#also by doing the dishes but that feels less relevant

[hotshotsxyz]

this town is only gonna eat you

(buddie) (s8 spec) (1.1k) already wrote some buck-gets-hit-by-a-car spec, so how about some buck-gets-shot? kept thinking about "take eddie [to the laker's game] and die" and uh... here we are. cw: mass shooting/ gun violence (described vaguely), somewhat graphic description of a bullet wound, blood edit: now featuring a companion piece

Buck is smiling when it happens. Grinning at Eddie like he hung the fucking moon as he points out what must be the hundredth interesting play he’s seen on the court tonight. Buck’s smiling.

Eddie registers the screams before the gunfire. He smells the metallic scent of spent shell casings before he sees the shooter. He tackles Buck to the ground before he realizes he’s already hurt.

Buck was smiling, but now his face is inches from Eddie’s and his eyes are wide with pain and panic.

“Eds,” he says, and it’s barely above a whisper but it’s still too loud.

Eddie shakes his head, a tiny, sharp movement. Buck takes a shaky breath and presses his lips together. He understands. Eddie hates that he understands. Thank God he understands.

There’s something warm and wet slowly spreading between them, and it takes Eddie several wasted seconds to realize it’s blood. He’s almost completely certain it isn’t his, which—

God, that’s so much worse than if it was.

One of Eddie’s hands is still cradling Buck’s head, an instinctive act of protection before they hit the ground. With the other, Eddie slowly begins feeling his way around Buck’s abdomen. His fingers brush against torn fabric and he feels nauseous.

I’m sorry, he mouths before pressing down hard.

Buck gasps in pain. A muscle in his jaw ticks with the effort it must take him to keep from screaming.

“You’re doing so good,” Eddie breathes into Buck’s ear. “I’ve got you; I promise.”

The bullet caught him somewhere along the fifth intercostal space on the right side of his chest. Eddie doesn’t have a way to feel for an exit wound, not without letting up pressure on what he knows is there.

At best, the bullet glanced off a rib and tore through nothing but skin and muscle. At worst…

At worst, Buck is dying beneath him and there’s not a damn thing Eddie can do, not until the shooter is dead or gone. All Eddie can do is pray. Pray and hope like hell that God has forgiven him for his incomplete confession.

Another spray of gunfire echoes through the arena. It’s nearly impossible to identify where it’s coming from, but Eddie’s got a vague idea based on the direction people seem to be running in.

Buck takes a ragged, watery breath.

For the first time in his life, Eddie hopes he’s crying. He draws back, just far enough to look Buck in his eyes. His eyes, which are clouded over in pain but free from tears.

Fuck, fucking goddamn it.

Eddie presses his cheek against Buck’s.

“Slow, steady breaths, okay?” he whispers. “You have to breathe through it, even if it feels like you can’t.”

The tiniest whimper escapes Buck’s chest.

“You have to, Buck, I can’t—” Eddie squeezes his eyes shut and takes a shuddering breath. “I just need you to hold on,” he begs.

A single shot rings out, and nearby, something falls to the ground with a dull thump.

“Suspect is down!” someone shouts. “We’re clear for EMS.”

Eddie carefully extricates his hand from behind Buck’s head. “Hear that? We’re so close, Buck.” He brushes a thumb across his cheekbone, then sits up and raises his hand in the air. “Over here!” he shouts. “I’ve got a penetrating chest wound that needs to be on the first ambo out of here!”

Buck’s eyelashes flutter as he fights to stay conscious.

“Come on, eyes on me,” Eddie says.

With his free hand and his teeth, he tears a strip of fabric from his shirt to wad up and press into Buck’s wound.  The skin there is ragged and torn, almost certainly an exit wound. Eddie curses.

“I need EMS now!” Eddie roars, not tearing his eyes away from Buck for even a second.

“I’m coming to you!” someone calls back.

Buck’s eyes slip shut.

“No!” Eddie commands, rubbing his knuckles across Buck’s sternum. “You’re staying right here with me, you got it?”

Buck groans weakly. His eyes flick back open.

“That’s perfect, you’re perfect,” Eddie babbles. “Just keep—c’mon, Buck, just keep fighting. I need—you have to be okay.”

Buck’s lips part. “Hurt,” he breathes.

“I know,” Eddie says desperately, “I know it hurts, I’m sorry.”

A pained sound falls from Buck’s lips. He lifts one of his hands just high enough to ghost his fingers along the ruined hem of Eddie’s shirt.

Behind him, Eddie hears a gurney roll to a stop.

“Here!”

Eddie turns and find a young woman, no more than twenty years old, wearing a polo that declares her part of a private ambulance service. He doubts she’d weigh even a hundred pounds soaking wet.

“Alright,” he says, turning back to Buck. “I’m going to get you onto that gurney. Let me do all the work, okay?”

Buck’s eyes widen. He makes a strangled sound. “Hurt,” he coughs out again, fingers scrambling uselessly against the concrete floor of the arena.

“They’re gonna give you the good stuff at the hospital,” Eddie reassures. He lets go of Buck’s wound and pulls him into a seated position, then rolls him awkwardly onto his back. “I got you,” he says as he stands.

Eddie staggers beneath Buck’s weight but manages to get him down three rows worth of steps and onto the gurney without the young EMT’s help.

“We’re staged just outside the north entrance,” she says as she begins to push Buck toward a set of doors.

Eddie nods sharply. “He’s got a perforating chest wound, probable pulmonary laceration, and a history of pulmonary embolism. Allergic to naproxen,” he rattles off as he pushes the gurney alongside her.

“Um, okay, that’s—are you a doctor or something?” she asks.

“Firefighter,” Eddie corrects. “We both are.”

The closer they get to the exit, the harder Eddie has to work to keep pace with the EMT. He must be coming down hard as the adrenaline fades. A few spots cloud the corners of his visions. He blinks them away.

The doors to the outside fling open, revealing two paramedics from the 136.

“Diaz, is that you?” one of them asks.

The best Eddie can do is nod.

“Shit, and that’s—”

Eddie’s ears start to ring.

“Diaz, were you shot?”

No, he tries to say. One of the paramedics grabs him under the shoulders, and the other pushes his t-shirt up until—

Oh.

Huh.

He has been shot.

The paramedic in front of him is saying something, but Eddie can’t quite understand it. Over his shoulder, the EMT looks blurry and horrified.

The spots in his vision return with a vengeance, and in his last few moments of lucidity, it occurs to Eddie that the bullet in his abdomen is probably the same one that ripped through Buck’s chest.

Then, the world fades to black, and Eddie thinks nothing at all.  

[pruning-the-minds-garden]

State of the Meunion

Heya. Lets have a conversation and catch up, shall we?

Anyway, I have been gone - to varying degrees and extents - for a while. I don't know whether that is going to change, at least not in a stable and long-term way, but I have a moment for this so I might as well use it.

This space started as a place to host my writings on hypnokink safety and community building. I don't know that most of that is as relevant as it once was, given that the community has fractured and gone to ground (mostly, I think, to Discord and other chat-based services) again in the time since I first put things up here. Back in 2016ish when I was first here (under a different, but similarly named, account), that was a big deal. I think it still needs to be a big deal as every day I see new people who seem to be interested in hypnokink but also are on the fringes of safe/healthy/sustainable practices, and so maybe could benefit from learning about them. But, also, I can't know that with certainty. Maybe this is a good point for an aside on that, so lets do that.

I always wonder when I see something #freeuseslut or #1ckyd4ddy or #goodgirl or whatever, if that is something that a person genuinely is going for or if they are kinking on the fantasy of it. Especially when I see a younger person - bear in mind I'm 40, so "younger" is to me like <25 y/o but especially <21 - posting about that it makes me wonder whether they think that is a healthy relationship style, whether they are posting that because that's what they think people want from them and they put their value as a person into being that fantasy... because that is not sustainable, not in most cases, and will cause injury in a good number of them. But, it's not my place to make people's lifestyle choices for them, so if they want to do things like that then they can. I just want them to make those decisions with a full, conscious awareness of the ramifications of those choices as they make them. Or, if they aren't really doing that, if it is just a game or an act... then that's a whole different ballgame. After all, I kink on mind control but that doesn't mean I want to take total control of someone's mind and make them into my unwilling hypnoslave. Sounds hot, sometimes, but is actually just rape and no that's not okay. Writing stories about it or whatever is all well and good, but I know that if I do anything like that it will be with the full, conscious, aware, informed consent of my partner (which does not diminish the hotness, btw). I wonder if something similar is happening there, if they are displaying the things that they think people want to see, showing sides of themselves carefully curated for their intended audience... but are really just doing the laundry or the dishes rather than masturbating furiously to all the dick pics they are undoubtedly receiving.

