#this is the third edition for the record i assume it's fairly recent as my brother would've been learning greek in the late 2010's

[classicslesbianopinions]

remembered i stole a copy of athenaze from my brother and was reading some of the passages because the online textbook i've been using doesn't have a lot of reading practice and i'm realizing i would really benefit from it but like. i kind of can't do it because every single passage is just. a farmer telling his slave to be less lazy and work more? and there's a lot of repetition which is great for learning but terrible if you don't want to just keep reading "don't be lazy and go work" over and over. and there's a whole inset in english explaining that yeah athenians had slaves but they didn't treat them that badly! alongside all the stories of this guy treating his slave badly as a joke. unenjoyable reading experience.

[tefanfics]

Changes

Chapter 36

I don’t know how long I walked but when I finally stopped, I didn’t really recognize my surroundings. And I wasn’t sure if that was due to the fact I was still fairly distraught or because I didn’t know London as well as I thought I did.

I found a short stone wall lining the sidewalk and rested against it, my legs still shaky as my mind began to clear. I pulled my purse onto my lap and started to search it for my phone. When I didn’t find it, there was a small amount of panic as I patted my pockets.

I had left at the apartment. I sighed as I shut my eyes and hung my head. I had no doubt that Taron was going through his own panic. He had probably tried to call me a dozen times already. Part of me wondered if he was looking for me but the other part of me, the one who had been down the path of destruction more times to count, had convinced me not to hold my breath.

My thoughts were still a little crazy but I was at least able to start deciphering individual thoughts. The first being that I had just ran out on Taron. I panicked and just left. Flight had definitely won over fight. The second was that the photo I had seen a million and a half times already was doctored. It had purposely edited and released to make it look like something was going on that shouldn’t have been. And the third thought…

Taron hadn’t gotten angry with me. He didn’t yell at me or call me names. He didn’t belittle me or make me feel worse than I already had. He had been calm and patient with me. He let me speak my piece before explaining what had truly happened.

“He’s not him,” I muttered to myself. I repeated this a few times as I stood up. I debated going home already but I knew I wasn’t completely calm. So I walked until I felt okay enough to head home.

I had no clue what time it was when I was finally standing in front of the apartment door. I let myself in, kicked off my shoes and dropped my purse before searching the apartment for Taron. He was nowhere to be found.

In the living room, I found my phone on the coffee table with a note next to it. There were more notifications on my phone than there had been in the last two weeks. Missed calls and texts from Taron. I shifted my attention to the note.

No wonder you weren’t answering. If you come home, call me please. I’m worried sick. Xx

I lowered myself onto the sofa and reread the note before putting it down beside me. I skimmed over the messages on my phone, guilt taking a seat front in center in the pit in my stomach. On the most recent missed call, I slid the notification over and the phone began to ring. But it only rang once before I heard Taron.

“Are you okay?” Taron said immediately. “Are you safe?”

“I’m home,” was all I could bring myself to say. “I’m fine, I think.”

“I’ll be home in fifteen minutes, okay? I love you.”

“Okay. I love you too,” I whispered. I let the phone slip from my hand and land on the sofa. I pulled my feet up and held my legs to my chest with my chin resting on my knees. My eyes shut as I took deep breaths.

Eventually the front door flew open and Taron was in the room in seconds. I looked up at met his gaze. I could see red rimmed around his eyes and his brow furrowed as he approached me. He grabbed my hands and pulled me off the sofa, immediately wrapping his arms around me and holding me close.

Slowly he released me before putting his hands on both sides of my face. I met his gaze as he spoke. “Please, please don’t do that again,” he whispered before kissing me. I could’ve melted. It was the first kiss from him in months. His kiss was soft and delicate, worry still hidden in his actions. The small pecks to my lips moved to a kiss to the forehead. “Are you okay?”

With my lips pressed together, I gave a slow nod. Taron let his hands fall from my face to my waist. “Better than before at least,” I sighed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left like that.”

“I don’t understand why you did,” he answered carefully. He stepped past me to the larger side of the sectional and sat down, patting the spot beside him. I sat down and felt his arm drape over my shoulders as I took the chance to lean into him.

I missed his touch. Three months had been far too long. I wished I could have just come home to him and it would’ve been all kisses and hugs, embraces and ‘I miss you’s’ but not this time.

“Can you explain it to me?” Taron asked. I could hear the hesitation in his voice but the curiosity was stronger. “I want to understand.”

I focused on the TV in front of us. The black screen allowed for me to see the reflection of us. Taron’s attention was on me in his arms.

“Panic attack. Full blown freak out. I spiraled,” I listed. “I meant it when I said I was broken, T.” I sighed as I let myself rest my head against him, shutting my eyes. “Once upon a time, I made the comment that Jake was being rather secretive with his phone. I teased that he was talking to his other girlfriend. Only he didn’t see it as a joke even though that was purely what it was. He had been in a really good mood then suddenly it was like a light switch flipped. He yelled and screamed, called me every name he could think of. He told me that he had never cheated on me and he wouldn’t ever do it but by god, he made sure I knew he could do better than me if he wanted to.” My eyes fluttered open as I shook my head at the memory, another sigh escaping.

Taron stayed quiet, listening to every thing I said. He held me a little closer as his thumb gently moved in circles on my shoulder.

“I was terrified when I saw that photo of you, Taron. I worried you were going to be angry with me for assuming the worst- that it’d be a repeat of that day. And I knew I should have waited to talk to you until I got home but I couldn’t. My anxiety was a mile high when I walked through that door earlier. I thought I could protect myself if I just laid it all on the line and told you that I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt me again.” I gulped as I felt the stinging sensation in my eyes as tears welled up again. I didn’t bother wiping the tears. They streaked down my cheeks and landed on my shirt. “Sometimes I forget that I’m capable of hurting myself too. And as you know, all of it backfired. All I did was damage our relationship.”

Taron moved his arm out from behind me and slipped down the ground in front of me. His hands rested on my lap as I looked at him. “Baby, no,” he said quickly. “It didn’t ruin anything.” There was a gentle sigh as he pulled my hands to his mouth, kissing my knuckles. “I don’t know what it was like for you to deal with things like that. And I try to empathize as best I can.”

“I-I don’t mean to keep bringing all of that up,” I interjected. “I know it’s got to be annoying to have to hear about it but-“

“It’s not annoying at all. Rose, it’s part of what makes you you. It’s part of your story. Sometimes you’re going to have to tell me these chapters so that I can understand. I want to help you,” Taron said gently. “But I can promise you this. Your anxiety isn’t going to ruin anything. You dealing with emotions the way you know how to right now won’t ruin anything. I told you I’m not going anywhere and I meant it.” He released my hands and reached to my face, wiping my tears away.

