#the things I see in top results with a grain of salt. I know people will say ‘talk to ppl who have these disorders!’ but like. how do I tell

[poppyseed799]

My favorite pastime: roleplaying characters and just making them soso weird and then pulling up the DSM-5 to try to diagnose them

[moonastro]

your future career

pick a picture

left to right(top)-> 1,2,3

°DO NOT take this as literal, take everything with a grain of salt as this is purely and intendedly for entertainment purposes.

°Don't be afraid to give feedback and opinions about this post (as i would entirely appreciate it).

° This is a GENERAL reading, take what resonates and leave and pass on what does not!

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

pile one: I'm seeing connections related to your career. what i mean about that is that you will have close relationships with very high status people that will help you along with your journey. I'm getting the vibes of when you ask someone about a goal of yours and they tell you that they know someone that can help you with your goal. It feels very prosperous and fortunate.

A career that you worked very hard for and stayed consistent in. like I'm feeling you studied, research and looked at every aspect of the career. Very knowledgeable about what you know. I also feel that you knew what you wanted to do from a very early age and it might have been your dream/goal to pursue that path. And to say the least, you will!! This is the literal definition of aiming high and achieving it. Sidenote- this career will be very unexpected for people when you tell them your status. You probably worked quietly and that's what got you to success.

This is also a career that may consist of you being very independent and thinking for yourself. This will enable you to help your family here also. I see you being the first in your family to achieve something very big and successful. This will allow you to take care of your family and help them out financially and giving them what they deserve for all the hardships that they supported you through.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

pile two: You may be unsure of what you are truly wanting as a career. you may be overthinking or just taking some time off and planning what might be suitable for you. (take this lightly please).

Anyway, i see money coming from overseas, very much investing and saving vibes. You take risks with this career, and take opportunities that are available. You also give a lot so this convinces me that it is investing. You reach for the impossible and you keep moving. some moves that are risky and out of context will also be a theme here, so the job may require toughness and risk overall.

there is a lot of consciousness about your surroundings. there is an instant reflex that you have when it comes to making quick and instant decisions. that actually may be your specialty. people come to you to get opinions and kind of like permission?? this convinces me that it may be a boss career OR a leading position that you take care of.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

pile three: Wowww. This career will be full of success and alignments. you will be very liked in your space and it will truly feel so destined that you will stay at the job for a very long time. you will go through lots and lots of other jobs before finally settling to the one. It may feel like you are very un grounded but trust everything, do not doubt your journey!!!

Somehow i feel like this career will be a luck thing. like i see you getting offered something and you accepting or you going out of your comfort zone only to get the best results from it. This job is somewhat of a surprise to you but you will be good at whatever you do.

I feel like the career will consist of lots of speaking and thinking. Very much office vibes (not saying it is). It will allow you to stand your ground and be able to express your opinions freely. I also think that you will become more confident with this career. like it will definitely change you for the better. Also, there will also be lots of connections like pile one, but for this pile it is more like unprofessional, unlike pile one it is very structured and professional connections. like it is more of you will meet lots of new peers and generally know lots of people by just being friendly.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

that's all for this post! thanks for reading, it is most appreciated💗🤍

[jules-ln]

Viktor and Jinx as Zaun, Jayce as Piltover, Arcane's use of art movements as a storytelling device

I am once again writing about Arcane because I am mentally ill and I also love Art history

So anyway I've already talk about Viktor being Art nouveau And how Art nouveau's history was similar to Viktor's story, and I wanted to talk about Jayce being Art Deco, because of his fashion choices in the last episode are pretty much art deco

But then I thought, what if it isn't just about Viktor and Jayce, but it's about Zaun and Piltover in general, and how the relationship between these two cities reflects in these two characters

And somehow I ended up writing this because FUCK

Look, I even got subtitles and everything

But anyway, I won't put citations on this because I'm not that crazy so this isn't a serious academic essay, and as anything else you read on the internet, take the parts about Art history with a grain of salt and you should read more about it (yess, this my elaborated plan to get people into Art history)

Jinx and Viktor as the personification of Zaun

Zaun actually has more of a punk on top rather than just art nouveau, a lot of people seem to think it's steampunk, but honestly, I think that's the result of putting punk and art nouveau together rather than it being pure steampunk

The thing that made me connect the characters as the embodiment of the cities was the fact that I've noticed that Zaun actually has a lot of art nouveau elements; is just that this art nouveau elements seem to be old and broken (I would show you but Tumblr's dumb image limit won't let me)

Now, I've actually talked about the story of art nouveau on another post but to make a brief summary, art nouveau started as a way to give common people art, to redistribute it rather than it just being something for rich people, it failed. But the important part is that art nouveau originally was a leftist art movement, like punk. Punk was a response to the social and economic crisis at the time of its origin; but where Art nouveau was a solution (solution that didn't work, mind you) punk was more of a response (again, don't quote me on that lmao)

Similar to this we can see, how both Viktor and Jinx then embody different responses to the same thing. Viktor is proposing a solution for the problems of Zaun (solution that didn't work) meanwhile Jinx is a reaction to everything that has happened to Zaun, she isn't a problem, she's a consequence

But not only are they the responses to Zaun, they ARE different parts of Zaun

We can see this with Jinx in the relationship she has with Vander, Silco and Ekko.

Both Vander and Silco nurture her and Zaun, and she wouldn't be what she is without both of them

That's why neither Silco nor Ekko could leave her. Silco couldn't give her away because that would be equivalent to him giving away Zaun, and Ekko couldn't give up on her because that would be like giving up on Zaun

Meanwhile with Viktor the influence of his style predominantly being art nouveau reflects in the background at different parts of the city,

And most noticeable is that when Zaun is in a better place, the elements of art nouveau are more prominent, like in episode 7 where punk takes a back seat to the art nouveau. It seems that generally art nouveau signifies a better Zaun, or the potential of it being better

We also see a lot of elements of art nouveau in Viktor's commune, and I know that the commune is interpreted as a negative thing. But look at it this way, what Viktor is doing, is probably doing more good than whatever the hell Caitlyn had going on during the first act (no hate to Cait btw)

Like, I know there are Caitlyn fans out there that defend her decisions of using the gray to attack the Chem barons, but in reality doing that wouldn't solve anything, just create a power vacuum that later could be filled by someone worse (like Renata Glasc) without solving the addiction to Shimmer (again, No hate to Cait). But what Viktor is doing, offering a safe space to recovering addicts and sick people, is actually solving the shimmer problem by eliminating the demand of it; and it's making Zaun better

(I also want to point out that the decision of framing Viktor's commune as a mind controlling cult is very politically charged, because even if it's not perfect; think about it; they're framing a commune in which money probably isn't used at all, and that accepts both recovering addicts and sick people freely and without judgment as something negative)

Add the fact that Viktor is one of the few characters that didn't talk negatively about Jinx (If I remember correctly); neither when he is disarming her bomb nor when he's in the commune talking directly to her; this could be interpreted as Viktor always seeing the potential within the Zaun of now

Adding to that, I want to make the point that Viktor and Jinx probably would be friends if they got to know each other. And I think this headcanon is so popular because they both are expressions of Zaun, of course they're going to be similar and get along

Art deco

Now, I'm not an expert in art deco (I've always been more interested in art nouveau and impressionism). But I know some things about it

Basically Art Deco comes from from the words art décoratif; and it was an art movement that emphasized the utility of art; it had different influences like Mayan art, Egyptian art, Art Nouveau, Rococo etc etc

Some of its characteristics are: straight lines, geometric patterns; a lot of gold, lots of triangles, more is more ideology and ornaments

But the important thing is that Art deco is supposed to be a very superficial art, merely decorative (hence the name); that signifies wealth. It also became strongly associated with machinery and progress. I would argue that in recent years there has been a new connotation of corruption and darkness to it thanks to media like Bioshock

It's definitely a perfect art movement for Piltover; to show the shallowness and money the city has. But the show not only attaches this art movement to the city, it also gives it different characters

Mel and Art Deco

This is the part where my ramblings got out of control because at first I was going to just point out how Jayce has an art movement too; then I realized that Viktor also uses clothes with an art deco pattern in them: (red lines to make the pattern more clear)

But that's weird; why does Viktor uses art deco here when later his main style is art nouveau? Then I realized, it's not just about Viktor and Jayce. But as Zaun and Piltover in general

And I realized that because of a character that also uses a lot of art deco without being from Piltover herself

Mel

Mel during the series uses different clothes, but most of them have in common the geometric pattern of art deco

But she isn't from Piltover; she isn't part of the city in the same way Jayce is. While she has a very big connection to it; the simple fact is that Mel's story is about finding herself; and she can't do it while in Piltover. In Piltover she's only doing what she's always done, searching for her mother's approval

Then why is she associated with art deco?

