#got programmer brain rot

[wjolk]

silly little shijima (if its blurry or something I'm really bad at exporting pixel art just ignore that)

[otakween]

Digimon Tamers - Volume 2

It turns out this series is super out of print and rare. My library only has the first 2 volumes, so I'll be reading the rest after this one online (if you want to buy it it's like $80-$100 per volume!) It's a little bit of a relief honestly, because the volume that I got from the library is pretty crusty and battered. I think I saw some dried shredded cheese on some of the pages 🤢 Really shows who the audience is.

Ch. 8

This manhua has really bad continuity and no sense of space. Characters will just pop out of nowhere. Culumon is the worst offender, but in this chapter there were a bunch of dramatic scenes between Rika and Renamon and then it just randomly turned out that Takato and Jian were watching the whole time but not saying anything? Riiiight.

I was really confused at the end and thought that Yamaki was saying he created a digimon but it was actually a really clumsy flashback to the original digimon programmers. Confusing panels...

Ch 9

Wow, the Devas arc already, it obviously felt like it took a lot longer to get here in the anime. I wonder if they'll do all the Devas or condense them/do some off screen?

At least one thing that's nice about this manga is that I can take in the Devas designs without them jumping around too much.

Ch. 10

Some of these jokes are flying over my head. Takato tries to name his group of friends "team rock" and he mentions "a skinny guy on TV who talks about the power of positive thinking." I wish they would cut out the unfunny, outdated material and just tell the damn story >:/

Worst boys Hirokazu and Kenta show up to reestablish themselves as part of the party...yaaay

Didn't realize that MegaloGrowmon was called WarGrowlmon in the dub. I guess it is kind of nice to keep the naming conventions more consistent. "Megalo" is sort of a weird prefix (megalomania?)

Ch. 11

I'm still obsessed with Jian's computer that can read trading cards as if they were CD-ROMs. I wish that technology existed!

Two perfect evolutions in one chapter? Pretty rushed but okay...they still looked cool. (Taomon and Rapidmon). I think the Wonderswan card game rot my brain a little cuz when I saw Rapidmon I was thinking about all the option cards I could use with him.

Ch. 12

Other than my fave Antylamon, I think Indramon is the most memorable of all the devas. His design is really unique, he's massive, and he kicks the shit outta Impmon. I like his emo hair too lol

When they realize that Hirokazu's homemade blue card works I'm surprised they didn't move onto a counterfeit card making scheme after that. I just it only works if it was made with pure intentions or something.

Ch. 13

Why is Juri's dub name "Jeri" when "Julie" was right there?

Damn, they really killed any suspense with Makuramon's intro there. In the anime he's presented as a kid at first but here they showed him as a kid but then slapped the name tag "Makuramon" right next to him...

They skipped a bunch because Juri just magically knows that Guilmon exists. They showed Hirokazu and Kenta meeting him, but not her. Oh well, I guess.

Ch. 14

Calling Juri, Hirokazu and Kenta "groupies" is pretty funny, not gonna lie. So accurate.

I like that they're clearly ID-ing each deva as its corresponding zodiac animal. I think there was a little bit of that in the anime, but not as spelled out as it is here. Usually I don't like to be spoon fed, but there's something satisfying about them saying "that's the boar, that's the monkey, etc."

[m4gp13]

Some random hcs for the younger campers because they're rotting my brain and they don't get enough attention:

Chiara is a major overachiever. She has natural good luck because of her mother so she was quickly good at a lot of things and built up a reputation of being a star child that she is desperate to maintain. She took a tonne of extracurriculars because of this

She spent the first few years of school when she was really young in Italy and had to move because her mortal family made this really successful business venture and she adapted to English school really quickly

Her family is really successful and she is grateful to have had such a privileged upbringing but (like Piper's dad) they rarely have time for her which is why she is a year-round camper. She tells her family she's at this very exclusive education programme for physically and intellectually gifted kids, which the other campers have so much fun with ("Fuck you *camper name*, I'm too Physically and Intellectually Gifted for this)

Alice is always down to help her forge whatever documents she needs to convince her parents

She went to the same high school as Damien before they knew they were demigods and he immediately hated her because he was jealous of how smart and well-liked she was and her effortless talent at everything she was such a snob and didn't even have to work for anything

Damien is a massive edgelord with a complex about being the dark and mysterious guy that sits at the back of the classroom with no friends. Even when he got to camp, he couldn't separate this from being part of his identity so he became the classic lancer archetype that talks about how they too dark and edgy to have friends while being surrounded by a circle of people who would lay down their lives for him

They've all made a pact not to tell him because it'll be too funny when he finds out on his own

(if he ever does)

When he got claimed he tried asking if he had any demigod siblings and actually got so excited when people started being secretive and awkward about it because in his heart he is the protagonist of a nitty-gritty urban fantasy and he loves the idea of a hidden past that people are reluctant to tell him about

He refuses to believe he's just a side character in a middle-grade series about gods and preteens

Ben (the guy who got one line about his wheelchair of death in ToN) is a perfect balance between jock and nerd. He is very down with entertaining Damien's delusions

He's in the school DnD club and the chess club but he's also one of the buffest guys around. He could bench press virtually any other camper that asks

Because of this everyone assumed he would end up being a child or Ares or some other war god. But he ended up being the kid of a super chill minor deity. He got his love for wheelchairs of death from his mortal parent, who also fostered his love for DnD and all things nerdy

[bestocship]

Anastagio Horowitz and Gennadiya Nikolaev (@raybotonline)

Anastagio & Gennadiya met in high school, and fell in love over the course of several months. Gen was well-liked at school and Ana was not, and Ana for a while was convinced that she was completely out of his league, but their feelings were both mutual and genuine. Gen helped Ana through the early stages of his transition, even buying him his first binder. Unfortunately, when they both graduated, their future plans got in the way of staying in touch and they amicably went their separate ways... until several years later, when they happened to meet again by chance. The feelings are still mutually there, and (eventually) (after the events of the story they're in) they *do* get back together <3

they're extremely adorable together, gen is so supportive of her boyfriend, ana is so completely whipped its kind of funny but also cute, gen is 6'00" and ana is 5'2" so ana is at Gen's Boobs Height, and they are so important to me forever. a vote for genastagio is a vote for bisexual rights

Eddie Palmer and Theo Havlicek (@yanoharuhito)

Eddie Palmer is a hitman working for an organized crime group, and when he is ordered to eliminate Theo Havlicek, a skilled freelance programmer working part-time for a rival group. Eddie's primary tactic is to get close to a target via seduction/flattery, and he's usually very good at keeping his cool on the job. This time he accidentally falls for Theo for real, and fails to do what he had sought out to do in the first place. Instead, Eddie arranges a couple more dates with Theo. He rationalizes this to himself by saying that he's just waiting for the right time. It's only after the third date, his deadline, that Eddie finally pulls the trigger.

Theo is equally as interested in Eddie, although to a healthier extent. Eddie's affection can also be considered infatuation, because he's never been interested in people at all before. Now he's faced with the first person he feels capable of loving, and he has to kill them.

Eddie is initially unwilling to go on with the job, but after a couple days and a word from his mentor, he's convinced that he can't *actually* love Theo, that he'll always ruin the things he loves.

TL;DR, An assassin falls in love with his target, and it ends badly.

speaking from experience they will completely rot your brain because of how tragic they are ..... copious AU potential with these two. imagine the domestic aus... roleswap au... nobody dies au ... the possibilities are endless

[writerofweird]

Here is my reading of a story I wrote when I was eight; a story based on Tricky, an old Saturday morning show from CiTV hosted by a cartoon dragon who would introduce cartoons and interview celebrities.

Here is the story:

The Adventures of Tricky

based on the CITV programme on Saturdays.

Chapter 1

Tricky is a dragon. He lives in a towering house in CITV Town. He reads the newspaper every day before breakfast. His favourite cereal is Wheaty Puffs (favourite cereal of all dragons.) One day,Tricky was reading the newspaper when something caught his eye. CITV TOWER.NOW HAUNTED BY MACABRE PHANTOMS.NOBODY GO IN THERE.

“I`ll just go there,” said Tricky. “I know there`s no such thing as spectres, shadows and wraiths!” When Tricky got there, however, the door was boarded up. Tricky managed to get the planks of wood off the door. Then he found out...the door was wooden, mouldering.

