#then you google that thing and it's like 'this is a great media site that has absolutely nothing. nada. we've got summaries and that's it.'

[charlotterenaissance]

every day i wake up and have to contend with the fact that i might never find that one dave foley show with an episode where the rest of the kids in the hall show up as his high school goth bandmates

[thetreetopinn]

Sources for Somerton's Plagiarism from Hbomberguy's Video (as much as I could get)

I went back through Harry's video, focused entirely on the sources James Somerton pulled from in the hopes of creating as much of a comprehensive list as I could--though my Google-Fu is not very strong. I did however find something I thought was forever lost and that made me very happy--specifically the magazine Midlands Zone containing the column by Steven Spinks that Harry poignantly used as an illustration of gay erasure... while Somerton uses it to sound like HE is waxing remorseful about the very subject.

This is not a complete list, I'm sure. For one thing, I was only able to attempt to pull sources that Harry himself mentioned in the video. Surely there's so very much more out there. I expect there to be a great deal more internet archeology to unearth just how much writing and culture Somerton has stolen like he's the British Museum of Natural History but for gay people.

- - - - -

Harry's list of mentioned youtubers:

Alexander Avila - https://www.youtube.com/@alexander_avila Matt Baume - https://www.youtube.com/@MattBaume Khadija Mbowe - https://www.youtube.com/@KhadijaMbowe Lady Emily - https://www.youtube.com/@LadyEmilyPresents Shanspeare - https://www.youtube.com/@Shanspeare RickiHirsch - https://www.youtube.com/@RickiHirsch VerilyBitchie - https://www.youtube.com/@verilybitchie

Harry created a convenient playlist of videos by these and other people he wants to bring to everyone's attention.

Please give them your support.

- - - - -

Midlands Zone Magazine - Column by Steven Spinks

After a great deal of searching, I found an archive of the "Midlands Zone" magazine, where you can read through past issues dating all the way back to February 2014. I have also found the issue from which Somerton took Spinks' poignant discussion of gay erasure: Overall archive Specific Issue - Pages 16-17

It will not allow you to download it, but you can read it exactly as it appeared in print form.

- - - - -

My best effort to find the exact book or article Somerton lifted from to be able to get attention to the original writers

Tinker Bells and Evil Queens By Sean Griffin

The Celluloid Closet By Vito Russo Wikipedia article about the book Wikipedia article about the documentary My weak google-fu could not find where you can access the book or documentary. Check your local municipal or university library for book or documentary, or if you know a good source for one or both, please reblog with it added

Camp and the Gay Sensibility By Jack Babuscio

The Groundbreaking Queerness of Disney's Mulan By Jes Tom Personal site with links to social media accounts

Why Rebel Without a Cause was a milestone for gay rights By Peter Howell

Why "The Craft" is still the best Halloween coming out movie By Andrew Park

Opinion: From facehuggers to phallic tails, is 'Alien' one of the queerest films ever? By Dani Leever

Women and Queerness in Horror: Jennifer's Body By Zoe Fortier

[Pride 2019] We Have Such Sights to Show You: Hellraiser and the Spectrum of Queerness By Alejandra Gonzalez

Revealing the Hellbound Heart of Clive Barker's 'Hellraiser' By Colin Arason

Queering James Cameron's Aliens (1986) By Bart Bishop

Demeter and Persephone in space: transformation, femininity, and myth in the 'Alien' films By David Greven

Fears of a millennial masculinity: Scream's queer killers By David Greven (Scholarly site, unable to access original work, offers a way to request a full copy of the text in PDF)

Queer Subtext in Stephen King's It - Part 1: 'Reddie' Character Analysis By Rachel Brands Rachel is the very unfortunate lady who found out she was being stolen from because she supported Somerton through Patreon and saw one of his videos early with her writing--lacking any form of citation or credit

How 'It: Chapter Two' Leaves Richie Tozier Behind By Joelle Monique

When Horror Becomes Strength: Queer Armor in Stephen King's 'IT' By Alex London

Why Queer People Love Witchcraft By Amanda Kohr

'The Favourite' Queers The Past And The Present By Giorgi Plys-Garzotto

(Wuko) Crush (Mako x Wu) By MoonFlower on YouTube

5 Terrible Movies With Awesome Hidden Meanings By J.F. Sargent

The Radicalization of Sexuality: The Queer Casae of Jeffrey Dahmer By Ian Barnard

Netflix's 'Dahmer' backlash highlights ethical issues in the platform's obsession with true crime By Shivani Dubey

The Possible Disturbing Dissonance Between Hajime Isayama's Beliefs and Attack on Titan's Themes Original Article by "Seldom Musings" (Author has made all posts not related to Attack On Titan private and has retired from the blog)

Everyone Loves Attack on Titan. So Why Does Everyone Hate Attack on Titan? By Gita Jackson

- - - - -

The following people are otherwise named in the video. There are no direct citations of articles or books by them in said video. I am unable to guarantee that I have identified the correct individual.

Darren Elliott-Smith Michaela Barton David Church Claire Sisco King Amanda Howell Jessica Roy

- - - - -

Telos announced and cancelled a film likely based on this book: The Final Girl Support Group - By Grady Hendrix

- - - - -

I refrained from including certain sources.

First off only focusing on Somerton's work.

Secondly not including anything that might be visible enough to not require amplifying their voice (I cannot speak for all of those I have found links to, but journalism is frequently a thankless job).

Thirdly any source that is of a nature that is antithetical to the very existence of the queer community, such as the right-leaning source that didn't make it into Somerton's video, but Harry was able to identify as a source he had considered using.

If you feel I have missed a mentioned source--or you know of a source from material that was not covered in Harry's video--please do not hesitate to reblog with added details.

- - - - -

Please share this information far and wide, and please add to it if you find more material that can be positively identified and linked to the creator/writer.

[mcmansionhell]

the motel room, or: on datedness

I.

Often I find myself nostalgic for things that haven't disappeared yet. This feeling is enhanced by the strange conviction that once I stop looking at these things, I will never see them again, that I am living in the last moment of looking. This is sense is strongest for me in the interiors of buildings perhaps because, like items of clothing, they are of a fashionable nature, in other words, more impermanent than they probably should be.

As I get older, to stumble on something truly dated, once a drag, is now a gift. After over a decade of real estate aggregation and the havoc it's wreaked on how we as a society perceive and decorate houses, if you're going to Zillow to search for the dated (which used to be like shooting fish in a barrel), you'll be searching aimlessly, for hours, to increasingly no avail, even with all the filters engaged. (The only way to get around this is locational knowledge of datedness gleaned from the real world.) If you try to find images of the dated elsewhere on the internet, you will find that the search is not intuitive. In this day and age, you cannot simply Google "80s hotel room" anymore, what with the disintegration of the search engine ecosystem and the AI generated nonsense and the algorithmic preference for something popular (the same specific images collected over and over again on social media), recent, and usually a derivative of the original search query (in this case, finding material along the lines of r/nostalgia or the Backrooms.)

To find what one is looking for online, one must game the search engine with filters that only show content predating 2021, or, even better, use existing resources (or those previously discovered) both online and in print. In the physical world of interiors, to find what one is looking for one must also now lurk around obscure places, and often outside the realm of the domestic which is so beholden to and cursed by the churn of fashion and the logic of speculation. Our open world is rapidly closing, while, paradoxically, remaining ostensibly open. It's true, I can open Zillow. I can still search. In the curated, aggregated realm, it is becoming harder and harder to find, and ultimately, to look.

