#it may be available for streaming somewhere maybe!!

[sainz100]

a few more Daniel moments from the 2024 Paris Supercross

[felixcloud6288]

It's Hurricane Season so I'd like to share some advice as a life-long Floridian who's experienced a few things. This is going to be directed primarily to people living in areas at risk of blackouts which could last several days.

Preparations

Aside from food, water, and gas, some things you'll want to make sure you have are flashlights and batteries. Make sure to refill any medications you might need.

From @dea-certe: Fill up all vehicles and maybe a few gas containers now. Firstly because it will be more expensive in the storm aftermath, but also because it will be harder to find. I went to five different gas stations to find fuel at one point and was kicking myself because I had used so much has keeping the phones charged and keeping the heat going.

Get raincoats in case you need to go outside cause the wind will destroy any umbrellas.. If you can't get one, take a garbage bag and tear a face hole into it and use that.

Also, get bug repellent, especially mosquito repellent. Mosquitos breed around still water and there will be a lot of still water.

And if you have an infant, make sure to stock up on diapers, baby wipes, etc. Even if you don't have an infant, baby wipes can be useful to help keep yourself clean.

You might want to buy some gardening gloves as well to make the post-storm cleanup safer.

SUPER IMPORTANT FOR SANITY AND SANITATION: get caught up on laundry and dishes. No power means no running water. Don't make things worse by not having clean dishes or clean clothes to use. While you're cleaning, change your bed sheets as well. Once you have power, change your sheets again.

Also, download any games, ebooks, shows, etc you can onto any battery-charged electronic devices you have. It will help your sanity when all you can do is wait.

From @metadata-uber-alles: My recommendation re: radio is to make sure you have an actual AM/FM radio, one that can run on batteries. You can probably thrift it if you don't have one already. Most radio stations stream online too, but if the power goes out you'll be rationing your phone battery and may not have internet.

Finally, while you should ideally board up your windows to protect them from debris, make sure at the minimum that all your windows are closed. Wind pressures are going to suck air out of any openings in your home.

Food and Water

First and most important: DO NOT BE A HOARDER!!

Even if your home has no power, that doesn't mean your local grocery store has no power. You can expect some reduced supply due to damaged supply lines and a spike in demand, but you shouldn't be worrying about empty shelves. At worst, have the amount of supplies you might need for 10 days. If you normally go to the grocery store every 2 weeks or longer, just stock up the amount you normally would.

Buy more items that are less likely to spoil and don't need refrigeration. When you have no power, prioritize eating anything which requires refrigeration (milk, cheese, meats) or has a short shelf life (bread).

Demand will be higher in preparation, and supply will be diminished for a bit, but supply issues only become unbearable when people start hoarding.

As for water, you'll need a surplus since you need water for so much. I cannot stress this particular part enough:

You need water to flush your toilet.

If there's somewhere with running water you can go when you need to poop, use that whenever possible, but you need water available at home to refill your toilet's cistern if you don't have that option (either time, distance, etc).

Make sure you have a supply of drinking water. Don't go buying every water bottle you can find (See the bit about hoarding), but you should buy more than you might normally use. Instead, gather water through things like your sink or from a hose into any sealable containers you might have . If you have a bathtub, fill it up just before the hurricane. If you have a pool, that's another source of water. If no debris got in the pool, you can use it for bathing. If you have empty buckets, you can get some additional water during the hurricane by filling them with large rocks or bricks and leaving them out in the open to collect the rain water.

Different water sources will be used for different purposes:

bottled, canned, or other store-bought water: Drinking, cooking, and refrigeration (explained later)

Water in unsealed containers: refill the toilet cistern

Water in a sealed containers: bathing and cleaning (Can also be used for the toilet)

As mentioned with food, supplies at your grocer will be reduced but not necessarily empty. You should be able to buy enough additional drinking water and be able to also use it for cleaning, giving you more water for the toilet. The tip about gathering rain water will only work once. There will likely be no rain for at least a week afterward.

In case you need to evacuate

Keep tabs on whatever emergency alerts are available. Check what your local radio channel is or what sites to check online. Make sure you know how to get to your local shelter, including alternate paths in case a road is inaccessible.

Load your vehicle with anything you might need to bring with you before the storm so you don't have to spend time looking for them and double checking when every minute could count. Pack some pillows, blankets, and extra clothes just in case. Also include anything you cannot risk losing for school or work like laptops.

Refrigeration

Without power, your fridge is now just a giant cooler and a ticking bomb to being a biohazard. Fill it up as much as possible. Cold air escapes easily when you open it and heat disperses fastest throw the air. Remember how I said you should buy extra water? A fridge filled with cold water will stay cooler longer. Any liquid will do. Fill your fridge with water bottles, soda cans, beer, fruit juice, whatever. As long as it doesn't spoil at room temperature. Milk can technically help too, but since it spoils you shouldn't keep much of it and should use it quickly.

Additional things like fruits and veggies will also help. What matters is you want to reduce the amount of empty space and fill it with anything which can keep the temperature down. Put a frozen block of iron in for all I care. Just don't have a super empty fridge.

If you have a generator

Good for you. You're not completely without power now. But you need to set priorities on what to use it for. Generators can only supply so much power at a time so you can't just hook everything to it and expect things to work out.

Top priority is the fridge. Twice a day, morning and evening, plug the fridge to the generator and let it run for two hours to cool things down. Don't hook up the fridge when you don't expect to open it (like when everyone is asleep).

Second priority should be charging cell phones, laptops, and anything else like that. Depending on your circumstances, you can charge them at work, from your car, etc so only hook them up when batteries are low.

Third, comfort. I understand this will be stressful, but hooking up your tv and gaming computer isn't the best idea. If you've done what I suggested earlier, you'll at least have something to watch or do without needing to hook it to your generator. Like with the above electronics, you might be able to find other ways to charge them, but only attach them to your generator when you don't need to worry about necessities.

Finally for the love of god, DO NOT HOOK AN AC TO THE GENERATOR!!. Air conditioners draw a lot of power, especially once the room is hot. But your generator can only do so much. The AC will kill your power supply really quickly. Use a fan or the AC in your vehicle if you need to cool down.

Also worth noting, if you have an electric vehicle, that could potentially be used as well. I don't know specifics, but look into that if you own one.

Final notes

This is not comprehensive and I may be wrong about some things.

Please refer to actual expert sources for comprehensive help.

This is just suggestions from someone who has to deal with this every year and has figured out how to deal with the aftermath. Your living conditions may be different so please check how to handle any concerns unique to you.

Stay safe and do not give up hope.

[windvexer]

RE: your recent 20 point post attempting to convince people to practice sorcery:

One of your first points is that sorcery and spellcraft *can* be goal oriented, but that the practice itself would be fulfilling on its own. That really resonated with me, and I'm actually more interested in that *kind* of practice. Imagine me as someone who wants to learn magic the same way someone might want to learn Tai-chi *not* as a means of self defense, but instead as someone who wants a slow, meditative experience, and any fighting prowess that might come about is a side effect, rather than the intent. How might I go about approaching magic or sorcery in this way? Is there such a path?

Thank you for your patience.

Just having written another post about why magic can be a huge chore and that's fine seems like the perfect time to reply to this.

We are in reference to list list of reasons to practice sorcery.

You may also find this other post on witchcraft as a spirituality to be helpful.

Also, this post on how to develop a practice that, like a good shampoo, is gentle enough for daily use.

That daily practice post might be what you're looking for.

Also, you may enjoy this post about your toes being in a stream.

Anon, I think it's fun that you've arrived at a place I usually assume people arrive at later on, when they've accidentally built a practice they hate out of pursuit of practical utility, or because they did a bunch of stuff they thought they were supposed to do, and now the burdens of their own path are drowning them like a millstone around the proverbial neck of joy.

I think it's very nice to approach witchcraft from a place of doing it just because you enjoy it. It's refreshing, which might say something sad about the state of witchcraft affairs, but maybe I just tend to stare into dusty corners.

Check out that developing a daily practice post, which I think is in the spirit of results, but is a lot more focused on finding out how to integrate witchcraft into your lifestyle without crashing and burning, like a little fuzzy bird just ready to experience the joys of flight, but whom accidentally tied a rock to its foot, and the rock is called "daily offering and meditation schedule, energy work at 9 every day :) choose each outfit with intention! no excuses not to practice."

Apropos of drowning and falling metaphors, I think that if you cast your net you'll find a heck of a lot of theory available out there is about magical efficacy.

Things are done a certain way not because that's the most enjoyable way to do them, but because that's the most effective way the author has found to do them. That is, if you can find content relating to theory in the first place. A lot of people don't like to share why their work is the way it is, my best faith take being that it's a lot of work to write down, my worst faith take being that they don't know, they just read it somewhere.

So when getting into things and reading and researching, keep in mind that you're probably not going to see a lot of "do it because it feels good." Reading with a critical eye will probably be helpful and keep in mind that you are probably going to be walking a parallel track with its own twists and turns.

But anyway, what I really recommend for you is to find out why the steps are done that way, so that you can then adjust it to your liking without ruining the recipe.

But I think the only fish to catch with your net of inquiry is that start doing anything; see what you liked about it and what you didn't like, and re-work it until you do like it.

And keep in mind, when most anyone recommends some kind of training regimen, they are meaning witchcraft in the self-defense way. Not in the meditative experience way. Although ironically, they will almost definitely recommend meditation.

[doorp]

What started out as theories abt when the main cast died but got silly

Annabel + Lenore ✨

This one is pretty straightforward, there’s these Barbie movie redraws flynn did that shows Annabel and Lenore being caught by “NMPD nevermore police department” , with the year 1901 in the corner, implying that’s when they died and got sent to nevermore

This little 1901 in the corner is interesting on like a meta level to me bc 1. in the original Barbie meme theres no date on the slate thingies, so flynn decided to add that piece of info on her own, and 2. this was just after episode 67 came out (on fp I think) and uh little tidbit, before that episode there was a theory that Theo died in like the 1860s or something based on the logo in the newspaper abt his death, the ny daily tribune, and after episode 67 came out and ira mentioned a ship that wasn’t available for public use until 1899 on the discord we were trying to do mental gymnastics to make the 2 dates work but then red came on like “please we accidentally grabbed the wrong logo it’s meant to read new York tribune not New York daily tribune its fixed now we fixed it please” and then a few days later they streamed doing this piece

Anyway, ira talks about the oceanic, which was “the finest ocean liner in the world” the *largest ocean liner in the world* until 1901

The RMS oceanic had its maiden voyage in September of 1899, at the beginning of fall. Annabel says she arrived in New York a fortnight before meeting Lenore, presumably during the spring. Annabel arrives at lenores house in april/may of 1900, spends six months there, and then leaves around the fall, probably somewhere around September or October. Lenore then spends a few months doing her thing and then arrives at her family’s home in either December 1900 or January 1901, during the winter. HERES where it gets interesting. We can assume that Annabel died in the cold, from her spectres chilling atmosphere and all together appearance of corpse in a freezer. She even has frostbite on her fingers and toes, as well as snowflake like glitter in her veil. We can also assume she died on her wedding day, the way she wears her rings on different hands and her wedding dress in spectre form. So if she died in the cold and on her wedding day, then when was her wedding, and how could it be in winter?

heres my 2 theories

1. Lenore beats Annabel at chess just for funsies fairly quickly after arriving, then they try to elope and get caught by their dads

2. Lenore courts Annabel, wins her hand, and they get engaged. Since engagements usually lasted around 6 months to 2 years, their engagement could have been anywhere from however long it takes Lenore to win at chess to December 1901. If their wedding day was in November/December, that means Lenore got away with pretending to be a man for a whole YEAR and they spent that year just being gay and shit/doing schemes.

