#a substack post

[st-just]

Fundamentally if someone looks out on the whole span of humanity today and complains that life is too convenient and easy I can't help but feel a real contempt? Even beyond the total selfish myopia, it's not like the world lacks for edifying struggles and productive challenges for someone with some free time and capital to take on. You're just terminally incurious and lazy and want to make it technology's fault.

[thelonelybrilliance]

the most embarrassing thing a man can do is try to diminish the cultural, moral, and artistic significance of Jane Austen via the sophistry of an insecure ego

[joshdonnas]

"Do you notice watching the pilot that I, with my ponytail swinging, was in every background shot, standing behind Brad in every meeting with my folder? I was curious if I had engineered that, casually slipping into every scene, or had they already sensed that this relationship was a thing. I didn't know we had chemistry back then, although I can see it now clearly. As I watched Josh and Donna crackling, the connection already so layered, who wouldn't want more?

The first scene I shot was with John Spencer. I remember asking Tommy Schlamme, our director, if I could have a yogurt at my desk. He gave me one second of consideration, barely stopping his loping stride, and said, “No.” I followed him behind the camera (such a Donna move), sure that this was an excellent idea, sure that this natural activity would be a tiny brush stroke in the tableau of morning ritual and asked him again. He looked at me with a quick sigh and said, “Fine, just don't eat it.” With these small choices, I made the few minutes I had on camera as vivid and undeniable as possible. John said after we finished the scene, that I would be there until the curtain came down."

— JANEL MOLONEY on the "PILOT" (1x01)

[c-kiddo]

i dont have the will to make any more social media accounts , looked at bluesky sign up on a whim and it feels like destroying my soul to make more stupid social media accounts. every social media that dies is one less that i have and in the end i wont have any at all and i wont answer emails i will just be outside

[see-arcane]

The Substack! It lives!

Please do get an eyeful of the whole thing, but for those who want to cut straight to one of the newer goodies, this is the link to the new preview chapter of Harker.

Minor note: For some reason the order of posts got a bit screwy. The chapters for specific stories are all still clustered together but a bit mixed around. I think it has something to do with me fussing with edits and the Substack publishing in order of what was tinkered with last, but oh well. I'll do better with future posts that aren't dropped in a bulk pile.

Hope you enjoy the early Halloween treat!

[eddie-redcliffe]

(x)

[mabeuf5]

i am SO CLOSE to finishing 50 les mis adaptations and i am SO EXCITED to make a load of pie charts breaking down all the data i’ve gathered about them!!!!!

[strawberrystepmom]

some good advice I heard a while back and have been trying to implement in my life since is that it is helpful to actively decenter yourself from other people’s lives. this doesnt mean like withdrawing or avoiding anyone, it means understanding that everyone else has their own world. everyone exists in their own tiny microcosm and oftentimes the terrible ways we assume other people feel about us or the things we are doing are simply not true because (I know this sounds mean) they just don’t really care.

and I don’t mean they don’t care in a cruel way I mean it in a “everyone literally has their own difficulties and struggles and fears every single day they are not obsessing over anything you’re doing the way you may be worried that they are”

as someone who has suffered from intense and at times debilitating anxiety my whole life, this was like clearing clouds in my mind. for the first time I could see that I was making myself the center of other people’s worlds and assuming their feelings instead of taking them at their word or trusting our relationship as friends or coworkers or whatever. it isn’t intended to be unkind when you assume that of other people but it can make you untrustworthy and withdrawn and lonely.

believe that people say wonderful things about you when you aren’t around. trust people who say they’re your friends. for my fellow anxious disposition havers - you are loved. your absence is felt in every room you walk out of. get out of your head and accept your place in people’s hearts bc it’s there and waiting for you.

[museenkuss]

Fairy tales are full of mysterious rituals, there are webs of sevens and threes to get lost in and meals to be shared with animals or strange creatures in the woods. People are told over and over to pick the worse of two options and repeatedly get punished for picking golden saddles, golden doors or golden cages. Those rules feel like steps to endless, ever-same and ever-changing dances, and they extend to the bodies of the protagonists.

