#weekly progress report

[thesorcerersapprentice]

07.01.2024

Published two research posts, one on the inspiration behind Altaluna and Valeriano's relationship (the mythological relationship between Zeus and Metis) and another on the inspiration behind Cucufate's fox form (also related to Metis and, therefore, to Altaluna).

The latter post marks a drastic change in Cucufate's original design; once a monkey, he's now a fox-like creature to better fit the novel's central themes.

Worked on the current draft of Altaluna's Character Profile.

Worked on three major plot points: the moment Valeriano's nephew, Lazaro, confronts him with an ugly truth; the moment Valeriano exiles Lazaro for his impertinence and what this entails for the broader plot; the moment Valeriano confronts his great-niece, Altaluna, with an ugly truth.

Worked on the current draft of The Setting post.

Answered two asks: here and here.

Welcomed a new friend to ✦The Sorcerer's Apprentice's✦ tag list here!

REMINDERS FOR NEXT WEEK:

Answer pending asks.

Publish Altaluna's Character Profile. Decide whether she should have moonstone-coloured hair or black hair. Maybe make a poll about it?

Further work on plot points. Hopefully, settle the three I was working on this week.

Decide once and for all whether the story is set in a Paramo or a Cloud Forest and publish the Setting post. Again, maybe worth making a poll?

TAG LIST: (ask to be + or - ) @the-finch-address @violetboy @fearofahumanplanet @winterninja-fr  @avrablake @outpost51 @d3mon-ology @hippiewrites @threeking @lexiklecksi

[louroth]

last name reveal for IDREN//IDA + their moodboard character sheet

[clairethecutepup]

Weekly Update: 5/1/23 - 5/6/23

Entertainment/Art Progress:

Man, I really do believe my work speed doubled, at least, when it came to my new tablet. I dunno if it's the bigger touch screen or the ability to use my computer's mouse, but something seems to be making my work on it more progressive and easier.

Speaking of, I'm nearing the outlining (and possible end) of the "Chapter 1" image for Getting Your Goat. I mean, it'd feel too disorganized to not have that matter of "divider" between comic sections/chapters, ja? Plus, it makes it feel more like a real comic, when it's finally all together. However, I'm feeling the urge to sketch traditionally, rather than outline on the tablet and digitally. I dunno what it is, but I feel easily peeved off with sketching on the tablet... Yet, coloring and outlining? I feel right and happy as rain.

I'm also doing another "writing practice" to help further ease any tedium of drawing and fully original writing, so keep your eyes peeled for more "fanfiction," per se. Hey, just a little something to tide me over, while I excitedly await Peach Creek to finally make its official debut. I've kinda fallen out of using NovelAi for assistance, during "dry spells" and all that with writing... Eh, why pay for the privilege when you can come up with an idea of what to do next, for free, if you're willing to be patient? Also, be prepared for a majority of Ed Edd n' Eddy themed ones, in that regard; but allow me to warn you right now, the canon characters they'd focus mostly on are Sarah and Jimmy, and follow a 2nd person narration of you being an alternate version of Claire that joins them in either simple antics or learning self-improvement. Sure, it involves everyone else, too; but if not something you'd read for fun, I'd say read it to critique and tell me how to do better, so my original works can benefit from that improved sense of quality.

Personal Life:

Well, I've gotten back into Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and it's certainly a nice experience to relive. I recall abandoning it for a couple years, but I've decided on resuming that matter of escapism. I mean, it doesn't take up too much time, you can play at your own leisure... It's a nice little matter of relaxation, when you just want a small break from things and also don't want to get sucked into playing for longer than intended, having to "complete missions" and all that.

I've also gotten my mother into Invader Zim, and it's nice when your parent can share fondness for a beloved cartoon series. She really seemed to enjoy the Gir shirt I got her for Mother's Day: it uses Gir to convey different emotions, with them listed under each picture.

I'm hoping that dedicating each weekday to a certain muscle group, instead of working them all on both days of the weekend, will not only help me better build them up and tone them, but also allow for more time on weekends to further speed up creative work progress.

Misc.:

Since my tablet functions as a replacement monitor (I can only use my traditional monitor or tablet to display things), I've also taken to using it as a new "game device" with my Steam list. I feel like I do better in the likes of Pizza Tower and all that, with the closer screen and tilted angle. So, yeah, that's a pleasant, yet admittedly "unorthodox," use for a tablet screen!

[awolgina]

Watch "a peek into my tent weekly progress report boomer learning to grow series" on YouTube

[sassmill]

Damn I actually really really love being a creative and administrative mentor

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - June 15-21

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $Kaybarr1735! And if you tip me and give me a way to contact you, at the end of the month I'll send you a link to all of the articles I found but didn't use each week!

1. Victory for Same-Sex Marriage in Thailand

“Thailand’s Senate voted 130-4 today to pass a same-sex marriage bill that the lower house had approved by an overwhelming majority in March. This makes Thailand the first country in Southeast Asia, and the second in Asia, to recognize same-sex relationships. […] The Thai Marriage Equality Act […] will come into force 120 days after publication in the Royal Gazette. It will stand as an example of LGBT rights progress across the Asia-Pacific region and the world.”

2. One of world’s rarest cats no longer endangered

“[The Iberian lynx’s] population grew from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022. While young and mature lynx combined now have an estimated population of more than 2,000, the IUCN reports. The increase is largely thanks to conservation efforts that have focused on increasing the abundance of its main food source - the also endangered wild rabbit, known as European rabbit. Programmes to free hundreds of captive lynxes and restoring scrublands and forests have also played an important role in ensuring the lynx is no longer endangered.”

3. Planning parenthood for incarcerated men

“[M]any incarcerated young men missed [sex-ed] classroom lessons due to truancy or incarceration. Their lack of knowledge about sexual health puts them at a lifelong disadvantage. De La Cruz [a health educator] will guide [incarcerated youths] in lessons about anatomy and pregnancy, birth control and sexually transmitted infections. He also explores healthy relationships and the pitfalls of toxic masculinity. […] Workshops cover healthy relationships, gender and sexuality, and sex trafficking.”

4. Peru puts endemic fog oasis under protection

“Lomas are unique ecosystems relying on marine fog that host rare and endemic plants and animal species. […] The Peruvian government has formally granted conservation status to the 6,449-hectare (16,000-acre) desert oasis site[….] The site, the first of its kind to become protected after more than 15 years of scientific and advocacy efforts, will help scientists understand climatic and marine cycles in the area[, … and] will be protected for future research and exploration for at least three decades.”

5. Religious groups are protecting Pride events — upending the LGBTQ+ vs. faith narrative

“In some cases, de-escalation teams stand as a physical barrier between protesters and event attendees. In other instances, they try to talk with protesters. The goal is generally to keep everyone safe. Leigh was learning that sometimes this didn’t mean acting as security, but doing actual outreach. That might mean making time and space to listen to hate speech. It might mean offering food or water. […] After undergoing Zoom trainings this spring, the members of some 120 faith organizations will fan out across more than 50 Pride events in 16 states to de-escalate the actions of extremist anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups.”

6. 25 years of research shows how to restore damaged rainforest

“For the first time, results from 25 years of work to rehabilitate fire-damaged and heavily logged rainforest are now being presented. The study fills a knowledge gap about the long-term effects of restoration and may become an important guide for future efforts to restore damaged ecosystems.”

