#gifts with logo

[corporategiftsonline]

How to Personalize Your Diwali Gifts with a Brand Imprint

The importance of personalized gifts on this Diwali does not need anymore convincing. By investing in this you are only ensuring that your brand leaves a lasting impression — not just on the receiver but everyone else around them too. And you know what getting customized Diwali corporate gifts is actually a lot easier than you might think!

[skellydun]

I don't think I'm meant to be employed. It really cuts into my goofy silly haha time. and it makes it nearly impossible to have any wow life is beautiful let me take it in time.

[theokusgallery]

Professor Layton themed candle !! :D

This is a tea set that I painstakingly but lovingly painted, varnished, then poured scented candle wax into and decorated.

More details under the cut :)

Here's some more pictures !

I used a random teacup and assorted plate I bought from a guy in my town. I painted it black (should've used spraypaint but I only had white), then handpainted the gold rim on the plate as well as the logos. The rim of the teacup is lined with some gold leaf I had lying around (I originally wanted to use gold leaf for the logos as well, but... it was my first time using gold leaves and I had no idea what I was doing, so I didn't want to ruin it). I used acrylics for all the paint.

I made the tophat with airdry clay; the letter and newspaper are paper (obviously), the Laytonmobile-looking thing is a scrapbooking sticker I bought from my local art store (it's actually what gave me the idea to make this in the first place). The key I just had lying around again and just had to paint it golden (I keep a lot of things around just in case I want to use them for art projects...) and for the gold chain, I sacrificed one I had from a necklace I barely wear.

As for the candle part, well, I used some white wax I had from a candle-making kit I was gifted when I was 7, as well as crayons for color, and hibiscus candle scent (flavoring?) I bought at the same time as the Laytonmobile sticker. I poured it in two layers so that the decorations wouldn't just sink to the bottom.

[chiquilines]

Silly togachako uni doodles since I havent drawn them in a minute

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Naomi Klein's "Doppelganger"

Tomorrow (September 6) at 7pm, I'll be hosting Naomi Klein at the LA Public Library for the launch of Doppelganger.

On September 12 at 7pm, I'll be at Toronto's Another Story Bookshop with my new book The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.

If the Naomi be Klein you’re doing just fine If the Naomi be Wolf Oh, buddy. Ooooof.

I learned this rhyme in Doppelganger, Naomi Klein's indescribable semi-memoir that is (more or less) about the way that people confuse her with Naomi Wolf, and how that fact has taken on a new urgency as Wolf descended into conspiratorial politics, becoming a far-right darling and frequent Steve Bannon guest:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374610326/doppelganger

This is a very odd book. It is also a very, very good book. The premise – exploring the two Naomis' divergence – is a surprisingly sturdy scaffold for an ambitious, wide-ranging exploration of this very frightening moment of polycrisis and systemic failure:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCjcwVhFhTA

Wolf once had a cluster of superficial political and personal similarities to Klein: a feminist author of real literary ability, a Jewish woman, and, of course, a Naomi. Klein grew accustomed to being mistaken for Wolf, but never fully comfortable. Wolf's politics were always more Sheryl Sandberg than bell hooks (or Emma Goldman). While Klein talked about capitalism and class and solidarity, Wolf wanted to "empower" individual women to thrive in a market system that would always produce millions of losers for every winner.

Fundamentally: Klein is a leftist, Wolf was a liberal. The classic leftist distinction goes: leftists want to abolish a system where 150 white men run the world; liberals want to replace half of those 150 with women, queers and people of color.

The past forty years have seen the rise and rise of a right wing politics that started out extreme (think of Reagan and Thatcher's support for Pinochet's death-squads) and only got worse. Liberals and leftists forged an uneasy alliance, with liberals in the lead (literally, in Canada, where today, Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party governs in partnership with the nominally left NDP).

But whenever real leftist transformation was possible, liberals threw in with conservatives: think of the smearing and defenestration of Corbyn by Labour's right, or of the LibDems coalition with David Cameron's Tories, or of the Democrats' dirty tricks to keep Bernie from appearing on the national ballot.

Lacking any kind of transformational agenda, the liberal answer to capitalism's problems always comes down to minor tweaks ("making sure half of our rulers are women, queers and people of color") rather than meaningful, structural shifts. This leaves liberals in the increasingly absurd position of defending the indefensible: insisting that the FDA shouldn't be questioned despite its ghastly failures during the opioid epidemic; claiming that the voting machine companies whose defective products have been the source of increasingly urgent technical criticism are without flaw; embracing the "intelligence community" as the guardians of the best version of America; cheerleading for deindustrialization while telling the workers it harmed with "learn to code"; demanding more intervention in speech by our monopolistic tech companies; and so on.

