#even if doing so 'may make buyers want to pay more !!''

[katyobsesses]

You would hope that "morals over money" wasnt a radical thought but alas to boomers it is

[scam-alerts]

🐝Scams to Bee Aware of on Tumblr: 🐝

(posted: 2/6/25 - Updated 2/9/25)

The art commission scam.

Are you an artist? Were you DM'd, sent an ask by a blog with no posts or little to no content, or had a comment on a post asking about a commission and to DM them? Did they ask you to draw their son, daughter, or pet? Did hey offer you $200-$500? If so, you should learn about this scam and how to avoid it.

The sugar baby/daddy scam. / Free money scam.

Did you make a post asking for donations? Did someone DM you wanting you to be their sugar baby or promising you money in exchange for something? Did they tell you that you need to send them money to verify you want to 'do this' or pay for 'shipping' or 'transaction' fees? You're about to get scammed!

The muse scam.

If you post photographs frequently, you may find your posts receiving comments from 'artists' saying how 'inspired' they are and how eager they are to make art or a mural for your work. This is a fake cheque scam and you should avoid it at all costs!

The (read more) / Click here! scam.

If you see a post ending in a link that says (read more...) or Click here! This is an attempt to get you to click a link that will lead to a malicious website in an attempt to steal your information, or possibly even install malicious files onto your phone or computer.

is Now Hiring! Scams. ✨New(ish)✨

See a post like this on your dash or in a tag you frequent? Was the user once a normal user and now they're spamming ads like this in unrelated tags? This likely means that user got their account hijacked by clicking the link via a different post. Avoid clicking links like these at all costs!

HRT Medicine / Therapy services ✨New(ish)✨

This scam is targeting transgender people, and is likely stealing peoples personal information and likely their credit card information. If you see or find a blog like the above commenting on your posts, in #transgender or other such related tags, block and report them immediately. (Selling stuff like this is illegal btw.)

Recovery Scammers.

If you make a post talking about how you've lost money, be it bitcoin, crypto, or were scammed in any sort of way, you may find yourself receiving an ask from a recovery scammer. These are people claiming they can offer 'recovery services' while claiming to be 'ethical hackers' that have 'back end knowledge' to online services. Claiming they can retrieve your money, account, photos, and other such lost items. All you have to do is give them your account information and some money! :) (Do not do this, obviously.)

These scammers also target people who post in #scam and/or other related tags like #scams or #scam alert, posting things like this in the comments on peoples posts:

Dropshipping Websites. (Curtsy of @ai-art-thieves)

See a post of an object or a piece of clothing by a popular tumblr user that has 10k+ notes, does it say 'I got this here!' or '>>GET YOURS HERE<<' at the bottom with a link to a store? That user is a part of a dropshipping advertising scheme and are being paid to advertise these scummy websites. These websites are usually malicious in the manner that they sell cheaply products. In the worst case you'll get a bootleg or flawed product, or even a different product completely, or in even worse cases, you'll never get it at all.

(Or they will steal your information in the case of those shopify websites that popup online with deals you 'just can't refuse!!!' So buyer beware.)

Campaign boost/mutual aid support scams. (By @kyra45)

If you or anyone you know has posted looking for donations, and you receive an ask, DM, or even a comment about someone offering to 'assist you in boosting your account/campaign,' all you have to do is pay them <amount>, then this is a fake check scam you should definitely read up on and learn about to avoid.

Pet donation Scams. (by @kyra45)

See a post about someone needing help with a vet bill? Do they stress the pet is in peril and will die soon? Is their PayPal from the Philippines yet the vet bill is from the United states? Those are just two things to look out for with this scam.

Donation / Mutual Aid scams. (by @kyra45)

One of the most common and well known scams on tumblr to this day. These scams mainly revolve around brand new accounts made within a day or week reblogging very few posts and then suddenly asking for money via donations through PayPal. These blogs will send out the same copy/paste ask en masse to dozens if not hundreds of people, change their name frequently over the course of days if not weeks, and will even lie about being Palestinian, stealing stories from legitimate gofundmes, and even having conditions such as diabetes while not even knowing how it works.

Here is a current list of documented PayPal scammers: Part 3

-----

Some helpful blogs to follow:

@kyra45 @ai-art-thieves @u-reblogged-a-scam

Tags to follow/check if you need to check on scams:

#scam #scams #scam alert #scammer #scammers

I also have a very extensive list of scammer call out posts on my main blog, @slenbee under my #scam tag which can be found here if anyone's interested in scrolling through it. Just note that I kindly ask that minors do not follow that blog as it is my personal blog and is not a blog dedicated to scam busting/documenting.

You're 100% ok with looking through the scam tag and reblogging things from it, as well as checking out the links on my pinned post. :)

------

I think that's it for Tumblr scams, If I think I need to add more later I'll update the post and make an update note about it.

Take care everyone and don't get scammed!

-----

Check out the Index of important posts I've made!

Here's a post on some tips and tricks on spotting scam blogs.

How to guide: Reverse Image Search. (now with web extensions!)

Scammers pretending to be Palestinian v6 by @kyra45

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Antiusurpation and the road to disenshittification

THIS WEEKEND (November 8-10), I'll be in TUCSON, AZ: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

Nineties kids had a good reason to be excited about the internet's promise of disintermediation: the gatekeepers who controlled our access to culture, politics, and opportunity were crooked as hell, and besides, they sucked.

For a second there, we really did get a lot of disintermediation, which created a big, weird, diverse pluralistic space for all kinds of voices, ideas, identities, hobbies, businesses and movements. Lots of these were either deeply objectionable or really stupid, or both, but there was also so much cool stuff on the old, good internet.

Then, after about ten seconds of sheer joy, we got all-new gatekeepers, who were at least as bad, and even more powerful, than the old ones. The net became Tom Eastman's "Five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four." Culture, politics, finance, news, and especially power have been gathered into the hands of unaccountable, greedy, and often cruel intermediaries.

Oh, also, we had an election.

This isn't an election post. I have many thoughts about the election, but they're still these big, unformed blobs of anger, fear and sorrow. Experience teaches me that the only way to get past this is to just let all that bad stuff sit for a while and offgas its most noxious compounds, so that I can handle it safely and figure out what to do with it.

While I wait that out, I'm just getting the job done. Chop wood, carry water. I've got a book to write, Enshittification, for Farar, Straus, Giroux's MCD Books, and it's very nearly done:

https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Adoctorow+%23dailywords&src=typed_query&f=live

Compartmentalizing my anxieties and plowing that energy into productive work isn't necessarily the healthiest coping strategy, but it's not the worst, either. It's how I wrote nine books during the covid lockdowns.

And sometimes, when you're not staring directly at something, you get past the tunnel vision that makes it impossible to see its edges, fracture lines, and weak points.

So I'm working on the book. It's a book about platforms, because enshittification is a phenomenon that is most visible and toxic on platforms. Platforms are intermediaries, who connect buyers and sellers, creators and audiences, workers and employers, politicians and voters, activists and crowds, as well as families, communities, and would-be romantic partners.

There's a reason we keep reinventing these intermediaries: they're useful. Like, it's technically possible for a writer to also be their own editor, printer, distributor, promoter and sales-force:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/19/crad-kilodney-was-an-outlier/#intermediation

But without middlemen, those are the only writers we'll get. The set of all writers who have something to say that I want to read is much larger than the set of all writers who are capable of running their own publishing operation.

