#i. simply cannot argue with it

[malkinse]

i was tagged by @chefsydney to take this test & name 10 characters i was associated with <3

1 - monica gaztambide (la casa de papel) 84%

2 - raj koothrappali (the big bang theory) 80%

3 - will byers (stranger things) 79%

4 - aimee gibbs (sex education) 79%

5 - georgiana darcy (pride and prejudice) 78%

6 - emily fields (pretty little liars) 78%

7 - frodo baggins (lord of the rings) 77%

8 - charles boyle (brooklyn nine-nine) 77%

9 - sam evans (glee) 76%

10 - george o'malley (grey's anatomy) 75%

i'll tag @ahaura @hotgirlcoded @valkilmerr @wanderinqhoul @judesstfrancis @milfeivor @girljeremystrong & anyone who wants to do it !!

[novelconcepts]

In watching more interviews with Liv about Van and the escalation of Van's pragmatism to such dark degrees, I find myself genuinely baffled that anyone could ever think Van the bad guy. I mean, I'm perplexed at finding ANY of these girls The Bad Guy. The bad guy is the situation. It's being lost. It's freezing. It's starving. It's being scraped down to the barest bone of being alive. They make choices that might be snippy, or cruel, or hard-headed, sure--Shauna refusing to just hash it out with Jackie; Jackie being too stubborn to come inside; Taissa refusing to discuss her situation plainly; etc--but by the time we reach the end of season 2, it doesn't even matter. Petty bullshit doesn't matter. Jealousy doesn't matter. Those things are still going to be present and complicated, because--for all their choices, for all the distancing they're trying to do--these kids ARE still human beings. But it isn't the point.

The point is survival. Plain, simple, straightforward. Van's pragmatism is survival. It is the difference between living another day with blood on your teeth or dying pretty. It is the difference between fighting forward through the fire and the snow and the hell of it all, and laying down to die. Van knowing, in watching the ritual violence of Shauna beating Lottie nearly the death, that they will be killing and eating one another soon. Van coming up with the cards for the hunt. Van not blinking when the moment comes, Van choosing a weapon that doubles as a tool to bring the body back, Van refusing to apologize for staying alive--it's not evil. It's not Bad Guy behavior. It's purely about survival, because there is nothing else left to her--or to any of them. They can play the pretty little Sweet Angel Girl game and die, or they can get dirty, bloody, horrific and fight. Van chooses the fight. Van chooses to fight for herself, for her lover, for her team, even knowing not everyone is going to make it out...because the alternate path there is that no one makes it out. Van knew the baby wouldn't live. Van knows the rest of them won't, either. Not unless they start making the hard choices.

And, honestly, the fact that Van sees this narrative coming. Comes up with this plan. Brings out the cards. To me, that is the opposite of Bad Behavior. That is as close to justice as anyone can find in the wilderness. If someone else came up with an idea, maybe it would have come down to voting--but that would have had such a human element to it, with bitterness or hostility or whatever ultimately petty shit always comes of humans selecting who to Other. The cards don't leave room for that. It isn't fair, because the situation isn't fair, because Man vs. Nature isn't fair, but it's as close to a just system as they could possibly find. It's the kindest solution to an unwinnable game. Not to bring it back to American Gods again, but all I can think is "it's easy, there's a trick to it: you do it, or you die." Van gave them that.

[leafsfromthevine]

i don't care that sokka and zuko have like negative chemistry. of course i pick on their hand on shoulder moments but i am fully aware they give us nothing. i am not a zukka truther i am a zukka "i believe in this because i can and that's enough." zukka is real to me because i think they're both neat. now kiss.

[skateisawesome]

inexplicably i dont think tori can swim

[crossbackpoke-check]

Dysprosium, Mary Soon Lee

dysprosium, AN 66, is a silvery-white rare earth metal. its name is derived from the greek dysprositos, meaning “hard to get at”, owing to the difficulty in separating and isolating this rare earth element. dysprosium is used to measure neutron flux, to fuel reactors, and to activate phosphors. terfenol-d is a magnetorestrictive alloy, meaning that it changes shape when a magnetic field is applied, and is used to manufacture underwater acoustic systems.

jason “robo” robertson, dallas stars #21 for @simmyfrobby’s nhl periodic table poems <3

[barzfrommarz]

I’ve been seeing a lot of discussions/discourse on tumblr and twitter surrounding kamala/voting for kamala so I want to put my two cents in as someone who will have no actual influence towards the outcome of the election

(important parts with be in bold)

Let’s look at the hypothetical that trump wins because the vote was split or people simply just refused to and kamala didn’t gain enough votes to win.

