#funding from them is extremely minimal

[paintedpigeon1]

I'm in the UK. To renew a blue badge (aka getting a new one, there's no easy renewal form/button) you need the past five years of medical history. It lasts three years.

You can't walk due to a permanent disability? Yeah we need evidence of the past 5yrs of medical history. Yes even though nothing's changed. Yes even though you gave us half of this last time.

It's the same with freedom passes. As if someone who's profoundly deaf is going to magically have gained their hearing back (the pass lasts 5yrs but they ask for evidence you still need it after 2-3yrs).

It's a pisstake, aimed to stop people claiming I'm sure.

the government "checking in" on disabled people to make sure were still disabled is one of the most demeaning and humiliating things out there, how is there no checkbox that says "this persons disability is lifelong and incurable" why do you think people's amputated limbs will grow back, are you on the hunt for the return of jesus christ and your way of catching him is hoping that the blind will see again????

[northgazaupdates]

UPDATE: NEW LINK! Yahya and his family were displaced by the IOF, and are currently residing in Deir al-Balah, south-central Gaza.

Life as displaced Gazans was already extremely difficult for them. Food is very scarce, and their living conditions leave them exposed to the elements. Here is the frequent condition of their tent now that the winter rains have come:

Then, Yahya’s father was injured. Some cartilage was damaged in his neck, and doctors say he requires IMMEDIATE surgery to avoid permanent paralysis.

Yahya and his family previously had another campaign, but it was suddenly shut down by GFM with no explanation. They have created a new one, but it has EXTREMELY LOW FUNDS.

The surgery is a stifling €15,000 euros (about $15,729 USD). Yahya and his family have no hope of paying for it without your help.

I am currently watching an elderly loved one lose their mobility, and it is an extremely heartbreaking and isolating situation. I cannot imagine what Yahya and his family are going through, having no social or financial support and only minimal medical care.

Please give what you can to this family. You are their only hope to save their beloved father’s mobility!

[visenyaism]

genuine question why are charter schools to blame for decreased literacy in your opinion? Because of the remote learning aspect or smth else also?? I went to one & honestly did better with it than traditional hs but I had very high reading comprehension already, had no busses in my area & no parent that could drive me to school so it was a pretty specific situation where that environment worked out better for me

Well I’m glad it worked out for you but institutionally charter schools are so detrimental to public education. Let me explain why:

The principle behind charter schools, that increased competition will force public schools to be better, frames education as a product rather than a public utility. If education quality is determined by the free market, the winners and losers are children, which is just a morally unacceptable outcome to me.

Shouldn’t ignore that the school choice movement started as a way to advocate for the perpetuity of segregation. On average charters are more racially segregated than publics.

The way in which public schools receive funding varies state to state, but most states do some amount of funding per pupil. What that means is that when students switch from public schools to charter schools they take that per people funding with them if you’re leaving an underperforming public school that’s underperforming because it’s underfunded you are making the problem worse. Not everyone can leave.

Charter schools can legally kick students out if they want to. This means if students stop performing well, or if disabled or english-language learner students need extra support, they can just be removed. A lot of “charters have higher test scores” is just charters only admitted high-performing and low-need students, which puts even more of a strain on public schools.

They are really unregulated. Many “charter-friendly” states have minimal accountability measures for charter schools in a way that leads to many running the gamut between negligence to committing literal fraud instead of providing free and appropriate public education. Charter networks are multibillion dollar businesses this system gets exploited by private equity all the time.

That lack of regulation or accountability also shows up in disciplinary outcomes. The school to prison pipeline is already unforgivably bad in a public environment, but unregulated charter schools often implement draconian “zero tolerance” policies that result in black and brown students getting treated like they’re in a police state. Public schools can’t suspend or expel you or call the cops on you for how you wear your hair. They can’t escalate to dramatic consequences as quickly or do a 3 strikes demerit system. There are no legal guardrails against this in charters.

Often exist to circumnavigate teachers’ union contracts and other labor laws. This means teachers at charters are often overworked, underpaid, micromanaged, and have EXTREMELY high turnover. The additional strain on teachers and overrepresentation of first-teachers who burn out in the system and get replaced makes for bad educational environments in a lot of places.

All of these are even more of a problem because of the way that charter networks like KIPP were marketed as a way to fix public schools in black and brown areas, and have just kneecapped public schools while providing students with subpar educational outcomes instead.

[periwinklecosma]

list of palestinian fundraisers (part 2)

(part 1) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5)

so since posting part 1 of this post yesterday night, some certain people on this site appear to have made the decision to double down on trying to grind every single palestinian that joins tumblr under their heel. there's a lot to be said about that, but honestly, what even is there left to say that the rest of us haven't already said? i'm not gonna start going off about that situation on this post that's supposed to spotlight various palestinian campaigns, so let's just say that i think it's really crucial that we push back on such harmful rhetoric and minimize the damage done as much as we can.

disclaimer: i do not vet fundraisers, nor am i in extensive contact with any of the people below. these are just people that reached out to me via my asks and messages, and i am only going off of information that has been provided to me through posts made by them and other people spotlighting them.

and please, for the love of god, if one of these doesn't sit right with you, then keep that to yourself and devote your attention to one of the other ones instead instead of denouncing all of these as one big scam ring. i can't believe this is something i have to walk people through.

The Shehab Family (@danashehab, @fahedshehab051, @fahedshehab-new) - €35,559/€50,000 (71.12%) // vetted by @/el-shab-hussein (here)

Maram Ashour (@ashourmohammed) - £1,154/£25,000 (4.62%) // vetted by @/90-ghost (here) // EXTREMELY LOW ON FUNDS -> Note: Maram's newborn daughter Hoor has not had the chance to receive her birth vaccinations and proper healthcare.

Amal Ashuor (@amalashuor) - €27,800/€30,000 (92.67%) // vetted by @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi (#175 on this spreadsheet) // ALMOST COMPLETE

Ahmed and Abedelrahman Al-Nabih (@ahmedalnabeeh11) - €22,551/€30,000 (75.17%) // vetted by @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi (#218 on this spreadsheet) -> Note: Ahmed and Abedelrahman's elderly mother is chronically ill, and her health condition has only worsened over the course of the past year.

Sarah and Amir (@sarazidan) - €876/€35,000 (2.50%) // NOT YET VETTED // EXTREMELY LOW ON FUNDS -> Note: Amir is physically disabled, and his condition has only worsened over the course of the past year. He now cannot walk.

Nour Ashour (@nourashoure44) - £801/£80,000 (1.00%) // vetted by @/90-ghost (here) // EXTREMELY LOW ON FUNDS

Youssef and Khadija Al-Habeel (@saveyouseffamily) - £9,724/£20,000 (48.62%) // vetted by @/90-ghost (here) and @/northgazaupdates (here) -> Note: Youssef and Khadija's son Madj suffers from a severe respiratory illness and requires treatment.

Fadi Ayyad (@mayadayyad81) - $36,700/$50,000 (73.40%) // vetted by @/nabulsi (here)

Fidaa Resh (@fidaa-family2) - $11,861/$30,000 (39.54%) // vetted by @/90-ghost (here)

Asmaa Ayyad (@asmaayyad) - €8,969/€45,000 (19.93%) // vetted by @/90-ghost (here)

[typicalopposite]

I have actually never really sent a prompt to anyone . So idk how much to ask for or how to really give one . But I guess some idea of

118 responding to a horrible bar fight and they find Tommy seriously injured. Buck sees the guy who did it at the scene and he gets furious.

Idk if I asked right lol

Here you go <3 I hope you like it!

(gonna kill two birds with one stone here)

Fuck It Friday

tagged by @bidisasterevankinard & @nine-one-wanton & @lavenderleahy love you all! thank youuu!

(TW: homophobia and racism)

Buck tries to hide just how many times he pulls his phone out, opens the screen and checks to see if Tommy is typing again. He keeps it down by his leg, turns his back to the rest of the team, even hides out in the bathroom a couple times just to stare at the spot where for such a brief moment Tommy was considering saying something… but then changed his mind. 

It’s late and he’s laying on one of the top bunks, eyes fixated on the screen, when Eddie pushes the door open. “Come on Buck…” he sighs. “You gotta give it a rest, man.” Buck tightens his hand around the phone, anticipating Eddie trying to snatch it away again, but he doesn’t. Instead he slumps down to the bottom bunk and goes quiet, leaving Buck alone with that very minimal advice and still no more bubbling. 