I nodded slowly, sniffling as I sat there. “I’m sorry,” I whispered again. “For running out.”

“You scared me.”

“I know. I didn’t mean to.”

“Next time I’ll barricade the door,” Taron said, offering a playful smile.

I wasn’t sure if I scoffed or laughed at his comment, trying to resist a small smile.

“Come on. I’m taking you out a date,” Taron announced as he stood up. “That was far too much time without being able to spoil you.” He pulled me to my feet and dragged the suitcase to the bedroom. “How about that black dress you wore on our first date?”

I walked past him to the closet and pulled the dress out, holding it up to him. “This one?”

“Perfect,” he said with a grin as he started toward the master bathroom. “And for the record, Rose?”

I looked up from the dress, focusing on Taron.

“I could never do better than you.”

[glittergummicandypeach]

‘Cancel Culture’ Is as Old as Religion, And It’s Only a Thing Because of Who’s Doing the Cancelling | Religion Dispatches

I don’t understand “cancel culture.” I mean, I understand what people mean, but I don’t quite understand why those decrying it claim that it’s something new. 

I’ve often thought the term itself is born from social media which portends to inaugurate the democratization of knowledge but really functions to introduce the democratization of opinion. In some way, of course, opinion was always democratized; free speech enables me to say whatever I want (given certain caveats) but it doesn’t, nor did it ever, give me the right to say it wherever I want. 

In some way, cancel culture has always existed, mostly in the hands of editors of opinion pages and letters to the editor; university committees who decide who’s invited to speak and who isn’t; people who evaluate material for publication, etc. That is, there was always a process of vetting, and that vetting was not always pure and without ulterior motives. 

The lines of communication between what I happen to think and your ear have never been unmediated unless you happened to pass by my front lawn as I stood there and expounded on the ills of the world. Before this present moment, for example, would anyone think of accusing a newspaper of “cancel culture” because they rejected one’s letter to the editor (if so, I would have been the victim of cancel culture many times over).

But something has changed. Let me cite a few examples. When I was a young assistant professor at The Jewish Theological Seminary I received many invitations from Conservative synagogues to speak about my research, or on topical matters. I enjoyed such opportunities. Once I began publishing essays criticizing Israel’s occupation, the invitations stopped. Pretty abruptly. As I told a friend at the time, I could close my eyes and envision my name being summarily plucked from the Rolodexes in synagogue offices. Did that disturb me? Not really. While I certainly missed the extra income, I knew that was the price I paid for making my views public on a contentious matter. At no point did I think I was being cancelled. In fact, I was happy that at least they were reading my essays. 

A second example happened more recently. I read an essay in an online journal on a topic I know something about that I felt was very problematic, not because I disagreed with the views expressed therein (although I did), but because the essay contained errors, inaccuracies, leaps of logic, and was poorly argued. I wrote to the editors of the journal to express my dissatisfaction. In response I received a very mean-spirited response from one editor accusing me of “bullying a young writer” (the editor called him “a kid”) and claiming he was just “living his truth” (he was an American who had immigrated to Israel). 

First, I had assumed he was closer to my age. But if readers were meant to account for the writer’s age shouldn’t his work have been presented in a way that reflected this? Second, I had no idea, nor did I care, where he lived. And third, I didn’t quite understand being accused of “bullying” since I never wrote to the author and never made my views of the essay public. To this day, the unnamed author still has no idea how I felt about his essay. I simply wrote privately to the editors. While I wasn’t quite accused of “cancel culture,” that seemed to be the underlying message of the editor’s remarks. In this editor’s view I was, in some way, questioning, by privately discrediting, the right for this author to state his views.

Finally, when someone crosses a line on my Facebook thread I often block them. Before doing so, I write to them to tell them I’m blocking them, and that they have the right to say whatever they want in this world, but they don’t have the right to say whatever they want on my Facebook page. While my page is public, it’s still mine and I have the right to curate it as I see fit. I offer them the opportunity to apologize or retract their remarks and if they choose not to, I block them. I’ve been accused in this instance of “cancel culture”; that is, of preventing him or her from expressing their views and censoring them. The elision of whatever and wherever seems to have grown roots in our psyche.

So in these three moments—one where I’m not invited to speak at venues because of my views (perfectly legitimate), one where an editor accuses me of preventing someone from “living their truth” by privately criticizing their essay (illegitimate), and one where I am accused of ‘cancelling’ someone for saying whatever racist or misogynist nonsense on my Facebook page (necessary, in my view)—we find ourselves in a state of confusion where the right to say whatever we want has morphed into the right to say it wherever we want. Where public space and the democratization of opinion now enables us to confuse whatever and wherever. 

People can be, and continue to be, excluded (cancelled) for all kinds of reasons; race, religion, creed, sexual orientation. We now have legal structures in place to try to alleviate or minimize that kind of illegitimate discrimination. We’ve decided that those criteria for exclusion are unacceptable in our society. 

What it seems “cancel culture” is introducing is another layer; political or ideological discrimination. And in doing that, weaponizing something that’s existed for a long time: exclusion for other reasons. Kind of like how white people who oppose affirmative action do so because suddenly they are disadvantaged, though they had no problem for centuries when it was reversed. But is political discrimination valid? If I edit a journal and reject an essay because I find its political or ideological foundations unacceptable, is that discriminatory? Should it be? The expansion of discriminatory practice to include political or ideological differences in regard to who gets to say what, where, is perhaps the place to get a deeper sense of what’s going on.

Yes, even the Talmud

Recently, Will Berkovitz, a rabbi and CEO of Jewish Family Service in Washington State published an opinion piece arguing that, as the headline states, “The Talmud has a lesson for our cancel-culture world.” In it, he argues that the Talmud, a product of a small cadre of Jewish sages in Babylonia from the third to sixth centuries CE, can be a model for the tolerance and diversity of opinions that our present moment needs. That it can teach us a lesson about cancel culture. 

Others have made similar arguments that the Talmud is a lesson in pluralism as its pages contain legal discussions that include minority and rejected opinions. In fact, one of its tractates called Ediyot (‘Testimonies’) even discusses why minority opinions remain inside as opposed to being relegated to the dustbin of history. This of course, is not unique. U.S. Supreme Court decisions contain dissenting views that are continually analyzed by legal scholars. 

