#defi projects 2023

[kumar-pradeep]

𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞-𝐔𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐞𝐅𝐢 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑

Embark on a journey of discovery as we delve into the future of decentralized finance (DeFi) with a spotlight on upcoming projects in 2023. Unveil the innovative landscape of DeFi advancements, explore groundbreaking solutions, and anticipate the transformative potential that these projects hold for the financial world. Get ready to explore the exciting possibilities that lie ahead.

𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨: https://coincred.org/blog-detail/top-7-defi-projects-to-invest-in-2023

[bits-and-pieces-of]

She’s his sidekick, he’s her dad, she’s his mentor, he’s her best friend. They’ve known each other for a few days, they’ve spent their whole lives looking for each other, he sees her, she understands him, they’re flawed, they’re perfect, they don’t need anyone, but it’s the two of them choosing each other against the world that betrayed them.

[atiny-for-life]

Creative Spotlight #1: Kim Hongjoong

Masterlist

Intro: With so many new Atinys coming in, I figured now would be a good time to shed some light on all the boys' creative solo projects over the years, big and small.

Photography

Hongjoong's love for photography goes way back to his predebut days. In one of the first videos ever uploaded to their channel, you can already see him holding a camera on the set of Pirate King.

2 years ago, in 2022, he got to announce his first photo exhibition, FROM NOVEMBER 7, 1998, as a birthday present to himself, which took place from November 1st to 7th at gallery99 and was used to collect money for charity.

There was no entrance fee but spots had to be reserved online to ensure there'd be no dangerous crowding. During the exhibition, there was a little event planned for all attendees in which fans could collect points which were then converted to money that was later donated under Hongjoong and Atiny's name. The total donated amount was 10 million won!

In Logbook Episode 101, we got to see Hongjoong visit the exhibition himself and take a stroll through memory lane.

Due to the success of the 2022 exhibition, Hongjoong held another one last year which took place between November 3rd and 9th, 2023, and was titled A Walker - the event was accompanied by the release of an original song and led to the donation of 50 million won under Hongjoong's and Atiny's name to the Korea Childhood Leukemia Foundation.

BY. HONGJOONG

Back in 2018, Hongjoong shared during their stay in LA as KQ Fellaz, that he barely went to school since he already started producing music during his high school days. And yes, this is during the same tear jerking monologue where he calls Ateez his family for the first time and says he needs to hurry so he can see their sleeping faces before he goes to bed.

The first time we get to see Hongjoong fully in action as a producer is during his first 1-Day-Vlog in 2020 in which he's working on his Prince cover (more on that in a second).

But now to the main event: Hongjoong has an entire series going where he covers some of his all time favorite songs. Whenever he does, he likes to make the songs his own by recording his own instrumental track and typically adding an additional Korean rap verse with self-written lyrics highlighting his interpretation of the song's message.

Kicking things off with Space Oddity by David Bowie, a classic.

Side Note: As a lover of unisex clothing/androgyny, Hongjoong is likely not just inspired musically by Bowie, but also fashion wise. You can learn more about Bowie's influence on the climate surrounding gender and sexuality here.

Dressed in white, matching both his hair and the background, Hongjoong turned himself into a clean canvas on which he projected first footage of Bowie and later some floating orbs - it's very aesthetic.

Between the original verses and chorus, he placed a Korean rap verse in which he writes from Major Tom's perspective and laments his mental state while stuck alone in outer space, asking ground control to tell his mom he loves her while stating he still appreciates the beauty of space but feels lost and lonely all by himself.

Next up, we've got Purple Rain by Prince, another classic.

Side Note: Like Bowie, Prince too was famous for being androgynous in how he presented himself and toying with what society deemed masculine and feminine. He's famous to this day among the queer community for how persistently he defied gender norms and labels. Learn more about him here.

Instead of filming himself, we get a lyric video this time, fully kept in pastel lavender. Once again, Hongjoong added a rap verse of his own in which he speaks to a lost friend, talking about how he hopes that, even though they're apart now, his friend will still recall him as being sincere and that they can still think of each other fondly and remember the good times.

In a far more elaborate production, we've got Black or White by Michael Jackson up next.

Using green screen and multiple outfits, we get a fun spectacle of a little passion project featuring multiple versions of Hongjoong, background collages, emojis, and more:

Despite being shorter than the other covers, we still get the signature rap verse preceded by his famous giggle and, this time, he's got quite a bit to say.

Diving into the lyrics, he talks about how we're all different colors. Colors which are meant to be mixed. Our roots don't define us. Throughout life, we'll all get mixed up with each other, as we should. He doesn't want to see us divided. To quote: "What's wrong with you, babe? Stop it. You've already experienced the 20th century. Blah blah by dividing groups."

The song ends with the rap verse before the video dives into the making of in which Hongjoong specifically addresses his intent to talk about social issues like Michael Jackson famously used to while he was alive (think: They Don't Really Care About Us).

So long time by Yoon Jong Shin comes next with a sepia-toned video featuring Hongjoong at a grand piano. It's a pretty ballad highlighting his vocals and the use of multiple camera angles allows us to watch him play.

Shortly before we hit the 2 minute mark, Hongjoong gets up and we transition from the shot of the piano to a cassette player while the audio shifts to the original for a moment before Hongjoong returns.

We've reached the rap verse where he mourns a lost love, speaking of memories he can't let go of, even as he pretends everything is okay. He's cold and lonely now, a little mad at himself for continuously getting lost in the memories, and calls himself a fool before we return to the cover-part of the song.

At 3:58, the song wraps up and we've reached the making of section of the video where he talks about how his cover stems from the idea of a time machine taking you through the song, with the first verse (playing the piano) being the past, the rap verse symbolizing the present, and the memories then taking back over as he gets lost in them, leading to the piano's return.

Next up, we've got Last Christmas by Wham! which opens to a short clip of Hongjoong's acting on a pretty Christmas film set before we transition to a simple white back drop.

This time, the signature rap verse comes in early at 50 seconds with a little giggle before he talks about leaving the past in the past and moving on, letting the snow settle over painful memories.

However, this time, we also get a second rap verse at 1:45, where it becomes clear he hasn't moved on at all, plus a Korean vocal section at 2:43 which carries through to the end. Here, he highlights even further that he hopes they'll reconnect next winter so they can leave the painful past behind and live out a shared future.

Hongjoong in his emo era. This is the first Ateez-related video I've ever seen because I was born in '96 and my emo phase never ended so of course this was recommended to me when it was first released.

Numb by Linkin Park got the full Hongjoong treatment and was even reported on by Rolling Stone, quote:

The cover began trending on social media and YouTube within hours of its release, but the true prize came a day later when it caught the attention of Linkin Park themselves. The rock band’s official Twitter account ‘liked’ the post on ATEEZ’s page, with co-founder and vocalist Mike Shinoda confirming on a livestream that he’d seen and enjoyed the cover. As of this writing, Hongjoong’s version of “Numb” has over half a million views on YouTube and has garnered tremendous praise from Linkin Park’s fans.

We get the black eye makeup and nail polish, the plaid half skirt, the dramatic music video with fake fog and red lighting. The rap verse comes in hard, talking about getting mentally weighed down by an abuser and finally breaking free, cutting the ties.

As a long time Linkin Park fan, I love how unique this cover is and Chester would've loved it too I'm sure. I wish he could've seen it.

