#this really is the last usable website

[dsmsix]

got back on twitter and was called bigoted towards gay men within the day. these people don’t understand the sibling rivalry between fags and dykes.

it was all because of a joke tweet about gay men stealing lesbian tv shows and how they should get their own fucking jobs. and my tweet was aimed at a friend who literally calls me fucking “truck driver” cause im a dyke like lmaoo be serious rn

[etoilesbienne]

I don't know how to deal with the situation anymore, on one hand I understand everyone having hope and looking forward to the server repairing, really I do, but like... I feel like every update makes me feel more and more bleak for the communication issues. I'd like to say I feel reassured when a CC comes and says "well things are being fixed up and the admins I talked to are saying it's going great," but I just don't anymore, especially when I go look at one of the said admins public twitter, and they're liking tweets talking about how everyone leaving the company and exposing the way they were treated were just "ungrateful petty pieces of shit," and like... I don't feel comforted, I feel frustrated and like no one is talking to the admins who got ousted even more. Am I supposed to just smile and nod through the fact a language is just gone from the server? Why were we expendable... Why am I supposed to know you "support the admins" because you posted once in support of them a month ago but you proceeded to go on a tirade about how useless and liars all of the now out admins are over a week. I don't know. I don't think we know everything behind the scenes. Everything feels so weird. I just want the admins who got ousted to be okay and know their part of the server meant something to me. I don't know the answer and I doubt I ever will but this last year was a delight. I don't think it could've been the same without every former admin like Léa or Ana or Lumi or Shade or Dianna or Amz3t or Rainylour or Pancks or any of the update admins who kept me up on new content or all of the coders on the backend making websites like qsmp.tv usable and the purgatory website and the elections website and the cool ARG website or all of the builders in game who made events really shine or any of the unnamed many many more admins and people who worked so hard to make the project work so well despite all of the conditions. Like the server with any of these removed is hard to imagine and I still don't think I can fully believe it.

[carriesthewind]

Bye, I guess

Hi folks: I’ve enjoyed my time on tumblr while it lasted. Unfortunately, the new dashboard makes the site so unpleasant to use that I’m afraid that enjoyment (and thus my use of the site) has come to an end. I still have some reblogs queued up, and I may pop in now and then, but don’t expect me to be around much anymore.

For the record, here is the support request I put in yesterday:

Why is my dashboard now twitter. This format sucks. It's always sucked. It feels absolutely horrible to use on desktop (which I do exclusively and that will not change). This horrible ui is a big part of why didn't really use twitter (it sucked then to).

Here is tumblr’s answer:

Hello,  Thanks for reaching out to Tumblr Community Support and sharing your thoughts on the new dashboard layout. We often test new ways to make Tumblr better. It sounds like your account may have been selected to experience a test of one of these improvements. Thanks for your patience while we work on this! You may see your Tumblr experience return to normal as we continue testing.  Kind regards,  Chris

(Please note, this appears to be a copy-paste form response. You can see another example of it here.)

Here was my response:

Hi Chris! I "may" not see my Tumblr user return to normal, because I'm not returning to Tumblr until it is reasonably usable again for me. This "experiment" is effectively an update that has made the site so unpleasant for me to use that I will not be doing so. What will tumblr being doing to allow me to use the site? I do not appreciate being told that my support ticket is "sharing [my] thoughts on the new dashboard layout." I neither asked or appreciate being selected taking part, without my knowledge or consent, in an experiment to allow a company to do product development. My ticket is not my "thoughts on the new dashboard layout." It is my report that the site is effectively not usuable. Furthermore, while not illegal, human experimentation is generally considered unethical without proper consent and review process. If my dash returns to a status that I can use: 1) What guarantees do I have that tumblr will not experiment on me again?  2) What other experiments does tumblr think it is ethical to do on me without proper consent? Kind regards to Chris, and explicitly not to your employer.

24 hours later, I have not received a follow up response.

I was originally going to write a lot more about why I think this is such an atrocious set of moves and responses by tumblr, but I realized that being on the site long enough to format and post it (I’m doing this writing on my desktop) would be too unpleasant to make it worthwhile.

Instead, I want to make two quick notes about traps I see people falling in to:

1) Tumblr is not your friend. It is a company that wants to use you to extrude profit. This hold true regardless of whether it is shaped like a shareholder’s report, a formal staff post, or a blog that looks just like a user like you. Regardless of its form, it is no more your friend than the “intern” who runs a corporate brand account.

2) It is fine to pay money for a product you enjoy. This product might be a digital sticker or a minigame on a website, or some form of subscription to the site itself. However, if you are not enjoying a product, or if you feel that the product is bad or exploitative, you have no obligation to invest in it. And you should be particularly wary when a for-profit business is attempting to make you, as a customer, feel emotionally and personally invested in supporting that business (whether that be in terms of time, energy, or money).

Anyway, I’m still hoping that I will be able to unpin this post at some point, but for the foreseeable future: bye!

[dibudani]

your 3DS is OFFLINE . . .

(mucho texto below)

On April 8th, 2024, the online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U were shutdown. This affects online play across all games, and SpotPass, used in apps like Swapdoodle; this renders online-required games unplayable, most notably Nintendo Badge Arcade.

As of the date I'm writing this not aaall online features are unaccessible, Friends List seem to be working, Pokémon Bank is still running, usable for free and compatible with Pokémon Home, and you can download updates and games from the eShop (only if you bought them before the eShop shutdown from March 27th, 2023...), but there's no guarantee those will last much longer.

anyways Pretendo Network is a replacement for Nintendo Network that not only aims to restore online play, but also other abandoned features such as Miiverse and the Wara Wara Plaza.

Setting up Pretendo is pretty easy, there's a guide on its website for both Wii U, 3DS and their respective emulators, and you don't even need modding on Wii U for it to work (with some limitations), but you might as well do it since it's so easy (Wii U modding guide - 3DS modding guide)

Currently Pretendo is in a beta state and active development so it's not really a fully realized replacement yet, but a couple of popular games are supported well enough at the moment, like Mario Kart 7, Splatoon and Super Mario Maker (personally i care more about pokemon gen 6 and mh4u and idk if those will be supported aaaa oh well).

