#this is Disk Horse Of All Times site

[thesixthstar]

this is giving staff too much credit. Just as hell is other people, hellsite is made of its users

i dont like staff calling this website a "hellsite". WHOS FAULT IS THAT!???

[sharp-rosee]

Hey funny story: I haven't been around Tumblr at all for months, but today someone told me menalez had deactivated or something so I came on here and looked it up. First result was a post by you, i checked out your blog and wouldn't you know it your most recent post had you defending me post mortem lmfao. I sent an anon to the other woman too but it seems she won't post it so to clarify to you: when I supposedly said "studies showing violence suffered by bisexuals are cringe and useless" what I remember thinking about that is that those studies that I've seen are never used to try to understand why bisexuals suffer such insane rates of violence (more than homosexuals) and trying to stop it. I've only seen them be used as battering rams in discourse when homosexuals criticize bisexuals. Which is crazy for such a serious issue and totally trivializes it lol. Also that my explanation for it was that such studies show that many abused people incorrectly id as bi for a time. You can disagree or wtv just those were my points, she made it sound like I'm cheering on women beating if they're bi or something. Also your defense of me (thanks queen lol) is accurate if you were wondering. I used to be sorta pro strict separatism but I outgrew the anger/ denial phase of "most women will partner with men" and reached acceptance. Most people are built for romantic partnership, that's just human nature, I can't be hating het women just because their lot in life in that means they're more likely to be abused. Just because I'm not drawn to men, or even much to romance, doesn't mean I should act like that's everyone else too and judge them on that standard, I accept reality and want women to be safe within that rather than pointlessly hate on them and get all worked up because some women have boyfriends..

Well I'm also a mean asshole, I'm sure you noticed, and I definitely would give the bi girlies on radblr a hard time here at the time lol. I don't have the "one side" sort of takes on this divide on radblr. It was funny but I can't feel the energy to that anymore since leaving tumblr, way too few bis or gays irl to care about that stuff. But at the end of the day these are my actual takes on all that disk horse. Funny to see it immediately on such a causal stroll around here lol

-sleep3r4gent

QUEEN I used to follow you ♡ at least when I was crypto a few years back I did.

Also, I'm glad you clarified because the way some women on here seem to hallucinate things they read almost makes me feel insane as well. Like you sending an ask saying you never thought of a certain perspective is not indicative of you agreeing and obviously one can change their opinions over time.

I really have no opinion either way tbh, I myself am straight and in a relationship, and have had others on my last blog send some anons calling me a "dick worshipper" and other misogynistic BS, but they stopped once I didn't let it bother me much. It's so obviously a group of trolls that it's embarrassing that they still believe it enough to keep bringing back the same users, some like you who aren't even misogynistic, to further their persecution complex.

It even is more annoying because these are the women who made Mena/Moideater leave, the above drama is a big reason why. The way radblr will still reblog posts from very racist blogs and not bat an eye but then freak out over a clique of women who aren't even radfems really does show what demographic makes up this site.

I know it gets exhausting to be involved in arguments, but it's nice to know you're still somewhat around. I hope you, Mena and Moid come back someday. If not I understand. But I'll never forget any of them and I haven't forgotten you 😭😭😭

[scoobydoodean]

People do need to understand that Tumblr is a blogging site and consider the actual implications of that. Like. I do get the confusion at first when you come from somewhere like Reddit or Twitter or whatever because it took me a long time to get this too, but Tumblr is a blogging site—which means people come here to fill a personalized page with their own personal little thoughts. People who like to read their silly little thoughts or see art they create or whatever can follow them if they want.

The reason argumentative, rude, and/or aggressive reblogs/comments are generally frowned upon here is that Tumblr is a blog site. You aren't commenting to the general public in some community subreddit—you are commenting on someone's personal blog page. They are the moderator of that page and have full control of the content on that page and its notes. In other words, each person here is the captain of their own little ship. They will often let you come hang out on their little ship and chat, but there is no expectation that they tolerate your rudeness, your snippy little whiney bratty tags, or your obnoxious unasked for and often ill-formed opinion that they are wrong about everything ever in the history of time... especially over silly fandom disk horse.

Reblogging someone's post to be a shitbag in their notes is like walking into someone's house, being offered a meal, and spitting in their food. It doesn't matter that you think the food is nasty. You keep that shit to yourself. You can whine and moan on your own blog (I do it all of the time!) If you want to go somewhere and literally just fight back and forth with people for eternity, reddit is right there and will make it incredibly easy for you.

[void-star]

I'm frequently scared and tired of dealing with my gender in the presence of strangers, now that there are whole political campaigns making strangers think my gender is their business specifically.

But to be honest, I like my gender. It's undeniably weird. Nobody knows what's going on with it or where I fit, which is about as wholly nonbinary as I could hope to live.

I can't hide my genderfuckery... like, even if I cut my hair and change my style to masc up I'll still look like something's up with my gender.

In light of this, I've just been trying to... show up more often. To just be present. To take up space. To be in public. To make other people shoulder the burden of their own fabrications about what queer trans nonbinary are like.

And, you know, idk. People look at me foul. But I've said hi to a grumpy older man in the hallway every time I see him and now he smiles at me and knows our dog's name.

I'm not saying not to weigh your safety against your queerness. I don't really agree that being Out is more important. But I am saying that we deserve to take up space and be present in reality in a time when ppl are re-inventing the fictitious queer pedo bogeyman and when fascism is segmenting everybody so effectively that 90% of queer disk horse on this webbed site amounts to fear suspicion and isolation of other kinds of queer ppl, even among the leftist and social justice-o-sphere.

I'm not naturally inclined towards socialibility-- im weird (autistic), mentally ill, and grew up severely isolated and alienated. But I do think we'll all only be getting through this together and we can only do that by trying to make connections even when they're difficult or uncomfortable.

