#every year of my 20s has been a shitshow | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

frankendykes-monster · 1 year ago

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Countdown to Halloween 2023, Ranked

43. Swamp Thing (1982)

42. Curse of Bigfoot (1975)

41. The Haunting (1999)

40. Orca (1977)

39. Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958)

38. The Beast (1975)

37. Don't Go in The House (1979)

36. Countess Dracula (1971)

35. Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967)

34. Beware! The Blob (1972)

33. Alien Space Avenger (1989)

32. Baby Blood (1990)

31. Shriek of The Mutilated (1974)

30. The Mutations (1974)

29. Phase IV (1974)

28. Curse of The Faceless Man (1958)

27. The Sadist (1963)

26. Jennifer (1978)

25. The Wasp Woman (1959)

24. Noroi: The Curse (2005)

23. Girls Nite Out (1982)

22. The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1959)

21. The Cat and The Canary (1927)

20. Tell Your Children (Reefer Madness, 1936)

19. The Company of Wolves (1984)

18. It's Alive (1974)

17. The Wolf House (2018)

16. Michael Jackson's Halloween (2017)

15. The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

14. The Omega Man (1971)

13. Gamera: Rebirth (2023)

12. Student Bodies (1981)

11. Night Caller From Outer Space (1965)

10. Inhumanoids (episodes 1 - 5, 1986)

9. Blind Woman's Curse (1970)

8. Maniac (1980)

7. The Child (1977)

6. Zombie 3 (1988)

5. Return of The Living Dead (1985)

4. Spider Baby (1967)

3. Basket Case (1982)

2. Messiah of Evil (1973)

Godzilla (1954)

Woof. Okay. This has been a mostly disappointing viewing experience.

Critical difference between this year's countdown and the past two is that now that I have stable employment, there is far less time to be watching horror films. I normally begin the countdown in September but we started in July of this year and still barely managed to crack 40, with my original goal being a full 100 this year. Timing. As such a lot of my plans and possible viewings were cut short and compared to last year specifically we fell back on a lot of "seen it already" at least for the top of the list.

This year's batch of viewings were largely blah, but a step up from the shitshow I put myself through last year (watching nearly every Texas Chainsaw sequel does things to a person). As such it'll be difficult to conjure up words for a decent chunk of these mostly because yes, these movies exist, I watched them, I would not recommend that you yourself watch them. That is all. If I write briefly on a given film that's not necessarily an indictment of its quality as there a decent number of these that I saw and enjoyed it's just their impact might be a bit fleeting. You will know which ones I actively disliked. I mostly just want to write about the top five or so but I will play fair.

Our grand loser this year is Swamp Thing, the DC Comics adaptation by Wes Craven. I watched this pretty much entirely because I finally got the Alan Moore Swamp Thing run in paperback this year after quite some time of having it on my to-buy list. Longtime Rachael/Ray/Ratchet fans may recall me reading it in early 2019 alongside [REDACTED]. Still one of the best Moore comics, and a second volume of Swamp Thing wouldn't have been possible without the success of this film. For context I did read the early Swampies by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson and my general reaction to those was a'ight but there was definitely material for a serviceable film adaptation there. This is not that serviceable film adaptation. I'm not hung up on details like how Abigail has no connection to Arcane now despite being his niece in the comics, but this film is just kind of painful in how relatively unambitious it is which is saying something for Swamp Thing sword fighting another human mutation at the end of this. It's just silly and stupid and not scary or awe inspiring or anything, the Swamp Thing suit sucks, the action sucks, any sense of pathos is not there or gone, it stretches for 30 minutes too long like it's a padded TV pilot, the only highlight is being able to see Adrienne Barbeau's breasts. Fuck this it's a miserable experience to sit through. My mistake for watching a Wes Craven film that doesn't have "Scream" in the title.

Our next shitter is the two-for-one abomination that is Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958) and Curse of Bigfoot (1975); these are the same movie except Curse of Bigfoot has a 25 minute opening scene framing device that is bizarre given that "The Thing" of the original film is a Native American mummy of some sort unearthed by a group of white high school students. It's the rare personal pet project movie made for fun by some locals but the only highlights are the occasional kill scene, Curse of Bigfoot ranks lower just for making me sit through it longer. Blah.

Speedrunning through a bunch of these because theyre all varying degrees of bad and I don't want to spend any longer writing about these than you probably do reading about them: The Haunting is awful and I don't even super care for the original film so adding shitty CGI monsters and a moral lesson of "it's about family!" doesn't help. Orca is a shitty Jaws cash-in that's like a reverse Moby Dick where the sea animal hunts down the human, nice finale where the orca and shitty poacher guy are fighting it out in the Arctic but otherwise avoid. Don't Go in The House is a mysoginistic torture porn movie that really doesn't sell the "seemingly normal guy is a closet nutcase" thing even though movies made before and after have done it well (see Maniac several paragraphs below). The Beast is advertised as this really scandalous porno film but most of it is French aristocrats sitting around in stuffy rooms arguing about real estate. I think I only watched Countess Dracula for its inclusion in the "if this is her vibe I would fucking cum" meme and it's barely worth bringing up at all. Hillbillys in a Haunted House has an absolutely lovely Tennessee country soundtrack that I wish I could listen to without having to watch the actual movie which is devoid of both scares and laughs. Beware! The Blob gives off the feeling of sitting at a funeral for a family member that was just distant enough for you to be aware of them but not actually be upset but it's still a funeral so it's not like you're smiling, stick with the 1988 Blob film. Alien Space Avenger has some decent gore effects but that's all I can recall from it. Shriek of The Mutilated has one of the best titles for an otherwise uninspired yeti movie that has a needless third act twist about it being a cover for a cult and blah blah blah fuck you. Baby Blood has an alien mutant whatever crawl up a woman's vagina into her womb and she has to eat people to feed it and yeah I'm actually struggling to remember what happens here. The Mutations has a scene where a guy cuts into a tree and it bleeds, I think he's played by Donald Pleasance. Yeah, it's like Freaks except it plays to the freak show straight so you get to laugh at all the outcasts of society, no thank you.

Some odds and ends that I'd say are decent-to-pretty-good: Phase IV has some footage of ants and synth music. All you need is some footage of ants and synth music. Curse of The Faceless Man employs a rarely seen archetype of the living statue monster, it's cute. The Sadist is another starring vehicle for Arch Hall Jr., who was also the star of last Halloween's Eegah! (1962), though this film is a bold trendsetter for the 1960's with Hall being a unhinged killer holding people for ransom until they can fix his car and he can make a getaway. The film lives and dies by Hall's performance and it's mostly the latter until we get to an absolutely superb final act with him hunting down his remaining victims, it makes the whole film worth seeing. Jennifer is an oddball that plays out mostly like a character drama ("It wasn't my fault Daddy it was that stupid hillbilly bitch Jennifer") that suddenly remembers that it's supposed to be a cash-in of Carrie (1976) in the last 20 minutes and cue our titular character being able to summon and control snakes to send after her tormentors. Girls Nite Out is a plodding meandering slasher that's oddly hypnotizing considering so much of it takes place in pitch-black night and the killer is wearing a bear mascot costume with serrated knives hidden under the glove, not sure what fully to make of it. The Monster of Piedras Blancas is made up of leftover parts from the Gillman, Mole People, and Metaluna Mutant, but still manages to star in a decent enough film that gives a sense of what a series of monster attacks would do to a small seaside community. The Cat and The Canary is "cute" for lack of a better term being a horror comedy before the former genre had fully crystalized. Reefer Madness is horror adjacent more than anything but a hilariously good time about how the use of "marihuana" will drive today's youth into becoming crazed fiends and get involved in organized crime.