Since this is technically a whole different server, some things don't carry over from you Nintendo Network ID to your Pretendo Network ID, like your badges(you should backup your badges before using Pretendo on 3DS) or your Friends List... so I gotta fill it up again! my new 3DS Friend Code is 3878-6726-5312 and my PNID is dibudani (for Wii U), add me right now !!

"Why is the little wifi guy so happy?" idk. why was toad happy when Club Nintendo was discontinued?

[splatreference]

File Garden Mirror of Splatrefs

hey peeps! I genuinely forget if i've already made this post because i've been meaning to for like 5 months, but the gist of it is that i've been working on a mirror of this blog on File Garden.

This will function as a backup of the blog in case something ever happens to it (e.g. tumblr dies, i get banned, i accidentally delete it and whatever else giant meteor etc.) But it will also serve as an alternative way to access the resources here through another website, as well as easily access all the files themselves rather than having to sift through photo posts.

The pros that come with this:

MUCH easier management and uploading of pictures and even videos (for me). Tumblr has a daily image upload limit and even then the images have to be split across many different posts, which makes it a days-long, sometimes weeks-long process to be able to add pictures. Also don't have to memorize tags. -

Clear organization; folders and subfolders mean that everything can be neatly in one place. Whether you find this easier and/or more convenient to navigate than Tumblr tags is subjective, though. -

Easy downloads! I'm always saying that if you need some references a lot, I recommend saving them for yourself and File Garden makes it pretty easy to my knowledge. I will keep recommending this, by the way. -

In MY experience, load times for images are usually much faster than on Tumblr (which is definitely my main draw for making it in the first place) -

It's not Tumblr, but an actual file hosting site. I know, that's revolutionary

Unfortunately File Garden also isn't perfect, so to be thorough here is also a list of cons:

The site is down ALL the time. I feel like it has constant outages which isn't really unexpected for a smaller site. The good news is that these rarely last very long - the bad news is that you might also run into errors. -

There are no folder icons, which can make it a bit harder than it needs to be to actually find where you want to go, which is annoying given there's no search -

While faster at loading image previews than tumblr by a country mile (especially when reloading the page), loading in the images can be really flashy. As in they literally flash white when loading in sometimes.

Going forward, I'll be uploading everything I upload here also to File Garden. I'm slowly working towards copying every major thing from the blog over to there (it's horrible guys, one copypaste at a time) so it should fill up over time and be usable as an alternate resource!

(Also, for anyone taking a look, please help a guy out in the endless war against admin error. If there's pictures in folders where they shouldn't be or there's thumbnail-sized uploads in some of the folders, shoot an ask here with the location and I'll fix it...)

That's it for this century's status update. I've been procrastinating a fuck ton on actually getting anything uploaded here... hope everyone has a good Sizzle Season and maybe I'll try to catch up at least a little bit.

[slutcore-starships]

ill be honest, im relatively gracious about kids/teens who are generally ignorant about how stuff works nowadays because like . the internet is in fucking shambles. i dont know what happened to it over the last five years or so, but its lost virtually any utility unrelated to adding a product to your shopping cart. i used to do online research all the time throughout school, even as a pre-teen, but if an eleven year old came up to me now and asked for help using google to study something, i would be completely stumped. wikipedia is the only thing *close* to a usable website, with most of the other ones i used for fact finding going behind paywalls, if not just going belly-up. it really seems like the only places available without any sort of computer sciences degree are social media, like youtube or tiktok, which are going to be rife with propaganda and disinformation, not to mention,,,, people just being wrong!! we never replaced the pre-shittification internet with anything helpful and dismantled a lot of the stuff that came before it, and it is so . so . so . so frustrating to try to relearn how to use it

[cruzrogue]

Catfished

Summary: Felicity/Oliver (olicity)

Catfishing is a deceptive activity in which a person creates a fictional persona or fake identity on a social networking service, usually targeting a specific victim.

Summary:

Felicity knows she’s being catfished as the guy behind the screen is using pictures of a guy who is known to be dead. Oliver finding himself using social media to connect to a girl who seems interesting while using his real image knowing everyone thinks him dead. She doesn’t call him out and he doesn’t own up to be the guy who really isn’t dead. Their online chats are innocent enough… that is until a close ally to Oliver calls him out when a picture of a spunky Felicity is found.

***Before posting to A03 Going to post first chapter here***

Chapter 1 Oliver’s secret

Oliver’s name is being called out. He’s in his own head and hasn’t heard the voice calling out for him. Instead…

A hidden photo that Oliver has had for a few years before his return to Starling City is clenched tightly. A photo of a girl that amazingly helped him in some tough times unlike the photo of his ex-girlfriend who brought guilt of things left undone.

Retrieving it from a page in his father’s book of names. He makes sure to hide Laurel’s image as Oliver doesn’t even glance at it placing it back within the pages. In purposely not glancing at that old image that brings a pull in his chest to think the sister of an old flame was lost like him. To find darkness and somehow return in different ways back home.

In the last few months since this lost sister of a woman he’s tried to make amends with is back. They’ve rekindled a relationship of sorts. Sara knows him enough. They have an understanding. Both seeking some comfort in each other. Otherwise, he feels like he isn’t worthy of any other companionship.

Oliver’s eyes scanning the simple photo from an array of pictures username SmokeNFox sent him it was this particular one he needed to print out. Glad he was able to find a printer back when he required it. A crack of a small smile graces his face as he recalls tiptoeing around the makeshift A.R.G.U.S. base to download from the social site to get this snapshot of an incredibly hot girl who texted some very outrageous things. Her pauses in conversation to vent how she can’t believe she wrote what she wrote. The sincerity not lost on him. He may have not heard her voice until his stint in Russia when they reconnected online again.

Oliver mentally documented her voice. Not in his wildest dreams would he think he’d hear it down eighteen flights of stairs from where Walter Steele mentioned Felicity Smoak would be someone to talk about electronics Oliver needed fixed.

SmokeNFox was at Queen Consolidated and to behold Felicity in person was… is the most incredible surprise the universe could ever throw at him. Reaching out to Ms. Smoak was no hardship at all. Her energetic personality ate him up alive. Trying to be aloof to her charm gets harder and harder and it irks him that John Diggle can read him out like that every single time.

