#and to be transparent on this. this id a lot of stuff i’ve only recently realized and started to unpack because i’ve stopped being obsessed

[metallteeff]

okay i will rant for like two seconds my once a month rant but i have recently realized fucking psychology or i guess like modern/pop psychology especially is destroyingggg art. so bad.

like as writer/artist for like the past 2-3 years i’ve found myself being like oh i need to be able to perfectly articulate how my stories deal with mental health and then i get in this awful loop bc i’m not writing anymore im dissecting.

and on the audience part too it’s also awful. i love metas and analysis etc etc but it’s all turned into this strange phenomenon of like “proving a theory” and so many of these metas (im just going to use that for the catchall) focus on the same dissection.

just lately when it comes to art and discussion old or new academic or twitter rants i feel like i constantly see people asking “what is wrong with the artist to make them make this” instead of understanding the emotion or subject present in the piece and dissecting that as it relates to you. it has ti be clinical and hard fact and true to the creators intent.

i hate this approach so much and the way i see it effects my writing has made me crazy so i’m glad i’ve realized. i do not like to see abstract concepts put into a box im sure no one else does but being in like online art culture it’s so so so bad for that because no one can discuss anything online it has to be a debate. and then you’re debating art instead of analyzing and sharing experience.

this is all very vague and that’s kind of the point. what i’m talking about applies to anyone from like brain rotted edge lord anime girl artists to characters in mainstream/high production projects. there is no separation of art from artist on the basis of how does it make you feel it seems like it’s everyone’s wondering what’s going on in the artists head and trying to use their art as tools to figure it out. i think that has terrified me in creating and it’s made me feel like i have to make it present in my art in the first place so i have “nothing to hide” but why does an audience need to be in your psyche???

this is not me saying exploring mental health and illness and symptoms of it in art is a bad thing, it is exactly the opposite. it’s when it turns into everyone fighting about how xyz proves their headcanon correct and then no one else is allowed to interpret a character another way when the point of most art from the people i know and/or admire want the exact opposite. every character should be a mirror to a large variety of people and experiences. the same shade of green should excite one person and disgust the next. i am just so tired and appalled and over the like compartmentalization of art to enjoy it as a monolith go fuck yourself!!!!!

and i kind of got off topic with the subject of psychology present in art but looking at art with a psychological lense can be fun but that’s the lens you should already be using in the sense of connecting emotionally to pieces. i’m seeing yourself in the art right in front of you. most people (especially people who don’t create art often) go into art immediately trying to “figure it out” which i understand but how to you make it clear to everyone that they already understand, they just need to listen to what is there in front of them.

to look at art through a clinical lens is the death of art is maybe a more accurate way of talking about it. to look at art and try to dissect it, not for yourself, but to say “i know exactly what the artist was thinking” you’ll never be right. it’s fun to joke about in the basis of relation to the art but then that’s just you relating. that’s your experience and perception. you will never know the artists intent.

this is more specific and a little more silly but i feel like that^ over laps with people freaking out about character and “good/bad” representation. saying gay characters can only act this way. that characters with plurality can only be portrayed like this. that characters with a disability or neurodivergence or this or that can only say this list of things or else you’ve made a “harmful character”. of course there is harmful stereotyping but i would hope everyone able to publish and produce stuff knows what to do and not to do. i know that’s not realistic but i hope majority of writers don’t need a strict do and does list to write all of their stories!

i really mean this more in the way of making a strict view of how exactly to portray a certain character especially when it comes to marginalized identity and psychology then makes a new box that pisses people off. people did not like autistic people being portrayed as emotionless genius robots who parade as people and that’s normal because that is fucked up. but why now does every autistic character need to be almost a joke about being “too weird”. why also does a character need to be confirmed by the creator to be anything. it’s definitely nice but to me if a character portrays your experience without being confirmed anything, why not just enjoy the character in the way you perceive them. i’m also just a really big fan of ambiguity and surrealism in art so that’s how i prefer to take it but i don’t understand why every single aspect of art needs to be labeled for enjoyment. it’s killing it.

i kind of got off track with this but i hope it’s clear how i feel like psychology effects art in the ways of when you confine symptoms to one box and you put people into those boxes and those people love art and make art. then the perception of art will be affected and it’s hurting it badly. it is okay to be uncertain but i think psychology is hurting people and art badly in tandem

[midzelink]

So, as some of you might know, one of my GIFs was recently featured on the Tumblr Radar - which is pretty cool!  I was fairly happy with how that one turned out, especially considering that I made it rather last-minute on a whim to acknowledge Valentine’s Day.  It understandably received a lot of attention as a result of this, and I’ve loved reading through all the comments and tags (especially all the ones about how people want to eat the heart containers from TP); however, I wanted to clear up a bit of a misunderstanding surrounding the creation of that GIF, as there were additionally a lot of tags along the lines of #3d art or #artists on tumblr in that influx of reblogs.  I don’t want to take credit for something I didn’t do, even accidentally, and so allow me to be perfectly clear: the heart container GIF is not something I modeled and rendered myself! It is the original in-game model, recorded in-game using the Dolphin GCN/Wii emulator, with very little done in the way of post-processing in Photoshop.  If that sounds impossible or confusing (which is perfectly understandable, for those of you unaware of what Dolphin is capable of), I’d like to take this opportunity to give you guys a bit of a “peek behind the curtain,” as it were, to show you guys exactly how I made that particular GIF, as well as similar ones I’ve made (such as those in my #items tag).  

I didn’t take screenshots of my initial process (nor did I save the edited textures I used), so I’ll be recreating it from the ground up for the sake of demonstration, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

First thing’s first: finding a heart container! For this particular GIF, I wound up using the one that spawns after the Morpheel fight at the end of Lakebed Temple.  I’m sure many others would work just as well (I think, at the time, this one just happened to be the most accessible to me), but let’s use the same one for the sake of it.  

Morpheel: defeated.  And I didn’t even need Zora Armor! (Seriously, we do that in the speedrun.  But I’m getting off-topic.)  Of course, we’re going to need clean, close-up footage of the heart container rotating in order to do what we want to do, so let’s shift into first-person mode and and get a bit closer to the thing.

Now, because the only UI-element in this shot is Link’s health (and it’s in the corner and relatively non-obtrusive), removing it isn’t strictly necessary - but I’ve already made a texture pack that removes UI elements as part of my Text Free TP project from a while back, so let’s load it anyway, for the sake of being thorough.  This shot is also still a bit too far away, so next we’ll be utilizing Dolphin’s free cam feature (which can be accessed by going to Graphics > Advanced > Free Look and checking “Enable” in Dolphin) in order to get the heart container in a more central position. Now we’re left with this:

And we’re already looking well on our way to making a nice, solid color background GIF.  But how do we get the solid color? Well, that’s where more texture editing comes into play - and here I have to give credit where credit is due, as this is a trick I picked up from 186px, after wondering how they were able to make this GIFset of Link fighting Ganondorf in The Wind Waker in a great, black void.  (Seriously, shoutouts to them, their stuff was and still is amazing.)

But, very basically, we’ll be using Dolphin’s texture dump feature in order to find the textures that need to be edited so we can replace them with pure black ones.  Texture dumping can be enabled by going to Graphics > Advanced > Utility and checking “Dump Textures,” and the file path for these dumped textures by default is Documents > Dolphin Emulator > Dump > Textures > [Game ID].  (In the case of Twilight Princess, the Game ID is GZ2E01).  After dumping the textures in the Morpheel arena, my GZ2E01 folder looks like this:

When editing textures, sometimes you’ll have to endure a bit of trial and error until you find the correct ones.  Luckily, in this scene, the textures making up the sand floor and the stone walls are rather large, so let’s isolate the ones we’re pretty sure are responsible (plus a few others that are obviously environmental, just to be safe).

Now, when loading custom textures, it’s important that the file name you’re trying to load matches up exactly with the original texture that you’re trying to replace.  I have a plain, black, square PNG that I keep on my desktop specifically for this purpose; I copy the file names of the textures I’ve isolated, then rename and drag and drop the black PNG into the folder where custom textures are loaded (Documents > Dolphin Emulator > Load > Textures > [Game ID]).  Like so:

And now, to refresh our custom textures by disabling and reenabling them in Dolphin’s graphics settings:

And voilà! We have something that very nearly resembles the GIF I made (well, a still of it, at least).  I skipped over a few details, such as the fact that TP has a pretty significant amount of bloom surrounding just about everything, which I’m fairly certain I disabled using cheat codes when I made the original GIF in order to give it an overall cleaner look.  It’s hard to tell from this still, but TP’s heart containers also sparkle considerably in a way that’s random and not loopable; I found the texture responsible for this sparkle and replaced it with a transparent 1x1 PNG, in order to remove it entirely (as well as the texture behind the “glow” of the thing).  After that, it was as simple as recording the game with OBS, dumping the MP4 into Photoshop, cropping and cutting it to make it loop, and adding some adjustment layers for contrast and color.  So...yeah!

I hope this has served to clear up any confusion about some of the things that I’ve made in the past.  I’m not a 3D artist - just a person with an emulator and way too much free time on their hands.  This stuff is really, super simple, and also lots of fun, so I would highly encourage anyone with the means to mess around with emulation on their own some time to see what they can do!  (Even if you don’t have Photoshop and can’t make GIFs, there are always edits, such as this one I made of Midna.)  For Twilight Princess in particular, I also highly recommend checking out TPGZ; it’s a patch you can apply to a clean ISO of the original game, designed with the purposes of helping folks learn and practice the speedruns (yes, I had to bring up speedrunning one last time, kill me), but it’s got nifty features like built-in savestates, cheat codes, and HUD removal, as well as the ability to freeze actors while maintaining the ability to move the camera freely, among other things (all things that are very useful as far as making unique graphics go).  Sorry this post got as long as it did, but I at the very least hope that some of you found it educational and/or interesting.  Cheers!

[segadores-y-soldados]

Fic Updates

Hola, hola!

This here is JUST the fic update information for my fics “Old Habits” and “New Wars” (aka the “And Overwatch For All” series).  The short version goes like this:

Moira has been integrated into the overarching plot of “And Overwatch For All”

All the OCs have survived.  Or well.  They survived only to die.  You get what I mean.

Major changes have occurred to Gabriel/Reaper’s backstory.  This is the big one that is causing me to take the time to rework things.

Because of this, I am currently rewriting major portions of Old Habits.  Yesterday, I finished a major rewrite of chapter 10 (the “evil council is introduce” chapter).  I have the majority of chapter 11′s rewrite done and hope to finish that today as well.  With luck, I will start working on a rewrite of Chapter 13.

Shockingly, I’m keeping a lot of the “present day” plot elements the same (aka, all the stuff leading up to Recall), with minor changes to the Eichenwalde battle to fit in “Honor and Glory.”

More under the cut!

For those of your who have been waiting patiently for information on “And Overwatch for All” I do have some good news that I’m finally ready to share:

Moira has been integrated into the plot.

I got a number of comments here and on twitter that were really supportive of my current version of “AOFA” and I just want to say, thank you all so much.  It means a lot to me that you guys have liked the version of Overwatch I’ve built up and that you found all the characters, including my silly OCs, to be engaging and well-written.  It was soul-crushing to think I would have to lose some of them, but after some time and doing more research on Moira, I feel ready to talk more about her and how she’s going to factor into the updated plot.

To start off with:

None of the OCs will be cut, but some of their roles will change.

Lmao, this surprised me as well, but I’ve figured out a few different ways to make all of the OCs, especially the very obviously contrived “Death Agents,” stick around in the updated plot.

Only one OC (and you can probably guess who, if you’ve started “New Wars”) will change names: the character called “Reaper” in “New Wars Chapter 1″ (the “young Hanzo chapter”) will be called “Reaver.”  This is due to his updated role in the plot.  His background has changed only slightly.

If it wasn’t apparent, this “Reaper” was meant to act as a plot device to cause confusion over Gabriel/Reaper’s actions after the fall of Overwatch, but that has changed because:

I’m switching to Crisis-era and “undercover mercenary” Reaper.

THIS ISN’T A SPOILER FOR MY OWN STUFF, I PROMISE.

This is revealed as early as Old Habits “revised chapter 2.”

If you’ve read some of my more recent posts on Moira, you’ll know that I’ve switched over to supporting the idea that “something went wrong with Gabriel Reyes during SEP/the Crisis.”  This is due to the fact that you can find a folder labeled “Soldier ID: 24″ in Moira’s Oasis lab, that Michael Chu said that Reyes was interested in getting her help on “matters of genetics,” and that this appears to mesh the “Reaper has existed for decades” concept in Reaper’s hero profile.

Truth be told, I’ve actually been a supporter of this idea of “Gabriel has been Reaper behind the scenes for decades” plot point for a long, long time, almost as long as I’ve been posting Old Habits.  “Reaper”/“Reaver” was semi-messy OC that attempted to bridge Reaper’s original hero profile with the “Old Soldiers” explanation that Gabriel/Reaper gave that “Jack and Overwatch ‘left [him] to suffer.’”  However, I also knew when writing Old Habits that the “Mercy is evil” theory was ALSO not true, so I was kinda stuck:

“If Gabriel = Reaper for decades, why did he appear to blame Jack and Overwatch for his current condition?”

My original solution was to make “Reaper” a different character and have him operating the situation in the background (like a mystery story), but over time this solution got trickier and trickier to work with.  With Moira, I have a chance to rework much of Old Habits/AOFA to better suit some of the details that have come out since drafting it.

This does mean, unfortunately, that all the “76+127″ content is going to become its own, standalone series.

To switch over to integrating “Soldier: 24,” the “76+127″ stories will have to become their own standalone series.  Don’t worry - I’m not deleting anything.  Old content from “Old Habits” will be moved to their own fics, so you can read the whole thing in chronological order.

A new version of my updated ideas on SEP has already started being drafted.  Writing it out is just a matter of time at this point, haha.

The conspiracy/Talon council “mysteries” will become more transparent almost immediately.

With Moira, I finally get the chance to explore some of my ideas in “full format” instead of the kinda awkward “Sombra hacking a chat log” parts yall originally got.  This DOES mean that written portions will suddenly be much, MUCH longer.  For example:

Old Habits original chapter 10 (Sombra hacks an SSO chat log): 17 pages

Old Habits revised chapter 10 (Moira discusses the Route 66 battle with council members + Sombra hacks a chat log): closer to 34 pages

The explosion fight has been changed.

Because of the changes to Gabriel’s plot, the nature of the explosion fight between him and Jack has changed significantly.  It does incorporate new information that Moira revealed.

If it wasn’t obvious, I’ve had a draft version of my ideas for the fight sitting in GDocs for about a year now, and I use that for all my flashback/memories, and also for when Reaper and Soldier: 76 are arguing in the present.  There was a major plot point in the explosion fight that I was extremely uncomfortable with, but found it to be “solid angst material.”  In retrospect, I dislike this plot point and have removed it for another plot point that sits better with me, and fits the overall story more comfortably (I think).

