#and as someone who works data i expected this guy to be a bit more understanding of my issues with her content

[gimmeacupcake]

Uhm... so ... my ex?boyfriend that I still live with until he graduates in October (and hopefully goes on to find a job soon so he can move out) is starting to blackpill himself with questionable relationship and men's issues content on yt

and also refuses to sit down and talk about my problems with the kinda content he watches

This worries me.

[orteil42]

Between the recent custom buttons post with the pipe bomb and the gamification post with the post -deleting boss fight I'm starting to get absolutely feral over the idea of you making a social media platform.

The companies that run the current options are cowards.

i would honestly love to give it a crack and were i younger and sillier i think i probably would. unfortunately by now i've become a bit too aware that creating a social media website is one of those nightmare projects that is guaranteed to be 500 times more work and trouble than you initially expect, and if i get into that i'd never have time for anything else. i'd also have to deal with hiring an actual team and be an actual company instead of just some guy who codes in his bedroom. and then let's say maybe the website takes off and we get a few thousands of active users. after a while our uptime becomes terrible; people can't log in, posts won't load. tech sites are starting to make fun of us. we have to grow, get bigger servers, hire more people. eventually i'd have to confront the fact that despite my cute take on monetization our social media isn't recouping the growing server expenses and our seed money is drying up and people at the office are starting to bang at my door to get paid. do i pull the plug and throw away everything we've built so far? likely not, even my own ego aside there's too many people's livelihoods on the line. other folks on the team are motivated to make this work, and a feedback loop forms where we start to ever-so-slightly readjust our values if it means we get to survive another quarter. i get more cynical; our ad slots are more and more intrusive, our monetization strategy gets shiftier and more aggressive. we accept funding from less and less savory entities. we start collecting user data beyond simple telemetry. if we've gotten big enough by that point, we may choose to restructure and begin taking on shareholders. this is a deal with the devil, and we now have a fiduciary duty to play nasty and treat our userbase like livestock in order to secure short-term profit. we can't just stop accepting new users; continued growth demands that we throw away what's left of our ethics to accommodate the gargantuan swaths of money that hundreds of thousands of database calls per second require. those of us who disagree with the new direction are gradually nudged away from positions of power. me, i've either been kicked out of my own project a while back or i've adapted to become someone i would've despised a few years prior. this is all assuming the website didn't crash and burn a few months after launch from either my technical shortcomings or my inexperience with management, or maybe just because our site ended up being too niche to really snowball. it is fun to think about tho!

[dukeofankh]

Almost everybody has at least a *little* bit of a point.

Yeah. Even them. And being wrong about everything else doesn't actually change that. They might not know how that point should actually be interpreted, they might come to foolish or even actively harmful conclusions from that point. They might radically overstate how prevalent or important the point is. But don't fall into the trap of refusing to acknowledge things that are true just because a bad person says them.

I cannot tell you how many times I've seen someone from a group I belong to dunking on someone from some outgroup, even a very harmful outgroup, and in doing so, denying basically true things that we would absolutely agree with if we were talking about them in private.

I dunno. Maybe it bugs me for neurodivergent reasons. Maybe I'm a pedantic ass.

The other day I got into a massive fight online with a guy in a feminist group because he was squabbling with a bit of a dipshit who pointed out that men are under a lot of pressure to become financially successful, and that's why they do stupid shit like get into crypto.

And like... rather than say "yeah, men are still expected under hegemonic masculinity to be breadwinners, despite the advances of women into the workforce, the economy being in shambles and the middle class having been whittled to a toothpick at this point. We need to work as feminists to challenge that gendered expectation, and as leftists to rebuild the power of labour to allow everyone, both men and women, to have a living wage that can allow for a family and a dignified life." This other feminist guy decided instead that, since the concept of men being pressured to be economic providers was being used in a way that sounded like it was suggesting that women only want to date rich men, it was redpill propaganda and, therefore, fascist misinformation. He went with, "what are you talking about, Gen X killed the concept of corporate success as marker of personal worth, everyone agrees that being a workaholic is bad and unattractive now. The idea that you think you'll be judged for being poor is a lie spread by the right to radicalize you into hating women." He did not react well when I pointed out that he was just as wrong as the other guy was. More wrong, actually.

And like...you can build multiple arguments from the same data point. Some are well reasoned, some aren't. Someone can feel pressure and assume it's much more widespread than it is, or that it takes a much more extreme form than it really does. But if you're going to coherently argue against an idea, you have to honestly appraise the situation and figure out what grains of truth it has in it. You have to acknowledge that core root of truth and show them how it means something else.

If, instead of doing that, you just deny the true thing because the other person's argument is built on it and you want to stamp it out? Because, hey, they interpreted it wrong, it's not like they really believe something true? You act as though a fact used to support a lie is also a lie. And if you do that, and argue against the facts because their conclusions are stupid, you construct a little world where, in refusing to accept both their flawed argument AND the fact it's based on, you become more wrong than they are. And you make the deeply foolish choice of picking a fight in that world. And if it's on the internet, that little world can become pretty big. Tactically, it's about the dumbest thing you could do. It ensures that they will keep fighting you because...you're fucking obviously wrong? It radicalizes people, because suddenly the only people who will acknowledge the truth on this thing they care about are other terrible people. It makes your side look dogmatic and ignorant. And apart from all of that...it gets things completely backwards.

Your principles are what you want to use to change the world for the better. You believe them because you honestly believe that following your principles improves things, because they are based on a solid grasp of how the world works. Your beliefs follow from what is true. If you flip it so that whether something is true is based on whether it supports your beliefs...that's a bad road to go down.

[caw-oticdork]

Since my previous podcast recommendation list was pretty popular, I've decided to make another, with another bunch of excellent podcasts:

13 Minutes or Less - Short podcast with very short episodes, about a pizza chef who doesn't like dealing to people but has to do some deliveries due to short staffing. Very much not her thing, but she does her best. As it turns out, her clients are quite a bit stranger and spookier than expected...

Additional Postage Required - Sci-Fi adventure about a nonbinary courier who gains the ability (or curse...) to get visions about the contents, past, and sender of packages they touch. They get roped into a rebellion. There's hoverboard racing. It's awesome.

Among the Stars and Bones - A team of xenoarcheologists search a distant world for traces of a long-vanished aliens. It's been a while since I watched this one, so I don't remember it very well, but I know that I enjoyed it. Very good sci-fi horror.

Dark Ages - Fantasy workplace comedy about a supernatural museum. Quite a lot of fun.

Dragon Shanty - Fantasy story about two bards traveling the high seas. There's dragons aplenty. Very queer. Excellent songs.

Falling Forward - Hacker story loosely based on the myth of Icarus and the Labyrinth, about getting back at a terrible corporation. Kinda experimental, this one has the shortest episodes I've ever seen.

Hotel Daydream - Podcast about the goings-on at a supernatural hotel. Very inventive, with really interesting characters.

Jar of Rebuke - Mystery about a researcher at an ominous cryptozoological organization out in the rural US. He's got no memories of his past and keeps dying and coming back. A story about cryptids, identity, queerness, neurodivergence, and community.

Light Hearts - Slice of Life podcast about turning an old, haunted building into a cafe and queer community center. The ghosts lead to some very fun shenanigans.

Lost Terminal - Mentioned in the other list but not expanded on. This is a hopepunk story set on an Earth devestated by climate change. Told from the POV of an adorable AI who watches this Earth from a space station, observing how humanity re-builds itself and finds a brighter future.

