#trust me i hate the subscription model too

[thephantomcasebook]

I'm thinking Ewan Mitchell sold his soul to Hollywood. Fucking scary how they lure young great talents like him in. Thoughts?

Look, I'm gonna tell it to you as clean as I can.

Actors and Actresses are narcissistic, shallow, neurotic, empty people, which, as a whole, can't be trusted. They'll do and say whatever it takes not just to get a role, but to get even a few more lines in a script. They are adult people that play make believe for a living because they, generally, don't like themselves and want to be someone else. To deify or put on a throne, anyone, that plays pretend for a living is plain ignorant and you're asking for your heart to be dashed.

No one enters entertainment and comes out a better person, yeah?

There is a very few actors/Actresses that are jobbing, lunch pail working performers that are good and normal people.

Michelle Dockery, Laura Carmichael, Jenna Coleman, Nikolaj Coster-Waldu, Matthew Marsden, Aiden Turner, and Sam Heughan.

The only standard you should have for an actor or actress is these three questions:

Are they respecting the character?

Are they respecting the Lore?

And - most importantly - are they respecting the fans?

I hit Olivia Cooke with the fucking truck all the time, because, Olivia Cooke does not live up to these basic principles. She doesn't care about Alicent, in fact she hates Alicent. She doesn't give a fuck about the lore, and is actively campaigning to change it to virtue signal. And she openly does not care about the fans unless their gender and sexuality gives her cashe to big-up her career.

Like I've said, you can love a character and dislike an actor/actress. I'd give my sword for Alicent Hightower ... and at the same time I think Olivia Cooke is a dishonest snake.

Same thing with Lena Headey. Lena Headey might legitimately be retarded, okay. She is so stupid that she couldn't spell "Cat" if I spotted her the "C" and the "A", right? Lena Heady also happens to check all three of the boxes. She loved playing Cersei. She respected the Lore around Cersei and didn't try to change her character to make her look better. And while she had a terrible history prior of out right abusing her own fans, she learned to appreciate the people that paid her fucking bills, in the end.

When it comes to Ewan. I wouldn't wear those clothes, and I question the manhood and self-respect of any man who wears them - gay or straight. But at the end of the day, Ewan Mitchell has a right to do whatever the fuck he wants to do. Or, more succinctly, I don't give a fuck about his or any other actor's personal lives.

What they do on their time is their business. But what they do on my time is my business. And since I'm paying a subscription for "MAX" and thus paying his fucking salary, I expect him to not waste my time with half-ass performances and hack effort, right?

But he hasn't waisted my time.

Ewan Mitchell has been a model of professionalism and passion when it comes to portraying Aemond.

He has put more thought than anyone - except for Glynn-Carney - about his character.

He is dedicated to playing the character right.

And he has been exemplary in his treatment and interaction with the fans of the show and the franchise as a whole.

And that's really all you can ask of an actor in your franchise. What he does and believes in his personal life is his affair. As long as he doesn't disrespect me than I won't disrespect him. That simple.

Once more, you guys have to stop putting actors/actresses on thrones, cause they're only human ... and, in many cases, not very good ones. Love the character, stan the character, but hold these real life people to simple standards that they should be holding themselves too.

I'm not coming down on you nonny, but I've had thirteen years of this shit on Tumblr of fangirls worshiping an actor or actress in cult like status because they like a character.

You guys have got to stop doing that, cause it only leads to bad things.

[shiveringgroovy]

PART 3 HC ASKS

WHAT KIND OF COMPUTER DOES EVERYONE USE ipads/tablets are allowed im extending this to like phones and stuff i've just decided

errrm HEHEHE !! gonna do my favs for this :3

Sheogorath

not a big computer guy. probably has a fuckass nokia phone and has hit computers with golf clubs before.

haskill gives him a tablet to watch shitty youtube videos on

i know he fucks with really bad yt shorts

probably invented them tbh

Atsushi

has a phone and that's about it

uses agency computers for work and kinda hates operating them (they also kinda suck so yk)

Sotha Sil

INSANELY FAST RUNNING SETUP

like 500 monitors and LEDs and a see-through tower and a fucking gaming chair

blender king

probably built it all himself

he's insane

the electric bill is through the roof.

Fyodor (i actually despise him but it's funny)

so he canonically has the worst most diabolical evil fucked up setup known to MAN please get him to touch some grass i'm begging you

freaky ass medieval peasant that introduced HIMSELF to goreshit

discord is running somewhere there. trust me

Relmyna Verenim (did you guys know i like her)

also has multiple monitors, not as many as sil but yk

probably runs like super slow and she has to resist the urge to snap her monitors in half every time she tries to open up any program

minecraft girlie (i also hc her as trans she's very loser scientist transfem coded)

she spends most of her time in the field but she likes her computers to write down her stuff

Yosano

has a tablet and a phone

uses them sparingly, but talks to ranpo a lot over texts

Vivec

has the newest phone models. always buys them instantly.

they're a prick

probably has a fucking typewriter rather than a computer because he's pretentious

Ranpo

has a tablet and a phone, uses them much more often than yosano

he seems like he prefers to read on screens than books imo

it also makes more sense, he doesn't like carrying a bunch of stuff around so having a tablet would be convenient

will text people while sitting directly across from them

Dagoth Ur/Voryn Dagoth

has a flip phone and that's it

Jouno

bc he's blind, he's not a fan of technology all that much, but uses screen readers and speaks to type.

more of a phone guy!!

has cut a laptop in half before

Nerevar

doesn't believe in computers

Kenji

also doesn't believe in computers

Lucien Lachance

owns a laptop but never uses it

written mail type of guy

Q/Yumeno

would go apeshit on a tablet.

probably a really big art fan, so really uses them for drawing and games and stuff

someone introduce this kid to a pc with a drawing pad

also loves music, would be the only normal technology user on this list istg

Haskill

owns something for every situation

nothing too fancy tbh

has a home pc, a laptop, a phone, and a tablet

uses them all for his job and has them all labelled and everything

has games on his phone for sheogorath

Ivan Goncharov

it's cause you're always on that damn rock

hates typing with every fiber of his being

smashes shit. has absolutely crushed pushkin's phone before and pushkin almost shot him

uses laptops and pcs out of necessity, uses walkie-talkies for communications because he just likes them

Ocheeva

biggest spreadsheet fan of all time

has a laptop that flips into a tablet

she loves organizing things and presenting them to the rest of the dark brotherhood

they don't listen to the immense power of a girl with a spreadsheet. like fools.

Bram

mp3 player or a phone just for music purposes

pays for every music subscription known to man

last.fm ass bitch

[queen-mihai]

Tl;Dr because I know I make long posts:

These services are dying but they're being replaced by smaller better services and the 0.1% are freaking out because they're losing control

Full post:

What I see happening is the same as with finance

The people with everything think everyone's going to trust them forever and so they've collected everyone onto like 5 sites and now they're killing those 5 sites. They have never been able to control the internet and so they're trying to kill the internet. They're trying to make it so bloated and unusable that no one ever trusts it again.

The problem is, it's backfiring just like all their other stupid plans.

You can see it with something as simple as MySpace VS Facebook (not that I think Tom is necessarily part of this or that even some of the people involved even know what's happening)

One popular site went down, another came up, and the internet only got bigger and more popular. And more spread out.

People on Facebook think the internet is Facebook. YouTubers sometimes seem to think of the internet as something like YouTube+1 other site that they happen to use.

But it's not, and telegram, Kik, and discord are proof.

The big "everyone is here, talk to everyone here" sites are dying and what's happening is that more services are popping up to say "just talk to your friends here. Literally invite anyone you want, but then just talk to them"

And the great thing about this is that these places are cheaper, easier to manage, and can run on a subscription model.

I expect the next 10 years on the internet to look a lot more like increasingly dispersed "chat group" services that all defy categorization so hard that they're impossible to control using some dystopian law and even more impossible to advertise to.

I'm seeing a rise in the number of "no sign up, no phone number, absolutely no personal information required" anon chat services popping up and they're just plainly not the "wild west" shit holes one might think a service like that would be. Antichat is one example. It's pretty small at the moment and I'm sure there are some gross corners of it that I haven't run across yet. But the existence of this service and others like it, to me, mark the direction I think the internet is going. Advertisers and dictators want more and more control and the only way they can even try to keep control is by making the internet bigger and bloatier so they can justify faster service that's easier to spy on. The problem with this is that we've already hit the tipping point there too.

5g is pointless. The internet is basically fast enough as is. And with the current services, people are finding ways to create their own privacy by mixing and matching services on their own. And it's getting easier to do so.

So spying on people is getting harder. Advertising to people is getting harder. Everyone is disappearing into more diverse and harder to find services, and those services are slowly getting better and more useful.

Nobody gives a fuck if you're trans there because the groups all have anti-hate and zero tolerance anti-cp rules and it really only takes one or two mods to police the each chat and make sure people aren't being gross dickheads and kick them out if they try. And there are plenty of people who want to be mods the smaller and easier the job gets.

My point is this: we're rapidly approaching an era where spying on people and advertising and collecting everyone's information is going to be fucking useless. People are being nicer to each other. It's getting calmer. Heck even the horny people are getting happier because the anti-hate rules being enforced means the worst actors are getting kicked off before they get to do any real damage, and potential victims now usually have a VPN and don't have any personal information tied to the site, which should at least make horror stories slightly more rare.

Twitter YouTube tiktok etc are dying and they want you to think that will be the end of the internet.

But the REAL internet is making a serious comeback and people are just as weird and nice and silly and horny as ever. Home grown videos made on the spot and sent to a few close friends without needing stupid YouTube? Happening. People talking about news without turning into a flame war? Happening. Sharing memes and being silly? Happening.

The world is ours and it's VERY quickly slipping out of the hands of the 1%. They're powerless and they know it so they're trying to convince people that the death of these services will be the death of the internet. But that's bullshit and everyone knows it already. People are thriving and the world is getting better as we speak.

I know this was long so to anyone reading this: thanks for reading to the end and I love you

twitter: currently owned by techbro pissman

tumblr: actively removing functionality and bloating the interface with things nobody uses

discord: being retooled by ex-Meta management who don't understand the appeal of the platform

youtube: neutered by advertisers and algorithms and also tiktokification

reddit: half of the site is down due to protests about the outrageous monetization of third-party API support

facebook: my mom is on there

[undertalethingems]

Basically they are pulling an adobe and trying to force everyone to use a subscription

Ahhhh.... I will say, this still pretty much lines up with what i said though--you only have to get the subscription if you want new features. It doesn't mean you have to stop using the program you already paid for and own. Yeah, it's still pretty scuzzy--not denying that. but i also don't think it's as dire as a lot of people initially thought...? If you're used to how the program works now and like it, then... what's really changed?

I guess it remains to be seen how exactly things will go down. there was a huge backlash, and it may make clip rethink some of their decisions. one can hope, right? >>;

but, i'm one to use a program until it just cannot function anymore--it's not a big deal if my version of clip doesn't get the latest features because i was used to a version of photoshop from 2013. that thing was absolutely not receiving updates, trust me. XD it didn't stop me from making art though, because it still did what i needed it to do.

so maybe this is a somewhat bigger deal to other folks than it is to me :"D

[ljandersen]

Character Interview

I thought I was tagged for this meme.  When I went back to get the name of the person who tagged me, it turned out it was another similar post going around.  Since I already did this one, though, here it goes. Some of you may have already done this meme, but in case you haven’t or you want to do another character, I’m tagging:   @rpgwarrior4824, @ripley95things, @pigeontheoneandonly, @bardofheartdive, @pip-n-flinx, @soldiermom1973, @maxrev, @ooachilliaoo, @nerdierholler, and anyone else who wants to play.  As always, no obligations!

name ➔ Shepard.  What?  You want more?  Okay.  Spectre Shepard. 

are you single ➔ I filed paperwork last year that says I’m not.

are you happy ➔  Depends on how long this goes.

are you angry ➔ Depends on how long this goes.

are your parents still married ➔ They’re dead.

NINE FACTS

birthplace ➔ Mindoir. 

hair color ➔ You’re looking right at me. 

eye color ➔ Again . . .  

birthday ➔ April 11, 2154.

mood ➔ Bored.

gender ➔ Female.

summer or winter ➔ Space.  

morning or afternoon ➔  Morning.  Time to get going.  Chop, chop. 

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE

are you in love ➔  I filed that paperwork.

do you believe in love at first sight ➔  Loving the sight of someone isn't loving them.  You don't know them.  Love at first sight is just you projecting your current feelings onto a memory. 

who ended your last relationship ➔  The Collectors.

have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔  So I’m told.  The alpha relay was a suicide mission.  Alchera wasn’t supposed to be.   

are you afraid of commitments ➔ I filed that paperwork, remember?  Besides I just subscribed to the model spaceship of the month club.  Twelve months.  And do you know the cabinet space we’re talking?  So, hell no, I’m not afraid of commitment.  (pauses)  Dammit, that is a lot of counter space though.  This shabby apartment?  Kaidan and I’ll need bunk beds.  Is there a grace period, you think?  Just gave them my credit chit last night.  I can still cancel it.  

have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ If Kaidan doesn’t get a hug every other day, he withers like a fern you forgot to water.  Haha.  Seriously, though, don’t tell him I said that.  Let me change my answer.  Going back.  Yes, I hugged someone within the last week.  It was fantastic.  

have you ever had a secret admirer ➔  Conrad Verner.  At least one of us thought it was a secret. 

have you ever broken your own heart? ➔  Sucks to wake up dead.

