#if my understanding of the laws in my state are correct i THINK i'll be able to do hrt until july when it becomes illegal

[mothusband]

my mom saying (in an entirely different context) "you're almost 21, it's time to transition". lmao you don't even know the half of it.

[the-offside-rule]

Sergio 'Checo' Perez (Red Bull Racing) - Feliz Navidad

Requested: no

Prompt: Feliz Navidad

Y/n lay asleep in the coziest bed ever and that was the bed of the spare bedroom in her older brother Sergio's house. She always came over for Christmas since she lived in England for university and usually, Checo would leave her asleep because of the jetlag but her university decided that they wouldn't finish the semester until the 23rd, so she'd only landed the evening before Christmas.

As we were saying, she lay asleep, enjoying how comfortable this he'd was in comparison to the one back IN England when the door shot open wide. She hopped up in a hazy state only to see her brother with his children, blasting Feliz Navidad from a Bluetooth speaker. He always did it when they were younger, ever since Checo found out she hated the song. He played it simply to annoy her but also to wake her up on Christmas. "Sergio, I understand you enjoy annoying me with this song but it won't be a Feliz Navidad if you keep playing this song." Checo laughed as he lifted his children up onto her bed. "Come on! It's time to wake up! It's Christmas!"

"Despierta te!" her nephew chanted over and over again, jumping up and down on the bed. "Junior, why do you do this to Tia Y/n?" she asked. "Can't you do it to Paola?" He shook his little head. "She doesn't stay here for Christmas anymore. It's just you! Now venga! We need to open presents!" Y/n was pulled and dragged out od bed by the enthusiastic little boy. She let out a gasp as her feet touched the freezing marble floors, earning a chuckle from her older brother.

Y/n sat on the sofa, laughing along with Carola, a cup of coffee in hand as they watched Checo and the kids excitedly open presents. They didn't see eachother that often and they were friends before Checo had met Carola, Y/n liked to think that they only got together because of her and that was partially correct. Carola and Y/n were midway through a conversation when she felt a tug at her dressing gown. She looked down to see thbe soft eyes of her nephew and stumbling neice beside him. "And this is for you!" Junior said, lifting a present with his little sister trying to help. "Aw, gracias." She said, taking the gift and carefully shaking it. "I wonder what it could be?" They jumped around excitedly until she had torn the wrapping paper and took a good look at it. Her wide and partially forced smile softened as she looked at the gift.

A beautiful frame, hand decorated with buttons, glitter, ribbons and other little bits and pieces. And inside, a family photo. Her parents sat on a chair in the middle of the photo and either side of them, their children from oldest to youngest and finally, the in laws and grandchildren. Y/n looked over to Carola, who had an arm around her and back to the frame. Then, underneath the photo she noticed a small note. Ll

Buena suerte en Londres y no nos olvides <3

She kept her smile on, trying not to show that she was sad but no matter how much she tried to hide it, her brother new better. "How about you go and get some breakfast, eh? Before everyone else comes to visit?" The children nodded and trailed out after Carola.

"Now, what is going on?" Checo asked his sister, who was hunched over crying into the coloured wrapping paper. "Nothing" Y/n replied, still weeping. "Don't lie. I'll get Paola and you know she won't stop until you tell her so it's easier to tell me instead." Y/n let out a shaky sigh. "I just miss being home." Checo arched a brow. "No, I'm being serious. I hate London. I don't know anybody! I miss hanging out with Carola every day. I miss being with my friends here. I just miss everything!" Checo pulled his little sister into a hug. "I know. Moving away is always hard. It's one of those things about growing up. I had to go to Germany all by myself, remember that?" She nodded. "Well I grew up then and I benefited from it greatly."

Y/n remembered how Checo went to Germany. She was so little and didn't understand why she could only talk to him through a phone or a letter. She didn't get it but if course, with age, she did. "You living in London will be good for you, I know it will." Checo said, rubbing her arm in an attempt to calm her down. "I know. I just miss you so much." She sniffled. "Well let's not make memories of you crying, let's go make some happy memories while you're here, eh?" She wiped her eyes and nodded. "I suppose me should. Can't leave the place staying sad again."

The pair stood up and went to the door to go out to the kitchen when Sergio stopped his young sister. "By the way, Y/n?" she looked back at him. "Feliz Navidad." Y/n laughed and hugged her brother. "Feliz Navidad, Checo."

[mrooops]

ok guys, no jokes, but what the fuck?

i want to touch a really really serious topic in pink floyd fandom rn and i want you all to listen to me at least once. i would really appreciate it if you spread this information. thank you

if you're the type of person who writes "well, waters is still better than gilmour", then just please unfollow me forever the fuck out

but it's ok i'll explain you why

well, a little backstory

while many believe that roger's political views are now quite correct, i want to remind you that he supports an aggressive invasion of the country where i live (Ukraine). if you are still interested, then yes, the war in Ukraine is still going on even if in the west now no one wants to pay attention to it anymore. for your understanding, on average we have 100 air raids in the city per month, at least once a week i definitely hear explosions and, yeah, i don’t live in a hot spot. and this guy just goes out and does an interview where he openly says that he supports the aggressor country. yeah, that's right, he was also allowed to speak at the UN council, where he said that the conflict was provoked. very smart. the same guy who said a couple of days before the war that those who believe that it will start are “out of their minds”

ok ok, but how does this relate to gilmour?

very simple. his daughter-in-law is Ukrainian. and her mother lived in a city that was one of the first to be attacked by the russian army. if you have never seen footage from Kharkiv in the first days of the war, then believe me, it was a terrible sight, people tried to help each other as best they could

and it is still going on

i don’t think it's cool to talk shit about one person who supports israel but then turn a blind eye to how another openly says that Taiwan should belong to china and Ukraine to russia and say "well, he is based", "he's better than gilmour"

if you have any other information about gilmour, you can share it with me.

i know you all really like young waters and i see a lot of positive things in him too, but i really can't stand the fact that now people only really look at how he feels about Palestine, even if i see a lot of articles and posts from adults, who say his support for Palestine is also twofold. don't wanna say anything bad about that because i haven’t studied this topic, but i think you can google them yourself, they always just come up

don't get me wrong, i'm not stopping you from sending pictures of him or drawing him, i'm just asking you not to write that he's better than someone else at something when he's not

oh yeah and one last thing...

if you are a supporter of communism, then get the fuck out too, because communism led to the fact that in the 60s in my country they killed almost all the poets who did not write something in support of the state. in history they were persecuted and killed because they wrote in their native language and mentioned Ukrainian culture. communism led to three great famines in our country, when people had so little to eat that they resorted to cannibalism. it's very scary, but it's true. this is what the government has led to when it wants to bring communism to life

communism is not a cool thing. it's cool in words, not on practice, read history

thank you for your attention

[beardedmrbean]

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A day after rejecting a bill that would have classified child sex trafficking as a serious felony under California law, the Assembly Public Safety Committee is facing intense scrutiny from Democratic state leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who are vowing to address the issue.

The bill, written by Republican State Sen. Shannon Grove, attempts to keep repeat offenders behind bars longer and make them ineligible to be released from prison early. The bill, which Grove has worked on for three years, passed unanimously through the Democratic-controlled State Senate earlier this year.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were shocked Tuesday when the bill didn't have enough votes to clear the Assembly Public Safety Committee, with all six of that committee's Democrats abstaining from the vote.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he called Grove to talk about the measure, "which is indicative of my desire to see what we can do,” Newsom told reporters Wednesday morning. “It’s an area I care deeply about, I have since my time as mayor, as a supervisor working with then District Attorney Kamala Harris. I appreciate Shannon Grove’s efforts on this and wanted to make sure she knew that today and we’ll be following up and will have more to say shortly.”

The governor noted last year's state budget earmarked $25 million for services for children who had been victims of sex trafficking. “I want to understand exactly what happened yesterday,” Newsom said. “I take it very seriously.”

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas fielded numerous questions on the issue at a luncheon in Sacramento Wednesday afternoon.

When asked if the committee made the right decision, Rivas responded, “It’s a serious problem.”

"It’s very clear, the processes in the Assembly, they need more transparency and cohesion," Rivas said. “We are very much engaged, and we have been since last night. It’s something that we are addressing, and something we are going to get right.”

Rivas stepped into the leadership position 12 days ago following a contentious power struggle in the Assembly between him and former Speaker Anthony Rendon. Rivas is currently weighing who will lead which powerful committees.

KCRA 3 asked Rivas if the Assembly's Public Safety Committee Chairman, Reggie Jones-Sawyer would remain in that leadership position after this legislative session. Jones-Sawyer has already faced political pressure this year after refusing to hear a set of fentanyl-related public safety bills this spring.

