#and I finally came up with an idea for one via this method

[telekinetic-electronica]

bendy, "ink demon", and trauma responses

I've recently got back into Bendy. (tbh this shit is never gonna be going away this has been my special interest for 7 years FDKJNDSJKFD) and I did some thinking on him again. It's crazy to me on how... dehumanized Bendy was. While, yes, he's not an actual human, but he's still, y'know a person. He has feelings, he's conscious. He just doesn't have a soul. Which brings me to this post. The Ink Demon has never been called by Bendy. Which, you're all like "well, duh. That's his ink form. His other form is his toon form, just to tell which forms apart." I know that's possible the case. But I do wanna look into this attitude a bit more. When Bendy was first created, Joey literally called Bendy a THING, and for him to lock him away because he wasn't what he wanted. His literal crime was looking scary. So, Thomas Connor and Gent by the request of Joey, locked Bendy away for... God knows how long. Tbh, it's never clear on how Bendy ever acts, but Bendy was probably scared out of his mind. Can you imagine you're finally made and some people are talking. You have no idea what's going on, but this Joey dude says that you're wrong. You came out wrong. You are a mistake. You're suppose to be loveable, silent, and small. But you're not that. You're tall, empowering, posing, and not even a real chance to prove you're not as scary as you look. You aren't even called by your name, nor the title you would gain via your infamy. You are a thing. You are not someone who has emotions or needs, a thing. You are a monster. Now, you're locked away, probably terrified, and calling for help but people around you are too scared of you to help or don't wanna face the wrath of this Joey Drew.

I think Alice said this best back in Chapter 4 of the original game. At the studio, you were in someone's pocket, or someone was in yours. The studio was a disaster pit. Even if not everything happened was "real" or w/e, Joey was still a dickhead to everyone around him. Bendy was no exception. I think Bendy probably learned the best way to survive the studio, and the harsh reality around him was to manipulate. Bendy is a pretty good manipulator, he can get into someone's head, mess with them, and still taunt them. No one is born or created evil. That's a learned method.

In extreme cases of trauma, many people are in survival mode and thinking about themselves to survive, and how they can get by. This is because their safety, wants, and needs weren't being met. Not to mention, Joey and Gent just threw Bendy into the cartoon world, probably to just lock him away forever. Joey locked Bendy up for God knows how long, and now he's in this like- cartoon world version of the studio. He goes from nothing to everything in one fell swoop. This just made Bendy retreat more into himself. It just made his coping mechanism of always having to be on top, always being in control, the one everyone needs to fear. Because, fuck it.

If he's so horrible, if he's so monstrous, if he's so terrible, than he'll just become it. Minus when Bendy meets Audrey in his toon form, Bendy doesn't have anyone. Bendy has never been shown any warmth, kindness, or love in his entire life. The only thing he does know is pain, suffering, coldness, been abandoned, and been made out to be a monster. Which brings me to this - no one has every called the Ink Demon by his real name.

Even when he's technically no longer being locked away, and ruling the cartoon studio, he's still been dehumanized. Or never seen as a fellow victim of the machine and Joey. Everyone has said to BEWARE the Ink Demon, look out for him, and watch your back. The one rule down there was always beware the Ink Demon. Hell, Bendy calls himself the Ink Demon. Bendy has just embraced the title of being seen as this almighty, opposing figure. People either blindly worshipped him or feared him. They never saw him as someone who was unjustly hurt. Unjustly locked away and abandoned. Unjustly painted as a monster because he didn't turn out the way Joey wanted him to be.

You know who has called Bendy by his name? Someone, for the first time, called him by his real name and not some title?

Audrey.

Audrey is the first person to show Bendy any kindness or warmth. While, yes, it was in his toon form. He actually gets treated like a person. Someone who has emotions, and even APOLOGIZED when she, on accident, hurt him. And Hell, dude accepts it! I really hope, going forward, as a way for Bendy to heal when he's in his Ink Demon form, Audrey shows him the same compassion and kindness in that form of his. But she also calls him by his name. Bendy. Not to mention...

The cycles are interesting to me. It could possibly just being a plot thing. But it could be seen as a continuing of generational trauma and toxicity, and Audrey is the one who stops it. Joey clearly has some shit going on. He hates not being in control and wants to be in control of how other people perceive him. So, he turns out destructive towards everyone. Which is... eerily similar to how Bendy treats his own trauma. Bendy and Joey were physically and emotionally destructive to the people around them. It's also kind of sad because Bendy thinks he's in control of the studio. Dude says it's his domain, when Joey was still in control all along.

Bendy is continuing that toxic cycle. Then Wilson comes along and projects his own trauma, and issues. While the cycle stopped, Wilson didn't make it any better, and probably made the cycle for everyone in the studio just worse. By Audrey having the book now, she's putting a stop to the generational trauma via helping out everyone still trapped and helping Bendy out. That's why I've been calling Ink Demon, Bendy.

Because that's his name, after all.

ADD ON-; I just wanna say that Bendy was HARDCORE self projecting on Audrey near the end. I also wanna touch on Bendy and suffering. Bendy was so miserable, and had nobody he just gave into his own suffering, and became the Ink Demon. If he has to suffer, he's going to make everyone else in the studio suffer. He only found any purpose was in harming others. Also, obvious disclaimer this doesn't justify what he does to the people he has hurt. It explains it, doesn't justify it.

It's just downright depressing that he thinks he had no purpose, his existence was a lie, thought of himself as a mistake, and monster. To be frank, I wouldn't be surprised if Joey called Bendy a monster or a mistake. He did call Bendy a THING after all. I really hope Bendy does get to heal and realize his purpose doesn't need to be him suffering and he can have SOME peace.

[racefortheironthrone]

Was the Comics Code as bad as the Hays Code?

That's a really good question!

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "as bad" - are we talking about the overall impact of the Code on American pop culture or are we talking about the actual content of the Code and what it banned and/or mandated in terms of artistic expression?

I've written a little bit about the Hays Code here, but my main focus was on subtextual judaism in Hollywood generally rather than what the Code was and what its impact on American cinema was.

So what did the Hays Code actually include?

One of the few positive things you can say about it is that the men who devised it were quite clear and forthright about what would and wouldn't be allowed, in comparison to the vagueness and inconsistency of the modern MPAA. So here's the list of what couldn't be shown:

Pointed profanity—by either title or lip—this includes the words God, Lord, Jesus, Christ (unless they be used reverently in connection with proper religious ceremonies), Hell, S.O.B., damn, Gawd, and every other profane and vulgar expression however it may be spelled; (You'll notice that the Code is very much a snapshot of the transition from silent movies to "talkies," with the discussion of how profanity is spelled as well as produced via "lip.")

Any licentious or suggestive nudity—in fact or in silhouette; and any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture;

The illegal traffic in drugs;

Any inference of sex perversion; (i.e anything having to do with LGBT+ people and culture. For more on the impact of the Hays Code on the LGBT+ community, see the excellent documentary the Celluloid Closet.)

White slavery; (the 1920s version of sex trafficking, but with added racism!)

Miscegenation;

Sex hygiene and venereal diseases;

Scenes of actual childbirth—in fact or in silhouette;

Children's sex organs;

Ridicule of the clergy;

Willful offense to any nation, race or creed; and (this one was really honored in the breach more than the observance when it came to nations, races, and creeds of non-dominant groups in society.)

The following things could be shown, but "special care be exercised in the manner in which the following subjects are treated, to the end that vulgarity and suggestiveness may be eliminated and that good taste may be emphasized:"

The use of the Flag;

International Relations (avoid picturizing in an unfavorable light another country's religion, history, institutions, prominent people and citizenry); (again, depended a lot on what country you're talking about.)

