#yes this is overly simplified but I need to go work now

[shimera]

Ooh I guess I'm doing it... The post about car paint job from the worker's point of view.

Tiny disclaimer: I'm not an overly experienced professional (even tho I've been doing all this almost every day rn) and some things I'll mention may vary from workshop to workshop so yeah I'mma explain the way I've personally experienced this kind of job

Also I'm not talking about small touch-ups like a scratch or a small ship of some sort, this post is about going BIG starting from repainting a rusted corner of a door and to a fully new paint job like if you want to change the color of a whole car.

Don't feel obliged to follow all this in your fics and other works tho, I completely understand that sometimes you simplify stuff for the sake of the plot, and to be honest I do that too.

I also sincerely apologize if some of the terms aren't completely correct as english is not my first language

Warning: long post ahead

So, where do I start... Well, the whole process is in fact REALLY time consuming. You can do all the steps as fast as you can, yes, but still you'll be stuck with drying all the layers of the primer, base coat and clear coat anyway (this can be sped up with some infrared lamps and stuff but if you don't have these... Well, it is what it is). Also it usually takes at least 2-4 people to get the parts ready. Depending on your skills you can do it by yourself as well but for that you'd need to know how to disassemble and assemble a car, the process of preparing the parts you're gonna paint and master your painting skills to get the result you're looking for (plus sometimes you'll need to know how to weld and fix some big dents too). At my workplace all these jobs (except preparing the parts and painting them) are done by separate people, but as I said earlier, it may vary.

DEMOLISHING

First, you decide what are you going to take off the car and how much of it has to go. I'm not really involved in the process of it as I'm not a mechanic (fitter?), but yea usually you need to take off bumpers (especially if they're a part that's getting fixed and repainted), doors, hood, trunk and front&rear window glass are optional most of the time; if the hood or a door is getting painted we usually take it off. The trunk is also taken off to repaint but sometimes it can stay if there are parts close enough to it that get painted as well (for example, I've prepared a trunk and both of the rear fenders, so the trunk stayed on the car). Also most of the time the inner door panels are taken off when the door is painted, the window glass is optional but to avoid damaging it if something goes wrong we keep it in closed position or take it off; door handles always have to go separately. Oh and sometimes you'll have to take the wheels off too if they're gonna get in the way later on.

PROTECT ANYTHING THAT'S LEFT

So, the first step was successful: you figured out what, how and how much to disassemble and may think now you can start preparing the parts-- Oop, not so fast. Now you have to protect anything that you didn't take off and don't want to accidentally damage/get dirty. If the part is still on the car and any door opening is gonna be involved (and believe me, it most likely will) or they were taken off - you better cover the doorways with paper and masking tape, because you don't want the interior to get all dusty and filled with sand!! And the absolute best thing will be to cover all the remaining parts too (there are covers made for that but technically any overly huge plastic bag thingy will do) because you don't want the primer to leave any residue on them. Also you absolutely don't want to damage anything that's close to the repainted part so it's gets covered with some masking tape and/or reinforced tape - the more, the better, you can never be too careful, but remember that it's also kind of a time consuming process (sometimes it takes up to half a day to cover everything up if you're doing it alone, but most of the time it's from about twenty minutes to an hour or so)

REPAIRING AND SANDING

Finally you made it through this step too, congrats! Now the action begins: you need to get that baby ready to get a new paint job.

In my workplace the cars we paint almost every time have some chips (these can rust really well quite fast so it's important not to miss out any), scratches (they can show through the new paint if you don't sand them down completely) and of course some amount of rust, so first thing you want to do is to make sure none of it stays where it was. Most of the time you don't need to take all the paint amd primer off, so that's when you take an eccentric machine and start sanding away everything you want gone. Sometimes if the paint peels off by itself at some spots you have to sand all of it or it might start doing the same in the other spots. Sometimes you'll find out the car was already repaired and there are layers of putty there - if there's no signs of rusting underneath, you want to sand it as little as possible because the other option is to put it all back on by yourself AND make the shape of a part look like it's never been repaired, and it's not a simple task if you don't have years of experience behind your back.

The dents are treated depending on their size: if it's small enough you sand it until bare metal shows up and then cover up with some putty - make sure to really press it in so it won't sag after you finished everything. If it's big you grab some tools and fix it or call someone who knows how to fix those (that's my option at the moment sadly) and get them to fix it. Some putty still will be applied on top to make sure the detail is smooth just as new.

Sometimes it's necessary to wield parts that were too damaged. Sadly, I don't know much of it, but it's most likely a job for a couple hours or so (but there was a really fucked up extremely rusted car that's been in work for almost HALF A YEAR- yeah our wielder quit right after finishing the poor thing😭 and the car itself was released into the wild just a couple days ago). The thing I know tho is that even after sanding down everything you welded, you most likely still will have to cover it all up with putty because it won't be looking good without it. And make sure to use the right grit sandpaper because if it's too harsh it Will Absolutely Show Through after you paint it. Even if you did put some putty on top.

The rust itself may be treated a couple ways. If it's light enough that there are just some spots sitting on top of the metal then you just sand it down and call it a day. If it's so bad that chunks of metal are falling off by themselves or there are holes in it you call your wielder to cut the thing off and put a new piece of metal to cover the hole up. And if it's something in between, you go grab a sandblasting gun and all the protective gear you can find because it's about to get DIRTY. The process is quite simple: all you need to do is to connect the thing to a compressor, get yourself some clean fine sand (or else you'll be REALLY annoyed when you'll need to adjust it every ten seconds because some shit got stuck in it TRUST ME I KNOW (and also it can damage the equipment)) and start blasting the rust with it. But it's also really slow as the range of where the sand is hitting the metal is small, and you'll have to go over the same spot a couple times from different angles to really get all that rust removed. And if you blast a spot for too long it also may develop a bulge. After all this you also clean it all up and (optionally) add some putty on top. If you really want to get it extra protected you can first apply a layer of epoxy primer to the area you just relieved of rust and only after it's cured you can add the putty.

If you're working with bumpers tho it's best if you put as little putty on it as possible. These things are made to be flexible and the putty is not so it can and will fall off if any accidents that involve the bumper being squished happen. If you can sand that chip off - you do it. Also the fact of them being kind of flexible leads to paint developing some cracks that go deep through the layers and sometimes into the plastic as well. This mostly happens when it developed too many layers of paint over the years of repainting the thing, what leads to losing a lot of flexibility of the said paint, so while the bumper gets a hit and bounces back - the layers crack. And yeah if you see it you sand it down COMPLETELY or it will show through.

Last step is to make sure everything is smooth, the layers (top coat, base coat, primer and sometimes additional coats of paint from previous jobs) are stretched while sanding those (so there are no bumps there) and the grit of the sandpaper Was Small Enough because otherwise It Will Show Through.

PRIMER AND SANDING AGAIN

Now that you've got through the first round of sanding you need to put a coat of epoxy primer if there was bare metal involved and 2-5 coats of acrylic primer on top (both preferably two-component and applied with a spray gun). There's not much to say about this except that you most likely will need to do some additional masking. And if you do fuck up on this step (like overflow the paint at some spots that it starts dripping) it's still fixable: the second round of sanding is waiting for you just as finishes drying. The time of curing for the primer depends on it's type, manufacturer and the temperature you're working in, but mostl likely it's gonna take around 8 hours at the room temperature or around half an hour with the lamps.

Now that it's all cured the parts are ready to sand yet again - even if it was all perfect before you still need to make sure it's smooth, looks like it's supposed to look and has enough sandpaper scratches because the paint won't stick to a shiny-smooth surface. So sanding down it is - finer grit this time, but it is still necessary, especially if there were any repairs. The area you're going to sand this time (if just a part of a detail is going to be repainted) also is a lot bigger than you prepared at this point because to make it look as if there were no repaints at all the base coat and the top coat both need to be applied in a way that will not look bumpy. Also there are some steps to take if you've repaired some stuff there: first you sand the thing with your hands and a sanding block, and after that you get a finer grit sandpaper and - again - an eccentric machine and make sure you got all the previous scratches out or else It Will Show Through.

Finally, it's all ready - now you need just to rip most of the previous covers off, tape on some new ones adjusted to the new sanded area (takes a shit ton of time again and you better not miss this step) and you're ready to degrease the thing and FINALLY paint it. At this point depending on the equipment you've already spent around 1-3 days on the thing (including all the waiting and stuff. You absolutely can and will prepare other parts while you wait).

WOW YOU DID IT! NOW PAINT AND NOT DIE

I'm not really involved in the painting process yet (oh the lack of skill), but what I know about it is the fact that the white paint is the one which lets you get away with the biggest amount of mistakes of all. And if the paint has any shimmer/glitter in it... Well, it takes some skills to make it lay flat and not become a spotty mess (if you do fuck up at this point you'll have to repeat some sanding). Also the base coat is usually really thin as it only gives the color to a piece. The clear top coat is the one that's both the heaviest and the thickest because it's supposed to protect everything else. After applying all this you leave it to dry for around 17-24 hours (the more the better), assemble everything back together and technically you're done. Or are you?

MAKE IT SHINY

Now we've come to the additional step. Polishing. Some workshop do it, some don't. In my workplace we don't go an extra mile for it, but we still do polish the parts we painted to give it some extra shine and get rid of occasional dust that landed before painting process was finished and small drips of the top coat. First you sand these - and only these - down with a really fine grit sandpaper (preferably also wet) by hand and polish it until shiny again using different compounds and fur/foam discs and the machine almost like you've used before but this one has even more speed and power. Finding all the dust pieces especially on the big surfaces like a hood or a roof is quite a challenge - sometimes you will miss a couple and will have to go back a few steps back to sand them off. You should also rinse the car after the polishing because it gets quite dirty from time to time and these compounds are not very easy to get off when they dry.

Finally, everything is nice, smooth, shiny amd clean, and you can finally say you're done! Thanks for reading everyone, I hope you learned something useful today! If I missed out on something, feel free to ask any questions, I'll do my best to clear all that up for you!

[fresh-bag-of-ham]

Wait sorry could you elaborate a little about that housing post? My experience (heavily influenced by college towns to be clear) has been that landlord corporations will buy up single family homes quickly for cash, which means that 1) there is a shortage of housing for people who want to purchase homes rather than rent, 2) the landlord companies are extremely predatory and rent to students charging them each $$$$ to live there no matter how many people are living in the house, and 3) building new housing, including multifamily apartments, does nothing to fix this because it's built by developer corporations that set ridiculously high rents and don't care if many of the units are unoccupied. I can see how the proposed legislation would do nothing but shift who's getting screwed over, but I don't see how "build more housing" on its own actually fixes the root issue if the new housing is just as expensive + it's still the predatory landlord companies owning everything. But I also don't know very much about this outside of my general observations.

Yes, I can elaborate!

There's a shortage of housing for everyone in the US, period, which is making the housing that does exist more valuable, period. This makes owning a rental property a great investment (super low vacancy rate!), and it also makes buying a condo purely as somewhere to stash your money for a while a great investment (price almost guaranteed to be higher when you sell it later!). All this competition does make it harder for people who want to buy a home just to live in themselves, but the investors they're competing against are reacting ""rationally"" to a general scarcity that already exists.

College towns, because of the relatively fixed base demand of students needing places to live close to campus, are unfortunately really prone to predatory landlords -- I mean, I was in college 2006-2010 when the housing bubble burst and there was basically no effect on student rent prices. All 25,000 of us students were still all competing for the same scrubby rental houses.

[much elaboration below the cut...]

What does affect the student housing prices is changing land use code to allow mid-rise apartment buildings. The new housing was expensive, top of the market, sure, but buildings are crazy expensive to build right now, and the building is also pretty nice. So suddenly the wealthiest 1,000 students are living in the brand new 20-story building with the in-house pool and gym, and now there's only 24,000 students chasing the same scrubby rental houses. The effect on prices is far from immediate, but after a few mid-rise apartment buildings go up, after you get maybe 5,000 new units to the market, people have more options and the natural vacancy rate starts creeping up? The owners of the scrubbiest rental houses start to worry. With so many other options for renters, do they have to lower rents to compete? Fix up their units? Or do they have to sell off a couple properties, maybe the ones furthest from campus? Or do they have to get out of the business altogether?

This is overly simplified of course, and, depending on other factors, increasing housing supply might only result in less upward pressure on rent prices, but you can actually see all the 'how to get rich without working' passive income bros start to freak out in real time on twitter when a town where they own a small rental empire starts upzoning and issuing building permits, because what they're exploiting to make money is housing scarcity.

There are a couple of general ideas around this floating around in various states of exaggeration that are misrepresentations or distortions of reality. To address a couple...

This video addresses the idea that inspired the proposed legislation from a few days ago, the idea that the housing shortage is being caused by Wall Street investors buying up single-family homes.

