#and I tried it both with and without the VPN.

[ophthalmotropy]

Does anybody else use Spotify with a VPN, and if so, has anyone had any issues?

[enfinizatics]

dear americans,

as a polish queer woman and human rights activist, i know exactly how you're feeling right now and what to expect from these elections. i lived through the 2015-2023 regime of pis, a right-wing populist party that divided families in the same way trump did. i’ve experienced the rise of fascism in poland, the influence of far-right parties like konfederacja, and their “santa’s little helpers”—ordo iuris, an ultra-conservative catholic organization (banned in many countries, mind you) that helped enforce a near-total abortion ban and runs anti-queer campaigns in public spaces. i supported the black protests in 2016 as a middle schooler when they first tried to ban abortion. as an adult, i actively participated in the 2020 women’s strike, running from police tear gas daily after they finally passed the ban. i supported friends who faced charges.

i’ve lived through intense homophobia in poland as a queer teen and adult. i survived the first pride march in my hometown, where far-right extremists threw stones and glass at us. i endured the anti-queer propaganda spread by the ruling party in state-owned media. i survived the “rainbow night,” poland’s own stonewall moment in summer 2020, when police arrested around 50 queer activists following the arrest of margo, a nonbinary activist. i survived the "lgbt-free zones," the targeted violence, the slurs from strangers on the street, and the protests i held against queerphobia. it was hard as fuck, but i survived.

but just because i survived, it doesn’t mean others did. many women died because of the abortion ban—marta, justyna, izabela, dorota, joanna, maria, and many others who didn’t survive pis’s draconian anti-abortion laws. milo, kacper, michał, zuzia (she was 12), wiktor, and other queer and trans kids and young adults took their own lives because of the relentless queerphobia.

despite all of this, our experience in poland can serve as a guide now. here are some tips for staying safe and how we, polish queers and women, organized under the regime:

safety first, always. if you know someone who’s had an abortion, no you don’t. if you know someone is trans, no you don’t. if you know people who help with safe abortions, no you don’t—at least not until you know it’s 100% safe to share. if you are queer or have had an abortion, only share this with people you trust fully. most importantly, not everyone has to be an activist just because they’re part of a minority. if it feels unsafe to share that you're queer, trans, etc., then don’t. it doesn’t make you any less queer.

use secure, encrypted messaging like signal for conversations on potentially risky topics, such as queerness, abortion, organizing counter-actions, protests—anything that might be used against you.

stay anonymous online. if you want to research or report something without surveillance, do not use regular internet. get a vpn (mullvad is affordable and reliable), download the tor browser (for both onion and standard links), and if you plan to whistleblow, consider using a riseup email account.

organize and build networks. community is everything now. support each other, foster independence, because your government won’t have your back. set up collectives, grassroots movements. create lists of trusted professionals—lawyers, doctors, etc.—who can offer support.

to lawyers and doctors: please consider pro-bono work. this is what got us through poland’s hardest times. your work will be needed now more than ever.

for protests or risky actions: always write a pro-bono lawyer’s number on your arm with a permanent marker.

get to know the anarchist black cross federation and other resources on safety culture: "Starting an anarchist black cross group: A guide"; Still We Rise - A resource pack for transgender and non-gender conforming people in prison; Safe OUTside the system by the Audre Lorde Project;

for safe abortion info or involvement: get familiar with womenhelpwomen.

stay radical, stay strong, stay informed: The Anarchist Library

if i forgot to (or didn't) include something, don't hesitate to reblog this post with other resources.

[gyupinkys]

FOUND YOU

Yandere Jihoon x fem reader.

WC: 3.8K

Jihoon was never one for relationships. His stoic behavior tends to bore the ladies, but he's had is fair share of flings. However, when some low life hacker tries to access his files; he cant help but look into you more, and some more, and a little more until he becomes obsessed. Jihoon makes it his mission to find you.

WARNINGS: YANDERE, stalking, DUB CON, phone sex, spying, unconsented filming, use of sex toys, fingering, mention of kidnapping, sugar daddy Jihoon, bratty reader.

A/N: i love this fic and I love you woozi.

One semester left… just one. Why on earth would they raise your tuition by $5,000? Are they forgetting both of your parents are dead and you have no job? The financial aid office is no help and you're already about $10,000 in debt. How nice. You look at your computer, contemplating. There's always that option… no it’s not safe. But damn you need money,  you need your degree, you need to get out of this fucking city and start over. You look down at your cat Bruno sitting at your feet. 

“Should I?”

He just gives you a judgemental look and walks away. This fucking cat…

You have no other choice. You pull out your spare laptop, not risking your pc getting any viruses. A few months ago you drunkenly stumbled upon a website on the dark web that gives you access to IP addresses of major company computers. You very easily figured out how to access their files, you can see everything; their expenses, investments, and payments. It would be so easy to transfer money to an offshore account and cover your traces. Scrolling through the list of companies you try to find one you’ve never heard of. More popular companies tend to have more security. 

“Universe factory?”

Hmmm. Doesn't ring a bell. It’s located about fifteen miles from your apartment so you aren't worried about them finding you. Weirdly, you can't find any bank accounts linked to this company. Scouring through some files, this seems to be a music company of sorts? You find samples of songs, lyrics, beats, and oh shit.. Drug shipments? Why is this in the music files? You try to dive deeper only for your connection to completely cut off and your computer blue screens. Fucking hell. The computer won’t turn back on and you won't have a chance to cover your tracks. So much for being computer savvy…

“Fuckkkkk” youre actually fucked. These people are clearly good if they are able to shut off your computer so they may have  already found your address by now. You're hoping your vpn and security walls help you. You get up and start to pace. Why on earth did you think this was a good idea? Of course you somehow chose the shadiest fucking company on earth. There's nothing to do now but stress and wait for your likely impending death.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The fuck?”

Jihoon’s studio is his safe space. He’s lucky Cheol lets him pursue his passions on the side, this mafia thing tends to take up a lot of his time so being able to unwind in his own space is a treasure. But when he returns to his computer he senses something is wrong. Someone’s gone through his files. Now, Jihoon wouldn't be too worried if all that was on this computer was his music, but recently he’s been using the Universe factory as a coverup to store documents from past business deals. Now this couldnt have been the work of some amaetur, in order to get past all his security takes some real skill, and to be able to do it without a trace? Hm…

Jihoon looks through his files, trying to catalog all the incriminating evidence.

“Tiger’s super wicked diss track?” he speaks in disbelief. When the fuck did Soonyoung get in his studio? And record a fucking distrack? 

Jihoon runs a program to see the location of the last user to access his encrypted files. Nothing? Hmm… This is too random to be a coincidence, this person must've found his IP address and started from there. He decides to be bold and search his IP addresses on his self made database, it wouldn't hurt. 

 “ “FoundYou.com”? What the fuck?”

Well he hit the jackpot. He was able to look at who accessed this website in the past 24 hours and who interacted with the universe factory link. He traced the computer to a rural part of antarctica… ok that's definitely not the real location.  He digs a little deeper finding layers and layers of security. He’s starting to think this may not be some silly hacker and could be a rival mafia pulling at strings. After an hour he’s confident he’s found the real address and hacker. About fifteen miles from him lives a Y/N L/N, full time student, studying in computer science, $10,437.76 in debt and an orphan… hm. He looks up your instagram and woah. He wasn’t expecting you to look like that. He sees your friends, finds their instagrams, just to see more pictures of you cover his bases. Your college friends speak highly of you, your highschool friends love you, oh wow even your elementary school friends still hang out with you. He digs a little deeper, just to know who he’s dealing with. You adopted a cat a year ago, a cat who visits the vet very often. Gestational blockages, broken arm, not eating, bladder infection… This cat seems like a handful. 

“Bruno? Like Bruno Mars or Bruno from Encanto?” he whispers to himself. 

You visited the hospital last year from a broken pinky, your dermatologist keeps increasing the strength of your acne medication, you take very strong pills for your cramps. Car accident when you were 7, therapy for 10 years and dead parents?… Figures. 

Your credit card statement says a lot about you. $7 matcha lattes three times a week despite being in debt. $15 chipotle bowls and 12am Mcdonalds. You really like shopping at Adam and eve… freaky. You bought $100 worth of things from amazon yesterday. You sure do buy a lot of cat toys on amazon, this cat is spoiled. Hair dye, batteries, water bottles, 12 pound bag of skittles? 

“Woozi, what are you doing?” Soonyoung whispers in his ear.

Jihoon jumps, “When did you even get in here?”

“You get too immersed in your work, but why are you on amazon?”

“None of your business get out! AND WHEN DID YOU RECORD A DISS TRACK IN HERE.”

Hoshi’s eyes widen and he quickly makes his exit leaving Jihoon alone again. He knows he’s being a creep but he doesn't have it in him to care. You’re just so interesting.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Bruno there's no one at the door stop growling.”

You open the door to show him no one is outside, but low and behold sitting outside your apartment is a large bouquet of hydrangeas… your favorite flower. 

“The fuck?”

You further inspect the flowers, seeing a note in the center.

“My precious little hacker, I’ll be seeing you soon. P.S check your bank account - Woozi’s Universe factory.”