The bell rings just as Buck is starting to doze off. 

A bar fight; a bad one at that. They arrive on the scene and Eddie pulls the ambulance up and parks it right behind the engine. The customers are scattered all around the dirt lot, some talking to each other, some on their phones, some talking with police. Bobby said Athena was the first to arrive, but she’s not outside so Buck assumes she’s in the bar talking to the owner. 

One of the bartenders directs them towards a guy sitting hunched over on a bench, holding his face. Eddie goes to him and Buck follows, while Hen and Bobby head inside to where people are saying the more severely injured victim is— or maybe it’s the perpetrator… they aren’t exactly sure what even happened yet. Eddie starts on cleaning the man’s busted brow, and examining the black eye already forming around it. Buck pulls an instant cold compress out and offers it to him for the swelling. All the while the man drunkenly rambles on about how the owner has let the place go to shit… letting just anyone in. Not caring about the patrons who funded them for years with their business. 

Buck listens to his hate filled tirade, but only partially, also tuning in to a server who is telling Athena’s new rookie about what happened. How the guy Eddie was working on had antagonized the whole thing. She seems extremely worried about the other guy taking multiple kicks to the stomach and to the head. “He wasn’t even bothering anyone,” she says, voice shaking from crying. “He was just talking to Darlene about—” she pauses and gives a soft tearful laugh. “Well, he kept calling him ‘his Evan’. But he was so sad because he said he wasn’t really his anymore.” 

It was as if all the sound around him vanished, and his feet were moving before his brain could register where they were going. 

A hand on his chest stopping him from crossing the bar snaps him out of it; it’s Athena. She’s wearing that stern Sergeant Grant look, though it’s fraying around the edges with worry. “Is it him…” Buck starts, looking past her to where Hen is knelt down. Athena purses her lips, furrows her brows… and nods. Buck sucks in a sharp breath and tries to bypass her— he could easily bypass her if he wanted to, but he won’t. He allows her stiffened arm pushing against him to hold him back. “H- How bad is it,” he asks, fighting back against the tears rushing to his eyes. 

“He’s pretty banged up, but he’s in good hands,” she gestures back towards where Hen is working feverishly over— over Tommy. Buck feels like he might pass out. Athena moves so she is in his line of view, and his focus is back on her, then gives him a sympathetic look. “Now I need to go out there so I can arrest the man who did this… soon as Eddie is done with him; and I need you to try to stay calm and not do anything… rash.” 

Buck clenches his jaw, looking over her once again towards Tommy; he can barely see him for the tables and chairs, and multiple first responders hovering around where he’s sprawled out on the floor. 

Athena squeezes his arm and he reluctantly follows her to stand outside. “Just wait here, okay…” she says, before walking over to Eddie and the man who hurt Tommy— his Tommy. He glares over towards them, his blood is boiling. He clenches his jaw tighter, gritting his teeth together. 

The guy looks up at Athena as she starts explaining that he has been identified as the perp, and she is arresting him. Before she can begin reading his rights, though, he leaps up— eyes bulging, lips pulled back in snarl, a finger pointing angrily right in Athena’s face. “I’ll be damned if I’m getting arrested for this; for– for doing a public service,” he spits. Athena stares at him, unfazed. “Besides, he attacked me!” The man gestures towards his face.

“He did not!” The server snaps back. Athena offers her a smile, putting a hand up for her to not argue with him. 

“I see what he did to you, and after the story I heard— about all the things you were in here ranting and raving about, with your chest puffed out like you're some big man just ‘cause you’re supposedly brave enough to say the all hateful things on your mind— hell, I can’t say I would have blamed him for doing more.” 

The man sneered, but stepped back. “Yeah, I figured someone like you would sympathize with someone like that. I guess I might as well chalk this up to being demonized for being the normal one.” 

“I’m sure you demonized yourself, all by yourself,” Athena says with an eye roll. She shoves him around and handcuffs him. “And I’m sure you’ll easily demonize yourself among your fellow inmates as well… though I highly doubt you’ll get lucky enough to get the upper hand again.” 

She grabs his arm and leads him towards her patrol car, passing Buck while keeping a good distance from him. It doesn’t stop the man from looking over and catching Buck’s name tag. “Buckley…” he says, then chuckles. “As in Evan Buckley…” he throws his head back and fully laughs. “So you’re the one he was in there sniffling over like a poor love sick fa—” Buck is charging at him before he can finish the slur… they can fire him for it; who cares. He is stopped by Eddie, and held back long enough for Athena to get the man in her car. 

Eddie loosens his hold and Buck shoves him the rest of the way off, then turns towards the bar. He can hear Eddie calling after him, he just doesn’t care enough to listen to anyone on what they think he should do anymore. Right now he just wants to see Tommy. 

“Buck,” Bobby says, moving towards the door as he comes in. Buck walks past him, shying out of the way of the hand reaching for his shoulder. He pushes through the people, and reaches Hen just as they are getting the gurney lifted up onto its wheels. 

He sees Tommy. 

His shirt has been cut open and dark bruises are covering his torso from the man’s boots. His arm looks broken. His face— Buck sucks in a sharp breath— his face is unrecognizable. He wants to run to him, but he can’t move. 

The jolt of the gurney locking into place causes him to stir. He groans and lolls his head to the side. “Easy there, Tommy.” Hen says, gently laying a hand on him so he doesn’t move. 

“H- Hen?” Tommy turns his head towards her, but both of his eyes are so swollen and completely shut. “Oh god… Ev— B- Buck… he’s not here, is he? I don’t want him to see this…” His lip trembles and it takes the broken pieces of Buck’s heart and grounds them to dust. 

Hen looks at Buck, and Buck shakes his head. “No, he— he was man behind for this one,” she lies. “He’s not here.” 

Tommy breathes, it comes out haggard. “I– I’m so stupid, Hen… I- I was so scared and I hurt him. I didn’t— I didn’t mean to; I didn’t want to. ” Hen looks over the gurney at Buck. Buck still can’t move, he can’t speak, he can’t breathe. “I- I need to tell him I’m sorry. I was going to text him but— I can’t do it over a text…”  

Hen encourages him to lie still, and save his energy. “You’ll get the chance to tell him Tommy,” she says, flicking her eyes to Buck. 

“I– I love him, Hen… I want him back…” 

Buck’s heart clenches; it feels like it's being ripped straight out of his chest. “I know you do,” Hen says softly, still looking at Buck. The gurney is taken away, towards the ambulance. Hen lags behind, walking over to Buck. “Well…” she says, offering a smile. “There’s your answer.” She rests her hand on Buck’s back and leads him out of the bar towards the ambulance. 

[sporesgalaxy]

Pacific Rim isn't anti-nuclear in the same way Kaiju movies usually are. The resolution is facilitated by the detonation of a nuclear warhead and a nuclear reactor power core. So........what's up with that?

I mean, it's deeply American, obviously, but what else? Why does it not feel particularly pro-war in the same way, say, a typical MCU does? What does it mean that the Kaiju are prompted by human activity (carbon pollution "practically terraformed" Earth for the invading aliens), but are ultimately not a true manifestation of Nature's Wrath (not even from Earth)?

What arguments is Pacific Rim making in the place of the typical kaiju movie anti-nuclear-pollution, wrath-of-nature fare?

I stream-of-consciousness rambled about this for multiple paragraphs and don't feel like cleaning it up much. Basically: I think Pacific Rim is a commentary on the myriad problems with political responses to climate change over the years.

•••

So, in the Great American Kaiju Movie, two nuclear blasts save the day rather than creating all the problems. Despite the fact that at least one of those nuclear blasts still probably did a lot of collateral.... I do wish Pacific Rim had focused a bit more on collateral, and the environmental damage caused by both the Kaiju and, inevitably, the Jaeger project AND Wall of Peace. Food rations are mentioned once-- but surely metal and construction equiptment rationing must also be in place to allow for wall construction! I want my environmental messages shoved violently down the audience's throat, damnit! But I digress

I think an important detail to consider in the Kaiju/Nuclear discussion is how Mako and Raleigh's Jaeger's nuclear power generator is what really allowed them to save the world, multiple times.