This article is really important in addressing something you mentioned, the idea that landlords "don't care if many of the units are unoccupied". The number of unoccupied units, otherwise known as the vacancy rate (and its inverse, the occupancy rate), is something landlords care a lot about.

This in-depth report describes a relatively new company that offers landlords not just software, but access to a dataset of all rental rates in their area. Not just asking rents for available listed units, but all rents being charged for every unit. Using this dataset, the software recommends that landlords set their rents some amount higher and accept a (slightly) lower occupancy rate.

The company had been seeking occupancy levels of 97% or 98% in markets where it was a leader, Winn said. But when it began using YieldStar, managers saw that raising rents and leaving some apartments vacant made more money. “Initially, it was very hard for executives to accept that they could operate at 94% or 96% and achieve a higher NOI by increasing rents,” Winn said on the call, referring to net operating income. The company “began utilizing RealPage to operate at 95%, while seeing revenue increases of 3% to 4%.”

I feel like people are imagining a building with maybe 20% vacancy? Maybe 30% vacancy if you were imagining a particularly greedy landlord?? But this article describes a shift from 2-3% vacancy (basically enough to allow a short turnover period between tenants) to 5% vacancy. And even that, the landlords could hardly stomach at first! Because vacant units feels like leaving money on the table, it goes against all their business sense.

But a shift from 2-3% to 5% vacancy still takes some units off the market, right? Well, yes, but a) I wouldn't call that "many", and b) in the grand scheme of things it means waiting a couple more months between tenancies. That's certainly not good, but the far more devastating effect of this scheme is that a small increase in the vacancy rate is no longer a downward force on rent prices.

So let's say they've been operating at 98% occupancy, charging $1000/mo rent. To take in 4% more revenue at 95% occupancy, that's basically a 7% increase in rent, $1073/mo. At that price, for revenue to fall back to what they'd been making before at 98% occupancy (which presumably was enough to cover operating expenses), the occupancy would have to drop to 91%.

So where this company would previously only tolerate maybe a 3% vacancy before dropping rents to fill their available units, this company now would tolerate a 9% vacancy rate in theory. Because of the demand for housing being what it is they're operating at 5% vacancy and just raking in profits like they describe.

On the one hand, this is definitely a huge problem. This company's software has become incredibly prevalent among landlords across the country, and the DOJ is currently investigating this company for antitrust violations because of the data sharing and price-setting that this company/algorithm has enabled. So that's encouraging!

On the other hand, this whole scheme wouldn't even be possible if we didn't have a housing shortage to begin with. In a housing surplus, the first building to fall below their vacancy threshold would have to start lowering rents and leasing more units to cover the difference, those additional units on the market would start to increase vacancy rates in other buildings and they'd do the same thing, and the whole house of cards would collapse.

tl;dr: Yes, the new housing itself (without subsidies from every level of government to build an affordable housing development) will likely be top of the market (after all, it's brand new) but housing scarcity generally allows everybody to jack up rents and behave predatorily, even the landlords of the oldest and shittiest rentals, and the only counter against that that doesn't leave somebody out in the cold is to increase housing supply.

[ghostpal]

ghost makes a quick and overly simplified resource time

so im trying to bind a fanfic thats like... 15K. thats like. Idk man i feel like that doesnt need to be a 8X5 book. like that can be 4X5 and it would be nice. and since my magic google-search powers apparently cant be used to my own benefit tonight, i figured this out the long way. so im gonna throw what ive figured out up here quickly.

so for a 32 page signature the usual order for off setting is N, 1, 2, N-1. N-2, 3,4, N-3. and so on until you have all 32 pages. this works for any signature length just replace N with your number. 32 is basically the standard though. I use 32 to 16 for my fic binds. depends on the length. anyway

this exact print order ONLY works if youre printing essentially half sheet sized pages (aka a total of 4 book pages per one printer page). A quarter sized book has a total of 8 pages on it so we gotta change how we do this.

We are going to write out our standard four page blocks and then label them a-h.

now we have to work with TWO page sets for each sheet of paper. the top will be our first set and the bottom will be our second. BUT our printers dont think like that, they think one whole side first and then the second. how do we figure this out so that we can print this? we split our crap up.

So our new order of printing is A, B, E, F and for the back C, D, G, H.

(Yes you could just to A, B, A, B and C, D, C ,D but thats too confusing for me)

Badabing badaboom, when you print this itll come out like youve got two dang pages, you cut along the shorter middle line to separate the top from the bottom and fold as you would your standard book.

if your entire fic or book is only 8 pages long then just this one sheet is all you need, congratulations. now for the stupid weird math situation to get this dumb shit sorted

So because i dont wann ahve to do unnecessary math, im just going to give you the list on how to print this out for 8, 16, and 32 pages. 8 Pages 8,1,6,3. 2,7,4,5.

16 Pages 16,1,14,3. 2,15,4,13. 12,5,10,7. 6,11,8,9.

32 pages 32,1,30,3. 2,31,4,29. 28,5,26,7. 6,27,8,25. 24,9,22,11. 10,23,12,21. 20,13,18,15. 14,19,16,17.

"But what if my fic is longer than 32 pages?" well brother, then you take those numbers? and you make the next set start with 33 and end with 64. and youll have to do the stupid N math type shit on your own. i can not find the name of what this actually is which is why i had to figure it out on my own. good luck. so 1=33, 32=64.

so its like. 64,33, 62, 35. And. 34, 63, 36, 61. and so on. OR you can save your thing in pages of 32 and NOT have to do that math.

You did it.

[talkingpointsusa]

Tim Pool's given up on being a journalist and is now just getting ChatGPT to do his work for him

Tim Pool is such an idiot and I find it absolutely stunning that he's managed to keep his grift going for so long. So, he's supposedly covering the news that Trump and Biden have agreed to do a series of televised debates and he naturally takes it to the stupidest place imaginable. Lets get into it.

00:00, Tim Pool: "Following the news that Joe Biden had offered to debate Donald Trump, Trump accepted and now Joe Biden accepted, they both agreed to a June 27th debate on CNN but here's the fun part my friends. You know, it looks like they crafted the rules to make sure that RFK Jr cannot be on the debate stage which I find hilarious."

Yes, RFK Jr doesn't currently qualify for the debate but that's absolutely a non-issue. To believe that this isn't going to be a race between Biden and Trump is a complete denial of reality and RFK is absolutely not such a huge threat to Biden and Trump that they've concocted the polling requirements around keeping him out like RFK is saying. If RFK meets the polling threshold he can make the debate stage, problem solved.

00:27, Tim Pool: "But Joe Biden has some insane demands. No audience, mics are cut off after the allotted time. It seems like this is all being set up for Joe Biden but of course you knew that."

Yeah, I wonder why Biden's team made some of those demands. Could it have something to do with the fact that the last time they debated it was a complete shitshow where Trump repeatedly interrupted Biden and everyone left somehow more uninformed than when they came in?

If Donald Trump is incapable of debating on the issues without interrupting, that's more indicative of his character than anything else. Now, this guy Tim is gonna do a deep dive on the election and just....get a load of this.

01:17, Tim Pool: "But I love how they're icing out RFK Jr, he's issued a statement, he's quite upset so we'll talk about that but then we'll do a deeper dive analysis. My friends, as we're tracking all this election news, the 2024 race is heating up, the debates are on, I went to our good friend ChatGPT."

Yes, you read that right. Tim Pool, a guy who's trying to be a "serious" journalist, is using ChatGPT for the purposes of political analysis. This is a level of being a complete lazy idiot that I thought was impossible to achieve, we're breaking new ground here ladies and gentlemen.

I hopefully don't have to explain why this is a remarkably stupid thing to do but I'll just mention that ChatGPT has a long track record of outright making stuff up. ChatGPT is absolutely not something that any serious person should use for political analysis.

01:33, Tim Pool: "And I gotta say I am deeply impressed. There's a lot of data to calculate that I normally actually do."

Sure you do, that's how your dumb ass predicted that Trump would win a 49 state landslide right? This has the energy of a 2nd grader saying "I did the homework, yes really, but I also used ChatGPT to do it too".

01:45, Tim Pool: "I'll give you an example. There was a -- I can't believe I actually did this."

Me neither Tim, me neither.

02:55, Tim Pool: "ChatGPT, the first result it gives me when I did an overly simplified breakdown was a tie."

Yeah, maybe that's why you shouldn't try to use ChatGPT to predict the election genius. I mean for goodness sakes, Tim just went on a rant about how great ChatGPT is at analyzing political data and then let it slip that it's first prediction was something that is absolutely not going to happen. What are we even doing here?

Anyway, Tim rants about all the debate stuff but my curiosity was peaked by Tim Pool's ChatGPT political analysis.

14:26, Tim Pool: "In real time I'm going to use ChatGPT, which now has access to all this modern data, to break down the electoral college and voting by states."

Checkmate Tim, time to delete your channel:

14:48, Tim Pool: "The first thing we need is a breakdown so 'Give me a breakdown of all states votes by party affiliation in the 2020 presidential race'. Ok, give me a breakdown of all states votes by party and it's kind of wild. ChatGPT now calculates and it's breaking down the percentages."

You know what, why even bother having an election? Tim Pool and ChatGPT, the two greatest political brains on the planet, think that it's going to be a landslide victory for Trump so an election would be a total waste of everybody's time. We should just call it now and save everybody the trouble.

This is just completely idiotic, seriously what kind of dumbass argument is this.

"I know it's really early in the election cycle and polling can change at any time but my computerized Magic 8-Ball can say the stuff that I want it to say."

He spends fifteen minutes on this by the way. But don't worry guys, Tim has also done all this himself. We know because he's told us (and no, we can't see his actual calculations).

16:02, Tim Pool: "I actually compiled this by hand when I was doing a polling calculation because they didn't do a national level poll. Not by hand but like, I went to each state pulled the numbers, load them to an Excel spreadsheet, load out the Excel spreadsheets, broke down party affiliation of all the red states, all the blue states, we can do that in two seconds right now and we're getting these hard numbers."

Sure you did Tim, sure you did. No, he never actually shows these spreadsheets that he supposedly made. To be fair though, if I was as bad at predicting political outcomes as Tim Pool is and I absolutely had to throw my hat into the political ring I guess I'd also use ChatGPT and even then I'd still verify the numbers that it gives me. The scariest thing about this is that I'm pretty sure that he isn't trying to lie here, I think his dumbass actually thinks he's onto something. Also, is this you?

Anyway, predicting the election right now even without ChatGPT is absolutely an insane prospect. So much can change between now and November. Unless ChatGPT can see into the future this is absolutely a futile and ridiculous endeavor. I'm starting to wonder if that beanie is cutting off the circulation to Tim's brain.

The thing is that even if the math is correct, Tim's example where the party-affiliated voter numbers are the same as they were in 2020 and the current independent favorability will influence the vote is absolutely ridiculous. Absolutely no serious person thinks that either Trump or Biden is going to win by a landslide and most think it's going to be a tight race. In short, Tim's little adventure in feeding ChatGPT leading questions and bizarre hypotheticals is completely pointless and stupid.

20:25, Tim Pool: "Now the ultimate goal here for those that are listening is to use all of the data, plug in today's data four years later, and see what the projection would be based on current polls. It's not exact science, it's estimation."

Then why are we even doing this? In our next episode of Tim Pool we'll probably see him using the horoscope chart from his local newspaper to prove once and for all that Trump is going to win by a landslide.

Tim continues messing around with ChatGPT and then ChatGPT declares that Trump wins every single state. This is evidently too far even for Tim.

25:15, Tim Pool: "Ok, this is ridiculous. It says Trump wins every single state. No no no, see ChatGPT, no no, you get it wrong. ChatGPT can only go so far."

And there you have the exact reason why you can't use ChatGPT to predict election outcomes. I love how it's too unrealistic for even Tim Pool. Tim then adds the Democrats and Republicans to the independent count and it still declares that Trump will win in a landslide, just in a way that's somewhat more realistic. Get a load of this though.

26:37, Tim Pool: "Plugging it all in and it's totally wrong. Ha, thanks for sitting here as ChatGPT was unable to do it. Let me just try one simple calculation -- so the numbers it gave us up until this point were good and then it's --- ok, well actually it says this projection suggests a landslide victory for Trump based on the assumption that the current independent favorability directly influences the total vote count and that party affiliated voter numbers remain constant from 2020. Oh, well there you have it ladies and gentlemen. They're saying that Trump's gonna win 446, that's actually it's calculation."

"Yeah, it's totally wrong and...wait, it projected that the guy that I like wins. WELL THERE YOU HAVE IT!!!"

27:51, Tim Pool: "I don't think that's a fair assessment, I think it's a little bit wild but far be it from me to challenge ChatGPT."