The problem isn't middlemen: the problem is powerful middlemen. When an intermediary gets powerful enough to usurp the relationship between the parties on either side of the transaction, everything turns to shit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/12/direct-the-problem-of-middlemen/

A dating service that faces pressure from competition, regulation, interoperability and a committed workforce will try as hard as it can to help you find Your Person. A dating service that buys up all its competitors, cows its workforce, captures its regulators and harnesses IP law to block interoperators will redesign its service so that you keep paying forever, and never find love:

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2024/02/13/1228749143/the-dating-app-paradox-why-dating-apps-may-be-worse-than-ever

Multiply this a millionfold, in every sector of our complex, high-tech world where we necessarily rely on skilled intermediaries to handle technical aspects of our lives that we can't – or shouldn't – manage ourselves. That world is beholden to predators who screw us and screw us and screw us, jacking up our rents:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/yes-there-are-antitrust-voters-in

Cranking up the price of food:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

And everything else:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

(Maybe this is a post about the election after all?)

The difference between a helpmeet and a parasite is power. If we want to enjoy the benefits of intermediaries without the risks, we need policies that keep middlemen weak. That's the opposite of the system we have now.

Take interoperability and IP law. Interoperability (basically, plugging new things into existing things) is a really powerful check against powerful middlemen. If you rely on an ad-exchange to fund your newsgathering and they start ripping you off, then an interoperable system that lets you use a different exchange will not only end the rip off – it'll make it less likely to happen in the first place because the ad-tech platform will be afraid of losing your business:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-shatter-ad-tech

Interoperability means that when a printer company gouges you on ink, you can buy cheap third party ink cartridges and escape their grasp forever:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Interoperability means that when Amazon rips off audiobook authors to the tune of $100m, those authors can pull their books from Amazon and sell them elsewhere and know that their listeners can move their libraries over to a different app:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/07/audible-exclusive/#audiblegate

But interoperability has been in retreat for 40 years, as IP law has expanded to criminalize otherwise normal activities, so that middlemen can use IP rights to protect themselves from their end-users and business customers:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

That's what I mean when I say that "IP" is "any law that lets a business reach beyond its own walls and control the actions of its customers, competitors and critics."

For example, there's a pernicious law 1998 US law that I write about all the time, Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the "anticircumvention law." This is a law that felonizes tampering with copyright locks, even if you are the creator of the undelying work.

So Amazon – the owner of the monopoly audiobook platform Audible – puts a mandatory copyright lock around every audiobook they sell. I, as an author who writes, finances and narrates the audiobook, can't provide you, my customer, with a tool to remove that lock. If I do so, I face criminal sanctions: a five year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine for a first offense:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

In other words: if I let you take my own copyrighted work out of Amazon's app, I commit a felony, with penalties that are far stiffer than the penalties you would face if you were to simply pirate that audiobook. The penalties for you shoplifting the audiobook on CD at a truck-stop are lower than the penalties the author and publisher of the book would face if they simply gave you a tool to de-Amazon the file. Indeed, even if you hijacked the truck that delivered the CDs, you'd probably be looking at a shorter sentence.

This is a law that is purpose-built to encourage intermediaries to usurp the relationship between buyers and sellers, creators and audiences. It's a charter for parasitism and predation.

But as bad as that is, there's another aspect of DMCA 1201 that's even worse: the exemptions process.

You might have read recently about the Copyright Office "freeing the McFlurry" by granting a DMCA 1201 exemption for companies that want to reverse-engineer the error-codes from McDonald's finicky, unreliable frozen custard machines:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/28/mcbroken/#my-milkshake-brings-all-the-lawyers-to-the-yard

Under DMCA 1201, the Copyright Office hears petitions for these exemptions every three years. If they judge that anticircumvention law is interfering with some legitimate activity, the statute empowers them to grant an exemption.

When the DMCA passed in 1998 (and when the US Trade Rep pressured other world governments into passing nearly identical laws in the decades that followed), this exemptions process was billed as a "pressure valve" that would prevent abuses of anticircumvention law.

But this was a cynical trick. The way the law is structured, the Copyright Office can only grant "use" exemptions, but not "tools" exemptions. So if you are granted the right to move Audible audiobooks into a third-party app, you are personally required to figure out how to do that. You have to dump the machine code of the Audible app, decompile it, scan it for vulnerabilities, and bootstrap your own jailbreaking program to take Audible wrapper off the file.

No one is allowed to help you with this. You aren't allowed to discuss any of this publicly, or share a tool that you make with anyone else. Doing any of this is a potential felony.

In other words, DMCA 1201 gives intermediaries power over you, but bans you from asking an intermediary to help you escape another abusive middleman.

This is the exact opposite of how intermediary law should work. We should have rules that ban intermediaries from exercising undue power over the parties they serve, and we should have rules empowering intermediaries to erode the advantage of powerful intermediaries.

The fact that the Copyright Office grants you an exemption to anticircumvention law means nothing unless you can delegate that right to an intermediary who can exercise it on your behalf.

A world without publishing intermediaries is one in which the only writers who thrive are the ones capable of being publishers, too, and that's a tiny fraction of all the writers with something to say.

A world without interoperability intermediaries is one in which the only platform users who thrive are also skilled reverse-engineering ninja hackers – and that's an infinitesimal fraction of the platform users who would benefit from interoperabilty.

Let this be your north star in evaluating platform regulation proposals. Platform regulation should weaken intermediaries' powers over their users, and strengthen their power over other middlemen.

Put in this light, it's easy to see why the ill-informed calls to abolish Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (which makes platform users, not platforms, responsible for most unlawful speech) are so misguided:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

If we require platforms to surveil all user speech and block anything that might violate any law, we give the largest, most powerful platforms a permanent advantage over smaller, better platforms, run by co-ops, hobbyists, nonprofits local governments, and startups. The big platforms have the capital to rig up massive, automated surveillance and censorship systems, and the only alternatives that can spring up have to be just as big and powerful as the Big Tech platforms we're so desperate to escape:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/23/evacuate-the-platforms/#let-the-platforms-burn

This is especially grave given the current political current, where fascist politicians are threatening platforms with brutal punishments for failing to censor disfavored political views.

Anyone who tells you that "it's only censorship when the government does it" is badly confused. It's only a First Amendment violation when the government does it, sure – but censorship has always relied on intermediaries. From the Inquisition to the Comics Code, government censors were only able to do their jobs because powerful middlemen, fearing state punishments, blocked anything that might cross the line, censoring far beyond the material actually prohibited by the law:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/22/self-censorship/#hugos

We live in a world of powerful, corrupt middlemen. From payments to real-estate, from job-search to romance, there's a legion of parasites masquerading as helpmeets, burying their greedy mouthparts into our tender flesh:

https://www.capitalisnt.com/episodes/visas-hidden-tax-on-americans

But intermediaries aren't the problem. You shouldn't have to stand up your own payment processor, or learn the ins and outs of real-estate law, or start your own single's bar. The problem is power, not intermediation.

As we set out to build a new, good internet (with a lot less help from the US government than seemed likely as recently as last week), let's remember that lesson: the point isn't disintermediation, it's weak intermediation.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/07/usurpers-helpmeets/#disreintermediation

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en (Image: Cryteria, CC BY 3.0, modified)

[doberbutts]

Hello, I have a Dog Question.

I grew up with dogs who were rescue mutts but now that I'm an adult I'm looking at getting a dog from a breeder. All my research says "make sure the breeder is reputable" but I don't know at all how to assess a breeder's reputation. I don't even know how much is normal to pay for a dog, and when I look it up, all the websites seem AI generated. Do you have any advice on where to get more information about that kind of thing? Are there any registries that are really trustworthy, or is it better to try to find word-of-mouth networks on who has a good reputation?

If you don't have any advice, no worries, thanks for reading my question anyways.

It can really depend on what type of dog you are looking for! There isn't necessarily one right answer.

Personally I don't care about reputation (reputable) more than I care about the breeder's personal code of ethics (ethical) being relatively close to my own.

Breeding dogs should be health tested. Not just a DNA test but whatever they may be at risk for due to their size or breed or genetic mixup. These results should be made available to you as a potential buyer, and the breeder should be weeding out or making informed choices for dogs with less than steller results. You need to know what is something that just needs to be bred to a dog with better results, vs what shouldn't be bred at all. This, as said, can vary depending on what exact dogs you're looking at.

