#or i could post random memes with zero context
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in a fit of minor despair i blazed TWO (2) comic posts, and by chance a very kind reader ALSO blazed a completely different post the next day. Some insights from the new dashboard (assuming they're accurate lmfao), in case it helps anybody:
The major takeaway here is, as much as we all hate booktok ads and despite what people insist, nobody actually wants a real synopsis of your thing, they want zero-context clickbait.
All three of these were for 2500 views, mine were both targeted towards identical tag audiences and the Kind Follower's was ALSO for 2500 but they chose some different (still applicable) tags.
The pinned post, with some actual comic pages, the elevator pitch, and some basic info about the comic gained around 37 engagements, including 6 reblogs. Worth noting that I formatted this post specifically to be clear and painlessly sharable, it doesn't stretch the page or have clickable links and has all the info about the thing right out front, the sort of thing I respond to.
The softer world edit I originally made because I like making them, with no intention of using it for advertising and which includes zero context for the characters, also no links, got 80 engagements, 6 reblogs and one new follower.
And finally, the follower's blazed post was an actual comic update that differed from the usual for Reasons; instead of a real comic panel it ALSO had a softer world edit attached. None of the text was formatted well for an ad at all, just being the usual links to the comic's website. It gained 36 engagements overall, with 4 reblogs.
And no matter WHAT the post looks like: nobody clicks links.
I'll also mention that pinned post has been there since February, and before I blazed it it had gained around 175 notes in five months. A lot of my static character posts will get 70 or 80 notes without me tagging or trying or really doing anything to promote them, because. They're not meant to be used like that lol
Granted: tumblr as a website is a mess, these numbers could be wildly inaccurate, this is not a super scientific study, but Man.
Personally, I do not respond to this sort of clickbaity booktok shit very well when it's INTENDED for advertising, specifically because I feel like it disrespects the audience and, worse, imitates genuine art to exploit peoples' genuine feelings. It feels VERY close to those covert influencer ads, it honestly makes me kinda sick. But I have talked about this phenomenon before, and the numbers here do back it up. I do think there's some nuance here, but it would take a whole other post to get into it I think.
And I mean, when I make stuff about my own comic it IS always genuine. The audience for "fanwork" I make of my own stuff is extremely small (mostly Me) so it's not like it would be lucrative to crank out a ton of random fake fandom posts; they're not any less earnest if I use them for ads now and then. So I dunno, I guess it's not EXACTLY the same as those gross publisher ads pretending to be teen girls, but it's irritating to be here. I know what I'm looking for wrt ads and getting into new things and I try to treat others the same way. It would be cool to get some traction while treating my audience like Real People, but clearly that route doesn't work seeing as my comic career now has a very real expiration date lmfao. Get out there and make some memes I guess?
#I'm gonna add to this later probably when I go back and blaze that one I made LAST time I was feeling fuckin hopeless#that super imitated those disgusting webtoon ads#and did. Better than all three of these lmfaoooo#god you shouldn't have to treat your audience like morons just to be capable of making things
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this is get to know you time. the cringy name game at every camp in the world you do with toilet paper. enough.
Conversations and thoughts resembling the same level of random and incongruence of my Apple Music library. like Josh Groban is to Eminem: Mercy Me. a lot about everything that’s not a hashtag bc it just needs more attention.
Let the first (post) be first:
Hi. I’ve never done this before (like a seriously grown up blog on purpose. Just when just followed sad somewhat desperate poetry with a random live-laugh-love meme in there somewhere.) and Pitch Perfect.
BUT.
For 2 years I’ve had Long-Haul COVID. It’s a different kind of lonely
Thanks so much, amirite? —Gen-Z apologies if I didn’t use that jumbled acronym-word correctly.
It’s hard to keep up.
See? What am I talking about now and how did I get there…
Due to a very common symptom of LHC…
Again—hard to keep up. It’s there. Tho
And I have a lot of quirk so it’s possible I think you’ll “get” but are just nice not to tell me
BUT.
It’s already gone. Train left the Station yesterday.
Slipped on a penny.
Not Good. not even funny.
Teens with the gorgeous graffiti have to Go elsewhere. I’ve always been jealous of that kind talent.
Whole lot better than something else shiny thrown on the track and it’s derailed. There’s at least some innocence in a paint can.
WOW.
I have major attention and Brain Fog hurdles to conquer or shortly bypass. You might not be able to tell b/c of how My writing jumps around so infrequently.
Not true but still easier.
Mostly innocent and playful.
Sadly the attention part is this many years young.
Writing comes naturally. As it always has, strangely...
And why is healing so exhausting? Writing is therapeutic but My body says—can you not?
i know im not the only one asking that!
As if I have time for that too.
find a community of people suffering just as similarly and gain strength, tips and tricks.
Just, speak-screen edit my writing for me. Maybe a clarification fact-✔.
Just not wherever Tr*mp gets his.
Could be Truth Social. Monthly fee tho will cost you your Red Hat.
MYGAbad
Speaking I struggle with processing w/e skills I must have held onto.
BUT.
Since 2 years is quite. some. time.—I’ve shared many struggles and victories.
Like a Bell curve. Or a punk Domino falling then lining them up takes longer just to go down again in half the time. Repeat.
It’s very likely I Will try to talk about many things at once.
I really can’t help that. LOL.
Jury’s still out but I get most of my writing and miscellaneous musings from mom.
Dad can write the best, longest, and precious prayers and notes.
Almost delicately but like you KNOW he’s giving you a hug.
A Good mix tape’s paper Version.
Enter Run on sentences. Truly a stream by now.
Although my brain muscle is weak I’ve been encouraged by several people to Start a blog. Someday I’ll include the past 2 years of w/e pics are on other SocMed.
I can’t think of anything worse.
Yea, okay LOL.
Judgment free. Occasionally… like normal doses then have to work through that.
Mostly that’s because I knew nothing about anything before I opened My computer and started sharing My thoughts under zero context ridden or form at all.
More likely as well to offend and piss someone off. Well done you’re now one less friend popular. There’s an App for that tho-tracking people Who don’t like you.
Not sure where I’ll land with this. It may not land you either.
Because like a lot of us. Sometimes you don’t get to talk actually. No Room.
I like routine; that’s out. So it gets dull.
I’ve learned I hadn’t yet given myself the space to see all of things I can do sitting down.
But. By “given” I mean to say that perhaps I didn’t know it was there.
One Good thing I’ve gathered from this Hell.
Hell fresh by the Day! Never frozen.
So at that time and in this case of my life; sitting is fine.
Some of it isn’t too bad. The writing. You will find questionable punctuation. Run on sentences that I was running.
Relevance at all.
All around Confusion…altho connect the dots could have been seen as practice.
Or annoying even. I’d have no words.
I truly don’t set out to be funny. I could never do stand-up or improv. Or act.
Humor forced just takes and receives too much energy that might come off insincere.
Nothing on command.
Like Matt Perry’s brilliant improv wit it just doesn’t hit the same.
B/c it was scripted.
A syllabus for it Imagine.
The horn to jump off the swim block.
It’s when Life feels more scripted a lot of people close up.
That’s because you’re not in charge anymore. I’ve lost the Power.
Don’t prefer caring about whether someone likes me like I used to.
I believe you can snooze me for 30 days or say ‘I’m done w/ her’ and send Me to the cyberarchives.
Okay. Okay.
So—90% of the time I’m witty and sarcastic with a bit of cynicism, discomfort (for you), and pettifogging.
I write primarily about the questions of intersectionality.
How do things fit.
Let’s Fit it.
Until I figured out physics and calculus and basic math were behind a career in architecture and the classes I would have to take, I enjoyed taking things apart to make something else.
Not always pretty.
Could be Good what I took apart was the best thing we can’t see.
Like I’m writing questions but with wisdom not meaning to do that either,
A lot of people don’t like that. You do you! Baby.
I don’t mean to be at all harsh or hurtful. I try not to say that anything vainly.
I say it b/c a lot of what I’m writing is all of every piece of stream of consciousness tallied.
And it was a synapse connecting another.
Maybe that’s the creative part? The other side of My Brain is telling Me to ✔ on the other side so I’m like…crickets.
What I write is stream of consciousness, brutally honest and to some might be lightly offensive. In College writing this Way would’ve absolutely driven Me crazy.
Then life steps in and bonks u on the head with a newspaper but 15 years later returns the favor with an iPhone.
Or too blunt. And comes across as harsh. And that’s mostly because if I don’t have an emoji to match my real-life broken ღ I’m breaking up with you.
Self reflection: impulsive
I used to journal so much growing up.
When did I lose that innocence?
We can’t talk about folding paper into cranes and witchcraft finger fortune games anymore?
No more MASH?
Huh, maybe you weren’t born this Way. Ur Parents just drew circles nearest each other or your apple stem twist broke too soon and you want a partner whose name starts with P.
Very often I overshare. If you’re reading this this is not brand new information. No ability to say things simply. Think I’ve already. That can put me really vulnerable to more bitcoin hacks.
And then you need to figure out what bitcoin is. And whether Mario can collect coins as well in place of the hackers.
I’d say ask Tom Brady b/c of his investments but since retirement he’s been pretty deflated.
Mean people that mean to hurt.
First of all I feel sorry for you. Not in a poor you tho.
People Who hurt on purpose don’t often have any Way to vent or get a rise other than evoke feelings in and deflect toward a schoolmate.
Skip back to the part I tried talking about vulnerability. It truly is the invisible cloak and no one can see you but nothing makes sense still and you’ve only fixed what’s on the outside. Now you’re peeved AND cloaked.
At this conjunction junction next I’d suggest try shopping at Target opposed to Abercrombie then.
Feet in the water right above bankruptcy to see how things could be different only what…if?
Good ♧ seriously.
So there’s more grace given when you fall. When it’s not your month Day or even year!
Nobody is there for you!!
And My cloak is getting rained on.
Maybe gathering strength from falling will come a common sense with a 6th one but with seriously meaningful things I’ve learned and less hard knock’s Life for us.
The hard Way.
The bottom’s still there and it actually stinks stinks. Discouraging b/c there are two sides to the bottom of the cave full of stalagTITES and mites.
All the up’s and down’s. Right there. And the COVID-19 bat OMG!
You know you may not be able to fall any further further but once you’re up again you’re wondering whether you should get some cement to close that thing off.
Choose to live! But welcome to the real world—it sucks—ur gonna Love it.
Almost 4got. In the cave you dont always have to wait for Jesus to be resurrected if that metaphor comforts you but if change comes and it requires a whole new worm can of Life we already can’t handle that gets us outta the dank I don’t think we need to ask permission to the rights of that Bible passage.
BUT.
Until YOU are ready for change...
Forget it. At least you meant well. Someone can guide that horse to water but it stays pretty hydrated, so he says he’s Good. Promise. The only talking animal and it was Me Who got to hear it. More importantly, who’s gonna ☊? Care? There’s a country song finding out Who your Friends are. A lot stay lost and it’s not helpful all our Friends aren’t the same.
Missing a Good chance to find out if you’re in a similar predicament and that not always a bad thing.
At times I have literally had to be lifted off the floor.
I don’t do this at all for pity. As you read, My Pride is the biggest obstacle to let Go.
When you do?
The hard way through this.
I am angry and irritable for bouts. Sometimes I’m silly and invite karma punishments.
Go all Brimstone and every type fire and the Old Testament has nothing New-thinking and no one new to add to it. SMH. Nail a list on the wooden church door reading it is nearing endgame. Or, Just open your hotel drawer and tear out the back half.
So change then— If it were Me and it has been just not an actual hole I’d be outta there due to the spiders and crickets alone. Jiminy’s Cool.
If u can’t change and just stay a novice bunny hill—fine! Stay there. Build some confidence through experience.
And isn’t that another thing? Something specific motivates the fire under your (cuckoo!) and before you’d see the dark without any End of the tunnel and more importantly with the light aspect. All the sudden you care b/c what? It applies to you of course be selfish. Fascinating yet humbling.
Then there’s the ‘Why Me’ (?) phase? Not fully pitiful but just pretentious enough to resume the trailblaze. Bad attitude with a healthy dose of are we there yet and trying to Balance whether someone is saying …’they get it; you always feel bad’ so…KY Basketball banter? Ashamed accompanies too bc thing is a few times I did kind of scoff at phrases like I always feel bad. Like, here’s 2 Extra strength Tylenol.Alright, Ok, come test for Covid 1/29/22. It shouldn’t take going through something to empathize with or change but you could’ve listened for longer with a clear mind. Just cannot wrap your head around it and I think sometimes that’s okay. What’s next I’ll try so hard.
+ It’s 12:01am of 1/29/24 (so last night), you still can’t do math and/or struggle to add or subtract 12 so aren’t entirely sure its your sophomore year orientation, and you already surrender to what you didn’t want to get up for in the first place. Kind of silly u set the alarm! B/c Pain, confusion, Discomfort and a Deep loneliness that has very little to do with people awaits. That whole scenario is a disaster but look who’s standing and GOT. UP. period. 15 years ago that’s where I’d be. Just defeated.
THAT. Is enough some days. I say that to you struggling to believe the same but know Deep down.
Year 2 longhaul and youre wondering why there are anniversaries at all given about half are always sad or tragic. Evoking the worst on what could be the best. Might be something To think 2 minutes ago you’d ended your prayer to have a better Day. Of anything is true about everything happens for a reason I’d say having to chooose how to respond given you have the privilege at all to that just means were normal. B/c ill be honest I would not
I’m angry. WHAT is so complicated about your lack of Faith or belief prayer must go into an encrypted iCloud even the FBI can’t retrieve or interpret. Never had a chance! But I’ll add that it’s worth noting prayer doesn’t deal with its existence in transaction currencies..
Feel less Pain but feel more with it or stronger now. Or, just plain ‘ol numb. Similar to Addiction I suppose people get so used to being healthy one Way or another they don’t even notice better OR worse and no one is getting married.
Truth is.
Yea.
I’m in Hell, but I’m not on a ventilator. I’m not without relentless Support.
I still can smile but laugh just a bit before it hurts.
Something is always worse.
SomeONE is doing worse.
Somewhere and definitely rn.
I never knew I’d be dealing greed of perspective for this Long.
Something you’ll never find out about that changed your life’s trajectory where an explanation would have only confused things.
Then we still have the chance to be astonished and then genuine bc of that. Thankful. Expectant. With Faith somehow. Maybe carrying someone else’s Hope for a while might burden you less for a short time.
You dont need to see eye struggle and suffering. You dont need examples. You just know. There’s a fleeting peace u might not see again for 2 days but in knowing it’s not just you with the same bs going on.
Like here. Here is someone who needs support but in a different Way but how unique it could be to trade just for a bit. It’s not leg day this time remember u agreed a temp trade.
We don’t have to know everything. Most of the time I don’t give God the time to keep up w/ Me let alone do anything miraculous before I just hang up.
Although My Life was headed in a completely renewed direction in so many ways of recovery—
I got sick. Not because it was meant to be.
Because COVID. Possibly a rabid bat. Cracked vile or petri-dish
Everything does not happen for a reason and ppl dont like hearing that bc its an easy out. Says time might go on but this thorn wont ever heal. How do we respond? that’s the most authentic and a strength yes or no wand.
I hate cliché. Thing is tho…I think we all hate it b/c it doesn’t hold us accountable. Eh it’s fine.
Unfortunately we wouldn’t have the pretty, surprise, one of the Walk to Remember walks. All up to the of healing and forgiveness individual to each of us.
If for Me that means ive healed all I can and I’m counting on research to help Me out some more maybe I just keep going. Trust Me nothing is forgotten but you do know now that at least you were strong and capable enough to figure all that at all. And—I can do that. Some days aren’t that kind.
Maybe it becomes a goal we never anticipated but ✔ your resilience at the ticket line and saddle up, honey.this donkey only holds ____ lbs. let some things Go. That thing will still only walk in a circle but you’ve evenly distributed your baggage.
The feeling of pure joy. Which btw does still require a thesaurus b/c it is NOT the same as joy. Like a preventative Med to an acute one.
Then feel Accomplishment.
Not knowing what’s next but trying to be prepared.
It’s a surprise party we never RSVP’d and don’t regret it.
