#what if I make the most problematic take without realizing and THAT post gets traction

[barneysbigstompers]

Sometimes i gotta backtrack with things I say

[chriscdcase95]

So I discovered “Tamara”, and have some thoughts...

So, I recently caught wind of this 2005 film, Tamara, which has been a bit of attention. Apparently this movie’s been getting some traction, but not a lot of love on here.

There’s very few posts on here about this movie, and as of this post, only two AO3 works based off it.

I don't see how this apparently went under the radar for so long, as it has the makings of similar cult classics such as Ginger Snaps, The Craft, Jennifer's Body and All Cheerleaders Die. So after checking it out, I figured I would give my thoughts, and spread the word.

Tamara Riley is a shy high school student, who lives with an abusive father, has a crush on her hot teacher, Bill Natolly, and looks for escapism through witchcraft. 

Tamara is also a target of bullying, especially when she writes an article exposing her school's jocks for using steroids. Besides Natolly, only one other person seems to treat Tamara with any decency, and that would be Chloe, a new student who tries to befriend Tamara, but never gets the chance. 

For the first third of the movie, this is the story of a girl, who cried a river and drowned the whole world. She looks so sad in photographs but...It gets worse from there.

For the first third, Tamara is a pretty sympathetic, likable, but flawed protagonist. As a villain, she is Jennifer Check lite (despite predating Jennifer by four years). Jenna Dewan really sells both sides of Tamara, with her performance as both being what carries this movie. 

Tamara has a crush on her teacher, despite him being married and trying to conceive a child with his wife. Tamara even attempts a love spell to bind their fates together.  

What's this ? A Villain Protagonist in a horror movie is problematic ? Stop the presses! 

Tamara's initial flaws are believable and part of what makes her sympathetic; she wasn't malicious, and it's pretty clear before her transformation, she's socially naïve and gullible. This leads to Tamara's demise. She's lured into a ‘date’, with who she thinks is Natolloy, only to be lured into a prank orchestrated by Shawn. 

Shawn is the movie’s secondary antagonist, and resident Hate Sink; a jock who was ousted from his team when he was exposed for taking performance enhancers, and refused to take a drug test. 

So Shawn get's his friends, and three newcomers to lure Tamara to a party, tricking her into stripping on camera, in a prank which I'm pretty sure qualifies as sexual assault (not helping is that Shawn is later revealed to be a serial rapist). 

When Tamara is accidentally killed in the ensuing struggle, Shawn threatens the rest of the party into secrecy while disposing of Tamara's body...and now they gotta pay with it for their lives. 

See, Tamara's ritual could only be completed when she spills her blood, but she ultimately backs out on it; but when she's killed, her blood spills completing the ritual without her knowledge and consent. From there, Tamara rises as a confident, sultry and vengeful revenant, out to take what she thinks is hers. 

What keeps Tamara tragic is, this movie is clear that what she's doing isn't really her her. Tamara's villainous personality is the result of magic she took in from her ritual, making her a near 180 of her mortal self. 

Towards the end, she has this “What have I done/become ?” moment where she realizes she's become a monster, only to snap back because the spell is just stronger than her. 

As a villain, I think Tamara was at her best when seeking revenge; she takes no one's bullshit, unapologetically vengeful, wicked, and has a sense of poetic justice.

Most of her villainy is brainwashing and enslaving others, tormenting her victims with hallucinations, and through some ironic  punishment. Tamara only directly kills two people, both of them being gnarly; she tells her abusive alcoholic dad to finish his bottle, and the guy is forced to eat it. 

The revenant revenge plot was where the movie was at its best, IMO. I honestly wish they kept it as a revenge story for the third act. Preferably with Shawn as the de-facto antagonist.

If one thing holds Tamara back, I think it's her obsession with Mr. Natolly; and the movie is pretty weak in the last third, focusing on a rescue mission for Natolly and his wife. You can make the argument Tamara is magically bound to her crush - her spell was to bind their fates together. But I still think it takes away from Tamara's agency. 

Tamara’s not like Jennifer Check, Ginger Fitzgerald or Nancy Downs - whose transformations highlight toxic qualities that are already there - it’s literally “Dark Magic rewrites her whole personality”.

