#I'm disabling this garbage immediately

[johannestevans]

genuinely don't understand many other self-published fiction people's approach to marketing, which seems to take its cues from like. people who sell self-help books, or like. fucking do drop shipping

your goal is to find the people who like work like yours and connect them with it.

i think it's really difficult for people to envisage this because they're just poisoned by commercialism & capitalism as exists today, where every company is basically trying to strongarm, manipulate, and trick every single person in the world into buying their product

it's not just stupid and impossible from a marketing perspective, even for whatever garbage they might be shilling, but it's particularly misguided to do for a piece of fucking art or entertainment

and part of it i suppose is just like. a lack of identity but also a desperate fear of rejection

in order to meaningfully think about who will like, love, identify with, crave, and otherwise want to engage with your work, you have to meaningfully think about the people who won't

and that's scary bc a lot of people want to be vulnerable by creating art but don't want to be perceived or judged

and certainly don't want to be rejected, or receive negative reviews, or have people say "egh, it's not my thing", as if that's going to be the immediate death knell on their career

but it's just like. the thing of "i must try to make everyone in the world buy my book" will lead to MORE rejection

idk man. who are you? what's your work, like, about, at the core of it? what are the problems in it? what's the pathos, the core tragedy or core comedy, the meaning? what makes it entertaining? what makes it fun, or miserable, or horrifying? why did you write it? that's why people will read it

what's funny is that i talk to straight people all the time who can't do this, and they think that the way i do it is just by being like. hey boys, i'm a homosexual crippled jew, and my work is about that. and then i sell my books to my fellow disabled gay jews and such

which, sure, a bit

but what my work is actually about is like. trauma and trauma recovery. making peace with the many limits of your body and your relationships, and the limitations placed on you by your scars or your circumstances. fucked up monster sex, which is itself radical acceptance of the horror of our bodies

a lot of gayjew cripples and trans folk identify with that shit because… you know. of fucking course

but a lot of other people do as well, my work is in many ways informed by my identity, but the core themes aren't

many people DON'T like my work bc it's not plotted or structured traditionally

"what was the point?" many disappointed readers ask. "there's no actual STORY here," many complain. "nothing happens," many understandably grumble.

any jew or homosexual will tell you - there's no story. there's just suffering, and then you try to make it better, and then there's more suffering.

but you try to make it better, and it gets a bit better. you take your painkillers, you put balm on the wound. you fall down - maybe someone pushes you down. doesn't matter. get up again.

and for a lot of people, that's fucking dull as shit. where's the adventure? where's the fucking stakes?

and that's fine. there's plenty of books written for those people, they're just not written by me. i'm too busy doing my thing. and what i'm also too busy doing is selling my work to people who actually WANT it, rather than trying to trick people into buying it who won't.

part of the horror of meaningfully looking at your work and going, "okay, who is this for, and who is it NOT for?" is like. not just accepting your limitations, but also having genuine faith in your work. some people won't like it, but some people will fucking adore it. and you have to lean into it

and mostly stop paying for fucking facebook ads. jesus wept. what's wrong with you.

[donnerpartyofone]

First I started getting so much spam to my Gmail account that it became unusable; I go in there occasionally and glance around to see if anything "important" jumps out at me, but basically spammers have rendered the email address that they themselves went to the trouble of harvesting totally useless. Now I get so many spam (and/or scam, what's the difference) voicemails that my phone is functionally unusable; there's just no point in trying to keep up with it, I started having the experience of getting new spam messages at the same exact time that I was deleting the last ones, so now I just have to let them pile up and I only listen to voicemail if I happen to specifically notice that I got a desirable call. The degree to which everything is crap now practically forces me to have a Why Fucking Bother attitude about everything, and I have to think this is really bad for my brain. Like it cannot be good to train myself to think that so few things are real or valuable that there's almost no point in even keeping an eye out for something useful.

Because of said damaged brain I'm not positive this is related, but I'm reminded of this specific pro-AI argument I sometimes see that strikes me as particularly disingenuous, the essence of which is: There is already very little way of reliably determining the provenance or authenticity of online content, so it doesn't matter at all if you can't tell the difference between slop and the real thing, and it also doesn't matter if slop achieves an increasing majority, because in any case you shouldn't be so credulous as to assume that ANYTHING you see online is real. Everything is nothing and nothing is everything. We're all trapped in our own subjective realities so nothing matters anyway -- seems to be the logical conclusion of this argument. And that just seems like such a cheap excuse for lazily enabling and/or actively empowering an explosion of unfilterable generative garbage that has changed the situation from one of "Maintain a healthy skepticism about what you see and read," to one of "Everything is fake so who gives a shit about anything, ever, from now on." Like yes, there's been fake-everything since the dawn of photography, but if you're going to pretend that the proportion of what's going on now doesn't matter, I think youre just being an asshole. You're just using any excuse to defend your new favorite toy, and I think you should admit that.

There's probably a name for this rhetorical device that's like when, for instance, people complain that trans athletes are ruining women's sports, but those people don't actually give a shit about women's sports, or women. You're probably thinking of a whole bunch of other examples of this right now. I see this in these online arguments about AI where someone goes "AI is negatively impacting the commercial art industry," and a pro-AI person goes, "That's not even a real problem, if you really cared you'd be complaining about the environmental impact/the impact of bad algorithms on jobs and housing/the polution of real, usable information" etc, which obviously they themselves don't care about or else they wouldn't be using and promoting the offending product. Or like most of the time that I hear someone say that anti-generative art attitudes are ableist, they're not actually a disabled person, or even a person interested in disability. Not that there's NEVER a real disabled person making this argument, but as a member of the general public I hear from them less than from people who are just grabbing at whatever is the most convenient way to stop someone from questioning their favorite thing. And I sometimes wish these guys would stop trying to make all AI critics sound stupid and insensitive, and just cut straight to "Fuck you, I just like it. I don't have a good reason. I know this is causing problems, I just don't give a shit about anything other than my own most immediate experience." But then again that's what we have going on in politics now -- the right has shifted away from even the shallowest most obligatory pretense of civil debate and litigation, which we could previously use to at least slow them down a little, and over to "Yes, we're big stupid evil pieces of shit and we like it that way, so fucking what," and in many ways this has made everything a lot worse.

