#also. take this w a grain of salt bc this is early days but... still. even if it's abt smthn conpletely dif i doubt it'll b good!

[kenobihater]

[pigeonrocks]

okay i need to like. rant about the post campaign in hong kong.

so. its a fun little dlc, the runs are definitely interesting. but that's the only positive thing i have to say about it. i like the writing during the runs and in the beginning. although the ending when

(spoilers for the bonus campaign under the cut. ofc)

the ending when you face off krait is not exactly played well imo. the entire dlcs plot twists aren't done the same way like in the prior games. returns had a better twist imo, although its a tad confusing- but the betrayal twist doesn't hit the same like how the plot twists hit in the main campaign or in any of the other two games in the returns trilogy. like the vauclair twist had me fucked up. but the betrayal by lam or whatever his name was is very flat as a twist. its not like. done extremely well to really not be predicted. you dont see it yeah but if you do a few runs and then go to find krait and then that betrayal happens. its not like. you already dont trust them?? bc they basically gassed you and dug around in your brain. so why do that reveal so quickly?? i feel like closer to the end would've been better bc it builds more of a relationship with him and qui. but it happening early on in the dlc is such an eye roller.

my vice is also the difficulty of the fight before you go and meet the boss. im playing on easy mode and it took me days. i stopped playing for like weeks because i gave up and went to start playing dragonfall. its so weirdly difficult and the final fight with krait isn't anything in comparison. the writing when you confront her aswell just rubs me the wrong way. the entire ending feels so out of character for the characters you bring (i brought racter, duncan & gaichu w me)

like with gaichu for example. both are from the dlc, the lily lai run & meeting krait, but one of them imo feels so much more like gaichu than the latter. and its the run screenshot in this example. it rubs me the wrong way because. i know damn well its gaichu. but it doesn't feel like something gaichu would say. this is a pretty fine example with duncan imo where it kinda? just feels like all the development from the main campaign is tossed aside and it barely makes any sense to me still.

because. again- all of this is my opinion. take this with a grain of salt.

but burning the warehouse is the best option. i dont think mitsuhama should have the weapons that were inside the facility(or anybody. thats wayy too much power. its better off as ash.) so ofc i burned it down but kept qui alive. because. qui will restore duncan's SIN. its so bizarre that this entire dlc has him so focused on carter. i get him being upset but i feel like. theres bigger fish to fry. like. carter doesn't mean anything. hell i forgot about carter. its so weird for Duncan to really only have carter as his motive? i get that they were extremely close but the corrupt police chief who labeled us as terrorists is killing innocent people for no reason. get it the fuck together man come on. what normal life does he want? we dealt with a fucking demon goddess and are marked as fucking terrorists dude. how do you even live a normal life after that?? its been like a week after the main campaign. its so frustrating to me.

like. i completely can understand why hes upset but qui is still fucking alive. she has the power to restore his SIN. i try and pick the options that will land me in the position of a good ending. or the one thats the best in terms of my own morals. killing the feuerschwinge, killing Jessica, burning the facility. makes sense. the feuerschwinge was a great dragon but any other option wasnt a good pick imo. shes suffering so letting the virus do its work, handing her off to apex or just leaving her there is cruel, but releasing her is also strange- considering what she did when she was alive which was reprehensible. i killed dragon. letting jessica live is probably a good option. but shes still behind the end of the world, kidnapping her own niece and Killing her brother. revenge is revenge 🤷 sam wanted me to avenge him and by god did i

but theres no good option in the srhk dlc. yknow? duncan still leaves no matter what you pick. whether thats on good terms or on bad terms depends on what you do. killing qui, burning the facility- or letting her live and handing it over to mitsuhama. or going with duncan to restore your SIN.

maybe its just a me thing. the dlc rubbed me the wrong way with how the characters were written. it just felt?? out of character and weird for the characters to say. i wasn't even sad that duncan left i just got pissed off. at that and the actual ending. where you go back to FUCKING SEATTLE. this shit sucks.

i played the dlc after i beat dragonfall. and in comparison to the main story of hong kong. its very disappointing and underwhelming to me. nor was it fun. ending was pretty lame to me. it didn't do it for me. which is honestly kinda sad. bc i had good expectations after the main campaign and its just. kinda bad. anyways! thanks for reading my long ass rant. not the usual ramble post but i needed to put my thoughts on the srhk dlc somewhere.

