#it is relatively affordable imo

[dayisfading]

i splurged on a skincare set recently and have been using 3 products regularly for a full week now and regrettably my skin is now incredibly soft and i have not had a major acne breakout in that time--which is pretty impressive concerning how much my skin flares up with my digestive issues and it's been a Bad Week

i had sorta given up on my skin looking even just Okay because it just didn't seem like it was ever going to improve as long as i have these digestive problems and i didn't want to waste money on products that wouldn't do anything

but tbh even if these were just making my skin soft i would be sold, i didn't realize it was possible for my skin to not feel kinda dry and rough all the time

[h3lfaerie]

Random: "I'm just saying, Hiccup Haddock wouldn't be muscular."

Me: *cracks knuckles and puts on glasses* Let's do this shit.

---

*AHEM*

Okay, first of all.

Nutrition.

As we all probably know, the more nutrients and the better food you get when you are a child the more fit and taller you will grow as an adult. Usually. Now looking at How To Train Your Dragon, consider that Hiccup was very short and scrawny when Berk was still being attacked by dragons. And then once the dragons stopped attacking and the village suddenly had more food instead of it being stolen all the time, Hiccup went from scrawny and tiny to a WHOPPING SIX FOOT TWO.

And yes, that is his actual height in the last two movies.

And that is largely on relatively little sun and poor nutrients from limited amounts of grains and meats and root vegetables (plus mildew's cabbage).

Training.

Whether you have watched Race To The Edge or not, you know this little shit can fight. Good. You think you get that sort of technique by not spending arduous amounts of time in the sparring ring?

While Hiccup is definitely more strategic in his fighting style as opposed to people like Astrid and Heather (who are both distinctly heavy-handed imo), he is agile as Hel. He is also highly proficient with a range of weapons (largely leaning towards swordsmanship). One, that takes a lot of practice, two he's doing it with a prosthetic leg. Consider the amount of pain and hindrance that would cause him throughout training. He is literally disabled. He needs to work twice as hard. His pain tolerance alone would be through the roof.

Sparring-wise the constant footwork and quick directional changes would vastly improve his balance and leg strength, while wielding a sword would build his shoulder, arm, and core muscles.

In addition, the need for precise strikes and defensive maneuvers refines hand-eye coordination and grip strength, which would explain why he is such a good shot with things like his shield-crossbow contraption. And also sparring develops cardiovascular endurance due to the rapid movements and bursts of action, in other words - stamina. He's got plenty. He worked for that.

Now, here you may probably think "But his design for the Inferno is hollow. Isn't that because he can't lift a sword?"

NOPE.

That design was entirely afforded to him by Viggo Grimborn in Race to the Edge. It was a strategic decision.

Have you SEEN the prototype of that thing:

Like first of all that is VIOLENT. That is a serrated blade. It's meant to GUT people. (Go on and tell me Hiccup doesn't have anger issues, I dare you.)

Secondly, I'd argue that has more metal than a normal sword.

And thirdly concrete proof of Hiccup's physical strength can be seen in the following moments (I wish I had GIFs, I'm sorry I do not. Those are all moments from RTTE):

Exhibit A:

Knocks Astrid off her feet during sparring.

Exhibit B:

Knocks Savage off his feet while being chased.

Exhibit C:

Catches AND STOPS an axe going for his head held by someone thrice his size.

Exhibit D:

Knocks Snotlout's tooth out with his non-dominant hand.

Excibit E:

KNOCKS TOOTHLESS (A WHOLE DAMN DRAGON) OFF A FUCKING CLIFF BY HIMSELF.

Shall I go on?

Blacksmithing.

Blacksmithing is a highly physical craft that builds strength, endurance, and coordination. Hammering hot metal requires po-wer-ful arm, shoulder, and chest muscles. Lifting and maneuvering heavy materials cannot NOT strengthen your back and stomach if you've been doing it for weeks, let alone years.

Also, the repetitive swinging motion of the hammer builds forearm and grip strength, which is essential for control and precision. And working in the heat of a forge is ... For one, a glorious sweaty bonus, for two, it basically serves as a sauna after an excruciating amount of physical labour. Ever wondered why people go to a sauna after a workout? The heat can help repair muscles that were damaged by exercise and it can reset your thermoregulation thresholds. In other words, hot temperatures feel less severe. And I wonder why HE of all people, would be in need of THAT.

TLDR; Blacksmithing is a FULL-BODY workout that not only builds physical resilience but also sharpens mental focus and discipline.

And Hiccup started doing it as a CHILD.

As a substitute for dragon killing.

And last but not least (in fact probably the most important).

DRAGON RIDING.

Have you ever been on a horse? Have you ever seen equestrians? I'm really grateful to have had the privilege to ride a horse and let me tell you ... The strength and balance that requires is immeasurable.

-> Core strength.

The constant flexing and contracting required to stay balanced in the saddle works your core muscles like there's no tomorrow, including your abs and obliques.

-> Inner thighs and pelvic muscles.

Speaking of maintaining-your-balance-and position-while-riding... it destroys your inner thighs and pelvic muscles. Can confirm you walk like a penguin afterwards. It's grueling.

-> (I'm not gonna include the posture and trunk exterior muscles here because Hiccup rides like a hunch-back, therefore those benefits would not be applicable to him, cause he a lil' gremlin.)

And lastly, staying in that saddle is not easy. You need to have built your body a certain way to keep your seat if you want to move onto galloping (much like a dancer can't go en-pointe until they've strengthened their ankles). Until then, you're stuck with trotting for weeks. And trust me it still leaves you sore.

TLDR; Horse riding can: improve your balance and coordination, increase your flexibility, burn over 400 calories per hour, serve as yet another FULL-BODY workout, and improve your reflexes.

Now change that to dragon riding.

Now change that to riding canonically the fastest, smartest, and rarest of the known species of dragons in this universe?

Just the FACT our boy wasn't done flung off in that Test Drive Scene in HTTYD 1 is a cause for a standing ovation.

In conclusion:

Realistically, Hiccup Haddock wouldn't be a fishbone. HE WOULD NOT BE BULKY EITHER. THAT IS AN ATROCITY.

But considering all that we've listed, if you wanted to consider realistic expectations given his levels of physical activity, nutrition, and his growth spurt in response to that, he would, at the very least, be tall as fuck, and absolutely built.

And as a bonus: Have you seen his parents? The genetics are THERE.

THAT SAID, everyone's allowed to have fun with Hiccup's design! That's just my interpretation. It does not and should not invalidate anyone else's.

I'm well aware that Hiccup Haddock is a huge representation for the disabled community. Particularly those with chronic illness, neurodiveristy and limb difference. So, I'd like to finish this off with: I simply decided to go on a deep-dive, but really it's not that deep. This was just the result of my three-hours-long hyperfixation.

We love all and any renditions of Hiccup Haddock the Third, because is just that lovable.

If you disagree with mine, that is absolutely okay ❤️

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi! Your blog is wonderful and so are you. I'm writing fanfic for a book series and I've been thinking about hair protection for soldiers. The founding Emperor and his Champion were both Black, and the army is generally a motley crew of varying nationalities, so reason dictates someone figured out hair protection on the march early on. Silk-anything is out of the question however, it'd be too expensive and the average soldier wouldn't know how to repair it, let alone be able to repair it well with what's available. I've come across loc socks made of cotton, but does that work for the general variety of protective and short hairstyles, people who can't take care of their hair that regularly? (There are no regulations about appearance beyond keeping their kit in decent shape).

