#it is not going to cost money and time that i barely have to solve

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

if i could go back and change one thing about my choices in the past decade I would force myself to be more committed to finishing learning to drive and getting my driver's license. while legitimate things came up every year that made it challenging to find time, when i was a teenager the excuses were flimsy and i could have put much more effort in to making time. Or even when I was in undergrad. because not having a car and not having a license is fucking up my whole adulthood and trying to schedule a driving school on top of grad school is fucking hard and so many jobs require a license i have a hard deadline to get a license by. And i know my reasons for putting off learning to drive years ago and they are not good enough to justify the inconvenience I have wrought upon my life. Plus if i had done it years ago it would have been taking the test in sprawling NV in my parent's car and it would have been much easier than taking it in an urban city in FL and learning from strangers instead of my dad.

[elsecrytt]

so i had a thought.

what if 236 is actually jujutsu tech propaganda?

mei mei is broadcasting this entire thing, right? what better way to protect gojo from bounty hunters etc., than convince the entire world that he's already dead?

the final battle happened offscreen, with significantly less fanfare. gojo rescued megumi, defeated sukuna. the day was saved.

at a cost.

gojo gave up everything - at least, everything he valued. the six eyes, his abilities as a sorcerer. he assumed that would make him a normal man, and he was right -

what he didn't realize was that it would also make him blind.

so now... you live in a nice apartment complex. a guy moves in next to you.

you can't help but notice he happens to be blind - at least, he's wearing a blindfold, uses a cane, but he's often swearing and stumbling through his porch, over his entryway. he is very, very blind.

you, wondering what the fuck up is with your obviously blind neighbor who seems to have no sense of self-preservation.

he walks into objects all the time, especially hitting his head on things, since he's so tall. forgets his cane when going out. the dude just left his door open the other day, like, WIDE OPEN, who DOES that?

helping gojo learn, not only how to be human, but how to be disabled. how to not be disgusted with being disabled.

gojo learning that being blind isn't the end of his life, nor the end of his happiness - life is still worth living, even without one of his senses.

helping gojo mourn his lost sense while still finding things to enjoy. gojo who learns to cook by taste, by feeling heat or texture, with your help. gojo learning to organize things so he always knows where they are from memory.

bringing gojo audiobook versions of your favorite stories even if he teases you for your taste. he listens to them when he has nothing to do, which is most of the time, now.

he goes out on walks all the time because he doesn't have a job, you learn. while it's nice to not have to work, you can tell he comes from money, his life comes with a gaping hole inside it, one that isn't entirely explained by the blindness.

gojo who's overstimulated all the time because he no longer has infinity as a barrier, but somehow also as touch-starved as ever, alone in a foreign country away from all his students and colleagues.

gojo, who has only ever done Big Things with his life, who has only ever been an Important Person doing world changing things, now, just an ordinary guy.

he barely cares what happens to himself now. it's not that he wants to die, or anything. it's just that he doesn't have a reason to live.

and that wouldn't change overnight. not with cooking lessons or audiobooks or friendly greetings whenever you see him by the door. not with smiles or waves (he can't see them) or a braille rubik's cube you find online (how did he solve it in under a minute??) or karaoke (he has an AMAZING singing voice, and he knows so many songs better than you do?).

it wouldn't change overnight, because nothing worthwhile forms in a day, or two, or even a week or a month.

but gojo's life doesn't have to be amazing a day after he's gone blind. or a week. or a month. it's okay if it's difficult, he learns, it's okay if he hates it, hates himself, hates every choice that brought him here, even if he would never take it back.

it's okay. it gets better. with you there? it's getting better.

[makingqueerhistory]

Queer Book Recommendations

Every once in a while I like sharing some queer book recommendations on here as I read a lot and I get requests to share some of the books I love, so here we go! 

Tell Me I'm Worthless: Three years ago, Alice spent one night in an abandoned house with her friends Ila and Hannah. Since then, things have not been going well. Alice is living a haunted existence, selling videos of herself cleaning for money, going to parties she hates, drinking herself to sleep. She hasn’t spoken to Ila since they went into the House. She hasn’t seen Hannah either.

Our Wives Under The Sea: Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. 

You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty: Feyi Adekola wants to learn how to be alive again.It’s been five years since the accident that killed the love of her life and she’s almost a new person now—an artist with her own studio, and sharing a brownstone apartment with her ride-or-die best friend, Joy, who insists it’s time for Feyi to ease back into the dating scene. Feyi isn’t ready for anything serious, but a steamy encounter at a rooftop party cascades into a whirlwind summer she could have never imagined: a luxury trip to a tropical island, decadent meals in the glamorous home of a celebrity chef, and a major curator who wants to launch her art career.

Silver Under Nightfall: Remy Pendergast is many things: the only son of the Duke of Valenbonne (though his father might wish otherwise), an elite bounty hunter of rogue vampires, and an outcast among his fellow Reapers. His mother was the subject of gossip even before she eloped with a vampire, giving rise to the rumors that Remy is half-vampire himself. Though the kingdom of Aluria barely tolerates him, Remy’s father has been shaping him into a weapon to fight for the kingdom at any cost.

Disintegrate/Dissociate: In her powerful debut collection of poetry, Arielle Twist unravels the complexities of human relationships after death and metamorphosis. In these spare yet powerful poems, she explores, with both rage and tenderness, the parameters of grief, trauma, displacement, and identity. Weaving together a past made murky by uncertainty and a present which exists in multitudes, Arielle Twist poetically navigates through what it means to be an Indigenous trans woman, discovering the possibilities of a hopeful future and a transcendent, beautiful path to regaining softness. 

The Perks of Loving a Wallflower: As a master of disguise, Thomasina Wynchester can be a polite young lady—or a bawdy old man. She’ll do whatever it takes to solve the cases her family takes on. But when Tommy’s beautiful new client turns out to be the highborn lady she’s secretly smitten with, more than her mission is at stake . . . 

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror: Horror movies hold a complicated space in the hearts of the queer community: historically misogynist, and often homo- and transphobic, the genre has also been inadvertently feminist and open to subversive readings. Common tropes—such as the circumspect and resilient “final girl,” body possession, costumed villains, secret identities, and things that lurk in the closet—spark moments of eerie familiarity and affective connection. Still, viewers often remain tasked with reading themselves into beloved films, seeking out characters and set pieces that speak to, mirror, and parallel the unique ways queerness encounters the world. 

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture: Everything you know about sex and asexuality is (probably) wrong. The notion that everyone wants sex–and that we all have to have it–is false. It’s intertwined with our ideas about capitalism, race, gender, and queerness. And it impacts the most marginalized among us. For asexual folks, it means that ace and A-spec identity is often defined by a queerness that’s not queer enough, seen through a lens of perceived lack: lack of pleasure, connection, joy, maturity, and even humanity.

[satureja13]

The Boys are on their own again after Greg left the school beyond the Veil. But they are quite busy. Lots of homework, training and filling Ji Ho in on their previous lessons Defense against the Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures. And, when Jack was fit again, they went over to Ye Olde Magick Shoppe, to buy books and supplies for their studies and upcoming lessons.

