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Maul Flips Over Qui-Gon
STAR WARS EPISODE I: The Phantom Menace 01:17:21
#Star Wars#Episode I#The Phantom Menace#Tatooine#Xelric Draw#Darth Maul#Darth Maul's lightsaber#Qui-Gon Jinn#Qui-Gon Jinn's lightsaber#jung su ma#Force jump#Naboo Royal Starship#Headon-5 radial sublight engine#landing gear#boarding ramp
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Imagine if you were a gay or bi man who tried a certain firefighter show because of all the attention it was getting for one of its mains having a later in life bi awakening.....and between seasons you ventured into its fandom in search of material to tide you over til the next one. And you're greeted by a deluge of posts and fics that are just cheerfully homophobic towards one half of the newly out bi character's canon relationship on the basis of 'well he's not the RIGHT gay guy' and pushing the idea that actually its fine to cheat on him because Reasons and he's sexually predacious based on......behind the scenes implications people have divined like they're reading fucking tea leaves.
But don't get it twisted....this fandom, like all fandoms, really cares about representation!
Sorry not sorry, but we really need to kill this idea that fandoms are welcoming and inviting and inherently progressive when they're frequently insular and reductive as fuck. Every single fandom I've been in has had major trends of people doubling down on their own headcanons and fanon interpretations of the characters and willfully enacting trends aimed at running off people who like the 'wrong' characters (usually characters marginalized along one or multiple axes), like the characters in the 'wrong ways' or other bullshit.
Scott is a Bad Friend fics overtaking Teen Wolf fandom was not incidental, it was a FEATURE of the fandom, because the vast majority of that fandom did not want to share its space with anyone who had the nerve to like its main character. Survivors complaining about or criticizing the prevalance of rape fics in a certain fandom has in my experience always led to a reactionary UPTICK in those fics, with gems like 'this character can, will, must be raped' in the tags making it crystal clear that some of these fics exist because how fucking DARE anyone try and push forth a narrative not agreed upon by Fandom Main.
I could cite examples for so many other fandoms, with the commonalities always being that vast majorities in these fandoms are explicitly reacting defensively to being asked to be more mindful of fandom trends revolving around or exacerbating racism, homophobia, transphobia, rape or abuse apologia, ableism, etc....
With the most prolific fucking rallying cry across countless fandoms being "No the fuck we will NOT be doing that," because lolololol.....
Fandom is an inherently progressive space, didn't you hear?
#anyway this has been on my mind in general for a few weeks now#and its more about fandoms just being fandoms#and like....what if they werent though#these patterns migrate from one to another as fans migrate from fandom to fandom bringing their bullshit with them#like do people never get tired of just trying to call DIBS and claim fandoms for themselves while shutting out anyone else#who might have a lot to fucking offer if you werent being so gd intent on staking a claim instead of sharing perspectives#and exploring new possibilities?#and I know not everyone links certain problems with racist homophobic and other behaviors to my own issues with dark fic and rape and#abuse apologia but I do inherently see it as sharing large portions of venn diagrams even though I do not consider being a survivor to be#something that demarcates privilege in the way that axes of identity do#as its situationally based rather than inherently identity based#but the way it can affect and shape large parts of peoples' identities begets commonalities#but my point is just.....a big part of why I so often lump it in is specifically because of how people react to these things or#defend against criticism across the board#like most people know my stance on censorship and how my blood boils when its people who are throwing accusations of#censorship at those raising criticisms....#but the point is just.....think about what censorship actually IS in all practical senses of the word#its about shutting down conversations. limiting the flow of information the sharing of perspectives and experiences#THATS WHAT MAKES IT BAD#now......what about criticism inherently lends itself to any of those things if you DONT accept as a foregone conclusion that criticism#is only ever offered up in bad faith and meant as a silencing tactic#instead of just a request or offered avenue of ways for things to be done better rather than not at all?#who is ACTUALLY out here trying to shut down convos and limit possibilities?#is it really the people being critical of fandom behaviors and trends?#or the ones doubling down at the first hint of any criticism and aggressively ramping up how frequently and visibly they engage in#the criticized behaviors in efforts to drive people away or as a silencing tactic of their own?#just saying
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going fucking insane why is everyone i talk to 100% on board with the rapidly increasing militarization of our society. 'yes but russia! we need to protect ukraine and europe' listen i understand the sentiment. but has any situation in this world ever been resolved by an arms race. no. in fact things have always gotten worse. meanwhile you're advocating for the further establishment of the state's monopoly on violence and the expansion of military activity in every single aspect of our society, physically as well as ideologically. get well soon i guess.
