#seems to be the thing people are moving to while twitter is imploding

[moonsidesong]

bluesky more like BOOB SKY. haha. anyway. im over there now. i guess. idk if ill use it much but there it is

[cleolinda]

Tumblr cannot replace Twitter, or Reddit, or Instagram, or Pinterest, or vice versa. I’m not saying it can. All these sites have their own functionalities and subcultures and mores. I miss Twitter. I’ve been missing Twitter since 2015, when the tone of the whole site started going to shit.

If you are moving to any platform, it is very appreciated to just hang out for a while and observe how people do things. You can go against the culture, but you’ll be consciously choosing to do things differently.

I’ve never watched one single second of Supernatural in my entire life. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like Supernatural. We get our news from the Destiel meme. That’s just how it is.

Yeah, when I posted about welcoming people from Reddit and Twitter, I was thinking in very naive and (help me, I can’t think of the word. Not provincial. “Relating to only that which is right in front of your face”) ways about redditors I had seen arrive from Tumblr-friendly subreddits, and Twitter users I personally interact with (because who else would see me tweeting about it). Dear God, no, I don’t want most of Reddit or Twitter coming over here. My apologies for saying otherwise.

Just before Reddit imploded, I had seen people here worrying that Tumblr really was dying and was so much quieter than it used to be, so an influx of the kind of people who would want to come to Tumblr seemed like a good thing.

When I said Tumblr has been less stressful for me, I completely forgot about the time I ended up with thousands of people yelling “kill yourself” about movie theater trash on a poll I made on a whim, for a solid week. Y’all, why do you keep doing that to each other, come on.

Still less stressful than Twitter, where potentially the whole planet (hyperbole) (maybe) could see anything you fucked up about if your fuckup went viral. Also, [gestures at everything]

I feel bad that I left Tumblr (as in, I made only a few reblogs a year) for a long while, but in my defense, it wasn’t because of the porn ban, and I wasn’t on Twitter much either. I had spinal surgery and covid and just Could Not for a few years. But I did, I admit, see that Muskrat was officially taking control of Twitter last year, and I jumped back on both sites in a panic to make sure I stayed in touch with people. So I did kind of leave and come back. I’d kept up with most of the memes, at least.

I feel like I earn my keep by reblogging a lot. Reblogging stuff, especially artists who post here, goes a long way.

[duhragonball]

Hey, im just wondering, do you have any other socials we can follow you on? I'v heard some forboding things about Tumblr staff layoff spelling the end of this site

You can find me on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/duhragonball

That's it, other than my AO3 account, which isn't much of a social media platform, and my decades-old livejournal, which I haven't touched in years.

I misread your message and thought you were referring to something ending Twitter, and I was all set to talk about how people have been predicting the downfall of Twitter for over a year now. I believe it will probably meet a bad end, and sooner rather than later, but the way the userbase talks Twitter already shut down six or seven times already. It still basically works when I use it. It's gotten shittier, but it was pretty shitty when I joined. It amazes me that people are nostalgic for the days when Jack Dorsey was running things.

Anyway, you said Tumblr, and I don't know anything about that site's woes. I will say that I only got active on Twitter because there was a nonzero chance of Tumblr imploding after the 2018 pr0n ban. There's still a nonzero chance, but 2018 was five years ago, and we're all still here. I'm not holding my breath.

Let me ask the question, since it's been a while since I brought it up: What's the move now with social media? Is Blue Sky any good? I could probably bum an invite from someone since lots of Twitter folks are giving them away, but I don't want to fool around with setting up a new thing and then never use it.

Same thing with Pillowfort. I was curious about it when it was announced, but I'm like the opposite of an early-adopter. I like to wait a while and see if things will stick. And there doesn't seem to be much news coming out of it. I don't know if that's a good thing or not.

I have no interest in the Facebook/Meta/Instagram mess. YouTube and Tik-tok are non-starters, since I'd have to waste a bunch of time producing videos. What else is there?

I have a discord, but I really need to sort out how I use it. A few years ago I had envisioned making a server and inviting people to join it, but I'm not sure I have the motivation for something like that anymore.

These days, I've got half a mind to just run a shitty personal website, like the one I had in 1996. Back then, you only had 10 megabytes of space to work with, and it would take all damn day to put a picture of the Emperor from Star Wars on it and get it to display correctly. But at least I knew it'd be there the next day. Wait, no I didn't.

Anyway, the internet's always been an ephemeral beast. I won't say it hasn't changed, but I can't claim it was better in the Olde Days either. I saw someone complain recently that all you can do with it now is watch videos and shop, and back in the 90's you couldn't really do either of those things easily, so you'd just read text pieces with funny pictures, and maybe download a .wav file of the Incredible Hulk theme song.

But I'm getting off track. I'm on twitter. And here, and that's about it. I'm open to suggestions.

[ts1989fanatic]

OPINION

Matty Healy exposed the dark side of the Taylor Swift parasocial fantasy

The responses to Taylor Swift's latest breakup highlight a toxic cultural phenomenon.

Karma may be your boyfriend, but Taylor Swift is not your best friend.Chelsea Stahl / MSNBC; Getty Images

June 6, 2023, 5:29 PM EDT

By Patricia Grisafi

It’s a bummer when your best friend starts dating an apparent dirtbag. God, you think, what does she see in him? He looks like he smells of stale coffee and cigarettes. He looks like a hipster stork. You’ve heard him brag about how he watches humiliation porn. And don’t forget the racism and antisemitism.

Except Taylor Swift is not your best friend.

I don’t know what prompted the breakup, but I doubt it was a tearful Swiftie on TikTok.

When news broke this week that Swift and The 1975 lead singer Matty Healy had ended their brief relationship, social media celebrated in a way that was notable — and a little deranged. (And immediately started speculating about her next fling.) Just hop on Twitter and read the comments about how Swift had really heard her fans and tossed that loser in the trash. I don’t know what prompted the breakup, but I doubt it was a tearful Swiftie on TikTok. Still, imagine feeling like you have that kind of influence over a person you’ve never interacted with. Or that kind of personal investment.

Swift is — in some ways — an unusually private celebrity. It feels like her every move is carefully choreographed. We hardly ever see her messy, incoherent, or intentionally challenging. But fans feel like they know Swift because she writes prolifically about romantic relationships. It’s hardly novel, a musician writing about love and loss. Still, fans pore over these songs. They find Easter eggs in the lyrics, do complex analysis aligning certain ex-boyfriends with specific details. And because language is subjective and Swift is arguably both elusive and slyly encouraging of these readings, the meanings are ever-shifting. Depending on who you ask, she is everything from an Aryan pinup girl to a queer icon. In short, she is the perfect parasocial fantasy subject.

The term “parasocial interaction” has been around since sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl theorized on the phenomenon in the 1950s. A parasocial interaction refers to a relationship in which a consumer comes to believe that media personalities are their intimate friends and that an emotional connection is shared. The phrase has become more popular recently with the rise of pop culture super fans, or stans. These fans can become incredibly invested in their favorite celebrity’s real-life relationships, and devastated if those relationships implode.

See, for example, when comedian John Mulaney separated from his wife Anna Marie Tendler in May of 2020 and began dating actor Olivia Munn. While celebrity relationships have always been fodder for gossip and people are naturally curious about their favorite stars (this writer included), public response regarding the Mulaney situation was noteworthy. Critics suggested that this was because Mulaney’s public persona made it seem like he was your buddy, your pal, a friend you could relate to. And he made his personal life part of his public persona by integrating details about his wife and French bulldog Petunia into his comedy routine. When he violated the parasocial social contract by not living up to that fantasy, things fell apart. It’s similar with Swift — particularly, this situation with Healy.

Swift stepping out with Healy disrupted fan notions of her and the values they believe she holds dear. She’s dating a guy who makes racist remarks? Who unrepentantly laughs about violently objectifying women? Is this who you are, Taylor? And if this is who you are, who am I?

Things got so intense that a group of Swifties circulated an open letter telling other fans to #SpeakUpNow.

Things got so intense that a group of Swifties circulated an open letter telling other fans to #SpeakUpNow and condemn the relationship: “He has been involved in acts and controversies that deeply trouble us,” the letter says. “We urge you to reflect on the impact of your own and your associates’ behavior and engage in genuine self-reflection.”

Rapper Ice Spice, who Healy called a “chubby Chinese lady” on a podcast, was brought in to share the stage with Swift in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Some speculated this act was a professional olive branch, others an empty, performative gesture to both Ice Spice and fans who were disturbed by Healy’s original remarks (he has since offered both an apology and a non-apology for the comments).

Poets talk a lot about how the speaker of the poem is not the writer of the poem. You’ve got to put distance between them. That’s healthy for artists and fans. You don’t know anything about Taylor Swift except what she carefully curates and puts out into the world. Her songs may speak to you, but she directly is not. Proclamation of ownership over a stranger and her love life, the fantasy that our whispers reach Swift’s ears and she heeds our pleas, is problematic.

Parasocial relationships can show the beauty of human emotion, our capacity for empathy, and our ever-expanding desire to connect. On the darker side, they reveal our desire for control, our capacity for cruelty, and our instincts to possess. If the parasocial fantasy is punctured, you might have to make an ethical choice that forces you to confront the dissolution of that illusion — and, more importantly, yourself and what you’re willing to accept.

ts1989fanatic: in some ways the last month or so on SM has been far worse and much more divisive than this🐍🐍🐍🐍 in 2016. There are times when I don’t recognize our fandom anymore.

I honestly don’t know if it’s the rise of TikTok as a preeminent SM platform or just a general increase in SM usage but I do know it’s become far more toxic than it was just a few short years ago.

[gossipgirls]

idk how to word this without making it super long, but i hope the reboot stays kind of trashy and soap opera-y like the original. one of the best things about the original gg imo is that it portrayed the wildly unattainable lifestyle of rich New York elites without making me think it could ever be realistic, you know? so i hope the reboot doesn’t try and tackle every social issue on the planet and ground it that hard in reality, because not only does it feel misplaced, it would also maybe cause people to view the original in that light and Gossip Girl is the last show that should be looked at as real life given all their... choice storylines.

i’ve had my general answer for this typed out in my drafts for a little while and it seems like a good day to post it since twitter is basically imploding over the news that the reboot won’t feature the slut shaming of its girl characters as the original did lol. i do have a lot of thoughts on this because it’s a complicated topic that i find so interesting, so this is about to be long, sorry dsbhjnkds.

i understand the feeling that a lot of younger tv these days is more interested in dealing with social problems than it is in producing high quality content (i’ve always felt the issue is much less that these shows are attempting social commentary and more that these attempts are often SO half-baked and often written by like 40 year olds who don’t really know how teens actually talk about these issues and most likely don’t fully understand these issues themselves or have anything worthwhile to say about them), and i understand the concern that it’s very much beside the point of gg, a show that once based a now-iconic ad campaign on the negative criticism it received on the basis of being inappropriate, to shy away from controversial subject matter.

but tbh i don’t think these two things (social commentary and entertainment) are necessarily mutually exclusive! i’m pretty positive it’ll still be relatively soapy, but i think they can do some dramatics while also dealing with the social issues that naturally come up better than they did in the original––sexual assault, slut shaming and lack of any racial awareness being the most glaring ones.

i’m sort of expecting something more like season 1 of the original. it wasn’t as intensely soapy as the later seasons were, but it was still dramatic and entertaining. and they did still deal with some pretty heavy issues, like eating disorders, suicide attempts, substance abuse, etc. i don’t think learning how to deal with these topics more responsibly will take away from the wildness at all. i actually think that the writers learning how to do this will make for much better, unique writing/storylines, i.e. less reliance on “that slut slept with my boyfriend” for drama (which was done to death in the 2000s anyway; we already have blairena so i don’t see why we’d need another version), more reliance on creative, original ways to stir up tension. the original show, frankly, could have been better in the later seasons if it focused less on the shock factor and quickly moving on to the next bit of drama, and more on staying in character and properly dealing with the issues its characters faced.

whenever anybody talks about the social unawareness of the original gg, fans jump right to “but it’s reflective of the time it was written in.” and it’s true: gg reflected and amplified its particular culture. this is a big reason why it was so popular at the time, and also a big reason why certain parts of it have aged pretty poorly. i’d say the new gg will not be any different in this respect. the original gg was written in a time when it was pretty normal to call a girl a slut; the new gg has been written in a time when most young people have decided, no it’s not okay to call girls sluts. the show will simply reflect that culture shift, as long as it’s done well. there are better, smarter ways to create drama in a show and i’m happy that the writers recognized that. 

[edorazzi]

Well, here we are again! Twitter said yes to a review post for a Miraculous magazine that suddenly showed up in my local area. ‘Tis the season after all, and by that I mean someone bought it for me as a joke birthday gift and I was way too happy about that.

I’ve done previous reviews of the Miraculous Christmas calendar, Easter egg set, superhero fashion dolls and action figures, so let’s dive into the unknown world of merchandising yet again!

(As always, if you enjoy my posts, please consider checking out my Twitter page or supporting me on Patreon for lots of bonus content!)

4 FREE GIFTS! PACKED WITH ACTIVITIES! MEET THE KWAMIS! PRANKS & LOLS! CUT-OUT MEMES! FANGIRL ALERT! NAIL ART! 100% OFFICIAL! I’m overwhelmed! It feels like I’m having a seizure just from the packaging!!! 