On the Talmud, Berkovitz concludes: 

“As our ancient rabbis understood, debate—and the people who engage in it—is vital to advancing society; it doesn’t degrade it. We gain nothing by turning debates on ideas into attacks on people. Both are part of the arc of the human story, but only one will elevate our community.” 

How can one argue with that?! 

And yet, the example of the Talmud fails to support Berkovitz’s claim. Jews, Christians, and Muslims may have entertained a variety of opinions on matters of great urgency. But not all. In fact, maybe not even most. They had their own “cancel culture.” It’s called heresy. Heresy constructed the limits of legitimate debate. In a sense heresy constructed Orthodoxy. 

So who formulated heresy? That’s a complex historical question beyond the scope of this essay. But typically it was ecclesiastical authorities, or sometimes regional leadership. And what constituted heresy? Also beyond the limits here, but suffice it to say that these were largely theological or ideological determinations that extended beyond simple “errors” of belief, but required pertinacity, which is a willful or deliberate act of deviance, even after being warned. 

In Christianity it often applied to the rejection of Church doctrine or dogma, while in Judaism it often consisted of either a rejection of rabbinic authority, or its construction of monotheism or claims of the divine origin of the Torah. One guilty of any of those “fallacies” was excluded from the debate; that is, they were canceled.

While the Talmud indeed includes multiple voices, it’s the product of a fairly small and exclusive fraternity of sages, each of whom passed the requisite initiation to be included. Of course, Babylonian Jewry was much more diverse than the included views would suggest. The Talmud doesn’t include those other voices, not necessarily because they thought they were heretics, but because they weren’t part of the club and thus their views had little if any authority. If all we had was the Babylonian Talmud we’d know very little about Babylonian Jewry in this period. All we’d have is the record of a thin slice of the society in a small number of academies. 

Today, Talmudic scholars are exploring the wider vistas of the context of the Talmud, not only to show how it may have been influenced by its surroundings, but also in some cases to examine those the Talmud “cancelled”; those who engaged in magic bowl incantations, perhaps Zoroastrian fire worship, and other manner of religious practices that didn’t find favor in the sages of the Talmud. Were the sages being discriminatory by excluding these people and ejecting heretics from their midst?

One could say, and many have, that heresy is an old idea that’s no longer relevant. That modernity has thankfully moved us beyond heresy toward a more pluralistic world. French sociologist Emil Durkheim didn’t think so. Author of many works, including the influential The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Durkheim held that categories like heresy do translate into secular societies. In an essay “Concerning the Definition of Religious Phenomena,” Durkheim writes:

It is a fact that there are general beliefs of all kinds which appear to be relevant to secular objects, things like the flag, one’s country, some form of political organization, some hero, some historical event or other…They are obligatory in a certain sense, because of the very fact of their being in common…they are to some extent indistinguishable from religious beliefs proper.

Durkeim is talking about things common in a society but the same would apply if we diversify it to apply to venues, universities, churches, synagogues, and mosques, social communities, even Facebook threads. To take an example straight from Durkheim, a 2017 poll found that 60% of Americans believe that professional athletes should be required to stand during the playing of the national anthem. Groups are able to hold deep-seated convictions like this one, the rejection of which is a kind of secular heresy meaning they are excluded from their discourse. Protesting that norm is an act of “heresy” to counter a norm. If successful it can change the norm. But it can do so only by acting outside it. 

This doesn’t deny that a group can hold a diversity of views on a particular issue, just as the Talmud records some of the views it ultimately rejects, but the Talmud in its diversity is also exercising cancellation (those outside the academy or those deemed to hold heretical views). Free speech enables us to say anything we want, but it doesn’t give us the right to say it anywhere we want. The Jewish heretic in late antique Babylonia could espouse any theological view he or she wanted, but if it didn’t find favor with the rabbis it wasn’t recorded in the Talmud. And thus, for all intents and purposes, it was cancelled.

Anything, but not anywhere

In light of the Harper’s Magazine letter, I find it curious that many now decrying cancel culture are the very beneficiaries of precisely that culture before it was named. That is, beneficiaries of all kinds of other people being excluded from the public sphere because of their religion, race, sexual orientation, or political views (communists, for example). 

Thankfully our society is slowly rectifying those sins. But now to raise the issue of ideological discrimination as if to say, you cannot prevent me from saying that I want to say in your newspaper, or at your university, in your church, or even on your Facebook page, seems like protesting too much. That kind of freedom was never given, nor should it be foisted on, any community, publication, or platform. 

In addition, the “cancel culture” police seem to be playing both sides of the wager. That is, they decry being “cancelled” but maintain their state of privilege and thus use their “cancellation” as proof they’re saying something important. 

That’s because, ironically, the mere fact that they can say they’re being cancelled means, in part, that they’re not. They just take the position of privileged opposition and wear it as a badge of honor. If they were really cancelled, we wouldn’t hear their voices at all. 

If you want to see real “cancel culture,” look at the myriad women, Black, gay, and other writers who lived their life in obscurity because they couldn’t get published and thus had no voice. For every Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, or Toni Morrison there are hundreds, maybe thousands, whose names we will never know.

In a free society, I may have to tolerate your views, but I’m under no obligation to publicize them, nor to let them pass without criticism. My right to criticize you publicly is no less important than your right to pontificate publicly. As Durkheim said, secular societies and subgroups, like religious ones, get to choose what is sacred and what is heretical. The former is included, the latter excluded. There may be no better example of that very limited diversity, and equally strong exercise of exclusion, than the Talmud.

Shaul Magid is a Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, Kogod Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, and Contributing Editor to Tablet magazine. His forthcoming book Meir Kahane: An American Jewish Radical will be published by Princeton University Press.

This content was originally published here.

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on manga license announcement stuff from day one of Anime Expo under the cut

OK to get the anime stuff out the way first since there’s less I wanna say, I’m still annoyed at Funimation for not giving any details about their release of Yuri on Ice. Like seriously I just wanna know when it’s gonna come out and what bonuses it’ll have and how much it’ll cost. Ugh.

I’m happy that Orange is getting a physical release. I probably won’t buy it, but I appreciate that it exists. I really loved that anime, even if it had kinda crippling production issues, and a few elements of the ending were iffy. Oh well.

I thought Utena had already gotten a BD release, but I guess not. Definitely interested in that. It’ll probably be too expensive for me, though. But this does align well with the recent manga box-set. I’m really happy this series is getting more recognition and availability.

ANYWAY onto manga.