SIX CHOICES

love or lust ➔  They both give you adrenaline, always a good thing.  Only one gives you a shoulder and a hand up.

lemonade or iced tea ➔  Rather dehydrate.

cats or dogs ➔ Hamster.

a few best friends or many regular friends ➔  More the merrier.  No man’s a failure who has friends. 

wild night out or romantic night in ➔  I like going out.  Kaidan likes staying in.  Compromise makes us both a little irritated but healthier for the equilibrium. 

day or night ➔  Night.  It feels normal, like space. 

FIVE HAVE YOU EVERS

been caught sneaking out ➔   As a kid?  Who hasn’t?  Now I say that, actually I can think of one.  I don’t think Kaidan got caught sneaking out until he was in his thirties.  Before that, his biggest lights-out fear was probably getting caught reading his Omni-Tool under a blanket.  Now, that, you can tell him.  He’ll snort in indignation, but back him into a corner, I bet he’ll say it’s true.  

fallen down/up the stairs ➔  Anyone who says they haven’t is a liar.  That, or the fall knocked out the memory.  

wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔   Medigel.  You said something.  No take backs.

wanted to disappear ➔ Are we talking invisible or dead?  Been dead.  Nothing to recommend it.  Invisible?  Might be hard getting through automated doors. 

FOUR PREFERENCES

smile or eyes ➔  It's case by case. 

shorter or taller ➔  Irrelevant question.  Don’t care.

intelligence or attraction ➔  Attraction?  You mean, physical attractiveness.  I shoot for the overlap on the venn diagram.  And I'm a damn good shot.  You should see the trophy I've mounted.  Oh, I know what I said.       

hook-up or relationship ➔  Remember the paperwork?  I made my choice.  Before that though?  Guess it depended on what was in season.

FAMILY

do you and your family get along ➔  You mean Kaidan’s family?  Smashing.  No, I realize my tone, but I’m not being sarcastic on this one.  They’re great people.  They’re an extension of Kaidan, how could they not be?

would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔  Saved the galaxy, didn’t I?  Had help, of course, not trying to be pompous.  Everything gets messy.  It only matters what you make of it.

have you ever ran away from home ➔  As a foster kid, sure.  But I guess that was never really home.

have you ever gotten kicked out ➔  Loads of times.  Not just bars.  I’m talking council meetings, admiral’s offices, biotic ball games, the Vancouver city park.  Kaidan got kicked out of the park too.  He gets twitchy and flushed if I bring it up now.  And he was more dressed than I was when ...  Maybe pretend I didn’t say that last part.  Just cut the park thing altogether.  

The model spaceship of the month subscription wasn't cheap, and I can only ask forgiveness so much in one day.  And trust me, I will need forgiven he knows I talked about what we did on the merry-go-round. Spoiler.  Not much cause we got caught.  Okay.  Moving on.     

FRIENDS

do you secretly hate one of your friends ➔  If I hate someone, it won’t be a secret. 

do you consider all of your friends good friends ➔  I only keep the good ones.  The others I throw back.

who is your best friend ➔  Kaidan.  He puts up with me.  And that's a good thing, because we share a bank account now, and I just bought a crap ton of model ships last night.  Kinda getting some buyer’s remorse.  Why do you keep bringing it up?  Joking, I know it's me.  We almost done?  I should probably make a call.

who knows everything about you ➔  Kaidan will say he thinks he does. But hell, I don’t even know everything about me.  The answer I'm submitting is simply: no one.  (Stops and looks at the door over her shoulder.  It opens)  Ah!  Look here.  My paperwork co-signer in the flesh.  And what mighty fine flesh it is. Alenko:  How romantic.  Hey, still doing your interview?  I just signed for this. (throws her a box)

Shepard (reading with a grimace):  January Edition: Turian Dreadnaught Farinex, pre war era 2183, complete with -- How the hell did it get here so fast?  That was at midnight.  It’s not even noon now.  Well, this is just … Just great. Alenko:  I thought you’d like it. Shepard:  Like it?  I ordered it, but ... Alenko:  No, I ordered it.  For you. Shepard:  You ordered?  Kaidan, that's so … Thanks.  (jumps up, gives kiss and hug)  We're gonna need a lot more cabinets. Alenko:  Guess we'll need bunk beds. Shepard:  Hey, that’s what I said.  She was asking about friends, hugging, my commitment to the spaceship of the month subscription.   Alenko: (to interviewer)  Did she say she hates hugs?  (turns to Shepard)  I know you told Garrus I was a dried up fern or something.  But you're not the cactus you think you are. Interviewer:  For my last question, I asked her who knows everything about her. Alenko:  If it's not a quip on horoscopes, then she probably said I think I do.  But you did say everything.  It’s too absolute.  So, actually, it’s not me, it’s not her, it’s not anyone. Shepard:  Were you listening at the door?  Got this room bugged? Alenko:  I’ve got better things to do than eavesdrop on your interview with a society column. Interviewer:  Up Close magazine. Shepard (kisses his cheek and hugs him again):  Thanks for the dreadnaught. Alenko (laughs and walks away):  Thanks for sprinkling my leaves with the water can. Shepard (watches Alenko leave and turns back to the interview):  Yeah, ‘kay, you got me.  I like hugs.  From him.  Not you.  We’re ending this thing on a handshake.  But, hmm (studies the model ship box then lowers voice), he doesn’t actually know EVERYTHING about me.  For real.  Don’t look at me like that.  He probably doesn’t even know my favorite color. Alenko:  Blue! (from down the hall) Shepard (stares blankly at the interviewer then offers her hand):  This has been great.  Thanks for dropping by. 

[callunavulgari]

TOP 25 FICS OF 2019

1. these roads will take you into your own country by @notbecauseofvictories | American Gods | Laura Moon/Mad Sweeney | WIP | 33k

Here’s a joke for you: a Muslim, a zombie, and a leprechaun walk into a bar in Misery, Indiana. No one stares, because no one in the puckered, shitty asshole of Misery, Indiana gives a fuck. The Colts are playing.

Heather Says: So. It’s funny that another of @notbecauseofvictories‘s stories is at the top of my list again this year. Keep in mind this list is sorted by when the fic was read rather than favorites (because that would get real complicated real quick). Clearly there must be something about January. There’s just something about the writing that is easy to slip into, be it a Star Wars fic or a Labyrinth fic or even a fic about Johnny and the Devil. This was lovely and I can’t wait until it’s finished.

2. eighteen wheels on an uphill climb by @honkforhankcon | Detroit: Become Human | Hank/Connor | 91k

Hank is going to die. He’s going to die right here in Kentucky, 53 years old, halfway to broke, and tragically sober. Survived only by a nine-year-old St. Bernard and the 31-year-old twink who delivered the fatal blow.

Heather Says: I don’t think that this is the first DBH fic that I sought out after beating the game, but it is the first that I loved enough to make it to this list. I didn’t think that I would go for a modern au for this fandom, certainly not a modern au wihere Hank is a truck driver and Connor is a sex worker (albeit briefly?) but here I am.

3. Fuck pride (pride only hurts, it never helps) by ImogenGotDrunk | Detroit: Become Human | RK900/Gavin Reed | 41k

After the android uprising, Connor becomes a permanent fixture in the DPD. That’s fine. Gavin can accept that. The dipshit’s more human than he used to be, and a decent detective to boot. Gavin can deal with him being around. What Gavin cannot deal with is Connor’s replica; two inches taller, blue-eyed, and with a mouth that Gavin doesn’t know whether to punch or take between his teeth. The RK900 model has been assigned as his partner for the foreseeable future.

Heather Says: I also never thought that I’d like a fic with Gavin in it. But I got curious about all the Reed900, and well, this fic really won me over. The writing is fantastic, and it softens Gavin while still keeping him believable. Also, well, I like the enemies to lovers thing.

4. Almost Cool by @blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 30k

While filming the Yuma Territorial Prison episode, Shane gets bitten by what he thinks is a bat. Spoiler alert: it's not.

Heather Says: This is actually the first thing that I read for this fandom. In fact, this is the fic that got me into Buzzfeed Unsolved in the first place. I’d seen a lot of art and gifs and fics pass my way, but I was only ever slightly interested in what I saw until this fic came through my inbox and piqued my curiosity. 

5. Pride by @astolat | Game of Thrones | Jaime/Brienne/Cersei | 22k

Jaime didn’t understand why Cersei suddenly insisted on trimming his hair and shaving his beard, but he also didn’t care to fight her on it, even though he’d just as soon have kept the beard: it was bitterly cold in the small tower room with its arrow-slits. 

Heather Says: Wowza. This fic was intense. I’ve always loved Jaime and Brienne. I’ve loved them since the second book, which was read at least a few years before I started loving them in the show. Adding Cersei to their dynamic would have probably been almost impossible to pull off if it was anyone else, but @astolat lives to surpass my expectations.

6. Skin and Scales by Ernmark | The Penumbra Podcast | Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla | 18k

The man glares, and this time, Damien is certain it isn’t a trick of the light: those eyes are violet as amethyst. He wears disdain like a second skin–- or, perhaps, like the scales that he is missing. “Lord Arum?”

Heather Says: I was one of those people who skipped through all of the Second Citadel episodes during my first listen through of Penumbra. The stories were good, but the pull of Juno was too great. A couple months after I finished, I went back and listened to everything I didn’t. And let me tell you. Lizard monster. Honorable knight. Bookish girlfriend. Poly. It hit every single button I had and then some. This fic really hit the spot when I ran out of story.

7. someone you like by caela | She-Ra | Adora/Catra | 5k

catwithabat u think ur so hipster but u just look like a lesbian 27m she_ra @catwithabat bc… i’m a lesbian. lmao 5m

Heather Says: Noooot usually a big fan of high school fics. Namely because I’m not in high school anymore and well, after you read so many in your teenage years they sort of lose their luster. This one was phenomenal enough to change my mind.

8. Sands of Time by @tirsynni | Legend of Zelda | Ganondorf/Link | WIP | 98k

Link awakens in the desert with no idea how he got there, to encounter his worst enemy...except it was the King of the Gerudo, not the King of Evil, he faced.

Heather Says: I have seen a lot of really good Link/Ganondorf art over the years, but never really stumbled across a fic that didn’t have judicious amount of non-con involved. But the Breath of the Wild 2 trailer happened, and everybody started drawing really pretty art, so I went looking. And lo and behold, @tirsynni saved the day with this gorgeous time travel/fix-it fic. 

9. killed with kindness by veterization | Persona 5 | Akechi/Akira | 52k

Goro can't quite figure out why so many people keep acting like they're his friend. (Or: the one where the Phantom Thieves decide to know thy enemy, befriend thy enemy, love thy enemy, crush on thy enemy).

Heather Says: I’ve read a couple of veterization’s fics over the years, and to date they have never disappointed me. They published this in June, and I think I clicked on it mostly because I was bored and hadn’t read any good P5 fic yet. This was basically just what the doctor ordered, and I was really happy to find something where Akechi’s story went ever so slightly different.

10. paper thin by @ebonybow | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane/Sara | 9k

Shane’s new neighbors are a morning-sex kind of couple.

Heather Says: So I went into this one knowing very little about how Sara fit into things. I didn’t know she was Shane’s girlfriend. I’d never even seen her, but I clicked because I like poly and I trust the author. I was 100% not disappointed. There’s also another fic with a very similar dynamic here, which is also aces.

11. damn.nation, now available on itunes by @kaikamahine | Good Omens | Aziraphale/Crowley | 11k

When lowly tempt-pusher Amphora (formerly of Stairwell 7B North, before she Fell,) gets the notice that end times are nigh, she gleefully quits her job and cancels her Netflix subscription and takes her place among the legions of hell. This, it turns out, was a bad plan.

Heather Says: Elizabeth may have only written one fic this year, but she made it a damn good one. I’ve always loved her OCs especially, so I was pretty tickled that this is 10k+ of outsider pov. Also, demons! Demons are great! This demon is great! I want like 9 seasons and a movie about Amphora, just saying.

12. The Dragon and Her Wolves by hapakitsune | Game of Thrones | Jon/Sansa/Daenarys | 60k

When the truth of Jon's birthright is revealed, control of the North and Daenerys's claim to the Iron Throne are both called into question. To preserve their tenuous alliance and secure her rule, Daenerys puts aside her personal feelings to arrange a marriage of political convenience between Jon and Sansa Stark.