We can do this.

The Company of Wolves has an excellent story book like setting an atmosphere that you can't get in films nowadays and it's a shame that it's mostly remembered for its transformation sequences. it's Alive is the best Larry Cohen film by default of not sucking but it's still not "great", genius however for playing the concept of mutant newborn killer baby completely seriously without any sense of humor to the proceedings. The Girl Who Knew Too Much is almost a parody of giallo films which is interesting given those hadn't fully sprang up in 1963; absolute highlight is the main character being interviewed in bed by doctors and reporters and the like that yes she did see a murder and no she doesn't drink. I've always been fascinated and haunted by I Am Legend and while The Omega Man doesn't really capture the novel to a superb degree it's so beautifully shot that it lands high in the rankings for that alone. Night Caller From Outer Space is hilarious to me because of how it shifts halfway through from a Hammer-esque mystery about a meteorite with radioactive properties to a film about an alien that lures women in through a modeling advertisement. Blind Woman's Curse I've mentally confused with Irezumi for a while now (haha all 1960's Japanese genre films where woman have large animal tattoos on their backs are the saaame), and it's one I mostly watched for being directed by Teruo Ishii, but there's enough bloody yakuza fights and cats licking up blood for me to stick around; not the strongest Meiko Kaiji vehicle compared to Female Prisoner Scorpion or Lady Snowblood. Maniac I find mostly interesting as a precursor to American Psycho (2000) but also it's probably the only serious film to successfully pull off it's ending trope (which I will not spoil here). The Child is an absolutely lovely 1970's only-a-dozen-people-made-this-and-not-much-more-watched-it horror that oozes atmosphere, I could watch stuff like this all day. Aaand Zombie 3 is far and away the best film that Lucio Fulci has been involved with that I've ever seen. I love random scenes and set pieces of ghouls just massacring people that are shit out out of luck.

Okay, now for the ones I actually want to write about.

The Wasp Woman is one that sticks in my head way more than any other random monster movie that Roger Corman directed in the latw 1950's. I've said on here and Letterboxd that it could have served as a standard pop-feminist piece about how the cosmetology industry is built on misogyny and invariably a monster is accidentally created because of that, but this most recent viewing has made me sort of "get it" because that might be what the film is going for considering Susan Cabot's performance leads me to believe that she is aware that she is becoming a homicidal wasp monster but views it as a tragic means to an end where she still has the ability to have a new advertising campaign with her as the star. Tragic. This is why you don't wear make up.

Both Noroi: The Curse and The Wolf House are ones I didn't care for whatsoever but I put them in places on the ranking that I thought were fair given that people should probably watch them regardless of my personal thoughts. Noroi's format didn't really lend itself to the escalation of tension and reveal of information that the plot demanded and I found myself thinking it meanders quite a bit. The Wolf House was an odd one where everything that was happening onscreen bounced off of me mostly because I felt intimately aware that I was watching a movie, that someone had made something and that I was now being shown it. Blah. People like these so don't let me stop you.

Our animated offerings this year...

Michael Jackson's Halloween more than anything feels like an unlicensed creation that later had an English fan dub commissioned, not something that actually aired on CBS twice. Any laughs that I found in this thing were the unintentional type as we open up with Bubbles talking and being Jackson's chauffeur; you know exactly what you're getting into. Very little of the plot is explained but I'm assuming Jackson (who has no lines given this was made posthumously) orchestrates a dark fantasy adventure to hook two...teenagers? People in their late 20's? And convince them to follow their dreams of performing instead of working a deadend dayjob. I'm not sure who the actual audience for this was given it feels like so much of it was made for children but I will say anything that has this much of Michael Jackson's music in it can't be all bad, though I'm not sure why they didn't largely stick with tracks from the album Thriller (in the contention for best album ever, I don't care).

Gamera: Rebirth is one I feel like I'm on the outside on compared to most other tokusatsu fans because I didn't really *love* to a serious degree even though, yes, Gamera is finally back. The first three episodes are mostly just kind of a slog for me with the backhalf not doing enough to retroactively make me think highly of it, though giving off End of Evangelion vibes may make me consider that a second viewing must be in order down the line. Rebirth's strongest attribute is that it feels like it takes into consideration and influence from every prior era of Gamera, no stone is left unturned, and it's a marked contrast from how every recent Godzilla property only captures a single facet of their respective character. But that also creates unique issues like how a lot of criticism of ongoing US military presence in Japan is undercut so there can be a white kid in the main cast (because white children were always present in half of the Showa series) or having the ancient civilization that genetically engineered the kaiju now being malicious and actively sacrificing children as a means of reshaping the world gives me vaguely anti-semitic tones, I don't know, Gamera is still here, I guess.

"I was just a little twerp who liked Scooby-Doo and Smurfs, now I was viewing Cthulhu mutants ruin the Earth."

Everyday that we have Inhumanoids is a gift. Inhumanoids is another Hasbro/Sunbow production like G. I. Joe, Transformers, or Jem and The Holograms, and it is truly tragic that it never got anywhere near that level of attention compared to its siblings. The fact that a 1980's action figure tie-in cartoon is named for its antagonists is only the start; the series follows a small paramilitary outfit of scientists named Earth Core that are tasked with more or less saving the world alongside the Mutores, elemental beings, when the Inhumanoids, eldritch abominations, are unleashed. The degree of world-building beyond your typical "good guys vs. bad guys" affair is astounding with villainous humans and virtuous monsters abounding, but Inhumanoids is mostly magical and remembered for saying fuck all to any type of broadcast standards. Seeing giant monsters destroy cities, undead armies, and spelunking deep into the Earth (where nightmares begin...) are just standard fair here, as are witnessing the actual Inhumanoids such as Metlar (basically the devil) or D'Compose (giant undead entity that can zombify people by touching them and uses his ribcage like a jail cell) in action. The first five episodes here are the pilot movie of sorts for the series which only lasted thirteen overall, and they get more grissly from here on out, but maybe it's best that Inhumanoids is the short lived cartoon and no the cartoon that went soft as early as its second season. I will never not love this show, to this day it's one of my favorite animated series from any decade, much less the 1980's.

Back to our regularly scheduled live-action programming...

