#also in case you wonder what was going on in 2019 - basically I was still a baby at digital art and just super super slow

[lieutenantselnia]

I figured the new year would be a good opportunity to reorganise and structure my art folder. After about five years of drawing, particularly the folder with my finished pictures started becoming a bit cluttered, and although I did have some subcategories for structure, I started to get confused. Luckily I had my Clip Studio Paint files organised by year, so I could track back when I drew what. I now reorganised it into folders for each years, and within each of that folder I have different subfolders so I can now even see how many pictures of each category I've drawn.

Then I thought "why not actually make a statistic out of this"? So I counted the files from all the folders and plopped them into an excel sheet. I think it's obvious what my favourite thing to draw is😂

Note that this is not the absolute number for all drawings I did, just the number of files! Sometimes I like to to alternate versions of the same drawings with slight differences (e.g. different background colour), so I'd have two files in the end but technically it was the same drawing. That's why the numbers of my csp files never quite correspond with my actual exports, however I didn't take this into account here.

The categories listed here are all subcategories I've used so far. I think most of them are self-explaining, whenever I noticed I'd draw more regularly for a specific fandom I'd make a folder for it. I wanted to save my animations separately though, as I never did that many I didn't become confused with the different fandoms anyway. Designs is for things like wallpapers n stuff. Fanart is for fandoms I only draw something for once in a blue moon, so it doesn't make sense to give them their own folder, as well as things that contain characters from multiple fandoms (like art challenges and such). For timelapses, I never recorded many of them (it makes my csp files become huge), but when I did I also wanted to save them separately. Also, I guess for my self-insert art, I could structure it further with subfolders for each of my f/os, but I'll just see if I feel the need for that.

I honestly find it really interesting to see my art represented in plain numbers, not in likes and reblogs, but what I actually did. Honestly I think 78 pieces in one year is quite a lot (though there are a bunch of them I never finished), but I also know very well who's to "blame" for this:

(He's given my major art brainrot in 2021 and I love him for it hehe💕)

The last year was a bit more slow and difficult, but I also try to not stress myself about being "productive" when it comes to drawing. Art is my hobby so I'll draw what I want, when I want. I have a bunch of ideas and inspiration though, so I hope I can execute some of them sooner or later :D

[batboyblog]

I'm seeing a worrying amount of idiots on tumblr dot com push that "Kamala hates trans women" and I am losing my mind at how they are pushing it, constantly, saying she is a proven transmisogynist, despite it being a complete lie and her actively working behind the scenes to help trans women in prison. Is there like, sources that could help debunk this shit because I'm at my wits end as these people scream and cry and vomit trying to get biden to drop out but then are like "eghhhh still don't wanna vote for a transphobic cop..." when she's NEITHER-

Isn't the internet wonderful? first rule NEVER examine your priors! ALWAYS! hang onto whatever the first hot take you had on a subject to THE DEATH!

"Kamala is Transphobic!" over here in reality

past that trans and LGBT rights groups have been quick to endorse her like

Advocates for Trans Equality

Human Rights Campaign

just today 1,100 LGBT celebrities, lawmakers and leaders endorsed her

“The intersection on the issue of reproductive care and trans care, and the ability of families to be able to have care for their children and their families, is really, again, an intersection around attacks that are on an identity,” -Vice-President Harris, 2023

any ways the root of the idea she's transphobic comes from one case in 2015. Two inmates in the California State Prison system sued to get GRS, which as inmates would have been covered by the Prison system. It's worth noting here, both women got what they wanted, one was paroled and got the surgery covered by California Medicare while the other serving a life sentence was ultimately covered by the prison system.

Two things are important to bear in mind here, 1. Part of the job of California Attorneys General is to defend the state when it is sued, thats the job, 2. It seems early on in the case Harris was not personally aware of it, about 1,000 lawyers work in the Cali AG's office and so the AG cannot be personally aware of every case, and check this quote from the Lambda Legal lawyer handling the case:

“The California AG’s office shifted its handling of these cases significantly after now-Sen. Harris took over,” Renn said. “Initially there was language in briefing for the state that glaringly misunderstood the medical necessity of transition-related medical care and was patently offensive. But then, there was a dramatic change, which seems to have gone along with important policy shifts.”

Link

in 2019 Harris talked about the case and working after it was settled to change the policy of the California State Prison system

"When that case came up, I had clients, and one of them was the California Department of Corrections. It was their policy. When I learned about what they were doing, behind the scenes, I got them to change the policy," Harris said.

"I commit to you that always in these systems there are going to be these things that these agencies do. And I will commit myself, as I always have, to dealing with it," Harris said.

Any ways Harris can consistently spoken out for and supported Trans people, banned the hateful Trans panic defense when she was AG, in the Senate supported the Equality Act, during her 2020 campaign for President she drew attention to the hate crimes against black trans women while holding herself accountable for the 2015 case. As Vice-President she drew fire voicing support for Dylan Mulvaney during the hellish Bud Light backlash. Her Husband Doug was tapped to host the first ever White House Trans Day of Remembrance

basically you're looking at a great ally who clearly supports trans rights, who was involved in a case, which involved two people who got the surgeries they were looking for paid for by the State of California, close to 10 years ago now, there's evidence that both she moved the case in a better direction when she took over it and also that she changed the polices of the state to before more gender affirming.

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

Nobody asked me for my opinion on the controversy that dropped today when the Sonic Movie cast pay rate was revealed, which is fair ig since I try to stay positive on this blog. But in case you're wondering, yeah as a certified AFAB™ I'm pissed, but not really specifically at the Sonic crew. Actor pay rates are usually negotiated between agents and the production companies so just like all the other problems with the Sonic movies, this is most likely an issue with Paramount and their patented dumbfuckery. Disclaimer that obviously it could very well be a Sonic crew issue as well, obviously I don't know the inner workings of the entire film production.

Also, if you're mad about this: please be mad about the pay gap that has been going on as long as Hollywood has been alive. This isn't a problem unique to the SCU. I know the phrase "pay gap" is thrown around a whole lot but do you guys actually know how big an issue it is?

Recent percentages are that male and female actors have "a wage difference of about 25 percent," with an estimated difference of $1-2million between star-power men and star-power women.[x][x] Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone said she made $500k to Michael Douglas's $14mil– and when she was asked to be lead in a film being made in ~2022, the lead male, who was "new", was going to be paid $8-9mil, with her salary still at $500k. Last December, Biggest Monopoly In The World Disney was sued by 9,000 women over their pay gap.

This article is from 2019 but brings up some big fucking pay gaps between leads– for instance, Gillian Anderson was offered half of what David Duchovny was for the X-Files reboot as one of the two main fucking characters, Amanda Seyfried has disclosed she made 10% of what her male co-star made on an undisclosed film, Natalie Portman made 1/3 of the salary of Ashton Kutcher in No Strings Attached, and Ellen Pompeo, the titular character of Grey's Anatomy, was paid less than the actor playing her love interest, Patrick Dempsey. In fact, Dempsey was being paid almost double what she was.

However, BIG issue with the 2019 article: it only focuses on what White actors are being paid. Research shows that Black actresses make 57 cents to every dollar white actors make on a good day. Viola Davis, one of the most popular and talented actresses of our generation, has said that black women "get probably a tenth of what a Caucasian woman gets. And I'm number one on the call sheet." Octavia Spencer had to collaborate with Jessica Chastain to make sure they both got paid the same amount of money on a film they both worked on, and revealed that her new salary increased 500% afterwards.