Fools Garden's Lemon Tree is another classic and I come back to it on the regular because the video has such a unique vibe and the song is famous for getting stuck in your head.

The video features Hongjoong alone in a house surrounded by colorful toys and games, bored out of his mind and visibly seeking a distraction from life but failing to find something, no matter how out of pocket his thinking gets.

Shoutout to the license plate - it's the release date of the song, November 3rd, 1995.

At 1:33, Hongjoong sprints off to the basement which is doused in red and we get a warped version of his signature giggle before the rap verse kicks in. The camera work in this section reminds me a bit of his rap verse in Not Okay.

While down there, he gets more and more deranged, talking about being locked up day by day, imprisoned, losing track of time, but being unable to break out. Instead of trying to escape, he just attempts to distract himself, listening to sad songs on a loop until his pain disappears and his world switches back to yellow.

Busking Event

In 2021, Hongjoong decided to put together a busking event featuring live performances of some covers, plus acoustic versions of some of their songs. Accompanying him were both Ateez and Maddox. You can find the full playlist here:

Collaboration

3 months ago, Chungha made a return to the music scene after escaping her former label and chose Hongjoong as a collaboration partner for her new debut. Beyond his rap verse, she also incorporated a move from Crazy Form in the choreography (she's lovely):

[gffa]

It's been a month since I last did an update on where I am with The High Republic and it's slow going because I don't have a whole lot of on-line time lately (clean-up week is coming orz) and I like to read/listen to the books while I'm on-line, but I think I can still make it before The Acolyte comes out! MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE I:

The High Republic: Light of the Jedi

The High Republic: A Test of Courage

The High Republic: Into the Dark

The High Republic: The Rising Storm

The High Republic: Race To Crashpoint Tower

The High Republic: Out Of The Shadows

The High Republic: Mission to Disaster

The High Republic: The Fallen Star

The High Republic: Midnight Horizon

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: Path of Deceit

The High Republic: Convergence

The High Republic: Quest for the Hidden City

The High Republic: Cataclysm

The High Republic: Quest for Planet X

The High Republic: Path of Vengeance

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness

The High Republic: Escape from Valo

The High Republic: Defy The Storm

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE I:

The High Republic (2021) - 15 issues

The High Republic Adventures (2021) - 13 issues

The High Republic: The Monster of Temple Peak - 4 issues

The High Republic: The Edge Of Balance - 2 manga volumes

The High Republic: Trail of Shadows - 5 issues

The High Republic: Eye of the Storm - 2 issues

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: The Blade - 4 issues

The High Republic (2022) - 10 issues

The High Republic Adventures (2022) - 8 issues

The High Republic: Edge of Balance: Precedent - 1 manga volume

The High Republic Adventures: The Nameless Terror - 4 issues

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: Shadows of Starlight - 4 issues

The High Republic (2023) - 6 issues [ONGOING]

The High Republic Adventures (2023) - 5 issues [ONGOING]

The High Republic - Saber for Hire (2023) - 1 issue [ONGOING]

MAIN STORYLINE AUDIODRAMAS - PHASE I:

The High Republic: Tempest Runner

MAIN STORYLINE AUDIODRAMAS - PHASE II:

The High Republic: The Battle of Jedha

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE I:

Star Wars Adventures (2020) #6 - “The Gaze Electric”

The High Republic Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2021

The High Republic Adventures Annual 2021

The High Republic Adventures: Galactic Bake-Off Spectacular

Star Wars Adventures (2020) #14 - “A Very Nihil Interlude”

The High Republic Adventures: Free Comic Book Day 2023

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE II:

The High Republic Adventures: Quest of the Jedi

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE III:

The High Republic Adventures: Crash Landing

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - PHASE I:

Star Wars: The High Republic: Starlight Stories

Life Day Treasury

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - PHASE II:

Star Wars Insider: The High Republic: Tales of Enlightenment

ANTHOLOGY NOVELS - ALL PHASES:

The High Republic: Tales of Light and Life

EVERYTHING ELSE:

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - 25 episodes

Currently I am also 3/4ths of the way through Convergence (which I am enjoying very much, Path of Deceit is probably still my favorite of Phase II, but I think this one might be my second favorite, Lydia Kang's writing is really working for me here), halfway through Starlight Stories, and on episode 18 of Young Jedi Adventures. All of it continues to be fun and I'm still impressed by the sheer number of moving parts that feel like they all fit well together and there are few individual moments that I feel the need to yell about, but what I think I would recommend this project for most is that feeling of a large scope story that's told throughout so many mediums and gives a sense of satisfaction for it. I don't approach The High Republic in the same way I necessarily do the originals or the prequels, I'm not personally really into it for fanworks (though, some of the fanart really scratches a nice itch) or a ton of meta (I tend to have prequels brain so my meta does get filtered through the lens of 'how does this parallel the prequels'), instead it's more of a story to experience. A really, really big story with a ton of characters that come and go and some really beautiful art to go along with it. I have affection for it and I could see it being a fanworks kind of jam for others, but I think it's also okay if you want to get into it just for the experience of a fun Star Wars spinoff series, however you approach THR is fine! So, speaking of, how's everyone else's progress going? Have some of you picked it up recently? Made progress? Still in Phase I or are you caught up to Phase III? (Honestly, I think my favorite so far was Phase II, I feel like the world had settled into what it wanted to be and I liked the characters a lot in it, which makes me very curious how Phase III is going to go, now that they've had two phases to get their feet under them.)

[gunsatthaphan]

~ Monthly BL Breakdown: December 2023 ~ 

🎆 Happy 2024!!! 🍾

Disclaimer: ALL shows can be streamed here or here, as well as on Youtube and other platforms. For more info on where to watch what, check out this post! 

New breakdowns are coming at the end of every month - feel free to add stuff! -> previous breakdowns

What came out this month? (green = seen/currently watching)

🌟 You're My Star (Christmas Special) - December 4th (Philippines)

🌟 Bagan Beginning - December 5th (Myanmar)

🌟 Chains of Heart: The Movie - December 7th (Thailand)

🌟 Cherry Magic Thailand - December 9th (Thailand) ✅

🌟 It's Complicated - December 14th (Thailand) 

🌟 Dear Kitakyushu - December 14th (Thailand) 

🌟 Colorful Melody - December 16th (Thailand) 

🌟 Night Dream - December 16th (Thailand)

🌟 DMD Friendship (reality show) - December 17th (Thailand)

🌟 Scent of Memory (I Feel You Linger in the Air Special Episode) - December 17th (Thailand)

🌟 Dead Friend Forever - December 23rd (Thailand) 

🌟 I Became the Lead in a BL Drama - December 24th (Japan)

🌟 Mr. Nice Guy & the Lonely Man - December 25th (Thailand)

🌟 Love on Lo - December 26th (Thailand)

🌟 You and My Stars - December 30th (Thailand)

Monthly likes/dislikes

❣️ Cherry Magic - It's cute so far, this is the first adaption where I've actually seen the original and I'm pleasantly surprised. The plot is familiar but they're adding things to it which is nice. It's extended and more explorative compared to the OG but in an endearing way. TayNew do the roles justice, I couldn't imagine a better fit tbh. And even Mark and Junior make the side couple likable who I really did not like in the original lol. Thumbs up so far 🫶🏻

New series & movie announcements

🎥 Knock Out (produced by Dee Hup) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 First Time Love - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Perfect Propose - Coming February 2024 (Japan)

🎥 The Fridge - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Caged Again - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 Likay The Series/Let Me Into Your Heart (novel adaption) - Date TBA (Thailand)

🎥 The Only One - Date TBA (Taiwan)

Other news from the BL world

❗️ GMMTV's upcoming BL We Are has started filming. The show will be directed by New Siwaj and stars PondPhuwin, WinnySatang, AouBoom, MarcPawin and more. It is thus the first production from the 2024 lineup to go into production. Aside from that, many other upcoming BLs have started filming including The Trainee, Only Boo and Wandee Goodday.

