#afaik i have NOT been tagged in anything in months

[roley-poley-foley]

i want everyone to know from the bottom of my heart that if you tagged me in something and i didnt respond its because tumblr is a piece of shit and didnt tell me

[corrodedbisexual]

The ultimate shadow ban survivor guide

I've seen multiple people I follow, or their mutuals affected by shadow bans lately (makes me wonder if it's @staff's attempts to fight bots going totally haywire). As someone who survived a 2-month-long shadow ban on my main this winter, I thought I'd make a post.

First step of being shadow banned: calm down and take a breath. A shadow ban is just a stupid glitch in tumblr's anti-spam system. You're not losing your blog. You're gonna need a whole lot of patience, and deal with inconveniences, but it's fixable.

Read the incredibly useful post All About Shadowban by @that-damn-girl. It outlines the symptoms quite well. The only thing I'd point out is "your original posts won’t be visible to your followers either" - afaik that doesn't happen. Everything you post and reblog will still be visible to your followers, and also they can interact with your posts - like them, reblog them, reply to them.

Just like the post says, contact support. I recommend using a different email than what your banned blog is registered to; not because your ticket won't go through (mine actually did, as I found out when they finally replied), but because you might not receive an email confirmation for your ticket (it's somehow tied to the anti-spam thing, I think), and you're going to worry and try to send more tickets, like I did.

Now wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. They are SLOW. I've seen some miraculous 1-day unbans in the #shadow ban tag, but most people, like me, wait around a month for support to reply. Those are the same guys going through thousands of bot reports every day in addition to user tickets.

If you're going to wait, might as well keep blogging. Now if this is your sideblog that's shadow banned, consider yourself lucky. Make a new temporary sideblog, use it to post your original stuff so it goes into tags (mind that it might take a few days for a new blog to start showing up in tags). Reblog everything to your shadow banned blog so you still have all content in one place and your followers see it. If it's your main that's banned, you can still do that, but there's the extra pain of not being able to reply to posts or send non-anon Asks, since that is only done from main. Might need to register a separate account for that.

Some more fun facts under readmore.

Fun fact #1

Trying to send support follow-up emails in the request confirmation email isn't going to do anything to speed up the process. But I did tweet at them using this tumblr support summoning picture by @cornmayor and offered a raccoon blood sacrifice to resolve my issue when it was like a month with no response. This is what they replied.

3 hours later I got an email that my shadowban was lifted. I honestly don't know if it was a coincidence, but I mean, this is tumblr staff. Maybe they do accept blood sacrifices.

Fun fact #2

If you're wondering why my shadow ban lasted 2 months if I got a support reply after 1 month, well. It's hard to say exactly how their ban/unban system works bc support replies exclusively with pre-written template sentences, but basically they fucked up. The first time they told me my blog has been restored, I gained pretty much all functions back, except that my posts were still not appearing in tags. Which means probably that being hidden from tags is some kind of different flag on your blog that they forgot to remove. So I had to send a follow-up ticket and wait another month.

My advice is, when they tell you it's fixed, don't take that at face value, go and check all the functions you'd lost (replies, messaging, asks, tagging, appearing in notes, getting mentioned by others).

[rimeiii]

I return to WHB Tumblr to see how the game us doing and I see the fandom in shambles, damn. And after scrolling through the tag for a bit, I have...questions.

Yo how big is WHB now even? I stopped playing shortly after they introduced the paywalled Gabriel and that's one of the things I've seen several people complain about...

Like I understand the rest of the complaints - it's mostly the same complaints I've been having about the game prior to me quitting. Multiple decisions that seem to reinforce the idea that this game is heading down the P2W path, very anti-F2P practices in general, outrageous prices for the paid Nightmare Pass, no pity system on launch, the disaster that was the implementation of the Solomon's Seals gacha, the many bugs on launch especially, the small amount of farmable premium currency, and the list goes on...the pancake shop rework not only seems to be in line with the trajectory PB seems to be taking in terms of game decisions, but is also the straw that broke the camel's back for a lot of players.

But, uh, storage? Wasn't it like 2 GB tops on launch? That was reasonable I think, because Arknights was around that size on launch and back then, there was so little additional content. Only JP dubbing, no L2D E2 art or skins (the only L2D we had back then was Closure, the SHOPKEEP), 5 story chapters (which translated to 92 stages, in which around half have a Challenge Mode variant and with a large majority being unique maps), and no additional game modes.

For additional context, currently Arknights is ~6-7 GB on a fresh account with all language dubbing, and it gets bloated if you don't delete unused event data (it's ~9.7 GB for me and I have Arknights on my current phone ever since Near Light first hit Global, so just over 2 years now). Keep in mind Arknights is close to 4.5 years old in Global, and CN just celebrated their 5th anniversary a few months back.

Talking about storage, I don't think comparing WHB to older games and non-tower defense is fair either, since:

Older games in general are much easier on your device in terms of storage to content ratio and performance, mostly due to device limitations of the past requiring less sophisticated game mechanics and the devs sticking to these simpler mechanics even as time passes and technology gets more advanced. Gentle reminder that FGO is ~7 years old in NA, ~9 years old in JP, and ALSO doesn't download everything initially - afaik there's an option for that in the settings menu which bumps the total size up significantly (the wiki lists it as around 9-10 GB total).

Different genres and graphics mean different storage requirements. Anything 3D or open world will almost always have higher storage requirements compared to anything else. Path to Nowhere is around the same size as Arknights despite being younger due to the former using 3D models for their battle sprites, compared to the 2D chibis Arknights uses. Love and Deepspace, a ~5 months game, is huge because of how they do the cutscenes AND the stage-based action gameplay, but Wuthering Waves is closing the gap on size quickly despite being only ~1.5 months because it's an open world action RPG.

What I will say, though, is that WHB is not optimized well. Now I may be very unfair by comparing WHB to Punishing: Gray Raven, a game by the optimization gods known as Kurogames (people ran the PC PGR client on 2GB RAM laptops and my 4GB RAM laptop can run WuWa despite it using UE4 - an engine notorious for chugging on low end devices - albeit with lag spikes in the open world map), but when a 2D tower defense game fails to run as smoothly as a 3D action game with stylish and fast-paced combat, then we have a problem. For context, my 4GB RAM phone only has minor lag when I use a skill that has a lot of visual effects like Lee Hyperreal's Hypermatrix, but back when I played WHB I still experienced lag spikes when deploying units.

Again this all boils down to PB just not being used to the game format. Which is all well and good, Arknights was a huge departure from Girls Frontline too - a good portion of Arknights' devs worked on Girls Frontline before splitting off to work on Arknights. But what made Arknights succeed is how accessible and F2P friendly the game was, with smooth and solid gameplay as well as an engaging plot that discusses themes such as racism, discrimination, and the fragility of hope.

Of course you can argue that Arknights is a tower defense first, visual novel second. Unlike WHB, which is an otome game first, tower defense second. And I would agree, but only to a certain extent. Once you step into the realm of having Actual Combat Gameplay Elements then I believe it's your duty to make progression as reasonable as possible. Including a power gate is fine, but nothing too excessive - and certainly do not hold any significantly strong unit behind a paywall.

