#but labeling pictures doesn't require any of those

[simsmadegeeky]

Images for the 82 hair defaults dump (1/3)

(Part 2) (Part 3)

For various reasons I had the time to quickly (and with great ugliness) label the hair images and I'm putting them below the read more. It's a quick and dirty little post but hopefully it will help people. Tumblr will only allow so many pics so this is the first of at least two posts.

Click here for downloads folder. Click here for spreadsheet which has images and direct links to the downloads (see the third sheet/tab).

[nekropsii]

You said that your formatting method is an accessibility device, can you go little into it please? Atleast for text color, cause im not getting that part.

It's intended for people with ADHD, or trouble processing long-form text. As an ADHDer myself, I often found myself and people like me struggling to connect with lengthy text without any difficulties- most people wound up accidentally skipping around, looping, or were generally unable to process it due to density. Long, wholly unformatted text- meaning without paragraph breaks or anything- tends to read as nothing more than a particularly unapproachable cloud of white noise. It's a common but frustrating issue for those that have it, and it's one that's often left entirely unaccommodated, even in circles where accommodation is a very big deal. This seems to be because difficulty digesting text, especially of an informative variety, tends to be labelled as a symptom of laziness rather than that of a genuine disability.

Formatting text as heavily as I do- with the italics, bold, color, and so on- gives what I write more visual intrigue and separation. Text is made more distinct that way. It becomes compartmentalized. It's easier to approach, even within people who don't have trouble with reading. The text color functions similarly to how highlighting a passage in a book works, and frequent use of it guides your eyes along the page with much more ease than if it was never there to begin with. If you lose your spot, you know generally where to look because you'll probably remember its formatting.

ADHD is a disability that requires a lot of things to be broken up into smaller, distinguishable chunks for you to be able to process the full picture, or even just register it as something approachable. This isn't a part of the disability I see acknowledged often, but I intend to work with it. It helps me a lot, and it does help many others. This method has seemed to work very, very well so far. I've received many, many asks saying how much easier things are to read with that formatting style, as well as seeing a handful of people adopt it for themselves. If it doesn't work for you, that's perfectly fine- that's the nature of accessibility, no singular method works for everyone- but it does seem to work quite well for what I'm going for.

[librarianrafia]

"But there is a yawning gap between "AI tools can be handy for some things" and the kinds of stories AI companies are telling (and the media is uncritically reprinting). And when it comes to the massively harmful ways in which large language models (LLMs) are being developed and trained, the feeble argument that "well, they can sometimes be handy..." doesn't offer much of a justification.

...

When I boil it down, I find my feelings about AI are actually pretty similar to my feelings about blockchains: they do a poor job of much of what people try to do with them, they can't do the things their creators claim they one day might, and many of the things they are well suited to do may not be altogether that beneficial. And while I do think that AI tools are more broadly useful than blockchains, they also come with similarly monstrous costs.

...

But I find one common thread among the things AI tools are particularly suited to doing: do we even want to be doing these things? If all you want out of a meeting is the AI-generated summary, maybe that meeting could've been an email. If you're using AI to write your emails, and your recipient is using AI to read them, could you maybe cut out the whole thing entirely? If mediocre, auto-generated reports are passing muster, is anyone actually reading them? Or is it just middle-management busywork?

...

Costs and benefits

Throughout all this exploration and experimentation I've felt a lingering guilt, and a question: is this even worth it? And is it ethical for me to be using these tools, even just to learn more about them in hopes of later criticizing them more effectively?

The costs of these AI models are huge, and not just in terms of the billions of dollars of VC funds they're burning through at incredible speed. These models are well known to require far more computing power (and thus electricity and water) than a traditional web search or spellcheck. Although AI company datacenters are not intentionally wasting electricity in the same way that bitcoin miners perform millions of useless computations, I'm also not sure that generating a picture of a person with twelve fingers on each hand or text that reads as though written by an endlessly smiling children's television star who's being held hostage is altogether that much more useful than a bitcoin.

There's a huge human cost as well. Artificial intelligence relies heavily upon "ghost labor": work that appears to be performed by a computer, but is actually delegated to often terribly underpaid contractors, working in horrible conditions, with few labor protections and no benefits. There is a huge amount of work that goes into compiling and labeling data to feed into these models, and each new model depends on ever-greater amounts of said data — training data which is well known to be scraped from just about any possible source, regardless of copyright or consent. And some of these workers suffer serious psychological harm as a result of exposure to deeply traumatizing material in the course of sanitizing datasets or training models to perform content moderation tasks.

