#and amazon and bezos obviously

[offonaherosjourney]

Some websites (who am I kidding, this is about Amazon) really need a button to turn off the algorithms whenever you buy certain things. I just bought a damn toaster, I'm set for the next 5 to 10 years, you can stop suggesting me other toasters I might like. And that Funko I bought was a birthday present, I couldn't care less about them. Also, my cousin is the one that had the baby, not me, so please, chill with the books about babies and give me back my queer fantasy and sci-fi book recs! Two years ago my mother asked me to buy her a toilet seat and I'm still feeling the ripples of that in my recommendations.

[i-like-rocks22]

Feeling hopeless? Time to do something!

Reblog with further ideas.

Cancel prime.

Join a library.

Donate to food banks.

Join your national green and socialist parties.

Join a union.

Get to know your neighbours.

Shop local and small.

Make communities off of the major apps.

Organise in person and virtual gatherings of your communities.

Mutual aid with disabled people and POC.

Delete meta and other problematic apps from your phone- Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, X .

Wipe and delete your accounts from these platforms.

[hrina]

Cass!!!! I know you just got a kindle and I was wondering if you can tell me what you think about it? I’ve always liked physical books but lately I’ve been thinking about getting a kindle. Do you think it’s worth it? Like money wise and stuff like that?

YESSSSSS A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!!!!!!!!! i've always been a physical book girlie too but now that i have the kindle i can't believe how convenient it is. don't get me wrong i still love reading physical books as well but the kindle has soooo many pros and very few cons, plus you get access to so many books + books at reduced prices so it's great. i highly recommend getting one!

[qqueenofhades]

THE EMPIRE OF BONES: Take Two!

If you would like to acquire my obviously awesomesauce fantasy novel, recently described by a clearly highly intelligent and trustworthy reader as "being every cool culture from classical and medieval history crushed into a giant delicious cookie to be devoured," would especially like to have it as an e-book, and do NOT want to give your money to Jeffrey F. Bezos in order to do so, I have arrived bearing options!

Barnes and Noble (paperback and ebook)

Kobo (ebook)

Apple (ebook)

Fable (ebook)

Smashwords (ebook)

(Also as a reminder, if you do prefer a non-Amazon physical copy, it's available in paperback and hardcover from Lulu!)

Other options, including alternate print versions and library lending, are still in the works, and I shall return to you with them when they arrive. So yes.

[newlondohollow]

I FUCKING HATE RINGS OF POWER

On fuckass adaptations (i like the castlevania anime) (heavy ranting below)

This is ASTRONOMICALLY random as it’s barely about Castlevania and more about something i normally don’t post about but I’ve been keeping this topic inside me for far far too long. 

I fucking despise, as much as i am humanly capable to bear pure hatred, Rings of Power. I always see people complaining about the “Netflixvania” adaptations being terrible, and I do agree that they’re not accurate to the games, but heavens gracious those people have NOT seen what an actual bad adaptation is like. Sure, Castlevania got an inaccurate adaptation, but at least the adaptation, considered as its own piece of media, is decent. good even. Not the greatest thing ever written or that I've ever seen but it was, objectively, well written and animated.

Unlike that jackass shit filled abhorrent abominacion by goddamn Amazon DestroyingArtPrime that is Rings of Power. I don’t mean to hate on people who enjoy it, not at all, but to those who do, I am begging you please raise your standards, honey you deserve better than that. So. So. SO MUCH FUCKING BETTER MAN.