Because fun fact - in Arknights' entire runtime, there were only a handful of completely paywalled content:

Player icons from promotional packs for large events, particularly the Ambience Synesthesia concerts

Character skins from promotional packs, like the Exusiai and Guard Ch'en skins during the anime release

Purestream, a B4 Therapist Medic who was released as a WWF collab, where all sales from her $1 pack were donated to the WWF. Even then, she eventually became available for everyone, as she was later added to the Recruitment pool (use a resource obtained from Dailies for a chance to get units, some unique to the pool like Purestream). She was a decent healer, and her Module made her a good budget medic. Even then you're more likely using the Medics you've already built by then - for B4 budget options, Perfumer is usually better for multi-target healing and a party HP regen passive, while Sussurro is your go-to for strong single-target healing.

And guess what? None of these had any direct impact on gameplay during their paywalled period. Purestream wasn't even a B5 or B6 unit, yo. There are many better options for healers. I STILL USE THE B3 ANSEL AND HIBISCUS IN INTEGRATED STRATEGIES.

I'm just...PB's choices baffle me, and I do wish they can improve not just on the game performance standpoint, but in how they treat their playerbase in terms of in-game purchases. I hope I made that abundantly clear...

[robinfrinjs]

Update following Robin to Envision:

Both Sam Bird and Robin Frijns are officially going to be announced right after the season has ended. René Rast his departure from McLaren will also be announced by the end of this month

DS Penske: I think they're both staying on. It would make sense imo and neither drivers have been rumoured elsewhere

Nio 333: Unsure about them. They could remain with the same line-up. Afaik Dan Ticktum isn't rumoured somewhere else, Sergio Sette Camara is in talks with other teams, but not sure if anything is coming from that.

ABT Cupra: Both had contracts however they're both free to leave. Robin really wanted to leave and now is leaving to Envision. Potential drivers in his seat could be Kelvin van der Linde or Adrien Tambay

NEOM McLaren: Jake Hughes is likely staying on and Rene Rast is leaving FE completely. He'll likely be focussing on a DTM/WEC double with BMW. Sam Bird is very likely to get his seat.

Maserati MSG: I remember reading Edo has a contract for next year, though contracts don't always mean that much. Günther could be leaving to return to a team like Andretti or join Nissan or Envision. Meanwhile Nyck de Vries is rumoured to maybe join them. He was meant to race for them this season but an F1 seat came in between. Felipe Drugovich has also impressed during rookie sessions so he could also be a candidate. Also added Sergio as he was among the list but I'm unsure if he's actually in contention for a seat there.

Mahindra: Mehri is definitely leaving, and now di Grassi also seems to be in discussions with teams such as Nissan and Andretti. Mahindra needs stability if they want to improve but I don't think someone like Lucas wants to stay with this performance. Norman Nato could be joining them, he doesn't have too many options as he's being booted from Nissan. Also speculated could be Jordan King or Jehan Daruvala. Both have done rookie tests with the team.

Jaguar TCS: Mitch Evans is staying and getting a new teammate in Nick Cassidy. Sam Bird is leaving to McLaren

Tag Heuer Porsche: Both drivers, António Félix da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein are likely to stay on.

Envision: Envision: Buemi is staying and Cassidy is leaving to Jaguar. Frijns is taking his seat.

Nissan: Sacha Fenestraz is likely staying on. Norman Nato seems to be booted from the team. However the second seat seems to belong to a lot of other drivers. It's a question who ends up there.

Avalanche Andretti: Jake Dennis is staying and Andre Lotterer is leaving to completely focus on WEC with Porsche. For this seat many drivers are also rumoured.

[tealmoth]

also "darkfic au that got out of control" is such a funny description to me 😭 im curious as to why you think so personally i thought it was pretty balanced in heavy and lighthearted moments and considering the themes like the effects of imperialism i dont see why it wouldnt be handled as such. havent watched in a while tho idk

oooohh okay so this’ll be a fun thing to answer because i’ve been desperate to ramble about ‘03 plot points to anyone who will listen all week. so for me, honestly, the darkfic vibes come more from how deeply it dredges into the dark aspects, if that makes any sense?? most of what’s “dark” in ‘03 already exists and is explored in brotherhood, like the imperialism aspects as you mentioned, as well as grief and trauma and everything else that comes prepackaged with fma’s core story. but brotherhood handled these in a very shonen way (which is to be expected, of course). the darkness pushes the characters forward, makes them fight on. even when they’re at the brink, they’re called back by a loved one, or by their own convictions, and it retains an overall positive feel.

meanwhile in ‘03, i get the specific vibe that the writers looked at the story they already had, and asked themselves “how can this be worse??”

(inserting a read more because i’m about to go on a MASSIVE tangent, sorry.)

and so, here are some of the specific darker aspects that stood out the most to me:

the build-up to nina is given far more screentime and its place in the timeline is totally different. not only are the elrics so much younger here, but they’re also essentially a part of the tucker family for the better part of several months iirc. they also witness the direct aftermath of her death at the hands of scar (which is also implied to be FAR more gruesome here), whereas in brotherhood they find out from riza the morning after it happens.

there’s the whole barry ordeal which afaik doesn’t serve much purpose other than it, well, being kinda neat to see pre-armor barry. and i could totally be misremembering here and/or missing something important but the whole episode just stands out to me as “hey, i don’t think that ed’s had enough trauma yet. let’s sprinkle in some attempted murder.”

everything with the laboratory, holy shit. tucker’s reappearance, the attempts at recreating nina, the prisoners, everything with kimblee, the way ed almost activates the array, ALL OF IT is insane in this version.

al’s doubts about his memories and his origins is a longer arc and leads to more conflict with ed in this version.

mustang and winry’s parents. mustang’s suicide attempt. everything with mustang that’s not comic relief (which there’s still plenty of).

as stated in the tags of my first ‘03 post, the utilization of rose’s character is a really intense departure (while interesting!!) that completely took me aback.

the entirely different lore surrounding the homunculi is both incredibly fascinating and a lot to take in, and it leads to them being far more mentally vulnerable and tormented characters than they are in brotherhood. the contrast alone between the development greed gets in brotherhood (using him as an example since he effectively has the most character growth out of the homunculi there) and the development that lust, wrath, and sloth get in ‘03 stands out the most to me.

sloth in general. it’s a wildly fascinating take and, in addition to REALLY hammering in the themes surrounding their mother’s transmutation, also stands to provide even more trauma for the elrics.

and on that subject, the adults are far less present for the boys in this version. that’s not to say that they’re like “parents” or anything in brotherhood, but they’re a lot more openly concerned for them in a personal, affectionate way in that show. whereas here, especially in the early segments, i’m pretty sure that ed could have died in a ditch somewhere and they wouldn’t have noticed for at least a week.

scar’s characterization is more vulnerable here and both his death and the events leading up to it are insane.

and that’s not even getting into everything with dante, which deserves its own post.

with all that said, i’m also not even done with this show yet. i still have four eps left!!

but, all rambling aside, that’s what specifically gave me the darkfic sort of vibe. not to demean the show or reduce it to fanfic terms, or anything; it’s still very interesting and competent writing. but it just gives me so much whiplash when compared to brotherhood’s overarching feelings of hope and the ability to fight back and change the future for the better. it feels soul-nourishing to me, in a way. meanwhile, ‘03 is like a cavalcade of trauma, all provoked by the question “you know what’d be really fucked up??”

