#bjk talks

[blackjackkent]

Occasionally I think about the fact that I probably have (most of) the technical skills to build a serviceable Tumblr alternative in the event of The Collapse, and have an investment in the culture and preservation/enabling of fandom creation, and I start wondering again about whether it would be a good idea to make an attempt.

And then I always run up against the elephant in the room which is cost. The cost of maintaining a site like this at scale must be astronomical. Vast numbers of servers for redundancy and global endpoints, processing power to handle millions of simultaneous requests, database storage for an exponentially growing amount of posts and reblog information, and then the image hosting requirements, my god... and the human non-automated moderation that people want...

I already spend a sizable chunk of change just keeping RPThreadTracker running and that thing is TINY.

This is why I get a little frustrated at the kneejerk aversion to any sort of monetary support by the Tumblr userbase; I think a lot of people just don't fathom that if you want a FREE site and community of this size and robustness, money still HAS to be involved somewhere. A LOT of money. Which means our options are:

A powerful corporate interest

Having our data sold to the highest bidder

User participation in donations and optional purchases

Tumblr has a combination of 1 and 3 which allows us to avoid 2, and yet people constantly spit in the face of 3 and then wonder why the whole situation is so fragile.

Anyway, all this to say that I need some extraordinarily rich person who is at home in the Tumblr ecosystem to come out of the woodwork. I just wanna talk.

[blackjackkent]

Whoops. O.O;

[blackjackkent]

Things are starting to get weird in my "young Jaheira for screenshots" playthrough. XD

I amuse myself. XD

[dracimexidae]

Love is all around 🫶🇮🇹 The Italian team congratulate Lucia Bronzetti after her opening match victory 🤗

[criaturisma]

i won today …

[blackjackkent]

The one I always heard was a PEBCAK error. XD

"Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard"

[sapwine-and-starcharts]

2, 10, 12, 17, 19, and 28 for the ask game ^_^

So 2 and 10 were answered HERE but they weren’t actually like Outer Wilds fandom specific so I’ll re answer them <3

2 - Which of your fics is your pride and joy?

Out of all of my outer wilds fics i think that either Berry-Jam kisses (Time Buddies) or Sapwine and Starcharts (Startners before they were Startners :’}) have to be up there in terms of my favourite fics I’ve written.

I talked about BJK in the other post but SaS is a whole other story.

It wasn’t my FIRST outer wilds fic, that was Time to Go but it was the first time i thought about Chert and Mylo meaning something to eachother. It was the beginning of Startners, my blorbos, and hell!! I named my OW blog after it!!!!!! I don’t think its my best written fic by a long shot, i was still figuring out 2POV perspective and how to characterize both Chert and Mylo but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t live in my heart forever and ever.

10 - Is there a character or ship you'd love to write for, but haven't yet?

I mean probably Gosslate? I keep meaning to write for them but never getting around to it lmaoooo.

If not Gosslate then Cherro. Mostly because i already write for ChertMylo and now that I’ve officially included Gabbro in the startnership i really should write for the two of them huh??

(I actually have some drafts of something i was working on for them but its uh… lets just say its not suitable for this blog…)

12 - What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Written? Gravity Falls.

An INCREDIBLY old piece from back in HIGH SCHOOL about what if Stanley died in the portal explosion that brought back his brother. It’s VERY bad and i never ever posted it anywhere and i never will!

POSTED though? Stanley Parable.

Tethered-Together was the first ever fic i actually posted something for and got that sweet sweet taste of authorship. It’s definitely not my best work, the formatting is all over the place and i couldn’t figure out how to get from the last chapter i posted to the idea in my head for where i wanted to take the ending but people liked it! People really REALLY liked it!

Plus it inspired me to make You Can’t See Me Behind the Screen, a 432 centered fic that is, while again incredibly rough, one of my favourite works i did for TSP. Shout out to that one commentor who commented on nearly every chapter and the commentor who, when i came back to post a chapter after nearly a year of hiatus commented ‘HOLY SHIT YOUR BACK?????!!!!!’ Which skyrocketed my confidence to the moon. They’re probably one of the reasons i continued to write honestly.

17 - What is something you recently felt proud of in your writing?