So yes, I DO have a new draft of the explosion fight - written completely from scratch, 100% different in tone and emotionality.  Parts of this should begin to show in updates to Chapter 13, when Soldier: 76/Jack reflects on some of the fight.

The Goal:

The goal for AOFA right now is to update Old Habits in “two big batches” - update the first half (Chapters 1 - 15) within 1 - 2 weeks, and then update the second half (Chapters 16 - 31) shortly after.  Optimistically, before January, but realistically, closer to late-January/early-February.

I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to notify people of changes to an AO3 chapter that’s already posted...through AO3, so for now, please keep and eye on my tumblr and twitter accounts, where I will start linking to updated/changed chapters there.  I will likely also put up a “placeholder chapter” on “New Wars” with all this information, where you can find links to updated chapters in both “Old Habits” and “New Wars,” but if anyone has better suggestions, I’m all ears.

Thank you all so much for your patience!  I hope I can start putting up some of these changed chapters soon!

[electricmoi]

Goodbye, my activist sensibilities

When I was in college, I understood all of the activists' concerns, most especially in terms of our tuition fee. It was during that time when the supposed to be subsidized UP tuition increased by 80%. In an outsider's mind, one would say that it's still pretty cheap especially since the UP education is good. However, on a "woke" UP student, the issue of corruption and subsidy strikes. The government has a lot of money and can definitely subsidize many educational institutions if and only if the graft and corruption decreases.

Embarrassing pic, but I'd like to highlight this time of my life when I was super positive & was very much into Japanese culture[/caption] When I graduated from college, it was work, making money, and many new interests that enveloped my brain, so from 2010-2015, I lived a highly consumerist lifestyle. To be honest, those were some of the happiest days of my life. Positivity at its finest. However, in 2016, I was exposed to societal issues once again. If you were with me during my "bright" days, you would've never thought that I would have a "woke" mind. It is not without its costs. It entailed Purism, but how on earth can a person like me live a simple lifestyle when I'm surrounded by cute stuff, sophisticated friends, and a highly sociable and foodie family? I had to keep up with them. I also don't wanna be a hypocrite. While everyone's free to become an activist, I feel that most of them including me are hypocrites.

There were multiple cognitive dissonances in my brain. This leads to depression. I felt like I lost a lot of control. It was hard to balance my social awareness with my needs and wants. Both my activist and capitalist/consumerist friends brought pressure on me. There were times that I thought I was alone. My activist friends seem not to have a problem with it. Being an activist made me suffer from also demotivated me. I also believe that focusing on the negative societal issues led to the greatest adversity in my life, which happened this year.

Related: Circa 2016-2017: Activism Amplified

Current Situation I will still give a sh*t about societal issues. That won't entirely be erased from my system. However, I can't control everyone, especially the big-ticket people who are in power. I'll just focus on my self, my loved ones, and helping others in my own little way.

As of this time of my life, I'm happy and thankful to have found a new hobby that I can focus on--blogging. I can't commit to writing 1 post a day or at least 4 posts in a week, but it's a great thing that I was accepted in my city's premier blogging community, the Davao Bloggers Society. Aside from that, I really need to level up my game in life. Having activist sensibilities is no walk in the park. It is a luxury. As of now, I cannot afford it. I have to manage my finances. I have a cat to feed and friends to bond with over movies, food, and coffee. I have a future that I have to work on. Now, I'll only focus on my goals and on the positive. I promised myself that I will do my best so that my future will be positively-charged and prosperous. Wish me luck! The copyright-free images used in this blog post are from Unsplash.

[weekendwarriorblog]

Weekend Warrior Home Edition – April 3, 2020 – Slay the Dragon, Tape and More

Well, things sure have gone to hell since I last wrote this weekly column that I’ve now been doing in some form or another at one place or other for over nineteen years! For the first time in those 19 years and probably a good 80 or 90 years before that, there were no movies in theaters. In fact, there were no movie theaters. Because of this, the last two weekends have been the first in history with ZERO BOX OFFICE. It’s kind of tough to write a column about the box office and theatrical releases when there are none, n’est ce pas?

So I’m going to try to evolve for the time being, and we’ll see how that goes. I’m not too thrilled about having to watch movies as screeners, let alone writing about movies that will probably never get a theatrical release, but I’ll try to make the best of it. (Oh, and Disney’s Onward, which opened in theaters less than a month ago will be available ON DISNEY+* tomorrow.) (*corrected)

This week’s “Featured Movie” that you absolutely must see, especially if you’re reading this from one of the “red states” and feel like government just isn’t doing things the way you’d like them to do, is Barak Goodman and Chris Durrance’s political documentary SLAY THE DRAGON (Magnolia).  It covers how gerrymandering is being used in census years (like this one) to maintain a Republican majority in local and state government.  Goodman’s doc begins in Michael Moore territory of Flint, Michigan and shows how gerrymandering was used to create a Republican majority that led to the town getting water from the nearby Flint River which contaminated the pipes and leaked lead into the system.

The film does a good job explaining gerrymandering in an easy to understand way by following a few specific cases of people fighting against the policies.  Counties and voting districts in different states aren’t just a straight grid on a map. Instead, the districts are drawn up to cause an unfair advantage to a party. This was especially true of the REDMAP program instituted in 2008 by the GOP after Barack Obama was elected President to make sure Republicans could dominate Congress as well as politics on a state level.  

Much of the film deals with Katie Fahey’s group Citizens United that has decided to take on the politicians with its grassroots campaign to allow the people’s voices and votes to start counting. (One of the programs that grew out of REDMAPping was that thousands of voters were not able to vote since a few states passed a law that ID was required to vote, thereby keeping black and brown voters from the polls.)

Yes, it’s a rather complicated situation but it’s one that people in the primarily liberal states like New York, California and others really need to know about, since it’s why we have a reality TV host as our President right now as well as why we have a Republican Senate that just prevented him from being impeached. All of the bigger politics goes back to the individual state politics and how gerrymandering and REDMAP unfairly sways the vote against those who win on the state level in census years (essentially every ten years including 2020). Originally, this was going to get a theatrical release in March but now it will only be available on digital and On Demand, so you can find out how to see it on the official site.

I also want to give a little extra attention to Deborah Kampmeier’s TAPE (Full Moon Films), which skipped its theatrical release instead to do an interesting “virtual theatrical run,” playing every night On Demand via CrowdCast. It’s available every night at 7pm eastern followed by discussions with the filmmakers and then will be on Digital and VOD on April 10. Again, these are changing times, but this is a haunting and powerful thriller based on true events, starring Anarosa Mudd as a woman trying to catch a sleezy casting agent (Tarek Bishara) who is preying on actresses and one in particular, played by Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan). Both of their performances are pretty amazing, Mudd playing a shaven-head whistleblower and Fuhrman playing an ambitious young actress who think she’s finally gotten her much-needed break, but finding out there’s a lot darker side to the business than she expected. While a lot of people have raved about The Assistant as a response to #MeToo, this is a much starker and direct look at the abuse of power to take advantage of young women. The movie is not going to be for everybody, because it takes some time before you realize what Mudd’s character (who could just as easily be Rose MacGowan) is up to, but the way how things play out in the film makes it unforgettable. It’s a fantastic new movie from Kampmeier, who famously had an underage Dakota Fanning have a rape scene in her earlier movie, Hounddog.

A movie that was released last week that I didn’t get to write about (but it’s still available On Demand and Digitally, as many movies currently are) is Lorcan Finnegan’s VIVARIUM (Saban Films), starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots. It’s a virtual two-hander in which they play a couple who look at a house in a suburban housing complex where every house looks the same. They soon learn that they can’t escape and things get weirder and weirder from there. I can’t say I loved the movie, because it just got weirder and weirder, almost to a fault at times.

Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska’s THE OTHER LAMB (IFC Midnight) is another movie about a religious cult, this one a group of women that live in a remote forest commune led by a man they call “Shepherd” (played by Michiel Huisman from Game of Thrones and The Haunting of Hill House). It follows a teenager named Selah (Raffey Cassidy) who begins to question her existence when she starts having nightmarish visions. This was okay, but I really have hit my limit in terms of movies about religious cults. They’ve just been overdone.

Mike Doyle’s rom-com ALMOST LOVE (Vertical) is about a group of middle-aged friends trying to navigate love and relationships with a cast that includes Scott Evans, Kate Walsh, Patricia Clarkson, Augustus Prew and more. Some of the characters are having marital issues, others are dating or getting into early feelings of possible love. It’s a nice distraction from all the serious stuff going on in the world today.

A great music doc now On Demand, digital and other formats (Blu-ray/DVD) is Brent Wilson’s STREETLIGHT HARMONIES (Gravitas), which takes a look at the early doo-wop vocal groups of the ‘50s and ‘60s that predated and formed the basis for Rock & Roll, Rhythm & Blues and other music genres as we know them today. It deals with acts like The Drifters, Little Antony and the Imperials, The Platters, and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. It includes interviews with some of the more recent acts influenced by it including En Vogue and N’Sync as well as Brians Wilson and McKnight. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this despite doo-wop not being my preferred music style. (For the sake of transparency, I helped out with a little bit of publicity on this film.)

Also, Olivier Meyrou’s fly-on-the-wall doc Celebration (1091) is a movie that was commissioned by Yves Saint Laurent’s former lover and business partner, Pierre Bergé, more than ten years ago but was shelved for being too revealing. It was filmed over the course of three years where Laurent was at his most frail and mostly separated from the world as we get a look inside one of the last great haute couture houses. It’s now available On Demand and digitally.

Jon Abrahams directs and co-stars in Clover (Freestyle Digital Media) opposite the great Mark Webber, playing bumbling Irish twins trying to pay off their father’s debt to local mob boss Tony Davolo, played by Chazz Palminteri. Things get more complicated when a teen girl named Clover (Nicole Elizabeth Berger) shows up and the brothers need to protect her from Tony’s “hit-women.” Looks like a fun dark comedy.

Unfortunately, Saban Films didn’t offer advance review screeners of the action sequel, Rogue Warrior: The Hunt (Saban Films), directed by Mike Gunther, but it stars Will Yun Lee.  I’m not sure if this is a sequel to 2017’s Rogue Warrior: The Hunt, but I haven’t seen that either. It involves the leader of an elite team of soldiers being captured by terrorists, so his team needs rescue him. Oh, and Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don’t Breathe) is in it, too.

STREAMING AND CABLE

This week’s Netflix offerings include the streaming network’s latest true-crime documentary series, HOW TO FIX A DRUG SCANDAL, directed by Erin Lee Carr (Dirty Money), which covers the 2013 case of Sonja Farak, a crime drug lab specialist who was arrested for tampering with evidence but also accused of using the drugs she was supposed to be testing.  (It’s on the service as of this writing.)

Stuber and Good director Michael Dowse helms the action-comedy COFFEE & KAREEM, starring Ed Helms as police officer James Coffee, who begins dating Taraji P. Henson’s Vanessa Manning while her 12-year-old son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) plots their break-up. Kareem hires criminal fugitives to kill Coffee but instead ends up getting his whole family targeted, so the two must team up. Also starring Betty Gilpin, RonReaco Lee, Andrew Bachelor and David Alan Grier.

Also on Friday, Disney Plus will stream two Disneynature docs, Dolphin Reef and Elephant, in honor of Earth Day taking place later this month. Previously, one or both of these movies might have been released theatrically but hey, earth is going to hell right now.

Now playing on Hulu is the latest installment of Blumhouse’s “Into the Dark,” Alejandro Brugué’s Pooka Lives, which ties in with “Pooka Day” (no idea what that is) but apparently, Pooka is a fictional creature like “Slender Man” that was created on Creepypasta  by a group of friends that goes viral but then manifests into creatures that become real. It stars fan faves Felicia Day, Will Wheaton, Rachel Bloom and more.

Next week, more movies not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or send me a note on Twitter. I love hearing from readers!

[hydrus]

Version 255

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

tar.gz

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a great week, getting a lot done. There are many improvements to the duplicate system and some important notes for anyone who downloads from gelbooru.

you can now move tabs!

Right-click on a page tab on the main gui and hit 'move left/right' to move it left and right!

I can't believe I didn't think of this before, but it was a hell of a lot easier than writing custom drag and drop code!

the gelbooru downloader is not healthy

Like several other downloaders in the program, now the gelbooru parser is now also having trouble. I fixed some gelbooru ssl and redirect problems this week, but the gelbooru guys themselves have also changed how their gallery thumbnail URLs work in a way that is not helpful to hydrus, particularly for subscriptions.

The gelbooru downloader page seems to fetch files and tags fine, although the urls associated with the files are not great.

For subscriptions, I have attempted to mitigate the url problem in the update code--you will receive a popup on update if you are affected--but if you had a gelbooru subscription fire in the past week (it then likely had an error due to the above redirect problem), you should check it in the manage subscriptions dialog. If the sub has twice as many urls as it should, you should go into the subscription, click the icon button that launches the list of urls and then either 'skip' or just delete the new ones.

If you have too many subs to fix or are just not confident playing around with this stuff, just pause all your gelbooru subscriptions. I will put more work into this next week, which I suspect will include a retroactive purge of these new ugly redirect urls.

This is another reason to overhaul the downloader engine, which will then be more flexible and easier to fix when these things happen. I will start it in a few weeks, as soon as I am done with the current duplicate stuff.

duplicate stuff

I've polished the duplicate filter substantially. Several miscellaneous buttons and unusual workflow cases now work properly, and shift-click should drag media around. Also, the background will brighten and darken as you flick between the pair to give better feedback, and the pairs it presents you will be selected faster and more intelligently.

