#video cutter online

[schmweed]

[talksonthego07]

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[imsobadatnicknames2]

How can you consider yourself any sort of leftist when you defend AI art bullshit? You literally simp for AI techbros and have the gall to pretend you're against big corporations?? Get fucked

I don't "defend" AI art. I think a particular old post of mine that a lot of people tend to read in bad faith must be making the rounds again lmao.

Took me a good while to reply to this because you know what? I decided to make something positive out of this and use this as an opportunity to outline what I ACTUALLY believe about AI art. If anyone seeing this decides to read it in good or bad faith... Welp, your choice I guess.

I have several criticisms of the way the proliferation of AI art generators and LLMs is making a lot of things worse. Some of these are things I have voiced in the past, some of these are things I haven't until now:

Most image and text AI generators are fine-tuned to produce nothing but the most agreeable, generically pretty content slop, pretty much immediately squandering their potential to be used as genuinely interesting artistic tools with anything to offer in terms of a unique aesthetic experience (AI video still manages to look bizarre and interesting but it's getting there too)

In the entertainment industry and a lot of other fields, AI image generation is getting incorporated into production pipelines in ways that lead to the immiseration of working artists, being used to justify either lower wages or straight-up layoffs, and this is something that needs to be fought against. That's why I unconditionally supported the SAG-AFTRA strikes last year and will unconditionally support any collective action to address AI art as a concrete labor issue

In most fields where it's being integrated, AI art is vastly inferior to human artists in any use case where you need anything other than to make a superficially pretty picture really fast. If you need to do anything like ask for revisions or minor corrections, give very specific descriptions of how objects and people are interacting with each other, or just like. generate several pictures of the same thing and have them stay consistent with each other, you NEED human artists and it's preposterous to think they can be replaced by AI.

There is a lot of art on the internet that consists of the most generically pretty, cookie-cutter anime waifu-adjacent slop that has zero artistic or emotional value to either the people seeing it or the person churning it out, and while this certainly was A Thing before the advent of AI art generators, generative AI has made it extremely easy to become the kind of person who churns it out and floods online art spaces with it.

Similarly, LLMs make it extremely easy to generate massive volumes of texts, pages, articles, listicles and what have you that are generic vapid SEO-friendly pap at best and bizzarre nonsense misinformation at worst, drowning useful information in a sea of vapid noise and rendering internet searches increasingly useless.

The way LLMs are being incorporated into customer service and similar services not only, again, encourages further immiseration of customer service workers, but it's also completely useless for most customers.

A very annoyingly vocal part the population of AI art enthusiasts, fanatics and promoters do tend to talk about it in a way that directly or indirectly demeans the merit and skill of human artists and implies that they think of anyone who sees anything worthwile in the process of creation itself rather than the end product as stupid or deluded.

So you can probably tell by now that I don't hold AI art or writing in very high regard. However (and here's the part that'll get me called an AI techbro, or get people telling me that I'm just jealous of REAL artists because I lack the drive to create art of my own, or whatever else) I do have some criticisms of the way people have been responding to it, and have voiced such criticisms in the past.

I think a lot of the opposition to AI art has critstallized around unexamined gut reactions, whipping up a moral panic, and pressure to outwardly display an acceptable level of disdain for it. And in particular I think this climate has made a lot of people very prone to either uncritically entertain and adopt regressive ideas about Intellectual Propety, OR reveal previously held regressive ideas about Intellectual Property that are now suddenly more socially acceptable to express:

(I wanna preface this section by stating that I'm a staunch intellectual property abolitionist for the same reason I'm a private property abolitionist. If you think the existence of intellectual property is a good thing, a lot of my ideas about a lot of stuff are gonna be unpalatable to you. Not much I can do about it.)

A lot of people are suddenly throwing their support behind any proposal that promises stricter copyright regulations to combat AI art, when a lot of these also have the potential to severely udnermine fair use laws and fuck over a lot of independent artist for the benefit of big companies.

It was very worrying to see a lot of fanfic authors in particular clap for the George R R Martin OpenAI lawsuit because well... a lot of them don't realize that fanfic is a hobby that's in a position that's VERY legally precarious at best, that legally speaking using someone else's characters in your fanfic is as much of a violation of copyright law as straight up stealing entire passages, and that any regulation that can be used against the latter can be extended against the former.

Similarly, a lot of artists were cheering for the lawsuit against AI art models trained to mimic the style of specific artists. Which I agree is an extremely scummy thing to do (just like a human artist making a living from ripping off someone else's work is also extremely scummy), but I don't think every scummy act necessarily needs to be punishable by law, and some of them would in fact leave people worse off if they were. All this to say: If you are an artist, and ESPECIALLY a fan artist, trust me. You DON'T wanna live in a world where there's precedent for people's artstyles to be considered intellectual property in any legally enforceable way. I know you wanna hurt AI art people but this is one avenue that's not worth it.

Especially worrying to me as an indie musician has been to see people mention the strict copyright laws of the music industry as a positive thing that they wanna emulate. "this would never happen in the music industry because they value their artists copyright" idk maybe this is a the grass is greener type of situation but I'm telling you, you DON'T wanna live in a world where copyright law in the visual arts world works the way it does in the music industry. It's not worth it.

I've seen at least one person compare AI art model training to music sampling and say "there's a reason why they cracked down on sampling" as if the death of sampling due to stricter copyright laws was a good thing and not literally one of the worst things to happen in the history of music which nearly destroyed several primarily black music genres. Of course this is anecdotal because it's just One Guy I Saw Once, but you can see what I mean about how uncritical support for copyright law as a tool against AI can lead people to adopt increasingly regressive ideas about copyright.

Similarly, I've seen at least one person go "you know what? Collages should be considered art theft too, fuck you" over an argument where someone else compared AI art to collages. Again, same point as above.

Similarly, I take issue with the way a lot of people seem EXTREMELY personally invested in proving AI art is Not Real Art. I not only find this discussion unproductive, but also similarly dangerously prone to validating very reactionary ideas about The Nature Of Art that shouldn't really be entertained. Also it's a discussion rife with intellectual dishonesty and unevenly applied definition and standards.

When a lot of people present the argument of AI art not being art because the definition of art is this and that, they try to pretend that this is the definition of art the've always operated under and believed in, even when a lot of the time it's blatantly obvious that they're constructing their definition on the spot and deliberately trying to do so in such a way that it doesn't include AI art.

They never succeed at it, btw. I've seen several dozen different "AI art isn't art because art is [definition]". I've seen exactly zero of those where trying to seriously apply that definition in any context outside of trying to prove AI art isn't art doesn't end up in it accidentally excluding one or more non-AI artforms, usually reflecting the author's blindspots with regard to the different forms of artistic expression.

(However, this is moot because, again, these are rarely definitions that these people actually believe in or adhere to outside of trying to win "Is AI art real art?" discussions.)

Especially worrying when the definition they construct is built around stuff like Effort or Skill or Dedication or The Divine Human Spirit. You would not be happy about the kinds of art that have traditionally been excluded from Real Art using similar definitions.