But I noticed, she isn't. Not completely

Let's look at what Mel actually does instead of what she's wearing

Here we can see one of Mel's paintings

Let's not look at what it is, (it's Noxus) let's look at how Mel painted it; it's has more emphasis on colors and ambient, the form is not very defined; it plays with the light, it almost gives you an impression of Noxus

Yes, Mel is an impressionist painter (think Claude Monet (Vincet van Gogh is post impressionsism btw))

And I think this is important for her character because at the end of the season, she goes back to Noxus looking for who she really is; who she is beyond her mother's influence and beyond Piltover. And guess what

If you hate abstract art blame it on Impressionsism. It came to be around the same time of the invention of photography. Photography filled the role painting had of representing reality, and it did it better, faster, and cheaper. So painting had to change to be more abstract instead of simply aiming to represent reality and all of that started (at least within the context of Europe at that time) with impressionsism

What I'm trying to say it's that impressionism was painting as a medium trying to redefine itself again, it was trying to find its own identity apart from photography. Just like Mel is trying to define herself

Now, if Mel is impressionism; it stand to reason that she's using Art deco, not because she's representative of the city, but simply as a way of showing how she adapted to the city, how it influenced her and helped her grow as a person

I was thinking about that before she debuted as a champion, but I think her voice lines kind of confirmed it

So, hers and Viktor's use of art deco signifies how important Piltover is for them; and if you look at it in a certain way, it's could also be a connection to Jayce

Jayce as Art deco

Now, before anything, I want to analyze Jayce's first design, when he's young

Here it is (and Viktor's, for reasons)

And you know, the first thing it jumped out to me while analyzing it, is that there isn't a lot of art deco elements; more than that, it's too simple for art deco, and he looks almost childish; like if you told me the guy was 18 here. I would believe it

But it also applies with Viktor, the clothes make him look so young and are too simple for art deco

So let's see how both of them look after the timejump

Now, Jayce here has his white blazer (is that the right word?) but again, where are my patterns? My ornaments? My geometric shapes and straight lines? There are some on the blazer; not enough that I would call it art deco

But take it off and boom

It's almost the same as his academy uniform, just change some things and colors here and there, but other than that, it's the same

Compared it with how different Viktor looks

Now, I know the first thing that stands out with Viktor is his change in health, but let's look beyond that, his clothes are completely different

Sure, he still uses elements that are reminiscent of his academy uniform, but that definitely isn't his uniform. The shape is different, the pattern is different, even the colors are a bit different. Viktor changed, but Jayce didn't?

That's because Viktor grew up, Jayce stayed the same, just add some things on top

Jayce's character design in season 1 reflects his mental state, he stayed innocent, naive

Now, why does all of these matters? Because it wasn't until I was looking at Jayce's design in season 2 that I noticed he's Art deco;

The straight lines, the geometric patterns, the ornaments. But he only won the art deco elements after he learned about Zaun, after he had to go through what Viktor had gone through. Before that he wasn't ready yet

Now, I think it's important to say that I'm interpreting Jayce as not only related to Piltover, but as the representation of the best of Piltover itself; he's the best side of Piltover in the same way that Viktor is the potential for a better Zaun

A tale of two cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times and I'm a nerd

Now, I think that even after the whole magic plot, Arcane is still fundamentally a story about two cities, and that same relationship it's reflected on its characters; more than that. The dumb ending where Zaun and Piltover forget their differences and work together; I think it was the plan all along and as proof of that, I present to you Viktor and Jayce's relationship

I've seen a lot of people say that the dynamic between Piltover and Zaun reflects itself in the dynamic between Vi and Jinx, and honestly; that doesn't makes sense to me

Because, I understand Jinx being Zaun, I've already said it myself; but Vi isn't Piltover, and the relationship Vi has with Jinx isn't even remotely similar to the relationship Piltover has with Zaun (If you want to make the case, I would say it would be more accurate to say that Jinx is Zaun and Cait is Piltover, and Vi is the person trapped between the two, unable to choose)

But if look elsewhere, you know who would be a perfect comparison for Piltover and Zaun? Jayce and Viktor, and you might say "well, Jayce and Viktor's relationship isn't at all like Piltover and Zaun's relationship either"

That's because, like I've already said, Jayce is the better version of Piltover, and Viktor is the potential yet to realize in Zaun. So basically if Caitlyn and Jinx's relationship is meant to reflect the problems the two cities have in the present. Jayce and Viktor's relationship gives the solution, which is "put aside your differences and work together as equals"

And you can see that as well in their design

Side to side, these two designs exemplify the fundamental differences between Art Nouveau and Art Deco

Art Nouveau looks flowy, soft, feminine, floral patterns, asymmetry. Art Deco is expensive, machinery, modern, sharp angles, symmetry and straight lines, but that's not all

I've already said that Jayce design changed at the end of the season because Jayce finally matured, he's ready to be the best of Piltover, now he has earned the art Deco. But what do my eyes see here?

A flowy soft pattern on Jayce? A Floral pattern even? That's art nouveau right there

And then you look at Viktor's final form (in this picture is easier to see) and What's that on his chest? Symmetry? Straight lines? Machinery? That's art deco

So are you telling me that Jayce will always have some Viktor in him, while Viktor will always have some Jayce in him?

Are you telling me that the best of Piltover will always have some Zaun in it? While the potential of Zaun will always involve Piltover?

And you might think that is a bit of a stretch, but it makes sense with the ending Arcane has

Think about it; the show says that the best solution for the two cities is for them to put aside their differences and work together as equals; and I can't help but think that's what Jayce and Viktor are already doing

Jayce doesn't care that Viktor is from Zaun, and Viktor trust Jayce even with him being from Piltover; and it's only working together that they can reach their true potential. As in every time-line in which they aren't together, they never invent Hextech

The ending of arcane

Tbh, I'm not saying that the ending of the Piltover and Zaun conflict was good even if it was planned all along; but I also think a lot of people expected a leftist masterpiece, like the moment the most revolutionary character is also a mob boss and the main villain of season 1, you can totally tell that it wasn't going to another disco elysium (funnily enough disco elysium also has the mob boss being the union leader lmao)

I'm just analyzing the things I found, and while some might seem like a reach, I'm a 100% death of the author guy and I believe in making my own meaning

And I want to say this is the first time I've seen art history used in this way for visual storytelling. They could've very well just use generic steampunk visuals; but they decided to do something meaningful. Just for that alone I consider Arcane a masterpiece of animation

[ash-says]

How to feel sexy instead of cute:

Before we dive into it I personally feel everyone is blessed with a set of attributes and you should not force yourself out of your way to change it. True essence blossoms when you accept yourself and add to it rather than subtracting things.

Being said that I also understand we all have occasions where we want to look sexy and honestly as girls we should play a little with our looks.

Next whatever I am saying here is not at all applicable to girls below 18. Darling go and study it's not your arena for now.

This post is completely based on personal experience so take it with a grain of salt.

1) Define your sexy.

No no I am not talking about manifestations and subliminal here. Clearing this before hand. What I am asking you to do is what you find sexy. What makes you tingle.

An example for me is being sexy translates to being dressed in off shoulders, wild curly hairs, adorned in jewellery, outfits that have a teasing touch, being a little mean, sassy comebacks, untouchable aura and obviously having a "I don't care what they say. I am in my own league." vibe.

2) Makeup

I am not a pro at this but I surely know the type of makeup that transforms my face into a sultry mess. Trial and error is the way here.

3) Outfits and jewellery

This is a no brainer that you should experiment in various outfits and pick those that make you look and feel sexy. A side note make sure you are comfortable in them. There's no point in wearing clothes that you have zero idea on how to carry. I have seen people wearing short dresses and being called vulgar because they had no idea on how to carry them and then another person wearing more revealing clothes still being called graceful and hot at the same time.

So it's kinda in the energy I guess.

4) Being comfortable in being sexy and a little bit objectified

Harsh truth here but if you are planning to be sexy you shouldn't quickly take offense in being objectified. I know it's wrong but then that's how the world works. Until and unless it's harmless do not react and accept the compliments graciously. If they overstep the boundaries and say something vulgar put them in their place until then it's fine. Be comfortable in getting side eyes and stares. You will get them alot!

5) Unwavering confidence

Know you are looking the part! Know you are that girl( if it makes sense)! No self doubts. I know everyone has it but in public concealment is the key. Move like you own the room and have a demeanor that speaks, " I know I am hot." Again people will try to bring you down so instead of letting it get to you either ignore or give a befitting reply depending on the situation.

6) Practice it alone so you shine in public

This helped me personally and still does. For every outfit I wear I have a personality curated and I practice it alone first in front of the mirror. Like an actor. I have a white sleeveless crop top with V neck I have attributed it to the graceful corporate babe personality and whenever I wear that I make sure to act like it. So I mix a little bit of hot and cold vibes to it. You get the point right?

7) Dance and music

The art forms you consume goes a long way to how you express yourself. Human beings are great at mimicking. After all we are monkeys at core. Invest your time in this and you will automatically see the result. It's a practical tip. Do it to find out.

8) Sensual touch

Even though I struggle with this at times because I don't have much sexual experience, I read somewhere that if you want to give a sensual and slutty vibe without coming off as vulgar softly and sensually touch the things around you. Pick up the glass slowly, slightly graze your fingers on the table or a cloth or whatever you feel okay with as if you are feeling the texture of it. Be present in your body and in tune with your senses. Slow down and don't be in a rush while doing mundane tasks. Trust me it works like hell. The amount of times I have been told I come off so graceful and classy by slowing down and doing things carefully and gracefully. Watch old barbie movies girls and see how they pick up things and move in routine works. You will get what I mean.

9) Standards

Nothing screams being sexy than having standards and knowing oneself. It's the key to it. Know you are not everyone's cup of tea and be comfortable with it. Be disgustingly educated and intelligent. Develop wit and sass because once you start working on this you will automatically start developing standards. Make sure to stick to them.

10) Untouchable

Gatekeep yourself. Don't try to impress people. Rather let them impress you (please note use this according to the situation. Don't do this in front of an HR or client or boss) Don't be swayed by people's money, success or looks. Know they are standing in their truth and you are standing in yours. Their light doesn't diminish yours. Be picky and choosy with who you associate yourself with. Have a life and don't be overly friendly. Network but don't people please. Be a person of substance not a doormat. Be private about your life and have a close knit circle with trustworthy people. It establishes influence and demand. Be open towards people but not so open that every other person knows your life history and problems.

That's all for today's show on ash-says. Stay tuned for more illegal tricks and explosive opinions.

[ryuseiired]

"wait, why does jackalope say mikoto is at the top of murders?"

I've seen a lot of people confused about this so I thought I'd make a post on why I personally think this comment makes sense and isn't, like I've seen a few people get worried about, implying anything new or even especially large about his murder count.

