#global localization

[luulapants]

25 ways to be a little more punk in 2025

Cut fast fashion - buy used, learn to mend and/or make your own clothes, buy fewer clothes less often so you can save up for ethically made quality

Cancel subscriptions - relearn how to pirate media, spend $10/month buying a digital album from a small artist instead of on Spotify, stream on free services since the paid ones make you watch ads anyway

Green your community - there's lots of ways to do this, like seedbombing or joining a community garden or organizing neighborhood trash pickups

Be kind - stop to give directions, check on stopped cars, smile at kids, let people cut you in line, offer to get stuff off the high shelf, hold the door, ask people if they're okay

Intervene - learn bystander intervention techniques and be prepared to use them, even if it feels awkward

Get closer to your food - grow it yourself, can and preserve it, buy from a farmstand, learn where it's from, go fishing, make it from scratch, learn a new ingredient

Use opensource software - try LibreOffice, try Reaper, learn Linux, use a free Photoshop clone. The next time an app tries to force you to pay, look to see if there's an opensource alternative

Make less trash - start a compost, be mindful of packaging, find another use for that plastic, make it a challenge for yourself!

Get involved in local politics - show up at meetings for city council, the zoning commission, the park district, school boards; fight the NIMBYs that always show up and force them to focus on the things impacting the most vulnerable folks in your community

DIY > fashion - shake off the obsession with pristine presentation that you've been taught! Cut your own hair, use homemade cosmetics, exchange mani/pedis with friends, make your own jewelry, duct tape those broken headphones!

Ditch Google - Chromium browsers (which is almost all of them) are now bloated spyware, and Google search sucks now, so why not finally make the jump to Firefox and another search like DuckDuckGo? Or put the Wikipedia app on your phone and look things up there?

Forage - learn about local edible plants and how to safely and sustainably harvest them or go find fruit trees and such accessible to the public.

Volunteer - every week tutoring at the library or once a month at the humane society or twice a year serving food at the soup kitchen, you can find something that matches your availability

Help your neighbors - which means you have to meet them first and find out how you can help (including your unhoused neighbors), like elderly or disabled folks that might need help with yardwork or who that escape artist dog belongs to or whether the police have been hassling people sleeping rough

Fix stuff - the next time something breaks (a small appliance, an electronic, a piece of furniture, etc.), see if you can figure out what's wrong with it, if there are tutorials on fixing it, or if you can order a replacement part from the manufacturer instead of trashing the whole thing

Mix up your transit - find out what's walkable, try biking instead of driving, try public transit and complain to the city if it sucks, take a train instead of a plane, start a carpool at work

Engage in the arts - go see a local play, check out an art gallery or a small museum, buy art from the farmer's market

Go to the library - to check out a book or a movie or a CD, to use the computers or the printer, to find out if they have other weird rentals like a seed library or luggage, to use meeting space, to file your taxes, to take a class, to ask question

Listen local - see what's happening at local music venues or other events where local musicians will be performing, stop for buskers, find a favorite artist, and support them

Buy local - it's less convenient than online shopping or going to a big box store that sells everything, but try buying what you can from small local shops in your area

Become unmarketable - there are a lot of ways you can disrupt your online marketing surveillance, including buying less, using decoy emails, deleting or removing permissions from apps that spy on you, checking your privacy settings, not clicking advertising links, and...

Use cash - go to the bank and take out cash instead of using your credit card or e-payment for everything! It's better on small businesses and it's untraceable

Give what you can - as capitalism churns on, normal shmucks have less and less, so think about what you can give (time, money, skills, space, stuff) and how it will make the most impact

Talk about wages - with your coworkers, with your friends, while unionizing! Stop thinking about wages as a measure of your worth and talk about whether or not the bosses are paying fairly for the labor they receive

Think about wealthflow - there are a thousand little mechanisms that corporations and billionaires use to capture wealth from the lower class: fees for transactions, interest, vendor platforms, subscriptions, and more. Start thinking about where your money goes, how and where it's getting captured and removed from our class, and where you have the ability to cut off the flow and pass cash directly to your fellow working class people

