#covid makes me free :P

[13eyond13]

.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I The Asshole for demanding my coworkers get themselves tested? I, M, (30sM) work with these guys (20s to 40s, all M) pretty regularly as a contractor on bigger projects, usually to handle the machinery they can't. It's fine, I get along more or less with most of them, and as long as I can play my video games at the end of the day, its all good. There's about 12 of us total. So it all starts in winter, you know how it is, flu and covid and all making the rounds again, so being responsible, we keep to ourselves. One of the guys, C, had recently put down a new dog he just adopted. The guys are all making a big deal out of it, but I don't care, its not my dog, and all that. Anyways, things start getting weird after that.

I don't want to name any names, and I don't know who did what, but someone threw out a whole bunch of test kits. Two of my other coworkers, F and B1, started really getting sick and had to leave. Someone fucked with the equipment, mine included. B2, my other coworker, just decided to work from home for now but it's radio silence, he won't talk to anyone.

Last time I went to work, I had to come back in through the backdoor because they wouldn't let me in the front, saying I probably caught something while outside. But I've been so cautious! I know I didn't catch anything, I know I'm still myself, I just want to get this done with and move on with my job! What am i supposed to do, work from home?

This is where I might be the Asshole: I got fed up and just demanded that everyone gets themselves tested in front of everyone else. So I grabbed a bunch of leftover tests, herded everyone in the lobby, and locked the doors. I tested myself in front of everyone, and I am negative, and should be free to move in and out. But the others, especially my boss P, is saying I am being extreme, I am threatening people, the tests are unreliable, I shouldn't have tied them to the couch etc.

So I've been wondering. Am I really the Asshole for wanting to find out who is still human and who is actually the Thing?

What are these acronyms?

[reactionimagesdaily]

REACTION IMAGES BLOG PATCH NOTES (aka the 10k follower celebrations got out of hand)

Hey everyone!

So it's been a hot minute since I announced that we passed 10,000 followers on here! I'm sure... well, I'm actually sure that most people won't be TOO fussed either way, but I did say I was gonna do some stuff, and I wanna stick to my word if nothing else xD

So! Let the celebrations begin! Firstly, I'm announcing a new QnA (I love those things) that'll last,,,, I'll say 2 weeks and go from there. Feel free to ask me about whatever you want!! If you want to cater to me specifically, my current big interests are Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Mass Effect, and uuuuh Halo. (Also Bionicle remains a constant.) (Lots of scifi videogame stuff at the moment...)

[IK there's still some stuff in the inbox I need to answer/respond to you - I promise I'll get to those as well <3 thank you so much for your patience, if you've been waiting]

Secondly, here's a new song cover! IDK how many of you have played the game Divinity: Original Sin 2, but here's me singing Lohse's song; Sing For Me.

Thirdly: here's a new gimmick blog! I Was Not Joking. (Though, for my sanity, it's gonna be weekly instead of daily.) I'll be posting the images I have saved in my folder called 'feral screenshots' - it'll basically be a collection of cursed images/images with strange auras. I wanna say y'all know the ones, but if you don't, then here's an example of what we're dealing with:

[Image ID: a person floating in a rubber ring in a swimming pool. On their head is what looks like a life-size Lego head.]

Introduciiiiing the Weekly Weird Images blog!

And Fourthly! It is my great pleasure to announce that we're adding alt text to all the images on this blog! Sorry it took so long to get round to T_T

And yes - I do mean we! To write out all the alt text for these images, I've on-boarded minion-in-chief/court jester aplomb @tizzytinkertilly! I (the reaction images guy) will still be handling every other part of the blog - she'll just be doing that bit. For the sake of my sanity xD

This is kind of a big change - both the addition of alt text, and the fact that this blog is no longer a single-person operation - so for the foreseeable future, the queue's been tweaked so that we only post 2 images a day instead of 4. (Fun fact! 2 images a day was the original MO of this blog, and then covid happened and I was like "I'll make it 4 a day because it'll be a nice thing to do for everyone while they're miserable in this pandemic :)" and then I never stopped (although you could argue that the pandemic never stopped either).) Maybe if/when we fall into a good routine and feel like we can do more, we can bump the rate of images back up, but right now this is a teething phase and I'm keen to slow things down for a little bit. :P (Tumblr has made some WEIRD mechanical choices for group blogs, I'll be honest.)

And, uh, yeah, that's all! Let the QnA begin- Hope y'all enjoy the song cover- Hope y'all enjoy the additional blog- A big welcome to Tinks and to alt text! Happy 10k followers, everybody!

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved at our archive

This is the scientific version of letting nazis come hold conferences.

By Michael Hiltzik

On Oct. 4, Stanford University’s newly minted president, Jonathan Levin, opened an on-campus conference about pandemic policies by expressing the hope that the proceedings would ���bring together people with different perspectives, engage in a day of discussion, and in that way, try to repair some of the rifts that opened during COVID.”

He was followed to the lectern by the conference organizer, Stanford public policy professor Jay Bhattacharya, who described the event’s goal as fostering “dialogue with one another rather than having a situation where the goal is to destroy people who disagree with you.”

He said he hoped that the conference would be a “model” for how to bring together people of divergent views.

If only it were. Within minutes of their opening remarks, their hopes were exploded.

That happened during the conference’s opening panel, which was labeled “Evidence-Based Decision Making During a Pandemic.”

Turning the conversation to the issue of COVID’s origins, panelist Andrew Noymer, who teaches about population health and disease prevention at UC Irvine, launched into a fact-free attack on Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci has become a target of relentless smears by right-wingers and congressional Republicans.

“I believe,” Noymer said, “that the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are that it’s ... an experimental virus that escaped from a lab and Tony Fauci is intimately linked to the funding for experiments that created this virus.”

There’s no evidence that the virus escaped from a lab, much less that Fauci as NIAID director funded any experiments that created the virus. No one on the panel called Noymer to account.

A few other low points during the day reflected the organizers’ having invited conspiracy-mongers and purveyors of long-debunked claims to share the stage with public health and science professionals who have spent the last few years battling a tide of misinformation and disinformation about the pandemic.

Stanford posted videos of all the conference panels and speeches on its website and on YouTube on Friday, expanding the potential audience beyond the few hundred people who attended the event in person.

As I mentioned in an earlier column about the conference, the idea that universities such as Stanford should be arenas for airing all opinions in a search for truth is simplistic and historically incorrect. Universities have always had, and even embraced, the duty to draw the line between fact and fiction — to determine when an assertion or opinion falls below the line of intellectual acceptability.

“Science and quackery cannot be treated as having scientific and moral equivalence,” John P. Moore, a distinguished biologist and epidemiologist at Weill Cornell Medical College who played a part in debunking misinformation about the role of HIV in AIDS during the 1990s, wrote recently. “Do NASA scientists attend conferences by people who believe the moon-landing was faked? Do geographers and geologists attend conferences held by idiots who believe the earth is flat? Of course not.”

Stanford did some things right. After the initial conference agenda was published in August, it was criticized on social media and in the science community (and by me) for mainstreaming an “anti-science agenda (and revisionist history),” in the words of vaccine expert and pseudoscience debunker Peter Hotez.

Several more participants were added to the final roster in a possible effort to balance the lineup. (It may be that the organizers approached some of them before the original announcement came under attack.)

This effort bore fruit. In the first session, for example, health policy experts Douglas K. Owens and Josh Salomon of Stanford’s medical school educated their fellow panelists in the realities of crafting social policies in the first months of a deadly pandemic with little-understood medical characteristics or health implications.

