#i take my blog off web occasionally

[corbindavenport]

Shutting down the Wii Shop Channel Music browser extension

I released a browser extension in 2020 that played the Wii Shop Channel music in the background when you visited Amazon, Best Buy, and other online stores. I released a major update in 2022, and I've been working on a rewritten version, but I have now decided to discontinue the browser extension.

The Wii Shop browser extension needed to be significantly rewritten to comply with Google's Manifest V3 extension policies, which will go into effect in a few months. On top of that, Firefox has not implemented the same changes, so the extension would need a much more complex codebase to handle both web browsers.

More importantly, Nintendo has been increasingly litigious against unauthorized use of its intellectual property. I believe the browser extension's use of Nintendo's images and music falls under fair use, but I don't have lawyer money to defend that, and I'm no longer comfortable with one of my side projects being a potential target for Nintendo (potentially taking out my other work as collateral damage).

The Wii Shop Channel Music browser extension is now discontinued, and I have deleted the GitHub repository containing the code. I am aware there are forks and other mirrors of the project online, but I will not be working on them. The browser extensions are still available, and they will soon be updated to turn off all functionality and include a link to this blog post.

The list of shopping sites used by the extension will remain available, and nothing is changing with my ImageShare web app or other projects. I had fun working on it, and I especially enjoyed the occasional reviews from users saying it was the greatest invention of all time, but I think now is a great time to say farewell.

"But a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts." - Vision

[badchoicesworld]

hello there! i just found your blog and i love your writing for hobie, so i’d like to request another thing for him.

would you mind doing something about a transmasc vigilante reader who tags along with hobie on patrols and late night hangouts? hobie and the reader could diy their own costumes together :) maybe reader is black cat, another spiderperson, or whatever you want to come up with. thanks in advance, and i’ll probably request again soon!

hobie brown with a transgender, vigilante reader (ftm)

RAAHH thank you so much :]

i chose for the reader to be another spidersona, probably anarchist and super cool, hope this is okay! let me know if not

warnings: unsafe binding (there’s a warning ahead)

pairing: hobie brown x transmasc!reader

requests: open ! PLEASE

★⋆ ⋆☆⋆ ☠︎︎ ⋆☆⋆⋆★✧

for you and hobie to get along so well and hang out outside of missions n such, i imagine you’re a spider-man who rejected miguel’s “invitation” to spider society. this is what might have led to you becoming a vigilante who’s occasionally recruited by spider society after some begging- or you’ve just been a vigilante from day one in your dimension.

but ! who’s likely to notice such a person? hobie, obviously. you two become menaces and no one looks forward to being in a room with you. hobie destroys their faith in the constitution while you’re reinforcing everything

during missions, you make a hell of a team ! there’s somehow this real nonchalant feeling to the atmosphere even if you’re punching down baddies

banter, plenty of it back and forth while swinging about and fighting for ur life

probably makes fun of your form or something playfully, makes a comment or two about a punch you’ve thrown “you call tha’ a punch?” “Naaah, nahnahnahnahnah. watch this,” probably does worse let’s be honest, throws the dirties punch known to man but it does the trick

you’re more stealth while hobie’s way more out there, style n all that

hobie dropping in on some operation to take down the big baddies while shredding away at his electric guitar, meanwhile he’s able to see you picking off people from vantage points

whenever you’ve gotta wait about for some patrols or just observe for a night, you two will find some sorta rooftop to perch on top of and patrol from there. but the view kills

you two probably have a sort of routine: completing missions together for the spider society, hobie then tags along for some vigilante work, then you both kick back at his place once the days come to an end

chill night consists of hobie subconsciously strumming at a note occasionally on his guitar while you talk about whatever together

a lot of complaining about the institution, probably how much miguel fucking sucks

depending on ur current situation with transitioning, given that hobie knows, mans is probably the most supportive person you’ll meet

hobie lives in a society that he actively chooses to protect despite being apart of the margin of people that are still severely oppressed to terrible degrees, be it for his race or how he chooses to express himself (in my head, hobie’s also a boy kisser). so i think that he has a certain passion for protecting those minority groups. you, as a trans man, sometimes get the hobie brown special treatment.

let’s you crash at his place whenever you need it, let’s you borrow his clothes n shit if they help you feel more masculine, will give you tips n tricks that either he uses or has heard work great for presenting masculine

does your makeup if you want it, like making your face look more chisel, fake facial hair or brows more blocky- that kinda shit.

if you’re yet to go through the execution process (top surgery), hobie’s ur guy (a terrible terrible influence)

if you have a binder, good for you- hobie is going to find it and customise it for you because he’s hilarious

probably does some like web stitching into it, lil embroidered parts that match his pins or something like “hobie was here” in his clapped handwriting

this isn’t anything new, you two have this little game going on where you just steal and tag each others things for shits and giggles. his best work? punk-ifying your binders with those like spikes he has on his jackets shoulder pads

firm believer in trans men being shirtless in a binder is normalising something that should’ve been from the beginning- probably also marched a free the titties campaign for all body types and identities cause they aren’t inherently sexual and shouldn’t be (if cis men can, why can’t cis women, y’know?)

if he accidentally damages your shit he’ll either fix or replace it, maybe even make something to compensate

or it becomes part of the fit

these lil things have helped personalise your things greatly- there’s nice little details all over that make you both crack smiles

makes sure that throughout missions you’re good if you’re binding, which he honestly just doesn’t dictate. won’t be the type to tell you off for wearing it too long or during missions, it’s not your fault that you’re just doing what makes you feel more like yourself

instead just makes sure that you’re well rested after the missions over and does things for you so you don’t strain

(DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. I WILL FIND YOU.)

if by some unfortunate twist of fate you don’t have a binder, hobie will probably diy you one. argues that they can be mass produced by corporations, why can’t he make one by hand? just one more win for the anarchists

diy binders are dangerous, especially if they’re not made right. i’d like to think hobie would try his best, but i imagine he doesn’t have access to the right materials

in this case, he probably rips apart his shit trying to find the right elastic cloths for your safety

that, or he makes a makeshift binders just a bit looser than it should be to reduce the risk of hurting you.

absolute worst case scenario ? could honestly fashion something out of webs (i have a spidersona that does this) mans a genius, he’ll figure something out

positive ? binder looks sick since he makes it

(ok ur safe, continue)

if you’ve got top surgery, good for u, hobie will have ur head if you don’t take the appropriate recovery time

if you are involved with spider society, he either takes your missions for you or absolutely terrorises miguel into not giving you any

you think it’s just a subconscious, casual thing that hobie does but he always manages to slip a “lad” “boy” “man” into his sentences whenever speaking to or about you. gender affirmations innit

that being said, hobie views you as a man wholeheartedly

hobie’s into physical touch so probably got an arm slung around your shoulder, tons of playfully nudges whenever he sees fit (often)

★⋆ ⋆☆⋆ ☠︎︎ ⋆☆⋆⋆★✧

i also wanna stress rq that the way i portray hobie; he’s so incredibly supportive, hype man, but he’s not this sunshine and rainbows thing i’ve seen some people portray him as

he’s laid back, nonchalant but can get excited (like w the whole “miles my guy” scene where he’s so hype)

thinks/knows he’s hot shit but it doesn’t make him arrogant. man just knows what he’s capable of and gets to be laid back thanks to it

[space-writes]

hello (again) writeblr! i decided to make a new intro that has all my current wips on it, since i have way more than when i first started out on here.

about me

I go by Space, my pronouns are they/he, and I’m in my third decade of existence, which is absolutely wild. I’ve been writing for most of it, so I like to think I’m pretty decent

I write mostly fantasy and erotica (sometimes at the same time), both original and fanfiction, and all of it's queer

You can find my work on my AO3 here, crossposted to my neocities here, and under my snippets tag

I’m open to tag and ask games, and my inbox is currently open to anything as well. I don’t always reply the fastest, but I’ll get to it eventually! (I don’t take part in chain asks, so please don’t send me them)

I use obsidian.md for all my writing, and it’s my favourite notes app ever, so I also talk about that occasionally. The tag for it is here, and I’m hoping to write some more showcases/tutorials this year!

my main goal is to actually finish some damn books and also to inflict my OC brainrot upon people. so far the second one is the only thing that’s actually happened, but i live in hope

My current wips are Chronicles of Valloroth (Renegade Prince being book one), Obedience, Obsession, and claws—summaries and links for all four are under the cut!

this is my writing sideblog, you can find my main @thespacelizard, and i follow/like from there

tag directory is here

current wips

Chronicles of Valloroth

⚔ Genre: Fantasy Adventure

⚔ Features: Queer cast, found family, A Whole Entire Dragon, magical mishaps, The Mere Concept of Doing The Right Thing, a grumpy assassin, a sparkly mercenary, knock-off tieflings, a handsome prince (he’s gay), more banter than your average dungeons and dragons campaign

⚔ Status: Book One: First draft completed, re-drafting in-progress || Books Two & Three: outlined

⚔ One Sentence Summary (Book One): A runaway prince seeks freedom in a new world and must find a way to convince a rag-tag group to defeat an ancient dragon, all whilst he is being hunted by a band of mercenaries and an infamous assassin.

⚔ Series Tag: valloroth blogging

claws

🩸 Genre: Queer Horror

🩸 Features: teacher/student relationship (university edition), toxic romance, gender fuckery, broken identity, demonology, murder, self-harm, obsession, stalking, infidelity, a lot of blood, pact-based magic system, corruption, jealousy, eldritch entities, love is a wound, body horror, attempted suicide, and a little bit of arachnophilia

🩸 Status: First draft complete!

🩸 One Sentence Summary: A young student’s obsession with his demonology teacher sparks a twisted romance that draws him to the limits of his humanity—and into the web of an eldritch horror.

🩸 Series Tag: wip: claws

Obedience

💜 Genre: Erotic Romance, D&D fanfiction (original characters, Forgotten Realms setting & loose 5E ruleset)

💜 Features: a variety of BDSM scenarios, one closed off wizard dom, one enthusiastic nerdy sub, weird uses for dnd spells, a painful amount of pining, somehow; worldbuilding, emotional slow burn, as much self indulgence as I can possibly fit in a fanfic series

💜 Status: Arcs 1-3 are complete (read on AO3 here, or my neocities here). The first book of Arc 4, The Perils of Wanting is currently being posted bi-monthly here. The second book of Arc 4, A Question of Trust, is on its second draft.

💜 One Sentence Summary: A D/s M/M series featuring two wizard boys, the kinky magic they get up to, and the feelings they definitely don’t have for each other.

💜 Series Tag: obedience fic blogging (it began on my main, so the tag there has more snippets)

Obsession

🕷 Genre: War of the Spider Queen/Forgotten Realms fanfiction, also Erotica, Horror and a smidge of Dark Romance

🕷 Features: OC/canon, a nightmare transmasc wizard boy, obsession, stalking, jealousy, violent impulses, dubious consent, possessiveness, evil gender dysphoria, incest, gore, the inherent horror of Having a Body, and occasionally actual school things happening at Sorcere

🕷 Status: Ongoing serial, which you can read on AO3 here, or my neocities here

🕷 One Sentence Summary: Pharaun Mizzrym is everything to Vizaeth Thaezyr. He’ll do anything for him—even if Pharaun doesn’t know it yet.

🕷 Series Tag: obsession fic blogging (it also began on my main, so check the tag there for additional content!)

[thatswhatsushesaid]

I follow you for your objectively correct takes, your hilarious (and accurate!) shitposts, and also your exasperated bisexual energy because you are so for real with everything and I appreciate your attitude toward life. it's good to be a bit of a bitch (no insult meant, this is 100 percent positive) about things sometimes! life sucks and complaining makes it easier lol. also you are so nice and friendly to people who approach you genuinely, which is really refreshing in this age of irony poisoning! you are unapologetic in your enjoyment of things, but also able to acknowledge that some parts of it suck - critical thinking and media literacy for the win!! all in all, you're definitely one of my favorite bloggers, and one of the few whose blogs I'll actively go to on the regular in order to catch up on anything I've missed from you. thanks for making this webbed site a better and more enjoyable place!!!

anon!! this is so!!!!

what a lovely message!! and YES, my fandom life improved by leaps and bounds the second i stopped trying to be Cool about the things i like, and instead decided to just be exactly as excited about my special interests as i felt. 🥹 i know that--and my occasionally required bouts of cuntiness, you are correct lol--probably put some people off, but that's all right; we can't get along with everyone we meet, but if you go through life trying to tailor your personality to be palatable to everyone you encounter, you're just going to burn yourself out.

also, and maybe this is a weird observation to make in response to an anon ask, but the thought is in my head now and it has to come out! i do believe i have learned a lot about myself, and about being myself, just through the act of setting aside my people-pleasing and neurodivergent masking. it is much easier to know yourself and what you're about once you've stopped prioritizing pleasing other people.