❗️This year's Y Universe Awards were held on December 11th. The following BL actors & productions won:

Cutie Pie 2 You - Best Series

Moonlight Chicken - Best Series Script

Aof N. - Best Director (MLC)

Gemini N. - Best Supporting Actor (MLC)

Khaotung T. - Best Supporting Actor (MLC)

Fourth N. - Best Leading Actor (MSP)

ZeeNunew - Best Couple

I Feel You Linger in the Air - Best Series Soundtrack, Best Production

Laws of Attraction - Best Social Reflection

❗️The Japanese BL The Man Who Defies The World of BL is getting a third season to air in 2024. Further details are unknown.

❗️After further copyright issues, the Thai remake of the Japanese BL Cherry Magic had to be removed from youtube and will no longer be aired on the site. The show will continue to only be available nationally on VIU. Viewers with a VPN can still access the site, other streaming options are KissKH, Dramacool and KissAsian.

❗️The streaming platform WeTV announced a new original BL titled Caged Again which tells the love story between a penguin and a panther. Both animals transform into humans while travelling between universes and fall in love. The show is set to air in 2024, the cast is unknown.

❗️The Thai BL production company Domundi announced their upcoming project The Next Prince to release its pilot trailer in the first quarter of 2024. The show stars ZeeNunew and others and has a historical theme. Filming will likely begin later this year.

Upcoming series & movies for January

👉🏻 BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita: Crank In Hen - January 2nd (Japan)

👉🏻 Ossan's Love Returns - January 5th (Japan)

👉🏻 Refund Love - January 7th (Thailand)

👉🏻 Time The Series - January 9th (Thailand)

👉🏻 Intern in My Heart (BL side couple) - January 10th (Thailand) 

👉🏻 Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka - January 11th (Japan)

👉🏻 I Wish You Love - January 21st (Thailand)

👉🏻 Beside You (mini series) - January TBA (Thailand)

👉🏻 Love for Love's Sake - January TBA (South Korea)

[srbachchan]

DAY 5717

Jalsa, Mumbai Oct 12, 2023 Thu 11:35 PM

The World of Cinema is bestowed with numerous tides in the realm of imagination .. one imagination gets added each day to a think and thought that is in itself an entire Universe .. a Universe that goes beyond the belief of reality and substantiality .. yet gives ample reason and visual in its presentation and writing and in a perform that enables appreciation .. or not at times ..

The beauty remains the same .. the visions keep changing ..

Life relives in that hemisphere , a hemisphere that defies the realm that space exists in .. stars , planets, black holes, galaxies and all ..

And the wonder and unanswered questions shall exist despite all that is being discovered in its landings and sitings and telescopic manifestations .. not to forget the confirmed sitings of supposed UFO's by Flight operative Captains on aircraft .. a vision they are unable to fathom or decipher ..

And forever the talk that emanates is , ' we are not alone '

Really .. ?

Forget the UFO .. philosophically the adage is mentioned in so many of our normal chatter .. a person of the near and dear in the mode of a depression or in the event of a sad occurrence .. the oft repeated is to give strength to the sufferer , or the person subjected to a sadness .. and a reassurance is projected .. 'you are not alone' .. it momentarily uplifts the situation of the moment , giving the person the feel of , that there are others that grieve with you and ready to be with you, behind you ..

The question then to the matter of space ..

Will SPACE in matters of turmoil be with us behind us , or subject us to greater mourning .. ??

.. and while the rest of the Ef battle this one out .. there is another from another World ready to battle it out ..

My love and affection , yet again for all that has been done in these last few days for the birth of this Blogmaestra .. and there is also the regret to express that the many that were willed to meet and give greetings were all disappointed because there was not enough time or medical consideration to accomplish it ..

And 🤣 .. haha .. many in the Ef would be sitting around the premises in similar conditions and be saying to the other :

YOU ARE NOT ALONE ..

we have not been met either ..

🤣

Love and more ..

Amitabh Bachchan

[steddiebang]

Steddie Bigbang 2023 Weekly Round-up: October 1 - October 7

From Hell and Back (October 1) Author: @rindecisions / Artists | @lady-lostmind & @feralsteddie One Halloween, years after the fall of Hawkins, Steve and Robin end up summoning Eddie from the depths of Hell. Steve, not knowing the ways of the occult, accidentally frees him and has to deal with a mischievous demon on the loose. Eddie drives Steve insane with various shapeshifting antics, both in and out of the bedroom, while Robin tries to find a way to send him back to hell. But, when faced with the opportunity to return his life to normal, will Steve even want to go through with it?

OR

Lots of supernatural, hentai-esque smut with a playful, romantic plot.

Steddie’s Anatomy (October 1) Author: uhhhhjhfrogs on tumblr, tttrash666 on A03 / Artist: BrainyArts on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Tumblr Steve was not going to leave Eddie to die in the Upside Down, no fucking way. He didn’t know what compelled him to give every last ounce of strength to rescue him but being confined to a hospital room together was about to make him figure it out.

Made of Light (October 3) Author: @hitlikehammers / Artist: @becomingfoxes​ Soulmates are anything but de rigueur in polite society—more like foolish nonsense, fairytale child’s play: embarrassments. Inconvenient, at best. But the people who have them, and still seek them out; who believe despite the odds, who still commit to finding them and binding their souls to them despite the naysaying and the backlash? Those people know the truth.

Because Soulmates? Don’t force love. Aren’t bound without choice. Are built instead on pure potential, of proportions never fathomed—and certainly never found—outside those so-called ‘old fashioned’ Bonds. They are the potential to protect love. To save love. To save the lives that kind of ineffable love holds more than just dear; the kind it holds as essential. Some people even say Soulbonds can almost change the whole world, defy the laws of physics and nature, but then—even among the believers: those stories are relegated to legend. At best. And so: this is the story of two boys from Indiana who—dodging dangers and demons and near-death experiences—wind up in a love never seen before, somehow writing out the kind of legend no one ever dared to dream.

(You got me) in the palm of your hand (October 4) Author: just-my-latest-hyperfixation (tumblr) / just_my_latest_hyperfixation (AO3) / Artists: xgumiho (tumblr) / xgumiho (instagram) / jul2ja (twitter), peachypurr (tumblr) / peachypurr (linktree) “Fortunes told, futures unfold.”

The sign at the local ren faire looks tempting. After all, Steve is one year out of high school and has no idea where his life is going. Sometimes he wishes someone could just gaze into the future and figure it out for him. 

In the fortune teller’s tent, Steve has a run-in with his past. And if he doesn’t turn on his heel and leave, it has absolutely nothing to do with how pretty Eddie Munson looks in his costume, all gleaming jewelry and dark tendrils of hair spilling out from under a patterned headscarf. He lets Eddie read his palm, because why the hell not? It’s all bogus anyway! 