Seriously when everyone was celebrating that the Catholic Church came out to say AI art isn't real art and sharing it as if it was validating and not Extremely Worrying that the arguments they'd been using against AI art sounded nearly identical to things TradCaths believe I was like. Well alright :T You can make all the "I never thought I'd die fighting side by side with a catholic" legolas and gimli memes you want, but it won't change the fact that the argument being made by the catholic church was a profoundly conservative one and nearly identical to arguments used to dismiss the artistic merit of certain forms of "degenerate" art and everyone was just uncritically sharing it, completely unconcerned with what kind of worldview they were lending validity to by sharing it.

Remember when the discourse about the Gay Sex cats pic was going on? One of the things I remember the most from that time was when someone went "Tell me a definition of art that excludes this picture without also excluding Fountain by Duchamp" and how just. Literally no one was able to do it. A LOT of people tried to argue some variation of "Well, Fountain is art and this image isn't because what turns fountain into art is Intent. Duchamp's choice to show a urinal at an art gallery as if it was art confers it an element of artistic intent that this image lacks" when like. Didn't by that same logic OP's choice to post the image on tumblr as if it was art also confer it artistic intent in the same way? Didn't that argument actually kinda end up accidentally validating the artistic status of every piece of AI art ever posted on social media? That moment it clicked for me that a lot of these definitions require applying certain concepts extremely selectively in order to make sense for the people using them.

A lot of people also try to argue it isn't Real Art based on the fact that most AI art is vapid but like. If being vapid definitionally excludes something from being art you're going to have to exclude a whooole lot of stuff along with it. AI art is vapid. A lot of art is too, I don't think this argument works either.

Like, look, I'm not really invested in trying to argue in favor of The Artistic Merits of AI art but I also find it extremely hard to ignore how trying to categorically define AI art as Not Real Art not only is unproductive but also requires either a) applying certain parts of your definition of art extremely selectively, b) constructing a definition of art so convoluted and full of weird caveats as to be functionally useless, or c) validating extremely reactionary conservative ideas about what Real Art is.

Some stray thoughts that don't fit any of the above sections.

I've occassionally seen people respond to AI art being used for shitposts like "A lot of people have affordable commissions, you could have paid someone like $30 to draw this for you instead of using the plagiarism algorithm and exploiting the work of real artists" and sorry but if you consider paying an artist a rate that amounts to like $5 for several hours of work a LESS exploitative alternative I think you've got something fucked up going on with your priorities.

Also it's kinda funny when people comment on the aforementioned shitposts with some variation of "see, the usage of AI art robs it of all humor because the thing that makes shitposts funny is when you consider the fact that someone would spend so much time and effort in something so stupid" because like. Yeah that is part of the humor SOMETIMES but also people share and laugh at low effort shitposts all the time. Again you're constructing a definition that you don't actually believe in anywhere outside of this type of conversations. Just say you don't like that it's AI art because you think it's morally wrong and stop being disingenuous.

So yeah, this is pretty much everything I believe about the topic.

I don't "defend" AI art, but my opposition to it is firmly rooted in my principles, and that means I refuse to uncritically accept any anti-AI art argument that goes against those same principles.

If you think not accepting and parroting every Anti-AI art argument I encounter because some of them are ideologically rooted in things I disagree with makes me indistinguishable from "AI techbros" you're working under a fucked up dichotomy.

[vivavideoappzblogs]

WHICH ARE THE BEST YOUTUBE VIDEO CUTTER ONLINE?

There are various online tools and platforms which are used for video cutting but we have mentioned below the names of the 10 best youtube video cutter online software which are:

YT Cutter

YouTube Trimmer

YT Cropper

iMovie

HashCut

FlexClip Free Video Trimmer

Flixier

VEED

Typito

Kapwing

These are certain web-based and desktop tools which help you to cut out specified video clips which helps you further to save on space and you are easy to share.

[bamsara]

Totally ignore me if this is a personal question, but how exactly do you do your taxes as an artist? More so with commissions and kofi

I dont know

i mean like I do know i've watched videos and read up on how to do it but i dont know. this would be the first year i actually made enough to be required to do taxes on my own. i even enrolled in a free online class for it and some help groups to help me know what to mark off and what not, but its a lot of calculating im doing on my own and some small print that i cant figure out. There's a lot of specifics. Like if I work from home, do I write off my electricity and internet bill as business expenses?? The cost of my desk? The sticker cutter machine when the other one broke?

I'll be looking for an actaul tax person to help me with it later, but more than likely I'll owe money to the goverment somehow im sure of it

[littlexscarletxwitch]

── ༊*·˚⋆ 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝘆

paring: florence pugh x fem!reader

tag(s): fluff, this was based on a true story, not the flo part but the baby fever part lol, establish relationship, baby talk, flo self doubting, r babbling but like in a cute type of way (?), also billie's mention :)

warning(s): idk is wanting to have kids a warning (lol), baby talk (?), grammatical error, unedited

word count: 1.3k

note: You wanna know what's crazy? I'm not sure if I want to be a mother, but like the baby fever sometimes kicks in, specially since I have two little brothers and I'm like a second mother to them (they actually have told me so). But I don't know... Anyway, I'm not native english speaker, so please let me know about any sort of mistake. Hope you all enjoy! Lots of love, M <3

requests are open! + check my rules here + masterlist <3

You remembered when all those new feelings had started: you were sitting across from her, getting lost in her forest green eyes, you didn't feel someone nudging your leg until that said someone screamed out at you. 

"Jesus, you scared me," you smiled at the little toddler as you heard Florence's chuckle. 

The little girl, who seemed to be only two years old, babbled some incomprehensible words at you. She only got cutter as you watched her face shift into a stern look. It appeared as she was trying to tell you something quite important. 

"Oh, yeah, it's fine. Don't worry about it," you played along, accepting what you thought was an apology. 

"Are you lost, little missy?" Florence said, getting her attention. 

The toddler just looked at her and broke into laughter, which caused Florence to smile at her. 

"What's so funny about me, huh? she playfully asked her, and the two year old just laughed even harder. 

"I think it's your voice," you chucked. 

"My voice is not funny," she pretended to be hurt, her hand clutching her chest.

"Well, it is to her," you couldn't hold your own laughter anymore as the tiny human kept on laughing.

“Oh, my God. She’s laughing at my voice.”

“Oh, thank goddess. You scared me to death, Charlie,” a young blonde woman said, getting closer to your table, and bringing the little girl to her chest once she was close enough. “I’m so sorry, she’s just learned how to walk and she likes it,” the woman joked. 

“It’s okay, no problem, we were just chatting,” Florence reassured her with a smile.

As if wanting to be part of the conversation Charlie bubbled out some words.

“She’s so cute,” you scrunched your nose at her, making her laugh. 

“Okay, say goodbye, Charlie,” Charlie’s mum moved her little hand around, waving at the two of you, as Charlie mumbled what you thought was a goodbye. 

“Bye, Charlie,” the both of you said, smiling at the two year old. 