Arson;

The use of firearms;

Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, et cetera (having in mind the effect which a too-detailed description of these may have upon the moron); (I guess the idea was that the MPPDA believed very strongly in the idea that media could affect people's behavior through imitation, but the use of the word "moron" gives me eugenics vibes.)

Brutality and possible gruesomeness;

Technique of committing murder by whatever method;

Methods of smuggling;

Third-Degree methods; (i.e, torture)

Actual hangings or electrocutions as legal punishment for crime; Sympathy for criminals; (this was a big one; Hollywood had done very well from gangster films, so a lot of creators had to do some careful threading of the needle to keep the genre alive. One dodge that they came up with was that they would have a duplicate "final reel" in which the gangster would have their inevitable comeuppance, and then remove the final reel when the censors had left the theater. Very popular with white rural teens.) Attitude toward public characters and institutions; (again, Hollywood shifting from being anti- to pro-establishment.)

Sedition;

Apparent cruelty to children and animals;

Branding of people or animals;

The sale of women, or of a woman selling her virtue;

Rape or attempted rape;

First-night scenes; (i.e, wedding nights)

Man and woman in bed together; (hence the eventual TV practice of showing married couples in separate beds in the 50s)

Deliberate seduction of girls;

The institution of marriage;

Surgical operations;

The use of drugs;

Titles or scenes having to do with law enforcement or law-enforcing officers;

Excessive or lustful kissing, particularly when one character or the other is a "heavy".

So in general, we can say that the Hays Code was extremely sex-negative, very concerned about crime and anti-establishment thinking, sexist, racist, and homophobic, and in general afraid of offending anybody.

So what about the Comics Code Authority?

So this is what the Comics Code looked like in 1954:

Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals. If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.

Policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.

Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation. In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.

Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gunplay, physical agony, the gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated.

No comic magazine shall use the words "horror" or "terror" in its title.

All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.

All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated. Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.

Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.

Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden.

Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure. Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable.

Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.

Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Rape scenes, as well as sexual abnormalities, are unacceptable.

Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested.

Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.

Nudity with meretricious purpose and salacious postures shall not be permitted in the advertising of any product; clothed figures shall never be presented in such a way as to be offensive or contrary to good taste or morals.[16]

You'll notice the similarities when it comes to the Codes' attitude to sex, sexuality, crime, and symbols of authority - so to answer the first part of your question, I would say the CCA was pretty similar to the Hays Code (in part because Charles F. Murphy, who drew it up, was deeply unoriginal and basically cribbed off the Hays Code throughout).

However, there are also some significant areas of difference that have a lot to do with the unique circumstances of the 1950s moral panic over comics. See, in the 1950s, superhero comics were considered deeply uncool and old hat - they had been huge in the 40s during the war, but by the 50s the biggest genre in comics were horror, crime, and romance comics (with cowboy comics bringing up the rear). To quote myself from another post:

"This gave rise to a moral panic in the 1950s, although more accurately it was part of the larger moral panic over juvenile delinquency. The U.S Senate established a Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee in 1953 to investigate the causes of juvenile delinquency and comics became a major target. While Wertham’s book is best known today for its assertions that Batman and Robin were teaching young boys to be gay and Wonder Woman was teaching young girls to be lesbians, the main focus of the Subcommittee [edit mine: and Wertham's academic work] was on horror and crime comics for their depiction of sex, violence, and “subversive” attitudes to law and order."

The CCA made it impossible to publish two of the most popular genres in the industry for a generation (the CCA relaxed its stance on horror stuff a bit in the 70s, which is why Marvel trend-chased werewolves and vampires the moment they could get away with it), which not only scrambled the medium (and potentially created space for the Silver Age of superhero comics to flourish) but drove the former titan EC Comics practically out of business. (Indeed, William Gaines of EC Comics believed that the CCA had been specifically worded to drive him out of business.)

So in some ways, the CCA was worse.

[sardonic-the-writer]

rant about Gabriel to me I need to understand him

im going to format this like you've never seen the show, just in case you haven't, so if you have just bare with me

gabriel is a bit of an enigma. for the first two and a half episodes he shows up in, he's not even known as gabriel. he's on screen as 'the trickster' and is masquerading as one. (tricksters in spn canon are powerful demigod creatures of myth that can alter reality how they want, normally using their powers to play deadly pranks on malicious humans in ironic ways. i.e mauling someone who tests products on animals via a sewer alligator)

the reason he's doing this as a self proclaimed "witness protection" method is because he's in hiding, pretending to be a trickster to hide from his family; which is heaven since he's the archangel gabriel. surprise surprise. this is revealed in the episode 'changing channels', (season four) which is i believe the best ranked episode on the entire show by the audience and one of my favorites. 'mystery spot' (season three) is another one he stars in (as rhe trickster, not gabriel. we still dont know that), and i think it's the second highest ranked. and 'tall tales' (season two) is the first one he shows up in which is also very highly ranked.

gabriel has a habit of faking his death a lot to escape responsibility, which he does in the episode 'hammer of the gods' (season five [?] i think) after being "stabbed" by lucifer so he doesn't have to really stick around and watch his family (lucifer and michael) fight. but we don't know that it was a fake out for nearly eight seasons. (there is an instance where he shows up again in season nine but that was a fake out and not the real him). in 'hammer of the gods' we also find out that gabriel really had gone all in with his so called witness protection while pretending to be a trickster; so much so that most of the mythological world/pretty much anyone but cas sam and dean knows him as the actual god of tricksters, loki, and not by his true name. later on when he comes back in season thirteen we find out that's because the real loki offered to share the same face with gabriel back when he first came to earth wayyyyyyy long ago to help him out. and when we meet loki later when gabriels trying to kill him for selling him off to one of the princes of hell asmodeus (i'll get into that) it's basically just the actor richard speight jr playing two roles at once. if that makes any sense. one of my favorite episodes, although i think that's just because i hadn't really seen gabriel in months and was over excited. i'll have to see if the hype holds up on my rewatch

but okay, for some backstory on the whole being sold thing, after gabriel faked his death in 'hammer of the gods', he ran off to some island to get in contact with loki and his kids (think fenrir. spn uses real mythological names and bloodlines as side plots sometimes) to go dark again. loki pretends to entertain the idea and let's gabriel play poker with hookers for a few days (gabe has also stared in a porno before and enjoys eating candy even though angels never get hungry. he's fun that way) before betraying him and basically selling him off as a slave to a prince of hell, who locks him away for hundered (thousands maybe?) of years, constantly draining his archangel grace just enough to not leave gabe powerless, but also enough to torture him horribly. it's awful, and all explained in the episode 'unfinished buisness' (season thirteen) which is all about him enacting revenge on loki and the tricksters kids. but the takeaway is that the first time we see gabe after season five, he's a completely different person. almost like a scared animal. if the animal has had its mouth sewn shut by a demon, that is.

anyways, sam and dean and cas help revert him back to his usual self, and he runs away from his problems for a few episodes, before finally confronting them and dying for real this time at the hands of an alertnate world version of his brother michael a few episodes later. the later seasons writing was so fucked up in my opinion, and the way gabriel died was done so wrong, but i think that's because im biased. frowns

my explination of him does no justice. he's a smug, silly, tricky, multi layered, funny son of a bitch that has fuck ass smile where his eyes crinkled at the corner and i. oughhh. i love him. urgh. yeah

[its-sixxers]

Emergency Commissions (with bonus raffle!)

To make a very long story short, I was involved in a car accident one year ago and had my savings obliterated due to replacement parts for my vehicle taking 10 months to arrive and my work requiring me to drive. I thought a couple of months ago when my car was finally repaired I was in the clear, and then my car insurance bill came due and oh boy looks like I might not be making rent for October. I've taken everything but the minimum coverage off my car and am looking into selling my car and getting something older/cheaper but that takes time and bills are now.