What I'd need is a relatively durable, easy to take care of, acquire and repair fabric - any ideas? I'm willing to invent one if necessary (through the power of fantasy). Also, what would we find the "better than nothing" category? Not as a go-to, but for actual better-than-nothing-situations, when someone still wants to make an effort. (Would it be enough to cover their hair with whatever in that case? Or would that be counterproductive?)

There is also the option of magic, but that feels like a cop out for the bigger picture. Not to mention it wouldn't be feasible for the average soldier who isn't a mage, and the mages would need to know how and have the power to spare, even if it's just charms. - Though I am considering that on a smaller scale for my two favourites, both are Black and very close, one of them is a mage and there is a good chance they both came prepared to the party - so having charms tied into their hair that keep things at bay, until they have the time to properly take care of it would work out for them specifically. But it still seems more logical for them not to rely solely on that when it's not the usual approach. I'd like the baseline to be that everyone who needs it is provided with a protective hair covering, that could be relatively easily replaced if necessary (a lot of places just aren't gonna cough up fabric on demand). And treat magic more like an occasional bonus option, not the default.

For a second I was like "hell EYE I can't afford silk, this is satin" and then I remembered you said this is a fantasy world and maybe satin doesn't exist. 🤣

Yeah, cotton would work for bonnets, loc bonnets, and socks. It's not gonna be as good for moisture retention, but if that's all you got, that's all you got, and it'll function. It is the "better than nothing" category imo lmao. I'm sure wool would be *okay* if someone made it, but wool gets hot and it can get in your hair and it can't stand the rain and I just... I don't think it's a good idea.

I do think using charms in the creation of the caps mass production to strengthen the cotton would be a smart move, because that way everyone has a protective cap but it won't wear down with time if it's been boosted. Admittedly though, I've had this loc bonnet for years magic free, and it hasn't failed on me yet! Give it a good washing and 👍🏾 So if the magic isn't there to spare, I think cotton is fine.

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Breakfast foods in China

Since arriving in China my typical breakfast has changed quite a lot (hello baozi and mung bean paste!) so I decided to explore some common local breakfast foods eaten in China!

包子 - Bāozi (my love) These have been an almost consistent (excluding the lunar new year when the canteens and most cafes and restaurants closed) staple of my breakfast ever since I arrived in China. They come with several fillings such as veggie, pork, seafood etc. and they can cooked in different ways such as being steamed, fried etc. Here's a more in-depth post about the types of dumplings and bāo.

粥 - Porridge (zhōu) I sometimes have porridge for lunch instead and it's a really filling meal. I get the Century Egg Congee with Chicken - 皮蛋瘦肉粥 (Pídàn shòu ròu zhōu) and it's one of my all time favourite meals.

煎饼 - Egg pancake (jiānbing) Popular also as a street food, this is a thin crepe type pancake with an egg, veggie, spice, sauce and sometimes meat filling. The actual filling varies as you can customize what veggies and spice level you'd like and whether or not you want meat.

热干面 - Hot and dry noodles (règānmiàn) I honestly had no idea about this dishes existence until a while ago, probably because it's a regional dish originating from Wuhan which is kind of far away from my location. These are spicy and dried noodles which are actually eaten without a broth unlike many other noodles. They seem pretty interesting so if anyone tried them before do share your experience!

桂林米粉 - Guilin Rice noodles (guìlín mĭfĕn) This appears to be another regional dish from Guilin, Guanxi as I had no idea that this was a also a pretty popular breakfast dish. Apparently it's not the noodles but rather the broth that they're cooked in that makes them special, with the actual recepie varying across the region. Someone should do a long weekend trip vlog (pondering on this) to Guilin where they just go from store to store trying these noodles and trying to determine the differences.

葱油饼 - Scallion oil pancake (cōngyŏubĭng) A tasty but heavy-ish pancake imo. These pancakes are cooked with scallions (green onion) and pan-fried to give it that crispy and chewy texture. Very tasty, but it's a little too heavy on the oil for me so I save these pancakes for special occasions instead.

豆浆油条 - Soy milk and deep-fried dough sticks (dòujiāng yóutiáo) I have tried the dough sticks, and I have tried soya milk but separately so far. The dough sticks are these long deep-friend dough sticks, reminding me slightly of breadsticks but more lighter and chewier.

茶鸡蛋 - Tea eggs (chájīdàn) I adore these, my canteen serves them along with regular eggs for breakfast and the tea eggs are usually the first to go. They actually don't really involve tea, instead these eggs are cooked in a mixture of chinese five-spice powder (pepper, cloves, cinnamon, star anise and fennel seeds), soy sauce, and black tea leaves, although some recipes leave out the tea leaves. They have a relatively strong smell so I usually grab some for breakfast on the weekends or in the canteen at lunch if there are any leftover after breakfast. They are also quite cheap, one egg is around 2 yuan so around 0.30 euro, making them a pretty filling and affordable breakfast food.

If there are any other common or specific breakfast foods that you know of, do share them please as I love trying out new things!

[ofswordsandpens]

apparently the spiders are coming in future seasons because they were a “production nightmare” for ep5

and “boss Grover” (ooc grover imo too) was expanding on his innate empathy ability?

according to rick recent post

🤷‍♀️

I'm glad to hear the show is not intending to write out Annabeth's arachnophobia as I initially feared, but as it stands it's still a bummer that the spiders didn't make their appearance at the Thrill Ride imo. (Again, not saying what we got in place was bad). But the act of Percy having to literally haul Annabeth away and buckle her in into the boat because she was paralyzed by fear and screaming her head off is just imagery that never left me and I wish we had gotten to see that.

(And I will say that some of the things that RR has said they couldn't translate accurately to the screen... I do side eye it a bit. He phrased the spiders as distracting rather than adding it to the scene and idk, in my opinion the spiders will translate well.... if you translate it well? And again, if their reported budget is correct, I just think the show runners can afford to be a bit more... creative? innovative? Idk. Grain of salt sort of thing I guess.)

Then with Grover, it's not necessarily the act of him picking up on Ares hiding something that was ooc to me, more just how relatively calmly and cooly he was manipulating the God of War? Like in SOM when Grover let the cyclops think he was his bride and played into that part, his terror was always pretty present lol. The scene and energy it the diner in the show felt wayyyy more like a Percy or Annabeth type move, rather than a Grover one to me.

[piosplayhouse]

Imo "accountability culture" references condemnation of an action that has a direct real effect on real people - mocking a group of people, donating to harmful organizations knowingly etc etc. there's an undercurrent of realistic harm scaled of course to the influence someone has to inflict that, a billionaire donating thousands of dollars to antitrans orgs requires more attention and accountability than a small business owner shopping at hobby lobby for supplies because they have no other affordable option in their town.

