#because this show needs numbers please

[kiwibirdlafayette]

would. would yall be mad if i pinned the gomens mianite AU drawings. Would you

[griancraft]

Hi guys, this is sort of my official "please, for the love of god, listen to Skyjacks with me” post because I’m losing my mind and all the content I can find is from the latest stuff right now, and I don’t want to spoil myself. I want to be able to talk about this with people!!!! I will make a watch (listen) party discord if there is enough interest. Just give it a chance; you won’t regret it. Also, some information may be wrong or outdated. I’m on episode 11 out of over 200.

Skyjacks is a ttrpg podcast about sky pirates in a world where there was a catastrophe about 200 years ago that left the sea unsafe to sail and maybe even damaged the entire world to the point where civilization is scattered and in small groups. There is very casual queer rep, and it’s casual to the point where it really just fits into the world perfectly.

A brief summary of the premise of the first episode will hopefully get you hooked. I’m really bad at summaries, but I promise it’s a billion times better than how I talked about it here:

Captain Orimar Vale is dead, and a mutiny will be on Gable, Jonnit, Travis, and Dref’s hands if they are unable to keep up the ruse of him being alive. To do this, necromancy (deeply forbidden magic) is performed by the Dref, the ship's doctor, to turn him into a semi-functional zombie. Captain Orimar is famous for his abilities as a captain; to replicate this will take great skill.

As they run out of supplies, they make a desperate decision: port on the land of one of Orimar’s scorned lovers or deal with the growing uneasiness of the rest of the crew. They haven’t seen their captain healthy in months, and whispers about his health are starting. However, greater danger will await them when they take to the skies again, lurking just beyond the clouds…

And more propaganda as to why I think you guys will like it:

There are unique and interesting gameplay mechanics they use to tell a really cool story, and if you like Hermitcraft or any other sorta storytelling-based SMP, I promise you’ll like it. Like. If you liked Boatem from Hermitcraft 8, you’ll love the characters in Skyjacks. The players are exceptionally good at playing their characters, their humour is unmatched by anything similar I’ve had the pleasure of seeing, and the story is prioritized, which I think is an amazing choice.

Best part? It’s still ongoing after, like, 5 years. Some people have left, but a good chunk of the OG cast has stayed. Not that leaving is bad, because holy crap, 5 years is a long time, and stories have to end at some point! It’s a good way of getting into something and knowing there is still a shit ton of content to be explored.

The music is good. The story is good. The characters and humour are amazing. The lore of the world is sprinkled throughout, and as you learn more about the world, the more excited you get. It’s incredible so far, and if you decide to listen to it, I will actually love you forever and ever. My boyfriend is on episode 190, and he finds it so funny every time I go. Oh my god, this is so cool.

Link to the podcast, but in a playlist (up to 180). So it’s in order and easy to find, since it’s a part of something else from the oneshot network:

[cuoredimuschio]

okay, but where's my steddie AU where steve wants to learn to play guitar to impress a girl he's infatuated with and he remembers that munson kid was always hanging up posters for his weird band at school, so he hikes out to eddie's usual dealing spot behind the track and asks (with far less groveling than he really should have) if eddie will teach him how to play, and obviously eddie says no because why would he want to help king steve, but of course, steve offers to pay him, $20 a week, and well, that's the kind of get-the-hell-out-of-this-shithole-town cash eddie really can't afford to refuse, so fine, he'll teach steve to play and they'll spend inordinate amounts of time together tucked away in eddie's room and they'll start to see that they have more in common than they thought and that they kind of had each other all wrong, and eddie will put his hand over steve's to help him get the placement for a tricky chord and it totally won't awaken anything in either of them?? where is it??

edit: i started writing it

[plushri]

250,000 people turned up in London for Palestine yesterday! Make the next demonstration on Saturday 9th March even bigger, please show up if you can.

If you're in the UK, email your MPs and urge them to support the potential motion for ceasefire in Gaza tabled for 21st February.