But what if, despite all these changes, datedness was never really searchable? This is a strange symmetry, one could say an obscurity, between interiors and online. It is perhaps unintentional, and it lurks in the places where searching doesn't work, one because no one is searching there, or two, because an aesthetic, for all our cataloguing, curation, aggregation, hoarding, is not inherently indexable and even if it was, there are vasts swaths of the internet and the world that are not categorized via certain - or any - parameters. The internet curator's job is to find them and aggregate them, but it becomes harder and harder to do. They can only be stumbled upon or known in an outside, offline, historical or situational way. If to index, to aggregate, is, or at least was for the last 30 years, to profit (whether monetarily or in likes), then to be dated, in many respects, is the aesthetic manifestation of barely breaking even. Of not starting, preserving, or reinventing but just doing a job.

We see this online as well. While the old-web Geocities look and later Blingee MySpace-era swag have become aestheticized and fetishized, a kind of naive art for a naive time, a great many old websites have not received the same treatment. These are no less naive but they are harder to repackage or commodify because they are simple and boring. They are not "core" enough.

As with interiors, web datedness can be found in part or as a whole. For example, sites like Imgur or Reddit are not in and of themselves dated but they are full of remnants, of 15-year old posts and their "you, sir, have won the internet" vernacular that certainly are. Other websites are dated because they were made a long time ago by and for a clientele that doesn't have a need or the skill to update (we see this often with Web 2.0 e-commerce sites that figured out how to do a basic mobile page and reckoned it was enough). The next language of datedness, like the all-white landlord-special interior, is the default, clean Squarespace restaurant page, a landing space that's the digital equivalent of a flyer, rarely gleaned unless someone needs a menu, has a food allergy or if information about the place is not available immediately from Google Maps. I say this only to maintain that there is a continuity in practices between the on- and off-line world beyond what we would immediately assume, and that we cannot blame everything on algorithms.

But now you may ask, what is, exactly, datedness? Having spent two days in a distinctly dated hotel room, I've decided to sit in utter boredom with the numinous past and try and pin it down.

II.

I am in an obscure place. I am in Saint-Georges, Quebec, Canada, on assignment. I am staying at a specific motel, the Voyageur. By my estimation the hotel was originally built in the late seventies and I'd be shocked if it was older than 1989. The hotel exterior was remodeled sometime in the 2000s with EIFS cladding and beige paint. Above is a picture of my room, which, forgive me, is in the process of being inhabited. American (and to a lesser extent Canadian) hotel rooms are some of the most churned through, renovated spaces in the world, and it's pretty rare, unless you're staying in either very small towns or are forced by economic necessity to stay at real holes in the wall, to find ones from this era. The last real hitter for me was a 90s Day's Inn in the meme-famous Breezewood, PA during the pandemic.

At first my reaction to seeing the room was cautionary. It was the last room in town, and certainly compared to other options, probably not the world's first choice. However, after staying in real, genuine European shitholes covering professional cycling I've become a class-A connoisseur of bad rooms. This one was definitively three stars. A mutter of "okay time to do a quick look through." But upon further inspection (post-bedbug paranoia) I came to the realization that maybe the always-new brainrot I'd been so critical of had seeped a teeny bit into my own subconscious and here I was snubbing my nose at a blessing in disguise. The room is not a bad room, nor is it unclean. It's just old. It's dated. We are sentimental about interiors like this now because they are disappearing, but they are for my parents what 2005 beige-core is for me and what 2010s greige will become for the generation after. When I'm writing about datedness, I'm writing in general using a previous era's examples because datedness, by its very nature, is a transitional status. Its end state is the mixed emotion of seeing things for what they are yet still appreciating them, expressed here.

Datedness is the period between vintage and contemporary. It is the sentiment between quotidian and subpar. It is uncurated and preserved only by way of inertia, not initiative. It gives us a specific feeling we don't necessarily like, one that is deliberately evoked in the media subcultures surrounding so-called "liminal" spaces: the fuguelike feeling of being spatially trapped in a time while our real time is passing. Datedness in the real world is not a curated experience, it is only what was. It is different from nostalgia because it is not deliberately remembered, yearned for or attached to sweetness. Instead, it is somehow annoying. It is like stumbling into the world of adults as a child, but now you're the adult and the child in you is disappointed. (The real child-you forgot a dull hotel room the moment something more interesting came along.) An image of my father puts his car keys on the table, looks around and says, "It'll do." We have an intolerance for datedness because it is the realization of what sufficed. Sufficiency in many ways implies lack.

However, for all its datedness, many, if not all, of the things in this room will never be seen again if the room is renovated. They will become unpurchaseable and extinct. Things like the bizarrely-patterned linoleum tile in the shower, the hose connecting to the specific faucet of the once-luxurious (or at least middling) jacuzzi tub whose jets haven't been exercised since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wide berth of the tank on the toilet. There is nothing, really, worth saving about these things. Even the most sentimental among us wouldn't dare argue that the items and finishes in this room are particularly important from a design or historical standpoint. Not everything old has a patina. They're too cheaply made to salvage. Plastic tile. Bowed plywood. The image-artifacts of these rooms, gussied up for Booking dot com, will also, inevitably disappear, relegated to the dustheap of web caches and comments that say "it was ok kinda expensive but close to twon (sic)." You wouldn't be able to find them anyway unless you were looking for a room.

One does, of course, recognize a little bit of design in what's here. Signifiers of an era. The wood-veneer of the late 70s giving way to the pastel overtones of the 80s. Perhaps even a slow 90s. The all-in-one vanity floating above the floor, a modernist basement bathroom hallmark. White walls as a sign of cleanliness. Gestures, in the curved lines of the nightstands, towards postmodernity. Metallic lamp bases with wide-brimmed shades, a whisper of glamor. A kind of scalloped aura to the club chairs. The color teal mediated through hundreds if not thousands of shoes. Yellowing plastic, including the strips of "molding" that visually tie floor to wall. These are remnants (or are they intuitions?) of so many movements and micromovements, none of them definite enough to point to the influence of a single designer, hell, even of a single decade, just strands of past-ness accumulated into one thread, which is cheapness. Continuity exists in the materials only because everything was purchased as a set from a wholesale catalog.

In some way a hotel is supposed to be placeless. Anonymous. Everything tries to be that way now, even houses. Perhaps because we don't like the way we spy on ourselves and lease our images out to the world so we crave the specificity of hotel anonymity, of someplace we move through on our way to bigger, better or at least different things. The hotel was designed to be frictionless but because it is in a little town, it sees little use and because it sees little use, there are elements that can last far longer than they were intended and which inadvertently cause friction. (The janky door unlocks with a key. The shower hose keeps coming out of the faucet. It's deeply annoying.)

Lack of wear and lack of funds only keep them that way. Not even the paper goods of the eighties have been exhausted yet. Datedness is not a choice but an inevitability. Because it is not a choice, it is not advertised except in a utilitarian sense. It is kept subtle on the hotel websites, out of shame. Because it does not subscribe to an advertiser's economy of the now, of the curated type rather than the "here is my service" type, it disappears into the folds of the earth and cannot be searched for in the way "design" can. It can only be discovered by accident.

