#that's only kind of a joke

[heshmmity]

f4f (fag4fag)

[noficbyhalves]

In retrospect, I realize how that statement wasn't really the best or most clear way to phrase my point. I didn't particularly want to get super into the weeds about health insurance and savings plan details, and I overcorrected a bit. My apologies.

Amended statement: if you are not on Medicare part D, this may or may not reduce your insulin costs depending on your insurance situation, which formula you're on, which company you're buying from, and whether or not Novo Nordisk feels like fucking you in particular up the ass this month.

If you would like to wander into the weeds with me, see below

The relevant bit here is that a significant portion of these changes aren't administered via list price. They're through manufacturer savings plans, which are great in that they are one additional thing to keep track of, allow manufacturers to put conditions on who actually gets that $35 price point, and let them bleed the uninformed dry (or too-busy-to-remember-to-renew, as these things tend to last for only a year or so) with the massive list price anyway.

From a little bit of digging, Eli Lilly's seems pretty reasonable, all things considered. It only excludes people on state or federal health plans (which, if someone could fact check whether people on like military insurance also get the $35 price point that'd be lovely, my passing google was inconclusive), and AFPs (way beyond the scope of this discussion, they look kind of sketchy to me but if that's the only thing your employer offers... tough shit I guess).

Novo Nordisk, however, excludes the above, as well as does some obnoxious nonsense like setting the price point at $99 a month if your insurance copay is too high (disturbingly common, as insulin is almost always classed at minimum tier 2, often tier 3) or NN isn't in their formulary, and telling you to go fuck yourself if you don't have health insurance at all.

That sure sounds unfortunate, you say, but surely if you stick to companies that have good savings plans, you'll be good to go. (Please hold a moment while I laugh until I keel over and then gnaw off my own arm)

So fun fact for the uninformed, "insulin" is not a drug, its a category of like a dozen different formulae that conceptually do the same thing, but in practice vary from 'mostly interchangeable' to 'extremely not interchangeable holy shit do not do that'. (Don't quote me on the exact quantity here, I'm not super familiar with the extremely long-acting stuff on the other side of the aisle, and this also isn't counting 70/30 or 50/50 mixes, which are extremely common with some specs.) This more-or-less doesn't matter if you're on one of the more commonly accessible ones (human or glargine, even lispro to some degree), but certain types are only available from certain manufacturers. Novo Nordisk is especially bad about this - if aspart or degludec works markedly better for you than lispro or glargine, you better hope your insurance covers NN cause they have a monopoly on that shit. (Or, realistically, make all of your insurance - and to some degree, employment - decisions for the past 5-7 years around the fact that you can't afford to pay $500 a month out of pocket for what your friends and family know colloquially as 'the good shit' or suffer the Noticeable Medical Concequences(TM))

So, in conclusion, the new law is EXTREMELY GOOD if you are on medicare and POSSIBLY VERY GOOD BUT DON'T PLAN YOUR BUDGET AROUND IT WITHOUT DOING IN-DEPTH RESEARCH DEPENDING ON YOUR HEALTH AND/OR INSURANCE SITUATION for everyone else. Which is the point I was trying to get at while tired and pissy the other day, that the law does not unilaterially apply to everyone, manufacturer savings plans aren't new, they're just reducing some parts of the out of pocket cost when you use them, and that we should still push for $35/mo for everyone regardless of insurance situation without jumping through these stupid hoops while celebrating the (EXTREMELY GOOD) success that we did get.

[drenched-in-sunlight]

i love the DLC man

[tofixtheshadows]

This is one of my favorite minor details in Dungeon Meshi, firstly because what in the femme fatale, but also because it's one of those little things that raises so many questions about worldbuilding.

The Occam's Razor defense attorney in me says that Ryoko Kui gave Kabru a boot knife because she wanted him to escape from his bonds here. And Kabru is a very competent swordsman, why wouldn't he have a boot knife, sure. He's already got a dagger, he can have this too.

And yet: the implications. Kabru, why do you have that? That is not remotely something that could be easily accessed or used in combat. Nobody is pulling out a pen knife from the heel of their boot during a fight with a monster. It's useless in the dungeon ... unless you're the type of person who isn't just worried about monsters.

I've mentioned this before, but I consider one of Kabru's functions in the narrative as being the character who fully brings the idea of human ecosystems into the story. There's a reason why he's always connected to large groups of people (Toshiro's party, the Canaries). He (along with Mr. Tansu, briefly) introduces the reader to the social and political forces working on the dungeon, showing us that none of this is happening in a monster-filled vacuum. His confrontation with the corpse retrievers, who very nearly kill Kabru's party permanently with their reckless murder-for-money scheme, reminds us that monsters are not the only things that prey on humans. Kabru understands the ways the dungeon causes people to put profit over human lives.

