#and there's cases in which the trends were made By Us and then caught on in wider communities

[dreamyintersexouppy]

even when people are supportive of transfems and our struggles it's often expressed through sexualization which just diffuses any care people seem to be trying to show. they just find it much easier to see us as sexual concepts even if they do care genuinely for us somewhere in their hearts, but that doesn't matter anymore cus the post they made fetishizing our struggles will keep getting notes and turn into a trend and then die just as quickly once we demand the material respect implied by our issues gaining visibility... it just frustrates me thinking back on the amount of sexual trends that focused on us and objectified us that some of us even fell into because all we want is to feel loved...

[nightingale-prompts]

The Nightingale Family-DC x DP prompt

(Shameless Addams family inspired prompt)

News travels fast in Gotham, especially in affluent circles. A new family has arrived in the city, old money at that. They had taken up residents in the old mansion overlooking the Historic Gotham Graveyard.

The Nightingales had a way of letting their presence be known. They were rarely seen in public. The eldest Jasmine Nightingale however had made waves working at the Gotham Asylum as a psychologist. She was often escorted by her younger brother Dan Nightingale. The public really started talking when Jazz was seen talking with Harley Quinn.

There were two children that lived in the Nightingale manor. They were elusive to say the least as the family didn't attend the parties of Gotham.

It wasn't until Damian Wayne got an invite from his classmate Danielle to visit their manor that someone saw the lives of Nightingales. This invite had been received after Damian carefully befriended the youngest Nightingale to investigate their connections.

That's how the Waynes ended up at a dinner party.

The manor was bleak to say the least and that's saying something in Gotham. The buildingbwas made from black stones and gargoyles perched on the roof. The garden was wilted and full of thrones that crept up the walls.

Bruce felt a sense of Deja vu as he approached the door and rang the bell. Tower bells rang out as the face of Jasmine Nightingale appeared. She was dressed in black dress pants and blazer. Her lips were painted to match. Her red hair had a striking white streak through it which had become a fashion trend since the family's arrival to girls wanting to seem mysterious.

"Good Evening. It is so nice to meet the infamous Waynes." She shook Bruce's hand. Behind her, the sounds of clanking metal was heard. "That is just my younger siblings playing. You don't you boys join while I talk to your father.

Despite only being a fresh-faced 20 year old Jazz carried herself like a confident adult. A certified genius in psychology who graduated early she also handled the inmates at the Asylum well enough that escapes are at an all time low.

"She's got it all" was what Harley said.

Bruce's admiration of the young lady was only matched by his suspicion. The house the Nightingales lived y had once belonged to the Al Ghouls. There was no telling yet if there was a connection.

He took a seat in the living room with Jazz tea already prepared. She poured two cups of black tea. Not black as in the type of tea but the color of the drink. Bruce cautiously sniffed the black liquid, it smelled earthy and acidic. Poison.

"Do you like it? I made it myself. I added the belladonna myself. It has a sweet taste so you don't need sugar. The kids have sweet tooths but we avoid added sugars. They love nightshade." She smiled drinking.

Bruce put the cup down. So they drink poison at a young age. They must be part of The League of Assassins. But why are they here?

"If you don't mind me asking. Why did you move to Gotham? Your parents-" Jazz put a hand up as she finished her cup.

"Mr. Wayne I'm sure you are no stranger to parents leaving before their time nor the concept that not all parents deserve children. Now I can't confirm or deny if that is the case for use but you can understand that it's a private matter." Jazz said sternly.

That wasn't an answer.

Upstairs Danny and Danielle played with Elle's new toys. Swords from Dan's trip to Portugal. He even sharpened them. They were currently tearing through the mansion.

Tim and Damian caught them while Danny had successfully pinned Elle to the ground.

"Dami! Help!" Elle yelled catching Danny off guard as Damian tackled Danny to the ground.

"Alright, alright. You can go next." Danny rolling Damian off him and passing him the sword. "Im taking a break."

Danny loved playing with his little sister but baby games are tiring.

"They let you play with swords," Tim exclaimed. This wasn't something he expected, sure it was normal for Damian but Damian is weird and was raised by assassins. Damian didn't do it for fun, it was training.

Damian and Danielle ran off while fencing.

"You must be one of the Waynes. Elle has been excited to have your brother over." Danny said politely if not a bit dismissive.

"Eh, yeah. Your sister said we should join you." Tim said a bit awkward. " You have another brother right?"

"Oh, yeah. He travels alot but he's relaxing right now. He's probably swimming." Danny shrugged.

Tim had heard of Danny. They went to the same school but Danny was part of a program that allowed him to come to school when he felt like it. The program is for young engineers who want to work for Wayne Industries. He mostly worked on small experimental projects. So far Danny's superconductor tech was revolutionary but impossible to replicate. Danny somehow managed to make a more effective coolant than anything they had created in the lab.

"You have a pool?" Tim knew that the mansion didn't have a pool.

"Of water? No." Danny shrugged but gave no further answer.

"I see, so what do you do?" Tim tried to sound normal like he was talking to his friends and not someone he was trying to probe.

"Anything, everything. I was going to recalibrate my telescope but I have a laser to test." Danny walked off expecting Tim to follow.

Testing was just cut a bunch of things in half. Tim got some great info on making an explosive ice canister and foam bombs. Tim made sure to get his number to hire him to make some gear for him.

The Nightingale kids were absolutely lawless. They destroyed everything in their path.

Elle had dragged Damian to her room to show off her toys. She used to travel with Dan until she started school. She picked up a bunch of items. Cult artifacts, shrunken heads, voodoo dolls, cursed puppets, knives, swords, and the homemade taxidermy Elle made from roadkill. She also had a pet dodo bird named Ernesto who had a bed next to her bed. Ernesto took a liking to Damian and sat on his head. The way he shows his affection

Soon enough Dan came upstairs to check on Elle and Danny.

"You kids, need to get ready for dinner. Sharpen your nails and teeth." He said before going back to the kitchen.

"What does that mean?" Damian asked.

"You don't sharpen your nails. Well good luck at dinner." Elle said bemused.

Dinner was...horrifying. Watching the family chat happily as they ripped apart the moving food as it came to life. Damian was actually excited as he skewered the cheese and broccoli casserole that screamed at him.

"Father, why can't we do this at our home?" He asked.

[ateez-himari]

MELON MUSIC AWARDS

Himari slyly confronts the organizers about their disrespect of BTS' Suga

December 2, 2024 (4:13PM)

On November 30th, ATEEZ held their first performance at the Melon Music Awards, where they won the Global Artist Male award while their maknae took home the Songwriter Award, though neither these accomplishments nor their untouchable stage were the reason that their group's name was trending on social media platforms. Himari's award acceptance speech caught the attention of those watching through online platforms and clips of it rapidly flooded social media as it confronted an issue that turned netizens against the show.

"We want to leave a legacy that will be looked back on decades later." Himari began, looking right into the camera. "I don't write these tracks using my own voice, but the one of our group as a whole, the harmony that 9 people make together...because that's how we should all be recognized, together. It would not be an honor to be pictured as 8, or 7, or anything less than the amount of people that make ATEEZ one beating heart, but an insult."

While the attack was slight enough to slip past as nothing more than coincidental at the time, netizens pieced together that the maknae was refering to the VCR paying tribute to BTS, which deliberately excluded Suga. Himari nearly always signs while speaking in public, so fans with hearing difficulties reading the speech noticed that her fingers were forming the sign for '7' at the end and while at first it seemed odd, it served as confirmation that their suspicions were right.