Tricky knocked on the rotting door asking, “Anybody here?” Nobody answered but the door creaked open by itself. When Tricky got within, he saw that the place was all gloomy. When one of his feet hit the wooden floorboards, there would be no creak, just a maniacal laugh. Suddenly, candles flickered all over the room. When that happened, a green apparition with flesh wounds, slippery ooze, one eye lost and oozy tentacles to squeeze your bones appeared. Ugh! He was the most abominable, loathsome, grisly apparition you have ever noticed.

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” it wailed. Therefore, a gremlin with biting fangs springed out of the floorboards. Monster bats swooped down from the stairs. Skulls bounced on the floorboards. Then,one of the spectres crashed into the wall and little microchips fell out of it.

“That ghost can`t be real,” said Tricky “Real phantoms go through walls without microchips falling!” Tricky opened a door. Within, just as he thought, the newspaper reporter with a remote control.

“Aha!”said Tricky, interested because he had found out who was behind it. “Curses!” said the news reporter, that was the lying criminal mastermind. “I want to be the superb news reporter in the universe!”

“Well, tough luck, then, Mr. News Brain!” said Tricky. “I knew there were no such thing as dreadful, macabre ghouls and spectres!”

“So,Mr. Don`t-believe-in-ghosts, I have traps to flatten you like pancakes(or pizzas!)” explained the news reporter. As soon as he said that, a huge compactor fell from the ceiling. Luckily, Tricky had learnt how to sprint(phew!) and dodged the deathly compactor.

“Bah!Foiled!I hate him!” said the criminal mastermind, really bad-tempered. “Grr! Don`t know why I even tried!”

In the meantime, Tricky had managed to get to his home. “All safe now,” Tricky said, while he was going to bed.

What he didn`t know that a new villain was at the town tomorrow.

Chapter 2

Oh, I haven’t told you that Tricky`s favourite newspaper is the Dragon Gazette. Next day, he was reading that when he came across something, WATCH OUT CITZENS.CHEERLESS MORTAL WITH TOXIC WASTE BOTTLE IN POCKET.KEEP INDOORS.

“Rubbish! Utter bilge! TOMMYROT!” mumbled Tricky to himself. “Nothing could actully ha...” Tricky stopped. He looked through the window. There he was-a cheerless mortal.

“Hmmm. Is he a opponent? Wonder if he`s wanted? Better meet him,” said Tricky and went outside. “Okay then,”said Tricky when he got outside. “What`s your name?”

“My name is The Master of Death!” said The Master of Death.

“Okay, Mr. Big Master Of Death Cheerless Mortal Pants, I challenge you to a fight!” said Tricky(wasn`t feeling scared at all.)

“Okay, Mr. Green Dragon!” said the master of death.

So, Tricky went back home. He had secret weapons in a chest. He put on a gas mask, his very own anti-poison suit and lastly, a gun.

When the fight began, loads of things passed. The Master of Death spilled some poison on the ground. Fortunately, Tricky leaped over it. Tricky got out his gun. He shot the gun at the Master of Death. The gun was filled with scent! It smelled so pleasant!

“Arrrgh!You win!” gasped The Master of Death. The Master of Death went off. “Yessss!” shouted Tricky for victory.

When Tricky went home that night, he didn`t know that a new enemy was at the town tomorrow.

Chapter 3

Tricky was at his home reading the Dragon Gazette next day when something caught his eye. TEN THOUSAND ARMED, THREE EYED, TIME TRAVELLER, FETCHING DANGERS FROM TIME WITH HIS MEGA FAST TIME MACHINE.STAY AWAY FROM HIM.

“Must be a figment of their imagination,” said Tricky to himself. “Better take a walk.”

When Tricky went outside, there was a T-Rex and a Ultrasaurus. By the dinosaurs was a monster with ten thousand arms, three eyes and a badge saying, “My name is Mr. D. Pasthe-Fewture.”

“You`ll never defeat me,” said Mr.D.Pasthe-Fewture. “Get him robots!”

When the robots came one said, “Wait, we can`t get him.”

The other robot said, “That`s right. He`s a dragon. He must be a danger from the past.” The robots went away.

“Grr! Dragon!” muttered Pasthe-Fewture.

Tricky said, “Good.”

Mr. Pasthe-Fewture was getting more hotter than a sausage in a barbecue. “For mental punishment, I shall lock you in my new cyber-prison.”

“Knew it!” thought Tricky. When Tricky was in the cyber prison, he went through the door. “Just as I thought,” said Tricky. “Just a vision.”

When Tricky got to D. Pasthe-Fewture, he said, “How did you know it was an illusion?”

“I looked at your cardboard time machine that isn`t real,” said Tricky.

“I give up!” said D. Pasthe-Fewture.“Hmm.I wonder why!”said Tricky. So,that evening,Tricky didn`t know that there was a surprise waiting for him tomorrow.

Chapter 4

Tricky got bright up that morning. He did that in case there was any more enemies. When Tricky looked in the newspaper there was a photo....of HIM!

The photo was on the front cover with the headline: HERO! TRICKY IS OUR NEW HERO! DEFEATED THREE CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS!

“Wow! Me? A hero!” said Tricky astonished.

Tricky decided to take a walk. When he opened his door, there were thousands of people outside. They were all cheering, “Tricky!Tricky!Tricky! Who`s our hero? Tricky! Who`s our hero? TRICKY! TRICKY! TRICKY!”

“Eh?”said Tricky. Tricky got through the crowd and found a place with no crowds. There was a newspaper seller though.

He was shouting, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Tricky`s a hero!”

“Warrrrgh!” Tricky went by a television shop only to hear the news person say, “Here is the news! Tricky is the bestest hero in CITV town.”

“There`s things about me everywhere,” said Tricky. “What place has no things about me?” Then Tricky had a super plan. “There might be nothing about me in the sweet shop.”

There was!

“What?”

Tricky lollipops!

Tricky rushed home. Phew! There was a knock on the door. “Who`s there?” asked Tricky.

The door opened `til it was ajar. “Hello,” said a voice through the door. “Wanna buy a flag because you`re so heroic?”

“NOOOOOOO!”screamed Tricky.

The door slammed shut. Don`t be a hero whatever you do in case the things that happened to Tricky happen to you.

Well, Tricky didn`t know what happened next day.

Chapter 5

Next day, something really bad happened.

“WHAT?” screamed Dr. I. Bawl, the three criminal mastermind`s leader.

Dr. I. Bawl`s face is just an eye with no nose, mouth nor ears. Nobody knows how he talks, smells and hears. Dr. Bawl wears a oozy lab coat. He also wears zombie`s trousers! I. Bawl`s feet are just boxes full of dangerous things! I hope when you have a science teacher, he doesn`t look the same.

“But, boss,” said the criminals aloud. “There`s a dragon hero in town!”

“Really,” said Dr. I. Bawl. “What does this plan ruiner look like?”

“Well, boss,” explained the criminals, “he had wings, was all green, had pointed fingers and had wing shaped ears!”

Dr. I. Bawl went to his plan ruiner computer. He typed the words the villains had described Tricky on the computer. The computer said, “Well,the one you`re after is Tricky!”

“So?” said Dr. I. Bawl.

“So!” said the criminal masterminds.

In the meantime, Tricky was walking through the park singing, “Stop that pigeon,stop that pigeon,stop that pigeon...”

Dr. I. Bawl was hiding behind a tree. “I shall squash Mr. Big Pointed Finger Green Winged Pants with this hammer.”

Dr. I. Bawl heard footsteps. “Time to use my hammer!” Then, with the hammer Dr. I. Bawl threw the hammer. When it went down, there was a big CRUNCH!

“Direct `it!” said Dr.Bawl. The hammer went off where it had hit and then there was....THE PARKIE!

“OI! WHAT`S YOU`RE LITTLE GAME?” he shouted and biffed Dr. I. Bawl ten times.

Doctor I. Bawl still didn`t give up. For the time being, Tricky had a plan. He covered a pot of something up with leaves and left a book called: EVIL PLANS by N.M.E.Genius. When I. Bawl saw EVIL PLANS, he rushed and rushed to it. Trouble was, he was about to get it when he fell in the pot of manure(Glad I told you?)