I should preface this by saying I haven’t bought a magazine like this in years. Possibly ever. I read things like the Beano, Animals & You and the odd Disney Princess zine when I was a kid but I have no idea what to expect from a free-gift-packed kiddie magazine in 2019. If the outside is anything to go by we’re in for a wild ride.

I’m noticing that it says “Miraculous #20″ on the back. Does this mean I’ve missed 19 previous issues? I’m genuinely a little upset by that. My local area is a complete dry zone for Miraculous so I haven’t had the chance to pick these up.

First step: let’s separate everything out and get a look at these freeeee giftssss. Except they aren’t free, because this magazine was like £3.99. This does seem to be the current trend - it’s kinda rare to see any kids’ zines without the excess packaging crammed with ‘free’ stuff. Is it really too expensive to just produce the magazine? Probably, in this economy.

Chat Noir is revealed on the cover! He was on the back of the plastic jacket, but it’s still nice to see the kids as a front-cover duo. Apparently we’re going to learn to draw Pollen, too, which sounds fun. I’m actually liking the look of the gifts as well, but we’ll get into those in a minute.

This hairbrush............. is adorable. Oh my god. It’s pretty cheap and flimsy but it functions the way it’s supposed to, and the Ladybug design has been taken into account in a better way than “it’s red/black, that counts” (lest we forget the UTTER BULLSHIT of the Christmas calendar, and YES I’m still mad about that). I don’t know how well I expect the outer sticker to last, but if it can take a bit of wear and tear this would be an adorable little travel brush. Nicely done, lads!

These nail stickers? Also adorable. They remind me of the kiddie makeup sets I had when I was little, back in the early 00s when plastic stick-on nails and decals were all the rage. Are they still a thing? That’s nice to know.

There are 13 designs (that I can count) - a Queen Bee mask, Chat Noir pawprint cake, macaron, cupcake, heart-print cookie, Ladybug stud, flower, lightning bolt, love heart, Marinette heart, bee, fox tail and star. The majority are directly related to the show and that makes them feel special. No Carapace though? :(

I’ve put a little Marinette heart on my furthest finger. At the time of typing this up (about a day later) it’s still firmly in place. I haven’t really knocked it around, granted, but it’s not flimsy enough to fall off after five minutes either. It’s also really cute to look at. Guess I’m still a decal-loving 2004 girl at heart......

These stickers though!!! Wow! They’re those holographic and slightly-puffy kind and they feel like pretty good quality, and the designs are so cute! I can’t fault these, they’re absolutely adorable. I immediately want to stick them everywhere.

So I’ve stuck them everywhere. I’m especially proud of the light switch pun. My room looks GREAT.

I saved these “mystery stickers” for last because I’m weak for the thrill of mystery bags, and there wasn’t anything on the packaging to indicate what kind of designs to expect. And OH!!!! OH, IT’S MY BOY!!!! Look at him!!!! 

I made jokes with the Christmas calendar about all the Chat Noir items being stolen ahead of time, but that’s definitely NOT the case with this magazine. I have been SPOILED with the presence of my cat son.

These stickers are similar to the sticker sheet (and the Chillin’ Out design is reprinted), but they’re puffier and non-holographic. I’m deeply allured by the “decorate your phone or tablet” suggestion on the packet, but I’m going to see how the previous stickers withstand the wear-and-tear of my laptop lid before adding any more. If I damage these beautiful Adrien stickers I’ll be devastated.

Those are our free gifts! They’re actually very fun and cute, I’m really happy with them! I guess now it’s time to get into the magazine itself...........

I genuinely almost forgot the magazine was the main part of this package. I figured I was done, but we’ve barely even started! Here’s a splash page of the kwami. Kwami with a capital K? Kwamis? I still feel like it should be singular-lower-case-k-kwami. I’ve never been happy about this “miraculouses” business either.

But is that--

It IS!!!! It’s Nino!!! 

I guess this is the new flavour of Miraculous tie-ins. Now they’ve broadened out to a full team we’re seeing a lot more of Adrien alongside the girls, and Nino is the elusive hero who shows up once in a blue moon. At least this time his name isn’t in the title of the gotdam show.......

Anyway, I can see I’m supposed to draw my “fave Kwami”. Better get to it.

Felix just wants a break. Just one break. But not in this magazine.

Speaking of seeing more of Adrien (and, tragically, less of Nino), this is the kind of splash page I want to see! Both kids are here! The banner themed with Marinette’s signature flowers is a nice touch too; that’s associated with her arts ‘n’ crafts in the show already and it makes sense to apply it to the creative portion of this magazine too.

I LOVE the promotion of Chat Noir nails as something the little girls buying this magazine will definitely want to try. I’d expect them to do Marinette vs Ladybug nails, but instead we get a boyish option! Hell yeah!

I’m a little confused by the Queen Bee masks apparently going on the Chat Noir nails though. I guess they’re friends? Is this secret AdriChlo confirmation? Watch out, Marinette, Kagami’s not the one to be worried about.

SURE WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE SOME TURTLE STICKERS FOR AN ALL-BOYS THEME BUT I GUESS NOT HUH

Next up is a short merch catalogue (why would you put the big bold arrow pointing right to the underoos.....). Would those Chat Noir socks come in my size? Asking for me.

Then there’s......... this page. FANGIRL ALERT. God. It’s like the Ladyblog, if only the Ladyblog ever gave a heck about reporting what Chat Noir’s up to.

THE SPELL WAS BROKEN AND THE FANDOM IMPLODED WITH JOY.

I really have to wonder what age range this is meant for. Do kids know what a “fandom” is? Do little girls consider themselves “fangirls”? I guess most kids have enough internet access to figure it out these days (all the hashtags and LOLs and memes speak volumes), but I can’t imagine being young enough to fit the target range of this magazine while also knowing these terms. I dunno.

(Also, the definition of ‘implosion’ is ‘an instance of something collapsing violently inwards’, so I’m not sure that’s the word they’re looking for. Unless the return to the status quo in Dark Cupid and the continuing stagnation of the love square was enough to make people quit in frustration? Probably.)

I’m filling it in, of course. Because I must.

I gave up on the pre-approved ratings system pretty much right away, but I think this is an accurate rating of my LadyNoir opinions. 

I might be kinda cynical about it here, but I am actually pretty fond of how this magazine sells Ladybug and Chat Noir as a couple. The show’s portraying it as very onesided lately, with Chat pining over Ladybug who has absolutely no interest in him (Glaciator was a TERRIBLE episode and I’m still hurting from it), but reading this zine I’d guess they were already dating. It’s cheesy, but in a nice way.

I have to laugh at “the most amazing thing about this super duo is that they always look out for and protect each other” though. Chat’s usually pretty focused on LB, sure, but there are endless instances of LB using Chat as cannon fodder and just generally abandoning him to get mauled by akuma while she carries out her personal private plan to save the day. Maybe we’re just focusing on the better-written episodes, huh?

Moving ahead. I’ve been dreading this page since reading “Plaggs Pranks & LOLs” on the back of the packaging. I feel hatred in my very bones just looking at it.

I like that there’s ONE instance of the term “ladybird” in the joke column. This is a UK-based magazine and that IS the word we tend to use over here - “ladybug” is an Americanism - but it’s like they’re worried kids could have got to the middle of this magazine about a superhero named Ladybug and then not understand the bug jokes. Maybe whoever was writing this page slipped up?

OH NOOOOO. MARINETTE, NOOOOOOOOOO.

THIS IS WHY FELIX GOT RID OF YOU, PLAGG. THESE ARE ADRIEN’S PROBLEMS NOW.

(mmm whatcha saaaaay)

I mean........... YEAH, I guess, but we absolutely did see Plagg destroy Felix with an entire shelf of heavy books. I guess he’s nicer with Adrien. It’s all fun and games until someone has a nervous breakdown in the library.

I do love the concept of Tikki getting glitter-bombed by Plagg through the mail. She just curiously opens up the little letter which got slipped into Marinette’s purse, and-- WOOSH. One entire wall of Mari’s room is glittery except for a little Tikki-shaped silhouette. 

Next up is a two-page comic which is absolutely adorable! Look at those little chibis! The warm and soft colour palette! This is nicer than most of the official Miraculous comic book art I’ve seen, I hope they keep giving this artist work.

Nino’s here too (and he looks great!), and I like the touch of Marinette and Adrien playing as each other’s superhero characters. Adrien even wins the match, though I guess there’s something to be said about Ladybug beating Chat Noir (again)...... 

It does raise the question yet again of where this tie-in merchandise is coming from! They’ve had action figures, a movie, music video features, now an arcade game... Who’s getting the royalties here? Who’s profiting? Is this how Fu can afford to buy all those rare ingredients for the magic potions?

Over the page we have an activity to Design your Secret Lair! Right away I love the Marinette theme of the page, the soft pink and flowers, and the drawing space looking like a page in a binder with marker tabs and everything.

I have to design my secret lair, of course: 

What do you think? I’m very creative. I’ll need an adult to send in the drawing of my hideout but I think I’ve really got a shot at those unicorn headphones.

Now we’re on to puzzles and character pages. I don’t know what ol’ Gabe is doing trying to meet a 13 year old girl in the dead of night without telling anyone, you’d think if he’s got that much free time on his hands he could be spending it with his son.

I don’t know how those points in Ladybug’s power profile are awarded or what they mean, but you can tell this is a fan magazine. Official sources would have put her at a 10.

Standard House of Villains page! Most of these were good episodes but I’m deeply offended Riposte isn’t on here. Maybe her motives weren’t dramatic and cartoonish enough to be up in the ranks with Glaciator and Gorizilla?

“Cat Noir’s dad is also the evil Hawk Moth”, huh? I mean that’s not WRONG, but is it really something to put in his power profile when Adrien doesn’t even know yet??? Feels like we’re kinda jumping the gun on the poor boy. What if he picks up this magazine?

Apparently he’s one point weaker than Ladybug (seriously???), two points faster, equally as agile, one point less skilled and two points less cool. Despite all those lesses he still comes out at an equal 9, which is a relief! These kids are a team, putting either of them below the other would have been a big no.

I did the colouring page too, naturally. Je suis un artiste.

Now we’ve got a page fresh from the Ladyblog, a Miraculous quiz! Not a lot of excitement, but it’s nice to see Alya getting her own section.

I like that the qualifications of “you could be Ladybug herself!” are knowing what city Marinette lives in and what school she goes to. Well done, Mari! You’re doing your best!!!

TEACHER I AM SO HUNGRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I gotta say, I’m not so sure about decorating donuts with fondant. I’ve never tried it so I could be wrong, but it feels like rolled icing instead of frosting(?) would be too heavy for an entire donut. The texture is totally different.

I mean I guess if you’re going to load your kids up on sugar you might as well go all the way. They’re going to look like they’ve eaten something horrible with all that black fondant, but they’ll have fun. Adrien would love these.

WHERE’S NINO. THIS IS JUST UNFAIR. You’ll have four out of five heroes, then a double of Marinette and Tikki? Maybe this just goes to show how little memorable dialogue Carapace has.

Though if “Spots On!” is Marinette’s dialogue and not Ladybug’s, why are the other transformation phrases attributed to Rena Rouge and Queen Bee instead of Alya and Chloé? Surely they could have picked something better for Marinette to justify having her on this list twice instead of Nino.

The next page brings us one of those flowchart quizzes! And ouch, yet again the absence of the other heroes is obvious. I can understand not including Chloé here since she’s technically not a “friendly” character yet, but no Nino? Alya and Marinette are close friends, but Adrien doesn’t really hang out with them without Nino around. Having the three of them together just seems strange.

I do like the little fashion page! They’re all cute and affordable and easy to find on the high street here. I’d love to see how other issues of this magazine are structured; is there a different fashion spot every time? Styles to channel each individual hero would be adorable.

Moving on to a tutorial for a Ladybug notebook! I would have made this, but I didn’t have the time nor a notebook to stick it to.

Between this and the donuts, it seems weird that these designs are based on, like... an actual beetle, eyes and antennae and all. Shouldn’t it be Ladybug’s symbol? These come across more like “fun animals” arts ‘n’ crafts instead of themed after Miraculous specifically. I think if I made this (or decorated the donuts) I’d miss out the head and match the spot pattern to Ladybug’s symbol. 

The hidden message design is adorable though. I can see this being a craft kids are super proud of.

Another activity page! I didn’t have a go at these but they’re pretty standard. It’s cute that the coded message designs are the same as the stickers and nail decals!

Also, apparently Ladybug’s ‘secret’ is “LB mask + heart + CN mask”, which was (somehow) stolen by Volpina. Is that the secret Hawk Moth was talking about earlier in the magazine? Is he blackmailing Ladybug with revealing she has a crush on Chat Noir? How did Volpina ‘steal’ this secret? Is LadyNoir finally reciprocated???? THIS IS A WHOLE EPISODE IN ITSELF, I NEED ANSWERS--

Next page we have an ad for another girly magazine (Quizzes! LOLs! Celebs! Cringes! Puzzles!). I think I’ll pass, no matter how appealing that giant microphone pen is. 

And a “Miraculous Identity” quiz! Tikki’s apparently super fickle with her wielders, three seasons of relentlessly praising Marinette and now she’s telling us we’re the Chosen Ones. You can’t fool me with those big ol’ eyes.

My inner superhero is Marvellous Fox, by the way. Though yet again I’m noticing we don’t have turtle options...................