Every single thing about that series pisses me off in ways I wasn't even aware I could be pissed off until my parents forced me to watch it with them because “well it’s lord of the rings!!”. I did enjoy spending time with them (though i was literally, physically coerced to do so) but i so fucking wish we had spent it watching something better cuz the whole experience was beyond frustrating. The fact that it no joke is the most expensive series ever made? Are we being for real?? One. Goddamn. Million. of dollars went into creating that fucking insult to not only Tolkien’s poor dead ass, but to cinema and the art of moviemaking itself. Every single scene is so obviously, clearly edited and oversaturated with after effects and I could count on one hand the scenes that were recorded without a greenscreen. The costumes seriously look like Halloween and Carnival props a single mom on a budget would buy to her kids and I’m not even exaggerating I so very mean it it’s true just LOOK AT THEM VRO SOME OF THEM HAVE PRINTS ON THEM PRINTSSSSSS THEYRE SO OBVIOUS AND THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE HEAVILY INSPIRED BY MEDIEVAL CLOTHING DAWG I CAN'T DO THIIIIIIIIIIS. Do you think it ends there? NO IT FUCKING DOESNT IT GETS SO MUCH WORSE. If the visual aspects of it were the only thing bad about it i wouldn't be here dumping a textwall but good god merciful above the writing is genuinely enraging. Like its not just personal pet peeves or small stuff level of frustrating, no it’s ENRAGING. Every character is both incredibly arrogant and rude and fucking stupid, yes even the good guys, EXPECIALLY the good guys, actually. The plot is as compelling as one of Jeff Bezos’ shit stained ass hairs and the dialogue is so dogshit and senseless i dont even know how delusional and self centered you have to be to sit down, write that, hear it being acted out and think “ah yes this is a great script”, that goes for the making of the whole series as well.

I won't sit here and explain why exactly it all sucks as i said cuz there’s plenty of youtube videos that do so (sadly some of them are fucking filled with bigotry i want to shoot myself) and i will instead move on to what pisses me of the most.

Some lunatics are actually, seriously saying that RoP has the same vibes as Peter Jackson’s movies.

Yes the same movies that are considered a cinematic masterpiece and classic, the same movies that won awards over awards over awards, the same movies that inspired every single fantasy movie that came after them. I’m well aware they aren’t accurate to the books either, but again, like Castlevania’s first anime, they are GOOD. They are great in fact, and no one can say otherwise without being objectively wrong. That trilogy’s vibes will never ever be reached or equated again, for the very simple reason that art and passion are fucking withering away in today’s world. The costumes for that set of movies were hand manufactured and weathered by the actors themselves CLIMBING UP MOUNTAINS. The weapons used were REAL. REAL, METAL FORGED WEAPONS. VIGGO MORTENSEN ALMOST GOT AN ACTUAL DAGGER THROUGH HIS FACE BECAUSE THE ORC’S ACTOR MISSED. AND YES HE DID BREAK HIS TOE BECAUSE THE HELM HE KICKED WAS REAL, EVERYTHING THAT COULD BE REAL IN THOSE MOVIES WAS. BOOKS, MAPS, EVERYTHING. ALMOST EVERY SCENE OF LANDSCAPES WAS SHOT IN NEW ZEALAND, A REAL PLACE. 

Tolkien hated the idea of someone adapting his works, yet i am certain that if he would have seen the Peter Jackson movies, knowing that they were made out of sincere passion and love for his works and as a tribute to it and him, he would have appreciated them. He certainly is rolling in his grave because of RoP though. It’s not just bad, it's soulless. Completely hollow. Filled to the brim with sfx and fake props, even the musical score composed by the same composer who made the Lotr trilogy’s score just sounds plain, not because it’s bad but because it so clearly belongs to something better than that. RoP wasn’t made out of passion for Lotr it was made for mere profit. One of the directors fucking made fun of a Silmarillion fan who simply asked a question about the goddamn Fëanorian crest, in public, for everyone to see. Those people aren’t Tolkien fans, they're soulless evil corporate pigs, they’re everything Tolkien, and I personally, despised and despise. 

It genuinely makes me so sad that, as badly recieved as it was, many series and movies AND HELL EVEN BOOKS AND GAMES are eerily like RoP these days, the death of art we’re witnessing is soul crushing and concerning.

