#in the future i would probably charge for labor

[local-gay]

my little brother asked me to crochet a baby blanket for his friend who's having a baby boy and like being asked to do that is like "wow my talents are being recognized!"

[guardian5tiger3]

waddup guys here's a tarot reading -

1. 2

3. 4

GROUP 1

You guys are sharing or giving something to other people , either this is about work, something you create and share possibly online , somebody is a painter, or generally giving your time and energy to friends family or coworkers..

Something is going to blow up or someone is and it seems you guys are either in or will be in a state of distress or being tired or dealing with some clinical issues like depression .. it feels like you're being drained because you have neglected to take time to recharge and it almost seems like you or horribly, other people are just waiting for you to quit or freak out or something like that ..it seems like an issue where you're being stubborn cause you don't want to give up . This is reminding me of a short story by an author about joining a small work group and then putting him through so much physical labor hoping he ends up quitting, but him being way too stubborn to quit so no one thinks badly of him and cause he wants that money , but people purposefully pushing him and putting a lot on him like that actually hoping he quits . Some of you are hoping it reversed in a way and everyone else in this situation ends up beefing , like , fighting with each other or all being in some type of conflict. For some of you that would happen if you quit or leave . It seems like a negative feeling or state of being is still around over time even if you forget for a minute but then when you relax or something it still is like that . The advice here is to make sure you are putting your energy in a very personalized way , something that you would be proud of or happy to do . You might want to find a different job or start doing things to your liking . I just channeled a song by twenty one pilots - lane boy . You also might want to watch the video . Do what you want how you want to do it basically, do not people please at this time . I do feel like there are messages to get out of the song and video for you all also so, check that out . I also am feeling it's hard for y'all to move on from something and you should target a possible insecurity within yourself about not wanting to let go of something out of fear you won't get something else or you'll be left with nothing or in lack if you do .

Group 2

It seems like y'all have chosen a path in life that was predicted somehow at some point or is a type of destiny you have and there might be writing on the walls in your past about this happening now . You probably feel towards this like you've won in some type of way. I heard " in charge " . I think a group of people are plotting to go through some type of conflict in order to come towards you . If they did you might see you deciding to choose whatever path they have to offer you as moving towards conflict but I think your truest self would actually see this as more comfortable, exciting, and fitting for yourself . I think whatever is going on right now for you , you can't see the future about it and you don't fully realize that it would be like, boring or mundane or something like that somehow . I don't see this other path these people have to offer as negative I actually agree it seems that it would be more fun and more fitting for how you all are and would not cause you harm . I'm picking up on the heart .I think if there's an outer circumstance that would cause you to lean towards working or being with these other people in whatever way it's a sign to do so . Cause if this opportunity arrises you might feel defensive because it's basically not familiar to you at this point in time or it seems like unstable somehow because of that also . For some of you this is an emperor person come towards you for sure possibly in terms of love and if you already know them you might have an issue with wherever they have been since you last talked or saw them . If these people show up it's a good opportunity to say whatever you might want to say or have wanted to say . You need to remember to not be scared , generally and also specifically in terms of missing out on anything . Focus on your heart . I'll leave y'all with that .

GROUP 3

Someone is trying to or will or has been trying to force themself into your life, energy , work . Something like that . It looks like you've either told someone to get them to leave you be or you've told this person to go away basically or stop and you've had to defend yourself . This person is either back and forth somehow or has drastically different sides to them and their own character or personality . This may be a suitor of some sort, romantically and you may not realize that the case is that they like you like that but some of you do know this . This is kinda terrible but it seems like they must have been abused at some point or something so it seems like telling them no or rejecting them makes them want everything to do with you more . Cause it reminds them of a past dynamic they had probably in childhood or early teens . They're used to being treated a certain way so that's what they're used to that's what they like and know how to work with that . I think they think you'd be good for each other in any type of way . The outcome and advice is super different for all of you . Some of you have actually been harsh and should include this person and some of you didn't realize this and might get curious or something or treat them nicer or even inquire about a relationship or something who knows . You could end up being kind of abusive to this person or something . Not severally just taking advantage of their vulnerability so , no offense but make sure that's not what becomes of you in a situation like that make sure you pay attention to how people might feel cause some people will do anything for you and never mention if theyre hurting or if it's too much , if this is still resonating right at this point and you also feel overwhelmed just talk nice to them and keep a distance I think this persons attention span is short and this very well can just be a phase and they'll move on mentally pretty quick within a few weeks cause it's just a crush or some type of interest they have in you . For a few this also could be something well in the past that you should look back on and maybe come to terms with something or better yourself for any way you may have treated anyone . This seriously could have been high school or many years ago for a few of you .

Group 4

You guys are lucky . I'm seeing something about a metaphor like eyes in the back of your head but it's more like you can only see in front of yourself not behind yourself ,so you never truly can see everything or a full true picture of anything . You guys might be the philosophical type . Someone you or someone else has been in some type of severe trouble or something and someone else was abusing you or whoever this is or taking from them and this is truly a horrible disgusting energy but it's looking like the person who went through whatever traumatic thing this is has since been freed and has a lot to themselves and is looking great now for the most part . I think this person or you has so much of whatever it is energy, luck, material things, good looks because of how they were " taken from " in the past . This seriously could have been a torturous type of abuse . It seems like someone important to the person who was abused or taken from in the past has someone very important to them like a friend or soulmate that was turned against them because of this. It's possibly you're the person who was manipulated into turning against someone else that had been abused heavily . If that's the case there's a high chance you still think negatively of this person or if you're this person someone thinks that way about you still. It's because of whoever was being abusive and also possible people that person has in their corner . This person that was abused is looking good now or in the near future but they still deserve mercy and forgiveness and things like that by a lot . Funny it also looks like the abused person has no clue how they got to a point of being in a better vibe . The universe might be all that sees the truth about this person and situation entirely . So it shouldn't be a question as to why they have good luck or whatever happened or is happening here for them . It's possible there isn't a living person who sees their side . So either you are someone that is supposed to be there for them and important and you need to seriously rethink some things or question anything you've been told or shown or whatever . Or you're this person that was abused . If that's the case you need to strengthen your relationship with the universe or whatever you wanna call it god, spirit. Because there's infinite love for you there and it'll bring you closer to your soulmate the more you do that also . I think if you have a pet to lean on that pet for support and love also . No matter what happens just try to have a relationship or faith in the universe cause I'm seeing a physically ending possible having to move homes . If that happens at any point or has it's most likely to get you away from something dangerous so it's a good thing even if you don't see that . I think whoever is reading this has to front to other people or wear a mask . Basically you have to learn to love and accept yourself and heal any trauma that was inhumane that made you any type of insecure or anything . Pretty typical thing to say I know but in this instance it really rings true . I think youll naturally do this over time how you are but it's good to consciously try to do it , it'll probably happen faster for that . But don't push yourself too far . Feels like there might be a lot of different random things to focus on or you have adhd I don't know . A hot drink once in a while would be good to calm you down . Coffee tea or hot chocolate or something ya know .

[copperbadge]

Every time, you guys. Every time I look into alternatives to Lulu.com for self-publishing I come up with “Wow Lulu really is the best of a bad set of options, huh?” 

Recently, Draft2Digital bought Smashwords in order to bring a print book company under their aegis; they’d formerly only done ebooks. I thought I might investigate them as an alternative to Lulu, which I’ve used for about twelve years now. For ebooks I would venture D2D is probably top of the line. For print books they are....not. 