The history of politics around nuclear power plants vs nuclear warhead production is interesting, especially in the typical kaiju movie thematic context of man carelessly abusing nature. The argument in defense of nuclear power plants is that, despite the need for extremely rigerous and long-term nuclear waste disposal considerations, there is a lower volume of waste created by nuclear power plants in relation to the energy provided by them, when compared to other modern methods of energy generation like coal power. So, in theory, nuclear energy could be a beneficial power source for minimizing environmental impact.

In the Kaiju movies I've seen, nuclear power is only ever addressed as an extension of the inherently unnatural and harmful abomination of the invention of.the nuclear warhead. It's understandable, the environmental devastation caused by radioactive pollution is massive, and its something a nuclear power plant is very capable of doing if enough goes wrong.

So, what do the Jaegers represent within this conversation? what does the Wall of Peace represent? Here's my thought: they represent (more) active versus passive solutions to the growing threat of climate change. Jaegers represent the way that active work against climate change is only funded as far as it is beneficial to the image of the government.

Yes, the Rift was found to be impossible to blow up with nukes, but it's pretty clear that the world governmemts were putting more money into the publically popular and flashy Jaeger program than they were putting into researching the increase in Kaiju frequency and a permanent solution to the issue. Because of the complicity the world fell into once Kaiju and Jaegers were Rock Stars, the root of the issue with Kaiju goes unadressed for an entire generation, in favor of defeating each Kaiju in impressive and propogand-izable ways.

Only once the problem becomes too big for the propoganda-friendly Jaegers to manage do the world governments start looking for alternate solutions, and the Wall is immediately shown to be too little too late. As soon as it stops being useful for propoganda, the government loses interest in truly solving the problem, and begins investing in moving itself inland and leaving poor coastal populations to die.

The kaiju are only able to be defeated in Pacific Rim because a group of people separate from the government comes together and searches for a solution to the root of the issue-- the Rift being open in the Pacific at all.

Nuclear power is therefore not posed as a solution to war against fellow humans, but is used as a solution to a collective human effort to fight the exponentially speeding destruction of the Earth. The Jaeger pilots and everyone else working in the resistance HAVE to be willing to do anything, willing to take drastic active measures, in order to stop the destruction of the Earth's climate. Yay :)

[idontwikeit]

URGENT: Save Suad and her family

Suad Ahmad is a talented engineer and working in a tech company, and was overjoyed from news of being a new mother, a mere week before Oct 7.

Can you imagine being forced to flee from one place to another eleven times, each time worse than the last? All while being extremely sick and pregnant, and in the end had to walk all the way to the hospital during labor, with minimal medical support; just a month ago, she walked 10 km/6 miles under extreme heat just to find medical care to treat her baby's 40C/104F high fever. And Suad is now suffering pain from severe allergies brought by the complications, living condition and malnutrition, yet the worse news is her newborn is also suffering from sickness.

Suad's newborn baby Khaled has now developed severe chest viral infections and allergies from the 24/7 strikes and destruction wrought by IOF, and his treatment has been severely insufficient due to the power outrage. Not to mention the expensive medical care and the extreme inflation of everything in Gaza. Both Suad and Khaled desperately need immediate medical treatment which Gaza can no longer provide, and the family needs to secure funds for evacuation and daily necessities.

No parents should have to witness the death of their child. I'm now asking everyone to please help Suad and her family, let them LIVE without pain and the constant fear of danger.

#279 on the Vetted Gaza Evacuation Fundraiser List by nabulsi and el-shab-hussein

As of 7 Sep 2024: $27,307USD / $70,000

@northgazaupdates

[karalynlovescake]

Read a whole bunch of rescue fics last week - not Burgess fishbowl rescues but “whoops, Dream got kidnapped again, established relationship Hob to the rescue” fics and I’m all sure, ok I love me some angry “you kidnapped my husband you fuckers” BAMF Hob but why does everyone want Dream?

Wouldn’t some lunatic prefer to get … idk Desire? And didn't the Corinthian SPECIFICALLY name some of the Endless including Desire? Yeah, Burgess wrote that info down in some journal, and some ruthless greedy tech billionaire (I know, redundant adjectives are redundant) got the Burgess journals and is like “well if i can control what people desire I can make them Buy All The Things, I can make investors desire to give me all their funding, and also make all the 19 year old interns fuck me too? Sign me up!" So, let’s kidnap Dream’s LEAST favorite sibling.

And I really want to have Hob be like “what the fuck, babe we have to rescue your sibling” and Dream being all grumpy like “ugh, do we HAVE to?” And Hob be like “YES, do you remember how unhappy you were that none of them came to help you?” and Dream is like “I don’t know, suddenly I can’t read.” and Hob is like “I’m going to rescue them and you’re coming with me,” and Dream is like “whatever, FINE” and sulks the whole fucking time, just absolutely useless, refuses to help other than the minimal amount to keep Hob safe, just sulks in the background in giant nightmare form, all shadow and glowing eyes and pouting turned up to 11, and Hob is doing his BAMF thing left and right and Dream is sulkily deflecting bullets from him because god if he’d known husbands were such a pain he wouldn’t have gotten married. ok that’s a lie. and then they finally find the twins (because Desire and Despair are a package deal and they both got nabbed, and Mr. Billionaire didn’t know what to do with that) and Morpheus sees them and finally gets properly angry because ‘NO ONE GETS TO TORMENT MY SIBLINGS BUT ME’ and then it’s all over.

Desire knows who they really have to thank for getting rescued, and is now extremely well-disposed towards their brother in law.

[jacksgreysays]

Extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of the Watcher situation, (2024-04-24)

So this is a relatively belated post — several days after the initial “Goodbye Youtube” and one day after the “An Update” videos — and surely by this point there are more interesting/insightful op-eds (both in written form and video form, especially penguinz0’s fairly objective POV as, essentially, a YouTube expert) but there is something about the Watcher situation that made my brain itch. Thus, I wanted to write about it in order to make sense of it all as well as get into a philosophy that seems to be haunting me in recent years and which I think applies greatly here.

This may seem completely out of left field considering 1) definitely not fanfiction and 2) about Watcher Entertainment, a YouTube channel which—as far as this tumblr is concerned—I’ve not engaged with whatsoever, but I don’t know where else I would put this, and weirdly enough I think the general tumblr response to this whole predicament is maybe the… if not objective… then at least, most thoughtful?—or, perhaps, least immediately reactive?—amongst the various social media platforms, that I think some people might appreciate this anyway.

In terms of my relevant background: I majored in Management Science (which is just a fancy way of saying Economics + Business + Accounting because they are, weirdly enough, separate things) and minored in Film Studies in school, I am currently working in the stage tech industry (which, I know, is obviously different from film/video industry), and I like to think I am a fan/consumer of a wide variety of independent creators, some of whom I am lucky enough to be able to afford being a patron/subscriber. I won’t go into all of them—because it is a lot—but there are four in particular whose business models I want to analyze in comparison to Watcher’s admitted blunder:

A) RocketJump (known for Video Game High School and Anime Crimes Division; the core group which turned into the podcast Story Break, then became Dungeons and Daddies) B) Dropout (formerly College Humor, we’ll get into their discography later) C) Drawfee (previously an offshoot of College Humor, now fully independent) D) Corridor Digital (used to be mostly behind the scenes of how VFX studios work, have since become a mostly original content creator)

I will say, right off the bat, I am a patron of Drawfee as well as Dungeons and Daddies, and I am a subscriber to Dropout. I am not subscribed to Corridor Digital’s streamer, which I will get into why later. I understand that being able to sustain those two patronages and one subscription is a luxury that not everyone can afford and so my point of view is already skewed by being such a person who could theoretically afford another streaming service if I so chose. I also acknowledge that many fans of Watcher are not in similarly financially secure places as I am and that regardless of the business model, any monetization that comes from fans would have been a rough ask. However, I wanted to go into this essay in a way that accepts Watcher’s statement—that they needed more funding—in relatively good faith rather than assuming the worst (although that is another point I’ll get into later, largely related to the philosophy I brought up earlier.)

All four of the above listed content creators started or, at least, hit their stride on YouTube:

RocketJump and College Humor were, if not household names, then the digital equivalent of it in the “early days of YouTube.” They were part of the wave of content creators that made YouTube seem less like a bunch of eccentrics with cameras making videos on the side and more like a viable way to support yourself/your team with the art you create.