I personally like option 2 more bc its just sadder that they did get away w it for a while then ultimately got caught - it would also explain why Annabel is just SO into Lenore, if all she remembers is that year they spent being all sneaky and gay and shit, it would explain how she’s just used to flirting and holding onto Lenore in secret. It would also explain why Annabel assumes Lenore is up to scheming at nevermore. if they eloped a few weeks after they reunited it would still be like yeah that makes sense they are such u haul lesbians, but them becoming sneaky codependent gays ripped from each other on their wedding day just hurts more and makes more sense time/character wise

Duke - 1912, maybe even 1912 specifically, idk

Duke has a coin that’s dated to 1912, and Eulalie says it looks brand new. There’s been arguments about wether or not the coin is actually newly minted, but I don’t think we can say for sure. It might not matter either way- I have a theory that the suit cases the students carry aren’t actually random personal items of interest, but a suitcase they packed right before a pivotal event in their lives. Perhaps Duke does have newly minted coins in his suitcase, but he didn’t actually die in 1912. Also! Duke is implied to be a Houdini like figure, so I imagine he’s not later than the 20s.

Pluto - 1914 ish

Plutos spectre wears a British ww1 military uniform, its debated wether or not the jacket was his dads or his, but regardless he couldn’t have died earlier than 1914. Pluto is named after the cat in the short story called The Black Cat by Edgar Allan poe. In the story a cat named Pluto gets its eye slashed out by its drunken owner, eventually getting hung from a tree by the man. Theres obvious references to the story in Plutos design and shit overall, when he manifests a belt snaps around his neck implying he died from strangulation, his spectre has like, a pluming collar/leash of smoke around its neck, his spectre looks like it’s made of ash kinda (someone described him as a burnt rabbit to me once) which is probably a reference to the part in the story where the man’s house burns down, only 1 wall remaining erect, with the image of a black cat scorched into it. Plutos eye is covered by his hair, he walks into a door frame, he’s got spectre abilities called “blink” and “evil eye” so w Pluto until we get more info it’s no earlier than 1914 if you subscribe to the Pluto went to war theory or no earlier than like, say the 20s? if you subscribe to the Plutos dad was a vet theory

Berenice - 1920s

Shes a flapper, cmon. shes from the 1920s. Look at her. We already know she was run over by a cop car after running from some guy, and I tried to look into where the cop car was from but i didn’t have much luck. mostly just confirmed the era, when I searched cop cars of the 1920s pretty similar images to the one that killed bee show up. A few others I think have looked into it more? but im not completely sure. There’s been a lot of theories about where Berenice is from, I’ve seen Louisiana, Chicago, Harlem (Harlem renaissance specifically) but there’s not a lot of conclusive info about Berenice. we know her pearls were real, in the way they scattered, so she had so have some means of affording them. Pearls are held together on a string, but only real pearls have pieces of metal between the pearls to keep them from rubbing against each other. Bees pearls scatter in long strings, not completely all over the place like fake pearls without that structure would.

Eulalie - 1935

The song Eula sings in her death flashback is a Japanese lullaby that was rediscovered in 1935. Its a popular theory that Eulalies death was a hate crime, a fire started because of hate towards Japanese Americans during ww2. She probably died in the forties in america, I don’t think she died in Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the fire that killed her isnt how atomic bombs would have killed her. The kid she sings to asks if someone started the fire on purpose, so imo it was likely a hate crime.

Morella - 1950s - 70s??

Okay so, Morella. we know the least about her. with will we can guess that he was lower class and stuff, but all we know abt Morella is that she’s Irish. Shepards pie and Guinness is pretty timeless. The reason I say 50s to 70s is bc according to Remigoesinsane the clasp to her locket started to be used around that time! that’s all I have on her tbh, a theory of mine is that she died in a factory accident trying to save someone when the machinery went crazy, but that’s mostly it.

Ada - 1930s

Ada’s clothes in her death flashback match those worn by maids in the 1930s, and the lingerie she wears in the manor also matches lingerie worn in the 30s. It would also make sense for Ada’s character to be from the 30s. That decade was called the “somber thirties” bc of how fucked up the economy was after the stock market crash. It was a major time of economic disparity, and Ada’s obsession with trying to seem upper class elite could stem from not having much when she died. She probably sees nevermore as a blank slate, a place where people will see her as more than just “the help” would also make sense that the man that killed her was a rich guy using his power to take advantage of her and get away with the crime. Especially since the poem, Tamerlane, was from the pov of a rich guy lamenting a relationship he had with a lower class girl named Ada.

Prospero ✨

PROSPERO! prospero drinks espresso with his chosen last meal, which was invented in 1901. I think he died from tuberculosis. For a long time a major cause of death has been tuberculosis. So much so that Victorians made it a beauty standard. A major inspiration of Poe himself was tuberculosis, in the masque of red death, along with the grief he was left with after his wife died from it. It rots your lungs, makes you cough up your bloodied respiratory system until you suffocate in it. In the maze, prospero says he felt queasy, like something was crawling under his skin when he died. When prospero cuts his hand, he says he’s going to be sick, and tells Annabel that he’s afraid of blood. (Probably specifically his own blood bc u know he was feeding people to rats like minutes before that) This, coupled with the imagery of blood pouring out from his plague mask when he says the “queasy, like something was crawling under my skin” line, makes me think his death involved a lot of blood! And as I said before tuberculosis was like really gross and bloody and gory. Furthermore, this quote from the writer is SO interesting

In the poem prosperos namesake is in, the masque of red death, the prince prospero, hiding and ignoring a sickness ravaging his country, decides to host a huge party! Everyone’s having a grand old time, the festivities only pausing when the clock strikes, leaving everyone in a dread filled silence, the party picking up almost immediately after and brushing it off. Eventually the plague does get in though and kill them all because they ignored the feeling of dread.

The prince and the party goers die because the prince is blissfully and willfully ignorant of the disease. Bc their hubris didn’t allow them to see the threat of it. Nevermores prospero, however, is obsessed with staying healthy/hygienic as possible. He wears his gloves even when he eats, hates being touched, almost throws up when he cuts his hand. He hallucinates a thousand dirty hands grabbing him and trying to perform an operation on him with disgusting germy tools. He sees the hand he cut amputated, imagining that the wound got so infected that it had to be removed. He stares in horror at his hand before Ada even makes eye contact with him. My theory is Prospero grew up hearing terrible stories of people dying from infection, disease. He heard of people slowly drowning in their own blood. He decided to take every precaution, he simply wouldn’t allow that to be his fate. After Ada attacks him he tells Annabel “you must think me neurotic” for being so upset over the blood on his hand. This feels, so specific and intentional to me. Not just because Annabel dealt with her anxiety and her dad treating her panic attacks like he did, and this is a whole “omg look they’re bonding” moment, but bc, immediately after he tries to assure her that “im not, you know, im perfectly sane” like shit like this has happened before, where ppl called him neurotic for being that sick at the sight of his own blood, or that obsessed with hygiene. The irony being that, he spent his life obsessing over staying healthy, so much so that people called him neurotic, only to die that slow gory death anyway.

That whole, prospero dying from tb tangent aside tho, how it correlates to the time of his death. He probably died in the early 1900s, the earliest being 1901-1906ish, bc again, that’s when espresso started gaining popularity. My guess is he died around the 20s, ik the tb vaccine came out around the 20s, but people still died of it after and are still dying/contracting it today, and in the 20s there were a lot of Italians emigrating to America, and prospero is so aggressively Italian American (eating espresso and cannoli with chocolate chips for his last meal) that it’d make sense. So woo!

Monty - 1910s

Monty is a cowwwwboyyyyyy. The Wild West pretty much tapered out around the early 1900s. He can’t be that recent. He also mentions calamity Jane so that definitely puts him past the 1800s. He seemed to have a pretty wild life, kicked in the head by a horse, tooth knocked out by a human, tied to train tracks and left for dead after calling the pastors daughter loose. crazy guy crazy time

Will ???

Will is so plain i cannot get a read on where hes from im sorry

obligatory thank you for making it to the end, I barely made it myself, this was sitting in my drafts for weeks before I decided to just get it over with. <<333

[soft-persephone]

Helpful not so Helpful Guide to Jake Johnson

A master post with links to some movies and information or where to access some of them +more

Disclaimer: if any of these movies are bad or you hate them, that’s on you and not me. I am heavily biased. You have been warned.

SELF RELIANCE

let’s start with the obvious. It’s out now on Hulu! Has been since February maybe idk. I’m unhealthily obsessed and bad with dates.

It’s his directorial debut, but if you didn’t know. Jake started out as a writer before improv and acting. He’s the writer, director, and star of this one. It’s very special and his baby!

It’s a wild roller coaster ride of emotions and genre. If you smoke, smoke, if you drink, drink, if you are sober, it’s still a roller coaster ride. Don’t worry, there is a lot there for you too!

But if you like enhancements, I hear it’s extra fun.

I liked it a lot, it’s whacky, creepy at times, but undeniably fun. And that’s all I will say.

Warning! Don’t watch press or any interviews for the movie until after you’ve seen the movie.

Ride the Eagle

is also on Hulu

It’s a movie he wrote during the pandemic and directed with Trent O’Donnell who directed many episodes of new girl.

It’s very heartfelt and about Grief.

Jake Johnson’s dog also makes guest appearance with their acting debut and they are the sweetest and most bestest acting dog ever.

WE’RE HERE TO HELP

his podcast!

It’s very fun and with one of his buddies Gareth Reynolds.

People call in and they give them advice that is as funny and crazy as the callers.

Something’s Burning

Here’s a link to a interview on the premise of the show, but also they talk to this guy. idk. He may be a bit much, but he makes Jake laugh and I love listening to him laugh, so it’s fun for that reason too.

Or you are a Burt fan.

🏴‍☠️Pirate ship access only 🏴‍☠️

Link to the ship

The Pretty One -

one of my favorites. It’s an oddball indie about twins where one dies and the one alive assumes the identity of the one who died where she stumbles upon her sister neighbor played by Jake Johnson. He’s dressed like a sexy Mr. Rogers if you ask me, and he is delightfully sardonic and childish. However, he dresses better than Nick Miller ever could

Win it All

It used to be on Netflix, but it’s been taken down recently. That’s my bad because I could have made this sooner, but I just haven’t for no reason.

Jake plays a character with a gambling addiction and an anxiety inducing as the first part may be, it’s not that bad. When I first saw it I had to turn it off because I just got too anxious over what might happen next, but you might not have a weak stomach like me, so you might be fine.

On the second time around, I made it to the part where he meets this girl and everything quickly became heartwarming and endearing and it makes you just root for the main character.

A love letter for those in our lives who may not be fortunate to put themselves together as well as we might.

TAG

It’s also available the link above, but it could be streaming for free somewhere. Idk.

this movie is very self-explanatory by the name. It’s very fun, Jeremy Reiner is in it, so that’s either good news or bad news for you. But it’s still fun.

Jake looks very good in this one. He still has his Tom cruise work out body.