I’m writing this out half so other folks can see it but half so that in the future I can look this up and remind myself of why I’m still with Lulu. 

TLDR: Not only does Draft2Digital want 60% of my print book royalties where Lulu takes 0%, and $30 for a proof that costs me $11 at Lulu, but I also appear to have solved the problem of why Lulu was making me price my books so goddamn artificially high. Which is like. Honestly the best anti-anxiety drug I’ve experienced this week. 

Basically there are a number of elements that go into self-publishing with a print-on-demand service. For some publishers, there’s a “setup fee” which doesn’t really set anything up, it’s just there to be a fee, everything is done by computer on the back end. Traditionally, Lulu has not charged a setup fee. Smashwords used to charge $50, but Draft2Digital currently waives it. I was heartened by that because the setup fee was keeping me from migrating, since I can afford $50 but I balk at knowing I’m paying them $50 for nothing. 

Next is the cost of printing -- what it costs the company in paper, ink, machinery, labor, etc, to just make a book with no profit. Lulu’s price calculus isn’t super clear and I’ve never bothered looking at what the breakdown is, because they’re pretty up-front -- they tell you in the process of setting the book up how much it’ll cost. In this case, a 140-page 6x9 trade paperback, no frills, which is how all my books are printed, is $5. Draft2Digital doesn’t tell you the flat price anywhere but they do offer the breakdown information; it costs $1.22 flat plus $0.0133 per page. So, for a 140 page book, the at-cost is $3.08. So far so good. 

Now, if you’re going to sell through Lulu, the “at cost” is the minimum price. You won’t make any money but you CAN charge just $5 for a $5 book. Any pricing above that is your cut. So -- let’s price this 140 page trade paperback at $13-$15. That’s a bit high to be honest but let’s just see. At Lulu, your take is roughly $6-$8 based on those prices, because you’re just dropping out the cost of printing from the retail price. 

At Draft2Digital, the same 140-page trade paperback, which remember is quoted as costing roughly $1.20 less to print than Lulu charges, gets you $2.75-$3.50 in royalties per book.

....wait, what? 

So now we need to sidetrack a little but I promise it’s for a reason. One of the motivations for looking into a change to Draft2Digital is that I didn’t like that Lulu was setting higher “minimum prices” than I was accustomed to -- they would tell me the book only cost $5 to print but require me to sell it for $12 or similar, and I couldn’t work out why. I’m an idiot but the penny did finally drop: it’s because when you distribute them outside of Lulu (say, on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or similar) your royalties drop like a stone. $7 in royalties purchased through Lulu comes out to like twenty-five cents purchased through Amazon. So Lulu forces you to price the book at a point where you even GET royalties and don’t end up weirdly owing Amazon money. The “global distribution” is what’s driving that minimum up. 

So in price-quoting a competitor I actually solved the problem with Lulu.��

Which is good, because the fun doesn’t stop there. If you want a proof copy of a book from Lulu, it’s the at-cost of the book, plus tax, plus postage. Buying a proof copy of this book from Lulu would cost me $11. Lulu makes you order a new proof copy every time you make a change, which is shady, but usually I only need to make 1-2 changes across the life of a book, so at most the cost will probably be $35 and for that I’ll get three copies of the book. Draft2Digital doesn’t give you an option. If you want a proof pre-publication, it’s $30 flat. If you want to publish and then buy a copy you can, but you can only make one change to the book every 90 days once it’s published. If you want to make more than one change, it’s $25 every time you upload a new version of the manuscript within that 90 day period.

So Draft2Digital’s books cost less to print but they take a massive cut of your royalties out of the retail cost of the book. If the book costs $3 to print, and I price it at $15, that’s $12 in profit on the book. Of that $12, however, I only receive $4. Draft2Digital literally wants 2/3 of my royalties per book. They want $20 more than Lulu to send me a proof copy. If I need to correct the proof, the correction is free, but I’m assuming the second proof will also cost me $30. Any changes after that, within 90 days, will cost $25 plus $30 for a new proof.

Which means my upfront costs at Lulu are about $35 per published book; to do the same thing at Draft2Digital is between $60 and $105 depending on whether I need to make changes after the second proof copy. And even after that, my royalties at Lulu are just about twice what they would be at Draft2Digital per purchase. 

So, well, Lulu it is. And the problem I was having with Lulu is solved if I decide to just retail through Lulu rather than selling globally. Which...selling globally has done two things that I’m aware of:

1. Fucked up my author page so badly on Amazon that one of my books is still attributed to Kathleen Starbuck, and one of her books is for sale on my author page. 

2. Raised the minimum price I’m allowed to set my books at by like, 40%. 

So I think probably what’s going to happen is going forward my books will be for sale only on Lulu. I can still assign them ISBNs and they still will ship worldwide, and the prices will fall significantly. My deepest apologies to those of you who have paid an artificially inflated price for the last few books; I’m going to fix that going forward, I’m going to go in and try to fix it retroactively in the books that are already on Lulu, and if it’s any consolation at least the cash came to me, and TWO THIRDS OF IT didn’t go to Lulu. 

It’s gonna take me a little time, untangling Lulu’s relationship to other retailers is tricky, but eventually the Shivadh Omnibus and Twelve Points should come down significantly in price, and there ought to be a dollar or two drop for the older books as well. 

This is why it always pays to do the math, even if like me you are dreadful at it. 

[depravitymoon]

Does the Yandere la squadra have room preferences for the darling post kidnapping?

This is the oldest ask sitting in my inbox and today’s the day I answer it. Right now, I’m gonna be honest. Part of the reason this sat in my inbox for so long is because I was trying to figure out the question. Hence, I’m going to try to guess what it’s asking. 

The questions I’m gonna be asking myself:

What are the general house rules post-kidnapping?

Would your yandere even give you a room?

Would your yandere change their own room for you?

And just to make this simple: This is an Everyone Lives AU where Giorno is Don and actually increased La Squadra's pay by 1000%. La Squadra are roommates in a big ass villa, so it feels like live in through own private apartment complex... but richer. lol

(Some of the pictures of rooms come from here.)

(Warning: Other than yandere, kidnapping, and implied forced labor, Melone also wants kids with you.))

RIsotto Nero

Risotto’s rules:

Don’t get sassy with him.

Do what he says.

Do not attempt to run away from him.

If he is not there, then have Pesci or Prosciutto guide you.

Would your yandere even give you a room? NO.

Risotto isn’t as fucked up as some of his teammates, but he likes having control of you. Also, it’s easier to intimidate you when he’s always so close to you (and is a giant). Having your own room might make you feel too comfortable disobeying him and he refuses to let you think that’s an option.

Would your yandere change their own room for you? Yes. You behave and he’s willing to even make the room look like Enid and Wednesday’s. 

Prosciutto

Prosciutto’s rules:

Be a good housewife.

Cook the meals.

Clean the ‘house’.

Run errands with Pesci.

Don’t sass him.

Greet him when he gets home.

Would your yandere even give you a room?  HAHAHAHAHA, NO. You’re funny.  You two are married and married couples sleep together.  Also, you’re in charge of cleaning, do you really want your own room to clean in addition of his room and Pesci’s.

Would your yandere change their own room for you? He will negotiate with you. Have you been a good wife? Have you been completing the chores? What are you willing to give in return to drastically change his room for you? 

Sidenote 01: Prosciutto gets the biggest room because Risotto didn't care to get the Master bedroom. 