All you have to do is enter your postcode at the site will generate an email to your MP for you! Then autofill your information and it will send the email. It takes a few seconds. No ceasefire, no vote!

From the river to the sea 🇵🇸❤️

[dramadramallama]

your honor,

this might sound very specific—and it is—but do you know how much i yearn for easy, quick, normal, simple, no slow-mo, just everyday regular SMOOCHING in romance kdramas?

you'd think it'd be as common a thing to witness as dramatic make-out sessions under the rain, or love confessions during the first snowfall of the year, BUT honest to god these quick kisses are the rarest of pokémons. and i am always so stupidly thrilled when we have a newly established couple just act like... a newly established couple????

please let me see them giggle and be disgusting and childish like, this is what i signed up for?? they're supposed to be freshly in love and high on the fact they're being loved back!!! they're supposed to be silly with it!

anyway, all this to say, thank you the story of park's marriage contract for giving me exactly, and i mean eXACTLY, what i want out of two fictional people in love. candid moments.

i rest my case.

[eoinmcgonigal]

I'm so sorry I can't take the Dudley-breaks-the-news-of-Eve's-supposed-death scene seriously AT ALL. It's hilarious! It's the reason why I'm a Dudley/Eve conspiracy nut, for fun, but let me explain the reasons this scene leaves me with no sanity.

First, it's important to know that the Qattara Depression, where Dudley says Eve's plane went down, is WEST of Alexandria (off to the left, on a map). Cairo is to the east/right of Alexandria. There is no way a plane headed from Alexandria to Cairo would go west.

So, from west (left) to east (right) we have: the Qattara Depression - Alexandria - the sandstorm Dudley says happened - Cairo.

Now, this is in a show that's playing fancy-dress-up-costume with history, and moved Kabrit from where it actually is (east of the Nile, by the Suez Canal) to a few hundred miles into the desert west of the Nile. Option one in the Eve plane story mystery is that the showrunners just didn't give a shit about where a place was, they simply slapped a name in there because they'd read/heard about it, and figured no one would know or bother to check. That would be on par for the show. (And the racist assumption that no one's going to know/care/bother to check where these places are - I very much doubt we're going to find them playing fast and loose with the location of European places.)

Anyway, leaving aside the option that makes me spit incredulous venom, I have a far more amusing second option to put forward:

Dudley was making shit up.

Which is extra fucking funny because Stirling, having been out in the desert, should very much know where the Qattara Depresison is. Dudley would know that Stirling should know. He'd be cackling internally at Stirling falling for it.

I don't know if I believe a word of what Dudley said, it makes no sense, but David not noticing the inconsistency means either anyone watching the show who knows vaugely where places in Egypt are just have to shriek in intense discomfort, or David is a complete and utter dumbass when it comes to remembering where places are.

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

do you think they’ll at least do a dvd box set now that it’s over 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[solradguy]

Even though I'm like perpetually elbows-deep in Guilty Gear media of some kind, I sometimes still forget that most of the cast aren't actually transgender lol Like what do you mean Venom doesn't have top scars?? You're telling me Sol's cis with a waist like that??? They are trans in my heart regardless. I don't think Mr Ishiwatari would mind

[honeysucklethornsandalligtrhorns]

bouta start shamlessly interacting with things. who cares if theres already a bajillion comments, i liked it too! i have my own thoughts an opinions on things and its time to share em even if nobody agrees/sees em!! imma like whatever post i wanna like and scream so so so loud in the tags. I APPRECIATE YOU!!! EVEN IF YOU DONT REALIZE/SEE IT!!!

[tiistirtipii]

Hiii! How about 14 and 17 for the ask game? 💕

Hii 💕 thanks for asking me the questions! Sorry I went a little overboard with my answers but they were a lot of fun to write.

14. bl you think is underrated

There’s a few really great shows that come to mind like Triage and Vice Versa but the first one I thought of was actually My Secret Love. It aired May this year but I don’t remember seeing many people talking about it. Probably because the premise is pretty straightforward, set in University, enemies to lovers, nothing particularly genre defying or unpredictable. I think it’s underrated because it features a lot of great friendships and some of my favourite relationship tropes and is a well made enjoyable show.