The breeder should be asking you for more than just money. Talking to you and making sure that you are the right home for their puppy, and letting you also talk to them and make sure you actually want to buy from them. Do they say things about the dogs that don't sit right with you? Are you okay with the way they keep their dogs? Are they well fed, vaccinated, and have their needs met and cared for? Can you see proof of that? People will just say whatever, but seeing is believing.

What's the average price? Different breeds cost different amounts of money. Dobermans are very expensive! Other breeds cost less. Some cost more! If they're mixing breeds, why and what are they looking to create? Does it seem successful or are they just producing a bunch of dogs just to produce a bunch of dogs? Does the high price seem justified? Dobes are expensive because the health testing is very expensive, but less health tested breeds are cheaper. Is the breeder actually doing that expensive health testing or are they charging high without justifying cost?

Registries are not proof of ethics. Being registered with a registry just means that the dog has a traceable pedigree. So we know who the parents are, great. It doesn't determine anything else about the dog though. There is no registry that I would say exclusively has ethically produced dogs. However if a dog is of a breed that can be registered and yet isn't, that is a red flag.

@molosseraptor is a good friend of mine that runs a dog breed matching service and she also knows how to help people find a breeder that works well for them. I would trust just about any recommendation I got from her! She might be able to help you narrow down the list.

[swanimagines]

BARELY DRIED | KAZ BREKKER [PART 2]

Part 1

A few days later, Kaz had gone missing again. After the Van Benschoten job, which had gone exceptionally well, he had retreated even more into his shell. Barely paying any attention to you during the afterparty of finding a buyer for the treasure you had stolen, gotten tens of thousands of kruge, and still Kaz acted like it didn’t really matter that much. As if that had been just another one of those smaller jobs which he could do by himself and maybe someone keeping watch at most. Definitely not something this big. But now, he had been gone for two days already. Gone before sunrise, no one had heard him, no one had seen him leave.

And now, you sat at the bar counter with a shot of whiskey, wringing your hands. Your heart was pounding, your fears increasing by the second.

“What if something has happened?” you muttered as soon as Jesper slid to sit next to you. “What if… what if he, what if he’s been so distraught that he has gotten caught? Or… killed?”

Jesper snorted, shaking his head. “Kaz? Caught? Killed? Come on, you know he’s tougher to kill than a cockroach infestation is.”

“But what if—”

Jesper shot you a look. “No, he’s just… he needs time to cool off. Seeing you could shake him up even worse now.”

You nodded slowly, staring at the bar counter. You knew Kaz wouldn’t be happy when he’d learn that you had spilled the whole story about that letter you found and Kaz being upset about you having read it to Jesper and Inej, but he had been away for so long, you were so worried. You needed to have someone to talk to, and they had succeeded in comforting you somewhat.

But it didn’t mean it made you any less worried. No matter how much they tried to console you and make you believe Kaz was coming back soon, you couldn’t help but go over and over all the possible horror scenarios.

Kaz being thrown into Reaper’s Barge, his body having floated away, reunited with his brother.

Kaz being imprisoned, tortured, terrified for the first time in years.

Kaz being trapped somewhere, slowly starving to death.

Kaz having left Ketterdam completely, being too overwhelmed about the fact that you had seen a vulnerable side of him, convinced he had ridiculed himself to you and that you don’t feel the same.

Your last fear wasn’t as harrowing as the rest of them, sure, but still… a gnawing fear that you wouldn’t see him ever again loomed over you like a dark cloud. You were unable to think anything else or do much to keep your mind off it.

And after two days more, you just couldn’t take it anymore.

“I need to go find him,” you announced to your friends as you came down the stairs of the Slat with your coat and boots on. “I can’t take this anymore.”

Jesper sighed. “You do know that if he doesn’t want to be found, you won’t be able to find him. He surely knows you’re going to look for him sooner or later, he knows to expect it.”

You paused, before adjusting your scarf. “That’s what I’m counting on really. He may expect me. Saints, he could even wait for me to find him.”

Jesper scoffed. “Are we talking about the same Kaz Brekker here?”

You shrugged, looking at the roof for a moment. “It might be wishful thinking, I know. But I just feel like he may not come home until I go there and tell him it’s okay, that he hasn’t ruined anything.” You paused. “And maybe I could tell him that we can forget about that letter completely if he wants that.”

Jesper raised an eyebrow, but then looked back at his glass of whiskey. “Well, I guess it’s your time you’re wasting.”

First, you headed to Black Veil, weaving through the gravestones until you reached the crypt. You knocked on the door — no answer, of course, and complete silence otherwise too. Nobody was moving inside. You peered inside the windows, but the crypt was empty unless Kaz was sitting on the floor in some dark corner where you wouldn’t see him, and that didn’t sound like Kaz. Cowering to hide from you, no, that wasn’t Kaz.

Next, you headed into the harbor. You checked every warehouse, every lookout, every little nook you could imagine Kaz being in, but found nothing. You groaned as you reached the end of yet another back alley, yet another dead end — and it certainly didn’t ease your fears of what had happened.

What if he wasn’t hiding?

What if he wasn’t hiding in Ketterdam?

Could he have left for Lij to relax a little?

What if he had left Kerch?

“Kaz,” you muttered under your breath, “where the hell are you?”

Then, it hit you.

The canals. Could he have gone there?

He did tell you once — or not tell you, it was more like a vague mention you had later figured out — that when he had to think, he went underground to think, to watch the canals, reflect on his old life. It was rare, and became rarer as he grew up, but sometimes he found some strange sense of solace from “speaking” with his brother. Maybe he was underground now too, asking advice from his brother.

It took a while to find the way, the old stairs that led to underground canals. But you still ended up finding them when you saw one of the canals splitting and disappearing below the bridge.

You walked through the maze of canals slowly, trying to ignore the rats that ran across your feet every once in a while. Could Kaz have really spent time here for four days?

But just as you started to doubt it and wondered if you should just turn back, you saw him. Sitting on an alcove, head tilted back, eyes closed. His hat on his lap.

“Kaz?” you mumbled, and he flinched. He clearly didn’t expect you to find him, nor he had heard you coming. He turned to look at you slowly, his dark eyes looking over you before he let out a breath through his nose.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, sounding like he hadn’t spoken in days.

You took a careful step closer. “You’ve been gone for days, everyone’s worried. I couldn’t sit still, I started to—”

“I needed to think,” he interrupted you.

You opened your mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have read the letter, it wasn’t my business. And please believe me when I say I will never again look at any of your things unless you’re asking me to.”

He was quiet for a moment, before he ran his hand through his hair. “It wasn’t about the letter.”

You frowned. “Then why?”

“Because I wasn’t able to face you. To talk about anything. I needed time, but I couldn’t have had it at the Slat because I would have seen you every time I stepped out of my room.”

You cocked your head slightly. “Kaz, I don’t understand.”

He clenched his jaw and grabbed his cane, holding it in front of him. He squeezed the crow head again, which you had noticed was his method to keep himself grounded.

Then, he spoke again. “I wouldn’t be enough for you.”

You blinked. “What?”

He shook his head. “I’m broken, rotten, beyond repair. Not to mention, you’d be a sitting duck if… I can’t do that to you.”

So the letter was for you.

You sighed, taking a few more slow steps, sitting beside him. “Kaz, I’ve seen the worst of you. I’ve seen you doing things to people that make me want to throw up. I’ve heard the cries of mercy from people you have interrogated. I’m pretty sure I know you, and I know that if we were… together… I’d indeed be a target. But I know how to look after myself. And I doubt you want us to announce it in magazines, we could at least attempt to keep it a secret.”

He didn’t look you in the eye, but he did look in your direction. So you pressed further. “If you want, we could try. Take it slow. See how it goes, how it feels. We don’t have to rush into anything.”

Kaz was quiet for a long moment. Or at least that moment felt so incredibly long, your heart pounded in your head, you were sure he’d turn your offer down.