#we literally had a whole ass cold war did that solve anything? no it only made people paranoid and anxious#my dad literally tells me as a teenager if he was cycling to school he'd watch the horizon for a mushroom shaped cloud#have arms races in the past only led to more war and violence? yes.#does militarization aid the weapon industry. also yes.#probably a lot to say abt the impact of militarization on like. global power structures and neocolonialism as well#i also wish ukraine could win this war and reclaim all the land it's lost to russia up til now#but this war is being used as an excuse to ramp up military industrial complex output across the board#and sow fear. 'we need to fund the military bc what if we get attacked :(' and there goes ur national budget#people who say stuff like 'we need to show russia what we can do' do you think russia is going to take that as anything but a provocation#FRUSTRATION. friend of mine had the option to work in sustainable energy but chose weapon industry instead#another friend of mine is seriously considering joining national intelligence services to idk spy on russia? im going to go insane
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I don't know when I'm going to have the energy to do my Trigun fanwork, so just a heads up if I am a bit pokey-slow on it. I... happen to also be in the American Politics fandom and it's a pretty horrible fandom right now. (This because I happen to live here, cannot afford to escape / have no way otherwise of escaping). We've just hit despair-levels surpassing the Couch Scene. *Sigh.*
#also on a blog I go to...#someone I don't know very well but still care about...#has been having money and housing issues and confessed to trying to off themselves on the board twice#until someone got their real name and location from their go fund me and called help on them#and apparently they were taken in for help#but wow I'm just stressed right now#plus some physical health concern on my end#this is either going to result in me escaping into video gaming and sleep for a while#or maybe I'll hyper-ramp the Trigun fanwork#who knows?
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re; zegras trade rumours for all you girlies panicking (and because i have no time to do my usual write-ups)
reading the room on the guy who floated the idea: he should not be taken seriously, and is not being taken seriously by most on twitter
ducks-wise: the drysdale trade for gauthier was explicitly explained as an effort to bolster scoring. zegras is top 2 playmaker along with carlsson, and has made considerable strides in his efforts off the puck post-benching.
he’s shown that he is willing to change and is following through with it (imo why his stats have looked a little lopsided, besides injury), but the rest of the team — and i’m sorry to say this if you love them but i mean it with respect — do not have it in them to finish on the chances he gives them.
what verbeek was cooking with this trade:
1) let go of some of the defensemen surplus that the ducks have (lot of good prospects upcoming, and minty is on fire rn)
2) get a guy who has a lethal shot so the ducks playmakers can actually do something
tl;dr the drysdale-gauthier trade was 100% for zegras to have a guy to pass the puck to, and zegras is solidifying himself as a coachable player with some depth. no reason to trade him — unless it’s for something really fucking huge.
#trevor zegras#anaheim ducks#jamie drysdale#i’m in my zegras truther arc 😭#(derogatory)#i’ve watched a bit of tape. he’s genuinely made an effort to ramp up his defense. he’s much more active on the checks#more willing to get physical along the boards. (privately i think this is what got him hurt last night. he’s still new at it)#no one is safe from the trading block ofc (like even gretzky wasn’t)#but you have to look at the context surrounding trade rumours. the state of the market and the team#dunno if i ever do this kind of post again but lord#sorry ducks fans for your loss!! i’m just turning the corner on getting into the ducks so it’s a weird moment personally
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Hey United quick question but what the fuck does this mean?
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You're more amazing than a 1/1000 chance
Blue commons, and another rare I had an idea for
Blue and black together cover all 4 modification themes in the set, so a card that rewards you for using all the different themes is obvious! Unfortunately, treating +1/+1 counters and keyword counters as different kinds of modifications would be confusing, difficult to word, and wouldn't even match the usual reminder text for modified, so you don't technically need to use all 4 themes. But still, this is some great untapped design space, perfect for rare!
