#final resolution 2012

[blazeofbones]

I can’t with him 😂😂

[dessarchive]

i’ll be cleaning up bottles with you on new year’s day

stolen glances, talks into the night, looking for each other in crowded rooms, hugs that last longer than they should, all the words unspoken, but not so unknown, tucked away love confessions, falling asleep in each others embrace, shared headphones, first kisses, baking and giggling at 3am, late night swimming, love songs, our parents betting on us dating, watching hotel transylvania 100+ times, dreaming of him, memorizing each others smile, being the first person to tell news to each other, good or bad, counting the stars in his eyes, and the creases in his hands.

you and me, forevermore.

jake and i have been inseparable since 2012. we met when he and his family moved next door and my family and i greeted them into the neighborhood. we became friends the next day at school during recess when i asked him to be my friend.

throughout our friendship if anyone wanted to know where we were, we were with each other. it wasn’t out of the ordinary because our parents and siblings were best friends as well. our childhood was filled with tag, playing in the sprinkles, running around the front yard, jumping on the trampoline, blanket forts, hide and seek, campfires, cruises, and sharing snacks…well if we don’t mention the gummy worm incident. our teen years were filled with working at my family’s restaurant on the beach, surfing, family game night, baking and cooking, shopping, sleepovers, cheering each other on during our sport events, forcing him to do face masks and letting me do his makeup, getting ice cream after dinner, and blasting music in my jeep after school.

as months passed after passing our auditions for republic records and moving to los angeles, things changed. not in a duh you’re in a new country and finally on your own, but in a i noticed how jake’s eyes sparkled in the moonlight while we were talking on the beach at 3am and oh shit i might be in love with him way.

all i could think of was him and how i’d memorized the sound of his laugh and how he’d always talk with his hands when explaining something or how he’d get scared at little things and cover his face when he got shy. i kept my feelings to myself because i still needed to process what was happening, but during a sleepover with my best friend, vera, i finally came clean. obviously they wanted me to tell him, but i wasn’t sure, i mean jake and i had been friends for nine years at this point and ruining our friendship by telling him how i felt wasn’t really on my to do list.

on new year’s day, after all of the members and i paraded around in our silly hats and glasses, taking lots of pictures and videos as we yelled happy new year and fireworks lit up the sky, most of the members, besides jake and i, went to bed. we stayed outside watching the fireworks as we talked about our resolutions for the new year, but why not start the new year off with a good prank? i pretended i was getting up to go inside so i reached my hand out to jake making him think i was going to help him up, but when he got up from his chair, i pretended i was going to push him in the freezing cold pool.

the pretending part was thrown out like how i accidentally threw him in the pool and he pulled me in. i thought he’d try to get me back as we stood in the freezing cold water, but after we finished laughing, he kissed me. shocked is an understatement, but after we got out of the pool he asked two questions, both of which i said yes to. the first obviously being if he could be my boyfriend and jumping for joy was hard to resist as i said yes and two was if i wanted a towel…yes boy i’m freezing 🙁!!! when i asked how long he’d felt the same way he told me since 2017…WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME JAKE SIM??????

anyways…we didn’t hide our relationship but we weren’t very private either. fans started speculating things in february of 2022, after i wore a hoodie of his to dance practice. they became more suspicious in march when a paparazzi claimed we were kissing after a date, but didn’t have proof because we ran before they could take a picture. in may, we decided to mess with the fans and wear couples shirts for a week. on the last day, we posted each other on instagram and let everyone know reiyun is for real!!!!!!! was this just a chance for us to show each other off and be down bad publicly? maybe, was it jake’s idea? yes, is it also my apology post to anyone jake and i ever told that we were only friends? yeah 😕

[fangsofwhite]

So I decided I needed a new desktop background and then ended up having some fun with it.

I love the dynamic of Donnie and Shelldon. Had a lot of fun trying to capture that bold lighting from the show and tried to make Donnie's lab as true to canon as I could. I also took the chance to play around with Donnie's eye colors. I've seen a few head canons floating around that I liked but I think I've finally settled on a heterochromia red/gold for my personal head canon.

This is also my first official patreon exclusive downloadable desktop. I have 3 versions from my head canon, red 2012 head canon, and canon black eye color available in resolutions of 1920X1080,1366X768, and 2560X768. You can either get them for a one time download or for Resident tier on my patreon, both $5.

[beautifulmars]

Unlocking an Impact Crater’s Clues

Mars is a dynamic planet. HiRISE has witnessed many surface changes over the past ten years, including hundreds of new craters formed by ongoing impacts. Most of these impacts are likely caused by asteroids that have strayed into collision courses with Mars. The planet’s much thinner atmosphere compared to Earth makes small asteroids less likely to burn up prior to hitting the Martian surface.

This new crater, which formed explosively at the point of impact, has a diameter of roughly 8 meters (about 25 feet), but its surrounding blast zone and ejecta extend over a kilometer (about one mile) beyond the crater itself. The materials exposed nearest the crater have distinctive yellowish and lighter grey appearances, while more distant ejected materials range from dark brown to bright bluish in an enhanced-color view. These varied materials may have originated from different layers penetrated by the impact.

