#legitimately no reason i should post this

[loki-zen]

I still don't want to do the Pronouns thing at work personally... like I'm reblogging this bc it's a good post and i recognise that it's a competing access needs thing but im still just like okay but why does it matter that you don't know that person's gender. call them they. it's whatever.

it should be normalised and acceptable to specify your pronouns but the problem is that all of the shit promoting this message is promoting the message that "this should ideally be a universal practice and there are no non-bigoted/ignorant reasons to be reluctant to do this", which simply isn't true.

Yes, it's helpful for some trans people and it was a good idea to encourage some cis allies to do it so that trans people aren't outing themselves by doing it. Yes, there can also be some clarification from this in multicultural/multilingual teams working remotely.

However, at the point that it becomes something there's pressure to do, you've got a situation that really fucking sucks for trans/genderweird/questioning folk who are not out at work. Many such people are okay or at least at peace with letting people assume, but find it significantly more painful to have to actively explicitly tell people that they are something they're not/they're not sure they vibe with.

It's also entirely legitimate to simply not want to emphasize ones gender, or gender in general, at work.

when people pop off with some ass take like "why should I have to put my pronouns in my profile or signature or whatever, my name is Tom and I have short hair and am wearing an oxford shirt in my profile pic, figure it out" I always think

so do you just not talk to people from other countries for your job, ever?

like, some people don't, and you can follow the flowchart to a different part of the argument about why pushing back about pronouns is stupid, but I e-mail people in Singapore and Dubai and Japan and India every day. A lot of those people have names that are probably their local equivalent of "Tom," but I have never seen them before and I have no idea if that's a girl's name or a boy's name. They usually have profile pics too. I don't know how common short hair is for women or long hair is for men in their country. I don't know if that style of shirt is more common for men or more common for women. I'm not writing this from some homogenous whitebread oasis, either, I live in New York City, it's just simply not possible for me to know the common names in every language of every country where the people I need to work with, live.

just put your stupid pronouns in your signature, some exasperated project manager in Mumbai will one day appreciate it

[onaperduamedee]

My greatest expectation in terms of arc this season (Siuan aside) is Nynaeve's because I'm waiting for the show to develop her story in a preventative way against the dilapidation of her thread post book 7.

One of the books most unexpected failures for me was Nynaeve's arc after she broke out of the block, as she becomes essentially other characters' powerful sidekick. Storylines that should have centered her like the Cleansing positioned her as an adjuvant, rather than a story driver. She still accomplishes great feats but her writing always feels rather external and not as involved as the introspection we get for any of the other EF5 and Elayne.

And it's so disappointing because there is no rhyme nor reason to this demotion: one minute she is on equal footing with her Two Rivers friends in ACoS, and the next book she becomes a side character plus.

It's so immensely frustrating because as many side characters in this series, she has meaty things going on later on, for example she's married to a war veteran with immense emotional baggage and my favourite bits of Lan and Nynaeve's relationship are when we see that under the marital bliss there is an unease on Nyn's side because she wasn't really equipped to handle all that come with Lan. Or later on in the series, Rand uses her on several occasions and makes her accomplice to war crimes and tortures, which as someone whose drive is healing the world must be incredibly brutal.

Yet, we don't get as much introspection about these events on Nynaeve's end, although she would be entirely legitimate in giving her perspective, particularly as they touch on different, complex sides of healing: what happens when the wound left is trauma? what constitutes mercy killing?

So if there is one arc I really need the show to properly fix, it is Nynaeve's. And that means letting her be a main character until the end.

[tyrannosaurusprex]

Opinion: Mark Scout’s arc is not about moving on from Gemma, and [spoiler] is not necessary for his healing.

Long post, spoilers for Severance up to Season 2 Episode 7 below the cut.

Mark Scout’s arc is not about moving on from Gemma. Leaving her fate in Lumon’s hands is not necessary for his healing.

It seems that the common consensus among the fanbase, at least before S2E07, was that from a meta perspective, Mark should not be trying to rescue Gemma, because he needs to move on from her and her “death” in order to achieve character growth. The argument was that his inability to move on from her brought him pain and suffering, and that from a storytelling standpoint, it would therefore be unsatisfying for him to be “rewarded” with Gemma again. He could only fulfil his character arc by moving on.

I never really liked this theory. Mainly because I never thought that Gemma died in the first place; it seemed more likely that she had been kidnapped by Lumon, and that she deserved to be freed. It seemed cruel and unjust to leave her in the hands of Lumon just so that Mark could achieve character growth. The show makes us empathise with all the innies, so I felt bad for Gemma and Ms Casey, too. They all live bleak lives and they all deserve freedom. But I also realised that this interpretation of Mark’s reaction to Gemma’s disappearance is just inaccurate, as far as my reading of the show goes.