Tim Pool and ChatGPT can unite behind a common passion of making insane political predictions. Also, Tim's title sure is a lot more certain about this than he is.

Conclusion:

Well, that was fifteen minutes of my day wasted on watching a grown man try to make ChatGPT practice divination. The level of sheer insanity displayed by Tim Pool increases every time I watch a new video of his. I eagerly await when he sacrifices a cow to the sky gods so that they can tell him who's going to win 2024. Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

Original Video:

Timcast. “Biden & Trump DEBATE ON, Biden DEMANDS Insane Protections, RFK ICED OUT, AI Predicts TRUMP WINS 2024.” YouTube, 15 May 2024.

Sources:

Matt O'Brien. “Chatbots Sometimes Make Things Up. Is AI’s Hallucination Problem Fixable?” AP News, 1 Aug. 2023.

“RFK Jr. Accuses Biden and Trump of “Colluding” to Exclude Him from Debates.” NBC News, 15 May 2024.

[fanfic-obsessed]

Yes!! Be as simple with your scripting as you possibly can. With a little practice you should be able to read most of your coding like you would sentences in your head. If only so you know what you are telling the computer to do.

I also cannot emphasize enough, when you have to something that is overly complex or has to take into account something weird, comment extensively. If your programing language lets you use in line comments, use in line comments to explain exactly why this peice of code has to be overly complicated. And not just for whoever comes next. If you have to look at your own code six months down the line, you do not want to go: 'Why would I do it that way' because it is possible that you were over thinking when you wrote it, and it is possible that simplfying it now will break everything you are doing.

The college I work for switched ERP's and started using the new ERP while we were still converting and loading files from the old one (If you ever have the option, DON'T DO THIS). There is one term of overlap, that should have, in real time, been put in both systems. It should be the only term that is an exact match in both systems (since not all the data for previous semesters is being pulled into the new system). Not only does it not but, due to the way the data was moved, when I build my reporting scripts I need to include extra coding for that term specifically because a few fields are being used differently for that term. Now, until my internal reports no longer include that term (we are still about two/three years out from that), I need to remember that I cannot simplify that script.

there's just a lot of "if everyone adopts my particularly tortured way of coding, everything will be great" going on, when 90% of the time this is extremely stilted and adds instead of reduces complexity. and you just don't have to do that. you can code normal style and nothing bad will happen

[pesterloglog]

Dirk Strider, Roxy Lalonde, Autoresponder

Act 6, page 4550-4551

timaeusTestified [TT] began pestering tipsyGnostalgic [TG]

TT: Roxy.

TT: Awake yet?

TT: Guess not.

TT: Let me know.

TG: whoaa

TG: damn

TG: hey dirk

TG: hada crazy dream

TT: There you are.

TT: But I see your dream self hasn't returned.

TT: You must be tying one the fuck on tight already.

TG: mybe i am

TG: like a bow of ribbone

TG: on a beiuetuifiul ponny

TT: Man, how can you be this much drunker than last time we talked?

TT: What the hell are you even drinking?

TG: ok but 2 b fair

TG: *beiuetuifiul

TG: was an intentional typo 4 ur benefit

TG: cuz i kno you loves tha po's

TT: It's a beiuet.

TG: so you spyin on me in derse ville again??

TT: Yeah.

TG: fuckin perv

TG: like what you see there? ;)

TT: I see precisely jack shit and a side of fuckall.

TT: That's the point.

TT: You got too sauced up and went rogue again. You're out there in your weird drifting stupor, independent of your waking self's awareness.

TG: you gonna go after me again

TG: get on your hornse

TG: galloop me home like prince charming back to swoon kingdong

TG: *OOOMG blushblushbluh

TT: No.

TT: In thinking it over, it's sort of a relief. Simplifies things somewhat.

TT: It's better you stay out there for a while.

TT: There's been a problem.

TG: whatd you do now

TT: Ok, I fucked up.

TT: I kind of made a mess here, and I'm not sure what to do about it yet.

TG: ??>

TT: No need for you to worry about it for now. I'll figure something out.

TT: Until then I'm just going to prepare for our session, while I think it over.

TG: zzzzzz

TG: what a surprise another mysfery for you to keep to yourself an overly cerebralize

TG: snooorre

TG: hey lets talk about something cool instead

TG: like the dream i had

TT: Ok.

TG: first i had some ordinary boring dreams that i dont remember

TG: but then i dreamed that i woke up from the drema

TG: and things got way bright and surreal

TG: and i saw someone

TG: i think it was supposed to be my daughter

TT: Why do you think that?

TG: you know those dreams where u just know someones suppose to be someone

TT: No.

TG: ok well

TG: regulgar people have those im pretty sure all the time

TT: Are you thinking it was prophetic? Like a glimpse of the future?

TG: i dunno

TT: Because that's not really how the abyss works. It's not Skaia, and we aren't Prospit dreamers.

TT: There's nothing like that out in the abyss. If you drift far enough, there is only horror.

TT: Terrible, terrible horror.

TG: ok but im not sayin it was a futuredream!

TG: it was just a glimple and it felt real and all im saying is it was a cool dream that i wish was real

TG: * glimpse

TT: Well, maybe it was.

TT: Maybe there's no fanciful game-supplied mechanism of prognostication involved here, and you're just an ordinary, run of the mill psychic.

TT: I guess that's possible.

TG: hey dick

TG: *dirk

TG: whaaaat do u think

TG: it would be like

TG: if we had kids

TT: What would it be like?

TT: Inconvenient, mostly.

TG: no i mean

TG: what would they be like

TG: th kids

TG: u ever think about it?

TT: Can't really say I have.

TG: you know for an eccantric guy you can be boring as fuck sometimes

TT: Sorry, Rox.

TT: For what it's worth, I'm picturing them now. A boy and a girl.

TT: Two perfect little freaks of nature raised by people who've clearly got no business bringin' up anybody.

TG: shuuuucks buster its just a fun lil hyphothetical to daydream about

TG: why you need to suck the fun out of shit

TG: like some turd hungry dracula

TG: its not like im lobbyin for you to hook me up with a whole mess of fuckin babbies

TG: or thats im holding on to any such delsusion thats even a remote possibility.....

TG: le siiiiiign..////

TT: Le sign?

TG: yes le sign you heard me

TT: Do you mean * le sigh?

TG: hmm nup

TG: ima stickin with le sign

TG: goign down with the shit

TG: *shi[p

TG: the S.S. LE SIGN, starring cap'n rolal

TT: What does le sign actually mean in this context?

TG: oh come on

TT: Come on what?

TG: LE SIGN IS UNIVERSALLY UNDERSTOOT TO MEAN TOO BAD HES GAY YOU DELIBERABLY OBTUSE DUNDERFUCK

TT: I mean, yeah, that's what I thought.

TT: It would just be cool if you'd refrain from tossing about such antediluvian terms.

TG: antediulivan waht

TG: me sayin ur gay u mean

TT: Yes.

TG: ok but terminology aside i dont think im off base!

TT: I don't see how it has to be a thing.

TG: i rly think its an actual thing bro

TT: Once upon a time, sure.

TT: But the world has changed a lot.

TT: Ever peek in a history book between your wizardly indulgences? This is a nuanced topic.

TG: man i know about the histories

TG: just

TG: believe me

TG: its a thig

TT: How is it a thing?

TG: its a thing beaucase if it wasnt a thing then u wouldnt be all like...........

TT: All like what?

TG: well wantin nothing to do w me 4 starties

TT: Don't be ridiculous.

TT: I have more to do with you than any dude could possibly bargain for.

TT: And I like it just fine.

TG: what a totatly lame + sweet answer simultaneouslay

TG: <3

TT: Yeah.

TT: Now maybe we should direct our focus on a matter which has nothing at all to do with what does or doesn't qualify as "a thing", or what our fantasy alt-universe offspring would be like, or anything like that.

TT: Such as this game, and whether you're in the best condition to be piloting Jane's connection.

TT: Maybe you could use another nap?

TG: my condidions just fine

TG: and anyway

TG: what aint gonna get slept offis the fact that i still dont think we should be touchin this bs witch game w a 20 foot 3dent

TG: we both know her plans need us to

TT: I know that. But I thought we settled this.

TG: its still so frustrating

TG: tellin jane about the dangers

TG: and even if shes being polite i just know she thinks im fulla crap

TG: about EVREYTHING

TT: We settled this too. She'll believe everything eventually.

TT: Why bother working so hard to convince her?

TG: well i dont even do that for the most part

TG: but it gets tiring and saddening

TG: knowing that

TG: even when were not activly talkin bout it

TG: that my best friend cant bring herself to believe some really basic things about my life

TG: like the shitty things the baroness has done to us

TG: or about our upbringin

TG: like

TG: do u know how misrable it is for your bff to doubt you

TG: when you tell her your mom is dead

TT: I guess.

TT: It just registers for me as a reaction which isn't completely unreasonable from her perspective.

TT: She is inundated with media coverage of those whom we've claimed as our parental figures.

TT: That they are not presently alive nor ever played that role for us as she understands it is just an extension of a much more elaborate and far reaching explanation, which is much harder for anyone to digest in its entirety.

TT: Well, anyone who isn't Jake, I mean.

TT: Still say you should cut her some slack.

TG: i know

TT: And need I remind you,

TT: That the potential this game provides for their resurrection is what motivated you to investigate it in the first place?

TG: no i remember

TG: i told u a million tines shit sounds like it could be the best thing EVAAAAAR

TG: * wherein evars capsed as heck

TG: but also that no matter how awesome it might be

TG: its probly gonna advance all the schemes of "her condescension"

TT: Right.

TT: But if we can stop her?

TG: part of me doesnt even want to give her the satsfaction

TG: of startin up at all

TG: like if we didnt wuolndt that wreck her shit just so hiliariously???

TG: so many olols

TT: I must be hard of counting, because I'm barely racking up a single goddamn o-laugh-out-loud at that self-defeating gesture.

TG: no but it would

TG: and for all we know starting it up is playing right in her claws....

TG: could be a trap waintin for jane the moment she enters

TG: if i stop her from playing

TG: maybe i could at leat give her a CHANCE at a future

TT: But there is no future on Earth for them.

TT: Or for us, for that matter.

TG: dunno that for a fact

TG: but anywaaaayyyy

TG: i kinda already

TG: made this bogus file for her

TT: What? Why?

TG: 2 scare the shit out of her

TG: make her learn to fear an respect the fuckin hag like she should

TG: then maybe we can drop this whole in game meetup slash reserection idea all 2 geth

TG: sweet tho it may bey

TT: Rox.

TT: I hope you're not thinking about sending her one of your batshit ~ATH scripts.

TG: on thas sobject

TG: i am miss zuipperpips

TT: Miss Zuipperpips?

TT: The amount of sense you haven't been making is un-fucking-real.

TT: Just go take a nap. And don't even think about sending her that file.

TT: Are you listening?

TG: hnnn

TG: i will take what u say

TG: underd serisous advicement...,

TG: *WONK* ~_?

TT: Jesus.

TG: dirk

TG: when did you stop bein any fun

TT: What?

TG: it use to be youd get a kick out off a slunt like that

TG: *stunt

TT: Man, you know I'm down with insane stunts.

TT: Insane stunts are practically all I'm all about.

TT: As long as I actually AGREE with the purpose they're intended to serve.

TT: Destroying Jane's computer and dissuading her from playing is not such a purpose.

TG: betcha ur responder would agree w me

TG: why cant your be more like him

TT: I am more like him.

TG: i mean MOAAAR like him

TT: You just mispelled "more", causing me to suddenly understand jack everything.

TG: hes more in touch with his feelins

TG: which just makes me L my FA off since hes a bobot

TG: *robob

TG: **bobob

TG: and he can actually loosen up sometimes

TG: kinda like u used to could

TT: I used to could?

TG: for 1 thing

TG: he doesnt insta shootdown a bip of frisky rp shenans now n then ;)

TT: Yeah...

TT: I kind of wish you wouldn't do that with him.

TG: why the f not

TT: It just seems a little tawdry and disrespectful.

TT: And vaguely exploitative of a still-emergent cognitive entity, whose perceptional frame of reference is difficult for us to comprehend.

TG: oh come on

TG: hes cool a guy just liek you its just he lives in some shades

TT: It rubs me the wrong way, is all.

TG: ohhhh

TG: do uuuuuu...

TG: WANT me 2 rub you the right way ;D

TT: Not really.

TG: zzz muh

TG: youre over blowin this

TG: its just an ironic funny thing we do some times

TG: come on im sure you read the transcripts urself

TG: its all alot of jokestery buiishit

TT: He blocks me from being able to read transcripts sometimes.

TG: oh

TG: wow he does?

TG: sneaky bastart

TT: And anyway, I'm really not sure how ironic it is.

