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rockethorse · 7 months ago

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Calcinidae Bay Lot Tour: the Public Schools

Let's take a closer look at a few of Calcinidae Bay's community lots - its public schooling! This screenshot is actually three lots, with two lots overlapped using the Lot Adjuster. On the left is the high school, on the right is the primary school, and between them is a shared gymnasium and a semi-public oval (sports field).

More pics & CC-free decorating ideas below!

As always, these lots are based on shell challenges. The high school and primary school are actually shells that were made for me by @hugelunatic as stocking stuffers back in 2022 (I didn't forget about them!) The shell from the gym/oval lot is actually the smaller canteen building, with the gymnasium being auxiliary (because it had to be such a specific size/shape), and that shell is a 4T2 adaptation of LilSimsie's "Yeehaw" Shell Challenge that I grabbed off the gallery.

Starting with the high school:

If you peeked at the original shell, you'll see there was a two-storey 1x1 "column "room" in the middle of the lot, which made me think of a bell/clock tower and inspired me to use these shells for schools. Normally when I adapt a TS4 shell challenge to TS2 I choose the placement & orientation on the lot, but because these lots were made natively in TS2 I decided to keep the lot size & distribution as they were. This gave me a lot of additional space around the main building that was perfect for adding extra amenities like a library.

The ground floor of the high school has an administration area, lockers, mixed bathroom, sick bay, staff room, and two general-use classrooms that can each fit six students.

The teacher's lounge/staff room, and a small display/awards case. I needed something to do with that little triangular pocket, and now it's one of my favourite features. :)

Upstairs is two specialised classrooms - a moderate science lab and an arts room. I would have liked at least a home ec classroom as well, but I guess that'll be reserved for the eventual private school.

The canteen (cafeteria) is a separate demountable building with outdoor seating, some of it under a shade cloth. The library is also a separate building with a small computer bay and a group study area.

Moving on to the primary school, a much older and smaller building with some minor remodeling so the two schools look cohesive:

The inspiration for my gameplay/lots is a mish-mash of different cultural influences, but I play my schools like the standard Australian system; kids start in reception (about age 5) and attend primary school all the way through to year 6 or 7, then go to high school from year 6/7 through to year 12. Separate middle schools are much less common, and this matches with how the game itself handles kid vs. teen education.

I design my lots kind of "representationally", to get the best balance between realism and playability. While I enjoy including some details that don't provide actual gameplay, I don't want to build enormous, cumbersome lots just to achieve a 1:1 scale when my Sims will never actually need that much space. Plus, most shell challenges tend to be smaller, which I like. Hence why this school has only two classrooms, one for junior primary and a more structured classroom for upper primary.

There is a small admin area downstairs. Upstairs is the sick bay and a modest teacher's lounge/staff room.

The primary school doesn't have its own library, but it does have a small separate building that we in Australia would call OSHC - Out of School Hours Care. It's a service parents can book to drop their children off before school starts, or arrange for them to attend after school finishes until they can pick them up. They provide snacks and some edu-tainment activities. Lots of kids also attend OSHC over school holidays.

The primary school canteen/cafeteria is also a separate building. Both school canteens use the University cafeteria stove, so with the right mod students will be able to grab food there. In addition to an outdoor eating area and a small playground, there is a little produce patch between the two buildings where students are taught about horticulture.

And finally, the lot that joins the two schools, the shared gymnasium and Calcinidae Oval.

The canteen/cafeteria itself would generally not be open during school hours. Instead, the school and/or local council would operate it for profit or hire it out to a third party when the oval was being used for local sports teams and other events on weekends, holidays, and after school hours. Right now it's set up for just such a soccer match.

The inside of the "tuckshop". There is a bathroom on the bottom floor accessible from the outside of the building, while the top floor has two changing rooms for students or local teams.

The gymnasium also serves as an assembly hall for students of both schools. I think the teachers would either have a collapsible stage at the far end of the court, or just stand up in the commentator's booth to give the announcements. Underneath the commentator's booth is the equipment storage shed where many a teen couple has probably sneaked off to make out.

The back view of the tuckshop and the carpark shows how this lot overlaps with the primary school. The existing primary school is blocked from Sims walking through it by a combination of real fences and this hidden CC-free invisible fence.

And that's it for this tour! I'm pretty happy with how these lots look, how I utilised the shells, and how they all fit together in the neighbourhood. I want to have more lots overlapping and slotting together like this to give Calcinidae Bay a more seamless, open feel, like the hood really is connected.

I'll finish this post with some floorplans - if you read all this you're a champ, I hope it gave you some ideas for your own game, and I'd love to know what you think!

#the sims 2 #maxis match #sims 2 maxis match #ts2 #Calcinidae Bay #very long post under the cut lol

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dawnfelagund · 1 year ago

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This Week in Fandom, from a Small Site Owner's Perspective

This past week has offered an interesting example of synchronicity in fandom history. On 5 May, a comment on the Silmarillion Writers' Guild Discord about "AI fanart" prompted the mods to collectively make a uncomfortable noise like, "ummmm ..." and swiftly open discussion on whether AI-generated "fanworks" were actually fanworks. (We decided no.) The next day, 6 May, the OTW Signal highlighted the interview with legal chair Betsy Rosenblatt, where she expressed excitement for inclusion of fanworks in AI training and pissed off a bunch of fans. By this point, I'd mostly written the SWG's AI policy but was giving my comods the weekend for further research and discussion on the issue before turning the document over to them for comments and edits.

As a small archive owner, it is interesting to undergo this process, first with my comods and now with SWG members, at the same time as the OTW/AO3 is wrestling through theirs. Yesterday, my afternoon was spent researching and implementing, with the help of my co-admin Russandol, strategies to block as much AI scraping of the SWG as we can. In the aftermath of that work, I wrote this post about a small archive owner's perspective on the issue and how it has unfolded on the SWG vs. AO3.

Then, in a second instance of synchronicity, while I was writing this post, AO3 was clarifying their stance on AI. First, as a PSA to anyone reading this, AO3 does block AI scrapers and has since December 2022 (though I'll be petty and note that it doesn't seem that they've gone as far as the SWG in the tools they're using, at least based on this post). But AI-generated "fanworks" are allowed: "If fans are using AI to generate fanworks, then our current position is that this is also a type of work that is within our mandate to preserve." This is what I predicted in my [synchronous] post, and I was right.

Two big points emerge from my consideration so far of this issue and how it has been handled on a small site (mine) and AO3:

People want/need AO3 to be something it's not because there aren't any other options for the vast majority of fans. (Tolkien fans, you do have options. Not a lot, but trust that there are people in other fandoms wishing they had even the few small independent archives that we do.) OTW/AO3 need to take a principled stand that all fanworks deserve to be preserved. And fans often want spaces where all of the fanworks that ideal encompasses (like AI-generated ...) aren't included. Both are legitimate! But when AO3 is the only option for most fans, they turn their energy to trying to change a foundational value of the one option they do have, and that's fruitless and frustrating and contribute to the comments along the lines of "no one will listen or care."

Big organizations are big, and changing or responding to anything is like trying to port-round the Titanic: It's going to be slow and cumbersome and possibly involve catastrophic collisions with icebergs despite best intentions. In eight days, the SWG went from never having discussed AI formally to having a draft policy in front of members for comment and implementation of AI bot blocking. In the same span of time, OTW managed to rouse themselves to an apology that has been widely perceived as half-assed, and AO3 managed to inform people, after a week of worry, that they've been blocking most AI scrapers for months. This isn't a criticism of those organizations (really!) but an acknowledgement of the difference between big organizations and small ones and an argument for diverse options for archiving fanworks because both options have advantages to offer.

As I said above, I wrote much more about this here.

Of course, what should be done? The options are what they are, right? Right now, yes, mostly. That's the sad place where we've ended up, but we can reverse course. There was a time when many fandoms had dozens or even hundreds of options for archiving fanworks. Those small sites, archives, and communities died due to a variety of factors: closure of the platforms on which they were built (e.g., Geocities and Yahoo! Groups), low to no traffic (due to everyone reading and posting exclusively on AO3), and deteriorating software (e.g., eFiction ... and again at least partly due to low demand, again because everyone thought AO3 would be everything they ever needed).

However, there is hope that more options will become available (or already have).

Neocities is a resurrection of Geocities for personal homepages.

Bobaboard "lets you create moderated, privacy-oriented communities for all your fandom interests."

Dreamwidth is still around, fandom-positive, and underused.

eFiction is being rebuilt, ideally with the ability to host a site through their servers, much as you can build a Wordpress site without downloading Wordpress onto your own webspace.

Fandom Coders is a resource for educating fans who want to learn the skills to build and run website.

I'm working on a tutorial for how to build a fanworks archive in Drupal, the software we use on the SWG. I have the whole thing outlined and will be recording it this summer. Watch this space.

So what can you do?

If fanworks are hosted somewhere other than AO3: post there, read there, comment there, interact there, link there. I cannot overstate how vital this is for small sites.

Make sure your fanworks are archived someplace other than AO3 (like Dreamwidth), even if you're not getting clicks, comments, and interaction there ... yet.

Nearly all of the options for independent sites that I linked above accept donations toward their projects. eFiction is one where I know progress has stagnated due to a lack of funding.

So this turned into another tirade/plea for small sites, but it really is unfair to OTW/AO3 to ask them to be something they were never intended to be, and it's also unfair to fans that they don't have a place to put there work that they feel reflects their needs, wishes, and values.

#fandom archives #fandom and ai

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writingformeandyou · 2 years ago

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An Amic Recap

The smile that came to my sleepy ass face when Mod Vic posted, tho. I was extremely happy to see Vic pop in for a moment and decided that I should probably provide a recap of life as well. It’s got its highs and lows, but I just want people to know that they cannot gloss over things like abuse and mental health.

