#nobody likes financial security anymore

[stayoutofmynamastespace]

“Fiancial security is really underrated”

- white man, in Boulder, at Wonder

[grunge-mermaid]

so this just came up on my pinterest feed:

the average individual income in my nearest major city is $64,500 and average household income is $126,700. (according to Career Beacon, whoever they are)

assuming Career Beacon means that is the average gross salary, at 2.5x that's $161,250 and $316,750 respectively.

if they mean that is the average net household income, that bumps it up to $87,500 and approximately $200,000. So according to the pinterest advice, your budget for a house should be $218,750 or $500,000.

average house price in that same city? close to $700k

In my old neighbourhood in that city, condo PARKING SPACES were regularly listed for $40k-$75k. you can't even get a reasonable studio condo anywhere in the city proper for $316,000. in the outskirts, like out past the suburbs...maybe. but then you're paying through the nose for transportation.

you can get a nice (and I do actually mean nice, I'm not being sarcastic or snarky at all I swear) trailer home in the middle of fucking nowhere in a 55+ community for $150-$300k. good luck accessing transit though.

[zylev-blog]

Ellie has gotten in trouble every day this week at school. She keeps fist fighting this rich kid, Damian Wayne. Danny is not thrilled with this, and genuinely has no idea why Damian makes Ellie’s blood boil the way it does. (Nobody knows that it’s the Lazarus out corruption reacting to Ellie’s ghost half.) all Danny knows is that Ellie keeps throwing hands, and he’s worried that Bruce Wayne might try to sue him if he doesn’t get his daughter under control. He wouldn’t ever financially recover from that, and he actually likes this dimension.

Bruce can’t get a clear answer to why Damian hates this girl. At first he thought it might be his son’s first teenage crush, but he genuinely didn’t know anymore.

The two dads sit down in a meeting with the school board. Both kids will be suspended, and if they continue to fight, both kids will be expelled. So Bruce and Danny take this matter into their own hands. Twice a week Damian will come to Danny’s two bedroom apartment to spend time with Ellie outside of class. Twice a week, Ellie will go over to Wayne Manor. The alternate three days of the week, the teens are free to do whatever they want.

The first month goes terribly. Danny’s apartment nearly gets burned down, and he is 100% sure that he will not get his security deposit back. On the other hand, the kids have plenty of room to run around Wayne manor, but that doesn’t stop the fire department from being called, and for Bruce to have to lay off his gardener when Damian and Ellie cut up the backyard with Damian’s “fake” swords.

By month two, things are faring better. Bruce and Danny decided to watch the kids together one day of the week, and they had gotten to talking. Turns out that Danny could see straight through Brucie’s persona, so Bruce didn’t have to pretend to be an airhead. The two dads become fast friends once Bruce is sure that Danny isn’t after his money.

By month three, things are improving. The two teens are still not friends, but they’ve moved on from trying to kill each other…most of the time. As the weather got warmer, they tended to play by the pool. After multiple drowning attempts, they had to ban the kids from the pool. Damian had also had his swords confiscated after he tried to maim Ellie with them.

Bruce suggests a camping trip on month four with another family called the Kents. Danny and Ellie agree, and the group hike deep into the mountains. To nobody’s suprise, Ellie and Damian encounter a bear. But before Damian could warn Clark or Bruce, Ellie had climbed on top of the bear and wrestled it to the ground, all while cackling madly.

By month five, Damian and Ellie had gotten closer and had finally become friends. They didn’t seek each others presence, but stopped their attempts to kill each other by that point. Jon had been hanging around the duo after the camping trip. Jon and Ellie were fast friends. Clark was delighted to have another dad friend who totally understood how destructive kids could be.

At month six, the trio were close friends. Damian and Ellie hadn’t fought in a few weeks, so all of the adults counted the situation as a success.

[furiousgoldfish]

I'm noticing that adults are often very offended when they see a child who has something they themselves didn't have in their childhood. I've had someone randomly start ranting about how their own grandchildren have 'too much toys', and how they don't appreciate any of it. They went on to explain how they, as a child, only had one toy, and they had to play with that one alone. They're also upset that children can now use phones, which also wasn't an option in their own childhood.

This is concerning to me, because while busy noticing all the things that children have, which are toys and phones, people don't tend to notice the things we had that are no longer available to the new generations. Planet free of pollution, free of climate change, adults got to experience that. Economy that isn't in this bad of a state, availability of jobs, education being worth something, financial safety, probability of owning a home. All of this has critically declined and turned into unstable, unreliable and difficult to manage situation for children, to the point where there's no clear path to a safe future anymore, for anyone. Current children have to invent jobs and find a way to produce a safe future without relying on an existing path, something that was available for most of the population in the past.

And the availability of phones and toys is not necessarily a luxury; back then nobody had a phone, or a mountain of toys, so it would be unusual and privileged for just one child to have it. But when everyone has that, it would be unusual and almost humiliating not to have it. The prices of these had reduced, they're more available and easy to get. The phones connected to the internet will ensure that the child will be exposed to a lot of information every day, and they'll have to find a way to deal with all that, it can become overwhelming and damage their attention span and emotional stability, if they're constantly exposed to distressing or disturbing information, which often finds its way to kids.

What will it mean for their life, if they had toys and phones as kids, but later on, they don't have a safe job? They can't hope to have a home of their own? They are not at freedom to financially plan their futures, their families, they have to depend on their own parents or relatives to get by? What will it feel like when they can't count on the climate and safe and reliable food sources? What when they're suffocated by the financial demands of just staying alive and fed? What if they don't have anyone to help financially? What if they're rendered mentally ill by the stress and perils happening in the world, all of it so close to them via constant overload of pain and suffering?

Having toys and phones is nothing compared to having an experience of a safe, stable, predictable life, on a planet with a normal, stable climate. We failed to secure this to our children. We have no business being jealous that they now have a phone.

[schraubd]

The Holocaust Was Not Summer School; Slavery Was Not Trade School.

Someone -- I can't find who -- once said, in relation to claims that Jews had "failed to the learn the lessons of Auschwitz", that "the Holocaust was not summer school."