RocketJump’s Video Game High School went from short (less than 10 minutes) minimal location episodes in season one, to 30 minute plus episodes with full on fight scenes and car explosions by season three thanks to a Monster Energy brand deal. They also had two seasons of Anime Crimes Division, a literal TV quality show, thanks to a Crunchy Roll sponsorship. Unfortunately, RocketJump shut down not long after (their videos are still up on YouTube but they obviously don’t add anything new) but the core creative team behind that have been involved in several projects outside of YouTube (Dimension 404 on Hulu being one of the biggest ones so far) including the podcast Story Break (part of the Maximum Fun network) and now the independent podcast Dungeons and Daddies, the episodes of the main campaigns which are free with ads or, for patrons, ad-less along with additional mini-campaigns and other benefits.

I will say, during RocketJump’s decline, they did try their best to keep going. The partnerships with Monster Energy and Crunchy Roll were the big swings to get the funding to make those TV quality shows they wanted. I believe they lucked out with those brands in particular, or, at least, those brands didn’t seem to inhibit the creative process or ask too much of them that it felt like “selling out” but I also don’t have insight into why they didn’t pursue this model of, essentially, very weird but interesting season long commercials. Maybe they just couldn't find the right brands or maybe they did feel like it was too stifling. Regardless, before they shut down completely, they did also downsize—moving out of the actual city of Los Angeles over to Buena Park. Which is in Los Angeles county, and basically counts as LA still, but is way cheaper than literal Hollywood real estate. (I should have added to my relevant background that I’m born and raised LA county, and have relatives and friends in the film/movie industry, so trust me when I say literal Hollywood/city of Los Angeles is so overrated and unnecessarily expensive. There is a reason why LA traffic is the worst and it’s because everyone is commuting INTO the city. Respectfully and with affection, no one should live there. No one’s start up should be located there.) Obviously the downsizing didn’t necessarily work for RocketJump, but they also didn’t have multiple successful revenue streams the way that Watcher currently does.

In contrast, College Humor was acquired by InterActiveCorp and was turned into CH Media which was three pronged: College Humor, Drawfee, and Dorkly. In 2018 they made Dropout, which had exclusive content separate from their YouTube videos which involved all three prongs. Then some financial shenanigans happened early 2020—IAC withdrew their funding—and there were a bunch of layoffs right before the pandemic which extremely sucked. It has been stated by multiple people involved that it was basically a miracle that Dropout survived through all of that, but there were definitely some sacrifices along the way to make that happen. Currently, Dropout seems to be thriving with mostly exclusive content with the occasional “first episode of a season” posted to YouTube, OR if Dimension 20 is doing a “sequel season” in an already established campaign they will put the entirety of the previous season on YouTube.

IAC withdrawing their funding did put CH Media in a bind. They had to layoff a lot of people right before pandemic and, understandably, a lot of trauma was had. There were also weird issues with who controlled certain IPs/brands/digital assets (I mostly come at this from a Drawfee POV, it took several years for them to own the Drawga series and be allowed to host all of the episodes on their YouTube, and there was also something about the sound file for their opening animation?) but mainly the difference is what kind of content they generate. Originally Dropout had multiple scripted shows with high budgets and pretty cool effects/animations/stunts (Troopers, Kingpin Katie, Gods of Food, Ultramechatron Team Go!, Cartoon Hell, and WTF 101) whereas now almost all of their shows are variations of improv comedians being put into different scenarios or given different prompts. I’m not just talking about Game Changer and Make Some Noise, because Dimension 20 and Um, Actually also technically fall under that description as well. Which is not to say that these shows are worse than the scripted shows—I subscribe to Dropout, so clearly I’m a fan of their current shows—and the budgets for them have since increased to resemble, if not match, those early shows, but it is a noticeable shift in their content creation strategy as a response to the lack of IAC funding. And I will say: Dropout releases at least three videos a week if not more and at least two of those are long form at 30 minutes plus (Dimension 20 being the longest, of course.)

So, these first two business models are not really the most applicable to Watcher Entertainment considering their origin was to get away from Buzzfeed—they’re probably not keen to be partnered with or purchased by a larger company—but there are some aspects to both that I believe are valuable in at least showing the strategy in how these former YouTube creators could successfully extract themselves from YouTube or how they still utilize YouTube even if it is not their main hosting platform or revenue stream.

Then there is Drawfee and Corridor Digital, both of whom are currently—if not primarily—on YouTube, whose situations are more comparable to what I believe are Watcher’s goals.

Drawfee had to rebuild themselves like a phoenix from the ashes of the CH Media layoff during the beginning/worst of the pandemic. Side note: I’m happy that Nathan (one of the four main artists of the current Drawfee team) at least has forgiven(? or let bygones be bygones) Dropout enough to be on an episode of Game Changer (although I will say that this happened after Drawga was “returned” to Drawfee, and after Dropout officially split from College Humor as a brand.) All that being said, Drawfee was a team of four artists plus their editor who wanted to stick together but basically had all of their support system taken away from them. They took a bit of a break to assess their goals and options, announced a patreon with several tiers with great perks, and stuck to their upload schedule. In addition to two videos a week, they also stream on Twitch weekly, have a patron only stream once a month, and a draw class (for one of the higher tiers) once month. After asking their patrons on the relevant tiers if they were okay with it, they began releasing the patron only stream and the draw class to the general public for free after a month. The patreon perks also include things like merch discount codes, high quality PNGs of the final rendered art, access to the draw class with live interaction/critique, and a commission from the artist of your choice. The only “ads” they run are for their own patreon and merch store and, even then, they’re usually at the end of the videos with a credit scroll of the patron names during their exit banter.

Admittedly, they only have MAYBE eight employees—that’s including their video editor(s?) and their discord mod(s?)—with the main four artists doubling/tripling up duties as additional video editors, CFO, and marketing/merch leads. It’s a very streamlined crew and their production costs are not very high since it’s mostly screen recording of their drawings with their audio recording overlayed onto that footage. Although the video editors do sometimes have clever cuts to relevant images depending on their vamping. Sometimes they will have a guest artist but, again, since it’s screen and audio recordings, there’s no travel/housing costs. So, very minimal expenses due to low production costs and small crew but, again, their only revenue source is the patreon/merch, they don’t do outside ads and they very rarely do live shows.

Corridor Digital is, I think, the most applicable to what Watcher would ideally do, which I suppose is somewhat ironic for this essay in particular considering they’re the only one of the four that I don’t financially support. They have two YouTube channels: their main one being where they show the “final product” videos, but I believe their Corridor Crew channel which started primarily as behind the scenes type of videos is where most of their views come from. Especially their React series (VFX artists, Stuntmen, and Animators React etc.) On Corridor Crew they usually upload two videos a week — one which is a React and the other which goes into fun projects/challenges (involving VFX or not) or using VFX to explain scientific concepts — as well as the first episodes of their exclusive content on their streamer. Also behind that paywall are longer and ad-less versions of the videos on YouTube. They also have merch. All of them have merch, I don’t know why I’m stating that. They don’t have a patreon as far as I know, but I also don’t know if their subscription to their website comes with similar perks like discounted merch or something similar.

Anyway, their studio seems to be about 15 to 20 people — not all of them are VFX artists, of course. I believe they have higher equipment costs than Watcher since, understandably, Corridor has to be on the cutting edge of video editing technology. They do occasionally travel for shoots, but it doesn’t require big teams, and that’s only when the local locations available to them don’t match the requirements for the “final product” videos. Otherwise most of their videos are set in the studio or in the alleyway outside their studio in Los Angeles (the city itself, not just the greater county, though they are in a rougher and thus probably cheaper part of Los Angeles). I personally don’t subscribe to their website primarily because their exclusive shows don’t appeal to me—either they’re too technical or a little too dry; to be fair, most of them are VFX artists first before they are performers—and I don’t particularly feel the need to see the extended cuts of the videos uploaded on YouTube. Also I sometimes get a little bummed out by their lack of diversity.