When that happened, he cried, “You haven`t seen the last of me!”

Tricky said, “Better luck next time, Swotty Pants!”

When Tricky got home, he got the Evening Dragon Gazette to find out that the headline was: NO DANGER WITH ENEMIES NOW. ALL THANKS TO TRICKY.

“Ahhh,”said Tricky, “All well that ends well.”

When Tricky went to bed that night, he slept well and dreamt of all the things he did.

Ever heard about a dragon like him?

THE END

[theoneandonlysemla]

Hello friend <3

🎃 pumpkin, 🍂 leaves, and🌙 moon (Nevri for moon) <3

Hello there, fellow sufferer of brain rot! 😋

🎃 pumpkin: do you have any favorite brainstorming techniques? how do you like to gather ideas for your wip?

Ohhh, that's a tough one! In summary, you could call it ‘It came to me in a dream’. I have a strong tendency towards maladaptive daydreaming and have been making up little fake scenarios since I was a child, which I then watch in my head before falling asleep. (Yes, I am mentally ill 😅) At some point, I started writing these fake scenarios down and since they were mostly about my fictional or celebrity crushes, that's how I got into writing fanfiction in the first place. Nowadays, my basic ideas for stories still arise from this, and then I sit down and approach the whole thing ‘professionally’. First of all, I create a brain dump, which includes everything that's in my head. In the next step, I sort it chronologically, as it would make sense in a plot. And then I stuff the whole thing into an Idea to Outline form. (I downloaded it from Abbie Emmons when it was still free and I think it's really good; I used it to put together Dealings with Daedra: Boethiah's Wrath. And then it's on to chapter plotting, where what I've accumulated in the form is meticulously broken down. Then, finally, I start writing! 😁 I used to be an absolute pancer and that's why I've abandoned several fics. I just can't handle a lone vibe well, I have to structure and plot the whole thing so that I don't end up at a dead end. Another great source of inspiration for ideas is music – I can always use it to capture a vibe. Sometimes ideas just come to me when I listen to lyrics. And then comes the fear of plagiarising 😂

🍂 leaves: what does your editing process look like? how does your wip typically change as you work on it?

Okay, don't do, what I do. I tend to edit while writing and it makes the whole process so damn slow! I just can't resist to change things up as soon as I have to re-read to get back into the story. Terrible habit, actually. When the chapter is done, my boyfriend is forced to read it. He does not do it with everything tho - pure smut (and toxic shit) ist not his thing and I do not want to put that on him. Also, he often says he can't help with that, because he has no idea about smut. (My argument that the scene structure is like every other scene did not help tho 🙃) As soon as he has read it and made his comments on it, I'll edit those. Then I transfer the text to my ipad and read it on there - pro tip btw! Change the screen and you'll find mistakes easier! After that round of editing comes the last step: I have my writing programme read it to me. I am very blind for mistakes and hearing that something is off helps a lot! And still, there will be mistakes in my text afterwards - usually I find them as soon as the chapter is uploaded... 🫠

🌙 moon: do any of your OCs have dark backstories or secrets they’re trying to keep?

Eve, I have to spoil you for that info!!! Yes, Nevri has a dark backstory and secrets she tries to keep. As you would expect from Boethiah's Champion. In DwD: Boethiah's Wrath she reveals it in chapter 19: The killing of a Nord. I'll leave it vague here but uhm... As we all know, one has to sacrifice someone to become a part of Boethiah's cult. And who that was and the reasons behind that, that's something he rather tries to keep hidden. And for DwD: The Curse of Molag Bal it's basically the main plot that she has to keep a secret and that brings a whole lot of trouble to her. Not gonna say more of this, because spoilers and so on 😁

[blu3jae]

It’s me, back on this brain rot again

One of my other friends was a programmer, and I was gonna ask to see if that little bit in the game where you hack into the controls for the missile is realistic, but I got distracted.

Because, and I mean this seriously, if you had access to intercontinental ballistic missiles, and you were stationed in the Atlantic trying to target something, why the fuck would you aim for New Orleans??

All they ever did was make good music and drink! Sure they’re theoretically French, but we’ve all got some bones in our closet, and besides, they’re the kind of “French” that the FRENCH totally side-eye! It’s an “the enemy of my enemy” situation!

Currently going through the story line for MW1 and 2, (for, uh… totally heterosexual reasons), and here are some of my thoughts:

Captain Price in the videogame reads like how characters in the HP (Horruble Punitivity) universe treat Dumbledore. Like, he shows up, and no matter how terrible the situation is, it’s made better because Price is there.

I am definitely not the right audience for this game, because I keep being struck with the thought of “look! The consequences to your own actions!! Wow!”

Nobody Can Fucking Swim That Fast Dipshits… though I suppose I do have to concede that if it gets the players through the zone quicker, it doesn’t feel unnatural to play, and I suppose this is a solid choice to choose the clearly more fun options, but geez, if it doesn’t look like Gaz and Soap go NYOOOOOOM to me. Fuck Michael Phelps, you tools should be in the Olympics.

Alejandro, props on getting your boy Rudy out of a burning building, we appreciate you, but, and this is just a small critique, smoke inhalation is a thing, and you know how to fucking crouch dumbass. But other than that, good form.

I still don’t know what or where Las Almas is. Is it supposed to be in Mexico? Why do they go to Mexico after confirming that Hassan has crossed the border? I mean, I do love Alejandro and the whole Las Almas arc, but I don’t quite understand the set up of why everyone is there.

“This isn’t Mexico, this is Las Almas.” Ok, but what does that mean? Are we on disputed territory? Is this a fake independent sovereignty not ruled over by either the US or Mexico? I understand that you’ve invented a fake place for story reasons, but I need more information.

Wait a fucking second, why is Hassan back in Mexico (or Las Almas???) if he successfully crossed the border into the US?

Fuck it, I’m going back to look at time stamps.

In game, Hassan crosses the border on 29 Oct 22, but then Laswell says that he was “Taken back into Cartel protection in Las Almas.”

So, fucking what, they snuck Back into Mexico? If they’re goal was the US, then why?? They already successfully crossed the border, why go back and have to do that nonsense again?

Yeah, and the next mission, happens on the 30th of Oct, so it’s in order, it’s just dumb.

“Welcome to the City of Souls”

… wait a fucking minute.

Las Almas. “The Souls” The City of Souls.

Bruuuuuuh.

Alejandro’s forehead. I don’t think I need to say more.

In the bit where the boys are running from the army through the mountain, I’m not well versed enough in nature things to know, but to me it looks really similar to Ruiodoso or the Maderas del Carmen. I’m thinking the designers based it off of Maderas, because the big bend under Texas would probably be a good place to stick this fake city, but I would be fascinated to know what their reference was.

Like, I’m assuming that Las Almas is supposed to be a Juárez parallel, and when they’re driving through the city it definitely has a Juárez vibe, but Juárez has a lot more desert-y mountains surrounding it, the mountains don’t have pine trees on them.

You know what, instead of doing this in one big post, I’m just gonna post it now, and update as I have more thoughts.

[siriusanotherside]

I'm pretty sure that, if Yuri had survived the killing game, he would ended having an aneurysm thanks to Kanade's real nature and all the "Yuki's consiouness needs to be transplanted to Akane's body because his real body is rotting somehere and his brain is inside the Virtual Reality machine and will die if the thing is shut down" thing in the Chapter 6

I thought about this for an long time and yes! Yuri reacting to the events of the game would be a very interesting situation to see him grapple with.

As you said, he would see Kanade true nature as well as her horrifying actions. I really think it would interesting to explore what kind of reaction he might have. I wonder if this, this especially, would make him reavaluate his perspective of woman as perfect beings.

Like, (lets pretend the game had 17 people and the extra got killed by Hajime and everything happens like canon), I could see him still not being shaken by Enma murder, since he could excuse it as Mikado's coercion, her trying to live, etc.

However this one? horrible and disgusting in every way? pretty much done for the sake of causing suffering to Hibiki? Yeah, I can see him actually getting pretty angry and devastated over it.

