#i think that environmental story telling is really great

[nestavadavat]

I'm sure someone's mentioned this, but I think it's really interesting how even the scenery around changes with the story throughout Rdr2.

We start in Colter, which is definitely run down, but it's secluded and surrounded by nothing but nature. We're only there for a bit but we never see anyone other than our own gang members and nature.

Horseshoe Overlook is still secluded yeah, but there's a town nearby. Otherwise it's overlooking this beautiful landscape. And Valentine isn't pretty but it's very western and very small. We see other people not far from camp but nature is still basically everywhere.

Clemens Point is surrounded by nature but what sets it apart is that it's already been used. There's a dock and we as Arthur go to clear it out. It's also just by Rhodes which is an arguably more developed than Valentine.

Then of course there's Shady Bell which is a house. It's already been used, we kill people to get it, and it's like maybe ten minutes away from Saint Denis which is a huge city. Saint Denis is very prim and proper and not very dirty, but just around the edges close to camp there's rot and decay.

I'm leaving Guarma out of this because I think it's less relevant to the whole gang's downfall, but it's a point to mention that it's the ruins of a house surrounded by a constant threat.

Then we're at Lakay. This literally has skulls on spikes outside, according to Arthur (I can't find pictures right now), and is obviously run down. It's a bit farther from Saint Denis but not by much. We also stay there for a while in a place that's burnt and shot apart.

Finally Beaver Hollow. This is arguably the biggest change from our beginning. We are in a cave that was previously filled with the Murphee Brood and the evidence of them is still there (cages, boxes, wagons, etc). We are right outside Annesburg, a filthy mining town where everything is polluted.

It's really interesting thinking back on it now and I'm definitely going to pay more attention to it on my next playthrough

[dbphantom]

maybe i should have gone into practical effects instead of computer science...

[lunamugetsu]

The CIA is trying to kill Danny

Now hear me out.

I stumbled upon this prompt idea where somebody wrote that they want to see a story where the CIA is trying to kill Clark Kent (not Superman, reporter Clark Kent), the reason is because that Clark Kent is a very good reporter. And everybody knows that a mark of a good reporter is that they die of natural causes, with bullets in their head. So that story would have centered around the CIA trying to kill Clark Kent and having no idea on how Clark Kent is still alive after the multiple attempts on his life.

Now this got me thinking.

In an AU where Danny is interning or working at the Daily Planet, probably under Clark or Lois.(you choose) And Danny is a really good reporter, his ghost powers help him gather information undetected. He's exposing corporations left and right, all ranging from either illegal animal experimentation, environmental pollution, horrible working conditions, toss in a couple of sleazy terrible rich people. So while all of his stuff is getting published and the govt is going, "we gotta stop that reporter." And proceed to constantly try to end this kid's life with no result. They try to poison food, Danny grew up eating radioactive food, if anything the poison is just added seasoning. They try to set up his place on fire, Danny's just conveniently not there. They try to have people tail him but they can't because Danny just disappears whenever he turns a corner.

And layers could be added to this, like Danny's just talking to Clark at work (y'know water cooler talk) and when Danny brings up all of these strange things happening to him like "people following him, the elevator at his place just conveniently broke down and crashed into the ground around the time he would have left for work, or how his usual food orders look a bit different than what they normally look like and they taste slightly different." And Clark is hearing all of this and is going "wait a minute!" and there's a scene of Clark walking with Danny as the kid is waiting for his uber and when the car pulls up. Clark uses his x-ray vision and spots the driver sporting guns, knives, poison gas (whatever CIA agents use for assassinations, I don't know) and just goes "Hey Danny did I ever take you to my favorite diner. No? GREAT! Let's go now!" and he just immediately drags Danny away from the murder car. And from that point on, Clark is taken it upon himself to stop all of the assassination attempts on Danny because he believes that Danny is a fragile young human being.

OR

This could be set in Gotham

And Danny is just exposing all of elites of Gotham, including Gotham's rogues and all of that song and dance. Which then leads him to be targeted by the Court of OWLS! Danny in this scenario would be friends with Tim, because they go to the same coffee shop and order the espresso on steroids drink. Danny tells him all of the stuff that's been happening to him and Tim goes "oh shit." In which he then tells the batsiblings. They all band together to protect Danny because he is a normal human being. (said nobody ever) So Danny becomes unofficially adopted by them. They don't tell Bruce about this because then they'll have to come to terms that they are just like him because they just took in a black haired blue eyed kid into their family.

[reasonsforhope]

"At HarperCollins, a lot of attention and thought is given to deciding exactly what combinations of margin measurements, font, and layout feel most appropriate for the genre, and writing style.

But in a case of do-your-part environmentalism, designers at the publishing house have now standardized a series of subtle and imperceptible alterations to normal font style, layouts, and ink that have so far removed the need for 245 million book pages, totaling 5,618 trees.

Telling the story in Fast Company, representatives from HarperCollins, one of the four largest publishing houses in the world, explained that the idea first arose in Zondervan Bibles, HarperCollins’ Christian publishing division. Being that the Bible is 2,500 pages or sometimes more, saving ink and pages was not just an environmental consideration, but one of production costs.

A new typeface called NIV Comfort Print allowed Zondervan to shave 350 pages off of every Bible, which by 2017 had amounted to 100 million pages, and which, as Fast Company points out, would be four times higher than the Empire State Building if stacked.

The production and design teams then wondered how much they could save if they applied the same concepts to other genres like romance and fiction. Aside from the invention of the eBook, publishing hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years, and the challenge was a totally novel one for the teams—to alter all their preconceived ideas and try and find a font and typeface that resulted in fewer pages without being harder to read.

They eventually standardized 14 different combinations their tests determined were the most environmentally friendly, and which delivered an unchanged reading experience.

But the challenge didn’t stop there. Printed books, one might not know, are printed in large sheets which are then folded into sections of sixteen pages, meaning that Leah Carlson-Stanisic, associate director of design at HarperCollins, has to calculate the savings of space, words, and ultimately pages with the help of her team to fall in multiples of sixteen.

Nevertheless, they have been successful with it so far, and in the recent print run of one popular book, 1 million pages (or a number near 1 million that coincides with the 16 times tables) were saved.

“We want to make sure our big titles, by prominent authors, are using these eco-fonts,” Carlson-Stanisic said. “It adds up a little bit at a time, saving more and more trees.”"

-via Good News Network, April 4, 2024

--

Note: Great! Waiting to see this on the rest of their books and at the other big publishers!

Actually, though, it's worth noting that this may not come quickly to the other large publishers, because Harper Collins almost certainly owns that font - meaning that other publishers would have to pay HarperCollins in order to use it, on an ongoing basis.

More on publishing shit and more realistic solutions here below the cut!

What I'm hoping for and think is more likely is that this will inspire the development of open source eco-friendly fonts, which would be free for anyone to use. That would make it far more likely other publishers would adopt eco-friendly fonts.

I'm also hoping it would inspire other publishers to create similar eco-friendly fonts of their own.

Ideally, there would be a whole new landscape of (hopefully mostly open source) eco-friendly fonts. And/or to see calculations of the eco-friendliness of popular existing fonts, compared to each other.

If we could have a publicly accessible list of calculations for different fonts, including fonts designed to maximize eco-friendliness, I really do think that it would affect which fonts publishers choose to use. Here's why:

Most people in publishing are on the left (notoriously, actually) and really do care about the environment

People in publishing are plenty aware of these issues re: paper and trees, I promise

Shorter books means smaller production costs - and possibly smaller shipping costs as well, over time! So it would save them money too.

Eco-friendly fonts could also be combined with other measures for greater effect, such as bamboo paper (already in use for a lot of projects where page color/quality is more flexible) and thinner paper (aka paper with a lower weight) that uses less trees.

Don't expect books to all move to just one or two different fonts, though. Publishers and typesetters and font designers will innovate to create more options instead, though it will take longer. This is because different books really do use different fonts for various different reasons - one new font to rule them all isn't really a solution here.

"Every book is in the same font" may sound like a "whatever" deal to a lot of people, but as someone who works in publishing - trust me, it would actually make your reading experience worse, even if you could never quite put your finger on why.