Mayfair Watchers Society - You know Trevor Henderson? The guy who drew Sirenhead, Long Horse, and other such creepypasta creatures in his found footage style? Yeah, this is a horror anthology based on his works, directed by him. Set in the rural town of Mayfair, where strange creatures are a lot more common than elsewhere... Each episode has a slightly different framing device, with some being found footage audio, others meeting recordings, phone calls, etc.

Monstrous Agonies - An advice podcast for the british creature community. Many of the advice letters are sent in by listeners - there's two by myself, one from an ant that can hear and send radio and one from a fey who is looking for curse advice. Some letters are metaphors for queerness, clashing cultures, ableism, and minority communities, others just some urban fantasy fun. Has a little bit of plot, but most episodes have an anthology style. Fast approaching the finale!

Mx Bad Luck - Slice of Life about someone who is cursed with bad luck. Sometimes sad, sometimes funny. Can recommend.

Neighbourly - Neighbourly follows the residents of Little Street, house by house. What they do, how they interact with each other, and what skeletons are hiding in their closet. Starts out as a spooky urban fantasy thing that's almost an anthology, but weaves itself into quite a mysterious plot over time...

SINKHOLE - Short-form audio podcast presented as a collection of audio posts from a member of a community of data restoration hobbyists in a sometimes-unfamiliar future. Mystery about disability, internet communities, and how things change with time.

Second Star to the Left - Scout-explorer Gwen Hartley has five years to explore and prepare her planet for settlement. With no aid but her robots and the anxious voice of her long-distance scout-minder Bell Summers in her ear, she's hoping she's ready for anything.

Someone Dies In This Elevator - Anthology where every episode, someone dies in an elevator. You wouldn't believe how creative they get with that simple concept!

Tales from the Low City - By the maker of Mistholme Museum, this podcast explores the everyday lifes of the last people on an alien world, after the surface had become uninhabitable and everyone had fled down into the last city, the subterranean Low City. This one made me cry a lot!

Tartarus - In a secret facility deep beneath Antarctica, an anxious astrobiologist, a terse station manager, and an AI keep humanity safe from the monsters they imprison.

The Attic Monologues - Queer urban fantasy story about a university student who decides to record themself practicing monologues using a collection they found in their attic. Don't forget to listen to the post-credit scenes!

The Bridge - Surreal alternate universe horror story about the keepers of a bridge over the Atlantic. Gets pretty spooky.

The Green Horizon - Sci-Fi comedy about a na'er-do-well Irish space captain and his rag-tag crew traversing a war-torn galaxy in search of fame and fortune. Very fun podcast.

The Lavender Tavern - Anthology podcast with original gay fairytales. Most are quite memorable!

The Vesta Clinic - Sci-Fi story about a clinic that helps various interesting alien lifeforms with their medical issues. Excellent worldbuilding and characters!

Tides - The story of Dr. Winifred Eurus, a xenobiologist trapped on an unfamiliar planet with hostile tidal forces and a fascinating ecosystem. She must use her wits, sarcasm, and intellectual curiosity to survive long enough to be rescued. But there might be more to life on this planet than she expected...

Hope this list is as helpful as the last!

@boombox-fuckboy @marvelousmawn @sapphireclaw @ashes-in-a-jar @frogmomentsfrombeyondtime @time-is-restored @emmy-noethers-rings

You folk seemed the most interested in the other list, so I'm being bold and @ing you all.

[hussyknee]

Guys, Z-library is back up, but it desperately needs our help.

Z-Library is one of the largest online libraries in the world. We aim to make literature accessible to everyone. Today, Z-Library contains over 12,140,413 books and 84,837,000 articles Z-Library has many servers all over the world. Our stored data now totals more than 220 TB! Every month, millions of people use Z-Library for their purposes — and that means we are on the right track. But it will be difficult to achieve our goals without your help.

As you may know, almost all public domains of the library were blocked in November 2022 by order of the US Secret Service. The inner infrastructure of the project suffered some substantial damage too. Today, we are still under unprecedented pressure. At the moment, Z-Library is going through the hardest times in all the 14 years of its existence. The library might work with interruptions, and we ask you to be patient. Be sure – we are doing everything possible to provide free access to knowledge for millions of people across the globe, and we expect you to help us with that and to support us.

But despite all the difficulties, the library continues to function and develop. We have recently introduced several important features: the new recommendations section, comments to booklists, the new web-site menu, personal domains and Telegram Bot, and more.

Your active support gives strength to our Team and inspires to work. Each donated dollar is not only money for us, but it is also the confidence that you really need our project!

On 15 March 2023, as in March and September of each year, we launched additional fundraising to project maintenance and development. We will be extremely thankful for every dollar that will be donated. Furthermore, UNLIMITED downloads (for 1 month) are available for ALL contributors who will donate during the fundraising period. The fundraising will run until 1 April 2023

Millions of people use Z-Library every month for their purposes — this shows us that we are on the correct track. But it will be difficult to achieve our goals without your help.

Please consider making a donation.

I know there's a lot of discourse around book piracy right now, but you know who absolutely cannot afford to buy your books in dollars, afford the shipping fees, or don't have access/ travelling distance to the kind of fully stocked libraries you have in the West? The Global South. Our factories make your Kindles, your phones, your textbooks, and then we can't afford to buy them from your corps that sell them at around 300% grate price, and half the books are not even available for our region. Our universities don't get your funding or recognition, and when we do sell our personal possessions to get the money and work our asses off to get admittance to Western universities, y'all use us as grunts, exploit us and pass our work off as your own. Worse still, you buy out our local publishing houses and shut them down.

You cannot imagine the extent of global apartheid and colonial economic order that capitalism runs on. Amazon cheats you out of royalties? We can't even afford to buy your books. A dollar can buy someone a full dinner here. These sites – Z-lib, Internet Archive, Libgen, Open Library, Sci-Hub, PDF Drive, LibriVox – they are essential to granting the global majority our human right to knowledge, education and access. Z-Lib is by far the best one of them all.

You will first need to sign up to Z-Lib and access it through the private domain link they send you. It's a simple process, and every little bit counts. You're a leftist that believes in equal access for all? Then literally, put your money where your mouth is.

[chockfullofsecrets]

Spiderverse: Smile Log

(Read on AO3)

Rating: Gen

Summary: “Okay, we got the time your baby kicked you in the face and you thought you’d broken your nose. Nice, classic slapstick.” “Lyla-” “And then that time an anomaly accidentally tickled him-” “Lyla, no-”

Peter B. asks an unexpected question and gets some information he really shouldn't have.

Wordcount: 1478

--

Oh, Miguel is fully aware of what the other Spiders think of him. Feral this, stick in the mud cabrón that - but for putting up with extended exposure to the Earth-616 version of Spider-Man for the six months that his little experimental society has existed? They should be calling him a shocking saint.

The Peter in question continues to hang off his shoulder, where he’s been since he swanned into the monitoring room ten whole minutes ago without an invitation. “-stay with me on this, I’m building to a point here - hello? Earth to Miguel?”

“What,” he snaps.

Peter pouts, an expression that he honestly didn’t think grown men were capable of until meeting this guy. “Did you hear anything I said?”

Easy. “No.”

And anyone who was, you know, sane, might take that as the insult he means it to be, but Peter just laughs and jostles his shoulder companionably. “You really are a grump sometimes, you know that? You gotta lighten up, you’re gonna give yourself a heart attack one of these days.”