This was addressed once more later that evening on the maknae's live, though this time much more directly, as she pointed out the amount of effort that was put into excluding her older brother - likely for a scooter DUI case that had been closed two months ago. Fans later found this to be true as the sole clear group shot was from Suga's hiatus in 2020 despite there being an abundant amount of clips containing all members from award shows in later/earlier years.

"Honoring the legacy of a group without one of its members is a really interesting concept." She stated rather sarcastically. "It's a really convenient 'accident', so convenient that it almost feels like intentional disrespect. For an award show that gained a lot of fame from this group it would be a little...strange though so I'm sure this was all one big misunderstanding."

Artist Reactions to Himari's Award

Taemin, the producer's mentor, surprised his protégée in the parking lot with a large flower bouquet, which he hurriedly purchased after hearing the news. G-Dragon, her prospect mentor, reposted the video of her speech on social media with the caption "I don't think I have much to teach her after all ㅎㅎㅎ, congratulations tiger cub" and later posted a picture of the two in a recording studio with the screens blurred.

After several suspicious comments made by the vocalist, could he too be hinting at an upcoming collaboration ? Only time will tell.

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[simphornies]

Glitchy [ Vox x F!Reader ] A/N: I needed more Vox x reader content. Might be a little bit off character but anways. Let me feed yall the way I was

You worked yourself up to finally be working with the Vees. Your rise in the ranks didn't go unnoticed. If you were called to fix the other employees' messes, a shiver would go down the spine of the unfortunate one that has to deal with you. Velvette adored your cutthroat personality. You to quickly became best friends. She made sure you were wearing the latest trends and looked utmost presentable and in return you made sure her models didn't stay out of line. Valentino tried to get you to be one of his top showgirls, something about making you as rich and powerful as him, to which you impolitely said no. He didn't take it to heart too much and you two were a force to be messed with. You didn't mind getting your hands dirty keeping his stars in control out on the streets. Vox was a different case. He seemed to keep his distance from you. Every time you asked him if he needed help, because he looks like he needed it, he would say no and quickly zap away into whichever electricity box was closest.

"Vel, does he hate me or something?" You whine at your overlord bestie, "Oh if only you knew, Y/N." She laughs as she continues to scroll through her phone. "You know, for a best friend that says they won't keep secrets, you sure are keeping this thing a secret." You huff, "I just want to know why, at every given opportunity, he seems to just look away or dash into wherever he goes." Valentino slides into the conversation, puffing his smoke above your sulking head, "Oh, honey, trust us. He adores you. Worships you even." He grins, "He literally can't keep you off of his screens, babe." Velvette rolls her eyes, "He literally won't stop talking about you every time you're not in the room." She rests her head on her chin, "Have you seen the way his face looks when you walk into the room in my top outfits? He gets such a har-"

Before they could continue, the lights flickered in the room and Vox zaps in front of the two Vees that are currently exposing his secrets. "Excuse me, what the fuck are you two talking about?" His screen glitched a bit. "Oh nothing. Just telling her how you really feel." "It's not your How about you answer her question then fuckface?" Velvette grinned in his face before walking towards the door, "Have fun sweetheart."

It was not just the two of you in the room. Awkward silence filled the room. "So," You start off to break the silence but Vox cuts you off, "What did they tell you?" "Well, they just said some crazy things like how you're obsessed with me and stuff but I honestly don't believe it considering this is the most we've ever spoke to each other since I started climbing the ranks." You scoff, "Hell! I'm basically a part of the Vees now and you still ignore me. Do you...hate me or something? Did I offend you in a way? I just want to know why you're so put off by me." Vox's smile drops and he turns, "No. I don't hate you." He sighs, "I just. Ever since you became a part of the company, you climbed so fast and it caught my attention. Your bloodlust, your passion, the way you aren't afraid to get your hands dirty for the sake of the company...It was..." He stumbles over his words, "It was fucking hot!"

Awkward silence again. You stare at him and blinked a couple of times, "Excuse me?" You ask, voice full of disbelief. Vox clears his throat before continuing, fixing his suit as he takes a couple steps towards you. "When you and Velvette became closer, I was ecstatic. I thought finally the chance I get to talk to you but FUCK she dressed you so hot. That little bit did that on purpose." He glitched again. You get up and got closer to him. You look up at the flustered overlord, "So, do you like me then? Or am I just an entertaining toy for you like Valentino's toys?"

"No I like you! Fuck you make me short-circuit every time I see you in action. Val wasn't lying when he said I couldn't keep you off my screens. You keep me on my toes, babe." He took your hands in his, "I will kill any motherfucker that lays a single finger on your hair. I want to run this company with you by my side. So are you up for it?"

"Maybe." You pull away, "Prove yourself to me, hotshot. Maybe I'll forgive you for zapping away everytime I talk to you." You smile as you walk towards the door, "I'll talk to you later, babe." You blow him a kiss before leaving.

Vox stood there in disbelief, unsure if that was a win or a lose. There's one thing he knows for sure: he will never ignore you again.

And that he needs to take care of a little problem he has down there.

[luins]

wip wednesday

a little break from all the spotify wrapped posting to share some of my writing. i've been working a lot on this for past week.

Something is up with Eddie. It’s driving Buck up the wall because he cannot figure out why Eddie is acting like this. He has been gathering evidence all morning to solve this mystery. 

1. Eddie was almost late today. 

Not actually late, because he did make it to the station well before the start of their shift. He was already there and changing into his uniform, in fact, when Buck stumbled into the locker room while simultaneously pulling his shirt over his head. (He had overslept because he went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole on orcas and their fashion trends last night after reading about salmon hats being back). 

By the time Buck had managed to wrangle out of his shirt, Eddie had stuck his head in his (their) locker like he was searching for something. Very intently. He stayed like that for so long that Buck finished changing and made it out of the locker room before him. 

2. Eddie kept spacing out during the morning briefing. 

This basically never happens unless he’s truly preoccupied with something. Usually, Eddie is extremely attentive, quite literally standing at attention with rigid military posture, probably still ingrained in him from his army days. But today, Buck had to nudge his boot against Eddie’s to startle him out of whatever thought he was caught up in when Bobby said his name and read out the chores he assigned to him. 

But the most incriminating piece of evidence was gathered before Buck even arrived at the firehouse, actually. 

3. Eddie used an emoji. 

And not just any emoji, no. It was a heart. This morning, Buck texted Eddie that he was running a little behind (in case Bobby asked) to which Eddie replied with, and Buck is not kidding: 

Okay. Will have a cup of coffee waiting for you. ❤️

Buck had stared at the heart for a good five minutes, probably, which had made him even more late. 

(In the end, Eddie did not have coffee waiting for him on account of taking forever in the locker room. The liar.) 

“Eddie is acting weird, right?” he asks Hen. He’s helping her restock the ambulance and she is holding very tightly onto the clipboard. Buck is not even allowed to look at it, all she’s letting him do is hand her the supplies she is asking for. 

Hen raises an eyebrow. “Weird how?” 

“I don’t know,” Buck whines and throws his hands up in frustration. The gauze in his hand flies halfway across the ambulance bay. He scrambles up to retrieve it before Hen has the chance to turn the full power of her glare onto him. 

