ethaninthewilde

[ethaninthewilde]

*smirking* you couldn't waterboard that out of me, but even if torture was an effective method of information extraction and not a futile display of state-sanctioned sadism, the high percentage of false confessions it produces would mean that even if you could waterboard it out of me, could you even trust the veracity of my statement?

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maybe growing up is just becoming who you were at 14 again but learning how to love her this time

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it’s fucking wild because one day you’re like i guess i’m not dying tragically young and you go to the store and you buy dental floss, ingredients for soup, and a bath mat

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I'm in the negative EEG straight up jorkin it

And by it I mean my PNES

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The best advice i can give any creator is do it before you're good at it, do it BEFORE you're happy, do it while you suck, do it while you're doubting yourself and get stuck the fuck in, because waiting around to be "good enough" is a motherfucking trap of the highest degree. You'll get good along the way and better after every project is complete. Remember, this is the greatest thing you've ever created, and then you'll do something else. You're only ever gonna get better, but not if you stand still.

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the mitski patti harrison interview is good

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Hnngh. The Audible "hack" is making the rounds again, with people claiming you can use your Audible credit to listen to a book and then return it "for free." While I am the first among many to say "fuck Amazon and we should gullotine Jeff Bezos," I need you all to know it's not Amazon refunding you.

It's the authors.

They take that out of our royalties. And that's after they take 80% of our royalties on sales we do make.

(Note: Also, do not assume that your credit is worth the price listing that Amazon shows. Amazon does not pay us the cost of the listing. ((WHICH THEY PICK, we cannot set our own prices on audiobooks and then that forces us to use the Amazon price for the rest of the market!!)) What we get is 20% of the credit's value, so my book might appear on Audible for $20-30. However, if you received an Amazon credit for one of those $4.99 deals, I'd get 20% of $4.99. Yes, it's fucked, it's all fucked. Yes, other audio retailers do the exact same thing. This is one of the reasons authors don't make half as much money as people think they do.)

This became such a big issue that they had to make it impossible to return books after a certain point without talking to a customer service representative, because people were using Kindle/Audible and Amazon's return policy "like a library," and some authors (myself included) were getting royalty checks that showed negative income.

At this point, I don't even know if the Audible "hack" still works (Amazon has made changes to protect authors from this kind of thing at a glacial pace), but I need you to know it's not Amazon that's refunding you. This isn't a fun little "fuck Amazon" thing. The way Amazon has it set up, it's directly fucking the authors over.

So, yeah. Obviously, if you download something and can't get into it, or if something pops up on the author's side that makes you not want to support them anymore, yeah, process that return. Yeet the bitch. But please don't use it "like a library."

It's really harrowing to see your predicted income based on sales and then find out you're getting one-tenth of that because of refunds. And it's not even because people didn't like your book. They're just using the wrong place like a library and fucking over your algorithm as well, because once you get too many returns, you stop getting promoted.

Try using a library. You can access places like @queerliblib for FREE provided you have a US library account that you've hooked up to Libby. It's a little bit of work, but once you've got a card number, you're golden.

Just, y'know, throwing it out there because I don't think people realize this is how it works. You're not taking something back to Walmart, and Walmart is eating the refund before dumping the item in the garbage. Amazon takes the refund, turns to the author, and takes it off our plates.

Note: this does not affect Kindle Unlimited. Flip through the end pages to give the author maximum pages read, and then return that bad boy so the author can get paid. But also, please, maybe think about switching to a Kobo+ account instead. It offers the same subscription-based membership without demanding exclusivity, so authors aren't locked into just Amazon the way they are with KU. (Royalty rates are roughly the same, but it's a better deal in terms of allowing broader market access.)

This has been a rambling and exhausted PSA from your local peddler of weres.

[ethaninthewilde]

[ethaninthewilde]

when it’s really bad again and it’s still way better than it used to be but it’s still really bad. and you do all the right stuff and you try and try and it still really hurts but it’s working but it still hurts and you go see the beautiful majesty of nature and your soul is so close to being at peace but your mind is still in pain. and it’s better but it’s still bad. and the sun is setting.