7. Audubon and Grassroots Carbon Announce First-of-its-Kind Partnership to Reward Landowners for Improving Habitats for Birds while Building Healthy Soils

“Participating landowners can profit from additional soil carbon storage created through their regenerative land management practices. These practices restore grasslands, improve bird habits, build soil health and drive nature-based soil organic carbon drawdown through the healthy soils of farms and ranches. […] Additionally, regenerative land management practices improve habitats for birds. […] This partnership exemplifies how sustainable practices can drive positive environmental change while providing tangible economic benefits for landowners.”

8. Circular food systems found to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, require much less agricultural land

“Redesigning the European food system will reduce agricultural land by 44% while dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 70%. This reduction is possible with the current consumption of animal protein. “Moreover, animals are recyclers in the system. They can recycle nutrients from human-inedible parts of the organic waste and by-products in the food system and convert them to valuable animal products," Simon says.”

9. Could Treating Injured Raptors Help Lift a Population? Researchers found the work of rehabbers can have long-lasting benefits

“[“Wildlife professionals”] tend to have a dismissive attitude toward addressing individual animal welfare,” [… but f]or most raptor species, they found, birds released after rehabilitation were about as likely to survive as wild birds. Those released birds can have even broader impacts on the population. Back in the wild, the birds mate and breed, raising hatchlings that grow up to mate and breed, too. When the researchers modeled the effects, they found most species would see at least some population-level benefits from returning raptors to the wild.”

10. Indigenous people in the Amazon are helping to build bridges & save primates

“Working together, the Reconecta Project and the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous people build bridges that connect the forest canopy over the BR-174 road[….] In the first 10 months of monitoring, eight different species were documented — not only monkeys such as the golden-handed tamarin and the common squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus), but also kinkajous (Potos flavus), mouse opossums (Marmosops sp.), and opossums (Didelphis sp.).”

Bonus: A rare maneless zebra was born in the UK

June 8-14 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[lovelyiida]

INSIDE JOKE ➤ TENYA IIDA X GN! READERミ★

IIDA NOTICES HOW YOU’RE ALWAYS LAUGHING AROUND HIM. YOU TELL HIM IT'S AN "INSIDE JOKE"; AND HE WANTS IN.

➜ masterlist

➜ tag list

➜ words: 1k

WARNINGS ➜ bullying?

“So that’s why he walks like that?”

Snickers, a chuckle, and a giggle or two sound off on the right of Iida’s ear. This wasn’t the first time he’s involuntarily heard in on you and a couple of students’ “gaggle-fests” as he would name it.

sometimes they’d range from short snorts to full-out laugh attacks. He’d watch in utter confusion as he’d watch you curl on the floor, eyes brimming with tears as you fell weak from hysterical laughter.

Whenever he comes to your aid (because you’re so weak you can’t stand) you breathe out. “It’s an inside joke.”

“An inside joke? I see.”

Iida would come to terms with that for a short period of time. Seeing as your laughing fits bring a certain air to the classroom. The feelings of an educational-based professionalism flew right out the window whenever a tiny giggle passed through your lips.

Seeing you get sent out the room to finish your fits of laughter by yourself. You somehow made things less…tense?

Iida didn’t mind your inside jokes, but he wondered why most of your “jokes” were in fact “inside”.

…hm

He also wondered why as soon as he turned to you, you’d burst out laughing. And he also wondered whenever he’s interacted with you; you always seem as if you’re bound back by a giggle.

And he also, also—wondered why whenever he’d pass you by in the halls you’d hold back your laughs and go into a hushed whisper.

Why was Iida always at the scene of your humorous crimes? Why was he never committing the crimes? Why was he never an inside whiteness?

“So you’re telling me…you think you’re being bullied?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

Midoriya pulls a thin line onto his lips. “Well, then we have to contact Aizawa sensei at once. Bullying isn’t nice; trust me I’d know.”

“Right, let’s go— wait!” Iida halts his steps and ponders for a moment. Turning to the green ball of hair, he frowns.

“Well we can’t base our accusations just off of a hunch, I need full proof evidence.” The raven-haired man pushes his crafted glasses up to rest a little too snug against the bridge of his nose.

“And how would we do that?” Midoriya questions (a twinge of sass in his voice). The two men sit in silence for a while, at least while that was happening one of them was thinking of solutions.

“I think I’ll just confront them about it,” Iida says.

“Yeah, I think you should.”

Giggle, chuckle, snort, cackle—today was the day he’s had enough.

It wasn’t just your gaggle-fest that sent him into an internal frenzy. Iida was currently trying to process his current bi-weekly progress report. This was created by himself, of course.

Iida’s currently realized that he’s 20 points down from his last mark. He’s supposed that he was in due for an upgrade on his engines. But he also noticed that he was marked off by sensei during sparring for doing an illegal move.

“Too dangerous for your caliber.” Or whatever.

He’s also noticed that it takes a little bit longer to finish his homework. His hair has grown exceptionally longer than he’d like. Due to this, he’d constantly have to move his hair out of the way and readjust his glasses.

So his academic performance is deducted by some points.

Great. Now he’s down 30 points. This is his all-time low—

“Shut up!”

You cackled.

As loud as ever, of all days. It had to be today.

Shoulders growing stiff, eyes going wide, and hands becoming pin-point sharp. He snaps.

“Y/n, we need to talk!” His voice rang loud, echos bunching off the four corners of the classroom. Usually, the classroom would be unfazed, but this time everyone jumped (or at least turned their way) to look over.

He was yelling at you.

He watched as the yellow-haired goober silently cackled next to you. But this time IIda looked at you dead in the eyes. And you weren’t laughing this time.

“Okay”

“You’re going to report me to Aizawa—for bullying?” you grimaced.

“Yes.”

“May I ask why?”

“…Yes.”

“…Why?”

“Well…”

Iida began his rant to you. His feelings of always being the butt of your inside jokes without him knowing. He always felt as if he was purposely put out of the loop. He just wants to be included, he wants to know what makes to giggle…

He wants to know what makes you topple off your chair and clutch your stomach crying-laughing for dear mercy. He wants to make you smile in a more wholesome/genuine way. Not a knifing smile you show him when it seems you’re obviously talking shit about him.

He just wants to make you smile…well sounds a little more like a personal goal–

“Iida” you deadpanned.

“Yes! Sorry for the ramble.”

“I feel as if you’re expressing something a little more than what you want to express.” You show a smirk at him.

“W-what?” Iida grows nervous as the conversation has gone from confrontation to interrogation.

“But it’s okay, because you’re right” Your tone sounds defeated, a little disappointed. Iida’s eyes widen.

“Of course! Like I said; you must be reported to Aizawa–“

“Do you wanna know what the inside joke is?” You asked, a twinge of sassy anticipation trickles through your words as your smirk grows into a smile.

Pushing his glasses out, he lets out a hum. He really wanted to hell out his answer, but chose to keep his composure last minute.

“The joke is…you’re just so clueless! Plus you’re cute.”

Plack! Iida’s glasses dropped.

“Excuse me?”