At least John has no clue about his true first time he interacted with Felicity “SmokeNFox” Smoak.

Glimpsing at a face that brought a levity in his past journeys back to where he is now. After convincing Maseo in Hong Kong that he would not continue to jeopardize this man’s family. He got to sit down with a laptop which of course was being monitored but it was nice to have some technology at his fingertips. After the usual thing on checking up on his mother and sister and even Tommy. Since the whole ordeal of almost having his best friend killed it was good to know Tommy Merlyn was fine and alive back in Starling City.

Being lonely as evidently shown when Maseo and his wife Tatsu would leave him to the contraption that he is using to navigate the internet. A simple website of ambiguity. The thought of talking to someone outside the restrictive bubble seemed like a grand idea. It took a short bit to figure on a usable username. Kind of lame but doable. He logged in. Answering the site’s interests that he wants to partake in. Simple in fact. He is a male looking for a female. Basic stuff he thinks. Clicking buttons on what personality traits he seems to prefer.

His likes don’t always go hand in hand with what he accepts in real life but here he is in a world of make believe. He knows he wants to mingle with someone on par with what he always imagined would be the best thing ever. No strings attached. Just be raw as natural as he could be and know he couldn’t emotionally get hurt. A person on the other side of a keyboard could not elicit any deep feelings. Thus, Oliver decides to take a leap of faith and bare himself. What does he have to lose? He’s survived some dark shit so far.

And clicking the agree to terms. BeeMyQueen is now able to roam the site to find someone of interest to engage with. 

The voice calling out to him finally gets his attention.

He knows it is too late to hide what is in his grasp. It’s a wonderful picture he finds himself unable to tear away as it elicits a rare smile to form on his face. Glad this portrait of a girl has persisted the journey with him.  A spunky edgy college age girl is looking back at him. Those eyes always had him mesmerized.

Till finding Felicity in the flesh, he always wondered if that crazy stunt of talking to a random girl online was really of the girl, he’s had some far-out fantasies about in some darker times while trying to stay alive. 

“What do you have there, Ollie?”

Sighing at being unable to hide the picture as fast as he should have Sara is already snatching the picture from his now loosen grip.

Her gasp is all it takes to know he is in trouble.

“Hot damn! This can’t be the same girl.” Sara keeping Oliver from getting the photo back as she moves her body away from his, “Not our blondie.” She is making a whistling sound.

“Sara!”

His tone has her jest, “Does she know?”

“Know what?”

“You have a pretty exotic picture of her?”

“Nothing exotic about it.” He reaches over and lucky gets the picture of Felicity Smoak back into his possession.

“How did you come across getting that photo?”

“It’s a long story.”

“While we wait for the perpetrator on that list of yours, I think I can do with an over dramatic Queen story.”

“Fine, but you need to promise me you’ll never tell Felicity about this?”

“Oh, this is some deep…” Sara looking at his hand where a photo is clutched securely.

“Sara?”

“Ollie!” She replies while rolling her eyes.

“Felicity can’t know about this. It would make everything even more tense between us.”

“You have the hots for her.”

“It isn’t like that?”

Sara gives him a dire look as her hands plant themselves on her hips. Giving the illusion she knows more than he is admitting to.

“She deserves better.”

“Better than what?”

“Felicity is…” He takes a few extra seconds before adding, “She’s like sunshine on a darken day. I can’t hurt her. She’s special.”

“Special? And what? I’m chopped liver?”

He huffs, “You know what I mean.”

“Yep, I do. We’re comfort and we have an understanding. It is what makes us…us.”

“I won’t tell the story if you don’t promise to keep it to yourself.”

“Really… Ollie?” Seeing he isn’t budging. “Fine, Oli-ver.”

Oliver looks down at the picture of Felicity Smoak. One taken before she graduated M.I.T. in 2009.

“You promise?”

“My gosh, relax old man. I promise.”

It takes a dragged out look between them for Oliver to relax and begin a tale of how the picture of a Goth Felicity Smoak came into his possession.

[tj-crochets]

I've been crocheting for a few years but I've been wanting to learn how to see plushies now too and you're a great inspiration to me

Do you have a specific place where you buy your cloth for them? And do you look for a specific kind as well? I believe it's called minky or something similar, right?

That's awesome!! Sewing plushies is so fun, and I hope you enjoy it! I buy my plushie making fabric in a few different places. Nowadays, I usually buy minky from CaliQuiltCo on Etsy. I like CaliQuiltCo because they let you buy minky by the 1/4 yard or a cut they call a "fat half", which is 36" by 30". I usually get the fat half; I find it's a more usable cut of fabric for plushie making and with most of the things I make half a yard lasts me quite a while I get my fleece, faux fur, and faux sherpa fabrics from Joanns Fabric, a chain craft store in the US. I would only recommend buying from Joanns in person, not online. They've had some issues with inventory management online, and sell a lot of their minky in 2 yard minimums, which is a LOT of one color for plushie making (all of this is based off of experiences I had with Joanns website a few years ago. They might be better now, idk). In person, they also have remnants bins where you can get the remnants from a bolt of fabric (usually a yard or less) at a huuuuge discount. That's the main place I get my faux furs because faux furs can be really really expensive. If you're starting out sewing, I'd recommend fleece. It's significantly cheaper than minky, almost as soft, has a similar amount of stretch (so you can use it on the same patterns), and I've heard it's easier for beginners to work with when starting out. Oh, one more thing: I recommend Shannon minky, specifically their cuddle 3 minky. Their longer pile minky fabrics are good too, but they are significantly trickier to sew, to the point where sometimes I just handsew them instead of machine sewing

[chacusha]

My tips to new users to make Tumblr more usable

This is kind of random but I think Tumblr is one of those websites that hides a lot of its functionality from users and comes with default settings that makes it kind unusable (at least for me). So I've decided to collect some suggestions about things to do immediately in order to make Tumblr a much more usable website:

Most important: Put the content you actually opt into on your dash. First, go to Settings > Dashboard and turn off "Best Stuff First." In general, (1) I don't think it's good to let social media sites curate your content feed (they're not very good! you can curate your own content feeds!), and (2) chronological ordering is much more helpful for making sense of information. I don't know why you would want posts on a site to be presented in any other way. Please save yourself and make your dash chronological by toggling this monstrosity OFF. Also for the love of god, turn off "Include posts liked by the blogs you follow" and "Include 'Based On Your Likes!'" too. Other people's experiences might be different from mine, but when Tumblr first introduced this feature and I tried it out for a while, it was so predictable that every time I came across a post that made me viscerally angry and think, "How the HELL did this get on my dash?" it was always always some random post from someone I wasn't even following… So yeah, get rid of that.

