#Franklin Method

[pileofsith]

I registered for @terrorcamp this year and I am participating in their artists' alley with a bonus discount on all items.

Come check me out HERE!

Terror Camp III (online polar fan conference), Terror and Erebus edition, December 9-10 2023.

Apart from pins, badges and patches, I prepared some cool new stickers and I'm offering some original art at really affordable prices.

[melziss]

anya: *screams*

mattie: *screams louder to assert dominance*

julia: should we do something?!

cassie, observing: no, I want to see who wins this.

[wireless-art]

Donut: “A forbidden romance? How scandalous!”

Washington: “Donut, please.”

Washnut, 2023

[myreignforabowlofcurry]

Review: Method Acting by N.R. Walker

Title: Method ActingAuthor: N.R. WalkerSeries: Franklin U 2Rate: 5/5I loved this book so much I read it twice already and it just came out. It was such a sweet and fun story and the characters were really likeable and with strong personalities. Amos and Chase will play an established couple in a reality tv production and they need to act to be convincing so they have intimacy workshops where they…

[baddingtonbitch]

he would have slayed a 4 episode arc on hannibal

[preacherpollard]

Jesus, Let Us Come To Know You (Part One)

Neal Pollard What did He look like as a child or grown man? Isaiah 53:2 leads one to believe He had no remarkable, distinguishing physical characteristics. What earthly interests did He have? What was His favorite subject in school? Who did He spend time with the first 30 years of His life? Was He tall or short? How did He sound when He laughed? These questions have long fascinated man, but…

[rfxiii]

could I request hcs for franklin, trevor, and michael on how they would go about apologizing or making it up to you after they did something wrong (I feel like I'm not making sense lol 😆 but basically I'm asking how would they get back on your good side after messing up big time) if requests are close, I apologize!!

(This totally makes sense, no worries! And my requests are always open, so feel free to send an ask whenever you’d like- I’m just a little slow atm. Also, I’m sorry about the long wait, and I hope you like it ☺️)

Franklin, Trevor, and Michael making up with you after an argument:

Franklin Clinton:

Arguments with Franklin are fairly rare. He’s a pretty level headed, loyal partner. But, like every relationship, arguments do happen.

Despite being kind, loyal, and loving, Franklin is also stubborn. It can be the cause of several of your arguments. And can also lead to him refusing to admit he’s wrong right away.

But once he does realize he’s been wrong, and understands that he’s upset you, he’ll go to the ends of the earth to make it up to you.

He’ll come to you like a sad puppy- curling up beside and gently taking your hands in his. He’s had time to think about what went wrong, and what was done to start the argument to begin with. He wants to talk it over, wants to get to the root of the problem to make sure it never happens again. He’ll stay up all night talking with you, and apologizing, until he’s sure everything is resolved and that you’ve forgiven him.

He may buy you something small and sweet the day after the fight. A teddy bear or a bouquet of roses aren’t uncommon after the two of you have had a disagreement. And for a few days afterwards, he treats you especially gently. He hates hurting your feelings or making you mad. So, he wants to prove just how much he does love you. Even if you two do argue.

Trevor Philips:

Arguments with Trevor are fairly commonplace. He’s set in his insane ways, and always self assured that he’s right. He’s more apt to listen to reason when it comes to you. But his erratic, wild behavior, and bad, dangerous habits are normally the root of arguments between you two.

There are several ways things can go after you two argue. But more often than not, it’s a couple days of passive aggressive comments and the silent treatment, until he’s convinced that this is the fight that’s going to split you guys apart. And then comes the waterworks.

He comes, literally, crawling back to you on his hands and knees, sobbing and snot nosed as he begs you not to leave him. He’s usually fairly high when he breaks down like this, so talking to him is slightly difficult. But he babbles at you non stop- telling you how much he loves you, how sorry he is, how he’s “such a worthless shit”.

The true talking it out usually comes the next morning, or afternoon, depending on how fucked up he got. But after his tears dry up and he’s caught his breath from all the sobbing, his usual method of making up with you is desperate, clingy sex. He doesn’t have a very good grasp on such big emotions, so he shows them physically instead of verbally. And you can feel his love and remorse through every press of his lips and every touch of his rough, scarred hands.

Michael De Santa:

He has issues with loyalty and honesty. You knew that before you got with him. But it doesn’t make the arguments that ensure because of it any easier.

He’s stubborn, self assured, and hot headed. Getting Michael to admit he’s wrong is like pulling teeth. And getting him to apologize is harder than winning a one man war. Once you two start to fight, it can last for days. And because of his petty, passive aggressive attitude, he sometimes tends to make things twice as bad.

It’s almost never that you hear him actually say “I’m sorry”. But eventually, after a few days of fighting, he realizes he’s being a child and understands that he was wrong. Even if he won’t admit it. So, he shows it the best way he knows how. Through gifts.

You’ll come home to find expensive jewelry on your pillow, or a new outfit hung up for you in the closet. He’ll have your favorite dinner made, and he’ll buy the wine he knows you like the best. He won’t apologize to you. But over dinner, he’ll take your hand, tell you how beautiful you look, and say something like “Let’s not fight anymore, angel. You know I hate seeing you upset.”