In the scenario, I want every person who decided it would be better not to vote or vote for a random third party candidate who has no shot at winning who only comes up during election years to say all of the “not like the other guys” talking points to explain to not just me but every queer, trans, disabled, non white, AFAB person who is now at severe risk why you chose to not vote to help them have rights. I want to see your explanations if trump wins. you also cannot use Palestinians suffering to make yourself seem better than you actually are

My point is that if trump wins because your delusions lead you to believe that you can single handedly change the way elections work in this country by “sticking it to the dems” and trump wins and we become a facist state, I want to hear what you have to say when we all start loosing rights and palestine gets wiped off the map

“Well we won’t let that happen” Good fucking luck. In project 2025 im pretty sure there is a section about how we basically won’t be able to protest anything anymore, not only that im also pretty sure trump has talked about deporting pro palestine protesters specifically!

You cannot be a single issue voter in this election and in many elections to come. Change doesn’t happen overnight and you need to wake up and realize that kamala will be the start of actually getting more progressive candidates and policies even if it’s not enough right now at this very moment. We all have to actually start putting in the effort instead of sitting around on our asses complaining

If we get kamala in, we won’t have to worry about our country becoming a facist state therefore we can worry more about palestine and putting more pressure on the dems than there already is. That should be a no brainer to some of you

This post isn’t praising kamala or trying to idolize her in anyway, always be critical of politicians. This post is more of a message to the preformative leftists on tumblr and twitter who have zero knowledge on how the US government works.

It’s kamala or trump this november. We cannot change that less than 100 days away from election day

Should I repeat myself? I hope you can understand that.

I’m not trying to bash anyone for continuing to put pressure on kamala and the dems for being complicit in bombing children. That’s not who my post is about like I already said

I think that all the protests outside of the DNC are especially important because it shows we have not forgotten and will continue to put pressure on the dems to do the right thing for once

but like I already said, it’s kamala or trump. Third party candidates are either grifters who only are there to get money and trick gullible leftists or candidates who have never been in any lower level political positions who think they can automatically garner a shit ton of support to win when they can’t. Your other option is to not vote which is arguably worse

I’m not trying to be the one to change anyones mind but I hope this post can help you reconsider your options and start facing the reality of this election

You have an important choice to make this november. I hope you can make the right one

edit: im not trying to beg anyone to vote for kamala or make anyone who is against her because of her handling of Palestine vote for kamala, especially if you are Palestinian yourself. Im not trying to make anyone feel bad about it either. Thats not the point of this post. The point is that change needs to happen now and this election is a perfect start to do so. We cannot have good change under a second trump term. I know im just repeating myself at this point but I want to put this out there incase I come off wrong or offensive. Also, I dont like the dems at all. I dont align with their party but you shouldnt even care abt what party I align with most. Im not a pro activist whose been in the game for 10+ years, im just a trans boy who has essentially been forced to pay attention to the shit going on in the country because of who I am even though it shouldn't concern me nearly as much as it does.

second edit: check out this tiktok and this persons other tiktoks abt palestine and kamala

[llycaons]

the reason teeth decay and bones do not is because teeth are literally not bones and do not act like them

[goldensunset]

i will NOT pick fights with my group members i will not i will not and i will ESPECIALLY not pick fights with the girl who’s both one of the leaders of the project and who i’ll probably be coworkers with next year i will have patience i am so chill and fine and secure and confident not at all going to explode

[cycopompadour]

I need to know exactly what fragment of a conversation between Lucifer and Lilith Charlie overheard and took wildly out of context to make her so self conscious about his opinion of her and her own self worth because I can literally not begin to imagine him intentionally saying anything to hurt her ever. Let alone anything that crippling.