I am very embarrassed to say I can tell what year every movie has come out based on his body shape which is lovely at every size, but the accuracy is quite scary. Which is information I didn’t need to share at all

Stumptown

I used to keep that thang on me.

And by thang on me, I mean a pirate ship link to see this show. But they are for some reason gone. I’ve searched high and low for ones to access on maybe a phone? But unless you have a fire stick that has some certain pirate ship accessories on there, I don’t know where you can watch it.

But it’s such an amazing serialized show about this woman who comes back home from Iraq with ptsd, the love of her life died over there and his family blames her for it and she also blames herself for it.

She becomes a private investigator and her best friend is Gray McConnell played by Jake Johnson who, surprise suprise, owns a bar.

Imagine a cooler, sexier, smarter, and more put together Nick Miller. He is just as funny and sarcastic, but not a manchild.

But the show has amazing bisexual representation, mental health representation of ptsd, complex female characters, and it’s so well paced and written and every way.

If you love cop shows like criminal minds or fbi or any of those, imagine something like that but about a private investigator, and more emphasis on the plot and characters and their relationships. The “cop” part is just more fun on this show than others, but I am biased because I hate cop shows.

I wish I had a link to give y’all for it because it’s so easily to obsess over.

However, it’s also been canceled because of “COVID��� but if you look into it. That’s a bullshit reason, and it’s been canceled for no reason, but at that point Jake Johnson was doing spiderverse and Colbie Smolders was doing other stuff. (She plays the main female character)

MINX

Show set in the 70s about a woman starting the first male nude magazine to persue her dream of making a feminist one.

It’s smart, the writing is amazing, and I can not recommend it enough. There’s a lot of nudity, but it’s not what you think at all.

You truly have to watch it for yourself to understand what the show is trying to do, and it’s amazing.

I’ve never seen anything like it and it’s such a breath of fresh air in a time of remakes and endless sequels.

It used to be on HBO but now it’s on Starz!

Here’s a link to see it. Shhhh. Don’t tell anyone

But for some reason it only has season two which sucks so hard and I am so sorry I couldn’t provide more.

Drinking Buddies

- it used to be available on YouTube but now it’s not free anymore or the person who posted has since deleted it been removed. But the pirate ship one will have it for sure.

Have you ever met someone and you never dated them, never had a something more conversation but the chemistry is there.

You were super close to them, but no one has ever questioned it or said anything about it, but when you are with them you know it’s there? But that’s all it ever has been and will be, and maybe you aren’t even in each others lives anymore but you still think of them from time to time because they were a major part of you being who you are?

Yes? Well boy do I have a movie for you!

No? Well that’s what this movie is, but it adds more because it’s a movie and it needed to be at least an hour and a half.

But now that you know what it’s about, be warned that it’s slower in pace. It’s an indie movie.

I will have more to say about that later.

But overall it’s a good movie with a good feeling.

If you’ve ever had a will they won’t they in a real life way and not the Hollywood way, this movie might trigger those feelings.

Digging for Fire

- it used to be available on YouTube but now it’s not free anymore or the person who posted has since deleted it been removed. But the pirate ship one will have it for sure.

A cute heartwarming thriller.

Those genres don’t seem like they could all blend together, but that’s what this movie does.

A family rents out a house in LA and the husband, played by Mr Jake Johnson, finds a gun and a bone, and they call the police and they say we’re not responsible for random trash. Call us if you find a body.

This is a real story that happened to Jake Johnson and his family.

He called up his friend Joe Swamburg who is a director, and they make this movie together.

He’s also the director of drinking buddies and Win it All.

It’s not only about that, again, because it needs to be over an hour. So it’s also about marriage. Not say anything else because you need something to keep you wanting to see this one, but I will say, it’s not a pretentious or dark or super try hard movie about marriage that will depress you.

It’s open and honest and ultimately sweet.

Imagine if scenes from a marriage wasn’t a drag or if a marriage story was positive instead of weird.

Idk I never actually watched a marriage story. It might not even be called that at all and you may be confused so… moving on.

No Activity

A show he was in for three episodes but it has a hilarious premise and if you are a fan of comedy, you might enjoy it having Will Farrell, Jason Mantzoukas and so much more.

Here a clip

Apparently there a ten photo limit.. so no picture

I use to have a link to it, but it’s also been erased from everywhere, unless you have access to other pirate ships.

:(

Interviews

Link

Here is a playlist of amazing interviews that give you a head start on getting to know him. They aren’t in any important order, and they also have a few about each movie and show he’s in as well.

Also if you need accessing a vpn please reach out. I know a good free vpn app for iOS.

PART TWO!!!!

[cattimeswithjellie]

Stream Recap DocM77, 6/23/24

((A quick content advisory on this stream, Doc and his chat get into an involved and sometimes contentious discussion on the "Man or Bear" thought experiment between 1:11:00 and 1:35:00. I have omitted nearly all of it from this recap because it is literally impossible to fairly and fully recap that kind of discussion in this kind of format and also I didn't want to. Timestamps made during the discussion discuss what Doc was doing, but not what was being talked about.))

9:22 Doc brings his stream live with 52 seconds left on his 10 minute stream-start countdown clock. He is in his studio view and comments that the light appears to be getting pinker than ever. He doesn’t think it used to be quite this pink. Chat agrees that it is very pink. Doc thanks subs and donos from the countdown. Doc’s studio really is exceptionally pink. He makes an adjustment that might help a small amount. Chat is skeptical that anything changed. Doc is streaming on a Sunday today and that’s good, gives a chance to some viewers who might not be available on Saturday. He explains that he had thought the birthday party Doccy was invited to was today, but in fact it was yesterday. It was a good time except a kid almost broke Doc’s nose while playing on the playground with water. He got smacked in the face with a bucket. Chat is sympathetic but also laughing. Today Doccy is off visiting Grandma.

13:30 A chatter asks what happened to the rainbow beacon. Doc reveals that he eventually got tired of fixing it ((Something about the daily server reset was killing the beacon every day, Doc and Xisuma had been working on a way to fix it.)) and Bdubs eventually landscaped over it when he built the courthouse. The beacon is there in spirit, and may be rebuilt somewhere else later.

14:20 Doc brings up Hermitcraft, or tries to. It is a black screen. Things are working great in this professional stream environment, says Doc. He restarts Minecraft, saying this is a problem that happens occasionally. Today, he tells Chat, they get to share Doc’s daily experience of logging on and wondering if anything has been stolen. The alarm system is good, but not foolproof. The Ore Snatcher could use tools like chorus fruit and wool blocks in a risky ploy to steal another block. Doc’s paranoia has reached new heights, but he is also distracted because OBS is still not detecting Minecraft. He troubleshoots it.

17:10 Minecraft appears, but Doc has to fiddle with it some more before it will display properly with facecam and overlay. He logs on, telling Chat more about his daily fear. He logged out above the shop and cannot hear an alarm, so that’s good! He checks for a released warden and finds it in its place, then checks for newly missing blocks. Doc and Chat agree that there are no new missing blocks. Doc sings a smug song of satisfaction and dances on the grave of the Ore Snatcher. He is happy, but commenters have made him paranoid that maybe the Ore Snatcher hit the redstone in Big Wood. He will not feel okay until he checks.

21:00 Doc conducts a thorough survey of the Big Wood redstone. He has gotten a lot more sand paid into the shop and does not find any missing ore blocks, so is in a very good mood. He tells Chat that he has a new, lower sub goal that reflects the fact that the high rollers in Chat can’t keep making huge sub drops. As Doc returns to the trim shop, he responds to chat’s concerns that if the Ore Snatcher stops, nobody might ever know who it was. Doc tells Chat that he specifically designed the alarm system to be not-quite-impenetrable, that someone who is really dedicated… He trails off when the overlay does a strange thing, then takes a moment to thank more subs and his favorite of the Single Ladies. He picks up the thread and tells chat there are ways someone smart and dedicated (Cub, he is pretty sure) could get into the system. Doc is 60% sure at this point that it is Cub. Not many people could be so dedicated, careful and tricky just to piss Doc off, but Cub is just that kind of guy.

25:20 The Bdubs-shrieking phantoms are starting to come out now, so it is time to go inside. Doc switches back to studio view so Chat cannot see the Secrets of the Sand Pile. Chat is pretty on board with the Cub thing, they agree that Cub is the type to keep his pranks quiet and incredibly annoying. Doc disables the Warden alarm and enters into his redstone, only to discover that his secret door is not working. He does some yelling. He freecams around to see if that tricky Ore Snatcher has been at it again, but the cause is benign, a simple mistake probably caused by all the sleep Doc is losing lately. He breathes a sigh of relief but is still annoyed on principle. With the alarms disabled he can break the wall of his shop and access the bed he’s got hidden in the unfinished alcove back there.

27:50 Today Doc must, absolutely must, finish the interior decoration of the shop. He wants to have more armor pieces laying around like T-shirts set out for sale in a clothing shop, but he can’t figure out how to make it work. A chatter activates text-to-speech. Doc is pleased that it is working again. He tells Chat that next week he will be recording the Imp and Skizz podcast, something he’s really looking forward to. He tells Chat that Impulse has asked him what sorts of things he wants to talk about and asks for ideas. Chat thinks they should talk about who the Ore Snatcher is, and suggests that Doc should be as unhinged as possible. Doc asks if he’s allowed to swear, Chat says not much. They suggest no politics or talk about Elon Musk, so as to avoid a podcast that is a hundred hours of Doc ranting, and they want to hear Doc’s dad lore and stories about his basketball career. It could also be an opportunity for Doc to plug his interest in trying out the Life Series. Doc agrees that’s worth thinking about, then gets distracted talking about soccer/football with Chat.

31:20 Chat reminds Doc that his mic is hot. Doc says he likes the hot mic, but he turns it off so Chat will calm down about it. The shopping district is not exactly buzzing on a Sunday morning anyway. Doc points out that this is his area on the server and if people come near him they will hear him speak, just like in real life. This is apparently enough to convince himself and he turns the mic right back on again and goes back to talking sports. He once again declares victory over the Ore Snatcher, but says that the worst outcome would indeed be if the shenanigans stop and they never find out who did it. That would drive Doc and Chat extra crazy. Chat points out that if it is Cub, he has been known not to fess up to pranks for years.

33:20 Chat brings up the problem of shulker boxes to Doc. If a Hermit is using a wallet box and places it down to pay, how would they pick it up again without setting off the alarm. Doc is not worried because the alarm’s not going to be on all the time, and it’ll only be there for as long as the Ore Snatcher is active. So yes, basically anyone who tries to pay will set off the alarm. Doc is distracted by voice-to-text again, then decides what he really needs to do is talk to Xisuma. He searches up Xisuma’s coordinates and heads over there. Doc had ruled out Xisuma from the get-go because X is generally a peaceable guy, but now he has to investigate everyone. He flies down to land at X’s base, singing the “X gonna give it to you” song but replacing X with “Goat.”

34:50 Doc goes into the base and looks around. X is not visible but does tell Doc in chat that he made him jump with the singing. Doc continues searching and calling out, acknowledging that he can be really annoying when he wants to be. He finally spots Xisuma, on the path outside his base and begins a friendly and unsubtle interrogation. X says he has a great alibi, he hasn’t been on the server for the whole past week! Doc asks if he’s heard anybody talking about it, but X says only people in his chat speculating. Doc’s chat speculates that it could be Xisuma with the spelling errors, given that he could not remember how to spell “Field” during Wordle. Doc tells X about the alarm system, brags about his success, and worries that he’ll never learn the truth. Doc lays it on thick how much he trusts Xisuma and how he knows X would never-ever-ever do something like this because he’s such a nice and trustworthy guy. X agrees with this assessment and says it’s more likely that he would fix something he noticed off than break something, but does not come out and say that he is not the Ore Snatcher.

