#I want to be able to spend money without needing to justify it

[weareallgreyreally]

My guy I’m just trying to move out with my fiancé while my mum holds on to me for dear life and it’s one of the most emotionally exhausting things that’s ever happened to me

[robotic-maid]

How things are going again… update I guess? Still can’t figure out how to read more on mobile. I’m just typing this out so it can leave my head.

[kuzcos-poision]

Just my thoughts and stuff on the watcher situation. And update. Ramblings.

Watcher did something bad. all three of them made the decision. They have now dealt with and responded to the backlash regarding this decision.

The backlash was justified. People aren’t saying they shouldn’t be paid. We all believe they should be paid fairly. They should also learn how to run a business and spend wisely especially in this time where money is sparse.

It wasn’t bullying as people have said. Sure there was some but the majority of the things said about this was genuinely criticism regarding their decision and regarding how people felt like they weren’t valued as fans in any capacity because this was done without consultation and consideration for the fans.

The backlash was also valid in that they hyped it up and announced new hires and a new show displaying expensive food and frivolous spending on food that a majority of their audience isn’t able to afford in the first place. This is where I believe people brought up that they don’t want to just pay for Steven to eat “$1000 burgers” is because that was the last thing they had posted about doing which doesn’t appeal to a majority of the audience.

They are definitely more disconnected from their audience then we had previously believed which is now very apparent. While I believe they should be able to create what they desire on their own platform I think they also need to take in consideration what their audience wants.

I think this was also a bad decision because they lost a considerable amount of viewers when they went to watcher in the first place they thought putting up a paywall would be good way to make their audience larger and happy.

The update they provided was good in that they addressed most of the concerns the audience was expressing however people feel betrayed over this and some won’t gain that trust back with them.

As for the Steven lim hate. I think he was/is just not as connected to the audience as Ryan and Shane were within the content created. A good example of this is the live shows. It’s Ryan and Shane and Steven isn’t a big part of it. The banter between the three of them is fun however a lot of people are after the bfu banter. It’s like the Ryan and shane show with a side of Steven. Which is a big reason as to him getting a lot of blame through this. As well as the public display of what appeared to be the morals that shane specifically abided by which are very different then what was shown with the making and execution of this decision. The opposing morals are what I believe made people weary in blaming all three of them in this. However it was a decision made by all of them. And now dealt with by all of them.

They ALL deserved the criticism and backlash for this decision and I’m glad they have addressed this and made the changes to their decision. They have lost trust and still need to reevaluate spending within production costs but I’m glad they dealt with the content distribution aspect of this issue.

[someonexsomeone]

Love to Keep Me Warm

Title: Love to Keep Me Warm

Author: SomeonexSomeone

Word Count: 1.8k

Pairing: Harry Potter x Slytherin!Reader

Summary: Harry has learned to keep secrets from his best friend, but it helps when his best friend is a dense as a pile of rocks.

Authors Note: Day 3!...Week...3? Anyway, this fic was kinda heavily inspired by Lily's Boy by SomewheresSword on ao3. I literally devoured it in like a week, it was so good. I hate JK with a passion, but her characters are so yummy. Shorter this time, but I hope you guys like it all the same!

Love him to death, but there was only so much Ronald Weasley Harry could put up with. His best friend, to be fair, was a teenage boy with about 8 times the usual amount of sibling jealousy coursing through his veins which made him act irrationally more times than not. And, no doubt being best friends with the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the Savior of the World, the Boy With the Scar - you get the picture - made those jealous spikes just a tad worse, especially now that his Mum saw Harry as one of her own children. So, Harry being the good friend he was, something he said to himself to justify his action, tried his best to be on his good side, sometimes bending to his will more than a standard friend would. Hermione, for instance, never made him feel like he couldn’t spend his money on an expensive new pair of Quidditch gloves, or a Wireless to keep up with the news. A glare, maybe, if the purchase was a little reckless, but that was her just looking out for him. Ron on the other hand…

Harry knew it was selfish, to want to spend the money he had on anything he wanted, but having grown up with nothing to his name, objects found themselves being a nice, new addition to his wizarding life. He got into the habit of buying two of everything, just to make sure Ron felt included. Ron’s bashful smile was more often than not a nice reprieve from his unknowing jealous glare.

All this being said, there has been a lot Harry had learned to keep private. Yes, the big things are harder, he still remembers the outraged look on his face when Harry told him about making Seeker, but the smaller things, those have gotten easier to cover up. Spending more time with Hermione? Easy deflection towards Ron’s recent tutoring sessions. Got a high mark on an essay? Ron trusts his word enough that paper proof is not even needed. Getting along better with the twins? He volunteered to be their new test subject so Ron didn’t have to.

Harry does feel a little bad. Should it be this easy to lie to your friends?

If that wasn’t enough, Harry was starting to feel strangely proud about being able to navigate his way through Ron’s troubled attitude. After all, a year ago he couldn’t imagine being so cunning without the fear and shame of deceit. 

Peering across the Great Hall, he locked eyes with a certain green-tied classmate, blushing to the tips of his ears when he was met with a wink.

“Maybe if you followed the essay plan I made you, you wouldn’t be so far behind,” Hermione snarked, flicking her pen accusatorily at Ron across the table. Ron grumbled, waving the feathers away from his face.

“I can’t help it, ‘Mione! You have to admit that even you struggle to stay awake in History of Magic. It’s bloody awful,”

“Some of us actually like to learn, and any subject is interesting if you find something you like.” Harry could barely hear her, too preoccupied with the gentle smile he got in response to his goofy one.

“That’s not fair! You like to learn and you think everything is bloody interesting.” Ron huffed again, pushing away the heavily edited draft Hermione was passing over. “Let me get one minute of peace, at least while we eat. It’s nearly Christmas anyway, no one even cares about papers right now.” Harry subtly caught the flying kiss that was sent in his direction, mouthing ‘Seeker’ with a devilish  The responding giggle made his heart flutter.

“Yes, they do! There’s a reason we get work over the holiday, mind you, because they want us to learn as much as possible before exams.”

“You’re being ridiculous! Binns is just as excited for the break as we are, he’s not going to expect O level work.”

“He’s a ghost, Ronald! And he doesn’t even celebrate Christmas.”

“Harry!” This made Harry finally peel his eyes away, jumping out of his skin now that he realized that both of his friends were eyeing him. “...what are you doing?”

“What?”

“Were you looking at…the Slytherin table?” Ron’s face only looked so disgusted for two reasons - when he thinks about his time belching slugs, and when he thinks about Slytherins. Harry’s knee started to bounce involuntarily.

“Just trying to get a rise out of, uh, Malfoy, you know. Not important. What were you two saying?” Ron looked mildly skeptical, but there was a little twinkle in his look at the prospect of annoying Malfoy. He spared a single glance to the other table - crap! Malfoy wasn’t even looking in this direction, let alone pissed at all - before deciding it wasn’t worth the extra thought.

“Tell Hermione she’s crazy for wanting to work so close to Christmas.”

“No, tell Ronald that he is going to get a T if he continues to do work like this.” The two stared at him, both daring him to oppose them. Harry scratched the back of his neck, guilty pushing a breath between his teeth.