“Tell me about it,” Lyla says from his other shoulder. She likes Peter, talks to him directly more than any of the other Spiders, and she’s programmed to gather information that she thinks he wants, which means - yeah, he’s going to go ahead and ignore the implications of that one.

Peter makes a thoughtful noise. Concerning. “Hey, Lyla, you’re around this guy twenty-four-seven, right - does he ever relax? When’s the last time he, I don’t know, smiled?”

Miguel expects a snarky reply, not Lyla’s glasses flashing opaque the way they do when she’s looking something up. “Hm, let me check. Pulling up a smile log…”

He’s focused on the latest multiverse model, like everyone else should be, so it takes him just a bit too long to realize that they’re ganging up on him. “Wait. Lyla, belay that-”

“Okay, we got the time your baby kicked you in the face and you thought you’d broken your nose. Nice, classic slapstick.”

“Lyla-”

“And then that time an anomaly accidentally tickled him-”

“Lyla, no-”

“And - aw, this one’s cute! - after a mission he helped a girl get her runaway balloon and she hugged him-”

“Lyla!” he snaps, slamming a fist onto his desk, and she finally stops. “Por dios, would you quit that? Why do you even remember that stuff, it’s a waste of storage space!”

She sticks her tongue out at him. “My data, my business.”

“Yeah, yeah, can’t you just run the scans like I asked you to and stop causing trouble?”

They keep bickering over the new extrapolation methods, and Peter -

Okay, look. Miguel doesn’t have a “spider sense” or whatever seems to warn the rest of the Spiders before anything happens, so he has to rely on his own judgment. And with Peter being around all the time, Miguel’s learned to more or less tune him out, figures it’s the only way he’s ever going to get any work done.

Which is more or less why he doesn’t notice that Peter’s still there until someone’s hands shove their way under Miguel’s arms and start tickling, because that’s when his brain decides to turn on the instant reactions. “Jammit - hAh-”

He clamps his arms down automatically, reeling backwards into Peter’s chest just in time for the attack to stop. “Wait - did you just laugh?” Peter demands. “Shit, I didn’t think that was actually going to work, do it again!”

Peter’s fingers start wriggling back into hypersensitive flesh, trapped in his armpits, and Miguel barely manages to keep his mouth shut as more embarrassing sounds start knocking loose inside his chest. Get away, he yells to himself, hit him, move, just fucking move - he can’t remember the last time his reflexes have been anything but overprotective, but right now every fiber of his body insists he has to stay exactly where his is because granting Peter’s hands even a millimetre more of freedom is going to be the death of him.

He refuses to think about the way his mouth is spasming at the corners entirely without his permission even as the rest of him locks in place. Lyla can record that one, if she wants. See if he cares, it doesn’t count. This is fine. All he has to do is stand here until Peter gets bored - the way he acts, the other man might not even know what an attention span is.

Peter sighs, proving his point. “I’m not asking for much, just one laugh,” he laments dramatically, though Miguel can hear the stupid big grin he gets in his voice. “Do I need to be more annoying? I can be more annoying.”

Miguel sincerely doubts it - at least, until Peter flips one hand around from where it’s pressed up against the top of his ribcage, locks onto his elbow, and starts trying to lever his right arm away from his body. “Geez, would you lay off with the triceps? I’m gonna give myself carpal tunnel over here.”

If Peter would just stop tickling for one shocking second, he’d tell him that he sincerely hopes his stupid fingers break off and die. Instead, he wraps his arms around himself in a motion that’s definitely defiant and not at all panicked, getting as far as opening his mouth before the part of his brain that’s being lit up by every twitch of sensation decides to take over. “Nngh - no, nohoho, mierda!”

His entire face burns red as strangled snorts of laughter keep leaking out of him, has to fold over and brace one of his hands against his jaw to regain any kind of dignity - not that it helps, with Peter changing his hold to adapt to even that small bit of movement and using it to finally pry his arm up.

It’s really, really not fair that the most irritating Spider-Man is one of the most competent ones too. Miguel’s pretty sure luck hates Spiders in general, but it seems to love messing with him in particular.

“You know,” Peter starts conversationally, like he’s not wrapped around Miguel and taking half his weight because he’s shaking too hard to do it himself. “I think this is gonna be a good experience for us. Like, ah, coworker bonding. What’d you say we do this every week until you figure out how to loosen up like a normal person?”

Miguel’s going to kick his ass. He’s going to take his watch and ban him from Nueva York in perpetuity, as soon as he can stand up again. Earth-616 has other superheroes, they’ll survive their Spider-Man losing an arm or two.

Peter dodges the frantic headbutts and kicks he attempts and laughs, light and easy - it makes Miguel feel even stupider, twisted up on himself in desperation to avoid just that. “Hey, if it doesn’t work with your schedule you could just say so! I’ll pencil you in for biweekly, then.”

Idiota. Culero. Miguel doesn’t know if he’s cursing himself or Peter out anymore. He’s properly trapped now, sandwiched up against his own desk with one of Peter’s hands keeping his arm pinned and the other wiggling threateningly over a defenseless armpit. “Well? You gonna say something, or do I have to go full supervillain? I do a great Doc Ock impression, let me tell you.”

Miguel painstakingly loosens his death grip on his own jaw and opens his mouth just enough to wheeze out a heartfelt declaration of his undying hatred. Coughs before he can start, his throat raw from attempting to keep his laughter contained. There’s a movement out of the corner of his eye, and he turns his head to find Peter looking down at him with something between amusement and genuine concern.

Fine. Fine. “Can you just. Stop. Before I pass out?”

Peter laughs again, landing firmly in amusement and on Miguel’s list of dimensional threats. “Yeah. Yeah, fine, I’ll let you off easy this time.” He lets go, hovering for a moment and then swooping back in to pull Miguel upright when he can’t quite manage it himself. “Okay, super ticklish and super repressed. I can work with that.”

“Don’t,” Miguel growls, leaning on Peter’s shoulder entirely against his own will as he starts to walk both of them out of the office. Where are they even going? The cafeteria? It’s only been-

Oh. He hasn’t eaten in twelve hours. No wonder Lyla had decided to mess with him. But Peter wouldn’t have known that.

“Nope, too late, I’m invested now. Wasn’t kidding about the biweekly thing, by the way.”

Lyla perks up from behind a screen. “I’ll put it on his calendar.”

“Oye, I’m locking you both out of the monitor room.”

The two of them start talking over his head, planning some kind of break in. Miguel turns his head away so Lyla won’t see him smile.

[canmom]

NieR Orchestra Concert 12024 [the end of data] (London, 15/2/2024)

NieR concert was incredible just as expected. Honestly, from the moment I got there - the cosplayers, the general atmosphere, it was just a good place to be surrounded by NieR nerds lmao. So many people happy to chat with the stranger next to them, kind of a con vibe.

But of course we were there for the music! And it was fuckin amazing. The emi evans/j'nique nicole duets😭These were special orchestral arrangements specifically for this concert, and the way the sound of the orchestra fills the space, how you can see a phrase physically ripple across the orchestra... I don't get to go to a lot of concerts but I really should try to go more often, because it's something else to hear orchestral music.

below: further comments on the concert, lots of cosplay photos.