[transcriptioncity]

Translation Services vs. Localization Services

Translation Services vs. Localization Services What’s the Difference and Why It Matters Effective communication across languages is essential. Translation and localization services have become crucial for businesses, governments, and individuals. Although often used interchangeably, these services have distinct purposes and applications. Understanding the differences can help you choose the right…

[nappingpaperclip]

PLEASE REPOST

MARCH ON WASHINGTON AND CENTRAL LONDON FOR GAZA

1:00PM Saturday January 13th, 2024 @ The National Mall 1600 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington DC

12:00PM Saturday January 13th, 2024 in Central London

Please wear a KN-95 mask, and wear layered nondescript clothing and cover your face/hair! I have seen many people use keffiyehs for this. People will be recording and taking pictures!

Dress for cold weather but know marching warms you up quickly, so dress in layers you can remove and carry without uncovering your face and hair. Ideally you should bring a backpack to carry food, water, first aid, ID, etc. It may be good to bring multiple or removable parts of your outfit if you plan on walking from your residence or car.

Please blur out peoples faces before posting to social media!

Bigotry & hatred will not be tolerated.

Even if you are unable to attend, please reblog and repost the graphics to other social medias to get the word out. You may have a follower or friend who can attend.

If you live outside of DC or Central London: talk to your local organizations! They may be able to organize transportation to this event. For buses to DC, you will likely have to pay a fee, but it is probably going to be cheaper and safer than driving to DC and parking in their $40-$50/hour parking garages. Also look into Amtrak, Greyhound buses, trains, or other means of transportation.

[fly-chicken]

This feels like a good time to remind people of the 1981 Regan assassination attempt and the fallout was republicans turning out in droves to re-elect him as well as popularity in polls surging positively

Especially since trump is not original and all his ideas seem to be torn from Regans playbook or other global autocratic dictators

EDIT OMG AND BOLSONARO STABBED DURING HIS ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN 2018, GUESS WHAT HAPPENED W HIS TURNOUT AND RESULTS TOO?!?!

[chuluoyi]

there was this one thing that i noticed different in caleb’s trailer in english ver and chinese ver:

this one line -> “did you honestly think i would always be the kindhearted boy in your childhood?”

is actually:

「你有沒有想過？我從來都不是你的哥哥。」 has it ever occurred to you? that i was never your brother

[mylittleredgirl]

i know “visualize world peace” is a bumper sticker cliche they were already making fun of forty years ago but i think i literally have to start doing that or i’m going to go insane. in all seriousness from now on i need to spend five minutes at the beginning and end of every day just purposely imagining a future where in a hundred years the world is peaceful and just and sustainable so that i can get up and fold the laundry that’s been on the floor for seven days and watch my neighbor’s kids and vote for the district representative who wants to build affordable housing. the hippies who made those bumper stickers did so under the threat of mutually assured destruction and just because the end of the cold war didn’t end war, it doesn’t mean they were wrong to believe it could. we’re drowning in blood and hurricanes and the only way i can get my head above water and keep dog paddling in the right direction is to intentionally kindle the hope that our children’s children’s children can still live better lives on a more loving world.

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

“When the issue of conservation and climate is highlighted and elevated on the ballot, we find time and again that voters overwhelmingly support these initiatives,” said TNC’s Senior Director of Strategy Adam Snyder. “This year is no different, with 66% of voters supporting conservation and climate proposals.”

[sasaranurude]

Okay. I've been playing Tokyo Debunker today, since the release happened to catch me on a day when all I'd planned to do was write fanfiction. I just finished reading the game story prologue (it was longer than expected!), so here's a review type post. If you're reading this post not having seen a single thing about this game: it's a story-based joseimuke gacha mobile game that just released globally today. It's about a girl who suddenly finds herself attending a magic school and mingling with elite, superhuman students known as ghouls. If you look in the tumblr tag for the game you'll see what appears to be a completely different game from 2019 or so: they retooled it completely midway through development, changing just about everything about it due to "escalating competition within the gaming industry."

