#even if it's not immediately relevant to this situation i think they're worth watching. it's good to hear what they have to say

[finelinens1994]

i'm really grateful that catlyn and brookeab streamed and gave their perspectives as people who are in that sphere and, in catlyn's case, are friends with the dteam. watching their vods was so good even if it was really hard emotionally, like it's just nice to see women bringing these difficult conversations to their audiences and trying to have a positive impact

[n7punk]

i know probably no one here gives a shit about it or listening to me specifically talking about it but i watched a great video on the watcher situation and i have thoughtsssssss so im going to spew them into the ether

tldr watcher (the former buzzfeed unsolved + worth it boys after they split from bz) did a big hype countdown for their fans... to them announcing they were launching a "streaming service" and paywalling all their content - present and PAST - behind it for 6$ a month. they totally shit on their fans saying anyone could afford it (i cant - or at least i wont for the value to me) and then they gaslit us and said it was never the plan to remove the past content even though they say it in the video and it was in the fucking variety article that launched along with the announcement.

anyway, what kind of surprises me is everyone comparing this to dropout (and now try guys) when there's another example of this that is even more relevant right now and it's roosterteeth, which is only relevant right now because they just went bankrupt. and imo, there's absolutely no comparison in value (however you feel about the content) between dropout/roosterteeth and watcher.

size: rt had a massive cast, dropout seems to have a decent amount too (only familiar with game changer, sorry). try guys has a few core members, true, but over the last few years they've been trying to diversify, bring more people in over a few videos to test the waters, and then they invested into new shows with those faces when creating their lineup for the streaming service. watcher is three guys. oh sorry four now they brought andrew on for the worth it clone 🙄 i hated that guy at buzzfeed and i hate him now lol

bloat: try guys started with a few employees working out of ned's old house and grew organically. dropout cut down significantly when they broke from college humor and budgeted until they could afford to hire more. roosterteeth started in a spare bedroom and then slowly grew into larger and larger offices over time. watcher immediately bought a massive office space in LA and then jumped to an even larger one, with 25 employees when most shows could probably be done with half as many people that end up credited! 25 employees and you upload once or twice a week if that?? that means one video has to pay for 25 people to live that week, in addition to business expenses. they want to be a large production company, so they're acting like they are without making the output or doing the research.

youtube presence: rt still uploaded most things to youtube, my understanding is dropout still posts as well, and try guys is planning to keep all their current shows on youtube, just on a schedule delay like rt did. all services have stuff exclusive to their service, but that's new, extra stuff that serves as a value-add. watcher was just going to abandon every fan that didn't pay for their service, and even after the backlash the delay is a MONTH? for rt it was just a week!

platforms: try guys is launching with the site, phone apps, and even a roku tv app! roosterteeth had an app too and dropout has phone/roku apps. watcher is launching with a single website in beta. it's a money-hungry patreon, not a streaming service with a diverse lineup of shows. calling it a streaming service is ludicrous to me.

(apparently the fan theory is that watcher caught wind of the try guys launching their own streaming service and tried to jump the gun to get ahead of them, but by god did they fumble that)

frequency: if you were a fan of one person at roosterteeth, as long as they were the main cast member of something, it was likely you could tune in to a new episode of something with them in it twice a week, sometimes every day, multiple times. like, it's insane watcher thinks they have the amount of content to justify this. and remember, roosterteeth failed! obvs it worked for a long time and there's warner bros being eager to pull the plug to contend with (not to mention the alleged embezzlement?) but youtubers should be really fucking cautious right now. try guys is launching with a catalogue of new shows they've been silently producing alongside their usual content for a year! that's the way to do it right

paid events availability: try guys used to have ticketed flagship liveshows that are all being added to the new streaming service. if you were the kind of fan who wants to go to all those, you might even save money. roosterteeth also had events like this that were exclusive to paid subscribers. watcher doesn't have anything comparable.

