#on a more personal note

[jaquitor]

Merithra, the Dreamer~

[bloomeng]

I would describe my reaction to Natlan as disappointed but unsurprised. I will say the one positive thing I’ve noticed is there’s more people speaking out in an orderly fashion and less push back against the people speaking out. Not to say there isn’t push back there definitely is, but the conversation feels less like rabid dogs going at each other. Part of this I think is due in part to the fact that many people (like myself) expected this and were prepared this time around, but also people’s flimsy arguments are crumpling. “Just wait till Natlan” arguments can’t be passed around anymore. Chinese fans are also complaining, so you can’t even make that argument anymore.

I don’t know if any of this will get Hoyo to recall anything but god we can dream. However, it’s still nice though to see the backlash.

[yowlthinks]

Reading all this ff makes me realise how lonely I feel. And how much friendships are an antidote for it, really, they seem to bring much more closeness and tenderness to my life then, well, my romantic relationship.

[plushchimera]

okay i think it turned out pretty cozy (this video and the whole channel was a godsend tbh) and i'm gonna stop tweaking it now

[mythtakens]

“these characters should be mentally healthy before they get together 😌” ummm no I actually think we should smash their mental illnesses together like clumps of play-doh and see what colors it makes

[miseria-fortes-viros]

yoooo guys these wings my dad made look INSANE i can’t wait to try them tomorrow

[cozystars]

!!! BUILT LIKE BILBO BAGGINS !!!

[daigah]

We lose everytime a girl in fiction who is on the masc side and happy with it becomes very feminine as a supposed sign of maturity

[anotherlesbiandad]

This is a longshot, would you be willing to help me get my insulin? I'm down to my last pen and its pretty much close to being empty.Nt asking for much only need $370 rn to save my blood sugar. please help me with a small donation or share, reblog any help can save my life.Please help & Blessings ❤

hey! so i can't help money wise right now, but i'm gonna answer this publicly in the hopes that someone will see and help

[yowlthinks]

Yes, agree to the above. It starts as a manipulation on Aziraphale, and by the time the ball comes, Aziraphale basically brainwashes people to some very unsettling amount. This is one of the things that sort of made me believe this is a sign of Meratron rewriting the Book of Life theory (see The Magic Trick you Haven't Seen essay, it is curious to say the least), just because I cannot believe that he would do that.

Your point about Aziraphale going his standard pattern of holding on to the illusion is definitely a good one. I have also rewarched episode 4, and the fact that Aziraphale does not tell Crowley about his encounter with Shax... and that he lies several times in that episode (like he hasn't done anything with the car, nothing out of the ordinary has happened, etc.) really are all warnings. Aziraphale is so catastrophically caught up in his own fantasy, that he goes from tempting the shopkeepers to come to his ball, to full on manipulating people to the level of brainwashing (at least partly consciously). He is ignoring all the warning signs, even when Crowley is going out of his way to tell him something is very wrong.

Also, as an aside, can I just say that this ENTIRE SEASON (Job minisode, but also all other episodes), Crowley DOES NOT LIE, he might not be telling things, but he is not outright denying what is true. But Aziraphale DOES LIE, and he lies about serious, significant things. He does the same bloody thing he did to Crowley during the apocalypse in S1! Yes, they are not sharing information (partly because they are too busy to strategise and properly discuss things), but also Aziraphale is lying again, which is heartbreaking and something that Crowley of all beings did not deserve. And yes, as @neil-gaiman said, Aziraphale has a lot more lessons to learn before they reach a happy ever after.

Heyyyyyy I’d really like to talk more about the ball, who’s with me.

Because for all its glitter, the ball is dark. No, seriously, it’s dark. It’s eerie, it’s disturbing, and the narrative doesn’t shy away from showing us just how much. 

As in a classic fairytale, mortals are being spirited away into another realm to dance through the night. Here, however, we see exactly who is orchestrating the dance, and why.

And we empathize with him, but watching Aziraphale has never been so painful or so unsettling.

Nina arrives distraught and is immediately hit with the realization that she doesn’t feel distraught, even though she knows she should be feeling it. She confronts Aziraphale and he just tells her: oh yes! :) no long faces tonight! And she is disturbed throughout the ball, thinks she is losing her mind, questions and fights the enchantment… but from time to time, the enchantment still takes hold.

And just—

Aziraphale. Aziraphale, you do know that manipulating people is wrong, don’t you? You… do know that? And yes, of course, neither Crowley’s nor Aziraphale’s approach to morality is human. They are eldritch, they are otherworldly. It was Crowley who changed the paintball guns into real guns in S1, though of course, the humans still had choice in using them.

