#Weekend musings

[quinloki]

I think the wildest thing about the TikTok Ban is that TikTok decided to adhere to it beyond the letter of the law.

They bent their knee willingly and gave up space and a platform they did not have to. They consciously decided to fuck over their user base when there was no valid reason for them to do so.

I've seen people talking about how you absolutely do not want to obey ahead of authority, and to see TikTok do it is... weird. It's unsettling. It feels like a dangerous stunt.

Specifically, it feels performative. It's got the marks of a Great Drama™, and given Trump's first 4 years and his absolutely bonkers love for theatrics over anything else, this just feels hollow. Like TikTok is trying to turn it's - generally younger - user base into "fans" of the republicans.

They can't really scoop up youths any other way, honestly. But using a big impactful story and putting Trump as the "hero" who saves their beloved platform.

It's not even the 20th and I just don't like how this new administration is starting. I do not like a private company complying beyond the letter of the law in advance of that law either. Because the only thing the law laid down was that they couldn't update the app on Apple and Google.

There wouldn't have been any fines or legal ramifications.

[networkthoughts]

Weekend Musings: Hyderabad on a high

Edition 72 The past week was all about Vistara’s last flight and first flight of IndiGoStretch. Two significant announcements were missed in the process, both concerning Hyderabad. Cathay Pacific announced its return to Hyderabad effective Summer 2025 and KLM announced the launch of services to Hyderabad, its fourth destination in India starting September 2025.  Hyderabad is the fourth busiest…

[seasage-phd]

Burdens of adulting

The truth is, you will also be different. Culturally, romanticism projects a very singular and one dimensional outlook of a partner, friend or a parent. It is always along the lines of "my everything" resides in this "one" person who plays a certified "role". You will soon realise that you cannot burden yourself with playing every role in "one" person's life and neither can you expect them to allot all such postions to you. Your heart and soul will eventually grow weary under the pressure of doing that. Relieve them of that expectation. Relieve YOURSELF of trying to be all the tropes of an empathetic human being. You'll be doing yourself a favour. On days of remorse, grief and stress, you cannot expect your loved ones to do something magical to relieve you from it. And, you cannot be helpless in front of someone else's tragedies. Let time take its course. Let healing take its course. What works for you, may not work for the other. For them and for yourself, remain a pillar for support. But do not burden yourself with it.

[cpyclopse]

ILY C.B. THE RED CABOOSE<333

[foxybouquet]

I have been reading fanfic for 30 years. Yup. I'm old. I've been reading it since same-sex romance fic was called "slash." Since before portmanteaus. Since AOL and dialup were the only options, and newsgroups were what Tumblr and Ao3 are, now.

Fanfic is so important to me. Reading about the inner and expanded lives of familiar characters that we don't get to see in their respective genres...it's so fulfilling. I've never had the gift of writing good fanfic, but I can recognize it as if there were a thing like "perfect fanfic pitch."

It was because of fanfic that my love for Copia deepened to the mad levels it is now. That I came around to enjoying the ghouls as much as I do. That I'm nearing a true addiction to Ghost lore.

And fanfic changes me and improves me. I don't find it any different than reading a book that transforms your life. I have grown, thanks to a lot of the fic I've read. I've deepened as a person, a woman and an artist. I've felt validation in my personal beliefs and morality (and immorality, heh heh).

This is all to say, thank you to the fanfic writers here who have had such a profound effect on my life. Thank you for sharing your incredible storytelling gift FOR FREE, for sweating over a plot twist here and a smutty scene there, just so we can all be distracted, moved, and transported away from this terrifying world in which we live, for a little bit. THANK YOU for all that you do, fic writers.

[shinypetrichor]

KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend 2015

[spxnglr]

Folks I've yet to interact with - like this for a wee starter?

[catboythanatos]

hellooo i have posted a small prologue chapter for my stobotnik truth serum fic !!! i am splitting it up a bit for the pacing

link

it's small so sorry for the suspense / youre welcome >:3 might be a bit before i wrangle the next chapter into being postable but i hope u enjoy this bite

@yeehaw-bot pspspspst come get your food. this is like the bread basket before the meal comes out but pls enjoy

[fheythfully]

2.7.2025 Febhyuary Day 7: Sleep [prompt list]

[networkthoughts]

Weekend Musings: The strike continues

Edition 70 Last week, Boeing declared its third quarter results with a over $6 billion loss. This was followed by the machinist union voting to continue the strike. This comes amidst the fact that Boeing paid a considerable compensation to its erstwhile CEO and appointed a new one in another of its challenging years. Starting with the Lion Air crash, followed by Ethiopian and subsequent…

[scramjettracy]

'Scott Tracy.' It's one of The Hood's men who answers him, taking a threatening step toward Thunderbird One's pilot. The taser gets lifted menacingly in his direction, though, behind the action, The Hood doubts this Tracy will be as easy to subdue. Especially not without the strong cocktail of sedatives he gave the first.