Quick TL;DR: College student that does not know what sleep is somehow is doing decent. Also, mental health is a thing and abuse from parents should not be excused.

Quick P.S: I am realizing that the stuff I have written for the abuse might be triggering so the paragraphs following 2022 before going into 2022-2023 is the worst of it as that’s what goes over me being disowned.

So, let’s start from 2020. The year of chaotic madness and me graduating and going to college. This year was rough, I had really bad point of views that I should not have had provided my my Trump cultist parents. I honestly did think that Covid was the “Chinese flu” and that span of thought didn’t undo itself until I got into college. I was just generally a really upset kid stuck around the wrong people 24/7 that was sad that I’d miss out on my senior experiences.

Heading into college I felt sick as hell. I had doubts and the whole way I was teased about how I legit seemed on the brink of throwing up. I didn’t think I could do it. My whole high school experience was being compared to my younger sibling and being a C and D student. I was terrified... but then again I knew I had to do it. This was probably the only way I could get away from my parents and their year long groundings, physical punishments, thievery, etc. that final semester of high school was my best with me having my first AB streak since my elementary experience.

Finally came college, I was very reclusive that first year; a habit formed by living with my parents during covid. I did occasionally go out but as soon as my roommate went to move in with her roommate of choice it was just me and finally I could hide. Finally, I could breathe. I was developing such terrible insomnia at this time and had to start taking melatonin supplements to keep my crap together. Also, I finally brought my PS4 with me, and FFXV became a very grounding game as can be expected. And, seemingly terribly my academic advisor starts a discussion about how I might have ADHD. I felt such terrible shame thinking that I could be one of those kids and avoided it.

Somehow, I survived the 2020-2021 school year and continued on from there.

2021-2022 my parents start getting weird. I stopped going to church years ago after seeing the harm that Christians do to people and start acknowledging my religious status as Agnostic. They start telling me to go to church, that the rough church going experiences I had in the past isn’t an everywhere thing but I simply respond that there’s some things in the bible that I just am not in agreement with and it’s for the best that I don’t go to a religious group setting. Also, I added that evolution would have to be pried from my cold, dead hands because that has been a topic of interest ever since elementary and I basically got jumped at church as a young teen for saying that I thought god triggered evolution.

Throughout the year I am questioned when I will get married though at the oldest I am 21. I’ve officially come to the conclusion that I will not marry until I am out of college and other things are coming to mind. For example, I have finally accepted that I am bi. It was a relief when that clicked completely and when I finally accepted that I couldn’t just be that good Christian girl anymore. I came out to my parents simply as they were teasing me about a woman from a movie and how I must think that she is hot. It is likely that the teasing came because my adult younger brother ran away shortly after my graduation so they missed being able to tease in this way. They laughed at me but I was really happy, I thought that this was a win and honestly I didn’t want any assurances that I was ok. I thought that they loved me after all.

This summer, I started a job at a place I grew up going to. Things start getting really weird. My parents try to hook me up with their friends (the youngest of which being 25) and I start getting chewed out for my dad having to see me in “lewd” ways by me wearing the occasional tank top or leggings because I started to occasionally work out. I muted my stepmother because, more often than not I’d be harassed by cussing text messages that I’d rather not revisit. At this point, I have broken down at work multiple times, and my coworkers start becoming extremely concerned for me. My boss pulls me to the side one day and tells me that while I have room to grow she has seen that I am a capable woman and that I need to do whatever I can to survive the summer. She also brings up a discussion about parentification because I was always on standby with my phone for my kid sisters. Also, since I felt safe with her I brought up a discussion about me potentially having ADHD and she pointed out that girls and women present differently and that from what she has seen she thinks I could fit the mold as well.

2022, the school year is on the brink of coming along and I have an ominous feeling. Two days before move in I had a nightmare with zombies and a lot of loss. It seems like it’s something so little but having dreams like that back in high school for me usually meant a hell of a time was to come and that I need to prepare for some literal emotional damage. This time though, I ignored it cause it had been so long since the last one that I had to just be dreaming.

One day before move in, I make a life changing choice. I got in contact with my younger brother that ran away and offered to give him our Xbox 360 that was gifted to us specifically by a relative. I didn’t have the space and recently got the most recent Xbox. I then take it to a friend of his and head home to see my parents. A lot of this I’ve blocked out but they accused me of stealing from them, started saying nasty things about me being bi, and even equated me to a pedophile. They sent me out, telling me to not come back until I had the damn console back and threatened to call the police.

This was the most scared that I ever was. My father was never that aggressive to me and my kid sisters were horrified. I knew that I had to contact someone to save my ass quick and called a guy friend from college (specifically my college roomie’s bf) so he started rushing to pick me up asap. I got the console and then threatening messages came. I called my previous academic advisor, terrified and confused about what to do cause my friend would have been another 30 minutes. She talked me through the whole thing as I spoke terrified and sob broken words. What she said next was get a friend from town to save me so I wracked my mind and immediately messaged a friend that I now consider to be a dear sister. At the time she wasn’t 100% a friend but we could talk cause she was the sister of a friend but that friend was out of state for college. She told me to head home because of the threats and that she’d be there soon. So I did, I went to that hellscape.

I was numb as all of the yelling happened. As he threw stuff and accused me of stealing more from him. I didn’t even get everything of mine, but at least I got the most important stuff. I didn’t cry, all I really did was say “uh huh” or “ok.” Now I know from my counselor that this was a trauma response. I remember hearing him yell something about my friend being there, he was probably pissed that I took steps to make sure I wouldn’t just be kicked out or on the brink of being murdered without a witness.

I remember they yelled at each other. He accused her of making me a gay degenerate, etc. but I couldn’t help but to internally laugh because she’s a Catholic that goes to church every week. She’s one of the few religious people that I’ve met that does not immediately hate or ostracize those who are different. He threw my boxes of stuff, damaging one and making all of my books spill onto the lawn in the process. I wonder if the neighbors that already disliked him disliked him more after that day because I was the one member of the family that talked to the “enemies.”

Things zoom by from there. I was terribly sick and couldn’t stomach the ice cream I was given, I got a hug from my now adoptive parents, hugged my now sister, and hugged my college friend before he took me home to my dorm. That night was too damn quiet. I couldn’t stay in my room alone and went to the basement lounge with my Xbox and played Stardew Valley. I remember being terribly annoyed when some drunks came around and watched while making loud and bothersome comments, but with time their presence brought me repose. Eventually they left, and one of my best friends from home, a guy that my parents desperately hoped I would get with, messaged me and we talked for hours as he assured me that I had a place with him and his family if need be.

Before anyone asks, no I did not date him. We dated back in junior high and HS for a time but stopped both times. We both have agreed that we are siblings by heart so dating just feels odd. I think that is one thing that angered them, that I could feel so safe with a man who was not going to become a significant other or something.

Finally, 2022-2023. Things were hit or miss for a while and I remember people watching me closely and asking if I felt any urge to self harm. No, I did not. I’d come too damn far to let those feckers ruin it all for me so I wouldn’t. I just immersed myself in college more. One day though, I remember seeing a car that looked like my stepmom’s driving in front of the dorm as I was walking with my girls to the car. My knees fell out from under me and I became a blubbering and crying mess with the thought of “I am in danger. They’ve finally come for me.” I remember my two friends clinging onto me, telling me that I was ok and that it wasn’t them. Good news is we had preexisting plans to go out to get me comfort food so perfect timing I guess.

Every week I met with my current academic advisor, making game plans and figuring things out. Eventually, I even found myself kinda enjoying the poetry class that I thought I’d hate because I could use it to vent my frustrations. With time it was almost time to leave for winter break and I was praised by my advisor and told by him that he didn’t think that he would know anyone ever again who could face such adversity and still take on a double major, a minor, and other college related things with a job. Around this point I was also asked by a friend about what I would do about my surname since it is my father’s and I don’t plan to marry anytime soon so I responded honestly, “I am stealing it and making something out of it.”

Cue winter and I visit the UK for study abroad. By this time I have 100% concluded that I will never extend the olive branch to my father or stepmother. To hell with them! Whenever my brother would do so they would complain about him and joke at his expense, I know my position in things. I am not playing their games. Also, at this point I am reembracing liking fandoms and other stuff like that because I had a mental block to all of those things for a while due to my parents belittling me and telling me that as an adult I shouldn’t like them.

Now I am 22 years old. I am nearing the end of my junior year of college and am amazed that I have made it this far. Back in junior high I swore that I would drop out of high school and yet here I am even when my parents tried their damnedest to get me to drop out. I have family and I am loved by many and have learned that a long time ago I lost my family member status. I am now learning what it is like to be a true family member and am honestly finally happy though there are hard days.

I have been praised for the start to my history senior project and have been told that there is a chance that I could possibly publish my findings. I have my fingers crossed because imagine the family disappointment publishing something. Damn, I’d leave a copy at those feckers’ house!

So yeah, chaos over the years. I have hope for the future no matter how scary it seems. I have not gotten the ADHD diagnosis yet cause I am terrible about going to the doctor and in general have found a way to make this weird spaghetti coding in my brain work with being a student, finally. A small part of me wishes I could brag about my successes to those problematic people, but I just know they’ll take the credit for making me finally grow up by kicking me out and disowning me. Nope, they aren’t getting that credit because I am the one who learned how to function while they tried to steal my ability to do so. They should have noticed that year long groundings in high school weren’t really that efficient in anything but giving me the chance to learn how to be sneaky.