I'll talk about how this looks like a blatant twst clone at the end.

Starting with the positive: The story is charming. I enjoyed it thoroughly the entire time and am excited to read more. The mix between visual novel segments and motion comics was really nice--it broke things up and added a lot of oomph to the action or atmospheric scenes that visual novels generally lack. I like the art in the comic parts a lot. the live2d in the visual novel parts is... passable. Tone-wise, I think the story was a little bit all over the place and would like to see more of the horror that it opened on, but I didn't mind the comedic direction it went in either. The translation is completely seamless. The characters so far all have unique voices and are just super fun and cute. Of the ones who've had larger roles in the story so far, there's not a single one I dislike. It's all fully voiced in Japanese and the acting is solid. (I don't recognize any voices, and can't seem to find any seiyuu credits, so it seems they're not big names, but they deliver nonetheless.) Kaito in particular I found I was laughing at his lines a ton, both the voicing and the writing.

He's looking for a girlfriend btw. Spreading the word.

The problem is like. The gameplay is the worst dark-pattern microtransaction-riddled bullshit I've ever seen. Hundred passive timers going at all times. Fifty different item-currencies. Trying to get you to spend absurd amounts of real world money at every turn. There's like five different indicators that take you to various real-money shop items that I don't know how to dismiss the indicator, I guess you just have to spend money, wtaf. Bajillion different interlocking systems mean you have zero sense of relative value of all the different item-currencies. I did over the course of the day get enough diamonds for one ten-pull, which I haven't used yet. Buying enough diamonds for a ten-pull costs a bit under $60 (presumably USD, but there's a chance the interface is automatically making that CAD for me--not gonna spend the money to check lmfao), with an SSR rate of 1%. BULLSHIIIIIT.

There's like a goddamn thousand-word essay explaining the dozen different types of character upgrades and equippables and equippables for the equippables!! Bad! Bad game design! That's just overcomplicating bullshit to trick people into thinking they're doing something other than clicking button to make number go up! That is not gameplay!

In terms of the actual gameplay, there is none. The battle system is full auto. There might be teambuilding, but from what I've seen so far, most of that consists of hoping you pull good cards from gacha and then clicking button to make number go up. There's occasional rhythm segments but there's no original music, it's just remixes of public domain classical music lmao. I'd describe the rhythm gameplay as "at least more engaging than twisted wonderland's," which is not a high bar

At least there's a cat in the rhythm bit.

And like, ok, I gotta remark on how derivative it is. Like I mentioned in my post earlier, this game is unabashedly aping twisted wonderland's setting and aesthetic. (That said, most of the stuff it steals from twst is magic school stuff that twst also basically stole from Harry Potter, so...?) However, it isn't exactly like twst: in this one, the characters say fuck a lot and bleed all over the place and do violence. Basically, the tone is a fair bit more adult than twst's kid-friendly vibe. (Not, like, adult adult, and I probably wouldn't even call it dark--it's still rated Teen lol. Just more adult than twst.)

Rather than just being students at magic school, the ghouls also go out into the mundane world to go on missions where they fight and investigate monsters and cryptids. Honestly, the magic school setting feels pretty tacked-on. The things that are enjoyable about this would've been just as enjoyable in about any other setting--you can tell this whole aspect was a late trend-chasing addition, lmao. So, yeah, it's blatantly copying twst to try to steal some players, but... Eh, I found myself not caring that much. Someone more (or less) into twst than me may find it grating.

Character-wise, eh, sure, yeah, they're a bit derivative in that aspect too, but it's a joseimuke game, the characters are always derivative. Thus far the writing & execution has been solid enough that I didn't care if they were tropey. If I were to compare it to something else, I'd say the relationship between the protagonist and the ghouls feels more like that of the sage and wizards in mahoyaku than anything from twst. There's some mystery in exactly what "ghouls" are and their place in this world that has me intrigued and wanting to know more about this setting and how each of the characters feels about it. I have a bad habit of getting my hopes up for stories that put big ideas on the table and then being disappointed when they don't follow through in a way that lives up to my expectations, though.