Looks like it was just Viz Media and Yen Press today. Seven Seas should be in a day or two. Kodansha and Vertical seem to have a joint booth going on, so I hope they can show off some licenses. I feel like it’s been ages since we’ve seen physical licenses from either of them. Kodansha’s been going all in on digital manga recently.

There’s really not much to say about Viz since they barely announced anything. Wow. I feel like it’s been MONTHS since they announced anything and now all they have is one shonen manga, one shojo manga, two kid’s books, and a novel??? Wow. Are they just saving some announcements for later? This is bizarre.

I’m very happy to see Fire Punch get licensed. I was actually about to suggest it to Seven Seas soon but I guess I don’t need to anymore. I definitely expected this to happen eventually, but it’s still a bit surprising. It makes sense, though. Since this is at least their third release from the Shonen Jump+ magazine, I really hope this is a good indicator that they might license Ao no Flag eventually. I’d LOVE to see that happen. I’m already planning to import it, and I’m going to still try and suggest it to Seven Seas, but Viz would be fine. Anyway, as for Fire Punch, I don’t actually know a lot about it but I feel contractually obligated to buy it because one of the major characters is apparently LGBT. So that’s amazing. Apparently they’re a trans man, which is even better. The only other trans male representation in manga I know of is in Shimanami Tasogare, so it’s a big deal. But the vague things I’ve heard about the story definitely intrigue me. And also I really like the design of the covers, so that helps. I’m probably going to buy this as it comes out, but I might still read it online first. Maybe.

I’m sorta let down that Shojo Beat’s new license is just Kenka Bancho Otome. Partly because it’s only two volumes long, and partly because the anime version of it isn’t super great. But I just have a personal issue with the ‘girl has to disguise herself as a boy for REASONS and oooooh romantic drama and misunderstandings ensue’ trope. Oh well. I wasn’t really expecting much from Shojo Beat anyway. I still want to buy some of their stuff, though.

I’m DEFINITELY gonna get the FMA Fullmetal Editions. That’s a pretty huge deal. Even if it’s . . . not really a NEW license, just a new edition of an existing series. I’ve never actually read or watched FMA, and part of that’s because I dislike the look of both the single editions of the manga and the omnibuses. I was gonna cave in and decide to get the omnibuses next year, but thankfully with this announcement I can just get these editions instead. Sadly this is gonna be eighteen volumes long, so it’s gonna take AGES to come out. And it’ll be expensive. Oh well.

Onto Yen Press, who definitely beat Viz in terms of sheer number of licenses, at least. Considering that a few months ago they licensed like 14+ titles, and this is another 20+, I’m starting to get genuinely concerned about them as a company. Can they keep this up? I’m just terrified of another Tokyopop situation happening. We’ll see.

I’m definitely vaguely interested in checking out Silver Spoon, but it wouldn’t be a huge priority. It’s hard to justify getting a series that relatively long if I’m not super into it, especially since it seems very . . . mellow and SoL-y. I’m happy for Arakawa fans, though. People have obviously been waiting years for this license to happen. The coincidental paired timing of this and the FMA Fullmetal Edition license is kinda amusing.

Hatsu Haru seems like it might be cute, and it’s nice to see Yen Press get more shojo titles. Not sure how interested I am in this, but I support their intent in getting it. Same with them picking up Stupid Love Comedy and Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts. More shojo is always nice.

I’ve been vaguely interested in checking out Thou Shalt Not Die for a while, but if it’s just a digital license I’ll wait until they potentially do it physically. Which may not happen at all. Though they’ve been fairly good at bringing over a lot of their digital titles to physical format. I’m mostly interested in this because of Yoko Taro’s involvement. It’d be great to own something by him like this. Though I’ve heard iffy things about the manga itself. But then again I also like how he writes his video games whereas a lot of people don’t, so who knows how I’d feel about it.

Oh man they licensed the goddamn vending machine isekai manga. Holy shit. I feel like we’re quickly approaching a breaking point for the isekai genre in the west and soon enough it’s just gonna really irritate people.

I at least think there’s other LNs they could bring over that’d do better. Oh well. They got HakoMari and that’s all I care about.

And finally we have one of the more genuinely shocking announcements thus far. A goddamn Pandora Hearts box-set. HOLY SHIT. And it’s going to be done in a larger trim size? With preserved colour pages? Oh man. This is so genuinely agonizing to me. I just got the entire series less than a year ago, and now they announce a fucking box-set that’s gonna cost a few hundred dollars. Argh. I’m probably not going to be able to get this even though I desperately want to, and it’d be a nice way to re-read the series like I want to. Oh well. If the box set itself looks nice, which it probably will, that’ll be even more agonizing.

If they’re gonna do an entire box set for the series, for the love of god, I need an English version of the second art-book. I own the first one already and I love it but I’ve held off on importing the second one in case it gets licensed. I’d be amazed if it doesn’t get licensed eventually. I mean, it getting a box set is a pretty good indication of it’s popularity, and they have a good track record of doing multiple art-books for stuff like Black Butler and Soul Eater. So I just need the second Pandora Hearts artbook in my life.

I’m gonna be so fucking envious of people who can get this box set. ARGH. I want it so bad but it’s gonna be so impossible to buy, let alone justify buying.

So that’s basically it for today. Now to see if Kodansha and Vertical license anything at this con. And yeah in a day or two we’ll see Seven Seas’ licenses. I don’t think we’re getting anything more from Viz for now. Maybe at Comic-Con? Who knows.

I don’t have any clear wishes for what Kodansha or Vertical could license, though I guess I could see Vertical picking up March Comes In Like A Lion, which would be great.

