#funny thing is the tweet wasn't even about us lmao

[rainparadefromhell]

i know it's my own fault for, well being on twitter lmao but people's aphobia on there is so disgusting. i went my whole life never really thinking about let alone feeling romantic attraction and to say that i, or anyone else for that matter is "confused", "a late bloomer" or any other annoying thing is horrible. we have got to start understanding that different people have different experiences and even if we can't understand how someone is feeling, it costs you literally nothing to be respectful.

also, people need to realize that almost everything is a spectrum. if i fall in love with someone in the future i would not say i'm suddenly not aromantic/ on the spectrum anymore. i would just say i have low romantic attraction/don't feel it often. stop erasing us or telling people you know them better than they know themselves over a short tweet you saw. and yeah maybe that person won't even see your comment but someone who's struggling will and could feel alienated and hurt by your words. please be kind to one another.

my blog is always a safe space for everyone but especially aromantic & asexual people since we are always so excluded from the conversation and not understood. i see you all. you are valid & important.

[vilevampirez]

long list of funny things abt my experience doing emote commissions for mike

first of all I wasn't expecting to get commissioned at all (my commissions weren't even open, I just made an exception for mike) let alone by MIKETHELINK of all fucking people, so I had nothing prepared. I had no portfolio, commission sheet, nothing. I had never made any twitch emotes, so I had no examples to show either. meaning that when barbmine showed up in my dms asking if I took emote commissions, first I lost my fucking shit, then I panicked and rushed to find the most recent emote-like illustrations I had, including animation, and the most recent animation I had on hand happened to be a viewtiful joe one lmao. the animation in question 👇

(the usernames on the watermark aren't even accurate anymore..)

I have some experience taking commissions but they'd always been for friends of mine, this was my first time getting commissioned by a real "client" and the client was fucking mikethelink tazercraft of all fucking people . I know he "found" me through Mine, she sent me a dm first asking for commission info, saying she would show it to mike later. the thing is that when she said that she also implied that she was in touch with other artists too, so I was like "oh ok I'll send my stuff but I probably won't get chosen lol" and then a few hours later I got two twitter notifs, one saying that mr. thelink tazercraft was now following me and another was his DM. to say I almost had a heart attack would be an understatement

later I found out Mine had made a tweet asking for artists to reach out/people to rec artists for mike's twitch emotes. that post had around 40 comments. many people had been recommended more than once. I wasn't mentioned by anyone once, and in fact, I had no fucking idea that post even EXISTED until way after the fact. I have no idea how I ended up getting this job

mike happened to contact me on a day where I was severely sleep deprived. our entire business conversation took place while I was half-panicking, half-almost-passing-out. I don't know how I survived

at many points during our conversation I gave a lot of leeway for mike to give up on commissioning me, implying multiple times that he would be better off commissioning a different artist. and it's not because I lacked confidence (though a bit of that too, of course), but because of my lack of experience. I was very open about that to him, so many times I expected him to second guess his decision to commission me. unexpectedly, he was really insistent. I think partially he didn't want to go through the trouble of finding and contacting a different artist, but also I guess he just liked my art that much (??!?)

I definitely undercharged him lol. it's not that I don't value my work, it's just that I was absolutely not prepared for any of this shit to happen and didn't have enough time to think

I use adobe after effects for animating mike's emotes. I already knew how to animate (though I had never animated anything big), but I had never used after effects before. I even told mike this before accepting the commission, but he just said it was easy and I could totally do it, and I was just like "fucking hell. fine". and look, I know my limits, I knew I'd be able to learn after effects with relative ease. if I thought it'be too much for me to handle, I wouldn't have accepted the commission. it just that to this day I'm still shocked that mike commissioned an artist who HAD NEVER USED THE TOOL NECESSARY FOR THE COMMISSION HE WANTED.

due to the point above I was pretty apprehensive about animating the emotes, but now I'm glad I got this opportunity bc it reignited my passion for animation that had been dwindling for a long time and I've been learning a lot while working. also with every new emote I figure out how to use a different feature of after effects and it makes the job a little bit easier

before giving my payment information I came out to him to avoid confusion with my legal name being different from the name on my socials. he was very chill about it and always used the right name and pronouns for me whenever he mentions me on stream

fun fact: I was reached out to by another big (brazilian, not in qsmp) youtuber for a commission but I had to refuse because I had too much on my plate already (still do..)

my favorite emotes are the devil one and the nerd one

I made his twitch avatar and banner too! I'm really proud of the avatar. the banner was absolute hell

I'm a lurker (and nowadays a vod watcher since I've been busy w/ uni work) but I do watch every single one of mike's streams, so just know that I'm always seeing you guys use the emotes :3

[wesleycrushers]

Hey, I need the lore on the Wil Wheaton national TV fiasco. I'm intrigued.

I apologize for letting this sit in my inbox for a hot minute, being an adult with responsibilities and stuff is stupid 😒 (especially when you have an uncontrolled chronic illness on top of it, but anywho)

my time has finally come

okay I lied just a little because it wasn't technically Wil Wheaton that made fun of me, but you'll get what I mean in a moment

So about ten(ish) years ago, Wil had a short lived series on Syfy called the Wil Wheaton Project and for those unfamiliar, he would basically discuss the geek news of the week (like, I know Gotham was airing at the same time, so he would often talk about the latest episode) and there were sketches and guest stars and things of that nature.

But, let me give you some context on me ten years ago, so I can really paint the picture of how batshit this was for me. So, I would've been around 19, maybe 20, at that time, and I had just watched Next Gen for the first time and instantly fell in love (it was actually the first star trek series I had seen, and it's what got me into it). But, not only did I love the show and characters as a whole, I was OBSESSED with Wesley in particular (and Data, but that's not relevant to this story), and at that point in my life I was so much worse than I am now in the sense that, when I was fixated on a certain character, I was FIXATED. Which made me want to look up what Wil was doing in the present day. (it certainly didn't help that i developed a brief little crush on adult Wil). Like, I bought and read his book, I watched and rewatched every movie of his I could get my hands on (Toy Soldiers and Stand By Me in particular were practically playing on a loop), I would rewatch the Wesley episodes like. It was bad lol

So, when I found out he was going to have a new show on Syfy, ofc I was super thrilled and my ass was SEATED from day one when it first premiered. I would faithfully watch it every single week while live tweeting. But, obviously the only episode I ever missed live ended up being the one where I was mentioned lmao I can't remember exactly why I couldn't watch it right away, it's been ten years lol But, I think I was just out or something so I had my DVR set. Normally I would've just watched it the second I got home, but my Mom really enjoyed it as well so I promised I would save it until the next night so we could watch together. As soon as I said good night to her, I logged onto twitter and. all these random people were tweeting me and retweeting a couple of my tweets and I was like "????" I used twitter a lot back then, but I still like. my following was very modest, and I was only involved in one (1) fandom on there, so things like that did not happen to me. And what's worse, the first few people that tweeted at me didn't really explain why?

BUT THEN. I got to one that I still remember it to this day both because it's when I was sort of clued in to what had happened and also because the tweet itself was kinda funny to me. It said something like "just watched the wil wheaton project and immediately had to run to twitter to see if you're real, I'm so glad you are. Have a good evening!" and that's when the adrenaline kicked in. I saw a few more tweets mention the Wil Wheaton Project so at this point I'm literally shaking lmao and I ran into my Mom's room to show her and to freak out a little so she's like "alright, let's go watch it"

And we're watching it, and everything's normal, Wil's just talking about the nerdy stuff that happened that week and I'm just getting more confused as to what I had to do with this BUT THEN

(as a sidenote, they obviously showed my twitter username, but I'd rather not repeat it here because I started it when I was a very young teenager and I no longer have access to it and I'm sure there's stuff on there from past me that would get me doxxed and killed on the "we piss on the poor" no nuance website)

Anyway, he had this segment with Skeletor where Skeletor would read mean tweets, and since this was the season 1 finale (which, unfortunately, also turned out to be the series finale), Skeletor was reading tweets disparaging the Wil Wheaton Project. AND THEN ALL OF THE SUDDEN, MY TWEET POPS UP ON THE SCREEN BEHIND WIL AS HE SAYS SOMETHING ALONG THE LINES OF, "I happen to know a lot of people like watching the show. For example, [REDACTED] said, 'My Tuesday isn't complete without a new episode of the #WilWProject :)'"

and that's about where I burst into (very excited!) tears lmao my mom had to lovingly shush me because she was trying to hear what was being said but I was too busy crying

So, then Skeletor made comment about how I must be a woman of sophistication before he pulled up another one of my tweets that read, "I love sitting on countertops and I don't know why" and then he said one or two more things making fun of me and my love of sitting on countertops and that was about it lol