All of this to say, from these four different business models, a bespoke Frankenstein business model for Watcher could be cobbled together. But also, even with that bespoke Frankenstein, there are some changes that Watcher would have to make: primarily their upload schedule. As of right now, I think they do MAYBE one video a week if not, perhaps, one video every TWO weeks. If they want a monthly subscription model, their rate of content generation would ideally be higher to double/quadruple their current upload rate. Obviously they want to create videos with higher production value, but at that rate of generation, something’s got to give: supplement their TV quality shows with either a behind the scenes type series or an increase of “we get four episodes out of Shane and Ryan get increasingly drunk in someone’s backyard” or something similar. Leaning into shows like Worth A Shot (the first season in which Ricky Wang makes cocktails based on a random ingredient, the second season threw in some competitive aspects which I didn’t really find necessary) or the Beatdown which has relatively low production costs (no travel, one location, maybe two cameras at most therefore smaller crew requirements) but a higher polished look. Otherwise, for a separate streaming subscription service, 2-4 videos a month is not going to cut it.

As of right now they probably can’t back out of the separate streaming subscription service because those set ups usually require some level of contract/paying for servers for the website and whatever is hosting their videos for a set amount of time. However, what really strikes me is that I literally didn’t know they had a patreon until I scrolled through the comments of the first Goodbye Youtube video. Maybe it’s been linked "tactfully" in the descriptions of videos, but considering they claim to be lacking in funds, the fact that they weren’t plugging their patreon at the end of every video is not just strange, but also irresponsible considering they do have 25 employees that they don’t want to layoff.

Additionally, I understand artists needing to be in a space that promotes creativity, but there are cheaper places that must be comparable that aren’t in literal Hollywood. It’s an unnecessary expense. On top of that, other people have already brought up that it was fairly crass to introduce this paywall, attributing it to the increased production costs, when the next planned “new series” is a reboot of an old Buzzfeed series in which people travel and eat expensive food. I’m not even talking about the personal expenses of Steven, Shane, and Ryan; what kind of car they drive or the cost of their wedding venue doesn’t matter on a business model basis.

But getting back to the patreon: again, I literally didn’t know they had one. I’m looking over their tiers— they have $5, $10, $25, and $100 — and for the most part they seem okay, although I think they have more to offer that wouldn’t necessarily cost them more. Ie, something that has baffled me for a while: the fact they don’t sell the mp3s of the Puppet History songs; they already exist and it doesn’t cost them anything additional because they don’t need to put it on physical media. Or maybe they do and they’re not marketing it similarly to how they weren’t overtly marketing their patreon?

And, okay, maybe they didn’t want to seem desperate — in the early days of Dropout and independent Drawfee, they both were very blatant in getting people to subscribe/join their patreon. As they should be. Desperation maybe doesn’t look cool and sexy, but it is earnest in a way that conveys equal effort that fans who can afford it would want to see. The fact that we weren’t getting rotating ten second clips of Steven, Shane, and Ryan asking people to join the patreon at the end of every video — even if its the same clip every three videos — is wild. And yes, the $25 tier includes a shoutout every 3 months on Watcher Weekly+ (which I don't quite understand what that is,) but the fact that they weren’t doing a quick post movie credits scroll of all the patreon names is, again, wild. Once you have that initial list, it’s not too difficult to add any new names that join and put that title overlay on top of, again, those nonexistent ten second clips of the three.

As others have already stated, it seems like an extreme mismanagement of their existing successful revenue streams, if they are actually struggling to pay all of their employees. Which goes into the philosophy part of this essay: don’t assume malice when it might just be incompetence. It’s something that I have to remind myself of often because I do get paranoid about people’s intentions sometimes and I have to check myself. Am I being overly suspicious of what might be just an honest mistake? Am I assigning ill will to an action just because it inconvenienced me?

Yes, of course, a lot of this situation could be misconstrued as straight up greed. But, also, Watcher is a relatively young company, helmed by three people who certainly don’t have experience running their own company:

They like to travel. They like to bring a full crew around with them. They’re renting out a shiny office in the heart of Hollywood where everyone knows is where real show biz happens. They’re adding more employees to the team because surely more people means better. And they want better productions values because the prettier the videos the more people will like them right?

It’s naive. It’s a level of inexperience combined with giving responsibility to officers whose main priority is to entertain. And if that means entertaining themselves and their staff, then they might not know the difference. It’s the kind of mistake that first time managers make—trying to prioritize fun over getting the job done. Prioritizing making friends with their employees rather than making sure the work the employees put in is equal to (or greater than) what you spend on them whether that is in paycheck or bringing them to cool locations for fun shoots. It’s a mistake anyone can make, it's just unfortunate that they made this mistake in front of millions of people. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s solely a greed induced cash grab.

But then comes the catch-22 of the philosophy—is it worse to assume incompetence than it is to assume malice? Or, in this case, greed. Especially for the heads of a company that holds the livelihoods of 25 employees in their hands. At what point does it not matter if it’s incompetence or greed if the end result is the same?

Is it better to think that Watcher knew about the various other business models of independent creators and just ignored the efforts put into achieving those successes or is it better to think that they didn’t know and just stumbled into one of the worst moves they could have done. Again, other people have mentioned that Great Mythical Morning—which Watcher has had multiple collaborations with—has managed to make the YouTube subscription/tier system work to the point that they can sustain themselves as well as spinoff channels. Is it incompetence or greed that led to Watcher thinking they could bypass that completely in less time and with less content?

I’ve been at this mess of an essay for several hours when I should have been asleep. Ultimately I want to say, regardless of incompetence or greed… yes, Steven is CEO and yes he is ultimately the one who makes the final call but it is disheartening to see the pointed vitriol at Steven specifically and the infantilizing of Shane and Ryan in comparison. Either they’re all silly uwu boys who are messing around not knowing how to run a company, or they’re all complicit in a crass cash grab in an extremely busted economy.

I think what’s most frustrating to me in all this is that there were so many other channels and creators who have literally walked this path before them and, again, whether through incompetence or greed or arrogance, for them to just ignore it… It’s not betrayal because I don’t know them and so there’s no relationship to betray, it’s just so inefficient and convoluted that I don’t understand. Or, no, even if it was greed, it’s an incompetent greed because at least pure greed would have been pushing that patreon every second they could. Their ratio of YouTube subscribers to patreon members is less than 1% and I bet that’s because a lot of their audience, like me, literally didn’t know they had a patreon. I probably would have become a patreon member of theirs had I known earlier, ESPECIALLY if it included access to those Puppet History songs. Drawfee has half as many YouTube subscribers and nearly double the patreon members as Watcher. I’m just baffled, is all, and maybe by this point sleep deprived.

Anyway. That’s my extremely late, completely unnecessary opinion of this situation.

Edit (several hours later after some sleep): I forgot to mention, because they did walk this back almost immediately, even before their "An Update" video, but I believe the original plan was to put EVERYTHING behind that paywall and pull their content from YouTube entirely. Which is, again, extremely baffling, because if ALL of their content is behind a paywall, how would they possibly gain new fans? Even if all of their current fans were able and willing to pay for their separate subscription streaming service, how would a brand new person even stumble on their content enough to want to subscribe if there wasn't a significant amount of "proof of value" free content on YouTube? Again, extremely baffling, and a level of incompetence that overshadows a "cunning" greed. But, like I said earlier, they did walk this decision back almost immediately. If I've misunderstood this and that was never their plan, please let me know, I don't want to be spreading misinformation in a situation that is already so convoluted.

[everlastingrandom]

Last night I watched Kraven the Hunter with a friend and it’s so mediocre that it made me mad and I’m venting about it. Spoiler warning I guess, but it was pretty predictable. Also the animals were practically set dressing, which sucks because that’s Kraven’s whole fucking bit.

The entire time I was thinking “if it weren’t for Disney being funded by puritan oligarchs and the U.S. government, this film could’ve been about a guy who’s whole thing is fighting the evils of poaching. But millionaires love poaching, so Marvel can’t upset that audience.”

The film has to make every villain a drug and weapons trafficker on top of being a poacher, so that you don’t focus on the poaching. Don’t look too hard at how much people pay to travel to other countries to kill animals and how much waste it produces!! The film has only one scene where a Ghanaian man says he relies on payments from poaching clients to feed his family. But it doesn’t really show that this man is in need, or that he is forced to subsist on a deeply colonial system. It does nothing to show the detrimental effects of removing a macro predator or endangered species from an ecosystem. It doesn’t show how often poachers will kill people to get animal heads or ivory!!! The poaching industry is already evil enough as it is!!!