HEY GUYS!! Do you guys like my new theme? I made it myself :DD

TAG LIST:

❥: @xo-evangeline, @nar00, @king-dynamight, @gold24fish, @lovra974 , @bakugospartner , @gaby-11 , @akqsa-xxi , @jolynegf, @goldenglow149, @aliruuiz, @zukowantshishonourback, @ilovedenk-i, @atsushiki, @smolbeanzzz, @lem-hhn, @stevenknightmarc, @ryumiii, @idontevenknowlolls, @lyn07, @kennshifts, @ackerman-suck-3-r, @elegantvoids, @thecurlyhairedgoddess, @sunyrose, @thisbicc, @thekookiecorner, @snxwycloud, @skylardarling, @cosmic-rainstorm, @venus-xxoo, @iluv-ace, @yoonievrse, @chixkadee

[feasibilities]

Professional Perversions- Dr. Jonathan Crane x Psychiatrist!Reader ♟️

Warnings: Blackmail, Non-Con, Workplace Harassment, Degradation, Stalking, Dacryphilia, Oral Sex (F), Slapping, Overstimulation, etc. Author's Note: Jonathan is a villain so I wrote him as such. Read at your own risk!

Working at Arkham Asylum for the last 5 years meant that you worked with the criminally insane daily. You were a listening ear to the sadistic fantasies or childhood trauma of your patients. You also prescribed medication that they never bothered to take. More often than not, your patients were repeat offenders who were discharged far too early. You couldn’t understand why this kept happening and recommended institutionalizing them for longer periods. Your complaints fell on deaf, unsympathetic ears. Such is the nature of working for the state. You were at the mercy of bureaucracy. 

Your supervisor, Dr. Jonathan Crane, seemed to enjoy compounding the stress of your job. He was Chief Administrator of the asylum, so there was no way to bypass his antagonistic behavior. He would often assign you with assessing difficult, violent patients. Your medical notes on these assessments came back with harsh criticisms in red ink. He would never answer calls or emails from you, so you’d have to chase him down while he was doing his daily walkthrough. During weekly meetings, he would chastise you in front of your colleagues. It was the little things as well. He’d let the elevator doors close on you or reject your attempts to make small talk. Your days ended later than everyone else’s—and with you sobbing in your car. 

— 

Please come to my office as soon as possible. We have some important matters to discuss. 

Dr. Jonathan Crane 

Chief Administrator of Arkham Asylum 

555-9240

Dread pooled in your stomach as you read the email. What could you have done? Naturally, you assumed the worst—you were about to be fired. Being terminated from a government job would mean you couldn’t get hired anywhere else in Gotham. Jonathan obviously wouldn’t put in a good word for a prospective position. Wanting to get this over with quickly, you made your way to his office. Knocking politely, he answered you from behind the door with the gold-plated sign that read ‘Chief Administrator’.

“Come in.” He said plainly. 

You came in and looked around briefly. His office was luxurious compared to yours. His Ph.D degree hung on the wall above a mahogany shelf of awards and plaques. The chairs were plush and made of leather. The whiteboard was filled with equations that made no sense to you, adding to your feelings of inadequacy. 

“If you’re done gawking at my accomplishments, please take a seat.” Jonathan criticized. You quickly sat down and sighed in annoyance.  

“As you know, I have had some concerns about your competency regarding this job. Your patients haven’t shown any progress. They also continue to report suicidal or homicidal tendencies.” Jonathan admonished you, waiting for a response. 

“My competency is not the issue, but rather the competency of my superiors. Patients can’t progress if you discharge them prematurely. These people need help reintegrating into society. You cannot just throw them out onto the street.” You retorted, growing frustrated already. 

Jonathan’s eyes focused on you intently. You saw a faint smirk flash across his face before retreating back into the same sterile expression. 

“I follow the orders of my superiors. You can submit a complaint if you are dissatisfied with our procedures.” Jonathan countered. 

“As do I. I’ve submitted several complaints and nothing has come of them. You find the time to punish me for the smallest mistakes, but you couldn’t find the time to consider my input? Your competence, or lack thereof, is the reason why this hospital has the highest recidivism rate in the city.” You argued. 

Jonathan swallowed harshly and clenched his jaw. His stark blue eyes were filled with hatred. For you, this was payback for all the times he lambasted you. It was humorous that someone who was so critical of others couldn’t handle it when the shoe was on the other foot. You also had no problem filing a lawsuit for wrongful termination as you had a paper trail on him. You feared him no longer. 

Removing his wireframe glasses, he walked to the front of the desk and stood over you. Uncomfortably close, he stared down at you.

“Fear is such a fascinating feeling, isn’t it? You know that better than anyone.” He teased.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” You spat, growing tired of his odd behavior. 

“Every mental health professional that works here is required to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. You were asked what your biggest fear was—are you afraid of being stalked?” Jonathan explained, leaning in even closer. 

Sick to your stomach, you turned away from him and tears brimmed your eyes. He grabbed your chin and forced your gaze towards him. 

“Isn’t it so sick that someone knows your morning and nightly routine? Your favorite perfume? The kind of panties you’re wearing right now?” Jonathan remarked, getting off on your distress. 

You could’ve died of humiliation as you stared up at him. You finally understood why he treated you so poorly—it was a front to hide his obsession with you. During those contentious moments, he wasn’t thinking of how “incompetent” you were. Obscene images of you bent over his desk or you touching yourself in the shower were there. To his benefit, he caught you in the shower one night when you left the shades open. You realized why you found a soiled handkerchief in the bushes the next morning. 

“Why me? What could I possibly do for you?” You croaked, trying not to provoke him. 

“Everything I could ever want.” Jonathan divulged, brushing his thumb against your lips and smudging your lipstick. 

You started thinking of your escape plan. Maybe kick him in the balls and run? Stab him with one of his expensive pens? Before you could take action, he bent down and kissed you deeply. You tried to pull him away, but to no avail. His plump lips caused that familiar twinge in your lower stomach. He ran his large hands up your stocking-covered legs before stopping at your garter belts. He kneaded the exposed flesh there, earning an unintended whimper from you. This emboldened him as he moved his lips to your neck. 

“T-this isn’t right.” You sputtered as you tried to ignore the moisture between your legs. 

“You want this. You always have.” He whispered, moving his hand up further. Your body’s response to his actions made you question your sanity. Jonathan suddenly pulled you up from the chair and laid you on his desk. He undid your garter belts with an almost surgical precision. Hiking up your dress, he stared at the black lacy panties that adorned your cunt. He pulled the material aside and studied the glistening of your arousal. You had the perfect opportunity to claw his eyes out and bolt out of the office. However, you sat there wanting him to finish what he started. 

Jonathan ran his nose down your thigh as he took in your scent. Sliding the lacy material aside once more, he began flicking his tongue against your sensitive floret. Not being able to look away, you took in the visual of your despicable supervisor going down on you. His gaze was no longer sterile—it took on a marked concupiscence. Suddenly, you felt him press his face into you. He sucked harshly, causing you to moan loudly. He buried his nose in the trimmed tuft of your pubic hair. 

“Stop it.” You pled, knowing you wanted the opposite. 

Disregarding your objections, he slipped two fingers inside of you and curled them upwards. Pumping his fingers steadily, another low groan came from him as he reveled in the sapidity of your juices. You yanked at his hair to stop him before you came. You were much too late. You let out an untamed moan as Jonathan watched you fall apart. Your vision went white as your orgasm sent shockwaves through your body. He lazily lapped at your clit as you came down from your high. Removing his fingers, he put them in your mouth. You mindlessly suckled on them. 