[bobbybutterfly]

You know what. I chose to draw something completely different from what I usually post here. I kind of feel like I’m pigeon holing myself by only posting on here what I know other people will respond to. Not getting new people who respond to different things. Thus I decided to take the plunge today and draw fanart of the 2000s web icons, the Zodiac Girlz.

I have no nostalgia for them as I was born in 2005. But I watched the Li Speaks video on them and was like free real estate ya’ll. Off to draw some redesigns and make rewrites. Mainly of the more problematic ones. Such as the Gemini twins. This is tumblr after all baby. For real though there was a comment on the video that inspired me to remake them.

So the problems with the original ones are that they wear school uniforms although none of the other girls do, their superpower is telepathy so they don’t communicate with anyone other then themselves and they don’t even get different names to separate them. In the video Li suggested to give them a different superpower and separate personalities. And the comment that got me to draw them suggested their superpower should be cloning.

There’s only one real Gemini in my illustration and that is the loose blue bow one. The purple eyeball one is her clone. The way clones work in my rewrite is that they’re pretty much meat puppets Gemini moves around with her mind. Everyone who sees them assumes they’re twins. Thus Gemini.

Gemini is from China. She moved to the US when she was 10. Her parents divorced and her mom moved there. Gemini had great difficulty learning English so she got homeschooled. Even though she’s now 15 and intermediate in English she still refuses to speak it outside of when it’s necessary. Like a 911 call. She doesn’t talk in mandarin either because only her mom can understand her. So everyone thinks she’s just mute.

She created her clone out of a deep sense of loneliness. The clone itself isn’t sentient. As I said. It’s a meat puppet. Non the less she made up a personality for it. The clone is a fun loving, extroverted prankster. The opposite of her. Gemini is a pessimistic introvert that’s obsessively studying every chance she gets. She wants to be a journalist one day. Occasionally she writes a gossip blog under a pseudonym. Kind of like Lady Whistledown from Bridgerton. She of course rigorously spell and grammar checks it before putting online. Like I should do with my tumblr posts LOL.

Originally I thought her clone would disappear as she becomes a part of the Zodiac Girlz friend group. But now I think her clone should slowly become her own person. After all Gemini are supposed to be twins.

Lastly I want to mention that Gemini is a code name. She’s a crime fighting superhero after all. She uses her clone as a distraction. Additionally she can use her clone to get to out of reach places as she can make it fly. I suppose she could also make it carry her and fly, but not very far as the clone isn’t very strong.

And that’s it ya’ll. If you yourself are a Chinese person who immigrated to America I would love to hear your opinion on my rewrite of Gemini. I am a white European so I might be ignorant of some things. And also if you just like what I did with Gemini then comment. I just love getting responses LOL.

[popculturebuffet]

Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2023 Part 1

Hello all you happy people! It's now 2024, and with 2023 behind us it's time for my faviorite yearly thing on this blog: my top 20 episodes of the year list!

For those of you new to this tradition or needing a refresher, each year I take 5 episodes each (or less if the show had less), from the various shows I watched that year, and then slowly wittle it down from a massive pile to the 20 best, split into two digestible parts, and let you all enjoy the results. It's one of my favorite things as it gives a nice, personal, wide berth of what happened in that year, gives this blog something unique to do, and allows me to touch on shows I haven't covered yet or may simply not get to for some time, if ever.

2023 was a mixed bag for me, both professionally and personally: It started.. with a kick in the teeth as my cat Stewie died after living a long, fufilling life of looking mildly pissed at everything but still being cute.

He was a good cat and his loss is something I still haven't fully gotten over a year later.

It was a harbringer of change: with Stewie's death we finally moved out of the house I lived in pretty much my whole life, and into a smaller, nicer and far better apartment with my own mini office in my room even and all my children/books/children returned to me. It's taken 6 months but I feel like i've fully settled into my new, wonderful home.

And towards the end of this year as the loss of Stewie still stung all this time later, I got another great change with the addition of Maddie

Maddie was the dog of a close friend of the family who had to go into a retirement home. She needed a home, and now has one in my room looking morose, licking my face and occasionally going under the bed for hours at a time like the cave goblin she is. She was a much needed bolt of sunshine in this storm of a year. I do metaphor good.

So with all these c-changes, how did this blog fair? Suprisingly great but not entirely in tact. Quality wise I do think I did some of my best work this year: I tackled the first apperances of every spider-man, woman and pig in into the spider-verse, the movie itself, finally web swining around a bit thanks to kev with a little more spidey planned for this year, with a tie in for Kraven later this year that's exactly what you think it is. I finally got to do an x-men month, covered rocko's modern life static cling for pride month, and in one of my finest hours, got to do a retrospective on one of my faviroite fairly recent comic strips breaking cat news with the help of my friend emma. Her sponsorship meant I got to cover something great and while few people have read it, i'm happy just to have it out there.

In addition to that I covered Tugs, an osbcure UK series and spirtual brother to thomas the tank engine that involved state mandated death dates for boats, pirates, and eleven minutes of explosions. I finally got to enjoy the madness that was the Telltale Sam and Max Games, with Save the World in the pocket and Beyond Time and Space wrapping up next week. And biggest, best and brightest of all I did a retrospecitve on little shop of horrors, finally seeing both the stage play and original corman film, as well as little shop. And someday i'll have recovered from seeing little shop.

The delay on that though brings me to the other shoe.. this year my productivity was in the basement and my week was at an all time low. Several reviews got delayed, from stewie's death leaving me unable to work for a few days for damn obvious reasons, to the move frequently taking my time or leaving me off balance. Not only that I didn't plan my time off for the move well, so I was left having to rearrange my whole schedule. It's why both pirate month and pride month, proud institutions on this blog, were reduced to a week and a three part special, something I wasn't remotely happy with. Things kept slipping by, and in general it wasn't my best year for getting shit done. I realized i'd simply taken WAY too much on, and thus have scaled back to ten reviews instead of 12 a month, and may scale back further if necessary: i'd rather these reviews be their best and get put through a spellcheck than be glad it's done only to realize I have nother thing that's due yesterday.

Not helping were towards the end of the year, a massively loud noise from my computer fan that made it hard to concentrate, something that's hard for my adhd ass in general let alone with a giant whirring fan that nothing can out loud, and having finally solved tha tproblem thanks to my dad's help.... then having my wrist go out, and while it's recovered now, it meant an extra week off, which sounds nice and was in places.. but was mostly spent in pain or asleep to escpae the pain till I got things to help with that. Then after a nice christmas, a lovely few days after... I got a cold, which spent up a large chunk of my vacation in a sick coma.

I apologize a bit for all the venting as you can tell this year's been a long one. I came out the otherside well with a loveable dog and a great new work/living space, but it was a bitch getting to here.

Thankfully animation wise, the industry wasn't in as MUCH turmoil this year. It still wasn't great: We got more cancelations with Lumberjanes and Phoebe and Her Unicorn announced formally dead before arrival had even started, and cancellations for Inside Job, Star Trek Progidy and Praise Petey, the last two seemingly in limbo as a result, with only one getting saved. While it wasn't the cancelnado of last year that wrecked many a service and nearly ended me, it was still pretty bad and Warner showed zero signs of learning from their lessons: after taking a few months off thinking the heat died down they tried canceling coyote vs acme.. only to then nakedly start a bidding war, making what they were really doing with most projects obvious: making them unaviliable.. and then starting a bidding war for other streamers. I'm not upset many of these shows are on other streamers as their safer from Zaslav there, but it shows just how nakedly greedy, transparently corrupt and blatantly fraudlent Warner Bros Discovery has become.

While the sales of the brilliant Merry Little Batman and sure to be great Batman: Caped Crusader to amazon are GOOD as Amazon has learned what animation means, it unmasks warner as simply doing all this tax writeoff shit to make money.. and then often forgetting to even sell the shows, not carring if no one's buying and just shrugging off someone's heart and soul being cast into the void. The loss of Final Space and Close Enough STILL stings and hasn't gone away even with the maker of the former both having found a way to finish the story and move on with his life.

The cherry on top of this shit sundae is Zaslav, no shit, saying the decision to shelve Batgirl, a movie that was entirely done and could've had the elseworlds label slapped on it if they didn't want it in the DCU, BRAVE. Yes that.. really happened.

It wasn't just Zaslav fucking up this year though, as other execs certainly tried their hardest or were arm and arm with him: The biggest blunder is obviously the strikes which while not affecting animation for the most part, was still a long dark night of the soul that was entirely the fault of executives not wanting to give up the precious theorietical money they could make once AI gets to the point it can create actual things, nor the likenesses of DEAD PEOPLE they should have no right to. Exec behavior was at it's most disgraceful this year... I don't know how that bare somehow got lower but that's the hellscape we're in with both zaslav and iger beign part of the corprate hydra that kept rejecting any deals presented and tended to flip the table and leave in a huff , leaving the negotations for weeks at a time till it became apparent that no amount of veiled threats of starving them out.

That said the strikes... were a net positive: they were long, brutal and threw tv off and delayed a show or two.. but it was well worth it. It helped show just how much actors and writers of all pay levels are needed, got them badly needed pay increases and protections and left the door open to help fiddle with AI protections as while AI isn't remotely good at creating scripts, that's never stopped execs from promoting something anyway. Despite MANY attempts to demonize the strikers, frame them as hollywood elites despite the fact the bulk were just trying to live on and were putting their liveleyhoods at stake to make sure they had one, or paint them as the bad guys.. it never worked. The public held firm, the strikers held firm and deflected most attempts with solidarity, with said big fish they tried to use as propoganda.. instead gladly donating to help the strike keep going. Fran Drescher and co fought hard, and the result is a slightly better hollywood.

And that hope for a brighter future really radiated this year: while Animation is still in flux in places, a lot of the networks hit hard by corprate dumbfuckery last year started to regrow: Netflix, after a year or two of rapid cancellations and baffling decisions, finally regrew it's animation divsions: Outside of Inside Job, most cancelations were shows that really weren't the best idea or execution to start with, and most hits got renewed, with them even picking up Star Trek Prodigy for another season and likely as many as they can carry. They pivoted more to adult animation with hits like Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Pluto, Castlevania Nocturne, Carol and the End of the World and Blue Eyed Samurai, the latter three I wish I got to but i've heard are incredible.

While WBD was still BURNIN DOWN THE HOUSEEEE, it snuck in a few hits with My Adventures with Superman and tons of great stuff I did'nt get too like Scavengers Reign, the beginning of the end for Craig of the Creek, Fired on Mars, and Hair Love, while having a suprise banger in the form of Tiny Toons Loonveristy, proving just how to reboot a classic property once again. Not only that the finale movies for Venture Bros and Metalocalypse came out, which given the last year was a huge fingers crossed thing. But both came out, I got both on blu ray, and got neat posters with them in the bargin and both closed up two of adult swims best series in the way they richly deserved. We also got an Urkel Christmas Movie. I guess.

Amazon continued it's own building: in addition to the dark knight picups mentiond, Invincible and Legend of Vox Machina both had amazing season 2's, with Vox Machina picked up for two more seasons to close it out proper and a Mighty Nein spinoff, with a Belles Helles Spinoff all but guarnateed at some point, and Hazbin Hotel after a truly agonizing year of waiting for someone to announce they had it, finding a perfect home for the happiest place in hell.

Finally, the indie scene, already thriving blew the fuck up. For the first time I nominated six diffrent pilots from various indie creators who all did a fucking great job: Godspeed, Lackadaisy, In Limbo, Atlas and the Stars, and Swift Spark and the Defensive five all had impressive showings and I regret not watching Lackadaisy in time to support it, but I can't wait to see what it brings to the table and to see all of these shows make it to series, not to mention up coming ones like ToonrifiqTariq's "Hey" that are likely going to come out next year.