Heather Says: What do you mean season 8 didn’t exist and the show totally ended with a three way relationship between the two most powerful women in Westeros and Jon Snow? Never been a big fan of Jon/Sansa before this, but this is another of those writers that I would literally trust if they wrote a fic about a fork and a spoon.

13. never tell me the odds by @wildehacked | Wolf 359 | Eiffel/Hera | 9k

“I tried Star Wars," he says, adjusting the phone under his neck, "and it was way underwhelming.”

A shaky breath from her end. “Well, where did you start?”

Heather Says: I don’t remember which of @wildehacked‘s fandoms I started reading first. Most recently it’s been The Magnus Archives (more on this later). The point is, they’d written Wolf 359 fic and it had Hera and Eiffel and it was literally everything that I’ve been looking for since the series ended.

14. Find Me Somebody by raiining | Good Omens | Warlock/Adam Young | 11k

“You left me,” he said. “You both left me, for him. And I can’t even blame you, because I’d have left me for him too.”

Heather Says: There was an Art. The art was lovely. So I went looking, because that’s what I do when faced with beautiful art depicting a rare pairing. And I found the holy grail. Like, possibly my favorite Good Omens fic? Ever? 

15. flirting with fire by @brawlite | Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | WIP | 7k

Steve's a cop, Billy's a firefighter. It's not a grudge, it's just a regular old small town rivalry.

Heather Says: Okay so brawlite has written a lot of great stuff this year (more on that later), but I read this in bed at the beach house this August while I was reeling from both a horrible sunburn and like seven hours of mild to moderate day-drinking while everyone else was still throwing back shots right outside my bedroom door. Jaws was playing on the tv and I wasn’t even paying attention to it, because THIS. Long story short, I’ve been thirsty for more ever since.

16. gold, when you find me by mmtion | The Flash | Iris/Barry | 53k

It's not that Iris hates The Flash, per say - more that she hates writing about The Streak in a weekly, pun-heavy comic based on The Flash.

Heather Says: I never would have thought that a canon pairing would make it to my Top 25 list, but here we are. I like Iris/Barry a lot better when they don’t grow up together and spend a lot of time playing the Superman game, apparently. Also, this was really well-written, and sexual tension has never been something I’ve felt from Barry and Iris, but I felt it in this fic. Just. Damn.

17. never gets old by @brawlite & @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger| Stranger Things | Billy/Steve | 78k

Falling in love with a cam boy named KingSteve isn't the smartest thing Billy Hargrove has ever done, nor is it the most healthy -- but the good choice is rarely ever the fun choice, and Billy is all about living life fast and loose.

Heather Says: Told you I’d come back to it. brawlite and toastranger are a fantastic team. last year was cherry pie and under the covers, this year it’s camboys and cop/firefighter dynamics. Also, I have a really strange fascination with fics where a character has an instragram. It’s really, incredibly strange. Also also, every time I see this fic title I get that one Discovery Channel song stuck in my head. And no, it probably isn’t the one you’re thinking.

18. ways to save the world by @wildehacked | The Magnus Archives | Martin Blackwood/Jon Sims | 19k

“I left you,” Martin says softly.

Heather Says: And we’re back at wildehacked too! The Magnus Archives was a thing that happened to me. This is I think the first fic I read for it while listening, and it was so very close to what we got in canon. I think when it comes down to it though, I still prefer this fic, even if the ending of this season was pretty fantastic.

19. The Denial Twist by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 35k

“This is kind of surreal,” Shane says, taking a sip of his tea. It’s piping hot and delicious, except it tastes like hot chocolate and not like tea at all. “Sort of—Wonka-esque, right? Or Alice in Wonderland.”

Heather Says: While the vampire one is my favorite both because it is excellent and because it was my first, this one was bizarre and sexy and also I read it like only a month or so ago! The dancing was my favorite part, but having dreams to work with made this story fantastically interesting and I loved every second of it.

20. silver in our lungs by taywen | Spinning Silver | Miryem/The Staryk Lord | 4k

The marks had been with Miryem for as long as she could remember. There were a number of them, all the same shade, following one after the other around her left wrist. They were pale as old scars, though they felt no different from the rest of her skin, and her mother claimed that Miryem had been born with them.

Heather Says: I really like soulmate aus. There’s so many different ways to twist them and the way they can sometimes change the dynamic entirely and other times not change them at all is just fascinating. I’ve been hoping there would be more Spinning Silver content on ao3 and running into this while I was trying to decide what I wanted to do for yuletide was a real treat.

21. you got me begging, begging, i'm on my knees by plalligator | The Queen’s Thief | Attolia/Eugenides/Costis | 5k

Costis has a particularly enlightening evening. (or, that struggle when you're a guard who's in love with your rulers and it turns out you would kind of like it if they bossed you around a little)

Heather Says: I accidentally re-read the King of Attolia and it made me consider ships I had perhaps not previously considered. This was really lovely and just steamy enough.

22. something more alive than silence by pageleaf | The Queen’s Thief | Attolia/Eugenides/Costis | 21k

It was a good thing that six months after the king had promised to halve the guard, he still hadn’t done it, because since then, there had been two attempts on the king’s life.

Heather Says: I want to only type the words AGONIZED NOISES to describe this fic because that’s basically my headspace when I get 21k of a shiny new ot3, but I mean. Really. This is super good and maybe my favorite yet? Why didn’t I start reading this fandom when I first read the books?

23. Timing it Right by DragonBandit | The Bright Sessions | Mark/Damien | 14k

The dragon chooses, Mark knows that as well as any boy born in a weyr. He'd never considered what that would mean if the dragon picked someone you hated. He's starting to think that was a mistake.

Damien's gold rises at Whitney. Mark tries to make things right.

Heather Says: This should actually be somewhere back in March, but I apparently closed out of the tab at some point. I never really got into Pern much. I have the first three books, but got most of the way through the first one a long time ago and then never picked it back up. I didn’t think I would like this, mostly because of the fact that I hadn’t gotten into the books, but was surprised to find that I absolutely loved it.

24. Keep It In Your Sights Now by LuckyDiceKirby | Shades of Magic | Lila/Kell/Holland | 9k

Holland travels with Lila and Kell. Somewhere along the way, they reach an equilibrium.

Heather Says: I love the new things I’ve discovered during my yuletide trompings. I don’t think I ever actually considered this pairing when I first read the books, but I am just so enamored with the idea of the three of them together. Like, why did I not realize that potential back then? This was lovely, and I loved it, and I want so much more out of this pairing than what ao3 has to offer me.

25. Charioteer by petrichoral | The Queen’s Thief | Gen & Costis | 13k

Captured in battle and stuck in the Mede capital, Costis has given up all hope of seeing his country again. But Eugenides has a habit of turning up where he's least expected.

Heather Says: Technically this shouldn’t be on here because I only read it today, but it was really wonderful and so canon typical. Gen and Costis were perfect in it, Irene was perfect in it. Everyone was perfect and nothing hurts.

[luckylq11-blog]

Hair and makeup by Tree Vaello

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[gehayi]

By Mike Glyer

Widespread outrage greeted Patreon’s announcement of a new fee structure that will charge patrons (donors) for making donations, too, on top of the existing 5% fee paid by creators.

Now patrons will be charged processing and transaction fees (2.9% + $0.35) on each individual pledge. If you pay a dollar, Patreon will charge you $0.38 to pay that dollar, so you’ll now pay $1.38.

The news was rolled out through creators yesterday, and today Patreon sent donors a justification:

In order to continue our mission of funding the creative class, we’re always looking for ways to do what’s best for our creators. With that, we’re writing to tell you of a change we’re making so that all Patreon creators take home exactly 95% of every pledge, with no additional fees.

Aside from Patreon’s existing 5% fee, a creator’s income on Patreon varies because of processing fees every month. They can lose anywhere from 7-15% of their earnings to these fees. This means creators actually take home a lower percentage of your pledge than you may realize. Our goal is to make creators’ paychecks as predictable as possible, so we’re restructuring how these fees are paid.

Natalie Luhrs’ detailed analysis of the change, “Funny Money, Patreon Style”, illustrates how the new fee structure will affect various levels of donations.

I know this is going to read like the world’s worst word problem, but bear with me–there will be a data table, I promise….

After running the numbers, Luhrs speculated about the motives for the change:

As I said before, this seems calculated to reduce the number of people pledging at sub-$5/month tiers. This has the added bonus of putting more cash right into Patreon’s bank accounts. Which will certainly make the investors happy, as this improves Patreon’s cash flow and improves the chances for a successful IPO.

And the other thing it does? It tells all of Patreon’s users–creators and patrons alike–exactly who is calling the shots and what the real priorities are. And they’ve chosen to do it in a disgustingly predatory fashion.

Sandra Tayler criticized the fee implementation for the way it damages the creator/donor social dynamic:

It is the "presented as a gift" aspect that I had a problem with. They would have done better with an appeal of "sorry we need to change our funding model in order to be able to continue providing this service."

They also inserted themselves clumsily into the relationship between creator and patron, creating a potential disruption. That broke the social contract they had with creators.

Patreon has also scripted a FAQ creators can put on their pages to aid in handling queries from donors, with melancholy but inevitable entries like —

Q: How much time do I have to change my pledge before the change?

A: You have until December 31st, 2017 to edit a monthly pledge. If you are pledging to a per-creation creator who makes a post between December 18th and December 31st, then you will see the service fee added to those posts.

Q: How can I cancel my pledges?

A: You can find the steps to cancel your pledges here.

Indeed, a lot of creators are tweeting about casualties among their donors. For example, here’s a gaming podcast that says it’s taking a hit.

Douglas MacKrell further observed —

And what’s worrisome is that supporters who leave the @Patreon platform aren’t going somewhere else. That audience isn’t hopping over to support other artists at the same level – they’re leaving the world of microdonating all together.

The webcomics blog Fleen has a great summary of the online reaction. And they conclude —

What’s really surprised me (apart from the ham-handedness about the entire rollout that I noted yesterday) is that I couldn’t find one personwith an interest in Patreon that’s even neutral on this change. I’ve spent all my free time since last night trying to find one person — creator or backer — whose irritation went no higher than meh, whatcha gonna do? But no; literally everybody whose email address doesn’t end in @patreon.com hates everything about this change.

Outraged author Liz Bourke, Tor.com columnist and past Best Fan Writer Hugo nominee, has taken the extreme step of interrupting her Patreon activities and cutting off donations in protest — “On Hiatus Because Of Patreon’s (Gaslighting) Changes To Fee Structure”.

If Patreon wanted to increase that commission in order to cover their costs and make a reasonable profit, I’d understand. (I’d be annoyed, but I’d understand: commission of 10-20% is not unreasonable for services that connect people who make things to people with the money to pay for them.)

Instead, what they’re doing is changing the entire system. They’re now charging you for accessing a service that benefits me, and telling both you and me lies to make us believe this is a good change.

People who lie about money are not people who can be trusted to handle your money.

So. I’m on hiatus. Funding status has been switched over to per-post, so you shouldn’t be charged at the end of the month. I’m not going to do any work here, and I encourage other creators to take the same stance. If Patreon makes sufficient efforts towards honesty and transparency, I may return.

But I’m not holding my breath.

Bourke isn’t the only one taking this approach –

Ethan Kocak@Blackmudpuppy

Hey everyone I've pledged to/received support from on @Patreon. Because Patreon has decided to overcharge folks who were kind enough to support me I am suspending all activity on the platform until further notice. More to follow.

9:11 AM - Dec 7, 2017

Will Patreon’s competitors benefit from the controversy? Catherine Shu at Tech Crunch looked at the big picture:

Patreon, which was founded in 2013 and has raised about $107 million in funding so far, says it has more than one million subscribers who pay an average of $12 per month to more than 50,000 creators. Its success prompted Kickstarter to retool Drip, its subscription service for independent musicians, to compete more directly with Patreon. Other rival crowdfunding platforms for creators include Flattr and Steady.

While creators can ask supporters for pledges on their own using PayPal, Stripe and other payment services, Patreon’s ease of use, thanks to tools like its API, and popularity helps many make an income (or at least not lose money) from their art. This is especially important for creators who rely on YouTube, but saw their revenue plunge this year as a result of changes to its advertising policies—(an event known as the “adpocalypse“). For them, Patreon’s new service fees represent a potential double whammy and are yet another reminder that the online platforms that help them make a livelihood can also very quickly take it away.

[Thanks to ULTRAGOTHA, JJ, and Camestros Felapton for the story.]

[trailsandturbulations]

Why I voted for Trump again

A few months ago I received an email from Ola, a friend in Poland whom I have known for over 40 years, informing me that she is officially breaking up with me forever because she had found out that I support Trump. “I don’t understand how you can!” she wrote. Had she asked, “I can’t understand why,” she would have left a gate for dialogue and potential understanding at least slightly open. But “how can you!” disqualified my morality and thus my right to defend my political stance. There was no point in replying, so I removed Ola from my list of friends, as was her wish, forever.