But the thing is, those two tweets were not back to back. I was a young millennial on social media, I was posting every damn thought that popped into my head lmao and idk when they started planning out the next week's show and writing the jokes, but there's about a 50% chance that either Wil himself or someone on his team saw some of tweets where I talked about how adorable I thought Wesley was in his uniform 🤦🏻‍♀️ (I like to imagine my absolute nightmare scenario where Wil and maybe a few writers are all sitting around some table and my tweets are just projected onto a screen in the front of the room or something. I don't want to be corrected if that's not what happened, I'd rather just live with that image forever 😂)

Anyway, I can't remember exactly how long it was after that happened, but I believe it was at least a few days, Wil posted on his website that unfortunately, the show had been canceled. Except he titled that particular post with "if you like sitting on countertops..." which was so bittersweet for me. Like, I was obviously super bummed his show hadn't made it but it was so exciting that I wasn't just a blip on his radar, like I was still a part of the running gag! And, as I said, it's been a decade since this happened but I still think of it at least once a year on the anniversary, if not more often, because it was legit one of the top 5 moments of my life lol

I've always hoped that I would get to go to a convention or something and meet him so I could be like "I'm the countertop girl!" but sadly, especially with COVID, that hasn't happened yet. Perhaps someday :)

[angevinyaoiz]

saw Dune 2 (2une?), and since I don't have my dune blog anymore I'll post here, since blah blah this is my place for posting about Dynastic Weirdos. This is long but NO MAJOR SPOILERS, except about like, small detail things that aren't plot things but whatever

Tbh it was disappointing. It had all the correct elements to be liked but one thing grated on me the whole time...the Bad Dialogue and lack of Elevated Speech! Why the hell were all these characters saying stuff like "these guys" "we're ok" and "literally" it took me out of the fantastical world sOOO bad. Super bummer because what I loved about Dune 1 (D-uno?) As someone who went into it before reading or knowing anything was how much it didn't explain, how it let the visuals and the world unfold before you, and how serious and somber it was in a way that gave it a sense of scale and time.

I can only wonder if WB saw all the complaints and tweets about people being like "we didn't understand the first movie!!! It wasn't funny and quippy!!!" And decided to simplify it down so characters just SAY things really obviously and inelegantly. The writing has some competence in moving the story forward but there's no poetry or rhythm to the way characters say things, it's serving "Rings of Power" scriptwriting to me lmao. And it's not like any of the actors are bad? I've seen them do well in the previous movie and in other things, so wtf was going on with the direction. I know people complained Abt Villeneuve saying that whole thing about being more into visuals than dialogue but maybe he was right...there needed to be LESS WORDS. bc much of the words we had were NOT GOOD.

Positivity: the middle and latter part was where the movie picked up for me. The Harkonnen Freak Villain behavior was everything I could have wanted! Finally instead of EXPLAINING everything obviously we got to see a LOT of character building, for Feyd specifically in a very short amount of time. I know a lot of us complained about Bald Feyd-Rautha but Mr Elvis did a very good job. And we got Madame Fenring and weird scifi femdomming finally, which is Essential for the Duniverse! Wonderful fantastic no notes.

Of course, getting back to our heroes, I anticipated this 2 years ago sadly and it was true...the Fremen were badass but SWAGLESS. More Learned ppl have already written about the frustration with the erasure of the Arabic/North African cultural presence so I won't reiterate that here since I'm not super knowledgeable about the specifics of that but even as a casual watcher there was a weird emptiness to the way I feel the society was portrayed. There were individual good character moments, such as fun bantering among the Fedaykin etc, but for Pacing or Whatever they cut out the community aspects that served to make them feel more like well, a People rather than just either Grizzled Soldiers/ Religious Fundamentalists aka Marks/Panicked refugees. I have to guess this was ppl were like "we can't show a culture too cool and colorful and the part with Harrah (Jamis' widow) would feel too ORIENTALIST!!! But the result is something sadly very dry. At least in more older orientalist works, the interest comes from when the ~exotic~ stereotypes figures are able to have charming personalities and personalities and be known as people despite the cliches sometimes but this sadly wasn't even like that....

Jamis' funeral is a good example of this; in the Book, it's a moment where you first get a good look of what rituals are like in this world, and how people relate to each other and to the dead. In the movie, the funeral is looks more foreign and even a little creepy as the water is extracted from the body. There's not really a Personal or community connection aspect to it at all.

The ending was pretty good as it satisfied all the Cool Dune Moments I think we all wanted to see, and also did literally the end of The Godfather Part 1 Framing which was hee hee heh. Anyways, Messiah is MY favorite book of the series personally so curious how they get to that.

Maybe I've been too spoiled by Cool Historical Fiction lately? I've been watching too much of The Devil's Crown where action happens mostly off screen but the dynastic drama is written and acted so compellingly, the historical mindset and setting so alien and yet so human and relatable, it's frustrating to see when works try to do the opposite? Idk??? Dune books themselves is fun in how action is mostly an "offscreen, offstage"' thing.

*if ANYONE in the Universe is a quippy Bastard, it should be Leto II esp in God Emperor where he literally has nothing to do all day but quip all day to terrified acolytes

[blorbocedes]

Okay wait I have just been informed that apparently you can't use emojis in tumblr asks? So I think my second ask about jensons book probably didn't work yesterday :(

(If you did get it and just ignored it ... sorry for being annoying lmao)

Don't have the book with me anymore but here are shorter versions of the quotes that I sent to my friends (which are about the several tweets lewis made in his mclaren time with jenson):

- "And I'll let you into a secret, the telemetry he posted was from the Simulator, not our actual racing telemetry, although apparently he didn't realise that. Double oops."

- "Needed to be on twitter a bit less if you'd asked me." (as a response to lewis "apology" tweet)

- "That's the truth of it. There was nobody out to get him at McLaren; he was adored by the fans and racing fraternity alike. His speed and skill alone made sure of that. But, seemingly, he could never get it out of his head that he was being marginalised."

Note: He also said that he didn't really care about the tweets except the data bc "you just don't do that" and that there was "no harm done" except for the fact that the public now obviously knew that they weren't close, but as I said can't quote those in full rn

And two extra quotes including nico:

- "And much more healthy than the one he had with Felipe and later with Nico Rosberg (I never lobbed a hat at his head for one thing) - but there wasn't a great deal of banter" (Talking about his rivalry with lewis)

- "Keke had his son Nico with him, who's five gears younger than me but was acting even younger that day. He was pulling at his dad's arm as we were talking, trying to pull him away. I remember looking down at him, silently cursing him for messing up my introduction to Keke, thinking 'God just leave us alone'" (aka jenson meeting nico and already thinking he's a brat when he just wants his dad's attention ... much to think about)

NOT LEWIS POSTING THE WRONG TELEMETRY TOO ☠️☠️☠️ that is so funny.... my man was MALDING

I mean how do you react to your teammate mad you unfollowed him on Twitter (you didn't) and then he posts your data 😭 2009 Lewis the man you were..... thank you once again for sharing I find this incredibly amusing. I think lewis is sensitive so the amount of fans and love at mclaren felt less compared to if he thought the team was preferring jenson over him, but then ofc jense is writing this as a lily white dude and probably the microaggressions flew over his head. the only time he was a "fun" rival was when he was crushing seb. interesting stuff!

and ahhaha baby nico clinging to his dad 🥹

[neowinestainedress]

rebs!! within europe, which country would you say have many polyglots?

i personally think it's italy bc i think people there understand 2/3 other languages beyond intermediate level? do you think italy provides solid language-learning system in schools (compared to your european counterparts)?

This is longer than I expected, I had many complaints to do lmao

Honestly, I have no idea... I think Italy sucks when it comes to teaching languages. I learned English by myself because in elementary school the English teacher was never the same and every year we basically did the same things over and over again. In middle school I had better teachers but I didn't have a base so I struggled a lot and one direction and tv series saved my ass. In high school we do grammar for the first two years and then the other three are just literature, so if you're fluent, you're fine, but if you're not, it's going to be hell. (Probably it depends on the professor too, mine was pretty strict and I found her funny and iconic only because I was good, but some of my friends that weren't fluent hated her a lot, and they were right)

We only do another language in middle school (either French or Spanish). I learned French but yeah... The professors were terrible, I only had a good one in the second year but it wasn't enough. I mean, I was better at French than English back then, but I hated it so much I almost completely lost all my knowledge after.

After middle school, if you want to study languages there's the "linguistic high school" but from what I know it's not like it's much better, especially for languages like German or Chinese.

In Italy there are some regions that have other official languages like French, German, and Albanian (don't know if it's official, but a lot of small countries in the east-south speak it).