37:40 Doc agrees about X’s penchant for fixing things, but what about Evil X? Xisuma really can’t vouch for that guy, he’s liable to do anything. “But he’s not in the picture right now, right?” Doc asks. Xisuma is not sure, he doesn’t know what that guy gets up to while X is away, and he’s just mentioned being gone all week. Doc tells X that he’s pretty sure Ren is innocent. Ren is too busy; when he’s deep into the lore he can’t think about pranks. Scar is the police and the police can be corrupt, but Doc has interviewed him several times now and either Scar is innocent or Doc has vastly underestimated his skills as a smooth and plausible liar. Xisuma suggests maybe it could be someone who wants to earn Doc’s business… someone who has just built a courthouse and needs cases to be moving through it. Neither X nor Doc can really take Bdubs seriously as the Ore Snatcher. Doc points out that unlike some bored people (cough GRIAN cough), Bdubs is pretty much always grinding and building when he is online. But Grian is actually very busy right now and was on vacation, plus he is already involved in a whole snail-prank situation that neither he nor X are very familiar with. Doc says it sounds like money laundering to him.

40:00 X admits to Doc that he himself has been accused of some shady financial behavior in relation to his trophy scheme, where the Hermits sell things in their shop, earn diamonds, and then send their diamonds straight to Xisuma in exchange for a trophy saying how many diamonds they earned. Doc says that sounds like a Bitcoin scam to him. Chat is debating with itself about options like Grian, Gem and Etho for Ore Snatcher. X admits it may sound like NFTs, but the Hermits like it! Doc’s current suspicion list is Gem, Cub, and Joel, though Doc doesn’t really know him well enough for a real assessment yet. They had that interaction where Joel was clearly annoyed about having to shovel sand, and in Doc’s book that means motive. Honestly though, he has no real hints or clues to go on. He asks X to keep an ear out for the alarm in the shopping district and asks if there is a plug in they can add so Doc can get a cell phone ping if anyone comes near the shop. X reminds him that they try to do things the vanilla way on Hermitcraft. Doc walks off grumbling about “no sand duping, no phone monitoring, can’t do anything… this sucks.” Xisuma wishes him good luck.

42:00 Doc walks away and tells Chat that Xisuma is innocent and they all know it. Chat is batting around Jevin as a possible suspect. Doc insists he and Jevin are tight. He thanks subs and donos, then takes Chat over for a look at the new Poe Poe HQ that Scar just built. The new searchlight looks really cool at night. Doc still thinks it was almost certainly Cub. Chat suggests Impulse and Big Salmon, as well as Iskall, Joe Hills, Mumbo, Stress, Cleo, and the snails. Chat is not being super helpful at the moment, but they are full of enthusiasm and ideas. Doc says it’s not Beef and Chat will know why soon. ((This is one day before Beef makes the public announcement that he and his partner are expecting their first baby and he’s going to be very, very, very busy for the next little while!))

43:30 Doc forgets the inherent peril of every GoodTimesWithScar build and gets severely jumpscared by the creeper that sneaks up behind him. He’s not hurt but the front yard of Poe Poe HQ has lost some landscaping. Doc thinks that vandalizing Poe Poe HQ might not be the best move for a guy in his legal position, and it seems like the “SUE TODAY” banner on the courthouse might just be mocking him. He remembers that Scar’s building supplies chest monster hasn’t been picked up yet and goes to rummage through it for extra booshes. He finds some, but comes very, very, very close to blowing up Scar’s entire chest monster when another creeper pays a visit.

44:40 Doc uses freecam to show the now-underground broken rainbow beacon, buried under the road between the courthouse and the police station. The metaphor would be unbearably heavy-handed if it weren’t also obviously accidental. Doc replaces the destroyed bushes and takes a look at Poe Poe HQ by daylight, declaring it a really cool build. He laughs at the enormous POE sign and is confused by the sand countdown clock. Chat tells him it is counting down to the enforcement of the rule against popup shops in the shopping district. Doc wonders who made this, even as he finds a trapdoor with a sign reading “Ultra Redstoners Only.” Deciding he is definitely in that club, he enters without hesitation to check out the guts of the countdown machinery. He studies it for a moment and asks in complete befuddlement “Who _made_ this?” Hearing from Chat that it was Scar does explain a lot. Doc decides he had better leave before the redstone drives him insane.

46:40 Time to go back and work on interior design again. Doc does not want to do his interior design. He bemoans the fact that he got himself into a quarrel with Cleo, who would’ve been the perfect Hermit to tap for all the armor stand work he needs done but is now mad at him. He decides he should wander around and look for design ideas from other shops, because he is so uninspired. Chat suggests Joel has great interiors, so does Pearl. Doc admires Joel’s octopus but does not want one in his armor trim boutique. Chat thinks the octopus is amazing. Doc tells Chat they are useless. Chat doesn’t care; they want to go look at the Lizzie statue at Joel’s base. A chatter says they heard Doc was going to play Stardew Valley and is excited about it; Doc tells them he has played Stardew Valley through three times already. He’s exploited everything exploitable in that game and even made a tutorial for finding rare fish; Stardew Valley has nothing left for him.

49:00 Doc looks around in the honey shop for decoration ideas, but is disappointed to find no armor stand work to get inspired by. Chat wants to hear the song. Doc is unenthusiastic but plays the song. He goes on an entire facial journey as Chat grooves to the “Honey, Honey, Honey” song. “Jesus Christ,” Doc says. This puts Joel at the top of the suspect list as far as Doc is concerned. Anyone who could come up with that song is clearly capable of anything.

51:00 Further evidence of Joel’s potential villainy, putting his tree-trunk honey shop very close to the hourglass. Why would Joel put his wood thing next to Doc’s wood thing? Are they doing a wood comparison? Doc asserts that everyone knows Joel has small wood. Chat has a lot of feelings about this line of reasoning, most of which can only be expressed by emoji. Doc dismisses Joel’s wood shop as thicker, maybe, but stumpy, and then abandons all pretense and just mutters “smallishballs.” Chat is so upset.

52:10 Really though, at the end of the day Doc thinks it is Cub. And now it is time to hang up clothes in the armor trim shop. Chat reels momentarily from the quick change of topic, but gamely tries to help Doc decide what goes in a typical clothing shop. They suggest caps, a netherite chest plate, and a mapart of Karl Lagerfeld. Doc remembers he also wants to hang up his permit. He puts it up on his cash register and declares it good. Doc also has the dirt and rails permits he is not using just yet. One of the “single ladies” in chat demands shoes, Doc caters to the single ladies and adds a rack of shoes behind the counter.

57:00 Chat begins debating which types of shoes are best for the single ladies to wear. Doc places a pair of black boots, per chat request, and says he does not have a favorite type of shoe. Chat’s opinion on heels are divided, they don’t like how they feel but a short chatter points out that it is nice to be tall. Doc admits there are probably not any high heels available in his size, so he has never tried them. Chat could recommend him some places if he is interested. Chat says that for women, beauty is suffering. Doc agrees and says that is true for men as well! He recounts a time where he used waxing strips as part of a charity event; it has been four years and the hair has not fully regrown. He has to shave his legs now if he doesn’t want them to look patchy. Chat is sympathetic and also grateful that he specified legs. Doc says he was recently clocked as a waxer by another child’s mom at the swimming pool and could only defend himself with “It was for a good cause.”

1:00:00 Doc reads Chat and decides it is definitely time to stop talking about leg hair. He begins working on the armor stand boots again. He positions them on the rack and thanks subs again. Doc decides that the shoes will look better as high heels, but that requires quite a bit more manipulation. Chat provides advice and critique. They want red trim, so Doc pulls the boots off the armor stand and goes to the trim machine. Chat wants Dune trim in red, with red candles for heels. Doc wants to give Chat what they want, because it is important to make the ladies happy. Chat begins arguing amongst themselves over whether Hermitcraft-style Louboutins would have red candle heels or black candle heels. Doc wonders if there is a candle shop.

1:09:00 Chat finally starts trending in the black candle direction, so Doc heads for Papa Keralis’ shop. Doc likes that Keralis has the candle shop, he’d probably have one of those if he weren’t a YouTuber. He may look clueless but he is a very, very good businessman. Doc finds the disco at Keralis’ base and busts a few moves. He obliquely mentions some of the grooming controversies on YouTube lately and deflects any talk in that direction. A chatter says they would trust Doc with their drink. Doc and the rest of Chat agree that Doc would drink it. Doc cannot find the candle shop.

1:11:30 A chatter says they would pick Doc over the bear. This leads to a lengthy discussion with Chat over the man vs bear thought experiment. (“You are alone in the woods. Would you rather see a strange man or a bear?”) It is the sort of discussion that covers several controversial topics and is very difficult to recap accurately and with nuance by a recapper who is mostly interested in making funny jokes. For that reason (and because a detailed recap including Chat commentary might be triggering for some readers), it will not be covered here but can be viewed on the VOD.

1:19:00 Doc’s mod asks if Doc would still love them if they were a worm. Doc makes an unflattering “ehhhhhhhh” sound and then says he would still love their soul. He might also love them if they helped create good soil for the tomatoes. Doc remembers he was supposed to be finding the candle shop and making high heels for shoes. A chatter gives him directions to the candle shop. He is still distracted by his discussion, but purchases black candles and heads back to the armor trim shop.

1:25:00 Doc resumes work on the black and red high heels. He is not sure about the candle heel, it’s actually pretty big when he puts it on the armor stand, and not quite the same color. Chat reminds him that the stand can be made smaller, but the color is a tougher nut to crack. Doc wonders if a blackstone stair or a block of coal might do the job better. He might need to mine some blackstone.

1:30:00 A chatter asks if Doc is going to be collaborating with other streamers or Hermits to play other games on stream. Doc says Hermitcraft takes up all his time and energy, so probably not. He heads for the Nether and finds a patch of blackstone to mine. He comes back and makes some blackstone walls and tries on on the armor stand. It is not quite right either.

1:35:30 Doc tries a blackstone button instead, it seems better. Chat agrees that it seems good. A chatter comments on the ground that the conversation has covered today. Doc makes a joke about Brazilian Wax being the opposite of Big Bear. Chat misses the joke, but Doc knows he is funny. He has to get out his calculator to adjust the angles on the armor stand. Chat makes semi-helpful commentary on the angle of the shoe and the heel. The original chatter who requested the black high heels gifts two more subs and says they look great. Doc regrets his life choices in agreeing to make heels. They are not turning out the way he’d hoped. He swears a little and keeps manipulating the angle of the heel, then realizes he also doesn’t like the color. He blames the single moms.

1:43:10 A chatter asks if Doc would consider going to Twitchcon. Doc says the only good thing about cons like that is meeting the audience. He’s not interested in meeting other content creators except Hermits. He’s been to lots of events and mostly finds content creators loud and obnoxious. He tries an anvil, which is the wrong color. Chat suggests black glazed terracotta, end rods, coal blocks, and making the boots into Crocs instead of high heels. Doc tells them that if he tries the coal block and it works, then Chat is to blame for forty wasted minutes. He tries a piece of black dye and says it could be a beard, but not a heel. The question arises whether Chat would rather go to the woods with a spider or a bear. Doc is outraged when Chat continues to choose bear, though some savvy chatters are asking how big the spider is. It is an Australian spider, so probably pretty big.

