#this is for everyone btw not just Americans but I know it's probably gonna be mostly Americans

[indigoire]

Here's a better poll about the roadtrip/driving thing, because I question whether the non-USA folks are accounting for it:

[pinkcarsupremacy]

Okay in all the drama of yesterday's race I feel like we overlooked the F1 movie teaser and we need to talk about what the hell was going on in that.

So we start with 60yo racer Brad Pitt telling the audience and uh someone else that their car is beat on the straights by "Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston and now Mclaren" (as an Alpine fan I understand the plight) and that their only chance of beating the other teams is to battle in the turns and I quote "we need to build our car for combat" (never underestimate Americans and their ability to turn something into a war analogy)

After that bizzare statement the following exchange occurs:

Yeah fuck safety!! The FIA is actually involved with the making of this film if you're wondering.

From here on there isn't actually anymore dialogue and it's just a bunch of racing and track team shots set to 'We will Rock You'. It was here that it dawned on me that this movie is gonna be super bizzare. Despite all the noise about them filming on track at live race weekends it never occured to me the other drivers and teams would actually feature in it. I'm not even sure what I thought they were going to do but I assumed it would involve a lot of CGI.

But nope turns out this is actually just a strange self-insert film where an 11th team featuring 60yo Brad Pitt and his younger teammate will compete against real F1 drivers? The $300 million budget is starting to make sense - maybe they had to pay the other drivers a salary. I think one glaring problem with this is that it means there won't be other characters in the movie (excluding team members of the fake team) because the other drivers and team members are uh real people? Now that would be fine if it was a biopic like Rush where everyone are actors but here we have 2 actors and 20 real drivers (who are quite literally at work btw) and any interaction between them and the actors is gonna break the immersion of the film so badly.

Sidenote here's one of the Apex cars abusing a Williams - not the kind of behaviour that endears me to either of the fake drivers ngl. Probably should have picked a more disliked team to clown on.

Now I actually went and read an interview with the 2 directors to try and work out what is going on. At one point in this interview, Jerry Bruckheimer says: "It’s the only sport where your teammate is also your competitor, and that’s great drama in itself. Just think about that; you’re fighting with your own teammate for a place on the podium. And everything we use in the movie actually happened in an F1 race. Nobody can say: ‘That would never happen.’ It happened."

So in other words the teammates will fight and it will be based on real life events? Yeah unfortunately I'm getting Perez and Ocon in Force India vibes from that (those 2 shots pretty similar huh).

There was also this in the interview which is... I mean I don't really know what to take from this but it's certainly interesting. As an Ocon fan this quite literally strikes fear into my heart (why was he of all drivers named...) but we'll have to wait and see I guess.

[g-xix]

thoughts on ksi’s new banger ?🔥🔥🔥

STOP IT BROTHER IT'S SO ADDICTIVE AHHAHAHAHAH

lemme give some NON SERIOUS, GOOFY THOUGHTS n then give some /srs thought-provokers for you.

So, what are my thoughts on this funny tune?:

It's just really funny.

It is so... discord and anime coded. It's giving "I picked up x and just... started - and it's been a whirlwind since then, and idk how i got here, but im a master of the craft now.." And it is so jokes, makes me wanna laugh at him + tell him to su because of how stupidly GOOFY IT IS

I go to skl still btw for those who don't know, and being among ppl my age who have a similar internet feed as me is HILARIOUS - BC THIS SONG IS EVERYWHERE.

Like bro - my skl is celebrating black history month (shoutout to black ppl + all POCs asw) and one thing the year-13-diversity-group have been doing is playing songs by black artists with speakers over the canteen every lunch.

So there's genuinely been a whole hall of people chanting FEIN this week at my school.

But not only that - thick of it was also played, and fuck me was it acc hilarious hearing a whole chorus of "THIS IS HOW THE STORY GOES!". Even at the end of assembly where the speakers blasted Thick Of It whilst everyone walked out as a fun lil treat. Too fucken funny bro.

The way me n friends will just burst into song asw with the: "From the screen, to the ring, to the pen to the king!" with anime characteristics asw is always such a little giggle for us

But now...

Serious thoughts about JJ n this music stuff?

I don't feel for JJ - because he's warranted all the hate or jokes upon himself - but I empathise. I feel sympathy for why he feels like shit... But I fear that he does deserve it.

Starting with: Lunchly.

Lunchly? It was always a stupid business venture for him. Great for Logan and MrBeast - but i fear jj just got roped along bc he's logan's business partner, now.

Because bffr- what the fuck reasoning does JJ have to be marketing a product to Americans?

Lunchables is almost solely for American Kiddies, but JJ's influence is prettttyyyyy UK n Europe based. Sure, he's got fans in America - but it's so stupid for KSI - a British celebrity - to be marketing and having to endorse and support a pretty primarily American product that isn't gonna touch the UK for a long time (god bless the EU health policies)

So, because he has everyone hating on him for releasing lunchly - a very poor quality food which is marketed as a "better as lunchables" product whilst having negligible differences....

KSI's ruined his credibility. Because he's becoming a joke.

Bro built up a fanbase for 10+ YEARS of people who followed him because they honestly liked him, and is ruining all that trust and relationship by using this same fanbase for money and hoping they buy into his quick money-grabs... It's got Logan Paul and American YouTube/business written all over it ibfr... But it's so saddening to see it happening to YouTubers I really did like..

So, everyone thinks KSI's a joke because he released a shit product and won't take DanTDM's thwack of reality, that says "JJ, what you're doing is immoral and unethical."

Aaaand then JJ drops a song.

Reason?

Well, it can either just be that JJ wants to post music again... Or to distract everyone from the fact that Lunchly and JJ's credibility is honestly fucking awful atm.

Problem now, is that instead of people eating up the new music as the KSI team probably expected - "YAY, KSI RELEASED NEW MUSIC!" - everyone's hating on it because:

a) no-one likes him because he beefed with DanTDM b) no-one likes him because he uses his audience's trust to make himself more money with no interest in the goodness of his fans c) it isn't a very.... hardman song.

JJ knows his audience. His target audience and who watches most of his content. Probably Middle-Older teen boys... So when you release a wet little song talking about your life and hardships you face with a cutesy lil beat and melody - THESE BOYS THAT YOUR FANBSE IS MADE OF THINK IT'S STUPID!!!!!!!! BECAUSE GUESS WHAT FANBASE YOU'VE CREATED!!!!!! ONE THAT'S COMPRISED OF PEOPLE WHO WOULDN'T ENJOY THIS MUSIC!!!

If you're a man that posts try not to laughs and reveal that your sense of humour and primary style of jokes is something that's racist or homophobic or misogynistic or targetting fat people - any minorities or group of people that face a lot of bullying...

You attract bullied; you attract what you put out into the world. Which in JJ's case, has been these insensitive mid-older teen boys that are also fans of racism, "dark humour", misogyny and these targetted jokes.