Jeb had been here before when he met Valerian for the first time, but for the others it's an exciting new world! They looked at the shop windows and exhibited artefacts in awe. There is a little Axolotl peering from behind the barrels!

And there's another one - for sale! Jack was fascinated: "Ohh - please, can I have it?" Saiwa: "What? No! We barely have enough money to buy all our school stuff! And we'll have to work for months to pay for the tution!" Jack: "Oh, come on, Sai! I just collapsed from all the pain I'm having for months now! And I got struck by lightning! And my Lou betrayed me! And you almost cried when you saw me lieing there after the fights I had to endure for your training. Please, hm? My nectar is selling so well and Kiyoshi is willing to make some extra fine cheese to compensate the costs. Won't you, Kiyoshi?" Since Kiyoshi is absent and drifting again, none of them expected an answer, but Kiyoshi said: "I will." Saiwa threw his hands in the air in surrender: "Fine!"

Jeb and the others already went inside to pick their stuff from Ms Coombes list. The vendor remembered him: "Hey Jeb! Have you and your boyfriend been satisfied with our Spicy Surprise Sac you bought last time? We have some great new additions to top it up! You surely won't miss them!" Jeb blushed: "Uhm no, o.o' just the items from the list, please." Omg! Jeb really hopes the others didn't hear that! Jeb: "You really have a wide selection of ...this stuff - for a school ö.ö'" Vendor: "Thanks! The demand is huge! And we also ship, should you be in need of anything. Delivery within 11 minutes after your order slips in. You might want to subscribe to our monthly box? Your grandmother is receiving hers since she left school!" Yeah, this goes definitely in the category 'Things I don't want to know about my Grandmother'...

Ji Ho and Vlad explore the shop together. With their Bond silenced to protect Ji Ho from overload, it became even more awkward between them (if that's even possible -.-). The Bond usually tells them how the other feels. But without it - and now that Ji Ho has his feelings back - and the knowledge that maybe Ji Ho's grandfather and the Council initiated the relationship between them to get a grip on Vlad's powers, neither Ji Ho nor Vlad knows how to deal with their relationship. Best is to wait until they found out if Ji Ho's grandfather has his evil flippers in this. And they know Ms Coombes well enough to know that this can't be rushed. She has her own way of teaching them and she wants them to solve this by themselves. Teaching a man how to fish... Which makes sense, they can't rely on the help of the others from the Resistance - they are an independent sub unit and they have to act as such - and the others are busy with their own stuff. So here, they are going to learn the basics to protect themselves and others in need - and this takes time. Ji Ho spotted some lilies. A lily had been Vlad's first secret present for Ji Ho and they accompany them through their ups and downs. (The Lily represents beauty, purity, transformation, rebirth, and devotion.) He takes this as a good omen. They've come so far already, they are going to overcome this too. Yeah, Vlad and Ji Ho are busy with their own stuff and - luckily - didn't hear the sales pitch between Jeb and the vendor ö.Ö'

Jeb took them upstairs to pick their school books. Ji Ho can't takes his eyes off of Vlad ^^' Since he got his feelings back, he craves Vlad's proximity and wants to be close to him. Vlad looks so happy. He's a writer and he loves his books :3 And here - beyond the Veil - there are books he finds nowhere else.

Ji Ho: "Omg why are these books so huge! How are we supposed to carry them around at school?" Jeb: "I know, right. The books had been the reason why I bulked up so much when Francine kept me busy after..." Ji Ho put his hand on Jeb's shoulder and squeezed lightly. Jeb doesn't need to keep on talking. Ji Ho knows that he was about to say '...after my breakup with Saiwa.' (Their first breakup.)

Eventually Sai, Jack and Kioyoshi entered the shop. Jeb called Kiyoshi upstairs. And the other vendor greeted Sai: "Have you been satisfied with the wand Kiyoshi gave to you? Did it fit your ... needs? You surely already ran out of the polish. If you buy two, you get one for free!" Omg! Sai almost forgot about that wand ö.Ö' Jeb and him never got to use it since they broke up - again... Well, it wasn't exactly a breakup - more of a break - after Sai's breakdown... Surely Sai won't discuss the wand in front of Jack ö.ö Sai: "I don't know what you're talking about! Let's find the others, Jack." Only, that Jack already knows about the wand... and he's still in shock - not about the wand, he knows how popular and useful they are - it shocked him that Kiyoshi gave it to Saiwa. And so he didn't ask and let Sai shove him away from that booth to find their school stuff... and Sai just hopes Jeb didn't overhear their sales pitch o.o

Kiyoshi, Vlad and the axolotl sat in a quiet corner. And the frog wondered why Kiyoshi looked so sad...

'Stuttering Cold and damp Steal the warm wind, tired friend Times are gone For honest men Sometimes, far too long for snakes In my shoes Walking sleep In my youth, I pray to keep Heaven send Hell away No one sings like you anymore

Black hole sun Won't you come And wash away the rain? Black hole sun Won't you come Won't you come'

Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden

From the Beginning 🔱 Underwater Love 🔱 Latest

Current Chapter: 'Here comes the Sun' from the beginning ▶️ here Last Chapter: 'Who killed Jack?' from the beginning ▶️ here

📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 23-28

[maxdibert]

Hi👋

How are you?

Firstly, wanted to tell you how much I adore your posts. Everyday I log on and a smile comes onto my face when I see you posted. Honestly, I've learnt so much about classism and its effects from you. I knew what it was but not how severely it could actually influence people and have them make choices that could in no way end well. Loved your analysis on poor and abused youth often joining extremist cults for all sort of reasons and such. Truly, I've learnt a lot. ❤

Secondly, I saw someone asking you about Severus' ships and more specifically, Jeverus came up and I wanted to share my opinion on it😁 It truly is an abuser x victim, huh? Even if they adressed the past and James apologized or whatnot, it still doesn't sit right with me. 1. Cause he is still Severus' abuser and 2. Cause it just is not in James' personality to be remorseful. He is not the type of person to feel sorry for what he has done cause he doesn't see any wrong in it. His "apology" would act as a facade. And for love, judging from what he is like, James' "love" could only be a psychotic obssession. With the way he and Sirius are fixated on Severus in canon, it's not too far off, but the "feelings" would just be the intoxication that his power and control over Severus would bring him. Based on how love starved Snape is and how blind he becomes to the faults of those he loves (Lily's attitude that he just cannot see), he would be very susceptible to such treatment. From the way I see it, James is pretty good at reading people and maneuvering them in a way that benefits him(becoming Sirius' "moral compass" to the point Sirius judges everything with James' standards, being "friends" with a werewolf but Remus is just distrustful enough that he knows correcting the marauders' behaviour may result in their "friendship" ending even if Sirius used him as a murder weapon and a toy for a "joke", Peter being his personal cheerleader but betraying him cause he is not as easy to control, putting Lily on a pedestal while promising to stop tormenting her best friend). Therefore, he would know how to "handle" a boy absolutely starved for love and affection even with their past involved. It just looks like a recipe for disaster to me.

