#covid19 ideas

[snekdood]

[coldhearthotlove]

I live in The United States, and views on COVID range drastically depending on where you are and who you speak to individually.

In some cities/towns, you’ll occasionally see a few people here and there wearing masks (especially in more urban areas, from what I’ve noticed).

In other areas though, you won’t see a mask in sight.

My Dad lives a conservative, rural town, and every time I go there, and go to local places, I’ve never seen a single person wearing a mask…

It seems like in some areas, people act exactly like pre-2020, as if COVID doesn’t exist, and never has.

Unfortunately, COVID in The United States has also become “political”.

Some people think it’s a major public health crisis, while others think “it’s just a cold” and “the government is trying to scare you so they can control you with masks, vaccines, and lockdowns.”

So, if you live outside of the U.S., I’m curious…

Do your News Channels ever talk about COVID?

What about your friends, family, community? (schools, work environments) Do they ever mention it? Do they ever take safety precautions?

Do you still see people in public wearing masks?

Was COVID made into a “political issue”, like in the United States?

How is COVID generally treated in your country? (as of September 2023)

[flameraven]

I am immune compromised with chronic illness, and while my issues are relatively mild, they still cause significant interference in my life. I absolutely don't want to gamble with Covid and possibly adding Long Covid to those problems. Even vaxxed and boosted, the odds of Long Covid are about 10%... and go up with subsequent infections. There also seems to be some amount of people who catch Covid and recover, or who had asymptomatic cases, only to start having problems 1 or 2 years down the line.

Also, even a "mild" case of Covid increases your risk of heart attack and stroke, and may weaken your immune system for 8+ months, leaving you open to other infections... or another round(s) of Covid. Among other things! One of the main things I still use Twitter for is to follow scientists and Covid news, and mostly what we're learning is that the more we study Covid, the more we learn how much it can fuck you up in all kinds of ways. It is absolutely not a cold that you can just shrug off.

So yeah, I still mask everywhere.

if there's a complicating factor (immunocompromised, existing copd, etc.) feel free to add it in the tags

[mayakern]

Things are bad right now.

As many of you know, way back in 2020 we weren’t sure if our business was gonna make it. Our factory was already on break for Lunar New Year–a month-long holiday for many businesses in the area–and with the announcement of COVID19, everything shut down indefinitely. We knew immediately we were in for a bad time. Despite our fears, our sales grew so far beyond anything we ever expected, to the point where we had to hire two employees just to keep up with demand! 

Unfortunately, even after our factory reopened, our problems were not over. Their quality drastically declined almost immediately, to the point that a significant amount of our  fabric would literally fall apart in transit between the factory and our office. Because of this, we discovered that our sales rep had no idea what she was doing and knew nothing about the factory she was representing, so when we told her the fabric was garbage her response was “👍 factory said it’s good!” At the beginning, only roughly 10% of our new product was defective and we were able to sell the affected items with a reasonable discount. By the end of our relationship with that factory, 40% of our midi skirts and 70% of our miniskirts were defective, some affected so severely that they practically fell apart when touched. And still, our rep said everything was fine and there were no problems and the fabric composition had not changed.

So in 2022 we changed factories. We hired Ash to handle this since I was way too busy managing fulfillment to do the amount of research and communication necessary to find us a factory that met our criteria. Finding clothing factories that can make clothing over a size 2-3X is significantly more difficult than one that can’t because it often requires larger and more expensive machinery. But Ash did it: she got us set up with a new factory that has excellent certifications for both their labor practices and their methods for textile production, that delivers consistent, high quality sewing on well made fabric that can be printed without suffering loss in detail–and she was armored with the knowledge for what makes a quality garment so she could check them if they tried to screw us on quality. Their minimum orders were way higher than our previous factory’s, so we decided to focus on ordering more units of fewer designs. We ordered way too much our first round–some of those designs were in stock until the 2024 blowout sale! But it worked out, and slowly we had a warehouse full of stuff to sell.

Fast forward to 2024, business is slowing down between the economy being bad and what seemed to be a general skirt fatigue amongst our customers. We tried expanding into shirts, which would’ve been successful if our minimums were lower. In the late spring we realized we were in trouble if we didn’t make drastic changes and we ultimately decided to end in-house fulfillment and transfer to a third party fulfillment center that would support domestic shipping in Canada and eventually the UK, EU, and Australia. In order to make that transition affordable we drastically discounted everything and that sale was super successful! We were able to begin shipping from the fulfillment center with an almost clean slate, even if it did mean having to close the store for almost two months and thereby missing out on two very important months of sales.

Unfortunately, we were stupid. We continued to order new designs on an every other month schedule instead of switching to an every month schedule, forgetting that having a backstock in a variety of designs is what previously helped us float between orders and now we quite literally didn’t have enough inventory to match the sales we made for last year’s holiday sale.

That brings us to now.

We’re a little stuck. We have a round of skirts in production (yay!) but they won’t get here until February (boo!). To get back on that monthly cycle we would need to order the next round of skirts right now, but we can’t pay for production until that next round of skirts gets here; if the current sale goes well, it’s paying payroll, not production. We are currently in the very difficult, horrible situation of not having enough money for next month’s payroll unless we are somehow able to make significant sales with our very sparse inventory.

We’re scrappy and we do our best to adapt to disasters and I’m sure we’ll find a way to adapt to this one as well, it’ll just take us some time to get there. Basically we’re going to be okay eventually–hopefully later this year–but in the meantime if we seem frantic, now you know why. 

If you’re been considering trying out our viscose shirts but haven’t been able to justify paying full price, they’re on clearance PLUS half off right now! That’s $9-$15 for the viscose tops, and other tops on clearance are $20-$45. Some of the shirts we’re having a LOT of trouble selling are now priced below cost to help us recoup some of the money we spent making them.

