#I have a bajillion things to do for English

[novastar-creations]

I miss my kids

[bmpmp3]

i keep choosing like the hardest songs possible to try to learn to make midis for vocal synth covers on. why do i keep doing this to myself. like is that reverb doubling back creating noise, vocal doubling, or a harmony. if its a harmony i'll explode on impact

[olderthannetfic]

Now I'm wondering how countries like Japan and China teach literacy.

Since kanji / hanzi don't really have that much in the way of phonetic elements, they kinda have to teach them by memorization and I don't think they have many reading comprehension problems over there.

(Although both countries do have supplementary phonetic writing systems in the form of bopomofo and pinyin for China, and the kanas for Japan)

--

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It's a little closer to teaching vocabulary than spelling, but the same kinds of principles apply: You teach the building blocks, like the traditional radicals, which aren't so different from teaching Latin and Greek roots in an English class for English speakers.

And, as a matter of fact, lots of those radicals do predict pronunciation, just not in every single case. They can also be clues to meaning, but again, not absolutely consistently. Many characters have a sound-cueing radical on one side and a meaning-cueing radical on the other. It's just that only some are still useful in the modern day, while others are more like the English word 'plumbing' where knowledge of Roman lead pipes explains why this word comes from the one for lead, but the root probably wouldn't help a kid learn the word in the first place.

One similarity to teaching phonics would be teaching students to tell very complicated and similar characters apart: you want to help a student spot all the little building blocks of the character and then spot the ones that are different, not just glance at the whole character and get a general overall vibe. If you do a whole look-based approach, too many characters are too easy to mistake for one another.

Remembering a bajillion Chinese characters is hard if you're trying to memorize them in a year and not all of elementary school, but I think people who don't read them underestimate how many component parts there are and how approachable they can be if you start by learning fundamentals, not just memorizing a few individual characters as though they have no relation to anything else.

They're actually pretty systematic, just in the way that English spelling is with its overlapping systems and historical artifacts, not in the way that highly regular Spanish spelling is.

Having taken a lot of Japanese classes, I will say that Japanese as a foreign language textbooks often do a piss poor job of this and totally do teach kanji in a sight words-y way... But my Mandarin class started with important foundational concepts that served me well in Japanese later even if I bombed out of Chinese class at the time.

Can you tell how irritated I am by all the foreign language learners who think characters are sooooo hard when, really, it's just their crappy textbook? Haha.

They're moderately hard in the way that learning a full adult spectrum of vocabulary is hard, but people do that for foreign languages all the time. The countries that use characters do tend to make sets that are smaller for certain kinds of applications, same as we have things like simple English wikipedia, but a literate adult will always know lots more, whether it's from their career in engineering or their predilection for historical romance novels.

Uh... anyway, the answer is "Bit by bit in elementary school, just like in any other country".

[waitineedaname]

I've finally done what I inevitably do for nearly every fandom i get into: I've made a deranged spreadsheet tracking some linguistic element in a piece of media! this time it's tracking the usage of swears in Scum Villain. if you're curious, here's the full spreadsheet, but I'll write up my findings here

some notes on my methods!

I differentiated between internal and external use. external use is pretty straight forward, that's just dialogue said out loud. for internal use, that's when it's used in the narration. obviously, this is skewed towards Shen Qingqiu as our primary POV character, but occasionally the narration dips its toes into other characters' perspectives, so I kept that in mind and assigned the usage to whoever seemed most relevant in that snippet of narration. also, in the case of the transmigrators, I also counted speech directed at the System as internal because they're less likely to self-censor when talking to the System because no one else can hear them

this was done by searching for specific words and their variants in online copies of the official English translations of all four books. there are a bajillion different swears in the English language, but I tried to focus on the most common/most likely to be used. also, since I was searching for the words manually, there are going to be some that are missed because they're written out abnormally, like lengthening the word for emphasis (eg. fuuuuuuuuuck) or censoring it (eg. b- [BLEEP]). side note, i don't know why the hell SQQ ever censors anything since he seems pretty comfortable thinking some pretty foul things without censoring them, but whatever.

now for the results! data breakdown under the cut

in total, of the swears I searched for, there's 286 swears across all four books. book two is the most vulgar, with 82 swears, and book three is the least, with only 52. book two also has the most variety (14 different words) and book three has the least variety (only 10 different words)

perhaps unsurprisingly, out of these 286 swears, SQQ's internal narration is responsible for 200 of them. his most used swear is "fuck" which appears 106 times in total and 86 times from SQQ (internal) specifically

following SQQ (internal) in the rankings is Shang Qinghua (internal) at 30 in total. his most used swear is "fucking." after that is SQH's external dialogue (14 swears, most used is "fuck") and then SQQ's external dialogue (11 swears, tied between "fuck" and "fucking"). considering how much he swears in his head, I think SQQ is exhibiting a surprising amount of restraint when it comes to swearing out loud!

aside from the transmigrators, the most vulgar side character is, surprisingly, Shen Jiu! he gets two internal uses of "fuck" and two external swears ("shitty" and "damn"). these are all from when he was younger, so perhaps this is a habit he broke when he got older and had to present a particular image as peak lord

the only other side characters who swear are Sha Hualing (internal), Bingge (internal), Linguang-Jun (external), Qiu Jianluo (external), and Ming Fan. all of them only swear once except Ming Fan, who gets two (one internal and one external)

of the 18 swear words I tracked, SQQ used all of them except one. the only person to say "bitch" is Ming Fan, out loud. #MingFanMisogynyMoments

SQQ does, however, have a monopoly on motherfuck/motherfucker/motherfucking, goddammit, dumbass, dick, and pussy. damn dude, you kiss your disciple with that mouth?

pre-transmigration, Shen Yuan swore three times in one forum post, those being "fucking," "damn," and "ass."

most usages of "ass" are for emphatic purposes, like "Relax, my ass!" Both SQQ and SQH really enjoy this construction lol

despite volume two being the most vulgar, it has the least variety of speakers! SQQ is responsible for all but two of those swears, the other two belonging to Sha Hualing and Ming Fan. volume four has the most variety, likely because it just involves a wide variety of characters

and that's my data roundup! go forth and use this as a resource when choosing how to insert swearing into your SVSSS dialogue <3

[maream-zaream]

Don’t know if this is still going on, but here’s a (kinda) quick drawing of Ink in that one haori in that post by @letsatomicbanana !