Lastly, I keep sharing your ideas and arguments with my friends at the university. I'm an English philologist and all the girls there love Severus so it's very fun. We mock the marauders and the delusional part of their fandom together. Thank you for your service😁

Hope I didn't bother you too much,

Thank you❤

Holissss! Omg, thank you so much for everything you say, you’re going to make me blush and everything!!! Hahaha, no, but seriously, I’m glad I can at least entertain you a bit with my mental ramblings, and that they have some kind of use for people and not just me ranting non-stop lol.

Well, I don’t have a hard time imagining James knowing how to handle a situation and manipulate the people around him. I mean, I don’t think he was a genius in that regard, but being a rich kid who could solve problems with money, it wouldn’t surprise me either. Like, in the end, all his great deeds come down to having money and using it, don’t they? He offers Sirius a place to live (because he’s got cash and his parents are super rich, and obviously they’re not going to have any issue supporting another kid because they’re filthy rich), and he also gives Remus money and supports him when, after Hogwarts, he can’t find a job (again, because he can—it’s easy for him because he’s rich, so of course it costs him nothing).

I mean, to me, those don’t seem like great deeds—it’s the bare minimum you can expect from yourself if you’re a multimillionaire, and it’s not like it takes any effort to help or requires you to give up or sacrifice something. You can do it because you have more than enough. It’s like a billionaire donating millions to help after a natural disaster—like, and so what? If they’re donating that money, it’s because it doesn’t represent a loss to them, not because they genuinely intend to help. Real help happens by changing the foundations of the society you live in and overhauling the system, not by throwing bills in the air. But I’m a Marxist, what do you want me to say—eat the rich.

Anyway, that he’d know how to manipulate a kid with needs? Obviously. And it would be easy for him with all the money he had—like, I don’t doubt it for a second.

I always say you can only really like the Marauders if you’re under 20 years old. Once you’re an adult, if they don’t make you feel some kind of anguish or if you’re not aware that they were kind of shitty people, then you should probably take a good hard look at yourself lol.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not paying my brother for our business' supplies?

(sorry, English isn't my first language)

This happened a couple of months ago. Me (30NB) and my brother (29M) have full time jobs, but I wanted to start a small business selling things made of resin (keychains, ashtrays, those things). It was fun making them and the extra money would help me, but I wanted to start small since my job didn't leave me with much free time. I mentioned this to my brother and he said we should have a business together, so I taught him how to use resin. I told him I was busy with work so I wouldn't be able to work on our business right away, so he went ahead and made social media accounts and keychains so we could take pictures and promote them.

When we talked about buying glitter, molds and chains I told him we should wait until we got back the money I had already spent on supplies, and then we could afford to buy more things since both on us were struggling to make ends meet. He agreed to this and I thought it was the end to it, that we would just use what we already had. Everytime he brought up buying molds he saw on TikTok I reminded him of this, and the fact that none of us could afford a big purchase (our jobs don't pay that much and we both have kids).

The next time I went to his house he was so proud to show me the amount of glitter and molds he had bought, when I asked how much he spent on them it was a third of my salary. It was obvious he spent so much money on them because he expected me to cover half of the costs, even though I told him before I couldn't. Thing is I went to his house that day to tell him I didn't want to work on this anymore, he was clearly more excited than I was and I barely got to make a single thing anyways, plus we hadn't sold anything yet so I thought it'd be better to leave our partnership early, you know, before we spent a lot of money we didn't have. He said I should still pay for half of the supplies, I refused since I told him before I didn't have the money and I wasn't gonna use them anyways.

A week later he tried to get our parents and older brother involved, though they said we should solve this between us. You know, like adults. We haven't talked ever since and he refuses to go to our family reunions if he knows I'm going. I thought I was in the right but the more time passes I'm not so sure.

What are these acronyms?

[warsofasoiaf]

Harris' economic "plan" is populist, anti-capitalist, and anti-investor. "Price gouging" is just whining about corporate profits and keeping new housing from going to investors is openly Socialist. I can't and won't support the dissolution of capitalism and trust you won't either.

That's clearly bait and falling into the all-too-common progressive false dichotomy of "you either support my policies or you're just a tool of big business and thus safe to disregard," a fallacy that largely dominates progressive thinking and sadly inhibits proper debate. But that being said, Harris's recent proposed economic plans are actually quite stupid from an economics perspective. Sadly, Trump and Harris are both racing to see who can create the stupidest economic policy possible this electoral cycle: Trump seemingly trying to turbocharge inflation with removing the Fed's independence to increase market instability and slapping tariffs on everything to pander to the nativists versus Harris seemingly trying to create price controls, inevitably resulting in shortages, out of a desire to pander to progressives. Either way, it's crafting bad policy largely to suit their particular vibes.

The "price gouging" bill is questionably constitutional at the federal level. insofar as she appears to be pushing for executive power to enforce the edict via the FTC. This would be a vast expansion of the FTC's purview - which should alarm anyone actually slightly concerned by the idea of the vast expansion of presidential authority.

But even if you don't, price controls are a terrible idea. Historically speaking, there aren't any examples in the US where they work out in a positive fashion save one - the price control system during the Second World War, where wartime rationing completely altered aggregate consumer demand to the point where it's an ineffective analogue (and the uniting purpose of defeating the Axis powers to enforce compliance and reduce control evasion simply doesn't exist today). Neither do we see much success globally, they typically end up presiding over a high degree of shortages and don't have much of an effect on actual prices, economists are very much in lock-step on this particular point. But price controls do have one benefit: they're popular, of course, because it reduces any complexities to a simple binary state. Why are groceries expensive? Clearly it's because the EVIL grocery store is jacking up prices. That's what "greedflation" keeps telling us, despite it being provably wrong. The fact that profit margins in grocery stores are razor thin and barely moved during the pandemic and the periods of inflation is irrelevant. After all, it doesn't suit the vibes.

This is particularly hilarious because if you look at the data, we've actually largely conquered inflation from a food prices perspective. Here's the inflation index for food prices - they've been hovering at about zero percent for about 32 months now. And it gets even worse when you look at wages versus food prices - it's been climbing steadily upwards. There was a bad hit during the time of inflation back in 2021 and 2022, but has been on an upward trend ever since 2023. So this is a policy trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist in the way Harris has defined it and so won't actually effect a negative push on prices, but that simple fact is a mere technicality - it isn't congruent with the vibes.