My take, heavily influenced by this post, is that Mikoto has killed three people. The post referenced points out that MeMe shows three murder scenes with discrepancies– using the images they do as reference we can see two clear and notable differences in location, and one scene where the outfit has changed and lacks the hoodie.

(As a side note, if we take that post's proposal as to who committed which murders– one by Mikoto and two afterwards by John– I wonder if this shot from Double with two mannequins next to him implies John's actual kill count? Not particularly relevant to the overall point but I thought it was interesting.)

So... three total murders would technically mean the Kayano system meets the criteria of "three or more" murders to be a serial killer. But I don't actually think it's as bad as a lot of people assumed from Jackalope's words. He's not a super prolific serial killer or anything, only just barely meeting the criteria. Three isn't that big a number in the grand scheme of things, it's just that it's large enough to put him at the top of MILGRAM.

Most other prisoners only have one victim. Haruka, excluding what's implied regarding animal death, appears to only have one human victim, that being the little girl who appears in his MVs. Meanwhile Fuuta, Muu, Mahiru, Kazui, and Amane all have made it pretty clear at this point that they have singular victims– Killcheroy, Rei, Mahiru's boyfriend, Hinako, and Amane's mother, respectively.

This leaves only a few others with unclear victim counts.

Yuno isn't clear on how many abortions she's had, only states that it's her crime and that it was the result of "lots of sugar-daddying". Whether or not she actually got pregnant and had an abortion more than once over the course of the compensated dating is left uncertain. She could be among the prisoners with one murder, or could have multiple.

Kotoko could either have one kill or two kills depending on what you believe about Deep Cover. If I remember right the guy she beats up in the alleyway during Harrow doesn't die, we only see a news article saying he's been hospitalized? I can't find the source on where I saw this though so take it with a grain of salt. The fact she did kill the guy in the hoodie, Kaneshiro, is indisputable.

The question becomes, if she was tried and found innocent for it already before being put in Milgram, was that really all she's in for? Most of Deep Cover takes place afterwards. Either believing the theory that she indirectly or accidentally got Lucky killed, or simply using the circumstantial evidence that it seemed like she was going to hunt down someone else towards the end of the MV and the prisoner card doesn't look like the warehouse she killed Kaneshiro in, I personally believe Kotoko has two victims.

Nobody seems to really know how many people Shidou killed, but it's also pretty heavily suggested that it's a lot, judging by how many people and/or organ donor cards we see in Throw Down and Triage. He is usually assumed to have the most murders out of anyone in Milgram, which I personally agree with.

This leaves us with a kill count ranking that looks something like:

Shidou (many, many victims)

Mikoto (three victims)

Kotoko/Yuno? (one or two victims?)

Everyone Else (one victim)

This puts Mikoto, assumedly with three kills, at the second-highest kill count in Milgram, but Jackalope isn't implying an unreasonably high number by pointing out how far up he is. Nothing more than what was already shown to us in MeMe, anyway.

And while I can't speak on this. the exact wording Jackalope uses in Japanese may not imply he has the most or is at the top anyway, just near it. Which would be consistent with him having second most!

[ricesinspo]

☆ — art tips that have helped me. by @ricesinspo

these tips are based on my own experience as an artist who draws as a hobby. i've found that learning art is not as simple as just "practice" and "fundamentals", so here are 7 tips that worked for me!

— ☆ —

[★] when doing art studies, use them immediately in an art piece

this way, the knowledge sticks better rather than just being forgotten.

[★] learn things one at a time

for example, if you want to work on coloring / shading, use a subject you already know how to draw well instead of something completely new. this way, you can focus on the coloring / shading without having to worry about how the subject looks on top of that.

you can only take in so much information at a time, if you try to learn many things at once it's going to be more difficult.

[★] look at other people's art (speedpaints, tutorials, etc.)

pay attention to how they do things. try new techniques and see what sticks.

(disclaimer that should go without saying: referencing / tracing for practice is not the same as posting traced art and claiming it as yours / not crediting.)

[★] be specific when practicing

look at your old art and think about what parts of it you want to change / work on / improve on.

[★] Enjoy it!!!

love what you do!!! dont think too much about improvement!!! set yourself free!!! sometimes you just gotta go for it and do the thing!! love the process!! embrace the mistakes!!

yes, it is really difficult (and i'm still working on it), and improvement might be slower than if you just learn 'fundamentals', but as i learned to enjoy the process i started seeking improvement because i actually wanted to rather than only practicing because everyone else said so!!! this way, it's less boring and less likely to burn you out.

try not to worry about fitting in / standing out / being good / whatever!! your art is YOURS and it's YOU!!! thats whats important!!!

[★] on: art style

'normal / realistic' and 'completely unique' styles are both unrealistic ideals to achieve. if you can achieve it great! if not that's fine!! your style doesn't have to have realistic proportions and 'normal' features. your style doesn't have to be completely indistinguishable from everyone else's either.

(and to the "it's not an art style, it's a mistake" crowd: art mistakes are not unforgivable either!! whether it's an intentional stylistic choice that people think is okay to dunk on for some reason, or actually just a mistake, it's fine!! it's just part of the process, and sometimes also the result, and that's fine!!!!!!

if you want to fix your art mistakes by all means go for it, my point is: when you make a mistake in art (or if it generally doesn't look 'right'), sometimes you're inclined to fix it, sometimes it's a "that's unintentional but it looks cool" kinda situation. whichever one it ends up being is up to you, not internet randos who have nothing better to do with their time.)

[★] take every art tip with a grain of salt (including these ones)

if it doesn't work for you, drop it

— ☆ —

this is a formatted version of these tips that i shared on my main blog. putting these here with some changes so it's easier to read. (i realize these are all 'just practice' but With Depth, but imo the reason why 'just practice' isn't effective in the first place is because it's not specific, and the Depth is what makes it a "good tip")

[anewbeginningagain]

IAM has so far felt comfortable enough to:

advise a couple to get married early in their relationship for citizenship purposes when they didn't even need to

advise one of their teams to switch countries, knowing that it would displace others, resulting in the current mess

continue to coach a skater that has almost died (presumably because they would like to keep judges from that country on their side), resulting in that skater getting another concussion

made a top skater's anguish over getting an abortion about how it was interfering with their training process and Olympic gold chances, leaving her to deal with it on her own

ply a skater with alcohol to convince her to team up with an unsuitable partner to compete for a country neither of them are from and for a federation that has screwed them over in the past

continued to be warm with and supportive of a skater of theirs that's been accused of violent rape

All while making it their mission statement to be the "good, safe school that's skater-first". And I've only listed things that we've either heard from the skaters' own mouths or seen unfold with our very own eyes. There are also other things, like who advised Scott to make that stupid Florida video and lie, when the photos were available on FB? It certainly wasn't his idea. I think it's high time they came under some genuine scrutiny. Fans have been a little too enamored with their success to look at the growing disconnect between their PR and what they've been actually doing. The quality of their product has been declining steadily for a while now as well. I don't think you can be successful in a toxic system like skating for too long without it starts to poison you too.

Anon, honestly you bringing up the Scott/Florida nonsense is so redundant if we are thinking about the same thing. Totally irrelevant to this discussion and a very negative example of "fans" losing their shit over things that do not concern them and were only happening because people couldn't handle the precious fairytale they fabricated in their heads not coming true. If anything it was the epitome of the toxicity of the skating fandom and included all the worst traits involved. I also don't see how I.AM are relevant to it.

Now let's go into I.AM. To be clear as I said I think they've been having a worrying track record for a while now and there's a lot to criticize there. But your list is again a mixture of things based on what skaters said (which as we know should be taken with a grain of salt) and a lot of your own interpretation.

Romain telling a fully adult team in a relationship that getting married will help them with citizenship and reach the Olympics is simply stating the facts. It's not the first nor the last time this type of thing happens. It was their own decision by all accounts and unless they felt pressured and did it against their will (which we have no indication to given they've been married for a good few years no) then it's likely on the skaters. Yes, there's a chance there's an unhealthy dynamic there, and if it was a trend with many teams at the school than I would have found it alarming but that's not the case.

Sorry but what? Should coaches not advise a team to switch countries if it's in their best interest? This one is mind-boggling to me, they shouldn't care about the effect on other skaters just like V/M coming back was in their own right and the impact on mid-level teams was not their concern, just like when P/C skipped 2021 worlds and reduced France to one team instead of 3 it was in their own right. Skaters are allowed to act in their own interest, and it's a coach job to assist with that.

The one about not dropping Solene I agree with, I think even if I.AM would have dropped her she would have continued to skate and find another place, but still. To accuse it's for securing a judge with legit zero evidence is exactly the shit I'm talking about, classic TSL loving DRAMA BS.

I don't even know what you are talking about regarding them plying Olivia with alcohol? The fuck?

Criticism over them sticking by Nikolaj are valid.

Regarding Gabi's abortion, I have an unpopular opinion that I don't have the energy to go into right now, but sufice to say I disagree.

So yeah, I.AM are worthy of a lot of criticism over Nikolaj and over injuries, and over creating a mass-production type of skating (some like it some not), but most of what you wrote here though is WTF, sorry. There's enough to criticize them for without making stuff up.

To summarize: what you wrote here is like 80% interpretation + 15% pure fabrication + 5% actual stuff skaters said. So classic fs fandom turning narratives into "facts".

[lady-laureline]

I want to get to the bottom of neurodivergent burnout. I feel like there are a lot of people that have no context to take it seriously in, so they don't.

As with a lot of these posts, writing this is my way of ironing out my own understanding - take it with a grain of salt, I'm not a professional. I've tried to keep it general but as I'm speaking from a late-diagnosed audhd experience, it will lean in that direction.

Also, depending on how much you relate, this may warrant a mental health trigger warning? There's self-talk that isn't very kind.