Ola was not the only one among my friends and acquaintances who have kicked me out of polite society. After all, declaring myself openly as a Trump supporter revealed my racism, xenophobia, transphobia, white supremacy, parochialism, ignorance, lack of understanding of my own best interests, my utmost stupidity. Perhaps also my religious fundamentalism, bigotry, over-attachment to firearms, as well as hostility towards political correctness, globalism, science, and alternative sources of energy. If I knew myself as well as some of those friends of mine appear to know me, I, too, would sever all social contacts with myself.

Fortunately, I know myself from a different perspective. I also know Trump and his followers from the angles that the media such as CNN or the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza prefer not to explore.

My demographic profile, my professional career, and my charity activities indicate that I rightly belong on the side of the Democratic Party. I’m a woman with a graduate degree, a house in a suburb, a new car of a good make and model, and annual income that puts me squarely within the upper-middle class range. In addition, I’m an immigrant married to a refugee who is a Person of Color. I’m a retired college professor who volunteers with foster children and with refugees and immigrants, those legal and those not quite so, who need free English lessons. I give money to environmental organizations such as the Nature Conservancy. The only magazine with a regular subscription in our home is Science News.

It would thus seem incomparably easier for me to fit myself ideologically into the group to which I already demographically and culturally belong. It would cost me nothing. The tax-rate raise for the rich, who apparently don’t pay their fair share, promised by the Democratic Party, would not apply to me since I never achieved that level of affluence. Supporting the Democrats would not detract from my social standing. Quite the opposite: I would avoid conflicts with “my kind of people” and could, like them, look down at those ideologically challenged. Ola would still be my friend. My kids would “like” my social media posts instead of hiding their accounts from my view lest I leave a politically incorrect comment under their posts. 

So why did I find myself on the wretched side? Maybe because I’d rather not be on the side of accusatory hate that would command me to break off contacts with a friend in another country for supporting a political candidate who has nothing to do with my life. Or the red-hot hate that makes a person put on a black mask, pick up a baton, and beat unconscious a diminutive, gay Asian journalist for writing from the wrong perspective. Or the bigoted hate that attempts to cancel out of existence anyone who holds the incorrect values. The dangerous hate that brings to mind genocides like the Holocaust and Rwanda. The hate that prides itself on tolerance and believes that love conquers all.

My husband and I used to be Democrats. We both voted for Obama. Alas, the eight years of Obama’s presidency brought us only deep disappointments in all fields of government activity. Race and class divisions deepened, trust in the government diminished, corruption increased, the wave of hope that had brought Obama to the top of political popularity receded. Early in 2016 I knew I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, but I didn’t expect that I would end up voting for Trump. I did so without enthusiasm, with a smidgen of shame, choosing the lesser of two evils. Four years later, this November, I voted for Trump with full conviction, and if he chooses to run again in 2024 I’m fairly certain that I will vote for him again.

Despite unrelenting demonization, harassment, sneer, false accusations, and plots (amply documented) to deprive him of the presidency, some of which had started before he took office, and above all, contempt with which Trump and his followers had been treated by the liberal elites, the support of the regular people for their unorthodox leader not only held, but grew by millions. In the November 2020 elections, Trump received nearly 72,7 million votes: close to 10 million more than in 2016, and 3 million more than Obama at the peak of his popularity in 2008.

Contempt is one of the key factors that motivate chunks of the traditional electorate of the Democratic Party to switch camps. Hillary Clinton’s undiplomatic “basket of deplorables” comment cost her lots of precious votes, if not the presidency itself. The ridicule that Trump received for saying that he loves “the poorly educated” pitched the Democrats against those diploma-less, hardworking Americans, who then decided to support the man who was not embarrassed to stand by them. Alas, those lessons appeared wasted on Joe Biden, who didn’t hesitate to call Trump’s supporters “chumps” and “ugly folks.” Biden may have won the presidency–perhaps honestly, perhaps through massive fraud–perhaps we will never know. However, the “blue wave” predicted by the polls did not materialize.

Low- and medium-income, undereducated, working Americans have pride and do not allow themselves to be insulted. Pride is one of the few luxuries they can afford, especially in hard times. They recognize Trump as one of their own, who fights for their wellbeing. Trump is not a politician; he’s a street fighter who will not turn the other cheek, but will hit back twice as hard. He has no filters, only a strong tendency towards exaggeration, a loose treatment of facts, and a disregard for details. Like many other Trump supporters, I’m thoroughly annoyed by his antics, and put off by his crude comments and his total lack of diplomacy; because of that, I don’t follow his tweets and have never “liked” his Facebook page. I don’t approve of all his moves. However, I appreciate that he calls a spade a spade, and that he talks directly to the people, not to the cameras, media, or other politicians. And time after time, Trump’s outlandish statements ridiculed by his enemies and treated with skepticism by his followers somehow turn out to be true. Trump approaches all his tasks with boundless energy and the force of a Soviet tank. In his famous rallies, he invariably uses the pronoun “we”–in stark contrast to Obama, whose favorite pronoun was “I”. Trump renders to Cesar what is Cesar’s, giving ample credit to local politicians and activists as well as regular folks who have distinguished themselves in the process of making America great again.

Trump’s enemy is the Swamp: corrupt government agencies (including the FBI and CIA), the media, the "Big Tech" that rules the internet (the likes od Google, Yahoo, or Facebook), the entertainment industry, and institutions of higher education, that latter overzealous in propagating the ideologies of Marxism, theories of gender identity, and the critical race theory, according to which each member of the society is assigned to one of two groups: the oppressed and the oppressors. Trump has promised to drain the Swamp and restore dignity to average, much denigrated Americans.

Trump is the first president in the history of our collective memory to live up, at least in large part, to all the promises he had made to his supporters. "Promises Made, Promises Kept": Reduced corporate tax rates allowed bringing industrial plants from overseas, primarily from China, back to the States. The driving force of the economy was amplified by new international trade agreements coupled with relaxing a host of domestic regulations. Activity returned to the coal mines of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, fracking production of oil and gas heated up, closed oil pipelines reopened, and suddenly we reclaimed our energy independence from the Middle East, for the first time since 1957.  All these measures improved the labor market and caused the unemployment rate to drop to a historically low level of 3.7% in 2019 (i.e. just before the pandemic). Black and Latin unemployment has fallen to its lowest rates in the country's history.

In the Middle East, Trump dealt quickly and effectively with the Islamic Caliphate, moved the US Embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, and has already mediated three peace agreements between Israel and Islamic countries. As a pragmatist who doesn’t believe in spending our money to make other countries happy against their will, Trump is withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan. Because it's not our war.

Our war is the one on our southern border, through which thousands of illegal immigrants, emboldened by friendly policies in the Democrat-run cities, have crossed with impunity. A steady stream of undocumented migrants not only from Latin America, but from all over the world, poured into our country in numbers exceeding a hundred thousand a month; not only work seekers, but also gang members, smugglers of fentanyl and young girls destined for prostitution, as well as individuals with criminal record, some previously deported back to their home countries. The wall, or rather the border fence, the agreement with Mexico, and changes to the procedures for granting political asylum have reduced the chances of criminal elements crossing our border without consequences. (Regarding children separated from their parents: the photos of children in cages circulating on the Internet date back to Obama's second term, when trainloads of children from Latin America were sent out alone, under the supervision of paid "coyotes", and let loose at our border crossings. The 500-plus children separated from adults, who were not necessarily their parents, during the Trump presidency, are remaining in the protective custody of the American government because their biological parents refuse to take them back, hoping to reunite with them on their next attempt to cross the border.)

It is impossible to enumerate all of Trump's achievements here because the list is too long. The gains for the country and the society are not advertised in the media because they contradict the narrative of the cultural elites who are no longer concerned with achieving the American Dream that Trump had promised to restore because they or their parents have already reached it. Recently, I got a phone call from a Polish friend who, together with her husband, fled from the Polish socialist poverty, from a squalid one-room rental with mold-covered walls, with no chance for a better future. They did hard manual labor for many years, cleaning smelly motels and lifting bricks on construction sites during the day, studying English and earning professional certifications at night. Krystian, their grown-up son, for whose studies they paid thirty thousand dollars a year with their capitalist savings and loans, announced right before the elections that he was going to vote for Biden because only socialism would guarantee equality for all Americans. “You Boomers don’t get it,” he dismissed the reactions of his shocked parents who had spent half their lives in socialism. I nodded with understanding because my own kids, when told that I voted for Trump in 2016, first growled at me, and then restricted my freedom of family speech to non-political topics.

As I write these words, I occasionally look out of the window, where Alejandro, Krystian's peer and also a son of immigrants, is laying out the boards of our new deck. It snowed last night and the morning is frosty, but the construction work does not stop because of the weather if there are paying customers. Alejandro, in a quilted coat and a hat pulled over his ears, keeps rubbing his freezing hands, but continues working. Alejandro did not go to college because he has to earn a living and help his family; besides, he didn’t do well enough in his Mexican ghetto school. He did not vote in 2016, but last week he joined the growing number of “Latinos for Trump” voters. Alejandro believes Trump's policies will help him achieve the American Dream. Krystian, on the other hand, is already used to living in comfort, and can therefore afford himself the luxury of theorizing about socialism.

"If Trump loses, we're totally screwed," says James, co-owner of a small, somewhat struggling company that employs Alejandro. If James's business goes under, Alejandro will lose his job. "All the small-business entrepreneurs and their employees in Reno are for Trump," says James. Robert, our electrician, independently confirms James' words. "We’d never had it so good before Trump," he adds. "We fear that our prosperity will end if the Democrats win.”

While the Democratic Party chose the so-called "identity politics" that divides people into groups according to race-and gender-based demographic indicators, Trump's politics began to unite people of average economic status–those whose income is not guaranteed, whose material comfort is not stable, but depends on fluctuations of the economy. The rich can afford to support the Democrats because they don't have to fear economic downturns; the rich can also afford the luxury of isolating themselves from the pandemic because they generally have a choice of earning money from home, and getting whatever they need delivered to their doors by peons like Alejandro. Those living on welfare have nothing to fear, either, especially if Democrats come into power. It’s the working people whose livelihoods are at stake if the economy flounders.

Two weeks before the elections, my husband David and I offered our services as canvassing volunteers, going door-to-door and reminding residents to vote. An appropriate phone app showed us party affiliations of households in the neighborhoods we canvassed: Republican houses were marked in red, and Democratic houses, in blue. The posher the neighborhood, the bluer the maps appeared. “Gated communities” turned out to be predominantly blue; as Republican volunteers, we were not even allowed beyond the gate. The generational division was also apparent: in many conservative homes, the parents complained that their adult children had changed their political affiliation in college or right after they graduated. "Universities have completely brainwashed them. Now we regret paying their tuition,"  they expressed exactly the same sentiment I’d heard from Krystian’s mother.

Our canvassing activity didn’t afford us any insight into the political views of racial minorities in our area as the suburbs of Reno are inhabited mainly by whites, with an occasional Asian or Latino family. However, on the national scale, the support for Trump among the racial minorities has increased significantly: 26% of minority voters chose Trump this time around. Among the Blacks, Trump secured the votes of 18% of men (by comparison, only 5% of Black men voted for a Republican candidate in 2008) and 8% of women (compared to 4% in 2016). 35% of the Latinos, such as Alejandro, cast their votes for Trump. Trump was even more successful with the indigenous populations: 59% of the Native Hawaiians and 52% of the continental Native Americans voted for him; perhaps they had never got the message that he’s a racist. Among the non-race based minority groups, Trump received electoral support from 28% of the LGBT community–so much for the claims of his homophobia. (The above calculations are based on exit polls). The Blacks and Latinos who cross over to Trump’s camp want to be treated as regular Americans, not as persecuted minorities and victims of “systemic” racism, courted every four years by the Democrats as dependable election fodder. “What do you have to lose?” Trump called out to them during his 2016 campaign. The People of Color began looking around and noticing that, in reality, they won’t be losing anything by abandoning the Democratic Party.

Neither the dilemmas of the People of Color who feel they’re being used by the Democrats, nor the uncertainty of James’s business future and Alejandro’s job situation would necessarily motivate me to vote for Trump. As the Polish expression goes, those are not my monkeys. I could easily and comfortably stand with Krystian, who has a double major in business and political science and counts on a good job for some corporation, in a fully air-conditioned office, with an income several times higher than Alejandro’s. I have earned my place among the elites, whose members would surely stop insulting me at every turn if I carried my club membership card. My children, not much older than Krystian, have also chosen the political and social comfort of the elites. Had I chosen to vote for Biden, I could have had redeemed myself from my fall for Trump four years ago, and maybe would regain the full member rights in my own family. Oh well.

It is nevertheless my concern for children that motivates me the most to support Trump. Not my own children, but other people’s. Not those from elite families, like my grandchildren, attending private schools or top public ones in gated community catchment areas, but those from families struggling to survive in poor neighborhoods or ethnic ghettos, attending schools which are intellectual deserts. Having worked with, or for, underprivileged children for most of my professional life, I know such schools only too well.