I have a hard time picking out stuff I’m proud of. I’m incredibly critical of my work and i always think i can improve or find something wrong with it. But if i had to pick SOMETHING I’d have to go with the way i write romance. Usually i stuff a bunch of angst in there and call it a day but recently I’ve been writing some softer stuff. Like my Eskerfels fics and Berry Jam Kisses, people have praised me for the warmth and comfort they exude and i gotta agree with them on that one!!!

Outside of my writing tho, the idea that so many people can enjoy my writing and even say that I inspire them to create (You know who you are <3) is just??? Thats another thing i feel so baffled yet proud of. If i can inspire even one person to get outside their comfort zone and try to create their own art, i think I’ve done my job as an artist :}

19 - How do you get over writer's block?

I don’t LMAO. Literally, i don’t actively try to shake it. The writers block consumes me until i jolt up in the middle of the night with a single cool line i want to write down and then the writing juice starts to flow again. Hyperfixations do help a lot tho. If a character can worm their way into my brain enough they usually free me of what ever blocks I’m going through.

28 - What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

SO theres a few?

One is from YCSMBtS (the Stanley Parable fic i mentioned above) where lines of code literally tear 432 apart and unravel them like yarn until they merge into the game itself and becomes the Time Keeper.

The Horrors That Lie Beneath ft. Mylo discovering what’s under the surface of the Interloper, the very thing that was their main driving force. It’s not shown afterwards but they really struggle to come to terms with the fact that the thing they looked up to wiped out an entire race… Like they have an identity crisis about it and everything

Grieving for a World Lost to Time is a Final Campfire fic based around the 5 stages of grief. Each of the travellers gets their own stage of grief they help Mylo through or make Mylo feel, and then Hornfels was gonna be the secret 6th stage ‘Finding Meaning’. I never got around to actually WRITING more than the prologue but oughh i want to…

I could actually keep going, my favourite genre is angst and like SO many of my personal OCs i put through the wringer over and over. Literally if you put in ‘angst’ into the search bar for my works I’m pretty sure most of my fics will show up lmao.

Anyways!! TYSM for asking!!!! <3

[rolandkaros]

hey i didn’t manage to watch karo’s match today but obviously it went, umm bad. was it wrist problems or something else? how serious did it seem?

Not wrist problems (thank god), appeared to be a potentially ongoing hip issue…idk if you’ve seen but she’s been stretching it out during changeovers for at least the past few matches (maybe longer but my memory fails me). She called for an off court MTO to get treatment after the first set and then retired after the first game of the second. It didnt seem to effect/limit her movement all that much (or at least not that obviously), but she definitely looked to be in some discomfort by the end. I’m thinking (hoping) that it’s more about circumstance than anything else - she talked previously about struggling with building up match fitness because she had kind of thrown herself back into the season once the wrist was ready, plus a lot of delays/late finishes this week, so it might be related to that as well.

The good/bad news is that she probably won’t play again until the United Cup in December, so plenty of time to recuperate. Might be playing BJK qualifiers but I’m not 100% sure about that.

[blackjackkent]

This is a running joke on my stream at this point, but one such highlight XD

I just love it when video games let you do really stupid shit that kills you immediately. I love being like "oh this is a terrible idea" and being able to do it and then die. It's good game design.

[nadiapodoroska]

i will be talking about the erralini BJK cup comeback forever

[blackjackkent]

Patch 8 Highlights!

As has become my habit, time for my personal highlight reel of things I found most interest or funny in the Patch 8 patch notes!

First, of course, the big hype items:

Photo mode! (I'm honestly uncertain whether I will end up using this compared to the existing freecam Otis camera mod that plugs into Reshade, but it will be fun to mess around with what the game now provides for free. And now console friends can take pretty pictures!)

New subclasses! (I'm not much of a buildcrafter but these will be fun to mess around with. And of course, ask me about my incredibly niche Jaheira Circle of Stars headcanons. XD )

Crossplay! (Woohoo. This feels like it probably drove someone at Larian crazy and I'm proud of them.)

Significant fixes and QoL improvements:

When you succeed a Perception check, the spotted item will now ping on the minimap and be listed in the combat log.

Fixed a savegame issue where you wouldn't get the appropriate amount of Umbral Gems for the Gauntlet of Shar. (This happened to me on my modded young Jaheira playthrough and I was SO confused.)

Minthara now comments on the Emperor's reveal.