And on the back cover... the memes. Oh, sweet lord, the memes. They’re hashtag-SoRelatable! And I can cut them out to keep! Oh boy!!!

Is this what kids do when they have limited internet access? Cut fresh memes out of magazines and carry them around? I need to know.

That’s a very sinister Ladybug at the bottom of the page though. What’s-- What’s she going to do to me if I don’t cut out and keep these memes. Ladybug what are you going to do if I d--

Well that brings us to the end of the magazine! And yet again I’m surprised by how much time it takes to just put a bunch of photos together and write about them.

This is a neat little magazine all in all! The ‘free gifts’ are pretty nice, there’s a fair amount of content and the whole thing is pretty cute for young fans of the show. I could see myself buying this again - if it ever shows up on shelves, Miraculous is so scarce around here that I fully expect it to disappear again after this one issue - just for the free junk, but it would be interesting to see how they’d structure different issues too!

I notice we never did get that promised tutorial on how to draw Pollen; the one advertised on the cover. Was the “draw your favourite Kwami” activity supposed to cover that? I’m not sure that really counts.

If you got this far, thanks for joining me on this Miraculous journey! We’ll meet again whenever I get another piece of weird ML merch to cover. Bien joué!

[schraubd]

David's 2020 Endorsement: Elizabeth Warren! (Plus: Likes and Dislikes!)

I've been keeping quiet about who I'm backing in the 2020 Democratic primary. I mean, I guess I came out for Booker earlier on, but that was with the self-conscious knowledge that I was just delaying my actual decision until he inevitably dropped out. It actually worked pretty well, since one of my key motivators is "not getting so invested in one person that I get mad if they don't win", and being on team Booker meant avoiding a lot of drama for the first infinity months of this never-ending primary season. However, the time has come to plant my flag. And so the coveted David Schraub endorsement goes to: Elizabeth Warren! In a field with many great candidates, I think she aligns closest to both my ideological values and my practical considerations for what a good President needs. To wit: she's a smart, New Deal liberal technocrat with good ideas and good instincts for finding and managing talent. I think she has the smarts to inspire good policy innovations and the savvy to actually move the ball forward in implementing them. But when it comes right down to it, there are things I like and dislike (or at least am concerned about) for all the candidates. So if you want to follow my logic in making your decision, here's my current appraisal of the major remaining players in the Democratic field (with the important caveat that my main commitment is to vote for the Democratic candidate, no matter who it is, and be happy about it). Elizabeth Warren Likes: I already mentioned it above: smart, wonkish New Deal-style liberal with technocratic instincts. That's my jam. She has experience both as a thought leader coming up with ideas and a practical leader implementing policies on the ground -- a good President has to have a good handle on both. I also think that, of all the candidates, she's best positioned to unite the "progressive" and "establishment" wing of the party after the primary is over. Dislikes: Many of the things I liked about Warren are the same things that attracted me to Hillary Clinton. And I'm obviously feeling a bit burned about how that turned out. She's going to face a boatload of misogyny (e.g., the assumption -- ludicrous if you listen to her -- that she's "shrill"), and that's on top of the easy "Massachusetts liberal" attack line. Bernie Sanders Likes: I actually do think a lot of his policy proposals are realistic -- at least in concept (getting them through the Senate, on the other hand....). He wrote a pretty darn good essay on Jewish issues in Jewish Currents. And I think he has more general election viability than a lot of other pundits believe -- his brand of anti-establishment fire is definitely on trend right now, and it is a myth that "independent" and "centrist" are coterminous categories. Dislikes: All candidates have bad actors among their supporters, but Sanders definitely stands out here and not in a good way. A Sanders victory will embolden a cadre of actors who've embraced a leftist iteration of the paranoid style in American politics, a development I think would be outright dangerous for the future of American progressivism. And while Sanders can't be held fully responsible for the actions of his supporters, he's also shown shaky judgment on the people who he, personally, has decided to surround himself with. That's actually a big voting issue for me, since a large part of what a President does is picking other people to elevate to positions of power. Amy Klobuchar Likes: There's something to be said for a purpling-state Democrat who has utterly annihilated her Republican opposition every election she's faced. My lean-Republican midwestern in-laws love her, for what that's worth. I think she's smart and competent -- and if those sound like backhanded compliments, I don't mean them to be. Dislikes: I may chuckle at some of the abusive boss stories, but it really is inappropriate and raises questions about how she'll attract good talent as President. The fact that she's been bragging on the campaign trail about a conviction of a kid who may well be innocent is not the best look. Plus, I think we can push in a more progressive direction than what she's offering. Joe Biden Likes: The ultimate "return to normalcy" candidate. 95% of his campaign pitch is "don't you miss the Obama years?", and I won't lie -- that sings to me a bit. He's also another person who I think will do will on the "staff positions with good people" metric. Dislikes: He's just a bad campaigner. I'm sorry, but it's true. Any time he's run a national race he's imploded, and I think he'll do it again. His Iowa strategy of "repeatedly tell people they should vote for someone else" was a predictable disaster. Biden just feels like someone whose time has passed. Pete Buttigieg Likes: Another entry in the "basically smart guy" camp. Twitter notwithstanding, a lot of people seem to find him quite likable, and a fresh face. Fresh faces can be good. Dislikes: Call me crazy, but I think politics is a job and I don't think one should jump from "Mayor of South Bend" to "President of the United States." Also, as a coastal-born American, I cannot stand this whole "real American heartland guy" shtick. Utter lack of support in non-White communities also is a turn-off -- though it'll be interesting to see if that changes after Iowa. Mike Bloomberg Likes: He seems to scare Trump, and genuinely get under his skin. I don't know if infinite money = unstoppable election campaign, but Bloomberg certainly could test the hypothesis. He's shown leadership on a couple of issues that matter to me -- guns and the environment, mostly. And again, I think he's someone who would pick competent people to surround him. Dislikes: Not really interested in backing a random billionaire. And -- as one would expect from a recent Republican -- he's got a lot of problems on the issues. Stop and frisk is the obvious one, but he hasn't been good on trans rights either. Oh, and he has a history of harassing women, which the country may not care about but I do. Tom Steyer Likes: Of the billionaires, he seems to be better on the issues. So as against Bloomberg, he's a more progressive way of having "infinite money" to spend on the race. Dislikes: More so than any other candidate running -- even Bloomberg -- Steyer is clearly just buying his way into political viability, and that makes me feel he's a bit of dilettante. For example, unlike Bloomberg, he has no actual political experience. Again, politics is a job, and I want a candidate who has experience holding office. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/2H21VQA

[sometimesrosy]

Do you think if we take a step back we can view what happened w/the recent SW movie thru the lens of creative growing pains for Hollywood as they attempt to have better rep & inclusion? I haven’t been tracking this issue & don’t know if I have the life experience/perspective to say it’s true. But I am a member of the queer community, so I have seen that in attempt to have more rep on screen (which is progress), it seems normal that not everyone will do a good job & there’ll be a learning curve.

Obviously that doesn’t mean we don’t call creators out when they do something wrong! But for me even w/the SW movie ending bad I still see progress there. They’re changing the picture of who we see on screen. Who is important & explored in depth & fleshed out. They’re just bumbling the narratives & stories. Which makes sense if they’re not used to telling those stories. I think the right people being on screen is the 1st step. And/Or getting the right rep in storytellers behind the scenes.

Actually maybe getting the right storytellers bts is actually the key to what will take this move toward better rep and inclusion to the next level. Don’t get me wrong, like you I believe creators can tell thoughtful, nuanced stories about issues they haven’t experienced or communities they’re not a part of. But if they don’t have any of those people on their teams on in their ears, I think they’re taking a big risk and doing a disservice to themselves and the stories they want to tell.

+++

This is, I think, a very insightful question and something to look at. To be honest, it’s such a big question with so much IN it that I’m having trouble answering.

I think you’re right. That the current wave of “diverse” content, created mostly by white men, lets be honest, is problematic. And there are reasons for it being problematic... mainly telling a story that represents diversity when your life is... not diverse, is, well, really hard. And to get to that point where you can tell that story without falling to stereotypes and harmful tropes or cardboard characters is a process.

You can’t tell that story without doing a lot of work and really examining your view point. And ok, it’s not that ALL white men can’t tell these stories. Or that “diverse” creators (lgbt, poc, jewish, disabled or otherwise minority) are telling stories that AREN’T problematic. The truth is we live in a racist, homophobic, heteronormative, christian, ablist society. And it takes a lot of active work to rub off those layers of inherent bias. 

I HAVE been watching this happen for a long time. And there has definitely been improvement in both representation of minorities in the media and people BEHIND the scenes. 

I do think the key to improving representation in the media is to allow us to tell our own stories. Like for instance, while it’s not perfect, if we look at Witcher in comparison to Game of Thrones, you can TELL this is a story told by a woman. The writer of the book is male, but this version has a feminine voice. The way women are perceived. The way men are presented. Things that are valued. 

Or like Ava DuVernay. A black director of A Wrinkle in Time, written by a white woman. You can tell that the voice in this story, is a WOC, and it’s NOT just because Meg Murray is portrayed by a black girl. It’s because the story sees black people as part of the human experience, rather than just an addition for flava and ratings. 

Diversity makes the diverse people the subject of the story, rather than characters who are objectified as exotic poc of the day, or tragic lgbt movie of the week, or a terrible thing that must be magically cured because disabled people can’t be heroic. :/

I honestly don’t have the answer to this, except to keep telling our own stories, and to value the voices of traditionally underrepresented people.

I think that having white men, first, start writing us into their stories is a first step. It’s like we didn’t exist before?  At first we get to be cautionary tales, like the old fashioned “tragic mulatto” where the beautiful passing part black girl is doomed by the stain of her heritage and ends up dying. We don’t really do that anymore. But we do see Bury Your Gays and the Dead Lesbian Syndrome, don’t we? Like maybe before we get to exist as “real” people, we have to show up as tragic, sad tales of how hard it is to be us. :/ 

Sometimes we get sick of all the stories about minorities being about how hard it is to be minority, and the terrible suffering we go through yadda yadda yadda. Ghettos and immigration and poverty and harassment. But you know what? 

When we tell our stories, we find out they aren’t just about tragedy but about the full spectrum of human experience. Love AND heartbreak. Joy AND suffering. Struggle AND success. 

I think also we’re entering a time when there’s some backlash from people getting to tell our own stories, and speaking up about how we are excluded. But maybe people who don’t really believe that our stories are worthy are still into, you know, killing us off in chains, or at the hands of our abusers or reducing our characters to grinning cartoons, or magically making our disabilities go away? And we start to complain? 

Have you seen what’s happening with the Romance Writers of America? A writer’s organization that banned a half Chinese woman for complaining about racism in a woman’s novel? Yeah. THEY IMPLODED in the last two weeks. I watched it go down, because I follow the woman who was banned on twitter National news. They wanted her silenced. They said she was bullying when she questioned racism. Wow. It was. Wow. 

They were working within the organization to make it more equitable and some people within the organization resisted. Because, you see, if we allow POC and LGBT folk and other minorities to tell their stories, we’re questioning the default humanity of straight white christian men. The closer you are to that center, the more social and political power you get, and having people ACTIVELY start telling non-white stories is threatening to the white men and Nice White Ladies because it takes away their dominance of what it means to be human. 

There is bound to be backlash. And in a way, I think we’re deep into that backlash now. They’re starting to fight dirty. And what they’re doing is also obvious to a whole lot of us, because we see it now, where we didn’t before. When there was one Wonder Woman and we were glad to get her and we didn’t complain about her wearing high heels and a swimsuit. 

Did I answer any questions? I don’t have answers. But this is very important to consider. Keep asking the questions. 

[4lix]

restless nights; lee minho

[listening to] .... babybaby; suran 

Hi bubs, may I request a college au with Minho where the reader works at the coffee shop on campus (saving money because college is expensive af) and Minho having no sleep needs coffee, bus is awakened by the beauty of the reader?

can you do coffee shop minho but he’s like, totally not coffee shop material haha like he’s a dancer or something and school isn’t his thing and hes just really flirty?? if that makes sense????? thank you!!!! <3 

okay so these two were a bit similar

so me and my third eye decided to combine them 

bc coffee au x college au WITH MINHO? bitch its an experience 

so basically as the struggling college student you are who is living off of ramen noodles and the potato chips you found in the back of your cabinet last semester, you decided to get a job

but lets get real who the hell wants to work 

luckily the sweet old lady who owns the cafe down the block from your campus recently decided to go 24 hours

which meant more shifts available 

and meant you could maybe eat something besides ramen noodles and god was that a blessing. 

luckily you had afternoon classes, so working the night shift wasn’t an issue, plus it was only ever just you and a few customers, so the shift was quiet, peaceful, and you could get extra studying in when customers weren’t bothering you. 

for months working there it was peaceful, almost too peaceful, on the verge of being mind-numbingly boring

the only people who ever came in were miserable college students and old men who played bingo in the back 

until a week before finals, a boy who looked like he hasn’t slept in a billion years came stumbling inside, making all types of noise and heavy rap music blasting through his headphones, ruining the previously peaceful atmosphere

he doesn’t look like the type of boy to be in a coffee shop

he had this rugged look about him, hair an absolute mess and shoved inside of a beanie messily, his clothing a bit oversized and hanging off his body, and an adidas duffel bag alongside his backpack hanging off his shoulders 

probably an athlete of some sort 

he was your only customer you had all night 

the boy clearly lacked sleep, after he threw all his shit on a random table in the corner of the cafe, he stumbled over towards the counter eyes lazily meeting yours

as cliche as it is, the moment his eyes landed on your face, it’s like a surge of energy ran through his body 

he immediately straightened his figure, clearing his throat before trying to smile nicely, his previously pale face warming up to a shade of pretty pink

“h-hi..” he mutters nervously, and you greet him nicely with what you’ve been trained to say to everyone that walks in.