Yeah so I guess that's that aside. Back to the main point.

Right now I am doing... okay. Good some days, less good on others. Not really sustainably active, unfortunately. I will get active for a bit and then other things get in the way - health, life, etc - and I will drop off. I feel bad for the people that leaves on the hook, but I can't really control when that happens so there you go. That begs the question of what is going to happen with this space, though.

So, what's my plan here? Honestly I don't have one, but I can call out some goals and intentions and see how things go.

Given that I have so much trouble maintaining consistent activity, I'd like to get back to writing. That way, I can write when I can write, schedule (or queue) posts to go out, and that can be the extent of my activity. I'd like to do original art for said posts so you have something to look at beyond a wall of text, but honestly my choices there are limited (like, AI - which, yeah, I know the problems there - or stock photos of spirals and such) so I don't know if that will happen. I also want to write more on safety topics, but I feel like at this point that has been talked to death and so I might as well just write stories that weave those things in. Teaching through storytelling is a tried and true method anyway, so I might as well feature that. I also want to loop in all the other aesthetics and kinks and stuff that interests me, because - shocker I know - mind control isn't all I kink on.

Anyway, this has mostly been a vehicle for me to ramble on and ponder what I'm going to do. Since I'm done doing that, in the words of Overly Sarcastic Productions... "so... yeah."

[rollercoasterwords]

hi rae! do you have any articles/resources on like. why tiktok sucks. because i had a conversation with a friend earlier today about this very subject and i want to show her some information (plus youre like the tumblr smart person so i thought you might have something)

tumblr smart person....love that for me lmao

i don't have a ton of like. articles that are specifically like "here is why tiktok is bad" bc most of my anti-tiktok critique is coming from the synthesis of various ideas about capitalism, art, surveillance, identity, media + control. like -- i don't think tiktok is the root of most of these issues, it's more that i think it's a petri dish for the rapid growth of the already-existing virus of capitalism. so this might feel a little disjointed but here is like. a web of various articles/essays/writing that has ideas which connect back to why i dislike tiktok

capitalist realism, by mark fisher - i think this text provides essential background on the ways in which capitalism has become so ingrained; if you don't wanna read the whole book then at least read ch 2, which talks a lot about the role of media + is particularly relevant when thinking about social media platforms like tiktok

social media is not self-expression, by rob horning - also start here for a perfect explanation of the ways in which social media encourages us to police our own identities as if we ourselves are consumer products

the anxiety of influencers, by barrett swanson - this is my rec that deals most specifically with tiktok and is just. such a great synthesis of the way the app is spreading the poison of a consumer economy such that the boundaries between consumer/product are broken down and we are all becoming consumers-as-products

personal style is dead and the algorithm killed it, by charlie squire - a really excellent essay that also gets into the way that consumerism + algorithms are like....eroding our sense of art + identity

cj the x's youtube channel - really fantastic video essays about art + media consumption in the modern age which make me reflect on the ways tiktok promotes engagement with art as a product rather than art. in particular i recommend 7 deadly art sins and the kronk effect

west elm caleb and the feminist panopticon, by rayne fisher-quann - another excellent essay that gets into the ways apps like tiktok can like....create this online surveillance state where we're all being encouraged to police each other

against character vapor, by brandon taylor - an essay that gets into how modern anxiety over embodiment + the sense that everything is now a performance thanks to social media influences our literature/art

keep it in the group chat: fanfiction and influencer culture, from into the fic of it - podcast episode where they discuss a lot of these issues with art + consumer culture specifically in the context of fanfic

objects of despair: mirrors, by meghan o'gieblyn - another article that touches on social media + identity formation

every "chronically online" conversation is the same, by rebecca jennings - discusses an issue that is not unique to tiktok but is exacerbated by tiktok

and if u wanna read some of my own more organized thoughts about tiktok, i have 2 essays on substack. one is you are what you eat: identity as consumption and what went wrong with jegulus, which ignoring all the jegulus stuff just contains like. a synthesis of how i think tiktok/algorithmic social media promotes a fucked-up method of identity-formation. and then i also have why does tiktok hate masculine lesbians? which is less about tiktok itself and more just an example of one issue that has festered on the site thanks to lack of critical thought + discussion -- both of which are literally impeded by the way tiktok is set up.

here is like. TikTok Thesis from my jegulus essay:

right now, in our current historical moment, almost all social media is being slowly (or not-so-slowly) swallowed by the vast and yawning chasm of the Algorithm. that’s because the Algorithm is good for capitalism. the Algorithm breaks down the boundaries between content and consumer, streamlining the system so that everyone is consuming each other all at once. we, the social media users, are consumers consuming the content of social media. at the same time, social media is consuming the content of our data. that data is then consumed by advertisers, who use it to sell us more content. we are thus increasingly stuck in a never-ending cycle of consumption, held captive by algorithms that soothe our anxieties by offering us tiny, consistent dopamine hits while working to break down our attention spans and our capacities for critical thought so that they can keep us trapped in echo chambers of endless consumptive entertainment.

and then there are of course all the rantings and ravings i post here on my blog lol!

anyway, a lot of what i've collected here is a little more philosophical and focused around identity + consumerism + art, but i'm sure there are also plenty of people out there making additional points about the way tiktok is horrible for privacy, how it's harvesting all our data, and how it's designed to be addictive + keep you scrolling + is in the process deteriorating your attention span. these are all issues that, again, are not unique to tiktok, but are grossly exacerbated by tiktok. especially bc the rapid growth of tiktok as a successful social media during the pandemic has made it like....this epicenter of pop culture such that

a) other social media apps are now trying to copy tiktok's model and become more like it

b) almost all commercial art is now influenced by tiktok to some extent. books, music, etc -- if u want people to invest in something, it needs to go viral on tiktok!

the consumerism of capitalism is the cancer and tiktok is the malignant tumor growing at an unprecedented + life-threatening rate <3

[crystalelemental]

Pokemon Team Characterization - Geeta

Earlier today, a Reddit post for Pokemon Masters asked about who the most popular of the less popular champions was.  The general results are inconsequential, if depressing to me personally.  What this particular story is about is a comment that mentioned Alder feels like he was designed to be weaker, with one of the reasons cited being he uses “off-meta” Pokemon.  Which is wild, because that’s the same reason people big up Blue.  Blue’s Pidgeot, a Pokemon which has always been bottom meta (barring its mega giving it short-lived half-relevance), is considered a prime example of his characterization as someone who really does care about his Pokemon, because he keeps what was his first capture all the way through the League, indicating some sentimentality.  Which is correct!  That’s how it should be.  Look at the team, and get a sense of what that character is about from how they construct their battle lineup.  But this never really comes up beyond Blue’s sentimentality, characters like Cyrus and Volo having friendship-evolving Pokemon to indicate the good in them, or claiming Red is the best because he “doesn’t need legends to win like other protagonist.”  Which feels like a very limited way to approach things.

But also it’s been like 20 years and no one’s really dug into teams to craft a sense of personality before that I’ve seen.  And if no one else is doing it, I guess it’s time to do it myself.  So I’m starting with the last winner of that poll, and the generally acknowledge least popular champion: Geeta.  I did a general analysis of her team before, so consider this a sort of spiritual successor.

Here is Geeta’s team, as listed on Bulbapedia.  The top left is her lead, the bottom right her ace that comes out last.  I’ll break this down talking about what I interpret for the lead, for the ace, and any general impressions from other Pokemon added in.

The Lead Geeta’s Espathra is one of my favorite leads.  I think this is exceptionally clever, if relegated to a game that makes it too easy to be over-prepared.

Opportunistic copies your buffs.  If you try to set up on her, she will copy those same boosts.  As a very fast threat, Espathra is difficult to outpace, which can make boosting a tempting choice, only to run into how badly you’ve played yourself.  Lumina Crash, as a sharp debuffing of special defense, doubled down on this.  Trying to accept playing defensively will run into the issue of Espathra breaking you down really fast.  Quick Attack handles finishing a job against Sturdy or something that barely survived, and Reflect as team support to block physical attackers, which are much harder for Espathra to handle.  While Dark-types are generally more resistant, Dazzling Gleam is the best bet to respond to them as well.

