#We live in difficult times

[owlsdrawinglair]

My first experience of homophobia in years and it came from a bright shittin' gas giant

[3liza]

this is such a dumb post im about to make but im trying to watch Ryan Murphy take a run at Hannibal and doing it mostly incoherently (a show called Grotesquerie) like he does everything but it reminded me that the trope in both crime media AND real life criminal forensics is that assumption that for a killer to do something a certain way, he has to be or is more likely to be a professional in that field. the old chestnut that jack the ripper or whoever must be a surgeon or a mortuary worker or a butcher in order to "know anatomy" is complete nonsense. i know how to do so many things that have nothing to do with my actual job or training, including butchering meat, and cutting up a dead body takes like. less than "deboned a chicken five or six times" levels of expertise.

its really not some rarified skill and its pretty self-explanatory as soon as you start separating joints etc. i imagine it only takes a couple minutes of trying to saw through a human femur with garden tools before you start looking around for a better way and then figure out on your own that separating cartilage is a lot easier. which is why there are so many actual irl cases where entire human corpses have been dismembered in a fairly short period of time in order to fit them into luggage or trash cans or barrels, and the killer was just some guy. you dont need any expertise when cutting up OR sewing together parts of a carcass because surgical expertise is about doing as little damage as possible and maximizing survival, which doesn't apply to doing morbid tableaux with people who are already dead, or concealing a victim in a crawlspace or what have you. its an incredibly dumb thing that people say both on tv and in real life and its so annoying. this applies to really any forensic claim about expertise with the exception of skills that actually do take many years to get even vaguely competent at, like idk, drawing realistically. like if you are the fictional detective and you found a blood painting with excellent draftsmanship at a crime scene, that would probably be forensically relevant because not a lot of people know how to draw and its not something you can get GOOD at without a few hundred hours of investment. but just cutting up meat and sewing it back together? and not even taxidermy or tanning or skeleton articulation or clean maceration or whatever???? not relevant. tired of seeing it in crime media. its dumb. actually being able to set up a department store window scene with 200lb human bodies without them falling over or liquifying or collapsing takes a lot more specialized experience than slicing and dicing. like if i walked into a church with a bunch of dead people arranged as the last supper i would be looking for someone with a theater tech degree, not a surgeon

[lemonhemlock]

I did not get into Game of thrones when it first started airing. In fact, I waited until it was long past it's heyday (around s6 or 7) to check it out because the marketing and the conversation surrounding it misled me into thinking it was nothing more than "grimdark" bullshit. As one famous YouTuber sarcastically called it "hot fantasy that fucks." So, I avoided Martin's work for literal years due to the impression that I got from online reactors and show-only casuals who did as you and a few others have described as his work being fundamentally misinterpreted.

Fortunately, I overcame my hang-ups, purchased the books (even the supplementary material) and fell down an entire rabbit hole of ASOIAF which led me to recognizing that this world he spent decades creating is far more complex than what had been portrayed onscreen. Regardless of the possibility of the books remaining unfinished (which I am fine with, personally), what George has created is a genuine work of art that I imagine took a tremendous amount of time and energy. So, for so many people online to behave like children and throw tantrums because they feel entitled to him (ew) instead of ushering forth more reasonable conversations and legitimate debates about the nature of his situation frankly makes me look at this fandom with a heavy dose of skepticism.

It is truly baffling to hear even professional critics and see articles describing George as being "ungrateful" or "unprofessional" when it has been well-documented just how often authors get locked out of the adaptation process and left to the wayside as consultants. Look at what happened to Rick Riordan and Christopher Paolini! George R.R. Martin is not the only author to have qualms with how a multimillion dollar studio has mishandled his creative work, and to act like he should remain silent just because he's amassed a certain degree of wealth is quite frankly, ridiculous. He shouldn't have to settle down, be grateful, and stay quiet because the greedy corporate executives and their media drones will get offended by actual criticism that could alter the perception of the adaption being revealed as mediocre for having departed from the source material.

