#stolen from xitter

[sherokutakari]

The only important addition to this year's Thankmas closer

[hyenabeanz]

[ekingston]

Hello! So sorry to bother, but have you had any updates on the Word-Stream/Speechify situation?

Just one: like I posted on Xitter and Bluesky last night, as of yesterday afternoon, the links to individual works as they were listed on WordStream are gone from both Google and Bing. Hurray, right? Surely we’re all sick of this whole debacle and there’s far more important things to worry about. If all is well that ends well, surely there’s no need to still be angry.

Well, I am. Here’s why:

When I checked on Wednesday, the links to my own work on WordStream were still listed. So rather than it taking a week after Cliff Weitzman first hid the fanwork from view, it took a little over a week from the moment he first promised privately that they would be deleted. Which, fine. Perhaps Cliff didn’t really know what he was talking about when he gave that timeframe. Or maybe he told a little white lie to create the impression that he always intended to do the right thing. It seems more likely to me, though, that Cliff still believed—even after the backlash he received—that he would get away with honoring only individual takedown requests. Or worse, that he needed just a little bit more time with the stolen material to figure out an alternative way to profit off it—preferably without us noticing, this time.

But who knows? I certainly don’t! All we can do is speculate, because publicly, Cliff Weitzman has remained completely silent on his copyright infringements. All we got was the initial justifications he and his sockpuppet accounts used in comments on the original Reddit and Tumblr posts. After those were so understandably ill-received, Cliff only ever communicated with a few individual authors who contacted him directly and repeatedly, blocking people who addressed the issue on Twitter and quietly distancing himself from WordStream by deleting a blog he’d posted to Speechify.com dated December 20th—where Cliff promoted WordStream’s platform specifically to fanfiction readers. (See my enormous timeline post for details and screenshots of said posts before they were taken down.)

And this is why I’m still angry: As long as Cliff Weitzman faces no real consequences for his actions, he won’t see a need to own up to his mistake; and as long as he’s able to delay taking responsibility, this isn’t over. This didn’t end well.

After all, wasn’t this the next-best scenario for Cliff, second only to him turning WordStream into a (for him) effortless, infinite money-making machine? He took something we provided for free and fed it to AI so he could more easily put it behind a paywall; we found out and protested; Cliff quietly erased all evidence of his crime; and we went—almost equally quietly—away.

I want to make sure you know that I continue to be genuinely amazed and intensely grateful for how quickly the news about WordStream’s copyright infringement was shared—and continues to be shared—throughout fandom, on tumblr in particular. If it hadn’t been for our collective outcry here and on Reddit, WordStream would very likely still be up in its original form, and Weitzman would be reaping the benefits (those subscription prices were steep) today.

But it’s been frustrating to see that, with the exception of mentions in articles on Substack and Fansplaining (the latter of which is a particularly awesome and thorough read on fandom’s decontextualization) and a Fanlore listing, our outrage never really spilled out beyond the safely insulated, out-of-the-way spaces that are tumblr, a handful of subreddits and bluesky. And I believe that—unfortunately—we are collectively responsible for that part, as well.

Most of us seemed content to only spread the word by circulating the same two posts on tumblr. (Have we all given up completely on every other social media platform? Am I the only remaining straggler?) And soon after Cliff Weitzman hid WordStream’s fanfiction category from view, our interest in the issue took a sharp dive even there. Are we genuinely deceived into believing the issue has been fully resolved? Do we truly fail to realize that Weitzman’s refusal to admit that what he did was wrong left the door wide open for the next greed-driven tech bro to wander through? Or is the true naivety in thinking that, as a community, we can keep this kind of attack on fandom from happening again? Has our disillusionment already gotten that bad?

However the situation spins out from here, Cliff’s actions will set a precedent. If we fail to show Cliff and his ilk that attempts to profit off fandom’s unpaid labor have consequences, their tech companies will keep trying until something eventually sticks. They might be a little smarter about it next time; obscure their sources a bit better, maybe leave the titles and the authors’ names off. Or maybe they’ll go a bolder route: maybe next time they cross the line they’ll do it boldly enough for IP holders to take notice and stop tolerating fanwork entirely.

Doesn’t that make you angry, too?

