#22/10/2015

[findingcasualmagic]

22/10/2015 | 17/06/2025

[kevotsuka]

Fun fact! Franky Morbidelli it's just one year younger than Marc. it's funny because every fucking time someone point at it I want to die .

[mikeywayarchive]

mikeyway: #tbt to seeing @defleppardofficial with @ray.toro.official ! Thanks again @brianwheat 😎

[Oct 22, 2015]

[britishchick09]

my tv is on a stand...

but now tvs have legs! :o

[fairy-ganj-mother]

I found all my *senior year of hs, freshman and sophomore year of* college pics and I am dying laughing

[screamingay]

is post limit checker broken? it isn't working no matter whose url i enter

[stochastique-blog]

Insert Random Comments

October Shock & Schlock Day 22 (½) - The Fog (1980)

[f1yh1ghg3th1gh]

LISTA FILMOWA TEMATYKI PRO-ANA LUB GENERALNIE ED

1. Starving in Suburbia (2014)

• Znany też jako: Thinspiration

• Opis: Nastolatka wciąga się w internetową społeczność pro-ana, co prowadzi ją do głębokiej anoreksji.

2. To the Bone (2017)

• Opis: Młoda kobieta trafia do ośrodka leczenia anoreksji. Obserwujemy jej zmagania z chorobą i własną tożsamością.

• Uwagi: W filmie pokazane są wpływy stylu „pro-ana” oraz mechanizmy obronne chorych.

3. Feed (2017)

• Opis: Po śmierci brata bliźniaka, dziewczyna zaczyna tracić kontakt z rzeczywistością i popada w anoreksję.

• Motyw pro-ana: Głos wewnętrzny, który nakazuje bohaterce nie jeść, przypomina „ana voice” znaną z pro-ana blogów.

4. Sharing the Secret (2000)

• Opis: Nastolatka cierpiąca na bulimię prowadzi podwójne życie – idealna córka kontra obsesje żywieniowe.

• Motyw pro-ana: Ukrywanie choroby, idealizacja kontroli nad jedzeniem.

5. Perfect Body (1997)

• Opis: Gimnastyczka popada w zaburzenia odżywiania pod wpływem presji, by być „idealna”.

• Motyw pro-ana: Wewnętrzna presja perfekcjonizmu, gloryfikacja chudości.

6. My Skinny Sister (Min lilla syster, 2015)

• Opis: Dziewczynka odkrywa, że jej starsza siostra cierpi na anoreksję.

• Motyw pro-ana: Pokazany z zewnętrznej perspektywy dramat osoby chorej i ukrywania objawów.

7. When Friendship Kills (1996)

• Opis: Dwójka przyjaciółek popada w zaburzenia odżywiania – bulimię i anoreksję – pod wpływem rywalizacji i presji.

• Motyw pro-ana: Wspólne motywowanie się do nienaturalnej chudości.

8. The Best Little Girl in the World (1981)

• Opis: Perfekcyjna uczennica rozwija anoreksję, by odzyskać kontrolę nad swoim życiem.

• Motyw pro-ana: Obsesja kontroli, autoidentyfikacja przez wagę.

9. Thin (2006, HBO)

• Opis: Wstrząsający dokument pokazujący życie pacjentek kliniki leczenia zaburzeń odżywiania.

• Motyw pro-ana: Niektóre pacjentki miały kontakt z pro-ana społecznościami.

10. Dying to Be Thin (2000, PBS)

• Opis: Dokument analizujący wpływ kultu ciała i „idealnej sylwetki” na kobiety, zwłaszcza tancerki i modelki.

11. Anorexia Nervosa (1987)

• Opis: Eksperymentalny film krótkometrażowy analizujący zjawisko anoreksji jako formy „buntu ciała”.

12. For the Love of Nancy (1994)

• Opis: Na podstawie prawdziwej historii Nancy Walsh, studentki, która zapada na anoreksję.

• Motyw: Konflikt rodziny, terapia, sądowa interwencja.

13. A Secret Between Friends: A Moment of Truth Movie (1996)

• Opis: Dwie nastolatki wspólnie schodzą w anoreksję pod wpływem presji bycia szczupłą i rywalizacji.