“The human mind is so malleable, isn’t it?” Jonathan said. Your humiliation ran deep at his words. You were like putty in his hands and you resented it. He began removing your dress while you looked away from him. Tears started to fall from your eyes as you knew what was to come. Jonathan groped your breasts through your bra and placed your hand on his clothed crotch. His erection was beginning to hurt as he had it since you walked in his office. You felt him throb in your palm. 

“You look so beautiful when you cry. All those times you spent sobbing in your car really did something to me…” Jonathan divulged, undoing your bra and taking in the sight. 

“You don’t have to do this. Just fire me, please.” You agonized. 

“Shhh.” Jonathan hushed you. 

“Don’t hush me. I’m not a child.” You complained. 

Jonathan took a ball gag from his pocket and put it on you. Laying you back on the desk, Jonathan yanked your hips towards him until you were flush against his. Unbuckling his pants, he pulled himself out and sighed in relief. Pre-ejaculate oozed from the tip and he was red hot to the touch. You were astonished at his size. You blinked away tears thinking of the pain you were about to experience. You tried to scoot away before he snatched you back. Growing tired of your insolence, he slapped you roughly. 

“Behave.” Jonathan warned. A searing burn was left on your cheek. Sliding into you, he started thrusting with bestial force. Your breasts moved with each thrust as Jonathan lost himself in your pink depths. Wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible, you decided to play his game. You started rubbing your clit fervently and trying to moan his name through the gag. Noticing your reaction, Jonathan pinched your nipple harshly and deepened his thrusts. You mewled at the sensation. 

“This is all you wanted, didn’t you? A good screwing?” Jonathan hissed, watching white slick cover his shaft. You nodded and breathed heavily as you came once more. Skin hitting skin, the squelch of your arousal, and your desperate whimpers were like music to his ears. As much as you hated him, you couldn’t deny how gorgeous a fucked-out Jonathan looked. His face was twisted in pleasure, eyes fluttering closed occasionally. His taut lips pursed intermittently to hold back moans. 

His thrusts started to stagger as he approached his climax. Pulling out, ropes of seed shot onto your torso. An audible groan of pleasure finally left his throat. He made sure to smear droplets of it against your entrance. You recoiled at the thought of getting pregnant by him. He would have you forever. 

“Let’s savor this moment, shall we?” Jonathan smiled, pulling out his phone. Tears welled up in your eyes as he snapped pictures of your body. Holding your throat tenderly, he took one last photo of your face. Those pictures would be kept for his personal collection—and for blackmail if you ever decided to quit. You painstakingly got dressed and bit your lip to hold back sobs. A silent exchange of glances happened between you and Jonathan before you walked out of his office. 

[bluecollarmcandtf]

Funny you mention my boss… he’s a slight older guy, always in the gym. He’s such a big, powerful, assertive guy. Fucking gorgeous.

But he’s always got some woman on his arm. Never the same one for long… I’ve always fantasied about him settling down and choosing me to be on his arm permanently. The boss at home, not just at the office. Can you make that happen for me?

You really hit the jackpot with this boss! The man is everything you described and more, with a personality as big and as dominant as his body. Sure, he's addicted to women, and yeah, he thinks you're a wimp, but I think I can change his mind...

"Conference room. Now!" the sound of his commanding voice rising over the murmur of the office is a fairly routine occurrence. Still, the mouths of your coworkers snap shut while their eyes fall instinctively to the floor. Your eyes stay locked on him, though, and your mouth hangs slightly open as you watch in awe.

"Ben!" his voice calls from deep in his chest, "You have something to report?"

You stare at his piercing smile, managing to stammer a reply, "Uh no, sir," in as calm of a voice as you can muster.

The boss suddenly cracks the deafening silence with gutteral laughter. Your colleagues around you take this as a signal to join in, but you brave a nervous smile. Once again, you're the butt of your boss's joke. He always pounces at the chance to make fun of you.

The man brushes off his amusement and gets started with his weekly progress meeting, barking out productivity rates like they're the only things that matter. The guys sitting around you eagerly take notes, but you take the time to study the great man standing before you. You want his attention so bad!

"Ben, are you paying attention?" the boss asks.

"Yeah, boss..." you reply shakily, and it's true! You heard every word he was saying, but you still can't muster up a response before he is fed up waiting.

"If you aren't listening then get out!" he commands, "Grab me some coffee, if you can handle that. I need a new receptionist, Ben, and if you're not careful, it'll be you!"

The assembly of guys snicker under their breaths, and you feel eyes staring at your back as you step out. You can't help but wonder why the boss is so hard on you, when he goes so easy on that stupid woman. It's bad enough that he's promoted her twice in the last month, but does he really need to make out with her in front of everyone too?

Rebecca is the latest woman your boss has enjoyed. Like all the other girls he's been with, she is confident, clever, and absolutely stunning. However, unlike all the other girls, Rebecca is his employee.

Needless to say, she's a bitch, but your boss doesn't care. He seems to enjoy Rebecca's ruthless climb to the top. At least he does for now. You know he'll get bored with her sooner or later and move on to someone else.

Maybe I can speed up the process...maybe I can manipulate it to end in your favor...

I enter his mind in the middle of the presentation, causing him to pause his speech unceremoniously. His employees wait patiently for him to resume, but his head is battling to reject my influence. Even a great man like him fails.

His brain falls under my control, and I can feel his competitive and strategic areas working overdrive to run this business. However, there are two small sections that seem very different. These areas are much more calm, involving two key things to his satisfaction: one is his primal desire for women and the other is his pleasure for bullying you.

Why should you have to be the one he likes to humiliate? Why can't he want to rip off your clothes instead of Rebecca's? Why should his mind have to work this way?

Oh wait, it doesn't have to!

It takes me seconds to swap the two concepts. In an instant, his urge to bully is directed towards women, and an insatiable lust is pointed at you and only you.

"Ben!" he calls, his words still have the same bite they always do, making you spill some coffee as you flinch.

You can't help but freeze as the man marches across the office. His employees scatter out of his way, fearing they'll be pushed if they don't, but they all look confused as to what the boss is actually going to do when he gets to you.

"Babe?" Rebecca snaps as he brushes past her.

A part of your boss's mind yells defiantly, insisting on his heterosexual orientation, but I swiftly put out that spark of a thought.

"We're done," he tells her flatly, "And you're fired. You lied on your resume."

"I told you that in private!" she screeches.

The man winces, not wanting to make this harder than he has to, but I correct his thoughts once again. He needs to remember to humiliate her like he used to do to you.

"And I'm telling you to go. I should've never let a woman try to do a man's job." His eyes find you as he finishes his statement.

Rebecca scoffs and storms off as he marches right up to you. The boss doesn't wait for permission to grab your waist. His swollen arms pull you into his chest, and his mouth is already exploring your own. You can feel his hand wandering down your backside. For a moment, you regain enough composure to worry about how this looks to the office. Your shoulders tense up as you realize all of your coworkers are watching the boss enjoy feeling you up like he did all those other girls.

Don't worry. I reach into his mind once more, reminding him to be hyper aware of your comfort levels at all times. Every husband should have that quality, don't you think?

"Let's get out of here," you hear him say, as he pulls his tongue from your mouth, "I can tell your getting a bit tense."

"Ok..." you breath in response.

The boss grips your hand roughly and walks you out of the office. Everyone else is either staring at the ground in fear or staring at you in awe. Either way, you don't know how to feel, but you can't help but enjoy the look on Rebecca's face as her former boyfriend escorts you down his private elevator.