Except, as the summer goes on, Steve finds that Eddie’s cryptic predictions somehow, inexplicably keep coming true. As they keep running into each other, almost as if orchestrated by an invisible force, Steve can’t help but be intrigued with the other boy. He also can’t seem to forget how pretty Eddie’s eyes look in black liner, or the way his fingers feel on his skin, but that is an entirely different problem. 

11 upcoming projects to be posted next week (Oct 8 - 14).

*To keep up with all the Steddie Bigbang 2023 posting, be sure to follow us @steddiebang or track tags like #steddiebang23, #steddiebang23 masterposts, #steddiebang23 project promo, and #steddiebang23 upcoming projects.

[lavendershowcase]

Queer Hispanic Stories for Hispanic Heritage Month

Summaries and notes under cut

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

Juliet Milagros Palante is leaving the Bronx and headed to Portland, Oregon. She just came out to her family and isn’t sure if her mom will ever speak to her again. But Juliet has a plan, sort of, one that’s going to help her figure out this whole “Puerto Rican lesbian” thing. She’s interning with the author of her favorite book: Harlowe Brisbane, the ultimate authority on feminism, women’s bodies, and other gay-sounding stuff. Will Juliet be able to figure out her life over the course of one magical summer? Is that even possible? Or is she running away from all the problems that seem too big to handle? With more questions than answers, Juliet takes on Portland, Harlowe, and most importantly, herself.

Winner of 2017 Silver IPPY Award for best LGBTQ Fiction, selected by the ALA for the Amelia Bloomer List in 2017

The Prince and the Coyote by David Bowles, illustrated by Amanda Mijangos*

Fifteen-year old crown prince Acolmiztli wants nothing more than to see his city-state of Tetzcoco thrive. A singer, poet, and burgeoning philosophical mind, he has big plans about infrastructure projects and cultural initiatives that will bring honor to his family and help his people flourish. But the two sides of his family, the kingdoms of Mexico and Acolhuacan, have been at war his entire life – after his father risked the wrath of the Tepanec emperor to win his mother’s love. When a power struggle leaves his father dead and his mother and siblings in exile, Acolmiztli must run for his life, seeking refuge in the wilderness. After a coyote helps him find his way in the wild, he takes on a new name – Nezahualcoyotl, or “fasting coyote” (“Neza” for short). Biding his time until he can form new alliances and reconnect with his family, Neza goes undercover, and falls in love with a commoner girl, Sekalli. Can Neza survive his plotting uncles’ scheme to wipe out his line for good? Will the empire he dreams of in Tetzcoco ever come to life? And is he willing to risk the lives of those he loves in the process? This action-packed tale blends prose and poetry – including translations of surviving poems by Nezahualcoytl himself, translated from classical Nahuatl by the author. And the book is packed with queer rep: queer love stories, and a thoughtful exploration of pre-columbian understandings of gender that defy the contemporary Western gender binary.

Pura Belpré honoree, Kirkus Best of the Year, Bookpage top 10 Book of 2023

*Personally recommended by me

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

It’s 1980 in New York City, and nowhere is the city’s glamour and energy better reflected than in the burgeoning Harlem ball scene, where seventeen-year-old Angel first comes into her own. Burned by her traumatic past, Angel is new to the drag world, new to ball culture, and has a yearning inside of her to help create family for those without. When she falls in love with Hector, a beautiful young man who dreams of becoming a professional dancer, the two decide to form the House of Xtravaganza, the first-ever all-Latino house in the Harlem ball circuit. But when Hector dies of AIDS-related complications, Angel must bear the responsibility of tending to their house alone. As mother of the house, Angel recruits Venus, a whip-fast trans girl who dreams of finding a rich man to take care of her; Juanito, a quiet boy who loves fabrics and design; and Daniel, a butch queen who accidentally saves Venus’s life. The Xtravaganzas must learn to navigate sex work, addiction, and persistent abuse, leaning on each other as bulwarks against a world that resists them. All are ambitious, resilient, and determined to control their own fates, even as they hurtle toward devastating consequences. 

Born Both: An Intersex Life by Hida Viloria

My name is Hida Viloria. I was raised as a girl but discovered at a young age that my body looked different. Having endured an often turbulent home life as a kid, there were many times when I felt scared and alone, especially given my attraction to girls. But unlike most people in the first world who are born intersex–meaning they have genitals, reproductive organs, hormones, and/or chromosomal patterns that do not fit standard definitions of male or female–I grew up in the body I was born with because my parents did not have my sex characteristics surgically altered at birth. It wasn’t until I was twenty-six and encountered the term intersex in a San Francisco newspaper that I finally had a name for my difference. That’s when I began to explore what it means to live in the space between genders–to be both and neither. I tried living as a feminine woman, an androgynous person, and even for a brief period of time as a man. Good friends would not recognize me, and gay men would hit on me. My gender fluidity was exciting, and in many ways freeing–but it could also be isolating. I had to know if there were other intersex people like me, but when I finally found an intersex community to connect with I was shocked, and then deeply upset, to learn that most of the people I met had been scarred, both physically and psychologically, by infant surgeries and hormone treatments meant to “correct” their bodies. Realizing that the invisibility of intersex people in society facilitated these practices, I made it my mission to bring an end to it–and became one of the first people to voluntarily come out as intersex at a national and then international level. Born Both is the story of my lifelong journey toward finding love and embracing my authentic identity in a world that insists on categorizing people into either/or, and of my decades-long fight for human rights and equality for intersex people everywhere.

Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband’s entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store’s prom dresses. One woman’s surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella “Especially Heinous,” Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show we naively assumed had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgängers, ghosts, and girls-with-bells-for-eyes.

Finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction, Winner of the National Book Critics Circle's 2017 John Leonard Prize, Winner of the 2017 Bard Fiction Prize, Finalist for the 2017 Kirkus Prize, Finalist for the 2017 PEN/Robert Bingham Award

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Unlocking the secrets of the first quasars: how they defy the laws of physics to grow

In the article published today in the Astronomy & Astrophysics journal, new evidence suggests how supermassive black holes, with masses of several billion times that of our Sun, formed so rapidly in less than a billion years after the Big Bang. The study, led by researchers of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), analyses a sample of 21 quasars, among the most distant ever discovered, observed in the X-rays band by the XMM-Newton and Chandra space telescopes. The results suggest that the supermassive black holes at the centre of these titanic quasars, the first formed during the cosmic dawn, may have reached their extraordinary masses through very rapid and intense accretion, thus providing a plausible explanation for their existence in the early stages of the Universe.

Quasars are active galaxies powered by the central supermassive black holes (known as active galactic nuclei), which emit an enormous amount of energy as they attract matter. They are extremely luminous and distant from us. In particular, the quasars examined in this study are among the most distant objects ever observed, dating back to a time when the Universe was less than a billion years old.

In this work, the analysis of X-ray emissions from these objects revealed an entirely unexpected behaviour of the supermassive black holes at their centres: a connection emerged between the shape of the X-ray emission and the speed of the winds of matter ejected by the quasars. This relationship links the wind speed, which can reach thousands of kilometres per second, to the temperature of the gas in the corona, the region that emits X-rays closest to the black hole. Thus, the corona turned out to be connected to the powerful accretion mechanisms of the black hole itself. Quasars with low-energy X-ray emission, and thus a lower temperature in the corona, show faster winds. This indicates a highly rapid growth phase that exceeds a physical limit for the accretion of matter called the Eddington limit, which is why this phase is called "super-Eddington." Conversely, quasars with higher-energy X-ray emissions tend to exhibit slower winds.