Second, make the "Following" tab your default, instead of the "For you" tab. How to do this is not particularly obvious. From the Tumblr homepage (not settings), you need to find the tabs at the top of your dash (For you, Following, Your tags) and then click the toggle/settings icon to the right of those tabs. This will allow you to reorder your tabs. In particular, what you need to do is click the pin icon to the right of "Following," and this will set Following to be your pinned and first tab. By default, when you open Tumblr, your dash will show the posts of people you have actually opted into following rather than what Tumblr suggests to you.

Next, make sure timestamps on posts are on. This should be the default (despite what Tumblr says?), but if you don't see timestamps at the top of all posts, I highly recommend turning this setting on (under Settings > Dashboard). Knowing when a post was made is hugely helpful for understanding the context of the post, and I don't know why websites would allow you to hide this, really, unless they want you walking around with no sense of time or context, which uh… I don't recommend that social media experience!

Turn off endless scrolling (under Settings > Dashboard): Websites like endless scrolling to keep people from leaving the site. I recommend turning this off to make it more obvious how many posts you've scrolled through on Tumblr, to make it easier to find your place in older posts, and also to make the website just lighter to load. When I last used it, the Tumblr mobile app does not allow pagination, which is pretty typical of social media apps in general. Honestly, I recommend just not using the Tumblr mobile app at all. I've uninstalled it and aside from missing the convenience of being able to attach photos from my phone onto Tumblr posts, I really don't miss it…

Things that you may or may not be interested in:

Enable custom theme on (each of) your blog(s): So fun fact: If you don't have a custom theme enabled, then when people visit your blog when not logged into Tumblr, they will only be able to scroll through a few of the posts on your blog before being prompted by Tumblr to log in if they want to see more. This popup cannot be gotten around, and so people without Tumblr accounts or who are browsing on a device/browser without a login session just won't be able to see your posts. Personally, I do not like this behavior -- I like my blogs to be archives with useful permalinks that can be browsed by anyone. Anyway, you can get rid of this annoying prompt by going to Account > (select blog) > Blog settings and toggling that "Enable custom theme" slider. It doesn't really matter what theme you use (although there are a lot of options to choose from), just use a custom one!

Turn off "Shorten long posts" (under Settings > Dashboard): YMMV, but I personally don't find this setting very helpful as the maximum length for when it starts cutting off posts is pretty short and falls far short of what I would consider a "long post" that is inconvenient to scroll past. Instead, you may want to turn off this setting and create a filter for the tag "long post" (under Settings > Account > Filtered Tags).

Mature content: If you're interested in possibly seeing mature content, you may want to review your mature content settings (under Settings > Account) as by default, Tumblr is set to hide it entirely and doesn't tell you that it's hidden posts from you and so you probably just will not be aware this setting is a thing! Personally, I use the "Blur" setting.

Hiding content from users you don't want to see: As far as I can tell, if you see someone's posts in (e.g.) tag searches and would prefer not to see any of that person's posts in public places like that tag or appear on your dash by people you follow reblogging their posts, you should block them. Official Tumblr documentation does not say that this is a feature of blocking, but it is.

When Tumblr's functionality isn't enough… External tools such as XKit Rewritten provide a whole lot of QoL fixes to Tumblr's interface like making it easier to reply to replies, hiding posts you've already seen, showing how many new/unread posts are in tracked tags, showing all tags on posts by default rather than requiring you to click "See all," etc. For me, one thing I needed in order to make Tumblr semi-usable for me is hiding notes in tag searches (because I don't really need constant reminders that my tastes aren't aligned with wider fandom's tastes lol). I couldn't find a tool that does this, so I wrote a simple Tampermonkey script to do it for me.

Hope this helps new users of Tumblr, and feel free to add other helpful tips if you have them!

[danoshanter]

Wait ... they're - WHAT? : A Tale of the Khell'Zentii Research Directorate

This is not the whole story, but I'll give you a link to the thread where I'm posting the story as it unfolds. This is an AAR from the Stellaris game, that I as a crazy writer all the rest of it I've been splattering all over Tumblr the last few, have turned into a story. Contained in this post is the first installment, and a hint that the next installments actually ratchet up the humour quotient and get some descriptive writing in that I'm actually not at all displeased with; following that is a link to the Stellaris game AAR forum on the game company (Paradox)'s website where I am posting subsequent episodes as things become interesting enough in the game to spark a story that I can actually include enough timeline before and after that ... anyway, I just realized that though this is a bit long it really is only leadup to the first revelation, so I'll include first and second installments (I'm up to I think four so far)

:FIRST POSTING:

=========================================

Chief Research Director Arani Khell'Bizar slowly .... ever so slowly ... sank her aching head into her cupped hands. Very slowly, and trying not to be too obvious about it. The subprefectoral attaché who’d been sent over without warning or procedure from Third Under-secretary Brael’yn’s Interstellar Astrogation Department (Riparian Office, Dark Quark Hyperlane Currents Mapping Subdivision, and a few other categories, subcategories, subsubcategories, and subsubsubadnauseam,etc.), and who was currently bouncing off the walls of her meditation chamber, knocking the teaware and beakers all over the place with his flailing arms and raving at her, was obviously highly unstable. Wildly excited. Any usable data irretrievably corrupted by his emotion over … over … well, something or other ... and just a LITTLE incoherent in consequence. That was all. The man wasn't DELIBERATELY trying to make her already gigaparsec-sized headache any worse than it already was. He was just ... She paused, took a breath and sighed.

