#THAT'S ONLY MARGINALLY BETTER THO

[moodyseal]

Apollo choosing to sing to explain what happened to Jason was so out of pocket I can't stop thinking about it 💀 I mean imagine you're a young Roman demigod standing in the crowd wishing to know how your ex praetor died so you can mourn and have some closure and some random guy just starts rapping about him out of nowhere

[ooeygooeyghoul]

Shiun and Thancred bond over the fact that neither one of them can cook a goddamn thing. There's smoke coming from the oven, the food is burnt, nothing is edible. Two kings who bring disaster to the kitchen but at least they can find the humor in it.

[corvidcall]

sometimes you see a bad tweet and it makes you upset all day but you cant interact with it in any way because then twitter will just be encouraged to show you more bad tweets. but it did ruin my whole fucking day

[toytulini]

really irritating that the avenue of communication i keep open bc i pay the phone bill keeps using it to inundate me with fucking Ads?

[squidthechaotickid]

everything will be ok :) https://www.tumblr.com/sonic-voices/164562137054/everythingll-be-okay?source=share

I am literally going to cry thank you tails

[danthropologie]

Daniels whole demeanour and confidence at the gp though. He was absolutely walking and was feeling himself which makes me soso hopeful esp from his comments about next year and the stuff about the sim too. And him wanting himself to race, the belief in himself to go out and do what he loves!! I think the whole things with the fans and support is just a bonus tbh, like I do believe he would’ve decided he wants to come back either way with or without the huge reaction he was getting at the weekend but I like to think it shows him how supported and loved he is.

right and it was also such a nice (and interesting) progression from the launch as well, where even then he was SO excited and it felt like he probably kinda already knew that he wanted to get back on the grid, even if he wasn't quite ready to say it yet 🤧

[rgbalphameter]

my redbubble will be live soon ! i uploaded 5 designs so it'll show up soon, eventually- maybe ?... I don't know, I don't know much about redbubble, oops

check back again later for links to it ! I have over 200 patterns to upload though so it's gonna take a while for I to have a full collection of my designs- message me if there's some you'd like me to prioritize uploading, I'll deal with those first

[comet-frog]

margin time moment

[genericpuff]

Tbh at this point you should just make your own webcomic app/website because it would probably be 100 times better than whatever going on with webtoon right now.

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

For the last decade corporations have been convincing us that our worth is tied to the eyes we can bring to them. Instead of serving ourselves, we've begun serving the big guys, insisting that it has to be worth something eventually and that it'll "payoff" simply by the virtue of gambler's fallacy. Ask yourself what site is right for you and your work rather than asking yourself if your work is good enough for them. Most of us are broke trying to make it work on these sites anyways, may as well be broke and fulfilled by posting in places that actually suit us and our work if we can. Don't define your success by what sites like Webtoons are enforcing - that definition only benefits them, not you.

[youraveragemushroom]

♡♡♡♡

[decolonize-the-everything]

Black women deserve better than anything the world has offered them up to this point and it's on the rest of us to make sure they get it.

Sonya Massey wasn't just a Black woman, she was also a paranoid schizophrenic and a mother and she, like so many other mentally ill Black moms, should still be alive.

Blackness and mental illness should not be the cause of death for anyone in 2024. She was a loving and attentive mom and just called the police to make sure her home where her family lives was safe from intruders, something white mothers do all the time. Its something even the children of mentally ill mothers do all the time via well checks.

Sonya Massey was killed for this, though. For asking for help while Black.

Safety and support are not guaranteed rights for everyone as much as the rest of us may like to pretend they are. Being able to call the cops if something goes wrong is a comforting thought that Black women aren't afforded without a literal life or death risk.

What do you do when "call the police" isn't an answer because it's them who threaten your life? What do you do when even if you don't call for help, defending yourself is just as dangerous because you're Black and will be assumed the aggressor anyway?