As for the other characters, a few others stand out.

Mr. Bill Natolly and his wife Alison are pretty likable, and are the more sympathetic characters. They both mean well, and are genuinely excited about starting a family. 

Bill genuinely wanted to help Tamara, and she misreads his singles and tries to kiss him. Bill is understanding of Tamara and tries to explain things to her, before she walks out in embarrassment. 

Bill, through no fault of his own, is roped into this drama; he was bound to Tamara's "spell", and it was only cast when Tamara was murdered. Now that his life is bound to Revenant!Tamara, and the only way Tamara and her spell can be broken is if Bill makes a sacrifice of his own.

There's also the film's ostensible protagonist, Chloe Bowman.

A new girl who stands up for Tamara, Chloe soon becomes a witness/unwitting participant to the prank, and Tamara’s subsequent murder. In fact, Chloe's attempts to help Tamara gets her mistaken for a perpetrator and is what escalates the fight. As a result, Chloe feels guilt for Tamara's death. 

Not helping is that Shawn intimidates the party, including Chloe's supposed boyfriend, into covering up the incident. Chloe’s is kind of a hit and miss. As a protagonist, she's pretty bland and is mostly just along for the ride. 

On the other hand, the pieces are there to make her a great character, and to have a dynamic with Tamara. It's just they aren't really utilized. In the original script, it would be revealed that Chloe is a closeted lesbian, and implicitly in love with Tamara. In the final film, Chloe is also the one who breaks through to Tamara. 

Near the end Tamara looks into Chloe's mind, learning that she genuinely cared for and tried to help her. It's this that allowed the real Tamara to resurface and break down over what she's done and become.

Like holy shit, that sounds like the climax for a tragic love story, doesn’t it ?

Unfortunately, outside of that, the movie doesn't do much with these two; they don't really bond before Tamara's death; no significant interactions following her resurrection, until the climax. 

Chloe feels like she's supposed to be the Needy Lesnicki or Sarah Bailey of this story. But unlike Jennifer's Body or The Craft, we don't get that same “Sapphic Enemies/Broken Friendship” that we get with Jennifer x Needy, or Sarah x Nancy.  

It feels like a case of They Wasted of a Perfectly Good Plot/Character.

Would I recommend this movie ? Sure, but it's really nothing spectacular. I think All Cheerleaders Die or Jennifer's Body are closer to what Tamara was trying to be or could have been, but it's not completely unsalvageable. 

And for what it's missing, that's what AO3 is for, amiright ?

[twilight-blaze]

I’ve been seeing people reblogging bullshit callout posts again, so in the interest of not spreading misinformation or disinformation, here’s some tips:

What To Do When You See A Callout Post

Stop. Remind yourself to treat this as unverified information. Remind yourself that any evidence presented with the callout is only going to tell one side of the story and is often going to be cherry-picked specifically to support it.

If there's screenshots provided with the callout, verify them. Find the original post if you can. It is absurdly easy to fake screenshots.

If there's links provided with the callout, verify that the post that's linked to actually supports the claim being made. Oftentimes someone making a callout will take something out of context and make their point first, thus priming our brains to read the linked post in bad faith and expecting it to confirm that viewpoint. Other times they'll make a bullshit leap of “logic” but rely on the seriousness of the accusation to do the actual legwork. (You see the latter a lot in fandom spaces especially; "ships a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old together" becomes "is a known pedophile" and the person making the callout is relying on the fact that most people have such an intense and visceral reaction to accusations of pedophilia that they won't even bother to check.)

Check the date. Is this a problematic post from 2014 that the target of the callout has since apologized for? People make mistakes, and learn, and grow. Oftentimes the people who make callout posts only care about the first part.

Check the blog of the person being called out. Is the behavior in question something they still engage in? Is it something they've apologized for? Again, people change.

Check the blog of the person making the callout. What do they have to gain by making these accusations? Do they have a personal conflict with their target that they're dragging into the public space? Are they making the callout in an attempt to justify their own bigotry? (Exclusionists in particular love that last one, because why harass someone yourself and then get called on your bigotry when you can instead get a mob of impressionable people to do it for you out of a misguided sense of justice?)