But people still believe that grocery prices are too high because of price jumps in those years, which is primarily due to supply shocks and the unprecedented printing of new money under both the Trump and Biden administrations. There are plenty of policies we could propose or enact to address that. We could stop drastically expanding the money supply (which we have, sort of) or we could break out the policy toolkit to reduce prices. We could use industrial and tax policy to increase supplies, we could deregulate to cut the cost of production, we could reduce tariffs (or actually fix our dysfunctional ports) to increase competitive pressure. We could increase oil production to reduce the cost of fuel (and thus shipping) or work on developing ways to reduce the cost of energy by building more solar or nuclear (which is roundabout and minimally effective but also has a knock-on effect across the board). But that's boring! That doesn't make me out to be the scrappy underdog under assault from all sides by nefarious actors! I don't want logical answers derived from the data with coherent policy goals to address those issues designed by people who know what they're doing, I want to stick it to the people who I know are making me suffer! I want my pre-existing biases to be repeated back to me so that I can reassure myself of my inherent virtue. In short, I want vibes!

The number of houses that goes to investors is in the single-percentile range, which drops dramatically when you remove the small investor category (individual investors owning <=5 homes including their own residence - which also includes older and/or wealthier folks who may own a primary home and a vacation home and are not technically in the "housing investor class" per say), where now it's not even a single percentage point. Whereas building more houses and enacting deregulation on zoning to allow mixed-use zoning, single-staircase apartments, and other YIMBY pro-housing policies have such a dramatically more positive effect on homeowners (and reduces the price which makes housing a *less* attractive investment - which would actually reduce large-scale investor purchases of homes if someone actually cared about doing that). But no, let's set up a costly apparatus for minimal effect. It's not very effective, but at least there's a clear evil bad guy - some rich investor that the honest man can give the what-for! So in essence, vibes.

But hey, who cares how effective policy is? After all, who needs data when you have V I B E S.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[lesvegas]

My Beginner/Newbie Guide to Neopets

Never used the site before in your life but wanna check it out? Just logged into your old account and wanna get back into it? Saw my promo and wanna take advantage of it? Wanna make loads of neopoints? As someone with about 20mil in the bank I can't guarantee following my advice will make you MEGA rich but I can get you pretty close with pretty minimal effort.

TL;DR do your dailies and invest in stocks (it's way easier than it sounds, idk shit about real life stocks)

(And before I hear any "isnt neopets run by scientologists" the answer is no, it never was, neopets.com once fell into a company that was run by a scientologist for about a year back in the early 2000s)

Guide below the cut!

THE MOST IMPORTANT ADVICE TO TAKE FROM THIS GUIDE:

Spin Trudy's Surprise wheel every day (link here)

Invest in stocks (guide here)

Do whatever dailies you want (link here)

Use Jellyneo's item database to search/price anything (link here)

This guide assumes you've already made an account, a pet, and have about 2000np (given to every new account) to spend, and that you're currently logged in (you'll need to be for most of these links).

Confused by the site layout? No idea where to go? No worries, I'll link just about everything you need here.

DISCLAIMER: There's a lot of stuff I DON'T do, but if there's something that interests you, go ahead and try it!! I just do the bare minimum when it comes to dailies lol

~~Dailies~~

If you clicked on this link, you're probably already overwhelmed by the sheer number of dailies your expected to do. The good news is, I don't do at least half of these. Most of these aren't worth your time or points and I only really do easy 1-click dailies that net me free shit. I'll show you exactly which ones those are.

Let's start with the Classics-

I've already gone ahead and erased the ones a new account will never have to worry about.

These are the priority freebie dailies you should be doing each day when you can. Lemme explain what each one does:

Soup Kitchen: Until you have 3000np, you can feed your pets here for free!

Free Jelly: One free jelly (worth 2 meals) each day

Giant Omelette: One free omelette (worth 3 meals) each day

Interest @ Bank: You can collect interest on your bank account each day (you need a bank account, I'll explain later)

Money Tree: Free stuff people throw away, guide further down

Trudy's Surprise: Free neopoints daily

Monthly Freebies: Once a month, not daily, free 2000np and food

Obsidian Quarry: One free piece of obsidian daily. I just sell them for 1np a piece to get people coming to my shop

Apple Bobbing: Free item daily (small chance to lose an item or nps)

Anchor Management: Free item daily

Mysterious Negg Cave: Solve a puzzle for a free item (solver here)

Grave Danger: Petpet required. Send it down into the catacombs daily to find items.

These are all the easiest of the dailies. Next up we have

The Wheels-

Yes, just these wheels, because none of the scratchcards are worth trying to me. I've never won anything good from them. These wheels are all relatively low-cost, but if you only wanted to pick ONE, do the Wheel of Mediocrity. I've found it has the highest return for the cost.

Also, the Wheel of Monotony can go for literal hours. I tend to let it go in a muted tab and do other stuff in the meantime. Anyway, next is

Win NPs, Items, Stats-

I've erased anything that takes too much time, doesn't work cause flash, can only be accessed at certain times, or isn't newbie accessible. I'll elaborate on the rest;

Tombola: Draw a ticket and win a prize (free)

Deserted Tomb: Go into a tomb and potentially find treasure (may hurt your neopet)

Fruit Machine: One free spin per day for fruit

Coltzan's Shrine: One of the best dailies. Potentially increases stats, gives NP or items

Kreludor Meteor: Free items when it works

TDMBGPOP: Free items (usually plushies) or NPs

Underwater Fishing: Free fish or fishing-related items

Forgotten Shore: Requires treasure map (guide here)

Healing Springs: Heals your pets or gives you an item. Can be done every 30mins. I recommend coming here last to heal pets after some dangerous dailies. You can also come here every 30mins if your pet is sick until they're cured.

These are also good, easy freebies I recommend doing daily. Personally I also use the Battledome but that's because I've actually trained one of my pets to fight. Now for the

Pay NPs and Win-

No, really, that's it.

Okay, I also personally do Cheeseroller, and I used to do more carnival games when they worked, but these are the only ones you really need to worry about in this section.

Faerie Caverns, Test Your Strength, and Pick Your Own are simple games where you can win NPs and items.

Garage Sale is a shop where most items are sold below market value. Great for reselling.

Bargain stocks are cheaper than regular stocks and are only for poor/new users.

And what about

Other Neopets Stuff To Do-

A lot less intimidating now, huh?

Most things in this section are just... things to do. Things that aren't all that profitable. These four are the only ones you should bother with if your priority is getting NPs.

Symol Hole requires a PetPet. You can win items, but this is rare.

Stock Portfolio... I'll get into that soon. But this is important.

Trading Post is where you go to offload tons of junk, get tons of junk, buy/sell anything worth more than 999999np, and find good deals

Employment Agency is where you take jobs that involve finding and buying a certain number of a particular item in a certain timeframe. I only recommend this if you've become familiar with Jellyneo's item data base and the Shop Wizard.

Now what about the next sections, Quests, Competitions, and Games?

Don't worry about 'em.

When you're financially better off, you can try doing some daily Faerie quests if you want, but I don't recommend getting into them right away. Contests are cool and all, but not my thing personally, so I can't tell you much about them. As for games... most of them are still broken.

But the game Fashion Fever is an easy free 900np a day. Just wait 10 seconds before finishing the game, then send score.

Wait, how does the Stock Market work?

Great question!

The stock market is the easiest way to rack up neopoints. I can't comment on bargain stocks because I haven't done them, but I can tell you all about the regular stock market.