[schismusic]

THE DISCOGRAPHY PRINCIPLE, Episode 4: Coil, or: Better Git It in Your Soul

As I'm writing this piece, everyone who knows their shit is spasmodically waiting for the physical repress of Moon's Milk (In Four Phases) to hit store shelves, assuming they haven't bought it off the site. All the people who have been knowing their shit since before it was cool to do so already had the FLACs on their hard disk drives. Not to brag, but I'm part of that second group. I love gay people, I love Creative Commons licenses, I love what happens when you rub them together (in case you're wondering, you have a phenomenon called teenage lightning).

[As you're going to see throughout the piece, the remaster did come out, and it's glorious]

If you ask anyone they will probably tell you Horse Rotorvator is Coil's best, and it's not like they're wrong, but it may be a bit limiting. It goes about the same as Incunabula; refer back to the Autechre post for more clarification, but in short it's an incredibly good record that takes some extra work done in the present time because some of its sound palette choices end up making it sound a bit uncanny, if not dated. I'd rather not go with "dated" for this specific record simply because Scatology exists, and it doesn't get anymore '80s than that, not necessarily in a positive way. If we take out The Anal Staircase (by the way, great title, guys!) the rest of the tracks on Horse Rotorvator have some actually quite futureproof stuff going on, on average - sometimes bordering on prescient, like on Penetralia, just barely removed from 2010s brostep aggression, and sometimes I wish they had the hardware to process that stuff. But the big-ass reverb on the snare and percussion, the sheer nudity of the production, the way the orchestral bits and samples are integrated into the arrangements kind of make it sound like the record is striving really hard for a sound that simply could not be attained at the time of realization.

The great part is that literally nothing I said in this paragraph is a negative at all.

Compare Penetralia to, for instance, Restless Day from Scatology; or maybe even compare Ostia to Tenderness of Wolves. Both are great, sure, but while the Rotorvator just don't check out at times, the Scatology ones seem to have an expiration date written on them. Only one exception to this rule: At the Heart of It All. If I had to draw another comparison, this would probably link up to The First Five Minutes After Death, and this time it's the latter paling in comparison to the former. It sounds sickly and isolated in a special unique way, unable to fight back, devoid of any possible bite: it sounds like it saw the actual horse rotorvator, the Four Horsemen slitting the horses' throats and meshing the jawbones into a gigantic, earthshattering plough. Nothing exists beyond At the Heart of It All. Nothing survives.

Coil, after all, always flirted with a sense of profound despair, even at their funniest and most tongue-in-cheek. This is relevant: not many other bands of their era display, or even have, that same sense of humor about not just themselves but the whole world; consequently, not many have reached the same scope of intent, and the same successful realization of said intents, as Coil. Partially unrelated: one of my favourite stories about them is that one time in the early 2000s when the rest of the band couldn't find Jhonn Balance after a gig in Greece — I think at least, I'm going off the top of my head here — so on the following morning they were forced to board their plane to their next gig in mainland Europe without him. So as they're about to play the gig without him, seeing as he simply isn't there, magically he shows up, and nobody could even imagine how he'd managed to get there on time. At the time Jhonn was already having big trouble with alcohol, had already broken up with Peter Christopherson. Many of these things I came to know through some tried-and-true Coil obsessives, and there's apparently a lot of them around: people who exchanged correspondence, cassette tapes, memories with some of the collaborators in the band or even Balance and Christopherson themselves. There's basically an army of unauthorized Coil biographers out there. But staying more strictly on the point, it's impossible to separate Coil and the lives of those who made up Coil; therefore it is impossible to separate Coil and life itself.

Some of you may remember me mentioning the aborted Autechre/Coil collab back in episode one of this series. In that very same conversation, we had a really deep dive into how Coil's attraction to — mostly Western — esotericism, even the most downright evil and uncomfortable parts of it (how could we ever forget the iconic "the industrial use of semen will revolutionise the human race" shirt?), stemmed from a more general interest in the fullness of life; and the more I think about that, the more understandable Coil's visual fascination with nature is. Four EPs, one for each of the major sun-related astronomical events introducing the four seasons; the luscious woods on the covers of the two Musick to Play in the Dark records; the rocky cliffs and the goats being a perfect aesthetic fold to The Remote Viewer's abrasive/ascetic hurdy-gurdy drones. All of this accompanied to music that seems to strive for the most eldritch effect possible — in one way or another, Coil's sound design is like looking very, very, very deep into the bottom of an abyss of your choice simply for the fun of it, or rather for the curiosity, the doubt that something of incalculable value might lie down there. We as humans really enjoy getting to know stuff much more than we enjoy actually knowing stuff, the progress of process is much more enticing to us than the staticity of completion. Coil still sound, twenty years after Balance's death and almost fifteen years after after Christopherson's death, like they are disciples. They listen just as much as we do.

And this predisposition to listen is specifically what makes them particularly apt at speaking, too. Coil express depth because they feel deeply, ultimately, and they don't fear emotion — any emotion. Which means they are just at ease analysing the diffusion of gossip and its subsequent deformation and bloating as they are discussing alcoholism and the search for oblivion, and what's better: these topics are discussed in two sister tracks (namely Red Queen and Ether). Both tracks, alienated from the context of their respective records, sound like relatively soothing jazzy piano ballads with some lunatic saying the most out-of-pocket shit possible on top of them, and some pretty fucked up background noises going on, Red Queen being the easiest possible application of this concept. But the effect gets somehow creepier when Jhonn Balance actually introduces a recognizable melody into the mix. This is probably the best moment to talk about Jhonn Balance's voice.

If I'd talked to Dog about this piece, they probably would once again link me to Drew Schorno's piece about "vestigial shamans" (you can find it here). Balance's singing is not about technique, but at the same time it's not as simple as the boomer-like concept of mojo, either. Balance could barely carry a melody through most of the time, to a point where some Coil tracks sound like they'd benefit heavily from a guest vocalist; early on, I believe, Coil — perhaps Balance himself — must have been convinced that was the case too, and for proof just look at the plethora of external one-off collaborators brought in the fold (among many notable names, one stands tall: the legendary JG Thirlwell). Then you try to actually substitute Balance, or maybe even sing your own version of the track, and it doesn't work anymore*. It simply stops being compelling in a way that is very hard to quantify. Yet another name popping up from the Autechre piece, i.e. that of Tom Waits: it's that lived-life element mixed with the more strictly performance-related aspects of vocal interpretation that makes the difference, sure, but it's about how you cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. Tom Waits achieves this by virtue of his life-long effort to turn into his own character, i.e. by way of sheer commitment to the bit if you're so inclined; Jhonn Balance — ironic that, of these two, he should be the one using an actual pseudonym — does that by simply being a vestigial shaman, a person so profoundly wired for jumping in and out of some other world that he seemed, for better or for worse, to be unable to stop doing that.