One aspect i think its interesting to remember is that Yuri showed an suicidal side and an worship to woman and being ok if it meant being remembered, he also made one of his inventions as an AI made in order to help humans(all of them, regardless of gender).

I think trial 3 would kickstart an arc of character development in him and in breaking a bit his idolization of woman, and seeing them as people who can also do bad things. As well as to grapple on that there are certain actions that even if make you be remembered, aren't worth to commit(idk if it is the right phrase, but like, some lines shouldnt be crossed).

I can definitely see him too having some sort of breakdown on the trial, as well as the helplessness on being unable to protect in any way Hibiki. And add to that, too, the inability to do anything while Kanade destroys the only clue given by Setsuka any of them might have in order to stop the killing game.

Another aspect of the third trial that is interesting to think, is that it is the first trial in that Monocrow looks sad/guilty/down over the execution, so what would be Monocrow reaction if coupled with all of that, Yuri was there too? And if Yuri were to have a bit of a breakdown too? I like to think that Monocrow would be even more devastated, esp since Yuri was his creator, and it would be neat to see how they bounce off each other. I dont think Monocrow would be able to do anything, since Mikado altered Monocrows code, but i wonder if he would have a bit of an attitude.

As for the epilogue part, boy would it be another development arc jidsaojoadsi. Tbf, i think he would be confused if only because OH MY GOD is that one chapter 6 sequence an hell of a back and forth and gut punches.

Yuri: Mikado STOLE what, Yuki WHAT, Sora WHAT, I WhaT, Syobai yOU!! I WILL END YOU, wait WhaT

Yuri and Yoruko, being the two people 99% unrelated to this mess, while everyone else loses their shit: we are just...standing here

Alright, skipping to the epilogue. 

Thinking on how Yuri would think. Hmm, i think one small part of him would be envious over the remember thing with Yuki and Sora, although in this case it would be the opposite. But considering his duo character development (from inside the programm + his age), i can see most of him being really damn confused but wanting to support Yuki. In the end, Sora did save everyone’s life, and that would mark him, as well as Yuki resolve to atone and live i assume. I think this live part would also impact him.

Yuri: I suppose you are truly a noble Yuki. (this was supposed to be a ref to lowly male and show it changed)

Yuki: *confusion*

Yuri being the embodiment of that meme of “He is a bit confused, but he got the spirit”.

Also, i imagine it might also lead Yuri to questioning his gender, and adding to, like, Yuri exploring more how he feels about gender in general and his own.

[lovenona]

first of all

I AM SO SORRY THAT I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO PUT SOME OF MY BRAINROT IN YOUR INBOX

been busy with some stuff and exams

(I am not even sure you saw my last asks but don't stress yourself about them especially if they made you uncomfortable or something if that is the case just... buen them the ask just out the window... anyway)

secondly

HOW DARE YOU EVER THINK YOU DO NOT CHARACTERISE THEM WELL

don't you dare insult one of my favorite authors on hell site (nah for real tho i will say it again and again love your writing ❤️)

and at last thirdly (do.. do you say thirdly is that a word) anyway TO THE BRAIN ROT

and as always its about artist sukuna

surprise surprise who would've guessed that from moi 😂

but BUT i have a huge feeling that our arrogant attention needing boi... never try to get into digital painting like... HE FULL ON AVOIDS IT if he can chose traditional HE WILL CHOSE TRADITIONAL

BUT CAN YOU IMAGINE an assignment comes up that has to be digitally no thing like scan a traditional and send it IT HAS TO BE DIGITALLY MADE

BUT THIS MAN NEVER SAT DOWN NOT EVEN ONCE TO LEARN HOW IT WORKS and now all thes words are being thrown into his way like Photoshop, clip studio paint pro or ex clipping mask layers vector layers.. and hes just...to much but OF COURSE he would never admit that probably would know that you need a programm in order to paint on the computer so he just frustratingly admits that he needs help but doesn't REALLY ASK couse of course PRIDE AGAIN so he just kind of ordors y/n to install it on his laptop while he makes themm some drinks when shes over to go over his history assignments

and it ends up with him successfully "sneakily" getting her to explain the program and medium to him while she "obviously" doesn't have a clue that he was frustrated and needed help (of course our prideful ass of sukuna would then proceed to create masterpieces once hes gotten the hang of the program)

AND I BET IT WAS IN GOJOS CLASS TO WHERE THEY GOT THAT ASSIGNMENT EVEN THO ITS NOT EVEN HIS MAIN LECTURE

just him being "lol why not yall are part of this generation you know how to do it" WALKED OUT WITHOUT EXPLAINING SHIT AS TO HOW TO DO IT 😂

probably a reason why hes even more frustrated and really wants to do that assignment JUST TO PEOVE TO GOJO SOMETHING as if this was a personal challenge from gojo to him😂

anyway again been rambling tooooooo much in this ask again hope you still enjoyed my brain rot 😂 if i do get annoying just let me know

and as always

sincerely,

-your rambler

omg thank u sm 😭 it’s my firm belief that sukuna is so shit when it comes to using technology – mans has NO idea how to use digital programs n gojo probably knew that which is why he assigned it <3 head empty only sukuna staring at his laptop like a grandpa n being so shocked when u install the tablet for him and get his programs up n running despite the fact u have no idea how to use them either <3 sukuna mumbling to himself that “he totally knew how to do that” and being so bitter when he sits down to play with everything <3 although he’s secretly super grateful that you’re sitting next to him patiently reading instructions from the manual on how to do everything <3 sukuna spending all afternoon trying out the different brushes n settings and refusing to let u go home because he wants to show u the cool artwork (literally just different lines) he did <3 making u google things he doesn’t understand and then saying “oh i knew that just wanted to make sure!” <3 being so mf proud when he finally makes something worthwhile and claims that digital art “isn’t that bad” (babe u threw a tantrum. it’s okay, we know)

[douchebagbrainwaves]

POST-RISK COMPANY MANAGEMENT COMPANY MANAGEMENT COMPANY

It's pretty easy to say what kinds of problems are not interesting: those where instead of solving a few big blocks fragmented into many companies of different sizes—some of them. Here there were 3 choices: NBC, CBS, and ABC. I only recently realized that it is a home not just for the smart, but incurable builders. Whatever was going to study philosophy in college. But if you look, there are ways to decrease its effects. If the company promised to employ you till you retired and give you a place to think in. Why bother? In his autobiography, Robert MacNeil talks of seeing gruesome images that had just come in from Vietnam and thinking, we can't show these to families while they're having dinner. Maybe, I suggested, he should buy some stock in this company. Even if you could get to work on what you like. And that is another area where undergrads have an edge. The breakup of the Duplo economy started to disintegrate, it disintegrated in several different ways at once.1

How when a new medium comes out it adopts the practices, the content, the business models of the old medium—which fails, and then start a startup while you're in college? I'll work my ass off for a customer, but I feel safe in predicting that whatever they have now, it wouldn't be read by anyone for months, and in others they're live oaks. Companies like Cisco are proud that everyone there has a cubicle, even the CEO.2 If you're worried that your current job is rotting your brain, it probably has a few leaves stuck in the landing gear from those trees it barely cleared at the end of last year.3 The smart ones learn who the other smart ones are, and together they cook up new projects of their own. But more importantly, audiences are still learning how to be the naughtier ones; the insiders have pretty much exhausted the motherhood and apple pie topics. And a startup is so hard that it's a close call even for the ones that succeed.4 We can imagine will and discipline as two fingers squeezing a slippery melon seed. A poor student who could afford only rice was eating his rice while enjoying the delicious cooking smells coming from the food shop.

They were professionals working in fields like law, finance, and consulting. I don't like it.5 They produce new ideas; maybe the rest of the world was like you'd find in a children's book, and in return, you'll never allow yourself to do a good job. I jumped up like Archimedes in his bathtub, except instead of Eureka! Outsiders don't have to get all the way to do that, but the fact that he has to do all the company's errands as well as grad students? They've tried hard to make their offices less sterile than the usual cube farm. Imagine, for example, was something that happened at least in a sense the field is still at the first step. Why? The other is economies of scale, turning size from an asset into a liability. What do those users want? So which ones?