At the end of last year, while promo-ing The Color Purple, Taraji P. Henson broke into tears while talking about how little she's being paid when compared to her white and male contemporaries. And when she talked about the gap, I find it so fucking frustrating that the general audience response was to immediately blame the only Black female producer on the film. I have a million gripes with Oprah Winfrey but TCP cast has said that she herself managed to fix a lot of the problems on set and was nothing but supportive to them. Oh, and there were a lot of problems on set, including a lack of food and dressing space for the main actors. And this is all from celebrity women. Just think about how Hollywood is treating women who don't have the star power to speak up.

Of course this isn't even a problem solo to Hollywood, let alone Paramount, let alone just one movie. And honestly it was probably really sad that when I saw the pay rate for the Sonic 3 cast, I wasn't even surprised, because I've seen worse on bigger projects.

[melien]

CORNELIA ARCHER’S BC (attempt 2.0...)

I announced this BC almost three years ago but overestimated myself with the ambition and just wasn't in a good place mentally in the following months (to put it mildly), but now I feel like I've missed projects like this a lot and am still vibing with the idea of this BC. Also my ts3 is running so much better now, which was one of the initial reasons for cancellation, but now it's a lot easier for me, woo!

Before it got cancelled, I've got a few contestants. I think some of them were given for public download since, but it's really not a problem for me, I can still use them. Right now I'm thinking of still using the same contestants and maybe accepting a few more. I also asked a few people on discord who said it's fine to use the same sims.

In case someone would like to join and make a contestant, let me know under this post or in an ask! The catch of the BC is that the contestant should be based on a song/album (of any artist), as Cornelia herself is very Taylor Swift inspired and is a Lover girlie, actually made on the singer's 30th birthday in 2019 as a tribute sim (she and the winner may even appear in the Lover gen of my swiftacy if I get there hehe) (yes I'm an absolutely hopeless swiftie, all of my saves have some inspo from her) (and what about it).

I don't know how many sims I would accept (11 would be perfect... I'd dress her as one of the eras for every episode). But it would be fine for me if I got less than that, realistically the simblr climate isn't the same as back when BCs were more popular, I guess.

Contestants:

@vintageplumbobs - Lucy Starr

@poisonfireleafs - Laura Oak

@dragonplumbobs - Carson Lake

@cloudberry-sims - Aella Wonders

@tosimornottosim

@arogaba - Sara Nix

@berriespunches - Lara Mooney

@blurrypxls

@bellakenobi - Lilian Pendragon

Rules:

Your sim must be YA vanilla or banilla.

All genders are welcome. Cornelia is pansexual.

Occults allowed (except ghosts)

No Irresistible trait, please.

CC is allowed, though don’t go overboard with it. I mostly use Chazy/Poisonfireleafs hair retextures, and I may change makeup and eyebrows to similar ones because I like keeping everything in my style, unless it’s something that makes the sim unique and is a part of them.

No custom sliders, please.

I have all the packs. You may set all outfits for your sim so they can match their color scheme, but it’s fine if you can’t.

Private download, but it's okay if you decide to make it public (to those who already made it public, don't stress).

Please write a bio for your sim. It doesn’t have to be long, just basics of their personality.

The most important aspect of this BC: it’s not a regular one, it’s a music-inspired BC. Therefore, your sim must be inspired by a certain song, music video, artist, or music album - it could be whatever you wish! (absolutely no pressure if you can't think of anything and would just want to make a regular sim, but I just thought it would be a fun prompt)

The deadline for making a sim is September 30 (flexible). The faster I get all the sims, the better, but no pressure!

[hatredmadeofgold]

I'm a terrible person with words, but here I go. (using a translator, my English is a little shit when it comes to writing and a little bit when it comes to pronunciation, ha!)

I would like to say with ALL my heart that I love your work and the writing in "Sing to Me", my heartbeat even accelerates when I remember the existence of this work of art and how wonderful the sensation was, the euphoric feeling of read each chapter and see all the care and dedication put into it. I have immense affection for Raiden, Sam (and Monsoon :)). Seeing how complex they are in the story brings me immense satisfaction, and I just wish all the positive recognition for you, it's impeccable.

(There's a lot I'd like to express, like my hyperfocus- but hey, I'm a terrible person at showing appreciation and affection, I hope you got the message anyway :))

hugs and kisses from a Brazilian! 🇧🇷❤

Oi, não se preocupa! Não sou falante nativo, mas entendi muito bem. Da próxima vez, você pode me escrever em pt-br (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

Thank you so much!! I am really happy to know that you enjoy my work 💕 Honestly, every time someone tells me that they enjoy Sing to Me so much, I am getting really happy. This fic means a lot to me and gives me lots of strength and stability, although on the outside it might look that I am not doing much for it for the past year (I do, it's just background work that I can't show T_T massive spoilers and so on). But I mean, I kept saying that each time somebody came to my inbox about it for the last months.

And I am so glad to know that you're feeling like this for each chapter you've read so far! This fic in itself is really complex and long, I could give you a rough estimate of around ~100 Chapters for the main story (Those would be just arc 1-3, the series, however, has 6 arcs in total excluding the 2 AUs). Sooo... let me say, you've got a lot to look forward to, I suppose :3

Also I hope that you'll be curious about the revisions too. Chapter 5 and 6 will have a darker tone than their current version that is on AO3 at the moment, but also will be much better in quality. Chapter 6 will have major changes I think, especially the second halve of it. I am all giddy and excited myself whenever I think about all the plans I have for this story. The drama, the comedy, the (bitter-) sweetness, but also the chaos, the pain and the darker parts of this fic. I wish I could go on a ramble but it's so many spoilers lmao And I don't want to take that away from my readers. If anything, I might drop a few essays about Raiden and Sam that I've got on my to-do list at some point, that in some cases will directly tie to Sing to Me as well.

The series also goes in great detail about Sam's past and who he is as a person because I was a bit dissatisfied with how most fics for this pairing at least that I've read didn't come up with much for his past (but I still liked all of them regardless), hence I went a little bit insane about him. To the point that Sam is technically my OC now (according to my beta reader) lmao

Jsyk, this is my current graph view of my Obsidian vault for Sing to Me and all the dots that connect to him:

My vault is an absolute mess still tbh because the program is a bit overwhelming when you don't know where to start, so this is far from how complex this fic actually even is.

What I can tell you pretty much spoiler free is that the series is complex because timeline wise, it starts in the year of 2001 and ends (technically) in the year of 2026. I say technically because ARC3.5: The War in Heaven goes a bit crazy with science fiction elements and time is... let's say, "relative". The main fic spans from 2019 until 2023 btw.

The prequel (ARC0: I Come with Knives) is entirely about Sam's past, from his POV entirely, and a collaboration with @thatthereneverwas since he originally requested me to write it. Basically adding more Sam lore that we definitely need :3

Please don't hesitate to come to my inbox or DMs if you want to chat about Sing to Me, samuraiden or just Sam or Raiden with me! I don't bite :] Monsoon is also my favourite from the Winds of Destruction aside from Sam, so I get you! I've been thinking of maybe including him in the fic as well, but it's uncertain how so yet, and if it will just be a flashback of some sort 🤔 But I take notes as I go, we'll see :3

Beijos pra você também 💞

[thatonecrookedsmile]

["So what can you expect in the coming months?"] ["…you never know!"] ["He’s always watching me..."] ["-I saw Mister Drew the other day…was meeting with that Connor fellow, holding some papers."] ["I think they saw me looking though…"] ["Just too many secrets being cooked up in the kitchen!"] ["If I didn’t know better, I’d say there was magic there."] ["A well calculated understanding between creation-"] ["-big things are coming!"] ["-and creator."] ["Massive things!"] ["That smile…"] ["..you just learn to go with it."] ["He’s always watching me..."] ["You just watch…"] ["I’ve got a good feeling something great is going to happen…”]

...