“He’s just… being weird.” He drops the gauze in Hen’s outstretched hand. “Like, okay, he’s being quiet but he also isn’t. Not in the way he usually is when he just doesn’t want to talk about something. It’s more like– like he actually wants to say something but just doesn’t know how.” 

Hen considers this for a moment. 

“Why don’t you just ask him about it? If it’s bothering you that much.” 

If only it were that easy.

i'm just going to tag a couple of mutuals for them to see this - and of course also to share something if you guys have anything to share!! <3

@livingincolorsagain @queerprincesseddiediaz @eddiesbian @moonyslesbian @girldadbuckley @cafecitoeddie @4thbrighteststar @housewifebuck & if anyone else wants to share their wip please feel free to also tag me in it!!

[cephalog0d]

Okay, but like. There's the whole joke about Bruce recruiting children to be his sidekicks, but honestly there's only really one that fits that.

And it's Jason. And the whole story there is, frankly, unhinged. Aaaaand then he died.

(I'm specifically talking about "first post-crisis origin stories" here because Jason and Dick, in particular, have both had multiple major retcons and revisions over the years, and some of them dramatically change how things happened.)

Like okay. Going backwards, you've got Duke who joined/led a whole Robin-based gang at a time when Bruce wasn't even Batman. You've got Damian and Cass, who were both literally born into the world of masks and capes and heroes and villains, so they weren't ever really not going to be part of it. Steph might have taken inspiration from previous heroes but she made her own identity and repeatedly refused to stop involving herself in the vigilante lifestyle. Tim, obviously, basically strong-armed Batman into letting him be Robin, despite Batman's protests.

Dick's a little more complicated just because there's so many versions, because that's what 80 years of comics and multiple universe reboots will do, and there's kind of a general trend that earlier pre-crisis versions were more of Batman being like "hello, child, would you like to be my sidekick" and later versions have leaned harder and harder into the idea that Dick was absolutely going to do this anyway, regardless of what Batman had to say about it. But even in the first post-crisis version, the flashback in Batman Year 3, Dick says he wants to find a way to keep people like that from hurting others again. When Alfred questions Bruce's offer to train him, Bruce says that Dick should learn to do things the right way if he's going to do it. It's not hard to extrapolate that, much like later versions of the origin story, Dick was going to get himself into this one way or another. (Batman (1940) #437)

And then there's Jason. Whose backstory has also had a lot of (sometimes major) revisions over the years (remember when his adoption was, like, some kind of Joker-originated long con? Fucken Nu52, man). But the original post-crisis version is pretty straightforward. Steals Batman's tires, gets caught and sent to Ma Gunn's Secret Criminal School, intervenes when Batman goes to investigate, immediately gets offered the chance to be Robin based entirely on that.

Which is itself kind of unhinged. That Bruce saw this kid who was living on his own stealing tires and went "Hey you would make a good Robin" as his very first instinct.

But if you've never read Jason's post-crisis origin, or it's been a while, it's honestly even more unhinged than that because that arc starts with Dick getting "fired" as Robin specifically for the reason that he got shot by Joker and Bruce freaked out about how the Robin identity has too many enemies and therefore Dick, a legal adult with approximately a decade of training and experience, should not use the identity anymore.

(And it's specifically about the Robin identity, in this version, because when Dick says he's not going to stop the crime fighting thing Bruce's response is basically "I know and I didn't expect you to". Honestly I could also say a lot about this version of the Robin/Nightwing transition vs. later ones and how this one definitely feels like the Heavy Hand of DC Editorial in the fact that they had no contact for so long afterwards, because the interaction really doesn't feel like it warrants that in this case compared to some later versions, but that's a whole other too-long ramble.) (Batman (1940) #408)

And then a few weeks later Bruce turns around and picks up a random kid, a literal child, and goes "Hey you would make a good Robin!"

And I think a lot about how fucking wild that is. And it's not like the people writing just didn't notice. Dick's big argument with Bruce when he finally comes back to Gotham and meets Jason isn't about the fact that Bruce took in another kid, or even necessarily about Dick feeling proprietary over the Robin identity, the thing he's angry about is that Bruce said it was too dangerous for him, an adult, someone who has trained with Batman for a decade and was already highly physically trained before that for his whole life, to be Robin, and now Bruce has turned around and painted that target onto some random new kid. He pushes, repeatedly, trying to get Bruce to justify himself and this absolutely irresponsible decision, and Bruce gives a lot of answers about how Jason was on a bad path and needed this outlet and eventually just admits that he missed having a partner. (Batman (1940) #416)

And like. Dick's right, is the thing. He is 1000% in the right in this argument. If he can't be Robin anymore because of the danger, how in the hell is it anything like a good idea to hand it over to someone way younger, way less trained, way less experienced, and expect that that wouldn't end in tragedy?

And then it did.

And yeah, Bruce, it is kinda a lot of your fault.

[yukidragon]

Scam PSA

Be aware that if someone sends you an ask begging you for money, or to share their post with information about how to send them money, it is a scam.

There is no dying/dead relative. There is no sick pet. There is no poor soul who was kicked out of their parents' house with nowhere to go.

People who genuinely are in need of assistance seek out charities, GoFundMe, and the like, where there is oversight to the donation process. They are places that are very good at stamping out people who exploit their site to scam people out of money. This is why scammers usually avoid those places so they don't get caught.

Scams like this are preying on your kind nature and desire to help those in dire straits. They target trending tags and go after those who have reblogged posts about how to donate to those suffering actual tragedies, like the one in Palestine.

When you get one of these asks, don't respond to it. Do not engage.

The scammer will ask for a private response. This is to minimize the risk that people will realize that it's a copypasta. Chances are, if you do a search quoting parts of it, you'll find the same ask posted elsewhere. Often times you'll find these asks came from multiple different blogs that no longer exist because they got caught.

Here is a recent scam ask that I received. I am posting it in full so that people can know what to look out for.

Hey, hi! Im really sorry for sending this, i just hope im not overstepping any boundaries as I’m about to ask help which is very important right now :( our cat, Sleepy needs an urgent vet care. She is pain and I can't afford to pay the vet to help her so I'm reaching out to ask for help, I mean even if you can’t help monetarily, reblogging or sharing it would truly mean a lot. She is my daughter’s best friend and she’s all I have left of my mom who passed away last 2021. In case you’d be insterested to help, I have pinned the post on my blog, please try to also answer the ask privately as some people tend to get weird on this stuff. Please send us prayers, be safe. ♥️🙏

If you're still unsure, check the asker's blog. Even if they have an icon and some info listed to pass the initial bot test, there are other signs to look out for.

Was the blog recently created?

Was the pinned post made about the time the blog was created?

Is the pinned post full of popular tags unrelated to the requested donation?

Is there a focus on other donation posts in the reblogs?

Were the other reblogs also made around the time the blog was created?

Can you find the images/text in the pinned post elsewhere on unrelated pages?

Remember, this is a person digitally knocking door to door asking for money while giving everyone they come across a very sad story to pull at their heartstrings. If you would be wary of a stranger coming up to you on the street to ask you for money, be just as wary as someone sliding into your inbox.

Remember that there are plenty of people who prey on your kindness. They will lie, and many of them are very good at it. They don't feel bad about manipulating you and making you feel like you're the bad person for denying them. They don't care about you or others, they only care about themselves.

Stay safe out there.