When I look at all of these objects and things, I do so knowing I will never see them again, at least not all here together like this, as a cohesive whole assembled for a specific purpose. I don't think I'll ever have reason to come back to this town or this place, which has given me an unexpected experience of being peevish in my father's time. Whenever I end up in a place like this, where all is as it was, I get the sense that it will take a very long time for others to experience this sensation again with the things my generation has made. The machinations of fashion work rapaciously to make sure that nothing is ever old, not people, not rooms, not items, not furniture, not fabrics, not even design, that old matron who loves to wax poetic about futurity and timelessness. The plastic-veneered particleboard used here is now the bedrock of countless landfills. Eventually it will become the chemical-laced soil upon which we build our condos. It is possible that we are standing now at the very last frontier of our prior datedness. The next one has not yet elided. It's a special place. Spend a night. Take pictures.

If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.

Not into recurring payments? Try the tip jar! Student loans just started back up!

[errorid-mt7lt7k7unfr9ttfua5]

me when companies try to force you to use their proprietary software

anyway

Layperson resources:

firefox is an open source browser by Mozilla that makes privacy and software independence much easier. it is very easy to transfer all your chrome data to Firefox

ublock origin is The highest quality adblock atm. it is a free browser extension, and though last i checked it is available on Chrome google is trying very hard to crack down on its use

Thunderbird mail is an open source email client also by mozilla and shares many of the same advantages as firefox (it has some other cool features as well)

libreOffice is an open source office suite similar to microsoft office or Google Suite, simple enough

Risky:

VPNs (virtual private networks) essentially do a number of things, but most commonly they are used to prevent people from tracking your IP address. i would suggest doing more research. i use proton vpn, as it has a decent free version, and the paid version is powerful

note: some applications, websites, and other entities do not tolerate the use of VPNs. you may not be able to access certain secure sites while using a VPN, and logging into your personal account with some services while using a vpn *may* get you PERMANENTLY BLACKLISTED from the service on that account, ymmv

IF YOU HAVE A DECENT VPN, ANTIVIRUS, AND ADBLOCK, you can start learning about piracy, though i will not be providing any resources, as Loose Lips Sink Ships. if you want to be very safe, start with streaming sites and never download any files, though you Can learn how to discern between safe, unsafe, and risky content.

note: DO NOT SHARE LINKS TO OR NAMES OF PIRACY SITES IN PUBLIC PLACES, ESPECIALLY SOCAL MEDIA

the only time you should share these things are either in person or in (preferably peer-to-peer encrypted) PRIVATE messages

when pirated media becomes well-known and circulated on the wider, public internet, it gets taken down, because it is illegal to distribute pirated media and software

if you need an antivirus i like bitdefender. it has a free version, and is very good, though if youre using windows, windows defender is also very good and it comes with the OS

Advanced:

linux is great if you REALLY know what you're doing. you have to know a decent amount of computer science and be comfortable using the Terminal/Command Prompt to get/use linux. "Linux" refers to a large array of related open source Operating Systems. do research and pick one that suits your needs. im still experimenting with various dispos, but im leaning towards either Ubuntu Cinnamon or Debian.

[cripplecharacters]

This might be a bit of a weird question as I know this isn't a drawing blog, but do you happen to have any pointers for finding good reference photos for drawing cane users? I'm having trouble finding interesting/dynamic poses, and the vast majority of pose generator sites I've found don't even show people with mobility aids. Stock photo sites and google are also limited in their usefulness, mostly giving me very stiff poses. If you have any tips that would be great.

hello dearest asker!

I tried to be an artists once upon a time so let me direct you to some things that might help! Here is an excellent post written up by @deoidesign shows how motion and functionality with a cane works. Here is a post by @sparrowsocks on the cane design itself and the practicality of it. Here is another "How To" guide that is a bit more simple but covers how the hand changes with different handles.

Here is a reference of hands gripping cylindrical objects that I think might be a little helpful. Grabbing a cane or just moving it are all things that go into it too.

If you're going for more a historical setting, Here is a library of sources of historical walking sticks and canes. That source is more novelty canes and not for practicality for a mobility aid, but Here is another source for History and it has more practical canes.

Also things like old photo rolls when film was just becoming what we know today could be something helpful too.

[Image Description: A black and white picture roll of two sets with twelve frames in each. The first roll is a side angle of a man holding a can and walking then taking a right turn and walking back. The second roll is a backside angle of the man walking with the cane and then taking a right turn and walking back.]

We can see for example in the first two frames how the opposite leg moves with the cane.

And of course we have more photos from the Victorian era of men with canes. Granted canes were used largely for fashion but a lot of people did use them for balance and such too. Also they're good references for poses while holding a cane.

Another thing I can recommend is just watching videos of someone using a cane. Look up disabled YouTubers or people who do physical therapy videos and they show largely how movement with a cane should look and more.

If you're looking for dynamic poses I would recommend looking up cosplayers or models who are disabled and use canes. But also looking up disabled actors that use canes or similar mobility aids and go through their filmography is another good way to see references. A lot of disabled people who are artists also post their own photos and videos for art references specifically too.

One last thing is how the character holds their body and what type of cane they need is gonna depend on how they are disabled. Working that out and doing more research is gonna change some things. But also even though there is a proper way to use a cane, some people use canes in different ways to suit their needs and comfort. The biggest example in media is House from House MD and while Hugh Laurie isn't disabled, he does a pretty accurate portrayal of someone using a cane in an alternative way. I personally (when I was getting fitted for one) would use my cane very much as House does, and other people have said much the same.

Hopefully this helps in some way and your fellow artists may be able to throw more help in the notes. Happy drawing!

~Mod Virus 🌸

[freaksnvans]

A 30-year-old Christian Fujoshi With a PhD's Thoughts on Team Fortress 2 Shipping.

Here I will be providing my thoughts and opinions on my personal favorite Team Fortress 2 ships. I do not know who will be interested in my speakings, but I am branching out into this beautiful fandom like a great oak tree. Haters can "suck an egg," and I do hope that saying is not an euphemism for anything of the less appropriate variety! Please be ready for a very long and verbose post.

How Did I, freaksnvans, Become Interested in Such a Thing?

An Introduction to Me.

I am indeed a Christian woman, and I self-identify as a Fujoshi. That may seem contradicting, but it is not. I ship the mercenaries from Team Fortress 2 in a good and god-honoring way, and I will not tolerate any negative speak of the Lord in my comments and/or reblogs. As for myself, you may only know me as freaksnvans. I chose that name because My favorite ship, as you may be able to discern from such a screen name, is Trucks n' Vans. The "Freak" part comes from a childhood nickname I was given in elementary school... the Freak. That is very traumatic to me, so I mustn't delve into the details. Moving on.

Where It All Started.

In 2007, I was vaguely interested in the game, having heard whispers of it from sites like YouTube as well as my male classmates. I was Thirteen years old, therefore in middle school. Team Fortress was, without a doubt, popular with middle school aged boys at the time of its release. Being curious as to what the "hype" (am I using this Gen Z slang correctly?) was, I googled Team Fortress 2. I had no, and will still never have any, interest in first-person shooter games. I do not like to kill things. I am a god-honoring woman. However, seeing the image of seven strong and mysterious men, (I am indeed disregarding the Scout, as he is not strong nor is he a man, he is a weak and pathetic boy.) I was indeed intrigued.