I just think Italians are slick and most of the time speak with their bodies, and when it comes to understanding others we are not like French (sorry not sorry) and even if the pronunciation is not perfect we just think about getting to the point. Also, quoting that tweet that was popular saying "Portuguese, Spanish and Italian speakers understanding each other without speaking the same language" it's true. We have the same roots so for survival needs I think we can communicate pretty well, and at least understand what we're saying. Still, I don't think many of us are fluent in more than another language. But probably I'm thinking too much about the older generation, idk the younger ones seem to be more interested in languages, I think the Universities that involve languages are the most popular rn, so this could change in the next few years? But we are also a very old country (many old people and no newborns) so I don't think I'm wrong for now.

I would say Switzerland is the most polyglot because they speak Italian, French and German but it's based on the cantons, so I'm not sure they speak more languages in a single one. The other one is probably Germany. They seem like the most open-minded and also very global, but I don't know much about the school system.

In conclusion, I think that the Italian school system is just really hard and puts students under a lot of stress without making them accomplish a lot, and that involves languages too. I wish I was the only one, but if you ask young people where they learned English, 80% of them will answer like I did, on their own, with music, movies, and fanfictions... that tells you everything about how the system teaches languages. Also, I think that the ones speaking more languages are the mixed couples children (I'm one, but for reasons, my Spanish is hanging on a thin line) and the second generations' children that speak Italian, their parent's language, and one or two that they learn later on. But white Italians? Either they're passionate about it or they don't care. This is also why I talked about being open-minded, unfortunately, Italy is going through a very bad fascist turn of events again and foreign languages are seen as threats, the prime minister wants to fine people for using English words when they speak, and that's all from 1925. Not saying that if you don't speak other languages you're fascist, but that's another factor to consider when you analyze the way people act when it comes to the topic, you simply might not be good at that (just like some people are not good at math, or art and so on) but that doesn't give you the right to push foreign languages down or mock them, or treat people that spend time learning a new one as if they're stupid.

So what I'm thinking is, in the new generation there's a lot of us speaking more than 2/3 languages but I think at least 70% is because those are already the mother tongues (so Italian because they were born and raised here and then the one they speak with the family) the rest is taught at school but only if you want to learn them. Considering the oldest generation makes up most of this country, I still think we're losing compared to other places in Europe.

This turned into a rant, and you just learned to never ask me anything ever again I'M SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME

Also, can you explain why you think we're almost fluent in 2/3 languages? I'm curious to know why it looks like this on the outside.

[dez-wade]

I’m sorry I know this so like completely off topic to what you and your anons have been speaking about recently but you’ve kinda spoken about BBH and stuff before so I was curious of your opinion. I’m not personally really a fan of bad just for non serious reasons of like he’s just not a streamer I enjoy watching very often and then also because of the whole thing of him publically responding in support to a certain creator. But I’m finding it really baffling on Twitter especially when I’m seeing people act like he’s some leech who attached himself to quackity and duped his way into being in the qsmp and quackity needs to get rid of him and get away quick!!!!! As if bad wasn’t in the first batch of creators added which consisted of a lot of quackity’s most trusted friends to get his project started and acting like they haven’t been friends for years with quackity talking multiple times about how much he loves bad and values his friendship, he’s spoken about how grateful he is for all of the advice and conversations he and bad have had off stream and there’s vods where you can go back and watch quackity get emotional over bad praising quackity for his work ethic and content and how funny he is. Everybody is entitled to dislike who they dislike if people want to shit talk bad for valid reasons idgaf but I hate when people get all weird and parasocial about it and act as if they’re trying to protect poor little quackity from mean evil BadBoyHalo. Like they’ve known eachother long enough and quackity is a grown ass man where it’s obvious quackity would feel more than comfortable talking to him behind the scenes if he felt he needed to and bad had stepped out of line and made him uncomfortable

I completely agree with you. The hate is WAY overboard. Like, I wasn't very pleased about the comment either so I'm not as fond of him as I once was. But I can't bring myself to hate his every move, call him awful names and twist everything he says or does.

Even if I genuinely hated him, I don't like to focus on that or openly hate someone y'know? I just focus on what I like and try to ignore the rest. I think it's wild how some people use the spawn killing as a reason to hate the CC because that's so ???? like who cares. It's just a Minecraft game, the event wasn't even that competitive in nature, like having a legit reward or whatever. The reward was RP. It was a story.

I think defending that man is the only genuinely bad thing he has done (that I'm aware of) and I understand people being upset and not liking him anymore because same. But the way people act or pretend the CCs are in the same wavelength as them... Super weird. I laugh every time I see a tweet saying "Even Richas isn't with him anymore after what he said" like bitch, I wish. This egg is in BBH's stream until like 5am lmao. Nothing changed.

Anyways, people on Twitter are always to itch on being awful human beings and if they get a "justified" reason to do so, they'll go all out. It's fucked up.

[dykesynthezoid]

Been formulating my thoughts on that post about kids books with challenging subject matter you reblogged the other day... the funny thing is I'm pretty sure there IS an established thing with middle-grade kids being like "ugh why does the dog always have to die in these books 🙄" (anyone remember that Gordon Korman book "No More Dead Dogs"?) but it has nothing to do with them being too fragile to take it and more to do with there being such an established canon of kid's books where a dog dies at the end that the ending is too predictable and kids are BORED by it. Like in the original tweet that sparked the discourse, wasn't it a 6th grader making the comment? At that age kids are less emotionally fragile and more cynical, in their own youthful way. Like you said, they can take it!! It's just up to the school board to, idk, teach these things in an interesting way I guess. Maybe through the lense of greek tragedy? Like "yeah we all know the dog is gonna beef it, but let's pay attention to how that's built up and foreshadowed", etc.

I honestly hadn’t thought about that, but it probably really is a factor. Bc children’s media does have a whole lot of tropes, and when kids get to an age where they’re trying to challenge themselves (or are being challenged in schools) running into the same tropes over and over and over must be grating.

I do think the number one reaction for a kid when a dog dies in a movie or book is at first a sense of betrayal (honestly, it’s a reaction I still have as an adult, lmao). Like, “hey, wait a minute!”

But if that was a plot event you’d only ever seen once or twice, it would be more confounding and intriguing, and less frustrating and overdone. So yeah, after a whole lot of that I wouldn’t be surprised some kids are rolling their eyes.

I didn’t necessarily notice it as a trope myself as a kid; but that was probably because when I was young enough to read children’s books I was mostly reading things like adventure and fantasy stories, or even mysteries. Meanwhile I think tropes like the dog dying at the end is more common in contemporary stories, which I wasn’t reading very many of.

(And by the time I was reading other genres, the books I was reading were mostly adult. And “by the time” I mean by like, 12, bc l started at a school that was pretty academically rigorous; my 7th grade English teacher had us reading Gogol. Which is all to say I’m maybe not the best person to comment on this tbh, since I kinda missed out on that aspect of being a young reader; so take this all with a grain of salt!)

But yeah I love the idea of at least like. Changing the lens through which children are taught books to keep them engaged. It does so much so draw them in to the story, to make them care enough to meet it halfway. Which isn’t easy! Kids have a lot going on, especially these days, and it’s no wonder they’re just going to check out if they get bored with their learning material.

[getting-messi]

twt fans really are the worst 😭 i love a lot of the accs on there but (esp i guess on the more 'stan' side of football twt) theres been a surge of what people are now calling 'face card fc' who are all up m/appe and h/kimi's ass and keep shitting on messi for every little thing. i WISH i had some of the stuff they say saved, it's literally deranged. m/appe just scored FIVE goals against 6th tier club with self-confessed PSG fans and ultras as players and all they have to say about it is 'see what happens when messi isn't there' which... and they keep blaming messi for m/appe and neymar's not being friends anymore as if that wasn't all m/appe's doing 😭😭 but how would they know? their lot weren't even around before the wc lol. messi and neymar been friends for YEARS, even if they didn't fall out, neymar ain't ever rate him like messi, be fr ✋. they also keep saying messi shouldn't renew so m/appe and neymar 'can be friends again' and psg can 'play better' like say you only google the match and skim through that timeline thing they have lmao. him and messi actually play well together but they ain't care about that, just their little blorbos.

that was a vent 💀. nah fr tho, as funny as it can be sometimes, you're better off never seeing it cause it's actually so infuriating 😭

you know what? I was briefly on footy twitter and was miserable so i just stick to footy tumblr. But during this world cup, i did come across the stan side of it and appreciated it SO MUCH MORE than the mainstream side. Looool, i slowly came to this discovery by finding fancams underneath Popbase/Pop crave's tweets during the world cup and learned some Argentine multi-fandom accounts that were also Barca fans as well and i was like ahhhh my people🤧

But ohhhhhh, i TOTALLY noticed that there was a surge of a weird combo of h/kimi and m/appe stans that like dead serious know NOTHING about what they're talking about and just posted tiktok clips of them interacting with each other. It is SOOOO weird how they are trying to make this dumb beef between Messi and them like...............i know they're new around here but?