Yet a persistent subtext of the conference was that the social interventions taken against the pandemic, such as business and school closings, mask and social distancing advisories and lockdowns, were generally worse than the disease. This echoed the position of Bhattacharya, a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, a manifesto published in October 2020 that called for ending lockdowns and school closures and pursuing “herd immunity” through “natural infection” of almost everyone other than the aged and infirm.

During the opening panel, moderator Wilk Wilkinson, a blogger on the concept of “personal accountability,” offered the astonishing criticism that public health leaders “focused very narrowly on deaths from COVID, and often it came at the expense of other social values” such as “being able to visit people, ... or putting children in school as they normally would go to school, or attend funerals.”

It fell to Salomon to observe tactfully that “in the early part of the pandemic, in March 2020, “it made sense to focus on mortality. We all saw ... the stacks of body bags in New York City.” Over time, he said, social trade-offs from public health interventions can be weighed, as they are today. But if there’s a higher imperative for public health officials than reducing deaths from a deadly pandemic while it is in full cry, what is it?

As it happens, researchers have found that social interventions did succeed in reducing infections and mortality, a conclusion that was barely mentioned at the conference.

COVID death rates in U.S. states were reduced by restaurant, gym and pool shutdowns, vaccine mandates for school and government workers, and stay-at-home orders, according to a massive study published by the British medical journal The Lancet in April 2023. Infection rates were reduced by bar, restaurant and primary school closures; mask mandates; restrictions on large gatherings; stay-at-home orders; and vaccine mandates.

Social policies in place during the pandemic are easy to denigrate because their costs were evident but their positive effects were often invisible, Salomon observed. “It’s harder for us to recognize the lives that were saved, the hospital systems that were not overwhelmed, the ... illnesses that were avoided.”

Throughout the conference, anti-government paranoia and misinformation about pandemic policies were strong on the wing. Rutgers biologist Bryce Nickels — who has accused scientists of “fraud” for concluding in a 2020 paper that COVID most likely originated in the natural spillover of the virus from animals via the wildlife trade in China, not through a laboratory experiment gone awry — expressed the conviction during the panel on the origins of COVID that “the pandemic was caused by reckless research and a lab accident.”

Nickels insinuated that the scientists behind such research “have blood on their hands or culpability in some level.”

I asked Bhattacharya if comments such as Nickels’ and Noymer’s comported with his desire to eradicate from the debate over COVID “the goal ... to destroy people who disagree with you.” He hasn’t replied.

Levin told me by email that “revisiting pandemic policies, with the benefit of hindsight and data, is a valuable topic for study,” and that he thinks “we’ll learn more from that inquiry if we frame it around questions and evidence rather than ‘who was right.’”

Some presenters uttered evident misinformation. Consider Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and a former COVID advisor to the Trump administration, who attacked pandemic lockdowns and their advocates because lockdowns “failed to stop the dying, they failed to stop the spread — that’s the data.”

But this is a flagrant category error. No one argued that the lockdowns would stop the spread of COVID or “stop the dying.” They were consistently portrayed as policies to slow the spread and consequently mortality in order to relieve the crushing pressure on healthcare facilities and personnel long enough to enable them to get a handle on the pandemic — “flattening the curve” was the watchword. And over time, they succeeded in doing just that.

Then there’s Marty Makary, a prominent surgeon at Johns Hopkins University who made a name for himself during the pandemic by repeatedly predicting that the pandemic was on the verge of ending due to natural immunity, and was consistently confounded by the appearance of successive new waves of deadly COVID variants.

Makary related during the opening panel that he was frustrated because once data arrived about the social effects of lockdowns “there was no interest in evaluating” what was “the largest public health intervention in modern history.”

But that’s just wrong. Data-driven analyses of social interventions surfaced even in the earliest days of the pandemic — including a multidiscipinary symposium sponsored by Stanford in the fall of 2021, featuring 54 experts from academia, public health and government.

Up to this day, the medical, public health and social effects of the pandemic and pandemic policies have been the subject of unrelenting study — more than 700,000 papers by nearly 2 million researchers thus far, according to an estimate offered by Stanford epidemiologist John P.A. Ionannidis in his closing conference remarks.

The conference organizers wanted to congratulate themselves for producing what Bhattacharya described as “the first event where people of very different viewpoints about what happened during the pandemic are going to speak to each other in a way that’s constructive.”

But a conference in which conspiratorial delusions and outright falsehoods were treated as deserving the same respect as scientifically validated research, and in which the authors of serious virological and epidemiological studies, as well as respected public health authorities, were subjected to smears, was nothing like “constructive.”

Considering Bhattacharya’s expectation that this conference should be a model for others, then: Let’s hope not.

[voidsentprinces]

Having gotten through the Rite of Succession arc of Dawntrail. I feel like, Stormblood really did itself a disservice by dividing it between Ala Mhigo and Doma. We could of gotten an expansion this strong for Lyse to grow into being a leader of the Revolution had they maintained focus and stuck with the regions of Ala Mhigo. How Garlemald's reign effects each region and understanding the history. By giving us an "Oh shit, you're not suppose to be able to free Ala Mhigo yet" 12% through and then sending us trouncing around Kugane, the Ruby Sea, Doma, and the Azim Steppe for 65% of the story. Before sending us back to Ala Mhigo and padding the ever loving shit out of the last 23% of the story. Really makes me angry, that Lyse didn't get the shot she could of had that Wuk is for Dawntrail.

It was not done right, in my eyes. And the improvement from Shadowbringers and Endwalkers narrative learning has shown me what they could of done with Stormblood. Which feels as rough around the edges as A Realm Reborn. And every time they bring back a character from Stormblood. They don't seem to really know what to do with them or they're caught in the condensced roughness of a Post-Patch where no one really gets to shine. Not even an Arc villain like Elidibus who mostly accomplishes everything off screen. (Though I imagine thats because of COVID so another example is Golbez just kind of being a nothing burger)

She should of gotten it similarly, Conrad or Meffrid should been allowed to slowly bring her to the larger regions of Ala Mhigo in its entirety. Learn of its people and beast tribes living in the realm and how they reflect on their relationship with the Mad King's reign, the uprising that followed, and how they have functioned for the last 20 years under Gaius's rule and how the recent arrival of Zenos and the increased presence of Fordola and her Skulls have oppressed them further.

But, Void, that would mean Doma would of had to wait for another expansion.

I hear you, but you know how Yoshi P is big about the sky as influence for a story? Well Stormblood was suppose to be colored by the afternoon and you know what comes between Stormblood's afternoon and Shadowbringer's night? Dusk. Doma could of been fully explored and realized with the addition of either larger Othard or Dalmasca as a point where we throw off Varis and fight him properly with Zenos defeated at the end of Stormblood. We could of still had Bozja which would continue our march to free regions from Garlean rule. This would of still allowed them to save Hingashi for later expansions as they seem to want to. And Dusk is the time between the nights coming and the days loss. The House of the Fierce operating in shadows now free to wander in the remaining light left by the freeing of Ala Mhigo previously, without Zenos to cause issues. We could of fought Varis, Asahi, Yotsuyu, and Elidibus through this expansion.

Just as the war machine starts boiling to ahead with Ghimlyt Dark we carry onto Shadowbringers and Endwalker in a similar fashion. Just as the world begins to ready to fully face off against the Garlean Capital. A new world is endangered by the revival of Emperor Solus who is, of course, Emet-Selch starting machinations in the First. We carry on as we do and of course, we never get to march on Garlemald because Zenos eventually reclaims his body, kills Varis, banishes Elidibus who we defeat on the First and Garlemald collapses in on itself.

It would of also of granted the Twins a wider area to bounce off of and with when they eventually bring what they've learned from Dawntrail back to the remnants of Garlemald and let them proceed wherever they're going with that.