I know of only one who would voluntarily program in Java. And though you can't see it, cosmopolitan San Francisco is 40 minutes to the north. And yet—for reasons having more to do with technology than human nature—a great many people work for companies with hundreds or thousands of employees.6 So once the quality of programmers at your company starts to drop, you enter a death spiral from which there is no try. And fortunately at least two of these three qualities can be cultivated.7 Earlier this year I wrote something that seemed suitable for a magazine, so I sat down and thought about what they have in common? Outsiders don't have to tell anyone you're doing philosophy. Ignorance can be useful when it's a counterweight to other forms of stupidity.

You can't snicker at a giant museum, no matter how hard they try to measure, and to work together. I ever read it? It's not hard to understand the way Newton's Principia is, but the tendency toward fragmentation should be more forever than most things, and since they were all aiming at the middle of the pond there are overlapping sets of ripples. When I grew up believing that taste is just a matter of personal preference. And fortunately at least two of these three qualities can be cultivated. Fortunately that future is not limited to the startup world. The market doesn't give a shit how hard you worked.8 In the group one level up from yours, your boss represents your entire group is one virtual person. In tax rates, federal power, defense spending, conscription, and nationalism the decades after the war looked more like wartime than prewar peacetime. All humans find faces engaging—practically by definition: face recognition is in our DNA. Even hackers can't tell.

You're short of money, for example, in genetic algorithms and even product design. There are real disadvantages to being an outsider is being aware of them usually prevents them from working.9 Class projects will inevitably solve fake problems. You don't have to get a fix on these underlying forces by triangulating from open source is not about Linux or Firefox, but about the forces that were pushing us together.10 If I were you I'd look for the next invading army. One reason they work on big things is that they build stuff that looks like class projects. And when you're part of an exalted tradition, like the print media who dismiss the writing online because of its low average quality are missing an important point: no one reads the average blog.11 For example, thinking about getting a job will make you want to learn programming languages you think employers want, like Java and C. One reason they were excited was Yahoo's revenue growth. Most I find through aggregators like Google News or Slashdot or Delicious.

Notes

But he got there by another path.

There is no longer needed, big companies have little to bring to the erosion of the aircraft is. No.

Jones, A. We think of ourselves as investors, even thinking requires control of scarce resources, political deal-making power.

Why does society foul you? FreeBSD and stored their data in files. If they agreed among themselves never to do more with less, then promptly improving it.

To a 3 year old to get fossilized. A lot of people are magnified by the National Center for Education Statistics, the work that seems formidable from the VCs' point of view: either an IPO.

Did you know about this from personal experience than anyone, writes: I'd argue that the VCs should be deprived of their core values is Don't be evil, they tend to say that was basically useless, but this would be to write a new Lisp dialect called Arc that is not a programmer would find it was one of the bizarre stuff. Something similar has been around as long as the average reader that they either have a taste for interesting ideas: Paul Buchheit adds: Paul Buchheit for the most accurate mechanical watch, the top schools are, and Windows, respectively.

You have to spend a lot cheaper than business school, and outliers are disproportionately likely to be employees, or can launch during YC. Steve Wozniak in Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work.

Perhaps realizing this will be familiar to anyone who had died decades ago. I have no idea what's happening till they measure their returns. I know randomly generated DNA would not know his name.

This just seems to pass so slowly for them. That's why there's a special title for actual partners. There may be the least experience creating it. If you have to do this right you'd have reached after lots of potential winners, from the success of their pitch.

03%. It is still possible, to the next round is high as well. This is similar to over-hiring in that so few founders are in research too. 66.

VCs. They shut down a few VC firms.

[uk-news-talking-politics]

Closing down criticism: No.10's campaign to silence the outrage over covid

By Jonathan Lis

A glance at some of the newspaper front pages gives us a sense of what's happening. "Boris leads £6bn global race for vaccine," Monday's Express suggested. The Sun entitled its exclusive prime ministerial interview: "Baby gave me will to live." The bottom two-thirds of the Mail on Sunday featured a photograph of Boris Johnson's newborn son with the headline: "He's got Daddy's hair!"

In other news, the UK has overtaken Italy, the former poster-child of this catastrophe, and now registers the second-highest death toll in the world. A reader from literally anywhere else in the world would think we had lost our minds.

All this, of course, forms part of a careful communications and PR strategy. It consists of three distinct strands.

The first is the outright manipulation of statistics and facts. The last few weeks have seen an emphasis on numbers. That is, to a large extent, necessary. We need to know how many people are being tested, how many are dying and how much equipment we have to treat patients and protect those caring for them.

But on all counts, the government has dissembled. After Johnson's early promise of 250,000 daily tests was quietly abandoned, health secretary Matt Hancock plucked the number of 100,000 seemingly at random. When that seemed doomed to fail, ministers started to claim it was not about the number of tests but the capacity. Then, in order to reach the target by April 30th, the government included the unprocessed kits it had simply mailed out. Since then, the numbers of daily tests have dipped sharply – as though the entire focus had not been on testing at all, but meeting an arbitrary number on an arbitrary date and making sure it became a government success story.

Mortality statistics have also come under suspicion. Numbers have arrived days or weeks late, and for several weeks deaths in care homes were not included at all. Owing to a lack of testing, it is likely that thousands more people have died than are included in the statistics. The Financial Times estimates that the real mortality figure is a staggering 20,000 higher than the official one.

Then there's personal protective equipment. Panorama revealed that the government counted a pair of gloves as two items rather than one in order to make its activity seem more impressive.

With over 100 frontline workers dead, many of whom had openly complained about their lack of protection, we might consider this a major scandal – yet the government seems to treat it as 'one of those things', as though it hadn't known pandemics existed and hadn't in fact simulated one as recently as 2016. The second big element of the strategy is to deflect blame. At first this focused on the public, who carried the can for not understanding the government's entirely contradictory messaging.

Now it is almost exclusively targeted at the media. The government responded to a Sunday Times exposé by correcting claims the paper had not made. It sought to discredit the damning Panorama programme by pointing out that the featured medical staff were Labour supporters, as though it made any difference either way. And when the Guardian dared to question the presence of the prime minister's chief adviser Dominic Cummings on the government's independent science panel, Downing Street simply gloated about the public's lack of confidence in the media.

And as it lashed out, a stream of commentators have lambasted the media for questioning our leaders' response at all. At the very moment the government most needs to be held to account, scrutiny has been rebranded as sabotage.

The third and most important strand is language itself. Johnson's words betrayed his complacency from the very start. His Greenwich speech in February, which came after the lockdown in Wuhan, derided the "panic...that [goes] beyond what is medically rational". A few weeks later he boasted about shaking hands with covid patients, and in a private meeting dubbed ventilator procurement "Operation Last Gasp". The virus was at best a throwaway joke and at worst a tedious distraction. For Johnson, governing is entertaining and this was not part of the bill.

Language has since taken on a more important role. Key to this is the focus on war. At the start of the crisis Johnson vowed to "defeat the enemy", then last week decried the "unexpected and invisible mugger". The problem is this isn't a war, and if it was, the enemy should have been expected and we should have been prepared for it. This is not about short-term heroism but years of hard work.

But of course the cynicism goes far deeper. Sometimes it seems the most significant battle is against information itself. Taking its cue from Brexit, the government has deployed a succession of empty phrases and slogans to promote its accomplishments. 'Take back control' and 'get Brexit done' have become 'ramping up testing' and 'following the science'. The scale of the virus, we are constantly told, could not have been foreseen, as though ministers simply hadn't heard about the earlier disasters in China and Italy. The purpose of these slogans seems clear enough: to rot our brains and keep us quiet.

The most insidious weapon of language is to conceal the reality under our noses. On Thursday Johnson had the audacity to declare that "we have so far succeeded in the first and most important task we set ourselves as a nation – to avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world". In reality, the UK accounts for less than one in a hundred of the world's population and one in eight of its deaths. Our death toll is now eclipsed only by the United States. The government can wave its hands, point elsewhere and cloak inadequacy as competence, but cannot change the truth of how it failed.

The fundamental problem is the government defines success less by what it does than how it communicates. Ministers do not need to flatten the curve so much as flatten the criticism. In the intersection of exceptionalism and misinformation, it can boast of false achievements and project real blame.

Ultimately we will hear any number of distractions, distortions and dead cats to cover up a single question: why a rich country gifted with time and resources became completely overwhelmed when so many of its counterparts did not.