You know he’s too prideful to apologize. So, usually it’s just easier to cut your losses and accept that, while he’ll never verbally apologize, this is his version of saying “I’m sorry”. You know he truly is apologetic, and you love him, so you both agree to let this go and move on. He’s a good man, he’s just a little emotionally immature at times.

[blood-sucking-freaks]

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Facts

TCM is one of my favorite movies so here's some facts :)

-Bubba's real name is not known. Neither is Nubbins. But, at one point Drayton calls Bubba 'Junior', so we know he's either named after Grandpa Sawyer or their late/absentee father, though as neither are named, Bubba's name was never revealed.

-Gunnar Hansen wanted Bubba to be able to speak broken sentences, but the idea was shut down by Tobe Hooper

-Was originally supposed to be titles 'Head Cheese'. The title was later changed to 'Leatherface'. A week before filming was supposed to begin the title was finally changed to 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'.

-The dinner scene was shot in one day. It took 27 hours. It was so hot that the meat was rotting, so between the heat and the smell, cast and crew members were running out of the house every few minutes to throw up. It was filmed in one day because John Dugan, Grandpa Sawyer's actor, refused to sit through the 10 hour makeup process more than once, so all of the scenes with Grandpa had to be filmed at once.

-Most cast and crew, especially Gunnar, didn't like Paul Partain, Franklin's actor, as he stayed in character during the entire process of filming. When the two met again after filming and Gunnar realized that Paul was simply method acting they became close friends up until Paul's death.

-Gunnar was avoided by most people during filming. The cast of Bubba's victims avoided him because they didn't want to be around their killer. Gunnar wasn't allowed to take off his wool costume, so the heavy clothing and the Texan summer heat resulted in him being very smelly.

-Marilyn Burns was really cut during the scene where Grandpa drinks Sally's blood. After multiple takes of the scene, Gunnar got annoyed and secretly took the protective tape off the knife being used and actually cut her to get a more authentic reaction.

-The chainsaw was real and almost hurt several cast and crew members, Gunnar included.

-The armadillo in the beginning of the movie was taxidermized by Tobe Hooper.

-During the time of filming, the 'Sawyer house' was owned and lived in by a family, so the production was only allowed to rent the right section of the house.

-The house is now relocated and restored, and used as a restaurant called the Grand Central Cafe.

-The bones and meat were real, as it was cheaper to rent real human bones and use actual dead animals than to make fake ones.

-Makeup artist Dottie Pearl accidentally injected herself with formaldehyde during the preparations of the dead animals.

-Tobe Hooper got the initial idea for the movie while he was Christmas shopping in the hardware section of a crowded store, when he saw a chainsaw display while thinking of a way to get out of the crowd.

-Edwin Neal, Nubbin's actor, is a Vietnam veteran. When asked how hard filming the movie was, he said that he's rather go back to Vietnam than reshoot the movie. He also said that if he ever saw Tobe Hooper again he might kill him.

-The film was shot mostly in chronological order.

-The last shot filmed was Bubba cutting his leg. Gunnar wore a metal plate over his leg and a piece of meat and a blood bag was placed on top.

-Gunnar's costume had one dyed shirt, so it couldn't be washed during the entire time filming.

-The movie took four weeks of filming every day, though it was only supposed to take two weeks.

-The victim's van belonged to one of the sound recordists, Ted Nicolaou.

-Bubba's teeth were special prosthetics made by Gunnar's dentist.

-At 6'4, Gunnar got multiple slight head injuries due to doorways and other objects. The Leatherface mask limited his peripheral vision severely. Even at his height, he had to wear three inch heels (which makes Bubba canonically 6'7).

-By the last day's shoot, Marilyn Burns' costume was so drenched in blood that it was practically solid. While most of the blood is fake, a lot of it was real, as she got badly cut on branches and undergrowth during the scene where Bubba chases Sally to the gas station,

-During the last night of shooting, the cast got high on pot brownies brought by Dottie Pearl. The brownies had to be hidden when Tobe Hooper's mother visited the set.

-Nubbin's death scene was shot in reverse.

-The narrator for the intro was payed in weed.

-During the scene where Bubba and Nubbins bring Grandpa downstairs, Gunnar kept pushing the rocking chair forwards, sending John falling into Edwin, which left neither party very happy. Gunnar kept doing this until John leaned into his ear and whispered threats.

[howtofightwrite]

Followup: Oragnized Crime Recruitment

The Godfather book and the Mafia games, specifically the first Mafia game, are the closest examples of what the Original Asker wants for his game. Goodfellas is another potential example to base the process of one's recruitment into the criminal underworld. In general, recruitment in fiction is generally based on doing jobs and earning a reputation as to one's success at doing jobs. In Goodfellas, Henry Hill started off doing simple, legal-ish errands for the local mafia before the gangsters saw his potential and entrusted him with more illegal jobs. Original Asker's character could therefore be someone who is affiliated with a mobster, but not part of the inner circle until the character pulls off jobs which makes them someone worth recruiting to the organization. Or one could go the Tommy Angelo route and save a mobster's life. -ironwoodatl01

So, it's worth remembering that Goodfellas is (in broad strokes) non-fiction. Henry Hill was a real person. (1943-2012) He was an associate of the Lucchese family. There are some historical, “inaccuracies,” with the film. Though, his arrest in 1980 for narcotics, and turning state's witness is historically accurate, though the film skims over the part where he was ejected from the witness protection program in 1987. Goodfellas was adapted from Nicholas Pileggi's non-fiction book, Wiseguy. I haven't read the book, but it's plausible that some of the historical discrepancies may have come from the book.