“hello! what can i get for you tonight? we’re doing a promotion for our night owls, free refills on all lattes after midnight!” you say with a bright smile and you swear you see him melt right then and there before he shakes his head and lets out of small laugh

“honestly, i don’t even really like coffee.” he admits and you turn your head in a bit of confusion

“so what exactly are you doing at a coffee shop?” you ask amusedly, and the boy with eye bags deeper than oceans looks up to meet eyes with you and maybe it was you melted that this time

he was... cute, dare you say the cutest boy you’ve ever seen, although you know most people wouldn’t consider this look he was sporting to be too attractive... i mean the boy had a hole in his shirt and his hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed in days

“well there’s one thing i hate more than coffee.” he says simply, taking off his beanie briefly and running his fingers through his hair 

and just fuck it killed you 

“it’s getting kicked off the dance team because i’m failing organic chemistry. also now that i’m here, a pretty face like yours is definitely a reason to stick around” he says with a wink. 

god where the hell did this boy come from 

it was ass o clock and he clearly hadn’t slept in what looked like days but the flirtatious parts of his brain were working harder than the u.s marines.  

you stammered on your next words, cheeks dusting a slight pink, “u-uh-””

“i just need something that will wake me up, i have a quiz at noon tomorrow and i haven’t studied at all, whip me up something real good yeah?”

in with that he drops a bill on the table, saying a quick keep the change babe before he winks one last time, turns around and heads back to his seat

well its safe to say your kidney imploded 

why was he so ridiculously attractive? 

you couldn’t even move for a few moments after he walked away, and you swore you heard chuckles coming from his corner of the cafe, the little shit was amused by it all wasn’t he?

shaking your head, you start queueing up an order for your favorite latte on the menu with the most amount of caffeine possible. the boy looked dead, he’d need lots of it.

how exactly were you going to even give the boy his damn drink

even pushing the buttons for placing his order had your face burning red 

nonetheless you make the drink to the best of your ability, never bothering to care about measurements but fuck when its a customer that beautiful? suddenly you love your job, call you the world’s finest barista. 

while the coffee brewed, you couldn’t help but gaze dazedly at the boy across the room. 

he came here to study but it looked like he was already knocked out cold, head resting in his arms, his face completely exposed and you just abashedly admired his charms and beauty from afar. 

when the drink was finally done, you almost didn’t want to move his figure, but if the mountain of papers next to his body was anything to go by, he needed to be up and working.

you nudge him slightly, “white chocolate mocha with five shots of espresso.” you state simply, proud of yourself for not stuttering

his eyes slowly open, falling onto you and the cup in your hands 

he smiles kindly at you, thanking you before taking the drink out of your hands 

“let me know if you like it, if there’s any changes you want made I can fix it no problem!” thank goodness for all the training and practice you’ve had saying your directed lines, if it wasn’t for the training you’d probably be stumbling over every syllable. 

he takes a sip, and instantly his eyes widen.

“woah, i don’t even like coffee, but this is fucking amazing.” he compliments and you smile at him gratefully before taking your leave back behind the counter

the rest of the night is slow, just the sound of the boy typing away at his computer and the occasional turn of a page as you try to cram through reading a literature essay. 

“ahem”

you look up, it’s the boy again, a mischiveous smile on his face 

“could i get that refill?” he asks but there’s a lilt to his voice, something that makes you feel like he’s onto something, but you just nod regardless, turning around and whipping it up for him

he takes it thankfully and winks again

you go back to your essay 

fifteen minutes pass, and you hear footsteps walking towards the front counter again

“refill?” he says with a grin and you tilt your head slightly, “i just gave you one?” 

“i already finished it, it’s free refills after midnight right?” 

“well yeah but-”

“okay so i’d like a refill on my white chocolate mocha latte with five shots of espresso.” he says with a stupid grin and you find yourself getting slightly annoyed with the boy and his antics but nonetheless you turn around and prepare another drink for him

this goes on for another hour

you’ve made him like eight drinks

and god knows how he hasn’t exploded from all the liquid in his system

it isn’t until 4am, just an hour before your shift ends that the boy finally rises out of his seat, nine drinks later, stretching 

he begins packing up his stuff and you can’t tell if you’re relieved or kind of upset that he’s leaving. 

he stops by the counter one last time before he goes, sliding a paper your way 

“y’know i ordered all those drinks in hopes that you’d write your number down on one of them, but, seems like you didn’t get my drama reference.” that dumb smirk is back on his face and your face is burning up again, a laugh slipping past your lips

“instead of abusing me at work like this, you could’ve just asked for my number, you know that right? i went through like a pound of coffee beans and a carton of creamer because of you.” 

“and to think every cup was delicious to the last drop... you need a raise, really.” he slides a piece of paper toward you, “text me and maybe i can make you coffee next time?”

“you dont even like coffee, do you even know how to make it?” 

“i’ll learn.” 

“just for me? wow what a charmer you are.” 

“i get that a lot.” he winks 

“is your eye okay? you’ve winked like fifty times tonight.” you tease

“technically it’s morning.”

“technically you’re irritating.” 

he chuckles at your sassiness.

“you’re cute. ... y/n?” he reads your nametag 

“hate to say it but you’re kind of cute too.....” you hesitate for a moment, realizing you dont know his name

“minho, lee minho, i gotta get going, but text me, or else i’m coming back here tomorrow and i’m gonna order a hundred cups this time.” 

“i’m going to ban you from ever coming back to this cafe.”

“you’d never.”

“what makes you so sure of that?”

“well, if you did, who would you stare at all night if i wasn’t here?” for fucks sake he winks again and even makes a kissy face before throwing his backpack over his shoulder

“text me!” is all he shouts before leaving and you cup your face trying to calm the heat in your cheeks

you do text him, in fact you talk for hours, but he still decides to come to bother you for another night and it seemingly never ends as minho becomes a regular at the cafe.

you aren’t complaining though, the night shift isn’t so lonely with him here. 

let’s talk! („ᵕᴗᵕ„) [cc] https://curiouscat.me/chansmaid

[twitter] https://twitter.com/9lovelys

[clickstarter]

What happened to Clubhouse?

Real time conversions via audio in an app that brought together the general public with the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and a swag of celebrities who couldn’t wait to get on top of the next big digital thing in the middle of a global pandemic.

So what went wrong?

1. Live audio is a feature, not an app

2. Marketers ruin everything

3. Something else was the next big thing

Live audio wasn’t new, innovative, or even wanted

While 30 million people flocked to Clubhouse, today you’d be hard-pressed to find more than a couple of million people on it now. And they’re not very active anymore. And one main reason is that what Clubhouse did wasn’t anything new.

It was essentially talkback radio through your phone. Not exactly ground-breaking. Not that any of us saw it that way at the time. And to be fair, this app was pitched at a generation that hadn’t exactly been served by traditional talkback radio that tended to be aimed at angry, ageing, middle class white men who felt marginalised by a changing society.

As Clubhouse gained in popularity, other platforms started rolling out their own live audio features. First there were the copycat apps like Fireside and Stereo. Then Twitter added live audio. And Facebook soon announced they would do the same. And then LinkedIn, probably the one network that could really benefit from this, jumped on board.

By this time, Clubhouse fatigue was starting to set in on the early adopters. If you weren’t online when something compelling happened, you missed out. If you weren’t in the California, New York or London time zones, you missed a lot. By the time sun was shining over Australia, all the best stuff was over and done. At least talkback radio records their highlight for podcasts. Clubhouse was 100% here today at 1pm and gone by 2pm.

The features of Clubhouse became obstacles to its mass growth amongst everybody but marketers. And they, I believe became the true downfall of Clubhouse.

Marketers ruined Clubhouse (just like we ruin everything)

Facebook was a lot of fun back in the early days. Connecting with old friends, playing silly farm games with new friends, and watching funny videos. And then it became a business marketing platform and the ads that appeared felt a little too creepy to those of us who didn’t understand remarketing and contextual advertising.

While Clubhouse never quite reached the point of monetisation before it began to implode, it became overrun by Bitcoin bros, Influencers seeking fame and marketers trying to build their lists and sales funnels.

I hopped into Clubhouse hoping to offer fun chats about business growth challenges, idea collaboration and support for those struggling with some of the things I had skills in. I guess I was hoping to be something of an early small business influencer on the platform. But each time I’d open a room, other marketers, influencers and social media managers hoping to hock their wares would flood in and within a few minutes we’d have thirty experts and two question askers. It wasn’t fun for the listeners, the experts or me. After about a month of hopping on and off, looking for an opportunity to turn Clubhouse into something of a channel, I gave up. The land grab for popularity, rooms and clubs had descended into a “Who’s That” of get-rich-quick gurus, crystal-waving energy healers and motivational speakers quoting their own books.

The interesting conversations seemed too hard to find, the big rooms were too full of American accents and every third room seemed to be about how to make money on Clubhouse. It was a cesspool of spammers and scammers.

It turns out that something else was the next big thing

Clubhouse was not the next big thing we thought it might be. While it seemed perfectly pitched at a pandemic audience hungry for human connection, it fell from popularity very quickly. The universe hates a vacuum though, and those same people who flooded on to Clubhouse didn’t just disappear.

If you follow social platforms as closely as I do, you might have noticed that there was suddenly a rush of marketers and wannabe influencers back on to Instagram Reels which was really starting to pick up momentum on the heels of TikTok. And those same people were starting to pick up on the fledgling YouTube Shorts as well. Not that I think they are doing very well yet, but a million marketers who are hungry for something to replace their previous favourite platform must go somewhere and try something. So, it was back to short-form video. And that seems to be where they are staying for now.

Which begs the question… what’s next? There are some brave marketers who are heading for very niche networks in fandom (like gaming, pop culture and fantasy forums and apps) and while there is no obvious monetisation there just yet, they are trying out some cool stuff that is way out of my pay grade to understand just yet. There’s also a lot of moves into the idea of the “metaverse” which translates as something like virtual worlds. For those who remember Second Life, a similar concept called Soul has emerged from China where people are creating avatars and exploring “worlds” full of people with similar interests. It’s something that Facebook is exploring as well.

What does all this mean to the average Aussie small business? Not a whole lot yet. Things like fandom and metaverses are well beyond all but the most cashed up marketing agencies and big brands for now. But there’s still a lot of untapped potential in Instagram Reels, Stories and IGTV, a tonne of space to do creative things on TikTok and heaps of room on YouTube to be doing some very effective small business marketing.

Want to learn more about being the best small business marketer that you can be? Hit up the learn section or book your own guided session at clickstarter.com.au.

Dante St James is the founder of Clickstarter, a Facebook Blueprint Certified Lead Trainer, a Community Trainer with Facebook Australia, a digital advisor with Treeti Business Consulting, an accredited ASBAS Digital Solutions advisor and presenter, and the editor at The Small Marketer. You can watch free 1-hour webinars and grow your digital skills at Dante’s YouTube Channel.

[junker-town]

The European Super League’s 48-hour lifespan, explained

Photo by Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images

Answering your biggest questions about the short-lived Super League.

Over the course of about 48 hours, the world of European soccer went through an absolute roller-coaster. On Sunday, plans were revealed that 12 of the richest clubs were breaking off to form their own Super League with the idea of supplanting UEFA’s Champions League as the preeminent club tournament in the world. By Tuesday afternoon, the plan was in tatters with at least half the teams disavowing involvement and several others ready to drop out. On Wednesday — with just four teams not officially pulling out — Juventus chairman and founder of the Super League Andrea Agnelli confirmed the obvious: the Super League was at least temporarily dead.

There’s a lot of ins and outs. But in the hope of helping a non-soccer fan better understand what happened, SB Nation’s hockey editor Steph Driver interviewed soccer editor Jeremiah Oshan. This is their conversation:

Steph: My understanding of the Super League is that all of the big teams decided to break off and start their own league for their own competition, is that right?

Jeremiah: That’s basically the gist of it, at least most of the world’s biggest clubs agreed to do it anyway. That’s the so-called “Big Six” in England (Arsenal, Chelsea Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham), the three biggest clubs in Spain (Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid) and the three biggest clubs in Italy (AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus). There were supposed to be three more “founding” members that had not yet been named and then five more rotating clubs. In hindsight, those three missing teams should have been a pretty big red flag but it now all seems a bit moot now.

Steph: And this made Big Soccer big mad?

Jeremiah: In a word, yes. In many words, very, very, very, very, very mad. Basically, the whole of the soccer world — with a few notable exceptions — lost their collective minds over this. We’re talking fans of the teams who broke away, fans of like literally every other team, players of all stripes, heck even some of the coaches and players of these teams — guys whose livelihoods depend on being employed by one of these same teams — were less than enthusiastic about it.

Steph: Hold on, it wasn’t just fans and players that weren’t included in the Super League that were mad at being excluded, it was everyone?