On the other hand "call-out culture", called that because people will literally title their docs of "evidence" as "call-out docs" is more catered to and an issue in small fandom spaces, where condemnation isn't directed towards actions that have had a direct impact on anyone, but instead just look bad or could hypothetically cause harm (as the writer chooses to present it). These focus more on quantity than quality, with emphasis on digging up as much tangential evidence of anything as possible. Call-out docs can have some elements of accountability culture, particularly when they're directed towards an account/person who, though having a relatively small impact, directly harmed people through grooming or mocking or whatnot, but these will often be either exaggerated or mixed in with nonsense additions like "liked a problematic anime 2 years ago" or "retweeted an unrelated post from someone who was already cancelled". Because of this, reading through entire call-out docs will often leave you thinking "well that was a waste of time" or "why did they put allegations of abusing their ex next to shipping bakudeku". There's a disconnection between what are real harmful actions that need to be addressed and remedied and things added because they have bad optics or make the doc longer and therefore more "valid" in the eyes of a culture that prioritizes QRTing with how many -isms someone is rather than how much harm they've actually done.

[alliluyevas]

Here's a potentially controversial AG question for you.

Do you think adult Felicity would continue to own slaves?

Oh, wow, yeah, this is a heavy hitter. Honestly, historically and statistically, almost certainly yes. But there is definitely a semi-plausible chance otherwise.

I'm going to reframe this question slightly, because due to the legal system of coverture in her time, if Felicity marries, which she almost certainly will, her husband will have ownership of any property either of them bring into the marriage. So the question is more accurately: will adult Felicity be the wife and mistress of a household that owns slaves?

I don't mean to reduce adult!Felicity's moral or personal agency, but the answer to this question may also depend on who she marries, both in terms of his socioeconomic status and his personal beliefs about slavery.

Felicity's father and maternal grandfather are both slaveholders in the book series, though in different socioeconomic niches. Mr. Merriman is a shopkeeper in town with two enslaved laborers, Marcus and Rose. Grandfather is a plantation owner and there is presumably a larger workforce. (I can't remember exactly what the legal situation is after Grandfather dies in the final book, but I believe Mr. Merriman inherits the plantation through his wife which would imply she has no brothers, and then administers it while primarily living in town. I could just be completely making that up, though, and I couldn't find confirmation online and don't have my Felicity books on me at the moment.)

If she marries a man who is similar in socioeconomic status to her father (ie, a relatively prosperous shopkeeper or artisan in Williamsburg) he will likely own or rent slaves. If she marries someone similar to her grandfather, he definitely will. I can see either of these routes as plausible for Felicity. Living primarily in Williamsburg, she may be most likely to encounter townsfolk, but she would also potentially be courted by young men attending college at William and Mary, who would likely be from plantation families elsewhere in Virginia, or she might marry the son of one of Grandfather's neighbors or something. (Side note: there is one existing character in her books who might be a potential future Mr. Felicity: her father's apprentice, Ben. Felicity and Ben clearly get along really well and have a lot in common, and when Felicity reaches the age where she is thinking about marriage, Ben will likely be around, either still working with Mr. Merriman or a business acquaintance/family friend. It wasn't uncommon to marry someone with that kind of family/business connection at all. If Felicity were to marry Ben, he would likely eventually be in a similar socioeconomic niche to her father.)

So, what are the possible futures where Felicity and her husband are not slaveholders?

First of all, she could marry someone who is socioeconomically in a position where he simply cannot afford to do so. This is, imo, the least likely. I don't think her parents would encourage this. (I think Mrs. Merriman may have married slightly "beneath her" as I kind of got the vibe that Grandfather is wealthier than Mr. Merriman is, and he certainly is in terms of ownership of both land and slaves, which is how wealth was generally calculated in Virginia. On the other hand, this might also be a town/country divide, and Mr. Merriman is evidently able to comfortably provide for his family.) Also, if she was to fall in love with and marry someone of a lower socioeconomic rank, it is possible that her family would financially help him rise rather than that Felicity would just go off and be broke with him.

I think a more plausible route would be that Felicity either marries a man who is actively against slavery and her beliefs are then influenced by him or she independently develops anti-slavery convictions prior to her marriage and then chooses a man who has similar beliefs.

I do want to point out that there were a lot of Virginians in this general period who expressed anti-slavery beliefs while still continuing to own slaves. I think in many cases these people were experiencing genuine moral discomfort and conflict but ultimately chose to prioritize their own financial well being. I think, unfortunately, the most likely future may be one where Felicity experiences some moral qualms over slavery and questions some aspects of the society she lives in, but ultimately chooses to stick with the status quo.

However, I think there are some semi-plausible paths where Felicity and her husband might end up in a situation where they choose genuinely meaningful opposition to slavery. There are other situations in the AG books where characters get an ending that is better if historically less plausible, after all. (IE Addy's family is able to reunite. Samantha's relatives adopt Nellie.) Even if it's unlikely, this outcome for Felicity would not be unheard of.

For instance, she might marry a Northerner and goes to live wherever he is from. (If he chooses to move to Virginia permanently, he might also choose to conform to the economic system of the slave culture in his adopted state.) This happened with one of Thomas Jefferson's granddaughters who married a man from Massachusetts and moved up there with him. This would have been a woman about a generation younger than Felicity, but it's not outside the realm of possibility to happen earlier, either. I can't really picture Felicity wanting to leave her home and family, but if she's already developed anti-slavery beliefs on her own she might think it's worth it.

She might also marry a Virginian who believes slavery is wrong and is actually willing to do something about it. I wish I could remember the man's name, but I was just reading about some young plantation owner who wrote to Jefferson in the 1820s about his deep discomfort with slavery and his desire to free his slaves. Jefferson basically advised him to go slow and do nothing for the time being, and this man wrote him again chewing him out saying it wasn't enough. He ultimately chose to leave Virginia, and settle in Ohio, where he purchased plots of land so that his newly freed former slaves could start their own farms. This is later than Felicity would have been finding a husband, and this man's decision was one very few of his peers would have made. But, again, it's not impossible.

I think the man I just talked about had primarily ethical objections to slavery, not religious ones, but I think the most plausible way for Felicity to develop meaningfully anti-slavery convictions is through religion. The Second Great Awakening would have begun when Felicity was in her mid-twenties. Some people in Southern states who became evangelical Christians during this time period began to believe that slavery was a sin against God. The most famous example of this is Robert Carter III, a Virginia plantation owner who became a Baptist and ended up freeing over 500 people. (He also ended up having to flee the state of Virginia because people were threatening him over this and lived the rest of his life in Baltimore.) Evangelical conversions were most common among the lower classes, especially in the beginning, but also took off among women from higher social classes. Robert Carter notwithstanding, wealthier men were the least likely to be born again. So I think it's very plausible that Felicity might choose to become a Methodist or Baptist, but if she was 25+ at the time she would likely already be married and it is less likely her husband would also convert. So she might end up in a situation where she is opposed to slavery but her husband, who does not share her religious beliefs, is not, and he controls their property. Or, it's possible she marries later than the average, or she is widowed young and remarries a man from her church, or manages to convert her husband.

So, I can definitely see some pathways for an anti-slavery adult Felicity, but it would require both her and her husband to develop convictions and the moral courage to enact them that were highly unusual for people in their class and context. Unusual, but not unheard of.