I, before then, had minor experiences with fandom spaces, having been interested in Harry Potter at the time. I read fan-fiction occasionally. However, I felt no interest toward fan-fiction and pairings of the homosexual variety. My favorite ship to read fan-fiction of was Dramione. I imagined myself as Hermione. My readings of fan-fiction were in fact very self-serving. I became gradually interested in Team Fortress 2 when the fandom was in its infancy. (If you are wondering as to how I never interacted with the fandom before now, or used "social media," that is because I was not allowed to at such an age, and had a fear of doing so up until adulthood. Please do not shame me.)

Back to the topic of Team Fortress! I began searching for fan art of my favorite characters - which, then, were Medic and Soldier. I longed for the Soldier to hold me in his strong arms. I secretly desired for Medic to perform cruel and unusual acts of surgery upon my body. That is a common sentiment shared upon fans of Medic now, I have found. I thought I was alone!

Anyways... At some point, I began to discover Team Fortress fan-fiction. I was extremely intrigued by my discoveries. I, being a pre-fangirl with no real interest in shipping between the mercenaries yet, read "x reader" fan-fiction. However, the extreme abundance of slash fiction made stories of the homosexual variety completely and utterly unavoidable. I naively decided to read just one story of such a kind. I do believe it was a HeavyMedic fic. It was like a fujosplosion inside my mind. I quickly became hooked on reading M/M Team Fortress fan-fiction, scouring sites such as FFN to find more.

That does seem to be how I became interested in gay pairings in Team Fortress 2.

Ok, then what are your favorites? Stop rambling, woman.

Why would you say that to me? Anyways, over the years, I have been particularly drawn to three different pairings.

the first would of course be Trucks n' Vans.

It may be obvious that is my favorite. Actually, I think I already mentioned that it is, ha ha! Anyways. Trucks n' Vans has captivated me ever since I was a young girl. First of all, Sniper is skinny and mildly pathetic, while Engineer is a beautiful fit man. He is also Southern, which I am too. I became interested in this pairing because I imagined Engineer teaching Sniper the ways of God and life in the South. He would show Sniper the beauty and joy of a good old peach cobbler. Which he clearly needs, because I do have a burning hatred for Australians. Sniper is an exception. Anyways.

I have also found great interest in HeavyMedic.

Of course I have. I was interested in this fandom from the day it was created, you silly goose, of course I love HeavyMedic. They were meant to be. Please don't tell God that I said this but I wish I was between them as they kissed. I am short enough for that, being a meager five-foot-one, and generally petite. Well, um, sorry to cut that short, but I am having an extremely bad nosebleed at the moment. Because I thought too hard about HeavyMedic with me sandwiched int he middle. I may as well complete typing this post up, because it's not that bad, but I may make typos here and there. There is blood on my keyboard. Oh Dear. LOL!

My Other Thoughts.

I do believe that Team Fortress shipping is what made me more tolerant of people leading a homosexual lifestyle. When I see gay people in the streets I no longer recoil in disgust as my parents taught me, but I remember that they are people too. Just like Team Fortress 2 in real life. I did meet lots of gay people in college, when I was learning and working toward my PhD in philosophy. Most of the men there did not interest me, because they looked too much like Scout and not enough like a handsome Soldier.

As detailed in my previous post, there are many people who hold disdain for fangirls, or generally people who ship and read fan-fiction. I did experience some of this in college and high school. In middle school, I was very secretive about my fan-fiction and fandom activities. I didn't even have any online friends. The only people I knew who had any interest in Team Fortress 2 were boys at school, who thought I was a freak of nature for being interested in gay scenarios between the mercenaries. I once had lemonade thrown on my brand-new white pants because I was caught reading a HeavyMedic fan-fiction in class. I wanted to die. Please, Lord, excuse my language...FUCK you, Jared. I have violent fantasies regarding him sometimes. As a result of that, I was called gay pee-girl for the rest of the year. I had to move schools because nobody called me by my name, and I was only known as the gay pee-girl. It was definitely worse than "freak."

That may be it from me today. There's so much blood. I think it is not just a normal nosebleed. Oh goodness

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

Daily OFMD Renewal Tasks - Updated 01/31/2024

Hey all! These were starting to get a bit big for the Recap, so I'll link here instead. I'll keep this updated every day so feel free to reference back here and I'll link to this inside the Recaps.

==Things to remember==

Keep it positive! We are wooing them!

Only address one platform at a time!

Make it personal! Tell them why you want to be on that platform (inclusivity, diversity, other shows that are similar, etc)

“It’s okay to reuse some content with new tags but try to space the posts out a couple hours so they dont stack up on top of each other in hashtag very obviously.” -Jac

==Today's Hashtags==

#AdoptOurCrew

#SaveOFMD

#FinishOurStories

==Platforms to Reach Out to==

Netflix

AmazonPrime

AppleTV

If you reach out on the social medias, you can cater to individual mission statements per platform.

Cheat Sheet Below provided by @aproperpirate on Twitter

If you wanna talk about the shows creativity, feel free to reference Ra Vincent's site, he was the Production Designer for OFMD. Great inspiration and pictures to use to show off to the networks.

It's also helpful for Amazon to show them the international reach

== Vote on the Queerties! ==

You can vote once a day!

Best TV Comedy

Best TV Performance

== US Social Media For Each Platform ==

Instagram:

Netflix @netflix

PrimeVideo @primevideo

Apple TV @appletv

Threads:

Netflix @netflix

PrimeVideo @primevideo

Twitter:

Netflix @netflix

PrimeVideo @PrimeVideo

Apple TV @AppleTV

Facebook:

Netflix @netflix

PrimeVideo @PrimeVideo

Apple TV @AppleTV

==Daily Helpful Tasks:==

1. Push That Petition

2. Fill out Feedback forms:

Make sure to request Our Flag Means Death on all the platforms, and indicate why you like the show (if that's an option) and keep it positive. Source: @Lcmwriter100 on Twitter

Netflix

AppleTV - looking for an example letter? Check out @saltpepperbeard’s post

AmazonPrime

For Amazon Prime - Courtesy of @yougotofast over on twitter.

Existing Prime subscribers, you can access a Suggestions/Feedback form on the Prime Video app in the Settings > Help & Feedback section. The form is automatically tied to your Prime account, not sure if that makes any difference compared to anonymous feedback.

3. Platform/Article Engagement

HBOMax

If you still have HBO Max, please still go ahead and stream Our Flag Means Death, it keeps up engagement and numbers.

Search Our Flag Means Death on Netflix

If you have Netflix, after your search, stream the first title that comes up for a few minutes.

Article Engagement - Source: @candiedsilkmoth on twitter

@itsmfgames Has been kind enough to be keeping up a running list of Articles about the campaigns -- so if you have the time and want to go catch up on some articles, please checkout the guide below and visit this google doc for the list!

4. Make Calls

Contact Netflix and say why you love OFMD

You can call them at (844) 505-2993 as well and let them know about a hoard of pirates looking for a new home. You're welcome to try their toll free number as well (888) 638-3549

5. Daily Link Clicks to keep up engagement

Our Flag Means Death Wikipedia Page

Google Search for Our Flag Means Death

Google UK Search for Our Flag Means Death

Our Flag Means Death IMDB

Current @renewasacrew Daily Links:

Tumblr

Twitter

Instagram

For Industry specific help see @TheCozyPirate on Twitter as well. I will try to include any pertinent information in the Daily Recap or here, but if you have twitter they're a great resource

== RADIO! ==

Some awesome new suggestions from @AdoptACrew Check out the thread here. Link to the NPR suggestion site: Here

=== Staying a Polite Menace to Max ===

For those of you who are still up for it-- We are still contacting Max and Commenting on their posts. Thank you @asgardian--angels for the reminder! I'll update this section with more details tomorrow once we have some more.