No-one (in his audience) likes his body. And it's depressing him, which feels so interesting to see. And his reaction (the sadness and crying over nobody liking his song) I've boiled down to being sourced from either one of three things.

a) Ego. Is he hurt because of his ego? Because he thought this'd be a good song, and he sees himself as some sort of impressive, incredible man - and seeing his song actively get memed as a whimsical little anime song hurt his ego? Because he feels as though he deserves respect and to be loved? b) Depression. Consider the Poppin' song released in lockdown; everyone online said it's shit. JJ could take it on the chest though, and could handle that feedback - smiling and laughing and content with knowing himself, that it was a good song - even if not everyone agreed. Here, JJ is so hurt by all the criticism. And that could be out of depression... After all, can you really be happy when the whole world seems to hate everything you do? I empathise - but I acknowledge that he's brought it all upon himself. All of his controversies are BUSINESS RELATED and caused by him wanting to manipulate his audience into buying his products, without caring about his fans. It's ruined his credibility, because people dislike him for it, and he gains a lot of negative responses for it. Everything negative we see and ourselves post online could very well be making JJ feel just truly hated. He might honestly just be depressed and in quite a vulnerable and raw state, whereby he can't handle the criticism because he's already so hurt he can't bounce back. It's like putting more and more weight on a broken bone; it won't recover and it's only getting worse. Is JJ so unenthused and flat in his reactions towards the criticisms towards the songs because of genuine depression? c) Marketing. The tough fact is that all these reactions and memes for his song gain media coverage and plays. Because this song is so shit that it's addictive. And JJ acting sad and playing into the fact that he doesn't like getting bullied does frankly make ppl run this joke even further, and mean that this song just spreads even further. For all we know, the sadness JJ shows in reactions to this song are literally all just an act meant to boost the song even further.

d) Manipulation. Issssssss JJ just manipulating you into feeling pity so that you start empathising n sympathising with him and brush his lunchly + poor-business-ethics-misdemeanours under the rug? Does he just want to manipulate you and evoke a sense of pity to rebuild a relationship and rust between you and "KSI", so that you'll forgive him for everything you condemned him for online? MAYBE!

I've just been analysing this guy in his reaction vids + online, and honestly, it's so interesting having a little contemplate between Biology and Chemistry and shitting Maths <3

Either ways, hope you enjoyed the big old psychiatric evaluation. Lmk your thoughts in the comments too my friends in the screen, ring, pen and king *blade swish noises*

[olderthannetfic]

You know, for years now it's been annoying me why marginalized people have to argue with Western English speakers about slurs we experience, or even just what is or isn't a slur, especially in languages the English folks don't even know shit about.

I realized, you guys have absolutely no idea how to handle how to confront slurs and your own internalized bullshit.

I've noticed that primarily English speakers have this weird gold standard for what a slur is, and you seem to have a checklist to determine if you're gonna bother respecting that slurs from other places exist, and that you probably shouldn't so casually keep repeating them when made aware. As if people from the Anglosphere are the final judge and jury about what is or isn't a slur, even when you can't even pronounce the name of the language the slur is from, and you've never met a person affected by that stigma and slur.

Someone not from the Anglosphere mentions a horrible experience with slurs and bigotry. English speakers can't keep their mouth shut and just not try to relativize that person's experience, because they just have to know everything.

The gold standard is the N. word btw. Yes it is a horrible slur, especially when in the English language paired with the history.

But when I see more people upset that random languages have words that vaguely have a similar sound, Naga-snake person, nega-a korean word, rather than keeping up the energy to avoid using other slurs or not denying other languages and cultures also have specific slurs, which have been used against many, you just keep doing it. I've seen people flip out, calling the words controversial and insensitive. When it has nothing to do with the slur. Rather than actually caring that they themselves keep repeating or perpetuating harmful mindsets that no slur other than English ones should be avoided or be taught to be mindful of, but everything else isn't their problem... yeah no.

Meanwhile on the other side, people who're victims of slurs, especially those not English, have to constantly explain why something is a slur, and people in the English language still try to explain why everyone else is wrong. Even in the English language you people keep getting offended when someone asks you not to use a literal slur from the English language, and you still keep arguing. The A/B/O situation btw, G**psy as well. You love your slurs, but you also love your moral superiority.

--

I'm a little confused by this being phrased in terms of the Anglosphere.

Yes, I do sometimes see people being idiots about "You can't say that vaguely n-word sounding thing while not speaking English!", but even most monolingual English speakers understand why that's silly.

It's equally silly to think people should avoid innocuous-in-English words while speaking English.

But your two concrete examples are things used in the West in the Anglosphere. It's just that Americans sometimes have poor judgments about the level of offensiveness of slurs in English that aren't common here.

[pumpkinsy0]

I’m not sure if America does this much, but from where I am, a grade is able to travel to a different country for around a week or two for educational purposes (e.g Italy, France, Etc.) So,,, any Papercut Hcs for that? (Taken that they were able to make up the money for that, maybe Pony took up extra jobs to earn the money.)

ik what ur talking about!!! i dont think its common for a WHOLE GRADE to do it, but ik wym!!!!

OK SO

•lets say they’re traveling to france (ewwww🙄🙄 but trust me, makes sense later), their language class was french and they were like “man y dont we all travel to france to test out skills n have fun”

•gonna b frank w u, pony, curly, and their families were hesitant on it, MOSTLY bc of money restraints but when it comes to pony, its bc he just never traveled out the country before, let alone all by himself

• curly rlly has no aspirations to travel anywhere but then he realized that if pony left, he would b bored out his mind cayse who else can he annoy as well as he does w pony??? so he was on board!!

•look, getting that money was a hard time for all, tim and curly did more jobs, darry and soda worked their asses off and so did pony, but at the end of the day, they did it (also some of it was covered for everyone bc of some soc’s rich ass dad)🙏🏽🙏🏽

•when the packed, they damn near packed everything they had bc they just dont have much, it was like they were going away forever😭

•look, curly (and angela, shes here too!!! :3) r haitian immigrants, they knowwwww french bc they HAD to learn it in haiti to get through the education system, hell theyre probably one of the few ppl who even know it fluently out this whole grade, everyone else was lowkey bullshittin

•curlys basically ponys translator for everything, and curly WILL use it to his advantage, ponys always smarter than him but HERE??? HEEEE has the upper hand, plus, this means pony being clingy

•but his french was a lil rusty bc he wouldnt rlly speak it a lot, even in class he wouldnt rlly speak

•pony had this “introduction to french” book darry gave him bc darry can actually speak french bc of the class!!!

•curly and angela CANNOOTTT see the eiffel tower as being romantic btw, that shit was built w haitian money they hate france man (YES, im airing out some of my grievances i hate france dude🙄🙄), if pony mentioned the tower near curly he’d roll his eyes, ALSO BC HE FOUND IT TO B CORNY

•curly and pony keep getting lost dude, its like hell on earth, YES, france is walkable, but that probably just makes it worse for them bc theyre walking far in the wrong way😭

•u can def tell theyre american tourist, but i dont think curly would care, ponys trying to keep a low profile tho

•i dont think they rlly, like french food that much, not even that it taste bad or anything just not their cup of tea, honestly

•if i remember right, france has a problem w pick pocketers and i PROMISE u that wouldnt slide w either of em, they WILL fight u over it😭

•angela was excited to try the macarons!!! honestly like top thing she liked there probably, maybe she also flirted w some guys in french, got some perfume, she treated it like a vacation more than like something educational, she knew french already this was USELESS to her

•pony loved the museums, and wouldve liked it MORE if curly didnt RUSH him all the time bc he was bored, curlys the kind of guy to only go to museums for the gift shop and tbh??? so real

•they were able ti get a room together at a hotel thankfully, and half the time in it was NOT spent sleeping, it was spent w curly making stupid jokes and pony laughing so they were tired in the morning

•let them have some souvenirs, they deserve it!!!pony tried to get something each for the gang, curly got something STUPID for tim, angela got a cute gift for herself

•pony promised to take pics while he was there and he did, but some of the pics had curly being a dumbass in it🙄🙄

anyways i went through this whole post without making a kanye west joke, im truly growing to b more mature

[countlessrealities]

I normally wouldn't do this, because this is a RP blog and one of its purposes is to allow me to take a break from reality, but this is too important and it's heaving me too much not to put it out there.