"I'll have more to share about that as we get closer," Rivas said. "If I'm going to make changes, I'll have discussions with my colleagues first, I don't want to surprise anybody. The foundation of my leadership is trust and respect, and that's never going to change. You'll know when the time is right."

Jones-Sawyer has not responded to a request for comment on Newsom and Rivas' statements. He said in a statement Tuesday night that the bill would have made no new corrective actions of enhancements to laws already in place.

"Ultimately, members of the Assembly's Public Safety Committee understood the author’s intent but recognized this bill needs considerable work and granted reconsideration," Jones-Sawyer said.

Grove's office confirmed she met with Jones-Sawyer late Wednesday afternoon. She told reporters after the meeting that she wants the Assembly to suspend the rules for her bill to bypass the committee to be voted on by the full house.

"I think the meeting was very productive, there was nothing decided at that meeting, we laid out the situation, I really do feel it was productive, we're still waiting for results," Grove said.

Changes to state law face a major legislative deadline to pass out of their policy committees by Friday.

California Republican lawmakers will attempt to force a floor vote on SB 14 on Thursday. Meanwhile, sources close to the situation said the Assembly Democratic leadership has met about that plan and has apparently developed their own plan to address concerns from Democratic lawmakers.

Meanwhile, sources close to the situation tell me Assembly Democratic leadership has met to discuss the forced vote attempt happening tomorrow and have apparently developed a plan to address concerns from Democratic lawmakers.

"I think they are seeing Californians are outraged about this and America is watching," said California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson of the Democratic-controlled Assembly. "They need to fix this right away, not because of the political blowback, but because it's the right thing to do for our kids."

[onewomancitadel]

I'm not reblogging because I don't want to give OP a hard time and maybe I'll delete this like I have the others but I think this is a false dichotomy coming from the mistaken belief that characters need to be defended in a court of law and your responsibility to your blorbina is to litigate her crimes. So I don't think the former is necessarily more 'justified' nor is the latter necessarily more 'unjustified' out of some sense of failing at favourite character law school.

In terms of 'accurate readings' of a character, trying to actually interact with a text... I think that's a different question, because both sides bring something valuable to the table. Both are necessary in their own ways, which is why I'm actually unironically on the 'Salem was right' side just because it's so polemic, but because it teases out fandom contradictions and set positions. I think that is fun, but I also know that I'm not entirely and deeply serious, just that from a certain perspective I think it's valuable to look at Salem's perspective. And I think generally you want to be around people who love the same thing you do, that's the community we generally look for in fandom, right? If what you want is serious discourse, I think that's rarely achieved through superficial interactions. I'm not going around giving gold stars to people who don't like Salem but 'understand' her story, that's not my job.

Hm, you know what, a more relevant version of this would be Dune. I think again the question comes down to more interactivity with a text, and I think we're so far beyond that question now of whether people are interacting with canon or their own persona fanons it's not even funny. Most stuff I read is unrecognisable even when it is 'superficially' right and it's more annoying to read thinkpieces from people who are fingerwagging about the 'correct' way to read Dune than someone's earnest response, even if it's kind of dumb. I think this is a really interesting post because in it are assumed questions about the way people are supposed to interact with a text, the way you're supposed to defend your blorbina, what is or isn't tolerable. I don't think there's a blank slate with the state of fandom now where it's about internalising and regurgitating a series of interchangeable fanons and slick quips.

And given the landscape, sometimes, meaningfully, she did nothing wrong, because I feel like 9/10 people want to play lawyer instead. The defendant doesn't even deserve to be here today your honour. Cinder needs to get her pussy eaten

[soul-dwelling]

Also for a more broad point about MHA - to me it seems weird to set up a situation where everyone has super powers, yet they are so restricted, with basically, as the paranormall faction points out in story, only a small part of the population can use all of their physicality, while also setting up a society of with bystander sydrome and one that has turned heroism into a product.

It seems, maybe do to my own stupidity, I'll admit that, that this was a set up for a new society, where instead of a strict hiearchy that only uplifts those who are already strong, it would into one where everyone can reach their potential, using quirks in all walks of life not just in law enforcment...

Hell this would also be a society where even the quirkless or differently abled could reach their dreams and add in their own way.

So its weird that the only change that happened is that civilians became vaguely more altruistic.

Like wouldnt it be better if the granny that helped the tenko expy, didnt just give her hand but use her unique quirk to help him in a way not even pro heros could, showing that quirks arent a disease like Overhaul claimed, but something that helps us connect and support each other in new ways?

anyways, sorry for rambling, but to me the story did so little with the "almost everyone has quirks" thing, that it may as well have said "every 10th person has one" and not a lot would change

Question received August 3, 2024, answered August 4, 2024--the official publication date of the last My Hero Academia chapter. 

Yeah, I was in the middle of responses and wanted to make that point, that this ending would have been better if a drastic change to Quirk regulation focused on permitting greater use of Quirks outside of Pro Hero work. I understand and appreciate how much of this story, as with a lot of “regulate the superpowers” stories, is an allegory for regulating weapons; however, as with X-Men and the Marvel Civil War adaptations, this is also about individual rights and, all the more importantly after the United States Supreme Court fucked over people who can get pregnant and bodily autonomy, individual rights to our bodies. It’s a thorny story, and MHA coming down on, “Keep the bodily regulations,” is sour. Unfortunately this was as much a problem in the Vigilantes spinoff and its only solution in its final chapter was, “Avoid getting arrested for property damage, go to the United States.”

You bring up how the MLA/PLF points out how restricted society makes Quirk users. The story then never gives any closure to that idea. 

I have read Horikoshi had more plans for the League of Villains, only for the Pussycat Compound Attack story and the League of Villains vs MLA arc getting such bad responses by readers that he decided to avoid any more significant focus on the League…which, even if he said that or thought it, that’s not what ended up happening, as at least there was closure, however much I don’t like it, for Shigaraki, Toga, Spinner, and Dabi, so his commitment to wrapping up their stories was always there. 

But the refusal to do more with the MLA/PLF will continue to bother me: I think the story deserved to have someone, anyone, from Class A to be the one to give a summary thesis statement as to what the MLA/PLF got correct and got wrong, and how their ideas could change society for the better. At best that idea is sort of carried forward with Spinner doing what Destro did and writing a book--but we saw, first, how Destro’s book endangered society, second, how the MLA/PLF and the League were in the wrong and were dangerous to any sort of progress, and finally, we never see Spinner’s book effecting meaningful change because we just end the story there with his book published but no follow-up. Again, I invoke the ending to Wakko’s Wish: take us by the hand through each step on how society meaningfully changes. I would even take Izuku, Ochaco, or someone else straight-up just narrating what changes. 

And the MLA/PLF lacking any closure becomes even more off-putting because of especially weird moments that came across as too fanfic-y for me: did Geten really have to be related to the Todoroki family?

And I’m going to end up stealing your idea of Granny using her own Quirk to help Stitches when re-writing Chapter 429--you had that idea first, I had not ever considered that until reading your idea. 

It really doesn’t help that your Granny idea is so good--and then the final chapter of My Hero Academia discounts it by insisting that only the strongest Quirks now matter. The final chapter of My Hero Academia has someone tell the kid Dai that only those with the strongest Quirks now get to be Pro Heroes. Yes, that is all corrected by Izuku’s advice to Dai and the fact that a Quirkless hero like Izuku still is recognized by his face alone. But it is bothersome that it takes Izuku to impart that lesson, while everyone else, and seemingly even Hawks running the new Hero Commission, is fixated on strong Quirks. Again, hero work should not just be policing or militarized--where are the Grannies with less powerful Quirks that would be suited for outreach, de-escalation, societal improvement, economic improvement, and responses to mental health and physical health treatment. 

[lacrimosathedark]

I really wish people applied Hanlon's Razor and Grey's Law to their daily lives.

In case you don't know, here is what those mean.

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity/incompetence.

Grey's Law: Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.

They sound in direct opposition, but I feel like people don't consciously think about either of these and apply them almost at random and it sucks. I know the lack of people thinking like this has effected me personally, and those around me.

Starting with Hanlon I suppose.

One of the few things I'm confident is is that I'm intelligent. That said, I'm wholly aware I have specialties and there's so much that I don't know, and my memory sucks so I often forget things too. I also am the furthest from malicious someone can really be without being a complete doormat (and I'm still a bit of a doormat, I'm working on it). Upsetting people is genuinely distressing on so many levels, and because of this I feel compelled to explain myself for literally everything, or say nothing at all. So I'm long rants and silence.