1:46:50 Doc tries a blackstone block as a heel and continues regretting everything. He accidentally gives the armorstand his sword and destroys the thing in a fit of pique. He is about ready to give up on high heels. A chatter suggests it might be time to beg Cleo for forgiveness, but Doc will NEVER. A chatter suggests leaving the heels imaginary. A chatter suggests making the shoes roller skates.

1:49:20 Doc puts an Enderman head on the armor stand, then puts it in the stand’s hand. He can’t place it properly because of armor stand interference. He is doing a lot of under-the-breath muttering, but the only clear word is “stupid.” The heels are fine without actual heels on them. He remembers he has some mini diamond ore blocks and wants to put some around for decoration. Even this is much harder than anticipated because there are invisble armor stands everywhere. Doc has so many regrets. He does not seem to know the scroll-wheel trick for the armor stand mod. He successfully places the miniblock on a shelf.

1:53:40 Doc steps back and looks at the display. It looks all right. He decides to make some more leather armor and talks about how happy he’s going to be when he’s done with this interior. His next shop is going to be a hole in the ground. Chat suggests that maybe Cleo will feel bad for the heels and fix them. Doc doesn’t know if Cleo is a heel person or not. And he doesn’t know if he can trust Cleo in this shop, who knows what they might do! ((In Cleo’s stream a few hours later, they do notice and fix a number of armor stand problems, but not the heels in particular.)) Doc makes another hanging chestpiece to look like a shirt.

1:56:30 A chatter says the court case is going to be entertaining. Doc says it’s going to be crazy. He talks with a chatter about subs and donos. A chatter surprises Doc with voice-to-text. Doc talks about which chatters are “sugar daddy” or “sugar mama.” He does more hanging clothes along the back wall, using the copy-paste function on the armor stand mod. Several chatters make gifts of subs. Doc thanks them but reminds them that big donos are never required or expected, just appreciated. Doc notices one DCP chatter is not around anymore after the discussion earlier. A chatter tells him that the DCP are all busy drawing him waxing his legs.

2:02:00 A chatter asks what the DCP is, Doc explains it is the Doc Collaboration Project, the fanartists who originally came together to create the murals on the Perimeter but who also do a lot of Doc fanart and amplify and support one anothers’ art. He creates another hanging shirt.

2:05:30 Doc tells a story about Doccy learning to make rhymes in German. Doc told Doccy to take a bath, but Doccy would rather eat chocolate. Chat asks about the time when Doc used to have long hair. Doc says yes, it used to be over his shoulders in finger-thick dreadlocks. He has no pictures of this era, but his mother might. Back when Doc was young, people didn’t take pictures all the time like the kids these days. Doc has a picture of himself at a religious milestone ((He is not sure of the name in English, calls it communion but it sounds like it might be confirmation)) wearing tight leather pants and a blazer with enormous shoulder pads, plus steel-toed safety sole boots and dreadlocks. Eventually his beard started to grow in too, but only a soul patch. Chat is overwhelmed by this mental picture.

2:09:30 A chatter asks what the deal is in Germany with sparkling water. Doc doesn’t know, Europeans just love sparkling water. There’s lots of different kinds, and they prefer juice mixed with sparkling water to most soda. Doc likes apple juice and sparkling water. Chat is not sold on the merits of sparkling water and Doc can sympathize. A chatter mentions Twitter, Doc warns them not to mention anything about “Elmo” Musk, because that is worse than mentioning Disney to Scar. There will be ranting. A chatter talks about the Sodastream carbonation machine. Doc has one, he and Doccy both like it.

2:13:30 Doc starts organizing some of his strewn shulkers. He talks about his own drink, vitamin juice and sparkling water. Chat admires his glass. He puts diamond pants on the last armor stand, turns them into shorts and hangs them up. Doc and Chat talk about what kinds of fruit juices they like best. A chatter wants trims on the leather chestpieces, Doc doesn’t know about that. That wastes a lot of trims, but this is the trim shop.

2:17:00 Doc fancies up the hanging tunics. Chat provides suggestions for trims and materials. A chatter asks what will happen if the Ore Snatcher replaces the diamond ore miniblock with a deepslate miniblock. Doc tells Chat not to give the Ore Snatcher ideas. Chat and Doc both like the look of the trimmed outfits he is creating. Chainmail pants with redstone trim looks a lot like a neat skirt. A chatter suggests making the tops actually match the bottoms of the hanging outfits, but Doc is not very concerned about that.

2:24:00 Doc is getting into it now and begins trimming the outfits on the sculptures he created earlier. It’s something Louis Vuitton would do, he declares. He really likes the way trimmed chainmail looks. He makes a chainmail helmet and sets it on the shelf of the back wall.

2:29:20 The shop is good, but could use some paintings. Doc can’t remember how to make paintings. Chat reminds him of the recipe, but he has no wool. He has to go visit the Wolves of Wool Street. Chat awoos. Doc realizes that wool is sold by the four-stack and decides to go buy string instead. He only needs one wool block! Doc declares Bdubs’ 1 diamond per string stack a much superior deal to WoWS’s diamond block per four stacks of wool and hopes they don’t find out Bdubs is undercutting them.

2:32:00 A chatter asks if anyone is surprised that Doc hasn’t sworn yet. Doc asks what the fuck they are talking about, then covers his mouth. Chat is amused. A chatter does the math and points out that Bdubs is basically selling seven wool blocks worth of string for a diamond, making WoWS a consderably better deal. Doc manages to get the walking man painting in his shop and says it looks like it belongs in a clothes shop. He says Bdubs is still a better deal if you only want one block of wool. He hangs several more posters.

2:35:30 Doc declares that this is enough detail and the shop is finished. Chat agrees, this is enough. He notices two armor stands that still need clothes, but after that he is calling it done. But the shop should have some music, so it’s time to pick some! He starts testing songs. They are VERY LOUD. Doc and Chat bop along with the music. A chatter demands CBAT. A chatter suggests Soulside Eclipse. Doc finds a song called Top Ten (or Chop Ten?) and Chat agrees it is the best shopping vibe music yet. He goes out and comes into the store to see what it would be like to shop to this music, and immediately starts yelling at the imaginary shopkeeper to turn down the music, it’s way too loud and he just wants to buy some pants!

2:41:00 A chatter has a birthday. Doc sings an unintelligible version of Happy Birthday and tells them now they can feel like Pearl. He says he might hit Jono up for shop beats, or says anyone who wants to can hit him up on Twitter with some beats. Music is always a problem because there are lots of talented musicians and he’d like to feature more of them, but DMCA makes things really hard. Doc puts the music back on. It is still quite loud. The headphone chatters have feelings about it. Doc comes across a song that sounds like the guitar beginning to an early 2000s pop ballad and begins improvising words to it, seconds before a vocalist actually starts up with a not dissimilar theme. Doc is pleased to have been proven right; Chat thinks it’s hilarious.

2:45:00 Doc goes through more varieties of music, none of which are quite right. He tries “A Sitar Story” and likes it. Chat likes it too. Doc improvises an armor trim song to go with the music. It’s nice but very much in conflict with the visual theme of the shop. He tries a few more. A song with a strong beat comes on, he and chat all jam along. A lounge jazz song comes on, it is too sophisticated. Doc finds a song called Emotional Mess and calls it relatable, but not what they are looking for. “Classic 1985 Music Soundtrack” is aptly named, but also not quite the thing. Chat suggests using the permit office music. Doc insists that when they hear the song, they will all know.

2:50:00 More music browsing. The lead mod asks Chat to watch their boss, because they have to pee. Chat will not make any promises. Doc is currently telling an epic tale of a Goat in a swamp who crushed everyone to the tune of an epic prologue. He switches channels again and asks why everything is so lame or too pushy. Chat is starting to wonder if CBAT is actually the best option. Doc finds a song called Snowfall Butterflies and wonders if someone was trying to find the cutest words they knew for a name. He jams to another song, then keeps scrolling. Chat has given up and are just grooving along. Doc finds music that is perfect for a shop he would hate, where no one will tell you whether your pants fit.

2:54:30 Doc finds some music he likes and improvises armor trim-related lyrics for it. The mod comes back and asks if Doc was good. Chat doesn’t know. More music, more grooving. Doc finds a song he would enjoy if it were the early 80s and he liked cocaine. Especially if his name was Falco. The music becomes increasingly baffling to Doc’s sensibilities. He decides there is nothing good in the YouTube Audio Library and wonders if YouTube asked musicians especially for their shittiest songs. Chat suggests it’s copyright-free for a reason.

2:59:00 Doc has been streaming for hours and has just heard Doccy and Karin come home, which means it is time for him to return to the real world. He asks for an up-down vote on whether the shop is done. Chat says yes, it’s done. That means next week will be the grand opening! After that the dirt shop, then the rails shop. Also, Doc has found a loophole regarding concrete farms, but does not elaborate. A chatter reminds him to activate the alarm before he goes. Doc pops into studio view so chat can’t see the secret switch. He looks for someone to raid. Martyn IntheLittleWood is on, but Doc raided him last week and Martyn got very jealous over the whole Ren marriage thing. Doc saw it on Twitter! He decides to raid Martyn anyway, thanks subs and donos, reminds Chat to ask Martyn why he has little wood, and ends his stream.

[hpowellsmith]

Hello there! I've been wanting to replay the older Baldur's Gate games, and was searching around for mlm NPC romance mods. I saw yours mentioned and found your site with some googling, but it seems the place they were hosted at is gone now (Spellhold Studios). I was wondering if you still have the mods available somewhere? Either way, I hope you have a great day!

OK, this has made go down a modding-community rabbit hole! I hadn't done anything with our Baldur's Gate 2 mods, or looked at them really, since 2015 and I really appreciate it because they're something that brought my wife and I a ton of joy, and they were the first interactive narratives I made.

Links, descriptions, and comments below because it is Long:

I got in touch with folks on the Gibberlings3 forum which is, wonderfully, still going strong, and have given permission for Faren and Nathaniel to be uploaded to the Spellhold Studios GitHub (which has a bunch of other mods too - do check out Adrian, Isra, and Ninde in particular!) to the team maintaining it. That may be a little while as some of the team are ill right now, but once I hear that it's done, I'll post about it here; I've also been pointed to some links where the mods were mirrored. Note that I haven't tested these myself on a current BG2 install, but it is easy to uninstall WeiDU mods if there's a problem.

Faren is a bisexual True Neutral fighter/thief (I can't remember if he's dual-classed or multi-classed) who's easygoing, down-to-earth, and up for partying, with a bit of a checkered past - his adventuring party died in one of the dungeons you can visit in BG2, and since then he's been picking up dodgy jobs, feeling a bit adrift, and trying to get his life back on track. That's where the PC comes in! You can befriend him or romance him (starting with either a casual or more committed tone, then committing further if you want to), and he has a personal quest in which a shady figure from his past wants him to do one last job. He was our third mod, and we'd developed our skills with writing and scope a lot by then. When I play BG2, I play with Faren! You can currently download Faren here. It's the version updated in 2015 with more banters with modded NPCs and the Enhanced Edition characters; there may be compatibility issues installing it with other newer mods but do give it a try.