[wenevergotusedtoegypt]

Tories are already saying out loud they want to reopen the discussion to remove the same rights in Canada that you're concerned about losing. Or they're already doing it. Women's healthcare rights have usually been a Non Topic politically since the 80s for reasons that include a lack of any restrictive law, but a new leaders are announcing they're going to make one. Several provinces healthcare is already being privatised. The current government is being sued for using medical assistance in dying as a "cure" for disabled people in poverty. Last week my daughter had her hair cut by non Jewish children for the crime of being there and being Jewish. We're a few years behind on the intensity of garbage, but it's happening here and definitely ramping up - idk how much of that can be seen well from outside .

So which, exactly, perfect country with no problems do you suggest I consider?

Trust me, I'm not under the impression that Canada is some kind of utopian paradise (or wouldn't I have made the move a long time ago?). I actually have a number of reasons why I would not like to move there, which is why moving is an emergency plan rather than an immediate one. It happens to be the only country in the world where 3 out of 4 members of my family are already citizens, we speak the language fluently, and democracy isn't in danger of imminent collapse.

[chocolatespyro]

Me learning to not give people the benefit of the doubt when they've been given the benefit of the doubt about 50 times already

(III 15 edition. Spoilers under the cut if you still haven't seen it somehow.)

EDIT: Took out the part about them not mentioning her disability since Bot does say that they wouldn't want Cabby to forget iirc, also about them not thinking kids would understand disability since I wasn't happy with those points and I feel they were inaccurate or somewhat off-topic. That's pretty much it though.

The more I think abt it the more I can see how the Bot apology sucks lmaoooo

Dunno if this was a point made on Twitter (I've heard there's been discontent there? I dont have Twitter tho but I'd LOVE to hear more from other Cabby fans abt what's going on there. u can leave comments on this post if u want or u can just rb and do it thru tags.)

Anyways, to my main points: Bot just says they're sorry for... forcing Cabby to get permission to use her files?

What about them lying to Cabby? I don't believe they ever really apologized for that. OR TOLD HER THAT THEY LIED??

Bot also doesn't really apologize for the other main points people were upset for I think?

I don't think bot ever really takes full accountability for judging Cabby either. No one does really. Like... at least an

"I'm sorry. I really screwed up, and so did a lot of the other contestants. We were too harsh and judgmental towards you for no reason, and our insecurities shouldn't have gotten in the way of you being able to remember. This was supposed to be a fun and welcoming environment and vacation... but it became a nightmare for you instead. I know this won't make up for all the damage done, but I hope this file is useful to you."

(maybe reworded some to fit Bot's personality better, but the apology shouldn't have just been this quick one-off moment taken to the side like in canon.)

To kinda add to the above, I also think it would've been nice if Bot fully noticed and acknowledged HOW other people haven't been treating Cabby very kindly too by giving examples of where nobody stood up for her. Lifering was a great supportive person in the episode, but Bot was there for some of the shit that was pulled against Cabby, ESPECIALLY in episode 7. I so wish that that was acknowledged here. And the fact that Test Tube went directly behind Cabby's back to do that. Where does Bot think Test Tube got those files from?

There's also the fact that Test Tube never approaches to apologize for judging Cabby for no reason. Like she just stares at Cabby and Bot hugging for a few seconds after Bot apologizes that's it. And she... doesn't accuse Cabby. That's the barest fucking minimum she could've done.

Also... the "inaccurate depictions" thing wasn't even true outside of Baseball's file... and that was a bunch of contrived bs. Like Suitcase literally had this whole thing where she stood up to Nickel and I guess... Cabby glossed over that somehow??? I can't suspend my disbelief this much sorry all. Idk where the "Manipulated by Balloon" shit came from. Correct me if I'm wrong bcus I haven't seen season 2.

The only reason why it was inaccurate with Bot is because Cabby thought Bot was Bow, something Cabby IMMEDIATELY corrected herself on. Bot coulda just... reminded Cabby that it wasn't her fault because she didn't know Bot and Bow were two different objects and told Cabby to just... start a new file like others said??? So that shit didn't make sense.

The apology just... kinda feels shallow. Cabby didn't do anything wrong here. She's beaten herself up over this shit. It just hurts to watch.

Bot only really apologized for a single thing and we don't get any acknowledgement towards the lying or the mistreatment or Cabby destroying Bow's file as some sort of garbage symbolism attempt.

Bot's apology was kinda supposed to tie everything together and top everything off nicely in a better and at least slightly more satisfying way than whatever the fuck 14 did, but it just... doesn't. It barely acknowledges the issues. They don't really show how seriously they screwed up with Cabby.

I wanna believe that AE has the best intentions here, but they're on very thin ice in my eyes. If they screw up any next steps with Cabby and/or never address Cabby's issues with Test Tube ever again, I think I'm done having any kind of faith in AE. Even Cabby winning wouldn't save it.