Anyways, that’s about it. Now that I am healing from them and the things that they have told me I might have to consider writing again. I cannot and will not make promises though because I’ve done that many times and it’s just mean to offer something and not provide. Also, I’ve been playing FFXV: War for Eos on my phone so if you’d like to play join me and my guild (Bros) Choco Bros. I am not the leader but we’d be happy to have more people who love FFXV.

Also, a final thing since I am amused by this. I started watching Trigun and um... I think I have a type.

#~Mod Amic #~Mod Amic announcement

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theculturedmarxist · 2 years ago

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I managed to open a post by the Substacker Big Serge from last August. I mistakenly assumed it was more recent because the high level take seemed current. I therefore read his comment that “I believe Russia has absolutely no interest in ending the war this year” as applying to 2023, not 2022 as written. I thought it was a bold and interesting call.

But even though Big Serge actually made no such forecast, upon reflection, this scenario is worth considering.

Mind you, this post is not intended to be a prediction but what consultants call a forcing device.

From the outset, your humble blogger maintained that Russia could win the war but lose the peace. That problem has become even more apparent as the war has progressed and more facts have come forward, such as:

The animosity of the West toward Russians The bad faith dealing of Western leaders, as confirmed by their duplicity in using the Minsk accords as a vehicle to better prepare for war with Russia. There’s an old saying among commercial lawyers that a contract is only as good as the parties that sign it. US and European officials have made clear they see no obligation to honor agreements with Russia. The use of Ukraine as a US/NATO proxy. Suspecting that is one thing, having it confirmed is another.

The prevalence of magical thinking among Western elites. For instance, the EU plans a tenth round of sanctions. Giving Ukraine longer-range missiles to shoot at Crimea will cause so much foment in Russia that Putin will have to sue for peace to prevent his ouster. And the never-ending projection, like the Russians suffering horrific casualties.

One concern that many Russia experts say influences its strategy is avoiding NATO escalation. Even though the alliance is revealing itself to be more resource constrained and on top of that, not well equipped for this war, that does not mean it could not work itself up to a much higher level of operation in say 24 months if it felt threatened. And the Balts and Poles keep the dial at 11, so there’s a lot of crazy angry background messaging.

And we have this overarching problem, the map that Big Serge presented:

I haven’t seen anyone come up with a viable plan for what to do about that big blue area of Western Ukraine.1 Medvedev’s map (which shows a rump Ukraine that amounts to Greater Kiev, with Poland, Romania, and Hungary gobbling up other bits) would be a great outcome for Russia. But I don’t see how that comes about, and Russia being seen as trying to engineer that would make that outcome even less likely.

In the meantime, as Alex Christaforu pointed out yesterday, just like the father figure in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, who used Windex as a remedy for all ills, so to is the Collective West’s answer to every Ukraine problem more weapons. But as the press is reporting today, in the runup to a monthly NATO “what do we do now” session today, the US and Germany are having a spat over tanks. Ukraine is begging for more and recent Russia MoD “clobber lists” confirm why. Russia is reporting very few tank kills, and those are considerably outnumbered by pickup trucks and passenger cars, the sort of thing you should not see used on a battlefield.

As Brian Berletic has explained long form over many videos, the armored vehicles that the US and France have offered to send are part of a tank entourage and not a substitute for a tank. The US Abrams is too heavy, too much of a fuel hog, requires way way too much maintenance and a ton of training. The Germany Leopard 2 can only be called less unsuitable. It’s too heavy, presupposed maintenance facilities nearby, and did not perform well in Syria against mere insurgents.

The Germans are sensibly resisting giving up a tank devised for national defense to be thrown away in Ukraine. Expect them to relent and send a token number. Which leads to another favorite issue of Berletic’s: the West sending a hodge podge of equipment will create a logistical, training and staffing nightmare for Ukraine and could even make matters worse.

By contrast, a fresh and long news conference by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gives an inkling of current official Russian thinking. Virtually at the start, Lavrov called out the conflict as a NATO war:

What is happening now in Ukraine is the result of many years of preparation by the United States and its satellites for the start of a global hybrid war against the Russian Federation. No one hides it. If you read unbiased Western figures, including political scientists, scientists, and politicians, you can see this for yourself. Just the other day there was an article by Professor of Columbia University J. Bremmer. He texted: “We are not in a state of cold war with Russia. We are in a “hot war” with Russia. NATO is not fighting it directly. We are fighting through Ukraine.” Quite a frank confession. This conclusion lies on the surface. It is strange that they are trying to refute it in some way. Recently, the President of Croatia Z.Milanovic said that this is a NATO war. Frankly, honestly. A few weeks ago, H. Kissinger (before his last article called for Ukraine’s admission to NATO) clearly wrote that what is happening in Ukraine is a clash, a competition between two nuclear powers for control over this territory. It’s pretty clear what we’re talking about.

Our Western partners are deceitful when they deny it and ” foam at the mouth “prove that they are not at war with Russia, but only help Ukraine cope with” aggression ” and restore its territorial integrity. The volume of support clearly indicates that the West has put a lot of money on its war against Russia. This is understandable..

Returning to the declaration of NATO and the European Union. Interesting document. The two structures have been declared the ” union of democracies against autocracies in the context of global competition.” A deliberately confrontational agenda has been proclaimed to the whole world. At the same time, Europe lost its independence. The Joint Declaration explicitly puts the Europeans in a subordinate position in relation to the North Atlantic Alliance. Contains their commitment to serve American interests in the geopolitical deterrence of Russia and China. The goal was announced (it was known to everyone, but now it is once again documented) – to achieve the global superiority of the alliance led by the Americans.

NATO is not limited to organizing the life of the European continent. Since the Madrid summit in June 2022, the global responsibility of the military bloc has been proclaimed, especially in relation to the Asia-Pacific region, which NATO calls the Indo-Pacific.

In response to the first question, which was about negotiations, security arrangements, and if the “power phase,” which I take to mean kinetic war, would end this year, Lavrov stayed close to the formula that the SMO goals would need to be achieved, and added:

In Ukraine, as in any other territory bordering the territory of the Russian Federation, there should be no military infrastructure that poses a direct threat to our country, discrimination, or persecution against our compatriots. They are citizens of the Ukrainian state by the will of fate, but they want to preserve their language, culture and traditions, and bring up their children in these traditions in full compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantees the free use and protection of Russian and other languages of national minorities. The Russian language is specifically highlighted there. This Constitution remains in force.

That implies a big blue rump Ukraine would need to be a radically different beast, and that charitably assumes citizens will prefer to get back to a semblance of their old lives rather than invest in vendettas.2

Big Serge’s latest observations on Twitter:

Big Serge did point out that the NATO members with the biggest forces ex the US, and hence the most independence, Turkey and France, were holding back.

So where does this high-level ramble leave us? As Douglas Macgregor said, Russia had already burned through two Ukraine armed forces, the one it started out with and then the one NATO reconstituted. The West is putting together a third force, which Macgregor notes will be smaller, and he anticipates Russia will dispatch that one too.

If the West tries more stunts, as in non-strategic destruction, like shelling Crimea, expect an acceleration of Russian strategic responses, like taking out the electrical grid faster.

But how does Russia get a measure of security? Even attriting NATO militarily won’t achieve that, unless NATO does the most epically stupid thing it could, which is oust Turkey.

Here I think Big Serge was on to the end game, but it is not coming as fast as he anticipated:

Russia’s energy weapon remains the bomb in the heart of the EU. With all the “winter is coming” memes floating around, it can be easy to write this off as simply a figment of the internet. Far from it – small businesses around the EU are already closing in the face of crushing energy bills, energy intensive industrial sectors like smelting are shutting plants entirely. Europe is facing a perfect economic storm, as the Federal Reserve hikes rates, leading to a general tightening of financial conditions, energy prices explode into the stratosphere, and export markets dry up amid a global economic slowdown.

All of this is likely to tip over into a cataclysm over the winter. I would not be surprised to see a financial collapse and unemployment in the EU in excess of 30%. Given the fact that the EU is notoriously bad at solving problems of any kind, there’s a non-negligible chance more countries try to leave the EU.

The EU is getting through this winter due to luck in the form of warm weather, weak demand out of China, aggressive stockpiling of Russian gas, and cutting into muscle, in the form of capacity reductions at energy intensive European, particularly German, companies. And EU leader, largely correctly, think the green energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act are predatory as far as European businesses are concerned. EU leaders at Davos discussed an US-European trade war as a real risk.

The EU is reported to be considering sanctioning Russian nuclear fuel, which would result in yet more blowback since there’s no ready replacement.

Note that Lavrov refused to address the question of whether the fighting might end this year. The big reason is no one knows and Russia seems to be revising its plans in light of events. But the difficulty of ending a conflict with a completely feckless opponent, one that can’t be trusted to respect any treaty, suggests that Russia needs to attrit the West top to bottom, economically as well as militarily. A continued grind would be a way to get there.

______

1 Your truly has suggested fully de-electrifying it, since Russia is the only place that can provide the needed parts (putting in a new Western-standards systems is an impossible task). John Helmer has pumped for a massive DMZ, but that would require agreement from an agreement-incapable counterparty.

2 Colonel Macgregor has argued that Ukraine is not geographically suited to an insurgent war, but you could see IRA-type campaigns in cities in the newly “liberated “oblasts.