It's not like leftists ever stopped talking about the importance of transformation and not just reform. But as the junior partners in the progressive coalition, leftists have been drowned out by liberal reformers. In most of the world, if you are worried about falling wages, corporate capture of government, and scientific failures due to weak regulators, the "progressive" answer was to tell you it was all in your head, that you were an unhinged conspiratorialist:

https://doctorow.medium.com/the-swivel-eyed-loons-have-a-point-3434d7cbfae2

For Klein, it's this failure that the faux-populist right has exploited, redirecting legitimate anger and fear into racist, xenophobic, homophobic, sexist and transphobic rage. The deep-pocketed backers of the conservative movement didn't just find a method to get turkeys to vote for Christmas – progressives created the conditions that made that method possible.

If progressives answer pregnant peoples' concerns about vaccine risks – concerns rooted in the absolute failure of prenatal care – with dismissals, while conservatives accept those concerns and funnel them into conspiratorialism, then progressives' message becomes, "We are the movement of keeping things as they are," while conservatives become the movement of "things have to change." Think here of the 2016 liberal slogan, "America was already great," as an answer to the faux-populist rallying cry, "Make America great again."

When liberals get to define what it means to be "progressive," the fundamental, systemic critique is swept away. Conservatives – conservatives! – get to claim the revolutionary mantle, to insist that they alone are interested in root-and-branch transformation of society.

Like the two Naomis, conservatives and progressives become warped mirrors of one another. The progressive campaign for bodily autonomy is co-opted to be the foundation of the anti-vax movement. This is the mirror world, where concerns about real children – in border detention, or living in poverty in America – are reflected back as warped fever-swamp hallucinations about kids in imaginary pizza restaurant basements and Hollywood blood sacrifice rituals. The mirror world replaces RBG with Amy Coney-Barrett and calls it a victory for women. The mirror world defends workers by stoking xenophobic fears about immigrants.

But progressives let it happen. Progressives cede anti-surveillance to conservatives, defending reverse warrants when they're used to enumerate Jan 6 insurrectionists (nevermind that these warrants are mostly used to round up BLM demonstrators). Progressives cede suspicion of large corporations to conservatives, defending giant, exploitative, monopolistic corporations so long as they arouse conservative ire with some performative DEI key-jingling. Progressives defend the CIA and FBI when they're wrongfooting Trump, and voting machine vendors when they're turned into props for the Big Lie.

These issues are transformed in the mirror world: from grave concerns about real things, into unhinged conspiracies about imaginary things. Urgent environmental concerns are turned into a pretense to ban offshore wind turbines ("to protect the birds"). Worry about gender equality is transformed into seminars about women's representation in US drone-killing squads.

For Klein, the transformation of Wolf from liberal icon – Democratic Party consultant and Lean-In-type feminist icon – to rifle-toting Trumpling with a regular spot on the Steve Bannon Power Hour is an entrypoint to understanding the mirror world. How did so many hippie-granola yoga types turn into vicious eugenicists whose answer to "wear a mask to protect the immunocompromised" is "they should die"?

The PastelQ phenomenon – the holistic medicine and "clean eating" to QAnon pipeline – recalls the Nazi obsession with physical fitness, outdoor activities and "natural" living. The neoliberal transformation of health from a collective endeavor – dependent on environmental regulation, sanitation, and public medicine – into a private one, built entirely on "personal choices," leads inexorably to eugenics.

Once you start looking for the mirror world, you see it everywhere. AI chatbots are mirrors of experts, only instead of giving you informed opinions, they plagiarize sentence-fragments into statistically plausible paragraphs. Brands are the mirror-world version of quality, a symbol that isn't a mark of reliability, but a mark of a mark, a sign pointing at nothing. Your own brand – something we're increasingly expected to have – is the mirror world image of you.

The mirror world's overwhelming motif is "I know you are, but what am I?" As in, "Oh, you're a socialist? Well, you know that 'Nazi' stands for 'National Socialist, right?" (and inevitably, this comes from someone who obsesses over the 'Great Replacement' and considers themself a 'race realist').

This isn't serious politics, but it is seriously important. "Antisemitism is the socialism of fools," its obsession with "international bankers" the mirror-world version of the real and present danger from big finance and private equity wreckers. And, as Klein discusses with great nuance and power, the antisemitism discussion is eroded from both sides: both by antisemites, and by doctrinaire Zionists who insist that any criticism of Israel is always and ever antisemetic.

As a Jew in solidarity with Palestinians, I found this section of the book especially good – thoughtful and vigorous, pulling no punches and still capturing the discomfort aroused by this deliberately poisoned debate.

This thoughtful, vigorous prose and argumentation deserves its own special callout here: Klein has produced a first-rate literary work just as much as this is a superb philosophical and political tome. In this moment where the mirror world is exploding and the real world is contracting, this is an essential read.