I completely appreciate the vent, PLEASE vent in my inbox, like i enjoy hearing from others SO MUCH. But yeah, Messi and Mbappe are like polite colleagues but that's it. Messi RAISED Neymar like that is his SON, Neymar adores that man. Just remembering how often Neymar used to talk about Messi when he left Barca, how Messi consoled Neymar after Brazil lost against Argentina in Copa, how Neymar wrote an entire post on IG congratulating Messi after winning the world cup. Like they're love for each other runs deep.

[cementcornfield]

3 and 8 for the sports ask!

3. what sport moment had you jumping up and down?

okay well disclaimer, i tend to jump up and down every week lol i watch with PASSION. especially this season each time ja'marr breaks off for a huge run after what should be just a check down. but! one that comes to mind in particular is that contested catch ja'marr made during the '23 afc championship. it felt like such a turning point in the game, and i believe happened on a drive that ended with us scoring to tie the chiefs in the second half. and it's such a great display of how good ja'marr is, how he can just JUMP up past two very good chiefs defenders and come down with it (and kick said defenders in the face on the way down). and how joe just TRUSTED him so much to be able to go get that on a 4th down conversion when it mattered most!! god i was freaking the fuck out when that happened. (and then. you know. we lost but! that wasn't on joe or ja'marr!)

8. who's your favourite player not on your favourite team + never been?

okay this one might be a bit controversial but i am gonna have to say 3rd place is sauce gardner. yes his tweets are ummm. something. at times. but i simply have stopped looking at his twitter and i recommend everyone else do the same :)

but like the thing is, he's a ridiculous dude. he's funny, he's talented, he's far far too Online. and he's got that devastating combination of traits of big heart and insecurity. (note that all of the following is, of course, projection, like for all of these guys that none of us actually know but hey) i think sauce's thing is he wants so so desperately to be liked. so he will sometimes get into the wrong crowds, absorb some unfortunate opinions and kind of regurgitate those without thinking. BUT one thing that i do admire about him is that when he's (often rightly) called out, he wants to discuss it. he wants to hear why others are upset and learn from it. and he does!

beyond all that nonsense though, some of my favorite sauce moments include:

a. when he was streaming on twitch and found out that girls liked watching his stuff. he was SHOCKED and DELIGHTED that he had female fans lmao. it was very sweet and is one of the things that leads me to believe he just maybe has kind of a smaller world view, that he is only too happy to have expanded for him as he learns and grows.

b. that 9 hour tattoo stream. oh my god. it was both extremely hot and endearing to watch him lay there for his tattoo artist, just moaning at the pain and getting that tattoo high 👀

c. the little goofy slap fight he got into with ja'marr when we played the jets two years ago lmao. he REALLY got under ja'marr's skin (rare that a CB can shut him down. but sauce IS that talented) and ja'marr trying to start some shit and sauce more than ready to reciprocate until a teammate stopped them. then in the locker room pressers bragging about it while ja'marr pretended he didn't even know his name <3

d. perhaps my MOST favorite are the interactions sauce has had with justin lmao. playing madden live with each other during the pro bowl AND playing it online a few months later. the way that he both cracked justin up and pissed him off sooooo much. the way he so clearly wants justin to like him, but then can't help himself and just annoys him until justin is ready to snap (but STILL smiling at him. still laughing at him! that has to count for something, right sauce?? keep going! see what his limits are!!)

wow god i could go on and on about sauce but honestly my friend ted is way more qualified. he's the one who taught me about this weird fantastic dude in the first place and i'm so thankful!

[leviathan-supersystem]

lots of extremely funny things about this here.

first is that his source is fucking. answers in genesis lmao. yeah man, great place to get your science info, good stuff.

second he's not even representing what the source- which, again, is answersingenesis.org- said. i mean for one thing the research wasn't even fucking australian:

The 1 March 1989 edition of The Age newspaper (Melbourne, Australia) carried a report from Washington (USA) entitled ‘Researchers convert sewage into oil’. The report states that researchers from Batelle Laboratories in Richland, Washington State,

apparently he got confused because it was reported on in an australian newspaper and he's just that bad at reading comprehension.

also, the article does not use the research (wherein researchers were able to create oil in 4 years in laboratory conditions) to try to claim oil is "unlikely to ever run out". instead it argues that conditions on the earth soon after it's creation (again, consider the source) had conditions similar to those of the lab experiment, and that this could explain how the earth has oil if, as the source claims, the earth is only 10,000 years old.

Thus the rapid formation of oil and gas is not only feasible on the basis of carefully controlled laboratory experiments, but has now been shown to occur naturally under geological conditions that have been common in the past. Significantly, these short timescales are well within those proposed by creation scientists for the generation of petroleum from organic matter in sediments laid down during Noah’s Flood. Subsequently, the discovery of the hydrothermally produced petroleum on the ocean floor in the Guaymas Basin of the Gulf of California is even more crucial to the case of the creation scientists and Flood geologists, when they argue that the fountains of the deep referred to in the Book of Genesis were probably vast volcanic upheavals that broke open the earth's crust, pulverizing rock which was then scattered as volcanic debris, and expelling lavas, gases, and hot liquids, principally water. Indeed, the bulk of the volcanic products would have been superheated water, similar to the hydrothermal fluids found in the Guaymas Basin. The rock record contains many layers of volcanic lavas and ash between other sedimentary layers, many containing organic matter. Thus this model for hydrothermal generation of petroleum is more than a feasible process for the generation of today’s oil and gas deposits in the time-scale subsequent to Noah's Flood as suggested by creation scientists.

in other words, the article does not argue that the earth is continuing to generate oil in significant quantities, but rather that the conditions in the hydrothermal vents (supposedly) described as the "fountains of the deep" in genesis had conditions similar to the lab experiment, and that the oil reserves were generated during conditions that were briefly present during noah's flood (lol. lmao.). so no, i'm afraid even answers in genesis does not back up the claim that oil is being currently generated at rates which would mean it is "unlikely to ever run out".

and like, fucking obviously. the people of the world collectively use 97,103,871 barrels of oil per day, if the earth's crust were spontaneously generating more than that amount- and had been for millions or billions (or thousands if we take answersingenesis's word for it lmao) then that shit would be oozing out of every crevice on the planet. that shit would look like the sherwin williams logo but with oil.

also, how exactly does anyone benefit from this supposed coverup? if you're an oil executive the last things you want to tell current or potential investors is "btw the product we sell is going to run out in a few decades". if anything you'd want to convince your shareholders that the natural resource you sell is "unlikely to ever run out"- you know, like Peter Clack is doing in the tweet in the screenshot, because he's the most blatant oil industry shill in existence.

In reality our Natural Resources are PLENTIFUL AND MAN WANTS TO CONTROL THEM. GREED!

[h-pelessly]

August 22, 2023

I opened my earlier text from this month and I don't feel like it does this month justice so I will run a recap of this whole month in a new post. This month was a busy one for me because I had more social events than not. I've cancelled on plans and scheduled hang outs for next month because I feel like I'm burnt out. Which is kind of funny because I haven't read a lot (I was in a slump) and I still haven't found a new job. Obviously, the month hasn't ended so new stuff might pop up but so far, this is what have happened.

On August 2nd, I had a job interview in person with a place searching for a Receptionist/Admin Assistant in Irvine. The drive there wasn't as bad and I kind of liked the feel of the place. I feel like the interview wasn't bad and I felt like I did kind of well, but they had me role play customer service. I feel as though I choked because I was put on the spot which is the only downside of it, but I think that's what didn't land me the job because I was well dressed and I was early. I even bought a blazer for this occassion. I thought it was annoying that they made me have an in person interview if it wasn't that serious and they ended up ghosting me so that was slightly annoying. I don't regret it tho. I felt like I did decent so it's their loss tbh.

On August 9th, Tim and I attended David Alvareeezy and Hunter March's Crowd Pleasers live show in Los Angeles. It was kind of a spur of the moment thing for us. We did think about going the day before because we realized that Tim was conviently off that day. David promoted the event in previous Youtube videos but we didn't think too much of it because we're like yeah it could be fun, but we weren't going out of our way to plan it into our schedules because we didn't think it'd be too fun. Anyways, it was a spur purchase but we really enjoyed it. We arrived an hour before the event which was pretty weird for us, but there's a parking lot across the venue for $20 all day so that was kind of cool and quick. We got into line and I really had to pee, but we had an hour to waste so we were just fat chilling. I don't remember why I was annoyed at Tim, probably because he kept talking about how funny he is and how the Camboys and the group will notice him and get him on stage whatever the fuck, but I had to pee so I didn't need him to chatter my ear off. After getting our wristband, even though we didn't plan on drinking, we went inside "to the bar" because I had to pee lmao. There was an Asian guy staring at us that I was almost 99% was Vic, Jill's boyfriend, that helped us load the carpet into Tim's car, but apparently it wasn't and he was just weird. We got to our seats early because we were inside (boo yeah) and so we got really good corner seats and were probably in the center of attention. All of David's friends came which I thought was very nice and cute. I waved at Rec, Brian, and we kind of talked to Marcus. Lowkey I think our interaction with Marcus was awkward but I think he was drunk so it be like that. We also saw the SuburbTalks pod people, and VIET, he's so effing small like it was NOT what we were expecting at all. Anyway, the whole show was really fun and cool-- I expected it tbh because I do enjoy David's content. And at the end of the day, Hunter RT'ed my tweet because I was real and tagged him hahhahhahah.