The whole way home, all he thinks about is what he wants to do to you. He'll treat you rough, just like he used to do with all his girlfriends, but I also stuffed a few of your fantasies in that mind of his. He's about to do exactly what you like without even realizing it.

"Come here," he growls as you arrive in his bedroom.

"This place is huge," you gasp at the sight of his giant house.

"Get over here Ben!" he demands, growing more impatient.

You approach, stunned by the rock hard abs suddenly peaking out from beneath his suit. His expression is intense, like he's about to fire you, but you're not going anywhere. He may have been a straight executive this morning, but now he's gay as hell. Well, he's into you as hell. Nothing else will turn him on ever again.

Enjoy the company of your boss! A guy as assertive and successful as him is a definite keeper. I'm already planting the idea of marriage in his mind...

[i-loved-silly]

[TEASER] SENTIENT COMPUTER X READER

I have recently loved robots more than before...this is an OC of mine, altered just a tiny bit. Here's a wip of my progress so far :3

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP

Its the distant future, sentient, alive computers were a thing. They had perhaps, as much personality as a human. Almost.

And what did people do? Give them jobs.

Your job was to work closely with new models. Computers that have recently had an update, beta systems, etc. Your job was to supervise them, and boy, did you enjoy your job sometimes.

It was once a boring office job, sitting at a desk in front of a bunch of monitors in your face and watching a bunch of code run across the screens. A lot of errors, which you couldn't even fix. Wasnt your job. All you had to do was report them. Luckily for you, you got a promotion! It was equally as isolating, yes, but you didn't have to fill out pages of daily reports. Now it was weekly.

The room was larger, equally as many monitors but noisier now. Towers and server racks filled the room, the little blinking lights were the only source of light besides your monitors. Hey, at least you had a brand new spinny-office chair. You looked around, spotting a printed paper taped to your desk. It was from whoever the hell was higher up than you.

---

ALMOND.AI :

Our brand new and improved, customer service computer!

Released in xxxx, to be released publically in xxxx. Monitor closely for appropriate language and helpfulness.

WARNINGS : During early development, ALMOND unplugged several computers "simply out of spite." ALMOND has displayed jealous behavior towards newer models, again, "out of spite."

ALMOND does not like human company.

Assigned supervisor : Y/N.

[to be continued]

[linkyu]

tell me about your defense contract pleage

Oh boy!

To be fair, it's nothing grandiose, like, it wasn't about "a new missile blueprint" or whatever, but, just thinking about what it could have become? yeesh.

So, let's go.

For context, this is taking place in the early 2010s, where I was working as a dev and manager for a company that mostly did space stuff, but they had some defence and security contracts too.

One day we got a new contract though, which was... a weird one. It was state-auctioned, meaning that this was basically a homeland contract, but the main sponsor was Philip Morris. Yeah. The American cigarette company.

Why? Because the contract was essentially a crackdown on "illegal cigarette sales", but it was sold as a more general "war on drugs" contract.

For those unaware (because chances are, like me, you are a non-smoker), cigarette contraband is very much a thing. At the time, ~15% of cigarettes were sold illegally here (read: they were smuggled in and sold on the street).

And Phillip Morris wanted to stop that. After all, they're only a small company worth uhhh... oh JFC. Just a paltry 150 billion dollars. They need those extra dollars, you understand?

Anyway. So they sponsored a contract to the state, promising that "the technology used for this can be used to stop drug deals too". Also that "the state would benefit from the cigarettes part as well because smaller black market means more official sales means a higher tax revenue" (that has actually been proven true during the 2020 quarantine).

Anyway, here was the plan:

Phase 1 was to train a neural network and plug it in directly to the city's video-surveillance system, in order to detect illegal transactions as soon as they occur. Big brother who?

Phase 2 was to then track the people involved in said transaction throughout the city, based on their appearance and gait. You ever seen the Plainsight sheep counting video? Imagine something like this but with people. That data would then be relayed to police officers in the area.

So yeah, an automated CCTV-based tracking system. Because that's not setting a scary precedent.

So what do you do when you're in that position? Let me tell you. If you're thrust unknowingly, or against your will, into a project like this,

Note. The following is not a legal advice. In fact it's not even good advice. Do not attempt any of this unless you know you can't get caught, or that even if you are caught, the consequences are acceptable. Above all else, always have a backup plan if and when it backfires. Also don't do anything that can get you sued. Be reasonable.

Let me introduce you to the world of Corporate Sabotage! It's a funny form of striking, very effective in office environments.

Here's what I did:

First of all was the training data. We had extensive footage, but it needed to be marked manually for the training. Basically, just cropping the clips around the "transaction" and drawing some boxes on top of the "criminals". I was in charge of several batches of those. It helped that I was fast at it since I had video editing experience already. Well, let's just say that a good deal of those markings were... not very accurate.

Also, did you know that some video encodings are very slow to process by OpenCV, to the point of sometimes crashing? I'm sure the software is better at it nowadays though. So I did that to another portion of the data.

Unfortunately the training model itself was handled by a different company, so I couldn't do more about this.

Or could I?

I was the main person communicating with them, after all.

Enter: Miscommunication Master

In short (because this is already way too long), I became the most rigid person in the project. Like insisting on sharing the training data only on our own secure shared drive, which they didn't have access to yet. Or tracking down every single bug in the program and making weekly reports on those, which bogged down progress. Or asking for things to be done but without pointing at anyone in particular, so that no one actually did the thing. You know, classic manager incompetence. Except I couldn't be faulted, because after all, I was just "really serious about the security aspect of this project. And you don't want the state to learn that we've mishandled the data security of the project, do you, Jeff?"

A thousand little jabs like this, to slow down and delay the project.

At the end of it, after a full year on this project, we had.... a neural network full of false positives and a semi-working visualizer.

They said the project needed to be wrapped up in the next three months.

I said "damn, good luck with that! By the way my contract is up next month and I'm not renewing."

Last I heard, that city still doesn't have anything installed on their CCTV.

tl;dr: I used corporate sabotage to prevent automated surveillance to be implemented in a city--

hey hold on

wait

what

HEY ACTUALLY I DID SOME EXTRA RESEARCH TO SEE IF PHILLIP MORRIS TRIED THIS SHIT WITH ANOTHER COMPANY SINCE THEN AND WHAT THE FUCK

HUH??????

well what the fuck was all that even about then if they already own most of the black market???

[pillowfort-social]

Happy New Year! We’re kicking off 2024 with a Community Update after a very eventful end of 2023. We’ll give you a look at what Staff have been doing behind the scenes, an update from our Developer Team, and a preview of what’s in store for the platform. Community Stats: 

As of January 19, 2024 Pillowfort currently has over 170,467 registered users and over 9,928 Communities. The rest of this post is under the cut.

In 2023 we have…

Avoided shutdown thanks to your generous support.

Launched Pillowfort Premium

Tested and launched Drafts 

Added new premium frames. 

Updated our Terms of Service.

Updated our Business Plan.

Continued work on the PWA & Queue.

Blocked ChatGPT Bots our platform.

Announced our upcoming policy on Generative AI.

Increased weekly invitations keys to from 10 to 50. 

Continued patching bugs. 

Welcome New Users!

Welcome to Pillowfort. We are so glad you are part of our community. If you haven’t yet, check out the Pillowfort101 Getting Started Guide.