#asks#custom cards#i went through a few versions of Mod Collector before settling on this#the first version drew you cards at your end step but that much card draw would be too strong#and then once i changed it to an on-entry ability the creature itself no longer did anything on the board so i added the second ability#i think this is a nice reasonable rare#capable of high power but requiring a dedicated deck to do so#and it doesn't completely overpower the other cards in the set#and this certainly needs to be a rare because “different kind of modification” is not a normal line of text#that's what the rare slot is for! weird stuff! silly gimmicks! high synergy requirements!#silly weird stuff like Fblthp Lost on the Range!#not blatantly op stat machines like Geralf the Fleshwright or Bonny Pall Clearcutter#Geralf kinda almost gets a pass because it at least HAS a synergy requirement even if it's basic and easy to fulfill#but Bonny Pall? it just gives you two massive creatures AND free zero-risk card draw AND ramp with NO requirements besides paying 6 mana#anyway the point is i'm the best card designer ever and everyone at wotc should retire in shame
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PIXEL ALBUMS (1-3) - My Music Taste
#pixel art#pixel artist#art#my art#album covers#temporex#badbadnotgood#minnie riperton#boards of canada#boc#ramp#hawaii part ii#puma blue#steve lacy#vacations#still woozy#joão gilberto#josh fudge#yun li#validation#yofi motek#king krule#bedroom#the marías#grandaddy#i draw stuff#pixel aesthetic
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ONE OF MY EX CLASSMATES LITERALLY TOOK A FOUR DAY LONG TRIP TO USA FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF SEEING TAYLOR YESTERDAY NIGHT IM GOING TO KILL SOMEONE
#SHE WAS IN THE STANDING AREA IN FRONT OF THE STAGE TOO#LIKE. STRAIGHT TO THE LEFT OF THE RAMP THINGY#IS THIS WHAT PEOPLES BOARDS KE BAAD WALA ERA LOOKS LIKE IM GOING TO START KILLING
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the fear and dread that lurks within me right now, because i accidentally used my last large dreamstone, do not immediately have the 1,500 shells needed to change a small one to a large one, and have a pretty rare t-rex on my wishlist that probably won't spawn in the couple days it'll take me to get that dreamstone but sure might
#//juri speaks#juri's paleo pines#i have so many bulletin board quests in my journal rn#what i really need is to be able to really ramp up the farming but seeds are SPENSIVE and i don't know the best way to arrange the plots
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...Has Saved...
STAR WARS EPISODE I: The Phantom Menace 02:06:15
The "Fake Windu" in this scene might be Samuel L. Jackson's stunt double Oliver Wilson. Can anyone confirm?
#Star Wars#Episode I#The Phantom Menace#Naboo#Theed#Palace Plaza#muzzle brake#unidentified Senate Guard#Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine#foreknot#Mace Windu#Saesee Tiin#Perpetuus#boarding ramp#suspensa#Queen Amidala#Captain of the Guard#Senate Guard#Judicial Department#Galactic Senate#Mk II Paladin blaster rifle
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obviously i should have finished the research ethics module which has to be finished for me to pass year one before Now considering the new year starts in like 3 weeks. but perhaps if my uni really wanted me to finish the research ethics module they should've considered making it less boring.
#thog don't caare!!!!!!!#like i know i'm being a baby about it. i know.#but it's just so fucking dull. like the worst work on-boarding you've ever done ramped up to 11 and ALL online#with no feedback except automated test scores. hell#personal#gradblr#also it's like 100% intended for the stem students they just make arts & humanities phds do it too for no real reason
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Camp 30.//.
#uploads#camp 30#this shit! ive been in both these buildings it ruled#the one on top is the one me n my friends got chased out of by a security guard once lol its dope#it has a really creepy boilerroom in the basement like three floors and doorways to the roof its so cool#and the bottom is the gym and the other half is a pool its sick#only sketchy thing was there was a spot where the floor collapsed in the corner but it was sick#and there were ramps and shit yea camp 30 was so sick#forever pissed that they boarded it all up and tore some of it down like ... they didnt even replace it with anything it makes me mad#like yeah it was maybe unsafe but it was a fun place to hangout with ur friends as a teenager#there used to be a whole other highschool on the other side of town that was abandond too but it got tore down and turned into condos#rip#wish i still had my photos from here but theyre on some ancient iphone somewhere#i just stole these off google
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“If you CHOOSE to stay in one of those evacuation areas-” we need to have public transportation running out of evacuation zones and free public storm shelters before you can say bullshit like that. we need to have free wheelchair ramp instillation on homes. we need to have free out of state pet boarding facilities. we need public infrastructure for the people in flood zones since these hurricanes are only getting worse and they are not going to stop.