[animefem]

IT'S CHRISTMAS TMRW YEEHAW!!!!! can't wait to watch a replay of candlenights and i might get to smooch a girl (star) :3 if she doesn't suddenly get cold feet lmao we have only known eachother for like two weeks but she was all sad about having no plans so i offered to do smtg together. not sure if it'll actually happen but it's a cute thought! she wanted to have a sleepover tonight n do stuff tmrw, i got her a fairy crystal necklace bc she's soooo fairy coded <3 it just feels nice to give nice gifts to a pretty girl tbh, even if nothing comes of it i don't regret it at all <3

i'm still happy that me n her kissed and uhhh did more too >:) and it didn't feel like a typical one-night stand it was in a very loveydovey way, which i honestly needed. i was wary of unemotional sex but we did have deep talks and lots of laughs and rly good emotional chemistry so she made it rly sweet when we spent two days together. and i got to say a bunch of gay shit to her and cuddles and just FINALLY BE WITH A GIRL!!!! it was such a nice sapphic time!! but yeah she's been very intense in her feelings for me so not sure if that'll last since that level of passion this early on tends to die off quickly in my experience, like it's being intoxicated by the feelings rather than something grounded in reality :/ she kept saying she's scared she'll break my heart but also she's all pet names and saying we're soulmates and that we knew eachother in a past life and that i'm her favorite person and she's obsessed w me etc etc sooooo um yeah i'm taking everything w a grain of salt and not getting too deep into it. i do really like her and we vibe well but who knows!!! idk she hasn't texted me back about today and it's almost 1pm so idk y'all

[mayuuunaise]

[spoilers for those currently coupled w will and haven’t seen the new updates (ep 6-8)]

i honestly don’t think will is that difficult to understand and you honestly see it in the ways he reacts to your actions in the hot tub double date (and afterwards). though do take this w a grain of salt bc i still am unable to restart a volume after finishing and am basing it on the feedback in reddit. so far, i see three ways it goes down:

you don’t kiss anyone during the double date and will finds out during never have i ever: he “gets weirdly quiet” when he finds out he’s the only person you’ve kissed. i’m not taking it to mean that he was hoping you get to fool around and that gives him an excuse to do the same, i’m taking it as him being uncomfortable that it LOOKS LIKE you’re getting serious about this way too fast. he says it as much when he wants to have a chat and if you go to the rooftop, the two of you aren’t exclusive and he’ll root for you if you get your head turned. will is def the kind of guy who has commitment issues and wants to take things slow and see how it pans out before going all in. i’m definitely sensing some vibes that he’s uncomfortable if “you’re more interested in him than he is in you.”

you kiss at least one person during the double date and you don’t tell will beforehand: as much as will isn’t bothered if you’d get your head turned, he’d definitely be the type that’s bothered hearing it from someone else. it’s not that he’s upset you’ve kissed someone, because it’s early days and his chat proves that he’s open to that kind of thing and encourages you to explore and find that spark if you can. it’s that you didn’t tell him yourself. he’s an open book and he says so himself, he’d have kissed them too if the opportunity presented itself. but will would also likely tell you if it happened. i bet you that when najuma and him “broke it off” he would have been honest w her that he had his head turned by the bombshell (and would have had a fun laugh when najuma replied “mate, same.”)

you kiss at least one person during the double date and you tell will before the game: he’s so encouraging about it, because it shows you’re on the same page. you like each other but it isn’t too serious yet or exclusive because it’s still too early to really KNOW and that’s fine. when will thinks of commitment, he thinks of the trust his parents have with each other to still choose the other by the end of the day, and that takes time to foster no matter what any 2D islander says about love at first sight and all that crap. so yeah, i do think it’s very on brand for him to want you to explore and not be limited by all the coupling business and expectations to stay loyal to a hot mess you’ve known for like a day (which is why i think he calls bull on the whole lexi/kobi thing lmao). but will still wants you to be honest with him about it, and that’s why he’s unaffected (and lowkey happy) if people drink to having kissed MC.

tl:dr - i think will is the slow burn friends w benefits to lovers storyline of the game and i am absolutely ecstatic about it and if they don’t give us this i have half a mind to do it myself.

