#definitely trying to keep from getting fomo over this

[cinemaocd]

So glad that Wayne Goss hits back at Rephyr for undercutting his sales and produces a couple pencil brushes, remarkably similar to their #3 brush for his new $500 brush collection. He's right to do it.

Rephyr is the supposedly crowd sourced brush and accessory company, that distributes free brushes to youtubers and offers deals for you to review their products and receive them for free. You are charged for shipping, so they come out to about 50% of their (in my opinion) slightly inflated value. They are famous for reproducing cult fabvorites of the youtuber community, many that are discontinued.

It's all well and good but what about when you are presenting brushes that clearly imitate cult favorites still on the market? Rephyr made several close copies of Wayne Goss brushes, in fact his entire "eye set" from his first collection, down to the brush. They were still being sold on Beautylish, so that at the discounted price Rephyr ws undercuting beautylish by $1-2.

I own many rephyr brushes and they are good. I've no complaints about the quality but I've never thought rephyr brushes were as soft as the Wayne Goss and Sonia G brushes they clearly copy. I do appreciate the shapes and the fact that they specialize in discontinued brushes. One wonders though, when it's a couple of small businesses you are targeting, whether it's a chicken or the egg thing: we knock off your brushes, your brushes are discontinued...

[sschizoid]

Wait let me cook

how about the tulpar crew on the beach together. omg.

oh you're cookin' alright (⌐■◡■) 👌

--

curly

while its no secret that he prefers winter over summer, he can't deny the feeling of absolute bliss he gets from feeling water on his skin and sand between his toes. he'll spend a good amount of time in the water, but tries not to get his hair wet. it dries out his curls and just kind of leaves him a frizzy mess

after swimming, he likes to lie down and let the sun work its magic by drying him off the good old-fashioned way. once settled in and comfortable, he's definitely gonna lie back and give a dreamy sigh before tilting his sunglasses down and looking over, saying "you know what? I really needed this."

applies sunscreen everywhere but the back of his neck. you'll never guess where he gets sunburned

jimmy

he hates the sun, it's way too bright and sunglasses do almost nothing for his headaches. he hates the heat, being sweaty feels gross and makes him chafe. he hates sand, its scratchy and rough and always finding its way into his clothes. but he goes anyway because he doesn't want to be left out and has fomo

tans super easily. he can be under an umbrella the entire time and still manage to gain more color than someone like curly, who will be actively trying to tan yet barely succeed in gaining a rosy hue

despite his attitude toward the beach, he can usually be persuaded to play a bit of frisbee if bothered hard enough. with him, persistence is key. but don't even bother trying to get him in the water

anya

spends the first hour or so beachcombing, looking for interesting shells, sand dollars or sea glass. she ends up finding a really cool piece of coral skeleton as well as some sea urchin fragments, which she plans on adding to her little home collection of oddities

not too big into swimming, but absolutely loves to sunbathe! you can find her in the back, lounging with a floppy hat and a pair of massive sunglasses with her own personal radio playing her favorite tunes

she'll bring a book with her, but will fall asleep with its pages spread open over her face and her arms at her sides, out like a light. at least she's better protected from UV rays?

swansea

absolute grillmaster. tell him what your favorite protein is, how you want it prepared, and he'll have it ready for you in less than 10 minutes and cooked to perfection. also, charcoal is the superior way of grilling. don't even try to argue with him, because he will die on this hill

he has a soft spot for the beach, as he always used to take his dog to them, either for a walk or a good old game of fetch. he remembers how much of a pain in the ass it was trying to brush sand out of that long fur, but it was worth it to see that wagging tail

consistently applies sunscreen every two hours, yet still somehow manages to get sunburned?? he blames his ancestry

daisuke

is trying so hard to convince someone to bury him in the sand. he needs to know what it feels like. wants to feel the pressure around his ribs and the granules in his teeth. he heard that pirates used to torture prisoners by burying them neck-deep, but he's "built different" and thinks it would feel calming like a weighted blanket

besides baseball, surfing is one of his favorite sports. that isn't to say he's particularly good at it, but he loves the adrenaline rush of trying to navigate a wave while keeping your body balanced and mind focused

one of his first jobs was volunteering at an ice cream shack on the boardwalk when he was 15, so he views the beach and frozen treats as synonymous and pretty much the perfect pair. his go-to is dippin' dots, by the way. specifically the banana split flavor

[saarovar]

How ot2 characters react to boat trips? Who is sick, and who is moving around all time?

This ended up being really super ridiculously long (it got longer with each character as I started getting more into it I didn't mean for this to be so long) so I'm going to put this under read-more. :) Thank you for the ask!! This was super fun!! :D

Ochette — I feel like she's both somehow. She'll get really seasick but is so excited about where they're going that she'll be running around all over the place and climbing things. Serious FOMO and wants to be involved but may end up projectile vomiting everywhere at the same time. Castti is not happy with her.

Castti — she doesn't get seasick, and mostly ends up moving around the ship trying to take care of those who do. A great deal of her time is spent chasing after Ochette trying to get her to calm the fuck down, followed by making sure everyone else is okay, and THEN she gets some time to herself. She's usually exhausted and really fucking annoyed by the end of every boat trip.

Throne — also doesn't get sick, mostly keeps to herself and avoids the chaos whenever possible. She mostly stays with Temenos to "make sure he's okay" (in actuality they've both just locked themselves up somewhere to be introverted while at the same time keeping each other company).

Osvald — he doesn't usually get seasick, and it's a 50/50 chance you'll see him around or he'll be cooped up somewhere for the entire boat trip. It depends almost entirely on whether he's interested in the physics of the ocean or the boat moving or if he just wants to compute his unrelated stuff on his own, but everyone mostly just leaves him alone.

Partitio — why would the guy who bought the boat be seasick? Actually I feel like he DID have the occasional bout of seasickness the first few times on a boat, but when he gets more used to it he rarely ever has a problem. Most of the time he's super interested in what's going on and so moves around a LOT on the boat asking questions and making conversation — he wants to know EVERYTHING about how the boat works. But he does get it when his party members are feeling unwell (he's been there and all) and always wants to try to do something to help, though unfortunately he more often than not ends up annoying someone who just wants to be left alone or getting in Castti's way when he goes to see if she needs help.

Agnea — she doesn't get seasick necessarily, but she also keeps forgetting the boat is moving especially on long trips. I feel like she would try to practice her dancing frequently and occasionally she'll fall and hurt herself because the boat moved suddenly and she slid halfway across the deck. As a result of this she's also one that Castti has to watch (Agnea has broken something or hit her head at least once before and Castti wants to make sure that doesn't happen again).