…How very interesting,such… knowledge.

{A message from Wilson Arch}

-----

Yoooo, guess who is having a birthday today. Me,obviously. :D

Oh, and Wilson too, I guess. If you wanna be THAT guy.

Remember when this video came out there were people who heard the voice at the end and thought the voice was either Sammy or the Ink Demon? Man, those were the days. However with all due respect, I'm glad neither case was right in the end lol.

On this day 5 years ago, "Unknown - April 14th" was posted on YouTube, which means it's been 5 damn years since we first heard from Wilson...

man, what a damn BABY MAN, am i right folks

It's interesting to think that even though it's been 5 years, we've only known who Wilson really is for 2 years now (or more appropriately, 1 year and 5 months of those 5 years). Of course, now, after BATDR was released, we know who he is and what his place is in the Bendy universe. But between April 1, 2019 and November 1, 2022, all we knew about him was that he…existed. He was someone - someone bad apparently - who sounded old and who would have some relevance in the plot of Dark Revival. And that's it. We had no name, no appearance, nothing. He was someone, but we didn't know who.

It's no wonder he was only referred to as "Unknown" by fans during these 3 and a half years.

In the end, I would say that this drawing is a mix of 2 things. The first being the result of an idea I've had for a while, which is basically making a drawing in relation to the original video/"unknown" tape, but this time with Wilson, since now we know it was recorded by him. Plus it's been 5 years since the original upload,5 years of Wilson. I think this would be the perfect time to do this.

And second, a strange kind of redux/homage/"final chapter" in this kind of "collection" of drawings I did between 2019 and 2022 all based on the idea of "the unknown weirdo from BATDR saying How Very Interesting Such Knowledge" and so on. All of them having other characters in mind in the role of the Unknown. And now, here I am, redoing this idea again, only with The Man Himself this time. The real Unknown. Now as the Known, so to speak.

Going back to what I said before, you can see this drawing as a kind of farewell to this particular idea that I've kind of repeated over the years, as I've now done it again only with Wilson this time. (Does this mean I'll never draw this concept/line of thought again? I mean, I assume so. But there's no guarantee I can't make something similar again down the line. Who knows what the future holds. We will see what happens in the next 5 years.)

But,yeah. 5 years of Such Knowledge™.

Have a good April Fools' Day.

(Also, there are still a few hours until the day ends where I live, so for me it's still April 1st, so yeah, this still counts)

[hello-nichya-here]

Genuine question: If the ppl of Brazil are anti-communism, why are they in BRICS with Russia and China, two communist countries?

1 - My God, this question single-handedly took back me back to my school years. Answering this lowkey makes me feel like I'm taking a test XD

2 - Russia has not been communist for over 30 years. Ya know. The USSR ended in 1991? It was kind of a big deal?

3 - China's government is a VERY weird combo of the worst of communism with the worst of capitalism. Obviously a lot about how the country works is a direct result of communism, but they have zero problem playing the capitalist game, and as a result EVERYONE has some kind of economical relation with China - they sell stuff the cheapest (thanks to slavery) and have literal billions of people foreigners can sell their stuff to. If selling/buying stuff with them made anyone communist, the whole world might as well be communist already.

4 - BRICS is not like the EU, or the USSR, or NATO. Brazil's opinions on anything that goes on with our "friends" doesn't matter because the point of it is not for us, Russia, India, China and South Africa to collectively decide anything about each other's politics (border control, currency, economic system, alliances in wartime, etc). It's literally just a group of nations that are struggling to remain/become relevant to the rest the world, while also trying not to go officially broke, that looked at each other and went "If you're about to crash and burn I'll try to help you out if I can, and then you do the same for me. Deal?" It's the possibility economic back up in case of crisis. The one thing we have to decide together is "Who gets to join this group of countries that are desperately trying to not implode?"

5 - Most brazilians are not really anti-communism because most brazilians don't fucking KNOW what communism is. A few might have heard names like Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Vladmir Putin, Mao or Fidel Castro, but they don't know shit about them. Lots of us know BRICS exists, but a ton cannot explain what it is. If you ask most brazilians to point to either China or Russia on a map, I'd say over half wouldn't be able to do it. And if you ask us to point to our own country on a map, a shockingly large number of people here will STILL not be able to do it because our educational system is that fucking bad.

You'll find LOTS of people, especially older generations, that think they understand what communism is, but in reality they were just fed the pro-USA propaganda those motherfuckers were spreading through all of latin america during the cold war by literally backing up dictatorships. And me acknowledging that fact and not calling the coup of 1964 "the revolution that was totally necessary and wanted by everybody and totally didn't lead to all kinds of violations of people's basic human rights" would already make half of my relatives yell at me to go to Cuba or Venezuela so I'll "stop" being a communist - because yes, saying "Dictatorship bad" is enough for them to label people communists.

Our president through 2019-2022, Jair Bolsonaro (I still HATE that dude's gut in case anyone is wondering) literally brought all of that old propaganda back to make people scared of the "communist threat inside Brazil" so he would get elected, and then tried to use that again to stage a coup after he lost to Lula in 2022.

Brazil is not "anti-communist." Brazil is a country filled with people that were never taught some pretty basic stuff about the world, and are thus easily manipulated by any politician.

[radiowrites]

2023 Writer Year-In-Review

Hi, I’m RaisedonRadio & FortressofmyPast on AO3 and FF.net. This is an on-going tradition since 2015. Check out my past year-end posts: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

Tagging a few, but if you come across this, consider it an open tag! You’re welcome to tag me back, I’d love to read it!

@writercorianarose @shesailsships @talesofsorrowandofruin @azdesertwillow @goneahead @littlemissfandomworld @dreams-of-kalopsia @halleyuhm

Big change for me compared to last year—in addition to NaNoWriMo, I actually posted fanfics! I tried to add some new questions to this year’s edition, I hope they might even move out of my tiny circle.

Total Word Counts: 51,920 for 2023 NaNoWriMo 15,570 on 2022 NaNoWriMo project 19,193 for July 2023 Camp NaNoWriMo (mostly fanfics) 28,310 in published fanfics (this number is overlapping with camp nano, I wasn’t paying attention, so I’m not going to add everything together)

Total Number Of Completed Works: 10 Total Number of WIPS worked on this year: 10 or so How Many WIPs do you still have: 23

Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected? I wrote way more than expected! I seriously didn’t think I would do NaNoWriMo again. And I published ten fics! That’s ten more than last year!

Did you take any writing risks this year? The NaNoWriMo project was definitely a risk for me. I basically had an idea and no outline. It was quite a challenge to my perfectionism issues—I had to basically never reread anything and just keep going, fully aware that I can better foreshadow the ideas that came up halfway through in the next rewrite.

Biggest Surprise: I wrote for NaNoWriMo again, which I was pretty sure wouldn't happen lol, and hit the word count, all through discovery writing, and having very little idea where I was going with it.

Biggest Disappointment: I dropped that above mentioned project the moment November ended! I can tell it has potential, hidden in there. I will definitely return to it.