This new impact was discovered using the lower-resolution Context Camera (CTX), also on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. An older CTX image of this region from May 2012 shows a uniformly dust-covered surface, while a newer CTX image from September 2016 reveals the crater’s dark blast zone. New craters on Mars are easiest to locate in such dust-coated terrains, where they provide opportunistic “road cuts” that allow scientists to see beneath the dust blanket and determine the underlying rock compositions and textures.

This particular crater formed about 300 kilometers (roughly 200 miles) east of the Spirit rover’s final resting spot in Gusev Crater. (Enhanced color cutout is less than 1 km across.)

ID: ESP_048456_1640 date: 27 November 2016 altitude: 259 km

NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Shannon Watts at Playing With Fire:

So, it’s been dismaying, to say the least, to watch too many Democratic leaders mostly fail to meet the moment after Donald Trump was reelected. Instead of speaking from a place of outrage, they’re going on Sunday cable shows and spewing consultant speak. Instead of pushing back on Trump’s reckless and dangerous orders, some are voting to pass his legislation and approve his cabinet picks. Instead of giving the 75 million voters who supported them their marching orders, they’re either ignoring us or sending emails asking for money.

Despite all of the warnings and the polling and the three-month planning period between the election and the inauguration, Democratic leaders decided to show up for a knife fight with a cheese stick. My anger about this finally came to a head after I read that seven Democrats had voted to confirm Kristi Noem as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Noem, a Trump acolyte, has vowed to carry out Trump’s shameless and despicable mass migration operation. As I am wont to do when angry, I posted a rant online, which included this complaint: “…to watch Democrats make millions off of stock trades, cozy up to people they admitted were fascists, trade obligation for access, and play internal politics while democracy is destroyed is a disappointment I don't have words for.”

To be clear, my disappointment doesn’t mean I’m not a Democrat anymore. I continue to believe in the party’s platform, promise and potential. However, my experience as an activist has taught me that if voters demand a course correction, loudly and publicly, it can force change. For example, back in 2012, about a quarter of all Democrats in Congress had an A-rating from the NRA—until our volunteers started calling them out online and in real life. In Virginia, Sen. Mark Warner was voting for the gun lobby’s priority legislation. Our volunteers started showing up wherever he went, including fundraisers. At one such event, a group of women in our red shirts cornered the Senator inside someone’s home and told him they would not tolerate his allegiance to the NRA and would hold him accountable if he didn’t publicly separate himself from their agenda. Lo and behold, weeks later, Warner did exactly that, and an entire army of women in red shirts helped get him reelected in November. And he’s been on the right side of history ever since.

[...]

There’s nothing Democrats can do; we don’t any have power

You don’t have to have legislative power to oppose and protest; to educate and resist; to organize and galvanize supporters. In fact, it’s often easier to oppose than it is to lead. For example, Trump has essentially declared war on cancer patients by delaying the study-section meetings where grant money gets doled out to cancer studies. As a result, crucial research is likely to be delayed or abandoned due to a lack of funding. This arbitrary freeze is outrageous and Democrats shouldn’t wait for focus groups or polling or consultant input to create a campaign that calls out this betrayal of Americans, regardless of their political party. What would Trump do if he was the one in the opposition party? He’d concoct some kind of stunt to harness public attention and anger. He might draft resolutions, show up at lawmakers’ offices accompanied by cameras, or bring cancer patients and doctors to a press conference. In that same vein, Democrats should stop faxing wonky statements into the ether and start showing up where Americans are paying attention. As former White House communications staffer Aaron Huertes posted online, “Every Trump outrage is an opportunity to communicate core messages to different constituencies.”

Party leaders need to be less concerned about controlling the message and more invested in communicating authenticity to the broadest audience possible.

We’re letting Republicans hang themselves; Trump’s behavior is a distraction

Elder Democrats seem to think doing nothing will win them the midterm elections (just like they thought letting Roe v Wade get overturned would give them a blue wave). Obviously, we can cut our time in hell in half if we win the midterms, but that’s only IF THERE ARE EVEN MIDTERM ELECTIONS. Nothing is a given, and it isn’t safe to assume anything in this volatile political environment. As columnist Jamelle Bouie recently wrote, “It is not a distraction to vocally oppose Trump’s would-be nominees or highlight his extreme intentions. Democrats should look at every aspect of the next Trump administration as an opportunity to do, well, politics—to demonstrate their values and show the extent to which this president has no plan to pursue the public good. The quiet and supposedly responsible approach of the past four years is a dead end.

[...]

Call first, email second: Call your Senators and Representatives every single day to thank or shame them.