[djuvlipen]

anyway here are some excerpts of how rick riordan portrayed the Amazons. it's no wonder TRAs love him, this looks like a melting-pot of every anti-radical feminist stereotype you could think of

it's so bad it looks like a parody but it's actually completely genuine. in the riordanverse, the Amazons are female supremacists (and obviously that means they are evil, mean and uptight) who wear tight leather, have enslaved men and secretly run Jeff Bezos' company

[shelleysmary]

gotta laugh at everyone who has ever said that "~unLiKE tHe pEtEr jACkSoN fILmS~ the trop people don't care about tolkien, don't care about middle-earth, it's a soulless adaptation for the money just because amazon is behind it" because (and i say this while also saying fuck amazon, fuck jeff bezos. it goes without saying - two things can be true at the same time, i can't believe it bears repeating)

how do you think films and television get made?? hate to break it to you, but it's all for the money. new line cinema didn't say "we love tolkien, pj, let's do this for free!" they were literally looking for a franchise hit when they decided to take the films over from miramax - which is exactly what every studio and their mom is trying to do now!!! it's movie business, baby! to say the people behind trop - the actors, the casting directors, the production designers, the vfx artists, the art directors, the armorers, the costume designers, the set decorators, the makeup artists, the ADs, the carpenters, painters, prop-makers, steelworkers, laborers, animal handlers, sound editors, miniature builders, stuntpeople, craftspeople, movement and dialect coaches, trainers, lighting techs, jewelers, etc. - don't care about the story they're telling???? is a wild reach. obviously they work for the showrunners who work for amazon who care the most about making a profit, but so did peter jackson and new line!! wanting your project to be financially and critically successful is not an inherently evil thing, come on guys, are you still buying into the starving artist fallacy 😭

there are tons of little nods to the silmarillion and other parts of the legendarium in the rings of power. yes, there are also changes and goofs, but lotr and the hobbit film trilogies also had their fair share of changes and goofs. i just think that "these people didn't read the books/this is just a money grab/pj & co. cared about the source material while these losers clearly don't" are tired arguments used to justify subjective opinions, not to mention the way it reeks of revisionist history considering the way tolkien purists initially took great issue with deviations made in lotr and especially the hobbit.

it's almost like...the most hated tolkien adaptation is ever the current one.

[pastelcatnip-x3]

Anyone know any good small businesses in the US to get dolls from? Target was the main place I bought my dolls from, but since I don't want to give them my money now I'm not sure what to do. My only alternative that I can think of is Amazon, but obviously giving Bezos my money isn't any better.

[fuckyeahbakumatsu]

Hi. Did you buy the new Hakuoki on the Nintendo eShop? Can't find it on Amazon

I'm so sorry I didn't see this earlier! I have a lot of asks slip past me for some reason and I'm still trying to figure out why.

I pre-ordered the limited edition version from playasia what feels like about seven years ago at this point. Obviously it wasn't that long but I did go a LONG time after preordering it without any updates on production or a possible release date or anything like that so it felt like ages.

The limited edition version is sold out but if you want to buy a physical copy of the game you can currently get it from playasia here for $39.99. What's weird is at least in the US the game IS on Amazon but only the Japanese version. Good. Fuck Bezos anyway.

It is also available in the Nintendo eShop and the digital version is currently on sale for $34.99 instead of the typical $49.99. I mean my experience overall with Hakuouki has definitely been worth at least one of my limbs but I feel like $49.99 is still an insane price to pay for a digital file full of a bunch of dudes who were definitely surviving on less than that a month. Except Heisuke. Heisuke could afford digital Hakuouki.

Personally, I really like physically owning the game and especially the book and other stuff that came with the limited edition version, but it drives me actually crazy that Souji isn't inherently in my switch. I shouldn't have to insert a cartridge to see Souji. He should just be there the second I turn it on. I shouldn't have to physically remove him just because I want to play BOTW for five minutes before I remember I have no reflexes or coordination and that's why I stick to visual novels. Removing Souji feels wrong. I don't know. I know I'm crazy but at this point I own Hakuouki (the main game) for PSP in both English and Japanese (along with 5 other Hakuouki PSP games,) Stories of the Shinsengumi for PS3 (I have never owned a PS3,) Kyoto Winds and Edo Blossoms on Steam, and now Fuukaden (or whatever Chronicles of Wind and Blossom? weird thing they localized it to) on Switch. I feel like at this point if I finally snap someday when I have disposable income and throw money at Otomate and Nintendo to own the digital version too that wouldn't even be that insane for me. That bar has become very high.