But, hey, hindsight is 20/20 as they say. I just wish Lyse had gotten a better chance as Wuk Lamat and Erenville are getting cause...boy...Stormblood is ROUGH and Dawntrail is showing how far its grown to pull a similar arc with a similar character. Though I will admit that Dawntrail has the benefit of letting us explore each character in an era of long peace and not one of oppression and strife. So what do I know, eh?

[casp1an-sea]

100 Follower Event

Hi, MY name is Caspian Re (Re pronounced Rey) You can call me either of my first names or alternate! I also go by Cas for short. I also like weird, silly, or comfort character related nicknames and I sometimes go by Armie online

I primarily post about Twisted Wonderland, Star Wars, Marvel, and 2000s kids shows like Octonauts

Age: 19

Birthday: 10/13 

Gender: it fluctuates between trans masc and trans Male, so I typically just shorten it to trans (pls only masc terms) 

Pronouns: He/Him, Ey/Em/Eir/Eirs/Emself

Sexuality: ✨I’m Gay✨

Zodiac: Libra Star, Pieces Moon, Aquarius Rising 

Personality type: ENFJ

If you send me an ask or msg pls feel free to mention your pronouns 

WE SUPPORT PALESTINE HERE 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸

Hotlines to call Incase of emergency

Master List:

I have a dating sim rp blog that is kinda popular :P

Pls check out my OCs, as well as my AUs, and my fics located in my writing post :)

—————————————————————————

commissions: Closed

requests: open!

EVENTS: KYLUX WRITING AND ART EVENT (Ongoing), May 4th Event, Twst OC Colab Event , 100 follower event

(I’ll do short writings, picrews, and possibly art if I’m in the mood. I’ll totally do my doodle style of you or a character.)

Fandoms, Writing, Moots and Tags, OCs, Comfort Characters, Just a list of Monsters I associate with myself, Moot Trail Mix Recipe, ART, Gender Envy >:(

Side blogs: @hux-and-gay (mostly Kylux, 18+), @ramblingsofamadblob (OC and world building posts to complex for my main)

rp accounts: @robinbanks-accidentally (TWST), @spring-chicken (OC), @brooklynscamp (Newsies), @hollowsdill-manor (Vampire/Werewolf dating sim), @angry-space-ginger (Hux), @rouge-space-dad (Han), @thisiswerethefunbegins (Star Wars OCs)

@thenewhestia (my mc to rp with @kal0psiapanesthesia)

—————————————————————————

Likes: Star Wars, Kylux, Marvel, Twisted Wonderland, the Life Series SMP, RPs, Random Generators (its an addiction), 2000s Kids shows, Doll customization, folklore, cats, singing, art, musicals, being in musicals, and weird sea creatures especially sharks :)

Dislikes: Sweets, Rey/Reylo (if you are a Star Wars fan and you like her respectfully pls do not talk to me about her you will get your feeling hurt), Religious Topics (pls do not talk to me about Christianity or Catholicism it makes me uncomfortable), gruesome animal facts they are triggering please keep them to yourself, TOXIC ACOLYTE HATERS, Mean people that disrespect me or my friends, Racists, Homophobes, Transphobes, Ablests, Sexists, etc. 

Fun Facts: 

I am Left Handed 

I am Hungarian and I love talking about my culture or my grandfather’s story if you want to ask

I am single sadly

I’m a Hufflepuff my Petronas is a field mouse and my wand is Willow wood with a Phoenix core

My favorite color is green 

My favorite food is Pineapple Teriyaki Burgers or Chinese food  

I am going to be a film major in the fall

I have two cats named Lilo and Stitch (both girls), and I also have multiple fish. My snail passed away :(

I REALLY WANT CRESTED GECKOS!

I was in my schools broadcasting class

I’ve performed in Willy Wonka, Newsies,  Little Mermaid, Bye Bye Birdie, Christmas Carol, and Shrek, and played the roles of James (James and the giant peach cameo), Arista (Ariel’s sister), Young Fiona, and the bird that sings in that one song in Shrek . I’ve also had solos in Try Everything, American Tears, Fields of Gold, an Mo Town Medley 

I Did competitive gymnastics for 13 years starting when I was 3, before I retired I was in XL level gold. 

I played Violin in elementary school and during Covid in freshman year I played chimes cause that was the choir alternative 

I watch lots of weird 1990s to early 2000s sci-fi shows typically from Australia, there’s suprisingly a lot of them 

I play Minecraft but I am bad at it lol

I play DND 

Where else to find me?

YouTube: @antosaurusrex3752

AO3: ArmieVampire

Pinterest:

Star Wars Force Alignment Quiz:

TWST OC CHALLENGE

My Change.Org petitions:

[nikatyler]

OC QUESTIONNAIRE

@nitrozem tagged me a while back and I'm finally doing it. Thank you! I'm gonna do my favourite vampire loser because of course I'm gonna

NAME: Ross P. Vatore. Yes he took his husband's surname, he was always gonna do it. And he never says what the P stands for. He hates it. But I can tell you. It's Petal. Ross Petal, like rose petals. You know. His parents thought they were being funny. But really, 18 yo me thought I was being funny.

NICKNAME: Babyface (by Lilith, because she thought he looked very very young, and people thought it too, he had to show his ID far too often 💀, this led to his mustache era but didn't make Lilith stop calling him that), Gramps (by his descendants, Pastel, Moss and [redacted gen 10 heir])

GENDER: cis man

STAR SIGN: Aries

HEIGHT: 1.85m

ORIENTATION: Bisexual

NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: I've always imagined that one side of his father's family came from Ireland (sims-Ireland), the other from Italy (sims-Italy, again). I never really went in detail about his mother's ethnicity or nationality though, I'm not sure where December is descended from.

FAVORITE FRUIT: certainly not plasma fruit, he hates the texture 💀 He likes cherries.

FAVORITE SEASON: Winter

FAVORITE FLOWER: He's the rose gen sim and I'm predictable, so. Yeah.

FAVORITE SCENT: ...am I gonna be predictable again. Thing is I'm bad with scents, long story short, my senses of smell and taste are weird (and not because of covid, they've always been like that) and that extends to answering stuff like this. Anyway yeah I'm going with predictable 💀

COFFEE, TEA, or HOT CHOCOLATE: Coffee

AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: Not a lot my dude, but he's a vampire, he'll be fine. It depends on the season, he sleeps more in the summer to avoid sunlight.

DOGS or CATS: Doggos

DREAM TRIP: Probably some old scary castle in Europe. We have a lot of them, can't pick just one. He'd probably do some Transylvania trip. You know, Dracula and all that. Even though this goddamn fanboy could probably tell you everything Bram Stoker did wrong but he'd still want to go to Transylvania anyway.

NUMBER OF BLANKETS: Just one and it usually ends down on the ground. Boy's got nightmares (daymares?) and kicks around a lot while sleeping.

RANDOM FACT: One time for Halloween he went as a Twilight vampire. Basically he just covered himself with far too much glitter and couldn't wash it off for days, and his home was glittery for ages too. 10/10 would do it again

Not gonna officially tag anyone bc this is old and I feel like I've seen everyone and their mother do it, but if you haven't and want to, feel free to say I tagged you <3

[counterintuitivecomics]

[VD: Comics, zines, and anthologies by Kimball and Laurel cover a dark table. K (pale hands, orange nails) and L (smaller pale hands) leaf through 8 comics/zines and 2 anthologies. End VD]

My partner @earnestattempts (Kimball Anderson) and I (Laurel Lynn Leake) are queer and disabled comics creators, and we want to share our work with you!

We made a short video showing off our weird artsy comics, and talking about stories that honor marginalized lives as inherently meaningful. Also about committing to disability justice and making more of our work free and accessible! To that end, we're offering some limited discounted slots for the pricier tiers too.