The multimedia elements also worked really well - every piece was accompanied with backing videos using either demosceney abstract visuals or images from the games, along with text that told a short story over the course of the concert, with some segments voice acted by the English voices of 2B and 9S (Kira Buckland and Kyle McCarley, who have previously made their own performances of the original Japan-only concert readings). I won't spoil the story in this post since there are still concerts to come, but it was... not that substantial I'll admit, but sweet, and a nice framing device to create a flow through the songs and various moments from the games.

Hearing J'nique Nicole's voice live though, that was incredible. Emi Evans was there just as last time, and just as amazing as always - but this time we had both of them on stage together, and it was absolutely sublime. We all went wild. They performed duets in several songs, with the standouts naturally being A Beautiful Song, Ashes of Dreams, and of course Weight of the World. I think we all thought that was the end because we gave it a standing ovation but then Emi came back out to perform Kainé. After that we got into the groove of standing up and stood up again like three more times lol.

Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito showed up at the end and made a bunch of rapidfire jokes in Japanese that the translator couldn't keep up with, bless her. But we got to give them like the fourth standing ovation of the night, and made a lot of noise when Yoko Taro suggested it would persuade the president of Squeenix to fund a sequel. I'm sure they appreciated it lmao. I think it must be so weird for Yoko Taro to go from someone with a career of niche, unsuccessful games to being internationally renowned to the point that a massive auditorium full of people in multiple countries will go absolutely nuts just to hear him speak a language we mostly don't speak.

Good mix of people who were at a NieR concert for the first time and people who'd been to the last one. There was a guy near me who had apparently been to the Berlin concert just a few days before, and snagged a ticket for this one literally yesterday just to get it again with better acoustics. I respect it lol. Everyone I spoke to was remarkably friendly - last time I went to one of these things I felt really nervous about approaching anyone but it seems I've gotten better about that kind of thing in the last few years. Anyway, people had come from all over - I chatted with a pair of Americans from Boston all the way down the merch line.

Here are some pictures, mostly of cosplayers. I am still getting used to shooting with the DSLR my friend gave me, so not all of these came out perfectly steady and some of them the exposure wasn't right,, but there are some nice ones in here...

bokeeeeehhhhhhhhh... I spoke a bit to the owner of this 9S doll. Her mum was there too, and it turns out she's a haberdasher who makes cosplays for her daughters and has now done over 70. That's a legendary mum right there.

The 9S cosplayer here gave me his instagram. he's a pro photographer so I feel a little embarassed at the quality of the photos I took of him ^^'

I got some merch too, since I understand it's the main way events like this support themselves.

That Kainé thing isn't a print, it's a vinyl record with a few arrangements of Kainé. Though I was totally prepared to buy it as a print because it's a lovely drawing. I don't actually own a record player, but one day I'll surely listen to it ^^'

I was too fatigued to make a cosplay this time, but I'm sure there will be another concert and next time, for sure, I will go as Devola or Popola. Unless Yoko Taro comes up with another redhead character in the meantime lmao.

[everwitch-magiks]

a rich and complex tapestry

When Alex first hooks up with Henry, he's expecting a fun one-night-stand and maybe the occasional booty call. He does not expect to get so completely pulled into Henry’s orbit that it forces him to reevaluate everything he thought he knew about his sexuality. And he's not sure if it makes it better, or way worse, that Henry is actually a professional at all this stuff — what are the odds that Alex would hook up with the one guy on campus who hosts his own radio show about sex? 'Sleeping With Henry' is about to gain one devoted listener.

This was such a satisfying fic to write! It was genuinely one of those that felt like it wrote itself - and I don't know about y'all, but that's not how it usually works for me. Right from the start, I felt so certain of what I wanted this to be: I wanted to write one that really dug deep into Alex's bi realization. That's a theme that features in a lot of RWRB fics, including my own, and of course it's also a vital part of the RWRB canon. With this fic, I wanted to explore that deeply, to really take my time with it and write it in a way that felt vulnerable and heartfelt and very, very real.

I'm bi. And whenever I write about Alex being bi, I am writing a little bit about me being bi - never completely about me, but y'know. It's one of the things that really drew me to Alex's character in the first place, the way his bisexual realization was handled in the book. That realization is something I almost always include in an AU as well - but oftentimes in a oneshot, the timeline for any type of emotional character development can become quite condensed. And while I immensely enjoy both reading and writing oneshots wherein Alex's bi realization takes place over the course of a few hours - in fact, that can be so fun! - in this oneshot, I wanted to let it take quite a bit of time.

Also? I very desperately wanted to write Henry as an irresistibly confident sex guru on late-night radio. What's not to like about that?

In the excerpt below the cut, Alex and Henry have just had sex and Alex is about to tell Henry that actually, he still sort of thinks he's straight. Mostly.

Henry slumps down against him, but he doesn’t immediately pull himself off. It gives Alex a few moments to assess the feeling of his dick in Henry’s ass in a more technical sense, without the burning urgency of an impending orgasm. And it’s… well. It’s nice? He shifts his hips a little, biting his lip when that makes Henry groan slightly.

Suddenly, he’s infinitely curious about the opposite side of the experience.

Henry nips at Alex’s throat, possibly in retaliation to his wiggling. “You alright?”

“I’m fantastic,” Alex drawls. Except then Henry starts to pull off, and Alex instantly palms at his shoulders. “Hey, could you… stick around? I’m having a moment.”

“Is that so?” Henry wonders. He sounds mildly confused, which is way better than put-out. Alex will take it. “If you’re suggesting another round, I’m going to need a bit longer.”

“I mean, we could do that,” Alex says quickly. It’s a great fucking idea. “I was just kinda taking it all in.”

He feels Henry go still against him. “What do you mean?” Henry asks softly.

“Um.” Fuck. It’s possible Alex should’ve mentioned this earlier. “I’m, y’know, mostly straight? Like, about ninety-six percent or so. Historically it’s been a hundred, but recent data suggests otherwise.”

Henry makes a noise Alex can’t quite decipher; it’s both startled and a bit weak, but when he speaks there’s distinct amusement in his voice. “Christ, Alex. I'm not sure you're aware you're saying that with your cock still in my arse.”

“Fuck right off.” Alex couldn’t fight his dumb grin if he tried. This is exactly why he and someone like Henry, regardless of gender, could never work out for real; Henry is way too good at cutting through Alex’s bullshit. Alex wouldn’t stand a fucking chance.

Read 'a rich and complex tapestry' on AO3!

[digitalgate02]

So here’s your main hero from the Kamen Rider (Lightnimon) AU! This surprises no one, I know.

So the idea here is kinda recycling bits from the old version and mixing it with all the stuff i know about Rider so far (and other things.)

Well, I guess a hero who starts as a lackey of the big bad is not that uncommon to happen… But yeah, he just starts like this… He hates this job, to be fair. He can have a little fun but gets yelled at by his boss (not the big bad guy, just the evil scientist working there – not sure if it’s either Oikawa, Maki, Menoa or someone else from another digi-series yet).

Oh yeah, he definitely wants to quit and do something fun, something he likes: either soccer or cooking.

Question: Why did he end up there tho So, the big bad guy(s) is (are) Daemon (and the Demon Lords). They use human emotions to drive those wild digital critters – the digimon – insane and use them to control people. A digimon forms a link with a human and they can use the digimon’s power (be the critter taking the shape of a weapon or vehicle). But there’s those Dark Rings and Dark Seeds, the rings go on the digimon, the seeds on the humans. Keeping them in control is the goal of Daemon. Daisuke is… uh, one of those victims apparently, BUT! no ties to a digimon yet. He knows something is off, but he can’t do anything. He needs that job after all… (sadly, he’s not even aware the job is for the bad guys…)

There was a hero before!! This hero was known as Kamen Rider Courage. He fought alongside a group of other people. Before Daemon was a real issue, there was another villain – one possibly connected to him – Apocalymon. Kamen Rider Courage beat him and his lesser generals and saved the world! 

