#reading my posts from 2015 and i was so annoying but i was FREE

[laurelhell]

god i miss this place

[elanorpam]

Hey, ive been a fan of your cultstuck series since i first read it 10 years ago and its one that i hold dear along woth toastyglow and their siblings' works. Given that we are all adults now with very busy lives, i dont expect you to kerp up with an old project like writing a fan novel fpr free, but i am curious as what ur current plants for earthbent are, if there are any atm.

(Tbh id be happy with any answer you provide, whether its a detailed outline, an unsure shrug, an excited wink hinting at a deadline or an announcement of permanent hiatus. Youve given so much with your writing, thst i just want you to be happy with whatever plans u have)

hey there! i'm going to go with unsure shrug as an answer here.

see, I did have a detailed outline for cultstuck-- i wrote it all down at around ...2015? very soon after the second eridan chapter, and sent it to my beta, who then proceeded to ghost me forever. I was already sensing she was growing disinterested in the fic/the fandom, giving constant excuses, and I myself was dealing with an anxiety/depression combo that would sharply nosedive by the time the finale came around, so i just... let it go. She didn't care. I wasn't in a good mental place to care. We went our separate ways.

I decided to take a mental health sabbatical, and now, after a few years of sertraline and therapy, the thought of picking it back up is very, very far down my list of priorities. I have so many other fics I want to write, for media which hasn't let me this profoundly down! And also, Cultstuck was conceptualized in the post-cascade hiatus, in chat logs and rough outlines, and was never supposed to take later canon into account unless it dropped any interesting, matching lore...

...but late act 6 took such a dump on the characters and the setting that it took the joy right out of playing on my patch of sandbox, fenced off as it was. And I couldn't connect with the Retcon timeline at all, but some of its developments are so popular and so deeply entrenched that I hesitate to contradict them even though i kind of hate the whole thing and never meant to take it into account?

Let's take the strongest example: Davekat. Dave and Karkat in Cultstuck were never meant to be anything more than mutually annoying acquaintances connected only indirectly via Terezi-- Dave was to be her moirail, and aro-ace besides. This was because for the entirety of the comic, that was the only vibe I got from Dave as a character, and from his interactions with Karkat as a whole-- he and Karkat felt too similar in mutually unpleasant ways, like a cousin that's just enough like you to give you second-hand embarrassment. So by the point the comic was playing coy with pushing the New Dave and New Karkat action figures together, you couldn't get me to care about Davekat if you put a gun to my head. This really hasn't changed in the least. And that means whenever I think of dealing with disappointed Davekat fans in the future of the fic, I just feel an all-encompassing, soul-deep exhaustion.

but i also don't want to drop the fic altogether, for some reason? Like, I might not feel this way forever. So idk, i'm keeping my options open i guess. Subscribe to the fic/series and maybe 10 years from now you'll get a notification like a holiday miracle. Who knows.

[ltwharfy]

"Bob's Burgers" Season 5 Episode Ranking Rewatch (Long Post)

So, I've been rewatching "Bob's Burgers" from the beginning and ranking the episodes using the spreadsheet that @babsvibes created! If you want to know why I'm doing this or how I view the 1-5 rating scale, you can check out my Season 1 post! If you want to check out any of the other seasons, I've been using the "bob's burgers episode ranking rewatch" tag for all of them.

Now, on to Season 5:

Average (Mean) Score: 4.57

Mode (\Most Common) Ranking: 5

Ranking Breakdown: 13 5s 7 4s 1 3

Season as a whole thoughts:

I'm so amused by how similar this season's average score was to Season 4- it's only .02 less than Season 4 (the current leader)! This certainly goes along with one of my main thoughts about "Bob's Burgers", and one the things that lead to me doing this rewatch: that it has been a really consistently good show. This was just another consistently funny season.

In the first couple of seasons, I mentioned my memories of watching the show as it was new and my growth as a fan. Here's my fandom memory tied to Season 5. This was during the time that Loren Bouchard and the case were going around doing Bob's Burgers Live" performances in theaters across the country- and I was lucky enough to see them at the Chicago Theatre on March 20, 2015 (I found an email about it. I don't have the date memorized!) And that might play into the rankings for two episodes in this season and one next season. At that event, they showed a completed clip of the then-unaired "Eat, Spray, Linda", an early animatic clip of "The Hauntening", and did a partial table-read of "Housetrap". So, those three episodes would probably always be 5s in my book just for that special memory. (Although, I also think they are really great episodes!)

Some thoughts on specific episodes (and feel free to ask if you want my thoughts on an episode I didn't comment on):

"Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl": Such a fun episode! So many great songs! But what it really made me appreciate this time was Courtney's character, and the development of her relationship with Gene. It would've been so easy for them to have just made her a one-shot character, or to have kept her as being his annoying ex, like she was in the first half of this story, but the end of this episode really marks the beginning of them being friends- and I like that they went in that direction! I think Gene kind of gets the short end of the stick when it comes to friendship- we rarely see him just hanging out with his friends like Tina and her group or Louise with Rudy and the Pesto Twins. But I think his relationship with Courtney is a sweet one that I have been underrating.

"Tina and the Real Ghost": One of my favorite Halloween episodes- I love that it's so offbeat for a Halloween episode. It's not about costumes or trick or treating or frights-yeah, it's a ghost story but the ghost is a pretty obvious joke and (as Tina points out at the end) it's really a way to tell us about the characters and their wants/needs. The scene in the butterfly garden will always crack me up. And I have a cousin named Jeff, so I love Louise saying it was the dumbest name she could think of for a ghost.

"Friends With Burger-fits": If you ask me what the most important episode for Rudy's character development is, my answer wouldn't be "Carpe Museum" or "Bridge Over Troubled Rudy" or "The Amazing Rudy"- it would be this episode, where we learn that he wants to be the bad boy of public radio like Elvis Mitchell. (I don't know if I am joking or not at this point.)

"Dawn of the Peck": Barely edges out "Turkey in a Can" as my favorite T-Day episode because I love Rudy and Mickey and I love the idea of them having T-Day dinner with the Belchers at the end.

"Midday Run": One of the sleeper hits of this season- I always forget how fun this one is! Just a great, fun school storyline! We learn more about Zeke and get the first reference to his crush on Tina. Rudy plays an interesting role in this episode as Tina's sidekick (and I think it's interesting that in "Fingers-loose", the next episode to focus on Tina as a hall monitor, Rudy doesn't appear to be one any more). Also, how come the fact the Bob's seen Edith naked doesn't come up more often? It just seems like it should.

"Speakeasy Rider": Another sleeper hit! I basically forgot about the existence of this episode, but it is fantastic! A great Tina and Louise in conflict plot! The introduction of Sasha! The One Eyed Snakes are back! Gus has a big role (how frickin' great is Gus?!?! I love him!) So much good stuff!

"Late Afternoon in the Garden of Bob and Louise": This is a mixed review 3. There are some things I really love in this episode. "Happy Place, Crappy Place" is a banger. Bob is so cute in his English lady garden hat, talking to his plants. And the scene where Bob and Louise make up is a classic. But I'm not a huge fan of the standard Logan and Louise dynamic of trading insults and antagonizing each other- and this episode has a LOT of that. So, this episode isn't really my jam. (But I know that a lot of other people love that dynamic and love this episode, and that's awesome! As the spreadsheet says, these are just my Personal Rankings, I don't claim to be putting out objective universal truths here.)

"Can't Buy Me Math": I love the way both storylines end in this one! The bowling alley scene is hilarious, and I love Bob stripping for Linda. One of my favorite aspects of Bob and Linda's relationship is that they are both pretty average looking people (I definitely have a Bob Belcher-esque body myself) but they clearly find each other hot as fuck, and the striptease scene really epitomizes that. One of the best Boblin moments!

"Adventures in Chinchilla-sitting": A great "the kids and their friends have an adventure!" episode, and a I love those. A particular highlight of this one: Gene's jokes at Tammy's expense. "We get it, you have email!" and "You're in 8th grade? I thought you were someone's mom!" I love how all the Belcher kids zing Tammy in their own, unique style. Also, "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII wish my radio worked!"

"Housetrap": One joke I really remember cracking me up when seeing the tableread at "Bob's Burgers Live" was Linda's line about the clocks: "Spooky. They all stopped at 3:13. Oh, wait, they all moved." Not sure why that amuses me so much, but it does!

"Hawk & Chick": I actually posted when I was rewatching this one, but man, this is a fantastic episode! I honestly think it might be a top 10 or 15 episode for me. I knew it was a good, emotional Louise and Bob episode but I forgot how funny it was- Gene in particular has some good lines throughout! And I love Koji! There is just something really sweet and joyful about him; I hope they come up with a reason to bring him back for a third time!

Random Thoughts (stuff that doesn't affect the ratings):

If I thought of any random thoughts while rewatching this season, I don't remember them! So here are some memories of seeing "Bob's Burgers Live" at the Chicago Theatre:

Each of the cast members did a little standup set. I can remember a little bit from all of them except Eugene Mirman, although I do remember that he did some of the same bits from the Netflix special he had at the time ("Vegan on his Way to the Complain Store").

A Dan Mintz joke: "When I was a kid, I would always ask my parents 'who's your favorite kid?' And they would tell me 'we don't have a favorite kid' And that hurt my feelings because I was an only child."

John Roberts sang a song about how people like Linda more than him.