*There is, of course, only one exception to this rule, and that is Rose McDowall, i.e. most likely a vestigial shaman herself, at least judging by her Facebook. I am lucky enough to be her virtual friend on there, and she seems like an incredibly endearing person — speaking frankly, I'd love to buy her a drink and have a conversation at one point…

The shamanicity (is that even a word?) of Coil is stunningly matched by the sound design and production: so materic it's tangible, so abstract it forces you to wonder what's on the other side of the door. You don't always want to know. In the summer of 2016 I was listening to Batwings in a dark room, for some reason, and there was a crucifix in this room; I shone a flashlight on it and the crucifix projected its shadow on the wall and at that point I very distinctly felt something powerfully trying to make its way through my ribs, into my chest. I immediately left the room. To this day this remains the sole thing in my entire life that made me firmly and unequivocally grasp possibilities beyond what we see normally. And as much as I love waxing poetic over Balance's lyrics and vocals, in this case I believe it was mostly the repetitive, simple keyboard figure — it's almost as if they'd managed to shrink down a church organ and you could now play it, volume obviously adjusted for size, within your breast pocket. But the whole array of clicks and pops, or the insanely advanced vocal processing, displayed throughout the Musick to Play in the Dark/Moon's Milk era really elevates the composition and arrangements to new heights, making them a true spectacle to listen to even on the most low-specs sound systems.

The beautiful thing is that Coil doesn't necessarily need the extra bells and whistles and, more importantly, that they know when and where to use them. This is on display throughout most of their discography, but nowhere is it clearer than on The Ape of Naples, a posthumous record that is entirely built to represent Balance's aural eulogy. One of the most overlooked tracks on the record, I'd argue, is Tattooed Man, basically a simple pop song revolving around laid-back percussion and a simple accordion melody — until, of course, Balance himself intervenes almost shouting a tale of dead lookalikes, of love and hate, of self-image and acceptance (or lack thereof) of finality. It's hard to explain why this track would be more touching to me than the more openly emotional Fire of the Mind (link) (which has one of the best opening verses in the history of recorded music, if you ask me) or Going Up (my main issue with this one is that it comes after Teenage Lightning and Amber Rain, both incredible tracks that scarred me for life — in a positive way, but I do realize its necessity in the economy of the full record of course. It just is). I guess it's touching to find that at the end of the line, even resolute spiritworld straddlers get a bit scared of their own powers. But after all, the main requisite for being a shaman is feeling more than the others — being, maybe, more human than the others.

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

been thinking about this a lot cos i see a lot of Disk Horse about it, but there's like 2 opposing popular views when it comes to queer representation in media.

the first is that current queer media trends are overly sanitised. they say that these queer stories are devoid of any real sense of queer experiences, that they exclude portrayals of sex and attraction in favour of 'uwu'ification (a term that i just made up but go with it lol) homophobia/transphobia in these kinds of stories is either a non-issue or defined by just a few bad eggs, rather than a systemic issue. the reason for this kind of media is that a more sanitised version of queerness is more palatable to a non-queer audience and, more importantly, to advertisers! so the same way we're seeing sites like youtube and tiktok censoring so-called 'adult' topics like 's3x' or 'unalive' so that companies feel comfortable about putting their ads on the videos, queer characters need to be brightly coloured bubblegum and unproblematic versions of queerness to appeal to that same kinda thing... i often see these people talk about how they want more 'fucked up' queer representation, queer characters and stories that are 'problematic' or 'evil' to counteract the sanitised disney-fied stories that they say dominate the queer representation market atm...

the other viewpoint is one that says current queer media is actually overly sexualised, with too much of a focus on explicit scenes as well as drug/alcohol abuse being the norm in media that has young people as its target audience. this is often the same crowd that complain about sex scenes in media, not just queer ones, saying they're unnecessary and uncomfortable to watch. and when a queer media comes out that doesn't focus on sex (and drugs/alcohol/etc), they praise it for being more 'wholesome' than other media. this is often the media that the first group see as sanitised btw... they are often first in criticising queer characters and ships as perpetuating harmful stereotypes or being 'problematic' in their eyes, claiming that the villainisation of queer characters leads to villainisation of real queer people...

the first group calls the 2nd group puritanical in their views, the 2nd group calls the first perverted in theirs. so... who's right?

well... i think both groups have incredibly valid critiques of current queer media. but at the same time, both are wrong in how they want to solve these issues.

current queer media, particularly stuff within the mainstream, is a lot more sanitised. companies like disney only use queer characters in order to help with marketing, whilst at the same time actively funding incredibly homophobic legalisation (for e.g. the don't say gay bill) and also blocking or under-promoting stories that feature queer characters or stories (for e.g. that film strange worlds(?) that came out last year). but to say this is representative of all queer media is massively disingenuous imo! not only are their very prominent and popular mainstream series and films that feature 'fucked up' queer characters and stories, but you just have to look beyond hollywood at foreign or indie cinema to see some super interesting and strange queer media being told by queer creators!

i always say, but if you're looking for interesting or nuanced queer stories in blockbuster superhero movies then i think mayyyybe you're looking in the wrong place lol...

as for the 2nd view, i actually tend to agree that a lot of queer media (both new and old) is overly focused on sex and substance abuse. growing up, i didn't have series like heartstopper that portrays a much more 'innocent' version of young queer people, most of what i saw was stuff that was either made for older audiences or featured more 'adult' themes (and i know that this was mainly because back along media featuring queer characters at all was immediately deemed as inherently 'adult' anyway). and like, i personally didn't mind, though i would have longed for a film like the half of it! i also think something within this discussion that gets lost is the fact there's so little media that centres ace or aro stories! there's often the odd mention of ace/aro characters within larger narratives, but not as much in terms of them being the main characters!