And as an experiment, I've made it so pairs that have the same resolution will stay at the same zoom and pan when you flick between them. I'm really pleased with how this works, so I may extend it to more classes of pair, like those with the same aspect ratio.

full list

the duplicate filter now supports shift+left-click to drag, like the archive/delete filter (this remains hardcoded for now)

if a pair in the dupe filter has the same resolution, they will now maintain zoom and pan when switching back and forth (I might increase this to work for same ratio as well, let me know how it works in the real world)

the duplicate filter will show a lighter/darker background colour as you scroll the current pair

the way lighter/darker and alternate lighter/darker colours are calculated is now centralised and should be more reliable in edge cases

improved the dupe filter pair selection algorithm--it now chooses pairs more reliably under edge case conditions and prioritises decision-groups that have high potential decision value. it should also run a little faster

increased the dupe filter batch size to 250, let's see if it causes any problems

the close button on the dupe filter's top hover window now works

fixed the duplicate filter disappearing pairs that were skipped (meaning you could not go back to revisit them)

fixed a frequent deadobject error when the dupe filter closes

the shutdown 'maintenance due' test is less sensitive to dupe search tree rebalancing, which typically only takes half a second

the archive/delete filter now uses the new shortcuts system for both keyboard and mouse input

the archive/delete filter now intercepts archive or delete commands from different sources ('media' shortcuts, top hover frame button presses) more reliably and converts them into filter actions (hence moving on to the next file)

you can now move pages one to the left or right from their menu!

on the top-right hover window (and the background underneath), ratings are now on the top, and hence will always be in the same location as you scroll through your media regardless of known urls, remote location, or inbox status

autocomplete searches for tags with apostrophes, quote marks, braces, brackets and paretheses should be more reliable

urls are now associated with files through the same 'content' pipeline as tags and ratings and so on

gui-level media is now aware of the 'new url content update' event and will update and redraw itself appropriately

fixed deviant art nsfw parsing, but it might not hold for long. proper fix here is to wait for the downloader overhaul

networking engine now uses the 'requests' module's CA .pem (which the overhaul will be moving to anyway), which should reduce the frequency of ssl verify failures (gelbooru on the relatively new 'Let's Encrypt' CA had this problem for many users)

fixed the networking engine redirect parsing for gelbooru's unusual location header. unfortunately, gelbooru is still giving mickey-mouse garbage redirect urls from its main thumbnail pages, for which in this engine there is no immediate fix

neighbouring .txt tags will now be properly cleaned and sibling-collapsed in the path tagging dialog

neighbouring .txt tags will now be properly sibling-collapsed in the import folder workflow

making a media viewer borderless fullscreen and back will now recenter the media (previously, the current drag delta was not reset, so this frequently put media off-screen)

fixed a serious issue where the media viewer could lock the client up on opening with a video if its gui options set 'remember size' to false

tag import options objects will cleanse themselves of missing services on options save/client shutdown

manage tags now defaults to cross-referencing 'my files' on the 'local tags' domain, where 'remote' (i.e. deleted) files' tags are not useful

reduced memory use when importing large pngs with transparency

improved adminside petition processing gui reporting

servers will now cap the size of their mapping petitions so as not to ovewhelm the admin processing them (they now won't be both >20 tags and >1000 total row weight)

the media viewer's manage tags frame now listens for content updates from outside, so if you alter an in-view file's tags (such as with a shortcut key), the manage tags dialog will update as it happens

moved a number of the buttons on the top hover windows to the new unified internal command engine (which the new shortcut system also uses)

disk cache maintenance uses fewer resources but now occurs in the foreground (and should hence more reliably maintain the cache)

critical repository service id lookup errors will now automatically reset the repository's processing cache and better inform the user of what has happened. if you see this, please let me know the details and how this error fired in the real world

updated and reinstated the ipfs service panel in review services

updated some ipfs service code for the new service system

misc refactoring and cleanup

more cleanup and deletion of redundant old pubsub command code

updated ubuntu build machine to 17.04 and opencv 3.2

next week

I have 41 things left to do for the duplicate work, and I want to get that to 0 as soon as possible. Beyond some more gelbooru triage, I want to focus on duplicate stuff and a few bugs that I didn't have time to get to this week.

I'm behind on messages, so I'll make some time to catch up as well.

[thelmasirby32]

Increasing Time on Site

Changing User Intents

Google's search quality rater document highlights how the intent of searches can change over time for a specific keyword.

A generic search for [iPhone] is likely to be related to the most recent model. A search for [President Bush] likely was related to the 41st president until his son was elected & then it was most likely to be related to 43.

Faster Ranking Shifts

About 17 years ago when Google was young they did monthly updates where most of any ranking signal shift that would happen would get folded into the rankings. The web today is much faster in terms of the rate of change, amount of news consumption, increasing political polarization, social media channels that amplify outrage and how quickly any cultural snippet can be taken out of context.

Yesterday President Trump had some interesting stuff to say about bleach. In spite of there being an anime series by the same name, news coverage of the presser has driven great interest in the topic.

And that interest is already folded into the organic search results through Google News insertion, Twitter tweet insertion, and the query deserves freshness (QDF) algorithm driving insertion of news stories in other organic search ranking slots.

If a lot of people are searching for something and many trusted news organizations are publishing information about a topic then there is little risk in folding fresh information into the result set.

Temporary Versus Permanent Change

When the intent of a keyword changes sometimes the change is transitory & sometimes it is not.

One of the most common ad-driven business models online is to take something that was once paid, make it free, and then layer ads or some other premium features on top to monetize a different part of the value chain. TripAdvisor democratized hotel reviews. Zillow made foreclosure information easily accessible for free, etc.

The success of remote working & communication services like Skype, Zoom, Basecamp, Slack, Trello, and the ongoing remote work experiment the world is going through will permanently change some consumer behaviors & how businesses operate.

A Pew survey mentioned 43% of Americans stated someone in their house recently lost their job, had their hours reduced, and/or took pay cuts. Hundreds of thousands of people are applying to work in Amazon's grueling fulfillment centers.

To many of these people a lone wolf online job would be a dream come true.

If you had a two hour daily commute and were just as efficient working at home most days would you be in a rush to head back to the office?

How many former fulltime employees are going to become freelancers building their own small businesses they work on directly while augmenting it with platform work on other services like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Upwork, Fiverr, 99 Designs, or even influencer platforms like Intellifluence?

If big publishers are getting disintermediated by monopoly platforms & ad networks are offering crumbs of crumbs there's no harm in selling custom ads directly or having your early publishing efforts subsidized through custom side deals as you build market awareness and invest into building other products and services to sell.

Wordpress keeps adding more features. Many technology services like Shopify, Stripe & Twilio are making most parts of the tech stack outside of marketing cheaper & easier to scale.

Some universities are preparing for the fall semester being entirely online. As technology improves, we spend more time online, more activities happen online, and more work becomes remote. All this leads to the distinction between online and offline losing meaning other than perhaps in terms of cost structure & likelihood of bankruptcy.

Before Panda / After Panda

Before the Panda update each additional page which was created was another lotto ticket and a chance to win. If users had a crappy user experience on a page or site maybe you didn't make the sale, but if the goal of the page was to have the content so crappy that ads were more appealing that could lead to fantastic monetization while it lasted.

That strategy worked well for eHow, fueling the pump-n-dump Demand Media IPO.

Demand Media had to analyze eHow and pay to delete over a million articles which they deemed to have a negative economic value in the post-Panda world.

After the Panda update having many thin pages laying around and creating more thin pages was layering risk on top of risk. It made sense to shift to a smaller, tighter, deeper & more differentiated publishing model.

Entropy & Decay

The web goes through a constant state of reinvention.

Old YouTube Flash embeds break.

HTTP content calls in sites that were upgraded to HTTPS break.

Software which is not updated has security exploits.

If you have a large website and do not regularly update where you are linking to your site is almost certainly linking to porn and malware sites somewhere.

As users shifted to mobile websites that ignored mobile interfaces became relatively less appealing.

Changing web browser behaviors can break website logins and how data is shared across websites dependent on third party services.

Competition improves.

Algorithms change.

Ads eat a growing share of real estate on dominant platforms while organic reach slides.

Everything on the web is constantly dying as competition improves, technology changes and language gets redefined.

Staying Relevant

Even if a change in user intent is transitory, in some cases it can make sense to re-work a page to address a sudden surge of interest to improve time on site, user engagement metrics & make the content on your page more citation-worthy. If news writers are still chasing a trend then having an in-depth background piece of content with more depth gives them something they may want to link at.

Since the Covid-19 implosion of the global economy came into effect I've seen two different clients have a sort of sudden surge in traffic which would make little to no sense unless one considered currently spreading news stories.

News coverage creates interest in topics, shapes perspectives of topics, and creates demand for solutions.

If you read the right people on Twitter sometimes you can be days, weeks or even months ahead of the broader news narrative. Some people are great at spotting the second, third and fourth order effects of changes. You can spot stories bubbling up and participate in the trends.

An Accelerating Rate of Change

When the web was slower & easier you could find an affiliate niche and succeed in it sometimes for years before solid competition would arrive. One of the things I was most floored about this year from a marketing perspective was how quickly spammers ramped up a full court press amplifying the fear the news media was pitching. I think I get something like a hundred spam emails a day pitching facemasks and other COVID-19 solutions. I probably see 50+ other daily ads from services like Outbrain & similar.

The web moves so much faster that the SEC is already taking COVID-19 related actions against dozens of companies. Google banned advertising protective masks and recently announced they are rolling out advertiser ID verification to increase transparency.

If Google is looking at their advertisers with a greater degree of suspicion even into an economic downturn when Expedia is pulling $4 billion from their ad budget & Amazon is cutting back on their Google ad budget and Google decides to freeze hiring then it makes far more sense to keep reinvesting into improving any page which is getting a solid stream of organic search traffic.

Company Town

After Amazon cut their Google ad budget in March Google decided to expand Google Shopping to include free listings. When any of the platforms is losing badly they can afford to subsidize that area and operate it at a loss to try to gain marketshare while making the dominant player in that category look more extreme.

When a player is dominant in a category they can squeeze down on partners. Amazon once again cut affiliate payouts and the Wall Street Journal published an article citing 20 current and former Amazon insiders who stated Amazon uses third party merchant sales data to determine which products to clone:

Amazon employees accessed documents and data about a bestselling car-trunk organizer sold by a third-party vendor. The information included total sales, how much the vendor paid Amazon for marketing and shipping, and how much Amazon made on each sale. Amazon’s private-label arm later introduced its own car-trunk organizers. ... Amazon’s private-label business encompasses more than 45 brands with some 243,000 products, from AmazonBasics batteries to Stone & Beam furniture. Amazon says those brands account for 1% of its $158 billion in annual retail sales, not counting Amazon’s devices such as its Echo speakers, Kindle e-readers and Ring doorbell cameras.

Amazon does not even need to sell their private label products to shift their economics. As Amazon clones products they force the branded ad buy for a company to show up for their own branded terms, taking another bite out of the partner: "Fortem spends as much as $60,000 a month on Amazon advertisements for its items to come up at the top of searches, said Mr. Maslakou."

Amazon has grown so dominant they've not only cut their affiliate & search advertising while hiring hundreds of thousands of employees, but they've also dramatically slowed down shipping times while pulling back on their on-site people also purchase promotions to get users to order less.

While they are growing stronger department stores and other legacy retailers are careening toward bankruptcy.

Multiple Ways to Improve

If you have a page which is ranking that gets a sudden spike in traffic it makes a lot of sense to consider current news & try to consider if the intent of the searcher has changed. If it has, address it as best you can in the most relevant way possible, even if the change is temporary, then consider switching back to the old version of the page or reorganizing your content if/when/as the trend has passed.

One of the pages mentioned above was a pre-Panda "me too" type page which was suddenly flooded with thousands of user visitors. A quality inbound link can easily cost $100 to multiples of that. If a page is already getting thousands of visitors, why not invest a couple hundred dollars into dramatically improving it, knowing that some of those drive by users will likely eventually share it? Make the page an in-depth guide with great graphics and some of those 10,000's of visitors will eventually link to it, as they were already interested in the topic, the page already gets a great stream of traffic, and the content quality is solid.

Last week a client had a big spike from a news topic that changed the intent of a keyword. Their time on site from those visitors was under a minute. After the page was re-created to reflect changing consumer intent their time on site jumped to over 3 minutes for users entering that page. Those users had a far lower bounce rate, a far better user experience, are going to be more likely to trust the site enough to seek it out again, and this sends a signal to Google that the site is still maintained & relevant to the modern search market.

There are many ways to chase the traffic stream

create new content on new pages

gut the old page & publish entirely new content

re-arrange the old page while publishing new relevant breaking news at the top

In general I think the third option is often the best approach because you are aligning the page which already sees the traffic stream with the content they are looking for, while also ensuring any users from the prior intent can still access what they are looking for.

If the trend is huge, or the change in intent is permanent then you could also move the old content to a legacy URL archived page while making the high-traffic page focus on the spiking news topic.

The above advice applies to pages which rank for keywords that change in intent, but it can also apply to any web page which has a strong flow of user traffic. Keep improving the things people see most because improvements there have the biggest returns. How can you make a page deeper, better, more differentiated from the rest of the web?

Does Usage Data Matter?

Objectively, if people visit your website and do not find what they were looking for they are going to click the back button and be done with you.

Outdated content that has become irrelevant due to changing user tastes is only marginally better than outright spam.

While Google suggests they largely do not use bounce rate or user data in their rankings, they have also claimed end user data was the best way they could determine if the user was satisfied with a particular search result. Five years ago Bill Slawski wrote a blog post about long clicks which quoted Steven Levy's In The Plex book:

"On the most basic level, Google could see how satisfied users were. To paraphrase Tolstoy, happy users were all the same. The best sign of their happiness was the "Long Click" — This occurred when someone went to a search result, ideally the top one, and did not return. That meant Google has successfully fulfilled the query."

Think of how many people use the Chrome web browser or have Android tracking devices on them all hours of the day. There is no way Google would be able to track those billions of users every single day without finding a whole lot of signal in the noise.

Categories: 

publishing & media

from Digital Marketing News http://www.seobook.com/increasing-time-site

[bwicblog]

SA: does anyone know scary stories.

TT: your fa(\/)e TT: #goTTem

SA: my face is not a plural.

VV: ♚ ~ Not to mention it's a rather nice face.

SA: thank you ❤

VV: ♚ ~ But I also think scary would depend on the troll, yes? My scary is likely very different from crabbies.

SA: What makes a story scary to you, Perdia?

DD: i dont really know any myself but id love to hear one!

DD: i think so anyways

DD: i dont actually watch horror movies or anything like that very much they always seem so disturbing

DD: but theyre popular around campfires arent they so there must be something to them!!

DD: granted i dont know much about campfires either but thats mostly a circumstance of living underwater until recently

VV: ♚ ~A scary story to me is someone bringing a Birkin to dinner but not bringing a coach bag to put it in just incase it rains...!!

VV: ♚ ~ Or not being prima ballerina anymore.

VV: ♚ ~ truly horrifying.

DD: i think that falls more into the tragedy genre really when you think about it!

DD: horror is when you find out it doesnt matter because it was a knockoff all along! 😛 😛 😛

VV: ♚ ~Be still my tender heart....you're rather correct.

SA: not bringing a coach bag to put it in... in case it rains.

SA: that is very complicated.

SA: I find it easier to have a single wallet.

SA: I enjoy ghost stories. Primarily because I do not believe or feel ghosts.

SA: although i have met mediums.

VV: ♚ ~ Yes! You put the coach in your Birkin, then if it rains you put the Birkin in the Coach. VV: ♚ ~ I have many more things than just a wallet I need a bag to carry it all, may as well be fashionable while I'm at it.

VV: ♚ ~ Did you tell the medium you don't believe?

DD: and really i think the point less about having things to put in your bag and more having the bag in the first place DD: its an accessory!

