#it's so weird too they just put in new features like communities and stuff and now they're going to tear it apart and turn it into wordpres

[mla0]

tumblr is like actually fucked this time but i'll be damned before i ever move to fuckin like, twitter or something. i know there's slenderverse people on there but. elon musk. :/

[shinesurge]

Webcomic rings run by people within the community are cool and you should support them

I've been loudly struggling a little bit with corporate webcomic Stuff lately so I want to mention something positive to balance it out: webrings run by small groups of creators earnestly trying to support each other are slowly making a comeback and I for one am delighted.

If you weren't around for them in the before times, webrings were just some folks who hang out a lot who feature each other on their websites. That's literally it lmao. There's generally no money involved and it only really functions the way it's supposed to if people have control over their own websites AND genuinely want to participate and get excited about other folks' work, which means the practice has pretty well fallen by the wayside over the years in webcomic culture given. Everything. In the rare event someone decides to do something like this it's usually in the form of a link list somewhere on their website; this doesn't usually indicate any sort of mutual support, it's just a list of what the creator is reading themselves.

A webring, though, is an official banner or hub that people gather under intentionally where each member is more or less on equal footing. It's essentially the concept of "a rising tide lifts all boats" put into practice, each creator brings their own audience to the table in a passive, opt-in sort of way that's different from working for a publisher since there isn't necessarily a Top Spot or a paycheck everyone's vying for, and individuals retain autonomy over both their own work and how (if) they promote each other. You're all at your own tables in an artist alley rather than fighting over the table in the front of the book store, essentially.

I have two rings and one collective for you today!

Webcomic Ring was brought to my attention AGES ago by Holly, one of the artists featured there, and I might have brought it up at some point but I'm doing it again lmao. This is exactly the kind of thing you ought to be looking for; a small group of enthusiastic folks having a good time making their weird little comics. You probably haven't heard of much in the catalog, that's PERFECT in the context of webcomics that's where the GOOD SHIT is. Finding something like this is A Gift go dig around in the longboxes for a while.

Then a few people have pointed me in the direction of the KNIFEBEETLE collective and that's neat too! Most of the comics there are already fairly well-known, but the vibes are excellent and I haven't seen a lot of talk about the collective /itself/ outside folks already in the know. I think it's important for this sort of thing to be more visible to folks who aren't terminally steeped in webcomic culture already so here I am telling you about it. You were probably reading several of these before I suggested it, but that's how a webring works! For it to do its job you should take those bigger creators' tacit recommendation of the less popular titles as a sign to go read something new and strange. Wild, I know these are practices held over from the old internet, but I think we should try and bring them back.

Lastly, I want to mention Spiderforest, which is a collective (slightly different from a webring) BUT still a very cool project readers starved for new stuff should pay attention to.

You've probably seen Spiderforest kicking around for a long time already; they're wonderful and have always been an overall positive force in the community in my experience. They really focus on building up a community, and especially welcoming newcomers and helping them get their feet under them. Full disclosure, I've been asked to apply by a few different folks over the years and the only reason I never did is I don't have the ability to participate in their forums and such as frequently as they want their creators to; it's a very good system (from my outside perspective) that might contribute to the community staying mostly healthy in ways that art communities usually don't and I appreciate it a lot!

ANYWAYS that's all I got for now, just trying to balance out some bad feelings I've been having by talking about some good stuff. Please go binge an archive this week.

[miserycanary]

MISSION: LOVE KILL  ᡣ𐭩 [trailer]

pairings: Simon 'Ghost' Riley & fem!reader

synopsis: the trailer to my very first full-length series set in a soulmate AU. 

pairings: (applies to future parts) angst, smut, fluff, mutual pining, misunderstandings, rivals to lovers to rivals, featuring Ghost's inability to communicate, graphic mentions of violence, might hint to sexual violence, BARELY PUT TOGETHER, torture, one bed trope, i-will-wait-for-you trope, loving-you-is-like-breathing trope, slowburn (unless I get bored and rush this), poor poor attempt in crack, will add more as we go on

The subtle searing pain on the back of his neck is enough reason for Ghost to hate the idea of soulmates existing. It wasn’t just the fact that he has lived up to his 30s feeling like a fire wasp is buzzing under his skin, it was that the government fully developed their system with pairs in mind. You mean to tell him that he has to have found his partner—who’s probably cities or even continents away—just so that he could fucking own property? Utter fucking bullshit, he calls it. 

‘Nutjobs! The lot of them’

It was also the fact he had to watch his mum’s so-called soulmate almost beat them up to death each day. How could someone whose single purpose in life is to torment them be his mother’s soulmate? Fate either has a weird take on the concept of love and the whole shenanigan or it’s fucking wicked. Either way, the S-word has left a bad taste in his mouth—and memory. He would rather die, not having property—or anything really—to his name if it means that he wouldn’t comply to the fucking standards of pairs. 

Or so he thought because, once again, life is fucking wicked like that. 

When he first broke the news that he would be retiring from the army, he expected his future days ahead full of smooth-sailing lounging. Maybe a cup of tea in hand or even some biscuits if he was feeling fancy. Imagine his shocked face when he inquired with a real-estate agent to finally have something to call home, no longer needing to stay by some cheap hotel with what his little pay could afford, that he cannot fucking do that! 

“Yeah, this would be good. Really nice stuff here,” Ghost gruffs. “Yeah? Well, let’s get started then. Um, here are the paperworks that you need to fill out. Uhh, you just need to input your government code and your partner’s. It is policy that you bring your pair in with you when it comes to legal documents, but I’m sure that we could make an exception for our veteran here,” the agent smiles; one that Ghost did not reciprocate. “I ain’t got a missus with me. Haven’t found them yet.” 

It was a simple explanation, not wanting to dwell too much on his reasons. Before he could even take the papers in his hand, the man retracts. Confusion etched on Ghost’s face while pity is on the man’s. “Oh, I am really sorry but you are legally required to have a partner before you could own property—or anything for that matter.” Ghost looked this agent for a good few minutes, anticipating the ‘sike’ that he desperately wishes to hear but only dead silence echoes. “Surely you could, say, make an except for a veteran?” he nervously chuckles out, trying to weasel his way into a fucking home. Nothing. Dead fucking silence that’s heavy with pity. Ghost loathes it.

Without even saying a word, he turns his back and starts walking towards the car he rented today, because you can’t even own a car in this government! He should have flagged it as weird when the lady in the car shop insists that he should rent first before buying something. So, now he sits in the dingy bar that Soap has dragged him into after he informed the force that he would not be settling anytime soon. After explaining his circumstance, he expected them to react like he did before, but no. They all replied like they knew this. Even saying stuff like, “you didn’t know?” Of course he didn’t! It wasn’t like Ghost was invested in property or anything for that matter while he was serving. All he cared about was surviving each day, and that is it. 

“Aye, cheer up, lad. Life ain’ that bad. Ya’ just gotta get them lassie, and all yer problems would go away,” the Scot on his right drunkenly offers advice—a shit one at that. Did he really think Ghost hasn’t stepped foot on every land they got deployed with heavy hopes that he’ll find whoever he needs to find there? He fucking hates it here. He should have not retired this early if he knew this would happen. Now he needs to go around the world and search for the lassie whose presence—or her lack thereof—is the root of all his problems. 

If finding a needle in a haystack is hard, imagine finding a lady that’s probably moving countries as he speaks with Soap. “Yeah, like that’s fucking easy,” he scoffs, rolling his eyes before lifting his mask just enough to down his shot of whiskey. The fiery burn of the alcohol down his throat is nothing compared to the one on his neck. He would rather have it cut at this point than to go on about this miserable lifetime any longer.

“Should I just cut and peel it off?” he mumbles to no one in particular; probably to Fate if that shit is listening. Seeing that no one else in the rundown bar is really paying attention to him, Soap takes the honour in replying to him instead. “According tae what I’ve seen, jobby pain is hee haw compared tae th' pain ye will feel in yer heart. Doctors say that th' pain goes tae th' heart instead while tripling”. Unprompted, Ghost curses like a fucking sailor. Saying stuff that will probably get him on the government's watchlist if he wasn’t part of the military serving this goddamn country. He risks his life daily and this is what he gets? Ungrateful bastards.