For Seven Seas, literally all I care about is if they license Shimanami Tasogare, that’s it. That’s all I want from them. I’m gonna keep suggesting it every single month to them until they pick it up, or someone else does. I know that they might not have access to it since it’s a Shogakukan title, but who knows. I know that Viz would be more able to pick it up, but I just . . . doubt they would. They at least didn’t announce it at their panel, obviously. Mostly I’d just have my doubts about a company as ‘mainstream’ as Viz picking up a manga all about the topic of LGBT communities/discrimination [and also housing renovation in sea-side Japan, I guess]. Seven Seas seems far more likely to get such a title since they’ve made far more overt steps into the queer manga market, especially with My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness, which was apparently a huge success for them, which is why I could see them picking up Shimanami Tasogare since it’s relatively similar in theme. But, honestly, Viz isn’t entirely out there as an option. They don’t exactly have much of a history with licensing manga with queer representation of any kind, but they’re improving. I’m quite excited for their upcoming release of Sweet Blue Flowers, in particular. I also highly appreciate that they licensed After Hours. That’s one of the main reasons why I think there’s a chance, since that’s a lesbian romance manga from the exact same magazine as Shimanami Tasogare. And they were hyping it up a fair bit on their twitter before. So it’s not too much of a stretch. I guess they also have experience with this magazine through their Dorohedoro license, as well. And this panel actually gives me slightly MORE hope than before, since Fire Punch is one of the only shonen manga running at the moment that has actual, legit queer representation in it, in a major way. I’m also SORTA sure it’s something people talk about a lot when the series comes up? So I assume Viz is aware of it on some level. So these recent steps into licensing manga with queer representation gives me hope that they might license Shimanami Tasogare. Until then, I’m gonna keep suggesting it to Seven Seas.

On a similar topic, as said above I’d love to see someone pick up Ao no Flag, and yeah I can see Viz doing that eventually. It all depends on how much of a western following it gets, though. Which it doesn’t have much of thus far. I probably wouldn’t expect any sort of a license announcement until next year at earliest. Oh well. But that’s another case of queer rep in shonen manga I want to see get licensed in English. At least, the manga definitely seems to be going in that direction. I’m fairly confident about it. I mean, it’s published in the same magazine as Fire Punch, so it’s not impossible.

Oh yeah, that reminds me that Viz also licensed Astra Lost in Space, which is also part of Shonen Jump+, and I think also has some good queer rep in it. Not sure what sort, though. But either way yeah that also adds a bit to what I’m saying about how Viz is getting better at getting manga with queer representation in them, which gives me a lot of hope in general. We’ll see.

Either way I’m gonna cross my fingers and hope for the best from Seven Seas’ upcoming panel. Even if it might not be until the day after tomorrow.

[teaandamovie]

A Select History of Led Zepplin’s Immigrant Song in Film:

With the release of the first trailer of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, I thought it would be prudent to take a gentle stroll through recent film history and the use of Led Zepplin’s Immigrant Song.

One Day in September (Kevin Macdonald, 1999)

Academy Award winning documentary about the hostage drama during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympic Games heavily utilises a mix of period-appropriate music and contemporary songs, a soundtrack that also features Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Moby and Philip Glass.

A searing documentary that played a pivotal role in my formative film years, the brash and shocking strains of Immigrant Song plays as the Olympic Committee, despite having an international crisis on its hands, decides to allow the games to continue, and we watch a montage of sporting excellence mixed with masked terrorists stalking balconies.

School of Rock (Richard Linklater, 2003):

Failed musician pretends to be a substitute teacher to trick the class into being his band so that he can win a Battle of the Bands competition. Music abounds but it is the use of Immigrant Song that has the most interesting story. Led Zepplin are fairly frugal when it comes to their music being used in films (that said they did allow Puff Daddy to sample Kashmir for 1998′s Godzilla).

With that in mind Jack Black used the bully pul(mosh)pit to plead his case, recording a message to Led Zepplin, begging them to use Immigrant Song. And it worked.

Shrek the Third (Chris Miller, Raman Hui, 2007):

I don’t think I have even seen this film; I neither remember nor would be able to discern if I had or not. In any case Immigrant Song pops up in a quick joke about storming a castle with woodland creatures.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher, 2011):

David Fincher does the song-in-teaser-trailer-montage very well, stemming (I assume) from his history in music videos, and cementing this in the film world with his opening credits to Se7en (1995) which uses Nine Inch Nails’ Closer to God. Cut to 2010 with the release of The Social Network which has Fincher working with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on the score. Of course, it is the films first proper trailer that sets the scene: montage of Facebook, cut to the haunting Scala & Kolcany Brothers’s choir cover of Radiohead’s Creep.

One year later we have the Immigrant Song covered by Karen O over the unsettling teaser of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. They would also use it for the opening titles, setting the brash tune to what can only be described as the ANTI-James Bond opening titles:

And, with this, we have actual Nordic connections as the story takes place in Sweden.

Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome (2012):

Now, this was only a trailer that was released at WonderCon and most instances of this video has been taken down due to rights violations but it is interesting as it uses the Karen O cover, and also features a montage so this suggests a quickly whipped up trailer echoing the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo teaser for the event but not for wider consumption.

Thor: Ragnarok (Taika Waititi, 2017):

The first teaser for Thor: Ragnarok, of course, uses Immigrant Song and why not given the song is literally about Norse mythology and you can edit the trailer to have the lyrics “hammer of the gods” line up with Thor himself.

[latestnews2018-blog]

macOS Mojave 10.14 first look

New Post has been published on https://latestnews2018.com/macos-mojave-10-14-first-look/

macOS Mojave 10.14 first look

Seems like iOS gets all the love these days. And it’s easy enough to see why. The smartphone has long been the dominant device in many users’ lives, while the desktop/laptop category has been on the decline. But macOS still has some life left in it yet.

A year after introducing the more incremental High Sierra (it’s right there in the name), Apple has returned with a macOS update that’s jam-packed with new features. Unlike other recent updates, a number of the big additions here are targeted at creative professionals, as Apple refocuses its efforts on the user base that has long been a core part of its target market. In the case of features like Dark Mode and Gallery View, there’s a lot to like on that front, as well.

For the first time iOS apps have been directly ported to macOS in an effort to kickstart cross-platform development, while Stacks should go a ways toward helping users stay a bit more organized — and sane. Now that the operating system is in public beta, here’s a rundown of the biggest and best new features Mojave has to offer.

Dark mode

The biggest addition to Mojave is also one of the more interesting from a populist standpoint. Apple made it clear during its WWDC presentation earlier this month that Dark Mode is a hat tip to creative professions. It’s a category the company once owned outright, but one Microsoft has been aggressively gunning for in recent years with its Surface line.

Apple’s been knocked for a handful of decisions viewed as taking its eye off the ball for the small but loyal contingent that has formed its core user base. The company’s been making amends for this over the past year and change, with the addition of the iMac Pro and the promised return of the Mac Pro. Dark Mode is clearly a nod toward those who spend long stretches staring at bright screens in dark rooms.

Of course, it’s not just for creative pros. Dark Mode is a potential boon to all of us desk jockeys looking for some respite from eye strain. It’s also just aesthetically pleasing, and a nice visual break from a Mac desktop design that really hasn’t changed much in the past several generations.

