with high friendship. I wanted a psuedo legend, and then I found out Ms has its own dragon stories (even a town). I also thought it'd be neat to make a friend you'd maybe see in a forest, so I also added butterfly elements to it from the Great Purple Hairstreak.

I'm still making more, I'm progressing and getting a little better as I go, but I don't wanna get too crazy making a bunch. I'm thinking maybe about the same amount as Legends Arceus introduced. I do want to try making a full, balanced team, though, so I'll probably make more for that. So far though I could see myself with Typhlosion, Corvilich, Freezard, and Dragonite. Looking for a water type and maybe a doggo.

[treesandwords]

Clothing concepts for my world/characters:

So I'm gonna talk a bit about costumes. I'm Obsessed with coming up with fashion ideas in my worlds, it's one of my favourite worldbuilding aspects. I have a TON of sketches and also a Pinterest board (which I'll link here), and I want to discuss not the super detailed stuff, but more so a few identifying characteristics that occur in my world's fashion.

Here we go!

Side fastenings

A lot of garments have asymmetrical cuts and fasten on the side of the body instead of straight down the front. This is a relic of the Dviric people's ancestry; their people came from the northeast, in a land that is now part of the Saldigan Empire. Royalty and nobility in that place and time often wore clothing like this. Often you'd see this in jumpers or long sleeveless tunics, and in cloaks.

Knitwear

This comes from the Idrinic people who already lived in our main region by the time the Dvirics arrived. Their knitting styles were really elaborate and complex, often weaving secondary patterns into an already decorated garment. They wore sweaters! And like. Long knitted tunics and dresses that were. Basically just long sweaters.

Neutral/earth tones

This is interesting, because the three major cultural groups of the area have different colour associations when it comes to clothing. The Idrinics wore a lot of soft blues, greys, and browns, while the Dvirics wore shades of forest green, yellow, gold, and warmer rusty browns. They also never wore red, as it was a popular royal colour where they first came from, and as a group of essentially rebels to the throne they didn't want to be associated with it.* The Gamilar invaders tend to be the most vibrantly dressed, in bright blues, greens, teal and aquamarine, and shades of red. Though because the populations have become less distinct and the cultures a lot more mixed (especially the first two) at the time of the book, there's a lot more overlap than there once was.

*many modern Dviric people will wear dark rusty reds or brownish maroons, however

Long coats

They just really like em. This started as mostly a Dviric thing, but now most people wear them. Traditionally they were more of a male-associated garment but a lot of contemporary women wear them too.

The Pinterest (hope the link works?? I've never linked a Pinterest board before so idk)

@kaatiba

[lorbanery]

Not just the elderly, adults in general!

Like yes, absolutely, it is DEGREES more pronounced for the elderly who have to deal with limited mobility (both in their bodily ability to get around, but also in a lowered capacity to transport themselves around), the continued passing of friends and peers, many might not even have family local as younger generations find it increasingly necessary to move entire states just to survive (whether because of cost of living, cultures of bigotry, etc).

BUT please let's not forget that younger adults are getting increasingly isolated as well!

That whole moving states away thing I mentioned above? That can be hard socially! Especially if you didn't know anyone before you moved. My partner and I did that and we were EXTREMELY lucky that we moved into an apartment with only one neighbor who not only shared a TON of our interests; they also were very connected in communities we were interested in being a part of. We've made so many friends and gotten involved in so many community organizations because we reached out to each other.

On the flip side, I know people who've moved states who just never manage to find their way into the community. They only ever go out and do things with the other members of their household; they never talk about other people outside of work and never talk about socializing with them at all; there's never anyone to introduce you to when you visit.

It can be so incredibly boring and so incredibly lonely to live in a place and not know anyone there!

Sometimes that's because you're living lease-to-lease, you find an apartment, live there for a year, decide not to renew for whatever reason, and move on to the next apartment that you might only live in for another year. If you're not invested in being settled in a place, then why bother getting to know your neighbors, right? Or maybe your neighbors are rude and you don't want to get to know them.