Thank you for keeping Pillowfort Alive! 

Your support during the End of Year Fundraiser helped us avoid ending contracts with our Staff and averted the end of our platform for another six months (July 2024). We can not express our gratitude enough to you. This has been an extremely challenging and stressful time for each member of the team. We are going to work hard to keep Pillowfort online. You have motivated us to continue the fight to be a viable platform. You may have noticed that our donation bar has reset to $5,000 at the beginning of January. This number is our monthly operating costs going forward.  Each month in 2024 that we meet our funding goal it will extend Pillowfort’s life past July 2024. 

Generative AI Ban Policy Update

We will be implementing our updated policy regarding Generative AI in the next site update. Prior to when the policy will be implemented we will share with the community what our definition of Generative AI is and our moderation process. 

We're aware that there are concerns about how moderation systems surrounding generative AI have been abused and used for harassment on other sites: we have consulted with experts on how to avoid those issues, and the suite of moderation methods from international universities also assist with identifying harassment. Abuse of reporting systems will be taken seriously by Staff.

End of Year Fundraiser Limited Edition Badge Gift Form

The form for gifting the Limited Edition Badge to other users who couldn’t donate is now live! Click Here to Fill Out the Form. (Note: We’ll be also making a separate Staff Alert with the link as well.)

Updated Business Plan

The Pillowfort Premium subscription model remains our primary answer to generate the necessary funds needed to cover the costs of running our platform. We will continue to offer optional premium features which can be purchased by users a la carte. However, we will be working on completing the following major projects / updates as an expansion of our revenue strategy in the first half of 2024:

Release of the Progressive Web App w/ Push Notifications - The data is very clear that the lack of a mobile app is hindering our overall growth. A PWA will allow our mobile users to experience all the functionality of a native mobile app and will be much easier for our Developer Team to build & maintain than a native app. We also won't have to worry about App Store content restrictions.

Post Promotions & User-Submitted Advertisement Opt-Ins - Users will be able to promote their posts (as advertisements) by paying a fee. No subscription is required to promote a post. By default, this promoted content will only be displayed on a page specifically for viewing promoted content. While this will mean potentially less revenue, it is important to our philosophy to respect our user’s experience and not force advertising on everyone. However, users can opt into viewing promoted content in their home feed, and will receive a discount on premium features for doing so.

Subscription Gifting - Users will be able to purchase subscriptions that can be gifted to other users. Subscriptions can be gifted to a specific other user, or can be added to a communal pool for any unsubscribed users to take from. We will provide special badges for users who gift subscriptions.

Pillowfort Premium Price Increase - We will be adjusting prices to help us fund our overall operating costs. We will notify the community before any price increase is final.

Mobile Pillowfort Premium Frames - Add an option for mobile users to view Pillowfort Premium Avatar Frames in their feeds.

Other Goals for Completion in 2024 (Goals are subject to change)

Release Queue & Scheduling

Rebuild the post image uploader widget.

Rebuild the way notifications are logged & retrieved in the back-end to be more efficient & reduce errors.

Release an Onboarding Guide for new users.

Release Multi-account management/linking.

Add 2-Factor Authentication.

Enable Community Membership Applications.

Release Community Topics/Organization Options.

Help Us Keep the Lights On!

At Pillowfort we do not receive any funding from venture capital or other outside investors because we are committed to keeping our user experience a priority, and not being beholden to outside interests. While this approach allows us to stay true to our ideals and content guidelines, it also presents many challenges to our team in the form of limited resources, personnel, etc.

Our continued survival depends on the generosity of our community. If you are able to, please consider supporting us with a one-time or recurring monthly donation to help keep Pillowfort online. Any money donated to us now will be applied as a credit to your account when we release paid features & benefits in the future.

Bug Bounty Reminder

We are still offering a Bug Bounty. If you find a bug on the site, particularly one that could pose a threat to the security or functionality of the site, contact Staff through our Contact form or directly at info@pillowfort.social. If you are unsure if we received your report, you can send us a DM to the Staff account here, or DM one of our social media channels to check on the status. 

We sometimes do not receive all notifications from users on other social media. DMing the Staff account on Pillowfort to check on the status is the preferred method. 

The first individual to notify us of a certain issue will be eligible for monetary compensation, depending on the severity of the issue found and the information provided.

Abandoned / Modless Communities Transfer 

We are taking Ownership Transfer requests for Abandoned and/or Modless Communities. The form is available here. 

Pillowfort Dev Blog

Follow our very own Developer Blog for the latest updates from Lead Architect & Founder Julia Baritz.

Follow Us on Social Media

Interact with Pillowfort Staff, ask questions, plus learn about upcoming features and more on social media. 

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Best,

Pillowfort Staff

[izzabela]

Hiiii! Hope you’re having a great day. You did such a good job on the “the other woman” fic (I totally wasn’t projecting at all requesting that- 🫥)

I was wondering if you could do a sequel to that where the reader finds out that her ex was secretly cheating on her and left her for a dude. Then she goes to Johnny and asks for help trying to get set up on a date with Mileena or Kitana (or any other female character you’d prefer writing for). Asking for relationship advice and feeling safe to be vulnerable with him after getting her heart broken and scared that it’ll happen again.

Keep up the good work ❣️

The Other Woman pt.2 - Johnny x bi!fem!reader

in which Johnny tries to help you heal after your circumstances turn even worse

a/n: WELCOME BACK please don't be sad, though. i'll write a fun fic trust

ship[s]: johnny x bi!fem!reader

warning(s): post-kanon, bi!reader, johnny endgame??

The spoon hits the side of your coffee cup loudly, the ceramic clanking and clinging as you wait for Johnny.

You guys agreed to meet after the latest shooting week for another MK movie installment, a movie based on Syzoth this time. After weeks of rescheduling, cancellations, and broken clapperboards, the movie finished.

You were healing well from your ex, slowly getting back into your groove and finding fun in life once more. Burying yourself in work, plus missions across the worlds, you felt like yourself again.

That was, until, shit hit the fan again.

You had been informed by someone that your ex was not single as you had initially thought. You didn't want to care, really, you didn't, but all reason left your mind when you saw your ex around LA with someone new.

Despite LA covering roughly 469 square miles (1200 square kilometers), you saw your ex and her mysterious man around the block, the mall, and the studios (for some forsaken reason). You dug around every niche and small-blogger for information on your ex, and came back practically empty-handed.

That was until your other friend texted you what she knew.

Apparently, throughout your entire relationship, she had a sidepiece. Yep. For the entire length of yours and her relationship, she had a bop she'd head over to squeeze and pull and everything in between.

All of the healing you had done, the tears you learned to keep to a minimum, the way you relearned your smile, all of it came crumbling down with that piece of shitty news.

And seriously, during the editing stage of yours and Johnny's movie? Really? You were supposed to oversee the weekly progress reports as Johnny would be sent on a mission soon.

So much for peace of mind.

You had kept the information bottled up, pushing through the final stages of filming before collapsing to your emotions in the privacy of your apartment. Similar to the party, you were wallowing in your sadness in the comfort of your bed.

It's been three days, though, and you had things to do. Life doesn't stop for you, so you had to keep moving. Besides, you could keep moving with friends like Johnny by your side.

"Hey! Sorry I'm late, doll face," an energetic voice interrupts your thoughts. "Syzoth was about to bite someone's head off for touching his tail."