And it’s a Good thing u got outbid for that yacht.
Hell, tho, you won’t be forgotten but pushing helps the donkey move faster for now that is acceptable.
Unshun. Reshun. (This will make sense if you Watch the Office)
Flee fly. Be gone. Thankfully we hope to come out more resilient after the rip and tear and often not fully repaired sewing lessons.
But perhaps the biggest trait I’ve had to work on is My Pride. I want to do it.
I’ll give myself 3 strikes. 4 balls.
Then I walk to First.
Please do not get Me a gift.
I Love you and that was so sweet.
Would I be as generous?
Do u work, yea. It’s just one really hurts more and being tough isn’t tough at all if it’s not helping the worst hurt.
Those are sitting down, timeout thoughts.
The compression socks need to breathe.
But once the Pride slides over, let go, I get to know how it feels to very tangibly be taken care of and watched over.
Patience. The other side of a rant.
Later on that.
My main goal is to learn. Connect. Be called out if something comes off really tasteless.
Laugh at things that don’t have anything to do with being chronically sick. Laugh about what Medicine u had to administer and royally failed.
Sometimes all coupled with a handicap car-tag. No crutches either b/c I don’t like hearing I Will get better. It is a nice statement but it is impossible to be sure. Ive struggled with that b/c I know everyone believes that and means well I’ve just taken prior sick Gentry’s generalization and multiplied.
I am not making light. I think part of me is using the sarcasm as a coping mechanism.
Praise God there is something that does help the pain or at least distract from that Pain just not the one in your legs.
A codependency just a bit less severe. Embarrassing. Reason for judgment. Too easy.
If you can believe it—-I am not the same person I was 2 years ago.
For now I truly don’t know how. Pain can leave, anything traumatic can be worked on. You’ve got your scars.
I actually really think a scar is just unique as a snowflake or fingerprint. Telling so many stories. B/c a scar does mean something has healed. And it never forgets at one time it was painful. I’d prefer to see what I accomplish but I see wonder and beauty in them.
Things get pretty deep, complicated and downright pitifully sad. Vulnerable. Frighteningly true and relevant.
So I take what Good I can get in that day and pray those with LHC (Long-Haul COVID-19)
Be released.
However. On the flip tail’s side.
I’m 35 years aware there are some people who just don’t like me.
Until recently I wouldn’t have meant ‘sorry not sorry.’
I do now. To a respectable extent.
Reader discretion is advised. I promise I never set out to hurt anyone.
definitely not on purpose.
Because. Idgaf. Not bars being held. Que sera, sera.
complete transparency and seriously tho this doesn't mean i dont care. i wear my heart on my sleeve like a ding-dong ready to get hurt.
call it a diversion. we were on a break.
i just might take all of whatever hits wrong and turn that in to whatever ounce of assurance I can with the openness and to the best capability to learn new things and grow with compassion.
And back to writing—may already be just engrained but I don’t ever have a thesis, 3 supporting ideas or a better word then a conclusion.
You might find yourself confused. Reading it again prob won’t help.
Some will be really bad. Ugly. Waste of time. it was at least therapeutic for me.
Already is.
Even more might not make sense.
Read at your own risk, basically.
I have confidence but not really. Just enough not to care to change.
But I think about it. Because I’m wrong a lot.
challenge me. ill try to get through the fog.
But a lot of things have changed. in ways i might not even know Beauty in the Mess.
To sum up the above (sorry, there won’t be another summary after this disclaimer’s commercial intermission.)
I want to be as positive as possible.
Be in control of what I can. Ask for help for what I cannot.
I’m so ready to get My Life back. Trust Me and trust anyone Who tells your theyre in constant pain.
Really embarrassing I used to kind of scoff and be empathetic.
Funny how youre so sure of things.
Until it happens to you.
Suddenly it’s back to the drawing board and humility.
I wear my ღ on my sleeve. My greatest superpower and kryptonite.
What you read is as close to what you get as possible.
Balance can be unfair.
Please know that I care. I try harder than I ever had before. There are things I didn’t even Imagine could happen to someone when sick.
In all the ways I want to come out of this even better than what I envy I was entering into when I got sick.
There will be a WIDE range of thoughts similar to how i write. Mostly Sports and public figures and the politics I can comprehend.
B/c I know there’s someone out there who’s homeless because of this diagnosis. Or was deadly. Fired.
Divorced.
Ive become a bit of a nerd. Childish in some ways b/c you have to be creative…to be creative.
How do I even Start philosophizing that? So I don’t.
So I try My best to be the best I can. Inspire. Elicit laughter and new ways of thinking.
Questions.
Really tho? I just wanna be me.
thank you so sincerly to anything fromn a meme to a gift to a hug a prayer a smile, company, vibes if they can travel
but most of all
for holding hope when ive not been strong enough to.
For better or worse
for loving me.
making me feel heard.
idk what tomorrow holds but if its the same as today ill know at least i can make it and i am still beyond blessed and cared for and loved unconditionally.
even if forever.
wanna feel free, free.
to be me unabandoned.
changed for the better without knowing it.
some people dont have that option.
or even less the resource or safety to write about it.
Lastly mostly—I’m thankful for Insurance and the ability and privilege to work from home. And. Still have a job in general.
A Family and Family reserves holding me.
gentry.gonna.gents/g3
next. and if you made it this far, bless you.
thank you.
you mean more than you know to me. to anyone miscellaneous thanks as well and to my family and extended family and friends and job and insurance.
im in better shape than a lot. perspective sucks in the throes. selfish not selfish but my gosh turn the lights off. each journey is sooo different, but idk find the goodness and inspiration inbtw. There will be a rainbow soon enough, I wont make the bold claim and promise you one tho,
semi lastly and vulnerably, we've all been hurt. all going through something.
I say this every time something really bad happens. Ya know the ‘this is even worse,’ talk.
This one holds every candle.
Funny not funny none are the same and you’re never fully prepared.
and no one knows what it is you’re dealing.
give grace when I can’t sometimes.
cliché’s be damned lets just golden rule it b/c that one’s hard to do too but it sounds cute and Idont see a periodic table saying A! U! Be nice and welcoming.
I know I’ve forgotten something.
So I’ll fight.
But I still get to complain.
Feeling so entitled to this ill.
Sincerely,
Gentry
no ps you're welcome
#first blog#chronic illness#hope#authenticity#love#long covid#honesty hour#mental health#health and wellness#sports#kentucky#family#work from home#inspiration#freedom#respect#best doctors#covid19#covid#random#sappy#politics#shoes#sunglasses#shirts#electronic#christianity#progressive politics#peace
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(ALERT. WARNING. OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THE FOLLOWING POST ARE NOT MEANT TO INSINUATE I THINK THAT PEOPLE WHO USE TONE TAGS ARE BAD OR HAVE BAD INTENTIONS. I AM SIMPLY POINTING OUT SOME OF MY FRUSTRATIONS WITH THEM AND HOW THEY WORK, OR RATHER DO NOT WORK, IN AN EXAGGERATEDLY ANGRY/LOUD MANNER AT A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION, NOT A SPECIFIC PERSON OR PERSONS OR INCIDENT, AND IT WASN'T EVEN THE MAIN POINT OF THE POST I WAS ORIGINALLY WRITING WHICH WAS JUST ABOUT SOME ANNOYING OVER-COMMENTED STUFF ON MY POST. ALERT. WARNING)
i am still pleased and amazed at the amount of people on my tone indicator parantheticals post who AREN'T being weird and aggro, but i will say. while i got tired of the aggro ones the moment the first one showed up i have also grown tired of the "this is just tumblr tags/congrats you just reinvented tumblr tags" observation. it has been made many times, i can never tell if it's a teasing joke or if they're seriously like "umm dumbass this is the same thing" (because of course they are not paired with any indication of intent, such as a word encased in a pair of parentheses, because for some reason being overfamiliar with strangers on the internet has become very normalized, and they just expect that if they say things to people they have never met that the person they say that to will be able to tell whether they are kidding or trying to insult them, which is highly variable per person) and either way it's like...
i mean. yeah. on tumblr, that is the same thing as what you could use the tags for
but tumblr isn't a messaging app
even its in-built dms do not have tags
if you are using discord if you type a # it would prompt you to pick a channel you are referring to
The Primary Location You Would Use Tone Indicators Is In Conversation With Others And Tumblr Is Technically A Blogging Platform
also a bunch of people are like "ummm or you could just put it in the SENTENCE like a NORMAL PERSON" and first of all shut up. secondly nowhere in the post did i say that i specifically would rather someone use random parantheticals instead of just stating their intent in the actual sentence, i said i would prefer parantheticals over highly abbreviated tone tags. obviously i would prefer people just say properly what they mean, that is literally what i do when i have a genuine question to ask, i don't do "what do you mean (genuine) (sincere question) (confused)" i say "sorry i'm a little confused, what do you mean by xyz?". literally did not fucking say that i think parantheticals would be better than just saying what you actually mean to begin with IN the initial question. however THIRDLY sometimes you just fucking have adhd or the conversation is fast and you don't think to phrase it carefully. and in that situation you might realize after you already sent the message that it's ambiguous what you meant or if you were sincere, so you send like "(JOKE)" or "genuine question" or if you make a reference "(you know like xyz meme/show/game)" immediately afterwards so people know and can respond appropriately. and i would so much rather see people spell the fucking thing out instead of saying /j or /gen or god forbid /ref (WHAT!!! ARE YOU FUCKING REFERENCING!!! YOU CAN'T JUST SAY IT'S A REFERENCE AND LEAVE IT AT THAT THAT DOESN'T HELP!!! WHY IS THAT EVEN A TONE TAG!!! YOU HAVEN'T GIVEN ME ANY CONTEXT FOR IT, THIS IS NOT A TONE TO INDICATE, IT DOESN'T INDICATE ANYTHING, I COULD PROBABLY TELL FROM THE PHRASING TO BEGIN WITH THAT IT WAS SOME KIND OF REFERENCE ANYWAY, YOU HAVE GIVEN ME ZERO INFORMATION AAUUAUAAAAGGGGHHH the fucking autistic person who would not be able to tell that you were making a reference without the tag would probably also not be able to tell what the goddamn joke was supposed to be! i AM that autistic person sometimes!!! you cannot just /ref your way out of that if you are ACTUALLY TRYING to HELP AUTISTIC PEOPLE then make it clear you can be ASKED TO CLARIFY THINGS and then SUCK IT UP AND EXPLAIN THE JOKE EVEN IF IT MAKES IT LESS FUNNY!!! and this is entirely specific to Me who has never once wanted someone to use tone tags even when i do ask for clarification on something, but if you don't want to ruin your joke by explaining it and i already Understood that it was a joke, the /ref and or /j you put on it is actually. equivalent. to explaining the joke and ruining it...... because in this scenario i knew it was a joke already...)
ahem. anyway. i think the people who say "ummm orrr you could just bake it into the sentence :/" do not realize they are the ones being stupid while calling me stupid. because of the fact that they cannot read the post, where i don't say even once that i don't agree with them, because i am talking about something else, which is that if you gave me a choice between tone tags or tone parantheticals i would choose parantheticals
conversely i'm NOT tired of the elcor comparison, even a little bit, even though that one was also made a thousand times. i actually like that one a lot. i never played mass effect or anything i just think that's funny and cool. entire species that has autism... so beautiful ♡
#txt#got off on a tangent there. i genuinely think /j makes jokes less funny though .#i get it when it's a 'playfully teasing' sitch and you wanna be clear you don't actually mean it#and in fact it makes it funnier when someone says something fuckin NARSTY just FILTHY#and then quickly goes JOKE JOKE JOKE /J desperately afterwards#like 'SORRY THAT CAME INTO MY HEAD AND I HAD TO FUCKING SAY IT. SUFFER WITH ME. GOD I HATE MYSELF'#that's always great cause it's paired with something fucking Insane and it's like you're now trying to convince jigsaw you didn't mean it#but otherwise it's like. i mean yeah. i knew that was a joke cause of the way you typed it and the words you used...#if i couldn't tell it was a joke based on the statement i would not be able to tell what was supposed to be funny anyway...#i am still gonna have to ask for clarification even if you put a /j on it in that instance....#no amount of parantheticals will fix that one either. it is unfixable without fully explaining the joke. you just gotta deal with it#anyway. wat ever
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henlo my favourite strawberry 🥰 congrats on 400!!! i would like to know your opinion on a certain uni/college yoon jeonghan 👀 (i'm sorry i just really really like school aus idk why) but yepppp luv you 😽
CHEYYYY i'm so happy you could attend hehe <3 uni boyfie jeonghan ic ic... well let me just put my brain rot enabler cap on <3
sleepover night (400 followers event)! let's talk about your faves!
☆ he has the softest sweaters and honestly it's just fact that you'd steal them from him and wear them around campus
☆ SWEATER PAWS also he probably pretends to be annoyed that you steal his sweaters but lbr he's a simp and probably internally freaks out and has heart eyes for you in them <3
☆ library study dates where you expect to be productive but honestly it just turns into a cuddle sesh </3 cute <3
☆ but on the days that it doesn't, it probably ends up with the two of you looking around the library for the most random book to chat about
☆ also coffeeshop study dates but it just ends up with the two of you bickering over stealing each other's drinks
☆ he could have just ordered another one if he really wanted urs but whatever
☆ tbh none of your study sessions are productive ig but how could they be when you're literally dating yoon jeonghan :spiral:
☆ he's spontaneous and extremely random so idk i kind of see him sending you random memes/posts when you're just doing nothing
☆ like you could be lying on the couch w your head in his lap and both of you on ur phones and not talking and he'd just send you a post with zero context and leave you like ??? why
☆ but in all seriousness, he's a very caring boyfriend. when it comes to exam stress, he makes sure that you're eating well, staying hydrated and well-rested. he's basically your rock and you can rely on him to take care of you, regardless of how lazy or relaxed he seems to someone who doesn't know him as well.
☆ probably brings you coffee whenever you're pulling an all-nighter, and knows when it's time to get you to rest, so he gently closes your laptop and pulls you close to him for lots of cuddles so you can sleep well :(
☆ CUDDLES FROM BEHIND!!!!! it doesn't matter what you're doing, he'll always come up behind you and wrap his arms around ur waist and settles his chin on your shoulder.
☆ fr you could be on the other side of the quad and he'd run to you and do that leaving his friends confused lol
☆ somehow tops all of his classes even though your study sessions never end up being study sessions, he never boasts about it though <3
☆ lol idk about you but that would motivate me to try and beat him even if we were in completely different courses (just beating the score ig) HAHA E2L :sob: this will be left to discuss later </3
☆ he just gives ultimate college boyfriend vibes and idk how to deal with this information </3
+ mini blurb:
"stop stealing the blankets." jeonghan mumbled sleepily as he lifted his head drearily from your shoulder to look at you.
"i told you we should have brought two blankets. you always complain about me stealing them. besides, why are you falling asleep? you wanted to watch this movie." you rolled your eyes, layering some of your blanket on him.
"'m sleepy..." he wrapped his arms around your waist, settling his head back on your shoulder.
"alright sleep, you big baby. honestly, you are so clingy." a soft smile escaped you as you stroked his hair.
"yeah, but you love it." he hummed, eyes closed.
"mhm..."
btw this is the jeonghan i based it all on </3 esp the jumper akjsdkds
#yoon jeonghan x reader#jeonghan x reader#seventeen x you#seventeen x reader#svt x you#svt x reader#jeonghan x you#yoon jeonghan x you#yoon jeonghan imagines#jeonghan imagines#jeonghan scenarios#seventeen scenarios#svt scenarios#seventeen imagines#svt imagines#svt reactions#seventeen reactions#jeonghan reactions#yoon jeonghan reactions#i hope u like this chey bc i kinda rambles :spiral: and </3 yeah </3#chey 🍉#moots <3#asks <3
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i don't know if i'm just stupid and you already explained it but i still don't know what the hell was going on with all your coq courage stuff
Not to worry, I don't think I ever fully explained it. Here's the full story, complete with screenshots:
For the past.... I actually don't know how long, I never really kept track, but let's just say two months, I would occasionally get an ask from an anon, requesting that I search Coq Courage in the Miraculous wiki and post the image that came with it (an image of the silhouettes of all the new heroes to appear in season 4). I wish I still had them so I could show you exactly what they said, but I usually just deleted them when I got them (sorry anon). It was always something like "there's a spoiler in the miraculous wiki, search Coq Courage and post what you find, please and thank you" or "if you search Coq Courage in the Miraculous wiki you will find a picture. Please post this picture once you find it. Thank you in advance." Nothing rude or anything, but I just didn't want to humor it.