Like look at that man. He adores her. Tf

[littledreamling]

Sorry I couldn’t do my homework professor, I was languishing under the crushing weight of knowing that Destiny is burdened with the knowledge of everything that will happen until the end of Time, every decision, every birth, every death, and yet he cannot do anything to change it; he must wait and watch and live in the sweet agony of his own wretched foretelling coming to fruition

[beliscary]

i know they're a uniform item but still we don't talk nearly enough abt terence's sidelacing pants

[serufu]

I talk about it publicly like maybe once every few years but something about me is that I am an avid fan of Jelle's Marble Runs, and the O'rangers this week are going to give me a heart attack, they can't keep doing this lmao

[bronzebtch]

some headcanons i'm adding / altering *as i believe it fits into the narrative of my character more as i develop her.

rhea does not lose her virginity before her wedding, and it is not lost to some boy that was around. she went into the wedding intended fully to lose her maidenhead to her husband ( reminder that she was like, 14 - 15 in year 97 AC ) but after her husband abandoned their marriage bed, rhea did lose it herself by self-penetration a few weeks later. for the more nsft details: she used the end of a fireplace poker to do it, and she did it only enough to bleed, not to seek pleasure.¹

the reason her father had insisted on the marriage, and rather stayed on with the decision even when he started noticing that rhea was struggling in it, was because he needed to strengthen rhea's own claim to her accession. at that point, their cousin gunthor royce was questioning the inheritance and yorbert's choice for heir, and the alliance made rhea's accession to the seat much easier.

[we-re-always-alright]

okay the misinformation on the original reddit post AND in the reblogs is driving me bonkers I have to correct some things. (thank you @froginakettle for inspiring me to bring this out of the tags.)

I work in this industry. I’ve worked in this industry for almost a decade in a variety of departments. this whole post is bunk. (obligatory disclaimer: these comments are my own and not representative of my employer whom I also will not name)

to start: credit karma is not a credit bureau. it’s basically an advertising site masquerading as a credit website. sure some of its tips and tricks are identical to the big 3 bureaus but with a sole goal of a: collecting your data (not private data) and b: sending you offers. it’s how credit karma makes money. what is an offer? it’s an ad (or email or pop up or WHATEVER) that is dependent on your credit score offering you a great rate on whatever (or credit monitoring or identity protection, it’s truly dependent on your score and the goal of the offer). the ads you see on the sidebar and as part of marketing emails from credit karma are there because you’re using the site and authorizing the data to be shown. they eat the cost of providing you a free score so they can advertise and/or sell marketing data. (not necessarily bad, just want to offer perspective).

which brings me to the next point: there are thousands of credit scores. probably tens of thousands. what do I mean? each bureau has their own set of scores (ex. TransUnion and Equifax have VantageScore 3.0) then there’s FICO scores (FICO 5-9 iirc), and then each of those scores has flavors. are you getting a car loan? check your credit karma Vantage Score and it says one thing. maybe Toyota will pull your FICO 8 Auto score. is your loan being serviced by the bank instead? then Bank of America will probably use their FICO 7 Auto score, or Experian’s FICO 7 Auto score. decide to go to your local First Community Bank for a loan instead? they give you their Equifax Auto Vantage Score. each of these scores has variations on it. different applied factors, alternative data, trending etc. think of it as different levers that amplify and nullify certain factors. (I’m not here to debate if this is good or bad. there’s arguments to be made for both, especially around underserved populations. I’m just explaining how it works.). this is also how the bureaus make their money. by offering different best fit scores for the dozens of different credit scenarios, they sell their ability to score and model more consumers, more accurately, as well as verify identities for critical transactions and prevent fraud based on previous patterns.

next: not every job requires a ‘hard pull’ on your credit (hard pulls/hard inquiries can sometimes affect your credit score (sometimes) because it’s what you do when you’re actively gaining credit. soft pulls do not affect. the bureaus have more info on this). typically, though not the same in every state and/or country, a hard inquiry generally is for government jobs OR highly regulated jobs. why? well. who caught the mob??? the IRS and the Postal Service. a good way to do a sniff test on someone who might be handling money in large quantities, handling PII (personally identifiable information), handling HPII (health PII), or be responsible for acting ethically might be to see if they have huge amounts of debt from gambling, mysterious payday loans, dozens of credit cards, etc. if you have a lot of debts, mysterious payments, funky stuff, you might not be the safest choice. (again, not saying it’s good or bad. just presenting the industry logic.)

next: some of the info about disputes IS correct. the bureaus are required to respond within 30 days. HOWEVER, they are only required to correct something if it is FACTUALLY incorrect.