×××

The precursor to burnout is survival mode: a state in which the body doesn't allow itself to fully enter a state of rest, as it is perceived to be "unsafe" by the nervous system. Neurodivergent symptoms aren't always a cause for stress in and of themselves, but people displaying them quickly learn that symptomatic behaviour rubs others the wrong way, even if they lack the intuition to see why.

☁️ People don't like the way I behave.

×

This is compounded by miscommunication.

Say a divergent child says something that sounds neutral to them, but rude to everyone else. They might get reprimanded for hurting someone's feelings, but they don't see how what they said was hurtful. Say this child's requests for an explanation are seen as insolence instead of curiosity.

The adults might come away thinking the child needs more discipline. The child might come away knowing they did something wrong, but unsure as to what that was or how to avoid it in the future.

☁️ I can't trust myself to say good things, even if my intentions are good. If I say a bad thing, it's my fault even if I don't know why it's bad.

×

The more these situations crop up, the more the emotional takeaway morphs into low self-esteem and constant vigilance (to catch mistakes before they happen). As the child grows older and responsibilities increase, they are also faced with a more nuanced picture of society that they're already lagging behind - demanding more nuanced masking, which is already a separate workload - on top of battling those good old sensory issues.

To those who don't know what the fuss is about: you know when you have a fever and your skin is super sensitive? If you separate the tingliness from the discomfort, and then apply that discomfort to the rest of your senses, you'll get a pretty good idea of what sensory overwhelm is like. We don't all experience this the same way (for example, I'm generally fine with food textures but really sensitive to noise) or with the same frequency, but it tends to be both unpleasant and consistent.

These additional energy drains inevitably lead to feeling the effects of hard work without anywhere near the same results of our peers. The easiest explanation, and the assumption most uninformed make, is one of personal shortcomings. Laziness. Selfishness. A "bad attitude".

☁️ No matter how hard I try, it is not enough. I haven't earned my pain. I haven't earned my rest.

×

It's a frustrating experience, and all those feelings need to go somewhere. We learn skills such as silent crying to hide our "overreactions"; we use our anxiety as a driving force for productivity. Many disabled people have the dissociative method down pat. And then there's the assertive emotions.

Displaying anger out of bounds of the neurotypical context is a whole other kettle of fish. When the nervous system is cortisol city, things will boil over eventually. Any witness is likely to be unaware of the extent of the stressors that led up to this outburst, so it can seem to happen out of the blue. Plus, if the inciting incident appears insignificant to the onlooker, they'll probably think it's all a bit childish.

Say what you will about neurospicy social skills but we have a killer radar for cringe. Raise your hand if you smush down irritation on the regular. Better yet, raise your hand if you "never get angry".

☁️ My frustration is misplaced and out of proportion. If I show it, I lose the respect of people I care about.

×

Maybe we've been afraid to feel what we feel our whole lives, but there comes a point where something's got to give. We might even be making a conscious effort to get in touch with our emotions after years and years of ripping them down and sealing them away. It's a Pandora's box situation: once the seal is broken, there's no getting the horrors back inside.

That's usually the beginning of what is widely recognised as burnout. There is so much to sort through, life effectively gets put on hold, at least for those of us lucky enough not to crash and burn the moment we let go of the wheel.

Recovery isn't a matter of a little vacation time: it can take months or years, and it may not look like work but it very much is. The trauma runs deep and we have no choice but to get to the bottom of the trench if we don't want to be stuck in a permanent state of exhaustion. It can be isolating as there's not a lot of energy left for much else - overextend and your body will slap you back in line so fast your head will spin. And no, you do not get to choose what overextending yourself entails.

To anyone actually going through this, try not to keep yourself in check, at least when you're alone. Your psyche does not want to pretend anymore. Pretending has repercussions now.

×

It may come as a surprise that a lot of people don't take kindly to healing. A person in burnout recovery is (by necessity) less accessible, more self-centered, taking up more space and drawing new boundaries. Unmasking may reveal a person your friends don't understand like the contorted version of yourself they got to know. Furthermore - change, when seen as a threat, can cause people to lash out.

☁️ Healing is a punishable offense. It hurts those around me. They don't want me as I am, but they don't want me to change, either.

One of the things I've had difficulty accepting is that there are good, caring people in my life that don't deserve an explanation of what I'm going through. They might have a space in their hearts for the person they think that I am, but the capacity to truly get to know me isn't there, at least yet.

Once I'd been burned enough times, I made a decision to settle for nothing less than sincere interest as a prerequisite for any attempt to make myself understood. From there, it wasn't not far to the bittersweet realisation that the only person's permission I need to grow is my own.

×

I'm not sure how to wrap this up, which might mean future edits (there are always more edits), but the thought is complete enough to post.

I suppose there is no end to becoming one's own person, and even though the line between recovery and living can be blurry a lot of the time, existing with purpose is a decision each of us has to make.

I'm sending a telepathic hug to anyone who needs one right now. Take care of yourselves.

×××

The self-talk of some weird kid:

"People don't like the way I behave. I can't trust myself to say good things, even if my intentions are good. If I say a bad thing, it's my fault even if I don't know why it's bad. No matter how hard I try, it is not enough. I haven't earned my pain. I haven't earned my rest. My frustration is misplaced and out of proportion. If I show it, I lose the respect of people I care about. Healing is a punishable offense. It hurts those around me. They don't want me as I am, but they don't want me to change, either."

(I've included this depressing subconscious narrative because I think it's important to show how little unresolved rejections add up over time. One can put on a dazzling performance to meet social demands while believing all of that, and we desperately need community support that is informed and equipped to help them pick up the pieces once the show falls apart.)

[nickgerlich]

Give The Dog A Bone

Whenever you are a heavy user of something, your friends and family take note. When it is their turn to buy something in a category in which you have expertise, they come calling with questions. Sometimes they even want you to go to a store with them, or online.

I have been there many times, having aided many people buying computers, cameras, and bicycles. Each of these can be expensive propositions, and it is understandable that someone lacking experience or knowledge would be nervous. It is fine to want someone to hold your hand while you are pulling the trigger.

That person who is the knowledgeable friend or family member is known as a market maven, and as long as people have to contemplate big purchases, there will be a need for them. Maybe you are one, or, more likely, have relied on one. But what if a company could provide one for you?

That’s exactly what is happening in the AI era. Although AI has been around for nearly a century, it is only in the last two years that it became a household word. While some fear the power of AI, the rest of us have been busy embracing it and figuring out how to use it to advantage. And we need look no farther than Amazon, which has now unleashed Rufus to all US shoppers.

Rufus is a personal shopping assistant, and is available on both desktop or laptop computer, and on their app. In fact, the app allows for both typed as well as voice queries. It can answer a wide variety of questions, much like you would put in a search bar, but Rufus can also go very granular, answering questions about the fit of a garment. It scans all of the posted product reviews, and aggregates them into a meaningful summary. Lastly, it can provide recommendations, not just suggestions.

Naturally, some people may be skeptical of a shopping tool provided by a retailer, because…well…it has a profit motive ultimately. That’s a fair criticism, but I took Rufus out for a walk and found it to do nothing of the sort. In fact, on some garments it provided enough negative information to give me pause.

As powerful as Rufus is, he is limited and is only as good as the information available. That’s true of AI tools in general, like ChatGPT, Claude, and the rest. In the case of Rufus, it can only convey product information that has already been provided by the manufacturer or Amazon, and when it comes to trickier questions like fit, quality of the fabric, accuracy of color, and so forth, it depends entirely on customer reviews.

That’s a whole other thorny issue, because we don’t really know what motivates people to write reviews in the first place. Are they market mavens? Or just disgruntled shoppers? The reviews section can be slanted when there is more of one than the other. I am a frequent contributor to Google Reviews of restaurants, hotels, and breweries, but I only write positive reviews. If I have a bad experience, I don’t recommend a place.

There are many customers, both happy and disappointed, who don’t write reviews, and their thoughts are not available for Rufus to parse. Rufus, you see, cannot go outside its own eco-system. You get what you pay for, which is nothing. Take it all with a grain of salt.

If you are an Amazon customer and take the time to scroll down an individual product’s page, you will find that Rufus is showing up there too, not just as a chatbot tool. Once you (finally) get down to the product reviews, you will see an AI summary of them, and it is identical to what Rufus would tell you if you asked. It’s a lot like the AI-enhanced Google results pages I’ve been seeing lately, with an AI-generated summary that appears at the top of the page, before any links for further reading.

Rufus is very smart. It cuts through the clutter, squeezing the juice out of oranges that may be overwhelming for shoppers. But it can’t mix that juice with anything else. If you want a mimosa, you have to provide the Champagne. But it’s a great start. Things will only get better from here. If you fear all of this technology, you don’t have to use it, but you also need to know that this is not going away.

Give the dog a bone. Write your review and be part of the process too. You may or may not be a market maven, but in a small way, you’ll be helping and holding the hand of many customers after you.

Dr “Good Doggie” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Festival Accompanying Chapter 16

Back in Massacre chapter 17, Takano said there are powers in Tokyo who want to see Tokyo fail. And we're seeing some of that now that Nomura is here.

I'm going to take what Nomura says with a grain of salt. She's ultimately trying to manipulate Takano so we can't guarantee anything she says is actually true. In particular, she says the new board in Tokyo wants to discontinue Takano's research because they disagree with it and she brings up wanting to continue Koizumi's legacy.

Remember that under Koizumi's influence, Hinamizawa Syndrome research was directed toward military use. And Takano's thesis went as far as assuming the possibility of human thought being controlled by parasites.

The "logical" conclusion I see is this research could lead to developing mass mind-control.

But anyway, Nomura is an obviously evil person with evil intents. It's absolutely creepy how much she read Takano like a book, but then again she probably didn't need to do much work to figure Takano out. If she really did talk with Koizumi about why he was funding Takano's research and if she knew about her outburst during the meeting last chapter, it probably wasn't difficult to realize Takano is only doing all this to make the people who mocked her grandfather's research acknowledge it as true.