[knightkneeler]

hi i was wondering if you could explain your found family tweet? like are you saying it's ok to ship adopted siblings or? i'm sorry i just don't rly get it

I'm gonna be real, the way you've phrased this makes me think you're probably not asking it in good faith. I will try to explain anyway. those tweets were about two separate but related issues.

re: the shipping: I like a couple of ships in my primary fandom (Fire Emblem: Three Houses/Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes) that are sometimes considered to be pseudo-familial relationships by some people who don't ship them romantically. I'm specifically thinking of Edelgard/Lysithea and Dimitri/Felix. it's completely fine to not see these relationships as romantic. it's completely fine to see them as platonic or pseudo-familial. it's even completely fine to dislike the ships on the basis of reading them as pseudo-familial! this is very common with Edelys in particular, for a number of reasons I don't care to get into. I don't have a problem with it on its face.

however, there have been cases where people have posted in the ship tags or directly messaged artists & writers of these ships to harangue them for shipping them, or try to "correct" the shipping interpretation, because of their personal interpretation that these characters are "like siblings." I recall a few big incidents in Dimilix fandom where someone or other who didn't ship them tweeted in the tag that they were like brothers. a friend of mine received a message a couple of months ago about Edelys in the same vein. I often get replies to tweets about Edelys (or other Lysithea ships like Hilda or Leonie) from people saying they see Lysithea as the other character's little sister. this tendency is what I was bitching about. Edelgard and Lysithea do not canonically consider one another sisters. they are not related, not adopted, not step-siblings, not even childhood friends. they met as teenagers in war crime school. again, it's fine to interpret or headcanon their relationship as sibling-like! but that is one interpretation/headcanon. their relationship in the text can be interpreted any number of ways. I personally see it as romantic, and I think it's annoying when people try to tell me that interpretation is incorrect or morally wrong, somehow.

the other issue is that the popularity of interpreting close-knit social circles as "found families" has led to a trend in fandom where rather than a non-hierarchical network of unconditional love and support, the "family" is a recreation of the nuclear family; one or more characters are designated the "parents" of the group. this doesn't happen all that often in FE3H, probably because the groups are really big and the characters are generally close in age, but I've seen it in other fandoms that I'm not in, and it's bled over into media in general. a lot of people have held up the manga/anime Spy x Family as a "found family" narrative when it is literally a mother character, a father character, and a child character who (afaik, I haven't read/watched it) are not married/related. this is just a nuclear family with the serial numbers filed off.

the concept of a chosen family is that these are peers you can trust and rely on for anything, but who are not your biological family. my irl best friend is like family to me. I don't consider him to be "like a brother," but the heart of our friendship is unconditional love. we're always welcome under the other's roof. if we need to talk, the other's willing to listen. nuclear families have direct power structures. the child(ren) is/are subordinate to the parent(s). a parent has direct and absolute authority over their child. a circle of peers who provide unconditional love is not the same, and people should stop trying to draw analogues between "chosen family" and the heteropatriarchal nuclear family.

I hope this helped.

[delusion-of-negation]

Hi, I really need help staying afloat right now as I just got kicked out and am wondering if you could reblog my pinned post so more people could see it? Sorry to bother you, it's perfectly fine if you can't, and thank you for your time!!

your earliest post is only a couple months ago

your archive doesn't work and your blog is hidden from the web

in the rare original posts, you're tag spamming unrelated stuff

you've been sending this to everyone, mostly strangers afaik, it follows the same formula as scams, eg the "rb my pinned post"

and yet you haven't thanked a single ko-fi supporter, the site will notify you to do it whenever people donate, it takes ten seconds

additionally "My parents found out I was trans last month so they kicked me out and fired me from their shop, where I’ve been working to support my family." they own a shop where you worked to support them? help me with the maths there. and "I can’t get a job because there’s none where my friend lives and I don’t have a car to be able to commute, and I can’t borrow my friend’s car because she’s using it for her own job. I’ve seriously tried to find any solution out of this, but I can’t [...] I need money for either some shitty car so I can commute, or rent so I can leave my friend’s place and get my own where I could find work." you're asking for 4k, my dude. that's a lot more than a shit car or a couple months rent, and I can't understand it. cars on ebay vary from a couple hundred to a couple thousand, my family could never afford more than that and they would get cars there. you could uber or taxi or take the bus, or get dropped off by your friend, or otherwise carpool, or so on, and ask for a fraction of this to supply your friend with some food and to pay for your journey until you're settled in. it's been a month since you even left and you've already established there are zero jobs nearby unless you buy a fancy car, what about remote work? and you say your friend wouldn't kick you out and can afford rent, so why not raise money for food shopping to help her out (which you cite as the issue here) while you look for a work from home job or a means of transport? and you took days to make a vague post about a confrontation with your friends' parents? no vent nearer the time, just a vague post spammed into unrelated tags? the timing and "logic" is all over the place. I'm sorry, this isn't adding up at all. I've been literally homeless multiple times, and I've had to ask for help myself a couple times - I have my bro's fundraiser pinned, and I have my own ko-fi in my bio, and I have a post explaining about how I could become homeless again unless I meet inconsistent and unreliable demands of my landlord, something I've talked about for over a year on here venting and stuff. so I'm no stranger to these situations, and the lack of supporting info for yours is weird enough, but there's also the scam-like practices, and the fact that 4k doesn't check out at all, that's more than the deposit to rent outside of big cities (where you would have no issue with job quantity or lack of public transport, so we can assume you're not in one). you have no breakdown of why the high asking price or where you got that number for a car or anything. I checked the notes of that pinned post and the ko-fi and scrolled through your entire blog, and I couldn't find any additional information of the sort. I really wanted to believe you weren't a scammer taking advantage of people's kindness, but with all this in mind that's understandably difficult for me. I'll let others make up their minds on this one.