Sidenote 02: Proscuitto just wants you taking care of his portion of the villa. If you're being annoying, he'll force you to clean of Pesci's portion (but Pesci's nice enough to help you with your cleaning).

Pesci

Pesci’s rules:

Be polite to Risotto.

Listen to what big brother says.

If big bro gets handsy on you, look for Pesci.

Avoid the others except Ghiaccio.

Stay away from Ghiaccio when he’s mad. Don’t walk, RUN.

Would your yandere even give you a room? Pesci would never force you to stay in his room unless he actually thought you were in danger. At worse, he'd manipulate you into staying with him. If La Squadra has room (no pun intended) you can have your own room.

Would he change his room for you? Absolutely! He just wants you comfortable! Hell, you can have half of his room AND your own room. 

Melone

Melone’s Rules:

Be a good parent to his future offspring.

Don’t ask for anything unless you’re willing to do some Not Safe For Work activities for it.

At least pretend you're happy to see Melone once in awhile, especially around bambino!

Would your yandere even give you a room? Honestly, yes. He did kidnap you to force you to have his future children. The least he can do is accommodate you.

He'll only let you roam the villa if he believes you'll behave. The moment you try leaving is the moment you're literally chained to his bedroom and has to have Pesci follow you around when Melone can't.  Yes, he knows you're mad that he plans to baby trap you. At least you'll be a rich mom, not a pauper with 'freedom'.

Would he change his room for you?  No. If anything, he’d probably make your room also your future baby’s room too, which would force you to come to his room for some peace and quiet.

Ghiaccio

((Author's Note: Let's pretend that the floor is an all white carpet. Apparently, most people know better than to have white carpet.))

Ghiaccio’s Rule:

DO NOT stain his room.

DO NOT yell at him.

DO NOT talk to the other members unless it’s an emergency.

DO NOT be alone with Melone.

DONT. STAIN. ANYTHING.

You may be asking "Why would you have a white room? Why not just let me go if you dont want a stained room-" SHUT UP AND DONT SASS HIM.

Would your yandere even give you a room?  Depending on if you two are own good terms, he might let you stay in the tinier room right next to his. Just behave. Your room has no bed, because he'll be forcing you to sleep in his bed with him. You're the most likely darling to be allowed to roam the villa, but you can't go outside. 

Would he change his room for you?  No, which is why you get your own room if you behave. 

Illuso

Illuso's rules:

Do as he says.

Do as he says.

Do as he says.

Do as he says.

Oh, he keeps you in the mirror world with food all day when he's not with you. Rights? lol Silly darling, you have no rights.

Everything you have is solely due to his desires. While Risotto's darling spends 90% of the time in his room, Illuso's darling spends 99.99% of the time in Illuso's room and the mirror world.

Formaggio

Doesn’t need rules because he can just shrink you down when he wants.

I imagine the only thing that stands out about Formaggio's room is that it's filled with a dollhouse, dolls, pet cages, and a hamster ball. Why all of that? So he can entertain himself messing with you. 

There is more than enough room for you to be in Formaggio's room. And he doesn't want to break you like Illuso would. Formaggio just likes bullying you, but he does want you functioning like a human being. Having a person he can actually converse with is better han some doll that obeys him, gross. 

Obviously, you wont get your own room, but he will customize your dollhouse room if you behave! Oh and he does like you room the mansion. Keep in mind if you ever try to flee, that privilege is revoked forever.

[racefortheironthrone]

What are your thoughts on Police Unions and calls to have them thrown out of the AFL CIO?

The last time that police unions actually acted like unions was the Boston police strike of 1919 (that unfortunately catapulted Cal Coolidge into national political prominence). After that, the basic labor relations between the state and police unions began to change in ways that are not recognizable as standard trade unionism.

The shift really began in the 1930s, when the rise of industrial unionism and attendant strike activity scared the shit out of the employers and their allies in government, because the usual Pinkertons and American Legion thugs were not enough to keep a lid on the situation. Hence the need to keep the police unions on the side of the employers rather than allow any possibility of siding with the strikers - thus you start to see police unions getting easily recognized, wage increases getting thrown around like candy, anything to keep the strikebreakers sweet.

However, it particularly morphed during the Second Great Migration (1940s through 1970), when the sudden emergence or at least rapid expansion of black populations in Northeastern, Midwestern, and Western cities scared the shit out of the municipal establishment in similar, yet distinct ways than the earlier union uprising had. In this period, an informal understanding was reached that the elected officials would block, slow-walk, or otherwise frustrate attempts by activists to impose accountability on police through civilian complaint review boards and other mechanisms, in exchange for police making upholding the racial hierarchy one of their enforcement priorities.

The expansion of grievance and arbitration procedures to include shootings and other acts of police brutality, written reprimands and other punishments from management, civilian complaints of abuse of power, officers' misconduct records and the extent to which they could be made public or even shared with future employers - the whole intricate mechanism by which police union contracts were turned into a bulwark against accountability - was part of this quid-pro-quo alliance between the state and police in the face of the emergent civil rights movement.

That's part of what slightly gives me pause about the left critique of police union contracts, because I think this alliance would have been constructed, maintained, and expanded over the decades whether or not police were unionized. The means would have been different, probably exercised through city charters, local ordinances, judicial precedents (even more so), but the ends would be the same. And if activists actually managed to eliminate a police union contract today, I'm absolutely confident that municipal government would rebuild it the next day, because they're absolutely scared of police slowdowns.

As to chucking them out of the AFL-CIO, it's not a bad thing per se, but I do want people to understand that it would be purely symbolic. The AFL-CIO is a union federation, it doesn't really have much in the way of direct authority over member unions, or exclusive access to resources that outpace what the member unions have. To give a historical example, the AFL-CIO expelled the Teamsters back in the 50s for being mobbed-up and it didn't change the Teamsters one bit - they kept on being mobbed-up until the Teamsters for a Democratic Union challenged the Hoffaites in the 70s and the Justice Department went after them with RICO charges in the 80s.

[tanadrin]

How do you feel about the Gaza war all but ensuring Trump's reelection by destroying Biden politically?

It might; it's certainly hurt his standing with a number of different groups like Arab-Americans. Whether it will translate into a broader erosion of support I can't tell, and there are so many things that are up in the air still about this election (which is over a year away!) that it's kind of a fool's game to try to predict the outcome now.

I'm not sure that Biden's support for the Israeli bombing campaign/ground invasion is "destroying" him politically at all. That would imply he's paying a real cost among the majority of his supporters, but the Democratic party is quite right-wing on the Israel-Palestine issue at the moment. I think Biden is pursuing the policies that he thinks have broad support among his political faction, and unfortunately I think he may be correct in that assessment.

It goes without saying that if Trump or a similar politician was president now, or was president during a similar crisis in the future, he'd probably be even more enthusiastic about endorsing whatever the Israeli government wanted to do. That troubles me, of course. It would be nice if there were options for the American president other than "endorsing mass murder with a sigh of regret" and "endorsing mass murder with cheering and clapping of hands."

I have a lot of worries. I worry that for all the outrage, nothing will fundamentally change--that Israeli politics will (with Netanyahu in charge or someone else) continue to drift to the right, that Oslo will be the high-water mark for hope for a peaceful resolution in my lifetime. More parochially, I worry about the German government cynically exploiting this situation to justify a stronger anti-immigration and anti-refugee policy, hoping to outflank the AfD on this issue; and I worry that Biden will lose in 2024 and the lesson the Democratic party will take from it isn't "we need to be less like a bunch of cynical neoliberal death cultists" and instead "it was clearly our labor policy that was the problem, let's lurch rightward again." I worry that the lessons we took from World War II have faded already, or were always too narrow in scope--that we are sensitive to fascism only if it marches under literal swastikas, that we care about refugees and genocide only if they can be mythologized as the perfect victim, going meekly to their fate (preferably years after the fact, when it is too late to actually do anything about it).