But sometimes it's just because you don't know HOW to find a community. It can be relatively easier if you're living in a smaller town, like I do, where there's a TON of overlap; it's genuinely more unusual to go to two different community groups and NOT recognize at least one person there, or at least find out that someone there is close to someone else you know. But in a larger town or a city? Where do you even START? Even if you know what kinds of groups you'd find potential friends in, there's probably dozens within commuting distance. How do you find the ones that match your vibes? That are welcoming to your particular identities? That aren't cliquey? That have standards about how much bad behavior they tolerate?

On top of that — and I say this as someone who's been terminally online since 2003 — there's a pervasive mindset in online communities that, well, I have a community and friends online, I don't need real life friends! Or, even more insidious, "no one IRL will understand/accept me the way my online friends do".

And I want to be absolutely clear: Yes, it is true that sometimes this comes from a place of being actively unsafe in their real life community. Some folks know, either from seeing the way other people like them have been treated, having been told explicitly by their community, or having experienced the treatment themselves, that trying to foster relationships IRL will put them in active danger. I am explicitly NOT talking about those situations.

What I am talking about are people who don't know their local communities well enough to know whether they're actually unsafe. Who've spent most of their time in online communities that automatically come with a confirmation bias because the people who actually have stories of why the online community is the only option for them are the one's who've experienced those unsafe situations. Then those people come away with the impression that they're far more likely to also be rejected or put themselves in danger by trying to find communities IRL.

The people who've convinced themselves that they'll only ever find people who are passionate about fandom in online spaces. Even though those people also exist, by necessity, IRL.

That they'll only ever find people who accept their highly specific understanding of their sexuality and gender in online spaces. Even though those people also exist IRL.

Maybe you won't find those specific people in your local community, because the nature of the internet means it's actually more rare for you to stumble upon someone who lives near you. But the likelihood that you're the only person within commuting distance who shares any of your interests or any of your values is even less likely.

But this isn't just an online issue! This is a tactic specifically used by high control religious groups like Mormonism and Evangelical Christians. And with the rise and normalizing of Evangelist culture in mainstream culture, the more you find adults in very tight-knit communities that encourage each other to do things that make them feel bad, because feeling pleasure or, worse, seeking out things that make them feel good makes them a bad person. They speak about people they consider bad in awful abusive ways and call it "love". Then they convince each other that they're the only ones who truly understand them, and that everyone outside of their community hates them, is fighting to oppress them, is fighting to destroy them, and will reject and/or damn them if given the chance.

And you see this leaking into all kinds of cultures!

You see it in crypto spaces; in Conservative/Alt-right spaces; you see it in self-help spaces; with incels; with MLM's; with fitness/wellness; new age/pagans/wiccans; mommy/parent groups; the aforementioned fandom spaces.

This idea that We are the only ones who truly understand you is so pervasive and so dangerous, because there's a grain of truth there! It's true that people who are passionate about the media they consume are talked and joked about as obsessives who are probably also weird perverts. It's true that people who are into yoga and meditation are talked and joked about as weird hippies who have too much free time. It's true that folks who join MLM's are called stupid and scam artists and horrible annoying people.

So folks see that seed of truth, and see the other folks in their community being treated badly, or maybe they experience it themselves. And all that does is confirm to them that the folks in their community were right. That they're the only ones who will ever truly accept them. That they shouldn't bother seeking out community outside of them, because finding someone who won't be an asshole the second they find out you're a fan/a conservative/into yoga/into crypto/a Christian/in an MLM is so rare those people may as well not exist.

And because we're so disconnected anyway — because of long workdays, because of financial stress, because of covid, because of increasingly fraught politics, because of lack of childcare, all these things making it harder to have free time, nevermind free time where where you don't want to just curl up in a ball and not deal with other people for a little while — it makes folks more desperate to keep any community they might have. Even if it isn't fun, even if it stresses them out, even if they have to be constantly on guard against doing something wrong.

And let's also not forget that when you have a community that insists they're the only ones who truly understand and accept you, that also fosters jealousy. So even if you do find someone outside of the group who you vibe with, folks within the community start turning on you. We saw an extreme version of this with a major incel influencer a few years ago. The influencer started dating someone and the second the community found out they started accusing him of being a traitor, in so many horribly sexist words.