Temenos — everyone thinks out of everyone, he'd definitely get seasick, and that's what he tells them when he goes and coops himself up in a cabin all day, every day. Actually he's perfectly fine and is just abusing people's assumptions about him in order to avoid the chaos — Throne is the only other party member who knows he's fine and usually the only one whose company he'll tolerate on a boat, so she gets to be his designated "caretaker"… you know, so Castti doesn't have to do as much work. It's kind of a mix between a longstanding prank that amuses them both and a means of avoiding having to deal with stuff, because if Castti knew he was fine then he'd DEFINITELY be put on "secondary healer" duty for those who are not fine.

Hikari — oh he gets seasick. He gets REALLY seasick. He's the only one who is legitimately stuck immobilised for the entire boat trip, and even in the few moments when he doesn't feel like moving is going to make him throw up he ends up too shaky to get from one place to another (and then of course the boat moves and sends him back to square 1). He won't eat anything and Castti worries about keeping him hydrated. If you, the reader, ship him with another party member, whoever that party member is will try to check on him as much as they can and he really appreciates it, but generally can't express as much until after the trip is over.

Crick (dude is my blorbo he gets to be an honourary party member because I said so) — he doesn't get seasick necessarily, but often ends up feeling sick on boat trips for unrelated reasons, either because he's so nervous about the quest or because he's so worried about the people who DO get sick. Temenos finds boat trips with him a little irritating at times because he can HEAR him pacing right outside the door of whatever room he happens to be in because he's so worried about him. Crick has been the reason Temenos' little facade has almost failed numerous times, either because Temenos is so fed up and just wants him to leave him alone or because Crick actually has a history of just walking into people's rooms if the door isn't locked because his anxiety brain took over and he needed to make sure someone wasn't dead. Crick is actually surprisingly helpful when Castti puts him to work though and is perfectly capable of following instructions when they are given to him, and has stayed with Hikari for a while a few times when the other warrior is having an exceptionally difficult time. His presence is overall pretty welcomed when he joins the group on boat trips, Temenos just wishes he would STOP annoying him sometimes.

[quinnyundertow]

may i vent a bit here? is that a yes. OK so JJK as a fandom and series as a whole has given me insane FOMO ever since i got into the anime last year, and even that was because of FOMO. but reading mangas are so brainstaking, difficult for me, i get tired for staring at a screen, in the same position, losing my attention span and getting distracted by looking stuff up for context- i couldn't ever fully finish it past the culling game arc. and now I'm sitting here in anxiety pondering if i should binge about 60 CHAPTERS, or give up and simply read the latest chapter when it comes out regardless and cry. either way im still grieving everything about this series, but i hate this culture of having to be caught up non-stop. how do all my discord homies do it??? Quinny, as someone older than me, please spare me some words of wisdom. I you're someone who def can. 🙏🤙

I’ll be honest, I think leak culture/weekly releases definitely ruins the experience for a lot of major series. I’ve seen a shit ton of anime (over 600, if I don’t keep track I forget 🧍🏻‍♀️) from being a fan for so long. Jujutsu Kaisen is the first one I’ve tried to keep up to date with weekly and it is STRESSFUL. (This is in part due to Gege but I digress) The worst part is if you try and stay on social media popular series will get spoiled for you. It is inevitable.

All that said should you force yourself to binge 60 chapters or just read the final one? In my opinion… just the final one. Before I’m crucified let me expand on this. For ME early culling game was the last genuinely good arc. It felt well thought out, some new interesting characters while keeping in the older ones we loved. It kinda went downhill from there.

If you want to just see how it ends go for it. You will see some characters change life status (alive to dead or opposite) and may want background or in depth information as to how but Gege doesn’t do that. The world is painfully not fleshed out and he doesn’t lead up to twists with breadcrumbs. They just slap you in the face. Other times there are epic moments or plot twists that don’t matter and will never be mentioned again. There are plot holes, lose ends, and times he directly contradicts himself. Gege himself has stated he wished he had done things differently. Respect for him for admitting that.

TLDR: There were some amazing epic moments in the final 60 chapters but not enough to justify you forcing yourself to read if you aren’t enjoying it. Wait for the anime to come out. There’s no shame in that. Despite the controversy MAPPA had they have done an excellent job adapting JJK. The scenes are all very close to the manga and anything they have added has enhanced the experience for me.

But hey I’m just a random weeb on the internet my opinion doesn’t matter :)

[thefirstknife]

I think a lot of what's happening is that many players are legitimately burning out because of the way bungie models the game (people don't call it FOMO: the game for no reason, there's definitely a truth to that feeling), increasing prices putting further strains on wallets as people continue to struggle financially (getting priced out of a beloved hobby is painful), and various genuine harmful choices over the life of the series, etc. but all of that's being co-opted by bad faith actors who are looking for a reason to tear Bungie down--I think you're at least partially right that there's a lot of anti-LGBTQIA+ people targeting them for being visible allies (and members of our various communities!) and just just hollow rainbow capitalists. And there's probably people who just want to stir up drama because they find it fun. So they're all distorting the actual complaints and making it so hard to have a frank discussion about good and bad practices. The real stuff gets drowned out and people tired of the BS shut down genuine complaints without realizing because it's hard to sort through it all. I think the technical term for the current situation is "clusterfuck"

For real. Burnout is a real problem that very few people recognise and often they just refuse to recognise it when it hits them personally. And like, burnout isn't just "I'm a little bored of this," continuous burnout can lead to actual health problems.

I always tell people that if you log into a game and you're not feeling it, you're only there to mark a checklist and you're annoyed by every moment spent playing, please take a break. FOMO stuff is also a real issue, but I also always tell people to just try and think about it from a broader perspective. Will you miss out on stuff? Probably. Will this matter to you, truly, if you have no interest in the game anymore? Like, if you think about it, missing out on content from a game that doesn't bring you joy should not be that big of a deal. You're not enjoying it anyway, so who cares if you miss things that you don't enjoy?

FOMO design is really awful and it's unfortunately everywhere and it takes so much energy to get yourself out of thinking that everything around you is super urgent and you have to latch onto it NOW or else.... In truth, this is just a sneaky method to keep people hooked. It's not real, you're not really missing out on anything. Even if you are, I promise that it's better to "miss out" than fall into burnout. You're the only one who can break your own FOMO.

A lot of gamers don't get it and don't even try to get it and actually get super defensive when you tell them that they're exhibiting symptoms of burnout. This is also another way that people try to deflect criticism. Sometimes someone will incessantly shit on a video game and you'll tell them "you have burnout bro, you need to take a break for your own sake" and they'll insist that you're just saying that because you're bootlicking a company or whatever.

On the other hand, sometimes you will criticise something legitimate and people will try to shut you down with claims that you're just burned out. Differentiating between these two is super difficult, especially when the community is acting like the Destiny community is acting like now. As you said, we're dealing with a clusterfuck. There's legitimately burned out people hateplaying the game who refuse to recognise it and there's people who want to talk about genuine problems and the former are making this an incredibly difficult conversation to have.