I've read a lot of Black feminist theory, especially lately, and maybe that's why this is hitting so hard.

But Black women have been saying and writing and protesting what they want for decades. Black revolutionaries have books available for free online as PDFs and on library apps.

And what I've learned is that police are an inherently racist structure built to oppress Black women and other marginalized people and to uphold property value over the value of human life (especially when that human is Black tho).

And there would be no better aid than to support restorative justice and abolitionism to make sure this never happens to another Black woman again.

Listen to me.

There is no amount of reform that will stop racists from enlisting with police because there is no definition of a racist that they could use that wouldnt also include elected officials. And therein lies the problem, the system protects itself systematically. There is no correction that could be made that wouldn't threaten people in power so the people in power don't allow systematically helpful corrections.

You would have to dismantle the entire thing top to bottom to reform anything worthwhile anyway.

The majority of us have not only Not been doing that but accusing anyone who advocates for top-to-bottom reform as being extreme.

Is it though? Is it extreme to want safety? To want to build it yourself from scraps after generations of harm? After generations of having that harm excused for the comfort of the same majority that's been ignoring you?

You don't need to know absolutely everything about abolitionism to start supporting it or the Black women who advocate for it (though learning basics would be a good start; Kimberlé Crenshaw & Angela Davis). Just trust that black feminists with decades of experience, police interaction, and activism know more than you and learn as you go.

You know what you absolutely do need to start doing though?

Listening to Black women

If we'd done it sooner maybe Sonya Massey would still be alive.

This is on us. And it's on us to fix it too.

[gothhabiba]

hello, i kno close reading aint the only way to analyse a text but im trying to find other ways of doin it but google is just givin me how to do close readings in your classroom things. idk im not a booksguy really tho id like to learn how to books better. do u have any like basic resources for ways to read a text an figure out whats goin on in it that isnt doing a close reading? thanks

Close readings are mostly associated with new criticism. This school of criticism, like every other, arose in a particular time and place and can be analysed as having arisen for a particular reason. Also like every school of criticism, it has its adherents and its detractors. But considering the "work" as its own whole, self-contained aesthetic object in the way that NC does is not the only way to read.

Some other approaches, off the top of my head, & the schools of criticism they're roughly associated with:

How does the work make you feel? What are your reactions to it? What emotions and associations does it conjure up? What is your spatial or temporal experience like reading the work (like, how does the work appear to you as something that unfolds over time, as you read it? When and how are you reading it)? How do your expectations about a certain work affect how you read? [Reader-response]

What is the economic and ideological history of the genre, form, and aesthetics of the work in question? What ideological function does the work seem to serve? Does it serve to convince its readers of anything, and if so, what political implications does its viewpoint have? What ideas of oppression, history, and the forms that resistance can take does the work present or seem to advocate for? What does it make visible or invisible, what does it make seem possible or impossible? [Marxist literary criticism / Marxist aesthetics]

When, where, and by whom was the work published? What else do we know about the author's opinions on aesthetics, politics, &c., and how do we know it? How are those opinions reflected by, or in tension with, what you see in the work? Were there any problems getting the work published, and, if so, do they have to do with the author's class or gender or politics, &c.? Where and how was the author living (richly or poorly, working as a maid in another household or employing servants or a wife to free up time for intellectual pursuits) while writing?

And, doubling down on when the work was published—what were the popular or dominant discourses about science, biology, human cognition, political economy, race, gender, war, &c. &c. when and where the author wrote and published? How does the work seem to mobilise, use, subvert, echo, further, or contest those discourses? How would the work's first readers have read it in light of the popular discourses they were familiar with? [contextualism; new historicism]

What materials was the book originally published in? Where did those materials come from? Was it cheaply or expensively made? How much was it sold for? Who would have been able to afford it? What does the form of the book (any illustrations? what's the typeface and size? margin size? hardcover or paperback?) imply about who is meant to read the work, and how they're meant to read it? What effect did the state of print technology at the time of the book's publishing have on its final form (e.g., it used to be impossible to have text and an image on the same page in a mass-produced book)? Where do the objects described in the book presumably come from, and by whose labour would they have been produced and transported? What does this say about the material lives of the characters? [Material culture studies]