“Please don’t get me involved with this.” He was thankful that Ron’s betrayed look didn’t affect him as much as it used to, but Hermione’s glare still made his blood run cold. There was something, however, in his eyes that made him suspicious.

“Since you both insist on sacrificing your grades before the holidays, I’m going to the library alone. You can finish your paper on your own!” Ron’s eyes widened, scrambling to grab his things as Hermione stomped away.

“Bloody-” Harry narrowly dodged an elbow, though his lap did get a nice Yorkshire pudding companion in Ron’s haste, “I can’t believe you’re not coming with us to the Burrow. I’m going to be stuck with that all break!” Harry snickered, reaching across the table for a napkin.

“Just be thankful she always ends up helping you anyway.” Ron’s bag fell one more time before he was finally able to pull himself away from the bench, racing out the door to beg Hermione for her help. Merlin knows what will happen if he brings back another P to his Mother.

In the chaos, there were still distinctly Ron things scattered around the table and floor. A quill, for one, and his Transfiguration textbook that Harry knew Ron would need by this afternoon. Harry chuckled to himself, bending down to pick up a fallen piece of paper, pointedly ignoring the little doodle of Hermione’s name with a heart. When he righted himself, he nearly jumped out of his skin. Across from him, with equally devastating smirks, were the infamous Weasley twins. Harry gulped.

“Ah. What can I do for you gentlemen on his fine day?” Harry asked awkwardly, shufflings Ron’s stuff into a pile just to have something to do other than admit that he was just a little bit nervous. Especially when the twins have that look.

“It’s the strangest thing, you know?” Fred started, leaning towards Harry. They boy didn’t dare speak, but leaned forward too, not knowing if he wanted to hear what would be said next.

“What is, Forge?” George said, mirroring his twin. They all looked a little silly, butting heads over the great, big table, but Harry couldn’t find himself laughing at the moment.

“Well, Gred, I think my eyes are started to trick me.”

“Trick you?!” George said in mock surprise. “Whatever could you mean by that?”

“What else could it be, if not trickery? You see, I was just enjoying my breakfast-”

“What a lovely breakfast it was, too.”

“=when I looked over and saw our very own Harrykins with bright red cheeks!”

“Bright red, you say?”

“As red as a baby’s bum!”

“Oh, my!” Harry felt his face burning once again.

“So I looked over-”

“And what did you see?”

���-to see our very own hero fraternizing with the enemy!”

“Wait!” Harry whispered, yanking them in closer. The devil twins had equally large smiles on their faces. He thought of coming up with an excuse for a split moment, but, Harry realized with dread, that those smiles only meant one thing - the twins already knew the answer and were only waiting for confirmation. Whether that confirmation was verbal or not was of little issue for them. A rock formed in his stomach. Knowing the twins, if they didn’t get an answer now… “No one can know.” At this, their eyebrows raised.

“Am I hearing things correctly?” Fred mimed cleaning his ear, George staring at him with blazing eyes. Harry gulped, nodding his head, unable to meet their eyes. Dread for inevitable pranks turned into dread at rejection, a bubbling fear that the twins would do what he always feared Ron would do one day, turn their backs on him.

“Our little Harrykins is all grown up!” George whispered loudly, ruffling Harry’s already crazy hair. Harry’s head shot up, looking up to see equally smiling faces. Mischievous, as always, but there was a certain softness at the corners. Harry’s confusion quickly covered all his other bad feelings. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with us.”

“...what?”

“I knew you were the savior type, but I didn’t know you’d go as far as actively searching a snake pit.” Fred’s wiggling eyebrows made Harry smile sheepishly.

“It wasn’t on purpose…an accidental meeting, if you will, last Christmas.”

“Oh, ho! We finally have the real reason Mother’s beloved adopted child is not joining us this year.” Harry blushed again. “Now, do we have to go over all the safety procedures of a healthy relationship, Can’t have our special boy be defiled by evil, now can we.”

“No, we can’t, Gred.” Their smiles turned devious again. “Now, what was it Father-dearest said to us? Oh yes, the contraceptive charm is very useful in these types of situations-”

“And you can never be too safe, so remember to take a potion afterwards-”

“Okay!” Harry yelled, standing up. He hastily gathered his and Ron’s items, hurrying to the door. “Thank you very much!”

“We haven’t even told you about the dangers of teen pregnancy.” One of them, Harry couldn’t care anymore, yelled at his back, the other cackling loudly.

“Or the dangers of STDs-”

“That’s quite enough, you two! 10 points of Gryffindor for inappropriate language.”

Harry dared to look over his shoulder at the green table across the room as he exited the grand doors, blushing, something he seemed to be doing a lot recently, when he locked eyes with the one pair he desperately wished wouldn’t have noticed the frankly humiliating interaction. The mischievous twinkle in them made Harry dread the teasing that would come, once most of the school left for the holiday and they were finally able to do more than exchange glances across a sea of unsuspecting classmates. Sappy as it was, Harry thought, he couldn’t wait.

______________________________________________________________

masterlist  l What is Laufeyfest? l Laufeyfest masterlist

[swallowedbyfandom]

Portia is ashamed to admit she finds herself rattled by her discussion with Penelope. She had not considered how much debt remains on the estate. While the influx of inheritance money was used to settle the immediate debts. There are still many debts that are frozen until such time as a new Baron is named. What money they have remaining from the inheritance will likely not be enough to actually get all their affairs in order. Not to mention all the renovations and upkeep their lands and tenants will require.

Portia has never had to concern herself with business affairs. That is what husbands are for. It is clear she was too hasty in marrying her daughters off. For heaven's sake, she had to explain to Mr. Finch how one goes about consummating a marriage. Penelope is her only remaining child that can be married off advantageously.It is glaringly clear that Penelope has no intentions of looking out for anyone's interest but her own. How the hell did Penelope end up her most promising child?

She may have to find an another husband, for her future security. Someone with children in need of a mother. She shudders at the thought. She needs a man that can help her train her son in laws. She will wait to see if she gets a grandson first. Perhaps the situation with the estate is not so dire.

She spends her time during calling hours torn between watching Penelope charm and navigate the many gentlemen calling and worry over what the future may bring. Decades of tolerating Archibald and she is back at square one. Good lord, will her poor girls end up her here in a few years? She tries to distract herself watching the gentlemen whom seem most interested in her youngest daughter.

The Marquis from Vienna seems throughly taken with Penelope. He arrived early with a beautiful floral arrangement and gifts her what appeared to be a solid silver dessert fork tied with a pretty bow. Her daughter gives him a mischievous smirk and vows to carry it always. She watches Penelope slip it into her reticule. They chuckle like children over it. Portia wonders if this is a bizarre Austrian custom. She has heard of welsh love spoon. However she has never before heard any tales tied to forks. She will have to look into it to ensure it is not improper.

Lord Samadani watches her daughter with keen interest in his eyes and laughter twitching at his lips. She would prefer her daughter not move so far away for marriage. Now that she can see what an untapped resource Penelope is, she does not want to let her go. However with his title, and wealth she would not be able to reasonably decline. He also holds the Queen's favor. She cannot question his character without offending the Queen's taste.

Watching Lord Fife attempting to charm Penelope is deeply disturbing. Her daughter sends subtle glares at him, while he all but pants at her feet. She swears she witnessed him shiver at the scathing tone Penny directed at him when she shot down his invitation to promenade that afternoon.