So you, my beloved Tumblr, are getting a deal in hopes I can scratch up some scratch quickly here! I am offering the following commissions:

FAN ART GRAB BAG - $15 USD

Give me a character and I'll draw them. Suggestions for posing are welcome, the more options for me to pick from the merrier! Multiple characters multiply the price by # of characters.

CHARACTER ART - $35 USD

Do you have an OC you want drawn? I can do that! Give me references and an idea of what you'd like with them and hey presto I will give you an art.

BONUS RAFFLE

In appreciation every person who gets a commission will be entered into a raffle which will be drawn on November 5. The winner of the raffle will get a free commission of any type with a limit of 2 characters. Each commission counts as one entry, so if you get a couple done you get two entries!

Technical stuff:

Prices are in USD. Please contact me via email at spaceturra@gmail.com as it's much easier to keep track of everything that way than our beloved/beloathed tumblr messenger. I use PayPal invoicing - you don't need a paypal account, just an email I can send it to for you to choose your payment method of choice.

All commissions will be a colored sketch that are at least waist up - unless a preference for portrait (shoulders up) is specified. Unlike my usual commission method I will not be offering revisions or tweaks as time is of the essence (unless I miss something in the references given) - you will receive a final piece to do with as you please. Prices are based on time taken - fan art pieces will be rougher than character art pieces.

This deal will run until the end of October, but as I am also working my regular job getting all of the pieces done might run into November. I might end things earlier if I get enough commissions in to cover my shortfall so everyone can get some art in a timely fashion.

I will not draw:

Sexual content / waist down nudity

Overly detailed designs (mecha, complex tattoos - if curious ask!)

Thank you all, and stay safe out there!

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Ok so I’ve been thinking about this for much of today and I think I’ve connected some dots about the beers - especially the ones in Bucks fridge!!! 

@mistmarauder​ made this post which along with the comments from @yramesoruniverse​ helped me connect these dots!!

ok so the beers in Eddie fridge are all ‘genuine’ - we’ve seen these beers at play all season.

The beers in Bucks fridge are all different - there are 3 different sorts and they are all arranged in a very specific order.

there is the two brown bottles with the yellow and red labels - hidden behind a box of baking soda (a weird thing to have in that location in the fridge unless it has a purpose), 3 light green bottles lined up neatly and then another brown bottle but with different labelling to the first.

So my current working theory is that the first bottles relates to Connor - that it is a draft beer (hence the brown bottle) and it ties in with the baking soda in front of it. My working theory is that the brown bottles of draft beer relate to men and the green bottles relate to women in Bucks life.

So the baking soda is a reference to Kameron and the fact that she is currently pregnant. I have a lot of thoughts on this as a possible analogy - baking soda is used to make ‘quick’ bread - along side yeast (sometimes instead of) and when used in bread making baking soda means you can put the dough straight into the oven rather than having to wait - because the baking soda causes a chemical reaction that allows this. The reason I think this is all connected to C&K is the fact that Kameron got pregnant quickly via Bucks donation - rather than the more time consuming method that C&K had been doing to get pregnant (before they discovered that Connor was infertile). So the baking soda is a metaphor for Kameron and her pregnancy and the bottles of beer behind it a metaphor for Connor ‘feeling’ pushed to the back, but also the second one possibly being a hint at a possible previous relationship that Buck had with Connor 👀. (Edit; I know that baking soda is used to deodorise fridges - but not in the way its been used here - you need a bigger surface area for it to do that successfully, so a closed up box won’t do the job! plus its not the thing you put right at the front and in front of your beer so you keep having to move it - that placement is deliberate and has nothing to do with deodorising!)

Then there is the 3 green bottles all lined up neatly - they’re all the same, they’re light and might possibly be lager or pale ale and I think they represent Buck 3 ex girlfriends. The metaphor works either way - if they’re pale ales  (think play on words) then they represent those relationships paling in relation to what real love is. If lager then they’re fizzy and nice, but not as satisfying as ‘genuine’ beer. Either way its saying that Bucks 3 previous relationships were lightweight and not the real thing.

Then there is the final bottle - this one is the doozy because I can actually see the label, firstly its a draft beer - different that the others and draft beers are considered ore rounded and fulfilling that lager or pale ales (the UK has a whole organisation dedicated to the promotion of draft or ‘real’ beer and ale - its called CAMRA) . So the suggestion is immediately that this beer is the one that will fulfil Buck the most - its the one thats real. Its also the last beer in the beer collection - all the others came before, but this one is the last!

After the play on words in the yellow card from the coma dream I am very much on the look out for plays on words in the 911verse now!! Back to the beer - its a bottle of draft - the label says ‘Meichtry draft’ - and the ‘h’ looks very b like ans the play on words reads ‘maybe try’ draft - a very loud play on the idea of trying something different - I wonder what that different could possibly be?!

[blueisquitetired]

Ages ago back when Legends Arceus first came out, I toyed with the idea of completing a shiny dex. (Replacing every dex picture with its shiny counterpart) I got halfway through before massive mass outbreak hunting kinda killed my motivation. But! With Eevee week in Violet finally letting me complete the entire shiny eevee family, I regained some of that former vigor and have decided to give it another go!

I won’t spam you with updates since this is first and foremost an art/writing blog, but since I mostly do submas stuff I thought some of you might be mildly interested lol.

My two rules for myself are-

1: Transferring from other games is both allowed and encouraged. Shiny hunting distortion spawns is an exercise in misery and I will not participate in its madness. Those bad boys are getting Mesuda methoded

2: I’m not doing legendaries or mythicals. While I DO have the resources to do most of them, I find legendary hunts boring and uninteresting. (It’s mostly loading screens) And they’re long!! I could maybe do it if I only had to do one… but 10ish is far far too many (especially since I’d have to replay through bdsp TWICE to even START some hunts) Hunting all the legendaries would take up most of the time if I let it

Anyway, I’ll only post about my progress every so often (less then once a week lol) but if you want to block them completely I’ll be using the tag #blue’s shiny hunting adventures

All that being said- I’m currently at about 123/224!

(Extra info under readmore for those curious)

Here’s my current list! There’s probably some errors in there (as well as spelling mistakes but everything is highlighted in red so I’ll never know what’s ACTUALLY spelled wrong) but this is fine for now lol

Shinies I’ve transferred from other games so far include:

- a shiny patcharisu that I caught in bdsp via radar

- a shiny magikarp and garados I caught in a new years event in sword AGES ago

- a shiny sneasel (+weavile dex entry) that I hunted in violet named Lady Baby

- a shiny bergmite who I hunted in Violet named Akari (who I did NOT evolve so I’ll need a new one anyway)

- a shiny umbreon and espeon who I painstakingly hatched with perfect IVS in Violet

- a shiny vaporeon who I spent AGES hunting in Violet

- a shiny flareon and glaceon who I accidentally ran into ten seconds apart from each other when I wandered into their mass outbreak in Violet

- a shiny jolteon and leafeon who I casually hunted for and found later that day in Violet

- a shiny abamasnow, rufflet (+braviary dex entry), snorunt (+frostless dex entry), toxicroak, and golduck I found randomly while playing Violet

Since starting this challenge yesterday I have found a shiny starly, chatot, remoraid (+octillery dex entry), and tangela!

I also currently am at 32 perfect dex entries and will hopefully have more by the end of this lol

And, of course, here’s my current shinies physically in Legends Arceus!

[zahri-melitor]

Hi! How and when did you get into DC comics?