Jeremiah: I’ve been working in soccer media for over a decade and can say without a doubt that I’ve never seen the soccer world agree on anything quite like they agreed that this was literally the worst idea that someone had ever come up with (which sounds hyperbolic, but I think accurately articulates the tone of the collective reaction). When I say, “everyone” was against this, I should mention that AMAZON!!! Released a statement that basically said “Look, we love money but this is crazy.”

Steph: That’s incredible, I love when people get collectively angry at a thing. From what I saw, the soccer officiating bodies all said no thank you and started announcing plans to exclude the teams and players from big events?

Jeremiah: That part was more expected. This was a plan explicitly hatched to cut out many of those organizations, after all. I think the Super League folks planned for that, in fact, and figured that even if UEFA and FIFA went through with the nuclear options of expelling them from the current Champions League and banning the players from events like the World Cup that ultimately money would smooth everything over and they’d still have a product so popular that they’d be able to print money off of it. What they didn’t anticipate was the groundswell of outright hatred for the idea.

Steph: At the end of the day, was this all about money?

Jeremiah: Oh, undeniably yes. The powers can talk about how this was a necessity born out of Covid-19 or, more cynically, an acknowledgement of the soccer world order as it is, but this was from beginning to end a decision born and fueled by the desire to consolidate money into as few teams as humanly possible.

Steph: What happened Tuesday? I went out to get Taco Bell for lunch and by the time I was in front of a computer again, the whole thing was dead.

Jeremiah: I’ll be completely honest: I did not foresee such a swift reversal but it does now look like the Super League is dead. Led by Manchester City — a team effectively owned by the United Arab Emirates — all six Premier League teams have now pulled out. Manchester United’s chairman has apparently resigned over this fiasco and their owners — the Glazers of NFL fame — are saying they might sell. Barcelona is now claiming they’ll only join if their fans sign off on it. Basically, it appears as though everyone is having second thoughts as it becomes apparent that this might not be the wildly popular league they need it to be in order to make the Money Printer go Brrrr.

Steph: How did the talks get this far without anyone either finding out or anticipating this type of reaction?

Jeremiah: I suspect that JP Morgan’s willingness to kick in $4 billion to this venture was what convinced them it was an idea worth trying over any objections. But beyond that, wealth has a way of creating quite a bubble. While the league’s announcement did come as a bit of a shock, the idea has been swimming around forever and it’s unpopularity should have never surprised anyone. But these are people who don’t hang out on Twitter or fan forums and probably don’t even pay attention to the punditry. They are not the class of people who are used to anyone telling them that their ideas are bad and certainly aren’t inclined to listen to what fans might want. I think this was soccer’s “Let them eat cake” moment and it could well result in a similar outcome, narratively speaking.

Steph: What’s next? Do you think they’ll try again?

Jeremiah: That’s definitely a big and interesting question. There’s a lot of talk of punishing these teams regardless. Maybe that means docking them points or kicking them out of European competitions or, heck, maybe even relegating them to lower divisions. I tend to think most of that is somewhat counter-productive since it mostly hurts fans and players, two groups who actually seem to have helped keep this from happening. We might see a bunch of the owners or leaders of these organization sell, resign or get fired — and it looks like we’re already seeing that — which probably gets us closer to a resolution most soccer fans actually want.

But will any of this stop future billionaire owners from trying something similar? I doubt it.

Steph: Do you think any of these ideas will have a ripple effect across other sports or other leagues?

Jeremiah: Somewhat ironically, the Super League is broadly modeled on a more American vision of sport where you have teams who don’t move up and down between divisions. So, in a sense we already see this model at work in places like the NFL and NBA. I suppose it’s good for sports teams owners to be reminded that their investments are only as valuable as the people consuming their product allow them to be, but I don’t have much hope of some sort of grand awakening or anything. Even before the Super League imploded, UEFA announced changes to the Champions League that gives big teams even more sway and was probably designed to keep this from happening.

This proposal failed in part because it was so brazen. I’m sure some future owners will try something similar but maybe a bit more plausibly equitable. Money, as they say, always finds a way.

[theliterateape]

I Can't Drive 55 | Lessons Learned in the 55th Year

By Don Hall

In my thirty-second year I felt incredibly sorry for myself. I was getting my first divorce, was living in a one-room studio in Uptown, my theater company was imploding over ego-driven bullshit. I drank myself into a state of suicidal yearning. It was a rough year. 

I called my mom. Mom is that voice of reason in good and bad times.

"This has been a really shitty year. Maybe I should move back to Kansas."

"How old are you?"

"Thirty-two."

"And in thirty-two years you've lived on the planet, how many of those years were bad?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Really bad? Two. No three. Three years. Why?"

"Well, three out of thirty-two is a pretty solid track record. Seems to me that you weathered those other bad years and had good years to spare. Maybe you decide to quit wallowing in how bad this year has been and get to work on next year because based on your experience you probably have another cluster of good years in store."

Some have the Dali Lama. Others have a priest or a shelf of self-help books. I have my mom.

My fifty-fifth year (or the specter of 2020) was a rough year for so many people in the world it's almost a joke. The whole year has been covered in shit—from the campaign to unseat the least capable and most destructive president in my lifetime to three months in a pandemic shutting down the planet and economic hardship most of us have only read about in Steinbeck novels—2020 looks like the toilet bowl moments after a morning constitutional from a night of White Castle and rum.

Sure, the act of comparing one's life with those around is a narcissistic self-loathing experiment best suited for recently jilted lesbians and Instagram junkies, but while the entire world has been burning down in both literal and figurative ways, fifty-five has been a damn good year for me.

In January, I was well into my year and a half managing a casino on the corner of I-15 and Tropicana. I had done my due diligence in training and had hit the sweet spot of knowing enough about the business to be an effective leader on the floor. I knew my high rollers and had figured out the best approach to dealing with the meth-addicts and prostitutes. I could fix 90 percent of the machines and could process a jackpot inside of four minutes consistently.

Then came the pandemic and the economic shutdown of Las Vegas in March. Most were laid off and in free fall but I had stumbled into working for one of two gambling corporations in Nevada that committed to keeping the payroll rolling despite losing millions per day.

The three months of closure saw me coming in to work every day, cleaning the bar and the machines, and hanging out to make sure no one ransacked the place while it was closed. I did a lot of writing in my office during that time. 

In terms of personal tragedy, my nineteen year old nephew overdosed in a parking lot in April and, virus be damned, Dana and I flew out the next day to help my sister.

We re-opened the casino in June. 

Seven months of balancing life in a pandemic with idiots motivated to gamble, arguing with people about the necessity to wear masks, and submitting essays to everyone. Getting paid to write (even in small increments) was a genuine drug.

Over the summer both Dana and I were asked to write for an anthology of essays. Las Vegas writers writing about Las Vegas. It was a boost, man. Don't get me wrong, the casino gig was solid and, for the most part, enjoyable. Getting paid to write words and sentences was fucking delicious.

The book came out in October launched with a Zoomesque gathering.

The casino gig, while solid and simple, was becoming dull. Rote. Combining the fact that my best (and meager) talents were not usable during a pandemic in a struggling casino, I told my General Manager that I needed more money for such routine grind and that I’d start looking aggressively for something more in tune with my skills that also paid a bit more on my year-and-a-half mark.

Six days after I started the search, I was hired by a Denver-based firm as a Senior Copywriter.

Turns out I’m pretty good at it. Getting a salary for writing words and sentences is sweet and working from home as the pandemic continues to rage on is smart and comfortable. No longer a slave to the swings shift, my schedule is my own.

I can, for the first time in my life when asked what I do for a living, answer “I am a writer.” In a career path marked by ten year gigs followed by "gotta pay the bills" gigs, it looks like Casino Manager is the latter and "Writer" is the former. Now it’s time to write some books, yeah?

It’s been a year, my friends.

Here are the lessons that landed in my 55th annum.

Always Leave ‘Em Wanting More

Over the course of my bizarre career as a “Writer. Teacher. Storyteller. Consultant.” to refer to my donhall.vegas website, I’ve had a tendency to overstay my welcome.

Instead of leaving circumstances on good terms, by the time I was ready to go, I was all Fuck these people! What a bunch of dickseeds! and at least a few of the people were Fuck him! What a dickseed!

I stayed one year longer than I should have as a public school teacher. I stayed at least a year too long in my second marriage and, despite some incredible shows toward the end of the WNEP Theater years, I stayed too long with that company. I should’ve left WBEZ at least a year earlier and I waited until things got weird in the storytelling scene before leaving Chicago.

With the casino, I left long before things become too rote or sour. I found the new gig, jumped on it, and was told if it didn’t work out, I always had a place to land. That I was a part of the Station Casinos “family.” My staff bought me booze and when I swung by just to see them, they are happy to be seen.

Hell, the GM even gave me one of the chairs from the Craps Table for my home office!

As I get older, recognizing the signs that perhaps it’s time to go is an essential skill. At fifty-five, maybe I’m finally into that.

Family is Always More Important Than Work

Last year, working the first 24/7/365 job in my life, I was told I had to work on Christmas. It was the first Christmas in decades I hadn’t spent with my family in Kansas. It wasn’t bad—Joe flew in from Chicago, he took Dana and I to see Penn Gillette at Rio, Kelli joined Dana and Joe on the casino floor while I worked.

This year, especially after the death of my nephew, it became obvious that family had to come first. Months before I landed the writing gig, I let my GM know I was taking the week of Christmas off, COVID be damned. I was clear that if the company couldn’t pay me for the time off I understood and if I was to be let go because of it, then that was fine, too.

The casino was incredibly cool about the request that wasn’t really a request. In fact, even though I gave my two week’s notice before the Christmas vacation pay would kick in, my GM allowed me to be paid for it anyway (see that first lesson again).

It was in every possible way the correct call. My sister needed me. I needed my mom and dad. We got to reconnect with a cousin I hadn’t seen in years. Turns out she’s a professional copywriter in Austin, TX. It was a soul-filling holiday and I’ll never miss Christmas in Kansas again.

It’s Pointless to Argue with Zealots

Maybe it’s in part due to my new-found desert surroundings or my distance from the increasingly Woke Chicago Arts scene but this last year of Trump and the ridiculous nature of angrier social media has pushed me closer to Left Center than Full-On Progressive.

As a younger man I decided that religion was simply not for me. Too emotionally charged without a sense of rationality. At the distance Nevada gives me I can see how irrational both the Extreme Right—the overtly white nationalist taint with the individualism bordering on sociopathy—and the Progressive Left—the quasi-religious circular logic of white privilege, erasure of women as a category, and focus on tribalism over all—have become. Or maybe they were always this way and it took some time away from a major urban center to see it.

Whichever the case, arguing with either side has become synonymous with filing my teeth with a dremel. Besides being as productive as screaming into an Amazon Box, taping it up, and shipping it to Congress, it’s fucking annoying.

If there is a resolution I’m attempting to adopt in the latter half of my fifties, it is this: find common ground with everyone and if I encounter someone so far into conspiracy territory that I cannot, walk away and don’t look back.

Social Media Enables the Very Worst in Us (and Me)

I can’t remember if I shed myself of Faceborg, Twitter, Instagram, and the host of social media this or last year but I’ve spent most (if not all) of my fifty-fifth year absent the noise and it was an excellent decision.

Mobs of imbeciles canceling professors, trolling J.K. Rowling, threatening violence to strangers, and organizing a breach of the Capitol all using tools for communication that should be extraordinary made me hate people I had never met. This cannot be a good ‘chicken soup for the soul’ arena to spend time in.

I’ll admit that I do feel left out of the mix some yet I’m happier for it. I jumped back recently with a new LinkedIn account (which is sortof  like social media but with jobs) and the only good thing about that has been being able to message with Rob Kozlowski.

I’m a Social Distancing Jedi

Five years ago, Dana threw me a birthday party and there was a room full of friends in attendance. This year, I’ll be lucky if even Dana remembers my birthday.

The culling effect of both getting rid of social media and the pandemic has been like a hoarder finally ridding himself of boxes of empty Altoid tins and those square plastic bread ties. Always a bit of a misanthrope, this year has cleared out so much noise and my new gig at home has me isolated from the wash of the unwashed.

Turns out I’m good with this. My interactions with people are more intentional rather than surface level and while life has made me more cautious when it comes to whom I genuinely trust, those whom I do choose teach me things I wouldn’t know and enrich my dwindling time on the planet.

Your Reality is Dictated by Your Optimism

Optimism isn’t merely hope. It isn’t happiness or a cheery disposition.

Optimism is an act of resilience against the brutal harshness of living the existential crisis.

It’s darkest just before the dawn implies that there will be a dawn. What if there won’t be? What if it’s just more darkness? If the implacable timpani of human greed, a self correcting planetary environment, and the algorithm that defines our modern interaction has no end, should that result in giving in to the despair?

As optimism is a breeze when things are going your way, despair is the path of least resistance when things turn to shit. Seeing through the mist at a better future takes effort and commitment like a solid marriage or a massive novel you’ve committed to writing. It’s a project to be managed not a feeling to languish within.

One cannot truly call himself an optimist who refuses to see the horror. Pretending that people are essentially kind and generous is stuffing the ostrich head in the sand. People are apes with higher brain functions and follow the rules of the jungle. Tribalism, essentialism, war for resources, the history of brutality of all humanity goes far beyond Hannah Jones 1619 Project. Taken in whole, we aren’t a very enlightened and forgiving species.

