#im probably the only target audience for this post but im ok with that

[painacony]

a lot of you don't know about my thread of kagihira as carly rae jepsen songs so here it is

i imagined specific scenarios for some of these but feel free to imagine what you want. you only need to listen with a kagihira mindset for the intended experience

au where hirano doesnt love kagi back but he accepts to date kagi with no strings attached (the one)

Truth is I never thought of us together You're just a friend of mine We should know better This can't last forever Kiss me one more time Romance is fine, pour me some wine Tell me it's just for the fun of it Far from your eyes, hard to deny when I don't want love, don't want none of it

2. au where the daily touching doesnt work and kagi ultimately gets rejected by hirano and he's not over it (party for one)

If you didn't know that you were right for me Then there's nothing I can say Tried to call you out to spend some time to see But somebody's in your way Tried to let it go and say I'm over you I'm not over you But I'm trying

3. au where hirano realizes he likes kagi back but is afraid to lose focus on his studies so he ignores it (happy not knowing)

All our friends that I know They've been trying to set us up together I lie, I lie I say somebody else would suit you better But I'll only go so far I don't have the energy To risk a broken heart When you're already killing me But if there's something between you and me Baby, I have no time for it I'm happy not knowing

4. in which hirano falls first (now that i found you)

Waking up next to you, every morning How did we get this far? It came without a warning And in the night time, you tell me your whole life You and me get too real, but all I feel is alright

5. au where kagi lies about dating hirano to get an admirer off his back (body language)

I think I'm in trouble, I can't see the end I call you my lover, you call me your friend I'm keeping it secret, yeah, even from you I call you my lover Oh, what can I do?

6. in which hirano realizes he wants kagi after kagi has already moved on (gimmie love)

I know I said that I'm too scared to try But I still think about you, think about you And I can't lie I like the feeling, how you make me shy I share my secrets and I will not hide I know that one could be two, one could be two

7. i only know this is kagi's pov (felt this way)

But I can't take much more of your hesitating Both our hands speak for us and complicate it My home is your body, how can I stay away? And if my love's too strong for you, walk away But I can't make this wrong when I see your face My home is your body, how can I stay away?

8. hirano falling in love arc (this is what they say)

And when you hear me calling your name It's always different, never the same And every morning, when I wake you up Sugar, you won't need a cup You got me feeling confident, yeah This is what they say Falling in love is supposed to feel like

9. kagiura being down bad (summer love)

I just live for the feeling Dance to the feeling Wait for the feeling of you I was down for the first night And I'm down for a second try When you touch me, I wanna fly I'm so down for you all the time

10. in which they sort the whole thing out (let's sort the whole thing out)

What it feels like when I'm next to you It's a soft touch that I read in to Was it just me? Did you linger for too long? But it's alright if it's on your mind 'Cause it's all I'm thinking all the time

11. post-graduation established relationship kghr / kagi's pov (sideways)

Oh, now I smile at strangers I'm that annoying type Who don't care if there's traffic 'Cause I've got plans tonight, oh Later we'll meet at your place Later we'll be together Ever since you said that you were mine Everything's going my way

12. this one is just 100% kagicore (i really like you)

Who gave you eyes like that? Said you could keep them I don't know how to act Or if I should be leaving I'm running out of time Going out of my mind I need to tell you something Yeah, I need to tell you something, yeah! I really, really, really, really, really, really like you And I want you, do you want me, do you want me, too?

[scoobydoodean]

ok lol officially most annoying anon in the world (“mischaracterization” anon who just said they were abdicating from the convo 4 being high as balls which. is real and i should stop cuz atp im p sure the whole point of what ur getting at is going over my head lmfao) BUT in terms of what u said u were getting at in ur poll (like if the writers were cognizant of it or if it’s more a display of their own internal biases? again im stupid and high sorry if im once again missing the point by a mile)… BUT

I don’t have any strong inclinations either way but if I had to choose I’d have to say it’s more their own internal/personal bias’s coming out rather than something they were expecting the audience to pick up on and maybe think about. And the only reason I say this is because the identities/status of the people she killed were never really explicitly stated (at least from what i can immediately recall of the episodes) or brought up again.

like it’s notttt rlly brought up throughout the episode aside from just learning that those people are dead and she killed them? like idk nothing about it rlly inclines me to believe it was anything more than subconscious or latent beliefs in the writers because I do think we were supposed to empathize with her so it does make sense in that sort of lens that the writers chose “criminals” or whatever to kinda “soften the blow”, if u will, of her having killed people?

idk. i wanna know what what u think tho!!! like in terms of the poll u posted what would ur answer be?

I have mixed feelings about it, because I think the previous associations the writers have made with Sam and class (as well as Dean and class—for example—in 2.20 "What Is And What Should Never Be") make it very possible it's intentional. Sam justifies Amy's actions partly based on class, and Dean condemns her actions partly for the same reason—that she doesn't get to kill people and get away with it just because they're beneath her on the social ladder. It seems so obvious that one wants to assume it's very intentionally and purposefully done.

At the same time, you are right that the presentation of the story—told through the mouth of a cop and a few newspaper clippings—is heavily biased against the victims. The cop says the third victim deserved it because he had been in and out of jail for petty offenses, and Sam calls him a "low life". You have to work very hard to capture the story of the second victim in the newspaper article. You really can't capture the story on those pages without really sitting down to read, paused on the correct frames. A prominent part of the article is focusing on the victim being a heroin addict who had relapsed and was high when he went to the park. He was vulnerable and "in the wrong place at the wrong time". What gets me the most though is the prominent headline for the first victim: "Body found in park, victim known to police". What a gross way to poison the well. The barely visible subheading reads: "Man had been arrested multiple times, had outstanding warrant". (Again—these multiple arrests indicate petty offenses rather than felonies—probably another addict). When Amy makes an attempt on another victim in the park (only to be stopped by Sam), the target is drunk and fumbling with his keys, trying to get into his locked car. So in every case, the presentation not just from Amy and Sam and the cop but the episode as a whole attempts to bias the audience against the victims, trying to paint them as people who shouldn't be missed, who deserved what they got, and/or whose vulnerability was to blame for what happened to them.

Amy seems to target people who are high or drunk in the park at night because they're vulnerable and alone. I think some fans jump to frame her choice of targets as vigilantism that helps assuage her guilt, but none of those people deserved to die—and it really isn't vigilantism—she's simply following her own mother's shrewd M.O.—you target people who are alone and whose situational awareness is impeded by substances and whose deaths the cops won't put much effort into investigating because they don't see them as victims.

I also think this episode tries very hard to paint Dean in a negative light even prior to him killing Amy. Bobby insists Dean's concern over Sam's well-being isn't warranted when it is perfectly warranted. (We've seen Bobby brush off Dean's reasonable concerns before in 6.06). Then Sam pops off, cutting Dean off to throw a bunch of nonsense in his mouth, and conflating himself with Amy in an absolutely ridiculous way. Dean's voice is suppressed (which is also imo—a prominent feature of the Dabb era in general later in the series). On top of that, this certainly isn't the only episode where Dabb and Loflin's most overt messages try to bias the audience against Dean.

[tinylittlelilac]

your fake event sounds amazing!! if you don’t mind me asking, could you share more about it?? the cards r super cool im dying to know the context

I DIDNT SEE THIS OMG THIS IS WHAT I MEAN WHHEN I SAY I CANT OPERATE TUMBLR IM VERY VERY SORRY I DIDNT MEAN TO IGNORE THIS ASK!!

ANYWAYS THANK YOU I WOULD LOVE TO!! I can’t say there was TOO much thought out into it so this is gonna be a huge ramble that doesn’t make much sense but I will happily oblige ( ´▽｀) For the bloomed cards obviously they don’t have much to do with the story. I just wanted an artist/photographer set between them bc I think it’s a cute idea !!