Her daughter had quickly spat out her denial.

"With the way you are currently panting Lord Fife, I cannot imagine taking you for a walk without a collar and a leash. I am unsure where we would find such accessories to fit you. So I will have to decline."

That scoundrel had released a whimper so obscene, it made her blush. Her youngest daughter seemed confused over the sound. She quickly signaled over a maid and had Penelope escorted to her room.

Unfortunately for Lord Fife, news of his behavior becomes the hottest gossip that evening at every Gentlemen's club. It is also responsible for the fist fight between him and Colin Bridgerton that happens outside the Featherington home. To the delight of all the gentlemen currently awaiting their turn to speak with Miss Penelope, Portia Featherington goes on a flustered, scandalized rant.

"Never in all my years have I felt so violated. How dare you come into my home and attempt to ...to...to bring yourself to climax using my daughter's voice. I run a proper household. I have raised proper ladies. Why the whole of society seems to hold Marina Thompson's sins against me and my girls, I shall never know. I did not ask for that girl and her illegitimate spawn to come into my home and hold our reputations hostage. My husband allowed that! I DID NOT RAISE THAT CHIT! I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HER DISGUSTING LACK OF JUDGEMENT! STILL IT IS MY DAUGHTERS WHOM HAD THEIR MARRIAGE PROSPECTS SUFFER. STILL IT IS THE VIRTUE OF MY GIRLS THAT IS QUESTIONED! STILL IT IS I WHOM IS KNOW AS A SCHEMER."

Portia Featherington to the great horror of the gentlemen watching seems to collapse in on herself.

"JUST BECAUSE WE ARE WITHOUT A LORD DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN ATTEMPT TO DISHONOR MY DAUGHTER. LORD FIFE, YOU ARE BANNED FROM MY HOME. I HEREBY, REJECT YOUR SUIT FOR MY DAUGHTER!"

They all watch Portia attempt to regain her composure.

"Mr Bridgerton, I scolded my daughter when she turned down your marriage proposal. I thought in light of all the scandal we have weathered due to the dishonorable men in our lives, she was being overreaching." She let out a scoff. "I understand now why your association with Lords Fife and Stanton made her question your integrity and honor as a gentleman. Frankly after what I just witnessed I too, have my doubts. Consider this your notice, Mr. Bridgerton. If I see a single hint that you harbor any perversions similar to your friend, I will have you thrown from my home instantly. If you attempt to take any liberties with my daughter I will see you ruined. My daughter may not have a Lord's protection but he has a mother's."

Still visibly trembling Portia turns to the rest of her captive audience. She gives them a shakily tight smile.

"I apologize for the inconvenience gentlemen. I am suddenly feeling quite overwrought. I am afraid I must cancel today's calling hours. I shall allow for callers tomorrow. I also apologize for shouting. I admit that witnessing such a vulgar act committed in front of my unsuspecting daughter was too great a shock for me. I must go tend to my daughter now. I need to find a way to explain what has taken place without compromising Penelope's innocence. My staff will see you out. Good day, Sirs."

She sweeps out of the room, leaving silence in her wake. Men are the lowest of all the life forms, she cannot help thinking. She hopes her performance is enough to head off talks about Penelope's virtue being compromised, by the vile display Fife made. She doesn't have her youngest's talent for feigned vulnerability.

Colin Bridgerton better make use of this opportunity she has just handed him. If he doesn't act to uphold Penelope's honor, she will deny him as a suitor on general principle. Penelope is right. Portia is tired of weak men. An entire room full of gentlemen and not one stepped in to stop Fife's disgusting behavior. Not one stepped in when Penelope's discomfort was obvious. She is done, with the spineless stupidity of man. Her new sons are going to get some damn training.

She trusts that Penelope will marry someone sensible with more than a drop of common sense. That girl is too cunning and manipulative, not to land herself a proper man. Hell, maybe she is better off as a spinster, if this is the quality of men available. Time will tell.

Now she needs to get to a window to see if Colin Bridgerton will do god's work and punch Lord Fife in his damn mouth.

[yupuffin]

I'd like able-bodied cosplayers to understand that when I say I adapt costume designs to my disability by reducing complexity during construction (namely for Genshin Impact, my current hyperfixation, which is also notorious for needlessly detailed costumes), I'm not simply skipping details because I feel like it* or "cutting corners" because I'm lazy.

It's like that one time a few years ago when I was on the second-to-last day of a sea kayaking trip with a group of other students from my college. Stick with me for this metaphor.

It was a ten-day-long trip, so we'd only packed what we could all fit on our kayaks, including food. Since we were nine days in, we were getting to the end of our food supplies--though, with our return to populated areas, we were able to make a grocery stop for ingredients for our final dinner of the trip, which would be a vegetable stir-fry.

We had $20 in the budget to buy ingredients for a meal to feed over a dozen people.

VOCALOID is one of my special interests, so the first words out of my mouth, without much consideration behind them, were "green onions."

In response, one of the guides wondered aloud, "Do green onions really add anything to a stir-fry?"

Don't get me wrong, I'll add green onions to any stir-fry given the opportunity; they do add that vaguely spicy-sweet kick that complements other flavors really well. So it's not like they don't add anything.

However, given our limited budget, in contrast to the size of the meal we had to make, it didn't make sense to spend a significant portion of our money on an ingredient that would function primarily as a garnish--something that serves mostly to enhance flavor; IIRC we ended up buying things like carrots and green peppers, which would instead add the substance we needed to make enough food for everyone.

With a disability that affects my motor control, constructing cosplays above a certain level of detail/complexity is like putting together a large meal on budget constraints--because I can only spend so long on a costume before I get burnt out, and every piece of fine detailing I add takes increasingly more time, just as every ingredient you add to a stir-fry takes increasingly more money.

So when I'm planning construction for a cosplay, it's like looking in the produce aisle of a grocery store and deciding what to spend $20 on. Metaphorically speaking, I'm going to want to prioritize details that add "substance," rather than those that function merely as a "garnish."

I have to look at every detail on the costume, think through how I would construct it--often multiple times, to ensure I'm using the optimal techniques--and consciously decide: What does this detail add to the costume? How much of my limited time and focus is it going to take? How well can I reliably replicate it given my disability? Considering all of these factors, does including this detail justify its contribution to the completed piece?

It's its own form of strategizing and problem-solving. I'm not doing it solely to make my life easier--I'm doing it because my disability effectively puts me on a sort of non-monetary budget and I have to optimize how I'm going to utilize that budget (on top of financially budgeting!).

Competitions, including cosplay competitions, are equal, not fair, so there's no way to completely remove ableism from cosplay judging. As you might say, judges gonna judge. They're just doing their job, and they get to make the final decisions in terms of scoring and placements, so I'm not going to pretend that I can influence the opinion of every cosplay judge out there with my metaphor.

Still, going forward, I'd like to see increased awareness of ableism in the cosplay environment--specifically, saving the judgment for the competition, and even then, realizing that a simple numerical score can never encapsulate the full nuance of any given cosplayer's experience with the construction of their piece; any number of factors you might initially think are conscious decisions on a cosplayer's part are actually responses to factors completely beyond their control, like dis/ability, budget, access to tools and materials, and other forms of privilege.