Two other related asks under:

It's utterly bizarre. The cynicism is so high that people are literally ignoring easily verifiable facts they can find with one google click away because it means they get to join their pitchforks against Bungie. And like, you can hate a company all you want but at least hate the real things they've done? The Bungie Foundation is legitimate work that helps people all over the world. This one aint' it chief.

This is the reddit thread where people were having a meltdown over the post about the foundation stuff for Bungie Day to the point that a moderator had to make a pinned post about this and there's one other most upvoted post about it just beneath. A lot of the shitty comments have been deleted and some are still there but downvoted, but people for real showed up to say crap about Bungie and lie on a call for charity.

It happened on twitter too (link if you're brave enough to go into replies and quote tweets, I don't recommend it), because of course it did. People are largely upset that some of the bigger goals have an emblem and shader as a reward and now they're calling it the "100k $ shader." And like. It's not for you. You don't need these two items. They're not here for you to buy. They're here to incentivise donations to charity. Bungie isn't getting rich from this; they will literally not see this money. It's going to charity.

I could bet my entire ass that the same people crying about this shader being unobtainable (we don't even know what it looks like btw) are the same people who are standing by their favourite streamer when they say that some in-game activities and rewards shouldn't be obtainable to the majority of the players. It's baby behaviour, and worse now because the post about Bungie announcing a charity is littered with comments from ghouls who think that THIS is the right moment to stick it to the big corpos (and ask to "fix servers").

LMAO! Literally though. I, unfortunately, play a Blizzard game and like. I'm sorry but you will not convince me that Destiny has worse monetisation than Overwatch. Like, maybe you can convince people who don't play anything else, but I do.

And honestly, if some other game is better to someone? Please feel free to play that then. I do my absolute best to limit the amount of money I will ever again give Blizzard to as close to 0 as possible, but if Blizzard's monetisation and morals are fine to you, go wild I guess. Applies to any other company for that matter. I personally find it baffling that we've spent YEARS learning about all the ways Activision is actually being led by demons from hell and that they deal with lawsuits every few months and treat their employees like crap, but we're totally fine hyping up Diablo 4 (and I guess we forgot all controversies from before about Diablo 3 and Diablo Immortal and everything). But to each their own. I'm not on Diablo twitter posting about this. It's not my problem. Hell, I'm not even engaging with Overwatch stuff because I know that I will just be negative about every aspect of it, even though I'm still playing here and there. I disagree with what they're doing so I play less and don't buy stuff and then I'm not angry about a video game every day of my life. Life hack.

[arkhammaid]

Ok but now that I’m thinking about the rest of the grid and what chaos the trio would cause, it’s got me thinking:

Lewis - we know he’s one of Charles grid parents. And we saw from the grids reaction texts that he knows Tony, which means he’s probably an unofficial Uncle to little stark, just like the other avengers are. Add that to the fact that her mom was a successful Moto GP champion, he definitely knew her from there as well. And now these two have dragged poor Oscar with them to annoy Lewis at every chance possible. Yes, they can walk into Mercedes/Ferrari asking for Roscoe and they will be let in to steal Ros. Lewis just let’s it happen at this point, he know that Roscoe will be babysitting them more than they will themselves 🤦‍♀️.

Lando: as Oscar’s teammate and part of the twitch quartet with Charles, these two drag him along in their trio shenanigans but not really since he’s too curious and has FOMO too much to not willingly go in the first place. Also gets involved in shenanigans, to Lewis’s dismay, when he was hoping he would end up being a voice of reason (though really, what did he expect). Also ends up fangirling over little stark, and both her parents, but gets over it after the first three interactions and treats her like another friend. But will definitely tease her any chance she gets when fans get nervous to meet her, only to reminded he was the same.

Logan: as Oscar’s best friend and the only other American on the grid, he gets dragged into shenanigans UNWILLINGLY (you can’t tell me he’s not an introvert) and will attempt to parent Oscar and little stark. Also fangirls over tony and Peter when he inevitably gets introduced since, again, he’s the only American on the grid and they’re curious, godsdamnit. Meets Charles after establishing a very good friendship with Little Stark, and kinda fangirls over him a bit, but eventually they get comfortable with each other. But Logan learns very quickly that he can sometimes (SOMETIMES) be successful in deterring shenanigans (again parenting) when it’s just Oscar and little stark, but throwing Charles (or even lando) into the mix? Yeah he’s got no chance.

That concludes my rambles for the time being… whoopsies that’s long

-🦒

omg smooches to you 🦒 anon, i love your ramblings!!

lewis. lewis my man is so DONE with them!! wdym he has to babysit not only little stark but also charles and oscar?? that was not in his contract as unofficial f1 uncle for little stark when he met tony 🧍‍♀️(he would love to sue but he knows he would lose because of pepper, so he just endures)

I JUST KNOW that the gossip pages and rumor accounts on f1twt are trying to stir shit for the chaotic trio entering garages that are not their own (ferrari, mclaren, mercedes and stark racing) but everyone knows to keep everything out of sight and just give them roscoe or any snack they wanna steal. no spionage here, no matter what horner tries to say (he just feels left out, you can catch him longingly staring at seb over the paddock...)

lando gets dragged along and definitely feels a bit left out, because the trio is so close?? and it makes no sense?? because charles is older and since when is oscar so outgoing?? (it's the adopted vettel genes... too bad he doesn't have them) but he loves going on 'track adventures' with the trio, always the best fun 🤭 he also definitively lets loose with them, there are so many clips of lando acting like the biggest idiot on earth (even bigger than he already is). lewis would just like to retire at this point, ever since lando got stuck in a meeting room with little stark and decided to redecorate it (the added doodles on the walls with their sharpies... the mature man he is *cough cough* he did like ten dick drawings)

as for logan, he can NOT believe he's the voice of reason here. of course he knows little stark can behave but she just doesn't want to (pepper has grey hairs because of her) so he's definitely the mom of this friend group. he can also not believe that he had to stop lando from trying to shave charles' hair off, all because oscar fell asleep... and little stark was no help here. pepper tells him, if he ever retires from f1, that she will hire him to become a PA. logan doesn't know if he should feel honored or insulted....

so we have the core of the group, the chaotic trio (oscar, charles, little stark), the add-ons logan and lando, the tired parents lewis and seb... what could ever go wrong?

this is oscar and little stark (charles taking the picture of them) after they left red bull in shambles. how? no one will ever know...