With a slam of the glass on the mahogany table, he stands up with a new profound determination. “Fuck it, I’m finding that missus if it’s the last thing that I do”. “Eyy, that’s the spirit, matie,” Soap drunkenly encourages him, which should have been the first red flag on this idea. Any idea supported by Soap is an immediate botch.

Well, what could go wrong? He’s retired anyway. 

Turns out, many could go wrong. Well, here’s to the fucking shit-show of his life.

꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱: please give this love!!

dividers by @cafekitsune

Please reblog!! Ask is open!

⟢ taglist is open!! @hotvinimon

check out my other works in the masterlist: ୭!

[differenteagletragedy]

Our Life headcannons

-- Cove has at least one child who is autistic and nonverbal. He becomes a master at communicating with this baby, and whenever they are able to use their words he absolutely loses his mind. The first time he hears an "I love you"? Crying, screaming, flat on the ground, bawling his eyes out. Let someone in public try to make any kind of remark if the kid has a meltdown. They will not survive.

-- Derek asked you to prom "as friends." He asked you what you were wearing so his tux could match you, and he got you a corsage too, "as friends." Did it seem kind of like a date? Of course it did, he'd had a crush on you for years. But he was very insistent on the "as friends" part and even if you had a crush on him too, it kind of made you think he couldn't ever see you that way at all.

-- Going to watch a movie with Baxter? Lol, no you're not. Boy runs his mouth trying to be cute and you can never follow the plot because he's sitting beside you with that little smirk, trying to make you laugh and look all adorable. If you really want to see something, leave him home or at least learn how to tune him out -- even if you do he'll keep going.

-- Cove doesn't like to drink but when he does he will not. Shut. Up. He's not like Movie Baxter, he just keeps saying whatever comes to mind, no filter. No real memory on how to properly structure sentences either. He just really needs you to know literally every single thought that pops into his head so please just listen to him, hey, are you listening?

-- Do you want a dog? You better if you end up with Derek, because y'all are getting a dog. It doesn't matter what kind it is, he'll be taking that dog on runs with him, he'll be doing research to get it the best kind of food and to figure out what kind of environment it thrives in. Did he just get another subscription box for the dog even though he already gets one? Yup. That's his dog.

-- Do you like makeup? Cool, Baxter likes you to put makeup on him too, thanks. Not to go out, that's not really his thing, but it's a nice relaxing activity to do at home. He gets you all close to him (once you get back together he's not gonna let you go lol), and he gets to feel pretty. Don't skimp on the mascara, he likes his lashes, and be sure to play up his best features. Maybe try a dark lipstick this time, he'd like to see how that looks. And when you're done having fun, you better get to thoroughly removing everything and then following up with his skincare routine.

-- Sorry, let's double up on Baxter while we're here -- do you have a skin routine too? Because that's a shared interest and he's gonna want to talk about it. What's your favorite cleanser? Do you want to do face masks together? There's this new moisturizer he's interested in that's stupid expensive but he still wants to try it, want to split it? You share a Sephora rewards account so you can get more points. Oops, you accidentally put on too much of your lip mask and your lips are all goofy -- just give him a kiss, he hasn't put his on yet. It's weird how much I could go on about this.

-- You can also put makeup on Cove, but maybe stick to powders so he can rinse it all off easy after. And you can do whatever to Derek, he doesn't care, he's just happy to be there.

-- Everybody makes a big deal about Baxter's dancing, but this is actually another case of Derek Erasure, because he can do stuff too. His dad taught him and his brothers how to properly dance with a partner, and he was too shy to do it if you took him to the Summer Soiree, but if you end up with him? He can hold his own for sure.

-- If Cove doesn't end up with you, he ends up with Xavier. That's it. That's how it goes.

-- Not one of the main boys, but if you and Cove have babies then Cliff absolutely thrives on his GILF status. He tells everyone that he's a grandfather, literally every single person, and he's def proud of Cove and loves his grandbaby to bits, but also, like, look at him. Crazy hot grandpa, right?

[pinkpigtailsprincess]

౨ৎ ⁺ . Manifesting Rant.ᐟ 🎀🧁

⊹ ⋆ﾟ꒰ఎ ♡ ໒꒱ ⋆ﾟ⊹ ; first i wanna say i am not targeting this towards one particular person & im not hating on a specific person or group!!

this is just things people in the manifesting community do that i find very weird (ie: loa,subliminals,shifting etc)

No.1 ꒱ 🎀 ! ; Sub-Makers and Toxic Affirmations

omg i while ago i seen the sub makers community post talking about hoe they’re gonna put affirmations in their beauty subliminal to the user make others jealous and hate themselves

uhm what the hell?? that’s honestly so weird and the fact that them and they’re subscribers are sitting laughing at the shit?? like that is honestly so weird and demented get help!

No.2 ꒱ �� ! ; Ruining peoples lives through LOA

this is honestly so fucking weird of people too do especially like over a boy its so unnecessary and its not gonna get you any cool points either it’s weird & hateful and you need to get some help literally just create a new man you don’t have to go out of your way to harm someone

No.3 ꒱ 🐬 ! ; Self-Sabotage in Shifting

i honestly hate seeing people on shiftok say things like “shifting is hard” “only affirming once the going too sleep😝” that is honestly why your not shifting, shifting really isn’t that hard

set intention > method > affirm > persistence in affirming > SHIFTED!! 🌟

please stop setting your self up for failure!!!

No.4 ꒱ 👙 ! ; Sub-Makers and wanting too look European or east asian

i get so sad when i see poc sub users using subliminals to erase their ethnic features like anyone is allowed to live their life as they see fit but damn i really wish some if them would realize they don’t need pin straight hair,light skin,ski slope noses etc. too look beautiful (and it ties into texturism,colorism and its just a mess)

and now they’re certain sub makers that take these gorgeous female celebrities and put filters on them to make them “more beautiful” and they only just end up looking european like thats NOT jessica alba 💀

No.5 ꒱ 🍦 ! ; Sub-Makers and Getting T-worded

okay i feel for you getting ur account terminated but it gets too a point where you have to realize your the problem!

they purposely post stuff like h€ntai,soft p*rn,naked women,th1nsp0 and p@nt!es and they get terminated for it they make another acc and DO THE SAME THING and expect nothing to happen?? like youtube isn’t against sub-makers y’all are just not taking accountability like omg stop saying “snaketube” when you know the stuff your posting is against the guidelines ! REFLECT

[4denthusiast]

There's this conlanging idea I've had for a while which I'm probably never going to actually have a proper conlanging project to put it into, so I might as well just post the idea. Consider it free to a good home if you like it. I don't really know all that much about linguistics, so maybe I'm just re-inventing something that already exists, or maybe an actual linguist would analyze what I propose in a different way. Anyway.

Grammatical mood, as I understand it, is the way in which the language marks what a sentence (or clause) is doing. There are a few main ones, indicative for statements, imperative for instructions/commands, interrogative for questions, and subjunctive is also pretty common but feels like a bit of an odd one out as it's only for subordinate clauses in certain contexts.

My thought is: what if grammatical mood were an open class, and you could form new moods on the fly using the rules of the grammar? Statements, questions and commands are the main things you can do with a sentence, but there are more. You can apologise, make a promise, form a contract, perform all sorts of ceremonies, legal and informal, etc.. These are lumped into the category of speech acts, things you can do with language beyond merely communicating. You can split up the major categories into finer divisions too. Imperative covers commands, requests and instructions. There are rhetorical and socratic questions in addition to questions where you actually want to know the answer. It's not that you can't already make these distinctions, but if we're adding loads of extra moods we may as well have these as separate options and fold other language features into this mechanism.

Of the languages I know well enough to say, English and French both mark the mood with a combination of word order changes and verb conjugation, Lojban uses particles, and all three have specific words for certain sorts of question that indicate which bit of the sentence is being asked about.

The word order and conjugation methods doesn't generalize very well, so to implement this as grammar, let's have some grammatical particle that transforms a verb into a mood marker, say "mo". Indicative remains unmarked for brevity, and imperative and interrogative both have reduced forms as single words, "mo ask" -> "ma" and "mo request" -> "morc" or something. Then by saying a sentence whose mood is marked with some verb, you are doing the thing that verb describes, to the extent that is actually possible for you to do as a speech act. This is kind of like "hereby" in English, but more of a core feature of the language. Not every speech act needs a separate sentence, so in some cases the mood marker can stand as a complete sentence on its own.

