#but now I'm finally back in the mood

[aro-tarot]

My Experience Getting Back into Tarot Journaling

Me: *sets up journaling page with washi, pictures, and stickers* Me: A cool page and a prompt to journal about sometime this month. That'll give me something to do later. Me: *immediately fills the page* Me: ... Me: So, I guess I'm going to pick another prompt and set up a page for that one as something to work on this month. Me: *repeats* Me: ...

[icewindandboringhorror]

Little bright colored outfit with a fun vest ~

(shoes from ebay like 10 years ago. everything else is thrifted)

[outlying-hyppocrate]

well. did you fucking miss me.

[forestlovesyou]

I got hit by a huge wave of nostalgia and fell back into the Undertale rabbithole and I just couldn't resist the urge to make a Handplates skeleton lore accurate oc who I am pretty proud of ngl :] adawd

[mishkakagehishka]

I may have spent all my life until this moment wasting both mine and God's time, but from tomorrow on, for sure, i swear it, i will change my ways and be better. And it'll be different from all the other times i said the same thing🧎‍♀️

[shiliria]

Based on this post

[unproduciblesmackdown]

among the boundless billions zaniness like laugh track as it definitely has that moment of expressing "rolling my eyes as The Left makes a kerfuffle of Acting like they have a stance as a veneer over the true belief that [xyz] is cool & chill actually" like what, approximate 0.000% chance wendy isn't, as usual, given the Objective Stance of "yeah yeah ohh we are cancelling involved parties talking about how we Don't watch this But. we all love this damn epic movie & already have it memorized so shut the fuck up, kids today" like. don't wanna really delve into how much billions thinks taylor or anyone is "really" trans / nonbinary like not too much benefit of the doubt in this material including what does provide info abt that specifically

& the general like [head in hands. what do you think any of this could possibly be about (you're the one that made your show at all about Power)] of "yes, it's bad/wrong to be someone that someone has done something to / victim of something" like that to be anti misogyny All Women Must Be Epic Winners b/c there's something to be proved: that they don't Deserve to be victims (of misogyny), not taken as a Given. while when we see some epic winner men stepping on other men (who need not all be guaranteed Winners so as to say misogyny is wrong), that's often Good, well beyond any assumption that various forms of basic disrespect / violation / patterns of emergent/entrenched power difference as Bad (for being things done to people, not for there being people they're being done to), & generally billions has to take an extra step when ppl get shitted on & tell us the Specific Cases when it was undeserved actually & someone was being mean to a specific person who didn't deserve that. & the specific cases when hey guess it wasn't that bad(tm) or when hey It's Okay that you're someone something was done to, in this case. & tell us what we were supposed to know all along like when someone who something was being done to (wrong Of Them, whether b/c they inherently deserve it no matter what, &/or b/c they failed to be someone who could make it Impossible to do anything to them, which, how do you do that besides being The Authority / Superior yourself, exactly? nonrhetorically? what if the in group vs out group / fascism / authoritarianism protected Me?) was actually being treated Too Well b/c ah well the abuse meant you were getting any attention, maybe it meant you were claimed as any superior's property, maybe it meant you weren't Already disposed of, as all Losers were in the end, You're Welcome.