🌿 Kimball &/or Laurel Posts Tier: Never miss either of our behind-the-scenes posts, unless you only like one of us! We don't mind :P You also get access to an ever-increasingly captioned archive.

💭 Counterintuitive Releases: We mail you 4-6 printed comics every year, and share digital releases with you first. Plus posts!

📮 Monthly Mailers: Kimball sends you an exclusive experimental zine in the mail every month, plus you get the Counterintuitive Releases.

🐚 our free patreon post tag 🌱 my tumblr comics page & comics tag 🎐 kimball's tumblr comics tag 🎨 kimball's website 🐌 my digital shop 🍃 kimball's digital shop 👾 my comics shop 🦉 kimball's comics shop

Thanks for reading/watching! 🧡 Longer vid description under the cut.

[Longer VD: Comic books cover a dark table, while Kimball (pale hands, orange nails) and Laurel (smaller pale hands) point to their own names. They both do a silly finger wiggle as their voiceover introduces “Counterintuitive Comics”. L leafs through “Me Me Me”, where a noodle-armed Poly Morphous sobs against lush watercolors. K shows "Unfolding", a large greyscale comic featuring paper folded to reveal text and paintings. L flips through roughly sketched diagrams in her “Super Secret Mock-up COVID-19 info zine”. K shows “Holding Out”: Social Security letters, wobbly colored pencil forms resting in bed. L opens metallic “Suspension” to show scifi trappings and character focus. K pages through small, wide zine “Winter”, with a character walking in darkness. L opens artsy risograph-blue “L3no2”: comics about anxiety and depression paired with scrawled, smeared text. K opens anthology “CBA: Uncomics” to their section: broken pencil panels and halting words floating over digital, painterly textures. Then L’s: colored pencil and marker abstractions of magazine layouts melting into unparsable forms. L opens K’s anthology “Inaction Comics” to K’s pages: soft digital figures seeking reassurance and reclining on a couch. A sharp-toothed watercolor version of L writhes in self-hatred on her pages. Finally L flips through “Poly Morphous #5: Sick of Being Sick” (mini with teal cover, pink pages, pencilled comics). She makes a heart shape with her hands. End VD.]

This is our first time figuring out video descriptions - we welcome feedback!

[billyjoelmutt]

United Universes Tour 2024! My Only Wish This Year!

It was then a jingle of a beat was heard along with a plane!

Dodger- “Hello whats this?! :3

Flash- “Oh I forgot to say that Triple D is coming down! With a surprise for you all!!! :3″

Indeed they were and when they landed on top of Dodger piano they started to sing!!

Dallas- Oh yeah, yeah Last night I took a walk in the snow

Couples holding hands, places to go

Seems like everyone but me is in love

Santa, can you hear me?!!

Destiny- I signed my letter that I sealed with a kiss

I sent it off, and just said this

“I know exactly what I want this year

Santa, can you hear me?”

Deja Vu- I want my baby, baby

I want someone to love me

Someone to hold

Maybe, maybe (maybe, maybe)

You’ll be all my own in a big red bow!!!”

All three-Santa, can you hear me?

I have been so good this year

And all I want is one thing

Tell me my true love is near

He’s all I want, just for me

Underneath my Christmas tree

I’ll be waiting here

Santa, that’s my only wish this year!

Deja Vu- Christmas Eve, I just can’t sleep

Would I be wrong, for taking a peek? ‘

Cause I heard that you’re comin’ to town

Santa, can you hear me?

Dallas-I really hope that you’re on your way

With something special for me in your sleigh

Oh please, make my wish come true

Santa, can you hear me?

Destiny- I want my baby, baby

I want someone to love me Someone to hold

Maybe, maybe (maybe, maybe)

We’ll be all alone under the mistletoe

Santa, can you hear me?

I have been so good this year

And all I want is one thing

Tell me my true love is near

He’s all I want, just for me Underneath my Christmas tree

I’ll be waiting here

Santa, that’s my only wish this year!!!

All three- I hope my letter reaches you in time

oh yeah Bring me a love,

I can call all mine,

oh yeah ‘Cause I have been so good,

so good this year Can’t be alone,

under the mistletoe

He’s all I want and a big red bow!

All three- Santa, can you hear me?

I have been so good this year

And all I want is one thing (yeah, yeah, yeah)

Tell me my true love is near

He’s all I want, just for me

Underneath my Christmas tree

I’ll be waiting here

Santa, that’s my only wish this year!!!

They danced with there triple P partners!!!

Oh Santa, can you hear me?

Oh Santa Well, a whole new world, COVID free!

Underneath my Christmas tree

I’ll be waiting here

Santa, that’s my only wish this year

Santa, that’s my only wish this year!!

@thelittlemermaidfan1989

@mellowwpopper

@mellowwpuphub

@teen-lyoko-fan7777

@goldmudder

@andy-squirrel-and-friends

@askdj-timelord2

@keirastarlightdraconequus

(Credits to Disney, Putt Putt, Christmas Britney Spears all image makers and all blogs tagged!)

[nyehilismwriting]

Hey! I wanted to ask for your advice. I was a minor part of the IF community, specifically the COG community, back in 2020. Mostly as a reader, but I dabbled in sharing some of my own writing too. For... reasons we are both well aware of, both in regards to COG, the larger IF community, and the start of COVID I eventually quietly left. Now, three years later, I've been quietly picking up writing IF again as a way to share my story with others. I was wondering if you think, in your opinion, it's worth officially re-joining the IF community on tumblr. On one hand, I feel like things have improved in that the larger community has matured (somewhat). I would like to make more friends, get advice, and maybe even share some more of my art. On the other hand, my project as it stands is... very non-traditional compared to a lot of other IFs (IE: No character customization, no romance, focus on a singular story with emphasis on worldbuilding, etc.). So I don't know if I would even be able to build a community around it even if I did officially rejoin.

I've followed your blog since 2020, including Project Hadea (although I think I originally started following you for your urban fantasy project, although I cannot for the life of me remember if that was you or another author!), and thought I'd come to you for your advice.

I chose to send this ask publicly so that you could choose to answer it privately, if you wished, since it is a longer ask. But I'm okay with you posting it publicly if you would like to! Additionally, no pressure or obligation to respond. Have a nice day!

hi there!! thank you for thinking of me - and welcome back! i'm glad to hear you've been writing again<3 it's such a good feeling, especially when you haven't been able to be creative for a while.

i think i'll start by addressing your game itself. personally, I think this community could do with some new blood in the form of games that are non-traditional; some of the best IFs I've played, ones that have really stuck with and inspired me, have been ones without romance, or cc, or otherwise outside of the typical format that gets popular on tumblr. honestly, i think we could all stand to get a little weirder with it. having said that, there is a very clear type of game that gets popular on tumblr (long-form, narrative-driven, usually with romance, usually with some kind of emphasis on character creation), so if you're a number-go-up kind of person (or someone who is susceptible to that mindset), I would be braced for your audience to remain small, particularly when you're just starting out.

that's not necessarily a bad thing. while I do agree with you that this community has grown and changed shape a lot since the late 2010s, and in a lot of ways for the better, it's definitely not perfect. I can't, in good conscience, say that this is the friendliest or most comfortable community: lots of people are absolutely lovely, and very very kind and enthusiastic; however, and this is absolutely not limited to IF but endemic to any online community, there are ongoing issues with Boundaries, and Respect, and the ways people interact with work and authors they're fans of. certainly, when you share your work you're giving up some control, but it's hard to predict exactly how that's going to go, and how the audience are going to react.