*Even if I am skipping details just because I feel like it, it's because I'd rather have a completed costume I can enjoy than get so frustrated and hung up on it that it makes me want to quit cosplay altogether. I resent that crunching and causing ourselves so many negative emotions over building a costume that just has to be perfect is so normalized that, from my experience, it's effectively a requirement for competitive cosplayers.

[expeditionersjoklumarkar]

ok i wanted to write out my thoughts cause its something thats been making me insane but like i think a lot of the reactions to the tumblr verified thing on both sides are like. really overblown and just kind of idk bad? to explain like i think that the post circulating that has screenshots of who has the checkmark where a lot of people in the tags and replies are using it to justify harassment is really uncalled for. I know someone who like has one just because its funny and like $8 or whatever and they have so many people sending them death threats and like calling them selfish/entitled/etc despite the fact that like they're not coming from a place of a lot of money, it was just something they got for themselves as a treat. obviously this doesnt apply to like people who spent hundreds for like fake internet clout but i think that dogpiling and justifying harassment en masse to anyone with the checkmark is like a really dangerous precedent to set. the argument ive mostly seen is if they spent money on the site they arent donating and therefore are bad people and should donate just feels like youre making up a guy to get mad at and using it to justify mass harassment. On the other hand I do think that its good to be critical of supporting a site that has history of racism and bad moderation decisions. I think that it's good to be skeptical of giving money to people who've made bad decisions in the past and that while it would be nice to be able to support tumblr and make sure it stays running etc, this should also be considered in tangent with how their current staff are treating racism, transphobia, etc. The problem is we should be able to be critical of this without using this as moral high ground to harass people who are potentially also coming from a place of low income. I think these ideas need to co-exist and be dialed down like 50%. Tumblr isn't going to die outright if you dont send it $100 and people arent willingly killing people because they got 1 checkmark.

Its really easy to also get emotionally invested in this discussion because a lot of us are suffering at the hands of capitalism and seeing someone able to spend money on something is sparking like the idea of "well that should have gone to me/someone who needs it" which is ykno something that appeals very heavily to emotion.

tldr i think that like harassing people and making huge vitriolic posts abt people with tumblr verified is preformative and reads like "there are starving children in africa" rather than like genuine criticism. it feels reactionary and overblown and is being used to justify harassment. thats just my 2cents tho

[is-the-owl-video-cute]

How do you justify falconry outside areas where it is traditional by UNESCO definition? It just seems a cultural appropriative hobby by people with some extra money and time, plus leading to some problems like hybrids and escapes. Outside the original ranges, or very specific contexts (like helping in airports, or as part of education programs), it is still an wild animal subjected to a lot of interaction with humans just because someone wanted it, by vanity or whatever. And both the animal and the environment around him are subject to the errors of the individuals in training. Even with permits and such, it seems such a big responsability to be available to people who are not trained biologists, or outside its original cultural and environmental context.

what… culture are you assuming to be appropriated by this? Falconry was and still is practiced all over Afro-Eurasia as it has been for millennia. It has been practiced in the Americas for centuries now.

Do you know what goes into obtaining a falconry permit in the US, anon? It’s not just paying a simple fee. You have to find a master or general level falconer to mentor you, pass a written exam with four sections with an 80% or higher, you have to construct an appropriate mews following state and federal guidelines and that mews must be inspected by the state. For two years the only raptors you may obtain are wild-trapped juveniles which will not impact populations if they escape back into the wild.

At any point, no matter your rank as a falconer, if the state decides you are unsuitable to have the birds they take them without warning. Too many birds? Seized. Unsafe practices? Seized. Neglect? Seized. A game warden can enter a falconer’s property at any time and assess whether the facilities are appropriate and the bird is in good care. If they don’t like it, that bird is seized and a falconry license suspended or lost.

I won’t say “falconry” isn’t a problem in countries where you can just go out and buy a barn owl for less than you’d spend at a dine in restaurant, but in terms of the US where you actually need permits and regulations are there to protect birds I have no issue with falconry. Are there falconers who should lose their permits here? Sure. Same goes for wildlife rehabs and education centers too though. There will always be people who get away with abysmal care. That’s just the sad reality of any animal husbandry.

I can promise you though, your view of falconry as just being practiced by bored wealthy people is rather ignorant. Even in the US there are falconers who hawk to have food for themselves and for their birds, and like it or not, falconry is intertwined with raptor conservation. See a peregrine falcon in the Americas? Thank a falconer. Had it not been for a healthy population of falconry peregrines, we would not have been able to restore their populations. Captive breeding raptors was also pioneered by falconers. So was trapping, used extensively by bird banders at research stations. Raptor nutrition? Feather imping? Telemetry? Proper handling equipment and technique for raptors?That’s all falconers.

I don’t look fondly upon those who go and buy an owl and claim to be a falconer, but there are by and large more good than bad aspects to the sport.

[some-triangles]

It's Portland's annual new year blizzard/ice storm, which we are unprepared for every year, because this never used to happen. It barely snowed here when I was a kid! I was a kid 30 years ago, mind you, and this has been happening pretty consistently for the last 20, but institutions are slow to change. We have been spending our money on other things.

So here I am, sitting in my own living room (my own in the sense that I rent it), in my long johns and thermals and two pairs of socks, heat on, still gradually losing feeling in my toes. This seems like a good day to write the politics post.

I belong to the category of person who expresses political and moral beliefs mostly through jokes, and only then when my personal frustration has reached a point where I can no longer make myself be quiet. The jokes are there to make the pain less raw, but lately the jokes themselves are getting dark enough that it's upsetting people. So let's proceed without the jokes.

Where to begin? In the 90s, I guess. I was brought up liberal but cynical, which is already kind of a tense balance, and I was by inclination a person who wanted things to make sense and follow understandable rules. (The answer is as always neurodivergence.) I figured out that religion wasn't real by looking at a map and realizing that the world was too big for any one group of people to be right about things. Despite this, I still thought American democracy was the correct answer, the least bad option, and that the world as a whole was heading towards where I was, a kind of tolerant, reasonable middle class existence.

In my defense, this was a belief broadly shared by my parents' generation, and I hadn't been taught a lot of the stuff that argued against it. Francis Fukuyama got up in front of people and declared the world a solved problem and nobody important even laughed at him. I bought into this to the extent that I suffered from a kind of wistful sadness that all the important battles had already been fought. In short, I was a child, and not a particularly bright one, despite what people told me. I did, however, form a belief that stays with me to this day:

I AM NOT SPECIAL. I, personally, do not deserve any more or any less than any human being. And since I think I should be safe and well fed, every other human being should also be safe and well fed. The fact that I am better off than some others is an accident which should be rectified.

This came about because I was aware that a lot of the people in the world were poor and miserable and I wasn't, and I had to decide whether luck or virtue was responsible for my safety. I went with luck. I didn't realize it at the time, but this choice put me at odds with a lot of the logic underlying the society I live in - because if I'm not special, you better believe nobody else is either, and that means no elect, no chosen, none blessed by god, none elevated by blood. I was 10, I hadn't even had a chance to fuck up my life yet, and yet there were all these other 10-year-olds worse off than me. Did they deserve that? And what about those kids who had it better?