A lot of the time in English, when you're doing a speech act, the form of the sentence is just grammatically you stating that you do that thing, which feels sort of awkward. With a separate mood for every speech act, you can be more explicit.

For apologies, "Mo apologise, I lied to you."

For wedding vows, "Mo take thee as my wife."

Casting a vote (without paper ballots), "Mo vote for X.", or "I prefer X mo vote."

Want to return a faulty item at a shop, and make it very clear that you are invoking your right to do so, as set out in the law? "You refund this, mo legally insist." or if you're feeling fancy, "You refund this, mo invoke Paragraph [whatever] of the [whatever] Act."

For joke purposes, "I'll definitely do that... mo lie."

mo give examples.

The legal examples are where this mechanism feels most fitting to me. I've seen laws and contracts and stuff say things like "If X invokes Paragraph 2.a, Y has to do such and such.", and it just feels a little awkward, like what does it mean for someone to have invoked a rule? The laws define all these acts you can perform that have legal consequences and to do them you just... say you do? It feels weird. Take that "lawyer dawg" example. It is said (this seems like the sort of thing that might be an urban legend, I'm not sure) that a suspect once tried to invoke their right to have a lawyer present when questioned by saying "I want a lawyer, dawg.", and when the police did not respect this request, the judge ruled it legal because the suspect did not request a lawyer properly (a lawyer dog being a nonexistent thing it is nonsense to request).

Now, would a language with this feature actually be reasonable for everyday use? Would even lawyers actually benefit at all? It doesn't strike me as immediately impractical at least, but I'm not sure it would be useful enough for the feature to actually be maintained in a natural language setting, let alone arise in the first place. Still, I am fond of the idea. It seems like the sort of thing that would have fit very well in Lojban at least. There is a conlanging project I've been doing that's sort of a Lobjan relex, and I guess I could tack it on there.

[freebooter4ever]

does anyone else have tropes in their own writing that would only make sense to them? if you've ever read multiple fics of mine and come across any background character named 'janet' or any character whose name starts with a 'j' or is similar to that - those are all the same character. Its this weird obsession of mine - to put real life people into my fanfic. And each 'janet' is a new version of my great aunt janet who was, to put it kindly, a holy terror. She was mean to everyone, she hated children (though she tolerated me because i silently did everything she told me to and would help her shell peas on the farm when we visited), and she died old and alone. But her life was pretty sad too - she grew up when women weren't educated much, and she never married and instead of living her own life was left by her older brothers as the caretaker of their mother, basically until the day she died. So in my stories all my 'janet's lead beautifully full and happy lives with lots of friends. None of the main plots are about janet, obviously, but if i need a side character i just plop her in there and invent a better life for her than the one she was stuck with.

I do this with grandma too. If there's a random little old lady in my fic it's probably based on grandma. The most popular being Eleanor from DOA. I even wrote a short story about an old woman who knits and spins her own yarn, and pricks her finger on the spinning wheel to become a superhero and save her suburbs from aliens, but instead of fighting the aliens ends up befriending them and adopts them as a sort of alien cat breed. It was entirely based on grandma jojo, who -if you think my insecurities are bad - is even worse when it comes to believing she can do anything. She doesn't think she can do anything right, so she never wants to do anything because she knows she won't do it well. This baffled grandpa jojo, who used to try to teach her about airplanes and rockets and wanted her to go to college. And this equally baffled me my whole life - when i was really little i apparently wouldnt let her just sit beside me, i made her draw too. So all my stories feature larger than life superhero grandma characters.

And lavender - this is one people have caught me on, lol. Because I use it every chance I get. Grandma callyerdogsoff was a poet and an artist herself, but writing her into stories as a character feels impossible. So instead i use her signature scent. She died in 2010 but sometimes if i think about her i can still smell lavender.

People belittle fangirls, fanfic, and fanartists and say this stuff isn't worth anything compared to 'real' creative work but. I dunno. There's so much more to it than people imagine. I know none of my writing will last beyond my lifetime, and that none of these little tropes will be teased out of it like in english lit class. So whats the harm in writing within already built communities that share an established passion? My 'original' work always feels lonelier than the stuff written with an audience in mind. Why is writing my original work so much better when it just sits there and is never seen by anybody other than me. Compared to the fanfic where im writing my stories about other people's characters and using my words and my particular quirks...and usually interacting with a whole community of friends and fellow writers.

[zuzsenpai]

Deep dive into my personal thoughts on determining if I am autistic. Feel free to read or not read, but please refrain from dismissive language. I'm just trying to get this stuff written down and posted, because often that's cathartic for me. TW for negativity, mentions of mental illness, and verbal/emotional abuse.

I’ve been seriously considering the idea that I’m autistic for a little over a year now (probably longer if I’m being honest), though a conversation with a good friend yesterday sparked an interest in putting everything into writing. This past year was exceptionally bad as far as mental health is concerned, and I generally assumed depression and anxiety were responsible for a lot of my issues getting worse. And that’s definitely true. But as I thought about myself and became more aware of certain traits I have and things I do and say and think outside of just a depression standpoint, I kept wondering if I’ve been framing some things wrong for years. I had always assumed that certain things I do are “wrong” and “bad” because they’re caused by depression. When in fact they might be features of myself that can be reframed and understood better and I can learn to accept them. I’ve been wondering if getting screened for autism might be useful for me. I still don’t know. A lot of the things I’m about to list sound really negative. But I want to learn how to love myself and take care of myself so that positivity can come out of this.

So anyway, here are some things I do or think that, if I get screened for autism or at least dip my toes into the community, I might be able to understand more clearly. Not all of these are signs of autism, and some can absolutely be attributed to depression or self esteem issues, which I do have. But I want to get all of this down anyway.

Social anxiety. I have a lot of it. Always have, though I tended to mask it better in school. In my 30s, I’m not forced to interact with people outside of work, so my social anxiety has only gotten worse. I’m god awful at social interactions with almost everyone. Especially in-person social interactions (online is easier, though I tend to not have much to say in online conversations). Very close friends and immediate family are the only people I feel I can speak to properly, but even then I get nervous and have to really think before I say something. I think very carefully before every social interaction, and ponder them constantly afterwards. I tend to cancel plans VERY frequently if I feel like I can’t handle being around more people than just my close friends or immediate family. And when I am with new people, I fret constantly about being perceived as awkward. Which brings me to…

I have a deep fear of being perceived as awkward or weird. Of being recognized as someone who can’t communicate normally. I feel like an alien wandering around at all times. Everything I say sounds awkward coming from my mouth. Speaking leads to embarrassment. I sit in a room filled with extended family and all I can think of is how I can seem “normal” without having to talk to them. Because of this, I have become hyperaware of visual cues/facial cues/reactions of other people around me when I’m near them or speaking to them. I always thought that “recognizing social cues” meant that I couldn’t have autism. But I think in this case, I may have just worked extra hard to notice people’s reactions because of the fear of being perceived as different. I trained myself, if that makes sense. Though sometimes I realize too late that I actually said something weird, and I stress about it for weeks. Which brings me to…

I vocal stim. Because of my horrible fear of being perceived as awkward, I tend to replay social interactions in my head over and over for days and weeks after they happen. My brain does this thing where the moment I start to think about an awkward interaction, I immediately and involuntarily say a specific word out loud. It doesn’t happen in public while I’m in the situations, but it does happen every time I think about them afterwards, usually when I’m alone. This is a frequent, daily occurrence. I think of the vocal stim as trying to help me stop thinking about the thing, or reminding me that I’m thinking about it in the first place. When I hear myself say the word, I inwardly cringe for a moment, then try to refocus on something else. The word has changed a couple times over the years, but it’s usually the name of a fictional character I really like at the time.

I know this one will sound more like severe depression, but… My executive dysfunction is bad. REAL BAD. I have entire rooms of my house filled with garbage and junk because I can’t take a single step to clean and sort. Even the idea of taking a small step is stressful for me. Organization is a huge challenge. Starting any kind of task that involves cleaning or organizing gets me confused and anxious. And often even fun hobby tasks seem impossible to start or do, because my brain constantly tells me I don’t actually want to do them.