despite this, i'd again say that trying to claim that the only stories being released are hyper sexual ones is plain wrong lol i've literally mentioned 2 things in this post that are more 'wholesome' with less focus on sex and still focus on young queer people! there's also a significant increase in queer media made for kids as well as in cartoons/animated films! there is so much more 'family friendly' queer content out there now than ever, which i'm so happy about! and the existence of this kind of media doesn't erase the more adult media that also exists currently!

i think, ultimately, people need to take a step back and realise that we live in a sorta golden age of queer representation. it's not perfect by any means, and a part of that is that we need an increase of queer people both in front and behind the camera, particularly queer people of colour (since a major critique that i don't see nearly enough is the lack of queer media with non-white people people!)

i also would say that as important as queer representation in media is, i don't think it can be presented as a form of activism. because the fact of the matter is that queer characters and stories have been in both mainstream and indie cinema for a longggg time, and despite the fact we are more visible in the things we consume, there has been a massive increase in anti-queer sentiment within the whole world in the last few years alone! anti-trans views and legalisation, as well as a notable increase of violent hate crimes, are just amongst a whole lot of queerphobia existing in the world at the moment that is not going to be magically fixed by queer media or representation!

tl/dr (or in conclusion...): there is a whole bunch of queer media that's being released all across the world every day, many of which is being written by or featuring queer people! there's a long way to go with queer rep, of course, (especially with less represented communities like ace/aro or trans/nb people!) but the claims that it's either overly sanitised or overly sexual are just plain wrong in my opinion, particularly if people are willing to watch things other than hollywood blockbusters or the latest netflix series' lol! it's also important to remember that queer media and representation isn't going to fix our queerphobic world, and the over emphasis on the harm and/or benefit of queer media is missing the forest for the trees lol...

[freedfromthegalactichivemind]

*Sigh.* I remember the days when the "hordak," "entrapta" and "entrapdak" tags would be flooded with character-antis, shipping antis (for those ships) and general disk horse. These days, it's flooded with porn bots. I must have blocked at least 4 or 5 bots sporting the same image of some naked woman getting pegged on the tags. I'm tempted to put the filter out mature content filter on, but I honestly don't think that works with these bots. It's not like they label their off-site links and spam contents correctly. (I mean when tumblr had the sexy-times ban in place, I still got followed by pornbots, so THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING! It's just that they all seem more frequent now). Makes me miss the anti-rants telling us all we're bad people for enjoying Hordak and screaming that Entrapta deserves better. At least the whining was interesting?

[billconrad]

Are Today’s Writers Spoiled?

    My father was a hard-core author who published from the mid-70s through the 2000s. He began with an IBM Selectric II typewriter and sought out the only publisher, McMillan, willing to take on a ceramic textbook. Later, he used this same typewriter to typeset and self-publish his books, which were sold mail order from our garage.

    Today, publishing is quite different. A person can use a free online word processor like Google Docs to write a book, convert it to an eBook, or print on-demand book and publish it online where millions of people can download it.

    And the tools we have? Word, Front Page, Excel, Visio, Grammarly, Photoshop, ProWritingAid and Hemmingway. There are even AI-powered resources like ChatGPT. Plus, the internet is a research powerhouse that can fact-check, locate information, find existing works, locate publishing resources, correct flaws, and inspire ideas. Well, I guess that is it. Anybody can publish a book without any effort and make millions of dollars. Umm, no.

    Take the topic of Nelson Mandela. With a few minutes of internet research, ALL the essential facts about this amazing man are available. Are they accurate? Multiple sources can easily confirm the vital facts. What can be done with this verified information? Write a book, report, article, educational pamphlet, children’s book, or fantasy story with Nelson as a character or a parody based on researched facts.

    For example, an author could use Google Docs to write a time travel story where the main character meets Nelson Mandela. Then, check it with Grammarly, import a table from Excel, and use free online tools to place their book on Amazon. Heck, the cover design could be done by the AI image generator SDXL. The resulting book would be wholly fact-checked, grammar-checked, and properly formatted with excellent cover art. The apex of the spoiled author is to use an AI program like ChatGPT to write the entire book. Truly remarkable.

    All true, but there is a problem my father never faced. Readers have a thousand time travel books to choose from or can download a free time travel story from many sites. Do you like horses? “Hey, ChatGPT. Write a time travel story with Nelson Mandela riding horses.” Done!

    This wide variety makes it nearly impossible for an author to get a potential reader’s attention. I did an Amazon search for “Nelson Mandela books,” and 409 results appeared. Poetry book? 80,000 results. Religion book? 100,000 results. Harry Potter book? 4,000 results. Side note: When I did this search, I found “Welcome to Hogwarts (LEGO Harry Potter).” Lego publishes books? I do not even know what to say…

    It gets worse. A nobody reader can leave a scathing review that stays public until the last hard drive in the universe stops spinning. And oops. The server crashed, and your Google Docs book got deleted. Plagiarism? It is now easier than copying files off a floppy disk.

    Alright, I’m getting lazy. “Hey ChatGPT. List the problems facing modern authors.”

1. Oversaturation of the Market: With the rise of self-publishing and digital platforms, more books are being published than ever, making it harder for authors to stand out.

    Discoverability: Competing for attention in a crowded marketplace requires significant effort in marketing and branding.

2. Financial Instability

    Low Royalties: Traditional publishing contracts often offer modest royalties, and self-published authors may struggle to make consistent sales.

    Pressure to Write Quickly: Authors may feel pushed to produce content rapidly to keep up with market demand, which can lead to burnout.

3. Marketing and Promotion

    Lack of Support: Many authors, especially in the self-publishing world, must handle their marketing and promotion, which requires time, money, and expertise.