One of the prominent items on Trump’s political and social agenda is school choice: the right of families to send their children to schools best suited to their needs, interests, and abilities. The US is the only one among highly developed countries in which children are tied to their neighborhood schools like feudal peasants to land. There is a marked difference in the quality of schools in rich and poor areas: not only in the physical structures and equipment, but also in the breadth and depth of curricular offerings and the standards of instruction. Needless to say, graduates of excellent schools achieve higher test scores and better chances of admission to top universities than those from the schools in the ghettos; in some of the latter, not a single student achieves the lowest required threshold of academic performance (e.g., thirteen Baltimore City high schools achieved zero proficiency in mathematics; Baltimore has been a bastion of the Democratic Party since the 1960s).

Access to good schools is important to Americans. The quality of its public schools affects a neighborhood’s property values and apartment rent rates. People on limited incomes cannot afford to move, but they have no right to send their children to schools offering better educational perspectives. Thus the children of the less affluent are sentenced not only to years of academic mediocrity, but also to the influence and effects of drugs and crime in their school environments, perpetuating the patterns of failure and poverty.

The Trump administration has been battling the Democratic opposition to allow the money designated for the education of a child to follow each student to a school of his/her choice. All the highly developed countries, in which children and adolescents achieve high levels of academic performance, allow school choice; in some countries, school choice is a constitutional right. Only equal access to the same educational opportunities can erase the glaring economic imbalances by creating paths to prosperity and social equality for the future generations of Americans.

The Democratic Party and its ardent supporters, the teachers’ unions, are fiercely opposing all political and administrative efforts to guarantee the right to school choice for all citizens. The multi-million dollar financial contributions from the teachers’ unions to the Democratic Party’s Political Action Committees are to ensure that no school choice proposal will never be approved by the Congress. One has to wonder why the liberal elites so vehemently deny poor children access to good education; why they don’t consider those children as deserving of the same opportunities as their own offspring. Two words come to mind: control and contempt. Because the Swamp sucks you in.

And that’s why I voted for Trump.

[theemperorsfeather]

Also worth reading: the other articles linked in the first paragraph of this one.

Many people who know more than I do can describe different aspects of this story. But how Google affects and dominates the publishing industry is something I know very, very well because I’ve lived with it for more than a decade. To say I’ve “lived with it” makes it sound like a chronic disease or some huge burden. That would be a very incomplete, misleading picture. Google has directly or indirectly driven millions of dollars of revenue to TPM over more than a decade. Not only that, it’s provided services that are core parts of how we run TPM. So Google isn’t some kind of thralldom we’ve lived under. It’s ubiquitous. In many ways, it makes what we do possible.

What I’ve known for some time – but which became even more clear to me in my talk with Barry Lynn on Monday – is that few publishers really want to talk about the depths or mechanics of Google’s role in news publishing. Some of this is secrecy about proprietary information; most of it is that Google could destroy or profoundly damage most publications if it wanted to. So why rock the boat?

I’m not worried about that for a few reasons: 1: We’ve refocused TPM toward much greater reliance on subscriptions. So we’re less vulnerable. 2: Most people who know these mechanics don’t write. I do. 3: We’re small and I don’t think Google cares enough to do anything to TPM. (If your subscription to Prime suddenly doubles in cost, you’ll know I was wrong about this.) What I hope I can capture is that Google is in many ways a great thing for publishers. At least it’s not a purely negative picture. If you’re a Star Trek fan you’ll understand the analogy. It’s a bit like being assimilated by the Borg. You get cool new powers. But having been assimilated, if your implants were ever removed, you’d certainly die. That basically captures our relationship to Google.

Let’s discuss the various ways we’re in business with Google.

...

So let’s go down the list: 1) The system for running ads, 2) the top purchaser of ads, 3) the most pervasive audience data service, 4) all search, 5) our email.

But wait, there’s more! Google also owns Chrome, the most used browser for visiting TPM. Chrome is responsible for 41% of our page views. Safari comes in second at 36%. But the Safari number is heavily driven by people using iOS devices. On desktop Chrome is overwhelmingly dominant.

Now, Google would rightly say now: Okay smart-alec, and how much do you pay for all of this? Well, good point. We pay for the email service but we don’t pay for the ad serving or the data. Indeed, using Gmail for our corporate email is the only thing we pay for. (These services all have paid layers. But in most cases we don’t need those. And we’re small. So we make do.) This is all true. But as the adage puts it, if you don’t pay for the product, you are the product. Google isn’t doing us any favors. We get these services for free because Google’s empire and the vast amounts of money it brings in every year is built on the unimaginable amounts of data that come from, among other places, DoubleClick for Publishers and Analytics. We’re just one of a kabillion sites allowing Google to harvest our data.

What all of this comes down to is that we at TPM – and some version of this is the case for the vast majority of publishers – are connected to Google at almost every turn...

But here’s where the rubber really meets the road. The publishers use DoubleClick. The big advertisers use DoubleClick. The big global advertising holding companies use Doubleclick. Everybody at every point in the industry is wired into DoubleClick. Here’s how they all play together. The adserving (Doubleclick) is like the road. (Adexchange) is the biggest car on the road. But only AdExchange gets full visibility into what’s available. (There’s lot of details here and argument about just what Google does and doesn’t know. But trust me on this. They keep the key information to themselves. This isn’t a suspicion. It’s the model.) So Google owns the road and gets first look at what’s on the road. Not only does Google own the road and makes the rules for the road, it has special privileges on the road. One of the ways it has special privileges is that it has all the data it gets from search, Google Analytics and Gmail. It also gets to make the first bid on every bit of inventory. Of course that’s critical. First dibs with more information than anyone else has access to. (Some exceptions to this. But that’s the big picture.) It’s good to be the king. It’s good to be a Google.

There’s more I’ll get to in a moment but the interplay between DoubleClick and Adexchange is so vastly important to the entirety of the web, digital publishing and the entire ad industry that it is almost impossible to overstate. Again. They own the road. They make the rules for the road. They get special privileges on the road with every new iteration of rules.

...

Now Google can say – and they are absolutely right – that every month they send checks for thousands and millions of dollars to countless publishers that make their journalism possible. And in general Google tends to be a relatively benign overlord. But as someone who a) knows the industry inside and out – down to the most nuts and bolts mechanics – b) someone who understands at least the rudiments of anti-trust law and monopoly economics and c) can write for a sizable audience, I can tell you this.: Google’s monopoly control is almost comically great. It’s a monopoly at every conceivable turn and consistently uses that market power to deepen its hold and increase its profits. Just the interplay between DoubleClick and Adexchange is textbook anti-competitive practices. 

...

We’re basically too small for Google to care about. So I wouldn’t say we’ve had any bad experiences with Google in the sense of Google trying to injure us or use its power against us. What we’ve experienced is a little different. Google is so big and so powerful that even when it’s trying to do something good, it can be dangerous and frightening.Here’s an example.With the events of recent months and years, Google is apparently now trying to weed out publishers that are using its money streams and architecture to publish hate speech. Certainly you’d probably be unhappy to hear that Stormfront was funded by ads run through Google. I’m not saying that’s happening. I’m just giving you a sense of what they are apparently trying to combat. Over the last several months we’ve gotten a few notifications from Google telling us that certain pages of ours were penalized for ‘violations’ of their ban for hate speech. When we looked at the pages they were talking about they were articles about white supremacist incidents. Most were tied to Dylann Roof’s mass murder in Charleston.

Now in practice all this meant was that two or three old stories about Dylann Roof could no longer run ads purchased through Google. I’d say it’s unlikely that loss to TPM amounted to even a cent a month. Totally meaningless. But here’s the catch. The way these warnings work and the way these particular warnings were worded, you get penalized enough times and then you’re blacklisted.

Now, certainly you’re figuring we could contact someone at Google and explain that we’re not publishing hate speech and racist violence. We’re reporting on it. Not really. We tried that. We got back a message from our rep not really understanding the distinction and cheerily telling us to try to operate within the no hate speech rules. And how many warnings until we’re blacklisted? Who knows?

If we were cut off, would that be Adexchange (the ads) or DoubleClick for Publishers (the road) or both? Who knows?

They have another example about how Google’s anti-spam polices nuked their email, without notice - which they pay for - for a couple days and  there was no easy way to fix it, because Google is basically too big to care about the paying customers who aren’t the ad-sellers.

Monopolies are bad for the economy and they’re bad politically. They also have perverse consequences across the board. The money that used to fund your favorite website is now going to Google and Facebook, which doesn’t produce any news at all.

We could see this coming a few years ago. And we made a decisive and longterm push to restructure our business around subscriptions. So I’m confident we will be fine. But journalism is not fine right now. And journalism is only one industry the platform monopolies affect. Monopolies are bad for all the reasons people used to think they were bad. They raise costs. They stifle innovation. They lower wages. And they have perverse political effects too. Huge and entrenched concentrations of wealth create entrenched and dangerous locuses of political power

[jackisfromthemoon-blog]

Driftwood Tuesdays

There is a trailer park in my mind where a perpetual thunderstorm rages; the moms and dads howl and punch at each other as lightning flashes, each blow they land booms with the thunder, and the little children are tossed about like debris in the wind. When I close my eyes I can go there; I can feel my heart electric in the cool darkness as little feet pull me toward whatever trauma is taking place just beyond my bedroom door. I can still run my hand along the edges of the holes pockmarking the walls of the hallway between my bedroom and theirs, each about the size of my dad's fist or foot. I can hear her weeping as I approach one slight step at a time and feel the crisp thwack of leather piercing air and slapping hard on my mother's skin and reverberating forever in the tombs of my heart. I can see him above her, belt in hand. I can hear his tone, sarcastic, through slurred speech but can't make out the words. Mom lays fetal on the bed, her face caked in tears, her ribcage gyrating between gasping breaths, moaning in honest agony.

Are we all just scared children? Am I? I know he must have been scared. I know what it is to ride helpless in a body that is doing things I hate. I have tried to reconcile these kinds of scenes with everything that came later, the obsessions and compulsions, my self hatred and recklessness, all the selfish choices. Probably there is a line that can be drawn. What a terrible thought, that before we have any self determination at all, some shit that happens to us that punches a hole in the metaphorical boats of our lives so that we spend the years we should be learning to navigate the ocean of adulthood just trying to bail out water.

All my life I have wanted change. I wanted to become the kind of little boy who did his homework and who didn't make scenes in class. I've wanted to stop picking my nose, to stop getting in fights, to stop crying in public. I've wanted to stop my mom having to pick me up from school because I overturned a desk in Art class, or because I threw a stool at the music teacher. Always I've been trying to stop doing the wrong things and start doing the right ones. Unfortunately I've wanted this change to happen sort of generally, and life is not lived generally; life is lived on particular tuesday nights, and on a given particular tuesday night it was likely that my young self was recovering from some particular horror, and it was more important that I allow myself the most pleasure possible than to do the thing that needed doing. Then on Wednesday morning, when the shame comes, it's very difficult to have another epiphany of change. At some point another voice becomes louder. Embrace the truth it says. This is who you are. You are not someone who can do the things he says he's going to do. You are flawed. Just live there. And so you do. And so I did.

I hate to think that I, a man of 30, am still bailing out that same water and therefor am still playing out the same drama as that scared child. How can that be? Surely sometime in the last ten years or so I've had the chance to right the ship? I don't think that my personal trauma was all that much worse than what a lot of others, people who have done much better at navigating the sea off life than I have, went through.

Addiction is a real bitch. It mostly comes to those of us who are already living lives of stress and disappointment, who already feel out of control – the water bailers. We are needy people. We are tired. When relief offers itself to us, we'll take that relief. No, we'll take double. Scratch that. Just give us the whole case, please and thank you. If being drunk or high that makes us feel good then we will be drunk or high. If its comes along who possesses that magic touch that pierces our darkness we'll declare them our emotional Jesus Christ (and we'll crucify them too.) It can be religion. It can be video games. For most of us its a long list of things we indulge in to excess to get out of our terror filled heads for 10 minutes or so. And this is bad. This is a life out of control. But the things, the alcohol or the sex, aren't really the problem at first. They're just things. But then one day, these things come alive.

Pretty soon, if we drink every day, our brains will decide that they need to drink every day, need it like it's fucking water. The thing that was designed to make us clamber out of our caves each morning and join the other hominids in hunting food and safety and sex is redirected and convinced that was it really needs is Jim Beam. How are we supposed to argue with the deep rooted guidance of our mammalian brains? Oh. With abstract reasoning, right? Surely the frontal cortex will be our salvation? Because we can see that its the liquor or the erotic chat rooms that are killing us we can stop, right? Did I happen to mention that this stoping has to be done on a particular Tuesday when we're going to have to first go to work with a hangover, get shit on by the boss because we half assed yesterday's paperwork, and then go home to a wife who rightly doesn't trust us and has some acute remarks to make about our behavior of late (or worse to an empty apartment with nothing to focus on but our own addicted mind), all of this couched in an existence primarily marked by feelings of isolation and fear – fuck if we can remember why. No. I think I'll go ahead and have that drink that my mind and body are crying out for. Logic and abstract reasoning can go fuck themselves. Truly.