In this case, the OP specifically wanted to avoid a background where someone grew up in the neighborhood. Which, I mean, that is their choice, but it is a very popular recruitment method, in part because it's very effective at screening out potential cops, or even recruiting potential tame cops down the line.

Ironically, thinking back now, Mafia, the original Saints Row, and Franklin's arc from GTA5 are all potential reference points for what the OP wanted, and thinking back on it now, they were asking for input on a game, rather than prose, so I should have factored that in with the original ask. The tricky thing about each of those examples is that they're dependent on a lot of very specific moving parts in their respective stories. (Though, to be fair, I barely remember the original Mafia.) None of them are strictly realistic, but they're all internally plausible, when you start factoring in the various character motivations at work.

For some reason, I'm reminded of the Thieves Guild recruitment in Skyrim, which is one of the goofiest criminal recruitments I've seen in a non-parody. Brynjolf grabs some random psychopath wandering through and says, “ah, yes, you must be a master of pickpocketing and interested in a life of crime.” Does it make any sense? Nope. Does it go a long way towards explaining why the Thieves Guild is falling apart? Yeah, kinda, when you think about it. Does the introduction work? For some players, yes.

If the player wants to get into a questline, the justification can be pretty flimsy and still work for that player. Usually we talk about suspension of disbelief like it's a universal constant, but it's individual per member of your audience. Normally, you want to do whatever you can to ensure the suspension of disbelief is as strong as possible. However, in a game, the player's own emotional investment can help shore up weak points.

I'm going to take a quote out of context (a little), but I'm reminded of a quote from Richard K. Morgan about Halo, “[it] is full of these bullshit archetypal characters and there's no real emotional effect.” And, while he was certainly dragged for that quote (and, really the entire interview, it was a mess), he wasn't wrong. The writing in Halo isn't what does the heavy lifting, a large part of that is the player's effort to get through the story. And, in basically any other medium, this would be an exceptionally bad thing.

You won't make your novel better by forcing your audience to complete reflex tests before they start each chapter.

But, with video games, the gameplay interludes, can actually build emotional investment for the player. Even on very flimsy premises.

I've often written about how writing in different mediums requires different approaches and has different strengths. If you want gorgeous combat, then live action or animation are the best forms for you story. If you want visually striking images that linger, comics might be the right choice. If you really want to get into a character's head and live there, prose will let you do that with a level of fine control that is difficult to replicate. (And, note, there's a lot of different pros and cons, so this isn't an exclusive list.) The funny thing is, if you want your audience to do the heavy lifting for suspension of disbelief, that's one of the places where video game writing really shines.

And so we loop back to the Skyrim example. Brynjolf's approach to finding new talent is absolute clown shoes, but it's something you might not notice if this is why you wandered into Riften. It only becomes a problem when you're just there to snuff Grelod the Kind, or are looking for someplace to unload all this garbage you picked up while delving into a Dwemer ruin up in the mountains.

This doesn't mean you should abandon the idea of good writing, but if your player is on the same page as you, you won't need to worry about having something completely believable. For example, the plot-line of Mafia, or (the original) Saints Row.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you’re already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

[viola-ophelia]

some john andre propaganda because he's the sexyman of my heart:

i feel like people sometimes forget how genuinely kind andre is since there's more focus on his hoeing activities lolll, but he really does have a strong moral compass & try to do right by everyone. think about how hard he tried to make abigail feel comfortable and valued in his home, knowing she'd been sent there against her will and had been separated from her son. while he's far from perfect by modern standards, he's one of the few characters in the show who consistently makes an effort to treat enslaved people with humanity.

i've touched on this before, but i really do think andre drinks respect women juice. while ben (and to a lesser degree, abe and caleb) spend 4 seasons not believing that women have a place in the war, and unsuccessfully trying to keep their female friends/wives out of spying despite the fact that mary/anna/abigail are far more competent than they are lol, andre was working with philomena (and later, peggy) from day one. he doesn't treat women like delicate flowers who need to be sheltered, and he recognizes their power, which is why when peggy expressed willingness to help him, he took her up on it. i think it's doing peggy a real disservice to argue that andre somehow tricked/manipulated her into getting trapped in his spy scheme... she's one of the smartest people in the show, and she definitely knew what she was getting into. she fell for andre, and wanted to help him, because she recognized that he viewed her as an EQUAL, not as a pawn or a prize to be won.

i know we all love hewlett's nerdiness, but you know who is also a nerd? john andre! he can recite shakespeare! he can play love songs on the flute AND the violin! he geeked out so hard over ben franklin's inventions! he draws and paints! he makes music and dancing metaphors constantly! i'm convinced that he would be such a good person to infodump to. i just know that when peggy talks to him for 5 hours straight about fashion, he's taking notes AND active listening.