TG: ok next time i will run it by the MASTAR first

TG: with his fancy fuckin ironimeter

TT: Ok, here's the thing with the AR, since you still don't seem to get it.

TT: He's very similar to me in thought process and behavior, yes.

TT: But those patterns were imported from a thirteen year old version of my psyche, and then sealed into the program as starting parameters.

TT: In the years since, we've both evolved somewhat. I, as humans tend to, and he, in whatever way is natural for a frequently running, self-aware application.

TT: So if there are differences between us, they're first reflected by what I feel is a maturity gap, and then further by several years of minor behavioral divergences.

TG: omg...

TG: hes 13yo dirk

TG: why did than not occur to me that is so cute

TG: and makes me feel kinda skeevy 4 sayin anything lascivious @ him

TG: dammit you ruin everything!

TT: You're welcome.

TT: Yo, you guys realize I can hear you, right?

TG: pfffffhahaha

TT: Yes, I was aware.

TT: Check out all these complicated fucking problems people have when they have to live in big lumbering fleshmonsters instead of a sweet pair of shades.

TT: Dude, do you think you could sit this one out for a while? This conversation practically doesn't even concern you at this point.

TT: It seems there is some gnarly crooked number that represents the percentage of probability you just said this doesn't concern me.

TT: Even though it's patently obvious that half the conversation, like, way totally concerns me.

TT: Shit, Roxy look. He's doing the thing where he ironically pretends to fail the Turing test to sass me into submission.

TT: Even though I was the one who fucking programmed him to do that.

TG: ell

TG: emm

TG: eff

TG: ayy

TG: OFF~~!~

TG: like my butt is juts there on the floor

TG: is how hard i elled it off just now

TT: (Not peekin' at the floor butt cause I'm only 13 years old, motherfuckers.)

TT: This is fuckin' dumb.

TT: I'm going to leave both of you to interact however you want. I have important shit to deal with and actual responsibilities to take seriously.

TT: Roxy, go nap off your drink, or aggressively wage another flirtlarping campaign, whatever, I don't care.

TT: Just don't send that file to Jane, ok?

timaeusTestified [TT] ceased pestering tipsyGnostalgic [TG]

[theromanbarbarian]

Stable Marriage Problem

Today we are going mathematically prove feminism. Or at least an aspect of it.

Lets talk about the stable marriage problem. It goes as follows: there are two groups of equally many people: one group of handsome young ladies and one group of pretty young lads, all very straight and you are tasked with the unenviable task of matching them up into romantic couples. To make this task a bit easier each of them have ordered the people of opposite gender in order of preference. Now, obviously you cannot just match-up everybody any way you want, that would end terribly, so the rule is the couples you form must be stable. This means that we do not have a pair of opposite gender, that have not been matched up, such that both of them prefer each other to their prescribed partners.

This might not be the best way of matching them up, but at least it avoids disaster. So how we do it? Luckily, there is an algorithm for that. We have each guy propose to his most preferred lady, the ladies then review their proposals and give a soft yes to their most preferred proposals. In the second round the men that didn't have their proposals accepted propose to their next most preferred partner. Now again the women soft accept their most preferred proposals (including the previously accepted proposals). This continues until every single guy has had their proposal accepted.

This is a very simplified approximation of patriarchal (or "traditional") dating. The man proposes and the woman accepts or rejects. And it produces a stable pairing! Hooray for tradition! Additionally it's often portrayed as beneficial for women, they just have to accept or reject men's proposals, no need to put themselves out there. There is just one little snag in this, while this process produces an optimal outcome for men, it does not produce one for women.

You can see that by looking at a simple and very tragic example: lets say we have: Alex, Bob, Alice and Brunhilde. Alex loves Brunhilde, who loves Bob, who loves Alice, who in turn loves Alex. This is a very tough situation, since in any pairing will end up matching someone with someone they don't love. Lets see what happens if we apply our algorithm? In the first round Alex proposes to Brunhilde and Bob to Alice and since Alice and Brunhilde don't have any second choices they both accept. As both of the guys had their proposal accepted the algorithm terminates. So we get the pairings: Alex+Brunhilde and Bob+ Alice (which are stable), the men are happy: they both end up with their preferred partner, the women not so much. However we can see that the pairings Alice+Alex and Brunhilde+Bob is also stable and way better for Alice and Brunhilde.

This is of course not how real life dating works, but I think it still reveals an important truth about it. It shows that while the "traditional" role that women are to play in dating (i.e. of the gatekeeper of the relationship) is often portrayed as comfortable and beneficial, with the alternative (actively pursuing one) being seen as desperate and undignified (or "feeding men's egos", if you want to be insidious), it allows men to define the space of possibilities for women.

This is maybe an overly long way to reach this pretty basic conclusion, but I like that it can be shown with mathematical rigor.

[trainsinanime]

With regards to Chloé

I am enjoying the back-and-forth about Chloé on my dash, even through all the tangents, but I also feel like it isn’t actually that obscure.

Chloé is an abuser. She is callously cruel to anyone she can. And she is that way because she desperately wants the approval of her mother, who is also a callously cruel abuser. Chloé is both a perpetrator and a victim at the same time.

I don’t think that’s really in doubt, the question is just which part you focus on. This is mostly up to you, as the show doesn’t have a consistent tone here. Chloé is placed on very different points of the “ridiculous villain” to “poor little meow-meow” scale depending on what each episode needs. 

Somewhere around 95% of the debates here discuss facts that happened in episodes when they should really discuss the tone of the episodes. Chloé was portrayed as downright evil. Then Chloé was portrayed as confused and insecure, using evil to hide that. Then Chloé was cruel and selfish again. Then she was heroic. And then she was confused again, and then she was cruel again. Which of this is the true Chloé, and which of this is an aberration? Well, all and none of them. The show picks the facet of Chloé it needs per episode. And you get to project your own feelings onto her, of course.

The part where she’s given the bee miraculous is a good example of that. Chloé is objectively heroic during that phase. She’s a good fighter. She’s also selfish, and she’s being heroic for selfish reasons. There’s two options here: Either you say her heroism doesn’t count because she’s selfish. Or her selfish heroism is the first step to becoming a full-on hero. Either fits, and different episodes will lead you to very different answers, depending on whether we focus on her trying to protect Sabrina (a little bit), or the nonsense with her bee signal. I think those two parts are a consistent characterisation, but they’re tonally completely at odds. Which part you latch on to is largely up to you personally.

Apart from that, I also think there’s confusion around the term “redemption”. Whether Chloé was ever on something at least paralleling a redemption arc depends largely on how you define that, but nobody ever does, as if “redemption”, “good” or “evil” were simple obvious concepts. Very annoying.

I would argue that there is absolutely a plausible way to read the path Chloé is on as a redemption arc if you want to (but also you don’t have to). But it isn’t a redemption arc like Zuko from ATLA. Seriously, stop comparing her to him. Yes, we all love him, but both the show and his character are constructed completely differently right from the start. 

The character you should be comparing Chloé to is Cordelia Chase from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She’s functionally exactly the same character: Rich bitch, an occasional obstacle for the non-magical part of the plot, and here to deliver casually cruel one-liners. Chloé is more extreme/cartoonish, but they’re really just the same girl.

And Cordelia does get what could be described as a redemption arc: She becomes a part of the team, helps with fighting monsters, dates Xander for no discernible reason, gets transferred to a spin-off show, and then gets done absolutely dirty by that. Throughout the show, she becomes gradually much nicer, leaves her toxic girl crew and so on. However, for a really long time, she also stays a bit shallow, materialistic, and sometimes cruel, and it takes a long time for her to really admit she likes the other members of her gang. Her cruelty at that point is largely played for laughs, though.

That is a conceivable path for Chloé to take. Not Zuko, she doesn’t have any of his sincerity. By now it’s clear that she is not going to do it exactly like Cordelia did, at least not the easy way. But there is a reason why folks don’t see “she’s a high-school bully” and “she can be redeemed even without becoming super-nice” as mutually exclusive.

The real problem for me remains that the show isn’t really great at anything that isn’t Love Square adorableness, and Chloé’s arc is one of the main victims of that. Most of the time, it just doesn’t happen at all. But that’s a whole other thing.

Chloé is evil. Chloé could be better. Which side you focus on is up to you, because the show certainly doesn’t keep a consistent tone when it comes to her.

[theladyregret]

The markings thing is just lazy the way they did it. There are plenty of better ways they could have gone about it and as it currently seems, it takes away far more then it actually adds for sure.

The thing is...I don’t like the canonical implications of separation of races into RL equivalent ethnic groups that so many fantasy worlds like to do, is what I was saying. It needs to change...but WoTC is bad at this I guess, so I choose to change it myself, because it’s inherently part of the problem to do that kind of thing and I believed that long before it became “a thing” people were talking about. The official D&D rules have always just been guidelines to me and I have always tweaked and changed whatever I wanted when I wanted to. When you say “this fantasy race is the equivalent to such and such real life ethnic group” not only does that lead to a lot of the racial controversy we have currently, and why people tend to equate Elf with White and Drow with Black, but it also overly simplifies that race and what they could be allowed to be as a whole. It’s also just lazy world building and honestly I kind of blame Warcraft for this being so common for people to do now cause they were the worst with it.

When I say all races should have the ability to be ethnically variant just like humans that doesn’t necessarily mean their variations would be the exact same for every race I just didn’t feel like going into detail on it because that wasn’t the point. Saying only humans can have these dramatic variations based on world location and other races only get their base line features regardless and that applies to the entire world is?...well...boring. Also unlikely?

And when I talk about including science I mean literally just normal evolution and not magical changes, because while yes, Drow being elves and inherently magical might adapt in different ways, or maybe faster...other Underdark races that are not elves also have the darker skin tone and tendency for red eyes and pale hair. So, to me, this is not an inherently Drow thing. This is an evolved adaptation to exposure to Faezress energy...similar to how melanin is an evolved adaptation to UV Light exposure, but since Faerzress is not UV light...this adaptation doesn’t actually protect against UV light...just like Melanin would not protect against long term exposure to Faerzress radiation. The rest is pretty common weakening of traits meant for the surface in a race that now lives completely underground and has for long enough no one really recalls how they got there accurately which is a very long time in elf, dwarf, or gnome terms. The body no longer has as much use for melanin so...pale hair, less eye pigment, Infrared vision(5e took it away but I think that’s dumb and I think Underdark races should keep it, so for me they do. Everyone else can have darkvision lol), shorter stature. I know they used to also have a sort of internal compass but I think that was also removed but...I mean, makes sense to me. Why not?

So basically I think if Drow existed in a cave system that didn’t have Faerzress, like just any real life cave, they’d actually have extremely pale skin as they’d have adapted away from needing melanin.

Now in terms of the eyes...I doubt they’re completely albinistic because albinism in the eyes does more then just remove color and increase light sensitivity. Drow certainly aren’t all functionally blind but also...how do elf genetics work? Maybe they’re like cats and their genes for skin, hair, and eye color are completely separate things heh WHO KNOWS

I've seen you make commets concerning Drow skin color here and also in the authors notes of your fics. Could you go into it more? I find it a lot more interesting then what a lot of people insist on doing. Also how do you balance it with in game racial lore or do you just dismiss it completely?

God, I love asks like these.

I'm pretty sure I've already gone into it somewhere on my blog but it was in response to an angry ask so likely something people would skip over because...drama. Which is of course totally valid but I'm glad I get to go into it again in response to a nice ask instead.

I'll start with the lore question which honestly isn't very complicated in it's solution. You can choose whatever lore you like for your preference and you really don't have to change anything. All you have to do is sweep it into the nice neat corner of "creationist myth" or "religious propaganda". That is to say that these things are not meant to be historically accurate or factual retellings. Hell, they could just be outright lies depending. Even goodly folk and religions with goodly deities can have these things and followers who take it as fact and it doesn't make them bad people necessarily. Ignorant maybe? Bad...it depends on how they go about it once being faced with the truth.

So when lore says "Drow have dark skin to show everyone else that they are evil and they were banished to the depths of the Underdark as a punishment" that is just something someone decided was true...but really isn't, but people certainly may believe it is. Just as the Drow are taught that they were forced underground by the evil surface races and that Lloth is their sole protector and they are the only goodly people in the world. It's not true...but some of them certainly believe that it is.

The key is to remove the idea of black and white in terms of what is good and what is evil and whether both can exist within every race regardless of stereotyping. No race is inherently one thing or the other regardless of cultural norms or upbringing. Every race is capable of evil and good. Period. Anything that says otherwise is a myth people may have been taught and may believe is true even though it isn't.