#russia #ukraine #ukraine conflict #nato #us imperialism #world war 3 #naked capitalism #european union #politics

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csmeanerr · 1 year ago

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im new in cs and my friend (whos a proud cs hater) is inactive and i cant ask them the question i have so

what is the deal with seel? i remember i wanted to join chimereons wil they stopped me, saying that its not worth it and better do a normal colorful furry chameleon

list of things that suck in chimereons

chimereons has been on hiatus since july 14th 2023 so no trading, buying, or anything is being processed

last activity of seel in the species was may 24 2022 for an auction that went to 2.6k

one of the mods has drawn feral nsfw

rampant trade foddering like its the whole thing the only reason people have chams is to trade them up

myo are raffled every month in a group of 10,000. even being generous and saying 1000 are active, often it's 20 fto and 20 ao so you have about 2% chance

mod customs range but can go from 50usd to over 600usd and you can only get certain subspecies if you pay more

auctions are expected to go to the hundreds and thousands

the currency, beetoles, caps at 20 per month and items in the shop range from 2 to 50 beetoles. or spend money. lots of traits aren't available either, only through mod customs.

same with dirt pearls that cap at 10 per month, which items ranging from 5 to 100 dirt pearls.

there is not anything to do in chams besides the monthly prompt

there is next to none worldbuilding or lore

chams does not stick to its own design rules so just about anything can be deemed a chimereon

some species prevent certain trait combinations in order to prevent them looking like chimereons while others like terraliens were made from a rejected cham myo

ok so let's see what we have so far

myo are incredibly hard to get without either hundreds of dollars, fast internet connection to AB auctions, or pure luck in a monthly raffle

even when you have a myo you are limited in the design. you will likely never get a cham with the traits you like without resorting to mod customs

even if you want to earn currency there is a limit for each month, limiting how much you can do a month. depending on how many traits you want this can take months to years to get the design you want.

there is only gift art event and a dirt pearl prompt each month. this has not changed for years save a yearly event or two, in which the prizes are all raffled

chams have become less of a species to get in to for the fun of it and more of pure bragging rights, furthering more fomo and artificial scarcity, using myo like its own currency to trade for other things, and mod customs are simply a way to get a trait-loaded cham to trade for something else for like a premium trading card

there has been no expansion on activities, lore, worldbuilding, or anything beyond the buying, trading and creation of myos to act as trophies. this is not a species to get into if you give a damn about owning a character it is only about having a cham to brag you have a cham. there is nothing of worth

#chimereons

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fayesdiary · 2 years ago

Note

Top 5 video games (any variety, not just Fire Emblem)!

Honorable mentions include The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (or the KH series in general, really), Portal 2, Kirby Planet Robobot, Dark Souls 1 & 3.

5) The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I played both Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask last year on my 3DS (with a QoL mod for Majora installed), and while I kinda liked Ocarina and mainly respect it for its legacy, I absolutely adored Majora.

I couldn't put the game down, I 100%'d it, I adore the three days mechanic, I fucking love Termina and its atmosphere and just the whole creepy-melanchonic-odd tones the whole game has. Especially with the masks.

Not to mention facing quite literally impossible odds while everything is working against you over, and over, and over trying to stop the moon from destroying the world, with Link never getting any recognition for his deeds. It just hits a lot harder than the usual fated battle against Ganon because if anything, this game is a desperate struggle against Termina's fate.

Also I just found the game a lot of fun and is currently my favorite 3D Zelda game.

4) Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Well, of course Echoes is here!

It's my favorite FE and the direction I'd love for the series to go, it's simple yet so fun and Valentia and its characters are wonderful. Definitely the game in the series that's most dear to my heart.

3) CrossCode

I only played it a few months ago, but CrossCode quickly became one of my favorite games and my absolute favorite of the games I played in 2022 and I am begging everyone to go play it

It's an incredibly polished Action RPG with Zelda-like dungeons set in a futuristic MMO (although the game itself is single-player), the gameplay is incredibly fun and the story is even better, it kept me absolutely hooked for months and the characters are wonderful, especially the protagonist Lea, who's both canonically mute and arguably the best character of the entire game. Also she's my newest blorbo.

Also the themes almost seem tailor-made for me to obsess over and just AAAAGH GO PLAY CROSSCODE ALREADY

2) Undertale

...I mean. Does this game need any introductions? I feel everything that could be said about Undertale has already been said.

I played this game in 2016/2017 and it stuck with me hard, and after these many years the attachment has only gotten higher thanks to Deltarune, obsessing over theories and details with my UTDR mutuals and etching some of my favorite tropes (like symbiotic posession) into my heart. I even made some new friends because of it!

I have a huge feeling Deltarune is gonna dethrone it once the full game comes out if Ch2 is any indication, but Undertale will always be special to me. 1) Mother 3

Ah, Mother 3.

This game is very much in a Majora's Mask situation where its predecessor is more popular and beloved but while I respect the legacy it left behind I loved the sequel far more.

Gameplay-wise the game fixes almost every issue I had play Earthbound and makes it a lot more fast-paced and fun, but the story is very much what makes Mother 3 the masterpiece it is.

Beside the themes sadly becoming more and more relevant by the day, Mother 3 has often been described as one of the most heartwrenching videogames of all time and for good reason.

I almost never cry but the ending left me about to sob, and that was with me getting spoiled.

I can't recommend this game enough. Sure, it's not been localized, but grab a ROM and the unofficial translation patch and you're good to go. Just play Earthbound first.

#not fire emblem #ask replies #iturbide #my rambles #if you haven't noticed the quickest way for me to love a video game is if it hits me right in the feels #by the way you should play every game i mentioned in this list #trust me you won't regret it

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azzysflowergarden · 2 years ago

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(Hello note from me, Azzy. I made this account on June 1st of this year because I felt like making a new one XD so. All 35 565 posts that are mostly reblogs? They're from the past 6 months, not a year XDDD)

I posted 35,565 times in 2022

That's 35,565 more posts than 2021!

92 posts created (0%)

35,473 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@lastoneout

@moonflowero1

@pomodoko

@imfluentinfangirlandgay

@levincias

I tagged 2,745 of my posts in 2022

#keeping for later - 246 posts

#pla - 190 posts

#azzy grows - 97 posts

#posts that made me audibly laugh - 92 posts

#posts i must always reblog - 69 posts

#pkmn - 55 posts

#eyestrain - 40 posts

#unreality - 40 posts

#questionable breaking bad knowledge - 30 posts

#dc resources - 28 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i love being mentally ill its so fun to be screaming and cryong and having a panic attack which makes u whip ur phone at the nearest noises

My Top Posts in 2022:

How does one express non-romantic attraction??

Like I'm making a list of hot pkmn trainers but I'm not attracted to them in the crush/romantic/sexual sense. I think it's like... Aesthetic attraction? But I don't know how to express it :(

I'm just like "awooga hot person they r so sexy mwah mwah" but I'm not attracted to them in a crush/rom/sx kinda way!!! And obviously people misinterpret what I mean because of the language I'm using :(

How the heck do ppl verbalize those kinds of feelings properly ( TTⁿTT ) /genq

45 notes - Posted July 6, 2022

Hey yalls, guess who wrote a Danny Phantom one-shot (4k words) that I'm extremely proud of!!! Even if ya ain't into DP, I'd appreciate if you read it & dropped a kudos and commented, because I'm honestly in love with this so much!!!!

Focuses on a confrontation between Danny and Wesley Weston involving Danny's secret identity woooo~

Warning for; panic attacks, descriptions of inhuman appearances (Eldritch!Danny my beloved), & mentions of death!

It's the longest fic I've written to date (I thought a multichapter WIP I wrote in 2018 was longer. I was wrong. That was only 3.5k), and I'm thrilled at the outcome!!

I'm the kind of person who enjoys their own writing (and forgets what I've written after a few days), so when I read it over pre-posting, I was smiling and giggling the whole time. I even screamed from excitement at it (I was on call, and my friends gotta hear me freaking out as I read my own writing XD)!

So, yeah. I really hope you enjoy, because I sure as hell did!

51 notes - Posted September 15, 2022

I just discovered «Ridgeside Village» (a Stardew Valley mod) and oh my gods it looks so good!!! The mod adds so much to explore, both new areas and new villagers!!!

Plus, it's compatible with Stardew Valley Expanded (Expanded edits the existing valley for the most part, while Ridgeside Village adds a whole new map outside of Pelican Town)!!!

(If y'all like SDV Expanded, or mods that do similar things, please check out Ridgeside Village if you haven't already!!!)

52 notes - Posted August 10, 2022

It's kinda sad to know a good handful of people who've played Stardew Valley haven't played (or heard of) Harvest Moon. Maybe it's just a generational thing, but whenever I've gotten my friends into SDV, I always ask if they know Harvest Moon first. Literally always no.

ANYWAYS if you like Stardew Valley, please check out the Story Of Seasons line (the new name for Harvest Moon games), the Harvest Moon games before DS, or Harvest Moon A New Beginning (3DS)

OR if you like the fighting in SDV as well as the farming bits, I've heard the Rune Factory series is pretty good :D

103 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Sometimes I wish I could love in the way others could.

To look at someone and just know. To feel the warmth and joy, and desire to be with someone forever.

But my feeling of love comes in different forms.

Sitting outside and playing my ukulele, while the squirrels and chipmunks watch, and the birds chirp along.

The tickle of eyelashes blinking against cheeks, and the fuzzy giggles that brew inside.

Telling someone a secret which you're sure they would never speak to you again over, only for them to tell you it's okay, and that they still care about you.

A stray (or just sassy) cat letting you pet them, no matter how brief the moment may be.

Walking around a night-fallen city with your friend, illuminated by the neon signs, and high on life.

Doodling something that turns out even a little better than you were expecting, brightening up the rest of your day.

Reading a story that overwhelms you with so many feelings that you have to scream, because the world deserves to know how you feel.

Maybe I can't feel love in the way others might. I think that's alright, though, because I notice all the other ways I feel love. And I think I love that even more.