A lead like this shows that Geeta is someone who can get inside of the opponent’s head, and consider their possible actions.  From second 1, she’s set up immediate countermeasures to most methods of setup, both offensive and defensive.  She takes immediate, decisive action, while considering most possible angles of attack.  She is someone who’s thorough and deliberate, and takes advantage of an opponent who can’t respond quickly.

General Team (Avalugg, Gogoat, Kingambit) The remainder of Geeta’s team is largely bulky offense.  Nothing is particularly fast, but much of it is geared toward bulk.  Of note, however, is that very little emphasizes recovery.  Despite Avalugg having Recover as an option, Geeta opts instead for raw offense, choosing moves like Body Press and Avalanche, which utilize Avalugg’s strengths and weaknesses to full effect, dishing out better damage from physical defense and from going second respectively.  Gogoat is the exception to this, with Horn Leech and Bulk Up.  Notably, this is Geeta’s only form of setup sweeping.  I think of further note is that Gogoat’s coverage moves are...odd.  I know it gets Ground-type moves.  That would be infinitely more valuable as coverage, yet she opts for Psychic and Fairy, which ultimately do very little for Gogoat’s performance.  And of course, there’s Kingambit, which every likes to point out, should probably be last in her team to make the most of its ability.

Gogoat being her second suggests to me that, when her immediate plan fails, Geeta’s the kind to step back and operate with more deliberation.  She’ll take things slow and get the measure of a situation, trying to buy time to properly assess the next move.  It may also indicate a sort of overconfidence; she didn’t think she’d need to come up with a backup plan.  The lack of sensible coverage implies she’s not necessarily quick on her mental feet, and requires that time to make more sound judgments.  Considering the next three, I think she generally gets there.  She’s able to take stock of what’s present, and emphasize strengths while covering weaknesses.  She gets a generally full picture, but her approach is still fairly...brute force.  She wants a quick resolution; something that’s do or die.  She’s not someone who backs down, stalls for time, or gets defensive.  She’ll push ahead regardless.  She’ll take an early minute to come up with a Plan B, but she’ll always keep going.  If from there it’s a loss, then you take that loss and wait for another chance.

Her Ace Glimmora as the ace is widely considered a bad move, given that its Toxic Debris does nothing for her that late in the game.  Its coverage moves are very sensible, but again, it’s raw power with no real embellishment.  This being her Tera Pokemon, it shifts to Rock, a type notorious for being good offensively, but atrocious defensively.  It’s also an exceptionally rare Pokemon in Paldea proper, with significant ties to the crater.

The emphasis on offense is, again, just her MO.  She plays a bit more aggressively.  The decision to go against Poison, a much more defensive typing, suggests a sort of unwillingness to back down.  Geeta is someone who always pushes forward.  But at the same time, the insistence that it be her ace, her last Pokemon to bring in, suggests that, although she can leverage strengths and weaknesses as seen through Avalugg, there are certain values or structures she’s unwilling to compromise.  Some things just have to be done a certain way; there’s a certain rigidity to her thinking that can be seen as highly inflexible.  But it’s important to her, and she’ll hold to it come hell or high water.  As for the crater connection...

Where The Team Is Found All of her Pokemon correspond to specific areas in Paldea.  Gogoat early in the east, Espathra early in the west, Avalugg at the mountain, Veluza at the lake, Kingambit in the north, and Glimmora in the crater.  The wide-spread focus on where they’re found implies a general appreciation for her region; a sort of love for all it has to offer.  But of interesting note is...they’re all common.

Skiddo and Flittle are super common.  Veluza’s really common at the lake, even if less so than Tatsugiri (which I wish she had but oh well).  Kingambit itself is hard to acquire, but Pawniard are like the most common thing in the bamboo forest.  Bergmite are not hard to find.  And within the crater, Glimmet and Glimmora are exceptionally common.  The fact that, barring Glimmora’s surface presence being non-existent, all of her team is common?  It suggests an appreciation for the mundane and every-day.  In contrast to a champion like Cynthia, whose team is largely comprised of the hardest stuff in the region to find, Geeta champions what’s most easily found.  Not even necessarily the glamorous or marketable every-day.  She doesn’t have an Arboliva, which is both common and a sort of mascot evolutionary line for much of the region.  Just...regular old common stuff you’d find anywhere, and wouldn’t be exceptionally celebrated.

Geeta is someone who takes joy in the simple things.  While she’s someone in a position of significant power, who is very driven to perform well in her career, the things she enjoys most are the little things, like seeing the students of the academic learn and grow as trainers.  In a way, it’s that emphasis of “everyone starts somewhere, and can grow into something exceptional.”  Kingambit is a decent example; that thing is hard to get to evolve because it takes some dedication and know-how.  The base form may be common, but putting in the effort to build something exceptional is how Geeta operates.  She’ll take anything at what it is, and make it shine.

But I think there’s also a connection to the whole treasure theme of the game, in Glimmora.  Going into the crater is a rarity.  It’s not something anyone gets to do, and it’s a very unique experience.  One that she apparently cherishes, given that Glimmora is her ace; the one she insists on using last as her most precious partner, despite how little tactical sense it makes.  It’s a sentimentality she carries with her, and a reminder of a cherished memory.

Summation Geeta’s team suggests someone who is able to carefully consider all possible outcomes, and produce a countermeasure to address as many obstacles as possible right away.  She’s someone who, when a plan goes wrong, falls back and tries to take a slow, measured approach before responding, but often falls back to more direct approaches.  She’s able to conceptualize strengths and weaknesses, including her own given the implied understanding of her need to step back after an initial setback, and operates well with them in mind.  But at the same time, there are things she won’t compromise on, even if it’s directly to her detriment.  She enjoys the things that are mundane and ordinary, but cherishes unique experiences more than anything, and may be rather sentimental at times, letting emotionality override her generally logical and structured nature.

If anyone has a different read on her, I’d love to hear it.  I actually really like Geeta, in spite of her being fairly bland in the base game, so it always bums me out to remember she’s unpopular.  Hearing from others that like her would be a nice change of pace.

[phantombanquet]

【4gamer】 Ensemble Stars!! In the 16th episode of 「CAFE CINNAMON Niki's Kitchen」, Crazy:B head to “Honey Workshop” (Post-recording Interview Portion ONLY)

translation by: phantombanquet

Post-recording Interview

Youhei Azakami as Rinne Amagi

Tomohiro Yamaguchi as Niki Shiina

Jun Kasama as HiMERU

Tasuku Kaito as Kohaku Oukawa

4gamer: Thank you for your hard work during the long day location shooting today!

Everyone: Thank you for your hard work!

4gamer: It's almost time for the location bus to leave, so I'll try not to make this interview too long.

Tomohiro Yamaguchi (hereafter referred to as Yamaguchi): We don't necessarily have to finish it!? (Laughs)

4gamer: Thank you! Then, could you give us a few words about today's event?

Yamaguchi: Well, I'm tired (Laughs). But the reason I say “tired” is because the four of us (from Crazy:B) have tons of fun when we're all together, and we've also been talking sooo much since this morning. We're all close friends, so we enjoyed talking to each other during the shooting. I feel that the script was even less relevant than before, or rather, it was because I was able to shoot on a location with the people I trust, so it was a lot of fun, and made me feel pleasantly exhausted.

Youhei Azakami (hereafter referred to as Azakami): When all four of us gather together, I just get spoiled by everyone, and I really love these members who accept that (part of me). Also, today's shooting location made me think: “Bees are really cute”. And to think that every single one of these bees is making honey like that, it made me realize how precious they are. Today was a day that made me love bees, honey, and Crazy:B even more. Thank you so much!

4gamer: By the way, Azakami-san, what is the name of the dish you made today.....?

Azakami: We~ll..... Earth. Cycle. And...

Yamaguchi: Wasn't “Earth” the last? The first is “Life”.

Azakami: Life. Cycle. Earth......Brilliance.

Jun Kasama (hereafter referred to as Kasama): I have a feeling that's not it.....?

Yamaguchi: Anything is fine! (Laughs)

4gamer: I understand. Then, Kasama-san, please give us your comments as well.

