#please vote and reblog!

[darcymariaphoster]

Choose Your Own Adventure: Part Two

“I’m fine,” Lukas replies nonchalantly. “I’m always extra serious. What makes today any different?” 

Mathias hesitates and then clarifies, "You know where we are, right?"

Lukas blinks slowly at him. "Of course I do. Some of us frequent these trails." He sort of hopes he's convincing. He has been on these trails quite a few times. But the problem lies in the fact that the trail he's picked is one he actually hasn't hiked before. He'd looked it up, talked to other people in the area, and knew that it was a really pretty hike. He'd wanted to impress Mathias. He’s not entirely sure if it’s working or not; his friend being loud and cheerful actually makes it hard for Lukas to read him. 

“I’m just checking,” Mathias replies and if he’s nervous, Lukas can’t hear it in his voice. They pack their things again and continue on. “So, the book that I’m reading. I’m pretty sure the main character’s girlfriend is a vampire.”

“That wasn’t an obvious part of the plot? What kind of book did you choose?” Lukas snorts, rolling his eyes.

Mathias scoffs. “Some young adult novel. The back didn’t reveal much, one of those ‘but she has a dark secret that could destroy them both’, sort of lines. I had a hunch, but I wasn’t sure so I just had to look into it. Anyway, it still hasn’t been explicitly stated, and I’m something like halfway through the book.”

“I would have given up by now,” Lukas admits, amused. "How is it still not revealed but also so heavily hinted at?" And Mathias is off, describing his book in detail. He's animated when he talks, hands always moving, and his expressions sometimes say more than he does. He's interesting. Lukas nods along, doing his best to pay attention and comment where necessary. The book sounds horrendous, and he can’t help but snicker at the idea of Mathias being curled up on the couch, absolutely absorbed in it. 

“What are you reading?” Mathias asks when he’s finished talking. “Give me a sneak peek?” And who can resist a puppy dog pout like that? 

They chat mindlessly for some time, and then Mathias looks up at the sky. “Something wrong?”

“Well, it’s…getting late,” Mathias mutters, looking around. 

Oh, there is no way that Lukas is going to tell Mathias that he’s gotten them lost. He doubts that would earn him any brownie points. “You said you wanted to make a weekend out of it, right?” he chooses to ask instead.

Mathias’s eyes go wide as he turns back to Lukas. “I mean, I suppose I did… I just… Didn’t realise you were going to take me up on that. I didn’t bring the gear for it.” 

Lukas raises an eyebrow. “Not even emergency gear? Are you sure you’re a seasoned hiker?” He feels like he’s on the brink of discovering something about Mathias, if he could just egg him on enough. Maybe not the smartest ways of getting to know someone, but their friendship hadn’t been built on conventionality. 

“Of course I have emergency gear,” Mathias scoffs, the tips of his ears turning red. They’d been tinged pink from the sun, but now Lukas can tell that he’s blushing. 

"Then I don't see the problem," Lukas replies with a shrug. "We can find somewhere to hunker down. Eat some, rest, start again in the morning." Mathias rolls his eyes, glancing through the trees to his right. It's the first time they could properly see the horizon, and with the view came the realization that they'd made it a decent way up the mountainside. "Come on," Lukas prompts, heading towards the view. 

But Mathias doesn't follow and he pauses to look back at him curiously. "I dunno… We should probably just pitch camp right here." 

Lukas shakes his head. "It'll be fine. You have to come see the sunset over here first. It's not like we have tents to put up or anything." Still, Mathias hesitates, so Lukas teases, "What, are you scared?"

[labyrynth]

that post about how young people use computers these days (or rather, how they don’t, instead preferring to use their phones) got me wondering

by computer skills i mean basic skills like typing, navigating menus/directories/folders, using word processors or other programs, using removable storage, etc. NOT computer science or programming.