Well my original entry to DC was that I was a fan of Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman when I was a kid and it was originally showing. This actually was a decent entrypoint to the DC mythos, as it's famous for having probably the best TV-comics synergy of all time: the Death of Superman was written to have a plot running while Lois & Clark built up to the wedding, so they could do simultaneous weddings in the comics and the show.

It worked out pretty well for DC.

But DC Comics, as comic books? Well somewhere around 2006 or so I'd transitioned into reading some fic for Lois & Clark, as a change. I then moved on to stories about Bruce/Selina (which I had a reasonable amount of background for from the Burton & Schumacher movies), and ended up in the scans_daily scene on LJ. This was the heyday of scans_daily, when you could pretty reasonably follow along a lot of major comics via the 1/3 posting rule; you didn't get everything, but that plus the summary got you across events pretty well.

I'd liked Barbara Gordon as a little girl, watching the movies. It was at this point I discovered Oracle.

The first comics graphic novel I ever purchased was Birds of Prey: Perfect Pitch. I've still got it. I ended up reading a bunch of runs recommended via content I liked on scans_daily: Birds of Prey, Robin, No Man's Land, Nightwing, Batgirl 2000, Blue Beetle, and Young Justice. A couple of these I was buying trades for (BoP and Blue Beetle); the rest I was reading via ye olde torrent packets. I was also reading and collecting a bunch of Vertigo titles: The Sandman, Fables, Y: the Last Man, and one or two Marvel titles (Runaways and Power Pack).

I dropped out of DC fandom, like so many others, around 2010-2011. It was actually prior to n52 in my case: I wasn't enjoying Batman Reborn, they'd cancelled my two favourite books (Birds of Prey and Blue Beetle), but the last straw was probably when they murdered Lian Harper.

I noped out. And it was a pretty good call on my part, given that n52 was barrelling down anyway.

I was still occasionally dipping in to read fic, mostly about characters I particularly cared about, but every time I took a breath and paid attention to gossip about what was currently happening in comics, it was mostly terrible news (Lian was still dead; people told me Roy's personality had been obliterated; Barbara was Batgirl and magically healed; the universe resets sucked and everyone hated them; Jason was somehow still alive; everyone was mad about something that had happened to Dick; etc etc)

It was during 2022, when I don't even know how I came across it, but I discovered that DC had finally reprinted Young Justice in trade. This was huge; collections had refused to do this during the 2000s aside from a trade of Sins of Youth back when it came out. There was a general attitude that the group of largely younger and largely female fans weren't worth catering to. The fact that DC now saw us as a lucrative market suggested to me that my contemporaries were finally getting their chance to start running the asylum.

So I dipped back into the community. It was a little hard at first, because hubs had changed, and locating fans who liked the things I personally liked took a little while. But I got back into the fandom, and got back into the fic, and discovered that back in about 2017 there'd been a revival to start reprinting a lot of my favourite comics runs, and that DCUI was the best way to read comics these days, and I could get access to it in Australia.

And because DCUI was just so much better than the methods of reading comics I'd been dealing with 15 years previously, and I'd had an idea for a story I wanted to write, I started a canon read through review, starting all the way back in ALPOD with Tim's earliest comics.

And here I am. I often have older opinions on things simply because I remember being in these debates 15+ years ago, and then I missed the intervening period, so my opinions never updated or heard the changed details (or are only slowly doing so now). I'm a preboot girl at heart because that's where I fell in love with various characters. I, like every other Batfan with a similar history to mine (and there are a lot of us) went through that moment of sheer bemusement over the Tim & Jason tag at AO3 as my most prominent memory of their relationship was Tim kicking Jason in the nuts.

And I've bought a lot of trades ever since getting back into the fandom, because I can't lose access to them AND they're just so far superior for collection purposes than floppies.

[psychosomaticdeicide]

In storytelling, there are certain mediums for stories that logistically will not work as anything else. This isn't just about adapting a story that currently exists, but what has yet to exist in the first place. Or does exist but fits strangely in its current form.

Here's an anecdote:

The one time I managed to show up for a meeting of my local writing group, I had no idea how it worked. This was a perpetual “sign up for this slot and share for criticism!” and I could not have any thoughts on the stories that had been written and shared via email. I had to experience them as read by the writer while sitting around a table.

The man running the group that week—a small-time published author—had notes and corrections written into the document of one of the people sharing. He shared with me because I had no reference for the stories being told that week. This made it incredibly challenging for me to distinguish what I was meant to be reading (or what the original work even looked like) before the person began sharing.

This gentleman in his sixties had quite a few things technically incorrect in the writing itself, I learned as I tried to follow along with the published author's notes.

However, if I stopped reading and listened, there was nothing wrong with it. He was telling a story the way stories are told. The grammatical issues and strange turns of phrase were not present in a verbal telling of his story; they were punctuations of breaths and emphasis and just the way he spoke. He was fully in his element as he read, and I wondered briefly if that would make up for the issues of “craft” as the published author had later put it.

And to this author, who believed in craft over all else, that was not enough.

I found that the gentleman's storytelling style didn't match the medium that we were "meant" to be using. The group is specified in its name to be a “writers’ group” and not a “storytellers’ group.” This means that the medium is a large part of the evaluation of the work—all of it is meant to be read as text.

As we know, a novel is different from an interactive visual novel, which may have some differences compared to text-only interactive fiction, which is different from most types of video games and their various storytelling methods, which is different from the stories a grandmother tells her grandchildren about the country she came from.

And then, of course, there are stories with timelines moving in parallel and epistolary novels and countless structures within these mediums to choose from.

But given the choice to expand your horizons and create a story in another medium, what would make the most sense?

For half my life, I’ve focused solely on linear narratives to be read rather than told, edited to neurotic degrees of what I considered “perfection” (or oftentimes, "Good enough!” and posted blindly with my eyes half-covered) at whatever time I had decided the story was complete. Now, given the tools of Twine and RPG Maker, I have more options than just a standard narrative.

At the same time, I find myself apprehensive about taking a step forward in using either of these for a project. Theoretically, I know how these stories are told. I've gone through several stories (and demos) made with Twine. I've seen environmental storytelling built through settings, item descriptions, and in-universe texts in various RPG Maker games.

In the novel Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, we get to explore Gideon's world because she's reminiscing in the final moments before her attempt to leave all she has ever known. And then, the plot kicks in.

In the interactive fiction piece Hornets by Kitty Horrorshow, we explore the remnants of an insect-based apocalypse in the shoes of the person who caused it. We are given comparisons of what this world was like before the destruction while bearing witness to all that came after.

In the RPG Maker game Symbiosis by Spicaze, you first read the description of a situation that feels familiar, and have it changed in such a way that a stock character from a fairytale becomes a compelling protagonist. She is a witch, she lives alone in the woods, but she has a child she cares deeply for and someone has broken into her home. The beginning of the game, however, has you in the shoes of another character. It sets up stakes very nicely while exposing the things this witch doesn't want outsiders to see.

[archiviogabrielebelloni]

ENG

Drafted Again (The Invisible Cities) I 2023 I Mixed media on paper, photography and digital retouch I 280x590cm

---

The idea for Drafted Again (The Invisible Cities) came from the re-reading of the homonymous manuscript written by Italo Calvino, now used as a starting ground for a meditation upon the structuralist (philosophycal) method and its possible applications to pictorial syntax.

The work is a dummy-model, a photographic collage of shots of urban everyday life, recorded during long walks in the labyrinthine historic neighborhoods of some Sardinian towns; glimpses of streets traveled distractedly and anonymously, while disinterested and dreaming, looking at the sky. The photos, in fact, taken from the bottom-up, do not investigate the present surroundings but, instead, insist on what has been there and what will be of that same architectural limbo. These images, subsequently selected and post-produced so that their chromatic and topographical character got completely deleted, were then fused and connected, glued and painted, superimposed and torn, semi-arbitrarily, onto a paper surface in order to conceal something that one can associate to the view of a map of a contingent, plausible city; a mixture of all and none, lived and never visited, familiar and foggy: invisible.