DD: but oh my goodness i think i believe in ghosts altogether too much

DD: though i guess at the moment im running a little bit more into revenants!! DD: the desert is full of them 😦

SA: oh, no. that would be rude.

SA: I don't understand why you need another bag to put the bag in.

SA: But alright.

SA: yes, there are many out there. so i've heard.

DD: well one of the bags is very valuable fashionable and easy to damage if it ends up in rainy conditions so if you want to be fashionable and be able to bring it places you should have a second less valuable and easily ruinable bag to protect the first one should you need it!

SA: ...Or you could simply have a decent waterproof bag to start that looks well with what you wear.

VV: ♚ ~ Ooooooh this one gets me. I enjoy this seadweller much more than yesternights~ What's your name? I never introduced myself properly, Perdia Averic.

VV: ♚ ~ Honeycomb please, I won't judge your wallet don't judge my superior, luxe bag.

DD: well yes but bags like that typically arent quite as nice! DD: though i spend most of my time underwater so that is what i end up using most of the time anyways admittedly

DD: and oh my goodness well thank you very much that is lovely to hear DD: i was afraid i had come off unfavorably earlier so i am glad that i have not yet succeeded in alienating everyone! DD: my close friend often says i sort of have a way of not being great with people so

DD: although i do agree that vv overall does have a point that while functionality is all well and good if you are into that sort of thing and surrounded by people that are into that sort of thing it really is important to have the appropriate fashionable items at certain times

DD: though i would also argue that does have a function as well just a social one!

SA: well the bag is very pretty with you, little princess. I just could never justify carrying one myself 😃

DD: oh dear i am talking a lot again

DD: my apologies!!

VV: ♚ ~ It's an ultra functional bag~ VV: ♚ ~ Thank you Prisma ✨ I'll carry your wallet for you then. I simply do have looks to upkeep even with my hue. When one works hard to keep a stance certain....choices come with it. VV: ♚ ~ Like a bag in a bag .

VV: ♚ ~ Don't apologize though DD~ You speak a lot but it's not exactly grating. Needs editing, some conciseness of course but ah~ You have a head about you which is more than can be said for some! Pity really. For them of course. They have my pity.

DD: oh but maybe i wouldnt mind some pity insert jokingly coy giggling here DD: you dont happen to be a particularly attractive rainbowdrinker bedecked in frills do you? DD: because i have recently discovered i am quite partial to those! DD: more seriously though thank you that is very lovely to hear especially from a princess of such good taste!

DD: but you are right in that i could do to be more concise my good friend often says similarly though admittedly it is more due to the linebreaks in my codewriting

DD: it is a work in progress!!!

VV: ♚ ~ Oh how transparent you seem to be! I am bedecked in frills often enough but unfortunatley, or rather fortunatley as I am fond of my rougey hue, I am not a jade let alone a deceased one. VV: ♚ ~ Plus my pusher is already claimed hohoho <3 VV: ♚ ~ There's always bound to be one that wanders into this forsaken chat one night though! Sweep them up before another troll does.

VV: ♚ ~ Or go for more...violent measures but I really don't and would never recommend someone get their owns hands dirty.

VV: ♚ ~ Ah! Speaking of maintanence. I must rest. Not that I require much upkeep but a good rest is important! Do rest well new friend, and Honeycomb prince as well~ Good light .

DD: i guess i am pretty transparent but its not as though i have anything to hide really DD: aide from company secrets of course but that's something im good at keeping mum about! DD: and oh dear i dont suppose i really know what you mean when it comes to more violent measures but that sounds like the sort of alarming thing maybe more suited towards the scary stories people brought up earlier!!

DD: and thank you very much i do hope you have a good rest as well!! DD: it is actually nearly moonlight over here as well and i should be turning in soon i just DD: got caught up working on a project of mine and lost track of time! DD: i was just taking a break when i turned on this chat but really i will go to bed DD: i only have to finish... DD: a few more minor things!!! DD: and maybe....

DD: hm!

SA: I apologize, I had to get ready for rest myself.

SA: finish them then?

SA: ..."would never advise someone to get their own hands dirty"

SA: 🤔 goodnight

DD: i am going to finish them!! DD: i just thought of another idea i could implement alongside the module that i am currently editing and oh dear

DD: i cant just stop now! DD: i am on a roll

DD: also i do believe our dear vv is advocating for the use of an auspistice! DD: or an assassin!! DD: i am not quite sure which!

DD: though i am a little bit inclined to select the mediator option on account of i have had some rather hands on dealings with assassins lately and it has all left a sour taste in my mouth!

DD: and not even the good kind of sour like you get with pickled herring

DD: oh dear i believe i am craving fish again DD: there is NO FISH here in the desert!!

ID: alright status report, how is everyone doing post-faire?

SA: Working.

SA has sent IMG_045.png. It is a selfie of him, angled high enough to show a blue or dark indigo troll pinned on the ground. They appear to be unconscious

ID: pftttt. nice selfie background there. better be careful. =:P

SA: this is the last one for the night 😄

SA: I am excited to go hive and sleep.

SA: How are you? How was the party at Siparas?

ID: i'm sure you are.

ID: i'm good. tired, but i didn't expect to sleep well so it's whatever. watched way more fantasy trolls crying about having to dump a magic ring than i ever wanted to.

SA: Oh, it was the lord of the rings?

SA: what would you do if your friend wouldn't let go of the ring, Hadean.

ID: uh i probably would have ganked the ring like. a perigee ago lbh.

SA: it isn't even that useful... Doesn't it just turn the wearer invisible?

ID: i don't know, the evil dude seemed to make it seem like it could do more. maybe it can amplify psi or something. i think the main whiny guy was a flatscan.

SA: maybe. How else would you become a flaming eye.

SA: truly living the life.

ID: idk it was fun. lots of eyecandy at least.

SA: the elves are always nice ❤

SA: I appreciate the costuming more than anything. much better than the chainmail bikinis at the faire.

ID: i liked aragon. he seemed like a cool guy.

SA: And he even got all of his quadrants in the end with his kingdom surviving.

ID: and he got to lead like. all the cool fights.

SA: I'm growing my hair out.

SA: this is what I've gained from this conversation.

SA: I want you to know this.

SA: Hang on, my client is being difficult.

ID: pff if you're gonna, go for it! you got one of those damn mugs that gets to look good no matter what, so.

AA: omggg. but will it blow majestically in the wind? >:}

ID: he already can see stuff.

ID: pris, what do your cuspy eyes see?

SA: Me beating the shit out of this fuchsia if they don't double my pay.

ID: pffff live the dream pris. and get good with a bow.

SA: I am good with a long distance rifle, does that count

SA: No, it will not blow majestically in the wind.

SA: problem resolved. cusp is now theirs.

SA: I can go hive now.

ID: i mean a rifle is just an advanced bow right. so sure.

AA: booooo, no point in long hairn w/o it blowing.

ID: uh the point is to put it in a cool braid. obvs.

AA: brnaid? singularn?? n.

AA: go big orn go home, hads, gotta have, like, at L E A S T a dozen beforne they'rne cool. >:}

SA: Hadean's hair is. too long.

ID: bite me. =:I i like my braid.

AA: you like plenty of lame shit, brnah, embrnace it. accept yrn weak sauce brnaid tastes. >:P

AA: and too long???

SA: emerel stepped on it during the fight, that's too long.

ID: i got him off of it, didn't i?

ID: i mean him stepping on it was just being spiteful.

ID: and i really should've put a spike through his foot for it.

AA: y, that. on both. AA: you can't do yrn app by what ppl might grnab, othernwise, you'll just, like. AA: look borning as fuck. >:P

ID: i mean if it wasn't my braid, he'd have been stomping on my horns.

ID: i have a very grab-able appearance.

SA: I feel as if his foot would have rolled off though due to the shape.

SA: You do.

SA: If I ever need to stop you I can just reach slightly a head but I may also clothesline you

ID: wow pris, don't clothesline me. or grab at me, hella rude. why would you need to stop me! =:P

SA: Maybe I saw something cute in a window and wanted to show you while shopping.

SA: I have clotheslined people as they've ran away, however. It is. hilarious.

SA: because I knoww here they will be so I stategically do nothing.

ID: ....it's called telling me to stop pris, c'mon.

SA: I know that

SA: Please, like I would actually do it...

ID: i like not being clotheslined. =:P

SA: I would never clothesline you.

SA: does that help

ID: yes.

SA: In general i would never intentionally cause you harm.

SA: sleep well at night.

AA: lmao. awww.

AA: but will you watch him while he sleeps to guarantee he sleeps well?? bc, like, if we'rne clarnifying things, that totes is apparnently a thing that should be clarnified, too.

ID: no we cleared that watching people sleep is fucking creepy.

SA: I am not going to watch him sleep...

ID: though apparently pheres disagrees.

AA: okay, okay, good. >:}

SA: I admit I am unsettling but i am at least vaguely aware of proximics and personal boundaries.

ID: i sleep like shit without worrying about someone watching me sleep. =:I

AA: we do not talk abt phern's shitty rnom tastes, 'kay, we just close ourn bulbs and trny to ignorne them.

AA: and gj, prni. AA: the vaguely is totes still ominous tho. >:} jsyk.

SA: it is what i do best.

SA: It's how i keep my clients in line and from not abducting me 😉

SA: nom tastes?

ID: romantic tastes.

SA: ah.

AA: .... AA: ........ AA: WTF arne yrn clients trnying to abduct you forn.

SA: nothing, it was a joke.

ID: oh.

SA: however I would be a convenient thing to trap and use of free.

ID: i figured they'd try and abduct you to use your psi without having to, y'know. pay you. seems about right.

SA: yes

SA: I've only been threatened a few times.

SA: The Provenance underground is much more managable, though.

AA: >:{

AA: did you cull em?

ID: trolls can be fucking weird.

SA: They have been dealt with in a way that doesn't cause me long-standing harm, let me put it like this.

SA: murder isn't a sollution always, their court will come after you.

ID: you ever meet some of those highbloods that read helmsman romance.

ID: they'll make you want to scrub your skin raw after talking to them for like. a second.

AA: hmph. did you at least make a good example of them?? bc, like, if yrn getting pushed arnound, then not fucking making a points only gonna get theirn peeps brnave.

SA: I don't get pushed around.

AA: ugh, y. lived with one. they'rne the fucking wornst.

AA: good!!

SA: don't worry, I am fairly good at this.

SA: as naive as I often seem.

SA: crime and work and military are things i excel at.

ID: the fucking worst is right.

SA: What happens in helmsman romances?

ID: and go pris. =:)

SA: I understand the concept but... how.

AA: y, y, obvs you arne a strnong independent - hahahaha.

AA: hads can dd you, bc I ain't in the mood to scrnub my hands clean aftern. >:P

ID: oh. you know. usually they start out in a clade or a quad. and then end up getting drafted to the helm. and the highblood happens to be on the same ship.

SA: ...what is a clade.

SA: I have been holding off asking for fear of embarassment

ID: ah... like... the trolls that are quadded to your quad?

SA: ah.

AA: y! enclades arne the ppl you ain't piling, but, like, you still can't cull, bc it'd be fucked up. and if someone culls them, you gotta rnetaliate, orn Y RN fucked up.

ID: yeah. sips knows. i'm like the worst troll to talk about clades.

SA: ...that is immensely complicated.

ID: yeah social shit usually is.

AA: also, ngl, the ones I knew abt werne all, like, crneepy bluebloods falling forn theirn ship, bc the insurnmountable bond bw trnoll and ship, ect ect, and, like, despernate lost in space piles, and pirnate rnaids makin' the helms all like 'I'm the only one allowed to cull them!!', and AA: ughhh, I'm grnossing myself out.

ID: i know mostly about the younger helms novels.

AA: >:? AA: it isn'ttttt. it's totes ez, dudes.

SA: that's. horrific.

SA: that would be like writing a romance story between my program psions and their handlers.

SA: but much worse, because were are children

SA: disgusting.

ID: yeah, well. it happens.

ID: and some trolls really buy in to the idea.

ID: me and pris have never been a part of a clade so. it seems complicated to us.

SA: it sounds like it would cause a long chain cycle of revenge.

ID: i mean being part of a clade is supposed to help. prevent trolls from wanting to cull your ass i think?

ID: for fear of being counter-culled by the clade.

SA: But I feel like it would make it hard to operate as well.

SA: fear of causing tension or rejection.

SA: attrox's matesprit was a virulent, hateful thing who was also quadded to my roommate.

SA: and there was a lot of tension between him and anyof attrox's other quadrants or friends.

SA: htey broke up perhaps because of my intervention.

SA: I don't feel particularly bad.

ID: that's when you get an ashen or whatever. or break up, that works.

SA: how do you auspistice something when they don't acknowledge there is a problem?

SA: despite one of them crying contantly about how much they hurt.

SA: I do not know.

SA: I would be happy with a red or a romantic pale, if I had to have a quadrant. And just one.

AA: i mean, y, can totally starnt a wicked rnevenge cycle. but it's like hads said. AA: and lmao, you can't be a clade if ppl arne unhealthy shitfurnoodles, dude. all you can do is wipe yrn hands of that shit.

AA: .. why not pitch?? >:

AA: >:?

ID: my bachelor lifestyle has worked out alright for me.

SA: there's reasons but i'd rather not explain.

AA: you don't gotta quad if you don't wanna. but, like, idk, don't let crnazy fuckerns turn you off?? ppl arne always batshit. AA: and quads arne fun. >:} like, idk, i ain't evern without a pitch, bc.. it'd be fucking borning.

SA: i don't see excitement in that, though.

AA: flushrnoms lame tho, txt it.

SA: i have enough excitement in my life. I would be happy knowing I feel safe with someone.

ID: i mean pitch is supposed to be safe rivalry.

SA: Well yes but that's not what i meant.

AA: yrn supposed to feel safe w yrn kismesis, losern. if they'rne dangernous, it ain't pitch, it's, like. fucked up pale w pails.

SA: what

ID: idk i have a shitty personality for quads, so i just leave them be.

ID: yeahhh some people pail their pales. weird quadrant smearing stuff.

AA: y, it's grnoss. and stfu, yrn fine. have you evern even trnied having a quad??

SA: Pailing is.

SA: unsanitary.

SA: kissing is fine though. i think kissing would be nice in theory.

SA: but nothing is better than my cold bed.

ID: ...

AA: lmaooo.

AA: well, shit, then get a fish.

AA: >:P

SA: i left the airconditioning on so everything is cold and it's very nice.

SA: ...I don't... want a fish.

ID: i like lukewarm best.

ID: i got too hot and too cold easy.

SA: sharing a bed with you must be hell on alternia.

ID: only if you don't want me to bake you. =:P

SA: see.

AA: rneal talk!! have neithern of you, like, evern had quads??

AA: evern?? >:

AA: >:?

