#i've got a NEW interest now!

[fugitoiid]

get a load of this guy

[canisalbus]

hey there!! i'd been checking this blog for a while, and I really wanted to say you're a great source of inspiration haha! I really love your dog characters and your lore! The amount of research and dedication is really amazing!! about ludovica's gf, do you mind if I come in with my vision as well? I think she'd be a really fluffy dog, maybe with curly hair. so my mind went to the portuguese water dog; but then i thought of two versions: long hair and short hair. so i drew both (tried my best to make her look like a lady and not a grandpa haha)

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[phoenixcatch7]

It's always funny to me when in an lu fic the chain is offered bananas and don't accept them. Like, you're offering these high energy adventures free food?? Fruit they'll have never even heard of before??? A ridiculously expensive imported good at best?? AND it boosts your attack?

Not ONE of these idiots would ever turn down something new and interesting to eat at least once. They'd be all over those bananas and immediately get dubbed yiga and I'm honestly surprised no one has used it in a fic yet 🤭

[marlynnofmany]

I just heard another writer trying to figure out which self-publishing route to take, and all I'll say is that I'm glad I found Draft2Digital. (More accurately, I'm grateful to my more knowledgeable writer friends who told me about it a couple years ago.) I don't even use the free services as much now that I've learned to do fancy formatting etc on my own, but it sure is nice that the option is there.

TL;DR: you upload a manuscript, they make it presentable and available everywhere from Amazon to your local bookstore, and they charge you zero dollars, only taking a cut of the profits they helped you make. A small cut.

They are run by Writer People who want to help other Writer People succeed, and it shows.

[incessantlark]

god's gone? damn. how about a roadtrip just to make sure?

[bookwyrm-art-stuff]

I analyze fandoms the same way I analyze the media they're built around and that should concern all of you

[xxplastic-cubexx]

The thing that really bugs me about when they don't give Charles a cane if they insist on making him walk is that even if he's suddenly not paralysed anymore HIS LEG MUSCLES WOULD BE WEAK AS FUCK!!! He'd need a cane bare minimum to help him walk, more likely a walker or crutches. It's shitty to take away our disability rep but also just... does not make sense. Unless they specify that whatever cured his paralysis also fixed the myriad other issues that come with that. Even if they do say that still fuck them give my man back his wheelchair.

from what i know, for the most part whenever charles' disability is 'done away with' it's because his mind/soul is transported to a new body. it's seldom because his paralysis is 'magically healed' in the body he has currently

though in some cases, this doesn't make charles' mobility permanent: we've seen it more of a mental battle in these cases when it comes to charles walking, and while his body is capable his mind makes it difficult:

[Uncanny X-Men (1963) #168: "Professor Xavier is a Jerk!"]

BUT this does not include the earliest instance of charles' disability being put aside: we first see him walking in Uncanny X-Men #23 utilizing special braces that are operated psychokinetically. or something idk its a weird device thing

[Uncanny X-Men (1963) #23: "To Save a City"]

he hasn't died yet and so the body he has in this instance is the same one he's had since the lucifer incident- probably shouldn't be able to walk with ease, without at LEAST a cane. imo.

[fictionadventurer]

Potential January Reads

A Brilliant Night of Ice and Stars by Rebecca Connolly

Rhododendron Pie by Margery Sharp

So Big by Edna Ferber

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Vibrant Paradoxes by Bishop Robert Barron

The Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos

Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope

Katherine Wentworth by D.E. Stevenson

[red-moon-at-night]

The Trojan Horse/La guerra di Troia (1961)

Ignore the complete mischaracterisation of Helen and the inaccuracy of events, you need to see this sequence of how Paris dies. It's absolutely WILD.

[kaikamahine]

.

[cheriafreya]

I can't believe I'm gonna say this but... I'm starting to consider taking a break from Genshin and just go play Wuwa instead for once 😬

[bbygrlmarkscout]

I've watched the reintegration scene SEVEN TIMES now and I still get full body chills from it..

The slight change in his voice when he says "you mean what quarter?" is INSANE!!! Ever so slightly more child-like and higher in pitch than all his previous answers ... Fucking 😭 And then the editing.. how was his posing so precise despite the costume changes ?? The precision angles and exact same expressions. The scene and episode ending with the phrase "who are you?" The same phrase that starts the show?? (And again when Mark first meets Reghabi)

SHOCK. AWE. WONDER.