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#my aunt was actually always doing nutty shit to me before the drugs#I mentioned before how she threw away my first pair of real skate shoes bcos they were muddy from staying the weekend at my other aunts#another time I had finally gotten a real christmas complete#I was in love w it and I literally would sleep with my board#I don't know if I even left it on the porch for two minutes in hindsight#I feel like I brought it into her house and she just hid it bcos insanity#then some time later givin it back like “u better start takin better care of ur stuff”#I remember being so hype to get it back but knowing even as a boy that she was fucking nuts#and by this time I was taking care of my shit bcos somebody had already stolen a shitty walmart board from me#I loved all my boards though fr....................#I used 2 keep them in this wooden chest we had bcos it just made sense 2 me#one time the night before we went 2 vans skatepark tm in tha moorestown mall....... not even flexing....................#I remember being so hype n just like sitting at the chest w my board n eventually started ripping the shiddy griptape off#I couldn't get it off bcos I wasn't using heat or anything n I was probably 6#it was a tragedy but I ended up just renting a board and it was amazing#I don't know if that was this same trip 2 vans but it likely was the time that I tried 2 drop in on the tiniest little “qp” in the park#I “ate shit” about as hard as u can droppin in on a 2 foot jump ramp at 48 lbs..........#2 boys on tha bench outside the fence were dying#I remember nobody was rly over in that section and they probably saw me roll over there like what is this little shrimp about 2 do
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If anyone wants to know why every tech company in the world right now is clamoring for AI like drowned rats scrabbling to board a ship, I decided to make a post to explain what's happening.
(Disclaimer to start: I'm a software engineer who's been employed full time since 2018. I am not a historian nor an overconfident Youtube essayist, so this post is my working knowledge of what I see around me and the logical bridges between pieces.)
Okay anyway. The explanation starts further back than what's going on now. I'm gonna start with the year 2000. The Dot Com Bubble just spectacularly burst. The model of "we get the users first, we learn how to profit off them later" went out in a no-money-having bang (remember this, it will be relevant later). A lot of money was lost. A lot of people ended up out of a job. A lot of startup companies went under. Investors left with a sour taste in their mouth and, in general, investment in the internet stayed pretty cooled for that decade. This was, in my opinion, very good for the internet as it was an era not suffocating under the grip of mega-corporation oligarchs and was, instead, filled with Club Penguin and I Can Haz Cheezburger websites.
Then around the 2010-2012 years, a few things happened. Interest rates got low, and then lower. Facebook got huge. The iPhone took off. And suddenly there was a huge new potential market of internet users and phone-havers, and the cheap money was available to start backing new tech startup companies trying to hop on this opportunity. Companies like Uber, Netflix, and Amazon either started in this time, or hit their ramp-up in these years by shifting focus to the internet and apps.
Now, every start-up tech company dreaming of being the next big thing has one thing in common: they need to start off by getting themselves massively in debt. Because before you can turn a profit you need to first spend money on employees and spend money on equipment and spend money on data centers and spend money on advertising and spend money on scale and and and
But also, everyone wants to be on the ship for The Next Big Thing that takes off to the moon.
So there is a mutual interest between new tech companies, and venture capitalists who are willing to invest $$$ into said new tech companies. Because if the venture capitalists can identify a prize pig and get in early, that money could come back to them 100-fold or 1,000-fold. In fact it hardly matters if they invest in 10 or 20 total bust projects along the way to find that unicorn.
But also, becoming profitable takes time. And that might mean being in debt for a long long time before that rocket ship takes off to make everyone onboard a gazzilionaire.
But luckily, for tech startup bros and venture capitalists, being in debt in the 2010's was cheap, and it only got cheaper between 2010 and 2020. If people could secure loans for ~3% or 4% annual interest, well then a $100,000 loan only really costs $3,000 of interest a year to keep afloat. And if inflation is higher than that or at least similar, you're still beating the system.
So from 2010 through early 2022, times were good for tech companies. Startups could take off with massive growth, showing massive potential for something, and venture capitalists would throw infinite money at them in the hopes of pegging just one winner who will take off. And supporting the struggling investments or the long-haulers remained pretty cheap to keep funding.
You hear constantly about "Such and such app has 10-bazillion users gained over the last 10 years and has never once been profitable", yet the thing keeps chugging along because the investors backing it aren't stressed about the immediate future, and are still banking on that "eventually" when it learns how to really monetize its users and turn that profit.
The pandemic in 2020 took a magnifying-glass-in-the-sun effect to this, as EVERYTHING was forcibly turned online which pumped a ton of money and workers into tech investment. Simultaneously, money got really REALLY cheap, bottoming out with historic lows for interest rates.