And so, decades later, we end up with the joke about how it's a good deal to trade your life away to take out a rich person. It's the same impulse, just with a lot of broken promises and bitterness stacked on top. I work full time at a job that's officially essential (no stoppage during the pandemic), strenuous, and physically dangerous - I get paid the 1993 equivalent of a little less than $30k a year - I will never be able to afford a home in the city I grew up in. This job has to be done. I am not special, I do not "deserve" a better job. I, as a working person, watch people who do jobs that do not need to be done or who don't work at all get paid more because they are members of an invisible elect. I conclude that they must believe they are worth more than me, that they are better than me, because how else could they justify their lives? And I think if I subscribed to that worldview, it would be a net win for me to blow both of us up. Thus, the joke.

I also watch the rest of the world. My belief in liberal democracy is a pretty aerated Jenga tower by this point. Learning about America's imperial history took out a bunch of pieces, but I could still believe all that was behind us. Then we went back to war, which I could initially write off as a traumatic reaction, but as years turned into decades it became obvious that peace had been the exception, and that even that peace hadn't been that peaceful, had it? At that point it was still possible to believe that at least all of our bombing and killing had been in the interest of some kind of moral good, if you really tried. I think Gaza killed the very last part of me that could believe that. There is no atrocity we will not enable to pursue our own ends. Does it matter that much what kind of system we use to choose our leaders if this is what our leaders do?

The last thing keeping my tower standing is the need to protect the outgroups I and my friends belong to, which doesn't really rise to the level of a moral imperative. It's a moment by moment strategic thing, where you support institutions if they protect you and oppose them if they attack you, like any interest group. Right now HR culture and capitalism are trending pro-trans, so we support Disney against Florida. We will do voter suppression if the alternative is Trump. It doesn't go well with rule number one up there, but neither does the fact that I care about my friends more than I care about people I don't know.

At the end of the day it's all a joke. Moral imperatives give way to political reality one hundred percent of the time. It doesn't matter what I call myself. I hate tech culture, so why not be a Luddite? I'll smash steam looms in my mind while continuing to pay for my groceries. Just let me have my jokes. Trashfuture did a great riff about Butlerian Jihad the other day where they imagined a butler named Ian Jihad. "I've oriented sir's slippers towards Mecca, sir." That's the kind of political commentary I want, and the kind I will refrain from posting here unless my toes are really, really cold.

[cyanidealice11]

I’m really sad to be writing this but after a LOT of deliberation I’ve decided to wind down the playing of Obey Me! Nightbringer.

It’s been a really hard decision to make as I have played both OG OM and now NB for nearly 3 years solidly, every day. So for such a long time commitment to just give up is quite difficult. Also I’m P2P and was signed up to VIP so just from a monetary perspective, I’ve invested a fair bit of money into both games. And to walk away from that feels like a blow.

None of that really compares to the heartbreaking decision to walk away from the boys. I’ve genuinely grown to love all the characters and to not play with them and interact with them will be so difficult. Also the storylines for NB are so much better now!

However my reasons for walking away have overridden all of that.

I can’t justify spending money on the game anymore. I know I can play as F2P but we all know you don’t get anywhere near as much as if you spend money. And even then you’re not guaranteed the good cards, the outfits, gifts etc unless you spend A LOT of money. I just can’t justify it anymore. I’ve tried so hard on the recent events to get the cards I want but to no avail. No matter how much grinding you do it seems to get you nowhere. It was so disheartening that I wasn’t able to get a Mammon card recently that I tried so hard to get, wiping out all my resources in the process. I’m sure it wasn’t this difficult in OG OM 🤔. It’s all so disappointing and leaves me feeling like what’s the point in playing?

Another reason I’ve decided to leave NB is even though the storylines are so far much better than OG OM was left at, realistically it’s also more about group interactions with all of the datables rather than 1 on 1. The events claim to be focused more on one character than the others and yet every time, we’re given interactions for all of them rather than the one it was meant to be with. I understand the devs have to cater to everyone’s biases but if the event is for, say Satan, then the interactions should be with just him not the others. The romantic element feels like its slowly being lost and to be honest, that was a large part of why I play.

I think my love for the characters will still continue (Mammon and Beel for life!) but instead of interacting with them in game, I’m going to continue to be a part of the fandom on here. The fics, artwork and lore on here I feel surpasses anything Solmare have given us in game for a while so I’d prefer to live in this world! I’m so grateful I’m part of this community as without it, I wouldn’t have been able to walk away from the game as I’m able to now.

So as of today I’m starting to wind it all down. I’ve cancelled VIP (my bank account will be happy!) and I will delete the OG OM (my phone memory will be happy!) as I’d stopped playing that version a while ago anyway. I’ll keep the NB game for a bit longer but probably won’t log on as much anymore. It’s such a shame as I think Solmare really had a good concept with Obey Me as a whole but have really not done the characters and the fans the service they needed to.

Any suggestions for a similar game is more than welcome (though I feel that’ll be quite difficult to replicate!).

[healeroflightanddark]

Family Bonds, Chapter 3: Plans For the Future

Zarc woke up the next day feeling exhausted. He had spent half the night tending to the babies, who kept waking up crying. Whenever one of them started crying, the others were sure to follow. It was mostly the green-and-redhead that would start crying first, followed quickly by the one with purple-and-black hair, then the one with blue-and-yellow hair and the pink-and-purple one, usually in that order.

Half the time they didn’t even need feeding or their diapers changed, but just seemed to miss Zarc. They did usually stop crying when Zarc picked them up and cradled them.

Zarc sighed as he made himself some coffee, knowing he wouldn’t be able to leave the babies home alone while he was at work. He would have to take them in with him. Which would raise a lot of questions, seeing as he had a live interview with the Duelist Entertainment TV station scheduled for today.

“Hopefully the interviewer won’t be bothered by the sudden appearance of the babies,” he said.

“We still need to name them,” said Dark Rebellion. “Got any name ideas?”

Zarc nodded, having been thinking about that since the babies’ arrival, “I’m thinking Yuto, Yuri, Yugo, and Yuya. In that order, based on the order they were born according to the note.”

Odd-Eyes was cooing over Yuya, who had woken up without crying for once. “You like that name, lil Yuya?” Yuya gurgled happily, grasping Odd-Eyes’s finger with his tiny hand. “Aw, I think he likes his name!”

“They’re probably going to be hungry again soon,” Starve Venom said. “We should make them some formula.”

No sooner were the words out of his mouth, Yuri woke up and started wailing. Which caused Yuya to start crying too. Which in turn woke Yuto who started crying, followed immediately by Yugo. Zarc rushed to prepare their bottles, which the dragons took to feed the babies while Zarc sipped his much-needed coffee. Fortunately the babies calmed down immediately as they started drinking their milk.

“They’re so tiny!” Clear Wing cooed. “But they have such big appetites. Don’t you, Yugo? Yes you do! Yes you do, yum yum!” Yugo looked up at the dragon as he gulped down his bottle.

“Are we sure they should be going to the interview with you?” Dark Rebellion asked, looking at Zarc. The duelist nodded, “I would leave them here with you four, but I’m worried about that crazy fan that left them here. I don’t want to risk whoever it is deciding that they change their mind, and breaking into the house to take the babies back. They clearly know where we live, and if they’re crazy enough to clone me, they’re probably crazy enough to do other illegal stuff.”