Current focus with Max is less requesting Renewal and more to Expressing Disappointment about them cancelling marginalised Stories (OFMD, Rap Sh!t, etc), specifically to give them bad PR.

We're still letting Casey Bloys and David Zaslav know no peace.

As usual please be polite, we're not letting max off the hook, but Monday there will be a news article coming out regarding this (Source: Jac (@TheCozyPirate) on Twitter))

==Media Resources (Pics, Gifs, Vids)==

Gifs, Pics, and Videos to use: show clips to use Src: @havethisonelife

Our lovely @kiwistede made some great custom gifs you can use to tweet and message the platforms with. Check out their tumblr here

== Stats ==

Some Cool Stats you can use:

==Infographics==

Some folks like infographics instead of text so here's some stuff for you! Courtesy of @edandstede on Twitter

I have a limited amount of pictures I can put on one post so here is a google drive with more: Google Drive

==Other ideas for engagement:==

Courtesy of @sandwrite2 on Twitter

[writingquestionsanswered]

How come I managed to get an outline done for once for the sole purpose of getting me to finish a chapter but I just can't get myself to finish that chapter?

Chapter Outlined, Can't Write Chapter

It happens. Outlines go only so far... you still have to flesh out the scenes as you write them... figure out the dialogue and the blocking. It's sort of like you can plot your trip route on Google Maps, but you still have to actually drive from one point to the other.

So... when you have an outline but are still struggling to actually write:

Problem #1 - You Don't Have a Way In

Having a chapter outline usually just means you know what generally (and importantly) needs to happen in the scene, the general order those things need to happen in, and some things like the scene's purpose, your character's goal, etc. But this is sort of like having a set of instructions that say, "Go to building. Go inside." Okay, great... but how are you specifically getting inside? Are you going through the front door? The back door? Climbing through a window? Landing on the roof in a helicopter? Tunneling in through a basement wall? So, before you can actually start writing, you need to figure out the specific way you're getting your character into the scene. A good way to do this is to go to the first important thing that has to happen in the scene, then rewind from there. What is your character doing in the moments before that? What has to happen in order to put them into that place in that moment? Is there anything unique about the circumstances or location you can focus on? Try opening up some of the books on your shelves and look at the ways different chapters begin. It will start to give you ideas for how you can open your chapter.

Problem #2 - Not Inspired/Excited

Having your chapter outlined doesn’t mean is a good first step, but if you're not feeling motivated to actually write the chapter, it will harder to write it. Try doing some fun exercises to get yourself excited about the chapter. Do a mood board or playlist for the chapter. Save some character and setting inspiration photos on Pinterest. Do an interview with your character that takes place after the scene/chapter to get their take on what happened and what they feel about it.

Problem #3 - Something Isn’t Working

Stories are like a house of cards in that one misplaced “card” can bring the whole thing crashing down. Sometimes you lose interest because an earlier element or event didn’t quite work. You can feel in your gut that something’s not right, so your brain interprets that as losing motivation. It’s not really that you’ve lost interest in the story… it’s that you’ve lost interest in the dead end path it’s on. Go back to the previous chapter or two and look for something that’s not pulling its weight. It could be an unnecessary character dragging the story down, a subplot that is cluttering up the story or drawing attention away from the main plot, or a scene/scenes that don’t add to the story. It could even be a combination of these things. If you can find it and fix it, your motivation may return.

Problem #4 - You’re Distracted by Other Things

If you sit down to write and you’re busy scrolling through facebook, texting with friends, and singing to the radio, you’re probably not going to get much done. Try blocking out thirty minutes (or whatever amount of time you can afford) and dedicate it entirely to writing. Shut down social media and other tempting apps/sites. Turn off the TV. Put your phone on silent. Tell housemates not to bother you. Put on soft music without lyrics, and focus solely on writing. If you find your mind starting to wander toward other things, yank it back and focus on your story.

Problem #5 - You’re Lacking the Physical/Mental Energy to Write

Whether you’re sick, not getting enough sleep, super busy, depressed, or in a bad mood, not having physical or mental energy can make it hard to write. Do what you can to bring your energy up as much as possible, both physically and mentally, and you may have an easier time writing that chapter.

I hope something here will work for you!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

LEARN MORE about WQA

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[eeveearoace-creative]

a speech about goncharov i made for my public speaking class!

note: this is not exactly what will be spoken for my class, as i am not reading my speech word-for-word. however, this is an outline of the speech i will be presenting, and i thought y'all might be interested in seeing it.

Introduction:

The purpose of my speech is to inform my audience of the fake movie “Goncharov” and how it has impacted me. My goal is to inform my audience of how the fake movie “Goncharov” came to be and of the value it has. 

By a quick show of hands, how many of you have seen or heard of Goncharov before? [Quick pause as I wait for no hands – or almost no hands – to go up.] Alright. So, Goncharov was a 1973 mafia movie supported by Martin Scorsese, and has been widely regarded as the greatest mafia movie of all time. It’s about the Russian mafia in Naples, Italy, and follows a variety of characters such as Goncharov himself, Katya, who is Goncharov’s wife, Audrei “The Banker” Daddano, and my personal favorite, Joseph “Ice Pick Joe” Morelli, with actors such as Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, and Lynda Carter. So, why have you never heard of this movie before? Well, everything I just told you? It’s all a lie. It’s all made up. Goncharov? Yeah. It never actually existed. 

I remember being part of the Goncharov fandom as it first blew up on Tumblr in late 2022. It was a great source of joy for me and made a significant impact on Tumblr’s culture. I am going to show my audience how Goncharov came to be, the creativity is spawned, and briefly reflect on how the website it originated on was vital for its growth. 

So, what is Goncharov, and what is going on here?

Origins:

Goncharov was a fake movie created by Tumblr in late 2022. 

Sometime prior to August 22nd, 2020, Tumblr user ZootyCoon posted a photograph of knockoff boots they had bought that advertised a non-existent movie, Goncharov, on them, claiming that Goncharov was “the greatest mafia movie of all time.” In response, on August 22nd, 2020, another Tumblr user, AbandonedAmbition, commented “This idiot hasn’t seen Goncharov”, which was then added to the post itself by Tumblr user LoserMo. 

While ZootyCoon’s original post did receive some attention, it wasn’t until November 18th, 2022 that Goncharov truly hit it off as a cultural phenomenon, thanks to Tumblr user Beelzeebub, who posted a fan-made poster for Goncharov, receiving almost 20,000 likes and over 15,000 reblogs in three days. 

Fandom:

As it turns out, you don't actually need a piece of media to be real in order for a fandom to form around it.

Countless fanworks were created for Goncharov, including fanart, fanfiction, music, scene analysis and analysis of motifs, gif sets, memes, and so much more. As mentioned in a YouTube video by YouTuber ColeyDoesThings, there was even a time where Goncharov had more fanfiction on a popular fanfiction website than James Cameran’s Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time. 