• Tematyka: Przyjaźń, współzależność, destrukcyjne wzorce.

14. Kate’s Secret (1986)

• Opis: Gospodyni domowa prowadzi podwójne życie – idealna matka i żona, a w tajemnicy bulimiczka.

• Motyw: Wstyd, społeczne maski, nieleczona choroba.

15. The Road Within (2014)

• Opis: Choć nie w centrum, jedna z głównych bohaterek (Marie) cierpi na anoreksję.

• Uwagi: Film drogi z elementami dramatu i komedii, ale bardzo szczery.

16. Sophie (2010)

• Opis: Intymny portret młodej dziewczyny zmagającej się z anoreksją w rodzinnym domu.

17. Black Swan (2010)

• Opis: Nina, baletnica, dąży do perfekcji za wszelką cenę. Jej psychika zaczyna się rozpadać.

• Motywy: perfekcjonizm, samokontrola, zaburzenia odżywiania (sugerowane), samookaleczenia, halucynacje

18. Som en du kjenner / Someone You Know (2014, Norwegia)

• Opis: Reportaż pokazujący, jak choroba dotyka osoby w różnym wieku i środowisku.

19. I Am a Child Anorexic (2006, Channel 4, UK)

• Opis: Mocny dokument o dzieciach (poniżej 12 roku życia) zmagających się z anoreksją.

20. Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia (2005)

• Opis: Dokument inspirowany książką Marya Hornbacher, która w wieku 14 lat zachorowała na anoreksję, a później również bulimię.

21. No Body’s Perfect (2017)

• Opis: Dokumentalny obraz życia młodych kobiet, które dzielą się historiami o walce z obrazem własnego ciała i zaburzeniami odżywiania.

22. Starving Secrets with Tracey Gold (2011, USA – reality/document)

• Opis: Seria dokumentalna z udziałem aktorki, która sama zmagała się z anoreksją. Pomaga kobietom z ciężkimi ED.

• Motyw pro-ana: Walka z obsesją szczupłości i autodestrukcyjnymi rytuałami.

23. Disfigured (2008)

• Opis: Przyjaźń kobiety otyłej z kobietą cierpiącą na anoreksję.

• Motyw: Skrajności w zaburzeniach, wspólna walka z uprzedzeniami i obrazem ciała.

24. Calendar Girl (2003, Australia)

• Opis: Film oparty na historii Miss Australii, która walczyła z bulimią i anoreksją.

• Motyw pro-ana: Środowisko konkursów piękności i presja „bycia idealną”.

25. Miss Representation (2011 – dokument)

• Opis: Nie o anoreksji wprost, ale świetny dokument o tym, jak media wpływają na postrzeganie kobiecego ciała.

• Warto obejrzeć jako kontekst kulturowy dla zjawisk pro-ana.

26. Model Behavior (2000)

• Opis: Lżejszy film młodzieżowy, ale pokazujący problem „chudości jako waluty” w modelingu.

• Motyw pro-ana: Presja wyglądu, niskie poczucie własnej wartości.

[disease]

MAISIE COUSINS / "SLUG" / 2015 [archival pigment print | 33 1/10 × 22 1/10"]

[10yearsofdnp]

January 22, 2015: Happy 10 years to the most iconic Phil tweet of all time! 🫧👁️😭

[atomicrebelfire]

Trying to make the 9-1-1 timeline make sense: A Tommy Kinard Service Investigation 🧍‍♀️📈📉📊📋🧵

🧠 Tommy Kinard Timeline: Realistic vs Canon-Compatible We know Tommy is about 40–41 years old in the show. So I rewatched Chimney Begins a couple of days back, Chim joined the 118 as a probie while Tommy was already there — yeah, I blacked out and opened a spreadsheet.