It's the first and ONLY post I'll ever make on the subject. Anything else can be discussed privately, if you want to talk to me about it. Ofc, with "talk" I mean a civil discussion, otherwise fuck off.

I'll start with saying this: I'm not American, I live in Europe. Still, what happened with the elections affects the whole world, including my country, so I think I have the right to be as bitter and upset and real fucking worried as anyone else.

Also because, you know, Russia and Ukraine are my neighbours, so if someone decides to do something extreme, like dropping a nuclear bomb, well...it was nice knowing you, guys.

However, that's just one of my concerns, and it's not even at the top of the list. What really scares me is what the world has been turning into in the past few years. There are extremists and fanatics everywhere, I see people getting killed every day on the news, and not just war victims. I'm talking deaths in countries that are supposed to be at peace and civilised.

Where I live, every day there's at least one woman who gets killed. The youngest one so far was 14. Every day there's some hate crime happening. Every day there are immigrants who die at sea, because my country prevents rescues and tries to stop humanitarian organisations from saving lives.

Every day our government makes a step further in denying us our rights. Abortion, euthanasia (which has never been legal in my country, btw, and now it probably never will), the right to hold peaceful protests, civil unions for not conventional (hetero cis) couples, a proper accessible health system, and so on. The list goes on and on.

I'm a doctor and I work in the public health system. Around here, the State is supposed to provide free basic care to everyone and make the rest at very accessible prices (with exemptions for some categories, depending on age, income, disability, etc). This sounds nice, but it's becoming less and less of a reality. They keep cutting our budgets, the waiting lists get longer and longer, people are forced to pay for what should be provided by the taxes they pay. It's nowhere as bad as it's in many other counties, not yet, but I see it getting worse every day. Over a year of waiting for an exam. You could literally die while waiting for it, if you can't afford to pay for it. Also, everything in the health system is understaffed. There aren't enough doctors, nurses and the rest of the personnel. A lot of my colleagues leave the public and open their own private practices and, as much as I hate it, I can't even blame them. We're mostly underpaid and the shifts are fucking brutal.

It's getting hard to do everything. Do your work properly, have freedom, be able to be yourself, be allowed to live your life now and with whom you choose.

I know for sure that Trump's winning is just going to exacerbate all of this and honestly I can't help but think that it's gonna end badly for a lot of people, if not for everyone. I'm not saying that the other side is blameless, it's their fault too if we got this far, but at least we wouldn't be risking what we're facing now with them.

I wish I could say that I'm shocked that he won, and with so many votes, but I'm not. If something, this is the umpteenth proof of what I've been thinking for years. Humans suck and we're obviously set on self-destruction. Just look at what we have done to the planet. And what's crazier is that, even with all the consequences of climate change slapping us in the face every day, we still go on as if it wasn't a big deal. Because, of course, unless it happens to you specially, it doesn't really matter, does it?

I'm not saying that I've completely lost the little faith I had in humanity after this, but I've surely become more pessimistic than I already was. Perhaps we should really just go extinct, it would be for the best.

I've rambled enough. I'll end by saying that, if there's at least a little justice in the universe, that man will get stopped before he can do irreparable damage. Does me wishing him the worst make me a bad person? Probably, in the eyes of some. But let's look at the fact. He's old, overweight, eats badly, probably never exercises. Being president of the USA is a highly stressful job. It's a fact that he is an individual with a high risk of cardiovascular events.

Anyway. Don't give up on trying to change things, no matter how little. I won't, even if I'm really tempted to. Stay safe, as much as you can. I hope to see you on the other side.

[myaoiboy]

Death Stranding gender talk you say? Count me in.

Oh, I'm so glad someone asked about MPreg: A Hideo Kojima Game :3c

I'm going to put a quick CW in here for a medical-setting image of an umbilical cord. It's pretty mild, but I think doing side-by-side images will be helpful for illustrating what I'm talking about. Also, big spoilers for anyone that hasn't finished the game, obviously

Literally everything in Death Stranding is so very tied to parenthood and especially the pregnancy and birth parts. Yes it's technically a metaphor for the creative process but also it's, uh, incredibly visceral. So I'm gonna start here with Sam, but damn everyone in this game has some gender going on.

Can we talk about how Bridget chose the same name for both her other half/fictional daughter AND for her adopted son? I feel like not enough people mention the fact that "Amelie's" "real" name is Samantha America Strand, and everyone just calls her Amelie. Maybe because it's fucking weird to have two kids named Sam and Samantha?

The fact is too, that the two Sams aren't the only ones with gender-ambiguous names in the game...we don't know Lou's gender until the very end! The use of gender-ambiguous names for the only two main characters that you as the player can actually interact with feels hella meaningful.

In fact, the game intentionally lets us think that Lou/BB is a boy for most of the game! Cliff refers to his BB as "him" in one of the first cutscenes we see of him, very early on. The game also lets us believe, for some time at least, that there's a chance that the memories are BB/Lou's, and that Lou is Cliff's baby. We don't know this isn't true until near the end of the game! Why didn't any of the characters point out this contradiction before then? I'm not sure, at least not yet. Very open to thoughts on this. It doesn't feel like the MO of the game to have a gender reveal at the end for shock value.

Anyways, let's get in on point one obvious: like I already said, this is an mpreg game. There's...there's no way around it. A dudes carry a fetus attached to them by an umbilical cord (which they make VERY viscerally look like a real umbilical cord btw, between the color/texture/the additional cable along the outside).

I feel like "haha it's the mpreg game" has probably been done to death but I love it so much specifically because of the implications that it makes and the puns that it plays on.

Sam is a delivery man. He's called "The Great Deliverer" or "The Man Who Delivers." And the last scene of the game, the last line before we flash-back for the postgame, is...?

Literally childbirth! It's...delivery. It's Sam delivering his own child, after making a trek by foot across the continental US carrying a difficult pregnancy. "The Man Who Delivers" is a double entendre throughout the game, just like "strand" is ('strand' like rope or hair, 'strand' as in a portion of a larger network, 'strand' as in stranding, like the beach, etc).

So like, what the fuck, right? Why do we have Mpreg: Hiking Simulator? What the HELL is going on in there?

So. America, right?

If there's anything Kojima really loves to talk about, it's America. American identity, imperialism, national myth, etc. Death Stranding is just the most recent and blatant of these. And, of course, one of the most popular American Myths are the story of the founding fathers, right up there with manifest destiny.

So we have this game where Sam is both literally becoming a father after carrying a surrogate pregnancy, and also metaphorically becoming a father by re-founding America. In that way we can see, through his experience of pregnancy, the trials of (re-)founding America.

Okay, great, cool, Sam is a male mom, wonderful, so glad that technology has progressed to this point, we stan. Maybe we don't stan the use of American nationalism as a tool so much but look at the healthy baby glow <3.