"Our work suggests that the supermassive black holes at the centre of the first quasars formed within the first billion years of the Universe's life may have actually increased their mass very rapidly, challenging the limits of physics," says Alessia Tortosa, lead author of the study and researcher at INAF in Rome. "The discovery of this connection between X-ray emission and winds is crucial for understanding how such large black holes could have formed in such a short time, thus providing a concrete clue to solve one of the greatest mysteries of modern astrophysics."

The result was achieved mainly by analysing data collected with the XMM-Newton space telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA), which allowed for approximately 700 hours of observations of the quasars. Most of the data, collected between 2021 and 2023 as part of the Multi-Year XMM-Newton Heritage Programme, under the direction of Luca Zappacosta, a researcher at INAF in Rome, is part of the HYPERION project, which aims at studying hyperluminous quasars during the cosmic dawn of the Universe. The extensive observation campaign was led by a team of Italian scientists and received crucial support from INAF, which funded the program, thereby supporting cutting-edge research on the evolutionary dynamics of the early structures of the Universe.

"In the HYPERION program, we focused on two key factors: on one hand, the careful selection of quasars to observe, choosing the titans, meaning those that had accumulated as much mass as possible, and on the other hand, the in-depth study of their properties in X-rays, something never attempted before on such a large number of objects from the cosmic dawn," says Luca Zappacosta, a researcher at INAF in Rome. We hit the jackpot! The results we're getting are genuinely unexpected, and they all point to a super-Eddington growth mechanism of the black holes."

This study provides important insights for future X-ray missions, such as ATHENA (ESA), AXIS, and Lynx (NASA), which are scheduled for launch between 2030 and 2040. In fact, the results obtained will be useful for refining the next-generation observational instruments and for defining better strategies for investigating black holes and active galactic nuclei in X-rays at more distant cosmic epochs. These are key elements for understanding the formation of the first galactic structures in the primordial Universe.

IMAGE: AI-generated representation of an accreting supermassive black hole, surrounded by gas spiralling toward it along the equatorial plane (the accretion disk) and emitting powerful winds of matter as it falls in. This representation is based on a NASA's artist's concept that illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. Credits: Emanuela Tortosa

[dominimoonbeam]

Goodbye 2023!

This year feels like it's been long and somehow gone by in a flash. The last handful of months were stressful as hell but I'm settled in the new apartment and finding my new rhythm. I'm really looking forward to 2024!

So, what the hell did I do in 2023?

I wrote over 200k in fanfics.

I started Bite to Bruise and Don't Run over on the patreon.

I published Stargazing Underground, another sci-fi romance in my growing universe.

Jouska recorded some of my audioscripts! The sci-fi story and the halloween special.

I published a short steamy story, Ruby and the Wolf, in the same universe as Bite to Bruise aka the House of Teeth Series.

I finished and edited Don't Touch My Stuff (which I should have out early next year).

I outlined so many more projects...

Character art commissioned from the amazing @slushrottweiler

What am I planning to do in 2024?

Catch up on everything I've been behind on the last couple months.

More fanfics.

More audioscripts! And finding a way to put some of them out here for artists to record if they want to.

Finish and published Bite to Bruise.

Publish Don't Touch My Stuff (contemporary romance).

Finish the Cosmic and Stardust audioscript series.

Finish turning the Cosmic and Stardust script into a book (same universe as my other sci-fi stories, Defying Gravity Series).

Write more sci-fi romances. I have two more outlined and waiting.

Start Bite to Break after finishing Bite to Bruise.

Finish Don't Run. Oh god, the ending I have planned for that thing...

Start Don't Fall after finishing Don't Run. <3

Hope you have a great New Year! <3 <3 <3

[kumar-pradeep]

The DeFi Projects That Could Make You Rich in 2023

Discover the potential for wealth in 2023 with the best DeFi projects to invest in. Uncover a world of decentralized finance innovations that could propel your financial success. From lending platforms to yield farming protocols, these carefully selected DeFi projects offer promising opportunities. Stay ahead of the curve and explore projects with transformative potential in the ever-evolving DeFi landscape. With cutting-edge technology and a focus on user empowerment, these projects aim to revolutionize traditional finance. Embrace the future of wealth creation and dive into the exciting world of DeFi projects that could make you rich in 2023.

[thiswasinevitable-rwrb]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Red White & Royal Blue (2023), Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor Characters: Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Alex Claremont-Diaz, June Claremont-Diaz, Nora Holleran, Beatrice Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Percy "Pez" Okonjo, Zahra Bankston, Shaan Srivastava Additional Tags: Hades (Video Game) Canon-Typical Temporary Death, Alternate Universe - Hades (Video Game), References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Alex is Prince of the Underworld, Henry is an Olympian, Loss of Parent(s), Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor Needs a Hug, Protective Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Alex Claremont-Diaz Loves Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Protective Alex Claremont-Diaz, Bisexual Disaster Alex Claremont-Diaz, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Explicit Sexual Content, Slow Burn Summary:

Henry is a prince of the Olympians. He has had everything bestowed upon him since his birth. And yet, none of it mattered when the light of his father's soul went out.

Alexander is the First Shade of the Underworld. Prince of the dark realm and...the perfect person to help Henry along his many - many - journeys into the Underworld to find his father.

That is, if they can stand each other long enough to cooperate.

[dramione-fanfiction-forum]

𝙳𝚎𝚏𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛 𝙳𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚘 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚜

This year we’ve totaled 89,400+ words and counting across 14 stories - including four (4) works in progress with 26+ chapters to be released - and an art submission (!!). These Deflower Draco submissions are sure to spice up your week!

🌸 Read the collection here: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/DeflowerDraco2023

🌻💐🌹🌺🌸🌼🌷

🌸 As The Full Moon Rises - KiraAnn (Know_It_All_2008)

At the height of the full moon's power, they're desperate to get a leg up on Lord Voldemort. The ritual should give them just that.

🌸 a cure I know that soothes the soul, does so impossibly - @king-geets [ART]

OT3 shenanigans 😈

🌸 Broken Arrow - Fictionismyescape [@justforme2023]

This wasn't the time, not when there was a war happening. But it might be the only chance they had.

🌸 Expect the Unexpected - @starboygrove

A humiliating moment at the beginning of Hermione's Eighth year at Hogwarts leads her to an unexpected scenario. Draco Malfoy, a reformed Death-Eater who she has become fast friends with, makes an impossible request. Hermione battles her feelings while helping Draco with his odd predicament.

🌸 F*** the Pain Away - @damsel-in-mistress

"Three things happened simultaneously: His left hand shot out to grasp the intruder’s wrist in a death grip, he realised who the intruder was, and the Stupefy died on his lips. Brown eyes open wide with surprise, brow furrowed, mouth ajar in a soft gasp, Hermione Granger stood before him." When Draco's world is misery and dread, Hermione happens upon him in Myrtle's bathroom. None of them could have forseen what this would lead to.