So you end up in a situation where even having a friend outside the group might be cause enough to lose that group. Is one single friend worth losing a whole community of alleged friends? Not if you truly value their friendship. Not if you truly believe that this new friend was a rare one off accident that will probably never happen again. Not if you truly believe that, being an outsider, they'll probably turn on you eventually. Or even worse, what if you've put the entire group in danger by talking to this outsider?

I know I've gotten off the topic of the original post, which was about elderly folks being drawn out of a cult community by finding hobbies and communities outside of the harmful, isolating one. But it's extremely important to me that folks understand that this isn't just a problem for elderly people. It's not old people on a cognitive decline, too confused by modern day tactics to recognize when they're being scammed or lied to or used.

These are things that can happen to anyone of any age. These are things that people get indoctrinated into as children, and even if they escape the group that indoctrinated them? It doesn't necessarily mean that they leave behind that ingroup vs outgroup mindset. These are things that are becoming more and more common in non-religious spaces and they're being normalized as Just The Way Things Are. As the way to prove that you're serious about the community. As the only way people in vulnerable populations can protect themselves. As the reason that a group that, in reality isn't a vulnerable population by any metric, convinces themselves that they're, in fact, the most in danger of being harmed.

And the younger someone is when they get drawn into this mindset, the worse that horrible loneliness will get as they get older. Not just because spending your life in the mindset inevitably poisons your outlook on life, making you bitter and resentful. But because, even if you do manage to break out of it, it can be hard to remember how to make friends! It's a skill, just like everything else. You kind of learn it incidentally by going to school, but once you're out of high school, if you're not taking active steps to maintain it, you lose it just like you lose a second language you don't speak regularly.

So please, don't assume that just because you're a teenager or in your twenties or thirties that this doesn't apply to you, that you're not at risk of this.

If you find yourself only interacting with online friends; if you find yourself dreading spending time with your friends, online or IRL; if you find yourself avoiding social activities because you're worried the people there are going to treat you poorly (ESPECIALLY if you don't know most or all of the people there); if you find yourself lying to friends about spending time with or talking to other people because you're worried they're going to be upset and jealous?

Please get out more. And I don't mean that dismissively. Go to a local convention or fan meetup. Go to your local yarn shop and see if they have a regular craft night. Go to your local comic shop and see if they have a regular dnd/magic night, even if you play neither! Find a local theater group that's holding auditions for a show you're interested in, even if you'd rather be backstage, even if you have no experience. Find a local choir. Find your local queer group and take a look at their calendar, they probably have weekly/monthly meetups for TONS of different groups. Check out your local library's calendar. Look up your favorite media personality/musician/comedian/podcast/influencer/author's website and see if they're going on tour near you. Check out your local newspaper to find events happening, groups looking for volunteers; you might even just find a mention of an organization that's doing something you're interested in!

Engage with the rest of the world around you.

And I know I'm harping a lot on online communities, but it's because I'm speaking directly to folks on tumblr, where a lot of that "no one IRL understands me like my online friends do" mindset spreads around and gets really toxic.

But again, as someone who's been terminally online since 2003. As someone who realized they were queer because of their online friends. As someone who married their online bff. As someone who co-owns an online business that has been going for almost a decade in large part because of online communities.

I know that online communities are important! I know that online communities, for a lot of folks, can literally save their lives. I know that online relationships can be just as real and important as IRL relationships.

But the internet cannot be the be-all, end-all of your social life. You need to have some community in your real, physical life. You need to know what's going on in your neighborhood and your town. You need to have support in your physical life. Someone who can give you a ride if your transportation get disrupted. Someone who can watch your pets if you have to leave town for a few days. Someone who can tell you which delivery place makes the best pizza, which one is notoriously shitty to their workers, which one has really good food and really good labor practices but just opened so needs the business. Someone who can warn you about which local religious communities are pretty cool, which are fine, and which you should actively avoid. Someone who'll invite you to hang out with some folks you don't know but who might also become really good friends.

