#bread winner cycles

[angeldeviloshi]

Thinking bout Death/Hunger in correlation to ch.92-93 again.

But also ch.80 where Denji uses the money Aki left him after his death to stuff himself and Power w good food + his konbini trip.

Then in 92-93 Kishibe gave him the konbini bread as Denji reflects on the downfall of his happiness.

As well as his talk w Kobeni about his dream and a normal life before deciding to be Chainsaw Man again. He gets to have better bread now, a step up from the plain slice he shared w Pochita, packaged and comes with filling, flavoured.

His dream and normal life w hykwfam a manufactured product.

The sliced bread he shares w Pochita reflects their bond living together, like the "christmas cake" during his hunger in poverty as well as its simplicity. And it forms the basis of his dream and normal life to us as toast with jam, that he gets to have and more when he starts living w Aki.

And it's fitting that it's Aki's money and will that close off this chapter of Denji's life as he feeds himself better food and buys a new house. Like Pochita's death, Aki's death opens Denji up to another cycle of indulgence through loss in pursuit of normal living w Power, one above the last.

The winner on the popsicle stick tells him he's made it. His dream came true, eating good, money to spend, having a girl by his side, he should be content and happy. Though at the cost of Aki's absence, especially when this is what he afforded and achieved through Aki's death by his hands.

Suddenly life is more than just making sure his stomach is filled with what he craves in the realisation that there's someone missing and it all turns to crap. Waste.

Acknowledgement of family depended on through Denji's inheritance of Aki's money under his name from and for a normal life.

The manufactured cream bun keeps him fed and Denji eats it as his mourning and understanding. Bread as his normal life in those simpler times. But as Kobeni says, a normal life without bad things doesn't exist except in dreams.

The flavoured bread was Denji's dream for normal and it became his normal. But being "normal" comes with its baggage. Like Aki's grief, living with pain in your heart.

When death renders his happiness and normal hollow, Denji turns to a bigger dream. He aims for the steak, just like the unagi he has after Aki's death, he gets to hunger for something more even if all he has to settle for is cheap potstickers as he chases the dream.

[riacte]

subjective + critical (NOT CRITICISM) wild life thoughts (no spoilers for winner, spoilers for finale gimmick)

Sorry for being back again. Anyways after watching Wild Life, I came to the conclusion that it's very... Grian. THIS IS NOT A BAD THING. In a way, it's always been very Grian (understandably so because it's his server and he picks the cast)— server wide event that gives everyone an opportunity to be involved, mechanics that toss you around haphazardly, random factor for funsies— I've watched Grian's minigames since HC6 Tag, Demise, etc, and there's a Grian-ness that I can't explain but I feel and recognise with my soul. This isn't Grian crit, I respect him massively for coming up with engaging gimmicks, I loved Demise 1, he definitely changed the scene of Hermitcraft 6, etc.

I previously talked about the experimental nature of Life series and how the emotional investment in Third Life was somewhat unintended. Wild Life is an experiment that's giving the expected results of Third Life— Grian-esque experimental gameshow about hanging out with friends and reacting to insane shit flung at you. The finale gimmick is all of the wild cards (seemingly individually chosen because of fun factor, no wider theme that connects them) together at the same time. It's fun! It's dramatic! It... doesn't have to have a deeper meaning!

Then comes the fandom's Swiftie tendency to connect everything (it's me, I'm the Swiftie), which is an inevitable and fun part of engaging with media. Famously, the LimLife winner symbolism debate. Coincidentally, the first three winners fit into celestial symbols, but it starts to fall apart with Martyn. But we love connecting stuff and making up symbols/blessings/curses, so we stuff Martyn and the following winners in anyway to honour them.

But there comes a point in which hyperanalysing everything sometimes feels like a stretch. This is a natural part of the life cycle I suppose. You can't recatch the lightning of 3L in a bottle, much like how All Stars Blue Bats doesn't hit the same as MCC9 Blue Bats. Wild Life is perfectly entertaining on its own, but to me it feels weird that it's tacked onto the Life series, like it's an afterthought. It has all of the cast so far, we get a lot of nostalgia bait, existing duos, but... it personally, subjectively doesn't feel like The Life Series TM. Like, it sure is A Sequel and Continuation of the plot but it feels like a Beach Episode. It's fun to watch! And... yeah!

And then you start to think. So maybe it's us who've been assigning a lot of Meaning to the first generations of Life series and now with Wild Life, it's finally reached its intended vibe of Fun Experimental Grian Gameshow. I remember someone said "what you're missing in the OG Life series was never there in the first place" and I see that viewpoint, it was like a collective hallucination. I'm gonna spitball if Wild Life was written by the fandom with attempts to "script coherent themes":

Fixed six sessions, first five gimmicks refer to previous five seasons, sixth sessions is every gimmick all at once

Clear "wild life" theme, which would keep the snails and superpowers probably, add possibly Origins, and cast members are encouraged to play into the theme (like BigB this season)

Dice theme, something about rolling 1-6, ties in with people starting with 6 lives

And we got the Gameshow. Individual gimmicks are quirky but don't seem really tied to each other. And there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you just have a bunch of fun ideas and throw them into a pot. But the fandom expects to have something to work with due to the meta starting from 3L. Even if it doesn't fit perfectly, it's fun to make it fit! That's why we do analyses and symbolism! It's the bread and butter of fandom!

This is where I bring up the Life Seriesification of Hermitcraft, which is probably related in ways I cannot fully explain. The Life series isn't just a fun gameshow, it's a JOB. It brings you clout and views and fandom relevance and fandom propaganda which brings you views and income. The Life hermits have generally become a closed circle, with exceptions like Ren who hangs out the most with non-Lifers. The fandom's desire to connect Life series meta becomes so overwhelming that it seeps into non-Life series stuff, prominently HC, and the non-Life hermits start to get sidelined. Okay, it's more like Life series meta is interesting, so your Lifers become more interesting, so you care about them more, so you care about their HC POVs more. It's a weird reinforcing circle. And if you step out of it for a while (Ren), your clout decreases (Ren), and even when you come back, you kind of.... don't get the same level of mainstream attention anymore even though your personal fanbase is going insane (Ren). (BigB also gets sidelined, although that is a different discussion.)