So, my final verdict: I kind of just hope someone uploads all the story segments right onto youtube so nobody has to deal with the dogshit predatory game to get the genuinely decent story lol. Give it a play just for the story if you have faith in your ability to resist dark patterns. Avoid at all costs if you know you're vulnerable to gacha, microtransactions, or timesinks.

[shesmore-shoebill]

Thrilled that the short film Angela starred in, "Guts" is now available to watch on Youtube for free! :O

Just in case anyone who might want to see it didnt know. Beautifully made, thoughtfully written, brilliantly acted, hits hard and feels deeply real and emotional and vulnerable. Especially touches on an element of non-linearity of recovery and "getting better" in a way I felt was very real but. hopeful. in a way i appreciated. Absolutely worth the watch, IMO.

TW: Eating disorders.

[goodluckclove]

Hey it's me. So uh if you live in the United States (or anywhere, really) today might be the start of a pretty frustrating few years. I don't really want to talk about that. I'm going to avoid talking about that as much as possible. Mainly because I decided to put as much energy as I can afford into focusing on the micro instead of the macro in terms of political and social climate.

As the larger news outlets turn into a flurry of insane catastrophic ravings, most of which will likely result in nothing but some certainly capable of leading to immense amounts of damage, it'll be very easy for local policy to pass completely under the radar. So, if you're able, I highly encourage you to start keeping up with the local news in your area. There's a lot more we can do on that level, both in terms of voting, protesting, and supporting our community.

It's hard to find a good news source. I think starting with Alternative Weeklies are a good way to start. I have started reading the Willamette Week every week, a Portland-centric news source that does some pretty impressive investigative journalism. I found a list of alternative weeklies in every state and country that might be worth looking into in terms of validity. If anyone in other cities or countries has a local news source to share, maybe you can do so here!

I get it's not within everyone's capabilities, but I've felt a surprising amount of comfort keeping up with something important that I can potentially have a much stronger control over. Also not enough people keep up with local news so I've suddenly turned into the person that tells all my friends in the city what's going on in our own leadership.

[sentientstump]

thinkingg

about things

in the alt text with some notes

[nappingpaperclip]

PLEASE REPOST

MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOR GAZA

1:00PM Saturday January 13th, 2024 @ The National Mall 1600 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington DC

Please wear a KN-95 mask, and wear layered nondescript clothing and COVER YOUR FACE, HAIR, AND ANY IDENTIFYING FEATURES. I have seen many people use keffiyehs for this. Dress for cold weather but know marching warms you up quickly, so dress in layers you can remove and carry without uncovering your face and hair. Ideally you should bring a backpack to carry food, water, first aid, ID, etc. It may be good to bring multiple or removable parts of your outfit if you plan on walking from your residence or car.

If you bring a phone, turn off your Face/Touch ID, location services, and data.

Have your emergency contacts written on your body. Don’t record peoples faces. Stick with a group.

Bigotry & hatred will not be tolerated.

Even if you are unable to attend or are not USAmerican, please reblog and repost this to other social medias. You may have a follower or friend who can attend.

If you live within a couple of hours of DC, or even if you live further: talk to your local organizations! It is possible they may be able to organize transportation to this event. Most likely you will have to pay a fee, but it is likely going to be cheaper and safer than driving to DC and parking in their $40-$50/hour parking garages. Also look into Amtrak, Greyhound buses, or other means of transportation.

EDIT: fixed some info, also here is the HD graphic that includes the website

[aroaessidhe]

i finally got myself a copy of the spider and her demons too!

[emergingghost]

preparing myself for the very real possibility that the new julien baker & torres song could be dropping midnight friday local time which for me is in just over an hour.............................