[mayakern]

I don't make a whole lot of money (I'm in grad school which doesn't really pay...), but I've been picking something special and a little expensive (for me, I know your skirts are reasonably priced since they're slow fashion pieces of art) to get myself every couple months as a ~little treat~ to motivate myself through school

So I've decided I'm saving money for a mini skirt in Sept/Oct! I'm thinking the pumpkin one if that is still one of the options by then. I'm very excited!!!

aw that’s really lovely, im so glad you like the skirts so much!

also, i’ve gotten some confusion on this, so to set the record straight—i fully recognize that my apparel is more expensive than some people can afford and that’s ok! i don’t hold it against anyone. it’s just when people call it overpriced that i feel the need to address/correct people.

saying something is expensive is value neutral (IMO), as it only speaks of the price relative to the buyer’s budget. saying something is overpriced is negative, as it means the item is perceived as having less value than it is being sold for.

that’s when i feel it is a good time to come in and educate people about how expensive it is to do custom printed clothing items using certified safe materials, handled by people being paid ethical wages, who are making small batches of clothing (relative to the scale of a major chain). all of those things drive up our cost per garment significantly over what target, walmart, or shein would pay and i think this is just stuff the average consumer doesn’t know about.

[screechingcheesecakecheesecake]

I like your dol elite social rankings post so I'm gonna blab about my thoughts, sorry.

I agree that Quinn has the highest political power. You could probably make an argument that some of that power is co-opted by Bailey due to the blackmail, but it's still nominally Quinn's.

I don't think Bailey has the social background of the others, and that automatically puts them at a disadvantage. They've clawed their way into the power and connections that they currently have, and they seem quite good at managing it, but I doubt that Bailey's considered "high society" in any real capacity.

Remy strikes me as extremely powerful. Possibly the biggest rat bastard of them all. Could potentially be more powerful than Quinn, but they prefer to stay out in the farms & moors, distanced from town. This affords them more resources--land, lurkers, privacy, etc., plus the manor itself may be anchored to a powerful supernatural site within it. Really high social influence, especially considering that they're probably not regularly attending society functions the way Avery does.

Leighton's secure, horrible, and relatively small potatoes. They do real harm, especially to vulnerable students (Darryl, formerly, and Mickey, and possibly PC), but they're content to rule over the school without many further ambitions. I have to imagine they're from a fairly privileged background--I think it just goes with their sense of entitlement--but they're not actively climbing the social ladder. They get along with Quinn bc they're both huge freaks.

Avery, on the other hand, has both privilege and ambition. Very willing to sell their soul to the devil. Well on their way to doing so...

Bonus: Harper. Crazy ass. I have even less of an idea about their whole deal than Bailey's. Harper's doing quite well for themselves; they're still pretty young, but already successfully ingratiating themselves with Remy.

Quinn still wins "biggest creep-ass fucker" imo, beating out Harper and Leighton. Bad enough that even Bailey gives out an explicit warning. Christ.

I would be interested to work a bit under Bailey, especially now that there's a way to raise their love. Insanely curious about their underlying motivations.

HEYA thanks I welcome blabbing lmao

I actually have something to add that I just forgot to put on the OG post too!!

I think Quinn's power focuses primarily on the town and Remy isn't really interested in that. They're a very rich farm owner with lots of resources so they're in a pretty cozy position. From the party they held I think they may be related to the weird cult in town which I think Quinn is also a part of since "Elk street" and the elks in the party. Not sure what the foxes mean to that yet though.

So Remy's assets includes

-Underground farm

-Fields for strange flowers

-The moor which they have people hired to go hunting

-Possible connections to the cult

So they don't need to fight for connections because people fight for their connections basically.

Quinn's political power is scary because it's pretty much how Bailey and Leighton can do their suspicious stuff without repercussions (though Leighton can still be reprimanded with pillory punishment and blackmail). Also Quinn themselves is scary with how nonchalant and cheerful they act despite doing something horrible. (Vrel really did a good job scaring me with that "movie" conversation lmao). Maybe it's because of their possible cult connection that the potential soup kitchen was blocked off by the Mayor's office too. Also, tf are they doing with the pale slimes.

Harper can work as a researcher which pretty much beneficial to Remy so Harper also needs to do good and bring useful results. I can't completely gauge their power though since I haven't been at the Asylum and Idk their status at the hospital.

Bailey is an interesting case to me in a way sometimes. Because yeah, there's the rent they force on us but they can pretty much just sell us straight up as payment. And it seems that they do prefer the orphans to return after getting sold off and it's one of their conditions that we don't get murdered. So essentially we are paying Bailey to be protected. They also apparently like it if the orphans take their education seriously. Feels like an aggressive way to learn independency with Bailey lol.

I really hope we get to work under Bailey in the future because again, I really enjoy the dynamic between PC and Bailey.

[urists]

One of the things that I think is often underappreciated about heavy industry is how things that look like One Industry are not actually just One Industry. Like - okay, let's take oil and gas [1]. That's a pretty good-size industry - about 5 trillion dollars. Big players!

But realistically it's not monolithic. You can break it down into a couple of main groups - upstream (get the fossil fuels out of the ground), midstream (get the fossil fuels to a refinery), downstream (get the crude feedstocks into usable forms). Each of those groups has different incentives, because they do different things.

For example, a somewhat disconcerting fact I learned a while back is that downstream folks (as well as their close cousins, chemical manufacturers) generally adore regulations. Regulations mean that large companies have an incredibly strong barrier to entry, because they can afford the passel of lawyers required to parse the arcane guidelines put forth by multiple different agencies, while smaller companies fail. [2] More regulations, more consolidation, more oligopolistic profit.

Meanwhile, the upstream drillers, who occasionally implode catastrophically due to the boom-bust nature of drilling, generally don't consolidate [3] - but the oilfield service companies, who are in the business of fundamentally selling shovels (or, y'know, paramilitary contractors) frequently do! Because they have different incentives. Same industry, same group, but not interchangeable.

And yeah, the idea that "things are more complicated than they seem" is not new, and it's not limited to just heavy industry. But I do think heavy industry is one of the places were we can't see it nearly as easily. We put refined gasoline into cars to drive on asphalt roads to places heated or powered by natural gas. We can say that all of those things are products of the oil and gas industry, and that's not inherently wrong - but realistically, the fact that I can put refined gasoline into a car and then drive it on an asphalt road to a place that operates off of natural gas is a minor miracle that took a hundred and fifty years of continued innovation to accomplish. Lumping it all into one industry means you might risk forgetting about the fractal layers of complexity that actually make it possible.

[1] Because I know it decently well and have a fair number of contacts in it, but am not directly employed by it

[2] In unrelated news, the US has not successfully managed to build a large refinery since 1977. The refinery in 1977 was built by Marathon, the largest refining company in the US. It currently owns ~3 million barrels a day of refining capacity, or approximately 16% of the overall refining output of the US.

[3] this is a gargantuan generalization, but it's imo overall relatively true; the fracking industry is about as small-business-friendly as you can get in oil and gas

[baravaggio]

hello i wanted to ask you a question and i hope i don't sound biphobic.. what do you think of bi people in a heterosexual relationship who say they're "queering" heterosexuality or that their relationship is still queer? as a bi person myself i don't really get how you can "queer" a straight relationship because being queer is an act, unless the other person is also bi and they engage in sex practices that are subversive of heterosexual norms.... but i don't know! are there more academic discussions about this? i would like to hear your more informed opinion!