The retort there was in relation to claims that Jews had not imbibed the correct moral sentiments following our genocide. But I was reminded of it upon hearing the recent defenses of Florida's "anti-woke" efforts to whitewash slavery by lauding the "skills" slaves allegedly acquired -- apologias which, unsurprisingly, have spilled over to Holocaust minimization as well.

Fox News star Greg Gutfeld, whose latest book debuted on Tuesday, is currently under fire over his recent observation that Jewish people “had to be useful” in order to survive concentration camps, prompting the Auschwitz Museum to rebuke his comments as an “oversimplification” of the Holocaust. 

[....] 

During Monday’s broadcast of Fox News’ The Five, which both Watters and Gutfeld co-host, the panel raged against Vice President Kamala Harris’ condemnation of the Florida curriculum as racist. Watters, for instance, blasted the veep for not wanting “African-Americans and white Americans to know that Black Americans did learn skills despite being enslaved.”

The heated discussion, however, took an uncomfortable turn when lone liberal panelist Jessica Tarlov drew a parallel between slavery and the Holocaust, wondering if Florida schools would also teach that Jewish people received some benefits from the Nazis systematically murdering them in death camps.

Gutfeld, referencing a famous book by Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, took Tarlov’s challenge and ran with it.

“Did you ever read Man’s Search for Meaning?” Gutfeld wondered. “Vik Frankl talks about how you had to survive in a concentration camp by having skills. You had to be useful. Utility! Utility kept you alive!”

The slide from "anti-CRT" to Holocaust trivialization is nothing new, of course. And here in particular we have one of those moments where an ounce of truth helps generate a ton of falsehood. It is true that, comparatively speaking, a Jewish inmate who had skills that happened to be useful for the Nazi war effort (or otherwise coveted by the local commander) was more likely to survive. Likewise, it's true that having enough wealth to pay for bribes actuarially increased one's life span compared to the destitute. It is not true that "utility kept you alive" (a phrase that is eerily adaptive of arbeit macht frei). Plenty of people with "utility" were murdered by the Nazis. It is not true that having money insulated Jews from the Nazis. Plenty of Jews with means were nonetheless rounded up and slaughtered. The relationship of "utility" to the Jewish experience in the camps was not one of moxie and grit overcoming incredible odds; anymore than the relationship of wealth was one of frugality and financial stewardship steering one to safety. There is no favor done to the oppressed that they can sometimes leverage opportunities to resist.

But again, this is the inevitable byproduct of the anti-woke panic. The obsession with never speaking forthrightly and honestly about oppression and discrimination -- always viewing it as a "both sides" initiative -- means one has to find ways to render Nazism, if not benign, then at least filed down. Others have written about the gentile obsession with telling feel-good Holocaust stories where plucky protagonists show their wiles and skills to secure a happy ending. This is a myth that non-Jews need to tell themselves to evade reckoning with the Holocaust in its full horror; the Holocaust did not come with happy endings.

And the same is true of slavery. Slavery was not a somewhat-unsavorily-run trade school. It was a form of White supremacist oppression. Trying to find the "happy endings" is an attempt to avoid reckoning with its horrors. And the thing is, if we actually took seriously the "nobody should be made to feel guilty based on the color of their skin" pablum, there'd be no quarrel with teaching the history in its full terrible glory. Learning of the horrors of slavery doesn't and shouldn't make White people feel guilty. The guilt comes from learning those facts and then wanting to carry on as before -- no change in affect, no change in politics, as if it never happened. The dissonance between the historical knowledge and the desire to pretend as if the history didn't happen or didn't matter -- that's what creates the guilt. But that's guilt based on one's own choices, and history class needn't and shouldn't have an interest in absolving you of that.

via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/LJUWduZ

[tellmeallaboutit]

knock knock (Raphael x F!Player)

Chapter 14, In Which You Play The Main Role

AO3

Art: Apollonia Saintclair – Love is a Killer

Fresh flowers.

Smelled like fresh flowers, freshly cut roses. Smelled amazing.

You opened one eye to admire a bouquet on the bedstand right before you, and then opened the second one. Twelve blood-red roses, their stems neatly trimmed. Nestled within was a card simply signed with an ornate letter 'R'. 

"Well done on not fleeing tonight," it read.

You tried once and learned your lesson. You were back at the place you tried to escape, having achieved nothing but landing your mother in a hospital, and you sure as hell won’t try again any time soon. You were stark naked, but a quick check reassured you that nobody had taken liberties while you slept.

An odd sense of disappointment seeped into you at that realisation, as if you had been overlooked in some way.

Pushing it aside, you stretched and checked the time - 10:30 am on a Saturday morning. Really? That means you slept more than thirty hours straight; a weird, dreamless slumber, much like being dead.

You turned; the side to the bed next to you was meticulously done, as if no one had been there at all. There was a lawn mower buzzing in the garden. Not a thing seemed out of place; blissfully serene. 

Where was Raphael? Where were both of them? Working?

You grabbed your phone and checked it next - nobody died while you were sleeping.

Nobody you knew, at least.

***

You were heading to grab some breakfast when you heard Raphael’s voice from across the upper floor. The other one, the man he was conversing with, sounded strangely familiar too. 

The usually locked study door was wide open. If they wanted to keep their business hush-hush, they'd have ensured it was bolted shut, wouldn’t they?

"Raul, are you out of your mind?" a male voice asked. "Even Avernus Capital doesn't have that kind of cash on balance."

"I've managed to secure third-party financing to bridge the shortfall." That unmistakable Raphael tone, but Raul's words.

You tiptoed closer, positioning yourself just beyond the doorway.

"Who would have both the money and sheer idiotism to help you take Blackrock private?” 

You vaguely recognised the name 'Blackrock', but couldn’t place it right away.

"Turns out some institutions still hold considerable fortunes," Raul responded. “You’d be surprised what compound interest does through centuries of tax-free reign”.

A quiet pause hung in the air before realization hit the other guy (where do you recognize his voice from?): "I see. Is that why you've been schmoozing up to the Vatican? Why would they get involved in your personal insanity?"

Raphael’s signature laugh echoed through the room; it must be a very large room indeed.

“The same reason anyone does anything: discontentment with how things are evolving and hope for a better leader.”