You drop the flowers. Oh my god.You figured something like this would happen but now that it's happening you're freaked out. God, you should have minded your business. Now the little money you had is probably gone as some sort of twisted revenge. As you login to your bank app you're sure you've lost your mind and you're seeing things. $20,000 was wired to your savings account.

“What the fuck.”

You know better than to touch this money. It’s too good to be true. But, this would pay off your debt and get you a better apartment… fuck. You check your email to see what time the money was wired only to see an email from your school saying there were changes made to your account. Can this day get any worse? But it somehow gets better, not only is your tuition paid but all your debt is cleared… you must've suffered a head injury and you're making all of this up while in a coma. 

“Bruno, I might be killed in the next 7 days… Then you’ll have to fend for yourself.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Bruno, I might be killed in the next 7 days.. Then you’ll have to fend for yourself.” your sweet voice rings out. 

Jihoon had to see your reaction to his gift. He’s glad you didn't notice the green dot on your mac as he watched you through the webcam. He loves the way you talk to Bruno like he’s a human.

It took a lot of digging to figure out your favorite flower, it was one of your security questions for your bank app. He hopes you appreciate his generosity, it’s not everyday that he goes out of his way to spoil someone. He sees you looking absolutely bewildered and he can’t help but smile. But this smile quickly drops when you turn to your computer and your eyes widen, presumably seeing your camera is on.

“YOU FUCKING CREEP!” you scream as you power off your computer, leaving him staring at a blank screen.

He just smiles in response. He’s gonna have so much fun with you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The gifts don't end. Everyday at 4pm you arrive home and on your doorstep is  something new, perfume, jewelry, bags, clothes, cat toys. This person must be rich. Though today the bell never rings. You even stand in your hallway looking for the delivery but it never comes. 

“Well isn't that weird?” you say to yourself as you unlock your door.

“Bruno?” Usually he comes running up to you when you unlock your door.

You see Bruno inspecting a bright red gift box sitting on your kitchen counter. You stop dead in your tracks. How the fuck did they get in your apartment? 

“Bruno! Move away from that.” you say and scoop him up. 

Oh god. This is getting insane. Leaving the gifts on your doorstep is one thing but coming inside? 

You stare at the gift for an hour. You're too afraid to open it. That is until it starts to vibrate. Is this a fucking bomb? You jump and open the box, seeing a brand new phone… Um Ok? The phone is receiving a call from an unknown number and obviously you don't answer it, setting the phone back down only for the same number to call again. You hesitantly answer. 

“Hello?”

“Hi, my love.”

“Who is this?” 

“Don’t worry about it, yet.”

“Ok, I’m gonna hang up.”

“Y/N, I wouldn't do that f I was you.”

“Stop being a fucking creep and sending shit to my door step.”

He just laughs.

“I left one more gift for you, why don’t you go look.”

You sigh and walk to your door, looking out the peephole first and opening it, picking up the large box.

“Are there killer wasps in here?” you sarcastically say.

“No, there are no wasps,” he laughs.

You open the box and pause, turning your head to your computer to see your camera is on.

“Are you watching me?”

“I’m always watching you, love.”

“God, youre a fucking creep, I should call the cops.”

“And tell them what? You tried to hack me and steal money from me? That you're a dirty little hacker and a thief?”

You’re starting to get upset, this is fucking insane.

“Open the box, love.”

You look at the computer and flip him off before opening the box. You gasp. This fucker sent you sex toys? 

“ALL YOU DO IS SHOW ME HOW MUCH OF A FUCKING PERVERT YOU ARE!” you yell into the phone.

“Is it so bad I want my baby to feel good?”

“I’m not your baby! I don’t even fucking know you.”

“I know you don’t know me but I know you. I know everything about you. Your favorite color is blue, your favorite food is Japanese curry, though you eat kimchi fried rice the most. You adopted Bruno because you needed something to keep you company since you don't really date. Your best friend moved away eight months ago and you two don't really talk anymore. Should I continue?”

“What the fuck.” you say with wide eyes.

“Baby, don’t get scared. I’m just so in love with you I need to know everything.”

“Um.” What do you even say to this?

“And don’t pretend this isn’t your darkest fantasy. I’ve seen your tumblr search history.”

Your eyes somehow widen. He got you there. Just the idea of having a clearly rich man obsessed with you would be enough to make you wet if he wasn't a pervert. 

“I want you to take out the shibari.”

You pull out a pretty blue vibrator. It’s even your favorite shade of blue. 

“Ok?” 

“I want you to use it for me.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Baby, I wouldn’t want to do things to make you upset, but I need you to listen to me. I’m not above blackmailing you and I’m sure you wouldn't want me to come snatch you up.”

Your jaw drops. 

“Youre fucking crazy!”

“Baby, you just make me feel so many things for you.”

You groan, cursing yourself for ever being greedy and trying to steal.

“What do you want me to do?” you sigh out.

“Take off your pants and sit on your desk chair.”

“Do I have to?” you pout looking straight into the camera.

“Yes, baby. I want to see you.”

Why is this making you wet? God, you fucking hate that this is exactly the smut you would always search for. You groan at the situation, yourself, at this mystery pervert.

You shimmy out of your pants and sit in your desk chair. You put the phone on speaker and set it down.

“Now what?”

“Turn it on and rub it over your nipples.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I’m sure the guys waiting outside your apartment would love to do it for you.”

Your heart drops to your ass and you turn it on, quickly putting it on your nipple.

Jeez, this thing is powerful. You let out a breathy moan disguised as a sigh.

“Run it down your body.” 

You slowly drag the vibrator down your body, your breathing becoming heavy. 

“Put your legs up on the chair and put it on your clit over your panties, I wanna see you soak through them.”

You put the head of the vibrator on your clit a little too hard making you jump.

“Slow your roll baby.” he laughs, making you roll your eyes.

This vibrator is on a different level from the shitty ones you have. It feels like you're being stimulated throughout your whole body, everything is vibrating and you feel yourself leaking. 

“I can see you getting wetter baby, fuck. I bet that pussy tastes so good.”

You moan, pressing the vibrator harder against you, feeling your toes curl.

“Does it feel good, baby?”

You close your eyes and nod, swallowing the shame. “It feels really good.”

“Move your panties to the side, let me see.”

You pull your soaked panties over and press the vibrator to your swollen clit. He lets out a deep groan. Jihoon can't believe his eyes, it’s like a dream come true. Your pretty pussy dripping wet just for him, you whining and moaning like all you can think about is cumming. He pulls out his hard cock, beginning to stroke himself, imagining he was fucking you. He would give it to you however you wanted, let you come as many times as you desired. No matter how bad you treated him, he would be on his knees begging to make you cum. The hold you have over him is unfathomable.  You’re truly like an angel sent to heaven just for him and he'll be damned if he doesn’t get his hands on you. He doesn't even have it in him to feel bad about watching you, listening to you, exploring you. In his mind you’ve been his from the moment he first saw you. His to worship, spoil, love until the end of time. You’ve become his muse, his lyrics flow out with only you in mind, he makes songs with the purpose of you hearing them. You’ve taken him over completely and he is so irrevocably in love with you. You don’t even need to love him back, he already has enough love for the both of you, and it's not like he wouldn’t be able to force you. A little isolation does wonders on the brain. 

“I need more,” you whine out.

“Tell me what you want.”

You just whine more in response, too embarrassed to speak. “You want to use your fingers?”

You nod furiously, opening your eyes to plead with him.

“Ok baby, slide two in for me. I want you to make yourself feel good.”

You listen and slide your fingers in, pumping them straight into your g-spot. You feel yourself on the verge of an orgasm, your moans becoming louder and more frequent.

“Turn it off”

Your eyes fly open. “What.”

“You heard me baby, turn it off.”

“No, no please I’m so close.”

“Y/N.”

You turn it off and throw it to the side, so insanely frustrated. 

“What is your deal!”

“You’re not cumming unless it's around my cock, baby.”

This man never fails to surprise you. “And what makes you think I’ll fuck you?”

“Trust me when I say that won’t be an issue.”

“What makes you so sure I just won’t finish myself off when I hang up?”

“I’m always watching, baby. It’s crazy how small they make cameras nowadays.”

“Fuck you Woozi’s Universe Factory.” you say not even able to take yourself seriously.

He just laughs. “I’ll be seeing you soon my love.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is he named after Bruno Mars or Bruno from Encanto?” a deep voice rings out from your couch as you enter your apartment making you scream.

You turn to run out your apartment only to see two giants standing in your hallway blocking your exit. You groan and turn back around seeing Bruno sitting in the man's lap. Woah. Is this your stalker? Because if so, you have zero complaints. You’ve never been one to like guys with long hair, but his curls are just so hot and his lips.. How are they so plump? He’s wearing a tight black turtleneck and slacks with a gold chain. He looks so fucking hot, suddenly your not as pissed that he forced you masturbate for him. 

“Who are you?”

“You know exactly who I am, my love.”

“I don't know your name. Do you want me to call you Woozi’s Universe factory?”

He breathes out a laugh. “My name is Jihoon, love.”

“I’m sure you already know my name and give me my fucking cat.” you go to grab Bruno who hisses at you. You gasp.

“You little traitor.” you growl. “The real Bruno Mars would never treat me like this.” you say threateningly to the cat. 