(You could also uh, watch this 5 minute guide here, which is how I originally learned how the stock market works)

Conceptually, you buy stocks while they're cheap, then wait until their value goes up and sell them at a high price. You can easily turn 15000np into 45000np by simply waiting.

Also, I really recommend you have 15000np before buying any stocks. Do other dailies until you have that much at least.

Your stock portfolio is here. Read the scrolling stocks at the top of the page:

Until you find a stock valued at 15np (circled above). Once you have the stock name (this one is SWNC), go to 'Buy' (right under the scrolling stocks in blue),

And buy them! Buy 1000 at a time.

15np is the LOWEST a stock can go before it's unbuyable, and you can only buy a total of 1000np per day.

Now, we just have to wait for the value to go up.

I only sell stocks once the value is +300%. SWNC is currently at 0.00% because it's worth the value I originally bought it at (15np).

Check your portfolio daily, buy new stocks when you can, sell when they're high, and sooner or later you'll be raking in hundreds of thousands of neopoints per sale!

Does Trudy's Surprise really guarantee thousands of free NPs?

Yes. No, seriously, yes.

The first time you spin the wheel, you'll probably only get about 1000np. Come back the next day, spin it again, maybe you'll get 2000np. By the end of the first week, probably 6000np.

And on day 25? 100000np. Guaranteed. Then the cycle resets to day 1, and it's back to about 1000np.

With Trudy's Surprise, you can very easily obtain around 200000np a month.

BUT. You need to spin the wheel once EVERY DAY or the counter resets and you're back to day 1 again.

There are days where I really don't feel like doing my dailies at all, but I always try to make sure I get this one in. It's absolutely worth logging it.

You mentioned a Bank Account?

If you haven't opened a bank account (for neopoints, not actual money), do so now!!

A bank will hold onto your neopoints for you so you don't lose them during random events, and you can collect interest every day. There's a cost to open and upgrade an account, but no fees besides that. The more nps in your account, the more interest you can collect! I collect about 6000np a day just from my nps sitting in my account.

Okay, I did my dailies and now I have all this stuff sitting in my inventory. Now what?

Well, you have a few options:

Use them. Food feeds your pet, books educate them, toys entertain them... before doing anything else with some items, consider if you want to use them on your pet.

Donate them. If you're completely at a loss or don't want to bother selling them, you can always donate or discard them to free up space.

Store them in your Safety Deposit Box. Got items that you think you'll use later that are currently taking up space? Store them in your SDB or Closet for now.

Trade them. Go to the trading post, browse new trades, and use these items as fodder for getting good deals. Alternatively, put them up for trade and see what people offer.

Sell them. If you haven't opened a shop yet, I highly recommend you do so. You can put items in the shop, but they won't be displayed until you've set a price. Don't know what to charge? Search the item in the Jellyneo item database to find out how much it's worth!

Why even do any of this?

Honestly, that's up to you to decide.

Neopets is a weird site. People came for the pets, but the only ones that stayed have remained for the economy. You either find it fun or you don't, and I know it's harder when you're a beginner.

What really got me into neopets again was finding a goal. If you want to get rich, that's the one thing you need most: a goal. It could be a static number, a dream pet, a dream gallery, w/e. My first main goal was a gold paintbrush for a pet I don't even have anymore, and my current goal is 25mil in my account. After that, I think my next goal will be to access the lab ray.

If you're just starting out and don't know what you want your goal to be, I'd suggest finding that old dream pet or picking a new one here: This site shows every pet in every colour. Find one that speaks to you, find out how much the paintbrush or morphing potion or whatever method costs, and work for that.

I'm still confused/have questions.

Please feel free to DM me!! I love neopets and am trying to get more people (especially my friends) into it. I don't know everything but the least I can do is point you to a guide that can help. Don't hesitate to reach out to me!

You can also neomail me if you want <3

[valiant-if]

tldr; I wanted to have something to show for the work I've been doing roughly by the end of April, but my timeline is going to be delayed. I'll still do my best to get some work done, but things are hard right now. You've stuck with me this long, so I hope you continue to stick with me. Hope everyone is doing well and hanging in there!

I'm not trying to go too much into my personal life, but the long version—with a bit of venting—is that I'm having a lot of car trouble, and that has unfortunately been a domino effect for one of the worst mental episodes I've had in maybe 7 years. I don't make a lot of money, I can barely afford the cost of a rental let alone the repairs for my car, which I need to do my job, and quite frankly the people in my life that I rely on for support are not being very supportive of the situation. There's a lot of "your decision to procrastinate on important issues is the reason you are in this position" and a lot of indirect "you made your bed, now sleep in it" going around.

Executive dysfunction is really an alien concept to a lot of people, I guess. As if I've just been sitting around thinking, "Someone else will deal with the fallout of this issue when it blows up in my face." Instead of, you know, having daily anxiety attacks about it for the last 6 months but unsure how to solve the problem because my brain refuses to function on certain things.

The hard truth is that when you are neurodivergent, neurotypical people cannot seem to understand the mental hurdles you have to take just to make it through basic day-to-day life. A lot of people describe mental health struggles as drowning, but I think it feels a lot more like someone deliberately holding you under water and not letting you up. "Normal" society is not really designed for people like us to function, and, at least in the USA, the economic situation of people living below the poverty line (of which I am one) is designed to keep you below the poverty line. These problems combined are creating one hell of a storm for me right now, and even existing is difficult.

So I'm going to try to keep writing when I can, but unfortunately I've lost a lot of the momentum that I've had over the last few weeks. I don't know if my original timeline of getting the first half of Chapter 2 done by the end of April is possible in my current state. I may just update with whatever I have at that time anyway so at least you'll have something.

That's the long of it. Thanks for hearing me out and listening to my bitching. As always, I hope everyone is doing well and hanging in there.

[vampirepuppygirl]

Here's some shit

This factory feels like it's falling apart a lot, holes in the roof that leak every time it rains, random pot holes in the concrete floor, tape machines and veriply machines that barely work and are zip tied and duct taped together, huge plastic tubs that are broken in various different ways and held together literally with tape and cardboard

But instead of spending any money at all on preventative maintenance or replacing any of the machines that we actually use on a daily basis so that they actually run better and smoother and don't have to be patched up with fucking tape and glue like once a week

They decided to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new robot system to replace two workers per shift on a single line

It barely works, fucks up constantly, and it's probably going to be broken in like 5 years at most because no one ever does any fucking preventive maintenance on any of the machines in this goddamn factory and these robots are a lot more delicate than the big arms that work on the presses that don't need a whole lot of maintenance (and yet still need regular maintenance because preventative maintenance is a foreign fucking concept to these people)

That money could have been used to upgrade literally any of the constantly failing machines in this factory, or to replace literally any of the falling apart tubs and carts and everything else

Fucking shelves sometimes even

Or repair the goddamn roof so it doesn't leak directly onto hardware that we use and assemble and ship out as finished product

Or maybe I don't know upgrade the AC so that people aren't burning in a giant oven during the summer time

But no. They wanted shiny new robots. That barely work. That constantly need like two or three people hovering over them at all times because they fuck up like once an hour at least.