People were basically saying that Mark never tried to move on from Gemma, which brought him pain; therefore, trying to get Gemma back will bring him more pain, and the only way to achieve peace is to move on. I think that would make sense if the premise were true. But the problem is that Mark did try to move on from Gemma. The whole reason he got severed was to try to move on. He left his job at the college they both used to work at, and he moved out of the house they used to share, and he got a procedure so he wouldn’t be able to remember her for 40 hours of the week. Was it a healthy attempt at moving on? No, but it was a genuine attempt. So many things show us that Mark was legitimately trying:

Devon says that “forgetting about her eight hours of the day isn’t the same as healing”. This dialogue is basically exposition that tells us that he is trying to heal from his grief, but he is going about it the wrong way.

Mark tells Petey that his wife died two years ago and that the severed job is helping him.

Mark goes on two dates with Alexa; the second one goes much better than the first. Mark comfortably brings up Gemma but apologises for talking about her too much. He and Alexa share a sweet kiss and sleep together, showing that Mark is capable of forming new romantic connections. And in fact, the reason the second date ends badly seemingly has nothing to do with Gemma. If Mark had not picked up Reghabi's call, and had not witnessed a violent murder, he might very well have gone on more dates with Alexa.

After Mark drunkenly rips up Gemma’s photo, he puts it back together and reminisces about her in a touching moment. The next time we see him, in S1E8, he’s contemplating leaving his job at Lumon, because as he says to Cobelvig, he doesn’t think he needs it anymore. Implying that what he needs is not to forget Gemma, but instead remember her and keep his love for her alive. This will help him deal with his grief in a healthy way. This whole episode he looks much happier and more at ease than he has seemed pretty much the whole season.

In S2E02, he is staunchly convinced that Gemma is not alive, no matter what Devon says. He is trying to move on from her here. If he weren't, he probably would have jumped at the possibility.

Milchick convinces Mark to return to Lumon with the promise that Lumon will help Mark continue to move on from his grief. Milchick tells Mark that Mark has found love at Lumon, and instead of seeming repulsed, or uncomfortable, this seems to give Mark hope, as he returns to work the next day. Because he wants to move on.

Mark only starts to suspect that Gemma is alive when Cobel avoids his questions about her in a very…weird…way (i.e. demonic screaming). And even then, he only believes that Gemma is alive when Reghabi tells him she’s seen her at Lumon. Before this, practically the whole time, Mark was genuinely trying to forget and move on from Gemma, which was actually what was bringing pain and suffering to him, his innie, and Gemma herself. His attempt at moving on — that is, his job at Lumon — resulted in his torture on the Severed Floor and Gemma’s torture on the Testing Floor. Only after Mark actually confronts his memories of Gemma in S1E7 does he seem happy, healthy, and willing to quit the evil corporation.

To me, all this is saying that Mark’s character arc is not about how he needs to forget about Gemma to heal. Forgetting about Gemma is what led him to the evil company. Perhaps what he needs is to confront his memories of her instead of avoiding the pain. When he believed Gemma was gone, his desire to forget about her drove him to split his brain in half, creating a version of himself which was doomed to hell; now that he believes she’s back, he’s decided to stitch his brain back together, freeing his innie, in a way. Reintegration is clearly dangerous but I don’t think the show is trying to tell us that it’s the wrong choice. It’s currently the only way that an innie and outie can coexist.

So is the show saying that we shouldn’t try to move on from grief? I don't think so. I think it’s saying that we shouldn’t try to ignore all the negative things we experience. We shouldn't compartmentalise to such an extreme extent. As Devon says, forgetting is not the same as healing. There are things we all need to confront, and Mark has needed to confront his grief and his love for Gemma. This, I think, is the first step to his actual healing.

[illegiblehandwriting1]

humans are funny because we like to eat things that want to eat us. And sometimes it's happening simultaneously, like kiwi and pineapple

[averycutesalamander]

so after boots, what other hsr characters do you like?

hm. well. hmmmm. ahhh.. uhhhhhhhhhhh

[psilliguykai]

Hey Jashers! So. I’ve recently seen a lot of people expressing how they feel the CJ community has been getting kinda toxic lately. It’s honestly really disheartening to see this happening, especially as this community and Chonny’s music/characters mean a lot to me. I guess this is all to say: if you feel the CJ community is getting toxic, let’s try to actually fix it. And no this doesn’t mean “make 10000 callout posts”. The Jash himself said both on Twitter/X and on the CJFS he’d rather all this (recent incident[s?]) be essentially acknowledged and dropped. If you want to keep this fandom alive and healthy (which I feel for the most part it already is! CJ is active in the discord server and is comfortable engaging with his fans and I think that alone is a really positive sign. Plus we have some incredible creativity and support !) do your best to contribute to the positivity and respectful, good content that we DO for the most part produce. You can make it clear that creeps, those looking to disrespect boundaries/privacy, etc. aren’t welcome here, but please try to do so effectively and only as needed. I know it’s kinda trite, but these people feed off attention and giving them more of it (regardless of whether it’s positive or negative) is only going to worsen the situation. In addition, if you can, please try to adopt the mindset that while flawed, this is an ultimately pretty good and respectful community. The more you express that it’s toxic and disgusting, the more it’s gonna live up to that.