It's a strange time for animatoin.. but one tha'ts proven you can make your own way, that the big coprations are trying and that in film.. is at one of i'ts brightest: while there ere some stumbles we had masterpieces like Nimona, which also made disney look horribly stupid for homophobically canceling it, Across the Spider verse (which needed to treat it's animators better but still deserves mention), and TMNT Mutant Mayhem.

It was a hell of a year and I can't want to share the best of it with you. And as a result of such a good year there's a few firsts: This is the first year with Anime included and if you want to know why i'ts taken so long it wasn't snobbery.. I just.. plain forgot to watch the ones I DID want to watch the past few years. That's... really it. I usually prefer reading the manga, as it's both faster and less time consuming, and Some of the best often aren't on the streaming platforms I do have. Pluto and Scott Pilgrim got by by being adaptations of something I love with all my heart a piece and thus coudln't bear myself to miss, but I might try to vary up my viewing more next year. I do want to check Zom 100 out at some point.

Anyways the other is that I allowed two dtv movies in here. Now this is with a caveat: It has to be directly linked to an existing animated series, a sequel, a prequel, etc. It's something I never really thought about before, but makes sense: While Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart and Army of the Doomstar were both considered for my film list too and are films.. their the proper conclusion to their stories. Not only that with Pluto's inclusion on this list, we have a series that had episodes only about ten minutes or so shy of both films runtime, so I figured fudging the rules like this was fair. I would've included Craig Before the Creek, but I want to wait to watch it when it comes on HBO Max next month.. and buy it on Physical as I don't remotely trust WBD to keep digtial copies up forever anymore. And really it feels in the spirit of things like operation zero back in the day or in both metalocalypse and venture bros own histories, all this and gargantua 2 and doomstar requieum.

Okay now that's settled this years list is intresting as while there's a decent amount of returning shows most haven't been on this list before. Of the nominees the only returning shows are The Legend of Vox Machina, Invincible, Helluva Boss, The Great North, Miraculous and Big City Greens, with mainstays like Tuca and Bertie and Close Enough sadly gone thanks to WBD being pralines and dicks. Thus our shows competing are an eclectic mix of returning combatants, one for sadly the last times, revivials of old shows, reboots of old shows, two limited series, and a handful of spectacular pilots

These are the shows that I got to see this show and thus entered the running, all sorted by platform since.. there's a lot.

Amazon Prime: The Legend of Vox Machina Invincible

HBO Max: YOLO: Silver Destiny Clone High Tiny Toons Looniversity Adventure Time : Fionna and Cake Aqua Teen Hunger Force My Adventures with Superman Disney+: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur The Owl House (Final Year) Kiff Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir Big City Greens Hulu: The Great North Futurama Bob's Burgers The Simpsons Netflix: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Limited Series) Pluto (Limited Series) DTV: Venture Bros: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (Special) Metalocalypse: Army of the Doomstar (Special)

YouTube: Helluva Boss Godspeed Lackadaisy In Limbo The Amazing Digital Circus Atlas and the Stars Swift Spark and the Defensive Five

So with our nominees in clear view, who shined the brightest, who didn't and whose going to yell at me over my choices? find out under the cut!

FULL SPOILERS FOR MOST EPISODES ON THIS LIST. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

20. The First Episode (Atlas and the Stars, Pilot)

"Sorry for dragging you into this man. You don't have to trust me but I promise to make this up to you, I swear."

Coming in just under the wire as the last released episode on this list, it's placing is just a fun concidence, we have The First Episode... the pilot for new series Atlas and the Stars. You can watch it here

So it's come up soon but the reason I put MOST episodes on the spoiler warning.. is this pilot and another on the list, I really DON'T want to spoil much as both rely on you watching it, this one in paticular not revealing what the show's premise will be from here on out, instead telling the parallel tales of Atlas, a human from a dying planet who hyjacks a space ship to acheive her dream of endless freedom in the stars, Atmosphere, a shy loveable alien embarking on his first day regestring ships at a space port, and Quasar, the lord of a mysterious planet who keeps having to sacrifice.. somethign to a portal to keep it alive... and it can't keep up forever and his beligeured assitant nebula. ALl of this comes togeter in a beautifully animated, well active and creative sci fi adventure with one hell of a hook from where it goes form here, awesome character desgin work and some neat sci fi tek in Atlas' googles. Miranda Toomey used every inch of whateve rbudget she had to make this and it turne dout gorgeous, and I can't wait to see the next episode in this and how this story progresses. It's well done, gorgeous, heartfelt and engaging and I recommend you go watch it before we move on to our next entry.

19. Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart (Venture Brothers, Finale Movie) "All you need to know is the person who gave birth to you loves you, I promise you that"

From a start to a finish we have Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, the long awaited and thankfully came out with a dvd and everything ending of the Venture Brothers. It's shockingly low on this list, but as much as I love this series.. it came out in a tight year with some even better finales, and had the burdern of having to cram in a season's worth of content, even with the cuts they made, into an 84 minute film.

The results are still excellent: Radiant is a fun, frantic race to the finish line that satisfyingly answers a lot of the series biggest questions: Who the boys mom was, how Monarch and Rusty are related, can HELPER fire a shot gun, will Hank and Dean reconcile... all the closure we needed in a tight 88 minute story that also includes classic hip hop traick it's takes 2, magnetic shenanigans, Hank using giant novelty checks for money, dermott using a piss filled super soaker, dean thinking he's a vampire, a halfway house for supernatural heroes, and Mantilla, one of the series most delightful villians and one I really wish we'd gotten proper time with. It's a joyous reaffermation of what this series is about, has nice moments for most of the best cast members, including Brick Frog my beloved, and ends on a mostly satisfying note. It also gives us a golem made entirely of pants and isn't that the greatest adventure of all?

18. "Lights, Camera, Sparks?!" (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Episode 5)

"You've known him for three f***ing days!" "Is that all it's been?!" Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was an easy faviorite this year and given my longstanding love of the Scott Pilgrim comics and like of the movie, it wasn't a huge shocker i'd love whatever the anime turned out being. I was pumped from the announcement, worried it'd just be "the movie but animated" when the cast was announced.. and then over the moon when it turned out that no, the cast was all coming back but the take on the franchise was all new.

What we got wasn't the straight adaptation that was pitched.. and was all the better for it. If you haven't seen Takes Off.. please do it's fantastic, I did a whole review on it, go, and if you won't then this is your last warning as I can't really talk about the episodes of it on this list without getting into spoilers as it's one of those series where the first episode twist.. defines the rest of the show.

Okay we good. So the first episode progresses as normal, a few tweaks to let you know this is it's own universe, enough character moments to show that even with the film voice actors the main cast is closer to the comics..... then Scott seemingly dies.

From there things go off the rails, and that's where the magic kicks in: While Scott's still key to the story and turns out, naturally, NOT to be dead, instead kidnapped by a mysterious portal, Ramona takes the lead, with us getting to know her better now she's the pov character instead of the guy worshipping the ground she skates on. While Ramona was fleshed out in the comics, the series gives her more to do as she solves this mystery. It's intriguing, it's fun, and it gives Mary Elizabeth Winstead the chance to play a more fleshed out version of the character with more sides to her than "aloof".

What the series also does well.. is go the fuck off the rails. Matthew uses his newfound confidence to punch gideon out of all his companies and fancy suits, Gideon becomes the best worst couple with julie, and Young Neil becomes a spacey moron who assumes the mysterious person writing a script based on how the story originally went is his sleep paralysis demon. The series has a lot of great character, animation and development as Ramona's forced to .. talk with her exes instead of her new boyfriend punching most of them for her.. but it can't be forgotten it's also delightfully nuts, easily the goofiest this franchise has gotten and i'm here for it.

That brings us to "Lights, Camera, Sparks?!", easily the biggest shit post of the entire series, and one of the funniest episodes of the year easily. While the previous ones are a bit melancholy in tone with the goofy stuff as a nice side dish, fitting how scott pilgrim rolls, LCS is just one long farce with Ramona struggling to get any detective shit done while Wallace wrecks envy and todd's relationship, Edgar Wright but voiced by Kevin McDonald slowly looses his mind, and Neil gets into various shenanigans while only being a quarter aware of anything going on, including what was in the script his sleep paralysis ramona from the future wrote.

The setup is simple: Toronotwood is making a film based on how scott's story usually go, again ghost written by a mysterious sleep paralysis demon, and hired Lucas and envy to play scott and ramona. Lucas got can...something for dating a 30 year old who looks like a high schooler, so now i'ts todd clumisly shoved into Scott's clothes. Wallace is also there, having throughly humilited the notoriously straight actor playing him out of a job and letting his ego grow 15 sizes that day.

What follows is a mocumentary masterclass as Envy and Todd can't stop being horny for two seconds, Wallace making out with Todd and being his bi awakening reading them to constantly "run lines in his trailer", Neil is hilaroius and you will repeat everything he says and Ramona is left bobbing around unable to actually get any answers.

This all leads to a delightful explosion as Todd falls in love with Wallace, Wallace is a callous dick, Wallace sicks his stunt doubles on Envy, Ramona is sicked on them, and everyone is confused, all cumilating in todd binge eating poutine and crying, an option I wish americans had but alas we are poutineless while Matt shuts down the production then sputters like a kid who got a lucky punch in on his bully when he finds out Scott is alive. Also Knives and Stephen get a meeting with him leading to the greatest musical of all time.

As you can tell this episode is very stupid and I love it. It's just 100% nonsense the whole way through, letting Wallace do something since the only main character who isn't Ramona he interacts with is in the future right now. There isn't much to disect, i'ts just pure comedy gold with props to both Kirean for really nailing a more douchestastic wallace and especially Brandon Routh who has shockingly deep comedic chops. A great episode and a nice break before we dive full speed into just where Scott went.

17. Lackadaisy (Pilot Episode)

Old Man River! That seems far too austere a name for something made of mirth and rage. O, roiling red-blood river vein. If chief among your traits is age, You're a wily, convoluted sage.

Is "old" the thing to call what rings the vernal heart of wester-lore? What brings us brassy-myth made kings. And a preponderance of bug-type things.  To challenge titans come before!

O, demiurge to a try at Avalon-once-more?

And what august vitality in your wide aorta stream. You must have had to oversee alchemic change of timber beam to iron, brick and engine steam!

Your umber whiskey waters lance the prideful, sober sovereignty of faulty-haloed temperance, and wilt her self-sure countenance; Yes, righteousness is vanity.  But sport's for imps, not elderly.

So if there's a name for migrant mass of veteran frivolity That snakes through seas of prairie grass and groves of summer sassafras; a name that flows as roguishly as wild waters, fast and free, It's your true name: Mississippi.

That beautiful poem opens up Lackadaisy, thank you wiki so I didn't have to transcribe that whole glorious thing, as a roustabout cat in 1927 St. Louis names rocky spends the first few minutes playing fiddle, basking in the glorious moonlight and waxing poetic about the mighty missisipi. It's a beautiful opening that shows off the series deft animation and MIssouri setting, something that makes me want to learn more about my own state's history. It's clear from the word go a LOT of love and research went into this setting, and given creator Tracy Butler had started Lackadaisy as an even MORE lavishly drawn webcomic.

Lackadaisy has a simple setup: three cats working for the titular saloon, Rocky, our dreamy narrator and mild loon, Freckle, his grumpy sidekick whose perhaps a bit TOO good with a gun, and Ivy, a peppy girl who takes jabs at Rocky and flirts with Freckle. I .. I ship the fuck out of it. These two are adorable. The three are robbing a body for canadian hooch but have to deal with the deathly serious and deathly hot, Mordecai Heller and his much more excitable, jokey and bloodthristy associates Serfafine and Nico Savoy.

The short is mostly a tense back and forth between both parties as our heroes barely surivive, we get a lot of good Ivy and Freckle content and Rocky saves the day by hyjacking a goddamn steam shovel and loading it with dynamite while waxing poetic and laughing madly. If that's not enough to get you to check it out if you haven't, I have clearly failed in some way as Lackadasiy is excellent and like Atlas and the Stars, leaves me wanting more of this cast. I'll defintely be reading the comic and plan to at least try to get the print editions coming up soon, as the pilot does a good job of showing who these characters are simply by action.. but leaving you questioning WHO they are and how they all ended up in a failing saloon, and why say Mordecai spares Ivy towards the end. Whatever it is I only want more of this, and am so happy those of you who weren't late adoptres like me helped get us a full season 1. Thank you so much and I can't wait for this show to show up here again. It's gonna be a riot and Micheael Kovach steals the show any time Rocky speaks, while SunWongCho is just... amazing as Mordecai and gives us a great antagonist to work with, a classic mystery man whose side your not sure who he's on, you just know he's a threat when he shows up.