It has the essential Enemies to Lovers but also my favourite underrated trope of Best Friends to Lovers. As well as an adorable established relationship couple and the cute fan and idol style relationship Bomb and Bear have. All four couples are very likeable and are successful in having their own individual storylines without making the show feel too cramped. The show balances it’s lightheartedness and jokes with it’s more emotional scenes while it starts off quite unserious, it becomes a bit more intense as the show progresses. I don’t think it’s the greatest show ever and it’s not one of my favourites but for some reason it’s the show I thought of when I saw the question. I definitely recommend giving it a watch and, if you do, let me know what you think.

17. best kiss

No contest. Didn’t even have to think about it. Bad Buddy episode 5 rooftop scene is the best kiss scene hands down. The range of emotions I felt watching it. The way Ohm and Nanon put their whole souls into that kiss. And the scenes leading up to it? The building of tension throughout the whole episode culminating in ’Do you want us to be friends?’ ‘No.’ Makes me crazy. The first part of the kiss followed by the slow separation and then Pran pulling Pat in to kiss him again like it’s the only time he will ever get to do it? Actually makes me insane. The music. The hands in each others hair. The absolute heartbreak you can feel them both go through at the end. Pat’s sadness coming only after Pran leaves because for a second he is just so happy that he finally understands his feelings and that they are reciprocated and it’s beautiful but him soon realising that it’s not all okay and that it’s never going to be that simple for them. I can’t fathom a scene that could possibly beat it and I wish I could watch it again for the first time every day.

Honorary mention to my favourite kiss of the year which is the Eclipse episode 6 imaginary kiss. I know it’s not real but the fact is we all thought it was, for everyone watching, Akk and Ayan’s feelings for each other had been slowly building and the tension had been building almost imperceptibly throughout the episodes and they went from enemies to more than enemies so smoothly that you could barely pinpoint when their feelings appeared or even when they became aware of those feelings. The kiss seemed like a solid awareness of those feelings from both sides and presented a vulnerability from both characters that we had yet to see (even if it was fake vulnerability). And maybe because we watching knew these characters weren’t aware enough of their feelings to kiss each other that the kiss seemed that much more intense? Because despite not understanding their feelings for each other and still being enemies they were kissing anyway. Like once they started they were only drawn further in and got lost in it. Plus of course the scenes leading up to it that made it that much more real being the intense and emotional beach scene and the tension of the locker room scene where they 100% would have kissed if they hadn’t been interrupted. Also it’s super funny that everyone was waxing poetic about the kiss and what it meant for their relationship only for us all to get clowned as soon as the next episode came out.

Basically first kiss scenes are my favourite thing ever because I love the tension and emotions and everything about them and you should never (always) ask me about first kiss scenes because I will go crazy talking about how much I love them.

[sharkneto]

Top TEN orville

TEN I short changed you with 5 T-T

1. Daytona Sand

2. Lafayette

3. Take You Back (The Iron Hoof Cattle Call)

4. C'mon Baby, Cry

5. Hope To Die

6. Turn to Hate/Winds Change

7. Let Me Drown/Curse of the Blackened Eye

8. Hexie Mountains

9. Any Turn

10. Drive Me, Crazy/No Glory in the West

[subjectsix]

I don't know I'm not done talking about it. It's insane that I can't just uninstall Edge or Copilot. That websites require my phone number to sign up. That people share their contacts to find their friends on social media.

I wouldn't use an adblocker if ads were just banners on the side funding a website I enjoy using and want to support. Ads pop up invasively and fill my whole screen, I misclick and get warped away to another page just for trying to read an article or get a recipe.

Every app shouldn't be like every other app. Instagram didn't need reels and a shop. TikTok doesn't need a store. Instagram doesn't need to be connected to Facebook. I don't want my apps to do everything, I want a hub for a specific thing, and I'll go to that place accordingly.