[pjsk-headcanons]

HI ITS GLOBE ANON...SHINONOMES AHHHH (apologies for dying lol kind of wanted to get more art sided stuff done (i didnt))

shinonomes: distant

-basically, it was around middle school ena time when akito had that little line between "real" and "fake" start to blur

-ena knew he hated soccer but couldn't bring herself to say it to him. felt really guilty about it because after a while, she couldn't even look him in the eyes

-mental state was already pretty bad because of this, and then she got "the talk" from her teacher and then her dad confronted her too. she ended up throwing her art supplies out

-akito found out why she was having such a hard time, but he was already so deep into the spiral that the only thing he could do was avoid her

-they ended up just falling apart. they're so distant that they don't see each other at all. no phone numbers, just occasional notes on a counter. no birthday gifts

-can you tell they are my favourites (they are the ones on my display profile....hhhh)

summer festival, rekindled flames - post 1st anni

character boost: ena (focus), haruka, airi, akito, stage miku

-SUMMER FESTIVAL HAHAHA. pretty sure ena is not gonna have a good time. fashion and all

- ena didn't call akito to get her more comfortable shoes this time, who knew if she did what would happen next

-stage miku canonically likes food, like alot, so she is looking around with ena and admiring food

-airi and haruka meet in this one :D airi is preforming a small stand-up play, haruka is preforming a solo show

-akito simply admires the shows. ena sees him once and freaks out

-some enairi (platonic??) bonding maybe. a little bit of shinonome sibling backstory reveal

animal care? kamiyama clubfest! - post 2nd anni

character boost: rui (focus), akito, ena, nene, theater len

-literally what it sounds like i mean. reads i. mean text. i mean looks like i mea

-kamiyama is having a lil festival where clubs hold a lil stand for people to try out something related to the club so people join!!!

-since this is pre-3rd anni, the list goes like this

akito "helps out at various sports clubs"

ena doesn't have one. you gotta be kidding me

nene has film

rui has greening (for anyone who doesn't know, its like making more environmentally friendly stuff)

-rui gets kicked out of hosting the stand (everyone fears he will do something funny) and decides to look around

-animal care happens. seperate timing but this is probably where we learn akito's cynophobia

-meets ena (wanted to look around), akito, and nene seperately. theater len almost gets caught in open looking at a short film but nene gets him to hide right before akito pops up

-silly event, with some sibling mentions

blurry snapshots from that yesteryear - pre 4th anni

character boost: akito (focus), ena, an, minori, city MEIKO

-i love the word yesteryear. it doesn't even make sense (according to the oxford dictionary) in this occasion but i had to use it at some point ok

-akito goes to weekend garage and meets minori and an. minori mentions there being a live concert for stage○•showtime (yapping about how cool shizuku is)

-thinks huh. maybe i should go watch

-thinks for a bit too long in front of the two. an knows its normal behaviour and minori freaks out, talks to city MEIKO

-MEIKO says to keep an eye on him. if its that worrying

-day of preformance. minori fangirling and akito *DROPS FULL SHINONOMES FLASHBACK*

-ena spots him. oh no!!! gotta scram

-event story ends with ena coming home and her spotting a lil gift on the counter. she smiles a bit at it

sibling trust ranks are next + the asks in that one ask from a long time ago (sorry again. school sucks but there is a break soon so more content hopefully)

AAÀAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA have a great day mod!

🌐 anon

[noneedtoamputate]

Band of Brothers Olympics AU - Chapter One

I don't have a great title for this yet. I was thinking about The Vault in Our Stars, a pun on another Shakespeare quote to go along with Band of Brothers. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

This came out of my Olympic obesession, and I've tried to include a lot of details that came out of the Paris games in the fic.

I can't thank @mercurygray enough for helping me flesh out this story and providing some much-needed details. She deserves co-author credit on this chapter, but any mistakes or sections that don't work are on me. And thanks to @shoshiwrites for beta-reading and telling me it was a fun read. That's exactly what I am going for with this fic.

Hope you all enjoy!

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Five days before Opening Ceremony

Four of the five members of the United States men’s gymnastics team lounged in the larger of the two bedrooms in their Olympic Village suite after their designated practice time. Harry Welsh texted his girlfriend, Kitty Grogan, a member of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team and America’s current sweetheart. High bar specialist George Luz balanced a plate of French baked goods on his lap. Team himbo Floyd Talbert read the newest issue of Field and Stream. Carwood Lipton, the youngest member of the squad, sat on the floor doing a v-stretch. 

“My mattress here is worse than the one in my dorm room,” Carwood lamented, grabbing his foot and reaching his head to his knee.

“Yes, but it’s environmentally friendly,” Harry pointed out without looking up from typing. “You can save the world or save your back, but not both.”

“Fuck, this pain au chocolat is good,” George said, his mouth full and his pronunciation terrible.

“You don’t say the last letter of the word,” Tab explained, hardly looking up from his magazine. 

“Whatever.” George considered the pastry again. “I think I’m going to record a review and put it on TikTok.”

“You know French?” Carwood asked Tab. It wasn’t impossible, but Carwood didn’t take Tab as the … cultured type. He knew Dick and Harry pretty well - he was a few years behing them at Penn State, after all - but he was still getting to know George and Tab. Both men liked to joke, although their senses of humor worked in different ways - in strong contrast to Dick, who didn’t really go for jokes when it came to his team and his sport. 

“Kinda. I’ve been doing twenty minutes of Duolingo a day for the past two months. I’m up to Level Six,” Tab explained proudly.

Harry laughed and shook his head. “And here I was thinking the only French Tab knew was mènage à trois.”

“I resent that you think that low of me, Harry - and that’s an important phrase,” Talbert defended, finally looking up from his reading. “Speaking of, any chance Kitty introduces us to her teammates?”

Harry put his phone down. “Kitty’s already told them all about you. And if that didn’t scare them off, she threatened  that if they so much as shook your hand, she’d send their names to the doping agency and they’d have to take extra urine tests.” 

“Shit, I wouldn’t cross Kitty. She scares the hell out of me.” George admitted, brushing crumbs off his chin. 

“If only the American public knew about the real Kitty Grogan,” Carwood agreed. Harry’s girlfriend had worked hard for the America’s Sweetheart nickname, but George was right. Her tiny frame and blond curls hid a ruthless sense of humor, a deceptively strong arm, and a very, very strong protective urge for the other women on her team. (Necessary equipment, she would have said.)

“Well, there’s lots of other women in the Olympic Village,” Tab said, unbothered and unashamed. “And I’ll need some more condoms, too, since someone -” he glared at George - “wouldn’t share.”

“Christ, will you let it go? Harry asked for mine first. And everyone got five to start with. If you need more than that, walk your lazy ass downstairs to the clinic. They have more there for the taking.”

The suite door opened, and team captain Dick Winters walked into the room.

“Hey, have you had any of these, Dick?” George asked, gesturing to the remnant of croissant on the table. “They’re really good.”

Dick looked at the pastry like George had just suggested he eat something toxic, and gave a brief shake of his head.“I just got through talking with Coach Taylor, and he was really happy with the way practice went this morning.”

“Well, that’s why I came to France. To make Coach Taylor happy.” Harry rolled his eyes. He wasn’t on the best of terms with the national team coach, and he wasn’t afraid of letting everyone know it. 

“Hey, Tab, you should ask Dick!” George suggested. 

“Ask me what?” Dick looked over Tab’s way.

“Can I have the condoms that came in your welcome pack? George already gave his to Harry.” Tab still sounded put out.

Dick looked even more offended about this than he had about the chocolate croissant. “No!” 

“Why? Did you use them already?” Tab sat up and looked at Dick, interested in his answer.

“No!” Dick shouted again, even louder this time. “And nobody is no going to need the condoms, because nobody on this team is going to have sex until we’re done with the competition.”

“What?” Tab asked incredulously. “There are 5,000 women here. And 5,000 men, if that’s your thing. Ten thousand people, all of us at the peak of our physical well being. And you want us to refrain from doing anything that requires a condom for a week?”

Dick sighed, more than a little agitated he had to explain this to his teammates. “We have a chance to do something really special here. I know it's a long shot, but we could medal. It would be huge for men’s gymnastics back home. We owe it to ourselves and our sport to do our best, and that means focusing. Abstaining for a week isn’t going to kill anybody.”

Harry shook his head. “Look Dick, I understand what you’re saying, but you know how superstitious I am, and I always sleep with Kitty before a big meet. She does this thing where … ”

“STOP!” interrupted Dick, eyes closed in pain. “Nobody is interested in what you were about to say.”

“I am,” Tab answered honestly, and George laughed.

“Look, I didn’t come up here to talk about condoms,” Dick said, desperately wanting to change the subject. “I’ve been thinking we should skip the opening ceremonies.”

The rest of the team stared at him.

Dick sighed before starting again. “I know we’ve all been looking forward to it, but it’s only two days before our qualification round, and we’ll be on our feet and it will throw off our sleep schedule.”

“C’mon, Dick. It’s one night,” George said.

“I know it’s not a big deal for you, being in just one event,” Dick said, sounding judgmental. 

George sat up straighter. “Yeah, I only won the silver medal at last year’s world championships for the high bar. I have no idea how I even got picked for the Olympic team, because that’s not a big deal.”

The three other teammates turned their heads back and forth, following the heated exchange.

Dick grimaced. “That didn’t come out the right way, George. I’m sorry. But you have to see my point. You get it, don’t you, Carwood?”

Everyone looked at Carwood. 

Carwood looked up to Dick, both as a gymnast and a person, so he was slow to voice his dissent. Truthfully, he’d been looking forward to the ceremony quite a bit, and the idea of not going for something like a sleep schedule sounded … well, lame.  “I want to do well, too, Dick, but there are so many things about the games that we don’t want to miss out on. The opening ceremonies, meeting new people …”

“Mènage à trois,” Harry added with a huge grin, and Tab threw the magazine his way. 