“Ahh, Bruno Mars. I love that guy.” Jihoon says as he lifts the cat to look him in his eyes. “You want to stay with me don’t you?” to which the cat purrs. 

You’re more shocked at your cat's betrayal than Jihoon breaking into your apartment.

“Y/N, sit with me”

“No.”

He raises a brow at you.

“Fine, but not because you asked.” you pout and sit next to him.

“Are you not scared?”

“Honestly, you're too cute for me to be scared of you. Like look at these cheeks.” you say and squeeze his cheeks making him grab your hand and pull it away from your face.

“You don’t know who you're messing with, my love.”

“I mean if you were going to kill me you would've done it already. And I know you're not going to anyway because why would you waste all this money on someone you were going to kill?”

He smiles. “So smart, baby.”

Why is he calling you baby and love? This is actually kind of spooking you.

“What do you want Jihoon?” 

“I want you to come live with me.” 

Your eyes widen. The fuck? Your feelings must be visible on your face because he continues.

 “So, you just want me to get up and leave with you?”

“Yes.”

“Why would I come with you? You've done nothing but stalk and harrass me!”

“I’ve have not been stalking you, love. Everything I’ve done is a result of your actions. You decided to try to hack me which gave me access to everything.” 

“You're just trying to manipulate me!” you say and stand up.

He looked deeply offended by this. “Manipulate you? Tell me one thing in what I said that's not true.”

He has a point. You're just grasping at straw to be honest. “What If I don’t want to go with you.” you pout and stomp your foot looking like a child.

“Then I’ll take you by force.” he says with a straight face.

Oh. You weigh your options. Would you rather live in this hell hole remaining broke and sad or go with him and drain his pockets? You don’t even know where he’s taking you, he could be bringing you to a cabin in the woods to lock you up and kill you. But it’s not like you have an option and you would much rather do this the easy way.

“Ok fine. But not because you told me to” God, you sound like such a brat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Six months later

“Jihoonnnnnnn.”

“Yes baby?”

“Can you buy me this?”

He groans. “Baby, what else could you possibly buy? You have it all.”

You show him your phone.

“Baby, you have this bag in three colors.” he deadpans.

“OK? This is my favorite color though.” You say like it's the most obvious thing on the planet.

Despite his grumbling he gets up and takes out his wallet, handing you his black card. Jihoon can never say no to you. Anything you ask for is yours, no matter what. Your life has completely changed since meeting him. You wouldn't say he’s your sugar daddy because you're equally as in love with him as he is with you,  but, lord does he spoil you. You moved into his high rise apartment and completely renovated it to your taste without a single complaint from him. He bought you a new wardrobe, new cars, bags, jewels, anything you could ever dream of. And the sex.. It’s just incredible. And Bruno is as spoiled as ever. He’s Jihoon’s baby despite Jihoon pretending to dislike him. You know what Jihoon does for a living, that's none of your business though. All that you care about is keeping him and yourself happy. You’ve grown more than accustomed to this lifestyle, not knowing how you functioned before meeting him. 

“Thank you Woozipoo”

“Stop calling me that” he groans.

“If you want me to stop you’ll get out this fucking studio and come to bed.”

He rolls his head to you. “Why would I do that?”

“So I can thank you for being so good to me.” you say into his neck making him groan. 

“God, baby don’t say things like that.”

“I can’t tell my man how much I want to fuck him?”

“Get your ass in the bedroom.”

[ifuckinglovedinosaurssomuchjesus]

Walking With Dinosaurs (2025)

First off, it really should have been called something else. "The Daily Life of Dinosaurs" or something. Calling it WWD not only sets it up to being unfairly compared, it's also just not the same type of show. Half the screen-time is dedicated to Paleontologists in the desert pointing at bones, and while the show-runners have tried to give an explanation for this decision, these scenes really don't give the information or context they should. Several minutes of looking at pollen under a microscope to show how scientists know forest fires happened in dinosaur times is nice, but it destroys any sense of pacing or flowing narrative and really doesn't give us any more information than the narration could.

The storytelling and animation are also all a step down from the 1999 original even if the models themselves have better detail and are more accurate. I can't imagine people walking away from this with as much reverence or attachment to Clover or Sobek as they do with the Ornithocheirus or Big Al. In terms of vibes, this series feels more in-line with the likes of Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure or Dinosaurs Alive! than the lighting in a bottle that the original series was.

As for the show itself, separated from its name, it's a good but not amazing documentary. The narratives are cute and the science is sound, but it mostly plays things safe, the usual predators chasing things and herbivores migrating in herds. They didn't set out to shake the boat and it suffers a bit from that. I feel like, in the next few decades, this will be completely overshadowed by Prehistoric Planet when people reminisce about the Dino Docs of the 2020s.

The show also really suffers from fear of showing any blood or death, there always seems to be a convenient stump to block the view or the animals just mouth at their meal without breaking skin, it's pretty jarring and something I've noticed more and more in paleo-docs recently.

Unfortunately the show is only available in the UK at the moment, to watch it I had to pay $10 for a VPN and then suffer through the BBC's terrible "iPlayer" app which couldn't stop itself from crashing two or three times per episode. It'll apparently become more widely available next month, but for now it's a hassle to watch for any non-britbongs.

For my thoughts on the specific episodes:

The Orphan: Bit of clickbait having the Triceratops be the main character if you're just going to spend the entire runtime talking about T. rex, though the ending had a moment that felt pretty nice for all the herbivore lovers out there.

The River Dragon: Cute, with a dad Spinosaurus leading his kids across the dry scrub-land to get to a fish spawning ground. My favorite bit was the Alanqa in the forest, they leaned all in on the horror movie tropes which was a lot of fun to see an Azdarchid take part in.

Band of Brothers: At the end I realized the ankylosaurs and raptors were being depicted as in a gang war of sorts, which just did not come across very well in the episode. That combined with the juvenile and adult Gastonia models being the same and the dry and wet seasons also being no different despite both transitions having major plot significance kind of highlighted how much the storytelling in this series is lacking.

The Pack: The story of the runt of a pack of Albertosaurus proving herself lends naturally to good drama. The focus on theropod communication through biting and touch was great and it's probably the first ever piece of paleomedia where a hadrosaur kills a tyrannosaur.

The Journey North: A herd of Pachyrhinosaurus migrate north, get attacked by a Gorgosaurus pack, then drown in a flash flood. Not much here that we haven't seen a dozen times before, even the Gorgo is just the last episode's Alberto model reused without even a new coat of paint.

Island of Giants: Absolutely my favorite episode, the story of an old bull sauropod losing his mate and building up the strength to take his revenge and get her back, with some fun behaviors like osteophagy and infrasound showcased. Take this story and inter-cut some smaller moments of other Portuguese dinosaurs and you'd have something that actually would fit great in the original WWD.

Overall, the show was fine, not amazing or groundbreaking but nowhere near terrible and it has its great moments. I was a bit harsh in this review and I do think the collective opinion of the internet paleo-fandom will soften on it over time, but yeah... definitely should have called it something else.

[lovely-cherubs]

TikTok and CapCut have both been officially banned here in the USA. Words cannot describe how pissed off, sad, angry, and upset I am as a content creator. The good news is, I can still use CapCut on my laptop, but ONLY if I use my VPN. Without it, CapCut doesn't work and will give me the same message that you see on CapCut mobile down below. And don’t bother asking if I can use my VPN for TikTok. I already tried that and it didn’t work so yeah.

In the meantime, I need to figure out which other editing software I’m going to use make my videos from now on because I can’t always keep relying on a VPN for CapCut so yeah. Don't worry I’ll still work on my upcoming Lloyd AMV as well as other projects that I'm working on, but after that, I got a move from CapCut and use a different software and isn’t VPN reliant.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

Pretty sure I am both going to switch to linux and snap someone in half

Capchas never even load for me and then everyone's site is just like

"Log in or create an account to contact support :)" "It's easy :)"

I can't. Your site is so fucking broken that I can't. And you won't even let me tell you that.

Walmart did this to me and now it's happening when I tried to get minecraft.

I will likely not be getting minecraft.

The capcha doesn't fucking load. The capcha never fuckign loads.

I'm ready to start snapping people and equipment in half.

I have updated java script and whatever else.

I have tried without a vpn or whatever to not trigger it

They always want proof I am not a robot but the test won't even load.

So I am just locked out of countless sites and can't even contact support about it.

I'm screaming.