She tried. She really did. She tried to be so patient with all the echelons, from highest senatorial level department head all the way down to lowest titration pipette scrubber. And look what it got her. She really, truly, deep down in her fundamentally decent soul, really BELIEVED in the Credo. And that was the true beginning of the problem. She left herself too open, too vulnerable. No one, from absolute alpha to the meanest of the most abject omega, even respected her SELF, much less her time, her personal space or the dignity of her elected office. They all just saw her as ... she didn't know what. Someone safe though. Someone so lofty, and therefore paradoxically so inconsequential and objectified, that it was OK to waste her time for twenty minutes with an incoherent, emotional, IRRATIONAL outburst that still hadn't enlightened her as to any actual data, OR any actual poetic truths, except that the ISS D'oh was somehow involved. That was absolutely all she had to go o...

.

​

… as that thought brought up memories of all the particularly hellish last few days ... weeks ... months ... years, essentially every single moment since she was first elected, of nothing but trials, challenges, and testpad disasters trying to get this fragile interstellar nation off the ground of one single planet, when up until a decade ago her people hadn't even known hyperluminary interstellar travel was even possible; all the damn fool press releases claiming ... again ... "WE'VE FOUND OTHER SAPIENT LIFE!"; all the shamefaced, very quietly soft=floated followups that, "Um ... Well, yeah, it's ... ah, it's life all right, Jim, but I'm afriad it's just dumb as a box of rocks again and that's all there is to it. Ah... -- Sorry ..." ... ... And now, at the end of a very bad day dealing with the fallout of yet another false alarm of other sapient life being discovered out there by the very same dear but omniverse-shatteringly ANNOYING childhood friend who was currently trying to drive her to madness sending her low level couriers who are absolutely and completely incapable of framing a coherent, logical …

"attaché?"

(Incoherent response)

"attachÉ!"

(What>I>if>the D'oh>the transmiss...>ohmyGODS>...what?)

"this won't work. you are too involved. it impairs the efficiency of your communication. tell Braelie to come and tell me herself."

(But>what>wait>NO!>she specifically ordered … )

"attaché."

(Wh>sh>yes?)

"am I currently Chief Research Director of the Interstellar Khell'Zenti Confederation?"

(Well>b>yes m'…)

pardon?”

(Ah>ah> … )

“its very simple. classic binary reasoning. nothing more involved than that. am. I. currently Chief Research Director. or. am I not? yes/no, on/off, 1/0.”

(Ah>m>ah>0>ah>imean>Yes)

"did you vote for me?"

I>wh>what doe...>...>...> *gulpbreathgulp* "Yes, Director. I did."

*3.141592653589793238 millisecond pause*

"... braelie. "

-- *Same pause x 10* ...​

"NOW."

============================================================= :END FIRST POSTING: ===========================================================================================================================

​

:SECOND POSTING:: ==================================================================== "Director?" Arani paused to reflect that that was probably one of the things she appreciated most about her chief of staff. Bruustian perfectly epitomized the Khell'Zentaii ideal of taking an absolutely calm and rational and at the same time poetically stylish approach to all that one did; to combine within oneself the clear-eyed zeal and the calm abandon of the warrior-poets and the poet-warriors of old. He was a pool of calm water within the swirling maelstrom of the tabik wave around him. All the other raving idiots she was forced to deal with on a daily basis were so flustered by her office that she was lucky if they confined themselves to "Chief Research Director", and didn't throw in some bizarre politicohierarchical grooming ritual of tangled compliments and obscure metaphorical references likening her to the world-elephant that held up the scientific universe from her ivory throne at the pinnacle of the Kkell'Zentaii mountain, and on and on they would flourish while her eyeballs nearly cracked trying not to glaze over, all the while the window of opportunity for whatever wonderfulness it was was inexorably and often rapidly closing every millimuon they nattered on with their floridity. Bruustian, no. HE just called her, "Director", and got the flaming fluctacte on with ... "Director???" She allowed her left shoulder to startle slightly. "Yes, Primus?" The left corner of his mouth quirked up slightly at the antiquated title. That was all. "Third Secretary Brael'yn is here. She's just about to turn into the corridor leading to your conference chamber. You wanted to be apprised." She smiled, for the first time that week. "Thank you, Primus. Please be sure she has her single malt properly warmed, and let her know I'll be there as soon as I finish "

========================================​

“Brae. Um. You’re SURE that whiskey’s just the way you like it right? I got it from the old place, the one on the corner of Beaker Street, and … here, I know you haven’t had time to relax in forever, just sit down here and take it easy, and … “Ari. Cut the crap. You’re fussing me like a mother my’erdrtsk, but you’re not listening!” “HOW CAN I POSSIBLY LISTEN, YOU’VE BEEN RAVING YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR THREE HOURS AND YOU STILL HAVEN”T SAID ONE COHERENT WORD I COULD UNDERSTAND. This is not Brae’lyn Nab’taxrani in there, not the Brae I know, now please come back and tell me what. The. Squick. You. Are. Talking. About.” “WE FOUND THEM! AND WE FOUND THEM AND OH GOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE FOUND THEM BUT WE FOUND!” “Brae. You have found them on a regular basis for … “ “Direct confirmed videographic evidence.” “WJHAT! Why didn’t you say that FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so sorry, Brae, that’s …” "That’s minor.” "Th … what?” "Listen to me. When the D’oh entered the Yri’dinxi system they were contacted, on VIDEO FEED, by … … MACHINES.” “An automated comm station?” “NO. There is NO evidence of creator species. There is no evidence of organic maintenance techs, no evidence of organic operators, no evidence of any kind of energy feed connection whatsoever to a remote organic operator in or out of system. There was, however, at least residual evidence of DROID personnel performing these roles. Ari. We have not only found our first sentient species in this entire universe, besides ourselves. That in itself would be universe shattering enough, but the inescapable conclusion that all my xenocontact theoreticians unanimously agree upon … UNANIMOUSLY, mind you, and you know that bunch … is that we have also found … an artificial, 100% machine based species that is as completely and fully sentient ...