There’s this whole other mess of thoughts I would love to be able to untangle about how commercial influence is contributing to the steady erosion of fandom’s foundations, but I’m tired, and other people have said it all much more eloquently than I ever could. Seriously, go read that article on Fansplaining. Or listen to the podcast version of it. Better yet, as long as you’re wearing your noise-canceling headphones, go listen to a podfic of one of your favorite fandoms’ works, and enjoy the collaborative joy and creativity of the people who Cliff Weitzman refuses to believe exist. (In one of Speechify’s other blogs, Cliff claims there are only 272 podfics on AO3. Would you like to run that ChatGPT prompt again, Cliff?). Honestly, much like Cliff Weitzman’s infuriating denial of the fact that fandom fucking has this covered, thank you very much, there’s so. Many. More. Things for us to talk about. There’s the connotations of WordStream’s dubious ‘upload’ button, for instance, or the fact that the app scraped (and in some cases, allegedly, still lists) copyright-protected original fiction as well, or WordStream’s complete lack of contact information, which is illegal for an internationally operating app. And oh! Has anyone reported more thoroughly on Cliff’s app’s options to ‘simplify’ or ‘modernize’ uploaded works, or—my own very favorite abomination—to translate them into something Cliff calls ‘Gen-Z Language’? Much like his atrocious AI book covers, it would be hilarious, if it didn’t make steam come out of my ears.

Anyway, there it is. I highly recommend you do all of that. And then, if you aren’t familiar with it already, go do some research re: fair use and your rights as the copyright owner of your works. A good number of people commenting on this controversy expressed stunned surprise or fearful hesitation about claiming any sort of ownership of their fanfiction. The more informed we are about our rights, the more willing we will be to defend them.

Please don’t stop writing or sharing your work. If you can’t bring yourself to work on your WIPs today (trust me, I get it), post about this situation instead. Tweets, skeets, whateverthefucks—about WordStream’s theft, about how this reflects on Speechify’s already shady business practices, about how Cliff’s actions and justifications have personally affected you. You’re welcome to share or copy my posts on these platforms, but since Cliff already blocked me, I very much prefer you post your own. If you do, call Cliff Weitzman by his full name and tag or include both WordStream and Speechify to ensure Weitzman will recognize he has both a personal as well as a professional stake in handling the situation with integrity. Leave your concerns in reviews on the Speechify app. (We weren’t provided with a more appropriate place to put them, after all!) Consider calling for a Speechify boycott until Cliff accepts accountability for his actions.

Do avoid making exaggerated claims, and don’t call for physical retaliation against Cliff’s person or his property. We don’t want to give him or Speechify even the weakest of grounds to claim defamation or threats of violence. Focus on the facts: they’re incriminating enough by themselves. Show Cliff that we’re determined to keep bringing up his company’s wrongdoings in public spaces until he demonstrates that he understands why taking these freely shared fanworks and monetizing them was wrong, and takes steps to ensure it won’t happen again.

One last thing—and this is really more of a general reminder—please stop suggesting I handle this situation for you. People have come to me asking for action items. The resulting flashbacks to my days as an office assistant were extremely upsetting. In all seriousness, casting me as some sort of coordinator or driving force behind this backlash actively hurts the cause. Not only does it downplay fandom’s collective efforts, it also makes our message extremely vulnerable. It would be all too easy for Cliff to silence one singular source. Wikipedia will not maintain mentions of this controversy as long as it leads only to Easter Kingston’s attempt to summarize what happened as it was happening. You only know my name because I stumbled upon WordStream’s theft and decided to get my friends involved. I am not more knowledgeable, more skilled or more angrily invested in this issue than you are (or can, or should, be). I draw pictures and I write stories and I worry about the shift I’m seeing in fandom after having been on this ride for even a few pre-livejournal rounds.

I’m not going to stop doing any of those things. But I am going to allow myself to step away for a bit, make my wife dinner, and catch up on our shows.

I trust you’ve got it from here.

[shadow0-1]

Stolen from xitter ❤️

[mesmers-cat]

Send me a prompt/kink, and I'll write a microfiction!

Shamelessly stolen from FrondAmpersand on Xitter.

Obvs, hitting at least one of my kinks would be stellar, and I reserve the right to say no, but most things not in my Hard Limit/DNI lists are on the table.

Example (prompt by FrondAmpersand!)

Hypnotized Femboy Stepfordization

Daniel hesitated. "I just watch these videos for extra credit?"

Ms. Mallory nodded. The blonde was a touch muscular, squared off. Nothing she couldn't handle. "Correct. You can easily pass your classes this way."

Daniel frowned, but sat. "Ok, I guess."

The video was immensely boring, the narrator droning on and on. There was something...wrong, with the video. Some kind of static. He squinted closer as the spiral slowly faded into view.

As it transitioned to an etiquette video, he never noticed the cuffs...

~

"It's a miracle!" Dani's father enthused.

Dani smiled as she finished laying out the coasters, then served coffee and cake. Her parents were thrilled at her engagement to Sen. Pollack, a real coup for the family.

She blushed as her fiance sneakily copped a feel.

His hand brushed her protector, masking her unladylike parts. They twitched, but training kept them in line.

Soon, she'd be Mrs. Pollack. She shivered at the thought of her wedding night. Her training had been very thorough, and she hoped the senator would enjoy testing it!