I finally managed to put order into SOME of my thoughts on death, mutilation and grotesque elements in fairy tales! Read them here, if you'd like!

[wisteriagroves]

Maisa (link to post)

A heart-wrenching piece for all those who are looking for deep and meaningful connections, a love that is rare.

[bogkeep]

mannnnnn now that i've actually started medical transition it seems that i will, hopefully, someday, get through to the other side of the limbo tunnel and can hopefully explore more permanent masculine attire. which is as exciting as it is daunting. like, i'm under no illusions that there's a tangible cutoff point where i will Suddenly be out of the limbo state (though top surgery will certainly help if i can get it), and there's no one thing holding me back from exploring this space *now*, but it's. Difficult ,

the List of challenges i must navigate:

- men's fashion is on a surface level very sad and boring and i crave whimsy :( i know knowledge and experience will help but it's like playing on hard mode compared to being a Weird Girl (tm). i am currently gnc against my will and i desire to be gnc Intentionally and on my own terms

- hashtag short king problems. masculine attire was never made with me in mind. almost every time i observe an aspirational example of Men's Fashion it's on a tall lanky guy and that will never be me and that's okay but throw me a bone pleas

- the Autism Sensibilities. collars too close to the neck depletes me of HP. wearing accessories for too long depletes me of mana. if a button up is made of a slightly too stiff material it will give me rashes. i cannot wear binders because i value my ability to breathe comfortably. i can only do so many layers at once before i hit a game over screen. i MUST be comforble

- the restrictions of my circumstances, such as the safety rules of the watchmaker workshop or the mercy of scandinavian weather gods

i'm sure i will figure things out with time. i'm going to need patience. i'm probably going to have to learn how to tailor trousers. i will need to Observe how others dress. but it's so much!! ahh!!!!

[grantmentis]

Final tournament thought before I decompress:

I really don’t want to overlook what savolainen did this tournament. She had to step into Jenni Hiirikoski’s role as #1 d, a role that Jenni has had since 2003. Literally a role that she’s had for almost the entire lifetime of the rest of the Finnish defense besides ronja! And she killed it. Finland was a team that adjusted again and again and got up after being knocked down again and again this tournament and made meaningful changes to their game plan every game to improve and she was able to help make that translate on the ice, not just in her own play and others. Karvinen and tulus also deserve a ton of credit for their leadership in addition to their on ice play. The forwards lost a huge player in vainikka and were able to keep going. Nylund and liikala were huge in stepping up their production

[literatureaesthetic]

hey, hi, hello 👋🏻 it's been a while lmao

i returned to university for my postgrad studies and completely forgot about social media. take this as a sign that i am living and loving life, and it is nothing but a beautiful thing. as my studies come to end (once again), i'm hoping to find structure in social media. i'm not sure how frequently i'll be posting on here and insta, but i am whipping up a lot of posts on substack, which you can check out here

i hope you're all doing well <3

[solradguy]

I'd seen a comment that the finalized design for Venom seems to have an unbuttoned shirt when compared to the buttoned vest of the concept art from the S4 trailer (which had leaked unfortunately), so maybe that's where the confusion might be coming from. Does make me curious how often they change a detail like that so close to model work being done, given so much of Strive's concept art (at least the ones I've seen) does tend to match what we get in the final game.

I must've blocked the correct amount of people because the last character leak I knew about was the Slayer one that was like a whopping 12 hours or something before the actual reveal anyway lol

We were actually talking about concept art through alpha then beta designs in the wiki server yesterday!! It's really interesting how far some concepts made it in the timeline before getting changed. @shmuelbrain dug these up.

Elphelt from the 3rd location test for Xrd Sign (late 2013?) still had a pink clover on her ear that she's got in her concept art (it got changed to green in the final release):

Sol's outfit changed pretty late in Sign's development too. The story preview they showed there had an interesting saturated color filter. I like it, but the more natural colors in the final version definitely look/read better. From the 3rd loc test.