I found The Luxley Family, which was our second mod, on the GitHub here. From a cursory (rusty) glance it looks like it should be compatible with Enhanced Edition, but the storyline is only for Shadows of Amn and doesn't continue into Throne of Bhaal. Sebastian and Andrei (Chaotic Neutral bard with a custom kit and Lawful Neutral monk respectively) are members of a mysterious, reclusive family who are under a curse. Sebastian's a worldly playwright who's showing his polite but moody teenage cousin Andrei the sights when they bump into the PC. They aren't romanceable, but you can have a fling with Sebastian, who's bisexual, if you let/help him mess up his life sufficiently.

Nathaniel is a Lawful Good gay fighter with a lot of feelings. He was our first mod and I am really proud of the impact he had on a lot of people and even other games back in the day, but if you play, go in expecting a LOT of feelings good and bad, relationship drama, and angst! (There's something very sad about the fact that as teens we could not imagine a D&D setting without homophobia back then; the idea of a knightly order thinking well of gay people just didn't cross our minds. it's extraordinary how much better a lot of things are now, including the queerness in D&D streams, books, and of course Baldur's Gate 3. Interestingly, we didn't include homophobia in the Luxley Family or Faren and I don't remember how conscious that was; maybe we'd become more hopeful by then.) You can download an outdated version of Nathaniel here but I don't think it will be compatible with Enhanced Edition.

Thank you so much for messaging! I didn't realise they weren't able to be downloaded anymore and I am really keen for digital art to be preserved (as well as players getting to smooch hot guys, of course).

(Digression - my wife and I have a couple of almost-finished mods on our computer: a lesbian cleric of Talos which she wrote, and a bi Valygar romance that I wrote. And, if it's among two computers' ago worth of external hard drive storage, the ending for the Luxley Family story. Who knows, maybe one day...)

[f0point5]

For Max and Kelly it would make even more sense that they had more rooms because if Kelly is travelling with P Max may need more quiet or space during a weekend than you can get around a kid, so maybe Kelly stays with P in the evenings. Plus, Kelly is travelling with a nanny, the nanny has to sleep somewhere…just because they are booking more than one room doesn’t mean they are sleeping apart. // Kelly always stays with max and p in the same room in hotels. You can see p joining streams this year in hotels and you can see Kelly’s things in the background. Yet kelly was giving away a whole ass room in vegas when she didn’t go to that race. And kelly doesn’t have a nanny.

I’m not saying they stay in separate rooms. I don’t believe that’s true. I was saying for the people who like to believe the rumours that they do, there’s several possible reasons for that that don’t include their relationship being fake. I was using that as an example to say people just to most dramatic conclusion when they hear a rumour that is also very likely not true.

I presume she was advertising the room for her sister, who was attending the race with several people. Kelly has a larger following of F1 race-goers so was probably just helping sort it out. Or maybe she had planned to go and had the room for someone who was meant to accompany her and once she wasn’t going she had the room still booked. Lbr if her relationship was “fake” she would hardly advertise that by posting about the room. If I were her I’d rather eat the cost of the room than deal with that kind of speculation. I don’t think the room was for her at all.

I don’t know if she has ever said she doesn’t have a nanny but I would be extremely surprised if she doesn’t. I think between her travelling and Daniil’s schedule it’s improbable that there is always someone available to be with P, if Kelly is at the track with Max, for example (she wasn’t bringing P with her until this year). Or even when Kelly is away. I’m pretty sure P has appeared on streams during fashion week when Kelly is clearly not home, I very much doubt Max is sitting on a stream while there’s a 4 year old unattended. I understand why Kelly would not want people to know she has one though considering that people nowadays have this draconian view of motherhood that it needs to consume your entire existence (I remember Molly Mae getting roasted for not showing her nanny in her vlogs as if it’s disingenuous to call yourself a mother when you have help). There’s absolutely no shame in having a nanny, if you can afford one and it helps you to manage your life and be a present parent rather than an exhausted one, more power to you. But on the other hand maybe she doesn’t have one. I was always under the impression that she did (I thought I saw pictures of Kelly and Max arriving at an airport with the nanny but maybe I was mistaken)

[eenkleinleven]

I was trying (in sheer desperation, may I add) to find on Reddit to see if anyone had uploaded a recording of the movie there, then I tried searching on Reddit for how to specifically request somewhere for a recording. I’m not sure how they work (I found this on a post from someone asking for a local niche movie that wasn’t available via streaming) but apparently torrents/trackers have request sections that you can put in requests for stuff? Maybe that’s our only hope 👀

If anyone here happens to know about how to do that sort of thing... please get in touch.

[audio-luddite]

Serious Listening? Maybe.

I got the streaming Nano thing running and decided to try it out. Hey I spent the money, I suffered the installation drama. What do I get for it?

So streaming from the couch here I go.

Using my iphone with it set to lossless I played several pieces to get a feel for it. The lossless symbol was displayed so lets assume it was that. Apparently even older Iphones will do Airplay 2 (Hi Rez) if they have recent IOS versions and mine does.

I started with a stream selection of solo piano. It sounded like piano alright. I gave the system about an hour to get happy with that.

I have a cover album by Morgan James of Joni Mitchel's Blue. Just a singer and piano. It sounds like it is one continuous take. It is wonderful music. It is on file on my iphone as I bought it. Sounded very nice. Extremely simple production.

I then tried streaming some tunes I am familiar with on LP or CD. Tony Bennett and Faith Hill from Duets 2 has some tiny things on LP I was looking for. I did not get them. They are like the lip parting sound. If I was going full geek I should have run the LP right then to compare. That would have been the audiophile thing to do. I didn't.

Next I tried "Postcard Blues" from Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies. Here I noticed something interesting. There seemed to be a bias to the right speaker. I may have done that in the configuration, but shifting a bit over on my couch helped. Usually not that critical.

All the sounds were there, but different. Recall I have the original CD and a fancy LP of this album. Those sound very similar to each other, this was different somehow. Less room sound?

This was a quick and dirty exercise so all first impressions.

I then tried "Soul Cages" by Sting first song "Island of Souls". This sounded pretty good. I have an LP of this and the album is processed with Qsound which is a quasi binaural trick. And it worked pretty well. Some instruments sounded far out past the speakers both left and right. The LP has a less prominent rendition of that. Qsound uses phase shifting and filtering for its effects. So the feed was pretty accurate I suppose.

Summary of impressions: I feel something is missing. The sound is clear, and clean, but there is a but. I am not sure what it is. Maybe it is too quiet? Maybe something is actually missing. Maybe lossless aint?

One thing I feel disoriented by is there is too much available online. If I put an album on the turntable the document is there and I only decide if I want to flip it in 20 minutes. I have time to think about what is next. On a stream you can change your mind instantly and go from classical music to Jazz to pop in seconds. That is stressful, this is supposed to be fun.

I am old.

I recall a comment from somewhere that a person said streaming is for background music. Serious listening is better some other way. I can see truth in that.

I pay for apple music so I can explore and consider albums for purchase. Maybe more obscure works by composers. Also sometimes background music is a good thing.

Next challenge is getting my Wife's iPhone rigged into this thing.

[respectthepetty]

@rocketturtle4 This is a lasagna response for me (it has layers).

TLWR: We have more shows, so not every show will get this level of engagement, but the engagement might not happen in real time either. Because of the amount of shows we have, people may watch it months later and then reflect on it. Some shows will go unwatched just because of the amount of shows we have to pick from, so nothing will be written about them. Also, because we have more shows to look back on and the fandom is getting older, our posts have more substance than before even though we aren't posting as much.

First, some perspective since the original ask mentioned a lull right now in regards to the amount of BLs airing:

In 2022, we had no less than 60 Thai BLs. That's Thai alone. <;- most Tumblr people entered BL City between 2021-2022

In 2021, we had over 30 Thai BLs.

In 2020, we had maybe 20 Thai BLs, and the pandemic didn't impact that as much as people believe because even without the pandemic, we might have gotten 30.

Pre-2020, we had possibly 20 Thai BLs in total (maybe 30 if I'm being generous).

Halfway through 2023, and we've already had over 20 Thai BLs with three more coming in July from established pairs.

So the lull people are feeling is a sign of the times since even three years ago, we weren't getting this many series. People who came in post-pandemic are used to getting fed BLs while those who were here pre-pandemic probably feel overwhelmed sometimes.

Is this a normal amount of engagement?

Yes. When people like a show, they are more vocal about it, so shows like The Eclipse, Bad Buddy, Not Me, I Told Sunset About You, and KinnPorsche have all gotten this treatment. I didn't even watch Love in the Air, but I knew every detail about it because every Thursday-Monday my dash was flooded. And I don't think the streaming platform affects the level of engagement as much as before. GMMTV shows are free, but even shows behind a paywall get hyped here.

But shows like To Sir, With Love or My Only 12% get minimal discussion here when they air YET have a nice surge of interest half a year later. This is something new that I think is a post-2020 effect. If people didn't watch Make It Right when it aired in 2016, they weren't going to watch it in 2018 and if they were, there wasn't anyone to talk about it with, but now people are binging shows they missed when they originally aired because they are more easily available (even pirated) and they might see it referenced somewhere else, so we are getting more engagement about shows after they air. WATCH GREAT MEN ACADEMY!

Several people I engage with joined during Bad Buddy or KinnPorsche but are now going back to see He's Coming to Me and Lovely Writer, and discussing them. And because of this, we are getting less posts specifically about a specific show and more of a comprehensive post looking at a collection of work, like examining Director Aof's or Jojo's style changes or how the queer work experience is being depicted in various shows.

Is this increasing because things are changing?

Ehhhhh . . . the people I started with in my little corner had lifestyle changes as we aged; therefore, many don't have time to write the way they used to, but when they do write, they have a lot more to say because they have more life experiences that connect to the story, so the amount of posts have drastically decreased, but the substance for each post has greatly increased.

Also, as mentioned above, we now have a larger body of work to look back on, so the posts are more intentional and comprehensive.

For example, we must give credit to the GIF makers because in 2020, they had a 10-image limit and proportions were strict, yet they were shooting out GIF sets every two seconds. Now, we have less GIF makers, but the image limit is 30, and they are far more creative with their work. Less quantity, more quality. Regularly, I see a post from GIF makers that shows their evolution from when they started to now, and the progress is shocking, but us writers don't have a clear tool for comparison. Also, I'm seeing more GIF sets from older shows as newer people watch them.

It's an evolution. We've always had a decent amount of engagement for shows we collectively like, but the way in which we engage is changing as we grow in our skills and in our lives. However, the nature of Tumblr demands interaction in order for the beast to survive, and it's the same here - we need newcomers to participate. Write shorter pieces. Pop off a few lines or a novel like the rest of it. Make an ugly GIF.

Like my favorite lyric states - We all started from the bottom.

Now we here.

Hi!!

Quick question: Is the level of regular engagement/posting/meta for BL series right now (particularly Step By Step and La Pluie, but others as well) a typical amount of engagement for a show in this little Tumblr corner? or above average? (or below average??)

Is it increasing because (from what I understand) things are changing and there's more to talk about nowadays?

As a newbie, I am having a FABULOUS time with reading and seeing everyone's different thoughts and perspectives and insights and learning new things. 'tis excellent. I don't think I've ever enjoyed watching TV more.

However, from what I understand the amount of BL coming out right now is actually in a bit of a lul? and so if this level of engagement is typical for the majority of shows (or only good shows idk) I'm going to have to put some time management stuff in place.