Hi! So this is a whole can of worms, but I'll do my best to answer...not without adding a couple long ass caveats first though, as always 😭

First, I think it's helpful to draw a distinction between sexuality descriptors as they're used to describe our private, internal experiences of sexuality, the ones that are mediated by invisible qualities like our personal sense of identity and time, and the sexuality descriptors as they're used as a tool of social categorization and political organization. I'm not interested in arguing against the idea that regardless of orientation, a visibly M/F couple will typically be read as straight, a visibly M/M or F/F couple will be read as gay or lesbian, and each will materially be treated differently as a result - this is obviously true, we live in a cisheteropatriarchal culture.

As always, I also think it's important to remember that words like straight, gay, queer, etc. are historically & culturally determined terms with their own messy histories, and that they're not necessarily going to track perfectly onto our lived experiences of sexuality as a result. So let's momentarily put aside any complaints about people who will say this stuff out of personal insecurity surrounding their "place in the queer community," or because they want to disrespect the sexual boundaries or lived struggles of gays and lesbians - not saying that you're doing this or that these people don't exist, but I don't think this is where the majority of people are coming from (despite how loud they can be on the internet), so I just want to get ahead of it.

To answer one of your questions, there is some academic discussion about this - this is by no means exhaustive, just a couple papers I've read that touch on the topic:

"Queer Ethics; Or, The Challenge of Bisexuality to Lesbian Ethics" by Elisabeth D. Däumer

"Playing with Butler and Foucault: Bisexuality and Queer Theory" by April S. Callis

Both are really interesting and fairly accessible imo, even if you've never read Foucault or Butler! And if you didn't already know, you can read 100 articles per month for free on JSTOR.

Those papers aside, my perspective has been informed by my personal experience more than anything. The tl;dr is that I don't really care what others do, but that I also think bisexuality throws a significant wrench into what we otherwise consider to be a relatively stable sense of ourselves as gendered, sexual, political, and social beings. It's destabilizing enough to make categorizing the emotional, sexual, erotic, and social aspects of our relationships as strictly straight or gay difficult for some people. While some of our relationships will be categorized this way in order to render them socially and politically intelligible to the larger culture, I think we can afford be a little more creative when we talk about how our bisexuality makes finding the right language for our relationships difficult. This of course won't be everyone's experience, but I can really only speak for myself here - I'll elaborate more on my personal experience and feelings under the read more if you're interested.

I'm not sure how much you know about me, so I'll give you the run down: prior to identifying as bi, I identified as a lesbian, and for most of my life I have found that my attraction (social, emotional, sexual, and much later, romantic) has been directed almost exclusively towards women. So much of the way I relate to others and myself have been informed by this lifelong experience of loving & being loved by women as someone who is read as a woman. I no longer identify as a lesbian (or strictly as a woman), but those experiences continue to shape the way I approach casual and intimate relationships, the way I have sex, my politics, my understanding of my gender, etc.

I prefer to sleep around and am not interested in dating for the foreseeable future (slut rights!), so I can't speak specifically from the POV of relationships...but I have found that this lifetime's worth of "lesbian" experiences have intimately affected my sexual experiences with men. Sex between women has its own unique tempo and its own language of eroticism, having sex with women has shaped the way I understand the "goals" of sex, how I move in my body, how I touch my partner...my encounters with women are ever present in & relevant to my encounters with men. Likewise, my experiences with men, specifically queer men, have impacted the way I have sex with women - I participate in still different practices of eroticism, different ways of relating to the bodies and emotions of others, different ways of understanding & accessing my physicality, and those experiences make constant additions and edits to the way I fuck women.

The effect of all this has been that I personally don't find much meaning in categorizing any given encounter as gay or straight. I think of this quote from Epistemology of the Closet quite often:

Will I categorize things along gay/straight lines for the purposes of answering a sexual health questionnaire when getting tested at a clinic, for example? Sure. But privately, between me and myself and me and my partners, I find the language inadequate. Even when the kind of sex I'm having isn't technically "subversive of heterosexual norms," the totality of my queer experience and how it never stops impacting upon my understanding of myself as a gendered, sexual, emotional, social, romantic, and political being prevents me from understanding it as entirely straight. At the same time, I wouldn't be offended if someone who is not privy to this history would label that encounter as a straight one. It's just a byproduct of the vocabulary available to us in the culture we live in.

I think it's important to understand that outside of the context of group sex or mixed gender polyamorous relationships, there is no way for us to meaningfully "perform" bisexuality. The origins of our modern sexuality labels lie in medicine and psychiatry, which has positioned heterosexual and homosexual acts as a dichotomy, with the goal of pathologizing homosexuality for the purposes of social control. In the article by Callis I linked above, she points out,

...the medicalization of "homosexual acts" forbids the creation of a bisexual person, because all individuals who were sexually active with others of the same sex were labeled as homosexual. Eadie (1993) stated that "bisexuality simply cannot exist as a category in discourses which name all male-male and female-female sex 'homosexual' and all male-female sex 'heterosexual'" (p.146) [...] Because "bisexual acts" did not exist within the medical discourse, there was also no corresponding bisexual species. A group of individuals could not be labeled as "bisexual" if there was no action they could perform that was read in this way. (p. 225)

I've discussed it some on here, but I highly recommend reading the Foucault section of that article for more context. Callis is talking about bisexuality as a personal identity descriptor, but I think the point extends to our descriptions of relationships as well. Another personal example - I have a fwb who is a cis bi man, a strict bottom who primarily has sex with other men. The way we understand ourselves and our relationship with sexuality and gender have been shaped by our sexual histories and preferences. The sum total of those experiences paired with the type of sex we have prevents both of us from understanding our arrangement as a strictly straight one, but if we were in a relationship, how would an outsider who might see us walking down the street hand in hand know that? Another quote, this time from the Däumer (p.96):

Anyway...maybe this wasn't the most direct or objective answer, but I think that the limitations of our language of sexuality mean that lengthier explorations are required - half the problem is that we don't have a succinct shorthand for this stuff! Like I said above, I can't really find it in myself to care what other people do. And I don't particularly care whether other people insist on calling my relationships gay or straight...I might not always agree, but I find it more amusing than distressing. The only thing I really care about is mutual respect and intellectual honesty, which is why I bother to be open about my personal experiences in the first place.

Hope this answers your question even a little bit 😭

[prince-liest]

hi! I always get super excited about fandom OCs, so it's been such a treat to hear about Tzafael! I worked a little on a design for them (lmk if you're ok with me posting it) but a lot of questions came up:

this is gonna sound really vague, but what's their vibe? I'm getting "pretends to be a gentleman but will ABSOLUTELY fish for compliments and randomly fuck with people cause of the power play" but I could be totally off. does he ever snap at people/hurt them if they're not polite? are they super condescending like some of the other angels or is he more like adam and kind of,,, uhh openly a dick? or are they more of a crowley type (kind of gooey inside and mostly left heaven because it was too bureaucratic and constricting)? do they burst into hell buildings and just incite chaos? again I know this is super vague but like ,,, basically I need a dialogue snippet to know what they're like lol

what's their accent? do they have special vocal quirks/tics? special catchphrases or words they use a lot?

do they have any real friends in hell (not just contracts)? do they miss anyone from heaven?

did they like being an exorcist?

hobbies?

what are the implications of the magpie/eyeball motifs? do they have a transcendent sense of sight? are they overstimulated or even haunted by the fact that they have to see so much all the time? do they have any bird habits (preening is a must lol but anything else?)? do they have a nictitating membrane and freak people out by blinking sideways with all of their eyes?

is their magpie form like a really scary demon form or are they just like. a normal bird. (that's way funnier imo)

I'm sorry but,,, I'm such a sucker for angst. where's his soft spot? how does he react to having it poked? does he lash out like a panicked animal or break down and try to hide?

do they have sharp teeth? I've seen that in other art of them but since they're not technically fallen I'm thinking of just doing fangs

how would he react to seeing a child (is he good with children? does he terrify/terrorize them?)?

what does "very good grip strength" imply???

whew, sorry for that monster of an ask! you said you liked talking about them so I just vomited everything that came to mind while I was drawing him, but definitely don't answer anything you don't find interesting!