    Social Media Pressure: Authors are often expected to maintain a solid social media presence to engage readers, which can be overwhelming and detract from writing time.

4. Changing Reader Habits

    Shorter Attention Spans: With the dominance of digital content and streaming services, some readers may have shorter attention spans, impacting interest in lengthy works.

    EBook vs. Print: The shift to eBooks and audiobooks changes how books are consumed, and some authors struggle to adapt.

5. Technological Disruption

    AI and Automation: Tools that generate content, like AI-written texts, are emerging, potentially altering how stories are created and valued.

    Piracy: Digital piracy remains a significant concern, with unauthorized copies of books cutting into authors’ earnings.

6. Diversity and Representation

    Gatekeeping: Some authors face barriers related to race, gender, or identity when trying to break into traditional publishing.

    Pressure to Represent: Authors from marginalized backgrounds may feel obligated to focus on specific narratives, limiting creative freedom.

7. Creative Challenges

    Writer’s Block: Pressure to produce can exacerbate creative blocks.

    Balancing Art and Commerce: Authors may struggle to balance writing what they are passionate about with what sells.

8. Mental Health Concerns

    Isolation: Writing can be a solitary profession, leading to feelings of loneliness or disconnection.

    Public Criticism: Negative reviews, online trolls, and cancel culture can affect an author’s mental health.

9. Industry Gatekeeping

Traditional Publishing Barriers: Many authors face rejections or long waits for decisions from conventional publishers.

Focus on Trends: Publishers may prioritize trendy genres or themes, making it harder for unique or unconventional stories to find a home.

10. Sustainability

Environmental Impact: Authors may grapple with the ethics of traditional publishing’s reliance on paper and physical distribution.

Cultural Shifts: Trends and norms evolve quickly, requiring authors to adapt their writing styles and themes to remain relevant.

    Today, authors face many challenges my father could not have imagined in the seventies. When he started, there were only TWO ceramics textbooks. I searched Amazon for “ceramics textbook,” and 242 books appeared. This number is incorrect because my father amassed over 500 hardcover ceramics textbooks during his writing effort.

    And the quality of the modern ceramic textbook? Nearly every new ceramic textbook, potter’s manual, glaze recipe cookbook, reference book, or guide has my father’s books in the appendix or bibliography. So, I know they must be good.

    My father faced many technical and economic challenges that today’s authors can only read about in history books. Instead, our challenges are the extreme competition, cut-throat marketing, developing new ideas, and utilizing new technology. So, today’s authors have many tools at their fingertips that my father could only dream about, but we face sophisticated modern readers and mountains of existing work. We certainly are not spoiled, but neither was my father.

    You’re the best -Bill

    November 27, 2024

    Hey, book lovers, I published four. Please check them out:

   Interviewing Immortality. A dramatic first-person psychological thriller that weaves a tale of intrigue, suspense, and self-confrontation.

    Pushed to the Edge of Survival. A drama, romance, and science fiction story about two unlikely people surviving a shipwreck and living with the consequences.

    Cable Ties. A slow-burn political thriller that reflects the realities of modern intelligence, law enforcement, department cooperation, and international politics.

    Saving Immortality. Continuing in the first-person psychological thriller genre, James Kimble searches for his former captor to answer his life’s questions.

    These books are available in softcover on Amazon and in eBook format everywhere.

[wiz-tree]

WizTree

WizTree.exe is an executable file that is part of the WizTree v1.00 program developed by Antibody Software. The software is usually about 2.32 MB in size.

The .exe extension of a file name displays an executable file. In some cases, executable files can damage your computer. Please read the following to decide for yourself whether the WizTree file on your computer is a virus or trojan horse that you should delete, or whether it is a valid Windows operating system file or a reliable application.

What is wiztree?

WizTree is a unique software that allows the user to know which files are taking up the most amount of space in your system. It’s more like an analyzer that helps in getting a bird's eye view over your computer system and ensure that you get your hard disk in correct shape and order all the files and data is displayed and necessary action can be taken. Don’t worry, the entire process doesn’t take a lot of time but hardly a few minutes to execute, and no matter how much storage you have, deleting them and ensuring that you have a stable computer is quite feasible through the software.

​

Common WizTree.exe error messages

The most common WizTree errors that can appear are:

"WizTree.exe Application Error."

"WizTree.exe failed."

"WizTree.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

"WizTree.exe is not a valid Win32 application."

"WizTree.exe is not running."

"WizTree.exe not found."

"Cannot find WizTree.exe."

"Error starting program: WizTree.exe."

"Faulting Application Path: WizTree.exe."

How to Download and Install WizTree on PC?

Get the software installer

The software installer can be downloaded from multiple third-party sites. It’s for free, and there are various versions. Get the one you prefer the most.

Install it

After downloading it, open the installer and install the software.

Enjoy

Enjoy exploring the contents of your computer and sort it based on several formats of your choice and do the needful.

​Minimum System Requirements

OS – Windows 7 or higher

RAM – 1GB or higher

Storage – 150MB or higher

CPU – Pentium III or higher

[actualaster]

Always odd to click a link to the Twitter of somebody you've followed for ages on Tumblr and find that, though you've never interacted with them on the bird hellsite, you're blocked

[the-asexuality-blog]

Hello, everyone!

ETA: if you hate the changes to Tumblr as much as I do, please go here, select “Feedback” from the dropdown menu, and tell @support how you feel and why. Be as detailed as you can. Staff have rolled back unpopular features before when we complained enough. In the meantime, you can get the old dash back by following the instructions on this post.

Now, back to business:

You can call me Moira (She/He/They, whatever). I used to follow @theasexualityblog back in the day, but the Disk Horse drove so many of us away. I want to revive the community. I’m old and tough; the exclusionists can’t do anything that I can’t handle. I don’t have much experience managing a community blog, so anyone’s input is welcome.

For those who want more information on asexuality as an orientation, particularly in the capacity of an educator, visit What Is Asexuality?

For those who are over eighteen years old, please consider also joining Acebook, which is ostensibly a dating site, but I don’t think any of us actually uses it that way.