I just want to be prepared! Because this is Awesome!

Oh, this is a complicated one. I'm going to tag @absolutebl, @so-much-yet-to-learn, @lurkingshan, @ginnymoonbeam, @liyazaki, @negrowhat, @respectthepetty, and any other old fans reading this to also weigh in.

I think we are a shell of what we once were. At the height of 2gether, Bad Buddy, I Told Sunset About You, and a few other big shows you were getting banger after banger in the tags. I feel like I've been writing more lately because I miss that era and feel like I have to directly contribute to fostering it with new fans entering the space.

On the real, in 2020 @asianmade organized fans to submit letters and other content and assembled books to thank Bright and Win for the work they did on 2gether. We even got confirmation from Bright that they got the books.

I think good storytelling begets good reactions. The more invested we are, the more we're going to talk about it. I think fandom really only works when we're all actively contributing to it in some way. Reblogging and leaving fun comments in the tags. Writing crack posts. Sharing clown theories about what might be happening. Making gifs. Making fan vids. I genuinely think that the experience of watching the show improves when fans come together to share their ideas and build each other up.

Still, there used to be a lot more of us on tumblr. I hope that we continue to be this invested in the shows that follow. I feel like we're about to turn a lot more of our attention to Be My Favorite.

So, if you're enjoying the experience of having so much to read, please add to the stream! Write your thoughts down! Love the shows loudly! Tag us if you write something! Message us if you have questions!

[reviewsimmediateedge]

How does Immediate Edge work?

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You should simply make your record with the base potential subtleties and enter your card subtleties to set aside an installment. Aside from this, no additional data is required. No bank articulations or IDs are to be submitted. Withdrawals and stores

An extremely particular component of a trick programming is that you will actually want to store the sum rapidly, yet withdrawals will consume a huge chunk of time to process. Yet, this isn't true here. Stores occur quickly at Immediate Edge, and withdrawals in like manner are handled in 24 hours itself. This, in contrast to different stages, is a seriously lesser measure of time as somewhere else withdrawals might require 7 to 10 days to process.

https://twitter.com/immediatedge_uk

[windsorhelmets]

Best Safety Helmets, Safety Jackets For You, And Its Importance

There are various kinds of safety helmets available today. Some are intended for explicit exercises, while others are more universally useful. It very well may be confounding to know which one to pick, particularly on the off chance that you have close to zero familiarity with them. In this blog entry, we will talk about the various sorts of security safety helmets and what everyone is utilized for. We will likewise give a few hints on the best way to pick the right head protector for your requirements!

 It is critical to pick a helmet that is suitable for the action you will be taking part in, and that fits appropriately. Continuously adhere to the producer’s guidelines for the appropriate use and care of your safety helmet.

Kinds Of Wellbeing Helmet

The vast majority know all about the conventional hard helmet, yet there are various kinds of security head protectors intended for explicit purposes. Here are various kinds of safety helmets you likely didn’t know existed:

1. Knock the helmet

Insurance

A snug baseball helmet style offers the most reduced degree of insurance. As the name proposes, its heritability is to give cushioned security against thumps from static items.

Extras

Chinstrap which fits under the jaw to assist with getting the knock helmet on the head. Can be outfitted with a Drove light.

Applications

Vehicle assembling and support.

Space protection.

Plumbing.

Evacuations.

Space protection.

Distribution center.

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Assurance

Lately, lightweight safety helmets have become more famous. Being light, there is less material in them, so they are valuable when there is an exceptionally generally safe of anything falling on the head, like in low-ascent development, utilities, and thruway upkeep. 

Extras

Numerous applications incorporate helmet connections, and these frequently bring different execution qualities from the “independent” thing to be appended. An illustration of this may be ear covers, by which a headband variant and a safety helmet connection rendition are advertised. The various mountings bring about varying clamor-lessening execution. 

Applications

Low-ascent development.

Interstate support.

Utilities.

Distribution center.

3. Security Safety Helmet – Modern

Assurance

The more customary model generally weighs around 400g to 500g with a powerful shell of uniform thickness. This is great for applications, for example, laborers uncovering establishments in an opening, where quite possibly something might fall on them from the side as well as the top and hit them on the head.

Extras

Numerous applications incorporate safety helmet connections, and these frequently bring different execution qualities from the “independent” thing to be joined. These are by and large covered by the norm for the connection type, for example, hearing, eyewear, and so on.

Applications

Development.

Producing.

Outer telecoms.

Understanding the Various Classes of Safety Jacket

CLASS 1 Safety Jacket

The five-star has a place with low-influence laborers in daintily populated regions. We hold these vests for traffic chaperons, conveyance drivers, or emergency aides faculty.

Laborers in this class ought to be on rough terrain and away from weighty streaming traffic. The best speed shouldn’t surpass 25mph here.

For Class 1 wellbeing vests, government regulation expects somewhere around 155 square crawls of intelligent material and 217 square creeps of foundation material.

CLASS 2 Wellbeing VESTS

Laborers in Class 2 regions end up in low-permeability conditions, maybe because of climate or scene, and in heavier rush hour gridlock. Development laborers, air terminal chaperons, or those functioning in tollgates frequently require a class 2 security vest. Certain specialists on call likewise fall under this class.

 Widths of either 1.38in or 2in are required, contingent upon your calling. 

This safety jacket ought to have one (or two) 360° stripe(s) of tape around the chest and one solitary stripe over each shoulder.

CLASS 3 Safety Jacket

Vests in this classification have the most noteworthy limitations since they are utilized in regions where traffic surpasses 50mph and in very dull circumstances. Police and firefighters might require a class 3safety jacket, as well as street laborers and rail laborers.

These specialists should be seen obviously, so the law expects no less than 310 square creeps of intelligent material. Foundation material ought to cover something like 1240 square inches.

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Conclusion

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We are safety helmets, jackets, and mask protectors providers. Please feel free to contact us, go ahead and reach us assuming you are keen on our items.

[paigerro]

Chapter 8 Reflection

According to N. Gregory Mankiw, author of our textbook, “Brief Principals of Macroeconomics”, when the federal government is running at a deficit, or the amount of national debt exceeds the amount of revenues received, this effects the supply of loanable funds negatively. That is to say, the more indebted the country, the less money there is to lend out. I tried to find some kind of number somewhere that would give me the current total of available loanable funds within the US, but all I got was ads. Is this a readily available figure? All that I can assume, based on the last year of inflation and rising interest rates, is that maybe there were too many available loanable funds. Due to many factors (in part, ex-presidents trying to buy votes) our current inflationary economy must have been caused by too much money in the system. This is why the Fed have been steadily raising interest rates over the last year. Last March, they raised interest rates from nearly 0% to .25%-.5%. This may not seem like a huge move, but let say you just bought a million dollar house expecting to pay little to no interest on it. With an interest rate now at just .25%, you’ve incurred $250,000 in interest payments alone. Over the course of a year, your monthly payments have just increased by almost $21,000. I don’t know that many people with that much extra money to budget into each month. A year later, and interest rates are now between 4.5%-4.75%. Raising interest rates is the Fed’s number one tool to try to deflate inflation, as it sucks excess capital out of the system. In the 1980s, in order to combat a particularly stubborn bout of inflation, interest rates reached nearly 20%:

https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/history-of-federal-funds-rate/

Throughout my lifetime, interest rates have mostly only trended downwards. This seems to have encouraged more spending than saving, but I could be totally wrong here. It feels to me like rates are going to have to rise even further over the next year because it seems like there is still some excess capital being thrown around at speculative assets (namely, cryptocurrencies). This article came out last June, but it still haunts me today:

https://today.duke.edu/2022/06/don%E2%80%99t-expect-gas-food-or-housing-prices-drop-soon-experts-say

If we think about the supply and demand of/for loanable funds, there seems to be a higher demand than supply right now. By raising interest rates, hopefully this will also encourage both private and public saving, thereby increasing the amount of loanable funds over the next several years or decades. Although, I’m not sure how easy it will be to save money in such a highly indebted country. In 2022, the national debt was about 122% larger than the national GDP:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/269960/national-debt-in-the-us-in-relation-to-gross-domestic-product-gdp/

If we are indeed heading into a recession, during which expected return on investments will be lower, this will only encourage further saving (hopefully). If, by some unforeseen circumstance, we are heading into a time of booming economic prosperity, then return on investment will be anticipated to be greater and so lenders will be happy to lend and borrowers happy to borrow. Unfortunately, it seems like we’ve left the days of optimistic speculation behind. Again, in my life time, we have primarily experienced falling interest rates, encouraging borrowers to borrow and lenders to lend, leading to an economy that, on paper and to my eyes, doesn’t look very different from the excessive times of the 80s (shoulder pads out to HERE). In my short, bless-ed life I have seen countless high-end cupcake bistros, cookie parlors, endless apps promising to change your life, excessively content loaded streaming platforms, tech start-ups hell-bent on changing the world, kids earning six-figure incomes for posting about absolutely nothing on social media, and- the cherry on top- the rise and fall of cryptocurrency. I think we are just now seeing the train of excess pull out of the station and that we may be in for a rude awakening once the last ultra chic pet-salon-five-star-hotel-and-all-organic-doggie-restaurant close its doors for good. As for me, I will continue to not have very much money and plan on continuing to not spend it.

[narse-tantalus]

While I admire the creativity and energy of these exercises I am begging you folks to talk to economists or at least familiarize yourself with their works or the principles behind it.

Specifically seizing empty units from the owners is a great way to drive private property development out of your city entirely - now the public sector has to do all the construction. Does your city have the political will and funding to support something like Singapore's HDB? It probably doesn't.

Also - putting all these green areas in a dense urban environment (awesome to live next to, for sure) and also urban farms etc. is going to require either demolishing housing and displacing people and making housing crises worse, while also increasing commute distances (and energy/money expended commuting) or will require demolishing commercial buildings which will fuck the property tax base if not the whole local economy. Only requiring these green spaces in new development just shifts those problems to the future instead of evicting people today. Either way you need to build much denser/taller buildings to meet housing demand. Converting commercial units to urban farms also isn't much better -- that's jobs near housing you could have had that instead you're converting to farms - generally a low value use of space.

Third - modular electricity distribution is less reliable and more expensive than focusing all the funds/attention on making one centralized grid as reliable as possible. Yes, it's more vulnerable to disruption by disasters, but it's cheaper and has better service the rest of the time. In general centralized systems are the most efficient systems - they can be upgraded all at once.

Sodium batteries can't be used well for electric cars. Their specific power and energy densities are lower I believe (since sodium is heavier than lithium per valence electron). This means cars made using them will likely be heavier and have shorter ranges. Neither of those things is good. They also can't be used for lightweight devices as well for the same reason. They could be used well for grid storage, but my understanding is that Iron based chemistries are preferred for that application - but iron is readily available in lots of places. A green revolution will require natural resources that have to come from somewhere if it requires new technology or infrastructure built at scale.

Single stream recycling + actually do the recycling: These goals are much harder to accomplish together - plastics recycling in the US is beset by the problem that 1) no one wants to buy the output because it's not pure enough to be useful in industry so it's often diverted to landfills. And 2) it's too expensive to pay people (or even robotic systems!) to sort the waste stream accurately and be able to make money on a raw material you're likely selling for like $1 a ton. Either the robots/AI vision systems need to get a lot, lot cheaper (could happen), or the minimum wage needs to be massively lowered (or maybe there could be a labor tax where we force people to sort recycling through government force?) or industry needs to value impure mixed plastic bales that may be contaminated with pesticides etc. much higher than they do. This sorting challenge is made worse by single stream recycling. Japan went with the labor tax for garbage sorting into multiple streams for a reason.