I’ve wanted a fine ryuseitai event for the longest time bc Yuzuru’s friendship with ryuseitai never leaves my mind,, in jingle bells he says he had fun hanging out with them and he enjoyed the hero show in supernova :D basically I only care about the most niche and silly interactions in this game. the opposite of how it was meant to be enjoyed but it’s the secret to being filled with joyful glee. ANYWAYS I thought a variety show for the starpro idols that has unlimited potential by means of the Tenshouin fund could be fun. Yuzuru obviously doesn’t like a ton of attention and is just there to support Tori and get it done with (I mean. Maybe there’s like some kind of fighting/laser tag round he gets really into but for the most part he still sees himself as the least deserving of attention in fine and doesn’t make any scenes). However, in the starpro trivia section of the show, Midori keeps answering question after question right about yuzuru/fine (bc I feel like he might know that little trivia) which either picks up attention with the fans who question what is going on (if the show is live) or eichi + wataru notice and like to impose mischievous little plans on yuzuru. I think that either way through the powers of being in charge of the direction of the show those two get midoyuzu paired up for a ton of the games (I considered making one of the cards a pictionary game and ended up deciding against it but I still think it’d be silly). When drawing the last unbloomed, I had in mind them getting matched up for a lie detector game where they get to ask each other questions/the audience gets to send in questions. I didn’t think too much about what happened afterwards to be completely honest with you but it’d probably get yuzuru really flustered being 1. The center of attention 2. Target of whatever Midori wants to ask and 3. Having to actually be completely and utterly honest. And he’s just begging him to ask normal easy questions which midori obliges bc he doesn’t like all this attention either but then some crazy audience question comes in and then the rest is up to imagination bc I don’t want to end up mischaracterizing them or looking more delusional than I already have in this public post! but it would definitely end with them revealing/admitting something to each other that brings them closer together :>>

sorry to make you read all that but also the starpro variety show is all i ever want ,, PLUS it could be so much fun outside of my mdyz visions too. Imagine chiakana in teamwork minigames OR TRICKSTAR hokke calls them all idiots but he’s the one that keeps making them lose all the games. Alkaloid in literally anything. I think we should talk about this more

ok this is the first time my fanatical whimsical ass has wrote this much from my brain but I hope you see the vision! Thank you for letting me talk about it more!!!! :D

[ahiijny]

glass onion spoilers

ok this movie was fun, but it fell a bit short of expectations 😅 y'all hyped this up a bit too much (note: i did not watch the other knives out movie yet so maybe im missing out on some context)

I thought this was going to be this awesome keikaku murder mystery with this likeable queer and fruity detective guy where everyone rips down the curtain of lies set up by this tech billionaire and it is revealed mr. miles rich guy actually has no idea what he's doing and all of his accomplishments were stolen from other people

I guess we kinda get that in a sense, but I guess reality just outdid fiction this time if you know what I mean... so it wasnt nearly as satisfying

I guess that's kind of the point of this movie, as benoit himself points out: it looks complicated, but it's actually not. (and thats why he had so much trouble solving the mystery, bc hes not good at solving dumb puzzles, only clever ones lol) but that still doesnt make it satisfying.

anyway, my thoughts about the movie!

the masking and covid callbacks remember those ah memoriesssss (man)

ok but if this entire movie were about this scientist guy trying to do science engineering work while pushing back against unrealistic expectations from overzealous entrepreneurs/business ppl i would watch that...

i liked the part where the lady was like "you've got to stay off the twitter" to the other lady, this is relatable and realistic and a good message

puzzles are fun. i liked the peoples working together to solve the puzzles. if this entire movie were about a diverse group of friends solving puzzles in a collaborative way i would watch that...

shoutout to manosphere guy's mom she dont give af but she's hella clever, she's solving these puzzles and she doesn't even care lol

(also dude be more respectful to your mom. doesnt matter if ur streaming, ppl will understand if u have to take a brief interruption to answer to something. if they dont understand, u do not want them watching ur stream)

benoit amogus (this is probably pandering but i am the target audience so i will accept the pandering. if this entire movie were just benoit and his friends/colleagues playing among us i would watch that...)

the way the ppl all have their different attitudes towards masking strictness and runs the full gamut, that's just really interesting to analyze. i saw the tumblr post about this and i thought benoit was actually going to narrate these observations and it wouldve been really impressive 😅 I guess it's actually more subtle than that...

ok but what IS that spray. how does it work. i know u dont have to explain EVERYTHING in a story but the nerd in me wants to know pls pls pls (does it even work lol)

"piece of shit" hehehehe

benoit very charming and there was some awkward tension in the air bc everyone else is tightly knit and he's a newcomer but he talks through it easily enough so my feelings of social anxiety werent too bad in these scenes lol

everyone talking and socializing (ergh) and dropping various bits of information and im like 'i dont even remember their NAMES im definitely not gonna remember all these little factoids which are sure to be relevant later lol' (help)

the part where benoit is sneaking around and spying on ppl, i feel like maybe they could have leaned even more into the comedy here if they wanted to. like. they have manosphere guy spying on miles rich guy and other lady doing the sussy and he clenches his fists in anger but later it's revealed actualyl she is trying to persuade miles rich guy to put manosphere guy on his news thingy or something but miels was refusing so actually manosphere guy was clenching his fist in anger because of that and benoit was behind the bushes watching the whole thing but also helen was behind both of them watching the whole thing as well

i know it probably makes cinematic sense for them to do this, but i wish helen and benoit had been a bit quieter/vague about their discussions bc i was in constant fear that they would be overheard and someone would be like "hey why is your accent different" bc as the previous scenes have shown, eavesdropping people and recording devices are EVERYWHERE (god)

and as modern technology and even death note potato chips scene have taught me. why would you ever NOT assume that your rooms are not bugged. like. recording devices are cheap and tiny. and you're in a rich guy's mansion that he had built for himself and he has a huge ego and doesnt care about other peoples agency. I would be paranoid that there would be hidden cameras and microphones everywhere (dsfosdfjsoijfds)

the part where benoit explained away the entire mystery that miles had someone else write up for him was fun, if the entire movie were just ppl chucking mystery puzzles at the guy and him just explaining everything i would watch that...

tho eq-wise this was a bit like if you're the best tetris player in the world and you enter the lobby of some very casual player and their friends and no one is playing faster than 0.5pps and then you demolish everyone at 5pps with ms2 dpc loop and then the streamer is like "well I guess this isnt our stream anymore it's theirs" that's a bit bm... (we actually kinda do have this problem in the tetrio community and someone even made a video about it)

social anxiety DID HE JUST COMMIT A FAUX-PAS BY BEING TOO OP i do appreciate that he commented on doing it intentionally afterwards (ok so he's aware) bc he was concerned someone would try to actually kill miles

when the pretty dress lady was spinning around and was like "look at me!" i was like 'ok this is obviously a distraction and somehting sneaky is going to happen' but it was too flashy and distracting so i didnt notice anything lol ^_^;;

my first thought was that someone tried to poison miles and poisoned manosphere guy by accident, so when ppl went to their initial conclusions i was like ok that makes sense

okokokookok the flashback

initially i was sus of helen's story. i thought she was andi, but pretending to be a nonexistant twin sister for some reason. her story seemed a bit too clean. like. maybe she fabricated this murder mystery to pique the interest of the best detective in the world to help her with her task, since maybe he wouldn't be interested otherwise. and then benoit would poke some holes in her story and then she would reveal that actually the story was a fabrication but she was desperate and benoit would have some sympathy and would help her out regardless

the movie went on for a while before i was like. 'oh ok, the other shoe isn't dropping... she really is who she says she is??'

(you have to understand my experience in these kind of genres involve ppl like L and Naomi Misora and Junko Enoshima and Celeste Ludenberg its RARE for characters to actually just have been telling the truth the entire time so you have to understand why i was doubtful >_<;;)

i was expecting one of the others to have reset the box and sent it to benoit and then he solved the puzzles and went to the island but no the box benoit received was the one helen smashed to bits lmaoooooo. benoit is so smooth i completely fell for that.

i like all the parts where benoit was like "elementary child puzzles" or something and it made miles look kinda annoyed hehe

ok the false memory thing DOES happen, it's true! when he said it, everyone remembered differently. memory is notoriously unreliable. this is true

ok i know barely anything about business or law but i feel like theres so much more andi couldve done to protect her ownership of the company. like. documentation/photographs of the napkin? patents? on the other hand, as recent events have shown, it is also notoriously easy for a charming guy with money to completely sway public opinion with a strong enough propaganda machine so i guess fair enough...

also i feel like that conversation kinda escalated a bit too quickly. "hey i have new idea KLEAN will energy the world poggers" "no it too dangerous it will blow up the world" "no c'mon" "i will BISECT THIS COMPANY"

like. hindsight is 2020 but. give toddler something to play with rather than taking it away altogether. right?...

also i feel like my watching of medical jdramas has skewed my view of what is realistic, but. i feel like everyone gave up a bit TOO easily after manosphere guy stopped breathing. no one even attempted CPR? does no one have like. epipens or something (idk how pineapple allergies work)

also that little hint at the beginning slipped by me. i thought he just didnt like the taste of pineapples lol (relatable), didnt know that he was actually allergic

the dietary restrictions thing in the invite was actually kinda considerate of miles rich guy tho. i mean, u know, aside from the fact that he exploited this very thing to murder his dear friend

also do the police not have. helicopters

whys it gotta be boats

continued bc apparently 4096 character limit per text block

maybe they shouldve added like a thunderstorm or something. or a cut to the police station where they're like "it's that guy again (ugh), let's deal with this in the morning..."

i am happy helen survived tho. guns scary... especially when they are pointed at you lol