But then, he grunted and slowly stood up. “We need to get back to the Slat. My next plan should be put into motion within a few days.”

You knew that was his way of agreeing, and you couldn’t help but beam a little. “I will be ready.”

He hummed, and started making his way up the first flight of stairs, you following him.

Your little search trip ended far better than you imagined after all.

Requests are open! FANDOM LIST | PROMPT LIST(S) | RULES (READ!!!)

[thehypnone]

here we gooo let's try to make some money (/hj, but I am a broke disabled student, so...)

I honestly don't know if this will be a big fail or big success so I'm starting out with 4 masks this month and 4 more masks next month (because I can't sell more than 4 masks per month due to some stupid taxation rules in my country), only to pay off the money that went into me making all this shit. If it turns out to be a success I'll probably be dropping more batches of better quality later on

Prices in EUR/prices in USD/shipping times:

It's quite cheap for a prequelle mask replica for one main reason; I'm no professional. This is my first time doing something like this and while I'm very proud of how the first mask came out and am confident in the ones I’m gonna be selling, they do reflect my lack of professionalism. Feel free to ask me for more detailed pictures if you're worried about how they look up close

I will not be doing any business with minors, tho, so please don't even try, MDNI always stands here

FC45 resin, acrylic primer, hydroalcoholic chrome paint and a waterbased polyurethane varnish. There's also foam padding and an elastic strap

Current availability of the masks is going to be updated in my pinned post. There’s going to be two steps to ordering, first is to fill out this form. You’ll have to leave your email there (optionally Tumblr username, too) for me to be able to contact you, and then when it’s your turn and everything is calculated, I'll contact you. If everything's agreed on and alright I’ll make an individual Ko-fi listing just for you to use. The form will help me keep track of the “wishlist” (if there's gonna be such interest, of course, because as I said I have no idea how it will go). First 4 people from the list will get a message from me and we'll proceed from there

I can ship anywhere you want; you as a buyer cover all expenses of the shipping, as well as customer protection fees on PayPal. For cost cutting reasons (and also because I'm not a registered company) the mask will be described as a gift on the customs declaration

The moment I have the first 4 people pay, I order the supplies and begin casting the masks as soon as they get to me (2-3 days). The entire process, between the waitlist filling and the masks being shipped, may take up to two weeks

I think that's it, feel free to message me/send me an ask in general if you have any questions!

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

So let's talk about rape, and porn, and why porn isn't rape.

By now, I've seen more than a few people talking about that OnlyFans chick who fucked 100 guys in a single day and ended up crying afterwards. Let's just say this up front: That's incredibly sad. It's not unique, because there have been a lot of pornstars over the years who have had gangbangs with hundreds of guys before, but it is sad. She obviously wasn't mentally prepared for what she did, and it obviously affected her in ways she wasn't expecting. I feel bad for her, and I hope she ends up learning a lesson from this about the emotional impact of casual sex and treating her body like a commodity to be sold to strangers.

But I've also seen way too many people equating what she did to being raped, and the men who had sex with her to rapists. And that's just not even remotely true. Regret is not rape. She chose to have sex with those men. She chose to keep going with every new guy that showed up. At any point she could have said "Okay, this isn't good, I want to stop now". But that never happened.

Now, I know some people will read that and say that all porn is a form of rape, because paying a woman to have sex is taking her agency away or "forcing" her or "coercing" her. Those people are wrong. Unless someone is actually being forced to do porn, porn is voluntary. Porn stars and OF people and camgirls/guys all choose to have sex in front of a camera for money.

"But the money!" some of you are saying. "The money makes it coercive!"

Well, okay. Let's look at that argument. So, what does coercion mean? It means, according to the dictionary

the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats

Note the last three words. Force or threats. I think we can all agree that threatening or forcing someone to have sex is wrong. But accepting money to perform a job, even if that job is having sex, is not coercion. It's never coercion. It's a voluntary pact between buyer and seller. Even if the person doing the selling is dirt poor.

"But," some others may say, "what if she wanted to stop but some of the guys talked her into continuing?"

To that I say, "So what?"

Convincing someone to do something is not coercion. Even if you're convincing someone to do something they don't want to do. Even if that person really wants to say no, but ends up saying yes. Unless there's force or a threat, it's not coercion. Making bad decisions is not equal to being raped. Talking someone into making a bad decision is not equal to being a rapist. We can't just throw around the most emotionally charged terms we can think of whenever we want to make a point about something that upset you. That's what the left does, and it's the reason why words that should mean very specific things have become watered down. It's why words that used to elicit horror and revulsion now barely get a shrug. Nazi, racist, rapist, fascist, abuser, war criminal. All these words have specific meanings. All these words are used everyday on social media to talk about exes or parents or politicians or friends or celebrities or strangers. Think of how many times you've heard someone use those words. Now think of how many times you actually took the arguments of the person using them seriously after they used them. I'm guessing that first number is pretty high. And I'm guessing that last number is low, if it isn't actually zero.

Don't turn yourselves into the leftists who presided over the biggest electoral shellacking in a generation. Don't adopt the language and tactics of the people who have turned nearly every demographic against them by doing exactly this same shit. If you want to hate porn, go ahead. If you want to advocate against it, go ahead. If you want to get angry at the way sex is treated these days, go right the fuck ahead. But when you do, really think about why you're doing it, and articulate those reasons without trying to get people to respond emotionally by using the worst, most incendiary language you can think of. That's not how you're going to get anything done.

[thatliftgirl]

Hey guys! So everyone wants me to make a tip post, and I will, but I think I may need it to be a few parts and then I’ll compile them.

Anyway, bo0sting update #5:

It has now been 23 days of bo0sting makeup on èbày. My last update I said I was putting it into vacation mode because it was too busy. Well at first, it slowed down but now I’m up to 32 orders I have to ship when I’m “back”, so that’s a lot.

My total is about $3,000 right now. Hard to say though because I forgot my bank account password lol.

Anyway, it’s been a ton of work. I tried higher prices this time around but realized people won’t really pay $29 most of the time for products, so today I lowered prices of things not selling. I have one buyer that buys everything and wants it really cheap, but she has very bad English so I allow it for the most part because she buys so much. I told a couple people I do requests but I didn’t realize how much work looking for specific stuff is. I already take too long in store and looking for stuff makes it even worse and much harder to get anything else. I guess I could ask reps about them and risk an empty basket idk 🤷‍♀️;-; she’s requested 30 items, so we’ll see how that goes- she better pay well lol. I also have a woman who resells right on her account for insane prices and somehow has sales- that made me angry for a bit and I declined all her offers but then I saw a really sweet review she left so I forgave her. Up to 115 orders now.

Anyone who wants to know more abt bo0sting or specifics can message me and I’d be happy to share. (:

[imabeautifulbutterfly]

Hihi~

I thought I'd make another request, if that's okay?

May I ask for number 4 and 42 with...hm...let's go with Jango again since you did so good with him last time!

❤️ - @vodika-vibes

Hello gorgeous @vodika-vibes

Thank you so much for the request, that's so sweet of you. Love oo.

I hope you like this one as well. As this is my second time writing for Jango Fett, I hope I did him justice in your eyes. Thank you for being amazing, and congratulations on your 500 follower event. You are such a brilliant writer, you deserve all the follows.

Oh, before I forget, I wrote with a f!reader, hope that's okay.

Love oo,

The Job

Warnings: Weapons dealer, mentions of assassination, angst, longing, mentions of eradicating Jedis, put-on pleasantries, alcohol, I think that's it. If I miss any please let me know.

Italics: Flash back

Main Master List   |  Star Wars Fic Roulette

Your voice filled the room as you went on about one story or another, “…You should have seen them. I could hardly breathe with their ego taking up all the space in the room.”

Jango rolled his eyes as he stood off to the side, listening to you tell another story about some boring Senator or something. Truthfully, he only took the job of being your bodyguard, simply because he needed credits, not because he actually cared about you. 