633 notes - Posted July 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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jcmarchi · 10 months ago

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Turkey Will Not Allow Ukraine's New Ships to Sail into the Black Sea? - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/turkey-will-not-allow-ukraines-new-ships-to-sail-into-the-black-sea-technology-org/

Turkey Will Not Allow Ukraine's New Ships to Sail into the Black Sea? - Technology Org

Last month, the United Kingdom announced that it would hand over two Sandown-class minehunters to Ukraine. One will get the name of Chernihiv, the other – Cherkasy. However, it will not be easy for these ships to reach Ukraine, where they are definitely needed.

Cherkasy, Ukraine’s new minehunter, pictured here as HMS Shoreham, when it was still in British service. Image credit: Lt Nicholas Stevenson RN/MOD via Wikimedia (OGL v1.0)

This generous British gift, which is part of the UK’s and Norway’s initiative, is intended to help Ukraine deal with the heavily mined waters of the Black Sea. Those Russian mines pose a danger to commercial shipping and Ukraine desperately needs to ensure the security of its trade routes.

These minehunting ships are not new – one was built in 1998, the other in 2001. But other ships of this class sail and serve successfully and efficiently, so they will definitely be useful to Ukraine. If only they can reach it.

Turkey has announced that it will not allow the Chernihiv and Cherkassy to enter the Black Sea, as this would violate international agreements on the use of the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits in times of war. Turkey, of course, is a member of NATO and should follow a common policy with other countries of the alliance, but in this regard, international agreements are actually older than NATO itself.

When Russia in 2022 invaded Ukraine in February, Turkey immediately activated the 1936 Montreux Convention, effectively blocking the passage of Ukraine’s and Russia’s warships through its straits connecting the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Under this convention, warships of non-belligerents could pass through the Turkish straits even in times of war, so British ships could theoretically do so. However, if the ships sail to be handed over to Ukraine, Turkey considers them to be ships of a war country and will not allow them through.

Turkey has good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, so it is likely that Ankara simply does not want to damage its chances of negotiating with Moscow. Also, technically those ships have already been decommissioned by the Royal Navy, so they are now considered Ukrainian. They will have to wait to get to their new home ports and start clearing the waters of the Black Sea.

Sandown-class minehunters are quite small actually. One such ship is 53 metres long and has a crew of 34 sailors. These minehunters are built from fiberglass to be less magnetic when looking for mines in dangerous waters. Sandown-class minehunters are hardly armed – they usually have a 30 mm autocannon and some machine guns for self-defense.

Ukraine is the most mined country in the world and this problem is plaguing its waters too. The UK and Norway came up with an initiative to help Ukraine clear the sea to make shipping safer.

Written by Povilas M.

Sources: Unian.net, Reuters, Wikipedia

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amongusskinpetshatsgenerat · 10 months ago

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Among Us Skin Pets Hats Generator 2024 [NO SURVEY WITHOUT VERIFICATION]

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amongushackgenerator2024 · 10 months ago

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[HOW-TO] Among Us Hack Generator 2024 Without HuMaN Verification

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Among Us Hack MOD Menu | PC & Mobile

25 Among Us Hacks & Cheats (2022) | Hack MOD Menu For PC & Mobile

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Activates WallHack.

Includes map from where every player can be spotted

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splathousefiction · 2 years ago

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Joyful Stick: Mods And You

Good day my lovely deviants. Welcome back to Joyful Stick. Miss our last entry? You can read it here. As you can probably tell, it’s been quite some time since that. Before getting into our main topic I’m going to explain why.

Joyful Stick was a series I originally started as a “warm up” for my other projects, such as fiction stories and editorials. In a similar way, Jack’s Sack also filled this role. Both series kept me writing and engaged with my craft. Both also kept me more engaged with the larger NSFW community as well. Thanks both to support on patreon and gifts, these respective series more or less could continue in perpetuity if I wanted them to. There was always the promise of a new entry either weekly or bi-weekly. Except there was one problem.

I got bored.

Sex toy makers do go through trends and changes with their products, but it’s a long wait for new models to go from an idea to being available. This often meant I was left reviewing extremely similar toys, with little to add to the conversation or recommendation from the previous review. Though I found alternative means with which to generate revenue from them (like fansly), these reviews rarely “popped” and often were ignored in favor of the other content I created with the toys. Quite a few of you enjoyed watching me/hearing me use them over reading a review, and I can understand why. The last entry of Jack’s Sack was in April of 2022.

As such, that series won’t be returning. Any toys sent to me will be reviewed on my fansly in either audio or video form as per request of the person that sends it. These reviews will be behind a paywall, available either a subscription or a one-time purchase on my fansly page. If you’d like to see that series continue, I suggest following me there.

Joyful Stick had the opposite issue. With two major platforms supporting a wide variety of NSFW releases (that being Steam and Itch.io), there was a veritable ocean of content from all kinds of creators. However, curation and coverage of these titles is extremely rare. While I’m well aware I’m hardly alone in covering adult games, these kinds of discussions are in the niche. I can’t name anyone else off the top of my head that does these styles of reviews. Likewise, the NSFW/Adult game community suffers from a major issue-that being an ongoing bout of “hentai-itis”. It made finding games that had quality writing and gameplay exceedingly difficult. Many titles started to become a slurry of indistinguishable characters and engines before my very eyes.

The only review I actually remember well is the one I did covering Ghost of Tsushima. A title that, while mature and incredible, notably wasn’t pornographic in nature. Following that was my review-cum-editorial of Bloodborne PSX, which also notably wasn’t a porn game. Both of these reviews stay in my mind more so for what I personally-as a player-gleamed from them rather than what they were able to accomplish. Both are great, go play them-but their existence in my life brought more than any RPGMaker title with giant tiddies ever could.

I found it extremely difficult to write anything for this review series that matched that level. So, I got jaded. Burned out. Bored, and disinterested.

As December came in 2022 and I was going through a depressive episode, I began to ask myself what I truly wanted from my creative endeavors. Addressing the obvious, growing gap in my writing was first and foremost. It had been months since I wrote anything, even longer for series like Joyful Stick. I thought back to those prior reviews-and the answer became readily apparent.

Joyful Stick is returning, as made obvious by this entries existence. However, it’s no longer going to focus just on the games themselves. I always felt a bit shameful measuring anything with arbitrary metrics of “buy or don’t”, as I felt it cut into the artistic endeavors of the developers. Rather, I’m going to focus much more on what the title itself is trying to say, along with my personal reception and the communities.

I absolutely, positively will review anything gifted to me. This includes Non-NSFW/Adult title. If I feel as strongly about something as I did Ghost or BBPSX, you can expect a write up on it in due time. I’ll try to veer towards coverage of NSFW/Adult games, as there’s not nearly enough done for them. But I am no longer going to limit myself to those only.

So.

Got something you want me to check out?

Drop me a line, and if you’re so inclined I’ll give you means to gift me it.

As always, I’ll gladly answer questions on twitter.

Now without anymore delay…onto our review.

One Thick Robot Changes Everything

Haydee is not an great game.

Not really.

It’s not terrible, but rather something a bit worse-exceedingly average and simultaneously aggravating in ways too familiar to even draw inspired criticism. It’s a third-person shooter that has enemy variation you can count on one hand. There’s minor puzzles and platforming, which are either brain-dead simple or inherently crafted so badly that asking for a guide would be meet with a sneer before someone tells you to “get good”. It’s three hours long and feels twice that.

But Haydee had exactly two things going for it-Haydee herself, the tit-ular character, and Steam Workshop accessibility.

Haydee is a faceless, curvaceous robot with her assets on full (if tasteful) display. Her upper body is covered in white-plated science fiction clothing meant to simulate combat armor. Her long legs and ass lead to the floor running free of a blue-tinted singlet. Yes, every part of her jiggles as well. While not an especially inspired design, Haydees presentation launched a thousand Source Film Maker videos and several careers. If we’re to make an argument on whether that design was inherently sexualised or not, I think therein lies the answer.

Players get to gaze and look at Haydee through an over-the-shoulder camera which can be rotated freely with the mouse. Her movements are likewise exaggerated, requiring additional button presses to make her squat then get back up, haul herself over platforms and more. The water effects in the game are a far cry from sensational-but getting Haydee wet predictably adds an appealing shine to every part of her.

It’s no wonder then that I heard about the game through the porn first. Before I was even made aware that Haydee had a steam page, I watched her deeply impregnate several Dead Or Alive girls, tit fuck several men and jerk off folks with her ass cheeks. Her design, albeit horny, was just “sci-fi robot generic” enough that I had no idea what she could have been from. Upon finding out there was an entire game with this character, I purchased it the moment it went on sale.

And.

Well.

Yet, Haydee continues to be something I come back to every so often specifically because of the community response to Haydee herself. The reaction to a character who was realistically “thick” and proportioned right at the front stage of a game garnered the title enough success that a sequel was released. I’m not purchasing the sequel and have zero interest in playing it. A community of fervent supporters also began cranking out mods, reskins, new levels and more within the same month of the titles debut.

Which lead to the discovery of one of the greatest collective efforts of archiving I have ever seen.

Nude Mods, Censorship And More

Nude mods and alterations which add sexual content to games aren’t a new concept.

I remember reading a preview for Morrowind in an issue of PC Gamer in middle school that very specifically joked about “the harem of nude, big tiddy mages” available through community efforts-and that was the specific reason I bought the game. A Gameshark code to make Kasume in Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore nude was available at some point when I was a freshman. With sweaty palms, I fervently typed in fifty lines of code to get a character model with as much anatomical detail as a barbie doll. Someone had legitimately sat down and figured out how to remove her layers by reverse engineering that specific part of the game and building a code to alter it. Rumors of a “nude mode” in the original Tomb Raider are almost as old as I am.