“You know what, forget it,” Dick said, clearly agitated. “Let’s just treat this like one big frat party and forget about representing our country and bringing home a medal.” He walked out of the room.

“Aw, Dick, come on!” he heard Harry call out to him, but he didn’t respond. He’d shared his feelings with his team, and they’d shared theirs. 

How was a captain supposed to lead when his team didn’t want to be led?

-

Dick decided to take his frustration out in the weight room, and then he got a massage. Back in the locker room, he checked his phone and saw Harry had messaged him.

Harry: Hey, you okay? We’re going to grab dinner, but I understand if you need to cool off.

Harry: I don’t think that conversation went the way anyone wanted it to.

Harry: They’re all good guys and they care a lot, but we all need a little fun, too.

Harry: You don’t have to be perfect, Dick. You’re already a good leader.

Harry: You know I love you, man. Kitty says she loves you, too (but not like she loves me).

Dick smiled briefly at the words on the screen. Harry was more than just a long time teammate. He’d been his freshman year roommate, one of the first friends he’d made at Penn State, and the guy on the team who understood him the best. They had shared wins and losses and ups and downs. Dick was even there the first time Harry laid eyes on Kitty, and she quickly became one of Dick’s people, too.

Thanks. Dick texted back. Grabbing dinner with Lew. Appreciate the invite, though. I’ll catch you before lights out.

He would need to apologize to them all later - he could see that now. Sometimes he forgot that other people saw the world a little differently than he did. But that was part of being a leader, too. 

It’s good to have people who care about you, he thought.

-

An hour later, Dick took the Metro and walked a few blocks to meet team sponsor Lew Nixon at a bistro. A second-generation tech titan, Lew and his sister, Blanche, needed a way for their father’s software company to save face after Stan’s headline-making fourth divorce. Blanche suggested adopting two Olympic teams that needed financial support and didn’t mind the backing of NixWorks, despite the reputation of its founder. 

So Lew met with men’s gymnastics, promising free housing for its national team members, as well as covering travel expenses and extensive social media coverage. Blanche did the same with the women’s rugby team, and both teams were happy to accept. 

Nix hated athletics - his idea of weight training was 12 ounce curls - and Dick had nothing in common with the San Francisco tech bro. But in spite of their differences - or maybe because of them - the two had become close friends during the past year. Dick appreciated having someone he could talk to outside of the gymnastics bubble he placed himself in leading up to the games. 

Dick spotted Lew sitting at a table for two on the outdoor patio, looking at his phone, a glass of red wine already in front him. 

“Dick!” Lew said, greeting him a little too loudly. Dick thought the glass of wine may not have been Lew’s first of the evening. 

“Have you seen the new dating app we created for the Olympians?” Lew turned his phone around so Dick could see it.

“Yeah. Light My Fire. Great name,” Dick said.

“I know, right?” Lew missed the sarcasm from Dick. “You know, because the torch and everything.”

“I get it,” said Dick.

“And my dad is a huge Jim Morrison fan. Once I told him the idea and the name, he had the programmers start working on it right away.” The waiter came over to go over the specials and take Dick’s drink order. Lew translated and answered back in perfect French.

“Dick, it wouldn’t kill you to try some new things while you’re here,” Lew said, considering his friend over the candle in the middle of the table.

“I don’t like sparkling water. I just want tap. And what’s wrong with ranch dressing?”

Lew tried to hold in his smile.“They call it still water here, Dick. And nothing is wrong with ranch dressing ... if you’re in State College, Pennsylvania. But you happen to be in the culinary capital of the world, and I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” Lew said conspiratorially, leaning a bit closer to Dick across the table. “Champagne vinaigrette won’t get you drunk.”

Dick rolled his eyes. 

Over the meal - Lew had steak frites, rare, and another glass of what Dick learned was Bordeaux, while Dick stuck to water, still, and a grilled chicken salad - Dick shared what had conspired earlier in the day. Dick would have never guessed it when they first met, but Lew was a good listener, always taking in facts and asking pertinent questions. 

Lew took a long sip of wine before sharing his conclusion.

“Listen, I know you don’t have beaches in Pennsylvania, but I’m sure you’ve held sand too tightly before,” Lew said. “I don’t think I need to tell you it usually doesn’t work.”

Dick couldn’t help but laugh. Lew was right.

“I’ve seen all five of you work hard, make sacrifices. You’re all ready for this. Give them a little space, a little freedom. This thing only happens every four years - enjoy it a little!” 

Dick nodded.

When he got back to the room, the team was half-watching an action movie dubbed in English on the television while Kitty was recording George eating another one of those chocolate pastries. Several sets of eyes swung to him and the door as he came in, just as quickly going back to the movie.

He looked down at his feet for a moment. “I owe you all an apology. I came on a little strong earlier, and I’m sorry. I’ve … got a lot on my mind at the moment.” The group continued to watch the movie, but George’s frown had softened a little.

“Here’s the deal,” Dick said in such a way that everyone turned around and stared at him intently. “We’re going to work like hell for the next two days. Then we’ll go to the opening ceremonies. And then we’ll kick some ass.”

His teammates look stunned. They never heard him swear once before, let alone twice in one speech. 

“Fuck yeah,” George answered back, smiling.

“Fuck yeah,” Harry and Tab said at the same time.

Carwood took his time. He didn’t swear much, either. “Fuck yeah,” he finally said, and Harry patted him on the back.

As Kitty recorded the moment on George’s phone for posterity, she knew this group was something special. 

[rhondafromhr]

Hey Sims 2 nation, who wants to hear about my super elaborate kinda unhinged AU involving the Grunt, Curious (mostly Vidcund), Smith and Specter (mostly Ophelia) households?? Some of this is inspired by the game and my own playthroughs, some of it kinda diverges, some of it’s stuff that’s plausible for the characters imo but can’t really be replicated in actual gameplay. Also partially inspired by this post. I’ll probably give in to the demons and turn this into a 100k longfic at some point, but for now here’s what I got. It’s not fully fleshed out yet but hope you enjoy! Also hope you see the vision for Vidcund/Buzz, I’ve never seen a single person put them together (understandable, it is very much a crackship) but I think they have the potential for SUCH a fun and interesting dynamic and could really push each other to change, for better for worse.

—The way I interpret Buzz is as a deeply flawed sim, but one who has room to improve and do better. He wasn’t the most involved parent, leaving most of the difficult work to Lyla (as seen in the in-game memories with her having taught most of their toddler skills), he obviously favors Tank, being harsher on Ripp and ignoring Buck, he puts a lot of pressure on all of them to live up to a very strict set of ideals. This impacts all of the kids negatively in different ways. Obviously not great, but I do believe that he does care about them and with the right catalyst, he could begin to see the error of his ways and make an effort to change. Like he’s not going to become the most open, accepting, emotionally available dad-of-the-year overnight, but I think he could sort of redeem himself over time. I see him as the type of sim who, once his mind sets on something, is all in, so I think once he realized how shitty he’s been, he’d throw himself into trying to be a better parent, although he would definitely not get it right on the first tries and would continually make mistakes. Of course there are going to be growing pains in an arc like this and he has some pretty skewed ideas of what good parenting looks like.

—I definitely get why he’s portrayed as straight-up abusive and virtually irredeemable in a lot of fanworks and that characterization is valid, but based the limited info we have from family and individual bios, memories, environmental storytelling, personality points, etc I think you could go in either direction and have a decently solid basis for it in canon. (Buzz in Division 47 in The Sims 2 PSP is a different story, but tbh I see that as an entirely different timeline and a lot of the characterizations are different.)

—So anyway, here’s how it starts: Buzz is spying on his neighbors with the telescope because he’s a fucking freak who can’t mind his own business; Vidcund comes over to yell at him for spying because he’s also a fucking freak and assumes Buzz is spying on his household specifically. Buzz keeps doing it to spite him because no one tells him what to do on his own watcher-damn property. This continues every day and although neither would ever admit it, they both start looking forward to it bc they’re both lonely. Neither has many close relationships and every close relationship they do have is strained—Buzz with his kids bc he hasn’t been a very good father, Vidcund with his brothers bc there’s always been tension with Pascal over the whole Circe thing and he hasn’t been getting along with Lazlo as well recently. (That bit is inspired by my playthroughs—every time I load up that household, Vidcund and Lazlo have a negative interaction that causes them to lose their status as best friends). Slowly but surely, they build up a rapport and eventually something akin to friendship.

—Buzz gets his demotion, just like in the game’s scripted events, and will soon struggle to pay his mortgage and keep up his family’s current standard of living on his new salary, but he would rather die than admit to failure so he needs to find a way to stay in that house and keep up appearances. Meanwhile, with Pascal’s new alien baby, the Curious household is always loud and chaotic. Vidcund resents the lack of quiet and alone time and the interruption to his routine. Oh, look at that, Buzz has a spare room, and there are no crying babies in his house, just two horribly maladjusted teenagers and an attention-starved tween. Cue the “And they were roommates.”