Student Bodies is a fascinating film for a myriad of reasons the first of which is that there were somehow enough slasher films by 1981 for there to be a comedy poking fun at all the already established genre-cliches. It's essentially Scary Movie (2000) a full 20 years ahead of the curve only actually funny in spite of the subject matter frequently being as juvenile and prejudiced; but it also reminds me quite a bit of Scream (1996) with stuff like two killers working together. All I know is I was in for a decent time when the film opens with three identical shots of a house just with different framing text: "HALLOWEEN," "FRIDAY THE 13TH," "JAMIE LEE CURTIS' BIRTHDAY" and then the killer, The Breather, calls the opening kill girl doing nothing but breathing heavily, she hangs up, he calls back with "I SAID [heavy breathing]."

Return of The Living Dead is one of those films that should have destroyed the any artifically-imposed boundaries between "high" and "low" art. Every aspect of this film is brilliantly made, it just so happens to be made for stuff like Scooby-Doo music overlaid on top of thunderstorms over graveyards where one female character is stripping to the concept of dying. Media involving ghouls is incredibly oversaturated, and this was still the case in the 1980's where a film like this had to redefine the rules to make it so killing ghouls was basically a non-option. It only recently struck me on this viewing that that's the whole purpose of removing virtually all weaknesses they have, to keep the characters as the nail instead of the hammer. Compared to the Romero films, there's never a point where anyone is in control of the situation, it just escalates further and further until there is literally no way out. Taking that into consideration, there's no way this film couldn't have been a comedy that frames people getting swarmed and eaten by ghouls as hilarious.

The soundtrack and the faux-punk sensibilities lend this a daft feeling of "you shouldn't be watching this" in spite of it not being one of the MOST gory horror films of the 1980's. I still don't get how this never broke into the mainstream. I mean somehow people know that ghouls (in this film) speak and only eat brains but I can't go down to Target and get a Tarman action figure like I can one of Michael Myers. As such Return of The Living Dead remains a criminally overlooked film regardless of its subject matter. It's made me laugh and cringe and feel disgusted and revolt at the concept at dying but mostly it's made me feel a delicious sense of joy at seeing corpses rise out of the ground to the tune of "Do you wanna party? IT'S PARTY TIIIME!" Some of you need to sit in the corner and think about your life choices for making stupid shit like Re-Animator (1985) or fucking Shaun of The Dead (2004) more popular than this, fuck you.

The act of watching Spider Baby is like discovering the missing link. For as much as 1960 gave us an explosion of horror (Eyes Without a Face, The Ship of Monsters, Psycho, Jigoku, Black Sunday, etc.) and Night of The Living Dead (1968) reins as the perennial transition point of the genre, Spider Baby is the road by which we go from The Cat and The Canary and The Old Dark House to the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Eraserhead, it's magical finding an essential piece of a genre you love so much. Both the former and latter points of comparison are apt as a family of now only children [and their butler] suffering from Poe-esque hereditary illness have their condemned house set upon by distant relatives and everything slowly unravels.

Lon Chaney Jr. is an actor who for the longest time I felt never got a proper chance to shine wherein the last 25 years or so of his career was spent playing as side character actor in independent films. Spider Baby is his crowning achievement. Seeing him smile through almost tears on several occasions as he has to play bridge between worlds of sanity and madness and lie to everyone that he has some sense of control over the situation is brilliant in ways I always knew he was capable of but had never seen before this point. Bravo.

I will never not love Basket Case with everything I've got. This is the epitome of 1980's horror and my clear pick for best of the decade. It has everything from being a grungy putrid grindhouse spectacle to being an intimate character drama to everything presented through a wry ironic lense where you can't tell if any "bad" performances are all done on purpose. Between this, Brain Damage (1988), and Frankenhooker (1990), there is literally absolutely no reason why Frank Henenlotter shouldn't be more popular than Stuart Gordon, Brian Yuzna, and Lloyd Kaufman *combined*. It's tragic that the world of cinema being enclosed and captured by studios again in the late 1980's prevented us from getting more from him, but realistically could we ask anymore than what we already got from Basket Case? I could watch this every day and never grow tired of it. I will never stop making more and more people watch this.

If Basket Case is the apex of 1980's horror, then Messiah of Evil is the same for 1970's horror. This is one of the most efficient horror films ever made in how not a single frame is wasted, the opening scene is literally a guy running from unseen force, seeking refuge, getting his throat slit, cue title card with synth music that then leads us to a sunburnt hallway as our narrator descends into acceptance of complete lack of control of the situation. Every night shot in this film must be 50 - 75% completely black with whatever headlight or store front there is just making the scenery look like a dollhouse that our characters are trapped inside. There's so many shots of people running away or walking down streets that make them look tiny as the camera is so far.

Every scene is an exercise in building up dread. There's no point where the film relents, something awful is not only coming, it's already here and there's nothing anyone can do. What I love particularly is that the mystery being laid out doesn't offer any answers because there's another mystery on top of what our characters find out only too late. Layers upon layers of dread that even the titular Messiah of Evil isn't the center of. The world is a cruel fucking place where this film languishes in obscurity whilst shit like The Exorcist enjoys mainstream attention. A lot of my taste amounts to "why isn't this thing I like more popular" and cases like Messiah of Evil vindicate me.

"Godzilla is the son of the atomic bomb. He is a nightmare created out of the darkness of the human soul. He is the sacred beast of the apocalypse." - Tomoyuki Tanaka

Generally a yearly trend is that a #1 pick for Halloween is self-evident to me and this year it was Basket Case for all of 30 seconds until I picked Godzilla back up.

There's something to be said how Godzilla isn't quite a horror monster? Terrifying but not necessarily creepy, but what power do things that go bump in the night have against the destruction of everything you know? Everytime I watch Godzilla is like the very first time, when flashing lights out at sea destroy fishing ships I have no idea what happened, or at least any much of a clue as anyone in film does when we're told that the entire ocean exploded.

Godzilla is a reptile, but lacks scales and its entire body is coated in keloid scars. In 1954 Godzilla must have been the largest monster every committed to film, trains are derailed from running against its ankle and bell and radio towers are throttled for being a sensory inconvenience. Godzilla's first on-screen appearance on Odo Island is obscured by a hurricane but the impression is clear; you can't fight Godzilla in the same way you can't fight a natural disaster. When Tokyo is reduced to complete ruin amidst a sea of flames, it's an onslaught of destruction never before seen in a film of this genre. Survivors being afflicted with radiation poisoning shows that Godzilla will claim victims long after being driven back to sea.

There's a sheer apocalyptic dread to all of this sensed by all the characters. Love tries to exist on the edge of annihilation. There's nothing that can be done but persevere and maybe hope tomorrow will be better. A scene that always strikes me is when Serizawa is adamant about not using the Oxygen Destroyer until forcibly confronted with the results of one night of Godzilla making landfall in Japan. The absolute pain felt by everyone in the finale starts here, things couldn't play out any differently as the "scientist of the century" can't join in and celebrate his victory.

Godzilla is a rare perfect film. I will never tire of it.

#long post

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wizardsaur · 4 months ago

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I've been struggling a lot lately. Which is fine. This is tumblr and I'm allowed to be myself on here.