What are the early notices and reviews of the book like, and where do they appear? Who wrote them and where did they publish them? Is the book mentioned in diaries and letters from around the time of its publication? How did the responses to the book change over time? How did audiences in different places, or of different demographics in other ways, respond to the book? What went into making the book accessible to new audiences over time? What extra-textual stuff (“paratext”: book covers, advertisements, interviews, reviews) influence how people read the work? [Reception history; translation studies; maybe fandom studies]

Who edited the work? How much control did the publishing house, and the publishing house's readers, have over the final format of the text? Who decided what the punctuation would be like, and where the chapter breaks would go? Who decided on the spelling (was it published at a time when spelling was standardized? Did the author's manuscript contain any idiosyncratic spellings? Did the publishing house have a house style)? Are there any ideological connotations to "correcting" this author's spelling? Was the author's manuscript typed or handwritten? Were there any problems reading their handwriting? How many versions of the manuscript were there, and how did the publishing house chuse which to work from? [Editorial theory]

These associations between methods of reading and schools of criticism are mostly just to give you terms to look up to read more. Scholars don't all necessarily belong firmly to a given school, and people often mix and match various modes of reading to be able to argue what they want to argue.

[catscidr]

Dr ratio and student (adult) reader who tried really hard to study but she is kinda failing? 😭 I once had strict teacher like ratio and he was softer to me, so Idk if ratio would be the same or even more mean

this is a little different from what you asked. BUT. i Do think that he wouldn't be mean n would help u study because it means you're trying to not be an idiot and his whole shtick is trying to make people less dumb. ykwim. i might've projected a littol bit... times r tough what can i say <(ㅍ _ㅍ)> cw: blurb/headcanon format (?), hurt/comfort technically because ratio is a little mean. it's not that bad tho trust, university setting includes: gn!student!reader, professor!veritas ratio, can be read as either platonic or romantic (or favoritism lmao) wc: 1k

-ˋˏ I think he would be pretty frustrated at first. How come all your studying did little to nothing to change your less-than-ideal grades? Especially when he’s the one teaching you, at this point it’s an insult to him and his teaching skills! 

-ˋˏ ...but when you showed up to his office with your lips curled down in deep a frown, downturned brows and meek eyes that refused to meet his gaze for more than three seconds and reflected just how embarrassed (and almost ashamed) you were, he could only sigh and wave his hand to gesture for you to come in. 

-ˋˏ You took out your textbook, your notes and the study guide he had made specifically for the final exam. They felt heavier in your hands than they usually do, since now he could very well take a single look at your messy, scribbled notes and turn you away for “wasting his time” like you’ve seen him do with other struggling students. You couldn’t afford failing this exam though, so you place down your things on his (now cleared) desk and sit at the edge of the chair he had across of him, silently praying to whatever god to grant you some mercy. 

-ˋˏ His first reaction was... not good, for lack of better words. Your notes were a mess and there were splotches of black all over about five pages— the result of an unfortunate accident where your pen exploded in your hands during an all-nighter. He was tempted to turn you away or to, at the very least, scold you for being so disorganized, but he wouldn’t be the infamous Doctor Veritas Ratio if he did. One look at you and he could tell that you hadn’t slept properly in God-knows how long, that you hadn’t eaten a proper meal in just as long, and that you had the drive to study, but for a reason unknown to you, simply couldn’t. Or, at least not in a way that made you retain the information you tried to hammer into your brain. 