[vague-humanoid]

One of Trump's defining characteristics is his absolute lack of loyalty to his surrogates. He is spring-loaded to betray anyone who supports him once they are no longer useful to him.

The same can be said for Xitter edgelord Elon Musk, a paranoid bully who demands absolute loyalty from others but does not offer the same in return. His latest victim: former Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi.

As you'll recall, Musk invited Taibbi last year to examine selected internal correspondence between members of Twitter's policy team. Musk's goal was to show that Twitter had a cozy relationship with the Democratic Party and censored conservative Twitter users' posts at the party's request. Taibbi (and other journalists Musk corralled for his project) happily obliged by releasing selected documents in a series of tweets. (In April 2023, MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan interviewed Taibbi and forced him to concede that he'd made "multiple, unacknowledged, and glaring mistakes in his Twitter Files reporting.")

Taibbi expected that Musk would treat him well after collaborating on the Twitter Files project, but it appears that the relationship soured. Yesterday, Taibbi posted the following text message exchange he had with Musk in April:

"Elon, am I being shadowbanned?" wrote Taibbi, who'd noticed a huge dropoff in attention to his tweets.

"We went on lockdown after discovering that Substack had stolen a massive amount of our data to prepopulate their Twitter rip-off," wrote Musk. (Taibbi publishes a popular newsletter on Substack). "Looks like there is still a blanket search ban. Should be fixed by tomorrow. Going forward, tweets with Substack will not appear in For You unless it is paid advertising, just like FB/Insta/etc. They will appear in 'Following'."

The next day, an attention-starved Taibbi played his loyalty card: "Elon, I've repeatedly declined to criticize you and have nothing to do with your beef with Substack. Is there a reason why I'm being put in the middle of things? This really seems crazy."

Minutes later, Musk replied, "You are dead to me. Please get off Twitter and just stay on Substack."

"This is about the Substack thing? Seriously?" asked Taibbi. But since Taibbi was dead to Musk, he received no answer.

tl;dr: "'I never thought Musk would eat MY face,' sobs journalist who voted for the Musk Eating People's Faces Party."

[c7thetumbler]

Quick Game reviews: 2023 (Part 1!)

Hey everyone! Apologies for the screenshots stolen from google; at the point I compiled most of this I deleted my Xitter account and didn't have the screenshots I typically share from there.

Additionally, since Tumblr has a 30 image limit this is going to be split into 2 parts! How exciting.

Let's get it goin

This group of 8 games were beat in the first week of 2023! Do not set such goals; games are made to be fun on your own time and turning it into a job is a lot like seeing how the sausage is made. But I digress;

Tinykin (Steam)

A very fun 3D puzzle-platformer collectathon. It has many pikmin-like elements in that you control a bunch of little guys to carry, push, or interact with various objects in fun ways, but I would hesitate to call it a full Pikmin like game because they really serve as collectibles which when you have enough of let you access certain areas. There's really not strategy element to it. But, it's still a fun 3D platformer, and I recommend it

Super Kiwi 64 (Steam)

This is a weird one. Another 3D platformer that will last you at most 1 hour, Super Kiwi 64 is an unsettling but intriguing little experience where you navigate a number of levels with challenges and items to collect. I say unsettling because the music has a very mysterious vibe, and the environments go from the bright forest above to some almost liminal, dark areas devoid of interactable characters and littered with strange skeletons and glyphs. It was interesting; I would say pick it up on sale if you're looking for a chill hour of playtime, but it's also only $3, so you do you

Toree 2 (Steam)

Another retro 3D platformer that's more like the PS1 era, Toree 2 is focused on quick, optimizable movements and levels design to be speedrun and 100%'d. This one is also only an hour, but also only a buck to play! Keeping with the unsettling theme, it's levels are nostalgic and bright, but the main antagonist seems to be drawing on some glitchy, bizarre power that causes some strange effects to happen in levels. It's a small but fun nostalgic experience that it's difficult and a well done series of levels

Toree 3D (Steam)

Same review as above, the sequel! Sure, the 3D may lead you to believe it's different mechanically, but it was already 3D so it's really just more of the same.

Dead Estate: Bombs Away Update (Steam)

This update added a new character, some new enemies, and some alternate rooms. Again, my Dead Estate recommendation is high for those who are into the rogue-like, top down arcade shooters, and this free update was more goodness to complete, though BOSS can very easily be broken with a number of explosion-based items.