But the ball is still different.

We’ve never seen Aziraphale do anything quite so disturbing before, or go so obviously deep into his own delusion. There are moments during these scenes when even Crowley, permanently frustrated, is very nearly disturbed. (“Angel! What are you doing?” or “Making it rain is one thing, but a BALL?”)

I fully think that by that point in the story, Aziraphale is not all right. He is in an anxiety spiral, denying reality fiercely, obstinately, disastrously, not listening to any of Crowley’s hissed warnings. Yes, yes, he is giddy, he is in love. It’s so very important for him that everything go RIGHT this night, the night he gets to dance with Crowley. Is he even aware of everything he is conjuring up, of the enchantment he has woven? The humans who step through the doors of the bookshop change: their clothing, their mood, their speech patterns… By this point, is Aziraphale doing this consciously at all? Or is reality conforming to his expectations, forcing everyone into a replica of the nineteenth century while Aziraphale himself, distracted and smitten, works himself up to inviting Crowley to dance?

In the first few episodes, as fear and danger grow, as Aziraphale is faced with the danger specifically to Crowley (I don’t see why he would risk his existence for you, Shax tells him in the car), Aziraphale only denies reality all the more fiercely, only holds on to his plans tighter, only puts more force into them and exerts more control (really, rather like the archangels with their Great Plan).

And the ball, beautiful and otherworldly and eerie as it is, is also a dire warning. 

In the morning, it will be Crowley, not Aziraphale, who will get told off for manipulating Nina and Maggie. Aziraphale won’t reflect on this. He won’t be forced to reflect, and Metatron will manipulate him in turn.

There is a plan to follow. The show must go on.

GOD the ball is so dark.

[prolibytherium]

I will say I get the vibe that a lot of peoples interest and support for strikers is a bit too much for a vicarious ‘burn it down’ thrill, rather than for the actual goals of a strike.

Like UPS has agreed to come back to the table and it is very possible they will concede to Union demands and avert a strike. And if that happens (so long as the union does not make concessions on its key demands) it’s a good thing. It’s a victory for the laborers. It is the same ultimate conclusion that a strike would intend to produce except without the workers having to go on (not so great) strike pay for a week or two.

[yellow-faerie]

the patron saint of showing up!!! you seem like a constant warm and friendly presence in the interwebs

AHH thank you so much!! Honestly I'm so pleased that I come off like that, I try very hard to be a fun presence on the internet :)

[chortu]

This is an interesting discussion -- the text in the reblogs, I mean, not the tags. There is merit on all sides. I think some additional clarifying information would be helpful.

OTW has reported its total expenses, total assets, and total cash in hand every year since 2007, which is well known. At the end of 2020, they reported $1,761,512 USD. At the end of 2021, they reported $2,302,817 USD. At the end of 2022, they reported $2,767,306 USD. Of course, their annual reports are published in the last quarter of the following year, so it's possible someone in the org claimed a lower number ahead of the annual report.

The annual audits follow several months after their annual reports, and the numbers reported align closely with the annual reports. The audit for 2020 reported $1,764,107 USD, within $3,000 of the annual report. The audit for 2021 reported $2,315,841, within $13,024 of the annual report. The audit for 2022 reported $2,778,530, within $12,000 of the annual report. This should help dispel the idea that OTW lies about how much cash it has in hand.

Speaking of the idea that the OTW would lie about their cash in hand, if one has examined their public tax documents, it would be easy to see that it is the same CPA firm that does their audits, Davie Kaplan CPA. This is typical -- they are qualified to do both. It is also sort of reveals the humor behind the idea that the audit would reveal a lie from the annual report, which is based on their tax documents. It's the same team doing the calcs.

Without doing a yearly breakdown of their expenses, they spend somewhere around $550,000-$650,000 a year, without counting depreciation. This number grows yearly. It is true that without factoring in any of the plans for paid staff, hardware updates, servers, etc. on their roadmap, their cash in hand would sustain them for almost 5 years. Let us consider that their revenue is based on goodwill of the public. The roadmap to paid staff needs to account for the fact that these fundraisers won't always be so successful. Yearly hardware updates, servers are quite expensive. "Normal operating expenses" is a bit of a misnomer in this case. Their roadmap is ambitious. They'd really like to combat their high turnover by paying more of the people in their org. There's quite a few of the hardware updates they can't get to without paid staff, and their ambition to do these will cost a chunk of these reserves. In conclusion, it would be unfair to expect them to put the breakdown of where they'd really like to put this $2.8 mil in the long term because the plan for paid staff is incipient, and they may need to change these plans on the fly to account for more technical costs.