Anyways it Isn't That Deep and the main reason is probably The Novelty/Interest Is Gone. That and the segmentation of the HC fandom, which I am absolutely guilty of. I don't "need" to post or watch popular POVs because I get to know about them through osmosis anyway. So I end up only "caring" about a few POVs.

I am aware this doesn't make a good deal of sense and I'm sorry for being a party pooper of sorts. This is not criticism, just trying to analyse it through a critical lens.

Life series can keep on being a gameshow. It can be whatever it likes at this point. I'm just sick of it invading Hermitcraft fandom and tilting the balance overwhelmingly in favour of the Life hermits. It's suffocating.

Final reminder to myself, but replace "yourselves" with "Life series fandom":

[inventors-fair]

Photo Finish: Lap 2 Winners

~

Our winners this week are @bread-into-toast, @grornt, and @izzet-always-r-versus-u!

@bread-into-toast — Hotwire

I'll be completely candid with you: on first viewing I was genuinely shocked this wasn't already in the set. A lovely Threaten in the spirit of Hijack that trades grabbing any artifact for instantly animating whatever vehicle you pilfer. That's a pretty strong advantage with all the high-octane vehicles running around the format. You steal a Salvation Engine or a Lumbering Worldwagon and you feel like a million bucks. Plus, the unevening of the odds inherent to these kind of effects plays wonderfully for any decks looking to make big swings for big speed. And the cherry on top is the cycling, which fits like a glove for such a specific effect. Bravo!

@grornt — Aspiring Radian

The Speedbrood eventually becoming their own vehicles was a very fun bit of worldbuilding, and as much as it is acknowledged in the set, none of them were quite this direct about it. Plus, even if that wasn't true, I'd always welcome more. Using the vehicle token present in a literal handful of cards is a stroke of genius, I must say. Make me kind of surprised that it was reserved for two mythics, but I suppose there were enough printed vehicles that they didn't really feel the need for tokens. We've seen approximately the same thing before, creatures that get a second life via a token, but being a symmetrical vehicle does a lot to shake up the formula. And honestly, regardless of how charmed I am by it, it's also just a damn solid creature in limited.

@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Aether Drift

Hah! Oh, you kidder, you. I assure you this placement isn't entirely because of the pun, but, er. Broadening the card to all discards rather than just cycling as its contemporaries do is smart. After all, unlike those two, Aetherdrift isn't so much a cycling set as a set that has cycling to enable discard. And to go along with that, retaining the emergency one-time use from Astral Drift is a great move. In general, a lot of knobs have been fined tuned on this one. Besides the ones I've already highlighted, there's the fact that it's now a one or more trigger, with a mana cost, that phases something out rather than blinks it. It's an excellently crafted card with a hilariously crafted name, what's not to like?

~

These cards are way out in front, but the runners up are closing the distance! See you in a bit! —@spooky-bard

[aceofcupsbiggestfan]

Skirophoria

~ 12-14 Skiraphorion ~

The last Grain Festival of the year, Skira/Skiraphoria had two main focuses in celebration. These two focuses go hand-in-hand. One being Athena's triumph over Poseidon as the patron of Athens, and the second being Demeter's mystics regarding the harvest.

Skiron held major signficance as not only a precinct, but a place for Athena Skiras, Poseidon Pater, Demeter and Kore. Women were known during this festival to parade the streets, the only time of the year they were allowed to gather together in public. They ate garlic to ward of men (and husbands) as this day was one withheld from intimacy.

Because of this, Skira is regarded mainly as a festival for women. Women also casted piglets, dough figures of snakes and male genitalia, and pinecones into megaron, or a chasm. This then would be gathered once again at Thesmophoria. This cycle can be tied to the Grain part of the festival. Even as the year was coming to a close, the women were the ones to ensure the cycle begun properly once again in the next year to come.

Priests and priestesses engaged in mystics at the previously mentioned precinct. Plutarch mentions this as a "sacred plowing". This could be read placing significance on thanksgivings over a feast or a blessing of the last harvest of the year. Many read it as both.

With this ritual one to Athena as the patroness of Athens was said. Her victory over Poseidon for the city was acknowledged. A priest of Helios also attended, suggesting a blessing for good weather for the crops was also said at the sacred site.

Young men also participated in the festival in celebration. It is said races occurred to a shrine of Dionysus. The winner would partake in a wine-like mixture of wine, honey, olive oil, cheese and grain. Athena Skira was asked to bless this mixture.

It is during this time that we Modern Hellenes might take place a feast of grain, meat and dairy. Acknowledgement of Lady Athena's victory should be celebrated, bringing in the good harvest for her patron city with a prayer to Lord Helios, Lady Demeter and Lady Kore.

Traditional Offerings:

Hymns to Athena

Hymns to Demeter

Hymns to Kore

Hymns to Helios

Wine

Bread/Grain product

Cheese

Mixture from Thesmophoria

Garlic

Traditional Acts:

Prayers to Athena, Demeter, Kore and Helios

Blessings of crops/meal

Races of young men

Gathering of Women

Disregard of intimacy

Khaire Athena! Khaire Demeter! Khaire Helios! 🦉🌾☀️

[lavendel081]

seeing that family tree, i just need to know ALL about Eris' side of the family!

tell us as much as you can about her parents, her step-dad, her half-sister and her grandparents, please! \o/

literally kissing you for letting me talk about them!! I'm so grateful !! finna cry!! Thank you rahh!! I wanted to draw them all again, but I'm too tired with the webtoon (the next episode has 47 panels so that's a lot), so I'll just use the portraits I did of them!

Let's start with the OG!!! Grandpa!!