[ohwolfling]

HELLO, LEGENDS!

gale picture to pay the dash tax

ANYWAY

I am once again facing a lil' rent crisis. I was lucky enough to have a friend buy me groceries this month but last month I got no payout from Twitch. (For those who are new to me, I'm disabled & that's my primary means of making less than a living wage) so the relief didn't actually make up for that.

I'm $300 from rent (update: $100/300 goal). I'm happy to send a thank you card & one of my poems either handwritten or typed up cool to anyone who gives $25+ and puts their name here in the notes so I can reach out and get an address! HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP - ONE YOU CAN SHARE THIS!

I'm on ko-fi, which accepts one off donations AND monthly memberships. There's SO MUCH writing available to you there and I prioritize these DMs. People have used this to be like, "hey, I'm the anon who sent THIS ASK" and then I go "OKAY" and get to that ask post haste and do as deep a dive as I can!

I'm on Substack, where I'll be posting most of my cyberpunk project going forward and have started a new southern gothic, enmeshment spiraling, religiously traumatized poetry series called Book of Grace. You get one paylocked post there for free if you want to check it out first!

MY VENMO IS MIRANDABRAVE if you just want to give directly.

I AM ON TWITCH! If you have a gift card over there or bits you haven't cheered or an Amazon Prime account that will give you a free sub each month, I'll take them! Obviously the Bezos cut over there exists but it all adds up to a payout eventually. You can also type !Tip into chat to give through Streamlabs/Paypal if you're set up for that/find that convenient. It's currently SUBtember, which means subs are 25% off and until the 17th at 12am PT, Twitch is cheering another 10% on cheers of 300 bits and up. Please don't feel like you have to give to follow/hang out over there. Truly, I'd love to have you and I'm grateful for the very sweet, funny community I have over there.

Thank y'all! I really hope I can stop needing to ask so much. I lost my warehouse/logistics job in 2018, my health became unmanageable shortly after, and freelance writing has been non-existent for me for nearly two years between buy outs, mergers, and stupid fucking AI.

[traegorn]

I agree 100% with everything you're saying. But I may unfollow because it's too much on my dash. I share because I don't want you to think you're losing followers because we disagree. I wish more of these people were trolls because it's disheartening to see so many people willing to throw the baby out with the bath water.

You have more patience than I do and I know you've said it doesn't get to you. But just remember to put on your own oxygen mask first; it's okay to take a break if you need to.

Anyway, I've been meaning to buy your books for a while now. A local small book store is not an option for me because I live in the middle of no where. What is the way you'd prefer people to buy them? (Either digital or paperback)

I get it. There's a reason I started out that post that broke containment with an apology. I know it's not why folks usually follow me, and these last few days I've been posting a ton. Take care of yourself, and maybe find me on another form of social media or join my discord if you want to keep up with my normal stuff.

As for the books!

So in my pinned post on my blog I list a bunch of different ways and honestly all of them are fine. I make more money some ways than others, but in the end I care way more about people being able to get ahold of my stuff.

If you want a paperback, the Amazon links obviously work as expected. If you don't want to give money to Bezos, using the "Direct Order" links will direct you to my IngramSpark order pages. Shipping might be more, but the books are the same.

If you want an eBook, book one is available both through my Patreon as a digital download and on Kindle. Book two is only on Kindle right now, because I get a higher revenue share if I make it exclusive to them for 90 days. In September, that book will also be available in my Patreon shop -- just not before that.

Thank you for your support. None of you owe me anything, so I appreciate everything you guys do and say.

Here are links:

The Witch and the Rose: Available Via: Amazon Paperback / Kindle / ePub / Direct Order

Bloody Damn Rite: Available Via: Amazon Paperback / Kindle / Direct Order

Also, maybe check out my comic. Reading that online is free.

