#admittedly i am only on board as a doomed ship

[zaebeecee]

I see so much RadioStatic backstory of “they were friends but Alastor broke Vox’s heart” but I would like you to consider:

Vox, soon after his death and feeling lost and disconnected, seeking out other sinners with an interest in the only connecting point he has to others, media.

And, in doing so, he goes out of his way to make the acquaintance of the Radio Demon, the only overlord who seems to have the same passion for entertainment that Vox does himself.

And Alastor does not get approached by anyone, because everyone is terrified of him; his only real connection since his own death has been Rosie, and they bonded over cannibalism, not the art of entertainment.

But Vox wants to make his acquaintance, Vox wants to talk shop with him, and Alastor finally has someone with whom he can discuss storytelling and evolutions in broadcasting technology, someone he can stay up with all night who appreciates rye as much as he does and who listens to his infodumping with real rapt attention and who does his own infodumping in a way that Alastor finds compelling.

Alastor tells Vox all about what it was like during the birth and rise of radio and what it was like to run a radio program back during a time when it was the hot new thing.

And Vox teaches Alastor about television, and about writing serialized scripts meant to be seen and heard, and about filming and audio recording and costuming and set design.

And Alastor is subversive and forward-thinking, and he loves television; he loves seeing what beautiful and visual things can be done with the serialized stories he always loved writing for his radio program.

Vox is someone Alastor readily calls his friend.

But Vox is a capitalist, above all else, willing to throw away his artistic integrity and smother his own creativity in his eagerness to chase whatever is new because it is new, and Alastor watches that bright spark that had drawn him to Vox become buried under the weight of corporate greed.

And when Vox asks Alastor to join him, Alastor says no, because the Vox who asked for his partnership was not the same man that Alastor sat up all night with so many years, he was not the same man that Alastor wrote ridiculous scripts with, he was not the same man who approached Alastor without a hint of fear flickering on his screen and introduced himself with a cautious smile and a sincere compliment for his last broadcast.

Alastor says no, because this man is not his Vox; this man, instead, murdered his Vox and is wearing his skin like a grotesque costume.

Alastor says he hates television, because television reminds him of a time he almost permitted himself vulnerability, and can’t admit that it destroyed him.

What if, instead, Vox was the one who broke Alastor’s heart?

[meetmeatthecoda]

It’s bonkers how Liz and Ressler can literally have sex and then still be on a last name basis with each other. Even Red calls her Elizabeth lmao. But seriously, if K—nler is endgame, is this really the writers’ idea of romance? Barely any buildup, BOOM they have sex, then these awkward, forced ‘moments’ between them? *deep sigh* Idk, maybe I’m being harsh, but I guess I feel like the least they could do (if they won’t give us Lizzington) is give us something decent to watch. What are your thoughts/theories on this mess?

Hello, dear anon!! ❤️ Firstly, omg, I know!! All the “Hey, Keen.” and “What, Ressler?” is so intensely romantic 🙄🙄🙄 The thought of Red calling Liz just “Keen” is so laughable to me. As you so rightly say, he at least calls her by her full name, which is much more telling imo than any robotic surname crap. (Plus, he would never call her “Keen” bc it’s her fake name from her fake marriage to her fake husband, but I digress.) Regardless of whether it’s Lizzie or Elizabeth or Agent Keen, it still sounds like music coming out of Red’s mouth. Whether that music is a funeral march or a symphonic poem... well, it varies 😒