[gam3rsuar5sr3x]

i dicided to make a christmas character take

so for this christmas on tumblr i dicided to make a take on any character from a christmas movie or cartoon. i,m thinking of home alone and the character i,m choosing is kevin mccallister.

so for cannon. kevin is the youngest in the mcallister family tormented and possibly bullied by his own family and feels like they hate him and therefore want them gone. he got his wish for Christmas's until he defeated the we bandits then they come back until he has to run when he heres buzz mad at what he did to his room.

so as for my take i,m taking the timeline to the modern 21st centry.

for this is i am obessed right now about hackers and i found a hackers road map video and so it includes I.T (information technology), A+, security, networking, linux, and coding and then start hacking.

so in this one kevin somehow was able to get himself a laptop and was just doing stuff on it watching videos on youtube and playing games lets say roblox (cause thats my favriot gaming platform).

but then hed stumble upon something. while playing a game, he noticed a glitch and wonderd what it was and saw it again the server crashed and kevin and other players (some of them were youtubers) were not happy. it turns out the game got hacked and kevin wonderd what that was. this would trigger something kevin never thought would happen to him but as he looked up hacking tools he had one geuss from what he quickly lerned as a script kiddie and tried out linux and other things he soon got to know everything about hacking in 1 second having written a computer virus he in a split second after a launched a virus lerned how to hack in a moment as well as command prompt and other hacking tools as he used them to quickly make a virus on not only the computer but also a cell phone. the police came on the door as it became known to kevin that he made something and read what he wrote. it was a line of code. thats when he looked at linux and cmd (command prompt) and saw what he wrote without anything no syntax error no nothing and found out what he did. he imidently gained how to do all this in one moment and with it a full understanding of how internet works and ect of what hackers use as well as an advanced. kevin in that moment lerned how to do all programming languages some way some how and his machine and cpu. hed go on to make himself a hacker kit used for a laptop computer disinged to do all linux and other stuff and a cell phone and tools for hacking as well as lerning how to binary code (the combonation code of 1s and 0`s for ex: 10011101010011001100101011001)

without even knowing what he was doing or lerning until the police came and left when the coast was clear and the virus was gone as kevin somehow imbeded it. thats when he came to know and realized what hed done. without knowing it he had servers he made for both cell phone and computer witch he lerned to be hacker on both tech`s. he lerned the new computer and new cell phone for assembly and other things not knowing what happened but that very night as he though and looked at his code like thing thats when he realized he lerned hacking quicly. its unknown how kevin lerned hacking that fast and then did vanilla all programming languages and vanilla linux and cmd as he saw what happened he became a grey hat after declaring neutrality in the cyber battlefield but soon began engaging in a mixture of ethical acts but also malicous activity thought most of it was thankfully ethical. eventually overnight somehow it made sense to kevin as he soon wrote code encrypting his information compleatly and made his own internet and wifi and vpn ect his computer and phone had stuff in them generating inf amount of both electricity and coolant. allowing him to work forever though he doesnt.

later he got a black hoodie with the hacker symbol on it. his hacker kit is basicly a suit case but silver metal and is so small its compact and has mettal techy straps and can be tightened and fliped for work while walking or to just carry it on back end or front artifically (most of the time, the front).

kevin now works as a grey hat hacker in this timeline tech version of home alone. this time he wont be left alone in the house though however the police had already seen the wet bandits and put them in jail and they wont escape until kevin and his family come back home from paris.

kevin is still harrassed by the older siblings so instead he stays in his own room and keeps himself as isolated from his entire family as possible as long as possible. knowing the typical reactions they have to him he doesnt bother coming out except for breakfest lunch, dinner, event, or holiday (even those times he takes his hacker moible desk as he calls it or H.M.D, with him and back to his room whenever keep in mind that its always with him no matter the circumstance)

its compact enough for him to keep whereever he finds himself and it works cause he made a chip generating inf wifi its own wifi and can connect to towers anywhere even in the middle of nowhere or on a plane but big enough to hold all his stuff (its equal for compact mobility and reliability and stuff holding and is still light wieght to).

this is my take on kevin known as hacker kevin. his technology art however hasnt gone unnoticed by the older siblings who often could if they have the chance accuse him of doing crime through technology though its always proven ethical no matter the circumstance as there is no way to proove to the parents.

its also said sence kevin isolates himself for the greater good his kid friends are also hackers as well. he can do the dark web and stuff. he has his own hacker library and on a plane or in public he doesnt say anything and rather minds his own busniss and igorns the older siblings as they are more likly to typicly harrass him so instead hes away though on a plane he can be forced to. he minds crypto for money witch gets him rich alot and he knows other responsiblities. even if home alone kevin is calm and easily defeats the bandits and hangs around his hacker friends who are about justice.

Kevin can be sometimes darkened and burdened by his hacker knowledge. He packs his own suit case himself as doesn't need others to pack it for him should it otherwise risk his secret identity as a hacker being discovered and one thing leads to another and next thing you know after discovered its now exposed to his entire family. Especially buzz sence buzz is a total jerk Kevin ignores and ditches buzz on purpose cause why mess with a jerk.

One time he faced a black hat hacker in front of everyone exposed once they saw what he was doing the hacker talked to Kevin about the code he wrote and all the things he did as a hacker with everyone listening the black hat hacker told Kevin to look at the line of code he wrote and what it did. Kevin looked at the code read it and saw what happened and it hit him he learned a long term thing in such a way that for him it was a short term deal and Kevin said "but how". That's when it hit Kevin he knew how to hack. Kevin explained a part of him knew what it was doing but as for the rest of him it's like he's just mindlessly typing nonsense and just somehow it messed with the server for some reason but with this his mind has exploded to great knowledge of what he's doing now. The hacker said to Kevin "it's your intelligence Kevin deep in your mind you know what your doing and it makes sense now your one of us what people know as the hacker the cyberpunk" Kevin leaped up and shooted at the screen to the hacker he would never be like him but the hacker insisted that he already is the code he wrote has wrecks the victims computer or phone with malware and randomware imbeds the code and tracking evidence with hello world. Kevin in utter guilt can't think of how to hack anymore as the fight continued the siblings tried to convince Kevin that he must continue while buzz watched in silence. Eventually Kevin taps into his hacker part finds it and activates it as it explodes throughout his entire mind and Kevin defeats the hacker after getting lost in the code. Then they come home the wet cyber bandits as it is in this timeline are defeated as well. Witch hacker Kevin in lost in new York is where Kevin makes his own credit card and it has the crypto currency he has so in this time line he isn't left behind in the home alone one but he is in lost in new York where he sets up his hotel room the crypto currency he uses for his money in his Bitcoin miner is run by a program for his gain to get things like food water etc. the wet cyber bandits known as the sticky cyber bandits are also not that great as kevin easily defeats them as soon as they try to launch their revenge cyber attack on a white hat hacker that got them in prison and kevin puts them back there again.

In end he packs his stuff up and goes all the way Florida easy for him he just networks into his mom's phone and sees where their at and buys a ticket to go there by airplane he arrives at the hotel his mom is at and finds the room there in and knocks as the mom answers and sends him to the room buzz is at Kevin however reminds her that buzz could be a jerk and explains the problem he has with him so instead he sleeps with 2 of his older sisters has his own bed there witch he sleeps in.

over all hacker kevin my take is a complex and a guy who strangly lern something that takes years to lern as quick as a moment somehow.

[world-visual-media]

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[hisaribi]

Place your bets if google also gonna leave and where do I put my fics to. Also like ok they turned off AdSense (which was sort of useless before, but now it's impossible to use), maybe that counts. Miro who also sort left at least allowed non-paid users to still have their boards (I think). Also I sorta worry about Figma. Adobe's been pirated for ages now so whatever

And steam (they did already make gamedev from around here pay tax both in Russia and the USA though), and egs (they do allow payments from Russia but mostly through China for gacha-games, including Fortnight)

Gosh I probably use a lot of other software that can be blocked

Also I should probably go to Kazakhstan and buy a sim-card and maybe create a payment card and all the tax things here and move my google accounts there, but I have no money for food even, because of lay off that happened in the begining of summer, and I only have like 50 bucks till the end of the month. Which might be surviviable if I didn't have to deal with credit card debt and mortgage

Also it is sorta funny, all the you can't use our products, considering rn one of our regions is bombed using american bombs, and I say funny because otherwise I'm gotta get aneurysm

Like on one side govt tries to block access to a bunch of sites (I literally can't use ao3 or YouTube without VPN, which is also getting blocked), on the other our accounts and accesses are getting under sanctions, like when I still worked in creatives production I had to use VPN again to get an access for the base stuff I needed to work with (once again, some were actually blocked by the gov, but a lot were blocked by the site themselves), and I sort of just think what else would I have to deal with

And ye-ye, don't @ at me about it's deserved or whatever, I'm just annoyed and whining

Also Durov was arrested because of telegram in France, and I use telegram as my main blogging platform, so will I have to just delete it because of this bullshit as well

Discord is also acting out for some of my peers, and if I'll have to go there with VPN I'm gonna be so annoyed. I'm already annoyed with it being like oh buy nitro, buy this, buy that, which it throws at me every time I try to attach file or just write a message, but it's also like sorry payments from you won't work, you still get to see ads though

It's also 6 am I woke up from the pain because I had troubles feeding myself and gosh I need meds and I need to buy them because I only have them enough to last till Saturday, and also I got a new prescription for new meds but I have no clue how much would it cost but also I feel exactly nothing so whatever

I just hope your day is better than mine

[karlachismylife]

There are also additional problems with ficbook, but unfortunately it's the biggest Russian language fanfiction platform, so even when the administration literally tried sneaking points into the terms of service that potentially could lead to people (kids!!! i cannot stress enough how many kids are on that site!!!) being SUED FOR LGBT+ PROPAGANDA OR EVEN EXTREMISM and they revoked those changes (that, I repeat, were done VERY SNEAKILY!!) only after horrible backlash, when they got more and more money-hungry, when not even placing ads for contract army (!!!!!yes the one that's actively killing people in Ukraine right now) on the site or administration willingly (!!!) self-banning all queer works (the ones that were tagged as having homosexual pairings, to be specific) saved this shithole from being banned, not even after the administration wrote a public, the most ass-licking, government dick-sucking letter that was simply painful to read (and of course did nothing to unban them), and a lot of pathetic bullshit inbetween, even NOW it's still unfortunately the go-to plaform for most of Russian-speaking authors. Yes, even though now both ao3 and ficbook require VPN/mirror links, people still go to ficbook, and honestly, part of me understands, cuz Russian language works will never get the same engagement on ao3.

It's part of the reason why I came into my new fandoms and immediately started writing in English.

All that to say (sorry I'm just so mad at that dumpster fire lol) that ficbook is a burning pile of acidic shit as a platform and I am not surprised that people that still feel like it's okay to use it have no moral issues with doing the google translate shit and posting works without permission. I also witnessed (and helped take down) literally works of authors that left ficbook after their awful policies in favor for ao3 being reuploaded on ficbook without permission.

And now a message to fellow Russians that might see this post in their tags.

Мои дорогие "скауты", рыскающие по тамблеру в поисках хэдканонов, которые вы можете прогнать через гугл транслейт и выложить в свои телеграм-канальчики или, ещё лучше, на бусти, ну или на фикбук на худой конец. Я не буду комментировать на тему заработка на этой "работе" или рассказывать, какое же говно ваши переводы (читать без слёз их невозможно, но хэй, если такие же школоло как вы умудряются ими наслаждаться и ещё и дрочить на них... я тоже в свои 14 читал то ещё говно. Надеюсь, вы повзрослеете и у вас с литературной грамотностью станет чуть лучше.)

Но ёб вашу мать, насколько же просто написать автору и спросить, мо��но ли перевести его работу и выложить на другой платформе. Поверьте, я это делал МНОГО РАЗ, до сих по�� делаю! И до сих пор не умер! И от того, что не выкладывал работы, когда автор запрещал, я тоже не умер, блядь.

Такие, как вы, рушат фандомы. Вы не создаёте ничего, вы только потребляете и совершенно не умеете относиться к труду авторов с уважением. Люди покидают фандомы из-за того, что к ним так относятся, и если вы не научитесь, блядь, минимальной вежливости - то есть СПРАШИВАТЬ РАЗРЕШЕНИЯ, то однажды окажется, что в фандоме остались только вы, и пиздить работы для посредственного перевода (и скармливания их ИИ-ботам, да?) будет не у кого.

Спрашивайте разрешения и учите, блядь, английский, чтобы не позориться со своими уёбищными гугл-транслейтами.

Без уважения,

Юю

Okay - re Ficbook.net and the (unauthorized) Russian translations.

I spoke with @karlachismylife (who is a gem and a delightful person).

You have to have an account to report fics there, and the author that I was told about has locked comments.

If you want instructions (and to make an account), I'm happy to help you with what needs to be done. Basically, it's spam the report until the system locks you out.

Juju's gone ahead and:

messaged the author about it, asking them to take the fics down since they don't have author approval.

messaged her friends (who are also Russian and have accounts) to report the works. (note: it is also very late/early in Moscow, so it may be a bit before they wake up.)

She told me (verbatim) that it is a very bad translation - it is not adapted to Russian and used a phrase verbatim instead of the intent.

Most likely, this person threw it into Google Translate, adjusted some of the super egregious stuff, and threw it up. It happens in other fandoms too - to the point there are ads out there looking for people to do exactly what this person has done.

If you're one of these people that has copied works over to ficbook.net or similar sites, I hope you perpetually stub your pinky toes and your shoes are always a little leaky/socks are always damp. Fuck you.

People put so much love and passion into their work and you decide to try and make a dollar off their back (when in the US, fanfic cannot be monetized)? How disgusting, awful, and shitty of you. That is how you lose those fics and those authors in the first place - by plagiarizing, copying and translating works without consent.

I'm sorry I don't have more concrete actions for us non-Russians to take - I was hoping making an account wasn't necessary, but I refuse to give that site more clicks and revenue and accounts that support them.

[that-fema-corps-blog]

Day 28

August 30, 2022

We met at the van at 7:30 for the drive to the Incident Management Assistance Teams building. The Whole Community Approach presentation was at 8:00. The “whole community” includes locals, government, non-government organizations, faith-based organizations, businesses, academia, etc. It is not restricted to one geographic area; online groups and responders coming from afar are both part of the community.

We were running out of time, so we rushed through the sections on Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster and Voluntary Agency Liaisons. We reviewed accessibility and the mission of the FEMA Office of Disability Integration and Coordination: helping people with disabilities before, during, and after disasters. I forgot to watch the disability training video before the presentation, so I’ll have to do it later. We then broke into teams to discuss an accessibility-related question before sharing with the class.

We drove back to campus at 9:00 and spent the whole time fighting about whether “pen” and “pin” are pronounced the same. As a native English speaker…I can’t seem to pronounce them any differently? Hm. Also, side note, the best way to get out of the van without risking a seat belt to the face is butt-first.

We had a Microsoft Teams training at 9:30 in the main room. It was supposed to be at the Incident Management Assistance Teams building but got moved to campus due to the internet issues yesterday (#femaflexible). The training was quite simple. We sent messages, made chats, adjusted settings, and joined the video call. Then it was back to the Incident Management Assistance Teams building at 10:30.

The Corps Member Resources presentation was at 11:00, and we reviewed the member checklist, accomplishments list, and FEMA Corps SharePoint. The checklist detailed tasks that would help with FEMA Corps Basic Academy goals, including taking independent study courses and interviewing professionals in a field of interest. The accomplishments list is part of the same spreadsheet and follows the star method (situation, task, action, result). The SharePoint contains a bunch of information, from requirements for fast-track hiring to the FEMA cadres and the best independent study classes to take for working with each one.

We were back on campus for the afternoon, so I dropped off my computer, refilled my vitamin/pill cases (I miraculously took all my vitamins each day for the entire month), and headed to the kitchen with a couple teammates to make lunch. Then it was time for another group nap, this time on the sofas along the edges of the main training/presentation room.

Our team had a meeting with the main project’s point of contact and a liaison officer. One of my teammates is taking a different project related to grant writing and has a different point of contact as a result. Our main project will be hybrid, with us required to spend the first 2 days of each 2 weeks at the office. The total project will take 6 weeks. The rest can be completed virtually at whichever locations the team decides. We have a VPN and the government phone’s hotspot, so we could go to a cafe or library to work if desired. The hours and location are pretty flexible overall, with the main requirements being to work 8 hours a day on weekdays, starting at or before 9:00.

The main project will take five corps members, and we’ll be working with supplemental response teams. If I understood correctly, supplemental response teams began in 2017 after hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria required FEMA to request assistance from hazard responders who worked for other federal agencies. While their expertise was very helpful, many did not understand FEMA’s structure, jargon, and values. Hence, the supplemental response teams were created. Supplemental response teams are still poorly understood by local, state, and tribal governments; our job will be to make a tri-fold and a SharePoint to inform policymakers and encourage them to form local supplemental response teams.

We had physical training at 15:30. We started by following Just Dance videos on YouTube before we were kicked out of the common room by another team. Then we had about 20 minutes of weight training in another dorm’s gym. We drove to a grocery store and fast food place a couple hours later.

Turns out we have 8 hours of just-in-time training videos to watch before we complete FEMA Corps Basic Academy. A different team started setting up the videos on the common room TV; however, the sound wasn’t working right, so we gave up for the night.

[writerswho]

Wait, what, let's rewind. "There are fans that risk 30 different viruses to..." You mean people that consume the media without paying. Real fans would find a way to pay for the show they love, and support it, real fans wouldn't pirate a TV show they love. "But but but..." No, you don't add to the profit of the show or even the viewing figures (which are at their lowest) - you contribute nothing.

Whiny Tumblr fans that demand a show, that they don't support, caters to them at the expense of the people that made the show successful and at the expense of the show itself, isn't being a fan. Real fans aren't that selfish. Real fans don't piss and moan when someone actually tries to save the show by getting the ratings up again by appealing to the paying customers.

Would you demand a restaurant caters to you by changing its menu, only for you to steal food off other customers' plates instead of buying your own? Would you get upset if they realised they were losing money and changed the menu back to what it was? I mean, probably, but I hope not, but this is what you're essentially doing.

Ratings are in the toilet, merch sales are down, the BBC have panicked and brought DT and RTD back because they're in trouble. They've done a deal with Disney because they're in trouble. 90% of the money the BBC gets is from the license payer - something you're not - and they can no longer justify the cost to them.

Are you really so damn naive that you honestly think it's just sexists that don't like 13? The writing and acting is terrible and the show is in the worst place it's ever been creatively (retconning 60 years of lore in the Timeless Child was, shock, universally hated). It's haemorrhaged around 60% of its audience and pulled only 3.71m for a regeneration episode - that's not sexism, that's a clear and marked decline in quality. Most people don't care about a female Doctor, they care that the lore was lazily retconned in 20 seconds towards the end of Moffit's run to allow it to happen.

The writing was in decline during 12's era and continued well into 13's. The writing has been bad for years, and this is the result. Was the 20-ish% that stopped watching Capaldi also sexist? And no, real fans don't watch something that's both bad and has told them multiple times they're the problem and they're not wanted. Why? Well, for one, if you reward bad writing and bad behaviour, it doesn't get better - it gets worse.

I honestly don't have to keep debating with you, so I'm going to ask you to please leave me alone after this. I realize that your [dumb] opinion won't change, if you like RTD and think that only Tenth can save the series... actually, if you believe the series needed to be saved, that already shows me your point of view and I know better than to waste my time with people like that, especially when they hide in anonymity.

I don't understand much about technical details, but from what little I do understand, I know that the most important numbers for the BBC are the UK ones, the rest of the world doesn't count, mainly because BBC doesn't invest in anything other than their little club. Again, I could be wrong, but I highly doubt piracy will hurt the BBC in any way because what matters to they are the UK and UK only. You want to talk about profits and ratings points, fine, go ahead, you want to say real fan 'find a way', you can talk too. I don't care. Doctor Who isn't on in my country, I can turn on the telly and put on BBC and watch it straight from the source. Doctor Who is not on Netflix, Amazon, Paramount or any other streaming service we have in my country. There is no legal means of watching the series in my country, there is also no legal means of buying merchandise. Do you know what I can legally buy from Doctor Who in my country? Four comics and one book, that's all we have. No DVDs or Blu-rays. No iPlayer, because that only works in England/UK. No Britbox, because it does not work on my country. What we do have is a VPN to try to watch the episodes live, but what about those who doesn't speak English? How do you watch the episode without subtitles? How do you consume the series 'legally' on the official website? These people need to resort to other means, and there is nothing shameful in that. You don't know how horrible it is to talk about your favourite series and want to share it with people, and you can't tell them where to watch it because there simply isn't anywhere to watch it. I'm sorry if I can't give BBC my money, but it is their fault, not mine. With the distribution deal with Disney, that's finally going to change, me and thousands of other people who don't live in the UK are going to be able to watch it again and again and share it with friends because we'll finally be able to say there's a place to watch it legally. But, until then, I'm going to keep going the way I am because it's this or nothing, and I'm not going to stop watching Doctor Who. 

Again and again you mentioned the 'whiny Tumblr fans', being that it was you who came whining on my asks. All I did was show my displeasure with an attitude I can only define as cowardly on my profile without attacking or mentioning anyone [I mentioned his name in only one of several posts I made] and you came whining in my ear and talking about how RTD is the 'great saviour'. Which I don't agree with. I'm not going to get into the merits of the quality of the series and the scripts because I have my criticisms of certain details and sharing them would be like give ammunition to a donkey, and I don't need that. From the way you talk, it's easy to assume that you're probably one of those people who think the series went into disrepair the moment Tenth regenerated. And if that's the case, I really can't understand how anyone thinks Tenth's seasons are so good when they are full of flaws, just like many other seasons. In my opinion [MY OPINION], Tenth was only well written in his third season, in the first season he is an annoying-jealous-possessive-jerk and in the second season he is a complete asshole who came very close to being racist several times — specially in the episodes where he thinks he is human — and even with all these points I still watch his seasons, I watch them complaining about the shameful way Tenth treats Martha and Mickey, but I watch them anyway. Because I like the series and I like the Doctor, regardless of regeneration, even if I like some more than others.

Nobody is forced to like Thirteenth, nobody is forced to like any regeneration of the Doctor. But there's a huge difference between disliking a Doctor because you didn't connect with him or like some other version better (I know many people who don't like Tenth or Eleventh) and disliking Thirteenth simply because she's a woman — and this what happened, and to deny that fact is just untruthful. Thirteenth's numbers may not be the best, but that's because of the boycott she's been getting since Jodie was cast in the role. To mention numbers and merchandise, you have to admit that Thirteenth has had the worst marketing in the Doctor Who history. Commenting on the latest episode, the BBC left it to advertise the episode with a week to go before its premiere. Some might argue that in this case the Queen's death got in the way of marketing, but what about other episodes? What about the other seasons? From the start Thirteenth and Jodie have suffered from the neglect of the BBC who just don't seem to care about her. She had her episodes cut — Capaldi had twelve episodes a season, she had ten and then only six, nine with the episodes (you can blame COVID, but still). Besides, BBC would put Tenth in the spotlight at any given opportunity. He appeared in her games, in her comics, they did an event just for him — practically. He also got audios, books, solo comics, and stuff and more stuff. During the Thirteenth era, Tenth was the Doctor who had the most new projects, the Doctor who showed up the most. BBC didn't bring him back because he never left. And that's one of the biggest angers of some people out there, but that's another subject.

In one day, the sixtieth anniversary special had more marketing than the Thirteenth regeneration special, which at the time had no confirmed date or title. David's return is having more marketing in this last month than the Thirteenth had during its entire era, and you can argue that it's because he's 'going to save the series', but the truth is that the BBC never bothered to announce anything from the Thirteenth and now that they no longer have to worry about that, they can talk about Tenth again and again without having to pretend they care about another Doctor other than him. 

The boycott of Thirteenth isn't just because a bunch of whiny bigoted fanboys were pissed off because the Doctor turned into a woman — and that's the real reason, don't insult my intelligence by trying to say otherwise. The boycott of Thirteenth also involves the BBC being cowardly and complacent with all these people who haven't watched the series since Tenth left and hate everyone who came after him (and harassed everybody who still enjoy the show), with the BBC keeping David on speed dial, so they could use and abuse Tenth again and again every time someone complained — without even bothering to watch Thirteenth (or the others) episodes. If you want to talk about profits, you first have to admit that the BBC is their own villain. They didn't invest in Thirteenth's marketing, they didn't invest in Thirteenth merchandise, they didn't invest in Thirteenth at all, period. Thirteenth has at most a half dozen hideous dolls of dubious quality, and whose fault is that? Jodie and Chibnall or the BBC, who didn't bother to produce her merchandise? The monsters in one episode have more merchandise than the Thirteenth. And even with the BBC trying their best to bury the Thirteenth, the series still one of the BBC's most profitable productions. Impressive, huh? I wonder what her numbers would look like if the BBC cared. 

Jodie gave everything she had for the role, she was a great ambassador for the series and a great performer for the character. She did the best she could with the script she had, and if it wasn't for her, the series really could be dead now. Don't try to belittle her performance or others just to justify a dishonest point.

About Capaldi, anyone can see the problem most people have with him is due to the fact that he's older than the other actors. You want to talk about the decline of the writing in his seasons, when season nine is one of the best seasons of New Who? With season ten being just as good? And season eight is only bad because they were afraid to delve deeper into Twelfth's relationship with Clara precisely because of the prejudice against Capaldi's age, which caused an awkwardness between characters and created unnecessary disagreements between them. So, no. In his case, it wasn't sexism, but it was ageism. A problem as real as the last one in this fandom. 

Now, do me a favour and go whine in someone else's ear.

[ashbrea381writings]

Fractals and Feathers: Chapter two, Information

“Colored cracks may appear in cases where a soulmate dies and is subsequently resuscitated.” Tim quoted as he sat back from the computer. “This happens frequently with heart patients and those in bad motor accidents.” 

“Yes, but these are a lot of them… And they’re gold.” Damian commented with a sigh. “And Kent has mostly gold with a few red ones. It shouldn’t be possible for someone to die and be resuscitated that many times!” He began pacing around behind Tim, muttering. “There must be some kind of magic involved here, perhaps Mother is behind this, Grandfather always hated my wings, it could be some sort of magic they’re using to try and make me think my soulmate is dead, but it didn’t work right.”

“Baby Bird, that doesn’t explain Jon’s wings.” Dick commented as he walked in, removing his mask and wiping some sweat from his forehead. “Besides, I did some recon too, it seems like a few people who’s soulmates are in Paris have experienced the same thing. When they called their soulmates in a panic over the cracks that had appeared, they were told that there is a new set of Supers in Paris. And one of them has the power to reverse all the damage done by the Villain… Including death.”

Tim gave a groan, typing furiously as he tried to get past the firewall that kept rewriting itself. “I can’t get any info out of Paris. I even set my VPN to and address in Paris, but it somehow keeps blocking me.” He growled in frustration as a window opened on the screen previously just covered with code, showing a young woman with dark, blue-black hair in a high ponytail and a red and black mask over eyes that practically glowed blue.

“Will you stop that?!” She snarled in heavily accented English. “I don’t care who you are, but you need to keep your noses out of our business.”

Thankfully, Tim and Damian were still masked up, and Dick was able to turn around before the video fully opened. “We work with the Justice League, if people are dying repeatedly and are only brought back by magic it IS our business.” Nightwing responded in his best Batman impression as he turned around with his mask back in place. “I’m assuming that would be you who does this?”

“Yes, it is, and I would appreciate it if you and your superpowered friends stayed away from my city.” She seemed to set whatever the camera was attached to on a ledge, showing a stunning view of Paris behind her. “We have it handled here and we don’t need any of your friends making our jobs harder.”

“Isn’t your job to protect the citizens of Paris?!” Robin growled, stalking up to the screen and glaring behind his mask. “Yet somehow, those who we know have soulmates in Paris are suffering with the knowledge that their soulmates keep dying only to be brought back by some magic that might just stop working one day!”

“I don’t get a choice.” She responded, crossing her arms. “Hawkmoth won’t stop until he gets what he wants and I don’t feel like letting the world potentially end, thank you. We are working on his identity, but it’s difficult with the magics involved-such as the one that alerted me to your intrusion and prevents you from finding what you want.”

“And how are we supposed to trust you?” Red Robin asked, almost too casually for Robin’s preference, if the way his shoulders stiffened was any indication. “See, we have a couple people we know personally whose wings are covered in gold and red fractal patterns, and we’re awfully worried about people who have to sacrifice themselves that much. Especially since it obviously sticks long enough to make a mark, AND they all showed up within the last couple of weeks.”

“One of my team members is able to rewind time for a maximum of 5 minutes at a time, this allows the possibility of thousands of different aborted timelines, hence why the lines might show up multiple at a time. Because they might have died in a couple dozen of the timelines before we finally had a solution.” She sighed and pinched her nose. “We are up against a madman with a magic item that allows him to use negative emotions against us and make his victims do the dirty work for him.”

“Dirty work? What kind of dirty work?” Nightwing asked, frowning and crossing his arms in turn. “What does he want, exactly? And how does that potentially end the world?”

“He wants the magic items that myself and my partner use. The ones our team uses and that Hawkmoth and his partner use are from a set of them, I won’t tell you how many. Each has a different power, and the one’s my partner and I use happen to be the two most powerful, using the power of creation…” She paused and gestured to herself, glancing off screen for a moment. “And destruction, respectively.” She stepped to one side to reveal a young man in armored leather with cat ears on his head.

“When you combine them, you are able to make a wish. Would you trust the man who is willing to destroy Paris with such a wish?” The young man asked, his black and acid green wings flaring out as though in a threat display. “Or being able to use someone like Superman as a weapon?”

“How would that be possible?” Nightwing asked, “Also, since we will apparently be having a longer conversation than I expected, I’m Nightwing. These are Robin and Red Robin.” He added, pointing to them. “We would like to offer aid if we can, even from a distance if we needed to. I’m assuming that since you could connect to our computer with the magic you’re using, you could also exempt it from the magic.”

“That’s a bold assumption. I’m Ladybug, and this is my partner Chat Noir. While I could let you guys have an exception, I’m afraid I don’t see why I should trust you.” Her wings were also bristling, the red-and-black spots clearly caused by the magic they used just as Chat’s coloration obviously wasn’t natural.

“We are known for being detectives above all else. We don’t have powers, and one or two of us are even mentally well-adjusted enough that we could probably come to you guys without risking whatever happens with your villain.” Nightwing insisted.

“How about we come to you? Give us a place to meet with you in your city, we have a way to transport ourselves. I’d like to size you up before I give you any more information.” Ladybug countered, moving her hands to her hips. “I don’t trust that you’re nearly as well adjusted as you claim, I’m one of the most positive people on the face of the earth and even I have had to force myself out of mindsets that nearly got me Akumatized. It’s not as easy to avoid as you think.”

“What was that word? Akumatized?” Red Robin asked, frowning as he tried and failed to translate the word.

“It’s what we call it when someone has been taken over by Hawkmoth. He sends out a butterfly corrupted by magic and turns normal people into a villain. Once the Akuma -the butterfly- is purified the victim does not remember any of what happened while they were Akumatized.” The Bug and Cat pair exchanged a glance, making frustrated faces at each other.

“What was that look?” Robin asked, still angry that they weren’t giving him what he wanted. “The look you two had just now?”

“We… We’ll tell you after we decide if we want help from you.” Ladybug sighed. “I’ve added a way for you to message me on my device I’m using to talk to you, it’ll show up as an app on your computer. Don’t use it for trivial matters or I’ll just lock you out. Give me a time and place to meet, using my timezone preferably, and I will do my best to have both me and Chat be there to discuss matters further.” With those last, brisk words, Ladybug reached for her device and cut the call.

“Well, that was rude.” Red Robin huffed, picking up his phone to show Batman’s face in a video call there. “Did you hear all that, B?”

“I heard. Send coordinates for the top of Wayne Enterprises, for 9:00 pm Paris time tomorrow.” He instructed, sighing from his seat in the Batmobile. “We will all meet them there, let her know that myself and the three of you will be there.”

“Copy that, B. Sending the information now.” The young man typed quickly, double-checking what time that would be for them. “That’s the middle of the afternoon, are you sure?”

“Yeah, nobody has anything scheduled for tomorrow, and she sounded about the same age as Robin. With all that considered, I don’t know if they DO have civilian plans early the next day, so I’d rather err towards them having more time to sleep.”

Reading the return message, Red Robin began to chuckle. “They want to meet us at 4am Paris Time, as they already get up that early to do other things and missing half an hour or so wouldn’t be an issue.”

“Very well, if that’s part of their routine, we can handle that.” Batman answered, seeming interested to know what the heck had them up that early.

[alilyamongroses]

What are your thoughts so far on the Channel Five series? Will you watch it if you can?

Oh, I’ll find a way to watch it. Even if it means downloading another crappy, virus-ridden vpn that exposes me once more to the creative wasteland that is British TV advertising and regretting the decision thirty minutes into the show, like I did with Tracy Borman’s Anne Boleyn series. I’m gonna see what this ends up looking like.

I should start by saying that we’re still in the pre-release stage and an accurate assessment of what it’s going to be like as a whole isn’t entirely possible. We should be optimistic! I want to be optimistic!

That said!

Every piece of information released so far has had a way of slowly lowering my expectations of what the final result will look like, until they reached a place somewhere between “aesthetically ugly but not overtly offensive” and “The Green Book but make it Tudors”

The show would’ve been susceptible to accusations of outrage marketing and criticism for the story it’s putting a black woman into even if the writer weren’t going around saying “yes, absolutely, we did this for shock value :)” with her own mouth. It implies that Anne, George & Elizabeth’s blackness is going to be an unmentioned, unresolved tidbit put there exclusively to be commoditized for advertising and white guilt wanking. Yes, a black woman getting murdered by her white husband for fertility issues sure is bad, isn’t it. You haven’t shook your head this hard since Precious.

Because that’s always who this was gonna be for in the end, wasn’t it. A white director and a white writer constructed a story for a white audience, with black faces included solely so they could aggrandize themselves with empty racial identity politics without having to seriously interact with the implications of what inserting black people into these situations actually means. It’s the same story it’s always been, for all the cringey “were flipping the script!!” credit the creators are already giving themselves. Henry VIII is gonna murder his wife with false allegations of sexual deviance for her inability to produce a male child and marry another woman who can. Except this time, that murdered wife is black - a member of a community that already has an increased rate of domestic violence and murder, an increased rate of fertility issues, and an assortment of harmful stereotypes about being over sexual and deviant - inserted into an era where black people were still being sold as slaves, a practice in which the Tudors themselves took part. And the creators are too far removed from that reality to begin to address it; just let Jodie and Paapa be there and be black! That’s all we need to do!

The victorious end to Anne’s narrative the show seems to be going with is the one Anne Boleyn stories always tend to go with - Elizabeth became queen, so Anne won in the end! Never mind that Elizabeth and Anne are both black now, so the “victory” in this is in reference to the ascension of a slave trader who actively tried to expel all the black people from England. Do you think Lynsey Miller thought about any of that? Do you think she even knows?

There’s more I could talk about. The costumes are patently hideous. The dialogue is overdone and anachronistic and the taglines are worse. What little we’ve seen of the show’s Jane Seymour heavily implies they’re going down the “dumb girl not like Anne’s Stronk Women™” route that’s been repeated over and over since Anne of the Thousand Days. Ain’t nothing more new age and feminist than rewriting outdated depictions from the 1960s.

There was also something touched on by @anne-the-quene and @elizabeth-shore about how it looks like they’re planning on using ye olde “Jane Boleyn lied about her husband committing incest” story, which with Jane being white and George being black becomes so much fucking worse, dear god (white women getting black men killed on false allegations of sexual indecency is such a deep cutting national wound and Jane didn’t even actually do that who wrote this shit) But that’s a whole other can of worms and this post needs to end at some point, so I’ll just. Wait to see how that plays out, I guess.

TLDR: There are many facets to Anne and George Boleyn’s story that become infinitely more loaded when you put black people in them. Is it possible that they’ll handle those added stakes with sensitivity and tact? Yes! Does it seem likely to me, based off the information we’ve been given so far? No.

[theshabozengine]

I don't watch Vtubers but I want to fuck that orange haired girl you keep posting. Also why is it sad she is graduating? Shouldn't you be happy she is getting her diploma? Education is important

Her name is Kiryu Coco.

"Graduation" in idol-speak means "leaving the company", be that because of being thrown out ("forcibly graduated" like Aloe or Hitomi) or just deciding that enough is enough.