And yes, you will have slightly awkward interactions. Yes, you will do something embarrassing at some point. Yes, you will make a joke that no one gets. Yes, you will say something innocuously that hurts someone without meaning to and have to deal with the repercussions and have to apologize. But that's not the end of the world! The more you interact with people in person, the more you'll realize how little people care about most of those things. How easy it is to just apologize and move on. The more you'll develop those skills that will make future social interactions easier. That will make meeting new people and finding shared interests just a thing that you do sometimes.

Because the internet won't always exist. Technology gets outdated and replaced. Websites go defunct. Accounts get abandoned. Laptops and phones break. Power goes out.

But there will always be people around you, and there will always be someone amongst them who cares enough to check in on you. You just have to reach out and find them and introduce yourself.

wordle and bts may seem like they have nothing in common but both have been cited by redditors as the reason why their elderly relative quit watching fox news and started acting normal again

[globaljobalert-blog]

Internet Marketing Account Strategist - Remote, Worldwide

Company: WebFX WebFX is a proud Google Premier Partner with 5 offices in the US as well as an office in Guatemala and another in Cape Town, South Africa, where we are a registered employee as WebFX South Africa! We are continuing to expand worldwide and would love for you to be a part of that! In fact, we doubled in size in the past 5 years and are projecting to once again double in size and be a global, publicly traded tech company by the year 2030 - operating in every continent, servicing clients globally. We currently have talented team members across the globe (representing 18+ Countries) who work remotely full time and have done so for 10+ years. No matter where you’re located, we’d love to have you join our mission of providing world-class digital marketing solutions to mid-size businesses on a global scale. We thrive on driving business growth for our clients and are looking for people who take pride in their marketing efforts and enjoy having fun at the same time. Sound like you? Great! Keep reading: Why Choose WebFX We've been named the #1 best place to work in our headquarter's home state of Pennsylvania for 8 years in a row and offer the same culture and benefits to our global, remote team members. Along with a very competitive base pay, we offer company profit sharing, performance bonuses, On-going learning bonuses (yes, you get paid to learn!) and time zone differential pay. World class digital marketing training (Organic SEO, Local SEO, PPC, Google analytics + Studio, etc), long term career track, Health Insurance (including dental, vision, remote doctor, etc), and there's seriously a ton of other benefits! To name just a few: - If you’re located in one of our operating countries (Guatemala or South Africa), this is a Full-time (non-contract based) position. Either way, WebFX offers long term stability to all of our FXFamily members. In fact, many of our global/remote team members have been with WebFX for 9+ years and we’re hopeful you can be too!  - We put our people first, it’s as simple as that. You’re never on your own - when you run into inevitable challenges, we’re there to support you along the way! - Long-lasting relationships with both clients and team members due to consistently low turnover rates that are simply unheard of in our industry, because again, we put our people first. - Fully Remote or hybrid/in-office options if you prefer and are within commuting distance of one of our international locations (Antigua, Guatemala and Cape Town, South Africa). 🏡 - Fully equipped in-home office setup including computer, dual large monitors, headset, seriously fast internet, generator and more! 🖥️ - Multiple schedule options from which to choose. Depending on the hours you select, you will receive additional pay for overlapping our hours! 💰 - Be part of a rapidly growing company that at the same time only partners with clients who share our values🌱📈 - Unrestricted access to our dozens of proprietary softwares/platforms our internal R&D team has developed for our team’s exclusive use, in addition to access to the many 3rd party tools and softwares we utilize internally in order to WOW our clients. You can learn more about just some of our proprietary tools here! - Merit-based promotional structure - We have a very strong commitment to giving back globally - in fact, it’s one of our values here at WebFX. As a member of our FXFamily, you get to be a large part of that simply by achieving your goals - since 2014, we’ve committed to donating globally through our FXBuilds program. You can learn more about that here! What You'll Get World-Class Training and Ongoing Career Development - No matter your level of experience, our “Bootcamp” web marketing training program is provided for all new WebFX “family members” to learn, grow and develop in and out of the office with the hard skills necessary to be successful in their position.  - From training with our Sr Digital Marketers to access to countless industry leading online training resources/courses/tutorials to getting experience with nearly 1,500+ different clients with various platforms, digital services and in every industry you can think of (and then some), our training program is simply unrivaled! - Training doesn’t stop after your initial training period, we offer career development training and monthly Lunch-and-Learns with our state-of-the-art training amenities to facilitate departmental trainings, industry-related updates, and more! - FXLearns program – where you get incentives for taking advantage of our countless industry training resources - After 1,500+ clients, we’ve been able to truly master our processes and procedures – you will be trained on all of those - no need to develop how to do things (unless you want to help us continually improve that process!) – because we refuse to ever stagnate, we are always pushing the envelope to make those processes 1% better too!  