16. Simon Petrikov (Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Season 1 Episode 2)

Does somebody jump for joy? Does somebody cry? Now that I'm not part of that sadness? Does somebody want me now? Now that I can’t fly? Now that I'm not part of the madness? Part of the madness?

Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake surprised the hell out of me in the best way possible. See while I never stopped caring in SOME way about adventure time, my dropping off mid series after ... THAT happened in Breezy, only coming back occasionally for an episode or two, the orgalorg arc and the finale, I really wasn't interested. I did enjoy the two episodes of Distant Lands I saw, Stakes was excellent and Together Again felt like a more fitting final chapter to the series. Both didn't feel like continuation of the story: Stakes was a coda giving us the Bubbline content CN denied us and Together Again is an Epilogue, set at the very end of Finn's story.

So I was kind of.. Meh on Fionna and Cake's announcment. I wasn't against it but I'd just never really cared about these two, with the series having made two great episodes about them (and two more I hadn't seen at the time), but the whole "created by a creepy old guy" part of it always held me back from fully embracing these two. I was badly hoping they'd throw away the whole fanfic conceit and just move on.

They didn't do that.. but Fionna and Cake not only found a way to revitalize that, but reminded me WHY the original series was so strong. Fionna and Cake grew up with the original audience, a piece about metafiction, fandom, growing up, and depression all made wonderful and really stretching the property as far as it'll go and i'ts unexpected season 2 greenlight makes me all too excited.

The thing I was most excited for though.. was still greatly done. Alongside Fionna and Cake getting a slice of life makeover thanks to Simon going back to "normal", we get some closure for Simon who ended the series seemingly fine: Betty is gone, but he's sane, Marcy gets her real dad back, job done right?

Adam Muto, Adventure Time's ep from season 6 and the archeticht of most things from Rebcca Sugar's leaving till present day, disagreed, planning a simon special for distant lands before rewriting it for this series. And it points out something a lot of fans noticed about this ending: it's.. not okay. Simon lost betty AGAIN, and is now trapped in a world he never made.

And the series makes this into his arc, how does he fit into this world, and what he tries to do to escape it instead of dealing with it. Simon Petrkiov paints a picture of where Simon's been in the 10 year time jump between Come Along With Me and his debut in this series, Simon Petrikov.. and it's a deeply depressing picture.

Simon's a living exhibit on the humans floating island, unable to connect with his fellow humans as he can't relate to them in any way shape or form. He's a 20th Century man and their 24th century men and women. Not helping is an overzealous, or sweet fan girl he keeps shooing away who just CAN'T understand that the man who wrote Fionna and Cake.. ISN'T the same guy making toast in a fake apartment and watching Cheers every day. The Ice King was PART of simon, but they were never the same person and every reminder of the hell the poor man went under, the things he did, the people he hurt just reminds Simon how far away he is from home.

Not helping is something all too common with depression and trauma, something I know all too well... Simon won't open up to people. He doesn't get help (and as we learn via a minerva bot in the finale Therapy was ALWAYS there for him), and he keeps space from the surrogate family he does have. He dosen't want to "ruin" marcy finally being in a good place and thus barely calls her, content to just visit and pretend things are okay. Finn TRIES reaching out.. but while he's older, wiser, and beardier now, and to my delight still with Huntress Wizard (and in headcanon in a throuple with Flame Princess, but that just me. ), but he's still an adrenline junky raised by a loveable manchild who can't quite relate to someone like Simon, who just wants his old life back.

All this is punctuated by the return of Rebecca Sugar, who sings the beautiful and tragic "part of the madness" which sums up where Simon is: he's normal, he's who HE wants to be.. but the world simply feels like it rejects him, when really he's just as much rejecting it. Instead of trying to find some calm in the storm of this life and admit he needs help.. he chases betty, trying badly to get her back even though it just.. isnt' possible.. and causing this series as a result. He just can't let go.. but the series shows him he has to if he wants to truly live.

15. Miraculous World Paris : Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir (Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir World Special 4) | In the daytime, I'm Gabriel Just a normal man, with a normal life But I have a secret I must keep at any cost Or all hope will be lost. Miraculous! Fear is a cage! Hear the message, answer the call! Miraculous! Yes, you can change! The power of love will free us all! Miraculous!

Yeah after two years of watching it, Miraculous Ladybug actually made this list. I'm shocked i'ts both this high AND this good. See while i'm a fan of Miraculous Ladybug, most of the fandom is more a fan of what it could be, the potetial it'd have if Thomas Astruc hadn't been the one mostly running it for 5 seasons and running it straight into the ground into the molten core of the earth. The Recent film, while far from perfect, felt like more what the series SHOULD'VE been, with the secret id bullshit resolved by the end of what's essentially movie/season 1, Gabe given more depth etc.

So i'ts ironic that in the same year the show itself, via it's spinoff specials gives us ANOTHER universe that's way better than the mess they've made of the main timeline with Miraculous World Paris. Mirror Universes are nothing new, to the point Kev and I have a whole series on mirror universe episodes featuring this very special planned, starting later this month.

With Ladybug's lack of subtley, misuse of good ideas and goofy incompetence, I assumed this special would be at best goofy fun with overblown multiverse and mirror universe tropes. Instead... it's the single best episode of the shows run, a truly moving piece that made me enjoy mirror universes again the same way Fionna and cake has made me enjoy AU's again

Miraculous knows just the right way to make evil counterparts: instead of the earth 3 versions of Marinette, Adrien and Gabriel the complete opposites of our heroes or just "Evil, Evil and less of a prick", Shady Bug, Claw Noir and Betterfly are all the same people we've come to know, simply gone down a diffrent route. Gabe is a better person, having STARTED as his earth 1 shitheal self working with his earth's eviil shadow overlord supreme... the loss of his life somehow changing this course. Instead of using the butterfly miraculous to try and bend the world in shape to get his wife back, he honors her legacy as Betterfly, helping others, something that seems IMPOSSIBLE for our gabe to consider without an ulterior motive.. but all too plausible if he just let go of his ego and his wife and let her die in peace instead of holding her in a dome coma and fighting teens. If he accepted he can't control something

Likewise Shadybug is Mari if Alaya hadn't befriended her, if Chloe just kept bullying Mari and Mari never stood up to her, the bullying just made her worse. If her parents WEREN'T there to support her: the bakery and her room is.. but it's very clear her alternate parents just aren't the loving duo our Mari's are. This is the kind of Mari that would've easily become an akuma.. but instead becomes something WORSE thanks to Supreme, a mysterious entity linked to the guardians, very heavily implied to be earth 3 Master Wu, who gives out the miraculouses to those who can tighten his grip on earth, and selected Mari and an Adrien who never went to school and thus never got out of his shell and is even MORE distant form his dad due to Gabe's new job as his pawns.

It results in a tearful battle as our heroes are both forced to TRUST the best life version of their nemisis, and battle what easily could'e ben them, while their counterparts find out , after Shadybug tries the wish thing, that supreme was using them and their lives are being drained by overusing their powers, explaning why the regular miraculouses limit our heroes to one use of their powers and limited timing. This is what happens otherwise and Monarch is all too happy to take advantage of that. There's more to this special, a lot more I can't wait to explore in april, but needless to say Miraculous World Paris.. is what I wanted from this series: a creative, tightly told, heartbreakingly well done superhero story with tense action, creative uses of the kwamis, and good character stuff for BOTH versions of our protagonists. I'ts a true masterwork and I wish THIS is the show we got more consistently.

14. The Amazing Rudy (Bob's Burgers, Season 14, Episode 2)

"I kinda walked away on dinner with my dad and her boyfriend and dad and his vicky for the first time which I guess how family dinners are gonna be from now on and I guess technically... I ran away"

It's weird but despite my deep love of the Great North (Which for the first time since it's debut missed the list this year, but damn did it have a good one, even if season 4 had to wait for 2024), until this year I wasn't consistently watching it's sister show Bob's Burgers anymore. I liked Bob's, I loved the movie, I had nothing against it. But any time I tried to get back there'd be an episdoe that just took me out. So now while I won't watch every episode, I still watch most, as the show is good as ever, if not on a comeback after a few seasons apparently felt (if TV Tropes is a good indciator) as very hit and miss. Season 14 is fantastic and it's no surprise it's second episode ended up being one of the series best.

The Amazing Rudy is something completely different in tone and staging, with a more melancholy peanuts style soundtrack, a somber tone and more muted humor. It fits perfectly, as the episode isn't centered around the Belchers this time but Louise's best friend, future husband and morality pet Rudy. The show has had secondary character spotlights before, Rudy getting a few himself, but usually the Belchers are still front and center and one of them still plays a major role in following this character around. For instance a few episodes later we get "bully-leive it or not" a zeke spotlight episode, but one where the other three kids are still very present: Zeke and his shameful past are the focus, but Louise and Tina still figure heavily into the plot, louise nearly bullyign Zeke's former bullying victim thinking the guy bullied zeke and that's why zeke freezes up seeing the guy, while Tina guiding the kid around is what kicks things off. The two aren't the focus, but it still feels like a bobs burgers adventure, helped with a bob subplot where he grapples with Jimmy Pesto, now played by Eric Bauza after a long absence thanks to his previous actor being an insurrectionist which lets face it Jimmy totally also was or at the very least thought about before finding the air fair was too much.

Here the focus is on Rudy to the point it feels like an episode of a Rudy spinoff show that does not exist but we now all want it too. It's still in Seymour's Bay (Which I forget is the name of the town this show takes place in as mostly people we know are in wonder wharf or on ocean avenue), just following Rudy as the lead instead. The Belcher's show up, in the middle of a bob's burger's episode we'll never see about Gene getting good grades and thus getting baked potato lasagna, a recipie he made up and assumes "everyone else must enjoy" is part of the reward, with the payoff him realizing he can't force someone to love his abomination, but he CAN have their portions. Being Rudy's closest friends and future wife it makes since there the ones he talks to when he goes to the mall with his dad to get a magic trick for the night and a snappy hat when he crosses them.

The Belcher's presence also hammers home what Rudy's dealing with though and that's.. a loss of family. Rudy's Parents are divorced. This isn't a new fact as it's come up casually in the past: being the kids Teddy, i.e. the person closest to them in their age group to be clear, not the person who defintely has passed by the restraunt at night every night and just.. stares in the window. But being the kids most prominent supporting character, with Jimmy Junior and Zeke a close shared second, we've gotten to know him: his parents divorce is amnicable, he alternates weekends, and they've both moved on. We haven't really seen his mom but Rudy seems just fine with her and with his dad being his primary caregiver, is a bit closer to him, as shown in this ep as the two are adorably in synch and have their rythm.

See Rudy didn't LOOSE his mom or dad, both are still very present.. but he lost the three of them as a family and until recently had their monthly "We're still a family' dinner", what, as we learn in a heartbreaking montage i'll get too shortly, was a monthly family dinner and became a way to show that both his parents still loved him and still liked each other even if they weren't together. The problem is while a well meaning gesture, both parents have started bringing their partners, which is fair but makes it less a family dinner.. and more Rudy stuck with four adults having a hangout who accidently forget he's there. While I never went through one of these as a middle schooler when my parents broke up, I know the type of event Rudy deals with all too well: it's mostly adults, there's no one to talk to and your alone. Granted I was fine with it because I just.. read whatever book I brought anyway, but rudy is a social butterfly, an awkward awkward butterfly, so he has no idea how to handle this, or really deal with it.

His one ace in the hole is a magic trick, from his faviorite shop, the same one we saw in the magic episode way back. See while Rudy's love of being a magician is another character trait that's come up, this episode gives weight to it: Rudy got into magic not just because he dearly loves it and the person at the shop gladly mentors him and supports his talent, but it's seen in a montage of previous dinners that any time his parents started fighting, before and after divorce, a simple trick reentered the night and reminded them what's important.