Additional notes under the cut (be warned though it’s a lot lol):

So when I saw the post I ended up reverse image searching the photo in order to see in what context this haori and hakama would’ve been worn in (though it didn't really matter in the end, as I just ended up drawing Ink painting on their sleeve). Just to like get an idea of what kinda thing I wanted to draw Ink doing in it and stuff, as well as just to get a better idea of how it’s supposed to look when worn. Now, for this specific one I’m not entirely sure, as since it seems to have been reposted on like a bajillion different websites, with many of the ones listed in the search not being in English. So needless to say, no clue where this thing came from!

However! My search wasn’t for naught! From the list of suggested links from the Google search, one was for a haori and hakama set from a rental clothing company called “Keio” (I think… keep in mind I’ve still been using google translate since the website was in Japanese lol). The specific outfit in question was this:

Now, this looks very similar to the one Banana posted, so I’m going with the assumption that the two outfits were probably made for similar purposes. Especially since not many adult haoris are made this these kinds of intricate designs (at least none that I could find). Anyways, this ensemble was listed under clothing one could rent for their child to wear for the Shichi-go-san (literally “seven-five-three” in English) Festival.

((Now quick disclaimer for the following: I am not Japanese nor any sort of expert on Japanese culture and history! As such, take the following with a grain of salt and I very much encourage you to look more into this festival on your own, as learning about this holiday was quite fun and informative and I would be 110% be happy being corrected for any misinfo, whether that be in the tags, reblogs, or any other method most preferred! Also, I've listed the websites I used here at the end of this post for y'all to check out after reading, apologies though for no footnotes.))

Continuing: During Shichi-go-san, parents bring their children of ages three, five, and seven to visit a Shinto shrine to celebrate the children’s growth and to wish or pray for good fortune. Why these ages? Glad you asked! It’s because three, five, and seven are considered auspicious ages in East Asian numerology, with this also making the date this festival is held— the 15th of November— especially lucky! It’s also interesting to note how the festival was originally exclusively done by the aristocracy and samurai families, though the tradition spread to the common people by the Edo period (1603-1868), though how the festival is currently held evolved from the Meiji era (1868-1912).

Now for the actual visit itself, traditionally five year old boys wear hakama and haori like the one pictured above (as traditionally this was the age that first allowed them to wear hakama in public), with seven year old girls going wearing a kimino with an obi (similar reasoning to the aforementioned boys; seven was the age where girls would traditionally begin wearing obi). For the three year olds? Girls may wear a hifu (a type of padded vest) and both genders seem to be able to wear hakama kimonos (take the three year olds dress stuff with a grain of salt though, not 100% sure on it lol). Also interesting to note is how in the past the age of three was the last year that parents kept their kid’s head shaved before allowing it to begin growing out more, though this practice of hair shaving seems to have fallen out of fashion around the 1800s.

In more modern times, many of these aspects are still upheld (except obviously the aforementioned hair shaving) during the Shichi-go-san festival, of now of course though with the modern addition of parents taking this opportunity to get lots of photos of their kids in formal attire lol. Additionally, parents also often get their kids some chitose-ame (longevity candy)—a type of sweet hard candy—after the shrine visit!

Slightly unrelated, here’s a quick sketch I drew of Ink eating this candy cause I thought it’d be funny:

He is NOT getting his rental deposit back (…is that a thing? Idk I’ve never rented clothes before lol)

ANYWAYS, I just wanted to put this stuff down cause I found learning about this festival really interesting and thought it to be relevant with the whole Japanese-attire thing lol. And again, don’t be afraid to correct me on anything and/or add your own additions to the info written above!

List of sources:

Tsukihana

Kids Web Japan: Shichi-go-san

Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia

Wikipedia page for Shichi-Go-San

Have a great rest of your day/night if you got this far!

[libraloves-writing]

My last AP exam is on Monday (calculus 😔✊ pray for me) so I’m thinking about which AP class the 141 would teach

(If you don’t know what AP classes are, they’re college level courses for high schoolers and are notoriously difficult, some classes more than others. At the end of the year there’s an exam where if you pass you’d get college credit.)

The most obvious to me is Johnny he would do teach AP Physics or AP Chem cause like dude is a demolitions expert ie bombs and explosives. He HAS to have a high level of education in the physics/chemistry of explosives to do that so I think that background would make him a very qualified AP teacher. I know his class is a lot of hands-on labs and cool presentations. He would also just be that teacher that made everything so cool and interesting, def a favorite of the energetic kids. Has he set off the fire alarm before? Of course he has. He has a poster in his room of how many days his class has gone without setting something off, the longest they’ve gone is three days.

Price is a bit tricky for me. I want to say he would be either AP World or AP English language. He gives me history buff dad who has like a bajillion books on WWII but he also gives me English major. I’m leaning towards World I just feel like his class would deeeefinely be a weeder class, like only the strongest survive. But he would be super good at setting his students up for success, def tough love. His class is clean cut and straight to the point, practice exams throughout the year and pop quizzes without mercy, but that’s also the reason his students have the highest passing rate of his schools AP classes. Dad jokes galore also, if you do well on a test he’ll write one on the back of the paper.