[persephoneflouwers]

i truly didn’t believe you when you said that harry would not be going anywhere after this tour ended. there was just no way in mind that after over two years of crazy touring, two movies, an album, the worst stunt of his career (imo), being over exposed by the media, and everything else in between that he wouldn’t want to take a break for at least a year. no way that he’d keep going and possibly have another project up his sleeve (tbd for now but looking more and more likely). no way that he enjoyed all of this so much that he wouldn’t rest and instead, just wanted this same cycle to continue… so, i just wanted to say that you were right, and it’s honestly been difficult to cope with that reality because it does change some things that i thought were true about who he is. and that feels harsh saying because at the end of the day, it’s my fault for creating this image in my head of who i thought he was. but there’s also parts of me that feel a bit led on or maybe even lied to (idk??) just certain things that gave me hope or that i justified but can’t anymore. it’s not his management or label and it’s definitely not because of his closet either. it’s him making these decisions for the purpose of his career and influence and money and i just hate that harrystylesTM is blending with the harry in my mind. and making me question how genuine some of the things he’s said and done actually were. you know if it makes him happy then ok, i get it. if he thinks all of this is justified then ok. but i just can’t bare to see him make these choices and then be miserable while stunting or try to gay/larry code or make music videos where we’re supposed to feel sorry for him. i still will tbh because god, i really do think he needs some better friends, a hug, and some help, but you make your bed and you lay in it. it’s his choice, and he chose the direction that even a week ago, i would’ve never predicted. so all in all, just wanted to say you were correct and it’s definitely made me think about things differently…

Ouch this is a difficult ask to respond to because the risk is to sound like an ‘I told you so’ kinda person (which I absolutely am but don’t want to now).

So mh, I think most people fall for the marketing and brand not just in this fandom, it’s about the current publicity and media distribution, when in reality that thing is full of crap, delivered by smart people whose job is literally selling things to you.

In US consumerism, the lesson n1 is ‘make it sensational’. The minimum most average thing becomes giant, incredible, out of this planet. When they put tickets for the last show last year on sale, they didn’t mention the ‘final show’ thing. This was clearly planned for later on, when there were two big zones in campovolo that weren’t sold out yet, they put on the final show label. It was smart because people bought the tickets in the fear of ‘Harry styles not going on tour again for years’ and for a fandom that is used to consume him like I consume tomatoes everyday even when I have tummy ache, this was unimaginable. I personally spoke with people from Brazil, Miami, Minnesota. They made it an event.

The end of an era, fandom called it. And of course, FOMO is real for this generation lmao

But I also speak always about the power of words, right? I think your brain chooses words automatically to convey a state of emotions and that is something that all the media training in your life can’t hold back. I am still pretty sure Harry knows that power too, since writing songs is his job I would expect he knows the nuance that lays in the difference between every word. And there words that have been said in a peculiar timing that made neurons in my head spike like fireworks. I didn’t rewatch what he said that night and I’m not a forensic language expert lol but there were moments where you could feel like you were living the Truman show experience.

I am sorry you feel like this, though. I know it’s harder here (unbearable on twt) because it seems nobody is matching your feelings, but I hope you will make peace with this.

My two cents is to let it go, let him go.

Another album, another tour who cares? They will feed it down your throat, everyone and their mothers will pretend to like it because that’s the easiest thing that gives you 1M views on tiktok and they will made up new achievements purposely crafted ad hoc for the whole picture.

Trust me, when I say I don’t like being overstimulated too, that’s why I don’t engage with his content and the only things I know is what anons tell me in the inbox and that’s okay. I just know that if I close my phone, none of this matters anymore in my life cause it’s soooo far away from what I do daily. It’s comforting in a way.

The ryan air motto “sit back, relax and enjoy your flight” is what life is about. Take care of yourself.

[mystical-strawberry-sheep]

{I finally caught up with everything, and I wanna post more stuff, but I... Just don't think I have the energy for it. I'm already tired just from the idea of looking up a meme to post. Definitely feel like burnout might be consuming me, and I should probably just take a break, as much as I really don't want to. I wanna write, I have the drive I'm just really tired. I really don't know if I'll have the energy for anything more than like, idk, headcanon meme stuff or smth.}

{So here's the deal: I'm gonna just focus on the icon things I owe for the meantime and I might not post those right away after I finish them. I might hold on to it for a while until I have the energy to make a post.}

{But I will be open to receiving new asks. They can be random or from a meme. I will not be cutting anything just because I'm gonna go mobile and I'm not gonna go through the trouble of mobile cutting because I'm tired. So if you wanna do a thread just keep that in mind. Otherwise you can send me any and all headcanon related asks or just small comment type stuff, whatever. You send it I'll be happy to answer it.}

{I will only be coming back to answer threads I already started a while back, but I don't know how many of those will keep moving.}

{Feel free to send asks from my meme page, from memes you find on your own, or just randomly as you'd like. I'll answer them. Otherwise I'm going off the grid and just focusing on housework and then maybe resting after that because even the housework is rather exhausting. I'm gonna try not to get dash comm FOMO, but if you see me jump in here anyway come slap my wrist over disc I need rest.}

[the-aviary-system]

Mood. We've had to stop playing games like this because we'd get unhealthily addicted to "number go up"

Like we'd get a withdrawal like effect, we'd get anxious about missing out on potential number going up if we didn't have whatever idle game we were obsessing over running in the background of our computer 24/7. Doing schoolwork? Keep it in the background and tab in like every 5 minutes to check in on it and buy upgrades. Planning D&D? Same thing.

Other games that use the "number go up" formula often got greedy with their players and kept trying to exploit their addiction to make them spend money, they made it more and more grindy until it was impossible for free-to-play people like us to keep up. (We didn't have a job, so no consistent money, so that's a reason why we were FTP. I dunno if we would've fallen into the trap of spending tons of money on games like these if we had a consistent income)

After getting disillusioned with our latest "number go up" simulator, I decided to try cookie clicker because I heard it wasn't pay to win. Yeah, I used an autoclicker too. And CC was pretty neat and all, it wasn't exploitative, which I appreciate- it was a grindy game in its purest state, grinding for the sake of grinding, gaining numbers for the hell of it, instead of trying to make money off of players- but since it wasn't actively trying to exploit us with FOMO it let us stop and think, and we realized we don't even enjoy these kinds of games that have taken up hours and hours of our lives.

So we made a rule for ourselves. No more of these games. From now on, we only play games if we're actually enjoying them, not just playing it out of obligation to make the number go higher. And it was really hard to stop playing since we got that same kind of withdrawal effect, the little itch in the back of the head that "I could be more productive right now, if I just had one of those games open in the background while I write I would be more productive" but we had to just fight that.

Anyway, that's not to say nobody should play these games. I'm not writing this to shame anyone for playing them, I'm not trying to sound preachy and hope that it doesn't come off that way- this comic just reminded me of our experience with these types of games and I felt like talking about it since we were addicted to these kinds of games for a good while. Some people will definitely be able to handle the addicting nature of these games better than we can. Some people genuinely enjoy the grind because it lets them just turn off their brain for a little while or not have to focus too much on something. Just be mindful to not let it become an addiction, is all.