For fun I made a grandpa design before, and then got the idea to eventually do a prequel story for him! I don't know if I'll ever do it, so I guess I can talk about it here!

Grandpa doesn't have a canon name, but he lived in Pelican Town since he was born. He was the son of a doctor, and his childhood friend is Evelyn. After George moved to the valley, they become besties!! The old farmer in town is somewhat secluded, and has no family, but Evelyn happened to sometimes bring him food and take care of him, so one day Grandpa joins her. He decides he doesn't want to take on his fathers' legacy, and instead buy the farm from the old man. So int his story, the farm has only been in Eris family since grandpa, and well then kinda died with him until Eris comes to the valley. He has a younger sister, who may or may not take over the clinic instead (even if their father was against it at first, since they are v old-fashioned,,)

You can find some designs of other younger versions of npc here!!

Grandpa has one son! I don't think I'll give him any siblings, but yippie Elias! He looks a lot like Eris, and it's on purpose for Eris to strongly take after him instead of her mother.

He used to be a troubled youth, who, like his own father, didn't want to take on his fathers' legacy. So it's kind of a repeating cycle? He moved to the city v early on, didn't like living out in the valley. Maybe he's a bit like Sebastian in that sense? He mellows out a lot though and is a very gentle man. He and Ingrid/Eris Mom are both very laid back when it comes to raising their kids too. Mostly too busy with work, but it gives both girls an easy lifestyle!

With Ingrid, I happened to somehow mirror Robins story in a way, even though a lot less dark (at least in my version of Robins story)

Ingrid also had her first child very early on in life, somewhere in her early 20's. I'm still not sure if she necessarily got married to Marissa's/her first daughter's father, but they separated pretty quickly and their custody battle went fine? Marissa isn't very close to her father, but they aren't necessarily on bad terms. Ingrid is very independent, and is the main bread winner. She's also 4 years older than Elias and taller than him. (She still wears heels around him, though.)

Marissa is 8 years older than Eris, but they are semi-close! She's not very good at showing her feelings, but she cares a lot for her sister in her own way. When they were younger, and their parents often weren't home, Marissa took Eris to restaurants, so they could have dinner together. So she also helped raise Eris a lot.

She also often did Eris hair and picks her clothes! She might be so famous at this point, that she might appear in my webtoon soon, he-he! Marissa is like her mother, very independent and focused on her goals. She also has a very sharp tongue, in the sense that she says what she thinks.

And that's everyone, I think!! Thank you again for letting me talk about them that means so much to me rahh!!!

[tales-from-the-wanderer]

The Fischer kids

The intelligence, the kindness and the innocence

“Trapped where they ain’t no future even at seventeen”

Steph, the intelligence

Name: Stephanie Fischer

Nicknames: Steph,Stephie

Age: 17

Dob: 10th Feb. 1948

Sexuality: straight

Pronouns: she/her

Status: greaser

Love interest: tba

Description: Steph is the eldest of three as well as the only daughter. after her mother she’s the next bread winner of her family working as a waitress and a tutor for soc/greaser kids after school and on the weekends. she’s known for her intelligent when she isn’t providing for her brothers she’s either in her room studying or at the library catching up on school work. she’d love to go to med school someday and make a name for herself although she’s afraid of leaving her family behind and isn’t sure it would be possible unless she had a scholarship.

Strengths : intelligent,hardworking determined,witty,

Flaws: closed off, stressed, burnt out , bad tempered, cynical

“If you need to be mean be mean to me”

Toby,the kindness

Name: Toby-Michael Fischer

Nicknames: Tobes, Toblerone, skater boy

Age: 14

Dob: 13th Aug. 1950

Height: 5’6

Sexuality: Gay and asexual

Pronouns: he/him

Love interest: tba

Status: greaser

Description: Toby is the middle kid of three and is the peace maker of his family. while Steph and his mom are at work he’s at home caring for his little brother Noah and doing whatever he can to lessen the stress for his mom such as cooking meals and cleaning the house. hes secretly resentful of his current position but he feels guilty and that he doesn’t have a right to complain compared to what his mom and sister do for their family.

Strengths: empathetic, loving, creative , calm

Flaws: resentfull, people pleaser , anxious, closed off

“ standing in the yard dressed like a kid, the house is white and the lawn is dead”

Noah,the innocence

Name: Noah Fischer

Nicknames: sunshine

Age: 9

Dob: 5th March. 1956

Height: 4’5

Status: greaser (?)

face claim: Christian Convery

Description: Noah is the baby of three and is often referred to as being a ray of sunshine by his family. he’s unaware of his family’s poverty although he can see the guilt behind his mothers eyes, the stress from his sister and the hidden resentment from his brother. he’s often left out of important family meetings and not filled in on what’s going on which really stresses him out and causes him to lash out.

Strengths: curious, optimistic, bubbly , charismatic , observant

Flaws: afraid, angry, stubborn , loud

Additional information on them

1.despite being eight years apart Steph and Noah get into the most arguments while Toby acts as a peace maker between them.

2.Toby falls off his skate board a lot so Stephanie is used to patching him up and tells him to be more careful while he dismisses her goes back on his skateboard and falls again (it’s a cycle💀)

3.Stephanie convinced Toby that he’s allergic to the blue m&ms when he was little and Toby did the same thing with Noah except it was with the green ones instead

4.Noah has a bad habit of stealing his older siblings clothes and is regularly seen rummaging through their closets which annoy them.

5.Toby babysits Noah while his mum and Steph are working and the duo are left home alone a lot. they often do things such as going on walks, exploring Tulsa hanging out in the local playground and watching movies/ tv shows together to help kill time.

Toby sometimes takes Noah to the skate park to teach him how to skate.

[mpreg-nouveau]

Turn of the century omegaverse thoughts

Cause I'm a huge fucking history nerd and I was thinking about, what would omegaverse look like at different points in history/how would it effect history, and given the motif of this blog I thought I'd share some from 1900s-1910s.