Naturally the trick, done using a glass of drinking water and some tablets, goes wrong, and while Rudy's parents encourage him to try again and no one really is mad at him or upset it went wrong and spilled everywhere, he feels utterly humiliated, something we all went through as kids: you screw something up and while your parents don't make a deal out of it, you just can't. Hell I still have that problem. So combine that with already not wanting ot be here and Rudy bounces, his parents not aware he's gone.

Naturally, given the earlier setup, he bounces to the Belchers. And it's easy to see why: The Belchers are a loving, wonderful family, and Bob and Linda not only gladly let Rudy join, but engage with him in a way Rudy's parents simply forgot. Rudy's parents aren't callous... adults simply make mistakes and in likely trying ot make sure rudy's okay with both their partners being there, their partners feel good, the million other things they got going on.. they talked over Rudy. It's what makes this work: we feel for rudy, but it stings more that this isn't some problem with an easy fix. There will be plenty more dinners where he's wallpaper and plenty more times they likely forget him without meaning to. The trick COULD'VE helped.. but it failing was a reminder it was just a distraction from the fact his parent's aren't a family anymore, just two people who share a kid, loving him and caring about each other.. but what little bit of what he had before the divorce is just gone.

Brian Huskey's voice as he gives the monologue I used for this episode's quote is just heartbreaking.. you can feel the kid just.. relaizing he can't just run away from it. It's just.. how things are. HIs sad revelation of this just hits, Louise's "Oh boy", and Rudy sounds on the verge of tears.. we've seen him mad, we've seen him kinda sad.. but never like this. Just a child realizing things won't be the same and he has nothing to do but go back to it.

Thankfully as bob and linda mindly panic after realizing "oh god this child just ran and his parents don't know oh god", Louise knows what her best friends need and offers to walk him back. not only is the moment shiptastic.. it's sweet. Louise gets Rudy is having a hard time with all of this and needs some support, needs someone his own age there to talk with and to help deflect attention. And to punch out anyone on the way who tries to hurt them with brass knuckles, which naturally linda gave her as santa. After all he IS from the streets. It provides a pretty morose episode an utterly sweet ending as the two walk back, Bob couldn't be prouder, and Rudy.. for now at least.. isn't alone among his own family anymore. He may never have what he had back.. but he's gained someone pretty good along the way.

13. Watching and Dreaming (The Owl House, Season 3 Episode 3, Series Finale)

"Eda, King, Thank you for Everything" "Right Back atcha kiddo" "Weirdos?" "Weirdos"

The Owl house was the best show of the 2020's and while it had some stiff compettion this year, it still hasn't been surpassed. It was hilarious, had a wonderfully built messed up world with lots of thought, deep character arcs, and was sadly cut short way too soon, but will never leave the hearts of those of us who loved it.

So thankfully they stuck the landing, as Watching and Dreaming was a worthy conclusion to the series. After the decent but easily weakest of the three season 3 specials "For the Future", Watching and Dreaming is a nicely packed finale that wraps up the series wonderfully and while it leaves me wanting only MORE, MORE DAMN YOU MORE, as the series always had, it's a good note to end on while Dana gets the hell out of mouseton for a while.

It was also the last episode of a show I covered as it came out, with an attempt to do so with legend of vox machina adding way too much to my work load this year to really work out, and as a finale to that.. it was just as welcome.

Watching and Dreaming spends it's first third on the Collector, and while there is a bit of disconnect between what he puts our heroes through and where he left off, with Luz once again hving her anxieties reinforced via a horrifying puppet show, the show quickly recovers as the big three are reunited after two long episodes and several long months in and out of universe: Luz has her other mom and little brother back, Eda has her kids back and King has her family back. We also get a quick show of just how far they've come since the pilot as each one easily bodies the collector's games... and leaves him wondering why they won't play fair, why this isn't working. It takes three people who had to learn their lessons the hard way through tears, isolation and learning their life was a lie, to teach the boy god empathy and unveil that at his heart.. he's just a kdi who REALLY didn't know what he was doing was awful.

Unfortunately just as the collector learns friendship, belos POSSESS THE TITAN'S CORPSE ITSELF and plans to do .. something.. genocidey and after an attempt to just forgive him fails, the only thing our heros have is each other, with Luz's friends aka our other heroes busy saving allt he puppets with their new starry pjamaed pal.

Luz gets a last minute somewhat asspully upgrade, but it's all three together that defeats belos. It's an epic finale but one that nicely focuses on who Dana intended as the core of the series: a child who found her place in another world and learned responsibility and to forgive herself, a witch who learned to forigve and let others in, and a titan who learned empathy, all kicking that blobs ass. And then curb stomping it. It's a moving, fast paced, excellently animated finale with a fun time skip epilogue to tie it all together. Owl House may be gone... but it'll never be forgotten.

12. Army of the Doomstar (Metalocalypse, Finale Movie)

"I am a wheel in the gear of the Klok. I feel not my mortality".

The other adult swim finale movie this year and the one that had the harder road. While Venture Bros got it's movie offer at the same time as cancelation, it took Brendon Small a decade, a whole ass album designed to be as close to a finale as he could get without a lisence and a LOT of campaning to finish his story to get here. Metalocalypse ended just as the final verse of blood, metal and stupidity was about to be written, and it was thanks to Small and the Fans themselves that we finally got it with this movie.

Army wraps up 4 seasons and another movie, a movie I dearly loved when it came out and still do, with an epic. It's darker in tone as the metalocalypse that begun at the start of the series is almost here and Nathan Explosion has a full on existential crisis trying to write the song that will save the world, having no idea how and not helped by his disasterous attempted propsoal to abigail while on a lot of wine and xanax (Props to small for ending a pretty disliked subplot exactly the way it shoudl without just.. tossing it out for time or some shit AND making it tie perfectly into the plot). The films dives into the overexpecations we put on creatives to MAKE US MORE DAMMIT, and how hard that actually is.. but also how fans.. are something to treasure and not spit in their face as our heroes have the whole series, seeing them more as parasites than people.

It maintains the series ballance of having an epic story.. but not sugarcoating that these guys are fucking morons with Nathan charging into a funeral on xanax and telling everyone, Pickels having ot literally be everyone's mom, and Pickles ordering a last meal fo rnathan of cool ranch diritos and choclate milk. The shows as goofy as ever, but adds a heart that's been only glimpsed on occasion as our heroes are allergic to feelings, as our heroes must save the world. We also get some kickass metal music as always, with SOS being a standout, giving us one last awesome dethklok performance and song as our heroes rally the world to show them their not alone.. and they never were. An epic, hilarious, and well done film that manages to cover all the bases it needs to and wrap everything up in 96 minutes. Pretty brutal.

11. The World Vs Scott Pilgrim (Scott Pilgrim Takes off Episode 6, Series Finale)

"Hey, because I'll have a lot of trouble saying it later, let me say it now: I love you, Scott. And I run away from the thing that I love. But what I've done in the past doesn't have to define me. Help me keep remembering that, okay?"

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was a thrilling watch but there was one worry I had as it went.. sticking the landing. It set up a compelling mystery, to the point I genuinely wasn't sure who would kidnap scott as while the twins DID have to show up and were likely involved.. it just didn't fit that it was them. It being their robot who being a robot has never eaten anything, thus never eaten meat and would have none of the bilogicial weaknesses of a human, was brilliant as it is hilarious bonkers.

Who sent the robot.. was even better as it turned out to be Scott himself, a twist that told me everything was going to be alright. Specifically this is a scott who lived what this story would've been: Scott beats the exes, gets the girl, and they have a happy relationship and then marriage for 15 years, having become their best selves. The thing the series challenges though .. is if they can STAY better versions of themselves. It's something the other versions didn't really WANT to poke at because it makes the ending less happy: if they don't end up together, what's the point of all this. Yet.. relatoinships break up. Hope Larson, the real life inspriation for Ramona, divorced Brian Lee O Malley. The relationship COULD fail and where would that leave them.

As it turns out.. not great as Ramona bailed when it got hard while being vauge as usual, and Scott spiraled hard into his worst habits, moving in with wallace, again, and rather than figure out where he wen twrong.. wanted to hit undo on what he felt was a sunk cost, a relationship he put his heart into only for it to seemingly fail, even if he still had a chance to save it. Hence the brilliant and only not making this list because this year was paccckkked with good episodes, 2 Scott 2 Pilgrim before this. It also helps the takes off scott spedrun his charater development as future him is everything Scott tries to ignore about himself, his laziness, selfishness, short sightentess and very stupid brain, as a person he really can't ignore because that person kidnapped him because he took a joke Wallace made seriously.

So Scott naturally motors with the help of Future Wallace and Older Ramona, who was indeed the sleep paralysis demon and like her ex husband really sucks at plans, but gives Scott a lift home. So.. everything good? Ramona Grew, Scott Grew, Scott acknowlegeds he never should've dated a literal teenager... we goo dright? Right?

Thing is as this episode reveals midway through... Older Scott REALLY didn't want his past self to take the gamble that he could do it the right way and instead of giving himself tips.. gave himself anti kissing nanites so he and ramona can't kiss, the two naturally thinking it's the exes. We get a great opening here as scott confronts each of them, having only kinda witnessed their changes.. and most don't care. Even Gideon's moved on to Julie, his perfect match and a pariing I can't belivie I love and fits perfectly: their both the worst, and together their awful. Brilliant.

The two seemingly don't solve things.. but thankfully Old Scott is more than willing to show his hand.. as even older scott. Even Older Scott is terrifying, taking some of Scott's good traits.. and making them into something nightmarish. After his failure to change the future, not considering that

Instead looses his mind, training himself in video games and the martial arts for 10 years, all to counter everything his friends and the exes can do... all so he can KILL EVERY LAST ONE. Scott's worst nightmare across all realities has come to past, he's an evil ex.. and the evilest ex of all. Well in terms of power and madness, Gideon still put a bunch of women in jars because they broke up with him who Matt hopefully let out in this timeline.

We get a great fight as the utterly jacked, utterly terrifying even older scott, who nicely resembles evil ryu from street fighter and has pixel effects ala movie!gideon, cleans house, with Ramona wondering if she should just.. leave all this. It's only realizing that's literally all she does that gets her to realize she want sto fight for this, even if it ends poorly, and Scott, already all in, helps her.

Ultimately it's not the duo who win their future this time.. but Ramona's own future, what could be, even older ramona, saving her past self via fusion, a super mode (Just like Sonic 2.. or 3.. or dragon ball.), and some words of encouragment, giving EOS another chance and Scott the beautiful words above.

It's a powerful message and one that's real: it's hard to change.. but it's even harder to get change to stick. You just have to keep remembering it.. and keep trying. No matter how bad things seem.. you can make it better.

This is all helped by the beautiful ending, a pixel version of god only knows as everyone, exes now included, gets to live their best life and we last see Ramona as she dons what we finally find to be her natural hair color, blond (with some highlights because, hey, it looks badass), ready to face the future)... and the best worst couple hyping a sequel that will never happen, but frankly it'd be werider if they didn't, A truly spectacular finale to what may be the best version of this story.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

Yeah from the looks of things on google, while both Android and iPhone offer stop/reduce motion in their accessibility settings, one would have to do some major programming within the phone itself to guarantee no movement on any app. Maybe someone out there is working on/could be commissioned for an app that could do such a thing, but it may require a fairly up to date phone to even have hope of running both that app and the app you're attempting to use.