You meet Johnny's eyes, smiling as well so you could hide the bags that weighed underneath your eyes. Unfortunately, it was no use as Johnny immediately knew something was up.

He immediately slides into the chair across you, tilting his head to meet your eyes for an answer on why you were so dejected.

"Hey," Johnny coos softly. "Hey, talk to me. What's got you so bummed?" You shake your head as you take the coffee from the sauce and hild it close to your chest.

"I, uh, found out some stuff about my ex," you begin, and he (reasonably) quirks his brows up.

"I thought we weren't talking about-." "I know!" you interrupt him again.

You sigh, "I know I'm not supposed to talk about him, but I couldn't... not with this information."

You take a good, hard, long sip of your coffee before meeting him with sad and semi-teary eyes.

"Well, she actually cheated on me," you lay the news down rather harshly. Johnny's expressions couldn't keep up as you kept talking.

"She had another person on the side the entire time we were dating," Johnny is looking visibly angry as you keep talking. "I can't believe I didn't notice... I mean, how could I with all the stuff we do and..."

Johnny grips the arm chair tightly, praying to any god up there to hold his anger back.

"I don't know, John," you call his real name. "Not only was I led on to believe me about being loved... but I was being led on period."

You don't realize tears are flowing down your face until Johnny's fingers are gently scooping them up. You flinch initially, but lean into it as you grab a tissue to blow your nose.

"God,I just feel even more stupid now!" you screech, head hitting the table causing the coffee to jump a bit. "I really need to talk to Liu Kang about my origin story!"

Johnny breaks, laughing at how unserious that comment was for a rather serious occasion. You look at him with an open jaw, shocked at his inappropriate display of emotions.

"No, doll, don't get it flipped about me," Johnny begins, wiping his eyes. "I'm just, agh this is too good."

You roll your eyes, "Johnny, spit it out."

"You want to discuss origin stories, probably complain to Flame-o about how shit your life is," Johnny eggs you by summing up your emotions.

It almost makes you want to punch him.

"But, you've practically overcome this part of your life- this chapter of your story," Johnny grabs another tissue to wipe your face again.

"You've healed from a non-physical injury to the point you were back to your usual self again," he keeps going with praises in your favor.

"And, you're making money." Of course he'd end like that. Still, you chuckle as you smile at the memories of the last couple of months.

He's right. So damn right. You were by his side making box-office smashers, had your name plastered in the credits for every movie too. You went on missions, fighting for a cause bigger than yourself. You rekindled friendships, spoke to your family after your post-breakup depression.

And yeah, the dough you were rollin' in was definitely something to mention.

Johnny shrugs taking your coffee and taking a quick sip as well (did he drink from the same place you drank?).

"And, I might know a couple of upgrades for you... if ya know what I mean," Johnny gives you a wink. "I know two princesses, wait her sister is taken. There's also a police guard- wait, she might be too old..."

As Johnny rambles about women, and some men, that are your type, you can't help but think about what would happen after you got back with someone.

Your brows are furrowed in, your eyes staring at the saucer in deep thought once more before Johnny snaps his fingers.

"Bravo to Watcher-1, how copy?" Johnny mimics a soldier. You match his energy.

"Watcher-1, just thinking again." He mimics a walkie-talkie, "Talk to me."

"How can I trust again?" you ask, holding the cup on its side as your thumb rolls over the edge of the cup. "How will I know I won't get hurt again?"

For once, Johnny is quiet. He's got his finger tapping his chin as he tries to figure out how to answer such a question.

"If I'm being honest, you're not going to know unless you take a leap of faith," Johnny begins. "Of course you'll have your instincts, and if something is off from the get-go, don't do it."

His hand gently plucks your fidgety fingers off the edge of the cup, and he slinks his hand in yours as his usual voice is soft snd gentle.

"But if your walls are so high, to the point where even you can't see over it, then what's the point of taking the risk?" Johnny says, a boyish smile on his face.

You look between him and his hand, and your body grows warm with how close he is to you. Sure, it's not physically close like at the party, but it's more intimate. Like your souls were touching.

Johnny lets go of your hand and whips out his phone, rapidly pushing on the screen as you hear the sounds the keyboard makes.

"What.... are you doing?" you ask as you bring yourself over to his side with the chair.

"I'm compiling a list of people I could set you up with!" Johnny excitedly announces. You see him swipe over Raiden, Kung Lao. In Kung Lao's DMs, he texts to ask for Ashrah and whether or not she'll come to Earth from Outworld.

He swipes to Kenshi's DMs, texting about princess Kitana and the First Constable Li Mei. Damn, Johnny and his networks.

You smile to yourself, though, and lay your head on his shoulder as he continues his incessant networking skills.

Johnny doesn't mind, letting you rest as he keeps making his list. He sends it to you, and you feel the vibration of your phone through your pants.

You two sit like that for a couple more minutes, just talking about your plans for the day and upcoming weekend, the numbers of suitable men and women in your private messages.

What you don't realize is that Johnny added his number into the list too, but you weren't checking your phone. Not right now.

Perhaps later.

Right now, you were listening to the calming sounds of Johnny's voice and his heartbeat as your own heart began to heal again, little by little.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

guys is this what a burnout feels like?

also anon, i really hope you liked this and see where i'm going with this

aight imma see yall in the next fic!

[afeelgoodblog]

1. Girl with incurable cancer recovers after pioneering treatment

A girl’s incurable cancer has been cleared from her body after what scientists have described as the most sophisticated cell engineering to date. Alyssa, whose family do not wish to give their surname, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in May 2021.

Scientists at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London gave her pre-manufactured cells edited using new technology to allow them to hunt down and destroy cancerous T-cells without attacking each other. Less than a month after being given the treatment, she was in remission, and was able to have a second bone marrow transplant.

Can I get a fuck cancer?

2. The UK has made gigabit internet a legal requirement for new homes

Updated regulations require new properties to be built with gigabit broadband connections and make it easier to install into existing blocks of flats across the UK. Connection costs will be capped at £2,000 per home, and developers must still install gigabit-ready infrastructure (including ducts, chambers, and termination points) and the fastest-available connection if they’re unable to secure a gigabit connection within the cost cap

3. US cancer death rate falls 33% since 1991

The rate of people dying from cancer in the United States has continuously declined over the past three decades, according to a new report from the American Cancer Society.

The US cancer death rate has fallen 33% since 1991, which corresponds to an estimated 3.8 million deaths averted, according to the report, published Thursday in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. Partly due to advances in treatment, early detection and less smoking, report says

. . .

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4. Lab-grown retinal eye cells make successful connections, open door for clinical trials to treat blindness

Retinal cells grown from stem cells can reach out and connect with neighbors, according to a new study, completing a “handshake” that may show the cells are ready for trials in humans with degenerative eye disorders.

Over a decade ago, researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison developed a way to grow organized clusters of cells, called organoids, that resemble the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. They coaxed human skin cells reprogrammed to act as stem cells to develop into layers of several types of retinal cells that sense light and ultimately transmit what we see to the brain.

5. The ozone layer is on track to recover in the next 40 years, the United Nations says

The Earth's ozone layer is on its way to recovering, thanks to decades of work to get rid of ozone-damaging chemicals, a panel of international experts backed by the United Nations has found.