—At some point, Buzz decides to try and get Buck into private school and invites the headmaster over. He enlists Vidcund’s help and they pose as a married couple (if he wants to impress this snobby ass school he can’t let on that he needs a roommate, and he sees that as the most plausible explanation for why Vidcund lives there. Also at this point Vidcund’s a professor at La Fiesta Tech so that kind of helps make them look even more impressive.)

—Buzz forces Tank and Ripp to spend the weekend camping at Three Lakes because he doesn’t trust them to get along for the night and make a good impression (who’s fault is that, Buzz?? Who played favorites and pitted them against each other??). They have a side story bonding and overcoming some of their issues there.

—To really sell it, Buzz and Vidcund casually touch each other here and there (an arm around the waist, hand on the shoulder, etc.) Both of them are too emotionally constipated to show affection in any way, especially physical, so they’re both super touch starved and end up liking it a lot. Like, a lot.

—Even though dinner fully caught on fire and nearly burned the house down, they manage to get Buck in. Buzz is all giddy (although he tries to hide it and be his usual gruff self) and keeps giving Vidcund these soft looks when he thinks he’s not looking.

—They end up sleeping together (in the literal sense, not woohoo) but Buzz’s reaction to it makes it seem like more happened. He’s all stressed over it, wondering what does this mean?? What are they?? He can’t believe he allowed himself to receive slight physical intimacy and comfort. What’s gotten into him??

—Cue Buzz and Vidcund lounging in the kitchen in their boxers and undershirts sipping coffee when Tank and Ripp come home early. Buzz is mortified and stammers trying to explain himself, but the boys Do Not Care.

—The fucking family drama this would cause!!! Imagine the Curious family finally finding out who Vidcund’s seeing. Pascal would be furious. Lazlo would just be confused, and maybe concerned for Vidcund, but they all suck at feelings and communication so he doesn’t express it in the best way. Then Vidcund gets pissed at his brothers, causing even more tension in their already strained relationship.

—Jenny I think would be extremely weary of Buzz because of his and PT9’s history and make it clear that she’s not going to tolerate any bullshit, but would try and put her best foot forward. She’s happy to see Vidcund in a relationship that seems to be making him happy and isn’t just one-sided stalking on his part (RIP Circe Beaker).

—When Jenny tries to talk to the other brothers about this, they’re already fragile and take it to mean that she sees their arrangement of living and co-parenting Pascal’s kid together instead of with romantic partners as inferior (bc a part of this is that they feel like Vidcund abandoned them for the Grunt family). They also incorrectly assume that Jenny thinks she’s better than them for having a more traditional family. And there WAS a time when she worried about them staying single in Pascal’s case or unmarried/only seeing Crystal casually in Lazlo’s (when you load up the household in the game, she almost always rolls the want to have a baby, but by that point she’s too close to being an elder to be able to do so; I think she adores her husband and her family and wouldn’t change anything, but because she waited so long due to PT9 being gone on his assignment, she wasn’t able to have a large family like she always wanted. So at some point she would have worried about her brothers waiting until it’s “too late” like she did, in a sense, but once she realized they really didn’t want that, she supported them.)

—PT9 is the type of sim to always take the high ground and focus on his own life and the people he loves, so Buzz’s beef with him has always been kind of one-sided anyway (saw a post of them as that “when someone’s so hateful it inspires you to be kinder”/“when someone’s so kind it actually disgusts you” meme and like yeah. That’s their dynamic). Buzz clumsily tries to make amends, and they slowly bond and put the time they fought in a Waffle House parking lot behind them (yes that is where the fight happened, it’s 10000% canon, trust). PT9 or Jenny will often playfully remind him about how he got his ass handed to him, but by this point (shockingly) he’s actually grown a sense of humor and he doesn’t mind. I just love the idea of Buzz, Jenny and PT9 having a slowburn enemies to friends arc.

—This leads to Jenny and Vidcund reconnecting. Between being significantly older and not sharing a lot of the same interests that her brothers always bonded over, I think Jenny always felt a little alienated and left out. Almost like they were in an exclusive little club she didn’t get to be a part of. But now Vidcund’s kicked out of the club too because Pascal and Lazlo hate his ass (not really. They’re just hurt and need time to come around to the idea of him being with Buzz Grunt of all people). So they get to get to know each other as adults and discover what they do have in common. Both love botany and they start gardening together. Jenny minored in botany and she’s extremely knowledgeable. Both are elated to have someone they can share their passion with. Vidcund is shocked and scandalized to learn that she grew and sold her own weed back in high school and college. (She still does on the side but shhh don’t tell Buzz). Both love to read and they form a little book club. They start out only reading the classics and scientific literature, wanting to impress each other, but they both have a secret love of trashy, pulpy romance novels that they try desperately to hide out of embarrassment. Eventually, they realize this and add some of those books into the rotation.

—As his relationship with Buzz has gotten more serious, Vidcund’s kind of struggling with his new role as essentially a stepdad, and Jenny and PT9 are the go to people for parenting advice. One night PT9 is essentially like “my brother in Watcher, it’s good that you care but you worry too much, there’s no guidebook and none of us truly know what we’re doing, everybody fucks up sometimes.” And Jenny’s like “preach”. (They also may or may not be stoned off Jenny’s primo weed for this discussion).

—What are the kids up to during all this?? Well, Ophelia, tired of her anxieties ruling her life, decides to explore the mysteries and weird supernatural occurrences of Strangetown. Initially, her goal is simply to learn how to exorcise ghosts so she can finally have some peace and quiet at home and no longer be constantly scared by them, but deep down it’s about proving to herself that she can be brave and overcome her fears. Through the process, gaining an understanding of the town’s weirdness will also give her a sense of control and make it seem less unknowable and terrifying. She drags Ripp and Johnny into it (they’re a polycule btw; they’re such an inseparable trio to me. I have installed mods in my game to allow polyamory solely so they can be together) and they begin to spend all their free time exploring the town and uncovering its secrets.

—Now that Tank and Ripp are cool, Ripp wants to spend more time with his brother, so Tank attempts to make things right with Johnny and Johnny gives Tank a chance, mainly for Ripp’s sake. So Tank kind of fourth wheels them and tags along on their adventures, but he doesn’t mind. He’s vibing and actually having fun for once. They also have to sneak around a lot bc Olive is really strict, as is Buzz (although he has started to loosen up a little at this point) and Tank really loves the shenanigans and rebelling because he’s never allowed himself to do that.

—I think Tank and Ophelia could eventually become close. They’re both bundles of tension and anxiety and hold themselves to impossible standards (Ophelia channels this into trying to be the perfect student and obsessing over her grades). They both struggle to let go of control because neither has really had any in their home lives. Neither one has really gotten the chance to talk about the parents they lost or given themselves space to properly grieve (Ripp hasn’t either), always too focused on surviving the here and now, but would eventually come to allow themselves to do so. (Haven’t really fleshed it out yet but the catalyst for this is that one of the supernatural adventures they go on involves ghosts and the need to process things to be able to move on to the next plane. It’s, like, annoyingly on the nose and Not Subtle Whatsoever to the point where it actually irritates them.)

—Also Tank is aroace. I see a character that doesn't have a canonical love interest and I go, “It’s free real estate” and hit them upside the head with the aroace beam. He starts out deeply ashamed of it, feeling like he failed to live up to the standards of masculinity his dad used to put on him and that he continues to put on himself, but slowly comes around to be okay with it.

—Buck and Jill become besties. I think it starts out as sort of a “well our families spend like every second together now. You’re literally always around and we’re the only two kids around our age at the function. I guess we’re friends?” type of deal. Like they’ve always been chill and friendly with each other at school, but never super close. But Jill brings out Buck’s more playful and imaginative side and helps him to just be a kid, and in turn she gets a new partner in crime. He also helps her gain the confidence to stand up to a few little shits who have been making fun of her at school, and they get their revenge on them with some kind of epic prank. They get in trouble for it and Buck expects Buzz to either be mad at him or ignore him per usual, but instead Buzz is proud that he stood up for his friend and for what was right.

—One day Buck and Jill are left alone in the house with the dog (I always get the Smiths a big dog and name it something stupid like Floofmaster 5000) and decide to give it a bath, haircut and dye job after Buck tells her about his dreams of being a celebrity pet groomer. (Fun fact for those not familiar with the game, that’s canon. IIRC it says something about him wanting to become a pet groomer to the stars in his bio. Sadly there’s no such career path in game to my knowledge). The Smiths come home to a bright pink dog with a surprisingly well-done haircut and a pink-stained bathroom. Jenny and PT9 try to (gently) scold the kids but they can’t stop laughing. PT9 dyes his hair pink to match the dog (in my heart he’s the classic “was adamant about absolutely not wanting a dog but then got the most attached to it” dad). Jenny joins in too because she always used to dye her hair fun colors and she misses it.