Except… He lost something in return for his heroic acts: the life of a precious person to him. What, no! She’s not dead! But she… she changed drastically because of those critters that Kamen Rider Courage… Disappeared after his last fight. 

Daisuke was in middle school when this all happened. He and his group of friends – Rui, Ken, Miyako, Iori, Wallace, Takeru and Hikari – had no memories of those though. Once our protag graduated from High School, he tried every job he could take in order to gather enough money to open his ramen shop – his life’s goal. And, well. This was the only job he got… All the rest didn’t call him back (alas)

As to how he got the friggin Seed… No one knows. The Seed is data, not something real. It’s data inserted into the human body, like the USB ports in Double/W. Rumors are that those with them were infected by Apocalymon in his last fight against the previous Kamen Rider.

One day he was just doing his (boring) job when he heard a cry. He saw one of those digimon trying to escape from the lab. This digimon, however, was Chibimon, who was looking for a new candidate to be a Kamen Rider and stop the evil guys from taking control over the world. Daisuke knew if that critter just escapes in his shift he would just get in trouble, so he tried to catch it. They were for hours playing the cat and rat game until the boy managed to grab Chibimon… Except he couldn’t put it inside the cage again. Chibimon knew this kiddo meant no harm and was just doing a bad thing. So, the digimon explained everything and told him his ‘job’ was actually harming both digimon and humankind.

He only signed up there out of options, and they didn’t give him details as for why they had to capture the digimon. He expected it to be some sort of… veterinary-like lab? This gave him a headache, but he believed in that digimon. Chibimon then asked why he would wear those clothes if this were a vet lab. That was indeed a good question, he thought. In order to help Chibimon to escape, he put the digimon inside his backpack.

Once they were out of the lab, and safe at Daisuke’s home… First, Chibimon was seeing Daisuke out of that getup so he felt even more sure that that human wasn’t a bad guy. Then, Chibimon asked him if he didn’t want to become a Kamen Rider. Daisuke mentions that he heard of that name before… But he couldn’t do that, right? Now that he knew he was doing something horrible to those critters… Chibimon’s answer is that he should do it in order to repent for those actions, which totally made Daisuke feel it was the right thing to do.

Thus, Chibimon and Daisuke formed a bond, and the boy got a D-3 key and D-3 Driver. Chibimon was entrusting him with his power, the power of Lighdramon (yes, Chibimon was not even in his original form) so he could transform into a Kamen Rider.

Thus, Kamen Rider Lightnimon was born.

(no coloring this time because i got overwhelmed by it lol)

Notes:

i know the D-3 does not look like a D-3 but... that's the intent. it's not supposed to look exactly like in the canon verse.

i also know the doodle for the encounter with Chibimon there has him unmasked but... you wouldn't be able to see him feeling sad for it if it were drawn 😔

he uses the shades from Kizuna/02TB (because i love them) in this AU. No goggles. As a kid he had no goggles either.

[leggerefiore]

There's a reddit post that gets shared around about this gal who dated a man that was very mellow about their relationship and then when they got married for practical reasons it was like a switch was flipped and he became a very sentimental and romantic man, like he could finally relax and act on his feelings knowing it was real love. I can't even begin to decide between Ingo, Larry, Cyrus, or Colress out of which one is the most like this. Fuck it, maybe Lysandre too?

Probably not Ingo, I think he has a certain romantic aspect and wants to fall in love before getting married. Though, he definitely is marrying his lover as soon as he's certain. Poor guy is too domestic to not show his genuine love and feelings for them. I want to say maybe Emmet, but even Emmet seems like he'd want a cute dating phase before marriage.

Larry, though, I can see 100%. Marries for the tax benefits, ends up falling deeply in love with his partner, and happily giving into domestic bliss. He acts very much like it's a business transaction, saying you probably would not have to deal with him too much since he's so busy with work.

Then, he finds himself softly enjoying the moments at home with his lover. He goes from brooding and serious to soft and calm. Polite, formal greetings agfter work give way to domestic pecks in the cheeks and quick hugs. He even starts eating dinner at home to spend more time with you. Larry feels a bit less cynical about the world in the end, at least when he's being embraced by you.

Cyrus... maybe. I'm biased in wanting him to be close with his lover before he degrades into the state seen in DPPt, but I could see him marrying for the facade. No feelings involved, naturally, as he's convinced he's fully suppressed his spirit. The poor person is just being used to provide a sense of normalcy to him and make him seem less suspicious.

It morphs into you doting on him and genuinely caring for him and accidentally melting his built-up walls. You are in his home, after all. His guard drops in what used to be an isolated space, and you strike his rare vulnerability and make him open up. Cyrus barely allows himself to indulge so with you he drowns in your affection. Soft touches and conversations about him and his struggles lead to a certain bond with you. He's mortified when he realises how much he has come to care for you unintentionally.

Colress... is probably a no-go on that. If he's marrying someone, it's either for his research somehow or because he does genuinely care for them. He's moving around too much to have time to worry about local laws and how they'll affect him lmao. I could see him maybe coming off a bit cold, though.

Maybe you expect him to keep disappearing from whatever region you live in to seek out more valuable data for his research, but he surprisingly comes back more often than you think. Colress probably even excitedly brings you gifts from wherever he's just been, be it a pokemon or souvenir. He surprises you with how much he tries to stay in contact, worried about you getting lonely or Team Plasma harassing you (if you're somewhere they are active). It's obvious he values you as much as his precious research, at least.

Mmm, not Lysandre either, I don't think. He's a passionate guy, after all lmao. With his lover, he's probably attentive and suffocating them in gifts, so it's hard to feel unloved and like he isn't oddly romantic or sentimental. Intimidated, on the other hand...

Nanu, perhaps, is a choice here? I could see him being in a casual relationship with someone and marrying them for whatever reason before realising how deeply he loves them. Old man doesn't shift to being overly affectionate or romantic, but definitely becomes obviously softer towards you and likes having you around him as he does his Kahuna duties or just lazing with his Meowths.

Or Grimsley. Grimsley would date someone casually, marry them to probably dump off his debts on them/because his family was annoying him and pressuring him, and then actually realise he adores having a spouse. He's like goes from essentially being a consistent guy for casual sex to just oddly endeared to you. Random gifts and trips with him because he finds himself enjoying his time with you. It probably bothers him how much he ends up caring for you lmao

[bambamramfan]

A fun read, even if you don't entirely agree with the thesis. Full of delightfully illustrated examples. I'd rate it 75% correct.

I'd add examples of what it used to be like going to used bookstores looking for that one out of print book, vs searching amazon now. Or what I previously wrote about World of Warcraft optimization.

For the other 25%, well...

Sam Kriss wrote a while ago about the death of hipsters.

The hipster was an information-sorting algorithm: its job was to always have good taste. The hipster listened to bands you’d never heard of. The hipster drank beers brewed by Paraguayan Jesuits in the 1750s. The hipster thought Tarkovsky was for posers, and the only truly great late-Soviet filmmaker was Ali Khamraev. The hipster bought all his toilet paper from a small-batch paper factory in Abkhazia that included small fragments of tree bark in the pulp. The hipster swam deep into the vastness of human data, and always surfaced with pearls. Through its powers of snobbery and disdain, the hipster could effortlessly filter out what was good.