The other man sighed.

“This is not about money anymore, is it, Raul? Look, I respect your financial acumen but you are not - NOT - cut out for politics. With your... ahem... Neapolitan roots? I am being polite now, Raul. How long until they start digging up skeletons in your father’s garden?”

Intrigued, you couldn't help but peek into the room. Raphael was lounging against a pristine glass desk in his full cambion form, cigarette poised between his fingers, sleeves of his crisp white cotton shirt rolled up. He looked relaxed, unbothered, his tail resting peacefully beside him. The only other person in the room was a middle-aged man with ashen blond hair, facing away from you in a leather chair.

The study itself was a bizarre mix of avant-garde decor and Catholic art. Behind Raphael, a replica of Caravaggio (or not a replica…) dominated the entire wall, a depiction of dying Lazarus; not something you would hang to welcome guests. Thin white Venetian blinds covered floor-to-ceiling windows.

Raphael took an indulgent drag from his cigarette and smiled, making a sweeping gesture with his hand. "The gardens of my father are under cultural heritage protection," he said, "and are not to be dug up, come hell or high water." He paused for a moment before continuing, "And yes, you are right. Maybe I've found a calling more profound than just being Mammon's servant. Perhaps his reign is nearing its end; his promises revealed to be empty. After all, he can't keep exploiting his flock ad infinitum if they refuse to reproduce, can he?" 

You wondered if Raul’s constant smoking irked Raphael because there was something freudian about how he constantly dragged on a cigarette.

"A servant of Mammon..." Markus repeated. "A higher calling... Do you even hear yourself?"

"I do," Raphael replied. "And I quite like what I hear. See, Markus; inspire a man’s faith and he’ll paint the Sistine Chapel. Oppress him and he’ll create a masterpiece of fury and rebellion. Give him freedom and prepare for an avalanche of TikTok reels. I refuse to accept the downward spiral this world is in. And so should you."

With a flick of his wrist, Raphael extinguished his cigarette on a marble ashtray and stretched out his shoulders.

“I’m taking over Blackrock,” he said. “And with it comes the infrastructure, the influence, the manpower, the global investments to shape this world as I see fit. No longer will Mammon's greed dictate our fate."

The man scoffed. "You're living in a fantasy world," he said. “You'd have to navigate through a mountain of regulators, politicians, public and private investors. No one is willing to relinquish power back to the Old World. And if you keep spouting this nonsense, the engine of your private jet may just... Oh, what's the matter?"

Following Raphael’s glance, the man turned to you; visibly annoyed. 

Oh no, you knew him from the TV and newspapers - the leader of the democratic liberal party. There was even a tweet of yours out there vowing to spit in his face if given the chance after his speech on welfare and immigrants.

He looked at you with an arched eyebrow; dismissing you at first glance, clearly expecting you to shut the door but Raphael waved you over instead.

“This woman is privy to all my secrets, Markus,” Raphael stated. “Allow me to introduce you to my consort, Anya Berger.”

“Your what now?”, Markus blinked in surprise. “A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Berger”.

”My beloved consort”, he repeated, looking right into your eyes with a tender smile. “The wonderful being that gave me the keys to my kingdom come”. He beckoned again, this time with more urgency: "Come here mouse; don't be timid."

Raphael introduced you as his consort in front of one of the most powerful people in the country. It felt surreal.

He leaned in for a kiss and you happily obliged, tasting his perfectly soft and moisturised lips. As your eyes fluttered open mid-kiss, you stole a glance at Markus who was looking increasingly uncomfortable.

"Three weeks ago, you were swearing off women," Markus sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Remember when that French girl accused you of God knows what and Camilla needed my help to handle the media fallout?"

"I am forever grateful for your assistance during that time," Raphael responded. "But then I met this enchanting creature and it made me question everything. Look at her! Isn't she an absolute treasure?"

Markus exhaled slowly, clearly struggling with his thoughts before finally voicing them: "Raul, if I don't say this out loud, no one in your circle will. You're...well," he paused again, searching for the right words. "You're losing touch with reality. At first, I thought it was just rumours but now..." He shot a sharp look at you before continuing, "After your father's death, you clawed your way into the top hundred but don't - DON'T - mistake wealth for power; they're not interchangeable currencies."

Raphael watched him with detached amusement, his hand gently stroking your thigh.

“You are not immortal, Raul, is what I am trying to say”.

Raphael let out a laugh. "I just might be. Only death will tell for sure."

Markus' attempts at a diplomatic response died on his lips as he stared at Raphael in disbelief.

“You know, Raul”, he finally said. “The next thing I expect is you telling me God speaks through you”.

Raphael snapped his fingers as if struck by an idea. "Funny you should say that. I had a most peculiar dream of Archangel Raphael recently. Maybe one day God will choose me as His envoy and I will spread His word loud and clear. After all, His flock tends to wreck chaos when left unguided”.

Markus turned to you, pleading for some form of support. "You...you don't think it's crazy talk, Ms. Berger? You don't want to say anything to your boyfriend?"

“I don’t think it’s crazy talk”, you shrugged. “And I am an expert”.

That silenced him.

“Anya stands by me no matter what, my precious little mouse”, Raphael purred, placing a hand on your shoulder. “While it appears I’ve vastly overestimated your loyalty, Markus. Years of friendships, of secrets shared, of deals struck, and this is your payback. Tsk-tsk. Have you forgotten what happened in Sankt Moritz in 99? Because I certainly haven't."

If the threat bothered him, Markus did not let it show; he stood up from his chair and dusted off his suit.

“I've vastly overestimated your sanity, Raul”, Markus retorted. “I wish both of you a good day. You won't be having my backing in Davos, by the way. When you fall - and you will - I refuse to get pulled down with you.”

“Anya?”, Raphael looked at you with a smile. “Do you want to wish our dear guest something? A final farewell, perhaps?"

What? 

Should you kill Markus or something? You could gladly spit him in the face, but killing him yourself seems a bit… ugh… well. 

He could just… change his mind.

“I wish you would… reconsider?”, you suggested. “I wish you would reconsider”.

That came out… the way it came out.