[mariacallous]

US Business Leaders Want Harris’ Stability Not Trump’s Chaos

Former President Donald Trump is the kind of salesman no successful businessperson can stand. He’ll promise the world, only to deliver “concepts of a plan.” His economic agenda is a shortsighted mash of policies that scores of top economists and business leaders predict will add up to higher inflation, less stability and lower growth.

Tariffs are Trump’s catch-all economic prescription: He promises duties of up to 20% on all imports — and 60% (sometimes even more) on Chinese goods. The upshot is obvious: Americans will pay more. Inflation, which the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration has decidedly tamed, will climb back. As other nations inevitably retaliate with tariffs on US goods, our exports will suffer. Big businesses will struggle; small businesses will go under.

Trump’s plan to deport tens of millions of workers — some of whom he seems to acknowledge would be legal immigrants — would have similar inflationary effects. Constraining the labor supply at such a critical moment in the post-Covid recovery would be foolish at best — all to suit his flat-earth misunderstanding of how commerce works in the 21st century.

Some argue that Trump’s desired corporate tax cuts would boost the economy. A key question is, do we need that stimulus? The robust Biden-Harris economy hardly does — just look at the record stock market or the low unemployment rate. On the contrary, my worry here is that such cuts rekindle inflation. And if Trump pursues tax plans like last time, which were a bonanza for — guess who — real estate investors, it could distort the broader economy more than help it. The problem with Trump is that he practices grifter capitalism.

By waging war on US companies, Trump stands in stark contrast to the free-market principles of the traditional Republican Party. He’s hounded Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, for news coverage he didn’t like. He has insisted that executives who don’t back him “ should be FIRED for incompetence! ” And he’s attacked some of America’s most innovative and iconic companies — Apple , General Motors , Coca-Cola , Harley Davidson , John Deere — for not toeing whatever capricious line he was drawing that day.

This all makes somewhat more sense — or at least feels consistent — in the context of Trump’s record in the private sector. He’s a convicted felon, obviously. A civil court found that he committed fraud on a massive scale. He’s also failed to pay his vendors for decades; I know some who have had to take him to court just to be paid what he owed them. When your modus operandi is to rip people off, you aren’t qualified to be president.

Whoever takes office next Jan. 20 will do so at a time of unprecedented technological development. The rise of artificial intelligence holds massive promise as well as serious risks for America’s economy. We deserve a president who takes these concerns seriously. Is that Donald Trump?

Organizations succeed when their executives create a culture of excellence. We need a leader who knows how to bring out the best in people, invest in their success and foster candor and mutual respect among teammates. Is that Donald Trump?

But there’s something even more fundamental at stake this election. American business and commerce rely on the rule of law. Companies can’t thrive where an erratic, vindictive autocrat influences our courts and Justice Department. And they can’t take Trump at his word if he’s shown himself to be a serial liar whose tweets can depress markets.

That is Donald Trump. And America can’t afford to return him to power. That’s why so many business leaders like myself are backing Vice President Harris, who led the Biden administration’s AI policy , has outlined sensible economic proposals and, above all, has shown she can be trusted in the nation’s highest office.

For all of these reasons, the business case is clear. The smart money is on Harris.

[iwrotemrtambourineman]

movie club is doing best of the worst* and this week was Bezos (a jeff bezos “biopic”) that is the most baffling corporate biopic I have ever seen. Like it just makes him look like an incompetent buffoon who stumbles into everything and built himself up with a small 300 thousand dollar loan from his parents, which is at odds with the obviously positive view the movie wants to convey of this guy. Also it’s basically all set in the infamous amazon garage with no lighting. Also they misspell Bellevue.

[youremyheaven]

Billionaire anon here again. I checked her Wealth video and she included "multimillionaires who are at the top of their field". Basically, a lot of those folks in her Billionaire study are not actual billionaires nor have ever reached billionaire status.

I also find "at the top of their field" to be very vague. Like, what metric are we using to define this?

There is also an issue of conflating skill with wealth. Cuz a lot of billionaires are literal trust fund babies...