Kyle would be AP Environmental Science. Science with a smidge of history sprinkled in is my fav (nuclear energy unit was my favorite 😩 ask me about Three Mile Island). His class is definitely lecture heavy but he always makes the coolest slide presentations. FIELD TRIPS dude loooooves field trips he has like two per semester. You’re going to a national park to look at soil erosion and he makes it so fun. He takes his job so seriously like beyond an AP teacher he wants his students to see the world around them with new eyes. He has kids fighting over who gets to be his TA every year cause they love him so much. Although being his TA is like a full time job bro has you grading so much stuff, you’re on a ladder stapling student projects to his Wall of Fame TM. He makes up for it thought by having a nice lunch for his TAs at the end of the year though.

Simon would be AP Calculus. Besties w/Johnnh obvi cause their classes are both math heavy/math based and their students are often taking both of their classes (Simon def calls his students nerds but he loves them). He just really likes how straightforward calc is, like no fluff it’s formulas and theories and boom there’s your answer. He’s made a reputation for himself for being a tough teacher but he just wants to challenge his kids. His classes always have the same structure everyday and it’s very organized, grades put in every other day and test grades even sooner. He knows math is scary for some students so he makes sure to look out for the ones who struggle a bit more, the last thing he wants is for someone to totally give up on math. To encourage his students to participate, to get them comfortable with being wrong sometimes, he gives candy when students go to the board to solve an equation (they get candy if they’re right or wrong 😉). His classroom is definitely a lunch hangout spot for quieter students, he lets them stay there to eat and over time they open up and boom besties.

😘

Anyway, pray for me on my exam. ISTG I BETTER MOT SEE AN E OR LM ANYWHEREEE (i definitely will and I’ll be cooked. I’m sooo good on area under the curve tho 😛)

HAPPY AP EXAM SEASON WE WILL ALL GET FIVES

[okaeri-ossan]

God bless you and your posts! I'm super=>happy there are still people like you who can freely talk about the retro eroge stuff without the need to deny all of it's mighty aspects someone is afraid about🙏

If you could give a top 5 games for those looking to get into the PC-98 genre, what titles would you include?👀

omg HIIII!! thank you for popping by (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ yay, this is a passionate hobby of mine and to look away from any of it-- the good, the bad, or the ugly-- would cause it to lose some dimension. Eroge is made by people and people are messy. (‾◡◝) So thank you for understanding that. Ahh, I feel like I'm not qualified somehow... I've played a lot on the pc98 as theres plenty of short (very stupid, very goofy) games, and I have a habit of skipping the greats in chase of random things that I think looks cool. I'll try to compose a list anyhow. Folks reading this, these are adult games with adult content, and a lot of it is "anything goes!!" Rarely do they surpass the wildness of modern day eroge (some are rather tame), but warning still stands!!

💎Toushin Toushi

A classic Alicesoft game with an english patch. Play as a swordsman who enters a tournament... and then things fly off the rails in the last quarter. Its one of those top-down RPGs so if you're an ancient gamer you'll be right at home, but be sure to get the Happiness Bell for a boost of EXP or you'll be grindin' all day and night! It's a cute, quaint (until the end) game with a good sense of humor and a few surprisingly tender moments. It was one of the first pc98 games I'd ever played, and it helped me form my thoughts on the medium. At several points you are presented the choice to be an evil creep or respect other's consent and for being a creep you get punished by the game mechanics. Not enough to really make a huge difference but the fact that its even there gives you something to think about. In the end, it's a game about consent. The sequel game has reached legendary status and you can go ahead and play that one instead, but I still find some enjoyment with this old crusty thing.

💉Amy's Fantasies

This is one of those OFFICIALLY english translated eroge with a pumped up to the max ridiculous Himeya Soft scripts that you can play RIGHT NOW USING THE INTERNET LETS FREAKING GOOOO!!! It's so. It's. Well. Dare I say it's the most pc98 pc98 game to ever pc98 on the pc98? Nonsensical balls-to-wall stupidity, outrageous ero, is that guy her brother, her step brother, her half brother, a clone, what is he, the characters don't even know. There's a chapter where they go to the Ass Hospital for Butts. There's a bajillion ashita no joe references for some reason. The suspicious looking mansion burns down, because "all suspicious looking mansions burn down". It's one of those "anything goes" type beats, so please keep that in mind. But when I think of the pc98, this is the first thing I think of.

🌼Doukyuusei 2

The first entry (which has an en tl of the amazing remake) is already one of my favorite games ever. But this? It somehow surpassed it. The story goes deeper, the characters hit harder, and the art is MWAH! Because the focus is more on the pure(-ish) romance this time around, there's less of a scummy perv feel than the first game (I need to make clear the scummy perv feel was why the first game was good, btw. It's 90's schlock at it's finest. The protag has ruined all other pc98 schlock protags forever, woe is me, he's just too amazing). This is one of those "must play" games even if you're not into eroge. The exploration system and relationship mechanics are what set the stage for future dating sims like Sakura Taisen, Tokimeki Memorial, and countless others. Ah, it's just too good. Youko is my wife. If you wait a little while longer, I'm sure the remake will be getting an english translation as well.

⚔ AmbivalenZ

I admit I haven't finished this one yet at the time of writing this, but I doubt there is anything that will sway my opinion of it now. It's PEAK CHUUNIGE, HYPER VIOLENT PURE LOVE DEMONIC REINCARNATION ACTION. Play as a badass immortal knight whose true love's soul was shattered centuries ago on a quest to fight a sexy demon lady with a blood sword. There's an ensemble cast of bold, lovable characters and a compelling story to boot, just talking about it makes me excited! After playing Diabolique and falling down the rabbit hole I have come to be a bit of a Tori fanboy. She's very good at hurt and comfort. The exploration system is the slightly frustrating oldskool Alicesoft affair but it's not enough to ruin the experience. I would recommend this edgy, bloody, quirky yet pure hearted story to just about anyone.