Mechanibot (Steam)

Is this auto chess? I don't know what auto chess is as a genre. kids these days

Mechnibot is a top down tower defense like game with rogue-like elements. You start off as mechanibot, a tiny robot who has been tasked to fix the sun and has a number of robots to choose from. Robots act as "towers" that grant certain effects depending on their type and description, and can even have multiple types and effects. Your job is to keep these robots alive and attacking by frantically running around and placing them in and out of danger. You get money for each wave, which can be spent on given options at the end of each wave to upgrade robots, get new ones, and some upgrades for yourself as well. It's a lot of fun, a good 8 hours of content and replayable. Try out the demo and see if it's for you

Minit Fun Racer (Steam)

Another short game! This is a spin-off from Minit, and is much more arcade like. You start off on your little bike and have to avoid all the obstacles and collect coins to get to the end. You won't be able to progress very far for a while, so you get upgrade to last longer and get some upgrades for your scooter until you eventually can. Took me about an hour and a half to get all the achievements, but there was surprisingly a lot of cute hidden stuff along the way. Again, a fun arcadey experience with lots of charm for almost nothing.

Chico and the Magic Orchards DX (Steam)

This one was fun! I was on a big GameBoy kick this year, and the DX for this actually came out I was playing it. It was a little aggravating with some of the boss fights, but overall I had a fun time playing it! Recommended for a nice little nostalgic GBC puzzle game, would definitely be best on a portable console.

A Little to the Left (Switch DL)

I wanted to play more simple games, and this one seemed like a lot of fun as a recommendation from a friend. It's a little short, but it speaks to me as someone who hops between obsessing over doing things perfectly and finding it difficult todo anything at all. I especially like the way there are multiple solutions for several puzzles, which when compared with another player let you understand the different ways people can "organize" the same thing. A casual puzzle game that's worth a try, though don't expect hours and hours of entertainment from it

Game & Watch Gallery 3 (Switch NSO: Game Boy Color)

I owned Game & Watch Gallery 2 as a young'un, and remember playing it endlessly so it was nice to give this one a go when the GB/C update for Nintendo Switch Online Dropped. As the third entry, it contains a lot less common Game & Watch games, but the modern spin on them using Mario characters gives it a lot of personality. Honestly, I'm surprised we don't see more of these games remade in recent Mario Parties as homages or just high score games you can do.

If you've never played a Game & Watch Gallery, I'd give this one a try as its fun, addicting little bites of gameplay are very enjoyable and there's loads of unlockable bonuses to keep your attention, but if you find you don't like a game or two in it it can be a slog to get the 1000 points to finish the whole game.

Wario Land 3 (Switch NSO: Game Boy Color)

For those unfamiliar with the Wario Land series (and yet somehow found me?), it's a very fun series of platformers which focus more on puzzle solving/execution than your typical Mario platformer. Wario Land 3 specifically took Wario Land 2's "Impossible to get a game over" formula and ran with it, also making this a fun little Metroidvania in the process. It's definitely among my favorite in the sereis, though it's held back by an obsession with its own mini-golf game which it has you play one every level (every level has 4 exits). Overall it's a great entry in Mario spinoffs and a very fun time, but be prepared to be frustrated by some pretty annoying jumps and a silly mini game

Super Mario Land 2: The 6 Golden Coins (Switch NSO: Game Boy)

I have a love-hate relationship with this one. I never got to play it fully when I was a kid, but returning back to it I loved it. But it's way, waaaaaay too short. With 6 worlds with 2-3 levels tops, and with a frustratingly focused screen due to the resolution of the original Screen, it's not got a lot of staying power. Would love to see it as a pallette in Super Mario Maker 3 though.

It's fun, but short. Don't expect to spend a lot of time with this, but hey; you're probably playing this as NSO sub or for free online so no loss with this classic

WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$ (Switch NSO: Game Boy Advance)

The original WarioWare! It's fun, but again pretty short. Worthj a play if you've never tried out a WW game before, but the best WarioWare portable experience is Going to be WarioWare Gold on the 3DS and the more recent switch escapades. Additionally, this doesn't have the Wario World functionality, which obviously it can't but that was part of the reason I played it back in the day. Good for some random fun, doesn't stand out as an experience vs the more recent WarioWares

Dead Estate: Heaven & Hell update

This is the update the game needed; it drastically improved the floor spawning algorithm, added a lot more interesting playstyles for each character, and added more enemies and gimmicks to keep you replaying over and over again. There are more updates past this that improve the game further, but with this I can whole-heartedly recommend this as a very fun and addictive rogue-like.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (Steam)

What a wonderful April Fools game. My favorite game dev pranks are the one where they just silently drop a whole-ass spinoff.

A wonderful jaunt in the Sonic Universe! It's no secret that I love Sonic, and I've been keeping up with the IDW comic series (it's very good) since it started releasing a few years back and it's a wonderful fleshing out of characters and side-stories that main Sonic games will never address. This murder-mystery + special stage minigame was written and produced by the same writes on the IDW comics, and it's a very fun experience to see them get to make an interactive game with some humor while still getting to keep and flesh out the characters we never really get to see in Sonic Games. I highly recommend this for any Sonic fan, and hope this means we'll be seeing more in the way of sonic spin-offs in the future.

...

