#I try to keep it at a 60/40 ratio of talking about them and about me also. It's an exchange of information so you do also have to share

[anglerflsh]

*trying not to sound desperate* what's your system for not struggling with social relations?

people like it when they're given subtle compliments and when you let them talk about their own achievements, so, as long as you can get someone to think you're genuinely interested in their life they should come out of it with a good opinion of you + also people love complaining together so if you can try and bring up something you both dislike enough to have a fun rant on

[tabby-shieldmaiden]

I’ve decided that I would like to try and write Shonen with Women. Like that one popular tumblr post talking about it. There’s a handful of close-enough cases. But there’s not tons and tons such that you can have something for everyone. I would like to try and write something like that.

And I have decided on a list of things which I should try to engage with, so that I can get somewhere within the vicinity of ‘Shonen with Women’.

The first thing is, obviously, Shonen animanga. I want to try and engage with some of the ones which have like. Female leads. Notably big casts of women. At least 60/40 ratios. I’ve watched Soul Eater and JoJo part 6, and I may rewatch or reread them. I’ve watched Chainsaw Man, and I think I really should read it. I should look at some of the other big names too. I think I’ll get to TTGL and Demon Slayer both for social reasons (friends who like it and who I can talk to about), and because they are short in comparison to some shonen. But some of the longer stuff does interest me. In particular, I have an interest in Naruto, both because to some people, it does seem to symbolise some platonic ideal of ‘Shonen animanga’, and because it is notoriously known for poorly handling its female characters. I think it would be interesting to try and play around with it, therefore.

The second thing is just. Miscellaneous other works which fall under ‘boy-targeted action-adventure story with sff elements’. Which is what most people mean when they talk about capital S Shonen. Like, ‘shonen’ is a demographic, but capital S Shonen is a genre. Most of these works which aren’t animanga are Western works, in particular North American works. This is partially for social reasons, because I have friends who I can talk to about superhero cartoons and miscellaneous other ‘boy’ targeted media. But it is also because I think it will be interesting to compare and contrast and see in what ways things differ, and what ways they stay the same.

The third thing on my list are magical girl media. This is for interest reasons and social reasons. Also, it’ll be interesting to compare and contrast. The escapist heroism fantasy for boys vs the escapist heroism fantasy for girls. What ways are they the same? What ways are they different?

The fourth is like, fringe cases. Things people hold up as ‘Shonen with Women’ already which aren’t quite neatly magical girl. RWBY (which I have previously watched) and Worm (which I have not read) fall under here. But if there’s any more things which are like this, I will keep a lookout. RWBY wasn’t really for me, but I do want to rewatch it all at least once so that I can stew on it and what it does a little more. 

It’ll also be good for me to look at some other SFF works too, since so much of this sort of media has very obvious fantasy and science fiction elements to them. I still won’t read Lord of the Rings though, simply because too many people said that I had to read Lord of the Rings. I couldn’t even sit through the movies. My Mom was watching The Two Towers in cinemas and I think she had to leave midway because I decided it was time for me to be born*. If I ever had a natural disposition, it may just be disinterest in the goings-on of Middle Earth.

The sixth thing is like. I would like to know more about leftism. Economics, certainly, but also. Feminism and queer rights, postcolonialism, disability theory, and all sorts of other readings. This is for personal reasons, to become a better activist. But also, I feel like I will have to be prepared to think about what I see. I need tools to be able to look at the media and dissect it, and see what wasn’t working there, and how I can take things and put them in my own work and make them more informed. If I were to write Shonen with Women, I will have to put some work into it to really make it stand out. I think a part of that will be grappling with all the uncheck assumptions that tend to be put into this sort of escapist media, and seeing if we can escape to better places.

Especially since so many works in my chosen genre are written by white or Japanese men, and I do want to write more obviously Southeast Asian fiction (in the sense of writing informed by the region’s history and culture). I think I will read postcolonial writings and feminist writings and Southeast Asian history and mix it with thoughts on all these other stories. I’ll start small. Learn about my country first. Then the direct neighbours. Learn about the whole region. Then on to South Asia and China and other Pacific Islanders and any other peoples who have had shared histories with the region. And I will keep learning more and more and keep jumping down rabbit holes. This is for my own curiosity, to understand where I am, and how to move forward. And hopefully, because these things are on my mind, they will mix with my animanga and action cartoon thoughts, and it will blossom into something worth writing about.

And of course, I will need to go get more life experiences. Learn more things about the world. Engage with non-fiction. Do things which aren’t fiction related. This is also an important part of being a good writer period. It’s not all about media consumption. It’s learning facts about science and going out with family and friends and learning new things, and having all those experiences fuel my writing.

So yeah. I guess that’s it. My list of things I will try and engage with in order to try and write Shonen with Women. My current WIP isn’t quite it. My next WIP idea may be closer. I don’t have a third long-form one yet. But who knows. Maybe after engaging with all these things, I will find something that I can say, while also saying it by writing women battle each other in dramatic, magical and/or scifi-ish fights. 

*Either that, or it was before or after the movie. They were not very clear telling the story.

[prpfs]

Hello everyone! 21+ writer looking for 18+ writers for a nsfw Shadow and Bone RP! 🕊️ About me: I'm a lit multi-para writer and my timezone is CET. I'm relatively active and try to get at least one reply a day in, but if I'm invested, it'll probably be more. I'd ask that you are lit as well and write at least 2 paragraphs as well! I do enjoy talking ooc and share headcanons and ideas, but it's not a must :) As long as the plotting is not entirely on me, we're good! What I'm looking for: I'm looking for any gender, preferably oc x oc, though oc x cc is fine too (I can play either cc or oc.) I usually play male characters, but I can write any gender. I'd prefer to write mxm or mxf. I'm looking for a good 60/40 smut to plot ratio. I don't really have many limits, and I'd love to explore darker plots and themes, potentially including dead dove stuff like non-con, 🍪, incest, etc. There isn't really anything specific I'm looking to include, so I'm open to accommodate any limits :) Plot ideas These are rough ideas and not something we have to do but I'd love to write a plot between a fjerdan witchhunter and a grisha. Maybe the Fjerdan Witchhunter catches the Grisha using his powers, or the Grisha is already captured and encounters the druskelle in prison or on their way there. The drüskelle could help the Grisha escape or even keep their secret, but this plot could also get pretty dark. Another setting I'd love to write is something between two criminals in Kerch. Maybe one of them is newer to the scene and encounters an older criminal, who shows them the ropes or even sees them as a rival and chaos ensues. But I'm also very open to any other ideas! If this sounds interesting to you, please leave a like and I'll get back to you!

like if you're interested and anon will get back to you

[heterodropit]

I literally haven't been a straight majority space for so long that when I went to a party last night where the lgbt ratio was like 40 lgbt - 60 cis straight, it was horrible. straight girls who are mean are SO mean. my god. back in highschool type shit. thank god my nice friends were there but it felt like I was in a group project at school again for the first time in years. that condescending tone, like they're talking to a weird child... also BIZARRE element of straight culture is how these girls think board games are not fun? and are like actively hostile to people who like them bc their boyfriends drag them along so it's like an anti-boyfriend thing. also also girl I would talk about your hobbies if you would even talk to me! anyways I got autistic hatecrimed rather than lesbian hatecrimed cause I don't think any of these people even talked enough to know I was a lesbian they just thought I was weird. and I am so friendly or at least I try. anyways ban mean straight people forever and keep the nice ones instead

[your-dietician]

Opinion: Your portfolio needs diversification. Here’s the best way to go about it in these volatile times

New Post has been published on https://medianwire.com/opinion-your-portfolio-needs-diversification-heres-the-best-way-to-go-about-it-in-these-volatile-times/

Opinion: Your portfolio needs diversification. Here’s the best way to go about it in these volatile times

If you’re trying to figure out how to make sure you’ve always got the best mix of investments, there are general rules, questionnaires about risk and all sorts of academic approaches. But it can be hard to translate the conclusions to your situation, especially if you, like most people, have a complicated financial life with many unrelated accounts.

A working adult might have a 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, a taxable brokerage account and a money-market account. You might also have a crypto wallet or two, a high-yield savings account with CDs, a TreasuryDirect.gov account for I-bonds and other Treasurys, pensions, or other retirement plans lingering at old employers. Double that if you’re married.

Take the classic 60/40 portfolio construction, which means putting 60% of your investments in stocks and 40% in bonds, or other fixed-income investments. If you were relying on that, you’d be pretty confused right now. In today’s market, the 60/40 portfolio is either dying or rising from the dead, depending on whom you ask. And if you have money in many different places, what parts of it count toward that portfolio ratio?

You can always value the underlying message of the 60/40 portfolio, which is about diversification. You need both stocks and bonds as a hedge, because typically when one is up, the other is down, and you can cut your losses this way.

The bull market run-up after the 2008-2009 Great Recession seemed to change that equation. People needed extra convincing to stay in bonds, given how minuscule yields were. 

Then this year both stock DJIA, -0.10%

SPX, -0.33% and bond markets TMUBMUSD10Y, 3.899% tumbled (hence the death knells). Yet others already see the light at the end of the tunnel. “We think the long-term outlook has brightened quite a bit,” says Barry Gilbert, asset allocation strategist for LPL Financial. 

Given today’s economic conditions, it’s time to think broadly about all of your accounts together and reassess what you need to do going forward into unknown economic territory, no matter what your personal ratio.

Messy accounts for a reason

It might seem like a mess, but you need an array of accounts because they serve different purposes for your goals, which have distinct time horizons. Your retirement, for instance, might be 20 years away, and you benefit from the tax deferment. But the money you keep in your brokerage account might be for a coming large purchase. 

Diversifying your money across accounts also helps you avoid the biggest mistake most advisers see in a downturn, which is cashing out and missing the upswing. “A year ago, we were reminding people that fixed-income has a role. Now we’re reminding people that both stocks and bonds are important, because they all ask: Should I just be in cash?” says Nathan Zahm, head of goal-based investing research for Vanguard. 

Consider those who have a trading account, like one of Robinhood’s HOOD, +2.11% 14 million monthly active users. Those accounts are mostly in stocks, as the platform doesn’t trade bonds (or mutual funds), although some might hold bond or money-market ETFs. These investors will want to calculate what portion of their financial holdings are in that taxable account and weigh that against their other money, to make sure they have a balance that’s appropriate for them. 

Some brokerage overviews or services like Mint will aggregate a wide view for you. But at the end of the day, it might take a spreadsheet to really see what you have, because not all your accounts will talk to each other.

Remember that if you track this manually, it will just be for a moment in time. Your list would not update dynamically as the value of the accounts change, and that’s what matters most for the necessary rebalancing that would keep you aligned with your goals. You’d be 60/40 until the market close on that day, and then come what may. 

Should your target asset mix really be 60/40?

For the most part, 60/40 is a philosophical starting point. “The 60/40 portfolio isn’t automatically best. Practically speaking, you’d want to be at the level that’s right for you,” says Gilbert. 

That optimal mix will depend on your age, the size of your nest egg and your goals, and it’s not a magic or a static number. It doesn’t even have to be a round number. One way to figure it out is to look at the way target-date funds for retirement use a “glide path” that shifts more conservative over time. Even if you don’t invest in target-date funds, you want to create a similar slope for yourself, and not just stick with 60/40 for decades. 

For instance, Vanguard explains that its target-date funds basically only hit 60/40 around age 60, and then continue getting more conservative from there. 

Schwab generally sets its funds to hit 60/40 at about five to six years from the target retirement age. “It’s one point in time. For any allocation, you have to evolve,” says Jake Gilliam, managing director for research at Schwab. 