I feel like she worked backwards with that video. I think she found the themes of Jyeshta interesting and thought 🤔 are some of them rich?? 🧐And found a bunch of people who are lol

FACTSSS lol

I think it's very important to assess how people gain wealth as well like you said.

People who are born into wealth and inherit the companies and fortunes set up by their ancestors are obviously going to have different placements compared to "self made" billionaires.

Also not all billionaires are entrepreneurs. And I'll say no entrepreneur can be a billionaire without exploiting their workers so these folks probably have more atypical indicators of wealth like Ketu naks, Jyeshta, Hasta etc because you need to be shrewd, calculative and detached enough from the suffering of others. Jeff Bezos is Mula Moon and we all know how Amazon treats its employees.

I think people who make big gains from the success of their movies/music etc have different naks as well

[downtofragglerock]

Ok so remembering the pjo amazons really has got me thinking about them and their whole operation again, like I know when son of neptune was written amazon, while very notable, wasn't the nightmare megacorp its primarily known as today so obviously Rick wasn't giving it that much thought, but like, how the fuck does amazon the corporation work in the pjoverse? does jeff bezos even exist? is he a mist construct? is he a puppet? like in the literal sense? like every time he's in an interview or making an announcement there has to be a desk of podium in front of him because right behind that is Hylla and some other amazon operating him like he's the swedish chef from the muppets? and nobody notices because of the mist? to further the Henson connection, is he some kind of creature shop-esque animatronic? Is he remote controlled by Hylla like an rc car? These are the real questions I now have and I'm almost dead certain that they will never be answered

[maura-alwyne-blog]

From what I am seeing from people on the ground via social media Western North Carolina, and parts of Tennessee, and Georgia took a massive hit from hurricane Helen. Roads are gone, bridges gone, entire towns washed away. News from there is that emergency management agencies won’t go in because the roads aren’t clear. Private pilots in places are being threatened with arrest if they fly helicopters in. Food, water, shelter, and fuel are all desperately needed. So two big things come to mind:

First we have some of the largest corporations in the world, why can’t they step up? Walmart has logistics nailed down. Coke-a-cola, Pepsico, and Conagra, pretty much control the food and beverage industry, can they not shave some profit while doing “I’m not an evil corporation” public relations?

The United States can drop a Burger King in a shipping container in a war zone, can’t these corporations drop some generic commercial kitchens in these cut off areas? I mean food trucks are a thing so I know we could fit a kitchen sponsored by Kimberly Clark in a 20 foot container and I bet if they reached out to John Deere, Caterpillar, Lockheed Martin or Northrup Grumin, one of them could get them just about anywhere even without a road. Heck partner up with Blue Bird, a school bus will go just about anywhere with the right tires!

Can Elon Musk not afford to drop Starlink set ups to survivors? Space-X can launch a rocket and land it on a small pad in the ocean, don’t tell me they can’t deliver supplies to a parking lot. Can Jeff Bezos not use Amazon drones to get food in? Bonus PR if they wave the charges for these folks. Can REI that is so quick to outfit protestors for Occupy Wall Street suddenly not be able to sponsor families with camping gear?

Second, why hasn’t the Army Corp of Engineers been deployed? Or maybe the Seabees? Can we not dispatch a few dozen Chinooks into ferrying supplies and people? Can we not establish MASH units for the injured? The United States Military can deploy anywhere on Earth in 24 hours. Why not Appalachia? I’m not one for martial law but right now too many people in charge are too big for their britches and I think it’s time we assign a general to the job. Why does emergency relief have to come from the Cajun Navy and not the U.S. Navy? Why do the owners of monster trucks get in and out in dangerous times but relief agencies can’t or won’t?

I know some will say the president has to authorize deployment, but so can Congress. We should have learned from Katrina, but obviously we haven’t. Katrina was totally FUBAR and now we are doing it all over again nineteen years later. Is it because our people in power look down on mountain folk? Just as they did the poor people of New Orleans?

There is no way I can make this make sense especially in a time where our leaders send billions to other nations. It is past time for our government and corporations to shift inward, help our people, and do the right thing.