And while we don't hear Nomura's suggestion, we can know exactly what it was. Emergency Manual 34 already exists as it was mentioned in chapter 12. Tokyo ultimately wants to eradicate Hinamizawa Syndrome and act as if it never existed. But invoking Emergency Manual 34 will force Tokyo to have to enact a FAR greater coverup which will be the cause of speculations, conspiracies, and policies for at least 20 years.

And while I'd assume Takano already is a hobby occult writer, she probably slipped some of her writings into all the myth that will surround the Great Hinamizawa Disaster as some way to include a little bit of the true reason for everything into it.

Keiichi has moved into the village and he's getting a look at the school.

Keiichi and his family moved to Hinamizawa after Keiichi had assaulted children with a model gun and shot one girl in the eye. And now he's going to be in a class with children around the same age as that girl.

Chie asked that he set a good example for them as he will be the oldest boy in the class. Keiichi was very awkward in agreeing to that, but he does genuinely want to be a good role model going forward.

I wish I could tell who this is supposed to be. Is she a magical girl, a music idol, or just a character someone drew?

The VN contains a few instances where it mentions things that don't exist in 1983. From @8bitsupervillain's playthrough of the VNs, I found screenshots mentioning Cardcaptor Sakura (renamed as Card Master Sakura) and the end of the Cold War. Cardcaptor Sakura began publication in 1996 while the Cold War ended in 1991.

But anyway, the first thing that popped into my mind was Madoka from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which is extra insane because it first aired in 2011, a year after this chapter was first published.

I wonder if Keiichi had a similar scenario his father had when meeting Hanyu and Rika. We have no confirmation that this scene of them introducing themselves to him happens in every timeline.

The moment I read "You're the six on the die, Keiichi, sir." I started trying to assign characters to each value and realized none of Rika's preparations include Shion at all.

There was something about how Hanyu's horns are drawn that's been bugging me and I finally figured it out with this panel.

The way Karin Suzuragi seems to draw Hanyu's head is by drawing Hanyu's hair and then placing the horns on top of her head. As a result, Hanyu's hair doesn't flow around her horns.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Takano's reaction to god rolling ones on her is to flip the table to make the dice become a six. And everything about Operation Apocalypse is that plus more. Not only does she intend to flip the table once more, but she's decided to directly fight against who she believes is responsible for all her struggles.

Although really, she's taking all her frustration out on a local deity who really has nothing to do with anything. Really, Takano should want to befriend Oyashiro since Oyashiro is so deeply tied to Hinamizawa.

Takano said an absolute will shall decide an absolute future. Her will is to make herself and her grandfather into gods. The means do not matter. She previously tried to accomplish this through her research, but now she's decided to achieve godhood by becoming Oyashiro.

And since her approach requires her to oppose god rather than have god's support, she decided to give back the one thing god ever gave her.

I think it's safe to assume Takano offered a ten yen coin to the Furude shrine in every timeline. And in every other timeline, the offering was accepted. So Takano could say she owed nothing to god.

But this time, her offering was rejected. Oyashiro has declared that she will oppose Takano's plan from even the first step.

NIPA BEAM!!!

back

Spoiler Discussion

This is pure speculation on my part, but I want to throw out the possibility that Nomura may be behind even more than what we're given. There's no proof, but I kinda wonder if she may have had Koizumi assassinated. His cause of death was a sudden heart attack. Sure, he's old and it's not unusual for someone his age to die like that, but the Wild Dogs previously killed Rika's father in a way that makes it look like he died from a heart attack.

And the Wild Dogs were hired by Koizumi, but they're secretly working under Nomura during Operation Apocalypse. Maybe Nomura decided to get rid of Koizumi so she could make a power-grab that failed. Or maybe things are going exactly as intended and she just wants to sow as much chaos as possible.

[hasufin]

Okay, so I'm gonna start with bread.

Bread, on the face of it, is absolutely ridiculous.

We make bread by:

Harvesting the seeds of a desert grass which has been modified almost beyond recognition and is grown in wildly different environments than the one for which it evolved.

Then we remove the chaff from that seed, take the result of that and grind it into a very fine powder; a process which takes enormous amounts of manual labor or a considerable industrial base. In fact, just turning the harvested grain into flour has long been considered a specialized profession (Miller) and having a mill was one of the most important signifiers of civilization.

Then you take that powdered grain - flour - and mix it with some combination of water, fats, salt, maybe eggs or milk, and some powdered yeast or a leavening agent.

You take that combination and - especially if you're working with powdered yeast - you have to do this complicated process of resting and working it so it develops special protein chains which can trap the gas from the yeast, and of course giving it time to build up the gases. This results in a sort of spongy mass.

Then you heat that spongy mass in an oven to set it so it holds that shape. Right now those ovens are very common, but historically they were themselves expensive beasts which only existed communally: you had special bakeries, people didn't typically bake their own bread.

Isn't that just nuts? There's no way we could have come up with that. How the heck did it happen?

Well... lets strip away each layer of technology.

First, let's get rid of chemical leavening. Most chemical leavening agents - the common baking soda, and baking powder (baking soda with acid), not to mention potash, sodium carbonate, and ammonia salts (!!!) were the products largely of Victorian-era dumbassery with chemicals. It was an era when they were just basically fucking around with chemicals to see what they could get. Yes, a lot of them died. Eventually they settled on some specific options which were marketable and reasonably safe.

So largely we can ignore all that. I mean, it's important, but historically the last 150 years was just yesterday. So no chemical leavening.

But what about yeast? Well... funny thing. We've been using yeast for a very, very long time. But the modern instant yeast we use today wasn't invented until WWII. As with many other modern foodstuffs (separate rant warning!) it was developed to make it easier for the USA to export violence.

This doesn't mean we ignore yeast, though. Yeast is important. Prior to the invention of instant yeast, there were a number of ways people acquired the stuff. A popular method was getting barm - the foamy gross stuff that floats on top of beer while it's being brewed - from the local brewery. Everywhere had a brewery. Or, you know, people brewed beer at home (hence the term alewife). They also transported dried chunks of unbaked dough, and there was such a thing as sourdough starter. There were many options, though none so convenient as instant yeast.

The general consensus is that yeast was simply the result of unbaked flatbread dough being left out too long - sometimes it would result in mold, but other times you'd get a sort of yeast-risen bread, and ancient people - maybe Egyptians, but maybe Sumerians - ran with that. It's equally possible that they made beer first and only later bread; it's hard to say. We do know that by the time of the Hebrews, raised bread was the norm: the point of matzah is they didn't have time to let it rise; therefore we can conclude that by the Middle Kingdom era, risen bread was definitely the norm because unrisen bread was seen as unusual and a hardship.

Now, thing is, that's interesting, and tells us a bit about the development of bread, but we can also now strip that away: we had breads before we had yeast, and in fact didn't wholly abandon them even once yeast was available. So now we've taken away yeast.

OKay, so flour. Now, hearkening back, I mentioned that milling is a THING. In the USA, colonial-era expansion is largely recorded by the building of mills. Where possible these mills were powered by water, but when that was unavailable they used beasts of burden. I understand this wasn't much different in other parts of the world, excepting that due to British colonial law they used rather more wooden machinery than metal. But the principle remains, and has a long history. Today our mills operate with electric motors, and the burrs are generally metal; while they look different they work in very much the same way. Before using such machinery, grain was milled by hand. Milling stones came in a variety of forms, from the simple two-stone method we know of from the Egyptians, to the stone disk grinders you can buy today if you suddenly develop a deep need to punish yourself. So milling grain is nothing new.

But what we also know is, people didn't always mill their grain, even when the technology exists. Roman citizens, for example, received a monthly allotment of grain, which was often just literally a sack of grain. Most Romans would take that to the baker and exchange it baked bread; but the poorest Romans would not, because of course the baker would not give you the same amount of bread as they could make with that grain (since they were taking the grain to the miller, and putting in the effort to make it into bread). Thereby if you needed every bit of grain you got, you kept it your sack of grain and cooked it yourself. We'll come back to that, because it's significant that most people until the 19th century didn't have ovens.

Okay, let's talk ovens. The modern oven is heated by electricity or natural gas. Previously they ran on coal gas - a nasty, sooty stuff which would suffocate you (hence the old trope of committing suicide by sticking your head in the oven). Prior to THAT ovens could be cast iron deals heated by coal or charcoal. Going back a bit farther you had basically these enclosed fireplaces which you'd heat up by building a fire in them until they were nice and hot, then removing the coals and putting in whatever you were baking. Those were interesting deals. They were large and took a significant effort to build and operate. It was typical to only have one per village, and they'd normally heat them in the morning and let them cool over the day (with, I think, occasional reheating but I'm not sure). Old recipes differentiate between a "quick" [hot] and a "slow" [not as hot] oven, rather than specific temperatures. The thing about these ovens is, they're big and expensive. You pretty much had one per community, and in many communities it was considered as "communal" even if it technically belonged to the baker - this includes the origins of baked beans, since those could be prepared on Saturday and would cook overnight in the cooling oven, thus avoiding the proscription of work on the Sabbath.

Now, in some other circumstances they had "cooking kettles", which we would today call Dutch Ovens. These served well enough, but in most of history even that item, being a considerable quantity of iron, was beyond the means of most people.