Yeah sorry this got really depressing, this situation is just sad

[whumpster-fire]

Everyone needs to reblog this post immediately. I don't care if it doesn't fit your blog theme, real activism is about making people uncomfortable. Especially people whose birthday is in a month ending in "ember." I'm talking to you motherfuckers. Reblog this NOW. Anyone who doesn't reblog this post eats babies well done with off-brand ketchup. But don't think even for a second that reblogging this doesn't mean you're not a disgusting piece of garbage, because you are. I'm watching you assholes. My finger is hovering over the Block button just waiting for somebody to not drop what they're doing and immediately comply with my demands.

/satire

God guilt tripping reblog bait posts really make me yearn for the days of those innocent "repost this to 10 people or you'll die in 10 days. Badly" spam chain letter comments.

(also heartbreaking: This person is making great points but they disabled reblogs, or the great points post is responding to an OP with bad takes and OP disabled reblogs)

Heartbreaking: This person is making great points but they're being a huge fucking asshole about it so you can't reblog any of it

[gamesception]

[knocks gently] cass cain? 🦇💖

Thanks for the ask! Absolutely made my day.

Hrm. It has been a while. Partly busy with work and family stuff, and partly add hobby brain shifting attention elsewhere...

Though if I'm being honest the latter only really happened because the new Batgirl comic hasn't really been doing it for me, and it's hard to talk about Cass right now without talking about why I don't really like her new book, and I don't really want to do that because most the Cass fans I see are really enjoying it, and I don't want to be a spoil sport, and I don't really have anything to say about it that I didn't say in my blog of the first couple issues already, but I'm started now, so...

The new book restores the old Cass's continuity, but IMO most of that continuity is a mess that was better off forgotten. I certainly didn't need to see Nyssa again. What next, Lazara? Road Hog?

And while the book brings back her old continuity - which I don't actually care about - it doesn't, or at least hasn't yet, brought back the aspects of her early run under Puckett and Scott that drew me into the book and the character way back in the early aughts - the tone, the thematic focus, the storytelling through panel art with minimal text narration, the commitment to telling a complete story in each issue, the attention to the individual humanity of the characters she interacted with, the close personal low level point of view. Things that were slowly buried under all the layers of garbage that preboot Cass's continuity had picked up like a katamari.

By that inevitable accumulation of comic book story detritus that eventually prevents any superhero comic or character from telling stories about anything other than superhero comics.

It had already obscured most of what I loved about original Cass Cain well before the end of her original ongoing series - and that's before the villain turn, the Nyssa stuff, the brainwashing drugs retcon, the erasure of her remaining disabilities, the miniseries that was supposed to restore her character but instead only put a final nail in the coffin of david cain's, the 'Black Bat' stuff.

Rebooting most of that away was a blessing. A relief. It was unsalvageable. Sometimes retcons and reboots are the right move. Not every Killing Joke can be turned into an Oracle, and most writers aren't Gail Simone to pull it off even where it's possible.

And it would be one thing if we had gone straight from that to this, right? A missed opportunity, but nothing of value lost. But we didn't go straight from that to this.

In the build up to the new series I made a big effort to catch up on reboot Cass. I didn't liveblog the read, I'd have never finished in time, but I went back and re-read the major appearances and runs of 'Earth Prime' Batgirl, and while Batman and Robin Eternal reminded me why I pretty much immediately gave up on Reboot Cass, Gotham Knights, Outsiders, Batgirls and Detective all showed me that I probably shouldn't have. I wouldn't say I 'fell in love' with the character like I did with old school Cass, but there was a lot of good stuff there, there was a good character that deserved to grow and develop further. One that imo had a lot more potential to her than original Cass does at this point.

So I was, despite everything, really looking forward to reading more about Earth Prime Cass, and instead she's just... gone. Doesn't exist anymore. Never existed in the first place. Whatever fans she had get to go through what I went through back then, and I don't even get my Cass back in the trade. At least not the parts I cared about.

And it's extra frustrating to me because the catch-up of reboot Cass had left me feeling hopeful that those parts would be coming back! Some of Cass's most recent appearances before the new solo were in Detective, and those issues very much DO feel like old Cass. Paknadel did a better job recapturing that feeling in a side story in Detective Comics (2016) #1084 than Brombal has managed in seven issues of her new solo title, and he did it without erasing Earth Prime Cass or bringing back original Cass's burdensome history. Paknadel also managed to tell a more complete story AND gave us a more compelling examination of Cass's relationship to Shiva, a relationship that Brombal is now busy buring under a brand new metric ton of comic book backstory bullshit that I Do Not Care About.

If the first seven issues of Batgirl 2024 had given us seven different complete stories of that quality and that tone, with that focus on theme and characterization rather than continuity, then I'd be crowing "Cass is Back!" louder than anyone is now, even if those stories had been full of references to Batgirls and Gotham Knights and even B&R Eternal and without any hint of the events of Batgirl (2000).

Anyway, I will be back on my reread blog of the old stuff eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later. If I haven't posted something for it in the next couple weeks do please send another ask. It really did cheer me up, and dramatically increased my motivation to think and talk about Cass, even if most of the stuff I had to say here has been kind of negative.

[xxdreamscapes]

diary 040625 | 11:30 am

on the character of privileged people (who often lack purpose);

I don't blame them, but I don't feel sorry for them in any respect. Everything's mapped out, they grew up with everything they needed: safety, space, privacy, enough food on their plate, and sometimes love. You might not know where to land next, but you've always had the luxury of choice.

I've tried to empathize, but what I've witnessed is enough for me to turn my focus towards intentionally conscious friendships. You don't need to be poor or impoverished to recognize when something screams ~ I'm out of touch af ~ . I've watched people. More privileged folks. Everything they do or don't do. How they treat their loved ones and their blessings. You cannot compare yourself to people who exist in a different reality. Here are some of the things I’ve witnessed, oddly specific experiences and my interpretations of them:

Weaponized incompetence. Gross negligence.