ID: i mean... nah.

SA: No.

SA: quads were discouraged for program psions.

SA: I actually believe we are all sterile so it wouldn't matter.

SA: But I am unsure of the specifics.

AA: holy shit. at both of you - AA: uH.

SA: ...

SA: was that too much information.

AA: y. am kinda curnious how the f you know that, but, like, sparne me the deets.

SA: i think you misunderstand but i will spare you.

ID: it's okay pris, we can be quadless coolguys.

SA: excellent. we can be Kool together.

SA: just what i wanted.

AA: wow, rnude, making a club wo me. when I'm like, rnight herne. AA: I am qqing irnl, jsyk.

ID: what, you got no quads?

AA: n, i've had way2many to join yrn quadfrnee club. >:P

SA: then continue qqing

ID: exactly, so no blubbering. =:P

SA: :p

AA: so go get quads and join the lam -- LMAO M E A N.

AA: fucking rnude frnom both of you. >:}

SA: only the best of rudeness for you, sipara.

SA: ❤

ID: deal with it. =:P

AA: no wondern you don't have any w those shining pernsonalities. AA: ... omg, okay, but prni is forngiven, bc that's qt A N D weirnd.

AA: hads can still fuck off tho. >:P

ID: =:PPPP

SA: Oh--- haha

ID: i've just managed fiiine without quads.

AA: lmao, if you say so.

SA: same.

AA: lbrn tho, idk how anyone manages without a moirnail.

ID: like i do. duh.

AA: .. inc you, mrn dumpstern firne.

SA: you surround yourself with stable individuals.

SA: like me.

SA: i am impervious to emotional distress.

ID: rude!

ID: i just do whatever i want and it usually works out!

AA: y, see, that's not actually good. >:}

AA: and lmaooo. y, like getting stabbed w a halbernd wornks out, rnight? >:P

ID: i'm still alive aren't i

ID: and i didn't technically lose.

ID: so it mostly worked out.

AA: that's a low fucking barn to have, losern.

ID: and yet i limbo under it like a pro.

AA: loooook. rnails arne forn, like.. making surne you don't rnun into shit like that. orn crnack yrn horns on yrn stupid limbo barn of surnvival. orn prni doesn't get jumped forn being weirnd and emojiless at the wrnong time.

AA: if you don't have any othern quads, you should totally have that.

SA: wouldn't it be a high bar because it would be so easy to pass.

SA: if it were limb.

ID: the only troll i can trust to have my best interests at pumper is myself. i'm just my own moirail, clearly.

ID: sometimes i'm just lazy on the job.

AA: lmao, yrn a p shit one, then. trnade up!!

SA: you and hadean often stop me from revealing all my secrets, which is good enough.

SA: but in day to day life whether or not I properly express myself is often irrelevant and infact volatile high bloods often take it as a threat as i cann't be coerced convetnionally.

ID: hey, i'm doing alright. =:P

ID: i'm too high maintenance for anyone else to stand.

SA: i find you tolerable if extremely unwise.

SA: 😄

AA: wherne is yrn hotel rnoom again, bc I'm gonna punch you. >:}

SA: (this is a joke)

SA: Whose?

AA: and lmao, prni. gd.

AA: hads. Ï can't punch you. that'd be so fucked up. >:}

SA: ... why

SA: I demand equal punching rights.

ID: i'll give you my punch coupon pris.

SA: thank you for this generous gift

LC: [ ... I see everYYone is doing well and fine ]

AA: n, too bad, you ain't getting em. these fists arne a summern exclusive and I've alrneady stamped Hads name on both.

SA: sipara's coachella fists.

AA: y!!

ID: =:'( don't punch me, i'm already half broke already.

LC: [ So what exactlYY did Hadean do that he is going to get punched, and Sipara whYY do YYou want to get punched? ] LC: [ I see no logical reason behind... wanted to get punched is all. ]

ID: oh hi yern.

SA: hello yern.

LC: [ Hello. ]

ID: pris is gonna punch me because she's jelly of my self-moirail abilities.

SA: let me take hadean's punch for him.

SA: i am sipara now.

AA: arne you punching him now??

SA: =>:} worms

AA: LMFAO

LC: [ Is that... healthYY though? ] LC: [ Oh mYY. ]

AA: G T F Ö, you rnuined my quirnk.

ID: it's like looking in a mirror huh sips.

SA: =>:} wornms.

ID: better?

AA: y, ty ty, gj.

SA: oh yes, the rn thing.

ID: i'm healthy as fuck yern.

AA: also like brnb must feed and watern lal. and by that, I mean he's snorning and I'm pourning watern on him til he stops. >:{

SA: oh dear.

ID: get it up his nub, that'll get him.

SA: ...nose?

LC: [ But is self-moirailing healthYY? I am not aware of such research paper existing as of right now. ] LC: [ To a degree, I am positive it works and I hope it's not just YYour last ditch effort of taking care of YYourself. ]

ID: hahah wowww. last ditch effort, that's hella rude.

SA: self moirailing could also be considered minding.

ID: i'm positive i'm a well oiled self-moirailing machine.

SA: which is a required skill for basic social navigation and problem solving.

SA: so I don't have it.

SA: :p

ID: =:P

LC: [ Well, I am not suggesting YYou can't get a moirail even if YYou wanted to. ] LC: [ And well. ]

ID: and cheat on myself? never.

ID: it's impossible to break up with yourself. i'm pretty sure.

SA: you could look at your reflection and tell it you are done with its shit.

AA: ^^^^

ID: i don't take breakups well, i'd start strangling myself. =:'(

AA: brneak the mirnrnorn!!

LC: [ I mean, that works. ]

SA: "i'm finding a REAL moirail now!"

AA: yeah!!

SA: this tells me a lot more about hadean's coping mechanisms than I would like

ID: why are you all so against me as my moirail, hella rude.

SA: note to self: strangulation is a hazard.

ID: i cope just fine!

AA: bc you desernve a prnettiern one, duh, and we only want the best form you. >:}

SA: technically I am my own moirail too only I haven't stated it outloud.

AA: and by best, we mean prnettiest.

SA: so no one can drag me.

SA: ... oh...

ID: i'm pretty as fuck. =>:P

LC: [ Well, maYYbe we care about YYou. ] LC: [ I might not know YYou as well as the others but. I think the others might be able to vouch for mYY words. ]

AA: prni. prniiiiiii.

LC: [ Prisma. ]

AA: I'm gonna drnag you now.

ID: yeah let's focus on pri he needs this more.

SA: do you want to see me make this chat sad in one sentence.

AA: ❤

SA: i'm going to.

SA: my inhibitor is my moirail.

SA: 😃

AA: oh, gtfo m

LC: [ When YYou saYY no one can drag YYou, that's a prettYY open invitation. ]

LC: [ Uhm. ]

ID: i mean. i guess it does stop you from doing anything too dumb.

LC: [ I... guess. ]

AA: hads, n.

AA: that's dumb and yrn dumb.

AA: almost as dumb as that statement. >:{

SA: it stops me from destroying myself which is the same thing, right.

ID: yeah!

SA: you narrowly limbo under death and I narrowly avoid having a catastrophic meltdown.

ID: now if it'll shock you when you blab too much.

SA: you already do that.

SA: oh wait doe this mean I can't use hearts anymore.

SA: <>

ID: whoa there pris, don't make me get jealous over myself.

SA: hahaha

AA: wait wtf you knew what hrnts werne the entirne time??

ID: back off my man.

ID: i'll cut you.

LC: [ YYou guYYs could reallYY use a moirail. ]

SA: ... what do you mean I knew what hearts were the entire time.

SA: of course I knew what i meant everytime I did this

SA: ❤

SA: I can't believe you all thught i was enough of a space cadet to not know.

SA: oh my god.

AA: oh my god, i take back my hrnt at you, weirndo.

ID: i got my moirai yern, duh.

AA: Ö H M Y G Ö D. fuck offffff. >:}

ID: i can't let myself hear all this negative talk about myself. i'll get mad.

AA: yrn exactly that level of space cadet.

ID: and hey pris i figured you knew what they meant.

ID: i mean. it's a heart.

ID: you're naive, not idiotic.

SA: oh so sipara just thought I was a fool.

SA: alright I see how it is.

SA: it's not weird, it's a way of denoting affection.

SA: my hearts are platonic.

SA: unless specified otherwise.

ID: 🖤

SA: oh it's invisible.

ID: use that one. really fuck with trolls.

SA: thank you ❤

LC: [ Ah, uh. I forgot to finish mYY sentence. ] LC: [ Hadean, well I trust YYou that it works so I hope it will keep working. ] LC: [ And uh. Invisible hearts? ]

ID: 🖤 🖤 🖤

ID: are they invisible? i see them.

LC: [ I see. For sYYmbolizing "platonic love" but not in the <> sense? ]

SA: they look sort of invisible on my phone but my backlight is dark.

LC: [ Or did I just miss the point. ]

SA: i think it's more for kismesisitude crossed with matespritship.

ID: they don't have a white heart this is bullshit.

LC: [ ... Wouldn't that be a black heart? ]

AA: i can't see them eithern. >:{

SA: well it is a black hert.

ID: 💙 we can use this one for platonic hearts?

SA: but that requires... finding it in the list.

AA: haaads, stop trn - nnnnn.

AA: and it's blue!!

SA: or you could all assume that if I'm using a heart... it's... platonic.

ID: 💚

SA: and you all can use the multicolored rainbow hearts.

SA: nevermind I like that one.

SA: that's my new heart.

SA: it's my color.

AA: prni, it's way morne fun if yrn, like, madly in love with evernyone, tho.

ID: there you go!

LC: [ Ah. ] LC: [ Noted. ] LC: [ And it is. ] LC: [ Sipara please. ]

ID: i fixed everything. again.

SA: yes, sipara. I will die for you i am so in. love. with you.

AA: yrn like the rnomcom lead we nevern wanted!!

SA: Hadean too

SA: everyone in this chat.

LC: [ Heh. ]

SA: you are all. my matesprit.

AA: amazing. >:} wait no wow back it up.

ID: hey i don't share! rude!

SA has sent :/.png it's a selfie of him makng an even more unamused face than usual

LC: [ Incredible. ]

SA: oh so I can only pick one is that it.

AA: it's gotta be unrneciprocated, that's wherne the com comes in!!

ID: i though the com comes from them both feeling romantic inclinations but not knowing how to act on them correctly.

AA has sent DUH.PNG. It's a selfie of her sticking out her tongue like a mature adult.

AA: why not both, hads??

SA: I thught the commeant comedy.

LC: [ YYou must pick Prisma. ] LC: [ Though while I understand it's currentlYY for amusement's sake. ]

LC: [ ... I hope. ]

SA: Who has to pick prisma.

SA: this is morphing into a dystopian love carat.

SA: everyone wants me and I don't want anyone.

ID has sent ravishingromcominterest.png! It's a selfie of him with his hair down making the most overdramatic puppy eyes.

AA: p surne i watched an anime like that once. >:P

SA: anti-harem.

AA: !!!

SA: Put those eyes away, Hadean.

ID: never.

SA: i don't wnat that face on my phome.

ID: too late.

SA: damn you.

ID: =:PPPPP

SA: 💚

LC: [ Well, I got some romantic interest lYYing elsewhere, so I have alreadYY picked them. SorrYY for letting YYou down Prisma. ]

AA: why keep yrn hairn brnaided?? it's so fucking shiny.

SA: oh, well, yern.

ID: uh because it fucking tangles to fucking hell. duh.

SA: that's fine I didn't want you anywyas.

SA: i am now the spiteful lead.

SA: it's called conditioner.

AA: y, why not brnush it morne and keep it unbrnaided??

LC: [ Well, no offense was taken. ]

AA: Y E A H.

ID: and yeah i got some sweet hair. even though i abuse the fuck out of it.

ID: conditioner costs cash!

ID: and i don't want to be brushing it 24/7 when i'm traveling.

SA: at least put it in a ponytail every so often.

LC: [ WhYY would YYou need to brush it 24/7 while travelling. ] LC: [ Just brush it at the morning, then at the evening. If the weather is windYY, tie it up. ]

SA: wouldn't it be easier to have short hair because you can't take careo f it....?

SA: get a hipster cut like mine.

LC: [ Well I happen to have quite a long hair and I also travel alot. ]

SA: i now advocate you being bald.

LC: [ It's manageable, and also up to what others feel comfortable with. ]

LC: [ Well, no thank YYou. MYY hair is prettYY nice as it is. ]

LC: [ I have a feeling being bald got more disadvantages than advantages to it. ]

SA: not if you wear hats.

SA: I am not tired for once and I don't know how to feel about this.

LC: [ I am not a fan of hats. TheYY are weird. ] LC: [ Wouldn't YYou feel, well, content? Not feeling like falling into a nap for once. ]

ID: i like my braid. =:I

SA: I will make you a daisy chain to loop in it when you come shopping.

ID: my face doesn't look as nice with short hair i don't think.

AA: nnnn, don't cut yrn hairn. long headfluff is bettern, obvs. prni, you should grnow yrns out. >:P

ID: why is your hair short then sips.

SA: i'll grow mine out when I'm ready to commit to a domestic stepford quad.

SA: 😐

LC: [ Well that sounds quite unfortunate. ]

SA: why is your hair short, then, yes

AA: it was down to the floorn, tyvm, and some chucklefuck cut it off.

AA: >:1

LC: [ Long hair can be quite useful. ]

SA: ...what is its use? as a rope?

LC: [ It can warm the back YYour neck during winter. YYou could use it to get cozYY with the help of it. And no. ]

ID: ah man that sucks. =:/

ID: cull them for it?

ID: or chop their hair back? =>:D

SA: scalp them.

SA: two birds one stone.

LC: [ And oh. Did YYou fight them back Sipara? ]

AA: lmfao. that was like, six pernigees ago. it's way longern than it was. and y, y, dnw, i cut off theirn frnonds and fed them to them. >:P

AA: bettern than culling!

SA: that's even worse than i imagined.

ID: i mean i don't go to cold places too much and i'm constantly warm, so. i just like my hair.

SA: I feel sick now.

SA: not really.

ID: hahahah, that'll teach 'em.

AA: it's a jk, nerndlet.

SA: I wish i had someone to get breakfast with.

SA: it did teach them I am sure.

SA: and also brutally traumatized them

ID: damn, i liked the feeding them fronds idea.

ID: what. was it the yellow chucklefuck?

ID: ....fillin?

SA: ....yellow chucklefuck?

LC: [ Well that's a combination of words I didn't expect to see... together. ]

ID: it's some sparkplug that got brainwashed in to being downw ith clowns or something, dnw.

LC: [ Wow. How unfortunate. Like, genuinelYY unfortunate. ]

SA: that's. horrific.

SA: I still can't believe we have...

LC: [ It is. ]

SA: nevermind.

SA: I am a good person.