PLEASE DO NOT APOLOGIZE YOU HAVE MADE MY EVENING. Both by offering me a delightful plethora of questions to answer about Tzafael, and also by drawing them aaaaaaaah- I would absolutely love to see you post it!! <3

Long post incoming!!

Their vibe: They are still an angel, and subscribe to morals that involve seeing themselves as a relatively good person - kind of like Lucifer's sense of superiority over sinners! So they are polite and friendly in a way that sometimes makes it evident that they know they can afford to be because they're above most of the people around them. They won't overtly fish for compliments, but that's why stroking their ego is so effective: they won't ask for it, but it's their most major vice. It's like petting a purring tiger. They enjoy when their presence is shocking, so they will absolutely walk casually into places where they know anyone able to identify them will freak out, and they'll visibly find the results amusing, but they won't outright admit to doing it on purpose. When they actually get into conflict with people, they like to look like they're being the bigger man about it, but they're honestly biting at the bit for a reason to go casually nuclear on someone who looks like they deserve it.

Speech patterns: Tangible but not over-the-top valley girl accent. They think it's fucking hilarious. Mildly prone to nefarious laughter, though it's generally because they're genuinely amused.

Friendships: Their concept of friendship is a little bit detachedly celestial. They definitely have friends in every ring, but they're bad about accidentally not visiting for long periods of time and they're prone to feeling like nobody in hell can genuinely understand them. They make contracts with relative ease with people they are friendly with specifically because they like feeling like the person people come to for powerful assistance. They'd probably do best seeing if they can befriend any of the seven sins, to minimize the baseline imbalance of power level and lifespan, but it just feels awkward when they all know Lucifer. The unassuming, baseline comraderie is the main thing they miss about heaven.

On exorcism: They fucking loved the power trip of being an exorcist. Too much. That's why they stayed in hell in the first place. And then they thought about it too damn long and got to know the locals, and now it's just fucking awkward to go around killing indiscriminately. Knowing too much really took the fun out of it! They used to join in on the exorcisms when they came around again, but not anymore.

Hobbies: They keep fish! They like setting up self-maintaining freshwater aquariums of various sorts, and particularly enjoy feeling like they've captured a genuine slice of nature in a fish tank. They visited Vox's shark tanks once and thought they were boring as hell because the sharks are mechanical and he doesn't have any live flora. They also enjoy being a huge gossipy bitch, which is arguably like 90% of what they actually use their powers for.

Powerset: While Lucifer has the power of Creation, Tzafael has the power of Sight. They see a great many things, and they see those things As They Are. So, basically: localized omniscience. They can't read minds, but they can tell if some is lying to them, and they can also see everything within a certain vicinity (depending on how hard they're pushing it), including through walls. This isn't weird or overwhelming to them: it's how they were designed to exist! If anything, losing that would make them feel blind. They also have a very small amount of foresight, which is mostly useful for being hard to hit in a fight and also being obnoxious by unintentionally interrupting people's sentences. This does not help them come off as less condescending.

Leaving heaven: Seeing the truth of things as they are, and seeing everything around makes the facade of heaven frustrating and tedious to swallow. They prefer hell because it feels more honest!

Bird traits: Absolutely hell yes to the nictitating membranes on every single eyeball, which also doubles as protection against any eyeball stabbing! They preen, they adore shiny shit, they love to gab and gossip, and while they are mostly a magpie, any bird seraph is going to be a bird of prey in some way or another, so it is as difficult to break their grip as it would be that of a raptor of similar size. I think it's implied that all heavenly and some demonic beings have various stages of their true forms, so their humanoid birdform is a similar style to what we see from Sera in the first few seconds of meeting her, and their true form is closer to what we see of Stolas at the end of Truth Seekers in Helluva Boss, except with about a billion more looming eyeballs. As for their most humanoid form's teeth: I figured they'd stayed in hell long enough for their teeth to go sharp like Lucifer's, but I am also super down for fangs if you have a design you're playing with!

Children: Ehhh...kinda cute, when they're not Tzafael's responsibility. Frequently funny in small doses or from a distance. Delightfully honest or else delightfully poor liars. Often just not their bag, though, especially if they kids are spoiled or self-absorbed (sorry, what was that? "Hypocrite"? Must have misheard.)

ANGST: They are a social animal and they miss their flock! They keep mooning about potentially reconnecting with Lucifer because they fucking miss heaven, except heaven doesn't feel like it did when they were a kid, so it doesn't feel like home. Any small inconveniences, they feel free to whine about with deliberately humorous dramatics, but when they feel genuinely hurt, they withdraw, hide in their nest, and keep it to themselves as best as they can. It hurts the ego to admit that kind of weakness when they're supposed to be a fucking seraph, especially when they feel alone and without equals in their place in the world. But even though heaven turned out to be a damn lie, they miss family. On a more minor note, they're also a poor sport about being genuinely made fun of in bad faith.

[freewxll]

If I ever see skrimps I’ll make sure he’s good..

I waited so long to maintain and reestablish a baseline..

No ulterior motive.

Work and difficult work are two different bags!!

Id rather get growth out of it if I “have”(which imo if relative to tax bracket more than moral obligation and social contract)

For all of us..

Than to advance myself or my brand..

Personally I think we have ALL been stung, hurt, or scared.. by the zeitgeist that’s been created by technology..

And this is a cultural pivot point that transcends any county.

Maybe even old history itself.

We are past the age of information.

Currently in the result of that.

The age of “metadata”

Some things can be “algorithmically” reversed

But also created.

I think that’s worth the cost..

However if the general populace doesn’t grace those for a second while we transverse this new tech and its social implications.. it’s gonna be a huge waste of time and money..

We are all still human regardless of we get implants

Personally I think human error keeps creativity spinning

And that requires a delicate balance of Freeform uncertainty and comfortably to feel vulnerable to create something novel..

90s babies are literally begging not for world dominance 😂

Fuck that too exhausting..

But a a token of trust and understanding when we talk our shit

We is tired we is smart we control memes since 9gag/funnyjunk

We would like to afford houses property and ownership..

And we can vhs just as much as streaming

Lastly there’s way more money in all of us not being dicks to one another

And spending r&d money on solutions to make life more sustainable for those at the lowest monetary scales..

That kinda tech hooks the rich up with practical “ your back hurts “ or “innovative art” which fulfills the emotional needs in life..

Which could help the back pain from stress 😂🫠

Plus.. you guys are gonna need to study actual survival foot chain, economic, or social construct regardless if you want to explore the moon or mars long term..

So stop trying to see what spins my top

It’s sad and I don’t like doing that as a checksum

The older I get the more emotionally devastated it results in..

That’s what makes it a dependable spin..