There are many pictorial and conceptual layers beneath: first of all, the performative one - the promenades through the historic districts of Sardinia and the repetitive and compulsive shooting made at every intersection or plain street encountered and the consequent, particularly difficult, staging of the work, remembrance of a shamanic, mnemonic dance, carried out in the hope of being able to reassemble, through hypnagogic shocks, the vague memory of those once visited barrios; the other layer is conceptual: photographs and practical operations overlap in a Platonic mimesis, manifesting through anatomical images the processes of memory; and finally, the last layer, the practical one - each material is meticulously arranged in a precise position, covering and hiding, accentuating and enhancing the plastic and icastic values ​​of the compositional foundations of the work.

ITA

Drafted Again (Le Città Invisibili) I 2023 I Media misti su tela e carta, fotografie e ritocco digitali I 280x590cm

---

L'opera Drafted Again (Le Città Invisibili) nasce dalla rilettura dell'ononimo manoscritto di Italo Calvino, ora utilizzato come spunto di riflessione sull'analisi strutturalista e sulla sua eventuale applicazione alla sintassi pittorica.

L'opera è un menabò, un collage fotografico di scatti di quotidiano urbano registrati durante le lunghe camminate presso i labirintici quartieri storici di alcune località sarde; squarci di strade percorse distrattamente e anonimamente, disinteressati e sognanti, guardando il cielo. Le foto, infatti, scattate alla volta ciana, non indagano sul presente, ma su quello che c'è stato e su quel che sarà di quello stesso limbo architettonico. Queste, successivamente selezionate e post-prodotte affinché ne venisse completamente annullata la cifra cromatica e topografica, sono state poi fuse e collegate, incollate e dipinte, sovrapposte e strappate, semi-arbitrariamente, sopra una superficie cartacea in modo da dissimulare, alla visione, quella che può ricordare la mappa di una città contingente, plausibile, miscuglio di tutte e di nessuna, vissuta e mai visitata: invisibile.

L'opera funziona attraverso stratificazioni e strutturazioni pittoriche e concettuali: prima di tutto performative - le promenades presso i quartieri storici della Sardegna e il ripetitivo e compulsivo scatto presso ogni incrocio e via incontrata e l'allestimento dell'opera conseguente, particolarmente difficoltoso, rimembranza di una danza sciamanica, mnemonica, svolta nella speranza di poter riassemblare, tramite scosse ipnagogiche, il vago ricordo di quei rioni; concettuali: le fotografie e le operazioni pratiche si sovrappongono, in una mimesi platonica, manifestando per immagini anatomiche quelli che sono i processi della memoria; e infine pratiche - ogni materiale viene meticolosamente predisposto in una precisa posizione, coprendo e nascondendo, accentuando e valorizzando, i valori plastici e icastici delle fondamenta compositive dell'opera.

[myrrhmaidwrites]

Sunstruck Writing Wrap-Up

I think I’m going to start posting writing wrap ups here for my own benefit. Writing about writing is supposed to make you better at it, or something.

This fic was not only my longest ever, but it also ended up spanning 12 google docs, 6 Word files, 8 pages in Notion, and 100+ DMs. If you think my writing process could use some improved organization, well, you’re right.

Originally, Sunstruck was about Trevor writing the book. He had finished it, and the book was in some ways a love letter to Jamie, and a lot of their conversations revolved around what was in the book. (Have you read The Next Next One? Yeah.)

Anyway, that didn’t end up happening. Somewhere along the way I switched the story to Jamie’s POV and moved away from the book idea. I just couldn’t get it to fit. I don’t think I’ll write a sequel to this, but if I did, it would be Trevor POV and it would be about the book.

Now I’m going to talk a little about the writing process for this fic.

16k words isn’t that many for a lot of people. For me, it’s the longest thing I’ve ever written, and I think that deserves some note. Woo! May there be longer fics to come. Also I genuinely have no idea how people write novels, haha. Practice, I suppose.

Shortly before I started this fic, I did some reading about various approaches to the editing process. The method I ended up using, which worked well for me, was to basically just get some words down for the first draft (“shitty first draft), and then rewrite the whole draft based on that. This worked well for me because I was able to get the pure words down pretty well via writing sprints and typing on my phone in bed before I went to sleep.

Then came the rewriting. I took one scene, slapped it in a column on Notion, and used it as a guide to write a new version of that scene. No copy+paste allowed, but I could rewrite the original words if I did want to keep them. I almost never kept them exactly. The second version of scenes were almost always better than the first.

During this period is when the story feels most like a confusing mess that I have to muddle through. I have scenes missing that I don’t know I need, I have to rearrange things and delete things and realize that something I wrote won’t work anymore because I changed something earlier. I’m constantly re-outlining, adding notes to scenes, writing new bits and deleting them, etc.

To give you an idea of some of the things I changed in this stage, in an earlier version of the fic, Jamie said something really heartfelt for Trevor’s video and they cut most of it out for the public video. Trevor only sees it after the Ducks staff send him the full video, and their reunion/get together scene happens at home the day after the ceremony.

At another point, I really wanted to have that long distance/breakup/dark night of the soul moment that would require a big gesture from Jamie (flying across the country for Trevor or similar). In the end, I couldn’t get it to work, so we have the condensed crisis that starts during the sex scene. I’m not mad about that change, but I do sometimes wonder if I could have made that scene hit harder if the separation/downturn had been worse.

Anyway, after getting through this horrible muddled mess, there’s a third re-writing, where I have the scenes mostly in order and I go through and rewrite everything from beginning to end for a third time. This time around, there’s a lot more that stays the same. What’s nice about the earlier stages is that when I write something I don’t like so much, I don’t have to worry about it at the moment because there’s an incredibly low chance it’ll make it to the final fic.

After the third rewriting is when I like to loop in my beta reader. I usually try to have a couple of specific questions for them as they read. I think technically this is called alpha reading (and beta reading is just for spelling/grammar), but if I’m honest, I need this kind of help more.

Then I go about incorporating changes from my beta reader, which usually involves a major overhaul of 1-2 scenes, almost always the finale and another scene in the second half of the fic.

After that, I go through and re-read the fic in order and look for places where I need to make major additions. This typically includes descriptions of emotions or settings and additions to dialogue where characters get to the point of what they’re trying to say far more quickly than is realistic.

Finally, in the last couple of days before posting, I look at sentence structure and word choice. I tend to use the same sentence structures over and over in my writing as well as certain words. In this phase, I try to mix it up as much more and make the sentences and words sound interesting.

In the “adding” and “sentence structure” phases of this fic, I added about 5k words. Yep, the fic was only about 11.5k words before this. That means the fic my beta reader read, while kind of close to the finished version, is also hugely different from the fic up on ao3. It’s kind of crazy to think about.

Finally, I do one last read for typos, and the fic goes up.

There’s one thing about this fic experience (and others I’ve had) that I haven’t really gotten to talk about yet, though.

This fic was part of a big bang, and as a part of that, I worked with a hard deadline, and I also had an artist relying on me to be finished so we could post at the same time. Last year, I participated in an exchange that had a similar type of deadline.

Both times, I’ve had horrible insomnia for ~3 weeks leading up to the deadline. We’re talking 3+ weeks of not sleeping, sleeping extremely poorly, or not sleeping without pills. (And I’m talking sedatives here, not melatonin. God, I wish melatonin did something useful for me.)