H. Jon Benjamin did a seemingly improvised bit holding a Walgreens bag containing a home drug test for cocaine that you can buy there.

Kristen Schaal did a bit that was, in part, a one woman show about Emily Dickinson. She also joked about attending Northwestern University in Chicago (along the lines of "So if you saw a weird girl mumbling to herself on the L back in 1998, that was me! You missed out on all this!")

There was an audience question part at the end and someone asked the cast if they would help him propose to his girlfriend. Which they not only did, but improvised a little skit about! I cannot remember the whole premise of it, but I do remember a bit where Eugene and Kristen were playing friends of the guy and girl respectively and were making fake small talk with them. Eugene to the guy: "Soooo....sports?" Kristen to the girl: "Soooo...bras?"

Well, thank you for travelling back in time to March 2015 with me! Who knows what I'll talk about in my Season 6 post! (Probably Season 6 of "Bob's Burgers"...)

[strawberrytalia]

omg! i wanna do a few:

top 5 dc characters!

top 5 comic series!

top 5 animals!

OMG hi ella!!! 🫶 OH THESE ARE HARD

Top 5 dc characters (omg I feel bad ranking them)

Duke Thomas - who’s surprised 😭 no but he’s without a doubt my fave bat. i think there are just so many inspiring things about him, and he represents the aspect of comics I love most - stepping up and doing what’s right even when all odds are against you

Carol Ferris - I used to talk about her 24/7 when I was heavy in my GL phase, but I never stopped loving her. I love that she’s deeply flawed and angry and passionate, and she gets to be messy. Also she influenced me to be more comfortable expressing myself femininely which was hard as a brown girl ngl anyways carol <333

Ollie Queen - LMAO idk why but I feel so cliche putting him, but he’s my favorite Arrow and he always has been. I relate to him a lot. He��s really introverted, in his own head despite being is outspoken, he loves nature, cares deeply, and he isolates when he’s sad. I also like his very black-and-white thinking, esp when it gets challenged. live laugh love ollie queen

Talia Al Ghul - I won’t say much about her lmao bc talia stans are like sharks here, but she is also very important to me. Like you ever get that character that just seizes your heart???? Yeah that’s Talia for me 🥺 i don’t post abt her often either, but i love her sm

Khalid Nassour - it’s hell being his fan, but i’ll do it anyways 😭 so Khalid is rlly interesting bc i read his “cool” appearances first then read Dr Fate 2015 where he was more of an annoying 22 yr old. And it was so satisfying watching him grow from someone who was more narrow-minded and whitewashed to an intelligent, capable, and enlightened person. I really enjoy his character’s spin on what fate means in regards to one’s identity, heritage, lifestyle, and faith.

Top 5 comic series (THIS IS ALSO HARD OMG)

Day of Vengeance - this is the one currently living rent free in my head rn bc it’s so FUNNY and random, but also a really interesting storyline in regards to magic in the DCU. It’s just so enjoyable watching this group of mystics handle the hugest threat ever and barely get along, and they’re all weird, and then Lori joins and she’s like the group teenager and it’s so funny

We Are Robin - I honestly wish it was longer ngl but I really wanted to see more of the group together and their stories, especially Izzy and Dre. The premise and duration of this story is SO dear to me bc ofc Duke, but also I love watching kids band together against authorities bc they love their city sm.

Batman: Son of the Demon - as a Talia and sometimes Brutalia fan, how can I not 😭 It’s so sad and actually heartwrenching how happiness was so close to them but taken away, and how much Bruce and Talia sacrificed for each other because they are both loving people, they just love in the wrong way

Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters - perfect Ollie. Perfect depiction of his mind. Really good storytelling. SHADOOOOO she served cunt and dc didn’t like that so they ruined her. Her initial appearance was so charming i literally made it my header. I like ethical dilemmas and the one in this story is so good. Also shoutout to Eddie fr

Green Lantern: Blackest Night - OKAY THIS IS THE ONE I WAS AFRAID OF SHARING 😭 I’m SORRY i love this for so many reasons, nostalgia mostly bc I re-read it over and over again at the peak of my hal obsession era idk why, I like the giant white entity, I like when all the Corps leaders have to team up and they’re all side-eyeing each other sm, and I also love when random heroes get involved and help save the day like Mera, Ray, Barry, Diana, Grant, watching them all try to survive it while battling grief in front of them. It is NOT THE BEST GL COMIC EVER but it’s one of my faves.

Top 5 animals (I love this question!!!!)

CATS 🫶 I used to have a cat when I lived in the states!! his name was austin, he was 8 years old, and he was the cutest thing ever. we had to give him away when we moved 😭 i still hate that my mom did that sm

SEALS!!!!!!! 🦭

Orcas 🐋🐋🐋 I like them a lot, they’re so adorable

Otters!!! 🦦

Flamingos 🦩 (hehe my username for a reason) they’re pink and i like all things pink also they’re so pretty

[palettepainter]

So I have a lot of doodle ideas for Muppets but naturally with commissions and my job at my parents warehouse I don’t have free time all the time, so instead I think I’m gonna start just putting my ideas into text posts so that way I at least have them written down, and that way you guys get to read em and share your thoughts if you want to add anything!

So back on my Miss Piggy being the twin to Miss Poogy brainrot, have some lil mini headcannons about this idea:

-Based off the 2015 show and Miss Piggy’s description of her family life. Miss Piggy implies that any of her siblings, when they got hurt, got sent to the butchers. While I don’t think the Muppets would go quite that dark, I am gonna take that line and assume that Piggy had a rough childhood from the get go, a total contrast to her now rich celebrity life style. Warnings ahead for bad childhood but it doesn’t go into physical abuse territory 

-Piggy and her twin, Poogy, where born to two poor, average farmers from Texas. The couple had been hoping for two strong boys to help around with the chores, so they weren’t very impressed when instead they got twin girls. In spite, the two simply named them Piggy and Poogy. Piggy and Poogy come from a very, VERY large family and have a total of 8 older brothers (From oldest to youngest: Chucky, Buck, Horris, Boris, Dylan, Brad, Brutis, Luke). Piggy and Poogy grew up with old hand-me downs from their brothers, old toys from their brothers, and struggling to get to the dinner table before their brothers hogged all the food. Even as Piggy and Poogy got older, their brothers where absolute terrors to their little sisters, constantly pulling pranks which have left both of them untrustworthy of their brothers, even as adults. One time, the boys left Piggy and Poogy lost in the cornfield all through the night, and the two spent it curled up together shivering and scared. They begrudgingly retrieved them the next morning

-As a child Piggy was the more emotional, feeble twin. Piggy often put up with her annoying older brothers with an eyeroll, trying to pretend their words and pranks didn’t hurt her as much as they did. Pogoy on the other hand, learnt to be curt and snappy, just like her dear old brothers. Poogy was a menace and the classic troubled outcast at school. When the twins started at school Poogy was quick to establish her place as the playground bully, if you where on top no one could boss you around after all..but people could knock you down. Poogy is an absolute terror: she steals peoples lunch from their boxes, she scribbles on peoples work, she sticks bugs down peoples shirts, she throws dirt at the kids on the monkey bars, she’ll wrestle with the other kids - a bit too roughly - and had bitten other kids on several occasions. Piggy always tried to keep herself out of the spotlight when at school, but thanks to her twin Poogy a lot of the kids avoided her out of fear. Piggy grew up very lonely without making any genuine friends 

-Piggy was not immune to her sisters treatment, Poogy was just as rough with her. Poogy’s whole tough love act with Piggy was a means to try and get Piggy to fight back, to grow a spine and stand up for herself - no one was gonna pity some baby fat snotty nose cry baby. It didn’t help that Poogy didn’t have the greatest of examples - having 8 older brothers, Poogy only knows how to express affection through snark, head noogies, and half hearted insults. Even when Poogy was genuinely trying to be nice to Piggy, it still came off as mean and hurtful. While Poogy wasn’t as vicious with her twin as she was other kids, Piggy was still subjected to the “Why’re you hitting yourself?” styx, Poogy stuffing a spider under her pillow, Poogy dumping dirt into her hair at breaktime, and jabs at Piggy’s size. Piggy got given the nickname babyfat by her brothers, and Poogy soon joined in. Piggy to this day will become outraged to the point of violence if she senses a jab at her weight 

-The moment Piggy was old enough to leave that awful old farm she took what little belongs she had and left for the city, determined to make it big so she could stuff it in her stupid families faces. After taking on any odd job that would take her (Piggy has done jobs such as waitressing, babysitting, taxi driver, shop clerk and more). After a while she successfully snags a job working for a fashion company working at front desk, it took some time but Piggy climbs up the ladder till she becomes a models apprentice, and it’s here Piggy discovers her true calling. With her southern charm, perfect supple skin and luscious natural blonde locks, Piggy soars to fame. As her modelling career gradually takes off she begins to receive cameo offers in movies, Piggy bites her lip and accepts them with glee, hoping to one day score a lead acting role. When that doesn’t happen, even after years of doing smaller parts in movies, Piggy begins to feel disheartened. Until she meets a travelling Bear, a whatever and chicken, lead by a frog, on their way to Hollywood to achieve their dream.