Also I space out and can’t focus when someone, like my mom, is talking to me. She complains that I don’t listen to details when she’s talking and she claims I “do it on purpose to spite her”. When in reality, I do it without thinking. It causes poor memory issues. One specific and horrible example is from last Christmas. My mom said she wanted new pot holders for Christmas— a specific kind that aren’t “mittens” and don’t include silicone grips, but instead are made of really thick fabric. She told me this a couple times, but for some reason I couldn’t process the details, or I immediately forgot them because I didn’t write them down. I eventually told my sibling that she could get the pot holders for my mom and I would get her something else on her list. But I neglected to tell my sibling any of the details of what my mom wanted. So my sibling got her really nice, big silicone grip oven mitts. When my mom opened them, she immediately said: “this isn’t what I wanted. Kristin I told you exactly what I wanted a dozen times. Did you seriously not listen? Why don’t you listen to me?” So in essence, I had completely ruined my sibling’s gift to my mom. I broke down and started sobbing. On Christmas. In front of my family. At age 35. My mom got really angry and told me I was crying on purpose to get sympathy, and that there’s no excuse for not listening to her, and that I’m being spiteful. I tried to explain to my family that lately I’ve been feeling like my brain doesn’t work properly. I don’t know if they really “got it”. It was AWFUL. I’m tearing up just thinking about it. Anyway… on to other things…

When I get a new project at work, I have to ask a lot of questions and talk it out for a while with my manager (who is very patient), pretty much every time. Just takes a while to process things. I spiral a little if I don’t have all the facts of a project right away. And speaking of not processing, please do not ask me to play a card or board game with a zillion rules. My brain shuts down. I get overwhelmed just thinking about it and I get stressed when someone invites me to play a game I’ve never played before.

I often take things people say too seriously, or it takes me a while to process what they are joking about with enough time to respond properly. I work extremely hard to mask this. I do understand sarcasm and jokes, but often I don’t know how to react to them. For instance, I have an uncle (Uncle Mike) who is notorious for saying incomprehensible shit and making inscrutable jokes about people (I’m sure you can guess that he is NOT my favorite relative). I was with him the other day, along with another uncle (Uncle Dave) who I hadn’t seen in years. My dad said something like “oh everybody’s gone through a lot of dog drama this year”. Which is true, though I personally don’t have a dog and did not have “dog drama”. Uncle Mike turned to Uncle Dave and just said offhandedly “Oh don’t bring the dog drama up around Kristin.” The comment made zero sense and I didn’t recognize it as a bizarre joke right away (he didn’t even know my cat was sick). So I felt the need to defend myself to my other uncle. I turned to Uncle Dave and said “well no, I don’t have dog drama but I do have cat drama. My cat was sick and had surgery, but he’s doing a lot better now.” Then I kind of went off on a tangent explaining the cat’s surgery. My Uncle in turn had no idea how to react to this. So I felt extremely awkward afterwards and sat there quietly contemplating how fucking awkward I am and how I can’t take a joke (even when the jokes are inscrutable). Anyway.

I get VERY overstimulated and anxious when my parents force me to come with them to local hockey games (they love going). I despise it. The competitiveness, the angry fans, the tension, the fighting on the ice… it’s awful. It sounds weird and counterintuitive, but I’m able to distract myself with the advertisements on the digital screens and the Jumbotron. But actually watching the game? Can’t do it. Serious overstimulation.

I have physical tics. I’ve cycled through different ones over the years— digging my fingernail into my palm, licking my lips, torso and neck twisting… etc.

I eat the same food every day. Takes A LOT to get me to branch out. I’m really picky. There are foods (like cheese, garlic, and fish) that just the idea of eating them makes me physically ill. I’ve actually puked from smelling mac & cheese and garlic pretzels cooking in the oven. I don’t have food texture issues, but I’m hypersensitive to taste and smell. I gag ALL the time when trying new foods, so I tend to avoid them.

I do hyperfixate on occasion. It’s not particularly extreme, but it does occur. Especially when I am too burnt out to do anything else, I find a single thing I really like doing at the time and become consumed by doing that one thing that makes me happy. Whether it’s writing fanfic for days on end or editing Digimon BGM or identifying bugs, I tend to ignore other tasks in favor of that one thing.

And finally, the suspected autistic burnout, which I am experiencing right now. I went through a VERY stressful August with my cat needing emergency surgery and his anxiety-inducing recovery. During that time and since then, my brain has been completely unable to start or focus on ANY task. I mindlessly scroll tumblr wishing I could do anything other than that, but feeling anxiety when I try. I’m exhausted. Everything makes me exhausted. Existing makes me mentally and physically exhausted. I’ve been really withdrawn.

Anyway, in general, I’ve always felt that I didn’t have traits that would get me diagnosed as autistic. And there’s a good chance I won’t be diagnosed. But I do have some traits. Maybe? My problem is fear of not being accepted and understood, because people in my life will think I’m “too old to be diagnosed” or “exaggerating” or “just have depression”. I have a childhood friend who got diagnosed a few years ago. When she told her mom she had autism, her mom was insulted, angry, and dismissive. Her mom brought out the “is it my fault? Was I a bad mother? There’s no way my child has autism” cards. Knowing my own mother and how she reacts to anything I tell her about myself, she would do the same thing. She would tell me I’m over-exaggerating and making stuff up in my head. And having my mom be insulted by my autism is a deep fear, because when she says dismissive things, they tend to burn into my mind for eternity. Like when I was 21 and she told me “don’t think you’re gay just because your friends are gay.” GOD that was a bad one. That one line held me back from understanding my sexuality for well over a decade, and it still haunts the back of my mind. I can’t imagine what her dismissing me as neurodivergent would do. The fight and guilt tripping and dismissiveness it would cause would be outrageously terrible for my mental health. My mom is staunchly anti-psychiatry, so I guess I will never EVER tell her. Maybe her acceptance wouldn’t make me feel better anyway.

But other people’s acceptances— the people who truly matter— might be what I’m looking for. I don’t know what to make of anything I just wrote down. I said a lot of things about myself… and it would be nice to frame some of them more positively, and to work on certain things with a better knowledge of who I am.

[dragonmasterhiccup]

Snotlout stared at Hiccup with a raised brow, a slightly confused expression on his features as he observed his cousin's behavior. "Uh-huh...right." Briefly snorting, he covered his mouth to hide his amused grin, "You're still all shy even in a relationship! Geez.."

As though a heavy weight were taken off her shoulders, Freya looked over at the Chief's son with a relieved smile; it was like she was suddenly...much lighter than before - almost as if she were above the clouds with Blaze. She was immensely thankful he didn't judge or reject her idea. She tried suppressing the grin that tugged at her lips, the action becoming much harder when he said it would actually make a difference. The same giddiness she had only felt once before with him came back to gently greet her, making her hold back from jumping in her spot.

Why she was so happy that her plan would help him, she didn't know, but she found herself willingly wanting to do more things like that, to make Hiccup feel happy as well. "Then it's settled. Just don't forget the signal..!"

Glancing at the last bowl he was washing, her gaze flickered onto his face once he said it was 'thanks to her', blinking in a short moment of surprise. 'Wait...so I really did do something right when it comes to this stuff..?' Freya thought, assuming that any attempts to bring him some sort of comfort wouldn't end so good. His smile also did not help her. The weird, fluttery feeling bombarded her personal space, and she didn't know what to do with it. "Yeah..uh, thanks -- I MEAN, you're...welcome..?"

She mentally hit herself for sounding so strange. Whatever it was he was doing to her, it was something entirely new.

Pretending to be offended, Freya put a hand over her chest, gaping at Hiccup's words. "Did I hear you compare me to Snotlout? Oh, please, this is only a harmless little bet. Maybe you're saying all of that because you know I'll win, Mr. Nice Guy..!" It was extremely difficult not to burst out in laughter with him, the mention of his cousin in that particular way was too funny, especially for her.

---------------

Blaze's tail wagged as Toothless came to greet him, becoming even more overjoyed when he decided to join them on the hunt for a stick. He motioned his wing towards the right, communicating that was where he would look before trotting over in that direction. It wasn't far from Ayla, if anything it was a couple steps away as he searched the ground, determined to get his friend the stick.