[bayetea]

everyone moved on but I stayed right here

[melien]

Been a bit quiet (aside from story posts that I occasionally draft) but I've been archiving a lot of old stuff including my OG Fletcher legacy to have easy access to it in the docs (and maybe get some inspiration/thoughts for the characters who are still relevant in my verse by seeing how their original development went) and damn one of my main takeaways was that I absolutely slept on Kyle and Lyra as a couple. Now that I have a special soft spot for couples that are best friends first I see their beauty and I love them both separately and together😭

[seaofreverie]

Today I want to share the joy that Reading A Newspaper has brought me recently (yesterday).

Because you see, it's not very often that I can read a several pages long good quality feature on a band that I'm something of a fan of, considering that until last year at best, all and any musical favourites I had were next to unheard of in the, let's call it, professional music business. And said feature also gave a few mentions to the one and only fav band of all time which I'm also still not used to being able to read about in my language (because it only happened like 5 times in total so far anyway, but still). And I can buy the newspaper in my local store in this minuscule town and find Sparks inside, like wow, it really is My Sparks, in this real life physical newspaper that I just got. This was like a belated but very epic christmas gift for me and I'm not kidding.

But well yeah getting to the point now, Franz Ferdinand are starting their tour soon promoting their upcoming new album and they're stopping in Poland too, so there was this whole 14-pages long overview of their whole career, and while I was obviously interested in the whole thing I was most hyped about the fact that there would have to be something about FFS and Sparks there and this brings me to my delighful observation that wow, all of this is so, connected in a way. Like how there are these connections in inspiration and collaborations between many of my favourites that I didn't even think about probably being a thing before, but when I think about it it just makes so much sense. Like how in this interview with Alex Kapranos, the interviewer brings up Talking Heads and specifically Fear of Music, because the new Franz Ferdinand album also has this sort of overarching theme of fear. And it's funny because that's the first Talking Heads album I've ever listened to and still my favourite from them to this day and overall one of my all-time favourite albums. And I guess it shouldn't be that shocking that it'd come up here because Talking Heads were super influential and inspired thousands, but also until now I didn't think about how both these bands share the general direction of creating dance-able type of rock with lyrics that are often on the more reflective and "intellectual" side. And also that album has been recommended to me as the most TMBG-like of theirs so. Wow I wonder why I like it.

Ok there were also all these other things that I want to mention too, so, other miscellaneous points of interest:

In the debut album review, the reviewer said that during Tell Her Tonight Alex sings a lot like Russell Mael, who likes to sing in falsetto. And well I know there's also the Sparks connection in the form of FFS to come later but still, this was such a great SPARKS MENTION!!!! moment for me anyway. But also they got one thing wrong, because it's not that Russell likes singing in falsetto, Ron forced him to sing in falsetto by writing all of his songs in this crazy uper range of notes, and that's a very important detail !!!!!!

And ok I had no idea that Piss Off already existed in some form as far back as 2004!! Or I knew about this and then I forgor. Either way, fascinating piece of information

I need to know more about how these star-based ranking systems work because why would you call FFS an "excellent album" and then rate it 4 stars. Instead of, I don't know, 4 and a half or 5 maybe?? Especially since it apparently has only 2 "weak songs". And I have some major objections when it comes to this too, because we're calling Things I Won't Get a weak track now?? It's just underrated as heck, and that's a hill that I will die on

Also I could never be a music reviewer because these people can fit their whole commentary on one song within one sentence and I feel like I would have to write at least 3 paragraphs on even the least exceptional of songs on a given album before I can feel like I did it justice. I mean, this whole post itself shows how much of a problem this is for me, lol

Also guys were we all aware that FFS turns 10 next yeah. Oh god. Well I need to remember to keep my tradition and preapre a cool piece of fanart for that occasion then. Maybe they should give us FFS 2 to celebrate, I'm pretty sure there'd be lots of interest among the fandom in something like that. Anyway

Well also this wasn't the only article in this whole thing of course and CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, there was a little bit on the Harrison & Belew Remain In Light Tour, which I will also be attending!!! Lots of great stuff is cooking for the first half of 2025 for me musically I can't lie

And also CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, that a year and a half since it was supposed to be released "worldwide" and long after I already lost hope that I'd ever see it in a cinema, they're releasing Stop Making Sense in cinemas over here too. Fucking finally!!! By gods and heavens, that rare moment when you learn about something crucial through a goddamn instagram ad of all places. And then they also reminded me about this in an actual article so well wow. Can you believe this. I can't. So stocked for next saturday when i'm seeing this movie the way it was always supposed to be seen hehehe

Ok I think that's it. Thank you for reading and maybe I should really make that personal website for my rambles in the new year. I'd definitely put that thing to use.