As for the skin tone thing. I have always been a big promoter of the fact that magic existing in a world does not mean science does not. So...even if it is a fantasy world with magic...genetics still exist. Evolution and adaptation still exists. Not everything is just magic. I'm also completely against the idea of locking races that aren't human into set ethnicities. Every race should be capable of having varied ethnic features based on where they are native to and I don't mean subraces either. So...if humans in a certain area have certain ethnic features like darker skin and hair, hair texture, certain facial features...that should equally apply to all other races that also come from that area in addition to their racial features. So a gold elf can have dark skin, darker hair, broader or narrower facial features because they come from a warmer region...and still be gold elves. Same for a wood elf, or an orc, or a halfling, or a gnome etc

Applying this to Drow is a bit different only because the Underdark is a fantasy construction but largely they can have the same differing in ethnic features but also...it's always been my belief that their dark skin tone (which tends to be more purple or blue toned rather then orange) is the result of an adaptation to the Faerzress radiation. This also explains why other Underdark races also have this adaptation...even the goodly races. And why do they have white or extremely pale hair in contrast to their skin? Because the adaptation that makes their skin dark is not the same as melanin and is not designed to protect against UV light but a completely different type of energy. As a result their hair doesn't have melanin and likely their skin would be sensitive to sunlight similarly to how people with low or no melanin would despite being so dark. If a Drow has darker colored hair...or red hair, this could either be a left over recessive gene or a gene mutation. Still possible just not common.

This can also explain why red eyes are so common as well because low or no melanin levels can make eyes appear pale blue, pink, red, or pale purple as well as not being able to filter glare from light well (among other things but I'm not going into all of that here). Humans don't typically have red eyes with albinism but you can bend those rules for the fact they're elves and not humans. Just like with the hair color it's also just as possible for some of them to inherit a recessive gene that puts more melanin in their eyes giving them an unexpected color or higher tolerance to light. (this could explain Drizzt's eye color certainly but I actually think that's a whole different thing which I have also talked about before in another post and won't go into here)

So yeah, this is generally how I feel about the whole thing and have for a very long time...and honestly...solves a lot of recent issues people have with it all, I think anyway.

[snuffbomb-awareness]

xXAmLuvsXx Summarized.

Keep in mind just like the Nadzarki situation/Summary I did, I am doing my best to simplify the information to key points. I might even forget some information, as it's a LOT. 

(I do have the Doc links to both situations for others to read on, but let's keep this post an OVERLY UNDERSTATED summary!)

----

-One, while yes, was at first given the ok to go to remake clockwork, something happened to make clockworks creator change their mind. Out of respect, one would be sad, upset, respect someone's wishes and stop. (like lets not forget clockworks creator has/had to deal with so much harassment for just having their oc shipped with toby. to the point they no longer can work on clockwork as it causes severe anxiety and panic attacks. Something I relate too.)

XxAmLuvsxX HOWEVER, Keeps going on with their remake, even stating they knew they were ripping off clockwork at this point and calling them "Time-lapse" .



-When xXAmLuvsXx went to update Time Lapse, they ended up being called out for stealing clockworks' updated design to remake Time Lapse.�� To the point where it was obvious that xXAmLuvsXx was purposely going out of their way to steal clockwork over all and "make her better" (rude.) Yet kept most of clockwork's story plots. so like..?

xXAmLuvsXx did admit on livestream to stealing this redesign as well.

-xXAmLuvsXx then lies about a friend dying of cancer to try to get well, sympathy while excusing them using that situation to write in TL's story.

-While we are at it, xXAmLuvsXx decides to also harass clockwork's creator but make this thing.

"Forcing Clockwork to bow." Again at this point, xXAmLuvsXx was actively ignoring Clockwork's creators wishes and was 100% fine with doing something like this to just add salt to the wound. Not the only artwork like this, they made on where clockwork is beating xXAmLuvsXx up and her oc steps in to K**l her. OH and another like this:

(Ok cool, I'm down to make AU ships but this is clearly just shitty behavior) - xXAmLuvsXx Would also harass ANYONE who drew clockwork.

-and WAIT there is MORE: Lets add, stealing another OC! This time a fan's child version of Toby. Yay!

-Toby's creator then, you know, not wanting this person to draw Toby since they were actively harassing their close friend. Of course xXAmLuvsXx doesn't care and won't listen. Ironic because Toby's creator actually reached out to help out xXAmLuvsXx when they were going through personal ab**sse but xXAmLuvsXx couldn't be bothered.

-after getting called out(first time), xXAmLuvsXx tried to play "this drama is too much, cant we be friends?" Including making ship art of clockwork and time lapse. -Moving on, She makes a black oc, who is trans then also called them a d/y/k/e, using many black stereotypes to make this oc, INCLUDING using the HARD R N-word. I remember seeing those, but I don't think anyone had time to grab SS. -Oh and is she done ab*ssing Clockwork? NOPE. Draws her OC getting R**ped by Clockwork. (the picture is also my header tho MEME'd) She then Laughs off people getting rightfully upset over this drawing. -xXAmLuvsXx MADE a hate Instagram account and attacked others OCs HARSHLY!! Just full on hate account. Think 2013 "ranting community" -Clockworks creator isn't the only one harassed, she also harassed another calling her things like "Bimbo" "Bimbopasta" etc Incase at this point you are wonder. "Wow this is shit but where does this end up?" WELP NOW I must get into the harder topics. Again i'm doing my best to summarize and i'm fully need to state that this IS being under explained by me. -xXAmLuvsXx Starts sending P**rn to minors! YEP. Time Lapse and Toby p**n Art, to a minor. ALSO flitting with said minor while at it but "Respecting the fact you aren't into woman" She then sends a picture of a P*rnstar to this same minor. (who for that time is 12 years old and lasted years) -She makes this same (at the time 13 year old) send her money to GO to a concert. of course not for free. It would be a commission, where xXAmLuvsXx instant suggested a NSFW commission. -At some point, xXAmLuvsXx got n*des from another person (not a minor) and threated to leak them if they didn't do what she wanted. (Which was PERSONAL information) -Then xXAmLuvsXx sends more NSFW to minors. (one being a 16 year old, who asked her to stop.) -Back to the 13 year old, xXAmLuvsXx tries to gaslight, and emotionally manipulate them "I thought they where a friend I could trust :( " -xXAmLuvsXx had also a private NSFW insta, that she TAGGED a minor (rping as clockwork) in. ONCE AGAIN, also of R**pe art with NO warnings for those sensitive to said topics. -THen sends stuff to a group chat filled with minors (14-17). Srsly WOMAN you are an ADULT! Find ADULT friends! Though you are an danger to minors and have proven you DON'T care. - MY GOD, This WOMAN! Then starts FAKING (proven) Game ending, and weaponizing S*lf H*rm. (She would use both repeatedly to keep friends under her control) One image she sent of her SH was off of google images. Then TRIES to blame the minor she groomer for her game ending! Or attempted to frame it this way. -This:

This time she also posted pictures with a knife and more threats of Selfdeletion... oh, and threatens to harm friends who try to reach out to help (even after all this shit) -weaponizes her own ab*se, stating "even though im a survivor of ___ and ab___." To try to avoid accountability. -She also started to steal (rather lie) money, and states she would need it for food, but in reality it was for cosplays or concerts! (also once again some of these ppl being minors) There is A LOT MORE! But honestly going through this again to write this all down (AND YET STILL ALOT, im sorry) There is SOOO many things, too much for me to list. I'm already feeling mentally drained thing and revisiting all this. TLDR: xXAmLuvsXx is a narssistic abuser, not ashamed of gr**ming Minors, Threaten, harassing and ab*sing anyone. Does NOT respect boundaries. and will weaponize SelfH*rm, Self deletion and their Ab*se and r*pe to avoid accountability. Is fine using slur like the hard N-word, F-Slur, etc.

[blackbird-brewster]

Another CME thing: I actually am liking the JJ/Will work life balance plot so far. In the original series, when this came up for either Hotch or JJ, it was overly simplified.

For example, when JJ gets back from the state dept it's all 'Will preferred when she was there because she worked less', but from the get go we're set up to side with JJ because we know she missed the BAU. It feels like an unchangeable situation that has to be put up with. Similarly with Hotch/Hailey: from the first time we see them we know that nothing will really change, it's just a matter of how much of Hotch working like this Hailey will tolerate.

While in 2 episodes of this plot now, we have Will and JJ having a productive conversation about this. They talk about making time, and there is an undertone that if they can't work out making time, maybe they need to change/end in the relationship. Not in a 'JJ sucks and is working too much' way, but in a mutual 'they care deeply for eachother and deserve to be in relationships that have time put into it'.

(I love and appreciate all of your CME asks!!!!!!!!!!)

Yes, you bring up very good points!! Like everyone here knows I really dislike Will (always have for many valid reasons, I don't dislike him JUST because he's JJ's husband. He just has too many red flags for me and I dislike his motivations and his character.)

The ONE theme through all the seasons regarding JJ has always been 'Will hates me working long hours.' And in Evolution we finally get to see that play out on-screen, which I agree, is pretty interesting.

You absolutely nailed it when you said:

They talk about making time, and there is an undertone that if they can't work out making time, maybe they need to change/end in the relationship. Not in a 'JJ sucks and is working too much' way, but in a mutual 'they care deeply for eachother and deserve to be in relationships that have time put into it'.

I have ALWAYS thought this. Like, I very much believe in the concept that sometimes relationships work until they don't. Meaning, sometimes two people who still love/care about each other just grow apart and have different priorities and they become incompatible to a point where they need to go their separate ways.

I could 100% see this happening with Will/JJ. I imagine both of them getting to a point where they're simply no longer happy together and they WANT each other to be happy, but sometimes the way to find happiness again is by breaking up.

I also think it's interesting how ALL of the promo interviews talked about how JJ and Will moved to New Orleans for a while then came back so JJ could re-join the BAU. But so far....we haven't heard about this AT ALL?? I think *maybe* JJ says something about 'being back' but it's in a vague way in mid-conversation and it doesn't actually tell us anything about their move to New Orleans or what prompted them to return, etc. And I WANT to know about this, I think without the full scope of what's been going on for JJ over the past few years, it's hard for me to fully invest in the complex relationship she and Will have.

On this note: MOST of the 'here's what the team have been up to' reveals in pre-release interviews haven't been discussed at all yet. Yeah, I know we've only seen 2/10 episodes but you'd think in the first two episodes would be when they established 'here's the background of what we've all been doing'?? Idk if I'm making sense.

I guess I'm just saying, the pre-release interviews made me more interested in the reboot than the actual episodes have lol

[zenalios]

[Warning: Long ramble ahead]

I have been thinking about Poseidon for an entire day, and not in the horny way. Much as I love to hate him, if I’m going to write about him, I need to know what makes him tick, right? There’s not much to work with if you look on the surface (seriously, I screenshotted and reread his chapters many many times, this twinky blond’s surface personality is almost as flat as an ironing board).

This all stemmed from me exploring whether or not Poseidon would have affairs. And someone else reminding me that canon Poseidon would not (again, thank you, you know who you are). The answer to this?

It depends. haha thanks law school  No, but seriously, I think I have gotten a grasp of his personality, hear me out if you have the time.

How does Poseidon actually function?

If he deems himself to be perfect, what does Poseidon actually do after all, since almost anything could be demeaning for him to do? Author has left us with a few things to work with that he won’t do or associate himself with, and instances where he acted out upon facing them:

Schemes and betrayal - Adamas schemed against Zeus (outcome: Poseidon killed him)

“The herd”/Support - The crowd cheered for Poseidon (outcome: no deaths, but he gave them a death glare and insulted them)

This could possibly extend to more, including protecting his reputation as the “perfect” being, the god of gods (”GOG”). 

But if we go along those lines… why did he even show up or participate in Ragnarok? Did Poseidon sign himself up? A tournament of this level could easily be interpreted as scheming too. That, and now he has to perform in front of the other gods, who he called a “useless bunch of bottom feeders”. Excluding the fact that the Author called him in as a champion (or Zeus, if we want to get cheeky), why did he agree to become one? He’s so perfect, he shouldn’t have to waste his time fighting humans, right? Why does he even care to attend anyways? Is it to watch their demise, which, again, they’re so trivial for a perfect being like him, so he shouldn’t give a shit about it anyways? Is he a repressed god who enjoys fighting like Thor, Zeus, and Shiva? We don’t get the impression he does, because Poseidon has never even had to try his hand at fighting someone better than him; he literally just one shot Adamas and that was it. Poseidon could have just turned down being a champion -we know he’s the most feared god, and nobody dares question him, so actually, nobody would have said anything if he decided not to. The audience didn’t even know he was fighting, so really, he didn’t stand to lose anything if he didn’t participate.

Here’s what I think. He participated because he knew he was strong, and he thought he could make a point there about how insignificant humanity is. His arrogance was further boosted by Thor’s crushing defeat of Lü Bu, and Zeus’s defeat of Adam (who was considered mankind’s trump card too). If they can do it, so can he, because he is the GOG.