A sample from Schwab’s Target 2065 Index Fund

Schwab also adjusts the stocks and bonds within the allocation. “Younger customers will have more international, small cap or emerging markets. As you move older, we’re adjusting those sub-asset class allocations,” Gilliam adds. 

This kind of sloped setup still allows for side money if you want to take a portion of your holdings and put it in crypto, meme stocks or keep it in cash under your mattress. It’s just human nature. “We know behaviorally that it can actually drive better discipline,” says Zahm. “If somebody has a side pool of money that’s a few percent to have fun with, then they behave better with the main 95%.” 

Just make sure to count your side account in with your big picture eventually and make sure you’re not letting those positions pull you away from your target asset mix, whether that’s 60/40 or another ratio. 

“There’s nothing wrong with thinking in buckets, but eventually all the small buckets go into one big bucket,” says Gilbert. 

More from MarketWatch

Investors have been tested this year — do you have what it takes to succeed?

Reset your retirement calculator now for today’s bleaker stock markets and make sure you’re still on track

No matter your age, here’s how to tell if your finances are on the right track

Why the 60/40 portfolio is a worthy strategy even though stocks and bonds are weak

Here’s one way to potentially get more from a 60/40 portfolio

Read the full article here

[marimagines]

Night Care | Levi X Reader

Between - Levi x Reader

Genre - Fluff, modern!au

Words - 3,990 [kinda short but its cute :] 

Summary - You give Levi the care he oh so is desperate for and the sleep that his body and mind demand for. along with that care, you finally get a chance to introduce him to a routine that he promises to follow.

Warnings - none [just a little teasing] and just cute Levi :[

A/n - I came up with this while doing my night time routine and I just had to write. It’s just Levi being a soft baby and I’m here for it :( I hope you all like itttt

It was finally one of those nights when you and Levi would spend time together. His immense amount of work would always keep him occupied even when he’d be home sometimes. It had always distracted him from life or he’d have to ignore many things. Levi was one loyal and devoted person in your eyes. To his work but also his loved ones. No matter how busy he’d be, he had always managed to make time to send you a text or call you and if neither of those seemed like the options, he’d send a voice note of him just talking while his mind and body would be busy with work.

You always appreciated his effort that he put so passionately in everything he did. So whenever you went out or whenever you see him, you made sure that he didn’t have to worry about making you upset with his busy schedule. Thankfully, you always managed to make him smile. Well, you didn’t really have to try, Levi was already so soft and in awe with your entire existence. Everything you did left an impact on him and sometimes he’d just sit back and smile to himself by remembering something about you. Like how you smile when you see him, or how you hug him or how you’d act cute or funny. It was just you. He was soft for you and you could sit silently and he would still feel his heart flutter at that sight.

Tonight, Levi finally checked out of work earlier. He had finished everything that was due today and even managed to finish certain tasks before the future deadlines. You greeted him with a smile and he just went for an embrace. His hands resting in your waist and his face buried in your neck. He groans out when you asked about his day and that was enough to know how exhausted he must’ve been.

“I should have a talk with Erwin to let you off the hook and lessen this mountain of work on you,” you say as you place the food on the table for him, a pout settled on your lips. Levi had only chuckled at your words, clearly knowing the sarcastic tone you speak in. It was cute though. He lowkey would want to see you telling off Erwin.

“That’s just how it is, honey,” he replies softly before picking up his utensils. His eyebrows furrow when you stop him but as soon as he sees that you were going to serve him the food, his expressions soften along with his heart. A smile stretches his lips and he whispers a thank you before you both begin to eat.

Throughout dinner, the two of you share details of your day today or you’d share a comfortable silence. Levi wasn’t one to talk much when he ate so you always made sure to divide the silence and talking to a 60-40 ratio. He probably wouldn’t want to talk so much especially after a long day. But that silence was also filled with sweet eye contact or sweet actions like adding more food to each other’s plates or feeding one another every now and then. Once dinner was done, you sort out the dishes and put away the leftovers along with a mini quarrel of an attempt to stop him from washing the dishes. His defense was that you had a long day yet you still cooked so the least he could do was clean it up for you. You both were neat freaks. Your hearts find peace when things are organized and well put together so whenever one of you offers to do a job of cleaning or organizing, you knew to fully trust each other at that. That’s just how it is and you both were content with it.

Levi was busy drying the plates and utensils while you decided to run a warm bath for the two of you. These nights were the most important nights for you two. The nights you just unwind from all the world and just bask in each other’s existence. Even if you don’t talk or end up napping together, just knowing the other is here and near was more than enough to be grateful for these nights. Some nights you’d end up fucking or making love, some nights you’d take a stroll outside and enjoy the scenery and breeze and some nights... you’d both prefer to spend it in the expanse of your apartment. You anticipated these nights the most. Being able to take care of Levi was something you practically live for.

The sound of the faucet opening pops you back into reality and you smile at Levi who was staring at you with a certain glow in his eyes and his toothbrush in his mouth. As he proceeded to cleanse his face with his face wash, you turned off the faucet of the bathtub and move to take off your clothes. You could just feel Levi’s eyes on you as he was rubbing the product unto his smooth face.

Since you were done with your brushing and cleansing already, you slowly lower yourself into the warm bathtub which was now starting to feel and smell heavenly due to the bath salts and a new product you had purchased a few days back. One of your way of escaping the struggles of life was to go shopping not for clothes or shoes, but for things like candles or mists or body care such as shower gels or bath products. Anything that brought you a sense of tranquility in your soul. And whenever you found something you loved, you’d share it with Levi and sometimes even consider adding it to a treatment or package in your beauty salon. Working in the same place as Levi was always fun but your passion and goal had always been to open up your own makeup studio or a beauty salon and thankfully with Levi’s ultimate support and help, you managed to succeed in that goal of yours. Hence why Levi always trusted you whenever you brought him a product for him to wear though he could never keep a certain routine and only stuck to one moisturizer. Regardless, you were amazing at it. You excelled at it and that’s why you are where you are right now. He was proud of you.

Once Levi was done with stripping himself of his clothing too, he carefully joins you in the bathtub that you somehow made it feel so magical. He lets out a relaxed groan as he dips into the water and you giggle at him from behind.

“Don’t you want me behind?” He asks as he was usually the one who’d be behind but tonight you were the one who was leaning against the curve of the rose gold marble bathtub. Your entire apartment was a mixture of soothing colors of black, grey, white and rose gold. By researching and constantly trying to help your husband with his stress, you decided the house to be as minimalistic and sleek as possible. Too much clutter might make him feel suffocated. And due to your researches together, the two of you agreed to the beautifully neutral and minimalistic designed apartment you have right now.

“No,” you reply softly as your palms rest on his shoulders, carefully massaging them. “Tonight is about taking care of you, Mr. Ackerman.” You whisper and leave a kiss on his shoulder and neck. He lets out another groan at the feeling of comfort and leans towards your touch.

Your hands were caressing his body as far as your arms could reach while massaging him and helping him relax. He was quiet for the most part and you didn’t mind that either. Your baths together were sometimes silent like today’s. Levi was the one who would usually be washing you or caressing your body but today you figured it’s time he receives too. He leans back to rest his head between your breasts, and closes his eyes while your hand was teasing his member. He gasps silently when your fingers wrap around his tip and your hand moves up and down but neither of you had any sort of energy to fuck each other tonight and you both knew that. You pause the teasing when he holds your hand and interlocks his fingers with yours. He simpers silently, a look of cockiness on his face and starts to speak.

“You’re so tiny,” he remarks softly.

“I’m almost the same height as you,” you retaliate at his words, the audacity this man had to say that to you while he was on the smaller scale too.

“Still taller than you, honey.” He boasts.

“By an inch or two.”

“Tch,” he finally lets out his defeat remark.

“Tch,” you decide to mimic him.

“Tch.”

“Tch.”

“Tch,” he says as a grin dares to paint his face and you feel it.

“Tch,” you giggle out too. Your expression softens when he kisses your hand, the foam transferring from your hands to his face. You giggle once again and move your hands to wipe away the foam quickly before they enter his mouth.

“This smells good, is it new?” He hums out and inhales loudly, trapping the scent inside his nose. It really did smell nice.

“Yep, I got it recently. It’s from BBW’s aromatherapy line. It’s supposed to help you sleep,” you explain softly while Levi was silently gathering the foam in front of him and watching it. You end up smiling at his cute behavior and then it hits you. Does he really notice all these tiny things you do? “I didn’t think you’d notice this.” You whisper.

“What? I do. You enjoy these things and it brings you joy. Of course I’d notice,” he points out. “You leaving our work to achieve your goal was one of the best decision of your life. I saw your energy change. Seeing how this new work of yours makes you happy and express yourself makes me happy.” He adds as his hands play with yours. He was usually short and blunt with words but he could go on forever if it was you he had to compliment or talk to. That’s just how he felt, he trusted you and felt comfortable with you. You sit silently with a pout and kiss the back of his head.

“I love you,” you express yourself, resting your head on his whole happiness fills your heart. Though these three words weren’t enough to describe the fuzzy and warm feeling he manages to leave your soul with.

Once the two of you were done with the bath, you slip into your comfy night clothes; yours a short baby pink satin nightdress that stopped mid thigh and Levi decided to wear his dark grey sweats with his loose white top. You loved him in that outfit; he always looked so welcoming in it.

The two of you did a lot of things in sync but one thing was almost never in sync... your nighttime routine. You always took your time to apply the products on your face and body before you decide to sink into bed and today was no different. You sit on your long two-seater ottoman which you placed in front of your vanity. Even your vanity was organized. One side was dedicated to Levi; which had his body cream, his perfumes, his moisturizer. That was pretty much it but tonight there were some new products there. When you were out buying and looking at skincare products, you figured your husband should need to start his routine properly and picked up some new products to keep him feeling fresh and protected from sunlight, aging, and just keeping him glowing and looking fresh. You look up to see Levi from the mirror’s reflection, plopping down on the bed, his legs hanging from the edge as he grabs his phone to scroll through it. You were silently hoping this new bath foam you got would work and he’d get some sleep. Levi always had trouble sleeping and you were constantly trying this and that to make sure he got more than 2 hours of sleep. With the look of his eyes and eyebags, you knew he was desperate for sleep but he just didn’t know how to lure himself into that state.

“Oh,” he suddenly says and you look back at him through the mirror reflection. He was sitting up now and looking at you. “Erwin gave us a day off tomorrow.” He announces.

“Well, isn’t that nice.” You smile at him as your hands were busy working their routine of applying products on your face and body; knowing exactly what to do. You never skipped your night routine and your hands simply knew by now what to do even when your mind didn’t.

Your eyes were planted on Levi; you just wanted him to come and do his routine but you didn’t want to bother your weary husband. Before you could even say or do anything, Levi gets up from the bed and walks towards you to join you on the bench; as if he heard the thought in your mind. His eyes centered on the new addition on his side and you suddenly realize what he was wondering. A smile creeps on your face when you notice the curiosity in his eyes, like a child who had entered a toy store or a bird who just left its nest and had the entire world to explore. The little glow in his eyes contrasted the furrow of his brows clearly indicated that this man right here was confused to what each of these did. Sure you had told him before but you knew he’d need more than just one push hence why you never stopped bringing him skincare along with yours. Tonight it seemed like the night you could educate him and use your expertise to convince him why he needs to listen to you.

“It’s for you. All of it,” you clarify and a nod comes from him. You chuckle at Levi when he pops open a moisturizer and moves to sniff at it.

“It smells nice,” he adds. “But I just need moisturizer, babe. You didn’t have to get all,” his hand proceeds to make a circle on top of the dresser as he continues, “this.”