These aren’t new concepts, but industry and platform reactions to it absolutely are. It’s a mixed bag of ethical reasoning-fighting sexism in the industry and creating safe environments and platforms for everyone is always a good thing. Puritanicalism is not. Some companies fumble this, others don’t. There’s no right answer saving abstaining, which in of itself can be particularly insidious.

Steam handled this a few years ago by announcing they would allow any content that didn’t represent a direct threat to it’s user base, adopting the “new grounds rule” of “everything by everyone”. Except this wasn’t a hard and fast rule-Red Candle Games infamously had their title removed after place holder art was left in by accident. Similar layers of censorship have also occurred with other titles, often after pressure was applied by the public or a government entity.

In regards to adult titles, Steam has a hypocritical stance. Titles themselves can often have any number of NSFW/Adult things or themes within them (over half the games purchased for this series were on steam). However, things uploaded to the Steam Workshop abide by a totally different set of Terms of Service. Quite specifically, adult content is more or less forbidden, with uploaders and creators resorting to clever titles, hiding what’s actually in the file or altering the mod with minimal censorship to abide by Steams rules. Most of the time users simply circumvent this by going to larger, more lenient mod databases such as Nexus.

The Haydee community had a radically different idea.

For all the obvious reasons, Haydee is a title that had an abundance of sexualized content in it’s mods. Total reskins, posers, levels mimicking BDSM dungeons and more abounded. Of the most wild I personally saw was a “barefoot sounds” mod which…made Haydees bare feet sound like bare feet. An overwhelming majority of these were pulled from the Steam Workshop, often without notice to the creators. As the last seven years of my life have been devoted to sexual entertainment, I can’t even begin to quantify how devastating de-platforming can be to an individual or team.

While these were often dual uploaded on other platforms, the Haydee community decided to fight back in a unique way. As the Steam Discussion features for games has a totally different terms of service from either Workshop or Steam itself, they created a thread with a google-drive archive of every single mod pulled as a result of censorship.

As of this writing, it’s over twelve gig and features over two hundred mods.

It’s single handedly one of the most ambitious community efforts I have ever seen for what is otherwise an un-extraordinary game, the direct response of attempted censorship. The mere fact this is pinned at the top of the community board featuring content in flagrant violation of Workshop’s TOS lays bare how pointless crusades against such content actually are-and made me come to the following realization.

Censorship in of itself is a pointless practice compared to efforts like proper age gating and other means of restricting adult content. Removing adult content from your platform does not stop people from being horny. As a sex worker, we’ll either exist in spite of your TOS or because you directly allow us to. One is going to be a much bigger pain in your ass than the other. As sex workers and adult content drive a sizable portion of website traffic in all cases, adjusting the TOS and allowing us to ethically conduct business is paramount to maintaining your own.

This efforts of the Haydee community reminded me of the countless times a “NSFW Purge” has been rumored to occur at some point on twitter. Except SWers, porn and more make up so much of Twitter’s traffic that there were internal talks to simply allow us a platform of our own within twitter’s ecosystem. Getting rid of us would have killed the site, just like tumblr.

Censorship isn’t the answer, ever. Rather, it’s a band aid on an issue to show investors and nothing more.

-j

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heliocharis · 2 years ago

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Left My Friend’s Body Outside the Mithraeum: One New Zealander’s account of the New Zealand stuff in Nona the Ninth

A few points before we begin:

I’ve quoted everything out of context, but probably don’t read this if you don’t want to be spoiled for the book.

I’m just one person (a Pākehā North Islander millennial, for context), but hopefully I caught most of it. Please tell me if you see anything I missed!

If you see something and think, ‘Tumblr user junozeta, why have you included this piece of information when it is very easily Google-able,’ it’s for the sake of completeness.

Kia ora!

Dramatis personae

Stop It, name assumed, lies under counter at dairy, red colour, big sized, four legs

Dairy: A corner store.

John 20:8

Dilworth. Otago. Auckland. Overseas to Corpus. (She likes the word corpus; it sounds nice and fat.) Then another year abroad, where he got the grant and met the men who would make things happen. Special pleading with the New Zealand government and Asia-Pacific Environmental, at his suggestion, then back to the facility outside Greytown.

Here John is reciting his credentials. Dilworth is a private boys’ boarding school in Auckland. (ETA: Please see this reblog by sixth-light for better context.) Auckland and Otago will be referring to the universities, which are notably the only two in NZ with medical schools. I will add that having studied more in NZ than overseas does not afford you a lot of prestige.

Greytown is a small town (population 2,720 as of 2021) in the lower North Island, near Wellington. (I note here that Trentham, the presumptive namesake of the Second House’s Trentham, is also near Wellington, as is Maymorn, which Tamsyn Muir has said Mercymorn was originally named after.)

Chapter 1

“Is that pikelet mix?” she said.

Pikelet: Like a pancake, but smaller and denser.

Palamedes stood like he was playing a game of Hot Chocolate and the tagger was looking right at him. Hot Chocolate was in fashion with her friends at the moment and Nona wanted to get really good at it.

Putting this here to state for the record that I’m not familiar with Hot Chocolate as a name for a game of that kind. (ETA: An anon was, though, as a different name for Red Light, Green Light. See, not all of NZ is the same.)

I’ve met leaders like Unjust Hope before.

“Unjust Hope” could be from “The Ikons” by James K. Baxter, a famous New Zealand poet.

John 5:20

He said, It was the last one that was getting to me. I knew all those bodies by name. Funny to say, but they were my mates, you know? I’d worked on them for such a long time, and they’d given us so much, and now they were going to get dumped in some concrete skip because after what we’d done to them they couldn’t be cremated or buried safely. I hated that.

Mates: Friends. Classic Kiwi.

Skip: A dumpster.

I didn’t have to worry about the public or the media—we had a pet cop, P—. She’d made detective by that point; was going on to big things in the MoD.

MoD: Probably self-explanatory, but Ministry of Defence.

We only had the demo cans; the mass-produced ones were made in a Five Eyes factory in Shenzhen.

Five Eyes: A surveillance alliance between NZ, Australia, the UK, the US, and Canada. As of 2022, not actively military, nor ostensibly involved with China. Much to think about.

I went around to everyone, talking to my favourites—I know it was weird having favourites, but let’s bloody face it, I’d gone weird—not even saying goodbye, just saying it’ll be fine, hang on for me, kia kaha, kia māia.

Kia kaha, kia māia: Well-known Māori phrase meaning “be strong, be brave”.

John 15:23

You wouldn’t believe how stupid guys get over compliments on our looks, I was vain as.

Vain as: “[adjective] as” is a classic Kiwi way to say that something is extremely [adjective].

P— said I looked like a Māori TV Pink Panther.

Māori TV: Worth noting here that this is a TV channel, and not a generic reference.

Someone’s Honda. Someone’s Mazda. Someone’s four-wheel drive. Someone’s shed. A Macca’s sign.

Shed: A garage.

Macca’s: McDonald’s.

A— and M— moved in with me, and G— set up outside; he was sleeping in his ute. C— was staying with N—, long days. She left us early in the morning and came back the next day with sausage rolls for breakfast.

Ute: A pickup truck. (Short for “utility vehicle”.)

Sausage rolls: A classic NZ food.

You hear all the cicadas in the grass, you hear the dogs in the next town over barking. You hear the moreporks in the trees and the possums skittering over shed roofs.

Morepork: A native owl (Ninox novaeseelandiae).

Possums: Worth noting that NZ has the Australian kind (Trichosurus vulpecula).

He was the bravest dog I’d ever met. Half Chihuahua, half pug. Nan called him Ulysses S. Grunt.

Maybe worth noting here that “Grant” and “Grunt” are pronounced much more alike in an NZ accent than they would be in a North American one.

Chapter 9

Cam ducked into a bakery and came out with a warm and probably radioactive paper bag of pastries that had been under the bakery light the whole time.

Almost certainly a reference to this iconic cultural moment.

She had already got her towel and the old shirt she used to swim in—much easier to go naked, but the others had all objected to this, and Cam had said it would make her a sniper target—and her jandals, and then after masks were tied and hats put on they walked to the beach in the low dusk.

Jandals: Flip-flops. Classic Kiwi.

“I’d give Palamedes the hiding of his fucking life if he wasn’t renting an ass with you.”

Hiding: A beating.

John 5:18

They were lying head-to-head, their eyes aimed at the right part of the sky to see, or in this case not see, the Southern Cross.

Southern Cross: The constellation on the NZ flag. Known formally as, of course, Crux.

There was so much to figure out. But I’d got a dream team on tap, eh? People who could think. C—’s N—, she was on board. C— was still pretending they weren’t dating—she was an artist, so that was cool. If you have two scientists and an engineer and a detective and a lawyer and an artist you’re pretty much sweet as.

Eh: We tend to end sentences with this quite a lot (though of course it’s not just us).

Sweet as: “all good”. Classic Kiwi.

Back then we thought maybe there was something about the ground, something about our particular patch in the Wairarapas, but if we loaded up the ute with a bunch of bodies and looked out for the cops we could do the same thing anywhere else.

The Wairarapas: The region of NZ where Greytown is located. This is an informal way to refer to it, its proper name being the Wairarapa.

“Is that pikelets, Pyrrha? You’re a legend.”

Calling someone a legend to express approval, while not new, has become deeply entrenched in the local consciousness over the last decade or so, thanks to a recognisable anti-drink driving campaign. (If you’ve heard of the “ghost chips” ad, it’s one of those.)