Loading knives sharp side up in a dishwasher ➜ they don't have common sense / parents do chores for them

Burning things in an oven and immediately blaming their parent instead of checking inside first ➜ blaming you for their actions before checking themselves

Tucking a garbage bag over a corner instead of the entire bin when their parent asks on multiple occasions ➜ shortcutting in class, the workplace, and/or your friendship.

Cheaping out on buying a GPS, opting instead to drive you around while their phone constantly flies off the dash ➜ your life isn't of value to them (and their main character syndrome) ✧˖°. ₊˚⊹

Lack of consideration or empathy. Dishonesty & Entitlement.

Screaming about you for accidentally dirtying their things instead of just asking you to clean it ➜ you're not allowed to make mistakes, they lack patience, especially with themselves.

Screaming at you for not rolling their mom's suitcase on the pavement the way they’d like when they didn't bother rolling it themselves. ➜ their tendency to keep up appearances/things pristine despite their internal mess (It's almost like some things are meant to be used and loved. I respect people's belongings, but a suitcase... really?)

Charging you for things their parents are paying for.

Talk about how they’re so broke but they constantly go out (bc of FOMO), smash the no tip button with no shame (never worked a minimum wage job in their life), and you’ll always find them on vacation (and when confronted, they’ve magically been saving up money this whole time ) ➜ I don't even know what to say about this one.

Push their shopping cart out into the parking lot or onto a concrete island when the cart return is 2 feet away ➜ again, thoughtless lack of consideration for other drivers, worker safety (weather, age, disabilities, etc) Guess who was the one who went to retrieve these runaway carts….? ( ｡ •̀ ᴖ •́ ｡)

When it comes down to it. All they think all you think about is their money. Because that's all that matters to them. It's what defines them. Even when all you've ever tried to do is be a conscious and empathetic friend. They'll never consider any of your history or bids for trust and friendship. Because they never had to! Never had to think about all of the moving parts and pieces it takes to know and consider someone. To consider all the things you've ever been blessed with. It's all, always, just been available to them.

What are your goals, passions, hobbies, characteristics without the green? They don't know. They never really have an answer. They're nothing without it.

A lot of these people are propped up to be leaders and bosses when they lack the life experience and healthy interpersonal relationships. Nepotism might get you far, but can you really sustain it? Of course I'm a little bitter about these things. As an artist and as a person who is trying to live beyond survival.

It's not just laziness, or privilege, it's a lifestyle. Be glad you're not like this. Be grateful that in all your humbleness and humility, you've developed tangible and realistic goals. Goals based on consistency, commitment, and a drive no amount of money could have instilled in you. Goals that don't ultimately become a rich people dick measuring contest about whose lives are better and fuller. It's exhausting.

xx to the ones who continue to strive for excellence and have to work ten times harder to get half as far, Keep going

[salsa-and-light]

@thegreenleavesofspring

Yes, you live in an American city, which is by definition car-dependant, and almost entirely unwalkable.

The point of this comic is not that cars universally make things worse, but that designing our cities around cars makes them uninhabitable for those without cars.

Leaving people without cars out in the cold.

The fact that you *can't* easily live without a car, is the point.

In fact you would be one of the biggest benefactors of a walkable urban environment.

@scleroticstatue

I recognize your concerns but ultimately they're not immediately relavant to the topic. You complaints are about public transit, which is beside the point when we're talking about walkability, the bus is not walking. Even so, the bus is what allows you to not need a car.

Though you did mention some problems with the layout of your nearby village, and that village is not walkable, which is where we would agree.

Though I do want to mention, barring disability if you can carry a jug of milk in one hand you can carry more than a couple of boxes of dry cereal. So I'm going to just assume that you're exaggerating for dramatic effect.

But in case anyone else in concerned, I also walk to get my groceries, and I'll admit that most people probably wouldn't carry as much as I do(uphill and then up four stories), but I still only have to go grocery shopping once a week, if that.

Many older people can't do the lifting that I do so they have rolling grocery bags

I don't have one myself but it would make my shopping significantly easier.

You mentioned that you were only allowed to have what could fit in your lap, but I have to imagine that if you can have more than one shopping bag you should be able to have one really tall one.

But if not.

They exist in a range of sizes.

But even so, buying 3-days worth of groceries at a time is pretty common, not in America of course, but I know people who do that by choice.

@she-is-amused

"Anti-car rhetoric is simply incompatible with with the broader reality of the world, kids."

You realize that there have been continent-spaning civilizations before the invention of the car right?

People still managed to eat, work and socialize without a car.

Now you need a car in order to do almost anything, hence you are dependent.

Many Americans can not survive without a car, that's completely true(it certainly was for many family), but that's precisely the problem.

Why should every person in America have to build their lives around an expensive machine, why should everything you need require insurance just to reach?

It's also worth mentioning that is is matter of historical fact that this dependence was intentionally created car companies. They bought and destroyed any other means of transportation and then lobbied local governments to require car-centric design.

"Also, urbanites demanding a change that would totally annihilate everyone else’s way of life"

In what way would a walkable city "eliminate your way of life".

You're not upstanding what the proposal is.

This is about changing urban environments, not getting rid of cars forever.

If you so choose you are still free to live far away from the amenities that you need to live, and then purchase an expensive vehicle to go and get them.

That's your choice.

"WHY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE EXISTS."

You know you're awfully huffy.

You just moaned about how the evil urbanites are trying to change your way of life, while you're stating on no uncertain terms that you will never live in an urban environment but you also think you should have a say in how they're designed.

Which is it?

More to the point, why is the electoral college relevant here?