Sometimes I'll assert something and someone will disagree with me, be it because they got offended for some reason or because they have information I don't. I assume one or both of us is lacking information, so I share what I have and ask for theirs. You may have noticed this if you see me responding to posts asking for sources.

I hate being wrong. I know in a lot of people that manifests in becoming stubborn and defensive, but I actively try not to do that. I want to be correct, so I want to learn more. I want to know what I was missing. If I'm wrong, I want to know so I don't make the same mistakes again. If I'm not wrong but was missing information, it can give me a clearer understanding of the topic as a whole and people who think and feel differently than me which is fantastic because I love learning how people and things work when I don't understand the logic. And I love to share information to. And I might go overboard.

But people assume I'm trying to argue, and not that I genuinely want to understand their perspective.

And I'm not saying part of that's on me for not communicating well enough. But no matter how hard I try, someone always seems to assume I'm out to hurt people when the thought of vaguely upsetting someone often paralyzes me. I've been scolded for not asking for help because I feel like an inconvenience. (TW) The only reason I'm even alive is because I know at least one person would grieve, and hurting someone like that is so much worse than suffering through existence. (TW end) I'm not someone who would ever go out of my way to cause harm unprovoked.

And I know I'm not the only one to experience this. Neurodivergent people often have trouble communicating. Children still have a lot they don't know. Some people grew up incredibly sheltered. That's not even to mention people getting into a niche or study and being brand new, just learning. Everyone starts somewhere and no one begins as an expert in anything. And the world is big and there's so much to know in so little time.

Why do we assume people are playing dumb or ignorant on less consequential things just to be a jerk?

Assuming people are malicious because they're ignorant or even stupid hurts people who mean no harm. And it sucks.

Onto Grey.

I'll make this example a little less personal.

The American education system sucks, and most people never get comprehensive sex ed. Many states have laws limiting the education to "abstinence only". This results in many people not knowing how the reproductive system works.

This, therefore, results in our government full of old cishet white men to not know what the fuck they're talking about while trying to limit "women's" healthcare. People have died because of their idiocy. Doctors are scared to abort babies that won't survive birth, and make the mother wait until they are literally dying to help them. People have given stillbirths at home because doctors refused to help for fear of legal recourse. A woman was fucking arrested because she had a stillbirth at home because they refused to abort the dying fetus.

That incompetence and stupidity and the stubborn refusal to be educated costs actual lives.

Both Hanlon and Grey work for transphobia too.

Like, you should always initially apply Hanlon's Razor if you get misgendered. Maybe the person didn't know. Maybe it's new to them and they're still learning. Maybe they just need to unlearn the habit of how they've thought of you. It's a process and people make mistakes. It may hurt, but it's not automatically malicious.

However, where Grey's Law comes in is there can be people who say they love you, genuinely think they mean it, try to give you the world, but refuse to respect you as you are. They don't put effort into changing for you. And it's not malicious, clearly. They don't hate you, probably want what's best for you and think they know what that is. But with the amount of harm that attitude causes, can it be distinguishable from malice? I don't really think so.

I just wish people thought about that more. Me included.

[poetessinthepit]

You express your thoughts so clearly and in such a way that’s so easy to follow/understand. It’s impressive. I’m curious, did you take debate classes or something similar, or is that something that just comes naturally for you?

Thank you so much! I really appreciate the compliment.

I'll answer your question by revealing a little about myself.

I've always loved to read and write. My childhood dream was to be a professional writer, and while that dream never came to fruition, it led to me to refining my writing and speaking skills during my formative years.

I never participated in debate club or took classes, but when I was in high school, I participated in a YMCA program called Youth in Government. For this program, you had to learn parliamentary procedure, research your state laws, and write a bill. Your hardwork would culminate in a trip to the state legislature where you'd spend the weekend with other students, acting as a mock legislature and debating bills. It was total nerd shit. I think many of the kids who participated had an interest in politics. I was already completely disillusioned with the political system at 16 and mainly just wanted to argue with people in a formal setting. I won "best first year legislator" my first year, and it's probably because I spoke on nearly every single bill. I would never turn down an opportunity to get on a microphone.

When I was in high school, I was generally known for always raising my hand and getting into debates, not only with classmates but with my teachers. It got me in trouble a few times, and I think my classmates found me annoying.

I did write for my school paper, but I don't think I ever wrote about controversial topics; I was more interested in covering the arts and signaling to everyone that I had "good taste." But mostly, I loved editing more than I liked writing articles. In English, I actually enjoyed classroom activities where we'd have to swap essays and make edits. Whenever these activities commenced, I was over the top with the amount of corrections and suggestions I would make to the essay of a fellow student. I would hand back their paper, and it would be covered with red marks. I remember sighing in a disappointment when my only note would be needing to add a coma. I was ridiculous. I cannot emphasize enough that I was a total fucking nerd. I was simultaneously down on myself and full of myself in the way that only a teenager can be.

When I was a senior in high school, I took a class called Contemporary Issues that focused on current events and involved a couple debates but nothing as formal as what I participated in with the Youth In Government program. I also remember my teacher in that class also made some crazy statements like one about extreme leftism being associated with terrorism. It definitely wasn't a very good class, and it didn't teach me much about debating.

In college, I majored in communications, but I never finished my degree. I still learned a lot from the classes I took, and I use the skills I developed in my career today, even though my career is in a totally different field.

I don't think that I'm the most gifted orator or writer, but I have long been obsessed with writing the perfect sentence, crafting the perfect argument, and being as precise as possible in the way that I word things, sometimes to a fault, and I think that obsession carries through even in junk I'm posting on social media.

Anyway, I know that was an unnecessarily long and detailed answer, but I hope the few followers who bother to read this enjoy learning a little bit more about me.

[raine-st0rm]

im doing this all

1. What is you middle name? Rebecca

2. How old are you? N/A

3. When is your birthday? April 6th

4. What is your zodiac sign? Aries

5. What is your favorite color? Blue

6. What’s your lucky number? 11

7. Do you have any pets? Mhm! 2 dogs and lots of chickens

8. Where are you from? Born in one of the Carolinas ( I forgot which)

9. How tall are you? N/A

10. What shoe size are you? 7 in women's I think I don't really know

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? Uhh.. three or four maybe

12. What was your last dream about? No coue

13. What talents do you have? I don't know??

14. Are you psychic in any way? Nope

15. Favorite song? Ooh I'm not sure. My favorite artist is Melanie Martinez but idk about favorite songs

16. Favorite movie? I love the Spider-Man into the spider-verse franchise as well as Jurassic world/park

17. Who would be your ideal partner? Nobody

18. Do you want children? No

19. Do you want a church wedding? No

20. Are you religious? Nope

21. Have you ever been to the hospital? Yepp

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? Nope

23. Have you ever met any celebrities? hhh I think idk I'm exhausted I forgot

24. Baths or showers? BATHS

25. What color socks are you wearing? No socks

26. Have you ever been famous? No..?

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? NO WAY

28. What type of music do you like? Uhhmm idkk 😭

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? I don't even know what that means so no

30. How many pillows do you sleep with? I don't sleep with pillows I sleep on squishmallows lmao

31. What position do you usually sleep in? I don't know but I usually fall asleep kinda curled up on my side

32. How big is your house? no clue

33. What do you typically have for breakfast? Cereal and milk or nothing. Sometimes smoothies.

34. Have you ever fired a gun? Yep

35. Have you ever tried archery? No

36. Favorite clean word? POP I LOVE PRONOUNCING IT or uh bumfuzzle

37. Favorite swear word? Chucklefuck

38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? 23 hours

39. Do you have any scars? Yeah a lot

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? A ton

41. Are you a good liar? Sometimes

42. Are you a good judge of character? Sometimes

43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? A bit? Sometimes I'll randomly go into a British accent

44. Do you have a strong accent? It fluctuates depending on my mood

45. What is your favorite accent? IRISH 🤭

46. What is your personality type? intp-t

47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? MY GLASSES LMAO

48. Can you curl your tongue? Mhm

49. Are you an innie or an outie? Innie

50. Left or right handed? Right handed

51. Are you scared of spiders? YES VERY

52. Favorite food? Steak

53. Favorite foreign food? POUTINEEE AH I LPVE IT ONE PF MY FAVORITE FPODS ITS SO GOOD YOU DONT EGEN UNDERSTAND

54. Are you a clean or messy person? Idk..?

55. Most used phrase? Uh idk

56. Most used word? No clue sorry

57. How long does it take for you to get ready? Depends how much time I have and where we're going and what I have in my closet

58. Do you have much of an ego? You tell me idkk

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? Suck

60. Do you talk to yourself? Ofc??

61. Do you sing to yourself? Who doesn't??

62. Are you a good singer? Idk, I don't think so

63. Biggest Fear? the action of reverse eating (my fear is so bad I can't even see the word)

64. Are you a gossip? Not sure what this means. Do I gossip? Yes. Am I topic of gossip? No and I've never been. Hope ill continue that.