I think there are a lot of good people in the world doing good things, who want to fight for what's right. But this is a really bleak situation, and none of them are in charge. We could use a leader with real courage who can vigorously articulate an expansive moral vision, something beyond massacre-for-massacre retribution with no end in sight.

[wowbright]

Fic: Brotherly Duties

Fandom/pairing: Glee, Kurt/Blaine

Event: December Klaine Fanworks Challenge 2023

Words: ~700 words                                           

Rating: Mature

Summary: Kurt gets a package from Cooper in the mail.

Notes: This is part of my Mormon!Klaine universe. It takes place after Out of Eden, which I am still in the process of posting to AO3. It’s among the likely possibilities for their future.

* * *

Two months before Blaine returned from his mission, Kurt received a package in the mail. “Special delivery from Cooper Anderson,” his dad said, handing it to Kurt in the kitchen. “Easter Peeps?”

It had become a thing with them. For Kurt’s return home from his mission, for Pioneer Day, for Labor Day and Thanksgiving and Christmas and Valentine’s Day, Cooper made it a habit to regale Kurt with Peeps. Kurt’s dad had thought it was a little odd at first, but Kurt had explained it away with, “It’s sort of a thing from our mission,” followed by, “Also, he’s weird.”

Kurt’s arms buckled from the unexpected weight as he took the package from his dad. “That feels heavier than Peeps, Dad.” The package wasn’t heavy, exactly, but it was at least a couple pounds—not the scant ounces that marshmallow and thin paperboard should weigh.

His dad shrugged. “I thought so too, but I didn’t think this Cooper guy knew how to mail anything else. I mean, I know I’ve seen him on TV, but with all these packages you’ve gotten from him, I’ve kind of started to picture him in my head like a giant PEZ dispenser—which I know doesn’t exactly work, Peeps are marshmallows and PEZ are solid, but still … You swear he wasn’t a PEZ dispenser when you met him?”

“Scout’s honor, Dad.” Kurt considered the padded envelope in his hands. Through it, the contents felt stiff and rectangular.  “It’s probably a bunch of signed headshots for me to share with friends and family. That’s his idea of a generous gift.” Kurt tore open the flap, peeked in, and immediately closed the envelope back up, feeling his cheeks betray his embarrassment. “Never mind. I'll open it later.”

His father gave him an amused look. “The head shots are that bad, huh?”

“Something like that,” Kurt said, standing up from the kitchen table and heading toward his room, where he closed the door and locked it and considered putting a chair under the handle for good measure. But no, that was silly. He was a grown adult. This was nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, his parents respected his privacy.

Instead, Kurt pulled the chair up to his desk and sat down, sliding the contents of the envelope out onto the desk. A hardcover copy of The Joy of Gay Sex made a loud thumping noise as it fell on to the surface.

There was a note, too:

Bought this for my brother—I even inscribed it to him!—but then I realized there was no good way to get it to him in Germany. Too high a chance of it being intercepted by someone in his mission, and who knows, customs would probably charge him duties on it anyway. I felt vanquished and without hope. But then I realized this was all for the better. You're the one he's all hot for, and I'm pretty sure you’re going to pounce on each other as soon as you possibly can after he gets off the plane (gets off, get it?), so you really better know what you're doing. This book actually has mixed reviews from my gay friends, but it was the one most of them mentioned when I asked for recommendations, and it’s illustrated, which I think will be very helpful. I hope you don't still have Mormon hang ups about every picture of a naked body being porn. I looked through the book, and I thought the illustrations were very educational and not too raunchy at all. Of course, if you want to jerk off to them, that's your business and nobody else’s. Have fun!

Kurt's face was on fire all the way to the roots of his hair. He put the letter in the shredder and opened the book. And indeed, there was an inscription to Blaine on the title page:

Blainey— Not being knowledgeable in this area, I hand off some of my older brother sex-talk duties to this educational volume. One tip I can give you: you'll probably want to let up on the hair gel a little during times of intimacy, particularly for certain acts in which your lover is likely to want to grab your hair. Trust me on this one. —Coop

[ashleywool]

What would you need from the fans of How To Dance In Ohio for a ProShot to be streamed somewhere like Broadway HD or similar? Would it need to be a Kickstarter or a social media campaign? Is there anyone we can write to? Part of my reason for asking is selfish, since I would love to see the show, but this show is also historic and groundbreaking in a lot of different ways and I also think your amazing performances need to be preserved as a part of Broadway history.

I know this is probably a really sad time for you and the rest of the Ohio cast/creative team and even if a ProShot never happens and nothing ever comes of it, just know that you, all of you, touched more lives and hearts than you could possibly know just by being who you are.

Thanks so much for asking. This is something we have been discussing with the producers, because obviously we'd all love it to happen too.

Warning: incoming info-dump, albeit a grossly oversimplified one:

It would cost about $3M to produce a pro-shot. Here's an incomplete list of where that money would go:

-The regular costs of the venue itself--which, when you include rent, utilities, and staff salaries (security, bartenders, ushers, custodians, all the people who are just in charge of maintaining the Belasco), comes out to about $1K a minute.

-The labor of obtaining necessary permits for filming onsite.

-The labor of the film crew, including load-in, setup, and breakdown of equipment, and coordinating with stage management to make sure their shooting doesn't get in the way of backstage choreography, and making any adjustments accordingly

-The collaboration between the film crew and the in-house sound crew to make sure the audio is captured and balanced properly

-The labor of post-production: editing, color correction, sound adjustment, etc.

-There are also different contracts (and higher pay) for the actors, stage managers, stage crew, sound crew, lighting crew, and wardrobe crew, in addition to our current contracts wherein we're just doing the show as usual. This can get particularly complicated with the actors and stage managers, since our Broadway contracts are through Actors' Equity Association (the union for stage actors and stage managers) but the contract for having our work filmed and distributed in theaters or on streaming platforms is under SAG-AFTRA (the union for film actors).

This is not a complete list, but to give you some context: that's about what it would cost just to make the thing. The costs and logistics of actually distributing it is a different story altogether, and a lot of that would depend on strategizing around future productions and making sure the availability of the pro-shot wouldn't compromise, say, a national tour. I'm not a producer and don't have the numbers and the research, but what I'd love to see happen is, the pro-shot gets a limited theatrical release to coincide with a national tour, and then gets released to streaming platforms when the tour is wrapped. (Of course, as an elder millennial who's genetically incapable of not being financially stressed, I don't care where or how it's released as long as I get those residual checks lol.)

As to your question of crowdfunding: as far as I understand it (and I'm not an entertainment lawyer so I likely have very incomplete information, so don't take my word at total face value): in order to crowdfund for a pro-shot, the producers would likely need to establish a new business entity and it would have to be a nonprofit entity so it could legally solicit donations from the public. Broadway shows are commercially produced, and each iteration of the commercially-produced production has its own business entity. When the show was in workshops and in Syracuse, the business entity was "Amigos in Ohio, LLC." The Broadway entity is "Amigos on Broadway, LLC." The only difference it makes on my end is the name that shows up on my bank statement when I get my direct deposit every week, but the difference it makes from a producer perspective is much more significant and it has a big effect on how productions are legally and ethically allowed to be funded, and again I'm not an entertainment lawyer so explaining what those differences are is beyond me.