Note, this is not me romanticising these concepts, just thinking about potential plotlines or ideas that COULD result from omegaverse being part of this point in the human time line, both good, bad, and just weird:

–omega sufferage movement along side women's sufferage

–the overlap between women’s rights movement and the issues of A/B/O hierarchies creating a lot of fuss and questions during the time, especially with news print and communication getting more and more wide spread.

–ex, it being considered ok for an alpha female to dress in men's clothing and do work as the primary breadwinner when her husband or wife is an omega, but what happens when she is with an alpha male who is socially EXPECTED to be the primary bread winner at the time? Is the woman supposed to quit her job and become a house wife upon marriage? She certainly doesn't think so and neither does her husband.

–i feel like the American hierarchy at the time is alpha male>alpha female=beta male>beta female=omega male=omega female.

–omegas using labor unions to fight for equal treatment and pay in new industrial settings.

--factories are hesitant to hire them because fearing their workers will go on heat regularly and slow down production. People having to hide that they are omegas to get work as a result. This was the time period where you could get fired for a work place injury after all.

–people coming to the States for the first time with different cultural expectations for the a/b/o dynamics and getting some culture shock from American life, whether american standards are stricter, less strict, or entirely flipped from their home perspectives.

–along with with the Gibson girl there's also the Gibson boy representing the dainty stereotype of omegas. 

–the new middle class and upper middle class suddenly being targeted by mass production industrial giants advertising new, useless creature comforts to build extravagant and gorgeous nests and dens

–patent medicines that are utterly worthless but advertise to act as heat suppressants, rut control, and to make your scent more appealing to others

–in order to pander to ideals of modernization and “civility” american upper crusts comparing their a/b/o status to various dog breeds instead of wolves. There's essentially a horoscope of sorts they've come up with to align themselves with specific dog breeds and the stereotypes there off.

– ex: “my father was an alpha bulldog type, and my mother a beta beagle designation, and because I was born on the 3rd Sunday in August as an omega, I am a jack Russell terrier designation.

–people keep harassing Arthur Conan Doyle for Watson and Sherlock’s canonic designation. This is what causes the poor man to lose it and start believing in fairies. 

–omega heat cars on trains for single individuals to hang out in and avoid perverts. Its meant as a kind gesture but instead just ends up playing into puritan culture surrounding omega bodies. 

–as electricity is being installed in more and more homes there's an irrational worry that the electrical circuits in the walls will mess with the cycles of heat and rut among some. 

–its completely unfounded but causes people to resist the switch anyways

–meanwhile there IS evidence that gas based light fixtures DO have negative effects on the body but everyone grew up with them “and I turned out ok so it must be fine”

–advent of widespread vaccines and better standards of sanitation means that entire litters of pups are surviving childhood now

–families that worried to name pups after they were born, as back in their home land it was rare for more than one per litter to survive, suddenly are having miracle litters. Every single pup is ending up getting spoiled by these families who expected the worst.

–new ridiculous electric inventions come out catering to beautification and a/b/o fertility care. One is a body massage device that supposedly increases the chances of having a healthy and fruitful pregnancy….it's essentially a hand held belly rub machine. 

– most of the US was still rural and isolated from the cities at this time. Few had ventured 20 miles from their home town. Rural parents worrying about their omega children marrying people from the city…because of a genuine yet misguided fear of their kids getting so overwhelmed by all the new scents  in the city that they will immediately have a seizure and die. 

–during the turn of the century it was already fairly common for kids to wear gender neutral, play safe clothing like gowns all the way up to 8 years old, so gender neutral clothing being common until a kid presents for the first time.

–classes getting divided into alphas, omegas, and betas in some puritanical schools in order to “protect the children” as the new US mandatory  public school system is getting hammered out

–packs becoming a looser term for more wide social circles rather than relatives or clans due to migration of people both into the nation and throughout. 

–Ex: woman forming packs based on sharing supplies in a new city with each other, or packs surrounding shared interest in activities like sewing or books

–the Boston Red Sox declare themselves a pack one day.

–I feel like a lot of politicians pretend to be alphas for status

–teddy Roosevelt secretly being an omega but nobody realizes this cause he's constantly covered in wood ash and various funk from his game hunting and overtly manly activities. Everyone just assumes he's an alpha between that and his personality.

(Edit: clarification on the last one, this is a joke about how the guy had horrible asthma and other chronic health issues especially while young, which for most people at the time would mean a very short life span, but no one knew because the dude compensated with so much exercise and other extreme health stuff you could do at the time you could not tell. Dude even took a bullet to the chest midway through a speech and then finished said speech. Dude basically made himself a stereotype of an "alpha male")

[pasdetuseyi]

It's been years since I last updated this. A lot has changed but 1 thing hasn't. And that 1 thing is, the fact that I feel like tumblr is the only safe place for me to share my thoughts. Since the last time I was on here, I started a family, started a real business and assumed the role of bread winner of the family. It's been a crazy journey to say the least but Im still here. During this journey I've realized that the older a man gets, the less the world cares about your feelings. The only thing that matters is what you got, what you do and how you do it. I look back at my past tumblr journals and realize that I've always been in tune with my thoughts & feelings. And back then, it was semi acceptable because I was young. Girls used to love being around me because I was able to communicate my feelings which made it easy to understand theirs. However, the older a we get, the less women care about how you feel. They start to only focus on how they feel and what you can do for them. That's due to society and a combination of their experiences on their journey. In short, their survival. On the other hand, men get older and our experiences teach us that no one cares about how we feel and to keep our feelings to ourselves. We get older, we try to continue sharing our feelings, those feelings get used against us. So we bottle those feelings, dont share and then those same women begin to use our lack of emotional sharing as a reason why they do what they do. And I get it, because all women share their feelings from birth and experience shut down after shut down while on their journey to womenhood. So when they get to a certain age, they've already mastered the art of compartmentalization. Whereas men, we get older and just want a female we can be vulnerable with, without her taking advantage of it. It's a shitty cycle. One that Im experiencing and one that my daughters will experience. Yes I said daughters. God blessed me with 2 daughters. I guess they're my karma lolll I'll have to try and teach them so that they have the knowledge and tools to move accordingly. But only time will tell... Anyway, Im rambling. Just want to say Im back and Im glad that I can get my thoughts out on here. A place thats familiar. A place that feels safe. I'll be back. Talk to you soon