NOT THE HOT SAUCE IN THE NOSE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO this legit was one of the most stressful scenes in the movie lol

i get so stressed anytime there's clearly an actor playing a dead body in a movie bc then im imagining the actor having to lie still without moving or breathing at all and that just makes me anxious lol

ok but why did andi even NEED this dude, she shouldve just made alpha or whatever on her own. unless it's maybe just the. stereotypical white, charismatic figurehead to appease the investors maybe. idk

benoit getting mad at miles rich guy for stealing his murder mystery ideas is the funniest thing

but also i know this is a movie but girl why would you bring out the napkin. just hide it, get off the island, and show it! or at least make a few decoys! take pictuers at least?? whyd u let yourself get outwitted by miles rich guy this is so sad

the smashing glass thing is cathartic but i was also cringing bc all that flying sharp glass in the air and floor does NOT look safe. and also who's gonna clean it up afterwards you're making more work for the poor staff of this resort place :c

also. do u have a death wish. why would you throw that in there when you are THERE in the room. headlines: MILES BRON AND OTHERS DIE IN EXPLOSION ON PRIVATE ISLAND RESORT (ONLY SURVIVORS ARE WORLD'S GREATEST DETECTIVE AND SOME GUY) idk

while the mona lisa burning is funny and LONG expected since the protection barrier thing was introduced and IS probably not the real one since something about wood panel vs. canvas. i just. do not like destroying art man. tho i probably dont care as much bc it is something coveted by rich people. but still.

also imo this isn't the slam dunk they think it is bc if miles rich guy WERE smart, there's a billion ways he could spin this to his favour

it's pretty much his word against theirs but if he uses his money wisely he can easily drum up propaganda support for this, even if his former friends turned against him

e.g. "ex-Alpha founder who never contributed anything and was actually a leech (true story) throw a tantrum on island resort and used bottle rockets/dynamite/whatever other flammable things there are that DEFINITELY arent Klean to destroy PRICELESS work of art'

wait he killed andi, that wont work

'twin sister of ex-Alpha founder who in an irrational, bereaved fit of rage, destroys PRICELESS work of at'

there we go (miles huffs proudly as if he thought of this idea himself and definitely not as if one of the propaganda firms he hired thought it up for him)

ok but who is that other guy. what is his story. why is he on the island

also, helen girlboss destroying his stuff is satisfying but imo not nearly as satisfying as miles rich guy just destroying his OWN stuff just from sheer incompetence

right now he can escape into the mental copespace of "that woman destroyed my (yes definitely my) lifes work, i will have my revenge". i am worried, bc as recent events have shown, it IS possible, even if you are confirmed guilty, to just skedaddle on out of prison, because of technicalities or whatever

and he will probably still have his diehard fans on his side

the future worries me

sdifgos jsgiojf gdoisdgjdiogj

so in the end, i guess. not really satisfying in the sense of a keikaku whodunnit, and I didnt really vibe with many of the characters either, except for benoit, and manosphere guy's mom, and benoit's... husband? (idk who he is but he seems chill), and helen is neat too but i feel like her characterization was a bit too infodump/exposition heavy

i guess if i look at it more in the lens of a social commentary comedy rather than a murder mystery itd be more up to expectations. but still. not really my cup of tea i guess

7.4/10

[miriamundertale]

da miriam writing masterpost

so im porting my writing/review stuff over from wordpress to here. both are gonna be getting updated ideally so if u hate wordpress here is good and if u hate tumblr yet are on here to see this the wordpress isnt going away

to answer the "why is this around" question. i work nights at a hotel, and its very uhhh, full of free time. so ive wound up having most of the night to either watch stuff or read manga, and its gotten to the point where i think i should probably keep track of my opinions of them more in depth -- this felt like the smartest way to do so.

The core point of this post is gonna be to track stuff i want to write about and be a pretty ok navigation point for people. lets break whats coming down:

Yoshiru Konogi, the Hornybait writer who Fucking Gets it

if youve seen me tweeting ever henjou has almost definitely shown up. henjou is hornybait and largely just a sex comedy much like everything Konogi writes, but i think the standout about her writing in the genre and henjou and its spinoff in particular (Eroko-San on the attack) is that while theres an obviously set audience for the horny teenage boy in both, the target feels less to be them and more to be women, either the weirdo girl whos willing to be openly horny or the failwoman neet whos terminally fucking posting about being horny online. its very different in feel to a lot of its genre and i think deserves some more analysis. done! Konogi is a weirdly fascinating mangaka and at least worth peeking through like this. i also go into her crypto stuff for some reason

The Game Parodying a Genre You Didn't Know Existed

if i wind up making a video out of any of these, itl be this one. this is about a specific game in my horrible side hobby of playing terrible western eroge, specifically those using koikatsu party as their source of visuals. my biggest fear is how intentional the parody itself is, as unlike Yoshiru Konogi's work i dont have an accessible back catalog of works to go through. if i wind up having the creator see and and get some sort of weird backlash to my reading im going to be so fucking devastated. they're very much a weirdo(positive) so i dont imagine anything like that but the fear is there.

Homestuck

Yeah i fucking know trashing homestuck is very easy considering the state of a lot of homestuck fans and the way people were with it, especially since it was for a lot of people a first for fandom (and realistically was probably the worst possible entry into fandom one could get,) but homestuck really has a lot of interest going on in its meta layers and how it is intrinsically tied to the era it was written in. Homestuck and its successors (the epilogues and hs2, maybe ill read some of the bigger FA's once i get to this) have a lot of depth that i feel gets terminally ignored or just passed by from basically everyone who has had some sort of interaction with it, be they fans or Normal People

Star wars - God i fucking hate episode 9

Thats right two red flag series in a row babey. we got some TERRIBLE posting Writing POASTING about to happen Star wars realistically is a good series cursed with one of the worst fanbases imaginable, and i want to examine the overarching themes it has about fascism in detail, but here's the basic outline: the original trilogy is about the defeat of fascism and taking only the best from the past, the prequel trilogy is about the rise of fascism and how it corrupts democracy from within, and the sequel trilogy SHOULD have been continuing on the themes of the original and how fascism corrupts and utilizes the past as a tool to grow its own power (but instead we get the most fucking pandery fucking movie targeted at the worst of the fandom)

The one good gacha is fucking dead

Listen i just really wanna talk about dragalia. maybe it was laser targeted at me with its obvious mmo influences but dragalia was MADE for the platform it is on instead of being extant on that platform. dragalia wasnt by any means the best game ever made but it was easily the best gacha ever made. the loss of dragalia is a fucking crime that needs to be talked about more.

Can we please do a good live action comic book movie again at least spiderman like cmon

pretty please i wont complain about the actor spiderman is my favorite superhero of all time and the last two good live action spiderman movies were the first two raimi movies. i think they realised that with no way home and thought by bringing back dafoe and molina they had nailed that when really it was raimis commitment to understanding the fucking medium hes adapting that made those two hit so well and is part of why im so conflicted on multiverse of madness which i also wanna talk about

One Punch Man

See this is coming at some point i have a lot to say about OPM and specifically comparing it to the original webcomic but for now i will leave it at you should read the webcomic its good

Kyoukai No Kanata the best anime of all time

Kyoukai no kanata is the best anime of all time and im not taking questions

[numetaljackdog]

okay now that it's The Posting Hour i can talk about my current wave of bullshit. so i've been thinking about misinformation and the sort of art that can be involved in making it seem believable. specifically, i'm talking about the idea of presenting bullshit to appear academic, requiring the citation of sources to back your terrible awful claim. this has led me to create a source strata with 8 tiers, with each being of a different level of legitimacy, that someone could use to prioritize sources by how bullshit they appear (versus how bullshit they really are). although if you don't already kinda know this then im not sure you're cut out to be a dealer of deception. additional note: i probs don't have to say this but i don't condone malevolent misinformation campaigns, OK? i just have a little bug in my brain that's all

Tier 1: Actual proper scholarly articles

like. real research, presumably peer-reviewed and backed up with other proper sources and published in some kind of fancy journal. obviously, if you can find any of these that in any way support your bullshit, that's great for you! it's unlikely, though, and in some cases willfully misinterpreting a good source may actually be worse for your point than truthfully interpreting a slightly more questionable source

Tier 2: Real research, less real results

stuff that is still Good Research but doesn't really stand well on its own. studies with small sample sizes or results that are difficult to replicate. these could still, in theory, get cited in Real Research and Not Bullshit, but they often are only meant to suggest that your study is worthwhile, not prove anything themselves. you can exploit this! the names attached to these may be well-respected, and the methods may be sound, while the conclusions might be total bullshit! if you're lucky, that bullshit will support your bullshit

Tier 3: Reputable but not scholarly

well-established news outlets, government sources, and even primary sources can go here. these are all "reliable" in the sense that they're published by bodies with some level of authority over what they are claiming and (in the case of the first at least) are likely employ the work of skilled researchers. however, there is no promise of an attempt to be impartial, as there is (in theory) in the above sections. this could be a goldmine for you! biased information is hugely serviceable to bullshitters, and you could (and will) do a lot worse than this stuff

Tier 4: Getting colder now

more openly biased news sources (the bulk of popular news, really) goes here. they've got some level of obligation to report truths, but how they do so is totally up to them. that can be good for your case! not so much for your credibility. we've entered the territory where using these sources is better if you can distract from it with a better sources nearby

Tier 5: Pop media

this is where you get the real dredges of what can be considered "news" by any imagination, as well as magazine columns and moderately qualified bloggers. there may be some level of establishment or name recognition here that plays to your favor, but nobody with a lick of sense is taking this stuff seriously. luckily for you, people with a lick of sense are probably not in your target audience

Tier 6: Internet bullshit with some elbow grease

the type of "source" that gets passed around online. this very post could be considered an example of this (though not a very good one - i haven't referenced any other source). twitter threads, youtube essays, longform tumblr posts, and so on... these all have virtually no barrier of entry, but can easily have some level of effort put into them that makes them at least seem more believable. as a side note, this is about the same section i would put fictional sources in; there's effort there, just no attempt at realism (bc why would there be?)