65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? I dunno 😭

66. Do you like long or short hair? SHORT ALL THE WAY. SHORT TO MEDUIM IS BEAUTIFUL

67. Can you name all 50 states of America? maybe? maybe not. Probably not

68. Favorite school subject? Orchestra

69. Extrovert or Introvert? Introvert

70. Have you ever been scuba diving? No

71. What makes you nervous? Everything (anxiety moment)

72. Are you scared of the dark? Yeah

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? Sometimes. It depends

74. Are you ticklish? Yes

75. Have you ever started a rumor? Never

76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? Nope

77. Have you ever drank underage?....yeah

78. Have you ever done drugs? Nooooooo

79. Who was your first real crush? I've never had one

80. How many piercings do you have? One earring :D

81. Can you roll your Rs? Yep!

82. How fast can you type? Idk, depends. Irls say I do

83. How fast can you run? I outrun most of my irls but idk

84. What color is your hair? Strawberry blonde!

85. What color is your eyes? They change but they're usually this

86. What are you allergic to? Every tropical fruit and strawberries

87. Do you keep a journal? Yes

88. What do your parents do? What does this mean??

89. Do you like your age? No not reallt

90. What makes you angry? uhh idkek

91. Do you like your own name? I don't really like my irl name, I wanna change it to Raine (online name)

92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? NOVA NOVA NOVA NOVA NOVA

93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child? I don't want a kid

94. What are you strengths? idek

95. What are your weaknesses? idk 😭

96. How did you get your name? shortened version of a popular name for irl, and for online I just picked it out cause I liked it

97. Were your ancestors royalty? Yes actually! Technically we own a castle and it's still up and running

98. Do you have any scars? Yes a lot

99. Color of your bedspread? Sage

100. Color of your room? My walls are white if that's what you're talking about

Get To Know Me Uncomfortably Well

PLEASE DON’T LET THIS FLOP AHHHH

1. What is you middle name? 2. How old are you? 3. When is your birthday? 4. What is your zodiac sign? 5. What is your favorite color? 6. What’s your lucky number? 7. Do you have any pets? 8. Where are you from? 9. How tall are you? 10. What shoe size are you? 11. How many pairs of shoes do you own? 12. What was your last dream about? 13. What talents do you have? 14. Are you psychic in any way? 15. Favorite song? 16. Favorite movie? 17. Who would be your ideal partner? 18. Do you want children? 19. Do you want a church wedding? 20. Are you religious? 21. Have you ever been to the hospital? 22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law? 23. Have you ever met any celebrities? 24. Baths or showers? 25. What color socks are you wearing? 26. Have you ever been famous? 27. Would you like to be a big celebrity? 28. What type of music do you like? 29. Have you ever been skinny dipping? 30. How many pillows do you sleep with? 31. What position do you usually sleep in? 32. How big is your house? 33. What do you typically have for breakfast? 34. Have you ever fired a gun? 35. Have you ever tried archery? 36. Favorite clean word? 37. Favorite swear word? 38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep? 39. Do you have any scars? 40. Have you ever had a secret admirer? 41. Are you a good liar? 42. Are you a good judge of character? 43. Can you do any other accents other than your own? 44. Do you have a strong accent? 45. What is your favorite accent? 46. What is your personality type? 47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing? 48. Can you curl your tongue? 49. Are you an innie or an outie? 50. Left or right handed? 51. Are you scared of spiders? 52. Favorite food? 53. Favorite foreign food? 54. Are you a clean or messy person? 55. Most used phrased? 56. Most used word? 57. How long does it take for you to get ready? 58. Do you have much of an ego? 59. Do you suck or bite lollipops? 60. Do you talk to yourself? 61. Do you sing to yourself? 62. Are you a good singer? 63. Biggest Fear? 64. Are you a gossip? 65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen? 66. Do you like long or short hair? 67. Can you name all 50 states of America? 68. Favorite school subject? 69. Extrovert or Introvert? 70. Have you ever been scuba diving? 71. What makes you nervous? 72. Are you scared of the dark? 73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes? 74. Are you ticklish? 75. Have you ever started a rumor? 76. Have you ever been in a position of authority? 77. Have you ever drank underage? 78. Have you ever done drugs? 79. Who was your first real crush? 80. How many piercings do you have? 81. Can you roll your Rs?“ 82. How fast can you type? 83. How fast can you run? 84. What color is your hair? 85. What color is your eyes? 86. What are you allergic to? 87. Do you keep a journal? 88. What do your parents do? 89. Do you like your age? 90. What makes you angry? 91. Do you like your own name? 92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they? 93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child? 94. What are you strengths? 95. What are your weaknesses? 96. How did you get your name? 97. Were your ancestors royalty? 98. Do you have any scars? 99. Color of your bedspread? 100. Color of your room?

[elwynten]

Chapter 11

Changing the Law

Smith, Cerea, Papi, Kim, Miia and I were in Kim's living room. Smith had shown up wanting to talk to me. Smith was sitting down with a cup of coffee in her hand. The rest of us were sitting on the couch or chairs.

"I talked to some people I know about your request of having both Papi and Centorea as wives. They are intrigued on how you stated your request, and they want to talk to you about it. They set up a meeting for the day after tomorrow at 9:30 am. I hope that is good with you." Smith told me offhandedly.

I nodded my head in agreement. "I can do that." I told her.

"I'll be here at 9:00 am to pick you up and take you to the meeting." Smith added then she looked at Kim. "More coffee Darling." She told kimihito.

Kim rolled his eyes. "Yes, Ms. Smith." He said as he stood up, took her coffee cup and headed to the kitchen.

= = = = =

Two days later.

Smith showed up on time, although she wanted a cup of coffee before, we left. We arrived at the building the meeting would be in just in time. Smith led me upstairs to the office. "The rest it up to you. I'm not allowed in the meeting." She told me.

"Maybe you could get some coffee while you wait." I offered with a big grin on my face.

Smith snorted then turned around and walked away.

I chuckled then opened the door to the office.

I walked up to the secretary's desk. "I have an appointment. My name is Eilwyn Tengee." I told her.

She looked at a date book. "Yes, Mr. Tengee, they will be with you in a few minutes." She informed me.

I walked over to a window and looked out. I put my hands behind my back and held one wrist with the other hand.

Because of who I was to be talking to. I changed my Adjustable Clothes, to a dress suit and tie.

About five minutes passed before the secretary spoke up. "You can go in." She told me.

I slowly turned and looked at her. "Thank you." I told her, then I walked over to the door to the office, opened it and walked in.

There were three men in the room sitting along one side of a table. One of the men stood up and greeted me. "Mr. Tengee, please come in and have a seat." He said indicating an empty chair. Then he introduced himself and the two other men with him. "I am Representative Hada, this is Councilor Ishii, and Foreign Minister Oshima." Hada told me. I bowed slightly to each as they were introduced. I wasn't going to try and reach over the table to shake their hands.

"Please be seated Mr. Tengee." Hadda told me.

"My proper title is Lord, I am Lord Tengee." I told him.

This brought a bit of a surprise to them. They had not expected someone that was titled. They thought I was, what most politicians think of the citizens they represent as, a commoner.

Hada cleared his throat. "Yes… Lord Tengee." He corrected himself although it sounded like he didn't like it. And I know he didn't like that I had a title, because I was keeping watch in their minds to see what they were up to.

As this was going on I pulled the chair out from the table. I created a telekinetic box under the chair and lifted it up twelve inches. I extended the 'box' a foot in front of the chair so I would have a place to set my feet. This put me either at the same height as the politicians or slightly higher.

Hada looked over some papers then looked up at me. "Now, Lord… Tengee, as we understand, you want to marry a harpy named Papi. While at the same time being married to a Centaur named Centorea Shianus under the centaur custom that a knight is considered married to their master. Is that correct?" He asked me.

I nodded my head in agreement. "Yes, that is correct. I'm sure you already know, many monster Girls need human males to have children. I don't believe it would be a good idea for large numbers of men to marry just one monster girl. That would greatly reduce the number of human women being able to marry and have offspring, which would greatly reduce the number of children in the next generation. But if one man was able to marry more than one monster girl. That would leave more men to marry human women, while still keeping the monster girl population steady." I told them my idea.