“Fair enough,” Dark Rebellion said. Starve Venom looked around thoughtfully. “In that case, we should probably move to a new home. This apartment is only a studio apartment anyway. It’s not going to be big enough for all of the babies for much longer.”

“True,” Zarc agreed. He thought for a minute. “I make enough money from my duels that I should be able to afford a nice place big enough for all of us. I may have to dip into my savings, but it’ll be worth it if I can get a bigger place. It doesn’t need to be very big right now, the kids should be able to share a room while they’re younger, and use bunk beds as they get a bit older. A nice two-bedroom apartment should be big enough for now. Maybe three bedrooms, and we could use the third bedroom as a playroom for the kids.”

“That sounds good!” Starve Venom agreed. “You can always save up for a proper house later on, when the kids are older!”

The rest of the dragons nodded in agreement, and Zarc smiled. Truth be told, he’d been considering getting a bigger place recently, but he’d never been able to really justify spending more money on a bigger place when there was no real need to upgrade. Now that he had four kids to raise, it was just the push he needed.

[bvannn]

Weekly update February 23, 2024

I know I just woke up so this is early, but I don’t anticipate having time to write this later. I’ve had a ton of homework this week and been feeling really bad. I don’t know how much of it is more lingering sickness from surgery, if I caught something going around campus, how much of it is my congenial illness, or if there’s something else, but I assume it’s a mix. That coupled with homework means I didn’t really get much of anything done this week. I don’t know how next week will be. My congenial condition is probably the worst, because it prevents me from being able to get up out of bed when it’s flaring up, so I’m going a lot longer without food. That coupled with surgery sickness making me anxious and trying to justify not eating, has me a bit worried but not worried enough to force myself to eat. I feel gross when I eat. My stomach hurts every time, most of the food I have isn’t healthy anyway, it’s smarter just to not. That’s probably why I got more drunk off of less alcohol last night, honestly, although I did force myself to have lunch and dinner so I wouldn’t put myself in danger.I play it overly safe with alcohol, since I know how much it takes to almost kill me, and alcohol is really the only reliable way to take an anxious edge off before bed right now. I have leftover oxycodone from surgery but I want to save that for when I need the painkilling effects, and I have a couple friends begging and pleading me to try weed again, but I’ve never really had a desire to, and I haven’t really known why until I really thought about it this morning: weed puts a focus on your body, it doesn’t numb your nerves like alcohol or oxy do. Which means it brings focus to my condition, which is distressing. It’s like meditation, it only works if you’re already healthy. I wish I could have put that together sooner, it probably would have made turning it down a lot easier, since they would understand. I know they aren’t trying to be malicious, they just don’t understand because I had no way of communicating it to them. Now that I know what’s wrong, I can put it off for a while, until my congenial condition is cleared up, in a few years. Anyway enough Health rambling, art stuff

The main thing I did in the way of art this week was fiddling with vocaloid. Still not sure which banks to get, but it doesn’t matter too much since I won’t have the money for them for a good while anyway. Right now is to throw together the actual vpr files with the default banks, and then pass them to friends on discord who already have the banks, so they an render the MP3 and pass it back to me. Extra steps, sure, but it’ll work. I’m hoping to find a way to copy and paste the phonetic lyrics too, so I can see how the Japanese banks handle English, but no dice so far. If I need to write them out manually, I can, too.

As for instrumental music: I keep trying to throw together small beats late at night and they always sound like shit. I posted the one the other day and the next morning it was terrible, but I used a drum machine of course it was going to sound awful. I do essentially have the ambient instrumental one done, still running it past test audiences, which is a bit harder since people are less likely to spend the time test listening to a song vs giving a drawing a once over. I’m tempted to make my own discord server to try and garner a little community where people can test listen to stuff and post art, but I don’t know if I’d have a way of moderating it, I’ve seen some awful people on public discords. I might give it a few listens over myself and maybe just send it anyway, but I don’t trust my ears, I maybe don’t hear the instruments at the volume they actually are. I’m not sure, which is why I want to play it safe by passing it through peer review. Peer review is important, it’s the reason hazbin hotel was good while helluva boss wasn’t.

I haven’t been doing drawings, due to time and energy. Today is the due date for the worst of my homework, so I’ll try to get stuff done this weekend. I want to animate but have been having art block in that department. Honestly a fair amount of art block all around. Energy is also a component but last night I slept well, so I’ll try to get more sleep in the next few days, see how it helps. Unfortunately that’ll mean no staying up late to do drawings but that’s fine probably.

I also haven’t been getting comic progress done the way I want, but it’ll be fine, I can pick up again soon. I’m at 20 pages thumbnailed, moving into ‘act 3’, then I’ll go over and add in whatever I need to reach count and to fix any unnatural scenes. I’ll try to get back to ‘one a day’ starting tomorrow. Block is a bit hard on thumbnailing because it makes me just want to slap the panels on the page, but that’s lazy, I can have more fun with it than that.

I think next week the plan is going to be eat less food, spend more time with friends, go to bed earlier, back to one a day thumbnails, and whatever else I make I make. I’ll try to get art to go with that finished song done, and I’ll try to figure out how to sound balance it. Hopefully I can get that done in time to post it before the next update.

[carica-ficus]

Review: Lapvona

Author: Ottessa Moshfegh

Date: 20/11/2013

Ocjena: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

________________________________________________________

My expectations for the national book fair were quite low. Truthfully, the prices had been way too high in the recent years to be considered fair (feel free to chuckle at my bad pun), so I thought I wouldn't be able to find anything worth spending money on. But then I came across "Lapvona", a novel I've heard good things about and which seemed to be right up my alley. I presumed none of our publishers had it in store, so I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed it on one of the stalls and decided to purchase it immediately.

This text of this post turned out to be quite extensive and is more of an analysis, than a review, so I apologize if it doesn't turn out to be what you're looking for. I also do have to to warn that I mention a few spoilers, and a major one at that (regarding Agata's backstory), so I advise you skip this post in case you're not comfortable reading through them. And now, without further ado, my opinion on this novel:

"Lapvona" is a relatively short historical fiction novel which could loosely fit under the definition of folk horror. It features a story about a crippled boy, Marek, and his father, Jude, who live as shepherds in a village called Lapvona. Their life is hard and merciless, but they revel in their pain in order to please God, hoping that their suffering would earn them a place in heaven. Above Lapvona, in a big, beautiful mansion, lives their lord, Viliam, who spends his days engulfed in luxury, toying around with Father Barnabas, the local priest. In a long chain of events, Viliam adopts Marek as a replacement for his dead son, so the poor shepherd boy is suddenly thrown into the life of royalty.

The whole plot is a lot more convoluted, including a number of other important characters and themes, but it mostly revolves around the roles of family, community, survival, and women through the eyes of religion. "Lapvona" is, in its core, a genius and raw commentary on the interpretation of religious beliefs by people of different backgrounds. While it focuses on Christianity, it only uses it as a means to illustrate the many flaws religious worshiping ensues when it is enforced by people who use it to justify their flaws and sins. It is not religion itself that is evil, it is the person that abuses its beliefs.