If the lawmaker you call is a Democrat who’s aiding and abetting the Republican agenda, say this: “As a rank-and-file voter and an American, I feel exposed, unprotected, and unsupported by Democratic leaders. It feels like [NAME OF LAWMAKER] is in hiding. I want to be given a plan for resisting and assurances that [NAME OF LAWMAKER] will stand up and fight.” If the lawmaker you call is a Republican, say: “I am being harmed by the Trump agenda and I demand [NAME OF LAWMAKER] stops kowtowing to the President and starts caring about his constituents.” I promise you, these calls matter! The whole reason 15 Republican Senators voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is because they received so many calls from constituents that they became concerned about the consequences of ignoring them. So, this week, call your lawmakers every day—regardless of political party—and in addition to telling them to act, demand they VOTE NO on cabinet nominees Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy.

[...]

Post online: Too many progressive people and groups are leaving social media spaces where they could be challenging Republican policy. After leaving Twitter/X in the post-Elon Musk era, groups like the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, and Planned Parenthood have ceded important ground to their opponents. My posts this week on Twitter and Bluesky went viral and led to calls from lawmakers, fellow activists, and reporters from major publications. People are paying attention and looking for someone to say what they’re thinking. Did I get blowback? Sure—some people told me not to criticize Democrats, others told me I’d conveniently ignored party issues for a decade, others suggested I’ve gone MAGA. I’ll live.

Love this post from Shannon Watts on Substack: Democrats need to show a spine and fight against Fascist Trump.

[noxiatoxia]

Recreating Beta Sprites

It's not often, but sometimes I will see a Dangan beta sprite and think, wow, the original version is actually better...

While I do think most beta to finals are an improvement overall, there's a small select few that I'm fond of over their final counterparts. And since beta sprites are usually found in Demos, old merch, and other places that would lend itself to low-quality images, I thought it sucked some of my favorite ones didn't have HD versions.

...Well, I decided to try my hand at recreating some!

Firstly, Tsumiki's default sprite.

I always felt like Tsumiki's beta default sprite was so much cuter. The eyes angled up, the nervous pout...I just love it so much!!

However, there's no HD version. There's the one used for this .gif―which was taken from the original PSP version where they accidentally left in the beta sprites for the Student Profiles―and a truth bullet.

For better or worse, every truth bullet in SDR2 that features a sprite of a character is utilizing a beta version of that sprite. The only exception is Kuzuryuu for some reason. When SDR2 was ported from PSP to PSVITA, they fixed most of these errors (like the above sprite used in the Student e-Handbook). Somehow, the truth bullets slipped through the cracks.

Either way, it gave me a higher resolution image to work with. I did my best to recreate it:

And here's my own comparison .gif between the original and my remade beta:

I'm happy with it! She's so cute ❤❤❤

Next is Fujisaki!

This one is obviously different enough that I don't need to label the Beta and the Final. The Final is the one with the blush, for reference.

I always thought the beta was so much cuter. I love his more bored/disinterested look. It came across much more adorable than the blushing to me, and I'm so sad they ditched it!

Unlike a lot of beta sprites where they look like betas (i.e. unfinished) this sprite is unique in that it looks 100% finished, but they must have decided they didn't like it or something...

The only place I have found this is the DR:THH Demo released on PSP, as well as a screen cap from Danganronpa's development in the leaked confidential Spike Chunsoft documents.

Because of this, all we have is this one PSP sprite. And with such major changes, how could I hope to recreate it?

Well, as luck would have it, this sprite does exist elsewhere in HD...almost.

Back in 2012, Spike released an Alter Ego app for mobile phones. I downloaded an APK and ripped the sprites from it myself. And...

Yay!! They accidentally used the beta!! Although, it's odd that he's blushing here. He certainly is not in the Demo sprite. This may be some 1.5 version before they ditched it...

Well, after some color-magic, taking out the green background, and redrawing his arm to have more width like the beta sprite...

So cute!!!

Here is a comparison .gif:

Fujisaki's old sprites all have a bloom effect to them that I tried to minimize but it's not the easiest thing in the world. Luckily, I think it's unnoticeable unless you're looking at a comparison .gif like this one.

And finally, Kirigiri.

Why is the quality so, so low, you ask? Well, the only place this sprite is found (that I know of) is the DR:THH Demo as a full-body. The PSP half-body sprites are already small. Having only a full-body to work with is a nightmare.

But...I really love this sprite. In the final version Kirigiri looks like she's thinking, but in the beta, she looks like she's contemplating, you know? She looks super focused, and the cross-eyes are so so adorable ❤❤❤❤ I really want an HD sprite of this!

So, I really tried my best with this one despite the low-quality being against me.

And here's the .gif:

All things considered, I think I did the best I could to recreate it.

I would love to do more in the future, but these are the ones I wanted to see in HD the most. Oh, and all these sprites are free to use if you want!! Go wild, no credit needed.

[brideofdark]

Images of the extras of the Resident Evil Death Island Blu-Ray! Higher resolution Jill concept art and designs: As mentioned in the extra 'Jill Valentine: The Return' Capcom had wanted to include Jill in CGI movies since 2012, trying to fit her into the timeline. Here you can see his first designs with long hair and how RE3 Remake gave the final shape of how he would look from now on for this movie. It is also mentioned how, even with her slowed aging, they tried to make her look older by adding more gray to her hair and deeper laugh lines around her mouth.