For those under eighteen, or anyone seeking further categorized information on asexuality, visit the Asexual Visibility and Awareness Network, or their Tumblr page @avenpt

I’ll answer questions to the best of my ability, of course, but those three resources predate me, so make sure to check them out.

This part is probably going to lose me some followers, but I want to make my position clear.

I recently saw an infographic that had an addendum that “acehet” and “arohet” people don’t count as part of the community.

Now, listen: if a trans woman were exclusively attracted to men, would we say she wasn’t part of the community because she’s “basically straight”? Of course not. Not unless she chose to identify that way. Her shared experience of being trans would be, by itself, enough to make her part of the trans community if she wanted to be.

Why should we make different rules for other identities? We are not defined by who our partners are—if we were, every person in the world who is not currently in a relationship would be “basically aroace.”

So-called “acehet” and “arohet” people share our experiences of being aspec, and that by itself is intersection enough to include them in our community if they want to be part of it.

I’m not going to tolerate any form of exclusionism on this blog. We need all the solidarity we can get, especially at times like these, when queer rights are under attack. Labels are for us to adopt for ourselves, not to force upon others. If you disagree with me, well, you’re entitled to have your own opinion, but if you actively try to exclude anyone on claims of their being “basically het,” I don’t care if we’ve known each other for years; I will block you without hesitation.

I block and report all bots, so if you’re new and want to follow this blog, please make a post that says something like “Hi, I’m not a bot, just a lurker” or something to that effect so I’ll know you’re a real person. I assume all empty blogs with no user pic and no posts to be bots.

[gallusrostromegalus]

The yami facts are *amazing! Can we has more but for kaiba?

Yami Facts for The Power Of Friendship (And This Gun I Found!)

These were harder becuase Seto Kaiba is kind of a fucking mess and most of his "fun" facts are really kind of Depressing lol.

Many People think Seto is ambidexterous because there are a lot of videos of him doing things like casually switching what hand he's writing with, or coming out with right and left-handed duel disks right off the bat, but that's incorrect. He's Ambisinister and they're BOTH his off-hand. He predominantly writes with his left hand out of spite.

Seto has a deep and honestly extremely reasonable fear of horses. Gozaboro signed him up for a bunch of "networking" hobbies so he could learn how to build social ties like a proper Bougie kid, and one of those thing was horseback riding. Unfortunately for Seto, his chernobyl-like background radiation anxiety means horses find his vibes absolutely rancid and they keep trying to Murder the shit out of him.

Seto fucking loves Mangoes. He loves a lot of salty-sour foods because while he did manage to get in the habit of "eight glasses of water a day" he's chronically short on electrolyes. He does not know that mangoes are not supposed to taste like that, and that he is allergic to them.

There is a character that will come up in the fic called "Debbie From Legal". She is the same Debbie as Debbie from Bowling For Soup's hit, 1985, but she is also the protagonist in Mary Chapin-Carpenter's He Thinks He'll Keep Her. Do NOT fuck with Debbie.

Seto has a Pilots Lisence, a Helicopter Lisence, a boating Lisence, but no Driver's Lisence. He does not like Traffic.

Seto has such a severe case of "Just Some Guy" syndrome that he can accidentally Clark Kent himself by taking off his ostentateous trenchcoat.

Seto hired the serial killer for Death-T by putting out a fucking want ad. He got back six promising candidates and hired them all for assorted projects. Five of them are just out-of-work actors who thought it was a movie gig and are refusing to drop the facade because holy shit a steady paycheck. The sixth actually is a serial killer, but also an out-of-work actor that thought this was a movie gig.

Seto personally knows a ton of celebrities from various publicity events, and some of them are things that very nearly qualify as 'friends' because he can talk to them for upwards of three minutes about some Hobby, but he doesn't actually now what they DO. He thinks Henry Cavill is maybe kind of famous for doing a youtube series on building your own PC for the masses because he recognized him in a thumbnail on the site once. Who Knows. Not Seto. He knows Henry because he once proposed that Seto purchase a tabletop miniatures company they both liked the product of, but hated the company, and that struck Seto as a good idea, actually, so it's on his to-do list, right after getting the Duel Monsters IP from pegasus so he can stop having to pay royalties every time he uses the Blue Eyes White Dragon imagery on something.

Seto's secret talent that even he doesn't know about (yet) is that he's actually great at keeping houseplants. Most people kill them by over-watering them, but he sort of forgets they exist until they look sad and then he dumps his coffee into them, which is the exact flavor of abuse most houseplants enjoy.

[fatehbaz]

nigh impossible for me to look at news headlines or search for recent articles because, half the time, g00gle algorithm thinks i’m a menacing mining magnate and major property owner because i’m always searching for stuff about dispossession in Chile due to lithium mining, uranium poisoning on Navajo land, Polynesian people resisting deep-sea mining, sp@cex destroying ocelot habitat on the Rio Grande, soy monoculture in the Pantanal, Ri0 Tint0 using explosives to blow up Aboriginal sacred sites, cattle ranchers destroying California chaparral or Great Plains prairie, etc. so every side-bar and banner ad i get is like from Mining Baron News Source whatever with headlines like “this is the year for uranium” or “it’s time to get invested in Chilean lithium” or “Ri0 Tint0 stocks on the rebound this quarter”. and then on the other hand, the g00gle algorithm will instead notice all the stuff i search for including terms like Anthropocene, abolition/fugitive, colonization, plantations, etc., and instead is like “OK, not a mining baron, they’re actually into ecology or decolonization or whatever, we got just the thing!” and then incessantly recommends stories like “glaciers are vital resources; we’re letting billions of dollars in profit melt away” or “Indigenous people are important ... because their knowledge can be extracted to save us money” or “re-wilding 5% of English land could create thousands of jobs in rural sector” or “billions of sea creatures just boiled alive on Pacific Northwest beaches as heat waves decimate the entire globe and the world is FUCKED, here’s how designing living walls and rooftop greenspaces can make our tech-boosted Smart Cities so much richer” (which are all, basically, real recent stories from BB/C, The Gu/ardian, etc., which I glanced at just now) which is the only way that the world’s most respected news sources can conceive of “radical” reassessment of civilization/ecology even when they’re put under increased social pressure after a year of p@ndemic, mass-scale race/decolonization disk horse, utter environmental calamity, etc. so the best we get is, on the sliding scale between two apparent extremes of ethical/political alignment, you can be a cackling mining baron or, at the most left-ist-ish, the most radical future imaginable is just being a Green Cap!talist with a subscription to The Econom!st. being inundated with advertising is already a nightmare for all; every day it’s more grating as they try to recuperate dissent. and yea, none of this is new/surprising observation, but still.