-Piggy has not told anybody about her twin and her horrid horrid brothers, aside from a few very, very VERY close few: those few being Deadly and Kermit., and Floyd who learnt from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Poogy in turn rarely visits the studio, mostly cuz she feels there's no place for her there. The one time she did show up to visit was purely on accident. The band had been looking to potential hire some auxiliary talent for the band, and Poogy happened to be a pretty great at playing the axe. The interaction ended with Poggy leaving with a huff, and Piggy actually crying. She screams in Floyd’s face, and huffs back to her dressing room to sob into her velvet stress couch. Floyd sheepishly returned the next day to tell her the band wasn’t gonna hire Poogy, and Piggy relents and ends up explaining to Floyd that Poogy is her sister

-One day Piggy’s big brothers do come up to the city for business related purposes, they’ve turned the pathetic little dirt farm into a giant, rather successful business (which Piggy is not at all envious about or seething with rage over-). Her brothers just invite themselves into HER studio, have the gall to bring up memories of home as if they had a perfect little family life to the REST of the muppets crew, and then, they had to audacity to share laughs and chuckles with the crew like they where family. Floyd in particular, being Piggy’s sworn enemy, joins in on some of the laughs and jabs...but starts to grow quickly uncomfortable when the jabs start to become just a bit too mean and spiteful for his liking. Floyd spots how awkward and tense Piggy looks, and tells her brothers to cool it before they take the hint and leave. Piggy wasn’t quite as harsh with Floyd when he quietly asks if she’s okay, the two never spoke of the event afterwards

Other facts:

-Piggy’s family have a bit of bore in the bloodline, hence why Piggy has some freakish strength and an unbridled temper

-During her time as a babysitter Piggy became a regular babysitter to a little penguin named Summer, who she actually is quite fond of. So much so that when Piggy learnt Summer was looking for a job, Piggy practically yoinks Summer under her guiding wing to bequeath her wisdom. Summer works in the prop department 

-Floyd and Piggy actually met in their early adult years, back when Animal was still a baby. Piggy and her family had travelled up country for a farm show in hopes to seal some business deals. Piggy, having been living on her own at that point for 3 years is intent to avoid them at all costs. While rushing away to find some place to hide she stumbles upon Floyd and Animal apart from the crowd playing by a small lake. Summer and Animal, already nursery buddies, begin to play by themselves while Piggy sits on the grass. The two are at first awkward, but soon, but Piggy gradually relaxes, venting a little about family drama and Floyd agreeing with her. They part ways but don’t reunite till years later when they both end up in show bizz

-Poogy is in a band, the Moopets, a name she picked to spite Piggy and her rise to fame while she’s still working for tibs at bars. Poogy vows that she’ll be just as big as Piggy- no, better. And the moment she’s big and famous and Piggy is begging for an apology for cutting her out, Poogy will tell her where she can stick her dammned apology.....still, having a few friends is nice, and being in a band is pretty fun, it’s been her childhood dream afterall. Getting to go home to a cramped apartment with her bandmates, knowing she’ll always have these knuckle heads as her backup, she supposes it’s kinda nice 

-Poogy is BFF’s with Constantine, ex worlds most dangerous frog. Constantine lives with Denise, his not so secret partner, and Poogy teases the ever loving shit out of him for it you don’t even know. The two met at Rowlf’s tavern when Constantine was pulled away from fighting with Piggy. On the same night, Poggy realised her and her band happened to be getting drinks at the same time in the same place as Piggy, and that just made Poggy feel annoyed. The two had a moment of silence, before both saying “I hate miss Piggy” in sync - instant friendship formed. Poogy also thinks Constantine is kinda cool despite all the jabs she makes at him. Constantine reminds Poogy he can and will actually kill her is she doesn’t chill out with the teases and sass, but he’s kidding. Constantin actually likes having Poogy around cuz it gives him a release to just be his more natural, blunt, pessemistic self, cuz he knows Poogy can take it and even dish it back

-Poogy is a natural blonde like her sister, but she started dying her hair black in her teens and has done so ever since

-Poogy has gotten into trouble with the police before and developed unhealthy coping mechanisms as a teen, namely vandalism and shoplifting

-While Poggy’s rockband, the Moopets, have yet to take off, they are all genuinely passionate about what they do. While Constantine hasn’t touched an instrument since Primary School, he’s supportive to the best of his ability, but it’s not really enough. One day, when it an uncreative funk, Constantine sarcastically suggests getting a manager or something to help with the band, and his suggestion actually works. Poogy figured their was nothing to loose, so puts up small fliers on billboards, lamp posts and in shop windows, and no less then a day later does a young, gothic chick by the name of Darci boldly introduce herself and their new manag. It doesn’t take long for Poogy to like Darci, she’s got a lot of spunk and she respects that, Poogy and the whole band, along with Darci, form a very tightly knitted group

[ms-paint-idol-hell]

!! Pinned Info Post !!

Hi! Welcome to ms-paint-idol-hell on tumblr.com!!! If you're new here, or just checking this blog out, feel free to read up on what it's about right below!

1.) Firstly, let me introduce myself! I'm Oli, and I've been running this blog since I was 14. It's been my pride and joy since then, and I've been drawing here and there when I remember to since its inception in December of 2015.

2.) A lot of my recent drawings, as you can see, are NOT created in ms paint. This is because I am lazy and quite frankly have access to better drawing programs, and while I can still technically draw on ms paint if I wanted to, it's honestly sort of annoying because of the lack of useful features and, more importantly, LAYERS!!

EDIT: It has come to my attention that ms paint now has layers... now the only thing stopping me from primarily using it is the horrible sensitivity ms paint has on my pen, because now it likes to freak out when i hold it in the program, shocker.

3.) I'm not the only person on this blog!!! (As of the making of this post) I have two other buddies that share this blog with me, but those losers haven't posted in like two years, so I just pretend like they're not here most of the time. Besides, I made this blog, they can't take it from me or I'd maul them.

4.) At this point, this blog is just a Love Live!-centric doodle dump for me. Feel free to request something in the inbox, and I'll get to it eventually.

If you have any other questions or just wanna chat, the inbox is always open! Thank you for reading and have a totally tubular day!

[transition-with-the-torah]

Title: Jews Don't Count: How Identity Politics Failed One Particular Identity

Author: David Baddiel

Format / Cost: Audiobook (free via Libby). For reasons I don't know, my library only has access to the audiobook version, and it was approximately 2 hours and 48 minutes (categorized as 'nearly 3 hours'). It was author narrated and released at some point in 2021.

2021 wasn't forever ago, or anything, but also, it felt like recounting a slice of British Twitter from about 2015 to no later than October 2020 [and the release of a particular report about antisemitism within the Labour Party] happened so long ago. Granted, talking about antisemitism isn't exactly something that seems to not be relevant. The basic idea wasn't that hard to grasp - Jews are viewed by Progressives as not actually counting as a marginalized group - and unsurprisingly, a lot of the examples pull from British culture: that one football club and derogatory use of 'Yid', T.S. Eliot poems read on BBC that ignored antisemitic language, Roald Dahl and his estate's sort of apology over antisemitism while Roald Dahl Day is seemingly popular, casting non-Jewish people to play Jewish actors in specific theatrical productions (relating to BAME casting efforts), and the like.

(This has been tagged as #reviews for personal organization on my blog and may not be considered a complete or satisfying review by others. It continues under the read-more.)

It's not that Baddiel is outright incorrect about his examples and the message he's aiming for, but there's something about the method of delivering that message that seems annoying at times. It might be that one part really has a lot of Twitter and how some people have been Canceled (just not for antisemitism), which requires listening to tweets being quoted. (I really don't want to hear someone try to recreate a laugh like that again.) It might be that some textual phrasing winds up feeling very blunt and not that hard to interpret uncharitably. It might also be that post-October 7th, it seems odd to skip over antisemitism based on treating diaspora Jews as Israeli, loyal to Israel, or acceptable outlets for I/P frustrations because of Baddiel's 'I'm in the diaspora so who cares about Israel' approach.

Mostly, some parts feel like they're useful for non-Jews to get a sense of how antisemitism didn't magically stop with the Holocaust. The idea of a hierarchy of racisms - where the proximity to US based Black vs White racism is recognized as racism with racism against other groups descending in recognizability - might ruffle some feathers. On paper, the idea could work for some non-Black groups, particularly outside of the US with US ideas of racism taking up most of the oxygen, but the actual conversations Baddiel references about this seem to suffer from being Twitter based and may not feel reflective of Black experiences either. (To me, this idea of a hierarchy of racisms is about recognizing racism as happening, but the idea that different racisms are treated as more important than others may not feel true to lived experience.)

Overall, I think this book can be a conversation starter for some readers, but it's definitely not going to feel like it manages to cover everything. Viewing Jews as too rich, too socially powerful, and/or as too close to being White and therefore 'Jewish racism isn't a thing' can explain some aspects of antisemitism, but there were some moments where I thought looking at other conditionally-white groups and seeing similarities in not being 'fully white' might have worked better than contrasting with Black racism examples.

Posted: 18 March 2024.