AA: haha, n, it was a lame-o teal frnom the rning. same place as my face. >:1 AA: and hmm?

AA: haha, it's a little fucked, y.

SA: teals are unusually arrogant.

LC: [ Well, I most definitelYY don't want to know how manYY non-purplebloods got "brainwashed" to be part of the Dark Carnival. ]

ID: teals are the worst. they're in that in-between area that makes them overcompensate.

AA: ^

ID: i mean it's no worse than young psis getting brainwashed by everything else that'll brainwash you. really.

SA: military.

LC: [ MYY experiences with tealbloods been reallYY... mixed. But there are some who are trulYY trYYing to overcompensate. ]

SA: trafficking.

SA: etc

ID: exactly. we're such a hot commodity doncha know.

LC: [ Well, anYYkind of brainwashing is still brainwashing and negativelYY well... affects the troll in question. ]

SA: in some ways it was a positive experience for me.

AA: oh my god.

LC: [ YYou are the rare exception in that case. ]

LC: [ Unless it was pure sarcasm. Then nevermind. ]

ID: i mean. trolls like pris are becoming depressingly more common, y'know?

SA: no, I did learn much more from my program than I would haveb eing left on planet without being put in.

SA: But I would also still have complete feelings.

ID: they're deciding we don't last long enough to get a happy wrigglerhood.

SA: so you tell me.

SA: yes.

SA: My saboteur training began as soon as I was old enough to think and obey.

LC: [ I am aware. ]

AA: idk, it ain't that bad, if you don't have them cutting into yrn pan. AA: i mean, we'rne all gonna end up in the militarny anyway. >:/

SA: 😃 will we

ID: i mean. that's a big if for some of us there sips.

SA: I won't.

ID: you were already in the military pris, that counts.

SA: damn you.

LC: [ Well, I wish lowerbloods got more leewaYY just as higherbloods. And I don't have manYY intentions to be part of the militarYY. ]

SA: no but if you are sorted there then you will be but if not you will be fine.

SA: if I were recaptured and retested I would still tesr for the military based on psionics but also because my protective instincts are outrageously high.

SA: lavender chai sounds good.

LC: [ Well I'd rather not. I am a cartographer and a mapmaker, not a troll who wants to deal with official paperwork and not seeing a planet for the rest of mYY lifespan. ] LC: [ ... And I am aware I am more fortunate that I can counter-argue against it. ]

SA: you could become part of recon

ID: i mean yer is high enough, he'll get some more choice.

ID: esp if he's actually good at what he wants to do.

ID: ...you're a he, right.

LC: [ Well, I positivelYY am. And YYes. ]

ID: see? nothing for him to worry about.

LC: [ If I happened to end up as a ship captain or anYYthing (Not sure if I'd qualifYY), I'd probablYY do mYY best to provide mYY crew an actuallYY pleasant... work experience. ]

LC: [ Which is a major "If", cause being a ship captain sounds stressful. ]

ID: man, my pumper breaks for you. =:P

LC: [ I see YYour sarcasm and I am not going to counter it with sarcasm. ]

ID: good because i would have had to make it weird if you did.

SA: I don't know if you want praise for this attempt to be a decent person or not

ID: c'mon pris, he's trying! that's better than like. most of the highbloods in here.

LC: [ ... Prisma. ] LC: [ I am aware I am "priviliged" and no waYY will I ever experience what lowerbloods got to go through. ]

LC: [ I am prettYY self-aware, thank YYou verYY much. ]

SA: I never said you weren't.

LC: [ Well, some implications were there. AnYYwaYY. I am not going to go into anYYkind of sob stories. ] LC: [ I am just generallYY trYYing to be a decent troll and not judge one bYY it's caste if theYY happen to be lower on the spectrum. ]

ID: so yern, you watch lord of the rings.

LC: [ I saw it a long while ago with a friend. WhYY? ]

ID: because i just watched it and i now judge everyone based on which eyecandy they like best.

ID: so c'mon. desert island, stuck with one of them. which one.

AA: hads taste is shit, btw.

ID: fuck off aragon was alright for a fish.

ID: though i did like her better before i knew she was a fish.

ID: bitch tricked me in to liking her. D:<=

EA: +Can confirm. Shit tast=.-

ID: you guys could've told me she was a fish!

AA: wrnong, legolas was totes bettern. AA: but ikrn? she was sornt of qt if you didn't know she was hiding fucking gills.

LC: [ Well, I am not a big movie buff and it's been awhile ago since I saw it, so I'd have to rewatch it to make a decision based on it. ]

ID: i was betrayed by all of you and i'll never forgive you.

AA: U N F Ö RN T U N A T E L Y.

ID: http://img14.deviantart.net/142f/i/2013/233/e/4/lady_aragorn_1_by_lauratolton-d6j3xy7.jpg

ID: so much better before she was totally revealed as a fish. =:'(

EA: +W=ll, h=r b=ing garbag= had nothing to do with th= fins, r=ally. If you ask m=. - EA: +It was th= fact that sh= was in a garbag= movi= s=ri=s.-

ID: i mean it could have used like. 200% more bloodshed.

ID: the talking parts got too fancy and boring sometimes. =:/

LC: [ Well, that's what YYou get when the director is a seadweller. ]

SA: Legolas is perfect. And you're making a mistake Hadean

ID: legolas was too flimsy looking for me. =:'(

EA: +L=golas is fangirl bait =:|-

ID: yeah why'd he get all the super cool fight sequences.

AA: legolas is hot af and you can both fight me, soz.

SA: oh so am I too flimsy too 😢

ID: sorry pris, you couldn't even beat me in throwing knives. =:P

ID: get gud.

AA: y, prni. he is the twig judging the rnest of the fornest.

SA: it's okay when you're vetter I'll properly destroy you.

ID: swoon. =:PPPPPP

SA: if that's all it takes why not gimli...

SA: oh-- true, sipara

ID: because gimli wasn't hot!

ID: duh.

EA: +L=golas do=sn't =v=n look lik= h= could kick down a door without br=aking his lifts.- EA: +Giv= m= a strong girl clad in armor with a broadsword any night of th= w==k inst=ad.-

LC: [ So do YYou pick faves based* on their looks, Hadean? ]

ID: a mix of looks and being able to kick ass.

SA: Hadean is a shallow mother fucker of course he does

LC: [ Well, figures. ]

ID: says the guy who rated me a 7/10!

SA: well you are a 7/10 this is a logical facr

EA: +7/10 is g=n=rous-

AA: come watch me flarnp, gausia, you'll totes swoon. >:P

ID: says the one who shaves stars in her hair.

AA: y, clearnly he is 8/10, stfu.

EA: +I would if you practic=d prop=r hyg=ni=, mayb= =:P-

SA: 😳

ID: i can only go up from 8/10.

LC: [ Well. ]

EA: +Do you hav= som=thing against stars? Stars ar= hott=r than you'll =v=r b=! By s=v=ral d=gr==s!-

AA: n, mud is my aesthetic, soz yrn 2lame to apprneciate.

LC: [ Stars are much hotter than anYYone in here, in fact. ]

EA: +^-

ID: i mean body-temperature wise maybe. but i'm pretty unnaturally hot that way too. =:P

LC: [ Well Hadean, a star still beats YYou nonetheless. ]

LC: [ SorrYY to disappoint YYou. ]

SA: Hadean is a 10/10 for being hell to share a bed with

SA: I am feeling shockingly lucid today it's wonderful

EA: +That r=minds m=, I do n==d to g=t Sipara som= stuff from Lush som=tim=. Mayb= th=n sh= can prop=rly b= brib=d into taking a bath.-

LC: [ ... Do I want to know the details Prisma? ]

ID: c'mere and i'll put my burning star hands on you.

ID: what's a lush.

SA: Someone who drinks and flirts

ID: ...sip is already kinda a lush isn't she.

SA: also don't touch me with your grubby star hands

AA: lmfao. Y E S.

ID: i meant ea pris. but i'll grab you too. =:P

SA: at least use some sanitizer first

AA: accornding to the tabloids. and you. app. >:P

SA: oh! The betrayal

ID: i'm about to get in to the bath, i'll be hella clean. =>:I

SA: 🛁

LC: [ YYou most definitelYY will be, Hadean. ]

ID: just gotta, y'know. juggle a phone and try not smacking my broke ass arm on the way in.

EA: +Oh, right. Uh. Lush is sort of lik=... a plac= wh=r= you go to g=t, uh... bath products that ar= usually d=void of ch=micals that can b= harmful to your skin, and stuff? It's sort of hoity toity highblood stuff, but, th= stuff sm=lls r=ally good...- EA: +Also bath bombs. Mak= your whol= bath tub look lik= spac= or lik=, a uh... tropical, fruity thing. I am not th= b=st at this.-

ID: ...sips i want to go to a lush. =:I is there a lush on the drive.

LC: [ Well YYou'd have an easier time not having YYour phone with YYou, especiallYY if onlYY one of YYour hands is free due to the other... being broken. ] LC: [ What did YYou do at the carnival that YYou managed to break it? ]

ID: fought a jade with a halberd. duh.

ID has sent itstotesgettingbetter.png! Boy is that a broke arm. But it's giving a thumbs up.

LC: [ Oh. Well. ] LC: [ At least YYou are doing well, nonetheless. ]

SA: i am going to slap you if you don't stop using that hand

AA: .. gausia, wtf you trnying to buy me lush forn? >:}

SA: she is making unsubtle advances obviously

SA: 😐

AA: and y, we can find one. but also pls slap him, prni. AA: wtf is it out of the cast forn??

ID: it got itchy.

SA: HADEAN

EA: +This was a jok= that larg=ly got out of my hands, onc=... I finally und=rstood that no on= knows what Lush is.- EA: +Shut up, SA.-

AA: .. let me cornrnect that. you can buy me lush, Gausie, but you still ain't allowed in the trnap. soz. >:P

ID: just give the free lush to me. duh.

SA: 🤣

SA: gausia

SA: we've met before

EA: +I don't want to b= in your trap! It would b= an actual, lit=ral trap!-

SA: 🤔

EA: +... Wait, what? hav= w=?-

SA: Prisma

SA: coffee.

SA: you spilt everything

EA: +... - EA: +No, totally don't know you. Not at all.-

AA: loool, what.

SA: 🤔🤔🤔

ID: well then.

EA: +Okay, list=n, if I kn=w =v=ryon= I accid=ntly tripp=d into, spill=d som=thing onto, or, you know, I would, uh.... w=ll....- EA: +... know a lot of p=opl=.-

SA: but we talked

ID: let's move on to a more interesting topic. also if i don't reply very often, you try typing and washing your ass-length hair at the same time.

SA: well some of us cut our hair off and keep our arms in our casts like we're supposed to

ID: casts are evil torture devices.

SA: I am dragging my hands down my face.

ID: that are coated in a substance to make your skin itch under it.

SA: that is literally not how that works

AA: dude, when yrn arnm heals crnooked, I'm gonna have to rnebrneak it to set it strn8.

LC: [ Well, casts are meant to be kept on to help YYour bones staYY in one place while the break heals, Hadean. ]

AA: and I'm gonna make fun of you the entirne fucking time.

LC: [ BYY taking it off, YYou are making it worse. ]

SA: how did we know it was set straight the first time. Did anybody get him an x ray

ID: it's fine. does it look crooked? no.

LC: [ Just as Sipara said. ]

SA: Your face is going to look crooked if I see you again 👀

SA: but not really

EA: +W= can always just cut your arm off and g=t you a prosth=tic! I'll =v=n giv= you a discount!-

SA: oh.

ID: fuck that, my arm is going to heal straight as an arrow and i'm gonna shove it in alll of your faces.

SA: if it doesn't though...

ID: also x ray pris do i look like i'm made of money.

LC: [ If YYou saYY so. Then we will see. ]

AA: we didn't need an xrnay, I do this all the time, prni. >:}

AA: and n, n cutting off anything, omfg.

LC: [ And if YYour arm heals crooked and needs to be well uh... get it to re-heal the right waYY, I could paYY for YYour X-RaYYs. ]

ID: gee lc, thanks. it won't happen because i'm sturdy af but a+ using your powers for good right there.

AA: lmao, n. he's my patient, i totally got it coverned. >:}

ID: i mean who here hasn't broken bones before.

LC: [ I am not sure if that's a good thing, Sipara. ]

AA: haha, excuse me?

ID: hey sips is an a+ mediculler.

ID: i mean with all the fights she gets in to, patching herself up is enough to make her like. an expert.

AA: n, hush, let him finish, i am fucking curnious what mapboy thinks he knows abt mediculling.

ID: http://i.imgur.com/1AvMrPv.mp4

AA: >:P

LC: [ Well I am not sure if YYou got a medical training but YYour approach seems to be usuallYY more drastic, from what I can... see. ] LC: [ Not just from before but YYour general demeanour. No offense. ]

EA: +I got popcorn, who wants som=?-

ID: yoooo hmu.

LC: [ SorrYY to tell YYou but I am not here to start a fight through the internet, just state an opinion. ]

ID: sorry bud, you're in a fight now.

AA: oh, shit, if yrn not arnguing overn my crnedentials, yrn just qqing bc of my rnough pernsonality, then who the fuck am i to take offense?

AA: herne's an opinion: go choke on an entirne bulge. AA: xoxo. >:}

LC: [ ... No thanks. ]

LC: [ I'd rather not. ]

AA: rnly? yeah, guess not, wtf was I thinking. AA: go choke on yrn own bulge, how's that, brnah.

LC: [ Won't do that either, I am not nastYY. ]

EA: +Com= back to th= hot=l th=n!!!! B=for= w= =at it all.-

ID: i just got in the bath. =:'(

ID: got suds alll through my hair.

AA: now put conditionern in it. >:}

ID: i didn't buy any. you got conditioner?

EA: +Call room s=rvic=.-

AA: i am not trnekking overn to brning you conditionern. >:1

ID: i'm trekking over to you then. =:P can i use your trap to finish this bath.

AA: .. lmao, uhh. AA: y, surne, why not.

EA: +... you b=tt=r hav= a tow=l or I am actually going to call th= polic=.-

ID: dnw, i will not give you mental scars. got this sweet fucking robe.

SA: I left to get a frozen chai and I come back to this.

ID: sorry pris, you guys tell me to use conditioner, i gotta get it somehow.

SA: lord.

SA: maybe you need a bath set

AA: dw, it's warnm outside.

ID: i like baths. i just don't get them very often!

ID: omw sips, don't worry.

AA: and can a bathset beat my awesome conversation, prni?? obvs not. not even if you put my pan in a jarn with speakerns and those little floaties.

SA: 😦 I want to have bathtub conversations

ID: dnw pris, i'll still keep chatting on here while i'm chatting with sips. =:P

SA: yes but it's not the same as hearing your voice 💚

AA: go rnun a bath and it can be T W I C E of em. >:}

SA: 😂

SA: I could take a bath but I have no reason to. I'm still clean

ID: take a bath just for the fun of baths, duh!