I'm self diagnosed autistic, please don't come at me about this. The story's kind of funny, but I've been repeatedly peer reviewed by a over a dozen formally diagnosed autistics - in vastly different scenarios - and they all tag me within 20 minutes. Up to this point, I've managed life with whatever brain spicy... and nowadays, I feel like I have my needs met most of the time.

Which is to say, I was okay never getting diagnosis for it I live in the US and Ableism is a massive fucking problem here. I advocated, I stood with my folks. And I was proud to be a support for folks with higher needs than me.

Something is different about me, and I thought for sure I knew what it was. I figured I'd just have to work harder than all the normies for a "Normal" life. I was willing to make that work.

But now... my body doesn't stop hurting. An old friend, the first "pretty sure you're autistic" friend and I had gotten back in touch lately. I truly wanted to be friends again, because our lives kinda fell apart at the same time way back when. We didn't get a chance to really be friends, we were just sad in the same close knit circle.

So I asked her, "You have this disorder, right? This set of disorders that tend to exist together for some fucking reason..... can I give you a list of shit that's been happening lately, and you tell me if I'm crazy?"

My symptoms, as well as a million other little symptoms that put me in the: "I'm pretty sure I have hEDS and POTS, because this has been my entire life.... it's just NEVER been this bad before."

I'm starting to need mobility aids, I'm slowing down. I need to wear braces now, and I can't keep acting like that isn't the case. It's been getting bad since like, late June - and then something clicked when I tried to quit my job.

My boss is a dick and I'm an overworked overachiever. I tried to walk out quit on him, out of the blue. When we were already understaffed, I might add (and had been, for months). I got back from a road trip Sunday, and went back to work - hoping things would be better..... and it was still a shitshow. Wednesday, I decided I was leaving on my day off - Thursday.

The motherfucker got me to stay. I made a 50 year old man cry, and he got me to stay. It was desperate, and it sounded so sincere, and he promised things would change... it's been a month. His supervisor shows up next week, and her higher up too. I stayed. I believed him....

Saturday night, I'm moving slow. Everything hurts like it did on the road trip. But now it's worse, and nothing's going away like it used to. And suddenly, I remember- things aren't supposed to hurt all the time. The usual amount of pain, is no pain.

Monday at lunch... I couldn't hold a fork. I ugly cried in the break room. A customer passed me to get to the bathroom and hugged me - I don't know her name. I'm 27. I was sobbing in a stranger's hug for a minute. (Whoever you are, if you see this, thank you.)

I went to the doctor, and have been taken seriously about my hEDS & POTS concern ever since. It's only been a few weeks, and I hope I'm not jinxing it... but. Doctors and therapists have heard me, and replied: "How did you not face this sooner? That is very likely your issue. Let's direct you to the right resources."

Which is WILDLY FUCKING DIFFERENT from every single other experience I've ever read or heard from anyone else. Maybe for once, things will work the way they need to. The way they should in a perfect society. And either I'll get diagnosed as hEDS with POTS, or I won't and we can find out what the issue really is. Because I'm in chronic pain, and it fits the bill unnervingly well.

The wild thing, is my life tends to completely shift gears every yea or two- over a few weeks. In absolutely bananas story ways. I had an apocalypse vision once, lost everything a month later.

I can't help but wonder if there's some big Universal Life Test built into this experience. But I moved my altar. And I'm finishing a journal. I feel like next month will be the start of my Real Adult Life. It's hard to explain. I'm very lucky to be having a Good Side to this whole situation.

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kylewalker-peters · 2 years ago

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I saw some people saying Tottenham fans need to calm down considering they are literally still 5th and above liverpool and chelsea. Thoughts?

I mean sure there's the perspective that every team needs cause spurs are still in the prem and we're not say Southampton who are fighting for their lives, but I also don't think spurs fans are wrong to be pissed off right now. it's been building for years and years and i think everyone is finally just at the end of their tether. It's not like spurs are 5th and performing well, we're not playing like a team that should be anywhere above mid-table at best.

It's not a case of "conte bad" or "blame enic" it's everyone together making it such a calamitous shitshow.

The manager is non-committal to his future, won't adapt his tactics to suit the side he has, doesn't seem to want to do any coaching, refuses to switch up his team selection unless apparently players are (unnecessarily) BOOED off the pitch, and for some reason came to spurs and expected 100 of the world's best ready-made title winning players to come into the club when we were never going to provide that.

Our players are playing appallingly, our squad is thinner than a bald man's last remaining strand of hair, they go into the med room and never return, and there's the slight possibility we're headed for ANOTHER case of our players stopping playing for our manager.

The whole ownership of the club is a joke and is ruining the good parts of its legacy, we're never going to have the kinds of spending sprees of other top 6 sides but the lack of ambition continually displayed when it comes to player recruitment AND creating a thriving and useful academy is becoming negligible especially for the latter. we are not massively massively wealthy but we are spending like we are a lot poorer than we are. we don't back our managers, we don't know how to change and transition our squads at the right time and for a man that tries to save and obtain every penny possible the way levy refuses to sell players on before their price plummets to 50p and a freddo is crazy to me. and it's not only this lack of ambition that's killing us but the club has no idea whether it wants to be a microwavable ready meal short term winning machine (hence conte) or if it wants to be the english BVB with a focus on young talent and some experienced players to balance the side out. there's no rhyme or reason to who we buy or why we buy them. we spent all of last summer chasing djed's signature and beat out clubs like dortmund who are literally KNOWN for making young talent into stars and have given him about 20 minutes of game time all season in all competitions. we say our focus is on young talent and we always want to bring in a young player and develop them but spurs have ruined the careers of their own young talents and they're still fucking doing it now!

The whole club from the players to the manager to the recruitment staff to the academy to the owners are aimlessly wandering without any real purpose or direction or end goal, hell I'm not even sure "win a trophy" can be considered some people's objectives. as beautiful as the new stadium and training facilities are they mean nothing to fans if that's the biggest show of ambition they're going to get as if that's supposed to be their trophy from everyone involved's time at the club. at the end of the day juande fucking ramos is STILL the only manager in my lifetime to win a trophy with spurs. how can anyone defend that?

#sorry this went on for ages and got rambly i tried to cut myself off

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destinyc1020 · 1 year ago

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You guys forget that there's a lot between "antis" and Tomdayas/nasty solo Tom and solo Z stans. Some of us have been fans of Tom since before Spider-Man, root for him as an actor, and treat his relationship like we do any other actors' relationship.

I follow people in the industry who are not Tomdayas or stans of Tom or Zendaya and even they have said they believe in Tom as an actor and want him away from the franchises. There are also people who now want Z away from Sam.

Tom is the one who let slip that he didn't want to do SM into his 20s. RDJ said the exact same thing about him. I believe Tom meant that when he said it and the cleaned it up later. Elizabeth Olsen said some things very similar in tone about her own involvement in the franchise. Look at what's happening with Brie Larson, Hemsworth, Hiddleston, Paul Rudd (who wrote stuff dunking on the MCU into this last season of Party Down), and Disney/MCU in general. It's a shitshow before you even add Sony's involvement. So, is it really a mystery why some Tom fans think it's odd that he may have signed back on for 3 more solo films plus 1-2 Avenger films?