🌔Kurayami

This is a very short game about getting trapped in an elevator on Christmas Eve with one of three different girls, all named Mari and all written different ways. The game is meant to be replayed several times over with your choices drastically changing the scenario. The story can be a relaxed romance, a sentimental tragedy, or it can even get a little spooky. It's a game that's creative with the resources it has. The song, 17 year old Farewell, is probably one of my favorites on the whole system. There is supposedly and english translation in the works but it's been in limbo for a long time now.

~~~ Aaaaand that about does it, I think. Again, i feel like I'm not a good source for this thing but these are the games that I would pick. I hope you find something you like. I feel like a playthrough of Amy's fantasies with some beer and very open-minded friends would be a fun way to spend a night. ☆⌒(*＾-゜)v

[xanasaurusrex]

Ohh I see! I’ve just read the Athena one and it’s awesome! Uhmmm could u do the ephestus one next? Is he a main one? Idk tbh. Cause i don’t wanna like request Eros who’s minor cause yk ur order and sum but ephestus would be fun! (Sorry if the name’s wrong… I ain’t English native an dim not sure about the spelling, sorry). Have a lovely day and again: love the Athena cabin!❤️‍🔥

⇢ ˗ˏˋ hephaestus cabin headcanons ࿐ྂ

hi!! i think you meant hephaestus, and of course i can do that! if you want to request eros or any other minor god, go for it! and thank you so much for the love on the athena cabin hcs, they were so much fun! have a great day, and thank you for the request love! <333

so hephaestus kids are cool but kinda chaotic

their minds run a mile a minute

they always have new ideas for things to make on their mind, and things to invent

they just always have a lot of ideas

hephaestus kids do very good in prank wars, because they're very good at rigging up things like buckets of water falling on you when you open a door

another one of their favorite pranks is putting a mento in the cap of a coke and then attaching a string, so that when you open it, the mento falls into the coke and does the foamy thing

so moral of the story, if you can, avoid getting into a prank war with a hephaestus kid

hephaestus kids also come up with the best nicknames for people

a hephaestus kid will spend some time with you, gauge your personality and the things you do, and then they give you a nickname

it's rarely ever a malicious one (or you're a mean person, then you get a bad nickname), it's usually one that fits you that you actually really like

so in my athena cabin hcs i said that they expanded the arts and crafts area, and yes, athena kids are the ones who frequent this area the most, but you'd better believe hephaestus kids are hanging around there as well

they love making things with their hands, and even though they specialize when it comes to mechanical things and working with metal, every one in a while they want to make a pipe cleaner butterfly

beckendorf was really good at origami butterflies

so after they died, everyone made an origami butterfly, and they put a framed picture of him up on the wall, and then surrounded it with origami butterflies (rip)

anyways, moving on

the hephaestus cabin is always just about a bajillion degrees

IT IS ALWAYS SO HOT IN THERE

and even though not all hephaestus kids have the fire power that leo does, they are all less susceptible to heat

i mean, they have to be around heat a lot when they're forging weapons, so naturally, it doesn't affect them as much as it affects others

literally, if you have a friend and the two of you want to hangout, you will literally never be hanging out in the hephaestus cabin, because you will literally melt

(not literally, but you'll just be sweating like a pig the whole time)

hephaestus kids also always make the best marshmallows at the campfire

i mean, come on

they forge amazing weapons, and work with fire on practically a daily basis, of course they roast the perfect marshmallow

if you have a very specific amount of roasted-ness in mind, just tell a hephaestus kid, and there you go, your perfect mallow

the hephaestus cabin also has quite a few retro items, such as cd players and record players

but they're not... exactly like they should be

hephaestus kids like to take these older items and make them more usable and modern

so there are some funky looking record players in the hephaestus cabin

they just like experimenting on things like that

the hephaestus kids also set up a sort of PA system for the camp

this was sanctioned by chiron, but they don't really listen to what he says about it

they play a lot of music, and yes, they do announce things, but there's often some comedy thrown in there

hephaestus kids are actually really funny

like they could honestly be full on comedians

they just have a sort of dry sense of humor, and really good timing, which is like half of being funny

hephaestus kids are also all really close

like when you're a hephaestus kid, your best friends are your siblings that you live with in your cabin

there are always a few typical older siblings that are the oldest in the cabin, usually the head camper of that cabin and a few others that you always know you can go to when you need it

hephaestus kids are also have the least drama

i mean, camp half-blood is filled with teenagers going through puberty, having first crushes and first relationships, that kinda stuff

of course there's gonna be drama

the hephaestus kids just somehow have less

this is partially because they always find themselves focused on things other than who kissed who and who cheated on who and why they did what

they have armor and weapons to make, dude, they can't be focused on that

that's not to say that there isn't drama with hephaestus kids, it's just a lot less common

and whenever you hear something regarding a hephaestus kid in drama, you kinda are taken aback and are like... wait what?

most hephaestus kids' love language is gift giving, and that mostly consists of things made by said hephaestus kid

like, oh you mentioned you wanted to start wearing rings more?

for your birthday, you find a package of like fifty, all different and interesting and unique, with perfect craftsmanship with the name of a hephaestus kid on it

sometimes they collaborate with the hecate kids to put crystals in the jewelry they make (because of course they make jewelry

hephaestus kids are almost never seen not wearing at least one piece of jewelry, made by themselves or their siblings

one head camper of hephaestus cabin like a decade ago taught themselves how to give piercings, and now every head hephaestus camper knows how to give piercings

obviously no hephaestus kid is forced to get a piercing, but most of them are