I will say, however, Ken Davenport has been a real innovator when it comes to how shows can be produced--in 2010, he launched what eventually became the first crowdfunded Broadway musical with the Godspell revival. I know very little about how all of that actually works, but I do think something like that would be a boon to the industry in the year of our dark Majestic Theater 2024. And it would also give the fans a way to connect with the material and the business on a deeper and more personal level.

Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about how Broadway works from the producers' side, you should check out Sammy Lopez's Producing 101 course on The Business of Broadway. (I'm going to be in an upcoming class myself and it's all virtual, so maybe I'll see you there!)

[brunchbitch]

So I saw L yesterday and we talked about my wedding and that I feel like I probably “should” take a picture with Them, not even for my parents but just bc I worry I might regret not having a full family picture decades in the future, to show my potential future kids, etc. And she was just like “we have a lot of work to do”. She talked about the importance of this being MY (and A’s) wedding, not a wedding to make my mom happy. But I’m just worried that L’s always going to be strongly on the side of no relationship with Them which makes it difficult when I still need to go to family events and such. But then a part of me is like is that how I should be too? Bc she knows EVERYTHING. Is what happened so atrocious that it would make sense to refuse to talk to or see or have a relationship with Them for the rest of my life? Or might she be overreacting?

Also one of Them has already reached out to me. He was asking about whether A and I will be coming to Labor Day weekend at our family’s cabin (family tradition) bc he’s in charge of head counts and sleeping arrangements. So like a totally reasonable communication but it still made me feel nauseous to see his text pop up.

[golbrocklovely]

Hi, so the thing about the volunteer mods on xplrclub kind of rubs me the wrong way. They absolutely have made millions in their career, I mean their channel has been blowing up steadily for years. Their channel on top of merch sales, tours, xplrclub, they're living rather comfortably. One of the other anon's said colby has admitted to spending 10k a month on just clothing?? 10k is what I make in 5 months of working full time, dropping that on clothing in one year is insane let alone one month. Plus they have 2 mansions and not just rent but own. I'm the same age as them and I'm still living at home because despite having an MA and working full-time, my job doesn't pay me a wage that would allow me to live on my own without going completely broke and ending up in even more crippling debt.

I do like snc, as people I think they're probably really nice guys, but I think they've been in the influencer sphere for too long and no longer have any grasp on the real world. We're in a cost of living crisis right now, so asking anyone to essentially work for free is a bit tone deaf. I know they're not asking for crazy work, but they're still asking someone to give up their free time to put in labor for something they pay snc to be able to access. It's just a bit icky to me. Either don't charge them the monthly subscription if they're going to mod for you, or pay them. It just kind of strikes me as snc think their fans should be grateful to them for allowing them this opportunity to mod for them, that money shouldn't even be a factor. Idk, maybe I'm being a bit too harsh, but in the economy we're currently in, asking people for free labor while you are raking in hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars a year is gross.

Sorry for this long post, I just felt like I wanted to get it all out, haha.

you're totally fine to vent. i agree with a lot of what you're saying. i think it's ridiculous that snc would think mods should be volunteers and not paid employees.

but to defend snc just a small amount….

snc haven't stated what the "perks" will be of being a mod. so it's possible it's negotiable to ask for a free membership as a mod, if not possibly more. on top of that, now that it has been a day and i'm not as upset as i was, i think the reason snc think this volunteer system is okay is bc when they did a livestream on wednesday, they mentioned getting mods and ppl in the comments started asking to be a mod.

not to mention the amount of ppl that have already applied to be mods. i mean the last time i checked the post (and this was yesterday mind you), there was 50+ comments, and only three of them were critical about this whole thing and one of them was me. so a lot of ppl are fine with being mods without being paid.

that, tied with ppl being on twitch and streamers pick randos from their fandom to be mods, i bet snc think this is the best case scenario and way to go about things.

i would like to believe that it's mostly this, tied with a little bit of snc being cheap lol

and look, personally idc how snc spend their money. they made it, they can do what they want with it. even if i think it's outrageous to spend 10k on clothes in a month. reality is, we're just in a different tax bracket than them. i don't relate to them on that level. and i wouldn't want them to act poor, so to speak. so….. it is what it is.

that being said, they should pay for mods. mods should be ppl not in the fandom. bc even tho snc also stated in the post that there is no amount of time you have to be online and moderating, i know there are some fans that if they do it, will be on 24/7 and will neglect their lives just to be in snc's good graces assumingly. and i think that's where an extra layer of problems lie. the lack of money is an issue, the trusting of fans is an issue, the possible future problems is another, and so on.

it would be better to get rid of chat, impo. but they ain't gonna listen to me lol

[wenamedthedogkylo]

100% agree but I'd like to add something for folks to think about. I worked for a captioning company for 2 years, not as a captioner myself but as the scheduler between clients and captioners—client says "we need this show/broadcast/event/livestream/webinar/etc captioned", I put it in the books and then found someone to live caption it. My side was live captions, I should note, which is slightly different than the transcription-style captioning done for stuff that's already been recorded, but we had a dept for that, too.

Even from 2016-2018 when I was with that company, the whole captioning (and related court reporting) industry was deeply worried about the future for a very simple reason: virtually no one was joining it. Young people didn't even know about it as an industry, as a thing you could do for work to make money. So there was no influx of human beings to keep things going long-term. The captioners I worked with were all 40 or older; one lady was in her 60s-pushing-70s, and my boss who occasionally stepped in to caption was in her 60s as well.

So even a few years before the threat of AI started looming over everything, the captioning industry was starting to panic about where they would even find people to do captions someday. And it's not an easy task.

Even for pre-taped stuff like shows and films, the ideal scenario is to have a professional captioner who can use a stenotype machine to type quickly and accurately in shorthand and get those words out as fast as possible.

You have to have great hearing and better listening skills, because you need to be able to quickly parse the speaker's words from ambient noise and/or figure out accents.

Obviously the pressure is higher for live captioners, but pre-taped captioners are still under pressure to do all this as quickly and accurately as possible for a fast turnaround. (Our pre-taped captioners did a lot of archival stuff, writing up captions for old as balls programs with audio recorded on a potato, like good lord.)

You also need time beforehand to prep your shorthand dictionaries, because if you're not familiar with the material that's going to be talked about and someone says a word you don't know, you're gonna have no choice but to slap up something that's probably very wrong and you're going to be judged for not getting it right. But organizers aren't always great at getting your prep to you on time... or at all... so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So captioning is a highly skilled job that takes a lot of training and focus to do, even if you have the luxury of being able to play back the show/film/whatever that you're captioning or have a script to work from. And again, even if you have prep or a script to work from, it could change last minute and the folks in charge might not bother giving it to you at all.

Now combine all these things together: an industry based on an essential accessibility, which is slowly dying because not enough humans are getting trained and joining the workforce to keep it alive according to professional and regulatory standards. It's also not cheap to hire captioning services, because you're paying for skilled labor from a human who can actually understand the nuances of human speech.

So what do you think film companies and such are gonna do? Look for every way imaginable to cut corners, of course. Hire outside of trusted, certified, trained captioning companies. Start up shitty little slopshops of people who can prove a high WPM rate to type up captions for a pittance. And now we have AI on the scene, finally making it possible to remove the human element altogether and have a machine do it for you for even less than a pittance.