This isn't growth. This isn't progress. It's just an attempt to cut out 6 employees total over 3 shifts with something that costs more than like two or three years wages for all of them combined.

That doesn't really solve anything because they had to hire new people specifically to take care of the robots that get paid more because they are robotics technicians

So like

They aren't saving money, they're just making everyone's lives worse because it looked good on paper like 2 years ago

What kind of hell would I be living in if this factory wasn't unionized?

How fucking incompetent was the management before, that this is how they're acting with a union?

[crazeyyovershares]

I have never been as terrified in my life as I am right now.

I. Need. Help.

Losing my home suddenly. Have no money to get into an apartment. Have no car to get to work. Have no where to leave my dog when I'm at work. I cannot and will not give him up. I'll give me up first.

I'm so scared I feel physically ill. My head is pounding, I can't stop crying.

I have less than a week.

Money would solve absolutely everything right now.

Fuck money.

Fuck. Money.

Fuck it.

....

...

..

.

If one more person tells me "you'll figure it out" I'm going to cold-cock them so fast their neck will snap.

A man who is supposed to be my family, who promised us a home and security for life broke his word to us. He's completely willing to let us live in a car or a tent in tent city.

His only child and their family just tossed aside like actual garbage.

Why? Because he refused to walk away form the house with no money. Refused to let us take over the mortgage and continue to live in the home that's been our family home since 1996 and be able to keep 2 other members of our side of the family from being homeless at the same time.

Refused.

Unless I buy him out he won't let us stay.

I dont have 30k to give him. That's a years wages for me and I JUST started a new job 2 days ago after a year of unemployment after another man's greed cost me my job.

He sold the company I worked for and the new owner cut all remote workers overnight.

I was there for 5 years.

The new owner didn't even bother to tell me I was #fired until the first day he was in charge despite having talked to absolutely all other employees before the sale went thru.

Applied to jobs for over a year. Finally found something and suddenly find myself losing my home in the same week.

We've been a one income house struggling to make ends meat for over a year. We have nothing saved, it wasn't possible.

2 steps forward one step back i guess.

I'm tired.

I'm #terrified.

No one gives a shit.

I have no one to get help from.

On top of it all I'm #AuDHD, have #PTSD and #PMDD. My meds are barely keeping me together.

.

.

.

What the point?

Anyways here's my dog and my bearded dragon. Wendigo and Franky.

[zaunseye]

[@jynxd]

Sacrifice. It was at the heart of scientific discovery. Sacrificing time, money, family, love, and legacy were all mere steps on the path to progress. To set aside everything else in life for the single-minded pursuit of science was not only freeing, but necessary. Years of his life had been dedicated to this cause, possibly decades, at this point. There was no turning back, and the thought of it had never crossed his mind. No, this is what he was meant to be doing, even if the sacrifices made came at the cost of his own blood.

His blood was needed for the bonding process to be that much closer to completion. Once it had properly fixed itself to the creation's system, there would be great difficulty for it to attack him wildly. On top of that, the creation craved blood to survive as part of its physiology. He was solving two problems simultaneously. Plainly efficient, if he were to pay himself the compliment.

The machine hooked into his arm continued its pumping, drawing blood from three veins in his flesh in a pulsing rhythm. Pints had been drawn out of his body, thus far. He had managed to maintain focus by watching the seconds tick past on his pocket watch. Though the sight of his daughter's portrait in the lid got him distracted more than once. His thumb idly rounded the edges of the painting, counting the seconds as they passed.

He assumed he had been only semi-conscious for a moment, as he lifted his head head up in a daze. It seemed as though no safe amount of blood was going to be enough, in truth. He was feeling woozy, nauseous, and weak. Others may have stopped for fear of losing too much. He would push further, for the hopes of discovery were pecking away at his thoughts. Fatigue tugged his consciousness with it, making his head droop down again. He fought it, jerking back up.

He looked up to his creation, Warwick, as he'd been calling him, suspended from chains and tubes. A large chemical chamber was affixed to its back, right between its shoulder blades. It took in slow, growling breaths, barely moving. It was alive, but locked in slumber. He would have to go further. He let the pumping continue, despite the cold chill now starting to overtake his body. He focused again on the time, closing the lid of his pocket watch and gripping it in his palm to feel the tick of the gears against his skin.

Eventually, it proved to be too much for his body to handle, and a cold wash took his senses into darkness. He fell limp against the chair. The pocket watch tumbled out of his hand and popped open to show the young girl's face, rolling to a stop in front of Warwick's suspended mass.

When he awoke, the pump had automatically stopped, sensing the drop of his heart rhythm through the delicate machinery he'd crafted. His eyes raised to behold his creation, but an icy chill seized him when he saw empty space. He struggled to his feet, pulling the pump off of his arm with a bloody ooze. He walked up to the vacant chains and ran his long fingers along the iron links. That... was not good.

It was another one of those nights within the City of Iron and Glass. Gloom sank over the buildings and people huddled in their homes for warmth and clearer air. He, on the other hand, had a visit to make.

He would always make the trip to that old statue in secret, not wanting the eyes of his followers to set upon his more personal moments. Better to have them see him strong and stern as opposed to any shade of emotion he may shed in front of his former lover. He took steady steps up to the foot of the statue, pulling his flash from his jacket pocket. "Hello, Vander," he announced his presence, unscrewing the cap of the flask for a quick swig. "Here I am, again."

He turned and took a seat on the edge of the statue's wide pedestal, resting his arms over his knees. "The city takes it's toll on you, doesn't it? Day after day, a new struggle is laid down at your feet, and you're the only one expected to solve it." He huffed, shoulders slumping by a few degrees. "Oh, it used to be so simple. Back then, it was the two of us, tackling the problem head-on with reckless abandon. Ready to thwart Topside's next attempt at subjugation."

He looked wearily down at the flask. "But then you changed. Everything changed, and I was alone." He downed a healthy drink more of his whiskey. "It was liberating, yet suffocating, to bear that weight. There's this...freedom to lead the people - to guide them the way that I had always wanted to, and yet..." He let out a sigh and shook his head. "There will always be lingering remnants of your people, your ideals, of you. I'll never truly escape you and your memory, will I?"

[andromedasummer]

OKAY The Whispering Skull 3/3 liveblog LET'S GO

- oh wow they dont even plan the library heist. they just do it. its barely even a heist they walk in and the thing isnt locked. fittes agency aint the brightest huh

- quill kipps doing the most conspicuous trailing of the team. brother you are so pathetic. ily. you have no sense for subterfuge.

- NIGHT CAB DRIVER NEW FAV CHARACTER lockwood rly went "50 pounds to misdirect the cab behind" and after making sure they arent criminals the driver is like "i can brake check him. i can double back and crash into him. if you want. for that kind of money" quill kipps you were so close to a life changing traffic accident on account of cabbies being underpaid

- Lockwood STOP yelling at George it make me sad :( Lucy is right he is feeling left out

- The amount of times these children use bombs to solve problems. Mirror heist? Bomb flare distraction. People pointing guns at you? Bomb flare free ghost distraction. We get told these things cost a fortune and yet they use them so often.