Check to see if the person making the accusations (or anyone else, for that matter) has tried to resolve the matter politely and/or privately. If someone has made a genuine mistake or said something because of an implicit bias they don’t consciously agree with, usually all it takes is a good faith message saying "hey, you might not have realized this but saying [x] is not okay." Often you'll find this has already happened and the person who made the callout just doesn't care. If it hasn’t, you can calmly and politely ask yourself. Sometimes that's all it takes to find out the truth of the matter, or to get someone to change their behavior. (Please don't do this without checking first to see if someone else has already asked. If someone's already received fifty asks in their inbox saying "hey I heard you did [x], is this true?" then sending them yet another one is not going to help anyone.)

Check if the accusations have changed over time. Did the person making the callout somehow find something else the moment their original claims were disproved? Have they made more and more outrageous accusations when the first ones failed to garner enough attention? If so, that’s a good sign that they’re in it for the defamation of character and not anything else.

Yes, this takes time and effort, but it's important to not spread misinformation or disinformation, particularly when it directly impacts someone’s life.

And don't take my word for it, but once you start to do this, it's absurd how many callouts turn out to be smear campaigns that have only gained traction by people unwilling to verify the claims themselves before spreading it. There’s certainly accurate callouts out there, but in my experience the vast majority of them are made with malicious intent.

And lastly, because it’s also important:

What Not To Do When You See A Callout Post

Don't harass anyone involved. Whatever your fact-checking tells you, whether you find the callout to be compelling or not, don't fucking harass people. Don't send hate to the person making the callout, even if it turns out to be a smear campaign in disguise. Don't join the angry mob of people dog-piling anyone who interacts with the target of the accusations, even if you find out they’re accurate. Don’t fucking send death threats or suicide bait. I can't believe I have to say this, but christ, some of you seem to think harassment suddenly becomes okay if it's targeted at someone who doesn't meet your criteria of "good person," and it's not.

[princeyadon]

Terribly sorry if it's prying, feel free to delete, but why do you hate the daily community so much? I haven't really gotten into it but seeing someone hate it so much makes me believe I probably should not.

Alright I wrote you a whole essay outline cuz I lost my post on why I hate dailyblog. This is also made into a page so I can link people in the future~

It’s very, very long, but was written rather hastily so i may have missed stuff

Whether or not you join is up to you, if you don’t like it you can leave it like I did~ 

Community

I had a super long post on why I initially couldn’t stand the daily blog community. Can’t say it's like this now, but when I was in it, it was heavily filled w drama. Like, something new was popping up in it more often than in ask blog, which is saying something.

Because of that, I couldn’t leave my house without having anxiety attacks abt what I could possibly come back, even tho i never even checked my dash often.

The nature of the community was very competitive on top of that (regardless of people telling you it's not it fucking is), and I can’t handle being forced into a competitive state if it’s not a game or something, as it makes me feel like I’m fighting for my life and if I lose, everyone will stop caring abt me and my own stuff and I’ll eventually “die off”

Community (My Art)

I couldn’t post much of anything without seeing people, or specific persons, copy key elements or the idea of the art piece itself shortly after

I started to notice quite the amount of people who quickly changed their art style to better match mine, which I understand to be a grey area, but when it got the point where people asked me if specific users were me, when they weren’t, I began to get defensive.

I still get messages time to time of people using my art without my permission or without crediting. I’ve noticed people take what I say abt permissions on using the art on my daily blog, and twist it into something I hadn’t taken into consideration, so they can still use it. I had to come back and make a post on it because of it.

Daily Blogging Itself

It’s extremely fast-paced on top of that, if yer good at art, have a style people like (coughs anime), OR use an extremely popufur pokemon (the fan favs like eevee or some sumo shitmon), you will be flooded w asks and requests. More often than not, requests to see yer mon w another specific mon in a way of gaining art of the mon they actually care abt instead of the pokemon you’re using

If you go all in like I did, you would be doing 1 full art piece a day (or several in advance and queue it, seriously use your queue, especially for daily blogging), 1 ask (regarding the character you’re using), and 1 request. These would be posted on the same day one after the other. You could also limit yourself to just one of these, of course.