Marek is an interesting choice as a main character, demonstrating a person, a believer, who fears God only because that is what he was taught to do while growing up. He sees his father as an icon of greatness, thinking of him as highly as he does God himself, but in truth, Marek holds little regard for religion. He punishes himself, makes himself small, and takes on a very pathetic personality because he thinks this is what an obedient Christian does. This in turn makes his motivation flawed, and, therefore, his actions crude and pointless. His true colors became apparent only when he starts living with Viliam, hoping that others will take pity on him and award him with their attention. He becomes angry when he doesn't achieve what he wants, slowly leaving his false persona and allowing the reader to finally see him as he truly is.

Moshfegh hides his demeanor very subtly, revealing it slowly later on throughout the book. This deceitful approach is quite cunning because it perfectly illustrates how difficult it is to see through Marek's lies, to himself and to others. It is his selfishness which betrays him. He is a motherless child who has never been loved and who constantly asks for attention of men, and for affection of women. While his needs seem to appear reasonable, he acts upon them with intense greed. He thinks of himself as deserving because he has obediently followed the rules of God and suffered like a true believer. He endures pain in order to receive a reward for it.

On the other hand, Marek is only human. He is a child who has never known love and searches for it in every person he encounters. This begs the question - who are we, a simple reader, to judge him? And why do we still do it throughout the novel? Moshfegh mentions multiple times that God truly doesn't care about the events in Lapvona, otherwise he would intervene with His divine power when people ask Him for help. The Christian God in the novel is portrayed as passive, a simple symbol of worship humans pray to. All the religious instructions come from false prophets who claim to know the word of God, like Father Barnabas who is portrayed as a fraud. He is a man who never truly listened to his lessons in theology. He takes advantage of the fearful peasants in order to turn a profit and to keep a high position in society, but other than that, he doesn't know much about the religion he preaches. Father Barnabas is, in fact, a metaphor for each person that dares to inflict judgment onto religious worshipers even though they themselves do not necessarily understand the very core of their religion's beliefs. Therefore, just like Father Barnabas, the reader truly has no right to judge Marek, for it is not up to them to do it.

Another theme very prevalent throughout the novel is the position of women in religion. Agata, Marek's mother, is portrayed as a girl who has been molested throughout her whole life - forced to mother a child born from incest, enslaved by Jude as his wife, then abused in the nunnery to which she escapes after giving birth. Her tongue has been cut of, so she doesn't even have the chance to speak up for herself. The lack of the ability to speak functions as a metaphor for the inability to fight against her oppressors. She is younger and weaker than her abusers, so her voice could have been the only weapon she could've successfully used against them, but it has been taken away by force. Agata has no power against what other people throw at her. Men constantly use her for her body, for their gain, so much so that she has simply accepted this as her reality.

The crimes of her abusers are rationalized through their religion. Jude molests her because he believes it is his right to do so. He thinks of himself as a good Christian man who deserves a wife because he follows the rules of the Bible, so he takes Agata when he pleases, justifying his devious behavior as the will of God. When Agata gives birth to Marek and runs off to the nunnery, the nuns assume she left her newborn because it was conceived under, to them, unacceptable circumstances. Agata is unable to tell them what really happened, but even if she could, would it even matter to them? Agata had been sexually involved with her brother and had laid with a man before marriage. The nuns see her as a sinner, regardless of her lack of consent during the act. Therefore, Agata has spent all her life learning that none of her desires, wishes, or opinions matter in the eye of God. In the end, her inability to speak doesn't even matter because others wouldn't even have the will to listen to her.

My only issue with the novel was that it lacks any real plot. The story consists of piled up of continuous situations stacked after one another, and the only real plot points are Marek's violent outburst against Viliam's son and Agata's escape from the nunnery. On the other hand, this is what makes the novel so realistic - life is, at the end of the day, mostly just an endless chain of monotonous events, so I do understand why it was necessary to write it as such for the purpose of its message.

"Lapvona" is a cruel, but superb commentary on religion and its exploitation for the purpose of controlling society. Moshfegh doesn't hold back in disgusting imagery of violence and has a distinct ability to masterfully portray the worst humanity has to offer. This novel is heavy and disgusting, in the best sense of these words. I wouldn't recommend it to people with a weak stomach, but I do recommend it to those in search for a future classic.

[prep4tomoro]

Minimalist Living - The Conserver Lifestyle: Freedom From Stuff

Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." (Luke 12:15) Security doesn't come from having more but from needing less. "Because we lack a divine Center, our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy. 'We buy things we do not want to impress people we do not like'. Where planned obsolescence leaves off, psychological obsolescence takes over. We are made to feel ashamed to wear clothes or drive cars until they are worn out. The mass media have convinced us that to be out of step with fashion is to be out of step with reality. It is time we awaken to the fact that conformity to a sick society is to be sick. Until we see how unbalanced our culture has become at this point, we will not be able to deal with the mammon spirit within ourselves nor will we desire Christian simplicity." ― Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth "a man there was, though some did count him mad, the more he cast away the more he had." ― John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress Job, Money, Status, Stuff . . . the American Dream? The American nightmare! The more I have, the more I want, the more things breakdown, the more stress to replace them and get more. How does it end? An unfullfilled life (and death) or with removing those "things" that satisfy so little. The older I get, the less I need, and the more I realize how my possessions have become more burdensome than comforting. The more I have, the more I have to lose. I am a slave to my stuff. The more money I make, the more stress I have and more fearful of losing what I have strived so hard to accumulate. "The one with the most toys wins" is a favorite saying for the one who seeks stuff to make them think they are happy. A movie called "LESS: Losing is Everything" helps to make the point that "when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change" and will gain a new-found sense of freedom. Needs vs. Wants: NEEDS are basic (not fancy) things we must have to survive like air, water, food, shelter and clothing. WANTS are luxuries; things I can live without like TV, car, jewelry; things we would like to have simply to enjoy. I ask myself the question "do I NEED this or do I WANT it?" Is it a necessity for my health or to perform a task, or is it something I want, just because? I have found that most of what I thought I needed, is simply something I wanted and could have done without and saved money, space and the aggrivation to get it. Later, I find those wants have lost the alure that sucked me in to buying them, and now I just want to get rid of the financial burden, or inconvenience, they cause. I encourage seeking simplicity. The more I have, the more I have to lose and greater will be the pain when it's gone. Things I Have Learned:

1 - Never say "never" - When we say “I could never…” we are limiting the possibilities for our lives. 2 - Start Working NOW to Get Out of Debt 3 - Don't envy those who have more. They, generally, have more to lose, more to maintain, less freedom and less financial discipline. 4 - Become keenly aware of income, spending and savings activities. This is best done with a Spending Plan/Budget. 5 - Establish and practice a strict NEEDS vs. WANTS mentality. Don't justify giving in to WANTS and Instant Gratification. 6 - Eliminate unnecessary (WANTS) monthly expenses. 7 - Find ways to reduce necessary (NEEDS) monthly expenses. 8 - Combine travel. If you need to go to the store, stop by the store on your way home from work. And shop at stores on route to/from home. 9 - Understand that "less expensive" does not necessarily mean "cheap". "Less expensive" soap will clean, and "less expensive" toilet paper will wipe, and go down the drain just as well as the "best" expensive brands (see The Dollar Store is My Friend). 10 - Turn off or unplug electical applicances and lights when not being actively used (see Kill Your Electrical Vampires). 11 - Addictions and Bad Habits sap, not only our finances, but our energy and health as well. Kick the habits. You can do it!