most of them have their ears pierced at the very least, but it's not uncommon to see a few people with snake bites floating around

chiron, the most innocent ever, has no idea where people are getting pierced, and has asked around, but nobody wants to rat out hephaestus cabin, because it's really convenient

idk i kinda imagine hephaestus kids as a little bit alt

that's all i have for hephaestus cabin headcanons! this was honestly a little bit difficult for me, and honestly i cannot tell you why. i do think these are all pretty good headcanons though, and just because it was kinda hard doesn't mean i didn't love it! (that's what she said) these were really fun, and i can't wait to get to work on the other cabin hcs i have sitting in my requests! thanks so much for reading, i love you all!! <3333

[taonmaa]

F1 yaps

Gossip related, if it's not your thing, don't read. Just saw a CL16 stan/F1 gossip acc, read A BUNCH of posts from there. I have also treated myself to reading a couple of threads on Twitter about multiple F1 drivers and WAGS. I am not a gossip acc, nor am I trying to be one, nor am I trying to diss anyone. This is my OBSERVATION. Maybe it'll help someone form a critical thought, or maybe some gossip acc will read it and check themselves. It again IS NOT an attack, I literally don't care enough about gossip, I just had a day off.

I never went into the gossiping part of F1, but lemme just say what want to, and fuck off into the mysterious puff of smoke, k? First off, I am shocked how everyone on gossip-related accs keeps saying that they're trying to be fair and post abt all drivers. However, I noticed little talk about recent Charlex drama on CL16 stan and gossip accounts (I didn't read just ONE, I'm not dumb like that), etc etc. Second, I just want to say, that there are some things that are factual in the world of F1 gossip. They can't be argued with. A good example - Kelly and Max's relationship has a weird age gap. I am not calling it BAD. I'm saying it's weird. Two different things, ok? When I was 12, I had a 17 year old guy hit on me, so I've had my fair share of age gap experiences. That doesn't feel too good. Moving on. The other fact, Rebecca's association with some fuckass people from the US. She hanged out with an odd assortment of men, Leo Di included. I knew I hated that guy since I was 7 for a reason. Again, it's a fact, there are photos and shit to prove it. I'm not giving this a characteristic, because I literally don't care enough to judge her or let alone Carlos. Fuck nasty or however else you want, I don't shame. And then we move into the realm of speculation and ppl with zero wheel knowledge. We move into the realm, in which, IN MY EXPERIENCE, most, BUT NOT ALL, of F1 gossip accounts lie. This, again, is not a hate post, but an observation. I have seen a bajillion of posts with a misenterpretation of radios of drivers like Carlos, Charles, Lando and other F1 pilots who have a reputation in F1 for being "not the best boyfriends" and "whiny drivers". Those radios were twisted to make ppl who are in love w their keyboard to believe that those are an actual thought a driver formed in their head rationally and coherently. Need I remind everyone that this is a high-adrenaline sport where drivers sometimes say the wildest shit and then, God willing, forget about it by the time the next race comes along? I will NOT go into physiology of F1 and adrenaline, because that's too much to take into consideration, when you are trying to twist the narrative to showcase how great your fav driver is or how bad your least favourite driver is. All I want to say here is that if you're a GossipGirl™ in the world of motorsport, F1 in particular, GET THAT WHEEL KNOWLEDGE. Learn to understand what those radios refer to. Learn that F1 stream has legal rights to air the radio in the next 15 secs AFTER it goes out. Learn how to read throttle/breaking graphs. Watch OLD RACES, to know what "dirty racing" actually looks like. This is my SECOND season in the world of F1, and I take my SWEET TIME to learn, watch, listen and go into the details that this world entails. NOW, THE RUDE PART: if you don't do that and go online to make fucknasty comments, you are nOt a fan. If you don't learn and don't talk - you're fine. But don't use your platform to spread one-sided views, if you are not capable of learning what exactly racing is. P.S. i don't claim that i know what racing is. if you see a rogue comma - english isn't my mother tongue. Peace out.

[pressplay-if]

I wish there was an option to choose whether MC comes from an immigrant family.. In IF stories set in the modern world in America the issue of immigrants is ignored and you always have to play an American :< Grr

It would be pretty fun. Like, you know, typical american dream thing especially with having rich parents. Plus this makes sense if someone chose a non-English name for MC.

Just a suggestion 👍

Hey there, so I've thought pretty hard about how to answer this because what you want is valid but this would be an insanely tall order for me. Firstly, I'm not from or in the states, so when it comes to US politics, I'm not the right author for that. Plus, MC's name and ethnicity are by no means locked, so I believe readers are pretty free to headcanon any given background, even if it's not stated explicitly. Also, implementing this would add a very big strain on me research-wise. After all, there are a bajillion different countries from which you could immigrate to the US to. I don't think I can properly represent an immigrant background experience in my writing when there's so many specifics based on where the MC might have immigrated from.

Press Play is primarily about music. Adding something like this would mean a huge shift in workload for me when it's not sth crucial to the story in the first place and I don't even think I could do it well, given my own circumstances. Also, there are in fact IFs that are specifically about being from a different background. Merry Crisis, for one; it's been a while since I played it but MC is Singaporean there if I remember correctly and it's an awesome game.

[meltran]

writing even one thing about art shapes cultural conversation around it forever because most people believe what they read. also, most people will not write about art. when i would edit wikis and tvtropes, whatever i put there about something obscure would, years down the line, become a possible fact to "know" for the bajillion silent readers.