Apple’s done a good job here maintaining consistency across its own apps. Along with darkened menus and frames, Mail, Contacts and Calendar invert to white text on a dark background. The default Mojave desktop image of a winding sand dune has also been transformed accordingly.

Better still, there’s a dynamic version of the wallpaper that will darken, based on the time of day, as the sun sets and stars come out in the desert sky. A nice touch. However, only the default wallpaper is capable of doing that at the moment. If you want the effect, I hope you don’t mind staring at sand.

The biggest issue with Dark Mode (in this admittedly still early public beta stage) is compatibility. Apple says that the mode is designed for easy adoption by third-party developers, assuming their apps are built for the macOS Mojave SDK, but there’s no guarantee the apps you use regularly will have that compatibility at launch. That means there’s a decent chance your dark desktop scheme will be regularly interrupted by a blast of white light.

This is also the case for Apple’s own apps like Safari (though iWork and other not preloaded Apple apps don’t yet have the functionality), which have implemented aspects of Dark Mode, but in which you’re going to be spending a lot of time looking at bright pages regardless.  For most of us who spend time in and out of various apps, Dark Mode’s actual functionality is pretty limited, but you’ll no doubt be compelled give it a go anyway. At the very least, it’s a nice departure from the default macOS color scheme you’ve been ensconced in for so long.

Stacks

Dark Mode may be the feature that got the biggest crowd reaction at WWDC, but Stacks is the best. No question here, really, and this is coming from someone who’s gotten fairly consistent about tidying up his desktop. This thing is worthy of a clickbait-style “One Weird Trick to Organize Your Life” headline.

This is a surprisingly cathartic act. Hover over the wallpaper of your out of control desktop, two-finger tap the touchpad and select “Use Stacks” from the drop-down. Poof, they all shoot into their pre-ordained piles on the right. The default mode categorizes files by product type, which is probably the most straightforward method of the bunch (you also can switch to category or tag). If a file is the only one of its kind on the desktop, it will maintain its name below the thumbnail; otherwise, the file kind will show off below. Unclassified files will show up in a less helpful “other” Stack.

When new files are added to the desktop, they automatically appear in their associated pile, so long as you stay in Stacks mode. When the mode is enabled, files are essentially stuck to these spots like a grid. You can drag and drop them into apps, but can’t move them around the desktop.

Once everything is sorted, clicking on the top of the stack will spread it out so you can once again view everything all once. Click the top of the pile again, and poof, everything goes back into the pile. You also can hover over the top with the cursor and swipe the trackpad left or right with two fingers to scrub through the list. I find the method a bit less useful, but some will no doubt prefer it.

If you decide the whole cleanliness thing isn’t for you, two-finger tap the wallpaper again. Click “Use Stacks” and poof, everything gets sent back to its original entropic position on the desktop. Good on Apple for letting users revert back to the madness.

Apple’s added a LOT of different features — from Launchpad to Tags — designed to help users get better organized. For my part, I’ve largely tried and failed to incorporate them into my daily usage. Stacks, on the other hand, is a genuinely useful addition and a strong contender for the most useful feature Apple has brought to macOS in recent memory.

Desktop

Gallery View is an interesting addition for similar reasons as Dark Mode. The feature is a spiritual successor to the familiar Cover Flow. It’s less dynamic, relying on a bottom scroll bar, rather than large images up top. It puts meta data front and center much more than before. This is especially apparent when dealing with images, giving you an almost light-room level of detail on photos.

The information includes, but is not limited to: dimensions, resolution, color space, color profile, device make, device model, aperture value, exposure time, focal length, ISO speed, flash, F number, metering mode and white balance. It’s lot for most users. In fact, it’s probably overkill for a majority of us, but it’s clearly another indication that Apple’s working to maintain its hold on the creative professional category by building that intense level of detail directly into the Finder.

Tucked down in the bottom-right corner of Finder windows are Quick Actions. There are a handful of handy features for editing images and PDF docs, including Rotate Left (as found in the iOS Photos app), markup (as found in Adobe Acrobat), Add Password and Create PDF, which turns files into PDFs, as advertised.

It’s an interesting system-level embrace of Adobe’s file format, and also makes the need for Preview somewhat redundant, as it’s baked directly into Finder. The options are dependent on file type — so, if you have, say, an audio or video file, you can trim it directly in the Finder window. For most tasks, you’ll probably want to open an editing app, but I would love to see more personalized actions down here. For my own needs, something like file cropping and resizing would be great to have built directly into the Finder window, saving me a trip to Photoshop or some online editing tool. I realize my needs aren’t the same as everyone’s — but all the more reason to offer some manner of customization down there, akin to what Apple offers with the MacBook Touch Bar.

Screenshots

File previews are getting a lot of love here, throughout. I’m not sure how often normal people use screenshots, but I take them all the damn time, so any addition here is welcome. Beyond general usefulness, I suspect a lot of people simply don’t take screenshots because the key command is fairly convoluting. Shift-Command-5 isn’t exactly easier to remember than other, similar combinations, but it does bring up a hand control window overlay.

From there, you can choose to capture a full screen, a window, a selection you outline yourself, record a video of the entire screen (which I used for the above Stacks GIF) or record a video of a selection. It certainly saves from having to memorize all of the different commands. The new screenshots also make it possible to set a timer of five or 10 seconds before snapping a photo.

Apple’s taking a play from iOS, offering up a small window in the right-hand corner of the screen once the screenshot has been snapped. You can click directly into that, or just wait for it to disappear. From there, you can markup the file, drag and drop it it into a document or have it automatically sent to the desktop, documents, Mail, Messages, Preview or a Clipboard, so they don’t all wind up in the same spot.

Continuity Camera

Not sure how often this feature will actually prove handy for most users, but it’s a cool feature, nonetheless. Continuity Camera essentially uses an iPhone as a surrogate camera for the desktop. It’s a clever bit of cross device synergy.

Say you’re in Page. Go to Edit > Insert from Your iPhone and choose Photo. Take a shot, approve it on the device, and it will automatically insert itself in the doc. It works like a charm. The scan feature also works surprisingly well here. I took a shot of a crumpled receipt and it looked pretty pristine, regardless. As someone who recently went through a lengthy visa process, I wish I’d had access to this thing a few weeks back.

FaceTime

This one definitely wowed the crowd. FaceTime’s macOS/iOS-only is the main thing that’s hampered my own use of the service, but there are some really nice additions here that are making me rethink the decision. The ability to add up to 32 users is far and away the most fascinating, and Apple’s done a good job managing that kind of unruly number.