[broken-clover]

hey do you still have a big writing backlog? I wanted to check before i send a request in case you have a lot on your plate!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit it, but when my computer wiped out all of my saved tabs a few months back I think that included my list of requests because aside from a couple I have elsewhere I can't find them. Afaik right now the requests I have are a Faust/Reader fic about him missing his bag, and a request from Makoto anon (which I am not sure if I'm going to do as a full fic or just a bulleted response because so far the fic writing is going very not well). If there's anything else, it's well-buried in my tags and thusfar I have not been able to find it. Either way, feel free to submit a request! I cannot guarantee promptness but I can guarantee effort

[supersymmetries]

tagged by the always-wonderful @aeolianblues!

relationship status: aroace + in a qpr

favorite color: midnight blue. even better when there's glitter!

song stuck in my head: hey guesss what aeolianblues, we're stuck in verona hell together! specifically the transition from the chorus to the bridge, i don't know WHAT they did to make it so magical but i'm still getting dopamine shivers after months of listening to it endlessly.

last song i listened to: telekinetic by starset (SUPER great metal band that sings about space. the frontman has a doctorate's in physics so he knows what he's about)

three favorite foods: soondubu (korean spicy tofu stew) with intestine,

last thing i googled: "mar-a-lago" (context being that trump was squawking that he was going to get arrested today at 3pm ET and wanted his followers to show up at his house and protect him. afaik nothing has happened yet and the turnout has been... dismal.). also. do yourself a favor and switch to firefox & duckduckgo as your main search engine. free yourself from the tentacled grip of google products

dream trip: getting a time machine with infinite money and going back to 2001/2002 to follow muse around for their OOS tour. that or just getting a van and going on a long roadtrip along the american southwest from utah to new mexico and seeing all the canyons and rock formations and maybe even aliens.

anything i want right now: oh boy. what DON'T i want? my stupid astrophysics degree (six years and still only a sophomore, holla), to improve my guitar-playing technique (i've gotten better since i've made the time to increase the amount of time i practice per week), get back in the practice of singing (did it for church as a little kid for years but stopped once my family left and did not have much to sing about), to convince my friend to pick up the drums (not his fault he's hesitating, his room is tiny and a drum kit will take up literally all of the remaining space), starting a band with aforementioned friend (aeolianblues i feel your pain across continents), and a little house out in the desert where i can live in peace.

i'm tagging: @stickyglitterdetective, @king-of-kaoss, @prttyinpvnk, @spotifydweller, and @cydoniansworld, and ANYONE else who wants to participate!

[dudescape]

Kay so like. as far as tagging goes so far we have #red rambles for when Red (Postal 1 dude) is speaking, #Corkscrew rants for when Corkscrew (brain damaged dude - yeah ik it's the Russian one but he goes by shtopor round these parts), but there's also a 2/pl dude of some kind and he just goes by dude tbh and it's REALLY hard to tell the different between him and Corkscrew since they're so close in our little subsystem, but he needs a tag (and a name god DAMN bro), and then tres (three dude - yeah real creative buddy) doesn't have a tag yet afaik, but it'll probably be like. idk. #tres speaks or smth like that. I don't think doppeldude has a speaking tag, I'm pretty sure he just uses #doppeldude. idk if he's even directly posted anything here, but I know he's been mentioned in a few of red's posts (god. I think.) and he's showed up in a few of red's drawings.

speaking of, I should draw some shit again.

(red needs to finish his drawing from months ago too - it's him in a Mami cosplay lmao. maybe I'll draw me as kyoko, and perhaps doppeldude as Sayaka for the lols)

[tomirida]

Yes, we are still dealing with the aftermath of Bloody January. It was a national tragedy for us. In fact, quite recently two parents of killed victims were arrested for protesting outside the city hall, last month five activists accused of taking over the airport were jailed for four years for one and eight years for the rest, and the case of a 4-year-old girl's death, as far as I know, still hasn't been closed. Initially the Januarian victims were described as having deserved it, that they were terrorists or had provoked the authorities first, but people didn't buy it, and obviously families are still fighting to claim the victims' innocence. There's a lot of frustration over the injustice of the trials and the government's continuing lack of transparency and accountability for the whole thing.

The story of Bloody January is disputed, but I think there's a general agreement that it started out as peaceful protests against rising gas prices in Jañaözen which then escalated into violence in other cities due to public discontent. Toqaev initially talked of these people as "twenty thousand terrorists" attacking Almaty, claiming it was an attempt of a coup d'etat. He also, infamously, gave an order to "shoot without warning", and invited the CSTO to "settle" the conflict (they were called "peacekeepers"). I think that, even though there were definitely people who took advantage of the chaos, it was no excuse to use such excessive violence against civilians, and especially asking foreign powers to potentially spill your own people's blood. The "twenty thousand" story hasn't been repeated since then, AFAIK. As for foreign media, I've seen some insinuate that the protests were caused by Russian or Chinese meddling. I personally strongly disagree with those claims: Qazaqstanis had their own reasons to be angry, what with the same guy ruling the country for thirty years, worsening of living standards, having only aesthetic-level changes (e.g Nazarbaev hand-picking his successor), living under an authoritarian regime, etc. Blaming it all only on Russia or China fails to address Qazaqstan's own history.

These days Toqaev has been pushing for democratisation of the country ("Jaña Qazaqstan" — "New Qazaqstan"), like holding a referendum for new constitutional changes that would limit his powers as president, stripping Nazarbaev's presence and privileges in the country, holding elections with newly registered parties, but you'll see mixed feelings about it all. Some have hopes Qazaqstan's situation is gonna improve, others are more cynical and don't think there's anything "new" about current Qazaqstan.

I hope it's okay to tag you @qforqazaq @juregim since I think you would have a better perspective as people from Almaty, but don't feel pressured to reply.

Criminal proceedings against citizens accused of taking part in the protests that rocked Kazakhstan in January 2022 are still ongoing, according to BBC News Russian. More than 5,000 criminal cases were opened in the wake of “Bloody January,” including ones against people who died in the unrest. The targets of these posthumous trials include six people who were killed in Almaty, two who were killed in Kyzylorda, and seven who were killed in Taraz. Kazakhstanis have termed them the “trials of the souls of the dead.”

One of the defendants in question is Shyngys Tastanbekov, who was 34 when he was killed. Investigators alleged that he took part in the protests and that four other suspects who also died during the unrest attacked the president’s residence and the city administration building. All five of them were convicted, and the ruling was upheld by an appeals court in June. The court did not hand down a sentence, citing the defendants’ deaths.

Zhaksylyk Dolda, the lawyer representing Tastanbekov’s family, has denounced the trial as political, citing procedural violations committed during the investigation phase. The prosecution’s “evidence,” for example, included video footage that showed Tastanbekov standing in a crowd. Under Kazakhstan’s Criminal Procedure Code, the prosecutors are required to show the video to the defense in its entirety, but the clips used to convict Tastanbekov had been edited. According to Dolda, nowhere in the video is Tastanbekov seen attacking any buildings or police officers.

Additionally, investigators did not commission any expert analyses of the footage to prove that the person it shows is actually Tastanbekov. The BBC noted that he was initially charged with terrorism and attacking government structures as well but that those charges were ultimately dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Tastanbekov’s relatives do not believe he committed the crimes he was convicted of. According to his sister, Shynar, the prosecution’s evidence is self-contradictory; among other things, some materials say that Tastanbekov was killed on January 5 outside of the president’s residence in Almaty, while others say his body wasn’t found until January 7 and was in a different location. Shynar also said one investigator asked the family to sign a confession statement confirming that Tastanbekov took part in the protests. When they refused, according to Shynar, the investigator threatened them. Shynar maintains that her brother did not participate in any riots or seizures of government buildings but simply attended a peaceful protest to help the other demonstrators “convey the people’s desperation to the authorities.”

In January 2022, the Almaty authorities opened a criminal case over Tastanbekov’s murder, but his death was never investigated, his lawyer told the BBC. According to Dolda, in the first examination of Tastanbekov’s body, a police officer noted that he had a through-and-through gunshot wound and burn marks on his lower leg, but the burn isn’t mentioned in the official forensic report. Dolda believes his client may have died while being tortured, but the court did not take this possibility into account. Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor General has acknowledged that security officials tortured some people who were arrested in connection with the unrest, and a total of 203 criminal cases were opened over alleged instances of torture and abuse of authority. To this day, it’s unclear who fired at protesters.