there is no doubt in my mind that john andre is the best turn character in bed. i mean, he wasn't "hung" for no reason! ;)

it is true that andre is not the most skilled fighter in the show lol. in fact, we never even see him fire a gun or engage in active combat, since he's usually pulling strings behind the scenes, and he doesn't seem to ever use torture as an espionage method. plus, those henchmen of roberts' took him down pretty fast when they captured him lol. but in my humble opinion, while it CAN be hot when men are getting all muddy and bloody on the battlefield, it's actually endearing to me that andre doesn't seem to enjoy violence. i don't want a man who might murder me at any second! i want a man who will treat me right! i want a man who would "quaker marry" me and cut off his little braid and give it to me as a token of his love!!

in conclusion, here are some gifs of him because JUST LOOK AT HIM. HE IS SO HOT

[loving-n0t-heyting]

The crazy thing about western Maoists is that while other leftist political ideologies tend to be misrepresented by their loudest online adherents, in my experience Maoists are exactly like that IRL too, which is unfortunate because Maoists tend to both be extremely driven and hands-on with activism and also so personally conflictive that if they make it to any leadership or public-facing position they’re very efficient in turning away most possible potential supporters

In that respect, an anecdote from Avakian is instructive. In his memoir he recounts talking with a comrade who has just returned from Cuba being debriefed by Bruce Franklin and him. At one point the comrade referred to the “Sino-Soviet split,” which prompted the following:

[Avakian] Wait a minute, we don’t talk about the Sino-Soviet split—you mean the struggle against Soviet revisionism that China is leading? And immediately Bruce Franklin jumped in and said to me, “I don’t think you have the right attitude here, this is a bad method you are using. We sent these comrades down to Cuba and, now that they’ve come back, we should be trying to learn from them.” I responded: “Well I’m very anxious to learn as much as I possibly can from them, one thing I don’t want to learn from them is revisionism.”

leonard & gallagher, heavy radicals: the fbi's secret war on americas maoists

plus ça change

[moontrinemars]

Tenth Lord in Jupiter Nakshatras

Thanks for your patience in waiting for the next part of the series - I’m glad you guys are interested. As always, recorded for my own benefit, published for yours. General disclaimer is in my bio. Credit to KRSchannel for inspiring this post.

Find your 10th lord here, and find your 10th lord’s nakshatra here.

The 10th house rules our life’s honor. It represents the services we perform for society as well as the reputation we earn as a result. It is associated with the father and the career because traditionally, this is where both our standing in society and the role we performed in society would come from - inherited through the father’s family line. However, in our contemporary world, this isn’t always the case, which is why it’s important to know the grander themes at play.

The three Jupiter-ruled nakshatras are Punarvasu, Vishakha, and Purva Bhadrapada.

Jupiter is a planetary object that represents ascension, expansion, and union. It is the aspiration that guides us to our greatest heights, and the intangible whole comprised of all pieces, parts, and individuals. Channeling Jupiter means to take the role of the collective in our capacity as an individual, such as sharing our experiences to better the understanding of others, or discovering, exploring, and sharing universal truths that connect everyone. This is why Jupiter is associated with the partner. Venus is like the practical partner, who represents our own earthly values, but Jupiter is the soulmate, who allows us to ascend beyond the self, uniting physical with spiritual. Jupiter obscures, elevates, and enlightens, offering both afterlife and a life purpose.

DO YOU HAVE YOUR 10TH LORD IN A JUPITER-RULED NAKSHATRA? THAT MEANS YOU…

Audrey Hepburn, Amelia Earhart, and Kendrick Lamar all have their tenth lords in Jupiter ruled nakshatras. Audrey’s is in Punarvasu, Anne’s is in Vishakha, and Kendrick’s is in Purva Bhadrapda.

… AND THE PUBLIC MUTUALLY TEACH, EVOLVE, AND MYTHOLOGIZE ONE ANOTHER.

This placement produces an individual who is not content to engage with either their vocation or their society as a means to an end. These natives rather prefer to approach their public life, and the concept of the public itself often enough, as deeply meaningful and containing a higher purpose. Here you find individuals who shake up their industry by introducing cultures of open-mindedness and experimentation, as often as you find those who pursue their far-flung, lofty legacies at the expense of their health, relationships, privacy, and even life.

Jupiter's fame is more particular to how its influence manifests than to the amount of or method by which it was accrued. Whether you're looking at canon-defining classics, the celebrity of subculture, or the first individual of a certain kind to succeed in this or that field, you're looking at a Jovian native whose legacy serves to teach the public, and expand how the public defines itself. Of course, anyone can push boundaries, but these natives are most likely to be remembered for the barriers they break, and the lessons they taught in the process.

MORE ON THE SPECIFICS OF PUNARVASU, VISHAKHA, AND PURVA BHADRAPADA BELOW!

IF PUNARVASU RULES THE TENTH LORD, YOU…

Sharon Tate, David Beckham, and Halle Berry all have their tenth lords in Punarvasu. Others with this placement are William Shakespeare, Aretha Franklin, Amy Adams, J. M. Barrie, Debbie Harry, Al Gore, Alannis Morisette, Naomi Judd, Stephen King, Tony Curtis, Eddie Murphy, Gisele Bündchen, Werner Herzog, and Courtney Love.

Take public responses to your behavior personally, even finding it difficult to separate your identity from your reputation at first.

Are likely to be known for your professional value on an individual level, as a matter of skill, rather than as a team member or leader.

May benefit from a mentor who takes you under their wing, or may play such a role to new incomers to your field or workplace.