Kasama: Alright. So, the last would be Tasuku Kaito-kun.

Azakami/Yamaguchi: Summarize it properly, okay?

Tasuku Kaito (hereafter referred to as Kaito): Yeahhhh.... (Laughs)

Kasama: As Tomo-kun (Tomohiro Yamaguchi) mentioned earlier, I was happy that us four Crazy:B members could have fun yet still make interesting entertainment, without having to say “I have to say this,” or “I have to do this,” for something. I felt that there was an atmosphere that could only be created by these four members, and I really felt that I could rely on them.

I also went to see the beehive again, but without protective clothing this time, after the recording was over. I'm sure everyone else has noticed, but bees have a similar lifestyle to humans; they work hard around noon, but when the evening hits, I feel like they all go: “Thank you for your hard work today...”

4gamer: So it's something like that!

Kasama: In this way, I felt that we humans, who are also living beings, should be thankful for the graces we receive that are like in the form of honey. It was a location that gave me new feelings towards bees and honey, and also made me feel the fun of Crazy:B, which uses them (bees and honey) as their motif.

Yamaguchi: That was a good comment.....

Azakami: And then?

Kasama: And then...?

Kaito: I'm under a lot of pressure for the next comment (Laughs). (Being asked by the members: “So, how was it?”, “What did you think about today?”) Why am I being pestered so much today!

Everyone: (Laughs)

Kaito: But, all I can say is: “It was really fun”. It was a location shooting that made me feel once again the dependability and reassuring nature of the other three, and also the greatness in each and one of us. It's not often for all four of us to gather together like this, but I think it was a valuable day for us to be able to experience various things with bees, which are the motif is this unit, at a bee farm. Seeing the bees made me feel even closer to life.

Unlike when coming alone, I was able to enjoy the experience together with these older brothers, and I think I also was able to find new discoveries. I hope to engrave this experience in my mind, and have fun while making this unit even more exciting.

Yamaguchi: I'm the only one who didn't talk about “life”.....

Azakami: Are you saying you don't care about it that much?

Yamaguchi: I'm just living on the edge! (Laughs)

4gamer: This year, there will be a cast live performance (「Ensemble Stars!! Cast Live Starry Symphony -the first light-」 to be held on Saturday, September 30, 2023, and Sunday, October 1, 2023), so maybe there will be more opportunities for you four to get together again.

Kasama: Certainly.

Azakami: This was a very good early opportunity for the future!

Yamaguchi: Teamwork, and also bonding with the bees... (Laughs)

Azakami: Just being together (with you guys) for one day already makes me super duper tired.

Kasama: You (are the boke)!

Azakami: You're tired of being the tsukkomi, aren't you? (translator's note at the end)

Kasama: No, of course, I mean it in a good way? (Laughs)

Yamaguchi: But the good thing about Crazy:B is that when you say something silly, someone will make a comeback. Rather than sharing roles with everyone, it's more “Crazy:B-style” that we all enjoy ourselves on the spot, but it also makes me feel tired.... (Laughs) But that makes it twice as fun!

4gamer: By the way, is this the first time that the four of you have been together for such a long time?

Kaito: No, maybe not?

Azakami: If there's a performance (live concert, event, etc.), we're all together the whole day.

Yamaguchi: That's why it really doesn't feel like “it's been a long time” since whenever we meet, we immediately feel at ease with each other, we chat, and afterwards, we go home, and then we see each other again..... It goes something like that. I think that we, Crazy:B, have the kind of feeling like friends who feel at home/comfortable whenever we see each other.

4gamer: Indeed, and I think that the viewers could strongly feel this in this recording. Well then, that concludes our interview for today.....

Yamaguchi: Eh, are we finished already? I haven't talked about “life” yet...

Everyone: (Laughs)

4gamer: I look forward to your future activities! Thank you for today!

Link to original interview

translation note:

※ Boke and Tsukkomi are the roles in a Manzai, which is the traditional style of Japanese comedy (basically similar to stand-up comedy); Boke is the funny man while Tsukkomi is the straight/serious man. Here, Azakami was referencing how Kasama usually takes up the Tsukkomi role, and how they switched roles for today (Azakami usually does the Boke role).

(You may have heard/read this from mostly Trickstar stories since they reference it a lot, but several other Enstars [and any media in general] characters like to reference this!)

[nautilusopus]

the link in that post i think leaves out most of what makes something kosher or not kosher actually so i’m just gonna add it here:

edit: hey what the fuck tumblr collapsed my bullet indentation

stuff that was in the link: certain animals are off limits, though it did not specify the criteria SO:

all mammals must have split hooves and chew their cud

birds must NOT be predators or scavengers

all fish must have fins and scales (also no scavengers)

all plants are inherently kosher

all dairy is inherently kosher, as long as it comes from a kosher mammal (and isn’t consumed with meat)

blood, even from a kosher animal, is absolutely verboten. more on this later.

the sciatic nerve is off limits. sirloin, unless great pains are gone to to remove the sciatic nerve, is often not kosher, even though it comes from a kosher animal. (there are other nerves that are and are not kosher but i’m not gonna get into that here and usually the only relevant one is the sciatic nerve)

some jews unilaterally just avoid hindquarter meat, since most butchers don’t bother to remove certain nerves/certain portions of fat. when taking this into account, a great deal of modern jews don’t actually keep kosher

some species from the genus orthoptera are kosher but all other arthropods are not

if you found it already dead, it’s not kosher

you may not cut off and eat a part of an animal without first slaughtering the animal. this one in particular isn’t really a problem these days, but back when there was no refrigeration and you couldn’t afford to butcher the whole animal at once lest it go to waste, it was a thing people sometimes did. less likely to go bad if it’s still alive and in horrible pain

you may not mix meat and dairy. the justification for this is that you are not supposed to boil the calf in its mothers milk (which was an actual dish at the time this was written), but you can have chicken with eggs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

you must have separate sets of dishes for both meat and dairy. the two must never come into contact with one another, even indirectly by putting meat on a milchig plate, or stirring milk with a fleishig spoon

SLAUGHTER PROCEDURES:

this part is a lot of what rabbis get brought in for. the animal in question must die as painlessly as possible, so the knife must be EXTREMELY sharp. like, extremely sharp, to the point where if you cut yourself with it you don’t even notice it. you have to run your fingernail down it and if you feel even the slightest bump it has to be sent back for further sharpening, because the blade is required to be free of any imperfection. 

you say a little prayer. this is less “blessing” and has been mentioned and more just a brief animal funeral rite

the animal in question must not be injured in any way prior to slaughter. this also includes the standard electric shock to incapacitate most animals for slaughter.

the throat is slit, and must be slit cleanly and in a highly specific way, and all the blood must be allowed to run out. following this, the meat is salted to remove any blood this procedure might have missed. this is the key difference between kosher and halal, as halal slaughter does include the painless death part but does not have any specific prohibition on blood, and depending on who you are will either do in a pinch or is still just as unacceptable as christian meat. 

and this is just the brief overview. there are more regulations than this about the type of knife used, how it is oiled and sharpened, how certain cuts of meat need to be made, what does and doesn’t count as “incapacitated”, whether or not the cow’s offspring was killed too closely in terms of date to the cow, et cetera.

all this and more is why 1. kosher meat tends to be more expensive and 2. why you have a rabbi on-site to make sure everything is up to code. and there is a lot of code

UGH FINE I REWROTE IT WITHOUT INDENTATION. RUIN MY FORMATTING WHY DON’T YOU i hate this website

[starlitangels]

Why I'm 'The' Avior Fan

for @plaqying's little Awards event!