Almost any economist will tell you, that information gathering is just a different sort of price people pay for products. They can pay $300 up front for a good experience, or they can spend hours scouring and networking to find a similar quality experience for $100. If they find these two bundles equivalent, then that information gathering labor was worth $200 to them.

The difference is, when the naive consumer just pays *someone gets those extra $200*, whereas if the information gathering is labor (big if), then that extra labor doesn't actually pay anyone, and the world is just $200 of effort worse off. So, cetera paribus, it's better if everyone knows all the good places and at least the local industry is reaping the surplus.

So this is the death knell of hipsters, as all the information they had to seek out is accessible by everyone and just goes into rents for the producers.

...

Except we know from experience, it doesn't *really* work like that. For one, a lot of us ENJOY the hipster information gathering experience. It's a fun activity in moderation, and we even develop an identity for having a personal research base to use as a resource. How do you calculate the labor surplus lost if you're having fun? Well, I'm sure the economists can find some way to.

The other problem is that Freddie is only talking about a certain class of hipsters. The same ones Sam refers to in his essay. You can look at it as a sort of pyramid.

Top: quasi-autistic savants who are on Discords talking about secret places, or going out and mapping territories themselves.

Middle: hipsters who casually seek out new things they heard about and report back in indy magazine columns.

Bottom: the great mass who do one google search and flock to whatever they are told "the best deal" is.

(Now it's more complex than that. To be honest these three are probably only the top 25% of people, and the real base of the pyramid has no idea what any of this is about. And there's networks and lines of communication between the different layers. But you get the idea.)

For a while in the 90's and 00's, being a hipster became easier, and maybe that middle layer grew a bit in both directions. And then in the 10's the process Freddie describes ramped up, and so the value of just being a middle-tier hipster shrunk again.

But there are still a lot of secrets out there. You just have to be a much more dedicated information gatherer. Being in the top tier - which in travel might be as simple as driving places instead of flying to them IME - will still find you things where no one else is there.

This month I'm going to visit the cement factory where they filmed scifi movies like the Crowe and Super Mario Bros, and I expect to be the only one there.

[inchidentally]

Little addition to the talk about Oscar's PR management and pushing Lily a bit more into the light.

I agree with everything the other anon said but I'd like to add how it also means they are portraying Lando and Oscar differently.

Clearly, along the 2023 season we saw McLaren media leans more and more towards the slightly shippy "Landoscar" theme.

Not in a too obvious way but there were little nods towards the ship.

In 2024, we still got some little things (the picture from Barcelona, the "Osc", etc...) but it's more subtle, more leaning between shipping and friendship.

And for me it goes along with the want to picture Oscar as someone reliable and serious by showing is relationship with Lily more and also having him involved in other activities (like the Reef thing).

They are slowly letting us know that Oscar is more than just a driver and a cute boy. He has a personality, interests and a life outside of the track.

As a shipper, I hope we will soon get more funny Landoscar content to play with.

As someone interested in communication and marketing, I love trying to understand what is happening behind the scenes!

I totally see that and tbh it fits with him hiring a social media manager that AND the Andrea press release about changing their media duties around. tho the intention they gave for that was for Oscar and Lando to have more down time which hasn't actually happened bc they've both stayed just as busy but separately.

I have an anon I'm sitting on bc there's a LOT to address and some of it feels a little too .... idk tricky. but their point was that McLaren want to renege a bit on the whole 'Lando and Oscar doing everything for the team and not being in competition with each other' now that McLaren is officially up there fighting consistently for podiums and the top 3 or 4 championship spots. that splitting them up more in terms of media duties COULD be a way of creating space for them to have if not a full on rivalry then a Charles and Carlos type of competition.

the thing is that Lando and Oscar on their own keep saying how much they work together and share data and have the same needs for the car etc and that they want healthy motivation between each other.

but also I think for anyone who's had to work in a committee or be a part of regular team meetings there's also got to be the reality of someone coming in and saying 'let's change things up!' to maybe keep their job or stand out and it ends up being sort of a mess and maybe the old system was actually just fine alsfgjlsagfhljsfa it's truly possible that this whole Reputation era revamp is going to prove to be a mistake or that it's just not being very well executed.

bc I can't say that pulling Oscar away from Lando is ever going to work well for him when Oscar just isn't interested in being The Guy. he wants to show up and do his job and compete and then go home lol. so it ends up that not only do fans not get the fun teammate content they've come to expect from McLaren with the previous two teammates, it also means that super motivated Lando is maximizing on every opportunity and becoming a bigger star on his own - while Oscar has to struggle to meet the media's needs for energy and dynamism without having someone he knows he can bounce off of. the Esteban RC car thing was just... ok lol. that's not what any of us would like to see him spending his time filming. the Great Barrier Reef thing is nice but it's not the same as Seb or Lewis bc as Oscar even said he only ever really knew much about the issue from school. and most of Oscar's life is spent away from that issue and away from Australia. (he even kinda said that it was a great side benefit of being able to stay in Australia longer and have Lily involved instead of heading right back to MTC)

fundamentally, Oscar wants to have more time for his private life and he doesn't want to broadcast it- and I think that if they simply dropped the silly challenges and just gave Lando and Oscar a topic in a free moment and filmed it then Oscar could have more time away from filming and we as fans would get Lando and Oscar's real relationship that's fun and cute but without them feeling awkward at being told to dance and perform. the whole thing would be way less pressure for both Oscar and Lando.

remember, Lando isn't naturally like that! Carlos and Daniel learned that PR bromance game early in their careers and play it well but Lando follows their lead and basically reacts to them! early 2019 Lando was basically a featherless little chick watching Carlos with big eyes and squawking at how funny he was but he was sooooo nervous and twitchy about being on camera until he learned to copy Carlos' humor and bounce it back to him.

so genuinely when Lando and Oscar are just allowed to talk normally, it takes less time than setting up for elaborate challenges and they'd both feel more relaxed and get more time off.

[givelifetoaworld]

i don’t wanna rb this post but i wanna say that everything this person said is valid and mostly true. the frustration and anger is justified and it sucks to have a website you love crumble and fall apart.

but i feel like talking about something that has been echoed by former staff members here - that this attitude is going to make it so you are never going to survive on another social media site.

we need a reality check here that like… websites and companies do not have morals. capitalism completely and absolutely controls all decisions made by a website, company, etc. to operate. since automatic is a tech company and tumblr is only a part of their product line, they have a very, very, very capitalist structure of what success and profit mean. we may all hold the belief that a website doesn’t need to be profitable, that a website just needs to be stable and reliable - but that is just a little bit too idealistic.

burn me at the stake, but tumblr live was not a bad idea. it could have been really fun and cool, but the problem was that we all quickly found out that tumblr live would require your data that tumblr has never required before. and so, it failed, because the userbase of this site tends to be more data cautious than facebook users. and i can promise you that a lot the staff working on this site probably knew that, but i’d like to see any of you on here pitch a major change or to insist a complement that you were just paid to work on for months is a complete failure to a CEO. see what happens to your income and livelihood.

transphobic moderation? yeah, that is a problem, and it sucks. but it has been acknowledged, and while some odd things have happened, a lot of the time it’s just shitty error and algorithms. which also happens on other websites daily. and yeah i’ve seen some staff members say some condescending and rude shit too, but damn, they are not some holy public figures, they are just some guy doing a job and y’all were harassing them and still harass them.