Further, optimism is an individual choice. It’s not something that can be enforced but it is something that can be inspired. The American Experiment, despite its many missteps and flaws, is grounded in a belief that humans can govern themselves justly and effectively. Given the larger picture, belief in democracy is only slightly more delusional than the guy playing slots so he can pay his rent. The odds are astronomically against success and yet the choice to persevere is made.

When you see someone who has one of those death camp tattoos on their arm you are witnessing a genuine, tried and true, bona fide optimist.

Optimism is hardest when things turn to shit but it is then when it is most necessary.

Becoming Antique is a Journey

For the first time I see that more of my life has been lived than I have left to live.

I recognize that I wish I could give the years I have left to my nephew because I have done a lot in my five and a half decades and he didn't get the chance. I wonder, absent the obsessive drive to achieve I had in my younger days, what I have to offer in the next ten years? What value does my existence provide to others and how do I manifest that value in pragmatic terms?

Like an old car or a pair of worn-out shoes, we all must acknowledge a certain sense of obsolescence. The pandemic has up-ended so many of the fictions we lived with up until this point and finding North on the compass is a challenge these days. Becoming irrelevant is like that boiling frog—slowly and without even recognizing the boil—we all find ourselves as vintage. 

Perhaps that's what I've become. Not the rusted Coca Cola sign in the corner but the "like new" vinyl Def Leppard album with slightly tattered and stained liner notes.

In my next ten years (if I have that much time in store or more) I'd like to read more. Write a lot more. Listen to more live music. Be a better husband. Become that cool old man on the block with good advise and a snort of rye in case it's a little chilly. Christ, I already smoke a pipe.

There is so much more to learn that, in order to avoid feeling useless, I need to learn more.

In a Pandemic, Look For the Simple Things to Keep You Sane

A really well-made sandwich

A cold beer in 115˚ weather

A road trip with your Soul Mate

A book by a new author

A slideshow of you and your Soul Mate doing things together

A long walk

Recognizing that you have a Soul Mate

Sometimes I wonder if there’s anything else. I wonder if I’d miss anything important if I simply ceased to breathe on the couch I bought back in Chicago as it sits in Nevada.

In those moments of melodramatic existentialism, I remind myself that the experience of living is this annual letter to you. A summation of the things I’ve learned and the life I’ve lived.

If I had finished this race last year, my mettle wouldn’t have been tested by a pandemic. I wouldn't have found my sister again. I wouldn’t have seen Trump slink away to Florida. I wouldn’t be sitting in a Craps Chair in a home office of my design. 

I wouldn’t have learned anything at all (you know, because dead people stop moving forward).

Here’s to another year and what adventures I will have!

[pixelgrotto]

The implosion of NeoGAF

The internet is a very strange and fast-moving beast. Leave it for a short while, and you can suddenly come back to a mass of unexpected news that seemingly came outta nowhere. Case in point - I was mostly offline for the last few days due to travelling, and when I finally had a moment to check Twitter, I discovered that giant gaming forum NeoGAF had imploded upon itself due to allegations that its owner, Tyler “Evilore” Malka, had engaged in sexual misconduct.

The background info behind this fiasco is a little beyond my ability to sum up, so if you want a good primer on what went down, I recommend that you read these two articles by Kotaku and Waypoint. In a nutshell, though, NeoGAF is one of the biggest gaming forums on the internet and has prided itself on being a bastion of social justice and progressive thought, particularly in the often insanely intense discussions that would rage in its Off-Topic discussion board, generally referred to as the OT. Over the weekend, however, some serious #MeToo Facebook allegations emerged detailing unwanted advances that Evilore had made on a woman in 2015. After the allegations went viral and no public statement was made, GAF moderators began exiting en masse as a form of protest, saying they could no longer support a forum owned by a person who may have engaged in such actions. Then the whole forum went offline for about two days and has only recently re-emerged with the OT axed, apparently because Evilore wants to lose the messy political talk and go back to focusing solely on video games. Speaking of Evilore, he’s denied the allegations, both in that Waypoint article and in a nebulous pinned post titled “The state of NeoGAF.”

Frankly, the current state of GAF is a total mess, because people who thought they were part of a progressive community are angry with what surely seems like a betrayal. You’ve got posters making threads screaming “fuck you Evilore” in an effort to get themselves intentionally banned, others crying “why can’t we just talk about video games” and even a random Goatse pic here and there. And in the midst of all of this is one particularly good post by The Albatross, specifically addressed to Evilore, which sums things up nicely: 

“The way this is all being handled is inexcusably bad, it’s just a master class in bad executive decisions. There isn’t much community left here, but removing the Off Topic forum because the owner of the website allegedly did something disgusting several years ago - and was identified - is punishing the community for disgusting decisions that the owner of the website made… The reason your business is a business is largely because the site has both a gaming discussion area (which I think is the initial draw for most members) and then an off topic area (which most members also chat in). I think most people here became members to chat about videogames, but then naturally, you chat about other things you’re interested in - sports, movies, music, or the really specific topics like the Black Culture threads, developer/programming threads, or the communities like WrassleGaf or NFLGaf. Punishing those communities because you or your former staff are exposing your business to risk with poor choices is not the right way to handle this.”

That’s essentially how I feel. I won’t comment on the sexual allegations, but at the very least, Evilore has handled this situation poorly by being late to comment, by lashing out at his accuser (see the Waypoint article) and by thinking that removing the OT section of GAF will magically fix things. GAF’s brand has been diced and sliced, and the right thing to do would be to change the management of the site and the branding. Heck, even Devin Faraci, an infamous movie blogger/male “feminist” who I can’t stand, stepped down (twice) from his Birth.Death.Movies site when he was accused of sexual misconduct, and rightly so. Evilore should do the same, because right now he risks his community (and livelihood) never recovering from this. 

Personally speaking, even if the sexual allegations turn out to be false, this whole fiasco has made me unsure of whether or not I want to stick around on the board, and I’ve already deleted the shortcut to the site from my phone. It’s too bad, because while GAF had major problems, including a culture of elitism and draconian moderation (check Twitter and you can see plenty of former posters accusing mods of perma-banning anyone who dared to spout contrarian, non-progressive rhetoric, which isn’t entirely untrue), the site did have a lot going for it as well. It was a huge, sprawling hive of conversation, one of the last big message boards in an internet that has largely moved on to shorter methods of communication. Its unique clout meant that industry news often broke there, and the official threads that were launched to celebrate the release of big games, movies and television shows were awesome, and led to better discussion than the 140/280-character tidbits that you can find on Twitter. Best of all were those special threads created by people who had real knowledge to share on gaming. If it weren’t for GAF, I wouldn’t be so enthralled with the Japanese-only PC-98, nor would I know about the magic behind Sega raster racers.  Unfortunately, the environment that bred those kinds of discussions has been badly damaged, and I don’t know if it’ll ever recover. It sucks that an arena of good enthusiast discussion has to potentially die due to the actions of its owner, but in a world full of #Metoo stories and generally misogynistic gaming culture…maybe it’s for the best.

The above screencap was apparently taken right before the boards went offline. Got it from Liam Robertson’s Twitter.

[themeatlife]

15 Years Later: A Look Back at Lost

I was introduced to Lost by accident. My sister was into the show and asked for the first season on DVD for Christmas in 2005. I was in college at the time and left the gift at my house in Norman. So when I met my family in Lawton for Christmas, I bought a separate copy for my sister’s gift. When I returned to Norman, I debated whether to return the gift or keep the DVD set and check it out. I checked it out and ended up binging the entire first season with my then girlfriend (now wife) in less than a week. It is now among my favorite shows of all-time.

On September 22, 2004, ABC premiered an epic television serial. The premise was the story and backstory of survivors of a plane that crashes on a mysterious island. At the time it was a risk for ABC. An expensive, movie-quality production on a weekly television show where the plot was not contained in a single episode but rather a series-long arch. The result was not only a popular show with a cult-like following, but a show that helped change the viewing habits of mainstream television. Lost, along with Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy, signaled a return of television dominance for ABC. But unlike the other two shows, Lost impacted the way viewers watch shows and helped usher in that change. More on that later.

Lost Themes: Explored

While there are too many important characters and their storylines to go over, Lost has a few main themes that are central to the show. There always seemed to be a duality on display. Science vs Faith. Internal vs External. Good vs Evil.

The biggest personification of Science vs Faith in the series, especially early on was Dr. Jack Shepherd vs John Locke. For most of the series, Jack and Locke were two of the main leaders of the crash survivors on the island. They disagreed on how to handle things. Most of the time Jack sided with logic and tried to back his actions with facts he knew. Locke had faith in the island, especially after being able to walk after the crash when he could not before getting to the island. This did not change until the last season when Jack put his faith in things to go back to the island and the actual Locke character was dead and The Man in Black took the form of Locke.

Internal vs External was displayed by the survivors being the external and the indigenous people of the island (referred to as “The Others”). Later in the middle to the back end of the series these were displayed by the Dharma Initiative being the external and the indigenous people of the island (referred to as “Hostiles” by Dharma) being the internal.

And then Good vs Evil. We saw in a lot of the flashbacks in the first half of the series focus on each character’s struggle with their inner demons. You then see the progression of characters working out their demons. And then on the back half of the series you get the mysterious Jacob and the mysterious Black Smoke Monster and it turn into the brothers Jacob vs The Man in Black. While they don’t blatantly say The Man in Black is evil, the storyline of the final season is to prevent him from leaving the island because of what he might do.

The Lost Style: Often Imitated, Never Duplicated

Lost had a once-unique method of storytelling: it told a real-time story and sprinkled in character-focused flashbacks, building the backgrounds of each of the main characters in each episode. In seasons four and five they had featured “flash forwards” for certain characters that got off the island and in the final season a sort of “flash after” where it featured a storyline of the main characters finding each other in the afterlife. Lost featured a large ensemble cast, something that was never attempted in television before. And Lost featured a very racial diverse cast, while not that uncommon now, was definitely groundbreaking at the time. Lost also featured a deep mythology about the history of the island, a storyline that ran throughout and beyond the show’s characters storylines, something so high-concept that people still discuss on message boards, Twitter, and Reddit even today.

You see elements of the Lost Style in television today. The real-time/flashback storytelling is used in shows like This Is Us and Arrow. Large and diverse ensembles in shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Game of Thrones. And complex, high-concept plots like Westworld were inspired to take the giant leap in part because Lost became successful at it.

The biggest impact Lost may have had was the serial plot line. For Lost to make the most sense, viewers had to watch the episodes sequentially. Viewing these episodes were best if viewed not week to week but consecutively in a binge. The Fox series 24 opened the door, proving that viewers will invest in a serial. Lost took it to the next level. Binging these episodes was almost more optimal for enjoying and understanding the series. When it was first aired, people preferred to view the seasons when they came out on DVD or digital. To combat this, ABC changed its episode scheduling from the fourth season onward to run Lost weekly from January to May, rather than the traditional method of airing episodes spaced out a few chunks of weekly shows at a time from September to May. Now it is commonplace for people to binge-watch shows on a streaming service like Netflix. Lost was one of the first shows that made binge watching seasons a thing.

the Meat Life’s Five Best Lost Episodes

The entire series is strong for sure, but here are my top five best episodes of Lost.

5 - Pilot (Season 1 Episodes 1 & 2)

Intense, fast-paced, and attention-grabbing. Lost’s pilot is one of the best show pilots in television history. It was a two hour movie-like epic. Costing $14 million, ABC took a financial risk making it was the most expensive pilot at the time. But the pilot pays off by not only grabbing 18.65 million viewers attention, but also laying the groundwork for the mystery of the island and the ridiculous 14 main characters on it.

4 - The Constant (Season 4 Episode 5)

This Desmond-centric episode features more of the sci-fi elements of the show (which a season later they go full on sci-fi with similar time travel elements). We also dive deep behind Desmond and Penny’s relationship and why it failed before the island.

3 - Live Together, Die Alone (Season 2 Episode 23)

A lot of moving parts in this episode. Michael, who recently killed a couple of survivors, strikes a deal with the Others to get a boat to get him and his son Walt off the island. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley are on a mission with Michael to get Walt back before they got double-crossed. And Locke, struggling with his faith in the island, locks himself and Desmond in the hatch’s button room to make sure no one pushes the button while Charlie and Ecko try to get in. The episode ends with the mission team getting captured by The Others as Michael and Walt float away and a bright light consuming the island as the hatch implodes. Phew...and that’s just the abbreviated version of what happened.

2 - Through the Looking Glass (Season 3 Episode 22)

Creators and show runners Damon Lindelof and Jeffrey Lieber were given the okay to start writing the show toward a conclusion toward the end of the third season. And as much as this was the season three finale, it was the start of the storyline that would lead to the end of the show. In this epic season finale, Charlie and Desmond go down to the Dharma station the Looking Glass to turn off a signal jammer so the survivors can call newcomer Naomi’s sat phone. And once they turn it off Charlie receives a message from Penny and the dramatic ending ensues above.

1 - Walkabout (Season 1 Episode 4)

While the pilot was epic and the episodes thereafter were character building, Walkabout showed the full potential of what Lost storytelling could be and would be for the years to come. We focus on Locke in this episode and find out why he was in Australia. They also drop the big reveal that he could not walk before they crashed on the island. And we get the famous line “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”

Oh and about that finale...

I rewatched the series over the summer. It was the first time I had rewatched the entire series since it first aired (I did rewatch the first couple of season a few years ago when they were still on Netflix). The show has aged remarkably well in the last decade and a half.