So what to do? Okay, this is where I get to sidestep something like 6000 years of development to get to pancakes. Because the answer is waybread. Waybread is not an invention of Tolkien (lembas is, but that's just magical waybread)

Waybread would have been a familiar thing even into the earlier part of the 20th century. It was a staple for anyone in the wilderness - it was normal for anyone trekking across uninhabited terrain to bring with them little more than a blanket, a knife or ax, and a sack of flour (accounts seldom mention other accoutrements, but we can safely assume they also carried a canteen and likely a few other typical items which were beneath notice of historical chroniclers). They trusted they would be able to make a fire, and acquire sufficient water. With that and flour, they could make a paste or dough, and bake it on a flat stone, split piece of wood, wrapped in a leaf, or even just by burying in the ashes of their fire. All of these are well-attested methods, and common throughout history. Indeed, these were made even when not trekking across the wilderness - while the mythology incorrectly holds that hoecakes were made in the field (who would dare build a fire where it might destroy the crops?), and they may or may not have used the same hoes as used to work the fields, slaves in the American South certainly did cook their ration of corn meal in such a fashion, often with only perhaps some salt and water, and held directly over the fire in whatever would serve for a cooking utensil.

In the British isles, there is an old story claiming that King Alfred once let a peasant's oatcakes burn, as he was sheltering in the peasant's home while fighting an invasion; oatcakes being the same as waybread but using oats; and this in the 9th century.

And here we get to an important point about waybread - it does not even to be made using flour! Any grain or meal which will stick together with some amount of liquid will do the trick. Meaning that while you could not simply mix water and seeds, you could do just about anything past that - even wild grains, removed from their husks and pounded between two rocks, would suffice. And in fact, that is believed to have been the famous iceman Ötzi's last meal: a rough waybread, flavored with wild onions and other herbs he may have picked while traveling, consumed a few hours before his untimely demise.

And here we get to my point: a pancake is a very broad thing; it's any sort of grain (and arguably not merely grain! Potato pancakes are a thing) which holds together and is cooked directly over heat. We have been consuming pancakes as far back a we know, far into prehistory. It is a contender as one of the first cooked foods - very possibly predating anything like a stew - cooking vessels being in short supply in the stone age, and our best guess there is they dropped hot rocks into leather buckets with water and grain, or into stomachs of game animals, also filled with grains; but these awkward options quite possibly came after crudely milled grains cooked on a flat rock by a fire; accompanied perhaps by roasted meat.

And for this reason, every culture has something which is like a pancake. some use leavening, some do not. Some use wheat, others use rice, oats, barley, or maize. But it's about as universal a foodstuff as we have ever found. If you were to sit down with a fowl roasted over a fire, and eat it with some simple flatbread, you would be enjoying a meal which would be familiar to every human who has ever lived.

European pancakes

[literaticat]

Could you explain the drama with Barnes & Nobles? How will it affect MG and YA (marginalised) authors??

I have gotten A LOT of questions about B&N "rumors" -- like, a LOT a lot. So I'm going to endeavor to answer questions as well as I can here, and delete the other ones, just because they are substantially the same and would have the same answers.

The B&N drama, as I understand it, is that they have made a policy to not stock MG hardcover books, except the very tippy-top bestsellers (ie, the new Rick Riordan or something at that level). I have not heard that this is the case with any other category of book -- only MG -- but I don't know that for sure. That's just the only category I have heard confirmation about.

This has been a policy for a bit actually (I heard about it from a sales rep a month or so ago), but I guess the news just broke to the twitter-sphere yesterday, hence all the questions today!

I have a lot of conflicting feelings about it, actually, and zero data or facts, so ... take all this with lots of grains of salt, I guess:

MANY books were already not being bought by B&N. I would go so far as to say that the majority of my author's books, I never saw at B&N -- certainly not at my small local one, maybe more at the larger locations. Getting picked up by B&N has never been a guaranteed thing by any stretch.

From B&N's perspective, it sounds like they want to make more room for paperbacks, because paperbacks sell better. I saw a tweet somewhere yesterday, anecdotal of course, but basically it was a B&N bookseller who said that hardcover sales for them are very slow -- and so they did a 50% off all hardcover books sale -- and hardcover books STILL didn't sell at a significantly higher volume. Whereas a paperback sale resulted in books absolutely flying off the shelves. (The bookseller in that tweet went on to say that they wouldn't be surprised if the mandate came to pass for other categories of book, too, for this reason.)

We can't force a bookstore to carry books they don't think they can sell. Like - they are a business, not a public service or a charity - they will do what is best for their bottom line, and they can buy and stock whatever they want.

We can be disappointed! We can express that disappointment! We can support indie stores instead! Or order the hardcover from B&N so they'll know people still want to buy them! But we can't make them make choices that they don't feel are good for their business.

I'm guessing, if there is demand for a certain title, individual B&N stores WILL carry it. So if you / your community are super passionate about something, let your local store know.

The reality is: Paperbacks DO often sell better. We make hardcovers for two reasons aside from tradition -- for the library market, and so that the publishers can charge more for books and make more money. In, say, the UK, the VAST majority of kids books are paperback first, because that's what the majority of their customers want. The CEO of B&N is James Daunt, who also runs Waterstones in the UK, and saved that company from ruin. I daresay he's thinking, hey, these are some things worked to save Waterstones from ruin - let's try it at B&N - hence many stores closing and re-opening in much smaller locations that look more like indie bookstores, changing the way buying is structured, etc.

We need B&N to keep existing. That's by NO means a sure thing. Remember Borders? That can happen again, and if it does, I shudder to think how that would impact the landscape. So -- YES, I personally think they should keep buying hardbacks, but also, if it affects their bottom line so badly, YES, I think they should do what they need to do to survive. Maybe that is promoting and selling the hell out of PAPERBACKS. If that's the gameplan -- ok, let's see it; maybe that will ultimately be a good thing.

Hot take: I think more publishers should publish paperback originals or PB/HC simultaneously, hardcover for the libraries and paperback for trade, the way they often do for chapter books and graphic novels. People LIKE paperbacks. People can AFFORD paperbacks. Unfortunately, because they are less expensive, authors make less money on them. The good thing though is that they tend to sell more, so ideally that is made up in volume.

All of this might affect authors (marginalized and otherwise) because it might mean fewer sales for their hardcover books, fewer sales means it's harder to earn royalties and get that next book deal, etc. But actually -- it might also NOT mean that, because again, many hardcovers already weren't being stocked by B&N, or were being stoked but ultimately returned to the publisher; many people DO wait until paperback to buy things, order online or from Indies, etc.

It will be interesting to see actual numbers on how (or IF) this truly has a huge impact on book sales -- or if, in fact, sales of hardcovers stay relatively steady, returns on hardcovers go way down, and sales of paperbacks go up.

TR;DR - I have no answers, just a lot of questions and comments I guess. I would urge authors to not catastrophize, though. Like, does this suck? Yes for sure. Will it ACTUALLY affect you, personally? Maybe, but maybe a lot less than you think. I don't think any publisher is making decisions based on this decision at this point, we are not really in charted territory. I'm sure that both publishers and B&N will analyze how their sales are affected, and adjust accordingly, which MIGHT mean backpedaling on this mandate, or who knows, time will tell. But worrying about what fallout MIGHT occur from business decisions we have no control over is not helpful or conducive to happiness or productivity.

[under-lore]

Is there anything in the game that tells how long Chara lived Underground before dying?

Sort of. You can, but it will be no more than vague approximations with questionable reliability.

The bond between Asriel and Chara was formed over time, friendship did not ensue immediately.

As for the monsters, viewing the friendship they formed as a symbol of the future for humans and monsters was able to fill the entire underground with renewed hope for the future.

So much so that Chara and Asriel's death fully crushed the hope of the entire underground by itself.

And while it is true that monsters do get attached easily...

Such an effet seems unlikely to be possible if Chara had not been present at least for a few months.

To further support this, there is the fact that Chara as the narrator already knows who a quite considerable amount of the monsters we meet are as well as a little bit of info about them.

We know from Toby Fox's concept art that Chara and Asriel did wonder around the underground while playing. (The only "stars" in the underground are the fake ones in Waterfall)

Other than that, there is the monthly address in which Chara could have gotten to see more people, assuming that they were present at least sometimes during those.

It also seems unlikely that they could have known the underground and its people as well as they do in-game if they hadn't been down there for long enough to have met quite a lot of monsters (and seen quite a few places) in the first place, or at the very least to have heard about them from Asgore, who would know all about the monsters out there.

One can also add the Mr Dad Guy shirt into the mix. Asgore is a very large person and knitting something like this would be a very difficult task that would take a long time to go from start to finish. Even more so when considering the fact that Chara is shown to be an impatient person on top of a child, which does not make knitting any easier. (or if one wants to imagine that Chara did not know how to do so originally and that Toriel would have had to help/teach them.)

One more thing to bring up would be the sprite heights of Chara.

In the actual gameplay, Asriel's sprites is 28 pixels tall. Whilst Chara is 29 pixels tall, the same height as Frisk. Chara appears slightly taller than him.

In the cutscenes dating way back from Chara's fall however, Asriel seems to be taller than Chara.

(Note : Asriel is leaning forward here, which means he appears smaller than he really is, yet even then he's still a bit taller !)

Now, we do also know that pixel sizes and Temmie Chang's art are not necessarily reliable sources in terms of height so this observation is to take with a grain of salt. It might not have been intended to be this way.

But if we were to consider it to be true, then this would prove interesting. It would mean that in between the time where Chara fell and when they died, they have not only caught up to Asriel but even outgrown him a little.

Considering regular monsters can be shown to be aging slower than humans do, this would appear pretty believable. Although its not certain wether this also applies to boss monsters like Asriel or not.

Since we do not know how fast boss monsters grow in height compared to humans (resulting in an unknown variable), that it depends on age a little for humans (and thus on Chara's age which would also be an approximation) and that again pixel sizes and Temmie's art are hardly reliable. Calculating how long it would take for Chara to grow this amount compared to Asriel isn't really possible without making a lot of estimations.

With that being said, attempting to do it anyway would result in a difference which would suggest that Chara would have been underground for a minimum of 2 years. (I want to restate that this result is to be taken with a full teaspoon of salt ! Too many unknown variables.)