Hada and Ishii nodded their heads as if they agreed with me or at least understood what I had told them. Oshima just looked at me with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"This is an unusual request." Foreign Minister Oshima started. "But there are many loopholes in the 'Interspecies Exchange Accord', so we should be able to find a way for you to marry both liminals." He stated.

"Yes, there are many loopholes in the law. And that is the problem, politicians making laws and intentionally put loopholes in them so they can "use" those loopholes to either make money for themselves or to gain power and control. There is no other reason for there to be loopholes in any law." I stated.

This obviously riled up Ishii because he slammed his hand on the table and stood up. "How dare you say such things. It takes a lot of time and effort to make laws and sometimes these loopholes…" He started berating me.

"Shut up" I said and sent to all three of them. "That is exactly what I mean. You would NOT be so upset if what I said was not true. What the three of you are going to do is… rewrite the law. First, it will state that limina's and humans are to follow the laws of the land they are living in. If a liminal breaks the law, a human or a liminal can stop and/or arrest the liminal and they can use force if necessary. That solves most all of the problems in the first law. Second, you will put in that a human male can marry up to 4 Monster Girls. A centaur is not included in the four wives because the centaur is considered already married to their 'master'. That means a human male can be married to four liminal girls and also married to a centaur. And third, after a liminal has been living with their host family for six months, they can go out on their own without a member of their host family going with them, as long as the liminal follows the laws of the country they are living in." I told them and I also pushed into their minds so they would do what I had told them. "And last, the three of you will write and sign a letter allowing me, Eilwyn Tengee to marry Papi and to be considered under the law to be married to Centorea without having to go through all the legal paperwork. You will write that letter, sign it and have it delivered to Ms. Smith by the end of the workday, today." I finished and stood up.

Kadd, Ishii and Oshima all stared into space until I stood up. Then they came out of their trance or stupor. Then after a moment they stood up.

"That's a very good idea. I'm sure it will work out very well and to everyone's benefit." Hada said as if everything I had said was his idea.

"Yes, yes, I believe you are correct." Ishii added as he stood up. "Thank you for coming in. We will have the letter allowing you to marry both Centorea and Papi to you by the end of the workday today." He told me, then turned to the other two.

"If you have any trouble passing the new law. Let Ms. Smith know so she can contact me, and I'll be a witness in both houses." I told them.

"Yes, yes." Kadd said and turned to the other three.

All three started talking and ignored me. It seemed I had been dismissed by them, so I dissolved the telekinetic box under the chair and left the office. As I headed to the elevator, I pulled out my cell phone and called Smith to let her know the meeting was over and I would be in front of the building waiting for her to pick me up so she could take me back home.

Later that evening Smith showed up at our house to deliver the memo saying I could marry Papi and also be considered married to Cerea without having to go through all the red tape. And they were working on a new bill, per my 'suggestions'.

==========================

Six weeks after Smith showed up to give me the memo. She showed up again. Of course, Smith shows up quite a bit to eat and she brings the MON squad with her at least half the time. But this time she had a letter for me from Representative Hada and Councilor Ishii. In the letter they wanted me to speak in front of the government houses to explain why human males should be able to marry up to four monster girls.

A week later I gave a speech in front of the two houses of government. I used my mind control to get a majority of votes to pass the new law in both houses. Shortly after that it was signed into law.

The law states, simplified; A human male may marry 2, 3 or 4 Monster Girls. This is allowed so Monster Girls can have offspring. Otherwise, human males would marry 1 Monster Girl reducing the number of human children being born. If a human male marries a Monster Girl, he must marry no less than 2 monster girls and up to and no more than 4 Monster Girls. Centaurs are exempt from this part of the law because in centaur society they are considered married to their master by way of centaur society. Thus, centaurs are legally married to their master without having to go through the usual red tape and ceremonies. Because of this prevision, a human male can have up to four liminal wives plus one centaur wife.

Under the law all liminals will be required to follow the laws of the land they live in. If a Liminal breaks any law a human or Liminal law enforcement officer can use whatever force is required to subdue and arrest said Liminal. If found guilty said Liminal will be treated as if they were a human that had broken the same law. If said Liminal is to be imprisoned, they will be placed into an appropriate facility suited to their kind of Liminal. Under this law a new and special facility may be required to be built to accommodate Liminals that require special accommodations. Example, Mermaids, Centaurs, Lamia, etc.

= = = = = = = = = =

I've been slimed.

We were in Kim's kitchen. Kim was trying to teach Miia how to make a stew. Cerea, Taima and I were in the dining room and Papi was playing a game on the gaming system in the dining room. Kim walked over to us when Miia screamed. Everyone looked to see what was wrong. Something was covering Miia's head. Of course, Taima and I know what or rather who it is, but we didn't want the others to know that we knew what was going on.

A translucent bluish-green blob with a green tentacle or antenna sticking out of the top, enveloped Miia's head. Kim and Cerea yelled in shock and surprise. Papi was too involved in her game to notice what was going on. But moments later the thing on Miia's head released her. Kim was able to put it in a fairly large bowl.

I picked up the bowl. "I'll take it to my house. If it's dangerous I can shut the portal to keep it in the pocket plain." I told them.

"O-okay." Kim said and turned to Miia, who was laying on the couch recovering from being 'attacked'.

"Let's go Papi!" I called. "You can play at home."

"Will Master play with me?" Papi asked me.

"I will if I get the chance. We have to see what will happen with this." I said indicating the slime in the bowl.

"Are you sure Master? It already attacked Miia. It might attack one of us." Cerea said.

"I'm sure we'll be just fine." I told her.

Carrying the bowl with the slime, Suu, in it, I led Cerea and Papi to our house. And soon it will be Suu's house as well. Once in the house I set the bowl with Suu in it on the coffee table in the living room.

Standing by the coffee table looking at Suu in the bowl. "I believe it is a slime, Master." Cerea informed me.

"I was thinking the same thing." I told her.

"Fear not, Master, for I will protect you. I swear it on my blade." Then in a softer voice. "Even though it is a replica". In her normal voice. "I shall not permit my Master to be harmed by such a creature." Cerea exclaimed.

Papi jumped onto my back, flinging her arms around me. "Master, let's play." Papi said with excitement.

"Where are your priorities, Papi!" Cerea exclaimed.

Papi released me and stepped back away from me. At that time the slime extended itself from the bowl.

"Take cover!" Cerea yelled. "Get away from my Master!" Cerea said to the slime as she swung her sword at the slime. Cerea's sword did no harm to the slime.

Cerea looked at her sword. "How? Slimes are supposed to be some of the lowest level of creatures. I'm powerless against it." Cerea said.

Suu the slime fell upon us from behind, then she quickly fled the room.

Papi was back at the TV playing a game on the gaming system, totally ignoring what was happening behind her.

"Ugh, what a mess. Are you alright Cerea?" I asked Cerea.

"I am unharmed Master. I didn't think slimes were that strong." Cerea replied. She raised her hand up and looked at it. Her hand was covered in slime. "I'm all covered in slime." She added.

I looked down at myself. "I've been slimed!" I exclaimed and chuckled. "I need a shower." I added as I headed to the big bathroom.

As I passed Papi playing a game of tennis on the gaming system. "Be careful Papi." I said as she ran back and forth swinging the controller. I don't think she even heard me. But then, I wasn't really worried.

Since I had given Papi more intelligence and a better memory, she is smarter and learning more and she wasn't forgetting things. But Papi still gets lost in games and a few other things, where she totally blocks out the rest of the world for a time. But then, I know other people that do the same thing when reading or gaming.

In the bathroom I stripped my clothes off and put them in a cubby. They would clean themselves, but the slime might take a little longer than normal to clean.

I prefer showers, but I miss the Bath House back home on Pern. Although the Japanese style bath in this house is nice.

I turned the shower on and started washing the slime off of myself.

A few minutes later, I heard Cerea talking through the door. "Master…?" She started. I could hear her but barley because she was talking fairly softly. "ERR… would it be… all right…?" Cerea said haltingly, and possibly a little fearfully. I believe she was afraid I would reject letting her come into the bathroom with me.

"Sure, you can come in." I called out to Cerea.

Cerea had undressed and only had a towel draped over her breasts and down her front. "Pardon my intrusion!" She told me. Then she looked at me. "Master… your…!" She started and blushed

"Yes, I am. I'm taking a shower, so I don't have any clothes on. And you keep forgetting, we… are… engaged…!" I told her.

"I don't know if…" She started again.

I chuckled. "Do you want me to help wash the slime off of you, or not?" I asked her.