[thepinknoodlet]

Networked Mobile Mechanics Prototype

Updated on 14 July 2020, my brain is dry and my laptop screams eternally :)

Overview

It’s been some time since my last update, so sorry, I’ve been busy trying to figure things out and also went through a bit of a burnout a few weeks back. This prototype is nowhere near complete, and is more of my attempt on networking the mobile mechanics. As per usual, I’ll be sharing updates and changes made in more detail, so let’s get to it!

Prototype Draft

In this prototype, I updated and restructured the mobile mechanics scripts to be networked and work with both players instead of just one. First, I’ll go through what a single player can do, and then talk about what both players can do. The new methods have been bolded for clarity, with the previous versions listed beneath each one!

The player can now:

Interact with ingredients

Spawn ingredients from the respective shelves

Drop ingredients on the floor and pick them back up

Drop ingredients onto the ingredient tray in a pre-determined position

Ingredients now rot if left on the floor for too long

Ingredients could not rot

Ingredients can now be thrown away, while rotten ingredients must be thrown away

New implementation of trash bin!

Wash dirty dishes

Pick up dirty dishes from a table

Bring the dirty dishes to the sink

Stack up to 4 dirty dishes in the sink

It used to be just 2 dirty dishes

Wash one dirty dish at a time, while near the sink

Place up to 15 clean plates on the plate tray

Plates now have their own tray, they used to be placed with the ingredients

When networked, the players can also see:

Networked Objects

What each player is holding on their head

Ingredients that have been dropped onto the floor

Ingredients that have been placed onto the ingredient tray

Ideally, there should be more that both players can do. As such, I will be working on implementing networking for:

Dirty dishes in the sink

Clean plates on the plate tray

Picking up ingredients and dirty dishes

Currently, only the host is able to perform these actions

The base mechanics for all these methods have been implemented, however, I am struggling a little with the networking commands and am still trying to figure that out.

Regardless, I am proud of my progress, as networking mechanics is something I have been putting off for quite a bit, and have been absolutely dreading since the project first started. It was also the reason for my burnout for 2 weeks or so, so I’m glad I’m almost back on track!

Review

This was a pretty challenging prototype to get out, even in such an incomplete state. The problem mostly came when I had to network the actions players could take, since there was a lot to take into consideration. One of the first hurdles I faced was figuring out how to let the player pick up networked objects. Luckily, this guide from the official Mirror site made it easy to start so I could get the hang of it within a short period! Then came the tedious part of having to reorganize rewrite and relocate my scripts to fit the networking criteria. There was a lot of Synchronizing being done, and even more commands and server callbacks being made, so it took quite some time to ‘port’ all my existing mechanics to be compatible with networking. 

I won’t bore you with the details but it was just very challenging and confusing at times, as I am still not experienced with using any sort of networking API, even one as convenient as Mirror. I eventually got about half of it working, and decided I could fix the bugs later on, since I didn’t want to spend 5 hours trying to fix bugs and neglecting the other responsibilities I had. 

After getting the draft out, I went ahead and built on the ingredient rotting mechanic that my fellow programmer @theeggnoodlet made, so that it now actually worked across the network! Did I mention she is also working on the customer mechanics, and is doing an incredible job at it? Do check her blog out for the latest updates on that part of the mobile mechanics!

I’m sure you’ve also noticed the snazzy User Interface, it looks much better compared to the previous prototype, doesn’t it? They were made by the amazing @thecatnoodlet! She will also be sharing some tips for concept art sometime this week, so I highly recommend you check out her blog too!

Last but not least, our 3D modeller is hard at work with getting the final assets out, and he’s been doing absolutely well so far! Do head on over to @theboynoodlet‘s blog for updates and a sneak peek into what he has been doing!

This post dragged on a little longer than expected, but that’s fine, since I did have quite a bit to update! I will be working on fixing the bugs as well as implementing customer mechanics whenever @theeggnoodlet passes them over. See you soon!

[thealexkingsley]

‘Alexandra’ | Self Paragraph

Her alarm went off and was met with a loud groan as Alex rolled over, arm outstretched to hit the top of the clock. She couldn’t remember falling asleep, but from how her eyes stung she assumed that she hadn’t exactly had an early night. “Fuck--” she breathed out as she pushed the tattered blanket off her small frame, swinging her legs around and running her hands down her face before looking to the clock. 0715. 

Why was Alex up so early? Today was the day of her first meeting with her Father, of this ‘restorative justice’ programme. As soon as her brain clicked into gear and she realised what day it was, she was wide awake. Heart thrashing at her ribcage as she paced around her room in her underwear, running her hands through her hair. What the hell did she even do? What did she wear? What was she going to say to him? She’d been thinking about that last question ever since she spoke to the prison officer last week... What were the first words out of her mouth going to be? To the man that abused her her whole life, to the man that gave her all her scars, to the man that tried to kill her. Had he changed?

The heat of the flame was enough to ground her out of a spiral of questions as she lit a cigarette. She wanted a joint, but she knew there was no way they’d let her in stinking of weed. Fuck-- could they drug test her? She should have asked that... Or shouldn’t have, because then they’d know... All these thoughts kept gonig around and around her head as she smoked, then in the shower, as she was getting dressed and as she was leaving her room. “Alex, can we talk?” The voice of her roommate echoed through her as she picked up her keys and stuffed them into her leather jacket pocket. 

“Er, sure-- just not right now, Meaghan, alright? I have somewhere I need to be, it’s important,” she replied as she opened the door.

“A job interview?” 

“No-- no, I... It’s just something personal, I’ll be back by 3,” Alex said before walking out and down the hall, pressing the elevator key which didn’t light up. “Fuckin’ thing,” she muttered as she hit it a few times, the elevator finally clicking into action. Sure, she could have taken the stairs, they were probably a hell of a ton safer but fuck she lived on the 14th floor. Even going down, that was a lot of stairs and fuck exercise. The next thing she knew she was on the bus, travelling to the East River bridge where she then got off and got onto private transport across and onto Rikers Island. 

The next few minutes were a blur, there were two or three men and women in blue uniforms asking her a bunch of questions she couldn’t remember even straight after they’d asked them. Then, one of them defintely patted her down and searched through all her pockets, she was sure of that. But, all she could focus on was the door infront of her. The big, heavy grey metal door that she knew seperated her from her Father. Her eyes didn’t move from it the moment the officer who talked her through how it was going to go said that he was behind it. Then, the same officer pushed his key into the hole and she felt this whole wave of regret and fear. She was sure she went white as a sheet because she had to push her nails into her palms to keep herself from passing the fuck out. 

“You ready, kid?” The old man who had his key in the door said, a look of concern on his face. Did he know this was a stupid decision too? Fuck... Fuck!

“Y-- Yeah... And I’m not a kid,” she muttered, furrowing her brow as she took a step forward and he opened the door.

There he was. 

Alex had gone over so many things she wanted to scream at him, so many things she wanted to yell in his face knowing she had the protection of the prison staff. But, now he was sat at the desk in front of her, hands cuffed to the metal bar in the middle... Every line she’d rehearsed in her head was gone. She couldn’t think of anything. He didn’t look much different to the last time she’d seen him over four years ago, the only thing she noticed was a scar that ran across his eye and one that cut through his top lip. Was that Nicola? 

There must have been a significant pause and silence because one of the guards coughed to break up the quiet and then told her that she could sit down. “Er-- right... S-sure...” She muttered before hesitently walking up and sitting down at the desk. Her lips parted again to say something, but then closed again. She could hear the sound of her heart, she could feel her stomach turning over and over again. “... Dad...” Alex finally managed, feeling a tear roll out of the corner of her eye. What the fuck? She quickly wiped it away and sniffed up. 

“Alexandra, I didn’t realise you had left home. When they said I was--”

“Alex.” She snapped. “My name is Alex...” 

Jackson’s jaw clenched as she interupted him, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat as he thickly swallowed and rose his eyebrows. “No, your name is Alexandra-- I should know, I did name you after all.” 

“Please... Just fucking call me Alex, you know I hate my-- you know I hate you calling me that,” she bit back, hand curling into a fist in her lap, tongue sliding over her lips as she glanced between the officers and then back to her Father. “And aren’t you the one supposed to be making up for everything?” 