August 12, I attended Christy's wedding. She apparently is related to me but I swear I have never seen her ever. I have a post about this day so I'm not gonna say anything else. Next time, I wish Tim comes with me because it was so fucking awkward. I have another wedding to attend in October so hopefully he comes thru. ALSO, they said the groom tested positive for COVID-19 and will be double masking, but mf was NOT masked at all and was diddly-daddling.

August 16, we went to Wild Rivers, a waterpark, with Fermin, Kevin, and Jaz!! I was kind of iffy about it at first because I was like yeah, going to a waterpark is fun, but like why would we go and be judged. ME ESPECIALLY because of how I get with water. And then we found out it would only be the three and us, I was like, bruh, this is going to be awkward. But I'm glad we went bc it was super fun and a much needed break. The first ride was iffy bc I had to strain my back to hold onto the handles because I was sitting next to fucking Kevipoo. But after that, the rides were fun. A lot of yt ppl were there which made it weird, but we didn't really care after we had our fun. We went onto a ride where this girl was trying to cut us in line because she claims "we were walking slow" like girl I'm sorry are we trying to have fun or are you rushing somewhere HMMM. And her bf or whatever was like "it's ok!!!!" I'm like bitch u can go in front of us fucking rude ass because you are NOT ruining my vibe rn. Anyway, she was a basic ass yt girl and when I looked at the guy, I thought he'd be at least like TALL, but mf was a basic yt nerd as well. I'm like WITH YOUR ATTITUDES AND YOU WANNA BE UGLY TOO LIKE the scale of hotness and craziness is not helping you. I kind of felt bad for judging him because he didn't do anything, but by association, the attitude is yours too and the math isn't mathing. Being in line next to them was freaking annoying as well. Then we went to the wave pool which was a pain in the ass, but I feel like we stayed there the longest. My yitties came out a few times which I knew was gonna happen. Idk why Tim was so shocked like we were HIT. Fermin let Tim and I go, and somehow, we floated all the way to the end of the pool and I, being the small ass, slipped past the rope, and the lifeguard FUCKING blew her whistle at me twice. LIKE IM TRYING TO GET OUT ITS NOT MY FAULT PEOPLE PUSHED ME. anyway, I was fucking mad and freaking out so yuh. But we had our fun at the waterpark.

August 17, Tim and I went to Universal's Studios. We arrived pretty late tbh, and didn't get to go on 2 rides that we usually go on, but it was okay. The park also was closing early.

August 19th, I was supposed to go to McKayla's birthday, but I didn't. McKayla is Julie's niece and she was turning 1. I was in the mindset of going and got up early to go, but after awhile, I'm like yeah I don't wanna drive to Irvine and interact with people. So I bailed out on that hehehhe ooopsies.

So that's my month so far. Until next time.

Books I read this month;

The Nanny by Lana Ferguson (5.5/10) I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would/Tara did. The MMC has heterochromia eyes, which make me think of Luna so it made me feel a bit weird. Also, he was VERY dirty mouthed for a father which there's nothing wrong, but the fact that his little daughter was sleeping next door while he did this gave me the ick. The OF aspect for the FMC made it confusing. Not really, but it forced the book to feel modernized and I didn't especially like that aspect. I didn't connect to the characters as much as I did for the other nanny/single dad book and I was highly disappointed. I was attached with one line to the FMC's best friend.

Disrespectfully Yours by Jennifer Chipman (5.5/10) I thought this would be an interesting read based on the name. However, the book dragged on and I wasn't attached to any of the characters. At first, it gave me the Hating Game vibes and as much as I liked the book, I didn't like how it was kind of a copy and paste situation how they have a retreat and the MMC was attached by hip to the FMC. I don't think I knew the tropes correctly because I was taken for a loop when they started a FWB thing. I didn't like it at all. I did like how the FMC was tall and not the usual damsel in distress vibe, but that's kind of it. Also, the friends of the FMC has a cute group name which I really liked. I MIGHT read one of the earlier books just because of the professor x grad student vibe, but not so sure if it will drag on like this.

Consider Me by Becka Mack (4.5/10) This book was an absolute drag. I only picked it up because people said it was a similar vibe to Garrett Graham from The Deal, which is true, but this girl had absolutely nothing. I went on Goodreads and people were annoyed with the book because the FMC was a pick me girl, which I agreed, knowing how hard it was to read and how I disliked her. I don't know like she had no original personality like the FMC from The Deal. Yeah, the MCC was a golden retriever and all, but like he had no personality rather than make her happy. I mean, good for her and all but that shit's BORING. Give me SOMETHING. Although this book was the absolute drag through the mud, I kind of liked one of the side characters that was in the book. He also has a story, and the FMC of that book has a spicy personality so I might bite.

So Not Meant to Be by Meghan Quinn (8/10) Tara said it was too early for a reread, but it is what it is. I read it while reading Consider Me so it was a nice pallet cleanser. However, reading it a second time, I realized how annoying the FMC is, which is why the rating decreased. I still like certain parts aka JP CANE, but the FMC is so fucking annoying and keeps comparing herself for no reason. Like love yourself a lil.

Reverse Pass by Maggie Rawdon (7.8/10) This was such a cute idea. It was a pallet cleanser from Consider Me. It was short and simple. I enjoyed how much the MMC was considered a player hence why he's a sport player, hehhehe, but he was such a simp for his childhood crush, sister's best friend. He was such an innocent puppy for her that it was cute. The FMC was okay the whole book just towards the climax, she got annoying as she was stringing everyone along by not telling the truth of everything that has happened to people in her life. Other than that, I'm glad I picked up this short read. And the spice was such a fun idea to try hehhehehohoho.

The Score by Elle Kennedy (7.3/10) This took me longer to finish it than The Deal, but it was a cute little rom-com read. I loved the main characters together but didn't have the affection I had towards them like GARRETT GRAHAMS. We loved a reformed playboy book and this was exactly it. It made me cry, but that's pretty much because of the situation I was in when reading it. I did like the MMC's way of life which is a good thing to carry into real life, but also, we can't afford to make mistakes like pretty rich boy from Connecticut. I do not like how standalones connect because the FMC was best friends with the FMC of the Deal, but I guess that is what's supposed to happen. I like how in Breaker Cane's book, the FMC was HIS best friend and slowly comes around to the other FMCs of other books. This one is like stays in the group which was eh, but I liked the vibe of this book. Also, Tim bought me the physical copy so I was reading off that hehhehhohoh. They didn't really have a bad breakup scene or anything and I felt as if it was difficult for the author to end the story if that made any sense. Overall, a cute quick read which I need.

The Sacrifice by Shantel Tessier (4.8/10) I took a chance on dark romance and absolutely hated it. I wanted to give it a 4.5, but I gave Consider Me a 4.5, and this was not on the same level. Granted, I skipped through a lot of the text because I truly didn't enjoy it, but the ending had a twist to it like a thriller/mystery that kept me going. I told Tara about how bad it was because it was too unnecessarily spicy and dark, and she recommended me to DNF, but my go-getter attitude would not let me DNF so I toughed it out. I'm glad I did because I found out the ending and the story kind of made sense at the end. I hated how much the FMC cried-- it was like a wattpad story of damsel in distress with lots of sex. Bruh.

Random Encounter by Allyson Lindt (6.5/10) I took a chance on listening to audiobooks and explored a new trope, reverse harem, which honestly I didn't even know what it meant. But this book is written by an indie author, which I loved. The idea of having multiple partners sounds fun, but also it was too much for me. I'm surprised an indie author wrote this book because it wasn't at all bad, and the idea was new-- maybe it's because it's a new idea to me, but I didn't dislike it. I found myself into it and learning new things along with the FMC. I was a bit confused at parts, and the problem causing the 3 to break up was absolutely the most childish thing to complain about, but I get it. It makes a little bit of sense, but I wish it wasn't the problem that divided the 3 because they're grown ups. Overall, I will do more audiobooks.

[dailyjasontodd]

Any opinion on Red Hood: Outlaws (Webtoons)? I only read the first five chapters and kind of don't like the angry-robin-approach... Thanks in advance!

Hello! I stopped reading it a while ago so 1) my criticism for the comic isn't very fresh in my mind and 2) i don't have the full picture since i only read a handful of chapters, so i wouldnt be able to write a whole essay on it, but who doesn't love giving opinions!