Regardless of whatever notion ran through your head. 

Regardless of how amazing the dress you wore looked on you. 

Regardless of how shapely your legs looked in those heels, or how your neck was displayed so lovingly, practically inviting him to bite it, and kiss it with the way your hair was done up. 

He was here solely for the credits. 

At least that’s what he kept reminding himself, as he followed you around the room, while you were glad-handing the various Senators, politicians and potential buyers for your weapons. It actually made him laugh that a weapon’s manufacturer needed a bodyguard. 

“I don’t need a bodyguard” you emphatically stated, as you met with him before the job, “what I need is a second pair of eyes that I can trust.”

“You think you can trust me?” Jango narrowed his eyes on you, someone who trusted a bounty hunter or a bodyguard for hire was clearly looking for a way to end their own life fast. 

“I don’t trust you. However, I do trust your Mandalorian honour, and the fact that I’ll pay you more money than anyone else is able to; that’s what I trust.”

“What could you possibly know about Mandalorian honour?”

“I know enough. Enough to make sure that your pay will not be looked down on in any way shape or form.”

And just like that he was on the payroll, granted this was now his fifth job with you. The first time, you gave him a bonus for stopping an assassin. The second time, you gifted him a new set of blasters, top of the line from your latest batch. The fourth time, you upgraded his armour’s software. It provided him intel on a level he never imagined possible. Each job always left him better off than the time before, and he wasn’t complaining; however this wasn’t the job he was going to dedicate the rest of his life too.

His eyes focused on your hands, waiting for the signal that said you had enough and you wanted to head back to your suite.

As much as you looked like you were having fun, laughing, joking, even flirting with some, the truth of the matter was that you hated talking to people. You only did it because you were the CEO and President of your weapons company. If it wasn’t so you could earn more credits, you’d never even bother to speak to half of those who were all so quick to practically lick your feet. 

You flicked your wrist three times in a counter-clockwise motion against your thigh. It was your signal, you had enough. Enough of the fake laughing, enough of the pretend happiness, enough of the put upon smiles. To anyone else, it looked as though you were getting rid of some speck of dust that seemed to bother you, to Jango however, it was your call for help. 

His steps toward you were full of purpose and determination as he closed the distance. 

“Mistress,” he whispered loud enough for others to hear, “you have an urgent call.”

You nodded in understanding, pretending it was a chore to leave the company of these so-called exquisite associates. You bowed, offering your apologies one last time, leaving them with a flirty laugh and a fond farewell. 

The moment you entered the lift, you let out a sigh of freedom as you began to undo your hair, the myriad of pins keeping your hair in place were now in Jango’s hand. Without even having to ask, he held out his gloved hand ready to receive your offerings. You let out a contented sigh as you shook your hair out massaging the scalp to ease its tension.

“Why do you bother?”

“Hmm?” You asked as your eyes closed enjoying the freedom your hair felt.

“Why bother putting it up? Especially in such an intricate design.”

“Because…” you let out, enjoying the feeling of your nails stimulating your scalp, “at a high society gathering, and one where I am looking to gain one or two more buyers, I have learned the more intricate your hair, the more likely you are to gain someone’s attention.”

“Really?” He tilted his head as he looked at you, “Because they’re too stupid to realize you’re just as brilliant and beautiful with your hair down as opposed to up?”

Your fingers froze in place as you glanced up to look at Jango, smiling, “Did you just say I was beautiful and brilliant?”

“I believe I said brilliant and beautiful. Interesting how you flipped that. I also said they were too stupid to recognize your talents.”

“But you think I’m beautiful.” You smiled as you let your fingers glide down your scalp, guiding your hair over one shoulder. 

“That’s what you choose to focus on?” Jango shrugged, “Fine that’s on you. Anyway, I really don’t understand how having an intricate hair updo correlates to signing a potential client?”

You shrugged, not understanding it yourself, “All I can figure is that they must feel a woman who handles such intricate designs must be able to handle the intricate world of weapons. I don’t know.”

The lift dinged as you reached your floor, Jango put away the pins in one of his utility belt pockets. Before he opened the doors to the lift his helmet scanned the hallway, making sure there were no unwanted guests waiting for you. Once he opened the door he examined the hallway, keeping you guarded, after making sure it was safe then and only then were you allowed to exit the lift. Once you did, Jango put the lift back into service and sent it back down. 

As soon as you entered your suite, you took off your heels and walked around the carpeted floor barefoot. “Oh my force!” You stood curling your toes into the carpet, “This feels divine!”

He couldn’t help laughing at your reaction, as you stood there for a few minutes, your head tilted back as you kept sighing in contentment from the relief, “Must you wear those heels?”

“Let me ask you, did you or did you not notice my legs in them?”

“Yeah,” he answered, not feeling ashamed or embarrassed, you had amazing legs, maybe not to everyone, but to him … he thought they were beautifully sculpted. 

“Did it make you want to talk to me?”

“I guess.”

“Hence the heels, everything I do is to make it easier for me to find more potential buyers.” You stretched as you headed to the bar the suite contained. “Want a drink?”

Jango nodded as he took off his helmet, “Mandalorian whiskey, Keldabe Night, top shelf.”

“But of course.” You smiled as you poured him the darker whiskey, while you served yourself a more amber coloured Corellian whiskey. “Thank you.”

“You’re paying me. Not sure how much a thank you really is needed.” He stated as he took a sip of his drink.

“No, I mean, thanks for making today a little less depressing. Just knowing you’re there to have my back, and knowing I can be myself around you … it gives me a little bit of peace, so I appreciate it.”

He wasn’t there for accolades or to be your friend, he was there to earn a paycheque. To earn credits, and to rebuild his status until he could exact revenge on the Jedi. “Again, you’re paying me. So not sure how much your thank yous are needed.”

You rolled your eyes, shaking your head as you headed to your bedroom, “You can’t just say, you’re welcome. Even if you said it just once, it won’t kill you.”

He watched you walk off annoyed at him. Well if you were going to be this pissed already, might as well rip the bacta bandaid off, “I won’t be able to work for you anymore.”

You froze in your spot, your heart clenching as you realized the warm feeling you felt for him had seeped further into your soul than you had realized. You turned to look at him, shock in your eyes. “What?”

Jango cleared his throat as he looked away from you, “I got another gig. Pay is a lot more, and it will help me accomplish my goal.” At least that’s what Lord Tyranus promised, a way for him to exact revenge on the Jedi, a way to help rid the galaxy of his enemies once and for all. “It’s a long-term commitment. I won’t be able to take on anymore of your requests.”

Tears welled up in your eyes for a second as you looked at him, you closed your eyes for a brief moment before you nodded, “Understood.” You steadied your nerves and looked him in the eyes, “Well then, thank you Jango Fett for all your services. I assume you will stay at your post until I am safely returned home?”

“Of course.”

“Good” you turned and headed to your room, “I will include a bonus as a thank you for your exemplary service. If you know of anyone who you trust to take your place, please make sure to forward me their contact information.” You slammed the door closed and leaned against the frame as you slowly slid down, wiping the tears. You knew this wasn’t ever going to amount to anything, yet you had let your heart foolishly hope for something, you hadn’t hoped for in a long time. 

Main Master List   |  Star Wars Fic Roulette

Tag list:

@liadamerondjarin @badbatch-simp24@spicymcnuggies@lady-ren @firstofficerwiggles @darkangel4121 @discofern @kavecika @monako-jinn-stories @ladykatakuri @avathebestx @theroguesully @furyhellfire66 @carodealmeida @ciramaris @sprout-fics @twinkofthedink @dindjarin-mandalorian @ulchabhangorm @littlemisspascal @tortor-mcgee @vodika-vibes @clonethirstingisreal

[mitsurichan3s-art-corner]

Mitsurichan3 commissions information & Terms of Services

Contact:

Means of contact:

Tumblr DMS

Email: Mitsurichan3commissions@gmail.com

(please subject it as COMMISSION REQUEST - details).