[sinceileftyoublog]

Ty Segall's Life Cycles

(Drag City)

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Throughout his career, prolific fuzz rock wunderkind Ty Segall has consistently revealed new combinations of sounds, and tricks. 2024 was no different. In January, with Three Bells, Segall combined the melodic psych folk of Sleeper with the glam funk sprawl of Manipulator and Freedom's Goblin. The album is a 15-song, song cycle, produced with Cooper Crain of Bitchin Bajas, that reads like a treatise on overcoming existential panic. In August, Segall released Love Rudiments, a not just fully instrumental but all drum album, inspired by the cycles of life and love. Both of these records contain moments of insularity and blasts of outward expression.

Even when Segall involves his band members, he's the true driving force behind the songs and their ability to bewilder you. Three Bells features collaborations with Denée Segall and Emmett Kelly, and occasionally, the rest of the Freedom Band. Of course they shine on a song like the thrilling "Move", which sports Denée's deadpanned, spoken vocals atop Segall and Kelly's dueling guitars and Charles Moothart's monstrous fills. But the album's highlights are directly representative of Segall's anxious inner monologue. Take "Void", where Segall's vocals lurk atop nervy acoustic guitars, as if to foreshadow the song's halfway about-face into a mopey, strummed tune with distorted guitars that almost sound like horns. "In here, I realize it's all fake, what I've seen outside," Segall sings, doubting his own past perceptions as you try to parse what you're hearing. "Eggman" plays like a sonic experiment, sounding slowed down before actually slowing down, its elements subsumed with noise as if the song is being boiled. "Your mouth's agape and caked with eggs," Segall deliberately sings, the rhyme scheme the only thing less expected than the song's aural turn. And at first, while a song like "Denée" seems like a showcase for the album's instrumental palate, Segall simply repeating his wife's first name and allowing the instruments to take shape, Ben Boye's spacey keyboard licks criss-cross with Kelly's bass and hand-clap percussion to create an odd time signature, making you forget how the song started in the first place.

If some songs on Three Bells represent Segall's efforts to capture the absurdity of the world, the more traditional and introverted tunes seem like a necessary contrast. "Out there, I'm too dizzy," Segall declares on "My Room". In other words, when he's inside, he can fool around, flip through his record collection, and craft songs. Three Bells gives you your quintessential T. Rex-indebted strut with "I Hear", drippy Goodbye Bread-era ditty with "Watcher", and Neil Young stomp with "Repetition". Segall's great ability to propel a song with acoustic guitar shines on "To You"; even the sweetly whirring breakdown fails to prevent the main melody from wriggling its way into your ear. "Just keep singing so we can dance forever," Segall requests, to others and himself, as if it's his mantra.

Well, except for the fact that Love Rudiments, on the other hand, has no singing and much less than normal you can dance to. Three of its four tracks are longform wanderings that, even upon entering a groove, take a left turn. "Getting Ready / Arrival / The Dance / Walk Home Pt. II / First Touch", beginning with trilling xylophone and panning snares, eventually makes its way into a 4/4 beat, with a forward march that could stand up to his excellent cover of Hot Chocolate's "Every 1's a Winner". Soon, though, its layered mallet instrumentation melts into something that sounds like rustling around a pile of silverware, and the song rolls to its end. The clacking boom bap of "Honeymoon / Life / Confrontation / Argument / Separation / Realization" also gives way to skittering drum rolls. Its ambient whooshing recalls the feeling you get from hearing Segall's trap kit playing on opening track "First Look / First Conversation / Walk Home Pt. I": that the songs are crumpling in on themselves. The titles on Love Rudiments suggest a love that starts and ends over decades, but as with any cycle, it's not linear time that's important as much as repetitions on a theme. Three Bells and Love Rudiments are Segall's attempts to find patterns in a senseless world.

[dnvdk]

News The general term 'media' is often what we critique but I'm currently interested in understanding the most counterproductive and toxic of all: the hysterical, amygdala rubbing advertising monolith we collectively understand as news.

As a species we've developed offspring with ever faster calculating brains over the course of thousands of years. The reason for this is simple; the faster you are able to spot a danger, the less likely you become to the dangers that lurk in the corner of the cave. Fast forward to Ancient Rome where the Acta Diurna (daily journal) was instigated by Julius Caesar and presented daily in or near the forum. So this first type of industrial media was developed and controlled by (or at least with the blessing of) the ruling emperor about 40 years after the term 'bread and circuses' was established. Skip printing press, skip television, fast forward to today. This daily outing has become a realtime perpetual outing. In the last 25 years, the commercial necessity of capturing as many viewers as possible has also been supersized by the Peter Thielization of the world that fully embraced zero-sum mindset where there are only winners and losers. As a result the pluriform media landscape that existed by the end of the 90s has been acquired completely by a very small group. This directly results in newspapers with different titles that print the exact same thing ('Why not, it is objective!') and TV stations that regurgitate identical, teleprompter fed, monologues and factoids. And looking back at this quarter of a century, it is clear this will only accelerate into a news cycle that is fully built around cliffhangers. The ideal situation for this conglomerate is 24/7 OJ Simpson chases. 'This is just in!' 'Important developments!' all while seeing images of people you never met and places you have no intention of visiting. The London subway and Boston Marathon bombings, the attacks on Charlie Hebdo, the Bataclan, wildfires, flooding, murder, a celebrity dead in their bathtub. It is important that you stay up-to-date. People describe themselves unironically as 'political junkie' while the actual net result of politics being grossly overestimated. Brexit, the election of Donald Trump and the covid pandemic can be seen as the trifecta of hysteria and changed the landscape forever. The sheer outpour of daily news and the level in which political, military and commercial interests are intertwined with this barrage can now only be viewed as the politico-industrial complex. Or more accurately; the military-political-industrial-media complex. And yet - news is for the most part consumed without any suspicion. The complex has done an amazing job in providing co-workers world wide with one dimensional phrases parroted from the trustworthy men and women without characteristic personalities. The notion that gets proposed from time to time to introduce critical thinking to children in schools is simultaneous objectively a good idea and a total and utter impossibility as the 'thinking' part is turned off so effectively by the complex that the addition of 'critical' is just cruel. What to do about it? In the words of Marshall McLuhan given to Timothy Leary - Turn on, tune in, drop out.