[If you feel the need to distance yourself that’s totally fine and understandable too, just please do it for yourself and not as like. a statement I guess?? Idk I honestly haven’t seen anyone doing this I just thought it could be good to address]

TLDR: This community means a lot to me and I really desperately don’t want to watch it go to shit. Please for the love of whatever, let the toxicity die attention-less in the shade and just . be respectful. foster the actually positive parts of this fandom so they can prosper.

[PS: genuinely none of this is actually directed at anyone!! More just addressing a recent trend I’ve seen I guess??? Anyways uh yeah. Stay cool and stay hyped for chaos week I suppose :]]

[beclight]

im known for being THE bec light fan of the fandom, so i feel like im in the right place to say this: YOU DO NOT OWN FANDOM CHARACTERS AND CANNOT PREVENT OTHER PEOPLE FROM LIKING THEM JUST AS MUCH AS YOU DO, and if that makes you uncomfortable (which is fine, and for any reason), THE THING TO DO IS BLOCK NOT HARASS THEM!!!!!!! ive seen too many ppl in this fandom disrespect others over DARING to say, even as a joke, that they're the number one fan of X character. If someone having the same favorite group of pixels as you genuinely angers you, to the point of feeling the need to insult them and having concerning thoughts about them, then maybe it is time to log off

[synoicus]

Urgghhhh. I do not enjoy My Job.

[nostalgia-tblr]

loki/william rufus fic, where bill explains that as the second son he has inherited england while big brother bob only got the duchy of normandy, ha ha ha.

[mariocki]

Donald Sutherland guest stars as the appropriately named Philip Guest, a less appropriately unbalanced kidnapper, in Gideon's Way: The Millionaire's Daughter (1.21, ITC, 1966)

[arolesbianism]

I think its so important for everyone to learn to like characters because of their negative traits instead of in spite of them. Like there is so much joy and whimsy to be experienced once you get to a place where hating smth abt a character inevitably leads to loving them dearly because of that same trait

[maryellencarter]

so i can't be arsed to actually give this OP the opportunity to verbally jack off at me, but i just saw a post where someone was complaining (validly) about the ludicrously high hardware requirements for upgrading to windows 11 -- i have a gaming macbook made in 2018 which i partitioned to windows and *that* can't even meet the motherboard specs -- but then turned it into a diatribe on how this was only a problem because you, personally, are too much of a little whiner to switch to linux.

and if i could climb through my phone and slap that person's face right off their skull, you can bet i'd do it. linux is crossfit for nerds. the first rule is that you have to holier-than-thou about it to everyone in earshot at all times, and the second rule is to give yourself a repetitive stress injury failing to make it work. not only is linux completely unsuitable for 90% of what people want to do on a computer, its whole design philosophy is antithetical to many of those things, such as "have a program I can find documentation for" and "work without having to write any code myself".

(and, crucially, "not have to listen to linux dickwads being snide in order to find out how to do things". calibre, the drm-stripping software, is a good example: it's permanently on my shitlist because some years ago, i picked it up to attempt to strip some drm as you do, and discovered that the part of the "manual" which would have told me how to do that was "The exact command line to use has been left as an exercise for the reader." Go jump off the continental shelf.)

i'm not turning off reblogs. feel free to share. but if you feel obligated to defend the honor of linux to me, consider that you've been sucking your own cock for so long you don't even realize your spine is stuck that way now, and don't bother.

[bubu-pharmacy-doctor]

Ask drunk Baizhu anything for an equally drunk response

Nothing outwardly NSFW but suggestive-ness is allowed.

I'd like to say every time I get tipsy I put my blogs on a wheel and spin it to decide who's drunk, but I just sent a message to my friends saying "I'm thinking Nari or Baizhu" and Baizhu was the first one named.

THe main rules post

(Changsheng and Gui can still be addressed but are not drunk.)

[engagemythrusters]

begging solely-The Mandalorian fans to find another piece of Mandalorian lore/culture/history/etc to talk about other than a now-defunct laser sword used to keep one asshole family in power

[eleilinnrallin]

Me: Hey I'm trans.

People: Read The Bible

Me: only finding affirming things in bible study ... Yeah I'm doing that. I'm trans.

People: >:[

[princesspeach5]

I wouldn't even necessarily mind a layout change if it were good but with the negative association I have with twitter, opening tumblr to the exact twitter layout is actually making me angry + the more time I spend on it it does feel cramped + the notifs on "following" (and now "home") are sooooo annoying somehow it's worse to me than the sparkling store icon and it's harder to just ignore than the notifs on "activity" because at least those max out and stay the same whereas this is constantly changing. the constant glitchy-looking appearing and disappearing of the following/for you bar as I'm scrolling was irritating enough without a changing number on it (also why would it make sense for that bar of all things to follow you down your dash. even if I used the for you tab, why would I switch in the middle of scrolling and lose my place?? it doesn't make any sense). but I'm getting off-topic. I don't understand every website copying all of twitter's famous-for-being-bad decisions right now. I hope all the things people are trying will work. looking forward to the probable xkit fix. thank you xkit devs for everything.