Reminded Minthara that 'knocked out' does not mean 'dead', so she'll more reliably appear in Moonrise Towers.

Minthara is now willing to talk to you after you tell her to wait in the torture chamber. (I wonder if this also fixes the issue I recently ran into where she wouldn't talk after fighting her torturers.)

Discovered and available (non-hostile, alive, etc.) traders are now shown on the world map regardless of how far away you are from them.

Fixed a tooltip bug while trading where hovering over any equipped item would display a faulty tooltip, but trying a second time would magically fix it. The tooltips now populate correctly the first time around.

Fixed an issue where you couldn't use Sneak Attack again on your next turn if the enemy before you in the Initiative Order was killed.

A certain plaque in the Thorm Mausoleum now correctly mentions who the coffin belongs to. (THANK YOU, THIS HAS BEEN DRIVING ME FUCKING CRAZY.)

Ringmistress Lucretious may now join your fight against 'Dribbles' & Co. at the circus.

Ensured that the 'Steal a Githyanki Egg' quest isn't left open in the journal if you pass a point of no return and can't return to the Crèche to complete it.

Added a Memorial Portrait to the streets of Rivington. (Memorial for who, I wonder. Will have to go look around.)

And the funny bugs:

Neutral and friendly NPCs will no longer become hostile when, outside of combat, they walk into surfaces created during combat that trigger passives (like electrified surfaces triggering Thunderbolt Strike). Take it easy, lads.

Fixed a bug with the moving platform in the Gauntlet of Shar that would sometimes leave you behind, causing you to plummet to your death.

Fixed an Honour Mode issue at High Hall where all party members would die when reaching the top of the stem if anyone in the party was being dominated by an enemy, causing a Game Over. 

Fixed a bug causing non-Dark-Urge avatars to say Dark Urge lines. You're not all obliged to be wretched things with headaches. (This would crack me up SO much when switching from Rakha to Hector without closing the game. XD )

Cerys will stop getting involved in combats with Minthara from across the region. An eager beaver no longer.

Minthara no longer gets stuck babysitting Thaniel in Act II. (A pity, because watching him slowly edge her out of her own tent into a nearby end table was hilarious.)

Fixed the footwear slot in the Character Sheet deciding to just not show up.

Added a new spot where the easter egg song plays. Happy hunting! (Huh?)

Shadowheart has agreed to stop repeatedly changing her hair colour during certain intimate moments.

Healing Vapours no longer immediately makes creatures Wet in addition to creating a Water surface.

Fixed an Undead Harper in the Shadow-Cursed Lands looking like Harper Skywin's identical twin. Nothing to see here, move along.

In Honour Mode, the papa owlbear will now correctly gain Owlbear's Rage when the mama owlbear or their cub dies. (THERE'S A PAPA IN HONOR MODE?????)

Gave the Shadow-Cursed Shambling Mound some bifidobacteria-rich yoghurt to regulate its Digestive Juices. The condition now makes the target Vulnerable to Bludgeoning damage as advertised.

In the Knights of the Shield combat, the Gate Masters will no longer bring reinforcements after the portals are closed. The infinite supply of githyanki spawning from nowhere was a little disconcerting.

Gortash was overenthusiastically using Tyrant's Bindings, so we made him less eager about it when other actions would make more sense.

Reminded enemy NPCs that it's okay to kill the unconscious party after they commit a crime.

Prevented Fast Travel - like going to camp via the hotbar - while on moving platforms like the cable car up by Rosymorn, which could cause your characters to plummet to their death in the interim.

Fixed reflected damage knocking out player characters when non-lethal damage is toggled on. 

A couple of chests will no longer unlock things as though they're keys.

You now have to actually have a shovel in your inventory in order to start digging with it.

Fixed another (all together now!) trade exploit. This one let you take items from traders by moving them from a bag in their inventory to a corpse in your inventory. No more packing dead squirrels with goods.

Fixed a split screen bug where clouds wouldn't show up for Player 2.

Fixed a bug where hurling a healing potion as a rogue in what is presumably an attempt to heal a target would trigger Sneak Attack and sometimes damage or even kill the target. (I seem to remember having issues with this with Hector, and I guess his three levels in rogue were responsible. :O )

Alfira will now join in on your performance of the Deluxe Edition songs. (Aw.)