not saying this to put you off, but it's something I think everyone needs to be aware of before deciding to share. it's good to remember that you're not beholden to anyone. this is tumblr dot come, and you're quite free to start a blog, decide it's not for you, and delete; you're free to turn off anon, or asks altogether, or to never post anything save for updates; this is not a corporate space (and while there are considerations if you plan to open a patreon etc, but if we're just talking tumblr) and you are not obligated to do or provide anything you haven't promised.

my other bit of advice - and i think one of the ways to keep any interactions as pleasant as possible - is to be honest, and transparent, and manage expectations. if you make it clear what kind of game you're writing, you're less likely to get people who are disappointed that it's not what they were expecting and taking it out on you. likewise, setting boundaries is important.

i can't really tell you if it's 'worth' rejoining: i've definitely questioned if it's worth it, myself. i've seen some people, ostensibly in the same community as me, doing and saying things i find utterly reprehensible, and i've made some incredibly close friends who i adore and wouldn't give up for the world. and, after all, i am still here and answering asks, so i can't hate it that much. communities are made up of people, and like any group, there's gonna be people you can't stand and people you can. it's about finding your corner, and making it a bearable space for yourself.

i can't tell you if you'll have a positive or negative experience; I can't tell you how to control that. all i can say is that this is an online community, and ultimately you can control when and how interactions occur.

finally - again, i'm glad you're writing again! if you decide not to step back into the IF scene on tumblr, there's plenty of devs who keep purely to itch.io or the cog forums and seem to do fine; sharing your game does not necessarily mean sharing anything else. do what makes you most comfortable <3

[bearmemesreviews]

Spontaneous Spotlight: Silent Hill's C. B.

Sometimes you don't have enough time or material to make a full series of reviews on something, so when that happens I'll pop out a Spontaneous Spotlight review to cover any short topic that has recently come to my attention. Today we're talking about Silent Hill!

I have debated on whether or not to list SH on my "To-Do" list of franchises to review the creatures of, but those guys have been picked apart so much that I don't have anything new to say. However, new SH content is set to release in the coming years, so that means fresh pickings for me - starting with the face of our newest surprise entry: Silent Hill: The Short Message.

SMG is meant to be a free and easy entry into the Silent Hill Franchise for modern gamers. Reintroducing the surreal, heavy-handed themes and imagery of the series to hint towards what future titles may hold. Taking place in post-Covid Germany of all locations, we follow a girl named Anita as she searches an abandoned apartment complex named The Villa for her friend - a popular street artist named Maya.

Obviously meant to pick-up where P. T. left off, the game is a very blunt suicide prevention PSA which, controversial opinion, really harkens back to the heyday of SH. Corny dialogue from a tortured protagonist with the most perfect art direction in the world with a sick-ass monster design.

Yeah, there's only one monster and it's mostly just for chases, but my god what a monster.

TW: Discussions of Suicide, Suicidal Ideation, Self-Harm, Child Abuse, Bullying, and Body Horror. Spoiler Warning for Silent Hill: The Short Message.

Design: There is no true name for the Monster but the artist who designed them has acknowledged the fan nicknames of "Sakura Monster" and "Cherry Blossom". Cherry Blossom is what I'm sticking to because it ties into the twist of the game, which we'll get to later. Cherry Blossom is a humanoid with nearly accurate proportions to a teenage girl. In fact, it has completely humanoid legs from the thighs to the ankles.

Cherry Blossom is named after the flowers that every Anime nerd knows by memory, the bright pink tree foliage clumps together in a large mass that obscures all skin besides the aforementioned legs. The flowers sprout outwards from the head, making it resemble a bush from the neck up, and grows down the front of its chest (as if it's growing wherever skin would be exposed for someone wearing only a jacket with the front unzipped) and across its waist - making a skirt out of the plants. Miles of black wire seems to be used to secure the flowers onto the creature's "head", limbs, and torso. It appears to be wearing a hoodie, but the fabric is almost too moist to be real clothing. Both its hands and feet deteriorate into jagged potentially wooden spikes which is its main form of attack.

The artist specifically mentioned that they wanted to avoid using blood on this monster, opting instead to incorporate beautiful imagery into something distorted and unnerving. And I think they succeed, it's quite an unnaturally pretty monster but its body plan is so unique and effortless in its execution.

Say what you want about PT's take on the gameplay, but what it severely lacked was a monster that screamed "Silent Hill" while being its own thing like Cherry Blossom. It rivals Pyramid Head in its iconography.

Which makes sense since CB was designed by Masahiro Ito, the designer of old Triangle Hat himself. Check out the guy's twitter, his insight into the workings of Silent Hill's design is awesome. [X]

There he also posted a scrapped monster concept who shares a few details with Sakura Head, especially the way its humanoid legs distort into pegs it walks on like stilts. It's almost like a humanoid with an organic skirt that becomes an indescribable mess of viscera and wires. From a distance some of the loose barbed wire make an almost eye-like shape, with the messed up "upper body" acting like a pupil. It's shoots some of its body mass forward, or maybe it's an oddly shaped proboscis.

The game itself has stellar art direction, especially for the middle chase sequences that play around with the game's industrial motifs due to the protagonist being an artist. I especially love the usage of eyes for one of them, I genuinely suggest playing it just for that one chase in the photo maze. Also remember the corny wall messages written in blood saying "this is hell", they're back.

Symbolism: Anita, our protagonist, is revealed as unsubtlety as the franchise is prone to, to be a survivor of childhood abuse from a mother who saw her children as a curse for existing. Her mother was eventually arrested after her neglect led to Anita's brother dying, the police later finding his body hidden in the fridge. They discovered it after the clear was given to remove the kids from the home (CPS had already been investigating beforehand). Anita would later become friends with Maya and another girl named Amelie, but her trauma led to her growing abandonment issues.

(Pictured Above: Maya, a teenage girl of Asian Descent.) As a child, art was an escape and the only positive connection she had with her mother, but Anita felt upstaged by Maya due to her friend being a popular street artist named Cherry Blossom. CB's art was a combination of beautiful imagery used to express the hidden struggles and wants of teenage girls, which explains why the Sakura Monster looks the way it does.

See this original design for CB, where the hoodie and skirt are more obvious as clothing being worn by the monster. The body was made more organic looking to both increase its monstrousness, but to also make the connection to Maya more abstract. Cherry Blossom is a looming figure born from the art of someone who has everything Anita wants, it's a constant reminder of Maya and how much of a threat she was in Anita's mind. This is combined with how much Anita admired Maya, which only fueled her jealousy when she believed that Maya was trying to steal Amelie from her.

However, it's not Maya reanimated. It's a manifestation built from Anita's subconscious, much like Maria, that exists to torment and corral Anita into facing her issues head on. And I do mean torment and corral, because the game soon reveals that Anita cannot die. Whether it's purposefully ending her life, or failing to escape CB in a chase, if she dies, she's forced to return to a part of The Villa with the memories of her death.

The game plays into this with having in-game deaths be reversed like VHS tapes, with the game's trigger warning page reappearing every time she has to start the entire game all over again. It's later revealed that Anita came to The Villa, not to meet with Maya personally, but to visit the spot where she leapt to her own death years ago. This leads to her making several attempts on her own life to follow Maya's stead, but The Villa refuses to let her escape in any way besides what "it" wants her to do. How the games end once you finally confront all of Anita's traumas and guilt over Maya's suicide, well, I'll leave that to you to find out. However, as an overall experience it really feels like a better reintroduction than the travesty that was Ascension. I feel like, since PT's been deleted for a while now, its gameplay is less intolerable than when every indie game wanted to do PT again in the 2010s and the set pieces make up 70% of the experience. And these are some damn fine set pieces.