Any amount of support helps right now. Sharing posts, telling your friends, buying a $9 shirt–all of it helps. If our clothing isn’t your thing, we also have a Patreon you can support for as little as $1 a month. https://www.patreon.com/mayakern

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a great rest of your day and that 2025 is a brighter, kinder year for us all.

[twocupsnapalm]

In 20 years, some idiot is going to suggest a federal holiday to commemorate the COVID-19 Pandemic, and the rest of us are going to have a psychotic episode because the last thing any of us need is more free time at home, trying to come up with stupid ways to entertain ourselves with family.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

New Fear

I have been on tumblr a long time. A looooong time. Far longer than I should have been, really.

And I've been arguing with schmucks about birds being dinosaurs... pretty much that whole time. Folks tend to get angry when a dinosaur blog posts birds, after all. It happens.

And while the game of whack a mole is ancient, it's not unpredictable. Usually, it ends in one of two ways:

the person admits they were wrong, and they back down

the person stops arguing with me and blocks me

I'm okay with either one, really. the former is ideal, the latter at least brings me peace.

Never before this past weekend has someone insisted they were right no matter what I say

And this isn't a coincidence.

Over the past few decades, anti-science sentiment has risen worldwide. I mean you just have to look at the COVID19 pandemic, or general reactions to the problems of climate change.

While of course people who think their opinion matters more than evidence have always existed, they have never been quite this bold before.

The idea that the colloquial definition of dinosaur matters, at all, is a completely new idea and one that has no basis in reality.

And yet, multiple people this past weekend argued exactly that.

And it sounds exceptionally similar to the idea that people could pick and choose things about COVID19 to believe, or the general republican position on science (only things that back up their bigotry are true).

It really seems to reflect a general increase in anti science sentiment and public anti-intellectualism.

Reality isn't actually up for debate. Reality isn't actually subjective. And science is the measure of reality

This isn't the same as the biases of society impacting science and making it worse. Saying "what people think is more important than science" is not the same as saying "science forgot a very important variable / factor / to consider data gained by different cultures / to have a wide variety of perspectives/ etc."

And allowing people to continue to perpetuate and believe in delusions leads directly to the spread of misinformation, leading to more people not understanding reality, and so on

This matters because reality matters. Because the reality of our world is not something we can change or escape. And, in fact, us ignoring the reality of the world - like thinking we can have infinite growth on a finite planet - is directly leading to the destruction of that world (climate change).

I am terrified of the rise of anti-science sentiment. I am terrified of the rise of cherry picking, deciding reality is what you want it to be, ignoring evidence. We see this from purely scientific topics all the way to social justice (how much of racism is ignoring the evidence of a) race being a social construct and b) how much racism impacts people's lives? Almost all of it).

This is bigger than birds being dinosaurs or evolution or climate change. This is about our society going on a deeply disturbing and self-destructive path.

And I really don't know what to do about it.

[c12312]

SYDA Timeline (Part 1.1)

(The timeline is based on what I remember and what other people have told me in the past few days. No guarantee for correctness and completeness, this timeline may be updated with new developments) Note: Turn on automatic english subtitles in all clips 2023

February 2023

Sylvee and Daarick were invited to SQUIDCRAFT GAMES 2 by Komanche, ElRubius and AuronPlay. She was invited as a way to include the English minecraft community into these competitive events (also were invited dream, sapnap, georgenotfound, hannah, foolish, tinnakitten, xqc and more). On the other hand, Daarick was invited cuz he started to be recognized as a top Peruvian streamer in hispanic community.

Both in Squidcraft games 2: https://youtubhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNcjZPj_89ke.com/clip/UgkxziMcKbenUc7Dp3DL4kwj58RRe0nID3_B?si=pKNkBeSALE_qWYx9

They didn't interact at all in this event, mainly because they used to belong to completely different teams and friends.

Sylvee became friends with mexican streamers as VickyPalami, Roier, Juanguarnizo, Conterstine and also mc hispanic tryhards as Shadoune, Spreen, etc.

Clip: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxtKr75hRj2safUqJQfCywew3wYH60FMn4?si=o3ss2pL62ao7Arbj

The most important part of this is she becoming really good friend with Shadoune666 (Fact really important in a nearby future)

July 2023

We are in July 2023, at this time something really important was happening, the biggest event in the hispanic community called “LA VELADA DEL AÑO 3” was celebrated in Madrid, Spain.

This was a box event, where content creators were supposed to fight against other content creator just for show, but this year was different cuz the hispanic community had an idea to include English community  in all events they could, so they invited Amourant to fight in “LA VELADA DEL AÑO 3”, so the Dream team (Sapnap, George and Dream) and Sylvee went to this event as a part of the English community.

Sylvee ig post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CuR6bIKLbQB/?igsh=MWx2aTBqYzk5czd1cA==

At the same time, we have a Daarick who travels from Peru on a friend's trip with streamers like Glogloking, Mictia00, Locochon, Maryblog, Girlofnox, etc. This trip was for the same reason, i mean “LA VELADA DEL AÑO”

Is in this moment when their first meeting happened.

As we said before, from Squidcraft games 2 Sylvee and Shadoune (who used to live in spain) became really good friends, so when Sylvee and Dteam arrived in Spain, Shadoune started talk with them a lot to make their trip comfortable and include them into his group of friends.

And a part of his group of friends was (and now continue being) the peruvian streamers cuz at some point between February and July, Shadoune traveled to Peru after a big problem with covid19 vaccines, in that trip he became really good friends with all peruvian streamers and specifically with Daarick.