It didn’t matter that I could have pushed the deadline back. It didn’t matter that I could have just dropped out. It didn’t matter that I was actually quite on top of this fic and not particularly concerned about finishing on time. My brain was not interested in sleeping.

Luckily, I got through it. Most of this week after posting the fic I slept just fine. But it does make me think about whether doing something like this is useful for me, or sustainable in the long run. I really love the community aspect of writing fic. I doubt that without doing a bigbang that my fics would have art made for them. I doubt I would have produced such a long fic so quickly without a deadline.

Maybe these are just things that I need to accept about myself. If I don’t want to cause myself weeks of insomnia (and I don’t because it fucking sucks), maybe I need to just accept that. Really what I need to do is probably talk to my therapist about this, but it’s hard.

Does this happen to anyone else? Just me? Okay.

To end this on a less depressing note, one final observation I want to mention is that after I choose one fic to concentrate on, my ideas for other fics tend to slow down, and then once that idea is close to wrapping, they tend to speed up again. Now I’m stuck in the middle of 4-5 fic ideas and I want to write all of them. Of course I don’t have the time, and I’m sure I’ll end up concentrating on just one or two eventually. But for now I have like five different gdocs that I want to keep open at all times. It makes me wish I didn’t have a job so I could just write. (Plus my two anons that I owe fics to…oops!)

If you read this far, thank you. Sometimes it’s nice to hear whispers in the void when you know you should expect silence.

[blossomingbellflower]

❛  do you have any room for some company? ❜ it's not often either of them find themselves so available like this, free of the presence from those who look up to them, only company being another's soul and the littering of pen and paper around them ---- but today it seems .... both the detective and his company have time to spare for themselves rather than giving to the world around them. it's enough to make aiji smile, of course, something free in comparison to the strain that his hands bring after a day of writing or the becoming the centre of familiar antics and thus does he find himself letting out a sigh of relief as he leans against the edge of her desk, amusement the forefront of pupils as he dons the experience to take a look at her own personal work instead.

❛  most people would find it rather concerning to ask so late, but ... ❜ a hum, thoughtful, before aiji twists, full attention given despite the way his chest faces away. ❛  i would prefer someone to chat to. tonight out of all nights at least. ❜

CollarXMalice AU|| @dangaer​

“Hm? Oh sure. Go ahead..this is your office.”, she replied absentmindedly, barely hearing and processing what he had asked. Earthen browns skimmed the file in front of her before pausing, what he said finally sinking in.

In the short time that she has been acquainted with Aiiji, things have been exceedingly busy; leaving little room for conversation for anything more than work. Whether it was on purpose or not, it did not matter. Their work came first and solving the murders were top priority.. That and removing the collar around her neck. Kikyou resented the idea of having no control and being pushed into a situation where she was almost helpless. The collar also did not afford her any privacy, seeing as it appeared capable of listening in via its random interjections. Needless to say, it made investigations difficult. It was both helpful and unhelpful, infuriating in its nature.

She wondered whether the reason she had been targeted was because by her unorthodox methods, Kikyou would have brought their perverse game to an end far too quickly for their liken. Whatever  it may be, Kikyou had no intention of allowing them to continue their string of murders of corrupted cops and others. Those people did not deserve to die in such a manner..To her, the lives of the people mattered more than her own outcome. Kikyou did not fear death.

Glancing down at the massive files strewn on her desk, she closed the one in front of her and looked up at him. Dark orbs studied the man, noting his body language and even examining the aura he gave out.

Leaning back in her chair and went to rub her neck, only for her fingers to encounter the cold steel against her flesh. A sigh tumbled out and she nodded. “I could use a break.“ Taking a moment to stand, Kikyou stretched her supple body back and forward, trying to get rid of the stiffness that came with hours of combing through paperwork.

“This is the first time I believe, we will be speaking to each other without the others around.” Kikyou said this and paused, making sure Okazaki was not around. Unable to detect his familiar aura, she continued. “You have my attention and my company. While I do not mind offering it, I am curious as to why this particular night? Is it simply because the others are not around?”

[gd4abditive]

During the break: Mask progress - Air dry clay

First attempt at the inner mask. I knew this wouldn't be the final so I did not add much design elements to this. I just wanted to see if my idea would work.

This mask was made with air-dry clay. To get the shape I layered it over a paper mask I got from the art store wrapped in tin foil (so the clay doesn't stick to the mask).

I ran into 2 problems in the sculpting process:

The wrinkles from the tin foil showed up on the inside and could not sand them out

When the clay dried, parts added on starting cracking at the seams

Despite the issues I decided to move on and try painting it with glossy spray paint for an even coat. Another problem I had was that I was trying to spray paint it in cold temperatures, which affected the drying. It was taking much longer to dry and the spray paint wasn't properly sticking to the clay. for my next attempt I would need to use a clay that is already coloured black.

I purposely broke the mask into pieces (taking out some of my frustrations on it) so put back together via the Kintsugi method. I found a Kintsugi kit online which I realised uses resin as the glue. This got me thinking about maybe using resin in the project.

The kit came with gold mica powder (a fine pigment powder used for adding colour to things) but since I wanted the cracks to be white, I got a couple pearlescent colours. The one I used for this was one that looks white on lighter surfaces and gold on black. I was hoping the lightness of the clay in the cracks would make it look more light with some gold.

The kit also came with epoxy resin extruder, where you push out equal parts resin and hardener. What you're suppose to do is mix the 2 parts in a disposable plate, add the mica powder and brush on the mixture into the cracks to glue them together. I ran into a couple problems during this process as well:

The resin dries REALLY fast, so you need to make tiny batches for each crack section

The extruder would sometimes push out non-equal parts of resin/hardener so the glue would not work right

The epoxy glue would stick to my gloves and I sometimes got it onto the face of the mask instead of cracks, messing up the paint even further

I didn't mix in enough mica sometimes and the resin glue would be too translucent

The last step after the initial drying is to brush some more mica onto the cracks. I decided to just to do this on the inside so I can compare before and after brushing it on. I also used a silvery powder instead to see if I can make it look more 'white'.

This was.... an attempt. Some things I want to try or change for next time:

Use a black clay, maybe a non air-dry one like sculpey

Maybe use a shiny white mica powder instead of the colour changing ones

Look into using resin?

[superconductivebean]

oh boi, i left twittor a good year or two ago but the drama calls and i will answer

freewld2's friends in the replies: Tamayula lied because we said so!

Tamayula provides detailed explanations, shows video comparison, may very well post step-by-steps if necessary, and expresses their concern about that the poll's results can easily be thwarted because you don't trust in twitter polls, and rightfully so you don't.

Besides, what's that method even about?

You define plagiarism by, uh, mass voting and not by evidence?

Poll -- is a stupid idea overall but it becomes an utter shite on twitter.

Twitter by-design is a website that prioritise cheap engagement over civil conversation and investigation. That means, if you're not a research group using an account for outreach, you'll eventually notice people are spreading something because it made them feel angry or agitated, anxious or delulu. There is rarely other intent than to spread a feeling across the dash, hence the doomscrolling, for example.

See where am I going with this? freewld2's followers have a bias because they don't like Tamayula personally because on an emotional level, they're connected to freewld2's frustration. Their judgement is clouded, and because you can't expect a 800+ follower account to have everyone thoroughly informed…

freewld2's followers don't give a dime about neither the base of plagiarism allegations, nor they care about what plagiarism is. Send tweet.

They're negatively engaging with a frustration. 'Sides, as Tamayula's mentioned, switching between accounts, regardless of whether people would ever use that or not, is a valid concern; if a poll is something you want to use for the base of your final argument or for the conclusion, a possibility like this must be eliminated. Or made completely and utterly implausible.