We only get hints of it in the story, but like any gold-rush-style economic boom, it's implied that there is a lot of crime and corruption surrounding the dungeon.

So yeah, it really makes me wonder why Kabru keeps a tiny knife in his boot, meant to be carried on him even in situations where he would otherwise be unarmed. Stored exactly in the place where it's easy to reach, even if, for some reason, your hands are tied behind your back.

[dominosecho]

they’re filler episodes TO YOU. to me they’re little windows through which i watch my favorite characters make the stupidest decisions imaginable

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hello Madam. Sorry Madam.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[weirdglassthing]

LOA Shiptober Day 4: How They Met

October content month was ambitious..

This one took me. Shockingly long. Whoops! I’ll probably end up jumping around the prompt list and it might extend into November 😋

I’ll try to do day 31 on the actual date of Halloween though 🫡

[aroaceleovaldez]

re: [this post] / [this post] and thinking about the "usually depicted with unnatural or semi-unnatural eye colors" club

[torchickentacos]

Reporting back to tumblr that "May and her brood of boytoys" is indeed an eng-dub only line and this is the sub line. Who on the eng team greenlit the change to 'boytoys'😭How did we get from point A to point B here? I will never get over this.

Eng dub, for context:

[mr-ribbit]

ladies, do you hate shaving? you wish you didn't have to go through all that work before every date night? want to wear shorts or a swimsuit or just exist in public without it being a whole ordeal of exhaustion, self harm, and emotional stress? do you put yourself through hell solely to keep up the illusion that you have zero body hair? great news, we have a solution!

"is it to surround yourself with people who don't care about body hair?"

no!!

"is it to improve my personal stigma against body hair by accepting its beauty on others?"

no!!!!!!!

"does it involve me getting to stop shaving at all?"

of course not!!!!!!!!!! ITS AN INSANE ALTERNATIVE SHAVING PRODUCT! ITS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN RAZORS, TAKES JUST AS LONG, AND AND ITS WEIRD! BUY OUR HANDHELD LASER POWERED PINK TAXED MAGIC LEG SHAVING THINGIE FOR A MILLION DOLLARS!! USE IT TO GET RID OF THAT UGLY LEG HAIR YOU HIRSUTE FREAK! YOURE NOT NATURAL YOURE NOT NORMAL IF YOU DONT LIKE SHAVING THEN YOU *NEED* TO USE THIS BRAND NEW THERAPY WAX TWEEZER BEAM RADIATION BLISTER WAND PROCESS!!!! YOU HAVE TO CHARGE IT! IT'LL GET RID OF THAT HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HAIR WITHOUT ALL THE CUMBERSOME STRUGGLES OF HAVING TO SHAVE - THATS RIGHT, THIS PRODUCT GIVES YOU BRAND NEW CUMBERSOME STRUGGLES TO ADD TO YOUR ALREADY JAM PACKED MORNING ROUTINE OF SHIT YOU HAVE TO DO TO YOUR STUPID WOMAN BODY BEFORE YOU LET ANYBODY OUT IN THE REAL WORLD SEE IT

NOW WITH ESSENTIAL OILS

[adobe-outdesign]

There was a period in Neopets wherein all the faeries were designed to wear bell bottoms for some reason and honestly I kind of feel like getting rid of them was a downgrade

enough dresses, have a faerie show up ready to bless your Neopet and then head out to the disco afterward

[s0fter-sin]

soap's whole deal being sniper and demolitions gets me going bc on the surface they sound so different but when you get into it, you realise it's bc soap's smart

sniping is all math; calculating distances and wind interference and bullet drop. something i think people overlook is he was listed as a sniper first so it can be implied that he's better at it than demolitions. he does more sniping in both campaigns than demolitions work; in capture or kill, ghost specifically calls on him to take down the aq snipers

and demolitions is math with a hit of chemistry; knowing what mixes with what, knowing how much to use, recognising environmental factors and adjusting accordingly. it's not just about the boom; so much work goes into contained/ planned explosions. especially when having enough power for a breacher charge and not bringing down the whole building is the difference between mission success and failure

the chemical bombs he makes in alone can't just be any old cleaners, they have to have the correct reaction to each other; he just knew off the top of his head what would mix with what to create what reaction. he would also potentially have to recognise them by sight/smell bc they would’ve been written in spanish

soap would also have to know architecture; recognising structural integrity and weak points so he knows exactly where to plant a charge to bring it down and how it'll come down

he has an incredible soldier's mind people just forget that bc he's sociable which itself is a skill