- The Dril tweet about budgeting and candles. That but its Lockwood and mag flares

- Sir Rupert is very well written and very cool. I also hate him with my life. Nasty, nasty man.

- Oh Lucy and Lockwood just. They just throw themselves off a! eight story building into the Thames. They're going to get so unwell from this. There's no way they didn't swallow a little bit of water when they broke the surface. Jesus Christ that's how you get cholera

- Oh George isnt home yet. Oh hes absolutely going to go find Joplin. Oh god.

- OH NO HE HAS

- Bringing the skull to Kensel Green. Good. More of the skull on adventures it always rules

- YEAHHH KIPPS TEAM. KAT, NED AND BOBBY WORKING WITH LOCKWOOD. FUCK YES.

- The Skull calling out to Bickerstaff and getting no response is kinda sad but also. Something very vindicating that this servant boy who was manipulated into doing awful things becoming a powerful ghost after his death, and the man obsessed with death who killed so many and manipulated the boy into doing terrible things becoming a shadow of himself in death, his worst qualities and obsessions compacted into this terrifying but also kind of... pathetic thing.

- Kipps stepping in and trying to protect George from Joplin. Sarcastic banter with Lucy. Shouting at Joplin to leave George and her alone. You ARE capable of being a good human being I'm so proud

- God, Lucy thinking George was dead those few minutes is heartbreaking. These kids need therapy for the shit they go through.

- Lucy admitting she can talk to type threes and she has one and Joplin not believing her. I wonder if Kipps remembers her saying this later on or thinks it was just a desperate last attempt at stopping Joplin from killing them.

- George standing up suddenly when they thought he was dead and everyone freaking the FUCK out only for him to tackle Joplin and attack. KING. BEST CHARACTER.

- Lucy driving back the ghost with a iron chain and nothing else shes so fucking cool. Ignore that she accidentally took out a chunk of Kipps' hair. It was kind of funny.

- BLATANTLY TALKING TO SKULL IN FRONT OF JOPLIN AND KIPPS. KIPPS IF YOU DONT REMEMBER THIS OR BRING THIS UP IM GONNA LOSE IT.

- Skull reverse psychology-ing Lucy into smashing the mirror. You DO like her.

- Lockwood rolling the dice with whether or not Joplin's gun works. Therapy. NOW.

- Quill telling Lucy about what its like losing your talents and giving into fear... God. I want to hug him.

- Lockwood asking to split the job commission 30/70 because of Quills teams' help and letting go of the bet because of his respect for the team after what they went through.... Hes A Good Lad. I want them all to be friends

- George, Lockwood and Lucy apologizing to one another and talking about their conflict. I'm so proud. Communication win.

- YES THE REVEAL OF GEORGES GLASSES HAVING NO LENSES WHEN HE LOOKED IN THE MIRROR one of my fav moments in the series so clever and so funny

- I'm glad Lockwood leaves the decision about keeping the Skull to Lucy. Hes right, she is the one most affected by it, and I'm glad his enthusiasm for the skull making them fame and fortune that he had at the start of this book has been curbed by his concern and care for her

- YES THEYRE TALKING ABOUT THE LYRE SYMBOL ON THE BOX AND THE GOGGLES. THE ORPHEUS SOCIETY

- OOOOOH LOCKWOODS SHOWING THEM THE ROOM LOCKWOODS SHOWING THEM JESSICA'S ROOM

- CLIFFHANGER ENDING I REMEMBER THIS

-----

okay so i have a newfound appreciation for this book. I don't know what it is, or why, but I enjoyed going back through it a lot this time and I'm really glad i decided to give it another chance. I really enjoyed all of the character development and all the stuff with Quills team and I am SO excited to start the next book.

Because!!! Next up is The Hollow Boy!!!! My favourite book!!!!, Holly's debut!!! I AM SO EXCITED!!!

[persephinae]

When you have low grade depression you don't realize you're depressed

"Other people have it worse." "I laugh all the time! I don't fixate on suicide at all!"

But you hardly ever leave the house, and you're tired all the time. You don't have energy to go do things, just doing the bare minimum of going to work, doing your laundry, cleaning, and getting groceries is about all you can manage because those are necessary and that's all you have energy for.

So you do the bare minimum for years and you're so tired. All. The. Fucking. Time. No matter how much or how little sleep you get, it's never enough. Maybe once in a blue moon you actually feel rested and refreshed, and you wonder "is this what normal people feel all the time??? ALL THE TIME??? THEY CAN JUST DO WHATEVER THE FUCK THEY WANT???"

And it's never just "teehee! I'm so sleepy! 🤭" it's a bone weary tiredness that never goes away. If you could just go into a coma for 500 years, MAYBE you'd finally feel rested an refreshed. Maybe.

Sometimes you're so tired in your soul that you can barely focus at work even though you got 8 hours of sleep.

But you go back to being tired and you're in survival mode. Other people have it worse. So you just deal and carry it. You're not depressed. You know something is wrong but you can't be depressed because you laugh a lot.

But you're so tired and you never do anything or leave the house. It's much too much effort, and you give yourself all sorts of reasons why you're justified in not doing anything. "It's been a hard week, I don't have the energy. It costs money, so I'm saving money just staying home (but you buy little treats online)."

Everything in the world is so fucked up, your friends are hurting too, other people have it worse. So you carry it and you carry it. You don't recognize the weight of what you're carrying because you've been this way for years. Fish don't have a word for water. You just carry it all. You're just trying to survive and get through the day, week, month, year.

But you're tired. And you're so fucking tired of being tired. And as a woman (speaking from my experience) you're IGNORED by doctors anyway. You go to see the many doctors over the years, crying, "there's something wrong (there's many things wrong)." But they shrug, pat you on the hand, and tell you, "It's just you. Try losing weight. $200 please."

But you can't lose weight. You have other health problems (that doctors don't give a shit about) and you're fucking TIRED. You're beating a dead parrot on the counter, telling them this parrot is dead/I'm TIRED, I don't have ENERGY to exercise. But they still shrug and tell you to lose weight. All your problems will 🌈⚡️🌟💫 ~ MAGICLY ~ 💫🌟⚡️🌈 be solved if you just fucking lost weight you fat cow! 😉 and you have all of society TELLING you that all of your problems will be solved if you lost weight. You're lazy!!! And even when you DO lose weight (because you managed to escape the source of what initially made you depressed) it's STILL not enough and they'll tell you to go lose more. You're not skinny enough.

But you are so tired. You dread each morning before work and go through the 5 stages of grief as you wake, because you hate your job and your life, but you're stuck in capitalistic hell where you have to work at jobs you hate. And if you live in america you can never afford any of your dreams because fuck you for being poor. You're fucking tired. And when you're off work, and if it was a really shitty day, you may take a nap because you're so fucking tired.