That all renders twitter a very unsuitable place for anything serious -- unless, to take matters seriously is a staple. Send tweet.

You don't create just-polls and on twitter, these are redundant for the aforementioned reason. You make google polls instead and require a e-mail to sign up for a vote. Prior to that poll, gather evidence and in an ostentatious twitter fashion, place them in a thread -- or even better, create a google doc! That poll, however, wouldn't be a piece of evidence or a conclusion -- it'd be a community divider of some kind.

Meaning, why even bother to make an one.

If you have evidence cast in steel, you don't need polls to prove you're right and they're wrong. Plagiarism allegations isn't a debate of taste, like the pineapple pizza, or of visual perception, the the dress.

A research shared via google doc will also be accessible. People wouldn't be facing a wall when they'd go see for themselves:

--Screencap made at around 6:53AM, GMT+3 timezone.

---P.S.: Some people genuinely believe in if two different people came up with similar ideas, or took inspiration from the same source, or draw in similarly-looking styles, they're not coinciding. They believe, these two people are nefarious and are certainly stealing from each other -- even though you can't steal ideas and intents.

---P.S.S.: Does Tamayula sound one-sided? Yes, obviously, they're not a quiet fandom observer. Based on what I'd seen from the reply crowd, I'd like to ask them some of the mentioned questions myself, such as the necessity of the poll, -- but.

These claims are placed close to guru-following accusations. Keep you ad hominems sheathed, crowd.

Plagiarism allegations currently levelled against me and evidence of my innocence

I'm sorry for posting so many times on this hard topic. But yesterday @freewld (https://www.tumblr.com/freewld) asked me, "You reversed, traced and plagiarised my drawing, didn't you?" I received a DM saying. After discussion, I was given permission to publish a verified image of me and her drawing by overlapping them. Below is her art, all of which I have permission to publish.

The picture on the left is my illustration that is allegedly being used in this case. And the picture on the right is the one she claims was plagiarised by me.

She says: " When my drawing is inverted, angled and overlapped, there are a number of places where the lines overlap. I believe you must have traced my drawing because there are too many places where the lines match for it to be a coincidence".

See the verified image she created by overlapping our drawings on her Twitter feed. (another)

To be fair, I also made a verification image and video.

When two pictures are overlapped with respect to the line of Seb's right eyelash.

When two pictures are superimposed on the basis of the lines on both cheeks of Seb.

I draw every time using the screenshots I have taken of Sebastian as a reference, and probably she does too. I would argue that if I draw a picture with reference to a 3D model of the same 'Sebastian Sallow' character, it is only natural that the two pictures should be similar. If one tries to express his individuality - the distance between his eyes and eyebrows, the length of his nose and philtrum - in a drawing, it is natural that some of the lines will overlap.

In the first place, to claim 'plagiarism by tracing', most of the lines need to match, but there are not many places where the lines of the two pictures overlap completely. It is my contention that this cannot be evidence of 'plagiarism by tracing'.

I believe I have proven my innocence to the world with these two superimposed verified images and videos.

However, @freewld is using Twitter's survey feature to solicit third-party impartial opinions on the allegations.

This is the current voting result.

Incredibly, the majority of votes went to 'I think Tamayula plagiarised'.

However, using Twitter's survey function to solicit these views is wrong.

Twitter allows a single person to create as many accounts as they want, as long as they have an email address. (I currently have eight Twitter accounts myself.) And as we all know, email addresses can be created quickly and easily in any number of accounts. So, in effect, one person can vote as many times as they want.

And I've only been back on Twitter for about a week and have only about 200 followers. In contrast, @freewld has been running her account for 10 months since March 2023 and has more than three times as many followers as me. It is a voting system that overwhelmingly favours her.

With such a voting system, there is no way she can prove that I have plagiarised. It remains to be seen what the outcome of this poll will be, but even if the result is more votes for 'I think Tamayula plagiarised', I will continue to maintain my innocence and I will not apologise to her.

Finally. I have tried to be as honest as possible over the past few days and have continued to assert my legitimacy in Japanese HL fandom, but it is no longer possible for me to deal with this matter any more. I feel ridiculous about everything now. I hope everyone can understand my disappointment a little.

Thank you so much for reading this long sentence so far. I am taking a short break for just a few moments.

[talkingtothetallman]

What the Fob?

Okay.

I know this title is incredibly misleading, cavalier to a degree. Please know that it is only a pun. Know that I use it in full humor and jest, not in any way that is intended to be offensive; it is said in pure irony. So, why "What the Fob?" Well, allow me to introduce the theme of my day: The key fob.

Nifty little things really. Just press a button - unlock. Press another - lock. Yet another - open the trunk. The list can go on depending on the car, but regardless, it is certainly a convenience to have!

That is, unless it doesn't work. That's where our story starts today dear friends.

Our UPS trucks have a key fob designed with body longevity in mind. The idea is that rather than turning a key in the ignition switch two or three hundred times in a day (and thus putting wear and tear on your wrist), our trucks have a key fob that hangs from our belt strap that, with a push of a button, does a few things - one tap arms the truck's start switch, one press-and-hold opens the bulkhead door to go inside via the cab, and two clicks unlocks the back roll-up door. Pretty nifty. Makes it a heck of a lot easier to have to deal with jingly keys all day; just the press of a button!

I got to the building this morning knowing we'd all have big dispatches due to staffing issues (a whole other can of worms), but my planned day was honestly terrible, the worst in the center. I was going to areas that I wasn't supposed to, I was up on stops and miles, and was semi bulky. I knew I'd be fine, I told Perry that. I went into my truck to work on sorting my first 20 stops or so and help my loader get all tidied up so that he could go home sooner and I could get on road to start my day. Well, everything was all put away and went to pull my truck out of my parking spot. I grabbed my little key ring containing my spare ignition key, bulkhead door key, and key fob, clipped it to my belt loop, and clicked the button to arm the start switch.

Nothing. No red and green lights. Hmm... I tried again. Still nothing.

Assuming the battery was dead, I went to the little back box located above the jump-seat to grab my spare fob and tried it; nothing. Drat! I hopped down the steps and went to find one of my bosses. Jake sprung up to help and surveyed the situation. Upon trying it for himself he said, "Go do your walk-around and I'll find a new battery." So, using the ignition key, I drove my package car to the yard and did my pre-trip. Once done, I went to find Jake. We swapped out the battery, but still nothing. After fiddling with both the fobs for 20 minutes, he passes the keys to me and says, "Looks like you're going old-school today."

And thus my day began. Heaviest day in the building, leaving late, and using a slower method that I wasn't used to. Fan-tastic. A few stops go by, and I decide out of pure curiosity to try the fob again.

It worked. The freaking thing worked.

For like one delivery. Then it stopped. Oh, but then it starting working again. And this time it kept working for a solid 50 stops or so, aaaaaaand then it stopped again. It was the darnedest thing. It was so inconsistent in when it would function correctly. But finally, it ceased entirely. I cut my losses and continued my day, working towards my pickup string. Praise the Lord I was able to open the back of my truck for my pickups, because my dear old buddy Ben had plenty for me today and it would have been awful to try to take the 60-odd packages through the front of my truck.

But I digress, I dropped my air at the building and had 41 stops to go, a solid 20 more than usual. One of the kickers of my day that I said earlier was having extra miles. Those came from having eight stops in an area that I never have, and especially not in a big truck like mine if I can help it. It's doable, sure. But it's more difficult in a bigger truck. So when I spotted a smaller truck at the building to do those stops in, I figured it would kill two birds with one stone; it would make the deliveries easier, and I wouldn't have to deal with those annoying key fobs. Win-win, right? Well, guess which one of those wins became a loss.

You got it. Alex, I'll take key fob issues for $1600.