PS: If you haven't seen the fans are here whining about needing new "content" from Tom and Z 48 hours after they were last spotted (stalked), count yourself lucky. There are definitely people who literally say they only want another SM movie because they want another press tour.

RE: Marvel...

I mean, I'll be honest, I have my own personal thoughts and feelings about the state of the MCU and some of the Marvel films that have come out during this newer phase. Mostly, the biggest thing I feel is slight over-saturation.

I'm still enjoying the films, but I almost kind of wish that Marvel would take more TIME in their releases, and work on producing a really great product, as opposed to releasing several movies per year AND on Disney+, to the point where some fans have a hard time keeping up, or fans being disappointed in the lackluster quality of the films.

I'd rather wait every 5 years for a "Dark Knight" caliber of film, as opposed to getting a new film/series every 2 months, and having lower-quality production. 👀

But that's just me. 🤷🏾‍♀️

So, is it really a mystery why some Tom fans think it's odd that he may have signed back on for 3 more solo films plus 1-2 Avenger films?

But see....here is my issue with fans.... Fans are already complaining before anything has officially been announced yet, and BEFORE we even know whether Tom will be signing on to 3 films all at once, or, will be signing on film by film (which, imo is WAY more smart).

I think fans need to chill and save their outrage for when an official announcement actually comes out. Why waste time, breath, and energy getting all riled up over something like this, when 1) it's NOT that serious, and 2) nothing has been formally announced yet? 🥴

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theoldaeroplane · 2 years ago

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anyway

my therapist thinks I am currently dealing with "ambiguous grief" which is when you are unable to receive any closure about a loss (in my case, estrangement). this is probably why i keep getting the overwhelming urge to start crying in the middle of work for no apparent reason! it's annoying!

i read something recently about it being common for trauma survivors to be fine through their 20s and then start to fall apart in their 30s. i also read something recently about how some surveys have found the average age of death for autistic adults is 36. i turned 33 last week so that's fun. on my therapist's advice I am trying to """process""" the grief, which is awkward and confusing and i do not know how to do it. current attempts involve a three hour playlist and a lot of messy drawing.

i think this has arisen now because for the last year and a half I have kind of been in survivor mode. I was burned out on my previous job, got fired from the one I took after that, was unemployed for a while, then wound up somewhere with a shitty toxic boss that actively made me feel like I was living with my parents again. it was so bad I had to quit with no other jobs lined up, so then I was unemployed again. it's only now as I kind of find myself settling into this new job that a lot of this I guess trauma response has started to turn up, as im no longer using all my energy just trying to keep the shitshow running.

ive also been coming to terms with being disabled. i never thought of myself as disabled until now and it's a big mental shift. nothing about *me* changed, apart from gaining a better understanding of myself, but now I realize that ... oh. i guess I've been disabled all along. i suppose it was more akin to turning on a light in the end. it's unpleasant to look at now, but at least I can stop banging my shins into things as often.

as always, stuff is complicated and scary. its at least not all bad, like life usually goes. ive been volunteering at a barn that does therapy work using horses and ive really enjoyed that. i got nice new sneakers last week (work has a dress code) that feel fantastic. the Adderall seems to be working. im poor, but not as poor as I thought, and I have a path out of that. im fortunate to have a good therapist and, for now at least, the ability to see him regularly. my sugar snap peas are growing taller every day. maybe they'll even grow food.

#vibe check

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jarateblog · 2 years ago

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My Rambly Complaints on Orbital's Optical Delusion

Not that anybody who reads this is really going to care, but felt like getting my thoughts put out somewhere, since I don't really have a spot on my website to put this stuff currently (and I'm still trying to stay off Twitter for the most part and its word cap would only get in the way anyways)

I've been a massive fan of Orbital's for a couple years now, and would call Snivilisation one of my favorite albums that hits me on multiple emotional levels when sitting down to listen to it in its entirety. In Sides, The Middle of Nowhere, the Brown Album, and The Altogether are more of some of what I would consider masterpieces from them, although none of their albums are bad in my opinion. This album, however, is probably the one I've been the most frustrated with due to a variety of reasons.

The lead up to this album was an absolute shitshow, to start, because the brothers clearly weren't in contact with their social media manager enough (or their social media manager was just super incompetent at their job), self-leaking songs before their official announcements, and just announcing the album about 3 months before its release. Each version of the album available is different too, the digital and vinyl releases being the most basic, while there are 3, count 'em, 3, different versions of CDs you can get: one basic, one with a separate bonus CD, and one with included bonus tracks (all three are completely different and barely vary in price). This isn't to mention how NONE of these were explained until about ONE WEEK before the album's release, fucking up many peoples' pre-order plans (and prevented me from even pre-ordering the album in the first place as a result, especially as a US citizen who gets fucked with ~20 pound shipping costs). There was a super expensive (and limited) blu-ray edition that is the only "complete" package, with all bonus tracks (minus one), with surround mixes as a bonus, but, obviously, not everybody has the money (or set up) to settle for that package. Then, there was the whole stupid N(o) F(ucking) T(hanks) shit they pulled about a week before its release too, a clear last minute ploy to squeeze a couple extra bucks out of some idiots who believe in that shit.

Funny, then, for how obviously political/environmental this album is that they wanted to sell it through such incomprehensible means. I know that sometimes labels can get in the way of music releases, but the absurdity of all this cannot be just the result of some publisher's stupidity. So, I feel everybody, especially including the band, needs to take blame for this shit. This is stuff that is actually getting in the way for normal people to just listen to music, and I wouldn't be surprised if this album ends up under-performing as a result.

About the actual quality of the album, that's very subjective, and it shouldn't surprise anybody that I am pretty sour and my opinions are biased, even if I went in with as much of an open mind as I could. There are good tracks here, but most feel extremely under-developed for Orbital's standards (and learning that none of the tracks were actually worked in collaboration between the brothers strengthens this belief).

The always common political messages for Orbital albums here are also extremely on the nose, making it annoying when I have to read every other comment on posts regarding the album complaining from dense right-wing dickheads about how they want all their music to be 'non-political.' I obviously wholly support Orbital in continuing to push their messages, but the way they do it here is far from subtle or tongue in cheek (like in almost any of their previous albums). If I'm leaning on the same side of the political spectrum that they seem to be on, and I am finding their messages to be forced or cringey, then I think there is something wrong with the presentation of the message.

Notably, the album's themes revolving around the pandemic are almost 3 years behind the time it would have made the most impact. The pandemic still affects us today, yes, but they relay their message as if the damn thing just started a month ago. It would be more impactful and relevant if the focus was more on the people who still refuse to believe the virus exists, and how that affects the rest of us, but the messages don't go any further than "the virus sucks," or "the government doesn't care about us."