ANYWAY you make such a good point!! If we’re striving to be objective (which is a pretty unobtainable goal for me at this point), there is  n o t h i n g  inherently romantic about K**nler. I’m sorry, but to me - no matter which way you slice it - there’s been absolutely NO romantic coding with these two over SEVEN SEASONS, really only a handful of scenes together at all that mostly consist of “STOP! FBI!”, and very few personal/meaningful moments. And of those VERY FEW moments, they all appear to me as platonic/work friends/colleagues. And listen, I’ve always liked Ressler and Liz as BFFs. Liz always offered a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on about Audrey in the good ol’ days and Ressler did the same about T*m, plus I’ve always loved how Ressler offered to “rough him up” in that gruff, brotherly way. There was never any jealousy between them at their respective romantic partners, like there always is with those Will They/Won’t They ships. And I think pilot!Ressler hating Liz’s guts gradually morphing into them being best buds over the ensuing seasons is super cute. But it’s never screamed “romance” to me. There’s been no anticipation, no build-up, no close calls, no nothing. My prime ship example for that sort of thing is Caskett from Castle. They spent 4 seasons building those two up with plenty of close calls and jealousy keeping them apart for as long as they physically could before they finally came together with fireworks. There has been zero of that with K**nler. (Lizzington on the other hand? Yes. Not to mention all the Lizzington suggestions FROM RESSLER: ”Sounds like someone’s jealous Uncle Red’s got a new crush”, “You in the dog house or something?” - but I’m slipping into my Lizzington googles, so I’ll stop there.) Not to mention I’ve never really liked Ressler as a character. Sorry, no shade to Diego, but it’s not exactly a dynamic character. And TPTB have a marvelous reputation of tabling characters until their designated plot lines and episodes, with no measurable growth or continuity in between, so it always feels forced to me. To just throw a long forgotten character - whose only role in the past 11 episodes has been driving around and answering phone calls to catch the weekly blacklister - in my face once a season and say, “LOOK, WE THOUGHT OF SOMETHING FOR THIS DUDE, REMEMBER HE CAN TALK?!” and expecting me to feel invested is wildly unrealistic imo.

In conclusion, anon, I don’t think you’re being harsh at all, rest assured that I have been much harsher in tags, DMs, and especially my own head about this so-called “romance”. I think you’re definitely correct that they could at least give us something decent to watch with time, a true romantic build-up, and a satisfying culmination. I mean, I know this is primarily an FBI-mystery-mythology-government-action-procedural-show but... AS SOMEONE ONCE RIGHTLY SAID, “I think it’s a love story.” and babe? ..... this ain’t it. I’m sorry, Lizzington remains the only pairing on this show that has had a veritable phone book of romantic tropes written for them, including - but certainly not limited to - tense undercover operations, dancing, jealousy at other partners, killing for each other, actual DECLARATIONS of LOVE,  T H E  L I S T  G O E S  O N, not to mention I’m of the steadfast opinion that they were the initial endgame for the show, and that’s a hill I am prepared to die on. I HAVE and WILL go down with this doomed ship until the end of my days. Amen.

As for my thoughts/theories on this mess, I am flattered that you’re interested enough to ask, and I think I probably gave you way more than you bargained for in the ^above^ rage!typing 😂 The only things I would venture to add are: 1) K**nler is a barely a ship by my admittedly high standards and, if it is indeed intended to be The Great Romance™ of the show, TPTB did a piss poor job of making it AT ALL satisfying 2) The current “plot line” is an inconsistently written, infuriating, OOC across the board, “twists” pulled out of a hat, PIECE OF CRAP mess, and I’m so over it and 3) I have genuinely no idea how they plan on digging themselves out of the sizable RED VS. LIZ hole CRATER they’ve dug themselves into and, if they plan on having even a mildly successful season 9, they had better claw their way out soon bc, by all accounts, pretty much nobody likes pathetically-evil!Liz and most are rooting for heart-of-gold-&-incredibly-sympathetic!Red in every single way. Sooooo... idk. I’m really bored by the whole RuSsIaN oPeRaTiVe arc and I wish we could fast-forward to the season finale to see if they plan on making any effort at all to improve the core relationship of the show, or if they have indeed given Liz up to mannequin-man and revenge-filled-rage-induced-mentally-unstable-out-of-left-field-evil-Kaplan-hallucinations and Red over to simply sad-lonely-romantic-tired-puppy-dog-who-deserves-better.