Opportunities for Growth WebFX grew 250%+ over the past 3 years both locally and globally, and merit-based promotional opportunities are abundant if you're meeting or exceeding position performance metrics. We believe in growing and promoting our internal team first and foremost. In fact, 95% of our promotions are internal! All team members have a very clearly defined progression path, so you know exactly what is expected of you so you can put your career in your own hands. And what’s more, you’re not expected to know it all - we believe in continually striving to be an expert in your subject matter of expertise – so while we will purposely challenge you to grow in SEO/PPC/Google Analytics, we are a full service agency that has experts in other departments that handle everything else - from link building, social media, web design and web development. So you can truly master your trade. Who We're Looking For - Desired Education - Bachelor's Degree in Marketing, Advertising, Business, Journalism, Communications, Information Systems or Statistics (GPA above a 3.4) - General Knowledge - Solid understanding of the Internet - Solid understanding of basic copywriting - Solid web copywriting skills - Experience - Should have customer service experience in any industry - Basic HTML experience (a plus) - Advertising agency experience (a plus) - Any digital marketing experience (a plus) - Experience with Google Analytics (a plus) - Qualities - Fluent in English (written and verbal). Resume must be in English to be considered. - Stays up to date on new changes to the web and actively reads several blogs - Professional, dependable, solid work ethic - Detail-oriented - Self-motivated - An eye for detail - Dedication to quality and high level of follow through - Approaches problem solving proactively and in a professional manner - Excellent time/project management skills - Solid analytical skills and ability to make decisions based on data - Creative problem solving abilities - Ability to meet deadlines - Outstanding written communication skills What You'll Do - Responsibilities - Optimizing client website for search engines (on-page SEO) - Working under senior digital marketers and supporting them on some of our largest campaigns and client accounts - Developing SEO content strategy for our copywriting team to create - Creating digital marketing campaign reports - Analyzing competitors’ websites and online marketing initiatives - Managing client SEO and PPC campaigns - Correcting technical issues on the backend of websites - Optimizing web content for keywords related to customer products and services - Managing email marketing campaigns - Performing A/B, website usability, and website conversion rate testing - Driving client success on the web - Percentage Breakdown - 5% analyzing clients’ competitors - 10% writing ad copy, emails, etc - 10% creating revenue, ROI and traffic reports for client campaigns - 10% client strategy and analytics - 15% managing other digital marketing campaigns - i.e. Email, CRO, etc. - 15% building/developing content strategy - 15% managing client ad campaigns - 20% updating website content - Note: The Internet Marketing Specialist- Strategy Track is not a client-facing position Compensation Negotiable, based on experience Working Hours Asia (Philippines / Indonesia) This position requires a minimum 4-hour overlap from 3:30 AM EST - 12:00 PM EST (New York Time Zone) Monday - Friday. Africa / Europe (Ghana, UK, Ireland, Kenya, etc) This position requires overlapping hours from 6:00 AM EST - 2:30 PM EST Monday - Friday. The 40 hours of work doesn’t include any lunch or breaks.   *** This excludes South Africa. South Africa has additional hours options. North America & South America This position requires overlapping hours from 8:00 AM EST - 4:30 PM EST Monday - Friday. The 40 hours of work doesn’t include any lunch or breaks.   Check out our culture on social media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Please submit resume or CV (in English) to be considered for this opportunity. *You don't need to apply more than once even if you're interested in multiple positions - you can simply let us know! We consider all open roles when reviewing resumes and applications!  WebFX is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to providing and fostering an inclusive environment where all people, including women, minorities, LGBTQ+ and other underrepresented groups are supported, respected, and encouraged to excel within STEM careers. Our goal as an organization is to empower our team to achieve their personal best, bring people together, and provide equal opportunity to do so regardless of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, physical ability or disability, or political affiliation. You can learn more on our website here! APPLY ON THE COMPANY WEBSITE To get free remote job alerts, please join our telegram channel “Global Job Alerts” or follow us on Twitter for latest job updates. Disclaimer:  - This job opening is available on the respective company website as of 20th Jun 2023. The job openings may get expired by the time you check the post. - Candidates are requested to study and verify all the job details before applying and contact the respective company representative in case they have any queries. - The owner of this site has provided all the available information regarding the location of the job i.e. work from anywhere, work from home, fully remote, remote, etc. However, if you would like to have any clarification regarding the location of the job or have any further queries or doubts; please contact the respective company representative. Viewers are advised to do full requisite enquiries regarding job location before applying for each job.   - Authentic companies never ask for payments for any job-related processes. Please carry out financial transactions (if any) at your own risk. - All the information and logos are taken from the respective company website. Read the full article