And now, my friends, this traumatized person, this scared child desperately trying to bail water from his emotional boat while the water rises higher and higher with adulthood, is trapped in a new cycle, and has a new problem; he is an addict. Worse, the old feelings of inadequacy and helplessness are reinforced by the trauma of realizing (and he does realize, the frontal cortex is good for that much) he is an addict, and he can't quit the addiction for the same reason he couldn't stop punching those kids in the face and couldn't do his homework. He has other problems. The water still must be bailed. Each problem reinforces the other. If he'd felt helpless before, well, now he just feels fucked.

We try to stop. And maybe we can stop – for a week or two, but on some particular tuesday we fail, just like we did when we were little kids trying to do our homework. We fail like we knew we would, like we always have and always will.

My addiction is sexual in nature. Can I tell you about it? I mean really tell you? Would you really care to know? So much of my life has been lived underground, in that dark place I don't talk about and no one else can see. More than half of myself, hidden. I'm afraid to do this. Is it reckless to reveal the darkest secrets to the world? Someone has to, I suppose. To paraphrase Yoni Wolf, sometimes you have to scream something out or you'll never tell nobody.

My addiction started when I was 15, so that's 15 years ago now, half my life. Somehow I'll figure out how to communicate the dark side of those fifteen years, but life, is lived on particular Tuesdays, so I think for now I'll just tell you about a recent one.

A few weeks ago was Taylor Acoustics's birthday. Taylor and I had been growing distant for years now, but the love was still there whenever we did happen to find ourselves together. We hadn't lived in the same area for many years and I viewed the night of birthday celebration in the city as a chance to reignite the playful fire of our friendship and to start a new chapter, this one older, more grizzled, set in Downtown Detroit and with higher stakes. I had masturbated every day that week; it wasn't out of control to the point where I wasn't leaving my bedroom unless I was alone in the house or so that I couldn't look people in their eyes, but it did mean that with a little alcohol in me I could become tired easily, or go hazy, or become depressed and in the worst case start spilling that depression in ways subtle or obvious. So I had called up Binge and procured 4 Adderall pills to ensure I would have the energy for a night of fun.

The day of the party I dropped Prophesy off at work, came home, and realized that I had six good hours before I needed to head over to Taylor's. I think I held out for 10 minutes before my brain did the necessary math for the inevitable to occur. You see, one of the problems of the lifelong compulsive masturbator is that while the force of the compulsion only becomes a heavier freight train over time, the act its self holds less and less pleasure. Certain drugs and certain combinations of drugs can recruit novel parts of the brain to join in on the fun and generally make one feel like a teenager with his first high speed internet connection again. So when it occurred to me that I had the loving combination of amphetamine and marijuana readily at my disposal and six hours with nothing to do on my hands? Well – I didn't really feel like I had any choice in the matter.

The pill was a slow release 20, a lot for a guy with no tolerance built up, and I felt the sweet buzz of energy almost as soon as I gulped the water down after the pill. Soon after that I picked out a good sized nug of cannabis, broke it up with my fingers, and loaded the entire thing into my bong. I took hit after hit, rapidly taking as much smoke into my lungs in as little time as possible.

The internet connection at the house is such that I have to hold my computer up to the window, pay a few dollars for a 24 hour subscription to a local wifi service, and in this manner download all of the content I need before sitting or laying down to enjoy. In my current state of drug enabled efficiently and creatively, I collected pictures and stories with a sense of urgency and adherence to method akin to that of a speed chess player. For the first few hours my masturbation was ecstasy. Every model on my screen was a living goddess and testament to the divine nature of feminine sexuality. My fantasies as always undulated between the twin extremes of ultimate power and total humiliation. I'd always wanted to either own or submit, a perpetual teenager both worshiping what he couldn't have and wanting to control it. I was almost a god to my little psychic harem summoning submissive angels at will to fulfill my tiniest desires, and then at the next moment a slave, kissing the feet of a beautiful teenage queen with worthless lips while she casually scrolls her cell phone barely noticing me. Then I was the goddess herself and I imagined what life might have been with a different body, how powerful and beautiful and perfect I could have been, how I could have had slaves – slaves like me – and a life of erotic whimsy. Every so often when I felt the weed wearing off I would roll over and frantically grab my bong off the floor and take a hit before returning to my inclusive world of pleasure and shame. But as the hours rolled on, almost unnoticed, shame began to overrule pleasure, and logic threatened to intrude on my bliss.

You're going to be a piece of shit for Taylor's party.

I jerked off a little harder, even though my boner was becoming smaller in my hand and the pleasure less tangible.  

They're going to be able to smell the shame on you.

I scrolled through stories looking for a darker fantasy to pull my consciousness back down into the pleasure cave and away from the voice. I didn't want to think of the other friends who would be there that night and how I would inevitably act like a ragged street dog around them – too aggressive and too needy all at once. I went back to the task at hand.

This is fucking sad.

Then my phone, a $20 flip phone I had bought specifically because of it's lack of internet access, started buzzing. I grabbed it and looked at the screen. A text message from Innocence, wanting to talk. Sorry, Innocence, not today. A minute later it buzzed again. My mom calling. I hit silence. I went back to stoking myself. Each time it buzzed a little shock of fear struck my heart. Once the mind gives itself to the fantasy world, reality becomes the ghost. A minute or an hour later it buzzed again. Mom again.

I stood up and propped my Macbook against my window sill for more downloading. In order to do this I had to move one leg off the bed and sort of shimmy my foot on the floor until it had penetrated the layer of crap – books, dirty clothes, papers, odd objects of which I do not know the origin, that cover the space of my bedroom floor while kneeling with the other leg on the bed so as not to have to attempt to make room for that foot as well. I felt like a child and like a rat. During this operation I did not lose focus on the task at hand for a moment. I stood this way, gathering pictures and stories, these ones more extreme in their fetish content, for I don't know how long; I only know that when the phone buzzed again my right leg was spasming in little bursts, my ankle on the floor had begun to ache from supporting my weight, as did my dick from being manhandled while at half mast. The phone kept buzzing, each pulse a screaming banshee of shame.

Your grandpa is dead or some such thing. She's desperate to reach you. She knows her fuck up son isn't picking up the phone because he's busy being a fuck up. She's disgusted. She's scared. She hates you.

I turned the phone off and threw it on the floor.

Time stood still for my hand and my dick, but my fantasies got darker with the sky. I contemplated finding a bad mistress, a real sadist who would make my life hell. I don't mean that I just fantasized about this; I mean that I considered actually doing it. I would find a woman like this somehow and give myself to her. I'd give her all of my money, my birth certificate, my social security card, my debit card. I'd help her to make a video of me in humiliating positions, and then I'd make a list of embarrassing people she could send it to me as blackmail if I ever misbehaved. I'd order a chastity device for myself and give her the key. I'd be her slave. That was what I deserved, to be a slave. With the adderall and weed still powering my brain I plunged into previously unexplored depths of specifics. I imagined myself seeking out bitchy women and then presenting this idea to them. I created a power point presentation in my mind which I would show them in order to convince them that having me as a slave would be beneficial to their lives. I even posted a craigslist ad with this premise. I wanted to feel insane. I was no longer masturbating about sex or women; I was jerking off to my own shame and I'd never felt more erotic.

Around seven the adderall started to wear off. I hadn't come and my body ached from being held stiff. My dick hurt and was probably bleeding. None of this felt good anymore. I found my phone, and with great effort decided that I'd better call my mom back incase someone really was dead. No one was. She wanted to have dinner with me that night. I told her I couldn't make it and my voice shook as I apologized a little too emphatically. But that was all it was.

I also had texts from Taylor Acoustic but I was in no condition to go out. Any plans had to be canceled. This night would be another trophy on the mantle of the addiction which had already stollen so much from my life. Anyway, this was no time for philosophical contemplation of my condition. I had work to do. I took another pill.

I jerked all through the night to more and more humiliating fantasies, trying to push the sense of erotic shame to its brink, but the magic was gone and now the models weren't quite pretty enough or else didn't fit with my fantasies. The stories I found were either poorly written or didn't echo properly with my fetishes. My brain demanded some deeper depth of perversion to re-ignite the intensity but, drugs or no, my body simply wasn't built to maintain sexual stimulation for this long. My dick was soft in my hand half the time though I never stopped pumping. I kept getting up to take another hit off the bong and download more pictures, but my leg was throbbed with pain when I stood on it and reality's encroachments became sadder and harder to ignore. On and on this went. The shame felt like real shame and I wanted to push it away. My right hand kept stroking. My left hand kept clicking. Story, picture, story, this model, that one. The birds chirping outside my window mocked my pain. My body ached. Each stoke hurt my dick. Finally, around 11 in the morning 22 hours after I'd casually swallowed that first pill, I found my release.

So that's what a specific tuesday can be like in the life of an addict. I've told you the details, but I don't know how to communicate the horror of being trapped in a body that does these kinds of things, that seemingly can't not do these kinds of things. In my best moments I love life, I love intimacy and connection and love. But then sometimes I go into a trance where I worship the idea of these ideas exact opposites. Such insane helplessness. And yet it always feels like its my fault. This is not something that happens to me, its something I do. Am I a freak? A pervert? There is a line of logic which says I should embrace these things, I mean, I'm not hurting anyone. I hear this line, but I can only say that whether I'm hurting anyone or not, I do not want to keep doing these things, from my innermost core I reject them. They are terror to me. They are hell. I do not want them. I will not embrace them.

I spent the next two days in bed. My nervous system was shocked to fuck so I couldn't sleep. Most parts of my body hurt and I could hardly touch my dick even to pee. I laid there in the darkness contemplating my condition and laughing at my brain's little fantasies of change. This would not be some rock bottom experience launching me into changed life. I masturbated again as soon as I could.

[semi-sketchy]

Do you think Webkinz has a good chance of becoming popular again? Do you think that Webkinz will be sold in more stores in the future?

Let me give the simple answer first…. Webkinz will most likely never be in stores again. They used to have contracts, but the time expired and they never got renewed. With how terrible Webkinz are doing now, stores just don’t want to make the shelf space for them.

Will Webkinz ever be popular again? I doubt it. Honestly, their marketing has really fallen and they rely too much on digital now. The reason Webkinz were so interesting back in the day was all the physical items. Ganz used to be really good on giving you great physical items, like all the Webkinz clothing, the figures were so nicely made, the Trading cards were fun, but they just stopped.They used to come out with five plush pets a month, now we get two and let’s be completely real: the newer Webkinz aren’t as good. They have some good ideas, but they don’t feel as stylized and the models often just look weird. The Siberian Husky is a solid example of that.

Which is another thing: they keep remaking Webkinz and most of the original ones are under $8 on eBay. Ganz, we already have a calico cat, don’t make a patchwork cat it’s the same thing.

No, bad Ganz, the Oatmeal Kangaroo is just a slightly lighter version of the original.

It goes on. But the biggest thing now is Deluxe Membership. This didn’t bother me until Ganz adapted to the “free-to-play” genre, which is just loaded with micro transactions to suck your money. A lot of people, including myself, hate this market. I added it up before. eStore points are $1 USD for 1,000 without getting a giant bundle to get 10% more points or whatever. The eStore themes generally cost about 50,000 eStore points to build. That’s $50 for a virtual room theme! That’s insane! I could buy about 3 cheap Signatures of Amazon for that amount of money!

Before Deluxe took over, it was something really cool. You got to set your dock colors, access to a special color zone (which all are dead now anyways), an extra class at the Academy, awesome monthly items, and more items from Arte. It was so cool and something I actually begged my mom to get me when I was eleven. Now I despise it. I was okay with them making games for Deluxe Members, but when they took away features anyone could access and locked them behind a subscription fee, that’s when I got annoyed. My favorite game, Zingoz Pop, is locked behind Deluxe. Vacation Island is a distant memory now that I miss dearly. I used to be so careful when I would spend my ticket to make sure I had as much time as possible to get my money out of it, now I will never be able to get all the trophies like I wanted. They took themes I spent so long saving up KinzCash for and locked me out of them. I felt cheated. I had given Ganz so much money with all their products I bought, ranging from clothing, Kinz Klips, figures, and tons of plushies, and they gave me the gate. I know I shouldn’t feel entitled, after all, this is how they make money, but it still feels wrong.

This falls on the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” like people bought stuff and they wanted it. A Webkinz used to be $15 and I can’t speak for all, but people got more than one a year to renew their account because the online wasn’t the highlight of Webkinz and that’s what Ganz keeps forgetting. They moved to the free-to-play market and hell they took the fucking Candy Crush motto with their “Goober’s Anatomic Adventure” shit. Run out of lives? Pay for more! Just two moves away from winning? Buy more moves! Need a few extra points for that higher rank? Buy a power up! And it just grinds my gears. They most likely did this because digital distribution is cheaper. No need to give stores a cut, don’t have to pay a someone to make physical items or for the materials, once it gets past the concept artists and developers, that’s it. Easier and gives them a higher profit. However, Ganz is a toy company. They’ve been making stuffed animals long before Webkinz, so why start whistling another tune now? People don’t want to pay a ton of money for a collection of laggy minigames. The parents can buy the kids Mario Party or WarioWare for that old Wii they probably still have sitting around and it’d be cheaper and a better experience.