Anyway, I got another one yesterday, and I guess I was in the mood to be a troll, so I just made a post that said "coq courage" and nothing else. Then I got this message:
I responded by reblogging the post I made and, once again, saying only "coq courage". Then I got this:
This was now officially getting hilarious to me so I reblogged my post again and added "......................coq courage"
"coq courage?"
In the meantime, a lot of my followers were like "what the hell is going on" because they didn't know about the anon, they just saw me reblogging the same post over and over and only saying "coq courage." So I got a couple of Non-Coq-Courage-Anon asks too. But I answered most of those asks with nothing more than a "coq courage" and also reblogged my original post and added "c o q c o u r a g e", and received this ask in response:
In the tags of one of the normal asks I got, in which someone said "isn't coq courage the rooster miraculous holder?" And I responded with "coq courage :)", I said something like "maybe anon will finally free me from my prison now that I've acknowledged who coq courage is." Then I got this ask:
I also got an ask (I'm too lazy to screenshot it right now but you can see it on my blog if you scroll down) from a "random anon" saying "I looked up coq courage because you're posting it so much and I think the person wants you to post a picture of the superhero silhouettes... you should do that." At this point I hadn't said anything specific about anyone in my inbox, just what I put in the tags above, so I knew it was Coq Courage Anon. I responded with "well dang, why didn't they just tell me that :/"
I can't really take anyone seriously when they aggressively call someone "Hamster," nor when they only thing they can do to me is just repeatedly send anon asks, so I reblogged my original post again and added "C O Q C O U R A G E". Then I got this very convincing ask:
Unfortunately at that point I had to go run some errands, so I couldn't respond, and by the time I got back home I felt like too much of an errand-running adult to keep poking a Tumblr anon with a stick. So I just made this meme to give you guys some vague context
and changed my header title to "Coq Courage is holting me hostag in a volcano Help" (a reference to a post I made during it all in which I just typed out the Miraculous intro but boldened some letters to spell "I am being helt hostag") and let it be. Anon never sent me any other messages after that so I can only assume they moved onto more worthwhile things.
I hope this clears things up. It must have been funny just seeing me post "coq courage" nonstop with zero context though
#coq courage#can't wait for coq courage to actually show up on the show and for some innocent new person to search my coq courage tag for some content#only to find all this#мой пост#long post
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It’s Time to Talk about a Bespectacled Elephant in the Room
I’ve been in the Beatles fandom for 8 and a half years. I have had a Beatles blog for the entirety of those 8 and a half years, and I have watched as discourse about these four men evolve. The discourse inside and outside the fandom has become so toxic that I don’t think I can engage with it in the same way that I could before. Let me explain.
When I entered this fandom 8 and a half years ago, it was in 2012, quite an infamous year in tumblr history. That was the pique of “”cringey”” fandom culture. The Beatles fandom was as steeped in fandom culture as any other fandom. I know this because I was part of two of the top of fandoms at the time, Doctor Who and Sherlock. Believe me, I have seen cringe.
The fandom at the time was totally aware of the John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s flaws as individuals, but most fans tended to simply enjoy Beatles fandom as if it were the 60s. Some might call it ignorant bliss. If you asked me at the time, I’d have said it was self-aware ignorant bliss--if that even makes sense. At the time, there wasn’t a person with a Beatles icon who hadn’t heard the line “John Lennon beat his wife.” Everyone knew it, but everyone also knew the real story, and so everyone just made peace with it. As a result, people didn’t think about every bad thing the Beatles ever did on a daily basis. It was more like a once-a-month kind of thing. Otherwise, fandom discourse was quite fun and relaxed. There were no shipping wars, no one fought over who was the best Beatle, everyone gushed over the Beatles wives, and we all just had fun with fics and fan art.
Of course, in this period, people engaged in conversations about one bespectacled Beatles problematic behavior. These conversations usually came from outside of the fandom. It was usually randos coming into the tags or into someone’s ask box and ranting about John Lennon’s violent behavior. Some of it came from within the fandom. Some people really didn’t like John and gave others shit if they listed John as their favorite Beatle. A lot of the discourse boiled down to: ‘hey, I see you like John Lennon. You should know that he beat his wife. And now that you know that, you should feel bad about ever liking him in the first place.’ And the response was often, ‘Actually, John Lennon didn’t beat his wife. They weren’t even married at the time. And also he didn’t beat her, he slapped her once in the face, and then never did it again.’ No one’s minds were changed. The fans had made their peace, and the antis came off as cynical and pretentious.
When Dashcon happened, and Tumblr took a hard look at its cringey fandom culture, the Beatles fandom evolved as well. The fandom became, frankly, less fun. It no longer felt like a group of people who found the Beatles decades after the 60s and were fangirling like it was 1965. There was still some of that left, but a lot of it kind of faded. So, most fandom interactions were reblogging pictures of the Beatles from the 60s and various interview clips and quotes. But the barrage of antis never really went away, and the response didn’t evolve.
Then, the advent of cancel culture came on. I always waited for the Beatles to get, like, officially canceled, but I also felt they were uncancel-able at the same time. Let me explain. I have been a Beatles fan primarily in an online space, rarely engaging with fans in real life. But I have met fans who are life-long Beatles fans, people who are a lot older than us and who’s fandom isn’t tied to the internet. They don’t give a shit about any of our discourse. They may or may not have heard it before, but they seem totally indifferent to all of it. I’m sure most of them have never heard ‘Mclennon’ before. These are the people that flock to see Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in concert (and pay astronomical prices for it). These are the people who go to record shops and buy vinyl. These are the people I run into at flea markets who buy up all the Beatles merch before I can even arrive (true story). So, the Beatles will never be canceled because there will always be people who love the Beatles and don’t engage with online discourse. Rarely said, but thank god for Gen-X.
As cancel culture took over the internet, fandoms changed. It’s not as noticeable in fandoms without problematic favs. For instance, I’m also steeped in the Tom Holland fandom, and that boy is a little angel who has done no wrong. No one has discourse about the unproblematic boy who plays an equally unproblematic character. But in fandoms with ‘problematic favs’ the mood has shifted. I’m also in the Taron Egerton fandom. Taron Egerton, for those who only follow me for my Beatles stuff, is a genuinely sweet and kind person who has had zero scandals in his six year career. There were some rumblings when he was cast as Elton John, and some people took issue with the fact that he’s a straight man playing a gay man. This discourse seemed to die quickly as a whole lot of straight people played gay people in that same year (Olivia Coleman as queer Queen Anne, Emma Stone as her queer lover, Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury). Why jump on this boy who at the time was still technically on the rise. He’s not exactly the same target as someone like Scarlett Johansson who has her pick of roles. Taron doesn’t have quite that some power in Hollywood, and I think most people made peace with the fact that this was a big role for him, and it’s not really fair to take that away from him. So, all in all, the closest thing to a scandal was something that died pretty much on arrival.
That was until this summer when everything changed. When George Floyd was murdered, celebrities flocked to social media to mourn his loss. Taron’s social media account was silent. For weeks, Taron said nothing about Black Lives Matter or Floyd’s death. This caused outrage in the fandom. Many raced to defend him, starting a hashtage #IstandwithTaron. Others sought to tear him down and anyone who supported him. The kind of mania this one incident caused tore through an otherwise peaceful fandom. What I saw was two sides in a total panic. The antis were people who once had faith that Taron was a good person and were now questioning that. Andthe defenders were people who desperately wanted him to be a good person and were afraid that he wasn’t. In essence, both sides could feel Taron about to get canceled. The defenders wanted to stop it, the antis wanted to ride that wave.
What this long drawn out Taron example is meant to convey: is that cancel culture has put fandoms on edge. One’s fav has to be perfect, otherwise it can jeopardize the existence of the entire fandom. I’ll admit, I was afraid that I’d be some kind of pariah for standing by Taron through all of this. My actions were to basically reason with the antis but still defend Taron. I defend him mostly because I felt that his silence was the result of a needed social media absence and that trying to shame him back onto social media was an invasion of privacy. But I was genuinely afraid that he would get canceled, and the fun of the Taron fandom would be lost.
In the Beatles fandom, it often feels like the Beatles, mainly John, have already been canceled. I see this coming from two different sources: antis from outside of the fandom and antis within the fandom. The outside antis are just the same as the ones from 2012. These are people who like to drop in that John Lennon beat his wife, posting this in the tag (which violates an ancient tumblr real by the way--no hate in the tags).
The antis outside the fandom speak to a larger anti-John Lennon sentiment online. I see references to John Lennon ‘beating his wife’ on Tiktok and twitter. The tone of anti-John Lennon posts has shifted. Before, it felt like the antis were being smug but also argumentative. They wanted to have a conversation about this bit of info they read on Reddit with no context. Now, “John Lennon beating his wife” is practically a meme. It’s a running joke online that John Lennon was a wife beater. I can’t look on my instagram explore page because every so often a John Lennon beats his wife meme will pop up amongst the other, normal, memes.
This change in discourse suggests that the internet has just accepted this as fact now. I should note that back in 2012, it seemed as if few people knew this fact. The fandom knew it, and these random antis knew it, but few others did. Now, because of how common these memes are, it seems to be widespread knowledge.
Consequently, the Beatles fandom, who used to ward off attacks from antis, seems to have given in. I recently saw a post from a Beatles blog (had the URL and icon and everything) that confessed they felt guilty for listening to the Beatles, and I’ve seen similar sentiments expressed in the fandom. People tend to put disclaimers in posts about John or even all four that John is an ‘awful man.’ It seems like the self-aware ignorant bliss has completely gone away. Occasionally, I still see posts joyously talking about Mclennon or reblogs of old photos from the 60s. But the culture has shifted.
Online, it no longer feels comfortable to be a Beatles fan. It feels like you have to own up to 8 decades of mistakes by four men you’ve never met. And, I should note, this is kind of how it feels to be a fan of anything right now. Taron is not canceled today, but he could be tomorrow. It’s this pervasive feeling of guilt that the person you’re supporting may or definitely has or is doing something wrong.
I’ll admit this uncomfortable feeling has expanded into other parts of my fandom life. I listen to their music, and I feel elated--the way I always have. Then, I get these intrusive thoughts which sound like all the worst parts of Twitter combined. It wasn’t always like this. Back in 2012, when I knew almost nothing about them, I saw them as four young men who were full of happiness, love for another, and talent. Back then, listening to their music was exciting and joyous. Sometimes, I fear that I can never feel that way again. Next year, when I finally go to Liverpool, will I be filled with excitement or guilt?
I say all this for a few reasons. One, I love John Lennon. I appreciate all the good he did for the world not just as a musician and an artist but also his advocacy and charity work. I love him, and a part of me will always love him, but observing the change in discourse has enlightened me as a historian. Part of my job is to observe people’s legacies, and John’s is perhaps the most interesting legacy I’ve ever observed. When he died, he was hailed as a saint. But tall poppy syndrome set in, and the antis started. This culture grew and grew to the point where it seems to, at least among the younger generation, taken over the sainthood.
But as a historian and a fan, I have never seen the saint or the devil. I’ve only seen the man, the incredibly flawed man. The thing that these antis never understand is that John Lennon was painfully aware of his own flaws to the point where it made him all the more self-destructive. In essence, his past mistakes caused him to make additional mistakes. But John, aware of his own flaws, always tried to change and was often successful. I’ve talked about this before, but John demonstrated that he was capable of being a good person, like properly so, again and again. After he struck Cynthia, he never hit her again. His shortcomings as a father to Julian weren’t repeated with Sean. He worked on his drinking, his drug addiction, and his anger, trying to overcome those demons till the day he died. By all accounts, the John Lennon that died in 1980 is not the John Lennon who struck Cynthia Powell at school. That John Lennon was living a cleaner, healthier life. He was a better father to both his sons by that point, and was trying to repair his relationship with Julian. He was a good husband to Yoko and saw himself living a long and happy life.
John Lennon cannot and should not be boiled down to just his flaws. It’s one thing as a fan to acknowledge that John is a flawed human being (news flash: they all are), but he is also much bigger than that.
So once again, why am I writing this long, rambling post, once again talking about John Lennon’s virtues? Because if I can’t engage with healthy discourse about the Beatles and John Lennon, then I can’t engage with discourse on the topic at all. So, I probably will post less Beatles stuff because I find it hard to go through the tags or even my dash (well, I can’t really go through my dash anymore for other reasons I’m not going to get into right now). If any of my followers have noticed a lot of Taron posts lately, it’s not just because I love Taron, it’s because Taron’s tag is pretty much the only location on tumblr I feel 100% comfortable in. Any foray into John or the Beatles tags becomes uncomfortable and guilt-ridden quickly.
So, I probably will post less about the Beatles until I can find a blog or a tag that doesn’t give me bad vibes. My fandom will likely outgrow tumblr and the internet. I have a ton of Beatles books; maybe I’ll rely on those. I am doing official scholarly research on them now. Maybe that will be my outlet. I’m sorry if I post less about them now, but it’s really for my own well-being.
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about me tag game thing
i was tagged by the wonderful @nothingunrealistic! thank you very much ily <3
under read more bc i was not capable of keeping my answers brief this time around
why did you choose your url?
this...was supposed to be a short explanation but it turned into quite a tale so strap in i guess because we are going on a ride. back in 2017 i was just getting into musical theatre rp and i was still feeling too shy to really talk to anyone ooc so i would just wait for people i wanted to interact with to post starter calls so i could just do things in character with them the easy way. So i did this with my friend cam, who posted a starter for me using a lyric from If I Could Tell Her. she linked the song so i could listen to it, so i did and i went ‘wait a minute, is that Ben Platt from Pitch Perfect?? (and other things too, but i only recognized his voice at the time bc of the acappella girl movies)’ and yes it certainly was.
i had zero idea what the plot of Dear Evan Hansen was about at that point, and for some reason based off Just That One Song and the poster art of who i assumed was Some Guy in a Polo Shirt i started to think it was about some jock guy who broke his arm and had an emo/goth friend who had either died or gone missing under mysterious circumstances. also i intuited that Evan had a crush on his friend’s sister but he couldn’t tell her that directly or his emo friend would kick his ass. so i was like mostly wrong, but a little bit right.
oh and i knew jared and alana were characters from the show bc cam said that they were i think?? but i had no idea what their role was. so after listening to if i could tell her, i listened to good for you and all i really got out of that was that evan the apparently not-jock guy had done...something... that really hurt jared and alana. and at that point i finally decided to go look up a plot synopsis and i found out i was waaay off base. but honestly this is why cast recordings should include scene dialogue in the songs bc otherwise you just get soundtracks like dear evan hansen where the songs have like. zero context. we really just go from waving through a window to for forever to sincerely me without like. any reason as to what is happening huh. It’s honestly not a surprise anymore that all those people on twitter had no idea the plot isn’t about gay teenagers.
anyways. cam was writing jared and she made a post at one point about wishing somebody would write alana and i was like ‘oh i could do that!’ (after i had actually Seen a bootleg and finally knew what the whole story was, of course) so i made a multimuse rp blog featuring alana beck, nabulungi hatimbi, chloe valentine and some other characters, and cam started sharing her headcanons with me that alana is trans, jared and alana were close friends when they were little kids but they sort of drifted apart as they got older and their priorities in life changed, jared was the first person alana came out to when she realized she’s trans, etc.
one night i started talking about wanting to pick a more theatre-relevant url for my blog and trans-[character name] urls were getting pretty popular, and at least 3 of the friends i made through rp had changed theirs to coordinating trans-[character name] and i think it was cam suggested i should make mine be trans-alana so i did. eventually i realized the unhyphenated version was available so i changed it to transalana with no hyphen and i have lived here ever since. sometimes i think about changing it but i feel like transalana has become a part of My Brand and i am not so great with coming up with cool names for things.