.. as ourselves.”​

<= *&%&* +>​

Cut to the shadowy, vastly impressive Acadame des Artes et Science senate chamber. Time stamp reads previous temporal coordinates plus one hour. Shadows drape their solemn webwork all around, the occasional whir hum and glow of technology is perceptible in the distance. There is no other sound or motion. The scientist/senators are sitting absolutely still, their jaws dropped as far upon their breasts as nature will allow them in a state of total muscular stunnedness. They have been in this state since the Chief Researcb Director informed the legislative body of the news before taking up her place at the Director's workstation and freezing into a similar state. Perhaps there is a young page insufficiently educated to grasp the full ramifications, and therefore not totally unconscious but just high enough level trained to sort of understand the general framework, worriting in the shadowy corners and wondering what the hell to do when they suddenly might as well be in a postapocalyptic scenario as far as the total consciousness-absence of anyone who knows the news is concerned, and they'd know just enough to know they can't get help because anyone they have immediate access and even begin to describe the problem to will immediately fall into a similar state. Cut to the same chamber a month later. The autocomms have just tickered the news that the lower echelons fuctioned just well enough, before freezing up totally, to set the diplomatic corps in motion. The diplomatic corps is made up of individuals whose personality type makes them immune to revelatory brain freeze (if a little inclined to snark at the scientist higher echelons who aren't.) and therefore, the Khell'Zenti Science Directorate is suddenly engaged in direct diplomacy with a hitherto unsuspected alien artificial intellgence hive mind who jus happens to be the first sapient life the Khell'Zenti were aware of in the universe besides themselves. The scientists are completely unaware this is going on. They are in the same position and state they were in the last time we saw our heroes. Except that some clever maintenance tech has rigged up autoIV feed lines and other basic life support technology to keep them at least minimally functional until they can recover from their stun and actually begin to respond to the situation. This is probably a different lower level tech from the one who remarked that after all this star empire was supposed to be a science directorate that followed rationality and objective uncorrupted data wherever they might lead, and that all data sources so far seemed to indicate that while the functions directly associated with the Director herself had indubitably suffered, the rest of the government actually seemed to be functioning more efficiently than it had while the senators were conscious and operational. She went on to say that she at least saw no need to compromise that efficiency by wasting resources trying to revive anyone but the Director herself, and that the rest were probably happier on life support anyway than incessantly wrangling about whether the distance between Belgarion's planet and the location of the accident that tore apart the Prophecies in David Eddings' Belgariad universe was so many parsecs, or so many parsecs PLUS ONE INCH, a question that superheated plasma, ink, CRT photons and blood had (spinning the metaphor out just a little longer) all been shed over before the poor Director had finally managed to coddle the species over the planetary doorstep to even get to space in the first place.

[barilleon]

silly work-related trauma talk under the cut

I've been taking a narrative design class. On Wednesday nights there are coworking sessions, and that's also where a lot of the community building comes in. This is the last week of the class, and so a lot of the work is focused on portfolio building. Folks were swapping portfolios Wednesday night and trading feedback.

Someone shared their website and asked for feedback on the zoom call, and when I clicked into it I saw a bunch of issues that were immediately fixable from a web design & usability standpoint. So I started listing them off.

Two minutes in I froze and noticed that the rest of the call was dead silent. I panicked. It's on zoom so I couldn't read anyone's face either. But there was only one thought going through my head: they're mad at you.

I apologized immediately for speaking up, for being "mean" and "intense." I told him I really did like his portfolio, I just had a lot of experience with web design from school is all, I'm not really an expert or anything, I just wanted to help, I'm really sorry I didn't mean it.

He and other members of the class were like "No, you weren't being mean. That's a lot of useful information, thank you." But it took them three times before they could actually convince me I wasn't speaking out of turn or being too aggressive.

I couldn't immediately put my finger on why I panicked, but coming back to it a few days later it's easier for me to identify that it all stems back to old jobs. When I would be asked for feedback, I'd give it and then be told I was aggressive and toxic no matter what I said. That or be dismissed outright ("What do you know?"). I almost lost my job because of it a few times. Producers would threaten me with disciplinary action because they couldn't take feedback that THEY asked for.

It's made me a really defensive person. Even when someone is asking for feedback. Even when I'm not even doing a job, I'm trying to help, I'm terrified that anything I say will be interpreted as mean. It's really weird to have a panic attack on zoom in front of people you've only known for six weeks. It's really vulnerable to be like that.

But I'm getting better. I offered feedback. I would never do that before. And it was helpful, and people appreciated it. Because I know what I'm talking about!

One more big step for Leonkind I guess.

[rhythmic-idealist]

Hi all. Some of you know my partner @crimeronan - maybe for her original fiction, her fanfiction, or her assorted queer/polyamorous/chronically ill life blogging.

If you do know—or know of—Kitkat, you might know them as a resource, or as a writer, or as that person who has been known to sit down and write six paragraphs of advice to the scared young person in their inbox. Perusing their blog I see people trading autoimmune stories, younger queer and polyamorous people asking questions about what it's like to be in your mid twenties and settled into those things, and people who found stories who resonated in ways stories don't always succeed at.

Or maybe not! That’s my platonic partner of four years. Happy to introduce u.

If you ARE aware of Kitkat, you might know that she recently FINALLY got an initial appointment with a rheumatology clinic. This after a big medical mystery that’s spanned over two years and taken them to the ER more times than anyone can feel good about.

The good news is that things are FINALLY moving forward. Kitkat has posted a lot more about that entire saga, if anyone is interested, but the main thing right now is that there are test results that are usable in a diagnosis, there will be a diagnosis that is usable in treatment, there are follow-up appointments in the very immediate future that will do a lot of good. It's all kind of astounding after the amount of time it took to get here.

The bad news is that their car broke down.

To say the money situation is already tight would be, though I’m sorry to put it like this, understated. Kitkat makes most of her money from freelance writing, and, first of all, is a fucking wizard at it in ways I don’t understand. But she recently lost her biggest consistent clients when— and she was told this outright— those clients switched to ChatGPT.

Perhaps more to the point— they're often too sick to work. They've pivoted to gig economy delivery jobs, but that is an enormous physical demand on ANYONE’s body, let alone when you’re severely sick.

So that’s where the financial situation is at right now.