I have quite a few reasons

The first is that he's been my favorite character since I first heard his playlist and made myself obnoxious on this blog about that fact

Basically, the brainrot took hold and I was one of the ones who was constantly thinking about his story and proposing potential theories for where his plotline was going

I listened to his playlist so many times, trying to pick out any tiny little obscure details for lore and hints and clues, and I made a lot of posts about it

Another big reason I could be considered "the" Avior fan is that I have had people tag me in Avior fan art that others had done with captions like "Star, I think you'll want to see this" (I did). My reputation for being That One Person who was Unbelievably Down Bad/Obsessed had spread enough that people would see Avior and one of their thoughts when they reblogged it was to tag me because they knew I'd go wild over it (I did)

Does crying my eyes out for the entire 45 minute Truth audio count as a reason? Because my investment was so deep and my heartbreak was so much that I literally couldn't stop? Thank the heavens I was home alone at the time my husband would have been so confused lol

I don't know if I've written the most Avior fanfiction out there but I definitely wrote a lot and quite a few of them got a lot of response about being pretty good, so I'll take that

I also wrote some heartbreakingly angsty Avior headcanons that got me (affectionately) yelled at iirc

Also, I started learning how to draw again after a... multi-year hiatus because I specifically wanted to draw pieces of Avior and Starlight's story #Dedication

My profile picture has almost always been some variation of my version of Starlight

You could literally ask anyone who are regulars in my notes "Which Redacted voiced character do you associate with Star" and I guarantee most of them would say Avior maybe Elliott if they found me during that one specific era last spring but that's beside the point

A very kind soul on my birthday one year drew a doodle of Avior giving me a cupcake. Said kind soul didn't even have to ask who would make me the happiest to receive a cupcake from

I am, literally, like, The Avior Person to a lot of people around here and you can ask around and they would probably tell you that immediately

Lastly, my energy for keeping up with Redacted kinda faded in this last little while it will be back, I guarantee you but even when I was starting to feel myself pulling away a little, I will still drop everything and run to grab my headphones when Avior gets his rare uploads

Oh did I say lastly? Too bad I'm still going I literally have done more fan art for Avior than any other character in the history of me learning how to draw. I also consistently tag posts about him with "Sarcastic Demon my beloved" because, again, he is my beloved XD

This one specific character just kinda grabbed me and refused to let go and there were many days of washing dishes filled with me relistening to Sovereign State over and over and over again

Also Erik dropped Other Side by Anberlin as "a song with Avior vibes" and it immediately got added to like three playlists of mine because it slapped and also broke my heart but that was right before the Truth audio and it still breaks my heart but this is slightly less relevant

[foxgloveinspace]

My 'simple' Sleep Token Theory:

I couldn't make this less then 7 points, oh my gosh. Maybe I can condense it down at some other point, But I Got To Do The Dishes. All this being said, I still like my old theory, and will talk about it if anyone wants to, I just think this is more.... likely of a theory lmao.

1). Each song is it's own isolated story that has themes and connections to each other. There are four types of sleep token songs: songs about sex, isolation, worship, and insomnia. All songs are Vessel's POV, and either something he wants to tell us or something Sleep/sleep wants to tell us.

2). Vessel straight up told us that each song is a token to Sleep, and that Sleep heightens emotions, so while something could be a simple emotion, for the song it is a Very Big Deal, so it can create a feedback loop and be a bigger worship moment for Sleep.

3). I think, after thinking about since I posted it, that my 'shit post' wasn't that much of a shit post, and that Vessel, behind the mask, is a person who suffers from insomnia, and that Sleep really does = sleep. Everything about Sleep the deity can be literal sleep deprivation symptoms. So while story Sleep is a god, their inspiration is just straight up Lack of Sleep.

4). I think the music videos are just vibes, not plot relevant, so the idea that Vessel has powers isnt really canon to me. They could also be visual representations of Nightmares Vessel has had in the past.

5). I think that if we are going off of Sleep = sleep, even in the story, then we have a slight Cult of the Lamb moment going on here, and Sleep Token has never been about collecting followers for sleep, but followers for Vessel (which at the end of the day, we are. We are Vessels followers, cause this is his persona and story and there is No Sleep. We are just this guys band cult while he sings about sex, and loneliness, and isolation, and worship kink).

6). I don't think Sleep is evil?? Like a lot of people, myself included, hear these vibes in the music and forget that it's a Heightened emotion, and that because of that yeah it can seem like maybe Sleep is not good. Yeah, they probably argue, or when Vessel is suffering from insomnia (both irl and in the story) it probably feels like Sleep has abandoned him. But why would the whole point of the band be 'Worship Sleep' outside of the music if that was the case? Wouldn't the vibes be different outside of those situations? So i think while Sleep and Vessel have a weird relationship, like an insomniac and the human suffering from it, I think that ultimately they can't be without each other.

7). I do not, never have, still don't, think Vessel will 'die' at the end of TMBTE. As stated above, Vessel dying makes no since to the narrative, even if Sleep is a god, why would they kill the person they have chosen to spread their message? Or even 'take over' the person? Sleep seems to love Vessel in their own, so this idea just makes no sense to me. 'Why did Vessel's mask change if he isn't a new Vessel?' why would you limit yourself to one mask if that's the only way people knew you?? It's an outfit change to match the changing of the vibes of the new album.

[the-trans-dragon]

When I was frequently in a state of "too sad to enjoy anything, but not Low-Energy" I learned that I could do choree like that because "im sad, but im going to be sad whether i do the dishes or not, so i might as well do the dishes so i dont have to later when im less sad"

[Which isn't necessarily helpful if I am Low-Energy and tired and need to rest]

And I was frequently "too sad to enjoy anything, but not exhausted from it" (and also the Exhausted Edition but that's not relevant) and learned to do most chores while sad.

And that was incredibly helpful, but I am having to learn how to do chores when *not* Too Sad To Enjoy Things. Lately my Sad has been like "I am sad but playing Minecraft will make me feel a little better" which is good for my brain but doesn't accomplish chores.

It's very weird how coping mechanisms change so much as overall mental state changes. Previously, I got chores done, but engaging with hobbies left me feeling empty and sad. Now engaging with hobbies helps, but I have to find a new way to do chores.

Unexpected. I guess I'm not familiar enough with coping mechanisms to know how they work 😅 but I am learning.

[lukewarmbreadatamoderatepace]

november 2022, purple carrot meal reviews:

penne with pesto and broccolini:

eating straight up roasted broccolini (or any of the brassica oleracea cultivars) not mixed into a larger dish will never be exciting to me, very "well I guess I'll eat these vegetables before I have the good-tasting part," but at least it wasn't just straight up broccoli.

The pesto is fucking delicious. It's made with sage rather than basil, and you put some spinach in there too (which might be typical for pesto but I've never made pesto before.) Taking a bite and discovering that some of it has snuck up into the hollow penne tubes is a wonderful little surprise treat every time.

The pasta was gluten free, I guess, which isn't relevant to me, but also wasn't something I would have noticed if it hadn't been labelled as such, so good job there.

It made me use the food processor, which means I had to clean the food processor, which I don't appreciate from a meal kit. I thought these were supposed to be fast and easy!

Still, extremely tasty, less work than I expected, and I felt very nourished. There's a reason I made this one first. 4/5

"thanksgiving sandwiches"

I don't think there's any way to spend 40 minutes making a sandwich and feel good about it. These are ciabatta rolls on which you put an array of ingredients that will dirty half a dozen dishes in your kitchen. Bowls, a saucepan, a roasting pan, a whisk, the gang's all here. The main "meat" of the sandwich is roasted brussels sprouts, which is not exciting and also incredibly impractical. Putting large solid orbs in your sandwich means the process of eating the sandwich is centered on the effort to prevent those orbs from falling out and rolling away. They had the audacity to expect me to also dip the sandwiches into a gravy mixture, which would be an insane thing to do with any sandwich, but even moreso with one as precarious as this.

The other main ingredient is broccoli slaw, which would stay in the sandwich well enough if the bread were allowed to embrace it, however these huge brussels orbs prevent this, so actually this is a brussels sprout sandwich with a side of broccoli slaw that starts out inside the sandwich.

If you are very very careful, you still can't prevent the entire brussels sprout from ejecting itself from the sandwich and into your mouth the instant you bite, and now you your job is trying to make it through this enormous brussels sprout before you can take another bite of the parts of the food that taste good. My jaw hurts. Possibly I should have roasted the brussels sprouts for longer, but shoving gigantic brussels sprouts into a sandwich was a mistake from the start.

utter foolishness. 2/5

Also unless I'm missing something, both of the above recipes straight up lied about including garlic among the provided ingredients. Luckily I had garlic on hand, but that could have been very annoying.

------

[note from the present: there was a third meal in that kit that I intended to do a silly little review for too but then I never got around to making it. ty to Fen for sending me the free mealkit tho, I was eating really badly around that time and it was really good to eat some stuff that was actually good & nutritious]

[not-available-for-comment]

Ok, so Firefox’s pocket suggestions have been trying to get me to read a list of “8 life-changing nonfiction books selected by top authors” and while I don’t really feel like reading that article, I think it could make a cool prompt. Nonfiction tends to have a rep for being dry or trite, but I think it can be powerful and engaging as well. I probably don’t have near enough followers to be doing a book rec post, but whatev, I like talking about books, we’re doing this.