At any rate, thank you dearly for this ask, anon, it turns out I had a lot of negative feelings (surprise, surprise) that needed an outlet and I hope it wasn’t too painful to slog through!! Feel free to send another/more asks to keep the commiserating going!! I have dearly missed asks in what’s left of this fandom, but my ask box is still open!! 🥰 I will continue writing fic and shipping Lizzington pretty much in AU now as, unfortunately, that seems the healthiest and only remaining option 🥲 Much love to you!! ❤️❤️❤️

[chrono-logy-blog]

Ativision/Blizzard layoffs and community DoomSaying

There have been a lot of discussions and emotions in the world of Activision and Blizzard Entertainment in recent days, and events have sparked a lot of thought and responses from the business world and the gaming community. For those who are unaware, on Tuesday, February 12th, Activision/Blizzard laid off approximately 8% of their workforce, around 800 workers, this coming after the company reported their quarterly profit analysis for the 4th quarter of 2018, as well as the yearly report for 2018 as a whole. There were a lot of layers to the report and the decision to lay off so many workers, so it is understandable that people may be unable or unwilling to process all the information provided to them. Like many others, I myself had a very emotional and passionate reaction to the whirlpool of information and misinformation that surrounded Tuesday. While pondering my own feelings and how to best express them, it became clear that there was a lot to say, and that a blog post would be the only appropriate and efficient way to get out both information and my reactions. So I am going to take a brief moment to introduce myself, give you a little background, and then we will get to breaking down the profit reports, the layoffs, and what all of this information means for Blizzard in the future. If you wish to know more about me, I am an open book in DMs or comments, as well as available on multiple other social media platforms. This introduction, however, is focused on the information you need to know about me for the relevance of the topic at hand. My name is Michael, and I am known over gaming social media outlets as "Chrono." I have been playing World of Warcraft since 2009, specifically near the release of Patch 3.2.0, otherwise known as "Call of the Crusade" during Wrath of the Lich King. After playing WoW for a few months, I fell in love with Blizzard storytelling and began expanding my interests in the company. 10 years later I have played every game produced since then, fallen in love with countless other Blizzard stories, specifically Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void and the original story of Diablo III. I am something of a staunch defender of Blizzard and the decisions they make, and it that will probably become more clear as the article goes on. In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I love Blizzard Entertainment and I always will, and I think they do a much better job than their community gives them credit for.

That being said, let's dive right into the information that probably had the most emotion attached to it on Tuesday, which was the layoff of about 8% of employees at Activision/Blizzard. There is nothing one person can say to ease the pain of so many lost opportunities. I have read several tweets and statements from former employees, expressing their sadness about what happened to them. Nothing I write here is meant to diminish the struggle those people and their families now face. Every single person who lost their job as a result of these layoffs has my sincerest and most heartfelt sympathies. I wish every single one of them the very best, because they deserve it. I don't know anyone personally affected, but I can imagine none of them will ever be able to replace their work at Blizzard. I know I wouldn't be able to if I was in their shoes. With that in mind, it's a struggle to witness. I know companies have to make hard decisions like these, but at the same time, I personally cannot help but believe there is always a better path. I would never presume to know better than the leaders of the company, but it is frustrating that in 2019, we still cannot find a better way to restructure a company aside from scrapping such a large portion of the workforce. At the same time, it is important to remember that these lost jobs were not overly about money and profits. Granted, its big business, everything ultimately comes down to money and profits. We'll get to the profit analysis in a moment, but suffice it to say that 2018 overall was a very good year for the company, profit-wise. So these layoffs are about the structure of the company and bringing in fresh blood and new ideas on how to grow into the future. This is not to say that there is a viable excuse for huge cuts to jobs, especially when these people worked day and night to get the company where it is now, but Blizzard seems to understand this, and is doing some small gestures to try and ease the pain of their decisions. After the layoffs happened on Tuesday, Blizzard President, J. Allen Brack, had this to say:

"This was an extremely difficult decision, and we want to acknowledge the effort of everyone who has contributed to Blizzard. To assist with the transition, we are offering each impacted employee a severance package that includes additional pay, benefits continuation, and career and recruiting support to help them find their next opportunity. These people are members of the Blizzard family—they’ve cared deeply and contributed greatly to our work here and we are extremely grateful for all they’ve done."