🌸 Growing Sideways - @inadaze22 [WIP - 1/20]

For years, Draco has been complacent. His career is on track, his future is arranged, and he's adapted to the darkness plaguing his restless nights. When paired with Hermione Granger on a top secret project, he begins to question if the comfort of familiarity is enough. As long nights dwindle and their connection grows, she shines a light on possibilities he's never imagined.

🌸 Last Nite - shaparecium [@dinkycharlie]

Draco is sentenced to five years in Azkaban. On his last night in freedom, Hermione Granger visits him and he confesses that he is still a virgin.  [Oneshot written for Deflower Draco Fest 2023]

🌸 Lessons from Professor Granger - JCOBryan1990

“You are drunk, sir.”  She laughed out as he continued to stumble forward, his hands clasped the frame; his face landing inches from hers. “I may drink a of had.” Laughing she gathered him closer into the room, “Really?  And what pray tell has you drinking so much on a Tuesday?  Testing the potions from your students again?”

🌸 Lovegood's Love Cure - Saberspooky [WIP - 3/6]

After being abruptly dumped by her boyfriend and abandoned by her best friend at the Hogwarts train platform, Hermione vows to make the most of her final year at Hogwarts. Luna Lovegood provides just the opportunity when she attempts to cure her friends' broken hearts by matching students up with their soulmates based on an extensive compatibility quiz, but everything goes awry when Hermione Granger is paired with the last person she would expect.

🌸 Magically Bound - @acanadianmuggle

Hermione has written a novel and in the magical world, a handbound copy without a spark of magic must be used as the master copy from which all duplicates are made. In a workshop in Wiltshire, she will find the artisan who will make her book and to who might bookbind them together.

🌸 Summer Skin - @echoofpromise

Her skin is warm and glowing beneath his touch as he glides his thumb across the rigid edge of her collarbone, and Draco thinks this is heaven. This is what God wanted for his children, for them to feel just as weightless and defying and cosmic as he feels in this moment thanks to Hermione Granger and her cinnamon tongue.

🌸 The Perks of Dark Magic - @o0sarena0o [WIP - 1/6]

Two decades after the war, Draco Malfoy is an innovative, renowned Grand Master Potioneer. His draughts are sought-after and often aid the DMLE with their most difficult cases. Hermione Granger, a highly acclaimed curse breaker for the Ministry of Magic, encounters a curse she's never seen before. Reluctantly, she approaches Draco Malfoy for assistance, not knowing that his profession's darkest secrets come with a life-changing price. Written for the DeflowerDraco2023 Fest 🌺.

🌸 The Promise Of A Parent - @kryskrosszee [WIP - 1/?]

After the death of his mother, Draco finds out that the Blacks and the Malfoys both had high hopes and great expectations for him - and now at the tender age of twenty-three he has only two years to find someone to help him produce the next Black heir or he will be punished, severely, for his failure.

🌸 virgin violets in bloom - @riddikuluspuff

Throughout their time at Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy had hidden away the fact that he was actually sexually inexperienced and was actually a massive virgin. Two of his closest and best friends, Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass, had helped him to spread rumours throughout the school that were the total opposite of who he truly was. They spread rumours around the school that Draco Malfoy was the most sexually experienced Slytherin they had ever been with and that he hasn’t actually been a virgin since late in their fifth year. But, once leaving school, the inexperience he truly had followed him and his unlucky strike with girls was running thin with his self-esteem. He hated it. However, one night, Draco drunkenly stumbled into Hermione Granger and she slowly informed him that she was willing to teach him everything he needed to know to pleasure women. Hermione Granger was fully prepared to deflower Draco Malfoy. A one-shot for the 2023 Deflower Draco Fic Fest

🌸 White Lilies, Sweet Peas and Hellebore - @ceilidhchaos

A Darker Language of Flowers Story For Deflower Draco Fest White Lilies mean purity and commitment Sweet Peas mean blissful pleasure Hellebore mean scandal

🌻💐🌹🌺🌸🌼🌷

🌸 Read the collection here: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/DeflowerDraco2023

[l4ndojpg]

Whumptober 2023, Day 1: "How many fingers am I holding up?"

fandom: criminal minds | characters: spencer reid (centric), derek morgan, emily prentiss, david rossi | ship: none | trigger warnings: none | content: case fic, concussion, team as a family | word count: 1.1k.

“It’s starting to get dark,” Spencer says, trying not to let the anxiety bubbling in his stomach leak into his words.

“No way,” Morgan says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “You really are a genius.” 

“Hey,” Spencer snaps, looking over at his friend. He’s leaning against a tree in a clearing in the woods they currently occupy, looking wrecked with tiredness. “I know you’re worn out, but don’t project your exhaustion onto me.” 

“Spence is right,” Emily says from where she sits on the filthy ground next to him, elbows propped against her knees. “Let’s just figure this out so that we can get out of here.” 

“Sorry kid,” Morgan sighs, and Spencer nods at him. 

“It’s fine. Just give me a few more minutes.” 

They’ve been hunting their unsub, John McClintock, for days now. The serial killer has been taking men that hike on their own in the woods the BAU has split up to comb, castrating them and dumping their bodies all over. It hasn’t been an easy or pleasant case by any stretch, but Emily, Derek and Spencer have made marginally more progress than the others tracking the unsub over the last few hours. 

Spencer inspects his surroundings carefully, squinting as it grows darker quicker than he would like. After another moment of tired silence, he gestures to the left of his colleagues. 

“I think we should go this way. The trees get thicker the further left we go, and we profiled he’d need cover.” 

It’s a stretch, but it’s something, and after hours out in the humid Arizona air, something is better than nothing. The trio starts along the left, getting deeper and deeper into thicker trees. Spencer lets the other two lead the way. He follows, nervousness spiking as the darkness begins to take over and the three agents pull out their flashlights. He jumps when Emily’s two-way radio buzzes suddenly. 

“Prentiss,” Hotch’s voice comes through crackly and broken, but they gather the next few words. “We’re at a dead end. It’s going to be too dark to search soon. Give it five more minutes then turn around.” 

“Yeah, okay,” Emily agrees. “We’ll-,” She stops dead, and Spencer bumps into her. 

“Sor-,” he’s about to apologize when he realizes why she and Morgan stopped so abruptly in the first place. 

Even through the darkness, Spencer can make out the run down cabin that stands in front of them. His hand automatically tightens around his gun, which he’s holding beneath his flashlight. 

“Good work kid,” Morgan breathes appreciatively. “You reckon this is it?” 

“Hotch,” Emily says. “We’ll hit you back. We might have something here.” 

“Send us your coordinates,” Hotch says, but his voice starts to fade and become harder to understand. “We’ll send backup and…” 

“Hotch?” Emily says after the voice fades completely, and then a red light shines for a second. 

The radio is dead. 

“Great,” she snaps, holstering the radio back on her belt. “Fucking fabulous.” 

“Look,” Morgan says, in the voice that means he’s about to defy orders. “There’s three of us, and one of him. He might not even be there. This might not even be his cabin. Who wants to take the odds?” 

“Well, the odds-,” 

“Spence,” Emily smiles at him wanly. “Let’s just do it.” 

Spencer sighs. “Fine,” he says. “But when Hotch asks, you better tell him that I didn’t agree to this.” 

Morgan chuckles. “Hotch is used to you making reckless decisions, pretty boy. I wouldn’t worry.” 

“I’ll take the back,” Emily says, and the other two agree silently. 

“Be careful,” Spencer says, and she nods before disappearing quietly behind the cabin. 