Note: these concerns don't apply to metal recycling at all, and iirc don't apply much to glass recycling. (Glass can also be safely dumped almost anywhere since it's chemically inert and stable). That being said, iirc it still isn't commercially viable to recycle glass in some places where there isn't enough local demand (glass is expensive to ship).

Hey everyone! As part of a personal project I’m trying to brainstorm factors that would make communities/locations more resistant to climate change and the damage that it can cause to people’s lives. If anyone has any thoughts I’d love to hear them!

[five-rivers]

Beltane

Written for Ectober 2021 Day 1: Trick vs Treat. This is part of the Exhumed series.

.

Danny Fenton walked into the precinct. As often happened when he did this, all attention slowly turned to him. “Hi, Detective Patterson. Have you ever heard of Beltane?”

Patterson took a long swig of coffee through the plastic stir straw, because she felt the need to be at least a little drugged before dealing with whatever this was, and then said, “Is this the kind of thing the whole precinct needs to know about, or is it more specific to me?”

“Mm, not specific to you, but I’m not sure if everyone needs to know about it, yet.”

Despite only select members of the Amity Park police force knowing Danny Fenton had another identity, he’d become a sort of ‘ghost liaison’ for the precinct. Better him than the adult Fentons, who tended to break things even (especially) when they were being careful.

“Actually,” continued Danny, “you might have already noticed some things about it. I mean, it’s seasonal, and Mom and Dad were detecting ectoenergy and ghost activity spikes for events like this before they got the portal up and running. Although, the portal was supposed to stabilize and reduce those spikes… I guess reducing one isn’t bad?”

“Okay,” said Patterson. “I don’t really know what you’re talking about. Do you want me to go find Collins?”

“Oh, that might be a good idea.”

“Great,” said Patterson. She turned her head to shout across the room. “McGee. Go find Collins.”

“Still the new guy?” asked Danny, sympathetically.

“It isn’t like we’re a popular posting,” said Patterson, “and, thanks to the ghosts, we don’t really need new people.”

Danny nodded placidly. “I know. But it must be hard for him, don’t you think?”

.

McGee had done his job. He’d discovered the corruption in the Amity Park Police Department and plumbed its depths. The problem was that he could never, ever, report it. Even if they didn’t have a perfectly good cause for it all, what they were ‘hiding’ (and they were only barely doing that) was so ridiculous that McGee had thought he’d gone crazy at first.

Ghosts.

The whole of Amity Park was haunted. Just like it said in those touristy brochures at the front of the local diners.

He stuck his head into the break room. “Collins, Patterson and Fenton want you,” he said.

“In the normal room?” Collins asked, shoving a sugary monstrosity of a donut into his mouth.

“I have no idea. She didn’t say.”

“Normal room then. Great job, McGee.”

McGee rolled his eyes. Great job, he said. As if he’d done anything.

God. What would Halloween be like?

.

“So, it’s like, reverse Halloween?” asked Patterson.

“Well, not exactly,” said Danny. He patted Daisy, the department mascot slash corpse sniffing dog who had followed them into the small interview room, gently on the head. “Actually, there are more similarities than differences. Basically, like Halloween, we’re going to get a spike in ectoenergy. Maybe even some ectoplasmic storms. More portals. That kind of thing.” He shrugged. “Most holidays and seasonal divisions have them, you know.”

“So… we’re getting Halloween round two?” asked Collins.

“What do you bet that this is what gets McGee to snap?”

“He’s been here since December,” said Collins. “I think he’s too stubborn to leave.”

“Is he still spying?” asked Danny.

“No,” said Patterson, waving a hand. “He gave up on that, after a while. But there’s a new office bet about whether or not he’ll stay stay, or if he’ll decide to quit. We’re not allowed to join in because we know him too well.”

“Mm,” said Danny.

“I don’t actually know if I feel like I know him that well,” said Collins.

“Well,” said Danny, “it shouldn’t be as extreme as Halloween. Since, I mean, there aren’t as many religious holidays directly associated with death and stuff happening on or around May first. So. Yeah. But the thing is, there are some traditional, er, activities. Spirited activities.”

Collins suppressed a groan, and was glad that Captain Jones wasn’t available today. He and Danny could sling puns at each other for obscenely long periods of time.

“I’ve never noticed ghosts doing anything on May Day,” said Patterson.

“This is only the third year anyone’s even acknowledged that ghosts exist,” said Danny, “so I’m not really all that surprised. But the reason that I came to talk to you guys is that some of the ghosts want to do Beltane stuff. Like the fire blessings. Also, I’ve been told that some of the trees in town are secretly ghost trees, and if we don’t want to deal with another tree army, we need to do some stuff to appease them.”

“Secret ghost trees.”

“My source is very reliable,” said Danny. “Also, while I say ‘we don’t want to deal with it,’ I think we all know who’d be dealing with most of it.”

“You would,” said Patterson.

“Got it in one. Like, I can convince most of the ghosts to either do their Beltane stuff in the Ghost Zone, or somewhere out of the way. They’ll be disappointed, but I can do it. The ghost tree thing, though…”

“Can’t we just, I don’t know,” said Collins, “get rid of the ghost trees?”

“Well, they aren’t really evil ghost trees. Or even really ghost trees. They’re more… ghosts that live in trees?”

“What, like dryads?” asked Collins, raising his eyebrows.

“That’s what I said, but they’re different species, apparently.”

“Okay,” said Patterson, “so. Appeasing the trees. How many trees are we talking about here, and how are we going to appease them?”

.

“Okay, so, this is definitely a whole precinct kind of thing,” said Patterson.

“And possibly an ‘all civil servants’ type of thing,” added Collins. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Where are we going to get the funding for this?”

“Oh, don’t worry about money,” said Danny. “I’ll just blackmail Vlad, and if that doesn’t work, I can get Mom and Dad to pay for it.”

“What,” said Collins.

“I think this might be a bit beyond your parents’ budget,” said Patterson, “but knock yourself out as far as Masters goes.”

“Well, I guess if it is,” he allowed, dubiously, “I could get the cults to pitch in?”

.

“This is nice,” said Danny. The sky was a bit overcast, which was a shame, but the hundreds of bright flowers and cheerful music more than made up for that.

The May Day celebration was, in Danny’s opinion, a success. At least, this half of it was turning out to be. He’d have to wait and see how the Spirit Bonfires went tonight before he could really make a judgement.

He’d only had to blackmail Vlad a little, too. It turned out that the ‘ruthless businessman’ in Vlad was ludicrously easy to manipulate, and once Danny brought up how a celebration like this one could revitalize local businesses and bring in tourism, he’d caved.

Although, that might have been the threat of an angry tree army. Vlad had definitely come off worse for wear in the last one, on all fronts.

Then, publically putting the Phantom Stamp of Approval (and Necessity Given The Potential Angry Tree Army) on the event had gotten buy-in from his fans and (sigh) the cults. The cults were, in fact, very enthusiastic about their new Holy Day. Danny had made a map of all the places they’d set up booths, and was studiously avoiding them.

Sam and Tucker were doing a walkthrough of that area, now, to check for problems and unadorned thorn trees. They’d arranged to meet up soon.

So, Amity Park was decked out in ribbons and flowers. All of the schools had gotten Maypoles and the day off of classes. Several bands, both human and ghostly, were playing in different parts of town.

It was chaotic, but great.

Danny briefly cut into the street to dodge a pair of college-age men play-fighting with tree branches (a genuinely important tradition symbolizing the battle between winter and summer), then walked through a wall to avoid two ghosts doing the same thing.

Finally, he reached Madame Babazita’s table.

“Hi,” he said, “three readings, please.”

“Three?” she asked. “Just for you?”

“My friends should get here before mine’s done,” said Danny. Was he channeling some predictive powers? Maybe. Holidays did make his powers weird.

.

“I have no idea what your reading is saying,” said Madame Babazita, after fifteen full minutes. “The cards simply aren’t speaking to me today. Also,” she held up an Uno card, “I’m not sure how this even got here.”

“That’s okay,” said Danny, “I just wanted to make sure it was the same as last time.”

.

“Hey! Phantom!” called Ember across the crowd of ghosts that had gathered in the cemetery. Most of them were fire or nature themed. “You’re in for a treat!”

Danny, who had been examining the flowers left on his grave, looked up. “I am?”

Ember draped her arm around Danny’s shoulder. She’d been a lot more friendly with him since the corpse incident. “Sure are.” She stepped up onto the surface of his memorial, pulling him up behind her. Danny shook off a brief chill and looked around.

Ghosts were streaming into the cemetery from various directions, bringing armfuls of flowers with them. Danny could see two, huge bonfire piles of flowers growing near the cemetery gates.

“Are there going to be cows?” asked Danny, who was still fuzzy on the details of the ghostly side of the celebrations.

“I don’t know,” said Ember. “When I’ve seen this done in the GZ there are. Here? Who knows. Maybe we’ll just walk through.”

Danny nodded, unworried. Beltane sure was an interesting holiday.

The last armful of flowers was placed, and every flower in the cemetery caught on fire at once. Including the ones on Danny’s grave. Danny yelped, jumping into flight. As an ice core ghost, he vastly preferred cold to heat.

This went without saying, but fire was very hot.

Ember grabbed his foot, and he almost kicked her. “You knew that was going to happen,” he accused.

“Sure did, babypop,” said Ember, grinning. “Come on, don’t you want to pass through the bonfires?”

Danny eyed the very large bonfires on either side of the cemetery gates. They were lit up with sparks like fireworks, shifting like flowers blooming and withering and blooming again. They were beautiful and impressive, and Danny felt like melting just by looking at them.

“I don’t know…” He wanted to, but… melting…

“Well, if you want to go out the other way and be horribly unlucky for the next year…”

Danny narrowed his eyes. “Is that another trick?” he asked.

Ember’s grin grew wider, and she took off towards the gates. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Danny sighed and followed her.

.

“Unbelievable,” said McGee. “Absolutely unbelievable.” He gave the elderly cultist a boost into the wagon.

“I know, right?” said Patterson. “All this property damage and a low-key kidnapping,” she gestured to the hapless late night partier who had called the police when the cult got too insistent about their message, “and they didn’t even have the good drugs?” She shook her head. “Not that we ever arrest anyone just for drugs in this town.”

“I did not just hear you say that,” muttered McGee.

“We’ll make an Amity Parker out of you yet,” said Collins, heartily, slamming the back door of the wagon. He thumbed the button on his radio. “Any other disturbances?” he asked.

“No, you’re good to come back,” said the dispatcher.

“What I don’t get,” said McGee, leaning against a nearby wall in a moment of weakness, “is why we aren’t breaking up whatever cult thing is happening in the cemetery.” They’d seen it quite clearly on their way here.

“Because those are ghosts,” said Patterson.

McGee took a deep breath. “The ghosts are having some kind of ritual in the cemetery, and you aren’t worried.”

“Not really, no.”

“I hate it here,” said McGee.

“Do you, though?” asked Collins, sounding genuinely interested in the answer.

McGee opened his mouth to snap back that, yes, he did. But…

Hm. Huh.

Collins patted him on the back.