So, at that moment we have a Shadoune who is really good friend with Sylvee and is walking around with her and dteam, a daarick who is in a trip with friends, and they all are in Spain in the same city at the same time and going to the same places but never meeting between each other.

But in changes in one moment: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx0oaM4eqVr-pIHKGoM7cZe1QfwaIdxtfN?si=n0Py-l45v1Mdo3EB

August 2023

After their first meeting in person, they didn't interact and just left it as a fun story to tell, Daarick continued his career as a peruvian streamer and Sylvee did the same as an english streamer. But, Sylvee started to be really close with hispanic streamers and community cuz she said she really likes and wants to learn spanish, also has a grandma from Puerto Rico. (For example, she participated in a video of CapitanGato who is a peruvian youtuber or when she played Gartic phone with mexican streamers as ElMariana and others) 

CapitanGato video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jchte-PTEbc&t

Gartic w streamers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlsIfAcOO6M&t

That’s why she started to being invited to different hispanic mc events, and it's in “Escondite en Francia” a Shadoune’s event where they met again: https://clips.twitch.tv/GeniusDeafWhaleBIRB-b9LNnWKHSy9GlzDa

fter this event, Ded made a MC BINGO DEDSAFIO (Dedsafio is a way to call all ded events with a prize and are really competitive). Ded invited Sylvee and other American Streamers to this event, cuz he always said that he likes to include different communities into his events( Daarick was invited too), both were in this event but they were in different teams and didn’t met until one specific moment, cuz Pili / Dtowncat (a Costa Rica Streamer) talked with Sylvee about the event in the time they had between bingo rounds and casually Daarick was team with Pili / Dtowncat so he tried to include himself into the conversation but he didn’t know how to talk in english so it was kinda funny (fun fact: Sylvee told that she met Daarick before): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbF4U4p5Bs4

After that interaction they didn’t talk more in that event and the rest of the year.

2024

January 2024

Illojuan made an event in collaboration with Twitch Rivals, this event was called “HUNT AND RUN”, an event based in Hunger Games but in minecraft.

In this event, both hispanic streamers and american streamers were invited. In American streamers we could find George, Hannah, Dasnerth, but the streamer that matters for this thread is Sylvee.

Illojuan invited Sylvee to Hunt and Run:

And between hispanic streamers, Daarick was invited too:

This event was a survival game were u can make teams with other streamers to survive and kill other guys, so in all this event we didn’t see any interaction between the two protagonist of this thread, except for one moment in the second day in the last minutes of the server:

February - May 2024

At this part of the linetime we didn't have any interactions, but at this point both had a big controversy in their own communities, a big controversy that will have an impact in the future, in one side Daarick have a big problem that made him be stagnant in his career as a streamer and in the other side we can see how Sylvee after her controversy started to have less activity in streams.

June 2024

Sylvee organized her own event in collaboration with Twitch Rivals and Hannahxxrose, this event was called “House of Nightmares”. Sylvee being close to the Spanish community invited a lot of Spanish content creators to her event, and between them was Daarick.

In this event they didn’t interact either, but Daarick started joking about shipping himself with Sylvee (This was a internal joke with his chat cause one time he said on stream that Sylvee was his crush but the clip is lost media) it's nothing really serious, creepy or trying to make her uncomfortable just a joke with his chat, so in all the event he was making jokes about he broken up with Sylvee and being sad about it

September 2024

Well, until now this ship was everything about coincidences and just little interactions, but

NOW START DEDSAFIO 3

Well, Dedsafio is a survival mc where almost 100 streamers should survive to different increases of difficulty and new mobs, it’s about a month where everyone must be connected around 8 hours daily the seven days of the week. It's a Spanish community made by ElDed and Euphonia Studios, and as we said before ded likes to invite different communities to his events so it’s not surprising that he invited Sylvee and other English Streamers to DEDSAFIO 3.

Sylvee got invited to Dedsafio 3: 

Daarick got invited to Dedsafio 3: 

Daarick’s reaction to his invitation:

Daarick react to Sylvee in Dedsafio 3:

So Daarick and Sylvee were invited to Dedsafio 3, but that doesn't mean they will interact or something like that, right?

Well, it could be true cuz Sylvee should be with other english streamers and Daarick with spanish streamers, but it is at this point where a lot of coincidences will make their meeting possible.

25 september 2024 - DEDSAFIO DAY 1

Dedsafio started as always and all spanish streamers already knew how it works, but english speakers had to attend a little meeting with Ded, where he explained all about Dedsafio and how it’ll be in the next 30 days.

Clip: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx8oZJoB6_A9l_WW8BJX_e0c5cqR2l8xB6?si=52YUdzBMAc6xOAfa

After that Sylvee went in her own way and eventually team up with Humberto (RobertoCein)

Clip: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxshGKUVPmTPXa3Cz9jshzeeg-pH6dyBGt?si=629L7RqVYs6hlMOf

On the other hand, Daarick already participated in Dedsafio 1 and 2 so he knew how it works and immediately started. Daarick already had a team with other Peruvian streamers and friends (Antonicra, Aquino, Mictia, etc.) so they coordinated to speedrun all stuff as fast as possible.

Clip: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxLuhMwu5jaNwn8w59tU3vVz0ajGYNsOtT?si=KLee1grxElr0n2G_

At this point it should be almost possible that they met each other, but something really unexpectable happened. Aquino, a Peruvian streamer and Daarick’s old friend and team, decided to go mining for a while until he got diamonds or iron armor.