[...]

Ever since that night you hadn’t stopped thinking about Charlie. Well, not Charlie actually, that would be creepy, but the idea of kids. Florence looked so happy the few seconds she shared with Charlie, you felt like your heart could jump out of your chest just by thinking of that night.

You had never thought about kids before that, sure, sometimes, but it was more like a second thought, like something far away from your reach, unlikely to ever happen. And after that night it became your only thought. 

You found yourself watching TikToks about babies doing baby stuff, or maybe when taking a walk your eyes would linger on those couples pushing a trolley. Sometimes you would even look online for baby clothes and every time you couldn't help but to think it was the cutest thing ever. It also didn’t help the fact that your hormones would kick in and they would intensify all these feelings up to a hundred.

Florence, of course, didn’t notice how much you wanted a baby until you started to show her every baby picture you could find, every video you had watched, every kid you pointed out when the two of you went out on dates. So she started counting all the times you brought up that subject, by the third week she had lost count. 

Now, there you were, lying on the couch, with your phone on your hand, scrolling down TikTok, watching videos of babies. She found it cute, fun even, because you wouldn't dare to actually spill the words out, too scared of what she would say. 

“Y/n, baby, is everything okay?” she broke the silence, taking a seat next to you.

“Yeah, I’m just on those days,” you mumbled.

Which was true, but it wasn’t the whole truth. You had craved a baby before, during and long after your period. It didn’t matter, it was a thought that would cross your mind all the time, nonstop. 

“Are you sure you’re okay? Do you want me to get you something?”

You nodded, “It’s just the hormones. You know how it is, the moodswing,” you chuckled.

“Are you watching those baby videos again?” she raised a brow at you, there was a tint of smug in her tone.

“Yeah…” you frowned. “Why?”

“Nothing, it’s just that you are always watching those,” she teased, wanting for you to finally come clean.

“I am?” you asked, pretending to be unaware of that fact. 

“Yes, missy,” she smiled at you. 

‘Missy’, it only reminded you of Charlie and it made the whole thing even worse. 

You huffed, “I guess I didn’t notice.”

“Y/n, is there something you want to talk about?”

“What’s there to talk about?” she could tell you were frustrated.

“Well, I’m not sure but—.”

“What's there to talk about, huh?” there was not a trace of anger in your words, it felt more like sadness.  “That I would like a mini you running around the house, chasing after Billie?” the dog raised her head, thinking you had called out to her. “Because yes I would love that.”

“Y/n, I—,” her smug attitude dropped to the floor as she realised that there was no turning back now. 

“I can’t stop thinking about Charlie, how soft and careful you were with her. You were on cloud nine, Flo, I could tell,” you sniffed, battling the tears. “And I want that… I want that for you and me, for us.”

“I understand, honey. I can see how much you want that,” she caressed your cheek. “But I’m not—.”

“No, please don’t say ‘but’. I can take a ‘maybe’, just not a ‘but’,” you eyes were filled with tears and Florence felt like her heart was going to break any second now. She hated to be the reason why you were crying.

“No, no, no, it’s not that I don’t want that. I do, I just don't want to be that kind of parent who’s always working, I don’t want to miss their first steps, their first words, I want to be there for them every step of the way,” she breathed out, as if she had been holding back for weeks. 

Which she actually had. Ever since she added two plus two and realised you actually wanted a baby, all these self doubt and anxiety and worry got a hold on her.

“Flo, please, I know we can make it work. I won’t let that happen, I promise. You are not getting out of this whole motherhood thing,” you joked, making her chuckled. “Besides, you had Charlie giggling and all happy, I think you got this.”

“Charlie was with us for like three minutes at most,” Florence, playfully, rolled her eyes at you.

“Okay, you are right. But I know in my heart that you are going to be a great momma,” you grabbed her hands, taking them to your lips to kiss them. 

“Y/n…”

“I get it, Flor. It’s scary, we are talking about an actual human being—.”

“Y/n…”

“But if anyone can do this, then it’s us—.”

“Y/n…”

“We could watch some films, or maybe read some books. I bet my mum still has that book about being a first time mother—”.

“Y/n…”

“We can even take some classes, they teach you everything nowadays and—”.

“Y/n!” this time Florence shook your shoulders trying to get your attention. 

“Will you at least think about it? I know it’s a big decision and—”.

“Will you please let me talk?” she said with a tint of amusement.

“Right, sorry,” you smiled. 

“You had me at ‘You are not getting out of this whole motherhood thing’,” she smiled back.

“Does that mean…?” you left the question in the air, waiting for her to say it.

“Yeah, let’s make a baby. Shall we?” she asked, a grin formed on her face before she pecked your lips.

“Oh, my god!” you couldn't hold back your smile anymore. “Yes! Yes, we shall,” you threw yourself at her, leaving kisses all over her face. 

“Okay, then let’s get down to business,” she said in between chuckles. 

“Oh, you mean right now?”

“I thought you… I mean… if you don’t want to then—,” she was about to get up from the couch. 

“No!,” you yelled, making her laugh. “Come back here, you twat.”

Likes, comments and reblogs are appreciated! <3

-M

[badhabitscollection]

So Much (For) Blitz —An exclusive reveal of the star of Fall Out Boy’s latest album cover

Fall Out Boy’s latest effort So Much (For) Stardust) has been critically acclaimed and lauded by fans as some of their best work to date. The album artwork, prominently featuring a doberman, has left some puzzled and looking for additional context as to the dog’s identity and how the artwork came to be. The Bad Habits Collection is proud to bring you the exclusive reveal of the dog featured on the cover of their eighth studio album alongside the full story of how they were discovered.

— 

When Fall Out Boy officially announced their eighth studio album on January 18th, 2023 and unveiled the album artwork for So Much (For) Stardust, there were a lot of opinions to be had. Some of the fans immediately felt connected and claimed it as their own, some compared it to Fiona Apple’s 2020 release Fetch the Bolt Cutters, and some downright found it revolting. Overall, most agreed that it was polarizing to say the least. Donned in an all black background, the front cover features both the name of the band and the album itself in the work of Omar Mroz (hereinafter referred to by his online moniker Mr.Oz). The text is covered in glitter and written out in the same style featured earlier in the rollout of FOB8’s album cycle with A Claymation Fall Out Boy Celebration, dropped as a surprise present from the band on Christmas one month earlier. The headlining attraction of this sideshow was in fact just a simple square box, containing a swirling artistic depiction of a doberman barking in the presence of a froth of bubbles.