International human rights organizations have called on the Kazakh authorities to conduct an independent investigation of the January unrest, but Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, has maintained that involving international experts is unnecessary. As of June 2023, only 12 people had been charged in connection with protesters’ death, according to the BBC. According to human rights advocates, more than 40 cases opened over protesters’ deaths have been dismissed or classified.

Seven other people who were killed during the protests have been convicted of participating in mass protests in the city of Taraz. According to journalist Yesdaulet Kyzyrbekuly, none of the suspects’ parents believe the authorities’ account of their childrens’ deaths. One of the people convicted, Andrey Opushiev, was 17 years old when he died. He died from a bullet wound after being shot in the back, and his jaw, teeth, fingers, and left leg were broken. Despite his family’s pleas, the authorities have not investigated his death.

[piracytheorist]

Blog Tag

Tagged by the sweetest @kwistowee!

1. Why did you choose your url? Finally, I can answer this with more confidence! See what a blog name change can do? Anyway, it’s obviously a pun, from the term conspiracy theorist; I’m not one for conspiracies, but I love pirates, and I also love the idea behind making your own anarchist community, so it’s that. “Theorizing” about pirate communities and how they could stand. I mean, that’s not what I actually do here, but it’s a reflection of my own thoughts.

2. Any side blogs? Most are inactive. I have a whump blog (enter at your own risk - I’m serious) @justsomewhump, a OUAT out of context blog @outofcontextonceuponatime, a Monkey Island-centered blog @you-fight-like-a-cow, and my old ouat sideblog @andheyfordavyjones, where I’ve mostly migrated from and never post.

3. How long have you been on Tumblr? I joined on late summer of 2014, though I started posting on a steady rhythm a few months after that.

4. Do you have a queue tag? “a pirate’s queue for me”! Arrr, matey!

5. Why did you start your blog in the first place? At the very beginning, it was to look around for OUAT meta, make silly OUAT memes and talk in length about Killian Jones’ costumes and stuff. It developed into me writing actually serious meta on the show, and slowly dipping my toes into GIF making.

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp? I love Douxie, and I love Archie, and it’s a sweet moment between wizard and dragon-cat familiar and it’s a comforting hug. If you asked me last year when I put it on, if I’d thought I’d still have it now I doubt I would’ve said yes, but things still suck, I’m still in need of a hug so it’s comforting to look at! ... Heh.

7. Why did you choose your header? I love KnightRook. This moment where Killian holds his baby daughter and sings to her is the top Killian Jones moment for me (for feels alone the “Don’t you know, Emma? It’s you” scene is a tie), and even though OUAT is well over and my blog is mostly centered on Colin O’Donoghue stuff, and he has moved on from the show too, it’s just a BIG moment for me and I don’t currently have the heart to take it off my header. Plus I’m never creative with headers, and this has been very fitting since the time I put it on, so it’s an easy choice to stay at.

8. What’s your post with the most notes? By far this edit of Pantalaimon from the BBC His Dark Materials series. It’s got nearly twice the notes than any other post of mine, and I just find it funny how it just sticks out like that.

9. How many mutuals do you have? I... actually had to look on my “following” list to count them. It’s around 16, though there’s also a few that I’m a mutual with “in spirit”, as in, I can’t really follow their blogs because of the content they post, but in my heart we’re mutuals.

10. How many followers do you have? 1494. It’ll take a bit up and down until I reach 1.5k for sure, though!

11. How many people do you follow? 94. 26 are inactive or near-inactive, and 7 are my own sideblogs, so my dash is pretty quiet - as I want it.

12. How often do you use Tumblr each day? I’ve tried to limit my time on Tumblr. Deleting the app from my phone has definitely helped. I’d say I spend at most 2 hours in total every day, though most of the time less than an hour total.

13. Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? ... Yes. It got so bad that the other person blocked me, and I soft-blocked them back. But luckily it all stayed private and afaik no-one else actually realized how bad things had gotten between us, and I don’t wish to disclose any names and situations.

14. How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts? I don’t need to reblog anything. This is a place for fun and escape from harsh reality, not guilt-tripping and moral judgement. There’s enough of that in the harsh reality we come here to escape from.

15. Do you like tag games? I love them! I usually fail at bringing an interesting result, but I love playing nevertheless XD

16. Do you like ask games? Yes! Tag me in all of them, please!

17. Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous? I know that if you type in the search bar the name of a certain film Colin has been in, gοοgle suggests a question people often ask about it, and @killian-whump‘s post answering that very question pops up first in the results, so I’d say she’s Tumblr famous, whether she likes it or not.

18. Do you have a crush on a mutual? Listen bro I’m aromantic asexual I couldn’t even begin to realize what having a crush is like, last time I had one it took me a solid month to realize I was actually crushing on a guy, for all I know I could be in love with someone and dismiss it as simply enjoying that person’s company, anyway feelings are weird but short answer is no.

Tagging @carpedzem, @jollysailorswan, @chronicroc, @priscilla9993, @theonceoverthinker, @ankewehner, @justanother-unluckysoul and if you wanna do it yourself, do it and say I tagged you because I AM. RIGHT NOW. I’M TAGGING YOU. DO IT. DO IT. DO IT.

[coquelicoq]

i think people reblogging a post from you you didn't add anything to could have 1) all seen it from tumblr reccing 'similar posts to this one' they were viewing on your blog or 2) someone popular reblogged it from you but added comment no one wants to see lol, so they all go one step back in the reblog chain? unless you tagged it, then they were probably just going through your tag ig

[re these tags]

hmm. here is the post in question. as you can see, i added nothing in a reblog, so they’re not getting it from me by clicking on my username in the reblog chain since my username doesn’t display anywhere in the reblog chain. if you’re saying that they’re seeing my name because whoever put it on their dash reblogged it from me, that’s possible, except that whoever reblogged it from me would have had to reblog it a long time ago, since this has been happening for a long time. so then i wonder how people are finding that person’s iteration of the post.

i reblogged it in december 2019 and it is 3 pages back in my animals doing a great job tag and 26 pages back in my kittehs tag, the only two indexing tags i used on the post. i doubt anyone is finding it that way because i can usually tell when someone is going back through a tag because they’ll like/reblog several posts from the same tag. when this particular thing happens, it’s always just someone reblogging or liking this one post and nothing else. i challenge anyone to go back through either of those tags and only like one post. the tags are full of cute animals! it’s impossible.

i don’t know how the “similar posts” thing works, but wouldn’t they already have to be looking at my blog to see that? again, these are people who have never (afaik) interacted with my blog before and never do again. they like/reblog this one post from me and that is it. how are they finding me, or my completely unremarkable reblog of this specific post? this happens probably several times a month, and only with this one post.