(doesn't help that most of the google results are just tips for web devs to keep in mind when designing their sites, rather than solutions for the user's side)

Still, it sounds doable for the right person, and there might be a nonprofit willing to look into assisting with that.

it really shouldn't be necessary, though

like, i already have autoplay turned off in the tumblr app, so gifs or videos only play when i click on them (and thus not when i'm scrolling past, which is a big vertigo trigger). except for some reason tumblr decided this rule doesn't apply to adverts. so although they've now fixed the part where they autoplay with sound, they still override my app settings to autoplay, making them both a visual hazard and deeply fucking annoying

it shouldn't be on me to figure out a workaround to that, though! i already toggled the relevant setting! it's hostile web design to let things continue to move when a user has told them not to!

plus nobody wants their websites to have things readily visible and everyone wants flashy transitions when you click on a menu so everything's slipping and sliding about all over the place. my platonic ideal of a website belongs somewhere to the 2006-2011 era where we'd mostly got past the eyestrain colour combos and tiny text of the early 00s but we weren't yet into Everything Moves. think your average 2010 wordpress blog with a wide main column of text occasionally punctuated by an image, a static sidebar with page links, and a static top menu beneath a still image header which would take you to other pages. if you clicked on a link, the new page loaded. there was no transition animation. nothing whipped itself to the side and was replaced by ten more images. you also didn't need ten different adblockers to hide all the intrusive pop-ups and interjections

bonus: imagine how much less data this would use when browsing on mobile

[candiid-caniine]

gender euphoria

[cw: this is NOT a detrans/misgendering kink post, but tries to subvert some of those tropes, so please treat it with caution!]

sissy kink blogs DNI

outside the bedroom, i demand respect. i own my pronouns, talk openly about genderqueerness, and flaunt androgyny.

but inside the bedroom...my relationship with gender changes. i'm transsexual in the sense that power dynamics in my sexual relationships directly influence my gender(s). what do i mean by this? i mean i want you to treat my non-conformity as a blank slate on which to project your preferred gender.

i am an "it," first and foremost. but i can be a "she," a "they," or a "he" if so inclined. i can be your butch, your femme, your fag, your twink, your femboy, whatever you want me to be.

and i'll resist. that's part of the fun of it: in day-to-day life, i'm most comfortable as an occasionally femme-leaning androgyne. that makes it fun to push back, easy to feel vulnerable, uncomfortable, and a little self-conscious (though not dysphoric) in a different presentation.

i take any pronouns, after all. so butches who love femmes, goad me into skirts, lacy lingerie, makeup, stockings, heels. watch me falter and cling to your side when we go out, feeling like i'm being stared at, unaccustomed to the kind of attention high-femmes usually get. make me show off my cleavage. call me "she" exclusively without switching. call me a good girl, call me a princess, make me suck your cock like a good little wife. force me to grow my hair out for you, yes, the undercut, too, and watch me get fussy and flustered at the unwelcome sensory input of it touching my neck. get me long acrylics, watch me fumble at everything requiring the use of my fingers; step in to help, coo over your clumsy girl - it's basically like mitting a puppy, isn't it?

if you prefer masc partners, get me a binder. watch me squirm at the compression. get me on a workout regimen to bulk up, even; spend a lot of time proving to me that no matter how fit i get, you'll always overpower me. no more cutesy hair clips, no more high-waisted jeans, or skirts, or femme-ish jewelry: make me your boyfriend. coach me into talking in a lower register. order T for me off the dark web, admire my stubble and my bottom growth. if you top, fuck me in the ass exclusively. if you bottom, get me the strap that best reflects your preferences. i'd even get top surgery, as long as you're paying~

or mix the two. make me your femboy. get me a packer, but also dresses. nitpick me over the right mix of boy-as-girly, watch me get more and more desperate to please your expectations, until at last i'm just surrendering my wardrobe to you, losing confidence in my ability to dress "properly." call me a good boy, your pretty little prince. i'm even okay with the gentle kind of goading, the presentation-shaming, calling me soft, saying i'm not dressing like a real man, if that's what you want.

or just lean in fully to the genderless thing that i want to be in the bedroom, but make it be all the time. what does an "it/its" look like? when your gender is pet, how do you present in public? well, that's up to you. maybe it's the most revealing clothes you can find, or simply the most embarrassing: underwear and pants that are a bit too small, riding up my ass and cunt constantly. shirts with slogans like "young, dumb, and full of cum" or "clown school graduate." anything that makes other people think i'm ditzy, impressionable, and silly, or don't know my own wardrobe sizes. collars, 24/7, are, of course, mandatory. maybe cuffs, too.

the whole time, watch me be unsure as my androgyny is picked apart, more and more of my core gender identity bent to your whims. watch me automatically start to seek your approval on any piece of clothing or jewelry i own. i'll start letting you speak to the hairdresser at salons, giving up any autonomy i have over my own hairstyle. you could take me to a piercer or a plastic surgeon or a tattoo artist, tell them what you want me to look like, and i'll sign the consent forms. treat my lack of gendered presentation as a clean slate, free for you to write your mark all over. make me your creature. as if i wasn't already.

[tearfallpixie]

Make Mama Happy - Chapter 2

Lots of updates in this chapter. I hope you like it 🖤🖤🖤

Tags: @nerdraging4point0 @thesazzb @synthetic-wasp-570 @circle-with-me @beaker1636 @itsjustemily @witchyweeb34 @agravemisstake @cookiesupplier @cncohshit @faceless-mirror @nonamessblog @yournecessaryevil @black-damask1999

@lyschko666 @vinyardmauro @skulliecadaver-blog @some-daniela @latenightmusiclover

“I talked to Rick.” I scowled at the mention of the guitarist’s name and looked up to glare at my friend. After the party Heather had sought out Richard, and the truth unraveled quickly. He confessed to lying to Vinny about me creating a web of lies so that the drummer didn't get involved with me. The revelation had triggered a storm of emotions and after a lot of screaming and fighting, Heather had shown up on my doorstep at 2 am sobbing about how sorry she was and It became evident she hadn't realized the depth of his dislike for me. 

Despite the betrayal, I couldn't bring myself to blame Heather for the actions of her dumbass boyfriend. I let her in, and together we sought solace on the couch, drowning our sorrows in a shared bucket of ice cream.

“Oh?” I asked, feigning nonchalance.

“He feels bad about what he did.” Heather mumbled meekly, her voice tinged with desperation. I scoffed and stood from the table to slam my plate into the sink. 

“He called me a fucking whore.” I snarled, the anger bubbling to the surface, earning a guilty and scared look from Heather. “I would never do that to you.” 

“I know! But he sounded sincere.” She pleaded, trying to get me to understand.

“He can fuck right off. I will no longer come to anything with you that he is attending.” I declared, cutting through her attempts to justify his behavior. She went to protest, but I turned my back on her, my resolve unwavering. “I have to get to the winery. I’ll see you later.” 

I heard a slight whimper from her but couldn't bring myself to turn around. Once the retreating footsteps faded and the door closed, I glanced over my shoulder. Left alone in the large, empty house, I let out a shaky, angry breath. Richard Olson was the biggest asshole in the world, and forgiveness was a distant notion at that moment.

I reached for my black pencil skirt and crisp white blouse, the professional attire I typically chose for my role as the winery's event coordinator. While my usual day was spent in the office, occasionally I found myself pouring wine and interacting with guests. Collecting my composure, I took one last glance in the mirror, reaffirming my strength before heading out to the winery.

“Nichole! We have a special guest coming today so we want you to take care of them. We’re short staffed today so we need you as backup.” The front of house manager, Rachel, called as I walked through the door.

“Of course. Who is it?” I asked, dropping my coat on the rack and trying to remember any events I had scheduled today.

“The reservation is under the name Kyle Mauro.” Rachel informed me. I froze and turned to her, the familiarity of the last name striking a chord within me. Mauro was Vinny's last name, and the possibility of it being a mere coincidence seemed remote. Justin, the bassist for the band, also shared the same last name, albeit with a different spelling. It left me praying for the odds of this being some random person to be the likely situation.

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll take care of them," I promised, my tone steady despite the uncertainty that accompanied the name Kyle Mauro. I couldn't shake the suspicion that this encounter might complicate my day, but I reminded myself to take a deep breath and put on a smile. I still had to be professional despite who this turned about to be. 

"Thank you so so much. They'll be in the private suite," Rachel expressed her gratitude, and I nodded in acknowledgment. Stepping into my office, I immersed myself in the tedious but necessary task of paperwork, a temporary respite before the winery opened its doors to the patrons.

As I focused on the files and documents spread across my desk, a few employees entered my office with queries about time off or concerns related to their pay. I addressed each issue as best I could, ensuring that everything was in order before the busy day started.

Before I knew it, the clock struck 11 am, and the winery's doors swung open to welcome the first wave of visitors. Rising from my desk, I straightened my skirt, ready to transition from the paperwork to the dining room.

As I entered the bustling dining area, I noticed the early arrivals, most of them tourists enjoying the wine-tasting tours that some companies offered allowing them to visit several wineries in one day. With a quick glance at the table map, I saw that the area that needed coverage was the upstairs section where the private suite awaited Kyle later in the day. I walked up to the top floor and admired the above view of the dining room as I ascended the stairs.

“Good morning!” I cheered, giving my brightest smile to the 4 girls sitting at the only currently occupied table. “What are you four beautiful ladies in for?” I teased.

“We’re here for Barbra’s bachelorette party. She’s getting married in a week so we took a girls vacation.” One of them gestured to the girl next to her.

“Well I will make sure you gals have a wonderful time. Are we here for a tasting?” 

"Yes, please! We heard raving reviews about this place, so we had to check it out. We also want to try a charcuterie board," the guests enthused, their excitement palpable. I jotted down their order, and went to the office on this level to send it down to the kitchen, beforeI grabbing the first wine for them to taste. 

I engaged in friendly conversation, offering insights into the flavors and nuances of each selection. As I navigated through their wine tasting, a few more tables trickled in, some of them just coming in to grab a single glass of wine. The first level buzzed with the pleasant hum of satisfied customers while the upstairs stayed peaceful.

By around 2 in the afternoon, the top level had emptied, leaving me with some slow moments to finish up some paperwork. Seated in the little office, I immersed myself in my task, the rhythmic sounds of the winery serving as a background hum.

I heard a vibration on the table next to me, indicating a new text message so I picked up my phone. I glanced at the screen, curious about who was contacting me.

R: Kyle Mauro is here. Can you come escort them up?

N: Be right down

Tucking my paperwork back into its folder, I set it to the side before descending the stairs. Midway down, my attention was drawn to the front desk, where a familiar curly mop from the party caught my eye. Beside him stood an equally familiar drummer, his scowl evident as if he'd prefer to be anywhere else.

"Kyle Mauro?" I questioned as I approached them, trying to keep my voice steady so as to not show my annoyance at the unwelcome guest. Vinny's eyes snapped to mine, and his scowl deepened, a clear sign of discomfort and tension in the air. Kyle glanced over and elbowed his brother in the side before turning back to me with a beaming smile.

"Yep! You're Nichole from the party, aren't you?" Kyle said, his demeanor distinctly warmer than Vinny's. Despite the tension radiating from the drummer, Kyle's amiable nature seemed unaffected.

"Yeah! What brings you two in today?" I inquired, picking up two menus and motioning for them to follow as I led the way back up the steps.

"I'm getting married and wanted to come taste some wines from here for the special day," Kyle beamed with excitement, his joy infectious.

"Congratulations! Who's the special lady?" I said, deliberately ignoring the glares sent my way by Vinny, who seemed less than thrilled to be in my presence.

"Man, actually," Kyle revealed. I raised my eyebrows in surprise, but my warm smile remained unaltered.

"Well then, congratulations. That is exciting. Let's find you the perfect wine," I offered, leading them to the private suite. As a gesture of goodwill, I put in an order for a charcuterie board on the house, ensuring their wine-tasting experience was accompanied by a delightful selection of complementary flavors.

"We didn't order this," Vinny snapped when I brought the charcuterie board to the table.

"I know. It's on the house. I wanted to do something nice for you guys," I replied calmly, maintaining a composed demeanor as I saw a fleeting expression of guilt cross Vinny's face. Internally, I couldn't help but smirk at the subtle shift.

"The first wine is a sweet Moscato, a vibrant blend with aromas of tropical fruit and honey. It's a little sweet with a hint of acidity, perfect for sipping while imagining a beautiful beach vacation. I'll leave you to enjoy that for a bit and then come back with the next one," I explained, taking a step into the adjacent office to put away the wine bottle.

The thin wall between the two rooms served as an unintentional amplifier for sound, making it so that no conversations were truly private. As I organized the wine selection, I couldn't help but overhear their discussion outside.

"I appreciate you coming along, Vin. I know you don't want to be here, but I wouldn't want anyone else's opinion but my best man and brother," Kyle spoke with genuine gratitude. “You know, you should really think about settling down. Mama is going to start setting you up if you don't bring someone home soon," Kyle suggested.