Do you have any writing goals for the new year? I’d love to at least finish the first draft of the 2023 NaNoWriMo project, bringing it to a tentative end so I can actually reread it and go from there. And keep writing fanfic, and maybe even work on the 2022 nanowrimo project…

Fanfiction Questions Below! (if you don’t write fanfiction feel free to skip or rework the questions for your original works.)

Fandoms I’ve written in this year: I wrote fics for 7 different fandoms! For the following kdramas: Island, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Memorist, Royal Secret Agent, W: Two Worlds, May I Help You?, and a little Korean Web drama called Handmade Love.

Your most popular story of the year? That would be Besides You with 327 hits and 47 kudos. However Superhero got the most comment interaction with 4!

The story that was easiest/or most fun to write: I Think He Knows was fun to write! I do just love brooding with a heart of gold formerly immortal male leads.

Hardest story to write: Rescue Me, Superhero, Restore, and Prayers & Promises were four works that I had left for dead, and came back and found them to be basically finished and just needed proofreading. (So just in case anyone wondered how I turned out three of those in like two days: they were actually done and I was hellbent on getting them out of my WIPs list)

Your sweetest story: That would definitely be Superhero. I altered my normal narrative style to better fit the child’s character, and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Your saddest scene: I feel like I hit a lot of angst this year, but nothing really sad?

The sexiest moment you’ve written this year? *coughs* I wrote five pieces of smut. (Half of my fanfics were smut this year?!) Umm, I’m torn between Beside You and Don’t Blame Me? But also Never Be the Same and Take On Me???

Your favorite tag: (whether you use it the most or just something witty/perfect for the story) My brother announced to me that he reads all my tags (he was trying to embarrass me about one of my smut pieces) so I did a shout out to him in the next fic. He saw it within the day, I was actually impressed.

Most unintentionally telling story: (have you accidentally or purposefully exposed a detail about yourself?) Religious guilt seems to be a reoccurring tag this year. In all seriousness, not quite sure why, but yet it kinda makes sense? (its complicated lmao) And for some reason not one, but two fics ended with marriage proposals?! (I’m so single.)

Are any of your fics named after/heavily inspired by music? I’m RaisedonRadio and it would be concerning if—checks list—less than 8 of the 10 fics weren’t named after songs, haha! (I’m actually just really bad at naming fics…)

Good To You and Besides You are both songs by the band Marianas Trench, and are heavily inspired by the songs. Rescue Me is by OneRepublic, one of those more vibes than lyrics inspired. I Think He Knows by Taylor Swift was definitely on repeat for that fic, as well as Don't Blame Me. (Poems), Prayers, and Promises was more a steal the name of the song by John Denver, for some reason I think Cold by Corbyn was on repeat when writing that one. Take On Me was named more for the similarities between the MV and the series! Never Be The Same was for the vibes of the song by Camila Cabello but not really the lyrics.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? Maybe it’s cheating but I’m not sure if I can really choose? I know it’s not a common writer sentiment but I really do like them all for different reasons.

Like I churned out Good To You and Besides You within ten days of each other in July, after not writing any fanfic basically for a year and a half.

And then I pulled Rescue Me out of the dead drafts pile and made myself work on more description.

I Think He Knows was my first foray into a brand new fandom.

Don’t Blame Me is one of my rare canon divergence fics.

Restore was another dead draft that I found to be mostly complete, and decide to release into the world even if I knew there was so much more I could have done with it.

Prayers and Promises was not only another new fandom, but for some reason, I decided to write for a side character. It’s still sitting on just 1 hit and that makes it all the better that I really wrote it for myself.

Superhero was out of my comfort zone of writing for a kid’s perspective and I was so happy with how it turned out.

Take On Me was a draft sitting at less than 1k words and I challenged myself to finish it before the new year, and got it done in two days.

And then, to finish it all off with the intense desire to have ten fics under the belt for 2023, I wrote Never Be The Same in less than two days for the last drama I had watched, and the speed that the last two fics were actually finished was a huge change for me.

Fanfiction risks you took this year? I wrote fanfic for not one, but two fandoms that I had to create the first tags for on AO3! Also, as I started to slip into just writing for kdramas this year, I’ve basically become my own proofreader and editor at this point. Any mistakes are my own, lol.

My favorite part of fandom this year: That would be getting two kudos and a comment on I Think He Knows, one of the fics that is the first in its fandom tag. To actually connect with more fans of such a tiny project was so cool!

Thanks for reading and here’s to next year!

[ravenvsfox]

hi! back with more metaphor stuff and off anon in case u don’t want this inevitably long message on ur blog (sorry in advance!)!

I definitely do not mind talking about my thesis more !! My research is psych based and is investigating the roles of different cognitive functions in people’s abilities to come up with creative/original metaphors (as apposed to “conventional” metaphors which are basically stock phrases in language. think “moving at the speed of the sun over the sky” vs “moving at the speed of a snail”) – I can go into that a lot more but that’s my mini elevator pitch (I don’t want to overwhelm you but if u want me to get more into it I can def do that!)

as for the article I referenced before I need to correct myself that it wasn’t actually an article it was from a book chapter (same authors, year, and topic though) and the rate is not /minute its /100 words (which another article I have read recently had converted to a per/minute rate hence my mistake – but if I’m recalling THAT correctly, it works about to being about a minute anyway). Unfortunately, neither the book or article (Both Pollio et al., 1977) are open access, but the article is I think a fairly accessible read and has similar stats to the book so if you are still interested a pdf link could potentially somehow appear in ur inbox in the near future through unknown means.

an alternate, open-access article recommendation that talks about metaphor usage in general (though from more of a mechanics approach than functional approach) is Banaruee et al., 2019 “Reasons behind Using Metaphor: A Cognitive Perspective on Metaphoric Language” (neuroquantology . com/media/article_pdfs/108-113 . pdf). It’s a pretty short read that I think is fairly accessible even if you don’t have a psych background.

ps. I love your metaphor <3 and sorry this is so long !!

don't be sorry, you're speaking exactly my language!! AND I love giving you a showcase to talk about something that matters to you!

I wonder what falls under the umbrella of "different cognitive functions" in your research (I'm a psych newbie) -- are we talking things like memory, attention, language centres, etc?? It would be very cool to see which parts of the brain 'light up' when making metaphors. def feel free to message me privately w more details (I'm curious! this is so cool!) but also you don't have to do school in your spare time if you don't want to 😅

you are SO doing your due diligence with citations and corrections right now, this is all very endearing 😆 I pulled up the Banaruee (a pithy 5 page count, tysm) and had a bit of a skim -- it's so neat to think about a nice punchy metaphor schematizing/economizing information, like a little communication hack/shortcut! I like that they make literary metaphor its own distinct category too: connective, submerging, psychological, aesthetic, and not especially cognitive at all lmao

(if another pdf were to fall from the sky I would of course safely recover it)

and my god! your second message! I really can't believe you're apologizing for sending something so heartfelt 💜 I'm so happy to have written something that stuck with you like that (the ultimate achievement!), what an honour to reside somewhere up there in your cognition :')

now I have to ask who the band is; it's always such a trip to hear what Ausreißer sounds like to people. little band from my brain.

thank you for humouring me kiera, you're very cool and very kind, and now I'm a big fan of you too!!

[bereft-of-frogs]

friday! 🌿

books:

(in progress) Salvation Day - Kali Wallace: I have started and not finished this book like 4 times. Which is probably a bad sign because I also didn't love the other book by this author I read. I've heard this is better though. But I couldn't pick anything else, officially DNF'd Kill Show, I skimmed a couple pages of the other book I took out of the library and I think I'm too much in A Mood to read it, so I am attempting this again.