Similar to services like Google Meet, the system automatically detects who’s speaking and places them front and center in the app. Also like Meet, you can manually prioritize the users on whom you’d like to focus.

Other users will shrink down and eventually populate the carousel at the bottom. You can get the list of participants by clicking the Info button. And invitations for more users can be extended while the chat is in progress.

iOS apps

Apple made a point of addressing longtime rumors of a convergence between the company’s desktop and mobile operating systems, flashing a giant “No” onstage. That said, the two OSes are getting even more shared DNA. The biggest news on this front is the porting of three iOS apps to the Mac. This is clearly the first step toward a larger convergence of some kind, but more to the point, it’s a way to start getting app developers to port their iOS apps to the desktop.

Sure, macOS had a huge head start, but iOS has been getting all of the developer love in recent years. Making it easier to create apps cross-system means devs don’t have to decide. It also means that the app that come to macOS through this method will be more likely to do so through the Mac App Store — a distribution method Apple clearly prefers over more traditional downloads, for myriad reasons.

To start, Apple has brought over News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home. In my time with Mojave thus far, News is the one I now use pretty regularly. I was a bit hesitant to move to a more walled approach to news delivery, but I do appreciate having a centralize hub of the trusted news sources I visit regularly, coupled with alerts that populate the Notification Center at right.

It’s probably not going to replace my use of TweetDeck for work-related news, as, among other things, it just seems to update more slowly. But it’s a nice tool to have churning in the background, along with a check-in once or twice a day, to make sure I haven’t missed a moment of the horror show that is news in 2018. Fun!

Voice Memos probably has the most limited scope of the bunch. I’ve switched over from various third-party tools I use to record meetings from time to time, and it’s nice having that sharing across devices. Students will likely find it handy for lectures as well, but beyond that, it’s probably not going to get a ton of play for most users.

Home is the most interesting addition of the bunch. Certainly it makes sense, as Apple makes a bigger push to remain competitive against the likes of Amazon and Google in the smart home. The Mac isn’t designed to be a hub in this case — that’s still the job of Apple TV and HomePod, so far as the company is concerned. But the desktop OS does make for a nice control panel, and it’s handy to be able to check in on your place remotely from the comfort of your MacBook.

Given that they are, in fact, ports, not much has changed from a design standpoint. That means it’s essentially the same layout as the one you’ll get on your iPad, with a grid of tidy little boxes representing your various connected home devices. It’s pretty hard to shake the compulsion to reach out and touch the things. Apple, of course, has taken a hard-line against incorporating touch into its laptops and desktops, so reaching out won’t get you very far in this particular case.

Odds and ends

The Mac App Store gets an overhaul here, including search filtering and new content categories. Apple’s also added the kind of editorial curation it’s had on iOS and other apps.

More privacy permissions is always a good thing. In addition to the standard access to Contacts, Calendar Photos and Reminders, Apple’s added notifications for apps accessing the camera, mic and sensitive data. That means more pop-ups to click through, but more importantly, some extra peace of mind.

The system now does “password auditing,” to make sure you don’t reuse the same passwords over and over again.

Siri gets a couple of additions on the desktop here, including the ability to add passwords with voice.

[topicprinter]