-ˋˏ You'd sit there; hands folded in your lap, eyes refusing to meet his, silently waiting for him to say something, anything lest you implode on the spot. Ratio would gloss over your notes, eyes lingering on the little doodles of yourself you drew in the margins of the page with a little speech bubble saying ‘help’ right above it, and would hold in a sigh. Crossing his arms over his chest he would lean back in his chair and tilt his head, burning holes in your skull until you lifted your head up. He wouldn’t say a word, he’d be as patient as he needed to be, waiting. 

-ˋˏ When you finally looked over at him you swore you felt your heart drop to your ass (how long had he been staring?) as you forced yourself to not grab your stuff and dip. “Um-” you started speaking but he promptly shut you up by interrupting you with a question of his own; “Do you honestly think you can study adequately in such conditions?”  

-ˋˏ (Of course he’d notice, you scold yourself internally. There’s no way to successfully hide the dark circles under my eyes.) 

-ˋˏ You’re taking way too long to answer, too absorbed into your head to speak, and it’s starting to get under his skin. His frown seems embedded onto his face, the absence of his plaster head making you quiver in fear from the sheer amount of frustration he must feel because of you. Unfortunately, you’re nowhere near as observant as he is— because if you were, you would have noticed that his frustration wasn’t aimed at you, but at himself. How did he let it get this bad? He’s supposed to be a teacher, and teachers are supposed to care for their pupils

-ˋˏ (It might seem like he couldn’t give two shits about his students, but he does care— in his own harsh way. He considers kicking people out of his class a blessing; if he didn’t care about their wellbeing, he would have let them stay and feel stupid as well as let them be completely overwhelmed as a result of not understanding the content of his lessons and the workload he assigns. Of course, he doesn’t want people to drop his class, but if that’s what it takes for people to not go insane then so be it. He’s made peace with it.) 

-ˋˏ “When was the last time you were able to sleep for longer than eight hours consecutively?” he asks, intense gaze unfaltering as your eyes dart all over his office in a poor attempt at avoiding the inevitable. Finally, you look at him sheepishly, and mumble a number that was far from satisfactory in his books. He clicks his tongue and unfurls his arms, grabbing your books strewn across his desk and shuts them, sliding them over towards you. You sit, puzzled and flustered that you’ve gone all this way just for him to kick you out. If he was going to be an ass, he should have just dismissed you as soon as— 

-ˋˏ “Your assignment is to get a good night’s rest. Do not come into my classroom if you haven’t slept for 8 hours minimum. If I see you work dark circles as prominent as the ones you have right now, I’ll drag you to the nearest bed or couch myself.” 

...Can’t say you expected that kind of response. 

-ˋˏ You can’t even get a word in before he beats you to it, already knowing what you were about to say. “I’ll let you retake the exam if I deem your health to be unacceptable when you arrive in the lecture hall for the exam.” You shut your mouth, unsure of what to even say in response. You really felt like you were being scolded. 

-ˋˏ He would gladly help you study when you come back looking (and feeling) refreshed, though. Not that he’d show it with his body language, but his actions said everything. He’d bring energy bars for you to snack on while he explained material you struggled with, would be patient when you’d ask seemingly dumb questions (one time you asked him why he hadn’t kicked you out of his class yet, and that was the first time he actually scolded you. Because that was the first dumb question you asked him). 

[f0point5]

Okay but like, I get that Oscar wants to win races and a wdc too and doesn't wanna play second fiddle but sit down boy? It's only his second year, he can't expect to be no.1 driver instantly. and I'm not saying Lando deserves the preferential treatment when he doesn't deliver but you do gotta give it to him that he's been carrying that team. And if he loses the wdc by a fine margin, he will resent Oscar for when the team didn't push team orders and rightly so.