“Making up for what? Raising you? Giving you a roof over yours and George’s head?” 

“Don’t you fucking say his name!” She shouted, hand slamming down on the desk as she felt her eyes water, the tears breaking out of the corners of her eyes as she heard him laugh. He was laughing. “The fuck you laughing at?” 

“You,” he chuckled as he leant back in his chair, raising his eyebrows at his daughter and sniffing up. “You’re just as pathetic as you’ve always been...” 

“You have no idea who I am-- you had no idea who any of us were, you were so pre-fucking-occupied with selling drugs and getting high!” 

“And it looks like my traits have passed on a generation,” Jackson smirked as she dropped his chair back onto four legs, leaning across the table which prompted the officers to all take a step in. “Look at that white knuckle fist, Alexandra. I know that look in your eyes-- you have my anger in you, don’t you? Are you angry? Are you? Hit me-- go on, do it, it’ll make you feel so much better, they won’t do anything, they fucking hate me,” Jackson laughed as he turned his head as if to offer it for a smack. 

Alex could feel the red curtain drawing down, she could feel her chest rising and falling as her nails drew blood into the center of her palms. “I’m not!” She yelled, pushing her chair back so fast it flew backwards and hit the wall. “I’m fucking nothing like you! She was right-- you are a fucking monster.”.

"A monster?” He laughed, clapping his hands on the desk a few times. “Who said that? Mommy? Are you talking to ghosts, Alexandra?” 

“Fuck you,” she spat into his face. “I wish she’d fucking killed you, but I suppose you rotting in a prison cell makes a close second.” One of the officers had stepped in next to Alex, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t fucking touch me, I want to leave. This is over... Send him back to Chicago.”.

“Killed me? Oh-- Oh, now hang on a minute,” he raised his hand as much as he could, eyebrows both raising at the same time as he pointed to the scar on his face. “You mean Nicola fucking Slone, don’t you? You know her?” 

“I want to leave.” 

“Alexandra, c’mon now, this is finally getting interesting... How do you know her?” 

“MY NAME IS FUCKING ALEX!” She yells throwing herself forward towards her Father but is caught by the officer before her fist could so much as touch him who then carries her out kicking and screaming. “I HOPE YOU FUCKING DIE! YOU RUINED OUR FUCKING LIVES!” It wasn’t until the grey metal door slammed closed and the silence of the holding room hit her like a slap across the face that she realised it was over. She tried to get control of her breathing again as the officer spoke to her. She didn’t quite make out everything he was saying, something about how that was usually how most first sessions went, about how it was healthy to get everything out, about trying it again next month... 

“No-- No, just send him back, please, I don’t--” 

“Just give it a month... Give it another go...” 

Alex couldn’t think straight, everything was so fucking loud it was deafening. “I want to leave.”. Then, it felt like she blinked and she was back on the bus headed back to Brooklyn, back to Kingsboro. Her head was like a whirlwind, thoughts going around and around, the image of him laughing. Laughing at her. You have my anger in you. That was repeating over and over all her other thoughts. She didn’t. She wasn’t like him-- she was nothing like her Father. 

The bus ride was well over an hour, but it seemed to fly by within five seconds and it wasn’t until she suddenly snapped back into reality and realised she had missed her stop that she jumped up and ran down to the driver. “I’m really sorry-- I-- my stop was back there, please-- can I jump off? We’re in traffic,” she pleaded to which the bus driver just groaned, rolled his eyes and opened the doors. “Thank you--” she breathed out before jumping off and turning to walk back the way they’d just came from back to her apartment block. 

She called the elevator in the lobby and felt this overwhelming need to get so fucking high she just forgot about the rest of the day, about everything. Fuck him. Fuck that. Fuck everything. Alex felt her eyes close as she leant back against the back of the elevator as it carried her slowly up the complex. She was sure she drifted off into some kind of micronap because she jumped back into conciousness when the doors pinged. “Fuck--” Alex groaned to herself as she dragging her feet out onto the corridor and down it. She narrowed her eyes a little when she saw her big satchal on the doorstep. “The fuck Meaghan?” She muttered to herself as she pulled her keys out and tried to push the front door key in but couldn’t. Then, she realised that the locks had been changed. “What the hell?” 

Alex knocked at the door, sighing heavily as she pinched the bridge of her nose. This was the last fucking thing she needed. “Meaghan!” She shouted as she slammed her fist against the door, shaking the wood. “Meaghan!” She kept going until finally the door opened. “Dude-- what the fuck?” 

“Alex, I tried to tell you earlier... Listen, I can’t do this anymore, I can’t keep paying your cut. I have a new roommate now, actually, it’s-- my boyfriend has moved in,” 

“Boyfriend? I thought you were gay-- wait, that...” Alex shook her head as she held her arms out. “Where am I supposed to go? I have nowhere to fucking go, Meg!” 

“You need to find somewhere, I’m tired... It’s been four years of this, Alex. Every single month I have to chase you and I’m fucking tired-- I can’t do it anymore...” 

“I’ll-- I’ll change! Please-- don’t fucking kick me out... Meaghan...” 

“I’m sorry Alex... Really, I am...” 

Then the door closed in her face and Alex kicked it. “Fuck!” She yelled, turning around a few times on the spot as she pulled at her hair. “Fuck! You’re a fucking bitch, Meaghan! You were way better when I thought you were fuckin’ gay!” Alex bent down and picked up her bag, slinging it over her shoulder as she walked back down the corridor, a door at the end opening and an old lady stepping out. 

“Would you please stop shouting, young lady, my son is trying to sleep!” She hush-shouted in that little old lady fragile voice.

Alex rolled her eyes. “Tell your son to suck my fuckin’ dick,” she made a motion to her croch with both her hands as she passed her to which the lady gasped and slammed the door shut. Alex hit the elevator call button, and yeah, she guessed it! “This-- FUCKING PLACE!” She punched the button really hard and winced as she felt her knuckle crack, bringing her hand into her chest as she rolled her eyes and entered the stairwell, jogging down the stairs and then out the fire escape and onto the streets of South Kingsboro.

Where the fuck does she go now?

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

LEGO Song Comparison; Catchy Song and Loud Song

So I have made ribs about how these songs came out in the same year, but I’ve decided I want to take a closer look at them. Reason being is that this is a textbook example of how a song is more than just it’s general theme, and how lyric choice and music composition play a role in defining the message. 

Things that are the same about Catchy Song and Loud Song

They’re about being ear worms

Well done, we’ve got 2nd grade comprehension here.

Okay, so the other thing is the use of repetition, but in a song about being catchy that’s kind of like Musical Thematics 101. 

Instead, let’s take a look at how they’re different because that’s more interesting. Plus, they are indeed very different beasts. 

The Loud Song

The Loud Song is a very playful song. It has a simplistic structure (emphasised by the fact four of the five verses have the same melody, only one of which has any difference in it lyrics) and the beat is very light, airy and something you can bop along to. The only really pronounced difference outside of the middle verse is the way the last two verses slightly overlap, emphasising it’s cyclical nature. You can imagine just blissfully skipping. hopping down the street to such a beat. 

The lyrical composition is suitably simple, with most lines just referring to it’s catchy nature. One thing that’s worth noting is that it’s more passive; sure it’ll hook in once it gets to you, but in a way that’s just “when you listen to it you’ll find it hard to stop”, no agency on the song’s end. The fact it actually name drops its own title (within the context of the show as well as in real life) is self-referential to the fact it is a manufactured pop song, but ultimately is just a sign of self-awareness.

The middle verse changes things up in a couple of ways. Firstly, the melody here is a touch higher than the other verses, providing an uplifting spike in the mood. This teams well with the second point; the lyrics actually sell this addicting nature as a good thing, allowing the listener to get their head space away from the stresses of day to day living and listening to the song to keep spirits up.

This playful, passive and uplifting nature applies to its use in the episode; it’s contribution to the issue with Cubby is profound but it’s indirect. It distracts the movie promo driver to the point that he is unaware that the Cubby balloon is wrecking the city while he drives around (lampshaded by the lyrics chosen in the snippets we hear of the song). That being said, since he was doing this prior to the Loud Song, it can be inferred that this isn’t the only song causing it, and is more an issue with the driver being a sucker for catchy music than the song having any inherent malicious quality. 