any side blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them
in theory, i have sideblogs... i don’t really use them, but of the ones i do have, there is:
emsbookblog - this was supposed to be where i would post excerpts of the book that i’m working on, but i think i did that maybe one time roughly 2 years ago and then promptly forgot about it/got nervous about my writing and was scared to share anything else. the rest of the stuff that is there is assorted writing tips. i don’t really know what to do with it now. i probably should post all my little thoughts about em and anita and caleb there instead of infodumping on my main from time to time, but if i do that then i have to promo a sideblog and direct people over to it which is always annoying to me when i could just do it on this blog which is much easier
dearnovelhansen - this is basically no longer used, but was a sideblog i made specifically to talk/complain about the novel adaptation of Dear Evan Hansen which was about 3 years ago?? maybe? i can’t be trusted to understand the passage of time. but to summarize: i thought it was an honor just to have the story be made more accessible since many of us couldn’t see the stage performance, but i hated a lot of the creative liberties that were taken. my main grumbles are that everyone who isn’t evan or connor is done so dirty in the novel. connor’s still kind of done dirty in the book, but not as much as like. heidi, alana, jared, and zoe are.
horseisle3 - this one was meant to be a place where i could just enthusiastically post screenshots from hi3, but instead it turned into a blog where i occasionally reblog other players’ hi3 content and bitch about how bad the game admins are bc hi3 is the tumblr famous (infamous?) homophobic horse game. the game where it was once okay to call your club store the gulag bc according to their head of hr, ‘it’s just a russian word for prison’ but you can’t say ‘im gay’ without somebody accusing you of corrupting young children who play the game. unfortunately there aren’t very many good interactive horse games out there, so this one is still about as good as it gets. it’s either that or star stable and i don’t care about star stable.
mlaenie - i’ve had this url saved for i don’t even know how long. way way way back in the day when i wanted to escape from the clutches of the onceler fandom i abandoned my first blog where i basically had an alter ego i guess?? and i decided to just be myself on the new blog. i don’t fully remember who came up with it, but one of my sister’s mutuals suggested that if you scrambled the letters in your name you could come up with aesthetic-looking urls. so lauren’s url became lrauen, and to match with her mine became mlaenie, which i abandoned on tumblr after about a year or so? but have continued to use as my main username on twitter, reddit, youtube, xbox, steam, and discord. i barely ever use any of these accounts aside from twitter, steam, and xbox, but yeah. so i’ve decided to try and turn this empty sideblog into a place for video game thoughts maybe. we’ll see how long it lasts this time around.
how long have you been on tumblr?
i made my first tumblr account in december of 2010, but i didn’t understand how to use it at all or how to customize my theme to look cool and unique so i quickly abandoned it. i made a new account in september of 2011 after some kids at school and my sister told me i should and i have been trapped here with varying degrees of activity/inactivity ever since. i have witnessed the rise and fall of the lorax/onceler fandom, hyperfocused on lord of the rings, star wars and back to the future all at the same time, and for the past 4 years i’ve mostly been a musical theatre blog with assorted other fandom stuff mixed in. i feel i have seen everything and nothing, but mostly i’m just tired and bored.
do you have a queue tag?
no bc i don’t use a queue. i’ve tried using it in the past but i irrationally feel pressured to sustain a coherent theme to queued posts and my brain simply does not vibe with that so i just don’t use it at all anymore. Instead i instantly reblog or post several unrelated thoughts in succession and then don’t post again at all for 3 days. the way god intended
why did you start your blog in the first place?
my very first blog was intended to be a place for me to post all of my petz 5 animals’ profile info, but i didn’t have any understanding of how coding worked at all and i don’t think i really wanted to learn, either. so it just sat there, unused. my second attempt at blogging was as a classic rock fandom person, so as you can probably imagine i was pretty pretentious about ‘modern pop’ vs the beatles, the rolling stones, the who, the monkees, and so on. and then i slowly devolved into a lorax fandom blog and everything went to shit so i made a new blog for lord of the rings/the hobbit which later evolved to include star wars and back to the future blogging. and then for the past 4 years i’ve been mainly a musical theatre blog with other random stuff i like thrown haphazardly into the pot. wonderful.
why did you choose your icon/pfp?
because my url is transalana and two of my most prominent lgbt headcanons are that alana beck is trans and a lesbian. i gotta be shouting out @kinqmike though bc she’s the one i adopted the trans alana beck headcanon from in the first place!
why did you choose your header?
in 2017 i was hyperfixating on Dear Evan Hansen (and Be More Chill, but there weren’t many gif-able videos then considering it ran for a month in New Jersey in 2015 and there was only one yet-to-resurface 35 minute bootleg) so i just grabbed a random gif off of google. i really should get to replacing it with a new header of my own though. i just don’t know what i should do for it.
what’s your post with the most notes?
i have lost track of how many notes it has (i think it’s somewhere around 200 now?) but when Will Roland and George Salazar performed Two Player Game on Good Morning America, i posted a screencap of their Jeremy and Michael along with that one quiz answer meme that says stuff like ‘i want to see it grow up healthy’. i didn’t tag it with any ship names or anything because i was anxious about having it show up in the tags, but somebody who reblogged it from me did tag it as boyf riends and i firmly believe it took off because of that. i don’t think i make posts that are relevant enough to amass thousands of notes, even by accident. which is probably a good thing bc if i did i would have to block so many of them.
how many followers do you have?
on this blog? 175 according to the counter. how many of those are still real people and how many are bots and abandoned accounts? i have no idea.
how many people do you follow?
i try to keep it somewhere around 200. i think i’m sitting at 180 right now but i kind of need to go through and clear out the really inactive blogs.
have you made a shitpost?
let’s think about this for a second. i’ve been on tumblr for nearly 10 years. you might even be able to say i’ve made more than one. they’re just not what you would call...popular shitposts.
how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ post?
that stuff makes me so incredibly anxious that i have to fight the urge to want to yeet my laptop or mobile device through the closest window whenever i read it, so i try very hard to avoid any sort of ‘if you don’t reblog this, i’m judging you’ posts. i find them very manipulative and not particularly helpful
do you like tag games?
yeah babey!! i just frequently forget to do them, but please know that if you have ever tagged me in a tag game i felt incredibly touched by the gesture and the @mention even if i completely forgot to do the thing afterward
do you like ask games?
i do! but also rip to literally anyone who has ever sent me an ask meme bc it takes me so long to answer them. i’m still working on a micro fic prompt from a few weeks ago. also, horrified to realized that it has in fact been a few weeks and not 3 days anymore.
which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?
i don’t know that any are tumblr famous as a whole. but probably @neverheardnothing
do you have a crush on a mutual?
in any sort of romantic connotation? no. not that i’m aware of. there are mutuals that i have friend crushes on where i want to be friends with them but i get so anxious when it comes to meeting new people that usually nothing ever comes of it. i’m really not good at small talk or other casual conversation either which, as you may or may not be able to imagine, sucks. i just wanna skip over all of the awkward introductions and ‘hey how are you, how is life, what are you doing with yourself?’ stuff. not because i don’t care about it. i do, but i think most of my friends/the people i want to be my friends are also depressed and anxious so asking these basic questions about life tends to uh. make us all nervous. and i don’t do much with my life so i always have the most boring answers anyways.
i’m not tagging anyone officially bc the @ thing has just completely given up on me at this point, but if you want to do it, go for it. and then say i tagged you so i can read it c:
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5x02: Trespassers (A Review)
It’s that time again! I got to watch Trespassers on Thursday night. I know I said that I would be watching on Fridays, but I have convinced my parents to watch the night of, and they’re pretty okay with it! Anywho, tonight was episode two, and there were so many epic scenes, along with good laughs and memeable moments. This season is my favorite by far, and it just started! At any rate, let’s start this review!
WARNING: This includes spoilers. If you have not seen the episode yet and want to avoid seeing any information about it, I would advise you to not look at this until you have done so. Without further ado, let’s get started!
First, I would like to say thank you to Barry Friedman. He was apart of the show’s post production team, and unfortunately passed away in August, when they were filming this episode. They made a title card for him at the very end, and his work was vital for the show to be aired. Rest in Peace.
Also, shoutout to the composers and musicians that make the music on this show. Wow. The score is incredible! I think I remember hearing an extended version of the theme song this episode, and it blew me a way. As a music fanatic myself, it really added to the mood and atmosphere of the episode, which really elevated it even more. Wonderful job!
Next, I would like to review what I thought about some of the arcs of major characters and scenes that were incredible throughout Trespassers. They are in no particular order! Here we go!
Bruce and Ivy
IVYYYYYYYY! Peyton List is my favorite interpretation of Poison Ivy. She really encapsulates the character from the comics in the perfect way, and her design is beautiful! I like how Bruce acted throughout these scenes as he was determined as ever to get whatever it was that Selina needed in order to get better. He wasn’t going to play any games with her and when she turned on him, he was ready to fight. I will say, Bruce has become a good liar, too, as we see that he easily spit out the statement about his fake little brother. All in all, the two had a lot of chemistry together, and I just loved the scenes they shared together.
“Here he comes, Gotham...”
Erin Richards is really killing it this season. This scene was, once again, chill inducing. I feel like the quote that she said about Jim being Gotham’s most hated son will probably end up being one of the most iconic of the season. Whenever Babs yells, you can really hear the pain and utter anger in her voice, and something about this just leaves me in awe of Erin’s magnificent acting ability. Also, it is very interesting that she would help Jim out after everything. I know she said that she did so he could get killed, but we see towards the end of the episode that she genuinely wants to help. I can’t wait to see more of Barbara this season!
Harvey’s Quick Quips
First of all, I would just like to say that this picture looks like it’s supposed to be for some kind of sit-com. Anyway, Harvey was so funny this episode! I think that he’s always the one to lighten a darker situation, and he really adds humor to the scenes he’s in. Some my favorite quotes this episode were “It's a freaking arrow, Jim! IT'S A FREAKING. ARROW!" , “Jim, I don’t feel so good.” (As someone who watched Infinity War and was utterly destroyed by Spider-Man dissolving, I’m glad it was turned into a meme. I know it probably wasn’t supposed to be referencing that, but still.), and “The Halloween shop was out of gas masks, so it was either this or sexy nurse.” Him dealing with Mother was also hilarious. Gotta love Bullock.
Mother and Orphan
This exact shot of Mother scared the living daylights out of me. I love that there was a sort of horror movie feeling to this episode, I’m not the biggest fan of those, but there was such a huge feeling of suspense in this episode, and it was amazing! Her just lurking around, and Orphan acting the way he was really did succeed in creeping me out. Those lights that knock you out were interesting, and it makes me wonder if the boy was really telling the truth about that or not. I’m glad that we got context to that random shot of teeth, as I was really confused about that when it was in the trailer. I’m so glad they introduced these two villains this season!
“I feel better...even better than before, in fact.”
I’m really glad that Selina is back to normal now. I did get scared when she was convulsing, and Bruce’s reaction really does show how much he truly cares about her. If she had died, I know he would never had forgiven himself. The fact that she’s happy again also relieves me, because seeing her in so much pain beforehand really hurt. When her eyes were glowing like a cat’s, I really liked the symbolism of the scene, as she was truly turning into Cat Woman. If she’s a metahuman or not is up for debate, but I’m not opposed to the idea! I’ll get into that a little more further down the line.
Since there were too many scenes for me to have the time to cover, I’ll have some honorable mentions! Ed peeing (face it, it was unexpected and hilarious), Jim and company versus the gangs, and the soothsayers.
Now is the time for a few questions I have about the latest episode!
Is Selina a Metahuman? I’m really not sure. I know people have been commenting about this, and if she is, I honestly don’t mind. It could be symbolism with the way her eyes turned into cat’s, but if it was the medicine really working and doing that, it’s interesting how her inner nature that is being released is that of a cat. I know some people don’t like the idea of this, but I think it would be cool!
How will Jeremiah obtain the tunnel the Soothsayers were in? At first, before we were introduced to these men, I thought that maybe they worked for Jeremiah. However, their motives told me otherwise. They want to get to the mainland, and he wouldn’t want that. I think that maybe he finds the place and hires some guys to make a maze under Gotham? Another thing that confuses me is that I thought that’s where his hideout was. Where is he hiding? Where’s his latest place of residence? I’m sure we’ll find out in the future.
If I had to sum up the episode with one Jeremiah Valeska mood, it would be:
Another entertaining and hilarious episode of Gotham! I loved it!
I know some people thought this episode was boring, but I personally felt that it was needed in order to set up plots and to develop the rest of the story line this season. From Trespassers and Year Zero, I can tell that this season is going to be my favorite by the time it’s complete. I can’t believe we have ten episodes of Gotham left!
Thank you for reading this! I hope you all had a wonderful time watching, too! I think I’m going to do one of these for each one that comes out. I’m so excited for the rest of the season! I hope you enjoyed!
#Gotham#season 5#jeremiah valeska#jim gordon#ben mckenzie#Cameron Monaghan#Harvey bullock#donal logue#barbara kean#erin richards#Poison Ivy#Peyton List#Bruce Wayne#david mazous#Mother and Orphan#Selina Kyle#Camren bicondova#Trespassers#5x02
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The application is the first part of the process. Occasionally with the aid of a hopefuls chat, it’s how mods get to know muses and muns before the group is finalized. Both the mods’ design of the app and the muns’ filling out of the app are pretty important to making sure a good roster can be put together with minimal pain.
Not all apps have the same sections to fill out or the same requirements for each section. Sections like Character Name or Backstory are pretty much on every single app, while other sections such as Likes/Dislikes and sometimes even Personality may not always be on there. It’s up to the discretion of the mods.
Mun Info
What Is It?: A section for information on the mun. Generally includes name/handle, pronouns, and triggers, and may also include time zone (for scheduling purposes), blacklist/greylist, and squicks.
Notes
Yeahhh, this section is pretty much necessary for all apps. It would be really awkward to not know who’s actually writing these characters. It’s also useful for lowering the odds of OOC drama.
Different groups treat triggers and squicks differently. Sometimes squicks are avoided in the OOC chat and triggers just need to be tagged, sometimes both need to be tagged in posts, and sometimes both are just lumped together in a masterlist. Obviously it’s important to note however they’re handled if you don’t want to make people unduly uncomfortable or worse.
Some apps may have a slot for blacklisted muns, and some may just figure you would list anything like that in an Other section. Either way, if there’s another mun you don’t get along with for one reason or another, be sure to list them. It may affect your chances of getting in, but it’s not worth getting into a group if you’re going to spend the whole time worrying about that other mun. IMO, having a specific blacklist section makes cross-checking apps easier for the mods.
Core Muse Info
What Is It?: The name, gender, appearance, talent, personality, bio, and central beliefs of the muse. This is what sets muses apart from each other and is the central part of the application. That being said, some parts of this section can still be added or subtracted if deemed appropriate.
Notes
Different mods will be more or less worried about appearances when it comes to app judging. It can be hard to compare across apps due to (completely valid) differences in drawing ability, image quality, only having a written description available, etc. Having a clean, detailed image and/or an appearance that reflects important aspects of the character or just like a really cute DreamSelfy can leave positive impressions, though.
Some mods prefer to limit numbers of muses with aliases or foreign origins on the roster. The same goes for fake talents, but including a lot of those can get a little weird, especially if someone’s fake talent is the same as/similar to someone else’s real talent. In general, you really don’t want duplicate talents, possibly with the exception of Reserve Course, which isn’t acceptable to all RPs, anyway. Some mods also like some kind of gender balance in the final roster, so sometimes you might get a liiiittle better odds by watching the hopefuls list and applying a rarer gender, but this isn’t always true, either. Just make sure the FAQ covers these sorts of things.
The personality section can be of different lengths and detail levels, and some RPs may accept bullet points or require specific personality aspects or details. Sometimes this section is nixed altogether if mods feel the other app questions should give them a good enough impression of the character’s personality, though I wouldn’t recommend this personally. Just be sure to provide the information asked for, and make sure it makes sense in the context of the backstory.