Tweaked the drop table for Derryth Bonecloak so she doesn't conveniently sell the Timmask Spores and Tongue of Madness you need for the 'Help Omeluum Investigate the Parasite' quest.

You can no longer use Silence to keep the protective dome over Last Light from collapsing if Shadowheart kills Nightsong.

Wild-Shaped druids are no longer instantly arrested by the army of the Absolute when following the road to Baldur's Gate from the Shadow-Cursed Lands. (lolol what?)

Fixed an issue with Shadowheart's parents that would cause them to sometimes turn hostile when they shouldn't.

Fixed a bug where killing hostile NPCs in Wyrm's Rock with non-lethal attacks on would be too confusing for them and they'd become unresponsive.

Steel Watchers can no longer get Drunk.

Fixed a flow issue in the epilogue letting you say 'My home is with Gale' to Jaheira even if you were never in a relationship with him.

Fixed a bug where ignoring Gale and his mirror image at camp would lead to his double hanging around in the morning.

Saved some players who were stuck sleeping at camp.

Jaheira no longer trades items at camp as though she's a merchant while she's still in the party - this led to strange interactions at camp. If you engaged in trade with her and left items on her, you can get them back by just taking them out of her inventory the normal way.

Fixed an issue with the Shadowheart vs Lae'zel fight night where the defeated character could still survive the night and would hang around without being able to join the party.

Fixed some cases where the night would literally never end (careful what you wish for) because a party member not in the active party was in a dialogue while everyone else was snoozin'.

Fixed a dialogue flow issue where asking Shadowheart about the fight with Lae'zel would make her talk about Astarion. Focus, Shadowheart.

Fixed a case where the non-summoned version of Scratch had no dialogue at camp. Balance is restored.

Fixed Sceleritas sometimes referring to the Dark Urge using the wrong pronouns when talking to other party members. Also fixed him sometimes repeating his lines.

Fixed companions talking about being in the swamp from Act I even if they're not. It's rude to call people's homes 'stinking swamps', Astarion.

Gale should no longer tell you to join Elminster at camp if you're already at camp.

Gale will no longer demand to eat your magical trinkets if you don't even have him recruited to the party.

Minthara no longer insists on repeating herself about the Emperor's illithidity.

Shadowheart should no longer bang on the chapel door while talking. That's manners.

Removed a particular overhead line in the Adamantine Forge that suggested the hammer was just starting to move when it, in fact, had just stopped moving.

Fixed an issue where Sovereign Glut could join the party as follower after being killed and refuse to leave.

Added a missing dialogue option to leave the dialogue with Bex and Danis a little earlier if their repulsively adorable chatter about getting a pet is too much for you.

Fixed a bug where unlocking the Emerald Grove Environs waypoint before triggering the cinematic at the front gate of the Emerald Grove would cause Memnon and Arka to forgo mourning Kanon.

Hostile Last Light Inn residents will now become neutral again when the hostility is caused by an erroneous reaction to Minthara. (Is THAT why I couldn't trigger Wulbren's dialogue in Last Light on Rakha's run because the area had a combat readiness state enabled? Everyone thought Minthara was invading?)

Shadowheart will no longer immediately turn hostile and act like you committed a crime in the Shadowfell if you tell her 'You want to fight? Fine.' While she's not afraid of a good brawl, she'll finish saying what she has to say first.

Fixed an issue where a dead Shadowheart could still trigger a dialogue at camp with Nightsong.

If you're playing as Karlach, you'll no longer miraculously come back to the Elfsong after burning out or going to Avernus after defeating the Netherbrain when you have multiple romantic partners.

Fixed a flow issue where if Halsin was your romance partner and you chose to go with him at the end of the game, during the epilogue he would act as though you didn't.

Fixed a bug where Scratch could escape the kennels by the Sword Coast Couriers through the power of fetch. Look, a bug is a bug, okay?

Fixed an issue where Flaming First Madigan could get stuck in an infinite dialogue loop, desperately trying to send you back to prison.

Fixed a flow issue where if you were playing as Gale and you didn't become the God of Ambition, you could still find yourself looking and acting pretty godlike in the epilogue.

Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause Zanner Toobin to just stand in the doorway to the Steel Watch Foundry if you walked out of the building while he was your follower. He will now always return to the office and wait for you to come back. Guess he likes it in there.