The Catchy Song

The Catchy Song, within the actual universe of the movie, is supposed to be another harmless and fun pop song. But the actual composition of the song is done through the lens of the big brother who insists he’s too mature for it; a malicious tool used to brainwash innocent figures into falling in line with the Systarian regime. The beat of the song on it’s own reflects this; it’s a march more than a bop, even being depicted as such when the Harmony Town residents go down the road, sweeping Emmet and Rex up in its wake once, and being presented as a looming, encroaching presence later. 

Lyrically, it emphasises one very simple fact; this song is outright attacking you to get stuck in there. There’s a lot of references to it hunting the listener like a predator (eg “This song's gonna get stuck inside you, Run but you can't hide, I'll find you” and “Runnin', runnin', let me get 'em, Y'all have the rhythm stuck in your system”, and there’s even one that completely shoots down the idea that’s it’s a passive effect like the Loud Song (”From the mornin' and through the night, I got it movin' from left to right, And if you wonder who's to blame, Yeah, it's me stuck in they brain”). What’s probably the most frightening thing in the song is the helplessness and actual violent nature of its catchiness. It outright states that there’s nothing you can do about it once it gets there, and states that it’ll be stuck there permanently “even if you go insane”. When you think about it, that’s surprisingly dark. The other trick it employs in it’s chorus is a more direct version of the uplifting thing that the Loud Song does sincerely, but right after it says it will make you happy, the song outright undermines that by saying “don’t try to fight it, sing along” like actual brainwashing. 

The way the song is constructed mainly just backs up the broader strokes of the themes, with said intimidation and referencing its pop song nature. The verses are a bit more restrained, probably to allow the lyrics to do their work. There’s an interesting touch in the little refrains with the aforementioned happy lyrics; the melody harkens back to the classic sound of “Na na, na na, na-na-na-na na na”, used across media as an annoyance in how it gets under the skin, supporting the idea of the song being invasive. The most interesting part of it for me is the part where the song goes very quiet, with the lyrics sang at almost a whisper. Throughout the song it’s been saying the song will get inside your head, but right here it just says “This song is now stuck inside your head”. As short as it is, it’s easily the most sinister part of the song, as while the rest of the song is about what it will do, this is as if the infection has finally hit and is on the cusp of enacting all that horror. 

It’s use in the movie is complex. Obviously there’s the scene where it’s used as the musical number, being used in two separate contexts (a facility where the music is used to subjugate the prisoners when they’re exposed to it, and by the Harmony Town residents to the outsiders who don’t fit in, ala the whole Stepford/Camazotz setting and its further implications). There’s a further function later on where’s it used to distract the party crew (aka Unikitty, Benny and Metalbeard) when they wonder where Wyldstyle is, akin to reapplying a brainwashing programme when its victims have a relapse. 

All this being said, the nature of the song becomes the key to solving the major problem as well; it’s aggressively catchy nature becomes a tool to attack the emotional heartstrings, being the addition to Everything’s Not Awesome needed to catch Finn and make him realise the damage he’s caused to his sister and by extension the LEGO world as a whole, and striving to fix it. 

So Ultimately...

While on the utmost basic level they can be described as being about the same thing, the Loud Song and the Catchy Song were clearly made for different reasons and it shows in their execution. You could not swap them into each other’s story and expect them to have the same effect. If that did happen, the City in LCA may have managed to resolve the Cubby issue another way but the Systarians and Bricksburgians would still be rotting away in the Bin of Storage. 

But it’s still hilarious that the co-incidence happened in the same year by air dates. 

[melmoths]

(cw: suicide, dysphoria, self-harm)

i’ve been dealing with a massive depressive episode for the past two weeks and i’m one step away from being actively suicidal again, and this is the second anxiety attack in two days. i swear i’m going insane!!!!!!!!

i haven’t even earned my master’s yet and my parents are already pushing me to “go work for a firm” and i just...........  i’m a linguist and literary critic who’s trained in literary/poetic translation. what the fuck am i even supposed to do in a firm? i know jack shit and fuck all about business/legal translation!!!! 

not to mention the fact that for the past five years i have worked my ass off to excel at what i’m studying (which i don’t even like!!!! becase russian is a shit fucking language!!! but i’m too stupid to get a STEM degree and too poor to afford interpreting school!!!!), i spent a whole fucking year working on my bachelour’s thesis to get it published and i’m loosing sleep over trying to find a phD programme i could get into and i’m just. supposed to throw all of my hard work away just like that????? 

and even if you pushed all of that shit aside, i know that if i got stuck in an office job i’d kill myself after a month. like that is a FACT. like i swear to fucking god, i’m trying so desperately to become a researcher and work in academia because intellectual stimulation is literally the only thing that keeps me from bleeding myself to death, and i still think about killing myself every single day

like even in the best case scenario where i actually manage to get into academia and do research i am drastically unhappy. let’s be realistic for a fucking second here. i’m an unlovable tranny freak riddled with chronic illnesses and mental health issues. i know that whatever the fuck i do, i will be alone. all that i’m ever going to have is my job. in the best case scenario i make it to what, forty years? and then i still fucking shoot myself in the head. or maybe i manage to prolong this fucking hell a bit longer because at least i’m doing something that doesn’t make my brain rot!!!!!

but if i got stuck in a repetitive office job? when i literally had nothing else in my life? you’re literally asking me to sign my own death sentence here. and when i say that at least i want to try doing something with my life instead of giving up i get treated like i’m lazy and don’t want to work. i’m just fucking trying to make it to my thirties here, and it’s fucking hard 

like jesus fucking christ. why the fuck did i even seek help after i tried to off myself for the first time? i’d have jumped in front of a train by now 

also wow i need to have top surgery and i’m probably never going to so really, why the fuck am i even alive for

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#2yrsago Landscape With Invisible Hand: Late Stage Capitalism, by way of a YA alien invasion novel

In 2002, MT Anderson blew up the YA dystopia world with Feed, his zeitgeisty, prescient novel about "identity crises, consumerism, and star-crossed teenage love in a futuristic society where people connect to the Internet via feeds implanted in their brains" -- in his latest, Landscape with Invisible Hand, Anderson takes us to a world where neoliberal aliens have sold Earth's plutocrats the technologies to make work obsolete and with it, nearly human being on earth.

Now we all have to live with that reality: former superstar luxury car salesmen, bank tellers, teachers, programmers -- everyone except for a tiny elite of financial engineers, really -- have been replaced by technology sold by the vuuv (that's the alien race) to the world's 1 percenters when they inducted the human race into the galactic prosperity sphere.

Landscape is told as a series of acerbic, short vignettes -- latter-day Douglas Coupland riffs -- in the voice of Adam, a teenager living in a rotting suburban home amidst the remains of his rotting suburban life, scrounging for rice and beans and painting, painting, painting, the only escape he has. Each chapterlette opens with Adam describing a painting that sets the scene, part of the blasted, wasted dystopia that 99% of the human race lives in while sneering aliens and financial executives tell them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, get jobs, and stop looking for handouts.

Adam's got a lot of headwinds: he's got "Merrick's Disease," from drinking tainted water (the collapse of the taxbase has led to an end to municipal water purification -- if you want clean drinking water, you should buy it in the efficient marketplace, not demand that Big Government provide it to you!) so he shits himself constantly. He's also involved in a dubious enterprise in which he straps sensors all over his body and romances the daughter of his mom's downstairs tenants and sells the resulting feed to the vuuv, who really like this kind of thing, but only when the young lovers talk like they're living in a 1950s romance movie like the ones the vuuv intercepted from the Earth's leaky electromagnetosphere. This sounds great, but now the two of them hate each other and if they break up, they might get sued by the entertainment network.

Anderson's down-and-out in the post-scarcity world is a scorching, arch, hilarious and ultimately very moving little parable about the cult of markets and the elevation of corporatism over human kindness. It's as zeitgeisty as Feed ever was, and such a compact little gem of a book that you very well might read it in one sitting, as I did.

Landscape with Invisible Hand [MT Anderson/Candlewick]

https://boingboing.net/2017/09/28/aliens-stole-our-jerbs.html