Cerea blushed. "Yes, would you please help me wash the slime off, Master." She said.

"Okay, then come over here so I can wash you down with the shower head." I told her.

Cerea walked over to where I was. I picked up the shower head, disconnected it from its holder and pointed it at Cerea. I did a quick rinse to get some of the slime off and also to get her wet. I motioned for her to sit/lay down. Once she had her horse half laying on the floor, I took a hand brush and started brushing her horse half down. I started where her human half stopped, and her horse half started. I scrubbed her front right quarter and moved to her left side. As I walked in front of Cerea I bent over and kissed her on her nose. Cerea blushed, but she also smiled. Once on her left side I started scrubbing that side.

After a few minutes we both heard dripping water. Or in this case dripping slime.

"Remember, you don't have your sword with you." I told Cerea.

Cerea looked at me with a confused look on her face, just as the slime dropped down from the ceiling onto the floor.

Cerea moved to get up, but she tripped and started to fall. I moved beside Cerea to prevent her from falling over. "I got you." I said as I made sure she was on her feet.

"Thank you, Master." She told me.

The slime moved towards me, but Cerea moved to block her.

"It's ok, Cerea. Let it go." I told her.

"Are you sure, Master?" She asked just as the slime grabbed me with a tentacle.

"Yes, I'm sure. I'll be just fine." I told Cerea then I looked at the slime.

A moment later the slime almost exploded and changed from a blob to that of a girl. She looked at me for a moment then hugged me. Then she knocked me over, so I was laying on the floor. She took the brush I had been using on Cerea and started scrubbing me, just like I had scrubbed Cerea.

"She's copying things she's seen. Papi hugging me, me scrubbing you're back. I believe she's just learning about human society." I told Cerea. "There's a possibility that she's a baby or a young 'girl' and is learning. Intellectually anyway."

"It seems that way Master." Cerea said.

I wanted to start thinking of her as Suu, which is what Papi will name her in just a little while.

Suu move up to my head and hugged me, the next thing I know, my head was engulfed in Suu's body. The natural thing to do when you can't breathe is to panic. It took me a moment or two to remember that I don't need to breath. Once I remembered that I calmed down. I motioned to Cerea that I was Okay so she wouldn't panic and would stay out of the way.

I stood up and jumped into the bathtub. When I did that, Suu kind of melted and released me. I stepped out of the tub and looked back in. "You need to learn that almost everyone else needs air and you can't cover them with your body like that, girl." I told Suu, not that I expected her to understand what I was saying.

"Master, are you alright?" Cerea asked looking at me with concern on her face and in her voice.

"I smiled at Cerea. "Yes, I'm alright." I looked around for a moment then back to Cerea. "I believe we're clean enough. Let's leave the slime here for now and go out to the living room." I suggested.

"What about the slime, Master?"

I looked at the bathtub again. "I don't think we need to worry about her for now. And I'll send Taima to tell Kim and Miia what happened. They'll probably want to know." I said.

Cerea nodded her head in agreement. "That would be a good idea, Master. They should know what is happening with the slime." Cerea admitted.

We dried ourselves and dressed. As we were leaving the bathroom, I let Cerea go ahead of me. As she passed me, I reached up and swatted her on the rump. "Nice haunches, girlfriend." I said.

Cerea jumped a little. "Master!" She called and turned to look at me with her face red from embarrassment. Then she smiled because I had said 'girlfriend'.

"Girlfriend. I'm my Master's girlfriend." She said more to herself than to me and her smile got bigger.

"You're my girlfriend as well as my fiancé." I told her and winked at her. I took her hand and walked her to the living room where Papi was still playing on the game system.

A few minutes later Kimihito and Miia walked into our living room.

"I didn't think of defeating the slime by diluting it in water, Master." Cerea told me.

I shrugged my shoulders. "I took a chance. Although it was interesting that the slime turned into a girl."

"Bird chop." Papi called. We could hear Papi playing a game on the gaming system behind us.

"A girl!?" Miia said, and Kim looked stunned.

"We don't need another girl around here." Kim said.

"I had no idea a slime could take human form." Cerea stated.

"I've never heard of anything like it." Miia added.

"Take that!" Papi yelled.

"Maybe you should report this to Ms. Smith." Cerea suggested.

"Do you really think she'll do anything?" Kim asked.

"She is a loose cannon." Miia said.

"Hiiiyaaa!!" Papi yelled.

"Is it wise to leave it in the bathroom?" Cerea asked.

"Is it still in there?" Miia asked.

"If it can take human form, I'm sure it will be able to figure out how to get out, sooner or later." I told them.

I pointed to where Papi and the slime were. "We have company." I told them.

There were sounds of shock and surprise from Kim, Miia and Cerea.

Suu the Slime and Papi the Harpy.

[zoey-angel]

Okay so. I hate AI profoundly. I think the ability of AI to steal art, faces, voices and generate images and deepfake is deeply disturbing and probably dystopian in the long run. BUT.

Literally like. Chat GPT is a good tool. It's not good for people who don't know how to fact check, because it's flawed, and can be stupid + make mistakes and insist on them. But if you make the extra step of, I dunno, thinking for yourself? Verifying the info with google? You can use it and it'll help you.

The fact that some lawyer asked chatgpt to defend their client and it came up with bullshit is the lawyer's fault. That's not how you use chatgpt... The lawyer should have asked "what does the law say about x in my state" And then ask for specific passes supporting the answer, and THEN go OPEN THE PASSES which are available online. Read around them as well, look for loopholes etc, and for his own defense.

Chatgpt should've been used as a librarian, finding what could be useful for his case, to save him from having to flip through countless law files in search of anything relevant!

Maybe to expand on that, ask chatgpt if there are any past similar cases he can refer to, and then look them up online to verify chatgpt wasn't making shit up, and actually read all that is to be read on those 😵‍💫

The greatness of the AI here is not that it can create stuff, rather that it can look for things for you.

I recently used it in a paper. For what, you ask? Shakespearean literature. I wanted to draw examples from the text, but, I don't have every scene from every single shakespearean play in my head? And I didn't want to google "list of x demonstrated in plays by Shakespeare" because firstly that's a niche search, secondly if I did find someone else's summary and drew exactly their examples it would feel like plagiarism, thirdly because there's no promise google would come up with an extensive list, and unlikely google, I could tell chatgpt "how about ones where x ends in y?" And it gave those to me right away.

So... I went and opened the plays, where chatgpt said I could find my examples, and lo and behold they were there. I read over the scenes again, and chose what was relevant for my paper. Perfect!

Did I ask chatgpt to write me the entire paper? No. That's not how you use chatgpt.

I use chatgpt for programming too, because anyone who wants me to start diving into stackoverflow for a Hunan's explanation of the syntax I should use in my particular function, doesn't understand even remotely how time consuming that can be. If I need to build a program with x y z f g m l k and something that makes sure there's no overflow and another thing that checks if the input is valid and ANOTHER which reacts if it isn't valid and- no. How many hours am I meant to spend googling? I won't.

Instead of all that, I ask chatgpt what a function checking x would look like in my programming language, and then gently guide and correct it. "What if the input is over y bits?" "How do I do the same thing for strings?" "Oh you shifted the string left here. Why?" Etc. Then I run the code in VS and it's fine! It works.

In some time I'll be less of a noob, I'm still learning how to code... So far I know a manageable amount of python and C, but C is HARD aight? And so is fucking assembly which I'm forced to study for uni. I'm also occasionally required to work with matlab, rarely java or html, all of which I NEVER studied, and I can't start pulling all of it out of my ass directly, I need some coaching which chatgpt does.

Tl;dr great tool, people don't know how to use it. It's a screwdriver people are trying to hammer nails with.

[athomewiththecicadas]

Life as a Senior NCO for a Head of Household that can't Provide.

Well, I don't think we should sit here and listen to a Treasury Secretary that is willing to extort our Tax Revenues, because a large number of people are uneducated regarding the ownership of Corporations.

As if an Intellectual Property is up for question regarding entitlements.

Espionage deserves its place. And that is devine.

However, I will say it again. There will be no Service Member that will state otherwise.

No soldier shall garrison, without consent of the owner, and this includes elasticity. Get your hands off of my contractual agreements.

--

We are not going to sit here and watch the technique of leveraged buyouts, to freely change the contractual agreements that formed Tax Revenue.

And that's correct. Incompliance to Minimum Wage Law, has created risk to common market growth. And as a result, government risks their insurance coverage.

--

Well, I can say one thing, and that is that their are curtain individuals who keep referring to birth right and entitlement. And the context of contractual agreements are much stronger than their jurisdiction justifies in the first place.