There are urban environments in every state in the country, and even small towns(especially them actually) have to worry about urban design.

This is not a partisan issue, this is a practical design issue.

@theconstitutionisgayculture

"Don't even have to read past the "independence is a messy social construct" garbage to know this is going to be a sheltered urbanite talking out their ass."

Hello, country boy here.

What you consider independence is very relative.

But the short answer is that unless you live completely alone off the land, you are dependent on other people. Individual tolerances for one kind of dependance over another may vary.

But this is a complex issue, that the artist wisely chose to skip, it's not the topic, it's not worth getting upset or nasty over.

"and they proved it really fast by thinking that getting rid of cars would somehow magically make everything people need within walking distance."

No, no one said that.

You've misunderstood the entire proposition.

The idea is not that cars are something that has to disappear for walkable cities, it's that cars are the center of focus for urban design planners; cars as opposed to the people who live in cities.

This manifests in a number of ways, such as "minimum parking requirements" which prevent buildings from being built without massive parking lots.

Or certain zoning laws which limit certain areas to one type of usage.

Which is why it's very unusual to find a shop where the owner lives upstairs or in the back. Which used to be relatively common in America(watch almost any Western)

It's why there are no grocery stores near most residential areas, it's why people have to commute because most jobs that a person could have are in separate sections of the town or city.

You're a libertarian right?

Normally I would assume that someone like that wouldn't be in favor of these arbitrary rules, even before we consider the wider impact.

"And that's not even getting into the issue of how to transport large purchases or multiple purchases from store to home on a fucking bicycle."

Once again, you've misunderstood this, the change is not in whether or not cars are going to be used, the problem is in urban planning.

I live in a walkable city, I haven't owned or driven a car in over two years.

And yet, I can still call an uber if I need, I hired a car to move. I sold some furniture to a guy who picked it up in a van. There are cars parked outside my apartment right now.

Cars are available, but they are an option, not a necessity.

I could have a car if I really wanted to, the difference is that I don't need to have a car because I can walk to everything I need to live, and even some things I don't need.

I also don't have to pay thousands of dollars a year to be able to not starve, which is nice.

It's about turning no car into a minor inconvenience instead of a death sentence.

"Or how owning a car means you can never walk or bike anywhere."

No one said that either.

Like I said, I don't need a car, but I can use a car, I know people who have a car but still regularly walk or take public transportation.

It's not an all or nothing proposition.

"It's a stupid argument that relies on never thinking and just accepting what the arguer says as fact. Much like most modern left wing positions."

I'm trying to be nice here, but you're being very nasty for no reason; and you're also just wrong about the topic, so it's not very flattering no matter how you slice it.

You can be better than this.

@iydallus

"I live in a place with a great bus system. It would take me four hours to reach what I could in forty minutes by car. There is simply not enough buses and not enough demand for it for a bus to be able to take you anywhere and everywhere you need to go."

Public transit is another question.

How good or bad public transit is sort of moot when you don't need that either.

If you can walk to it, you don't need a car or a bus.

But while we're on the subject, you don't have a "great bus system" not unless you compare it with typical American public transit scheme which is awful.

Cars and Independence

My Patreon

[kingdomoftyto]

.

[doberbutts]

To those wondering what I'm talking about re: Harvestella... these are some of the many comments on various articles regarding the game and specifically the interview that announced the non-binary OPTION (meaning if you don't want to be nb you simply don't select it- literally all it does is give you they/them pronouns instead of she/her and he/him).

And this image from Squeenix's official twitter:

Which is the "absolutely terrible" character customization screen that people are complaining about. Pronouns, body type, skin color, hair color, eye color. Less customization than some, more than others. Your clothes change with your job. Pretty sure the models are exactly the same, just one has [small] boobs and an updo and the other has no boobs and a side ponytail.

Reactions from Gamer Bros vary from your typical shitty trans/nbphobic "mental illness" and "doesn't exist" comments all the way for advocating for genocide of Japan and BOTH antiblack AND anti-Japanese slurs at the same time (that one thankfully downvoted by everyone).

But what gets me the most is the reaction to the male body type. He's fairly androgynous and maybe even a bit pear-shaped- it's hard to tell with the way the clothes flare around his waist. But it's "this guy doesn't look like a man" and "I'm being forced to play as someone I don't look like" which is interesting to me because A: I know men who look like that and

B: I've literally always been forced to play as someone I don't look like, it's VERY RARE that I as a black person can find the correct skin tone, correct hair texture, AND correct facial features in a character customization screen. They are always too dark or too light, with european hair textures, and euro or asian facial features... OR the facial features are just shy of exaggerated characiture (looking at you, Skyrim) and thus playing as such is not a fun experience. And that's JUST my reality of being black, not even mentioning gender or disability.

I don't look like Geralt. I don't look like Aloy. I never have. I never will. I have ALWAYS been forced to play as someone I don't look like. Even when I supposed to make this character *me*. Even when it comes close, it still misses the mark. Even this game does- I don't look like that and my hair would never do that and my face will never be that asian-beauty-standard prettyboy look. I can have my skin tone, that's it.

Gamer Bros really are the weakest link, they think if something doesn't pander immediately and directly to them that it's garbage. As if there aren't thousands of people exactly like me who have yet to see themselves in a game, who've been gaming since they were old enough to hold a controller. How many women out there grew up forced to play male characters while being told "the mc is supposed to be YOU :)" until game companies remembered girls exist too? How many companies STILL do this?

You will not die because in this one offshoot Final Fantasy Farming games you're forced to choose between a twink and a high femme, I promise.