But I also want to contrast this with the only other BB we really see in the game. Yeah, baby, it's Higgs time!!! And I am going to make a comparison that is going to seem batshit insane. Bear with me:

I was skeptical myself when I first saw this comparison, but I've been converted into a believer for a few reasons.

The visual. While imo it wouldn't be enough on its own to make a case, I have to admit that his hood is similar to some popular depictions of Mary

Higgs is literally a male prophet of a goddess of extinction. He essentially considers himself her messenger,

While Sam gets his BB from another person, and it's also a live fetus, Higgs gets his from Amelie, as how god gives mary jesus immaculately

Much like Amelie's reveal that her "soul is a lie," the "baby" that she gives higgs is a twisted effigy. He carries his god(dess)'s physical form, but as she is a goddess of extinction with no remaining soul of her own, it will never grow.

i'm willing to believe higgs is a virgin, for the bit.

Okay okay I gotta stop for now because it's 1 AM but like, consider it, mayhaps.

[themournwatcher]

Caspian's Inquisition Mod List

For his transmasc Trevelyan

Not even gonna lie to you guys, I probably could handle more mods but my computer is a little old. He's trucking along though and I am so proud of him. I'm gonna include all of the mods I have downloaded for my Trevelyan playthrough (with a link) and a brief description of what they do/why I picked it. I'll try to update it because I usually end up adding more as I go.

Any Voice - Mod that allows you to choose any voice during character creation (male or female/British or American). I don't know how well this portion of the mod works because I opted for the optional file: Flipped Pronouns. This causes your character to be referred to by the opposite pronouns of the gender presentation you selected at character creation. (For me, this allows my male Trevelyan to be played on a feminine model). Player's Note: This does not apply to text in game. Missions, notes, and letters will still refer to the default gender for your selection.

Divine Armor for Lady Trevelyan - Mod that allows the Divine Armor (normally bestowed to a Divine Cassandra or Vivienne in the Trespasser DLC) to be acquired early and equipped on a female Trevelyan model.

War Table (No Waiting) - A classic. I'm an impatient little bastard when it comes to those missions.

More Banter - Make those companions talk a little more often! Guaranteed chatter about every fifteen minutes so they're not just silently following you around for hours on end.

Skills Revamped (Warrior) - I think Warrior is (sadly) one of the weakest classes in Inquisition. I chose to revamp the sword&board and the battlemaster lines, but there are files for all of them. The mod creator has also done a revamp for mages and rogues as well.

Party at the Winter Palace - Allows for ALL of your companions to join you at Halamshiral! Bit lengthy on the introductions, but I think it's worth it to interact with everyone and hear all of the dialogue. Optional file that I think is a MUST is one that cuts out the sexual harassment dialogue concerning Cullen.

Actually Alistair - Another must have. They butchered my boy in Inquisition. This doesn't restore him quite to his Origins glory, but it's much better...

Blackwall, Warden of the North - I just couldn't stand his beard. I'm sorry.

Lady Josephine's Outfit Retextures & Lady Josephine Complexion - I picked blush for the outfit and gold for the headband and jewelry under her complexion. It gives her soft brown eyes and a much more fun and romantic outfit detailing!

Dark Knight Cullen - The outfits are fun but I really appreciated the complexion retextures here! I liked it best with the scars and the DA2 beard.

The Wolf - Darker Solas Retexture - Self-explanatory, and it's a gorgeous labor of love.

Refined Varric - He just looked a little too grungy for me. Sorry grungy Varric lovers, the vanilla complexions in this game are too oily.

Refined Vivienne - Fell in love with this mod the second I saw it; I love the makeup and contours it adds to her face, very striking and very VIV!

DA2 Cassandra - Very close to her default Inquisition complexion, I just wanted something a little more familiar.

C.A.R.P. Concept Art Sera Overhaul - New complexions and face textures + hairstyle that causes Sera to more closely resemble her concept art design.

Royal Retextures - Retextured outfits for Celene, Florianne, Gaspard, and Briala at the Winter Ball. (BTW if anyone can send me the link for the Briala mod that overhauls her whole design. Throw it my way)

New Outfits for Human Female - Wanted a mod that overhauls the default Skyhold PJs and found one that didn't make my poor Trevelyan stand around with his tits out or in lacy lingerie. Features some mixed armor between Vivienne and Cassandra and Flemeth's outfit.

LL Inquisition Faction - Mod that recolors all of the Inquisition heraldry into a green/black/gold scheme. Includes optional files for retextured furniture and Halamshiral finery.

Inquisition Branded Finery - I opted NOT to use the finery from the above mod and selected the white/emerald one here. There are other cute color options too!

Anto Hairstyles for DAI - I picked the Elena mesh for Veremund's hair. I will say this was the only mod that I could get to load (AND PLEASE READ THE REQUIRED MODS ON THIS ONE).

DAI Frosty Texture Glitch Fixes - Fixes a bunch of things that I broke :)

Sprint Key - Another must-have. Enables you to sprint at any time by holding down left shift.

Winter/Autumn in Thedas - I have only linked the winter one here as that's the one I'm using, but I LOVE both of these retextures! If you love autumn leaves or crisp snow, check these out. You do not need reshaders to play with these.

Winter Fog ReShade - But if you'd LIKE a reshade to complement the mod above, this is the one the creator recommends! I'm giving it a whirl, too.

Always Night in Skyhold - It's always night in Skyhold! I think it makes cutscenes more dramatic.

**Other recommendations:

Gender-Neutral Pronouns for the Inquisitor - Similar to the first mod I listed, except it removes any mention of "Lord/Lady" and strives to be an entirely neutral mod. (You can find the original tumblr post explaining the mod in more detail here).

Custom Body Models - Adds more variety to the Inquisitor's physical appearance. Only works on the Skyhold PJs and the various meshes you can find thereof.

As I said, I'll be adding more as I go! If you have any recommendations, please send them my way as well :)

[weirdestcornelius]

Honestly I feel there's a conflict of interest when it comes to the world building being stripped of politics when attempting to also have a story that critiques the medical world. I get it's a vent comic and I respect it but I'm honestly quietly dreading how themes are going to be protrayed, i dread it's just going to say nothing and come off not saying much of anything. .

-•👁️•new anon btw

Other critique blogs have talked about this before, but in a lot of cases you cannot just remove one conflict of the world without affecting the others. The politics thing is especially annoying because I just KNOW that Kc is gonna woobify everyone except Cuddles once we actually get introduced to Meat. It's going to be "don't blame Meat you guys!!!!!!! He didn't do anything wrong, blame Cuddles!!!!! Cuddles is the bad guy!!!!!! :(((((((((" even though Meat has just let the hospital run. And from how nervous he's always looking in art and ref sheets, I can almost guarantee you he knows at least a little about it.

Not saying I hate Meat though. I want more FUCKED UP GUYS I want more crazy or selfish people like seriously everyone is just a husk of their formal self at this point. But my question is how is Kc gonna say politics doesn't exist but then turn around and give them a president. Do elections just not exist? Is this one of tyranny things that are gonna be painted as good because "politics bad"? It's really confusing because we don't even know how their political system even works, when in reality politics and the terrible things that happen in hospitals/mental wards plus the shitty way American healthcare works are all intertwined with each other. I personally wouldn't be really surprised if we were just told that Cuddles invented medical malpractice himself or something.