[joyliiejolly]

Future Spouse Reading - ENHYPEN's Jake

Disclaimer: This reading is for entertainment purpose only, so please take it as a grain of salt and live laugh love all the way besties!! It’s also been a long long time since i last did my tarot reading so there might be some misinterpretations or a lack of information. Let me know if you have anything to add more or to discuss with me and I’ll always welcome and willing to share my thoughts with you, too. Thank you for reading!

The cards: Knight of Cups, The Sun, Two of Wands, King of Swords, Six of Pentacles, Knight of Pentacles. At the bottom: The Lovers.

Let me just say that Jake is one lucky man. The Universe really favors him with this person. They are his soulmate, the one who is made for loving him. And damn, what a wonderful person they are (I want to be their friend :((()

The Sun card stood out so much to me, it made me feel like all the other cards were there to support it, so I'd say that, this person really is the sun. Their personality shines bright, bringing warm and happiness to those around them. They have a cute smile, and them laughing makes other people laugh, too. Many will adore them for their mind set and the positive energy they give off. They are also naturally charming and their humor is top-notch, too. This person is definitely a joy to be around.

The secret of their jolly nature is finding happiness in little things in their life. This is something that they've been doing since young age. They appreciate the people in their life and never take the act of kindness for granted.

They're a humanitarian. Every thoughts they have, everything they do, they do it with the wish that the world to be a better place than they found it. They can do a lot of charity works, take part in different nonprofit organizations/activities/events, some even outside of their country (yeah, I know, they sounds a lot like Jake himself but what can I say, they're soulmates :D). They stand up for the weak, the unfortunate. They speak their mind without hesitate. They see the evil in this world, but they ain't gonna hide from it or ignore it, but acknowlegde it, and try their best to make it right, make it better.

They're a hardworking individual. Once they determine on their goals and are through with their plans (which are made with a lot of care, they love making them a little bit too much), they will act on it right away, follow the steps, take time to completely them with the best results and always stay steady on the go until the finish line. They can be a little bit passive, inflexible. If something just suddenly barges in, messes up their plans, even just a simple inconvenience along the way, it would take them a while to know what to do since they would be so confused at first. It's not like they don't welcome changes into their life as their mind is wide opened to the world, they just need a little bit time to accept and get used to them. They are also good at decision making, since they have this balance between their heart and their head.

They could be a foreigner or someone who comes from an immigrated family like Jake's. There's something globally about their relationship, but I don’t think that the distance between the two is that significant, and they can relate to each other on many aspects.

With The Lovers and Six of Pentacles (and my oh my The Sun), their connection is just so wholesome. They definitely are soulmates, they'd bring a lot of light to each other's life and to the world in general. Their ancestors and guardian angles from the same team are looking after both of them at the moment, making sure that they're in good shape and not straying their way on the road to meeting one another.

[kaymarie-bell]

Ignihyde Chapter Spoilers

disclaimer: this is my own translation, there's bound to be mistakes so take this with a grain of salt. If you have any corrections let me know.

please do not repost or translate to another language ‼️

let's put the angst and theories aside for a moment and talk about the boys playing games together pls

I love how Vil always comes thru with something people don't expect of him, like actually being willing to play videogames. Idia being so surprised that "a supermodel like Vil" could be interested in playing was 💖💖💖

Jamil actually has consoles at his house but hasn't played anything since coming to NRC

Azul is interested on the potential business he could make as usual (twitch streamer Azul when?)

Leona has only played chess on his computer out of boredom before

Riddle didn't even had a TV and his mom is the type to say that videogames are addictive and ruin children's grades 😭😭😭

Idia got so defensive when Riddle said that pls. "Is not the game's fault if you get bad grades, is the human's fault for not being able to manage it"

Riddle then choosing to "prove" himself capable and getting absolutely wrecked immediately after

"Riddle-san is smart but has zero resistance to provocations huh"🐙 "and Idia is Idia. He is very unpopular with underclassmen" 🦚

"Mr. Riddle use the top button to avoid the rocks or else you'll die" "There's no button on top of the controller???" "THE ARROW-"

"fufufu, I haven't been on land for that long and even I know what that means" 🐙

"so there's things that even Riddle can't do" 🐙 "don't say it like that, is not that I'm bad I'm just inexperienced" 🌹

petition for a gaming event to have Riddle redeem himself 😭😭😭

Azul actually being good at playing because he has used Floyd's consoles, plus "I also learnt by watching Riddle just now fufufu" sir let him breathe pls

"Azul Ashengrotto. Stage clear with no mistakes!" "Naturally" 🐙

"Ortho! Can you put the game on the monitor on the table?"🌹"Of course, but why?" "I will do a special training until I can clear it with no mistakes!"🌹Riddle sweetie-

"Oya. Then as the pioneer of the no-mistake clear should I give you some advice, at a special price?"🐙

"It's fine! Once I learn how to use the controller I can do it too..." 🌹

"Good grief. He completely went against his own warning¹" 🐍 "Guys, take a break once an hour"🦚

Vil is a really dependable dorm leader

"Tch. Yelping when the game is over. You're a bunch of kids." 🦁

"If we calculate the average age of the students at Night Raven College most of them are minors. Generally speaking, the categorization of 'children' is correct." that's not what he meant but thank you Ortho 💖

"That's not it...Anyways, can't you be quieter? Your voices are too loud for a nap BGM²" 🦁

"Well then, let's play a game Leona Kingscholar!" "Huh?!"

"There's a perfect game for Mr. Leona Kingscholar. It's called [Hydra's counterattack]³"

Explanation of the game --> Jamil has played the sequel in a handheld console before. It was released 27 years ago but it has gained popularity lately~ ("Wait Ortho, you don't mean-")

"Fufufu. It's very fun to play. Here, Mr. Leona. Hold the controller."

"Hey, I want to have a word-"🦁 "Well then, let's play~🎶"

[minigame sequence] basically, the golden hydra gives high points --> don't hit the Phil doll --> more heads come out

"Tch. Why am I even doing this!" 🦁*proceeds to continue playing*

"Wow-! Your keen-sight and fast reflexes resulted in a high score!"

"Thank you. But, why did you say this game was perfect for me?" prepare for the next part

"Well, the videos of cats going crazy when they see the game on a screen are very popular right now!" "Cat lovers post one video after another, tagging them with # cat vs hydra"

"Seeing that, a researcher wanted to run an experiment to see if lions are crazy about [Hydra's counterattack] too. The results showed that lions are interested in the hydras on the screen, just like the cats." "It turns out they'll keep playing for a long time!"

"According to the [S.T.Y.X.] database, Leona Kingscholar is a beastman of the lion genus. That's why I predicted that you wouldn't find this game boring and would have fun playing..." 👁👄👁

[insert Jamil and Vil holding back laughter]

F in the chat for Leona, he got absolutely wrecked by a middle schooler 😭😭😭

nevermind, Vil straight up laughs in his face "Fufufu, good job Ortho that's a perfect choice"

"...ha?" 🦁

he was very concentrated and got a high score- "I guess my prediction wasn't wrong! I'm glad you had fun! :D"

"ohohoh⁴ You didn't want to do it but you got such a high score. Didn't you chase after the Hydra's heads with a lot of enthusiasm~~?" 💀

"Isn't it cute that Leona can't seem to go against feline instincts~?" 🦚

"Mr. Leona, if you enjoyed it would you like to try another stage? :D" ".......ha~....."

"I'm sorry, pipsqueak⁵. As you said, I can't go against my feline instincts. I get very sleepy during the day." " I want to play more, but I can't keep going because I'm sleepy. I'm sorry but go play with the others." 🦁

"I see. That's too bad...u_u" Ortho looks so disappointed nooo

"As expected of Leona....he's a pro at getting out of things he doesn't wants to do" 💀

"Good grief...he seems to be in a bad mood" 🐍

"Don't worry about it. What's rare for him is being in a good mood" 🦚

"Mr. Jamil Viper, will you also play [Hydra's counterattack] ?" "No, rather than playing myself I'd rather see Vil senpai's skills"

"Me?" "Yes, I've been looking forward to it for a while"

"I usually don't play games, so there's nothing to look forward to" "But sure. It's getting tiring to just watch, so I'll give it a try. Ortho, do you have any recommendations for me?" 🦚

"I've been waiting for you to ask! I have one for Mr. Vil Schoenheit for sure!" "For Mr. Vil, a supermodel and a shining star..." "[Star Rogue (log?) - The Hero's Road]!" (I think this one was mentioned in the Wish Upon a Star event?)

"!!! the legend of legends!!!" *insert the plot of the Hero (Hercules) discovering his true parents and going against the Titans plus Idia going dedededeng! (sfx)*

Idia's sound effects give me life 💖

everyone: "👁👄👁......." Idia: 👁👄👁💧❕️

"Ah, so- sorry⁶, I got too excited...." "It's a shooting game, but the whole story is super emotional⁷..." 💀

"You can try it, if you'd like..."

"Why are you suddenly so deflated? We didn't say anything" 🦚 "That's right big brother. You have to present it with confidence! 😠"

"You'll understand better from playing it than from a presentation. Play one stage first" 💀

babes I'm so tired, I'm just gonna summarize the next part sorry 😭

Vil hasn't played shooting games much (or ever idk), he plays on beginner's level

Idia and Ortho say this sentence about running like a meteor (from the game) at the same time, and it's very cute <3

mini game start, sidenote these games are very fun I love the thought they put into them. The music on this one slaps. Our "ship" is Pegasus and the boss at the end is one of the titans.

Vil clears the level easily. He asks if this game has been adapted into a movie since he seems to remember seeing something like it on theaters with his dad.

Idia is pleasantly surprised at hearing that Vil has seen the movie. Vil says that he has just realized where the movie came from. Ortho says that the movie was a hit for the players of the game, and it also gained popularity from the general public.

The movie's popularity led to the development of a sequel for the game, but right after the announcement the production team ran into some trouble (screenwriter, character designer, game planner), there was a fight and they all quit.