[nobodysdaydreams]

#IMAGINE IMAGINE#CURTAIN APOLOGISTS

@lotsofsq

Imagine a tik tok scroll like this:

Video 1: "He's a weird old man who is trying to save us from the Emergency. That is more than anyone else is doing. Everyone's like "what about the drone footage of him abusing children, blah blah blah", like we don't have the full story, that could have been AI generated, and also, whatever happened to discipline? Parents these days are too soft on their kids, that's why y'all's children are throwing fits in target."

Video 2: *Fan cam of Curtain with hearts and glitter set to pop music, half the photos are actually Mr. Benedict.*

Video 3: "Proof that Mr. Curtain is a FAKE wheelchair user. As you can see from this photo, he's walking around Stonetown just fine without a wheelchair *shows photo of Mr. Benedict, the video is captioned #Curtainisoverparty*"

Video 4: "Everyone out there trying to say Mr. Curtain is faking his disability can literally block me. Not all wheelchair users are paralyzed or 100% incapable of walking all the time, literally educate yourselves. Y'all owe this poor old man an apology, for real."

Video 5: "All this wheelchair discourse has got me thinking: is Mr. Curtain actually a clone? The evidence might shock you, part 3. Notice how all the photos of him not in his wheelchair are taken of him in places not on the island. Coincidence?"

Video 6: "Everyone you need to know you're being lied to! All this random discourse about Curtain is meant to distract you from the fact that he is attempting to control the world. I'm posting this and then going offline, but everyone, please you need to get off your phones immediately! That's how he's spreading the Emergency. Please, crazy as it sounds, you have to believe me!”

Video 7: "It's sooooo pathetic how people are saying Curtain is causing the Emergency when he's literally trying to stop it. First y'all come for a disabled neurodivergent elderly man and now you accuse him of being a criminal? Proof that some people just thrive on hate and jealousy. Could never be me."

Video 8: "So...let's talk about the green plaid. That itself is a crime. Everyone's like "oh well, neurodivergent people like to wear the same outfit everyday" but like why that outfit? I don't wanna be disrespectful, because the Curtain stans on this app are literally insane, but like, why?"

Video 9: "THAT VIDEO OF MR. CURTAIN RUNNING OVER A CHILD IN HIS WHEELCHAIR AND CALLING HIM A ROTTEN PIECE OF GARBAGE IS LITERALLY AI GENERATED PROPAGANDA! LEAVE HIM ALONE! 🥺 HONESTLY EVEN IF HE DID DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT, THE KID PROBABLY DESERVED IT!" *sobs dramatically* "AND STOP SAYING HIS PLAID IS STUPID! IT'S BEAUTIFUL!" *breaks down in tears*

Video 10: "Everyone has been asking me "what do you think about the ten men? Why not the ten women? Don't you think it's a red flag that he doesn't have women in leadership? Um...hello? Jillson? Martina? That one other girl that one time? Curtain is clearly a feminist ally. Everyone's like "oh but they're children, he's employing children, that's problematic", like no, he's giving gifted children special opportunities, he's supporting the education of our children, and the people who hate him for that are constantly praising his supposed brother/clone for doing the same thing, like how are you gonna praise one and not the other? That's hypocrisy, babes."

Video 11: "We FINALLY have the tea on Mr. Curtain's brother, and y'all the rivalry here is more insane than you might think. According to Curtain, his brother Nicholas not only abandoned him in an orphanage, but shoved him down a flight of stairs to make him disabled, constantly bullied and ridiculed his brother, and committed several felonies all before the age of seven. But, according to his brother, Curtain isn't even his real name, and he's been the one behind the Emergency this whole time. Which brother should be believed? I think I'll go with the one who is actually qualified to teach children, thank you very much. *#Mr.Benedictisoverparty*

Video 12: "Proof that the people saying the Helpers look like people who have gone missing and coming to the conclusion that Curtain kidnapped them have it all wrong: Part 7. We all know Curtain and his supposed twin look alike but do you really believe two identical twin brothers could live so close together in the same town and never see each other? Nah. What's actually happening is that the island is producing clones of people who have disappeared in other parts of the world with the same faces, but different names and identities. But then why and how does Mr. Curtain exist if his counterpart, Mr. Benedict, is not missing? Like and follow for part 8."

Guys I had an important thought about the Mysterious Benedict Society:

It was written in 2007. Curtain sent messages through the tv and radio. But in 2025, social media would be his primary target so he’d be sending messages like “cut the grass, mow the lawn, always keep tik tok on” and primarily trying to send subliminal messages via tumblr, twitter, tik tok, facebook, instagram, etc.

But the issue is television and radio are (typically) one way. Social media is interactive. Meaning if one person caught onto the messages or they were visible in a code on the app and someone noticed, a person could make a video about it and slowly go viral. This would, ironically, have a decent chance of working because social media eats up weird conspiracies even if they don’t believe them so long as they’re interesting, and Curtain has been intentionally making people distrustful and paranoid.

Imagine you’re scrolling and video pops up like: “Hey y’all so here are my thoughts on the subliminal messages coming from that creepy private school conspiracy theory, part 11. It was super hard to find pictures of the headmaster, and rumor has it, it’s because he’s a “private man” so already that’s like, already so suspicious, but I did find something. As you can see he makes his employees and students wear uniforms while he dresses in whatever this ugly green plaid is? Honestly, that alone is a crime, but what I really want to focus on is his age. Like look how old his man is. Why is he running a school? Why is he not retired? The guy is literally in a wheel chair and our drones caught him running over a kid. Like… sir, that’s a lawsuit. Literally child abuse. Anyway, we also got more juicy footage, so like and follow for part 12.”