[libbylael]

Copy-Paste:

In 1992, Benjamin Netanyahu boldly declared that Iran was 3-5 years away from making a nuclear bomb.

In 1995, Benjamin Netanyahu confidently declared once again that Iran was 3-5 years away from developing a nuclear bomb.

In 1996, Benjamin Netanyahu firmly asserted that Iran was 3-5 years away from acquiring a nuclear bomb.

In 2002, Benjamin Netanyahu resolutely stated that Iran was close to acquiring a nuclear bomb, implying a timeline of just a few years.

In 2009, Benjamin Netanyahu urgently claimed that Iran was six months to a year away from producing a nuclear bomb.

In 2010, Benjamin Netanyahu adamantly warned that Iran was one to two years away from developing a nuclear bomb.

In 2012, Benjamin Netanyahu dramatically asserted at the UN, using a cartoon bomb diagram, that Iran was less than a year away from building a nuclear bomb.

In 2018, Benjamin Netanyahu boldly declared that Iran was hiding a secret nuclear weapons program, suggesting they were dangerously close to a bomb.

In 2024, Benjamin Netanyahu strongly claimed that Iran was advancing its nuclear program, implying a timeline of months to a year for a nuclear bomb.

In 2025, he finally decided to take matters into his own hands to stop them from making the nuclear bomb, citing that they were once again only weeks and months away from doing it.

[deadlyflan]

for the meme: #3!

3.) What was your first impression of [TMNT iteration]?

[1987 cartoon] I was 7. There were flying Cadillacs and lasers and Raphael was sassy. I was hooked.

[1990s movies] I was 10. I already worshiped Jim Henson. When I saw my favorites winking and crying and smiling and kicking ass, I was in love forever.

[Archie's Comics] I was 14. On a roadtrip, I found a copy of TMNT Adventures #33. They were traveling through Nepal. There was a four-armed Tiger God Mutant named Katmandu. Raphael had a *girlfriend.* Michelangelo was silly about yaks. I needed more comics. ASAP.

[Next Mutation] I was 17. And a complete live-action turtle-snob. Henson would never have allowed these costumes out of whatever basement spawned them. And the scripts! Ugh! Where was the cinema-grade fight choreography? The award-winning narratives? The atmospheric lighting and the *drama* of the City at Night?!

[Mirage Comics] I was 20. They beat Leo to a bloody pulp and threw him through the window--AT CHRISTMAS!! I started writing fanfic.

[2003 cartoon] I was 23. I was in love. The voice cast! The character design! The fidelity to the Mirage Space Arc! Oh God, to be alive at time like this!

[2007 movie] I was 27. I was vibrating. I bought a screen grab of early production art off of eBay. I couldn't wait for the advertisements to premiere to see my boys again. The artwork wasn't even close to the final designs. The resolution was blurry. I was still thrilled.

[IDW Comics] I was 31. I was bummed that Dark Horse Comics lost the bid to publish the TMNT comics to IDW. Dark Horse had a much stronger editorial department with consistently incredible writing. IDW was famous for spending their money on flashy cover artists and skimping on the interior art. I crossed my fingers and hoped I was wrong. [2012 cartoon] I was 32. Overworked, underpaid, and without cable or streaming. I missed the first season, but got a DVD from a friend. I was intrigued by the turtles, but repulsed by the human models. The CGI felt cold and cheap. I wouldn't return to give the show a proper watch until 2020.

[Bayverse movies] I was 34. I hated Micheal Bay's needlessly cluttered character designs for Transformers. I despised his "blurred action" fight sequences. I hated his simplistic dialogue. When I heard he was the director for the TMNT, my heart lit a cigarette and took a sip of gin. They were going to butcher my boys.

[Rise] I was 38. I saw the flat character designs. The boys were angular. Stagnant. The kind of thing that would end up low-rent animated. Splinter looked like a yellow-peril style stereotype. I gave up before I even heard the commercials.

[Mutant Mayhem Movie] I was 43. I had adored The Mitchels Vs The Machines and that same team was working on the new movie! The leaked first art made my heart warm with 90s vibes: Archie's characters, gawky turtles, attention to atmosphere, all kinds of vibrancy! Very excited!

[MM Tales of] I was 44. I didn't have the right streaming services to watch it. After the high of the film, the animation style looked cheap. No line weights. No rendering. Simplified versions of the "hand drawn" shapes of characters' faces somehow stopped feeling organic and looked more like bad drawings. I knew I was comparing it unfairly to the film. I told myself to hush. I had been 10,000% wrong about 2012 and about Rise. I was being a snob again and I knew it. .

.

.

Over the years, I've been so wrong about so many of my misgivings. Even Next Mutation had a ton of heart. I have been so spoiled by so many Turtle options. Between all the shows and the movies and the comics--AND THE FAN FIC AND THE FAN ART AND THE ROLEPLAYING AND AND AND... I shouldn't turn my nose up at anything anymore. I'm just gonna look like an idiot again when it turns out to be incredible. Just like every other time. Except for A Very Turtle Christmas. That shit is nightmare fuel.