Chapter 12

Crown Him with Many Crowns Thy Full Gallant Legions He Found It in Him to Forgive

He Found It in Him to Forgive: Lyrics from a classic NZ song, “Dominion Road” by The Mutton Birds.

“Why does Pash hate us so much?”

Worth noting here that ��pash” (both a noun and a verb) is slang for making out.

John 8:1

You’ve got a wizard out in the wop-wops who’s now got blanket bans from nearly every video upload site and a whole bunch of people have entered the country because of his YouTube channel, the government isn’t all, Love that small-business entrepreneur spirit.

The wop-wops: The middle of nowhere. Often just “the wops”.

Didn’t mention that I’d only gone to Parachute ’cause of the underage drinking.

Parachute: A Christian music festival that existed from 1992 to 2014.

She’d won medals for competition shooting back north in Hamilton, but we’re not talking Jesse James. We’re talking Hamilton.

Hamilton: A city in the North Island (it’s the next city south of Auckland) which it is nationally popular to disparage, especially if you’re from Auckland (this is mutual).

Chapter 16

Crown Prince Kiriona Gaia

Kiriona: Transliteration of “Gideon” into te reo Māori.

“It can’t be my blood. It must be someone else’s. Maybe it’s tomato sauce.”

Pretty throwaway, this one, but when she says tomato sauce this is the kind I think of.

Chapter 18

“Whew!” said Nona. “Is the classroom munted?”

Munted: Busted, fucked up.

John 5:1

There was a lot of it, but we had a lot of people who needed a feed. We sat there with the window cracked so G— could hear us while he manned the barbie, which in the dark gets unwholesome as hell, and we ate off paper plates, and I told them …

A feed: A meal.

Barbie: I think this one should be easy.

He said, Which just goes to show that only getting to NCEA Level 2 isn’t going to stop you making waves in life, right. You can still eat steak, talk to wizards, and take down the government.

NCEA Level 2: This is the qualification you get in your second-to-last year of high school (typically at age 16, which is the age at which you can leave school), and has historically been the minimum you need for university entrance.

This is fairly easy to infer anyway, but John et al. being young enough to have done NCEA (it was introduced in the early 2000s) and old enough to have gone to Parachute to underage drink tells you pretty soundly that they’re millennials.

John 3:20

He said, So I went to the governments that were still sympathetic, sort of, like ours, and all the Trans-Pacifics, and we threw down our evidence.

Probably referring to the TPP.

Not only that, they looked at us and were like, We were going to put you fellas in jail, weren’t we?

Pronounce this as “fullas”, with the U as in “up”.

John 9:22

A bunch of the guys were her old coworkers—guys she’d gone through training with in Porirua, beer buddies.

Porirua: A small city near Wellington.

John 1:20

He said, So here’s us, planning to meet these agents in neutral territory, across the ditch, over in the huddle where the Territory refugees were.

The ditch: The Tasman Sea.

But they weren’t only aggro about G—, they were aggro that a nuke might go off and kill a couple million people. I was like, Guys, it’s fine, they’re Australian.

There’s a rivalry.

John 5:4

Like those old power-washing ads. Spray and walk away, right?

A very recognisable series of ads.

(End of post! If you have learned anything, I’ll be stoked.)

#this is what i was put on earth for #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers #the locked tomb #locked tomb originals

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freerealestateon · 2 years ago

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The Divine Feminine Legacy Challenge

Welcome to the Divine Feminine Legacy Challenge!

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Overview / Rules:

13 Generations : 12 Zodiacs / Ends in Divine Feminine

Must complete indicated career, aspiration, skills, and any other goals listed

Each generation has an associated color palette to integrate into their look and home

No money cheats allowed

Use any mods / cc as you wish to customize your gameplay

How to determine the next generation:

Strict Matriarchy: The Founder must be a woman. Only women are eligible to be named heir. Men cannot, under any circumstance, ever be the heir to the next generation. Matriarchy is key!

Bloodline: To be eligible to be named heir, a child must be able to trace an unbroken ancestry back to the founder

Heir Law: I will personally be using Democracy (aka asking followers/friends to chose the next heir); however, if this is not possible you are welcome to chose another method like first-born or the child with the highest relationship to the prior founder

**Any similarities between other TS4 challenges are purely coincidental – as of June 2022, this has not been fully played through so if you find any issues please let me know! I do have quite a few packs so apologies if this does not fully fit your game play; adjust as need be**

Enjoy your journey to the Divine Feminine!

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Generation: Aries (Red)

Plot: Typical Aries – doing what you want, when you want, and how you want it. Even as a kid, you were always taking risks and moving to the beat of your own drum, much to the turmoil of your household. While this has given your life a lot of…adventure, you often have a hard time making friends because of your fiery personality and sharp tongue. Your family has cut ties because their hearts couldn’t take one more screaming match. But a new “family” came along in time who knows exactly where you can fit in (specifically small bank vaults).

Traits: Hot-Headed, Kleptomaniac, Self-Assured

Aspiration: Public Enemy

Career: Criminal Career

Skills: Mischief, Fitness, Handiness

Other: Have 3 friends only and 3+ enemies / Marry a coworker as no one else understands your line of work

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Generation: Taurus (Pink)

Plot: While you definitely inherited your stubbornness from your Aries mother, there’s not much else that relates you two. Growing up in such a tumultuous, loud environment, you become increasingly risk-averse and prefer the company of your quiet garden over mom’s crime ring buddies. Being so set in your ways, you like routine and have worked hard at creating an oasis of calm and beauty.

Traits: Green Fiend, Loves Outdoors, Vegetarian

Aspiration: Freelance Botanist

Career: Gardener

Skills: Gardening, Wellness, Herbalism

Other: Maintain a thriving garden of 10+ plants including a cowplant / Take a yoga class every Sunday with your mom to try to instill calm into her life

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Generation: Gemini (Yellow)

Plot: You spent a lot of time on the internet researching for her mother – ‘how to create hybrid plants’ or ‘what to do if your cowplant eats you’. What was once a chore for mom, became an outlet for you. A world beyond the garden where people had thoughts, opinions, and could joke or argue behind the anonymity of a screen. Oh, you are GOOD at this! Finally real people to talk to aside from the queen of routine. Hopefully you won’t word-vomit all over your laptop.

Traits: Insider, Cheerful, Goofball

Aspiration: Friend of the World

Career: Social Media > Internet Personality

Skills: Charisma, Comedy, Research and Debate

Other: Maintain a blog or social media profile / Create your own club and regularly hold club meetings every week / Marry a club member

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Generation: Cancer (Silver/Gray)

Plot: Your first memory is when you set up a “free hugs” booth at your elementary school and was promptly teased for being too sensitive. Mom says you're an empath, but that memory was the first lesson in hiding her pain in the hopes of not burdening anyone else. You found art as a teen and slowly healed from the bullying you experienced as a child with art therapy. You finally realized that being an empath is a gift and should be spread to all.

Traits: Gloomy, Good, Art-Lover

Aspiration: Painter

Career: Doctor

Skills: Painting, Parenting, Logic

Other: Have two failed relationships due to your wanting to ‘fix’ this person / Adopt at least two children

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Generation: Leo (Orange)

Plot: While your mom’s life ambitions were incredibly altruistic, yours are a bit more glam. You want to be heard and seen. Spending your childhood watching Mom try to fix everyone was exhausting and you fully believe in self-care over anyone.

Traits: Ambitious, Self-Absorbed, Jealous

Aspiration: Master Actress

Career: Actress

Skills: Acting, Dancing, Singing

Other: Be nominated for the Starlight Accolades / Lose your acting career after a public breakdown

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Generation: Virgo (Green)

Plot: After your mom’s incredibly public breakdown, you were left to pick up the pieces as a teen – a task you are of course completely ready to handle. The first item to check off your never-ending list was to get them out of the media frenzy. The next, to start over in a new town. And once the list was done, it was time for another – 1) go to law school, 2) pass the bar, 3) clean up everyone else’s messes. A perfect task for a perfectionist, including your side hobbies of baking and bowling– more tasks that need perfect precision.

Traits: Perfectionist, Neat, Genius

Aspiration: Successful Lineage

Career: Law

Skills: Bowling, Writing, Baking

Other: Move neighborhoods as a teen and support parents until their death / Help your children with homework every night to ensure they grow up perfect like you

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Generation: Libra (Lavender)

Plot: You were perfectly happy following your mom’s expectations. It was actually nice for a while as making your own decisions is incredibly difficult. Like what to eat, what to say, where to live, what to study, who to date…it gets to a point where you are juggling multiple relationships because you don’t want to deal with a breakup. You throw yourself into a career as a food critic to avoid all that stress, but get fired as you give everyone five stars to not hurt their feelings.

Traits: Romantic, Foodie, Childish

Aspiration: Serial Romantic

Career: Critic > Food Critic > Restaurant Owner

Skills: Cooking, Gourmet Cooking, Mixology

Other: At level 6 of Food Critic career, leave job and purchase a restaurant / Once married, maintain two secret relationships

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Generation: Scorpio (Black)

Plot: You've always had a knack for getting to know what truly lies under someone’s skin. You figured it out from a pretty young age when waiting tables at your mom’s restaurant and being able to convince someone that they actually adore their meal, rather than send it back. When you interview at the bureau, the interviewer actually wept as you managed to uncover their traumas that they kept hidden deep in their subconscious. In short, you are the top dog for your uncanny ability to uncover the truth. Your only outlets are video gaming and fishing as they don’t require too much thought.