it also happens that cultural conversation in the english language world is extremely skewed towards non-foreign art, whatever that even means in the internet age. but basically theres a million articles about comic books that create a cultural lens to view them through - u dont have to be a hyper enthusiast charting new territory to identify a comic as responding to watchmen. people talk and write about movements in comic books, like they do for films and novels. anime, for english speakers, remains a dumb-consumer-only niche that is barely understood, my lens on the shape of its evolution resulting solely from reading the rare translated interview with creators saying this out loud. evangelion and utena are classics, but are rarely read as direct responses to char's counterattack. in japan there are women writing about the queerness of Z and ZZ gundams, in the west idk i mean i bet that happened on twitter to some extent? half of which is probably deleted and unarchived now???

where were we going with this... maybe games is another comparison... bio shock is a kinda boring atmospheric FPS based on system shock 2 that has a similar twist to one of the twists in ff7 (and metal gear and suda51 et al) but filtered through western games characteristic lack of verve or direction but its still a cool idea. but it got to be a big talking point in games!! people were like, this really deconstructs the player's role in games!! i get that it would do that for someone who hadnt seen such a twist before. OFF did do such a thing for me. but mgs1+2 and ff7 were not obscure games! people did play those! but, because they were "foreign", they werent part of the conversation, randomly, while bio shock became like....... important cultural historical milestone. same pattern

this post is truly going nowhere

[see-arcane]

Aside from the premise of the novel by osmosis being about a lesbian vampire targeting a young woman called Laura in Styria, I'm going in blind. First thing that I wasn't expecting was that Laura lives with her father, in a castle (I shouldn't be surprised, this is typical Gothic setting), and that she's only half Syrian because her father is English.

A picturesque setting, very dark fairy tale

I won't drop any spoilers here, but there will be a Lot of surprises going into the story proper. All that most folks who know the name 'Carmilla' know is

Lesbian Vampire Lit, Came Out Pre-Dracula

Has her name tacked onto vampire characters who have literally nothing to do with Sheridan le Fanu's Carmilla. (Looking at you, Vampire Hunter D and Castlevania)

But as a mini heads up: All of the ribald risque horror-romantic vampire tropes you've seen in a bajillion gothic vampire dramas, often Dracula spinoffs, have their bones in this novella. Good stuff ahead

[novastar-creations]

Awauughghd… so close to completing Leila’s team… art fight

This is Sage Fleischman, AKA Ate-Bit. They’re crazy smart and good at coding and hacking and basically any kind of tech… except the mechanical bits.. that’s Leila’s strong suit. They’re the top of their school, head cheerleader, and a student councillor, and are in a bajillion and one different clubs that they somehow still have time for despite the fact that THEY ARE LITERALLY A SUPERHERO. They were born with a mouth in their stomach and their parents basically called them a freak all their life and they decided to gain affection by working quadruply hard, and it worked, but it does mean that their parents love is entirely dependent on their grades, how much money they make and how “normal” they are. They have an older brother who sits around like a leech and somehow he’s still the golden child. Because of all the effort they put into life, they have all these otherwise useless skills like fencing, knot tying, and a bunch of other things, and they’re like the definition of Jack of all trades master of many.

They have dyslexia though, so their English grades aren’t quite as good as the others.. I’m talking 98.2% people, absolutely shameful. (/j I would KILL for a 98.2%. It also probably doesn’t help that they’re trying to learn German and Mandarin because their dad is German and their mum is Chinese and they wanna impress their parents, but yk.. ANYWAYS, they make a lotta money from freelance coding and paid hacking (specifically companies pay them to hack into their sites and tell them the flaws)

They met Leila on a tech forum where they were both trying to find a coder and hardware developer respectively, and it was geek buddies at first dm. Sage didn’t really have any close friends, just popular people in their circle, so Leila was their first real friend. Eventually, Sage’s parents decided that they were going to move back to Germany, and they took Sage with them. Sage told Leila this, and Leila asked if they wanted to meet up because she was sorta close-ish. It took a lot of pestering of the parents from both ends but eventually the two met up in Amsterdam and they stayed there for about a week before there was a robbery at a museum they were visiting. The two jumped into action, with Sage trying to scare the robbers off (not knowing anything about being even slightly heroic), and Leila, having built the hardware for her shadow bracelets and attempted multiple heroic deeds, started teleporting and fighting. At the end of the battle the two confronted each other, but eventually decided to become heroes and start a team. Sage started working doubly hard to earn enough money to buy a base for them, and eventually they found River and Amaya after seeing news articles about them. After some light kidnapping, the team was formed.

Sage is super competitive and stubborn, and as stated a bajillion times, spends most of their time working their ass off for approval. They’re desperate for affection and attention and throw their whole heart into everything they do, whether it’s joining a scout group or chess club. This confidence and do-or-die attitude gives them a natural charisma and leader-y vibe that makes people flock to them like moths to a flame, making them very popular.

They don’t really have time for hobbies or figuring themself out, and as such they often feel like muddy water - unclear, and not that useful. This causes a lot of self doubt and anxiety, which they push back in order to focus on school, or work, or heroics, or literally anything else.

@bagels-and-cream-cheese333 eat up :P

[jjcocker]

ok anyways!! here is an unnecessary analysis and thoughts and deranged yuri (imo).

slight spoilers for season 2 below btw

anyways. to me pop team epic is like. somethibg that essentially changed a bit of me. because remember when I said every pairing I like's dynamics circled back to them. so.. yeah its kind of. unironic. but anyways . i'll use a few sources for this,, and probably go insane mid ramble. but anyways. i feel like the most solid showing of how theyre always bound together in a way is the entirety of season 1.