From what i remember i didn't like it either, like i said disclaimer that i stopped reading halfway through and a while ago so maybe my complaints got solved down the line, my bad, etc. but the thing is that i sincerely do not want to go back and re-read it/read all the chapters which should speak for itself 🙏 I found the writing cringy and very superficial, very close to lobdell's rhato which will always leave a bad taste in my mouth. atp i don't care about jason being written as an "angry robin" as long as it has nuance and context, but i didn't get to see those two things in the webtoon so i get you (not to say it wasn't present, just that i literally didn't get there if it was expanded on later lol). What i remember pissed me off was the amount of memes and mcu style jokes in the comic, it felt lazy 🤷 i can text my friend and use 5 viral video references in it but doing the same thing on an official comic? Be serious please, i'm not asking you to become judd winick and give us the next utrh but at least dont steal funny tweets from the internet for a dialogue...

Also a thing i like about jason is that he's a dickhead but fun and charming in his own way and the jason in the webtoon was just boring sorry, if i google "action movies watch online" and picked a random title and pressed play im sure the main character would have the same feel as webtoon jason. AND ALSO! (family guy dad voice) i did not care for jason/artemis. Boring, yawning, sloppy, lazy. very predictable from the go and not even in a fun way, i was over it already and i read like only 7 chapters.  

And also a minor detail that i disliked, i hated jason's haircut KJLFG like that pissed me off so badly everytime i saw him without the helmet, put that shit back on.

Anyways, hope that was semi coherent, complaining about the way a comic is written just for the criticism so be terribly redacted is extremely ironic but well, i'm not being paid for it :P

lets hope the shawn martinbrough jason solo gets a date announcement soon jasonbits 🙏

--🐅

edit just to add that unfortunately i Have been keeping up with it (stopped paying for fast pass v early on tho lmao), and the issues jules mentions above do persist and only get worse as the comic progresses <3 it's all very superficial, doesn't make sense most of the time, pacing is so clunky and writer doesn't seem to know which canon to stick to. jason is very ooc, he's just a dick just to be a dick and not in like a fun cunty way yk ? he's portrayed as uncaring and very like,, incompetent. artemis is ooc too to an extent. like you can't even enjoy it in the way wfa can be enjoyed as a silly little webtoon it just kinda like. sucks.

-- ✨

[chaos0pikachu]

TLDR: While SMYM might not hit with American audiences because it's topic isn't relevant to our culture it's clearly relevant to Thai culture currently. There's a lot of ways to judge critically a piece of media. From it's technical skill, to it's cultural thematics, to it's own individual goals as a piece of media.

Crash won an Oscar but Space Jam is a better movie.

[Read on for a lot more discussion and film history.]

Reblogging this with some additional commentary b/c I happened upon a convo regarding Spare Me Your Mercy being a "flop". In fairness, I haven't watched SMYM - I haven't watched a lot of shows as always I'm fucking lazy and prefer films lmao - but it's def on the list.

But I see this concept of "flopping" mostly used as stan speak in stan spaces typically in regards to whether a singer or group is monetarily successful. It was surprising and kinda sad to see it applied to a tv show but more so I'm not sure we, as non Thai fans, can even say if a show is "flopping" or not. I saw a lot of this discussion in regards to 4 Mins whilst it was airing, specifically from shipping/actor fan bases who just didn't like the actors/ships and company involved in the show.

But also, on a larger scale, it showcases a level of ignorance to me that is because a majority of us are outsiders - guests as @happypotato48 once so eloquently put it - and we just don't have access to hard data like ratings, or aren't actually engaging in the culture of which these shows come from.

I dislike the idea that because something wasn't successful with American/western - and by western do we mean Europe and America? Or do we mean Latin America as well since that is a huge audience base as well? - audiences it was "a flop".

Folks might not remember, but James Somerton once called into question the success of Detective Chinatown 3, which is one of China's biggest box office successes.

You can see a clip of Somerton talking about this in Todd in the Shadows video on the subject.

What's funny to me is, the Top 10 highest grossing films in China only have 1 singular American film included: Avengers Endgame at number 8. Ne Zha, an animated fantasy adventure film about the popular mythological character from a classic 16th century novel, sits higher than Avengers Endgame at #4.

I would assume most Americans/western audiences have never heard of this film - @haveyouseenthismovie-poll run the poll and prove me right lol - but would we argue that it wasn't successful?

Simply because it didn't make money or ""noise"" with western audiences? Because gifsets of it might only garner a few reblogs? That it may only have a few tweets about it from annoying cinephiles (like myself lmao)?

[sidenote Nezha is a great movie I had a blast watching it, last I saw it was available on Hulu, Amazon and Tubi]

Even social media is dependent on individual culture; Facebook's main userbase isn't even America, it's India.

Likewise, apps like WhatsApp and WeChat are primarily used in India, and Brazil (WhatsApp) and China (WeChat).

(source)

I bring all this up just to de-center American viewpoints on the discussion at large. Sometimes things are successful domestically, and sometimes international success does not include America and/or European countries at all.

Cutie Pie, by all metrics I've seen, was internationally successful, just in Korea and Japan. Do they not count? 4 Mins was very successful both domestically in Thailand and internationally in various Asian territories on VIU. Century of Love was very successful in Thailand as well.

By all metrics Spare Me Your Mercy is doing extremely well in Thailand, like gang busters.

This makes sense to me when I read about how much of a hot button issue the topic of euthanasia is in Thailand right now.

(source)

I imagine part of the reason Spare Me Your Mercy is doing so well in Thailand is because the show is tapping into a very real, and prominent concern and topic Thai as as culture are experiencing right now. This goes beyond generational aspects too, elderly folks are going to relate to this as well as younger people who are going to be responsible for carrying out their families "living will" as outlined in another Public Health Act in Thailand and current doctors.

This seems like a story that's crossing those generational gaps - as Century of Love did and was intended to as well which was a factor in it's domestic success.

This isn't a topic that's prominent with American audiences, but I imagine it's tapping into a specific cultural feeling and anxiety as 1967's The Graduate did for 1960s young adult audience. Or how the 1945 film Mildred Pierce, spoke both to the cultural scars of the post-Depression era, as well as women's growing desires for life outside the home and the feeling of "postwar prosperity".

[sidenote I dislike The Graduate as a film lmao but history is history]

I bring these up because there's also a discussion in regards to SMYM of how popularity doesn't equate quality. On this I agree, Transformers and Fast & Furious are not high art. And yet, Fast X grossed 558,749,000 internationally (almost 80% of it's entire box office revenue).

It's very true that monetary success does not equate "quality" in terms of technical storytelling. Good or bad.

But also, sometimes it does.

Get Out is undoubtedly a brilliant movie, and it is also a very successful monetary movie. It made 255,751,443 worldwide against a 4.5 million budget. It's wildly successful in terms of profit, and a critical success as well.

Fatal Attraction was also a huge box office success upon release in 1987, it was one of the highest grossing films of that year and made 320 million against a 14 million budget. Sure the 3rd act leaves a lot to be desired - I prefer the alt ending - but it also netted 6 Oscar nominations.

These aren't outliers, The Exorcist (1973), Titanic (1997), Moulin Rouge (2001), The Matrix (1999), The Sixth Sense (1999), Ben Hur (1959), Sound of Music (1965), were also all big box office wins of their time as well as just good to great movies.

I know some of them may seem "obvious" because of overall cultural impact. Like lol duh the fucking Exorcist was a box office success but in reality it was a risk from the studio and was generally disliked by critics upon release (the Church loved it tho).

The Exorcist wasn't supposed to be a blockbuster, neither was Fatal Attraction, neither was Moulin Rouge, and Sound of Music came out in a time when big movie musicals were on their way out.

On the flipside, when a movie is bad people will just not see it. The Exorcist II didn't do nearly as well as it's predecessor making only 30 million against it's 14 million budget. A lot of people simply didn't like the film and it was panned critically.

John Carter was such a thorough loss for Disney it's near the reason why Disney bought up Star Wars and Marvel. John Carter, as one of the 20 people that have watched it, is a thoroughly mediocre movie that feels extremely derivative and outdated even in 2012 because it's source material - the 1912 novel A Princess of Mars - had already become so influential on science fiction at large.

The movie was mid, so people didn't watch it and it made no money and now Disney owes Star Wars a franchise that took influence from John Carter. Irony.

So in the end what does all this ""Mean""? Well, a couple things, certain media is simply going to hit harder with it's domestic audience because of cultural reasons.

While SMYM might not hit with American audiences because it's topic isn't relevant to our culture it's clearly relevant to Thai culture currently. There's a lot of ways to judge critically a piece of media. From it's technical skill, to it's cultural thematics, to it's own individual goals as a piece of media.