[stormblessed95]

Hi stormy!! You once told us that you watched bts contents with your partner and you just implied that two members of the group are may be romantically involved and he somehow guessed the members you're talking about? 😂 I'm not sure if i remember correctly but i remember reading that post intensely and with huge envy 😭 i so relate to that tweet: "my love language is watching bts contents together" i always tried to watch bts with my mom and sister (because I'm single af duh) but they sometimes indulged me but it's quite rare. They just don't like seeing me in hyperfixation mode. I'm also lucky enough to have got one of my friends to watch gcfintokyo with me but she was not that impressed 😌. She has the same reaction when i excitedly rambled to her JK LENT HIS STUDIO FOR JIMIN TO DO HIS BIRTHDAY LIVE, but then i guess maybe because she didn't know jk and jimin like us and why is it significant. So far, she only has watched bts bon voyage with me. Even with her calm reactions, I was so thankful to have at least someone to talk about my favourite boys. Sometimes I'm clearly aware none of them will have the same reactions as me and i know it's not their fault. They just were not interested. So I'm terribly jealous of you 😭 you both are so cute btw and I'm more than interested if you talk about your personal love story. I'm just rambling my immature feelings 😂 sorry if this is annoying and sorry for my english too. Also stormy, if you can, will you suggest some old contents that i should watch? Whenever i have free time to watch bts contents I'm always indecisive. Which concert or shows do you think is a must-watch for army?

I do watch some concerts with my partner! Not all, sometimes when I say I'm waking up at 3 am to watch the BTS concert he looks at me like I'm crazy and is like "okay babe, well I love you. Enjoy. Wear headphones please" 🤣 but if it's a rewatch (like PTD on Disney+ or just older concerts and he is free at the time) he will sit and watch with me and so will our kids. Same if the concert is happening at a more reasonable hour our time. Lol or will we all sometimes watch MVs, or Dance practices or run bts together. Not all the time, but it's nice when it happens!

And yes, lol I don't remember at all now what we were watching when it came up, since it was a long time ago. I hadn't mentioned before anything about shipping at that time, but i remember saying something about how even though shipping is so weird, sometimes it seems like there could be something there between 2 of the members. And he just went "oh yeah, you mean Jungkook and Jimin right?" And I said "why did you say them??" And he just made some off hand comment about how it seems like they act around each other from the little he has seen in ways that make it seem like they love each other the way he loves me. So for him if someone in the band was dating each other, it only made sense (in his head) for that to be jikook. For extra context, he is a Hobi bias, JK bias wrecker. And Jungkook was the first member he noticed and paid attention to in the group too. The hickey sealed the deal for him. He is pretty darn convinced at this point lol

Absolutely watch all of Bon Voyage or Run BTS if you haven't already! As for shows or concerts, you should go back to the beginning and see those if you can too! Their red bullet tour! The live Trilogy tour from 2015 too! Literally pull a concert tour name out of a hat for them and you can't go wrong honestly. LYSY concerts are INCREDIBLE. Any of those would be a really really good watch. 5th muster was EXCELLENT and should definitely be watched in full. I mean like honestly, pick ANYTHING and you'll have a good time! If you need help finding links to anything let me know and I'll try to help!!

[sitp-recs]

hi :) i simply adore your blog and your fic recs are so spot on, you’ve made me fall back in love with drarry and hp. I rly love reading a fic before I go to sleep but I end up picking a 70k word one and end up staying up much longer than I wanted to so could you possibly recommend me any fics max 15k words, with a happy ending pls i need the cuteness to help me sleep 🥰 Thanku so so much xx

Hi anon! Thanks so much, I’m thrilled to know I had a small part in making you fall back in love with Drarry, that’s amazing! And what a mood lol I used to pick long fics before bed too, it’s a mighty trap 😂 I’ve read many short fics in the last year so I decided to go for these delightful and not-as-popular shorts, with excellent build up and happy endings. Perfect bedtime reads in my opinion! I got a bit too excited with this list so I’ll call it 31 Bedtime Reads! One for each day of the month ;) enjoy!

The Long Fall by @tackytigerfic (2021, M, 3.6k)

It's supposed to be a simple house renovation, and maybe it's just the paint fumes, but Harry is feeling dizzy around Draco Malfoy. And what's the real meaning of family, anyway?

oxygen by @maesterchill (2020, T, 4k)

Draco doesn’t smoke. Except when he needs to breathe.

A Charitable Christmas by Alisanne (2017, E, 5.6k)

Hermione’s plans to raise money for war orphans do not meet with Harry’s approval. Fortunately, Draco steps in to help him come up with a much more enjoyable strategy.

Harmony (Left-Handed Melody Remix) by mindabbles (2010, M, 5.8k)

He is the last person Draco was expecting, but then again, this is not a place Draco ever expected to be.

Vintage by momatu (2017, T, 7k)

Of all of the vineyards, in all of the regions, in all of France, Draco's blasted editor sends him to Potter's...

Our Ordinary Days by Lomonaaeren (2012, M, 8k)

Two men, both fathers of sons, meet in a bookshop. And the rest is the kind of history that doesn't make history.

Ice Snakes, Glow-worms and Wolverine Stew by khalulu (2015, M, 8.4k)

Harry Potter apparently wants to talk to Draco about something, but odd events keep getting in the way of that conversation – and bringing them closer together.

The Page Eleven Wars by fireflavored (2010, E, 8.5k)

In a gossip-hungry post-war Wizarding World, Rita Skeeter has a wildly successful column in the Daily Prophet known as Page Eleven. Naturally, her favourite targets are the poster boys of the two sides of the war: Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.

Blind Date by JosephineStone (2016, T, 8.6k)

Draco’s been working with Harry for years when another one of his relationships goes stale. He has to be married within a year, and though the WizNet has burned him in the past, Draco finds a new possibility in man as desperate to marry as he is.

Stories in E Minor by @huldrejenta (2014, E, 8.7k)

Draco has found his place in the Muggle world. He's got his music, he's got his neighbours and he is content. Until a certain someone from the past enters his life again.

Life goes not backward by @shealwaysreads (2020, T, 8.8k)

Harry still isn’t used to gifts, but this one is different. A story of coming home, finding safe ground, and the wild courage of putting down roots.

Til Our Compass Stands Still by china_nightingale (2018, M, 9k)

Harry and Draco eventually realise that things don't always go to plan, even if it's a plan they've been carefully crafting to keep themselves safe from each other.

The Interest Here by disapparater (2015, T, 9k)

Draco has his own morning show on the wireless, which he loves; an ambitious assistant, whom he needs; and days in The Tea Shop, where he relaxes. He also has a new caller on the show, whom he finds bloody annoying.

Tidings of Comfort series by @blamebrampton (2012, G, 10k)

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life. Luckily for Draco Malfoy, London has places where the tired can rest and recover.

Sweet Indulgence by @the-sinking-ship (2020, E, 10k)

It doesn't matter that Marcy from Accounting is dancing on the tables, Shacklebolt is wearing antlers, and Elliot from Transportation is on his third round of Mariah Carey on karaoke because all the free champagne in the world won't salvage the Ministry Christmas party for Draco if Potter doesn't show up soon.

Settle in in my slow-burning heart by orphan_account (2015, NR, 10k)

Five years after the war Draco is working a tech developer job in the Auror Office, and it's all great except this one thing: Harry Potter works there, too.

Adventures in Truth and Texting by @fluxweeed (2020, E, 11k)

Former Death Eaters are being targeted with a Veritaserum curse – it’s permanent, and makes victims speak aloud their every thought. Luckily, it’s easier to control when writing.

fine i'll hold my breath / til i forget it's complicated by teatrolley (2015, NR, 11k)

Harry and Draco become friends with benefits, and Harry thinks it's more complicated than it actually is.

Rebuilding Draco Malfoy by khasael (2011, E, 11k)

Draco wants to do something to get his life back on track, but no-one seems to be taking him seriously – until he finds himself in an Auror training session led by Harry Potter.

Cold Like Fire by QueenofThyme (2012, M, 12k)

Head Auror Harry Potter had no problem with mandatory consent training for his team. He’d actually been looking forward to it, that is, until he discovered who the teacher was.

What’s My Age Again? by @lazywonderlvnd (2018, E, 12k)

Harry Potter has had enough of pleasing the public, and his reckless tendencies are finally getting out of hand.

Title of Their Sex Tape by @cibeewastaken (2020, T, 12k)

What are the Wizarding world's most elite law enforcers doing when they aren't catching criminals? It seems Auror Malfoy is often caught throwing food into Auror Potter's mouth when he's mid-yawn.

Kill, Fuck, Marry by @lettersbyelise (2018, E, 12.6k)

Harry and Draco unexpectedly meet again on Draco’s birthday, years after their last encounter.

The Year of Non-Magical Thinking by whiskyandwildflowers (2018, E, 13k)

“I don't know what I'm going to do, Potter. I'll think of something. So will you. But this is my journey to self-actualization," Draco managed to smirk. "You can fuck off and get your own."

Evolution by @potteresque-ire Pie (2013, M, 13k)

Draco Malfoy was condemned to live a Muggle’s life for his three-year probation. His wand was locked away, and he was forbidden to set foot in Wizarding Britain until Hermione Granger secured a job for him in the Aurors’ stock room.

Plan Alphabet by @xx-thedarklord-xx (2019, T, 14k)

After realizing that his feelings for Harry were unfortunately real, Draco embarks on a foolproof—yes, Longbottom, foolproof—plan to woo Potter.

Countdown by dysonrules (2013, M, 14k)

When the Wizarding world is plagued by random outbreaks of Dark Magic, the Ministry assigns Curse-Breakers to assist Auror teams on their missions.

All Roads Lead Home by @dracogotgame (2015, G, 15k)

Draco is strong-armed into spending the first Christmas after the War with the Weasleys. And Harry Potter.