Count on your inborn charm to buoy you through scandal.

Transform your persona with age to appeal to new expectations.

AND YOU MAY FIND…

Travel is an expected part of your job, and public service you perform in foreign places seems to leave a greater impact.

Early on in life, key marriages and romantic partnerships can interfere with your career and social status, or vice versa.

Engaging in social service, partaking in cultural traditions, and organizing society-wide events, is spiritually cleansing, and allows you to reintegrate your public persona and personal identity.

Others imbue you with moral authority you are not prepared to shoulder, potentially leading to unearned imposter syndrome.

A pattern of being publicly linked to 'someone else': a role you have played, a title you've been given, a superior who enhances your image, a teammate who steals your valor, etc.

PUNARVASU is the Star of Renewal. Industries and career types favored are those involving archetypes, exploration, drama, history, innovation, education, spirituality, relationships, care-taking, healing, delivery, narrative, articulation, influence, and transportation.

IF VISHAKHA RULES THE TENTH LORD, YOU…

Anne Hathaway, Usher, and Billy Idol all have their tenth lords in Vishakha. Others with this placement are Dodi Al Fayed, Steven Spielberg, Susan Sarandon, Winston Churchill, Giorgio Armani, Martin Luther, Patti Page, H. G. Wells, Martin Scorsese, Analeigh Tipton, Joel Coen, Megan Mullaly, Richard Strauss, CM Punk, Georgia O'Keefe, John Cleese, Monica Vitti, Ashanti, and Mary, Queen of Scots.

Naturally come to occupy positions of authority in the industries of your mastery, if not through literal rank than socially/morally.

May find yourself successfully introducing a new movement, genre, belief, or idea before it's celebrated by the mainstream.

Are generous in the world of public service, and will leave a legacy of having cared for and striven for the betterment of your society.

Know how to communicate your ideals and philosophies to a wide audience in a professional setting effectively, even artistically.

May be accused of elitism, pretentiousness, or arrogance, even when you try to cultivate an attitude of humility and modesty.

AND YOU MAY FIND…

Your early professional life is beset with competition, or your chosen industry is somehow affected by martial conflicts.

Members of the public will interpret you either as self-indulgent and petty, or as austere and enlightened, with no in-between.

Opportunities for romance are plentiful for you in social and legal settings, but resulting relationships must be extricated from those wider contexts to establish a happy and healthy marriage.

Your boss often partakes in social drinking with his subordinates.

Jealousy is a common theme, whether you have a reputation for being jealous, others are jealous of and threatened by you, etc.

VISHAKHA is the Star of Purpose. Industries and career types favored are those involving research, politics, competition, speech, ideology, agitation, immigration, criticism, trade, exchange, leisure, intoxicants, production, leadership, personal branding, and style.

IF PURVA BHADRAPADA RULES THE TENTH LORD, YOU…

Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, and Sidney Poitier all have their tenth lords in Purva Bhadrapada. Others with this placement are Kurt Cobain, Laurence Olivier, Michael Jordan, Charles Dickens, Vincent Price, Armie Hammer, Franz Schubert, Gerard Way, John Steinbeck, Kurt Russell, Maya Angelou, Conan O'Brien, Bobby Driscoll, David Tennant, Jay Leno, Rik Mayall, Keri Russell, and OP.

Tempt others into rule-breaking and are tempted in turn by communities and livelihoods that circumvent or defy the law.

Signify a movement or change in social norms within your field.

Use your work to provoke others into changing their core beliefs.

Bring elements of the metaphysical, spiritual, transcendental, and philosophical into a more social and/or practical public setting.

Naturally uncover and grapple with a fundamentally darker side of public life and of the public in general, with too much exposure or attention more likely to pose a real, material risk to your health, security, or even life.

AND YOU MAY FIND…

Your look, attitude, and/or impulses are easily congealed into an image or symbol, one that is powerful but restrictive, and your depths may be shunned by the public or authorities as a result.

Anyone who tries to take a conflict with you public will suffer serious consequences as a result, from either your own ferocity when tested, or organized backlash from others on your behalf.

Introduction through the professional and public sphere makes others magnetically attracted to you; however, those who would already be attracted to you are at risk of becoming obsessive.

The pursuit of a specific career or end-goal, specifically through higher education or founding of a philosophy, actually puts you in contact with more opportunities and generates more success in a totally different field or toward a different goal than you plan for.

One of the most rewarding and effective means by which you can perform public service is through contributions to education and community outreach through mentorship.

PURVA BHADRAPADA is the Burning Pair. Industries and career types favored are those involving ideology, sensuality, speculative genres, music, investigation, nature, spirituality, research, administration, promotion, conflict, subcultures, rhetoric, death, and crime.

HOPE THIS IS HELPFUL. VARIATION IN REQUESTS MEANS WE’RE GOING OUT OF ORDER, BUT WE WILL RETURN TO THE OTHERS LATER. FEEL FREE TO MESSAGE WITH QUESTIONS, THOUGHTS, IDEAS, ETC. THANKS SO MUCH. PART 7 WILL BE FOCUSED ON MERCURY-RULED 10TH LORD NAKSHATRAS! ♡

[hyatoro]

what class would the yans be in a fantasy rpg setting!! feel like kayden gives warlock vibes…

Wonderful question! As a Dungeons & Dragons player I’ll be referring to a lot of the 5e system here. 