Clip: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxk9EtaCDRxUS2Ju9Zdp6HEB6dYnclmodL?si=a3MYWfbzI_BprUBj

In other random part of the world, Sylvee also go mining for iron stuff

Clip:

And there is where coincidences started, Aquino went really far away from where he started to mining and in some point this happened:

Aquino’s POV: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxNi5b0YjDV6RnLoKiKcyoOTo6YCy4EaO7?si=TfmPwMEXG6AuanUn

Sylvee’s POV: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxG89hV6YXtQ2DULhxdJgpl970mI1edxYA?si=h_067H6CZxUuxF37

On the all minecraft map that they had to explore, casually both mines they started mining had a path that coincided and the timing was so exactly to let them meet, cause moments before Aquino was going to leave and go another way.

So now Aquino adopted Sylvee and Roberto to his team, where Daarick already was part.

Note: From this part the thread will be faster and dynamic, because describing every little interaction from now will make this thread like 300 hundred sheets and will become boring, so we’ll be describing the most relevant interactions from now

After that, Sylvee and Roberto joined Aquino’s discord call where everyone was talking, they coordinated where to build the house and Sylee started to make animal farms. This day Daarick and Sylvee didn’t interact so much, just little conversation about help on the farm and for building the house.

26 september 2024 - DEDSAFIO DAY 2

Daarick bringing back his joke, about shipping himself with Sylvee, gifted a chest with diamonds, golden carrots and a tagged rose that said “For my love uwu” in Sylvee’s house and put up above the chest a cartel where it said “of your secret admider :V”. Later, Sylvee reaction to this and just took all the stuff, ask her chat who is her secret admirer and crafted an item frame for the flower (For people who will think it’s creepy or something, she understood the joke and just laughed about it, u can see it in the clip)

Clip: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxMRBj9tiOy14qSUMZ1FkJJ39cc2kqYCXY?si=PP1dFYU4NWtw0Eir

27 september 2024 - DEDSAFIO DAY 3

Daarick made a farm outside the house, but Sylvee saw it and told Aquino that it's not really functional so she’ll fix it. They told Daarick that his farm really didn’t work but he started explaining that his farm works and obstructed Sylvee when she was trying to fix it all, Sylvee got desperate about him being so obstinate in his idea, so they got a little discussion and Daarick just left.

Clip: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxUnFJeqOxJxcdppKP0Fy-YmydyaTc69Im?si=BqlUPHSOSAVoDzb_

After that, Sylvee asked Daarick to go with her to the mountain (Dedsafio lobby) to complete the daily mission, so he went with her. In the way to the mountain he asked her different things to make a good conversation, asked her how she learned Spanish and if she went to the university. After they arrived at the mountain and completed the daily mission, he saw a mirror and was joking saying to her “Look at this beautiful person ….. me”, after that Pili (Dtowncat), who was roleplaying as a robotic otter that helps English streamers, spawned and asked Sylvee if she’s ok. Then, they decided to go back to the house and on the way back he asked again somethings like how long has she been streaming and she asked him back the same question.

Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-hBa2Gjvg8

28 september 2024 - DEDSAFIO DAY 4

They went to the “DEDSAFIO CASINO” and started gambling for different items. At some moment, Daarick stole Sylvee’s reward from her machine (it was diamonds) and when she got aware about it she went and asked him to give back her diamonds, he disconnected from the server as a joke but came back later and gave her back the diamonds.

Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jybrEENcJ7M

A random but a little relevant interaction is when Sylvee was gambling and Shadoune was next to her machine, so he asked her “How are u doing with Daarick, they told me that Daarick and you were something u know” and she answered “i don't think so” and Shadoune continued his joke telling that he would talk with Daarick to comfort him because he got friendzoned.

Clip: https://x.com/JpSzz135/status/1912778018373665172

29 september 2024 - DEDSAFIO DAY 5

Aquino and Mictia trolled Sylvee, cuz she had a picture above her house and they changed it to Daarick ID’s photo and when sylvee reacted to it was so scary:

Clip:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyzmHCsWgUM

30 september 2024 - DEDSAFIO DAY 6

Sylvee talked with her chat about people shipping her and Daarick, and how it was unexpected to her but she said that understand why people could do that.

Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmSM7kKVWwU

Later, they went to the nether together to farm some netherite and stuff that they needed, but they couldn’t go back to overworld for a bug so they asked otters (staff members) to help them, and meanwhile they was waiting, Daarick started joking about them being alone and he was shy about it, then a otter spawned and tp them to overworld.

Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8v7G2oT-6I

From now on they started to interact a lot so trying to explain day by day would be an Odisea so we’ll mention different moments and describe the most importants until ends Dedsafio.

Daarick tries to troll Sylvee but it fails and Sylvee apologizes to him for her reaction to his ID photo:

Sylvee started trolling Daarick too:

Sylvee changes Daarick’s name, cuz in spanish it pronounce like “Daarick” but she continuously says “Deereck”:

Daarick gives her compliments sometimes

Sylvee was in Girlofnox’ chat (Argentinian streamer who was in Dedsafio too)  and asked her about her ship with Daarick, cuz she didn’t understand why they are shipping them and why it’s so strong, then Girlofnox, also called July, asked if she don’t like her ship with him and Sylvee answered that it’s nothing personal just she don’t understand it 

Clip: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx9olct3yVCuy8AITHQSzIy_F34-eA8O-Y?si=btHyqyORNV_uWb7C

In the same day, Desafio had a game change that the sun burns u infinitely until someone put on your sunscreen, it just could be put from one to other not yourself, so at some moment Sylvee needs someone to help her with sunscreen so she asked for help in discord call and everyone said “Daarick go” so she got embarrassed for it and Daarick was joking about it

Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcpKl4n4ELw

After that, the team continued teasing them every time Sylvee needed help with sunscreen: 

They started spending time together even when they couldn’t understand very well cuz Daarick had a really basic English and Sylvee had a really basic Spanish:

They even started to talk through a book to understand each other xd:

Continue in the next post ->

[fromthedust]

INTIMATIONS OF MORTALITY II

Indiana limestone, clear and colored glass, resin casting, imitation gold leaf, black linen matboard, plywood backer - 15¼"x 4⅝"x 1¾"

The work was originally done for an exhibit exploring what artists did while working during the COVID19 lockdown (POSTCARDS FROM THE WINDOW-2021 see link below). However, that work was stolen from the exhibit. I never had a work stolen from me before — it is a strange feeling knowing that my work so moved someone to the extent that they felt they had to have it while at the same time there is the dis-respect of having something taken away from me so I could never share it again. It was like they had stolen the words from my mouth while at the same time complementing me on my phrasing.