[s1l]

Abbey x Ghoulia headcannons because I never managed to finish the fanfic of them </3

- as shown in "How do Ghouls Fall In Love," Ghoulia gets easily confused by love and throughout the franchise we've seen that she gets really nervous about relationships and admitting feelings. On the other hand, as proven by the same movie, Abbey is direct and refuses to play with anyone's heart. While it may have taken a while for her to come to terms with her feelings and stuff, she was the one to tell Ghoulia and ask her out. Ghoulia, who had already caught feelings but didn't know what to say, immediately accepted because she no longer had any fears since she had evidence of a mutual feeling.

- Ghoulia gets bullied a lot. Anyone who's seen g1 knows that for sure. Abbey, however, isn't afraid of anything and wins every fight she's in. She's gotten suspended multiple times for kicking Manny's ass when he made fun of Ghoulia.

- Abbey doesn't know much about science and coding, but she tries her best to help out with Ghoulia's projects and her street smarts actually come pretty handy in a lot of cases. For example, Ghoulia and Abbey made a survival game together. Abbey was knowledgeable about real world threats and how to survive in harsh conditions so she had a two-sense of how the game should work which ended up making it a success!

- in the past Ghoulia was kept secret when she was dating someone. It was usually out of embarrassment or any other unreasonable excuse to keep her hidden. However, Abbey couldn't be less like that. She made sure everyone knew that they were together and wasn't afraid to give Ghoulia affection in public.

- Ghoulia spends hours braiding and styling Abbey's hair. Abbey thinks it's a bit silly but she knows how passionate Ghoulia is about it so no matter how odd the style looks, Abbey will go to school and show it off to everyone around her. Eventually people saw how well she made it work and how she kept telling people how talented Ghoulia is. Because of this, every hair trend in Monster High began with whatever style Ghoulia practiced on Abbey and the hype spread like wildfire.

- Abbey never got to listen to the radio much when she lived back with her family. At most she would get humming or strumming of a messed up banjo. Ghoulia naturally decided to expose Abbey to the wonders of Spotify. They would often sit on a bench under a tree, one airpod in one of both ghoul's ears. Ghoulia would rest her head on Abbey's shoulder as they listened to the music for hours. They didn't talk, they just listened and enjoyed being so close to one another.

- Ghoulia gets cold very easily, even when it's warm because she doesn't have body heat due to her being undead. Abbey always gives her an incredibly fluffy coat that she brings around just in case Ghoulia needs or wants it.

- Abbey can be misunderstood easily and often people feel like she's being rude. At the beginning of their relationship, Abbey was nervous that Ghoulia would react how other people do and the way Abbey acted may ruin the relationship. She used the "inner monster" app constantly to avoid misunderstandings. In the end though, Ghoulia told her that she didn't want to hear some pixels talk to her, she wanted to hear her ghoulfriend. She assured Abbey that her personality and who she was was why she fell in love with her in the first place. She was perfect to Ghoulia, and it hurt her to see Abbey so insecure about herself and how she wanted to change herself so badly. But she never wanted a single thing about Abbey to change. It didn't matter how blunt Abbey was, she was kind, bold, and warm-hearted and Ghoulia's certainty of that never wavered.

- Ghoulia has to use crutches because of the way her legs decay and Rigor Mortis. There are a lot of trouble makers in school so sometimes they get stolen. When this happens, Abbey takes it upon herself to carry Ghoulia to and from every single class and wherever she needs to go. Then during lunch she goes to find who stole the crutches and beats them up and takes the crutches back to Ghoulia.

- both of them heavily prefer non-fiction over fiction. This means that they read a lot of the same books and watch really good documentaries together. They're the kinda couple who gossip about the morning news. The actual news, neither of them enjoy the ghostly gossip for obvious reasons.

Note: I still have a lot more 💔

They're canon in my heart

[night-heron-writes]

The World of Spy x Family: Newston Castle

We all know that Spy x Family is set in pseudo Cold War Germany. Tatsuya Endo makes that very clear—the capital city of Ostania is Berlint, just one letter off from the actual capital of Germany. And the names of the divided countries also pay homage to that: Westalis and Ostania come from the German words for “west” and “east”, respectively. 

But it doesn’t stop there. Take the castle from Episode 5 (Chapter 6 of the Manga), for example. Endo could have left it unnamed, or just made up a name, but he decided to call it Newston Castle. That name is very decidedly reminiscent of Neuschwanstein Castle, and is in fact almost a direct translation.

Furthermore, the location of the castle is listed as a little ways outside Münk. Now, Münk is very similar to München, or what non-German speakers would know as Munich. Münk would also fit with the in-universe trend of altering place names just a little bit, like Hugaria being the in-universe equivalent of Hungary.  Neuschwanstein Castle is similarly located a little ways southwest of Munich. Starting to sound familiar? Lets look at the pictures.

Newston Castle:

Neuschwanstein Castle:

Clearly, the animation team took a few creative liberties (like moving the lake right up to the castle), but the influence is pretty damn clear. It’s the little details like this that make me appreciate the series even more.

The only snag in this theory is that during the cold war, Munich and Neuschwanstein Castle were in West Germany, which leaves us with two possibilities: 1) that in Spy x Famliy, the two nations are divided much more equally than in actual history, and 2) that they all went to Westalis for the castle sequence, and risked being caught at the border just to celebrate Anya’s acceptance into Eden.

Personally, I think the first theory is more likely, given that Endo has already taken a number of creative liberties, and that we’ve not head anything about Berlint being divided into East and West, like what happened to real-world Berlin during the Cold War. And Anya gives the Forger Family address as 128 Park Avenue, West Berlint. Unless, she means the western part of East Berlint, but I think that’s not as likely. However, we don’t yet have a full map of both countries, so both theories are still viable.

Let’s compare the map we do have with an actual map of East and West Germany.

Spy x Family Map:

Real-world Map:

So far, the maps look pretty similar, but all we have is the northernmost bit of the Spy x Family map. Who knows what the rest of it looks like? The border could continue straight down the middle, in which case Münk and Newston Castle would be firmly in Ostanian territory. Do you see Munich down in the far-right corner of the real-world map? No wonder the Forgers needed a plane to get there from Belin(t)!

[hardtruthsfromsoftcats-blog]

It's not that you suck, it's just that technology has a way of becoming that much better.

This doesn't have to be a bad thing. There are certainly people who take pride in their calligraphy, but few people lament the advent of the printing press, which can pump out literature orders of magnitude faster than any scribe. Nor, I'm sure, are people too sad about automobiles replacing coachmen. It wasn't a great job for the unpaid horses. In both of these cases, technology displaced people's livelihood.

This trend has continued for a long time. Although the previous examples show that it wasn't always the case, AI is least likely to replace jobs where dexterity comes at a premium, where bespoke contraptions must be constructed rather than instruction sets on programmable, general-purpose Universal Turing machines. Despite the hype, robots lag behind computer-based AI; we haven't been able to mimic the fine-tuned musculature of biology on humans, though hardware is always getting at least a little bit better. But it does threaten jobs where physical processes can be efficiently emulated in software; e.g., musical performance.

AI will revolutionize the way at which we interact with technology in work that is chiefly nonphysical. It will no longer be sufficient to have skills, but to have metaskills. It's not knowing about how to solve a problem, but about knowing how to figure out how to solve a problem.