obviously referring to winston where it's spelled out all the abuse towards him was deserved, & More than he deserved in the case of rian having more access & taking advantage of that, all for billions' enjoying its own sendoff there of, again, maximizing violation & violence short of [real violence is physical & leaves bruises / draws blood / Literally kills] which would be distasteful in general But doesn't it make wags look like the winner & winston the loser is that the former's completely unrelated completely impersonal ego blow gets way amplified taken out on winston, the most vulnerable recurring character when spyros as [first & ultimate Everyone Hates Him role] is more entrenched in there & billions still magnanimously pities tuk, as it does winston too, just not quite as much. again that like completely surface level realized power fantasy of forcing the mirror up to the Inferior so they're like nooo my inferiorityyyy & in doing so like, the projection in that lmao, we get it re: the valuing of & need(tm) for such Power Tripping & Reaffirming My Superiority & My Ego Restored; Everyone Claps like good god. & then for all ben & tuk are the slightly softer Two Too Nice Boys duo to the rian & winston quant duo, also like too nice i guess but not as much, ben is in charge of tuk but Any instance of rian being in charge of winston outstrips them in that "yay interpersonal abuse" dynamic, like then in the end billions may be like "yeah it's possible to be mean to them unlike how being mean to winston is actually Nice b/c he deserves everything he gets, we only vicariously enjoy it vs Feeling Bad for tuk & ben sometimes (still magnanimously & it's Not That Bad / just goofin)" like ben & tuk still Fail by not being people it's impossible to do anything to. & not Exceptions who anyone is really being Too Mean to. like if they were women, in which case, no problem surely with a "positive" kind of victim blaming where there is something Inherent that Will be victimized so hey how about to cancel that out there's this special Paternal Protection you Need always, Or Else? :) but instead they are men who are asian & is ben gay & w/tuk & winston nobody mentions glasses or fatness but billions doesn't really do much or very in depth textual mentioning of Anything, even w/nonzero mention that there may be gender & race in this world. a gay man, once. no disability. we just Know who are the inferiors who deserve it when they're treated inferiorly, or if they don't, they start deserving it when they fail to stop/avoid it, but if you start mentioning the factors behind who we all totally agree is inferior like whoa nobody was Saying any of that? being the real agent of oppression on the basis of the factors only You spelled out, much? nonbinary? i never say anything about the Gender Binary when i'm subscribing to it, sounds like You've created & enforced it. obfuscation & deflection onto [so Just Normal nobody has to label, explain, or argue it] couldn't serve a purpose & protect the existing power differences as they are. maybe You're the problem? perhaps you brought it upon yourself & now you're causing too much trouble standing up for yourself while everyone else's criticism is laser focused on you as the prior & continuing negative actions done to you are taken as a given / unquestioned / covertly protected to overtly encouraged?

anyway so wild if the Completely Normal(tm) Victim Blaming is uncritically recreated & oft embraced for "if you're watching this & don't wish you were axe / find him appealing" [billions as a sequence of vicarious power trips] purposes in this series....but a bit wild considering like this is your multiseason show that wasn't just purporting to be those power trips for [enough demographic & apparently specific personal tastes overlap w/creators] & was at all purporting to question the matters of power at play in the material, or yknow, at least to not be completely superficial material while said material is textually & thematically all about power difference being leveraged, how, the consequences, & so on. thus i will have to intermittently talk about it forever like this like lord unbelievable. & the funny little & sometimes less funny less little characters it has trapped in there so that those of us who were never meant to be in the audience can be cursed with this knowledge. like i have some feedback. "imagine not victim blaming" & "imagine adjusting your perspective can go beyond superficial layers added to politely defer to some other ppl while they're present but really like cmon do they deserve that. am i not just saying what we're allll thinking"

[cjgladback]

For the first time in a long while, I got to go to a white elephant gift exchange this December! We had a low price ceiling and my practically wins out over any practical joke sensibilities every time, so on the designated shopping day I left my local overstock store with a nice chopstick set, some fancy (not at all mess-free) popcorn, and a dream.

When I was growing up, my mom was an intrepid homeschooling parent who loved event planning, valued cultural exploration, and had married into a Japanese family. Multiple times - sometimes in the setting of a multicultural fair, at least once as a kind of class party (with celebratory takeout at the end) - she faced teaching large groups of children how to use chopsticks quickly and with as little cost and cleanup as possible.

Her answer was popcorn! It's edible, so you get the full motion down, and lightweight but large enough for less coordinated sticks to pinch. It has tons of nubbins to grab and widely varied shapes to experiment with. Specifically, we used air-popped kernels, without oil or toppings, so when it gets overzealously crushed or bounces away and gets missed by a broom, it's basically biodegradable styrofoam.

What I'm saying is, this is my mom's fault. Other than the choice to draw so many hands in one afternoon on the same day as the party, while also baking a snack. That's all me. This primer was delivered in the format of a tiny booklet (if you look up an "eight page zine" that's also a method I learned from my mom, to turn single-sided misprints into notepads), with fewer jokes and tips than I'd have liked because I simply did not have time to transcribe a hashi rest fold or hairstyle. But reformatted (for Mastodon) it looks fairly respectable.