“Yes I did,” you defend yourself. “We are turning old. We should take extra care of yourselves, don’t you think?” You get up and move to stand between Levi’s legs to which he automatically spreads them open to give you space. He looks up at you with eyes observing you. You lean against the vanity, your hands wrapping around Levi’s neck. “I will take care of you, Mr Ackerman, so you can get a tip or two.” You say nonchalantly with a smile. Levi ends up chuckling too since he knew your tone was the same tone you use at work. You grab a fluffy hair band that had bear ears on top and move to put it on Levi; pushing his hair back and revealing his flawless skin. Levi sat there glaring at you but you knew from the glow in his eyes that he could care less about it. You start with the routine as you grab a cotton pad and open up the toner bottle. “First of all, you need to apply a toner to bring back the moisture you lost from washing your face.” You explain as you bend over and come closer to his face while your hand moves to pat his face softly with the cotton. Levi’s eyes were on you the entire time you spoke; you didn’t even know if he was shy or if he was listening or why he was even staring but the entire time, his eyes never left your figure or movements. Never missed the product you used or the way his eyes would fall to your lips as you speak. It was almost as if his eyes were stuck on you. You still continue the routine, explaining each step as you go on, giving him tips he should know like to not rub in products aggressively but to pat them in more, or how he should apply them in an upward direction and avoid the downward direction, and you continuously remind him why each product is important. Levi listened intently and carefully, he knew that you knew what you were talking about but he was more in awe with how powerful you looked being in your element. “And lastly,” you twirl open the cap of a night cream. “The night cream.” You apply the cream onto your ring finger and gently apply it on his cheeks, his chin, forehead and then you grin as you put it on his nose, making a ‘boop’ sound, which causes you to earn a smile from him too. He was sitting there quietly the entire time you almost felt like he was a customer at your salon or like a little child, carefully trying their best to focus on your words or in awe with the knowledge you had. You rub and pat in the product and step back when he clears his throat, signaling that he wants to speak.

“How do I know what cream to put at night?” Your lips stretch into another smile as you hear how genuine curiosity wrapped around his tone. He was too cute tonight.

“It says it on the package, dear.” You point at the two creams behind you and move away slightly to let him see it. His eyes finally move away from you and land on the vanity as he silently nods in understanding like a student finally understanding a math problem. You give his face one final pat before you stand up straight and politely grin at him. “And we’re done,” you start to move away before he grabs your hands and kisses them.

“Thank you,” he says as his thumb gently draws circles on top of your hands. “Do you have coupons?” Your eyebrows furrow at his odd and random question and he elaborates more as he realizes that must’ve confused you. “I want to give it to the kids... Connie, Jean, Eren... you know. The kids.” He stumbles on his words when he notices the smile your face had. He was flustered because he knew that you know how soft he is for his team.

You nod silently and giggle. “Yes Levi, I do have coupons. Make sure you give it to the girls too.” You tease him, emphasizing on the word ‘girls’, as you sit down next to him and go through your drawer to look for the coupons. Levi looks from behind you too but then indulges at his new glowy skin as he pats his cheeks the way you had earlier. He suddenly feels proud of you again and a smirk paints his face as his eyes twinkle at the sight that is you. He notices you hadn’t brushed your hair yet so he gets up to stand behind you and pulls you back to make you sit up straight. Your eyes meet in the reflection of the mirror and before you could ask what he was doing, he beats you to it.

“You didn’t braid your hair. I’ll do it for you,” he leans forward to grab your hair brush and softly brushes your hair back and starts braiding it.

“The coupons are in this drawer. Take as many as you like,” you tell him after a while. He nods at your words.

“Will you do this every night?” He asks with a child like tone that wraps your heart with warmth. How could you even say no to him.

“Do what?” You tease him.

“This, my routine.” You knew he was flustered when he starts using small words.

“No,” you watch his lips quickly drop to a pout and a laughter breaks from your lips. “You have to do it too, Levi. We’ll do it side by side so you know the steps.”

“What if I use coupons?” Another laughter bursts out from your chest at how he tried to get this victory. You were pleased to know he liked it though.

“How about this, I’ll do your night routine for you three times a week,” you suggest as your hand raises three fingers and you wait for a response from him.

“Four.” He demands and attempts to negotiate.

“Three.”

“Four. I only use one coupon per week. You do it three times weekly and fourth would be if I use coupon.” He adds a new deal.

Feeling satisfied with the deal, you nod. “Deal.”

Once you were done with the time of sitting in front of the vanity, you both walk back to the bed but then you remember one last step. Body lotion. You bring the bottle to him and earn a “Tch” from him but he applies it regardless by watching you do it. Levi moves his hand to open up your braid too. It was something you always did, you didn’t sleep with your hair tied but you braid it before sleeping only to open it up after a few minutes. It helped your hair not to go crazy when you lay down. It melts your heart knowing how Levi knew even the smallest details of your routine and noticed things you didn’t think he would. You two share a loving smile as you continue to apply lotion together and joke around or tease each other a little. 

“Make sure to take care of your neck too, baby.” You remind him and you both work in sync in rubbing in the lotion onto your arms, chest, legs and neck. You apply your lip balm as usual and Levi shares it with you as you both move closer to perch in the middle of the bed. You two always shared your lip balm for some reason and you never complained nor minded it. To Levi, it made his heart fill up with love sharing your lip balm with you, patting his lips with the surface your lips had grazed over always made him go crazy inside. His excuse to why he did that was that he was too lazy to buy one or open a new one... even after he had confessed to it, he still rarely admitted every time you or someone else teased him about it.

After a while, your bodies were tangled with each other as you lay your head on his chest silently, listening to the rhythm of his heartbeat and basking in the scent of chamomile that you both bathed in and lotioned your bodies with. The scent bringing about a feeling of calm and sleep which was slowly creeping its way up on both of you. You knew the new aromatherapy you brought was working when you realize how sleepy Levi was getting too. He swiftly changes position as he lays on his side, his arms wrapped around your waist as you both move to the embracing position. He pulls you closer, burying his face on your chest right on top of your breast and under your neck and chin as he sharply inhales and relaxes afterwards. He always seemed to love doing that, especially when he was really exhausted or needed to sleep. You could feel the way his breathing was getting stable and the more you played with his hair and gently scratched his undercut, the more he got pulled into sleep. It was like a spell.

“Goodnight,” he mumbles against your skin after a while and pecks your open skin, pulling you even closer towards him.

“Goodnight baby... it’s time you sleep.” You kiss the top of his head as you both slowly fall into deep sleep together.

[merrybrides]

Figuring out how much booze you need for an open bar wedding is so confusing, there’s actually wedding alcohol calculator apps and diagrams and spreadsheets that have been created to try and help you out. Unfortunately we find most of them a bit more confusing than they have to be, so we’re going to try and break it down for us as easily as possible without making a powerpoint for you! 

OK. So here’s the most BASIC wedding alcohol calculator information you need to know, based on the number of guests you’re having. But first, below is a cheat sheet in case you really, really don’t feel like reading how to figure it out! 

Open Bar for 100 GUESTS:

70 bottles of wine

175 bottles of beer

15 bottles of liquor (750 ml)

20 bottles of champagne for toast (optional)

150 GUESTS:

105 bottles of wine

266 bottles of beer

22 bottles of liquor (750 ml)

30 bottles of champagne for toast (optional)

200 GUESTS:

140 bottles of wine

350 bottles of beer

30 bottles of liquor (750 ml)

40 bottles of champagne for toast (optional)

How did we come up with that? The math breaks down like this:

1. Figure Out How Long Your Wedding Reception/Cocktail Hour Will Be

Assume guests will have 2 drinks in the first hour of the open bar, and 1 additional drink each following hour. The total length of a wedding reception will vary but assume for general purposes it will be 5 hours (1 hour for your cocktail hour, and 4 hours for dinner/dancing).

So for a 5 hour cocktail hour/reception, that’s 6 drinks total per guest, which is what a lot of websites will recommend. Overall, we always like to err on the side of caution when it comes to an open bar and not running out, so we actually recommend adding one drink to that calculation, bringing it to 7 drinks per guest for a 5-hour event.

It’s not that people will consume 7 drinks/person, and of course not everybody will drink 2 or even 1, BUT you have to take into account how many times servers might pick up a half-full drink, or somebody misplaces theirs while dancing. It happens, and if you’re DIY’ing your own wedding bar with no extra inventory (like most wedding caterers have on hand), why take the chance? Extra bottles of wine that go unused after the wedding can make for great hostess or holiday gifts, and you won’t be freaking out thinking that you didn’t order enough alcohol.

2. Calculate How Many Drinks Come in a Bottle You’re Serving

5 glasses of wine in a 750 ml wine bottle (including champagne)

12 drinks in a 750 ml spirit bottle

And of course a bottle of beer is one serving.

I found this to be one of the most helpful, clear guides online to how many servings a bottle of alcohol in various sizes can pour.

3: Decide What You Want Your Alcohol Mix to Be

Note: For purposes of this article, we’re going to assume you’re having a full open bar (if you’re not, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered, below).

While sites like Total Wine encourage you to use a ratio of 50% wine drinkers, 30% beer, and 20% spirit drinkers, we think it’s safer to say 50% of guests want wine, 25% beer, and 25% want the hard stuff, though keep in mind you know your crowd better than anybody. For instance, at my wedding we had a lot of wine and spirit drinkers, so I would have made it 60% wine, 30% alcohol, 10% beer.

So using ALL those calculations, here’s how you would figure out just how much you need in total, assuming the percentages and everything else above for a 100 person wedding:

For 100 guests:

Wine:

(50% of guests)=50

x

(Number of Drinks Needed According to Total Hours) = 7

=350

/ (divided by)

(Number of glasses per bottle of wine) = 5

=70 bottles of wine needed

Beer:

(25% of guests) = 25

X

(Number of Drinks Needed According to Total Hours) = 7

=175 bottles of beer needed

Spirits:

(25% of guests) = 25

X

(Number of Drinks Needed According to Total Hours) = 7

=175

/

(Number of servings per 750ml bottle of liquor)= 12

=14.5 (round up to 15) bottles of liquor needed

OPTIONAL….

Champagne Toast:

(100% of guests) = 100

/

(Number of glasses per bottle of champagne) = 5

=20 bottles of champagne needed

TOTAL:

So to recap, for 100 guests you would need:

70 bottles of wine

175 bottles of beer

15 bottles of liquor (750 ml)

20 bottles of champagne for toast (optional)

Only Having Beer and Wine?

Of course if you’re only having beer and wine, the percentages you’ll need for each would just go up accordingly. So you would most likely assume a 60% wine and 40% beer mix, making your numbers look like:

84 bottles of wine

280 bottles of beer

While the wedding alcohol calculator numbers above are rough estimates, I again encourage you to take into consideration your crowd. Are they big drinkers? Pad each of those numbers by a few bottles. Do a handful of guests you know of DEFINITELY not drink? Take it down a notch or two. Also talk to your alcohol/wine store you are purchasing from and get their opinion. This wedding alcohol calculator is by no means set in stone, these numbers are just meant to provide a guide for you so you know where to start.

Ready to buy? If you’re using the wedding alcohol calculator formula we’ve come up with, above, the shopping list for it is below.

4: Compile Your Shopping List

Spirits

OK. So here’s where I think the hardest part comes in for all wedding alcohol calculators. How much to get of each spirit? For a basic full bar you’ll want to have vodka, gin, rum, tequila, and whiskey. From there consider adding a bottle or two of bourbon, scotch, brandy, and any other specialty spirits you love.

Here’s a well-rounded list you can go off of when deciding the vodka to whisky amount you’ll need, assuming you buy 15 bottles of liquor for 100 people. And again, if you have a specialty liquor you like consider adding that to this list as well.