Prompt: List 5-8 Life-Changing Nonfiction Books

In no particular order:

1. The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani (2008)

This is probably the book I’m most scared to go back and read, because I suspect parts of it did not age well. I think she’s released an updated edition and I’m interested in revisiting that one. That said, as someone raised in a very conservative environment, this book completely revolutionized my thinking on harm reduction strategies like needle exchanges and free condoms from the cOnDONinG bAd beHaViOr bullshit I believed when I was younger to “oh look, a way to keep people alive and healthy”. She also had some eye opening comments on the “rescuing women from developing nation brothels” charities that were so popular in the 90s. I still think about the insights in this book often.

2. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler (1993)

I don’t know if I can even describe how foundational this book was for me when I first read it in my early 20s. Kunstler describes the way cars have usurped human comfort in American architecture, land management, and city planning in meticulous detail. It made me look at my environment with new eyes, and appreciate alternatives I had barely even grasped, in spite of having traveled internationally. I don’t recall Kunstler’s book explicitly speaking to the disabled community’s concerns with anti-car rhetoric, which have gotten increasingly relevant over time. But I still highly recommend the book as an excellent introduction for USians interested in improving our lived environment and anyone else who wants to know What The Hell Happened With The US And Cars.

3. Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman (2009)

I’ve never been an intuitive cook: the kind of person who can look in the cupboard and throw together a dish based on what I can see. I actually started out baking almost exclusively, because the precision of baking recipes helped keep me from going astray. Ruhlman’s book was the first to help me crack the cooking code. Ironically, I’ve made very few of his recipes, which tend to have an overly fussy, professional chef ring to them. But learning about the basic ratios and techniques that went into popular western dishes helped me start to understand how cooking worked. It’s been 10 years since I read Ruhlman’s book, and I still often cook with a recipe. But sometimes I don’t. And his book is part of the reason why.

4. My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi (2009)

I’m sure this one isn’t new to a tumblr audience, but it deserves its excellent reputation. This graphic memoir is hard to quantify accurately. It is, of course, an important work on the experience of being queer in Japan. But it’s also a searching, thoughtful, and sometimes brutal examination of the self, a coming of age story that is unsentimental but insightful and, I think, ultimately hopeful. I bought the book several years after it came out, at a time when I personally felt like a failure and a disappointment to my parents, and devoured it and felt less alone. Highly recommend to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. (Note that it does at one point describe the author’s eating disorder.)

5. Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose (2017)

This book revolutionized the way I thought about personal essays. This is not “I had a mildly risqué experience as a young white middle class cis woman which I will now recount to you for money.” Nor is it really my much-beloved genre of creative nonfiction that combines rapturous descriptions of the taste and scent of peaches with rigorously researched discursions on the history of the state of Georgia. No, this is a creative explosion, raining color and candy, flashing by your face too quickly to be fully registered but delightful all the same. Chew-Bose writes stream of consciousness, but one loaded with sharply observed images and quicksilver thoughts, tangents to tangents to tangents, some circling back and some not, personal memory and constant cascades of cultural commentary threading together into universal but deeply personal tapestries. If you have any taste at all for either essays or virtuoso writing you MUST read this book.

I think that’s a good stopping point for me. Curious to see if anyone else does this prompt and if so, what they pick.

[isaacathom]

ds9 time, s2e5

A GARAK EPISODE. A GARAK EPISODE. everyone blow the horns. now my thing is im hoping that since bashir has been relatively 'less cringe' in s2 that this will also apply to a garak episode because i unfortunately had a hard time enjoying his first outing bc i have bad taste

bashir is really all in on this 'garaks a spy' thing and thats cringe but very cute. like its very... dorky. its dorky what hes doing. and clearly garak thinks its funny considering the two clearly have a rapport, so this owns. "what can i say to convince you that I'm-" "plain, simple garak?" "precisely!" now thats good dialogue baby

ah. lil gremlin boy.

oh we're going like. mach 10 into this bad boy. like 3 times in as many minutes we have hammered in this point about cardassian war orphans on bajor. bliing.

oh. ohhh this is gonna be a hell of an episode.

"they wont hurt you. theyre humans. not cardassians" dude come ON. like. you gotta have some self awareness dude.

there is something very weird going on in this episode and i cant quite put my finger on it. maybe its the way that there were two scenes, separated by not much, that had very clearly been shot at the same time, one after the other (the two were bashir and sisko talk to the bajoran man). not a problem, natch, but the. pacing? feels a little off. im 13 mins in and im sort of unclear on how this plans to resolve. the actual answer is, and will be 'ask the boy' but star trek has a dogshit record (for me) of considering the autonomy of the children in their narratives, except when those children are adults in kid bodies.

sisko, watching bashir ask dukat questions: this is fascinating, both for the questions and the fact the stations doctor has decided to just march in and do that.

"dont apologise. its been the high point of my day. . . don't do it again" sisko is so good man

kira, watching all of this from the back: if only i had popcorn

oop, resetting the "scenes since keiko and miles had an argument" back to 0. she has a point but aya.

okay so she starts by having a point, yknow, Dont be Racist to Rugal, and then goes for a cardassian dish when the one thing we know about Rugal is that he's been raised by Bajorans? for night one i feel like id play it safe with a bajoran dish, make him feel at home (for the fact that 'home', presently, has been Bajor). sweet gesture but hm? and he didnt eat it, mannnn. keikoooo.

thank god SOMEONE is advocating for Rugal's right to have a say in where he goes, THANK you obrien. a low bar we have cleared for the love of god.

i feel like this episode is trying to say something and isn't. quite getting there. that or i am too white for a story about internalised racial prejudice. i will concede that also.

GARAK WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HIS QUARTERS

"when the boy finds out his real father's alive, surely he'll change his mind. And even if he doesn't, it would be in the boy's best interests." i hate when they do this, fucking gul dukat

oop, there we go, there's a little emotional sting of Garak's complete pause at the cardassian child asking if he's there to take them home. oh there we go.

the pacing on the episode is. breakneck.

thank god for obrien continuing to advocate for Rugal's right to choose his family. oh hey i actually really like keikos outfit here, shes got a nice vest and the shirt and pant colours really compliment it. it looks great

oh this genuinely does kinda hurt because pa'dar comes in so brash and confident and now hes just desperately trying to find some way to connect to this lost son of his, ;would you like to see some pictures of you as a child?' 'no!' oh my heart. OH MY HEART. oh poor pa'dar. obrien tried to warn him. poor man. like even though there's some, for lack of word, "whack political shit" going on, pa'dar is genuinely emotional invested.

"the past is the past it has no relevance here" pretty sure it does but go off

the fact that twice in two minutes theres been an 'oh, a woman?' response, very cringe

garak looks so fucking proud of bashir being a boss ass bitch.

"ive decided to send rugal back to cardassia" DID YOU ASK HIM BENJAMIN. DID YOU ASK HIM. DID YOU GIVE HIM A PROPER OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A DECISION FOR HIMSELF. god fuck off. eugh. like... sure?? sure?? just also come oooooooon.

alright so the ep in s1 with garak didnt really give me anything but now im like ah yea no i see the vibe, the vibe of bashir/garak is coming into focus, this is great.

im. inconclusive on the episodes actual quality? i am kinda annoyed it once again ended with adults overruling the child in the situation. sure, you can make a case that rugal isn't given much choice in the matter, given his upbringing, but surely there's some middle ground that lets him experience the culture of his biological father for a time before coming to a decision? arrangements about shared custody? SOMETHING? like. augh. auuuuugh.

[aung-khant-kyaw]

Is Blogging Still Relevant in the Age of TikToks and Instagram?

With apps like TikTok and Instagram dominating the social media landscape, you may wonder if classic content creation methods, such as blogging, are still relevant today. TikTok's quick attention-span-destroying short videos and Instagram's different trending posts and reels and stories have undoubtedly captured people's attention, but does this imply blogging is dead? Spoiler-alert!! It is not. While our information consumption habits have changed, blogging remains a relevant and important tool in today's digital environment. Let us dive into the subject.