I find the only standout song on here to be "Are You Alive?," which is still a bit weak in the lyrical department, and feels like it has nothing to add for the last 4 minutes when the vocals get done in the first 3. The radio edit of it was horribly done though (although radio edits never do justice to Orbital's songs), cutting off the end of the track ungracefully and shortening the space between the main lyrics before there is time to let the music speak. It's unfortunate, because this song had potential to be one of their best in their whole catalogue.

I only recently got to listen to some of the bonus tracks (because somebody had to sneakily upload them on to Youtube), and it's a damn shame they weren't included on the main album (which is already under an hour in length, so come the fuck on with that). They are perhaps some of the best developed tracks out of this release, and it's completely insane that nobody told whoever was in charge to just put them all in the one package (hell, it would even further justify the album being a 2xLP, since the fact its only 51 minutes is just a waste of vinyl plastic at this point).

I'm just extremely frustrated with this release. While Monsters Exist in 2018 was one of my least favorite albums of theirs up until this point, I could still listen to it in basically any way I wanted to without issue, and it gave me plenty of time to develop my thoughts on what is still a great album of theirs. This album, on the other hand, actively prevents me from experiencing some of its best material, and the main experience does not hold much to me on its own. This is the first time I can say that I dislike an Orbital album, and it pains me to say it, after holding all 30 years of their output beforehand in high regard. I can't help but feel like this was made to just put some extra cash in their pockets, since Paul Hartnoll's solo work probably isn't making him that much money and who knows what the hell Phil does outside of the band.

#orbital #choppost #review #rant #music

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majaloveschris · 1 year ago

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Maja I think I understand why some people believe this marriage is PR but from my point of view it's just people's way to try to cope with the fact that Chris is not the man they thought he was, so they try to paint it like he was "forced" to be in this relationship like he's not a millionaire who can do whatever he wants with his life...see I could write an entire essay about "why this makes sense" but I honestly think it wouldn't matter 'cause people will believe what they want to believe, I guess once the rose colored glasses are off people will finally see the obvious reality in front of them which is, he married a younger woman just like most man in Hollywood and he's happy with his choice otherwise he wouldn't have married her, and he's talking about his marriage and showing off his ring at every opportunity because he wants everybody to know that he is a married man, that's why all the articles about the wedding and so on...now I don't know how long this relationship is going to last due to the big age difference, only time will tell.

I see where you are coming from, and I agree that one of the reasons why it's so hard for some people to believe in this being real is because it would be hard to accept that he is okay with their behavior or that he is just like them.

However, I find it simply impossible that he would've been able to keep his true side hidden. And I don't care how good Disney's PR team is; there is now a way, in my opinion, that he would've been able to act like a whole different person for the last 20+ years, every time, in every situation. I know we don't know him personally, but I think his being racist or antisemitic would've made quite a buzz. And he wouldn't have friends or wouldn't have dated someone if he despised something in them; that is a really determining attribution to the person they are.

If there is a contract, he is indeed "forced" to be with her if he doesn't want to have its consequences, and I'm not talking about paying a certain amount of money, but other things too, which I won't mention since I don't want to give ideas. He could've been, however, pressured into this PR shitshow by his team for whatever reasons. If it's PR and if there is a contract, then yeah, he was stupid to get involved, but that is Hollywood, and people have done way worse things for roles or money than being involved in a PR relationship. So yeah, if it's fake, he was stupid to sign anything or to think it's a good idea.

What you don't understand is that most people have bigger problems with her than her age. See, their age when they met (23; 39) is problematic since she was in her early 20s, and if there wasn't any other problem with her, maybe I would also be fixated on their age gap. But the biggest problem, and why a lot of people don't support their relationship, is her and her friends' behavior. Their antisemitic, Nazi-supporting, fatshaming words and their immaturity are the biggest problems. People (women and men both) get married to younger or older people every single day, and while I don't agree with most of those, here we have much bigger problems.

But why does he want people to know it this much? Why? Why does a relatively private guy need this much buzz around his relationship when he hasn't felt the need for it for years? What are they trying to prove? That they are legit? Or that they are happy?

Considering everything that has happened and how they look when they are around each other, I'd rather believe this is fake than that they are happy together or that he is like them.

#majaloveschris #chris and alba pr #chris and alba relationship #cevans-love

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crystalelemental · 1 year ago

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Today has been an absolute fucking shitshow.

I want to preface this with the knowledge that this cat is the first pet I've really had. My family had dogs, but it was...let's just say it was not a good situation, and we tended to get rid of the dogs before they were in a position to be put down. So a lot of this is new to me, I don't know what's normal, and every time we talked about the situation to people, we got the same response: "You're doing this right, it's better to go a day early than a day late."

To jump to the conclusion: babycat is still alive. The vet did come over, and talked about how all things considered, she still seemed in decent condition. Super lethargic and a little raspy, but apparently the fact she's still eating is sufficient to say she's doing okay. But he checked her lungs too, and apparently they're surprisingly clear? So like. Okay. Strongest diseased lungs. Far surpassing expectations on life expectancy. He said she would likely survive through New Years, into the week they'd be open again.

So okay, now the fuckery.

This was scheduled for 12-2. Somewhere in there, hard to say exactly when given schedules run late sometimes, but in that area. We get a call at 12:20, asking when we're bringing her in. ...no, you're coming to us. That was the entire reason for scheduling this, was that she's scared to go to the office and scared to go in her carry case by association. We're not doing that to her. After some apologies and an explanation that they don't usually do in-home for cats (but do for dogs, go fucking figure), in addition to my wife cancelling because I couldn't talk I was crying so hard, and them calling back to offer coming out after hours due to the mix-up, we were back on for this. Only for him to show up, look at her, and ask us what made us think this was the time. As if you didn't tell us we needed to schedule in advance for in-home.

So at this point, we're not doing in-home. This is the only local vet, but to be honest, this was a disaster. He doesn't even seem to remember that he scheduled this appointment for us personally with this condition in mind. And when we talked about options, and how the in-home could be scheduled again but if something happens before then, what do? My bottom line was, if we needed to, we could bring her in. All I would ask is that we be there with her.

And we could not get a straight answer. He didn't say no, but he sure didn't say yes. If anything it sounded like the expectation is drop off the pet and he'll do it between appointments. Which. No. I'm not bringing her, leaving her, alone and scared, until they decide they can sneak it in.

We were so clear about all of this. I cannot stress enough that we spent that entire appointment doing nothing but talking about needing to be there and therefore doing it at home. And it fell through spectacularly. Worse than I could've imagined. And now we're being told that, if we don't schedule in advance for the home visit, that we may not even be able to stay with her when they do have to put her down? No. No, we will travel the hour to an urgent care when it's time, and we will be staying with her. I'm so done with this. I'm so mad.

The good news is, cat remains. Her diseased baby lungs are still powerful, it seems. She's definitely on the decline, but we get more time, and we're not agonizing over whether it's too soon or whatever. We're going somewhere they'll let us stay with her. I don't know how long it will be. She declined quickly and this may come on quickly. But I am far, far too tired now to think about this. My baby is still alive, and as long as she is, we're going to take care of her. And when it's her time to go, we're going to be there with her, no matter how far we have to go to make it happen.