"I know. I don't trust just anyone. Most people just want to get in my pants to get close to Rick. I love the man, but his good looks piss me off sometimes," Vinny confessed. He seemed a lot more relaxed when I wasn't around and it honestly intrigued me at how gentle he sounded. I didn't realize that he felt that way about Richard though so it kind of explained why he got so defensive at the party.

"Speaking of him, are you ever going to apologize to that pretty lady in there? I mean, he made it pretty obvious that he lied," Kyle asked. 

"Why do I have to apologize? It was his lie. Plus, I still don't like her. She seems stuck up," Vinny retorted, I could practically hear his scowl deepening as he stood firm in his reluctance to extend an apology. I couldn't help but scowl in return, pondering various ways to put the obstinate drummer in his place.

"I don't think that's fair to her. Plus, Mama would love her," Kyle reasoned, with a light hearted hint to his voice. "You should do it to make Mama happy."

"Not her," Vinny insisted, his resistance unwavering.

"Well then you have to bring a girl to next week's dinner, or I'll tell Mom you agreed to going on blind dates. Maybe she'll set you up with Betty Lou," Kyle teased, provoking a disgusted noise from Vinny. I couldn't help but snicker as I overheard their banter while pulling the next bottle of wine from the fridge.

"Ugh, I'll find someone. Just shut up," Vinny conceded, his tone indicating a desire to put an end to the discussion. Seizing the opportunity, I approached the table with the next bottle, noting that they had finished their glasses.

"How did we like that wine, boys?" I asked sweetly, maintaining a professional demeanor and not giving any hint that I had overheard their earlier discussion.

"It's good, but neither of us are really sweet wine people," Kyle replied, offering a warm smile. I nodded in understanding.

"Then you might like this next one; it's a semi-sweet but not too overbearing," I suggested, smoothly transitioning to the next part of the wine-tasting experience. We continued working through the selections, finding three wines that Kyle and Vinny deemed suitable for their upcoming celebration. Surprisingly, Vinny remained civil throughout the process, although I couldn't help but notice the occasional lingering glance.

"Thank you for everything," Kyle murmured appreciatively as I brought over the wine selection he had purchased. Vinny's brother pulled me into a hug before making his way back down the stairs, leaving Vinny behind. The drummer cast one last glance my way, his expression inscrutable, before following his brother.

As the private suite door closed behind them, I took a deep breath, momentarily relieved that the wine-tasting session had concluded smoothly despite the underlying tensions. The winery's atmosphere returned to its usual buzz of activity, and I resumed my duties, hoping to forget about the red haired drummer.

[rose-red-ink]

Intro Post

Hi there, I'm rose-red-ink, but you can call me Inky! I'm a writer, and a lover of all things nerdy. I'm also an elementary teacher, so I reblog education stuff occasionally. Feel free to drop into my dms or asks if you want to chat about fandom, fic, or anything else!

This is a writing blog where I write lots of things including anime and Star Wars fic, as well as original projects. I'll be dropping links to them and dropping a short summary below. Enjoy your stay, and again, I always enjoy asks and engagement! Come talk to me (I don't bite I promise)

Original Works

My Original WIP is tagged with #theartemiscovenant or #theartemisproject or just #TAC. I don't have a lot of it posted, but I'm happy to chat about it whenever.

It's an urban fantasy thriller about faith, trauma, familial love, and working through your mental illness to become a better person. The protagonist is the holder of the Artemis Covenant, Riley, and there are other "god" characters such as Hades, Persephone, Apollo, Hermes and Demeter, as well as other supernatural creatures like werewolves.

Fanfiction

Everything under here can be found on my A03

If you send in an ask for anything I write, I'd happily drop you a drabble. Just ask!

Star Wars

Force Mandated Bottle Episode (Sequels Rewrite, including Reylo) Ongoing, updated every Saturday

Related Web Weaving

When Finn and Poe escape from the First Order ship, Kylo Ren takes off after them. When both ships are damaged, they crash on Jakku, right into the Star Destroyer that Rey is scavenging from.

Finn is longing for freedom while unable to escape the thoughts of those he left behind. Poe is determined to be the most annoying hostage possible to his old surrogate brother. Kylo is trying to survive Poe while being plagued with curiosity; who is the woman he keeps hearing at the edges of his mind? And new powers are awakening in Rey, powers that seem to be the source of the visions of a strange man in black, exploring the same wreckage, just out of her reach.

Choices will be made, loyalties tested, and bonds forged. Where will they go when they emerge from the wreckage?

One Piece

Featherflower (Dracule Mihawk X OC) Completed

A Kuja named Teria is forced to leave Amazon Lily, and finds herself a home aboard the Red Force, working under the Red Haired Shanks. This puts her face to face with a mysterious swordsman several times. The two form a connection, and eventually, love blooms.

This one is done, but I still write mini fics for them as the inspo strikes.

The Punk and the Surgeon: Lawka (Trafalgar D. Water Law x OC) Ongoing

Law's ship needs repairs, and the only place to do so is said to be haunted. Instead of a ghost or spirit, he meets Aika; a stubborn, kind young woman who's doing her best to keep her family safe. Through a series of tragic circumstances, she finds her way onto his crew, and into his heart.

Cards and Pieces: Freyce (Portgas D. Ace x OC) Ongoing

In his time as captain of the Spade Pirates, Ace drunkenly stumbles across a young woman with a strong spirit, a need for connection, and a loyalty that burns brighter than the sun. She becomes his first mate, and stands by his side through everything.

Jujitsu Kaisen

Candy and Catastrophes (Bluebird) (Satoru Gojo x OC) Ongoing

Natori is wildly thrown into the world of jujitsu sorcery when her cursed technique manifests, leaving her confused and scared. Satoru Gojo steps in, promising to hide her identity from her clan and to give her a job at Jujitsu High, masquerading as a window. He gets more than he bargained for when attraction begins to stir between the two.

(This fic is focused on character development, fluff, and hurt/comfort. It will go off the course of canon for these reasons)

[sheydim]

NOTICE as of 2/22/24: i have been posting a lot of Palestine stuff. it's not consistently tagged as Palestine. there is occasional graphic content, and i DO reliably tag that as "graphic tw" / "graphic cw", "graphic description of violence" or in some cases "child death". such content may include body bags and, very rarely, the deceased themselves if not particularly graphic. i reblog this kind of thing to keep some accountability in circulation -- and because we cannot look away. we must be ruffled from our complacency. HOWEVER. please take care of yourself. use a blacklist if you will find this triggering. there are other ways to bear witness. there are abundant resources on my blog and all over tumblr. much love to you, my friends.

uhhh i've been putting this off for like years but. pinned post?

you can call me any of the things people on the internet have through the years. sheyd, tepsul, corv, any of my actual names if we're in the DMs, whatever you like.

about me...?

i don't always tag things consistently. and i talk to myself a LOT in the tags.

i have been on tumblr since 2012ish? i took a hiatus from posting for a few years, but still lurked and managed my archives on my sideblogs. now i'm back! i can't tell who anyone is now, but if we interacted, i still miss you and think of you. (srry tho, i kind of sucked then.)

i work in Book World in various ways. which is to say: the creation of texts, the various stages of production of what will become books, and their distribution. i have to interface with trad pub a lot, but my heart is more oriented towards indie and DIY and small press. working on it! <3

i have multiple sideblogs that may reblog from you. i'm not usually willing to confirm those usernames to you tho because this is my personal anonymous-ish corner of the web! in all honesty, this blog feels less like my main than the others. if i could change it, i would.

i suspect no one who would fit my DNI would even linger here for very long. so i don't really need one. just don't suck, okay? i think we can handle that!! :P and if i follow you or interact and you don't want me there, feel free to block me; you have a right to your space!

about me?? but personal this time

my pronouns are they/them. i'm bi but also... it's complicated. i'm polyam and very sex positive. y'know, ethical slut stuff. i'm seeing a few folks right now. do people care about anything else?...

if you're trans, i love you. thank you. i hope you are pleasantly surprised by something today.

some tags i use a lot:

writing

life stuff

jew tag

trans tag

feelgood

book world

some other tags i'm slowly building:

taking action

the world to come

[hislopchino]

HIGNFY's Guest Webterview: Nick Robinson

The interview went so well that Nick declared it to be the finest moment of his career.

Q1. You worked behind the scenes for a long time as a producer and editor. What made you leap in front of the camera?

Well my friends would say I’ve secretly always wanted to be in front of camera, but I didn’t really have a game plan for my career. The reason I was interested in going into the media and being a journalist was because my best friend’s dad was presenter of Radio 4’s Today programme, a guy called Brian Redhead. I applied to the BBC to be a journalist and they wouldn’t have me, but they would have me as a trainee producer. So I began as a producer and then out of the blue someone gave me a call and said, ‘Do you fancy trying out being a presenter on a pilot TV show?’ and I did it and thought, ‘That’s what I should’ve done, why didn’t I do that?’

Q2. What do you think of Boris Johnson becoming mayor of London?

Interesting. I was at university with Boris and of course he’s nothing like he was in those days. He was bumbling, and a man pretty hard to take seriously, which of course he’s nothing like these days. I was actually the one who broke the story that he wanted to be London mayor but didn’t take it at all seriously and therefore put it on my blog and didn’t bother to sell it to the news bulletins because I just thought it was too stupid.

Q3. You have a regular blog on the BBC website. Are you a fan of all things Internet?

Yes and no. I am absolutely a blog fan, I just think it’s absolutely changed the sort of conversation that goes on about politics, but I’m not one of those people who gets home and surfs the web as relaxation. It’s a tool you can’t ignore. I shop on it, I book my holidays on it, I use it to find out about things I’m interested in. I’m not one of those people that think it’s an extraordinary social revolution. I just think it’s an amazing tool that we are lucky to have.

Q4. On a scale of one to ten how funny are you? (One being Piers Morgan and ten being Peter Cook).

Much nearer one than ten. I can’t tell a joke at all. I’m incapable of telling jokes, I find it very difficult. I can occasionally do the odd ad-libbed quip which I guess when you’re doing live broadcasting you have to.

Q5. Being a seasoned political reporter you must have seen a fair few political gaffs. What’s the funniest incident you’ve covered?

When I was a reporter on what used to be called BBC News 24 I did a live interview with John Prescott in which he (uncharacteristically of course) got into a tangle about what he was trying to say and then said, ‘Oh no, I made that crap can we do that again?’ and I was forced to say, ‘Well, we are in fact live’. And we had to look each other and think, ‘Are we going to keep this interview going, or are we actually going to collapse in laughter?’ I had to screw my toes up into my shoes and he had to dig his fingernails into his palms.

Q6. How successful would Paul and Ian be as politicians?

Ian is much too undiplomatic. He’d piss everybody off, but not because he wouldn’t necessarily be right. Paul has the brilliant capacity to communicate unlike virtually anyone else I know. In the modern age, if Boris can be mayor of London, roll on Merton for Mayor I say.

[jcmarchi]

Do Freelance Web Designers Need a Side Hustle?

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/do-freelance-web-designers-need-a-side-hustle/

Do Freelance Web Designers Need a Side Hustle?

Taking your freelance web design career to the next level is challenging. Going from getting by to living comfortably is equal parts hard work and good strategy.

Why do you need both to succeed? Well, you could be up to your elbows in projects. But that’s no guarantee of more revenue. Plus, being crazy-busy isn’t sustainable. You’re more likely to burn out than rise to the top.

Planning can help. Take the initiative to assess your career and determine the best path upward. The answer depends on how far you want to go. Your skills and strengths also play a role.

Some designers (myself included) have turned to side hustles to increase earnings. For me, writing has been the best path. Others might sell web-related products or do occasional sub-contractor work. There are plenty of opportunities for the talented and technically-minded.

The trouble is that side hustles can get out of hand. And they’re starting to feel like a necessity in today’s marketplace.

As such, let’s look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of reaching beyond web design. Do you need a side hustle? Perhaps what follows will help you find the answer.

Why Web Design Isn’t Always Enough

Working with clients can be rewarding. And you can make a good living out of it. However, not every freelancer will be able to achieve this.

Realistically speaking, you need access to well-paying projects. Doing so often means competing with agencies. They may have more resources and clout. Some big clients may be hesitant to work with solo freelancers.

If you can’t book top-level gigs, what are you left with? Quiet often, you’ll work with small and medium-sized clients. There’s nothing wrong with this. But it may limit your ability to grow.