[saint-tyago]

July 21, 2024 I am trying my best to be consistent with my entries here because I really find it helpful in terms of processing my thoughts and slowing down a bit. A lot of things are happening all at once again. Allow me to list it down here 1. Bacolod team feels like they are not being recognized enough unlike us here in Manila for the BPOlympics

2. Park and Joan joining the Advantage Club Recognition Day at Dusit Thani and getting am award being recognized together with the whole Ubiquity 3. Park getting an emotional outburst during the Uplift call 4. Joan is blaming me because of the screenshot that the C/B received in our GC 5. Park talking to me to address the my personal and what I am feeling at work because I talked to Mayo to verbalize what I feel - I feel so left out. I feel so unseen. I feel like we are so close yet so far. I also did mention that I do not know who I am anymore inside and outside of Ubiquity because I am becoming so emotionally numb. Like nothing excites me anymore. I am so lost I do not know where to go next I feel like I am in a cycle. I miss doing the things that used to excite me. It takes a lot of humility to admit na di ko na gusto yung trabaho ko altho I have no plans of leaving because as the bread winner, I need this job. I need money from this job and it is very dead tiring. Di ko na nagagawa yung mga bagay na gusto ko dahil masyado ng kinakain ni Ubiquity yung oras ko and what scares me is I am not getting any younger anymore and I don't want to be on my deathbead before I realize that I am missing a lot in life. I need to know who I am again. This is not the life that I wanted. I miss dreaming again. I miss climbing the mountains. I miss the outdoor. I miss the beach because 10 yrs ago I have dreamt of travelling but here I am lost in life, exhausted and no dreams

[inventors-fair]

Annual All-Stars: 2024 Rewind Winners

~

Our winners this week are @bread-into-toast, @hanavesinauttija, and @helloijustreadyourpost!

@bread-into-toast — Momir VII, Cloned Genius

Ah boy, he's at it again. As much as I love this card as a standalone, I feel obligated to start at the point it's intended to be judged at: namely, how well it replaces the corresponding uncommon signpost from Thunder Junction. It's an interesting dynamic, because Doc Aurlock was firmly in the category of an enabler for the archetype, while this acts as more of a payoff. But not entirely, because what it rewards you with makes it that much easier to dig for more cards to plot. I love bringing back the color mechanics from the original cycle, and I like how just like Aurlock, the graveyard portion is there solely to make it more applicable outside of its archetype and/or set environment. I think it might be verging on too strong for that cost though, as the concept of turning Scavenging Ooze into a draw engine is kind of dizzying.

@hanavesinauttija — Wreck

Yowch. A bit aspect of the one-word removal contest was finding a name that has punch, and damn if this doesn't punch. A situationally better Murder is always a good place to start when it comes to black removal, but the exact nature of the situational upside really makes this one stand out to me. While we've technically seen this sort of effect before, it's exclusively been the vehicle itself caring about whoever hopped aboard. Thus, having a piece of removal that interacts with the mechanic in this way goes pretty drastically changes the dynamic. Typically, creatures assigned to crew a vehicle are pretty safe. After all, crew is a cost, so pointing removal at the pilots stop the car from crashing directly into your face. But now, the hypothetical existence of this card could serve to make the decision that more important, lest you get two or even three or more for one'd.

@helloijustreadyourpost — Myriad Defenses

I'm an outspoken fan of cards that get you to Consider the Implications the moment you lay eyes on them. On the surface, this is a purely defensive tool. You cast it, and suddenly their entire attacking force is stymied by expendable tokens, problem solved. But then you realize precisely how many uses there are for getting an arbitrarily large number of copies of a given creature at once, and suddenly the card seems a whole lot more offensive. Plus, I do love combat-specific spells that get to mess with mechanics more than usual because they know precisely which phase they're being cast in. All in all, I find this one really inspiring. Good show!

~

One more round of runners up to close out the year! —@spooky-bard

[irondad-creator-awards]

Final Thanks

With the Winners and Runners Up announced, we can wind down the 2023 cycle of the Irondad Creator Awards with some final thanks to the amazing people involved.

@asyouleft once again joined the team and this time took on the mammoth task of tracking nominations and votes and created the spreadsheet that was our bread and butter for running things. She worked her butt off to keep things on track.

New to the team this year was @ctrsara​ who was our AO3 Wrangler. She was the one that organized all the Bookmarks and Collections tags. This is not a small feat at all, and we’re incredibly grateful to her.

Our artist this year was the fabulously talented @superherotiger​ who created all our post art and also the wonderful prizes our winners and runners up won. She also jumped in last minute with corrections for us.

No person was limited by their main role and all jumped in to help out when and where needed. Our Discord was a place of energy and support thanks to them.

And finally... You. Thank you all for the reblogs, likes, nominations and votes. Thank you for allowing your works to be part of it. There would be no point running these Awards if you didn’t all get behind them and make them what they are.

From the bottom of my Irondad loving heart, THANK YOU ALL!!!