Markus stared at you the very familiar stare of somebody who both slightly pities you and is slightly disgusted by you.

“…madhouse”, the man said and went straight for the door. 

As soon as the door closed behind Markus, you turned to Raphael with a bewildered look on your face.

“Was that...was that really-”

“It was whom I used to consider a friend. Perhaps with a tad more fervor in your wishes next time, my dear mouse”, Raphael said, a smile on his face that barely masked annoyance. “A bit more direction as well. You are only granted that which you truly yearn for, after all."

You quickly nodded, and watched his face shift. It was fleeting, momentarily, but you learned to read it very well.

"So, my sleeping beauty, did you have a good rest?" Raul asked. "You were out for a full day and a half. I was practically dying of loneliness and yet, being the gentleman that I am, I let you sleep in peace. Now don't I deserve some praise for being so kind?”

“You do”, you nodded. “Amazing fit of willpower”.

“Did you miss me terribly?”, he asked as he pushed strands of hair away from your face. “Or did you think about running away again?”

“Yes, of course”, you said, and quickly corrected yourself: “I mean no, no thoughts of running away, of course, and yes, I missed you terribly”.

Raul interpreted your words in the only way he wanted to interpret them.

“Is that so? I have twenty minutes until the next call”, he said, pulling your body to him. "Do you think that would be enough to show me how badly I was missed?”

read the rest on ao3

[batsplat]

reading your fabio/casey post, im curious: how much sympathy do you give to riders who have chosen money over success? fabio could've gone elsewhere but he chose The Bag and while i feel for him given how bad the bike is (and that there's only two bikes, etc) he did tie himself to the project for years to come

(x) hm interesting one. there's a few different things here

first off, in general I have an extreme lack of sympathy for athletes who choose wealth over success. I understand it's an inescapable part of how sports works, but that doesn't mean I have to like it - these are sums of money that I just feel are fundamentally immoral. nobody should be paid as much as some of these athletes are. now, obviously not all riders in motogp are all that well paid, I get that they don't have a lot of career security and I also get that this is a reason why everyone's jumping at those factory seats. for instance, I do have some sympathy for jorge martin's choice to switch to aprilia, even though he too is of course choosing a less competitive bike. from the estimates of these guys' salaries to us available and considering expenses, that man is not being paid in a manner commensurate to his abilities or success. (though if the adage of 'ducati pays shit salaries but great bonuses' holds true, I imagine he too is very much fine.) still, by the time you get to the numbers fabio was getting chucked at him, fundamentally I... do not care anymore. like that's dumb amounts of money, I don't care how many yachts you can buy. it's disgusting

but, well. it's also what these big money offers mean, right. it's a way for manufacturers to show riders how much they're wanted - and while I also don't like... love that the way to do this involves this many millions, that's how this process works. the reason why casey ended up switching from ducati to honda wasn't a competitive calculation where he saw that ducati was trending downwards and decided to jump ship. it's because he went to ducati and told them to make him a suitable offer, and they didn't do so. from his autobiography:

After the way they'd behaved I had pretty much decided that I was through with Ducati and even though they put a new contract in front of me, for 2011 and 2012, it was going to take a much grander gesture to make me stay. I told them I wanted them to show me what I meant to them. 'What do you mean?' they said. 'That's up to you,' I told them. I gave them months to do it and nothing happened. In the end I had to spell it out. I said, 'Rip up my current contract and show me what I am worth to you.' They wouldn't do it, and that told me all I needed to know. Up until then there was a chance that I'd stay but that effectively made my decision easy.

now, listen, casey's situation was very much its own thing, his bridges with ducati were already burnt and it was always highly unlikely he'd stay. but as he puts it, he was willing to give ducati a chance - if they put enough money on the table to show him they care. this is obviously not a performance-based decision. if casey stays with ducati, he does not win a second championship - it's as simple as that. riders want to feel wanted, they want to feel valued... and the money symbolises that to them, a commitment of faith on part of the manufacturer to the rider. martin's choice wasn't primarily financially incentivised, right (and tbh, if ducati weren't willing to put a large sum of money on the table for him, factory seat or not, they're idiots) - it was that he wanted to feel wanted. it's emotional but it's also practical in that you want to know your manufacturer will rally around you and do whatever it takes to make you succeed. it helps if you know they have a big stake in your success... money plays a role in so many of these decisions - and while I really don't like it, it's also tough to penalise fabio specifically too harshly for it

all that being said, if it really were just about any of the stuff I just listed, I would have less than zero time for the choice. I'm an old fashioned kind of bloke... for me sports is about one thing, and that's winning. but the real problem fabio faced was a lack of great options that could help him achieve said winning. let's quickly run through them:

yamaha: currently laughably uncompetitive. this season has been disappointing from them, even by the standards of their modest pre-season expectations... you would have hoped they'd be a little closer by this stage in the year. but, well, by the start of the year it was clear this would be a long-term project. they have made personnel changes in line with fabio's demands, have made shown themselves willing to follow his development direction and commit fully to him on every level as their star rider. he knows the project, he knows that the money is there - and unlike the two non-ducati european manufacturers, yamaha has a proven track record of winning championships

aprilia: the second/third best manufacturer at the moment, but far off the first. sometimes have the pace to challenge for victory, frequently don't. part of that will be down to the inconsistent riders and not just the inconsistent bikes, but it also doesn't help that it's also the number one technical problem team. aprilia had some strong early season pace around the time fabio was making his choice (remember, vinales really should have been leading the championship coming out of cota - though the fact that he wasn't does of course also tell you what you need to know about aprilia)... but at this stage it seems a little unlikely they'll have a bike in championship contention next season. the manufacturer with the least spending power, still doesn't have a title sponsor

ktm: seemingly full. now, obviously, whenever ktm says they want to stick with their current riders, you can reasonably assume they will change their minds. and they did change their minds, which is how we now have a completely new tech3 line up for next season. but realistically, given pedro's golden boy status and binder's contract spanning roughly until the next ice age, that was the best fabio could have hoped for. yes, there were murmurings both jorge and marc might be an option for the factory team - but I never took those all too seriously, and both riders have a more substantial history with ktm/red bull than fabio does. in any case, ktm will be built around pedro. I suppose you can say fabio should back himself to beat pedro, but that's the kind of call you can make if you think you'll be fighting for championships the moment you join the manufacturer. if ktm isn't there yet next year (which is likely), then what fabio would have had to do is attempt to assert himself against the next great thing, already more established than him within the manufacturer, from a satellite bike, with zero guarantee that ktm will actually be in championship contention any time soon. eh