AA: do it to paint yrn nails!

SA: mmrm

SA: paint my nails...

ID: man, sometime i'll drag the both of you to a hotspring.

ID: clearly that's the best option for bath chats.

SA: fine. I will draw a bath.

AA: make them prnetty! and glue shit in 'em.

SA: why would I glue things to them I have to work.

AA: and omg. >:} yyyy. therne arne, like, hot canals nearn my hive, but they'rne full of fish.

AA: to make them prnetty, duh, keep up.

SA: I don't have any bath bombs

SA: hot canals.. full of fish

SA: that sounds alarming

ID: i've found some springs that are fish-free. take some time off both of you and we can go.

SA: some fish eat skin in hot springs and it's good for you

ID: sips meant fish as in seadwellers. but that. eww.

SA: I'm going to drop my phone In here I'm sure

SA: oh.

SA; I thought she meant. Actual fish.

EA: +With th= discussion about sushi last night, I don't know if sh='s =v=r s==n a fish.- EA: +As in, an actual fish.-

AA: meant both. >:} but lmao, grnoss!

AA: ofc I did, nerndass, I lived on the coast forn two sweeps. seen, like, all the fish everny fish. evern the tentacle fish.

SA: you mean octopi and squids

ID: quick warning, almost to the room, hide your poor little blueblood eyes soon gaus.

SA: or jelly fish

AA: n, i meant tentacle fish. don't you brning that highblood shit into my hive. >:P

ID: my hand is full of phone so knock knock sips, hope you got the good conditioner in there. =:P

SA: 😠 I'll bring my high blood shit where I want

SA: okay I feel the joys of feeling slowly leaving.

SA: now I'm just tired. The bathtub tricked me

AA: brnb, brnb, be rnight therne.

ID: ahahah sorry pris. baths can be hella calming.

SA: you did this to me

SA: do you have a favorite scent

ID: i like spicy scents.

ID: but i don't know if they make hair stuff spicy.

ID: and by spicy i mean, like... cinnamon.

EA: +So do=s that m=an I n==d to r=turn th= jal=p=no bath bomb?-

ID: wow do i look like a masochist?

ID: i mean. the shoulder wound and broken arm might have thrown you off.

ID: so. fair assumption i guess.

SA: what about cinnamon and apple? Cardimom?

ID: apples smell alright, but just. anything spicy i like sniffing.

SA: oh, I should show you my cologne sometime, perhaps you'd like that.

SA: oud has a very specific scent.

SA: it's like sandalwood and spice.

ID: huh. sounds nice. let me sniff you up. =:P

SA: I will let you smell my wrist, let's keep a cap on sniffing.

ID: i'll take it. should've known you'd wear cologne. mr. fancy pants. =:P

SA: of course I do. I have a collection.

SA: it's one of my favorite things to shop for.

ID: sorry, got busy washing my hair.

SA: good, now it will be silky and beautiful.

SA: and not. bloody and dirty.

ID: I got the blood and dirt out of it like yesterday. =:P

SA: But was it washed and conditioned?

ID: i shampooed it! just not conditioner.

ID: it's hard to wash with just the one arm.

SA: If you keep complaining about it someone may offer to help you and I don't believe you want that.

SA: the more i listen the more i enjoy having short hair.

SA: I drink your tears.

ID: this is just some nice venting, not looking for sympathy/help! =:P

ID: yeah but my hair is cool as fuck.

ID: when i'm not dealing with a broken arm.

SA: You don't even deal with it when your arm isn't broken, though. It is pinned in a braid all the same.

SA: i am blowing disappointed bubbles into my bathwater i want you to know this.

ID: i brush it sometimes!

AA: n, no helping allowed, it'll be hilarnious when it frnizzes.

ID: ...does conditioner make it frizz.

ID: fucking rude sips. i wasn't told about this.

ID: now you gotta help me brush it so it doesn't.

AA: n, conditione AA: totally does make it frnizz, y.

SA: only if you use fluffing conditioner

AA: sinistern fucking shit rnight therne. >:}

ID: am i going to be fluffy now. =:I

SA: hotel conditioner is too cheap. I hope.

SA: I don't know. We'll have to find out who is right

AA: not if we brnush it, duh.

ID: hope you have a brush.

SA: you just said you wouldn't --

ID: where's the hairdryer.

ID: ...also should have brought clothes with me.

ID: i didn't think this through.

AA: i wasn't, but then he said i gotta, so w/e, w/e AA: do i look like i have a hairndrniern, dude? and

AA: lmfao omggg.

AA: p surne gausia is nevern gonna let you out of the trnap now, so, like, i hope you can eat soap. >:}

ID: hotels have hairdryers. i'll let myself out if i fucking have to. =:I the robe covers like. all of me.

SA: 😂

ID: unless the sight of my head, neck, and some calf are enough to kill her.

SA: possibly

ID: rip gausia then.

SA: I have to cease bathtub otherwise I will fall asleep here and I'd like to sleep in my bed

SA: see you later, Hadean, Sipara. Gausia.

ID: later pris.

AA: l8rn, dude.

ID: if gausia is gonna be a wriggler, come in here. =>:I

AA: see, if you wernen't a candle monstern, we'd have an easy solution. >:{ AA: lucky forn you, i am a fucking E N G I N E E RN.

ID: wtf is a candle monster.

AA: ... y'know, like, the wax museum things. except they'rne rnly fucking tall, and smothern ppl. also, coverned in wax. AA: get w yrn cinema, duh.

ID: i told you i don't watch movies. and why am i a candle monster.

AA: neway. Ï have made you the best fucking gift, and it's called S H E E T S. wrnap it like a tunic! voilaaa. >:}

AA: starnt watching them. be less lame!

ID: whatever, tunic sheets it is. and my phone speakers don't work and my husktop only works like. every now and then.

AA: and bc yrn also tall and drnippy. jfc, hads, keep up.

AA: prnobs bc you keep it all in a tent, dude. >:} js.

AA: also btw bettern be decent bc i am coming in in, like, five.

ID: my tent rocks and i'm decent af.

[theculturalevolution]

2016:  The Year in Review

by David

What a MISERABLE year!   What a God forsaken year, both politically and personally.   And 2017 doesn’t look any better, at least in terms of public life, and likely a lot worse.  I barely want to discuss it.  Why add my thoughts to the many words already expended on this public farce?  We’ve been in touch with some of life’s truisms:  that we don’t always get what we want no matter how much we want it, that the world is not fair or even reasonable, and that life ends.  But this year of public and private tragedy has been mitigated foremost by my family and friends, and, secondarily by the loving and healing world of pop culture.  It’s times like these when we need our cultural lives, and the implied communities those interests provide us.  

But this has also been the year when the time/space continuum imploded for me, pop culturally speaking.  I mean that my consumption of the stuff I write about became largely unmoored by any sense of temporality.  I watched and listened and read stuff with little sense of when it was produced.  One can, of course, do that now with streaming.  It is a funny way to consume pop culture given that the essence of pop culture is its nowness and its symbiotic relationship to the present.  I know, however, that given the collapse of time/space I (and, I assume, everyone) am in an eternal, solipsistic and existential now.  We all create our own pop universes and live in our own independent popular culture.  I know that because I still don’t believe that Donald Trump is President. That fact shocks me every morning when I read the news. We create our own communities virtual or actual, listen to our own facts and have difficulty comprehending a world unlike our own.   Where is that former standard arbiter of popular taste – the water cooler moment – when we work from home or drink bottled water at our own cubicles.  I was at a gathering recently, talking about TV and no one else knew the shows others were presenting as their own personal current faves.

D. Trump/A. Baboon

Anyway, sometimes life sucks, but much of the time it doesn’t. So in this new, strange, fragmented world I want to present what was culturally significant to me in 2016.  

D. Trump/A. Baldwin

Given the rent in the time-space continuum, the first item of business has got to be the movies I missed in 2015 but caught up with in 2016, and thought noteworthy. 

Sicario – beautifully directed, slick and tense, morally ambiguous, with some character and plot inconsistencies. 45 Years – the best of this lot, a luminous and quiet film about relationships.  Though notice went to Charlotte Ramplings’ vibrant performance, I was bowled over by Tom Courtney’s vulnerable and transparent acting.  A great film.  

45 Years

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – better than you think.   Diary of a Teenage Girl – more disturbing than you think.   Brooklyn – subtle and sweet. I saw this in the same weekend as the Revenant and my head nearly exploded negotiating the extreme chick/dude movie dichotomy.   The Martian – Golden Globe for best comedy????  Huh?  It was, however, fun to watch. Straight Outta Compton – certainly not on the level of the best films, but enlightening and energetic. The Revanent – beautiful, long and gruesome.  What was the point, again?   Room – creates its own world like it’s supposed to.   Bridge of Spies – It’s not the time for my Spielberg discussion, but FINE, and I mean that as a compliment here.   Carol – so that’s what the 50s were about.

The most culturally significant addition to my social media arsenal:   Instagram (i.e. the only addition to my social media arsenal):  When I wrote poetry I would apprehend my world through snippets of language I gathered in my head.  Now I see the world through discrete visual stimuli, and I have a community to share them with.  A whole new reality, and another way that my caring daughter has shepherded me into this brave new world.    

Best Concert:  Ghost Light Radio Show at The Big Chill Cantina in Rehoboth. Sometimes the best band in the world is your neighbor’s cover band playing for a crowd at an open air beach bar on a beautiful summer night:   “Maggie May”, “Copperhead Road”, “Interstate Love Song”, “What I Like About You”, “Thinkin’ Out Loud” and tons more songs that sound great with beer.

GLRS

TV: Glittering Prizes – 70’s British series about friends from Cambridge University that I finally caught up with forty years later.  What an unusual, touching, intelligent pleasure.  

Veep – binged this one.  The joy of invective, hatred, self interest and wild profanity!  Politics as humiliation!  The delight of pure id!  Julia Louis-Dreyfus offers one of the all-time greatest female comedy performances, fearless in her full embrace of the characters’ substantial flaws. Unlikeableness reaches new levels. This series was absurdly hilarious and outlandish when Obama was President,  and now is devastating and nightmarish with Trump.  In a surreal moment I watched the final episode about transfer of power the night before the inauguration.  Arghhhhhhhhhh!

JL-D/Veep

Fargo – The first season explores the nature of evil in the world.  Stunning and dark.  

  Red Oaks – Endearing coming of age Amazon show set in the 80s in a New Jersey country club.  Top notch directors and two mensch actors in Richard Kind and Richard Mazur (in a bit role).  Like Philip Roth in setting and theme, if not in tone or quality.

  John Oliver and Bill Maher – how else to stay informed?

Modern Family - Still....

Blackish- preachy but wacky.

Movies: Moonlight – lovely, powerful and transfixing, the most worthwhile film of the year. Both this film and the other best film, Manchester by the Sea, are characterized by their examination of emotional constraint, and by their deep and specific sense of place: the ocean is key in each film.  

Moonlight

Manchester by the Sea – I just loved this sad, upliftingly depressing movie about how things happen that can never be made right.  Kenneth Lonergin has a distinct voice (see You Can Count on Me – another favorite of mine) Casey’s performance was specific and heartbreaking.  Extra points for Kyle Chandler and his FLN connection.  

Manchester by the Sea

Hell or High Water – excellent modern Western with traditional Western atmosphere of bleakness and destiny.  It portrays  a desolate, marginalized population who would rather support a bank robber than a bank, and sheds light on those who embrace Trump.  Jeff Bridges is, as always, fantastic. Arrival – abstract, metaphysical and poetic sci fi about language, communication and time.  A really unusual popular movie. Great Amy Adams. American Honey – teenage wasteland.  Is that Shia LaBoef acting like James Franco?  Captain Fantastic – intriguingly ambivalent.  Plaudits to Viggo Mortensen. A Bigger Splash – slick and sensual thriller where one character talks too much and one is silent.  Memorable Ralph Fiennes and Tilda Swinton.

                                                       *****

Hidden Figures – movie of the week template elevated by sterling execution and good intentions.  Usually good intentions are a negative for me, but this corny thing gets away with them.  Sully – Tom Hanks used to do swagger; now he excels in anxiety.

Love and Friendship – Jane Austen film without the usual stick up its ass.   La La Land – meta without irony.  I experienced this as a film about the issues in making a movie musical in 2016:  I thought it was quite cerebral.  I really did not get the heartwarming stuff.  And Ryan Gosling?  He was so cool and edgy in Half Nelson, an amazing performance.  When did he become so stiff?  Is it the cost of his working out?   Florence Foster Jenkins – better than you think Sing Street – charming and goofy.  Also better than you thought it would be,  especially for this afficianado of teen comedies and music.   Loving --  reserved and moving.  Another film that got away with good intentions. Fences – Great play, too stagey, too bloviating.  

Sasha Lane/American Honey

MUSIC Music from here, there and everywhere entered (and re-entered) my world this year.  

Josh Ritter – Sermon on the Rocks: When I heard these songs on WXPN this year, they just popped, especially “Birds of the Meadow” which always made me take note.  

“Sunshine Superman”:  The vastly underrated purveyor of the terminally hippy dippy, Donovan, wrote and sang this 60’s single of pure joy.  One of the things that makes Donovan so special is the inventive arrangements of his songs.  Just listen to the baseline.  And the same sunshine that “came softly through my window today” in this song was evident to Joni Mitchell who saw “the sun through yellow curtain lace” on her “Chelsea Morning,” and to the Vaselines “and the sun shines in the bedroom when you play” in “Son of a Gun,” two other songs of unadulterated hedonism.   Let’s also remember another single,  Donovan’s purest expression of hippy mindlessness and flower power, “Atlantis,” which always brings a smile I can’t wipe off my face no matter how hard I try. Performing “Atlantis” on TV in the 60s, midpoint through the song, Donovan whispered “Hail Atlantis” in his most wispy voice, and then stood up in his white Nehru gown, and started throwing blossoms. You gotta believe the 60s were sweet!  For Donovan’s tart musical antidote to this treacle, listen to the bad vibes made manifest in his “Season of the Witch.”  In fact, the entire Sunshine Superman album is well worth the listen.  If you like it, try Mellow Yellow next.  

Donovan

“Autumn Sweater”:  Yo La Tengo:  oh! Yo La Tengo! I’ve been loving their quiet covers album Stuff Like That There from 2015 all 2016, read a decent book about them, and been listening to their other albums, most notably I Hear Two Hearts Beating as One from whence comes “Autumn Sweater”:  Minimal sound, trance-like sensual beat, mysterious, obsessive lyrics, whispered vocal.  Over their long career, this band bit off a piece of Velvet Underground, added a dollop of 60s trash, and built the little band that could (how mixed is that metaphor?): has it been 30 years now of regularly released, lovely soft/ harsh excellent music?