Lengthy image descriptions and full poster format under the cut.

[ID: A title page reads "How to Use Chopsticks" in all caps. The words "without too much mess" are between two straight, orange lines, which start with round points at the left, evoking chopsticks, and end in flared shapes of a silhouetted splash on the right. Below the lower line are the words "by CJ Gladback." All the text is in black, the background is white but appears light orange due to a repeating geometric watermark pattern of CJ's logo in orange overlaid on the whole image; her handle on most sites is included once on each of the following spreads: @cjgladback​

Next is the first spread of four illustrations with their instructions. On the left half of page are two line drawings of a right hand holding one and then two chopsticks, with the text, "The first stick rests on the side of your ring finger's nail and the flesh between your thumb and index finger. Your middle finger's pad holds it securely while it can slide against your thumb as your hand changes posture in use. The second stick is held between the knuckle of your thumb and the middle section of your index finger. This is the one you move to change angles; it may touch but doesn't really rest on the middle finger's tip." In orange, two arrows indicate the rest points for the first stick while small hashes emanate from the points pressed on the middle and ring fingertips and under the thumb's joint holding the top stick. On the right upper quadrant of the page is the text "Hold them close to parallel to scoop." A hand holds two sticks poked into a bowl of rice between the viewer and the palm; a series of parallel orange lines emphasize the space between the sticks. The remaining quadrant's text reads, "Press with your index finger to pinch firmly." This hand is holding an indistinct rounded shape in its chopsticks, with an orange arrow indicating the rotation of the index finger's tip to press the top stick's point toward the bottom's.

Next is the final spread of the pamphlet. The upper right text reads, "Practice with something medium sized and low mess like (air-popped) popcorn." A single piece of popcorn is held in disembodied chopsticks above a full popcorn bowl, with several kernels fallen to the surface below it. Text below reads, "Pick up your dishes to bring close to your mouth to scoop the harder to grab foods." An implied tilted bowl of food (fried rice or porridge with diced pieces) protrudes off the page, covering only the lower left corner. Close-up chopsticks have their points buried in the food and their lines fade out toward the right. The final black text, underlined by two orange chopstick shapes, reads, "but most of all, do what feels comfortable and eat well!" In orange in the lower right corner, the parenthetical "(and maybe knit a scarf)" is followed by a small orange drawing of a steaming bowl of noodles and sliced egg with a noodle line trailing toward two upward angled sticks with loopy hashes indicating knit fabric hanging from them.

The final image is the full booklet in its web format, with the three previous images from this post stacked vertically. Some orange lines have been added between what were pages in the print booklet, to aid reading flow. /end ID]

[eurovision-del]

Eurovision season is well under way! It’s only December but we already have our first song, and we’re going to get another one soon when Czechia select their entry. I waited to hear all the songs for the first time live at ESCZ, then went back to the studio cuts, and after a few days to get familiar with them, here’s what I think:  

Tom Sean – Dopamine Overdose

MYDY – Red Flag Parade

Lenny – Good Enough

Elly – The Angel’s Share

Tomas Robin – Out Of My Mind

Gianna Lei – Starlet

Aiko – Pedestal

My gut reaction after watching ESCZ was that unlike previous years we’re missing an obvious standout this year, since I enjoyed quite a lot of the songs equally, but actually I’ve come to think that MYDY are head and shoulders above the rest. Red Flag Parade is the most immediate of all the songs, designed to grab your attention with that dramatic opening, and it’s super catchy – it’s been in my head all week. The live performance had the clearest visual identity, The red marching band outfits are distinct and fit the song. The lead singer, Žofie, has fantastic energy and sells the attitude needed. Her vocals might not have been pitch perfect, but the sound system didn’t do anyone any favours, and it works fine for this style of music. However, while its catchiness is this song’s best quality, it’s also part of the reason why I didn’t rank it first – I’ve grown kind of tired of it just over the past week, and I’m not a huge fan of the melody in the chorus. By the third time it comes around, I want the song to be over already. It also kind of bothers me that the studio cut is censored – I understand it for the live version, but if you’re not even gonna say it in the studio cut, what’s the point of even writing a swear word at all?  