[seacollectsrivers]

this is how deep the ace disk horse of ish-2012 has its claws in me:

i LOVE ace!Frenchie, i read him that way 100%, aroace even

but i'm so fuckin wary of talking about it because "he acts too juvenile that's so fucked up to think of him as ace because of that"

idk if i can word this properly, and it feels silly because i'm literally talking about fictional characters like, on the dead fandom site, this isn't real life or w/e, but idt allo-allos quite understand the bone deep fear a lot of us have for just enjoying a thing and seeing someone and going That's Me!

i promise aro-allos have this fear too. You can't say that character is aro, they're portrayed as cold, that has a negative impact on aros! You can't say that character is aro either, they literally talk about love ALL the time and they're SO affectionate!

and it feels SILLY this. it's not a real problem or whatever. but sometimes it's exhausting being so careful about how you talk about fictional characters because of shit you saw going down some ten years ago.

[sparkbeast20]

Animals in the House

Lucifer: MAAAMMOOON!

Mammon: Ow! *Fly away from Lucifer*

Lucifer:  GET.BACK. DOWN.HERE

Mammon: NO

Levi: Once I get a hold of you-

Mammon: With what! Ya got no arms or hands

Levi: Shut up *Starting to tear up* This all your fault, my game is on the floor and haven’t even save it.

Satan: It’s that your worry about?

Levi: *Look at Satan* easy for you to say that, look at you at least your big, LOOK AT ME! I am Small and NO LIMBS, I am more worthless, pathetic, and-

Belphie: Levi, for once stop thinking about yourself and help me find Beel.

Belphie: Beel and Asmo are smaller than you, especially Beel!

Lucifer: Belphie is right

Lucifer: *Looking around the room, and land his sight on Asmo* Asmo, you haven’t said a word?

Asmo: …….

Satan: Asmo?

Asmo: …….

Levi: A-asmo, say something you’re scary us.

Asmo: *Finally turn around to face his brothers*……

Asmo: LOOK AT ME I AM DISGUSTING!

Lucifer: Asmodeus calm down.

Asmo: CALM. DOWN. How am I supposed to “Calm down”, when am like THIS?

Beel: well, you have hands that’s something right.

Satan: actually, their called claws or pincers-

Belphie: wait Beel where are you?

Beel: on the table.

Belphie: why didn’t you say anything?

Beel: *fly over to Belphie and landed on his head* I was busy finishing my cupcake.

Beel: it’s way to big for me now.

Mammon: at least someone is enjoying this.

Everyone else: SHUP UP

Mammon: *almost falls off from the shelf he landed on* Oi, am just looking that bright side of this mess.

Asmo: THIS whole mess, started with that stupid book you “stole” from who knows where-

Mammon: look, I thought it was an encyclop pe pe a on animal.

Satan: you mean ENCYCLOPEDIA

Mammon: Yeah

Lucifer: and why in Devildom would you have that in the first place?

Mammon: Because I …..

Belphie: out of all of us, you’re the last person to have that.

Silent for a moment then, a D.D.D started to ring.

Mammon: that’s my D.D.D! *Flew down to his plie cloths*

Mammon: It’s MC!

Lucifer: It’s your turn to pick them up *walk towards to Mammon and trying read the D.D.D*

Lucifer: They were look for us

Lucifer: everyone check, your D.D.D.

The rest of the brothers go to their pile of cloths and “trying” to get their D.D.D out the pockets

Levi: I have 5 messages and 2 missed calls

Asmo: 3 messages and 4 missed *with a worried tune in his voice*

Beel: all I can see is the recent message.

Beel: “Solomon wal..” *Trying to read his D.D.D which is only half out of his pocket*

Lucifer: well at least Solomon is walking them home-

All of the sudden a crack sound came from Satan direction

Satan: ……

Asmo: Satan what was that?

Satan: *mumble in angry tune*

Asmo: what?

Satan: MY D.D.D!

Everyone else: OH NO!

Satan: Mammon this all YOUR fault!

Satan was about to charge toward Mammon, then they hear the main door being Unlock.

Levi: Their ho-home!

All of them stayed quite

They hear each door of the house being open and close, and the foot step getting louder.

The brother stiffed when they hear sobbing and small hiccups on the other side of the door, the door knob was turning.

Until it stopped, hear somebody slide down to the floor.

All of the brothers slowly go toward the door and try to listen.

MC: *sobbing* Mammon you jerk, where are you?

Mammon: *lower his head feeling guilty*

MC: *still sobbing* Levi I-i-I did’t mean to break your disk, is that’s why your give the silent treatment? At least check your phone.

Levi: *curl up into Lucifer’s leg and hiding his head*

MC: Beel I got you *hiccupping* the pudding; I accidentally ate.

Beel: *flew toward the door knob and landed on it*

MC: Did-did I do something wrong?

The quite sobbing continues until a D.D.D started ringing.

MC: *grab their D.D.D and open it* He-hello?

Simeon: Hello it’s me, so are they there?

MC: No

Simeon: don’t worry they must be busy, especially Lucifer.

MC: the house feel so empty, it just…..  never mind.

Simeon: MC, it something you want to talk about?

MC: ……

Simeon: MC

MC: this feeling, I hate it.

MC: Simeon it’s been 4 days since, the last time I actually got good look of any of the brothers, is not their fault, it just…..

Simeon: It just?

MC: This feels way “too” Familiar for my liking

MC: I feel like their “avoiding” me.