[illnessfaker]

hi!! i wanted 2 ask for ur favorite literature recs! like on disability/gender/etc. it could also be movies or podcasts or things like that, honestly i’d value anything from u JFBSKFNDN

omg i mean not to out myself but i. hardly ever read nowadays due to being primarily occupied w surviving while trying to escape a variably dangerous home environment which makes it hard to want to sit down and read rather than work on smth “productive.” i can’t remember the last socioeconomic-stuff-related book i started and actually finished. i think i read a few texts by kollontai and that’s all i’ve ever finished but i couldn’t tell u what they were about and what i gleaned from them considering that was years back when i id’d as a matfem still (i mean, i’ve read more than that ofc but my memory of what i’ve read in the past is dogshit. maybe i should keep a list). maybe i can start reading a chapter a day again or smth.

in terms of gender the 2 books i think of that more ppl should read are “whipping girl” by julia serano and “sexing the body” by anne-fausto sterling. i have not finished either myself unfortunately so take my recommendation of those w a grain of salt bc there may be things i’ve missed in there that are potentially triggering or are like, not good information 2 make apart of ur worldview.

iirc julia serano is response for the term “transmisogyny” and whipping girl essentially serves as a text describing what experiences define transmisogyny and generally the struggle of being a trans woman. my only beef w this text that im aware of is that it frames “masculinity” and “femininity” (in terms of gender presentation and not in terms of “manhood” and “womanhood” necessarily) as the former being privileged over the latter so there’s this implication (if she does not outright state it) that masculine women are privileged over/oppress feminine women or smth like that, which is not reality. as i said take that w a grain of salt bc the last time i cracked open whipping girl was like a year or so ago.

“sexing the body” is a text written by a biologist that, from what i read of it, is pretty much an overview of how sex/gender is socially constructed and it’s relationship to sex as a medical concept. it heavily focuses on intersex ppl and includes dated terminology like transsexual and h*****hrodite iirc. it focuses very heavily on early research into intersexness, coerced experimentation/medical procedures being performed on intersex infants/children, and other forms of intersexism against intersex ppl, which can be highly triggering subjects (and are generally upsetting to read abt even if ur not intersex urself.)

in terms of disability, i’ve only recently become more involved in disabled communities and such bc even though i’ve been disabled my whole life, i only recently started understanding myself as disabled due to denial and being led by professionals and abusers to believe that my difficulties are due to diet or lack of exercise or “fixable” problems like those. i’ve known i was neurodevelopmentally disabled for longer but that’s still smth that took a long time to come to terms w and i still don’t know of any texts related to that experience of disability that come to mind. not in terms of social issues anyway. the only two disablity-related texts i have atm are the cptsd workbook and coping w trauma-related dissociation, which i’ve barely gotten into lol.

as for movies and podcasts, i can’t name a single one of those that’s been “social justice” related that i’ve watched. other than the documentary “a place at the table” which i watched in HS that goes over hunger in america and follows a few families that may be eye-opening 2 ppl who don’t know what hunger can look like, but that’s not related to gender or disability kdjssds.

i wish i could b more helpful but that’s all i got unfortunately ;( i do have a /tagged/reading-list for stuff i haven’t read myself but very much want to read at a later date. maybe some stuff there will catch ur interest. don’t take me too seriously as a blogger tbh i only sound smart bc i’m an autist who uses big words but i’m not really well-read and prone to error and incorrectness as much as anyone else is

[whx-m]

I'm curious about online shops. Got any general information / details that might go missed?

i am a dumb dumb that has inhaled too much information the past couple weeks trying to learn so take what i say w/ several grains of your preferred salts

this all goes for etsy/shopify/whatever you use for e-commerce. the levels of serious you take it and get into it i think depends on how far you want to take your online shop... or how much you make. google the hell out of your states sales tax laws and apply for a sales tax permit in your state before you sell a damn thing. ill go over the stuff i think really needs to be highlighted for anybody mulling over starting a legit shop, esp artists who want to make a living selling their stuff.

edit: HEY HIT “J” ON YOUR KEYBOARD IF YOU DONT GIVE A SHIT BC THIS IS REALLY LONG AND IM NOT SORRY BC I THINK I LEARNED EVEN MORE WRITING THIS SO THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT...

this will be how you feel when youre 2 hours into logo trademarking research

1. hm..

if you make, or plan to make, over $400 in sales, then most states consider this going beyond a hobby and being self-employed. so accept the fact you gotta pay a self-employment tax on your income.

also... gotta pay federal and state income taxes on your sales. even if your online shop is technically considered a hobby, not licensed as a business and you dont make over $400, still gotta report/pay income taxes on it. i know a lot of ppl dont take that seriously but it might bite you in the ass if you let it go on too long. 