we know he tends to buck against orders he doesn't agree with like when he pushes back against ghost in capture or kill and shepherd when he tells them to release hassan

he gets closer to people and sees if he can trust them and that's when he follows them without question. really think about how he talks to alejandro and rudy; he asks about their home and alejandro's family and rudy's relationship with him. those aren't questions you ask a stranger after a few hours of knowing them. that's not even touching on his relationship with ghost

he also deliberately brings people of higher ranks down to his level; talking informally with ghost and giving him a shoulder punch, addressing alejandro (a colonel!!) by his first name and rudy by his nickname despite literally just meeting them. he personalises all of them and it’s in direct opposition to the reason most characters do that; it’s not due to insubordination or lack of respect, the more he respects and trusts someone, the more casual he is with them

he digs into people; he wants to know what makes them tick and that determines if he can one, trust them and two, follow their orders. once he decides that, he's the ultimate soldier; he bleeds loyalty which makes him vicious when that loyalty is taken for granted

he isn't naive or bubbly or insecure; he's an incredibly smart and aware soldier. he's aggressive and bloodthirsty and loyal and intuitive and i love him so much

[leftmysoulbythesideoftheroad]

stardew valley is great because you can replay and marry a different villager every time except i always marry shane

[kat-aa]

unfortunately for us all, the 2016 d*emon ph*ngirl still lurks within me, and she needs to be fed, so welcome to:

Kat (kinda jokingly, kinda not) Reads Into Things That Don't Need To Be Read Into (instead of doing something potentially productive with her life, such as her homework)

anyway. fair-warning. the mental connections here are gonna be nebulous at best, completely unhinged at worst. and they're light-hearted so don't be mad im joking. but here's what we're analyzing today:

arguably the cutest clip of the video, but there's a few random moments here that make me feel insane bc either i'm reading into things or they know and are phucking with us.

circumstances: so obviously tons of husband/marriage references in their recent videos, including the cursed "hide your hand they might see it" "what? the lack of wedding ring?" moment, which inevitably, leads the mind in certain directions, especially when its related to dan and phil, the two sneakiest people in the word

exhibit a: the hand grab/slap

like ok, sure, you could argue phil is just exerting "im-on-tour-energy" previously seen in tour videos, and you're probably right but i can't help but jump at the fact that that's dan's left hand AND one could say, given the aforementioned circumstances, that he's miming slapping a ring on it. AND HE MAKES DIRECT EYE CONTACT WITH THE CAMERA WHILE HE DOES IT. which may seem like a stretch until we move on to-

exhibit b: "you thought you were getting my hand, i got yours bitch"

LIKE PLEASE I CAN'T BE THE ONLY ONE GETTING HUNG UP ON THE WORDING? like it just sounds like "getting/taking your hand in marriage" still think its a stretch? on to-

exhibit c: "that's how they do it in iceland"

yes, rationally, the last question they did was iceland related. but this is not the time, nor place, for rational thinking. and we know dan and phil lurk in places they don't belong (hey guys <3) so you can reasonably assume they know about the iceland wedding conspiracy thus,

the only natural conclusion is:

phil proposed to dan before dan could propose to phil (as such, resulting further in the support of exhibit b) along with the marginal importance of *gasp* -

exhibit d: "domination"

phil has asserted his dominance by proposing first :)

thanks for listening, tune in next week for further delusions sponsored by kat's procrastination <3

[radsplain]

ABORT! YOUR! SONS!

[stromblessed]

Mizu's spectacles, and the levels of her disguise

In drafting some more Blue Eye Samurai meta posts, I find myself writing out the comparisons between what Mizu can and cannot hide about herself, and how that affects how she moves through the world.

Like, I get the jokes about Mizu's glasses, if only color contacts had existed back then, etc. etc., and I think (hope) that most viewers don't take the glasses jokes seriously, as in "I don't care about the suspension of disbelief because BES is a cartoon." But I wanted to write these thoughts out anyway without burying them in a text post about something else.

I think the points I'm going to lay out here are viewed very differently by different people, so please feel free to add to this post, reply, or put your thoughts in the tags!

Not only do Mizu's glasses not actually help her that much, there's surely more to Mizu's mixed race appearance than just the color of her eyes.

In my view, this was pointed out in episode 1:

I'm willing to bet most of us were expecting young Taigen to say "blue eyes," not "ROUND eyes."

Obviously this is still about Mizu's eyes, but not even spectacles can hide their shape.

I don't think the show is obligated to point out everything about Mizu's face that isn't quite as Japanese as the people around her expect. Though the creators have said that they specifically designed Mizu - and her clothes - to read both as "white" and as "Japanese," as well as both male and female. I think there's more about Mizu's features that read as "white" than just her eyes.