The pacing and editing is a hot mess, the timeline is all over the place. The dialogue is extremely tell don’t show. Kraven’s back story is “Rich white boy has an evil dad who tried to get him poach in order to prove his manhood. Boy almost gets killed, Black girl swoops in and uses her sacred family potion to save him. Now he’s mega buff and uses the powers of animals to to kill villains with impunity (except his fucking dad, a mafia kingpin. It’s fine to bum off your family’s ill gotten resources in the name of vigilante justice, I guess.) Also the Black woman is there to be minimally useful. Also his brother is weak and blonde and gets tossed around the plot like a sad puppet until the end.”

The film can’t show Kraven, a man raised from childbirth to be a poacher, actually kill an animal, because that would obviously make him a villain. But they show him fighting animals and letting animals attack other humans because he doesn’t really give a shit about animal welfare. He never really studies the animals, he just stares them in the eyes and miraculously he Gets It and can use their skills to hunt and kill. There’s like five minutes where he’s out in the wilderness and he’s sprinting and climbing trees like a twilight vampire.

There’s only one scene where he confronts some poachers directly. He makes a sad face at a bunch of dead bovine but then goes straight to brutally beating up the poachers. The animals are never a concern again. He doesn’t honor their deaths in any meaningful way. The steppe herds live and graze on his property but it’s not a wildlife conservation, it’s just where his weird secret base is (the base that used to be him mother’s favorite getaway spot from his father. (Which, btw, we never see his mother in her right mind. The film only flashbacks to her in a straight jacket and screaming in an institution. We never see his memories of her loving him and his brother, which is misogynistic as hell in my opinion.))

His evil dad kills a lion early in the film, (a single male lion that is portrayed to be super buff and attacks humans, even though lions ONLY attack humans out of desperation and they fucking hunt in packs) and then at the end, Kraven wears that mane as a mantle. Who the fuck are you dawg??? What the fuck are your ideals??? Are you going to pay reparations for all the animal resources you took from foreign countries??? I think the fuck not!!

(This is a nitpick but I hate that Kraven has an American accent. He has two Russian parents and spent half his life in Russia. Why the fuck does he sound American. Like yes, Russell Crowe’s Russian accent was bad, but at least he was committed to the character!!! Aaron Taylor-Johnson sounded like he was bored half the time and deeply unconvincing the other half. Let your leading characters be and sound Non-American, Disney.)

Marvel tried to improve Kraven’s shitty backstory (and Calypso’s racist backstory) from the comics. But if she’s an investigative lawyer and he has deep ties to the criminal underworld, they could have easily ended the conflict by getting his dad sent to jail and then dispersing the assets.

FRANKLY, the film would’ve been widely more interesting from Calypso’s POV. She’s a Vodou priestess, a lawyer, a huntress, and she has a cool sense of fashion. I’m glad they fully rebooted her story from the comics because everything EVERYTHING about her was extremely racist. But now she doesn’t get to be interesting. There were many options for the entire film to be actually interesting, but it took none of them.

[davidson-eric]

SWITCH INTO THE QUANTUM FINANCIAL SYSTEM.

The world is entering a major sovereign debt crisis, and that's going to turn many markets upside down.

Don't expect interest rates to rise voluntarily. Instead, the next round of easy money has begun around the world to stabilise falling markets.

The problem is that this time it will have minimal and only short-term effects.

For the past few years, investors around the world have ignored risk. That is why the coming panic will be so brutal.

When interest rates inevitably rise from these artificially suppressed levels, the bond and stock markets will collapse, as will the property market.

Pension funds will be wiped out.

This is a very bad situation; the world itself is sinking deeper and deeper.

The European Union will not survive. It will disintegrate. And right now, all the powerful economic cycles are converging this year to form the super cycle that will signal total collapse.

Governments are desperate and have started taxing bank deposits. You pay income tax on your pay cheque and then you pay another tax when you deposit it in the bank.

Why are the elected politicians in the western democracies keeping their mouths shut to keep their electorates in the dark about this vast hidden wealth, while at the same time raising taxes and cutting public spending on services and infrastructure?

Most of the fiat money created is still in the banking system, but not in the economy. It is spread across the property, stock, bond and crypto markets, creating bubbles in all of them. The higher they go, the harder they fall.

Unfortunately, not many people are prepared for this coming crisis. Keep an eye on Japan, they just poured lighter fluid on every little bank.

Watch out for serious problems with the "too big to fail" banks. The next few months are going to be extremely important and you would be wise to get out with your cash while you can.

[girlactionfigure]

🔅Wed morning SUMMARY - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Real Time

🔻no overnight rockets.

🔸ISRAEL : holding strong

Regardless of some media reports and US president Biden’s statements, both Israel’s political class and the Israeli public is holding strong and steady.  

There is a lot of room for political maneuvering due to the war, but for the most part the politicians are staying quiet and waiting for the future.  Recent polls show the public strongly supports the war, and while they expect new elections - not in the midst of the war.

The distraught hostage families are holding their protests, doing what they think will help - and a bit of anti-govt protestors have glommed on to their events. While they get media attention, they’re not growing.

And the extremely divisive national topic of draft exemptions was brought before the High Court, but the govt and the leading parties have, for the most part, quietly taken the topic to the back rooms.

🔸LEBANON : tit-for-tat continues

The night before last, Israel attacked Hezbollah weapons warehouses in BaalBek - distant from the border.

Hezbollah's response yesterday: launching over 100 rockets and firing along the entire border.

Counterattack by the IDF deep in Lebanese territory in the Bekaa valley, hitting Hezbollah military operations buildings.

Response: IDF attacked "sensitive" Hezbollah targets, as well as a strike at Hezbollah sites in Syria.

🔸GAZA : battles and targeted attacks continue

Yesterday’s hotspot was Deir al Balah, south west Gaza. Forces maneuvered in, artillery strikes, and targeted bombing.

Continued operations in Hamad, Khan Yunis in south Gaza, including capture of an enemy compound with full stock of military weapons and supplies, battles with enemy squads including a squad trying to sneak up and bomb an IDF position.

The IDF also captured and destroyed another enemy rocket launch site.

Targeted bombing is also occurring in Rafah, targeting leadership and command locations, but giving evacuation warnings due to the concentration of civilians.  For the moment Israel is not pushing into Rafah.

🔸JUDEA-SAMARIA : ongoing counter-terror

Ongoing reports of security force activity throughout Judea-Samaria, significant concentration on trouble hotspots Jenin, Tulkarm, Shechem, Tubas.

Almost daily reports of security raids capturing terror suspects - often kicking off firefights when they resist which get serious with shoulder rocket launches at buildings and drone strikes.

Not only does this capture violent militants, it gives them a target or worries about defense instead of potentially performing attacks.

🔸IRAQ : they keep trying

Iranian funded and armed Iraq Shia Militias keep trying to attack Israel and putting out press releases on their ‘success’. Because of the distance the only weapons they have are long distance suicide drones, and so far they’ve had only 1 get near Israeli airspace, which was immediately shot down by F16.

🔸HOUTHIS : major impact to the world

The Houthis are attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden daily, successfully sinking, damaging, and causing ships to be abandoned. 

World shipping costs have increased 240% since the Houthis started their attacks.

The shipping protection coalition, with the US, UK, India and various EU countries, is stopping a fair number of the attacks, but even daily airstrikes is not deterring the Houthis.  Making it worse, the US/UK airstrikes on Yemen are minimally effective because they don’t know where to hit.