Some Infos:Always liked making money growing up like selling chocolate bars in school and so on. Tried lots of things so far like multiple T-Shirt selling attempts, affiliate websites and that kind of stuff. Never made much money besides a few good weeks of flipping mainly drop shipped on amazon or fulfilled by amazon but I discontinued due to time/scaleability but I will explain that at the end for people who are interested. Funny enough while I focused on youtube my few months old March by Amazon account finally made my first sale. Sold 3 of the same shirt all others got taken down due to no sales.Youtube Background:Started youtube super early when most people didn't know what it was. Had a channel with over a 1000 subscribers back when it was a big deal lmao. Had the opportunity to be one of the first youtube partners in my country but parents looked at me like I am crazy and of course didn't sign for me so yeah would have probably made them some good money considering how much it paid back then. Fast forward lots of projects, copyright issues and youtube updates later I had lots of channels mostly alone some with others but never made money or got successful. I blame some of it on my parents and some on all the things youtube would take years to accept in out country like uploading thumbnails I mean wtf.Anyways I created the channel of this case study around 3 years ago in hopes of launching a big projects thats still in the works and fits the content so yay. Uploaded a ton of videos on there to try stuff out and ended up deleting everything. At one point I had over 100 short videos uploaded and planned with finished descriptions and everything but scraped the whole idea after a few releases. Will explain why down below. So 8 months ago or so I uploaded the first video I wouldn't delete later. Posted it here and there and it got 30k views Then 3 months ago after some trail and error I uploaded the next video which was the same thing only over an hour long with much more information and everything. It took days of work just in researching and days to edit. Should have counted the hours but I just came home everyday and worked on it for a few hours for over two weeks I think. Tried send traffic from the older video and did my best with reddit and so on. The work paid off lots of people thanked me for the effort and worked its way up to 100k views which got me really excited. Still one of my better videos now sitting around 300k. Since then I uploaded over 25 videos.Stats:Subscribers 2k+ Views 3M+ Videos 25+Had 25 inactive subs from experimenting then took for ever to grow to 50 from there around 1 a day for a while until the spike of the 100k video that gave me +100 subscribers in a day. At some point it finally started growing constantly and had some good spikes in the third month.Income:Month 1: 90 Month 2: 290 Month 3: 1400Started while the whole YouTube Add boycott was going on and at some point between the end of month 1 & the middle of month 2 (not exactly sure analytics are very inaccurate n youtube for small channels and for example estimated income was accurate the first time in the third month) my income dropped to 0 for weeks not sure how much money I lost. Overall I heard income is good 30% down since then so I broke $1000+ a month while every freaking youtuber cried for money and started donation accounts.Estimated Month 4: 1200 Had several really good performing videos last month and it will be hard topping that this month unless my next video will proof me wrong but I am sure I will get a new record in month 5 since almost every video makes constant money in addition to the spike in the first week or two of the upload and its really starting to ad up. Also got some good videos planed.Subscribers:Now 3M views and only 2k subscribers seems like a really bad conversion rate but YouTube is confusing in that sense. The more subscribers and views you get the easier it is to get them. Getting to 100 almost feels impossible at first then 1000 seems doable but takes for ever and then it actually starts growing and around 10.000 is the sweet spot where you finally made it. People start commenting about how big you are gonna get and how glad they are that they are here before the hype. Its like once you get more subscriber people actually take you serious even though the content was always just as good like when people wait in line just because the line is so long and that means the food must be good.Video Upload Amount:When starting out focus on nothing but quality videos. Otherwise people find your channel with 100s of videos and no subscribers or views and are overwhelmed with where to start watching. They also see the bad stats and assume your content must suck. I could go a lot more in depth if you are interested but for example look at gamers or vloggers with 100s of episodes and no views and if you klick on lets say episode 257 its just some random dude filming him self eating or silently running trough a dessert in Minecraft and within a minute you klick on a recommended video or leave youtube. But if someone finds your channel and you have 10 videos but all are amazing the viewer it tempted to subscribe since he likes the content but ran out of material to watch. Thats the main reason why I rather upload a few times maybe even just once a week but get share worthy high quality content with 100k views then daily uploads which would help in seo terms but are just not doable for most people if you keep the quality. Also daylight uploads are much more effective if you wait until you have a subscribers base thats waiting and actively asking for it.Thumbnails:Thumbnails are everything they must be easy to understand like one clear picture of something explaining the video. Random example if you make a video about cows you use a clear picture of a cow or a glass of milk. Don't use text for 99% or your thumbnails because its not eye catching, you already have the title for that and its hard to read since on mobile for example the time stamp at the right corner covers usually the last few digits so yeah. I know some successful channels always use text but they are either really god at making them or are already successful enough for other rains then their thumbnails.Video length:I found that 3 minute videos get really well shared but longer content is more impressive, helps with watch time, pays more and people have more time to go to the comment section and stuff. Two of my best videos are over an hour long. Also youtube favors over 10 min videos since adds before after the video.Description box:I still play around with it but I try to make a catching and seo friendly first sentence and I often advertise my others videos. I also try to rephrase the title and add additional informations.Tags:My main tags that bring viewers are really simple ones but longer ones usually and really well on youtube.Annotations:I don't use it since soon gone.Cards:New version of annotations. Mobile friendly. I don't use them on all my videos since I put a lot of effort in them and I don't want to dissect the viewer with popping up cards or asking for likes or anything.End Cards:Use them on all my videos and its nice to send some traffic to other videos but regarding the analytics only a few % of views come from them so its debatable how important they are. I always fit them in with music of the video and stuff so its more engaging and people don't mind it.Making additional money:At first I didn't do anything like affiliate links since I don't want my subscribers to think I just made the channel for money. Lately I placed some links in the description without mentioning it in the video in any form and still got some clicks but no sales. One of those links was to my Merch shirt but also no sales. Will definitely redo my designs and think about fitting products for the affiliate links and add them back in at some point. Maybe I will do a Teespring campaign for special videos or something but like I said its more important to grow the channel then to make some extra cash and risking to make the growth harder.Competitors and Stolen Videos:People already re uploading my videos without giving credit. Left comments on the ones I found and claimed copyright on some. Youtube took them down within a few days.Copyright and Age Restrictions:Had one video flagged for non advertising friendly (yt update since ad boycott) but dispute got accepted within a few hours I think. Had someone threaten to sue me for using a few seconds of material in my longest video. I offered links in the description, in the video and end cards but apparently some people rather fight then get free advertisement all over a several hundred thousand views video. Literally seconds out of an hour. Deleted the clips with the youtube editor without taking it down so kept all the stats. Recent video got copyrighted for the same thing I used in a different video which didn't get copyrighted. Did some research and found out its probably a scam youtube network and I claimed a dispute but no answer yet. Luckily I didn't release it yet but no Idea how they can flag my private video without owning the content but I have to figure that out. Ended up deleting it and uploading it again later without problems.Water Marks:I don't really use one like some people where its always in the corner or something but I place it here and there if that makes sense. Only really big ones protect against stealing it fairly well but I think they suck for the viewers. My videos are supposed to be like movies and do you want to have a giant Warner Brothers Water Mark when watching a movie? Small ones can be ok if they are well made but they get covered by the peoples water marks who steal the videos so they won't help. Depending on the content they can make it seem professional and so on but anyways moving on.All about the Money?I always enjoyed making videos way before I made a cent with it and still do so its confusing because I still somehow feel like I would lie if I say I don't do it for the money. I mean additional 1000 a month is huge for me so its definitely a factor. Its a hobby that makes money so I would be stupid to not do it. I don't know.Goals:Keep income at constant $1000+ Make $2000+ within a month. Start using my website in combination with my videos. Reach 10.000 Subscribers Get enough videos pre made and planed. Get the few low performing videos above 10.000 views. Find more good copyright free music. Keep improving editing. Figure out the best way to deal with re uploads.The Amazon FBA & Drop Shipping Bonus Story:I always sold stuff I no longer used or could randomly get really cheap in person or on ebay. At some point started using amazon. Much later I started using FBA and I was basically exploiting a market which was extremely low completion on amazon. After the first good week I already got a spike in competitors and by now it went from thousands of percent margins close to nothing. One of my best sellers sometimes cost me $3 and I sold it it for $40 and for a while I sold several of those a say so that was exciting. I typed in the main keyword in to amazon, sorted all items by highest price first and listed every single product from over 100 amazon pages. Did all of it without any plugins or tools besides something that could grab the ean number by clicking on the product forgot the name. Main reasons why I stopped was several things. First competitors became a problem because some where undercutting prices insanely like dropping the $40 bestseller to $7 so yeah. (Funny thing it was a collectors niche so selling them that cheap is just stupid because you cant just order lots of them like you could with alibaba stuff.) Second the site I mainly used to buy and drop ship everything was huge but I still created price spikes with my best sellers so I could run out any time. Third my country doesn't have its own Amazon domain like .com so we don't have FBA shipping discounts and other things which would help immensely since international shipping depending on the amazon fertility gets expensive. Fourth it was extremely time consuming I mean if I edit a video for a few hours plus respond to people and stuff it also take a while but the video can make 100s or even thousands of dollars and keeps making profit and getting views every day and the growth of the channel pays of immensely over time. Feels much more useful then researching and listing products all day and connately fight competitors with pricing and all that stuff. Overall it was still extremely worth it since I learned a lot and had a ton of fun making significant money online for the first time while being kinda broke that time. I will definitely come out with my own products at some point and chances are high I will use FBA to distribute them.TLDR: Started focusing on youtube and made $1000+ while add boycott was going on and everyone was crying for donations and acted like the world would end. Reached 3M vies and 2K subscribers. Had experience but learned a lot.