You can label yourself weekly, or occasionally is a popular one, but your traction will be less of course. If you plan on making it big, you must also be active within the community, and if you’ve read how problematic it was (idk if it still is), then that can become a problem. Or you just don’t like to be social.

The Great Migration (AKA Bandwagon)

I have unfollowed over 200 or so blogs because they all changed their urls to daily shortly after it gained traction

I can understand some of that, as some people liked the slice of life variation and ask-blog mostly focuses on plot instead.

However I cannot deny that a good chunk of them ONLY made the change because the amount of notes and popularity you get on daily blog, as it’s The Hottest Thing Rn Since Ask Blog.

You got a daily blog?? Post your own art?? Have a generally ok style/art?? Boom! 1k follows within a few months. You can’t really celebrate 100 followers on daily blog because you’ll get them within a month. I get that 100 can be a big deal, but when I joined Dailyblog, you got them practically guaranteed. And when everyone gets it, it becomes less, imo.

This caused the amount of active askblog members to deplete rapidly, and while I did have my absence, I came back after a few months after realizing dailyblog is bullshit.

Because of the lack of active members, including the lack of people giving notes (aka the #s that people like to say aren't important but are because it shows you what people are interested in or not), it caused more ask bloggers to make the switch, either making a new blog or changing their current one.

To sum it up:

>daily blog saps the askblog members, enticing them w popularity

>ask blog losing members, panics because they're not longer getting interest

>desperate to regain the interest, they swap to daily

>ask blog continues to rapidly lose members

>forces more people to make switch or drop ask blog

>Continual loss for askblog while dailyblog grows exponentially

Visual representation of The Great Migration:

The Degree of Separation

Now then, what’s the difference between a dailypokemon, and an askpokemon blog?

What comes to mind for you? For me, when I joined, it was

::Dailyblog::

Primarily comprising of a single Pokemon, hardly any deviations in design, lack of OCs

Slice of Life, the asks you’d get were all filler asks for light hearted fun

Art! Full art pieces, doodles, what have you, on schedule

A bustling new community full of new people

Insane traction for new blogs and growth

::Askblog::

Interactions, rp

Story lines, backstory, plot, developments

OCs, characters that deviate a lot from the Pokemon’s design to become something more original and recognizable

World building, either in canon worlds, or the creation of a new world. New rules, head canons, etc

Is this true for you? I'd say this separation is fair, and it keeps the two separate enough to make use of the url names. "Daily" can't really be applied as a difference, as some daily blogs don't post daily, and some ask blogs do.

Why That’s Gone Now

Now. Do those differences still hold true?

No. For the most part, they are disappearing rapidly. Except for one difference, and it's that Dailyblog continues to grow.

They've merged enough that you can no longer tell the difference much, as people from ask blog have begun to flood daily blog and fill it w plot based, oc based, interaction blogs w the title "daily" only for the purpose of attracting attention and gaining popularity.

The difference between the two is growing slimmer and slimmer as people bandwagon the url name, fearing that askblog itself will die soon, or felt it was a better alternative because of the sudden lack of active askblog owners and community members in ask blog, effectively starting to kill blogs.

Now we can add onto that point form summary:

>daily blog saps the askblog members, enticing them w popularity

>ask blog losing members, panics because they're not longer getting interest

>desperate to regain the interest, they swap to daily

>ask blog continues to rapidly lose members

>forces more people to make switch or drop ask blog

>Continual loss for askblog while dailyblog grows exponentially

>ask bloggers liking the ask blog style but disliking the lack of interest and asks, adopt the daily blog url but continue to maintain the askblog format

>Closing gap between the two

.

That's all I got for now tho

[bluebookweb]

Starting Up: A Solo Restaurateur’s Dream — How to Minimize Risks to Maximize Success

Considering your own restaurant? A franchise may be the smarter option.

Many of us have been to a successful restaurant and thought “I can do this, maybe even better!”

Choosing to operate a restaurant is a business decision, and must be approached that way.

An excellent restaurant could be likened to a duck swimming on a pond. Everything seems calm and effortless as the duck glides across the water. However under the water is a different story: their feet are in constant motion, always moving, seldom stopping.