[galsinspace]

Started watching a youtube video about like crazy influencers "unschooling" their kids and made the mistake of scrolling down to the comments, they're full of Americans going on and on about how homeschooling is actually very important and if you don't like it you're AUTHORITARIAN and INFRINGING ON PARENTS' RIGHTS

And man I will never get those people

Do they not get that children have rights beyond what their parents want? That the idea behind mandatory school attendance is that every child has the right to receive an education, they should all get the same basic starter package, and the only way to facilitate that is by having public professional oversight? And if some schools are bad then that just means they need to be improved? But the idea has value and needs to be pushed for instead of just given up on?

Do they not see that it's massively neglectful to make it possible for parents to completely isolate their children from any oversight or outside contacts?

And they're all like "well kids in public schools get abused too!!" yeah but at least it's more likely for things to be caught when there are more eyes on them. At least they're guaranteed to come into contact with worldviews different from their parents'. At least they're guaranteed to be around other kids.

"But my homeschooled kids have so many hobbies and friends!" that's great, good for them, does that mean the kids who don't are an acceptable sacrifice?

"But they don't even learn useful life skills!" teach them during break then.

"But the government indoctrinates them!" Ah you're the reason I don't like homeschooling.

"I was bullied during school and I don't want my kid to go through that!" I'm really sorry that happened but are you saying you didn't even let them try? You didn't let them do something that would massively benefit them because of your own trauma? You didn't even let them attempt to learn how to function in a school setting surrounded by their peers? And IF they did get bullied there would still be so many options, depending on how severe it is you could work it out with the help of teachers or a school counselor or therapy or a school change... instead you just decided that you're qualified to teach your child literally everything they need? And that they're better off just hanging out with their parent every day than becoming more independant with their peers? Because you're scared of something that hasn't even happened yet?

I just. I just cannot comprehend this mindset.

I had an absolutely horrible awful time in school, for most of it I had no friends but a huge case of undiagnosed unmanaged ADHD. And I still know that it would have been SO MUCH WORSE for me not to go to school. I wouldn't have learned how to function at all. I wouldn't have learned social skills.

It actually reminded me of a discussion I had years ago with two coworkers about this exact topic, one of them was a mother who was writing her master's thesis on homeschooling which she was a huge advocate of because school is so bad for kids you see, kids just suffer and as a parent you should be able to protect them, a sympathetic viewpoint right? Well she was also an antivaxer. Obviously she wouldn't be receptive to any arguments around parents indoctrinating their children by isolating them from the world so I didn't bring that up, but I did carefully say that I thought it was a difficult balance to strike because the state does have a responsibility to ensure children are being taken care of properly, and you need some oversight for that -

This woman fully rejected the idea that the state has any such responsibility. And the other coworker who was mostly standing with us and nodding vaguely (that was most of what he did at work) agreed with her. And I was just standing there BAFFLED. Like what did they think a state is for???? A state has obligations towards ALL its people! Especially vulnerable people like children! Children have rights and the state has responsibilities!

And yet these two people, grown adults, one of them writing that thesis, fully acted like I was the crazy one.

Somehow I just keep getting into situations where people don't know how basic rights and laws work but don't believe that my understanding could possibly be right lmao. When I was still in law school I could have probably written you a comprehensive explanation of what articles of the constitution this is based on. But I wasn't in law school anymore, I was just a dropout waitress and completely baffled on top of that, so it was just the weirdest end to the conversation we could have had.

Anyway I always think of those villages that neonazis move to in large groups very deliberately to create places that are dominated by them, and they raise their kids there surrounded by their ideology. The most extreme ones never register their childrens' births because then the government has no idea they exist and can't insist that they have to go to school or anything. Imagine those kids growing up knowing only what their neonazi parents and their parents' neonazi friends tell them. They don't even stand a chance.

Absolutely wild to me that in some countries they don't even have to go that far, they can just not send their kids to school.