[qualityavenuejellyfish]

Yannis Tsarouchis

Paintings in the National Gallery of Greece.

Yannis Tsarouchis (Greek: Γιάννης Τσαρούχης; 13 January 1910 – 20 July 1989) was a[1] Greek modernist painter and set designer who achieved international fame, and was "known in particular for his homoerotic subjects," including soldiers, sailors, and nude males.[2]

Yannis Tsarouchis, marinaio e amorini (su ventaglio), English: sailor and amorines (on fan), 1943. Paintings in the National Gallery of Greece.

Date: 31 July 2023, 09:41:41; Source: Own work; Author: Francesco Bini https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sailko Metadata

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Date: 31 July 2023, 09:41:45; Source: Own work; Author: Francesco Bini https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sailko Metadata

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Yannis Tsarouchis, Testa Di Giovane, 1941. Paintings in the National Gallery of Greece.

Date: 31 July 2023, 09:41:54; Source: Own work; Author: Francesco Bini https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sailko Metadata

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Yannis Tsarouchis, ritratto con fiori di carta, English: Portrait with paper flowers, 1936. Paintings in the National Gallery of Greece.

Date: 31 July 2023, 09:43:40; Source: Own work; Author: Francesco Bini https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Sailko Metadata

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Yannis Tsarouchis, c. 1910; in a picture by Dimitri Papadimos. (No higher resolution available.)

(Description:) Ελληνικά: Ο Γιάννης Τσαρούχης γεννήθηκε στον Πειραιά το 1910. Υπήρξε πο��ύπλευρη προσωπικότητα και όπως έλεγε ο ίδιος, σε όλη του τη ζωή παρέμεινε ένας ερευνητής. Πέρα από ζωγράφος υπήρξε συγγραφέας, μεταφραστής αρχαίων τραγωδιών, σκηνοθέτης,

σκηνογράφος και ενδυματολόγος. Φοίτησε στην Αθήνα, στη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών με δασκάλους τον Ιακωβίδη και τον Παρθένη και μαθήτευσε για ένα διάστημα κοντά στον Κόντογλου. Έπαιξε μεγάλο ρόλο στην αναγνώριση της

καλλιτεχνικής αξίας του Θεόφιλου και μαζί με άλλους πνευματικούς ανθρώπους πρωτοστάτησε στο αίτημα της εποχής για την ελληνικότητα στην τέχνη.

Date: 27 February 2012; Source: Own work; Author: Yani papadimos https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Yani_papadimos

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Creative_Commons https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

CITATION: [1]Bittencourt, Ela (July 21, 2021). "Frank, Greek, and Gay: Modernist Painter Yannis Tsarouchis Is Finally Getting His Due". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 10 October 2021.

CITATION: [2]Hammer, Langdon; Yenser, Stephen, eds. (2021). A Whole World: Letters from James Merrill. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 188. ISBN 9781101875513. Retrieved 10 October 2021.

[real-total-drama-takes]

I’m glad the Mary Sue discourse surrounding Zoey has died down. Being in the fandom was tough back then, because the allegations just…weren’t true?

Some said that Zoey was perfectly boring (or boringly perfect?) which is false. She is a flawed character. Frequently, she’s gullible and gives people the benefit of the doubt way more than she should. See: Scott in ROTI, Mal in AS. She can even swing to the other side of the pendulum and become too ruthless, as we see in her alter ego Commando Zoey.

Others said her kind, mild personality was also boring, but I feel that it’s underappreciated. In a season full of strong personalities and villains, some of whom are directly based on pop-culture icons, you need 1 or 2 cast members who are grounded. Zoey’s character provides relief from the Scott’s schemes, Jo’s zingers, Lightning’s self-obsession, Sierra’s Cody-obsession, etc. She comprises some of the only friendships that canonically survive Total Drama’s…well, drama.

People say she’s too fixated on Mike to showcase her indie-chick stereotype, and while I partially agree that she should’ve had more confessionals outside of Mike or Mal, Mike’s storyline felt just as tied to Zoey too. While his ROTI storyline is about struggling with his DID secret, Zoey is the focal point of it in that she’s the main person Mike is scared of revealing it too, and in All Stars, Mal is the main person duping Zoey and ultimately clashing with in the finale. Not to sound cheesy, but their very first appearance is them making googly-eyes at each other. The “star crossed lovers” plot was always going to intertwine them, and that’s not a bad thing!

Both characters got time to have their personalities and interests showcased outside their romance, like Mike and Svetlana’s gymnastics, his and Zoey’s mutual love of action movies, Zoey’s New Age interests like tarot cards, her clothes-designing, etc. I’d even go as far as to say that between Gwent’s 22-episodes of competing together (16 episodes of Island, the Island finale, 5 episodes of Action) and Zoke’s 22 episodes of competing together (9 episodes of ROTI, 13 episodes of AS), Zoke has the healthier relationship, the more cohesive development, and the more cathartic resolution. Not to knock the OG Total Drama summer-camp romance, of course (shout out to The Big Sleep).

So yeah, I’m glad more people are appreciating Zoey’s character and storylines more (or at least, not hating it as much).