And maybe you have new, huge stressors in your life, maybe you started a new job, maybe there's a family situation, and it just piles on to your current stress. You are like a dung beetle, pushing that ball of stress as you scuttle across the desert of your life. And you carry it. Other people have it worse. You're blessed really. So what if you never go out and do anything.

So now that I've been on medication for SAD/depression I can tell you that that ever-present feeling of being bone weary fucking tired is not normal and it could be a sign of depression that you're unaware of.

The first day of being on this medication felt like a weighted blanket on my brain, ordering me, "You need to chill out now." But after the first day or 2 the side effects go away.

And you may think to yourself, "But I don't feel cured? I'm not out here jumping for joy." But you finally may have energy to tidy up your room, that you've been putting off for months because "I'll get to it later" (and later never comes). You may find yourself dusting and doing the little cleaning that you put off. Maybe you finally tackle that pile of junk mail you've been meaning to shred. You may still feel tired or sleepy but you don't feel bone crushingly tired to your soul.

So all this to say, if you've ever felt like I've felt maybe talk to your doctor about steps you can take to feel better. Decide to yourself "I'm tired of feeling tired. I want to try to get my shit together (again)."

Success may not be overnight, and you may stumble trying to find a solution and get well, but if you take those few steps (even though you've been disbelieved before), if you're willing to try, and even if you have no emotional support, then I'm proud of you. This is an important step you took for yourself and I'm really proud.

tumblr note: this is speaking from my own experience hoping to shine a light for other people with similar experience. Please speak to your doctor or therapist with any questions. 💫 Do not derail. 💫 Just make your own damn post if you feel you have to nitpick. I don't want to read it. Thank you. 🤝🫶

[lunarsilkscreen]

Online Presence

Here's the thing that Nub's get wrong about posting publicly online. 1) you don't know how popular screen grabs sites are (sites that specialize in showing your content to their audience, which don't ask for permission to do so.)

You could have 13 views on a post, and still have it seen by millions and never know because they take credit for your content. (And you get blindsided by the fallout.)

Most posting online, btw, goes unseen by the vast majority of users, so if you get slammed that way, all of a sudden you're a celebrity, but they keep all the revenue. And nobody tells you why they hate you, nor can they tell you where your content was posted. So you can't take it down.

Yes, it happens without permission and it's barely legal.

Since you're used to building your platform slowly, one sub at a time. You only know who's seen your content on your "official" accounts. (The ones you control.)

That camp that sits behind "well they're doing this public,they should know better." (I sit there too, but only when they know how their content is being used.)

Because we assume they got paid, so they should be fine taking the heat, as long as they're comfortable. But oftentimes, they take a lot of abuse without ever seeing a penny they are owed.

Spotify has the right to host a LOT of artists, but the revenue generated is like... 0.003$ per listen. So an artist with a million views *might* make 3000$.

If that doesn't go to their record label, or somebody else holding the rights. (Which happens, the system doesn't verify that revenue goes where it should.)

That means that *one million* sounds famous, but it isn't.

And that's where that pain comes for artists. That's why most of their revenue comes from direct payment and concerts.

It's a problem NFTs can solve, because then you can track who is allowed to play DRM content.

Now, one time, I posted of a video of me playing David Bowie's "man who sold the world" on YouTube, and Immediately, I had a copyright strike from a metro-goldwyn bot because it thought the song was the actual studio record version of the 007 theme song.

This is how easy it is for them to steal ad revenue. I took the video down because 1) It was way to quickly flag, and 2) it was the wrong studio entirely claiming it was the wrong song.

Now imagine if it was a song I wrote and played myself. And they simply refused that I wrote the song from scratch?

I would both have a strike on my YouTube account for copyright abuse AND lose revenue on MY OWN SONG.

This is actually why I'm afraid to release any recording of my own. And why a lot of popular YouTubers and twitch streamers don't have anymoney.

Because they're not receiving it. Big corps are reliant on AI bots and can pay a lawyer to sit in court to waste your time and money trying to get your own money back from them.

What I'm saying is: it's profitable to steal an independent Creator's content, and far to little consequence to deter thieves. Especially, if they can afford it.

It's the cost of doing business ,and you little guy. Yes, you who is reading this. You can't afford to make content, because you'll be rolled by a company who gets a free pass to do so.

[thesunshinesanctuary]

Not in tech, but I’m a tech worker in higher ed. We have to tread lightly, too. Some board member or administrator thinks AI fixes everything and students need to “learn it” and you’re hardly allowed to dismiss it. Some of the useful slightly coded phrases I’ve had to use more than once over the last few months when people think AI solves things it doesn’t solve…

“So, what problem would this product be solving that makes it worth the cost, including the environmental impact?” (This is a trillion dollar product that sucks lakes dry without a trillion dollar problem to solve, so far.)

“Why is a generated answer that may include entirely invented false information preferable in this instance?” (I can get you a better answer on Duck Duck Go or our library’s journal search. And if we ChatGPT this paper, who’s going to check it didn’t outright plagiarize?)

“What data set do you see this being trained on?” (How the fuck do you expect the AI to know how to schedule classes three years from now when it has zero darned idea that Sue is no longer going to work here and Brad will suddenly have school-age kids and you’re remodeling an academic building? Especially if you don’t even feed it previous schedules?)

“What AI is really good at is pattern recognition…” (The AI doesn’t have any of its own insights. It’s going to see that number 1 went up in x relation to number 2. It’s not going to tell you what majors to pour money into because it can predict the future. It’s not good at context when you give it none. An Excel spreadsheet is not context.)

“I’m not particularly worried about programmers being completely replaced by AI any time soon.” (Babe, the users can barely explain to me, a friendly-faced chatterbox who is good at translating their user-ese and what I know about their jobs to something more tech-y, what they want. I’m less worried they’re going to be able to tell the faceless, unforgiving beep-boop bot what they want. Especially if it tells them to glue their toppings on their pizza and they can’t debug what comes out of it.)

so like I said, I work in the tech industry, and it's been kind of fascinating watching whole new taboos develop at work around this genAI stuff. All we do is talk about genAI, everything is genAI now, "we have to win the AI race," blah blah blah, but nobody asks - you can't ask -

What's it for?

What's it for?

Why would anyone want this?

I sit in so many meetings and listen to genuinely very intelligent people talk until steam is rising off their skulls about genAI, and wonder how fast I'd get fired if I asked: do real people actually want this product, or are the only people excited about this technology the shareholders who want to see lines go up?

like you realize this is a bubble, right, guys? because nobody actually needs this? because it's not actually very good? normal people are excited by the novelty of it, and finance bro capitalists are wetting their shorts about it because they want to get rich quick off of the Next Big Thing In Tech, but the novelty will wear off and the bros will move on to something else and we'll just be left with billions and billions of dollars invested in technology that nobody wants.

and I don't say it, because I need my job. And I wonder how many other people sitting at the same table, in the same meeting, are also not saying it, because they need their jobs.

idk man it's just become a really weird environment.