I'll be Klein's interlocutor tomorrow night (Sept 6) at the LA launch for Doppelganger. We'll be appearing at 7PM at the @LAPublicLibrary:

https://lafl.org/ALOUD

Livestreaming at:

https://youtube.com/live/jIoAh-jxb2k

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

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

[checo-max]

Checo last night at the event held by Tequila Patron México 🇲🇽🥂

[markscherz]

A new friend!

[louisupdates]

Fans have teamed up to gift Louis Tomlinson and his team personalized beer bottles at the Morriña Festival [20.2.2024]

[ratatatastic]

media availability | 10.29.24 (x)(x)(x)

[thomas-mvller]

Jamal Musiala (33') Harry Kane (43') VfL Wolfsburg | 1 - 2 | FC Bayern München Bundesliga - matchweek 16

[stupidsexygrizzop]

A story about Hunter gifting him his first cowboy hat, which Hunter had found while cleaning out his mother's attic after she had died and didn't have a home for it. It was old, well-loved, and fragile and Michael had never worn it. He kept it safe and well-kept in a closet of the house that he shared with Edgar. A sign of things to come.

Hey Helen. Hey Helen. Ms. Helen Hartley? Where did that hat come from?

[krokaxe]

Combing around the archives and I found this Fallout throwback from 2022.

I've put her intro under the cut for anybody who'd like a little read on Gillespie's vibes. The fic has since been deleted from Ao3 but archives really are a wonder.

A creature waits at the base of the memorial.  From a distance Lars had assumed it to be a horse, equine at any rate, but the place its soft nose should be is hard and set. Its reptilian nostrils italic slits above a set of long, scissor sharp jaws. Its dark, scaly hide would be better described as mottled, but it is as alive and real as Gus. It stares at Lars in near perfect stillness as he slides out of the saddle. Hairless, all ridged scales and crested feathers, it's a colour closer to an inkblot than anything else he could compare it to. There is an elongated, cadaverous quality to the beast that has it look voracious even at rest— its three-toed, draconic feet has Lars linger for a beat too long. It might be horse-like in proportion, but his comparisons fall short when he spots its reptilian tail.

It hisses, dropping its lower jaw as much as it can against the secondary strap keeping its mouth shut. Lars catches sight of a dark tongue and row upon row of needle thin teeth, thus a hefty step away from what looks like a demon attempting to poorly impersonate a horse. It has only indents instead of ears and a feathered, spined crest where a mane ought to be— the feathers on its head and puff in warning as it jerks against its tethering rope. All that black leather does nothing to have Lars believe it's truly domesticated but, edging forwards, he gingerly offers his knuckles in an attempt to settle its nerves. Gus wickers as he sets his ears back against his head. Lars mutters in reply, “I know.” The beast snaps its teeth at his hand until he opts to tentatively offer out a piece of jerky from Gus’ saddle pack. It cranes its neck forward to sniff, nostrils flaring, then peels back its mouth to gingerly snap it away with its teeth. That does the trick. Whipping its head back to open its cavernous mouth, it devours the jerky without any real need to chew, then looks at Lars expectantly. Turning its head to stare at him with one of its high cut, yellow eyes, it cocks its jaw and clacks its teeth impatiently. Lars feeds it the rest of his travel portion. Some habits die hard. Getting close enough to run his hand over the arch of its neck, Lars squints at the silver plate on the animal’s bridle strap. “Gillespie,” he murmurs out loud. The creature lacks any visible ear flaps, but he figures they would perk them up at the sound of its name. It might be an abhorrent thing, perhaps the same creed as Deathclaws or Nightstalkers in terms of spliced horror, but it is loved regardless. It chitters a soft ticking breath through its teeth, feathered neck shuddering as Lars runs his hand over its scales. “Somebody loves you,” he murmurs. Gillespie inhales the smell of jerky from his fingers, then tries to bite at his flannel sleeve in a greedy request for more. Gus snorts, jealous. “Be mindful of her tongue.” The voice has Lars freeze. It's measured, calculated, maybe even cold. “She may take fancy with your fingers."

[printcharms]

[steelwoolcardigan]

Good to see all Dragon Age ™ icons in one board.

[eminsunnytoons123]

Muppet high:

The trio!! ^_^

Since I have been becoming yet again REALLY And A LOT interested in @eldritch-muppetshow 's muppet high AU, haunted theatre AU, And the muppets Playground AU, And since i have Drew the trio of the haunted theatre AU, heres the trio of the muppet high AU =^_^=

And yes, muppet high was actually supposed to be an real animated television series, but then it Got cancelled- but they did made figures, plushies And mugs of them!

Heres the picture of the figures! And i'll draw them too, and even @eldritch-muppetshow 's versions of other characters in the Show/AU =^.^=

And honestly, if this was a Show, id definetly watch it! And i even made the logo for it =^_^=

I hope y'all will like this! Especially @eldritch-muppetshow =^///^= 💖

[niibaataa]

Atlas holding up the sky.