Payment methods

Paypal - through invoices sent via email

Ko-fi commissions page

Payment is done in US dollars, through paypal or Ko-fi. I am flexible in terms of payment, with 100% of the commission amount paid upfront, 50% upfront-50% once completed, or discuss multiple payment plans on a case by case basis. I am unable to provide refunds at this current time, so please keep this in mind.

General information:

Thank you so much for taking time to read through my TOS and commission information. I am Diana, aged 25, and am currently unemployed. I am open to answer questions, discuss details and talk about pricing so feel free to reach out!

I am opening commissions in order to pay my monthly bills

Please do not ask for updates every few hours, I also have a personal life and things pop up last minute.

Later this fall I will be going back to university, so commissions will stay open to help pay the costs of graduate school as well.

Commission price will also have tax applied to the final cost.

By commissioning me in any kind of way, you are agreeing to the terms of service above and below:

Detailed information:

Can draw:

Humans

Ocs / canon Characters

Ship Art

Nekomimi / Usamimi

Suggestive outfits

Please send me references, they are super helpful! Even a simple stick figure and a lot of written descriptions will go a long way!

Cannot/wont draw:

Hate art

Gore

NSFW

Mecha

Feral/anthro

Furry

Animals

Terms of Service:

Once the commission is paid for, I cannot do any refunds

I’ll only accept upfront Paypal payments through Paypal invoices, or my Ko-fi commissions page. Do NOT send me money independently. After receiving payment I will start on your commission

I reserve the rights to use/display your commission on a portfolio, artist website, and social media. However, if you wish to keep your commission private, please let me know ahead of time.

Turn around times vary between 3 weeks to 2 months, depending on complexity of the artwork requested.

I will give periodical updates at each step of the process (sketch, line art, flat colors, full rendered and email finished piece).

Sketching usually takes a week once payment has been received. I will contact you to approve the initial sketch. Clients can make 1 major change at this stage, before being charged an additional $5 per change afterwards. This will be added to the total price.

I will send the finished product through an email address of your choice.

I reserve the right to decline any commission I am not comfortable working on, for any reason.

My Art cannot be used to train AI or make NFTs.

You may NOT claim my work as your own, trace, recolor/redraw, or redistribute my work for profit.

You may NOT use or repost someone else’s commission piece without my and the buyer’s permission. If you receive permission, you must use/post with credit

Your commission piece is NOT for commercial use. This is for personal use only.

If you are the buyer, you may post the finished commission whenever you want but please credit properly, or share it from my social media accounts.

If the commission is a gift for someone else, you are allowed to share the piece with the receiving party. (PST! Let me know what they think too!)

I can accept requests if you don’t have the adequate visual reference of your/the character that you want me to draw. Do your best to communicate effectively and I will meet you halfway. I will ask a lot of questions to better understand your request.

Picrew/ Character creator images (for ocs) are accepted, as long as you have another actual reference to pair it with: i.e. using the picrew to outline an outfit you want, or a change in hair/eye color. I will accept a Picrew/Character creator image if it's exactly what you want.

Thank you so much for reading! And thank you for considering me for a commission!

[booksinpiles]

A Book-Buyer's Manifesto

Allow me to preface this with two qualifiers:

I spend far too much time researching and purchasing books, so the things that rub against my soul like a large, invisible and slightly rusty cheese grater may not trouble most book lovers; this is in the nature of a personal rant and may not generalize.

I understand that the complaints I am making are not, by and large, the fault of authors. Furthermore, I understand that capitalism sinks its thick, warped, blood-hungry roots into everything, and I am sure that editors, reviewers, designers, etc. are simply reacting to the panopticon market.

On to the complaints!

“I wish to register a complaint.” - Monty Python’s Flying Circus

***

Stop 👏 Using 👏 AI

I do not care what publishers are being told by investors or marketing teams or anyone else with an inherent fondness for a well-placed decimal point. I do not want my books read to me by machines. Even if publishers can ethically source and reproduce the voice of my beloved Andrew Robinson, (and pay him handsomely for the trouble) who is capable of sending many a merry sparkle down my spinal column, I do not want books read to me by machines. I do not want the rich tradition of oral storytelling (of which audio books are the heirs) stripped of the cadence, the laughter, and the magic of human intonation. If AI is growing bored, it can do some laundry.

In this same vein: I do not want cover art created by AI. I do not want AI-generated summaries. Fuck off.

Speaking of Summaries:

🧑‍🎓 If college freshman can do it, Simon and Schuster, baby, so can you.👩‍🎓

I have spent many semesters teaching writers how to summarize the words and the works of other writers with whom they find themselves in conversation. One of the surest indicators of a researcher’s grasp of their topic is if that writer can explain the material to another student. To do so, summary is usually required.

I have no connections with or insight into the world of publishing, but, apparently, everyone in the last decade decided to call in sick on “how to sum up this book” day.

The back of a book should include a brief description of what in the Sam hell that book is about. In four to eight sentences, tell the reader who the main character is/characters are, when/where the story is occurring, how it all takes place, and why they should care.

A book summary should not:

excerpt the book in italics. If I want an excerpt, I will undertake the radical and transformative step of opening the book.

compile praise from famous names. I don’t care that Stephen King liked this book (or was paid or pressured to say as much). I am not Steve. If I want to read book reviews, various publications and websites have me covered. I don’t care how great the book is if I don’t know what it is about.

write an equation in the form of: “if you liked X and Y, you’re going to love the book in your hands!” I do not currently wish to consider X and Y IPs. I am considering this book which is neither X nor Y. If it cannot stand on its own merits without the mention of Star Wars, Jurassic Park, South Park or whatever television series is hot right now, why should I bother with it?

On that note:

🍿 Leave Derivation to the Movies 🍿

I understand that one of the ways to “win” at capitalism is to observe a successful product and then produce one’s own version of it. However, I would like to propose a decade-long moratorium on all titles that are intended to conjure A Song of Ice and Fire. To all authors currently at work on A Vest of Mites and Mouse Droppings, I wish you joy of finding a new title. Likewise, the next person who strips a woman’s identity by using a title like The Radish Pickler’s Wife gets slapped. Magical schools of any kind are right out, as are any version of The Hunger Games.

Likewise, readers may no longer be lured in by the marriage of beloved IPs. That is, no more “The Terror meets The Wizard of Oz.” Don’t get me wrong - arctic, brooding Tin Man sounds a delight, but if the story containing him cannot be described independently of the source material, keep working on that synopsis.

🎉 Representation for All 🎉

Publishers are also to be discouraged from using identities (transgender, disabled, cultural, etc.) as marketing tools when the book in question makes no serious effort at actual representation but, rather, seeks to check off any “buzzy” term in order to sell more copies. I am delighted that readers are now seeing more representation in literature; everyone deserves to see themselves reflected in art. However, publishers should not introduce characters as Suzie Queue, a person of color who struggled with chronic illness and poverty unless these traits are (a) part of the story in question and (b) actually explored and engaged with during the course of the narrative. If Suzie can be stripped of all the markers listed above without altering the story, revision is needed. If Suzie has been constructed solely as a sales pitch, said book should be edited or reconsidered.

Publishers should also stop trying to seize on certain categories to the exclusion of everything else. I adore sapphic content - but not in cases where I feel that it was generically stamped onto a story because another title sold well. Please release a variety of books with a variety of characters and representations - but do it with some modicum of honesty. (Yes, capitalism, I know).

1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣ Not Everything Needs to be a Series 4️⃣5️⃣6️⃣

‘Nuff said.

💙💙 The Book with the Blue Cover 💙💙

Stop making every book cover in a given genre look identical. The technology  (and the underpaid artists) exists to make even the spines and the page edges beautiful; don’t let medieval monks outdo you, publishers. Make covers unique, distinguishable from one another, and breathtaking.