[she-toadmask]

I’m kind of in a mood suddenly so below the cut there will be me just talking about fanfics I have read or am reading and why I like fanfic and stuff because I need to just

Fanfiction fucking rocks the basic part before all the stuff about it as the story just...it’s so easy to access and there’s so much and it’s just all there on the internet I don’t have to find a physical book

And on AO3 (where 90% of good currently-updating fic is afaik) there is TAGGING where you will know what you’re getting into (unless the author suddenly adds a sex scene and only then updates the tags but at least they give a warning at the start of the chapter but it doesn’t bother me as much as it did a couple years ago as long as I know it’s coming I know it’s a tool and it has its uses) with character drama and deaths and all that jazz not to mention how Ash being a badass has a specific tag and just other random things having tags that are important parts of the story

Like there are multiple fics I have found (not all of them are living fics sadly) of writing Ash’s journey in the beginning differently, like there was one I saw once that I kind of forgot to keep reading where he went to Sinnoh (and was still rivals with Paul and I think their ship tag was there?) and it said it was following game plot and then there’s one that I definitely don’t have open anymore because it didn’t update for some amount of time where he had a Joltik and then a Ferroseed and it’s really cool and a different one that’s still living and it’s called Pity of the World and Jesse + James (who is genderfluid in this fic) + Meowth are good people and stuff and just steal abused Pokemon and they run into Ash and they all end up being travel buddies and Ash understands Pokemon (not literally of course that’s not this fic) and also just knows what James’ gender is before they say anything and also in one chapter Zapdos is in Gringy City and says something about friendship being for mortals or something??? idk we’ll see and then there’s a different fic that I was reading and lost when switching devices and Ash was raised by Pokemon and literally can speak Pokemon and it was really neat but I haven’t tried to find where I left off because I’m too lazy for that tbh but it is still updating it’s Symbiosis or Symbiotic or something like that

Most things involving Ash that aren’t shippy or weird like that (ok there are some I’m not interested in but whapdfajaldjakjdf) end up being really cool because he’s a fucking legendary magnet which can either be played for laughs or deadly serious or just not be part of the fic if it isn’t relevant and so many fics use Aura it’s really cool (including Pity of the World I think he mega evolves Pidgeot (who evolves before leaving) when he fights Sabrina who does not have a doll in this fic) and there are different ways they do it and the thing I was mentioning about his connection with Pokemon like maybe it’s just a bit more than normal or it’s just yes he is everything and I kinda skipped out on gens 6 and 7 of the anime but I get enough to understand what they mean in chat fics and when referring to it in other fics it’s really cool

I think I mentioned Creepypasta and how there were two Harry Potter Creepypasta fics, one that was one and was slow to update if it wasn’t dead and one that was on the fourth one actually I was wrong about what number it was I think and updates every two weeks the first one is more lighthearted/written by a younger person like Slendy is a character and Harry x a lot of the ‘pastas I guess and it takes place starting before 4th year and the beginning is kinda meh with some weird dialogue and absurd levels of Dumbledore Ron and Hermione bashing but it does call out some of the other legitimate problems like how the lake trial in the tournament just kidnaps people which is very big because it was Ben who was kidnapped so big yikes there and honestly it’s not what you want to read if you want something really high-quality and serious like not that it doesn’t take itself seriously but it feels closer to something I would have read when I was in middle school than most of the Sanders Sides fics I read (just using that as comparison because the vast majority of that is well-written stuff). Then the other one!!!! For one it has a much more realistic/developed take on the Creepypastas’ existence like how the stories are how they exist with Slenderman being a cosmic horror being thing more than a character with character which is always really cool and Jeff kidnaps Harry as a baby (he is Boy when he is with the Creepypasta and Harry when at Hogwarts and there’s some really cool stuff about how they’re different) and, having lived with murderers, Harry gives zero fucks about things and kills Fluffy in the first book long before other stuff happens, Quirrel tries to use him to get the stone but gets annihilated at the mirror because family and then Voldemort is just a giant white snake for the rest of the series so far and also because he sucks Lockhart tries to exorcise Harry because Harry is fucking nuts and it’s great and also Harry is a Hufflepuff and there is probably more Gryffindor bashing than is necessary and pretty much all the adults get bashed for sucking (like in book 3 the boggart stuff is called out for being hella dangerous for them also Harry can’t cast the Patronus charm make of that what you will idk what) though Harry does make for quite the conversation topic among the teachers, Harry x Neville is the main ship and Neville eventually gets resorted into Hufflepuff because the Gryffindors are being massive dicks to him, also Harry flirts with Draco because Harry gives no fucks and it’s great (also both books give Luna lots of love, like the young one she’s a Seer like from Madame Macabre’s old webcomic that’s dead as it gets and the long one she’s just a good character and shit) and Harry makes these books to spread Slenderman’s legend throughout Britain/the Wizarding World and Draco may have gotten one and survived???? but now Neville has one during the summer months (and also through feeding Fanged Geraniums or whatever live stuff and blood instead of bonemeal he is creating Audrey II and straight-up says something about having to call it Harry Jr. but that’s probably just a little joke and isn’t going to stay beyond this but it’s just fun because Little Shop of Horrors slaps) and I have big fear about him doing the stuff and getting hurt and Harry/Boy conflict will be scary

There’s this other fic I found when trying to find good fics involving Ash and it’s kinda weird and seems to be written by a younger author but we’ll see where things go, like Harry got transported by Celebi to the world of Pokemon and Giovanni is Silver and Ash’s dad and they live with him and also Harry does too and he’s in a wheelchair and also is really smart and I wish we had gotten to spend a bit longer seeing their dynamics before when Harry is 14 the Goblet of Fire somehow spits his name out and Celebi helps with getting Harry (and also the other three because of course) safely there without dying because dimensional travel is hard and Celebi is friend and Luna gets to be important here too I think she’s shown up as a named student and guided them to a room and seems to know things about the castle and that’s kinda all there is so far there’s a bit more but it’s not got a lot yet I hope the author keeps going it’s a weird idea but I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes

Oh I forgot to talk about it but there’s this whump Ash fic that was being written under one title but it got dropped and now it’s being rewritten with the same concept but under a new title and going about a lot of things a different way it’s just the same starting premise and the fic is Helpless and Ash almost dies multiple times and there’s this theme of adults failing him and also Gary fucks a thing up and Ash needs support and therapy (a good number of fics have Ash needing therapy but given the shit he’s been through that is not surprising especially from my limited knowledge of Kalos holy shit Lysandre was doing some mad shit) and it’s just good but it is a lot of hospital and Ash being hurt and almost dying so be warned if that isn’t a safe read for you

The reason I don’t just outright block explicit anymore despite the horrors of trying to find safe Pokemon fic on AO3 amidst the consensual porn, incest porn, pokephilia porn, etc., is I randomly decided to try and find some Sonic fanfic on AO3 because a couple people on YouTube have been doing Sonic story stuff (Sonic What If has some good stuff that’s just... what-if scenarios and then there’s Sonic Rewritten which takes a game’s plot and then redoes it but good like the Deadly Six having personalities or Sonic 06 not having maybe bestiality or Generations being more than ‘oh past and present stages now have nostalgia’ and Robotnik and Eggman are significantly different people in that one and it’s really cool) and I thought maybe I would find some good stuff on AO3 (which I have but nothing that I want to ramble about specifically though there was one fic where Eggman does Tails clone and then his original body dies so he’s stuck looking like Tails and it’s kinda wild) and I found a fic that was marked explicit because torture and violence (honestly it wasn’t that bad) and I like it and don’t want to miss something that I might like by accidentally blocking it and now when I try to find Pokemon fic I have to see Leon x Hop and Pokemon x human smut.