if any company or any website actually took into consideration user feedback, the internet would look like a different place. it might look something like it did 15 years ago. twitter may have not sold to elon musk. youtube wouldn’t do what it’s doing with ad blockers and content. reddit wouldn’t have fought back when users protested a couple months back. i could keep going! tumblr is not an exception to this and as someone who has been on this site for over a decade, i am not owed UI changes that i prefer. it’s a tech product and all tech products are inherently linked to and change only according to what might be appealing to capitalism.

and like… you can bitch and laugh about 600 people just trying to work and do their jobs to keep something like tumblr running far past it’s lifespan, but you need to understand that the vast majority of them weren’t “decision makers”. they were tasked with changes and plans created by someone who probably only knew of tumblr’s functionality rather than the culture of it (remember that Tumblr Is Gonna Be The Next PDF thing lol) and we’re expected to perform those tasks. you cannot just go “but i don’t like that/the users won’t like that so i won’t” when you’re told to do a task at a job, man. again especially not at a tech company. it won’t go over well for you and if you think the world works like that then well idk.

i knew all the way back in 2018 that tumblr wasn’t going to be around forever - a site doesn’t just lose over 50% of the userbase and bounces back to a state that even slightly resembles that peak of use. but they tried, and some things have been corny and some things have been just downright dumb, but you have to admit this site has been pretty creatively interactive even when it’s been “cringe” or ad based. there’s a reason you’re still here. there’s a reason you’re having these bittersweet and upset reactions to a staff you claimed to despise being reassigned, even though so many people have wanted them to “go away”. did you actually want them to go away, or did you just want them to appease to exactly what you wanted? you gotta be careful what you wish for man.

[kumamoto-division]

“Yo. Good afternoon, kiddo.”

Casually greeted by the familiar old man with a smugly smile on his face, a certain famed actor who doubles as the infamous information broker of Kumamoto squints his eyes.

“Didn’t expect to see you here of all people, Chishio-san.”

Honestly, if there has to be a representative from Nara division, Kunio is kind of expecting the redhead leader or that pink-haired boyo to pay a visit rather than this man in front of him.

It’s true that he has known this person before since they’ve crossed paths with each other sometimes during their ‘work’ underground. Yet still, this old man looks so out of place to him because as far as he has run some research; completely no data has been found on his background except that he has been allies to Shigure Fuyugami —the previous heir of Fuyugami family and father of the Nara Division’s third member, Saigo Fuyugami, for three decades ago. 

“The Nara kids have been busy with their own projects but they still asked me to relay their ‘Happy Birthday’ to you, so it’ll be rude of me if I ignore their good will.”

Not minding the over-analyzing gaze from the young man. Chishio carefully hands Kunio the presents he received from Miratabi members. It’s a beautiful tea set that appears to mysteriously glow despite touching the least bit of daylight. 

“Ah, but the gift isn’t all the reason I came here today,” the tone in his voice suddenly changed into the more tensed one. 

“In regard to our previous corporation, the Minazuki has requested me to relay this thing to you.”

Hearing the name ‘Minazuki’ rings a bell in his mind, Kunio then recalls that this name belongs to the strange yet influential artist family in Kyoto; however, very few know that they also run some information network in the shadows. From what he has inspected, the family seems to establish themselves on the neutral side and keep a close eye on the situation as of now. 

“It contains data we extracted from some morons attempting to infiltrate Nara not so long ago. What I have in mind is that there might be someone who is after stealing Hypnosis Microphones from the DRB competitors. We’ve yet to verify who is the mastermind so please take this intel with a grain of salt —Oh, and don’t you try opening the box by force. This security craft is made by the family head himself, what’s contained inside will be crushed by its own mechanism if not handled correctly.” 

The elder man shows the actor the trick to properly open the Karakuri himitsu-bako he gave. 

“Unfortunately, I still have some errands left to run for my master, so I’d like to take my leave for now. Best wishes, and what you’re going to do with that ‘gift’ from Minazuki is up to you.”

Having bid his farewell, Chishio give the young man a formal bow and walks away until he disappears from Kunio’s land of sight.

Kunio smiled to the himitsu-bako but after he saw the tea set,mading a mental note of thanks the nara division when he had the oportunity

Again with the himitsu-bako he smirk thinking on the contain

If inside was useful information could be useful for Kunio,or maybe could help him,his teammates and Ryukyu and Kururi with their plan

Besides,he always loved puzzles

"waah,I need to thank to the guys of Naha and Chishio San,mmh this will be fun"-said Kunio to himself and started his way to his house-"and if these data are useful Ryukyu was will be very happy...and Kururi too"-Kunio shakes when he thought on Aoba's younger sister,she could look joy and creative at first glance but she was a hidden manipulative mastermind

But Kunio only deny with the head and still walking

[travmar]

Journey to the South East or Conquest of the Skies

I say farewell to Latvia for 5 months by watching the premiere of the movie Flow (latv. Straume) and then end the night in tears — I hug my twin brother goodbye. It's the first time we separate for such a long time, as previously we left each other's side only for 2 weeks max. He has to work the next day, so he won't be part of the group that accompanies me to the airport.

It's also my first flight on my own, so I'm quite anxious of what's to come.

As my flight is scheduled at 7am, I have to wake up at 4:30, so I can catch a bus. My parents help me with my suitcase, and hug me goodbye after I check-in for my flight. I leave them behind as I go through security.

The flight to Vienna is uneventful and, if I had to be honest, quite boring. Well, what can someone expect from AirBaltic.

Vienna airport greets me with crowds of people and a long wait for my next flight, that will take me all the way to Beijing. As I've arrived at 8:30 am, I have to wait three hours before I can go through check in again. So I do what's best to do in this situation — go to grab a meal at a fast food chain (Burger King).

The wait is agonising as I don't want to use my mobile data to watch YouTube videos or play Genshin and the airport WiFi is only passable for scrolling the Web. I entertain myself by reading and rereading Latvian news, as well playing 2048. I also explored the 3rd Terminal a bit, which is almost as big (or even bigger) as the whole Riga Airport.

My adventure continues with a small bump — as I check-in for my flight, I'm told that those travelling to Taipei need to have a return ticket, which I do not have. The reason why? Honestly, I don't really know. I didn't get all of it, since my German language skills aren't that advanced, so there might be some convoluted explanation. But in the endmy ticket was changed from 'Rejected' to 'Approved' and I could move on. Maybe having an 180 day visa helped somehow, or the check-in ladies, whom I'm infinitely thankful to, were nice.

The boarding to the Vienna-Beijing flight (AirChina) is fast, and I'm in my seat in about 10 minutes. I also find a pillow and a blanket on my seat. As the pillow finds itself supporting my back, cabin crew warns us about possible turbulence and goes over the safety instructions. I was expecting to be sitting next to someone, but the middle seat remains empty, which gives me and the aisle seat guy a little more legroom. I settle in for a 9 hour flight. A window to my left and a screen in front of me, I have 2 ways to entertain myself — either look at ground below and admire the clouds, or watch a movie. I chose the latter.

My first choice was a 3 hour (2 hours 48 minutes) animated movie called Chang An, a story about Li Bai and Gao Shi (Tang dynasty poets). I'm occasionally interrupted by crew announcements and warnings, so the movie stops from time to time. Dinner (if you can call it dinner at ~14:30-15:00) arrives and I can choose between beef and potatoes and chicken and rice. Chicken sounded quite appealing, so that's what I got. It's a tasty meal, but I couldn't eat all of the chicken as I wasn't the biggest fan of it's texture. It was also quite salty.