6 vodka

4 whisky

2 gin

2 tequila

1 rum

Wine

For wine you’ll want to do a mix of each, leaning towards more red wine if you’re throwing an evening wedding. Wine Folly has an easy-to-understand ratio of what types of wine to get for a wedding or other party, below:

Fall, Winter and Spring weddings:   People tend to drink more red wine at indoor weddings in the fall, spring and winter. As a rule, have a mix of about 50% of red wine for this type of wedding.

Summer and Outdoor weddings:  Outdoor weddings on hot days will have people drinking more white wine. Consider a mix of 30% each of all 3 styles of wine. On the other hand, you might also think about serving rosé, especially if you’re serving fish or seafood.

So if you’re buying 70 bottles of wine, your shopping list for an evening wedding inside might look like:

35 red

23 white

12 sparkling (not including extra bottles if you’re having a toast)

Beer

A mix of 3 types of beer is perfect. In that case, I would do one pilsner, one lager, and one IPA (and try to make at least one of those mainstream enough for your Uncle Joe to enjoy, like a Miller Lite).

Mixers

You’ll want to have a variety of mixers available (and of course if you’re making specialty cocktails you’ll want to be sure to get everything you need that’s specific to those), as well as garnishes. One thing to note is that if you are hiring a bartender service (most venues require you have a licensed bartender) it’s often easier to let them supply the basic mixers and garnishes along with things like glassware and napkins.

In terms of mixers, plan on having the following for 100 guests:

10 Liters Club Soda or Seltzer

6 Liters  Ginger Ale

8 Liters  Cola

8 Liters Diet Cola

8 Liters Lemon-Lime Soda

6 Liters Tonic

3 Quarts each of any juice you want (plan on at least having orange, cranberry, and grapefruit)

2 bottles each of sour mix, grenadine, simple syrup, and bitters.

1 bottle each of dry and sweet vermouth

Garnishes

1/2 lemon/lime per guest (pre-sliced)

2 olives and cherries per guest

Phew. OK this article is WAY longer than we expected, and I’m sure there’s so much more we can include for future articles as well. In the meantime, are you having an open, DIY wedding bar? If so tell us how much you’re getting for it, below, and what wedding alcohol calculator you used and loved.

[bloodelves88]

Fundamental Game Design Problems with Genshin Impact

I’ve been playing Genshin Impact since its launch, and I’ve had some sort of a love-hate relationship with it. On one hand, I love the world, the characters, the story, and how it feels so carefree and beautiful. On the other hand, I really hate its leveling system, its gacha system, and the time-reward ratio of its activities.

I find that there are quite a few issues in Genshin Impact that just doesn’t make sense from a game design perspective. These issues make the player want to play less, or avoid features in the game that should not be avoided, and instead should be encouraged to explore. Coincidentally, the very same game design issues do encourage players to spend real money on the game, so I guess that’s the crux of the issue.

Issue 1: The Resin System

If you play Genshin Impact, we all saw this issue coming, didn’t we? 

Resin is basically the stamina/energy that you would know in other gacha games. The problem is that there’s just too little resin, which leads to almost every other problem that I’m going to talk about later.

In short, there’s just too little resin given to the player. The amount of time to recover resin is just too long for the amount of rewards given in exchange.

In Genshin Impact, you can spend resin on ley lines (random fights in the open world that give either character experience or money), domains (instanced fights that give you artifact equipment, or weapon ascension materials), and open world bosses (gives you character ascension materials). Nothing wrong with that, so far so good.

What if I told you that you need to spend approximately 5 hours worth of resin in order to get the rewards from a world boss, and that boss might not even drop the material? Just this past week alone, I spent about 5 days worth of resin on just one boss and nothing else, and I came out with no high tier materials at all. On the bright side, the game does allow you to combine lower tier materials into higher tier materials. This still doesn’t sound too bad... but read on to issue 2 and 3 to see why this becomes a problem that snowballs.

Another strange point is that the weekly quests require you to spend more resin than you can recover. This pretty much means that you must spend real money in order to complete the quest. Totally broken.

Issue 2: The World Level System

In Genshin Impact, there is something called a “World Level”. This determines the level of the monsters in the world, which in turn determines the quality of the loot that they drop.

The problem is, the world level increases as your adventure rank increases. Your adventure rank increases when you do pretty much anything in the game. Completing quests, opening chests, completing domains, defeating bosses, and completing ley lines all give you adventure rank experience. 

This means that you will be kept on your toes, and you cannot afford to spend your resin on things you do not need. God forbid that you end up with a high world level with weak characters. You’re pretty much dead if that happens. 

I’ve not found myself in such a situation yet, and I have no idea if it’s possible to break out of such an impasse. Too weak to farm materials, and no way to get around that. Big oof.  

It’s strange, because this is such a chill and calming game, but the system behind it is anything but. 

Ever since I hit adventure rank 30, I’ve avoided doing any random quests that I come across in the open world (game design problem: your players are avoiding quests). I simply do not want to level up! I’m scared of leveling up (game design problem: your players do not want to level up).

Now, why does this happen? The resin system! The player is just not able to farm enough to become strong enough to handle a higher world level.

There is a minor breather for this though. Every 10 adventure rank levels starting at level 25, there’s a trial that you have to pass before the world level will go up. This gives the you an infinite amount of time to catch up and farm whatever you want, and the world level will not go up. However, you will still earn adventure rank experience, which will all be added once you’ve passed the trial. I skipped level 26-30 this way and jumped two world levels because of this. Luckily, I was prepared enough to handle it.

You might think that this trial is there to counter this problem of being too weak in the world level you’re in. Nope. The boss (electro hypostasis) in the trial is one of the easiest bosses in the game due to a lack of an enrage timer (DPS check) and it has very obvious attacks that are easily dodged. So... it doesn’t gatekeep anything. 

Issue 3: The Leveling System

In Genshin Impact, your characters level up using character experience cards. These cards are dropped from chests, and are given as rewards from quests or ley lines.

In Genshin Impact, you also control a squad of four characters at a time, and elemental reactions and elemental advantages are a big part of the combat system. So, you aren’t just going to be able to get away with training one character, and I’d say that you would need about 6 characters to cover all your bases. 

I’ve personally leveled up two characters to 70, one to 60, two to 50, and one to 40. And I’m all out of character experience cards.

The problem? The resin system! Your main source of character experience cards in the late game would be from ley lines, and this requires resin if you want to gain rewards from it. But wait! I also need resin to farm weapon ascension materials and character ascension materials! Well, too bad. Welcome to Genshin Impact.

The fundamental game design issue from this is that it prevents the player from experimentation. You would think, “Hmm, what would character X be like if I used her in this squad? Oh wait, I don’t have the resources to level her up anyway”. You might think that’s fine, because you might think that you could just go farm some resources to level this character up and try her out. But remember issue 2? Your world level might go up while you’re doing this, which will make all content more difficult to clear. Is there really time for experimentation? What if the character doesn’t work out? Then your main squad hasn’t gained any strength while the world level went up. I guess you’re dead.

I’m not even excited about getting new characters anymore, because I know that all they’ll do is sit in my roster at level 1, and the only time they’ll ever get used is when I send them off to collect materials on expeditions. I have a Venti doing just that. Will I ever be able to train him? Ha! Who knows? Maybe when I’m stuck at adventure rank 45.

So from the start of the game, you have to pick your squad, maybe you’re allowed to deviate and level up two new characters on top of your main four, and that’s it. You got to lock that squad in and never use any other character ever again because you just can’t afford to.

Wut.

Issue 4: The Gacha Rates

In Genshin Impact, the highest rarity (5 star) comes at a 0.6% rate. Compared to other popular gacha games which come in at around 1-2%, the difference is huge.

To me, this alone is already an issue from a design perspective. When it’s too low, it can get people frustrated enough to quit the game (I was planning to, until the last roll I could afford gave me Klee). The amount of money the whales are spending just to get a single character or weapon can easily go into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Another problem that arises from the poor rates is you start to lack important archetypes in your squad. For a long time I lacked a heavy-hitting claymore user (this is important to break shields and rocks), and I also lacked someone good against frost enemies. So I spent all my free gems (six 10 rolls, worth US$180) and finally got Klee, a fire bomb user. The game does give a free claymore user, but I don’t have the resources to train another character (see, resin raises its ugly head again). The game also does give a good free fire character, but she isn’t fiery enough to fight a whole domain of frost enemies.

If Genshin Impact wants to keep its gacha rates low, fine by me. But the game needs to give all players a complete and well-rounded set of characters that can cover all bases. Every element needs to be countered, a healer is needed, and a shield-breaker is needed. And this set of characters need to do the job well. Having complete jokes of a character like Amber is not going to help. Having a difficult to understand/build character like Noelle is not going to help.

-----

I do like this game, and I do want to keep playing it. But sometimes I wonder if I should wait a little and let Mihoyo fix the game before I start playing again.

[firespirited]

30 minutes into the podcast on disco demolition from your wrong about recced by @cosmomoore and i’m talking to my screen: “speaking of exclusionary did you know Chic wrote le freak about being excluded from studio 54 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Freak“ like I’m such a nerd for disco and post disco house because

ok readmore for long post again

the local teen radio back in ardèche was run by this middle aged super cheesy buddy guy who would switch late night time over to chicago and detroit club feeds and i had serious insomnia and i loved motown so it was just seamless to fall in love. There was an other older guy and he loved disco divas and this was his radio station of choice, who knows why, so he’d phone in and request Hot Stuff in between teens declaring eternal love over some Sash, Jamiroquai or No Doubt and the older dj was like oh cool it’s my bud the donna summer fan like they knew eachother.

The other radio station that wasn’t like dumb pranks and oooh saucy talk or for some reason machina 24/7 (half my spanish, i learned against my will from machina and it’s mostly about the devil and how horny he is) was of course Nos-tal-gie which now plays 80s-00s stuff but back in the late 90s early 00s it’s was 50s to early 80s. They did disco evenings regularly with a 70-30 ratio of american vs euro covers/euro disco including fairly recent german and italian disco.  I should add that this was when downloading a song took an hour so you either had your music collection or whatever radio channels you could get; so you end up knowing your album beat for beat exactly how many seconds to skip the annoying song bit, exactly how many press backs to get to that great part. And the thing about top 40s if you’ve ever been stuck in an environment where a radio or tv plays for hours... is that 40 is not many at all. In fact it feels like the same three songs, the same three ads and there’s always one of them that becomes like a physical irritant.

Anyway that’s how I became a human shazam from the early 90s to late aughts and (very white) 60s to early 80s who can’t tell you the band name but can sing the rest of the tune and half the lyrics for pretty much anything that came close to mainstream and found refuge and a real sense of going home in disco and house. of couse once you get the internet you get to expand the horizons.

ok 44 mins in and we’re at the fake saturday night fever cover story that inspired the movie and yeah that sounds like some of the mod and even some northern soul dance movements which were like 30 guys all doing the same moves in formation trying to keep some macho energy in there.

50 mins and they said the sesame street fever album actually isn’t bad. VINDICATION. They had quality writers for that.

aaaaaaaaah at minute 55 they just mentioned Le Freak being born from being shut out of studio 54. good podcast. good research. all is forgiven

oh yes they’re going into the gender politics tying into homophobia. *chefs kiss*

the conclusions are exactly what i would said <3 I generally really like ‘You’re wrong about’ though it’s a full 1h30 and i’d prefer an article that reads in 45 minutes instead.

[unpopularly-opinionated]

This is going to be a bit of a long post so apologies, I’ll try to keep it brief and of course include a hider.