[queenie-in-the-beanie]

I feel like now is a really good time to mention that freedom of speech in the US has exemption towards threats or incitements of serious crimes such as, mmm just off the top of my head here, political assassination.

Like very funny jokes guys but let's tone it down to non-arrestable levels here, okay? Cool, cool. Don't let the feds get ya. Your accounts and posts are literally public, easily monitored, reported, and tracked back to you. This isn't a conspiracy, this legit happens in these situations, gang.

[thefallling]

Dearest fellow tumblrinas, Do I have a poll for you!

Got curious.

Anyways please reblog for larger sample size

If you do I'll give you a big hug :D (with consent)

(ok just now realizing it says "less that 100" I mean less than! oopsies

[akhuna01]

So my village has a charity christmas fair on the last sunday before christmas every year. My sister is in charge of organizing prizes for the lottery/tombola, and she always writes to local businesses to donate items, gift cards, whatever. The companies are usually really generous, it's awesome. First prize is s flat screen tv from a electronics dealer.

We have one shop for home decor that's sadly giving up its business, and donated a whole box of glass decorations.

Among them, this glass shrimp. In a fancy jewelry box.

I'm the only one who loves him 🥺❤. My sister wanted to throw it in the bin because 'who would want a glass shrimp'.

So.

Edit: sold!

[yukipri]

For curiosity's sake...

[to-dance-beneath-the-diamond-sky]

US folks living in New York, Wisconsin, Connecticut, or Rhode Island:

today (April 2, 2024) is the Democratic primary election! please please go vote against genocide!

the Vote Uncommitted campaign is sending Biden a message that voters demand a permanent ceasefire now! How it works is people vote uncommitted or undecided or other in large numbers, which will show the democrats that they WILL NOT win the general election in the Fall and Trump will become president unless Biden and the rest of the Dems immediately change their policy on Israel and Gaza. Michigan already turned out over 100,000 people voting uncommitted, which is MORE than the margin Biden won MI by last election and more than the margin Trump won MI by in 2016. Voting Uncommitted matters! So if you’re a US citizen who’s able to vote, make sure you do!!

each state has a different ballot option so please refer to this graphic to see how you should vote in your state!

[blackflash9]

Beware Project 2025: A Disaster in the Making

This is Project 2025, and America's future hinges on the people's vote this November. THIS IS NOT A JOKE. WAKE UP AND GO VOTE PEOPLE!

[sydaney-foxay]

Ykw, I'm curious.

Please answer honestly and truthfully.

PLEASE REBLOG FOR SAMPLE SIZE

[nausikaaa]

UK folks, the general election is set for the 4th of July 2024!

get registered to vote NOW! you must be registered by the 18th of June in order to be able to vote in this election.

check your constituency, as the lines have been redrawn.

check how your current MP has voted in regards to Israel and Palestine.

look into tactical voting; which party in your constituency is the most likely to beat the tories.

check you have a valid photo ID- if you don't, you can get a Voter Authority Certificate.

register for a postal vote if you don't want to/can't physically go the polls.

let's get the tories out!

[theminecraftbee]

for anyone wondering where i've been: i got... distracted... by a potential huge project. I was considering running a mcrp project/smp project, inspired by stuff like fan life series servers, with the rest of the sexyman team! but... a different one. a very specific one, even.

now, I'm aware there are probably outstanding questions, so if you're uncertain, please read more event/server details below the cut and see if it interests you!