Some of the world building I really like, but come on now. If this is supposed to be a comic that mirrors actual real world problems, you should at least TRY to make it similar to our world. "People don't eat meat because of cultural reasons! It's considered barbaric" is how I knew that Kc is probably a vegetarian. This is supposed to be the "ideal world" while still including medical malpractice, but apparently Kcs ideal world is just Christian/Atheist utopia where everyone gets along except for this One Guy who just absorbed everyone else's evilness.

[system-of-a-feather]

You know what, I was ranting about shit to a certain Chinese friend of ours and I'm directly gonna say it, its absolutely fucked up now that I'm actually thinking about it that @/sophieinwonderland accused me of being pro-CCP and pushing CCP propaganda

Like a while ago when I found out about it, it was so wild it was funny, haha chinese people this that assuming we are all CCP haha classic racist fucking bullshit

But its only when I started explaining the history of attrocities and shit situations my family's home country INDONESIA was put through did I realize just how especially fucked it was.

Cause back in the whole cold war shit Indonesia has a supposedly pretty good guy as the founding President and what with the whole anti-communist vs communist push, and HONESTLY at this point I don't even know if they were thinking of discussing allying with the CCP because of all the fucking American propaganda

But seeing as Indonesia was communist in ideology, America literally fucking assisted in staging a coup that pushed both anti-communist rhetoric AND SPECIFICALLY anti-chinese rhetoric that resulted in the fucking bloody massacre of Chinese citizens in Indonesia. Literally people who were BORN and RAISED in Indonesia that had Chinese blood and were just as indoneisan as everyone else born and raised there were literally hunted and killed for being fucking Chinese because America both supported and helped push the rhetoric that Chinese = Communist = Bad = Murder them

And so Im fucking sitting here, with my parents having LITERALLY BEEN CHASED OUT OF INDONESIA FOR BEING CHINESE AND ACCUSED OF BEING EVIL COMMUNISTS BECAUSE THEY WERE LITERALLY BEING CHASED IN THE STREETS, having this white fucking bitch from America saying that I am ACTUALLY a secret CCP fucking agent trying to push fucking CCP propaganda

I'm sorry, I'm not.

My dad also was not

Unfortunately fucking Americans pushed that anyone who is Chinese is automatically CCP and that literally resulted in the death of A LOT of people like my dad who BTW has a lot of trauma for completely unknown reasons

Anyways I'm fucking pissed off. And ya know what, if I didnt have the fucking bitch blocked and probably wasn't also blocked by her, I would just @ her directly cause fuck you and the literal rhetoric that lead to fucking massacres of a "third world country" that literally jsut wanted to be left alone

And FYI; the coup resulted in the placement of a heavily corrupt western-ideology leader which directly increased the sheer amount of corruption in Indonesia but ok.

Like theres a whole fucking book on it that I haven't read cause it pisses me off but my sister read it and was like "lol yeah the US admitted to it" and its literally called the Jakarta Method

I probably missed some details and got it wrong cause shocker, I'm talking from my culture's lived experience and passed down fucking cultural trauma but whatever.

It's really fucked up.

Don't quote me on this cause I probably again, got details wrong, but that fucking rhetoric undeniably - by americas own admission - resulted in the death of many Indonesians on the premise of Those Evil Chinese Communists. I'm hesitant to post this cause again, I am speaking from released American documents and my family's personal reports and peer's reports so there might be errors, but ya know what, white americans?

Fuck off. Even if I got the details wrong in some places, it doesn't fucking matter because dear white americans, you still killed millions of people in indonesia in your crusade against communism so please miss me with accusing me - a first generation child from an Immigrant from Indonesia - an Evil Communist.

The sentiment in Indonesia still persists, enough so that when I met someone who was from China (who had a relative who was born and raised in indonesia) heard I was Indonesian-Chinese widened his eyes and went "ohhhhh" and commented that his relative doesn't go home to Indonesia anymore because its fucking dangerous.

Its fucking stupid.

[dykevotions]

throws potion of infodump about ocs on you and runs away

RAUHHHH OKAY!!! USING THIS AS AN EXCUSE TO TALK ABOUT THE MCRP DISEASE!!!! SPOILERS FOR APPLECRAFTERS AND BEASTS AHEAD. I GUESS

okaaayyyy so. first of all. not a spoilered characters. heres angelic and jacket. love them both so dearly.

they are QUEER!!!!!!!!!!! and a bit SILLY!!!!!!! their jobs are hanging out in my single player world and eventually going to hell (blood ocean) thats right baybe . the blood ocean is REAL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! anyways these guys are mainly . not even doomed yuri theyr just hanging out. i love them so muchhhh ^_^ guys who are hopelessly in love and make it everyone elses problem forever n ever

heres sltom. i have so many. i cant explain everything going on with her if i was given years. its literally so important to me. got put in a death game, died, came back to be put in another death game, died, forced to walk an abandoned world. theres so much happening with xem im gonna throw up. i made two webweaves for zem which. r very good. dog with blood around its mouth. she did all that shit but FAE DESERVED TO!!!!!!!! FOR THE RECORD!!!! god. i gotta explain whats wrong w vamp one of these days

heres sleepy!!! go to pvp guy. this is essentially "what if there was a guy who kind of sucked at fighting but did it a lot for fun" . not a lot to xem but xey are SOOOO silly. xey are kind of mean 2 xer friends . xey dont mean it though. well sometimes xey do

FRUITBAT!!! one of two of my animals in separate timeloops. working w their best friend (heyyyyyyy lav :3) to restore a ancient city that seems. oddly frozen. sculk freak (just likes it. a lot.) nerd ass guy. BAT HYBRID ASWELL I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT they love flying and doing stupid shit. divebombs people to say hi. love them so much. oh also in their timeloop theres regenerating skeletons that are growing meat but thats okay and normal!!!

this is dogboyyyy . theres not a lot to him. BUT. guy who lives in the nether. literally just a good person. comma. also gives like everything he earns to other people. for fun. hes silly and also stupid disease. holding him in my hands so gently

BUNNY!! OR SAT. LEAGUE TOM ! guy with a literal lunatic on its shoulder. made a conlang for it yesterday. can only communicate via animal crossing sounds (nonverbal autistic win!) and their conlang on signs.

the conlang as it stands rn. btw. they are so interesting. they have had like 2 mental breakdowns already because they were trying to communicate with people and they couldnt understand them. love this animal. holding it by the scruff. this guy wants to kill people so bad

SHEEPBOY !!!!!! OR FRI. LEAGUE TOM !! this is his second death game she did really well in the first one. they genuinely enjoy being in death games its like a sport to them. this is their american football . id call them nice most of the time however when they go red it gets. a bit insane. but thats normal for being bloodthirsty i think!!

this is f , or ftom, or whatever u wanna call them . they r worldbound BUT they r a hub world player so basically they just get to hang out. mostly in hypixel but sometimes the worldhoppers they know drag them around to other places which is fun fun fun !!!!!

this is yuri . bug in a timeloop !!!! it is. oh my god i love them SOOO MUCH. it is constantly digging this huge tunnel system which they live in and also. refuses to believe they are in a timeloop. it just "has memory problems and its just a STUPID prank. probably" . it is in fact a timeloop for the record.

OKAY THATS THE MC GUYS I CAN THINK OF FOR NOW ..... WALKS OFF INTO THE VOID

[literaticat]

I have a question that I'm just not sure who to ask. I've been loving reading different books by authors and characters with different lived experiences from me. I'm querying a book with a character who shares my background as a double minority. However, I don't have any close ties with either my mother or father's cultures. They're a part of my heritage, but not a part of my culture. Does that make sense?