So yeah that's the story of how we had an addiction to really grindy idle games

-Emyr (he/it)

[evanvanness]

My contrarian ETF take

Everyone is excited about ETFs in cryptoland. People think BTC and then ETH ETFs will be approved.

Eth has run up about 33%

Our favorite memecoin has run up about 66%

I've given this take multiple places, so let me put it down on paper so you can make fun of me when I'm wrong. The odds say that I'm likely wrong.

Yet, I firmly declare myself more bearish than the consensus on ETFs. In all aspects.

I'm less convinced than everyone that a spot BTC ETF will be approved.

First, what did the appellate court actually say?

The SEC "failed to adequately explain" and had no "coherent explanation"

What is the law? Per the opinion:

All the SEC has to show is that their decision was not "arbitrary, capricious" and that they "explained the decision."

The Bloomberg reporters say the ETP is happening. They cite all the staff work that is being done, and the fact that the applications are being amended, and the fact that they're all being set for decision on the same day. These are all good fact patterns for an approval.

To be clear, the appellate court's decision is scathingly against the SEC. It's a black mark for Gensler. They set the bar as high as they possibly could. But the bar is not that high, because they can't "substitute [their] policy judgements" by law.

So if you were Gary Gensler and you wanted to reject the ETPs, you'd probably have to do lots of staff work to show that the rejection is not arbitrary and to explain why. In order to reject the ETFs, all you need is your vote, the other 2 Dem commissioners (the 2 Republican commissioners have long dissented) and a detailed explanation of how spot and futures ETFs are different.

The court is relatively handtied if Gensler goes this route.

---

Now to be clear, the way things often work in media is that the reporters are talking directly to people like Gensler or staff, whether off the record or at parties or at the bar at Old Ebbitt's (long a White House/Treasury*** staffer haunt)

So it's definitely possible that approval is a lock, especially since Gensler has long been clear that he favors Bitcoin.

People are acting like it's a lock. I agree chances are probably over 50%, but I don't think it's a lock.

2. It's already priced in.

Everyone is super convinced that the approval is coming. Price has run up a lot. Anecdotally, I know of plenty of people buying over the last couple months "to get in before the ETF" and momentum trading pre-approval.

3. Flows likely to disappoint

We already have futures ETFs for both BTC and ETH. The ETH futures ETFs went live about 3 months ago, and the flows were extremely underwhelming.

Who fundamentally needs a spot ETF to buy?

Sure there are reasons (tracking risk) why spot ETFs are better than futures ETF. Spot should track closer to the underlying. There's no contango or backwardation.

But almost everyone who wants BTC exposure at this point has it. "The institutions" have been around for cycles. Perhaps there are some retirement accounts from middle class Americans who will buy. But are those people rushing to buy?

The argument is basically that financial advisors can pitch it. Which may be true, but financial advisors' principal concern is keeping your business, not maximizing returns. Advocating for a hypervolatile asset is something that tends to get them in trouble, even if the return profile is positive, because most people do not want to see a big loss in any part of their portfolio.

It also seems possible to me that spot ETFs provide meaningful flows over the long-run but not in the short-run.

4. Loss of narrative

I've lost count of how many times over the last decade people have told me that they were buying "because the ETF is around the corner." Whenever I unfortunately end up at general crypto events, I always hear the memecoiners trying to FOMO new retail money into BTC using the ETF approval ("you're frontrunning the intstitutions!").

Look it's anecdotal, but ETFs have been heavily promoted for a long time, especially in the Bitcoin community. Most of these folks didn't sell when the ETF got rejected...because they knew it would come eventually.

My contention is this spot ETF is more valuable to BTC as "it's coming soon" than having actually come.

tldr: While probably likely, I am less convinced that ETF approval is guaranteed. Any decision is likely bearish for the market short-term.

***To be clear, the SEC is on the other side of town next to Union Station but the SEC is under Treasury, relatively speaking.

UPDATE 12/21: Took less than 24 hours to shoot holes in my bearishness that Gensler will continue blocking. The SEC had a conference call today where they apparently told people that the ETFs were going to get approved if they did them the way the SEC wants.

[rviner]

"FOMO is not jealousy!" Bella's voice cuts through the thumping bass, her laughter mingling with Felix's gentle touch on her cheek. She effortlessly slides under the curve of his arm, his hand finding her waist in an affection that comes too naturally for them now. "We're not! We're not supposed to be talking about cock!" Bella's laughter rings out again, though her brow furrows in confusion. "Ross! You know, from the TV show!? This shouldn't be this hard to talk about!" but relief floods her when Felix returns the same sentiment and she nods with more contentment over her expression. Maybe the conversation is better to have away from a nightclub and when Felix isn't three sheets to the wind, but for now Bella can find comfort in the fact neither of them are looking elsewhere. Certain that neither of them would be able to find anything that even compared to one another.

It brings a smile to her face until Felix responds with his trademark wit and Bella forms a quick pout of a frown as she swats his arm. "Stop! Stop making jokes about it! It's not funny, Felix!" she states, trying to mask her concern behind a playfully stern gaze. "And it's definitely not funny that we're in HOWL either!" she adds, despite knowing that when Felix's escapism has taken hold, there will be no stopping him from trying to breeze past the pain as if it's nothing.

Accepting the drink, Bella pushes one shot towards Felix, keeping only one for herself. With a swift motion, she knocks it back after gently pressing it to his, urging him to follow suit. "Who's an idiot!?" she asks after only catching half of his words, her laughter bubbling up again as she catches sight of his text. But it's not the garbled message that makes her laugh, it's something else entirely. "Why is there a sushi and croissant emoji!?" she points out, waving her finger to the screen at the emojis and then an address. "And good luck finding that place tomorrow! You wrote it in Romanian!"

But as the music shifts, Bella's hit with a sudden burst of energy. "Oh! I love this song!" she shouts, seizing Felix by the wrist and ignoring everything in his typo'd message about dancing. "Come on!" she pulls him along, having to give a slightly firm tug to get him moving as she starts dancing to the beat hoping it will sway his opinion.

The grin on his face remained, but Felix's gaze traveled over Bella's expression. A hardwired habit of protection to see if he could decipher anything that resembled pity in any pair of eyes that looked at him. All he could ever see from how she looked at him was love, and it was only because of her that he knew what that looked like in the first place. He returned the squeeze of their hands before his slipped from hers, only so he could brush an affectionate graze over her cheek. "I thought you said you weren't the jealous type!" Felix teased her, raising his voice above the music as his hand dropped to her waist.