What if he’s just doing things to prove a point? It’s very childish, yes. But so is the way he talks and behaves (I play a MOBA, and he sounds like all the trashtalkers I’ve ever met “ur trash uninstall game n00b” <3). He is like a teenager that has taken it upon himself to go through that “Nobody understands me” “I’m better than everyone” phase for all eternity.

Take having an affair for example. As pointed out, affairs can lead to a weakening of his divine reputation, and also, vulnerability. These are things Poseidon would be loath to fall for. So... no affairs? Not necessarily. The gods had tons of affairs. Zeus is literally depicted as a lecherous old man, so there is no way he was not having any of his own as well. With the exception of best boi Heracles, Ares, and Hermes (counting those we have seen so far), I think all of them would have had at least one, one way or another.

BUT, is being lustful contrary to being perfect? And if you successfully resist said lust, does that place you above everyone else? Yes, and yes. And how does Poseidon see himself?

Perfect. Above everyone else. The GOG I can’t not use this term, it’s so pretentious to me. On the topic of affairs, this would actually mean he deems himself impervious to lust as well. Poseidon would do it just to prove that he can, that he is fully conscious of himself, to prove that it’s just sex, just libido management to him, that he alone is capable of having an affair and emerging unscathed (this is childish, Poseidon is stupid).

WHICH NOW BRINGS ME TO THIS.

Why, for the love of the gods, is Poseidon like this?

Apart from the Author just writing him like so, I do believe there are certain underlying factors contributing to his trash personality. 

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was not always satisfied with Zeus’s rule. Though he was not overly jealous, he did attempt to overthrow him once or twice. Homer’s Iliad even mentions that Poseidon has schemed to bind Zeus, along with Hera and other fellow Olympians (think Adamas gathering everyone to do it). 

Poseidon in Ragnarok is never mentioned or shown to be jealous of Zeus; however, this does not exclude him from resenting that he did not become the king of gods. Zeus is their younger brother by order of birth (not counting the second birth), hence he should defer to the older brothers. It’s likely Poseidon thinks the same, there’s literally no evidence he is even loyal to Zeus other than him directly ending a plot that would overthrow Zeus by killing the source of dissent. All he says is that Adamas has defiled everything they stand for a bit harsh, man. Self-projection, maybe? The only difference between them would be that Adamas has chosen to take action and gathered everyone else to do it, while Poseidon just sat there and sulked about it. Then he takes it out on Adamas for bringing it up to begin with. 

I really believe this would resonate with Poseidon. If he’s that good, that perfect, the GOG, as they call him, why then was he not made the king of gods? Does it make sense for the GOG to not... become the… GOG? Underneath the entire “gods are perfect we need no one, gods don't need to scheme, gods don't need betrayal, bla bla” spiel, all I see is an entitled bastard salty geddit that he didn’t get the throne despite the fact that he never fought for it, simply because he thinks he’s so good it should have been handed to him on a golden plate instead of it going to Zeus. 

And when Sasaki pinpoints what he has not done, he gets even more tilted than a player whose match just got thrown, and winds up throwing his own match. Because even though Hermes mentioned that “the true depths of the ocean god remain a mystery even to his own kind”, someone who has lived life to the fullest like Sasaki can easily call him out on his bullshit. Which he of course becomes absolutely incensed at. Sure, he's played by these rules for eons, but if a person has been that way for so long, they would simply be confident and shake the insult off. Why then, is Poseidon so angered by Sasaki's statements? It's simple. After so long, someone has finally seen through it or dared to call it out after seeing it. The gods might not have, since they all believe they're perfect (re: Zeus, "such are the gods"), but a human certainly would.

Killing Poseidon can essentially be simplified into this:

Passion vs apathy (not empathy, again, it is 7am)

Action vs inaction

People you actually want in your life vs toxic people you don’t (I’m kidding, but seriously)

Overall,

Poseidon is a hypocrite and is so self-absorbed that in his own world, he plays judge, jury, and executioner.

“Perfect” this, “perfect” that. The whole thing is an act, ocean man is a sham. Poseidon excuses away his actions by insisting that perfect beings do not need to do such things. Then he goes and does them, but picks apart other people for it. After Adamas attacks, he becomes history erased from the books -hello, this is another scheme between yourself and Hermes, what about gods not needing to scheme? On top of that, doesn’t killing your brother count as betrayal anyways? 

Anyways, yes, he’s stiff, he’s trash, I would not wish meeting / dealing with him upon my enemies, but he is a very nice challenge as a writer to try and pick apart his character. 

[ghostietea]

On Tohru and Akito: a long overdue analysis

As some may know, Tohru Honda and Akito Sohma from the manga Fruits Basket are pretty much my all time favorite protagonist/antagonist pair. They just work incredibly well as thematic pieces and driving forces of the story in relation to eachother. And beyond even the surface level they have a rich and layered goldmine of parallels that make them fascinating to think about. While it may make many a newbie raise an eyebrow, I think this is a fact that is to some level pretty widely acknowledged in the fandom proper. However, there is another level of their relationship that is often mostly left out of analytical conversations about them and their parallels: their eventual friendship. Something which, partly due to screentime, is often somewhat simplified down and misinterpreted. Which I think is a shame because, when you look at it, their eleventh hour friendship is deeply interwoven with their parallels and the very thematics and ending of the story. So then, what’s really going on with the girls that stand as part of the thematic core of Furuba? Beyond (most of, true analytical objectivity is impossible in interpretation) my personal sentimental feelings, let’s talk Akito and Tohru: their parallels, relationship, and role in the story overal. Read more present, this is going to be a long one but I hope you stick around 😊

One facet of Akito and Tohru’s role in relationship to eachother that I think is both interesting and imperative to understanding their purpose is their nature as eachother’s foils, especially their parallels. See, the two girls are both opposite and the same. Takaya sets them up as foils before we even properly meet Akito, as you can see in these panels: 

However, their foil relationship becomes a lot more intriguing once their similarities become more apparent later in the story. Just think about it: two girls with boy’s names whose fathers died when they were young, leaving them alone with their mothers, who both developed behavior that, according to the environment that they grew up in, would keep them from being abandoned. Akito, coming from the cultish Sohma clan where she was treated as a God to the point that she thinks she can do no wrong and has tied all of her self worth to the role, plays the part of a male ruler who must uphold tradition and keep the zodiac with her by any means. Akito is terrified of being abandoned, especially since she has no idea how to have relationships outside of the context of the bond, only exacerbated by the fact that Ren, one of the only people that openly questions her role, has constantly told her that she’s useless and will be abandoned. This is something that informs all of her (many, terrible) decisions and leads her to try desperately to keep the curse together, something which puts her in direct conflict with Tohru, who actually wants the curse broken in part so that she won’t be abandoned. Tohru may not be as obvious with her abandonment issues as miss screeches-at-people-not-to-leave-her, but they still inform a good deal of her character. Like Akito, she develops behavior around the time of her father’s passing to try to keep herself from being abandoned, mirroring her father’s proper speech because she was worried that she was losing Kyoko.  But, as she grew older in her much warmer environment, Tohru turned to kindness instead of fear to capture others, maintaining a facade of extreme positivity, politeness, and determination so as to not bother anyone. And, while she hides it, Tohru just gets worse after losing her mother. She becomes dedicated to preserving her feelings about her mother as is, refusing to move on much as Akito also refuses to move on from the curse and what her father wanted. Then comes the beach house reveal, where Tohru learns that Akito plans to take away her new family, even locking up the one most precious to her. Tohru tells herself that she’s going to break the curse for the freedom of the zodiac and cat, but she is also, in a way, doing it to keep herself from being abandoned. Later this feeling changes to become more focused on preventing the loss of Kyo himself, something which Tohru doesn’t want to admit. Tohru is a truly good and kind person and does want to help, yes, but also some part of her is doing this to keep the ones she loves by her side, understandably as she is a teen that recently lost the person she revolved her whole life around. But it comes to a point that you have to realize: Akito and Tohru are both motivated by the same thing, they just present it in wildly different ways. I don’t think that I have to explain how exactly their behavior foils eachother, the more worldly and modern Tohru acting on radical kindness and acceptance and thinking she deserves nothing while the sheltered, traditional Akito uses manipulation and fear to get what she thinks she is entitled to. It’s very apparent, but just gets even spicier in the context of how similar they are. Another parallel is in Tohru’s mom picture vs Akito’s father box, both relics of their dead and favorite parent that they are extremely protective of and treat almost like it is their deceased parent. Early in the series Tohru is seen carrying around a photo of her mom which she talks to, something which seems pretty harmless, until we consider how terrified she is every time she thinks she’s lost it, even going as far as to refer to it as if it were her mother.  Notably, it barely shows up in the second half of the series, as she reluctantly drifts away from her mom and towards Kyo. In this later part of the series, we are introduced to Akito’s box, which she (semi, it’s complicated) thinks contains her father’s soul. Akito’s box is shown in a much darker light, from how the reveal of what it us to her is framed to how cruelly she reacts when it’s being stolen. Akito’s box is to Tohru’s photo what their owners narratively are to eachother: a dark mirror.

Ok, and now for the reason that I think it was important to bring all these parallels up first: because as you cannot understand Tohru and Akito as enemies without understanding their differences, you cannot understand them as friends without knowing their similarities. While it is easy to write off Tohru reaching out to Akito as just another case of Tohru being Tohru, that does a disservice to the full picture. I’ve seen around in the fandom that a good deal of people seem to think Tohru trying to befriend her is just Tohru being overly kind and forgiving, and this is something I think ties back a bit to some early fandom misconceptions about Tohru. Bear with me for a second, this is going to be a bit of a tangent but it ties back. It’s died down some now, but in the early Furuba fandom it was very common to just think of Tohru as a pretty flat nice girl doormat character, which besides misogyny is probably partially the fault of the 01 anime, which cuts off before we get to see more of Tohru’s insecurities and tones down what we do see (also, in the case of the relationship I’m talking about, 01 ads in that God awful end confrontation that I despise for being everything that I’m about to argue the ACTUAL confrontation that I like is not). Manga Tohru is a very subtle character, she hides a lot of her feelings behind a perpetually happy front which doesn’t start to let slip until later. And, since it’s later on in the manga which went unadapted for years and is mixed in with a bunch of crazy stuff, I think Tohru’s quiet development is often somewhat overlooked. For example, early series Tohru is very well known for the speeches she gives to the zodiac when she first meets them, speeches that, importantly, always tie back to things that her mom said. Tohru’s worldview back then revolved completely around Kyoko, so it’s probably a bit of a thing that in the later story, when Tohru draws ever nearer to the realization that she must move on, she does not give her mom speeches anymore? As opposed to the early story, when it was pretty much back to back character intros, in the late story Tohru notably only gets to befriend two new Sohmas: Isuzu and Akito. Notably, she doesn’t quote her mom either time, these are both people that she can relate to on some of her more hidden issues, and she shows a more personal side of her emotions in her turning point confrontations with them than she did earlier. It is especially important to realize that, in her confrontation on the cliff, Tohru is deciding that she is willing to go against her mom. Early series Tohru was a front anyways, and is a different Tohru from the one that finally gets through to Akito. I was using it as an example, but the evolution of Tohru’s befriending confrontations will be important later. Furthermore, there is the perception of Tohru as a doormat. Listen, Tohru may be very kind and polite, but one of her defining characteristics is being very determined and strong willed when need be. This is something that is especially relevant to her interactions with Akito. From the first meeting outside the school, Tohru knows to be wary of Akito and even breaks politeness and shoves her when she senses that Akito is making Yuki uncomfortable. This sets up immediately that Tohru can and will stand up to Akito. This is driven in even farther at the beach house, when Tohru, after again physically getting between Akito and a zodiac, decides that she will directly go against all of the Sohma family’s centuries of tradition and Akito herself to break the curse.  There’s even a cute moment when, upon remembering Akito telling her not to, Tohru just decides to meddle even harder. Tohru, while polite about it, does not like Akito and puts herself in direct opposition to her. Tohru does not originally want to be Akito’s friend, or to have anything to do with her. The cliff scene is not just Tohru befriending someone because she just is over forgiving and loves everyone (an argument can be made that she still goes to easy on Akito, but it’s in line with how the narrative treats her too so that’s another conversation), there was a specific reason both that she chose to try to get through to Akito and that it actually worked. Up until their big confrontation, Tohru still thinks of Akito as a threat, and while she has gotten more information that shakes up her view of Akito, she still doesn’t understand her well enough to see her as much more than an obstacle. Then Akito barges into her yard when she’s just been rejected, crying and confessing how terrified she is of being abandoned, of things changing, and Tohru just goes still, eyes wide in shock. And she realizes: her and Akito have been afraid of the same thing the whole time.  This is when Tohru decides to try to reach out to her. Because Tohru, on a deep level, sees Akito because of their similarities.  She calls Akito out on her insecurities, and Akito reacts badly, accusing Tohru of being “dirty” and trying to condescend.  Tohru partially rebukes this, not trying to hold herself above Akito as pure and righteous, but instead confessing her own fears of abandonment and change in an attempt to empathize with Akito.