So here’s how Tommy’s career might actually look… vs how we have to twist it to make it fit 9-1-1 canon 😅

🔹 Version 1: Realistic / Actual Timeline Assumes Tommy was a full U.S. Army helicopter pilot before joining the LAFD — based on the accurate 6-year service requirement that existed prior to August 2020. 2002 (Age 17): Enlists in the U.S. Army with parental consent 2004 (Age 19): Accepted into Warrant Officer Flight Training 2005 (Age 20): Graduates flight school at Fort Rucker, becomes a Black Hawk pilot 2005–2011 (Age 20–26): Serves full 6-year commitment as active-duty Army pilot 2012 (Age 27): Honorably discharged 2013 (Age 28): Enrolls in LAFD Academy 2014 (Age 29): Completes training and probationary period, joins a firehouse 2015–2017: Transfers to Station 118, works under early captains (pre-Bobby) 2017: Leaves 118 to join Harbour Unit as a rescue pilot 2017: Buck joins 118 as a probie, filling Tommy’s spot 2024: Returns in S7 as Air Ops pilot 📌 Clarification: Before August 2020, U.S. Army helicopter pilots were obligated to serve for 6 years after graduating flight school — not 10. That means Tommy could realistically have served from 2005 to 2011, joined LAFD in 2013, and reached the 118 by 2015.

❗But: Chimney canonically joined the 118 in 2005, and Tommy still wouldn’t have been there yet — so this version is more plausible, but still not canon-aligned. ❌

🔹 Version 2: Canon-Compatible Timeline Compresses military service to make canon timelines possible. 2000 (Age 17): Enlists in the Army 2002 (Age 19): Completes flight school via Warrant Officer program 2002–2004 (Age 19–21): Serves active duty; discharged early (injury, restructuring, etc.) 2004 (Age 21): Joins LAFD Academy 2005 (Age 22): Assigned to Station 118 as a full firefighter 2005: Chimney joins as a probie — Tommy is already established 2005–2016: Served at 118 under early captains Late 2016/Early 2017: Bobby Nash arrives as new captain 2017: Tommy works briefly under Bobby 2017: Leaves 118 to join Harbour Unit as a rescue pilot 2017: Buck joins the 118 as a probie, effectively taking Tommy’s spot 2024: Returns in S7 as helicopter rescue pilot ✅ This version keeps everything lined up with Chimney’s and Buck’s established timelines — and explains how Tommy could’ve already been at the 118 before both of them.

✍️ Meta note: Tommy wasn’t originally meant to return. He was first mentioned back in Season 2 as part of the 118’s past — folded into the backstories of Hen, Chimney, and Bobby. — The writers clearly weren’t planning for him to show up again in Season 7. But now that he’s canon again... we get to be ✨creative✨ to make it all fit 😌

📎 Note: All timelines, ages, and years used here are based on canon clues, but the show itself plays fast and loose with dates. So everything here is assumptive, patched together with love, logic, and a dash of spirally elbow grease 🧵🧠 Interpret with flexibility — because the writers sure do 😌 Don’t ask me why I did this. Send help.🚑🧑‍⚕️🏥

💬 If I missed something or fudged a date, feel free to correct me (kindly) — or stitch in your own version. I’m always down to spiral deeper. 🧵🔥

[thinking-emoji]

DnP Interview Masterlist

This is a work in progress! If you have any other links, send them to me!

Mar 2025

Far Out Magazine (article) 8/3/2025

Jan 2025

Shut Up I'm Talking Podcast (video) 26/1/2025 | mirror | add-on

Dec 2024

RNZ (audio) 10/12/2024 | mirror

Radio Adelaide (audio) 10/12/2024 | mirror | mirror

Junkee (article) 6/12/2024

Junkee (video) 6/12/2024

Today Show (video) 5/12/2024 | mirror | mirror

Nov 2024

Buzzfeed (article) 22/11/2024 | mirror | mirror

People (article) 1/11/2024 | mirror

Oct 2024

People (article) 6/10/2024

YourEx (article) 5/10/2024 | mirror | mirror

Master up to 2023 (courtesy of @stillarchivingdnp)

YWGTTN promo master (courtesy of @dailydnp)