Also the IDW comic series is great! It takes a little to start with the first arc, but after that it's all I want out of a Sonic Comic. Tangle and Whisper are also cool as hell.

Lunistice (Steam)

This was a fun albeit short3D platformer, also looking like a PS1 original. I unfortunately didn't 100% it so I didn't finish the story and get the nuances of it, but as a platformer it was a fun romp. I'd recommend it as a fun labor of love, but not as something you can really dig your teeth into

Pizza Tower (Steam)

This game is really good! Feels great, first time in a while I've been like "Oh this is fun but really hard, I don't think I'll get good enough to 100% it" and then slowly but surely decided to. The only issue is some kinda old racist tropes being used in the western world which they really didn't need, but gameplay, visually, and musically this is a masterpiece. An essential part of any platformer fan's collection to have tried.

... If only they hadn't added more achievements I'd still have it 100%'d on Steam

Super Mario Bros. Peach's Adventure (SNES Classic romhack)

I saw this in a bit on Vinny's fullsauce channel about weird Mario hacks, and the only premise for this being weird was that Peach's design is nonstandard. It became apparent when he started playing that actually a ton of work and love went into it, so for the sake of the bit he moved on. I Proceeded to hack my SNES Classic so I could play this and boy was it worth it.

This romhack is adorable! IT's full of collectible's, has really fun levels, tons of references for any longtime Mario fan, and carries a nice aesthetic of the original SMB but with SMW's features so it's looks like a really amazing Mario Maker game. I loved it!

Across-Stitch (Itch.io)

It's Picross, but with colors! I'm a big running fan of Nintendo Picross games, and this came up on my recommended on itch so I decided to give it a try. Very fun, has a lot of puzzles, and is just a fun time waster. I got it on itch (linked), but honestly it'd be perfect for my phone had I done that

PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION 2 (Steam)

So this one's kinda weird; Pac-man CE was one of my favorite games on the 360 (I didn't have many), and I thought the sequel would be it but just better since they'd solve the scoring problems. It was actually just like more of the same but with some different styles of play, and I found myself getting tired of it pretty fast. I have nostalgic memories of 1 so I'm probably looking at it with rose-tinted goggles, but this is a very passable arcade experience.

STEREOGRAM (itch.io)

I cannot in good conscience recommend you play this game, as looking at both screen this closely to do the stereogram and crossing your eyes for extended periods of time can cause permanent damage to your eyesight.

... But as a concept it was really neat! I did beat it with frequtn 5 minute breaks, and it only took a couple hours. Very basic metroidvania with fixed rooms to make the effect work.

Charm Studies (itch.io)

A very cute mixed visual novel and picross game! I like picross and this caught my eye, so I gave it a shot. Fun, but a bit short. But also free! Maybe try it out if you're not sure about picross yourself

Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut

Longtime C7 fans will know I like Shantae quite a lot. And have an unhealthy amount of Shantae Merch. So when my Sister was visiting and I was feeling particularly self-conscious about playing games over the mic with friends, I decided to whip out this classic and finally 100% it. Shantae holds a special place in my heart for me, because I grew up an incredible prude with absolutely no interest in the kind of scandalous things that friends were starting to bring up. Whenever they tried to get me to watch Anime and watch stuff that had some fanservice, I felt wildly uncomfortable just because I didn't know how to process what I was seeing (and had undiagnosed anxiety and ADHD issues).

Shantae was the first time I saw something "suggestive" (read: cute girls in light outfits) tied with a style of gameplay I liked, and allowed me to kind of stop hating myself whenever these things came up. With this being a DSi game, meaning I could download it with nobody knowing I did, and the rave reviews it was getting by being one of the first DSi games available, I finally decided to purchase it. I loved the series ever since!

Getting back to this play-session, I decided to revisit this classic (my first experience with the series) and play it 100% with all the bells and whistles, including speedrun achievements. I got them all! For people who know what Shantae is, this is an essential entry into the series and a contender for top 3. If you've not played a Shantae game but like Metroidvania's, this or the recently released Seven Sirens are the best starting points

And yes, just to brag, that screenshot of the steam stats does mean I got the worst ending last and optimized my playtime.

My personal Shantae tier list, best to worst

Seven Sirens

Risky's Revenge tied with Pirate's Curse

Half-Genie Hero

Shantae GBC

Risky's Revolution, an unfinished GBA game in the series, was also announced to be resurrected and releasing next year, which is rad!

.. Anyway, onto another topic

TUNIC (Steam, played over steam link on the TV with a Controller away from the internet)

This was a hard one to get into, but a very fun one once I got the difficulty barrier and begun understanding the games' mechanics. I did end up getting the best ending, but not 100% all the achievements since that would've required more playthroughs, and the magic of figuring out the world would've been gone.