However, on the other hand, Curtain would also be trying to establish himself as dictator. So he’d also have a bunch of propaganda accounts making fan cams of him with glitter and heart emojis set to pop music. This backfired spectacularly when people start mistaking Nicholas for his brother and making their own fan edits of him instead. This spirals into a new conspiracy about Benedict and Curtain being the same person in a “Jekyll and Hyde” or “Hannah Montana” situation.

[l1ft-l1ft1ng-l1ft3d]

OK, guys. Storytime! 😵‍💫

(No, I didn't get caught!!!)

There's a W@lgr33n'$ in a terrible neighborhood in the city I live in that's constantly shoplifted from + has lots of homeless + mentally ill people loitering outside at all times of the day. I robbed them blind for 5 months (I l1ft3d from them at least 2x per week) until the owner/manager of that location figured out that SHITLOADS of expensive cosmetics, skincare, feminine hygiene, haircare, first aid items, vitamins/supplements, stationery, etc. were disappearing. He never saw me conceal b/c I always used blind spots, but he definitely suspected me after a while.

This owner/manager (white, probably mid-50s) is a real dick suck of a rules guy/wannabe LP agent who takes theft at his store personally. Judging from his behavior, he thinks people are stealing from his store to punish + take from him, but really, people rip him off because capitalism is garbage + nobody can afford anything. 🤡 He now constantly patrols the store like some bullshit rent-a-cop and follows all $h0pl1ft3r$ (whether they've stolen small items like ice cream or energy drinks or larger, higher ticket cosmetics/skincare/drugs) out of the store while shouting at them that they're worthless thieves + to never come back.

In early May, I stopped into this W@lgr33n'$ location to do a little l1ft1ng, and this limp dick asshole manager/owner sees me walk in. He then practically ran over to one of his employees who was stocking shelves + basically told her to watch me while I was in the cosmetics/skincare/haircare section. The owner was SO obvious about sussing me out that I immediately realized what he was doing + noped the fuck out of there with a quickness without taking anything, but I could tell he was big mad that he hadn't been able to definitively "catch" me stealing + ban me from his store.

I hadn't been back to that W@lgr33n'$ location since then for any reason (no lifting, no shopping, no nothing) until today. My best friend (who lives in the same neighborhood as this W@lgr33n's) needed a few things, so I went with her to watch her son while she shopped. (Obviously I wasn't going to l1ft from there after my last interaction with the manager/owner.)

Within a minute of walking in with my best friend, the manager/owner had seen me + was already sussing me out + giving me dirty looks. There was nothing he could do about me being in his store because I wasn't doing anything wrong, + he was pissed! 😭

While we were there, an obviously homeless + mentally not all there POC stole a small container of ice cream - literally such a cheap item that it barely even counts as a loss for the store. The shitbag prick of a manager/owner sees what happened, chases this guy down + starts yelling loudly enough for everyone to hear that this guy stole ice cream, screams at the guy to leave, and follows him out into the parking lot while continuing to yell at + insult the man while the employees at the registers are rolling their eyes + cringing with secondhand embarrassment.

Watching that sort of totally unprofessional, aggressive, righteous behavior from the manager/owner + seeing how totally disproportionate his reaction was to the value of the item the person stole really left a foul taste in my mouth. Like, first of all, go fuck yourself for acting like your shitty merchandise is somehow more important than people + actually matters in the grand scheme of things. Folks have been $h0pl1ft1ng for as long as stores have been around + will $h0pl1ft long after that militant fascist prick manager drops dead of a stroke from the stress of constantly trying to catch thieves stealing from his shitty little store in a shitty little neighborhood in a city full of poor/disabled/homeless/unemployed/mentally ill people who are NEVER going to leave his precious store alone.

I guess I'm mostly just ranting, but I also want to remind every l1ft3r to be really aware of the "vibes" of the management + employees, + to avoid stores with aggressive managers/owners ego-tripping on playing cop with l1ft3r$. If anything feels *off* in any way to you when you're l1ft1ng, don't hesitate to drop everything, leave right away, + never come back. Moral of the story: Don't let some shit maggot little store manager catch you slipping + don't forget to rob W@lgr33n's of everything that isn't locked down to the floor because fuck them! 😭👌 The revolution is coming + worthless capitalist Nazis like that manager will NOT be spared. 😎👍

[notabled-noodle]

sorry if this isn't the right place to ask, but my parents and i have had discussions on my possibly having ocpd for a bit and they both say i can't be a perfectionist because my home is messy and i don't put packaging in the garbage immediately after they've been used (i prefer to stack them in one place so when i do my food journal before bed i don't forget). is this true? i meet the criteria for literally everything else but that one's pretty important from what i can see.

they know how much i need things i care about to be perfect, but there are some things that (due to disability or just not prioritising certain things) i can't fix and i have to just sit there, annoyed but unable to do anything about it. i think they don't see my annoyance and assume that i'm ok with it, but they're probably right in that it doesn't make me a perfectionist.

my question is: can people with ocpd have messy or sometimes dirty living spaces or does that negate that criterion?

(if you don't know, that's totally fine but if anyone else wants to answer that's cool too)

yeah. if you have other chronic illnesses, disabilities, etc you can end up with a slightly different presentation of OCPD symptoms than someone without those additional disorders. you may have the desire for perfection that is seen in OCPD, but none of the ability to keep things perfect, leading to a loop of frustration and/or self-hate.

cleanliness is also not the only way that OCPD can present itself. there’s also:

organisation

list-writing

a desire to micro manage people who are helping you with tasks

a need to know where each and every one of your belongings are at all times

basically. when you’re considering a diagnosis, it’s important to keep in mind what else you’ve got going on, and how that might impact the way your symptoms appear

[gorematchala]

I think my final verdict on FFXV is that it sucks really bad but, as a movie, I like watching it suck cuz theres good stuff in there, and its just kinda fascinating overall

The game has absolutely no value to me in terms of actual gameplay. It's got bad combat on top of tedious open world bullshit. Don't care. But as movies on youtube...