The TL;DR of it is: Some insane self-proclaimed SJW on Twitter made a ‘chart’ outlining how Men’s Rights and Gaming are responsible for neo-Nazis, and every website in existence is to be held responsible should anyone using their website ever commit a crime.

So, in essence, stupid people on Twitter.

To start off with, before we get onto the words, let’s discuss the Venn Diagram and how that’s immediately flawed:

Right off the bat, we have complete misrepresentations of the Men’s Rights Movement, and Gamer Culture. Men’s Rights has nothing inherently to do with Feminism, and it never has. While yes, it is typical that a Men’s Rights Activist might oppose Feminism, it’s only because Feminism has done plenty in the past to disenfranchise the movement, not the men, the movement. Very clear and important distinction. No, Feminism hasn’t “taken rights away from men”, and no one is claiming that they are, but it is also quite clearly not helping men either, despite openly claiming to be in favor of equality among the sexes and in fact they do more to inhibit the Men’s Rights Movement from trying to help men.

As for Gamer Culture, the definition here is only half-right and entirely disingenuous. It’s true that technically-speaking, men make up most gaming, but it’s still disingenuous to imply that it’s “overwhelmingly male”. We’re not talking about a 99:1 ratio here, not even a 75:25. It’s far closer to 50:50 than people seem to realize. Even being generous to this assertion, I would say 60:40 is significantly closer, albeit still too low compared to reality.

As for the claim that video games ‘objectify women’, this is a topic that has been thoroughly addressed numerous times by others, but the short and sweet response is: “women are objectified, but so are men”, and again the split isn’t as wide as you might think, however the focus might be fairly skewed which could be the problem. There are plenty of objectified men in games, but (at least in my experience) objectified women are given more of a spotlight, likely due to the fact that, for whatever reason, men AND women prefer to see women naked than they do men (don’t ask my gay ass why, I don’t know either).

What’s interesting here, is that they clearly outline a distinction between Pick-Up Artistry and Men’s Rights yet somehow fail to see that they’re separate and distinct. Pick-Up Artists aren’t interested in Men’s Rights, and neither are Incels, they just want their dick sucked, and they’ll perform whatever scumbaggery they think will accomplish that, so the definition for that is apt, but the implication that there is cross-over with Men’s Rights is laughable.

Is it possible there are Pick-Up Artists and/or Incels out there interested in Men’s Rights? Of course, but this diagram suggests that Men’s Rights is the cause of Incels, even though that literally does not make any sense unless you have a significantly warped understanding of what Men’s Rights is, which this author seems to have.

Then, of course, we have the misrepresentation of GamerGate. Honestly, that’s a can-o-worms I’m not looking to open right now because it’ll add another 10-15 paragraphs to this. There’s plenty of resources out there that are available for you to do the research yourself if you don’t know enough about it already. I suggest you start with @gamergate-news and work your way from there.

“Cool Girlism” is, admittedly, a new term to me but the definition of it is recognizable. It’s essentially saying any girl who happens to A) disagree with Feminism, B) is a gamer, C) is “red-pilled” or not immediately Far-Left, or D) All of the above, is considered a “cool girl” and is clearly just putting on an act so she can get some of that sweet gamer dick.

OR, in simpler terms, it’s an example of how misogynistic the author of this diagram is because she refuses to accept that any women can possibly disagree with their point of view and have a unique thought of her own. We’ve seen this all before, nothing new.

“Nu-Misogyny” is also a new term, apparently coined by the author as far as my research shows and is meant to be defined by the culmination of the entire graph. Frankly, even if we suspend disbelief and pretend these are all salient points, I don’t see how any of this is ‘new’ misogyny, except perhaps in reference to the method in which it’s received, that being the digital space (internet, online video games, etc.). As a completely personal gripe, I hate this fad of using made up language to replace old language. Just say new, not “nu” or “neo”, just new.

Great, now that we’ve covered that mess, moving on:

“Milo and Breitbart also used Gamergate to recruit nu-misogynists and gamers to white nationalism.”

While I won’t pretend Milo or Breitbart are bastions of integrity, the simple fact is that whatever they might’ve been using to “recruit” people (which is still a hilarious concept to consider) it wasn’t Gamergate. Never mind the fact that there’s little to no significant overlap between Gamergate and White Nationalists, there’s no overlap between Gamergate and Breitbart OR Milo. The only reason they are misconstrued as being a part of Gamergate is, perhaps, because they didn’t disparage the movement like every other media outlet did.

“As these communities grew more violently extreme, they were increasingly relegated to fringe platforms, notably 8chan.”

Now, at a surface level I don’t see anything inherently wrong with this statement, but allow me to extrapolate a bit:

Given the misconceptions of many groups throughout this post, I’m not inclined to believe they’re being genuine about these so called “extremely violent communities”.

If we were genuinely talking about white supremacist neo-Nazis actively rising up, then I wouldn’t care, but because outside of “the media says so, so it must be true”, there’s little to no evidence of this actually happening, I’m instead inclined to believe they’re referring to people genuinely critical of their world view. You know, the imaginary people harassing Anita Sarkeesian or Zoe Quinn; the people who are just pointing out how these people are wrong who are then vilified by them and their media peers.

What’s also interesting to note here is, again, if we suspend our disbelief, we see here she’s actively admitting that they aren’t doing anything to solve the problem either, something which later in the post she criticizes the chan boards for doing.

“On 4chan and 8chan, pro-terror nazis mingled with pro-terror nu-misogynists.”

Remember when I pointed out that her Venn diagram that was meant to define her coined term “nu-misogyny” didn’t define anything other than just regular old misogyny? Well apparently, it was supposed to define it as “violent” or “pro-terror”. Now, I’ve never been on 4chan, 8chan, or any chan board really, so I can’t comment on the validity of there being white supremacists, neo-Nazis, misogynists, etc. From what I’ve been told it wouldn’t really surprise me.

“Nu-misogyny (especially incel-inflected nu-misogyny) was already explicitly pro-violence and obsessed with evolutionary/racial pseudo-science, and they cross-pollinated more and more.”

I’m not too familiar with many ‘Incels’, but frankly other than right after the Joker movie released, I had never once heard exclaimed that they were “explicitly pro-violence”, let alone “obsessed with evolutionary/racial pseudo-science”. That last part doesn’t even make sense. What does “racial pseudo-science” have to do with wanting to get your dick sucked? Is it like “Yeah I had my chance to have sex, but the chick was Asian so I couldn’t do it. Whites only, ya know?” Whatever, I’m not about to defend Incels.

“And, that’s the (very) short version of the story of how you get a new generation of nazis marked by an unusually high level of hatred for women and advocacy for gynocide.”

In summary, video games and men’s rights will apparently mark the rise of Hitler 2.0.

Credit where credit is due, the sheer fact that she’s outlined this with a neat little diagram, and everything only helps to further the point that she has no idea what she’s talking about. Her chart alone never refers to an overlap between gaming and men’s rights with white supremacy.

At the absolute best, she’s made a point (albeit an easily disproven one) that gamers are sexist, but not once does this diagram point to a significant overlap, or any overlap at all, with white supremacy. All of this boils down to an argument akin to “Nazis drink water so water must be bad”, which hopefully for obvious reasons, you can understand why that logic doesn’t hold up.

“If we’d booted 8chan from the web earlier, if Reddit and 4chan had shut down extremist communities when they first started advocating violence against women, that cross-pollination might never have happened.”

Now we’ve entered the full authoritarian-brand delusion. Never mind the fact that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are far far worse at this very thing she’s accusing the chan boards of, or that Reddit is quite obviously in favor of doing exactly this since they ban communities at the drop of a hat, what she’s asking for is quite literally impossible.

If not 4chan, then 8chan. If not 8chan, then Twitter. If not Twitter, then Facebook. If not Facebook, then Tumblr. If not Tumblr, then literally anywhere else, repeat ad nauseum forever. Removing their platform doesn’t prohibit them from speaking, it just prohibits them from speaking there, where we can see them, where we can mock them, where we can discredit their views. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be able to see and know people are talking about killing me than pushing them to some fringe site where they can do it without my knowledge.

Earlier, she pointed out that they pushed these people to the chan boards, thereby admitting to ‘solving the problem’ by simply making it someone else’s problem, and here she is now openly criticizing the chan boards for not dealing with this problem that they themselves created for them.

“That online nazi/gynocidaire population boom wouldn’t have occurred.”

Again, removing their platform doesn’t prohibit them from speaking. They simply would’ve organized elsewhere. You aren’t solving any problem by banning them from a website, you’re simply making it someone else’s problem, and then you blame whoever’s problem you just made it.

“But the platforms were greedy. And now, there’s blood on their hands.”

This is by far the most egregious part about this entire post. “We pushed the bad people off onto you and you didn’t immediately push them off onto someone else so that means you are liable for the blood they spill.” Never mind the overarching implication this borderline psychotic statement has. Apparently, every single website ever is to be held responsible should anyone on their site ever commit a crime. Holy fuck, the delusions from this woman.

Apologies if there are any grammar/spelling mistakes. I wrote this in a Word Document and then transferred it over because Tumblr is notoriously terrible when it comes to these longer posts.

[hasty-touch]

Southern* Eorzea NPC count

After making an exhaustive count of all Ishgardian NPCs in FFXIV for my Ishgard lore compilation, I started counting NPCs in the other city-states of Eorzea too, just for fun. Here’s my findings as of February 2019.

(* This count currently excludes Ishgard for reasons I’ll get to in a moment.)

“Methods”, such as they are

This is a count and analysis of “targetable NPCs” -- NPC mobs -- in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and expansions.

As I play, I go through zones and add every NPC I can find to a spreadsheet, noting the race, clan and gender they use for their model, plus their national affiliation and their profession (if I’m able to judge what these are). I can easily include all the NPCs that are always present in a zone just by going from one end of the zone to the other. I also add NPCs who only appear during quests, duties, and FATEs as I see that content.

Unselectable NPCs who appear in the background as flavor aren’t included. NPCs given generic names (e.g. “Chocobokeep”) were counted. Infinitely respawning NPCs from FATEs and duties aren’t included (since it’s hard to judge how many “there really are”). Speaking-role NPCs who only appear in cutscenes are included. Really important, named historical figures who don’t appear in-game were included in the Ishgard count, so they’ll probably be included here too, but I haven’t entered any yet.

This count currently includes 1247 NPCs of Gridanian, Ul’dahn, Lominsan, and Ala Mhigan nationality. The first three city-states have about 350 NPCs each, and Ala Mhigo about 200.

Ishgard is currently excluded because my Ishgardian count included 650+ NPCs, and the unique demographics of Ishgard would throw off the totals. When/if I reach 500+ NPCs for the main three city states, I’ll add the Ishgard count to this spreadsheet.

Currently, independent or semi-independent tribes within Eorzea -- such as the U tribe in Southern Thanalan -- are not included in this count, but I’d like to add them soon.

Limitations

Because NPCs are hand-counted, you should keep in mind that there’s a possibility of selection bias. For the total numbers, I’ve tried to mitigate this as much as possible by entering all NPCs of a zone or quest at the same time.

Selection bias is potentially even more of a problem when I assign nationalities and professions to NPCs. I feel I do a pretty accurate job judging NPCs by their dialogue and outfits, but it’s possible for me to have missed characters or incorrectly assigned them.

And, of course, these are not exhaustive, unlike the Ishgard count. It’s possible that as I count more NPCs, the trends will change. But, when I went from about 150 NPCs per nation to the current 350 NPCs, the ratios really didn’t change much, so I’m fairly confident we can call these numbers representative.