Here’s my opinion that no one asked for:

zoey was definitely meant to be the “main character” of her season. I think Zoey is supposed to be the POV character. Not necessarily because she’s BORING, but because she’s relatable to a large chunk of the TD audience circa 2012 as a naïve, socially-awkward alternative teenage girl. I think for a lot of people, when you’ve got a cast as weird as the others in ROTI are, that comes off as Mary Sue-ish. If you took zoey out of ROTI and placed her alongside a more subdued cast, I doubt anyone would be saying that about her (for example, if you kept everything about Zoey exactly the same and put her in season 1 instead). Like I said in an ask recently, ROTI might be my favorite cast— but I don’t think it’s my favorite season.

All that aside, the thing that made me love zoey was during the bathroom argument with Jo and Anne Maria, when Anne Maria makes fun of her by calling her Princess Leia, to which Zoey says that her hairstyle is actually more like Padmé Amidala.

(Anne maria responds with “more like padmé Ami-dork-a!” Which is also hilarious)

As a Star Wars fan whose favorite character is padmé Amidala, I appreciate every mention of her I can get, especially since lucasfilms seems to forget she exists. Thank you Zoey, for doing what lucasfilms won’t

[unbeknownsttomen]

REDLINE (pt. 1)

i decided to do a fun little excercise artists like to do called redlining.

hm, i just noticed that might not be the best name for it, whatever.

point is you grab a drawing that is poorly done or that has something that could be fixed, you mark in red line the ways it could be fixed and then you mplement those corrections. now many artists grab other people's art for this but i try to stay classy so im going to use two old piece of mine from 2012

we will begin with a full body pencil drawing i did

yikes! am i right fellas? from the get go we can see that the biggest mistake here is that mandy didnt think to save this in a better resolution, but also besides that the anatomy leaves something to be desired so...

i try to re proportion the left arm, where i screwed up the foreshortening, moved the head from the right shoulder to the middle of the torso where it belongs, adjusted the position of the legs so one points more towards the camera, and a bunch of other details, now that we have our red line in place we can start moving things around with the lasso tool

there, starting to look better already, but of course cutting, changing size and pasting body pieces made the whole thing look disjointed, also im still not fully happy with the proportions, lets go back with the red marker and...

ok that looks a lot more solid! i think we can finally go over with a black pen to polish the whole thing

i decided at the last second to change the hands so that the left had had a more legible pose and so that the right one was in the right angle to connect with the arm! and here you have an animation to compare the first drawing with the final piece

[jupiterswasphouse]

WASP REVIEW - WIND BEES (& COHORTS) (THE DENPA MEN: THEY CAME BY WAVE)

[Image ID: A screenshot of the Wind Bees from The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave /End IDs.]

Here's one of the games I've played through very recently! A silly little 3DS RPG called The Denpa Men: They Came By Wave, the first in the Denpa Men franchise, released in 2012. It's a fun little experience, a very casual game for the RPG genre, I would say, if a bit harder to play when you're not taking your 3DS everywhere you go (which I'd imagine even most 3DS owners aren't in the year 2024) due to the little gimmick of obtaining more Denpas through the presence of "radio waves", which wouldn't be a big deal of they actually meant radio waves, but it's actually more about the presence of possible internet connections. You can get them through QR codes partway through, but that's mechanically discouraged, and also besides the point for the purposes of this review! I would absolutely recommend this game, yes, but we're here to look at a particular set of enemies within!

In the first forest area of the game, you'll encounter Wind Bees, which are both recognizable as Hymenopterans and odd to say the least. Their body shape is very clearly wasp or bee-like in nature, with the expected black and yellow markings, and the proper wing count. But their wings are also a bit oddly shaped, with a strange bend in them near the base, as are their forelimbs, with modified, scythe-like tarsi/tibias (possibly even the femur is modified, it's very difficult to tell at the resolution of the Nintendo 3DS). These forelimbs bring two families of insects to mind, those being the shield-handed wasps and the mantidflies/mantid lacewings.

[Image Sources: iNaturalist, david99, and The Michigan Nature Guy | Image IDs: Two photos, one of a black and yellow shield-handed wasp, and the other of a red, yellow, and black wasp mimicking mantidfly, both on different types of green leaf /End IDs.]

They also seem to be missing a pair of legs, but they've gained one more feature, a sort of horn that protrudes from their heads, and appears to be just as sharp as their forelimbs. Speaking of their heads, they don't appear to have occeli, nor mouthparts of any kind, the only other notable features of their heads apart from their horns being their antennae, which oddly stand in such a way that they're positioned slightly backwards, and their compound eyes, which are purple, a color only really found in iridescent species of Hymenopterans. Their stinger, too, something that is most typically black, is purple in these deadly bees, as well as being oddly big and visible. Finally for their appearance, their mesosoma (functional thorax) seems to be quite dark, while their head and metasoma (functional abdomen) are lighter in color, a feature found in a multitude of Hymenopterans, but not the ones we generally call "bees".