[aces-and-angels]

Hello dears ! I am asking you to support my campaign to help me to reach my goal. I am now in bad need to your support to help me stay alive and safe. Gaza is a very dangerous place either on the level of livelihood or on the level of souls. I need your monetary support to ensble me to get the basic needs for my family till Rafah crossing point reopens to move my family to safety and peace.Pleasd help a family be alive through your small donations or througn your shares to others.Thank you so much for your stand beside people in need .

hello 🖤 thank you for taking the time to reach out! yall this campaign has been vetted by 90-ghost. i've also received the same message from @burningnightgiver who is also sharing the same campaign (either a backup account for them/another family member)

please take a moment to read this in its entirety as well as share posts from @/ahmed79ss and @/burningnightgiver

walaa is a 17 year old girl with three other siblings (2 brothers, 1 sister). prior to october 7th, walaa's parents traveled to egypt so her mother could receive treatment but couldn't return home as the war escalated. i cannot even begin to imagine the level of pain/fear their parents must feel day after day as they are forced to watch their children be subjected to such cruelty without being able to do anything to help/comfort them

on top of that, walaa is a type 1 diabetic who requires insulin because her body cannot produce it on its own. one major complication of untreated diabetes is something called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA for short)

DKA: a crash course severe lack of insulin in body -> can't use glucose (sugar) for energy -> body starts to break down fats, which produces ketones -> ketones turn your blood into acid -> everything gets worse the acid in your blood makes everything hurt. your muscles. your joints. it feels like it's down to the bone. meanwhile, your body is desperately trying to save itself- so now you're breathing rapidly to try to neutralize all that acid in your blood. you're peeing more to try to get the sugar out. your tongue feels like it's flaking off from extreme thirst- and no amount of water can fix it (*mind you, palestinians are actively being dehydrated/have minimal access to clean water regardless) but despite your body's efforts- it's not enough. so it begins to shut down completely. your head is hazy, you are sick beyond belief, and without proper care, you'll die

that horrible experience was walaa's. she was hospitalized twice in march. thankfully, she was able to recover before the situation became that dire after doctors treated her. but without steady access to insulin or any way to monitor/control her blood sugar levels, she is at risk of suffering through that horrible, deadly experience again

currently, walaa's family is still very low in funding ($1,578 CAD/$40,000). please help reunite walaa's family however you can by sharing their story. follow the accounts. donate if you can. everything helps🖤

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

the basic formula for any fanfic direct to movie feature

main girl, a bit awkward, kind of pretty in the way that is not HOT but cute (she will think she's ugly and dress poorly), should be a relatively good girl and can be mostly virginal, and can have some sort of medical condition that is mentioned several times at first but never worked on or expanded upon and can sometimes be forgotten towards the end of the series

main dude, cold, (can be really toxic but will be ignored for plot reasons,) really rich for some reason, doesn't really work but makes it look like he works, unattached to everyone expect for main girl. has some sort of traumatic past and will not go to therapy.

main girl and dude meet in some sort of circumstance, can be a friendly or mean interaction- does not matter

proximity is forced. they have to interact at some point again. because of underlying circumstances they will be forced to talk and chat about something, main dude will learn one thing about main girl and find it interesting while main girl will begin to think that main dude is kinda cute. boy will become entirely obsessed for no reason other than that one fact he found out OR he is challenged in some capacity to pursue her.

girl will have a friend (can be boy or girl) that will be the comic relief and will fill in the spaces when girl can not talk to boy

they (m boy and girl) will meet again in another circumstance that is outside of their choosing, either friend or business or some other event will force them to see each other.

they will be separated from the group and have another conversation that leads to more interest being garnered from either side

some sort of event (could be tragic or very minimal) makes it so that guy will have to save girl from something. it is merely to get the first soft interaction from guy

she will fall for him slightly. girl will talk to friend about this interaction and friend will call it "irregular" or unusual because of boy's normal demenor

girl will attend school, job, function that is partially funded or dedicated to dude. they will meet at the function and are to be seen together. a potential ex lover from either side is introduced as a foil to main boy or girl

they will go on a date of sorts or will be forced to talk to each other again. (this can end good or poorly, it does not matter) they can also kiss here, but it does not matter.

girl will go further into what she was doing, get new job, move to new place, finish school etc. BUT she will struggle with it for the first while. she will reach out to dude because she will remember one interaction that was good OR she will reach out to a new boy because she wants friendship or a date

she will run into main dude again with the date or by coincidence with new boy. (a conflict can ensue or the date with new boy will fizzle out and she will go and reconcile with Main dude)

they will maybe have sex, (does not matter, but for the sake of shitty fanfic to movie formula, this is our first sex scene between the two main characters.) they will become extremely attached to each other and immediately begin to date

girl will attempt to go back to work or school but will have some sort of issues with main dude interfering. (they can or can not fight about this, it does not matter, just a conflict needs to develop)

friend should be brought back for an update since main characters had sex.

main dude will have his own issues with SOMETHING, does not matter what it is, it will preoccupy his time and make it so that their relationship can not develop normally

they will have some sort of conflict they next time they are together. this needs to be a huge red flag conflict that they can not reasonably reconcile over but they will to some capacity.

even though they are still together, the cracks start to show and main girl begins to doubt main boy from his previous relationships or some sort of secret he has kept from her

secret will be revealed somehow (does not matter from who) and main girl will ditch main dude without a word

main dude will be confused and unsure what to do and will not seek therapy for at least one more movie

they will meet in some sort of circumstance and have to leave each other in a dramatic fashion because something bad happened that was outside of both of their controls

cliff hanger

title card

next movie

[chainsofaether]

Character Sheet: Nyxathe Voss

Nyxathe Voss

Nicknames: Nyx

Age: Mid to Late 30’s, she isn’t entirely sure.

Nameday: 26th Sun of the Third Astral Moon

Race: Viera, Veena

Gender: Cis Female

Orientation: Pansexual, but complicated. Romantically she really only interested that people that can keep up with her intellectually. Particularly people with heavy magical experience. With a slight lean toward women, or maybe it would be better to say she has a wider attraction to woman romantically.

Sexually she’ll sleep with just about anyone she finds physically attractive if there isn’t an emotional component to it. The only body type she’s outright likely to not find attractive is one of a body builder. Her youth was filled with mostly lithe women so extreme bulk muscle is just off putting to her.

One major catch to all this is someone that wants to have a child with her. Only Viera need apply. She’s not interested in children that life half as long as her at best and likely much less.

Of course this is born from a fear of loss so really it bleeds in to any relationship eventually. Though not to outright rejection beyond children.

Profession: Aetheric researcher, Tutor, Accountant. The later two are simply was to make money to fund the first. The former being her real passion/obsession.

PHYSICAL ASPECTS

Hair: Stark White. Wavy tending toward big curls with minimal effort. Extremely long, well past her waist, though she often keep it pulled up so it appears shorter then it actually is.

Eyes: Pale pink right eye that is slightly clouded. Very light blue left eye. The left eye is her natural color with the right being a byproduct of damage from when she was a child. Sometimes is seen wearing glasses.

Skin: Pale white, extremely smooth. In almost any light she looks like a ghost or at least someone that never sees the sun. Unfortunately for her she honestly just can’t tan at all. A best she gets a slight pink to her tone but then promptly burns with a minute more exposure. Living in Ul'dah is a bit of hell for a number of reasons the sun being one.

Reading all that does she have Albinism?

Tattoos/Scars: None to notice and she’s not exactly shy about her body. Notably not having any scars is a product of magic, in no way natural. Same with the smoothness of her skin.

FAMILY

Parents: Astrid (F) [Deceased] Malcolm Voss (M) [Alive]/ Maria Voss (F) [Alive]

Astrid, Nyxathe’s birth mother. Given birth to Nyxathe in the forests of the Skytay range. Several years later being forced to flee due to a massive fire that presumably killed the rest of the tribe. From there she took Nyxathe south in to Dalmasca and found her self joining the resistance until Nyx was badly injured. With that she took the still child Nyx and fled to Kugane where she found Nyx a magic teach to hone the child’s budding talent and then found herself work suit to her status as a Viera and skills a spy. Leading to meeting Malcolm who eventually brought her and Nyx to Eorzea. Unfortunately a run in with the Amalj'aa lead to her death by Nyxathe’s hands.

Malcolm Voss and Maria Voss, Nyxathe’s adoptive family. Malcolm met Astrid in Kugane during his trading missions from Eorzea eventually hiring her and then building a more personal relationship with the Viera. Eventually he offered to bring the two back to Eorzea with him. Once on Eorzea he introduced Astrid to his wife and officially hired her on a permanent basis. Alas one fateful caravan ride they were ambushed by Amalj'aa and taken captive. Malcolm and Nyxathe survived but Astrid did not. He’d grown close to the teenage Viera, so as a way of thanking her mother he offered to adopt her.

Siblings: Saewara Voss (F) [Alive] Andrea Voss (F) [Alive] Magnus (M) [Alive]

Saewara, Andrea, and Magnus. Oldest to youngest. All the children of Malcolm and Maria born after Nyx had already moved to Ul’dah. Largely she see’s them as siblings but siblings that she has more then a decade on. She was heavily involved in their early educations and are a large part of why she eventually started taking jobs as a tutor for other merchant families.

Grandparents: None living that she’s aware of.