This does not, of course, instantly absolve the company of the layoff of about 800 workers, but at least there is an acknowledgment of the struggle of their former employees. It is also important to note that quarter 1 of 2019 is the first real business quarter of the Presidency of J. Allen Brack, who took over for Mike Morhaime towards the end of 2018. This is important because historically, when you have a change of hands like that at such a high level in a big company, the change flows down the corporate ladder and positions will change. Again, this is not an excuse or a justification, but before the intolerable Blizzard fan base starts screaming about their world being on fire, it's important to take a breath and look at the facts.

Speaking of those facts, these layoffs came at the heels of the company's earnings report for quarter 4 of 2018 and the year overall. This is the part where a lot of the misinformation occurs. There is a lot to this report, and admittedly, I am not business savvy enough to understand every aspect of it, but there are some clear defining points, and plans by Blizzard for 2019. First and foremost, so that no one misunderstands this one simple, indisputable fact: Blizzard made more money in 2018 than any year in their history. This seems on the surface to conflict with the layoffs that occured at the same time. If the company is on strong foundations, why would they layoff so many people? There are a couple answers that seem to make the most sense and likely a combination of them is the truth. First, even though 2018 was an amazing year for Activision/Blizzard, the fourth quarter of 2018 did fall short of expectations. The reasons for this are entirely speculation, unless someone has some insight into the minds of the corporate board and CEOs. Likely, however, everyone speculating on why the fourth quarter was a strugglebus experience is simply speculating based on their own broken experiences. Another firm reason for the layoffs despite record profits is, as previously mentioned, the change of hands at the highest level of the company is often met with countless changes flowing down the ranks. The third reason, and the one the company is putting forward the most, is the simple fact that they are reimagining every team and all their development and marketing tactics. Put simply, Blizzard wants new people involved, and cannot or will not hire waves and waves of people without first cutting jobs. Again, none of this is supposed to make anyone feel better about the layoffs, but it is meant to state one thing very clearly: The company is not falling apart. Their PR struggles with Diablo: Immortal or Battle for Azeroth are not tanking the company. There's no impending doom for Blizzard games, and there's certainly no reason for "fans" to abandon ship or throw around their usual doomsaying attitude. The community responses to just about everything since the release of Battle for Azeroth has been atrocious, and if by some miracle this article catches the eye of any Blizzard game developer, I appreciate the fact that you are too nice to lash back at the community, so I am going to do it for you. The sheer disrespect towards people who spend their entire lives making games for us to enjoy, almost entirely over senseless and trivial matters, is ridiculous and unacceptable, especially in the wake of serious matters like 800 people at the company being out of work. One of the Warcraft content creators I have the most respect for, The Lost Codex said it best with a Twitter post aimed at inspiring positive feedback for the developers, mere days before the layoffs occurred:

"The vitriol from the Community has been heartbreaking to witness. Passionate & beautifully creative people have been demonized & instead of spiting at every tweet, let’s cheer them on. Remind them why they started their career path & acknowledge their passion that we all share."

So what does this mean for the company going forward? Well, according to their statements, Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch, and Diablo will all see an increase of around 20% to their development teams. This means more hires and supports the idea that Blizzard is looking for new people and new ideas, rather than hitting the big red button over money problems. It also means that at a minimum, these 4 franchises are continuing into the foreseeable future. As for the other Blizzard IPs, its likely they will conversely take a seat on the back burner, with Starcraft II's WCS the highlight of the other IPs, which is unlikely to die given its massive global following. It's also important to note that World of Warcraft has a set content timeline that cannot and will not be affected by the massive employment changes. Warcraft and Overwatch are clearly set to be the highlights of 2019, with the 3 major Warcraft projects still in motion, and the emphasis on eSports in 2019, which Overwatch has become a pillar of in the Blizzard community. This is about all we know beyond the layoffs at the moment. As a huge Starcraft fan, I'm disappointed that the prospect of the franchise dying after falling in love with the characters and plot lines. I also, however, believe that Blizzard will continue to develop into the future if we the community just give them a chance. They are not evil, they are not out to spite anyone.