Tier 7: Internet bullshit with some elbow bullshit

i'm talking now about the most incomprehensible useless content imaginable. imagine like. a 5 minute crafts video. or a facebook post that your weird aunt makes. this is the most pathetic example of something that you could *technically* consider a "source" by virtue of the fact that it is a thing somebody said at some point that supports the fact that you're not the only person to ever do so. if that's not nuts enough for you, though...

Tier 8: Literally just make shit up

y'know the footnote that's like "This was once revealed to me in a dream" that's in that popular post? that's what you're doing here. if you get to the point where you've just absolutely hit a wall and you still need to include a core tenet of your bullshit but can't find any sign that anyone else has ever had a thought congruent to it? just say something vague like "this is generally known" and move on. not good for your case in the least, however, so if you get to this point maybe you want to reassess how convincing your claim is

one of the reasons this fascinates me is because, by doing this, you are removing the boundary of truth and treating all possible sources of information (be it good or bad) as viable (though, importantly, not all equal) and this tiered system illustrates the process of understanding how each of these types of source will be reflected by public reaction and how one can make a craft out of gauging and comprehending those reactions and use them to weave a web of any source that is *available* (attempting to get the "lowest score" possible in terms of the final sum that comes from the totaled numbers of the strata that each source used belongs to) and create something that a significant population will or at least could buy into

[sharkneto]

hi! youre one of my favorite authors and i was hoping I could get some writing advice from you. i felt inspired by tua s3 and plotted out some ideas for a fic i would like to write (ive never written one before) and im stuck on how to start writing. how did you begin writing multichapter fics? is there any advice or tips you could share?

First of all, thank you! Very kind of you to say and I'm so glad you enjoy my fics so much! And how great you're inspired! Writing came out of left-field for me, to become a hobby, but it's been a great ride and I have a lot of fun doing it.

Advice, though... The main thing I'm going to say is a cliche, which is Just Do It. The hardest step is starting, when you're just staring at that blank page. Any words at all to start breaking that up. Throw 'em up there. They don't have to be good, you can make them good later. Especially if you haven't written before, you don't really know what you're looking for, what your flow is, what your style is, and you do not and should not know right when you start. That's what editing is for. Right now, your only goal is to be trying to turn whatever is in your head into words you can read, and then come back and tweak to shape more into that thing in your head. Just throw words on a page and see what sticks. That's all that writing really is, anyway.

Along with that, though, I think it's important to be writing For You. I won't say it isn't a lot of fun to post works, to get kudos and comments and reader interactions (because it IS, it is so much fun), but you are going to burn out if that's the only thing you're writing for. For me, my first... Four? Five? fics were just fun little for-me projects to fill time. Now, 3/5 of those have been shared (Joining Together, Holding It Together, and the first Christmas fic), but those all started as things that were never going to see the light of AO3 (the other two still aren't - they just aren't projects I'm interested in editing up or finishing to share, and that's ok). You are your target audience, though, so write what it is you want to read, what you enjoy, and then if you happen to share them, odds are there are people who would also enjoy them. If you aren't enjoying what you're writing then what's even the fucking point. And if you stop enjoying while in the middle of a long project, that's ok - step back, take a break and come back to it, poke at some other plot bunnies, and return when you're excited and ready for it again. And if you never come back to it, that's fine, too. No writing is ever wasted because you had fun doing it and you got practice and got better because of it.

Last, how did I get into multichapter fics... Ngl, my first for-me projects were all multichapter, mostly for convenience because they were slice-of-life moments and had POV changes (JT, HIT). But the first things I actually shared were one-shots. Crueler to Remember was my first actual multi-chapter fic, and that was more because it was a one-shot that ran away from me and I retroactively cut it into chapters. I mentioned it in another ask I answered earlier that I'm on mobile so I can't link (but check the #entertain shark on his train trip tag to find it) about how I cut up chapters, and for the most part I don't really think in terms of chapters when I'm planning out a longer fic. It's more of a Long One Shot until I get in and feel out where natural breaks feel, where the natural ebb and flow of the action and such is happening for when a good spot to cut is. I'm sure that's not true for all writers, and that people who actually outline probably do have chapter numbers and contents planned out, but I am not one of those people. Don't worry too much about if you're writing is too short or too long for how long you thought it was going to be - it will be exactly as long as it needs to be and the end word count does not matter.

Where this is all coming to, I think, is do what feels good. Read other people's things to see what you like/don't like, read writing tips and rules if you want for technical prowess, but at the end of the day, just do what sounds good to you, what feels good to you. You're the one who's going to be reading it a million times as you work on and edit it, so if it's not a thing you enjoy, not a thing that sounds good to you, why are you doing that to yourself. The first words you put on the page you do not have to be married to - as you keep writing, you can go back and edit them or throw them out to write different ones because you got a better idea four pages later on how to start that but anyway. It's all a big experiment and the only way to do it wrong is to not do it.

[antthonystark]

Have you read the books? I haven't until the show came along but then decided to give it a chance to see why people are so against the show changes, what are we missing. And by God, it was awful. it's just the Clary-Jace-Simon show. Everything is about them and they are the main players, the saviors, the martyr, the everything, while everybody stay on the sideline. It's so bad. I really tried to give the books a chance. I see why teens like it, but it's nearly unreadable. 1/3

Alec is just Magnus boyfriend which is not saying much since Magnus is just the exotic character. Isabelle has no plot whatsoever. She’s just Simon girlfriend. The deaths in the book… readers had problem with Jocelyn death but didn’t have any with those? I mean… they serve no purpose. It’s so cheesy and melodramatic. I want to cry… I’m so scared they’ll follow the books. I wish I had never read them because now I’m terrified of what happens next on the show. 2/3

The first three books at least were ok but the last ones… The Camille/Alec and Jace/Sebastian plot is so horrible and stupid and makes no sense. I like the war part and when they go to Edom, hate everything else. What happens to Jace/Raziel, I wish somebody else goes through that on the show. It’s so Clary/Jace/Simon centric… Please, help me… please I’m honest, not trying to send hate. I get the books have fans and you might be one… but I’m so scared. I hate the plot. I wanna cry 3/3

Same anon. I want to apologize if you’re a fan and I offended you. I just saw your post regarding that the show might be doing the Jace/Sebastian/Raziel thing on the show and after the Clace thing last ep, and it seems the next episodes will be all about Simon. It’s like the show is getting closer to the books… and I don’t want it. I’m sacares. Why do readers want the book plot on the show? I don’t get it… the world and characters are interesting but the plot… I’m panicking, sorry, sorry.

hey dude im sorry you didn’t like the books (dont worry about offending me, i read them and i think they’re decent in some aspects and not so great in others, overall kind of enjoyed them, but im a show fan first and foremost - i only read them after i got into the show) but like……it is what it is. i don’t really know what to say, like, you are watching an adaptation of something. in the case of shadowhunters, it’s really an adaptation that’s quite different from the source material, but like. it’s based on the books………like, it’s really different in many respects so you can still like the show without liking the books at all, but when the show pulls stuff from the books i mean..you can’t expect that to not happen at times…it’s an adaptation, right?

like, the plots of the show have been so wildly different from the books in most regards (other than hitting some of the really major plot points, but even then, they were done in drastically different ways) that i don’t honestly think you need to be worried about the plot becoming the exact same as the book? it doesn’t seem like that’s what they’re doing or what they’re ever intending on doing. but as for “why do readers want the book plot on the show”…. i mean, they like the books lol. you’re well within your right not to (as it seems you’re also out of the demographic, since they are more targeted towards the teen/YA audience), but that’s subjective. people liked the books for what they are for many many years before shadowhunters became a thing, and they still do, and they will in the future. you don’t, and that’s cool, but you gotta understand that that’s subjective lol

overall though there’s no need to panic. if you like the show, then ostensibly you like how they’ve approached the source material thus far, so likely they’re not going to drastically change their approach to the source material in  the future, so you should be fine?

like, there was an extremely minimal amount of clace throughout the entirety of 2a, just because they got a kiss after sixteen episodes lol doesn’t mean it’s suddenly going to become the clace show, or at least, any more than it already is, because honestly………like, whether you like it or not, they are the main characters. shadowhunters isn’t an ensemble where everyone is perfectly equally a main character - almost, but not quite. clary and jace (and then simon) are the main characters……books and shows can have characters who are more main than other main characters lol

 the books especially are structured like a very prototypical YA series, meaning that the focus is usually on one individual and the 1-2 people who are closest to the protagonist. whereas the show is still much more of an ensemble than the books are, where the supporting characters from the books are bumped up to being mains, and they get their own storylines and autonomy in the narrative which is fantastic and is honestly one of the major major reasons why i love the show much more than the books, and to me it seems that season 2 (esp 2b) is even shifting away from the classic hero’s journey structure of the novels and kind of untethering clary from the very centre of the narrative and allowing the show’s structure to relax into an ensemble even more. the thing with TV is that the stories - just by virtue of the medium - tend to have more space to breathe, compared to a YA fantasy novel, which allows for this ensemble nature to be a working kind of structure. so i mean i don’t really think you need to worry that much lol tv by it’s very nature is different from books 

above everything, i would advise you to not get worked up in advance of something happening. just chill out and wait for the actual episodes before you start panicking about where the show is going and what’s going to happen. because other than clary and jace being the main characters which….sorry….that’s probably not going to change……i dont really think there’s much to worry about if you like how the show has treated the source material thus far. there’s really no need to get so anxious over stuff that you’re not even sure is going to happen. at the end of the day, it’s really just a tv show, please don’t worry so much. 