May 2024

Dan: Times Radio (video) 11/5/2024

2023

Dan: Anthony Padilla (video) 17/1/2023

Dan: DNA Magazine (article) 9/1/2023

2022

Dan: Santa Barbara Independent (article) 30/11/2022

Dan: Gay Times (article) 11/11/2022

Dan: heatworld (video) 1/11/2022

Dan: Hits Radio (video) 21/10/2022

Dan: The Star (article) 5/10/2022

Dan: Buzz (article) 12/9/2022

Dan: Manc Union (article) 18/8/2022

Dan: Square Mile (article) 29/7/2022

Dan: metro.co.uk (article) 9/6/2022

2021

Dan: How To Academy (video) 1/7/2021

Dan: 1883 (article) 30/6/2021

Dan: RNZ Nine to Noon (audio) 30/6/2021

Dan: GQ (article) 30/5/2021

Dan: Waterstones (video) 24/5/2021

Dan: Amazon (article) 12/5/2021

2020

Dan: Guardian (article) 26/12/2020 | mirror

Dan: Pink News (article) 4/12/2020

Dan: Attitude (article) 7/10/2020 | mirror | mirror | preview

Dan: ITV Britain Get Talking (audio) 7/10/2020 | mirror

Phil: Evening Standard (article) 3/2/2020

2019

Dan: BBC (video) 5/9/2019 | mirror

2018

HMV (article) 10/12/2018

Toy News (article) 5/3/2018

2017

Edinburgh TV Festival (video) 24/8/2017

2016

Penguin Platform (video) 10/11/2016

Stand Up to Cancer (video) 15/10/2016

Variety (article) 4/10/2016

The Big Wakeup Call (audio) 21/4/2016

2015

Star Sessions (video) 20/11/2025

Huffington Post (video) 19/11/2025

WOCA Radio (audio) 17/11/2015

Sunday Times (article) 8/11/2015

SugarScape, Pt. 2 (video) 11/10/2015

SugarScape (video) 9/10/2015

2014

Rock Forever Magazine (video) 19/4/2014

2013

The Independent (article) 1/6/2013

The 4:01 Show (video) 17/3/2013

Dan: Elision (article) 13/1/2013

2012

Dan: Huffington Post (article) 26/11/2012

[3liza]

here's what I've learned to never pay full price for, because people are giving these items away for free or almost free on Craigslist, Nextdoor, Facebook, at Goodwill, and on eBay (which has a local pickup section) in every sufficiently populated location in the USA.

cost of acquiring these items ranges from "carrying it home from the sidewalk" to "getting a friend with a car to help you pick it up" which is the same amount of effort as going to IKEA for worse quality that costs more, with the notable exception of it being a pain in the ass to coordinate with craigslist sellers, and you often have to wait and watch for what you want to actually show up. it took me about a year to find an acceptable gamer chair left out on the sidewalk, for example. but they cost $100+ new, so I chose to wait.

a lot of this stuff is the kind of thing you don't necessarily intend to keep, just to use in transitional housing or until you can afford a better one.

1. printers of any kind. basic office inkjets are free. ink is easily refillable or has generic ink cartridges way cheaper than brand name for any inkjet up to about 2015, not sure how difficult the newer smart printers are to hack but there's no reason to own a newer one because printing technology has not improved since about 2005. you want a color laser for making zines and wheatpastes? it's on Craigslist RN and someone's mom is desperate to get rid of it

2. bedframes

3. desks

4. tables

5. chairs

6. bookshelves, nice oak bookshelves that don't bend like al dente spaghetti when you put books on them, are rotting on sidewalks rn because they didn't fit in someone's house. go get them

7. scanners. I find a working scanner by a dumpster at least once a quarter, and I don't pick them up because I already have one that I picked up from a dumpster years ago

8. hot tubs. everyone thinks they want a hot tub and that the maintenance and upkeep will be worth it, and they are wrong. Craigslist.

9. sofas, with the caveat that if you are in a bedbug region like New York State you need to be very confident in your bedbug screening skills

10. quality leather shoes. these last forever and are expensive new. eBay is best for these

11. plates, glassware, silverware. all of these are able to be sterilized to whatever standard you feel comfortable with but if you eat in restaurants you've already put a fork in your mouth that hundreds of people have drooled on so try not to fool yourself

12. televisions and computer monitors

13. houseplants. similar to the bedbug warning above, you need to screen these for pests like fungus gnats and mealybugs