Fixed the Emperor thinking you don't have all the Netherstones if one of them is in a camp chest.

Withers will no longer let you ask if you can dismiss your hirelings at High Hall, given that he doesn't actually offer that service in dangerous areas like that.

The Emperor now joins the Gather Your Allies moment when your rousing speech doesn't ignite the fighting spirit you were expecting.

Roger Highberry will no longer follow Cora's corpse to mourn in front of it if you move it outside the boundaries of the wine festival. This will prevent Roger from, for example, appearing at your camp if you move Cora's corpse to your Traveller's Chest.

The courier informed us that he found a lost letter from the Grove that was meant to arrive at an important party. It's now been sent on its rightful way.

Minsc will no longer mention the Zhent taking over the Guildhall in the epilogue when Nine-Fingers is still in power. Silly Minsc seeing into alternate timelines.

Lae'zel will no longer have trouble deciding whether she recognises Avatar Astarion in some greetings if he's disguised.

When talking to Jaheira about her Rite of the Timeless Body, you could tell her your race lived longer than hers, regardless of facts or logic. Now this only applies if your race does, canonically, live longer. 

Wyll's greeting after entering the city will now be more appropriate to your Attitude rating. If it's below 20, no more Mr Nice Guy.

Other characters should no longer show up during Gale's contemplations about surviving the end of Act II after departing. (It amused me a lot when Karlach came over to lurk during this conversation for no reason. XD )

Fixed some lopsided and upside-down chairs letting you sit on them anyway.

Moved the hirelings' spawnpoints to prevent them from spawning in Shadowheart's tent. 

Tightened He Who Was' belt so it fits him better around the chest. We're pretty sure he could have tightened it himself, but he insisted someone else do it.

Adjusted the Dark Justiciar Half-Plate for female characters, which, when worn without underwear underneath it, was letting the nips peek through.

Gave Bunny and Blossom - two very much human children in the Lower City - clothes fit for humans. Without tail holes.

Updated several boots that were making githyanki knees disappear when equipped.

Updated the Teal Slimfit Outfit to correctly show a tiefling body instead of a human body when equipped by tieflings.

Fixed Lae'zel's hair looking like it was badly crimped in a romantic scene with Gale.

Fixed one of the tendrils of the jester hat vibrating ominously when worn by female dragonborn characters. Also fixed all the tendrils standing up stiffly when worn by dwarves.

Fixed Oliver's limbs sometimes getting all stretchy during Hide and Seek and looking a little too Slender Man for our liking.

Reminded the Spectator that its rays should come out of its eyestalks, not its mouth.

Fixed a bug causing Ketheric to sport Mizora's hair.

You'll no longer be able to literally see through the hips of large female characters when they're wearing Shadowheart's camp clothes.

Fixed an inappropriately dramatic music change in the endgame cinematic after Gale sacrifices himself and the githyanki depart.

Fixed the combat music failing to trigger if you initiate the combat with the Entombed Scribes in the Dank Crypt by trying to pick them up, presumably to cradle them in your arms.

Fixed a rock in the Shadow-Cursed Lands camp that would make the environmental music stop playing if you walked on it and then off it again.

Fixed avatar genitals sometimes showing up during Astral lovemaking with Gale when they shouldn't.

Added an additional head animation for Scratch so he continues to hold his ball correctly in his mouth. Whosagoodboy!

Asked Jaheira to kindly look at Lae'zel when she's talking to her.

Female gnomes who choose to slap Gale's hand away at the start of the game will now actually slap his hand instead of swiping confidently at the air.

Fixed a shot in Gale's recruitment dialogue where, if you decided to draw your weapon, you'd act it out very threateningly but not actually be holding anything in your hands. Gale always took your game of make-believe very seriously, though. (Rakha did this and it made me laugh. XD )

Fixed your character dramatically whipping their head to the side at a dangerous speed in the dialogue with Astarion, Petras, and Dalyria in Wyrm's Crossing.

Barcus is no longer Mike Wazowski'd by various items like cauldrons and bottles, blocking him from view when you talk to him at Last Light.

Fixed a bug where githyanki players who lose the duel against Lae'zel would later overlap with Lae'zel's body during a tender moment.

Fixed an issue so that Lae'zel's eyes no longer appear totally emotionless before stabbing Orpheus. She didn't even look her usual level of angwy.