So you were close, but because Kayden Nguyen’s powers are inherent to him he’d be a Psionic Soul Sorcerer. He could take some levels in warlock, especially with you as his patron, but his base class is definitely sorcerer. He was born with his powers and had them even before he met you, the reader. 

Augustine Carver is the second obvious one as a Paladin. Your knight in a shining suit of armor that would gladly smite someone in your name. His oath can depend on how his life plays out. Think either Oath of Vengeance or Oathbreaker. He could go either way based on how you, the villainess, view the royal couple. Vengeance for himself, Oathbreaker so he could be your sword. Let him dirty his hands for you. 

Franklin Russell is an Arcane Trickster Rogue with super high charisma and dexterity. Big on illusion and enchantment magic, but he’s also a sneaky little shit. You might mistake him for an innocent bard, and that’d be what he wants you to think. Like you’d only know if you think about his mechanics, not just how he presents himself. 

Hwang Minsu, if we're being brutal, is a plain commoner.  If he had to have a class though then it’d be something like a Ranger. He is not adventurous and is mostly a victim of his circumstance. The bow is what feels most comfortable in his hands, where he’s away from the danger.. If he were to be forced to get good enough to subclass then he’d be a clumsy Gloomstalker Ranger. A weird combination I know, but he’s very uncomfortable with it all and it shows. 

Now I’m imagining them as a party and it is rough. Specifically because they’re wildly different levels in comparison to each other. 

Minsu is 3rd level, specifically giving him Umbral Sight making him “adept at evading creatures that rely on darkvision”. 

Kayden is 6th+ level, plenty of room for growth, but having Psychic Strike is important for his character. His early growth is fast but then he plateaus. When the reader meets him he’s like level 3. 

Franklin is a 9th level Arcane Trickster for Magical Ambush. In a world where death is a lot more normalized then that would be his preferred method of removal just because of how permanent it is. He lives in some middle-low populated place, so not a lot of resources nor the skilled personnel for reviving people. Works out fine for him. Plus an invisible mage hand is very useful.

Augustine pre-timeskip is around 7th level. Post-timeskip he’s pushing 13th to 15th level. He just has that much more experience compared to the others, hence the huge gap in levels. 

If you’re wondering why Franklin is higher level than Kayden, that's because he’s much more comfortable with his role and his class. He found it all on his own and is capable of a lot narratively. Kayden has more potential in terms of pure magic, but it’s not always about that now is it? These are just their classes and levels based on how I introduce them in their posts. 

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi!

Do you have any tips about writing a dark comedy?

Thanks! :)

Dark Comedy Tips

*** Content warning for dark themes and references to methods of unaliving ***

1 - Employ Well-Timed "Gallows Humor" - Gallows humor is humor that treats serious, frightening, or painful subject matter in a light or satirical way.

One of my favorite uses of gallows humor is a literal one, and it happened in real life. Upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence--which was treason against the English crown--Benjamin Franklin reportedly quipped, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

The musical 1776 drew the gallows humor out from there...

Hancock: Alright, step right up, gentlemen. Don't miss your chance to commit treason. Franklin: Hancock is right. This document is our passport to the gallows. But there's no backing out now, for if we do not hang together, we shall most assuredly hang separately. Hancock: Gentlemen, forgive me if I don't join in the merriment, but if we are arrested now, my name is still the only one on the damn thing!

This scene qualifies as dark humor/gallows humor because there was a very real threat that these men would be punished--perhaps even hung--for their participation in the revolution and declaring independence from the British crown. Despite the very real threat, they're making jokes about it.

2 - Be Thoughtful About Jokes and Timing - It's super important, though, to be thoughtful about the types of jokes you make and the timing. Moments of real tragedy, where the reader is likely to be really upset, are not usually the best time or source for dark humor.

So, for example, the above scene from 1776 wouldn't have hit right if they'd just learned that one of the other congressmen had in fact just lost their life at the gallows.

And don't be an edgelord. Dark humor isn't about making deliberately outrageous jokes in an attempt to shock or offend people. You don't want to be heavy-handed.

3 - Meaning Matters - Ultimately, you want to avoid making jokes for the sake of making jokes. The goal with the humor is to hold up a mirror to how effed up the situation is. Franklin's quip about the Declaration of Independence being a "passport to the gallows" for anyone who signed it illustrates how truly absurd it is that simply signing a piece of paper to declare independence from a parent nation would be reason enough to end someone's life. It's a lot more nuanced than that, probably, but you get the point.

So, think about what you want the reader to take away from the story. What are you trying to say? What does it all mean? The bulk of your jokes should be building upon or delivering that message in some way.

4 - The More Absurd the Better - Absurdity based in reality is another common element of dark humor. Over-the-top escalation of conflict, boundaries pushed to their plausibly ridiculous limits, preposterous plot twists, logical conclusions taken to illogical places, and brutal emotional honesty... Hyperbole can be an effective tool to illustrate the absolute nonsense that is so much of human existence.

5 - Consistency is Key - Last but not least, it's important to be consistent. Dark humor isn't something you introduce suddenly. It should be there from the beginning, in whatever capacity it can be, so as not to give the reader tonal whiplash. They should know right from the start that this is a dark comedy. Your really want the dark and light elements to be woven seamlessly together.

Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

I see a United States which can demonstrate that, under democratic methods of government, national wealth can be translated into a spreading volume of human comforts hitherto unknown…But here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I see tens of millions of its citizens…who at this very moment are denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards of today call the necessities of life…The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

—Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, Washington, DC, Jan 20, 1937

(Robert Scott Horton)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Down in the (link)dumps

On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine. On October 2, I'll be in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab.

Back when I was writing on Boing Boing, I'd slam out 10-15 blog posts every day, short hits that served as signpost and public notebook, but I rarely got into longer analysis of the sort I do daily now on Pluralistic. Both modes are very useful for organizing one's thoughts, and indeed, they complement each other:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

The problem is that when you write long, synthetic essays, they crowd out the quick hits. Back in May 2022, I started including three short links with each edition of Pluralistic, in a section called "Hey look at this" (thanks to Mitch Wagner for suggesting it!):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/01/reit-modernization-act/#linkdump

But even with that daily linkdump, I still manage to accumulate link-debt, as interesting things pile up, not rising to the level of a long blog-post, but not so disposable as to be easy to flush. When the pile gets big enough, I put out a Saturday Linkdump:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

All of which is to say, it's Saturday, and I've got a linkdump!

First up, a musical interlude. I've been listening to DJ Earworm's amazing mashups since 2005 and while I've got dozens of tracks that shuffle in and out of my daily playlist, the one that makes me wanna get up and dance every time is "No One Takes Your Freedom," a wildly improbable banger composed of equal parts Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, George Michael and Scissor Sisters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaboIeW1A_4

I defy you to play that one without bopping a little. I think it's the French horn from "For No One" that really kills it, the world's least expected intro to a heavy dance beat.

Moving swiftly on: let's talk about fonts. I remember when Wired magazine first showed up at the bookstores I was working at in Toronto, and my bosses – younger men than I am now! – complained that the tiny, decorative fonts, rendered in silver foil on a purple background, was illegible. I laughed at them, batting my young eyes and devouring the promise of a better future with ease, even in dim light.

Now it's thirty years later and I'm half-blind. Both my my decaying, aging eyes are filmed with cataracts that I'm too busy to get removed (though my doc promises permanent 20:20, perfect night-vision, and implanted bifocals when I can spare a month from touring with new books to get 'em fixed).

Which is to say: I spend a lot more time thinking about legibility now than I did in the early 1990s, and I've got a lot more sympathy for those booksellers' complaints about Wired's aggressively low-contrast design today. I'm forever on the hunt for fonts designed for high legibility.

This week, Kottke linked to B612, a free/open font family "designed for aircraft cockpit screens," commissioned by Airbus. It's got all the bells and whistles (e.g. hinting) and comes in variable and monospace faces:

https://b612-font.com/

B612 arrived at a fortuitous moment, coinciding with a major UI overhaul in Thunderbird, the app I spend the second-most time in (I spend more time in Gedit, the bare-bones text-editor that comes with Ubuntu, the flavor of GNU/Linux I use). A previous Thunderbird UI experiment had made all the UI text effectively unreadable for me, causing me to dive deep into the infinitely configurable settings to sub in my own fonts:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/UserChrome.css

The new UI is much better, but it broke all my old tweaks, so I went back into those settings and switched everything to B612, and it's amazeballs. I tried doing the same in Gedit, but B612 mono was too light for my shitty eyes, so I went back to Jetbrains Mono, another free/open font that has 8 weights to choose from:

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/

Love me a new, legible font! Meanwhile, a note for all you designers: the received wisdom that black on white type is "hard on the eyes" is a harmful myth. Stop with the grey-on-white type, for the love of all that is holy. This isn't 1992, you aren't laying out type for Wired Issue 1.0. Contrast is good, actually.

Continuing on the subject of software updates: Mastodon, the free, open, federated social media platform that anyone can host and that lets you hop between one server and another with just a couple clicks, has released a major update, focusing on usability, especially for people unfamiliar with its conventions:

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/09/mastodon-4.2/

Included in this fix: a major overhaul to how you interact with posts on servers other than your home server. This was both confusing and clunky, and the fix makes it much better. They've also changed how sign-up flow works, making things simpler for newbies, and they've cleaned up the UI, tweaking threads, web previews and other parts of the daily experience.

There's also a lot of changes to search, but search still remains less than ideal, with multi-server search limited to hashtags. This is bad, actually. Thankfully, we don't have to wait for Mastodon devs to decide to fix it, because Mastodon is free and open, which means anyone with the skills to code a change, or the money to pay techies to do it, or the moral force to convince them to do it, can effect that change themselves:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/23/semipermeable-membranes/

Case in point: Mastoreader, a great new thread reader for Mastodon:

https://mastoreader.io/

Every time that guy who owns Twitter breaks it even worse, a new cohort of users sign up. Not all of them stay, but the growth is steady and the trendline is solid:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/of-course-mastodon-lost-users/

It's the right call: while there are other services that promise that they will be federated someday, promises are easy, and there's world of difference between "federateable" and "federated." As GW Bush told us, "Fool me twice, we don't get fooled again":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/06/fool-me-twice-we-dont-get-fooled-again/