Espresso Patronum by @tasteofshapes (2020, T, 15k)

When Draco reappears five years after the war and opens a wildly popular coffee shop, Harry’s pretty sure that Draco’s Up to Something. He just has to prove it.

An Act of Kindness for One Harry Potter by a Sympathetic Draco Malfoy by 0idontknow0 (2014, E, 15k)

Someone should give Potter a better rogering than that sorry sod had. The man had saved the bloody world—okay, mostly Europe—the least someone could do was give him a proper shag.

Turn and Face the Strange (time may change me) by @punk-rock-yuppie (2019, T, 16k)

Draco and Harry and how their relationship—and themselves—change over the course of eleven years.

[infinite-xerath]

I’ve been a part of the tumblr League RP community for roughly a decade now. A lot has happened and a lot has changed. I’ve seen the uproar caused by the lore reboot back in 2015. I’ve seen old partners and friends go silent while new ones crop up. I’ve seen the exodus brought on by the poorly-handled NSFW purge (which completely failed, to no surprise) and the slow revival after the fact.

One of the first things I do every day is turn the computer on, eat breakfast, and pull up my tumblr dashboard. Once, it was filled with roleplay threads reblogged back and forth between dozens of blogs. Now it’s mostly a few dedicated veterans, like myself, and aesthetic posts.

I myself am no longer replying to threads daily or frequently as I once one. Unsurprisingly, I have much less free time and energy for it these days, and it doesn’t help that, as much as I dearly love RPing Xerath, it’s very difficult to get threads with this guy going because most long-term plots I could explore with him require muses and characters that simply aren’t around.

I’m not leaving, make no mistake. As I’ve said before: as long as tumblr is around, I intend to keep this blog running. Still, it’s definitely disheartening to know that the golden age of this RP community is behind us. The most annoying part is there are actually a decent few blogs around to interact with, but... Well, I don’t want to call anyone out or make anyone feel bad, but so many of them are these hyper-selective, mutuals-only blogs feel impossible to reach out to.

Sadly I doubt the RP community will ever be quite what it once was, but I don’t believe a revival of sorts is entirely out of the question, either. Obviously the biggest factor is just that we’re all a lot older now and don’t have the luxury of running a roleplay blog all day, but I think another key issue is just how... Disconnected we all feel from one-another now. Seldom does anyone actually reach out to plot or even talk anymore, and really, that sense of closeness and community is what I really miss about this RP scene.

So, let me just say this now: if you have even the slightest interest in interacting with me, be it in-character or not, I implore you to reach out. Ask box, messages, whatever. I don’t care if you’re a Champion, OC or canon-divergent. As perhaps one of the oldest hats still in the ring, let me assure you that EVERYONE is welcome in this community, and if anyone ever gives you cause to think other wise, screw them. We’re all dorks on the internet with a passion for League of Legends lore, so why not embrace it and each other?

Thanks for reading this far, and I hope to see you guys around for a long, long time to come.))

[simtanico]

Hi! I don't know if this is an annoying/difficult question, sorry if it is, but do you have any advice at all for modelling sims based off real people? Your sims are SO crazy good. When I try to make them they end up looking... eh... Vaguely like the person? But there's a huge gap between that and some kind of 'spark' some simmers seem to manage to capture.

Hello! Definitely not annoying. Difficult, as in how difficult it is to answer? Maybe. I'm gonna go off on a couple of tangents. But I'm gonna try my best to explain the process. Which isn't really much of one sorry.

There's a handful of tutorials and tips out there regarding reference photos and like... proportions and all that so I won't cover that.

I use that as a general guide of course, but mostly I just save some photos of the person at various angles and focus on one feature or two at a time. Literally going back and forth between reference photo and my game. I think if you try to get everything at the same time, it really makes it easy to get frustrated with whatever your sim looks like at the moment. Making sims in general is a combination of a LOT of things depending on your style.

I can point out ALL the flaws with my sims based on real people. In my experience, it’s about getting the defining features of a person close enough to the real thing so that it resembles them. I don't think you need a complete copy to get the point across, however i do think some people and features are harder to emulate than others. I've been working on some sims for YEARS, and they still don't work out lol

and take a look at this progression on my sim based on Z4ne H0ltz starting back in 2015!

that first screenshot:

Personally, I get a little lost if I work on a sim too much all at once. I find some time away makes me less tired and frustrated. Just pace yourself :)

Also if you need any help, shoot me a message here or on discord. I promise I don't judge or anything.. it's sims who cares lol

TO START...

I suggest starting with the head and its shape. Starting off with a game-generated sim, the first slider I get to is head width. It's usually too dang wide for my tastes. And then adjusting the general position of the the features. You can always change things later, so you don't have to know exactly what you're going to do, but as I've mentioned before, sculpting sims up in CAS is just practice with sliders! Also in the long run, you may want to use Pu+Chi House's Smooth Face Normals slider! I attempt to explain and show what it does here. I've uploaded the slider here: https://simfileshare.net/download/984204/

This is gonna be a doozy sorry in advance if the read more doesn't work

SLIDERS SLIDERS SLIDERS

Big sliders like Pu+Chi House’s face shape sliders dramatically change the face shape, and it could save you a lot of time! I highly suggest using these to get rid of the weird large jaw sims can get.

Play with different sliders and how they interact with one another! Example: jaw width and Cheek Fullness affect the same area. if you need a wide jaw and don’t want cheek distortion, you can use cheek fullness, lower the jaw width slider and then edit the cheekbones from there

 Knowing what sliders move what and how it can work to your advantage is key! I cover this in my reply post about noses.

For visual reference:

I start out with my nose but I want the nostrils to sit further on the outside

so i go in and use the nose width slider and raise it to widen the lower nose:

Then lower the nostril scale slider

Comparison:

as you can see, i kind of achieved what I wanted, but also widened the nose tip too! Welp, that takes another slider I have, Tip Width. And I'll adjust that accordingly! It's really just a matter of what you're going for and what you're going to have to compensate for as a result!

That said, our community has made some awesome sliders that open up so many possibilities and even eliminate the need to do that multi-slider tango. I wouldn't even know where to begin (wish I wanted to make videos because I could talk for an hour about sliders)

For example @pitheinfinite made sliders that can make sims look better and more realistic, I'm jealous at what they've achieved!

They have their Inner Corner to Nose slider that moves an area of the sim's face hat make eyebags and the shadows and lines appear farther out from the inner eye. It saves you from having to use cheek sliders to mimic the effect and thus ruining the face shape you have going

It's truly an INDISPENSABLE slider. One of many!

Since I make sliders, I usually just make some to specifically fix whatever issue I'm having. Granted they're made with general function in mind, which makes my cheater-y way of making things happen more useful in the future. I have about 50 experimental unfinished sliders in my game and can tell you that all my current sims use them for some reason or other. So I'm not working with nothing, I guess?

EYE SPY 👁

The best way to really get nice accurate looking sims is the eyes.

Pay attention to the slant of the eye, the shape and position of the upper and lower eyelids. you can use the game’s Eyelid Height slider, and AWT’s Eyelid width and height sliders (and many more)

and especially where the iris (green) sits relative to the eyelid. getting that shape and eyeball positioned correctly really makes a HUGE difference

I do suggest Bloom’s Eye slider (left and right) that rotate the eyes left and right. That along with their Lazy eye sliders can give your sims a less symmetric face and position the eyes to be FAR more accurate and realistic than the default.

I also recommend their vertical sliders (Eye lift or drop) to help with eye positioning.

I can't stress the importance of the right contacts or eyes for your sims. Of course it all depends on how you make your sims's eyes and all that. Take the last sim i posted about. It took forever and a half to find the right contacts that didn't need severe or intense editing to capture the same vibe the person he's based on. The problem is pretty persistent for me, and I am just speaking for myself when I say this is necessary. Iris size, shading, recolorability, detail, catch lights, and pupil position are things to consider for your play style and preferences.

In addition to seeing what eyes will do the trick, I do edit the catch lights in the screenshots to give the eyes a different emotion or look. (I use defaults that get rid of the game-generated catch lights, and supernatural eye glow.) It's nice when that's all it is and I don't have to go in and photoshop things in and out to make them look human lmao

Perfect, schmerfect

And just know that as long as you have the same vibe or look going on it doesn't need to be perfect! Things will evolve over time, and you can change and perfect things as you go along, but close is better than trying to achieve an exact replica. We are working with the limitations of sliders and the optimized meshes they work on! So yeah there might be jagged bits or the profile might not exactly match and some things might not be accurate, but that's okay! Considering what sims look like at their default, you should be proud! I use the same mf eyebrows on all my sims basically and I tell myself they're just placeholders (yeah, right), but I manage to make them work with what I have!

Sliders, Makeup, and Skins, oh my!

a good base skin is critical, but not the end of the world if you pick the wrong one. They determine kind of definition and types of features highlighted on a sim 100000% and you might lose a feature you like or dislike when you change them! Feel free to switch up between skins you have to find the best fit.

Makeup can be a game-changer though!!! Any details you can add and help make your sim look the most like the person you're basing them off can go MILES.

In some cases, I've actually gotten really interesting results trying to get my sculpt as close as possible to real life references so the makeup makes a difference but don't define the features by themselves. Still, though, I utilize makeup up a LOT. [remember that if you use Nraas, you can layer makeup. Right-clicking makeup will also remove it if it's applied :)]

Here's the last sim i posted about when removing makeup:

no nosemasks really replicates the face-claim's nose (too shiny at the lower part) but it'll do 🤷‍♀️

Freckles, eyebags, highlighters, face shadows, pores, nosemasks, etc are all great!!