It seems to me that the biggest draw with books from marginalized backgrounds are the rich cultures we get to explore, and even the issues that many face in that community. Reading books from people that share a part of my identity has been amazing--but I don't have the same experiences, and I don't know the culture like they do. My worry is that when I query my book, I might tell an agent that my background is X/X and they expect to read about the culture of X/X or the expected experiences of someone from that background and it isn't there.

I feel fake having to google facts that I don't know, and even faker trying to write about things that are not my experience.

So my question is this: If I mention my racial background in my query letter--and an agent sees little to nothing about that culture, do you put down the manuscript? Do you question why this person decided to even mention their background? Do you question why the culture isn't there? It feels like if you're a minority, you HAVE to feature your culture. What if you're from a marginalized background--but you don't know your culture?

So, caveat that I'm a random white person, so I'm like, deffo not an expert about different marginalizations or racial or cultural identities AT ALL, soooo -- maybe this is going to be a ding-dong answer???? Feel free to ignore it, I don't want to like, "whitesplain" anybody or talk over anyone, and if people have BETTER answers, I invite them to chime in! But hey, you asked me, so I'm gonna attempt it.

I feel like your experience as a bi-racial/bi-cultural person who doesn't really know about their parent's heritage is like... very valid as its own experience. Not everyone does know -- while of course there are tons of families that prioritize kids knowing their background/ culture/heritage, customs, language, etc... there are also tons of families who want to assimilate to wherever they are, where learning about "the old country" is NOT a priority.

I mean, I know plenty of young people whose parents or grandparents were immigrants to the US before they were even born, who don't know a lick of their parents or grandparent's language beyond tentative "hello/goodbye/thank you", have never been to that country, appreciate the food and culture and holidays and whatnot but don't really participate in them, or have a totally "American" way of participating in them -- that's part of the diaspora experience, too. Feeling confused or conflicted or "neither fish nor fowl" about it is normal and legit. And there is NOTHING wrong with putting that experience in a book.

Basically, IMO, you don't need to know everything about whatever-culture -- what's wrong with writing a character who DOESN'T KNOW? Maybe they are curious and want to find out. Maybe they are bringing their own assumptions and biases to learning about it, or never want to learn about it. Maybe they realize that there's something important about connecting with parts of it but also question or reject other parts and make their OWN traditions. Maybe this is a source of tension within the family, or maybe not? Maybe this not-knowing is indeed the catalyst of the story.

OR, maybe race/background has nothing to do with the story REALLY, it's just an adventure or romance of some random kind that could happen to any kind of person -- that's fine and good too btw -- but since you DID make your character Indian-Peruvian-American from the Bronx (or whatever) -- their experience probably WILL be different than if the adventure or romance was happening to Becky the White Farm Girl from Idaho, just like it would be different if it were happening to snobby Siobhan from Dublin, or Andrew, the Black nerd from San Francisco, or whatever. Your character's background, race, experiences, temperament, knowledge-base, etc, is going to inform how they react to whatever happens in your book, right?

(Just like a small woman walking alone at night probably has a different internal monologue than a burly dude walking alone at night; a BIPOC person probably has a different feeling about seeing flashing lights behind them than the white son of the Police Chief has, etc -- people say things like "oh, it really doesn't MATTER if the main character is Black or white or a man or a woman or non-binary or whatever -- it's just a STORY -- and yeah, OK, I guess it IS just a story -- but it also is a DIFFERENT STORY from all those different points of view, right? So how does YOUR character react to the things that happen or the adventure that is afoot?)

All of this is a very RAMBLY way to say -- I don't think there's anything wrong with writing a character with your background -- but I also don't think there's any reason you have to shoehorn in a bunch of references that check off some imaginary list of "culture boxes" but are NOT true to your own experience as a second-generation Indian-Peruvian-American from the Bronx who knows not much about India or Peru. That is its own experience -- and that's cool and interesting, too.

(And in your query letter you can even address it -- like, "My main character also shares my Indian-Peruvian-American heritage mash-up, and was somewhat inspired by my own experiences growing up disconnected from my roots and trying to figure out my own traditions" or "Like my main character, I grew up in the Bronx, and while my background is 50% Peruvian and 50% Indian, to the dismay of my grandparents, I identify as 100% New Yorker." So that the agent won't go in thinking "oh, I'm about to read a story all about the MAGIC OF INDIA" -- they'll know that you are NOT writing that story.)

[lonestarss]

4GGRAVATE UNO STREAM LIVEBLOG ft. lots of out of context quotes

(warning: extremely long post!! also i get who's saying/doing what wrong several times lmao)

PRE-GAMES

REACH FOR THE STARS IS PLAYING !!!!

I KEEP ON RUNNIGGGNG

god i am. too hype rn.

btw i'm team nazeeh and alejandro. i hope they kick everyone's asses tonight

WE'RE STARTINGGGG

alejandro: "christmas treat"

zach...

CY FY!!! BABYGIRL

btw, i'm only watching cy yu's perspective because multitwitch is glitchy for me rn. sadge

"'they hate cynari' HEY I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING" alejandro you are so dear to me

alejandro saying "zach" like a confused mother i'm crying

NAZEEEEHH

nazeeh's voice is so pretty omg

ZACH?!?!?

HE SPEAKS

I'M THE BOY

"zachary???" ben sounds like he's bleating i love it

"messed up as heck" ~ zachary gordon, grown ass man (lighthearted)

zach: "and my mother is calling me!"

zach: "twitch needs to be user friendly for grandpas"

alejandro, in reply: "you're younger than all of us"

alejandro, to nazeeh: "YOU'RE DATING MY COUSIN YOU BEAT MY ASS IN SMASH BROS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL"

alejandro: "the discord? that we have???"

zach: "i am cooking steak rn"

ben, about zach: "as soon as you go live we're gonna hear an explosion and then you're gonna go offline"

zach is so sweet omg

zach in his doxxer era

"windows might have done a thing" story of my life

ZACH

...why did zach just like. moan

alejandro has 141 unique jokes...

alejandro: "get it? ᶜᵘᶻ ᶦᵗ'ˢ ᵃ ᵖʳᶦˢᵒⁿ ᶜᵉˡˡ"

i love how 90% of my liveblogging is just about alejandro and zach

nice plug

FINALLY GETTING INTO THE UNO LESGOOOOO

THE GAMES

UNO BEGINSSS

(i'm probably gonna get less talkative now bc i'll be watching the game)

alejandro: "that's how microphones work, my guy"

everyone playing their wild cards PLEASE

....this is not how i play uno

nazeeh getting uno first??

alejandro: "it's a MyStErY OOOOO"

ALEJANDRO DOING A SWITCHUP OOOOUH

NAZEEH SCREAMING??

alejandro: "that's crazy. nazeeh go again"

ben: "I DON'T HAVE BLUE DUDE"

alejandro: "that. might be racist"

BEN SDHJFHS

god i forgot how funny cy yu streams are

alejandro why did you do that...

alejandro, in the most american accent possible: "¡vamanos!"