While I respect MYDY a lot, and think they have a great package, my actual favourite from this selection is Tom Sean’s Dopamine Overdose. It’s a little less in your face, but still energetic and memorable, the sort of dance music I vibe with. I’m not hugely keen on the ‘sweet like teriyaki’ line, but other than that I enjoy this song a lot. The performance was alright, Tom felt a little awkward at points, but I think the overall staging concept is solid. I really enjoyed how the dancers were used, though I think there’s a lot of potential to take it further and improve the choreography, it’s a good starting point.

Finally, I also really enjoyed Lenny’s performance of Good Enough. As a song, it’s alright. I enjoy the contrast between the stripped back opening and the second half where the instruments ramp it up and it becomes more of a power ballad, however I feel it takes too long to get there – I feel myself getting bored with the second verse. However, Lenny really impressed me, apparently she’s pretty established in the Czech music industry, and it comes across, she seems very experienced and professional. Her vocal at the start is very exposed by both the composition of the song and the ESCZ sound system, but it sounds great. Her rough voice really fits with this song and its jaded, mature tone.

I would be happy with any of these three songs representing Czechia at Eurovision this year. There really isn’t much separating them for me, I have issues with all of them but also plenty I enjoy. MYDY is probably Czechia’s best option with how catchy Red Flag Parade is, and the most realised concept in terms of performance, but I think the others also have decent performances with a lot of potential there too. With how close these songs are for me, I’ve decided not to vote, I’ll just wait and see what ends up winning!

[kingdomoftyto]

Just seeing this title + thumbnail from THIS channel has made my entire freaking weekend, hellooOOO

[fictionadventurer]

For the ask game:

Title: As Falls the Midnight Moon

Genre: fantasy (any sub-genre)

As Falls the Midnight Moon by Jodie Akres

In the secret-filled city of Verram, knowledge is power. Restia, the unassuming caretaker of the city's archives, knows this better than anyone, so when a thief gets away with a secret that could bring down an empire, Restia takes to the dark and winding city streets to track him down. Her journey entangles her with ruffians, gamblers, smugglers, and some of the most powerful men in the city, but she will do whatever it takes to track down the document before the moon sets.

[neverendingford]

.

[zincbot]

first workout after top surgery had me flying high all day

[lieutenantselnia]

I just wanted to let you know that I made a carrd for my self ship things! It includes an overview of my f/o's, a short description of my self-inserts as well as some information on their relationships :)

It's still a work in progress (e.g. not all s/is and relationships have pictures at the moment because I didn't manage to draw/design them yet), but I hope to expand it over time as my ideas develop.

I also made a few tiny changes to my pinned post. I mainly reorganised the f/o section. I was starting to look really cluttered unpleasant to read to me, hence I decided to make a carrd in the first place. In that way, I feel like I can include substantial information while still making look everything nice and keeping things organised.

[whatsagirltoblogabout]

I finished watching the Mentalist yesterday and I told myself that I was going to take some time to reset my sleep schedule. It's been completely shot to pieces by my inability to resist binge watching and also my whirlwind 5-day side job as an ALM on a very messy shoot, and I kept telling myself that I would get back to normal once I finished the Mentalist. So I literally sat there, after the credits rolled on the finale, and told myself that I was going to take a break, consume some fan content at a leisurely pace and get my sleep schedule back on track before starting another show. I was being so responsible about it. And then, a few hours later, I'm lying in bed and I get curious. Curiosity killed the cat, or in this case my sleep schedule. In a meager defense, I did have to get on my computer at like 1am to deal with a work emergency. But somehow that lead to me going to sleep around 3 after watching the pilot for White Collar. Why do I have literally zero self control? Why am I like this.

[whataboutyouisamascot]

Finally getting around to importing all the photos I took in Utah this September, and oh my God. This is going to make a dent on my hard drive. How many hundreds of photos did I take in those few days