He leaned closer to hear her, but his head was shaking subtly with no idea what she was saying. "It's hot when you say cock but I'm so confused! Who's cock are we talking about!? Ross'!? Isabella...Who is Ross!!!!?" Felix shouted, turning his face again to give Bella attention and there was a relieved expression that moved over his features. "Good! I mean you could, I guess, if you wanted!" they were saying the same thing, Felix with all the ease in the world shaking his head. "No! Funnily enough, getting torn to shreds on a full moon sort of kills the libido a little bit!" he offered a comical shrug, hands flung up into the air. "Who knew!?"

Felix was already two steps ahead of her, ordering shots and a drink for Bella as he heard the word Swedish and started nodding, one hand absently touching his chest. "Yeah, I am!" he had no idea what was going on, and evidently neither did Bella, a laugh escaping at her announcement. "Stop talking!? Okay!" Felix yelled, sliding along the shots and her drink across the bar before taking his own. "We have to...oh, wait! We're fucking idiots!" he reached for his phone from his pocket, barely moments between unlocking it and typing away into the notes app for her. I DVNT WANT TD DINCE YET. WVY? DO YPU? shown to her as he angled his phone.

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

How do you think the twist boys would react to Mc doing the “sad cat dance”? I like to think Cater more or less convinced Mc to do it for some baked goods from Trey or answers for hw. Thus it ended up gaining popularity and all the lovely boys find it- if you feel as if doing short HC for all the boys is to much pick y’a favorite 3. Pls and thank you!

To think about who’s the most adept at recognizing and taking advantage of the trend would be the ones most eagerly on the internet:

Cater Diamond 

“That’s it (Y/n)-chan! You look so cute in my uniform!”

He’s dressing you up in whatever he has on hand

He’s well aware he could ask Vil for something real cutesy

But he doesn’t want to miss the chance to post your little dance first

All the better to give everyone FOMO

He’s so excited to witness you in all your ‘sad cat glory’

Whether you're confident or embarrassed

He’s getting it all on video

And if you are willing to go far enough he’ll record another video just for himself

“C-cater this is kind of revealing, you’re not going to post this are you?”

“Whattt? No way, this is just for me.”

He’s definitely getting off to it later

Idia Shroud

“I-its better than all the anime waifus before! I need more!”

He’s paying for more videos

Different cosplays to wear

Some are more revealing than others

It's often that he equates your every movement with that of an otome game

But now you are doing something exactly like it

For the time being, he’s pushing his embarrassment aside to fanboy over you

“Yes Yes! That's it (Y/n)! Now pout your lips just like that! Yes!”

He’s most definitely taking advantage of the opportunity

And don’t protest!

You said you were willing to help the vision 

So stop trying to run away

“I-idia this isn’t even the cat dance anymore–”

“Silence! Now do the dance!”

Azul Ashengrotto 

“So you want me to do the dance in the Monstro Lounge’s uniform?”

“Yes..this would of course allow you to have a discount for your next couple visits.”

“Oh okay, that doesn’t sound too bad.”

It is bad

The camera in front of you isn’t the only one that's on you 

He’s got multiple set up and ready to go

Will he sell some of them…maybe

Will he keep the most scandalous?

Is it even a question

Other than that he’s going to sit back with fogged classes as you do the dance for him

Not only will this bring students flooding into the Monstro Lounge

But it’ll give him the piece of you to calm him when he’s making students suffer from their contracts because of their attempted connections with you

“I appreciate your business.”

[naavispider]

Chapter 12 - If you playing me that mean my home aint home

I really really like this chapter, even though I was so tired when I wrote it 🤣 The plan for this chapter was literally one bullet point that said 'star gaze' and that's pretty much what it turned out to be! Quaritch and Spider laying together having a conversation that doesn't turn out to be completely disastrous 😭

Spider stared into the forest, wanting to follow her. He knew however, that she was gone. It was too late. Why had she left? Had she been following them? Most importantly, would she get a message to the Omatikaya? Spider was sure she'd been Tipani - he could tell by the subtle-but-definitely-there purple hue to her stripes. Would she return with more warriors?

He had none of the answers as he walked dazedly back to the camp.

Whereas before he'd sat near the circle of recoms, wanting to beat their asses at cards, now he wanted only solitude. He sat back against a tree trunk, watching from afar and wondering how the h ell he had ever managed to get FOMO from these assholes. He leaned his head back against the tree, and looked up. Stars twinkled down through a gap in the canopy.

Lost in thought, he didn't realise Quaritch had come over until the glow of the moss under his pressure drew Spider's eye.

"Counting sheep up there?" His tone was soft, open.

"Hmm," Spider replied, not really interested. A few seconds passed where the two sat looking up at the stars up together.

"Can you see Earth from there?"

Spider finally looked Quaritch. "You can't see Earth from Pandora, dumbass."

Quaritch chuckled. "I'm messing with you, kid."

They sat in each others' company for a few moments, enjoying the soft night air. Fan lizards spun nearby, illuminating the area with a gold and magenta glow. From far away in the distance, and ikran screeched, calling for its mate. Spider dug his fingers into the moss beneath him, revelling in its comforting texture. It was peaceful.

After almost being shot and on the verge of a complete mental breakdown, Spider wondered if it was natural to have completely one-eightied on the emotional scale in less than 10 minutes. The squad could literally be attacked any moment now, he should be having at least some sort of emotional response to that.

However his heartbeat was steady, calm. His mind had cleared, his senses opened instead only to the beauty of Pandora. His eyes fixed on a particular star - tiny and dim compared to its hundreds of cousins. It twinkled as if trying to say something. Spider smiled back up at it.

"<What are you saying?>" he whispered.

Next to him, Quaritch turned to look. His eyes appraised the boy, not wanting to disturb him, but so curious as to what was going on in there.

"What are you looking at?" He ventured.

"Snatanhìtsyìp. A star."

"Which one?"

Spider shuffled forward so that he could lie back properly on the ground, and after he checked that Mansk was keeping watch with a loaded gun, Quaritch followed suit.

Spider pointed with his bound hands. "Do you know the Star of Entu?"

Quaritch said nothing, so Spider clarified, "the North Star?"

"Rings a bell..."

"It's the brightest one, there. Move about two inches to the right, and... maybe four inches up. It's the really dim one, sort of in between a bright one on the left and a cluster on the right..."

Quaritch raised his arm to point where he thought Spider was saying, closing one eye in concentration. Spider wriggled so his line of eyesight was closer to Quaritch's. He grabbed Quaritch's arm and moved it in what he hoped was a more precise direction of the star.

Doing his best to crush his shock at Spider's unsolicited touch, Quaritch tried not to react. "What's so special about that little guy, huh?"

"I guess nothing."

Spider let his arms fall back to his stomach.

Another fan lizard spun majestically over where the pair of them lay. It was beautiful. Even the sound of Spider's mask hissing had floated away.