(in progress) The Rising Storm - Cavan Scott: Not much to say, chugging along with catching up on the High Republic, extremely slowly. I'm just happy Bell and Indeera are back! Love them.

(finished) The Hobbit: Not my favorite, but I feel like it's good to revisit occasionally. Still hilarious when Tolkien kind of slips into that super epic fantasy voice, and then goes right back into 'kids adventure' tone

(in progress) The Silmarillion: Ngl, part of this reread is fueled by that person on the 'have you read this fantasy book' who for some reason didn't believe that 300 people (based on the results at the time of their comment) read The Silmarillion and accused us all of lying for clout. (which like...clout? what clout? why would I lie about this?) So I'm reading it again.

tv:

Constellations (AppleTV+): I LOVE this. LOVE it. I mean I'm always a sucker for space ghosts so that was a given, but this is really fun. The lost cosmonaut stuff, communicating through tapes, the fairy tale like elements. I love it Also my toxic trait is basically any multiverse thing I judge based on whether or not I think it could be a branch of The OA's multiverse tree and this passes that test, you can easily imagine Brit Marling and Jason Issacs chasing each other around the universes just off-screen. I only have one episode left, really interested to see where things are going (still wondering who the 'ghost' who appeared when the Soyuz disengaged from the ISS was, I have a Theory, but I'm not sure yet). Also bonus point for having some absolutely genuinely creepy scenes. I am so desensitized, it's always really fun when something manages to unsettle me.

You (Netflix): Trash fave, this is my current 'while I'm cooking/eating dinner' show, it's so cheesy but I love it. I never watched the latest season but revisiting season 1 is fun.

Under the Bridge (Hulu): Yeah so episode 1 I was like 'oh old friends? that would be hot. they'll never do it' and then episode 3 was like 'yeah they're *old friends* *wink* *they make out*' and I was like OH OK.

film:

They Cloned Tyrone (2023): I love movies where at the climax everything seems to go wrong and then it rewinds and shows you how it's really all going according to plan. Also, this was brilliant for the plan basically revolving around the villains seeing what they wanted to see, and the protagonists playing into that. And it recreated the vibe of those 70s exploitation films so well.

Palm Springs (2020): This kept appearing on 'what time loop media is your favorite' polls so I thought I'd rewatch it. Still SUCH a fun time loop movie. I did vote for it in both polls, despite the second also having 'that one episode of supernatural' as a possibility.

The Grudge (2019): ABYSMAL. Like truly terrible. I'm not saying the original US remakes were good, but they do have a special place in my heart because they were some of the first movies to really scare me. And also I thought maybe this wouldn't be so bad, I liked the Netflix Ju-On: Origins series that came out in 2020 fine despite it not getting very good reviews. But no. In this case, the reviews were correct, this was awful. In the running for the worst movie of the year and it's barely May.

The Stranger (2020): Maika Monroe has such a weird typecasting haha but I don't hate it. I learned that this was apparently supposed to be a Quibi series and was stitched back together after the fall of Quibi. It probably would have been more effective as short form content. I probably would have ate it up. But as a film it just felt like 'ok wtf is going on'.

to do:

work day: I'm hoping to get through my tasks fast so I can write on the clock. ('doesn't that mean you should be doing them and not making this post?' SILENCE.)

oh man so much writing because I set myself a deadline so now. there's that. well ok it is self-imposed and if things do go catastrophically wrong, I can JUST post the first chapter. That's for sure ready. ideally though: finish the last 2.5 chapters this weekend -> resolve comments (most of which are just 'come up with secondary character name', 'check spelling on wiki', but there is one I know I have to be clever for which...we'll see how clever I can be) -> full read-through. I'll eventually (sooner rather than later) have to rewrite the action sequences of chapter 9, but I think that should be enough to make me feel like I can start weekly posting.

I might go to my favorite thrift store tomorrow to look for some 'person who cares about their job' dresses/blouses/idk for annual corporate socializing event week

Star Wars day! lol remember how exactly a year ago I was like 'idk man, it's star wars day but I'm really not feeling it' and then had to eat my words like literally less than two weeks later? that was funny. cheers to that. Meeting my dad and brother at the movie theater and then we're going out for pizza just like it's 1999 (ok my brother was not actually there in 1999 because he was 4, but we welcome him to the nostalgia trip)

the monthly Big Clean (aka I fell behind on recycling so I have to take a lot down to the recycling bins, and the vacuum and mop are coming out)

pretend to care about my job for 3 days. Ok, no, I do care about my job in that I actually do like it and I want to do a good job, I just don't really care about like...*the company*. but I will get a lot of free food and probably wine if I pretend to care about the company for 3 days. so. fair exchange.

[leqclerc]

"... teams like Red Bull and Mercedes who operate with this number 1 and number 2 format. (Ferrari used to be able to do that, idk what the hell happened but... "

you know, with this equal status thing, I wonder if it's to do with the "new company culture" that Ferrari switched to in 2019 with all the no blame things. I don't think this is the case as they were giving team orders pretty regularly to charles in early 2019 (understandably, he was basically a rookie) or is this equal status thing because of who their drivers are. If carlos sainz wasn't carlos sainz son of a champion, who came with a bucket load of sponsors and a whole country of media and support, who's manager spends his time looming over the engineers 24/7 would Ferrari still work the way they're working? Makes you wonder if things would be different if it were someone else in the team

This no number 1 thing really annoys me because for example, even before he was a champion, no one questioned that Max was number 1, because his results over his teammate showed you he was better, no one was expecting them to start the season on equal footing, but charles, who has a similar head to head stat as max over their respective team mates is not seen as the outright number 1. He still has to prove himself, and I fully blame Ferrari for this. Red bull have always made it clear who they're backing. Also you have people saying that you have to let them race with equal status at the beginning of each season and then after a few races you can decide - okay fine, that is fair for strategies etc, but you have to decide pretty early on which direction you're going with the car and developments. You can't wait for 4 races in and them make a decision who you're going to back. Like you said, it's pretty impossible to win a ch*mpionship these days without a designated number 1 and number 2 unless you have a rocketship and the only competition is yourself. I hope with Fred being there, the things he says are just for the media and he actually knows who will w*n for them if given the tools

Super interesting points here 👀

On one hand yes, Binotto was handed the reins and was supposed to be this Just Some Guy character who's easygoing and doesn't point fingers and is fair and makes sure everyone feels good etc etc to reflect the new "company culture" as you said. It really does feel like Ferrari's going from one extreme to another with little middle ground. It's like they want to avoid getting criticised for being too cutthroat or something after they basically had this reputation of being THE team orders team during the Schumacher era but they're going about it the wrong way. They don't really come across as any more fair or "lite" this way, they just kind of give the impression that they're unable to take control and and just passively watch on as their drivers run amok and undermine them publicly ("stop inventing"??????).

And you also make an excellent point about the Sainz family and the weight and legacy behind that. I swear Binotto pulled the trigger Piglet with team orders in 2019 more frequently than they did in 2022 with an actual championship on the line, which makes no sense. It's one thing when Ferrari's going in 2019 probably expecting a repeat of the same scenario that's been playing out for two years already (a championship fight between Lewis and Seb) and Charles is barely more than a promising rookie and new to the team. They made it clear that they expect him to play back-up if Seb's in a position to challenge for the title and Charles accepted his role. Then the championship battle never fully materialised and Charles impressed with his speed and racecraft and results, which prompted them to re-evaluate.