Neither of THOSE key fobs worked! Goodness me, what a nightmare. Of course, I found this out after I transferred all my other stops to the smaller truck, so I just rolled with it and used the keys instead. Fast forward a couple hours later and I'm punched out and heading to my car. I grab my keys out of my lunchbox and press unlock. Nothing. I try again. Nothing.

Hey, come on now. I see your smile. I see that wry and painful smile spreading across your face. I know you know where this is going. Just sit tight, it gets better.

I chuckled to myself, and noticed the irony of the day. I grabbed my car key and put it into the door lock... to find that apparently my ignition key is NOT the right key for the locks on my car. "I just talked to the mechanic about my situation today, I'll go ask him for a new battery for my fob. That's the problem." Brandon the mechanic so kindly changed my fob battery and I set out triumphantly to my car to go home.

Except that apparently wasn't the issue either. I was hose-bagged, a knock-out punch that was called Jack's Day. All I could do was muster a sheepish grin filled with irony and defeat. Today was just that kind of day. To the glory of God, with the help of one of my bosses, Carter, we finally got a gap in my window and were able to push the door lock open... only after 30 minutes or so. So now my car sits in the driveway, unlocked, ready for the taking. Wouldn't be shocked if I woke up to it gone (Lord, please don't let that happen!).

Golly if today wasn't trying! But the Lord is good, and hey, days like these build your perseverance right?

And besides, I get to tell a really good story to boot :)

Thank you Lord for the bad days, because without it them I wouldn’t know the good ones!

[ianequipilag]

TECHNOPRENEURSHIP BLOG

WEEK 1 (FEBRUARY 21- FEBRUARY 25, 2023)

*PLANNING OF POSSIBLE PRODUCTS & VALIDATION OF 7 POTENTIAL COSTUMERS*

We struggled to accomplish the assignment we were supposed to perform in the first week because we thought it would be simpler to complete another task first. We had first finish our ongoing plates and decided to make this later on, so we decided to list the potential problems that students could be experiencing right now while also considering a potential remedy or item that would address the problem in question. We discussed everything when we made the decision to meet in person and became anxious when we realized the deadline.

Knowing this helped me to know that if we needed to work quickly and discuss the allocated assignment. I can't deny that I misjudged how challenging it would be to communicate with others and identify and address potential problems in the real world. Nevertheless, we selected a topic that was related to the environment, particularly one that could aid in the reduction of plastic waste.

WEEK 2 (FEBRUARY 28- MARCH 3, 2023)

*ASKING STRANGERS & REJECTION*

I was a little nervous when this work was handed to us since I am an introverted individual, which makes this task quite difficult for me. Since my partner needed to finish some urgent plates, we decided to limit the number of participants for this activity. We only spoke with pupils who were present at the event center as a consequence. It's funny to think that we once inquired about strangers' drawing abilities and then requested that they create a quick portrait of us.

WHO’S ON THE CAMERA:

1&2- Ian Equipilag

3&4- Lorenn Dumalag

attached is the link to the footage of us interviewing strangers:

LESSONS LEARNED:

I've come to realize that staying comfortable all the time prevents growth. Accepting criticism and remaining open to rejection is a method to learn and develop. In this task, we were given the opportunity to be humble and accept a rejection right away.

WEEK 3 (MARCH 7, 2023- MARCH 10, 2023)

This week's assignment was to work with my peers to come up with a certain product in an innovative way. It took us some time to choose which of our three promising items to pursue. We conducted interviews to gain input from potential consumers as part of the development process, participated in group brainstorming sessions to create ideas, and collaborated to make sense of the data we had acquired. The difficulty of attempting to comprehend and deal with the responses of our interviewees was one of the largest challenges we faced. Sometimes it was hard to understand their answers, or they gave contradictory information that was difficult to make sense of.

However, we were able to overcome these obstacles and improve our understanding of our target users through persistence and teamwork. When conducting interviews, we learned how crucial it is to be persistent and patient, as well as how to craft questions that produce insightful answers. To sum up, creating a product as a team might be difficult, but it can also be a worthwhile learning experience. We were able to overcome the obstacles we faced and get a deeper comprehension of our target consumers via excellent teamwork, tenacity, and communication.

WEEK 4 (MARCH 14, 2023- MARCH 17, 2023)

As the project moved along, it became apparent that we were missing several crucial milestones and that our final product lacked value. We came to the conclusion that we needed to change course and formulate an entirely new strategy.

The value of flexibility and adaptability was one of the most important lessons I took away from this experience. To make sure that everyone was in agreement about the changes we were making, we learned the importance of excellent communication both within the team and with the people we were interviewing.

WEEK 5 (MARCH 21, 2023- MARCH 24, 2023)

Even though we are in week 5, we still need to go back and build a new product that is more attainable. Despite the fact that we had already conducted some interviews, we decided that we wanted to start again and develop some new ideas. Because of this, we had to perform extra research and brainstorming meetings. We also had some difficulties conducting interviews as a result of our busy class schedules. We had to carefully plan our schedules and be flexible when setting up interviews as a consequence.

[automatismoateo]

I am confused if I am really an atheist. via /r/atheism

I am confused if I am really an atheist.

25M, India, brought up in a modest hindu household. Somewhere after my 16th birthday with the help of internet Is came to know about the atheism and people can actually refuse to accept god. I still go to temples with my family if they insist but would never worship God from heart ( I also like visiting old monumental temples of South India). I am not well read in the concept of rationalism or atheism, I go along with what I feel is right according to my logic. Since I find worshipping to those idols didn't affect my life one bit I stopped giving importance to them.

I also follow some traditions of the hindu religion which I feel is good, not rational but good as in like it comforts me.

1) I like to pay my respects to the ancestors, in Hinduism every new moon day we worship the ancestors with good food offered to the gods and to our ancestors( kept in front of their photos). It is believed that they are guarding us even after their death. Even though I don't believe in this i still practice this as a token of respect to my ancestors. I also believe in clan deity for the same reason. Here in this part of the world, every family (hindu) has a clan deity. It is mostly a mother goddess, it is believed that she ( the goddess) is our earliest ancestor and she has been guarding her lineage for all these years. There are a lot of myths related to this cult. It follows a patrilineal method, once a woman gets married her husband's clan deity becomes her clan deity too. Evn though I don't believe the goddess part I still feel visiting that temple once a year is a good way to connect with the community ( my great grandads brothers descendants would also have the same clan deity). I feel like everyone who visits the temple are related to me by blood.

2) Recently I lost a puppy, he was actually a stray puppy who got lost and I took him home, the very first pet I owned. I tried my best but i couldn't save him( died from snake bite). I was too heartbroken, started reading some spiritual books, left it halfway, started listening to podcasts on death and life, etc. I was finally able to make peace only when I make myself believe that the puppy is living happily in the dog heaven. It is the only place he belongs to. All these years I thought the concept of heaven and hell was bogus but the the very same idea helped me to coax myself out of sadness. Now I believe or rather should I say I wish there is a heaven and everyone go there after their death. I know it's irrational but that idea keeps me relaxed.

I identify myself as an atheist when seen from my hindu family members pov. I don't visit temples, at least for worship. I don't believe in vedas, my dietary habits aren't controlled by religious codes, I don't believe in horoscope. I am anti caste in a casteist family but I can also not call myself a rationally driven person because I believe in worshiping ancestors, I believe there is a paradise ( I still don't know if I actually believe in it but it would be good if there's one). So am I an atheist? How do I identify myself? Am I a hindu who isn't as religious as an average hindu?

Excuse me for my English.

Submitted February 16, 2023 at 03:12PM by kameswara25 (From Reddit https://ift.tt/FARCdl1)