No more cutesy animated people on book covers. Romance novels are especially bad for this. The options seem to be (a) male gaze, (b) female gaze, (c) this cover art appears to have been designed for a third grader. All of these make me feel icky.

Artists, I am not trying to harm you, here, but, sometimes, art must bow before practicality. With that in mind: titles should be clear. Do not include a hyphen if there isn’t one. Do not ��artfully arrange” the subtitle so that it is unclear which is the primary. Boring is fine if that is what is required to achieve legible. Do not break a word across lines or make letters “wavy.” I realize this seems silly (can’t I just look up any confusing titles?) but internet algorithms are currently hell on wheels (looking at you, Amazon, and your popularity nonsense), so I would rather not.

Why (YA), why!?

Blink 182 famously informed listeners that “nobody likes you when you’re twenty-three,” but, as a reader, seventeen is the age that has me grating my teeth. As a lifelong reader who did not have a rich, varied YA market (the options were Christopher Pike, kids with cancer, or Amish life at my local library and I cannot explain why), I am thrilled to see YA thrive and provide representation to all sorts of readers. However, life does not end at twenty-five. There should be more fun novels for readers of every age. Release the coming-of-age book, by all means, but, publishers, here is a money grab for you: release it again, with slight modifications, as a book with grown-up characters.

Readers, what else did I miss?

[ukikimon]

Updates; art, crafts & life... Prolly obvious but since I forgot to make the post this year, I am taking a holiday hiatus until the rest of my damn shop stuff comes in. It's been heavily delayed despite ordering last month, & I don't want to start/pay my monthly fee for shop hosting until I can secure what I need for my next projects, & figure how much space I need to put down for that (as most websites limit listings based on what you pay monthly for a shop front). Worst case, I may use my ebay for that since I've already sold a lot on there (who knows). I would do etsy, but it takes out even MORE than ebay with that. Still figuring it out. I have a friend who sells a lot of her own goods, so I'll be figuring out with her once it all gets here.

Do note, I probably still will only be able to make sales to the USA unless a buyer specifically emails me & we check first, due to region shipping costs getting insane. We'll cross that when we get there.

I'll make a big post once that goes live, but who knows at this point. May be mid January before then since- as it stands, I need more jewelry supplies first. On that note, I also need to find an alternative to Kofi due to my recent concerns with them refusing to disperse funds with some others I follow (and their general finickiness with digital goods like art lately).

Anyway, see you soon.

[realcleverissues]

An actually great article on some issues with Kamala's housing plan.

tl;dr + my commentary:

$25k downpayment assistance only helps those who have enough money to potentially buy a house. i.e. helps the middle-to-upper class. (Assuming a home is a good investment compared to other options. More on that in a moment.)

Banning corporate landlordship has positive effects for housing for *buyers* but reduces supply for *renters*. This can actually lead to gentrification (as has happened in places where this has been tried). Iow, bad for lower-to-middle income earners. So, in short, those plans help the wealthy but harm the poor.

Fundamentally: Since housing is viewed socially as an investment, homeowners want their investments to maximize profits. This is one reason for zoning laws: Fewer homes make existing homes more expensive. That's precisely why the housing market is so high: not enough homes. Everyone's essentially bidding for the limited supply. (Note: Studies have shown that allowing for more density does not drive down prices. This is because, while a $1M home might be worth only $900K with sufficient home supply, the *property* of the home may now be worth $1.5M. This is because relaxed zoning would allow for more homes to be built on the same spot. So developers can replace a $1M home (now $900k home) with, say, a duplex worth $1.5, or with a 4 story apartment building worth $3M. Additionally, more home availability translates into less poverty, homelessness, addiction, and crime, further raising values. That said, while home values may not suddenly fall, the growth in their value would be slowed tremendously. Instead of, say, 8% value increases each year, it might go to, say, 4%. This means that homes would no longer be as great an investment as they currently are. In this scenario, middle-class earners might be better off investing in something else rather than pouring their money into a house. This is the extra kink related to the first point above.) This is one of the tensions found in capitalism: Businesses love limited supply bc that inflates value and price; consumers love sufficient supply bc it lowers prices toward cost. This creates a tension between homeowners (who like limited supply) and non-homeowners (who want ample supply). Right now, the homeowners are winning. Rules like single family zoning heavily benefit homeowners, and bc changes to local law are made at the local level (i.e. people already living there), it again becomes hard to change.

As a result of the above point, we find an additional problem: Creating more homeowners would, in effect, create more NIMBYs, since again, the assumption among homeowners is that changing zoning laws would harm their investment.

Personally, my top three solutions would be:

a. Eliminate or massively reduce single family zoning b. Institute a land tax. It doesn't have to entirely replace the current property tax system, but even a small change could incentivize positive changes (like smaller lot zoning, less land hoarded for development, etc). c. Financially and legislatively encourage the growth of non-profit rental options and organizations. Landlording is literally the definition "rent seeking" in economic terms: pointless middlemen who make more than their work due to having privileged position. Much like the issue of insurance companies causing increased prices in US healthcare, we could save consumers a lot of money if we cut them out and replaced them with non-profit entities. So instead of your rent paying the landlord's mortgage and lifestyle, renters could see reduced rates that reflect the *lifetime* value of the home (not just the mortgage period, which is often half as much), and the actual costs to maintain it, not the inflated "market value" of what landlords can charge. This could immediately lower rental costs by at least a few percentage points, and would continue to get cheaper over the long run (since prices wouldn't rise with market values). Additionally, unlike something like medicare, we really don't need everyone to participate. Non-profit rentals can live alongside for-profit rentals. Some people may not mind paying extra for more luxurious rentals. And that's great for them. But lots of people would love to have regular, non-luxury options.

[roseofrevolt]

Angel In The Mirror

The Angel in the Mirror™ was marketed during the 1995 holiday season as a means of communing with a deity without the inconveniences of a complex faith. For the low price of 59.99, you would have unfettered divining rights to discern even the most mysterious of life's questions. For a ritual object, it was a fairly simple set-up compared to what could be found in the ostentatious halls of the Oblationist. Gone were the days of making the trip out to receive banal gifts and visions from the various registered gods. This was the modern family's solution to keep up with work-worship balance. All that production needed was a single pane of two-way glass, backlit by a bulb no brighter than what you'd find in a nightlight. With a flick of a switch you would blur the other side of the mirror and await her visage to find its way to you. The shadow of a resplendent being, wings outstretched and welcoming you into her presence. A handy guide of hymns and prayer was included free with every purchase. All the praise and thanks she would ever need. "From afar, we watch the world. From within, we watch ourselves. You are the sight beyond sight. Grace us so we may one day see."

Of course, making a god was the big strategic cost. The company thought we'd be a little clever and repurpose a minor one that the courts had deemed too unwieldly for the general public. The freaky backwoods types that you see on the news every now and again. Something with all the work already put into it.

The Damselfly. She Who Bears Witness. Initially we were afraid of what the focus groups would think of some great insect, but the aspects that had been used to create her fit what we had been looking for. Soothsaying, guardian of oracles and the lost, and most importantly, omen of good fortune to a newly built household. She agreed to our rebranding ideas after we had explained how useful she would be again. Pterostigma was traded in for feathers. When she hit the market, we had thought we had hit gold. Initial sales sold like hot cakes, and the reviews coming in had branded the Angel in the Mirror™️ as the fad of the year. We were finding that while families were still our main buyer, there was a smaller but growing demand for her from the 20-25 age demographic. Young adults still in college or entering the workforce, still full of anxiety for the future. "What if I don't pass my classes?" "Is this job what I want to do for the rest of my life?" "How am I going to pay back these loans?"

