celstese - Tumblr blog

[celstese]

Shrinkflation

So, I found out a fun fact this last weekend!

Every state has a Department of Weights and Measures. One of their jobs is to make sure that companies are actually selling you the quantities they claim they're selling. For example, this is the department which tests gas pumps and makes sure they're really pumping out a gallon of gas when they charge you for a gallon of gas.

So....

If you happen to, just as an example, notice that your 1lb (16 ounce) box of San Giorgio spaghetti actually only has 10oz of noodles, and you weigh your other boxes of spaghetti to discover they run from 10 to 14 ounces but never the full pound they're supposed to have, and that's why you never seem to have enough pasta for leftovers the next day, then you can report that to the Department of Weights and Measures.

They will want to know where you bought the item, and then will investigate whether the store or the manufacturer is routinely shorting customers. If they do, they will issue a fine to the offending party, you will be eligible for a refund, and under some circumstances lawsuits may follow.

Now, I don't know the outcome of the complaint I just initiated, but they did not want to know specific receipts or times of purchase. Which is good for me as I didn't keep any of those things, at the time I just said "Wow, fuck San Giorgio" and switched brands. But this is still enough to get an inspector out.

[celstese]

After hearing about James Earl Jones' passing, I thought I'd pay tribute to him by talking about what I think is his greatest scene.

The way James delivers this line absolutely destroys me. When Luke is trying to convince Vader to turn against the Emperor, he doesn't respond with the malice and arrogance of a Sith Lord but with the sadness and regret of a father who's forever lost any hope of salvation and desperately wants his son to give up trying to give him it because he thinks he can never reach it even though he knows he wants it.

It's a heart-shattering performance given by a legendary actor, and it's one of many reasons he will be dearly missed.

[celstese]

If you live in the US your household can order more free covid tests. Starting in late september, 2024, you will be able to order more tests at https://covidtests.gov . No shipping handling or any other charges, just feeling your address and have four nasal swab tests sent to your home for free.

There is also a new covid booster coming out after labor day. If you are doing any kind of significant traveling, or you will be spending a lot of time around big groups of people like at college or school, please plan on getting this year's flu shot as well as your covid booster. We had a winter level surge over the summer, I am very worried that we are going to have an even more significant surge this fall and winter.

[celstese]

currently maybe possibly single-handedly crashing whatever servers eton hosts its archived student newspapers on because me and a friend are getting obsessed with a single outspoken prefect from 1883

[celstese]

The odd world of courtroom sketches.

[celstese]

Tintin Meets The Detectives

Art by Adam Murphy

[celstese]

6 Writing Tips from John Steinbeck

Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck's (February 27, 1902–December 20, 1968) tips on writing, originally set down in a 1962 letter to the actor and writer Robert Wallsten, which was included in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters

Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.

Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.

If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.

Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.

If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

But perhaps most paradoxically yet poetically, 12 years prior — in 1963, immediately after receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception” — Steinbeck issued a thoughtful disclaimer to all such advice:

If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it. You must perceive the excellence that makes a good story good or the errors that make a bad story. For a bad story is only an ineffective story.

[celstese]

[celstese]

IMPORTANT: TUMBLR HAS MADE A DEAL WITH MIDJOURNEY/OPENAI.

YOUR ART AND IMAGES ON TUMBLR ARE BEING USED TO TRAIN AI MODELS.

The opt-in is automatic, but you can turn it off in settings.

Go to "Blog Settings" -> "Visibility" -> "Third-Party Sharing" and turn on "Prevent third-party sharing for [blog]". (This post shows how to do it on browser and on mobile.) You need to do this with every sideblog. (Note: The option in settings might not appear if your app hasn't updated yet. You can still opt out via browser.)

Spread the word. Everyone on Tumblr needs to know about this.

[celstese]

Here's your reminder to Click for Palestine today! 🕊

If you have time, open the website in different browsers and on different devices as well!

[celstese]

The queen rules the kingdom…but who rules the queen?

[celstese]

LOOK AT HER!!!! LOOK !!! ITS ROSE WILSON!!!

[celstese]

The Joker and Plastic Man have the exact same origin story but you don't see Plastic Man blowing up orphanages over it

[celstese]

deadpooldansen anyone

[celstese]

Y2k_marcus on twitter always draws Koriand'r the best

[celstese]

Estellar from Teen Titans

[celstese]

The wicked fairy and her rose knight :3