You can try to make more money by volume or raising prices. That makes sense on the surface. More projects equals more money – as do higher prices. But there comes a point when the returns are diminishing.

The other possibility is to hire help. That could be another freelancer or a traditional employee. This allows you to take on more work. But it also requires more investment than some of us can make.

That’s why we may look elsewhere for a boost.

The Benefits of a Side Hustle

There are a lot of things to like about having a side hustle. First and foremost, they offer a way to make money. You could launch yourself into a higher income level.

The cash you earn might be a difference-maker in your life. Think of the bills you could pay off. Or the savings you could build.

There’s also a chance to add more variety to your workflow. You won’t be stuck doing the same tasks ad nauseam.

For example, writing has helped get my creative juices flowing. It’s a different way to express myself. I don’t feel the same pressure or frustration that project work brings. Overall, the practice serves as a mental reset. And it also adds a little bit extra in my pocket.

Not all side hustles provide this sense of peace. However, they do offer a trip outside of your daily routine. Even better, it may allow you to pursue your passion.

Searching for the Right Opportunity

Side hustles come in many flavors. They could be something you do on your own – like marketing a product or service. Or you may work for someone else.

Figuring out what you want to do is the first challenge. Perhaps there’s a gig that’s a natural extension of your primary job.

For instance, maybe you’re adept at writing code. You might parlay those skills into developing a WordPress plugin. If you’re great at troubleshooting, a part-time support role may be your thing.

What if that’s not the case? Well, think about what brings you joy. There might be a way to leverage it into something profitable.

Create content around a favorite subject. A bit of ad revenue from a blog or podcast can come in handy.

The idea is to think about what you want to do. Also, consider what you hope to accomplish. From there, look for opportunities to help you get there.

There Can Be Drawbacks, Too

None of this is to say that side hustles are perfect. You could get stuck in an unfulfilling situation. Or end up with a commitment you can’t handle.

In some cases, there may be a negative impact on your web design business. Anything that harms your ability to do your “day job” may not be worthwhile.

That leads us to the management portion of things. The ability to manage your time is crucial. You’ll need this skill to complete tasks.

Those launching a new product or service will carry a lot of responsibility. You may be doubling the amount of business-related tasks you’re currently doing. Client management, invoicing, and support commitments will all increase.

There’s also a financial reality to consider. You may not start with the desired compensation. It may take years to reach a comfort level. Are you willing to be patient?

Tips for Making the Most of Your Side Hustle

The ideal side hustle will be different for everyone. Still, there are common threads about finding and managing them.

Here are a few tips for getting the most out of the experience:

Start Small and Simple

When starting a side hustle, keep things simple. Look for opportunities that require minimal commitment. In some cases, you may be able to work on a temporary trial basis.

It’s a chance to ease into what you’re doing. Meanwhile, you’ll lessen the risk of becoming overwhelmed. That betters your chances of long-term success.

You can always increase your workload in the future. But it’s best to wait until you’ve found a comfort level.

Define What Success Means to You

Before signing up for a side hustle, define your expectations. That creates a goal to work toward. And you’ll be able to ensure you’re on the right path.

Consider both your desired time commitment and level of compensation. Again, it’s OK to start small in these areas. But have an ultimate goal in mind.

Perhaps you want to put away a bit of money each month. Or you want enough to pay for a vacation. It’s all about finding what makes you happy.

Think about what it will take to get there. Then, you can develop a strategy to achieve it.

Think about the Long Term Impact

A side hustle isn’t just about the here and now. There can be long-term consequences as well. You’ll want to think about them beforehand.

For example, how might it impact your web design business? Could it impede your ability to book new projects? Could it even take over as your primary gig?

There are a myriad of ways this could affect you. Therefore, ask yourself these questions. Consider the benefits and drawbacks of what a side hustle means.

Of course, none of us can predict the future. Sometimes, you’ll need to feel your way through situations as they arise.

You can think about potential scenarios, though. Doing so will help you prepare for them.

Side Hustles May Be the New Normal for Freelancers

Sustaining a full-time freelance lifestyle isn’t easy. There are only so many projects available. Recruiting new clients takes precious time. That makes moving up even more difficult.

That’s what makes a side hustle an attractive option. It’s a chance to pick up recurring revenue. Gaining extra income you can count on is a difference-maker for many of us.

We can use them to make ends meet – and accomplish other goals we’re working toward. The right opportunity can play an important role.

Is a side hustle right for you? Think about where you are in your journey – and where you want to be. It might be the answer you’ve been looking for.

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[nichescraper]

Want to know exactly how I went from $0 to $25k a month dropshipping?

I started back in January, didn't know what I was doing and lost money. Now I'm making almost $25k a month in revenue with 40% profits. In this post I've attached a screenshot of my earnings every single month since the beginning and will give a brief outline of what I did each month to grow. Hope this helps!

January - $643: I had no idea what I was doing. I heard about dropshipping on Reddit and decided

to try it. Initially I did a free + shipping offer on a baseball cap and I got some decent sales but lost money because of ad spend.

Was using Facebook

ads only at the time. February -$3,000: After running the free + shipping offer, people started buying other things on my store. It became clear to me what items people wanted, so I ran single image ads to them and this greatly boosted sales. I also began doing work on SEO this month. That included writing small blog articles, rewriting product descriptions, etc.

March-$6,900: My SEO from the prior work started to pick up so I began getting free traffic from Google searches which increased sales. I also started and Instagram page to build an audience related to my niche that I occasionally promote products to.

April - $13,200: I was able to double my revenue during this month. My previous job was working as a programmer, so I wrote a complex web crawler that search the web to find me winning products. Saved me tons of time and allowed me to test a lot more products. I found some new winners this way which increased sales.

The web crawler is now publicly available here: https://bit.ly/NicheScrapercom

I also began running re-targeting facebook campaigns at this point and learning more about effective advertising.

May - $18,400: I added an upsell app to my store which increased my average order value from $20 to $45. I also discovered a new "sub-niche" for my store when browsing results from my web scraper bot. This allowed me to target a whole new audience and product more sales.

June - $15,800: Sales decreased a little bit this month. This was largely because I had recently moved and didn't have a ton of free time to work on the business. Things like being slow to answer customers, not optimizing ads, etc. can all add up to a revenue loss! Totally my fault.

July - $25,000: My best month yet! After a loss of revenue in June, I decided to crack down. I scaled all my Facebook ads up a ton and it didn't end up hurting my conversion cost. I also found another "sub-niche" that contained multiple winning products. I think my lesson here was that I was previously too scared to mess with my winning ads, which included scaling. It obviously worked out in my favor when I decided to get out of my comfort zone!

Key Takeaways:

1. Focus on multiple sources of revenue. I have alot of sales coming from places like Pinterest, Google searches, my Instagram account, etc. Try not to get caught up in only doing Facebook ads.

2. If you have a skill, use it. Anything you can do that others can't will get you ahead of everyone else who's doing the same thing. In my case, I'm a programmer and was able to create the product finding bot.

3. Find winning products. 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your products! This means you need to find that handful of best sellers that you can rely on to bring you sustainable income. Test, test and test some more. Browse other successful stores to see what they sell. 4. Don't be lazy. It takes hard work and thinking outside of the box! You saw what happened in June when I slacked off. Keep pushing forward and the results will be endless.

I could easily

maintain the business spending 15 minutes a day on it, but it took a lot of hours to get there.

I hope this helps!

If you want to try out the web scraper, I made it available publicly here:

https://bit.ly/NicheScrapercom

[scarmonies]

hello, world

as i write this, my blog is empty. im hoping to fill it with my journey upskilling, learning coding languages, and teaching myself data science.

prior to this, i got my undergraduate degree in psychology, primarily focusing on mental health, human sexuality, and disability studies. i wanted to get a PhD in psychology and become a professor. however, 2020 hit and knocked me way off course!

i was part-time working from home and occasionally employed for seasonal positions throughout 2020 to now. we all tried out new skills during lockdown, right? so fussing around with tech stuck!

ive dabbled in tons of free courses, a handful of languages, a variety of career paths. i think i finally found a match, though.

timeline of everything so far:

started out in UX design and it didnt really fit

moved into web development because i have a little skill in HTML, but that didnt really fit either

eventually settled on Harvard's free CS50x Intro to Computer Science course to have a more general overview of comp sci

discovered SQL! and it clicked so well!

looked into data analysis and data sciences more seriously, found DataCamp

currently taking DataCamp's certification tracks to gain skills

outside of potential career things, ive also played around with modding video games and making websites to help me game more efficiently 🤪

ive tried out html, css, javascript, python, C, R, and SQL so far. im gonna be designing and coding my own theme for this blog, my portfolio, and working on my personal projects

aaaand that's all folks. ill update here when i have things to report!

[n1ghtcrwler]

I don't go here (that is, I don't post that kind of content, and the couple blogs I follow that occasionally do post anything adult-themed do so sporadically amongst a different category of stuff that I actually followed them for), but this sounds a lot like a symptom of the fear of imperfection that has been cultivated in the modern day.

Now, I'm not going to sit here crying about cancel culture or something; I saw a post a while ago that did a much better job of explaining how people under the age of like 30 have never known a life without constant surveillance, and I'm piggybacking off that idea. There is an environment, largely created by people older than me and anon, in which every single thing we do in public spaces is monitored, stored, and available for recall at any time. People my age (early 40s) joke about how happy we are that the things we did in high school were just kind of forgotten instead of being spread all over the internet, very rarely coupled with an apparent awareness of how traumatizing it must be to not have that comfort. The invasive nature of the social media-driven web, government surveillance, and the ever-present world of people with smartphones recording anything that strikes them as odd or wrong, have created a world where there isn't any room for error in any way, even if it's something that ISN'T an error but someone with ill intentions can spin as one.

So you have people in their 20s who have only ever known a world where their every mistake was like a bullet loaded into some metaphorical gun, just waiting for someone to use it against them. They have no way to even fully understand what it's like to live in a world where their every step and action and word isn't their fault. And I don't mean that in terms of "you're responsible for your own actions," which is true, but rather "every thing you can possibly do in every single situation can be exposed as an offense by someone, and you are always on trial." And in that world, and in that mindset, there is no concept that anything can be someone else's responsibility.

So they seek some sort of out. Some way in which they can point out that they did everything that could be asked of them, and then some, to ensure that when blame inevitably falls on them for something, they can deflect it at least a little bit. Accounts that don't list their age (like mine) don't give them that. They don't have the reassurance, inaccurate as it may be, that they did what they could do and can't help it if someone else lied to them. They can't be passive. They can't just assume people will let them off the hook if a kid sees something they shouldn't see because they were in a place they didn't belong. Because the world they know has never worked that way. They need SOMETHING to use in their defense. Always. Everywhere.

I think we forget, sometimes, how much fear people younger than us have been taught, and therefore don't adequately account for what that fear does to them. We keep looking at the world as if it's the world we grew up in, and it isn't. And that doesn't mean that we need to put our ages in our bio or whatever, but it does mean we shouldn't act like they are being utterly unreasonable. They are taking reasonable precautions against an unreasonable world; and they aren't yet in a position to make that world more reasonable.

The thing about horny blogs demanding their followers post their ages publically is that it ultimaely means nothing.

If you understand that people can lie on the internet, then you have to accept that someone who says they're 19 could actually be 16. But you see that sequence of digits and assume their acting in good faith and you're off the hook (whatever you think that means) from a minor seeing the word "cock".

But if you're making good faith assumptions like that, you should also accept that someone who likes your posts without publishing their age is *also* acting in good faith. If you assume that your followers with exact ages are not lying and that the act of typing two characters into a Tumblr bio is enough to get you off the hook, then the act of pressing the like button on your text post about sexy tdick is also enough to get you off the hook.

You just can't assume that people would never ever lie about their age on the internet, while also assuming that people run all over the place liking posts that aren't appropiate for them.

Either ageless and age-in-bio blogs are equally capable of lying, or everyone who follows you is indicating that they both want to see your posts and that it's legal for them to do so. One or the other, it can't be both.

~Signed, and 38 year old who is getting damn sick of 20-somethings thinking that no numbers in the bio indicates someone trying to get them in trouble. (Sometimes when people ask I just roll a d10 for the second digit of my age. It's not like they'll ever know.)

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