Where I'm going with this is: please rage against shitty captions on your shows and movies. Rage about them publicly. Rage about them online, in person, to the FCC, to any government officials who need a reminder that the ADA exists as a part of US law. I'm less familiar with equivalent governing bodies outside the US who might have a say in captioning, but rage at them as well. But most importantly, rage against the studios and companies who are skimping on captioning services.

You're right, it is not a big ask that captions and subtitles be good and understandable. However, it is not exclusively the fault of the captioning companies and their captioners. The captioning industry is actively ageing and dying. People make mistakes as they get older, they can't type as fast or hear as well as they used to, they're not as familiar with new cultural touchstones and language. The good captioners are all aging out and retiring, and virtually no humans are stepping up to replace them, either from not knowing it's a viable career or from knowing that those remaining are being deeply undervalued—that production companies don't want to spend anything at all, so they'll only spend the bare minimum and take whatever crap they pay for as "good enough". So instead, the captioning workforce is being replaced with machines and AI who cannot do half as good a job as a human being could.

So rage against bad captions and subtitles, but direct your rage where it's needed: at the production companies who refuse to pay for a human being to properly interpret for other humans, and would rather a shitty AI do it instead. Rage against the shoddy legislation and regulations that allow them to do this, that allow captioning companies to desperately turn more to AI captions as they lose their workforce and are told their services aren't worth being paid much for.

Put your rage where it will have an effect. Not at the feet of overworked captioners and companies who are unwillingly having to switch to computer-generated garbage just to make sure there are *some* kinds of captions available. Direct it at the studios and production companies who won't pay for human labor, and the regulators who are letting best practices be left to rot.

I, a hearing person who likes subtitles just as a preference, shouldn't have to read a subtitle that's obvious nonsense, go back a couple seconds, and listen again in order to figure out what's going on. An accessibility feature should not be the most half-assed part of a professionally made production. Scripted media has absolutely no excuse for not having subtitles or having subtitles that aren't perfectly verbatim. Professional captioning services should be ashamed of the shoddy work that they put out. Captions should be treated as a part of the production, just like filming, editing, audio balancing, etc - and anything that releases with missing or bad captions should be seen as unfinished

[likes-history-a-normal-amount]

Long time lurker first time caller, taking my first dip into having a side blog— don’t know what to make as my pinned intro but I will try my best!!!

Hello!!! My name is rosy (they/he/she), I am in my 20s, and I love talking history!! Also will be reposting art and pretty/goofy architecture!!!

Might talk about whatever current history deep dive I am in!!!

I am autistic so while I don’t always use tone indicators I do find them very very helpful!!

So feel free to ask for tone clarification!!

I also am trying to get in the habit of doing image descriptions (IDs). I’ve been going back and trying to retroactively add them as well as add them moving forward but if I miss one PLEASE tell me!!!!!

[GIF Description: a big brown bear in a thick grassy field behind a mesh wire barrier/fence. the bear is a sitting on its hind legs and waving at the person who is recording from inside their car. End ID]

Current Book(s): The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Berry as well as the book LAttitues: An Angeleno’s Atlas

(I tend to get sidetracked while reading by looking at its historical context so it may therefore—like it does with anyone else— impact the way I analyze art and history for a bit) (also I am trying to get back into reading and sometimes read a bit slow or randomly switch books 😢 so don’t expect the book to change or genuinely get finished too often lolol)

Last Book: Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History by Vidya Krishnan

Wow!!! Very good but not the most happy books (understandably) Super informative and so many parallels to the current pandemic! Everyone should read this if not to be better familiar with a disease that’ll definitely be talked about more again in the coming future

Last Last Book: Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke

Wowow loved this book!! Such a cool and interesting format, walked into it blind and I think that was a great choice to make!! Another banger recommendation from Shayne Topp from iCarly!!

[GIF Description: an already wet polar bear charging up and the jumping through a patch of ice over a body of water. the bear kind of jumps, the ice breaks, THEN he goes through, a bit cute and clunky and definitely not a skillful and fluid motion. the bear’s butt goes through very last, almost slumping in, much slower than the initial push and dive it does. End ID]

In college I studied business (economics and labor rights were my favorite topics) and theatre (mostly tech and theory, not acting) so perspectives can often come from those lenses!! I most definitely have blind spots as I am a white person in the US and from a pretty progressive city, so criticism and corrections in my msgs are always welcome!! if you know good resources outside of what I post that you think will help me gain a new perspective or understand a topic further I would love to hear it!!

Art reblogged will probably be more focused on older art pieces/artifacts, just to keep it more separate for my brain between the newer art I repost on my main

[GIF Description: forest landscape containing the midsection of a few trees. during the gif a sun bear climbs up one of the trees in a sort of one paw after the other motion; kind of like someone cautiously climbing a rope, but the sun bear seems very determined, yet relaxed and sure of itself. the tree is about large enough for its paws to mostly wrap around but small enough that you would expect it to sway if it was any smaller. when the bear goes up it. The bears mouth is slightly open, seemingly breathing out of that instead of its nose, making it appear a little goofy looking. End ID]

History Interest Stuff::

BIG into Los Angeles history, specifically the history of Griffith Park (I could talk about that for hours!!) would love to chat about community spaces being epicenters for cultural change, especially Griffith and it’s use by all demographics during times when that was atypical (bc of vague deed details please ask more I love telling people abt it). Or it’s darker less talked about involvement in post ww1-cold war.

Love 20th century history, but not in the often questionable ‘I like world war tactics/weapons/military leaders’ way, I’m more into ww1, 2, and Cold War pre and post war causes, implications, and consequences.

Been into learning abt british colonialism in Ireland and its history of religious persecution and its cause on later british colonialism!!

[GIF Description: someone cutting into a loaf of bread on a cutting board. it is brown and shaped like a teddy bear. It has lighter tan/white bread in the areas where the face and rear paws are. It has darker brown/black bread as eyes, nose/mouth, ears, and the paw pads on rear legs. End ID]

Ok I think that is all again I lurk far more than post bc I am shy 🙈🤣😜🐻😱 and bad at talking to people

[ramuneempiremtl]

Slave-kun's Happy Life in Another World: Chapter 2

Turning point.

One day, the trading company was rounded up and arrested.

The reason was 'suspicion of assault, abuse, and murder of slaves'.

Surprisingly, in this world, it was illegal to hurt slaves.

For me, who only knew the inside of the mansion, it was like water to the ear, I was like, "Seriously?"

That's a lie, right?

I didn't feel anything like that at all.

I was beaten up in front of everyone.

Rather than that, they used to take some sort of illegal powder, but is that okay? It's definitely not. Actually, I didn't even know there was a murder charge too. If I had made a mistake, I might have been killed too. Scary.

Anyway, I was rescued as if I was following a spider's thread from hell.

As a result of hearing various things at the slave trader where I was sheltered, I came to understand that the inside of that mansion was abnormal.

Suddenly, the world expanded.

I had felt like that place was the whole world, but apparently I was struggling in such a small world. I felt frustrated.

I thought it was the worst because I started as a slave, but it was just that the mansion was irregular, and originally slaves are treated as valuable human resources.

The slave trader with mean eyes muttered, "It's unbelievable… wasting valuable human resources… that's why I don't like people from that country," and while doing so, he took us in, rewrote the contract, called a healer, and took care of us in various ways.

It seems that the treatment of slaves is determined by something like international law, but there are countries that have not ratified it.

The owner, servants, and guards of the trading company I was in seem to have come from that country. I've hardly ever met the owner, though.