ducati: well, look, a factory seat was never on the cards for him anyway. you'd have to think he could have gotten a satellite seat of some type, if he really had been willing to take whatever was on the table. ducati has generally liked collecting all the strongest riders, and you'd hope would've been up for it... who knows what spec he would have been able to acquire. if he's on a year old bike, then winning a title would always be a tall order. even if he's on the newest spec... the template here of course is marc, but it felt from the start that this gresini gig was supposed to be a stopgap. fabio is not at the stage of his career where he should be looking for stopgaps, and he still wouldn't have an obvious place to go for 2026. whichever way ducati ended up arranging their riders, there would have been no short to medium term route into the factory team for fabio

honda: lol

at a certain point, it does make sense to go with the manufacturer that is willing to back you as its star. now, look, maybe jorge martin wins the championship next year, in which case fabio's decision will obviously have aged poorly. but you'd have to say that's unlikely... fabio's bet here basically has to be that switching to aprilia might have brought him race wins next year, but sticking with yamaha might bring him more titles eventually. at this stage, neither of his two most plausible options look like championship contenders until 2027. yamaha, however, have a lot of money at their disposal - which they proved by signing him. if he switches now and the aprilia dream doesn't come off, it leaves him in a weaker position for 2027 than the path he's currently on. none of these options are great exactly... but there is a logic to the reasoning here. if there were an equivalent to honda 2011 for fabio to jump ship to, obviously he'd be an idiot not to accept. there just isn't, though, is there? he tied himself to the project for two years, which puts him in sync with basically the entire grid. it lets everyone completely reset for 2027... until then, you'd have to say it's pretty unlikely that anyone who isn't on a ducati will be winning any titles - and if they do, my money would still be on ktm. maybe you think fabio should back himself and take the risk, which is an understandable position. but equally, I do get how sticking with the devil you know and will go to war for you might make sense in the medium to long term. if it really was just the money, I have zero respect for that. but I don't think it was, so I'll spare him a little sympathy. for his troubles

[microscotch]

Girllll I've been spending my holidays with rereading Nobody's Home and I just wanted to ask, are Circe and Loki divorced? If so, what made you divorce them?

YUP the story is set post psp, and part of my backstory for the beakers is them getting a divorce!

so when looking at their relationship i tried to take everything into consideration that the pc and psp game gave to us. let me put a below the cut though so not everyone has to be witness to me inflicting the makings of chronic joint pain on myself:

we know poor nervous died at one point. the implications from both games about how he came to be their test subject are quite conflicting, but i went with emily and annies claims that he signed up to be their test subject for money, as it, from my perspective, tied better into explaining their current situation and provided more detail in general as opposed to maxis' sloppy memory distribution.

with their first subject, the beakers could to some extent rest on the risk a job like this entails and neatly detail it in the contract they had nervous sign to avoid charges as much as possible. in addition to that, they were able to throw a lot of money at preventing the sensationalization of it, but it did come at a cost: 1) selling the castle to make up for it and 2) circe losing her license and the hospital ceasing any affiliation with her. cut to the sad little paradise place house and circe only being hinted at doing 'business' by that time:

left with a less extensive financial repertoire, loki is eager to do whatever it may take to get his precious castle back, and, once he invented something he believed to be a future gold mine, secured some secret patents that will net him millions (quote: circe). with loki, by her assumption, not being willing to share the profits with her, it makes sense for circe to be uneasy and distrustful about this, as the two are already on less safe ground, both in regards to finances and the law, and now he wants to keep all the money he'll be making to himself? her secret about harbouring some underlying resentment for loki's independence and distinction is also pretty convenient here and can be used as an implication that she wasn't as lucky as her husband, particularly regarding him not facing repercussions the same way she did. circe, on the other hand, is having an affair. while that was a product of mind control and not her fault, neither she or loki know that. all that is being revealed to loki is his wife cheating on him. this is where they're left at. depending on the string of dialogue, loki will say that if anyone moves out, it will be his wife, cause it's his house.

after thinking about it, circe would most likely move out immediately. after all of that happening inc. circes slap interaction loop, i can't see either of them comfortable spending even one more night at the same house together. while it is revealed at the end of the game that newlow was mindcontrolling the citizens, we don't know when and how fast these news will actively be passed along, what investigations are being led, etc. - point being, the trifecta of the beakers still being in each others presence, these news reaching them by that time and drawing the correct conclusions from it is the best case scenario but, after the considerations given above, not the most likely one. especially because there's an urgent issue that would capture their attention almost immediately after the game storyline is over: gimi branko. unlike nervous where they could rely on a contract, they literally kidnapped this guy and kept him locked up against his will, and someone had to save him aka he can press charges and tell everything in great detail, with a witness to top it off. they don't have the financial resources to buy themselves out of that anymore (loki's patents aside, but as of now he hasn't seen a cent of that and sure wouldn't consider his wife given recent events), the charges are more dire AND they're at odds with each other.

so i totally had them rat each other out, both hoping to get the lower charge by placing as much blame on the other person as possible. even if gimi being gone were the very first thing they noticed after being at each other's throat, judging by the way they already talked about each other before both their suspicions turned out to be true, there's way too much mutual distrust that built up over a long period of time for them to suck it up for the occasion and not prioritizing their own asses. and thats the end of the evil couple.

[valerieventuresblog]

There is misery in self-inflicted mediocrity.

The tremendous amount self confidence I have gained from realising that nobody actually cares about what I'm doing is outstanding.

Live life without caring so much about judgement - you will be surprised how little it ends up mattering to you.

If pursuing your happiness means stepping outside the prescribed 'normal,' then so be it.