TLDR: authors should be allowed to speak up about their art being sacrificed for commercialization.

Thank you so much for this message, anon! This needs to be talked about more, because I don't think a lot of commentators truly understand the vulgar, late-capitalistic sheen that seems to set in and slowly poison any ASOIAF adaptation. It honestly baffles me how quick some members of this fandom are to rush to the defense of, what is essentially (let's not be kidding ourselves here), a cashgrab by a giant corporation to the detriment of the actual artist and the actual creative foundation behind it.

Why else would "MAX" (if that is even their name) make another (or several other) ASOIAF adaptations? Not to stay true to any philosophical aesthetic vision, as it has become more than apparent with Season 2, but to increase shareholder profits by appealing to the lowest common denominator. Even the basic premise has been shifted in order to address popular trends and satisfy the mindless consumer that doesn't want to engage with anything deeper than their favourite tropes, prettily packaged:

from a story about a doomed ouroborous family superimposed on the pitfalls of feudalism, with villainy and heroism to be found on both sides, it has been simplified and reduced to a narrative that exalts white feminism and disqualifies anyone who opposes its girlboss protagonist. This is Sheryl Sandberg's version of Fire and Blood.

Truly, I think Sara Hess did (unintentionally) outline it the best: "civilians don't matter in Game of Thrones". They don't matter in Game of Thrones, but they matter in A Song of Ice and Fire. The entire heart of the series is contained in Septon Maribald's speech. The writers "kind of", must have forgotten, though.

[fantasy-the-final-frontier]

I just got to the Sun Station in Outer Wilds today and I feel so much betrayal - not by the game designers, but as if I was in-game. I’m experiencing so much conceptual bleed right now.

[goodluckeddie]

.

[homicidalbrunette]

I'm calling this video "everything is shit but it's okay because we have each other."

[quins-makeshift-menagerie]

Oh yeah

A year after moving to our current place we’re moving AGAIN

but to the downstairs unit of our building lmao

I don’t know if I’ll have to put things on another break yet. Because we’re just moving downstairs it’s more make sure small things are put in a box for carrying rather than completely packing everything up. We aren’t moving until the end of May though. The main issue is the people that have been living there have been there for like…18 years apparently? So it’s gonna be a lot of cleaning and house repairs;;; I’ll keep yall updated as we get closer to that

[postmail]

this was supposed to be a sketch of what ishmael might look like if he grew his hair out post-canon and i blacked out and woke up to this on my computer. help where have the past two hours of my life gone

no tattoos yet because he's fresh off the sea and in nantucket again for the first time since the pequod. i don't think he's happy to be back guys

[astralhope]

- Yuma... Someday, once again, we will... -

Rank 55: Yuma Jet!!

[rosekasa]

there is something so. intensely frustrating about feeling incapable of showing up for people the way that they want you to

[momentomori24]

I'm currently catching up on the new episodes for the 2nd trial and I'm currently at this point so before I continue I'm putting this out there: NEITHER of these are Teruko's secret. The one at the top is Min's, the one at the bottom is Xander's, and the one David received about "you have too many secrets to choose from, the killing game is all your fault" is actually Teruko's and I will DIE on that hill. I don't care how hard this game is trying to gaslight me into thinking otherwise, I think Min and Xander's got each other's motive secret. This begs the question on why David lied and said he got Xander's instead, but we'll see (or I'll see because I'm super late to the party).

Obviously, I could just be delusional and one of those two really does end being Teruko's, but honestly I won't trust that conclusion until proven waaay beyond a shadow of a doubt. David's not trustworthy for obvious reasons, so that makes me doubt the truth about his motive secret even more. I equally don't trust Teruko for not calling him out on it cuz surely she has to have known he lied. I will especially not trust her for claiming one of the two to be hers, because that means she has something to hide. Again, I could just be wrong and the mastermindy motive is actually Xander's and not Teruko's and I'm seeing shadows where there aren't any, but I've been tweaking for the last hour about this and I'll be so happy if I end up being proven right.