JUST GIVE HIM A YELLOW

ben you dumbass

nazeeh's getting his ass beat bro stop he's already dead

BEN

nazeeh's increasingly loud "FUCK"s

cy yu's being just as much of a liar to himself as i am on a daily basis, love to see it

"if i believe hard enough" and then he immediately fails oh we are one and the same

ben: "i've had it"

nazeeh, in reply: "yeah i think we've all had uno at one point"

alejandro having the worst uno he could have

ben, to alejandro: "YOU FUCKGIN. IDIOT"

also ben: "YOU ARE THE STUPIDEST MOTHERFUCKER I HAVE EVER MET"

I'LL KILL MYSELF??? BEN??

in true kaveh fashion, ben is losing the game and his mind

ben: "it ain't easy being cheesy ok"

my faith in nazeeh is wavering greatly

nazeeh +4ing alejandro fuckin harsh

alejandro: "you might've just given nazeeh the game"

ben: "what do i do? what am i supposed to do? WHO AM I"

i feel so bad for ben bro hsjkhfd

OK NVM NAZEEH WILL SWEEP AFTER ALL

ALEJANDRO PULLING LIKE 100 CARDS BAHAHA

ben after pulling the strangest fucking moves and still losing

no bc why did he swap hands with nazeeh when he had a +2

NOT THE +6 TO ZACH

HOW DID BENJAMIN FUCKING WIN THAT

ben after pulling the strangest fucking moves and still winning

MY FUCKING INTERNET WENT OUT NOOOOO

SHIT

WAIT. WE BACK

I THINK

ben: "it's not baby blue IT'S TEAL"

THAT IS NOT FUCKING MAROON WHAT IS ALEJANDRO WAFFLING ABOUT

them reciting the alphabet i'm crying

the triple uno..

YEAHHH ALEJANDRO WON

that's ben and alejandro at 1, nazeeh and zach at 0

the chat keeps on talking abt cynari. we really are a hivemind huh

ALEJANDRO'S SCREECH WHEN ZACH GOT UNO

alejandro: "do i play a normal red or do i fuck him"

BEN WON WOOO

wait no, that was nazeeh. my bad

this chat is kinda cringe ngl

i'm getting so much ram.exe because cy yu knows i'm his number 1 fan

ZACH WON WOOOO

wait alejandro won 2 rounds? huh?

or is he lying

zach: "the wimpy kid has,, woken up!!"

zach??

i've tried playing dos before. i hated it

i feel like something really funny is about to happen

ben i don't think any of y'all were normal to begin with, uno or otherwise

alejandro: "that wasn't red!"

ben, in reply: "i didn't ask!"

this is such chaos i love it

alejandro just missed out on a mean ass play i'm so mad at him (/hj)

the alejandro/nazeeh friendship is so nice

ALEJANRO BACKSTABBING NAZEEH LMAO

cy yu: "STACK IT STACK IT- awwwuh :'("

RUN THAT BITCH

ben: "i'm gonna play the biggest 7 you've ever seen"

damn. alejandro backstabbing everyone but zach

everyone pulling these nasty ass moves on each other except for zach. he's in his own lane. i admire that

alejandro WHY ARE YOU ANNOUNCING WHAT COLORS YOU HAVE

i can't even tell who tf is gonna win this

actually. idc if he has a billion cards, alejandro sweep

HE'S DOWN TO 4, ALEJANDRO SWEEP

cy fy is back bitches!! hashtag feminism

ok we're back in cy yu's flop era. but i still believe he can sweep

even when ben has 3 cards

god this really is anyone's game huh

SKIPPING ZACH NOOOO

zach: "actually broke my heart a little bit :("

"i'm just playing the game" badly /j

NAZEEH'S HAND??

the "wait a fucking second" in (what sounded like) alhaitham's voice LMAOOO

i was once in an uno game that lasted like an hour and a half because we were missing some cards and it made it so nobody could win for some reason, true story

ZACH WON WOOOO

common tighnari fan W

oh zach is fucking stupid i see /j

ben: "you fucked me, buddy. you REALLY fucked me"

"can you make it yellow?" "no" literally them irl

they censor the word "nerd" in twitch chat??? huh

they really are just the sumeru boys if they could swear huh

the joey slander lmao

bro was ben taking a shit just then? wtf was that groan

ben balmaceda would do numbers on tumblr

zach continuing to make the worst possible decisions

zach: "(uno) brings people together and it brings forgiveness and,, i don't want my hand anymore"

these coin flips are tearing them apart i love it

ZACH WON AGAIN GODDAMN

teams are alejandro and ben vs nazeeh and zach

let's get it

ALEJANDRO CAN'T TAKE DUBS FOR SHIT LMAOOOO

zach: "y'all are yoinked"

goddamn. ben and zach won so much

ben: "alejandro why did you just write 'penis penis penis penis penis'??"

zach and nazeeh vs alejandro and ben (??)

cy yu's just doing everyone dirty here. i thought zach was safe but ig not

THAT SKIP WAS DIRTYYY

alejandro please take the dub

ok he is never taking a dub holy shit

ALEJANDRO WHAT ARE YOU DOING

YOU GOT THE WILD CARD BUT AT WHAT COST

AAAAND CY YU GETS THE DUB LET'S FUCKING GOOOOO

I SAID CY YU AND NAZEEH WOULD SWEEP AND DID I LIE???

it only took like. 10 rounds or some shit

BUT IT STILL HAPPENED

that was so much fun. i loved it

4ggravate supremacy, my final message. gootb ye

[sayitaliano]

Would you say that for you as an Italian that it's easy to understand other romance languages? Which ones are easier to get? Is there one that reading is easier to get than listening (or the opposite)? Do they sound weird/ugly/beautiful in your opinion? Do you think you could hold a conversation with someone where you speak Italian and they speak another romance language?

Ciao! I think the level of understanding depends on the specific Region/area an Italian is born in and on the "ear" a person has in relation to other languages. It's difficult to speak for everyone. Seen that you're asking me, I'm gonna share my personal experience but having studied some of those languages, I probably cannot be a good source for your curiosity (from what I get, you'd like to know as if I hadn't). :)

I have been born in an area in which both Spanish and French have been in control of, so the dialect (not just the Regional language, but my specific hometown version) has influences of both languages, French in particular. My ear has been pretty used to French sounds since when I was born (this dialect is spoken in my family), + my mother studied French (she translated me stuff at times) and I studied French as well in school (middle school) for 3 years. Ofc now I still understand French pretty well (even after having not practiced it for... years, ages prob.): I might not have all the vocabs I would like to have in my mind, I might have forgotten even some grammar rules (which prob makes it a bit more complicated for me to speak correctly), but the basics are still with me and I could survive especially by speaking it (I might wonder at least about accents for some written words, e.g.).

Now Spanish. Friends, don't hate me but Spanish is somewhat similar to Italian: we often say "you only need to add an s at the end of each word" jokingly (ofc that's not true, but it's true that we share some words and... something else too). I have been studying Spanish on my own for a while in the past and I admit, despite never having paid attention to verbs' conjugations, I still could manage to write with some online friends and basically make little to no mistake... I followed "the sound". When it comes to spoken Spanish, I still get basically everything, despite again I haven't really been practicing too much recently and I might have forgotten some vocabs. At first it only required me to practice listening a lot and form a good vocabulary through interviews and other stuff, and then I simply tried writing (and speaking a bit). Btw as mentioned in the past, my ear is a little more used to South American Spanish, but I get Spain's as well. Ofc I am referring only to "standard" Spanish here, if that is a thing: if you wanted to talk with me in e.g. Catalàn, I might get something but probably be less accurate (Idk, we can try). Same thing goes for French ofc! I meant only "standard" French, no Regional: listening to the ESC last year for example, I really couldn't get the song's lyrics too in detail (or maybe at all lol).