The use of the manuals, sudden realizations of mechanics, and really fun moments with some beautiful areas and items to figure out make this a wonderful game. Some of the bossess are.. not great, but on the whole I highly recommend this experience to people who want to feel what it was like in pre-internet days, having to solve a game's puzzles by charting out the world and coming to a deep understanding of its mechanics to find all the secrets. If you're easily frustrated or aren't a fan of 2D Zelda though, this is a pass

Cult of the Lamb (Steam)

This was one I was not expecting to get into. I saw it and thought "Hmm, I like games with a base-building aspect to them sometimes but a lot of the time that really gets in the way of the actual game." And to be honest, there were a few moments where juggling the two kinda did. Additionally, and this is a personal taste thing, the visuals of Don't Starve kinda don't appeal to me, so seeing a more cutesy version of that wasn't something I thought I'd love

... But this game is phenomenal! An incredibly fun rogue-lite game that mixes with base and resource management in a way that doesn't actually exclude someone who would like one over the other!

This was another one I 100% after a LOT of playtime and attempts at damageless bosses, but it was very worth it.

LEGO Builder's Journey (Steam)

I've been on Lego for the past few years, and this seemed like a fun little game that wasn't tied to any existing franchise so I gave it a go. It's an environmental puzzle game, where each micro-level has its own little puzzle where you need to figure out which pieces interact to (most of the time) get your little 1x1x2 lego guy to the other end of the stage.

It's very cute, and while a bit short ended up being the perfect length for this kinda game. The only thing I'd put against it is my computer had a rough time running it because they really wanted all the shaders and reflections to look great, so keep that in mind.

The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap (Switch Online)

This is a weird one. I could've sworn I loved this game as a kid, and in fact this is what got me into 2D Zelda's because it was so much fun! Revisiting it though, I find it's one of the weaker entries in the series. The visuals look great, the story is as charming as you'd expect, and as someone who was really into windwaker and picked this up I was hooked, however it is by far one of the most tedious Zelda's I've played. The Dungeons are all relatively straightforward; while some offer an interesting mechanic from being small and making you think how larger objects affect the world, they still felt very linear.

Additionally, I had no idea just how grindy this game was at the time in comparison! Tons of the sidequests and rewards are visible fomr your first pass in an area, so as a result every time you get a new item you're tempted to go back and see if helps. The NPCs often block places as an obstacle that just move after a while (or a result of kinstone fusing), which made the game a lot more frustrating to remember things by. Kinstones themselves are annoying to find and even worse to use, as NPCs will randomly decide if they want to fuse or not. So to get everything you need to frequently visit and revisit the same places and NPCs over and over again, with no way of knowing if that random person has something you need to fuse with or is actually just a random person.

Additionally the figure collection, something I adored in WindWaker despite it being ridiculously grindy there too, has been reduced to a Gacha machine. A heart piece is locked behind collecting them all, which means for 100% completion you have to collect ALL the figurines, including ones only available after you clear your file, making the final heart piece effectively useless. Worse, the act of collecting them is a gargantuan time sink; it takes loads of time to go through dialog, even more to collect the rupees you need, and the "chance" system doesn't quite work how you'd expect. With me cheating to get 999 rupees in gambling all the time and going through all the prompts to get all these, it took me 3 hours. That's quadrupled at least if you play the game properly.

Never 100% this game, but as far as 2D zelda's go this is definitely not a terrible entry; just a bit uninspired. I'd recommend ALTTP, ALBW, or Link's Awakening over this myself.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)

I would have some fun screenshots but deleted my twitter so they're gone now, oh well.

I'm not gonna go too far in depth on this one; It's breath of the Wild but >2x larger with some wild building mechanics and a really good story. A fantastic game that may see age as the open-world genre gets saturated, but quite frankly one of the best games you'll ever see on the switch.

Annalynn (Switch)

I followed the artist on Twitter (when I still had one) and really liked the retro feel of it. It's a fun classic arcade game, however like some of those classic arcade games I found myself frustrated by its difficulty while still not grasping the hardest nuances of its mechanics enough to get good at it. It's fun, but I'd see if it's for you by watching the videos first.

Part 2 coming later today!

[the-hype-dragon]

I keep seeing xitter men repeat that men's "birthrights" were "stolen from them" what does that mean tho

[yvernal]

[Monday 25th]

Today started with appointments. I had to go to the neighboring village to see my doctor. I've been seeing him since I was 7 or so ? A long time, so it's easy to get stuff done without wasting time. I got my testosterone prescription renewed, as well as the blood test I need to take every 6 months to monitor my testosterone levels. I also got the paper for the flu vaccine and a new round of vitamin D pills, since I had quite the bad lack of it last time.