Ah, but they're not the only bees in this game, as there are several other reused assets bee variants to be seen, notably the Killer Bees and Doom Bees (I feel like I remember a blue variant too but I'm not sure and information on this entire franchise is honestly kinda sparse 💀 so do tell me if I missed one).

[Image IDs: Two screenshots, one of them being of the Killer Bees, a red and white variant with yellow wings, while the other is of a Doom Bee, a black and grey variant with red eyes and blueish wings /End IDs.]

The first one, the Killer Bees, have a red and white coloration that resembles very few bugs, perhaps vaguely comparable with certain ichneumon wasps amongst Hymenoptera, but much closer to the colors of a red cotton stainer from the order Hemiptera.

[Image Sources: BugGuide.net, Judy Gallagher, and Lucidceentral, PestNet | Image IDs: Two photos, one of a red, black, and white ichneumon wasp on a green leaf, and the other of a red and white, red cotton stainer bug on the underside if a very thin twig /End IDs.]

While the latter, the Doom Bees, I actually can compare directly something we would typically categorize as a bee, Megachile aurifrons, or the Golden-browed Resin Bee! Not a one-to-one comparison with that golden brown frons (the particularly fuzzy facial plate), but at least it's something.

[Image Source: Nature's Place/Being Mark, Mark Berkley | Image ID: A photo of a grey, black, and golden brown Golden-browed Resin Bee with red eyes preparing a burrow /End IDs.]

Theeere's not all that much else too 'em though, and they all generally have the same attack pattern too, with a slashing gust of wind from their forelimbs and a direct charge reminiscent of a horned mammal. Oddly, they don't used those massive ovipositors for anything at all, maybe this is a family that doesn't have that stinging venom, in which case they'd more likely only really use them on something they'd consider to be prey, which is a good thing for the Denpa Men I suppose.

That said, there's not much more that can be extracted from the game in terms of their behaviors, considering they're enemies in a fairly simple RPG with no in-game encyclopedia or Pokédex equivalent to speak of, and there isn't much documentation on the Wiki for them anyway. Even the screenshots I had to get directly from the game myself, and the Wind Bees are very early game! So, I believe we can end things off there, my conclusion being, they have some similarities and an honestly really cool design, but they're obviously fantastical in nature, and thus not very accurate! That's entirely fine for a fantasy creature, but since we're being analytical here, my rating has to be...

-

Overall: 5.5/10

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Leave your wasp review suggestion in the replies, tags, or askbox!

[eretzyisrael]

by Seth Mandel

From the Times of Israel: “Without coordination with Israel, it will be almost impossible for UNRWA to work in Gaza or the West Bank, since Jerusalem would no longer be issuing entrance permits to those territories or allowing coordination with the IDF. Israel also currently controls access to Gaza from Egypt, with Israeli forces deployed along the border between them.”

The proper response from UNRWA would be: Thank you. For an agency funded by hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money alone, and which does nothing but perpetuate the conflict so it can continue collecting other people’s hard-earned money and spending it on terrorists, any punishment shy of closure and the prosecution of its directors is a gift.

The UN, of course, is furious. But honestly, who cares? For posterity, here’s the crux of the world body’s complaint: “The vote by the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) against UNRWA this evening is unprecedented and sets a dangerous precedent. It opposes the UN Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.”

An unprecedented precedent-setter! The legislation, we’re told, “will deprive over 650,000 girls and boys there from education.” An education from literal Hamas political leaders? Or accused hostage-takers? Anyway, the “education” provided by UNRWA schools teaches children to venerate terrorists and to hate Jews, which is really no education at all.

Finally, UNRWA says, “Putting an end to UNRWA and its services will not strip the Palestinians from their refugee status. That status is protected by another UN General Assembly resolution until a fair and lasting solution is found to the plight of the Palestinians.”

About that “refugee status.” Palestinian refugees, according to the agency’s own definition, are “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.”

UNRWA then sneaks in that the descendants of refugees are “eligible” for refugee benefits as well. The common claim that there are millions of Palestinian refugees from 1948 is very obviously false. There were perhaps as many as 750,000 refugees. Palestinians are the only refugee class with their own UN agency. It is no coincidence at all that that agency has inflated the number of refugees even though its own definition of a refugee makes that number impossible.

According to Jonathan Schanzer, COMMENTARY contributing editor and vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, members of Congress have been trying for years to pass legislation that would apply the actual definition of a “refugee” to Palestinians. A 2012 amendment would have required “the secretary of state to report to Congress on how many Palestinians serviced by UNRWA are true refugees from wars past — those who could prove that they were personally displaced. That number is believed to be closer to 30,000 people. This new tally would then become the focus of America’s assistance to UNRWA for refugee issues.”

[robsheridan]

I’m thrilled to finally have my original analog glitch skull back in print today after the first edition has been sold out for years - here’s a first look at the actual print and all its remastered details:

This has become an iconic image for my work and for analog glitch in general, as it was my first piece back in 2012 that paved the way for my analog glitch work with How To Destroy Angels and the beginning of a new fine art movement of VHS/CRT glitch that is thriving today more than ever.