Ah well, it's no real loss. In a few minutes the first will have emptied every bank account in London into his own and, if he has more time than that takes, he's considering a nice mass download of top secret GDF files. Jeff's brat shouldn't be hard to hold off for that long. It is his lucky day.

'I have orders to stop you from interfering.' The thug with the big boots says, though it might be a little late for that. It doesn't stop him from rushing at Scott though.

Scott had no time to even acknowledge, let alone process or even vaguely recover from the horror of seeing his brother’s body, his brother’s face so devoid of everything that made him John. A hollowed out version of the man he knew and should know him.

Pushing it violently to the back of his head to haunt him in perpetuity later, Scott focussed his intention on the immediate threat - the muscle-bound, taser-wielding Hood minion about to advance on him with extreme prejudice. He blinked rapidly as the man stepped towards him, removing his foot from the horseshoe strap keeping him floating in place at John’s workstation and then flailing impotently as he foundered in mid-air, unable to reach anything to push against for the momentum he’d forgotten to give himself.

Had he not noticed the gravity ring slowing? Or did he just not understand what it meant?

The man’s face contorted in pain even as he flung his arm out and wildly misfired his taser, hitting the wall several feet to Scott’s left. Scott suddenly recalled that very same look on the face of their former enemy turned friend. So this one wasn’t acting of his own free will either?

That complicated things. It would be wrong to harm him, knowing that, but a lack of sense of self-preservation or instinct to stop when something hurt made the man all the more dangerous.

And the other? Scott spared half a moment’s glance for the other man, standing seemingly placidly next to his brother, but for a weapon, perhaps a pistol this time, aimed almost casually at John’s back. If the Hood thought Scott was winning too easily that might… not go so well for John.

With a slight sigh, Scott curled his legs and pushed hard against the doorframe, propelling himself into the flailing man and slamming him into the toughened glass. Every scrap of rebound momentum absorbed through the surface of his suit, the clash of helmets made his teeth vibrate but didn’t cause him any concern. The empty-eyed man swung for him and Scott let out a cry of pain that was entirely artificial and delivered a solid knee to his opponent’s gut.

Now how to engineer this ‘fight’ close enough to John for Scott to disarm the goon with the gun?

[fallen-sequoia-trees]

already seeing people hating on ollie 😐 he’s a rookie with a lot of pressure. plus he still has quali, the race, + 23 more races to prove himself

[marigoldbaker]

I think i should get to kill this heat wave

[pilferingapples]

just rambling:

the other thing about characters having any kind of relationship (friendly, romantic, antagonistic, weird perpetual never-realized potential but they both know it, WHATEVER) is that I find it a lot easier to buy relationships in fanwork between characters who Never Met or Barely Spoke than characters who did have some kind of canon relationship but not that one

one is a blank slate , the other one, I gotta see how this interpretation got them from where they are in canon to over HERE; and that's great! I genuinely love an AU that takes time to establish why these enemies are besties now or friends are trying to kill each other and so on, but also that takes TIME and if it's not shown I will be forever annoyed (and wow this is especially true with More Subtle relationship shifts , like people who were always super casual getting a liiiittle more formal etc. EXPLAIN I wanna hear gossip) sometimes people who interact in canon are worse harder to buy as a ship?

[bismuthburnsblue]

please excuse the as-ever shitty lighting but!!!!! i made it to the 3/4 mark on binding the tabs edge of the stays!!!!!

its not completely perfect in places, and my stitches are definitely visible, but i kinda love the look. either way, nobody is going to see it on the costume, but it feels like a little signal- hey, i was here, i made this. i left a mark :'''')

heres a closer look!!

and one of the reverse side, because i think that looks neat too :)

(its another example of learning on the job bc my corners definitely get neater as i go along)

ah, im just, so happy with how theyre coming out!!!! im hoping ill be able to do one side of the top binding on the machine as its a lot less curvy, but ill see when i get there (soon! soon!!!!!!)

[lunaetis]

─「银月」─  she was running from the rain. she didn't make it.