#personal shenanigans

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arpov-blog-blog · 1 year ago

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..."A Positive, Upbeat End to 2023 - Dow in record territory. Inflation running below the Fed target rate. Interest rates coming down next year. GDP growth 4.9% last quarter, looking close to 3% for this one. Best job market since the 1960s. The lowest uninsured rate in history. Crime has fallen across the US this year, rents are coming down too. Consumer sentiment is spiking. Wage growth and new business formation in historically elevated territory. Best recovery in the G7. US setting records for domestic oil and renewable production. $130b in student debt forgiven. The good news just keeps coming.

Democrats are also seeing improvement in national polling. A majority of the independent polls taken in recent weeks have Biden tied or ahead. The influential NYT poll, which had Biden trailing Trump two months ago, now has Biden up 47%-45% with likely voters. Dems have picked up 3 points in 538’s Congressional Generic tracker in recent months, and Navigator’s recent House battleground tracker polling found Republicans losing ground, and Democrats now with a clear advantage. The two most recent large sample Hispanic poll and youth polls found Biden running at or above his 2020 numbers - 57%-33% (+24) with 18-29 year olds in the Harvard/IOP poll, and 58%-31% (+27) in the bi-partisan Univision poll. The Economist/YouGov weekly tracker this week found Biden’s approval on the Israel-Hamas war 37%-32% (+5) approve w/18-29 year olds, the best of any age cohort, and 59%-23% (+36) w/Democrats - so no clear, sustained backlash there.

Here are the 16 recent polls showing Biden ahead or tied (via 538):

47-45 NYT/Siena (LVs)

49-48 Monmouth

49-48 NPR/Marist

47-46 Quinnipiac

42-41 YouGov/Economist 12/2

44-42 YouGov/Economist 11/25

39-37 YouGov

40-36 and 37-35 Leger

Reuters had Biden +4 in the battleground Presidential states

45-45 Clarity

44-44 Yahoo/YouGov

41-41 Cygnal

43-43 Economist/YouGov 12/6 and 12/20

43-43 Morning Consult 12/2

It can no longer be said Trump leads in the 2024 election, and in the polling which helped create the “Trump is ahead” take, Biden now leads.

2023 has been a blue wave electoral year for Democrats, a very good year. Now the economy, consumer sentiment and polling are all ending the year on an upbeat, optimistic note. Congratulations everyone. While we have a long way to go in the 2024 election, we are ending 2023 strong, with momentum, in my view in a far better place than Republicans, who are, in just about every imaginable way, an historic shitshow - full stop.

Remember our basic take on 2024 - Joe Biden is a good President. The country is better off. The Democratic Party is strong and winning elections across the US. And they have Trump."

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medusahairofblackmambas · 1 year ago

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If you seen the look on my face, you'd be dead.

You were never real. The persona you curated to play that superhero has been tainted. You're not wholesome, you're not the family man I believed you were. You pretended to be a social justice warrior on twitter just to go marry a fetus whose grandparents have ties to the SS. Wow! You certainly know how to pick'em the more problematic they are the more you want them. You can't be a liberal snowflake and marry Ilsa: She-Wolf of The SS. You look fucking stupid parading this nympho nymphette cleaning up her image and make her respectable. Except she's a troll who likes to play internet games and girle got ate up for breakfast, lunch and dinner by your former fandom.

At least she had the guts to post nudes and distract people from her racist past and horrible friends. You said nothing, you did nothing. You didn't even defend her, you let YOUR WIFE drown in the sea of your disappointed fans, toxic fangirls and people who had valid questions but didn't want to be bullied by the stans of her horrible tv show. Her stans are terrible people, she's a horrible person and you're a coward.

I honestly thought I loved you because you said things about politics that I felt, you used you platform for good. I really admired you for that. Now, I know better that it was all part of your PR, keep those likes up, algorithms moving: just like the rest of them. You were a god in my mind but you're very flawed and mortal. Nothing wrong with that but you can't expect me to jump for joy every time you have a new movie out after that shitshow.

I see you're back on instagram- hopefully whomever is running your account will keep you from sliding into dm's of 20 year olds with big asses. Yes, you're an ass man. You how the saying goes: You are what you eat, asshole.

By the way, is that dick pic really you or your assistant's; he had really big balls and you don't have any at all. Stop acting like a little bitch.

P.S. Stop having your brother be your mouthpiece, it's backfiring and no on believes him either. Nothing about this whole debacle merits diatribes from him about how your fans treat your gfs like shit. Just face the fact you have shitty taste in women and that makes you pretty shitty. You wreak of desperation, despair, dog food and excrement. Well, your dog still loves you, he's the best and longest relationship you've been in. You have adoption papers for your adorable dog but no one can seem to find your marriage license. It's a matter of public record so no amount of money can have it sealed.

NDA: Not Dealing in Accuracy, two weddings with no photos, lot's of articles and both of you love the attention. Trying to 'protect your privacy' but there's hundreds of articles about your 'special occasion.' How fucking lame are you. You're not Brad Pitt and she's not Angelina Jolie by any stretch of the imagination. Neither of you have as much talent, style or class as they did when they got married. I see why y'all are together though: you're both, lame, fame seeking, mediocre and fucking delusional.

#limerence #reality check #egomaniac #narcissism #neo nazis #racist spouses #persona #its not me its you #celebrity #bad actors

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rowanthehumannottheplant · 1 year ago

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04/10/2023

Hi there!

My name’s Rowan and I’m incredibly passionate about plants and greenery and all that good stuff. I’m attempting to get into a career within horticulture but I’m having a bit of trouble.

I didn’t go to university for Horticulture. In fact I think I got a D in GCSE Biology. When I started this journey, the only experience that I had was from owning and taking care of my houseplants, visiting botanical gardens with my family, and that my family garden was beautifully maintained by my Mum.

Since then, I have gotten experience. I moved into a house with my boyfriend and for the first time in a good couple of years, I had the space and permanency to experiment with growing things. We have a greenhouse! Over a couple of years, we’ve been able to grow vegetables from saplings, grow sunflowers to decorate our dinner table, and plant permanent structures which will come back season after season. I’ve was also able to work in a Garden Centre for a time, which boosted my enthusiasm, and I met some really great people.

I’m also pursuing further education so that I can learn more and gain qualifications. I’m currently taking part in the RHS Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Plant Growth and Development. I’m having so much fucking fun! It’s so interesting and I’m learning how to answer my own questions about horticulture, and I’m surrounded by people who are equally as enthusiastic. This course could really change things for me! I also know that I want to maybe do an apprenticeship in a relevant course, if possible.

And then there’s the problem that I didn’t consider might be a problem when I started. Sure, when I began on this journey, my main goals were “Plants and Greenery” and “Makes me happy”, so I didn’t have the best knowledge of this career sector at the time. I didn’t know what I was missing.

I don’t have a driving license. Most people by the time they’re in their early 20s do, but I don’t. When I was a teenager, the time that people in my country typically learn, the people around my told me that it would be pointless learning because by the time I had somewhere to drive to (i.e. a job), it would be years later, and I would have forgotten. I did buy a motorbike at the age of 19 but that was because I was a teenage rebel, not because of any sense of a need for freedom (I think).