For these tenth anniversary editions I went back to the original photographs (captured at high speed off the screen of an old CRT television) with everything I’ve learned over the years about mastering analog glitch for print, and the results are crisper, more vibrant, and more true to the original vision than ever before.

In the close-ups here (these are all photographs of the print itself) you can see a couple elements I’m proud of that were always very hard to preserve in print, like the subtle glow of the skull, which displayed as increasingly tiny bits of light on the pixels of the screen dithering out to black:

Every pixel of the CRT can be seen on the print until they disappear into the black, creating a glow that is soft from a distance but rich with texture up close. I strive for the very highest fidelity of low fidelity!

The first of these new editions were on display at last year's Glitch Art is Dead show for their proper 10th anniversary in 2022, and now they’re finally available: Four analog glitch anniversary editions out today (including the Welcome Oblivion vinyl album cover piece), personally signed/numbered, limited to only 30 copies!

Next month I should be able to share photos of the first-ever premium canvas editions of this work (available for pre-order now), which give it the large format fine art presentation I have always dreamed of.

All of my limited edition prints are personally signed/numbered fine art giclée prints on archival matte paper, printed by me to personally ensure the finest museum quality on 308gsm German fine art paper at ultra high 1440dpi print resolution, and packed/shipped worldwide with care by my wife Steph from our home studio in Tacoma, WA. Every print comes with a signed certificate of authenticity and an exclusive sticker.

[scotianostra]

Folk singer Nick Keir was born in Edinburgh 14th March 1953.

Nick Keir was born into an established Edinburgh family business, David Keir and Sons, footwear manufacturers, He was never cut out to be a businessman and resolutely pursued his life as a poet and dreamer. He was one of the first intake at the new University of Stirling in 1971 and it was there that he developed his performance as a folk singer. He formed the folk-rock band Finn Mac Cuill in 1972. With the Finn McCuill Folkshow he toured Scotland with the poet Norman McCaig and had many wry anecdotes of those times. He then joined the leftist theatre group 7:84.

In 1982, he was invited to join the McCalmans and remained with them for the next 30 years until the band dissolved, touring all over the world as one of the best known and most successful Scottish Traditional acts.

In 2004 , together with the group, Nick was inducted into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame on the occasion of being awarded the Lifetime Achievement Prize at the Scottish Folk Awards, and in 2005 the group received the Danish Folk Music Prize at the Skagen Festival.

After the McCalmans, Nick performed across Europe with the acclaimed Tolkien Ensemble, presenting a musical spectacular with Sir Christopher Lee in The Lord of the Rings. He also played with the Holbaek Ensemble of Denmark playing an exciting mix of Scots and Irish Traditional music laced with the Baroque of Correlli and Vivaldi. He also found time to do four solo cds, the song American Accent being on the second release “All over this town”

In 2012 he was diagnosed with a serious illness and courageously battled on, delivering his final masterly performance in the Spring of this year at the Queens Hall, the McCalman’s home venue and within yards of where he had grown up and lived nearly all his life.

Described as a modest and infinitely courteous man, his songs and music could capture the spirit of Edinburgh through the eyes of an unashamed romantic, he obviously loved his history too.

Close your eyes, listen to Fires of Edinburgh, and imagine yourself there wandering through the streets, getting lost in the closes, staring up the volcanic rock of the castle walls, and sitting down for a pint in the back room of a pub, where a kind man with a penny whistle plays an old air for a lost friend. The song also gives a mention to my current neighbourhood, Lauriston, and I can imagine that old hack stumbling home drunk......

Along the Canongate an old man wanders

He mumbles stories of vanished golden age

When heroes walked along the plainstone canyons

And drank the claret while the revolution raged

Up the Westport there’s a young girl dancing

She’s flaunting everything and turning men to stone

Down through Lauriston an old hack stumbles

She’s roaring drunk and roaring home alone.

Chorus:

And the fires of Edinburgh

Lighting up the sky when the light goes down

The tales of Edinburgh

Gathering the years of a darkened town.

Along the Forth I saw a swift tide running

With news of Darien, the far and promised land

He spent a fortune on a pirate’s gamble

And stumbled homeward with an empty bloodstained hand

Down the Cowgate where a great fire thundered

Through empty catacombs that never can be found

A trail of gunpowder that leads to Mary

The Casket Letters and a troubled crown.

Chorus

I heard a distant drumbeat

Footsteps scurrying across an empty square

The mob was shouting for a quick rough justice

The rope was stolen but the price was fair

And down below where daylight never ventures

A small hand touches sleeve as   you pass by

A million souls who live died unnoticed

And now remembered in a young girl’s cry.

Chorus:

And even I remember gas lamps hissing

The one man band who stumbled down a cobble street

The echo of an old retreating army

The drums of war with one resounding beat.

The fog that choked the town, the smell of sulfur

The lonely whistle of a roaring black-night train

The ghosts that pressed against the windows howling

Wait in the shadows to be seen again.

Along the Canongate an old man wanders

He mumbles stories of vanished golden age

When heroes walked along the plainstone canyons

And drank the claret while the revolution raged.