After that, I had an hour of commute to get into the city center for work, time I used to start moving my stuff from Xitter to Bluesky. And when I finally got to work, I had less than an hour before my phone call with the health insurance. The lady I got was really helpful and I'm quite satisfied with what I got. I just need to review it with Mom maybe, but I should be able to sign up this week, even if the contract won't be active before January.

I spent the day doing basically the same thing, equipping kids manga after recreating a notice, since they were bought to replace lost, weeded and stolen copies. It's a big task separated in a lot of smaller tasks and I'm glad I took my medication this morning cause my brain was boiling.

I also prepared the cart for my group animation tomorrow (a french speaking group for non-french speakers), because I'll see my psychiatrist in the morning and I won't have time for it.

And on that, I'll go to sleep. I played a bit of my game this evening and it was quite relaxing (and rewarding, I gained a lot of in-game money).

[science-criticaltheory]

Now What? - Ed Walker

Detail of The Last Judgment by Giovanni da Modena, a fresco at the Cathedral of Bologna, Italy. Photo by Artemisia.

I’ve had lots of feelings about that miserable election: anger, hostility, fear, worry, and more. But life goes on. Now what?

Self-Care

I practiced bankruptcy law for 25 years, mostly representing middle-class people who got hammered by one of the four most common causes of financial distress — divorce, illness/injury, job loss, and financial crashes. Almost all of my clients were shocked and horrified that things had come to the place where they needed to consult a lawyer. I had one piece of advice: take care of yourself. You can’t help anyone else if you’re totally stressed out.

It’s good advice. I took it myself, in fact, I’m still taking it. I did a media cleanse: no billionaire media, quit reading newsletters and Substacks, got off Xitter, and limited my screen time. I watched movies, read novels, talked to my friends over dinner and drinks. I cleaned out closets and drawers, took a close look at expenditures, and talked to my stock broker.

I’ve read this site, and the comments. I moved to Bluesky (@edwalker.bsky.social) and used the starter packs to replace my curated list of follows on Xitter. I’m exercising and eating mindfully. It’s helping.

The Blame Game

I’ve been thinking about why the election turned out so badly. Of course there are many reasons for a huge loss, but these seem make me angriest.

1. Voters. Democracy only works if voters can discriminate among candidates. Donald Trump is a law-breaker, a sexually abusive creep, and a business and governmental failure. People who think this repulsive demented jerk is a plausible candidate and voted for him and people who refused to vote failed the basic test of democracy. There is no excuse for this. With the exception of Muslims who refused to support genocide, discussed below, those people failed as citizens.

2. Billionaire media. The billionaire-owned and controlled media (the “BM”) rehabilitated and enabled Trump. When Trump was impeached for inciting a riot to hold on to power after getting whipped n the 2020 election, the BM announced that the impeachment was futile. Then when the coward Mitch McConnell protected him the BM patted itself on the back and announced that Trump was the leading candidate for 2024. Then he was discovered to have stolen critical national security documents from the government and refused to return them. The BM treated this as spectacle, thrilled by his contempt of law, and continued to treat Trump as the leading Repub candidate.

Meanwhile, the BM’s political reporters decided that inflation was Biden’s fault because of all the government spending on COVID relief, infrastructure and bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US. This was a lie. The primary cause of inflation was supply chain blockages brought on by corporate just-in-time practices. Prices rose as supply dropped, just as predicted by Econ 101 textbooks.

But when supply chain problems eased, prices didn’t come down as predicted by those textbooks. The largest US corporations have oligopolistic market power, and were able to keep prices rising. This was a replay of the mid-1970s when right-wing economists pretended inflation was caused by Keynesian spending instead of the ripple effects of OPEC price hikes. Sadly, BM political reporters lack the capacity to learn from the experience of being bamboozled.

By mid-2023 it was obvious that Biden’s policies were bringing our economy to a soft landing, and many economists (not the right-wing toads) began calling for the Fed to reduce interest rates. The Fed, led by a Republican, refused. That helped keep inflation from falling. BM political reporters blamed Biden for all it.

It doesn’t matter why. They failed. They are to blame.

3. The Democratic Party. Famous Will Rogers quote: “I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.”

The election was a massive failure of Democratic “leadership,” the timid politicians, the know-it-all rich donors with their hands out, and the incompetent consultants. They all failed. They all should head to a monastery or convent and spend the rest of their days in shame and prayers for forgiveness on account al the people Trump will hurt physically and psychologically.

There is no Democratic Party. There are a bunch of politicians who claim the label, and their supporters and apparatchiks. They won’t help a single person now. For years lefties have begged them to do things that will help people directly — things like raising the minimum wage, protecting voting rights, strengthening labor laws, and reducing student debt, legislating abortion rights, and much more. Zippo.