Let me just say this…. Ganz, parents aren’t going to pay money for digital media. Parents want their kids away from the screen. Hell, my mother wouldn’t even give us the $20 for a Nintendo Gamecube in 2012, my brother and I had to save for weeks to get that bulky purple box. Parents also don’t want to invest in something for their kid that they can’t see. A Webkinz was an easier sell. You saw it at a store, it was a cute little stuffed animal that they would drag everywhere for months and on their downtime, they could play on Webkinz World. Now it’s all “play online. Play all day. Play every day.” and geez if I had kids I wouldn’t want them spending real money online for some fancy texture and I sure wouldn’t want them staring a screen all day. Go outside. Climb a tree. Better yet, climb it with your plush. I did that.

Let’s not forget the “Helping Paws Club” where they say “tell your friends about us! ….Please we need more wallets to empty” and you can’t trust your fans to promote your product. They also looked past the fact that most of their fans are grown up now. What kind of adult is going to go to their adult friends and ask them to join this site for kids as little as five? Please explain.

Let’s also not forget that the online runs terribly due to all the video ads. Ganz made a plea not long ago asking people to add them to their whitelist, and the comments are the biggest bonfire roast I think I have ever seen and I love it. I wanna say I run a gaming PC, Intel i7 and 16GB of DDR3 RAM. I have some power. Without AdBlock, I get some lag and frame skipping on the arcade games. Imagine all the other people who are still using duel cores and don’t have that power. I was one of them once and it was so painful. The site is already super slow and the video ads refreshing every 15 seconds will get you no matter what.

No. I don’t believe Webkinz will make a comeback. Webkinz lost their contracts with stores, aren’t running any ads and just trusting their fans will keep them afloat. I actually believe it won’t be too much longer until the site is shut down because frankly, the old fans grew up and the new ones won’t put up with this.

-Sassy

[thepaleadventurer]

I don’t know about y’all, but I have a weakness for yoga attire, mostly for the comfortable wear all the pieces are designed to provide, but also for the durability of the clothing. I’ve worn so many clothing items that don’t last longer than a month of usage, just from low-quality materials used. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking, “Why don’t you just save money and invest in better quality clothing?” My issue with that is that I’ve bought higher-end labels, and ended up with the same results. A lot of time those higher prices come from attention to detail, more than quality of material. What I mean by that is that brands will use a more hands-on manufacturing process, rather than everything being done by machines, but at the end of the day, certain types of material aren’t going to hold up whether someone stitches it by hand or if a machine does it.

I’m not bad-mouthing anyone’s profession, because I know tailoring is hard work and it’s rough on people’s bodies, especially their hands. My issue is with the material, not the attention-to-detail. Yoga attire just suits my lifestyle so perfectly because I live a very casual life, filled with yoga, hikes, brunch, beach days, and the like. I’m not saying I never wear nice clothing, I’m just saying that yoga clothes are (generally) made to be more durable for the versatility of being able to be worn in different situations.

Yes, I am also that person who almost always lives in yoga clothes, hate me if you must, but I’ve learned that life is a whole lot happier and easier when you’re comfortable. Insert one of the best clothing subscriptions I’ve seen to date, YogaClub. My issue with most other clothing subscriptions is that they charge you to put together an outfit, AND you still have to purchase whatever pieces you want to keep after that. WHAT?! Sounds like some kind of Ponzi scheme for clothing. Okay, that may be over-dramatic, but if you’re like me, you were probably also thinking that “opportunity” sounds like the biggest ripoff, because we work hard for our money and it feels like companies like that try to pull the rug over us. Oh, and the products they send you are sold to you at retail, so you don’t even have any kind of incentive from it, they just want to get as much money out of you as they can.

Okay, I’ll stop hating on shady business practices (IMO) and get to the good stuff. So, YogaClub starts you off with a PERSONALIZED style quiz, meaning they pick out products that fit your lifestyle and taste, so you don’t have to worry about getting sent some cookie-cutter outfit that hundreds of other people will get that you may not even like. For example, I don’t care so much for patterns or bright colors, just because I know I am planning on working out in these clothes and I don’t want to have to baby them like I would a dress for a special event. I also don’t like shorts, so they never send me those, and a great feature is they ask if there are any areas you’d like to draw attention from, for me, that’s my midsection. I’m not the skinniest of women, and I’m okay with that, but I also want to dress appropriately for my body type and not have to feel self-conscious about people judging me. With that being said, that is a personal preference ENTIRELY. If you have features that others have bullied over, but are still confident wearing whatever pieces make you feel comfortable in your own body, work it! I am not at that point yet, so I set those preference accordingly.

My only issue is that I have to wait around 2 weeks to get my box, but that’s more on me being impatient than the company not being of great quality, because they truly are. I have been a loyal customer and bigger fangirl of this company LOOONNNGG before they gave me the opportunity to be an affiliate. Once my box arrived, it was like Christmas, every single month. I get 3 pieces that make a great outfit, all for a fraction of the price they’re sold online or in store. I’m talking a huge fraction, too. A lot of the times, my pants are the price of the box, and everything else is pretty much free, based on their retail value.

What’s really admirable about this company is that every box that’s purchased, they provide a free yoga class to someone who isn’t fortunate enough to have the ease of access to it regularly. If buying comfortable clothes at a severely discounted rate is enough to persuade you to love this company, helping someone less-fortunate and your karma is just a pretty awesome bonus.

Now, I’m just going to get on with the unboxing and let y’all see for yourselves.

Here’s how the package arrives:

Let’s see what’s inside:

So, this month, I received a sports bra, top, and pants.

The bra is from Glyder Apparel and provides great coverage for this busty yogini, but there is an issue with the side-boob area where it kind of sticks outwards. It’s weird, but not a deal-breaker. The support is on the very light side, but I put that on the aesthetic of the back design. Most of the time, you won’t have good support for busty customers without thicker straps, it just is what it is. I’m still someone who would rather wear a sports bra over a regular bra any day, so I just do what my old chiropractor recommended and layer up on bras. I know that might seem weird, but it’s still a heck of a lot more comfortable for me than having underwires aching my chest and straps digging into my shoulders all day. So, here is what the bra looks like:

The top is from Vie Active, another great brand and its fitted quite nicely. Yes, it does fit my midsection, that area I’d prefer to cover, but I think the pattern and the compression from the pants help counter that. It’s breathable for any workout and I don’t have to re-adjust it constantly during the day, like I do with a lot of fitted things. The reason with that is most clothes are made very cookie-cutter. Sometimes it feels like clothing companies shape their pieces into boxes, as if you have to be proportionate throughout your body, and that’s not the case for most consumers, so I don’t understand why companies still do this to us. Either clothes fit my waist, but not my chest, or vice versa and no matter what, it isn’t flattering and I’m left uncomfortable and self-conscious as all heck. This shirt provides not only comfort for casual wear, but it gives me the confidence to put it through the ringer with workouts, knowing that it’ll stay put so I can focus on improving my body and not yanking my shirt one way or another. Oh, inverted poses? Yeah, they’re safe with this guy. That was a huge plus. I have a bunch of yoga tops that are very flowy and super comfy, but are not ideal for inverted poses, so the shirts must come off, no biggie. But with this guy, I can live another day hiding my undesirable midsection, without having to get over my self-consciousness and remove my shirt for inverted poses.

Here’s what this ride-or-die looks like:

Now, on to the pants. At first, I was less-than-enthusiastic about them because I’m not the biggest fan of mesh and when I first joined, that wasn’t something they asked in the style quiz, now it is. So, these pants have mesh patterns in them which I thought was a recipe for disaster because that’s the material that will falter first, and then there is no saving the pants after that. After wearing them, I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked them. The company stayed true to the color scheme I like to keep to, so I appreciate them for that. The outfit contained colors I prefer, including the pants, so I wasn’t going to make a stink about a return since I ended up liking them. Now, they do ask if mesh is an issue, which I selected yes, because not every article of clothing will end up being a winner like this, because they work with TONS of brands and not everyone gets it right, so I decided not to risk it, but I still don’t fault the company on that. This is probably TMI for some people, maybe everyone, but if I’m being completely honest, I don’t like to shave every day and that was also a concern of mine with the mesh material, because I assumed I’d have to shave to be able to wear them or people could see my stubbly legs underneath. Nope. The mesh material is pretty tightly woven so you don’t really see if I haven’t shaved, but you can still tell that it’s see-through. Speaking of see-through, I know that transparency is a huge issue for people when it comes to yoga pants showing their undergarments when we squat or bend, but I’ve been a subscriber for years and never had a pair of pants that I couldn’t do gymnastics in without being 100% confident that the color of my undies remained a secret.

Here’s how they look:

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Well, how well do those pieces actually wear together?” Worry not, for I shall show you, my pretties. Disclaimer: I am not a model and as I’ve mentioned before, I do not have the skinniest or fittest frame (and I’m not ashamed of that because every body is beautiful), and I also don’t have a fancy studio or a team that will make me look flawless. Part of why I want to blog about my experiences is to show what results really look like without photoshop or any kind of altering or manipulating. What you get is 100% me with all of my awkwardness and that’s it. I have nothing against people who do alter their content, because it’s all a personal preference and that’s how they express themselves through their content, but my choice is to do the opposite and hope it works out.

So, flaws and all, here is how the entire outfit wears, first with the top, bra, and pants:

Then, with the bra & pants:

As I’ve mentioned, I am now an affiliate of the company, so I do receive compensation for purchases made through my links, but my reviews have been and always will be 100% honest. I will never work with a brand that I wouldn’t trust putting my own money into and I hope that y’all continue to hold me to that standard. With that being said, I am so grateful to this company for choosing me to be an affiliate for them, but I want to support companies I love, so I continue to pay for this subscription myself, nothing from this company has been sent to me for free. I think they’re already doing so much good by helping provide free yoga classes to those without easy access to them and I want to continue to support such a generous cause.

If you do want to try this subscription out for yourself (heed my warning: you will fall in love with them), you can follow my link here: YogaClub.

Thank y’all so much for spending some time on my blog to check out this post! If you enjoyed the content, please give this post a like and let me know your thoughts in the comment section and don’t forget to subscribe so that way you get notifications when I post new stuff.

Namaste ❤️

Unboxing: YogaClub (May 2018) I don't know about y'all, but I have a weakness for yoga attire, mostly for the comfortable wear all the pieces are designed to provide, but also for the durability of the clothing.

[jamieclawhorn]

Saga’s share price just crashed spectacularly. This is what I’d do now

The share price of over-50s insurance group Saga (LSE: SAGA) has crashed spectacularly in the last few days after the group released full-year results on Thursday. Here, I’ll take a look at what’s gone wrong at Saga, and also provide readers with my view on the stock.

Business strategy

What went wrong? Well, put simply, the insurer’s strategy hasn’t worked.

You see, Saga’s strategy revolved around luring in customers with cheap insurance offers and then hiking prices significantly when it came time to renew. But that’s backfired on the group because with the rise of price comparison websites, customers these days often just cancel their policies if they’re told that their renewal price will be 20% to 30% higher than the original price.

Profits have been hit quite badly. For the year ending 31 January, the group reported a loss before tax from continuing operations of £134.6m, compared to a profit of £180.9m last year. The group also lowered its guidance for this year, stating that it expects annual underlying profit before tax of £105m- £120m, compared to £180m last year.

To make matters worse, the group also announced a significant dividend cut last week, slashing its final dividend to 1p per share compared to 6p last year. There are few things that the market hates more than an unexpected dividend cut, so it doesn’t surprise me that the shares were hammered on the news.

So, where to from here? Is the stock a ‘buy’ after falling 40%+?

My take

The last time I covered Saga was in July, around six months after the group released its first profit warning. At the time, I thought that the company may be able to turn things around and I said: “Saga could be a good stock to buy and tuck away for a few years. Growth may be subdued in the short term, yet the company looks well placed to profit from the UK’s ageing population over the long term.”

Looking at recent results though, the outlook for Saga appears to be worse than I thought.

For starters, I don’t like the fact that CEO Lance Batchelor spoke of “long-term challenges” last week. That certainly doesn’t sound good to me. Saga is going to try to turn things around by implementing a new pricing model, but UBS believes there are execution risks associated with this strategy.

Second, the dividend cut also concerns me. You can tell a lot about what management is thinking by looking at the dividend. A dividend cut of this size is worrying.