As an AI researcher, I have to admit I was a bit caught off guard; I feel like I was lapped. One day I woke up and there was a paper on generating incredibly convincing images from text, and a live service for doing it. Later that year, I woke up to find that GPT-3, which had been available in API-form, was suddenly available in free chatbot form, and was much easier to use and iterate with. It all felt magical. It all felt scary. Were things moving too fast, or had they just not been moving fast enough for too long? I felt powerful, but so did everyone else, and in a way, that made me feel vulnerable and powerless.

The biggest difference I see between now and in the past is how fast AI is improving. AI image generators just commercially came out last year, but Midjourney is already at version 5 just one year later and we are already seeing photorealistic results. The implications of that are discussion for another time, but the point is that new technology is appearing quicker and quicker. AI can code quite well; does that make me, a computer scientist, obsolete? Probably not. But if my own miscalculations and recent trends are to believed, I'll be worse than a machine quicker than I thought.

[shennyla08]

TENDENCIAS 2023

One of the popular trends on TikTok is the GRWM.

Surely you have heard in the TikTok videos “today we are going to do a GRWM”. But what does it mean?

GRWM is one of the most popular fashion trends on TikTok, as this acronym in English means “get ready with me”, which translates to “vístete conmigo” in Spanish.

To this end, GRWM's trend on TikTok generally consists of recording oneself while one is putting on makeup, dressing, or showing a skin care routine. So I'm sure you've ever seen a video with this type of GRWM trend on TikTok.

However, now the GRWM trend on TikTok is being taken to another level, I tell you:

It turns out that a couple of now ex-boyfriends are taking GRWM to another level on TikTok.

Well, it turns out that these young people made a GRWM video on TikTok for nothing more or less than to end their relationship.

Said video on TikTok that was titled “GRWM to leave my two-year relationship,” you can see the girl doing her makeup routine while she exposes her breakup.

Same video in which both talk about why they have decided to end their two-year relationship, revealing that they were both unfaithful in the relationship.

To this they explain how they came to this decision in the relationship, however, despite the controversy, in the end it turns out to be part of a humorous video on Tiktok, as it clarifies that their video “GRWM to leave my two-year relationship " is a lie.

Personally, I think these videos are quite entertaining, and you can watch them while you get ready or do any other activity, or just to distract yourself for a while.

Skincare.

Nowadays most of us are familiar with the word skincare, we hear it every day, everywhere; The term became much more popular when the pandemic began, it spread like foam through all media, many influencers and experts on the subject appeared and more and more content, brands and articles are going on sale, which if organic products, national ones, luxury ones, limited editions and more options that do not give us the hands to acquire everything we would like. Being a trend within the self-love fashion and having incredible people showing their usual routines with spectacular products, the skincare trend managed to gain many new followers, the genuine followers, those who deserted quickly and the poorly informed followers who only They fall into fashion without investigating further and get carried away with purchases, routines and not so personalized information, such as in this case “skin care”. How to correctly follow this fashion?

Know your skin type What influencers, your friends or advertising recommend is not always for you; The quality of the product may be very good and it has excellent reviews, but first you should ask yourself the following questions: Do we have the same skin type? Do we live in similar climates? Are there any dermatological complications involved?

What is the goal you seek when taking care of your skin? Make a diagnosis of what you would like to improve, we can start by eliminating blackheads, acne tendency, sun spots, obtaining luminous skin, hydrating the skin or more.

Research, read, ask or go to an expert Once you know what your goal is, start researching what ingredients and products can help you with this goal.

How do you imagine you will look when you do your skincare correctly?

Visualize yourself and look for all the options to achieve it, but remember that the most important thing will always be consistency and discipline in applying your products and taking good care of yourself from the sun and pollutants.

Latin Mafia, one of the most important emerging groups in Latin music.

Three brothers from Monterrey, Mexico, opened a TikTok account a few years ago as a hobby, but thanks to the platform they have managed to become known with their songs. Mike, the oldest brother, started when he was 13 years old making tracks on an old computer that today looks like it belongs in a museum. At first trap caught his attention and Lil Pump was in his rage, so he decided to call himself Lvtin Mvfia, replacing the first a with v, but given how difficult it was to pronounce, he changed to the original letter. At first the project belonged to Mike along with other artists, and he acted as producer, but due to fate it didn't work out and his brothers appeared on the scene.

Emilio, Milton and Mike de la Rosa have music in their blood, their family has always been linked to the artistic scene, and they were even in a music school since they were little, where they discovered the skills that each one had. 2020 seems already far away, when they published their first video on TikTok about humor that they later mixed with music and ways to make funny songs. Without knowing much about networks, they uploaded their first song to Facebook and had more than 50 thousand views, which made them realize the talent they had. Although they make urban music, they mix pop and different genres without seeking to put a label on what they do, imposing their different and disruptive style, they do not rule out making songs in bolero or cumbia. Her first hit was 'Julieta', which curiously went viral first in Spain and Europe before in her native Mexico or Latin America, but 2023 has been her year thanks to her lyrics that reach the heart, and 'Las Flores', the song that ended up giving them that jump to fame. Their best-known songs are: Julieta, Sal Rosa, Flores, No Digas Nada, which each exceeds two million views on YouTube. The truth is that I highly recommend listening to their songs; They are very cute and catchy.

[olivialancellotta]

Olivia Lancellotta-Defining Social Media

I believe that each individual social media user may define it in a slightly different way. Different people utilize social media for different reasons. It does seem to be one of the best ways to quickly connect with others. Social media can be a way to form relationships and can be used as a platform to share interests and ideas. These sights are also a place where one can debate with others about important topics. Some businesses or organizations may use social media as a way to collaborate and have discussions with colleagues that are unable to meet in person. Today it does seem that social media has grown to be one of the most popular modes of communication and group networking. It can be difficult if one is not familiar with and up to date on how to access and use the popular platforms. It is hard to imagine what life was like before social media.

I would characterize myself as a "casual" social media user. For me, social media is a way to keep up with what is current. I use social media brands like TikTok, Instagram and SnapChat to keep up with trends in fashion, music and popular new products. SnapChat is a forum where My friends and I can instantly send messages and pictures about where we are, what we are doing, and who we are with. Even though many of my friends are far away at college, social media helps me keep in touch with them and continue our relationships. I do not feel that social media is a replacement for person to person interaction but, I do agree that without social media it would be much harder to grow and sustain long distance relationships. Most current events I find from social media. My friends and I do not read the newspaper or watch the news. I do find that I have to use caution when reading about happenings on social media and that it is important to note the source from which the events are being reported.

Once I was allowed by my parents to go on social media, I quickly made sure I had SnapChat, Instagram and TikTok accounts. It was easy for me to access and because I was raised in the age of technology, I was confident in my abilities to use these platforms in a variety of ways. All my friends were also on these popular social media brands and keeping up with posts and chats was important to me and sometimes even a priority. Keeping communication with friends and staying up on trends was so much easier when using social media. Once in college, I was asked by my business professor to create a Linkedin page and that was when I realized I had only experienced a very small piece of what social media had to offer. Being able to publicize my resume(work experience) where companies could access that opened my eyes to the even greater potential of social media.