The turbulence does exist, but it's not as bad as I thought. While it does get a bit shakey, it's barely noticeable for someone (me) who lived near a railway all her life. The rougher patches reminded me of 2015, when we were traveling to Saint-Petersburg by train. I could have just gotten lucky.

Being who I am, while scrolling through the selection of movies, I managed to find all three parts of "Lord of The Rings". Did I watch them already? Multiple times at that? Maybe, but a good movie is a good movie. Also, I wanted to practice reading Chinese characters and considering I already know the contents of the films, it gives me an opportunity to focus on reading. I was pleased to find out that I understand at least half of the characters and can even understand most of the sentences (English voice-over does help a bit). Most of the plane is dark at this point as the lights get dimmed and window covers get lowered and most of the passengers are trying to catch some sleep, but I, unable to sleep in a loud and unfamiliar place, dive into the world of Middle Earth yet again.

As my second meal I chose noodles and pork. I don't know why they decided to drown everything, aside from desert and bread, in salt, but I can't say I'm a fan of it.

As I landed, I've tried contacting my parents and brother to notify them that I've successfully landed in Beijing, as I've done so in Vienna, I was quickly disappointed — any message I've tried to send would just get stuck loading. So I did the next best thing and sent 2 short SMS to tell them I'm fine.

Transfer to Taipei is fast, yet a bit confusing. The security check workers just silently gestured what they wanted you to do, and you just had to know. It was quite effective, as there was no room for small talk.

At 4:30 am the airport is basically empty aside from a few people sleeping on chairs here and there. The activities started closer to 7 am, but my gate was so far away, that I could enjoy a few hours of peace and relative quiet.

As the Beijing-Taipei flight is so short (and I'm in economy), there wasn't a screen to entertain myself. Sleep just wouldn't come, so I tried napping, then waiting refreshments to come.

I wasn't really expecting to be served breakfast (I'm traumatised by AirBaltic), but I was. I'm not afraid to admit to the fact that I'm a very picky eater, but "New country, New me", I guess. So I tried the rice porridge they were offering. I've heard so many good things about thisbdish, that it would be a shame not to try. I didn't enjoy it at all. But the side dishes of yoghurt (?), bread with butter and melon did help me improve my mood.

Arrival at Taipei is a bit confusing. There are so many signs, people rushing around etc. After some time of filling out the arrival card and waiting in line, I'm approved to enter and stay in Taiwan.

And my first stop in The Republic of China is... a McDonald's in the airport's food court. Even as other restaurants offering Chinese food temp me, I'm dead set on getting a burger with chicken. Honestly, I just wanted something familiar, with no additional surprises.

I spent around an hour there and then made my way to the Arrivals Hall to find my hotel bus. I did find, quite quickly at that. I also found out that's it's HOT outside. My trusty phone notified me that it was 34°c outside (with a small comment underneath saying 'feels like 48°c'). Sure, I can imagine how hot 34°c is, since Latvia is not gloomy and gray all year round, but 48°c (even 'feels like') is something else. So I've returned to the airport, where air-conditioning was.

I managed to check in to the hotel earlier than what Booking.com said, without any additional charges. I can now finally sleep in a proper bed.

[the-firebird69]

We have to be careful here no these people are trying to steal from everyone and the pseudo empire too and the empire left us to try and capture us while they're doing this because they're incompetent but taking over businesses today and we're purchasing them or we are doing a force takeover and these guys figured out there's nothing to steal hey there rather slow so they want us to and we'll beat them up.

Her son tried to call a lawyer this morning and he got to run around and blocked at Morgan & Morgan and bja is angry and it was by a trumpster grandchild the same one that bothers the s*** out of him and part of the scheme with the Walmart telephone thing and they're going to go down now people after them put a damn nuisance

-you have a huge announcement the John remillard person is going to court today it's for sexual abuse or someone and it's the same character name and it was in punta Gorda well that's what he's saying but he has several crimes he committed that people are playing charges on him shortly one of them is a sex crime and it's sexual assault they haven't bothered charges yet they're waiting to see what pans out with the president stuff and a lot of people are waiting and you want to get money and they're going after their people yeah

-last night was a success for bja and not really he has to get a lot more stuff and people today people are leaving work and they're quitting to sign up for the military to go after Trump a huge numbers and Trump does not have that many people he said about 3% roughly 3.2% actually and pretty soon less and he will try and get out but his his competition is around 8.5% and they have a lot more people on the island and they're going gangbusters building stuff and hiring people and we can't really supply them with vehicles down there directly he's driving them around and as military vehicles so our son suggests he paint them the original colors and fix them up if they're a mess to drive them around a little and he might be able to make them here and they can use them here on their basis but only after they modify them it's not a big deal it's really just paint so he said that's nice and will make it into a regular vehicle and we're trying out build what they can buy anything that's good so it's possibly going to go forwards

-there's a few other deals in the works that are important. One of them is Ford itself and we're purchasing stock today we plan on buying tons of it and really you can buy it until the close of the day is not true the offer so many stocks and you have so much time to purchase it per each offer and then it's the close of the day so we are going to buy tons and tons of Ford and it's going to take a little bit more time her son has an idea that he can be an amateur body builder or novice and they make money and he found out and office can make a few hundred dollars even $1,000 so competition and mac daddy says it's true but he has to heal we can't wear ice when he's in competition or even working out there's a problem with everything but it's real there's some other items

-there's a huge number of people who are just walking around and they never buy anything anymore I just obnoxious as hell and happens every weekend and we need to figure out what they're doing all of them and we need to curtail their activities and take over. Speaking of which in the Midwest there are four cities emptying right now they're half empty and removing stuff today and leaving tonight we expect that to be another quarter and it's not that many left and we noticed that another five cities are beginning to empty because they are and they're going to leave fast and won't get most of the stores probably 75% or more and we're going to take it over right away.

-we have new data 5% of the Mac morlock mostly bja and company and miscellaneous have left their work already today that means 25% this week of their workforce which roughly accounts for about 3.5% of the world's workforce because it does not count the islands if they did it would be less but that's a separate economy at this time they don't have import export only fossil fuels and some raw material that that's being shut down by the pseudo empire was taking it all

-there's a point right now it's 25% but if they reach 50% of their workforce they are not going to be welcome where they are because they'll start trying to take things and we simply have to go to areas where they're quitting more right now and we will end up taking over and it is good but it's going to be hell you have estimated today since 5% are leaving or really have left already we have estimated about 10% and that's the very high number

-evacuations from Florida continue we are down to about 30% but the that's Florida's average we went over the distribution but today we think 5% will evacuate and it's conservative more come in though last night they lost 3,000 out of the 4500 and they're mostly colonels and sergeants only about 100 kernels and lost three generals and one region is in critical condition. Most of the 20 households are intact so it's giving them motivation tonight will probably go into the rings and we need them to

-there's several jobs people want to offer to our son and he's not to enthused about breaking stones and he found the code and she found the code and it's not too enthused he has an idea now what to do they have someone who might do the work and he is willing to do it and he is Justin and he doesn't really like substituting but at least he's helping someone get something done maybe in the future depending on what happens but it's pretty harsh people are all over them for it

We're going to publish

Thor Freya

Olympus