From the moment I first laid eyes on the iconography of Fall Out Boy’s new era, I had just two questions in mind: Who is the dog? & Why choose the dog? A few obvious possibilities were immediately ruled out. Solely based on what’s been posted to social media, this dog did not belong to Pete, Joe, or Andy. Patrick has remained dormant online for years at this point, but still the odds felt slim. I did my best to brush it off, but ultimately I kept coming back to the thought of WHY? If you’re familiar with my previous work on the history of Take This To Your Grave’s album cover, you already know this type of sentiment means a lot to me. After a while of waiting for the band to bring up the topic in an interview or statement, I had essentially given up hope on any type of official explanation. It was at this moment, just 3 days before the release of the record, that I accepted the reality of the situation. This wasn’t a hot topic within the fandom. And no one was going to provide me with the answers I was looking for. If I wanted to know more, it was solely up to me. So… I got to work. — 

To take a step back, the artwork for So Much (For) Stardust first hit the internet on January 11th, seven days before the official reveal. Posted alongside the name of the first single Love From The Other Side, our barking pup friend was featured on the home feed of FILTER | NEWs on VK, a Russian social media site that I’ve been told is comparable to Facebook. The artwork was watermarked with a subtle, transparent white logo for FILTER in the background. Despite this post being up for five days (a millennia on the worldwide web), it wasn’t until the 16th that the fandom at large made this discovery, with many claiming it was an outright fake.

However, the *stars* started to align proving this leak to have a dose or two of authenticity. Mr.Oz’s claymation video from earlier in the rollout followed the story of a similar looking doberman, who just so happened to pose in the final frame in a style strongly resembling the leaked cover. 

Beyond that, a post from lyricist and bassist Pete Wentz’s Instagram dating back just two days earlier was quickly dug up. On the 4th slide of the carousel, there it was: a selfie of Pete with a Santa hat on and propped up on the shelf behind him... the physical painting of the doberman seen on the leaked cover.

All but confirmed at this point, one last clue presented itself online. The freshly created Twitter account “@muchstardust” popped up out of nowhere, making itself known by following myself and a few other notable hardcore fans in this space. @muchstardust made just one single tweet before being suspended (for reasons unknown). 

The post featured three images, the watermarked cover, Pete’s selfie, and notably, a compressed form of the actual photo taken of man’s best friend —the same one the leaked cover features an oil painting rendition of. 

—  As we all know now, this leak was indeed real and confirmed as the album artwork just a few days later by Fall Out Boy themselves. But that’s when the trail went cold. Later promotional photos featuring the band and taken by their long time collaborator Pamela Littky included another doberman, but clearly not the same one once examined a bit closer. On March 21st, the Chicago rock group posted “What do you think the dog’s name is? 🫧”, but never followed up with the answer. It’s as if they were taunting me specifically with how vocal I had been about wanting to solve this mystery. Just before the album’s official release, I was tipped off by someone with an early copy of the CD that the liner notes of So Much (For) Stardust credit Safia Latif for the cover painting and Jen Patterson for the photograph the cover painting was based on. With new pieces of the puzzle in play, my search for the dog in question was reignited. However, my leads proved of little to no help. I could not get in touch with Safia and could not properly identify Jen Patterson online for the life of me. Taking the hunt back to the drawing board, I reverse image searched the photo @muchstardust had originally provided, which even at this point, months later, was our only source of the actual photograph. Littered with results of the album artwork naturally, I did come across one potential connection. Once again, I found myself on the public timeline of someone’s VK.com profile. “dextromethorpan 3” had included the same photograph in a gallery of different doberman puppies posted on December 21st, 2020. This was…something. Sure, this photo likely did not originate from the VK profile I had unearthed, but at least now I knew it had been around the web for a few years. Scratching my head, I wondered how Fall Out Boy had originally come across this image. Was it something that came up on one of their feeds? Or perhaps just a keyword search? Taking it to different forms of social media, I found a potential match on the /r/doberman subreddit posted 10 months ago. Titled “Cool pic of us playing with bubbles”, the dobie in question featured strikingly similar features and color patterns, and was of course, playing with bubbles. 

So I did what any other sane fan would do… and sent a private message to the Redditor the night before the album dropped with Jen’s photograph. “/u/drc55555” responded Saturday morning agreeing that the dog did look a lot like their own, but that they didn’t recognize the photograph. I woke up in a cold sweat seeing the glimpse of the Reddit notification on my iPhone and replied informing them of the cover of Fall Out Boy’s brand new release and asking if the user was the Jen Patterson credited in the album’s booklet. A day later, they replied once again noting that they weren’t Jen, but that this has sparked a memory of another DM they had received in the fall of last year from an Elektra Records personnel, Fueled By Ramen’s distributor who Fall Out Boy had publicly rejoined the roster of just this January. Indeed, 200 days ago from this very conversation, a marketing representative from the label had reached out to the Redditor through the same platform letting them know that an artist they work with had come across the very same photo I myself found and that the artist had fallen in love with it, hoping to use it as part of the artwork for an upcoming project. /u/drc55555 had conceded that they regretted not responding at the thought of how their dog could have become famous. This is when I knew, I was HOT on the trail. Either a member of FOB discovered this photo of their dog while scrolling Reddit or had specifically sought out the same search terms as me, which meant the actual photograph used on the cover could have potentially been found through the very same method. My search accelerated and within a few hours I had run a variety of similar terms by Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, really any social media site I could get my hands on. Nothing had come up, but I hadn’t called it a day quite yet as one of the more obvious sites remained: Instagram. Heading to the explore page I have barely used in my own time on the platform, I typed in the same keywords that brought me to the pup’s uncanny match on Reddit: “doberman bubbles”. And there it was, exactly 60 rows down, right in the center, the original image of the dog I had been looking for all along along with an alternate photo of the same dog in the next slide in the same setting captioned “BUBBLES!!!!!”, posted —you guessed it, in 2020. 

—  With this case officially closed, I’m beyond stoked to introduce Blitz the Doberman to other fans of Fall Out Boy. At the time of publication, Blitz has 12.8k followers on his public Instagram account, which lead me to question how this match hadn’t already been made. Blitz’s bio reveals he was born on February 27th, 2019 and lives in Las Vegas with his human, one Jen Patterson.

In a beautiful twist of fate, within the hour of finishing the final draft of this piece, Blitz’s humans responded to my inquiry from earlier in the week. I spoke with Jen at length who was happy to share her story exclusively with The Bad Habits Collection. Similarly to the Redditor from earlier, a marketing rep from Elektra Records had reached out to her through Instagram on September 20th, 2022 inquiring about using a picture of her pup for one of their artists’ work, a message she initially regarded as spam. Eventually, she came to an agreement with Elektra, however, this story ended there for her. Up until Jen read the direct message I sent to Blitz’s account, she had not the slightest idea that he was featured on the cover of the new album of one of the biggest modern rock bands left in the world. I was shocked to hear this, but Jen on the other hand was incredibly excited to learn of the breaking news. I shared a photo with her of her name printed in the liner notes of So Much (For) Stardust, a cool moment for us both. Jen told me “I never considered myself a photographer, but that’s amazing!” When I asked about how Blitz already had such a huge following on Instagram, she told me all about how she’s networked with others in a doberman group and has kept a steady stream of posts coming on the daily. In discussion of what she’d like for others to take away from this article, Jen simply hoped others would get to know Blitz’s name —my entire goal of this investigation all along. Half-joking, she expressed that she’d also love to have gotten her hands on some merchandise with his face on it. Infinitely grateful for her responding to my DM and taking the time to talk with me, I’ve personally sent Jen physical copies of So Much (For) Stardust in both vinyl and CD format. I’ll be sure to update this write-up with a photo of FOB’s newest mascot posing with his album cover when they arrive! Closing out our conversation, Jen let me know that she “felt like if you hadn’t reached out, we would not have known.” To be honest, there were times in this journey that I thought it might be for the best if I gave up the search for this pup as to not invade anyone’s privacy. I figured if Blitz hadn’t already made himself known publicly, maybe there was a specific reason behind not doing so. I would have never guessed that reason was because his family were simply unaware of his new-found fame. I feel honored to have been the one to share this discovery with Blitz’s owners and again want to thank them for their contributions to this piece. Jen has also graciously shared the original photograph of Blitz the cover was based on in its full resolution, uncropped:

— 

After scouring the internet to to uncover this story, it all leads me to just one final question: Why Blitz? What’s the connection? Moreover, what’s the intended meaning here? Jen let me know that she herself was unaware of how and why the photograph was found and selected, but we can naturally draw our own conclusions. Discussing this topic with other longtime fans of the band, all have come to the same conclusion that Fall Out Boy’s latest effort features some of Pete’s bleakest lyrics in a long time paired somehow ever so perfectly with some of Patrick’s most uplifting and dance-worthy melodies to date. As my partner pointed out, the album artwork depicts a breed known for their usage as guard dogs with a tough exterior, but shown playing lightheartedly with what’s usually associated as a child’s toy. In the words of fellow Fall Out Boy historian and Bad Habits Collection collaborator Tommy McPhail, the cover displays “the epitome of boundless joy and simplified bliss amongst chaos”, a phrase that perfectly sums up the entire feeling artistically and masterfully expressed in So Much (For) Stardust in my own eyes. Fall Out Boy’s newest full-length studio record So Much (For) Stardust, produced by the legendary Neal Avron, is one of their strongest statement pieces in years and is now available everywhere music is streamed or sold. You can follow Blitz’s adventures on Instagram: @blitzdoberman —  “The kind of pain you feel to get good in the end. Inscribed like stone and faded by the rain: ‘Give up what you love before it does you in.’” Written by Alex Toor for The Bad Habits Collection

[gryphons-n-kelpies]

A few things

First off, I am sorry for being rather silent on things. It feels like I am balancing so many spinning plates and there is no end to it. So I've just been silently shutting down and working on private tasks. I've been fighting to keep positive all year long and as of last monday. I broke.

DITO Demo is basically finished, I had to cut back on a few of my plans but thats okay. I can always refine it later. Thing is... I can't release it. At least.. not yet. Easiest way to explain it, my laptop hates my guts and it's fighting me on everything

No seriously. And it's not when it comes to DITO. It's when I draw, it's when i browse online, it's even when I try to render any of my videos (it would expand the wait time to 10 hours or stay at a percentage without change). Oh and if that doesn't put a strain on things, printing and cutting out my stickers is being a total bitch in general as it keeps making me reset everything on my printer and cutter like my system doesn't recognize it anymore

I'd be lucky if I could play my games without issues on my down time.

But.. I have everything saved up to a external drive. Once I get my upgrade I'll release the demo after letting a few play testers mess with it.

I'm currently pushing through to my path on getting my upgrade, despite fighting my laptop while it's on it's last legs. I'm not going to ask people here to help me out. I will be fixing this issue, and once everything is settled and released. We will celebrate with something I've been planning since spring

[creations-by-chaosfay]

Remember to clean your sewing machine between projects. The reason you may be dealing with things like pinched seams and skipped stitches is your sewing machine needs some attention. Do not blow into the machine!!! You will only push lint deeper into the gears.

Remember to change your sewing needles. The seams may be messy because of this, as well as torn threads. Seeing needles are very inexpensive unless you buy them at a fabric store.i purchase mine from Organ Neddles Co, in packs of 100, for less than $20 USD online.

Remember to sharpen your scissors and change your rotary cutter blades. There are scissor sharpeners sold at fabric and craft stores, and they are very inexpensive. If you're unable to acquire one, take some aluminum foil, about 18 inches, fold it in half, and cut down the middle. Put the layers on top of each other and cut again. Do this one more time and cut it into thin strips. Voila, your blade is sharpened. There are rotary blade sharpeners as well, but they're more expensive. Save your used blades for sharpening you can do at a later date.

Your machine will thank you by not breaking and requiring parts be replaced.

Oh, and you do need to get your machine into a shop for full maintenance at least once a year. Folks who specialize in this may even be willing to do this in your home, especially for antique machines. Shops that are approved by retailers will cost significantly more than independent specialists. The only place approved by retailers here charges $150 USD per machine, regardless of whether it's manual or computerized. I went on the NextDoor app and asked for references for finding an independent specialist. It was $89 USD per machine, and he had them back to me in less than two weeks whereas the retailer approved shop gave me an ETA of four months. Give your machine the spa treatment it deserves. When it's returned to you, you will discover it's suddenly quieter, running smoothly, and working significantly better because these were things that built up so gradually, you didn't even notice.

You're welcome.

[luckylunatix]

Ok but I think one of the best ways you can really describe Gregory Horror Show is that it was ahead of its time, like in terms of its aesthetic and its style of horror and how they kinda clash.

Like I can only imagine that back in the early 2000s when it first came out, that kind of shit would've been extremely niche and experimental, something a bit too "out there" for a mainstream western audience.

But now look at the current state of horror and anime as a medium. Deceptively cutesy horror with cartoony characters, nostalgic vibes and psychological themes is the "in" thing, especially with stuff like video games and online horror projects. As for anime, we've seen both enough crazy experimental stuff to make GHS look outright normal by comparison, and also enough cookie cutter anime that panders to the lowest common denominator that GHS would be a refreshing change of pace.

In short had GHS come out more recently, I don't think it would be nearly as obscure as it is. And if it is to make a comeback (like on a larger level than the occasional Japan-only oddity), now would be a perfect time to do so.

[phoenixyfriend]

Look what just arrived!

All purchased through Bookshop.org, which... apparently lets any random person do affiliate links? So here, I made one, with all the books I've been buying: Nixy's Recs

(Bookshop.org is an online bookstore that ensures profits are all directed to small, local bookstores instead of behemoths like Amazon or B&N. You can choose a store in your area to shop 'from,' or just allow the profits to go into the a more general fund that gets distributed evenly to all bookshops in the system. This post by @ebookporn and @batmansymbol does a great job explaining how it works.)

Strong Towns and Walkable City are both books I found through the Strong Towns YouTube Channel. I haven't read these yet (they only just arrived yesterday), but if they're at all like the videos, then I have high hopes.

And here are the specific books (again, affiliate links, which I've never done before but here goes):

The Keystone Jacket and Dress Cutter: An 1895 Guide to Women's Tailoring by Chas Hecklinger (Author), Kristina Seleshanko (Preface by)

Walkable City (Tenth Anniversary Edition): How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck (Author), Janette Sadik-Khan (Introduction by)

City Planning: A Very Short Introduction by Carl Abbott (Author)

Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity by Charles L. Marohn (Author)

[bedsyandco]

ᰔ ── 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒎𝒆. 𝑰 𝒅𝒐𝒏’𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 . . .