Crash won an Oscar but Space Jam is a better movie.

I am here actually to appreciate your post. I saw a blogger’s post saying The sign would have been ‘successful’ had it got filled with fantasy and romance and limit action to 10%. I wondered why that person, who says BL is all about romance, watched a show whose genre is action. Then I saw your post about people watching many shows to stay in fandom and I agree. Also you are right about dramas with a complex story receiving heavy criticism. Everything (even lack of proper plot or conflict) is exempted in a romance drama. No wonder most BLs are confined to ‘2 boys and their jealous & crying moments, routine conflicts enhanced by Escola or leads explaining how important Nikon printer is for their relationship’

Well damn hit me in the feels with this appreciation I'ma get all shy and shit.

I always wonder if by "successful" people mean in terms of critical acclaim, story telling, or monetarily. When it comes to Thai shows - and some please correct me if I'm wrong - it's difficult to tell how "successful" they are terms of audience reach/monetarily because there's no easily verifiable information. Like, there's Youtube numbers sure, but The Sign as an example, aired on Channel 3 what were it's ratings total on that channel? Idk, does anyone know that? Sincerely asking lol

Personally the way I like to judge a piece of media is what I call the Roger Ebert method; he often judged films based not solely on whether they were "good" or "bad but by how successfully they accomplished their goals.

If you read his review of Space Jam while it's clear Ebert doesn't think the movie is high art, "You can watch the movie on the sports and cartoon levels, and also appreciate the corporate strategy that's involved. [...] It is difficult for an actor to work in movies that combine live action with animation, because much of the time he cannot see the other characters in a scene with him. But Jordan has a natural ease and humor, an unforced charisma, that makes a good fit with the cartoon universe."

Ebert praises that the film, while filled with obvious product placement and banking on both nostalgia for the toons & star power of Jordan, accomplishes it's goal of being a family for that can be enjoyed by adults and children, and also the ability to blend techniques of live action, animation and 3D rendering.

I bring this up specifically b/c when I see "reviews" of shows in BL - the most common form of meta I see in BL fandom as a whole and that's not a knock just an observation - it's usually always about the narrative. Nothing about the filmmaking. And if there is discussion about he filmmaking it's usually misinformed or worse misinforming - no that's not what aperture means, yaoi framing isn't really a thing in film, the t-shirt is really just a t-shirt, etc, etc.

And like I get why. Fandom is more about story, what the words on a page or what the characters on screen are doing and saying. It's easier to talk about the amazing communication two characters have b/c you don't really need a film knowledge to discuss that. Which is a factor in why I think shows with lower stakes, more streamlined and straightforward plots get praised at a higher, less diligent and harsh level, than shows that are a bit more daring. They're less challenging in structure, they take less risks, so there's less to critique, and there's less room for a show to disappoint.

There comfort food, rather than trying something new at the restaurant. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, again, this is just a general observation.

To me, The Sign is miles better than Cooking Crush on a simple technical level. I only watched one episode of Cooking Crush and I found it pretty mediocre at best from all technical points: acting, editing, cinematography, directing, storytelling.

This isn't to say Cooking Crush is "bad" or that even if Cooking Crush was "bad" people shouldn't like it. I don't give a fuck if people like it, good for you chase the things that spark joy! I like lots of "bad" media, have y'all ever watched Jason Takes Manhattan?

For me, The Sign, like Space Jam, accomplishes it's goals and those were ambitious goals. An action fantasy BL that actually lives up to that premise and looks good?? The fight choreography looks great considering the obviously budget??

Like one of my issues with Laws of Attraction - aside from how painfully disinterested those kisses looked - was the fight choreography was bad.

The characters very rarely land hits in a way that looks real, or even marginally real. I can only speculate they didn't hire a stunt coordinator and/or couldn't hire stunt doubles so there was a worry of injury on set (for both reasons).

This isn't a disparagement on the actor(s) either, like stunt work is difficult and it's important to have professionals on set who can walk an actor through the steps so both them and others don't get hurt. Jackie Chan is probably one of the best known actors alive for stunt work, but watch how many times he fumbles and potentially hurts himself to the point where other actors are actively worried for him:

So yeah I'm going to give The Sign it's fucking gold star stickers b/c aside from some missteps in the gun handling - to many one handed gun fights but even then it wasn't all the time and bullets ran out of ammo! Y'all don't know how exciting for me that was to see - the fight scenes look damn good.

I understand the work that went into them, I understand the pre-production time that it took for the crew and cast to learn that and filming them well is another beast too.

There's a couple scenes with shaky cam that I dislike, but god do I love that first long take in The Sign. I love how good the CGI looks overall again, considering what is probably less budget than Black Christmas (2019).

I'm admittedly, fucking picky about what I watch b/c I'm really lazy and prefer watching films in general. I don't really like TV all that much, but if I am watching a tv show I wanna be impressed with more than just the characters talking to each other. Especially if said show is 12 hours or more.

When I'm looking at a piece of media - a comic, a novel, a film, a tv show - I'm thinking about stuff like "what were it's goals, and did it accomplish them? How was the filmmaking? How was the narrative structure? What is the time/place/culture this was made in?"

I'm not sure if people are arguing if The Sign was "successful" in terms of narratively, monetarily, or critically.

In reality we can only really speculate on how successful a Thai BL is based on data that's not not entirely accurate - social media, youtube stats, awards, etc - and even then most of that is based off international audience.

I can glean that 2gether was successful for gmmtv b/c it got a second season and a film, pretty much skyrocketed Bright and Win's individual careers but again, and created a cross country alliance for activism. But even all that is still speculation not facts (except the alliance that's a real thing that happened lol).

[This is all regardless of my own feelings regarding the show which is not kind. But feelings have nothing to do with individual discussion about how monetarily successful or accomplished a show is or isn't.]

Like it might be valid speculation on both shows but it should always come with a disclaimer of - these are not facts. Also, what is "popular" or "successful" can and will be dependent on individual countries too.

Take Cutie Pie for example, I would argue that it wasn't super "successful" here with American fans, but given how overwhelmingly popular Zee and NuNew are in both Thailand and Korea, I would then argue that the show was a success in Thailand and Korea. So was Cutie Pie "successful" or not? I would say yes!

Because "success" isn't and shouldn't be measured only by how western fans receive a piece of media.

In regards to The Sign, I'd argue it appears to be very successful with only the partial data I have at hand - social media which includes places like twitter, facebook, tumblr, the success of their sold out showing for the finale, a special episode, etc. If people argue it was unsuccessful in terms of narrative, well that's debatable and I have no interest in debating why the show is good except in terms of technical filmmaking and storytelling.

And even then it's a pointless debate like or dislike whatever just don't lie or mislead people regarding film terminology and techniques or harass people because they did like A Thing or clog up the tags with annoying posts about how you didn't like said Thing.

Overall, I don't give "reviews" on things I watch either positive or negative cause, well, I'm lazy lol, I don't believe putting how much I hate a show in it's tags and a thorough rating system would be to much work. I actually like how My Drama List rating system works, I just find most reviews on it to be Annoying lmao. Like giving Kinnporsche a 5 or below is absolutely bonkers to me but whatever es lo que es. But I also don't think my thoughts and opinions on shows are that valuable in terms of discussion.

These are mostly my general thoughts on fandom at large and it's not directly at any particular people its just observations at large across various social media platforms.

I think if you like more squeecore shows that's totally gucci, I just wish didn't proposite that 1) those are the only valid shows in terms of BL/queer media and 2) didn't overhype them to such sky high levels

[go-learn-esperanto]

I'll never forget when the writer of TUMOASD (Eneli) first started writing the fic. She was in a discord with me and I remember every chapter everyone would get so excited to see what she wrote, and I remember most of us pointedly ignoring the chapters where things were off. Everyone knew that the fic was going to end extremely sad but we couldn't bring ourselves to accept that (not unlike tommy being in denial as well)

...and i'll never forget eneli sending me another one of their fics and saying they wrote fluff this time and it was the fucking zombie apocalypse oneshot LMAO

I think the TUMOASD hate is due to varied reasons:

Popular thing bad

People didn't found the motivation to keep reading the fic and didn't keep trying. It was difficult to read = bad to them.

Not paying attention to chapter 30.

People taking Eneli's message for leaving the fandom too seriously and to heart. I think if they knew her better they would get how she does things and that it was mostly a light-hearted tweet to say goodbye to something she was no longer interested in. Also she was on mcyttwt and I don't know if I'd wish that for anyone ASDFGHJKL

So many people have wonderful memories of being friends with Eneli, of just being distraught over the fic and might even finding it fun! People saying it wasn't even funny: maybe not for you. I personally found Tubbo broadcasting Jump In the Cadillac to the whole city pretty funny.

(Spoilers for TUMOASD):

I did not cry at any of characters' deaths. However I did cry when Eneli told why she wrote the fic.