I do slot into this, so to give you the story on that: I’m moving to Oregon to live with my partners next month, and will be contributing to the household income then (which is why I'm moving so soon). But I was originally planning to finish trade school first and move in January 2024, so everything’s very last-minute, and a little haywire. I now have at least one job interview lined up in town, but I won’t even be in Beaverton until mid-August, and this auto repair bill is due now.

Basically: because of this auto repair bill, they’re not going to be able to make rent. I expect we as a group will probably be okay once I’m in Oregon and more established/able to help out with the household income, but things aren’t there yet, and this isn't money we're going to be able to make back later.

Kitkat's been too sick to work consistently for so much too long, and that's why they need to turn to community support right now.

(I know Tumblr is famously not a "meet every goalpost before deserving help" website, and I think a lot of fundraisers with less explanation than this deserve support. I'm just a very wordy person. Thanks for bearing with me.)

Kitkat has limited mobility and is going to need to get to upcoming appointments, and speaking honestly, also just really needs access to a car to make things like groceries feasible. She’s not the only one in the apartment with limited mobility or chronic pain. Add to that the gig delivery jobs as a main source of income right now, and this is a necessary bill, just one that is sky-high relative to the income trying to tackle it.

So, you know, hello. I've brought a couple of fundraisers onto Tumblr in the past on other people’s behalf. This time I’ve gotta ask on behalf of my own found family.

The bill has come out to $717.80.

As of now, rent money has been used to pay it—the car has been repaired now, but that money was for rent and daily expenses. There is already financial assistance in play, particularly Medicaid. As it stands, because of this bill, they're not going to make rent.

To account for GoFundMe's fees of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, the goal is set to $750.

If you’re in any way able to give, the link is here: https://gofund.me/c0f9d7fe

Otherwise, a share goes a really long way.

Thank you a ton for reading this far. Times are hard all around, so please know: this post is an appeal to those among us who have disposable income and are looking to donate some of it.

Thank you.

$1,323/750

Date posted: July 27th, 2023 Updated: July 28th, 2023

[nokingsonlyfooles]

To Do Today!

OK, I am gonna try to do laundry AND start reformatting the site. Obvs, one must do laundry. However, the site issues are more complicated.

Basically, WordPress is pushing out another interface change. The last major one was the block editor, that's taken years to be usable, and it still breaks sometimes. But it is more versatile than the old editor, so I get why they hafta. The new thing is some kinda universal site editor and last time I checked it was awful. You don't HAVE to use it, much like the block editor, but all the themes are scrambling to work with its new features. One of these is "global colours." My theme is really struggling with them. They keep changing, overriding my pathetic coding skills, and making things impossible to read. I either need a theme where the dang colours actually work, or one without global colours that's gonna stay that way. The former is slightly more likely.

I also have issues with ALL my custom blocks. You're supposed to be able to save a block and use it like a rubber stamp, forever, but the updates have left all of them coughing up errors. They'll usually stay legible unless I open the page they're on in the editor, and then all hell breaks loose. I need to figure if I'm going to update them all or simplify. I should probably simplify anyway, I think I get really annoying trying to make sure people understand me. Maybe that scares off potential readers?

So, first order of business, change the theme. That will change the whole look of the site, live, and it'll barely work until I find everything that broke and fix it. I'll also need to redesign the front page, and maybe the menus, header, footer, background - all kinds of stuff. When I've done that, I gotta go page by page and find/replace the blocks. That'll take me a few days. 😅I've found some more typos and errors to fix along the way too - including one major continuity error. (Mordecai doesn't seem to recognize someone he should, and I'm bringing that guy back way later, so I hadda add a couple words. It was a math thing. When I wrote it, I thought, "That can't be X it must be Y and he wouldn't know Y..." But when I went into my notes recently and added up the years, "Aw, crap, no, that MUST be X!")

They do say it's super important to know when to stop working on your art, lest you cough up a travesty like the Star Wars Special Edition that obliterates the original. I have obliterated the original, but parts of it needed to die. I've also over-edited in a lot of places - I'm trying to catch those and un-fix them! It's never going to be perfect. Even "real professionals" cough up typos and errors that go live and stay that way, but I have a real terror of being misunderstood and hurting someone. Even just confusing them. Anything that might make them not like me.

So, yeah, I gotta throw in some laundry and go kill my ego. And fix a website! Probably no feed for a while, at least not until I get frustrated and need a break.

Ah, yes, and Patreon still hasn't deleted my data so I'm yelling at them. I'm not going to worry about setting up at Ko-Fi until I'm ready to publish the next six, but I'll keep you posted. I took down my page and I didn't want to charge you for January, so check your records, my few supporters. If they charged you anyway, you need to yell at Patreon too.

[msbarrows]

I. Am. CACKLING.

Those of you who I’ve known since my TS2 days may recognize the above fridge; back in 2011 or so I created a 3D model of a Crosley ‘Shelvador’ fridge both for use in my portfolio and to convert into a fridge usable in The Sims 2.

You know that saying about things never really going away on the internet? Yeah. That portfolio website is long gone, but apparently some of the images from it are still out there, including this fine render of the fridge.

\Which showed up in the last 24 hours on an Art Deco facebook group my sister is in. My sister who also played the Sims and had my CC in her game, and of course was pretty sure she knew exactly who the “sroberts.ca” who created it was, so contacted me about the post.

What has me cackling is the number of people in the comments who thought it actually is a photo (granted by the rules of that group it apparently should only be photos of real objects posted). Also, the one guy who was positive it was AI, and when I corrected him that it was a render, blew up at me over it, and eventually either blocked me or deleted his comment. WTF dude, go have some chamomile tea or something. If you’re going to get butthurt over being corrected on FB maybe... don’t post on FB?? (Which is one of the last things he told me to do (or not do), ahahahahaha).

Anyway, I am a combination of grinning over all the compliments for my pretty fridge (though mostly that’s owed to Powel Crosley and/or the designers he paid), amused by the people who thought my render was realistic enough to mistake it for a photo, and giggling over Mister IT’S AI!!!

Also the image has now been shared by over 600 people on Facebook alone (I bet if I reverse image search I’ll find it on other sites too) so. Yeah. My fridge. It’s escaped confinement (and not just as the TS2 item I made it into) and will forevermore be a part of the internet.