The piece had begun with a little found object token (a key fob in the form of a human skull) which I had separated from the chain and which had sat on my successive desktop computers for perhaps twenty years as a sort-of mascot. During the COVID lockdown I found myself focusing on this memento mori again and again, and finally decided to use it as part of a self-portrait as a survivor (for the time being, anyway).

After the work was stolen I felt like I had to replace it, to repeat the story someone took away from me, re-state my stolen 'words'. I tried to find a replacement skull to no avail — whoever had manufactured the key fobs originally all those years ago were not still marketing them that I could find, so I had to find or make another skull. I carved a skull in ebony but it wasn't right. I found a little plastic skeleton (anatomically correct, partially articulated), but it wasn't quite right either. I molded the skull but cut-off the lower jaw from the casting to make it more like the key-fob skull. Though it still was not perfect I felt this one would work.

So this piece is a re-made version of the stolen work with a slightly larger size skull and naturally different piece of limestone. The skull sans jawbone (i.e. - 'muted') is mounted under glass in a black linen shadowbox cut into the limestone. The naturally cleft surface of the limestone is covered in a natural aged algae patina to echo the age of times past. The fitted blood-red dot of glass and the energetic golden grinder cuts to suggest the idea of 'the quick and the dead'.

There is an exhibit (DAY OF THE DEAD) later this year I'll submit the work to so I can share my 'selfie' again.

see the post of three years ago after the theft:

www.fromthedust.tumblr.com/post/657719920161964033/signage-for-exhibit-postcards-from-the-window

[scopnotes]

I just found your immune system characters, and I LOVE them!!! I'm really interested in what inspired your designs for the pathogens, and if you have any ideas for other ones? When I was a kid I would make little comics anthropomorphizing different pathogens (based on Giant Microbe plushies) and so I'm interested in a fresh perspective on these lil' troublemakers :D

Thanks a lot!! I used to make white blood cells creatures when I was a kid on my side, haha!!

It’s quite abstract but I’m trying to respect some random aspects of the original bacterias and what diseases they cause.

As examples:

Since Tuberculosis is mostly known for its attack on lungs: it’s partially shaped like a piece of cloth for its capacity to be volatile (also inspired from the yokai Ittan-Momen who suffocates its victims).

I wanted Tetani to have an ‘electric’ look because it causes muscles to contract themselves. The pointy design might comes from the fact you commonly catch them from metal🤔

My main restriction is to avoid making them looking like animals (that includes anthro).

For the rest, I’m still trying to order my ideas but I want each design to follow a logic (like being able to differentiate gram + and gram - ones, etc).

For the most part, I’ll treat them as recurring antagonists.

My story mainly focuses on bacterias for pathogens. I don’t feel ready to touch on virus since they’re complex beings to treat (+the diseases they cause nowadays can be quite touchy to speak on (… covid19 ).

If I have to bring them, it’s gonna be about common colds.

I want Unimune to be enjoyable so I don’t want to talk about serious lethal diseases🫡

Here are my researches for virus though! Uncanny non-sentient invaders.

[rjalker]

By the way, do you have any sci-fi books/stories you can recommend? It's so hard to find ones that are not full of the horrendous bigotry.

I have had people recommend that I try Octavia Butler's works, but I have yet to do research on any of those before I pick any of them up.

I'll try to figure out a good list, I always forget things as soon as I'm asked lol.

I'll try to edit summaries and word counts to this post tomorrow

But I have read one series by Octavia Butler so far, the Xenogenesis trilogy, and it was fantastic, but it definitely comes with some serious trigger warnings.

I assume the rest of her books are just as serious, so I definitely recommend looking up trigger warnings before reading them. But if they're anything like Xenogenesis they will be well worth the read!

For TV shows at least, Babylon 5 is fantastic.

Books....there's a lot of them lol. I'm reading a crap ton of public domain short stories from Project Gutenberg and Librivox.

The Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie is awesome. It's got a trilogy and two standalone books set after the trilogy so far.

Oh. Super old scifi book I love is Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.

The original book is public domain and can be listened to as an awesome audiobook here, or read online / downloaded from Project Gutenberg!

And then I also translated it into casual / modern English to make it easier for more people to read. You can read it here on tumblr at @flatland-a-2024-translation, on the Internet Archive, or listen to the still lazy audiobook version on youtube. (It's lazy because it's unedited and for some reason I decided to make it while recovering from Covid19. Don't ask me why I have no idea)

It's both a political satire condemning the bigotry of Victorian England, and an introduction to the mathematical concept of higher dimensions. It's fun. It's hilarious.

Just don't watch the most popular movie that has been made for it that's free on youtube, it's by a man so absurdly racist that even other Republicans were horrified, and the movie completely misses all of the points the book has to make about how bigotry is bad, and does character assasination for everyone involved.

Here's some cool short stories, mostly public domain:

There's a bunch of fun ones in Librivox's short science fiction collections, which you can listen to on youtube, or on their app or site. Too many for me to keep track of or summarize....

Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper. Just very fun space archaeology. Also has a cool time travel story, Time and Time Again.

The Beast of Space, by F E Hardart is a fun monster story with a living asteroid.