The same pretty much goes for the backstory/private bio. Just make sure it makes sense with the personality, and hopefully at least one of the two is unique enough to generate interest. There’s nothing wrong with plain/normal kinds of OCs, but you wouldn’t expect to see several of these in one roster. Also be sure any mod triggers listed on the blog are tagged in these. If your backstory has triggers for every mod, you might be better off apping that muse somewhere else, where someone can actually read the whole backstory.
Public bios have been popular but are still not on every app. These are pretty much always paragraph form, and different groups ask for different lengths. They can be a pain to come up with sometimes, and they can get pretty sticky in cases of fake talents or ???s, but they can also be helpful for conveying information that other characters could be expected to know and get an impression from before the game starts. If you put this section on an app, just be sure they’re eventually actually public on the blog/in the chat somewhere or they’re pretty much pointless busy work.
Muse Miscellany
What Is It?: A smattering of questions with less complex answers than personality/backstory. There’s definitely no golden standard for these, though questions related to motives and Monomachine items are common. Also includes likes/dislikes, favorite things/words, and who knows what else. Filling out some of these may be optional.
Notes
These usually aren’t as tough as the other parts of the app, but they can still be a pain if the app requires a ton of them. It’s best to keep this part fairly short, though it should still ask for anything the mods foresee being important in that specific game.
Some of these, like strengths/weaknesses and likes/dislikes, can be good for making the mun think a little harder about their muse. This can make poor characterization more obvious, but a lot of the time this isn’t super necessary information.
Monomachine items are in most apps and can be tricky to come up with. They’re good for revealing lore that your muse may not voluntarily bring up, for providing something that might brighten your muse’s no-good very bad day, or just for memeing. A lot of the time, activity at the Monomachine or local equivalent tapers off much more quickly than activity in general, so it may be better to require a smaller number of these so the interesting ones have a chance to be released into the wild.
It’s also good to have questions about common motives or unique motives the mods plan to use in the RP (most important person/item, biggest secret, etc.). It can provide mods with a good idea of what motives might be effective for a good portion of the roster. Especially when muns may be slow to respond OOC, it’s good to have this information already on hand.
On that note, it may be a good idea to ask for smaller details (shoe size, hand size, etc.) that may be relevant for investigations with bloody footprints or things like that. It is very hard to get this information from everyone later if it happens to come up, but sometimes people get a little confused or don’t really know what to put for such specific details on the app, so it’s a mixed bag.
I personally (and I’ve seen it on other apps, too) like to include a question about whether a muse is more likely to be a killer, victim, or survivor and why. If you’re trying to keep the app short, this could be cut, but it’s good to have a balanced roster that isn’t all innocent babies who would never hurt anyone or all seasoned criminals who will probably kill someone before the KG is even announced. It’s also good for when volunteers aren’t forthcoming and you’d rather make sure murders can be IC than just 100% random/fair.
Sometimes this kind of information is to be answered IC, like in an interview. In these cases, you might want to make a note if the character’s answer is truthful or not and why.
Prompts
What Is It?: The bane of muns around the world, it’s a section of questions requiring longer, paragraph answers written in third-person like RP posts. Sometimes applicants are provided an array of prompts and can choose from them, sometimes specific prompts are required, and sometimes this section consists of only one prompt or is absent, though this is rare.
Notes
This section takes a lot of time, but it’s the best indicator of a mun’s writing ability for the purposes of the RP. They can be a huge pain to fill out, and some common prompts may be difficult to write a juicy response to, so it’s best to ask for the absolute minimum. Zero-prompt apps exist and can work out, but I wouldn’t care for that as a mod.
Execution prompts in particular can give muns a lot of pause, and I can personally say I’ve given up on an app that was otherwise finished just because I couldn’t come up with an execution. It may be reasonable to cut this prompt to save a lot of pain; however, it’s really best to have these on hand from the start. They can be very hard to get later, and they’re kind of important to DR games.
MM/traitor prompts should be required for those applying for that position. This kind of question might fit in a different section so it doesn’t have to be written like an RP post, but in general it’s hard to pick out a mastermind if you don’t know the deets of why they would start a killing game. You don’t necessarily have to ask for an MM speech, but you should at least know if this would be a satisfying plot twist and/or fit with the game’s lore.
The ability to choose from a list of prompts can help when a mun doesn’t feel very inspired to write about, say, the muse waking up in such-and-such location with no idea how they got there, or when filling out that prompt doesn’t convey the muse���s personality particularly well. On the other hand, asking for everyone to fill out the same prompt(s) makes it easier to directly compare hopefuls.
On that note, I like having less standard prompts, like reactions to not getting a Starbucks order right or how a muse would deal with a crazy roommate. While these can be tricky to come up with if you don’t want to just rip them off from other apps (which you prrrrobably shouldn’t without permission), coming up with unique situations can help muns more easily demonstrate the personalities of their muses instead of blandly answering the same old questions. That being said, these can be a little weird to work with if the muse would never go to Starbucks and/or leave their house in general.
Conclusion
No two games have the same app, and no two should. Applications are important for getting to know enough information to put together a roster that’s going to work out both IC and OOC. They also gather information for later use in the RP, when muses may be harder to get ahold of or have less time to answer questions. Mods just need to ask for what information they think they’ll need, and muns just need to try to provide it. It’s impossible to foresee everything you’ll need, but asking for every piece of info you could possibly have use for would make a longer app than anyone would be willing to fill out.
Click [here] for a listing of all guides!
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My reread commentary on October Daye #8, "The Winter Long" or "more shit goes down in this book than the first 7 combined, holy shit".
I apologize to anyone who reads these cause I literally hit the length limit on this post and had to pare it down lmao
-Good start: Under the Acknowledgements section: "Everything I have done with October's world to this point has been for the sake of getting here". Sooo basically the first 7 books? Setup for this one. We're in for a Ride.
I want to emphasize some of the best meta foreshadowing I've seen:
FOR REFERENCE, Rosemary and Rue is the title of book 1. It's also the only book whose opening Shakespeare quote (from Hamlet) doesn't really match the title. If you know your Shakespeare, you probably would have caught that and figured out that it was from The Winter's Tale instead. Plenty of conclusions you can draw just from that. Since then the series has been chock full of hidden identities, and this book has two BIG ones coming into play. Foreshadowing was here from the very fucking beginning, and it is some next level shit. Very well done.
-If you skipped book 1 you are SO fucked, btw.
- we're going to great lengths to describe Sylvester's physical appearance. Gee I wonder why. I'm sure it's not relevant
- yes Sylvester has FOX COLORED HAIR and YELLOW EYES and his magic smells like DAFFODILS and DOGWOOD FLOWERS. He is Toby's LEIGE and FATHER FIGURE.
Me on a first read: oh it's just beginning book exposition, they all do this
Me on a second read: god fucking damn it
- toby: I should have known Sylvester would never disappoint me.
Me: oh sweetie. Oh honey.
- "He smelled like smoke and rotten oranges.
This man wasn't Sylvester Torquill."
Anyone who read book 1: OHSHIT.AVI
Welcome back, Simon! You know, Sylvester's evil twin? You know, the big bad (so far) of the series? The the one responsible for turning Toby into a fish for 14 years?
-Yet he seems kinda... off, huh? Comments about how he didnt know the spell would last 14 years, how he hates to upset October's mom, of all people? Whatever could he mean? :)))
-New toby power: spell reflection? Hell yeah? Also spell BREAKING, but to be fair she did do that one other time. In, you guessed it, book 1.
- "When I tried to picture Sylvester's face, I kept seeing Simon's instead" ow oof
- Simon calling Amandine "Amy", which we've established is an affectionate nickname (it being what, you know, THE LUIDAEG calls her). Why would Simon, of all people, call her that?
... oh.
-That sure explains a LOT, huh? That sure was set up... this whole time, huh?
-Little "fuck you" lines like "I didn't know Sylvester had a niece" in book 2. Talking about January. Well, uh, he has several actually! You're one of them!
-Explanation for why Sylvester had any inclination to be October's mentor... eventually becoming her liege and father figure... even giving her the Changeling's Choice (something family is supposed to do). It seems mighty convenient that a random noble was involved in the life of a changeling to such an extent. BUT, if he was her uncle, and knew his brother wouldn't step up? Well...
-This isn't even the biggest reveal of the book. Like, we're only a handful of chapters in and this bomb gets dropped.
-Sylvester, every 10 minutes: oh boy I cant wait to see my brother so I can like, completely eviscerate him!
Everyone else: uh,
- Tybalt: and here I thought I was going to have to ask Sylvester for his blessing. Now I technically have to ask SIMON?
Toby: uwotm8
Tybalt: oh god uhh I'm joking yeah uhh I'm just trying to distract you from all this stress :)) yeah (nailed it!)!
-And now we begin the "wow Sylvester is actually not a great person" slide. It's been hinted at that he's pretty unstable and has shitty priorities regarding people he cares about. But Toby glossed over a lot of it because she adored him. Welp.
- It's also an interesting aside that Etienne was kind of a dick to Toby for a reason in the earlier books. He legit thought she had been knighted because she was family, not that she had earned the post. And after the last few books he clearly knows now that that's not the case and they've actually become friends. That's interesting hidden character development.
- ok so The Gang finds out that Simon was telling the truth when he said turning Toby into a fish for 14 years was to save her. Because he had actually been hired to KILL her and didn't want to do it. So it was a loophole-- everyone thought she was dead, and then (as established in book 1) pretty much everyone forgot she existed until the spell broke.
-BUT Simon is bound by a geas (where have we seen that before) and cannot divulge his employer's name. But who had such a grudge against Toby and/or her mom to order a hit on her AND forcibly bind everyone to secrecy?
-who knows? Not toby. So they go to The Luidaeg to maybe get a lead, and she establishes right away that she is ALSO bound under a geas and can't say who did it. So we play some 20 questions, and then...
ULTRA DISTRESSING LUIDAEG LORE :((((
-additional: another month name just came into play. August. Toby's half sister, missing for a century. WHAT IS WITH THE MONTH NAMES
- "please don't mistake villainy for evil." That's an.. interesting quote re:Simon.
- Simon's way of protecting toby from the impending threat is "well maybe you turn into a tree for a few centuries but like. You're safe, right? Why are you mad?"
- The Luidaeg: *is straight up dead*
Toby: hey tybalt remember that time in book 2 when I Resurrected the Dead
Tybalt: yeah, it was fucking terrifying and I didnt speak to you for 6 months
Toby: *finger guns* guess whaaaaaat
-The Luidaeg: *says just. A bunch of Lore*
Toby: Luidaeg dont you dare drop that cryptic shit on me then pass out
Luidaeg: nap time
-"If you so much as whisper the first word of a transformation spell, I'll have your larynx in my hand before the second word can form." DAMN, Tybalt.
-Simon: I am VERY sorry for my bullshit earlier. I can't tell you who my employer is, but I CAN give you this BOUQUET of ICE COLD ROSES. Ice cold, like winter. Winter Roses, if you will. Yeah. Uh have a nice life, bye!
Everyone: well this sure is a mystery
-Simon is definitely a morally grey character. Has done really awful shit, is built up as a major villain... but turns out he had relatively little control over his actions. He does the wrong thing a lot but it's usually not for a truly evil end? If the context is to be believed he got stuck in the geas contract with Unnamed Employer to save his daughter, which explains the bad shit he did that we know of. Which then inadvertently kicked off like the whole series. He seems to genuinely care about Toby in a warped way? It would be so easy to write him off as an evil stepdad or whatever and there's plenty of canon to support that stance (she's an illegitimate CHANGELING child) but he seems like he wants to just be her dad. I hope we explore his character more, is what I'm saying.
-And not to keep rambling about it but Toby is an established unreliable narrator and a horrible (initial) judge of character. So it's not like this is an asspull or off base at all.
Twist of the fucking century here.
-You know... the character who set off the events of the series? The character who was murdered in book 1 and bound October to a geas forcing her to find the culprit or die? Evening fucking Winterrose?
-There were hints, most very subtle unlike the other big twists, but probably the biggest one is SHE NEVER SHOWS UP AS A NIGHT HAUNT. And they're in the story quite a bit, and they ALWAYS feature killed off characters. Except Evening.
-My favorite hints were the ones just piled in book 1. Comments like "no one knows who Evening really is" said with zero self awareness. Because we are actually about to find out who she is... 7 goddamn books later.
-dead meme but "surprise, bitch. Bet you thought you saw the last of me."
-God she's so awful lol
-Toby thinking Quentin died then calling him THE SON SHE NEVER HAD is a BIG OOF right to the HEART. ;-;
-The book also points out that The Luidaeg through the series has ALWAYS referred to Evening in present tense. Even though she "died" in book 1.
-The Luidaeg ALSO never refers to her as Evening. It's always "The Winterrose". You know, a title. Which we have heavily emphasized is something the Firstborn use in place of their true names.
*jazz hands* Surprise!
-We also (finally) have a canon explanation for the... rather remarkable coincidence that Quentin, the fucking Crown Prince (from TORONTO), is in San Francisco at all. It was always weird he got sent to Shadowed Hills, and it's been commented on multiple times... Evening arranged it, of course! For reasons we don't quite know. But as the Daoine Sidhe Firstborn, her descendants couldn't exactly say no. Even though they didn't know who she really was.
-We really are falling all over Firstborn in this series? It sure is.. an odd coincidence, huh?
We got:
The Luidaeg: Roane/Selkie
Amandine: Dochas Sidhe
Acacia: Blodynbryd
Evening: Daoine Sidhe
Blind Michael: ... uh actually I don't think we ever learn what race he's Firstborn of. All his "children" are kidnapping victims forcibly twisted into monsters. Well, except for Luna, but we only know the Blodynbryd side.
But it's weird that for being so rare that we've run into 5 of them in 8 books. There's gotta be a reason for it.. but what?
-Luna starts the series as Toby's Surrogate Mom and is now just straight up an enemy huh
-I made this observation in my book 1 notes, but I find it very interesting that all of Toby's initial friends and allies... aren't by this point. Whereas her current allies are either former enemies or people she initially disliked or distrusted.
Starter allies: Sylvester? Was lying to her the whole time. Luna? Pretty much tried to sacrifice her (+above). Evening? Uhh this whole damn book. Devin? Tried to kill her for personal gain. Lily/Connor? Both killed off for real.
Current allies: Tybalt? Literal former enemy turned lover. Quentin? Kind of a snotty, vaguely racist kid she whips into shape. The Luidaeg? Extremely powerful witch who Toby assumes is True Neutral and wouldn't hesitate to kill her. May? Literal personal walking death omen.
It's just a cool reversal. There's so much really excellent character development in this series and I love it.
-Simon still is a pretty major bastard but.. less outright mustache twirling evil than we were led to believe up to this book. You learn his Backstory and while it really doesn't justify his actions it does...explain them.
-Blink and you miss it Lore: August is missing because she entered a contract with the Luidaeg. She's holding the candle from book 3 :)))
I'm starting to realize I stan The Luidaeg so hard I just have to take a picture every time she shows up and does stuff lmfao. (Best character).
-But... nothing like your inconceivably ancient and powerful aunt suddenly owing you a life debt, I guess???
-Toby. You know, just an ordinary weak changeling who has somehow managed to KILL A FIRSTBORN and RAISE THE DEAD. yikes.
I'm just putting this here cause it's funny as shit. Tybalt really is just... a cat
This book: I heard you like distressing Luidaeg lore??
Me: oh thanks I don't need to feel things
-God Evening is awful. Like, if you didn't know that already, see above.
-It says something about The Luidaeg that despite all that shit their Firstborn did to her she ends up becoming such good friends with Quentin, a Daoine Sidhe?
-BIG LORE with The Luidaeg talking to Maeve??? And Maeve "responding" kind of? This series damn well better explore what the fuck happened to those three it's been built up all series
-Omg the showdown with Evening and The Luidaeg. And Toby managing to break free and realize she deserves so much more than Evening-- all without magic. And Simon showing up for a last minute redemption trying to hit Evening with elf shot? I mean he gets shot in the process, but...
-We now have like, 3 or 4 characters just... asleep indefinitely thanks to elf shot. that's gonna be a Thing isnt it. Rayseline, Evening, Simon, Arden's brother...
WE DID IT BOYS
-This is the last full one I've already read. Most of my reactions in 9-12 are gonna be new. So.