example of a bad dispute: I don’t like that I have a high interest credit card. I missed some payments but generally pay on time. I file a dispute because that reddit post said I should. conclusion: they don’t drop it off. what the bank is reporting matches the credit report. there is nothing to correct.

example of a good dispute: it says my car loan is for 40,000 but it’s actually for 38,500. this post inspires me to review my full credit report (free annually for each bureau at annualcreditreport.com) and check for inaccuracies so I file a dispute. conclusion: they correct the information in the report, provide notice of the correction, and make sure any time your report is pulled (and the debt is on your report) the correction is mentioned.

additionally, you’re also required to be involved in this process. you’ll need to provide documentation, follow up calls, emails, etc. that the bureau needs from you to investigate your dispute. then multiply that by 3 if the item is on all 3 reports. a dispute is not a magic wand. also if there’s an error with the banks data, (ex. your balance is wrong) disputing it at the bureau will not do anything since the data in the report and the data at the bank matches. you’ll have to get the bank to fix it before you can dispute it with the bureaus.

next: volume. oh my god this one gave me a laugh. do you know how much data these companies ingest and spit out??? we’re talking a few petabytes for each bureau, every year. it’s not just you make a payment and they add it to their list. it’s everything, it’s addresses and name changes and driver’s licenses and payments across thousands of sources for everyone in the country (hundreds of millions, not to mention if they’re international). times 3. I’ve been in the NOC (network operations center) for one of the big three and it looks like fucking nasa. dozens of people on 12 hour, rotating shifts making sure the data flows at 99.99% uptime. they don’t have a ‘slow’ period. even if everyone on this post sent in a dispute, which would also be extremely hard considering the amount of thin files, they wouldn’t bat an eye. this is their every day. their sole purpose is a: making sure the data is safe and correct. and b: making sure if they get a dispute they resolve it quickly. plus, the more you use their services, the better they look, because they’re doing what they’re supposed to.

side bar: thin files. a lot of people are thin files, more than you think. basically it means the bureaus have info on who you are but next to no info for which they can score you with accuracy/best fit score. basically you don’t use credit, you don’t have debt, but you also don’t have a high score because there’s nothing TO score. weirdly, the ultra wealthy have this problem, since they pay in full vs on loan. it’s good and bad. bad if the company doesn’t use alternative data and you really need credit to survive (alternative data like renting history, cellphone payments, soon to be added BNPL, etc can turn a thin file into a better score) and good because you want to stick it to the industry and don’t use credit at all.

secondary sidebar: your small local credit union gets all their stuff from the big three. it’s expensive, data intensive and time consuming to do what they do (update, aggregate, collate, verify, etc etc). way easier to just supply small local credit union’s data to the big three and get specialized info back.

addendum: this is US focused. other countries have similar but NOT identical systems. think cousins but not twins. they have their own systems, bureaus, regulations, the whole nine yards.

second addendum: you can work with debt collectors to get them to forgive/drop debt. doing it at a busy time might help, I have never worked with collections. but it won’t affect your credit score necessarily. debt collectors are not legally required to report a collection to the bureaus. however, the bureaus are legally required to report accurate information supplied to them from debtors (banks, dealerships, etc including debt collectors). debt collectors choose to do so so you are incentivized to pay back the debt. paying it back does not mean your credit score will change, and definitely not immediately. (Experian has a great article explaining this. again, not making a good/bad statement on this. it’s how it is. if you want it to change, talk to your congressperson.)

last: some general tips:

freeze your credit if you’re not using it (actively applying for credit, loan, job, rental, etc). this prevents people (manipulative family, strangers, criminals) from being able to use your credit. a freeze can last for up to 10 years and you can temporarily lift (and re-freeze) for specific dates. if you have kids, this is great for fighting synthetic fraud or in response to data breachs

do you actually NEED credit monitoring? it’s truly up to you. in my experience, freezing is usually good enough for most people. if you’ve had your identity stolen OR you have malicious family members, it’s probably worth it to be proactive rather than reactive.

just go look at the bureau’s websites. they tell you how to improve your score. they explain the stuff I said but with more stock photos. I will warn you: it’s not as fun or sexy as trying to ‘pull one over on the establishment.’ it’s mostly low debt to income ratio and low revolving debt and making payments on time

don’t want to use an evil bureau’s website? go look at the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) website. it’s the same info but with a .gov and different stock photos.

Queuing this for January too.