Having a bit of difficulty prying out the three flowers that were left, Freya's eyes looked at Hiccup once he volunteered to remove them. The thought of him doing so made her face become warm; she didn't play around when it came to her hair, especially with the traditions of vikings and how much value they held towards it. Knowing she had been growing more comfortable around him though, enough to be herself, she slowly nodded. "Sure..go ahead.."

Seeing that the flowers were slightly tangled in the black tresses, she suddenly felt a bit..insecure of how thick her hair could be. "I'd, uh, I'd be shocked if you could get every single one of them out this mess.." She lightly chuckled, although it was only to cover up her nerves. Not wanting to make it anymore difficult for him, she shifted a little closer while she kept her gaze on Ayla as she called out for the dragons, yelling something along the lines of: "Guys! These sticks are too thin and tiny! Did you find any other ones?"

Freya's hand went to brush against the grass, plucking it every now and then as she earnestly tried not to get distracted by staring at Hiccup for too long. She absolutely did not imagine the day when the Chief's son would be helping her get a few flowers out of her hair, and yet there she was - willfully allowing him to do it for her. 'I definitely must not hate him anymore..' She told herself, sneaking in a quick glance at his features before returning her focus on the grass.

"I didn't think you'd actually keep those braids in...the ones Ayla did for you.." She mumbled, using that as an excuse to stare at him a little more. Shrugging, her head tilted in the slightest, unbeknownst to her, as her amber eyes briefly examined his hair. The sunlight was providing nearly the same glow as it had done in the cove, making the auburn color stand out. "You really do have nice hair.." She spoke mindlessly, her face hastily becoming a light shade of red as she realized she said that out loud. "I mean, uhm, sorry, that -- that was not..supposed to--"

The distraction of being closer to Hiccup invading her mind, Freya felt as if she wasn't thinking straight, making her go to her last measley resort: she held one of her hands in front of her face to try and hide it from view - knowing very well it wasn't working in how she wanted it to.

...

Freya Leif was attempting to cover up her embarrassment like a young, timid girl.

What in the world was she doing?

Choosing to stay in that position, the reason for it not being something she was completely sure about, she talked in a lower and softer tone, another thing she wasn't familiar with: ".. Sorry. That..came out of nowhere. The sun only made it--" She caught herself almost telling him everything that got her into this situation in the first place, thankfully managing to avoid spilling all of her 'secrets'. "I was just, uhm...I-I don't know...I...I guess I like...the color..?"

...Great. She made it worse, didn't she?

Hiccup just nodded shyly, running a hand through his hair while ducking his head.

Whew, that was close...

Seeing Freya smiling like that made him feel a sudden burst of happiness. "It's just a tap, right? I think I can remember that!"

He finished washing the last bowl, dipping it in the rinse basin so Freya could dry it. Drying off his own hands, he crossed to her other side, leaning back against the wall.

As she fumbled her words, which Hiccup found to be absolutely adorable, he chuckled lightly, holding up a hand to ease her, "It's alright, I know what you meant." It took him far too long to realize they were now simply standing there, smiling at each other.

Laughing, he raised his brows, lowering his head to look at her. "Oh, yeah? You sure sound confident about beating an amputee, don't you?"

----------------

Toothless gave a small grunt, nodding his head towards the left, planning to search there. He too wouldn't stray far from Ayla, just in case.

Hiccup could see the surprise on her face, and that she was deciding on whether to say yes. Not wanting to pressure her, he ducked his head, adjusting the straps on his armor in the meantime.

He was already sitting right next to her, they had the whole cliff, but he plopped down right next to her without even thinking about it.

When she gave permission, he nodded, motioning for her to angle her head comfortably so he could get to work.

"Mess? I don't see any mess," he concentrated on extracting the flowers without it tugging on her head. "No, it's definitely not a mess, Fey..."

Toothless popped his head up, a tree branch in his mouth. It was too thick to be a sword for Ayla, but the dragon was holding onto it anyways.

He had found one stick that could work, and he nudged it towards her with his nose.

Hiccup managed to remove one flower, placing it in Freya's hand before moving on to the next one.

He tried to work quickly, softly apologizing anytime he thought he'd tugged a strand too hard. Thankfully it didn't happen too much.

As he focused, he bit his bottom lip, his brows furrowed as he tried to get the flowers out painlessly.

"Hm? Oh," he shrugged. "Truthfully, I'm not a big fan of them, but if it makes Ayla happy, then I'll keep them. Besides, I guess it does make me look more Berkian, doesn't it? It seems that our whole tribe has braids in some respect."

As she tilted her head, his fingers brushed against the small braid she'd added that morning. "Did Ayla do this one too? It's different from your usual braids..."

"Uh, just, try to hold still, I'm almost done with this second flower..."

At her compliment, he paused, slowly turning his head to look at her, his expression full of amusement. "Oh?"

He couldn't hold back a lighthearted chuckle as she attempted to hide her face from him. "Hey, it's, it's a nice compliment, no need to be embarrassed...listen, even guys like me appreciate a compliment now and then!"

It felt so natural, he didn't even realize it was happening. His hand moved from her hair to her wrist, and he eased her hand to the side, locking eyes with her. "The sun does have its own kind of magic, doesn't it? For instance, the sun right now..." His tone and gaze softened as he looked in her eyes. "...it's allowing me to see just how many different shades of amber are in your eyes..."

Blinking, he realized his face was just inches from hers, and he inhaled sharply, his cheeks turning red, and leaned back to put more space between them so quickly that he almost fell backwards. Letting go of her, he set himself right, clearing his throat, "Uh, I--the second one is almost out..."

[the-owl-tree]

as someone who has watched literally nothing about mlp but had always had an interest in it and its fandom like xenofic bugs in a jar, im living for this new pony tangent. what are your favorite and least favorite brony tropes, when it comes to the fan media they make?

you and me ngl lol i’m both surprised and not surprised at the response to my mlp posting, the mlp and warriors community feel like they’d definitely cross over lol

also good god this got long

I feel like I have to preface that the community was a huge inspiration to me and the sheer amount of creativity that people put into their pony projects is still amazing. It’s so clear that a lot of the songs, animations, literature, and general fan creations came from a place of love and a lot of that inspired me to try new things! For all the bad press “bronies” got (and let’s be real, a lot of media outlets just wanted to mock them), it’s clear that a lot of older fans were having a blast creating. I still listen to a lot of the songs from the community and watch lullaby for a princess or rise the moon from time to time because of how much they still hold up.

I guess lore is a double edged sword? Because on one hand, I love reading too deeply into media that does not call for it. I loved reading the analysis on class divisions in mlp and I really liked the critical side of the community, it helped me really develop my own skills as a kid and helped me question a lot of the stuff that I was consuming. I loved watching reviews of episodes or hearing what my favorite artists thought! I think a vocal community can definitely be a double edged sword, but it really did encourage me a lot in speaking up about my interests.

But I don’t know if that’s a trope lol so I guess…definitely the sociopolitical analysis of pony society. The ones that picked at the show and what it intentionally or unintentionally would say. I love that stuff, it’s super fun to dig into. But on the other side, lore was something a lot of people held up as the best aspect of the show, and there was this sort of clamoring for the writers to dump more and more. Which, look, a lot of the original lore was weaved within dialogue or conflicts, it wasn’t quite “dumped” on the audience as it became in the newer seasons.

But there was this sort of fascination by some on war and the military in the pony universe. This obsession with royal guards and political conflicts, and I guess in some ways I get it? But also, look, it was peddled by a lot of self-proclaimed military bronies. It does not help the show did in fact do a little pandering with one of the episodes actually featuring an alternate universe where the ponies go to war and we get to see them in full armor 😭 like there was this big fascination of the princesses killing and leading battles and it just was not for me.

Hm….maybe nextgen stuff? I always did like the idea of seeing what happened next and all the various pairings. Though sometimes that did give a lot of artists the chance to be edgy and admittedly a bit inappropriate for the pony show. Like with lore, double edged sword I suppose. Can’t complain too much, I was a pretty edgy kid and loved angst and edge and drama! Still do but I keep it for my uh older audience OC’s.

Hm let’s see….fascination with side characters. Maybe because the show indulged them a little too much. I can’t blame the fandom for everything when the writers weren’t exactly tempering expectations. But that’s the same reason why I enjoy it! I loved seeing people provide full on backstories and character to ponies who were mentioned once (someone gave the idea that Woah Nellie is an outspoken activist and i still love that).