We were musing over what could have made them change their minds about Sol's outfit for the story that late into development and decided that it was possible his arm anatomy kept bugging during animation so they gave him sleeves to hide it lol

Sol's story mode outfit (with the longsleeve jacket) seems to be a light reworking of the outfit he had in the Xrd prototype from 2011 (!!). He's on the right in this screenshot, but the imposter on the left's outfit is really similar too

Throwback to the fingernail gloves from his Holy Order uniform...

The Xrd prototype design fascinates me because it's essentially a 3D version of Sol's Vastedge XT design. He's even got the Junkyard Dog Mk.II in the prototype build. The design there is 1:1 to its design in VXT.

Note: The neon colors here are placeholders, it doesn't actually have that bright cyan in Vastedge.

The Xrd prototype/Vastedge design is cool because you can still see elements of it in Sol's Strive outfit. They tightened up his silhouette and made things like the gloves/hands read easier, but it's almost possible to argue that this is likely the same jacket. They've been tweaking this for at least 14 years!!

It's tricky to figure out this stuff for most of the cast, but Sol's design changes are really well documented. I think he's usually the first character they make for games, so he's usually their graphics and gameplay test dummy

[gigireece16]

hi guys! i just published a new essay over on substack!! this week, i wrote about religion and homosexuality’s complex relationship. despite opening old wounds, i really enjoyed writing this piece. i’d love to hear from y’all! feel free to leave any comments or buy me a coffee. i hope you guys like it, thank you!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jennifer Rubin at The Contrarian:

Corporate and billionaire owners of major media outlets have betrayed their audiences’ loyalty and sabotaged journalism’s sacred mission — defending, protecting and advancing democracy. The Washington Post’s billionaire owner and enlisted management are among the offenders. They have undercut the values central to The Post’s mission and that of all journalism: integrity, courage, and independence. I cannot justify remaining at The Post. Jeff Bezos and his fellow billionaires accommodate and enable the most acute threat to American democracy—Donald Trump—at a time when a vibrant free press is more essential than ever to our democracy’s survival and capacity to thrive. I therefore have resigned from The Post, effective today. In doing so, I join a throng of veteran journalists so distressed over The Post’s management they felt compelled to resign. The decay and compromised principles of corporate and billionaire-owned media underscore the urgent need for alternatives. Americans are eager for innovative and independent journalism that offers lively, unflinching coverage free from cant, conflicts of interest and moral equivocation. Which is why I am so thrilled to simultaneously announce this new outlet, The Contrarian: Not Owned by Anybody. The Contrarian will offer daily columns, weekly features, podcasts and social media from me and fellow pro-democracy contrarians, many of whom have decamped from corporate media, others who were never a part of it. I am launching this endeavor with my cofounder, Norm Eisen. Founding contributors will include Joyce Vance, Andy Borowitz, Laurence Tribe, Katie Phang, George Conway, Olivia Julianna, Harry Litman (who recently resigned from the LA Times for reasons similar to mine for leaving the Post), and Asha Rangappa, among many other brilliant voices. We will provide fearless and distinctive reported opinion and cultural commentary without phony balance, euphemisms or gamified political punditry.

The need for upstart outlets has never been more acute. The contradiction between, on the one hand, the journalistic obligation to hold the powerful accountable and, on the other, the financial interests of billionaire moguls and corporate conglomerates could not be starker. The Post’s own headline last month warned: “Trump signals plans to use all levers of power against the media; Press freedom advocates say they fear that the second Trump administration will ramp up pressure on journalists, in keeping with the president-elect’s combative rhetoric.” And yet The Post’s owner quashed a presidential endorsement for Trump’s opponent, forked over $1M for Trump’s inauguration through Amazon, and publicly lauded Trump’s agenda.

Jennifer Rubin resigned from The Washington Post to co-found The Contrarian. The new outlet will feature great and incisive reporting on the issues of the day without the MAGA or bothsiderist media spin.