He actually has a chance whereas Oscar is only p4. He should also be playing the team game, and help out Lando wherever he can. There will be time for him too, like they told Lando in Hungary? And how does yak brown want to keep his dream team if the drivers will resent each other and fight each other like the Ferrari boys did when there was a working car and no clear team order? (Glad that beef seems to be over tho) No matter what angle I look at this from, this isn't gonna last long. Because you can't be sure next year you will have the same chances, so wanting to win the two championships then is a risk, what if rb pulls a McLaren? I never expected the rb20 to deteriorate this dramatically so maybe next year it's the McLaren 🤷🏼‍♀️

They should commit to Lando's title fight and Oscar should be a good team mate. I actually don't remember a single instance where he deliberately helped Lando and wasn't just simply fucked over by the team.

(also I hope this doesn't actually happen, since it's good for Max but come on 😂)

But why should he sit down? What is the point of sitting down? Where does that get him in the long run? If Lando wins a championship then that’s one more hurdle Oscar has to overcome to get to being the number 1 driver.

If you want to be a champion you have to carry yourself like one from the first test in the car. Sit down and wait your turn is fine when you’re sure your turn will come but drivers can’t be. How long do you have the dominant car? How long until the next Max catches up to you? It could be Kimi. And then that’s your whole career gone because you thought you’d wait until Lando was done having his turn being number 1. “There will be time” is not a guarantee. Look at what happened to Red Bull. Fortunes turn on a dime.

It’s up to the team to decide who gets preferential treatment but no driver with an ounce of common sense will make that an easy choice if they have the talent to do better.

Oscar doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who moved from Australia to the UK alone as teenager to be A Good Teammate to Lando Norris. He seems like he came here to achieve what he can for himself. And Max and Lewis were called bad teammates because they cared more about winning but you know what, they won.

And this may be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think McLaren is all that committed to Lando’s championship battle this year. Which is their decision to make, not Oscar’s.

[daisymylove]

Right, so, I'm an acotar hater with all my heart 😍 and don't care for the other sjm books in the least.In fact, it came as no surprise at all that she's a zionist, considering that her beloved ruler not only hoards copious amounts of wealth while his people is segregated, most of them living in poverty, and the marginalized /brown folks being portrayed as inferior, backward brutes and arseholes unworthy of their precious city and time.Did I mention that over half of his people hates him? Fantastic leader 😍👏🏻☺️🥰😘

Anyway I found out recently that there's a crossover between the series, got the context about what nesta did and went to read the extra chapter online to see bat lord's hissy fit first-hand.

Bryce's mom is low key shitty btw, my own mom is far from perfect, but even if she did want to obliterate me, she would never stand by and let some random fucker say that, let alone bad mouth me to said random fucker.Its odd that she seems to stand up more for a boy that she has known for weeks and a woman she just met than her own kid, also I would file for fucking divorce on the spot if my husband had decided to be complicit on a sexist joke about me and our daughter with aforementioned fucker, but I digress

What I did like about her tho was how she handed lavender eyes' ass to him.Someone has to since apparently feyre has been lobotomized and those cult members of the ic murdered Nesta's fighting spirit

And tbh I feel so bad for her, she seems so subdued for nesta's standarts. I wanted to reach for her hand and tell her that 1 if her husband loves counterfeit Batman so much he can go gag on his cock all day, she'll find something better in no time and 2 she'll do it sooner rather than later bc her sister and her are coming with me.If feyrug wants to bring the devilspawn along its fine too

The thing is the average acotar fan is pretty much Sjms trained dog.They'll go along with everything the narrative says, no reading comprehension skills whatsoever.But apparently all characters from CC who have met Rice bowl dislike him and like Nesta, so I am now wondering if she's not planning to reveal later on that Batfae was the villain all along and completely fried Feyre's brain.Again, I don't expect much from a zionist, but its undeniable that it doesn't add up, to the point that I'm wondering if it's the sake person writing the books.I would like someone who actually read the Cc books I would rather lick a McDonald's slider than subject myself to that togive their opinions

[crispy-ghee]

Kal's relationship with his younger siblings.

JT can't join in bc his tagalog is only marginally better than Kal's (tho he starts using it more often again after his children are born). War is the most fluent, as it was his primary language. Lea can maintain a decent conversation.