I don't know anything about Survivor–what would this show even be like?

so if you know nothing about survivor, it's easy to think it's a show about surviving on a deserted island. it is that, but it's not mainly that. survivor, at its heart, is a social deception game, about making close alliances, betraying people, and social dynamics under pressure–hence why i suspect it would be a great fit for mcrp.

the way the show would be structured is this: a certain number of contestants would be placed on a (slightly modified) survival server, set up to be difficult to survive on. they are placed into two "tribes", the teams for the first half of the show. every episode, they would spend time with their tribes bonding, surviving, searching for secrets, and base building. then, they would compete in challenges. the tribe that loses the immunity challenge must go to tribal council, where they vote on which member to send home. this continues with the tribes eventually merging together into one tribe and immunity becoming individual before there are only two contestants left. at that time, they go in front a jury of their former fellow contestants, who will determine who the sole survivor is.

while challenge performance is one key to winning (as it prevents you from being a target in the first place), the other, bigger key, as you can likely see, is forming alliances and voting blocks strategically to get your opponents voted out and yourself kept in. this makes a great vehicle for social emergent storytelling, where narratives emerge about who is honest, who is a liar, who is good at the social game, who is bad at it, and what people will do in order to become sole survivor.

in other words: it's kind of like what current-day mcrp is ALREADY about. except its a gameshow also, and the very construction of the thing is designed to cause tensions by its very nature.

it's great! and you wouldn't be required to know anything about survivor–our host would explain to the audience all of the mechanics as they came up, as would production staff to the players.

You keep calling it "a show"–what do you mean by that?

the result of this project would be an edited youtube series, like survivor, of likely around twelve episodes. each episode would show footage from the game, as well as a lot of "confessionals" shots of the players explaining their opinions, before ending in tribal council! unlike most mcrp series, this would not be a multiple pov affair. it would be one tightly edited project. (this editing, for the record, is the largest overhead; we expect the amount of footage to go through to end up being in the hundreds of hours combined between all the players.)

it's possible that after the show's finale releases we'll release the players to make their own highlights from any footage they take. but the product we're hoping to make is just a single TV show's worth!

what exactly does applying to be a contestant require?

if we get enough interest, once we have enough of the required plugins and builds created and have a better sense of gameplay, we will put out a casting call form. while this will ask a number of questions to help us get to know you as a potential player, you're going to be REQUIRED to have the following things: a tumblr blog that you can link us to, the ability to record an audition tape in minecraft to send to us (so that we can get an idea of what audio we'd be working with, mostly), enough free time for us to be able to schedule recording sessions into, and a willingness to agree to some rules about keeping things secret until the finale airs and about rp etiquette. that's it! there are no other requirements–you don't have to know survivor, you don't have to already do mcyt or stream, you don't have to have friends, none of it, and while we'll ask you for those details, we're going to be looking for a large blend of people from across mcyt! anyone (who can send us mostly clean audio) can be considered!

EDIT: we would ALSO REQUIRE YOU BE AT LEAST 18. sorry i forgot this before! this is for a number of reasons i don't want to get into, but will be prominent on the actual applications.

what exactly would being a production staff member entail?

we're mainly looking for two things in production staff: a willingness to run replaymod for us and act as cameramen by following contestants around getting footage on the actual recording days, and a willingness to work with us on what's likely to be a fairly intense editing and "scripting" period during and after recording, during which we're going to have to scrub through massive amounts of footage and form it into a coherent narrative. we may, depending on how bad we realize we've bitten off more than we can chew, also end up looking for build team members for the production crew. if these things sound fun to you (they sound fun to me god help me), then go ahead and select this option! just know it's mutually exclusive with playing; no one in the production staff will be considered for the contestants. this includes my friends and myself who've already agreed to help me.

these applications would come out before the casting call, since even before casting call we're going to need to do playtests and dry runs and have things mostly ready. so keep an eye out!

will this be run on your blog?

nope we're going to make a new blog (and youtube channel) (and branding!) for this eventually, just want to interest check before we go through all the branding steps. (also, i've even gotten us a specific gmail for this that we will likely end up using for certain communications.)

for now that's all the FAQ i think that is required. let me know if you have more! and i hope you all are interested in this baby of a project that's taken over my mind for the past few weeks!

[pepsinister]

I hate everyone else’s follower count polls because they usually break up the categories in a way that naturally creates spikes in the distribution, so here’s mine: