#also like I can afford to go out of network too but that feels just as insurmountable and difficult to get done because like symptoms (tm)

[auroras-void]

Dipped into my ""totally legal"" secret Adderall stash today for like the first time in like a year, and like holy shit I forgot what it felt like to function like a normal human being. Like, I've only tried taking it like maybe a half dozen times total, but every single time it blows my mind how much of a night and day difference it makes. Like all of a sudden all that ADHD advice I've heard thousands of times before that's literally never done anything for me starts magically functioning perfectly. I set my pomodoros and I follow them, I make my lists, I check my notes, I write my stickies, I remember to reward myself only when I'm done. I let all my unhealthy coping mechanisms and mind numbing distractions drop away and I get more done in 4 hours than I have in the past 3 weeks.

I think I really hate my psychiatrist at this point. It's honestly kinda astounding that I haven't been allowed to get a diagnosis and a prescription at this point. I've had like 4 or 5 therapists suggest ADHD completely independently and unprompted. I've done the weird computer test thingy and gotten back a moderate. My anxiety and depression have gotten way better and my executive functioning still hasn't improved.

But she still says I need to wait more, and that ADHD is rare. That it's probably still just depression. She still asks me the same boilerplate questions every appointment and doesn't listen to any of my overly long replies to each one beyond what it takes to round it to the nearest multiple choice answer. Still doesn't really care about what my therapists have had to say, or what I have to tell her. Still doesn't tell me what the fuck is going on with anything or help make the nightmare of american healthcare any less of one.

Just, god I've been asking for help with this for so long, I've said thousands of times that literally nothing has worked. That none of the thousands of stupid CBT exercises I've been given have made any difference. That it all just gets lost in my head like an hour later. And the one thing I have tried that's worked and made everything else click I can't even tell anyone about without sounding like a drug addict and making everything else worse because I got it from a friend instead of a doctor.

Literally getting on hormones was a thousand times easier than this. Like there I knew I could be confident, that I could fight if I ever ran into any trouble and I was lucky enough to live in an area where I knew there would be good people on the other side of that fight once I got there who would help me with everything else.

I feel so scared to advocate for myself here because the more I do it feels like the more resistance I meet, the more I sound like I just want to get high. But if I don't then nothing happens. I just become more disillusioned with mental healthcare and therapy that hasn't done shit for me. I miss more and more appointments because I forget and I feel more and more like there's no point in rescheduling.

Maybe I should just find a drug dealer instead lol. Seems a lot easier.

[kaijutegu]

Are you angry/scared/worried about potentially losing Roe vs. Wade? Do you want to help?

A lot of people are REALLY WORRIED about the leaked Alito draft, and for good reason. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, many states will enact trigger laws that revoke the right to safe abortion access. But that doesn’t mean that safe abortions won’t be possible. They’ll just be harder to access.

Fortunately, we aren’t powerless. There are things we can do to help preserve the right to abortion and, if Roe falls, help people get the abortions they need.

Here are some actionable things you can do to help!

Donate to your local abortion fund.

This is a financial commitment, obviously, but these funds are vital to helping people access abortions. There are different types of funds. Practical funds help with transportation, housing, and other practical needs. Clinical funds help with paying for the procedure. Both types of funds are necessary and helpful!

If you’re in a state with protected abortion access, see if there’s a practical fund in your state that you can donate to. These funds make it possible for people for other states to afford travel and lodging in your state. You might also want to consider donating to funds in states or regions that have trigger laws, like the Yellowhammer Abortion Fund, which helps people in Mississippi, Alabama, and the Deep South.

To find an abortion fund in your state, you can google “abortion fund + your state” or open up this google doc that’s a maintained list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-aDTsZXnKhMcrDmtcD35aWs00gw5piocDhaFy5LKDY/preview?pru=AAABgKwRCFs*fZxkvUyYtHx7T4KXmRnOLA

There’s also https://abortionfunds.org/, but as of right now (2 May 2022, right after the SCOTUS leak happened), their website is down. Too much traffic!

Volunteer with a hotline.

As of writing this, a lot of abortion fund websites are completely overwhelmed. Lots of people are rightfully upset and looking for some way to help. Many of these funds have hotlines that you can help out directly from your own phone! Google “abortion fund + your state (or your region) + hotline” and see what comes up. These hotlines are going to be SWAMPED soon and many orgs are going to be onboarding volunteers very quickly to help deal with the onslaught.

Donate to grassroots causes. 

I love Planned Parenthood as much as the next gal, but donating to them isn’t actually going to help as much right now as donating to an abortion fund. Smaller, grassroots networks are going to be more effective at allocating resources to the people who need it most. Independent clinics are also going to need substantial help. Independent clinics provide the majority of abortion care in the US, and many are the only clinics operating in hostile states. Check out https://keepourclinics.org/ if you’re interested in donating.

Make a list of resources.

There are a lot of people out there who aren’t going to have the time or energy or emotional bandwidth to deal with this dumpster fire. If you have the capacity to do so, then maintain a file somewhere with the following information:

- any abortion funds that serve your area with their contact info- email and phone and links

- any abortion hotlines in your area

- national care hotlines, ESPECIALLY RAINN because this is going to be really, really hard on survivors

-a list of crisis pregnancy centers in your area, clearly marked with their names, contact info, and primary links. Make sure that these are highlighted in a way that separates them from the actual abortion providers because these centers are highly predatory and manipulate people who are distressed and confused. If somebody has access to that list and know who’s operating in an area, it might help them avoid these places!

Have this file ready to go so that you can share it with people who are overwhelmed!

Help the safe havens.

Losing Roe feels inevitable at this point. It might not be, but the world is terrifying. However, some states are safe havens and will maintain abortion access, regardless of what SCOTUS eventually decides. Practical access funds in these states will need help because they will help people traveling from unsafe states to safe states. Refer to this map: https://reproductiverights.org/maps/what-if-roe-fell/

Look for funds in states that are blue or yellow. This means they have expanded access or protection if Roe falls. But be sure to hover over and look at the summary of the protection– for example, Florida has abortion protection, but they just passed a 15-week ban. That’s basically protection in name only!

If you’re not sure which practical fund you’d like to support, I highly suggest the Midwest Access Coalition. MAC is based in Chicago and helps people from all over the Midwest come to the city for reproductive healthcare. A lot of the Midwest is really hostile to abortion, so MAC can help a lot of people. But there are many, many others!

In the coming days and weeks, there will be more to do. There will be marches, protests, and other organized action. But right now, tonight, these are things you can look into doing.

[copperbadge]

Hi Mr Starbuck! Some friends and I are moving in a few months and we're eyeing various places all over the US. Chicago came up as a relatively affordable big city (compared to LA and NYC) and I have to ask the resident Tumblr Chicagoan his opinion. As a resident who lives and works in the windy city, what's your big pros and cons of residing there (especially things you might not encounter as a tourist)? (also, how accurate is your "guide to chicago" still, since its been a few years!)

Well, I definitely have opinions!

The guide to Chicago is no longer accurate -- too many places have closed or moved, and the pandemic altered a lot (for example the Money Museum still exists but I'm not sure if it has regular hours even now). I should do a new one but like, I really don't get out much anymore so I can't talk about restaurants outside of a VERY local area, and I never could talk much about hotels, which just leaves points of interest mostly already covered by Atlas Obscura. :D At this point it'd just be kind of moot, others are doing it better than I am.

Chicago is inexpensive compared to New York or Los Angeles, but like, that's everywhere in America. Chicago is still a quite pricey city to live in, mainly because the taxes are so high -- 10.25% sales tax, for example, and my property taxes are also pretty steep. People joke about Taxachusetts, but I'm pretty sure Chicago at least has it beat (and 2/3 of the state's population lives in Chicago or the outlying suburbs). Housing is not at a premium in the way it is in NY and LA but depending on where you want to live and how far you want to commute it can still be very expensive. My housing was never less than half of my monthly income until I bought this place, and then ONLY because the job I'm in now came with a $10K/yr raise from my last one.

Chicago does have great culture, great museums, great food, and it's a liberal island in a pretty conservative region. It is however quite segregated, so if you are any race other than white, living here can get a little more complicated than I've portrayed it as a white dude. There is significant crime and particularly gun crime, but it's generally confined to specific regions of the city. That said, even if you discount crime, the Chicago PD are corrupt as fuck and uninterested in being helpful, so if you are from a demographic the cops enjoy harassing, it will not be different here.

I do love the city, warts and all. I like the water, I like the people, I like the midwestern vibe. I'd find it very hard to leave, especially because I have a network of friends here, but also because I just plain like it and I know it really well. There is a very short list of cities I'd consider leaving Chicago for, and most of those would have to have a well-paying job waiting for me. But it did take me time to fall in love with it -- it took a few years before it felt like home.

It's a little difficult to get more specific without knowing more about your situation -- what you do for work, what your budget is like, what your goals are in leaving where you are. Do you prefer to drive most places? (Parking and traffic can both get dicey.) Can you tolerate taking public transit if driving is inconvenient? Is the industry in which you work something that has a lot of openings here? Do you want to live in an urban environment, and if so are you prepared to live in a likely somewhat shitty apartment to do so? If you prefer to live in a house, are you prepared for a long commute? What do you like to do for fun and is there a thriving culture for that here? What is it important to have access to -- museums, concerts, theater, sport? Where do you need to travel to regularly (ie, I go to Austin several times a year) and how do you prefer to travel there?

Anyway, yeah -- like, I love it but I have few illusions about it. If you want to chat further feel free to hit me up by email, happy to answer more specific questions!

[shooting-stars-only]

Please tell us how to get into IT without a degree! I have an interview for a small tech company this week and I’m going in as admin but as things expand I can bootstrap into a better role and I’d really appreciate knowing what skills are likely to be crucial for making that pivot.

Absolutely!! You'd be in a great position to switch to IT, since as an admin, you'd already have some familiarity with the systems and with the workplace in general. Moving between roles is easier in a smaller workplace, too.

So, this is a semi-brief guide to getting an entry-level position, for someone with zero IT experience. That position is almost always going to be help desk. You've probably heard a lot of shit about help desk, but I've always enjoyed it.

So, here we go! How to get into IT for beginners!

The most important thing on your resume will be

✨~🌟Certifications!!🌟~✨

Studying for certs can teach you a lot, especially if you're entirely new to the field. But they're also really important for getting interviews. Lots of jobs will require a cert or degree, and even if you have 5 years of experience doing exactly what the job description is, without one of those the ATS will shunt your resume into a black hole and neither HR or the IT manager will see it.

First, I recommend getting the CompTIA A+. This will teach you the basics of how the parts of a computer work together - hardware, software, how networking works, how operating systems work, troubleshooting skills, etc. If you don't have a specific area of IT you're interested in, this is REQUIRED. Even if you do, I suggest you get this cert just to get your foot in the door.

I recommend the CompTIA certs in general. They'll give you a good baseline and look good on your resume. I only got the A+ and the Network+, so can't speak for the other exams, but they weren't too tough.

If you're more into development or cybersecurity, check out these roadmaps. You'll still benefit from working help desk while pursuing one of those career paths.

The next most important thing is

🔥🔥Customer service & soft skills🔥🔥

Sorry about that.

I was hired for my first ever IT role on the strength of my interview. I definitely wasn't the only candidate with an A+, but I was the only one who knew how to handle customers (aka end-users). Which is, basically, be polite, make the end-user feel listened to, and don't make them feel stupid. It is ASTOUNDING how many IT people can't do that. I've worked with so many IT people who couldn't hide their scorn or impatience when dealing with non-tech-savvy coworkers.

Please note that you don't need to be a social butterfly or even that socially adept. I'm autistic and learned all my social skills by rote (I literally have flowcharts for social interactions), and I was still exceptional by IT standards.

Third thing, which is more for you than for your resume (although it helps):

🎇Do your own projects🎇

This is both the most and least important thing you can do for your IT career. Least important because this will have the smallest impact on your resume. Most important because this will help you learn (and figure out if IT is actually what you want to do).

The certs and interview might get you a job, but when it comes to doing your job well, hands-on experience is absolutely essential. Here are a few ideas for the complete beginner. Resources linked at the bottom.

Start using the command line. This is called Terminal on Mac and Linux. Use it for things as simple as navigating through file directories, opening apps, testing your connection, that kind of thing. The goal is to get used to using the command line, because you will use it professionally.

Build your own PC. This may sound really intimidating, but I swear it's easy! This is going to be cheaper than buying a prebuilt tower or gaming PC, and you'll learn a ton in the bargain.

Repair old PCs. If you don't want to or can't afford to build your own PC, look for cheap computers on Craiglist, secondhand stores, or elsewhere. I know a lot of universities will sell old technology for cheap. Try to buy a few and make a functioning computer out of parts, or just get one so you can feel comfortable working in the guts of a PC.

Learn Powershell or shell scripting. If you're comfortable with the command line already or just want to jump in the deep end, use scripts to automate tasks on your PC. I found this harder to do for myself than for work, because I mostly use my computer for web browsing. However, there are tons of projects out there for you to try!

Play around with a Raspberry Pi. These are mini-computers ranging from $15-$150+ and are great to experiment with. I've made a media server and a Pi hole (network-wide ad blocking) which were both fun and not too tough. If you're into torrenting, try making a seedbox!

Install Linux on your primary computer. I know, I know - I'm one of those people. But seriously, nothing will teach you more quickly than having to compile drivers through the command line so your Bluetooth headphones will work. Warning: this gets really annoying if you just want your computer to work. Dual-booting is advised.

If this sounds intimidating, that's totally normal. It is intimidating! You're going to have to do a ton of troubleshooting and things will almost never work properly on your first few projects. That is part of the fun!

Resources

Resources I've tried and liked are marked with an asterisk*

Professor Messor's Free A+ Training Course*

PC Building Simulator 2 (video game)

How to build a PC (video)

PC Part Picker (website)*

CompTIA A+ courses on Udemy

50 Basic Windows Commands with Examples*

Mac Terminal Commands Cheat Sheet

Powershell in a Month of Lunches (video series)

Getting Started with Linux (tutorial)* Note: this site is my favorite Linux resource, I highly recommend it.

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi Projects for Beginners

/r/ITCareerQuestions*

Ask A Manager (advice blog on workplace etiquette and more)*

Reddit is helpful for tech questions in general. I have some other resources that involve sailing the seas; feel free to DM me or send an ask I can answer privately.

Tips

DO NOT work at an MSP. That stands for Managed Service Provider, and it's basically an IT department which companies contract to provide tech services. I recommend staying away from them. It's way better to work in an IT department where the end users are your coworkers, not your customers.

DO NOT trust remote entry-level IT jobs. At entry level, part of your job is schlepping around hardware and fixing PCs. A fully-remote position will almost definitely be a call center.

DO write a cover letter. YMMV on this, but every employer I've had has mentioned my cover letter as a reason to hire me.

DO ask your employer to pay for your certs. This applies only to people who either plan to move into IT in the same company, or are already in IT but want more certs.

DO NOT work anywhere without at least one woman in the department. My litmus test is two women, actually, but YMMV. If there is no woman in the department in 2024, and the department is more than 5 people, there is a reason why no women work there.

DO have patience with yourself and keep an open mind! Maybe this is just me, but if I can't do something right the first time, or if I don't love it right away, I get very discouraged. Remember that making mistakes is part of the process, and that IT is a huge field which ranges from UX design to hardware repair. There are tons of directions to go once you've got a little experience!

Disclaimer: this is based on my experience in my area of the US. Things may be different elsewhere, esp. outside of the US.

I hope this is helpful! Let me know if you have more questions!

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for keeping a huge secret from my mom?

so i (26ftm) moved back in with my parents a little over a year ago due to the housing market. shakes fist at sky. you know how it is. anyways, uh, while i may be a broke zillennial, my parents are fairly financially well off, and it's in part due to my father's job. my mom recently retired and my father keeps saying he's going to retire, but still keeps pushing it off (and has been pushing it off for about a decade now).

now uh, shortly before i moved in, my mom was telling me that she was having problems with my father. that this was "the third time this had happened" and "this is his last chance" - i think you may see where i'm going with this. he was cheating. for the third time. and she'd caught him, got them to go to couples therapy, and told him there would be no fourth chance. she was willing to move out of the house and start anew somewhere else if she needed to.

um. enter me, the apple of my dad's eye. i move in. one night my mom is off at a book club so it's just me and him for dinner. he opens his phone (up til this point i've noticed he looks at his phone A Lot.) and opens up wechat. he's calling someone "babe" and sending them red heart emojis. i instantly feel kind of sick. i ask him, "are you texting mom?" and he gets SO confused for a second and says no (i don't think he knew i'd seen his phone screen).

that was almost a year ago today. since then i have seen him text this other woman nonstop, has talked about starting a family with her, has talked about taking her with him on his "work trips," and - for some reason - i've seen him google straight-up escort websites on his phone. uh, that one was while my mom and i were in the middle of showing him old family videos.

i feel so fucking guilty. every time i see him i want to [REDACTED DUE TO TUMBLR GUIDELINES]. i lost my therapist that i had known for five years in the move, i lost my entire support network, and i still haven't found anything like that up here. i am completely isolated, and while i have my own job right now, i am in no way financially stable enough to find my own place to live. if i tell my mom, i don't know what's going to happen to me. i don't know if she will kick him out or if she will move. i am trying to move back to where i was living, but i just can't afford it. i feel completely trapped in this situation, and i know what the right thing to do is, but i am terrified that on top of losing my entire life a year ago, i'm about to lose everything else, too.

a large part of me wants to confront my father first, but i am also terrified of him. i know i'm his favorite, but i am well aware of his temper, and while he's never physically harmed me, i feel like the situation might be a bit different if i'm the person that might get him divorced and ostracized from the entire family. i don't know. i honestly have no idea. everything is so confusing and i just have felt frozen for an entire year.

but the other night i saw him texting her again. she's mentioned she had been feeling sick lately and he told her that she might be pregnant. i was so close to losing it. i almost ripped his phone out of his hand and smashed it on the ground. i couldn't look him in the eye. i could barely even speak to him. maybe the funniest part about this is that he doesn't realize anything is wrong. he's a fucking narcissist and doesn't pay the slightest bit of attention to how other people act around him.

the next day, he was gone for another "work trip".

i am run completely ragged and i don't know how much longer i can take this. i find myself wishing someone else could take it out of my hands so that i don't have to be responsible for destroying our whole family.

anyways. am i the asshole for being a coward?

a bit of extra INFO as well though: as far as i'm aware, my parents are in a bit of a dead bedroom situation (frankly. my mom likes to oversshare.) so uh. at the very least i know she's not getting whatever diseases my dad surely must have by now.

What are these acronyms?

[thatrandombystander]

I don't know how accurate Graphtreon is, but according to its data the Rusty Quill Patreon has lost like 50% of its patrons since TMA ended in March last year.

While narratively TMA ended in a really good spot, it was also really bad for Rusty Quill as a company. I don't know how much money they're making from other revenue sources (like merch) but this has got to have been a HUGE drop in revenue in just 18 months. Not sure how much/what they gain from the RQ Network shows?

I would guess that the company failed to accurately anticipate the drop, and had been operating with the assumption that revenue would increase, hold stable, or at least not drop this much after TMA.

The ongoing global impact of COVID, global economic issues and inflation, and the absolute shit state of UK economics and the British pound specifically are also not going to be doing any wonders for them either.

It looks like they have overcommitted to too many projects that they no longer have the revenue to fund, which is why they're now seeing staff cuts, show delays, and will probably have some show cancellations soon.

I feel a lot of sympathy for staff/projects being let go, but with how volatile money in the creative industries is right now... well, I can't really put that much blame or anger on RQ for this outcome. I really hope everyone out of a job manages to find more work. I haven't heard anything about abuse or mistreatment, other than I guess employee financial stress from the whole money situation, so I don't have any animosity about it beyond "man that sucks".

But I am definitely tempering my expectation for whatever TMA2 is; I sincerely hope that there is a quality narrative to justify bringing it back, but I am very wary that it's predominantly a way to recuperate lost funds.

I think Rusty Quill is going to need to take a big step back and re-evaluate their budget. Both in their revenue streams and expenditures.

I'm wondering if maybe they would benefit from switching to more crowdfunding and kickstarters as a model to start projects? That way they can get an idea for how much interest there is in those projects, and how much money they can afford to spend on them?

[pastelhousewithlegs]

Aright then.

A lot of the backlash I see right now is the anger at them (allegedly) intending to remove their old content and make it available ONLY on their service. They have made several statements (noted, only after the initial announcement vent live) clarifying everything already on YouTube will stay on YouTube.

Problem is it’s, at best optimism, hazy if that was always the plan. The variety article they pointed towards now has an edit that implies they were pulling everything. The language of their announcement was vague enough to backpedal if it got backlash. It’s unclear if this was just a horrible marketing misunderstanding or damage control.

I see a lot of people saying they wish they could support and subscribe but they don’t have the cash available for it. Especially not for what they’re getting out of it. I can’t speak to that. However, as someone who could afford to make it work and very much WANTS to support the team; my personal concerns lie more in their current model.

I don’t see it being sustainable. They have a decently sized team, 25 people in their employ, but how many of them are faces we know? How many of them could step into the shoes of host if needed. Ryan, Shane, and Steven (and they’re hoping Steven’s old Worth it gang) are the main faces of Watcher. What happens if one of em gets sick and can’t film? What happens if one of em burns out? What happens if they’re just not feeling it creatively anymore and want to pivot to something else?

I also see a lot of people saying they don’t mind “lower costing” videos, many citing Too Many Spirits as a popular and lower budget production of theirs. A lot of us liked Are You Scared, Top 5, and their gaming series.

The problem is, historically, those haven’t been the biggest pulls. For Shane and Ryan they’re known as the “Goul Boys” and their ghost hunting requires going to haunted places, as they mentioned in the announcement video. It also takes a lot of time, effort, and talent. For Steven, he’s most known from Worth it, they brought back the old team because they know this and are trying to recreate it. I’m sure that was very expensive to make and I’m sure their spinoff of it will be too. Puppet history is crushing it so it makes sense they’ll throw money into that too.

The problem with their move is that it’s too drastic of a change, too quickly, and with not enough infrastructure or research to support it long term.

I want to believe they’ll pull it off. I want them to be able to stay independent, I want more interesting and quality content from the guys and their network, I want them to grow into something that can be sustainable longer term so Shane, Ryan, and Steven don’t hold the entire company on their faces.

I wish everyone the very best.

[cinnamonest]

So I have the biggest thing for restraints ever. What kind do the Genshin boys use and what scenario do they get them out?

(Anon bless you for giving me the opportunity to return to "sadistic and feels guilty about it but can't stop enjoying it" Kazuha agenda, I love you for this)

Yesss so I know you probably mean like s/m type restraint, and this is not really restraints in a sexual sense, but there is "enclosure" as a technical form of restraint, to address first. This is basically just keeping you in a large, enclosed area. The ones who utilize this the most would be Zhongli, Ayato, Diluc, and Xingqiu.

The latter three (Rich boy trio lmao) all make use of their wealth and status by using the same general tactic: keeping you in their respective estates. Ayato and Xingqiu have the easiest time of this, as their respective family estates have actual armed guards posted everywhere, who won't hesitate to grab and drag you back if need be. There's essentially a network of people all trained to keep an eye out for you, and detain you on sight if you're not where you should be. Diluc doesn't have the same heavy security, but there's so many maids and servants crawling around the house at all times, and you're no match for them, so it's not really all that much different from guards.

Thankfully, these three allow you to roam the house most of the time, but not outside. You may be allowed to go outside with him, or with appointed chaperones in his absence, but there's someone breathing down your neck all the time regardless, and even when you're inside, there's always eyes on you. In particular, Diluc might allow you to walk around the estate grounds by yourself, if you've been there a long time and won his trust, and only during harvest season. This is because during said harvest time, he has seasonal, temporary employees for harvesting, who are also instructed to watch you. Outside of harvest season, however, he does require you to have someone accompany you, since you might sneak off undetected otherwise.

Zhongli keeps you within an abode. This is actually probably a better setup than the others, as you can roam just about wherever you want within it, provided you do not leave (and he has a mechanism in place to alert him if you do). Often times, it's rather empty, too, so you don't have too many eyes on you. If you've been disobedient, however, he'll lock you into and thereby confine you to your own room, a far more restrictive amount of space. If you're very, very good, he may even take you outside... but only with him.

-

As far as more literal restraints, for some it's a sex thing, for some it's practical, and for some it's both. The primary candidates here are Childe, Heizou, Albedo, Xiao and Kazuha.

Ajax bounces back and forth. He often leaves you unrestrained on purpose, because he likes the way you struggle. But to be clear, it's entirely a sex thing. He has no practical need for restraints, you're kept in what is one of the highest degrees of security just by the sheer number of Fatui crawling all over the place at all times anyway. If you step out of bounds, they'd have you pinned to the ground before you could take another step. So it's not out of necessity.

But as much as he likes feeling you struggle, watching you struggle against restraints is cute, too. Given the amount of money he has, he can easily afford specially made restraints, the kind that bind you into specific positions. Namely, he gets this one that forces you into a face-down-ass-up position, that binds each of your wrists to your calves so you can't move. It's nice, really, because sometimes after a long day, he just wants to make things a bit easier, you know?

-

Xiao's is practical, there's not much to the reason behind it. He's just very paranoid, so, keeping you in an abode isn't enough for him. His is simple, just a chain connecting your ankle to the wall, just to ensure you can't get out. He does kind of like it, but it's more of an "easier access" thing than anything. It makes sure you can't maneuver your leg around too much, and in between your legs is the place he's trying to get to, so that means he only really has to deal with one leg, which makes it a lot easier!

He starts with just one. Upon managing to escape it, however, more intense measures clearly need to be taken. However, the incident of escape really, really triggers a sense of anxiety in him, so it's not the sort of thing where the restraints gradually get more intense with each attempt, no. From the very first escape, he goes all out in the future. Forces you spread-eagle, each wrist and ankle spread to each corner of the bed, and a blindfold over your eyes, too. It's for your own good, he tells you.

Over time, you may be able to get him to reduce the restraints, but it takes a long time (at his age, perceived passage of time for you is a mere fraction of the same perception of time for him), and a lot of compliance with someone who can often be rather difficult to comply with.

-

Heizou is somewhere in the middle. He needs a way to keep you from leaving his room, as he lives in the city, so it's originated in necessity, but quickly becomes something more. Thankfully, it's not hard for him to get a way to restrain you quickly. The department has plenty of spare handcuffs laying around, so he just swipes one (hey, it's not theft if he records it as lost property and pays for a replacement with his own paycheck to clear his conscience). He loops it through one of the bars on the headboard above his bed, and keeps your hands bound to it that way, tape over your mouth. It's practical, but... as he's turning his head over his shoulder to look one last time before going out the door, something about seeing you like that is... exciting. It occupies his thoughts for the rest of the day, he can't get the mental image out of his mind.

He accepts this facet of himself pretty quickly, though. He's heard of other people being into stuff like that, so it's not bad, right? It's fairly normal, and it's not hurting you or anything. He's not so much of a sadist, he doesn't really hurt you, he just likes seeing you unable to move around, the feeling of control. He lets you out of them once you earn his trust, while he's there at least, but whenever he leaves you go back to it. He'd be lying if he said part of it wasn't how hard it makes him whenever he's on his way home each evening, already getting excited just at the thought of opening the door to the same sight as always. It's intoxicating with euphoria, seeing the light pour into the room onto your body all restricted, he never gets tired of it. Eventually he may swipe a second and third pair to keep your ankles connected to the end of the bed, too, legs spread all apart.

-

Albedo is very well aware of what he likes, and also accepts it with ease, not even needing to justify it to himself. He's also very transparent about it. If you were to accuse him of getting off to it, he more or less just blinks at you for a moment. Yes, what of it? The man doesn't have a lot of shame when it comes to such things, so you won't have any success trying to get him to feel embarrassed or anything, and it's even more hopeless to try and get him to feel guilty for it.

He invests in something electronic, namely a tracking device, as well as a collar... one that has these odd prongs that you can feel digging into your skin. At first, he just says it's part of the lock design, nothing more... but you can tell there's something he's not telling you. Should you go beyond the front door and trigger the electrocution device, you'll certainly find out.

But above all, he tends to like rope more than anything. It's more versatile, you can really do whatever you want with it rather than being limited to a few specific positions and areas for restraint. Besides, it can be done all ornately and intricately in a way that looks stunningly alluring, beautiful even, so it appeals to his artistic side as well. Inazuma has a well-known rope bondage tradition, so, he picks up some booklets containing detailed tutorials, and makes it a goal to master the art of it, little by little. And, well, you should know that once he sets his mind to something, he doesn't give up, so you'll just have to try and endure being a living canvas.... and maybe convince him to invest in some soothing oils for the occasional rope burn.

-

Unlike Albedo and Heizou, however, Kazuha has difficulty accepting it... yet, he's probably the most excited by it of anyone. This is probably due to it being combined with his darker impulses to cause actual pain, so he associates both as being disgusting, awful things that he should (and does) feel guilty for, at least at first. He tends to apologize all the time as he does it, mumbling and stammering that he doesn't want to do this (he does), it's just necessary (it's not), and he hopes you can learn to be more reasonable so this can stop (please don't).

The sadistic tendencies are a thing of their own, but his fixation on restraint can be much more easily rationalized to himself as a matter of your safety and well-being. Does it need to be all intricate? Yes. And does it have to pull your legs apart and up to your chest? Yes. Why? Because... it just does, okay? It's just easier! He wasn't thinking about it when he did it, it wasn't intentional...

As far as the form, he goes for anything and everything. It starts with leather cuffs and chains he gets from a blacksmith. It's made for animal's necks, to tether plow animals to each other... so it's too big for your wrists. He'll just put it around your thighs, and loop the link around behind your neck. It's just practical! It was the only thing they had available, so don't look at him like that.

He gets a spreader bar, leather cuffs to keep your hands behind your back. Gags that go into your mouth - a special ring-shaped one that allows you to breathe the whole time, but makes it so you can't hide any noises you make, and makes you drool all over the place... not that that's good, it's just an observation. Thankfully, you're blindfolded too, so you won't see him gather it from where it dripped on the bed onto his fingers and lick it off. That... would probably make you give him a look that would make him feel bad.

Soon, he gets ropes too, special soft ones just for skin (why do they make ones for human skin? Dunno. No he didn't go to a shady sort of shop for it, it was being sold at a totally normal marketplace. You're the perverse one, for such a thing even coming to your mind. And eventually, after deciding it's still not enough, he gets you what he considers to be not degrading or even perverted (it's not on your body, therefore it's not a sexual thing, right?), but rather, he hopes you'll see it as a sign of affection and endearment... a nice, big cage for you to stay in. Padded and with blankets so you don't get cold. He's just been so nervous about you getting out of the cuffs and chains while he's gone during the day, so this way you'll have an extra layer of protection. Besides, you look very cute laying in it!

[kxowledge]

Congrats on your PhD acceptance!!! Was this the uni you wanted to do your PhD in, or is it a 'safe' choice?

It’s both the place I wanted the most and the one where I thought I had the highest chances of succeeding. I don’t think there’s such thing as a “safe” option when it comes to PhD programs and there is no point in applying to schools that you aren’t fully convinced about, but this uni for me did feel “safe” in the sense that this was one of the programs I knew the most about how it would be.

Last summer when I narrowed down the schools I wanted to apply to, I came up with 10 names, all places I would have been thrilled to attend – submitting a good application is so time-consuming that it’s not worth spending time over something I felt lukewarm about. No university was perfect, but none had drawbacks I couldn’t live with. As I was very sick in the fall (and still not feeling 100%), I knew I needed to focus my energy and not apply to all 10 this round. So, I decided to apply just to this university, with the fallback plan to apply to the 9 others next autumn if I didn’t get in.

The reason why was twofold. Firstly, there’s timing – I had been building a good relationship with several people in the department and the supervisor I wanted was hiring this year and this year only. I had momentum I needed to capitalize on, whereas for the other schools which cycle I’d apply wouldn’t matter much.  Secondly, I thought that this was the program I would prefer over all others except one, given the choice. Two main reasons for this:

My supervisor!! I have concrete evidence that my supervisor will be a good one. She’s an expert when it comes to my specific methodology, which is super important to me, and she know so much about the topics I’m interested in – and she was the one introducing me to some of these in the first place. She’s very supportive and gives great feedback that actually pushes me further. She has a good network of other scholars. These are all things that will contribute to my success, more so than the name of the school. There are obviously great supervisors at other schools too, but here I know for sure

The money. In the context of the other universities I was considering (i.e. in Europe/UK), this is where I’m going to get paid the most. As I said, I would have also managed with a lower salary, but, trust me, knowing I’m going to get paid this much is a relief - living on £20k/€23k/$25k circa is too restrictive no matter the location. Not only I will not have to worry about money ever for the next four years, but I will also be able to put enough money aside to buy a house, because we're not talking about a 2-3k more, we're talking about almost double of what I would have gotten in other places. Because of the money and the benefits, I don’t have to feel like I’m putting my life on hold until the end of the PhD, but rather I can afford to do anything I want, be it travel or build a family or join the expensive pottery studio or whatever.

The drawback: this university is not well ranked worldwide. What will get my CV checked out for AP positions will not be the name of the institution, but rather my work, which is a lot of pressure because getting something under review at a top journal is no easy feat. At the end of the day, I would try to do my best and I would have high standards in any case, so at least I’m in an environment that will support me & if I struggle getting a job post-graduation I will have a safety net to fall back to.

The only place that would have been better / I would have chosen over this uni would have been INSEAD, but my chances of success with them were way lower (I’ve been told by them that my quant GRE score would already screen me out, even though I don’t even want to do quant research), so I don't mind too much not having applied.

[theempresstrash]

Welcome! :3

If you are here right now more than likely you are a Twitter crypto artist denizen who has heard me, @maxcapacity and probably many other shouting about Tumblr on Twitter. Why Tumblr? It is part nostalgia, part necromancy, part homage to the the Web3 greats who spent years here (some are still here), part rebellion, and part reminding artists to come together to help each other.

Twitter heavily favors text base tweets - it's just a fact. Here is not the case. Many of us are also maybe a little jaded on what is happening overall and feel ignored as artists. Discord is full of scams, twitter group chats are cliquey, but here we are free to roam, explore each others works, and create a visual digital identity we want to present.

Come play with us and remember why we are all here! For the art, to make friends, express ourselves, have a good time and build a better future for artists. Yes we all want to sell work too ofc - we have physical bodies to take care of and bills to pay - but what if we share with each other our wins and how we got them, and our failures and what we learned from them as artists so when we go back to the rest of the internet hellscape we can find more success? At the very least, make some friends here or rekindle connects that may have been lost to not feel so alone. For some of you this is a trip down memory lane, for others you have never been here before. Old or new a like I encourage you to check out who I am following to get started finding each other.

This isn't rocket science - if you can understand blockchain web3 stuff, I have faith you can understand this old beast of a social network. Love you all ~~~ <3

P.S. I'm writing this for specific purposes of a pinned post. It feels so good to be able to write more than 150 characters. Also here are multi gifs side by side -- for the culture.

EDIT: Because I can edit and also adding this - for the culture 🫡🚫

~We are here to focus on the art and building up artists and to build an open, non hierarchal structure to provide mutual support for each other while showcasing the hard work and dope art crypto artists do to try to shape the landscape of web3 to be more artist friendly for ALL artists from diverse backgrounds. ~ Here are some guidelines to foster a healthy community growth:

~ NO SHILL POST/ART SHARE POSTS - why? we want the focus to go back on the artist and deep thoughts, not engagement farming. Shilling/art share is a viable way on twitter to get your art out there because of how the social media is structured. Here - content is the focus. You can discover new artists a multitude of ways including searching hashtags, looking through your fav artists feed of who they are sharing or following, and generally just wandering around.

~ INDEPENDENT ARTIST FOCUS - 10k pfp projects are a part of the nft ecosystem, and thrive on twitter, but here we want to again have the focus stay on independent artists. A basic issue with these projects is to access a lot of their communities they are token gated, and a lot of artists just can't afford them. Also many feel we are drowning in the noise of a lot of the politics and drama that goes on between projects, and need a place again to share ourselves with each other for feedback, support and overall good times.

~ REPORT AND BLOCK THE HATERS / KILL WITH KIDNESS- anywhere on the internet hate is prevalent for lots of different reasons related to our content and not. Bullies are cowards, and to bully someone for a technology they use is boring. Tumblr also does not tolerate hate and harassment in any form. Maybe someone is having a bad day and if able extend kindness. For extreme comments, report them. For continual harassers, block them. This is your space to curate how you wish. We deserve to be here as artists as anyone else, and hope to on top of supporting each other showcase our dope af work we are doing within the crypto art ecosystems to show we aren't all scammers, just artists trying to build a better future.

[just-a-carrot]

How does the main five (including Cecil and Hunar) feel about their occupations? Do they all like their jobs or do any of them just do it for the payment?

is this in regards to their jobs in OW or their jobs in OC?? there would be a difference there at least for some...

i'll start with OW:

Iggy: Does enjoy his job for the most part. He likes that he can work freelance from home. And he likes coding and problem-solving. However, he hates networking and dealing with clients. It's not his dream job by any means and he does hate it sometimes, but it's not the worst. So I'd say a somewhat positive neutral.

Genzou: Chose to go into bikes mostly on a whim and because he couldn't think of anything else and really hated it at first when he was in training, but grew to love it and working with his hands in general. He does get a lot of joy out of his work and he loves having his own shop, getting to work with bikes all day. He doesn't enjoy the financial and business aspects of it though and he's often stressed about profits. But the job itself he does enjoy and he even tinkers around on his own personal projects in the shop, too.

Orlam: Hates everything about his job lol. Does it literally because he has nothing else to do but needs the money to pay for rent and food.

Gidget: Certainly believes they want to be a model lol. And I do think they get a lot of pride out of choosing outfits and going in for shoots. But it's not what they'd really like to be doing. Also they need to do a lot of random odd jobs and occasional part-time work to afford it, which they hate.

Bucks: Didn't like working the delivery truck that much, especially because of the weird hours and because she spent most of the time sitting in traffic or driving long hours, so she didn't get to move around much. Does mostly enjoy her manager position though as she's a good manager and it lets her interact more with people and be more active. Is definitely not her dream job though, she wants to be out playing softball or at least doing something physical and active, some kind of team sport or as a trainer, etc.

Hunar: Well, he doesn't really do much in OW. He's a writer and would love to spend his full time writing or being somewhere quiet to think and read, or maybe go on trips or quiet hikes to think up ideas. He's not really able to do this because of Saydie though. And even before that, since Bucks was busy at work, he had to take care of most of the house-related stuff, dealing with finances, mortgages, planning, family stuff, etc.

Cecil: His job is just attending to Gidget??? LOL he knows nothing else, it's what he was manifested for. He loves Gidget very much and enjoys being there for them but is obviously not always keen on their choices.

OK now to OC:

Iggy and Genzou are basically the same re: jobs in OC.

Orlam: Loves his job dearly. It gives him so much energy and makes him feel so important. He gets to meet new people all the time and make grandiose presentations and have lots of luncheons and meetings. It's his dream tbh.

Gidget: Likes their job a lot, but I wouldn't say that it's like... they would definitely do it even if they didn't need the money. I think in an ideal world they would love to just be a full-time volunteer and go around volunteering for all kinds of events and organizations, but they can't, so they also do something where they can be creative in a variety of different ways and work with a lot of people.

(LOL I HAVEN'T THOUGHT ABOUT THE SPECIFIC JOBS BUCKS, HUNAR, AND CECIL HAVE IN OC SO YOU'LL HAVE TO FORGIVE ME LKDJALDKF)

[that-wizard-oki]

How did you start doing jobs for kingsisle?? I'm trying to break into the industry as an artist, and I have no clue how to approach potential employers, even just for commissions 😭😭

Hey! So I actually work full time with KingsIsle as a character animator- my job year round is to make pets, mounts, mobs, npc's move :D

How I got started here is kind of a wild story. I had been wanting to reach out to KI about possibly interning with them post-graduation- I had a few people I semi knew at the company, and knew I'd have a good portfolio piece to show them from my senior thesis project. However, three days before graduation, a friend from KI msg'ed me that KI was doing summer internships, and asked if I was interested. I spent the next 3 days building my portfolio website/resume & sent it to my friend. A month and two interviews later, they accepted me! Once my internship was drawing to and end, they were able to offer me a full time position.

My #1 piece of advice for folks trying to break into the industry: MAKE CONNECTIONS. NETWORK. Obviously having dedication and building your artistic skills (whether that's character design, animation, story boarding, etc) is a huge part of it- like you can make as many connections as you want, but if you don't have a decent set of skills/a portfolio to back you up, then you might be out of luck there. But I cannot understate the importance of networking.

So, how do you make connections/network? My advice:

-I know everyone can't afford it, but going to an art school/college is a decent way to make connections- not just with teacher's who have worked in the industry themselves, but also with your future artists. Heck, I've been seeing younger artists like myself start their own studios. You can defo still make connections w/o college, but I just wanted to note that.

-Interact with artists/folks in the industry online. comment on their posts, ask them genuine questions. Most folks are happy to answer questions or give portfolio advice.

-Mentorships are a great thing- also something i see offered on twitter a lot. Some studio's like dreamworks have "internship" like programs where people who have recently graduation or are looking for a career change can apply to and learn from. I'd follow companies you're interested in via linkedin, or visit their websites to see if they offer things like this

-Also!! Participate in anijams, gamejams, art swaps, zines- these are all great ways to connect with fellow artists online. My college has an animation club that does anijams twice a year- which is a GREAT thing to put on your resume- it shows collaboration, dedication- things you need to be open to when working in the industry.

-I'd also say that trying to narrow down what you're really passionate about doing (for me, 3d animation just fit my heart the best) and learn more about it. Watch youtube videos, follow tutorials. Practice your anatomy, do gesture drawings from life, draw as many hands and feet as you can, lol. All things to help strengthen your skills! Consistency is key!!

I know that's a lot of info, so I just want to reiterate something: I've been at KI for about a year and a half now, and I am still just as passionate about this game as I was beforehand. That passion is one of my greatest assets. WANTING to do what I do for work makes working a lot easier, and produces a better product. If you have a passion, a drive to do something, you can do the damn thing. Making connections/being consistent as an artists can feel wildly overwhelming. But it doesn't have to be. You're worthy of sharing your art and ideas with the world, and people want to hear them. Baby steps! Start small. Heck talking to me already gets your started with networking :D

Hope that wasn't too rambly/answered some of your questions anon. Feel free to inbox or dm me if you wanna chat more- goes for anyone reading this :)

[look-how-they-massacred-them]

hi this was Forever ago but i submitted Glitch of the Ben 10 reboot here and i was looking thru the comments and i wanted to respond: i watched every episode i was legally able to. the cartoon network site forces me to "sign in with cable" to watch and i cant afford cable anymore and i didnt feel like the show was worth the virus risk of finding a pirate site. maybe i will try again though idk.

i know glitch can fuse with the other aliens. thats neat as a concept but it isnt character development, it's a design gimmick to sell more toys.

i had multiple reasons for calling it a bad show. they made max a brainless chauffeur with no motivation or personality other than "i do literally whatever my 10 year old grandchildren tell me" —in fact, i should have submitted him here, too. in the original series, his motivation was the struggle between keeping his family safe and keeping the world safe (knowing he doesnt have the ability to get the omnitrix off ben, thus forcing him to acknowledge that ben is often the only person who CAN save the world, but he's also an immature child who needs structure and discipline so he doesn't turn into a monster. reboot max lets him do shit like watch cartoons for 30 hours straight while gwen doesn't even get a turn with the remote, or trusts him to just hang out unsupervised in a giant department store for hours while max wanders off to go eat normal hotdogs or whatever. original ben wouldve just started straight up stealing shit like when he went greymatter to search for sumo slammer cards in cereal boxes)

also many of the villains felt weak. the cockroach guys' motivation is basically "there was a lab accident and we're evil now." (contrast with the original show, where that one bug guy's motivation was "my house is being torn down, i don't want to be homeless, and insects are literally my only friends why does everyone keep KILLING MY FRIENDS? IF YOU KILL MY FRIENDS I'M GOING TO KILL YOU"). the rich kid's backstory is just that he's a rich kid. zombozo isn't scary enough AND hes incompetent now. they kind of fused kevin and albedo into one character which was sort of interesting if taken on its own but immensely disappointing if you know the originals.

the vil and gax thing was interesting but it makes the timeframe of the show confusing and inconsistent, because (in the original) vilgax was the whole reason the omnitrix landed on earth, but he can't have done that if he's just reduced to a shambling husk of himself with no warship or army. and yet in the timetravel ep with the rich kid, it's implied the omnitrix still landed that way in the same place? so they half imply something different happened and half imply the same thing happened, and just never bother to explain how the hell ben GOT the omnitrix in the FIRST place.

also this is the least important of my complaints but they just made all of ben's aliens bipeds. why are they so scared of alien bodytypes? why does stinkfly just look like some guy in a bug costume now? where are wildvine's five vine legs? what happened to wildmutt?

Oh this is juicy

[togglesbloggle]

Rules for Losing

So, yeah, Roe vs. Wade.  And also, quite possibly, a huge chunk of the 14th amendment, including support for birth control, trans rights, and Lawrence vs. Texas.  It’s clear that this court is going to rework the American legal framework in fundamental ways, given a decade or two.

I’ve been thinking about what I have to give at the moment, and I think one of the more valuable things is that I’m just barely old enough not to take this stuff for granted.  I’ve got clear, formative memories of what it’s like to live under a government that bans your sexual orientation by law, to work productively towards a better world under those conditions, and to live a good kind of life while you do it.  What follows is a few things I learned from the last time the pendulum swung in this direction, targeted primarily towards US citizens that live in red states and other places where local patchwork laws won’t make up for what SCOTUS will take.

The future is not like the past, and I don’t want to overstate how much will be lost or how big the risks will be.  I don’t think you’ll necessarily need this post in its particulars.  Instead, take it as reassurance that you are not, and need not feel, helpless, even as the larger currents of society sweep us all out to some very alien shores.  There are things you cannot do, but there are things you can, and those things matter far more than you might expect.  Even the worst case scenario is not infinitely bad, and you’re more capable of rising to the occasion than you think.

1: Have a bubble.  The single most important thing you can do for your own security is to find like-minded people, and the internet makes this much easier this time around.  80% of personal happiness comes down to the small bubble of people you spend day-to-day life with, not the laws you live under or the attitudes of strangers.  Keep that support network near you, until you’ve internalized the fact that your intrinsic value as a human being does not flow from the judgments of your society.  When your bubble is in need, give until it hurts.  Rely on them to give you up-to-date information.  When you’re in trouble, make sure they know.  These people are your home.

A group of online friends, no matter how intimate, is not a bubble.  This is not to cast aspersions- many of the deepest relationships of my life are online.  But you need somebody that can smuggle you medicine, that can bail you out of jail, that can give you a couch to sleep on tonight.  You probably won’t need those things often, but when you need them, they can be life-and-death.  Material proximity is simply too necessary in a pinch, you can’t afford to ignore it.

2: Pride is more than a word.  These laws go beyond simple compulsion.  They are designed, first and foremost, to broadcast norms and to define an ‘us’ and a ‘them’.  You’d be surprised, in fact, how often people bend over backwards to avoid actually enforcing this kind of law, although you can never count on it- there’s always a small fraction of true believers out there who earnestly think that abortion is murder or that God will smite cities with earthquakes for harboring homosexuals.  But the real way these laws work is in marking you, not in punishing you.  They will try to make labels like ‘faggot’ or ‘slut’ prominent in your life, and they will succeed.

You can’t control the official narrative, and you can’t stop them from isolating you, but you can create a counter-narrative in the spaces you do control.  Celebrate often.  Reclaim slurs.  Throw great parties.  Be really, really funny.  This is good for morale over a long marathon, it helps facilitate and strengthen those bubbles (Rule #1!), and it also gives the lie to the propaganda about your sad, squalid life outside the guidance of our glorious leaders.  Dissonance is your friend, because it shocks people out of their assumptions and gets them thinking for themselves.

3: The kids are not all right.  Young people are vulnerable in a way that adults are not, and they are quite likely to internalize the norms being pushed by society in a way that can be shockingly self-destructive.  They don’t have a bubble yet (Rule #1!), and the love of parents is typically a lot more conditional than they’ve been told.  Without as much life experience, feelings about sex and self-identity can be very intense.  Whatever you’re going through, teenagers are going through it five times worse.

You won’t often know which kids need your help and which don’t, and you won’t be able to help everyone who needs it.  The best option here is to be an inspiration and wait to see who reaches out to you.  Scatter ideas of a better world as widely as you can get away with, the wink and the nod that says other things are possible and good.  And when someone does respond by reaching out, the most powerful help that you can give will often be your own example.  Tell them your story, give them a model for the sort of life they can live outside the officially sanctioned plan.  This can and will save lives.

4: Disdain kills faster than hatred. Don’t get me wrong, there are some true psychopaths out there, and when you don’t have the protection of the law, there’s a very good chance that one of these will come your way sooner or later.  But the true danger is not from psychos, but from the mass shrug, the indifference of millions that assume your suffering is to be expected and treat the story of your life as a fable about the dangers of sexual disobedience.  Internalize this as soon as possible: once you are labeled in this way, you cannot assume sympathy or help is coming in a crisis, except from whatever your bubble can offer.

But!  Disdain is also a more tractable problem than hatred.  Most people, actually, are not psychopaths, and their willingness to watch you die is a lot stronger in theory than it is in practice, particularly in person.  When people come face-to-face with you, they’ll often feel an impulse to be kind, or at least polite, and this alone can act as a powerful challenge to the indifference of crowds.  Humanize yourself, personalize your relationships, and as much as you can, dissolve crowds and institutions into their constituent individuals.  Good hygiene and dressing well are going to be far more instrumentally important to you than they would otherwise be.  And if you do manage to extract some goodwill out of the system this way, pay it forward; empathy doesn’t flow evenly to everyone, and getting less of it doesn’t mean that you deserve less of it.  Passing is a strategic compromise with injustice, not a sign of moral superiority.

5: You have the mandate of Heaven.  Really.  The future is yours, not theirs, no matter how weak you feel right now, and no matter how powerful they seem in the moment.  Orthodoxy, coercion, and especially physical violence- all are servants of the present.  They are tools used to delay the inevitable, fundamentally degenerative in character.  As an outsider to those systems, you’ll discover more ways to be human in a week than they’ll find in their whole lives, and in time, you’ll make a new world that they can’t even see, let alone control.

Our monkey-brain hates feeling weak, because it knows how dangerous that is, and often tries to lash out violently against systems and institutions that make it feel that way.  But weak or strong, violence is rarely effective and never productive.  Those who suppress dissent have chosen to abdicate their role in the future, a power vacuum into which you can and should step.  To quote Bruce Sterling, “When you can’t imagine how things are going to change, that doesn’t mean that nothing will change.  It means that things will change in ways that are unimaginable.”

[grimmmviewing]

S1E5: “Danse Macabre”—B+ (Watched 2/16/24)

“You cops?”

“Yeah, we’ve been called worse.”

There’s a lot to like about this episode: a pretty grody-looking corpse; plenty of shots of adorable rats scampering around; character interactions, like Sergeant Wu and Hank together at a bar or Monroe trying to mentor the hot-headed Roddy, that feel like a treat since they happen outside Nick’s immediate orbit; the hapless rich teens descending into what looks like such an obvious trap while essentially bragging to one another about how many times their parents have tried to call them for some delicious dramatic irony; Roddy playing what amounts to electric violin to direct his rat army in this massive underground room lit with candles. The combination of his rave-hosting “DJ Retchid Kat” tech and big, goofy, pink cat mask-head with the ominous, old timey light sources and the visual of the multitudes of rats in this space that’s got this turquoise and orange look is a real potent mix. The show continues to be quite entertaining, and particular lines or visuals demonstrate a certain flair and sense of fun or creativity.

This one is almost great—I just wish it had more to say about some of the themes it flirts with, even though I’m not exactly surprised, given that this is network television.

Maybe I thought I’d make it longer without using the word “copaganda,” but here I go (using it). Grimm is part of a long tradition of media that gives cops a whole lot of credit. I know it’s also a fantasy show where your refrigerator repair man turns out to actually be some sort of man-sized rodent… man, but it’s still got all the usual police procedural baggage, and outside the context of a fantasy show, the irritation and desperation Roddy and his dad express about their treatment by the system/police is pretty messed up (and accurate). The courtesy call Roddy gets late in the episode, where a dispassionate male voice tells him “I have to inform you, your father was injured when he refused to enter his cell,” is just so brutal: Like his dad just got stepped on by the universe or something and wasn’t abused by human beings doing their so-called jobs?

“I’d like an answer before politics screw things up,” says Nick’s boss at one point, which is… great.

Classism is another theme here that is ultimately not exactly paid off satisfactorily. Roddy was targeted for being too poor to have such talent or a rich girlfriend:

“You’re gonna pay.” / “Some of us can afford to.”

“That boy does not belong in our school.” / “Or in your neighborhood?”

(That second pair comes from a rich white mother and Hank, the show’s nearly singular Black character.)

Those are some excellent lines that feel perfectly barbed in the moment but are perhaps gesturing at things that are a bit too big (and dangerous) for this show to do anything meaningful with them. It’s a bit like Monroe’s blustery, abortive man-to-man talk with Roddy in that it says some things but misses a whole lot as well.

[littlewestern]

Ship bingo for Connor x Spencer?

Of all the guys for me to get sent twice, I didn't think it'd be Connor!

Y'know, for as much as I like streamliners, you'd think I'd be all over these two! Truth be told, I think Connor's too boring and I think Spencer's too predictable. That said, we're here to play, so let's play. The two fast guys!

A thing I *do* like about Connor is that for him, I think it's the purity of the race that gets his engine going. He and Caitlin race all the time, but there's no hard feelings between them, no matter who wins.* He likes going fast, and he likes a little friendly competition. The winning is just a little extra treat.

For Spencer though, it's not just about being the fastest, he has to be the best in all ways. He's Gordon in silver streamlining and cranked up to eleven. And, crucially, he's also a private engine. He can concern himself with things like who's the fastest and what's the best number of wheels to have and who's most afraid of the abominable snowman because he doesn't have a whole rake of coaches full of passengers to mind.

This is what separates him and Connor. Connor can't afford to get in his feelings about races because he recognizes that, at the end of the day, he's here to do a job. The competition is always going to come second to being Useful.

Spencer will never see it this way, and I think this has to be the main source of conflict. With Gordon, it didn't work out because they were both the same level of competitive and it ended up causing problems for the railway when they took it too far. I think in this case, the problem comes from the level of investment not being the same at all.

Spencer wins again and again because he can afford to put the race first (and he's probably naturally faster), and Connor gets tired of losing and stops agreeing to race. This makes Spencer mad, because he has the same hypersensitivity to rejection that Gordon does without the support network to actually manage it, and he torches the budding friendship out of spite. No one gets to be happy!

In all seriousness, an episode with Spencer and the American streamliners could have been very cool. I think you have to include Caitlin because Connor doesn't posses enough charisma to make up for Spencer's complete lack of it, but she could play a supporting role. Maybe give Spencer some perspective in a cute little pep-talk, in a version of the above narrative where the ending is happy and teaches a lesson.

* - Nevermind that the Hudsons outstripped the P-7s by nearly 40mph. In that regard, Spencer is probably the better match, but we'll assume for the sake of the characters that Connor and Caitlin win about equally often, as this is how the show seems to treat it.