Justice knows nothing of that..

20 years into crawling! 🙌🏾🎉❤️‍🔥🤯🤷🏽‍♂️🪩

Imo we are letting kids born after 2000 learn the way we did

Takes time for most there’s still some I went to high school with that are “SMART!!” that still struggle..

Mainly because of how you contemplate implications of how “ interconnected “ we all truly are now a days..

We don’t demand direct compensation for our metadata being used to crate the algorithms you guys bank off of now but like can we get some positivity out of it..

Like actual guidance towards our goals of you guys are able to “typecast” us out.. or atleast like good.. dank memes.

TikTok kids have dances leave us our goofy images of serotonin and/or oxytocin

If the joke is inside enough it can get that deep because we are the fist generation where… and I shit you not..

We can spit GAME though memes and that shit POWERFUL..

Like the woman I have crush on is FINE..

But her meme game is sooooo strong

And she sprinkled in food reels because the real way is through the tummy..

She got me on multiple front yall..

I’ll continue to make stuff and you can throw the whole litter at me..

But imma wait and say nah!!

#nahmean

[sharpth1ng]

I really like your idea on em both being rich kids lol, very interesting bc to me personally Billy is actually pretty poor. idk I mean I know we don’t see Tatum’s house or Randy’s either but the fact we never see a single thing about Billy’s sounds odd to me. Vs Tatum who has her own car and Randy with his odd collection of colorful (probably expensive) shoes.

there’s also the fact he’s on his dad’s income only who, from the real brief looks we got at him and the fact he slept with the town’s most likely ‘wellknown’ prostitute if that makes any sense, feels like some sleazy, struggling lawyer type.

I know in lore or whatever (wiki page lol) his dad is described as a powerful Woodsboro lawyer but considering this is the same lore that has Billy getting someone pregnant and can’t even decide the ages of the main cast I’m looking at in-movie evidence instead.

the only thing that kinda tips it to him being richer imo is the mobile phone he drops, or more precisely his dad’s phone - but even then it’s again his dad’s and not his own one. his dad who likely would need it as a work expense, but can’t afford to buy his son one and doesn’t care to.

anyway that’s my entire crackpot theory (I have even more but I wanted to spare your ask box from this already long thing) just to say that I really like your take on him being richer too

Hey thanks! My own personal theory dump below:

I've seen a lot of takes with poorer Billy. Tbh I think based on what we see in the movie it can go either way, we just don't really have the info. Also, not to nitpick, but we do see Tatums house, that's where Sid sleeps over after Billy gets arrested and there's also a breakfast scene there in the morning.

To me, Randy is actually probably the least wealthy member of the group, he's the only one that we know has a job, and the shoe brands (mostly hush puppies) he's wearing mostly wouldn't have been super expensive.

In my opinion we don't see much of Billy's home life because we don't see much of the real Billy at all until the reveal at the end. We only see as much of Stu's as we do because the finale takes place in his house, and imo more of Billy's home life would have made him more obvious. I have to imagine his room is full of horror merch lmao.

Honestly I don't really read Hank the same way as you do though. Maureen isn't a prostitute (not that theres anything wrong with sex work), she's a housewife with an extremely wealthy husband (aside from Stu's house Sid's seems like the biggest), so I don't really feel like the affair says anything about relative wealth.

In terms of the lore, tbh I don't actually think it's totally out of character for Billy to get a random girl pregnant. I chose not to do this in Debaser because I've decided to not make Sam canon in my own work, but I could totally see him deciding he needed to "practice" with some girl before Sid. I think he probably hooked up with her at a party, had a mediocre time, and never spoke to her again because he's an asshole. Not at all joking this seems fully in character for me.

My personal hc is that Nancy was a housewife, so Hank would have been carrying the family on a single income anyways. Even if we assume that she was working before and they lost that income, then they would have only been on a lower income for a little over a year, so I don't really see that as the makings of a poor Billy.

Also, we know from scream 2 that Nancy had enough money to get major plastic surgeries (enough that she was unrecognizable to Sid) and also paid for Mickey's tuition, so that's going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars. On top of that she's not working during the events of scream 2, she's doing the fake reporter thing. Based on that Nancy Loomis is either a rich girl by birth, someone who had an extremely high paying job before, or she got a lot of money in the divorce, which would require Hank to have had a lot of money to give.

In terms of the cell phone thing- cells weren't super common for teens to have in the 90's, as far as I can tell one of the first movies that shows teens having cell phones is clueless, which came out in 1995, so it doesn't necessarily say much to me that Billy doesn't have his own in the movie.

In terms of Hank, when we see him he's wearing a nice suit, it's up to date with trends in 96', meaning he's got enough money to be staying up to date with his wardrobe and suits aren't cheap. Other wardrobe hints include Billy's white shirt being Calvin Klein, not a cheap brand for a plain white shirt. If Billy is less wealthy he's more likely to be wearing Hanes. At the very least I, a relatively poor person, am buying the cheapest white shirts I can. I get that shit in a five pack from walmart, I don't have the expendable income to spend over 50$ for a single shirt.

All of this is to say that at least for me it doesn't make a lot of sense for Billy to be poor, especially with what we know about his mom in movie 2. But thats not why I chose to make him rich.

Why Sharp chose to make Billy a rich kid:

So i've seen a number of takes where Billy is poor and Hank is extremely abusive, and that was something I wanted to avoid. In some cases this can feel to me like the poverty and physical abuse is meant to explain his behaviour and that feels a little oversimplified. I specifically chose to make Hank neglectful, judgmental and argumentative (emotionally abusive) but not physically abusive. It doesn't always take more than that to fuck someone up, and I also wanted Billy's rage to come from somewhere else, to be a little less obviously justified. His life isn't easy, but he still has privilege.

In terms of the wealth issue, Billy's character reads more as an entitled rich kid to me. He's out of touch with the emotional stakes of the things he's doing and beyond that he's got the time and energy to plan and carry out a murder spree like this.

I personally chose to write Billy as someone who doesn't experience a lot of consequences for his actions because his dad can pay them away, which he does because Billy has an effect on his professional image as a lawyer. This was particularly important for my trans Billy storyline, because the money would be necessary both to access black market hormones (would have been near impossible to get them prescribed at the time) and also because Hank would have needed to bribe the cops and the hospital to keep quiet so Billy wouldn't be outed.

Aside from that though I just think the rich boy no consequences thing plays well into how unafraid he is about what he's doing and how casually he does it. All of this is just my take though! There are lots of ways to read the movie and I made character choices about him so that they fit into the narrative I'm crafting, doesn't need to work for anyone else.

I always enjoy chatting movie theories!

[namtanlovesfilm]

Hi Axelle! Big fan of your channel btw, I watch your video about IPYTM just to get mad sometimes(my resentment towards that show is astronomical).