Social Media does pose some challenges for me. There are so many different platforms that are constantly evolving and changing that it can be difficult to keep up. I find that I tend to stick with what I know and understand and I do feel that sometimes , like as in the case of Linkedin, I may be missing out on other helpful social media brands. Also, it is easy to get caught up in social media and sometimes I dare say "get lost in it". It is almost too easy to become addicted to watching and responding to what I read on social media and the need to respond instantly can almost feel a bit like an addiction. Setting limits is almost necessary because the world of social media although fascinating and wonderful can sometimes be overwhelming.

In this course, I am hoping to learn more about social media and how it can help me with networking and in my future career as a teacher. I am hoping to step outside my comfort zone and try new things like Twitter, Tumbler and SmartBrief. I know many friends that use Twitter and that is of a particular interest to me. Communication is so important in all careers and I would love to become a better more confident communicator on social media. I want to learn how to be safe and be able to reach a target audience right online. I look forward to what else I may learn in this class to help me be a responsible user of social media.

[birukcanadianblog]

Week 15 Blog

Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin

Word Count-381

Summary Walter found an old picture of his cousins and one was named Alex. Then he heard from his other cousins that Alex had changed his name and they started to find Alex’s real name. Laura was interested in hand-tinting which is also Elwood Murray’s job. She borrowed the materials from him and started working after she showed her the basics. She used to go to Elwood’s office every day to learn more about hand-tinting but she stopped after she accomplished what she wanted. Several days after their father announced that they will be having a meeting because of the union. Their father said there was a snitch among them who leaked their plans. The day after their factory caught fire and they managed to put out the fire but there was a lot of damage. In another case that Walter and his family opened in the beginning, the police put a wanted poster of Alex since they didn’t know his current name track him. After they found Alex he changed his name back and reunited with his family. Alex brought Walter and his sister closer than ever by telling them about their past memories.

Critical Analysis Some quotes describe what the book is saying such as"Trending Alex Thomas brought Laura and me closer together than we had been for a while. He was our guilty secret, and also our virtuous project - one we could finally share." This quote was the most important in reading halfway through the book. There was a lot of effort made by Alex’s family to find him and when that didn’t work they requested help from the police. The police had a hard time finding him but did in the end. The story started when Walter was checking old pictures and saw Alex and that’s when the whole family wanted to find Alex. In return, Alex brought back the strong relationship between Walter and Laura.

Personal Response The reading was good. It had some turns and cases that are still not known such as nobody still knows who gave their plan away to their rivals between them. It was also unusual how they were on a mission in finding Alex but then they stopped talking about him and focus on what happened to their factory.

[kef-meister]

Alright, time for me to nitpick this post. TL;DR: my feelings on this are favorable, but I'd advise you all to stay critical. Here's what I've picked through:

We believe that Matt's response to this ask and his continued commentary has been unwarranted and harmful. Tumblr staff do not comment on moderation decisions as a matter of policy for a variety of reasons—including the privacy of those involved, and the practicalities of moderating thousands of reports a day.

This says "Matt really shouldn't have" as both an opinion and fact. They're aware of Matt's continued oopsy-woopsy fucky-wuckies. PS. The fact he's gone off-site to harass predstrogen further while on sabbatical could not have gone unnoticed and reflects exceptionally poorly on both companies. This is why "including the privacy".

The reality of predstrogen's suspension was not accurately conveyed, and made it seem like we were reaching for opportunities to ban trans feminine people on the platform. This is not the case. The example comment shared in the post linked above does not meet our definition of a realistic threat of violence, and was not the deciding factor in the account suspension.

Doubles down on Matt fucking up, and states the "exploding car covered with hammers" is not a credible threat. This means Matt's reasoning is tossed out the window entirely. If that post was somehow the deciding factor in completely nuking the blog, then that ought to be reversed yesterday. This, to my knowledge, has not happened - meaning there's something else. (note that what is effectively a kys is still not a very nice thing to ever post though) To which, this post has explained why they can't discuss the actual reasons - which I admit sucks tremendously, but it's clear their hands are tied: it's policy. Fairly standard, tbh. But also:

An outside team of contractors tasked with applying community labels to posts were responsible for this larger trend of mislabeling trans-related content. When our Trust & Safety team discovered this issue (thanks largely to reports from the community), we removed the contracted team’s ability to apply community labels and added more oversight to ensure it does not happen again. In the Staff post about this, LGBTQ+ staff pushed to be more transparent but were overruled by leadership.

I hate that there was an outside team involved, because it's indicative of a larger problem. (especially since they mislabeled things and weren't caught until users spoke out. What the fuck) Following that up with being "overruled by leadership" in regards to transparency is pretty damning. It's vague enough as to not single anyone out, but this whole paragraph essentially states "our management sucks". I read this paragraph and believe that the folks behind this post are trying to carefully dart around while sticking their necks out. This isn't for PR purposes.

We prohibit harassment as defined in our Community Guidelines, but we know that this policy falls short of protecting users from the wider scope of harmful speech often used against LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people.

More on why I don't think this is a PR post: this basically agrees with the userbase in admitting they're failing in actually enforcing the rules. You don't openly admit that easily, even on tumblr where posts get a "an atempt was made" sticker for less. Putting this after the point on leadership is pretty scathing, to me.

And now the finale:

Going forward, Tumblr is taking the following actions: Prioritizing anti-harassment features that will empower users to more effectively protect themselves from harassment.

This is too vague, but leadership has previously overruled transparency. Still, the rest of their post has me hopeful for a follow-up before matt's sabbatical ends.

Building more internal tooling for us as Staff to proactively identify and mitigate instances of harassment.

I do not like the use of the word "proactively" without explanation, but this could very well mean a change in how easily new blogs can be made, and then some.

Reviewing which of the tags frequently used by the trans community are blocked, and working to make them available next week.

We know it will take time to regain your trust, and we’re going to put in the work to rebuild it.

If they pull this one off, that's step one of many on the road to rebuilding trust. Which was and is already plenty shaky even outside of this one instance of a blog-nuke by a tantrum-throwing CEO.

We appreciate the space we have been given to express our concerns and dissent, and we are thankful that Matt’s (and Automattic’s) strong commitment to freedom of expression has facilitated it.

Of course they're thankful they can work for The Company and can use the staff account to write this post, but "facilitated" is a curious word to use here. To me, thanks to that, this paragraph reads as "we're thankful for the public meltdown - lol, lmao even - so we can finally push for better moderation tools".

Despite me being okay with most of this post - I urge everyone to stay exceptionally critical. Don't clown on Matt and instead realize tumblr has a huge management-issue in trying to deal with harassment and moderation especially towards the LGBTQ+ - which they've just publicly admitted. There's many steps towards the userbase trusting staff again. For starters, staff has to reverse the blocked labels; try hard to reverse the damage done by an outside team; find a proactive way to stop harassment, and give everyone a free blog badge with an exploding car covered in hammers provide more transparency as to what they're actually doing to make this hellsite a good place to hang. PS. HINT: explain why support doesn't communicate well and somehow can't stop folks - especially in marginalized groups - from getting their shit wrongfully banned. Thank you for reading. It's past 4 AM as I press "Add to queue". Bye.

A message from a few of the trans staff at Tumblr & Automattic:

We want trans people, and LGBTQ+ people broadly, to feel welcome on Tumblr, in part because we as trans people at Tumblr and Automattic want it to be a space where we ourselves feel included. We want to feel like this is a platform that supports us and fights for our safety. Tumblr is made brighter and more vibrant by your presence, and the LGBTQ+ folks who help run it are fighting all the time for this, for you, internally. 