—Maybe Buck and Jill get crushes on each other and eventually date when they get older?? I usually put them together after sending them off to college in my game. Typically I give them both the pleasure aspiration too, so they spend their days just living it up, having fun, doing whatever they feel like doing. They match each other’s whimsy and chaos.

—Back to Buzz and Vidcund: at some point before they’re officially together but when they’re definitely Becoming A Thing, Buzz decides he needs to work on himself and repair his relationship with his kids before anything else can take priority, so they break things off but remain friends (emotional maturity??? From Buzz Grunt??? Inspiring. People really can change.) They’re both really mopey about it but insist they’re fine.

—Around this time, certified trust fund jerk Malcolm Landgraab IV comes on the scene to open up some new locations for his electronics retailer downtown. He and Vidcund meet, hit it off and end up in a sort of situationship. Vid still lives with the Grunts, but spends a lot of time with Malcolm and is around a lot less.

—The boys are Not Happy with this development. They’re like uh hey, where the fuck is he?? They’ve gotten attached to Vidcund and sort of started to see him as another parental figure. They kinda assumed Buzz and Vidcund were already a thing, so they’re shocked that they’ve “broken up” and not even told them, and that Buzz is being so cavalier about it. Also Tank and Buck don’t cope super well with big changes so this isn’t great for them :( now it’s up to poor Ripp to comfort both his brothers and tbh he has no idea what he’s doing. Get my man some of that primo weed, he needs it.

—Still, anytime Buzz or one of the boys call him for literally anything, Vidcund will drop Malcolm like a hot potato. It’s obvious where his priorities lie and where his heart is. Eventually, Malcolm breaks up with Vidcund, stating that he’s caught actual feelings but he knows Vidcund can’t reciprocate because he’s hung up on somebody else.

—This will become a plot point later: Malcolm keeps doing increasingly unhinged things to try and impress Vidcund and prove how great he’s doing after their breakup, which eventually escalates to him running for mayor of Strangetown. His opponent is none other than Circe Beaker and now everyone has to rally behind her because holy crap would that rich dumbfuck run Strangetown right into the ground. This is genuinely not meant to be a commentary of any sort, I just think a mayoral race between Circe “I definitely don’t have a man trapped in my basement to run experiments on” Beaker and Malcolm Landgraab IV would be funny, especially the way I like to characterize him (chaotic dumbass with a huge ego who has WAY too much money and free time and makes it everyone else’s problem.)

—Immediately after ending things with Malcolm, Vidcund tells Buzz what happened and why. After like a year of tension, they finally kiss. Vidcund moves his stuff from his room into Buzz’s and that’s that.

—They bicker a lot, sometimes playfully, sometimes not. It dredges up some memories related to their parents’ divorce for the boys when it happens in front of them. Buzz is trying but he’s still the densest motherfucker on the planet so it takes him a LONG time to realize this. Eventually, he and Vidcund learn to reign it in and the boys get to a place where they trust that it’s not anything serious and Vid’s not going anywhere.

—They’re both pretty ambivalent about marriage. Buzz has already been there done that and he fucked it up pretty bad. Vidcund’s not opposed but he’s never really pictured himself getting married. Eventually, when it comes time for Tank to start thinking about college, Vidcund mentions that as a prof at La Fiesta Tech any dependents of his get free tuition (including stepchildren) and suggests they get married for that reason. Buzz is like, “yeah, I don’t see us ever not being together anyway, sure.”

—I think they’re the type of sims to wear black stainless steel wedding bands. Buzz has an African violet engraved in Vidcund’s.

—As a popularity sim, Buzz would absolutely want a huge wedding and reception, and now that he actually has people who like him and would show up it’s within reach! But he knows how much Vidcund hates crowds and big parties so he keeps it lowkey. (Being considerate and prioritizing others’ needs and wants, even above his own?? Who is he??) They just do it at a courthouse and have a little family get together. Pascal and Lazlo come to at least make an effort to reach out and show their support, and Vidcund is overjoyed to see them, even if he acts aloof about it. Their relationship is still never quite as close as it used to be, but things are better.

—Also they’re autistic4autistic. Neither is aware of this. Buzz because he was raised in A Different Time and his parents were Very Traditional, so they just harshly disciplined him whenever he acted “weird” and he learned to mask very quickly; Vidcund because basically the entire Curious family was neurodivergent and Glarn and Kitty didn’t see the need to seek out a diagnosis, they just sort of accommodated the kids as needed and let ‘em do their thing. Buzz masks so hard and so consistently that he doesn’t even know how not to and refuses to accommodate himself (like if the fabric of a shirt is making him want to crawl out of his skin, he just keeps wearing it because he feels like he “should” be able to tolerate it and also that deeply ingrained toxic masculine ideal that suffering through it without complaining is the “manly” thing to do.) Vidcund cannot fathom masking and when it comes to things that trigger his sensory issues he’s a very “if it sucks hit da bricks” type of sim. He eventually convinces Buzz to just change out of the shirt, stop eating the food with the texture he can’t stand, take the aspirin when he has a headache, use the damn heating pad when his bad back is acting up, and just stop making himself miserable in all these little ways when he literally doesn’t have to.

—Tank is also like that (he learned it from his father and continued practicing it in an effort to be more like him and not disappoint him). He learnt about the joys of “if it sucks hit the bricks” from Ripp, and now that he sees his dad and Vidcund doing it, he feels more okay about not forcing himself to do things that make him really distressed or set off his sensory issues.

—Meanwhile, Ripp learned the joys of not hitting the bricks every time it sucks from Ophelia and Tank; especially with his creative endeavors, he starts sticking them out even when they get challenging, and he enjoys the satisfaction and fulfillment it brings him and creates some music and poetry he’s really proud of.

—The Grunt family looks for a car at some point and Buzz is initially going to get one of those unnecessarily huge trucks that don’t even fit in a lane on the road because of fucking course he’d be one of those guys. Ripp, the resident hippie who’s a bit of an environmentalist, is against this. Buzz actually ends up buying a more reasonable sized sedan, and Ripp is touched that Buzz listened to him, took his input and opinion seriously and even factored it into his decision.

[1ore]

Scuttling into ur askbox like a little beetle

i think i recall you reblogging/posting things about geography and culture + human effect on it - I vaguely recall a piece of art where it showed a blurred out, cropped piece of people fighting, and focused instead on the flora in the scene.

ANYWAY! getting back on track. seeing that piece inspired me to take a course this semester called "people and the land: cultural geography". and the whole reason I came to your askbox was to ask if you had any suggested reading materials? We'll get stuff in class ofc, but I am curious to see if there's any bias of materials on the prof's side vs someone else.

Phew that was a long ask. thank you o/!

That sounds like Liz Anna Kozik’s piece : D So happy it stuck with you! I love her work!!

As for your ask, what an awesome class! Land-human relationships are my bullshit, and I really enjoyed my own cultural geography class.

Thinking back on my schooling, I would say about 70% of my classes fell in with the “everything is awful and humans are the worst” narrative, and the other 30% made time for land-human relationships other than the extractive hellscape that most people currently live under. So, full disclosure, when I think of “bias,” that’s what I think of. You grow up in the miasma, it’s hard to imagine that there’s any other way of living. It’s also hard to say without knowing the professor, but I think, in general, it’s good to be mindful of who is or isn’t telling the story.

ANYWAY. All that in mind, here’s some articles about people-land relations that I think are neat:

The Environment and Society portal - I like their digital exhibits especially. I remember enjoying Oceans in Three Paradoxes and The Northwest Passage. Great place to wander around and pick a random article that catches your eye.

Of Deserts and Decolonization: Dispelling Myths About Drylands – obligatory desert propaganda. An article looking at how colonial mindsets about deserts disrupt existing relationships and hurt both people and land, and also how those attitudes shape environmentalism/conservation/etc. still today.

The Miracle of the Commons – lovingly challenging the Tragedy of the Commons with a creative solution to poaching and human-animal conflict in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. Great article to sit in discomfort about (productively!)

Biodiversity: The Variety of Life that Sustains Our Own – Contains one of my go-to examples when explaining how humans can be good for land and biodiversity, the story of Quitobaquito Springs (and its sister spring Ki:towak, though the author doesn’t mention it here.)

The Environmental History Timeline - just fun to look at, especially the further you go back. It’s funny to spot where a young branch of history is trying *really hard* to reframe how academia thinks about the past, by bringing the invisible landscape forward:

2700 BCE —  Epic of Gilgamesh describes vast tracts of cedar forests in what is now southern Iraq. Gilgamesh defies the gods and cuts down the forest, and in return the gods say they will curse Sumeria with fire (or possibly drought). By 2100 BCE, soil erosion and salt buildup have devastated agriculture. One Sumerian wrote that the “earth turned white.” Civilization moved north to Babylonia and Assyria. Again, deforestation becomes a factor in the rise and subsequent fall of these civilizations. (Perlin, 1991). 2700 BC — Some of the first laws protecting the remaining forests are decreed in Ur, Messopotamia. (Grove, 1995).

^^^ fucking around and finding out forever and ever and ever.