I want to act, I want to write. I live in a country that doesn't treat creativity as a viable career, but I don't care anymore. I will act where I can act, I will write where I can write. If you recognise me in the future, I will know I have succeeded. If not, I would have still succeeded, because happiness really does come from within. And though I have not achieved that undisrupted, untainted sense of fulfilment yet, I will continue trying to in the ways I know grant me the most joy, even if it won't, in turn, result in a life of prosperity. For about a decade I put my dreams on the back burner to pave a way into a career with at least a minimum likelihood of a cushy future. In doing so, I have sacrificed much joy that could have come from rich life experiences if I hadn't been conditioned into the failure = doom mindset. Now I'm going back to what I truly want to do, and I'm no longer apologising for it.

Like this completely unnecessary paragraph. I could stop writing now. I should stop writing now. Perhaps someone will read it and perhaps not. But I'm writing it anyway because I can.

There are so many people in my shoes (not literally because that would be foul)... finishing university, questioning whether they are even in the right degree, realising that a being trapped in a 9-5 hamster wheel for the rest of their lives poses the greatest risk of misery and regret, moreso than failure ever could. But that is truly ok. It's difficult to combat the many voices that whisper promises of security and comfort, condemning dreams in the name of feasibility. But those voices don't know your heart, and they never will unless you open it.

Downsides: Ridicule. Likely failure. Chance of extreme financial hardship. Judgement. Sadness.

Upsides: Potential fulfilment.

It is a gamble, but I will take my chances. I will be closer to my version of happiness if I strive for it, even if it doesn't yield any desired results.

Life is microscopic, but no less precious. I intend to treat it that way.

If you got through all that, congratulations. Hope it wasn't a waste of your time, most of it is verbal diarrhoea. But now that I've written it, I have no choice but to stick to it, so I guess that's that then.

[opinated-user]

you know maybe I should make content like Lily orchards … I mean it attracts enough braindead fans to the point I’ll be financially secure for the rest of my life

im kidding … I’d rather die than become a hack like Lily

tbf, there are many other reasons why making the kind of content LO does is just not a good idea in general: 1. it's just not popular anymore. a couple of years ago everyone was eating up content that put down popular works, and although that kind of videos is still being produced today, they don't have anywhere close to the relevancy they had back then. even hbomberguy, the guy who popularized the whole "X is garbage and here's why", is not doing that content anymore and has move on to other things. now people usually want more positive content, no videos telling them that they're bad people or have bad taste if they like a character on a children's show. the positive content of LO usually fails because she didn't made it interesting enough, not because nobody cares about it. 2. it's doing far more harm to the discourse that it helps. this also has to do with the fact that it's lazy and LO barely does any research for anything, but even when she tries to be relevant, like with the rolwling videos, they still fail at saying anything meaningful that can benefit someone. that if she isn't just spreading misinformation and slandering someone.

3. i have mentioned this before, but the way in which LO forces herself to be as nitpicky as possible so she has something to say about media so she has any content to which she could pay rent*... it's not healthy. either for her or her audience. being critical about the media you consume should have never been about hyperbolic judgements of people's character, it should be for your personal appreciation.

*an perfect example of this is zooming in the picture of Steven and Garnet to make a huge deal about why is there and implying there's something sinister about it. on top of all the incest sex harem jokes around Steven and the diamonds that are just disgusting to hear, more knowing that those are her actual kinks she can't stop shoving in your face.

[pawsitivevibe]

I actually like my job now. Huh.

Wish they paid me a living wage so I could do it forever. Alas, I don't want to be broke, in debt, have no savings, and never retire. I mean, that still might be my life since I may never recover from years of debt.

But yeah. Gotta find a job that pays better that I'll probably hate. But getting anything that pays better is proving really difficult. So many things it's like "to get your foot in the door we expect you to work for pennies and have shit hours." But see I have a Real Adult Life without having a Real Adult Job, so I really can't go back to working shit hours and no pay?? I do in fact have bills to pay and personal stuff to do?? I am not a recent grad anymore ... But since I missed the boat on getting my foot in the door on a real career when I was younger and had no responsibilities, it's proving impossible to start now. I totally get how people get trapped in jobs where they live paycheck to paycheck. You can be smart, capable, even educated, but once you have a house and a family and such you can't really do the "grind" they expect from new people nowadays.

I guess I'm lucky that I don't have a kid and maybe could drop all my other stuff to do "the grind" if it really came down to it. Ughhh but I shouldn't have to. Nobody should. Don't really have the patience or naivety to be taken advantage of like recent grads are. They'd probably just boot me out of the office for refusing to do a bunch of shit off the clock.

I dunno, I gotta figure out something though. Something that pays. I'm starting to be VERY aware of the uhhhh ticking clock. Just a couple years until I'm thirty. Unfortunately I am in fact one of those women who uhhhh thinks about babies all the time now. I kinda want one of those. Can't have one unless I'm financially secure! My partner pays all the important bills. That's not really financial security.

[summertimesadnessirl]

Also, please note that you can't actually leave town anymore.

For a long time I've wondered if that isn't the main problem with our society.

Even in the 1960s and 70s, sometimes people would literally just leave town. Like they would get on a bus or whatever and go get a job in a factory or a restaurant or something and everyone would leave them alone.

Before credit and background checks for jobs and stuff. Before most jobs required a college degree.

If you go back a little before that credit didn't even exist.

If you go back a little before that, social security didn't exist.

If you go back a little before that, cameras were rare and difficult to get and use.

If my great grandmother or great grandfather hated their life they could literally move like 200 miles away and go by a different name and as long as they didn't commit any crimes no one would care.

Even my maternal grandparents were both literally hiding they were mixed race and nobody knew because they came from bumfuck nowhere.

There are a lot of good things about instant communication but one or the drawbacks is that people used to be allowed to get into trouble with family or about a romance or an employer and just leave town.

A lot of women used to claim to be widows when they had alcoholic or abusive spouses. Like they would just leave town with their kids and still go by "Mrs so and so" and claim their husband died or went to war and didn't come back or whatever. People knew they did it and pretended not to know. Men used to have multiple wives in multiple towns. All kinds of stuff went on. Because you could just leave town and lie and make up a new name and nobody knew. It was so hard to track people down that it cost a lot of money and a lot of hours so unless someone was a murderer or something people didn't bother to track them down.