Speaking of the budget, it is normal for an organization to include in their yearly budget, the amount of dollars they plan to spend that year. It is normal for an organization to not commit to a place where each of their surplus dollars will go each year. Instead, we must inspect their annual report and their long-term roadmap, and endeavor to hold them accountable for it each quarter.

The idea that their legal services are all donated is misleading. They paid their legal team $84k in 2022, not counting various other contractors. In fact, there is a contingent that is quite upset about how much OTW pays for contractors.

A small note that an additional $10 appearing in their interest-bearing account after a year does not mean there was a singular transfer of $10 to the account.

The fact that more of their cash is not in an interest-bearing account is pretty comical. They've had some financially literate volunteers leave. Clearly, a financially literate paid staff should be one of their PSTO's first priorities. For those in the tags really upset about them not selling anything to earn revenue, they would need to worry about this from a whole slew of legal and tax perspectives. It's simpler to gift merch with donation levels.

There are other internal problems with the org that all volunteers are contributing to combating against from the inside. And to help them, we need to hold certain committees responsible for their respective tasks! (combating burnout, racism, the persisting horrors do persist!) The Board continues to release their finances accurately each year, and I certainly hope they plan to continue to answer these hard-hitting questions about their plans regarding investments and paid staff.

This org needs to plan and step very carefully to achieve some of their long-term goals. $2.8 million really does not have as much spending value as one might expect, with their plans in mind.

To those in the tags discrediting the work done on the website, I'll bring it out of the tags. Please consult their JIRA for all the incredible work done on the functionality and defect resolution of the site. Out of curiosity, are there really people who want the UI to get a modern Kim Kardashian update? Genuine question.

Certainly, there are many places deserving of a donation in these times. Those with abundance are free to give it where they choose. It would be more enticing to make a donation to OTW if they were more financially literate at the moment, but if we want those hard-working tag wranglers and database coders to get paid for their work eventually, it is also in our interest to ensure OTW has the assets (and the critical oversight!) to meet those goals.

on ao3's current fundraiser

apparently it’s time for ao3’s biannual donation drive, which means it’s time for me to remind you all, that regardless of how much you love ao3, you shouldn’t donate to them because they HAVE TOO MUCH MONEY AND NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

we’ve known for years that ao3 – or, more specifically, the organization for transformative works (@transformativeworks on tumblr), or otw, who runs ao3 and other fandom projects – has a lot of money in their “reserves” that they had no plans for. but in 2023, @manogirl and i did some research on this, and now, after looking at their more recent financial statements, i’ve determined that at the beginning of 2024, they had almost $2.8 MILLION US DOLLARS IN SURPLUS.

our full post last year goes over the principles of how we determined this, even though the numbers are for 2023, but the key points still stand (with the updated numbers):

when we say “surplus”, we are not including money that they estimate they need to spend in 2024 for their regular expenses. just the extra that they have no plan for

yes, nonprofits do need to keep some money in reserves for emergencies; typically, nonprofits registered in the u.s. tend to keep enough to cover between six months and two years of their regular operating expenses (meaning, the rough amount they need each month to keep their services going). $2.8 million USD is enough to keep otw running for almost FIVE YEARS WITHOUT NEW DONATIONS

they always overshoot their fundraisers: as i’m posting this, they’ve already raised $104,751.62 USD from their current donation drive, which is over double what they’ve asked for! on day two of the fundraiser!!

no, we are not trying to claim they are embezzling this money or that it is a scam. we believe they are just super incompetent with their money. case in point: that surplus that they have? only earned them $146 USD in interest in 2022, because only about $10,000 USD of their money invested in an interest-bearing account. that’s the interest they earn off of MILLIONS. at the very least they should be using this extra money to generate new revenue – which would also help with their long-term financial security – but they can’t even do that

no, they do not need this money to use if they are sued. you can read more about this in the full post, but essentially, they get most of their legal services donated, and they have not, themselves, said this money is for that purpose

i'm not going to go through my process for determining the updated 2024 numbers because i want to get this post out quickly, and otw actually had not updated the sources i needed to get these numbers until the last couple days (seriously, i've been checking), but you can easily recreate the process that @manogirl and i outlined last year with these documents:

otw’s 2022 audited financial statement, to determine how much money they had at the end of 2022

otw’s 2024 budget spreadsheet, to determine their net income in 2023 and how much they transferred to and from reserves at the beginning of 2024

otw’s 2022 form 990 (also available on propublica), which is a tax document, and shows how much interest they earned in 2022 (search “interest” and you’ll find it in several places)  

also, otw has not been accountable to answering questions about their surplus. typically, they hold a public meeting with their finance committee every year in september or october so people can ask questions directly to their treasurer and other committee members; as you can imagine, after doing this deep dive last summer, i was looking forward to getting some answers at that meeting!