@jadeys-world​ xxx

[grayintogreen]

Critical Role Fanfic Masterpost December 1st- December 31st

aka THE SPECIAL CRITMAS EDITION. This was the stuff I started in November for Critmas and can finally reveal. I wrote a gift for every single participant because... I don’t know. I wanted to be nice since it was my first time participating??? I’ll never do it again because it was very difficult, but it was still fun.

from planting to harvest, from flower to frost. (G). 1618 words. Caduceus reflects at a winter solstice party.

it’s all swords and spades so cut me slowly. (T). 1071 words. Zahra/Kash. Zahra saves Kash, and the rest is history.

‘cause you’re the only one i wanna fool (T). 1608 words. Molly/Caleb. Four times Molly tried to get Caleb to notice him and one time he realized why it wasn’t working.

tested and tried in the spray and the thunder (T.) 1089 words. Kingsley is, above all things, a creature of midpoints.

ours is a song of cycles and seasons. (T) 1328 words. Dorian/Dariax. D&D share a moment before Dorian leaves for Zephrah.

born for the scythe and the thorn. (T) 840 words. When Jayne Merriweather was four years old, she witnessed her first sacrifice.

do not hunter, do not need (they grow strong on human greed). (T.) 1352 words. AU. Lucien as a Champion of Vecna.

there are heroes on both sides of a war. (T) 2231 words. AU. Expositor Beauregard seeks out a secret liaison within the Volstrucker.

you’re gonna need a lot of luck if you’re ever gonna catch the fox. (T) 2226 words. AU. Vax/Keyleth. Vaxleth Modern meet-cute at a farmer’s market.

give me a man ripe for a breakdown (and i’ll end the world for you). (T) 445 words. Jayne Merriweather and the Creation of the Angel of Irons.

you never get replacements for a broken heart. (G) 1643 words. Jester and Caduceus share an emotionally vulnerable moment in the Xhorhaus.

cups and hearts and we’re still holy (G) 1740 words. Caduceus and Calliope, some sibling bonding, and some wisdom.

i thought the wood and the world were connected. (G) 1104 words. Caduceus copes after the burning of the arboretum.

once you see the midway, you’ve already lost. (T) 1972 words. Jester/Artagan. Artagan, Jester, a Feywild carnival, and lots of feelings.

life is not a game that has a clear and present winner. (T) 2141 words. Molly realizes there are occasionally consequences to his actions.

cut my teeth on the bread of pure temptation. (T) 2017 words. The last temptation of Essek Thelyss in Eiselcross.

remember me as something bigger than i was. (T) 1882 words. Yasha tells Kingsley about Molly precisely how Molly would tell it.

we don’t need questions, so it’s better not to ask. (T) 812 words. Ashton and FCG discuss faith.

where the waves hold cool dominion, sand and stone can catch no claim. (T) 9037 words. AU. Molly meets Lucien’s twin brother when the Nein arrive on Darktow.

don’t be chosen- make the choice to choose. (T) 1954 words. Kingsley gets life advice from Orly.

these are the threads we weave on the way. (T) 1985 words. Ashton and Laudna pretend to date and cause chaos.

all actions and reactions. (T) 2879 words. Jester/Astrid. AU. Pre-law student Astrid Beck is having a bad time. A tale of school stress, loneliness, burn-out, meet-cutes, and scones.

maybe it’s madness, but what’s wrong with madness. (T) 2048 words. After the incident in the Ass Sailor, Jayne makes a decision.

we are what we are, and we will never mourn. (T) 4295 words. Evil AU. The Dark Nein gather together to stop one of their own.

give me black ravens to kindle the sun. (G) 1064 words. Kiri grows up.

all our debts have been paid and we’ve counted the cost. (T) 1745 words. Viliya sends Keyleth to the Savalirwood to help, and a friendship blossoms.

[abookishdreamer]

Character Intro: Tyche (Kingdom of Ichor)

Nicknames- Despoinida Fortuna by the people of Olympius

Age- 17 (immortal)

Location- Skyline district, New Olympus

Personality- Tyche, for the most part, is well rounded, bubbly, and optimistic. She can be greedy & materialistic at times. She's very energetic. She's a lesbian & is currently single.

She has the standard abilities of a goddess. As the goddess of fortune, chance, & luck, she can bestow good luck or fortune onto anyone she chooses (later equalized by Nemesis). In combat, Tyche's known for her fast & seamless reflexes, dodging her opponents' moves. She can shapeshift into things and objects associated with luck such as a four leaf clover, a horseshoe, and a tortoiseshell cat.

A notable physical feature of Tyche is her short vibrant dark green hair.

Her relationships with the other deities are fairly good and she often hangs out with Agon (god of sports & contests), Phaenna (goddess of jewels), Hermes, Komos (god of revelry), Hemera (goddess of the day), Gelos (god of laughter), Nemesis (goddess of retribution), Methe (goddess of drunkenness), Nike (goddess of victory), Zelus (god of envy, jealousy, & zeal), Nerissa (goddess of jellyfish), Aether (god of the upper atmosphere, celestial bodies, & heavenly light), Eos (Titaness of dawn), Móda (goddess of fashion), Iris (goddess of the rainbow), Apollo (god of the sun, music, poetry, healing, medicine, archery, plague, light, & knowledge), Hera (goddess of women & marriage), Zeus (god of the sky, thunder, & lightning), Mania (goddess of insanity), Himeros (god of impetuous love), Hedylogos (god of sweet talk & flattery), Chrysos (god of gold & riches), Zephyrus (god of the west wind), Horme (god of energy), Pannychis (goddess of nightlife festivities), Eupraxia (goddess of well-being & success), and Aphrodite (goddess of love & beauty).

Tyche also hangs out with Thalia (muse of comedy), Polyhymnia (muse of hymns), & Terpsichore (muse of dance).

As an induction ceremony gift, she received a yellow gold necklace with an emerald clover shaped pendant. Tyche wears it often.

Her official mentor was Orthosia (goddess of wealth).

Tyche lives in a penthouse in the Skyline district of New Olympus. The interior design matches the look of a casino with bright colors & neon light fixtures. There's lots of sleek leather furniture, glass, crystal, & lucite furniture pieces as well as Imperial Gold cabinets in the kitchen.