This game is all around just beautiful to experience, but you might be left wondering how this ties into Silent Hill...after all, I did mention this taking place in Germany. Silent Hill F, another upcoming game, seems to be taking similar cues to SH:SMG by not only using beautiful imagery for grotesque body horror, but also taking place somewhere away from our fog covered tourist spot.

In-game we are told about "The Silent Hill Effect" through a newspaper clipping, which seems to imply that in the world of Silent Hill the town the game's named after is not as uncommon of an occurrence as we thought. It's definitely its most famous, but the fog seems to venture outside our favorite cultist stomping ground. I would love for SH to take the Biohazard(Resident Evil) route of taking its core concept and expanding on it into new settings. Especially if it means less Bobblehead Nurses and Pyramid Head appearances in the future, put those guys in the retirement home my god.

My theory is that the human consciousness itself can manifest pockets of Silent Hill's phenomenon as long as enough people in one space compound their traumas and miseries into a monster creating mist, further supported by the fact that the original town already had a history of supernatural events and cult activity before the events of the main games.

I guess Silent HILLS isn't completely dead and buried.

[gelo-p]

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Rank 26! ✧ﾟ･: *ヽ(◕ヮ◕ヽ)

I did say last year that I might T100 MyGO. 😋

I'm gonna skip the part where everyone bitched about everything being delayed AF in ENdori - but for better or for worse, when MyGO finally arrived last week, I had amassed 57500 free stars, and quite a number of in-game energy drinks.

...And then immediately lost 40000 stars (and some tickets) just trying to roll for all of them. I had* to spark for Soyo, but whatever, I got all of them! I could start tiering!

(I don't remember how I had 27000 stars for tiering. 57500 - 40000 = 17500, so clearly, I got a bunch of bonus stars. Anyway)

I wanted to aim for T20, but it was immediately made apparent that I do not have the time for it. I had to drive a lot during this event, especially during the 1st few days, so it was impossible for me to even try and build a lead for maintaining T20. There was also a question mark hanging over my number of stars left; I think I could still make it, but it was a very tight fit. And so, with these in mind, I resigned myself early to just T30.

In the beginning, I did what any sane(?) solo tierer does: spam the Grand Room! The Legendary Room was empty AF, and the Standard Room was hit or miss whether the folks you'll get could help you sustain a high-enough average for tiering. That meant staying in the Grand Room, where I was often paired with other tierers (names I would later recognize as T10 hopefuls).

...

Did I mention the connection sucks?

It took forever (not Legendary Room forever, but forever enough) to get paired with other tierers in the Grand Room. Also, there was a really good chance of being disconnected. All in all, I was averaging just 544k points an hour.

So I friggin' tried Free Lives. The average? 657k points an hour. There was minimal risk of being disconnected, plus, there was no mental pain of having to wait for people to get paired with you! The downside of course is that Free Lives cost more stars to get to the same points compared to Multi Lives, but that's fine. It's my last event. I'm retiring after this. I don't need whatever leftover stars I'd have left.

:')

It was difficult listening to EXIST and SAVIOR OF SONG over and over again, but you know who isn't tiring to listen to?

Adam Ragusea, the sponsor of this T30 attempt!

...

Of course he didn't sponsor me. But it was mentally exhausting listening to the same 2 songs over and over again, so at some point I decided to listen to music while playing in silent. Beatles made for the perfect tiering music, oddly. Then I switched to Scary Interesting. Did you know that if you never stick yourself into really tight spaces, you'd most likely never die of being stuck in really tight spaces? After that, I listened to Biographics, and now I'm an expert in plagues. During the final days of tiering, I rediscovered Adam Ragusea's videos (found his channel during Covid - hey, remember Covid?), and the rest is history.

I ended up parking at 28,000,077 points a day before the event ends, because it's hella difficult to park during Mission Lives, and so I was fine with that. I was keeping an eye out for T30 / T31 (I was T25 at this point), to see if they might move, but it really didn't seem they wouldn't anymore.

...

OWO, what's this? ENdori fucked up the gacha rates for this event during the 1st few hours? So now they're refunding all the stars and tickets - everything!! - that you might have spent during those first few hours?? Hey remember having to spark for Soyo?? They say that was it!!

Suddenly, I found myself at 23000 stars again.

And I had to assume that sooooo did eeeeeverybody else.

When I woke up this morning - the final day - everybody has moved, as expected. Not by too much, no - but enough that T30 could still mathematically overtake me. I had to leave the event 4 hours early (driving duties), so I wanted to be sure that there was nothing they could do to take T30 away from me. I broke my park, somehow found myself with the opportunity to re-park at a flat 29M, and the rest is... is it history again?

And so I left the event at T25, with 29M points.

When I came back to see the final results, my final rank was T26.

Someone really wanted T25 huh. ^_^;

...

...

My Bandori phone is dead. LITERALLY, it can't survive more than 3 minutes away from a charger. It's perpetually being charged. The battery is now at 67% capacity - capacity!! not charge!! - and iOS really thinks I should get it serviced. I think so too.

...

I'm tired. I don't think I can play Bandori anymore. I'm mentally checked out of the game. I'm happy I was able to get Popipa and Roselia to Level 50, and with all the members of Popipa to Rank 100.

...

Will I be back for Ave Mujica? I don't know. I might not be back for anything on January. Last December 2021 I decided to stop drinking alcohol, and this December, to commemorate 3 years of sobriety, I kinda want to celebrate by dying of alcohol poisoning. I'm only half joking. I sobered up to be normal, but it didn't fucking work! 🤣 So! If I stop retweeting stuff during December, then yes, consider me dead.

BUT HEY! I GOT T26 FOR MYGO EVENT!

THANK YOU ENDORI!

THANK YOU GARUPA!

おつ！

またね！♪

😙

[anneapocalypse]

Writing Wrap-up and 2024 Goals

It's a weird year to be doing a wrap-up, because I did not post a whole lot this year and I'm not sure I even set any goals last January thanks to having covid and being sick and exhausted for weeks, which still kind of feels like it threw off my whole year even though that sounds dramatic. Whatever. I've moped enough about it being a bad year for writing; now, I want to look forward.

2023 Wrap-Up

In case you'd like to read the one fic I did post this year, it's "Before You Go", a Loghain/Maric fic for Dragon Age (3022 words, rated E), which I am still quite happy with! And though it's not writing, I also made a podfic of RosellaWrites' gorgeous fic "let them not make me a stone (and let them not spill me)" (and if you're not interested in podfic you should still go read Rosella's fic, seriously, it's great).

While November 2022 was the last time I made substantial progress on A Hero Sleeps in Gwaren (my Briala/F!Tabris longfic for Dragon Age), I did make a few attempts to chip away at the draft this year. I didn't keep any records of what progress I made, but lucky for me Scrivener has a writing history feature that can at least give me a ballpark, and... it says I added 17,326 words to the draft this year (all in the first half of the year), which, not gonna lie, seems unreal to me. The first half of this year is mud in my head, so the fact that I did in fact get some writing done is really encouraging.

Over the summer, FFXIV started to really consume me as I had finished ARR by that point and my investment in the story was growing, and I also started taking a more active leadership role in my tiny free company, and so for the back half of the year I've mostly been writing little snippets about my Warrior of Light Ariane and her adventures and relationships, some of which may become part of actual fics later. This totals out to about 19,500 words at the moment.

So I only posted about 3000 words, but in total I wrote almost 40K this year. Is that a fantastic year, no... but honestly, it's a lot better than what my brain has been telling me I've accomplished this year, which is nothing. :P So I'm glad that I sat down to actually find the numbers!

Onward and upward.

So what's next?

2024 Goals

Fandom:

Finish one longfic.

Write and post a one-shot.

Do one exchange.

Original:

Outline an original novel.

Write a poem.

Send out one piece.