And just as the United States Government refers to their employees embarrassing the institution of government. I'll be the first to defend our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Amendment Rights.

The U.S. Constitution is not a life. And to sit here and have foreign commerce defending otherwise, hits closer to home then tax payers may be willing to admit.

--

Well, yes. The context of Foreign Commerce also should include the context of the Bill of Rights. And the Bill of Rights also apply to foreign Commerce. Obviously the connection between Corporate affairs, and the Tax Revenues agreed by Governments.

--

Well, the U.S. Government has enemies, and likewise, anyone doing business for Government would naturally accumulate the necessity to defend themselves. And since these contractual agreements between Governments and Corporations present a risk, it's only responsible to minimize these risks to begin with.

The fact is there is no known, contractual agreement between the Corporation and Government, that satisfies the claims of jurisdiction these claims are stating.

--

It's cheap to fall into the habit of assuming the use of biological and chemical weapons will ever become legalized. And so, it is responsible to thwart these "build ups," before they become an issue in the future.

And part of that is enforcing a system for properly facilitating enumerations.

--

Well, the military institution specifically refers to gender habits in a predefined context. And when you refer to the term "adultery," you are actually referring to adult sexuality in whole. Adult sexuality is adultery.

People who do not exercise, especially in relation to the Traditional System, suffer from adultery. And this is stating that the institution endorses Sexual Identity as part of the values of the institution. But that is specifically not the context of adultery.

Plainly stating that there are many religious scriptures that reference disciplinary actions related to adultery and specifically not sexual identity.

And so, in Biblical context, the terms of adultery apply, where adultery is the root of sin, and inequity.

--

Where this becomes critical is the bonds within the economy, where adultery causes an affect on the context of contractual agreements. And when accusations are made in regard to anything related to the enumeration of "wheat," these contractual agreements are very strong.

But anything relating to a "command" enumeration are usually beyond the worldly understanding of mortals.

And so, the food chain is a basic example of where adultery would apply.

These are merely the "religious" beliefs within the institution. In order to encourage those whom are suffering, and trying to pursue a life of "holiness," that these values are not over looked.

--

"I personally am offended, by the neighborly culture that we acknowledge as reassuring, where including our health and well-being, and even vesting in the name brands in our economy, is construed to deny and disparage the peace of mind we have accumulated.

Where adultery is degrading the common values of our culture. Where our cultural values are both necessary and proper. Where otherwise, we are nothing more than victims suffering from the Laws of God, governing the food chain.

There's only so much that even God expects from us. And all of this is true, only until you find a man that now knows. And once he knows, there's nothing I can say about that."

Sergeant Major Nathan Marksmith, North Wales Militia/ Joint Militia Detachment Brigade (Virginia Militia Association)

[mauannacreates]

This is a really nice rule to think about. And I think there are some people like @artrosear and others who may not see this post or who are awaiting for an answer on what this means. So, I'll try to expand on it the best that I can, and if anyone wants to correct me or expand on my words, feel free to do so.

I will first answer what the law of diminishing terms means in this context and then I will explain on how it relates to the increase of stakes.

The law of diminishing returns is originally, out of context of this post, is when you increase one factor of goods (I'll use employees in this example) and it gets to a point where having a lot of workers is good at first, but it can also harm your production rate in the long run. Like you would need to have enough workers to do the work that the employer sets them to do, but if you get too many workers but not enough resources to meet the demand of workers and don't have the sufficient amount of money, then the returns you get will diminish because you are using an excess of money to pay the workers which would reduce on what you could get to improve the current resources that the company has. I guess this is why redundancy and putting people out of work exists, to give them a certain amount of money of their time, while also improving the company's state and get out of the diminishing returns.

Now in the context of @why-bless-your-heart's post, it gets to a point where there are stories where they go on raising more and more complexities in the story while not delving deep into the characters and why they want it. If there are too many complexities and troubles that are rising higher without trying to learn more about the characters, than it can get too predictable and bore the reader to the point of closing the book.

It's a bit like a tightrope between needing the moments where we can look into the characters and the relationships with one another, which would add suspense and maybe even excitement to the story and the moments where those characters take action. Because if there's too much action of adding unnecessary stakes, you will lose people, but that is also similar to when you make a story go too slow.

Think of each story as a wave. You need to have change in a story to make sure that the story is not too predictable, and it can satisfy the character progression between the characters involved.

The high-stake moments are important because you will need that to go and take action which is related to the main parts of your story and goes along with the theme and what not, beat the main antagonist, find that special item to unlock what you have been longing for.

But the low-stakes are just as important; they give the reader a little break from the high and intense moments. You get to see the characters more in a calmer state, see relationships evolve, learn more about the characters' eyes that you are looking through.

Low stakes are like a fresh breath of air for the person before they see another high-stake moment which would be a bit more intense than the last time, and those high and low stakes would progress throughout the story before it leads up to the major moment where it would be the highest stake moment. Then after, whether it's done in one book or in a series, this highest stake would be resolved and it would be resolved, have a bit of an ending and see how everyone else is living their lives since this peak moment has passed.

I'm not an expert at this sort of stuff, but I do hope this helps a few people, and it makes better sense for the people who want to learn and understand more about this kind of thing.

Another storytelling rule I think people should remember is the law of diminishing returns. If you keep on ramping up the stakes higher and higher and higher, after a point it gets to where the audience can’t really care anymore.

[escarlatafox]

6, 11, 13, 25, B!

Uncommon Questions for OCs and their creators

Thanks so much for the ask! I wrote a Lot. 😅 So I'll put it all under a readmore :P

Will answer for my OCs Patrick and Vincent.

6. Do they consider laws flexible, or immovable?

Immovable! (Answer applies to both).

11. How do they cope with confusion (seek clarification, pretend they understand, etc)?

Vincent would seek clarification if the situation allows/calls for it – he generally wants to make sure he understands things thoroughly and correctly. For Patrick, it depends. For things he 100% doesn’t understand (e.g. an entirely new concept gets mentioned, or someone making a statement that seemingly doesn’t make any sense at all without context he doesn’t have), he would seek clarification, but for things he only partially doesn’t understand, he is likely to just sit with the confusion instead and try and “figure it out on his own” or otherwise just accept that there are elements he doesn’t quite understand, or understand yet, at least. However, he certainly wouldn’t “pretend to understand”, so sometimes if someone realises he still doesn’t quite get something, they might offer more information even if it isn’t requested, but they’d have to be able to notice…

13. What colour do they think they look best in? Do they actually look best in that colour?

HAH, I’m not really a fashion person + I have a very “taste/aesthetics are subjective” point of view where I wouldn’t want to try and assert my subjective opinion as fact, but I’m not sure I necessarily have an opinion to begin with here, so…

In any case, Vincent would have Opinions on this and those Opinions would be “correct” because I consider him to have good aesthetic judgement (he’s from a family with good social standing who also associates with/has connections with many families of good standing in turn, this kind of thing would somewhat come with the socialisation I think…). I don’t personally know what his opinions are, since I’d consider his aesthetic judgement to be way “better” than my own in its alignment with society/general views, LOL.

Patrick doesn’t really have an opinion about this. His/his family’s strand of Christianity has some level of focus on plain/modest dress where it would be bad to intentionally stand out or w/e, so in the end, looking “good” isn’t really the point (though looking presentable is). So, the standard outfit that I depict him in features shades of brown (as in my icon). But yeah I don’t really know for sure what he’d look “best” in, but I guess I think the brown(s) of his standard outfit does suit him fine imo. But yeah, he doesn’t really think about questions like “what colour do I look best in”, so.

25. What are their thoughts on marriage?

So, they both are from an older era of like 100 years ago, and they both come from conservative type families. They’re very much surrounded by and growing up in an environment where marriage is the standard expected thing of everyone.

Vincent has a romanticised view of marriage and wants/expects to be married when he is older (he’s 17).

When Patrick was very little (as in, around 6 years old or under), back then I think he would have just considered marriage to be the default state of adulthood that would simply “happen”/that simply “happens” to basically everyone as this standard thing, something expected/compulsory of everyone like how kids are required to attend school – not really associating it with romance or really understanding much about what marriage is (understandable at that age). He’d just know that his parents are married, other adults he’s aware of are married, probably pick up this general notion from family/society that Marriage Is Good, etc. There wouldn’t be a whole lot of awareness that it’s this active choice that two people make and (ideally) want for themselves, he’d just see it as, again, a standard/default state of Grown-Up Existence. He might have some notion back then as well that being unmarried as an adult is “bad” or a “failed state”, and that an adult who has not yet “achieved” that status would need to “achieve” it.