So much lore was being created for Goncharov in such a short amount of time that efforts had to be made to record it all. Multiple individuals attempted to create a “master copy” of Goncharov’s lore, including what is now a 48-page Google doc that includes a plot summary, brief descriptions of various scenes, and links and sources to various contributors. 

But Goncharov could not be contained just to Tumblr. Various media outlets, such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Forbes, and The Washington Post all posted articles about Goncharov, an internet phenomenon. 

Tumblr:

But, why? Why this fake movie, and why on Tumblr of all places? 

As a social media site, Tumblr has an incredibly weird culture. There are no public follower counts, no verification for users, and a whole array of weird social rules. But one thing that really makes Tumblr special is the interaction between large and small blogs alike. Because anyone can and is encouraged to create their own content and add to others’ content, something like Goncharov could very quickly become a “yes, and” game among Tumblr’s users. 

Tumblr is also very much a “fandom” site. Fanart, fanfiction, and other fanworks dominate the website, and Goncharov in its heyday was no exception. Interactions between fans and fan creators is what really causes fandoms to grow and survive, so it makes sense that Goncharov thrived the way it did considering how easy it was to find fellow fans. With no pressure to reveal your “true” self, there’s a lot less pressure when you share what you’ve created. 

Conclusion:

So, what can we learn here?

The fake movie “Goncharov” was unintentionally created by a tag on a pair of off-brand boots but didn’t truly become popular until Beelzebub’s poster. Fandom quickly grew around it, creating countless fanworks, but Tumblr’s unique culture as a social media site is what truly allowed it to thrive. 

There is joy and creativity in unusual places. Whether or not you believe Goncharov to be a waste of time, the popularity of a fake movie says something about the human fascination with stories. Thank you. 

[agbpaints]

Ok I'm becoming the Joker right now because I looked at Battletech too hard and fell into a crack.

This is the Archer Rubinsky, a custom refit of an ARC-2R used by Rubinsky's Renegades that takes advantage the Inner Sphere techbase of the 3050s to swap the design's LRMs for 4 SRM-6s and add a Hatchet to the mech. It's a pretty cool design and after I saw Flechs didn't have it (even though Sarna and the MUL did) I decided to track the thing down.

First stop was the MUL to figure out where they're sourcing from, which was apparently Field Manual: Mercenaries. No dice there, just a description of an Archer with SRMs and a hatchet, but no tech readout or record sheet. Then I hear MegaMek has a sheet for the thing. Great!

But where is this thing coming from, because it also says it's in Field Manual: Mercenaries? I did more googling and I stumbled onto this ancient archive of a geocities site

This is definitely our mech, and paging back out of the Archer, we find that this whole thing is an archive of obscure and unknown designs, either made by FASA but with a very limited/no publication, or designs present in other BT media (games, novels, source books, etc.) with no official record sheet where the author made their best guess as to what they'd look like on the tabletop. The Archer Rubinsky falls into the latter category, a fluff only design that was given stats by an old fan working on their blog. At some point, that technical readout probably got ported into MegaMek and because there's a sheet in MegaMek and a reference in an official product, someone put it on Sarna. Because CGL also uses MegaMek, at some point they too got bamboozled and took the BV calculation and stuck it on the Master Unit List without crossreferencing to make sure they actually had a first-party record sheet in their own archives.

So congrats to Matt McLaine, wherever you are. You put together a project to archive obscure designs from a game you liked and threw some of your own stuff in there as well, and at some point it got so old that your fan design accidentally made it into the official game's site.

[heavenlyyshecomes]

are there social media accs you follow for book recs / how are you able to find such good books ? ty

I don't get my recs from social media (if you're thinking of booktok & bookstagram etc.), mostly from my go-to lit sites + my online friends. I'll give you a list below, but to find "good" stuff to read, you need to know what you like reading, not just genre-wise but also more in-depth, like characterisation, plot vs characters, style etc. It'll help you understand yourself better, and from there you can dive into newer styles within your preferred genre. for example, if you like reading historical fiction, specifically romance set in, say the regency era, try reading hsf but set in a completely different country or a thriller in that era instead. It's a much better way to read new stuff without jumping around too much and better than the advice that just straight up tells you to pick something up randomly outside of your favourite genres just because "it's good." also let your other hobbies and fav media influence your book choices if you're really into ceramics maybe read edmund de waal or if you liked a polish movie abt possessed nuns try lauren groff's matrix !

anyways, keep trawling thru archives of old defunct blogs, look at new literary sites, follow thirty-seven year old people on twitter, and always keep yourself open to new things!

Favourite accounts on goodreads & the storygraph: t. h./galileogallilei, priya reads, baba yaga reads, ygraine, sarah cavar, fluoresensitive, siluetas

on tumblr: @librarycards @firstfullmoon @paandaan @maeumsim @oldyears

on twt: david hering, aesthekeit and literally just go through my likes @ moodfiIms i have like a hundred best of lists there.

sites: lithub, flavorwire archives, five books, the new yorker, and just google best books of 2023 you'll find great sites

on instagram: (i follow these mainly for aesthetic reasons than anything else lol) letterarii, thegirlwhoreadsonthemetro, molsbymoonlight, yourstrulysalma, libraryofsoph <3

[izicodes]

Basics of HTML5: Let's build a webpage!

I'm a huge advocate for learning HTML5 as your first coding language (remember, it's not a programming language)! HTML5 is a great and easy coding language to get you into the feel of coding, especially for complete complete beginners!

I see a lot of people on Tumblr wanting to get into just creating their own websites but don't know how to start - coding is a new thing to them! So, I'm here to help with the language I know like it's the back of my hand!

And I am also an advocate of building projects in order to learn anything in coding/programming! Thus, what better way to learn the basics of HTML5 than to actually build a simple webpage? Let's get started~!

What is HTML5?

HTML, which stands for Hypertext Markup Language, is a special coding language that is used to create webpages. With HTML, you can tell a web browser, like Google Chrome or Safari, what to display on a webpage, such as text, images, and videos. And 'HTML5' is just the latest version of HTML!

HTML tags are special words or symbols that you use to create webpages. You use these tags to tell the web browser what content to display on a webpage, like headings, paragraphs, images, links, and more. Tags come in pairs (most of the time) so you'll have an opening tag and a closing tag. An example of the syntax:

The Simple Webpage

As I mentioned, we will be making a simple webpage for a person called David - see, he needs a portfolio webpage to start off with, and we're going to help me (as well as learning HTML5, of course).

Here is the code we will be using:

Pretty code, I know but also a bit confusing - let's get into understanding the code by grouping them into chunks! But just a heads up, the code includes these tags:

!DOCTYPE html (mmh it's more of a declaration really)

html, head, body

title

h1, h2, h3

p, a

li, ul, ol

These are some of the common tags used in all webpages on the internet! Okay, let's look at the code finally~!

The basic structure of every HTML page

Every HTML file looks like this - it has to have all of these tags!

The first line, !DOCTYPE html tag, tells the web browser which version of HTML is being used.

The code is contained within html tags, which enclose the entire webpage.

The head tags contain information about the webpage, such as the title and links to other resources.

The body tags contain the main and visible content of the webpage, such as text, images, and videos.

Together, this code provides the basic structure for an HTML webpage, with the head tags containing metadata and the body tags containing the actual content.

In the head tags

The title tags enclose the title of the webpage. In this example, the title is "My Programming Blog".