but they cancelled that meeting in 2023, and instead asked people to write to the finance committee through their contact us form online. fun fact: i wrote a one-line message to the finance committee on may 11, 2023 through that form, when @manogirl and i were doing this research, asking them for clarification on how much they have in their reserves. i have still not received a response.

so yeah. please spend your money on people who actually need it, like on mutual aid requests! anyone who wants to share their mutual aid requests, please do so in the replies and i’ll share them out – i didn’t want to link directly to individual requests without permission in case this leads to anyone getting harassed, but i would love to share your requests. to start with, here's operation olive branch and their ongoing spreadsheet sharing palestinian folks who need money to escape genocide.

oh, and if you want to write to otw and tell them why you are not donating, i'm not sure it’ll get any results, but it can’t hurt lol. here's their contact us form – just don’t expect a response! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[nikkisticki]

RULE

[whetstonefires]

You know what I realize that people underestimate with Pride & Prejudice is the strategic importance of Jane.

Because like, I recently saw Charlotte and Elizabeth contrasted as the former being pragmatic and the latter holding out for a love match, because she's younger and prettier and thinks she can afford it, and that is very much not what's happening.

The Charlotte take is correct, but the Elizabeth is all wrong. Lizzie doesn't insist on a love match. That's serendipitous and rather unexpected. She wants, exactly as Mr. Bennet says, someone she can respect. Contempt won't do. Mr. Bennet puts it in weirdly sexist terms like he's trying to avoid acknowledging what he did to himself by marrying a self-absorbed idiot, but it's still true. That's what Elizabeth is shooting for: a marriage that won't make her unhappy.

She's grown up watching how miserable her parents make one another; she's not willing to sign up for a lifetime of being bitter and lonely in her own home.

I think she is very aware, in refusing Mr. Collins, that it's reasonably unlikely that anyone she actually respects is going to want her, with her few accomplishments and her lack of property. That she is turning down security and the chance keep the house she grew up in, and all she gets in return may be spinsterhood.

But, crucially, she has absolute faith in Jane.

The bit about teaching Jane's daughters to embroider badly? That's a joke, but it's also a serious potential life plan. Jane is the best creature in the world, and a beauty; there's no chance at all she won't get married to someone worthwhile.

(Bingley mucks this up by breaking Jane's heart, but her prospects remain reasonable if their mother would lay off!)

And if Elizabeth can't replicate that feat, then there's also no doubt in her mind that Jane will let her live in her house as a dependent as long as she likes, and never let it be made shameful or awful to be that impoverished spinster aunt. It will be okay never to be married at all, because she has her sister, whom she trusts absolutely to succeed and to protect her.

And if something eventually happens to Jane's family and they can't keep her anymore, she can throw herself upon the mercy of the Gardeners, who have money and like her very much, and are likewise good people. She has a support network--not a perfect or impregnable one, but it exists. It gives her realistic options.

Spinsterhood was a very dangerous choice; there are reasons you would go to considerable lengths not to risk it.

But Elizabeth has Jane, and her pride, and an understanding of what marrying someone who will make you miserable costs.

That's part of the thesis of the book, I would say! Recurring Austen thought. How important it is not to marry someone who will make you, specifically, unhappy.

She would rather be a dependent of people she likes and trusts than of someone she doesn't, even if the latter is formally considered more secure; she would rather live in a happy, reasonable household as an extra than be the mistress of her own home, but that home is full of Mr. Collins and her mother.

This is a calculation she's making consciously! She's not counting on a better marriage coming along. She just feels the most likely bad outcome from refusing Mr. Collins is still much better than the certain outcome of accepting him. Which is being stuck with Mr. Collins forever.

Elizabeth is also being pragmatic. Austen also endorses her choice, for the person she is and the concerns she has. She's just picking different trade-offs than Charlotte.

Elizabeth's flaw is not in her own priorities; she doesn't make a reckless choice and get lucky. But in being unable to accept that Charlotte's are different, and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Charlotte.

Because realistically, when your marriage is your whole family and career forever, and you only get to pick the ones that offer themselves to you, when you are legally bound to the status of dependent, you're always going to be making some trade-offs.

😂 Even the unrealistically ideal dream scenario of wealthy handsome clever ethical Mr. Darcy still asks you to undergo personal growth, accommodate someone else's communication style, and eat a little crow.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I know those eyes.

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