Tentatively my immediate plans are to get started outlining and then writing my Ariane/Haurchefant fic. I'm on the fence about February. On the one hand, it would be great to come back to my Briala/F!Tabris longfic for Femslash February, but on the other hand there's a high probability I'm going to be playing Endwalker by that point and I have no hope of keeping my head in Dragon Age during that time, so it's probably best not to commit to it. Dragon Age fic might be best saved for after I've caught up on MSQ when there are (hopefully) a few months still left to wait for Dawntrail and I can take a little break to let it marinate while I work on something else. My enthusiasm for the Briala/Tabris fic has not waned despite the long hiatus, and just yesterday I was reading bits of the draft and getting excited again, so I do hope to finish that this year and get to share it with you.

The alternate candidate for February is either keep working on the Haurchefant fic or in the case of a miracle in which I actually finish it this month (hah!), move forward with the next one I have planned, an Urianger/Moenbryda. That's unlikely but we'll see. I know I still have things to learn about Urianger in Endwalker, which I'm very excited for.

As for what exchange(s) I might do this year, I'm not sure yet! I haven't seen any announcements yet that Chocolate Box is running this year. Black Emporium and FemslashEx are both strong candidates for me. We'll see where I am when those roll around, or maybe something else will catch my eye!

Edited to add: Oh, yeah, also at some point we're supposed to get that final season of Red vs. Blue. I have a few outstanding projects in RvB but the main one that really matters to me is Radio Silence, my Carolina lost years fic. I'd love to use the series' send-off as a kick in the pants to finally finish that one, whenever that happens. We'll see!

Finally, I am making a conscious effort to reclaim my writing time, which traditionally has been the morning between 9 and noon because that's when my mind is the sharpest, but over the past I basically let that slip entirely and be taken over by either housework or gaming, just writing on the fly when something came to me. I'm not morning gaming anymore unless it's for a good reason (timed event I need to catch, etc, which is rare, and finishing yesterday's roulettes is not a good enough reason because the queues are slower in the morning and it just ends up eating more time than it needs to, they happen every day, it's fine).

On to 2024. Looking forward to it.

[starmanbyler]

very important question ANY GCSE ADVICE i'm starting my gcse courses and i'm acc panicking sooo do u have any revision advice or anything!!!

and a fun question!! if u could be any animal for a day what would u be

ILY HAVE A GOOD DAY /p

HII RUBI I CAN TOTALLY SORT OF HELP??

first advice, don’t panic too much yet. or at all. i was freaked out when i started doing my gcses, but for now all you need to do is focus in lessons and if there are things you don’t understand, don’t be afraid to ask questions or look stuff up so that you aren’t left behind, because trust me, being confused about certain topics when everyone understands can be very frustrating. so if you need to do some extra revision to work on weak topics, that’s cool, but you will be fine if you don’t. at least take note of your weak points so you can focus on them later, because you’re saving yourself some unnecessary time. id suggest having a little notebook for that kind of thing.

if you want to revise this year (i’m assuming year 10) then i’d suggest maybe half an hour to an hour per subject in a week. and btw i did NOT revise at this point at all. i did revise for physics towards the end of the school year (like march-may) because i had a gcse a year early. but unless you’re really behind and stuck then just do the best you can and only intervene if you notice there are things you don’t understand, because again, this will really help in the long run.

i’ll be honest i didn’t start revising for the rest of my gcses until april this year. most of them i revised the night before. not to brag but then got 98877776666 😭 so in some cases you will do alright even with little revision. but you know yourself better than i do. look at how you do currently in exams and whether you struggle a lot without doing revision or not. some people tend to naturally be better at taking in and memorising content, but others need to work a bit more to solidify it which is totally okay and very normal. so if you do struggle then you should try and revise properly for the actual exams. start out just revising when you have specific topic exams throughout the year. revise for like a week before (cus these aren’t that important) and focus FIRST on your weak topics. that’s the key thing. don’t skim through easy stuff just cus it’s easy. it won’t help you much and is just a waste of time. you need to be honest with yourself and really try to improve the parts that are holding you back. try out different revision techniques every so often or when you have exams to see what works for you. i can’t give many specifics since i don’t know how to revise but there are a lot of resources and ideas online. some that worked for me are:

flashcards (i used quizlet over and over to memorise case studies and vocab)

free science lessons is a GOD

also mr salles is good for english! there is a little community on youtube of english teachers that i found helpful (and i’m doing a level now so hey i guess they worked) also just youtube in general is good for a lot of things, revision advice, actual specification content + explanation and whatever you want to find

if you play around with these now (and anything else you find useful) then you can be more prepared for actual exams.

when it comes to mocks (y10 and y11) they aren’t as important as people act like. unless there is a sudden awful outbreak of covid and they have to cancel exams (which is unlikely in a year or two), your mock results don’t have much effect. they may make you feel bad (i can promise you mine did) but even just a little bit of revision can make a difference come may of year eleven. from february mocks to gcses, i went from a 5 to a 7 in biology, and a 5 to an 8 in geography. i didn’t revise at all for mocks, and i did a day or two last minute for my gcses. i’m not saying that’s a good idea… but what i’m saying is that a little goes a long way. so don’t panic if you don’t get the results you want in mocks. i do suggest revising for mocks, to practice revising and so you have a better understanding for real gcses, mine is sort of a cautionary tale that just happens to have a happy ending. but if you don’t because you’re tired or struggling, don’t beat yourself up about it like i did, because it just makes you mad at yourself and it doesn’t help you motivate yourself. use this as fuel to try harder for the real exams.

id say for actual gcses, start properly revising in the january of year eleven. january is mainly mock revision, but after mocks, you can focus more on the right topics from march-may. and make sure to continue revising before each exam. it can work to just go over your weaknesses over and over again until it’s basically branded on your brain. even if you forget these the second you walk out of the exam, you will still succeed. especially with right-wrong answer kind of subjects (maths, science and maybe geography) gcses are 1% inspiration, 19% motivation and 80% memorisation. that’s probablt an exaggeration, but my point is, it’s okay if you don’t really have the capacity to fully comprehend every concept, just memorise things so you can regurgitate it into your exams. no harm done really. it’s only important to fully understand the subjects you plan to continue onto a level and beyond.

i knoww this is mostly year eleven focused so it might not be as relevant now but trust me the main point is do not stress right now. you are safe so don’t freak yourself out. it’s good to try and get ahead if you have the motivation, but now is your time to have fun and relax before all the academic pressure piles up. not slacking off, but just don’t worry! especially when it’s just september. you don’t need to start immediately, just try things out and work your way up to a system that works well for you!

and out of interest, what gcses did you choose? (besides the obvious maths english etc) and does ur school make you do religious studies?

and good luck of course!! i sincerely hope you do really well and you deserve it :) just work hard and do your best really.

also, if i was an animal for a day it would not be any bug cus i’m dead. if i had a human brain maybe so i wouldn’t act like an idiot and annoy people. or a dog because they’re chill. and cats can climb shit so maybe cat.

anywayssss love you i hope you have the best time at gcse cus i’ll be real with you i wish i could go back sometimes. sixth form is super interesting but way less worry free; so save your worrying for later!!

can’t believe i just put a lana gif in a post. lmao

[woodpengu]

Personal Story: feel free to skip. But I wonder if anyone can relate to having a parent that expressed their trauma as love projected onto their children in a way that disregarded what was most important to said child. Read on if you're curious. Might be triggering for those who've suffered passive (or active) neglect.

My mother romanticized the gift-giving aspect of Christmas to unhealthy degrees. Don't ask why - her trauma isn't my story to tell nor her mind mine to comprehend. She just wouldn't accept anyone being okay with not receiving anything. "No" was not in her vocabulary (we'll save the lesson in consent and boundaries for another day).