14. dressers, wardrobes, china hutches, cabinets, chests of drawers, etc

15. mirrors

16. clothes hangers

17. moving boxes

18. mattresses to a certain extent. I don't like secondhand used mattresses but unstained, unused mattresses are surprisingly common, especially since the foam mail order mattress boom started and people keep getting told by the mattress companies to just get rid of/keep any mattresses they want to return for flaws or wrong sizes or whatever. bedbug warning on this obviously

19. sheets and towels. you gotta launder them obviously

20. basic clothing, especially for kids. normie type clothing is so numerous people often just throw them away because they can't get anyone to take them

21. kitchenware like cooking utensils and pots n pans. don't use chipped or scratched Teflon/nonstick if you can help it. everyone needs one basic steel chef knife, which can be sharpened and maintained indefinitely. people throw these away CONSTANTLY

22. household consumables like laundry soap and dish soap. people often accidentally buy the wrong brand, scent, or develop allergies and want to get rid of extra

23. pet supplies like collars, leashes, dog crates, litter boxes, litter itself, dog beds, toys, carriers, etc

24. medical equipment of all kinds. people who take care of all kinds of patients end up with tons of leftover, sealed, miscellaneous stuff when that person recovers or dies, and they often give it away. adult diapers, hospital beds, IV stands, crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, fracture boots and splints, knee braces, canes, catheter packs, ice packs, heat packs, sterile paper sheeting, gauze, slings, over-the-door stretching and rehab pulleys, mattress protectors, etc

25. washers and dryers, both the basic household cube type and the small twin tub or rock tumbler type. people upgrade these when the old ones are still working, just squeaky or a little weird or sometimes just old

26. vacuum cleaners. secondhand ones are sort of icky but you can get rid of the ickiness by wiping them down with a rag and isopropyl alcohol inside and out. use an exacto or utility knife to slice off the hair and string wrapped around the roller. buy a new filter on Amazon. people throw away vacuums that work perfectly all the time because they don't actually know how to clean them out or do maintenance. bedbug and pet hair warning obviously

27. microwaves

28. refrigerators

30. lamps

31. any kind of exercise equipment including stationary bikes, ellipticals and weights/weight benches

32. any kind of piano. there's a grand on my local Craigslist for free rn

33. scrap wood and lumber

34. pallets

35. wood shipping crates

36. newborn, toddler and baby equipment like breast milk pumps and storage, bottles, bottle racks, diapers, etc. anything a little guy will grow out of fast will end up being given away

37. air conditioners, humidifiers and dehumidifiers. these will be most numerous during their respective off seasons

list updated 2/13/24 based on recent Craigslist trawling

38. jars, both canning type jars and clean food jars like from pickled or jelly bought at the store

39. rugs. most of my rugs are sidewalk finds. rugs will almost always be dirty. a decent consumer grade rug cleaner costs under $100, it's cheaper to just buy one if you have the space to store it. flushing the scavenged rug with soap, hot water, vinegar, alcohol, etc will clean almost anything but huge bedbug and allergen warning on this item

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Sandra Newman’s “Julia”

The first chapter of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four has a fantastic joke that nearly everyone misses: when Julia, Winston Smith's love interest, is introduced, she has oily hands and a giant wrench, which she uses in her "mechanical job on one of the novel-writing machines":

https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt

That line just kills me every time I re-read the book – Orwell, a novelist, writing a dystopian future in which novels are written by giant, clanking mechanisms. Later on, when Winston and Julia begin their illicit affair, we get more detail:

She could describe the whole process of composing a novel, from the general directive issued by the Planning Committee down to the final touching-up by the Rewrite Squad. But she was not interested in the finished product. She 'didn't much care for reading,' she said. Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.

I always assumed Orwell was subtweeting his publishers and editors here, and you can only imagine that the editor who asked Orwell to tweak the 1984 manuscript must have felt an uncomfortable parallel between their requests and the notional Planning Committee and Rewrite Squad at the Ministry of Truth.

I first read 1984 in the early winter of, well, 1984, when I was thirteen years old. I was on a family trip that included as visit to my relatives in Leningrad, and the novel made a significant impact on me. I immediately connected it to the canon of dystopian science fiction that I was already avidly consuming, and to the geopolitics of a world that seemed on the brink of nuclear devastation. I also connected it to my own hopes for the nascent field of personal computing, which I'd gotten an early start on, when my father – then a computer science student – started bringing home dumb terminals and acoustic couplers from his university in the mid-1970s. Orwell crystallized my nascent horror at the oppressive uses of technology (such as the automated Mutually Assured Destruction nuclear systems that haunted my nightmares) and my dreams of the better worlds we could have with computers.