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Tag Game
Hi all! Recently we have been tagged in a bunch of those tag games. So instead of clogging your newsfeed we decided to combine a bunch into one post.
Here are some of you who tagged us! (I tried to find you all but, we get a lot of notifications and Tumblr makes it very hard to sort through them)
Tagged by: @headcanonsandmore
@fuckitup-in-style,
@acciohermionejg
@iamskylorsaurus
@unusuallyzealousburgette
Gender: Both of us are girls.
Birthday: Zoe: March 28th. Alex: March 11th
Last movie seen: Zoe: Dunkirk Alex: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
What do you post/reblog: Zoe: A bunch of random crap. Alex: On this blog we post #relatable content. On my personal I just shitpost
Last thing you Googled: Zoe: “List of apex predators” Alex: “how do radiators know when to turn on”
Favorite blog: Zoe: No idea. Alex: @myendlessparade has some dank content ;)
Dream job: Zoe: Writer/ youtuber but I’m bad at both Alex: YouTuber or a paid/professional internet content creator
Dream trip: Zoe: I don’t know, I haven’t been to Japan before, I guess Alex: I really want to go to Germany but, I’d love to go anywhere in Europe. Or anywhere outside the US. Or anywhere really.
What would be your first entry in a new diary: Zoe: I don’t diary Alex: Probably something really random, a random thought perhaps. All of my past journals are filled with weird shit like “Tap Dancing Cat Play” with zero context
Top 3 things you love about yourself: Zoe: Why is this so hard? Can I say things I love about Alex instead? 1) She’s smart and funny and a great person to be around. 2) She’s creative and works so hard on the things she’s passionate about. 3) She’s supportive and understanding and all around a great friend. Alex: d’awwwww <3 turning the tables now - here are three reasons I love Zoe: 1. She’s a very accepting, patient and understanding friend. 2. She’s full of good ideas and the reason we started this blog. Also partly convinced me to pursue YouTube seriously (speaking of we need to do something about the gaming channel) 3. She has a very dark and dry humor, we can talk and laugh for hours
3 things you wish you knew how to do: Zoe: 1) Drive stick, 2) speak a different language (I’ve tried, I’m really bad at it), 3) manage my finances Alex: 1. Make gifs, 2. play an instrument, 3. drive??!?
Something you wish you had discovered/invented first: Zoe: I honestly don’t know. Alex: I asked Jake what to say and he said “submarines.” So I guess submarines
3 qualities you like in a person: Zoe: 1) their sense of humor, 2) intelligence, 3) creativity Alex: 1. taste in media, 2. humor, 3. uniqueness
3 qualities you dislike in a person: Zoe: 1) Cockiness, 2) overly defensive, 3) when someone talks over someone else and especially when they don’t stop and listen when the first person tries to keep talking Alex: 1. Selfishness, 2. carelessness, 3. when they walk slowly in front of me
Favorite planet: Zoe: I guess technically Earth because I live here, but viva la Pluto! Alex: Mars! Mars has such a vast history for such a barren planet.
A resolution you make every year: Zoe: I don’t make resolutions. Alex: I don’t really make resolutions but, I try to be less hard on myself each year
Something you’re better at than most people: Zoe: Um... writing? Alex: Video editing
Something you’re worse at than most people: Zoe: Talking to other people. Alex: Making friends
Favorite thing about tumblr: Zoe: Memes? Alex: MEMES and cute animal pictures
Least favourite thing about tumblr: Zoe: The entire way that this site is set up is like someone threw darts at a board and went “so this goes here, and uh, I guess that’s how we do this...” Alex: Dear god, this website is designed poorly for blog runners! There is no clear way to sort notifications, you either get them all or none at all. Also there have been times when a queued post just doesn’t post or tags just delete themselves while you’re typing them.
Weapon of choice: Zoe: Knives or a bow and arrow (I’m actually quite good at archery) Alex: Uh, none...
Something not many people know about you: Zoe: I was going to be in a production with my dad trying to break the world record of most roller coasters ridden in a day, but the plans everything fell through about midway through, so it never happened. Alex: In middle school I used wear one ankle sock and one knee high because...fashion...?
Favorite means of transport: Zoe: I like driving, but if I’m going into the city, I’m taking the train. Alex: God, I hate all means of transportation. It’s all bad. Let’s just learn how to teleport already
Favorite story: Zoe: Harry Potter Alex: A New Hope
Chicken or egg: Zoe: Dinosaur Alex: I was going to say chicken but, Zoe’s answer is the really the best one
Something that always makes you laugh: Zoe: Cats. Alex: When Zelda yells around the apartment at her toys
What is the strangest thing about you: Zoe: You should see some of the texts I send Alex. Alex: just who I am as a person
You get to switch places with someone for a day, who is it and why: Zoe: Can I switch places with my cat? Alex: I’m stealing Zoe’s answer. Fuck yeah! I’d love to be Zelda for a day!
Name: Zoe Alex
Nicknames: Zoe: None Alex: Weasel
Height: Zoe: 5′7″ Alex: 5′3″
Orientation: Zoe: Hell if I know Alex: straight
Nationality: Zoe: I’m a US and UK citizen. Alex: ‘murican
Favorite Fruit: Zoe: Banana? Alex: Oranges
Favorite Season: Zoe: Fall Alex: Fall
Favorite Flower: Zoe: Roses Alex: Blue Roses! (only people from high school will get this joke and none them follow me....)
Favorite Scents: Zoe: Burning wood Alex: Most any candle
Favorite Color: Zoe: Purple Alex: Purple
Favorite Animals: Zoe: Cheetah, wolves, sea pancake Alex: Zelda!
Coffee, Tea or Hot Chocolate: Zoe: Depends on my mood Alex: All of the above, please
Average Sleep Hours: Zoe: 6 Alex: 8?
Dog or Cat Person: Zoe: Both Alex: Love both but, I really like cats
Favorite Fictional Characters: Zoe: Oh god, Aragorn, Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Gandalf, don’t make me choose, I could keep going. Alex: Han Solo, The Master, Mac, Michael Scott, Squidward (??), I don’t know man!
Number of Blankets You Sleep with: Zoe: Anywhere between 1 and 4 Alex: Normally one but, if it’s real cold, two or more
Blog Created: Zoe: This blog was created a little over a year ago, my personal blog was created something like nine years ago I think. Alex: Mine was made like 6 years ago?
Number of Followers: 48,100
Random fact: Zoe: When people are hanged, they die from lack of blood flow to the brain. Alex: Most female cats are right pawed
Star sign: Zoe: Aries Alex: Pisces
Hogwarts House: Take a guess
Why I made this account: Zoe: I made the account because I wanted something to do, and then I invited Alex to be a part of it with me. Alex: What she said ^
Reason for url: Alliteration is cool?
My favorite writer: Zoe: It changes all the time. Alex: Dr. Seuss
My favorite book: Zoe: Harry Potter? Alex: I have no clue?
My favorite movie: Zoe: Lord of the Rings Alex: Oh dear, I don’t know... Ed Wood (1994) ?
Time: Zoe: 15:46 Alex: 9:58pm
Favourite bands: Zoe: Queen, The Who, FOB, Muse, a lot. Alex: Fall Out Boy, Imagine Dragons, Panic! at the Disco
Favourite solo artists: Zoe: No clue Alex: Uh none? I don’t really listen to music besides the three bands listed and movie soundtracks
Song stuck in my head: Zoe: Right now, it’s “I’m Only Joking” by Kongos Alex: “Champion” by Fall Out Boy
Last show I watched: Zoe: NCIS Alex: I don’t really know. It’s between The Punisher, Black Mirror and Peep Show. I watch so many things I forget when I last watched it
Do I get asks: Zoe: Not really. Alex: We get asks here pretty often. I never get any personally - except spam
Lucky number: Zoe: 13 Alex: 3
Instruments: Zoe: I played the clarinet ages ago, and I sorta learned Violin for a little bit, but if you asked me to play any instrument now, I’d probably suck. Alex: I am not talented enough
What I am wearing: Zoe: Plaid and leggings. Alex: Grey and black sweater, leggings and draped in a blanket
Favourite food: Zoe: I want pancakes right now, so let’s go with that? Alex: I’m so bad at picking favorite things! I just love food!
Last book I read: Zoe: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (it’s tradition for me to reread all the novels every year, and I was late last year, so I only just finished it in time) Alex: The Disaster Artist
3 favorite fandoms: Zoe: Oh, god... Harry Potter, LotR, and i guess certain youtubers? Alex: uh, that changes depending on how I’m feeling. Right now, probably, Star Wars, YouTube and something else?
#zoe and alex answer things#tagged post#we tag anyone who wants to do this#answers#questions#answer#ravenclawravings#not really harry potter related
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Everything Our Paid Team Learned From Attempting a Reddit Advertising Strategy
New Post has been published on http://tiptopreview.com/everything-our-paid-team-learned-from-attempting-a-reddit-advertising-strategy/
Everything Our Paid Team Learned From Attempting a Reddit Advertising Strategy
With a ranking as one of the top ten most popular sites on the internet, Reddit is undoubtedly an intriguing channel for advertising purposes.
However, the site can often seem intimidating, and perhaps even too random to create a cohesive advertising strategy. Plus, since its primary purpose is to expose viewers to the top-trending content of the moment, Reddit users are notoriously anti-marketing.
Regardless of its challenges, its potential advantages proved too good an opportunity to pass up. At HubSpot, we decided to implement a strategy to see for ourselves whether Reddit can serve as a promising channel for the future.
Here, learn what our team figured out about advertising on Reddit, and whether it’s worth the attempt for your own company. Plus, we’ve provided a step-by-step tutorial on how you can advertise on Reddit if you determine it’s a valuable option for your own company.
The Strategy Behind Reddit Advertising
1. Identify subreddit topics which are well-aligned with your target audience.
To investigate the benefits of advertising on Reddit, I first spoke with Josh Chang, a Senior Marketing Manager at HubSpot. He told me HubSpot’s initial strategy on Reddit involved highly targeted campaigns on specific subreddits, including r/entrepreneur and r/sales.
“The goal of the campaign,” Chang explained, “was to drive awareness and conversion for our products. In terms of results, we saw cost-per-acquisition similar to what we’ve achieved on Facebook in North America, although we did notice a lower activation rate from Reddit — suggesting lower-quality conversions.”
If you’re interested in testing out a campaign for yourself, then, you’ll want to start by identifying subreddits which can likely help foster genuine connections between your brand and your ideal audience. Consider topics your target audience is most interested in, and make a list. Then, narrow your list by investigating how many subscribers each subreddit topic has, whether it’s relatively active, and whether self-promotion or sharing content is allowed on the subreddit topic.
Chang told me, “One of the main things we learned was targeting subreddits specifically was much more effective than broader interest targeting. However, this strategy requires a lot of research, and getting to know which subreddits are most relevant to your audience.”
Additionally, Chang said, “We noticed tailoring our ad creative for individual subreddits helped improve our conversion rates.”
2. Begin engaging with your subreddit communities.
Once you’ve cultivated a list of subreddits that are likely of interest to your target audience, it’s time to start engaging with those subreddit communities.
However, it’s critical you don’t begin by promoting your own content.
To build a level of trust and authentic connection, begin by upvoting other submissions you find interesting and that align well with your brand. Next, share valuable content — but not your own. Instead, post interesting content produced by other media outlets or blogs that you believe will be useful to your subreddit community.
It’s vital you genuinely use the Reddit platform as an opportunity to get to know your target audience before you offer them your own content. Not only will this show your community you’re not simply joining the site to self-promote, but it will also help you tailor your content more accurately down-the-road.
3. Begin promoting your own content, paid or otherwise, on the subreddit platforms.
At this point, you might consider simply posting valuable content from your company that you feel will benefit your community — for free.
However, you might alternatively try spending money on a paid sponsored post, which essentially guarantees your post will be pinned to the top of the subreddit. Here’s what a sponsored post looks like, for context:
In many ways, this post looks similar to all other Reddit content. However, there’s a blue “Promoted” tag in the top left, signifying it’s a paid ad.
In HubSpot’s case, we decided to test out the power of paid advertising on the site. However, it’s still critical you follow the steps listed above to cultivate authentic relationships with your subreddit communities.
Think of it this way — if I begin engaging with a brand on one of the subreddit groups I’ve joined, and notice they typically post helpful content (including content from other publications), then I’m much more likely to take notice when they pay for a sponsored post. If they appear out of nowhere, I have no sense of brand awareness and probably won’t trust the advertisement.
Reddit Advertising Cost
As of right now, the minimum daily spend for an ad on Reddit is $5.
Additionally, Reddit FAQ states, “The Reddit Ads platform uses a second price auction based system, which means you pay a cent higher than the next highest bidder. Because we are using an auction based system, there is a risk of 20% over-delivery when setting up an individual campaign.”
However, as of January 2019, Reddit changed their pricing model from CPM (cost-per-impression) bidding to CPC (cost-per-click). The CPC model will likely make it easier for brands to track conversion or traffic goals, and could result in changes in prices over time.
Advertising on Reddit: Worth it?
When I asked Chang whether he felt advertising on Reddit is a worthwhile investment, he offered a candid response, admitting HubSpot has temporarily halted its efforts on Reddit.
“We saw promising results,” Chang told me, “But because we were targeting specific subreddits, it wasn’t crazy volume that could really move the needle. However, we have on our docket to re-test Reddit to see if we can improve performance and scalability in the future.”
It’s important to note, there have been success stories — Findlay Hats, for instance, drove $28,000 in sales from one viral Reddit post.
However, most brands see better results simply by relying on Reddit for community engagement and brand awareness. Alex Berman found one of his free, unpromoted videos got 25,000 views when it hit the top of a subreddit — but, when he put $250 behind his Reddit posts, he acquired zero leads.
How to Advertise on Reddit
Make a company profile.
Set up an advertising account.
Find your audience on subreddits.
Ensure the subreddit(s) you find have enough page views.
Set up your campaign.
Analyze your campaign performance to improve over time.
1. Make a company profile.
You’ll want to ensure you’re running advertising campaigns on your company profile, not your personal Reddit account.
Along with evoking a sense of professionalism, a company Reddit profile is necessary since users can click on your account and see other content you’ve viewed and upvoted — so you want to ensure that content aligns well with your brand. Additionally, when responding to comments on your ad, you’ll want to be able to respond from a company profile, not a personal one.
To set up a profile, go to https://ssl.reddit.com/login and fill out the Sign Up form, shown below:
2. Set up an advertising account.
To start advertising on Reddit, you’ll need to set up an advertising account. To do this, go to ads.reddit.com and fill out the necessary fields:
Once you’ve inputted your information and selected “Sign Up”, you’ll see an advertising dashboard, as shown below:
Before you can begin advertising on Reddit, you’ll want to add your billing information by clicking the drop-down menu on your username and selecting “Billing”:
Additionally, if multiple people on your team will be involved in advertising on Reddit, ensure you add users by clicking “Manage permissions” underneath your username, and then adding their emails and permission level (including “Analyst”, “Creator”, and “Administrator”):
Once you’ve clicked the blue “Invite” button, your colleagues should receive an email with next steps.
3. Find your audience on subreddits.
It’s important to note, you don’t want to spend money advertising on the homepage of Reddit. Reddit users visit the homepage to browse popular posts and trending news, so it’s too big of an audience for you to target your ideal persona.
Instead, you’ll want to explore subreddits to find your ideal Reddit audience. For instance, let’s say you sell e-commerce software. To find an interested audience, then, you’ll want to explore retail-related subreddits, such as r/retail (8.2K members), r/AskRetail (4.5K members), or even r/retailmemes (733 members).
Make a list of subreddits that might fit your audience, and then spend some time perusing the content that already exists on that subreddit. Does it seem to match content your customer would be interested in? Additionally, does it look like the subreddit community could be filled with high-intent prospects (like a retail advice subreddit), or is it too superficial for your needs (like retail memes)?
To help you find your audience, try a tool like RedditList to sort through various reddit communities and find the ones of highest value for you.
4. Ensure the subreddit(s) you find have enough page views.
This is important enough to warrant its own section: you can’t necessarily advertise on any subreddit you want. Once you make your list of potential subreddits, you’ll need to ensure it has enough page views to be eligible for advertising.