Fixed female halfling and dragonborn characters' eyes clipping through their eyelids in delight while getting jiggy with Mizora.

Fixed Astarion's forearms looking like they've detached from his body in the dialogue at High Hall.

Fixed Mizora snapping her head around like a bobblehead if you reject her when she's enticing you with the pleasures of the Hells.

Fixed a bug where choosing to hug Minsc in the epilogue as a large-bodied character, like Karlach, would cause you to repeatedly attempt to hug him, even if you miss the mark.

Made sure Shadowheart won't be wearing a helmet when she asks you what you think of her new hair. Kinda makes it difficult to give an opinion.

[blackjackkent]

Of my fics in the BG3 fandom the most I've gotten is 57 on Prayers and Hellfire.

My most out of all my fics is 160 for An Unexpected Pleasure (Mass Effect fandom) although that's mostly because it's been quietly chugging along accumulating them for nearly ten years. XD

(My least kudos is 5 on Fault Lines which sort of landed with a wet thud even though I'm pretty pleased with it so far. XD But I'm hoping it might do a bit better once it has more chapters.)

Straight up cannot IMAGINE getting 500+ kudos on fics but I super admire the people who do. c:

The submitter of this poll encouraged any fanfic writer to promote their fics under this poll.

This poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. If you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post).

[juliasimongf]

Johanna Larsson is the coach of Swedens BJK tennis team, and I'm wondering why nobody ever talked about the fact that she's a hot lesbian while she was playing tennis????

[nbmsports]