goodwill: i would argue this was a big contributor to why roosterteeth finally went bankrupt with all the trust (and good memories too!) lost in the scandals. dropout fans seem to be really proud of the company and how its run (i heard they're like, the only streaming service to offer residuals? thats so cool). the try guys went through their own scandal and only came out with a stronger bond with their fans for how quickly they acted (a few were lost, but my final impression in the end was we all gained respect for how they handled it). the try guys have talked about taking paycuts as the ceo to fund all this production! meanwhile watcher brags about how large their production is without ever justifying why they need it. related:

tonedeafness: supposedly the streaming service is to pay for high production value. no one is really buying that. the company is bloated and mismanaged, but the real thing was them launching a worth it clone. don't get it twisted, every ceo, part-owner, etc is to blame for this, not just the face of worth it, but no fan who is bankrolling the show themselves wants to watch someone else eat luxury food. people liked that when it was a grift on buzzfeed, not on them.

this is completely subjective but i watch three shows on watcher (unsolved, puppet history, and mystery files) and i'd have to be making 4x my salary for me to be willing to pay 6$ a month for three shows no matter how much i like them. like, i'm not paying 6$ for try guys either, but watcher being so focused on having "shows" and "seasons" makes it really easy to point to how little i really watch there versus try guys which has a big variety of stuff not tied to a specific show name. i never think about "which shows" i watch on try guys.

idk i just think roosterteeth's goliath cast and output still burning out should be brought up more when talking about (the comparatively) little 3 million subscribers watcher trying to launch their own "streaming service" when there's a pretty good cautionary tale right now - well, two when you consider how this went down lol

[thevulpinehero1]

Gwatch: Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Ep 2

Time for Episode 2. After a high-octane first episode, EP 2 has some minor administrative stuff to take care of in regards to laying out the situation the protagonists will be in. As before, be wary of spoilers.

Pictured: the Captain of the White Base asking a sensible question about war machines that would later be almost exclusively piloted by people too young to legally drink

Let's talk about Zakus. People love Zakus. They're cute little cyclops guys, and they get totally manhandled basically from start to finish whenever they appear which gives them underdog points, but it's worth noting that at this point the story goes out of its way to establish that even a Zaku, the punching bag mook suit of future Gundam lore, is a huge threat.

Char reports losing two Zakus, and his superior cannot believe his ears. These are the shaky beginnings of mobile suits, and the Earth Federation doesn't really have any horses in that race yet. They're still trying to fight off Zakus with tanks and planes, and the Zakus are as far above conventional military vehicles as the Gundam is above the Zakus.

Two Zakus murdered entire crowds of people. They're stated to have wiped out almost every single military officer and engineer that was supposed to staff the White Base. They're directly responsible for the ongoing crisis that the protagonists experience throughout the series; those two random guys Amuro yolo'd in a suit he could barely get to stand up were more effective in stalling the Federation war effort than almost anything that follows.

And they sort've need to be that effective, because the audience needs to be sold on the premise of mechs as a weapon of war, subject to the logistics and concerns of the battlefield. Previous shows in the genre have been more super robot types, so they got a free pass, but the Zaku needs to show why you wouldn't just use a tank or more conventional vehicle, and that threat level has been established early on (even if it's mostly brushed over; as mecha fans will admit, the question "but why does it have to be a giant robot?" doesn't have any good practical answers outside of it being cooler. Even if you ignore things like the square-cube law and the difficulty in scaling up a humanoid body, even if you ignore how complex mecha would be in comparison to a tank loaded with the same armaments, the simple fact is that humanoid is not a particularly effective shape to be on a modern battlefield.)

Sayla Mass shortly after slapping a random civilian who has understandably elected to get himself away from an active battlefield instead of roaming around looking for survivors, then telling him he should be left behind to die instead of being evacuated. Her sweater has become part of her skin; she's a Na'vi from the neck down.

Sayla's an interesting character who basically never appears in other Gundam shows, despite the fact that she'd be pretty relevant to a couple of them and the series being quite happy to include previous major characters in later instalments. I forget why this is the case -- I think it might have had something to do with her VA? -- but either way, she's one of the few who doesn't return in any meaningful role, which means we can only enjoy her here.

Part of what makes her fun to watch is that, when she's not just randomly slapping potentially traumatised survivors of a military attack, she's generally pretty effective. Within minutes of us being told her name, she's pulled a gun on Char, who's snuck into the colony on foot to do a bit of spying (which is honestly something of a habit for him as the Gundam series goes on). He almost immediately disarms her because he's Char and also extremely effective when he wants to be, but hey.

Char Aznable playing Touhou in his off time. Seriously, this guy dodges lasers like it's going out of style.