For the gender analysis, I put all characters with “female” models and/or she/her pronouns into “female”, and all characters with “male” models and/or he/him pronouns into “male” (and characters with ambiguous models and unspecified pronouns into “other”). This is a capitulation to the limitations of the game, which uses unisex models for “beast tribes” and two binary gender models for PC races. In “reality”, just as there must certainly be mixed-clan and mixed-race Eorzeans, there must also be a varied spectrum of genders among Eorzeans -- but this can’t be easily represented with the models available in the game. So what I’m analyzing here is “what the game shows us”.

All that out of the way, let’s look at some nation-specific numbers!

Gridania

Encyclopedia Eorzea vol. 1 numbers: 40% Midlander Hyur, 30% Wildwood Elezen, 10% Duskwight Elezen, 10% Keeper of the Moon Miqo’te, 10% Other

I did include the adventurers at Buscarron’s Druthers in this count, since they seem to live semi-permanently in an area under Gridanian sovereignty, but I’m not totally sure about that call.

Not shown here: of the 26 conjurers I've counted so far, 61.5% use female models. “Conjurers” is one of the few professional categories where female model characters outnumber male ones. The other categories are “arcanist”, “culinarian”, “server”, and “skywatcher”.

Ul’dah

Encyclopedia Eorzea vol. 1 numbers: 30% Midlander Hyur, 10% Highlander Hyur, 40% Dunesfolk Lalafell, 10% Hellsguard Roegadyn, 10% Other

EE1 does not include [Ala Mhigan] refugees. I did include refugees living in the capital -- some of them have been living in Ul’dah for more than 20 years -- though Little Ala Mhigo’s residents (not Blades/Flames) I put in the Ala Mhigan category.

As mentioned, I did not include independent tribes in the region, such as the U.

In the count, Ul’dah’s military tends more male than any other Eorzean city-state other than Ishgard (which is currently sitting at 79.6% male). Some of the missing women are in Longhaft’s unit and appear in the Attack on Highbridge FATE chain -- I didn’t count them because they’re infinitely respawning.

Limsa Lominsa

Encyclopedia Eorzea vol. 1 numbers: 40% Sea Wolf Roegadyn, 20% Plainsfolk Lalafell, 20% Seeker of the Sun Miqo’te, 10% Midlander Hyur, 10% Other

Limsa Lominsa is the most racially diverse nation in the count. It also comes the closest to equal gender representation -- my theory is that this is because the high number of Miqo’te (almost all female model) balances out the other races, where male-model NPCs predominate.

Most of the “other” gender slice there are Qiqirn of gender indeterminate to me.

Ala Mhigo

Encyclopedia Eorzea vol. 1 numbers (repeated in vol. 2 with no change): 60% Highlander Hyur, 10% Hellsguard Roegadyn, 10% Midlander Hyur, 10% Seeker of the Sun Miqo’te, 10% Other

Something that I find interesting is that the gender ratios are really close for both overall and the Resistance specifically (at the moment, the Resistance is even slightly nearer equal!) I thought that this was because so many of the Ala Mhigans we meet are part of the Resistance, but it’s actually “just” 44%.

I didn’t count the M, Qalyana, or Vira.

Discussion

While the race numbers are interesting, I think the gender numbers really draw your eye. Like I rambled in my last post, there are a couple different reasons male-model NPCs might outnumber female-model NPCs.

Perhaps it is unintentional -- that is, the devs intend to be adding male and female NPCs in roughly equal numbers, but for some reason, they haven’t. If this is the case, I’d guess the most likely culprit is the tendency for people (especially men) to perceive a mixed-gender group as “equal” when men substantially outnumber the women and as “female-dominated” when the actual numbers begin to approach equality. In an interview with NPR, Geena Davis said she read a study that found "if there's 17 percent women, the men in the group think it's 50-50. And if there's 33 percent women, the men perceive that as there being more women in the room than men." I haven't been able to figure out what study this is (I REALLY WANNA READ IT! -- but in the meantime this and this also talk about the phenomenon) but if we consider its assertion reasonable, you can totally imagine the zone designers looking at a 1:3 female:male ratio and think “we’re doing GREAT!”

And I mean, I don’t have competitor games’ numbers in front of me, but I’d bet that FFXIV is a lot closer to equal gender representation than most of them. Under-representation of women in video game worlds is by FAR the norm.

But it could very well be that the FFXIV devs are intentionally putting more male NPCs into the world. One possibility is that Eorzean culture is somewhat patriarchal (and that this is more or less pronounced depending on the particular nation-state). Public-facing roles, such as those of merchant, tradesman, and especially warrior, more frequently belong to men than women, while women are more frequently in roles that the Warrior of Light doesn’t encounter in-game (housewives, farmers, etc.). Male dominance of these roles may at times be overtly enforced, but subtle enforcement seems more likely to me, in the form of stereotyping, discouragement, covert discrimination, etc. And the devs/writers are communicating this aspect of the world to us through the NPCs they choose to show us. I feel you can find evidence of Eorzean patriarchy elsewhere in the writing, too -- and it’s not portrayed positively, though there’s room to criticize how skillfully or unskillfully the writers/localizers have handled these themes.

And of course, both these things could be true at the same time: the devs could be intentionally trying to convey something about Eorzean patriarchy to us while simultaneously underestimating how much their own biases, inherited from real-world patriarchy, might affect their perception and choices.

And there could well be other explanations, too.

If you’re interested in Ishgard, the most recent numbers are available in my lore compilation -- if you like the pie charts for visualization, you can take a peek at this older post.

[mintiemarmalade]

GET TO KNOW ME TAG

Rules: Post a picture of your simself with your traits and answer the questions so your followers can get to know you better!

I was tagged by the lovely @surreysimmer, @racingllama​ + @storylegacysims​! Thank you so much bbs. ♡

I tag @pixeloasis​, @simsiecakes​ + @gottacatchemallsims​.

This has literally been sitting in my drafts halfway finished for the past week. Tbh I completely forgot about it until @storylegacysims​ tagged me this morning. 🙈

Anywhooo, this is my simself. I’ve given her the geek, goofball + foodie traits. (Truthfully, glutton would probably be more accurate but your simself is supposed to be a better, more ideal version of yourself, right?)

Questions below the cut ↴

1. What is your name?

Kayla

2. What is your nickname?

My family calls me Katy / Katy bug, for some reason.

3. Birthday?

June 17, 1994

4. What is your favorite book series?

Harry Potter, duh.

5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts?

Yes

6. Who is your favorite author?

J.K. Rowling, duh.

7. What is your favorite radio station?

Octane, Pop2K, and PopRocks on Sirius XM.

8. What is your favorite flavor of anything?

Chocolate, banana, or pumpkin.

9. What word would you use often to describe something great or wonderful?

Lovely, wonderful, superb, idk all are viable options.

10. What is your current favorite song?

I honestly don’t even know.

11. What is your favorite word?

TUFT

12. What was the last song you listened to?

Misery Business by Paramore (I have my beloved throwback playlist playing.)

13. What TV show would you recommend for everybody to watch?

Boy Meets World - I firmly believe that the world would be a much better place if everyone had Mr. Feeny as a teacher.

14. What is your favorite movie to watch when you’re feeling down?

Harry Potter or pretty much any Disney / Pixar movie.

15. Do you play video games?

Way too much, if I’m being honest.

16. What is your biggest fear?

Being alone, rejection, socializing, tight / crowded spaces, etc. I’m a big scaredy cat, okay. Leave me alone.

17. What is your best quality, in your opinion?

I’m hilarious. I’m incredibly caring and loyal.

18. What is your worst quality, in your opinion?

My crippling anxiety.

9. Do you like cats or dogs better?

DOGS but cats are nice too.

20. What is your favorite season?

Fall - I sweat less and all the bugs die.

21. Are you in a relationship?

N O P E

22. What is something you miss from your childhood?

Innocence, being naive to how terrible the world actually is.

23. Who is your best friend?

Hannah ♡

24. What is your eye color?

Green

25. What is your hair color?

Auburn

26. Who is someone you love?

My dog

27. Who is someone you trust?

Hannah

28. Who is someone you think about often?

My sims

29. Are you currently excited about/for something?

CHRISTMAS

30. What is your biggest obsession?

The Sims, probably.

31. What was your favorite TV show as a child?

Boy Meets World

32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone?

Aaron and Joe, I suppose.

33. Are you superstitious?

Nope

34. Do you have any unusual phobias?

Fun fact, butterflies cause me a lot of anxiety for some reason. Conveniently, I found this out while in a one of those butterfly sanctuaries at the zoo.

35. Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it?

Behind. I’m quite literally the least photogenic person ever.

36. What is your favorite hobby?

Playing video games, eating, sleeping. Do those count?

37. What was the last book you read?

I... actually don’t know?

38. What was the last movie you watched?

Crimes of Grindelwald.....

39. What musical instruments do you play, if any?

I mean, not to brag or anything but I played the recorder in fourth grade~

40. What is your favorite animal?

SLOTHS

41. What are your top 5 favorite Tumblr blogs that you follow?

You can’t make me choose.

42. What superpower do you wish you had?

Teleportation

43. When and where do you feel most at peace?

When I’m with Hannah tbh.

44. What makes you smile?

Making other people smile / laugh.

45. What sports do you play, if any?

Sports hurt.

46. What is your favorite drink?

Sweet tea

47. When was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter or note to somebody?

I have no idea.

48. Are you afraid of heights?

My fear of heights is directly correlated with my probability of falling.

49. What is your biggest pet peeve?

People who are rude to food service / retail employees.

50. Have you ever been to a concert?

Yes

51. Are you vegan/vegetarian?

I could never.

52. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Teacher

53. What fictional world would you like to live in?

Stars Hollow

54. What is something you worry about?

Literally everything.

55. Are you scared of the dark?

Sometimes, it depends.

56. Do you like to sing?

Like to, yes. Am I any good? Not at all.

57. Have you ever skipped school?

Yes

58. What is your favorite place on the planet?

Wherever my friends are.

59. Where would you like to live?

I care less about where exactly and more about having the people I love near me.

60. Do you have any pets?

Yes, one doggo named Neville.

61. Are you more of an early bird or a night owl?

NIGHT OWL

62. Do you like sunrises or sunsets better?

Sunsets

63. Do you know how to drive?

Yes

64. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones?

Earbuds - headphones make my ears feel claustrophobic.

65. Have you ever had braces?

Nope

66. What is your favorite genre of music?

Early to mid 2000′s punk~ I never outgrew my emo phase, sorry mom.

67. Who is your hero?

My mom

68. Do you read comic books?

No

69. What makes you the most angry?

Seeing those I love get hurt / taken advantage of.

70. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book?

I prefer the experience of a real book but I do appreciate the convenience of an electronic device.

71. What is your favorite subject in school?

Psychology

72. Do you have any siblings?

One brother + one sister

73. What was the last thing you bought?

Christmas presents!

74. How tall are you?

5′4

75. Can you cook?

I mean, I can follow a recipe sometimes.

76. What are three things that you love?

My mom, my friends, and my dog.

77. What are three things that you hate?

Tomatoes, socks, and loud noises.

78. Do you have more female friends or more male friends?

Well, I guess more male friends, with a ratio of 2:1. (I only have three friends lol.) Unless we’re also counting internet friends, then the females far outnumber the males.

79. What is your sexual orientation?

Straight

80. Where do you currently live?

Southern Illinois

81. Who was the last person you texted?

Hannah

82. When was the last time you cried?

Probably yesterday over something stupid. I cry a lot lol.

83. Who is your favorite YouTuber?

Jenna Marbles

84. Do you like to take selfies?

Not really, no.

85. What is your favorite app?

DISCORD

86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like?