Third, having spent some time reading forums yesterday, it appears that Saga has a real problem with its reputation. Hiking renewal prices sharply seems to have angered a lot of customers and many don’t trust the company any more, which is a big problem. Moreover, many customers are shareholders too, so they won’t be happy that they’ve lost money on the stock. It could take years to win back the trust of customers. 

What would I do?

If I didn’t own Saga shares, I wouldn’t buy them now. The stock looks too risky, in my view. And if I did own the shares, I’d give serious thought to selling them and moving my money into a company with brighter prospects. I think it could be a while before Saga can turn things around.

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More reading

Will the Saga share price ever make a successful comeback?

Can the Saga share price come back after a shock 35% crash?

Is Saga now a bargain, down 35% today?

Forget Bitcoin! I think the Saga share price could be a better way to get rich

This is what I’d do about the Saga share price right now

Edward Sheldon has no position in any shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has no position in any of the shares mentioned. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

[male-emporium]

Thomas’ Photography Guide For Beginners

Howdy! It’s your favorite contributor, Thomas or Tom for short or T for even shorter. I’ve put together a great post that I hope you find helpful. It’s a long one, so you might have to let your 10am meeting know you’ll be cancelling. I’ve wanted to talk about this topic of entry level photography for a while now but seeing as I have a writing problem, like a modern Alexander Hamilton, I write like I’m running out of time, putting every thought on paper. So a short post turned to a long one and kept getting longer, my editor (Julia) finally put a date on the calendar for me to commit to, so here it is.

  My most recommended camera surprises or even disappoints almost everyone that I tell it to. Phone cameras in the newest Apple, Samsung and Google devices are now better than most entry level cameras. Not only that but you can’t beat the portability or the ease of use. That being said, I understand why this answer might disappoint someone wanting to buy a “real” camera. They have a mental picture of themselves as this sexy photographer, traveling the world with a professional or hipster looking camera capturing images that are magazine print worthy. Or they might be a new parent or grandparent trying to capture timeless memories of their newest family member. Whatever your imaginary photographer self looks like, this dream of becoming a “real” photographer is not uncommon. After all, the biggest advantages of having a real camera can all lead to creating better photos. These are exposure control (how light or dark the image is), increased image quality with bigger sensors and better lenses and images are easier to be manipulated when editing. With these advantages come frustrations of learning something that’s not easy, so if you are willing to put up with years of challenges learning this craft, I have created this guide to start you from scratch.

  Without further adieu, here is my guide to getting started with “Real” photography. In order to do so, you will need two things: the necessary gear and the most effective tips to accelerate your improvement as a photographer. And since the holidays are a great time to ask for a new camera or gear, this could be a great getting started guide for someone just starting out or as a way to fill in your essential gear.

  What you will need

A Budget

A $1000 total budget is generally the “break even” point where the quality of camera surpasses the ones found in the top models of phones. At $1,500 for a camera and lens, you should be able to get something very good that will last you for a couple of years on your photography journey.

Camera

This is it, your big chance to become the photographer you’ve always wanted to be. A good piece of advice when buying a camera is to make sure you are looking at the most recent version of the camera. With new cameras launching all the time, even a model that’s 1 year younger than another could have much better technology. Here are the other important factors to consider:

Type: Mirrorless, Point and Shoot, DSLR- these are all terms you might have heard but know nothing about. Mirrorless cameras are my preferred camera type. They are smaller than DSLRs but still big enough to feel solid in your hands.

Size: Your usage is going to help dictate the size of the camera you will want to use. If you are going to travel with this camera, a small to medium sized camera is probably best.

Sensor Resolution: At this price point you should be looking at 20-24 megapixel cameras. RAW files are typically around 24 mb. Compared to top phones which have 12 megapixel cameras.

Sensor Type: Most cameras in this price range will be APS-C sensors. Due to the size of the sensor, it actually changes the effective focal length of the lens, something called crop factor. Make sure to know your sensor type and crop factor when picking a lens.

Focus Points: A couple years ago, cameras had 10 focus points, now top cameras can have 200-400. That means faster, more accurate focusing, so check this before buying.

  Lens

If I had $1500 to spend total, I’d spend at least half on my lens if possible (if you have even more to spend, $800-$1,000 lenses are significantly better than those at $200-$300). In my experience the biggest improvements we’ve made in our photography as a result of buying new equipment has come from upgrading lenses. Additionally, lenses aren’t updated nearly as often as cameras are, so if you think you will fall in love with photography, invest in a better lens now. When buying a lens look at:

Size: Some lenses can be big and bulky which means you’ll want to carry it around less.

Aperture: As a general rule of thumb, the lower the f/ is on a lens the better, such as f/2 vs. f/3.5. So try to get the lowest f/ your budget will allow.

Focal length: Most new photographers gravitate toward zoom lenses because they’re typically sold in kits. I’d highly recommend a prime lens (single focal length) because quality is normally better and the lenses are smaller in size with faster apertures (low f/, more light, more background blur). I love the 35mm effective focal length, as it’s a great all around lens. On a cropped sensor, you’ll have to buy around a 23mm lens for an effective 35mm.

  Recommended Camera + Lens Combos

Fuji and Sony are two of the best camera companies right now. With a $1,500 budget in mind these cameras are great options:

Sony- Camera + prime lens OR zoom lens

Fuji- Camera  + prime lens OR zoom lens

  Editing Software

Since you’ll be shooting in RAW format, you will need an editing software to process your photos. The industry standard editing software is Adobe Lightroom, you can get the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Subscription which includes Lightroom and Photoshop for $9.99 per month. If you are new to editing, make sure to pickup a book to help you out or watch the tutorials on Adobe’s site. A little secret of mine, I hate editing, so I use VSCO presets for Lightroom, which get me about 95% of the way there. After a few more tweaks, the images are ready to use (Julia does the same, as she edits almost all of the photos on GMG).

  SD Cards

In my opinion, you can never have too many SD Cards. Nowadays the price per gigabyte of storage is super low, so you’re better off buying multiple SD cards so that you don’t risk deleting any images you haven’t used yet. Make sure you are buying SD cards with fast enough write speeds for your camera. I use 95 mbps write speed cards. I recommend these cards and you should have a nice case too.

  Backup Drives

Too many photographers (and people that take pictures on their phones) do not think enough about their backup strategy. If you aren’t shooting much, you can save everything in the Cloud (iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive), but if you are buying a camera you need a solid strategy in place. My tip, think about this, “What is the minimum worst case scenario that can happen to you that would cause you to lose photos?” If your answer is zombie apocalypse or the world ending, then you are properly backed up. If you’re answer is your car or house broken into or a drive crashing, you are not backed up properly. This is a huge topic in itself that often gets overlooked, so make sure to research as you build your plan. Western Digital, Seagate, Samsung and LaCie are all trusted brands for hard drives.

  Learning Resources

I get asked all of the time, “What’s a great way to learn photography?”. Since I was self taught, I’m not the best person to ask. It’s like asking a French person how to learn French. There’s no substitute for real world practice, but not everyone can shoot everyday, so learning resources are important for growing your understanding, even on days off. I couldn’t leave you hanging, so I asked a couple of family members that have recently picked up photography for their recommendations on what has helped the most. They thought How Do I Do That In Lightroom, B&H Explora,  Kelby One  and The Define School were all helpful sources. I would also recommend making friends with other photographers, having conversations about photography has proved to be a very effective way for me to learn. Even trying to teach someone else that has less knowledge than you can help you realize where you might be lacking knowledge.

  Getting Started Tips

Now that you have your gear, it’s time to get out and shoot. Every time you go out to shoot make an effort to work on improving your skills. When we first started we always spent the end of every shoot with an extra 15 minutes of trying new things. New angles, lenses, poses, lighting, even if we thought the idea was terrible, we tried it. After all, it only costs you a short amount of time and who knows what you can pick up or learn when trying something different. We’ve never regretted taking too many images (except maybe when it comes time to editing), but we have regretted not taking enough. My goal is for the below tips to help accelerate your learning and have you taking great pictures sooner.

    Be one with your camera: When you are just learning to shoot a camera, it can feel like a foreign object with too many buttons that make no sense. If you can learn to adjust 5 things, let them be master aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and exposure compensation.

  Study the exposure triangle: Shutter Speed, Aperture and ISO- each of these settings will have an effect on your lighting. Additionally, each of these have an artistic effect too. Balancing artistic desires with lighting will help you figure out how to make the necessary adjustment. Here is an extra resource on the topic.

  Work on your eye for composition: With every image, ask yourself what your subject is. Then look what’s behind, around and in front of your subject. How does your subject fit into the scene and how can you utilize the scene to tell a better story? As you start to shoot, move around your subject to find the composition that feels the most right. The first spot that you and your subject setup in is rarely ever the best one. When we shoot, we keep asking ourselves, “What if…” questions. “What if you were sitting here?”, “What if we angled this way?” or “What if I changed my focal length?”.

  Take more pictures than you need: Time should be your only excuse for not taking more pictures, not battery or storage….maybe weather. Ok, Time and Weather are your only possible excuses for not taking more pictures in a given photoshoot. As a photographer, it’s so upsetting to start reviewing the images you’ve shot and realize that you actually didn’t capture as many pictures as you remembered. Even worse if there are issues with the ones you did get such as people blinking. This is especially true when you are traveling, because most likely you won’t have that opportunity again.

  Take time to review what you could have done better: Current editing software and RAW files sizes can make someone adept at editing slower to progress as a photographer because they can “fix it in post”. One of my pet peeves is hearing photographers say, “I can always photoshop that.”, instead of figuring out a solution. I look at everything in life, especially my photography, as something that can improve. So when I review photos, it’s always with ideas for next time. You might have noticed I just started shooting film. One of the things I like most about film is it’s a lot easier to figure out what you did wrong because each image costs money and taking bad pictures with film is costly.

  I know, it’s been a lot. You are probably thinking, “Where did my day go? One minute I was checking on Gal Meets Glam and an hour later I’ve just read everything Thomas knows on the topic of photography!”. I thank you for that! My departing note for you is to remember that photography should be fun. It can be frustrating sometimes, but stick with it. I’ve been shooting for 7 years now and it took me 2 full years before the joys surpassed the frustrations. Even now I still meet situations where I’m not getting the results I had hoped for, so don’t expect to become a pro overnight.

The post Thomas’ Photography Guide For Beginners appeared first on Gal Meets Glam.

First found here: Thomas’ Photography Guide For Beginners

[zolganif]

I’d probably suck as a tattoo artist. I don’t fold easily.<---- What the hell does this even mean??? A new store just opened up nearby. If I call someone and get the answering machine, I usually leave a quick message. There are no nightlights anywhere in the house. I don’t watch any TV shows that were based on books. My teeth aren’t as white as I wish they were. I haven’t been to a party in a while. It’s easy for me to make friends, it’s just hard to keep them. Someone has called me a rude name today. I know what it takes to make a successful reality show. When I’m angry, I often give people the silent treatment. I don’t necessarily trust myself with sharp things. I wish there were more arcades around nowadays. I’ve tried short hair on myself, but I just don’t think it looks good. When I’m home alone and I use the washroom, I usually don’t close the door. I don’t have my whole future planned out, and I’m fine with that. It’s weird when people have a whole ‘trajectory’ set out for themselves. The last time I was in a hospital, it wasn’t for myself. I know at least two sets of twins. I recently purchased a new computer game. I misplace things all the time. There is a bobby pin in my hair right now. Someone has given me a magazine subscription as a gift before. I use adverbs too much. I don’t think I’d make a very good model. School has been going pretty well for me so far. My iPod is charging right now. I’ve named a pet after a celebrity before. Movies don’t affect me anymore. I didn’t really like the person on the cover of the last magazine I bought. If the Jonas Brothers’ fans were real fans, they wouldn’t scream so much while the guys are trying to give an interview. The season 4 premiere of Heroes was AMAZING! Life isn’t ALL about having fun. There are some lyrics that I will just never understand. Clocks in my house either seem to be minutes ahead or minutes behind at all times. I know what it means to be 'six feet under’. I hate when people interrupt me while I’m watching a new episode of a show I’m dedicated to. Whenever YouTube-worthy things happen to me, there’s never any video camera to catch it, so it feels like a waste. Cute animals are only cute in theory, especially dolphins.  People are too concerned with being 'grown up’. If I was Deryck Whibley, I never would have put up with Avril Lavigne’s shit. ^I’m surprised that SHE broke up with HIM, but not surprised at all that they broke up. I wish my parents had put me in music lessons when I was younger. I’m too lazy to commit a premeditated crime. It doesn’t bother me when I’m hanging out with people and it’s silent for any period of time. Poetry slams sound interesting. I respect people who worked hard to get to where they are, no matter where it is. I’m jealous of people who get to go to concerts all the time. I used to always mix up 'greater than’ and 'less than’ signs. In eight hours, I’ll probably be sleeping. The word 'overrated’ is overrated. My family is pretty fucked up. The last cloud shape I noticed was some sort of animal. I have a friend on Facebook whom I met through our love of a band. I like guys with really deep voices. I love the name of Weezer’s upcoming album.