There’s one Sanders Sides fic that I was reading and I don’t remember the name nor do I know if it’s updating I think I lost it but it started from the beginning of the series with the Dark Sides being a platonic poly family and when they weren’t in the episode they were talking about it/the Light Sides and it’s honestly really really good and the author just decided to have Deceit’s name be Janus and it was amazing when it turned out that was his real name it was just great but IDK if the fic has been abandoned, I think I lost it in the shift, but it was really good (but sympathetic dark sides and unsympathetic patton and roman and logan for a bit so do be warned if those aren’t comfortable for you)

Oh yeah I remembered another fic I can talk about there was this one Creepypasta fic and it’s completed and it is a Jeff x Reader but it kind of just stops being about the romance after a certain point and just goes way off the rails. It starts like ‘oh this will be a normal x reader with mansion and Slendy is dad and Zalgo is probably evil’ and then NOPE SLENDERMAN HAS BEEN RAISING FAMILIES THAT LOVE HIM TO TURN THEM INTO CRYSTALS TO MAKE HIM MORE POWERFUL AND ZALGO IS AGAINST THAT and it just is great like I never see Zalgo being good, like Slenderman being evil or whatever is plenty common (especially in the innumerable ARG fics I don’t read because I don’t have the attention span to learn what the fuck the source is) but never in tandem with Zalgo being anything but chaotic evil n shit it’s wild and it’s great and also Slenderman’s parents have faces I guess idk that was weird also there is one smut chapter but like the author said you can skip the smut and I did and didn’t feel like I missed any plot stuff so if that’s a no for you just keep an eye out for the author’s warning. It is by a younger writer, as demonstrated by its daily updates while it was being written, tiny chapters, and some general writing style stuff common to younger writers, but honestly I just love it for being something so wildly different, under the guise of a typical x Reader fic.

Speaking of ship stuff and Creepypasta the trilogy of Sans x Creepypasta fics are amazing. The writer definitely improves over time, the beginning of the first book kind of has the weird ‘then I knew I was in love’ stuff from a couple of the pastas (then again I’m ace and demiro so starting romance is just generally weird) but it is just a really good series. Sans ends up with seven kids in the third book and, while everyone else in the Undertale cast is bashed in the first two, Papyrus does seem to get some redemption in the third, so there is that. Also Murderer Sans is a fantastic tag, Gaster made a deal with Zalgo to create the skelebros and Sans is more demon than Papyrus by a lot and Zalgo is trying to kidnap Sans and Sans’ children so he has his family together to destroy the world and wander free and it’s wild and also Chara and Flowey show up and also LJ being an angel is mentioned and relevant to the plot for a bit so that’s neat and I don’t know all the details of how it ends because I lost it when I shifted and didn’t want to find where I was but it’s a great fic (albeit with a few things I can argue on) and the author has also been writing other Sans x Creepypasta stuff but I haven’t read it because idk

I really wish I had a good Minecraft fanfic to gush about but I really don’t it’s hard to find Minecraft fic that isn’t tuber-based, either Dream and friends (which occasionally I find a good one but so much is either Dream SMP which I have no interest in getting into, involves people I don’t know from Dream SMP, or just is shippy or straight-up doesn’t have a premise I’m interested in) or Hermitcraft (I fell behind so I have no idea what’s happening anymore) (but also like Mianite and Aphmau stuff but not as much as used to, but now Dream rules all so), and it just sucks. Like if some of it was Team Crafted fic I would be on board like hell yeah give me that nostalgia juice but it’s so much shit I just don’t know. I love the idea of Minecraft fanfic because there are so many options for the world and you can either make your own characters and you probably have to but then there’s just if you use Steve Alex Herobrine or Notch how they are written depends on the author and I live for that shit it’s a big part of why I read Creepypasta fic it’s because I like when there are different ways characters can be done (not unsympathetic or sympathetic like Patton so much like straight-up different characters) like Herobrine and Notch are the big ones like good vs evil, involved vs not, serious vs comedic, there are so many different ways to play them and I’m so disappointed AO3 doesn’t have much of it and so much of it is just Dream stuff and it usually just isn’t what I’m after in a fic.

The only other fics coming to mind right now are two wildly different fics involving Springtrap x Reader, one of them is being transferred from Wattpad for copy reasons, complete with tiny-ass chapters and that language that’s just so middle-school in the best way possible (like William and Springtrap are different consciousnesses and they way the author describes their struggle at one point is just so similar to a stupid thing I did and I have so much affection for it) and the other is legitimately really really good and the reader-insert has recently found out that Springtrap is William Afton and has murdered many children and they are currently dying multiple times to help his victims pass on because they can see ghosts and it’s actually really good and I have no idea where things are going, reader has currently met up with Michael Afton, currently all purple and dead and stuff, and has learned about remnant (weird-ass shit from modern FNAF lore) and it’s getting wild. I feel like there are two types of FNAF fic, ones in the style of FNAF 3/4 and earlier and ones from maybe 4 onward. Like ones where the lore was basically ‘bad man committed murder against children and they’re possessing the animatronics and that’s why they’re trying to kill you’ and then 4 starts having some more expansive lore ish and then after that it just goes everywhere with remnant and scooping and even more locations and also the books matter probably??? There is this one fic involving Glitchtrap that hasn’t updated in a bit and it’s fun, I like the idea of Glitchtrap and really wish I could read more fic just centered around FNAF VR. Then again, BEN was always one of my favorites and after I stopped being absolutely terrified of Herobrine I really liked his possibilities, maybe I just like the story utility and possible execution of characters with wide-ranging powers over technology and affecting the real world outside of it, IDK.

Ok I’m out of ramble energy, and also topics unless I go more in-depth about specific character options, but my energy is gone so I think that’s the end of it. I typed 3,000 words about fanfictions I’m reading and probably could have talked more about some of them if I wanted. This is my new hyperfixation. I guess. At least I know I have one, it’s reassuring to know for some reason, like for a while I missed how much Pokemon was my life in elementary school and Minecraft was in sixth grade, like it was nice just having something to focus on, though maybe that’s just the college and depression talking.

That was good, I’m glad I did that. Y’all are loved.

If you seriously read this entire thing... Wow. I really appreciate you digitally listening to me talking about random fanfic shit that I like. You’re really really cool.