The more contemporary gods wouldn't have responded to such trivial questions, but the Angel in the Mirror™️ was more than happy to assuage their fears and listen. A gentle voice to give insight into each and every possibility. Her guiding hand reaching out to help walk you through even the most minute detail in some cases. We should have realized what had gone wrong then and there, but we were too blind to the truth of what we had done. May 12th, 1996 was the official start of the recall. We had been destroying the units we had in our facilities months before that however. The first case of a breach had occurred during our preparations for the next holiday season. Some kid down south, without a lick of sense in him, had fashioned her a way through. The divine made flesh is never a pretty sight, but this aspect of her that was able to materialize was definitely not the smiling woman we had plastered in our ads.

Our mistake was not researching what the Damselfly did to her adherents beyond the beneficial. She was a crepuscular predator, who would devour those caught without the options that a future would provide. When she could no longer see the paths ahead for you, she would convince you that there was only one real choice left. Better to be one with her forever than to face a sorrowful tomorrow. We had given her unfettered access beyond the small base that had spawned her. And as report after report started to come through soon after, we knew she was taking advantage of that. Those lucky enough to listen to her during the day found that the sun was too bright for her many eyes, just a moment or two more to decide against her calling. Others were gone the moment she reached through for them.

The officers of The Wasting Maw were able to contain her influence after a short stand-off, but the damage to our brand had been done. We paid our dues in refunds and the usual mandated fines with these sorts of things. Our then CEO even had to address the public, sweating bullets as he apologized for the oversight in our product design, promising that our newest line wouldn't lead to mass disappearences. You still see cultists buying up mirrors online, those who wished to have been called by her or maybe don't understand what it meant. They pay thousands of dollars to adorn themselves in the shards of what they get their hands on, becoming her eyes out to the world. They pray that she will darken the panes once more and whisper of tomorrow.

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

SH’s post does not differ too much from A Night in Nola - at TOTC2024

"Sassenach" in Gaelic just means English person. Sasana/ Sasainn means England. Its use' has survived in Scotland as - 'Aa dinna ken = I don't know'. The earliest evidence for Sassenach is from 1757, in the writing of the Scottish writer Tobias Smollett, So, the word “Sassenach" is not related to the word “outsider”.

SH has appropriated the word Sassenach from Outlander for personal gain and is attempting to distance himself with different versions to justify the name of his whisky as Outlander comes to an end.🙄

How long should these awards last?

The San Francisco World Spirits Competition is the largest award show, around 90.0% of spirits that enter this competition and in the Singapore World Spirits Competition ‘win a medal’ 🥇🥈🥉. That’s a guess the judges are not very strict. Tasting whisky is very subjective; you may or may not agree with any so-called expert panel. That leads to the question of how to know if you like whisky before buying it.

Wonder how many phone calls or letters SH receives every week asking him to participate in a spirit award show.

I do give them credit that spirits are blind-tasting, but one thing is important, judges do talk to each other and try to influence. This leads us to the whisky reason. To buy a bottle of whisky because a shelf talker mentioned it ‘won’ an award.

Spirits buyers without much knowledge of spirits (i.e. SH’s female fans) do like to see ‘awards’ on retail shelf talkers. It makes them feel good about their purchase. Most also have no clue there is more than 1 award show or anything about how they work or worse some of them don’t drink.

A huge flaw in every award show is there may be another side to it thought to get an award. If everyone “wins” then they keep coming back and paying to enter “competitions.” Hey everyone likes to be a winner!

SH fans taste his products and tell him what He wants to hear. But, On the other hand, actual customers, and whisky connoisseurs tell what they think. That is the best award! After you enter competitions and win in all of them, that is enough. The contest has no real merit, send a check or transfer per spirit entered along with the bottles for award consideration.

If SH comes back again and again to the same whisky and gin competitions with the limited edition from previous years, then his friend and partner feel honoured even if no one has any clue of ​​his partner's contribution to the alcohol business 🤷‍♀️

Posted 7th September 2024

[blackbutler-readerinsertsandjunk]

Soulmate scene with Alistair. Everything they see before they find each other is dull, even physical touch doesn't feel vibrant. He could meet her at a "ball" where she's being sold labeled as "pure and untouched" their eyes meet and the rest is history for him. For her she's worried because her soulmate is a buyer

one word: OOF

loved this tho, aaaaaaaa

the rest of the world was black and white but we were in screaming color. ―“Out of the Woods”, Taylor Swift

The fact that every single thing in life feels muted, (Name) thinks, might be her saving grace.

It’s keeping her from fighting back; keeping her alive, at least for the time being. Every touch on her skin is dull, like she can feel she’s being touched but sensation itself is missing. Her captors have bathed her, dressed her, bound and caged her, and she can’t describe their touches as positive or negative. They just are.

It means she doesn’t retaliate to stop them, because nothing about this is causing her pain, is it? On the other side of the coin, however, it also means that in her whole life, she’s never felt anything good. Everything seems grey at best. She’s gone through life feeling absolutely nothing, no spark of joy nor weight of sadness. Although she’s felt the hint of those things, or what they should be, nothing has come close to the way she sees other people live once they’ve found their soulmates.

The chattering of the crowd, clinking of wine glasses, and the auctioneer selling off the other ladies might as well be a low hum.

Her attention is only pulled when the footsteps of low-heeled boots approach her cage, followed by the auctioneer addressing whoever is interested. “I see this one has caught your fancy, my lord! Inspect her closer, please, if you wish. She is the best of the quality we can promise you ― pure as the driven snow, beautiful and untainted, a true pinnacle of our offerings this evening.”

“May I?” The other voice is low and smooth, with an undertone of something playful beneath the darkness of anyone who would intend to purchase another human being.

“Why, yes, of course, of course. Please. Make sure she’s to your liking.”

The man who’s interested in her doesn’t hesitate. (Name) can feel his hands behind her head, untying the black lace cloth which blinded her for the auction. When it falls down, she’s staring into the violet eyes of a man who threatens to take her breath away by his very appearance alone. She’s never seen anyone so gorgeous, dressed all in elegant white with soft blonde hair that gathers around his shoulders like a crown of feathers.

What startles her more is that when he puts his hand on her face, she can feel it. It isn’t the dull pressure of knowing that someone is touching her. It’s the texture of his glove, the gentle way he cradles her cheek, the snap of someone being suddenly awaken after walking around dead.

It’s him. The one her heart has been looking for is right here, breathing life into her world with a single touch of his hand.

Who is he? Why is her intended here? What is he doing in a seedy place like this, seeking to buy a person? If he pays the auctioneer for her, if he leads her out of here, what will the next cage he leads her into be like?

For the first time in her life, her emotions are clawing at her chest to get out, a wonderful and terrible mix of fear and adoration.

Those eyes of his stand out more than anything. They sparkle at her like precious jewels, reflecting the same desire that she can feel. The sensations of her, of the rest of the world, are finally taking form for him too. Incredible and overwhelming and threatening to swallow him whole, just as is happening with her.

He seems to fall for her in a single instant. She thinks she could drag him to his knees right now and he would have no complaint. That makes her feel powerful and wanted, but it also frightens her.

Someone so devoted to her after knowing her for just a moment ― what is a man like that capable of? What will he do with her? What will he do?

His touch travels to her neck, tracing delicate lines. He doesn’t appear to want to hurt her, does he? That doesn’t mean he’s harmless. She arches her head back anyway, exposing her throat for him as if he can be trusted with it.

At last, he utters three words that seal her fate: “I’ll take her.”

In the blur that follows, the auctioneer is paid, (Name)’s new owner finishes his wine, and he holds her delicately as he leads her down the stairs. Even though she’s out of her cage, she doesn’t think she’s actually free.

“Come along, lovebird,” he murmurs into her ear. “I can’t wait to get to know the one who lit up my world.”

She isn’t sure what to think; too many new, fully blossomed emotions make her feel like they’re going to burst her open at the seams.

She leans against him regardless, somehow content in his embrace.

He doesn’t seem cruel, at least toward her.

Maybe that’s enough for her heart to settle.