[aicosu]

Hey guys! I wanted to know how was the fifty shades darker movie? Was it decent or was it really bad like some people are saying?

Omfg.

I actually have intense complicated thoughts on Fifty Shades.I’ve been obsessed with the rise and fall story of Fifty Shades, mostly because I’m a fanfiction writer myself and super - SUPER fucking familiar with the community and it’s inner workings. LONG POST AHEAD. 

The tale of HOW and WHY Fifty Shades even hit bestseller is amazing. AD I SEE IT HAPPEN EVERYDAY ON AO3. Like, keeping your fanfic chapters to a couple thosand words, updating weekly, and commenting on comments for your fic to up the comment count (something I refuse to do for this very reason) is a VIABLE method to staying on the top list of any fandom on any fanfic hosting website. Even if you only have the same 10 people commenting on your fic, fic you comment back, 20 comments per chapter nad have 60 chapters? Thats 1200 comments! FUCKING INSANE. I see it everyday. I think every fanfic reader/writer knows that ONE STORY thats ALWAYS on top, for this reason alone, even when (JUST LIKE EL JAMES) the writing is horrendous. 

So! When I researched all of this once the book was released and had all that controversy about BDSM I was both suprised, impressed and horrified. Suprised that a fanfic had even MADE it this far. Impressed because, you got to give the girl kudos. Having her original fanfic readers comment and rate her book on amazon with copy pasta reviews and skyrocketing her to #1 is ingenious. It is, from a marketing stand point its amazing. And of course, I was horrified and dissapointed that with all the fanfics out there, it had to be this one. Not only was the writing terrible, but its a terrible terrible representation of the bdsm culture and community. 

Do not misunderstand me; The Fifty Shades books are horribly written and super problematic. 

The Movies: 

Okay so, I’m a huge film buff. Huge. I took film history and cinematic storytelling in college and I love analyzing movies. 

From a director and writer and cinematographers standpoint, I was literally curious about HOW THE FUCK YOU EVEN FILM THIS MOVIE?? Like, will they have exposition of her ‘INNER GODDESS’ like some odd edgar wright cut aways to a Lizzie McQuire type Anastasia steel!?!? WILL THEY ACTUALLY FILM HIM RIPPING OUT HER TAMPON TO FUCK HER?? (this happens in the book) LIke I needed to know. I had to know. SO I had to see the first movie. I was too curious. AND I wanted to see a legit, from my generation, written fanfiction, adapated for film. Its too groundbreaking, even if you have problems with the story and films how is that not fascinating. 

After watching it this is what I got (I did not pay for this movie btw.) 

EVERY FANFICTION I EVER READ EVER ALL ROLLED UP INTO ONE META MINDFUCK. Like!??? I have almost a keen adoration for how WEIRD it is to see ON SCREEN lines like “Your biting your lip.” LIKE – thats fanfiction from 2005, the lip bite. The FUCKING. Dialogue of this movie is like a collection of all the terrible coffee shop aus, high school, fanfic soap opera craziness. Or how he just bumps into her at her work and shit!? OR the fanfic issue of a 20-something yr old interviewing the SUPER HOT hotshot bachelor who has tons of money because….why? WHAT DOES HE DO? In fanfic it doesnt matter but in the movie THEY NEVER ADDRESS THIS EITHER> 

I MEAN its literally that FIC. The one where theres nothing left of your ship you havent consumed, and this one aint so great but eh its 4am on a tuesday and it has 45 chapters. 

I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend any writer or reader to watch this film just for the weird TRIP it is. It freaks me out mann its nuts! 

The movie literally breaks hundreds of Cinematic rules JUST TO tell the story because its source material is what it is. Theres no introduction to the protagnist, no side introduction to our love interest like a rom con always does and the Meet Cute is isn’t a meet cute, it plays like a PROMPT. And its in the first 3 minutes of the film. 

And the Twilight source the fic hangs on can be seen there on screen. Seattle, him saving her from the bike/car, his big rich family compared to her remarried mom (to a golfer not a baseball guy), and her estranged dad whose never around, the weirdness of Christian Grey thats missing that can only be explained by -immortal vampire-. Its insane. They didn’t change any of it. You can see Twilight right there its hilarious. 

AND BECAUSE ITS FIC, theres actually, surprisingly, some really good moments? Its few and far between, but I find the bar scene generally funny and charming. Anastasia anyway. Christian is a creepy from first minute to last minute of every movie because what can you do with a non-vampire-vampire character, really? But Anastasia is pretty funny in a way Bella swan never was. I love the whole “Your so bossy, come here, come here, go away go away!” dialogue. FUCKING hilarious. And so unarguable a FANFIC genre of WIT. I like those moments. Or the buisness meeting about the bdsm contract “please turn to page 5 and strike out ‘anal fisting.’” “Are you sure?” “YUP.” (no paraphrasing, she literally says YUP. 10/10 delivery) Also love the texting scenes, reminds me too much of MS though and I immediately felt like trash. 

Now, aside from those moments, hands down, terrible fucking plot. But it had terribel fucking plot to begin with. 

What I was suprised about was that the film crew and creators DID IN FACT listen to te protests and uproar about the controversy of the content of the film. And I was suprised to see that THEY CHANGED a lot of stuff and cut out a lot of shit too. Christian NEVER touches her unless she says so. There actually a lot of moments stressing the consent thing. Even in the room, he tells her to hold out her hand and test the pain, and se if its ok. If its ever to much, he tells her to say stop, and he will. In fact, we see a lot of “nos” that he adheres to. Whereas in the books hes on he like a grade A rapist. They also add her in negotiating a ton of the terms. 

Theres no tampon pulling scene and no inner goddess, much to my dismay/happiness. Lol. 

HOWEVER.Aside from terrible plot, after making changes to the controversy, the movie didnt go far enough to differentiate the problematic nature of CHRISTIAN and the lifestyle of BDSM. Because Anna is a stranger of both, both are presented to the audience as BAD. We see bdsm through the lens of someone who USES IT THE WRONG WAY, FOR THE WRONG THINGS, and thats the main idea the movie can seem to target, and the book never bothered to learn. That last red room scene is Confusing at best, since its all consensual and really tame looking to anyone apart of bdsm, and misdirecting at worst to anyone not apart of it. Because its obvious Christian has ACTUAL Issues, but we’re made to believe all BDSM is like that, and its just not true. 

TO THE SEQUELS CREDIT, 50SDarker goes a little more into this. Not just with dialogue, but showing how Anna is accepting of and in control of BDSM. She asks for specific thinks and seeks out certain sexual activities and calls him out on the shadier parts of his own personality, But in my opinion, its not enough. Theres too much –between the lines– and for a movie ABOUT this lifestyle, its to important to skim over like they do. Thats probably the most disapointing part. 

All in all, its a terrible plot and terrible movie, that doesnt know enough about a material it references, and cant stand alone without its SOURCE material. 

Theres way too many helicopter shots of places, and vehicles. Greys idea of romancise seems to be fancy transportation of some sort and his idea of -KINKY- sex is Cunnilingus, missionary, missionary cunnilingus, and missionary with some handcuffs. But its a WILD ride to watch. And has its genenuinly charming moments that can only come from the COMMUNITY of FANFICTION that molded it. As we know, fandom is just as much influenced by the original fiction as it is the headcanons, aus, peronality tropes and almost mandala effect culture the FANS put into it. And I love and adore that secret part of the movies. Dakota Johnson is also super charming and natural as Anna. A Bella swan, oc, induced character, self instert type fanfic pov. And to do that is some acting talent right there. And finally, and I’m probably the ONLY one here, but Im not 100% upset that 50shades got a movie. Because yes, its terrible in a on of fucking ways. But its STILL a fanfic on screen. And thats incredible. Thats why I bought tickets to support the sequel. She may have manipulated the rise to fame, but EL James still showed us the path to that goal. Fanifc to novelist, novelist to billiondollar box office numbers. EL James was ON SET, telling them how to film – HER FANFICTION. Thats a THING now. You cant not take fanfiction as a community and tool seriously now. Not when it made that much money. And hey, look at Superhero movies. We had to sit through too many shit Xmen and Daredevil movies to get an Iron man. 