As they stared up, a shooting star passed overhead, the dense Pandoran atmosphere making the meteor burn up thousands of times brighter than they apparently did on Earth, throwing off spellbinding auroras of purple and green into its wake. Beside Spider, Quaritch gasped.

"The Na'vi have a belief about shooting stars. They say that when one appears, Eywa is crying."

"What does Eywa have to be crying about?"

Spider turned his head away from the canvas of colour above him, to better stare at Quaritch.

Quaritch felt his glare. "Okay, point taken."

"Do you even know what you have?" Spider asked, annoyance bubbling into his words.

Quaritch looked at Spider blankly.

Spider sat up suddenly, immediately getting a headrush and wishing that he hadn't. "You... You were human. You died. And then through some miracle of Eywa you were gifted with a new body - a chance to connect with the Mother and become one of her children. Even after all that you'd done. And you'd just... throw that away?"

"Kid..." Quaritch had sat up too. "You know I don't believe in all that tree hugging crap. SECOPS brought me back, funded by the RDA, an organisation that was created on Earth, by humans." Quaritch's tone was stern. "Like you said, I gotta Na'vi body but I'm human all the way."

Spider wanted to tell him it wasn't so. He could choose Pandora. He could choose Eywa. He could choose him.

He didn't say that. "That's your choice."

Quaritch lay back down, pulling Spider down too by the shoulder.

"Ow."

Quaritch chuckled again. "Do you know what the humans believe about shooting stars?"

Spider tried to think - he was sure Jake had probably mentioned it at some point. "They believe that you get to make a wish if you see one, and that it will come true."

"What would you wish for, Spider?"

It took Spider all of two seconds to decide. "For you to get wrecked."

There it was, his mask firmly back in place. Good. Things had gotten quite deep enough for one night.

"Yeah... I get that," the older man acquiesced.

They lay silently for a while, both consumed in thought, until eventually Mask came over to trade watches with Quaritch. The man sighed before standing, picking up his AR and leaving Spider to patrol the perimeter.

Spider rolled over, deciding he may as well try and sleep for the night. When he closed his eyes, he saw the face of the Na'vi woman who'd refrained from murdering him. She looked so angry, so confused. He felt the spirit of the sacred tree on his shoulder again, protecting him. What had it meant?

Waiting for divine inspiration that was yet to arrive, his thoughts turned to Kiri. He couldn't wait to tell her all about it - that he had been touched by a woodsprite. She knew her face would light up and she'd beam at him, just as awe struck as he was. He wondered what Jake would say, and whether the woodsprite could possibly be enough to warm Neytiri to him more. Surely she'd see him?

He turned over, trying to find a comfortable position on the ground. The sound of Quaritch's boots coming over to him made him open his eyes.

"Now don't bite my head off here kid," Quaritch said, extending something out for Spider to take. "I'm not gonna force you to wear clothes if you don't want to, but you may as well get some use out of them, even if it's just for a pillow."

Spider took the items hesitantly. There was a pair of human sized standard camo pants and a jacket. He raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Quaritch.

"Yeah, I figured..." Quaritch muttered as he walked off back to keep watch.

Well, Quaritch had been right about one thing - this would make a good pillow. Shoving the clothes under his head, he rolled over and eventually fell into a welcome sleep.

*****

Quaritch sat watching over camp, his mind ticking. Mask and Savine were asleep, heads pointing towards each other. Fike was also on the ground, snoring contentedly. Only Wainfleet was awake, sat against a tree and writing the latest status update report on his tablet.

As suspected, Spider had shoved the RDA uniform Quaritch had bought for him just-in-case straight on the ground and slept on it. Skxawng. That was one of the words Spider had taught him, and Quaritch was pretty sure it applied here.

Not long after this, Quaritch had heard the first mutterings of the boy's sleeptalk. Quaritch listened hard, attempting to decipher any of it.

Kehe. That sounded like Kehe. Quaritch found the boy's habit of muttering in his sleep endearing, but soon the words grew louder, and Spider started to toss and turn. Quaritch watched, expression grim. He didn't want to wake him. Wainfleet's eyes flickered up and to the Colonel over his tablet when the boy made a particularly distinct "Jake" reference.

Something lurched in Quaritch's chest. He stepped forward, finally accepting he'd need to wake the boy before he woke everyone else.

"Hey, Spider," he said, grabbing Spider's arm and shaking.

Spider gasped as if Quaritch had poured water on him. "Hey, calm down..."

Spider's eyes found Quaritch's and the boy immediately retreated away, pulling his arm out of Quaritch's grip.

"It's okay kid..."

With horror, Quaritch realised the kid was crying. Crap. Regretting his decision to even wake him up, Quaritch settled down next to him - making sure to keep his gun away from Spider but ready at a moment's notice. Shit, he didn't know what to do. Awkwardly extending a hand to place on Spider's shoulder, Quaritch was shocked when the boy sank into his touch, a sob racking its way through his tiny body. Quaritch's face softened, and he gently, hesitantly, pulled the boy closer, making sure that Spider could pull away at any point if he wanted to. When he didn't, Quaritch cradled Spider's head against his chest, mouth parted in surprise. He held Spider wordlessly, until the sobs subsided and the glow of the moss beneath them subsided.

Damn.

[multiplicity-positivity]

How to better time share? Main fronter (we are DID) is supposed to give us the weekends but they don't. And during the week it's them them them. Worst of all is we switch rarely (to our knowledge) and our passive influence js weak-- they can just ignore us. We have good co-con if that's anything. I'm just getting really fed up of doing nothing. Thanks for any advice you can give.

Oh goodness, we definitely can relate to you here. Our host does Not like giving up the front, and cooperation is still something we’re working on. But here’s how we’ve been going about it!

Communication. This is the biggest thing. Be honest and up front with your host about how you feel, and why it isn’t fair that they take up all the time y’all have. Remind them that they are just one part (or person) in the system, just like you and your other headmates! Just because they front the most does not mean that their needs should be prioritized over everyone else’s. Practice keeping up communication with them, continuing to remind them how long they’ve been fronting and how that compares to the fronting time of other headmates.

Use SimplyPlural or a journal to keep track of fronting history. If the host can look at a visual guide that shows them how long they’ve been fronting compared to everyone else, it may help them understand the challenges that makes for the other members of your system.

Agree to set timers, alarms, or reminders to let your main fronter know when it’s time to switch. If they don’t want to when the time comes, remind them that they’ve been fronting all day/week, and there are others who have needs that must be met. Maybe ask them why they don’t want to stop fronting - are they afraid to? Do they have trouble switching? Are they scared they’ll get stuck in the headspace? Do they have bad FOMO? Talk them through their fears, if they have them, and reassure them that there will always be time in the future for them to front again. If they’re the host chances are they won’t be able to stay out of the front for very long anyway.