The ozone layer serves an important function for living things on Earth. This shield in the stratosphere protects humans and the environment from harmful levels of the sun's ultraviolet radiation. In the latest report on the progress of the Montreal Protocol, the U.N.-backed panel confirmed that nearly 99% of banned ozone-depleting substances have been phased out.

6. Uganda declares an end to Ebola outbreak

The Ugandan government has declared an end to its Ebola outbreak, less than four months after cases were first reported. Since 20 September, 56 people have died from the virus, which is spread through body fluids, and there have been 142 confirmed infections.

The country has reported no new infections in more than 42 days – twice the maximum incubation period of the virus, a World Health Organization benchmark for a country to be declared Ebola-free.

7. Doggy ‘daycare’ bus in Alaska goes viral on TikTok

Check them out here:

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[justinspoliticalcorner]

Trudy Ring at The Advocate:

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, often described as the architect of Project 2025, has ties to the far-right and secretive Roman Catholic group Opus Dei. “Roberts acknowledged in a speech last September that — for years — he has visited the Catholic Information Center, a K Street institution headed by an Opus Dei priest and incorporated by the archdiocese of Washington, on a weekly basis for mass and ‘formation,’ or religious guidance,” The Guardian reports. “Opus Dei also organizes monthly retreats at the CIC.” In his speech, which can be viewed online, Roberts talked about banning contraception, which he said will be the most difficult goal for him and his allies to achieve. But they can win this and other fights with a strategy of “radical incrementalism,” passing legislation that gives them some of what they want and can be built upon, he said. The same approach can be used for abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights, including marriage equality, Roberts said.

[...] “Like Project 2025, Opus Dei at its core is a reactionary stand against the progressive drift of society,” he said. “For decades now, the organization has thrown its resources at penetrating Washington’s political and legal elite — and finally seems to have succeeded through its close association with men like Kevin Roberts and Leonard Leo.” Gore further called Opus Dei “a political project shrouded in a veil of spirituality.” Leo is the former executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a right-wing group that influenced Donald Trump’s judicial choices, and is now cochair of its board. He is a funder of many conservative causes, including the campaign against Bud Light for its marketing partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

The Heritage Foundation head Kevin Roberts has associations with far-right secretive Catholic group Opus Dei. Heritage is responsible for Project 2025, in association with more than 100 right-wing groups.

[andypantsx3]

hi andie!

do u have any tips for corporate girlies? my friend is starting out in the corp world !! and got a lot of reality checks over how harsh and 'corporate' it is :((

Ohhhhh my god yeah corporate culture sucks!! It's just a bunch of adult babies using fancy words tbh lmao, acting like we're going to war and/or curing cancer when we're really just launching a product no one wants or needs lol.

Not sure what industry your friend is or what role she's in but here are some general tips, starting with practical project tips to more personal/sanity check tips lol.

Make sure you understand your organization's goals and success criteria. This is so basic but in order to understand what leadership cares about and how all the different project components fit in, you're going to want to learn what are all the active projects, who owns them, what success is being evaluated on, and how those performance indicators are being calculated. I work with some people who have no idea what is going on (which, fair) but it ends up creating a ton of churn and can look super bad for them if they are not in step with what our corporate overlords expect from them.

Clear communication is key. Never have I ever encountered more communication issues than working in corporate; people often have one image in their head of what a task looks like where their partner teams might have another, and if you don't outline all the key details together, you could end up delivering something unusable. If you're an individual contributor (aka a task doer), make sure you ask clarifying questions of the project leads if they haven't specified (like, what testing environment something needs to be deployed to, what are the release gating procedures, what is the expected timeline, etc). If you're a project manager, make sure you're clarifying those details with stakeholders and passing that information to your team; prompt your team to ask questions even if they seem clear, and make sure you get that info for them ASAP!!

Documentation is crucial. If you make an implementation decision, document it. If you have a delivery, document it. If you have a process for anything, make sure you document it. If you have a meeting, get those notes out. If you have an agreement with stakeholders, make sure you get it in writing and get them to sign off on it!! Information is key to helping other people understand what you are doing, why you are doing it, what the expectations were from other related parties when you started doing it, and how it can be improved if needed. If you're a project lead or manager, start a folder or repository somewhere for all project communications, keep all your emails & slacks with stakeholders (because they will come back being snotheads and you can politely whip out receipts). :3

Be proactive. Observe the kinds of questions leadership asks, understand their concerns & needs. Then proactively make sure you are addressing those things in your work and/or in your reporting. For example, if you're reporting on a release failure in a weekly business review, make sure you call out things like: 1) what you tried to do to prevent failure, 2) what the ultimate blockers or root causes of failure were, 3) what your learnings were from that failure, 4) what you are going to do to fix it, and 5) what the revised ETA is. That way, even though things didn't go your way, leadership understands you are on top of things and proactively working to solve problems.

Understand priorities & tradeoffs. There will come a time where you have conflicting demands on your time. Work with your manager or org leadership to understand what projects are higher priorities than others, and do not be afraid to escalate to your manager or above if progress is threatened or if you need to clarify. For example, Project A is high priority and Project B is medium priority, but the project manager from Project B is all up in your business asking you to deliver something or investigate something that you don't know if you have time for. Loop in your manager to determine if someone else can take Project B, or inform them that doing B will impose these anticipated risks to A; are they comfortable with that? Then you can circle back to Project B to deliver the news that you're working on A, your manager has suggested this revised timeline or other POC they can work with, and if they have concerns they can escalate. (Usually this shuts ppl up :3)

Improve processes. I cannot emphasize this enough but try to think about how to do things better the next time around, even if things went solidly to plan. Do not get defensive about your work or the quality of your work; always be thinking (or asking other people) about how time could be cut off of something, what processes could be put in place to minimize touchpoints or decrease risks. If you can, try to impose this mindset on your team & ask for project retrospectives, and take specific action items out of those retrospectives! Trust me it makes things so much clearer and easier in the long run if you work to make things better over time!!

Get a mentor. Find someone who has the job you want to have or who seems to know the things you want to know about and ask them to work with you on that! Tell them what your goal is, whether to develop a special skill set to move roles, or develop a specific understanding of a project or concept, and ask them to help you develop a plan to get there. Set up regular time together and goals to work towards in that time. This helps you learn things faster and gives you someone who can vouch for you when it comes time for yearly feedback, role changes, or promotions.

Create a personal portfolio. Keep track of all the things that you do; all the projects you are on, what your role is, what you were responsible for delivering, and what resources you created as part of that, whether it's project wikis, some script, etc. Keep your manager aware of it so they understand your value and have visibility on your work; you can leverage this when it comes time for role changes or promotions. Additionally try to make sure you're working on high viz or high value projects; this gives you even more leverage!!

Do not tie your self worth to your performance or your job title. At the end of the day capitalism sucks, corporations are evil, and none of this shit matters. Even if you don't do something well once, you can improve in the future, and even if your company doesn't see it/isn't a good match for your skills, you have value!!! They profit from keeping you underpaid, stressed out, and dejected, but you are not just a 'resource' or a cog in a machine. You are a person; you will make missteps from time to time but you bring more value to this planet and the people on it just by existing than these capitalist enterprises could ever. Do do not burn yourself out trying to please them, keep yourself open to other job options, and make sure you have a good friend/family support structure in place to reality check you!!

Idk how helpful this was but I hope there was a little something in there that your friend could use. If she has specific questions on anything I'm happy to help out too lol; that might give me more idea what specific aspect she is struggling with & how to help!