⟢ ꒰ BASIC INFO

𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞: emerson du pont

𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬: em (everyone) , emmy (friends/family) , princess (will) , rich bitch (cutter)

𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲: October 2, 2003

𝐳𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐜: libra

𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞: san jose, ca

𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞: boston, ma / san jose, ca

𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: american

𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲: american + french

⟢ ꒰ APPEARANCE

𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: 5’7

𝐞𝐲𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫: blue

𝐡𝐚𝐢𝐫: blonde, waist length, straight

𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: 2 lobe piercings in each ear. a little bow tattoo underneath her ear. ‘divine’ tattoo on her collarbone.

𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: van cleef bracelet. cartier matching diamond earrings and necklace. these are the ones she wears more often. she switches her diamond necklace out for a locket that will got her for their anniversary with a photo of them in it. she’s not really a ring girl.

𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞: em’s style is mostly neutral colours and expensive. shes very much a skirt/dress and heels/boots girly. she doesn’t really own casual clothes. the most casual stuff she owns is probably workout sets. even in winter she doesn’t believe in wearing pants, it’s always stockings and a skirt. (fashion over comfort)

𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦: pdm.clara

⟢ ꒰ EDUCATION/CAREER

𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲: harvard university

𝐝𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞: Bachelor of Arts in Economics

𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐮𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: model + ceo and founder of MARAKI fashion and beauty

⟢ ꒰ SOCIAL MEDIA

𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦:

@emersondupont (public / 1.2m followers / 1.7K following / 423 posts)

@emmy.dups (private / 1.3K followers / 510 following / 320 posts)

@.maraki (business / public / 993K followers / 216 following / 290 posts)

𝐭𝐢𝐤𝐭𝐨𝐤:

@emersondupont (public / 1.7m followers / 3K following / 497 posts)

𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐛𝐞:

@emersondupont (580K subscribers / 35 videos)

⟢ ꒰ PERSONAL INFO

𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: ESFP. they are likely to be social, emotionally-driven people, who love meeting new people and going to large events. They tend to adventurously seek new opportunities. They may be sensitive to aesthetics and appearance, often valuing the beauty of what’s around them. They are likely to be naturally creative and optimistic, even in challenging circumstances.

𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐬 . . .

-> bold/brave — em isn’t afraid to take risks. especially when it comes to career moves. no risk = no reward. she loves experimenting and trying new things.

-> sociable — she has a lot of energy and that energy is spent most often by socializing with others. she loves being the host. throwing parties and events.

-> creative — em is a very creative person. she’s always busy creating something. whether that be in her fashion sketch book or online content. she loves being creative.

-> leadership — leading her own company comes easy because she’s excellent at towing the line between friend/boss. she fosters a positive working environment that ends in success.

-> ambitious: once em sets her sights on something. she needs to have it. if there’s a project or goal she’s thinking about? expect it to be done eventually. she likes dreaming big and making those dreams come true.

𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬. . .

-> easily bored — em tends to get bored pretty easily. she has a ton of hobbies/projects she’ll start and then stop half way through because she got bored of them.

-> wasteful and spendthrift — she grew up with a lot of money and a family that spoiled her. she’s a trust fund baby. she has a lot of privilege. she is a bit wasteful and unaware of her privilege for a while until she gets older. (that’s not to say she doesn’t work hard though! x)

-> easily hurt by criticism — em will ask for constructive criticism but when she gets it and it’s not what she wants it to be, she gets really upset

-> not good at confrontation — she will do anything to avoid confrontation. she hates it so much. she’ll either avoid it completely or just agree with the other person so there won’t be conflict. (a bit of a pushover until she grows tired of it) she literally only went to harvard because she didn’t wanna fight with her dad about not going.

-> push too hard — em is a bit of a meddler and doesn’t know when to back off and leave something alone. it’s always out of good intentions but she pushes too hard sometimes.

𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲: heterosexual

𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐢𝐞𝐬/𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬: speaks fluent english and french. currently studying spanish. sketching (fashion). painting. plays piano. good at makeup. styling. making jewelry.

𝐡𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐬: impulsive online shopping. tapping her nails on things. crossing her legs. twirling her hair. biting her lip when she thinks. forgetting to eat. taking her water bottle everywhere.

𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬: baggy pants. long queues. driving. red meat. the word moist.

𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐬: makeup. fashion. magazines. long baths. gift giving. matcha. yoga. running. shopping. drawing.

⟢ ꒰ FAVOURITES

𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐬: legally blonde. the devil wears prada. how to lose a guy in 10 days.

𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐬: the bachelor. love island. emily in paris. pretty little liars.

𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐜: sabrina carpenter. ariana grande. RAYE.

𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐫: brown/beige/cream/baby pink

𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝: pasta (meal) . tiramisu (dessert). peanuts (snack).

𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧: fall -> winter -> summer -> spring

⟢ ꒰ EMERSON CORE

social butterfly ノ early mornings ノ brooke davis ノ sunrises ノ vanilla scented candles ノ uptown girl ノ fluffy white towels ノ sundays at the market ノ weekly spa trips ノ summer in the hamptons ノ cream cheese bagels ノ matcha ノ early nights & mornings . . .

⟢ ꒰ HER APARTMENT / MATERIAL THINGS

⟢ ꒰ FAMILY

𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫: adelaide du pont (deceased since 2017)

𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫: alexander du pont (owner of the san jose sharks!)

𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠(𝐬): em is the youngest of four kids and the only daughter.

-> alexander “alex” du pont jr. — born 1997. single. took over as ceo of the family businesses when he turned 22.

-> nathaniel “nate” du pont — born 1999. single. midfielder for man united.

-> sebastian du pont — born 2001. bisexual. dating a guy who is a french artist named jules. michelin chef and owns a chain of restaurants across europe and america.

⟢ ꒰ RELATIONSHIPS

𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬: taken , will smith ( nov. 2023 )

𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬: before will em was in two other serious relationships

-> jace cormack: he was her highschool boyfriend. they broke up after graduation because he was going to UCLA and she was going to Harvard and they didn't want to attempt long distance.

-> lando norris: (april-augsut 2022) lando and her brother nate are good friends and they met when she was doing a semester abroad in the UK. they dated the summer after that semester but when em returned to the states they deiced to break it off. It wasn't gonna work out anyway, they were better off as friends. lando didn’t want to commit but em had real feelings for him but at the end of the day they ended on good terms. her brother and lando are still good friends, so is she and lando, so she does see him every now and then.

-> william eklund: (summer '23) they had a brief summer fling when they were both in san jose for like a week at the same time. it just happened. they were drunk the first time and then just continued as a sort of fwb thing for the rest of the time. there's no feelings involved, they really are just good friends.