The Rise of Short-Form Content: TikTok and Instagram

TikTok and Instagram have become popular platforms for people, particularly young people like me, seeking quick, entertaining content. TikTok's algorithm and model of super-short videos, most of which are less than a minute, have refined the skill of keeping people's attention for short periods of time. Instagram, on the other hand, has its own model of photos, Stories, and Reels, which are comparable to TikTok's short movies, to keep its users browsing, liking, and swiping their way through unlimited content.

But here's the thing: these platforms were designed for something that I would call quick gratification. You get the enjoyment or, God forbid, information you need, but it is usually brief. You scroll, like, and move on. You'll most likely forget about the quick enjoyment or "information" you viewed in a day or two. While these apps are great for grabbing your attention for a brief period of time, they are not always ideal for in-depth exploration or explaining something in detail. This is where blogging shines.

Blogging: A Space for Depth and Thought

Blogging allows creators to go in depth, something TikTok and Instagram do not. Whether you're writing about personal experiences, breaking down a hard topic, or providing a step-by-step tutorial, blogs enable long-form material that adds actual value in ways that short TikTok videos and reels cannot. For example, a chef may post a short video about her dish on TikTok, but on her blog, she can break down each step of the recipe - why she prepared it that way, what other ingredients can be substituted for the original ingredients, and even share the ingredient list in detail for others to follow.

Blogs also enable control and creativity. Creators can create their own designs for their sites, upload songs, movies, and photos at the same time, and create posts without being limited by the app's algorithm and format, such as word count. You want to write 1000 words explaining why getting up early and walking around helped you feel so much better about yourself? You can do this on your blog. You may try it on TikTok, and I guarantee you'll lose your audience within approximately 15 seconds.

The Secret Weapon of Blogging

Blogs have a significant edge over TikTok and Instagram in terms of search engine visibility, such as Google. TikTok and Instagram postings may go popular for a day or two, but a well-written, SEO-optimized(Search engine optimization) blog post can generate visitor traffic for years. People can search the internet for answers to their questions, and blog postings frequently show in the top results.

Consider this: if you want an in-depth recipe or a lengthy product review, will you go to TikTok and rely on the algorithm to provide it? Probably not. Most people still use Google, and they are more inclined to click on a blog website that provides a full explanation or guidance.

Blogging with Social Media

The good news is that it is not a competition. This should not be a competition. Blogging and social media can work together. Many content providers now use TikTok and Instagram to market their blog pages. They will share a short video or photo on social media, followed by a link to their blog with the complete article.

A travel influencer, for example, may publish a short video of their trip on Instagram but direct readers to their blog for a comprehensive tour, including ideas for where to visit, eat, and explore. This combination provides artists with the best of both worlds: quick engagement on social media and deeper connection via blog content.

The Longevity of Blogs

Another reason blogging remains relevant? Longevity. Content on TikTok or Instagram typically has a relatively limited lifespan. A post may go viral for a few days, but it is quickly forgotten unless it is part of a larger trend. In contrast, blogs STAY. A useful or engaging content can generate traffic months or even years after it is first published, especially if it ranks high in search engines.

This is especially vital for individuals and businesses who want to establish a long-term presence online. Blogs are like digital real estate that you have complete control over, as opposed to social media sites where algorithms change and audience reach can decline overnight. Furthermore, you can always update blog entries to keep them fresh and relevant, extending their lifespan even further.

Monetization and Community Building

Blogging also offers a unique way to interact with an audience. While TikTok and Instagram are great for building a following, blogs allow creators to cultivate a more involved audience. Blog comment sections typically offer more civilized discussions, and many bloggers use email newsletters to stay in touch with their readers.

In terms of monetization, blogs provide more control. Ads, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and even selling their own products or services directly on their websites are all ways for creators to earn money. This kind of control is more difficult to attain on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where monetization is mainly based on brand relationships or platform-specific features such as Instagram's shopping or TikTok's creator fund.

Blogging in 2024 and Beyond

While blogging may not be as visually appealing as TikTok dances or Instagram Stories, it is far from obsolete. In reality, it is adapting to fit into today's digital landscape. Newer platforms, such as Substack and Medium, have modernized the blogging experience by allowing writers to monetise their content via subscriptions while maintaining a focus on long-form writing.

Furthermore, many successful bloggers use short-form content on their blogs. They'll include TikTok videos, Instagram postings, or YouTube snippets in their articles, giving their readers a variety of media while maintaining the depth and information that blogs are known for.

Conclusion: Blogging Isn’t Going Anywhere

Looking at how current internet is dominated by TikTok and Instagram, blogging may appear outdated. However, it remains relevant—and, in many ways, thrives. Blogging offers depth, Search Engine benefits, and a long-term platform for authors looking to share more than simply short content. While TikTok and Instagram are fantastic for gaining attention and creating a following, blogs allow creators to establish authority, foster community, and deliver content that lasts much longer than a viral video.

Is blogging still relevant in the era of TikTok and Instagram? Absolutely. It's more than just relevant; it's adapting, growing, and demonstrating that long-form material still has a place in the digital age.

References

Lemonade Design. (2024) Why Blogging in 2024 is More Important Than Ever. Available at: https://lemonadedesign.co/why-blogging-in-2024-is-more-important-than-ever/ (Accessed: 23 September 2024).

Your Marketing People. (2024) Why Blogs are Important for SEO. Available at: https://yourmarketingpeople.com/blog/why-blogs-are-important-for-seo/ (Accessed: 23 September 2024).

HubSpot. (2024) Social Media Marketing: The Ultimate Guide. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/social-media-marketing/ (Accessed: 23 September 2024).

ProBlogger. (2024) How to Make Money Blogging. Available at: https://problogger.com/make-money-blogging/ (Accessed: 23 September 2024).

Manson Space. (2024) Why Blogging Still Matters. Available at: https://manson.space/blog/why-blogging-still-matters/ (Accessed: 24 September 2024).

Siapera, E. (2012) Understanding New Media. London: Sage Publications.

Rettberg, J. W. (2014) Blogging. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Goodwin, D. (2024) What is SEO? Search Engine Land. Available at: https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo (Accessed: 24 September 2024).

[crazypersonmentality]

Enhance your Bathroom with Efficient Vanity and Counter Organizers

An orderly bathroom provides a pleasant feeling and also adds functionality and operational efficiency. Among the necessities for order, one must remember to mention bathroom vanity organizers, bathroom counter organizers, and other related bathroom organizers. They help maintain tidiness in the area and also make it easier to undertake activities in a day. rous Hardware provides various kinds of organizers that will fit your needs and enhance your bathroom experience.

Reasons Bathroom Organizers Are Important

Bathroom organizers may be considered an insignificant accessory, but they can have a notable influence on the effectiveness and appearance of your space. Here's why they're great to have:

Utilization of Space

Most bathrooms are small, which means that every space available should be used well. Organizers help utilize this space fully and go a step further in storing and retrieving your everyday essentials.

Vertical Storage: Most organizers readily take advantage of vertical storage spaces, hence cutting off the counters and making the relevant items easy to reach.

Drawer Dividers: They are a must in vanity drawers, as they help separate items and locate unrealized messes neatly.

Improved Effectiveness

An uncluttered look at the bathroom, to say nothing of the functions of the room, also makes a bathroom more efficient. With an order, every other thing has its designated area, meaning less time to look for things and more time to carry out the activities that you intended to do.

Quick Access: Organizers minimize the hunt for essential objects, which makes getting ready faster.

Reduced Clutter: Thanks to the use of containers for everything, you do not have to endure the anger of seeing an overflowing hygienist or beauty siren– display.

Enhancing Appearance

A neat bath area is more appealing. By organizing your items using nice-looking and functional organizers, you can improve the look of the bathroom.

Streamlined Look: Organizational tools help maintain a high standard of order in the wash space's decor.

Decorative Options: Many organizational systems are also attractive due to their design.

Types of Bathroom Organizers

There is no single type of organizer that can solve all your problems since the room design is different. There are several common types:

Bathroom Vanity Organizers

Vanity organizers are critical as they assist in organizing cosmetics and beauty products. Bathroom vanity organizers are available in different types to cater to various needs.

Tray Organizers: Trays are excellent for storing items such as mascara, eyeliners, jewelry, and other small items that would otherwise litter the basin. They could be used on the top of a table or inside a drawer.