Then the tide changed with the massive inflation that struck late 2021. Because this all-gas no-brakes state of things was also contributing to off-the-rails inflation (along with your standard-fare greedflation and price gouging, given the extremely convenient excuses of pandemic hardships and supply chain issues). The federal reserve whipped out interest rate hikes to try to curb this huge inflation, which is like a fire extinguisher dousing and suffocating your really-cool, actively-on-fire party where everyone else is burning but you're in the pool. And then they did this more, and then more. And the financial climate followed suit. And suddenly money was not cheap anymore, and new loans became expensive, because loans that used to compound at 2% a year are now compounding at 7 or 8% which, in the language of compounding, is a HUGE difference. A $100,000 loan at a 2% interest rate, if not repaid a single cent in 10 years, accrues to $121,899. A $100,000 loan at an 8% interest rate, if not repaid a single cent in 10 years, more than doubles to $215,892.
Now it is scary and risky to throw money at "could eventually be profitable" tech companies. Now investors are watching companies burn through their current funding and, when the companies come back asking for more, investors are tightening their coin purses instead. The bill is coming due. The free money is drying up and companies are under compounding pressure to produce a profit for their waiting investors who are now done waiting.
You get enshittification. You get quality going down and price going up. You get "now that you're a captive audience here, we're forcing ads or we're forcing subscriptions on you." Don't get me wrong, the plan was ALWAYS to monetize the users. It's just that it's come earlier than expected, with way more feet-to-the-fire than these companies were expecting. ESPECIALLY with Wall Street as the other factor in funding (public) companies, where Wall Street exhibits roughly the same temperament as a baby screaming crying upset that it's soiled its own diaper (maybe that's too mean a comparison to babies), and now companies are being put through the wringer for anything LESS than infinite growth that Wall Street demands of them.
Internal to the tech industry, you get MASSIVE wide-spread layoffs. You get an industry that used to be easy to land multiple job offers shriveling up and leaving recent graduates in a desperately awful situation where no company is hiring and the market is flooded with laid-off workers trying to get back on their feet.
Because those coin-purse-clutching investors DO love virtue-signaling efforts from companies that say "See! We're not being frivolous with your money! We only spend on the essentials." And this is true even for MASSIVE, PROFITABLE companies, because those companies' value is based on the Rich Person Feeling Graph (their stock) rather than the literal profit money. A company making a genuine gazillion dollars a year still tears through layoffs and freezes hiring and removes the free batteries from the printer room (totally not speaking from experience, surely) because the investors LOVE when you cut costs and take away employee perks. The "beer on tap, ping pong table in the common area" era of tech is drying up. And we're still unionless.
Never mind that last part.
And then in early 2023, AI (more specifically, Chat-GPT which is OpenAI's Large Language Model creation) tears its way into the tech scene with a meteor's amount of momentum. Here's Microsoft's prize pig, which it invested heavily in and is galivanting around the pig-show with, to the desperate jealousy and rapture of every other tech company and investor wishing it had that pig. And for the first time since the interest rate hikes, investors have dollar signs in their eyes, both venture capital and Wall Street alike. They're willing to restart the hose of money (even with the new risk) because this feels big enough for them to take the risk.
Now all these companies, who were in varying stages of sweating as their bill came due, or wringing their hands as their stock prices tanked, see a single glorious gold-plated rocket up out of here, the likes of which haven't been seen since the free money days. It's their ticket to buy time, and buy investors, and say "see THIS is what will wring money forth, finally, we promise, just let us show you."
To be clear, AI is NOT profitable yet. It's a money-sink. Perhaps a money-black-hole. But everyone in the space is so wowed by it that there is a wide-spread and powerful conviction that it will become profitable and earn its keep. (Let's be real, half of that profit "potential" is the promise of automating away jobs of pesky employees who peskily cost money.) It's a tech-space industrial revolution that will automate away skilled jobs, and getting in on the ground floor is the absolute best thing you can do to get your pie slice's worth.
It's the thing that will win investors back. It's the thing that will get the investment money coming in again (or, get it second-hand if the company can be the PROVIDER of something needed for AI, which other companies with venture-back will pay handsomely for). It's the thing companies are terrified of missing out on, lest it leave them utterly irrelevant in a future where not having AI-integration is like not having a mobile phone app for your company or not having a website.
So I guess to reiterate on my earlier point:
Drowned rats. Swimming to the one ship in sight.
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