The frustrating thing is no one saw the 2022 equal status thing coming. I mean the way they were setting everything up it seemed like a done deal that Charles would be the defacto leader of the team and be given number 1 status in a championship fight scenario. I don't think anyone expected them to really backpedal on that. Part of the reason why they called it quits with Seb is because they didn't want two drivers with number 1 ambitions taking points off each other - but then that's exactly what we got in 2022. Under the same leadership. Huh. 🥴🤔

I think it comes down to a mix of the Sainzes politicking and having that pull (also a good point about Carlos's cousinager hovering, he's constantly in the garage to a degree I don't think even Nic Todt is, or maybe he just doesn't make his presence as obvious) and perhaps some personal bias on Binotto's part. For all his talk of equal status you could clearly tell who he personally preferred out of Seb and Charles and he made little effort to hide it.

Carlos has mentioned that Binotto's the one who really believed in him and who oversaw him signing and extending his contract. As much as Binotto liked to take credit for Charles's rise, it was Marchionne who pushed for a Seb/Charles lineup and Arrivabene who put pen to paper. He was, however, involved in Carlos's recruitment to the team and by the sounds of it he was pretty much his first choice.

There's definitely going to be pressure on Fred to "straighten things out" and have more clarity going forward. He's been sort of vague and tight-lipped so far but if he's learned anything from Binotto's failure.........I sure hope he'll make the right choice 🙃

[majorbitchwillgraham]

Thoughts about Comp Het

I'm posting this in case it is useful for anyone..

At the point I'm regarding comp het.. I wonder if it can be completely beaten. Maybe eventually and I'm not in that stage yet. In 2019 and 2020 I still struggled with comp het and then it hadn't happened until last month with that guy..

I have seen comp het is basically thinking a guy is cool and asuming that is attraction. Then if you have positive feelings about him it is just you wanting to be his friend, but our mind wants us to interpret as having a crush/being in love, because of what society has taught us

So.. having a relationship/romance with a guy is way easier (than finding a gay girl) and even socially encouraged.. so these thoughts brainwash us into thinking/feeling it would be fun to flirt with a guy or kiss him. And apparently that brainwash is so strong that we feel as if we really liked him

I think it also depends on whether the guy acts like he likes you or not. I think if that guy had never acted like he liked me I wouldn't even have payed attention to him, yknow?

Ok but so, is there a way to beat it.. to never feel this again?

What has worked for me so far since 2019/2020 is... once that I understood what it was and confirmed that was indeed what I was feeling for guys (all the above explanation lol) whenever I felt it again I just didn't take it seriously.

I knew if I imagined a real situation or follow through after flirting or kissing some guy, I knew in real life I won't like it. I wouldn't want to have sex with the guy for real, or have a relationship with him. My past relationships with ex boyfriends was a game of me playing the part of girlfriend..that's what it feels like.

Even in extreme cases (being lesbian and horny lol) when you think um I could fuck this guy once.... then it just feels like using the guy for your pleasure, yknow.. and with a girl it would feel like real attraction and pleasure. For example, sometimes I have thought about "would I fuck this actor who is my favorite" and there is just the extreme admiration plus horniness that could make me use him, use him like a sex toy yknow? But it's not *real* ... and I don't even feel like fucking him every time, sometimes my mind tries to do it but I don't even like it bc I'm not in the mood that time. But with women/girls it's always the instant attraction

Another thing that was useful for me to discover was, that when I thought a guy was "handsome/beautiful" I thought of them as a statue, as a painting. A thing again, that is not alive.. you don't want to fuck a painting. It's just an image, art that you are not blind and can think it is beautiful or even sexy BUT it doesn't turn you on for real

So back to not taking it seriously.. (I'm giving all these explanations because that is what helped me not take it seriously).. maybe that programming from society where it instantly makes us feel we "like a guy" will take more time or years, to not feel it instantly. But if we recognize immediately it is not real, and what are the reasons behind us feeling those things, we can shut it down more quickly in the moment, not take it seriously. And I think practicing this has worked for me to feel it a little less every time... maybe it can go away completely one day. For example, even if I felt like that about that guy in the post that day (because I was lonely) I thought about him the next day and that was it yknow, haven't  thought about him since. I realize it is not real.

When we think about comp het being annoying and wanting it to go away that proves once more that we don't identify with that, with liking guys for real

Comp het might just be a matter of being horny/lonely in one moment, and being brainwashed by society into feeling like playing The Game with a guy will be fulfilling for you. It's an instant programming because we feel "I like him" but in reality it is "I wish I could experience the love/romance I want through this guy bc that's the way it's supposed to be according to society and he is cool"

So I think with practice and not taking it seriously it could completely disappear one day, or hell, if just in the moment you decide "hm this is not real" it could disappear right there

[ellavaday]

Hello! We're back to Sandra talking too much about DRES3.

I promised myself to make these shorter unless something truly horrific happens in the subtitles lol (which is, thankfully, not usually the first episode, so this is relatively short and sweet)

Here's the reference post for the first episode.

I have a drinking game for you. Take a shot each time someone mentions Torremolinos. (Disclaimer you might die of alcohol poisoning). Think of Torremolinos as the equivalent of Palm Springs. Where all of the gays go on holiday and where all the drag queens go to die retire.

Pinkchadora makes a joke of Supremme's pictures in the work room bc her name is also the name of a McDonald's burger here (yes, the entire name, Supreme Deluxe, hence the bbq sauce comment). People Pinkchadora mentioned as inspiration/references for her drag: Lola Flores (flamenco singer); Sonia and Selena (one hit wonder duo of the early 00s)

Pakita's intro line in the work room is a pun 'i whisked my milk so much' (de tanto batir la leche) ((yes yes masturbation joke)) 'i ended up whipped' (he terminado montada) we call the act of getting/being in drag as montarse/estar montada in Spain

Pakita said she's what happens when you put a Furby and Falete in a cocktail shaker. Falete is a nb flamenco singer.

Bestiah says she comes from the cultural capital of the province... Leganés. Which is a joke but we love Madrid working class neighborhood pride in this blog (sidenote there's a lesbian and a nonbinary flag in their entrance look and they're my comfort punky this season)

Pitita's name comes from Pitita Ridruejo, a socialité (that reported seeing various Marian apparitions when she was alive for which it's safe to say she was not only filthy rich she was also more than a little insane)

María Edilia came dressed like the logo of Harina Pan (the Venezuelan precooked maize corn flour used to make arepas) and in the colors of the Venezuelan flag

When Chuchi entered they talk about how they won the Canarian drag gala of 2019. There's nothing to compare Canarian drag to and it's like saying you won the most ferocious drag competition @supremmedeluxe did a post about Canarian drag if you wish to know more but like. Suffice to say it really is a league of their own

Chanel's intro line in the work room is a pun with badmouthing ("turning someone green") ((she's the one in green skin ofc))

In the mini challenge Pitita says her rat is named Obregón and it's a ref to Ana Obregón, an actress that is better known for the 'sexy sexy sexy' bit Pitita mentions (it's from the romcom Ana and the 7, in which she's a stripper that gets a job as the nanny of the seven children of a widow man, a raunchier version of The Nanny lol)

A bonus fact about how insanely talented Clover is (bc I'm in love and they talk about people thinking cis girls can't do drag): Last year there was an official viewing party hosted by Pupi in which there were also local drag performers and there were mini contests w the audience (think butch queen realness, dance offs, lipsyncs, all that, it was amazing). Clover won that thing when she was like 3 months into drag, she's really that bitch

I don't think there's much to explain for the talent shows but just in case...