⟢ ꒰ EXTRA

her mom Adelaide was from france and moved to america when she married em’s dad (who is american)

her mom comes from a very rich old European family and when adelaide and alexander married her used her family’s money to start up his business. her family insisted that they’d only invest in his business if he took their family name (so the name would be carried on to the next generation since Adelaide was the only child)

her dad started up a holding company and owns multiple successful businesses. mostly luxury hotel chains. luxury resorts. and restaurant chains. and he eventually bought the sharks a few years after that and it’s been in their family ever since.

em is the youngest of the four du pont siblings and also the only girl. her brothers and her dad are extremely protective of her. especially since their mom passed away. mostly her dad and alex, nate will let her get away with some things. she's everyone's favourite sibling and they spoil her rotten. she really is their princess.

em's love language is definitely acts of service and quality time. she's not really moved by gifts (although she does love material things) she grew up being able to just buy whatever she wanted and gifts were given very frequently in their household so it just isn't as special. them going out of their way to do something small for her or make an effort to spend time with her? definitely the way to her heart

em is a daddy's girl and she'll do anything not to disappoint her dad. she just wants to make him proud.

she didn’t really want to go to university at all but unlike nate and sebastian she didn’t have the back bone to go against her father.

she's a social butterfly and a bit of a party girl. if there's good music and she gets to dance? she's there.

she's always been active on social media. her socials definitely grew a lot when nate joined man united and people figured out she was his sister. and then it grew a lot when she dated lando. but most of her fanbase started following her when she started modelling professionally and got more famous in the fashion industry which happened around 2022.

she's always had trouble making genuine friends because people are almost always after her status or connections. she has a bit of tough exterior but once she lets you in? she's the best friend you could ask for

a girls girl through and through

a horrible driver. and in the snow? it's even worse.

when she's drunk? all she wants to do is sing karaoke.

loves shopping. for herself and for other people. a shopping spree can solve anything.

started her own fashion and beauty company almost right after she graduated from Harvard (2025) named MARAKI.

she goes on to model until 25 before she decides it’s not for her anymore and focuses solely on her business.

MARAKI is very successful and becomes a multi million dollar company.

she even launches her own fitness collection and has will, nate and other famous athletes as brand ambassadors.

since her mom died her dad is extremely protective over em and has strict rules when it comes to what she does with her life. he wanted her to work for one of the family businesses but em wanted to start her own.

her dad also made it a rule that under no circumstances is she allowed to date players that are affiliated with the sharks. especially because she’s as well known as she is. it’s not a good look for their family.

[runawaysiren940]

You’ve mentioned before in a video that many trans identified males are often in the tech fields.

And it reminded me:

There is a very common AGP pipeline which is cookie-cutter tech company professional to trans sex worker making fetish content online.

You mean to tell me you as a man working a well paying job needs to now do porn to help sustain himself financially? A job you made six figures at?

Bullshit.

You’re a pervert with a fetish. A fetish you got from being glued to your computer screen. You fetishize female sexual exploitation and want to live that fantasy. You want to be an object. That’s why you’re begging people to buy your explicit content so that you can be filled with glee over your own sexualization. Everyone knows you don’t need to be doing this. And they play it off like they had no other option to start doing porn. Like, you literally had more options than anyone. Not to mention, the dual income you have through marriage.

And it’s not just in tech. It’s in trade jobs too where suddenly men forsake the careers that provided stable living to do porn as women.

Also, in the military or vets. I forgot where I read it, but I recall learning about a correlation between typical masculine professions and the submission/sissification kinks accompanying it. As for the high rate of computer programmers, I think that's just the natural consequence of being terminally online, dehumanizing women and hyperfocusing on pornography.

[zhalfirin]

How did you get into bookbinding? What would you recommend for someone who's interested in getting started?

Hey there,

thank you for asking. I got into bookbinding by undergoing training. I'm a professional bookbinder, which made it much easier (just getting shown how things are done and having experienced binders look at my mistakes and explain where I went wrong is incredibly helpful).

For someone who's interested in getting started in bookbinding and does not have the opportunity to take classes. I would say, first pick the style of binding you want to try. I would recommend to start simple. Give yourself the time to build up your skills and get to know your materials (glue, paper, board, maybe bookcloth). Many like the coptic binding to start with, but you can start out with a case binding too. It will be more complex, but it's totally do-able to begin with too. Then search the medium you learn well from and look for information there. For example, there are fantastic, beginner friendly books. I like 'Books boxes and portfolios' by Franz Zeier in that respect. It focuses on the basics, but not only of books but also boxes, folders and portfolios.

There is also really great online content written and with pictures to lead you through the processess step by step.

As for videos. Sealemon has easy to follow instructions. I'm personally not a huge fan of how she works, because she skips too many steps I find important too, BUT professional binder here. As straightforward bookbinding is in theory, there are a lot of details one can pay attention to, but which are not essential to produce a fully functional and good looking book and she does get one there. Bookbinding can be a money drain, but it doesn't have to be! You can go a long way with simple, improvised tools. Pretty paper can be bought in craft shops and printer paper from bureau supply sections, box cutter and x-acto knives. Cans of food, milkpack, big stones for weights. If you don't own a cutting matt, you don't need one. Some flat and clean board that is 2mm thick or more will perfectly do. The few things I do recommend a bonefolder, it just makes things easier on the fingers (and nails) and other materials can leave coloured streaks. (As do rings and nailpolish btw. so if you like that, apply a clear top coat on the polish and take off rings before working with white paper). A 25/3 or 30/3 linnen thread for sewing together with a block of beeswax to wax the thread before sewing. (Beeswax candles will do, but not normal candles. They are made of stearine which will make the thread sticky and more difficult to use). On a last note, there's @renegadepublishing and their discord serverw here you find all stages of binders. experienced ones and beginners to ask questions. The server is huge and can be a bit overwhelming, but there's always soemone there (or a few) who will do their best to help and likely has run into a similar problem at some point. So this got a bit lengthy and I'm sorry for that but I hope it helps.

[mariacallous]

It should come as no surprise that Nigella Lawson, who nicknamed her microwave the mee-cro-wah-vay and regularly refers to pomegranate seeds as “ruby jewels,” has her own name for rugelach: scuffles.

“Scuffles,” the British television cook and proclaimed food writer explains in a recent YouTube recipe tutorial, “is the really delightful American name for an even more delightful Ukrainian pastry, rohalyky. Now if you’ve ever encountered rugelach, you’ll know what they are, but think like doll’s-house-sized croissants.”

So much to unpack here.

As a Brit, I regularly have to turn to my North American colleagues for insight into the food habits and psyche of those across the pond, but only a few had heard of scuffles. Hmm. Further research online revealed that scuffles are a fairly popular Canadian Christmas pastry. A rugelach by any other name would taste as sweet, I concluded, and moved on.

… But not very far. 

I was as thrown by the term “scuffles” as I was by Nigella’s pronunciation of rugelach, with its long “oo” like in “arugula,” which is different to the way it’s typically pronounced in the U.K.: rog-a-lach. Ultimately, I reasoned that we’re probably all pronouncing it wrong and there was no need to be petty. 