I will sit through a few 50shades to get my fucking favorite fanfics on screen too. Its not like Hollywood has any better stories to put up but Adam Sandler movies.

[bee-zs]

I kind of wished the Sword of Mamora(?) had half-Galran members like Keith. I mean, imagine all those who abandoned the army to save prisoners and probably settled down together? Keith can't be the only half-Galran in this fight. It would have also made Allura's anger even more displaced.

Considering that the galra have conquered almost all the known universe there have GOT to be some other half-galra out there somewhere, maybe we’ll get to see more of that in s3? fingers crossed tbh

on a separate note, maybe this is an unpopular opinion but I personally don’t believe allura’s anger was displaced at all. i’m highjacking my own post to make a REALLY LONG point but bare with me, please.

allura is still pretty young. we don’t know her ages in human years, but i think its safe to assume she is probably the earth equivalent of being in her early 20s. allura has lost everything. her parents, her people, her planet, any semblance of a peaceful life she could have had. she grew up in a time of war! the galra had already turned against their former altean allies and started conquering planets before allura and coran got put in the cyropods. im guessing allura spent most of her teenage and early adult years watching the galra destroy everything she ever cared about. that takes a toll on a person. it makes them resentful, even hateful, especially when we’re talking about a young person. 

allura has been dealing with the grief of loosing everything important to her by blaming the galra, because hey! thats easy! it was the galra who took away her shot at a normal life! if i had to chose a target to resent that sure as heck would be my first choice. plus the galra hadn’t really ever given her a reason to think otherwise, anyways. 

so then we find out that galra can be more than just the ‘default bad guys’, something that the voltron writers expressed they wanted to do explicitly to distinguish this reboot from the previous voltron shows. naturally, there has to be some kind of resistance and storybuilding to convince the audience that this is a big deal. thats where allura come in. she is utilized to show just how BIG of a deal it is to have the ‘bad guys’ actually be more than that, because she is the one who has the most reason to be resentful.

you might be wondering, ‘well coran lost everything too, why isn’t he as upset as allura?’ and the answer is simple: coran is older than allura. its safe to say that he probably spent a lot of time interacting with galra before the war started, possibly even knew galra he would consider friends. its clear coran has a lot of experience dealing with other cultures and species across the galaxy, so its not far-fetched to think he might be a little more open minded then allura. 

as for the paladins and why they aren’t as wary of galran allies, its important to remember just how new to this war they all are. even shiro, after spending a year in galran captivity, hasn’t been exposed to the same kind of long-term tragedy as allura. they also still don’t really know much about the galra as a species and culture, so they might just be taking the entire situation as a learning curve.

last but not least, even though allura has ALL these reasons to continue hating, continue being resentful, you know what she does? she overcomes it. she realizes that it isn’t about your species or your origins, its what you decide to do here, now, in the present. she tells keith she considers him family. she apologizes for how wrongly she treated him. she promises to do better and stays good on that promise. she puts aside years of hatred and resentment because she accepts that this war is bigger than herself. she finds resolution in considering the paladins her new family, in holding out on hope for the future. she continuously puts her life on the line again and again to assure the safety of her paladins, and if that isn’t dedication than I don’t know what is.

people really seem to be undermining just how big of a step this is for allura, and i personally believe it was a big show of growth on her part. its ok for characters to be in the wrong, for them to have flaws and act out. its even better when we get to see those characters realize those flaws and try to remedy them. allura’s world has just gotten a whole lot bigger, between finding galran allies and discovering haggar is altean. she’s been tossed into a world of grey after living in one of black and white for years, please cut this poor girl some slack.

[nevervalentines]

Can you please write a post on your thoughts on Almost Adults??! I'd love to see what they were cos I also agree w the sentiment that so much of it gave me issue haha and yes qwen!!

hey hey!! so i probably won’t go into the MOST detail right now, if only because i would really need to comb back over it to do the most thorough response yknow BUT thank you for asking!! 

so like to be clear i really really love elise and natasha and there were parts of the movie that were charming and important and something queer women so rarely get to see.  i thought it was a really aesthetically pleasing movie and im so happy that it got the backing to be created yknow yknow BUT...that said. the script was pretty clunky, and i would have loved LOVED to see the relationships/friendships in the movie (mac/cassie) (mac/elliot) (cassie/matthew) (relationships with parents....cassie’s in particular) get more attention/development--because with what we got to see it was pretty one dimensional and hard to believe in? if you feel me? like so much of the plot relied on our involvement and investment in those relationships, but the characters were never developed enough to give the audience a true stake in the issue. things were rushed, (the apologies, the fights, the--again--relationships) so with a little more time and attention it might have been more compelling. 

and its crucial for characters to be flawed, and i actually liked the attention they brought to how easy it can be get completely involved in your own problems, how inescapable self-involvement is, but i feel like those were the only facets of the characters we were shown--and then we were asked to forgive them and watch them forgive each other and i need a little bit more. 

BUT this is all me just being picky about narrative stuff and yikes i should stop

okay now for the......real stuff. theres no excuse to be using the word “retarded” casually in a script, there was an insane (???) amount of jokes at the expense of mental health or making light of things like that that just really rubbed me the wrong way. characterization often relied heavily on stereotypes--another thing more dimension might have solved. idk i felt like they had a really cool opportunity to tell a real story from real queer women’s perspective, and it kinda missed the target. 

also................im...........ok totally speaking opinion here but, i didnt like the running “tumblr girlfriend” gag. For people working so heavily off of a tumblr fan base like........they should probably be aware that......isnt how tumblr works. first of all i have a hard time believing mackenzie would be that clueless about that and the number of catfishing jokes was just wild. idk speaking as someone who met someone they really loved on tumblr and knowing its a place where i make really really really important community connections and friends--it was just kinda insulting. 

AHhh OK THAT IS honestly scratching the surface and there was more good stuff!!! and bad stuff!!! but!!! honestly i could write seven paragraphs about how GOOD GWENLYN CUMYN LOOKED. LISTEN: i screamed ok. 

anyway feel free to message me privately about this....gwenlyn or otherwise...would definitely love to talk about what you thought....

[caredogstips]

They felt like losers in their boy — but that’s how these pairs encountered later in life.

It was Valentine’s Day 2006, and 32 -year-old Neil Katcher was standing on theatre reading poetry he’d written in high school.

This was part of “Mortified, ” a hilarious theatre performancewhere adults could come together and share their most hilariously flustering and angst-filled instants from adolescence, frequently in accordance with the arrangements of diary entryways, style, or chat transcripts.

On that night, Neil was reading a selection of love letters that, as an awkward adolescent, he’d been too afraid to sendout of panic of rejection.

You know. Stuff like this TAGEND

GIF from “Mortified Nation.”

After the display, the status of women identified Christinecame up and inserted herself to him . “She was wearing 2-inch ends and shes already like an inch taller than me. Soshe was like towering over me and I had no idea she used flirting with me, ” he told Upworthy over email.

The rest was history, andtheir firstly offspring rotated 3 last year.

Neil, Christina, and their little guy, in 2013. GIF from “Mortified Nation.”

“Its kinda fun that this love letter I wrote as a kid where I wore my center on my sleeve objective up going the very thing I required a girlfriend/ spouse only 15 years later, ” he said.

Of course, that wasn’t the goals and targets when he started “Mortified” with his sidekick, David Nadelberg, back in 2002.

They just thought it’d be amusing to do a one-off darknes where people could read and share and jest at their own delightfully tricky teenage recollections, whether it’s theirfunny chat transcripts with the girl next doorortheerotic poetrytheywrote about theirsophomore math schoolteacher before theyhad any real theory of what eroticism was or meantor something else as awesomely awful.

They never expected the project to expand into podcasts, works, documentary films, and a television series, with live-performance assemblies encompassing three continents. And they surely never thoughtso many beings would find love along the way .

Founder David Nadelberg. GIF from “Mortified Nation.”

The first time that Sara Faith Alterman read at “Mortified, ” she looked into the gathering and pictured a woman from her high school gazing back.

Sara was already exposing herself by sharing tumultuousstories and songs about her on-again-off-again high school sweetheart.

But seeing someone who actually( kind of) knew the person that she was back then? That built the whole event even harder.

“She hadnt been the nicest kid, so disclosing my teenage ponderings and insecurities in front of her felt really terrible, ” Sara said.

One year later, she returned to the “Mortified” stage.And this time, she made a delivering laugh about seeing someone in the audience that was actually present for the teenage trauma she was talking about.

A male named Sam applied the same inclination where reference is approached her after the display . “Hey, we went to high school together! ” he said.

As Sara remembers it TAGEND

“I thought he was just joking to hit on me. I didnt imagination, because he was really cute. But he was serious. And it took me a instant to remember him because we only knew each other through peripheral social media connections. Id been a year ahead of him in school, and united was participating in completely different cliques: I was in jazz choir and the drama association, he desired camping and skiing.

I fell in love with him instantly . “

That was roughly 10 yearsago. Today, they’re wedded and lives in the Bay Area thoughSara still makes the Boston and New England assemblies of”Mortified, ” back where she grew up .