Oh crap. And how could I forget Who Goes There? The short story the movie "The Thing" is based on.

The Lost Kafoozalum is very funny. Only 1 bad part at the very end that's obnoxious but it's easy enough to "fix" by applying basic logic to the characters. And it's public domain so at some point I'm just gonna rewrite the annoying part.

Also I like Cry From a Far Planet.

And The Defenders by Philip K. Dick

hmmmmmmmmmm yeah I'm forgetting a ton lol. I'll add them to this post when I remember them.

Oh, I haven't read this one yet, but a ton of people recommend it. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers.

Beyond the Heaviside Layer is also a fun weird alternate universe

and....so many more I forget lol.

oh crap wait. If. If you can find it, Venusian Lullaby by Paul Leonard. It is technically a Doctor Who story, but it is 1000% standalone science fiction and you don't need to know anything about Doctor Who to read it. It is so good. But like. So many people die. So many that I lost count. But it's just fantastic. The worldbuilding. OMG

[bitchyblkqueer]

flash 2023 issue 6 thoughts

opening on wallylinda.... prayers answered. i love how si spurrier writes and i love the family dynamics he's created.

like YES he gets it!! and our good friend eo is finally back! he's always a good time (for me as a reader)

i am fascinated by horror based on the covid19 lockdowns. the month and a half that people really had to stay inside. and the idea that a year of your life was lost. i completely disagree. and it looks like spurrier feels the same (corona contrarium) but we'll have to wait and see. i could be projecting.

there's this quote that i cant find that goes something like, "just because the time didn't pass how i wanted it to doesn't mean it didn't pass at all." it's important to think about who we're talking about when we frame the lockdown as "the stolen year." it's very entitled. and it's always confused me. i think it's the idea that something was taken from you when tomorrow is never promised.

and the overwhelming fear that was prevalent in society during that time period is still here. it's just being channeled into other things. and i have to make it clear that we're still in a pandemic and it's the worst it's ever been. TB and measles outbreak on top of new covid strains??? what are we doing?? and no one wants to mask.

i would love to talk to spurrier about this. he's not American and different countries handled lockdowns very differently. anyway back to the comic.

ghosts are scientific but there are enough tangents in this post. in retrospect barry has been acting pretty thawne-like the entire time. but i also feel like his worst traits (isolation, possessiveness/jealousy, cattiness, pride) were getting amplified.

oh my?? i feel like this is something barry might feel but would never say, especially not like this.

im getting deja vu and i hope wally is too...

building on the iconic scene from the return of barry allen, and upping the ante so now barry physically harms wally instead of just abandoning him. can we take a moment to appreciate a writer who has read the works of previous authors. it shouldn't be so rare but here we are.

im disappointed that the stillness seem to be a hoax set up by thawne. i was digging the whole cosmic higher power thing. that's all for now ummmmmm 5 stars

[frosted-plasma]

what’s your thoughts on the Futurama revival

Anon I'm so sorry you're going to be victim to the longest post you will ever see. I hate it I hate it I hate it

HUGE /neg rant incoming (this show is my special interest and has been for YEARS. This will all be rambling)

THEY FUCKING COMPLETELY DISREGARDED "MEANWHILE." It directly contradicts it. "I offered to reset time to the moment before time stopped!" Okay, but you didn't though. The entire tragedy of the ending was that they'd be doomed to relive their lives from the moment they met (s1 e1) on loop. "Want to go around again?" Okay so that line doesn't make sense anymore!!! I had theories upon theories before the season came out and I was beyond disappointed. This show has shown it can do deep thought-out themes, I was fully hoping for them to show them reliving the past again, maybe its their 1,000th time reliving it, maybe Fry or Leela notices for once that something is familiar about it. Hell maybe there's a 1 in a million chance that they DON'T break the button! Free will and all, maybe things aren't 100% the same each run and they get lucky once. This also could have been used to recap old seasons for people who didn't rewatch them

They don't know how much time has passed?? I understand that was an excuse to make it the year 3023, but why would you do that? What's the point??

Things such as the Scary Door reboot don't make sense, not to mention the overuse of "haha it's a reboot!! Get it?? It's a reboot!! We got cancelled!!!" jokes but I'll get to that later. Timeline things just don't make sense anymore because of the time freeze. It's an awful awful awful writing choice. They unfroze time right where it paused, canonically, they show them unfreezing exactly there, it makes zero sense. How is there new technology and new TV shows when no time has passed. I'm ignoring that it's "10 years later" because it isn't, you can't just say that without showing it, it literally isn't

Even the smaller jokes feel very dragged out? Like Bender laughing at Fry setting a goal in episode one. He laughs and Leela smacks him, his head spins around and it's funny, then his body does an extra spin for no reason other than to emphasize that it's a joke? I guess? And then not even a minute later she slaps his hand again and it dramatically flies back and hits Zoidberg. Do you get what I'm saying? It's just too much focus on every single bit

I do like the updated intro! The added details to the city in the background is super super cool!! I love the thought they put into it (Bender hanging out of the ship on the magnet is a bit much considering all of the other references they included, but I'll let it slide. Just doesn't feel necessary to me in the intro)

The animation is rigged now:/ it's bound to happen nowadays, it just feels sad to look at for me (in general, not just with this show) the characters (ESPECIALLY Fry) feel very off model sometimes:(

Fry's hardly in the first episode. Odd writing choice considering he's the main character

Oh my GOD. The Hulu/reboot references. It's EXHAUSTING to watch. The amount of 2023 references they crammed into this season is physically painful, they drag them out for SO LONG

(in the first ep) the non-binary robots joke was funny and the scenes with Calculon and the Robot Devil were the only scenes that felt like old Futurama! Their voice acting was great and it was funny! The rest of the voice acting feels very lackluster and most of the other jokes just didn't get me