Spencer and Morgan advance carefully, guns at the ready with Morgan in the lead. They make their way silently up the wooden stairs, avoiding the holes in the weathered wood. Morgan raps sharply on the door. 

“FBI, open up!” 

When there’s no answer, he throws a grin over his shoulder at Spencer, who rolls his eyes. “Go on then,” Spencer says, and Morgan kicks in the door with glee. Morgan steps over the threshold first, and at first glance Spencer can see over his friend’s shoulder the house is dark and desolate. Morgan moves forward and Spencer steps forward too. 

He’s not taken no more than three steps further than the doorway when something collides with his skull with a sickening, dull, crack. 

Pain explodes in his head and stars dance across his vision. He drops to his knees with a groan as he hears a gunshot, and the next second, Morgan is by his side. 

“Reid!” 

“Mmm,” Spencer says, falling back onto his heels, brain foggy with pain. The thudding in his head spreads through his entire body in mere seconds, and the side of his face feels like it’s on fire. “Mmm,” Spencer tries again, but he can’t summon the strength to look anywhere other than the floor in front of him, which is spinning and multiplying before his very eyes, let alone answer his friend. 

“-is dead, I turned as soon as I heard Reid fall and shot him-,” 

“-tell the others we need medical-,” 

“-radio’s dead-,”

Emily’s voice joins Morgans, and they collide in a loud symphony that ricochets around his brain painfully. He shuts his eyes, trying to block out some of the pain. 

“No, Spencer,” Emily says, prodding his side gently, sounding worried. “Keep your eyes open.” 

He puts all his energy into opening his eyes to glare at her. Somehow, he’s lying down now, and there’s something soft under his head. When did he lie down? 

“Kid, how many fingers am I holding up?” Morgan asks, and his hand hovers in front of Spencer’s face. 

Spencer squints. “Three hands,” he mumbles. “You have three hands.” 

“Shit,” Morgan hisses, and Spencer gathers that was not the answer his friends were looking for. He makes to shut his eyes again. He’d really quite like a nap right about now.

“Reid!” Emily says again, and Spencer grimaces at how loud she’s being. Doesn’t she know it’s time to sleep? 

“Emily,” he groans, eyes still shut, trying to ignore the thudding in his head. “It’s bedtime. Shhh.” 

There’s a loud noise nearby, and Spencer brings his hands up to his face. Why’s everyone being so goddamn loud?! 

“Oh thank God,” Morgan says suddenly.

“It’s not bedtime yet, kiddo,” a new voice joins the group. Rossi. When did Rossi get here? 

Voices start to drop in and out of the conversation, and Spencer tries to inject his opinion, but everything hurts and his eyes are heavy and his face is starting to numb and honestly, he just wants to sleep. 

“Reid,” Morgan growls from somewhere to his right. “Open your eyes.” 

“Nnngshshf,” Spencer mutters something unintelligible and opens his eyes with a lot of effort. 

“That’s our genius,” Rossi says dryly, looking down at Spencer. “Don’t worry kid, only a few more minutes. Hotch and JJ are on the way with medical.” 

“Then sleep?” Spencer asks, his tongue feeling like it weighs a ton in his mouth. 

“Then sleep,” Emily confirms from his side, and he gives her a weak thumbs up.

[gffa]

THE HIGH REPUBLIC READING PROJECT UPDATE: Since I finished Phases I and II (aside from Young Jedi Adventures previously), in the interests of not having a mile long post, I'm just doing Phase III stuff now. I've also decided against including The Vow of Silver Dawn since I don't think there's an official English translation--though, I am reading the fan translation. (Slowly, I've been reading ORV when I do have time to read.) Look how close I am! I'm even an hour and half into Defy the Storm and I've started the Phase III comics and I'd guess I have about ten issues left in total to catch up on and I finished Young Jedi Adventures. I can totally do this over the next week and a half!

MAIN STORYLINE NOVELS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: The Eye of Darkness

The High Republic: Escape from Valo

The High Republic: Defy The Storm

MAIN STORYLINE COMICS - PHASE III:

The High Republic: Shadows of Starlight - 4 issues

The High Republic (2023) - 7 issues [ONGOING]

The High Republic Adventures (2023) - 5 issues [ONGOING]

The High Republic - Saber for Hire (2023) - 1 issue [ONGOING]

ONESHOT COMIC ISSUES - PHASE III:

The High Republic Adventures: Crash Landing

EVERYTHING ELSE:

Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures - 25 episodes + 6 shorts

I enjoyed Escape from Valo a lot more than I thought I would, Older's and Wong's books usually just aren't my jam, but when they got in a bunch of new characters, I found myself more intrigued this time around. Part of that is probably that Phase III feels a lot tighter and more impactful now that they've had time to really get in gear as an initiative, but also I think maybe it feels like Older and Wong are spreading the story around to more characters and ones that resonate better with me. A lot of it is that I feel like Older is a little too close to Ram's character and winds up making him feel like The Most Specialest Boy Ever, but putting him into smaller chunks made him go down a lot better for me and I found his struggle to connect with the Jedi younglings versus becoming attached to them (in the way the Jedi mean it/more Buddhist-aligned) worked well for me. I think the book still fits into the overall trend for me--mostly one of my lesser faves of the Phase, but with 2-3 absolutely BANGER scenes about Jedi philosophy that make it worth reading for. Now, on to Defy the Storm and I'm curious how this will go, I like both Ireland and Gratton's work, but I do get a little "...." at Ireland's writing for Avon, who I thought worked well enough in the first book but starts to feel like she's not allowed any real flaws because she's too special. I just want a little more variety with the heroes, to let them have some genuinely unlikeable moments to be relatable. (This is personal preference, I might feel different if these were established characters or I was more in the target range.) I also finished Young Jedi Adventures and I honestly enjoyed having it on in the background! It's very much aimed at a preschool audience, but it does so with charisma and charm radiating out of it in every scene. The voice acting is top notch, the animation is gorgeous, the character/setting designs are stunning, and I admit, I got a little invested in the characters over the time spent with them. To the point I'm kind of genuinely champing at the bit for a second season because I NEED Taborr resolution, YOU CANNOT END IT THERE??? I NEED TO KNOW HOW THIS TURNS OUT???? I NEED ANOTHER SEASON!!!! At least tell me that someone else is in the same hell that I'm in of wanting to see how that conflict plays out and getting weirdly invested in that little shit that just wants real friends. ;__;

[mariacallous]

Love it or hate it, you have to admit Temu had a banger year. Launched in late 2022, the Chinese-owned ecommerce site, known for selling a vast array of astonishingly affordable goods, took only two years to become a household name in the US. Over the past 12 months, it has topped download charts, surpassing other viral apps like ChatGPT and Threads, and now operates in dozens of countries around the world. Even its biggest rival, Amazon, recently introduced a Temu clone called Amazon Haul that closely resembles the original, both in terms of its logistics supply chain and user interface.

Temu is projected to earn more than $50 billion in total sales this year, according to analysts from AB Bernstein and Tech Buzz China, potentially tripling its 2023 figure. Temu’s website now gets nearly 700 million visits worldwide every month, and Apple recently revealed it was the most downloaded app of 2024 on iPhones in the US.