[savagewildnerness]

I understand that this comes from a place of love, but using ChatGPT, the technology which the writers of the show were on strike against, and threatens the livelihoods of people across the film and book industry is something I’d think twice about in the future. Also AI uses an insane amount of water and is horrific for the environment. Just wanting to gently call in as the chatgpt bits came up on my for you page.

I’m so sorry about this and to anyone else who might have been bothered by it! 

I can only be honest and say ChatGPT isn’t something I’d ever used, beyond seeing it on an increasing number of instagram template story posts, requesting people join in.  Personally, I used it for this only as I’d missed Armand’s birthday and in wondering what to play for him, as he’s such a curious character, I wondered what it’d say about him and in full honesty I was using it exactly as I might use Siri (now I wonder if Siri is equally bad?  Because I have definitely had nights where I’ve sat for hours asking Siri to tell me poems and if he loves me and… eek…?)

In any case, for full clarity, let me please state I am anti AI in terms of creativity. I don’t want to read or watch any thing created by AI & feel it is utterly against the essence of art. I am anti AI replacing people’s jobs (beyond that I will definitely need AI to care for me one day, so I hope that might exist if I make it to be old enough to need it. I mean... use it to replace mundane things that can give us all more creative freedom and time and leisure and life! Not for art.)

In any case, I found what ChatGPT had said about Armand funny (as opposed to artistically poignant) and because it made me laugh I asked it about Gabrielle and Nicolas.  It was only intended as silliness, and I was thoughtless & flippant about it, but I obviously won’t do it for the other vampires now! The are more than enough words from the actual books & TV show and indeed my own brain and all of yours too!

But thanks, as you’ve also saved me from potential addiction, asking ChatGPT stupid questions. Which I hadn’t tried, but I foresee that I could perhaps have ended up doing that.  I won’t use it again anyway.

Regarding the environmental impact, I had no idea about that either.  May we all do what we can for the environment (even though I fear we’re beyond hope. Not to be a fatalist, but…)

I’m far from perfect, but do what I can.  I haven’t been on a plane since 2014 (but that’s not to say I would never!  So call be a hypocrite.  But in any case, I haven’t in a decade) & don’t eat meat (I haven’t eaten meat since I was 10, but I’m only pescatarian so that’s also far from great… but you know… every small thing is some thing?) But in any case, in my own little vampire-esque moral quandary I’ll just have to hope that can assuage those couple of searches by telling myself those things, ooops! 😭

Anyway, thanks for letting me know @definitetrashlord! 💓

And once again, sorry if those few posts upset anyone. At least it was nipped in the bud before I became addicted, for shame!  And I thought I’d reply publicly in case anyone else was as ignorant about this as me!

And to offset for everyone, let me share a great place I bought my phone case from:

Oh my word, I am guilt-phone-case-sharing now. I may have to readdress my assertion that I'd LOVE to be a vampire and would have no moral quandary with regards to murder in order to survive in the context of being inhuman.

Anyway, sorry, let's keep it serious. I do feel really bad! I'm so sorry!

[horrorvisuals]

CANINE

CANINE is a first-person horror game with well-made, PSX-style wobbly visuals.

It tells the story of a boy looking for his dog kidnapped by an evil corporation running experiments on pets. In his search, he has to survive against a horrifying creature and escape.

Canine has stealth-focused gameplay where you survive against a stalker-type enemy. Think of the Xenomorph from Alien: Isolation or Mr. X from Resident Evil 2.

Surviving against this creature isn't the most complicated thing, but it can surely be tense sometimes because it can corner you quite easily.

You can use your trusty tennis ball to distract it, run, and hide in designated hiding places.

It has a B-movie type of narrative that doesn't go too much into detail while still managing to give you a compelling story.

Tomy, the boy's dog, is kidnapped by an evil corporation named Umbral. They conduct experiments on dogs to create the perfect demigod.

Throughout your survival inside this facility, you come across notes and environmental details to learn more about this harrowing story.

The game has PSX style, wibbly-wobbly visuals paired with a pretty good atmosphere. The sound design and the overall color palette really puts dread in your chest even before the game truly begins.

At its essence, the gameplay revolves around surviving against this creature while looking for switches around the facility. It's a place with smaller sub-sections that you go through while searching for these switches and other key items, of course, while also looking for Tomy.

Depending on the things you do in your playthrough, the game has two endings. It also has a scoreboard system that nudges you to try again and maybe speedrun the whole thing.

It has a generous checkpoint system, so it never gets annoying even if you're caught.

CANINE is great. I enjoyed this a lot and I'll probably go back to it to play some more, maybe go for a no-death run.

It's pretty cheap on Steam with Very Positive reviews. Confidently recommended.

Check it out here.

[pixies-and-poets]

Wanted to send you this earlier, but I fell asleep, lol.

On the topic of Super Paper Mario, I think I saw the analysis you mentioned too, but I can't find it either...

I really love how the music in this game does more so than being an atmospheric background, like the clocks telling you to hurry up in Castle Bleck and suggesting you that the memories you're reading at the end of the chapters happened in the past. Or how simple yet explanatory it is that "Bounding Through Time" has a more mellow version of Bleck's theme in it.

I love this game, it really deserved more.

This is fantastic timing, because I just asked about the same thing on Twitter and someone found it for me!

This is a really great video, definitely deserves more views. Also made me remember when my blog name was welcome-to-flopside, lol

I have passionate opinions and theories and defenses about SPM in general, about how even its "inexplicable" gag parts that everyone thinks were the devs just trolling, actually serve a purpose. The parts where you have to slave away for Mimi, or run back and forth in the Gap of Crag putting in an absurd block-based password, or fight the Sammer Guys, etc.... all emphasize people making you WASTE TIME in a situation where time is of the essence. In some situations, it proves how the villains (well... really just Mimi) are effective at getting the heroes to waste time, which is honestly a better purpose than outright fighting them since the Void is growing on its own. In others it shows how the people of the universe might try to look the other way and not acknowledge the disaster about to strike (this makes absolute sense for the cragnons especially, since they were already causing environmental destruction and ignoring it).

Even if not everyone sees it this way, I seriously think almost every part of this game, from the music to the jokes, fit together to tell its story. That's why it's one of my favorite games of all time.

[awenvs3000f24]

Blog post 02

When it comes to my ideal role as an environmental interpreter, my first thought is an "educator." This is a broad term and could really fall into any role of an interpreter, but being in the field of education has always, and remains till this day to be my dream career. Learning about nature interpretations and the roles that fit into this category has opened up my eyes to the many possibilities of being an educator and helping people get excited about what they are learning about that go beyond a standard school teacher. I think my ideal role as an environmental interpreter would be to run tours based on a specific environmental location that holds historical or meaningful significance. I would love to be in a position to teach the people who come me as an interpreter by giving them a mix of an audible, visual, and tactile, hands on learning experience. I would lead a walking tour around the site I am interpreting while talking through the details of what the guests are looking at and sharing interesting fun facts. I would make conceptual connections to recent events that relate to the historical events we are discussing and I would tell stories to evoke emotion from the audience and keep them invested in the meaning of the environment they are experiencing. In my ideal role as an environmental interpreter I would be able to run a interactive activity within a tour of the environmental location that would relate to what the audience is learning about, for example if the people who lived in the historical location I was interpreting were known for making something specific by hand during the time that we are discussing, I would have the group try their hand at making the same thing in the same way to build a connection between the audience and what they are learning about. This would make the experience more memorable, because even if people walk away and forget the facts they learned down the line, they will have the memory of their participation in an activity that connects to what they experienced and learned. I would definitely need great public speaking skills to succeed in this role to address a crowd of all different people, and the ability to keep everyone engaged and entertained while making sure they are grasping the information I am telling them. This goes along with excellent people/social skills, as building a short term positive relationship with my audience would be my goal. A personable interpreter can be what sets the experience someone has apart from good to amazing, and something they will tell their friends and family about. I would need to balance out my educational approach, mixing together visual, audible, and tactile aspects in order to assure any person with any type of learning preference can have a positive experience and learn just as much and as easily as anyone else.

[vibinwiththefrogs]

Intro to U.S. Agriculture Book Recommendations

Requested by @languagesandpain

Healing Grounds by Liz Carlisle

If you're interested in agroecology this is a great place to start. It highlights a handful of Black, Latino, and Asian American farmers and their lives, history, and research. It's a great all-around book too because it touches on animal agriculture, produce, and mushrooms (which I don't see get talked about much), and also different methods like agroforestry and pasture systems.

Grain by Grain by Bob Quinn and Liz Carlisle

This book is basically the story of Bob Quinn and his farm, there's a lot of good info in it. This is the first book that really struck home to me that I need to listen to people in conventional agriculture even if I personally don't like it, because there's important experiences that need to be heard. It touches on topics like converting farms to more sustainable methods, heirloom crops, and how we deal with food/diet related science in the US. I don't have any health issues of note, but after reading this book I found an organic bread with Kamut wheat in it to see how it was, and it totally takes away any white on my tongue when I'm eating it daily. Pretty fascinating.