But yeah! Honestly? The ultra violent military obsession has always just been the weird one for me. It’s fine and I get why some people would be interested in the social and politics dynamics of a pony military, but I think the people who really liked it just liked the idea of the ponies going to war with cool weapons and fancy armor and not much else (gotta show how MANLY mlp is amiright guys)

I feel like there’s others but nothing is coming to mind rn other than the insane amount of sexual content.

[dandyshucks]

hiii dandy !! i wanted to ask, what do you think you and guzma would do post-canon after the events of sun & moon ? (i might have asked this before - if i have, i apologize..) (i also wanted to say that its been really cool seeing ur progress on ur plush!! it seems so hard, so you having that skill is rly admirable and i wish u lots of luck w finishing it!!) (@dmclr)

CLARA HI i hope u (and dimitri hehe) are doing well :] !!! wah thank u for the question, u havent asked it before dw !!! 

OKAY SO admittedly I mostly only know the story through reading Guz’s wiki page a few times (teehee) and through osmosis from the general fandom dsgjkl, i want to play the game one day and maybe read the manga, and I’ve watched the anime eps he’s featured in and that’s all i’m watching of that LOL. I haven’t actually experienced much of his story (or su/mo in general) first-hand myself though fdsjkl

answer below the cut because.... the rambler's curse got me LOL

after the events of su/mo, I don’t think he’d actually disband Team Skull because… what is the point of that honestly LOL, so Team Skull stays together in MY version of the world hehe. they’re required to do community service to make up for whatever shenanigans they get up to, but they stop stealing pokemon and move onto just like… graffiti and casual pranks and stuff. they still cause trouble, but it’s mostly mischief now rather than any actual crime. I set them up to work on murals for shop owners around the islands so they can spraypaint and be artistic that way rather than randomly tagging walls and getting into trouble for it fjdskl. they keep their disdain for authority figures and rules because at the end of the day most of them are rowdy teens who feel outcasted from society, and that’s just the way the ball rolls with them (also a certain level of that is healthy and warranted tbh). I work with Plumeria to organize events and outings (outside of community service) for the squad though, which helps give everyone healthier outlets for their energy and focus.

Hala mentors Guz to help put him onto (and keep him on) the right track, and Guz learns to appreciate the islands and their traditions a bit - even if he still doesn’t agree with all of them. Part of that mentorship is also sort of therapy (in a more holistic naturally-occurring way rather than like... clinical therapist sitting with patient), so trauma gets unpacked and healthier ways of handling emotions are learned and implemented. Also fuck the Aether Foundation HFDSJKL I keep Guz far away from Lusamine and make sure she never gets close to him again (idk what Gladion and Lillie get up to, I haven’t thought enough about them yet fsjkl). There’s a lot of healing and self-improvement and learning how to Be A PersonTM for both of us tbh!

Beyond that, it is mostly just regular Alola/island living!! Beach visits, walking around, getting ice cream and popsicles, casual battles with tourists, catching wimpods, all that sort of thing :] Also we visit Sinnoh (my home region) for half the year (i have… a whole schedule worked out for that actually LOL) so there’s that, too.

as for the plushie omg thank u sm WAUGH :D i cannot tell if it’s just because i have a weird hodge-podge skillset but i DO think it is not actually all that difficult !!! you just need a pattern for cutting the felt and then I learned the ladder stitch for hand-sewing, and it’s been very straightforward on how to sew the pieces together!! the hardest part so far has just been the hair because I have a difficult time translating 2D images to 3D reality in that way.

I just really want to encourage ppl to try their hand at new crafts and creative skills because I think it’s really fun and honestly really good for ppls well-being!! i am very passionate about making creativity accessible to people as much as possible!!! maybe i could make a tutorial or smth… the pattern I'm using is free and available on the creator’s website, and it’s genuinely not that difficult esp compared to some other things i’ve tried my hand at in the past LOL I feel like some of my paper mache projects have been more complex than this lil goober!!

THANK YOU AGAIN, AND SORRY ABOUT BECOMING THE RAMBLING RAMBLER LMAO i actually entirely rewrote this once because I wanted to shorten it and it STILL ended up this long 😭

[starseedfxofficial]

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Machine learning algorithms help spot these deceptive market behaviors—sometimes with scary accuracy—and guide you in knowing when to hold ‘em, fold ‘em, or straight-up run for the exit. Feature Extraction—No, Not a Dentist Thing, But Equally as Important Feature extraction is where machine learning shines. The algorithms figure out which variables actually matter. Is it a sudden surge in EUR/CHF correlations? Maybe it’s an abnormal spike in gold prices (given CHF’s correlation to safe-haven flows). Think of feature extraction as the equivalent of packing only the essential stuff for a weekend getaway—you’re traveling lean, but you're prepared for everything from sunbathing to an unexpected tornado. Algorithms essentially "travel light," identifying key influences while excluding noise—all of which help traders navigate the unpredictable USD/CHF terrain. "Reinforcement Learning and the Swissie's Quirks" Reinforcement learning is like teaching a dog to fetch, except instead of a Labrador, it's an algorithm, and instead of a ball, it's trying to "fetch" the best possible outcome for your trades. The key to machine learning, especially with quirky pairs like the USD/CHF, is repetition—getting the model to make decisions, evaluate outcomes, and get better each time. Imagine back-testing—but instead of one strategy, your AI is iteratively improving itself. Maybe it tried buying the USD/CHF on news releases 100 times and got burned 60 times. With reinforcement learning, the algorithm figures out, "Hey, maybe news time is a bad idea." Next time, it positions differently—and just like that, your "sidekick" is now the Bruce Lee of price-action precision. Why Machine Learning + USD/CHF is a Match Made in Forex Heaven - Reduced Emotional Bias: Human traders—no matter how savvy—are emotional beings. We panic-sell, revenge-trade, or simply make bad decisions because a fortune cookie told us "now is the time." Machine learning doesn’t care if it’s Monday, a rainy day, or if the cat knocked over your coffee. It just does the math. - Finding Micro-Patterns: With USD/CHF, where volatility sometimes sneaks in like a cat burglar in socks, machine learning can detect those hidden patterns that might go unnoticed—be it correlations with unrelated assets or micro-resistance levels that hold the key to a significant move. - Adaptive to Change: USD/CHF trading is susceptible to change—economic reports, interest rate announcements, and, well, Swiss National Bank surprises. Traditional strategies can lag, but machine learning models adapt—like a chameleon, except way cooler. Game-Changing Ninja Tactics - Feature Selection with Random Forests: Have you ever looked at a chart, saw nothing unusual, only to find out you missed a key signal? That’s where Random Forest algorithms come in handy. They’re fantastic at figuring out which features are truly important (like unexpected correlations between the U.S. 10-year yield and the CHF). It's like being that one person who knows which dessert is truly worth it at an all-you-can-eat buffet—zeroing in on what matters. - Anomaly Detection to Predict Market Reversals: Instead of reacting to a move that already happened, ML algorithms detect anomalies. Imagine an overbought market, except this time—instead of relying on traditional RSI—your ML model shows that an unusually low volume is contradicting the massive price move. Time to get your ninja stars ready because this is where the reversal magic begins. - Support Vector Machines for Optimal Trading Zones: Think of Support Vector Machines as a personal space trainer for trades. They tell you when it’s time to strike, when to hold back, and when to go full Force-mode. These ML algorithms help determine where the "boundaries" of your trade are—where the price should be and where it’s in no man’s land. Myth-Busting: Machine Learning Doesn’t Need to be Complicated Contrary to popular belief, machine learning is not just for quant geeks with six PhDs and a robotic dog named Einstein. Today, machine learning has tools that are accessible—Python libraries like Scikit-learn, frameworks like TensorFlow, all of which take a few hours to learn but pack a punch. Think of it as trading the USD/CHF with a proper roadmap, instead of trying to decipher the Metro map for Tokyo without speaking Japanese. The Future is AI, and It Starts Now With machine learning, you’re not relying on "gut feeling." You’re adding a next-level tool to your Forex trading toolbox—a powerful ally that looks at countless indicators without breaking a sweat. And when it comes to USD/CHF, these algorithms do more than analyze; they strategize. They adapt. 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If there’s one takeaway from this article, it’s that technology—especially machine learning—is the key to staying ahead. Traditional tactics are good; but the world’s changing, and we need to move with it. So why not take your place on the cutting edge and let algorithms work their magic on USD/CHF? Leave a comment below: Are you ready to take on USD/CHF with machine learning? Let me know how you're planning to integrate AI—or if you still believe Larry’s gut feeling is the best tool out there. Spoiler: It’s not. —————– Image Credits: Cover image at the top is AI-generated Read the full article