[huydx]

Why time zone is hard (for some people)

At the end of 2022, I left Square and made yet another move to a new company.

Square is a great company. We shared the same mission, build the best ecosystem for merchants (and later became economy empowering).

My team helped build tools to save millions for merchants from fraud, and bad charge-backs, and I am proud to be a part of it.

However, I had one big thing that pulled me back from contributing more to the company: Time-zone.

My team has less than 10 members distributed across 3 time zones PST, EST, and JST. Square has most of its employees located in either PST or EST. To give you a sense of why it’s problematic:

8am (JST) == 3pm (PST) == 6pm (ETS). Monday in JST is Sunday in both EST and PST (which means I can’t collaborate with anyone on Monday)

I’m 100% not a morning person

Look at (1), JST has only 2 or 3 hours of overlap with PST, and almost zero overlaps with EST. This caused the first problem, we need to organize our syncs in the very early morning or very late night of JST (since JST is a minor branch, prioritizing over US time zone which has more people, is a requirement). We picked the “early morning” option, which is bad for me obviously lol.

As a good friend of mine, you suggested a few improvements:

Just become a morning person! Exercise every morning! Problem solved, yay!

Work smarter, use asynchronous communication, read Rework and Remote (books by DHH / Jason)

(1) sounds easy. I did wake up early (to be honest, I must since my kid wakes up early as well to go to daycare). But waking up early, is not necessarily the same as “waking up early and doing tons of work at full speed, using full energy in the morning”.

Imagine every morning

You wake up and a thread of hundred Slack messages is waiting for you.

You take 10 minutes to read through ALL of them to make sure you didn’t miss any important things while helping your kid to go to daycare (of course he doesn’t cooperate).

You eat a break first in 5 minutes and join early Google Meet to discuss things that you just read from Slack.

It takes 2, 3 hours for all the meetings and finally you have some time for yourself, try to write some codes but find that it’s already lunchtime.

You eat lunch, take a break and you find that you’re already out of energy. But you know that you need to work hard, and you try to write some code. But you found that the code that you need to write needs some confirmation from you co-workers who already took off 🤦‍♂️.

Not all of my days happen like that, but most.

For (2), my team and I did try a lot to address those issues. I feel grateful to my manager as well as my co-workers for being supportive and aligning their schedules to follow our timezone (having meetings at 6 pm everyday is not a pleasant experience).

We also wrote a lot. Square’s culture is obsessed with documents. I wrote much more documents than code. Every discussion of our team started with “where is your design doc”.

I had a list of “blockers” in my notion, which I used to put in Slack scheduler to be sent at the midnight to all stakeholders so that I could check their responses the next day’s morning.

We also had a following-the-sun on-call rotation, with a complex model of primary and sub so that the workload is fairly shared between members, but not so biased that could block our customers who are mostly based in the US.

So what was wrong?

The problem is, my team, and myself is not everything. The company is everything. Dealing with time zones requires the whole company's effort. Many important company meetings happen at our midnight. My role requires a lot of communication across organizations, but communication with other teams is just laggy (every single ping-pong cost us at least a day). Also, our on-call rotation model wasn’t worked well since most customer supports and outages happen in US time zone, which puts more burden on our team there.