“My husband thinks Im crazy for abiding affected by high school.I think hes a robot, ” shesaid.”And our baby is basically a crazy robot, so that obligates sense.”

Anne Jensen-Smith and her husband, Adam, were both already caught in the “Mortified” world when triggers began to fly between them.

Anne had been co-producing the Los Angeles chapter’s live concerts, alongside co-founders Dave and Neil. At one point, they decided to bring in a house strip to accompany concerts and Adam justsohappened to be the heads of state of the band.

That’s what got them talking. The first time they went out alone together was after a “Mortified” performance on Valentine’s Day. “Adam and I talked all night long about our upbringings, our high school events, most embarrassing instants after that ‘Mortified’ show nine years ago, ” she told Upworthy.

“Now, nine years, one marriage, two teenagers, two bird-dogs, and one major move( to Texas) later, we decided to open a ‘Mortified’ in Dallas where, is again, I am the producer and he is the band leader.”

“The charm of ‘Mortified, ‘ and why I think it introduces so many duos together, is that it immediately disarms you, ” Anne said.

“[ It] prepares it cool, amusing, and most importantly it establishes you feel OKto talk about that most vulnerable time in your life, ” she contributed. “One doesn’t often open up like that on a first time, or even a fifth or one-tenth date, but watching ‘Mortified’ can really induce someone to share the tenderness of one’s adolescence.”

Sara concurs. “‘Mortified’ gives people a platform to lay their deep-seated dreamings, dangers, and secrets all out on the table. Its breathtaking. Its cathartic.”

But the most important lesson to take away from “Mortified”? It’s that despite our ghastly teenage reminiscences, we objective up OK after all.

As a musician in the “Mortified Nation” documentary threw it TAGEND

“Having the gathering with me, kind of applauding me on, is a impressive thing.Because I didn’t have that when I was teenager. I didn’t have anybody adding ‘aw’when I was get picked on . That’s a really powerful shift.”

It is a potent event to reclaim your past shames, when you were young and naive and to be concerned about everything. Imagine howyour high school self would have felt if you had known that it would all turn out OK or even better andthat your hideous high school lyrics about your sex sophomore math teacher could lead you into the arms of the one you’d invest your life with.

For some people, that couldmake discrepancies between life and death.

Maybe if I’d know where I’d end up today, I wouldn’t have seemed so tormented back then. But then I probably wouldn’t in cases where I am which is writing this story before I go on stagecoach at “Mortified” to sing a song I wrote more than half my life ago.

The restraint? “Somehow it’ll all turn out right.”

Read more: www.upworthy.com

The post They felt like losers in their boy — but that’s how these pairs encountered later in life. appeared first on caredogstips.com.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2tEheKx via IFTTT

[euro3plast-fr]

Why Multi-Channel Customer Communication Platforms are Gaining Popularity

All online businesses need to move quickly to embrace a multi-channel strategy

All of us online business owners agree that our website visitors and paying customers are, by far, our most important asset.

It makes sense. Everything we do is targeted towards satisfying prospects, gaining their trust and hopefully, convert them in to paying and recurring customers. That’s why most of our marketing and sales efforts are focused on bringing visitors to our website (or app).

To convert this great story into industry terms, business pros live and breathe conversion rates and ROI metrics.

One important conversion enabler (or ROI generator, if you’d like) is related to the business’s customer communication strategy. I’ll focus on this one, in this article.

Online customer communication is a wide topic: It covers customer technical support, online chatting with prospects, answering frequent questions on different channels and much, much more.

Whether we are talking about an existing paying customer or a new prospect who is trying to contact you, the ways you help them interact with you play a crucial role.

Your ROI will probably increase, so will your conversion rates, if visitors or users can reach you faster and enjoy easy access to live support.

If you have worked hard enough and your communication channels are setting a new industry standard, you are on to something.

If it's difficult for visitors to reach you, or it's a hassle, as is many cases, unfortunately too often in online businesses, you can end up leaving money on the table.

Nobody wants this.

Optimizing online communication channels? Easier said than done. The extra mile takes a lot of thought and effort.

Opening multiple communication channels means, aligning personnel for 24/7 support, or 12 hours support at the very least. For global businesses, it means being available through the entire day or night, dealing with multiple languages and cultures.

Yes. It’s a huge operation. I advise small medium businesses to do what they can, meaning, settle for English support and not worry if they are not live 24/7.Offering partial live support is a lot better than not offering any at all.

But optimizing online communication channels also means adding multiple communication apps on your website or app.

Asking users to fill in a form or send us an email can work of course. Opening multiple channels to let users interact with your sales teams via voice, SMS, Facebook Messenger, Line, WhatsApp... you get the idea. Here we are talking about taking our service to a whole new level.

About a week ago, I had interacted with a service provider via SMS. It was an option they provided, instead of waiting on the line for the rep to answer.

So far, nothing to write home about. You send an SMS, they send a reply, you respond, you reply. But, when the issue was solved they wrote:

“We are glad that we could help. Save this number in your address book and shoot us an SMS when you need anything, in the future”

BAM!! I was so happy. Realizing that from now on, I have personal access, directly to the service team made me feel like a VIP. Win win, for both parties.

Ok, cool, but how can any business add multiple communication channels to their website or app? How can it be done easily, without getting into complex integrations, huge costs and with keeping back office CRM connectivity?

It is doable.

Adding Multiple Communication Channels

Technology is always evolving and companies are constantly adapting new tools.

The online-business-communication industry is thriving. Why? Automation is a trend, but nothing can replace the human touch when it comes to closing deals.

Top industry players know it and act accordingly. So yes, there are bots, digital agents, virtual assistants, and god knows what else. But, at the end of the day, we all trust a human being, flesh and blood, more.

Business owners often choose a specific single communication channel that they add to their domains. But, they should take a different approach if you ask me, and add more channels to allow their prospects to interact with them in any way they wish.

Different users have different communication preferences. One might always prefer email, another might prefer FB messenger and another, probably just wants to talk to the support rep immediately.

I always prefer using WhatsApp, that’s me. Simple, instant, I can work with it while in meetings or on the phone, the thread is kept and I can easily continue the interaction from where I left off.

My business IT hardware vendor knows that now, and lets me order new equipment using WhatsApp.  But, unfortunately, their company doesn’t have WhatsApp available as a formal business communication channel, so interaction is done via his personal WhatsApp, nothing is automatically fed into their back-office CRM and I can only assume he has an overhead typing in all our WhatsApp interactions to their formal system. Yes, messy and inefficient…

In 2017, consumers expect businesses to support multiple communication channels.

Gladly, there are many platforms that allow businesses to add multiple communication channels with one single and simple integration and at minimal costs, I will get to it later on.

Multiple channels, ok, but which?

How do online businesses decide which channels and apps they should add in their domains?

Well, I advise businesses to decide based on a mix between their personal preferences, known industry statistics and apps that are popular among their specific target audiences.

Check out this article about the top popular messaging apps in every country.

Traditional SMS is still alive and kicking, but texting, in general, is important. 78% of people who love texting wish they could regularly text businesses. As far as I know, the whole of humanity loves texting…

According to a Forrester study,  “62% of business owners believe they will lose ground if they don’t adopt social customer service technology in customer service operations.”

So, yes, that’s putting apps like FB Messenger (which has over 1 billion worldwide users) on the table, and let’s not forget Telegram (used by over 100 million people), for instance.

You might consider Viber and WeChat, which, together, have a user base of over 900 million.

Spoiler: No businesses implement these apps manually, these days. There are solutions that allow you to add multiple apps and channels at once, so you don’t have to be extra selective. Don’t worry, I’m getting to it.

The idea is to piggyback on existing apps that your potential customers are already comfortable using. It saves you the need to ask your customers to download or add new apps and increases the chances of them initiating interactions. More interactions equal more sales. Point made.

Integrating multiple channels at once. Unifying all data into a single feed.

Once an online business has decided to follow the multiple communication channel strategy, there are still some important issues to address and handle. I call this frontend/backend organization.

One challenge is making sure that your website or app’s UX, supports this multiple channel implementation in an elegant way. You don’t want your users confused.

There are some 3rd party online widgets (front end UX components) you can find, that can solve this challenge well (floating bubbles, drop down menus and alike). You may search for such widgets voluntarily or explore ecommerce platforms 3rd party shops (Shopify 3rd party apps, for instance).

Another challenge, a back-office one, relates to the flow of sales data, behind the scenes. Let’s say you hold an online business and you have several sales people who handle incoming interactions.

Thanks to your new multiple channel approach, prospects can not only send emails but also send SMS, FB messages, call your sales team and alike.

For the sales process to be optimized, you must make sure that all communication events that are related to a specific prospect are kept in a single, unified data feed, in your CRM.

Imagine you are selling cars, or travel deals, or even insurance. Having such a unified data feed is critical in order to enhance sale completion chances.

If sales reps A is granted the prospect with a special price, sales rep B must know about it, when the prospect is making another interaction.