To figure out whether a subreddit has enough page views, consider that one Reddit advertising campaign has a minimum spend of $5, and it costs $0.75 per thousand page views. Additionally, you can purchase up to three months out.
With those requirements, you’ll need roughly 6,700 page views over three months to achieve the $5 minimum spend.
To figure out how many page views you’re likely to receive on a subreddit, take a look at how many users are currently on the subreddit. For instance, you can see at 2 p.m. on a Monday, there are roughly 2K users on the r/marketing subreddit:
Dividing 6,700 by 90, you’ll note you need roughly 74 viewers per day on a subreddit to reach the minimum requirement — r/marketing, then, is way over the daily required page views, but there are other smaller subreddits with only 5-10 users per day, which could make it more difficult for you to reach minimum spend. Plus, you want to choose subreddits that enable you to have the highest reach possible.
5. Set up your campaign.
Once you’ve chosen your subreddits, it’s now time to set up your campaign. In your account, start by clicking on “Dashboard” in the top left of your screen, and then select “Create Campaign”.
Next, you’ll need to create a name for your campaign, a funding instrument, and a campaign objective:
After you click “Continue”, you’ll need to narrow down your audience — including interests, communities, and device type — your budget, and your bid (the maximum price you’re willing to pay per 1,000 impressions). Additionally, you’ll need to figure out a schedule for your ad, including what time(s) of day you want it to appear, and when you want your campaign to end.
Once you click “Continue” again, you’ll be able to add third-party trackers to distinguish how many unique web page visits or social media viewers you’ve gained from your Reddit advertisement.
Here, you’ll also either create a new post or upload an existing advertisement that you might’ve designed for another platform. Feel free to take a look at Reddit’s internal advertising resources — including Reddit’s Advertising Help page — to learn best practices when designing an ad for Reddit.
Once you’re happy with the creative assets, click “Review”:
Once you’ve reviewed all the information regarding your campaign and have determined it’s accurate, click the blue “Submit” button to submit your advertisement for consideration. You’ll get an email once your ad is live.
6. Analyze your campaign performance to improve over time.
Once your campaign is up-and-running, you’ll want to track its performance. You can monitor within the Reddit advertising dashboard itself, as well as through third-party tools like Google Analytics. Additionally, ensure you’re taking the time to respond to any comments left on your ad.
As with any advertising campaign you run, you’ll want to use analytics on this campaign to iterate and improve for the next one.
Ultimately, it’s worth considering using Reddit as a platform for sharing content for the sake of helpfulness and audience engagement, rather than as a cost-effective advertising strategy.
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The Viral ‘Study’ About Runners Spreading Coronavirus Is Not Actually a Study
In the last 24 hours, a computer simulation by a team of Belgian engineers that tracks the “spread droplets” and “slipstream” of the exhalations, coughs, and sneezes of people who are running, walking, or cycling has gone viral. Perhaps you have seen this gif on Twitter, Facebook, or NextDoor. Or, as some people on our staff have seen, perhaps write-ups of it have been texted to you by concerned friends or family:
Though this was not the specific goal of the simulation, it is currently being used on neighborhood groups and social media as scientific evidence that people who are jogging and biking are putting others at risk. If you are getting “droplets” or “globules” on you, the thinking goes, you are at risk of contracting coronavirus.
“People should read and not misread my tweets and texts,” Bert Blocken of Eindhoven University of Technology, the lead researcher on the simulation, wrote in an email to Motherboard. “I have never and nowhere discouraged people from walking, running, or cycling. Rather the opposite. Maybe people should read more, and react less.”
Blocken has yet to publish a peer-reviewed paper about the simulation. In fact, he hasn't even published a non-peer-reviewed study. Instead, he spoke to a reporter in Belgium about it, who wrote a news article, which has now been aggregated and shared widely by many publications. Given what Blocken has put into the world, taken at face value, some people are understandably concluding that it is impossible to run or cycle safely in many cities; he recommends a distance of 65 feet between bikers and other people, something that is impossible to do in cities. The issue with Blocken’s suggestion that we “read more, and react less” is that there is almost nothing to read, and there is no study to critique.
Blocken’s team took the extraordinary step of speaking to the media about his research before publishing anything about it. There is no written study to read or interpret. We do not know the specifics about how the study was done or how the simulation was run because the research team has not shared that information.
On Twitter, Blocken said the “crisis is urgent, so exceptionally we turned order upside down: (1) media, (2) today I submitted the proposal for funding (3) peer review article later. Public cannot wait months for peer review. I have a short text, I will post it on Linked In within the next hour.”
A day later, that LinkedIn post has not been published. What the team has published is something that it’s calling a “white paper,” but which is actually a Google-translated version of the Belgian newspaper article that was not written by Blocken or his team, but which quotes him. Ansys, the company that did the simulation in concert with Blocken, has also published a short but vague press release. In the meantime, this simulation has gone viral.
Studies like this are "not really useful. Not to epidemiologists anyway. The amount of transmission from this route even if it is possible will be dwarfed by that from others."
A Medium post written by Jurgen Thoelen, who describes himself as an “entrepreneur, building clouds in all forms and shapes and life-long athlete” has been shared thousands of times. On Facebook and Twitter, the article is being shared in neighborhood groups and is being used to spur a battle between pedestrians and runners and cyclists. A typical comment is something like this, shared in an Iowa City "Quarantine Survival" Facebook page: “Omg people keep doing this. Runners and bikers with zero regard for fellow pedestrians 🤬🤬” The simulation has also been written up by the Daily Mail, while gifs, stills, and memes of the simulation, shared with little or no context, have spread on their own.
This is all to say that we are unsure of the specifics of this study, what it actually shows, what its limitations might be, and how it was done. What it's suggesting could be accurate and useful, but we have no way of knowing that at the moment. And yet, this research is already being used to ask people to change their behavior and held up as definitive evidence that running and cycling are irresponsible during the pandemic.
Blocken said in an email that this was not his intention.
“Choice made in agreement with all the researchers involved and both university media agencies. The crisis is worldwide and the situation is urgent,” Blocken wrote. “We did not want to keep results behind closed doors until we have found the time to write down the full story. If I would have done the opposite, we would receive criticism about that. Never possible to do right for everybody. Given all the fuss I notice now, I will do an extra other late night effort and post the full story on Linked In tonight.”
“By the way this is aerodynamics work, not virology. Good luck with speeding up procedures in engineering journals," Blocken added. "COVID-19 will not wait months or until our paper is published."
Blocken is right: We face an urgent situation, and it’s important to get rigorous science out as quickly as possible. But hundreds of other scientists have managed to publish peer reviewed research about coronavirus in the last few weeks, on an expedited time scale. Thousands of others have published studies that are not peer reviewed, but that are at least studies in the way we usually think of them: Their methods and findings are explained in a rigorous way that can be critiqued. Even though this is a dire situation, scientific publishing safeguards exist for a reason, and we've already seen during this pandemic that a rushed process has led to bad, inaccurate science being published (that's not to suggest that Blocken's research is bad or inaccurate science, we simply have no way of knowing based on what's been published.)
Even if the simulations hold water and are accurate, virologists and experts should be the ones making public health recommendations, not random "entrepreneurs" on Medium, which is what has happened because these simulations were not published with the specifics of how they were done or what they mean. This type of research is of course important and should be done, but it should be released in a responsible way, with the caveats, limitations, and unknowns explained clearly. Then the research should be used by virologists and public health officials to make concrete recommendations to people.
I showed Blocken's research to William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard's Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics. He said that the virality of Blocken's research is harmful, and that Blocken's suggestion in the white paper that this research is a "modest contribution" toward the fight against Covid-19 "makes my blood boil."
"Where the droplets are is much less relevant than the amount of transmission that occurs via this route"
Crucially, scientists are still unsure how well the coronavirus spreads in the air, and many have cautiously speculated that the overall risk of transmission appears to be less outdoors. Globules and droplets do likely carry the virus, but that doesn’t mean that anyone who gets a droplet on them from someone’s breath is going to be infected. Transmission depends on a host of factors; scientists believe an important one of these is “viral load,” which is a measure of how much of the virus is present.
"On the epidemiology side—where the droplets are is much less relevant than the amount of transmission that occurs via this route," Hanage said. "Advice on physical distancing is really about *reducing* the risk of transmission rather than eliminating it altogether."
He said studies like this are "not really useful. Not to epidemiologists anyway. The amount of transmission from this route even if it is possible will be dwarfed by that from others." He added "it's concerning" how fast the study has traveled … especially "when you consider I have had to write this email rather than putting the finishing touches to a model of nosocomial transmission [in hospitals]."
In a footnote on the white paper, Blocken admits “currently the subject of intensive debates between scientists world‐wide—is to what extent the residue of micro‐droplets with the virus, after evaporation, still carries an infection risk. Further virology research should shed more light on this issue.” Last week, the Atlantic's Ed Yong spoke to many virologists about this, and there currently is no consensus about how dangerous it is to exercise or be outside, but there is much research suggesting that the mental health benefits of exercising outdoors are important and should be taken seriously.
The issue of viral load and transmission is not addressed or mentioned in the Medium article nor in the Belgian newspaper Blocken spoke to.
When I asked if he was concerned about the fact his work had gone viral, especially in write-ups by non-experts, he said, “I am surprised by this question. You with your expertise should know that one can control the first line of media attention, and then people write stories of the stories, and it is impossible to control," Blocken wrote. "That would have happened equally if the full paper had already been published. This is not my first big media coverage, so I have been there, done that. There is free press."
Hanage said it's probably OK to exercise outside as long as you "apply common sense."
"I think there is a balance," he said, "other than in the situation where there are really really high rates of community transmission."
The Viral ‘Study’ About Runners Spreading Coronavirus Is Not Actually a Study syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/
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rabbit & like a bat family, for the ask meme, whichever questions you feel comfortable answering
(Questions)
Like a Bat-Family
(Elementary; Martha & Kitty & Joan & Sherlock; part of Rolling Remix)
1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?
I received my copy of “Like Family” for remixing and groused and whined and cursed its author, because like hell did I see a way into it. The obvious thing would have been to flip the pov to Kitty, but “Like Family” might already have been a pov-flip from whatever came before it and I didn’t want to risk just flipping it back again.
I finally decided on a slumber-party-like variation of the mutual nail-painting, probably featuring Martha. Then once I had Martha and Kitty in the same mental premise, I realized they had probably built some kind of relationship during their mutual time in the brownstone, and thus that Martha should be added to the list of people cheated of a proper good-bye with her. (And not just cheated of a good-bye, but of the entire history of their relationship!) So this became a reunion/closure story for not only Joan-and-Kitty, but also Martha-and-Kitty.
I set it during New Year’s at the brownstone mostly out of cussedness. I’d already remixed a story for the exchange, which meant I knew there was a cluster of NYE stories at the beginning of the chain. I thought it’d be hilarious to re-introduce the New Year’s theme at the tail end of the chain, too, in the hopes that it would mess up some of the guessers.
2: What scene did you first put down?
A scene that no longer exists: Joan on the roof New Year’s morning, ostensibly cleaning up after the party but mostly staring at the river, and being surprised by Kitty’s entrance. The energy was never quite right, somehow, and the whole story stalled there until I switched povs and began over with Martha. However, the scene still indirectly exists in the current version of the story, and the original image of Kitty appearing from nowhere like Batman was the genesis of the Bat-Family motif.
The only part of that now-deleted scene that I was really sad to lose was the color scheme:
[Joan stood at the roof edge, looking out at] the desaturated, wintry grays of the city, contemplating the rough slate of the East River and how it reflected back the platinum sky above.
Happily, I was able to salvage the bones of that description for Nostoi:
Beyond that streak of white, there was nothing but grey all around us: sky and rain and sea-water; iron and silver and slate.
3: What’s your favorite line of narration?
Joan and Sherlock argued silently with each other, a flurry of mulish mouths, jutted jaws, and raised eyebrows.
4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?
“Alfred,” she whispered, and all three of them cracked up into giggles.
5: What part was hardest to write?
Ugh, gah, cramming in the backstory and off-screen bits. Backstory and flashbacks are always a struggle to incorporate smoothly without overexplaining or messing up the narrative flow, and this story was written so quickly, with so little opportunity for editing… Meh.
6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?
My first and only story from the pov of a trans character? More unusually, I didn’t have the time to ask someone who is trans to look it over – that’s usually something that I take care to do when writing a marginalized identity outside of my own experience. But once again, the turn around time was so fast… I hope I did no harm, and I own it if I did.
9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?
I was going to bring back Joan’s accordion from the first two stories, which – when joined with Kitty’s clarinet and Sherlock’s violin – would be the foundations of a Klezmer band. (Martha would be on drums, because.) When I later saw that someone in the exchange had written a Band AU I kicked myself so hard that I hadn’t done it.
Rabbit
(TSCC; Jesse Flores; 5+1)
1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?
The Terminator franchise centers itself so strongly on Southern California and the Connors, I craved to know what that franchise looks like if you don’t presuppose John Connor as the center of the universe. Further, I am fascinated with the way the timelines fold back on themselves in that franchise, the way Judgement Day is forever shifting, the way futures keep reaching back to rewrite the past-to-be based on whatever has been going on in the current timeline.
A 5+1 seemed a convenient way to explore what successive futures might look like when one is half a world away from the causes, experiencing only the after-effects; it also allowed me to build an argument that John Connor may not always be the single most important person in the future. That is, that there might be futures where other people become more strategically significant.
I also had the very misguided idea that a 5+1 would be a short, simple, and easy structure, and would get me out of having to build and plot a full-blown story. Ha fucking hah.
3: What’s your favorite line of narration?
There are a ton of narrative lines I love, mostly in the final section. But have this one out of the fifth section:
Jesse stared at the farmboy, her gaze flicking to where the dolphins should have been on his chest. Jesus Fucking Christ. A whole crew of nubs. They were running a deathtrap.
4: What’s your favorite line of dialogue?
“You are not a god, Derek. You made choices, I made choices, John Connor made choices. We all made choices. Hell, there’s a twelve-year-old Jesse out there somewhere, making choices. Whether to swim at the leisure centre or swim at the beach. For all you know, the war hinges on the choice she made today.”
Tied with:
“What do you want me to say, that it could have been anyone? That the only reason Skynet went after you—the only reason your family died—is because Goodnow tells a good story and Skynet fell for it?”
Because I have opinions about the Terminator franchise, and how everyone is running around making choices based on stories they were told. Skynet, the Connors, everyone from the future who gets their hands on a time machine, everyone they meet in the past: everyone has heard a story, and now they’re all making choices, and the entire future history of the world is gonna hinge on those choices. Talk about a universe that runs on fucking hearsay and gossip.
But mostly my favorite line is this:
“I’m Jesse!” she screamed at it, to make herself breathe. “I’m Jesse fucking Flores!”
Because Jesse fucking Flores. :-D
5: What part was hardest to write?
All the Australia bits. :-P
@lastwingedthing put in a good chunk of work on this story, correcting language and helping me with geographically appropriate choices for stuff. (That olive tree in the first section began life as a prickly pear, which is invasive in Australia – I wanted an invasive plant for thematic reasons – but it’s invasive in a different part of Australia.) However, the challenge with writing something that will later be Ozpicked (or Britpicked, or whatever) is that it’s not enough to eschew Americanisms in your draft, you have to put in geographically specific stuff, too, otherwise you’ll end up with a bland and non-specific story. And while a generous Ozpicker can and will help with that, you can’t expect them to do the bulk of that work for you.
For an example of what I’m talking about, consider my own The Case of the Six Marmalades against @scfrankles’ The Case of the Deceased Marmalade Thief: they’re nicely matched in terms of fandom, genre, and topic, and I consider Frankles a peer in terms of our respective skill. But notice that Frankles’ use of idiom in her dialog is much, much richer than my own (in part because she really is just that good with voices), but also in part because she’s English, and has a much larger mental catalog of appropriate idiom to select from. In contrast, I’m forever rejecting language as “too American” and then finding I have nothing interesting to replace it with. Consequently, my dialog has a linguistic blandness to it that hers doesn’t. This is the kind of thing I see a lot with American vs. British authors in British fandoms: the British authors have a vibrancy to them that American authors seldom manage to attain.
