memorizingthedigitsofpi

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

Y'all this next ep of MBMBaM is an all-timer.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

i've had so many conversations with people in fandom/creators' circles who are genuinely afraid to make the stories or art they want because they fear (often with good reason!) that their friends might kick them out of their circles, or worse, launch a public harassment campaign against them.

as someone recovering from this fear-based mindset, i want to affirm:

- friends who use implicit or explicit threats to maintain social control are not your friends

- communities that monitor your social media and ao3 to surveil you for perceived transgressive content are not safe communities

- the vast majority of people are NOT going to hate you if you make the art you want

- if you find yourself in a friend group that makes you feel afraid to speak your mind, it's in your interest to disentangle yourself from that group as quickly as possible

- real, honest disagreements between friends can be solved respectfully without the use of public shaming

- if you're feeling afraid in a community, it's likely that others are feeling afraid too. support your friends who may be struggling to leave an abusive fan or creative community, and let them know you're a safe person to voice doubts and disagreement to.

- if you're feeling like you'll never find a safer community of people, i promise there are others who feel that way too. it may take some time, but you'll find people who treat you and your ideas with respect. a good place to start is the people who make the type of art that you admire but that you're too afraid to make yourself.

ok that's all, take care of each other and be nice 💜

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

it will pass but like can i at least get an eta

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

Sometimes I forget people aren't multishippers then I see someone talking about how they used to ship something then got a new ship and I'm like what do you mean you aren't just collecting ships like cool rocks you see on the ground

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

Update: I remain employed!

Unfortunately, not all of my coworkers can say the same 😭

is this paranoia or am I legit seeing signs that im about to be laid off

Time will literally tell 🙃

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

I truly truly believe that the most important thing you can do in fandom is be a cheerleader. comment on fics. reblog art and rave in the tags. support the people making the things you want to see. this is how you keep a fandom alive. this is how you get more of what you want. you never know: that person could have decided to make more just because you liked it.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

ao3 but make it tumblr - site skin

I've had several people over the years tell me I should make a site skin that makes AO3 look like tumblr. Well, I learned the float property and now here you go!

You can get these two colourways over here on github. No promises, but I might update with additional colourways in the coming days. As always, I've included instructions for how to apply a site skin if you've never used one on your account before.

I've seen some folks use the title "work is published Wednesday" and I like it, so I'm going to drop it at the end here.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

Two colorways (mostly) done ✅️

I've had a few people ask me over the years if I could make a site skin that would make ao3 look like tumblr. I think I might actually have the skills do to it now??

(so far, so good anyway)

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

“Authors should not be ALLOWED to write about–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“This book should be taken off of shelves for featuring–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“Schools shouldn’t teach this book in class because–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“Nobody actually likes or wants to read classics because they’re–” you are an anti-intellectual and an idiot

“I only read YA fantasy books because every classic novel or work of literary fiction is problematic and features–” you are an anti-intellectual and you are robbing yourself of the full richness of the human experience.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

Cookie Review: Selena Gomez Oreos

There is something about the way in which the words SELENA GOMEZ are emblazoned on this package, larger and more important than OREO.

It's a little bit of a joke to say that these cookies have the flavor of Selena Gomez, but I do think that's how they're positioned, as otherwise, what is it? Selena Gomez is known as an actress and singer. You don't buy these cookies because you think that she makes great cookies which is then somehow distilled by the food scientists at Oreo, or that she has good taste as a culinary expert, no, the important thing is that they are a totem of the cultural artifact of Selena Gomez, a way to have a piece of her in cookie form. There is something of the Eucharist in it, a mystical communion with a transcendent figure.

There is, in small print, a concession to the idea that these have a specific taste that can be divorced from Selena Gomez herself. They're cinnamon and chocolate. But not just cinnamon and chocolate: Selena's cinnamon and chocolate.

Somewhere, there is a real Selena Gomez, but we are now so many steps removed from her that her name is a simple signifier, pointing not to the real physical woman, but to the concept of the woman. In the same way, the flavor of the cookies is one of the least important things about them, positioned in small print at the bottom of the labeling. The text sits there embarrassed, ashamed to admit that it is not simply the flavor of the abstract concept of Selena Gomez.

I read Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation and kind of hated it, mostly because it said with many words what could have been said with few. But one of the things that stuck with me was the idea that we have entered an era of hyperreality, one in which traditional distinctions between reality and representation have collapsed entirely, a world where we have symbols which refer only to themselves. The symbol of Selena Gomez still does point to a person and her body of work, but when looking at this package of cookies we can see how the symbol spills out beyond the bounds of reality. We are left to grapple with the fact that some things are implied to have Selena Gomez nature. This is the promise of the cookies.

And this raises the question: does the real, actual, living person Selena Gomez possess Selena Gomez nature? A part, certainly: this is the wellspring of the symbol, as managed and curated as she's been since her early days as a child actor. But we must expect that there are parts of Selena Gomez that don't have Selena Gomez nature, and in some sense we could call this authenticity, but in another sense, inauthenticity.

And even those elements of Selena Gomez that are known and presented to the public in this carefully curated way might not have Selena Gomez nature. The modern memetic cluster that defines Selena Gomez, the Selena Gomez referred to on the package of Oreos, has little to do with her childhood performances, and in some sense they are alien to the symbol now.

The most striking part of this packaging, for me, is that Selena Gomez appears to us only in letters, only in a monogram on the face of a cookie, a pair of headphones with Selena Gomez nature, a specifically chosen metallic red color that must also have Selena Gomez nature. But there's no image of Selena herself, the flesh and blood person, all that is merely implied, but also unimportant. You are meant to recognize the name, or possibly the aura.

They taste about how you'd expect a chocolate-cinnamon Oreo to taste.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

fandom spaces were better when the media creators didn't know we existed and we didn't want them to find out.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

is this paranoia or am I legit seeing signs that im about to be laid off

Time will literally tell 🙃

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

The thing is, if they'd billed it as "[ship name] Ship Month" scheduled for October and run it alongside whatever kinktober events might be happening, there would not have been this amount of pushback

There probably would have been some mockery of how strict the rules were, but it would have stayed in the fandom instead of exploding out like this

I mean, I dont even go there and *I* know what's going on

I'm all in favour of people who want those kinds of strict rules creating an event for themselves. They can have fun too, in their own way. It just really is coming into a space they hate and trying to dictate to it that caused this whole mess.

Just carve out your own niche! You don't need to try to bulldoze an existing one!

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

it's starting to shape up!

I've had a few people ask me over the years if I could make a site skin that would make ao3 look like tumblr. I think I might actually have the skills do to it now??

(so far, so good anyway)

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

I've had a few people ask me over the years if I could make a site skin that would make ao3 look like tumblr. I think I might actually have the skills do to it now??

(so far, so good anyway)