right on the chorus part youll see like. im bad at describing visuals. but it's s bunch of Versions of pipimi and popuko in different whateverthefucks, still being. pipimi and popuko. it still is them no matter what. ehat makes me even more deranged is the lyrics to sumire uesaka's POP TEAM EPIC (the song used for the season 1 intro--) lemme get the first chorus. i used this video as the source for the english lyrics

"a visualized spirograph repeats,

a geometric pattern of destruction and imagination

/

after the cut off,

we can meet once more

while journeying through a parallel world

so notice the inlaid wish there,

and remake the world"

REMAKE THE WORLD. remember that pop team epic was first a 4koma. so now that that remake the world part is there, I have a sort of belief; i believe that each time the 4komas change, it's a past world, the characters have their memories like, "erased", but still stay true to themselves (" we can meet once more / while journeying through a parallel world") with the wsih to. Meet again. like do you get me. AND still using the lyrics- this is proven with the 2nd pre chorus;

"seems it's goodbye again,

i'll be waiting for you in the next world."

AUHHHHJGG. IT'S LIKE. THEY'LL HAVE FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING EXCEPT EACH OTHER. AND THEY KNOW THEY WILL. AND AAAAGH. this also means; there are multiple pipimis and popukos from several alternate timelines and universes.

uh now we're jumping to the END end (for now) - by that I mean the season 2 finale.

if you've watched it up to episode 12, youve seen aoi and nishikawa's fight, and Remember how I mentioned how there are several pipi&popu(s) from different timelines and universes? yeah that's the exact proof of it. because of the whole army of them that just. magically summons. showing LITERALLY ALL (presumably) of the different ones from this season- pipi/poputan, pipihara and popuoka, the pop memories to you vers, a bajillion others, I AM SAYINH. LITERALLY ALL. this does go in line with aoi's storyline a bit. but I'm gona spoil a bit too much if I start talking more

so, right, as I've said before, yes there are several pipimis and popukos on different timelines. the whole thing is, I think that's beautiful. i find that theyre bound together in a way no matter how many times the scenes change and no matter how many times their memory will get erased, they will seek out for each other no matter what world. and that's. beautiful. to me. BUT. do you wanna see me get more deranged, and make such a big stretch that it straightup defies toon force (haha please laugh that was an attempt at being funny)? ok yes you do.

so a thing I see often is people drawing their blorbos as pipimi and popuko, like for example panel redraws, I've done that too, and here's where the Big Reach starts; what if even these artworks, are an example of them finding each other no matter what?

i'll be using my own comic redraw as the example- here I redrew one of the comics from pte (the cutesy sleeves one,), as the rockers. and while those are not directly pipimi and popuko, they. Kinda are indirectly, like going back to the "there are multiple pipimis and popukos and they will find each other no matter what universe" thing. they're not exactly pipimi and popuko, hell they aren't even pipimi and popuko- at least not in this universe. but still, pipimi and popuko have found each other again, even if that means- through some poorly drawn rhythm heaven fanart. because. it still connects them in that fictional universe, this one being rhythm heaven, yes. basically pipimi and popuko are a state of mind, too. their bond, and, love if you wanna see it as that- it's transcendental. it's beyond any 4th wall. it's a sort of yuri being told through absurdist loose jokes.

tldr; pte is yuri multiverse

[arty-holly]

Thoughts on Kalki 2898 AD

For any new watchers, it might help to get some context. Kalki 2898 AD is about the emergence of Kalki, the last and 10th Avatar or Avataram of Lord Vishnu. There are 4 yugams according to Hinduism. Satyayugam, Tretayugam, Dwaparayugam and Kali Yugam. When evil shadows the world, Vishnu is born into Earth as a human to rid all evil. Krishna is one such very popular avataram of Vishnu. Kalki, the last Avatar has not yet appeared in Kaliyugam( the most evil of all times) and this movie is an imagination of that probable time.

Spoiler Alert!

Cons-

The dialogue, I understand that they now live in a place of amalgamated cultures but why does some of it sound so bad?? I watched the Malayalam dubbed version in theatre and it is actually not that bad but still this use of english slang that sounds so awkward and which can be easily replaced with regional slang is so annoying. For example why does the rebel fighter keep calling bhairava "bro" 😭. Especially when it can be replaced with "chetta" or " anna".

The names, Characters that should have traditional names like Shobana's character has Mariam, I mean Huh?? Who thought this was a good idea? Prabhas's character has a name that does not suit him even slightly( sorry guys but Bhairava is reserved for Ram charan's Magadheera, and he actually lives up to the name) It does not fit him thematically either bcz Bhairava is a form of Lord Shiva and that is not connected to Prabhas's character in any way whatsoever . As they revealed him as Karna at the end, they could have given him a name connected to being a son of the Sun god or smth like that. And the women's names. Sigh. Guys didn’t we all agree about using names like Kyra in Indian cinema. Then why does this KEEP HAPPENING. I mean Kyra, Mariam, Raya, Roxy(her character is another issue entirely)???What. Why. We have a bajillion good indian names both traditional and modern and u choose this, really. And if they're so adamant on using western names, use good western names like Rose or smth. Also who wants to bet that they thought they were the only ones who watched Raya and the Last Dragon and thought it'll be a good name for a indian girl.

THE TREATMENT OF FEMALE CHAARCTERS, I have been yapping about this for years to my sis so I might as well yap here too. Does the movie have good female characters? Yes. Does it treat them well? Hell no. Kyra, dead. Mariam, dead. Leela, left to die, probably dead or used as a sex slave. Roxy, there to add some spice and romance into Bhairava's boring life and consecutively forgotten and never seen again. Good thing Raya is a literal child or the writers will probably kill her off too. And it's the way their deaths have no meaning too. The man who Kyra sacrificed herself to kill is alive actually! Mariam after barely escaping death in the aircraft just gets stabbed by the villian. Sumati's case is gonna be a bit more controversial bcz while i like that she is free from the lab and might get a life of her own, it still doesn't stick quite right with me on her being told by Aswathama that her dharmam is to give birth to kalki ( more accurate and appropriate wording would've been duty or 'kartavyam') I forgot about Mrunal Thakur's character's death at the beginning bcz it had no impact at all. I don’t understand how the man who directed Mahanati could do this to the women of his movie.