2. register sole proprietorship so i know its real

registering in your home state as a legit business entity is likely a solid route to go if you really plan on fleshing your shop out and building it up for the future. most artists starting an art shop or craft shop file a SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP type of business- meaning the business isnt a place or a group of owners, its just lil ole you. you file under your own name or a “Trade Name”/DBA (Doing Biz As) with your state. but beware, this trade name isnt trademarked or federally protected. and since you ARE your business, any tax trouble means the IRS is auditing you personally and holding you personally liable.

its relatively affordable to file, but take your bookkeeping seriously... be careful because the IRS eyeballs sole proprietorships’ reported taxes and expense deductions hardcore, since the lines between business and personal expenses get really blurry and sketchy. the more you need to save, the more you need to log as a deduction, and the more you deduct the more likely they’ll try to audit you and catch a mistake. so keep your books right and tight. [ 50 state guides for applying for sole proprietorship ]

that being said, IMMEDIATELY OPEN A BUSINESS ACCOUNT AT BANK/CREDIT UNION AND KEEP ALL BUSINESS RELATED PURCHASES/SALES ON THAT ACCOUNT and not your personal one!!!

3. bite the hand that takes your income away!!!

sole proprietorship means your business income = your income, aka “pass thru entity” where profit in your business passes thru and adds to your personal taxable income. it used to be that your business income was just taxed at the same rate as your personal income bracket and thats it. BUT LISTEN UP! NEW 2018 TAX LAWS  ADDED A STANDARD 20% DEDUCTION TO TAXABLE INCOME FOR PASS-THRUS WITH LESS THAN $157,500 REPORTED INCOME. that's auto-subtracted along with your business expense deductions etc, before it’s taxed. what does that mean? it can knock your taxable income down: if you’re single and make $38,700 you get taxed $3.7k instead of $4.6k. If you make $82,500, you get taxed $14.5k instead of $18.1k. And thats not even accounting for other deductions before being taxed.

applying sooner than later for sole propriety/”pass through entity” can really help because of BUSINESS EXPENSE DEDUCTIONS. if you keep careful itemized records and your books clean, you can report tons of business related expenses and get your taxable income at the end of the year lowered. that new tablet, paints, software you bought on the business-only card? the gas you put in your car to get to your anime con, the hotel you stayed at? take it even further: shipping costs, wholesale costs, promo merch for advertising (stickers & swag) and even fees from hiring an accountant can usually be claimed. there’s a LOT that can be claimed.

dont skimp on the research because just logging and reporting expenses can make or break your shop. [heres another link] applying to be a business entity early means more of your start-up costs are logged and claimed as expenses.

and you know what happens at the end of the year when you report your income and claimed expenses? the expenses are subtracted from your total reported income, and youre taxed on whats left. so if you make $50,000 by the end of the year, but you spent $10,000 in approved business expenses, you’re only taxed for $40,000- but wait! 20% deduction= $8k, which drops your taxable income to $32,000. you just dropped from a 22% tax rate bracket to a 12% and you end up only paying $3,840 in taxes. that is only 7.6% tax on your 50k income!! and you could probably pay even less with all the other tax breaks you can score. 

make sure you read up on the IRS website on this stuff too. look up youtube videos and stuff to make sense of anything that confuses you. and dont forget to crawl your state’s own websites and see if they have any tax breaks or incentives for start-ups, artists, etc!!and now the worst part. im so sorry. 

4. the ugly seven-headed demon of sales tax and online shops....... stay with me plsthis is the biggest thing and becoming a super hot topic these days with states wanting to cash in on online sales to their residents

first things first: NEXUS. think of your sales tax nexus as the physical irl presence of your business, in a state-by-state basis. customers in states you hold nexus in? gotta charge them sales tax. customers from states you DO NOT hold nexus in? no sales tax for them! (for now... ill explain later)  

you have nexus in your home state, obviously since you are your biz and you live there, so you’ll need to charge sales tax on anybody buying from you in your home state. BUT.... if you contract someone in another state to do design work for you, unfortunately that means you also have nexus or “presence” in their state, too. if you have a warehouse storing inventory in another state, yep, another nexus and another state wanting to cash in on sales tax. getting enamel pins made in yet another state and they drop-ship your orders for you on your business’s behalf? yeah, likely another state to report sales tax to. 

collecting sales tax isnt a big problem- nearly every ecommerce site like etsy, shopify, bigcommerce and the like automatically configure sales tax in U.S. states you set up as a nexus for your shop. the problem comes around when you’ve got to apply for a sales tax permit in every nexus state, and then keep track of all the filing deadlines. every state is different. just four nexus states to report to means there are four permits to apply for, four reporting/filing schedules/deadlines to keep track of... and each state has different schedules, you could have two states requiring you to report annually and two states quarterly. it can be really hairy and a lot to keep track of if you’re not careful.try to keep your sales tax nexus in ONLY your home state, if at all possible. use manufacturers in your state to print/drop-ship orders.if theyre out of state, have them send the finished product back to you before you mail it off to customers, so you can avoid creating a new taxable nexus.