[kozykricket]

some more minecraft thoughts (unorganized AF wow)

yknow, i think a lot of people kinda forget like... how daunting game or.. really any media creation can be, with Scope in general, and generally making something requires some things to be cut, in order to like, say... focus on the main plot of a movie, instead of getting caught up on trying to do Everything Good. to focus on the strengths and do them Great... instead of opening up more cans of worms now you apply that to minecraft, where its whole strength is that there IS so much to do, its strength IS that it has like, everything... and really its no wonder they... have some difficulties developing it sometimes

well, yknow, ironically they have to cut things, but thats because they want to do everything Great instead of just Okay, but they also at the same time want to... do everything, which will ultimately take quite a while. to do everything that they could do...

in a game like minecraft, the backlog is endless, and figuring out what to prioritize is definitely a MASSIVE factor for like... well, lets take fireflies. of course they wanted to do fireflies, and to update more biomes to be more pretty. you see how joyous the devs sounded talking about that stuff?? of course they want it just as much as we do. but ... to open up a can of worms that is a whole mob that they want to do justice (even a mob as "simple" as fireflies) is to uh, put a bit much on their plate, considering they were already working on a lot of their backlog and had opened a massive can of worms with the ancient cities... and then you also factor in the Marketing and Stuff that wants them to get the update out ideally for around the summer and... to move on to the next update and... agh i guess what im tryna say is like, people seem to sometimes act like gamedevs cut things because they ... dont want to bother working. but its almost always priorities and scope. Of course mojang wants minecraft to be the best it can be, to have so many lovely wonderful things.

im sure if they never got any more ideas or suggestions for the game, they'd still have enough ideas to last until like, 1.80 if not higher.

so i imagine its quite tough for them, too, to have to say no to certain things because it... isnt relevant to open up certain cans of worms.

and that is, i believe, why you see them adding wolf variants now. it is strategic to finally yoink them out of the backlog (because surprise, the backlog is far more than just mob vote losers) because the armadillo makes them relevant. im not a huge fan of loosely connecting features like... armadillos to wolves. its kinda weird. but it does mean that that one mob winning gives them an opportunity to also add wolf variants and have that be... efficient in that it isnt opening up a brand new can of worms -- the can of worms of Wolves was already starting to open when they added wolf armor. is this to say wolves are done? of course not. nothing in minecraft is ever Done. and thats another reason its so hard to prioritize things. they want to add new things, and they want to improve old things. its a tough balance since... so many communities want DIFFERENT things out of the game

so it can end up seeming like they really dont add much... because. think of it like a pizza. someone bakes a really nice mixed pizza for a party, yet you... only get one or two slices that you really like. thats a shame. but that doesnt mean they didnt put a tonna work into baking it. the other pieces are being enjoyed by other people. people who, quite frankly, dont care about your slices.

i guess this post is kind of all over the place, but this is all to say... priorities and strategic development, as laaame as it may be to admit, is ultimately what mojang is going for, for both longevity and for quality. not to say theyre perfect. i wish they did armadillos a bit differently, and i wish we didnt have to wait for wolves to come up in relevance via a Shiny New Feature for them to be subtly tweaked... same as signs coming into relevance when they add hanging signs, so they add editing sign text as a feature.

i think ill... rewrite this post. its more of just a bunch of thoughts that arent super cohesive since theres just so many of them. ironic considering a big part of this posts sentiment is that for creation of many things, you should probably focus on the already good parts, instead of stretching it to do Everything Ever.

its. its just a lot of topics that i think are interesting.

respect to mojang for all the work they do. even if i dont agree with some of their implementations

[pansy-picnics]

NO BC I’VE UNIRONICALLY HEARD THIS SOOO OFTEN FROM OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY AND LIKE. ME TOO(????!!? PEOPLE PUT SUCH AN AWFUL STIGMA AROUND LIKING THESE SUPPOSEDLY “YOUNGER” CHARACTERS ….. i honestly probably would’ve gone for rod in a new beginning but i tricked myself into thinking he was annoying and “childish” bc everyone else said that and said that made it weird……..🥲 and my friend who rlly liked hiro from tale of two towns said they felt similarly when they first played…..LIKE IS IT NOT SO FUCKED UP THAT A BUNCH OF GROWN ASS ADULTS MADE KIDS THINK THEY WERE WEIRD FOR. LIKING THINGS THAT WERE LITERALLY MADE FOR THEM. 😭😭

and i’m not saying we cant criticize this stuff bc like...rune factory for example. obviously i’ll defend amber with my life but objectively that game deserves the criticism bc its marketed for an older audience and the narrative literally MAKES IT WEIRD….but harvest moon. Doesn’t? it just has characters that act a little silly sometimes and have big eyes and round features? like literally nothing about this is a pedo thing…..people are SO pressed for no reason bc a game for children has…themes and characters that appeal to children……..crazy……./s

sorry it highkey annoys me when ppl CONSTANTLY talk about harvest moon characters who “look/act like children” (most of the time they Literally Dont they’re just short and/or dress in ways people consider “childish”) and immediately they say it’s a pedo thing like……Hey girl do you know who this game is marketed to

[david-talks-sw]

Disney Plus shows & structuring episodes

Everyone's always talking about "pacing issues" when it comes to some Disney Plus shows. Where does that come from? Here's me trying to put it into words.

So I've actually been working on this post since the last episode of Book of Boba Fett came out. Then, an editor on TikTok released his 2-hour cut of Obi-Wan Kenobi and that made a lot of buzz. The idea being: if this show feels like a 3.4 hour movie... why not just make it a feature film from the get-go? So I wrote some more. What made me finish this post was a chat I had with my sisters regarding She-Hulk's episode 2.

The youngest asked "what happened in She-Hulk episode 2"? We replied "well, she got a new job, and got a new case" and we started geeking out about Abomination and Bruce and all that stuff. But after we were all done going "and that's so cool/funny too" it occurred to us that literally nothing else of substance happened in that episode other than:

Jen gets fired from her job.

She-Hulk gets new job.

She-Hulk meets new client.

And that's it. Everything else is in the episode is set-up for these two/three plot points. And it takes them about 20 minutes.

For comparison, an episode of Community will use that same amount of time to tell you a whole story with a beginning, middle and end and two subplots.

Whereas the second She-Hulk episode seemingly ended in the middle of the second act.

And that's so typical of a lot of Disney Plus shows. There will be scenes that are literally just filler (I'm using the term very loosely), there to pad the runtime because not much is actually happening in the episode.

Like, in Loki.

Episode #3, they land on a doomed planed, they get off the doomed planet. Filler shenaningans on a train.

Episode #4, they're captured, they escape capture. Filler scenes with Sif slapping Loki.

Episode #5, they land in weird dimension, get out of weird dimension. Filler scenes with variants.

Episode #6, they meet big bad, listen to big bad, kill big bad. Filler scenes with Owen Wilson & big bad's overall weird.

Or Book of Boba Fett,

Episode #1, Boba heads to town and gets attacked.

Episode #2, Boba heads to town, sees mayor, meets Hutt rivals.

Episode #3, Boba heads to town, recruits goons, survives assassination, makes peace with Hutts, heads to town again, finds out Pikes are his actual rivals.

Then Episode #4, is a whole flashback that ends with a meeting where characters we already knew hated Boba say they won't help Boba, shocker.

Episode #5 and Episode #6 focus on Din, A WHOLE DIFFERENT CHARACTER...!

Episode #7, they fight off invading Pike forces, Boba kills his old rival/mentor, cementing his already-claimed position as crimelord. Filler scenes where Din needs to fight big robot + a whole bunch of other minor characters going pew pew.

Note: The first three episodes are intercut with flashbacks that pad the runtime. Episode #3 is the one where most stuff happens, and even then, it's repetitive and the length needs to be filled with the slowest speeder chase ever. Keep in mind, I didn't necessarily hate the show, you can read meta I wrote about it here and here for more detailed opinions.