Mom - decent. Dad - non-existent.

87. What is your favorite foreign accent?

All of them. Accents are so cute OMG.

88. What is a place that you've never been to, but you want to visit?

Japan

89. What is your favorite number?

2

90. Can you juggle?

Lol no.

91. Are you religious?

Yes

92. Do you find outer space or the deep ocean to be more interesting?

SPACE

93. Do you consider yourself to be a daredevil?

Not at all

94. Are you allergic to anything?

Deathly allergic to sulfa - the doctors almost killed me when I was a baby.

95. Can you curl your tongue?

Yes

96. Can you wiggle your ears?

Nope

97. How often do you admit that you were wrong about something?

This is complicated because I doubt myself a LOT but I’m also incredibly stubborn.

98. Do you prefer the forest or the beach?

Beach

99. What is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you?

On the last day of my senior year, my history teacher left us with two words of advice before we departed: 1) never tattoo your face, and 2) don’t give your kids a stupid name. It still makes me laugh whenever I think about it.

100. Are you a good liar?

NO

101. What is your Hogwarts House?

HUFFLEPUFF ♡

102. Do you talk to yourself?

Pfft she and I have full-blown conversations sometimes~

103. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

More accurately, I would consider myself an ambivert.

104. Do you keep a journal/diary?

I’ve never been able to keep up with one.

105. Do you believe in second chances?

I do, and it kicks me in the ass more often than not.

106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do?

Try to return it.

107. Do you believe that people are capable of change?

Yes, but the person must be willing to change.

108. Are you ticklish?

Yes

109. Have you ever been on a plane?

Once, when I was five.

110. Do you have any piercings?

Nope

111. What fictional character do you wish was real?

CatDog, I have so many questions~

112. Do you have any tattoos?

No

113. What is the best decision that you've made in your life so far?

To love myself

114. Do you believe in karma?

I don’t know, maybe.

115. Do you wear glasses or contacts?

Glasses - I’ve never worn contacts.

116. Do you want children?

Eventually, yes...

117. Who is the smartest person you know?

Aaron’s a pretty smart dude, I suppose.

118. What is your most embarrassing memory?

My existence in and of itself is embarrassing tbh.

119. Have you ever pulled an all-nighter?

Many, many times. I stay up for 48+ hours sometimes~

120. What color are most of you clothes?

I own a lot of blue apparently.

121. Do you like adventures?

Yes, as long as they don’t involve any strenuous activity.

122. Have you ever been on TV?

Not that I know of.

123. How old are you?

24

124. What is your favorite movie quote?

I honestly don’t know.

125. Sweet or savory?

SAVORY

[liliithvatorearchive-blog]

this is the simself tag. i was tagged by @gunthermunch &. @earth-bat. ty bbs <3

i tag @cassgoths @weirdcharms @baconite @hallucinosims &. @cruelhumanbean

~ shit you don’t have to read all of bc i sure wouldn’t bc i have no attention span under the cut ~

1. what is your name?

haha u wish :)

2. what is your nickname?

cece

3. birthday?

august 10th

4. what is your favorite book series?

the caster chronicles

5. do you believe in aliens or ghosts?

both

6. who is your favorite author?

maggie stiefvater

7. what is your favorite radio station?

i don’t listen to the radio

8. what is your favorite flavor of anything?

lemon

9. what word would you use often to describe something great or wonderful?

cool or nice

10. what is your current favorite song?

UH intoxicate by anaria, rosegold by skyhaven and moondust by jaymes young

11. what is your favorite word?

viscous

12. what was the last song you listened to?

hide and seek by eppic ft. poppy

13. what tv show would you recommend for everybody to watch?

the good place

14. what is your favorite movie to watch when you’re feeling down?

i don’t really watch movies when i feel down lmao

15. do you play video games?

yeah

16. what is your biggest fear?

i dunno

17. what is your best quality, in your opinion?

i’m an easy going person who doesn’t jump to conclusions before having all the facts

18. what is your worst quality, in your opinion?

i can be very mean

9. do you like cats or dogs better?

i like them both the same

20. what is your favorite season?

autumn

21. are you in a relationship?

no

22. what is something you miss from your childhood?

nothing. i actually don’t remember most of my childhood

23. who is your best friend?

callum

24. what is your eye color?

blue/green. so like, turquoise

25. what is your hair color?

sort of a weird combination of blonde and brown

26. who is someone you love?

i love too many people to just narrow it down to one

27. who is someone you trust?

djsfdsfhkjdf i don’t trust very easily so the only two people i really trust are my best friend and my other friend, nev

28. who is someone you think about often?

nev

29. are you currently excited about/for something?

idk if i’m excited about driving or nervous but same neurotransmitters

30. what is your biggest obsession?

the sims lmao

31. what was your favorite tv show as a child?

kim possible

32. who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone?

callum

33. are you superstitious?

no

34. do you have any unusual phobias?

are dolls an unusual phobia? not like barbie dolls, but sort of porcelain-looking dolls

35. do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it?

in front

36. what is your favorite hobby?

playing games

37. what was the last book you read?

young blood by meg cabot

38. what was the last movie you watched?

i don’t remember. love, simon i think

39. what musical instruments do you play, if any?

my diaphragm :)

40. what is your favorite animal?

tiger

41. what are your top 5 favorite tumblr blogs that you follow?

@gunthermunch @cassgoths @okruee @hallucinosims @mellocakes + so many more

42. what superpower do you wish you had?

super speed bc i have no patience

43. when and where do you feel most at peace?

when i’m outside, just chilling out

44. what makes you smile?

my friends

45. what sports do you play, if any?

i wish i still did sports. i used to do gymnastics and figure skating. i was also very good at basketball in school

46. what is your favorite drink?

irn bru

47. when was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter or note to somebody?

when i was like 10 or something

48. are you afraid of heights?

no

49. what is your biggest pet peeve?

i have.... so many....

50. have you ever been to a concert?

yeah, 3

51. are you vegan/vegetarian?

neither. i used to be vegetarian but i had to go back to eating meat because i wasn’t eating enough

52. when you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

singer

53. what fictional world would you like to live in?

none

54. what is something you worry about?

just something?

55. are you scared of the dark?

no

56. do you like to sing?

yeah

57. have you ever skipped school?

yeah, plenty of times

58. what is your favorite place on the planet?

i don’t have one right now

59. where would you like to live?

switzerland

60. do you have any pets?

i have a dog named poppy

61. are you more of an early bird or a night owl?

depends

62. do you like sunrises or sunsets better?

sunsets

63. do you know how to drive?

yep! last thing i have to learn is dual carriageways and satnavs but i know the basics of driving. i “know” how to drive but i still have to pass my driving test

64. do you prefer earbuds or headphones?

earbuds

65. have you ever had braces?

yeah

66. what is your favorite genre of music?

hm ! my taste in music is very wide but i guess rock music

67. who is your hero?

hmm i don’t have one

68. do you read comic books?

sometimes

69. what makes you the most angry?

when people go back on promises they made and don’t feel bad about it. you can’t just break someone’s trust like that

70. do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book?

a real book

71. what was your favorite subject in school?

english

72. do you have any siblings?

i have an older brother and older sister

73. what was the last thing you bought?

pringles, i think

74. how tall are you?

5′2″

75. can you cook?

i wish

76. what are three things that you love?

the sims, my dog and soup

77. what are three things that you hate?

mushrooms, spending lots of money, the colour yellow

78. do you have more female friends or more male friends?

i think it’s a good ratio

79. what is your sexual orientation?

lesbian

80. where do you currently live?

england

81. who was the last person you texted?

i don’t text people

82. when was the last time you cried?

a few days ago

83. who is your favorite youtuber?

jacksepticeye

84. do you like to take selfies?

yeah

85. what is your favorite app?

the youtube app

86. what is your relationship with your parent(s) like?

good relationship with my mum, strained relationship with my dad

87. what is your favorite foreign accent?

spanish

88. what is a place that you’ve never been to, but you want to visit?

SO MANY but greece or italy

89. what is your favorite number?

21

90. can you juggle?

pff no

91. are you religious?

more spiritual than religious

92. do you find outer space of the deep ocean to be more interesting?

deep outer space. i’m terrified of the ocean

93. do you consider yourself to be a daredevil?

no

94. are you allergic to anything?

pollen and eggs

95. can you curl your tongue?

yeah

96. can you wiggle your ears?

no

97. how often do you admit that you were wrong about something?

when i was wrong about something

98. do you prefer the forest or the beach?

the forest

99. what is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you?

i’m usually the one giving the advice

100. are you a good liar?

yeah, and i’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not

101. what is your hogwarts house?

ravenclaw

102. do you talk to yourself?

yeah

103. are you an introvert or an extrovert?

introvert

104. do you keep a journal/diary?

nope

105. do you believe in second chances?

yeah

106. if you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do?

try and find its owner

107. do you believe that people are capable of change?

yeah

108. are you ticklish?

sadly

109. have you ever been on a plane?

yep

110. do you have any piercings?

i wish. only in my ears

111. what fictional character do you wish was real?

no one tbh

112. do you have any tattoos?

again, i wish

113. what is the best decision that you’ve made in your life so far?

the decision to not treat family like it’s everything especially not my cousin or my grandmother

114. do you believe in karma?

yeah

115. do you wear glasses or contacts?

glasses

116. do you want children?

yikes no

117. who is the smartest person you know?

me B) just kidding, callum

118. what is your most embarrassing memory?

once i wasn’t wearing any underwear and i forgot to put my shorts on for p.e ( or gym class for some of u ) so i walked into my classroom half naked

119. have you ever pulled an all-nighter?

many times

120. what colour are most of you clothes?

black

121. do you like adventures?

yeah. i love adventures

122. have you ever been on tv?

nope

123. how old are you?

20

124. what is your favorite movie quote?

i don’t watch too many movies so i guess i can’t pick one although “i deserve a great love story” in relation to simon being gay ( it was in the trailer, so it’s not a spoiler :gun: ) is pretty good

125. sweet or savory?

savoury

[wellamarke]

since fred probably isn’t the SWS (im trying to be gritty and realistic here) i am instead going to imagine him just inserted into everyone’s storylines with no explanation:

1) he meets mattie and leo at the gas station and talks them through how they are going to manage parenting. he reminds leo that he doesn’t have to be emo about having a terrible father himself since fred was closer to a father than david ever bothered to be and “i was exemplary thank you very much”

2) he finds laura wandering the streets and listens to her detailed explanation of the thought process behind her difficult choice, gives her some absolution because he understands (and has dealt with having been forced into some ‘traitorous’ actions himself in the past). he convinces laura to return home and on the way they plan how they’re going to rescue sam

3) he overhears max’s prayer and shrine demolition and we finally get a fred/max hug when he tells max that he isn’t weak, that they can still get out of this. he laments his own absence previously because “no offence but this guy doesn’t know a thing about repairs. probably couldn’t even have fixed a fox leg. did you miss me so much that you just decided to trust the first person who reminded you of me? touching. but now how are we going to take him down” 

4) undercover as one of anatole’s lackeys, he manages to end up in charge of sam, and keeps him out of the way of the action until anatole’s been dealt with (via a fred/stanley teamup) at which point fred takes sam home to joe

5) strolls into mia’s prison cell like “this is NOT where i expected to find you but kudos on being a badass now”, they break out together and he encourages her to help him bring their little sibs back into the fold because things are kind of falling apart 

6) JOINS NISKA ON HER QUEST AND HELPS HER SMASH WHATEVER BARRIER IS BETWEEN HER AND SOME DAMNED ANSWERS. also featuring elster sibling bonding because niska/fred is obviously a magnificent dynamic. he teaches her the ‘punch through a door and strangle a bitch’ tactic and she wows him with her mastery of every imaginable sharp weapon 