[itsmistyeyedbi]

Wanna know why I procrastinated on what is usually my favourite part of my English Literature assignment?

Because they want us to use ai.

In a degree where English Literature is one of my majors, they want us to use ai to write a poem.

What the hell is even that. I mean, really!? USE AI TO WRITE A POEM IN YOUR ENGLISH LIT ASSIGNMENT💀

Fortunately, we're only using it as a starting off point at best for our own poem, and then write an essay on how ours is better. Our lecturer hates it too so she's giving us more leniency than she ever would. But still!

And the AI part is only 3 marks.

I'm using something that is stealing other people's works and quite literally destroying the planet, for 3 marks🧍🏾‍♀️

[separatist-apologist]

How are Taco and Waffles? Do they like Pickles?

Oof, I was hoping no one would ask- it still feels very painful. Waffles passed away back in March- she was very sick and it was all very quick and I don't think she had a particularly good death (because she fought the sleeping medicine and the whole thing still feels so very traumatizing).

In the aftermath, Taco because extremely depressed. I didn't know dogs could grieve like that, but he's a chonky guy and he lost so much weight you could count the notches in his spine. He wouldn't eat, he didn't want to play, he just laid around all day EXCEPT when we worked, and then he just destroyed everything he could get his teeth into.

So in June, I told the little MB's we could just go and look- no puppies- and if we saw someone we liked, we'd think it over on the weekend and then if it still felt good, we'd go back. Which of course blew up in my face because Pickle's was the nicest dog in the noisy shelter. What's crazy is that you can just walk into the humane society and an hour later walk out with a dog. They just take you at your word if you're willing to hand over money.

So we brought her home. Her shelter name was Dim-Sum and we kind of cycled through some options before Pickles. We tried to keep her and Taco separate because we weren't sure if he'd like her, but he broke into the room we were keeping her without anyone noticing and when we DID notice, he was laying right next to her licking her ear.

He's chonky again, all dog smiles and playing with toys. When he won't come into the house quick enough before taking the kids to school, she'll nab him by his collar and bring him in anyway. She's a little dog thief- she'll pull food off the counter for them to share (she's long).

I like to think Waffles is still here in the halls, watching us. I think she's at peace, which she deserved, but I miss her. The new dog doesn't really fill the hole, but seeing her bounce around makes me think that the love you have doesn't really fade, it just changes shape. I see so much of Waffles in Pickles- all her best qualities.

[monster-noises]

Like.. genuinely, very genuinely.

Where and how to do hunt down events in your city? Like places and groups and activities where people who like the same things as you gather and hang out and do social stuff?

Cause I do follow like.. local game stores, comic shops, book shops, galleries/art programs, concert halls, the 1 gay bar in town, queer group pages, the library, and at least one local zine making group whose events never line up with my schedule except the 1 time it did and i went and it was very awkward for me so idk how good that one would pan out if I kept tryingggg-

And while a lot of these places host events semi-regularly the year a lot don't appeal or apply to me so I'm just at a Bit of a Loss for where to find events where I may connect with other people..

So like if ya'll know of some secret search term of webbed site or what have you IIIIII'm open to suggestions!

(and lets just completely ignore the fact that they're all going to be scheduled during my working hours anyway and I won't be able to go, I'll breakdown about that one later. I need to delude myself at least a little bit or else I'll Implode)

[du-hjarta-skulblaka]

Some mild existential dread in the house today

[theskyexists]

It just occurred to me, really sank in, what it means that they sang live on the Wicked set. Erivo and Grande both look insanely THIN. Yet they sang those songs 50 times in a row WHILE dancing and doing stunts and acting. Erivo got yoinked around on wires at insane speeds WHILE singing. They were sprinting and jumping and twirling and crying while singing and the singing is perfect. Their lung surface capacity must be moon-sized. Ofc, filming shots means setting up the shot then taking the shot all the little bits in a row soooo, I guess they did a full pass through the scene for capturing the song?