Kiryu Coco was the VTuber that really pushed for Western involvement, since she came from America originally before moving to Japan to get more in touch with her roots. Without Kiryu Coco, the entire Hololive English branch wouldn't exist since it was her suggestion for it to be made. She also adores the community, often highlighting shitty memes they make and used to have a little news show where she would summarize everything that happened that week in idoling. Coco was also a ride-or-die bitch and stood up for her friend Haachama when the Chinese were bullying the fuck out of her because she happened to mention that a good portion of her viewership came from Taiwan. On her little news show, she brought up Taiwan and mentioned that she too had a large amount of viewers that watched from Taiwan (fun fact, Chinese fucks use Taiwan in VPNs and stuff to get around things. The 'Taiwanese viewer-base' was most likely just Chinese people using VPNs and such being retards.).

Because she stood up for her friend, both her and Haachama were suspended from Hololive for a while, while Cover the company behind Hololive tried to damage control. When they saw that there was nothing they could do to change the minds of fucking idiots who shit themselves over the mere mention of the word 'Taiwan', Cover cut their entire Chinese branch of idols and supposedly did their best to protect Coco and Haachama.

Eventually upon her return, Haachama still got a bit of hate, but the slimefucks realized it was a genuine 'mistake' and cut her a bit of slack. COCO, however, did so intentionally and with intent and they couldn't let that slide because they're retarded subhuman filth. Coco was bombarded with hatred and just so much evil that she had to basically sequester herself off away from the rest of Hololive as a whole.

She wasn't welcome to do crossovers, her news show was canceled, she wasn't allowed to appear in any of their 3-D skits, it was horrible the way she was treated. She did her absolute best to hang in there and even fought back against the Chinese as best she could, but then suspiciously things started to tilt towards the Chinese's favor. A red was made a Mod and started banning Coco's regulars, resulting in her crying on stream and her housemate Kanata having to console her, Cover made public comments towards them to try and get them to stop, it was a whole shitshow. After all this, Coco still tried to hang on, but...

Now she has chosen to leave Hololive. On the surface it appears to be mutual, but a lot of people theorize (please note this is people guessing and nothing has been said about whether its true or not from either Cover or Coco) that Cover made her life at Hololive so insufferable that she essentially had no choice but to quit. The truth of this matter will most likely come down to if they attempt to re-open the Chinese branch, where it will be incredibly obvious that they allowed Coco to be harassed until she just broke. No one knows for certain why Coco is leaving other than Coco, but it is a said affair none-the-less.

On a more personal note, Coco was my absolute favorite VTuber, and though she wasnt the one that introduced me to the concept (that would be Kizuna Ai who has her own entire list of drama associated with her), she has always been my favorite. The fact that she could stay so strong in spite of all the evil thrown her way made me love her even more, and it just hurts to know that we won't be able to see her anymore as our beloved dragon. Obviously she has her own personal channel, which according to some might be a reason she has to leave (again, nobody knows and this is a guess from certain parties that she didn't want to delete her personal streaming channel where she has another VTuber avatar and Cover basically gave her an ultimatum), and I'm obviously going to support her over there, but it'll sting a bit not seeing her interact with her friends over at Hololive. I don't think she's even allowed to show up in Kanata's streams once she's gone, and they're fucking housemates.

Overall, and I'm fairly sure that you were joking with the question but I thought I'd answer anyway, it's just an extremely sad situation especially since her fuckin birthday just happened. It hurts, it sucks, and I'm crushed we weren't able to protect her smile. Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk.

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

Ik this maybe sounds kinda random but I have a feeling you're latinoamerican Idk why.

Also what are your thoughts on the anime? I really liked the CGI I think it looked very cool and clean!! A-1 pictures did a good job 👏👏 I know it just started but I really hope its successful in japan, so maybe one day we could see Osaka and Nagoya animated :')

That’s probably because I am and am fairly vocal about it.

I live in the US and am racially pretty damn white, but my mother’s family is from Mexico. (Sorta. They’ve been in the US for a while now, and we’re not exactly sure who came across the border when because most old Mexican men can give Gentarou a run for his money when it comes to telling mentiras.) I was raised speaking both English and baby Spanish, but I lost the opportunity to practice it all that often when I was pretty little and as such forgot almost all of it, hahaha. Still, I can understand most written Spanish and a fair bit of common spoken Spanish, and I speak Spanglish with my mom. Growing up mostly white is pretty weird, since I don’t feel Latino enough to fit in with my own family (but they ARE my family) but also not white enough to fit in completely with my white peers. They don’t get how enchiladas are comfort food or how the words “mijo” and “mija” are love incarnate. They don’t get it why my parents have three bags of tortillas in their fridge at all times (it’s because I keep stealing them whenever I run out at my house) or the importance of owning a big-ass olla. It’s like... I don’t want to intrude in spaces where I don’t necessarily feel I have the right to belong, but I also want to acknowledge the struggle of my grandparents who worked as migrant farmers instead of going to school and gave up everything they had to give their kids a better life. I wonder how well I can do that, having forgotten their language and living as so much as a product of “American melting pot” culture. It’s... tricky. Identity is tricky.

Point is, I want to see Dice casually calling Otome “vieja”.

ANYWAY. Anime thoughts. I’ll put them under a cut for anyone concerned about spoilers.

The little kick the Buster Bros did in the opening on “buttobasu” (send ‘em flying) made me involuntarily laugh out loud. So dorky. Love them for that.

I was not sold on the opening back when I saw it in the previews, but I actually liked the full version quite a lot. The rap bits are a lot more impressive than the sort of generic chorus.

Love how it opened on TDD. I hope other episodes will follow suit and give more TDD backstory, because I think it delivers the best emotional impact when you know the reasons the anime boys are duking it out with one another.

TDD Samatoki has giant eyelashes even in the anime. Jesus christ.

TDD Ramuda appeared for about three seconds, and I was appeased.

The Buster Bros bit didn’t interest me too much, personally, but I thought it set the tone for the series really nicely. I also thought that a bunch of random dudes ganging up on these children and being like, “Heh heh, bitch, whatcha gonna do? We have microphones!” is hilarious.

BB rap was fantastic. I appreciated how much of a mix this was between the ARB and manga styles in terms of the way the raps appeared. Having the lyrics on screen was a GREAT thing for me as well. I also really enjoyed the moment where Saburou pushed Jirou out of the way and Ichirou stopped Jirou before he could retaliate. It wasn’t a distraction from the song at all but also characterized the familial interactions so clearly in just a few seconds. Kudos.

My VPN connection died during Ichijiku’s first talk with Otome, so idk what went on there.

I know Samatoki is supposed to be taken seriously, but for the life of me, I really can’t. I kept on snickering the whole time he was talking to the yakuza NPCs and acting tough. All his posturing is ridiculous to me.

Loved that MTC rap, although I kept laughing at that too. MTC is overkill.

I have a love/hate relationship with Samatoki’s speaker ever since I had to redraw part of that motherfucker sometime last year, but it is really damn cool looking. The animation for it blew me away. LOVED THAT.

Riou was there :)

I finally understood the significance of the cigarette kiss between Samatoki and Juuto. It’s to symbolize the whole “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” professional relationship they have, but I did think Juuto was leaning in for a kiss for a really bizarre moment.

Riou showing up to offer food :)

Eat Riou’s fucking food, Samatoki :)

I think Ramuda is a bit smaller than he should be as compared to the other cast members, but I will let it slide

Ramuda’s office is absolutely awful in color, but I will also let that slide

The Fling Posse interactions were a huge hit with me. I love seeing them hang out with one another and horse around the way that they do. Like the BBs’ scene, this was a great establishing shot for them.

I love how Dice rolls with Ramuda’s gratuitous English without missing a beat.

FP song wasn’t as hardcore as some of the other ones, but it was executed very well. Love the wordplay with the end of Ramuda’s and the beginning of Gentarou’s verse.

THE HIGH FIVE AT THE END OF THE SONG... HOO HOO!! NOW THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT, BABY! NOW THAT’S FRIENDSHIP RIGHT THERE!

Hypmic NPCs lowkey piss me off, especially all the “Kyaaa~!!!!” female NPC types. I get that they’re not supposed to be thought about all that much, but seriously...? Why is running from fangirls a plot point that keeps on being revisited?

They left Dice’s money behind... Bruh.......

Love how Doppo and Hifumi barge into Jakurai’s office nonchalantly.

The bit with the nurse establishes Hifumi’s character very well, although I still think Doppo’s being kind of an ass when he pulls Hifumi’s jacket off.

The whole fucking “terrorists on the roof” bit made me laugh again. Some of the Hypmic plot points are so contrived that I find them funny. It’s all silly good fun.

Love that rappers show up to push past the bumbling security guards/police. Excuse me, please, let me through... I’m a rapper.

Jakurai’s speaker was very well animated, but the way it appeared made me think of the Lionsgate logo. The mic animation was pretty cool too.

JAKURAI’S RAP ACTUALLY BLEW ME AWAY. I’m normally not a fan of Jakurai raps, but god DAMN was that cool.

Hifumi and Doppo didn’t drop the ball either. Fuck it UP, Matenrou.

I can’t believe they dropped lightning bolts on two people... especially when one was holding someone else hostage. Is that woman okay? Did she get fucking vaporized? I’ll never know.

Otome’s character model moves pretty stiffly, which I think actually helps her character because of how stoic she tries to act overall.

Ending song was dope. I wonder if they’ll feature other divisions in the endings of other episodes.

Ramuda leaping a good 3 meters in the air in the final shot is funny as fuck.