Billie Jean King on Victories Past, and the Battles to Come

The more Billie Jean King talked about the past, the more animated she became about the future.King, the 79-year-old grand champion of tennis and gender equity, said she wanted to see more investment in women’s sports. More teams. More leagues. More women owners. More racial diversity, more data, more access and more opportunities.She charged crosscourt from one topic to the next, not content to celebrate the history she had made; she was too busy creating the template for tomorrow.“Equal investment is the most important thing,” she said during a telephone interview from London, while attending this year’s Wimbledon. “If I talk to a C.E.O., I ask him, or her, or whoever, ‘Do you spend as much on women’s sports as men’s sports?’ That’s the magic question.”It always has been.This summer marks 50 years since the United States Open awarded equal prize money for men and women, becoming the first of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments to offer it. King, who won 39 major titles, made that milestone possible with her relentless activism and by securing corporate sponsors behind the scenes.On the eve of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup — set to showcase the rise of women’s soccer and the movement for equal pay, led by the U.S. Women’s National Team — King’s influence still ripples through the sports ecosystem.“She is working as hard today as she was 50 years ago,” said Stacey Allaster, the United States Tennis Association’s chief executive of professional tennis, and the first female director of the U.S. Open, said. “And she’s so focused, I would say possessed. She’s continuing to live by what she believes: that sport is for social change, and it’s not what you get, but what you give.”King and her wife, Ilana Kloss, who is also her longtime business partner, have invested in six sports. In June, it was announced that Billie Jean King Enterprises would help run a new six-team women’s ice hockey league starting in January along with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ majority owner, Mark Walter, and his wife, Kimbra Walter.“We believe this is transformational, and it’s a sport that hasn’t had the platform that we believe it needs,” said Kloss, 67, a former doubles champion from South Africa and the chief executive of BJK Enterprises.Although she admitted that the path to establishing a successful women’s hockey league has been a “long road” (one that’s littered with past failures), she applauded the Walters’ commitment to women’s sports. “That belief sends an incredible message to the rest of the investment community,” Kloss said.Flashback to 1970 when King and eight other players, outraged the men were earning more than eight times the prize money that the women were at one tournament, signed $1 contracts to form a offshoot professional women’s tennis tour. The women, known as the “original nine,” risked being banned by tennis officials, but the gambit worked. In 1973 at Wimbledon, King led players in a vote that created what is now called the Women’s Tennis Association.It was a heady time for women’s sports. In 1972, Congress enacted Title IX, which prohibited sex discrimination in schools and thus led to the creation of sports programs that spawned a generation of female athletes. Against that backdrop, King, No. 1 in the world, won the 1972 singles titles at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.In New York, she was incensed to earn $10,000 — $15,000 less than the U.S. Open men’s champion, Ilie Nastase, did. King recalled how she met then with the tournament director Bill Talbert in a referees hut.Turning her chair to face him in the tiny space, she argued that a fan poll showed massive interest in women’s tennis. Then she revealed her ace: She had secured a sponsor — Bristol Myers’s “Ban” deodorant — to make up the difference in total prize money. Equal prize money became official in 1973.A few weeks after the 1973 U.S. Open, King crushed former No. 1 Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes spectacle that catapulted gender equality onto a world stage.“It’s hard to believe that 50 years have gone by — boink!” King said.This year’s U.S. Open, starting Aug. 28, will mark the equal prize money anniversary in multiple ways, including posters of King, an opening night tribute and an “equity lounge” on the site of the United States Open in Flushing, which in 2006 was renamed the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.When she’s on the way to her office there, Allaster touches a sign bearing King’s motto: “Pressure is a Privilege.”Allaster, the previous chief of the WTA, said King was an “accessible leader,” not just for her, but for rookies and superstars alike. Allaster called Venus Williams a “modern-day Billie Jean King” for how, during her prime, Williams lobbied Wimbledon officials — and by extension the French Open — to award equal prize money to women.King’s advocacy has always transcended tennis. She started the Women’s Sports Foundation in 1974 to develop sports opportunities for girls and women post-Title IX. After she was publicly outed for being gay in 1981 and lost many of her endorsements, she later became an activist for gay rights.Phaidra Knight, a World Rugby Hall of Fame player and past president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, said King created an inclusive culture at the group. “Through that LGBTQ+ lens and her courage, she has inspired courage in many other lanes, for people to work together,” Knight said in an interview.Beyond King’s encouragement of her as a Black and gay woman, Knight said she valued how King taught her to approach rugby officials to improve business opportunities for the women’s game.Angela Ruggiero, another past president and a former women’s ice hockey Olympian, has also followed King’s lessons. She co-founded the Sports Innovation Lab, a market research company that uses analytics to understand digitally savvy sports fans. Her research shows that fans of every gender are responding to women’s sports. She has frequent brainstorming sessions with King, who never stops asking questions.“We’re going back and forth on how do we bring more capital into women’s sports,” Ruggiero said. “She’ll be at the edge of her seat, fired up. It’s just her nature to be an agent of change.”King said she secretly advised the soccer player Julie Foudy and eight of her teammates in 1995 to hold out for fair contracts and get the younger players behind them. The team won the 1996 Olympics and ignited the frenzy for women’s soccer by winning the 1999 Women’s World Cup before 90,185 fans in the Rose Bowl.Twenty years later, Megan Rapinoe led the U.S. women to another World Cup victory, this time with the fans chanting “Equal Pay.” In 2022, the women’s national team settled its gender discrimination lawsuit against the national federation for $24 million, and a pledge to equalize salaries and prize money.Last month, Rapinoe talked at a news conference about how the 2023 World Cup would be a game-changer for women’s sports, showing that “equality is actually good for business.”King chuckled.“Every generation thinks they are the first to say this — it’s fun to listen to them,” she said. “I’m glad we’re on the same page trying to get things done.”As always, capital is key. She and Kloss — who joined the celebrity ownership group of Angel City Football Club of the National Women’s Soccer League in 2020 — were encouraged by Y. Michele Kang’s recent $35 million purchase of the league’s Washington Spirit.“We need more people to continue to step up,” King said. “If you look at everything now, it’s the billionaires. And then you look at the Middle East, that’s going to be another thing.”In a news conference, King supported the WTA’s exploration of funding from Saudi Arabia, which has already bought in to professional golf with its LIV Golf merger with the PGA Tour. Although she acknowledged the country’s discriminatory policies around women and homosexuality, she told reporters, “I don’t think you really change unless you engage.” She added that this was her opinion. “I’d still probably go and try to talk with them,” she said.Engagement has always been King’s life philosophy, along with knowing your history. She’s not ready to finish writing hers.In November, King will turn 80.“She really has a sense of running out of time,” Kloss said, “and she can’t get enough.” Source link Read the full article

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Continuing to enjoy playing with Reshade. :3

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Recently I was on vacation for a week and the Jimmy Johns delivery lady was like "Good to see you back, we were worried about you." 🥹

Starving to death this morning because ive been to the new local cafe twice this week already and if i go a third time ill look desperate.