The way you move your sliders WILL effect how these look, so don't rely on makeup that adds super-specific detail or goes over an area you know is a jumbled mess because of sliders!

I do have a mess of recommendations and wcifs for skins and makeup. replies tag | wcif tag

[also I love compiling wcif cc lists for my sims it's great]

Finally, I appreciate your comment about my sims, mainly because I know they're not ever really exact copies or as close as I want to be to their real life counterparts, so thanks!! I've seen fellow simmers get really good results without messing as much as I do and I love when people can make really good maxis match likenesses because it's just so damn cool! It's truly a talent. I'm not one of those lucky few, but I like to try my way at it anyway. After what feels like some good progress I'll post a pic here. Even after doing this forever I don't feel like I'm an expert or can get good results in a shorter amount of time, but it's just fun to see the progression (or regression) of how my sims look.

[instant-angel-chaos]

knowing  your partner      well      can      potentially      make      writing      a      lot      easier,            repost,            do      not      reblog.

NAME: Grim

PRONOUNS: she / her   

PREFERENCE   OF   COMMUNICATION: Uhhh, i don't really mind? I mostly use tumblr; im constantly active on discord but i mostly use my discord only for streaming related purposes!  

NAME   OF   MUSE(s): I have many! Many that i haven't written with on tumblr before, but the current active ones are: Dakota (demon), Chase (fallen angel/his human verse), Logan, Skyler, Alec, Faith, Ruth (demon/her human verse) The pinned post on the blog takes you to my muses page! 

EXPERIENCE/HOW   LONG   (MONTHS   /   YEARS?) : uhh, i think i started writing on tumblr around 2015-2016? Before that i have experience with roleplaying for about 4 years? and before that i have years of experience with writing in general.

BEST   EXPERIENCE: I met my best friend through tumblr! He passed away in 2016 but i will be forever grateful for getting to meet such an impactful, caring and amazing person through here. I miss him dearly. In present day i have met a few newer people i have absolutely adored writing and talking with; they've made me feel less lonely and restore/upkept my adoration for writing!

RP   PET   PEEVES/DEALBREAKERS : Uhhhh,, probably following my blog, never interacting with me in person (through im's, rp memes etc) and then using me as an rp meme source/musings source. When it comes to writing, i prefer longer replies but don't mind shorter ones as long as there's enough to go on about - however, i get overwhelmed if i start feeling like it's entirely on my shoulders to move the story along. I get not wanting to godmod but it's really hard to write if the story feels like it's not going anywhere/there's little to no proper interaction between the characters because the other person 'doesn't want to do anything my muse wouldnt want' which results in the scenes dragging on and on and nothing happening and me having to write out any sort of progress by myself :c idk if this is just me,,, (im also entirely down to message while writing so you can ALWAYS message me and be like "is it ok if i do this" etc and i would very much prefer that over the alternative option!) I also really dont enjoy reading r*pe smut, especially untagged, and have people play it off as a kink.

MUSE   PREFERENCES   FLUFF,   ANGST   OR   SMUT : anything goes, honestly. I love it all. I would be entirely lying though if i didn't admit i adore writing smut,, I love plot with a side of smut, i love smut with a side of plot. Character chemistry and heated scenes are just right up my alley!

PLOTS   OR   MEMES: Either! I absolutely LOVE plotting in person and doing multiple threads, different AU's; EVERYTHING! But i also love it when i can send in memes to my mutuals/my mutuals respond to memes i've reblogged - a nice balance between the two is nice!

LONG   OR   SHORT   REPLIES: i do have a preference for longer replies; i like including a good amount of insight to my character's thoughts to be able to,, kind of flesh out the chemistry and relationship between our muses. But on top of that obviously there needs to be interaction to move the story along, so i gravitate towards having at least 3 paragraphs.

BEST   TIME   TO   WRITE: Uhmmm,,, who knows honestly? During the day, sometimes in the degen hours of the night.

ARE   YOU   LIKE   YOUR   MUSE(S): In a lot of ways; yes. But I do keep them as very much seperate characters from myself as I'd feel uncomfortable writing the type of stuff i do if i thought of the muses as "too much like me", yknow? Feel free to 'steal' this from me, and repost to your blog! I dont wanna tag people because i dont wanna annoy you, BUT if you're seeing this: just assume that i do want to see you posting this <3

[kanmom51]

Ok, this might be a bit controversial but even though I side eye many "jeonlous" moments on yt or other media because they literally just zoom in on jk's impassive face, I have seen some that seem legit. I think there is some truth behind it all, meaning that it is possible that jk is a bit possessive, especially when it comes to minimoni or even Taemin for some reason. I mean, he has said he had trouble sharing and it is not difficult to imagine this would also apply to his relationships.

This is not to say that he thinks Namjoon or any of the other members are a threat to his relationship with Jimin because that would be ridiculous. It's just that maybe sometimes he doesn't like some of their skinship (for whatever reasons we don't know) and the rest of bts is probably aware of it. I mean, that clip you reblogged where Jimin sneakily looks at jk and then proceeds to touch namjoon's thigh doesn't have many other explanations. He probably knew what he was doing 😂 There is also that part of their live post billboard 2017 where something was going on with jikook and namjoon.

Actually, I think this is true for both jk and jm, even if it is less obvious/frequent. Maybe I'm crazy but I got the same kind of vibe from Jimin in the black swan mv behind when jk was hanging off of tae.

I don't mean to imply they are toxic or anything but they are young adults and while some telenovela like narratives going around are just insane, i don't think it is fair to assume that their relationship is perfect and that they don't do things that annoy each other or that they don't have behaviors that aren't exactly ideal or 100% healthy. Especially because problems are bound to rise if they are a couple but constantly have to act as if they weren't because their relationship is not public.

I know you are really open minded so I would love to read your thoughts on this 💜

Where do I start here?

Controversial is good.  I like me a good controversy once in a while, as long a it’s not offensive.  It makes for good discussion.

No, I do not believe and definitely don’t like the Jeonolous narrative out there.  It makes for fun YT content, but it’s toxic and paints JK as this possessive ass, which I don’t think he is.

I have addressed this in the past, and said that I don’t believe in this narrative, but on the other hand I do see JK and JM as human beings, and as such, not perfect and prone to natural human behaviour and reactions.  

Even those who are not prone to jealousy, that are in the best of relationships, can get jealous once in a while. 

Another thing we need to remember is that what we spot as jealous can be something other than the obvious possessive jealousy we automatically tend to associate that word with.  It could be something like annoyance or discomfort in a situation. 

The dictionary definition of ‘jealous’ is:

feeling or showing an envious resentment of someone or their achievements,  possessions, or perceived advantages.

 feeling or showing a resentful suspicion that one's partner is attracted to or involved with someone else.

fiercely protective of one's rights or possessions.

 As you can see, what we call as jealousy can contain within it several meanings.  There is possessive jealousy.  There is jealous of one other’s advantage, such as their connection with someone else.  There is jealous not of the connection with the other, but the ability to showcase that connection (being able to be free with the other, while you have to hide your own connection), and there is what I call the classic jealousy, when there is a suspicion your partner is attracted to someone else.

With all those there is also a spectrum of levels of jealousy, from low level jealousy to toxic jealousy.

JM & JK’s relationship doesn’t live in a vacuum.  If we believe they are in a loving gay relationship, well they are living that relationship while being K-pop idols in SK, a highly traditional society.  They are in an environment you are not supposed to have a romantic relationship, let alone an unthinkable ‘gay’ relationship. So, showcasing such a relationship, for them, is problematic, and could be dangerous, to their careers and even their own personal safety.  It can be detrimental not only to themselves, but to the band and all the members.  So, as a whole, they have to hide it.  And that in itself can also be a point of friction.

Another thing to point out is that jealousy can also be a facet of insecurity, in yourself and/or in your relationship.  The stronger the relationship, the more secure you are in your connection, the less jealous you will be.  I think that this is something to take into consideration when we look at JM & JK, especially in the early years.  

Also, not every time that JK pokes his cheeks with his tongue does it mean he’s jealous or angry.  Not every behaviour should be interpreted as jealously.

Saying all that, I have seen several occasions that stood out to me, and I find hard to explain.

The 4th July 2015 fan meeting incident is one of them.  The way JK reacted to RM taking a hold of JM was not only jealous behaviour but it was such an extreme reaction and effected JK’s behaviour with the fans as well, which was really unprofessional, and uncharacteristic.  

Same vibe but not as extreme was JK during BTS Bomb after KBS music bank 1st place 9 May 2015.  moody JK when he’s eyeing Jimin interacting with Hobi and Jin, also the way JK averts his eyes when Jimin looks his way. He’s not happy. Mood changes when Jimin pays him attention pulling him by his shirt.

Both of these were, at least as far as I am concerned, before JM & JK’s relationship progressed into something ‘more’.  This could be a kind of ‘I want that’ or ‘why are you giving him attention and not me’ jealousy.  Whatever it was, it was a clear reaction to JM’s interactions with another member of the band.

Another one I think about was 3rd April 2017 – BTS Front row live entertainment interview.  