Anyone who has read it knows that the fic, despite being a fic with an insane amount of mcyt references, isn't really about the MCYTs. It's actually a very personal fic about Eneli's problems at home. It's a personal fic she wrote for herself so she could cope with all she was going through. I think that is something that people fail to recognise.

Passerine is a bit like it too. Not the whole fic but at least a part. And again

(Spoilers for Passerine):

Thcscus has said before that the way she wrote Philza was a bit of a mirror of her relationship with her father. You can see it especially well in Wilbur's talk with Phil in Chapter 6. That isn't a "Wilbur finally confronts his father about what he did to them" talk, or at least not completely. It's actually what Kyle wishes she could say to her father, who she realises left her to make her family's life better, but she can't help but feel conflicted and saddened by the whole situation. (She talks a bit about it in the Passerine Podcast interview).

Fanfiction is something people write for themselves: if someone enjoys it it's amazing! But people need to realise it's not something made specifically for you. There's a lot going into them and you should respect that people have different opinions and likes. Don't shame others for liking a harmless fic.

I'll give you some examples:

I've read Accelerate. I don't get why there was so much fuss about it. It's just a smut fic to me. But I won't go everywhere saying that it's bad. I guess people might like the specific situation. I don't like it particularly. I respect who likes it though.

I have conflicted thoughts about Flowers of 1970. It's not on my top quality fics. That being said, I try to understand why people might like it: the possibilities of the plot, the plot with Wilbur's family being genuinely interesting. There's so many reasons why people might resonate with it. Who am I to say they can't.

I think people should hate less. Authors are writing for free. Go read what you like. Constructive criticism is fine, however please know what you're talking about and accept that people might consider what you think is a fault an advantage.

[roanniee]

Maelstrom

🐈Yaku Morisuke x Hinata!GN! Reader

Warnings: swearing, simping, the use of Daddy Iwa Past relationship talk?

Chapter 5

Masterlist

You just wanted to be a good sibling and friend. You just wanted to drop off some surprise food for Shouyou, Hoshiumi and Iwaizumi. Possibly the rest of the team as well, based on the rather large amount of food that you brought with you. But the elderly female guard in front of the training center really would not let you pass through just to drop the food off. You understand of course, why the guard was so wary. You were wearing a black mask and a baseball hat that covered your hair. You look suspicious, and you know it, but it didn't mean that you didn't feel frustrated.

"Please," You said with a sigh. "I just want to drop food for my friends."

"I'm sorry, dearie, but I am not allowed to let anyone in unless they are escorted in by one of the players, or the staff members." the guard said with a regretful smile. You sighed again and stepped to the side, pulling your phone out from your pocket. You sent them both a message, hoping that one of them sees it, when a voice behind you said a nickname that you had not heard in nearly ten years.

"Sunflower?"

You froze before looking behind you, eyes wide as you took in the hulking form of a person that you had not heard from since you graduated.

"Wakatoshi?"

Ushijima Wakatoshi never changed much in the nearly ten years that you have not seen him. He still had a large build and the ever so stoic face.

"It has been a while. How are you?" He asked, a small smile on his face that you couldn't help but reciprocate.

"Normal so far. What about you?"

"I have nothing to complain about aside from being late to training. What are you doing here?" He asked, raising a brow at you. While the action would've intimidated others, it warmed your heart instead. Ushijima was stoic, but around you, he showed more emotions than others would see in a week. The gesture of him raising his brow at you isn't a gesture made with intimidation, but rather, of curiosity.

Just like it had been all those years ago.

"I wanted to drop some food off for Shouyou, Hajime and Hoshiumi-kun. Could you give it to them for me?" You asked, eyeing the white and red jacket he was wearing. Neither Shouyou nor Iwaizumi had told you who the members of the National team were, but you should've known that Ushijima would be a member of it. The man had nothing but volleyball and personal success in his mind.

"Why don't you just come in? I'm sure they would be happy to see you." He suggested, making you blink. Before you could protest, Ushijima grabbed the bag of food with one hand and your wrist on another before gently dragging you inside, nodding at the guard who was watching your interaction with interest. Your whines of protest fell on deaf ears as he continued to tug you along with him through the training centre's long hallways, before opening a door and shoved you inside gently.

You yelped as you stumbled in, bumping into the broad body of one Iwaizumi Hajime. Iwaizumi took one look at you and chuckled, immediately knowing who you are. After all, the cap you were wearing was from him, and the mask you wore was one that Oikawa physically sewed in Brazil with Shouyou.

"Wakatoshi, what the hell was that for!? You did not have to drag me like that!" You whined loudly as Iwaizumi stabilised you, effectively catching the attention of everyone in the gym. From the corner of your eyes, you can see them double back when they realise who Ushijima was talking to and who was leaning on Iwaizumi. Of course you would catch their attention. You weren't wearing your mask anymore, having ripped it off while Ushijima was dragging you.

"Forgive me, but you would've convinced me to not bring you inside if I had done so." The tall male said in amusement, making you huff. It was the truth. If he had let you talk, you would've convinced him to just take the food and bring it to the gym while you went on your merry way.

You glared at Ushijima before moving to look at Iwaizumi who was chuckling beside you.

"This isn't funny, Daddy Iwa. Quit laughing." You said, rolling your eyes. Whatever Iwaizumi was going to say in response died before he could voice it out because someone barrelled into you, making you both fall into the ground. You didn't even have to see to know who it was. Your brother has hugged you more times than you could count with all your fingers and toes in the past month since you got back to Japan.

"Shou, was you tackling me to the floor necessary?" You asked as your brother got off you and helped you up. You winced when your shoulder and back began to throb in slight pain. "Now I'm in pain. Thanks kid."

"I'm so sorry! It's just that you're here! At practice! You need to meet my team." Hinata said excitedly, and you can only sigh when you caught sight of all the dropped jaws. This was exactly why you didn't want to be in here. You knew that Shouyou would get excited and parade you around proudly.

"Hoshiumi-kun, come get your gremlin!" You said loudly to the white haired male at the far end of the court, watching his boyfriend cling to you with amusement.

"Sorry, Y/n-san! He was your gremlin before I even met him! You know how to deal with him better than I can!" Hoshiumi responded with a teasing tone.

"Said gremlin is right here, listening to you both." Shouyou grumbled out before dragging you over to where the team stood to introduce you to them.

Honestly, what is with people dragging you everywhere?

*****

Yaku stood back, jaw dropped to the floor. However, not for the same reason that others in the team did.

It was You. You were the cutie he saw at the airport.

He knows that sideview anywhere, having engraved it in his mind after seeing it once, despite the mask that covered the lower half of your face the first time he saw you.

Yaku blinked when he suddenly found himself in front of you, being introduced by Shouyou.

"Y/n, this is Yaku Morisuke-san. I'm sure you've heard me talk about him?" Shouyou stated, smiling at the dumb look on Yaku's face.

"Ah, yes. Nekoma's former libero, no?" You said with a soft smile, directed at the blond male in front of you.

"Y-yes. H-hi. I'm Yaku- I mean... you already knew that." Yaku stuttered out, rubbing his nape with a sheepish smile. You laughed, finding yourself charmed by the stuttering and the small blush that lit up the libero's cheeks.

"It's nice to meet you finally, Yaku. Shouyou has talked a lot about you and your skills. I hope to see it in action." You said before Shouyou moved you along and introduced you to Bokuto, who was physically vibrating in excitement.

His eyes never left your figure until it was time for practice, and you bet that Shouyou noticed it.

*****

Notes:

Yaku never approached you after the initial introduction.

He was too shy and he knows that he will stutter even more.

The last thing he needed was for him to look more of a fool in front of you than he already is.

Kuroo is crying because he didn't get the chance to meet you.

Calling you as his friend hurts Shouyou more than he would admit, but he knows that there's a good reason for it so he ignores the pain.

You and Ushijima dated. That's it. That's the tweet.

Okay but for real, You and Ushijima dated starting the latter half of your first year until 6 months before graduation.

It was a mutual break up. You know you'd be busy with your work and he'd be busy with volleyball, so to avoid anything from getting toxic, you just let each other go.

You did truly love each other though.

The love is gone now, and when you both look back, all you can see is fondness and good memories.

Sakusa is actually very thankful for Ushijima's ex, which is you. He knew that he wasn't easy to deal with, and he knew that Ushijima learned the patience to deal with him from you.

You definitely think that Yaku is cute.

but...

past relationship problems, and no, it's not Ushi.

Shouyou had been talking about Yaku for years. Especially to you.

If you didn't know it, you'd think that the ginger was in love with Yaku.

But no.

he's just trying to entice you to get to know Yaku better lmao.

Kenma and Akaashi are in awe of Yaku's luck beause??

What are the odds that the cute person he found at an airport was You??

PS. More drama is coming soon.