The COVID-19 Pandemic was what many people considered ‘a shitshow’. Facets of society had to be shut down for long periods of time. By the time things started opening up again, the waitlists for certain things were incredibly long, including the wait for Driving Tests in the UK. For my first test, the wait was 5 months. My second test, which I’m preparing for now, is 6 months.

I probably should have known that a car and a drivers license would be very much needed but eh, hindsight’s 20/20. You might need a car or a driving license because sometimes the work that you’re doing might require you to move location or to transport resources and tools. You might need a car because opportunities in your town come up infrequently and the commute to an exciting job can take 4 hours a day via public transport.

I cannot tell you how many times within the past week that a potential employer has called me up saying “You’ve got a great CV, but we really need you to have a driver’s license.”,

Every 5 or 6 months, I get one shot to gain the qualification which will astronomically better my career. It makes me so angry.

This blog will be used to document my experiments and learning journey so that I can evidence my experience and knowledge to potential employers, and also because it might be a fun place to put my work.

Well, thanks for reading. Here's a photo of the pumpkins I harvested yesterday. See you next time!

#horticulture #gardening #plants #pumpkin #trypophobia

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kedreeva · 2 years ago

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I’ve been on tumblr since 2012 and following you pretty much that entire time and have never reblogged or posted a single thing under my name. Before that I was on LJ for years and never posted anything. I send (nice) asks to people on anon, and leave (nice) comments and kudos on ao3. I used to interact some on LJ when anon kink memes were a thing. I am a part of fandom and have been for close to 20 years, I’m just not comfortable having any kind of public persona online that people can see, even if it has no attachment to my real name.

I know that the influx of new, young fans and the way they treat fandom the same as other online content creation/consumption is a problem. But fandom has always had lurkers. I do my best to positively interact in the ways that I am able to within my comfort zone, and I follow the rules of fandom etiquette. There’s so much pushback against lurkers now that was never there before, and I just don’t understand it.

It's a difficult line to walk, but there's a difference between going to a blog that has zero posts, zero likes, no header, no icon, not even a note that says "just lurking," and a person that's here to look at stuff that displays at least enough humanity to say "hey don't block me I'm just looking."

And look... yes there's always been lurkers. And there probably always will be. And it wasn't an issue for you or for creators or fandom in general, because it didn't hurt anything before. In just my living memory, fandom spent a while just being mailing lists- so creations/discussion went to everyone. There wasn't really anyone else to pass stuff on to, so it didn't matter if you just signed up and never said a word. Webrings based the spread of creation in the site itself, because everything was small back then. Livejournal had public and private communities that were searchable and creation was based inside of those communities, and interaction was based on commenting - what you're used to doing, and okay doing - meaning community was based in the comments and people linking to various communities. Back when places like deviantart and ff.net were pretty staple major sites for everyone, community formed in comment sections there as well.

And as much as I do love social media and the advent of community messaging systems... it's changed the face of fandom in ways that make lurking - and I do mean straight up no interaction, if you're sending messages and commenting, you're participating - break the links of community.

Look at it this way:

Back on LJ etc, it didn't matter if you, personally, lurked. Or even if 100 people lurked. Creations and community were centrally located. People all gathered to the same stable location (a post, or a community feed) to look at the things, and comment etc so if you commented or didn't, they could still find the creations. Sites like that brought people together. Now? *shakes head* Social media sites have divided us, and AI/Bots/Algorithms are conquering us because we disseminated too far.

Where do you go, on twitter, if you want to find fic? How do you find a conversation about something? Where do artists go so you can find groups of them and their galleries? You can scroll a tag, but anyone can put anything in that. I have literally no idea how tiktok works because every time I go on it, things just start scrolling past and playing videos for me that I didn't click. It's kind of horrifying. Instagram is... god, I don't even know how to classify that mess, but it's not a community. it's a museum. don't touch anything.

Tumblr is... it's not livejournal, it's not deviantart, it's not mailing lists or webrings but... it's people touching real people still, or it has the ability to be that if we continue to fight for it. As much as there are shitshows around here on occasion, it's still largely neighbors passing notes over the fences separating us.

But for as much community potential as it has, with the way it can function - with the way it USED to function, the way I REMEMBER it functioning a long time ago - it still separates us. There's tags, like on twitter, but anyone that tag dives (like me) knows what a hot fucking mess the tags can be, and there's no other central collection.

Tumblr's saving grace, though, is the ability we, the users, have to interact like humans. To share what we can with one another. To create networks that still kind of resemble the webrings of old, where you can come to one location (someone's blog) and find gateways to other blogs the way one page/site used to lead to the next so the separate, divided things spread across the world WIDE web don't get lost.

Except the link gets broken here, when folks just have empty blogs. There's (thankfully) no algorithm deciding what we should look at, but the trade off is that we have to be responsible for that step in fandom again. The way we used to be.

Not to mention that... there was never really a point for bots back in the LJ days. It would have been hard for them to survive because everyone knew at least some of the people. Not that there weren't, but it was harder and not rewarding for them to exist en masse. Now? Now bots use social media sites and users. Here, on tumblr, they follow accounts to make it look like they're legit to search engines. Whatever central account they're using to scam people, it collects the bots and the network the bots make, and uses them to look legit, so they can scam people, so they can spread viruses, advertise porn or whatever they're doing. They're exploiting users here, and they do this by following us.

And the ONLY recourse we have? is guessing that they're bots and blocking them. Because reporting a blank blog won't get tumblr addressing the issue. So, when someone lurks in a completely faceless, anon way, a way that makes them look like a bot, then the people who are being followed are going to learn to treat them like the bots that are trying to exploit them to do bad things.

And that's not on you! It's not your fault that they're doing those things, or that people have to react the way they have to react to curb that nonsense. And it's not your fault that social media wants to separate us so it can sell us whatever it wants and keep us from communicating and forming communities where we can entertain ourselves instead of feeding on their ads or whatever. It's not your fault that the way community functions on a human level has been backed into a corner by algorithms/bots.

But that IS the lay of the land these days. You and I have both been here long enough that we've watched the landscape shift. It's not the net we knew. And that's unfortunate. But it's probably not going to go back to the way we knew once upon a time. So people are pushing back against folks being quiet, because the alternative is to let algorithms win and do the talking for us. To let bots use us to hurt others. To let fandom founder because it's being directed by whatever AI is in charge of telling us what to look at.

I'm not going to tell anyone they can't be in fandom if they don't reblog stuff or make stuff or whatever. Just... that fandom is going to have a LOT harder time existing in this new breed of divided space if we don't reach out and connect and help one another connect to others, too.

#fandom #tumblr #asks #anon asks #this got long #listen I don't mind people lurking #and you gotta do what you gotta do for your own well being #but it can't be every person #it can't even be most people #or fandom stops existing in these kinds of spaces #because community isn't based on a central space anymore #it's built on our backs and depends on us linking hands #for people to have roads to get around on

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