This one intrigues me. I watched and re-watched the full interview several times, and for the life of me I can’t see what happened there between JM and Hobi that triggered JK’s reaction?  JM’s placating look at JK, like telling him nothing happened… this one is used a lot to create the JK jealous narrative, and to be honest, I really don’t know what happened there. When JK turns back, JM looks into the camera with an uneasy gaze.   Something was going on there, no idea what it was.  Was it jealousy?  Was it something else between them? Idk, but it was a curious moment.

The issues JK has with Taemin. We do know that something happened between JK & JM the night JM performed with Taemin (if it had to do with Taemin we don’t know).  

We have also seen JK’s reactions to Taemin & Jimin together.  I do think there is a dislike there, it can stem from jealousy, but it can also stem from simple dislike of the man.  We have no way of knowing.  It’s kind of who came first, the chicken or the egg.

The clip I reblogged, and that you mentioned anon, is something else to me.  Yes, JK’s reaction is of uneasiness, even anger, but the feel I get here is that this is a JM kind of teaching moment, and JK reacting to that. It feels like JM wants to teach him a lesson for some reason, and JK crossing his arms and look at JM kind of radiates anger more than jealousy to me.  The way JM stretches out his hands, the look on his face before he puts his hands on RM’s thigh, the way he looks back before and after to make sure JK is looking.  He was there to teach him a lesson.  That was my impression.  We have no idea what happened before or after.  We have no idea why JM decided to do this, but JK’s reaction to me was more pissed off than jealous.  That’s the vibe I got.

I have seen JM reacting in a manor that looks like jealousy on occasions.  The one I can think about is the Vlive where JK is sitting in front of Tae, JM on the other side of the table, and Tae is using JK as his play thing.  The way JM looks at them, the way he storms out the second the live ends, the way Tae pipes up immediately, looking like he’s off to follow JM.  They all paint a jealous or angry reaction.  

JM was clearly bothered but I don’t think of this as JM being jealous of Tae & JK.  I think the bond between those three is strong enough. Again, this was one of those questionable moments.

Bottom line –

JK & JM are human beings, and as such exhibit normal human behaviour.  

Jealousy can be considered as a normal human behaviour, and can also be seen in healthy relationships, as long as it doesn’t become toxic, obsessive, overbearing or controlling. I will even go so far as to say that there are those who thrive on jealousy.  Jealousy is a way for them to feel their partner loves them, a way to get reinforcement that they are wanted/loved.  Again, this is something that can turn toxic, but not always.

Jealousy has different facets.  You can be jealous of someone, jealous for someone.

Do JK or JM sometimes show jealous behaviour. Seemingly they do once in a while.

Does that make one or either of them jealous monsters?  Does that make their relationship possessive or toxic?

By no means what so ever!!!!!  

It’s natural, it’s human, they are human.  Their relationship has ups and downs. It holds a beautiful bond filled with love and care, but also may hold insecurities and arguments and everything a normal relationship between two human beings will hold.  

We just need to give them a break.

It’s ok to ‘analyze’ behaviours, but it’s not ok to demonize either one of them.  See the behaviour, talk about it, but also remember we only see part of the picture, the edited version of what is going on between the two.

 And first and utmost remember they are human beings, just like the rest of us.  Don’t hold them up to ridiculous standards because they are ‘idols’.

[kachulein]

Check-In Tag

I was tagged by @calcifer-rose and @marculees to do this tag. Thank you🥺💞💞

1. why did you choose your url?

Kachu is my nickname and "-lein" is a German diminutive to make it sound cuter since kachu by itself was already taken.

2. any side blogs?

Yes! I have quite a few but the only one that I actively check up on/post on at the moment is my astrology blog @dreamyaqua ...and even there I have been quite inactive due to studying for exams.

3. how long have you been on tumblr? 

Since December 2012 :')))

4. do you have a q tag?

Yes! I mainly use my "q: daydreaming💫" tag but I also have one for sleeping (that I keep forgetting to use) and I kind of replaced my "busy busy" queue tag with the daydreaming one as well. Rarely, I might temporarily make a new one with "sick/ill" or something to kind of also explain why I might be inactive/not replying to messages.

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

I'm actually not sure... I made a tumblr but didn't use it for a few years because it was too confusing to me. Then in 2014/2015 I used it here and there to reblog emo posts and then in 2016 I started getting into the kpop side of tumblr and became gradually more active (only really started interacting with people after starting my writing side blog in 2018, though).

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

Because it fits my current blog aesthetic/colour theme and Yeonjun is one of my ult biases.

7. why did you choose your header?

Pretty much the same applies to my header as well. Yes, I'm a sucker for Yeonjun. c:

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

Oof...on main, I really don't know. I've made my fair share of kpop meme posts that garnered >1k notes but I couldn't say which one of those is number one. But my most popular post overall is a Bang Chan blurb I wrote on my (now mostly inactive) sideblog @fluffyheadcanons that counts >2.1k notes as of now.

9. how many mutuals do you have?

I used to keep track of them in a little booklet so that I didn't forget anyone (especially with tag games, checking up on them, and also to update their url changes) because I had >100 mutuals. I've lost touch with most of them and a lot of them aren't active on tumblr anymore, so now I keep a small circle of lovely moots with some that I've been friends with for years and others I've met in the past year!^-^ 💞💞

10. how many followers do you have? 

It keeps fluctuating but it's around 1.5k~

11. how many people do you follow?

About 271 as of now~

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

Ever? You mean, all the time? Yes, that sounds more like it. :')

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

Hmm...some days more, some days less. I probably pop in at least once a day (most of the time) but I'm not as crazily active as I was in the earlier days (I literally lived on here ok😭).

14. did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog?

Hm... not a fight per se... but there were a few instances.

1) Back in 2019 I believe, I got an anon ask saying that one of my mutuals was talking shit about me on their blog and they asked me whether we had a fight (we didn't). So I went and messaged said mutual and asked what this is about and whether I've done something to upset them. They never replied and also unfollowed me and all, so to this day, I still have no idea what the heck happened.

2) I had a similar situation with a second mutual as well, there wasn't an anon involved but I just suddenly realized that they unfollowed me on every social media we connected on and same as above, to this day, I still have no idea what I did wrong/whether I did something to upset them.

3) I won't go into much detail here because what happened is very personal but this mutual was one of my first friends here on tumblr and they were without a doubt the person I talked to the most. We had similar struggles and could relate to each other well. Then there was a personal issue and I confronted them about it... I wasn't mad but I just wanted to know the truth because I don't like being lied to... but they never replied to me and it marked the end of our friendship. This one is the hardest for me to get over because we weren't just mutuals, we were so much closer than that. More than anything, I just miss them and think it's sad how we went from talking all day every day to being strangers. But life goes on...

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts? 

Depending on what it is about they make me a bit uncomfortable. I know that those posts who threaten you are all about superstitions but it still scares me/I don't wanna risk anything y'know😔

16. do you like tag games?

Yes!! I really love these type of games, so moots or anyone who's reading this, feel free to tag me in games, I'm always up for doing them! And I don't mind getting spammed either, it just means more fun games for me!^-^

17. do you like ask games?

Yes, I love them! But I don't want to annoy people so I haven't reblogged one in ages ^^"

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

Hmm... I'd say Qiu (@stealerz) and Key (@key201303)!!🥺💞💞

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

I'll join Niamh here and say squishes! I do have those on my moots because you're all so precious and ily!!!👉🏻👈🏻🥺

20. tags?

@jsczclpjs @jellihye @stealerz @key201303 @interstellix @oddlittlefandomist @marriael @jbemin and anyone else who'd like to do it!~💞💞

[stuckinapatriarchalbullshitland]

ɟ

👋🏼Hello Anon, how are you? I hope you’re good and that you’re having a nice day 😄

I copied and pasted a piece of my ‘How the music world works’ post (which I recommend you read to understand a little more about the music business in general) which I hope will help you understand why it’s not possible to know which songs are ghostwritten by singers in general.

[Ghostwriters: Ghostwriters are authors who write on commission. The musical ones, can write an entire song or even a single sentence for an artist, without of course receiving credit for doing so. That’s exactly why the name ghostwriter/s. Ghostwriters sell their songs to record labels for their artists or can be contacted specifically to write a song. When ghostwriters sell their songs, they sign a contract with a confidentiality clause and receive a payment in advance. A big payment, by the way. Some ghostwriters remain copyright owners of their song, so they not only earn on the advance received for the sale of the song, but also receive some royalties when the song is used. Other ghostwriters, on the other hand, most of them actually, also sell copyrights, and for this reason, they earn absolutely no percentage in royalties because the song they sold is no longer theirs.]

As you can see, it’s impossible to see who ghostwritten which song precisely because they don’t get credit for it. The only two ways to know this are n°1, when an author/songwriter/ghostwriter themselves says it, and n° 2, as long as you already know that they wrote it in the first place, when they give their song to an artist who doesn’t change or change their lyrics little.

Since your ask was on Camila, now I’m gonna tell you what I know. And I’m sorry, but I’m not going to include the ones that are rumored she has done because they are indeed, just rumors. People like to talk and make things up, especially about Mila. And we know HOW MUCH imagination they have. A lot of people like to talk just to run their mouth when they’re not even capable to do basic research and get properly informed first, and, honestly? These are things I ignore because I’d just get annoyed otherwise, and I don’t have time for that shit 😶 But let’s get back to us. So, the 100% certain ones, for now, are only three:

1) ‘Love Life’: initially called ‘Love Life/Low Life/No Lie’, written and recorded by C but released without her by Major Lazer ft. Azaryah on November 16, 2017.