Perilous Bounty by Tom Philpott

This book widely covers major problems in US conventional agriculture, mostly covering major agriculture corporations and environmental impacts but also some labor issues, and small/mid size farm struggles. I'm not going to lie, this one is depressing. I generally do well with tough topics but near the end I had to put it down a few times because it was making me feel a bit hopeless. Which I fault the author with a bit for not dealing with better, because we need more hope to be able to believe these problems are fixable. He also doesn't cover the eastern US which irks me a bit because the south is a major agricultural region. But overall, a lot of great info and some interesting ideas for solutions near the end.

With These Hands by Daniel Rothenberg

I haven't actually read this one yet, but I've read sections. It looks like another tough read, but covers the experiences of migrant farmworkers across the US. Definitely trigger warnings for modern day slavery, racism, abuse, and more.

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations

I found this one to be a bit pessimistic honestly, but I read it a while ago so I dont remember what exactly bothered me. But it's a good overview of agricultural collapse through history, soil science, and issues in soil today.

Lentil Underground by Liz Carlisle

(Can you tell I've read all of Carlisle's books yet). So this book didn't really make much of an impression on me. But I'm recommending it because if anything it kind of illustrates the tediousness of policy change, changing people's minds, running an unconventional farm. It's a bit boring compared to the other recommendations but if you're in the industry there's things to think about in it.

Non-book recommendations

For a while was listening to Real Organic Podcast. After about 10 episodes (not in order) you notice they start to really repeat a lot of ideas. But they have a lot of episodes that highlight problems with chemical use, water use, how movements like organic get co-opted by big corporations, and more.

I also recommend the news website Civil Eats. They post a lot of book recommendations, as well as cover a whole variety of agricultural issues across the world.

If anyone has any additional recommendations feel free to add on! I'm always looking for more books >:)

[winterweary]

//shyly slides in

Do you have a top 5 fave horror movies?

NO shyness we kiss like MEN

and bby you KNOW I DO

I have a definite top two and then the other 3 really shuffle in rank depending on my mood

The Thing (1982) - I just love it. The aesthetics, the practical effects, the environmental story telling, the slow descent into suspicion, the ambiguity...THE PRACTICAL EFFECTS. I would feel wrong putting it anywhere else on the list.

The Descent (2005) - This one kind of snuck up on me as one of my top favorites. If it wasn't for the sheer impact of The Thing on horror I think it would be number one. A group of women go caving and things go terribly wrong. Claustrophobic, paranoid, gross, with some seriously stunning shots, I still haven't gotten bored of watching this one. This is my favorite movie to watch with someone who hasn't seen it before. It's horrifying, uncomfortable and triumphant all in the same go.

Troll Hunter (2010 Norwegian Film) - TECHNICALLY this isn't strictly horror, but I'm including it because I am a BIG fan of the found footage genre and Troll Hunter displays everything that's great about the style. Also I would absolutely fuck the Troll Hunter guy if you're like that call me.

The Fourth Kind (2009) - this movie had me FUCKED UP when I watched it for the first time at 16/17. Even today there are moments that really linger with me and it's one of the only horror films that made me close my eyes for fear. AND BASED ON A TRUE STORY?? This one scared me so bad I didn't rewatch it for a decade and if that's not a rousing endorsement I don't know what is.

Scream (1996) - Oh Scream. I had a couple different movies I was waffling on for the spot of 5th, but only one of those do I own on DVD and watch every October. It's campy. It's fun. It's gross. And it manages some decent scares too. The bait and switch they pulled with Drew Barrymore too was incredible. I honestly love the first three almost equally.

Honorable Mentions:

The Blair Witch Project - found footage queen ofc. I think it's more compelling when approached as a psychological horror than a monster movie.

The Bay (2012) - Another found footage film, not quite as successful as some others in the genre maybe, but the setting is very similar to where I live that it added an extra layer of believability and horror that got me.

The X Files, Season 1 Episode 20 - Listen. Listen. I watched this episode over my mom's shoulder when I was supposed to be taking a nap. It gave me nightmares for WEEKS. I think this episode was what truly bit me with the horror bug (...get it...horror bug...watch the episode you'll find me very clever). Later as an adult I rewatched it and I was like "Oh it's probably going to be so dated and tame ha ha I'm sure it's no where near as scary as I remember" WRONG WRONG WRONG IT GOT ME AGAIN.

[wally-franks-stan]

Joey Drew and Jack Fain Log #?? - Stress Testing

Joey: Joey Drew, captain and head scientist aboard the Dreamer, recording INC experiment log number… 4? 5? It doesn’t really matter right now so long as it gets labeled right later… anyway! Experimental method, purpose and results will be recorded in the attached document “Exposure testing in a human subject”. Volunteer name is Jack Fain. Say hello, Jack!

Jack: Uh—hello! I… didn’t know this was going to be recorded.

Joey: But of course! Keeping a proper record of things is always important, especially now. Sorry for not warning you ahead of time, though.

Jack: It’s fine, I just—do I need to say anything?

Joey: No, we’re done with the formal bit now anyway. Just pretend it’s not even on.

Jack: Oh, alright!

Joey: Thank you again for volunteering to help me with this, by the way. I would have done it myself, but… well, I think you can probably tell why just by looking at me.

Jack: It’s no problem, really. I mean, might as well, right? You’re going to need something to show Alterra when we get off this planet, and it’s not like I’ve got much else to do. [Chuckles]

Joey: Well, regardless, it’s a big help. Ready to get started?

Jack: Yes sir.

Joey: Go ahead and enter the containment unit, please. Oh, and make sure your radio is on.

[Hatch opens and shuts]

Jack: [Slightly quieter] So I’m just supposed to sit in here, right?

Joey: Until your oxygen runs out, or symptoms start, yes. Let me know if you feel any changes, like pain or irritation in your neck, any trouble breathing etc etc but honestly, you’re likely just going to end up sitting there.

Jack: Okay, easy. I can do that.

[Short pause]

Jack: Say, if I’m just sitting here, why not just do it outside or in one of the other aquariums? Of course I’m not objecting, I’m sure you know what you’re doing, just curious why you made a whole new containment unit.

Joey: Well, this is sort of a… not quite a control group, but a null variable test. Seeing what happens when there are no uncontrolled environmental stimuli that could influence the speed at which the INC makes its alterations. Pollution, flora and fauna, any changes in currents… those are all variables. Having a new containment unit just for this eliminates those.

Jack: Huh! That makes sense. Glad you’re not expecting me to sit outside with the sandsharks.

Joey: [amused] No no, I would never ask you to do that! Your safety is the most important factor here!

Jack: [teasingly] You sure you’re not just saying that ‘cause I’m pestering you about it? ‘Cause, I’m just saying, this whole thing seems pretty mad science-y and I’d really hate to end up in a horror story…

Joey: [laughs] Yes, of course I’m sure. Really, if you start to feel like anything is wrong, just say so and we’ll stop the test. And for your information, nearly all of history’s greatest innovators were called “mad”. “Mad science” is just what people who are scared of the future call progress.

Jack: Pretty sure that’s what every mad scientist would say. Not really making a great case for yourself, Joey.

Joey: [laughs again, harsher this time] Then let people call me mad! I’m ushering in the future, I don’t have time to care for the opinions of people who refuse to understand it.

Jack: …yeah, okay.

—(Joey’s note: From here we were just chatting for the next 45 minutes. Nothing of note happened in this time, so I have gone ahead and cut it from the log.)—

PDA: 30 seconds of oxygen remaining.

Jack: Guess that’s it, then.

Joey: [sighs] I guess it is. The lack of results is disappointing, but I can’t say I’m s—

Jack: [Overlapping] The hatch won’t open.

Joey: What?

Jack: [Panicked] It’s stuck, I can’t get it open!

Joey: Hang on, don’t panic!

PDA: 10 seconds of oxygen remaining.

Joey: I can’t—I can’t get it open either! Just, hold on, I’ll get you out!

Jack: Joey—!

[Jack starts coughing. Wetly, like he’s choking]

Joey: [Panicked] Jack!

[Coughing continues for several seconds, then goes silent]

[A few moments of silence pass]

Joey: [Completely calm] Jack? You still awake in there?

[Silence]

Joey: Good. Habitat, unlock the hatch to containment unit 4.

[Hatch opens]

Joey: Sorry about all this, really.

[Several seconds of silence. Water splashes, hatch closes]

Joey: I don’t like lying to you, but the whole thing hinged on you not knowing what we were really testing for. I meant it when I said I wouldn’t put you in real danger, but you needed to think it’s real.

[A clatter. Jack wheezes, starts breathing]

Joey: You’ve been a great help. So you just rest for now, you’ve earned it.

[Joey clears his throat]

Joey: And that concludes the “stress test”. I’d say it’s a resounding success! These results are… very promising.

[cherryblossomshadow]

You Are Not Evil

hankschannel

TL;DW

Humans are not evil.

We solve problems.