At this part of the story, Tohru is fully coming into the realization that, in order to live her life, she needs to stop clinging to this idea of an “unchanging” relationship with her mom, something that scares her quite a bit. She realizes that, while she saw the flaws in Akito’s “eternity” and tried to destroy it, she had not been as perceptive with herself, clinging to that same notion. Tohru is an incredibly repressed character, especially in regards to emotions she thinks of as “dirty,” and she is showing a remarkable amount of vulnerability in this scene. Another thing to note about Tohru is that she, in her immense repression, will often process her own issues through other people. We see this throughout the story, from her showing grief over her mom by crying for Momiji and his mom to her projecting her fear of losing Kyo onto Kureno and Arisa. So then, it’s quite something to consider that the last Sohma she befriends is the one most emblematic of the issues she keeps locked up tightest? That as she’s speaking to her she’s deciding to move forward from her own fears? In a way, could accepting Akito be a symbol of Tohru accepting what she thinks are the darker parts of herself? Akito is also coming to a realization about moving on, acknowledging that the zodiac curse is coming to an end and that everything she believes is a lie, and she is absolutely distraught about it. But Tohru, in a way that nobody else does, understands Akito, and wants Akito to be her friend. Not out of pity or reverence, but a desire for solidarity. And this is the very reason why Tohru was actually able to get through to Akito. As we see with Kureno before he gets stabbed and Momiji at the beach house and when his curse breaks, it’s not like people haven’t kindly tried to get through to her before.

Of course, the reason it worked for Tohru can also be partially chalked up to the fact that Akito herself has come a long ways in personal realizations to the point that there’s just some things she can’t deny anymore, but that’s not all. Akito tends to react very negatively to what she sees as condescension, she thinks people want to try to pick her apart and see how she ticks just so they can look down on her, so they can see her as lesser. She thinks Tohru is trying to condescend too at first, especially since she perceives Tohru as this holier than thou saint wannabe. Fascinatingly, Akito’s view of Tohru is incredibly similar to that early fandom idea of Tohru as an angelic mary sue, and she hates her for it. She thinks that Tohru is trying to be like this and is seen as such, and that she (Akito) is the only who can see that Tohru is wrong somehow.

But Tohru rejects this notion of a pure her that both the fandom and her early self tried to project, presenting herself as flawed and human and purposefully trying to not put herself on a pedestal above Akito. She makes it very clear that she’s not trying to condescend, she is the same way (well, sorta) and she gets it. Notably, after this point Akito doesn’t accuse her of looking down on her, instead freaking out temporarily because of how much Tohru called her out before venting about her fears to her. And, while, partially due to outside circumstances, it does take Akito a bit longer to accept her offer of friendship, she legitimately manages to get through to her very soon after this point. If Tohru had tried one of her early series mom speeches on Akito, or just tried to blindly accept her without understanding, it would not have worked. Akito would have just written it off or reacted badly and left it there. But because Tohru tried to befriend Akito out of understanding as an equal it actually worked. You can’t separate Akito and Tohru’s parallels and their eventual friendship because one aspect is integral to the other.

A connected aspect of their relationship that I see talked of very little but is actually a pretty strong undercurrent is that of equality and power. To explain this, we have to look at Akito for a bit. Throughout her life, pretty much everyone around Akito has either put her on a pedestal or looked down on her. This is something that not only greatly damaged the way she thinks of herself and others, but has given her an intensely hierarchical view of relationships. We even see this notion clearly take form for her in the black paint scene, where she decides that Yuki, who she’d previously seen as the same as her, has to be lesser or else she will become useless.  From the moment Akito was born she was “God,” an existence above everyone else. Even her own father only seems to give her affection for being God, and when he dies and she takes his place as the head of the family she is just elevated even farther at an extremely young age. The only people (she thinks) she’s close to are the zodiac, and the curse itself puts an inherent power dynamic into that relationship that can only be overcome with its undoing. Akito clings to her power, to her rank in the hierarchy, all the while the very thing she desperately upholds has made her the real outsider. Akito, who does everything in the name of belonging, was always alone from the start. As Tohru points out, as long as she is above the group she cannot be a part of it.

Simultaneously, and almost contradictory to the pedestalization and power dynamic aspect, Akito is extensively coddled and pitied. A lot of the older adults around her treat her almost like a crotchety, spoiled child. A child who is coddled to the point of never being given any reprimand or instruction on just how to behave like a functional human being until things have gone far too far. Then you have cases like Kureno, who seems to still see Akito like a kid, pretty much just coddles her as a job, and only stays because he pities her. This leads to a strange dual sided dynamic in multiple cases, where Akito is seen as someone’s better and has more power but is also being looked down upon in a way too. Akito has never in her life been seen and treated as an equal, so it’s pretty important when it is made clear that Tohru tries to befriend her as an equal. After all this time, Tohru, an outsider that is not under Akito’s control, who can hold her ground in a challenge against her, is finally the one to meet her on the same level. There’s this page that I adore that symbolizes this idea really nicely. It opens on a panel of Akito sitting a distance away from the zodiac who are all having fun together, a motif we’ve already seen a few times, but this time Tohru sits down right next to her.

This page comes at a critical moment, when Tohru is offering her hand in friendship to Tohru, it’s Akito realization of what Tohru is trying to do. Later on, we get Akito narrating what this page was showing, which I think I just need to put in:

We also see a bit of their conversation after they reunite in the hospital later, where Tohru again denies that she is better than Akito. Now, I think both the Tokyopop and Yen Press translations of this scene are a bit weird, the Tokyopop version uses the word “pretty” (confusing) while the Yen Press uses “kind” (don’t think that’s the best word). However one time I saw like a Malaysian english release in the half price books that used “pretty on the inside” and I like that best so I’ll just pretend that’s it.

I think this scene is interesting because it could seem like they’re just talking about morality but that’s not it. This is, once again, Tohru pretty explicitly trying to stop the creation of any sort of hierarchy between her and Akito. It’s not about right or wrong, Tohru know very well that Akito’s done things wrong and actively worked to stop her, it’s about not wanting them to be put on some sort of different rank based on morality and Tohru understanding Akito enough to empathize with the fact that (wrong or no) Akito was really hurt by Tohru and they won’t get anywhere if they don’t acknowledge that. Furthermore, I’ve already talked a bit about it already, but I think the way that Tohru asserts that she gets what Akito’s feeling and thinks she herself is “dirty” during their confrontation is relevant here too. She is, again, presenting herself as someone on the same level who understands Akito and is not being nice out of pity. This then leads to the page I talked about before which is again, Akito realizing this! This is a huge moment for her, someone who has had all of her relationships messed up by inequality and has no idea how to have a normal relationship, who is having a breakdown because she thinks that because of this it’s too late for anyone to love her, to have someone who understands her and wants to meet her on the same level. Even if she tries to deny it and shift blame, at this point Akito has realized that the zodiac bond is not what she thought and that she has been acting horribly. The groundwork is already there for Akito to have a change of heart, especially considering that a lot of her horribleness stems from legitimate extreme ignorance and her obsession with the bond so once she’s snapped out of that… The main thing that’s holding her back past that is that she’s panicking and cannot see a way forward. So then when there’s someone who actually gets where she’s coming from instead of just tolerating her and is offering her the sort of friendship that she’s never gotten to have of course she’d go for it! Tohru Honda has proven Akito wrong in ever way and, in the end, she even proves her wrong on her greatest fear: that she can only be wanted because she’s God. Because of Akito’s specific issues, nothing could have been more powerful for her than someone coming to her as an equal. Again, the piece about why Tohru could get through to her. It just wouldn’t be the same if Tohru didn’t have a reason to want Akito around or if she somehow saw Akito as below her, the very core of their relationship is the destruction of hierarchies. From the beginning Tohru has been trying to destroy the hierarchy of the zodiac, and when it comes down to it she does not take Akito’s spot at the top, but decides to stand beside her and the zodiac instead. Early in the series we see Akito trying to have some power over Tohru through fear, but when the time comes and Akito is pretty much defeated Tohru does not take power as the victor, hoping that Akito joins her instead of being somehow defeated. And at the end of it all this works, and Akito dissolves the zodiac and with it most of her power and her godhood of her own accord. 

Despite their relative lack of page time, Tohru and Akito’s relationship has always been something that I come back to. Sure, a lot of that is just sentiment as they meant a lot to me when I was younger, but I think there’s something there. They work amazingly as protagonist and antagonist, contrasting nicely and working as symbols of both sides of the thematic conflict. There’s a palpable tension to their early interactions that makes you both scared and interested to see what happens when these two inevitably have to go head to head. But then, as the story goes on, it seems more and more like they are a tragedy, so similar yet on different sides of the story, fated to have one of them stuck with an unhappy ending brought on by the other.

But, even as dark as it gets, that wouldn’t really be Fruits Basket, would it? In the end, Tohru and Akito’s similarities win out, not their differences. I think it would have been so easy to just make this a story where the sweet heroine “saves” the villain just because, but that is so blatantly not what’s going on. Tohru simply sees herself in Akito, she’s not trying to somehow fix her and nor should she have to, she just wants to be her friend. And then the two manage to overcome their driving fear of moving on, forging new bonds and inspired by their interaction with the other. It’s not like Tohru somehow fixes Akito’s problems, Akito has to do things herself and in fact independence is a big theme of her endgame arc. Tohru simply offered her friendship, and that was enough. There’s a distinction to be made between how Tohru inspires Akito and Tohru somehow “saving” her, because Akito very much has to learn to save herself in the end after a lifetime of pushing her issues onto others. And, as a side note, all this is sort of why it bugs me when people act like Tohru would be like a mom to Akito. First off, Tohru shouldn’t have to be the mom to everyone. And, kind as she is, Tohru is also not a Kureno, she sees and interacts with Akito in a completely different way and their relationships with Akito are one of the big points were Tohru and Kureno differ. Second off, Akito has spent her life coddled and clinging onto anything that she can hold onto as a resemblance of parental affection to a toxic degree. Part of her arc is that she needs to grow out of this, become more independent, and have more balanced relationships. Akito at this point does not want or need to make a mommy figure out of one of her peers, and doing so may in fact be regressive. Sure, she will definitely need a level of guidance going forward, but it would be more beneficial for her to learn from example and under more of a friendly, balanced context coming from multiple people, not one person holding her hand. For all the reasons I’ve gone over in this entire post, I think it is much more meaningful for Akito to have Tohru as what she was canonically presented as in text: someone who sees her as an equal. The whole point of their relationship is, again, the defiance of hierarchies, something which I think is often sorely overlooked even though it is very openly there in text. And that, in part, is why I think their relationship is so powerful to me. Beyond hero and villain, right or wrong, or any story roles, it’s about two girls finding solidarity and friendship on a very personal, human level. This is Akito for the first time being seen not as this distant, untouchable male deity or some pitiful being, but as a flawed, hurt human girl who is nonetheless capable of change and being loved. This is Tohru coming out of hiding, presenting her flawed, terrified human self to someone she saw as an enemy. Fruits basket is, in part, a story about friendship and defeating systems of power and abuse. Even in a messy third act that muddles its themes at times by weighing character endings too heavily on het romantic love, especially in regards to the women (Hello Rin, Machi, Uo, ect.), Tohru and Akito stand out as a friendship that is given a huge amount of narrative weight. It just feels nice that, in a story that often focused on the power of relationships between women only to ditch all that and focus primarily on their relationships with men, these two girls are one of the driving forces of the endgame. The curse didn’t get broken by romantic love, but by the friendships everyone made along the way, including Tohru and Akito. Tohru has gotten it to this point, and now Akito just needs to bring it to a close and finally end things. At the very beggining, before this all started, all the cat wanted was for the God was to move forward and live as a person among the humans, and, finally, a long time later that wish was granted. The tale of the zodiac gets its happy ending not by a villain being defeated, but by the power of friendship and solidarity between women.

[doodleimprovement]

Thor kept odd hours. 

Being an engineer for TIMECO would do that for you. Being on call for emergencies would also do that to you. As well as being eccentric in your own way. He was just always up and about at weird times for the sake of either work or his own creative endeavors. 

So it wasn’t odd that he was up when his communicator started to beep incessantly - usually he was already awake when they needed him for some sort of technical emergency. 

What was odd was the name popping up.

- AnnaBella Gracia - 

Thor grabbed the communicator and activated the voice call, holding up the communicator to his ear.

“Nell?” 