By chance, it was discovered by an inspector who had come to this city, and the owner and guards of the trading company were arrested. I don't know what will happen to them in the future.

I think it will probably be the death penalty. There are many other crimes.

I drew a big blank from the beginning, but anyway, I'm glad I was saved.

My life from now on will be full of hope. I can overcome anything compared to that place.

As for my treatment, it became complicated whether I would go to an orphanage or not, and in the end, I was sold to this slave trader.

The slave trader was reluctant.

First, a simple appraisal revealed that I was 9 years old. I thought I was 6 or 7 years old, but was it because I didn't have enough nutrition?

It seems that child slaves are not very well received, but according to international law, it seems that you can become a slave from the age of 9. There are various conditions, but I was just old enough.

Above all, I wanted it myself. Regardless of my physical age, my mind is that of an adult. I don't want to be some great detective, but I didn't think I could stand living a closed life in an orphanage. I want to work.

Besides, there aren't many environments worse than that mansion.

I don't get beaten up, I can eat, and I can do a reasonable job. That's heaven.

On top of that, international law is on my side.

You could say that the world is on my side.

There is no choice but to continue being a slave.

I would like to enjoy a comfortable and happy slave life.

I wasn't the only one who thought so.

The fellow slaves who survived the end of the century were also full of motivation.

Of course, after experiencing that place, the whole world looks like paradise. It's only natural that you would be motivated.

The slave trader who had taken in the slaves at a dirt-cheap price at the request of the lord was also excited.

Because it's time to make money.

Hmm, I might be left unsold.

Children are weak as a labor force.

Also, I can't speak.

I can't read or write.

… The conditions are too bad.

I'm worried about the future.

I was worried about that, but I was the second best-selling slave among my fellow slaves.

Seriously?

[aliceward]

What Does it Mean to Dream About Adulation

Dreaming of adulation represents your path to amassing material wealth regardless of how ruthless your methods are. Your enemies fear you because of how focused you are in your endeavors and quickly gaining a strong following that hold you in the highest regard.

You dream that you are being praised and admired by a large crowd of people. In this dream, the adulation might symbolize a desire for validation or recognition. You might be seeking approval or validation from others, or feeling a need to prove yourself or your worth. The adulation could symbolize a sense of ego or pride. You might be feeling confident and self-assured, or enjoying the attention and admiration of others.

What Does it Mean to Dream About Adulation

In old dream dictionaries, adulation is what it means. You were probably wondering! I’ll keep the meaning traditional here. If you have got this kind of dream, then congratulations: It represents honor and prosperity ahead in your life additionally as material gain! Offering flattery to somebody else or feeling their attention shows that future challenges won’t be an issue for you because they’re going to become more accessible than ever before.

The author of this website on dreams and spirituality, encompasses a lot to share with you. She spent a few years researching people’s most profound spiritual questions about their sleep patterns. I’m so happy that she is here today, able to tell us all about your dream! If it had been one where somebody else praised another woman, happens frequently - it means there are some feelings of doubt within yourself; something could be holding back from reaching full potentials, like self-doubt or low confidence levels around others for instance.

When you have been seeking affirmation from others, your dreams are likely telling you to step back. If your dream is about being in a high position of honor, pay attention! It means this new power could come at the expense of becoming untrustworthy: bribery or illegal acts are going to be involved somehow. When others give admiration and adulation without receiving anything like a reward, know that things won’t last long if this frequently happens because there is not much substance behind those flattery words over time.

To see someone who flatters others indicates how quickly their reputation can degrade after they don’t deserve any accolades supported merit alone.

When you dream about people praising you, it would be time to seem for a brand new job. The reason? Because praise implies that someone important is proud of your work and needs to supply another position at their company. Oh yes, I hear you say! a number of these older dream books included some exciting things on this subject, too—they do make me smile! to determine a king or queen being flattered in your dream suggests that perhaps there’s a chance waiting out there for something more lucrative than what you’re doing now (like working as a sous chef).

You may be feeling disappointed and unsatisfied together with your life. after you dream of adoration, the tone can reflect how emotionally charged or inspired an individual is at that moment in time. as an example, if it’s happy, this might positively represent creative potential expressed through daily activities like hobbies or acting on projects.

You are dreaming about being adulated implies that you will likely run much praise in waking life. It may also mean a high-up position at your job or place of labor if it’s someone aside from yourself who is offering the adulation dreamt by you! Being offered adulation indicates loss and possible failure/losses in the real world. If instead, because the dreaming protagonist, you’re giving awards to those around (as critical receiving them), then this might foretell future success!

Your boss may not have the spiritual knowledge of a monk, but in dreams, they often represent your feelings about religion. The person offering you praise is typically an emblem for somebody who can help bring our lives into balance and harmony. It also represents discipline and determination that we want to model daily to create fulfilling things happen.

People are also reluctant to supply praise. once you have a dream where famous people are praising you, this will mean that there’s some mixed reaction about the new position shown to you. These dreams could also indicate disillusionment of usurping employment role within which one has been assigned or displays your inner conflicts around romantic relationships.

Did you dream of someone praising you, or admiring others?

Well in ancient dream dictionaries this is known as adulation. Yes, I bet you were wondering what it means! I am going to keep the old-fashioned meaning here. A dream of adulation is a positive dream that symbolizes honor, prosperity and material gain. Adulation means to offer flattery to another person. If you find that someone in your dream is offering you attention then this dream indicates that you will combat future difficulties. That is good news right! My name is Flo and I am here to share some deep spiritual things with you. I have run this website for a decade and spent years researching dreams from a spiritual perspective. I am so happy you are here and I want to tell you everything about your dream of praise or flattery. Now, to see your lover or partner praising another woman is a dream of the doubt. This is the most popular dream people e-mail me regarding praise.

A dream about adulation, namely giving or gaining praise depends on the nature of the dream and what happens during the dream. When you have a dream about adulation it implies that you are likely to be pampered in waking life. This dream also means a possible high position in your career, or in your place of work. If you are the one offering the adulation in the dream then this means that you will lose something you value. To be given a good annual review at work in your dream indicates you will be successful in life! In dreams, a person of standing (such as a boss or a king) can often represent your feelings of religion, yes I know that sounds rather strange. The person offering the praise is a symbol of someone that will know how to bring our lives into harmony. It represents the discipline and determination we need to manifest in daily life in order to get the best we can from life.

[dreamingsushi]

Till the End of the Moon - Episode 8

Last episode ended on a pretty dark note and not much hope for a future where Tantai Jin doesn’t become a demon lord. Hopefully, we’ll get him to become normal and rid of his evil bone, but I doubt it. I’m still thinking that I’m not going to be able to ship him and Susu together, because of the dynamic between them right now. As much as i love the ennemies to lovers trope, he’s threatening her of death right now so yeah... No, this can’t be a healthy match, sorry.

Anyways, he tells how Yingxin went crazy. He just swapped the poisoned food, but she didn’t use a killing poison, so she ended up going crazy. He says that everyone who wants to harm him, he won’t let them be, including her. And then he leaves. And I thought maybe he had a soft spot for her. Well, it might have changed when she went in between him and the fox lady to protect her rather than him.

The king is very mad and punishes Ye Xiwu’s father by sending him to jail a few days. Ye Qingyi must bring Tantai Jin back, he doesn’t care if he’s alive or dead, but he mustn’t reach Jing (Jin?).