Calculon and the Robot Devil were the funniest characters, that's how dumbed down they made Bender, he's not my favorite that season

The plots are just. Bad. I hate to say it I really do. Shut up with the reboot jokes, the covid19 jokes, the only decent one was the bit mining episode because it actually used the idea as a real jumping off point and that episode still wasn't revolutionary. The other half of the episodes are pure callbacks. The one with Amy and Kifs kids was cute because it had a reason to exist! It wasn't a very funny episode but it was cute!! The other ones like the worm parasites in nibblers litter box (OR GOD FORBID THE ONE WHERE THE TIME MACHINE SHOWS UP OUT OF NOWHERE AGAIN WITH NO DRIVER??) make me MAD with how lazy of an excuse they are to cram in a reference without matching the rest of the lore

I'm fully assuming the reboot came from a place of love from the writers and the VAs but personally I didn't think the new season was very funny nor did it add anything new to the series, and it felt very very bland and dumbed down and I didn't even pay attention to the last few episodes because of it (that is saying something coming from me)

I rewatched the first episode for this so this is mainly talking about that one. Tell me if you want me to talk about the others I have so many thoughts this is me summarizing like all hell I hate the plots so much and this is my all time favorite show I'm still going to watch the next season and I still have high hopes for it

[pandora-dark-shorts]

Day 5: Groton Horde Part III.

The truck was waiting beside a gas pump with another soldier near it.

"It's all filled up," he told me as we loaded the guns. "Nice to see civies getting their hands dirty. And between you and I, the LT deserved that."

"He is an asshole," I replied, smiling as I climbed into the big bastard of a truck and did the puzzle. The engine roared to life as I gripped the steering wheel and drove toward the barricade.

As I approached it, I could see the soldiers fighting for their lives. The zombies were relentless, screaming and jaws snapping in anticipation of a meal that I figured would never satisfy them. I pulled up to the barricade and jumped out of the truck. Before I hit the ground, 6 soldiers had gotten down from the barricade and started pulling off cans to hand out. One went straight for the trailer jack to get it off the truck.

As a retired Navy Mass Comm Specialist and journalist for several news outlets, I was vetted. I have seen my fair share of tragedies, even overseas; the sandbox, the dmz. Nothing could have prepared me for a zombie outbreak. I climbed back into the running truck, my heart still racing with adrenaline.

I looked over as a soldier climbed the passenger side. He reached through the window and put a radio on the front seat. "Commander Stetson said to give this to you and say hurry back. Stay off the channel unless you are called for directly. Your callsigns 'Caveman'. See Warrant Officer Durang. Thanks for the drop, Bro." He jumped down before I could respond. Caveman. What?

Turning the behemoth around, I raced back to the depot to restock, ready to do it all over again. If they were going to fight to protect us, I was going to help them do that.

As I pulled up to the building, a sense of apprehension washed over me. The moment I stepped down, a burly Marine with a stern gaze emerged from the building. The mountain of a man extended a hand, offering a firm handshake.

"You my transporter," he asked with the faintest hint of a smile playing at the corners of his lips.

"I am," I replied, looking up at him.

"I'm not gunna lie, Brother," he said, "It's a shit show out there, and I dont have many personnel to spare. I have 4 trucks prepped and 2 more drivers. I have 6 spots that need to be supplied, and we can't leave the trucks there."

He took a breath and pointed toward a truck with 8 pallets on it. "The goods news is that all but one stop have forklifts, so you're going to have a piggyback on this load to drop off so they can clear the truck. It's a flatbed, so you won't need yours. Drive straight there, unload, turn around, drive back."

"That's it," I asked. "Easy enough."

"So easy an MC can do it." He joked, face softening with a laugh. "Here's the key. It's a contractor vehicle."

"Caveman," I said with a smile.

"My idea," he replied. "It'll grow on you. If it doesn't, oh well."

I took the key and jogged over to the truck. I'd never driven one of these and was glad to see it was an auto. The apprehension gave way to determination as i put it in drive, slowly pulling off to my first stop.

That determination turne to absolute fear as I approached the barricade. The undead were just breaking through and 11 soldiers with homemade rebar pikes and 2 firing pistols on either flank stood between them and everyone else. Why hadn't they called it in?

#pandoradark

#pandoradarkseries

#day5

#connecticut #zombies #apocalypse #zombieapocalypse #infected #covid19 #rabies #writing #writinginspiration #writeig #shortstories #inspo #horror #horrorstories

[balluprojects]

First Take: Mandala Magnets, 2020

To be short and sweet, recycled black acrylic glass, hand painted, to stick on your fridge ^^

Approach to the concept of handmade unique souvenirs, as well as useful art. Sold online on the initiative Tear de Primavera (= Spring Loom) during the Covid19 pandemic to raise money to do new projects, live via Zoom in January2021.

For this passion project, I've reunited on this calls knowledgeable and progressive people in Portugal, by connecting key points such as: the origins of folk, dancing and it's importance in social development (Rafaela and Lucas from IdeiaGlocal) sustainability and alternatives to burning waste in agriculture; city life health and waste behaviours (Maria Ana Moira); last, creative people in enclosure vs an artist while on studio doing an live painting and full conversation on the process of recycling ideas and moving forward creativity during this period (Ana Quintino and Ana Penha).