This is where my own headcanons start entering the picture, but it's my impression that people can just tell that Mizu looks different, whether or not they can put a finger on exactly how.

There's the little girl who looks at Mizu and then hides on the way into Kyoto:

When there's more to your face you'd like to cover up than just your eyes, big hats are a big help!

By the way, most of these examples have to come from the first half of the season, since by the second half, either Mizu is too preoccupied with fighting henchmen, or everyone Mizu is facing knows who she is already, and she therefore has no reason to hide her mixed race identity.

It's worth mentioning that the mere fact that Mizu has to hide multiple aspects of her identity - her mixed race and her sex - results in her having to choose clothes that really, really cover her up, which doesn't win her any favors either:

(Zatoichi reference, anyone?)

If it were as easy as, for example, tying her glasses to her head and wa-lah, nobody would ever know she was half-white - then (1) Mizu would've just done that long ago, and (2) Mizu wouldn't be so on guard and on tenterhooks 100% of the time the way she's depicted in the show, even when her glasses are on.

Her spectacles sure don't help her in the brothel, which is full of observant women who are trying to seduce her, meaning they get good long looks at her:

Mizu never takes her glasses off, but they still send a woman to her who has light eyes, thinking that must be what will interest a blue-eyed man:

No wonder Mizu gets mad after this, lol

So Mizu never takes her spectacles off in the brothel, it's dimly lit inside, and the women can still tell that she has blue eyes. I'm getting the sense that Mizu putting on her spectacles isn't a guarantee that people suddenly can't tell that she looks different.

And yet no one spots that she's female.

Mizu can hide her breasts, can wear her hair in the right style, can hide what's between her legs, can walk and talk and behave like a man - and she's been doing it for almost her entire life, to the point that not only is she very good at it, but the threat of being found out as female is deadly, but isn't presented in the show as omnipresent.

Let me explain.

She threatens Ringo for nearly saying the word "girl" out loud, because while she's constantly ostracized for being mixed race, being a woman traveling without a chaperone, carrying a sword, and disguised as a man will get her killed or flogged or arrested or some combination of these things.

But in addition, it's been drilled into her since she was a child that if she is discovered as female, the combination of her being mixed race and female will identify her as someone extremely specific, someone known to some bad people, and she will be killed:

I think of it as Mizu thinking to herself, "Being found out as mixed race means I'm treated badly. Being found out as mixed race and a woman means I'm dead."

Mizu's hair is cut as a child. But she isn't made to wear a big hat, or cover her eyes somehow, or anything like that. Because hiding her sex is a more successful endeavor than hiding her race.

Ringo finds out she's female by accident, but once Mizu accepts the fact that he won't rat her out, she relaxes pretty early on in the season. Because the threat of being found out as female is mitigated pretty much 99.9%, since Mizu has gotten so good at being a man. And also, because most of the time, people see what they want to see. Even if Mizu's face makes her stand out as "not 100% Japanese," no one in the world of BES looks at Mizu's clothes, her bearing, her sword, hears her voice, and will ever in a million years conclude that she is a woman, because expectations around gender roles in the Edo period were so rigid and so widely enforced.

One detail that proved this to me is after the Four Fangs fight:

Ringo takes off Mizu's clothes so he can stitch her up, then leaves her clothes off even after he's done. He doesn't even throw her cloak over her as a blanket or anything. There's a little a straw (pallet?) as a divider there on the left, but anyone could just peek around it and see Mizu and her chest bindings. (I think it's mostly there as a windbreaker.)

And Taigen is right there, but he doesn't give a shit:

Opinions probably vary hugely on this, but my impression is that because the show doesn't make any kind of deal about Taigen being in the room with Mizu here, my guess is that Mizu isn't in any danger of Taigen thinking she's female. Even when I watched the show for the first time, I assumed that Taigen had seen Mizu out of her clothes here, and that he thought nothing of it.

Eat your heart out, Li Shang (Mulan 1998). I actually do think that this scene is a direct and purposeful side-eye to that movie, lol

There's obviously some nuance to how "severe" being mixed race is compared to how "severe" being a woman is for Mizu:

After all, Swordfather can't bear to listen to Mizu confess to being a woman.

So a Japanese man can go wherever he wants, whenever he wants in BES. A Japanese woman has limited options: marriage, religion, or a brothel. A mixed-race man is an eyesore in this story. A mixed-race woman is a death sentence.

May as well eliminate the female aspect, and do what you can about the mixed-race aspect. Because that's just realistic.

Meaning Mizu can avoid the strictures Edo society places on women. But she can't avoid the repercussions that come with being mixed race. And I truly don't think that it's just because "there's no brown contacts yet."