2) ‘Ain’t Easy’: C worked on it with Ryan Tedder and Zach Skelton. Ryan produced the music with Camila’s co-production who also recorded the demo. The song was later given and adapted to the duo Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine who recorded it for the first season of the Canadian reality music competition ‘The Launch’ and which was released on January 17, 2018.

3) ‘Be Right Here’: C, Charli XCX, Noonie Bao, and Sasha Sloan wrote the song for her debut album ‘Camila’. C also recorded the demo, but then discarded it and gave it to DJ Kungs who along with Stargate and Goldn, released it on June 22, 2018.

We can’t consider songs like ‘Party Animal’ (Luis Fonsi & Charly Black) and ‘God Is a Woman’ (Ariana Grande). In ‘God Is a Woman’ because Ari rewrote the lyrics, and the remix with C on it of ‘Party Animal’ instead, was no longer released, and therefore because that version remained unreleased.

We can’t even consider songs like ‘Carry My Heart’, ‘Hard Beat’, ‘Not The Same’, and ‘Hit It From The Back’ ft. the rapper XXXTENTACION (all songs C did with Diplo) because they too remained unreleased.

And same thing for ‘La Cubana’. In 2013, Camila met rapper singer-songwriter LunchMoney Lewis who co-wrote ‘BO$$’ for 5H. In 2014 she co-wrote ‘La Cubana’ with him, which was supposed to be included on his album in 2015, but that was never released. [You have NO IDEA how curious I am about this song. Which Cubana are you talking about, Camila? 😏😏 Yourself? Maybe that’s also why this song has never seen the light of day… *sigh*]

These are examples of songs that we know she wrote as projects outside her albums, and that if she were to sell composition copyrights to someone in the future, then we will already know in advance that they’ll become songs she ghostwrote on.

I hope I’ve been helpful. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. You know where to find me/us 😊 And be careful not to be fooled by what you read about these rumors or rumors in general. Always look for proofs first, especially if your intentions are then to spread it. A virtual hug 🤗, with love F ❤️

____

The answer for the 👻songwriter anon! It’s very amazing as always. Thanks F

[fatehbaz]

Hi, your blog is great, a very good resource and useful. I was wondering if I could ask, have you ever read a book/article about the life cycle of product, I mean an examination of the resource extraction/labor/factory/transport process and how each stage is damaging to people/environment? I've been looking and nothing is useful. Sorry if my English is not great. Thank you for your blog!

Hello. Thank you for such a supportive and kind message. You are always welcome to send me messages. I know that I’m often annoying, so I’m happy if anything I’ve shared/posted has provided an interesting resource.

Thank you for trusting me enough to send me this message, but I don’t think I’m qualified to answer it too well. I think that some of my friends on this site would be better able to provide some recommendations for you. For example, I don’t know anything about the transportation stage of products, or how providers/corporations eventually come to move, say, edible produce from the agricultural source, across borders, and into a grocery store (though I’m mostly-sure that colonial/imperial/corporate powers have obscured these mechanisms of food production, in many/most cases purposely, in order to absolve metropolitan consumers of any potential realization of guilt or complicity in violence). But I don’t know anything about product life cycles generally. So I don’t think I’m a great person to ask, y’know? For example, in the case of, say, lithium production, I’ve not found or read any, like, comprehensive book or singular text that, like, follows the entire process from extraction, through refinement, to use, and then eventual disposal. But I’m sure there are books/articles/texts out there which do describe this process. And that’s why I’d invite someone else, one of my friends or whomstever, to offer recommendations, since I can’t.

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That said, I’ve got a couple of recommendations. I’m relatively more interested in plantations; the life cycle of some few very specific products (rubber; palm oil; uranium; lithium); more broad discussion of the damage wrought from industrial-scale resource extraction and development (Anthropocene and Plantationocene concepts; planetary urbanization); or the violence of the first/initial stages of the product life cycle (wastelanding; colonial/imperial institutions dispossessing people of land; poisoning/contamination from mining). So I’ve got some resources here related to these concepts.

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The concept of “planetary urbanization” or “planetary urban fabric” basically refers to how, at least in the past two or three centuries, there is no corner of the planet that has been spared ecological damage by or escaped the resource extraction cycles of industrial development and major urban areas. This is the idea that every corner of Earth, no matter how apparently “remote” or “wild”, is altered by and implicated in industrial resource extraction. (For example, even “remote” Siberia hosts pipelines and giant mines that service major urban areas. Ice-loss in Greenland and algae blooms in the open ocean are related to anthropogenic climate alteration. Isolated forests of the Great Bear Rainforerst are still penetrated by logging roads. Industrial cropland disrupts the soil of the West African Sahel, and then Saharan dust storms sweep into the Caribbean; etc.)

Some introductions to the concept: Roi Salgueiro Barrio. “What World? Reframing the World as One City.” December 2016. ////////// Lindsay Bremner. “The Urban Hyperobject.” Geoarchitecture. 24 August 2015. ////////// Maria Kaika and Erik Swyngedouw. “Radical urban political-ecological imaginaries.” Derive. May 2014. ////////// And here’s a compilation post I put together, with short excerpts from several articles about planetary urbanization.

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Anyway, seems like this might be more closely related to what you’re looking for. These are some recent things I’ve read that seem related to the violence of the product life cycle.

-- I wrote a post about the violence of the life cycle of uranium (including initial extraction and mining; refinement; and disposal, imposing violence at every stage of production) in Navajo Country and the Colorado Plateau (includes maps of uranium mines; radioactive fallout zones; and radioactive waste disposal sites).

-- Andrea Knutsen. “Scarcity and the Suburban Backyard.” Edge Effects. 1 September 2020. [This article is about food and grocery store supply chains in North America during crises and how British imperialism in the Caribbean in recent centuries relied on the imposition of artificial scarcity and the maintinence of a racialized economic hierarchy which still influences contemporary food supply chains.]

-- Gaston Gordillo. “The Metropolis: The Infrastructure of the Anthropocene.” In: Infrastructures, Environment, and Life in the Anthropocene. Edited by Kregg Hetherington. 2019. [This article is about the stages of dispossession, policy, and marketing that support massive soy agriculture/extraction in Latin America, and how soy is an example of how contemporary products involve dispossession at multiple scales in multiple regions driven by forces that transcend national boundaries. This article also describes planetary urbanization.]

-- Martin Arboleda. “Financialization, totality, and planetary urbanization in the Chilean Andes.” December 2015. [This article is about lithium in Latin America, how lithium extraction relates to the mass “financialization of life” in the neoliberal era, and how local dispossession in Chile is driven by investors and companies from North America.]

-- Yanis Iqbal. “The Ravages of Lithium Extraction in Chile.” 15 July 2020. [This article is about “lithium imperialism” and how so-called “sustainable” electric cars in European and North American markets rely on dispossession and ecological/human violence in Latin America.]

-- Gregg Mitman. “Forgotten Paths of Empire: Ecology, Disease, and Commerce in the Making of Liberia’s Plantation Economy.” Environmental History. December 2016. [Article about the early-20th-century extraction and production of rubber via corporate plantations in West Africa and how US medical institutions and Harvard doctors relied on plantations for access to research; also discusses coffee and fruit plantations in Latin America.]

-- Post I wrote about the difference between a forest and a tree plantation, focused on resource extraction on Mapuche land in the Valdivian temperate rainforest region of “Chile.”

-- Mongabay has done consistent work covering palm oil plantations which service European and North American food markets, especially focused on plantations in Indonesia, which appear to be dependent on Indigenous dispossession in Borneo and Papua. One example of the initial stages of violence: Sophie Chao. “In the plantations there is hunger and loneliness: The cultural dimensions of food insecurity in Papua.” Mongabay 14 July 2020.

-- On a related note, here’s a long and comprehensive look at palm oil: Human Rights Watch. “When We Lost the Forest, We Lost Everything”: Oil Palm Plantations and Rights Violations in Indonesia. September 2019.

-- Melanie K. Yazzie. “Decolonizing Development in Dine Bikeyah: Resource Extraction, Anti-Capitalism, and Relational Futures.” Environment and Society. September 2018. [This article is about the connections between Navajo Country and US border policies; connections between coal mining, uranium, and land dispossession; and ecological/human damage of wastelanding in the region.]

-- Post I wrote about fossil fuel refineries; environmental racism; high c0vid death rates; cancer rates; toxic air; state violence; and local zoning policy in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley (with a bunch of maps, photos, and graphics).

-- Inspired by a good article Mongabay did about the history of one particular major land-owning company, here’s a post I wrote about how a Gilded Age company founded by friends of King Leopold in the infamous rubber plantations of the Congo eventually came, today, to establish and own the major rubber plantations of Southeast Asia which service Euro-American markets, while the same company still maintains many “neo-colonial” land holdings in Africa.

-- Nicholas Jahr. “Workers Organize at Firestone, Liberia’s ‘State Within a State’.” The Nation. 8 July 2010. [Article about contemporary rubber plantations in West Africa and how Firestone -- “official tire of Major League Baseball” -- functions and rules as a de facto colonial/imperial state.]

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Let me know if anyone wants links to read these articles for free.

Thank you for reaching out. Thanks again for being so kind.