I love discord, but so much information gets lost to it. I don't want to join to view things. I want to lurk on forums. I want to be a user who can log in and join a conversation by replying to a thread, even if that conversation was two days ago. I know discord has threads, it's not the same. I don't want to have to verify my account with a phone number. I understand safety and digital concerns, but I'm concerned about information like that with leaks everywhere, even with password managers.

I shouldn't have to pay subscriptions to use services and get locked out of old versions. My old disk copy of photoshop should work. I should want to upgrade eventually because I like photoshop and supporting the business. Adobe is a whole other can of worms here.

Streaming is so splintered across everything. Shows release so fast. Things don't get physical releases. I can't stream a movie I own digitally to friends because the share-screen blocks it, even though I own two digital copies, even though I own a physical copy.

I have an iPod, and I had to install a third party OS to easily put my music on it without having to tangle with iTunes. Spotify bricked hardware I purchased because they were unwillingly to upkeep it. They don't pay their artists. iTunes isn't even iTunes anymore and Apple struggles to upkeep it.

My TV shows me ads on the home screen. My dad lost access to eBook he purchased because they were digital and got revoked by the company distributing them. Hitman 1-3 only runs online most of the time. Flash died and is staying alive because people love it and made efforts to keep it up.

I have to click "not now" and can't click "no". I don't just get emails, they want to text me to purchase things online too. My windows start search bar searches online, not just my computer. Everything is blindly called an app now. Everything wants me to upload to the cloud. These are good tools! But why am I forced to use them! Why am I not allowed to own or control them?

No more!!!!! I love my iPod with so much storage and FLAC files. I love having all my fics on my harddrive. I love having USBs and backups. I love running scripts to gut suck stuff out of my Windows computer I don't want that spies on me. I love having forums. I love sending letters. I love neocities and webpages and webrings. I will not be scanning QR codes. Please hand me a physical menu. If I didn't need a smartphone for work I'd get a "dumb" phone so fast. I want things to have buttons. I want to use a mouse. I want replaceable batteries. I want the right to repair. I grew up online and I won't forget how it was!

[buttercuparry]

In less than two months it will be October 7th again.

In less than two months, it will be a year of genocide. 

In light of this, I just have only one request for you; please do not give into whatever you are describing as “compassion fatigue” right now.

Realize that this is exactly what the colonizers conducting this genocide want you to feel. Realize that apathy during a genocide is what leads to the normalization of atrocities. Realize that this is a tried and tested method found throughout history; that now when the genocide is been widely documented by Gazans themselves- the only way the colonizers can get away with it is by running you down and making you feel hopeless!

They want you to stop caring about their victims and this is why you need to fight harder now more than ever!!

I request you to fight harder for every Gazan! And therefore request you to fight for my friend Siraj Abudayeh too, whose family recently faced another assault. His parents and siblings had to flee to him for protection, because their areas ( Hamad, southern Khan Younis) were marked for assault from occupation forces. With the number of people depending on him increased now, Siraj has a much heavier responsibility on his shoulders to raise enough funds to support all of them and their needs, when prices of food water and other essentials are already skyrocketing.

With the coming of the rainy season, there comes the danger of epidemics spreading from open sewers as well! Siraj’s son Amir has already fallen ill, and his other two sons are showing symptoms too- they are in dire need of medical treatment! I cannot overstate how badly Siraj and his family need these funds!! How badly he needs your continuous support.

There has been a significant drop in engagement with fundraising posts and I very clearly remember, someone tagging one of my posts with compassion fatigue. It shocked me to my core to think that the cries of Free Palestine could fade so suddenly; that after only a year some of you have begun to feel fatigued, from having to care about this.

Do not give in please; do not let the colonizers make you complicit in this horror! They know that if they can overwhelm you enough, then one day the videos and posts would stop hitting as hard and sooner or later everyone will stop talking about Palestine. This cannot happen again! Not when your attention can literally save a life! This is the power you hold- especially if you are living in the Imperial core. The colonizers are afraid of it. You have to know this and believe this!