As Char makes his escape with the valuable data, we're treated to what will become a fairly common sight: Amuro getting out the beam rifle and just kind of yeeting all of his ammunition at nothing in particular. This time, he has excuses; he's aiming at human targets in a mobile suit, and he's never really killed a human in cold blood before. He also pulls off a couple of neat shots where he hits two missiles mid-flight. But I remember the amount of times 'oh no I fired wildly with my rifle and didn't hit anything, and now I have no ammo!' became a complicating factor becoming something of a joke to me.

We're then treated to the first ever battle between Amuro Ray and Char Aznable, which ends up as more or less a stalemate. Make no mistake: Amuro gets completely manhandled by Char, who's an accomplished ace pilot with five battleship kills to his name. But the Gundam is so OP for this point in the series that, even though Amuro can't really touch him, Char can't really capitalise on the opportunity since the Gundam can tank his weapons head on. In the end, their skirmish is a mutual loss. Amuro loses to a pilot. Char loses to a suit.

But Char walks away with a head full of the Federation's military secrets and a much better understanding of the Gundam's threat level, and he has supplies and reinforcements on the way...

[emmalostinwonderland]

I just saw This Post about doing CPR/Heimlich on fat people, and I didn't want to just take over the post with adjacently relevant info but. Here's some interesting facts and a few tips for CPR from a 911 operator.

If someone is Non-Responsive (unconscious and they won't wake up no matter what you try), call emergency services immediately. In the US, that means 911. Dispatchers are trained to walk you through performing CPR until medics arrive.

If someone needs CPR, they are already dead. I cannot stress to you enough that you will not be doing chest compressions on an alive person. You can literally only help in this situation.

Do not judge a person's breathing based on sounds. Agonal breathing occurs in a lot of cardiac arrest cases, but it's not true or normal breathing. Watch to see if their chest is rising and falling evenly.

Sometimes putting someone through pain is a good thing. If this person is alive and therefore does not need chest compressions, the pain of you shoving their chest two inches down might wake them up.

If they're on furniture (bed, recliner, etc) when they go unresponsive, drag them onto the floor in any way you can. The force of hitting the floor can only help in this case. Reminder- if they need CPR, they are already dead.

Extra stuff:

It's good to always know your location. If you call 911, they cannot proceed with the call until you can tell them where to send help.

If you're in a public/commercial building, ask an employee about an AED. They are supposed to know where one is kept. That being said, if you work in a commercial building, learn where the AED is kept.

You probably won't be expected to provide rescue breaths. Kissing via CPR is for the movies. Dispatch is likely just going to walk you through compressions.

You might touch a boob. It's not weird. The boob-haver is dead and you're saving their life.

For my fellow friends with anxiety or other concerns:

The likelihood of someone being upset with you or judging you for performing CPR on them when they needed it is so low that it's not worth even thinking about.

The likelihood of someone being upset with you for doing CPR on their loved one when they could not is so low its not worth even thinking about.

If anyone blames you for broken ribs, concussion, or other issues caused by providing CPR, then they are the asshole here. The fact that they're alive enough to be hypothetically angry at all is because you saved them.

If you call emergency services, they will likely stay with you on the line until medics are in the room and taking over. You're not alone.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I'm passionate about this shit.

[buddha-in-disguise]

Nothing is as it seems.

I've talked about this away from social media at length, but wanted to just put the thoughts down properly about the overall Supergirl Season 5 plot - not about cast or characters per se, since I have covered this a few times in numerous posts.

Supergirl was touted as being a Black Mirror season, where nothing is as it seems, and the dangers of technology and certain social media platforms.

I was excited for this. As my husband can attest, I love these kind of puzzles or plots in TV or film (hello, Interstellar anyone? Or 12 Monkeys. Or from books, the likes of Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, or Shutter Island - I've not seen the film so, no idea if it follows the book closely. Or TV, Black Mirror).

So much to my husband's annoyance I often will catch onto clues long before he does when watching things (I do try to keep quiet when I watch things with him so as not to spoil it, but I slip up and suddenly say 'did you see that?' As he gives me a bemused look and the 'no.' falling from his lips with practiced ease). I might not always know the full relevance to certain things, but I see cohesion that I can then map towards a conclusion, or it helps me understand if an ending is more open to interpretation.