It's not an overstatement to say that the rest of my life has been about this tension. It's no coincidence that I wrote a series of "Little Brother" novels whose protagonist calls himself w1n5t0n:

https://craphound.com/littlebrother/Cory_Doctorow_-_Little_Brother.htm

I didn't stop with Orwell, of course. I wrote a whole series of widely read, award-winning stories with the same titles as famous sf tales, starting with "Anda's Game" ("Ender's Game"):

https://www.salon.com/2004/11/15/andas_game/

And "I, Robot":

https://craphound.com/overclocked/Cory_Doctorow_-_Overclocked_-_I_Robot.html

"The Martian Chronicles":

https://escapepod.org/2019/10/03/escape-pod-700-martian-chronicles-part-1/

"True Names":

https://archive.org/details/TrueNames

"The Man Who Sold the Moon":

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/05/22/the-man-who-sold-the-moon/

and "The Brave Little Toaster":

https://archive.org/details/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_212

Writing stories about other stories that you hate or love or just can't get out of your head is a very old and important literary tradition. As EL Doctorow (no relation) writes in his essay "Genesis," the Hebrews stole their Genesis story from the Babylonians, rewriting it to their specifications:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/41520/creationists-by-e-l-doctorow/

As my "famous title" stories and Little Brother books show, this work needn't be confined to antiquity. Modern copyright may be draconian, but it contains exceptions ("fair use" in the US, "fair dealing" in many other places) that allow for this kind of creative reworking. One of the most important fair use cases concerns The Wind Done Gone, Alice Randall's 2001 retelling of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind from the perspective of the enslaved characters, which was judged to be fair use after Mitchell's heirs tried to censor the book:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suntrust_Bank_v._Houghton_Mifflin_Co.

In ruling for Randall, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals emphasized that she had "fully employed those conscripted elements from Gone With the Wind to make war against it." Randall used several of Mitchell's most famous lines, "but vest[ed] them with a completely new significance":

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/268/1257/608446/

The Wind Done Gone is an excellent book, and both its text and its legal controversy kept springing to mind as I read Sandra Newman's wonderful novel Julia, which retells 1984 from the perspective of Julia, she of the oily hands the novel-writing machine:

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/julia-sandra-newman?variant=41467936636962

Julia is the kind of fanfic that I love, in the tradition of both Wind Done gone and Rosenkrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead, in which a follow-on author takes on the original author's throwaway world-building with deadly seriousness, elucidating the weird implications and buried subtexts of all the stuff and people moving around in the wings and background of the original.

For Newman, the starting point here is Julia, an enigmatic lover who comes to Winston with all kinds of rebellious secrets – tradecraft for planning and executing dirty little assignations and acquiring black market goods. Julia embodies a common contradiction in the depiction of young women (she is some twenty years younger than Winston): on the one hand, she is a "native" of the world, while Winston is a late arrival, carrying around all his "oldthink" baggage that leaves him perennially baffled, terrified and angry; on the other hand, she's a naive "girl," who "doesn't much care for reading," and lacks the intellectual curiosity that propels Winston through the text.

This contradiction is the cleavage line that Newman drives her chisel into, fracturing Orwell's world in useful, fascinating, engrossing ways. For Winston, the world of 1984 is totalitarian: the Party knows all, controls all and misses nothing. To merely think a disloyal thought is to be doomed, because the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnicompetent Party will sense the thought and mark you for torture and "vaporization."

Orwell's readers experience all of 1984 through Winston's eyes and are encouraged to trust his assessment of his situation. But Newman brings in a second point of view, that of Julia, who is indeed far more worldly than Winston. But that's not because she's younger than him – it's because she's more provincial. Julia, we learn, grew up outside of the Home Counties, where the revolution was incomplete and where dissidents – like her parents – were sent into exile. Julia has experienced the periphery of the Party's power, the places where it is frayed and incomplete. For Julia, the Party may be ruthless and powerful, but it's hardly omnicompetent. Indeed, it's rather fumbling.