So please do not turn away and help Siraj get to 50k as soon as possible!

He is currently only at $45,044 / $82,000 CAD

[ GFM LINK ]

[ Vetting at 219 on Hussein's spreadsheet]

And if you are having trouble donating to Siraj's fundraiser through Paypal, please get in touch with @malcriada .

[the-physicality]

every time we played phoenix, it was always a competitive game

Tina Thompson, Sheryl Swoopes, and Cynthia Cooper reminisce on playing the mercury and with dt

[lilyaceofdiamonds]

“Oh THAT’s why you aren’t SLEEPING, you’re STRESSED about your upcoming TRIP!”

Jfc say it a little *louder* next time, the Adults twenty feet away in the next room only *probably* heard you instead of definitely. I swear, these kids have never kept secrets from adults in their lives.

[barabones]

I forget exactly where I saw the initial post asking for volunteers, but on July 10th, I reached out to the listed email. Jane, the organizer, got back to me right away and within an hour I was added in their discord.

Up until this point, I had been maintaining an average 8 ESims myself, so I already had experience checking in on them on a daily basis. The folks there helped me onboard with the spreadsheets for keeping track, and now it's very easy for me to catalog new ones I buy and record daily data usage. The whole process takes me maybe 20-40 minutes a day depending now on how many ESims actually need to be topped off.

Jane has been very up front with lots of the group's information, with frequent announcements about the groups current funds and amounts of daily ESims sent out. She and the others have been super helpful with getting funds to us when needed, and I've almost never had to actually spend any of my own money for any of this.

In the time that I've been volunteering, they figured out how to run a Business account with the Nomad ESim company. Which means that now and then they can just send 15 or so ESims my way, and I just catalog them and send the QRcodes towards Mirna and the Connecting Gaza folks. No more wasting time with the purchasing process, while getting a bit of a bulk discount on top of that.

We also share updates on whatever brand of ESims are most needed. When folks on the ground tell us that one network doesn't seem reliable, we are able to switch over for a while until either the networking issue is fixed, or we all pressure customer service enough to replace them for us.

There's also lots of complaining about new UI updates an general website bugs. There's surprisingly a lot of them and it's good to know other folks are getting info from customer service when things go wrong.

In August they made a meme channel

Anyways....

Lets get into some stats for myself. In 2 months (July 10- Sept12) I have:

Send off 171 ESims

Maintained around 60 active ones

Topped up these active ESims 139 times

Spend over $6400 donated dollars

I have multiple power users who have burned through close to 100GB. 2 of them have broken 200GB. These are most likely being used as hot spots.

Why am I sharing all of this? Mostly to show how easy it has been to make a marginal difference. I have helped at least 60 people stay connected with the outside world in just 2 months. Probably more if we assume some of the power users becoming hotspots for other folks. This is 20-40 minutes of my time a day, and I honestly regret not signing up to do this sooner.

I was specifically limiting myself to this workload because I wanted to test the waters. Those stats was me specifically not wanting to push myself and see what impact a normal person could make with 20 minutes a day. At this point I think I will be taking more advantage of Nomad's Tuesday discounts to really bulk up my numbers. It's pretty easy to buy 15 or so every Tuesday, and then send em over.

If you would like to join us in this endeavor, please reach out to Jane at cripsforesimsforgaza(at)gmail

We are specifically looking for people in European time zones, since a lot of us are in the Americas and that's quite a difference between us and Gaza. If not, that's no problem!

If you can't participate, that's totally fine, but please donate what you can! Folks like you are the ones who keep us going!

I hope this information has been useful in some way. Like I said, I wish I had heard about this group sooner, with how easy it has been to do. I can track my direct impact of what my daily time is doing for folks, and seeing the data be used up a little bit more day by day gives me hope for everyone in Gaza. Thank you for your time.