Nobody is allowed to do that anymore. The closest you can come is being so rich that everyone knows you fucked a bunch of things up but no one can do anything about it because you're "too big to fail" but even people who are super rich have all kinds of publicly available information about their divorces and their weird foibles and stuff that's widely available to everyone. Everyone is like... stuck.

It's not healthy. Everyone should get to change their names and disappear once every like 10 years and no one should be able to hold them financially or socially liable for anything they did. The only exemptions should be like rape or murder.

In a sick way I find it really funny how toxic estranged parents say "in the old days, people had to stick around and work their issues out!"

Things People Did Back in the Old Days to Escape "Working Things Out" with Their Parents, A Short List:

Murder them!

Marry literally anyone who'd get you away

Fisticuffs

Change your name and pretend to be an orphan

Move out and feud with them for several generations

Join a monastery

Move to the city and get a job in a factory

Buy passage on a boat to some other continent

Convert to a different religion

Join the Navy

ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING

It's incredible, the number of things people would do to get away from shitty parents. Then and now.

[ohgodimafraud]

.

i was so frantic at one point for physical comfort when i was ill and to be loved and cared for and now im like. literally whatever i can just chill and watch tv and if i somehow end up dying it's not even my problem anymore so why am i so pressed. i already had like severe chest pain and low oxygen and outta control asthma until i took multiple steroids and anti bye byes and bounced back fine. like. (idk im havin an argument bc i wanna get my tonsils out bc ive had strep like 7 times in 13 months but uwahhh we dont wanna take them out but we'll see. ò.ó ) tbh im anticipating getting it again bc last year it was 4x and 4 is DEATH!!!!!! and after 4x i bet the bacteria will die but sure ill take an excuse to zone in and out to like anime or some soap opera

if heavens a one room apartment on the second floor im in like super heaven i have like multiple rooms and nobody bothers me and i have financial security to an extent and my landlord aint upping my rent and i have good insurance (if they fire me ig ill fr get a better job im looking 0.0) and it's like ok that i dont have the energy for someone else rn. i have an air filter that can diffuse essential oils and i live a cottage core life on my switch in my free time and i have good friends and i reconciled with family members i didnt think id be able to and like things are not that bad. if i feel suicidal ik it's not even serious and i can be like ok i think u mean this really sucks!!! damn!!!! im gonna go sleep it off or listen to c/razy p/eople (like the song it's a bop) and scream what the fuck over and over or something or rant about it in my room until i get bored and watch anime. it's like none of these things even matter. my job doesnt matter it's j a means to my own end

idk i feel like i needed things to be such a shitshow so id be forced to fix some stuff about my life. fingers crossed i dont like come home from work tmr like RAAAGHHHHH. idk if most things are rlly that srs tbh

[meditating-dog-lover]

Healing but still in pain

As I have said in the past, I had very troubling and traumatizing teenage years. From 2009-2010 my life was so painful and traumatic. Life got much better thankfully because I gained independence, moved out, established myself and my own identity, and am a firm believer in healing and recovering and that there is always hope in the end. For the past 14-15 years I worked a lot on this healing and my life improved in so many ways. I moved to a lovely area, got a great education, am working in a respected and rewarding career path, have financial security and independence, have 2 dogs, got the chance to travel, went on a healing journey that significantly improved my physical and mental wellbeing, etc... My life has been filled with opportunities, privilege, and recovery since 2010 despite some difficult days.

I am reward driven unfortunately, and was moreso in the past than now because I established the value of psychological healing, which is a form of success and reward itself tbh.

Despite the success and healing, I still have some painful memories, moments, and flashbacks. Also I have some things that hurt me in the past that I am still working on healing. This ties in with:

(1) health anxiety and healing. I've had doctors scare and gaslight me in the past, to the point where I had a dentist damage my tooth when I was 14. This made me anxious of doctors and generally very distrusting of them (not all of course). I felt so inclined to take care of my own health so I don't have to rely on doctors who recommend unnecessary surgery and pharmaceuticals. I've healed a lot physically, I just need to work on my eczema and stop feeling so angry at doctors and dentists all the time because that also does nothing to help me.

(2) poor confidence/style and feeling shameful (due to how I was raised). I had perfectionist, image-focused parents. So I grew up with a lot of shame and I don't want that to control me anymore. I have poor confidence and style since I didn't really grow up with a good sense of this (this is a bit different from shame). I've struggled with my weight and had body dysmorphia and I still kind of do. But it's getting better and I'll eventually find the confidence to dress better. Also I was neglected by peers a lot and guys made fun of me when I was attracted to them, so this obviously poorly influenced my self-image.

(3) political trauma. As the granddaughter of a Palestinian, the war has always been a painful subject for me to talk about. It was painful 14-15 years ago and it is just as painful now. Sometimes it becomes so painful I get really mad (I have every right to because my family's history, culture, and community is being exterminated). Even when my coworker mentioned Gaza a few days ago, to my very pleasant surprise because sometimes it honestly feels like nobody gives a fuck, I felt hurt and choked up talking about it with them. Telling them this issue is deeply hurtful and traumatic to me because my family is personally affected by it and because I received a lot of shit and bullying when I spoke in defense of Palestine when I was a teenager in middle school. It's one of those things I need to talk about to feel better, but it feels painful to and sometimes I feel like the social climate at work and other public places won't tolerate it. I know the world is waking up to the Palestinian genocide and the awareness is very helpful, doesn't mean it isn't painful or traumatizing and it would not stop feeling this way even if Palestine is freed by tomorrow morning.

(4) general anxiety and stress. I've always been tense and on edge and I need to find ways to sit down and relax and take a breather. Maybe even meditate, and even take a break from social media because that puts me on high alert. Of course the news from the past 5 months has definitely made me stressed, and I can confidently say it made my eczema flareups worse, as well as my work performance (I'm doing great now and got a raise recently but October/November was so tough). I've always been tense and on edge, so the recently circumstances made things even worse.