Vania Vainilla mentions an app called To Good to Go that I don't know if it exists outside of Europe so we'll just mention it, it's for restaurants to sell a bit more cheaply the food that is still perfectly good but might get thrown away

Spain is Different. Alright. Welcome to my history class. So you might be familiar with how Spain was in a dictatorship for about 40 years. After WW2 Franco realized he needed to get friendlier with the US government if he wanted to keep in power bc money ((Spain was neutral in WW2 so it didn't qualify for the Marshall Plan in the beginning but it got in basically bc Franco was a massive prick that hated anything remotely Communist leaning and the USA gov... Is what it is))

Pitita's was my favorite talent show but I do realize it was the hardest to understand without references. The women in the wheel she was spinning are pop culture icons here, and she was imitating stuff that represents them. The first one was Manuela Trasobares (a mezzo-soprano trans activist) who got famous for getting very angry when discussing LGBT rights on tv on an interview and breaking a glass. Then Carmen Lomana who is a filthy rich woman that made an ad for BK that went viral bc seeing such an elegant woman in that ad was kind of camp. Then there's Terelu, there was a reality tv about how was her life and her mother's (a well known newswoman) called Las Campos (they tried to make it something akin to The Kardashians) and she famously told her mother to go fuck herself bc she asked her if she wanted a churro which became a meme so her eating churros became viral. Ana María Aldon however is a little less clear to me (the time she got COVID maybe? The fact that her disgusting ex who is the one that was actually in the wheel is one of those super macho man and famously said in an interview his sperm was still strong and wanted another kid w her??? Eh still insanely funny)

Part of said efforts was making a very strong tourist campaign under the slogan "Spain is Different" which was used to promote... Literally every single stereotype you know about the country. Toros. Flamenco. All that. So that's how you get Bestiah dressed like jamón serrano, Macarena as a comment against bullfighting (which *chef's kiss*), Hornella in a Goya/locomia inspired fan look, Maria Edilia as a flamenco souvenir doll, Vania and Kelly as homages to Sara Montiel (la Violetera and Sandra Montiel the official Sara Montiel impersonator and an icon of Torremolinos), Chuchi as a disco ball representing the party scene (very Paco Rabane too), Chanel as the dumb tourist shirts, Clover as the 12 grapes tradition on NYE, Visa as La Sagrera and then the Parc Güell in BCN

But we also now use it as a very sarcastic way to talk about things that suck but of fucking course happen in Spain. Like Pitita making a commentary on corrupt politicians (listen people trying to get away w illegal money in trash bags is a surprisingly common occurrence I'm not even going to mention a case there's a dozen), Pinkchadora talking about the Spanish cinema dedicated specifically to juvenile delinquency and in a very heartwarming example, Pakita and her homage to Ocaña (LGBT icon from the 80s that we love and adore thank you very much)

((((SPOILER ON WHO LEAVES NEXT))))

María Edilia's exit line was for me and me alone (and every other Venezuelan bc no one else would have understood it lmao). The national beauty pageant is a huge deal in my country and she sang the hymn song of the contest. It's extremely catchy and I'm now humming it lol.

I think that's all for this episode 😊 if you made it this far, thanks 💖 lmk what you thought about the episode

[golbrocklovely]

Hii! I just found ur blog and it’s amazing. I recently just got back into snc for the first time since 2018-19 and I was just wondering what drama went down with all the trap house members? And what’s going on with Stas? When I phased out for a bit they were all still friends and I had never heard of her lol. Thanks sm!! <3

i know i've made a post about this forever ago, but i can't seem to find it, so i'll use this as main post to explain everything that's happened. bc i get questions like this every couple months haha

this is most likely gonna be very long, so strap in.

there's also a couple asks i link in this one that explains further everything so... sorry for the additional reading lol

idk if you want an extended cut of this, aka know everything that's happened with their friends too and not just the trap house members, or just TH ppl only, but i'm gonna give you the extended version just so you know where everyone stands.

to make a long story short: they aren't really friends anymore. friendly? sure. and really that's only between colby-jake-corey. sam doesn't seem to really associate with any of their old friends.

this also expands to their old friends as well: they all seemed to be close up until around kat's or sam's bday of 2020. then things just changed.

a lot of the old friend group just stopped hanging around snc for some reason. or at least slowly disappeared from them and their content. no one knows for certain what happened, or if anything major did happen.

there seemed to be a lot of inner-personal fighting. like mike, kevin, and aryia aren't really friends anymore. kevin and aryia seem close still, but mike is completely removed from the group as a whole. i answered an ask a long time ago that explains what happened here. but in short: no one checked on mike when his mental health was bad, and thus he kinda just removed himself from the group. there also seemed to be a bit of separation happening prior when mike didn't move into the krac house - also known as the kevin, reggie, aryia, and cassie house.

that gets into the extended side of the friend group. to summarize that as to what they're all doing rn - kevin and aryia (i believe) live together now in la after aryia finally moved back from living away for awhile. cassie, reggie, and jillian (jake and reggie's younger sister) all live back in kansas now. xepher lives/lived in texas. her and griffin are together still.

as for the trap girls, none of them are really close with one another anymore. kat and xepher are still friendly (or were at one point). devyn and tara seem to still like one another i guess. i don't really pay attention to any of the girls if i'm honest. but just know that basically none of them talk to kat.

now for the actual trap house members. they all lived in apartments away from one another (minus jake and snc who all lived in the same building) and then in feb/march of 2020 they all moved into a mansion together. aaron has been on his own since they all moved out in 2019. idk what he's up to besides making random content on tiktok and doing random lives with corey sometimes.

so they all lived together in an la house, which snc told fans was in hawaii bc of the theming of the backyard. then by sept/nov of 2020 things changed. after that point, corey and jake ended up moving out by the next year.

let me get into what has happened with jake: jake had made some comments on livestreams about not being allowed to make loud noises. and it became clear as time went on that he felt like he couldn't be his "true self" in that house bc snc (or more likely sam) was telling him to calm it down. there was also a weird random comment he made about how it was unfair kat could do a music video in the backyard but jake couldn't do that (however… idk how true this comment is, both literally bc i never got to hear it myself and also figuratively bc i don't see how snc would have been against him doing one at the house). what i believe to be the case is that once snc went from being roommates to landlords (bc they OWNED the house, not rented it) they probably forced a bit more rules on corey and jake and that made them upset to some degree. bc for some reason them not being allowed to trash the house they were living in was upsetting??? idk.

jake moved out into his own house. he started collabing with the knj crew (a lot of the old snc crew moved on to collab with the knj crew), started a twitch streaming group called the camboys with jc. he's still dating tara. and he just recently moved into a house with johnnie gilbert and someone else and they have a music group together called ghost house. he's also really into serial killers and makes content out of owning shit they used to have so… do with that info as you will.

now onto corey: corey tried to have a lot of ppl over in the DEEPEST parts of the pandemic, and i think snc weren't cool with that. especially having random strangers over, not even main friends. it also didn't help that corey was travelling back and forth from la to florida all the time. he mentioned he wanted to move out bc he felt like he was stuck and the main reason he moved to la in the first place was bc he wanted to make music and be a dj and shit like that. he also mentioned briefly that he had a bit of an addiction problem, and he felt that moving out and getting a fresh start would help him. he ended up moving in with elton. and hasn't really made all that much music so…. idk what that's about. he mostly just collabs with devyn (who he broke up with briefly at one point) and elton.