While restaurant operations can seem so simple when viewed from the dining room table, few truly understand the concerted efforts taking place behind the scenes.  Choosing to operate a restaurant is a business decision, and must be approached that way.

If you are exploring the idea of opening your own restaurant but have limited restaurant management experience – or none at all – then a restaurant franchise could be the best option for you to increase your odds of success.    

While franchises require buy-in costs, solo restaurant startups have costs too – and these are often far more than financial. If you lack retail savvy or don’t have the ability to manage others and the drive or ability to work 70 hours per week or more until your restaurant gains traction, a franchise is worth serious consideration. I can’t stress enough that starting and growing a business is more difficult than many people realize. From operations to marketing to sales, there is so much to do when running your own business – and it becomes even more challenging when you’re doing it alone. 

As you weigh your options, consider these advantages a franchise offers over an independent restaurant startup.

Team of Experts

It’s rare that entrepreneurs have experience in every aspect of a business. Some are strong in accounting yet lack people or marketing skills. That is why it helps to have a resource in all of the areas you consider to be your weaknesses and even in areas you consider your strong suit.

With a franchise, you receive expert guidance in every facet of the operation.  Starting with a franchise is like being given a tested playbook – it is up to you to execute and refine as local conditions warrant.

Marketing and Brand Awareness

Everyone is a marketing expert – until they try marketing their own business. While it is easy to consider yourself an expert, there is no greater test than when you open for business and the customers just aren’t there. When the time comes to develop and execute marketing strategies that will bring foot traffic to your door, having a marketing team behind you with a track record of success – and a repeatable system for your success – is priceless.

With the myriad of media platforms available, there are countless ways to reach customers today. The downside is that marketing channels, such as social media, are constantly evolving and it is a full-time job just to keep pace with changes – not to mention determining what actually works for your  

Tapping into the marketing resources of a franchise enables you to focus on day-to-day operations and profitability without wasting money on trial and error.   

Eliminating Unexpected Costs

If you are considering a solo restaurant here is some sage advice: take whatever amount you think it will cost, and then double it.  A blank slate is difficult to estimate – unforeseen expenses always arise and items or services often cost more than expected.

With a franchise, those costs are pre-determined so you avoid surprises. This is especially true in the area of real estate. It may be tempting to sign a lease in the hottest part of town, but a franchise may have additional insight you do not as it relates to market potential for another area that can be very valuable. From negotiating a lease to choosing a contractor to build your storefront, franchises tell you what those costs will be upfront, often providing designers and site location experts that can advise on critical items such as traffic flow, point-of-sale considerations and more.

Training Assistance

Aside from managing employees once you have brought them on, the process of training new employees is a significant one and not without challenges. However, those who are part of a franchise find there is no need to reinvent the wheel. They enjoy carefully developed training procedures that have been vetted to ensure employees get comprehensive training. The result? Well-trained employees who offer consistent, high quality customer service based on thorough employee training practices.

Supply Chain and Distribution

This is an area that is extraordinarily problematic for inexperienced restaurateurs. One of the most critical and costly mistakes a restaurant owner can make is having incorrect inventory, either too much or too little. 

Franchises have often solved some of the most perplexing business decisions you’ll face.

Also, sourcing distributors to supply your fresh food and other perishable goods can be difficult and expensive if you are going it alone. Having the purchasing power and relationships afforded by a franchise eliminates guesswork in inventory management and distributor partnerships. 

The unknown can be one of the most frightening aspects of starting a business. Partnering with a proven franchise takes many of the unknowns out of the equation. Franchises have proven, repeatable success systems in place to help every part of the business run optimally.  Franchises have often solved some of the most perplexing business decisions you’ll face, and give you the benefit of the knowledge and experience so that you don’t have to experience setbacks.

If you have a strong desire to own your own restaurant but lack the experience and operational resources, you may wish to investigate a franchise. 

Partnering with the right franchise provides a stronger likelihood that you will be calm on the surface of the pond in the face of a highly competitive marketplace. To be sure, you may still be fervently paddling under the water, but your successes will be enhanced greatly.

Starting Up: A Solo Restaurateur’s Dream — How to Minimize Risks to Maximize Success posted first on happyhourspecialsyum.blogspot.com