Finally, a special message to the Diablo community. Now is the time to quit the whining. Diablo is getting so much future attention. Regardless of what people may think of Diablo: Immortal, there have been no cancellation announcements. Neither have there been any such disappointing news on the subject of Diablo 4, which we know is in the works. The Diablo community is getting everything they want from Blizzard, despite the selfish reactions to Diablo: Immortal and the wait for Diablo 4. (Obviously people have already forgotten how long the wait was for Diablo 3) So, in short, now is the time to be optimistic and give the Devs a chance to please your inflated egos.

To sum up, it was a sad day for the company and the community on Tuesday. I cannot stress enough how much my heart goes out to the 800 workers who lost their jobs. I would be lost in their position, but I know they are stronger people than I, and they will bounce back. It's going to be an off year, a disappointing year to some, but no one should simply be a fan of Blizzard when everything is going well. If we want to call ourselves part of the Blizzard family, now is when the company needs our understanding the most. You can be against the layoffs, you can have constructive criticism of game mechanics, marketing plans, and IP franchises. But I ask... I implore everyone reading this to stay positive and not lash out. Be the Blizzard family everyone deserves. No matter how bleak things seem at the time, I can hold my head high with tears in my eyes, and be proud to be a fan that knows Blizzard will grow from these sad times and create even more amazing gaming experiences in the future. I hope you will join me. Thank you for reading. En Taro Adun, Lok-tar Ogar, and Cheers, Luv.

[jsonnuniverse]

Weekly Reflection 6

My name is Leonardo DiCaprio. I’ve lived quite a life - I’ve sank with the Titanic, washed up on a shore, realized it was all a dream, got abandoned in a snowy forest by my best friend, pretended to be a pilot, lawyer and doctor, got transported back to the 20s, and ended up being a Wall Street mogul in the 80s, among many, many other activities, all the while using multiple different aliases. There is no greater meaning to life than experiencing as many “things” as possible, as I did.

Now I bet you’re wondering: why do I do all of this? People see me on screen and call me an ”actor” - an insult, in my opinion. Whatever I undertake is the real deal. I don’t do what I do for money or fame - I do it because it’s what I believe I was meant to do.

I am written in the highest of high-level programming languages, the language that only people like me (if there even are people like me out there) can run on. Variables are able to transcend the “global” scope into a scope beyond the computer screen -  a scope that surrounds the fabric of existence itself, encompassing all things that “are”. 

So when I experience something amazing, like falling in love with a rich stranger on a doomed ship, or planting an idea in someone’s head through layered dreams, it’s all because of a single function call. That function is LeonardoDiCaprio() - admittedly the camel casing makes it look like three words. 

When I wanted to board the Titanic, all I had to do was type in the proper arguments for my function in my IDE. Name = “Jack Dawson”. calendarYear = 1912. Age = 24. I can’t go over them all - there are so many arguments in this function, the possibilities are literally endless. No experience is beyond my reach, so long as the Boolean variable “Alive” remains true in this while loop of my life.

But despite my limitless power, there is conflict in my life. My function is written in a way that prevents me from remembering anything. All of my emotion variables, like joy, frustration, sadness, are all declared within LeonardoDiCaprio(). As soon as one experience ends, the emotions disappear from my memory. I only remembered my fling with Kate Winslet after I watched the movie about it. As much as I want to remember the joy I felt when I met her for the first time, I am unable to alter the function of my own life. All I can do is write another function call, and another, and another, all in the same while loop.

Sometimes I wish I could see what lies beyond this loop. Maybe “senseOfMeaning” is initiated to 100 right after I die. Maybe “Alive” is overwritten to “true” as soon as this loop ends, and then it’s another identical while loop. Maybe my life is nested in another loop, one that lasts until endOfTime == true.

Or maybe - and this terrifies me the most - it’s just a single curly brace.

JavaScript is different from CSS and HTML in that it uses functions, loops, and variables.