“Your ship, is it verified for flight?” She started without so much as a hello

“Uh, yeah. I just got the shields working. Why?” 

“Prep the ship” She practically ordered, catching him more off guard than he already was. 

“What? Nell- “ 

“I’ll explain when I get to you just prep the ship!” 

And then his little sister hung up. 

He stared at the communicator with vast amounts of confusion. Nell was not the panicking type. He’d never heard her that frantic, not since his niece was 4 years old and she’d nearly fallen down a staircase. Arieta was the only thing that would get a reaction like that out of his sister. It didn’t bode well. 

He shook his head as if that’d clear it of his concern, and he rushed to his hangar, looking up at the ship, and panting a bit at the exerted energy. 

If she needed it, it’d be ready for the deepest recesses of space.

--

When Nell arrived, she had nothing more than a single bag… and no Arieta bounding up behind. 

“... Nell, where-” 

“She stole the ship”

Thor couldn’t think of a reaction appropriate to that, giving her an expression that he hoped conveyed the correct amount of bewilderment. 

“I need your ship.” She walked past him into the hangar. 

Thor let the situation sink in and took in a deep breath, following behind her. 

She was already walking onto the ship, not wasting a single second. 

“Nell!” he called down from the entrance, not getting onto the ship. She turned. 

“... The tank is full. Once you're on your way, call me and tell me what’s going on- okay?” He called out, the concern in his face blatant. 

Her expression was cold, perhaps overwhelmed, but she nodded, and the door shut in his face.

 --

Thor was distracted at work, something you should not be when working with proprietary TIMECO TIME Tech, but it couldn’t be helped. His conversation with Nell once she was on her way to chasing her daughter down had left him concerned and stressed. Not nearly as much as his sibling, obviously, but still. He’d taken several breaks already to straighten his head out, but he just was not in it that day. 

“Thor Gracia-Vego” The intercom spoke up “Please come to the office for an audience” 

The engineer sighed. Of course. He couldn’t have an off day without being needled by his boss. 

He went over to the office area, and standing outside the door was his overseer, and the CEO, Tim. That day he was dressed in a button-down shirt and slacks, but his shoes were a more casual style, a bit unusual for the CEO of TIMECO. 

“Thor” The man greeted casually

“Boss” The employee nodded formally “What do you need?” 

“Tellian and Orphei said that you’re distracted.” Tim got right to the point, as always. He was leaning against the wall in an overly casual way. Thor assumed that after 500 years, that sort of decorum becomes less important. 

“... My sister and her daughter are going through some things and I'm concerned” He answered vaguely. It really wasn’t his boss’ business, but Tim was invasive with Employees in the TIME sector. He hoped the answer was sufficient. 

“Ah yes, your sister. AnnaBella, is it?” 

“Yes sir” Thor kept his arms behind his back, but clenched his fist at an unwanted memory. 

“You helped them move to Caprico, yes?” 

Thor nodded “They needed a new start after.. What her partner did, if you recall my request” 

Tim nodded. “I do, and I can understand that. Her daughter is experiencing growing pains I assume? Trying to spread her wings?” 

Thor managed to not look suspiciously at his boss. “... That's a simplified version of it” he responded. 

“Hm. Well, if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask someone for help. I know your sister is very important to you, and as one of my best engineers, you and your family are entitled to nothing less than all you need” He stated as if reciting a pre-made statement.  

Thor nodded cordially. “I will, but I have faith that Nell can talk it out with her daughter” He confirmed “She’s more than capable of handling some communication issues” 

Tim nodded again “Mhm..” The CEO stood up straight again and out the window with his hands in his pockets “She had a lot of promise as a pilot from a young age. Aced all of her tests. Such a shame she had that accident” He commented offhandedly “Perhaps now she’d be flying directly under my watch, working with you” 

“... It was her decision. What happened to her was very traumatic. I don’t blame her for not wanting to be in that position again after all that.” 

“She made a full recovery and still flies for vacations” Tim pointed out. 

“Everyone handles their baggage differently, boss. She preferred to keep her feet on the ground as much as possible.” Thor pressed, managing to restrain his annoyance at his CEOs odd passive aggression. “Do you need anything else from me?” 

Tim gave Thor a knowing look, then offering a flat smile “Take the rest of the day off, come back tomorrow with a clearer head, hm?” 

Thor gave him a curt nod “Have a good night, boss” 

“You as well, Thor.” Tim waved the man off, and Thor turned on his heel and left, speed walking away as fast as he could.

[the-ghost-king]

I think most of the olympians are characterized semi well, except for aphrodite. I don't have a problem with aphrodite being awful, but i wish we had gotten a more twisted version of her meddling and interference. I think part of the problem is that we see all the gods through the eyes of mortal until toa and they are going to have a different perception fo things. I sort of get why apollo was written the way he was, but it's still annoying at times because its an ancient deity written for 10 year olds. I liked his moments when he seemed more ancient and classical even though those moments are few and far between. Most of the gods fall into very obvious tropes, which was fine for me when i was young but now that im older i want more depth which rr just cant provide in his writing style.

ps. do you prefer the pjo gods or the kane chronicles gods?

Eh, I think it's hard to say any of them are characterized well considering how godly personalities are viewed by Hellenistic polytheists. Each individual will feel a different way about a certain god and interpret their presence a different way, to say a god is characterized well is mostly a subjective experience, so it's almost impossible to do so objectively.

However, I think yes Aphrodite was really poorly written, Apollo is also one of the worst written gods by Rick. Apollo is a god of civilization alongside Athena, meaning he has a deep respect for the order of humanity. He was considered one of the most Hellenistic gods by the Greeks, and often overseen the writing of treaties and the creation of cities ("that a town or a colony was never founded by the Greeks without consulting an oracle of Apollo, so that in every case he became, as it were, their spiritual leader"). He's also a god of sciences, and very smart because of it. He is rarely angered or overly invested, and is often described as kind, energetic, and cheerful. He's extremely femme, often depicted in women's clothes, with women's hairstyles (and has even been confused for Kore in some art), and yet he is known for his athleticism. He's a god of agriculture alongside Demeter, and god of light and the sun alongside the titan Helios.

And he's not at all what Rick wrote him as, a self-conceited, bored with humanity, priss who's also a jock. I bet from Rick's writing you also never knew Dionysus was basically a god of gender? And yeah sure, if you know the myth of Dionysus's origins you know about how he was raised as a girl but the fact that Dionysus also often wore women's clothes and hairstyles is completely erased from Rick's work... (Part 2) Or maybe most of Dionysus personality? Yeah sure, one could argue that he's maybe a bit peeved at not being able to drink and having to babysit kids, except wouldn't some of his personality still come through somewhere? Like his clairvoyance, or go with the flow kind of attitude? Where's his love of peace, and his love of theatre? I am thankful at least we got to see some of his madness.

I can go on really, about Hera, and Hermes, and Ares, and Persephone, and so many others. Rick's characterization of the gods is almost like he took the idea of them and then remolded it to be whatever he wanted. I'm not here to say there's a correct way to depict the gods, because as aforementioned it's a very subjective experience which is encouraged in Hellenistic Polytheism- however a lot of what Rick did shows a lack of care in many ways. That's avoiding even really truly digging into the amount of queer erasure (most specifically genderqueer erasure) in Rick's depiction of many Greek gods (and some goddesses too).

I understand the need to simplify them but the need to alter them significantly? It's very weird to me, and I'm not Hellenistic Polytheistic or anything but even as just someone who's read up a lot on the myths it's very quick to see where he went wrong. I've seen more complaints about the PJO fandom than Rick's books in Hellenistic Polytheistic communities, but the books are also criticized.

Again, subjective not objective, but simply to compare Rick's version of the gods to the original myths he is very far off the mark, which is fine if that's how he sees the gods, but I still think he was very far off the mark (again avoiding erasure, which is objective not subjective).

As for my favorite, I like the way Rick wrote the personalities of the Egyptian gods, he did a much better job with making them less simplified and more of a full individual. I will say I am not as familiar with Egyptian mythology, and I have only kept up with some of the stories about Anubis and the underworld, so I don't know how accurate his depiction of the gods is in comparison to them in mythology. I'm more familiar with Egypt and it's gods from historical standpoints than Mythological ones. So in that case the Kane Chronical gods, but even then I'm very aware that Rick was well off the mark with them- whitewashing is common in TKC and that's a whole problem in and of it's self.

[flying-elliska]

thank you @sinterblackwell for tagging me in this bookish ask game! these questions were really interesting !

how many books are too many books in a series ? i'm honestly pretty tolerant for long book series, i love seeing a world develop over lots of books - started the bone season series recently which has 4 books so far and is slated to have seven, it's going to be a bitch waiting but at the same time there is something so thrilling about having this sort of returning event year after year (i grew up with the HP books so that really marked me i guess). that said i think that only really works when the authors have solid plans because when an author gets stuck and you have to wait ten years for the next one that really sucks (lol GoT). and i think beyond 7-8 it's definitely getting excessive.

how do you feel about cliffhangers ? hmmm...depends if they're well done or if they feel like shock value. i think every book needs to feel like a cohesive unit and some cliffhangers happen too soon, without enough resolution - that said, i love it when books open up a new (but related) mystery in the last few lines

hardback or paperback ? i used to buy paperbacks only but over time those really get damaged super easily (i've moved a lot) and it feels like a waste of space and paper. so now i'm doing this thing where i mostly buy ebooks and whenever i really like a book and want it in my permanent library - or when a new book is coming out that i know i am going to love - i buy hardbacks ; at least when the covers are aesthetically satisfying. i just really love the idea of starting to build my 'forever library'

least favorite book ? it's tied between Manon Lescaut, which i was forced to read in high school and is the most irritating story ever about an old timey dude falling in 'love' with a prostitute and blaming her for it and everything else that goes wrong in his life until she dies and he can 'be free' ; and The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi which made me so uncomfortable i had to stop like one third of the way in and is a torture p*rn, fetishistic, racist mess about a Japanese cyborg girl who gets exploited and abused by everyone she meets. It's possible that these two books were trying to make a point about how the things they're depicting were bad, but there is a level of misogyny and violence that feels too illustrative, exploitative and graphic to ever serve that purpose properly in my mind.

love triangles, yes or no ? i'm not against a love triangle when it's well done, i.e it has a real impact on the plot and is tied into the themes of the story. For example, I think the triangle in the Hunger Games is a good one, because Peeta represents (to simplify it massively) peace whereas Gale represents violence, the escalation of war and never ending conflict, so Katniss choosing between them is not just about moody teenager feelings. That said, the trope has definitely been overused in YA ; I really hate love triangles when it's just an excuse to stall the plot and throw in artificial delays because the characters are being wishy-washy and indecisive and non-communicative assholes. also i wish more of them got solved by polyamory or something.

the most recent book you just couldn't finish ? last year, If I loved you less by Tamsen Parker, a modern wlw retelling of Emma which I expected to love but the overly casual-quirky writing and the excessively immature MC just irritated the hell out of me

a book you're currently reading ? rereading The Raven Cycle right now, I'm on the Raven King and I'll reread Call Down the Hawk after, I want to get to Mister Impossible

last book you recommended to someone ? Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

oldest book you've read ? hmmmmmm not sure but the thing that comes to mind rn is the Tao Te Ching by Laozi, 6th century BC

newest book you've read ? ehhh probably Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell

favorite author ? lol i absolutely cannot answer that question no matter what i say it feels like a betrayal

buying books or borrowing books ? buying, i'm a shitty borrower tbh because i like having books sit in my TBR pile and just randomly decide to read them out of the blue

a book you dislike that everyone else seems to love ? the night circus by erin morgenstern - it's so popular everywhere and I wasn't even able to finish it ; it's the epitome of style over substance for me ; sure the descriptions are beautiful but they feel so empty and void of any meaning or character development ; it drags for chapters and chapters and then boom ! instalove, which is when i dropped it because that's one of the things i hate the most. i checked the rest of the plot on wikipedia to be sure and yeah it annoyed me too so.

bookmarks or dog ears ? bookmarks. i only ever dog ear my study books

a book you can always reread ? letters to a young poet by rainer maria rilke

can you read while listening to music ? nooo it's way too much input when i get into a book it's Intense i can't deal with anything else

one pov or multiple povs ? i absolutely love a well done multiple POVs when the switching allows you to compare the perspective of different characters and how it shapes the narrative and how they think of each other and how it slowly all merges together ! Especially when it's dumbasses in love pining over each other !!! chef's kiss !!!

do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days ? depends, i binge when i have the time and it's gripping but not always and that's fine

who do you tag ? @beeexx @all-the-wr0ng-places @smblmn @peoniesandsmiles @bremmommye @dorkdumplings @petitspaceling @hellswolfie @iamshannonmcfarland if you want to no pressure !!!