MC: I don’t want to feel this way, but can shake this feel that I am being clingy or nuisance-

Solomon: Stop that right now!

MC: *shock* Uh-ah

Solomon: We talk about this.

MC: Simeon why did you put me on Speaker!

Simeon: wait you can do that? *With a confuse tune*

Solomon: *let out a small sign* look, you can come to Purgatory Hall so we can continue this talk.

Simeon: yes, since the brothers are busy and your all alone in that house.

MC: Thanks, but I think I should wait for them here.

Solomon: If you in since, oh by the way you don’t have plans this weekend, right?

MC: Yeah, why?

The Brothers come even closer to the door to get a better hearing on your conversation from the other side of the door.

Solomon: I was hoping to take you somewhere, you know to take your mind out of the mind site of yours.

MC: Like a Date?

Every single one of the brothers’ eyes widen.

Solomon: Do you want it to be?

MC: well…..

 Before answering the question, you hear a wings floppy on the other side of the door.

MC: Solomon, I’ll call you back, I think some bird got the house again.

Solomon: just be careful.

MC: I can handle birds; my dad and I raise pigeon back when he was… I call you back.

You ended the call, and got up off the floor, fix your uniform and grab the door knob and turning it.

Once opening the door, the first thing you saw was piles of clothes, then walk toward to get a better look, you gasp in shock to learn that is the brothers’ clothes.

The first thing you grab was Mammon’s jacket, then look to Lucifer plie, the Levi’s and you made 180 turn towards the doorway.

You saw someone or somethings are hiding behind the doors, the most obvious ones are Half of bull’s head and the rear end of a horse, both stick out on each door.

At this moment you know you are going to die.

 End of Part 1

Note: this is my first time writing this long and my first post some on tumblr.

[shamandrummer]

Pipestone’s Sacred Story

On Aug. 25, 1937, the U.S. established Pipestone National Monument in Southwest Minnesota. The monument covers 301 acres and includes quarry pits and the prairie landscape surrounding them. Today indigenous people from across North America come to the site to work the pipestone at 56 active pits, offering up the soft red stone so famously used for ceremonial pipes and other items. A gentle slope marks the eastern edge of a long plateau that begins in the Dakotas and runs southeast to Iowa. In Pipestone County, the slope is broken by stone outcroppings that native peoples have quarried for centuries.

For Native Americans, this land is sacred. For the Oceti Sakowin, the people of the Seven Council Fires, which includes Dakota and Lakota speaking tribes, it’s a place of creation. Among the Oceti Sakowin, the Yankton Sioux of South Dakota are known as the protectors of the quarry. Though pipestone exists at many locations in North America, the quarries at Pipestone National Monument became the preferred source of pipestone among tribes living on the Great Plains because of the quality of the stone.

Pipestone is a relatively soft stone that’s well-suited to hand carving. However, it’s typically found sandwiched between extremely hard layers of Sioux quartzite, and extracting the stone can be hard work. Contemporary indigenous people maintain the tradition of hand-quarrying stone using only sledgehammers, chisels, pry bars and wedges. They’re taught to use all the quarried stone, if possible, or return it to Mother Earth. Over the years, skilled artisans have created many pipe designs, including long-stemmed pipes, elbow and disk forms and a T-shaped calumet. Carvers also have made elaborate animal and human effigies.

Oral traditions of the Oceti Sakowin tell how pipestone was created by the red blood of the ancestors, and of how smoke carries prayers to the Great Spirit, making the pipes created from the red rock highly sacred. Pipestone pipes have been, and are still, used in ceremonies, given as gifts and traded. Native Americans store pipe bowls, stems and tobacco with other sacred objects. They also bury pipes with the dead. Sacred pipes have inspired stories that have been passed down for generations.

According to Lakota legend, the first pipe was brought to Earth 19 generations ago by a divine messenger known as White Buffalo Calf Woman (known in the Lakota language as Pte-san Win-yan). The pipe was given to the people who would not forget--the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota nations. The Buffalo Calf Woman came to the tribes when there was a great famine and instructed them about living in balance with nature. She gifted the people with a sacred bundle containing the White Buffalo Calf Pipe, which still exists to this day and is kept by Chief Arvol Looking Horse of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Other members of the tribes are also pipe carriers: stewards entrusted with the care of particular ceremonial and personal pipes.

White Buffalo Calf Woman taught them all the things they needed to know about making, handling and caring for the pipe, and about how to use it for praying. She explained to the people that the pipe was a symbol of everything in the world. She told them that the red stone bowl of the pipe represented the Earth Mother and the feminine aspects of the world. The buffalo calf carved in the stone represented all the four-legged animals which live upon the Mother. She told them that the wooden pipe stem represented the Sky Father, the plants and the masculine aspects of the world.

The Buffalo Calf Woman explained that when the stem and bowl were joined, they symbolized a union and a balance between the sacred masculine and the sacred feminine. She told them that the smoking of the pipe linked the smoker to all things in the universe. The smoke from the pipe carried the prayers of the people directly to the Creator. When the pipe was used properly, the buffalo would return and the people would be able to eat well.

Over a period of four days, White Buffalo Calf Woman instructed the people in the Seven Sacred Rites: the seven traditional rituals that use the sacred pipe. When the teaching of the sacred rites was complete, she told the people that she must return to the spirit world. She asked them to honor the teachings of the pipe and to keep it in a sacred manner. Before leaving, the woman told them that within her were four ages, and that she would look upon the people in each age, returning at the end of the fourth age to restore harmony and balance to a troubled world. She said she would send a sign that her return was near in the form of an unusual buffalo, which would be born white.

The holy woman then took leave of the people. As she walked away, she stopped and rolled over four times, changing appearance each time. The first time, she turned into a black buffalo calf; the second time into a red one; the third time into a yellow buckskin one; and finally, the fourth time she rolled over, she turned into a white buffalo calf. These four colors then became associated with the powers of the four directions for the    Lakota. The holy entity then disappeared over the horizon. It is said after that day the people honored their pipe, and the buffalo were plentiful.