Casting choices, You can sue me to hell and back but Prabhas was..not a good choice for Bhairava or as he is revealed to be, Karna. Let's be honest, every single movie after Bahubali was a huge huge miss for him and i'm almost convinced now that the reason Bahubali was such a hit was bcz of Rajamouli and the immense talent he was surrounded by like Anushka Shetty, Sathyaraj and Ramya Krishnan. For all the marketing they did for him as presenting him as the central character, he is not the main character(as he should be bcz I doubt he'll do a good job of it). His acting stands out like a sore thumb amongst Amitabh, Shobhana and Deepika. And i'm kind of disappointed that he's Karna bcz Karnan is such a complex and good character. Unpopular opinion but DQ should've been Karnan. He just fits. And Vijay Devarokonda does not fit Arjun either. His lines feel flat and emotionless. Maybe instead of casting popular Telugu names they should've casted people who actually fit and can act.

Bcz I sing, I feel slightly qualified to comment on the music in the movie. Prabhas's romance song needs to get burnt to ashes immediately bcz what. what even was that. Ew. But the theme of Kalki immediately bought back my hope for music in the movie bcz that was excellent. But I still feel like it could have been better by adding female singers in a lower pitch. The contrast would've been phenomenal. Bahubali's music director Keeravani already used these techniques in the Mahismati song guys, it's a guaranteed hit. Or maybe it's just my disappointment that there weren’t more female voices.

Krishna's voice should've been sweeter. He is pookie ok? and he deserves a sweet voice. I'm pretty sure he's described to have a voice that melts your heart. His current voice would've suited Balaram more.

Pros:-

The VFX was actually not that bad. Compared to the usual, it was miles better.

Amitabh as Aswatthama, Kamal Hassan and Shobhana delivered. They were absolutely excellent.

The little details were great. Humans get smaller through the progression of the yugams so Aswatthama being 8 feet bcz he was from the Dwapara Yugam fit perfectly. The mythical city Shambala. The little sculpture of Kalki, Bhairava holding and protecting the statue of vishnu from falling( foreshadowing?), Ashwattama meditates near Kashi's shivalingam, Gandhivam, the 5 objects around Supreme(Kamal Hassan) being the 5 evils.

Bujji, sarcastic and fun AI is always always a plus. Healthiest relationship that Bhairava has with anyone in the movie. And voiced by Keerthy Suresh? Double plus.

So many malayalam actors, it makes my malayali heart sing. Anna ben from Kubalangi nights, Shobhana and DQ 😭😭, and Malavika Nair as Uttara too. We were fed so well, just wish they did’nt kill all of them.

The inclusion of cringe english lines might've been dissapointing but the inclusion of races all over the world absolutely made up for it. Shambala's citizens being of all races, black, white, east asian, middle east and all of them being equally happy at Kalki's return made me cry. Hinduism and God is for every single person on earth regardless of their ethnicity. " Vasudaiva Kudumbakam" meaning the entire world is one family was embodied so WELL in that scene, I am floored.

No matter how many times Deepika walks into fire, she does it perfectly every time. Also that parallel between the birth of Krishna and Kalki!! Vasudeva walks through water while Sumati walks through fire. Literal chills

One can't mention chills without mentioning Krishna. It was the absolute BEST part of the movie no doubt. And not revealing his face was the best decision they made in the movie, the audience unknowingly understands that he is pure divinity. And he's Dark skinned too!! Granted he's said to be as dark as the rain clouds but meh, i'll take what I can get. I doubt that an actor with a skin colour like that is accessible. But not revealing his face and letting only the horse and his silhouette show was such a good choice, I can’t get over it.

The monks with guns 🙂

The Shambala weapons in the shape of Murugan's spear??😭 Excuse me while I cry.

The Mahabharata scenes

Supreme(Kamal Hassan) taking one drop of Kalki's essence and reviving from a Skeleton to a normal human body and that LAST POSE OMG

So even though the movie had it's flaws the good parts alone were all worth it and the theatre experience is phenomenal. The simple fact that all of this is going down and lil Kalki has'nt even been born yet is hilarious to me. It could definitely have been better but the parts that mattered, they did well.

And the iconic scene, Sree Krishna himself (forgive the trashy quality)

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Hey Slug,

Im a new hypmic fan and have very recently gotten into it. I also am interested in translating some of the hypmic stuff on and off. My first project that Im thinking about is translating the newtype magazine article released for December 2023. I know you have some concerns about threatening an official english release but the newtype article isnt really ever going to have an "eng release" so i would just like a fun project to do. It seems like you have a lot on your plate in terms of getting requests to translate all hypmic related stuff. I was wondering if you would appreciate a bit of a helping hand when it comes to random one off bits. I also recently downloaded ARB so i can translate some of the shorter events.

I appreciate the offer, but if you're interested in translating Hypmic content, why not do it yourself and publish it on your own account? :)

If you don't work within JP->EN translation or related roles, then the concerns I have about large projects don't necessarily apply. You can choose what to translate and share based on your own morals and ethics instead.

I actually get requests quite infrequently and enjoy them a lot when they're something I can reasonably do. I consider this my hobby, and it's really fun! I only want requesters to know that I can't drop everything and answer the requests immediately since other things have to come first, like translating a bajillion other things for work or cleaning the toilet. (<- leads a very exciting life) If I were to outsource the thing I enjoy, I'd be giving away the fun part and only have the management/admin part left. And while management is a necessary evil, it's not something I want to do to relax. :( You know? I'm sure that if people want to receive a translation immediately, they know of other avenues to turn to first. In the meantime, I'll keep puttering along at my own pace. Please feel free to do the same on your own accounts!