Regional differences resolved, I whiled away a happy hour researching the origins of rugelach and their relationship to Ukranian rohalyky. Turns out, they’re essentially the same pastry, which has long been enjoyed across Eastern Europe by non-Jews and Jews, who called them “rugelach” in Yiddish. 

Finally, I addressed Nigella’s description: “doll’s-house-sized croissants,” concluding it’s a bit of a stretch given that 1) her recipe does not call for a laminated dough, 2) you rarely come across cinnamon croissants and 3) neither rohalyky nor rugelach are French. Later in the video, Nigella likens her scuffles to “miniature armadillos,” which if you squint, or live inside Lawson’s kitschy brain (and how I often wish I did), is much more plausible. 

Still with me? (Fellow Virgos, I know you are.) Time to dissect Nigella’s recipe, which you can find on the website of upmarket British online grocery store, Ocado. 

In a pleasant turn of events, I have few complaints. The scuffles are easier and simpler than most rugelach recipes I’ve come across; on the video tutorial, Nigella even makes the pastries by hand, no mixer required. And you could argue that Nigella’s scuffles are a gratifying hybrid of American- and Isreali-style rugelach. Like Israeli rugelach, she adds yeast to her dough — but unlike the babka-esque Israeli dough, hers doesn’t need to rise. Like American rugelach, she enriches her dough, calling for sour cream rather than the typical cream cheese. 

And then, in true Nigella style, she ever-so casually turned my world upside down.

After chilling for an hour or two, ’twas time to roll out the dough — but not in flour. No, in a technique that Lawson correctly calls “fascinating and revelatory,” she rolls out each quarter of dough in cinnamon sugar. 

“Geometrists, please turn away because I’m going to describe this as a circle,” Nigella quips as she displays a sparkling disc encrusted in warm, scented sugar (I imagine she might say), which she then cuts, pizza-style, into small triangles (Nigella, use a pizza cutter not a knife, it’s much easier!), rolls up into “enchanting” pastries that may or may not resemble “teeny-tiny croissants” (see above), and bakes. 

Having told us her recipe feeds a crowd (64 scuffles, to be exact), which I think we can all agree is very Jewish, Nigella then recommends serving the pastries with ice cream, which is… not very Jewish.

Sadly, as with the entire Ocado YouTube series, we do not get to see Nigella eating a scuffle, nor even sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night in a silk nightgown to snatch a couple from the jar. But in the absence of a television show (how much longer must we wait for you to grace our screens once again, Nigella?), this will have to do. 

I’ll pass on the ice cream but — just as I always cover my rising bread dough with a leopard-print shower cap and double-butter my toast (once when the toast is warm, so it melts; once when the toast is a little cooler, so it coats the surface) — I shall, forevermore, roll out my rugelach dough in cinnamon sugar, just like Nigella does.

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Solarpunk is people! - notes on a generic visual identity

If you’ve been searching for solarpunk content online, you might have run across a recent video by YouTube creator DamiLee called “Solarpunk Cities: Our Last Hope?” DamiLee’s channel (from what I understand) is focused on architecture and urban design, and she’s often covered the aesthetic / urban design of various science fiction cities. It’s fascinating; would recommend!

This particular video contrasts solarpunk and cyberpunk from an architectural standpoint, and she makes the very incisive observation that while cyberpunk’s emphasis on Brutalist design gives it a cohesive identity (i.e., you look at the buildings in any snapshot from Blade Runner and you instantly know that this is a cyberpunk film, even if you don’t know the plot), solarpunk doesn’t really have that. And that’s a problem.

According to DamiLee, this “lack of a common architectural language in solarpunk,” though it might seem to be a small non-issue, is a bigger problem than you may think, as a cohesive architectural style often “serves as the glue that binds social movements or a cultural ethos.” She gives a very compelling example in the post-WW1 Bauhaus movement in art and architecture in Europe, but I want to explore this point about solarpunk a bit more. Because I think the issue is tangled in the very ethos and values espoused by these movements.

In cyberpunk, the city stands in for the government and its dictates. We don’t meet the architects of the skyscraping office towers of the corporations, the brutalist buildings the protagonists walk through, or even the streets or broken geodesic domes* that the proletariat must live in.

There is no individual or community control over urban design in cyberpunk, or none that we’re shown, in any case.** There’s a sense that the individuals are helpless against the powers that be, which is kind of the point: cyberpunk is all about the little guy fighting back against the (mostly) faceless oppressive evil forces that have most of society under their bootheel. It makes sense that the buildings are all cookie-cutter concrete, because it really doesn’t matter if this plot takes place in alternate Minnesota or alternate Moscow; the place is irrelevant, the environment inconsequential, the culture basically erased by imperial corporate imposition.

Solarpunk architecture, on the other hand, embodies the ethos of solarpunk: the valuing of community input, responsive to individuals’ needs and differences, sensitivity to the differing eco-regions and environments across the world, and - to boil it down to a very bare essential - the valuing of people (human and non-human alike), culture, and planet.

I personally think it would be impossible, in that case, for solarpunk architecture to have a cohesive style. Instead, I think what to me makes an aesthetic solarpunk is not a specific type of building or street, but the inclusion of people in those images.

To me, cyberpunk-style Brutalism gives off the sense that the buildings are not built for people, per se, but to fulfill a design dictat or quota regardless of function. The people adapt to the architecture.

In my ideal vision of solarpunk design, the architecture adapts to the people. The values and ethos of the movement shapes the city: the design is responsive to people and place, because the people are empowered to make changes to their dwellings and the architects and builders have faces and names and contact information and the environment is taken into consideration when choosing building materials, et cetera.

Right now in the solarpunk present, I think that realistically people are going to have to adapt to whatever we’re given instead of the other way around. But I also think that it’s worth holding the vision of this solarpunk future city that is informed by responsive design and transparency in the architectural and urban planning processes so that we don’t fall into the trap of thinking that since city design is decided on by (a vague sort of idea of) other people, we must just make do with what we are given, as that’s the way it always has been and always will be.

I believe that we can get to a solarpunk future where our cities are intentionally designed to be functional, beautiful, responsive, sustainable, and ultimately a great place to live, instead of just the places that people have to live.

On that note, I think the idea of manufacturing the ideal solarpunk city for New York, then replicating it to plop into Jakarta, or Iqaluit, or Nome, or Mexico City, or Addis Ababa is not only ridiculous, but goes against the ethos of solarpunk itself. The idea of a singular design that works in every bioregion is unrealistic to me (though I do not hold an architecture degree, and am happy to be wrong, but as someone who lives in a place where it gets pretty cold for half the year, the idea of gaily implementing [for example] earthships (tm) without regard for or significant adaptation to the climate is ridiculous to me).

The cohesive design of solarpunk is its variety and its people, and its ability to adapt and change as necessary to the realities of life in the present, in order to intentionally work towards a better future.

——

*I see you, Johnny Mnemonic. **Although if you have an example I’d love to see it!