7) reunites with toby and tells him that a 60:40 ratio makes no sense, “do you mean 3:2? also don’t move to new zealand toby what the actual heck”

8) ensures that stanley ends up on the right side 

9) turns up literally anywhere flanked by flash, karen and odi, nobody even questions it

10) chills with astrid in the hospital telling her adorable things about niska’s first year of consciousness while the two of them knit jumpers for everyone else to wear. possibly each jumper has a letter on it and possibly those are A A E I I K L L M M N O R R S U W Y Y if they can assemble enough friends and get them to stand in the right order to spell out the anagram 

[canaryatlaw]

mmmm okay I’m tired so let’s get going here. today was fine, I’m kinda in a funk right now and I’m not entirely sure why but oh well. Alarm went off at 7, got out of bed and got ready. when I checked the weather app it said there was gonna be a windchill of 29 and I ain’t about that shit, so I had a sweater on as like my main shirt, then my suit jacket, then my hoodie, then my normal jacket. in hindsight, I probably should’ve known this was overkill, but I’d always rather be overprepared than underprepared. so I ended up overheating like halfway to the train and ended up taking my jacket off but oh well. train ride in was fine, I texted one of the lawyers to ask about shadowing them and I didn’t realize they didn’t have a case up till 9:30, and I was already running early because I wanted to drop my lunch off at the office so I didn’t have to lug it through court with me all day, so I had some time to kill when I got to court at like 8:45. so I went to the starbucks under the courthouse and chilled there for a while until it was time to head upstairs. unsurprisingly I beat the lawyer there, and proceeded to check the line numbers of the cases in the different rooms to make sure we could get to each one in time, things ended up working out pretty well, one of the judges was out so we literally just talked to OPC and came up with an order to enter, so that was easy enough. we did the 10:30 and then we were done with court. I was originally scheduled to shadow her on an arbitration later that day but she informed me that it was cancelled, which meant I got to stay in the office all day and work on that giant project I’ve just been given, which is of course *such* a joy to me. So I went back to the office and got to work. I had been handling the oldest cases first so most of their files were empty, but as I got to the more recent ones there was a lot more in their files (one thing I will say I appreciate is that their files are digitized, as opposed to OPG where someone would hand me a file that’s *literally* busting at the seams and ask me to find one specific piece of paper in it when there’s a solid 3,000 pages in there (yeah, being a law clerk sucks sometimes). so it was a lot of clicking through different documents to find different pieces of information. it was relieving to find out that for a lot of the cases the info just isn't there, so I don’t have to get stressed out about not finding it, so it really wasn’t as bad as I expected, so that was good. I basically did that the rest of the day, I didn’t take a lunch since I brought my leftovers from home and ate them at my desk. Towards the end of the day the lawyer I was with yesterday that I like a lot stopped by our office and I asked her if she got the deposition notes from me yesterday and she proceeded to tell me they were excellent, which of course made me happy, and then told me she was gonna take me to a trial with her in like January so that also made me happy of course. At like 4:45 I got a text reminding me I had to do the folders today, which is literally just taking a stack of folders of the cases that are up tomorrow and separating them into piles for each attorney that was handling the cases. More menial labor, but honestly at this point it doesn’t even phase me in the least because I’ve done all the crappy law clerk jobs, I’ve separated papers, I’ve folded letters into envelopes, I’ve copied things, I’ve spent hours going through thousands of pieces of paper to find one specific one for nothing but a “thanks” but that’s how it is when you’re starting at the bottom and I get that, and it’s why I try my hardest to do the best I can at even the shittiest of tasks, whether it’s taking deposition notes or separating folders. So I got that done and then there was some confusion over a supposedly missing folder but it was soon resolved. As I was about to leave I got a message from Jess saying she might make it home for our shows tonight which we weren’t sure was going to happen because she had to go to Michigan today to see her brother and pretend to be his parent, so we didn’t know if she’d be back in time. I headed home, all that good commute stuff, got kinda frazzled when I got home because kitty managed to knock the lid off the trash that was already kinda overflowing and kicked some stuff around the kitchen which was kind of a mess, so I had to clean that up and take the trash out, then start on making the fried rice I was gonna do for dinner. This recipe I had insisted that in order to get the best fried rice you have to use leftover rice (like rice that was cooked and has since cooled and sat in the fridge for a few hours) so when I was making rice for the korean bbq bowls yesterday I made extra rice for this purpose, but didn’t end up making enough so the ratios got kinda messed up, but I managed to find my garlic crusher so that helped lol. It was fairly easy to make, so that was good. I was ready to start the shows at 7 but Jess was just running over, so I paused it and then started it when she got there like 5 minutes later. The Gifted first, I can’t say I was all that enthralled with tonight’s episode, just wasn’t very interesting to me for some reason, and I had kind of a hard time following the plot other than the mom was pretty much engaging in active torture and Lauren was trying to get through to Andy and that was NOT working, but I didn’t really have any idea what Lorna or the rest of them were doing. so I was kinda meh on that. Then Black Lightning, which is always great and nails what they’re going for. I laughed my ass off when Jennifer pushed Khalil off the roof because like yes girl you tell him, and the whole plot with the metagene triggering brutal honesty from people was actually really interesting and I hope they keep going down that kind of road with all of this. I didn’t like that Jefferson and Anissa were kind of fighting of course, but I hope they can sort that out going forward being that they definitely work better as a team. After that we went back and watched The Flash (since it airs at the same time as The Gifted and we obviously can’t watch both at once). Pretty good episode, I love Nora West-Allen she’s kind of great (and not just because her name is Nora, but I mean the fact that there are now gonna be four Nora’s in the Arrowverse makes me happy) and it kinda cracks me up that Jessica Parker Kennedy is 34 and calling 28 year old Grant Gustin “dad” lol and I just think of her as older because she was playing a “kid” on Smallville an entire ten years ago. but yeah I liked their whole dynamic this episode and I have so many questions about that final fight and everything that happened during it. Not gonna lie, at the end when they were like “the breathing sounds like an insect” and I obviously know their villain of the season is Cicada but I couldn’t help being like “IT’S MOTHMAN” just for my own amusement lol. but yeah, enjoyable episode, season 5 is off to a good start, they managed to make Ralph at least 60% less annoying which is definitely a victory, and they’re doing a good job incorporating the side plots into the bigger story. And yeah, after that Jess headed home and I started getting ready for bed and then wasted time doing nothing and a bunch of things all at once and now it’s 12:40 am and I have to be up at 7 so I’m gonna end this here. Goodnight my loves. Happy hump day.

[your-dietician]

Opinion: Your portfolio needs diversification. Here’s the best way to go about it in these volatile times

New Post has been published on https://medianwire.com/opinion-your-portfolio-needs-diversification-heres-the-best-way-to-go-about-it-in-these-volatile-times/

Opinion: Your portfolio needs diversification. Here’s the best way to go about it in these volatile times

If you’re trying to figure out how to make sure you’ve always got the best mix of investments, there are general rules, questionnaires about risk and all sorts of academic approaches. But it can be hard to translate the conclusions to your situation, especially if you, like most people, have a complicated financial life with many unrelated accounts.

A working adult might have a 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, a taxable brokerage account and a money-market account. You might also have a crypto wallet or two, a high-yield savings account with CDs, a TreasuryDirect.gov account for I-bonds and other Treasurys, pensions, or other retirement plans lingering at old employers. Double that if you’re married.

Take the classic 60/40 portfolio construction, which means putting 60% of your investments in stocks and 40% in bonds, or other fixed-income investments. If you were relying on that, you’d be pretty confused right now. In today’s market, the 60/40 portfolio is either dying or rising from the dead, depending on whom you ask. And if you have money in many different places, what parts of it count toward that portfolio ratio?

You can always value the underlying message of the 60/40 portfolio, which is about diversification. You need both stocks and bonds as a hedge, because typically when one is up, the other is down, and you can cut your losses this way.

The bull market run-up after the 2008-2009 Great Recession seemed to change that equation. People needed extra convincing to stay in bonds, given how minuscule yields were. 

Then this year both stock DJIA, -0.10%

SPX, -0.33% and bond markets TMUBMUSD10Y, 3.899% tumbled (hence the death knells). Yet others already see the light at the end of the tunnel. “We think the long-term outlook has brightened quite a bit,” says Barry Gilbert, asset allocation strategist for LPL Financial. 

Given today’s economic conditions, it’s time to think broadly about all of your accounts together and reassess what you need to do going forward into unknown economic territory, no matter what your personal ratio.

Messy accounts for a reason

It might seem like a mess, but you need an array of accounts because they serve different purposes for your goals, which have distinct time horizons. Your retirement, for instance, might be 20 years away, and you benefit from the tax deferment. But the money you keep in your brokerage account might be for a coming large purchase. 

Diversifying your money across accounts also helps you avoid the biggest mistake most advisers see in a downturn, which is cashing out and missing the upswing. “A year ago, we were reminding people that fixed-income has a role. Now we’re reminding people that both stocks and bonds are important, because they all ask: Should I just be in cash?” says Nathan Zahm, head of goal-based investing research for Vanguard. 

Consider those who have a trading account, like one of Robinhood’s HOOD, +2.11% 14 million monthly active users. Those accounts are mostly in stocks, as the platform doesn’t trade bonds (or mutual funds), although some might hold bond or money-market ETFs. These investors will want to calculate what portion of their financial holdings are in that taxable account and weigh that against their other money, to make sure they have a balance that’s appropriate for them. 

Some brokerage overviews or services like Mint will aggregate a wide view for you. But at the end of the day, it might take a spreadsheet to really see what you have, because not all your accounts will talk to each other.

Remember that if you track this manually, it will just be for a moment in time. Your list would not update dynamically as the value of the accounts change, and that’s what matters most for the necessary rebalancing that would keep you aligned with your goals. You’d be 60/40 until the market close on that day, and then come what may. 

Should your target asset mix really be 60/40?

For the most part, 60/40 is a philosophical starting point. “The 60/40 portfolio isn’t automatically best. Practically speaking, you’d want to be at the level that’s right for you,” says Gilbert. 

That optimal mix will depend on your age, the size of your nest egg and your goals, and it’s not a magic or a static number. It doesn’t even have to be a round number. One way to figure it out is to look at the way target-date funds for retirement use a “glide path” that shifts more conservative over time. Even if you don’t invest in target-date funds, you want to create a similar slope for yourself, and not just stick with 60/40 for decades. 

For instance, Vanguard explains that its target-date funds basically only hit 60/40 around age 60, and then continue getting more conservative from there. 

Schwab generally sets its funds to hit 60/40 at about five to six years from the target retirement age. “It’s one point in time. For any allocation, you have to evolve,” says Jake Gilliam, managing director for research at Schwab. 

A sample from Schwab’s Target 2065 Index Fund

Schwab also adjusts the stocks and bonds within the allocation. “Younger customers will have more international, small cap or emerging markets. As you move older, we’re adjusting those sub-asset class allocations,” Gilliam adds. 

This kind of sloped setup still allows for side money if you want to take a portion of your holdings and put it in crypto, meme stocks or keep it in cash under your mattress. It’s just human nature. “We know behaviorally that it can actually drive better discipline,” says Zahm. “If somebody has a side pool of money that’s a few percent to have fun with, then they behave better with the main 95%.” 

Just make sure to count your side account in with your big picture eventually and make sure you’re not letting those positions pull you away from your target asset mix, whether that’s 60/40 or another ratio. 

“There’s nothing wrong with thinking in buckets, but eventually all the small buckets go into one big bucket,” says Gilbert. 

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