Consider a Disciplined Pursuit of Less: Not just haphazardly saying no, but purposefully, deliberately, and strategically eliminating the nonessentials. Not just once a year as part of a planning meeting, but constantly reducing, focusing, and simplifying. Not just getting rid of the obvious time wasters, but being willing to say NO to really terrific opportunities as well. Ask "What is essential?" and eliminate the rest. Everything changes when we give ourselves permission to eliminate the nonessentials. At once, we have the key to unlock the next level of our lives. Few appear to have the courage to live this principle, which may be why it differentiates successful people and organizations from the very successful ones. Too many of us trade our happiness and well-being for the reliability of a steady paycheck. We work long hours at jobs we dislike or find unfulfilling so that we can buy a lot of stuff that never really seems to satisfy us. And when that paycheck turns out to be not so reliable, we panic. Unemployment terrifies us. Is there any way out of this dilemma? Charles Long reveals one possibility -- the Conserver Lifestyle. . . . Security doesn't come from having more but from needing less. Resources: How to Survive Without a Salary by Charles Long Books on Frugal Living [Reference Link] Related Links: No-Nonsense Guide to Simplify Every Aspect of Your Life (Podcast) Is Simple Living for You? The Untapped Potential of Less Find That "One Thing"

[14-Point Emergency Preps Checklist] [11-Cs Basic Emergency Kit] [Learn to be More Self-Sufficient] [The Ultimate Preparation] [5six7 Menu]

[twinhearted]

"aziraphale wanting to reform heaven from the inside is out of character" is an odd take. he spends so much time in both seasons agonizing over incomprehensibly nuanced morality and ethics, always using his angelic duties as a reference point, that to me it feels obvious it's his primary intrapersonal conflict, and this is his way of trying to solve it.

i was not going to write an essay length analysis about this but turns out i did. forgive me if it sucks i'm barely conscious right now.

no, he says to crowley in the very first scene of the show, it would not be funny if giving away the flaming sword so adam and eve would have a chance at surviving to perpetuate humanity turned out to be against his orders, because even if it was the nice thing to do, it was not his right to do it, supposedly. he is reprimanded for this constantly, and even though it's a running gag, he is still depicted in-character as being unable to forgive himself over it.

the opening scene of the second season shows aziraphale reluctantly informing crowley that the earth will, in a celestially brief number of years, be destroyed. he sees how enthused this random guy is for cherub's first genesis and even helps him with it, but still tells him it's going out the window pretty soon anyway. as further events in the timeline occur we see that he does feel bad about the eventuality but waits millennia before he actually does anything about it, which brings us forward to the first season.

no, he repeats to crowley multiple times in go1, they cannot collaborate to prevent armageddon, because he is an angel and crowley is a demon and angels and demons are not supposed to even be seen with each other, even though they have mutual interest in stopping the antichrist because of humanity's sentimental value. he does it anyway and half regrets it, because being an angel is a critical foundation of his identity, and without it he doesn't know what he is.

the job bit. oh i really love this bit. aziraphale is very much committed to g-d's weird bullshit here, and very much opposed to it simultaneously. he's shocked and appalled by having to facilitate killing kids for what amounts to no reason, but he is an angel after all, so he feels like he has to just roll with it. if crowley didn't defy the orders it absolutely would've happened as was dictated.

i probably don't even need to talk about the complete and utter bafflement aziraphale feels upon encountering the moral and ethical conundrums presented to him in the gravedigger episode whose name escapes me right now. but i'm going to anyway. this guy is hell bent (heaven bent???) on conclusively and concisely arbitrating every action taken here as definitively good or definitively evil, no in-between. by flip-flopping back and forth he fails at this dramatically because he is so absolutist pilled.

and last but not least of the bullet points. he's a landlord. he makes exceptions for his tenants if they're having financial troubles because he believes it's right. but he's still a landlord, most notably one who has no real use for the rent money.

ok you're probably getting the picture now: despite having personal objections to pretty much every major action he's inclined to take by mandate of angelic profession or orders or whatever, aziraphale is still clinging to an idealistic view of heaven and his role therein. being an angel is so important to his self worth that he is willing to let slide or even facilitate the really fucking dumb bullshit that it entails, because angels are definitionally Good and he has to be Good by the books.

so given all this, why would he not jump at the opportunity to sculpt the guidelines and values of heaven to fit his own? why would he not take the chance to be able to justify being an angel against everything that he's done and felt about it? angels ought to be Good. so now he can make them Good.

except it doesn't work that way, obviously. heaven can't be in a position of divine power and judgment and all that without ostracizing (at best) everyone else. hence why the events i described in the bullet points happened. and i'm hoping we'll learn more about this in season 3 (if there is one). but for now we need to understand why the end of season 2 happened. it's because aziraphale is a flawed character and always has been.

[chantellemarchildon]

My final Tumblr Progress Report- Week 13

What is working? My plan to sell out what I had was a success. I got my regulars re stocked up and though I don't have an interest to continue working this side business to make more profit I had this crazy idea to make a batch of dog cupcakes with sweet potato "icing".... Pinterest inspired but so cute to say thank you.

I had estimated what I would make last week when I sold out of the bags I had in my freezer and was able to complete my final report earlier so I can enjoy the long weekend without worrying about anything being due. I am very happy with how everything worked out through this course.

What is not working? My drive to push and make more money was not there. I got to a point, which I write about in my report, about how I would need to invest more to make more and would have had to try my luck at the farmers market..... which I didn't want to do. I didn't want to give up an entire day to "try" and sell out at the market after spending another day making multiple batches to have available to sell.

How do I feel the project is coming? I know we were supposed to exceed our estimated projection for sales for this project... but my goal was different, I wanted to make this business fit into my life and be successful by making a profit... which I did. So when I was working on my final report I noticed the criteria for a 5 in profit and revenue was to exceed.... I debated about stressing myself out to try and prepare and get into a market but I had too many other things going on to justify that. The market was on Sundays. I'm off from work but do help with cottage cleaning for some income during the summer months and Sunday is a busy day in Airbnb's, plus I was working through multiple projects in other classes and tests. So I made the project work with me and not against me.... Maybe once my courses are over if the market is still running in the fall I will try it out. That is a perk to what I did in this business I can start it and stop it whenever I want because I made it fit into my life.

What did I learn about running a business and myself? I like getting good marks and seeing that marking rubric really had me pondering. In the end I did not pursue the farmer market route because it would have been too much for me during this time and take away in other areas of my life. I learned that I was willing to sacrifice a couple marks to have more peace instead of trying to bite off more than I could chew on a gamble.... It would have been a gamble because there was no way of guaranteeing that I would sell out my treats and in order to make it work I would have had to make more than I regularly did for the week to make revenue after investing more in supplies and for a table. I'm not a gambler.... I work in Rama and only went to the casino once... with $50 to try gambling with... I did not enjoy it. So I took the safe way and pushed to sell out what I had and finalize numbers to complete my report before the long weekend so that I could enjoy relaxing and camping for the long weekend.