My last year speaking or interacting with her directly, she had grown to keeping her eyes peeled all year round for gifts to bestow at Christmas. My sister and I were the number one priority even though both of us had told her "One is enough if you must give us a thing at all". And there was something far more important to me that happened every year between one Christmas and the next: my birthday.

I value this day above other special occasions as a benchmark of survival. I lasted another year. I held fast for another circle of the Earth. I gave myself 365 days more of opportunities for good memories and reasons to keep going. Living another year is much more important. Things aren't necessary for the occasion, but I would like acknowledgment. I'd like to think a parent would find their child that they love being alive and well is more important to them than a holiday that's been turned into a capitalist-driven drain on sanity, safety, and good manners.

But this last time, she forgot my birthday. Until a couple days ahead of it, my mother had been collecting gifts for a holiday that wouldn't happen for another four months that I didn't want a pile of things I'd throw out, donate, or shelve (she tended to get me things she wanted for herself just in case I didn't care for them or couldn't use them... nothing was ever just for me). She told me herself that she forgot what the date was, and pulled something random out of the pile, avoiding the "big important gifts" she didn't want me to have until Christmas.

This is a woman who prides herself on her wrapping skills and being covert with surprises and gifts. She made no effort with it. "Here, have a pretty ramen bowl with this cool gimmick that traditional ramen bowls don't have." It was, in fact, a pretty bowl... that I did not in any way hint at wanting, needing, or yearning for in any capacity. I had two ramen bowls at the time that I loved and was very happy with and did not want another, nor did I have the space for one, which I informed her of when she asked. Unwrapped. No ceremony. Just handed over with an apology about forgetting and "I'll take you somewhere to make up for it". Which she did...

She took me to a place she wanted to go to... while the air was thick with smoke from the wildfires. If you have or know someone with PTSD or CPTSD, activates lizard brain (survival mode) at the drop of a hat, and the one thing we can lose resistance to is the smell of smoke (which for animals turns on the flight response and is how they know to get the heck out of dodge). Of course, I'd explained this to her. CPTSD was the reason for being in therapy, and why COVID hit me harder than most - I was isolated with my worst and most constant abusers who were keyed up and agitated more than usual by circumstances (another story). But... to her, I was throwing a tantrum and being ungrateful.

All she had to do was acknowledge the important part: I was alive and still trying to live. If all she gave me was a hug and a "thank you for being here", that would have been the most meaningful gift and the best birthday of my life. But... she made it about her, her efforts, her compromises, her gifting ability... My day was about her. That's like a relative going to a wedding and giving the bride hell for not putting [relative] on a pedestal. Integrity, please.

Point being... [takes a moment to heave a big ol sigh] (part two of my gifting rambles, here) If a person is important to you, then make the effort to acknowledge what's important to them. It's not about you "being a good friend/relative/companion" in the "I give gifts because I love you" sense. It's about showing real love through acknowledgment of their truths.

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: Mobility: A Novel

Author: Lydia Kiesling

Genre: literary fiction

Content/Trigger Warning/s: discussions and mentions of major historical events and natural disasters, including but not limited to 9/11, the BP Oil Spill, Hurricane Harvey, and the COVID-19 pandemic

Summary (from author's webpage): The year is 1998, the End of History. The Soviet Union is dissolved, the Cold War is over, and Bunny Glenn is an American teenager in Azerbaijan with her Foreign Service family. Through Bunny’s eyes we watch global interests flock to the former Soviet Union during the rush for Caspian oil and pipeline access, hear rumbles of the expansion of the American security state and the buildup to the War on Terror. We follow Bunny from adolescence to middle age—from Azerbaijan to America—as the entwined idols of capitalism and ambition lead her to a career in the oil industry, and eventually back to the scene of her youth, where familiar figures reappear in an era of political and climate breakdown.

Both geopolitical exploration and domestic coming-of-age novel, Mobility is a propulsive and challenging story about class, power, politics, and desire told through the life of one woman—her social milieu, her romances, her unarticulated wants. Mobility deftly explores American forms of complicity and inertia, moving between the local and the global, the personal and the political, and using fiction’s power to illuminate the way a life is shaped by its context.

Buy Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/mobility-lydia-kiesling/18547461

Spoiler-Free Review: Godsdamn but this book makes me FUCKING ANGRY! I mean this in a good way, by the way, as this is frankly speaking a pretty good read.

Look, it’s not every day that a book pisses me off, but this one pissed me off in the best possible way, with its focus on the sheer hypocrisy of white people - specifically privileged white women - when it comes to the much larger suffering that everyone else around them experiences. From the moment she is introduced all the way to the very end of this novel, Bunny/Elizabeth thinks of no one but herself. Her disinterest as a teenager can be forgiven, I suppose, because I think a majority of teenagers are self-centered little shits to varying degrees - and I say that as a teenager who was pretty self-centered myself. The few who aren’t are rare and far between.

But later on, as she grows more and more comfortable in her place in the oil industry, you can practically SEE her convincing herself that what she’s doing, what her industry is doing, is right and just and not as problematic as everyone thinks it is. Worse, one can also read how she twists her WILLFUL IGNORANCE into a VIRTUE because IT BENEFITS HER TO DO SO. It’s just so INFURIATING to see that happen, since she has the privilege and the opportunity to do better, and yet: SHE DOESN’T!

The funny thing is, SHE GETS CALLED OUT ON IT! There are several moments throughout the novel wherein she is forced to confront how she doesn’t take a stand on anything, for just sitting on a fence, for thinking only of her own comfort, and while she sometimes pauses to think about what the other person’s saying and wonder if maybe they’re right, you can almost FEEL her flinch away from anything that makes her uncomfortable. THEN she goes RIGHT back to thinking any line of thought that makes her feel “safe” and one gets to watch as she chooses the path that makes her feel better, even if it comes at the cost of other people’s lives. They’re not HER people after all, how can she consider the plight of some nebulous entity who lives half the world away and whom she’s never met? This takes a chillingly exploitative turn towards the end of the novel.

I’ll admit, for a few moments while reading this I wonder if there’s anything she could have realistically done to actually take a stand and do something. The size and complexity of the oil industry is mentioned repeatedly throughout the novel; at various points Bunny/Elizabeth herself says that she can’t understand all of it, no matter how hard she tries. And when one is faced with something THAT big, that has the capacity to mutate into a new form to avoid accountability and instead re-emerge stronger than ever— How does one fight against something like that? Seen from that perspective maybe Bunny/Elizabeth’s reticence can be understood, even sympathized with, but after a certain point even this sympathy evaporates because it becomes clear that she’s CHOOSING to remain complacent.

But the interesting thing is, all this rage at Bunny/Elizabeth and the life she’s chosen can easily be turned on oneself. You read this book and wind up asking yourself: “Am I actually doing anything about the way the world works? Am I doing enough?” These are important questions, in my opinion, and applies to a lot more issues than just the theme of climate crisis that this book’s built around. None of these questions are comfortable or soothing, and the potential answers are likely to be less so, but they’re questions we need to ask regardless, if we don’t want to face the same kind of future Bunny/Elizabeth faces at the end of the novel.

Overall, this is an infuriating read, but excellent precisely BECAUSE it’s infuriating. It reveals some very uncomfortable truths and make the reader as some very difficult questions, leading to answers that are probably even MORE uncomfortable and difficult than the questions themselves. But the novel also emphasizes the need to ask those questions and find those answers, because seeking only to live in a bubble of comfort, unbothered and undisturbed by the wider world’s troubles, means living a life devoid of compassion and empathy, and only leads to a future where the entire world suffers.

Rating: five oil tankers