And when we do, we create new problems

.

Transcript excerpts below the cut:

I would like to talk really quick about this image. It's a sad Earth, covered in storm clouds … covered in cut-down trees and standing in a puddle of refuse … the Earth is sad. It is crying, and it says, “No intelligent species would destroy their own environment.”

…

Hannah Ritchie’s very excellent book, “Not the End of the World,” has a subtitle … “how can we be the first generation to build a sustainable planet”

.

The argument she makes is that sustainability in her definition includes things like “children not dying in infancy.” And when I look at images like this, what I see is a complete disregard for the accomplishments of humans

…

In the United States in 1895, a quarter of people born could expect to not live to five. And that was lower than it used to be. And I have to emphasize this as much as I can: The biggest problem that our planet faces is that there are so many humans, and that the humans in question want to provide a very high standard of living for themselves and their children

So the reason why the environment is fucked … and I know that there's a group of people who will not believe me when I say this. And they will say, “No, it's the fossil fuel companies.”

And look, the fossil fuel companies have made this much worse and have slowed down our transition. They are not the only problem, but they are a huge problem

But the biggest reason why we have a problem is love. It's that we want to have children, and we want them to survive.

And so now there are 8 billion of us … and we want all 8 billion of those people to have pretty good lives

And I, sitting here in my heated office in short sleeves in December, I cannot tell a bunch of people in China or India or Ghana that they can't have what I have

.

Here's my point: our intelligence for the vast majority of history of life on Earth has been oriented toward survival. And that has resulted in a huge amount of survival. And now we are in a situation where there can be a good life that has a great deal of survival and thriving in it, that does not require the amount of impact on the environment that we are having

But an unintelligent species that did what we have done … this has happened before. Trees, for example, caused a mass extinction when they arrived on land. They absorbed so much carbon dioxide that there was no longer very much carbon dioxide in the air, the water became less acidic, and many things died on the planet because of trees. And they didn't know that they were doing it. but also you can't blame them because they're trees. And so of course, they couldn't see it coming

But here's a story that I think we miss: When we as a species encounter local environmental problems, we tend to fix them. It was not long ago that London could be so clogged with coal smoke that you had to clean it off the windows every day, and that is no longer the case. You now never think of London as a place that has like got a coal smoke problem. In fact, the United Kingdom recently stopped burning coal entirely, which is very weird historically, considering they were where the coal started

But it was also very recently … that Beijing had this problem, and now Beijing has this problem much less. It still has an air pollution problem, just like Los Angeles does, but much less. When rivers catch on fire, we actually change our policies. When the rain becomes acidic, we change our policies

.

The problem with global warming is twofold

It's invisible. There are cold days and hot days, like there always were. There will always be  cold days and hot days. You can't see the river catch on fire, you can't see the trees on the hilltop dying, because the soil has become so acidic, because the coal-fired power plants have been putting sulfur into the atmosphere. You can't see it

We only know about global warming because we are an intelligent species. If we were not smart, we would be trundling down this path completely oblivious, sometimes wondering why it got so hot.

Which, I have to point out was a thing that happened in the past. There were times when it just got cold or hot, and we didn't know why. And then the crops would fail, and a bunch of people would starve, and it was because there was a freaking volcano halfway across the world. We only know the problem exists, because we're smart. We only have the tools to deal with it, because we're smart. We are only implementing those tools, because we are smart

2. And the other problem with global warming is, another reason why we are too slow at this is because carbon dioxide is the goal gas. I feel like this is not understood by people but with acid rain, we didn't want the sulfur or the nitrogen to get released into the atmosphere. That was just a side effect of burning coal. With the hole in the ozone layer, we didn't want those molecules being released into the atmosphere. That was just a side effect of how it worked

Like what we wanted was cooling. And cooling, by the way, has saved so many lives. And we are going to have to have more of it to continue to save those lives. And that's going to be energetically expensive. (But it won't be expensive when it comes to the hole in the ozone layer, because we have we have better solutions now)

But energy is what so much of our thriving is based on, and we do not want to give up that thriving. And the way that we have created that energy for the most part has been burning fossil fuels. And the goal gas, the gas that you inevitably get out of burning fossil fuels if you burn them as cleanly as possible, all you get is carbon dioxide and water vapor

We built our society on it, we built our thriving on it. Because we are smart, and because we want to provide a good life for ourselves and our children. This is a Smart Species Activity

.

My son has stared to come home from school with ideas like this in his head, where he's like, “We need to stop cutting down all the trees, Dad.” And I'm like, “Yeah absolutely, like what we need is for there to be lots of forests that are left to their own. But also remember that the house that we live in is built out of wood.”

And like the gears crank in his head, where he starts to ask himself if he's part of the problem. Which is why we need to have the definition of sustainability include the opportunity for human freedom and agency

I'm not saying that I shouldn't be responsible for more carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, absolutely I shouldn’t … I should be wearing a hoodie right now, I should not have had the heater on all night in here

.

But I think if we have this simplistic idea of humans or certain humans … a lot of the responses I saw to this [meme] were like, “No one ever said a Republican was an intelligent species.” And I'm like, “Oh my God, you people are so caught up in a current discourse and the current moment that you can't see how hard our all of our ancestors worked to provide us with a world that has plenty of food.” That's the biggest thing, plenty of food, but also climate-controlled shelter and pretty easy transportation to anywhere within what 400 miles? And then expensive, but still accessible transportation to the whole world. And also bananas which I love, and we're not going to grow in Montana. And if we did, it would be more energy expensive than shipping them from South America, where they're supposed to grow

Humans are remarkable. We are very powerful. Give any species this level of power, and they will provide opportunities for thriving for themselves and their children. They will try and prevent their children from dying. They will … walk through fire to make sure that their children don't die. They will destroy the Earth to make sure their children won't die. But I'm glad that we have enough intelligence both to provide those opportunities for our children to not die but also to start to uncover the impacts that we have, hopefully some time to self-correct some amount. We're at this point going to experience significant negative impacts from the warming of the planet. We did not move fast enough. I think that there's all kinds of like … not valid, but like understandable reasons, why we haven't moved fast enough

This is hard. People are greedy. People suck. People will tell stories to make themselves believe that the things that they want to do are in fact the right things to do. We all do that

But I don't want my son growing up, thinking that the species he is a part of is in some way evil. And I feel like that's like the root of a lot of sort of armchair environmentalism. I want him thinking humans are problem solvers, and solving problems creates new problems. And that's a little bit more of a complicated idea, but it is so true. I have solved so many problems, and never have I solved a problem that didn't create a new problem. I think we're absolutely at a place where increasing the amount of access to energy that I have as an individual will not make my life any better. But that is not the case for the majority of people on Earth. More access to medicine, refrigerators, ways to cook food that don't involve fires … (which we honestly in the US could also do a better job of, for Christ's sake. We have to stop having natural gas stoves. This is so stupid. I made a video about that once. I'll put that video at the end of this video)

.

But when we solve the global warming problem, we will have created new problems. And we're doing it right now. In the background, there's like a land use fight. Renewable Technologies use way more land. Solar panels take up a lot of space, wind turbines take up a lot of space, you have to make a road between each win turbine, and those roads take up a lot of space. They impact the environment by being there

I think in the future, we will uninstall a bunch of those things, because we'll have other technologies that are better. We'll have maybe like advanced geothermal or we'll have more fission or we'll have fusion or whatever it is. But we're going to need energy

And the people of the future will be mad at us for the work that we did, and that's fine. Just like we're kind of mad at all the people who made the world a better place by burning a bunch of coal, so that we could all have refrigerators, which nobody thinks about as a perk anymore! They just think that's normal! A 100 years ago, more than half of Americans didn't have a refrigerator. It wasn't that long ago

And that's the situation in India now. Less than half of households in India have a refrigerator, and in the next 100 years, that number had better be 100% or we’re going to be pissed off at us

.

I know this video could have been a lot shorter it could have just been one sentence it could have been:

Humans are not evil. We solve problems. And when we do, we create new problems

And I think that is like universally probably going to be a pretty normal story of intelligent species. Like if we found another, I bet they'd have a lot of stories about how they created Problems by solving problems

.

And the speed at which we solve the problems … I think there's absolutely some shame we should experience here. I admit it's a hard one, but oh my God, the extent to which we will not accept any inconvenience in exchange for making the world more livable for people in other places in the world and also our own children in the future is stupid

I will say, this is an amount of foresight that is unusual and requires a great deal of intelligence. There aren't a lot of other species out there trying to figure out how to make the world work for the next generation. Like that's not how they think. Because most species don't think about the future. They don't have a conception of the future. Like dogs don't have a conception of the future. So like, it's remarkable that we're able to do it at all. I do think we could have been better at this, and I am frustrated the extent to which we have spent a lot of time arguing instead of acting, and we could have acted faster, and that would have mattered

…

18:20

I'm going to stick the video about stoves and why we shouldn't use for both health reasons and environmental reasons why we should no longer use gas stoves okay enjoy that goodbye

(link to gas stove)