Drawer Inserts: To keep your drawer neat, use strips in the dividers to compartmentalize things. These can be movable or fixed, as your needs dictate.

Stackable bins: Stackable bins are ideal for a cosmopolitan look, where multiple items have to be concealed in ill-designed drawers which lack sufficient storage space.

Bathroom Counter Organizers

If countless odds and ends are invading the plain and free space of your bathroom countertop, this is where the bathroom counter organizer comes in. Such organizers are made in a wide range of shapes and sizes to fit various items.

Caddy Organizers: Caddies offer a great deal of versatility because they can contain many types of materials, from bathroom items to cleaning items. Most often, they include compartments to facilitate sorting.

Lazy Susans: A revolving dish makes it convenient for users since there is hardly any need to move away from the item to be used, even with a number of similar items on the counter. Thus, it is useful when space is constrained.

Tiered Trays: These function differently from the standard lowering of trays by providing additional surfaces with more than one level. This allows for the neat arranging of articles considering height, hence curbing the wasting of space.

General Bathroom Organizers

Apart from the ones dealing with vanity and counter organization, other organizational tools for the bathroom are helpful.

Shower Caddies: Placing items in hanging caddies prevents them from being thrown around the shower area, as the important things to shower with will not be scattered all over the shell.

Over-the-Door Organizers: As the name suggests, these organizers are placed on top of a door without taking up any floor space in the bathroom.

Under-Sink Organizers: Cleaning accessories and plenty of other items would be secured under the sink, making the area that is otherwise thought to be wasted very useful.

How to Choose the Right Organizer

Picking the right bathroom organizer requires consideration of your space, style, and storage requirements. Find below some guidelines that would help you make the right choice:

Assess Your Space

First, take an overview of the dimensions and configuration of your bathroom—Mark all the places that require storage and the things that need to be stored.

Counter Space: When the countertop looks messy, it is better to have any counter organizers such as trays or caddies.

For docent insertion in drawer space organization, one may consider incorporating encasements or dividers to some items.

Consider Your Style

Every won disdainful fy is canned for use in awfully ugly homes. It is important to get organizers that match the color of the bathroom.

Material: The materials range from plastic and metallic to wooden or glass, making the whole process very enjoyable. Choose a material that is in line with the rest of the bathroom's look and colors.

Design: Do you want organizers with modern, sleek lines, traditional baroque style, or a combination of the two?

Evaluate Functionality

Functionality is one of the most important aspects to consider when choosing organizers. Their purpose should be clear, and functionality means comfortable execution of their work.

Accessibility: Pick organizers that do not limit your users in terms of items to be accessed. Trays and caddies must make it possible to reach anything easily.

Capacity: Even if the items you are going to place inside the container organizer are too many, the organizer will still accommodate all the items very well.

Conclusion

One argument in favor of a good bathroom is that it will have a good organizational system in place. By selecting the correct bathroom vanity organizers, bathroom counter organizers, and general bathroom organizers, it is possible to overhaul how the area looks and how useful it is. Luckily, rous Hardware provides a variety of stylish and practical organizers that are of high quality and will help in achieving the desired results.

[nrfarm]

Elevate Your Snacking Game: Best Quality Raisins in India to buy in  2024.

Raisins are a popular kitchen component that is often referred to as "little pearls of sun." Choosing the best quality raisins in India can be difficult with so many alternatives available. However, N.R. Farms are the only place to look! With great pleasure, we present to you exquisite sweets fresh from nature: delicately sun-dried and full of taste.

Our Trip from Farm to Table: What Identifies N.R. Farms

Our tale begins in the sun-kissed vineyards, where we handpick only the ripest, juiciest grapes to provide the basis for the best quality raisins in India to buy. Unlike many commercial raisins, ours do not include any preservatives or additives. Our exceptional items demonstrate our belief in allowing nature to work its magic.

Revealing Sun-Drying's Secret:

An ancient method still at the core of our operations at N.R. Farms are sun drying. Our grapes are carefully spread out to dry perfectly naturally beneath the hot Indian sun. This process intensifies the grape's flavor profile in addition to bringing out more sweetness.The last result? The best quality raisins in India to buy come oozing with unparalleled organic sweetness.

N.R. Farm raisins are a powerhouse of nourishment. They have relevance for the following reasons:

Natural Energy Boost: Loaded with natural sugars and fiber, our raisins offer a quick and healthy way to combat fatigue.

Antioxidant Rich: Packed with antioxidants that combat free radicals, promoting overall well-being.

Fiber for Digestion: The high fiber content aids digestion and provides a lasting feeling of fullness.

Essential Vitamins and Minerals: With iron, potassium, and calcium, our raisins contribute to a balanced diet.

N.R. Farms Raisins' Versatility: A Delicious Journey Awaits

Indeed, a few of N.R. Farms' best black raisins in India are pure joy. But did you know that they are also a tasty change, ready to take your food to new heights?

Baking Bonanza: N.R. Farm's raisins give a burst of natural sweetness and a deliciously chewy texture that elevates any baked goods from traditional cookies and muffins to rich cakes and exquisite bread.

Trail Mix Takeoff: Use N.R. Farms raisins in your own trail mix to fuel your travels! Mix them with your preferred nuts, seeds, and other dried fruits for a filling and nutritious on-the-go snack that will give you loads of energy.

Salad Surprise: Adding chopped N.R. Farms raisins to your salads gives them a delicious surprise. Every bite is elevated by the surprising chewiness and hint of sweetness that combine to create an explosion of flavor and texture.

Savory Symphony: Don't be scared to use your imagination! Raisins from N.R. Farms can give savory meals an unexpectedly rich taste boost. Try them in curries for a deliciously subtle sweetness that goes well with the spices.

Granola Glory: Make your granola to start the day correctly! N.R. Farms raisins provide the perfect amount of sweetness and chewy texture to your morning fuel, making each bowl a delightful and nourishing treat.

Discover N.R. Farms: India's Best Raisins

We at N.R. Farms are dedicated to providing you with the best black raisins in India. We employ traditional sun-drying techniques because we believe in the power of sunshine to produce naturally sweet and fragrant raisins.We promise that every best quality raisins in india you eat is both ethical and delicious because of our commitment to sustainable agricultural methods and responsible sourcing. 

Are You Ready to Discover a Flavorful World?

To get N.R. Farm raisins, go to our website or visit a nearby store right now! Take a delicious trip and discover how these versatile gems may improve any dish. Choose the best and experience the N.R. Farm difference! Do not settle for anything less!

Visit: https://www.nrfarmproduct.com/best-quality-black-raisins-india.php

Contact: +91 8007986969

[ayin-me-yesh]

I'm sorry but the thing about it having a lot of kosher options is very ????

I'm going to assume the person above me goes to a Chinese restaurant that does, and that's cool!

But that's not really relevant to why North American Jews - and this is very North American specific tradition - stereotypically get Chinese takeaway for Christmas.

One of the main factors that started this tradition were the proximity of Chinese and Jewish immigrant communities in New York City. American Jews who ended up settling elsewhere often still initially settled in New York where Manhattan's Lower East Side was a Jewish AND Chinese stronghold. Canadian Jews had a similar experience in Toronto.

The other big factor's just convenience. In a Christian dominant society like Canada or the US, many Jews had the day off but as the person above mentioned it's not actually a holiday to us. Chinese takeaways were often still open in areas where Chinese and Jewish communities were congregating, however, because they had a potential customer base still - the Jews and Chinese people who would end up going there for Christmas dinner.

Chinese restaurants are often NOT kosher though. Besides serving pork and shellfish, the beef and chicken used is usually not kosher either because animals have to be slaughtered in a specific way to not be treyf, similar to rules for halal meat. If you talk to older Jews - and I have directly talked to my grandparents and dad about this - Chinese takeaways were one of the earlier places where Progressive and even some Modern Orthodox Jews would relax their normal household rules around keeping kosher. I think the perception that Chinese food's break with kosher has nothing to do with Christianity made this exception feel less associated with aggressive proselytizing or forced conversion.

Anyway, if you want to read more about the history, including discussions backing up what I'm saying about lapses in keeping kosher, there's this article from Canada. This one from the United States also discusses the perception that Chinese food was more kosher adjacent, essentially, because it didn't mix meat and dairy and, once again, because of the lack of Christian imagery around Christmas, even if most Chinese takeaways serve obviously treyf dishes like pork.