Obviously as he gets older, he would understand the concept more and know better what marriage actually is. And… he’s never been attracted to anyone, and the idea of a relationship doesn’t really appeal to him in the slightest. But Good Citizens Get Married, and he wants to be a Good Citizen. He does not want to be a Bad Citizen. From an early age he’d just assumed marriage would be in his future because of what I discussed above, and now that he’s older… well. He’s certainly not openly advertising that he doesn’t want to be married, nor does he really think about or acknowledge that much. There’s a bit of cognitive dissonance there. For a while, on some level he’s been able to simply not think about the matter at all because he’s “too young to be thinking about it/too young for it to be relevant to him”, kicking the can down the road as if anything is gonna change (it isn’t). But he’s getting older… (Like Vincent, he’s 17). Yeah, he can still get away with avoiding the topic. For now.

(There is a possible avenue of acceptable escape, which, more and more, he’s also starting to figure is the route he will go down: he’s extremely religious, so he can simply assert that he’s devoting his life so much to God that he can’t make room for marriage. Which wouldn’t even be a lie. The fact that his own father is a pastor might dampen that excuse a bit though. His dad devoted his life to God, and he still got married. Plus, he’s their only kid. So I think his parents kinda want/expect him to get married… lol. Oh well, 1 Corinthians 7:1. Good luck being a confirmed bachelor back in those days though).

(All of this becomes moot, of course, because he won’t ever need to face The Future anyway - since his storyline has him going away from the world, society, and basically everyone, to a pocket dimension and effectively remaining 17 forever.)

B) What inspired you to create them?

For Patrick, it was Milan Kundera’s concept of “totalitarian kitsch”.

“In the realm of totalitarian kitsch, all answers are given in advance and preclude any questions.”

The concept, discussed at length in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, made me want to take the basic idea and run with it and put my own spin on it: what if there was a “realm of totalitarian kitsch” that actually physically existed (see: the “pocket dimension” I mentioned above) as opposed to being a more metaphorical language descriptor of absolutist-style ideology? What if there was someone who could, and did, embody the concept of totalitarian kitsch – (or at least, the specific take I chose to spin on it?). This work of Kundera's comments on the duality/conflict of body and soul, so I really drew on that for his character.

For Vincent, I wanted a character to embody traits/characteristics that I like and/or want to explore which the character of Patrick couldn’t really get at. But inspiration was also drawn from Kundera for him too – namely, the concepts of “categorical agreement with being” and “the laughter of angels”, which I essentially think have some overlap anyway:

“Behind all the European faiths, religious and political, we find the first chapter of Genesis, which tells us that the world was created properly, that human existence is good, and that we are therefore entitled to multiply. Let us call this basic faith a categorical agreement with being.” (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)

“[…] whereas the devil’s laughter denoted the absurdity of things, the angel on the contrary meant to rejoice over how well ordered, wisely conceived, good and meaningful everything here below was.” (The Book of Laughter and Forgetting)

Vincent is able to find a certain resonance and contentment in regular everyday existence in a way Patrick never could. The two characters share some important similarities (that’s why they’re good friends), but also some good contrasts.

[dhaaruni]

As a political consultant, how far are you willing to go to appease racist voters and to get them to vote for Democrats? Is it just about messaging, or are you okay with taking away rights from Black people to win elections? Are you one of those Dems who think Black people will vote Democrats no matter what, so it's okay to disregard their issues and concerns?

This is such a bad faith question but I'll answer in good faith.

First of all, I don't think Black people will always vote Democrat; no group is a monolith and we learned that the hard way with Latino communities in 2020.

My point is simply this: the most marginalized individuals in the country generally benefit from Democrats being in power, and for Democrats to win elections, they need to win over a high enough percentage of white people, which varies based on the state, and yelling that all white people are irredeemable racists doesn't help Democrats win them over. And, Matthew Yglesias is correct here, Democrats can't win by simply turning out low-propensity progressives because there aren't enough low-propensity progressives to turn out that can make up for the moderates/independents that Democrats are hardcore slipping with.

Look at it like this: When John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, was the Governor of Colorado, he implemented a permanent expanded-income tax credit for the poorest Coloradans. Colorado's poverty rate is 9.3% today, one of the lowest rates in the country, and meanwhile, Mississippi, which is the poorest state in the country, has a poverty rate of 19.6%, over twice that of Colorado's. Mississippi has had Republican governors for almost 30 years straight, and that isn't a coincidence.

When I talk about messaging, I'm really not talking about taking away Black people's rights so don't put words in my mouth. I'm saying, don't talk like an academic or Twitter blue check or activist about any of the isms.

For instance, the ACLU yelling that abortion is rad makes people less likely to support abortion at all, and there clearly aren't enough voters who care enough about abortion to vote based on it even if 60% of this country believes Roe v. Wade should stay the law of the land since like, 60% of this country doesn't vote Democrat lmao. I don't yell that root canals or appendectomies are rad, I say that they're health procedures that people should undergo if they need to and should be safe and accessible for all Americans, and leave it at that.

Similarly, you can talk about systemic racism without quoting the 1619 Project or White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo like it's really not rocket science. Just say that people of color are equal to white people and deserve to live without fearing state violence and should have the same opportunities as white people do to get a good education and provide for their families and build better lives for their kids. You really don't have to talk about banning calculus in high schools and making Toni Morrison required reading like keep it very simple and don't take the Republican bait.

As an aside, Jeremiah Johnson is absolutely correct here, especially in the last few paragraphs:

The fact is, if Democrats can't win elections, none of the progressive ideas people have will ever be enacted even in "milquetoast" form. Activists need to understand that and if they don't, they're going to be triangulated more than they already are and we're going to hurtle into single-party Republican rule for the rest of my life.

And edit: @mariacallous gets it!!

Why would you tweet to your 12 million followers that fracking is bad when Pennsylvania is a must-win state in the presidential election a week later???? That's beyond stupid, and I absolutely hate that AOC did that. If Trump won Pennsylvania and the 2020 election, fracking would not only not be banned but fossil fuel usage would probably ramp up. I'm sorry that people in New York resent having to tailor their message to the median voter in Pennsylvania but unless they have the votes to abolish the electoral college, that's how it's gotta be.

[queerprayers]

I've emerged from a depressive episode and some busy weeks to about 50 new asks so I just wanted to update y'all and share some thoughts! I'm so grateful that so many of you have reached out and I'm gonna work hard this week to answer as many as I can while I have free time and am more stable. Please don't let this discourage you from sending new asks, though—I'll add you to the list, just know it might be a bit. I also want you to know that if you sent a prayer request, I did read it and you've been in my prayers, I just haven't publicly acknowledged it. Here are some recent assorted thoughts that I'm just now putting into words:

I don't tend to post about current events on this blog, partially because it often takes me a while to put thoughts into words and I don't want to publish hasty opinions and unthought-out reactions, and partially because I don't want to be a news source. There are better (and faster) writers and more qualified people out there than me to do that work. I trust and hope that all of you are reading/learning, praying, and doing justice work without me posting about every issue that affects us. If you don't see me address a topic, it's not because I'm unaware of it, don't have an opinion on it, or am not praying and working.

That said, I am working on a resource/reading list regarding abortion, because it's something I've thought and learned about a lot recently, and it's a topic that I've changed my opinion on multiple times. Obviously, the Roe v. Wade decision in the US has brought this topic back into local discussion, and I think other people could also benefit from the research I've done. (Spoiler alert: I have a very complicated relationship with abortion itself but an uncomplicated opinion on the laws themselves/state regulation.)

As I work up the courage/energy to work on my lengthy Google Doc of unanswered asks, I know that I will not always understand the situation and cannot always be knowledgeable or politic or correct but by God I will be earnest and honest and put in work and pray that Love is present as I put my thoughts into the world. I've been having a lot of feelings about how people bare their souls in my inbox and the fact that I could affect them in so many ways, including causing real harm.

I had a pretty life-changing moment recently and I think being forgiven, truly forgiven, is one of the most holy experiences there is. Not the "they're not mad at you anymore and you're polite to each other" forgiveness—the "you messed up, and it won't affect our future because you are forgiven, and you get another chance because I love you, and I love you because you are human" kind of forgiveness. I haven't processed the gift I've been given yet.

Helping lead worship the morning after a relapse is like… I belong here, no matter what I've done or been through. Even if my voice breaks while chanting. That this body you have broken may rejoice.

Summer is nearing its midpoint (at least in this hemisphere) and the woods here are full of life. My petcare work means I'm often with dogs out there. I'm finding grace—I hope you have somewhere like that.

Okay, that's all for now.

<3 Johanna