Get other headmates to back you up. We have a gatekeeper in our system who has the capability to pull someone from the front whether they want to leave or not. If you have a headmate like this, maybe explain the situation to them and see if they can help you switch with your host. We’d say use this as a last resort, because something like this could make things worse between you and your host, who may resent y’all for forcing them to switch out. If not, though, having other headmates in your corner could help your host realize that they’ve been outvoted and may make it easier for them to cooperate.

If y’all have access to a therapist, try to bring this up to them! Maybe you can leave a note for your host and ask them to talk to your therapist about it. In our system, we have a Google doc that we use to mention things different headmates want to talk about throughout the week, then during therapy, whoever is fronting looks at the list with our therapist. Maybe your system can do something similar!

We hope that some of these ideas will be useful to y’all. Please know that you’re not alone in this struggle - many systems also deal with hosts who don’t want to leave the front, complicating life for everyone else. Thankfully, with time, patience, and plenty of communication, something like this can be improved. We wish y’all the very best of luck!

🌸 Margo and 🐢 Kip

[fairycosmos]

help i turn 21 this weekend,, any advice? idk how ppl behave at bars or like what drinks ppl order, i'm supposed to go out w my friends & they wanna go to all these different bars and i'm nervous. like i've been drinking since i was 15 but idk how to act

hii omg happy early birthday <3 i think there's a few general things to keep in mind but there's no rule book on "how to act" really. first things first - don't go anywhere alone, stick with ur friends even to go to the bathroom. always cover ur drink with ur hand, don't accept drugs from strangers, and dont take men seriously. try to share a taxi home and if there's any part of the journey where you are alone, call a friend until you get back safe. oh and make sure u book ur taxi and don't just get in a random one you see on the street. drink in moderation so you can keep ur wits about you, my friend always gets water periodically to stay hydrated thru the night, helps her hangovers a ton. stay away from any bar fights or anything that looks shady/hostile. you'll probably meet a lot of random ppl and be best friends with them for a moment and then never see them again, that's normal. you might say some things that you cringe at the next day. that’s normal too and everyone will have forgotten, the alcohol just makes it feel  severely embarrassing for no reason. just stay in well lit areas with people you know and let yourself have fun. also never leave ur bag or belongings anywhere and bring them with you everywhere -- obviously, i guess lol.

ok other than that i would say you've really got nothing to worry about, though i understand the nervousness and i think it's normal. the anxiousness will definitely be worse than the actual night out btw im soo serious. it's just the build up to the unknown that's freaking you out, and once it's over you'll realize that it was all so much more casual than you were expecting. nobody is looking at you as much as you think they are and everyone is usually too drunk to care much about scrutinizing anyone. theyre all focused on themselves and their own things, their own lives. you'll probably have a lot of fun. it's just like seeing your mates in any other setting but this time ur trying out fun new drinks and listening to club tunes and having a laugh. know that you can cut the night short and go home whenever you want, if for some reason you're not vibing with it - it's ur birthday after all. know that you don’t have to dance, or drink a ton, or do or say anything you don’t want to do or say. and if you're not having a good time, then you're not missing out if you leave, so no worries about fomo. honestly, there's no wrong way to be. just stick with the ppl you trust and try to keep to have a safe, light-hearted night. when i get overwhelmed, the bathrooms and the smoking area are my sanctuaries where i can just breathe, i rly recommend that too. if you end up not liking it at all, then at least you can say you gave it a try and it's just not ur scene. that's fine, too. hope you have the best night ok!! ❤️ stay safe!! ❤️

* on what drinks to order - it’s rly up to personal taste lol my go-to is always a vodka coke but if ur looking for something that tastes nice any fruity cocktail is a safe bet! u could also just get whatever ur friends get if you really don’t know where to start :)

[animepopheart]

Your blog is the absolute coolest (as well as your Beneath the Tangles blog)! If you have the time, would you mind sharing how you choose which anime you watch every season (or from the older ones that have been out for awhile) or suggestions on how to minimize a watch list to "essentials"? I know everyone's interests are different, so the titles/genres might be different, but just a way of how to choose which series would be best to spend time on? I've been an anime watcher for well over a decade now, and I'm a little bit better about not getting overwhelmed by all the available titles, but I was just curious if you have any further suggestions. Right now, the only things I use to "filter" the anime I watch would be that (as of right now) I only watch shows in English dub, try to take a look at super popular titles (unless it's One Piece which I'm sure is great but a scary longtime commitment for me to make to watch), and avoiding shows that might go against my personal convictions as a Christian and make me too uncomfortable to watch (I know everyone's convictions may vary or be completely different on this). Anyway, thanks for your time!

Aww, thank you sooo much! ;_;

I'll tell you how I approach each season further down, but just in general, I've lived by this dumb motto for the last decade: life's too short to waste on bad anime. With this in mind, I rarely invest in long-running shonen anymore because the payoff is for me never worth the effort. They're not bad (most are pretty good!), but even with a series that's great like One Piece, I could have instead invested so many other show (I could literally watch 90 other anime series during that time and find many that equivalent or better).

I also drop anime pretty quick. I give them a couple episodes and move on. Sometimes, I like a show enough to get 5, 6, 7 episodes in, but if I decide then that they're not keeping my interest, I don't complete them. My time is precious. If I hear great things about a show I dropped, then I might return later.

I also trashed my watch list. It was expanding and expanding, and I felt it was a weight on my shoulders. So I deleted it, and feel freer since then.

All this has helped me from under the feeling of being overwhelmed.

I would definitely also watch older shows more often—ones that friends those whose taste I like or trust from Twitter recommend, or I suddenly remember I once wanted to watch, or I want to watch again (often a better experience than streaming a mediocre new series)—except that I need to focus on new series as I develop content. So feel free to jump back into those based on your tastes, what others say, and maybe through filtering and searching (I like Anime Planet's filters).

Regarding new series—this is how I approach those:

When a season begins, I'm open to almost everything. I type up a list before the season with the shows I don't want to miss, based on the types I generally prefer or produced by staff that I'm a fan of, and then I pick up all sorts of series, watching a couple dozen opening episodes at the very least. If I have to be a little selective, I look at our writers' first impression posts to help me pick which ones to try.

And then I whittle away. I usually end up completing maybe 7-8 series a season, but there are some season, like this one, where I finish far fewer. In the time I would normally use for those shows, I might rewatch something (like I currently am for Re:Zero), go to one of those older series (I'm trying out Kurau: Phantom Memory), check out movies for review (an older one recently with ReLIFE and a screener copy of Jujutsu Kaisen 0), or read manga and light novels (a BUNCH right now, and also a memoir related to anime).

So, lots of details, but in summation—feel free to try lots of things out—perhaps shows that are new or which you hear about from trusted influencers, writers, etc., but develop that habit of dropping series. The FOMO becomes less and less the more and more you see the positive in not completing anime that doesn't affect you.