One big difference between the kind of blogging I used to do in my Boing Boing days and the long-form work I do today is the graphics. When you're posting 10-15 times/day, you can't make each graphic a standout (or at least, I can't). But I can (and do) devote substantial time to making a single collage out of public domain and Creative Commons graphics every day:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/25/a-year-in-illustration/

I am not a visual person – literally, I can barely see! – but my daily art practice has slowly made me a less-terrible illustrator. I got in some good licks this week, like this graphic for the UAW's new "Eight-and-Skate" work-to-rule program:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/21/eight-and-skate/#strike-to-rule

That graphic was fun because all the elements were from the public domain, or fair use. I love it when that happens. I've spent years amassing a bulging folder of public domain clip art ganked from the web and this week, it got a major infusion, thanks to the Bergen Public Library's Flickr album of high-rez scans of antique book endpapers. 86 public domain textures? Yes please! (Also, the fact that Flickr has one-click download of all the hi-rez versions of every image in a photoset is another way that it stands out as a remnant of the old, good web, not so much a superannuated relic as an elegant weapon of a more civilized age):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bergen_public_library/albums/72157633827993925

Speaking of strikes: there are strikes! Everygoddamnedwhere! After 40 years in a Reagan-induced coma, labor is back, baby. The Cornells School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Labor Action Tracker is your go-to, real-time observation post as hot labor summer turns into the permanent revolution. As of this writing, it's listing 968 labor actions in 1491 locations:

https://striketracker.ilr.cornell.edu

There's no war but class war and it was ever thus. Brian Merchant's forthcoming book Blood In the Machine is a history of the Luddites, revisiting that much-maligned labor uprising, which has been rewritten as a fight between technophobes and the inevitable forces of progress:

https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/

The book unearths the true history of the Ludds: they were skilled technologists who were outraged by capital's commitment to immiseration, child slavery, and foisting inferior goods on a helpless public. You can get a long preview of the book in Fast Company:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90949827/what-the-luddites-can-teach-us-about-standing-up-to-big-tech

Merchant also talked with Roman Mars about the book on the 99 Percent Invisible podcast:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/blood-in-the-machine/transcript/

If that's piqued your interest and if you can make it to Los Angeles, come by Chevalier's Books this Wednesday, where Brian and I are having a joint book-launch (I've just published The Internet Con, my Luddite-adjacent "Big Tech Disassembly Manual"):

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/chevaliers-books-8495362156

Where is all this labor unrest coming from? Well as Stein's Law has it, "anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop." 40 years of corporate-friendly political economy has lit the world on fire and immiserated billions, and we've hit bottom and started the long, slow climb to a world that prioritizes human thriving over billionaire power.

One of the most tangible expressions of that vibe shift is the rise and rise of antitrust. The big news right now is the (first) trial of the century, Google's antitrust trial. What's that? You say you haven't heard anything about it? Well, perhaps that has to do with the judge banning recording and livestreaming and not making transcripts available. Don't worry, he's also locking observers out of his courtroom for hours at a time during closed testimony. Oh, and also? The DoJ just agreed that it won't post its exhibits from the trial online anymore. You can follow what dribbles of information as are emerging from our famously open court system at US v Google:

https://usvgoogle.org/trial-update-9-22

If the impoverished trickle of Google antitrust news has you down, don't despair, there's more coming, because the FTC is apparently set to drop its long-awaited suit against Amazon:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftc-poised-sue-amazon-antitrust-163432081.html

Amazon spent years blowing hundreds of millions of dollars of its investors' cash, selling goods below cost and buying up rivals until it became the most important channel for every kind of manufacturer to reach their customers. Now, Amazon is turning the screws. A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance details the 45% Amazon Tax that every merchant pays to reach you:

https://ilsr.org/AmazonMonopolyTollbooth-2023/

That 45% tax is passed on to you – whether or not you shop at Amazon. Amazon's secretive most favored nation terms mean that if a seller raises their price on Amazon, they have to raise it everywhere else, which means you're paying more at WalMart and Target because of Amazon's policies.

Those taxes are bad for us, but they're good for Amazon's investors. This year, the company stands to make $185 billion from junk-fees charged to platform sellers. As David Dayen points out, Amazon charges so much to ship third-party sellers' goods that it fully subsidizes Amazon's own shipping:

https://prospect.org/power/2023-09-21-amazons-185-billion-pay-to-play-system/

That's right: as Stacy Mitchell writes in the report, "Amazon doesn’t have to build warehousing and shipping costs into the price of its own products, because it’s found a way to get smaller online sellers to pay those costs."

Now, one of the amazing things about antitrust coming back from the grave is that just the threat of antitrust enforcement can moderate even the most vicious bully's conduct. Faced with the looming FTC case, Amazon just canceled its plan to charge even more junk fees:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/amazon-drops-planned-merchant-fee-ftc-lawsuit-looms-bloomberg-news-2023-09-20/

But despite this win, Amazon is still speedrunning the enshittification cycle. The latest? Unskippable ads in Prime Video:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-22/amazon-prime-video-content-to-include-ads-staring-early-2024

Remember when Amazon promised you ad-free video if you'd lock yourself into shopping with them by pre-paying for a year's shipping with Prime? The company has fully embraced the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further."

That FTC case can't come a moment too soon.

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/2023/09/23/salmagundi/#dewey-102