The Yueyi people captured monsters for their prince and he can absorb their core. So they knew all along of his capabilities? Or did he ask them for it? He sent Nian Baiyu (if I’m not mistaken, there are way too many characters in this drama), Lan An’s right arm, to feed Ye Wuxi. She pretends being all weak and tricks him into bending down to knock him out. Oh... So she could escape because Lan An wrote a spell on her hands so she could escape the ropes tying her down. I don’t understand this lady’s motives. Also, Tantai Jin gives her a hairpin that is usually given to one’s mother. She seems moved. I think is entrapping her. This guy can’t be genuine.

Lan An didn’t only take with her some soldiers, they also brought a group of young ladies for their prince. She invites them over to perform for him. Susu ended hiding in their quarters and now must perform with them. She has trouble with her instrument, it’s different from the one she usually uses and it shows. Tantai Jin notices her right away. As he wonders how did she get away, Nian Baiyu reports that she escaped. He asks for further instructions, but Tantai Jin says that they should enjoy the performance for now, since she can’t escape anyways. Once the dance is finally over, he asks for Susu to dance, solo. Haha, she thought she was alright. She uses that dance to get all flirty, until she puts her garments around his neck and threatens to choke him to death if they don’t send her down by boat. However he orders his men to cut the ties to the boat and they rescue him before she chokes him. He tells her to follow him to Jin, but she would rather jump in the water. He runs after her, but he’s too late and she dives in the river, leaving only rags of her clothes behind. Lan An orders to either bring her back or her corpse. I guess he didn’t really want her dead. At least not yet. But I don’t know if it’s because he wants her by his side or because he wants to toy with her. Probably the latter, right?

So Tantai Minglang is actually the one who killed his father. And he’s jealous of Tantai Jin. Well, at least he hates him and his mom and blames Tantai Jin’s mom for his own mother’s death. So it seems also he believes that if Tantai Jin’s mom didn’t die in labor, he would have chosen Tantai Jin as Crown Prince. Welp. Say goodbye to any hopes of brother love here. Pretty sure he’s going to have to fight for his life back home too.

Lan An tells Tantai Jin that they found Ye Wuxi, alive. But it’s not her and that lady throws a dart to his eye. It has a second dart inside, so he’s hurt even though I managed to grab it. So the guy in charge of finding Ye Wuxi was actually teaming up with Tantai Minglang. And so did Lan An, since Tantai Minglang has her daughter. Wow. Tantai Minglang is something else. He blames it on Tantai Jin and his mom that he has a burn mark on his face, because he fell in the fire when he was younger and his dad wouldn’t come because Tantai Jin’s mom was napping. Tantai Jin wasn’t even born. That child is irrational. But honestly, it’s totally believable. I’ve been with someone that suffered from bad burns when he was a child and up until the last time I spoke to him, he still blamed his parents for everything he suffered. I guess that kind of injury is actually really painful and gives a lot of post traumatic disorders. Anyways, so now he wants to burn Tantai Jin’s face as pay back. Lan An says that between her daughter and him, she would chose her daughter’s life and that no one would ever chose him. She knows how Yingxin went crazy. She blames him for not treating those who were nice to him differently. Hm... I do agree that he’s going a little too far. However, no one ever showed him real kindness. Yingxin has always been scared of him. He has always been betrayed by the people closest to him. How could he think differently? Why can people betray him and promise to kill him, but he can’t do the same? That’s some double standard.

I knew it. The hairpin was a trap. He uses a spider on top of it to kill Lan An. No wonder there are that many characters since he kills so many people, damn. He tells Tantai Minglang that from now on he’ll never have a peaceful night after slicing his wrist open, wondering which one would kill him faster: the poison or the cut. Then he jumps in the water.

And that’s it for today’s episode. I would say... this drama is getting pretty violent as some moment, it’s a little hard to watch for me to be honest. I’m a very sensitive soul. I hope gore scenes aren’t going to increase so much. I understand it’s not an all cutesy drama, but I like to limit the amount of violence I watch. Simply to avoid nightmares at night.

[nickgerlich]

About Face

The use of biometrics in society may seem by many to be a modern contrivance, yet another instance of technology taking over tasks once relegated to humans. Never mind that it typically raises the red flags of dystopia usually reserved for allusions to Orwell’s 1984.

The truth is, biometrics have been around for many years. While some attribute them to ancient Babylonia (!), fingerprints were tracked in the 1800s. Law enforcement has used this one form for longer than we have all been alive.

Even facial recognition is not new, having been launched in the 1960s, although it was nowhere near as advanced as it is today. If you have ever walked through London, Beijing, or many other global cities, you probably noticed the street cameras located on virtually every pole. Those cameras aren’t just there to watch for traffic or people standing in front of Army tanks. They can identify individual people.

Today, facial recognition is so common that many of us opt-in to let our phone recognize our face so we don’t have to enter a code every time we wish to use it. It’s a convenience at this point, not a threat to our privacy.

But what if facial recognition were used in a retail setting? That a store could track you while you went about selecting items? That this same technology could then charge your account, freeing you to just walk out?

Wait. We’ve had this for five years now, and it’s called the Amazon Go store. Duh. We’ve been talking about this off and on throughout the term. It’s just that now Amazon has been sued for deploying this technology in New York City without posting visible signs to customers that facial recognition technology is being used.



Let me add another big DUH. How could anyone inside an Amazon Go store not know that this is how it works? This is the entire premise. But as it turns out, New York City is the only major city in the US with a law requiring shops to inform customers that biometrics, including facial and fingerprint recognition, are in use.

The result is a class-action lawsuit, no doubt brought by folks drooling at the prospects of “sticking it to the man” on a legal technicality. Yes, it is the law. I get that. But I also understand how easy it would be for Amazon to track prior patronage of these same plaintiffs at their 10 Manhattan stores. I’m betting they are repeat customers who obviously knew how the store worked. Can anyone say frivolous?

To Amazon’s credit, they eventually did place signs, but only a year after the law went into effect. And as much as I snicker at people lobbing silly lawsuits, Amazon should have been on top of this. How difficult would it have been to post signs in 10 stores? Or was their legal department asleep at the wheel?

I see a future with ever more facial recognition in retail establishments. Walmart should use it, maybe not so much to deploy their own version of Amazon Go, but to help curb theft at self-checkout stands. They already use cameras to some extent there, but they are not fully leveraging what could be done.

For example, item recognition could keep people from using the “banana trick,” in which they use Price Look-Up features to select a low-cost item (like bananas) when weighing a much more expensive item (like a steak).

If cameras can recognize faces, surely they can recognize a banana, or lack thereof. Getting video of the whole transaction could also go a long way in prosecuting thieves.

I know. Some will cry that we no longer have any privacy. Others will begrudge the labor-saving technology as one more way to eliminate jobs. Still others will argue that people have been shoplifting, passing bogus bills, and bouncing checks for decades, so just let it go. 



But no one makes anyone shop at an Amazon Go store. You do so of your own volition, and unless you have been living in a cave, you already know kind of how it works. As for Amazon, please just post those same signs in every one of your stores, as if it were some kind of liability waiver the customer automatically assumes by continuing to shop there. There is wisdom in preempting future lawsuits.

I hope the case is tossed out for lack of merit, because proving the plaintiffs suffered harm and thus deserve damages is going to be difficult. And slap Amazon’s wrist for not posting those signs. I’m sure the fine was codified when the law went into effect, so just pay it. Everybody else, wake up and realize this is the 21C and we’re not going back to our grandparents’ stores.


Dr “Face The Music“ Gerlich

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