Traits: Loner, Bookworm, Paranoid

Aspiration: Neighborhood Confidante

Career: Teen > Barista / Detective

Skills: Video gaming, Charisma, Fishing

Other: Gain the workaholic lifestyle / Get divorced due to your one true love – work

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Generation: Sagittarius (Navy)

Plot: While you feel your detective mom is too attached to her job, you hop around like no one’s business. You want to see the world, try new things, and always be a better version of you. It started with a love of space but you got lonely without a library of books and how-to manuals around, so you switched over to the engineering field. Now there’s where the research is – but perhaps too dull? Maybe being a scientist would work out well, or an archaeologist would be pretty cool. Your mind moves so fast it’s hard to keep you up with even yourself sometimes!

Traits: Non-Committal, Adventurous, Bro

Aspiration: Renaissance Sim

Career: Astronaut > Engineer > Scientist

Skills: Robotics, Rocket Science, Archaeology

Other: Elope at a young age, separate, then find your way back together / Go on a jungle expedition

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Generation: Capricorn (Brown)

Plot: Your mom’s energy has always been way too much for you. You thrive on stability and cater to your own agenda. You’ve been a full fledged adult since the age of 3, and you don’t understand why everyone isn’t this way. Watching your mom go from career to career is genuinely painful to you. You’d much rather pour your energy into getting high marks on everything you set out to do and thrive on that little ‘good job’ you get from your boss every so often.

Traits: High Maintenance, Unflirty, Snob

Aspiration: Mansion Baron

Career: Business

Skills: Logic, Violin, Knitting

Other: Complete a collection / Marry someone in Military career as you appreciate their structure and regime

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Generation: Aquarius (Light Blue)

Plot: To you, intelligence is sexy. So why not go to the hottest place on Earth – university! You are obviously accepted into a distinguished degree and join the ranks in a secret society. Not so much for the community aspect – more so for the sake of arguing and convincing everyone of your incredibly niche views on the existence of vampires. Sometimes you wonder why no one wants to hang out, but at least you have your companion to rattle on to.

Traits: Geek, Mean, Cat Lover

Aspiration: Academic

Career: Education

Skills: Programming, Vampiric Lore, Guitar

Other: Own a cat and become companions / join University secret society / marry an academic rival

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Generation: Pisces (Green, Gray)

Plot: You’ve always felt intimidated by your very smart family. For them, hosting lively dinner debates on alien sightings was FUN. You’d rather melt away and be boundless on the Earth’s planes, being one with all realities. As soon as you can, you leave that suffocating family home and live simply on the land to further your dreamscape.

Traits: Animal Enthusiast, Child of the Ocean, Good

Aspiration: Outdoor Enthusiast

Career: Writer

Skills: Photography, Wellness, Piano

Other: Live on a simple living lot for all adulthood / Compete in Finchwick Fair competitions weekly

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Generation: Divine Feminine (White)

Plot: You are wise beyond your years – people describe you as intuitive, compassionate, creative, kind, and sensual. You live life to the fullest and are constantly present. You care deeply for your family, friends, animals and Mother Earth.

Traits: Family-Oriented, Music Lover, Creative

Aspiration: Friend of the Animals

Career: Conservationist

Skills: Pet training, Flower-Arranging, Cross-stitch

Other: Be a friend to bees - maintain a beekeeping box / Every week go to Sulani to clean up the beaches

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“She is so bright and glorious that you cannot look at her face or her garments for the splendor with which she shines. For she is terrible with the terror of the avenging lightning, and gentle with the goodness of the bright sun; and both her terror and her gentleness are incomprehensible to humans.... But she is with everyone and in everyone, and so beautiful is her secret that no person can know the sweetness with which she sustains people, and spares them in inscrutable mercy.” ― Hildegard von Bingen

#the sims 4 #legacy challenge #zodiac #divine feminine #divinefemininechallenge #ts4

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amphtaminedreams · 3 years ago

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Currently Obsessing Over, Debrief no.1: Rokh (Yes, Inspired by THAT Anya Taylor-Joy LNiS Press Tour Look)

-new post series where I share the highlights of a newly discovered designer’s collections and yes, I’m behind sometimes, I know-

-Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2021: As soon as I checked out Rokh’s collections on Vogue runway and saw THIS masterpiece of a collection, I knew I was about to go all Joe Goldberg over newcomer Rok Hwang’s work. It’s got all the elements I love from some of my absolute faves like Brock and Vera Wang, the whimsical, puritan style bases offset by punk touches that scream Thomasin from The VVitch if she time travelled and became part of a ‘90s riot grrrl punk rock band (in my mind, I’m gonna assume this is what drew Anya Taylor-Joy to the brand). There seems to be a Gucci RTW F/W20 influence too which is a good indicator of style inspo convergence with Rokh and thus a long, one-sided hero-worship based relationship between us on my part, because that was one of Alessandro Michele’s best and arguably the GOAT when it comes to the collections I’ve reviewed since starting this blog. Disclaimer: this series will in general be a photoset only one though I do think it makes sense to start with where the-metaphorical-love affair between a designer and I began. A little Guinevere Beck walks into a “meta-progression of Dan Humphrey”’s bookstore and this is why 3 seasons later about 20 people have been murdered equivalent for your consideration.-

-Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2020-

-Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2020-

-Resort 2021-

-Pre-Fall 2021-

-Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2021-

-Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 2019: A year after winning the 2018 LVMH Prize Special Prize for his own work (Hwang learnt under Phoebe Philo at Celine! As one does!), London-based, Korean born Rok Hwang debuted at Paris Fashion Week with this collection and it was FABULOUSSS-

-Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 2022: YES, ANYA WORE THE LILAC CO-ORD AND IT WAS A MOTHERFUCKING MOMENT! I love that she’s harnessing the ‘60s mod goddess energy she was born with, and I love that she’s getting the hype she deserves, finally!-

-Resort 2022-

I hope the format of this post works for people! Stay safe<3

Lauren x

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elsanna-shenanigans · 3 years ago

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February Fanfiction Contest

Welcome to 2022! (yes, we are well aware we’ve been in 2022 for a month now, but this is the first contest of the year)

We enter the fifth year of the monthly contests hoping for even more than we managed to do last year (for those curious: 122 stories across the 6 main prompts, over 400k words altogether!), and to keep the contest running for one more year. No, scratch that, 5 more years-- no, 10 more years! 20! Hell, screw it, we hope the contests will never end.

And with this we segue into this month’s prompt:

Prompt: Never. Give our girls the best vacation of their life that they’ll remember forever, have them experience something they’ve not had the chance to so far in their life, build your story about those words they didn’t get to share... whichever path you choose, make sure it’s something we (the readers) will never forget! Words: min. 2000 and max. 6000 Lemon: up to M rating (we cannot allow for E because of tumblr) Obligatory: no use of borrowed universe setting unless topical (explained below) Bonus: include a view of a mountain; include the words forever and never in one person’s dialogue lines; have the title be a song title/lyric (explained below)

Please also tag your story (if it has any of it) for: angst, tragedy, major character death, violence or abuse (any type of intentional abuse between Elsa and Anna NOT ALLOWED!), su1cide mentions, horror elements or anything not mentioned here that you think might make your readers uncomfortable (the mods reserve the right to add any extra tags we think are necessary for reader safety and enjoyment). Non-/dub-con is NOT ALLOWED, unless it is an important part of the story (i.e. the story does not work without it) and not described in detail/used as cheap thrills/glorified. Be mindful and respectful, and of course tag it properly!

OBLIGATORY restriction: no use of borrowed universe setting. Borrowed universe here refers to, for example, Lord of the Rings AU, Mortal Instruments AU, Pokemon AU etc. - basically any alternative universe which you would usually denote by [Insert Name] AU, where the name refers to another work of fiction. This does NOT apply to broader/more generic alternative universes like modern AU, college AU, medieval AU, fantasy AU (where you do your own world-building instead of relying on a pre-existing fantasy setting) etc., only to settings which require knowledge of another work/franchise. This restriction applies to setting only, which means you can still use characters from different works in your canon, modern, medieval etc. setting as your minor characters (looking at you, lovers of inserting other Disney characters in your story!. Obligatory restriction means that if your story is set in a borrowed universe it will be disqualified. Caveat: you CAN use a setting relevant to the prompt - that’s to say if the setting name contains the word ‘never’, like for example the Neverending Story universe.

DISQUALIFICATION means your story will still be posted (unless it breaks our general contest rules) but will not be eligible to win.

Bonus restriction 1: Mountain. Include a description of a mountain view - can be in passing from a car, from a window in a house, top-down from the top of the mountain etc., but it has to evoke a visual image (so just walking on the mountain without a proper description will not do!). You can put a little fish on top for a bonus-bonus point (has no weight in the voting and will just make some of us happy)

Bonus restriction 2: Dialogue. Include the words ‘forever’ and ‘never’ at least once each in dialogue lines of one character of your choice (other characters can use these words as well, but at least one character needs to use both.)

Bonus restriction 3: Sing-song title. Title your story using a song of your choice - you can go with the song’s title or the lyrics. If you go with the lyrics, your title needs to be minimum 3 and maximum 6 words long.

Please note at the beginning of your story how and where you decided to use the bonuses AND which song you decided to use for the title (with artist). Your note will be removed before the story is posted EXCEPT for the song bit.

These are not obligatory restrictions, however following them will be rewarded with an additional point in the favorites column for every bonus. In other words, stories that don’t include any of the restrictions will start off with 0 base favorite votes, those that do - with 1, 2 or 3.

Read the contest rules (link in the pinned post on the blog) before participating. We’ll be accepting submissions through the submit button on our blog starting today till midnight (Baker Island) of February 28th.

Please remember to submit anonymously to make sure the voting is impartial! If you have any questions, send us an ask or join us on discord (link in the pinned post on our blog).

Good luck, have fun, let’s have a contest like never before!

#elsanna #february 2022 contest #prompt: never

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