(5) socializing and dating. I am someone who is very scared of developing feelings for someone. I am incapable of doing so, and I am scared of being emotionally open and vulnerable around people. Growing up it was hard to do so with my parents, and I've always been rejected when I wanted to join a social group or date someone. So I remain emotionally frigid and avoid catching feelings to avoid getting hurt, knowing that deep down I want emotional connections. I've filled that void with pretending I wanted only physical connections, but I know I want something deeper and more meaningful. I just don't have the emotional capacity to do so. Out of everything on this list, this will be the hardest to tackle.

I'll be 29 in a few months, so I'm almost 30. I would love to heal these as a part of my healing 20s before I turn 30, but even if I don't I am still on the right track. I feel more confident in general because I feel like my health is going in the right direction and I'm losing weight. I am doing great overall, I just have some small areas of improvement to work on, and at the end of the day, so does everyone else.

[gemsofgreece]

"Your reference to WWII is interesting; do many Greeks bear a resentment in the present over such things?

It depends on what you mean by resentment. Peace has *not* made us forgetful. Most Greeks (and Greeks I would call "unbiased") certainly do not have a selective memory and do not rate wrongdoers depending on whether they come from the east or the west. Especially since Greece never received an amount of war reparations equal to the extreme damages in its infrastructure, the burning of one fourth of its villages and the purge out of one tenth to one seventh (estimations vary) of its population. Let alone that our stakes are higher for Western Europeans, who like to remind us so passionately about how civilized and advanced they are. Let me also comment on the implication behind "in the present over such things". Eighty years is not a long time. A state damaged so badly will certainly have to face demographic and financial repercussions for the decades to come. And it did.

So I really don't understand what you mean by using the phrase "over such things" so casually.

"Who, in sight of that big picture, wouldn’t worry for Greece?"

Nobody would worry for Greece or for anyone else. Nobody worries but for their own skin. Especially in the scale of nations and political decisions. Hate to be the one to break the news to you.

"But a world in which the strength and the security and ‘pax’ of Europe are rapidly waning"

Since there is a lot of deflect in your post, I think it would also be appropriate of me to suggest that based on this argument, it is not wise for the Greek or any other artefacts to remain to the UK, since strength in Europe is rapidly waning and I agree. EU has already proven to be remarkably weak and the UK is not even in the EU anymore, it stands alone. So, I suggest that Greek artefacts in Britain should be immediately transferred to China. Who dares take on China? Nobody can. Russia tries to befriend it and USA would dread having to face China and even if it did, it would struggle. And even if it succeeded, it wouldn't target the Greek artefacts, of all things in China because why would they? And Greece has pretty good diplomatic relations with China, which has a mighty history and civilization of its own, and they bond over that in their foreign affairs, so it would take better care of the artefacts. There you go. Let's keep the Greek artefacts actually safe. To China!

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!”

Yeah yeah, those eggs are Greece's and I already explained why we should give the eggs to China, when the need rises. Meanwhile, what does the UK do for that purpose? To my understanding, there are plenty of countries that are currently safer and more peaceful and / or less weak than the UK, so have you started dismantling your castles already? Hurry up, folks. Send some parts in Switzerland or Norway, or Australia or Canada which are still part of the commonwealth after all. Even the US. I mean, they are not very peaceful but who would dare harm your palace pieces there? Nobody.

*I forgot to comment in your previous commentary that even if the British Museum is insulated from outside attacks, it has certainly proven to not be impervious to itself and its own employees, so it kinda defeats the purpose.

“The entire British museum is an active crime scene” - John Oliver

[space-girl-and-droids-art]

I truly cannot do this anymore .

Im writting this here cause I know my loved ones won’t see this here . And because this way what I write Can go unnoticed and just a bump that I’ll probably delete later in an spam account dedicated to Star Wars (one of the most fun spaces in my life ! )

I am in a career I don’t want to be in . And I pursued that instead of what I wanted to do , illustration and music , because I was promised a future that was more financially stable . I could always just use that money to invest in my craft right ?

Wrong . I just got a job that pays a lot more by the hour than my field usually is paying for these days and it ain’t enough to buy stock of my art to go to fairs and markets .

Im also neurodivergent and have paranoid personality disorder so I probably will have to take into account having and paying somebody that I know to be at the fair for me because I cannot go .

And also it wouldn’t be a safe choice either . It would be like throwing my money down the drain . Because my art is failing . Nobody is buying it anymore . And it’s not like I’m starting out , I’ve been at this for like a decade and I did good at one time . It’s just not anymore .

And I feel like I’ve been scammed out of the get go because the life I wanted was never a thing I could’ve thought of reaching . And the secure career is not giving me enough to be happy doing what I truly wanna do .

And I don’t know what to do anymore , I just need help . Any help . Learning resources , community support (I am by myself most of the time because I work from home and I can’t go see my friends at university because I got harassed heavily and I’m scared to go back, and I live two hours away by car from the nearest friend ) (I don’t have a car and I don’t know how to drive ) , craft business advice , what do I do with this . Just anything u have to offer , if somebody is reading this , is more than welcome .

Everything is just so overwhelming . And I was just so attached to my dreams that realizing something inside my brain and the choices I made in the past career wise will hold me back forever is so haunting and devastating .

Im a scientist that doesn’t get paid enough to do something other than research and sleep . I am an artist who cannot go to an art fair or sell her art online or succeed at any project. I am a musician who cannot be near or on a stage . I am worthless .

It sounds stupid and it sounds awful and boring and there are a lot of things happening in the world right now that are way more important than a third world country girl realizing the dreams I wanted were not meant to be achieved by me . But it makes me sad and I’m afraid of talking about this to my loved ones because I know they don’t get it . And I feel even more alone that I am right now .

On a slightly joke-ish note , I feel like that movie where the character played by Paul Dano wanted to fly airplanes and then he learns he cannot because he is colorblind . Only I’m not colorblind , I just can’t be in crowded places without having a panic attack and my social presence is shitty even in the online world .

(Before someone thinks I’m an antisocial and maybe I should touch grass , I have friends and a boyfriend and a caring family , it’s not my choice to not be able to see them . And it’s not like they don’t wanna be with me either it’s just life always gets in the way of me seeing them . )

(So life itself not only takes from me all the dreams I once had , but also heavily isolates myself against my will. And it feels unfair I just want to be happy but it seems like I’m asking for too much )