The series finale was divisive when it came out. For those who were more into the mythology and conspiracy of the island, the finale was disappointing. While those that were into the show for the rich characters saw a satisfying ending. While I do love some of the mythical aspects of the show, the strongest elements in my opinion were the characters. So I was happy with the finale when it first aired nine years ago. And I’m happy to say that the finale aged wonderfully. I thought a lot about the Lost finale when watching Avengers: Endgame in April because of how rich the characters are developed and how there is an emotionally satisfying conclusion to their story.

If you have the space for it, watch/rewatch Lost, available on demand on Hulu or on digital on iTunes, Amazon, or wherever digital media is sold.

[hanzi83]

Let Me Explain The Targeted Harassment

Before I begin the blog, there are a lot of thoughts in here that will be my opinion and my theories mixed with some of the established facts that has been documented. I already know the people targeting me, will dissect this blog and will even make comments about how no one cares about this, and it is probably true. This is what happens when you isolate people due to lack of trust in this world, and even if I explain the value I had in this life, it is dismissed and I am labeled someone who is a fucking delusional narcissist who is very mentally ill, and all of that is fine to say when it becomes to belittling me and not valuing me anything because you need to beat my self esteem even more, it looks like Tom Cruise from Vanilla Sky. Sorry I have not watched much movies or television show due to this periscope addiction I have been on this past summer, maybe I should update it and say my self esteem resembles the women in the Manson family after Cliff from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood beats the living piss out of them.

So since I have not written in my personal journal in a while, due to hackers moving my cursor and I wanted to test how my mind would cope with having to deal with the thoughts and organizing them in my head, because I am constantly thinking and I am barely scraping by with this mental illness, especially when you have people constantly streaming my stuff and making it seem like I will be kidnapped, or they know when my therapy appointments are or when I am meeting my caseworker. I have to worry about constantly letting my guard down, because anyone who interacts with a former character- oh sorry I mean regular meaningless caller (even though the Stern Show contacted me in 2008 to be an intern, or Artie Lange and Jon Hein hinting in 2009 that I was a contributor nonchalantly, or the fact when I would pitch guests, Shuli would tell me to tell anyone I try to contact that I am a producer) but yes I was not valued as much, so people online who were initially chat room and forum trolls, who were given the platform, which I believe since the world is a lot more organized, it feels like people were given incentive to vote for Trump, and in return they are given free range to act like assholes online who bully and harass people and never get called out, even though it has been evident that government agents have been watching these youtube streams.

So let’s start from the beginning and I have covered this most of 2018 of a youtube streamer show that was making my life hell and I was sure as hell sure this dude was a Howard Stern agent and given permission to fuck with whack packers. Howard, to me at least, has always showed disdain for people who use characters from his show, so whenever there are people who are creating projects with using the whack packers, it feels cosigned and co-opted. So there was this youtuber who surfaced, who didn’t seem to catch much traction on the surface, but he somehow was the creator of a very prominent Stern Show Facebook group, which I never really knew about, but he did these videos on his green screen playing old Howard Stern clips and just analyze it in the most mediocre way possible, I never thought much about him, but toward the end of 2017 he approached me on twitter to be on his show, and let him do an interview.

I was hesitant because I am not a dark web guy, so I don’t know who these people are associated with and I will never know, but I figured one interview would not be that bad, even though it was on a podcasting network named after a Stern regular caller who was kind of responsible for bothering a Whack Packer named Eric the Actor, who has now passed on, so I had reservations about this dude, but apparently he had issues with this network so he did his own thing. I did my interview with this youtuber named Jimmernam and we had good chemistry, but there were things I did not like about this show from the jump, which included him trying too hard to be like Howard Stern. I have gone through this before but never mentioned this guy’s name. He would organize callers to call in and fuck with me and this cam girl named Goddess and act like he did not know these people, even though later on after I left it, those callers become permanent fixtures of the show.

We had a blow up because I knew this show was not good for me, even though momentarily I was having fun, and because I did not play along with his agenda, he would act like he did not need me, and say he would get viewers on his own because no one cares whatsoever, but still kind of guilt me into coming back every couple of weeks but with the way he would bully other youtubers and dox people, it was not a show for me. We did have a blow up where I lost my mind, I was on a low dosage of my medication and they were piling on, and I questioned how he was a father because he just seems to harass cam girls all the fucking time, especially since that cam girl in particular said he was kind of creepy or some shit, he thought I made fun of his kids and he snapped and he threatened to get me to kill myself, I retorted with “Your kids are gonna want to do that if they realize what kind of father you are” so we both threw shit at each other.  Also because I got into arguments with a Trump supporter, who goes by the nickname Kitty on the show, I would lose it on her and she used to produce a 24-7 feed of High Pitch Erik, so I already know she is ingrained in the system, even though she will deny it. I could be wrong, but when the blow up happened and I lost it and said she probably fucked High Pitch Erik, she accused me of sexually harassing her. My larger point was the system would not allow people in that world if they did not have to do something. It got dropped, but later after all of this happened, she did admit in a private message when she was sorry. I asked her who put her up to doing that sexual harassment thing and she said she did not remember.

I went back a few times because they figured enough time passed but I maintained I would maybe just come back permanently but I said I would come by when I felt like it but it was probably best for me to just do my own thing because I just feel if I get pulled into so much drama, it will not be good for my mental health, even though trolls will constantly come to me and bring drama with insinuating they are watching me, my parents don’t love me, or that they are profiting off me, and saying the worst shit possible to elicit a reaction, a very irrational reaction and because when my manic breakdowns happen, I have no qualms at the moment with saying some of the most vile shit ever because my fucked up brain has been trained by the shit I used to consume, whether it was comedy, radio, wrestling or hip hop, or just western media and I then feel bad about it immediately because I know they were looking for it but I am so in tune with what they want but I basically over feed them so they end up being sick at the end of this for wanting to be fed in the first place.

One of the other factors of why I liked the show initially was because Wendy from Howard Stern was somehow a regular there, and Jimmernam clearly had some control over her or something because Howard allowed her to just be used like this, and second he would insist she not do any other show on a different podcast network, even if they are getting paid over there. He had a feud going on and by proxy there were elements of people getting doxxed by both parties, or how Jimmernam would call his enemy’s mother and telling her on voicemail that the wrong son died etc and also constantly showcase his trolling with others, and when I applied what he was doing to others with what was happening to me, he would then attack me more, but claim he had just cause because I am making some wild accusations, and he would play my streams and have my picture on the banner, and he knows I have no power so I couldn’t do shit about this. I don’t have a gang of trolls working for me to just go around and report stuff, like he has done and make it seem like others were the bullies.

So the final blowup where he just didn’t give a shit, and it seemed like the people on top gave him incentive to have me on his show and make it feel like me on my own was nothing special, so my views dwindled, which are always controlled, even if I got massive amounts or very low count, so it was meant for me to go back over there but I did not want anything to do with it because they could not even admit what they were doing. He did not like I did not call in to wish him a happy birthday, and also he has been in Wendy’s ear about mentioning me on the show, since I had been banned 2 years prior, and she also mentioned Jimmernam multiple times, to which Howard did not even react to, and that is what got to him, and it felt like it was not reacted to because it would prove me right that he was a Howard Stern agent. Then he finally snapped and it felt like he had to implode, whether it happened organically or he and his people organized it because more and more people left his show because of the doxing of cam girls, which endangers them, constantly having alcoholic meltdowns and berating contributors because people were donating to them, or wanting to just expand to other shit and it felt like maybe it was a planned hiatus, where everyone would reconvene after a couple of months, it just seemed out of nowhere.

So by the end of 2018 summer he would have meltdowns on his own and apologize but then go back to harassing people and isolating himself from everyone and basically made enemies, of people who were his friends prior. He would still talk shit to other youtubers and dedicate his remaining drunk streams to doxing people, and going to war with his competition etc, while playing lady gaga and a cover of “Bye-Bye-Bye” from an N Sync cover band. He even had a new woman by the name Kitty, not to be confused with the prior Kitty and play video of me cussing out the first Kitty and make it seem it was against her. By October-December of last year he was just doing streams here and there, kind of like he was at the end of his “I don’t give a fuck” phase. One of the main reasons his discord channel got shut down was because he started doing basketball videos, and basically copy of people who write articles etc and he happened to recruit some kid to be in his discord, and he gave him mod status and also was sharing porn in there. I was never in that discord, I don’t go on it often unless I have to talk to someone so I make a temporary account, but at that time I did not go in there other than one time after someone approached me privately to tell me that Wendy from Stern, who is a slow adult, was flashing her tits and wrote “You happy now?” and I never saw the photo, although Jimmer and Kitty were passing it around in their text messages when Jimmer leaked out the texts in the latter versions of the live streams.

He disappeared after all of that, after he did one last Christmas stream where he was doxing a government agent, who was stalking the cam girls and apparently was a creep. He had pictures of him being at some events etc and that is why I start to think how many other government types watch these streams that are just not really a blimp on the radar in the culture, but he was telling this guy with text to speech about him raping his daughters and that he is going to fuck his wife etc and then after that no one heard from him.

Speed up a couple of months later, he apparently had already started a new channel in November 2018 but people did not pick up on it until February where he was rebranding himself as Misery Box on youtube who read reddit stories of Entitled Parents etc and he was making bank and getting a lot views, like millions of views so there was a brand new audience of kids that were being made aware of this new loveable youtuber. It kind made me relieved that maybe if he finds success in this, he would stop bothering me, even though his trolls would show up to fuck with me, because if he was making these reddit videos in November, while no one knew who he was, and he was still doing drunk streams, I could sense he would still be using trolls against me. And I know he blames me for the implosion of his show, and would still continually harass me, I can’t prove that for sure but it I just watch his patterns, because he would show up as Jimmernam on his enemy’s streams and cuss them out etc.

In April, there was a Misery Box exposed video, and apparently even in this new community Jimmernam could not resist going back to his old tactics, because he has to be number one in everything he does, so he seemed to start trouble by telling people in this youtube community that another youtuber was trying to bully smaller content creators, so there was a conversation that was recorded, where some of them were not buying it and he just snapped on some 17 year old kid and after telling him he was good at what he does, then tells him he is lazy in his editing after the kid was asking genuine questions about originality in the youtube space. So this woman Iilluminaughtii created this video, and instantly his subscribers were dropping and it was not the same for him. He tried changing his channel name several times so people would not catch on and he was quiet about any of the allegations of the video that was made, which compiled some clips of him as Jimmernam etc. He would eventually come back with some live streams to explain himself and then point out who is responsible, so he would show his enemies etc, and this is all in front of a kid audience, and I think he had to buy new subscribers because his views barely make it to 2500 within a week.

Now Wendy, who people have always said she was a scammer, and I always thought she was told to manipulate with her condition to get money from people, whether she was actually struggling or basically making money for this Jimmer guy or whoever latched onto her but I felt protective because a bunch of Stern trolls would just call her name and mock her condition relentlessly. Last December she was in a car accident and has been in the hospital since, and it seemed weird because she was first at the hospital, then a rehab center, but now it is a nursing home, claiming she could not leave the home until she paid her bill of 20K. It made no sense but I would let her plug it while I was doing lives, and she did not even mention Jimmernam, but suddenly in the last month she joined periscope, and became beloved there, but I had to watch out for trolls there too and she seemed really distressed that Jimmer was no longer around and she wanted to hear from him, and the thing is I feel Jimmer did not really care about her and just needed her, and it seemed when all this Misery Box got fucked up, he needed her again. I think he put her up to this, and has always kind of been in contact with her on some level, because he did just show up.

I did not express the full vitriol I had for him and Kitty because of the fucked up shit I felt they did, but they both seemed to change, and it does not feel like a coincidence they both showed up around the same time frame of Wendy needing them again. Jimmer seemed peaceful and wanted to give me props for contributing to his show and how it was a huge fucking deal for him to have me, and this is documented in Wendy’s scope and I admitted I had fun on his show for a bit but it was becoming too much for my mental health to deal with, especially since it was giving me flashbacks to how Stern went about shit. I said I needed to see if he changed for real, and needed a couple of months. He did not seem pleased, and I had a feeling this was all for me to have this feeling of nostalgia with him coming back after the show had been disbanded for a year, but I still had to keep my guard up. So it continue with Wendy doing her periscope streams, and every day she would have to show me how much she loved Jimmernam and talking about how she is going to marry him because he promised her and she wants to get a tattoo of him on her belly. I just had to calmly tell her these aren’t good ideas, but not get confrontational about Jimmernam; because I know he means a lot to her.

He was doing his streams and started a new format, and clearly had a new kid audience, and he was doing adult orientated stuff, even though he has been questioned why he gave a kid porn in his old discord, now he seems to be grooming new batch of kids and making him seem like the victim, because the people who he has fucked with are going after him for being a banned guy on youtube who somehow found a loophole to get back on, and he is interviewing trans women, and asking sexual questions in front of an audience of kids who are 12-15 years of age, maybe some of 17. He wanted to play audio of one of his enemies having sex with his woman but was advised not to, he played old interview with one of his contributors about his gay experience, and listen I don’t have a problem with trans women giving their stories, or someone else’s gay experience, but is this kind of shit appropriate for a 41 year old on the internet to be giving these kids that? I criticized it and we got into it but in a calmer way, because he was trying to maintain that he is a good guy who is not going to snap because I am not giving in. I even questioned about these pedo allegations, because it bothers me that since I am not into the dark web or in these group chats, I don’t know these people’s past because I assumed if they were dangerous or corrupt, the people would have got him tagged, but since he is being allowed to do streams and get a fan base, I figured that those pedo allegations were real or not. I don’t see the proof, other than him having a weird fascination of wanting to have a kid audience and giving a kid porn in a discord, which was shut down.