[spikeinthepunch]

i feel like it may be worth just rambling about my website and what things id like to do with it in terms of rehauling the look. i am always the type to say "no, this will stay in my brain until i know for sure what i want to do". but that often means fleeting ideas dont stick and not talking about it makes it hard to properly envision

my website kind of got a solid look mid-early last year after i learned more html formatting and i quite like it- a landing page, a home page, and a few spin off pages (project site and coffini outlet). i didnt feel like i acheived what i wanted to emulate out of the old web though- making the page feel like a proper "home" or diving into my own personal world.

i mostly considered the first solid design to be temporary as i figure out what i wanted to do with a theme that felt more homey, but that didnt happen for a variety of reasons.

the main struggle out of all of it is actually making the assets. there is a lot of ways i could tackle the "old internet" look with assets. low quality jpegs? pixel art? low poly 3d gifs? many other things i am not experienced with making either- and the aesthetic i think i would go for most is pixel art. and even outside of the style is just SO much stuff to make. i gotta make the background? the containers? the buttons? the borders? scroll bar? and every other little decoration!! it is overwhelming especially when i dont even know if i can make it all myself in a way i like because i havent done much pixel art.

in terms of what i want to do though (lets not forget i am writing this to also remind myself what i want to do) outside of my annoyance for procrastinating- i want to rework my landing page to be cuter and more themed. everything to be more themed. obviously i lean a lot on space aesthetics, and would certainly want the landing page to be about that. either something like, a spaceship gif and the puffs of smoke linking to the homepage/etc. or a solar system. home page, i still want to be similar layout as to keep it easy to navigate... but id want to carry that look very heavily still. want think giving the containers a sort of mechanical sci-fi look would be neat, like youre inside a ship. or maybe make it look like holographic screens (id want to try and keep my light color text on a dark background look). for coffini outlet, i want to make all the graphic myself and probably alter the layout a bit? but not too much, as i think this one is ideal for reading still. so really, just a more original header image. for my project page? i quite like it as is, i made it more recently with some help of a template.

so those are the thoughts i have. aside from the aesthetics i know i really want to improve on my code in terms of making it semi workable on phones but also way more usable on different window size.... currently this is a big problem still on some pages:

improving the technical side of the website is important and i think my meds working will help me focus on that a bit more in terms of...learning how to lol. and i do want to sit down and learn properly about the aesthetic parts i feel i dont have the skills for too- ive kind of put a lot of that onthe backburner with all the fan art i have gotten into as well and i feel like i want to pull away from it just a tad in order to focus on original things.

[evisadubaionline]

Dubai Visa For Romanian Citizens In 2025

If you are a Romanian citizen who intends to visit Dubai in 2025, I need to mention the visa requirements. Most travelers require a Dubai visa for Romanian citizens. This varies according to your visit purpose: whether for tourism or business, hence the reasons for the requirements of the visa and how you will apply.

Citizens of Romania need to acquire a visa for entering Dubai. In reality, most countries enjoy visa-free agreements with the UAE, but Romania is not an exception, so applicants of this nationality should get a visa in advance if they are going to visit Dubai.

The good news is that the processing of a UAE visa for Romanians is easy and simple. You can apply online and get the visa within a short period. The UAE offers various options for visas, depending on the purpose of your visit, and you can now apply from the comfort of your home through an online service.

Types of Dubai Visas for Romanian Citizens

Depending on the purpose of visit, the citizens of Romania can apply for a Dubai visa. Here are common types of visas that can be applied:

Tourist Visa: The most common visa that is obtained by tourists for visiting the country for tourism, pleasure, or visiting family.

Business Visa: If one needs to travel to Dubai for business meetings or conferences, this is the type of visa.

This is the transit visa if you are transiting in Dubai to another destination. Student visa applies to Romanian citizens who will based in Dubai for purposes of study.

Each of these visas has different requirements and durations. It is, therefore, important to select a visa that best suits your travel plans.

How to Apply for Dubai Visa in Romania

It is easy applying for a Dubai visa if you are a Romanian citizen, with the recent introduction of the Dubai E Visa Online system. You don't necessarily have to go to any embassy or consulate since you can fill in the application form from home. Here's how you can do that:

Select the Type of Visa: Determine first the type of visa you need depending on your travel purpose.

Fill the application: Go to the Dubai visa website and fill the online application form. It requires personal information, passport details, and travel plans.

Upload documents: After filling the form, upload the necessary documents. This includes a passport, photo, and travel itinerary.

Pay the visa fee: Pay the visa fee using a credit card or other accepted payment methods.

Wait for Approval: There is an online tool that tracks the status of your submitted application. Most visas are approved within a few days.

Once the approval is received, you will be sent an email with your UAE visa for Romanian citizens that you can print and use at Dubai entry points.

Benefits of Online Application for Dubai E Visa

Dubai E Visa Online has made applying for a visa to Dubai very convenient and easy for Romanian citizens. Some of the benefits are:

Easy accessibility and ease of convenience: You may apply anytime and anywhere.

It's speed: Applying online has really fast processed, as well, and the majority get a visa approval in several days.

Ease of usability: The whole online mechanism is user-friendly even if one is going there first.

Common Mistakes to Watch Out for When Submitting Your Dubai Visa Application from Romania

Despite how easy it might seem to apply for a Dubai visa for Romanian citizens, there are some common mistakes you do not want to commit. To this end, here are some dos and don'ts when preparing your application:

 Mistakes such as: Information- Wrong information entered on the application form may cause an invalid approval.

Missing papers-Likely that relevant papers were not uploaded correctly.

Late Application: Do not wait for the last time to submit an application. Make sure you are doing this weeks before your trip date so that you receive your passport prior to your trip.

Conclusion

To sum up, Romanian citizens require a visa to visit Dubai in 2025, and getting a Dubai visa for Romanians is easy. Using the Dubai E Visa Online system, you could easily get a visa from Romania. To do this successfully, all you need is to select the appropriate type of visa, fill in your application accurately, and avoid the mistakes people make commonly.

Traveling to Dubai will be an exciting experience for sure, and with all that the vibrant city has to offer, a visa will likely make things easier for you.