A few days ago, Matt Mullenweg (the CEO of Automattic, Tumblr’s parent company) responded to a user’s ask about an account suspension in a way that negatively affected Tumblr’s LGBTQ+ community. We believe that Matt's response to this ask and his continued commentary has been unwarranted and harmful. Tumblr staff do not comment on moderation decisions as a matter of policy for a variety of reasons—including the privacy of those involved, and the practicalities of moderating thousands of reports a day. The downside of this policy is that it is very easy for rumors and incorrect information about actions taken by our Trust & Safety team to spread unchecked. Given this, we want to clarify a few different pieces of this situation:

The reality of predstrogen's suspension was not accurately conveyed, and made it seem like we were reaching for opportunities to ban trans feminine people on the platform. This is not the case. The example comment shared in the post linked above does not meet our definition of a realistic threat of violence, and was not the deciding factor in the account suspension.

Matt thereafter failed to recognize the harm to the community as a result of this suspension. Matt does not speak on behalf of the LGBTQ+ people who help run Tumblr or Automattic, and we were not consulted in the construction of a response to these events.

Last year, the "mature" and "sexual themes" community labels were erroneously applied to some users' posts. An outside team of contractors tasked with applying community labels to posts were responsible for this larger trend of mislabeling trans-related content. When our Trust & Safety team discovered this issue (thanks largely to reports from the community), we removed the contracted team’s ability to apply community labels and added more oversight to ensure it does not happen again. In the Staff post about this, LGBTQ+ staff pushed to be more transparent but were overruled by leadership. The termination of a contractor mentioned in the original ask response was for an unrelated incident which was incorrectly attributed to this case. We regret that the mislabeling ever happened, and the negative impact it has had on the trans community on Tumblr. 

Transition timelines are not against our community guidelines, and weren’t a factor considered by the moderation team when discussing suspensions and subsequent appeals. We do not take action against content that is related to transitioning or trans bodies unless it includes violations of the Community Guidelines.

When it comes to the experience of trans folks on Tumblr encountering transphobic content, and interacting with bigoted users, we understand and share your frustrations. Tumblr’s policies, and Automattic’s policies, are written to ensure freedom of speech and expression. We prohibit harassment as defined in our Community Guidelines, but we know that this policy falls short of protecting users from the wider scope of harmful speech often used against LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people.

Going forward, Tumblr is taking the following actions:

Prioritizing anti-harassment features that will empower users to more effectively protect themselves from harassment.

Building more internal tooling for us as Staff to proactively identify and mitigate instances of harassment.

Reviewing which of the tags frequently used by the trans community are blocked, and working to make them available next week.

We’re sorry for how this all transpired, and we’re actively fighting to make our voices heard more and prevent something like this from happening again in the future. We know firsthand that having to deal with situations like this as a Tumblr user is difficult, particularly as a member of an already frequently targeted and harassed community. We know it will take time to regain your trust, and we’re going to put in the work to rebuild it.

We appreciate the space we have been given to express our concerns and dissent, and we are thankful that Matt’s (and Automattic’s) strong commitment to freedom of expression has facilitated it.

We will continue to fight to make Tumblr safe for us all.

— This statement was authored by multiple trans employees of Tumblr and Automattic.

[starseedfxofficial]

Directional Movement Index Gold Strategy: Uncover Hidden Trends The Underground Guide to Trading Gold with the Directional Movement Index Alright, let’s talk about the Directional Movement Index (DMI) and gold, and why trading gold isn’t just your regular “buy low, sell high” game. It’s like gold itself: shiny, tempting, but oh boy, can it be heavy if you don’t know how to carry it. So grab your metaphorical pickaxe—we’re diving into some gold-mining tactics with the DMI that you won’t hear in most trading circles. And yes, I’ll sprinkle in some jokes, because digging for gold should be fun—just watch out for those trading pitfalls that are as common as fool’s gold. The Hidden Formula Only Experts Use: Mastering DMI for Gold Let’s start by uncovering what makes the Directional Movement Index such a big deal when it comes to trading gold. The DMI—a part of the broader Average Directional Index (ADX) created by J. Welles Wilder—is all about identifying the strength of a trend. You know, like deciding if that one trend at the gym is worth jumping on, or just another short-lived phase. Gold, being a precious metal and all, has a trend personality of its own. It doesn't always move like a currency pair or a stock—it’s more like that friend who's hard to pin down but is a total gem when you finally do. DMI helps you catch those sweet gold trends. It’s composed of two lines: the +DI and –DI, which show directional momentum. Think of +DI as the cheerleader shouting "gold is going up!" and –DI as the doomsayer murmuring "gold's about to drop." And much like a sitcom plot twist, when those lines cross, it’s time to pay attention. Why Most Traders Get It Wrong (And How You Can Avoid It) Many traders approach gold with either too much confidence or too little patience—kind of like buying a pair of on-sale shoes that you just know you’re never going to wear. When it comes to gold, you need to understand that it’s driven by more than just technical charts. Factors like inflation fears, currency volatility, and even political turmoil come into play. But here’s where the DMI can give you an edge: it helps you stay on the right side of those swings when others are just panicking. When the +DI is above the –DI, it signals bullish momentum. However, just seeing those lines cross is not enough. You need the backup of the ADX—if ADX is above 25, it means the trend is strong enough to be worth the risk. Otherwise, you’re like that guy in the background of an action movie, hoping not to get caught in the blast. The Forgotten Strategy That Outsmarted the Pros Now, here’s a little-known nugget of gold-trading wisdom. Most traders forget to look at the broader context, focusing only on the DMI crosses. But here's the thing—combining DMI with economic indicators like the PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) gives you an extra layer of insight. Gold prices tend to react strongly to shifts in economic confidence, which PMI gauges perfectly. If you see a positive PMI release alongside a strong +DI signal on gold, it’s time to move—preferably before the rest of the market wakes up and notices. An example from last year: gold made a significant move up when the U.S. PMI numbers outperformed expectations, and the DMI showed a clear bullish trend. Traders who were only looking at price charts were late to the party—but those using PMI data with their DMI had the champagne already popped. How to Predict Market Moves with Precision So how do you use the DMI to predict those juicy gold moves with ninja-level precision? The secret is in combining the DMI with trendlines on your gold chart. Yeah, I know—trendlines might sound like technical analysis 101. But hear me out: if you see a trendline break that aligns with the +DI crossing above –DI and the ADX over 25, that’s like hitting a hat trick in Forex terms. You’re layering evidence—like a detective on a case—to ensure the odds are in your favor. If the stars align and you have positive global macroeconomic data (like a weakening dollar, hint hint), then you might just have a golden opportunity—pun entirely intended. Why Patience Is the Name of the Game (And Why Most Traders Don’t Have It) The DMI isn’t a “hot tip” machine. It’s an indicator that rewards those who are willing to wait for solid signals. Think of it like fishing for goldfish—you need to wait for just the right nibble before reeling in. Traders often jump in too soon, seeing a cross of the +DI and –DI without considering whether the ADX is strong enough to support the move. My favorite anecdote? A trader friend of mine once compared the DMI without ADX confirmation to trusting a weather forecast that only gives you "cloudy." Without knowing if those clouds are storm clouds or just fluff, you could be packing an umbrella for nothing. The One Simple Trick That Can Change Your Trading Mindset Here’s the golden (yes, again with the puns) mindset shift: view trading gold with the DMI as a marathon, not a sprint. Picture gold as an elusive creature—it doesn’t care if you’re in a rush. By patiently waiting for solid DMI signals backed by ADX strength, and cross-referencing with real-world data like inflation reports or the PMI, you’re setting yourself up for success while most others are scrambling over fake breakouts. Take for example the trend in 2023: we had multiple DMI signals on gold, but only a handful of those were followed by strong ADX readings. Those who exercised patience and didn’t fall for every directional cross ended up catching the biggest moves—while the rest had to deal with those uncomfortable drawdowns. Trust me, it’s better than that sinking feeling when you accidentally sell instead of buy. Dig, Don’t Pan Trading gold with the Directional Movement Index isn’t about striking it rich overnight. It’s about strategically digging for those opportunities, leveraging the ADX for trend strength, and cross-referencing with real-world economic data to ensure you’re on the right track. Stay disciplined, stay patient, and remember—if gold was easy to trade, everyone would be sitting on a pile of it. So, let’s recap: - Use DMI to identify trends: +DI and –DI crossings are important, but only if backed by ADX strength. - Combine with macro data: Check out PMI reports or inflation data for that extra validation. - Be patient: Gold trends take time. Let them play out instead of chasing every flicker of movement. Want more exclusive insights, real-time indicators, and next-level methodologies? Check out the links below for services that can take your gold trading game from "fool’s gold" to the real deal. - Latest Economic Indicators and Forex News: Stay informed here - Forex Education for Advanced Methodologies: Learn more - Community Membership for Live Insights: Join us - Smart Trading Tool for Optimized Trades: Check it out Happy gold hunting, traders! —————– Image Credits: Cover image at the top is AI-generated   Read the full article