She has a little brother Caerus (god of opportunity & luck) who lives with their mother Evimería (goddess of prosperity). Tyche loves spoiling him with toys & video games.

She has a collection of Diamond Ave. clutches (her favorite being the one that’s in the shape of a money bag!)

As a gift for her induction ceremony, Tyche recieved a white gold necklace with a diamond studded dice charm from her mom. She wears it often.

In Olympius, she owns a chain of casinos (Clover Club Casino) as well as a chain of loan agencies. She's also responsible for the Olympic Lottery, hosting the winners of the Mega-Jackpot and other lotto & money prizes. Tyche and her company are also responsible for those "quick prizes contests and sweepstakes that are found on the back of cereal boxes and in fast food restaurants. She also released a successful makeup palette (Look of Luck) and is in talks of releasing her debut fragrance. There's a few casino locations in the Underworld too.

Her favorite colors are green, gold, purple, & red!

In her free time, Tyche enjoys hitting up the casinos, playing all sorts of card games, rollerblading, tennis, football (soccer), dancing, playing video games, shopping, cycling, and getting her nails done- often adding jewelry and charms to them.

Her favorite snacks are the kiwi-lime frozen yogurt (with extra popping candy toppings) from Matton's ice cream truck as well as a cucumber salad sandwich (with extra pickles and tzatziki mayo) from The Bread Box.

Tyche is also the creator of Lucky Bits cereal- fortune cookie shaped & flavored cereal with glitter gold obol shaped and green shamrock shaped marshmallow pieces. It's the third most popular cereal brand eaten by kids after Grains of Olympus & Omega Lightning Flakes.

Her go-to drink is a lime drop martini. She also likes champagne, frozen lime margaritas, ginger ale, honeydew juice, cola, olympian sized confetti milkshakes from The Frozen Spoon, & lemon-lime soda. Her usuals from The Roasted Bean is the large apple lychee splash and the olympian sized caramel latte (with extra whipped cream).

A favorite jewelry accessory that Tyche always wears is her white gold & diamond horseshoe earrings.

Her favorite meal is an olympian salad with lots of ranch dressing.

She gets around in a lime green convertible (which has Imperial Gold spinners).

She has a pet griffin named Coin.

Tyche currently has a secret crush on Terpsichore & has had crushes on Dione, Philotes (goddess of sex, friendship, & affection), and Euphrosyne (grace of joy).

Her last real relationship was with Arachne, a mortal girl.

"Being lucky is the world's greatest high!"

[vivithefolle]

What do you think about Hermione as a character?

Very much conditional on how many garbage fics/comments/whatever I’ve seen through the day and how much garbage I’m willing to put up with today.

Sometimes I think “aww, poor baby, she’s so clueless, she has no idea. She’s just flying by the seat of her pants. I feel like I’m looking into a mirror to the past. Don’t worry sweetie, you’ll get there.”

Then I remember the canaries and my lips do that thing like McGonagall does and I’m like “... yeah you’ll get there, with a bit of GODDAMN FUCKING THERAPY, and I’m not taking no for an answer”.

Other times I’m more like “oh I fucking hate you. I fucking hate you so fucking much. You are such a manipulative vile little bitch, just like your author. Oh my god I hate you so much, you and all the people who worship you and think you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread. You are such a humongous lie. A lie that so many people believe because they want to feel special, because they think being victims makes them untouchable the way the narrative puts you into the role of victim so you’re always forgiven with just a few tears. But I fucking know. I know that sort of manipulation. I’ve used that sort of manipulation, I’ve been prey to that sort of manipulation. I have no respect for you, you cowardly little twerp, hiding behind a biased narration, always ready to mete out punishment but not so keen on facing it yourself. To think that people think of you as a great figure of equality and justice. Pfft. You’re such a liar, and the worst part is that practically everyone fell for it.”

Then I soften up. “It’s not really your fault, of course. You didn’t choose to be written. You’re not responsible for how the fandom simplified you and caricatured you into this perfect icon that doesn’t exist. All they did was be teenagers who hold grudges forever, identified with you, then didn’t realize it when your author made you into a Mary Sue. You’re just a character from a book... you only get to do what the author wants you to do.”

It’s an endless cycle.

Personally, I hate hate HATE the “soft sweet gentle Hermione who is so kind and lovely with everyone” trope. Hermione is HARSH. She’s critical, judgemental, and really can be a bitch sometimes. She has good intentions but don’t forget the road to hell is paved with it. She also has a savior complex. She wants to do good because it flatters her ego, because she equates “doing good” with “being good”. But as we saw from Dumbledore, from Snape, from several characters, it’s not as black and white as that. It’s never as black and white as that.

To write Hermione, I call upon my memories of being the Gifted Child™, bullied by her peers and favoured by the teachers. The more I was bullied, the more I hated my peers and distanced myself from them, only looking at them with contempt and disgust. The more I was bullied, the more the adults repeated me they were just jealous and that I was so mature, and that I was going to do great things. And when it all came crashing down in a great wave of burn-out turned school phobia and depression, I realized I’d been lied to. I wasn’t mature. I wasn’t incredibly smart and special. I wasn’t going to be the next Einstein. I was just a teenage girl with a good memory. I was just a kid who’d been lied to, who’d propped herself up on a great pedestal and thought she’d be the big winner watching from her throne of accomplishments as her foolish degenerate former schoolmates would never amount to anything. Then I realized I had no accomplishments to build my throne with, that (some of) my schoolmates actually knew how to function in the real world while I’m too terrified of people to do something as simple as ask for directions in the street, and that I got caught up in my own hype.

I still do it sometimes. I look at people with contempt and disdain. I think of myself as the only intelligent person on Earth (and make a concession for the people who agree with me).

But at least I know I’ve learned the lesson once. Which is more than can be said of Hermione Granger.

Sure it’s great to know stuff, but wouldn’t it be even better if you were nice about it?