As for Portuguese, again I have studied it a little: at first I only could get a few words and understand some others from sentence's general meaning (spoken Portuguese was a little more intricate despite almost sounds as a couple of our Regional languages mixed together -jk), but then after understanding the sound, I started getting a little more also in the spoken language. I don't have a huge vocabulary so I'm still pretty behind when it comes to understanding, writing and speaking it (speaking always comes a little bit more difficult to me: I need to have a good amount of vocabs to start). I mean in both in Brazilian's and Portugal's ones (focused a little more on Brazilian's tbh). But I still can get something here and there, if people speak more slowly.

When it comes to Romanian, I can understand some words in their written form; not sure as for the spoken one cause I have never had the chance to try speaking/listening to it (at least paying attention to it) despite my interactions with some Romanians.

Going back to Regional languages, even just Italians' are way too different in how they're formed... I cannot get everything people say, especially when they speak fast. And especially when it comes to Regional languages that are far from the one/s I have been in contact with the most, like those from the center/south or in the north-east, or that use different languages influences (Ladino, Patois... e.g. in Patois I understand counting as it's basically in French). It depends on what they say, if I have already heard that or not. If I know the word's meaning or not (or if I can at least guess it from the rest of the sentence: but many times it's hard even to do so).

Now, I know there are other Romance languages I haven't mentioned but understanding them, for me, depends on the sounds, my vocabulary knowledge, how the sentence is buildt and if I can relate them somehow to Latin (which I studied as well for 5.5 years in school so maybe it helps me too)? To me, every language sounds beautiful honestly, exactly because it has its own sounds and rules that make it different from another. And not just Romance ones.

As for holding a convo with someone speaking another language (supposing that I don't know it, not even by chance)... Idk, probably only a basic convo? I guess I might end up using gestures or sth to help the communication at a certain point. The only way to know is to try, any volunteer? :)

Did I answered everything? I hope so!

I forgot: in general you read at your own pace so prob reading is easier than listening to a native who speaks fast, no matter the language, especially in the beginning. But it's of help in keep practicing listening in order to get to their level.

[dumbass-forever]

Hi everyone, nobody’s probably gonna see this but I’m bored so why not make it!

So I’m new to tumblr and have no idea how it actually works tbh lol

Anyways here’s a bit abt me

-I’m in middle school (American system except I don’t even live there) so yeah I’m younger than probably everyone on this app cuz I have the feeling everyone here is like 19 but who cares

- bcs I’m the youngest sibling of like 20 year olds and I skipped a year in school I always hung out with ppl who are way older than me so I’m more mature than the average middle schooler and it’s not just smth I say abt myself so seriously it’s not fake literally everyone tells me that and not like ‘OmG yOu’Re SoO MatUrE’ they say it in a serious way so don’t treat me like a kid pls it’s annoying

-I love anime, kdrama, K-pop (only listen to gg’s and like a few songs maybe from bg’s don’t come at me cuz I don’t want war but I don’t listen to bts), drawing and just music in common but yo I might be thinking I’m obsessed with the first 3 things in like an obsessive way but seriously I’m not and it’s not bcs I watch those that I wanna be East Asian so pls don’t judge me based on that

- I’m the youngest sibling of four girls (I’m also a girl btw) which sucks in my family and if my sister finds this I’m doomed but hey I already am (partially bcs they do know I listen to K-pop and she’ll hate me when she know so I hope she doesn’t see this lol) (this is just for my sister so if you’re not her you can skip this ☺️ yo dude don’t disown me or smth for that it’s just songs and it’s on my fyp so what do you expect from me to ignore it anyways literally none of your business and I WILL hit you like you hit me if you get mad at me)

-I’m Muslim so for all the other Muslims Ramadan Mubarak but a month early

I honestly have no idea what else to say abt myself but if anything comes up I’ll just add it later

As I said I don’t think ppl will actually see this but if anyone does and someone gives me hate just know that I rlly don’t care abt it

Also if anybody cares to do so can somebody explain this app for me like can I save things like on Pinterest or do I just wat h the post and like? Also very important this sentence is made when I clicked on the pencil thingy after posting this, how do I make a new post cuz I don’t see the button for that? I probably sound very dumb rn but who cares you’re right I am. Things like that I guess!

Hope everyone has a nice day!

[calumhoodgoss]

re: arzaylea accusing the friend group of racism or whatever, just reminded me of a phenomenon that I feel like you kinda have to live to understand but as a fellow aussie you'll probably get more than most: and it's that sydneysiders are fucking bullies

and i mean like insults being the norm, in ways that comes out to look like, for example, far worse racism than what actually happens, and there's a lot of lateral racism especially coming from poc but also that weird comradery of living in the same area too. same way in which queer and neurodivergent folk i grew up with use the worst slurs against both those groups but then are also out there tryna help it get better. idk, that's just what I grew up with and my area wasn't too dissimilar demographically from where they were, working class areas with people with a lot of generational baggage all trying to interact together. and if anyone wouldn't get it it's if you grew up a poc in the usa where conversations about activism happened a lot earlier and are a lot more performative, and from a rich family. like obv we haven't really been taking seriously anything she's said in that era (which on principle I hate treating anyone this way btw, but i'm also protective of luke and sometimes it's just not the time to pick apart everyone) and sometimes it's best to just move on from it all

but in case it does come up, I know this (what I've described above) isn't really the image they put out but 7-9 years ago they were a lot fresher out of oz and you can tell by the way they used to interact with each other. and i feel like i'm always defending the boys and yes there's always gonna be areas they're not exactly role models in but i've seen far too many 'racism' allegations that pick apart wordings of things said by them and their circle rather than look at the bigger picture culturally, and how we all come from a background of racism we're trying to unlearn collectively (which I feel like aussies get rn as we scramble to understand Indigenous rights and reconciliation) and then there's also the fact that no one ever acknowledges the fact calum's half Maori and it would impact him and his experience with all things colonialism and race. and they all do care about him, they care about sierra too--rant's almost over but i just wish we had better conversations about how to actually unlearn racism together rather than just accusing each other of being racist when it's like, no one's completely innocent but the only way things are ever gonna get better is if we all do the work as part of a movement and stop picking each other apart (especially in culturally insensitive ways) and infighting. anyway. disgruntled aussie I guess. i'll get back to real life activism and leave arzaylea alone

very interesting concept. i definitely agree to a certain extent that the cultural difference between American and Australian humour could not be bigger. i feel like over here (particularlyin middle to lower class groups), there is a general understanding between friends that things we say as jokes are not our true feelings on the matter. rather, we discern whether someone respects us through their actions and tone. we very much have a culture where everyone is on the chopping block, no matter what culture or hardship you have

i can totally understand though that these are not the same underlying nuances in America. and the boys not having known that could have said or done things that caused actual harm to people. was that their intent? probably not, but the result is what matters. i have no idea how those situations were handled or how those conversations went; but the least we can expect from them is that if they said something insensitive theyd own up to it and make a conscious effort not to make the same mistake again

yes its a cultural difference for sure, but it doesnt completely absolve them

i dont know the full situation and as you mentioned, arz has been widely accepted as an unreliable source. so who knows how they truly act and what their real attitudes are, but this is an interesting take and worth mulling over for sure