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NONONONONO YOU GUYS DONT GET IT THE GODS ARE AMERICANIZED!!! ZEUS IS A PARANOID TYRANT BECAUSE THATS HOW AMERICANS THINK OF KINGS!!! POSEIDON IS MELLOW RATHER THAN TEMPERMENTAL BECAUSE THE ANCIENT GREEKS DIDNT KNOW HOW TO TRAVERSE THE MEDITTERANEAN AND THE SEA WAS VERY DEADLY TO THEM BUT AMERICANS VIEW THE SEA AS A VACATION!!! ARES IS VULGAR AND CRUEL AND A BULLY BECAUSE THATS HOW (most) AMERICANS VIEW WAR - AS A LAST RESORT BECAUSE WAR IS RUTHLESS!!!! DEMETER IS AN OVERBEARING MOTHER IN LAW BECAUSE AMERICAN WOMEN HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN ANCIENT GREEK WOMEN AND NOW HAVE THE ABILITY TO CHOOSE WHO THEY MARRY SO IN THIS VERSION OF THEIR STORY PERSEPHONE MADE THE CHOICE TO WALK INTO THE UNDERWORLD AND BECOME A QUEEN AND STEP INTO HER OWN POWER BUT HER MOTHER CANT LET HER DAUGHTER GROW UP AND TRIES TO HOLD ON TOO TIGHT - THEIR STORY IS STILL THE PAIN THAT A LOT OF MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS EXPERIENCE JUST DIFFERENT TO ANCIENT MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS!!!! THEY'RE MODERN!!!!! THEY'RE AMERICANIZED!!!! PLEASE NO LISTEN TO ME THEY REFLECT THE CULTURE AND THE TIMES LISTEN TO-

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i really like this thing where websites will have separate "log in" & "sign up" buttons and if you click "log in" it takes you to a sign-up screen anyway so you have to click "i already have an account" and then it will ask if you want to sign in with your facebook account or with instagram or linkedin or deviantart or whatever, and if you choose "username & password" it asks if you want to put in your username or use your thumbprint, and once you put your username & password it emails you a confirmation code, and once you put in the code it says "do you want to give us your phone number for future sign-ins? do you want to sign up for facial recognition? do you want to give us your bones? give us your fucking bones?

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I see your “Will hates Percy for what happened on the bridge” and raise you: “Will hates Silena for what happened on the bridge.”

Because Percy may have been the one to break the bridge, but why was the bridge so overwhelmed that it was deemed necessary? Silena.

The Last Olympian, pages 204-205:

Jake Mason cleared his throat. He'd been standing there so silently I'd almost forgotten he was in the room.

"Percy, something else," he said. "The way Kronos showed up at the Williamsburg Bridge, like he knew you were going there. And he shifted his forces to our weakest points. As soon as we deployed, he changed tactics. He barely touched the Lincoln Tunnel, where the Hunters were strong. He went for our weakest spots, like he knew."

"Like he had inside information," I said. "The spy."

Silena is canonically the actual reason why the Apollo Cabin got slaughtered on the Williamsburg Bridge, and I almost never see this even acknowledged, let alone explored.

Like, imagine being Will here. Your cabin, your family, has just been absolutely decimated by the battle. Your older brother, your mentor as far as TSATS tells us, is MIA, with certainty growing that he’s dead, and you couldn’t even help with the search because Annabeth was in desperate need of healing, and as the best healer left (as far as we know), you were her best shot at survival. Suddenly, you are now head counselor, and it’s now your job to ensure the survival of your remaining siblings. You are also 13.

And then, you hear that the reason why you were so overrun is because of the camp spy. That someone in your midst told the enemy that you were the weakest point of camp’s forces. That someone in your midst told the enemy that your leader, the one person they’re desperately trying to get rid of, was headed for your location. That someone in your midst is (in part) directly responsible for the deaths of your siblings. That’s already reason enough to hate the guts of whoever did it.

But then… the drakon. The Ares Cabin finally decide to show up, and you hear that Silena was the one who got them here, losing her life in the process. You now have to mourn yet another friend and ally. Then it comes out that she was the spy. That she was the reason most of your siblings are dead. That she was the reason for your other siblings’ lives now being on your 13-year-old shoulders.

And then… when the dust settles and everything’s over, she’s lauded as a hero. She gets the same honored sendoff as all the campers she helped endanger. Her shroud is burned right next to the empty shroud of your still-missing brother, right beside the other kids who she effectively killed. And based on what we see in HoO, “Silena was a hero” seems to be the prevailing opinion among the camp. Everyone just seems to have forgotten, or worse, are straight-up brushing aside, the massacre she caused.

Wouldn’t you be PISSED?

[ethaninthewilde]

legitimately worldview altering realisation and i'm not even employed right now

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I never said boyfriend! Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Season 2

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New stills from s2 of Percy Jackson!!! Everything looks so good!!

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that flag’s staying uncaptured