Others: Aside from the family that took her in she doesn’t have any particularly strong relationships with other people. She works with a number of merchant that hire her to tutor their children, but those are all personal relationship. She’s has friends, or is at least friendly, with a few people but no one she’s claim on particular tie to. Part in due to her aversion to loss, but mostly just because she’s so obsessively focused on her research.

Not to say she’s unapproachable, just if you want to make friends you probably need to be able to hold a conversation and not be boring. That and be willing to listen when she start rambling out her latest project.

SKILLS

Abilities: First and foremost Nyxathe is a student of arcanima. In moments of pride she well might even claim to be a master of the art. Pride or not though this isn’t far from the truth. Manipulation of aether has always come easy to her, so much so her mother had her in training at a young age to prevent accidents. Thanks to that field of training she also displays a talent for mathematics, particularly geometry. No surprise considering the importance of geometry to arcanima.

That said her understanding of magic isn’t entirely limited to the one discipline. After all she lives in Ul’dah home of Thaumaturgy. She’d be remiss not to at least learn the basics there. And well Gridania is just over there. The point more or less being that she has a working knowledge of the basics of the other systems. After all her goal isn’t mastery of of one path but instead a holistic understanding of Aether and the manipulation of it. Still she has thirty plus years of study in arcanima, compared to the few years of sporadic study in to the others.

From a practical point this just means Nyxathe could be called a generalist. Healing or hurting are both things she can do in effective measure. That said she isn’t a healer, not in the traditional sense anyway, or even a generalist. Instead she’s hyper specialized in manipulating corporeal aether. Why doesn’t she have scars in spite of her relatively violent life? Unfortunately manipulating a living beings aether can be remarkably deadly if the utmost care isn’t taken and only the most minor changes effected.

Alchemy is another skill she’s invested time in to. At first simply to make her own grimoire and inks. She was constantly experimenting with new designs that it was finally suggested to her to just learn how to make them on her own. She can save money that way. But really that only made the skill a hobby until a few years past when she started to invest more effort in to learning alchemy. She was never particularly open about what she was trying to learn, but like all things that catch her attention she turned to it with pure obsession for over a year before she abruptly stopped and went back to her old research.

Nyxathe can also see aether. Her research would be infinitely harder if she couldn’t. This allows her to check aspecting at a glance, something she very accurate about. In the same it lets her look at other living beings aether, not just her own.

Something Nyxathe doesn't make public, compared to the most of the rest of this information, is that after he encounter so many years ago she discovered she had the echo. Not that she had a name for what she was experiencing, only that she didn’t die and everyone else did. A second effect of that same encounter is that she can summon Ifrit, or well the Egi of him. Though learning to do that was a years long effort later in life.

Hobbies: Research, though calling that a hobby feels a bit like a lie. Still she does so other kinds of research out of pure interest rather then some goal at times.

Swimming, She’s been pretty much obsessed with the ocean since the first time she was on a ship.

She enjoys travel and reading.

She draws on occasion, often trying out new pattern ideas for her spells but other times just geometric shapes or perspective style drawing of whatever she sees.

Cooking. It wasn’t until she lived alone that she realized she was good at cooking and enjoyed it. Of course its often a misused skill considering her obsessive distraction, and at other times just the lack of money.

TRAITS

Most positive trait: Her obsessive drive. It lets her achieve goals that would be nearly unthinkable to someone else in a time frame that is inimical to life. Goals ranging from building a room sized 3D magic circle in her apartment with out any kind of rest over three days. To the goal of simply surviving. The ability to push aside anything that doesn't matter in that specific moment, everything that does not push toward that single goal. Of course once she’s like that struggles to stop and it very much can lead to dangerous side effects, like not resting or eating for three days leading to immediate collapse upon finishing her work.

Worst negative trait: Nyxathe is always a bit emotional, but as her aetheric balance degrades Nyxathe become increasing emotionally unstable. At first simply seeming overly moody. Then beginning to drift to more extreme in to ecstatic bliss that shifts to a frenzy of rage at the drop of a pin. At the start the reactions seem extreme but logical. Eventually though even her logic breaks down. Of course this only happens as her corporeal aether attempts to assert her natural state, something that she manages daily.

Or if magical emotional volatility isn’t a negative trait then I point back to her obsessive drive.

LIKES

Colors: Really all colors, the richer the better. But reds in all forms, a number of her dresses come in rich reds. But since she lacks any real pigment she can pull over wearing nearly any color. She likes gold as an accent color. Purple and gold can be quiet attractive too. She’s not unknown to wear blacks or browns if she traveling or doing other wise dirty work.

Purely for looking though she likes greens and blues. She finds deep greens in particular to be rather soothing to look at.

Smells: She has a complex relationship with the smell of fire and ash. It’s the smell most likely to get an emotional reaction in any case, good or bad. The smell after rain. Vanilla. The ocean, though that is heavily tied to the sound as well.

Textures: The waxy smooth skin of an orange. The smoothness of silk. Cold rough stone.

Drinks: Anything sweet really. Subtle sweetness before cloying taste, but she’s not overly picky. Orange juice is a favorite. Tea, though typically whites teas. She not found of the bitterness of black teas in particular. Given some drinks mitigate that adding additions to mitigate. Fresh water, often times there is nothing more precious then a simple cup of clean, cool water.

OTHER DETAILS

Smokes: Never. She doesn’t see the point. All smoke makes her cough badly and really any burning puts her mind in places she rather not be. It’s less an issue as the years pass but really she’s just not interested in pushing the point.

Drinks: Occasionally, mostly as a social thing. She enjoys clarity of mind. She never really goes out to buy her own alcohol, though she has been given gifts from time to time that she keep at home. She finds the taste of pure alcohol particularly unpleasant so almost anything she drinks is heavily masked if she can help it.

Drugs: Nothing recreational. As with alcohol she enjoys clarity of mind so the mind altering properties aren’t really appealing. Plus she doesn’t really need the risks that come with use. She might be convinced but it’s not something she’d seek out alone.

Mount Issuance: No, not personally. Though she can borrow a chocobo form her families company if she needs one. She’s a trained rider but she finds she enjoys travel by foot if she not in any kind of rush. So more often then not she travels by foot or ship.

Been Arrested: No

Tagged by: @thefreelanceangel and @gatheredfates

Tagging: No one. Because I took like two months to do this and I still have to do Nexa. Still if you haven't done one then do it and tag me so I can look at it.

[nothorses]

Adding my two cents to this: First off I think it'd be great if public schools were improved, as they do provide food for kids, a space away from potentially abusive parents, and a way to socialize with other children. In that regard, public schools are necessary, and I am suspicious of people who want to tear them down completely.

But on the side of homeschooling, a lot of kids have physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from school being worth it, or face such extreme bullying that removing them from the situation is the only way to solve the problem. Some of those things can be fixed (better aid for bullied students and better resources for disabled kids), but others can't to a real extent. I personally had to drop out of school multiple times, then study and go back to school, then end up dropping out again, just because my disabilities prevented me from learning at all in a public school.

But still, if those things are fixed, it'd be easier for kids to not be sucked into whatever echo chamber their parents are in.

...And on the other hand again, the government interfering too much with what happens inside the home can be abused, such as more surveillance inside the home making it easier to tell if the household is too queer or supports abortions in places that outlaw those sorts of things.

Basically, it's a complicated subject, and thanks for taking the time out of your day to talk about it.

It is complicated! And I think it requires a lot of complicated solutions; providing more options, and making them more viable, is often the path to greater accessibility. That means schools need to be made more accessible to and supportive of disabled students, and it means homeschooling needs to continue to exist, and to be better supported, so that it's a viable option as well.

The surveillance thing is a great point, and I will say that I think that comes down closer to social work/CPS. Providing support should, imo, look more like providing curriculum, funding, connections, and resources to folks who homeschool.

Someone added to another post of mine that in their country, homeschooling entails teachers physically visiting homes to teach them lessons a few times a month; that's a great option! We could also be providing workshops on how to teach or for students directly, camps and part-time learning options; online options like classes, tutoring, and study sessions; funded field trips and other opportunities public school students get access to; and whatever else could help supplement learning, social connections, and connections with local homeschooling folks to better support that learning.

Encouraging some level of participation in some community-based events can itself do a lot of good to catch and minimize abuse, and maybe there is a need for some requirements there, if only to better disseminate resources, options, and connections to kids who might need it. But like. I'm not an expert on any of this, and I'm kinda just dreaming anyway. 🤷‍♂️