Even Obi-Wan Kenobi,

Episode #1, Leia gets kidnapped and Obi-Wan hesitates to leave his post and go rescue her, until he finally does. Standard first act. Great.

Episode #2, he frees Leia.

Episode #3, they're about to escape but Vader shows up and Leia is kidnapped again.

Episode #4, he frees Leia.

Episode #5, they're about to escape but Empire shows up and Obi-Wan needs to help the rebels survive. He prepares a trap for Vader using Reva, and uses his past knowledge of Vader's personality to escape with the rebels.

Episode #6, Obi-Wan fights Vader to let the rebels get to safety, and defeats him, coming to terms Anakin is truly dead but there is still hope.

Note: Aside from the repeating beat where Obi-Wan saves Leia twice, most of the time-padding is done through a B-plot featuring Reva... but it barely ever directly impacts the A-plot. This detraction is less problematic than the other examples given further up, imo, and I have no problems with her storyline, in fact it parallels Anakin's beautifully as I write here. They're able to tie it back to Obi-Wan at the end, but throughout it's like I was watching a parallel story.

Now, bear in mind...

... Having those filler scenes isn't bad. By themselves, I like most of them. It's Star Wars and Marvel. I'll always love whatever they put in front of me, especially if it's got Obi-Wan.

And, hey we get character development in them! (although, ideally, the audience should see the character develop throughout a plot rather than being told about it through flashbacks or exposition-on-train scenes)

But it's just that... those scenes don't really impact the plot. And if the plot is basic or even paper-thin, that's when we have a problem because it makes for an unsatisfying viewing experience, as nothing substantial really happened.

And this is nothing more than a structural problem. These episodes aren't being treated as episodes in a series, they're "parts of a 10-hour movie".

Which brings me to the below quote by Erik Kripke (heated though it may be), which sums up my issue.

“The downside of streaming is that a lot of filmmakers who work in streaming didn’t necessarily come out of that network grind. They’re more comfortable with the idea that they could give you 10 hours where nothing happens until the eighth hour. That drives me f—ing nuts, personally. As a network guy who had to get you people interested for 22 f—ing hours a year, I didn’t get the benefit of, ‘Oh, just hang in there and don’t worry. The critics will tell you that by Episode 8, shit really hits the fan.’ Or anyone who says, ‘Well, what I’m really making is a 10-hour movie.’ F—k you! No you’re not! Make a TV show. You’re in the entertainment business.”

So bottom line: before streaming came along, whether it's a

serial TV show (usually hourlongs, each episode builds off of previous episodes, and sets up future episodes), an

episodic TV show (whose stories unfold in simply one episode, like half-hour sitcoms, or a medical/legal/police hourlong procedural shows) or a

hybrid TV show (incorporate length and overall season and episode structure of serialized shows, with the week-to-week component of episodic shows; think Scandal or Supernatural or Lucifer or The Blacklist or anything from The CW, wherein there's a monster/case-of-the-week component but there's also an overall arc that's tackled every episode, and an overarching villain every new season),

the episodes are structured with a teaser, beginning, middle and end, with a cliff-hanger at the end.

This is usually done using a 5-act structure (though there is some variety; some shows will be structured with a "teaser and 4 acts").

Prologue, Conflict sets in, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution. Six storytelling plot elements, classic.

And even with a 3-act structure, like in half-hour serials like Silicon Valley or sitcoms, you still have the same idea.

"Cat gets stuck up a tree, you throw pebbles at it, cat climbs down from the tree".

Basic stuff. It's not a dogmatic must, but that's pretty much it.

And in a serial, all these individual episodes, put together, form a season arc with its own beginning, middle and end, with its own rising action, climax, falling action and a cliffhanger.

This structure makes for a satisfying viewing experience.

Then streaming came along and this became less of a hard rule and more of a guideline. After all:

You don't have commercial breaks anymore, you don't have to split the episode up it into acts, if you don't want to. If you read a script from The Crown, for instance, there are no act breaks.

Also, with streaming comes binge-watching: you're not just watching one episode a week now, right? The episodes are released all at once. So people are consuming the series differently. They're watching the series like it's a really long movie. So the pressure of sticking to the above-listed formats isn't as strong, because the next episode is right around the corner.

But it's worth pointing out that Netflix released a document a short while ago for creators to know what to include in their pitches to them (you can download it here).

This includes an example of a season map.

Okay, so same thing. Rising action, climax, falling action. Great.

And the PDF also shows an example of how to structure your episodes, using Dan Harmon's story circle (Dan Harmon created Community and co-created Rick & Morty):

Even with the story circle, which follows a 3-act structure, there's a self-contained element to the stories Netflix tells; beginning, middle and an end, the characters have an arc.

And while Harmon himself uses it for half-hour sitcom episodes, the diagram shows that even serialized hourlongs adhere to this.

So where's the problem?

The problem is that with many (not all) Disney Plus shows, this structure has been completely abandoned... but the shows aren't even being released all at once!

And this is... not ideal :D

Because the episodes don't follow any particular structure, so by and large you don't have the satisfaction of having seen a full episode with a start, middle and ending. You've just seen a cluster of scenes, wrangled around one or two plot points, with a cliff-hanger.

"Stuff happened and now the episode is over."

And when structure is thrown out the window, that's where the pacing issues come in, right? Scenes that should only be 15-20 minutes tops are padded so they run for 30. Scenes that should only be 3 minutes instead last 10. The episodes don't stick to any particular length. They seem to be paced like hourlongs but then they have the length of half-hours every other time?

Which wouldn't be an issue if the whole show was released at once and you could watch the next episode right away.

Proof: people who binge-watched Obi-Wan Kenobi or rewatched it all from the top or watched a "feature cut" all LOVED it.

So it's clearly not the content, it's the pacing, which wouldn't be problematic if you're watching this like a 10-hour movie.

But the episodes are released weekly!

It's like watching a movie, and after, like, 7 scenes... your parent turns the TV off "okay, you'll watch the rest next week" when you were just about to get to the good part.

*CLICK* turned off.

So the next week you're watching the good part, but you don't have those 7 scenes leading up to it, you're literally just starting there, so it's not as good.

Then right after the good part, one scene later, TV is turned off again.

*CLICK* off.

And you're back the next week opening on them licking their wounds.

It's not just frustrating, it lessens the impact of the movie. It's "keep watching these scene groupings and eventually it'll add up to a sort-of complete story if you wait a month."

That's not an enjoyable viewing experience.

For comparison, Mare of Easttown on Amazon was also a limited serial with a weekly release, like Disney Plus shows. But in those episodes there's a clear teaser, beginning, middle, resolution and a cliff-hanger. Only Murders in the Building on Hulu isn't limited, but it is serialized and released weekly: same deal structure-wise.

THOSE were enjoyable viewing experiences.

So at this point, like, either they:

Keep the "10-hour movie" formula and release the show all at once, so it can be binge-watched.

Format the episodes more like network ones and keep the weekly releases, thus keeping it satisfying to consume.

Because this current release strategy isn't working, if the number of people complaining about "pacing" is indicative of anything.

Of course, they'll do neither, because it totally IS working, isn't it?

After all, the goal isn't telling a story properly or making an enjoyable viewing experience, it's getting more subscriptions, more money. People keep tuning in every week? Yes? Cool. Let's settle for that.

On the contrary, more streaming services are now adopting the weekly release over the all-at-once (but again, they're structuring the shows well, so it's not a problem).

But I'm hopeful.

A friend, yesterday, told me Miss Marvel doesn't fall in this pattern, so hey, Imma watch it, while also hoping that Andor is gonna go about it better too. And I've got a good feeling about The Mandalorian Season 3. Fingers crossed!

Edit: Saw the first three episodes of Andor... same issue. It wasn't three episodes, it was ONE episode, split into three. Like, on the one hand I really, REALLY liked these three episodes (and I am usually "meh" by default on any SW content that doesn't involve a lightsaber), the acting is magnificent, it's seriously all great TOP quality stuff… but it’s paced like an hourlong episode (which is cool) but has only 30 mins length (which is also not bad if all episodes were released at once) and you have to wait a week to see the next episode. Like, don't get me wrong, the pacing is GREAT, in theory. It’s just that it should go hand-in-hand with either/both a longer length, different structure and an all-at-once release.