Time zone is hard, but time zone with full remote work (and Covid) is much harder. It’s very hard for me to feel being a part of the company. Until I left the company, I still wasn’t able to meet all of my peers who were based in the US, face to face.

I tried to understand the reasons why my company wasn’t the best fit for multi time zones model:

We built the company from the ground up with most of the workforce and customers who are based in a single time zone (or closed time zone).

Our Japan engineer team wasn’t doing Japan-related work, with Japan-based stakeholders, but mostly US-based projects, which just caused a lot of blockers.

Covid blocked us from being more “social”, and prevent us to have offline team all-hands.

Well, I’m not trying to complain or blame anything or anyone. I was just trying to say that remote work, while sounds very fancy and could be awesome for some teams or companies, could just be super hard for others, especially with multiple time zones.

[terra-feminarum]

How the third alternative might look: Culture of listening to your desires and the desires of others, never crossing their boundaries, never crossing boundaries of your own. Respecting yourself and others. Seeing yourself as a human, as well as others.

Having sex when you want to, when your body wants to. Having the kind of sex you want to have, but only if the Venn diagram with your sex partner has overlapping circles of desire. No overlap, no sex. Many radfems might not agree, but this is what I think: do whatever kinky stuff you want, but keep it in the bedroom, it's not a political identity, it's just sex. Women are not obligated to deprogram all the stuff this fucked up society has gotten into our erotic imaginations - if it's even possible - so play with it, if you want to. But stay critical. Ask yourself: how does this affect me? Where did this come from? And stay safe, put your emotional and physical safety always first.

Quit watching porn. You have brains which produce images in your head. You don't need to see trafficked women. No thought is a crime, think whatever. But a nice fantasy doesn't mean it would be nice in reality. Or ethical.

Quit dividing stuff into kinky and vanilla. Be really honest with your ability to listen to your body, and possible tendencies of self-harm or seeking validation through sex.

Quit associating your self-worth with sex. Sex is just sex. Sex can be really nice. But life doesn't revolve around sex and being sexy.

Notice how I didn't even mention who you should or shouldn't have sex with? Or if you should have tons of sex or not at all? It all falls into place naturally when you are in tune with yourself and care about yourself and others.

A lot of people truly think there isn't an alternative to porn/kink/hookup culture that isn't purity culture. That's fucked up.

[charmixpower]

Winxers say that Stella being both the fairy of the sun and stars doesnt make sense since the sun is a star and that is correct, but maybe magically speaking the two are different enough. The same way Flora is a nature fairy but doesnt control water. It would be kinda long to explain but you know what I mean, the people in the magic dimension consciously separated things in the magic sphere

Oh yeah, I definitely understand that

I have a headcanon based on that idea bc I really really wanted sun and stars to be magically different

I don't see Stella as the fairy of the sun moon and stars, just sun and moon, but her powers are distinctly different than Chimera the Fariy of Stars

Suns, in my new magical definition, are stars that support life on a planet. So our sun is a sun, a star that has lifeless planets orbiting it is just a star

The reason their different is because life bearing planets have a fuck ton of magic on them, and a super powerful magical core. A lot of cultures have sun gods/feel positively towards the sun for day light, and I imagine those feelings move the magic on the planet to connect with the magic of the Sun. Both making the Sun more stable than the average star, and giving Suns their own unique magical properties

Stars are full of natural, wilder, untamed magic. Suns are more...domesticated. Like sun magic can come with enegry restorative powers, while star magic distinctly does not. Star magic tends to be more pointy than sun magic, which tends to be rounder, idk if I'm explaining that right, but it's like...it would be easier to stab someone with start magic compared to sun magic, sun magic is more....blanket-y. Stars also, due to more mixing with proper space magic, can have some cold aspects. Sun magic distinctly does not

Which is how Stella Fariy of the Sun and Moon and Chimera the Fairy of Stars don't completely overlap in powers

I came up with this so Stella and Chimera could have distinctive powers and magic aesthetics ndjendkd

It also explains why moons have magical properties despite just being hunks of rocks floating in space trapped in a perticualr orbit, same concept essentially