And this isn’t to run myself down, or to suggest that Six Marmalades is a failure of a story. (It’s not.) It’s simply an illustration of how it is with stories written by outsiders: even if they manage to eschew errors and stereotypes, they often end up with a generic, non-specific blandness that’s difficult to overcome. *shrug emoji* Either you never write outside your own specific cultural context, or you accept that you won’t manage the vibrancy that your story deserves. Choose your poison.
Anyway, back to Rabbit: I had to come up with Australia-specific stuff to put in, but I was starting from near zero. I watched all the Australian post-apoc films I could stomach; I played Australian talk and comedy shows in the background while I did chores; I listened to a series of Australian podcasts for English-language-learners during my commutes; I spent a fuckton of time browsing anAustralian slang dictionary (where I learned more usage via the crowdsourced definitions than in the nominal terms being defined)… Just, trying to pick up idioms and usage and rhythms and words, both to reduce the load on my very generous Ozpicker, but also trying to make sure that when she was done removing my Americanisms, my language didn’t end up blandly generic nowhere. (If nothing else, I could give her possibly-wrong Australian slang that she could correct to something more appropriate, yeah? And she did a bit of that: “yobbos” became “sad bastards,” for example.) So the language was a fair amount of up front work, even with her polishing and fine-tuning it for me.
And getting the Australian bits right was more than just language, of course; there was the usual ton of googling random shit. Who runs public swimming pools, the history and composition of the Australian submarine service, what plants are invasive, imports/exports from Perth… Again, she corrected and fine-tuned a bunch of stuff (and sometimes pointed out issues that I hadn’t thought to question), but there was still a chunk of work involved in giving her something that could be corrected and fine-tuned.
I wanted to set Rabbit in Australia, a place that is distinct from America, and that ultimately was the hardest part of writing the story.
6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?
At the time, it was my only fic set in Australia, my only go at action/suspense, my only 5+1, my only “heroine against the world, framedaround a strong central metaphor, ending when the showdown begins in earnest” kind of story structure. I’ve since repeated all of those things, because I wrote this a long time ago, and I’m as repetitive as fuck.
As to what makes it still unique among my stories…
Um…
It’s the only one with submarines in?
8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?
I grew up in a Navy town, outside a nuclear submarine base, and one of the members in my origfic writing group served on a submarine, back in the day. So all the submarine stuff is strongly influenced by my hometown, the kids whose parents were in the Navy, my own dad who worked for the Navy, my schoolmates who went into the Navy themselves, the submariner who I dated when I was faaaaar too young for him (and the shit my dad pulled to scare him off), the tours I’ve taken on out-of-service submarines, the time I’ve spent fucking around in boats while sharing the same waters as submarines, plus all the time I’ve spent editing my friend’s submarine novels based on his own service.
None of which is actually the same as actually serving on a submarine myself, of course, but there are a number of submarine details that were inspired by spending a chunk of my life submarine-adjacent.
(Navy showers! My father enforced Navy showers on us when we were kids. Although not the same way that they’re enforced in the actual Navy, because that would have been child abuse. But you know. You run across random shit in your life, and it eventually ends up in a fic.)
#my writing#dvd commentary#rabbit#like a bat-family#long post#I'm waiting on beta for one story#and haven't started plotting the next#so I'm picking up this very-long-ago-prompt#as a palate cleanser#beanarie
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Why isn't she "allowed" to say it's her favorite match? I never said she wasn't "allowed", you have to look at the context surrounding the Melina vs. Alicia Fox meme. Cameron probably never actually watched wrestling in her life until maybe after they announced a new Tough Enough and probably thought she could use WWE as a launching pad to Hollywood, just like Sable and the Bella Twins tried doing before her.
She didn't even specify if it was a TV or PPV match, or articulate WHY she liked it. This was back when WWE had the absolute zero-est standards for their women's roster and actively turned away or buried women who spent their whole lives wrestling or loving wrestling. I have so many random TV matches on my "favorite matches I like to rewatch" list, picking a random Divas match from 2010 isn't the actual problem. And please, what comments have I left on your posts have pissed you off? I'm curious.
@torukun1
If you disagreed with me you could've kept on moving, and ignored that post. But since you decided to reply with the worst fucking take ever, I'm gonna publicly say you can take that toxic mentality and shove it. Why isn't she allowed to say that's her favorite match, huh? because it isn't some overly talked about clinic that marks usually drool over? Or is it because it's a match that took place during a period where the women in wwe weren't taken seriously, and this somehow invalidates the match?
And yknow what, even if the match was bad, she was asked what her FAVORITE match was, not the Best match she saw, not "which match had the most influence", her FAVORITE. Favorite matches don't have to be good. For fucks sake one of my favorite matches is some insignificant match that was booked on a normal episode of Raw and yknow what? that's okay. because it's MY favorite and as long as I like it, it doesn't fucking matter how good/bad the actual match was.
and that gatekeeping bit? seriously?? that has to be the worst fucking thing I've heard since being apart of this wrestling fanbase. People like you are the exact reason we can't fucking enjoy things, why it's so fucking hard for anybody who isn't white, cishet, or 20+ years old to become fans of wrestling. gatekeeping my ass.
your comments on my posts in the past have pissed me off plenty but this? this is where I draw the line
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blue, navy blue, i'm as blue as i can be, cause my steady boy said "all of them", one hundred something questiiiions
1: How tall or short do you wish you were?I’d take a couple more inches but like this is fine2: What’s your dream pet? (Real or not)It would be so cool to have a snake…but a dog is also really good…3: Do you have a favorite clothing style?cool jackets are cool…for myself I like target man tshirts4: What was your favorite video game growing up?I had these Magic School Bus computer games that were truly excellent. there was one about whales and dolphins and one about rainforest animals5: What three things/people do you think of most each day:idk…the Majority of my thoughts are either very self-centered or just the song that it’s time to have in my head6: If you had a warning label, what would yours say?fuck idk. warning: occasional stupid bitch 7: What is your opinion on [insert person/thing here]?hmm! vague8: What is your Greek personality type? [Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, or Melancholic]I got sanguine on a quiz I took once and I like that because I like blood9: Are you ticklish?yeah, not Extremely tho10: Are you allergic to anything?guinea pigs, cats, pollen11: What’s your sexuality?i’m Gay12: Do you prefer tea, coffee, or cocoa?Tea13: Are you a cat or dog person?they are both good and i really like both…i’ll say dogs because i’ve been seeing a lot of very good ones lately + the cat allergy14: Would you rather be a vampire, elf, or merperson?VAMPIRE15: Do you have a favorite Youtuber?I watch beckiejbrown a lot and I think she’s cool16: How tall are you?5'7"17: If you had to change your name, what would you change it to?Benjamin..perhaps…but there’s too many bens so I guess I’ll just have to be Larl18: How much do you weigh? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!]between 144 and 150 pounds19: Do you believe in ghosts/spirits?eh…nah20: Do you like space or the ocean more?The ocean..has more animals in it21: Are you religious?non22: Pet peeves?when people call frogs venomous or spiders poisonous23: Would you rather be nocturnal or diurnal [opposite of nocturnal]?diurnal…i like Sunshine24: Favorite constellation?i like cassiopeia she’s spiky25: Favorite star?uhhhh I don’t have one26: Do you like ball-jointed dolls?i think they are..flexible?27: Any phobias or fears?MIRRORS IN THE DARK MIRRORS IN THE DARK scary. 28: Do you think global warming is real?yeah lol29: Do you believe in reincarnation?not really30: Favorite movie?hmmm. i liked inglorious basterds a lot but i’m mostly saying that because i can’t think of any movies that have made an especially big impression on me at the moment31: Do you get scared easily?..yes i’m sensitive32: How many pets have you own in your lifetime?1 frog 2 tortoises 4 guinea pigs & a lot of fish33: Blog rate? [You’ll rate the blog of the one who’s asking.]8/10 content is great but posting frequency is too spread out34: What is a color that calms you?green like my room at home35: Where would you like to travel and/or live?I want to go to like..australia. or some other place with cool and weird animals!36: Where were you born?atlanta :P37: What is your eye color?brown38: Introvert or extrovert?IntroVert39: Do you believe in horoscopes and zodiacs?not really but i like to read things about them anyway40: Hugs or kisses?WHY not both41: Who is someone you would like to see/visit right now?clarissa…so far away…an entire TIMEZONE42: Who is someone you love deeply?Antonie Hvan Leeuwenhoek43: Any piercings you want?maybe something extra on my ear?44: Do you like tattoos and piercings?they’re cool45: Do you smoke or have you eiver done so?i neiver have done so46: Talk about your crush, if you have one!sexy. very shapely calves. extremely good at calculus and physics and programming. 47: What is a sound you really hate?when my shoe scrapes on the sidewalk48: A sound you really love?the echoes from the main staircase in the mlc49: Can you do a backflip?no :(50: Can you do the splits?no51: Favorite actor and/or actress?i like..karla souza52: Favorite movie?this has been asked previously and i still don’t have a good answer. 53: How are you feeling right now?cool! kind of tired54: What color would you like your hair to be right now?uhh this color’s good55: When did you feel happiest?jeez idk that’s pretty hard to answer56: Something that calms you down?my green chair in my room at home57: Have any mental disorders? [Only ask this if you know the user doesn’t mind!]i do not58: What does your URL mean?it’s vaguely homestucky59: What three words describe you the most?cool. sexy. innovative.60: Do you believe in evolution?hell yeah61: What makes you unfollow a blog?content that i don’t like or no content for a long time62: What makes you follow a blog?content that i like63: Favorite kind of person:cool person64: Favorite animal(s):guinea pigs. orcas. cane toads. naked mole rats.65: Name three of your favorite blogs.teensplop.blogspot.com is my ultimate favorite blog ever. my favorite tumblrs are of like random people who i follow and i would feel weird @ing them66: Favorite emoticon:girl with carrots67: Favorite meme:bode was pretty good68: What is your MBTI personality type?i think i got infp when i took it69: What is your star sign?capricorn70: Can your dog roll over on command, if you have a dog?i don’t have a dog :(71: What outfit out of all your clothes do you like to wear the most?dark gray vneck from target and my Excellent jeans72: Post a selfie or two?i’ll do that..later73: Do you have platform shoes?no i’m tall74: What is one random but interesting fact about yourself?my blood type is A positive75: Can you do a front flip?into a pool or on a trampoline76: Do you like birds?hell yeah! i wanted to be an ornithologist in 6th grade and if that ended up being my life i would be satisfied and happy77: Do you like to swim?Yeah Put Me In The Water78: Is swimming or ice skating more fun to you?hmm. i guess swimming? ice skating is very fun though. and it has to be the correct context of swimming like the water is clean and i can swoop around in it79: Something you wish didn’t exist:*****es80: Some thing you wish did exist:my huge future muscles81: Piercings you have?one in each earlobe82: Something you really enjoy doing:dancing in a loud bar83: Favorite person to talk to:different people have different good talking qualities but there is a special kind of conversation i can only hold with my sister84: What was your first impression of Tumblr?this sure is The Place For Fanart85: How many followers do you have?15086: Can you run a mile within ten minutes?hmm…i feel like yes but i would be very tired after87: Do your socks always match?almost always yes88: Can you touch your toes and keep your legs straight completely?i used to be able to but no longer89: What are your birthstones?i think turquoise?90: If you were an animal, which one would you be?something sneaky and timid and nocturnal91: If a flower could aesthetically represent you, what kind would it be?it has 5 smooth white petals and a smooth green stem and i was so into it for like some time in second grade92: A store you hate?urban outfitters93: How many cups of coffee can you drink in one day?ideally zero94: Would you rather be able to fly or read minds?fly95: Do you like to wear camo?not particularly96: Winter or summer?summer for sure..i like Sunlight97: How long can you hold your breath for?i don’t feel like testing this rn98: Least favorite person?let’s say johnny rives99: Someone you look up to:my veterinarian cousin is cool100: A store you love?binders is pretty cool101: Favorite type of shoespumas 102: Where do you live?in a College Town103: Are you a vegetarian or vegan? If so, why?no i love MEAT104: What is your favorite mineral or gem?star sapphires are pretty cool?105: Do you drink milk?on occasion106: Do you like bugs?yeah :)107: Do you like spiders?yeah :)108: Something you get paranoid about?people thinking i shouldn’t be in a place109: Can you draw:yeah i think so110: Nosiest question you have ever been asked?nothing comes to mind111: A question you hate being asked?what kind of music do you like?112: Ever been bitten by a spider?maybe…i had this huge itchy leg bump the past few days that i think might have been from that113: Do you like the sound of waves at the beach?yah it’s nice114: Do you prefer cloudy or sunny days?mmm sunny115: Someone you’d like to kiss or cuddle right now:Antonie Hvan Leeuwenhoek116: Favorite cloud type:Ummm ones that are interestingly shaped! not just stratus. everything else is cool117: What color do you wish the sky was?blue is good118: Do you have freckles?yah119: Favorite thing about a person:do people like actually have an answer to this in mind120: Fruits or vegetables?VEGETABLES121: Something you want to do right now:eat dessert122: Is the ocean or sky prettier?mmm sky!123: Sweet or sour foods?sweet…124: Bright or dim lights?uhh depends on the mood125: Do you believe in a certain magical creature?…no?126: Something you hate about Tumblr:some of the discussions on here happen in really weird and negative ways but i’m pretty much never involved so whatever127: Something you love about Tumblr:lots of nice content128: What do you think about the least?i don’t fucking know since i’m not thinking about it129: What would you want written on your tombstone?something about science contributions maybe130: Who would you like to punch in the face right now?i’m not in a really violent mood rn131: What is something you love but also hate about yourself?nothing comes to mind132: Do you smile with your teeth showing for pictures?yeah133: Computer or TV?computer IS tv134: Do you like roller coasters?yeah :D135: Do you get motion sickness or seasickness?sometimes…not recently136: Are your ears lobed or attached?lobed137: Do you believe in karma?eh138: On a scale of 1-10, how attractive would you say you are?this really varies but like in the middle somewhere. not a 1 and not a 10 for sure139: What nicknames do you have/have had?sarah calls me em…that’s it140: Did you have any pretend or imaginary friends?hmm sarah and i had an imaginary little sister named lucille and an imaginary dog named ruby141: Have you ever seen a therapist/shrink?non142: Would you say you are a good or bad influence to others?i try to be a good influence?143: Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts/help?i like…giving ;)144: What makes you angryjohnny rives145: How many languages do you speak fluently?One146: Do you prefer boys, girls, and/or non-binaries?i’m a lesbian147: Are you androgynous?hmm i think i’ve reached that somewhat148: Favorite physical thing about yourself:i like..my feet149: Favorite thing about your personality:i try to…be nice150: Name three people you would like to talk to right now in person.julia clarissa sarah151: If you could go back into time and live in one era, which would you choose?i’m good staying here thank u152: Do you like BuzzFeed?it can be entertaining but i don’t think it’s good153: How did you meet your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/partner? [If you have one.]introduced by a mutual friend is the most basic explanation154: Do you like to kiss others’ foreheads or hands for platonic reasons?yeah!155: Do you like to play with others’ hair?yah156: What embarrasses you?being in the gym157: Something that makes you nervous/anxious:the gym158: Biggest lie you have ever told:i can’t say it here…it’s illegal159: How many people are you following?130160: How many posts do you have on your blog(s)?4,507161: How many drafts do you have on your blog(s)?2162: How many likes do you have on your blog(s)?27,596 wow163: Last time you cried and why:thursday night and i have no Fucking clue164: Do you have long or short hair?short165: Longest your hair has ever been:i think it got past my boobs in the first semester of 9th grade166: Why do you like, dislike, or have neutral feelings about religon?i don’t really have any religious affiliations at all so. neutral167: Do you really care how the universe and world was created?..yes? like i think it’s cool and stuff168: Do you like to wear makeup?Not like, regularly, but I like doing my 3am editorial looks169: Can you stand on your hands or head for more than thirty seconds?No170: Did you answer the questions you were asked truthfully?mostly. i didn’t think Too Deeply
@shovelthefries
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