Supergirl this season has left me struggling to catch any clues or their relevance. Sure they're there. Hope offering to kill Kara even though her prime directive was to do no harm in episode one for goodness sake, as an immediate red flag went up for me, plus Lillian and the Earth they controlled comment to Lex suggesting she wasn't Earth 38 Lillian, particularly with Lex's reaction, Leviathan leader is female - not a surprise if they're following the comics, but it feels far more weighted as a clue than that. Lena decidedly working against Lex (including appearing to press the button on the cube as he walked away, facial expressions as he leaves or has left etc). These are the most immediate things just off the top of my head.

So I know if I'm struggling to bring things into any cohesive threads, then I can only imagine some are struggling to do even that and can't get anything of the whole season plot from the episodes thus far.

I think this would be fine over a short run, but the problem seems to have become 2 fold.

The first is, Black Mirror or most films of a similar ilk only last around 60 to 90 minutes on average. Perhaps a little longer, sometimes less.

That's all well and good, but to then try and bring that over to around 20 hours of television?

Think of this another way. Black mirror has had 5 seasons. The same as Supergirl. However, it has only had 22 episodes in all that time, so only one seasons worth of episodes compared to Supergirl. Each Black mirror episode was self contained. Plus any Easter eggs or themes they brought into later episodes were done in such a way, that knowing earlier episodes wasn't essential for understanding any new episode.

While the premise was sound for Supergirl, I think now the execution has suffered because it is over too many episodes.

Add in the Crisis episodes and then 2 hiatus' coming in almost on top of one another, and that has been compounded. It has made it far harder to remember nuances that might have been given in the early episodes, that would now make more sense. Because they haven't been outright smacks over our heads with a piece of 2x4 in terms of how clues have been given, or even which scenes might actually be relevant and others have no real meaning to the later plotline.

Behind the scenes, they know how this is going to play out (or at least, they have a broad arc outline), but the viewer doesn't have that. It is one thing to watch back once all pieces are in place, to understand it. It is entirely another when you expect an audience to understand what you are trying to achieve when there is so much that is confounding people.

This is leading to frustration. Add in other issues being raised, and it can only compound the situation.

Truly I want nothing more than to be able to get the full season screened, to look back and finally understand what it all entailed, and hopefully say: Shit okay, so that was how it was. Well done. It frustrated me all to hell, but damn you pulled it off. *applause*

But honestly, to have it over a full season feels excessive. I think it would've been far better served to have more of Crisis in the lead up into those episodes, and allow the 2nd half of the season deal with everything else. Just compact it up a bit more. It feels far too complicated for far too long.

Plus I'm also just not sure how they're going to be able to bring it together with the number of episodes left, especially if it is a shortened season number as being suggested.

Remember I am saying this is as someone who loves this kind of thing!

We are now at the stage of the season where we need more than subtly on how this is going, but good solid moments of momentum that we know are part of the ending somehow, even if we still don't have full context. Otherwise I sense the discomfort for viewers in not understanding what is trying to be shown to them will become even more discord.

Right now it feels messy. I've not felt this adrift on the overall plot in previous seasons of Supergirl as I have in this one. Sure we know, nothing is as it seems. We have some puzzle pieces outlining certain things. We know Leviathan are involved. We know Lex has a part to play. We even know Lena has a part to play (you can tell she is looking to take Lex and Lillian down, let alone the other problems with Kara that are nowhere being addressed either). We know Brainy has a part to play. We know the broader strokes. But the middle is still a jumbled mess of pieces that have nothing that looks even remotely like the picture on the box.

I want nothing more than the season to succeed. The earlier half of the season had overall solid views. Since Crisis it has suffered (and let me tell you, if you think SuperCorp can reach across a 200k to 300k drop in viewership *after* the last episode began airing, you are completely blinded by your desire to blame them for everything. It might be a big fandom, but it is nowhere that large. Step back and at least acknowledge that is not logical or feasible).

So. I think they had a great idea, I really do. I think though the length of time to try and make it come to fruition has been detrimental overall.

I truly hope the rest of the season pulls back what it did earlier, and it solidifies the whole season as it reaches its conclusion.