[ Sales Tax & Nexus Guide ]

still with me? this is the ugly part sorry:

the other big problem with having multiple nexus to report is how much sales tax varies- not just state by state but by city, town, county, even jurisdiction ! 

one state can have HUNDREDS of different sales tax rates to report, and you have to clearly report each individual one you collect sales tax in. 

for instance, over a year you sell to multiple people in your nexus state-- in the same exact county, under the same sales tax ordinance. they live near a bunch of schools so their county has an added jurisdiction sales tax that goes toward education programs. the report you file has to clearly define how much tax $ you’ve collected from them so that state knows exactly how much is going back to that jurisdiction, so they can divvy it up for that sweet sweet education funding.

now imagine that multiplied across counties, cities, and then doubled with another entire state... and thats why keeping your nexus low is a huge deal for someone who’s running an online store solo.

thankfully, you probably wont have to input all that data yourself. 

MAKE SURE you find a good website to settle into- that, at the very least, compiles this information for you to make it less of a headache to file in the right format, with the right info. there are upgrade auto-file options built into most ecommerce websites, so you dont even have to worry about it or think about missing a deadline... but that monthly fee might be too expensive to manage at first. that would be one of the FIRST things i’d do once i could swing it, to eliminate any chance of late fees, getting audited or having my sales tax permit suspended for that nexus state. 

5. IMPORTANT!!: even if you make absolutely $0 dollars in sales from any nexus state, you STILL HAVE TO REPORT IT AND FILE BY THE DEADLINE. don’t get a $50 fee over literally nothing.

ANIME CON OR CRAFT CON ARTIST/VENDOR? BEWARE! 

always research the convention’s home state/city sales tax regulations before registering (or blowing money making merch) for a con. it varies great and wide and has been changing a lot so always recheck before cons. some states supply simple time-limited permits, some states dont require sales tax at all for 2/3 day vendors, and some states will qualify a single physical sale as creating a permanent nexus. dont overlook that stuff or you’ll regret it when you get home to do business as usual with your shop and you have to start charging/reporting sales tax for every customer from that state!! 

6. but wait ore.. you said something ominous about no sales tax for non-nexus states...... “for now”..?

yeeahhh... there’s a big national reform going on currently and it boils down to: Jeff Bezos ruined ecommerce for everybody. fuck you greedy bastard!!

a slew of states are jumping on a bandwagon to snipe up more sales taxes and create “Economic Nexus Laws”. this may not really apply to you at the start of your shop, but its something you need to be aware of for future ref. 

basically states are passing laws that say, “If you make more than $XXXX or do more than XXX transactions selling to people here, that creates a state nexus and you need to get a sales tax permit with us.” which, is not ideal. the good thing is, most sales thresholds in these states are between $10k - $500k, so its not a problem you’ll face right off the bat. transaction numbers might be the one to watch out for, though. once you hit a few hundred transactions in a state it might create a nexus and you’ll have to start charging sales tax.

the problem is this: 1) every participating state has different thresholds, rules, and sometimes tax deductible/exempt items. thats a lot of fine print to go thru and toggling options on your shop, and a LOT of sales tax bookkeeping, filing, reporting, managing. 2) some ecommerce sales tax plugins and clients havent caught up yet to be compliant and convenient for online sellers, its a big job to program and categorize all these variables. when choosing your website host, be sure to vet their built in sales tax clients and see that they’re updating and streamlining capabilities ASAP. it may not be a concern now, but you wouldnt want your shop to boom and have to shut down, lose money and switch hosts to be eco-nex sales tax compliant.3) for successful solo start-up shops, this almost makes it impossible to file your own sales taxes once you pass those thresholds. this is like 30 states! youd spend so much time doing paperwork, its just not feasible. there will be a rising cost of economic nexus management and auto-filing services that you just cant run your business online without.

[ Everything You Need to Know Abt this Shit ] ( ^ full list of state regulations and updated with new developments so bookmark this page)

tl;dr: online shops are complicated, research literally every term you dont know and look up youtube videos on everything you suck at. if youre still motivated after being depleted of brain power, then go the fuck for it and all the Moon Crystal Power Make Up to you