[hadesoftheladies]

palestine is a wake up call to all the people in the global south and all countries and peoples that have experienced colonialism by western empires. especially following the western world's response to ukraine.

when you're flooded with footage of children starving, their bodies shredded by missiles, shrapnel and collapsed buildings, when you see once vibrant, beautiful lands reduced in seconds to rubble . . . you realize how easy it is to provoke a white man. all you have to do is a be a person of colour on your land with all its natural resources. that's it. all you have to do is exist on the same soil as your ancestors. and if a white man says you're in the way of his expansion, it doesn't matter what moral ethics you think white people have. it really doesn't matter what you expect of a human being. what conscience you think they have.

you will die. no one will rescue you. they will murder you. torture you. they will justify it. they will make jokes about it. and years later, when it's not too inconvenient for their people to feel guilt, they will feel sorry and still make what they did to you about them. about their "human complexity" and their "nuance." your people will be dead for thousands of years before they "apologize" (not to you but) to their descendants. and even then they'll lie. they'll blame the "internal conflicts of the region." conveniently leaving out who supplies the guns and military gangs. why. what they get in return.

what's happening in congo, tigray, palestine, haiti, iran, afghanistan, etc is not an isolated event. you cannot afford to think so. it's literally what they did from the 17th-20th centuries. the exact same tactics. the exact same propaganda. these are millions of people dying and set up to die within this year alone.

white man sees resource, white man cuts a bloody path toward it. he is superior, so it's his right. it's that simple.

if you are self-righteous about politics (especially toward western empires like france, britain, russia, canada and the u.s., etc.) please understand that the only thing between your "peaceful" or stable country and all-out war is how agreeable you are to the demands of these empires. please don't think these people have evolved or will consider you in any way. they will nuke you, too, if you resist. that isn't peace. we don't have peace with them. they aren't peaceful. complying under threat of war isn't peace. coercion is not consent.

if these insane people can hear from the mouths of their own scientists that their wars are killing their own people and accelerating the death of life on this planet, i don't know why you'd think they have a shred of humanity left in them. that there's anyone in this life they could possibly care for.

reject that lie. that you can appeal to their humanity. how many fucking "peace talks" have we had since hitler? for fucks sake. begin to build your community and focus your aid and efforts on each other. be aware, but also think smaller. focus on local businesses and markets rather than imports. let's change the way we consume (this is hugely important). wherever you are, whichever people concern you, take care of your own communities. give back. even if you're part of the diaspora. just find a way to give back and strengthen your communities. don't let "the drain" empty out in the west. i'm not claiming its simple work, or that i have all the answers. i'm just saying increase your awareness of how these empires and their propaganda function and don't give into them however you can afford to. you know what you can do. you know your own communities and countries better than i do. and we all know that one of the prime ways the empires keep us weak is by destroying or own intracommunity solidarity.

because there is no UN we can appeal to. there is no western "mediator" we can rely on.

they'd kill us all if it wouldn't tank their economy.

internalize that. don't ever let them coax any trust out of you. there is no "international unity" we can have with them because their prosperity will always require our suffering. resist, at least, by reclaiming your mind from them. see them outside of how they have conditioned you to see them. every time your president shakes one of their hands, see the blood smearing them.

don't trust a single word out of their dirty, lying mouths.

[zyrafowe-sny]

Just took a few minutes to use 5calls.org and call my rep and senators from my (parked) car.

Representative [redacted]: talked to a real person, friendly, helped me say what I needed to say to get my call properly recorded, assured me my rep was on the same page on the issue (not too surprising — blue part of California)

Senator Schiff: voicemail is full, no local lines provided on 5calls, automated message referred me to his website

Senator Padilla: First call — reached the main line and could leave a very short message. Second call — main line and some local lines were busy but enough alternative local lines were available that I could leave a voicemail at one of them.

Anyways, I promptly burst into tears after my first round of calls (about Musk) and needed to take a couple minutes before calling about RFK, but at least there's a record of opposition.