The title appears in the title bar of the web browser and is often used by search engines and social media sites to display the name of the webpage.

In the body tags - Headings and paragraphs

The h1 tags create a main and biggest heading, which in this case is "Welcome to My Programming Blog!" - you can only have one h1 tag on a webpage.

The h2 tags create subheadings, which in this case include "Latest Post", "About Me", and "My Projects" - you can have multiple h2 to h6 tags on a page.

The h3 tags create a sub-subheading under h2 tags, which in this case is "How I Improved My Coding Skills".

The p tags create paragraphs of text that provide more detail about the blog's content and purpose, including a summary of the latest blog post and information about the author and their projects.

In the body tags - lists and links

To start any list, you need to either start with ul tags or ol (ordered (numbered)) tags

The ul tags create an unordered list of items.

The li tags create list items within the unordered list.

Each list item includes a hyperlink created using the 'a' tags, with the text of the link being the name of a programming project.

The href attribute within each 'a' tag specifies the URL where the project code can be found on GitHub.

Attributes go inside the opening tags' arrows '<' and '>'.

The End Result

Boom - she's gorgeous, I know! A basic, simple webpage! We did it! You can see the page live + the code used here: [LINK]. Play around with the code, change things, experiment, break things, fix them - do what you need to learn further!

And that includes some online resources to help!

LINK 1 | LINK 2 | LINK 3

And some resources/posts I have shared about HTML

LINK 1 | LINK 2 | LINK 3

What next?

Learn CSS3! The page looks basic and looks like what pages were like when the internet was invented! You need colour, fancy fonts and layouts! CSS helps with that, as it is a styling sheet! Be sure to do some research but I also share resources on my blog under my #resources tag!

Thank you for reading and best of luck learning coding/programming! Remember, this isn't the only way to get into coding! People even recommend languages like Python to be beginners' first language, but I say that HTML5 should be the first coding language and then Python is your first programming language - don't know the difference? I made a post about it here!!

But definitely for people going into Web Development, HTML5 all the way! I don't think you can avoid learning HTML5 with Web Development (not 100% sure though...)!

Anyhoo, have a nice day/night! 👋🏾💻💕

[baejax-the-great]

ao3 exists, plus it doesnt even matter what terms i search for on tumblr 100% of the time theres fanfiction. literally you can search any words on this website and some kpop guy/ reader fanfics flood the results every single fucking time. plus some of us are not here for fandoms??? your circus/clown analogy is stupid

So I'm incredibly allergic to shrimp-- to the point where if I ate a single shrimp I would die, to the point where I don't really consider shrimp food anymore--and it's the weirdest thing, yesterday i went to Target to buy hair conditioner, and they were selling shrimp. Don't they know it wasn't what I was looking for and I can't eat it anyway? Why would they do this? Totally fucked up of those shrimp catchers to try to poison me like that.

But analogies clearly aren't your thing, so let me break this down for you.

AO3 does indeed exist, but your suggestion that fanfic live there and ONLY there is akin to saying that imgur exists, so nobody should be posting images, whether they be photos or art, on any other website. Twitter exists (sort of), so really nobody should be posting shit posts or hot takes that are fewer than 140 characters or whatever.

Not everyone uses AO3. There is no law saying that if you write fanfic, you must post it on AO3 and nowhere else. There will never be a law that says that, because that's not how the internet works. Tumblr, one of the few social media sites that allows longform blogging, is in fact a great alternative to AO3 for one-shots. It's a little trickier for multi-chapter posts, but I've seen people make it work.

AO3 is not social media. People can't DM there, send asks, make friends, bump their post to the top of the feed (unless they are an asshole who is about to get blocked by half of fandom for pulling that move). Do you like social media? I mean you're here, on tumblr, bothering a total stranger, so you must see some value to it. Guess what--fanfic authors also enjoy being on social media and sharing what they've been up to, including their WIPs.

Things you aren't looking for being part of your searches is literally just life on the internet at all times forever. Earlier this month I was looking for a reference of draped fabric for drawing purposes. I googled 'chiton drawing' (chitons like the ancient Greeks used to wear), and all I got were drawings of molluscs of the genus 'chiton.' Alright, I did a google search for "toga drawing" and learned that there is an anime girl named Toga and people very much enjoy drawing her. Were the artists of the molluscs or the anime girl to blame for me having to slog through a bunch of irrelevant pictures to find one that could help me with my drawing? No. They correctly labeled what they were doing. That's just life.

Seeing fanfic in the tag doesn't harm you. At all. It doesn't matter if you find it cringe, or it's a ship you don't like, or it's xReader. For like ten seconds you looked at words you didn't particularly like, and then you moved on. How is that different from literally any other post on tumblr? I see bad takes and essays I don't care about on this site all the time. It's called scrolling. Again, this will be the case for every website on the internet forever. Are you telling me you read every tweet in your feed? Every reddit post? Sometimes you see irrelevant stuff. I guarantee some of my mutuals have already deemed this long ass post irrelevant and are scrolling on by. What makes fiction that much more abhorrent to you than the rest of the nonsense?

If you really hate seeing fanfic, tumblr has content blocking and tag blocking. You can block the phrase "x Reader." You can block the tag "fanfic." You can block all sorts of things, and if that doesn't work, you can just block the writers whose existence annoys you.

Sorry man, you personally not liking fandom and not using tumblr for it has really no bearing on what everyone else is doing. Like it or not, tumblr is a hub of fandom, and fanfic authors are going to be a part of every fandom on this green earth. Just because you came to the circus in order to admire the pretty fabric used on the tents doesn't mean the performers are in the wrong for doing their thing.

[let-tyrants-fear]

Percy Jackson Careers

I'm tired of everyone writing Percy as a marine biologist, so I've compiled a list of jobs he would actually have as an adult.

Teacher. Specifically a middle school Latin teacher, modeled after his year in Chiron/Mr. Brunner’s class. Maybe he just does it because he likes kids and likes teaching, maybe he works as like a long-term sub to get into schools where they think there are half-bloods. I don’t know, but I could totally see him as a teacher in some capacity, and I think he would work really hard to make sure that none of his students feel the way he did in school.

Underwater archaeologist. This is a real thing. There are a lot of shipwrecks that are accessible and provide valuable resources, as well as a lot of ancient sites that are now underwater as a result of shifting coastlines and changes in sea level. @phykios has a great post about Percy as an underwater archaeologist here.

Plumber. Because he is after all Supreme Lord of the Bathroom.

Electrician. Because he loves to mess with the gods. He becomes an electrician as a 'fuck you' gesture to Zeus.

Demigod Union Rep. I know we all joke about how Percy ‘pay your damn child support’ Jackson essentially appointed himself as the demigod union rep at the end of The Last Olympian, but what if they made that official? He takes a class on Ancient & Immortal Laws in college, and now demigods call him in whenever they’re having issues with a god. They all pay “union dues” so he can collect a salary of sorts.

Aquarium worker. There are several possible routes Percy could take to work in an aquarium. I've listed a few ideas below.

Presenter/Educator. Like, the guy who does the little shows for kids and shows all the school groups around. Percy is great with kids, and I think he’d have so much fun presenting, but also just interacting with kids and families visiting the aquarium.