[madelynbatchelor]

Social Media Ethics

Social media is a constantly evolving world and different platforms will always have different trending topics. When it comes to social media many discuss the ethics of it and what is the correct reaction to certain topics discussed on the platform. 

A big trend currently is the rise of AI technologies and the discussion around ethics. AI is widely popular and while some say it gives us new opportunities, others are concerned about the hurt it can cause. AI has improved content moderation on social media platforms and is used to detect and remove harmful content for viewers. However, some say AI algorithms are reinforcing biases as they could struggle to understand certain posts and remove them without reason. AI is also known to spread misinformation with realistic videos or audio recordings that can manipulate viewers and create false narratives. This can quickly spread false information and cause viewers to lose trust in the media. 

One case I can mention related to social media ethics happened a while back and left a big impact on the industry and this creator's career. An influencer by the name of Mikayla Nogueira is a makeup guru on TikTok and was caught in a scandal a while back after faking an advertisement. She was paid to promote a Lorealparisusa mascara and was found to have posted the video and cut it after one coat of mascara. After coming back with the second coat of mascara her audience found that she had put on false eyelashes with the mascara to make it look better. This shows how Mikayla was trying to manipulate her audience into buying the mascara with a dishonest review about it. She thought the mascara wasn’t that good and had to put on false eyelashes to enhance it yet still took the money from the brand and promoted it to her viewers. 

Another case I want to speak about is James Charles, a famous makeup YouTuber who has been in many controversies throughout his career. James was found to have been using his influence and fame to flirt with straight men online which many fans found to be an abuse of his position as a public figure. Many men had come forward stating that they had informed him that they were straight and uncomfortable with the flirting. James was shown to be manipulating these men with his popularity and pull in the industry. His viewers quickly saw the ugly truths that were coming out and it made him lose millions of fans shortly after. 

An organization I would join would be Skims as it focuses on inclusivity, body positivity, and diversity. I would be interested in joining their social media staff as it promotes diversity and inclusion which speaks to a wide range of people. A brand that welcomes so many different people while challenging the narrowing beauty standards is rare. This brand is also very honest and transparent with its buyers and openly discusses its product quality, sourcing, and design process. As part of their social media team, I’d be glad to be able to contribute to sharing real information that educates and informs an audience. 

I believe a brand I can mention that utilizes proper social media ethics would be Skims, a fashion and shape wear brand founded by Kim Kardashian. The brand is all about being inclusive and you can tell based on their social media advertising and campaigns. Kim is very inclusive when selecting who she wants modeling the brand and has selected women of all skin tones, and shapes, and even started a brand for men as well. Skims has shot up in popularity due to its great marketing and high quality. The brand is known for its skin-toned colors that are available in various colors that create a more inclusive experience. The brand speaks to a wide range of customers. 

Emma Chamberlain is a YouTuber, social media influencer, and entrepreneur that I believe practices strong ethical behavior on social media. She used to be my favorite YouTuber and I watched all of her videos however, she no longer posts as much due to mental health concerns. But Emma has always stayed true to her audience and is a big advocate for mental health and staying true to yourself. She openly discusses topics of the importance of self-care and encourages her followers to take breaks when they need to. This helped her to create a positive and supportive community within her followers as she has never lied about the flaws and struggles she deals with. 

As a teenage girl who is on social media often and follows trends and news constantly, I believe I’ve learned what an audience is looking for. I would be very transparent with viewers as that is what they're looking for, whether in a brand like Skims or an influencer like Emma Chamberlain, building a positive community is what people look for. Sharing a space where anyone is allowed will always be popular because it's inclusive. I would also be real whether it’s referring to what I’m feeling or what issues I’m dealing with. When I watched Emma I found that her transparency with her audience is what made people want to watch her and the realness she exhibited with what mental health issues she was dealing with really comforted her viewers. 

Transparency and inclusivity are concepts I think are necessary to adhere to as this is what brings honesty to viewers and helps to build a sense of community. Transparency with viewers helps to build a relationship between you and your audience that is both honest and trusting. Transparency also builds a foundation for a positive community where people feel safe watching you and can believe what you have to say. I also believe that inclusivity is an important concept as it allows for more people to watch you and feel comfortable knowing that you accept and welcome all. 

I believe that I would avoid the spread of misinformation as it is already such a popular concept yet only spreads negativity. I would never want to be someone that people believe hurts social media as a whole and I would also never want viewers to believe they can’t trust what I’m saying. I would also never promote a product I don’t truly believe in as this is also a popular concept that only misleads and manipulates viewers. As a viewer, I never trust anyone endorsing a product due to the thoughts of them doing it for a check and I would never want an audience to believe this in regards to me. 

I would follow the act of being real with viewers or buyers as it builds trust and presents you as what you truly are. I would also follow the concept of being truthful in advertising as so many ads already deliver false promises to buyers, being truthful helps you to stand out. To be truthful with advertising would also help you to gain a supportive fanbase as buyers would realize what you are selling is accurate. I’d also make sure to give credit when it's due as nobody wants to steal ideas and claim them as their own. Even if you get inspired by somebody else you should allow them the credit and allow them to gain the support they deserve. I would also make sure to avoid spreading fake news as it is already such a popular aspect of social media. I would verify the credibility of news or information before sharing it with an audience and make sure to fact-check before posting something. I’d also be sure to be inclusive and diverse in all aspects, allowing anyone to show support knowing that I support everyone as well. I would want my audience to feel that anyone is welcome whether that be through language, imagery, or singular posts. 

https://designstripe.com/blog/social-media-ethical-guidelines

https://www.ocoya.com/blog/social-media-ethics-guide

https://out-smarts.com/2022/02/12-rules-for-ethical-social-media-marketing/