[novakidds]

for that ask game, all multiples of 3 :3

POG

3) 3 films you could watch for the rest of your life and not get bored of?

i do not actually watch many movies. one that IMMEDIATELY came to mind though? the princess bride. i watched it enough to re-tell the script end-to-end when i was a kid bc im insane

6) what’s the best and worst part of being online/a creator?

best: i can give advice to people in a similar situation to myself and they (allegedly) actually want to listen and grow from whatever relevant wisdom i have to give worst: the amount of information i am expected (and even required) to provide to give context to my situation. and for many, it will never be enough!

9) tell a story about your childhood

this unlocked a memory

the first and last time my family of 4 did something together that was of my own initiative was play l/ttle b/g pl4net 3 together. it was a timed co-op level that required use of all 4 controllers. i alone could not operate 4 controllers, i had no available friends (if i did it wouldn't be enough people), and thusly i asked the three of them. i was patient in teaching my parents how the controller worked through my mother repeatedly saying how un-intuitive she felt it to be (which is fair) and after giving them colorful costumes to tell each other apart, we began to play.

there was multiple rounds of not quite meeting the time, but that's fine, it's just a game and we could try again. i enjoyed sharing my special interest of the time with them. my younger brother, however, quickly grew frustrated. for context, with a deep anxiety about losing his baby teeth upon having lost one, my father had given him a $20 bill earlier this morning to assuage the dread and attempt to make it a positive experience.

to express his frustration, he had gotten up and stormed off to his room. i let him be, and desperately tried to keep momentum with teaching 2 adults how to use a PS4 controller while operating two of them myself. when my brother had returned, he told the room that he had ripped up his $20 bill. my father rose his voice- he does so rarely- and sent him to his room. to help him (brother) calm down, they went on a walk in the neighborhood.

the session had died. with two players out of the picture and my mother still trying to understand one controller, i could not ask her to operate two, nor could i reasonably operate three. we stopped playing, i turned the game off, and have had no such fortune ever since.

12) what’s some good advice you want to share?

when buying the first supplying wave of utensils or cookware for your kitchen, buy cheap stuff first. whatever breaks, wears, or tears first is what you use the most, and can reliably replace with an expensive appliance that will get its moneys worth. you may or may not use an ice cream maker that much to warrant a super-good one.

also, get silicone spatulas. not hard plastic, because it scratches nonstick coating and leaves microplastics, and metal DEFINITELY scratches nonstick coating.

15) what do you think of when you hear the word “home”?

decades-old garden of ferns that grow up to your chest. a lilac bush so tall it's a tree. tiger lilies as a vibrant surprise every summer. chickadees coming to the feeder, and steller jays that will land in your hand if you have peanuts.

the wave of stench from pets past and present the moment you dare walk in the front door. a window the sun never wants to shine through. laundry older than you are up to your knees. mice, beetles, spiders, moths, fruit flies, dust, dust.

18) do you believe in ghosts and/or aliens?

your energy definitely lingers when you're gone, positive or negative, and presents itself in bizarre ways (especially with electric tech like cameras)

aliens are inevitable. the universe is too damn big. whether or not they're, like, here isnt exactly a big concern unless they have the guts to make it a little more fuckin obvious they are. i mean CMON

21) are you a spiritual person?

...... maybe? what i believe isnt written down by somebody else, and is thus boring to explain at parties.

24) what’s one thing you’re proud of yourself for?

question #1 i had to save to come back to no matter how sleep-deprived, dehydrated, unfed, or suicidal i am, i can get out of bed to go to work.

27) any nicknames?

my gf calls me "wionel" when she bullies me lol

30) what’s one thing that never fails to make you happy/happier?

question #2 i had to save to come back to my partner. i don't want to abuse that too much. i dread, sometimes, that one day that spiritual balm might not work anymore.

33) any hobbies?

i'm drawing again. i intended to abandon all of my hobbies in favor of working, but my gf had encouraged me to start again.

36) are you an open book or do you have walls up?

no one in-person is worth opening to except my partner, and so i just... don't. i have cultivated my online space quite carefully. i can be open here.

39) youtuber you’ve been obsessed with and why?

IF YOU LIKE FACTORIO? dear god go watch Michael Hendriks

he has a lot of challenge videos, mostly uses text to communicate to the viewer and doesn't often talk, and he also has m/necr4ft challenges if you look at his older uploads. but i have the 'tism and like factorio sue me