Temu has now fully replaced Wish, an earlier bargain online shopping site, in the cultural lexicon as the signifier of knockoffs or budget-friendly alternatives. The winner of the recent Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in New York City, for example, calls himself “Temu-thée Chalamet.” Tens of millions of ordinary people have tried out the app, many of whom learned about it through one of Temu’s seemingly unavoidable and relentless advertising campaigns. At this point, your grandma is probably obsessed with Temu, too.

“My friends and family members who didn't know what it was in 2023 do now,” says Moira Weigel, an assistant professor at Harvard University who studies transnational online marketplaces. “Random relatives who know that I study China or ecommerce will say, ‘Oh, you must know all about Temu,’ in a way that didn’t happen a year ago.”

Weigel says that Temu has done a few things right, including identifying the correct suppliers in China, targeting appropriate customer segments, and finding an inexpensive way to ship products from one to the other. That allowed the shopping platform to defy early analyst predictions that it would quickly burn through its cash reserves and flame out.

Temu, which is owned by PDD, one of the biggest ecommerce giants in China, is moving and pivoting at a speed that its Western counterparts can’t really grasp, says Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder of the ecommerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse. “When you look at a company like Temu, it's going a thousand miles an hour,” he says.

Kaziukėnas believes the most important thing Temu did this year was quickly switch its focus away from shipping small packages through air cargo and start building local inventory supply chains in the US and other countries. “This year, it started with 100 percent of goods coming from China; now in the US, 50 percent of them are coming from local warehouses. For Western marketplaces, these types of changes would have taken years,” Kaziukėnas says.

Still, Temu does not have a shortage of looming challenges. In the US, the Biden administration is eager to dismantle a tariff exemption rule that critics say unfairly benefits Temu before it leaves the White House. In Europe, Temu is under formal investigation for allegedly selling illegal products and getting users addicted to its app. The company is also often criticized around the world for its negative environmental impact, labor practices, and alleged misuse of user data, including allegations from researchers in the US that the app poses a national security risk.

Whether Temu can overcome these hurdles will depend on how fast the company can adjust its supply chain and pivot away from the most troublesome aspects of how it operates—before regulators take action. “What Temu was, is, and what Temu will be in the future are perhaps different things,” Kaziukėnas says.

From $1 Deals to Dupes

Temu made its name by promoting dirt-cheap deals that are often too good to believe, like $5 purses and $2 wireless headphones. It spent millions promoting the tagline “shop like a billionaire” in a series of Super Bowl advertisements, and that’s indeed what the app used to feel like: Identical or very similar products cost only a fraction of what they did on Amazon or Walmart, and it was hard to resist the temptation of adding a dozen more things to your shopping cart when they each were less than $1.

Temu managed to pull it off because it exploited a few areas of untapped potential, says Weigel. On the buyer side, it targeted price-conscious shoppers living in a time of high inflation. On the seller side, it scouted out Chinese factories that needed to keep their production lines running, but had no idea how to enter overseas markets. To connect them, Temu figured out it could take advantage of the so-called de minimis rule to send items affordably through air cargo directly to customers’ doorsteps. The provision allows people to send packages to the US duty-free as long as the goods inside are worth less than $800.

Because this business model is based on shipping everything from China and doesn’t require much local inventory, it’s very easy to replicate in different markets. As of December 2024, Temu’s website shows that it’s available in 86 countries, while Amazon, having been in business for three decades, operates in only 22. “In recent history, like the past 10 to 15 years, the first place people were interested in selling is the US and Europe, because they're large markets, prices can be higher, and so on,” says Weigel, who traveled to China this year to interview vendors selling on Amazon and Temu. “Now, there is increasing interest among these small-to-medium-size Chinese businesses in expanding in Africa, Southeast Asia, and also Central Asia … Multiple people talk to me about how young and rapidly growing the population in Africa is.”

But that doesn’t mean Temu is totally different from Amazon. In fact, the company has begun borrowing a number of tactics from the US ecommerce giant. In March, Temu reportedly started working with local warehousing companies in the US and allowing vendors on the platform to store their own US inventory instead of shipping directly from China. This is essentially what Amazon has been doing for years with its Chinese-based marketplace sellers, a strategy that allows it to deliver orders in as little as a single day. And now, these locally shipped products account for nearly half of Temu’s sales in the US, according to The Information.

What this means is that many of the products Temu sells are no longer exempt from American import duties, significantly reducing the price advantage that Temu used to have. But the strategy allows Temu to ship physically larger items to US warehouses through ocean freight before putting them up for sale, and then, the products can be delivered faster to customers, who previously often needed to wait a week or more for their packages to arrive.

That is why consumers are increasingly buying things like couches or other furniture on Temu, and also why sometimes prices on the site end up not being much lower than on Amazon or other online retailers. “I think it's pretty clear that Temu is becoming a more expensive offering,” says Kaziukėnas. “I talked to someone at Temu months ago, and they said that they're repositioning Temu from cheap to affordable.”

Higher prices can help recoup some of the financial losses that Temu incurred in its earlier days when it was primarily focused on expansion, but it could also create an identity crisis for the platform. If it doesn’t have shocking $1 deals, then what does Temu really stand for? How can it compete with Amazon and Walmart when the other two are often perceived as more reliable, both in terms of shipping speed and product quality? “I think that’s a problem for Temu already, that it doesn't really have a strong brand to consumers,” Kaziukėnas says.

Lingerings Risks—and Rewards

The days might be numbered for the de minimis exemption. The White House announced in September that it would crack down on “abuse” of the provision, citing a sleuth of reasons ranging from intellectual property violations to fentanyl smuggling. It’s not clear yet how exactly the regulation might change—lawmakers may get rid of it completely or lower the price threshold—but a fix could be finalized before president-elect Donald Trump takes office next month.

If it happens soon, the change will no doubt make it harder for Temu to remain competitive, but it’s not going to eliminate it from the field. So much of the conversation in Washington this year has revolved around restricting de minimis to contain Temu, Kaziukėnas says, but the platform has already taken significant steps to reduce its dependence on it. Its ability to ship under de minimis and handle everything from inventory to pricing used to be the main selling points Temu used to lure Chinese suppliers, but now, it’s doing a 180 to address the risks—and the strategy seems to be working. “The regulators are still only now trying to figure out what to do. And by the time they have figured out what they actually need to do, these retailers will be something different,” Kaziukėnas says, referring to Temu and competitors like Shein that rely on de minimis.

Of course, there are other risks that the company needs to address. What TikTok is going through right now—the app could be blocked in the US as soon as next month—should serve as a cautionary tale for Temu, as the latter is already receiving similar scrutiny from lawmakers over its Chinese ownership and data protection practices.

The possibility of being blocked in the US is real for Temu, but Weigel points out that there’s less of a political urgency to act on an ecommerce platform than a social media one that has elicited concerns about things like artificial intelligence and disinformation. “​​While there is a bipartisan consensus that people are concerned with the implications of China's tech rise, the incentives to police Temu are lower than TikTok,” she says. The Chinese ecommerce vendors she has spoken to don’t seem very concerned either. “These people are very nimble and flexible. My sense was that it was a thing people were curious about, but not something they were afraid about,” Weigel says.

After all, Temu’s aggressive expansion into other markets gives them plenty of alternative places to find customers if things get really ugly between the US and China. On a recent trip to Shenzhen, Weigel says she met a woman who heads a cross-border ecommerce industry association. One of the first things she told Weigel: “We don’t necessarily make the American and the European markets our top priority.”