[blacklinguist]

after three months, my personal language challenge is over, so i thought i would recap about my experience and progress [under the cut]!

some quick stats before i get started -

⭐︎ 91 days ⭐︎ 50 hours of Spanish study ⭐︎ 83 hours of Japanese study ⭐︎ 60 days of writing challenges ⭐︎ 25 page increase in reading speed per hour [in Spanish] ⭐︎ 133 hours total

Experience:

i have been studying languages intensively since the end of february [that french challenge], but kicked it up just a smidge this summer, to average out over an hour of studying per day. i didn’t study every day in my last month [and didn’t actually meet my goal, but more on that later], so it was closer to two hours than my data shows.

as i have said a thousand times before, motivation means nothing. doing anything past three days requires discipline for me. following this challenge actually helped my ability to structure my days, because i would not have been able to fit in studytime otherwise!

it was ridiculously fun though, and i’ll give you a peek at what my methods looked like [month of may]:

SPANISH:

podcast: i listened to native-content podcasts, and especially enjoyed Radio Ambulante!

book: in may, i was reading La Sombra Del Viento [more on my reading speed in a second].

convo: this was actually an impromptu conversation while studying, so that’s why i recorded it here, but i didn’t really track practice in that manner.

nva: the noun verb adjective writing challenge was very helpful for building my vocabulary! the op deactivated afaik so i cannot link the post, but you should be able to find it easily.

JAPANESE:

duo: i wanted to see if duo could manage to supplement my learning even a little, and it did for the first few parts of the course, so that’s what you see. i actually quit duo jpn in july because there just was not enough kanji in the latter half of the course, and ya girl cannot read those syllabaries that quick

anki / kg: already detailed these in this recap post of may!

vocab / notes: i used this site [wikibooks] and these sites [wasabi jpn]/[the japanese page] for vocabulary lists and grammar notes.

netflix: aggretsuko and rilakkuma were the shows i watched, and also a couple of movies!

Progress:

Spanish was my biggest initial focus because I really needed to practice and make sure I could teach a class in it by fall. It was more of getting comfortable with actually operating in another language vs. truly studying, so I focused a lot on writing and speaking on the fly. by the end of the summer, speaking in Spanish had become nearly second-nature to me. Even at work, I never referred to notes to ‘make sure I remembered’, I just knew! 

Additionally, my Spanish reading speed was absolutely abysmal, but after a few weeks of reading for an hour every day, I nearly doubled that page/hr count, which made Spanish literature less of a chore, and more fun to do. 

I no longer ‘study’ Spanish officially, too. Just working on making it a part of different aspects of my day. :-]

As for Japanese, I am still at the bottom, in all honesty. It takes around 100 hours to hit A1 in it, and I am at 83, so I have a bit to go because I did not hit 50 hours of study in July. But, I can construct basic sentences, and know a good chunk of kanji. I’m starting to pick up words in songs as well. I want to be a well-rounded N5 by the time the new year rolls around, but i’ll be covering that journey on @debuccalization!

OVERALL:

Kinda relieved that I am at the end of the gap year, and can actually look back and feel satisfied with the goals I planned out. Studying languages for five months at this level is something I will not be able to do again for quite some time, but I hope I don’t need to! Now, I can work on maintaining the knowledge I have accumulated, and hopefully be more diligent about moving forward with my skills. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in the challenge with me [I know some of you are still at it, so keep going]! I am no longer tracking the summer challenge tag, but please feel free to start your language challenge at any time. :-] 

Again, if you have any questions, please ask!

[littlelonghairedoutlawllho]

Fanfic Writer Ask Meme!

Tagged by @bogglebabbles

Author’s Name: littlelonghairedoutlaw here and on FFN, ponderinfrustration on AO3, and generally just Shauna

Fandoms you write for: Phantom of the Opera, but I have written for Harry Potter, Sherlock, Saga of Darren Shan/Cirque du Freak, His Dark Materials, Chess, and Lonesome Dove. I think that’s all? Though there is a high chance I’ll end up writing for HDM again when the series airs because you know I love my disaster man Lee and my dear witch queen Serafina.

Where you post: Here, FFN, and AO3

Most popular one-shot: in terms of both reviews and favs it’s Twin Hearts, Echoed on FFN. On AO3, Permission of Intimacy has the most kudos, Compositional Interruption the most bookmarks, and Masquerade the most comments.

Most popular multi-chapter story: Soft Place to Fall has the most faves and reviews, Cartography has the most kudos and bookmarks on AO3, and SPtF wins on comments.

Favorite story you wrote: The Delta series and love-light. Both of them are just so satisfying. Delta has so much in it that I wanted to do for a long time, and it’s the sort of thing I’ve been wanting to read. Did not know how much I needed a tubercular Erik and an OT3 in my life until then. And as for love-light...God. It’s oddly personal in a way. It’s very much a tribute to the books I’ve been reading the last month, the sort of feelings I’ve been drawn to, and things I’ve been thinking about. There are probably about a hundred different things in it that Against the Tide and Thanks for the tea are responsible for, right down to Erik’s dodgy lungs and his English education and the description of his face. And just the fact that it’s Irish. It’s Connemara. It’s not even the part of Connemara that I’ve been to, but how I want to go there. love-light is just very important to me on a level that’s inexplicable but it’s deep in my heart. It’s my wine-drinking, Perseid story which included an interlude to cry over Noël Browne, and it is directly responsible for the existence of Stardust.

Story you were nervous to post: All of them. Nervous and excited. love-light especially because it’s so dear to me, but all the Tinder stories too and SPtF, and Etched and Wraiths and RTtR, and Delta. Every one of them has been a nerve-wracking experience and sometimes it’s turned to disappointment but also sometimes it’s become elation

How do you choose your titles? A lot of songs, sometimes poetry. Sometimes just words that feel like they fit.

Do you outline? Sometimes. I outlined SPtF and stuck to it. I outlined RTtR, and outlined it again, and again, and again... Wraiths and Etched both got sort of outlined halfway through. Dead Water and Digging Up Bones were unplanned in every way, as was Delta. I don’t outline one-shots, but I did draw up a timeline for Fifteen Christmases because it’s so vast, and now when I’m writing Tinder things I refer back to FC as a sort of base text so I know where I am in the timeline and what I can and can’t talk about.

How many of your stories are…

*complete? Afaik, all of them. So 322 on AO3, 304 on FFN.

*in-progress? I don’t think there are any? Unless I missed any which I admit is highly possible.

Coming soon: I need to edit and properly post that short SPtF sequel. I have mentally played with the nextgen a bit for it, but I don’t think I’ll do anything with them, though you bet I have headcanons about little Christopher John. Other than that, there is a Tinder thing I need to edit, another Tinder thing in progress if I ever get back to it, and one more Tinder thing I’d like to do. After that I really am done, unless I come out of retirement just to write Sorelli as a socialist in Dublin Artane in 1977.

Do you accept prompts? Sometimes. I reblog prompt sheets but I usually only get one or two off them, if that. I have pretty much a 95% clearance rate, I think, though it may take me more than a year to actually get to it, which is how Dead Water happened. I very much enjoy prompts, especially slightly unusual ones or ones that I can twist into something historical and a bit out there. I found writing E/C all the time extremely exhausting and most prompts will be E/C which is where that other 5% comes in, but for non-E/Cs ones I’m always willing. And ofc E/C as part of an OT3 is always extremely welcome

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: Nothing really in particular...unless I come out of retirement just to write Sorelli as a socialist in Dublin Artane in 1977, a possible OT3.

Tag five authors to answer these questions as well: @rscoil @hopsjollyhigh @maze-zen @convenientalias