Vil says that even if they continued with the sequel since the original team quit, it would be too different. Idia agrees, the company decided to just scrap the sequel instead of making another team. So now the sequel is like a dream that never came true...

Idia deadass has tears in his eyes while talking about the sequel pls 😭

Vil is like "so? why not make the sequel yourself if you like it so much? you can do it" Leona agrees and mentions how with his family's money he can surely make the game

Idia is strongly against this idea, basically calls them normies and says that they couldn't possibly understand the feelings of an otaku 😭

Vil keeps saying how if someone like Idia makes an effort, the sequel could be made. He's giving this inspirational speech that's like "if you put in zero effort of course you'll get zero, but if you put even 0.001 you might change something, and that 0.001 could even turn into a 100" Ortho looks like he just had a revelation "even the hero from that game started from zero"

"we're still only 18, right? It's too early to give up this is only the beginning" go off king

Ortho looks so happy about this, "It's not impossible, big brother!" he says that the idea of inviting school friends over to play games seemed like fiction to them but they just did it, so he can do it. Idia says that they aren't exactly friends and also they didn't exactly invite them lmaooo

But Ortho just thanks Vil for his words and seems resolved to do something

This moment gets interrupted by Riddle's celebration at finally clearing the first stage of the game he was playing 😭😭😭 (he looks so happy pls) Azul and Idia keep on clowning him, Vil is upset that they did not take a break like he told them, Jamil and Leona are just done with everyone there

Ortho keeps thinking about Vil's words, "don't leave the zero as a zero"...

The test with the phantom is over, they can finally leave the room

I'm gonna leave this at that, I do not want to perceive the angst~ 💖🌻

actual text: 完全にミイラとりがミイラになってるな。An idiom, "A mummy-hunter gets lost and becomes a mummy" / "Many go out for wool and come home shorn." It means "intending to persuade someone and instead being persuaded oneself."

BGM: background music

We get the story of the legendary trainer (Phil) training a hero (Hercules) against the Hydra as the story behind the game, which is basically whack-a-mole but with Hydra heads.

w w w -> laughing noise in online speak / Idia's usual laugh lol

original: おチビさん / ochibi-san

Idia uses サーセン (sounds like sasen) which is a slang version of すいません (sumimasen). Not that important, I just find each character's speech mannerisms interesting.

Idia babe, you're killing me 😭. Anybody knows an English equivalent for エモエモのエモなんで ? is supposed to be emo as in emotional but like- slang? idk

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

"Tom Riddle effectively destroys the country from the inside out, which I believe was his true goal the entire time" (c) wait a second, so you think that he wasn't going to really take over or anything, just destroy the fuck out of w britain?

I have avoided this ask long enough.

I’ll start by saying that asking me about Tom Riddle is like staring down into a bottomless rabbit hole. We could travel down that path, but it is a dark and perilous journey, and by the end of it I will come out looking like the Mad Hatter.

It also requires a few prerequisites that you’re just going to accept as true (or else got off the crazy train here).

We know very little about Tom Riddle or Voldemort

What we do know of Tom Riddle comes to us from suspect sources

I’m just going to go out there and start with the basis that Tom is not crazy

Elaborating a little on number 1. We never actually see much of Tom Riddle or Voldemort directly. He’s a bit like Thanos in the MCU, or Palpatine in the first two movies of the Original Trilogy, he’s this looming threat that we pass by and glimpse every once in a while but never really get quality time with.

Generally, Voldemort makes an appearance in a moment of crisis.

He and Harry fight over the philosopher’s stone for Tom’s very survival. He and Harry fight over the diary for Tom’s very survival. He resurrects himself with Harry as a witness. We get those very strange dreams from Voldemort’s perspective (half of which we later learn are fabricated).

None of these really lend to our, or Harry’s for that matter, understanding of Tom Riddle. There’s too much going on, it usually happens far too fast, and there’s usually something Tom Riddle desperately wants or needs that eclipses all other concerns or else he has an audience.

This is part of the reason we get those Halfblood Prince pensieve lessons: Harry knows nothing of Tom Riddle and doesn’t understand him at all.

Which leads us, of course, to number 2, most of what we know about Tom Riddle comes from Dumbledore. I’ve talked about this before, so I won’t spend much time on it, but Dumbledore has a very clear agenda in relaying these memories to Harry. Dumbledore already has strong suspicions of what objects are horcruxes and where they’re located, he already has Snape as a very reliable agent to continue work when he’s gone, his job here is to convince Harry there is no path but suicide. And that involves portraying Tom Riddle as the most evil man who ever eviled, was born eviler than the antichrist, and will die eviler than the antichrist. 

Now, does this make Tom necessarily good or bad? No.

However, it does mean when Dumbledore tells us things like, “See, Harry, an impoverished child was upset when I lit all his belongings on fire! What a monster!” (especially given that, in a similar situation, Harry thought it was hilarious when Hagrid gave Dudley a permanent physical deformity and Harry was told he was an angel child) we should take it with a very large grain of salt.

Right, so, with all that backdrop what I’m getting at is that a) we can’t take Dumbledore at his word b) even if we could he could be wrong c) Harry doesn’t have the introspection to be able to figure himself when a or b is happening. I won’t elaborate on this last much, suffice to say that Harry’s world is very black and white, divided into the camps of those who personally like him and those who don’t.

So, why do I think Tom’s goal was not to rule the wizarding world but instead to destroy it?

A few things.

First, there are so many easier ways he could have ended up ruling the wizarding world. More, even when he effectively does rule the wizarding world in book seven, he takes very strange actions so that he’s never directly in power.

Second, I never really bought Tom’s racism. It’s too convenient and too contradictory with his backstory.

The second first, because we’re going out of order today. I’ve gone over this before, but I don’t believe Tom had minions early and I think he was effectively treated as a muggleborn (see here and here) until he took on the Voldemort persona many decades later. I’m hard pressed to believe someone as intelligent, angry, and proud as Tom Riddle would willingly believe and accept he was inferior to the likes of Abraxas Malfoy. More, even if he wished he was a halfblood, I think the evidence of him being muggleborn would be stacked too high against him to deny even to himself (and when he finds out it’s not true, he has maybe a month or so before he realized that he’s the bastard son of a squib). 

And it’s just so convenient. All the people with the power, with the money, who are itching for a cause against a threat that doesn’t really exist believe in blood purity. Ergo, Voldemort shows up suddenly espousing over the top blood purity rhetoric (rhetoric that directly clashes with his “there is only power” philosophy at that). 

In other words, I think Tom Riddle gave himself a line that he knew would get him places very quickly.

And now for the first. For a guy who has had the entire country in the palm of his hands twice, one time taking it over in a bloodless coup, he’s really big on causing collateral damage and really small on actually doing the ruling thing.

The first wizarding war, Tom Riddle as Voldemort has the backing of the heirs of the most prestigious and wealthy noble houses save a select few. These are people with seats in the Wizengamot, which has a frightening control over the government itself (including the minister of magic). I imagine, in 1980 had Tom Riddle wanted to be elected as Minister of Magic, he would have been elected as Minister of Magic. If he wanted a friendly face in office then he probably could have made that happen to.

More than even this though, by this point, Tom had already won. By having control over the majority of the Wizengamot he owns the government. He’s done, it’s over, it’s finished, and many of the characters admit as much which is why Harry Potter was such a miracle. So why all the seemingly random, exceptionally pointless, terrorism? 

One answer is that Voldemort is crazy bananas. And sure, I guess we can go with that, except for someone insane he’s oddly effective and very consistent. 

I believe Tom was systematically destroying the very foundations of the country through its core aristocratic families. Within a few short years Tom decimates the Black family, it goes from having five heirs to none, and while some of this isn’t Tom’s fault he does take care of quite a few of them. He brands Lucius for life, while Lucius rises high in politics he never escapes the stigma of being a known Death Eater and in the end cannot escape the consequences for his actions. The Malfoy family is very nearly destroyed by the end of the series, had Draco died in the Fiendfyre. The LeStrange family, presumably decimated as well.

More, this is mostly me headcanoning, but I imagine Tom fuels an extremism that the Wizarding World had never contemplated. I imagine, previously, anti-muggleborn sentiment was probably fairly rampant among purebloods. Oh, some were very pro-muggleborn I’m sure, but I think most were fairly “eh” on the people and felt they were a drain on society (such as requiring constant funding for the obliviation department).

However, when Diagon Alley starts getting blown up every other week, when muggleborns start being tortured and murdered, when purebloods who aren’t anti-muggleborn enough are being tortured and murdered, this starts wigging people out in a way they’ve never wigged out before.

By the time we get to Harry Potter’s canon, it is now only a minority that are anti-muggleborn, and they’re perceived as raving lunatics. Nobody wants to be grouped with these people. Which, just goes to show, how much Voldemort rattles the wizarding world in a very small amount of time.

Then there’s Deathly Hallows, rather than become minister himself Voldemort installs a puppet minister. He shows no signs of wishing to change this and instead does things like destroy the sorting hat (which again shakes the very foundations of the wizarding world as whta will we do if we don’t know who’s a Gryffindor anymore?!)

So, where is this ramble going?

Given the results we see, that more than any others it seems to be the purebloods and often Tom’s own followers that suffer colossal losses, I think Tom’s actions are, in part, a means of vengeance against the entire damn wizarding world (but especially the purebloods).

He makes fools of these people, brands them as his slaves, and has them participate in the most over the top ridiculous rituals (the cloaks, the masks, the entire theatrics of it feels like Tom got drunk one night and planned this whole thing out). He destroys them entirely, and better, enables them to completely destroy themselves and the country they believe they’re trying to save.

Basically, I think by the time the series begins Tom is fueled by a nihilist rage that knows no bounds. But dammit all, the wizarding world is going to burn.