Kingsglaive is actually kinda good, but that may be biased by the fact that Aaron Paul is the lead, and also that I watched it immediately after Advent Children which is the worst garbage ever. The story has two plot threads that proceed in a logical manner and then converge at the 70% mark and resolve in a satisfying conclusion. Thats all I can ask of a film. Advent Children sucks so bad I still can't believe it after 48 entire hours

The main game movie is mostly inoffensive even though it only kinda makes sense? It's totally fine once you get what's happening, but there isn't enough information in there. But I like Noctis, and Ardyn is the best. There are other characters as well

Episode Gladiolus is nothing

Episode Prompto was shockingly bad, like holy fuck. The shit opens on 3 minutes of walking in the snow, followed by Metal Gear, then Prompto has a meltdown because he finds out he was grown in a tube, which doesnt really seem to do anything for him. Like he isn't extra strong as a result or anything. So he tries to burn his barcode off and hes screaming and crying in the snow while I'm sitting here remembering how little of a fuck Noctis and them give when he tells them. Like all this shit happens and hes freaking out and they go yeah who cares. Then he spends 25 minutes shooting an RE5 turret at a big worm. Awful

Episode Ignis was kinda cool. I like Ravus well enough and Ignis is at least capable and good at what he does if nothing else. I think I came around on him despite his britishness because Prompto is annoying and Gladio is kind of an asshole for no reason randomly. And the realest moment in the whole base game is the two of them arguing over whether or not Ignis should be allowed to travel with them like he isn't there listening to them. That and Gladio dealing with his own frustration about everything that happened at Altissia by yelling at Noctis for being sad while Ignis is blind. Basically using Ignis's situation as justification to vent on someone. In the middle of this weird chopped up shell of a plot they take a moment to very accurately portray how the people around someone will often make their newfound disability about them. It was neat

Episode Ardyn was both the best and worst part of the whole plot. It justifies his motivation and shows you exactly how we got where we did, but at the same time, it sucks when Bahamut explains that none of this matters because it was preordained by fate. It made me feel for Ardyn because he almost existed outside that fate but was still bound by it. Cursed to spend his whole life waiting for Noctis to be born and kill him, just because that's the hand he was dealt by his own brother. Or was it his brother? Was it fate? Where did the plague come from? Why does melting people give him their memories? Why can he sometimes stop time? Who decided upon this prophecy? Why was Ardyn made the embodiment of darkness? Why did killing him solve the problem?

The whole thing is stupid when you view it as a series of events that happen just because they have to. But there's still something about it that makes me want to like it. Maybe it's just the ghost of Versus XIII. The promise of spending the game walking around that city instead of driving through the desert. Idk. But at the end of the day, Noctis is really good in Theatrhythm and he's fun to play as in Tekken, so I guess it was all worth it

[nexiraptor]

Alright I've come out of warrior cats review retirement to talk about light in the mist because it's still, really shit.

Also spoilers ahead because the Erin's haven't learned a goddamn thing from people criticing their books and they keep making the same god damn mistakes

Alright first off I hate that snowtuft died because it could have been a really cool concept of snowtuft actually becoming a starclan cat for saving everyone instead they kill him off and pretty much do fuck nothing with that concept which sucks

Second thing is the way they portray mates starclan like yes I am happy the authors listened to our complaints about graystripe choosing Millie however the way they did it was such bullshit, like sliverstream the way we see her is such a loving and accepting cat in starclan that's suppose to be her thing but instead she becomes a petty and ableist bitch during this book.

I'm calling her ableist cause she was mean to briarlight who I claim to still have her disability and is doing fine up there and the books can't fucking stop me from saying that! #warriorcatsisableist

Anyway and then there is feathertail who is jealous about crowfeather and leafpool which I'm just immediately going to label as a mistake because feathertail was egging leafpool on the whole time.

Finally we get to one of my least favorite deaths ever in warrior cats, Bristlefrost she literally got fridged for Rootspring's character development including her spirit so she's permanently dead, like I don't need to tell you how bad that kind of writing is and in warrior cats whenever someone has to make a heroic sacrifice IT'S ALWAYS THE FEMALE CHARACTERS WHO DO IT!

Think I'm wrong here's a list of warrior cats characters who have died via heroic sacrifice and for another characters development

Sliverstream

Bluestar

Feathertail

Hollyleaf

Needletail

Leafpool and Moonlight at the same time

Sunfish

Willowbreeze

And I could go on and on but I don't need to, you all know at this point warrior cats is sexist garbage, and you know I was warming up to this arc I thought it was going to be really good, but then they pulled rug from underneath and pretty much everything goes back to the status quo

I am giving this book a whooping 1/10 the other books of the arc were really good and then light in the mist pretty much ruined everything.

[justaghostinthesea]

The Echo show has reportedly begun production and Disney has released the first teaser image

I'm not 100% certain that this is official, but I believe they started working on Echo right after Hawkeye, in the same way Peacemaker went into production immediately after The Suicide Squad, so the timeline adds up. I'm so excited for this show. It's going to be a huge leap in representation, for deaf, disabled, and indigenous peoples, Alaqua Cox is going to kick ass, and it's going to be amazing.

My only worry is that it'll be a Book of Boba Fett situation, where the show is used to market other characters instead of focusing on the character the show is named after. I doubt it, Kevin Fiege is a pretty smart guy, but Disney is a garbage company soooooooo.... I guess we'll see.