Yo La Tengo

“Falling Rain”:  trance-like folk rock cover from Karl Blau that lasts 10 minutes but only seems like 6 minutes.  Loved it every time I heard it. 

  American Band by Drive-by Truckers –They play churning, passionate classic two (or three) guitar rock that splits the difference between those rivals Neil Young and Lynard Skynard, with sharper politics than either (but more limited melodic gifts.)  They’ve maintained consistently empathic songwriting for over 20 years and 11 studio albums, and, deeply affected by the current political turmoil going on in the USA, this piece may be their best yet.  From Treyvon Martin to Robin Williams.  Words of wisdom:  “Killing’s been the bullet’s business”; “You don’t see too many white kids lying bleeding in the street.”  

You Want it Darker -- Leonard Cohen: I don’t have to go through the list of those major music artists we’ve lost this year.  Though Bowie and Prince are undeniably giants, the two whose loss affected me most deeply are Merle Haggard and this man who left his profound, clear-eyed, stirring goodbye note.  It completed his extraordinary and singular life work, and listening to it is heartbreaking.  An earlier song by L. Cohen I’ve always loved is his epic about “Joan of Arc,” a stately waltz, making manifest his major theme: the confluence of sex, death and spirit.  This final album is its epitome. I treasure the three times I was able to see him perform.  

L.Cohen “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling”:  This song, that never really left, re-entered my consciousness through a radio interview and a book passage this year.  I loved it when I first heard it: I remember responding to its deep, echoed sound of profound sadness in November of 1964.  I’ve been thinking about what 13-year-old me made of its message of romantic despair and loss.   I realized that this song did not chiefly resonate with feelings of sadness I already had; it instead taught me one way of how to be sad in love that I took with me and held deeply.  I learned how to be depressed in a bad relationship from this song.  Art doesn’t only resound with our prior feelings, it provides emotional education.  

“Cigarettes and Alcohol” – Oasis: tuff “Bang a Gong (Get it On)” remake.

Patti Smith sings “A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall” at Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize induction:  Dylan is great; since 1964 he’s been my hero; I adore him. One could make a case for Greatest Songwriter Ever!  He clearly extended the range of song to include literary influence -- Beat and Surrealist poetry chiefly -- like no one ever has done -- (I’ll have to check that statement out with my Classical Music friends.)  But I experience some melancholy at the choice because his victory denies the prize to my favorite contemporary writer, the richly deserving Philip Roth.  They are not going to award this to another American Jew for decades.  Patti’s genuine emotional presence and humility at the ceremony along with the songs current relevance add layers of complexity to this whole Nobel process. Incredible performance and incredible song. Hail, hail Bob, Patti and Philip!

  Books: Tess of the D’Urberville—a classic is a classic because it amazes.

Thomas Hardy

The Anatomy of a Song by Marc Myers -- Taken from his column for The Wall Street Journal, 45 songs from Lawdy Miss Clawdy to Losing My Religion are discussed through interviews with creators about how each song got to be.  Tidbits about songwriting inspiration are less interesting than the production details, but most of these allow you to hear the song in a new way, and to get some neat factoids.  I found it compulsively readable and it has stuck with me more than some of the other music books I read this year.  Fun! 

Taras Bulba – Gogol.  Yes, Taras Bulba.  Explains Putin (and Trump)

After Dark by Haruki Murakami -- elegant exploration of mediated reality.  Lovely in its unity of time. 

Last Night by James Salter -- Sharply written, stunning stories about adultery.

The Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost – Roth at his best.  Extraordinary complexity, passion and humor in two short page turners -- a book and its sequel -- separated by almost 30 years.   They book end Zuckerman’s story, and offer a prelude to Roth’s retirement. What tremendous place do these contemplative and impulsive men -- Nathan Zuckerman, Rabbit Angstrom (see John Updike) and Frank Bascomb (see Richard Ford) -- occupy in our time.

P. Roth

[christophergill8]

Top 10 tax topics of 2016 and what to expect in 2017

There weren't any major tax bills in 2016. That's going to change in some form in 2017 now that the Republicans control Congress and the White House.

via GIPHY

But there still were plenty of tax-related matters that got attention last year. Below is my list of top 10 tax stories of 2016.

And as a bonus, I also pulled out my slightly cracked crystal ball -- really, who saw the presidential election turning out like it did? -- to forecast five tax issues that we're likely to see in 2017.

Top 10 Tax Topics of 2016

1. No Trump tax returns: President-Elect Donald J. Trump ignored shattered an almost 40-year election tax disclosure tradition by refusing to show the U.S. electorate his current tax return. Trump said it was because he was being audited by the Internal Revenue Service, but many, including some former IRS commissioners, said that wasn't a legitimate reason to keep his 1040 secret.

Trump's refusal also led to much speculation that he didn't pay any federal taxes for 18 years and that he's not as rich as he regularly proclaimed, as well as prompted federal and state legislation that would mandate future presidential candidate be more tax transparent.

In the end, it didn't seem to matter to voters. The tax world, however, still wants to know what's in the incoming 45th president's federal filings.

2. Tax identity theft and scams: Every tax season is tax scam season, but in 2016 tax schemes aimed at stealing filers' identities took on more urgency. The IRS agent impersonation scam, hailed in 2014 as the biggest criminal tax ID theft scheme ever, continued in 2016.  I got more than half a dozen of the fake calls threatening me with legal action for not paying all my taxes.  

But last October, an international law enforcement crackdown led to the closure of Indian call centers where the scheme apparently originated. U.S. officials subsequently obtained indictments of 61 people involved in the tax identity theft phone scam.

Meantime, the IRS and its Security Summit partners from the tax software and preparation industry, the tax professionals' community and the state tax world continued their efforts to fight tax ID theft through public education and tighter security controls over online information.

3. IRS Commissioner impeachment threat: IRS Commissioner John Koskinen has been at odds with Congressional Republicans almost from day one of his term. But things took a nastier turn in 2016. GOP House members repeatedly tried to impeach Koskinen, alleging that his high crimes and misdemeanors included lying to Congressional committees and hiding information about emails connected to targeting of Tea Party groups seeking 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status. 

Koskinen was officially censured by the House Government Oversight Committee. A final attempt last December at full impeachment, however, failed when the House opted to send the matter back to the committee level for possible further consideration in 2017. 

4. End of extenders: I've been following professional taxes since the 1980s, and during that time one of the most predictable tax actions has been the periodic renewal of temporary tax laws known as extenders. That happened in December 2015, but that same year the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes, or PATH, Act also made some popular provisions permanent.

Most tax watchers expected the laws that were extended only through 2016 to be renewed for another year or two, but when Trump won the White House, that plan was scuttled.

That left both individual filers -- those who rely on the college tuition and fees above-the-line tax deduction and some home-related tax breaks -- and businesses -- thoroughbred horse breeders, professional motorsports teams and film/TV/Broadway creators -- wondering and worrying whether they'll get their tax breaks back, either in a freestanding bill or as part of possible tax reform.

5. IRS looks to its future: In 2016, Uncle Sam's tax collection and enforcement agency faced yet another reduced budget and increasing number of taxpayers, along with the challenge of fighting tax identity theft threats and added tax law responsibilities such as Obamacare penalties. The IRS decided the best way to meet all these responsibilities is to transform itself into an agency that will rely on more automation and less personal interaction with taxpayers.

This so-called Future State probably is, to a large degree, inevitable even without the fiscal and physical problems faced by the IRS. But many filers, as well as the National Taxpayer Advocate, were not thrilled with the IRS announcement that it is moving forward in the direction.

Olson concerns, which she shared with Congress, are that the IRS is underestimating the number of taxpayers who are not equipped to use IRS online resources. Many don't have internet access or can't complete the increasingly complex (thanks, ID thieves) authentication process.

Others don't trust the IRS systems' security. And then there are those folks who simply want to talk to a human.

6. International corporate taxes: One of the few tax matters that got attention during the 2016 presidential campaign was corporate tax inversions. The recent rush by U.S. companies to change their corporate tax headquarters, at least on paper, to lower-taxed foreign countries was one of the few issues on which there was bipartisan consensus: it's not good for U.S. workers and the economy. But exactly what the United States will do about such corporate tax maneuvers remains unclear, even with the GOP in control in Washington, D.C.

Meanwhile, European tax officials weren't happy with the international tax deals offered to American firms either. The most notable was Apple’s tax war with the European Union.

7. States go after remote sales taxes: Congress has been fiddling with proposals to establish a nationwide system that allows states to collect sales taxes from remote sellers, but still hasn't been able to come up with an acceptable measure. States in 2016 got tire of waiting.

A growing number of states adopted creative nexus standards challenging the existing Quill Corporation v. North Dakota U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1992 that a seller must have a physical presence, or nexus, before it has to collect a state's sales taxes. Explosive internet commerce, argue state tax officials, has undermined that standard. And even online retail giant Amazon seems to agree, deciding to start collecting sales taxes in 2017 in several states where it has no physical operations.

It's possible that the High Court ultimately could decide to end the nexus requirement in a wonderfully tax ironic way. Challenges to South Dakota's new internet tax collection law could possibly reverse neighboring North Dakota's long-standing remote sales physical location standard.

8. Sharing/gig economy taxes: Despite Uber's problems with local officials across the country, the sharing or gig economy is expected to keep growing. In 2016, the IRS finally acknowledged this by providing guidance to taxpayers who earn money from such enterprises at the new Sharing Economy Tax Center. The IRS also made it clear that it will keep a close eye on taxpayers who, intentionally or unintentionally, pay more or especially less tax then they should from their patchwork careers.

9. Olympic champion tax break: As predictable as the "USA!" chants every time the Olympics rolled around were Congressional efforts to offer tax relief to Americans who won medals. It finally came to be in 2016. Thanks, Michael Phelps Simone Biles!

The Olympians and Paralympians Act was signed into law by President Obama and now some Olympics champions won't have to count the money they get from the U.S. Olympics Committee as taxable income. The value of the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals themselves also is now tax-free. But this only applies to Olympians whose adjusted gross income is $1 million or less. Sorry, Michael Phelps Simone Biles!

10. Tax haven crackdown continued: The cousin to corporate tax inversions is individual taxpayer use, or abuse, of international tax havens. Some names and financial institutions that enable such alleged tax evasion were revealed last May with the release of the Panama Papers. For the United States, the biggest revelation in the more than 11 million documents leaked from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca was not names of Americans stashing cash away globally, but the inclusion of Nevada and Wyoming as tax havens for other worldwide taxpayers.

But the IRS didn't need more names. It already had the identities of and tax payments  from individuals who participated in its ongoing global tax amnesty Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, or OVDP. The agency announced last October that since its initiation of the tax haven crackdown effort in 2009, it has collected $10 billion in taxes and had 100,000 taxpayers return to full federal tax compliance.

OK, that's a lot of tax stuff for a year that really wasn't so tax focused. Now comes the question of what will 2017 bring us tax-wise? Below are five issues that could be of particular interest. I'll admit up front that these aren't especially bold predictions, but as I noted earlier, my crystal ball was damaged.

Tax Issues to Look (and Look Out) for in 2017

1. Refund delays will anger taxpayers: Nobody needs a prophecy orb to see this coming. When taxpayers who file early in 2017 expecting to have their refunds in hand by the end of the month discover that they'll have to wait at least a couple more weeks, you'll hear the complaining nationwide.

The IRS has been working since last summer to get the word out that a provision in the previously mentioned PATH Act requires the agency to hold some refunds until at least Feb. 15. This will happen on filings where the Earned Income and additional child tax credits are claimed.

As I noted in yesterday's January tax moves post, the rationale for the delay is that it will give the IRS more time to ensure that these refundable tax credit claims are legit. That's probably true.

But it's also true that it will piss off honest filers who claim one or both of these tax breaks and who depend on their soon-as-possible tax refunds to make ends meet.

Plus, I see a whole new category of tax scams arising from folks preying on filers who want to get their refunds sooner than mid-February.

2. Debt collector problems will return: Despite years of evidence to the contrary, Congress is once again forcing the IRS to use private debt collectors. The good news is that the tax cases that will be turned over to the bill collectors is limited. The bad news is that bill collectors will be involved at all.

Sure, they are statutorily required to follow the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act , which means they can berate or abuse you when calling about a bill or call your friends or family or employer or a whole long list of other consumer protections. Big whoop.

Too many unscrupulous debt collectors ignore the debt collection rules when it comes to bills they currently collect. I suspect we'll get reports of the same happening in connection with old tax bills.

And, as in the refund delay case, tax criminals will likely be posing at private debt collectors to con individuals into handing over their personal information and money.

3. Tax reform will happen: With Republicans in control of the White House and Capitol Hill, there will be some sort of individual and corporate tax reform. But that's as far as I'm going. How much and how soon is still too iffy to predict even with one party in ostensible charge.

Howard Gleckman nails the situation in his recent post at TaxVox, the blog for the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Policy Center:

"Trump aides and Hill leaders boldly predict that Congress will pass not one, but two, major tax bills by April. But making tax policy is notoriously complex and time-consuming. In addition, lawmakers and their staffs could well spend much of February and March bogged down in controversial Trump nominations and the Affordable Care Act repeal."

4. Obamacare sticks around: As with tax reform, untangling all the threads of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, won't be easy. Sure the Republicans who have hated the law since it was enacted in 2010 without a single vote from anyone in their party will vote to repeal it. And they'll loudly tout the end of the many taxes associated with the health care law.

But the effective date for the actual end of the law and taxes will be in the future as they try to figure out how to placate voters who hate the law but like the insurance that it provides. Plus, even the incoming president has said some provisions of Obamacare should be retained.

5. IRS continues to catch Congressional heat: While Koskinen ultimately might escape impeachment and serve out his term, which ends in November, the agency itself will continue to be in Congressional cross-hairs.

Now that Republicans have control in D.C., they need an easy foe they can use to make their political points. Enter the IRS.

Uncle Sam's tax agency is perfect for attacks from GOP Representatives and Senators. It's made plenty of mistakes -- conference cost overruns, questionable videos, bad email system decision -- in recent years that its detractors can easily pick from to use as bludgeons.

Plus, it's a government agency and the current GOP in general and its Tea Party faction in particular don't believe that any part of government has a positive role to play in people's lives.

Finally, voters in general detest paying taxes, even when they know they are necessary to provide services they like.

So look for Congress to continue to hammer away at the IRS and its leader, both in Capitol Hill hearings and by again trimming the agency's budget.

What do you think? Did I cover all the big tax issues of 2016 and 2017? If not, let me know in the comments what you think I overlooked. And if you agree or want to elaborate on those I chose for my past review and future outlook, please share that, too.

from Tax News By Christopher http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DontMessWithTaxes/~3/GXuIGj2yNAc/tax-review-2016-tax-preview-2017.html