I think he became impatient and starting using Wendy a lot more because he knows that I care for Wendy so fucking much and I have tried to defend her from trolls and I really don’t make money off her or my streams, so I am purely doing it because I am a fan of her and she has entertained me for so many years on the show, so I just felt because Howard does not watch out for her or even help her out, seemingly, but I did not mind it because I was also meeting others who were fans on her and showing her love, but she kept going into other discords of Jimmer’s enemies and cuss them out, and it was like how is she figuring this out to go to a specific discord, and it became such a problem that she was screaming obscenities in the nursing home to this guy named Saiyanz, that the nurses had to come in and tell her to put the phone down because she was waking up her roommate, and you could hear her crying and flipping out. It was clearly getting her in trouble, and even Jimmer showed concern for this and said she should listen to me because Hanzi cares for her. She would go into another person’s discord named Ross Dawg RDA, and some of these youtubers I am not really down with because it comes across like right wing adjacent where they need to say inappropriate things to be edgy, even guys I get a long with, I try to show others on periscope why the devil wins when we use these bad words because I used to fall for that propaganda, because they have managed to make PC shit seem corporate so you think acting inappropriate with language, although not having evil intent, is some kind of edgy shit.

Now I get suspicious why Wendy is going to Jimmer’s competition and just starting trouble, even though they are very rude to her and hide it under the guise of “treating her like everyone else” and it felt like it was done on purpose because seeing them treat her that way would make me want to team back up with Jimmer and go at these assholes bothering her. I still suspected they were in her ear, and she donated 650 dollars in total throughout the week one time, and Jimmer claimed he did not see it because he claims she had him blocked and he could not see the donations, and I got upset by this because now it seemed like she was raising money to give to him for his comeback. I told her that if she truly needs money for rehab, people will not donate to her. Maybe the ones who were in on it did donate knowingly that Jimmer was taking it, but a lot of people said they did not feel comfortable doing that. I think that angered him the most, but she did donate to Jimmer’s competition saying that she was being forced to, and then Jimmernam comes out of nowhere with Kitty, who people were shocked she went back to Jimmer after he had doxxed her information last November or so. And he would do stream where he is making it seem like this Saiyanz guy took her money and telling the kid audience to report him etc. Also when Wendy was going to do some story time segment, she said she was going to write one about me, which meant to me, that they were going to make her say some crazy shit and even though it would normally not bother me, I was wondering if they were going to have her say some wild shit under the guise of “She is a slow adult we can’t control what she says” so I made a temporary discord account to see if anyone was feeding her shit, but I did see Ross Dawg in the discord spamming Jimmernam’s discord, and one message in particular he wrote “Send me more naked pictures Wendy” and I figured maybe he was joking around, but I later asked Wendy on her periscope, and it is still up, if she sends nudes to people, and if people ask her. She claimed Ross Dawg asked her for pictures of her boobs. I was livid, because Wendy has told me prior years that people have her on facebook have sent her dick pictures, and I always told her to give me the names, and she obliges but never tells me who they are. So I confronted Ross Dawg about this on twitter with the screen grab, and he seemed upset but just kind of mocked it and said that he has phone sex with her on his stream and she loves it, and listen she seems down for that type of humor so if she chooses to I can’t stop her, but it feels like she has been trained to think that is what she has to play a long with to be accepted, even though this Ross Dawg guy claims he never listened to Stern ever.

So I went off on this because Wendy seemed upset about it and she claimed they were bothering her and calling her incessantly from what she was making it seem like, but she would keep going to these people’s discords, so I wondered why and she claimed she blocks them but they hack her phone and unblock themselves, and I am like “This is fucking crazy, how can they do this” and then I figured out that this was probably a ploy by Jimmernam to get me upset, whether it was to start a feud with a new streamer such as him, or get me to team up with him. Wendy keeps going back, so I finally had enough and decided I had to unfriend her on facebook and unfollow her on periscope because I won’t be listened to and I seriously tried doing the right thing.

So Ross Dawg, butt hurt over the call out started spreading the rumors the trolls have started about me, beating up a gay couple, even though I never had a criminal record, and can’t even fucking fight, or making fake accounts in their youtube streams and naming it after me or making you think it is me, and saying I am going to get a gun or something even though I don’t have a gun, nor can I afford a gun, nor do I have any interest in having any kind of fucking weapon. He has dedicated streams to me about how I blamed him and he did that to Wendy as a joke, and he did not actually get a naked picture from her, and maybe he is telling the truth, but the fact that he is getting offended by that and how I think people like him are allowed to do the shit they do, because they are co-opted by the system, and considering Jimmer had enough power to expose a government agent, I don’t know what power these people truly fucking have.

This Ross Dawg guy has done dedications to shows to me and I tried not to answer and even if he is trolling he is fucking with a mentally ill person, and these people can use it as an excuse when it is convenient and they are going to keep doing this, and because I went on one of his competition’s streams, and by the way I time to time have went on that specific stream, even though sometimes it seems too edge lord for me, but Unbleachd’s intent is not evil, or at least I don’t think it is, but I had not talked to him and I did not know Ross Dawg was streaming anyways so I went on to talk about wrestling and this drama that occurred because he was not caught up on it, and that angered Jimmernam, who somehow was on the stream, and now he is so mad he got Wendy to start calling me names, saying I never helped her, donated money, and that I am a pussy. It hurt to hear someone I genuinely cared for and not fetishise having a contact from the Stern Show etc, and I can’t retort because she is obviously mentally disabled and I am going to cuss her out? It is just sad these guys have turned her on me, and it felt like it confirms that her being friends with me was the resort they needed because she was the only left who would soften me up and convince me Jimmer has changed, which he did not, and all those compliments and hyping me up went out the window. He showed his true colors, and what hurts most is people who were part of his show hang out with this Ross Dawg guy and they stand idly by, some of them were really cool and have been telling me not to worry, but others have just partook in it, and now are ready to do streams about me losing my mind, because people hacked my phone and I think it was them, or maybe others in my life, and because I am a fucking human being I lose my mind, I don’t have 20 people in a discord to laugh at my fucking shitty jokes, while I think that it is something special, and now they keep fucking with more and more, and I am trying to explain that I did not have ill will toward Ross Dawg because I was going off by what Wendy was telling me, and clearly she keeps going back there.

Now these people are going to keep harassing me and they know I am mentally ill and they have no qualms with pushing me to suicide, even though I will never do it. I leave when they decide to kill me, and I reached out to media outlets for this kind of harassment because these people need to be looked into, and with the arrogance they have and how they can harass me, it seems they do have power and are given permission. Stern does not like me, and I have been calling him out for these leaks and how much alleged harassment he has put on me, and he could be cosigning it. Maybe it is my friends or people close to me because they got what they needed from my fame, just like every social circle of the whack pack, since Stern makes systemic deals with these people, and I can prove it, but these people never have my back. They know I have nothing to do, I say nothing, they get away with fucking with my life and mentality, I say something, it is more me flipping out  and having manic meltdowns, where I am close to losing my fucking head, and this all seems as a ploy for me to call in and if this guy needed me to call in to talk I would have called in to talk to him but since he went this route and keeps pushing me more and more to the brink of insanity and no one cares. Maybe people are investigating without telling me and they are building a case, but it feels like nothing will be exposed or no one will care until I am dead or in a fucking loony bin and when the semi woke people with blue checkmarks can then pretend to care like they don’t make deals with the devil and give a limited narrative of social consciousness. That’s why you know cancel culture is bullshit, and organized because Howard Stern would be on the chopping block, but nope, he has able to rebrand himself as some liberal, even though he is still very much a neoliberal centrist who still wants Israel to obliterate the entire middle east, and no one has the balls to call him out.

There are also clips I have pinned on twitter where Howard in 97, in jest, says that these celebrities need to fight off people investigating them by hiring private investigators to follow them around and have no hesitation in ruining these people’s lives and it felt like that is why nothing super serious has ever been reported about him and even back in 2012 he admitted, and I am sure people will say it is a joke, but he did say that when people bother him on twitter and they get annoying, he has a team of people to find out who that person is and start to ruin their lives, but you won’t hear that in any marathons shows they play on Howard 101.

I know this blog will not go anywhere and no one will care because let’s be real these people saying no one cares about me are right, and even the ones who are on my side can’t do anything but these guys need to be stopped. They are pushing me to lose my fucking mine and this Jimmer guy seems nervous because he is on the verge of losing his channel because some guy named WTF guy has been working on exposing him and now Jimmer has gotten his groomed kids to go report his videos and harassing him on twitter and has spun it into him being the victim and no one cares because seemingly it is not a blimp on the radar, but these people like Ross Dawg was mocking me and saying he is going to dox me and my family etc, and they have a moderator named after me, and have fake accounts show up and then use it as an excuse to shit on me by saying that fake account is me. The way they have manipulated Wendy is disgusting and this will not stop. Again no one will fucking care and I am on my own, and maybe it is best for them to push me to the edge because even then you assholes can pretend to care after and profit off my fucking story. They know I have no back up, so they will continue to fucking harass the living shit out of me. This will never end.

By the way I am hoping Ross Dawg knows that Jimmer probably set this up or maybe he is on it, but since they were enemies and now he is welcoming Jimmer on maybe Ross Dawg is doing it for him to put his foot in his mouth and I don’t know if Wendy was lying about the nudes, and it was just a joke, but I will be fair to him a little and say he did defend Wendy from having her money stole from someone else, but he had a chance to talk to me on someone else’s stream and he just went in there to make fun of me and saying another live stream dedicated to me will come up. I felt I needed to write this so I wouldn’t lose my fucking mind but they will push me to it 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCteISibPyZCgVCM6gP2JNBA here is the channel harassing me 

here is the tweet calling him out https://twitter.com/Hanzi83/status/1172751869883637766?s=20

clip of him saying he is going to doxx me https://twitter.com/Hanzi83/status/11741640181116846

08?s=20

here is the channel exposing Jimmernam for what he is doing to people and compiling the shit he has for his kids audience https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcuJyY0dJLSQHC5XqNFmbqA

here is Jimmer convincing his audience that he is the good guy in all this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h6scwm_Rhw

here is the initial video from Iilluminaughtii exposing misery box https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezcNo4i9bSk&t=36s

[sportsleague365]

The AAF may have imploded in spectacular fashion, but that doesn’t mean people are done taking cracks at spring football leagues. Vince McMahon’s XFL is gearing up to start play early next year, and they’ve already made some big hires. They’re now moving on to filling out the rosters, and some recognizable names are resurfacing. We heard a couple days ago that Landry Jones, Aaron Ripkowski, and Christine Michael would be auditioning, and now we have even more names to report. Trevone Boykin, Lance Dunbar, Kony Ealy, and Ahmad Dixon were at a showcase yesterday as well as a handful of other ex-NFLers, per Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). According to a tweet from Optimum Scouting’s Erik Galko, former Seahawks receiver Kasen Williams will also be among those trying out. Finally, a tweet posted by the XFL Houston account shows that NFL veterans Will Hill and Robert Meachem also participated in a camp. Meachem is 34 and last played in the NFL with the Saints back in 2014, so this would be quite the comeback. While the XFL will still be facing an uphill battle, they do appear to be in better position than the AAF. McMahon seems fully invested in the league, and the TV deal the league has is far superior. It’ll be interesting to see how it pans out. Here’s more from around the football universe: * Speaking of the XFL, one of their big hires was when they namedDaryl “Moose” Johnston the director of player personnel for their Dallas franchise. Johnston was the GM of the AAF’s San Antonio Commanders, so he has experience in this type of league. Most players in the AAF and XFL were looking to get back to the NFL, and it’s no different for coaches and execs. Johnston wants to be an NFL GM one day, per Machota. Johnston spent all 11 years of his pro career with the Cowboys as a fullback, winning three Super Bowls with the team. He made the Pro Bowl twice and has done a lot of broadcasting work for FOX since retiring. * Evan Engram missed the Giants’ recent minicamp, which raised some eyebrows. But thankfully he’s not dealing with anything serious, as Engram said today at Landon Collins‘ charity softball game that the Giants were just being “cautious” by holding him out, per Ryan Dunleavy of NJ.com (Twitter link). He also writes there’s “nothing lingering from last season.” Engram had a breakout rookie season in 2017, but took a step back last year while dealing with injuries. Hamstring and knee injuries limited Engram to just 11 games last year, but he finished strong down the stretch. In each of his last four games he finished with at least 75 yards, so he should be poised for a bounce back 2019 campaign. * 2018 first round pick Mike Hughes got off to a solid start last year. The Vikings cornerback had a pick-six in the first game of his career, but his rookie season ended in devastating fashion. The UCF product had his season ended by a torn ACL after just six games, and has been rehabbing ever since. Things appear to be going well, but the team is being cautious with him. To that end, Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer recently said that he wouldn’t get any practice in until training camp at the earliest, per Andrew Kramer of the Star Tribune. We heard recently the Vikings were listening to trade offers for both Trae Waynes and Xavier Rhodes, which would seem to indicate they’re optimistic about Hughes’ recovery. #MikeHughes #AhmadDixon #EvanEngram