At the end of each subject, a different recycled project was presented.

a special thanks to Ynés for making me little flyers publicising my work <3

more takes on this project further on, zombie ones going to be a part of an riffled art give away...coming soon :D have a good one, everyone*

>>music>> Gala Drop - Ital >

[camerongrn]

folklore - taylor swift

this album surprise dropped after the initial covid19 outbreak in 2020 and follows a completely new side of taylor swift, away from her established roots in pop music. 'folklore' is her 8th studio album and takes on a much more chill, indie, folklike energy, in a similar yet different way to her early country music. 'folklore' consists of these low energy ballads driven by beautiful acoustic instrumentals. this album is a narrative driven album through and through.

with folklore, taylor explores these ideas of nostalgia and romanticism; almost in a similar vein to her albums fearless and speak now. however, here she takes on a much more mature lens by discussing themes such as infidelity, suicide, and alcoholism. this is by far one of her most vulnerable albums, some of the tracks feel uncomfortably intimate at times; feeling like im listening to someone's sob filled journal entries. escapism, however, is the album's main theme; being fuelled by the pandemic, empathy and loss come through in the haunting vocals and instrumentals. it's crazy how private this album is.

the record additionally follows fictional narratives and arcs based in a love triangle between 3 teenagers. i LOVE when artists do this and transport us into a whole new world unique to an album. moreover, this fictional narrative is extremely realistic and relatable; in a sense being semi autobiographical to swift herself. the story of this album is by far its shining feature.

my favourite track would have to be 'betty'. this song is told from the perspective of the fictional character james, who is apologising to betty after cheating on her. i love this, swift's ability to delve into this persona and to still create such a personal feeling song is crazy. this song takes clear inspiration from her earlier country music and its honestly sort of comforting; listening to this teenage boy beg for forgiveness over an americana inspired instrumental. i do have to give 'august' and 'the 1' shoutouts here as they are extremely personal songs to myself; lyric-wise.

overall, 'folklore' is by far one of taylor's best albums. escaping into this fictional world in the trees on a late august's day, swift manages to delve back to her roots and explore a softer sound. she manages to reinvent her artistry on this record, and i doubt she'll ever be able to produce a body of work as intimate as this.

favourite track: betty

least favourite track: epiphany

spotify link: folklore - Album by Taylor Swift | Spotify

★★★★★ 5/5

[its-moopoint]

This is 2023. Nothing will change is shipperville.

Anonymous asked:

Do you think cait had any idea what her marriage would do to outlander?? Or with Sam reputation?

denise-alwaysuselove answered:

I must preface my response by saying that I don’t believe Cait is married to anyone other than Sam. The public “marriage” is nothing more than a publicity stunt to bring the focus to the narrative. It’s not so much about Cait’s “marriage” as it is about “proving” that Sam and Cait are not together. 

That said, I doubt Cait realized that the bigwigs would hijack it for Outlander promo. Their co-opting of the fake engagement and wedding for their own nefarious purposes should tell anyone with a brain that they are part of this nonsense. Executives at that level have no reason to get involved in a narrative unless it serves them.

I think Cait’s upset that her stunts didn’t stay in the background as she had planned contributed to her lashing out on twitter and to her blocking sprees. I believe she was blindsided by her bosses, leaving her feeling backed into a corner whenever she was questioned.

I don’t think the “marriage” has hurt Sam’s reputation. Those of us here on Tumblr study everything with a magnifying glass. Casual fans don’t see what we see, and for the most part they accept what they are shown without question. However, based on the number of new followers the past few months, it appears that some of the new OL viewers have noticed the same thing shippers noticed years ago. Some things are hard to hide if you have the eyes to see.

What the bigwigs at LG/Sony/Starz didn’t take into account is that shippers have very long memories and a mega-warehouse full of receipts. We’re also smart, and many of us are intuitive. 

I know what I’ve seen all these years, and I know what Sam and Cait openly showed us before Albrecht brought the hammer down on January 8, 2016. They can bring in all the ridiculously fake girlfriends they want for Sam, and all the fake ceremonies they want for Cait, but I know better.

My blog is about love. I honor the love I’ve seen between Sam and Cait both before and after the denial. Why am I so steadfast? It’s really about trust: I can choose to trust myself and my own inner knowing, or I can believe the illusion that others are desperate to sell. For me and my house, I trust love.

importantcowboyfestival

I'm brand new shipper just since covid19 and I'm no fool!!! I'm on board with you.

happilyscentedsoul

You guys are definitely not alone. I know what I've seen and observed on my own with a little digging, and what I've seen here with this "group" so far only confirms what my gut has been telling me. Glad to find I'm not the only one who believes in "standing back and observing" when one encounters a brick wall. Sam and Cait both (but especially Sam) have been sharing little nuggets all along. Of course, the nuggets com in spurts, but that is to be expected, due to what they must do to try and satisfy everyone, especially bosses. I strongly feel more will be coming and it is just a matter of patience. I think they are honestly doing the best they can at the mo.

lindah1919

July 9 is when Sam’s contract is supposedly up. Hopefully he’s hired high powered attorneys.

briarbushies

WOW everything you have said is 100% right some who don't know don't really want to know but we've known since OL began and no narrative will change our minds as we've seen them fall in love and have their family even though hidden but we can always read between the lines but seeing all the fake GF they've thrown at Sam they have never been a match like Sam & Caitriona who's love just oozes from their bodies and souls!!

pizbernina-79

It’s a good thing to let the newbies see all facts which the engaged shippers have sampled since the beginning of the love story of S/C. You all have done a great job and you always trust your feelings! Love you all for that! 😍

Denise dear, stop lying to your followers, newbies and pretend this is about beliefs and trust. It's not anymore, it's about facts. Public marriage ain't an article in People anymore, public Tait marriage is all her people going to Bruton, St Mary's church being booked for T McG and then a marriage certificate with both C and T named legally registered at GRO. Certificate of which several people got several different copies. So public marriage what? Married to S when and where?? Ibiza??

LOL you are so pathetic carrying tales VS actual data.