We begged them to attack the policies and the politicians of the stupid party. We begged them to defend against the Ratfuckers’ ugly attacks on teachers, librarians, liberal clerics, college students, intellectuals, scientists, not-White people, asylum-seekers, LGBTQ+ people, and anyone with a brain capable of telling right from wrong. We begged them to communicate forcefully their successes. We begged them to use the power we gave them to help all of us flourish. They refused. They took our money and our time and then punched the dirty fucking hippies for funsies.

Time to clean House and Senate.

All right, big mouth, now whatcha gonna do?

1. There are a couple of things I can do locally, and I’m going to try to do them, hopefully in the company of people better equipped than I to accomplish them.

2. I’m going to continue with my current project of examining what it means to be an individual in current US society. But instead of treating it as a personal project, I’m going to try to make it more useful. More on that later.

3. I think the Democratic Party as currently constituted is purely transactional. It has no center, no reason for existing. There is nothing to bind us to the party. Instead, we are expected to support people who have claimed the label, regardless of whether or not they are furthering our goals.

As an example, Muslims who voted for Biden were asked to vote for the party’s chosen successor, Kamala Harris, despite her apparent support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its attacks on Lebanon and Hezbollah, its evident attempts to stir up war with Iran, and the close connection between the Israel’s odious warmonger Netanyahu and Trump.

Compare this to the 2012 election. We were asked to support Obama and his team despite their flat refusal to hold Wall Street accountable for causing the Great Crash. We were asked to support Obama’s choice to “foam the runway”, to allow the perps keep all the money they stole and use it to buy up all the houses that went into foreclosure. We were told to ignore the fate of millions of our fellow citizens who suffered loss of homes and savings. I didn’t vote for him. I couldn’t. How could I demand that Muslims support Harris in the face of genocide? How could anyone? Maybe other people felt similarly about other failures to deliver on promises.

The Democratic Party is not our friend, and it’s not going to help. We all have to figure out how to fix the mess that crowd of failures created. The shell of the party remains. I might be able to help with one obvious problem the lack of a governing theory.

4. I’m going to continue to attack the MAGAts on SCOTUS. I know how to read their bullshit opinions, and I know what plausible jurisprudence is, and I can and will show my contempt.

5, I think another serious problem is that we have no way to communicate with a large audience. By we, I mean thoughtful left-leaning writers and thinkers. We have no mass media presence, and we aren’t likely to develop one under a Trump administration.

At the Democratic Convention the Harris team centered a group of what it called “content creators,” people with podcasts. TikTok followers, Instagram accounts, and other ways of communicating. Those reach some of our target audience and could reach more.

Maybe that’s a way forward? Some kind of grouping of these content creators? Some sensible organization that stretches across all these forums? A coherence based on common goals and maybe even a theory? Maybe some way to make a little money?

Conclusion

We’re all going to have to find a way forward. Any thoughts?

“A Farce, or a Tragedy, or Perhaps Both.”

WaPo Enthusiastically Joins Trump’s Attack on Rule of Law

[goldenfox3]

I really should go on tungly to ramble about Andy/Robert instead of character limits mcgee xitter lmao. Anyway. Compiling my twt thread rambling about married Andy/Rob for later ref

Awake at assoclock crying about the idea of Andy and Robert getting secretly informally married because Andy is legally dead and Bart's not supposed to be involved with the Task Force. But Rob wanted to marry that man before he was gone again and Andy could never refuse him

All their time together is stolen to begin with Andy's cheated death several times but the guillotine of his final sacrifice hangs above their heads. He was brought back to be paragon Falcon so why is he indulging in human desires (it's because he's still human beneath the helm)

Robert knows this, has known him since he was just Andy with no additional identities, willingly accepts however much or little time Andy(Bart,Falcon) can give him. Andy is drawn to that steadiness, acceptance, enduring love. An anchor, a place to rest. Of course he said yes.

Robert never asks for anything from him. How could Andy not want to give him everything, even if his entire life is no longer his own, claimed by duty. But Rob also claims that duty, even if he doesn't wear a flashy helmet to do it. They're friends, comrades, lovers (rambling on)

Rob knows asking Andy to marry him when he already has so much weighing on his shoulders and so many causes claiming him is selfish of him perhaps. But when Andy looks at him like he hung the moon and stars how could he not want to say be mine stay with me for as long as you live

It's not very long until Rob has to watch Andy die again and this time there's no miracle to bring him back. But he could never regret the time they spent together and the brief amount of time he was able to make Andy's life brighter and let him know how much he was loved

Due to them not really wanting to be seen together in public too much and avoid attention I think they don't exactly go out on dates much and mostly stay over at Rob's place. Thinking of them wearing disguises is really funny like both of them have such wacky disguises in canon...

Occasionally one will want to surprise the other with a romantic outing/gesture. I keep thinking of them going for dinner+dancing or a countryside picnic or Andy taking Rob out for his bday/Valentines and booking a luxurious hotel suite. A getaway for them only, just for a night