the reason why a lot of us don't like corey is bc of his collaborations with elton on overnight and tfil. to get an understanding on that, read this ask that goes into what elton has done over the last couple years. this ask and this one too also go into more stuff he has done.

but to make it very brief: snc did a series called 25x25 where they were bucket list making/doing, elton felt like they were copying him, and bc of that he became extremely petty towards them. and he's still doing that to this day. like, going so far to block snc's name from the comment section of his videos (even one where he collabed with corey and aaron). and mind you, snc didn't actually copy him. so………… yeah.

as of rn, snc seem to be friendly with jake and corey but aren't as close as they once were. jake and corey are still close. jake supported colby when he announced he had cancer. pretty much everyone came out of the woodwork to wish colby well, except corey. so personally, i don't like him even if colby still does.

as for stas…. oh boy. there's a lot there.

stas is a friend of kat's, that she knows bc they were on the same record label at one point. stas appeared in 2019 a couple times to hang out with kat, but didn't fully become a friend of snc's until 2021. she went on one or two 25x25 trips with them, and then also was in a couple videos with them for their haunted stuff when they went back to that. she became her most prominent in 2022, when they all started collabing/hanging out with one another often and going on multiple trips. they all dubbed the group 'the core four'.

the reason some of us don't like her is bc she has done some questionable things over the years. apprently, even way back in 2019, she was talking about snc/colby like she was besties with them even tho that wasn't the case. she used to answer fans' questions about him, like what he smelled like and shit like that. but things really didn't start picking up with her until 2021/2ish

i have a whole post here that explains all of that. it also talks about shea too, but you can skip over that if you don't care.

so…. that's everything, i think. there's probably a bit more i can explain if you need me to, but otherwise this is everything i can think of off the top of my head.

welcome back to the circus, i guess lol

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

I'm opening this up again so I can understand. This latest announcement, does this mean that the article about 'a band member's daughter' is fake or exaggerated? I liked what you said about this when it all came out. I think though if it's a bandmembers daughter I am not sure how everyone would react to that. I can't picture any of them brushing it off, we all know who has daughters.

Why would the daughter of someone in the band go to a newspaper when none of them have ever approached the press before? That article to me seems so far-fetched and grasping at rumors. The press is casting a wide net and reeling in whatever tiny tidbit they can then making something more of it.

hi anon 🌺

No, the latest announcement says nothing about the 'bandmate's daughter's best friend' article.

we're on legal turf now, and this is all about details that the average person would gloss over, but that's how it is conducted.

The latest ruling is about 4 specific cases on 4 specific phrases in 4 specific articles by 4 different media. So not even about the articles as a whole, but about specific bits in them.

Take the '5 other Rammstein members' and 'the party in Berlin' (which must have been the party at the Kit Kat club, because that was the party that was reported about quoting an employee of that club); i'll take this one, because nothing actually illegal is contested here, the club is perfectly legal and going there is as well.

What the case is, is that the 5 other Rammstein members stated this "The applicants have stated that, contrary to the description in the article, they have not visited the club alone or together with Till Lindemann. The Respondent had the opportunity to comment, but did not comment on the application. "

And that was granted. So it is not about if Till visited the club on that day, but whether the others members were there as well, either by themselves, or with Till. It's just about that specific detail.

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We don't know in detail if the 'best friend' article is contested by Till's lawyers, if it is, the case is still ongoing. If it is really completely bogus, it would be a pretty easy case, but reality is that it may not be completely bogus. Ofcourse one could wonder if the 'best friend' exists, why go to the media and not have mutual friends arrange a session to clear the air. But vice versa: if the best friend does exist, and maybe there is a grain of truth in the story, does one want to filet the article to have specific parts contested? Because that would also mean the other parts that are not contested will still stand..

In general, or in my personal case where nothing happened. Right now i think back with some fondness to the situation, but if it turned out the guy did indeed go to far with others (or for instance underage persons), would dismiss or deny the situation, or made disparaging remarks about women in general...that would totally change my view of the situation.. so hypothetically i can follow the thoughtproces there..

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why the German press all of a sudden is so interested in Rammstein is maybe my biggest questionmark in all this. They basically ignored the band for years, i think in 2022 (may have been 2019) when Rammstein went on worldtour, fellow Berlin band Die Ärzte did a Germany tour, and Die Ärzte were everywhere in the media for a short while. Don't get me wrong, i like that band, and they are friends with Rammstein, going to eachother's shows and such, but they have a much smaller following globally than Rammstein...

Interestingly, at the moment some German media have actually changed tune and first speculated on "Rammstein guitarist hints at end of band" (Thank you Richard for that Kruspe-caption) and are now reporting on Rammstein going on world tour in 2024 (a rumour originating from Rammmexicanos i think, who are often well informed, but also a bit over excited at times, not everything they said in the past actually happens) (not even going into the fact that some fans say 'Rammstein' and mean 'Till and his band')

But as in all countries 'the media' is actually very varied with regards to reliability and gossip-level, so like the allegations, we'll take this with a grain of salt until facts are there to support it 🌺

[kybee-the-bee-cat]

I actually made both of these a while ago, but I held off on posting them because A: Procrastination, and B: I wasn’t exactly sick yesterday, but overthinking stuff can lead me to making myself feel sick, so I didn’t feel like posting. 

But y’know, it’ll never be off my plate until I do post them, so without further ado, here you go:

“ Whatcha got there, Football-head? “

Now I know that I said I was doing little character drawings for the time being, but I wasn’t patient enough to wait to draw some Shortaki. I’ll still do those character drawings, I just wanted to please myself too.

The present was originally going to be a bouquet of flowers (which would’ve explained Arnold’s blush there), but it’s the holidays, so a present makes more sense. So now, I don’t even know what’s in the box. so your guess is as good as mine. It’s not flowers though. 

I didn’t realize until after making this, that this was kind of a missed opportunity. I won’t say what I thought of doing instead in case I do it in the future, but it has something to do with the christmas special. 

I know they have different outfits in the Jungle Movie and are also aged up a bit, but it’s been since 2019-2020 since I last saw that movie, as opposed to me watching the whole show in October this year. The show designs are more fresh in my mind, and I admittedly prefer the show outfits as a result.

But admittedly, the second reason I made this is also because I kinda liked drawing Arnold that first time and wanted to draw him more. He’s one of my favorite characters, tied with Helga because I can’t choose between the two. The reasons for them both being my favorites is for entirely different reasons, and I want to explain them both when I draw Helga alone, because I feel like I’ll have a better place to talk about it rather than a holiday drawing.

As far as I know, that’s all I have to say about this drawing, so here’s the second one:

Oh boy . . . How do I explain this.

Basically, I was thinking about how annoyed he’d be if he could actually hear all those times Helga calls his name in the intro. I know it’s out of character, but for the most part I just wanted to draw a joke thing (though the out of character part of it did make it a little jarring to draw, mostly the text). 

And if you’re wondering why his eyes look different this time, it’s because I’m still not sure how I should do the eyes are the HA! characters, and was trying something else out. Not sure if I’ll keep it, but expect the eyes to be inconsistent as we go further. At least until I can settle on something that works for me.

I think that’s all I have to say for now, so until next time, happy holidays! And if you don’t celebrate the holidays, then have a good day, and hope the rest of your 2022 goes well.