Aquarist. This is apparently a real word for a person who takes care of fish, which my sister discovered by googling 'zookeeper but aquarium.' Anyway, Percy would be the person who cleans their tanks and sets their diets and provides enrichment, etc. Also, accredited aquariums would have a research branch to study fish and observe behavior, and Percy would be super helpful because he could just. Ask the fish.

Social media manager. He would have so much fun posting memes and fun facts on the aquarium's social media accounts, and I think his sarcasm would make him a huge hit on the internet, a la Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. Plus, I think he would spread fish gossip all over Twitter.

If you have any more, please feel free to add them!

[and-stir-the-stars]

Alright, it's come to my attention that there are people desperately in need of media hacks, so here's my list of hacks that yall should absolutely be using.

Use Firefox. It's got a great collection of extensions, and the biggest plus, it ISN'T google.

Firefox extension: Dark Reader. Allows you to switch between light and dark mode, mess with brightness and contrast settings, etc.

Firefox extension: Leechblock NG. Lets you pick times to block websites so you can be more productive.

Firefox extension: Ublock origin. Blocks ads and pop-ups-- and it works on youtube, so long as you watch youtube on your browser instead of through the app. Might seem inconvenient, but it's definitely worth it, especially because...

Firefox extension: Video background Play Fix. Allows you to play youtube videos in the background (so long as you're using the browser, not the app) without paying for youtube red. Ublock + video background fix basically gives you all the benefits of spotify premium for free, imo.

Firefox extension: Unpaywall. Gets around article paywalls by automatically searching for free pdfs of any article you click on.

Firefox extension: Ghostery. Blocks ads and protects your privacy from trackers.

Firefox extension: sponsorblock. Automatically skips sections of youtube videos where the youtuber asks you to like/subscribe, talks about their sponsors, etc etc. You can go into the extension and modify what it does and doesn't automatically skip. Unfortunately, this is the one hack in this list that won't work on mobile; this extension is bugged on mobile (it fucks with your landscape vs portrait video playing mode on youtube), but works perfectly fine on pc and laptops.

Pc App: Keepstreams. Allows you to download youtube videos for free. The app WILL constantly tell you that you have to buy the premium version and/or update the app to use it, but this is A BLATANT LIE. Close out of the "you must select which plan to buy" pop-ups when they appear. If you copy and paste a youtube url, keepstreams will automatically open a little window to download the video (you can choose between mp3, mp4, etc). Downloading keepstreams will make the app start up every time you open your laptop, which can be annoying af, but you can easily stop it from happening by going into your computer settings. Go to settings > app > startup, then find keepstreams and toggle it off.

Website: upmovies. Lets you watch pretty much ANY movie/show for free; but you NEED to use adblockers if you use this site.

Website: sflix. Same as above. Use adblockers.

Discord server: BreaTheBook. Helps you find free pdfs of books to download, from fiction books to college textbooks. Dm me if you want an invite to the server, and I can help you figure out how to use the server (it's not complicated). However, because it gives you pdfs of books, these pdfs can take a long time to open, so plan accordingly and open any textbooks you need before in class in advance so it's ready for you when you need it.

Mobile app: Galarm. Lets you easily set repeatable alarms and reminders. You can use custom alarm sounds!

Website: addic7ed. Lets you download movie subtitles.

Wesbite: cram flashcards. Lets you make digital flashcard sets and organize them into folders. I use this instead of quizlet because cram lets you put pictures on the flashcards for free. You do have to get the premium to tweak the formatting (change font, bold/italicize words, etc) but it's pretty easy to make flashcards without that anyway.

Firefox extension: untrap for youtube. Lets you hide irrelevant youtube features, from comments to related videos and more. There's a bunch of different things you can do with this extension.

Happy not paying for shit <3

[plumbob-boy]

RetailSims Satanic Set

So I noticed RetailSims.com is gone now. It's likely due to internet decay and most likely permanently gone, so I have taken the liberty to reupload the Satanism Set from that site, which is pictured below.

The set comes with 16 objects, some of which have recolors. The objects are bundled in a collection you can see in residential or community lots. The Lady on Red and recolors have a dependency on CEP, the rest are standalone.

All items are from retailsims.com and are unaltered. If the original uploader, HChangeri from Retail Sims, wishes these to be taken down, please send me a message and let me know. Again, I take no credit for these items and am only reuploading to maintain community access because I love these cc items and can't live without them!!

Download (google drive) (simfileshare)

Edit: I guess I'm a few years late to the party and some awesome people already archived everything from retailsims. that's awesome! but……. I'm just gonna go ahead keep this up just because I already made the post :p

Description and pictures of each item and recolor below the cut:

The Great Book

Object with 8 recolors

This book isn't just good, it's grrrrrreat (and damn old). Mesh created by Maxis. Recolored and edited by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com

Inverted Pentagram End Table

Object with 4 recolors

This table sports not one but TWO inverted pentagrams for twice the evil. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com.

Decorative Inverted Pentagrams

3 separate objects each with 2 recolors

Large

Hang this around your evil lair just enhance the evilness and scare idiots away. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com

Medium

Slide a table under this inverted pentagram using the "moveobjects on" cheat for a wickedly evil altar adornment. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com

Small

A little piece of evilness for your darkest decorating needs. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com

Altar and Shelves of the Abyss

3 separate objects with no recolors

2-Tier Shelves

Shelves with that "just stepped out of hell" look to them. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com.

Table

An altar with that "just stepped out of hell" look. Perfect for Satanic Ritual, Necromancy, or for the uber goth look. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com.

1-Tier Floor Shelf

Shelves with that "just stepped out of hell" look to them. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com.

Lady on Red Recolors

6 Recolors of a Maxis base game object

No description available

Note: Likely requires CEP which can be downloaded from MTS

Seal of Baphomet

Object with 5 recolors

"1. Stupidity—The top of the list for Satanic Sins. The Cardinal Sin of Satanism. It’s too bad that stupidity isn’t painful. Ignorance is one thing, but our society thrives increasingly on stupidity. It depends on people going along with whatever they are told. The media promotes a cultivated stupidity as a posture that is not only acceptable but laudable. Satanists must learn to see through the tricks and cannot afford to be stupid." - The #1 Cardinal Sin in Satanism according to Anton Szandor LeVey (c) 1987 www.churchofsatan.com

Altar Candle

Object with no recolors

Pay homage to Old Nick the proper way with this Satanic Altar Candle modeled after one used by a Satanic High Priest (www.churchofsatan.com). Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com

Double Candle

Object with no recolors

When you put two evil things together you get……twice the evil (duh!) Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com

Large Banner

Object with no recolors

Celebrate the black mass properly with this banner depicting Baphomet and an inverted cross. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com.

Large Banner

Object with no recolors

Celebrate the black mass properly with this banner depicting an inverted cross. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com.

The Satanic Rituals

Object with no recolors

Every Satanic ritual altar needs a copy of The Satanic Rituals by Anton Szandor LaVey....so here you are. Created by HChangeri. www.retailsims.com

Note: Place the altar table first, then objects on both slots (candles are recommended), then with moveobjects cheat enabled, place the Satanic Rituals book in the center of the altar table.

Magick Ritual Tools

Object with no recolors

Includes Book of Shadows, Wand, Chalice, Athame, Bell, and Candles.

Note: A duplicate floating version of the object intended for use with the moveobjects cheat enabled is also included for more customizable placement options.

Collection

The collection file includes all items described above, as pictured.