I've always wanted to move abroad, Seoul being the goal but I want to keep my options open. I know you have several videos about living in Thailand but I'd really love to hear more about your experience. Quality of life, language barrier, weather, expenses, xenophobia, visas, housing, pests, healthcarejob opportunities basically anything! Thank you so so much🙏🏻

Hope you have a fabulous New Year 🎊♥️

hi, thank you so much it means a lot! 🥰 glad to know someone hates ipytm as much as I do lmaooo! ok so let me do it point by point!

quality of life: much higher than living in france. rent is like 4x cheaper for way newer buildings with great amenities such as a pool & a gym, I can order food every day without breaking the bank, and bkk is such a lively city there's always so many cool things to do there for not crazy expensive! I would NEVER be able to afford my lifestyle here in bkk if I was back in paris, and the hot weather also makes it so I don't suffer from seasonal depression which is HUGE!

language barrier: I'm the only foreigner I know who speaks thai, and my foreigner friends have no trouble getting around relying on english. bangkok is one of the most expat-friendly cities ever imo!

weather: the weather is extremely hot in thailand, very humid & also it rains a lot and rainy season is no joke. however I prefer this weather over the french weather bc the sunlight we get everyday no matter the season is 12 hours a day, which is huge when in paris we can go from 14 hours of sunlight in summer, to only 6 in winter. again, really helped with my seasonal depression. also, I can go to my building's pool year round lol! the heat is not for everyone, but personally I feel like I'm on vacation year round & it has done wonders for my mental health!

expenses: as I said, bangkok is much cheaper than paris. however, with thailand's economic boom in recent decades, it's not dirt cheap either like the idea many people had like 10 or 20 years ago. the biggest thing where I really save the most money is rent, but transport is actually more expensive than paris, and imported things are unbelievably expensive. still, I live a very comfortable lifestyle with 800 euros a month, whereas to live the same exact lifestyle in france I'd need like 2000 euros.

xenophobia: there is barely any xenophobia in thailand. in fact, I'd argue that there is a romanticization of foreigners here, especially white ones. however, there are a lot of barriers to being a foreigner in thailand. getting the citizenship seems relatively hard, getting a job as a foreigner is unbelievably hard since the business visa needs to be renewed every 2 months which annoys employers, if you start your business in thailand, you can only own 49% of your own business while a thai person owns the majority, etc. most of the difficulties are legal & related to immigration, but thai people don't discriminate against foreigners. however, they will always tend to see you as a tourist & will try to scam you way more than a thai person, no matter how long you live in thailand... as expressed in videos, as a foreigner, you'll never be seen as a thai citizen, even if you spend your entire life in thailand, and that sucks...

visas: they're hell. as said before, business visas are like the shortest in the world, you can't have that many tourist visas, and the only visas that are easy to obtain are study visas (bc you pay a lot), or retirement visas that last 10 YEARS (bc they pay a lot.) however, thailand seems to slowly be relaxing its visa system, so there's hope.

housing: very easy to find something cheap, I found my 2 apartments in under 2 weeks each time, whereas it'd take me months in paris for a shittier place.

pests: first apartment had lizards, new one has insects...

healthcare: no healthcare as a tourist unless you got an insurance. now that I'm a student at the most prestigious thai uni, I have a lot of free services with the related hospital & health center. I also bought my own insurance so I'm pretty much safe. still is shocking coming from a country with completely free healthcare lol.

job opportunities: finding jobs as a foreigner is AWFUL & idk how I'm gonna find one once I graduate lol, I hope my professors can help me 😅

hope that helped, & I hope you get to do everything you're setting out to do 💜 happy new year ✨️

xxx

[soulfullofold]

continuing from previous post but uuuuuuuu not sure if this is remotely interesting to people but i'm taking a ceramics class rn and it's consumed my life completely

i'm out of university so i am auditing it. which has its own unique challenges of working full time + missing work for class + having to put in so many extra & odd hours in the studio to get assignments done. it's really nice to be in an academic setting again. I never actually took an art class in college...well...I took a 300lvl Art History class and tecchhhnically an ART class but focused on motion picture / film so not a proper studio art class with critique and studio hours. it's a nice new experience is my point. I was signed up for wheel throwing but they had to split the class into two sections so I got put in hand building instead (so that the actual students could take wheel LOL). it's fine; i really don't mind hand building. but we're starting from scratch scratch and i'm like. I just want to make weird sculptures not tiles but i understand and respect the progression of the class.

i'm pretty proud of what i'm making (even with the railroady assignments) and i really like our professor. she's really good about involving students in more complex things if they ask, and i love to ask. like please teach me how to make your own glaze and how to load / unload the kiln...

today i was sitting at my work desk just daydreaming about how to continue doing this after this class. i know ceramics is expensive as hell but it's also like. not That bad all things considered. like clay isn't too too bad, and you can recycle a lot of it from your tools and messed up projects. even if you have like. 1-2 glazes that you return to over and over again, it helps establish your identity as an artist so there's no need to have like a bajillion different options necessarily, as nice as it would be. even a wheel isn't required since you can hand build everything. a slab roller would be nice and so would a K I L N but you know how it is. studio membership is pretty expensive but at least i could have access to these things if needed. anyways i went on kilnshare and the nearest kiln to me is ~2 hours away. but i stalked the lady who ran the studio and learned all about her LOL (she shares prolifically on FB). And it's just....yeah i dunno. it would be cool to keep it up if I could.

But also I know I have a tendency to throw my entire self into whatever I do, no matter how mundane it is. So I'm like. Okay do we REALLY need to deep dive into all of this ceramics stuff and try and source a kiln and clay and build a studio (whaaaat)? I've literally been doing this for 3 or 4 weeks. What Gives. Cool The Jets. I did this with screen printing and block printing and embroidery to a lesser extent and it's just...I'm not in a place to afford RENT why am I like 👀 oh let's see if anyone is selling their used $5k kiln haa haa. Don't worry. I will definitely have a place for it and be able to literally power it with enough electricity.

I really enjoy sculpting and I think the ability to make Functional art is very very cool. And to produce it relatively easier (compared to a painting which is...a huge huge time sink for not a lot of replicable effort imo). I'm also happier experimenting with sculpture than I am with paint, I dunno. It's a different brain space to me.

The clay dust must be congealing in my brain. Clown Brain is a very accurate title; it's like clown lung but for my art-related decision making. I guess I'm just in the honeymoon stage with ceramics. I really am enjoying it very much, even if I do sometimes have to spend 14 hours straight in the studio to get projects done or come in multiple times per day or whatever. And it's literally just the most simple hand building projects that I just like to make crazy complicated for fun.

Yesterday and today I made 100 pinch pots :) Mugs are SOON since we learn handles tomorrow. mother of god it's all real. once my tiles are through the glaze firing, i will post them. also i found out someone's project blew up and took mine out with it in the bisque. i spent like 40 hrs on that thang. Great. but i'm trying to stay positive.

AND . sorry this is so rambly i'm just on little sleep and many thoughtless hours hunched over a banding wheel. and it has been nice, i think, to just make art i want to make again. (holds my hands out like spongebob about to be squished) I MEAN like . non arpg personal art. just like. yeah i want to draw a hill with a distant figure on it. no it's not an oc and no i don't have to score it for points and no i don't have to show or explain it to literally anyone. like i'm enjoying experimenting with subject matter that i like outside of twwm / esk after my fallout from exiting staff. also that is a whole other can of worms i am still processing so if you know me from that space, i am very sorry for the sudden change and for the little to no explanation for the sake of being professional but you can dm me and we can talk about it if you're curious. i don't hold any ill will for the game and i'm so happy that people are still enjoying it and their characters outside of me but man i have had experiences and many many thoughts.

okay that snuck in outta nowhere YAY sculpting YAY someone stop me from trying to randomly derail my life and create a pottery studio in the backyard i don't own