Which makes sense. After all, if we take Winston at his word and assume that every disloyal citizen of Oceania is arrested, tortured and murdered, where would that leave Oceania? Even Kim Jong Un can't murder everyone who hates him, or he'd get awfully lonely, and then awfully hungry.

Through Julia's eyes, we experience Oceania as a paranoid autocracy, corrupt and twitchy. We witness the obvious corollary of a culture of denunciation and arrest: the ruling Party of such an institution must be riddled with internecine struggle and backstabbing, to the point of paralyzed dysfunction. The Orwellian trick of switching from being at war with Eastasia to Eurasia and back again is actually driven by real military setbacks – not just faked battles designed to stir up patriotic fervor. The Party doesn't merely claim to be under assault from internal and external enemies – it actually is.

Julia is also perfectly positioned to uncover the vast blank spots in Winston's supposed intellectual curiosity, all the questions he doesn't ask – about her, about the Party, and about the world. I love this trope and used it myself, in Attack Surface, the third "Little Brother" book, which is told from the point of view of Marcus's frenemy Masha:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250757531/attacksurface

Through Julia, we come to understand the seemingly omniscient, omnipotent Party as fumbling sadists. The Thought Police are like MI5, an Island of Misfit Toys where the paranoid, the stupid, the vicious and the thuggish come together to ruin the lives of thousands, in such a chaotic and pointless manner that their victims find themselves spinning devastatingly clever explanations for their behavior:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/3662a707-0af9-3149-963f-47bea720b460

And, as with Nineteen Eighty-Four, Julia is a first-rate novel, expertly plotted, with fantastic, nail-biting suspense and many smart turns and clever phrases. Newman is doing Orwell, and, at times, outdoing him. In her hands, Orwell – like Winston – is revealed as a kind of overly credulous romantic who can't believe that anyone as obviously stupid and deranged as the state's representatives could be kicking his ass so very thoroughly.

This was, in many ways, the defining trauma and problem of Orwell's life, from his origin story, in which he is shot through the throat by a fascist: sniper during the Spanish Civil War:

https://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/soldiers/george-orwell-shot.html

To his final days, when he developed a foolish crush on a British state spy and tried to impress her by turning his erstwhile comrades in to her:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwell%27s_list

Newman's feminist retelling of Orwell is as much about puncturing the myth of male competence as it is about revealing the inner life, agency, and personhood of swooning love-interests. As someone who loves Orwell – but not unconditionally – I was moved, impressed, and delighted by Julia.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/28/novel-writing-machines/#fanfic

[videogamepolls]

Video Games Polls 1-Year Report

I've been running this blog for a full year and I've polled nearly 3,000 games, so I wanted to post an updated report with the top 10 games for each of the four options included in my polls, plus a couple other categories.

📊 General Stats

Games Polled: 2,864

Average Sample Size: 728

Games with 40%+ "yes" votes: 149 (5.2%)

🏆 Most Played

Games with the highest percentage of "Yes" votes:

The Dinosaur Game (2014, AKA Chrome Dino Game) - 93.9%

Pac-Man (1980) - 93.4%

Wii Sports (2006) - 87.7%

Tetris (1985) - 86.9%

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet (1995) - 85.5%

Pokemon Go (2016) - 82.9%

Minecraft (2011) - 81.1%

Angry Birds (2009) - 80.1%

Stardew Valley (2016) - 79.3%

Space Invaders (1978) - 78.5%

🏆 Most Known But Not Played

Games with the highest percentage of "No" votes:

Raid: Shadow Legends (2018) - 85.8%

Final Fantasy XI (2002) - 82.1%

Far Cry (2004) - 79.3%

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018) - 78.3%

Far Cry 2 (2008) - 78.2%

Halo Infinite (2021) - 77.6%

Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999) - 75.4%

Final Fantasy V (1992) - 76.4%

Baldur's Gate (1998) - 76.1%

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) - 75.8%

🏆 Most Watched

Games with the highest percentage of "I watched someone play it" votes:

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (2017) - 54.2%

I Am Bread (2015) - 51.3%

Octodad: Dadliest Catch (2014) - 47.0%

Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach (2021) - 45.6%

Baldi's Basics in Education and Learning (2018) - 43.5%

Amanda the Adventurer (2023) - 42.5%

Phasmophobia (2020, Early Access) - 41.3%

P.T. (2014) - 41.0%

PowerWash Simulator (2022) - 40.4%

The Mortuary Assistant (2022) - 38.7%

🏆 Most Obscure

Games with the highest percentage of "I've never heard of it" votes:

Jessica's Uncomfortable Hanukkah Adventure (2023, Early Access) - 97.8%

Batty Zabella (2022) - 97.6%

Citampi Stories: Love & Life (2019) - 97.0%

Tears - 9, 10 (2002) - 97.0%

Just, Bearly (2018) - 96.9%

Anito: Defend a Land Enraged (2003) - 96.6%

That Damn Goat (2023) - 96.5%

Star Seeker in: The Secret of the Sorcerous Standoff (2020) - 96.4%

Cisini Stories: Girl Life RPG (2024) - 96.4%

Dear Substance of Kin (2019) - 96.3%

🏆 Most Balanced

Games with the most even spread of votes:

Human Fall Flat (2016) - 19.3% Yes | 28.5% No | 26.1% Watched | 26.1% Never Heard

Kerbal Space Program (2015) - 21.9% | 31.1% | 24.5% | 22.5%

The Henry Stickmin Collection (2020) - 19.3% | 29.2% | 22% | 29.5%

Ib (2012) - 24.1% | 26.8% | 19.2% | 29.9%

Superhot (2016) - 24.9% | 25.1% | 30.5% | 19.5%

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010) - 25.8% | 31.1% | 20% | 23.2%

Limbo (2010) - 30.2% | 28.7% | 23.9% | 17.1%

Wobble Dogs (2022) - 18% | 25.4% | 25.2% | 31.3%

Slay the Princess (2023) - 30.2% | 27.4% | 26.1% | 16.4%

Golf with Your Friends (2020) - 13.9% | 16.9% | 23.6% | 30.8%

🏆 Most Votes

Games with the most number of votes:

3D Pinball for Windows – Space Cadet (1995) - 11,773

Robot Unicorn Attack (2010) - 7,600

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) - 4,329

Flight Rising (2013) - 4,132

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (2004) - 4,053

Final Fantasy XV (2016) - 3,056

Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (2009) - 2,844

Dark Souls (2011) - 2,823

The Dinosaur Game (2014, AKA Chrome Dino Game) - 2,758

QWOP (2008) - 2,636

*I did not take most Pokémon games into consideration since I handle those polls a little differently.

Check out my results spreadsheet for an alphabetized list of all poll results plus some other stats, and in case anyone is interested in comparing results to past reports here are the links to my 6-month and 9-month posts.

[cityofmeliora]

Terzo is hard of hearing 🦻

Terzo seems to have lost his hearing over time as he aged.

PAPA EMERITUS III: Well… I'm not perfect when it comes to remembering lyrics, as you've noticed. I'm sorry about that. It's an age thing, y'know? But I'm sure some of you know the lyrics for this song. The last song. But you know, for an old guy, I'm not very different. My hearing is really, really bad. So I need you to sing really loud if you know the lyrics. Silver Spring, Maryland, USA (September 22, 2015)

PAPA EMERITUS III: What do you call yourself? Montrealers? Montrealers! My hearing is a little bit skewed and screwed, I'm sorry about that. So no offense! Montreal, Canada (September 30, 2015)

PAPA EMERITUS III: Not just another fucking Staurday night in Orlando, huh? So where are you going afterwards? The night is young. Hm? Alright. My hearing is not what it used to be, sorry. I see you moving, and I hear shit, but… Anyways! [...] As I was saying, my hearing is very, very bad. So there's this point where I always like to hear the audience singing. I've noticed that you have been have been singing before. I see your faces and movement. And y'know, I, for one, I know my thing to do. But regardless, now I want to hear you sing. Orlando, Florida, USA (October 10, 2015)

Since my hearing is very impaired, too, this is also a chance for me to hear you sing together. San Francisco, CA, USA (October 23, 2015)