And then there’s this little tiny thing, the multiple integration hassles…

In short, online businesses need help with:

Integrating multiple communication channels

Organizing the costs and payments (SMS, voice)

Managing the operation in a dedicated dashboard

Migrating data to their existing CRM.

Multi-channel communication platforms – Everyone can join the game

Necessity is the mother of invention.

To allow businesses to easily follow the ‘multi communication-channels’ strategy, new platforms have emerged to offer an all-in-one comprehensive support.

All-in-one platforms offer:

One plugin for multiple communication apps including voice, SMS, web chat and many popular IM apps (that offer an open API).

Optimized load time, minimizing the risk of multiple apps load on your domains.

A back-office dashboard to manage the operation.

An API supporting integration with existing 3rd party CRM systems.

Summary:

This strategy used the privilege of ecommerce giants and enterprises, because of all the integration hassle and the costs involved. But, fortunately for all of us, technology and dedicated solutions can now come to the rescue, and SMBs can join in the game as well.

Make sure you follow the trends as well, so you can talk to your prospects via the channels they love using.

Thanks to Sari for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Sari Roth, a serial entrepreneur in the VOIP industry, is the CEO and founder of Bontact. Bontact is a multi-channel communication solution for businesses. For more information, you can contact Sari on LinkedIn and visit Bontact.

from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/multichannel-retail-strategy/multi-channel-customer-communication-platforms-gaining-popularity/

[euro3plast-fr]

Why Multi-Channel Customer Communication Platforms are Gaining Popularity

All online businesses need to move quickly to embrace a multi-channel strategy

All of us online business owners agree that our website visitors and paying customers are, by far, our most important asset.

It makes sense. Everything we do is targeted towards satisfying prospects, gaining their trust and hopefully, convert them in to paying and recurring customers. That’s why most of our marketing and sales efforts are focused on bringing visitors to our website (or app).

To convert this great story into industry terms, business pros live and breathe conversion rates and ROI metrics.

One important conversion enabler (or ROI generator, if you’d like) is related to the business’s customer-communication strategy. I’ll focus on this one, in this article.

Online customer communication is a wide topic: It covers customer technical support, online chatting with prospects, answering frequent questions on different channels and much, much more.

Whether we are talking about an existing paying customer or a new prospect who is trying to contact you, the ways you help them interact with you play a crucial role.

Your ROI will probably increase, so will your conversion rates, if visitors or users can reach you faster and enjoy easy access to live support.

If you have worked hard enough and your communication channels are setting a new industry standard, you are on to something.

If it's difficult for visitors to reach you, or it's a hassle, as is many cases, unfortunately too often in online businesses, you can end up leaving money on the table.

Nobody wants this.

Optimizing online communication channels? Easier said, than done. The extra mile takes a lot of thought and effort.

Opening multiple communication channels means, aligning personnel for 24/7 support, or 12 hours support at the very least. For a global businesses, it means being available through the entire day or night, dealing with multiple languages and cultures.

Yes. It’s a huge operation. I advise small medium businesses to do what they can, meaning, settle for English support and not worry if they are not live 24/7.Offering partial live support is a lot better than not offering any at all.

But optimizing online communication channels, also means adding multiple communication apps on your website or app.

Asking users to fill in a form or send us an email can work of course. Opening multiple channels to let users interact with your sales teams via voice, SMS, Facebook Messenger, Line, WhatsApp... you get the idea. Here we are talking about taking our service to a whole new level.

About a week ago, I had interacted with a service provider via SMS. It was an option they provided, instead of waiting on the line for the rep to answer.

So far, nothing to write home about. You send an SMS, they send a reply, you respond, you reply. But, when the issue was solved they wrote:

“We are glad that we could help. Save this number in your address book and shoot us an SMS when you need anything, in the future”

BAM!! I was so happy. Realizing that from now on, I have  personal access, directly to the service team made me feel like a VIP. Win win, for both parties.

Ok, cool, but how can any business add multiple communication channels to their website or app? How can it be done easily, without getting into complex integrations, huge costs and with keeping back office CRM connectivity?

It is doable.

Adding Multiple Communication Channels

Technology is always evolving and companies are constantly adapting new tools.

The online-business-communication industry is thriving. Why? Automation is a trend, but nothing can replace the human touch, when it comes to closing deals.

Top industry players know it, and act accordingly. So yes, there are bots, digital agents, virtual assistants, and god knows what else. But, at the end of the day, we all trust a human being, flesh and blood, more.

Business owners often choose a specific single communication channel that they add to their domains. But, they should take a different approach if you ask me, and add more channels to allow their prospects to interact with them in any way they wish.

Different users have different communication preferences. One might always prefer email, another might prefer FB messenger and another, probably just wants to talk to the support rep immediately.

I always prefer using WhatsApp, that’s me. Simple, instant, I can work with it while in meetings or on the phone, thread is kept and I can easily continue the interaction from where I left off.

My business IT hardware vendor knows that now, and lets me order new equipment using WhatsApp.  But, unfortunately, their company doesn’t have WhatsApp available as a formal business communication channel, so interaction is done via his personal WhatsApp, nothing is automatically fed into their back-office CRM and I can only assume he has an overhead typing in all our WhatsApp interactions to their formal system. Yes, messy and inefficient…

In 2017, consumers expect businesses to support multiple communication channels.

Gladly, there are many platforms that allow businesses to add multiple communication channels with one single and simple integration and at minimal costs, I will get to it later on.

Multiple channels, ok, but which?

How do online businesses decide which channels and apps they should add in their domains?

Well, I advise businesses to decide based on a mix between their personal preferences, known industry statistics and apps that are popular among their specific target audiences.

Check out this article about the top popular messaging apps in every country.

Traditional SMS is still alive and kicking, but texting in general is important. 78% of people who love texting wish they could regularly text businesses. As far as I know, the whole of humanity loves texting…

According to a Forrester study,  “62% of business owners believe they will lose ground if they don’t adopt social customer service technology in customer service operations.”

So, yes, that’s putting apps like FB messenger (which has over 1 billion worldwide users) on the table, and let’s not forget Telegram (used by over 100 million people), for instance.

You might consider Viber and WeChat, which, together, have a user base of over 900 million.

Spoiler: No businesses implement these apps manually, these days. There are solutions that allow you to add multiple apps and channels at once, so you don’t have to be extra selective. Don’t worry, I’m getting to it.

The idea is to piggyback on existing apps that your potential customers are already comfortable using. It saves you the need to ask your customers to download or add new apps and increases the chances of them initiating interactions. More interactions equal more sales. Point made.

Integrating multiple channels at once. Unifying all data into a single feed.

Once an online business has decided to follow the multiple communication channel strategy, there are still some important issues to address and handle. I call this frontend / backend organization.

One challenge is making sure that your website or app’s UX, supports this multiple channel implementation in an elegant way. You don’t want your users confused.

There are some 3rd party online widgets (front end UX components) you can find, that can solve this challenge well (floating bubbles, drop down menus and alike). You may search for such widgets voluntarily or explore ecommerce platforms 3rd party shops (Shopify 3rd party apps, for instance).

Another challenge, a back-office one, relates to the flow of sales data, behind the scenes. Let’s say you hold an online business and you have several sales people who handle incoming interactions.

Thanks to your new multiple channel approach, prospects can not only send emails but also send SMS, FB messages, call your sales team and alike.

For the sales process to be optimized, you must make sure that all communication events that are related to a specific prospect are kept in a single, unified data feed, in your CRM.

Imagine you are selling cars, or travel deals, or even insurance. Having such a unified data feed is critical in order to enhance sale completion chances.

If sales reps A is granted the prospect with a special price, sales rep B must know about it, when the prospect is making another interaction.

And then there’s this little tiny thing, the multiple integration hassle…

In short, online businesses need help with:

Integrating multiple communication channels

Organizing the costs and payments (SMS, voice)

Managing the operation in a dedicated dashboard

Migrating data to their existing CRM.

Multi-channel communication platforms – Everyone can join the game

Necessity is the mother of invention.

To allow businesses to easily follow the ‘multi communication-channels’ strategy, new platforms have emerged to offer an all-in-one comprehensive support.

All-in-one platforms offer:

One plugin for multiple communication apps including voice, SMS, webchat and many popular IM apps (that offer an open API).

Optimized load time, minimizing the risk of multiple apps load on your domains.

A back-office dashboard to manage the operation.

An API supporting integration with existing 3rd party CRM systems.

Summary:

This strategy used the privilege of ecommerce giants and enterprises, because of all the integration hassle and the costs involved. But, fortunately for all of us, technology and dedicated solutions can now come to the rescue, and SMBs can join in the game as well.

Make sure you follow the trends as well, so you can talk to your prospects via the channels they love using.

Thanks to Sari for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Sari Roth, a serial entrepreneur in the VOIP industry, is the CEO and founder of Bontact. Bontact is a multi-channel communication solution for businesses. For more information you can contact Sari on LinkedIn and visit Bontact.

from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/ecommerce/multichannel-retail-strategy/multi-channel-customer-communication-platforms-gaining-popularity/