Then there's the question of opportunity cost to those who are increasingly being edged out of jobs by LLMs,i despite the fact that AI often can't capably perform the work they were doing. Should I really be using AI tools to proofread my newsletters when I could otherwise pay a real person to do that proofreading? Even if I never intended to hire such a person?

Or, more accurately, by managers and executives who believe the marketing hype out of AI companies that proclaim that their tools can replace workers, without seeming to understand at all what those workers do.

Finally, there's the issue of how these tools are being used, and the lack of effort from their creators to limit their abuse. We're seeing them used to generate disinformation via increasingly convincing deepfaked images, audio, or video, and the reckless use of them by previously reputable news outlets and others who publish unedited AI content is also contributing to misinformation. Even where AI isn't being directly used, it's degrading trust so badly that people have to question whether the content they're seeing is generated, or whether the "person" they're interacting with online might just be ChatGPT. Generative AI is being used to harass and sexually abuse. Other AI models are enabling increased surveillance in the workplace and for "security" purposes — where their well-known biases are worsening discrimination by police who are wooed by promises of "predictive policing". The list goes on.

[modmonsterra]

Obviously everyone's gonna have a different interpretation of any given character, and it's fine if people don't personally click with Nemona but man, the hate and bad takes about her out there are on another level.

A lot of basic Pokemon rival traits that she's given (telling the player about type advantages, being required to battle her throughout the course of the story) I've seen her be directly hated for even though just about every other rival also does it. I know the fandom doesn't only say that about her exclusively but the fact that those specific complaints are paired with her being labeled as "yandere" or a stalker paint an interesting picture about how the fandom interprets those traits in a girl rival as opposed to a boy, because I guarantee that she wouldn't get those labels had she been a boy.

It's honestly a shame that she gets the short end of the stick of all the rival characters in SV and that the context needed to really understand her is optional postgame content, whereas Penny and Arven's postgame content compliments an already completed narrative.

Another thing too is that I see a lot of people interpret her as though being battle-hungry is the only thing to her, and that she's otherwise dumb or doesn't care about anything else, even though it's stated several times that she's a straight A student and student council president.

Having trouble with social ques doesn't make her unintelligent and the fact that her character gets watered down to those things is just kind of dissapointing really

[game-stationed]

That's it everybody's getting little Nate fun facts now

Awesome Nate art by @/sweet-teath bullet points below cut

I can't remember if I've linked his bio here or not so I'll do that first for basic backstory info (click the folded-over triangle on the top left for more info)

For someone that's worked in the medical field his whole adult life, being no stranger to blood and guts (in real life, they don't really phase him, even), he's horribly squeamish about horror films - yeah, even super campy ones.

He HATES phone calls. Getting them, answering them, being on them, anything. If it wasn't required, he wouldn't even have a phone in his office. He'd prefer a written or printed memo above anything else.

He took his wife's surname when they got married! He was more than happy to ditch his old one.

His favorite foods are pretty much any sort of safe, consistent comfort foods that are easy to make. Yeah he's autistic yeah it's undiagnosed

He's slightly farsighted. It doesn't bug him too much now, but he would need glasses eventually.

His PhD (He's an actual doctor! The title isn't just for show.) is specifically in biomedical engineering. It was a job path that made him feel fulfilled and useful in being able to, hopefully, help others.

He's rather picky about being referred to as "Dr. Schaeffer" by colleagues, disliking being referred to by just his first name or without the title. The only real exception to this, as far as fellow Playtime Co. workers would go, would be that he allows Leith to call him just "Nate."

One job path he considered prior to aiming for his doctorate was that of a writer, potentially a poet. He always had an affinity for poetry and prose. However, he decided against this path for various reasons: he considered himself too unskilled in the craft to turn it into a career, he figured it would be too difficult to make a good stable income off, and thought it would not feel as productive or fulfilling as it didn't directly help others.

Nate has a ton of symbolic objects tied to him within his story, but some of the biggest ones that represent specifically him are the sun, fire, the color red, and ship captains/boats. Probably some more, too, but those are the really big ones.

He's maintained the same shitty haircut for years after (accidentally) having a particularly bad haircut for his wedding - more or less ruining all the wedding photos, though there weren't really all that many pictures, anyways. While he was growing that haircut out, his wife mentioned liking how shaggy it was getting, and he kept it in a similar style from then on.

He never really had much interest in Playtime Co. products, even before learning of the experiments they were doing. He wasn't opposed to them by any means, he just didn't have an interest in toys made for kids. If asked what his favorite toy from them was, he'd eventually land on Cat-Bee.

He suffers from both insomnia and hypersomnia. He's very, very tired. Always. Not much seems to alleviate this.

He has fallen asleep at work before on rare occasions, overworking himself and feeling like there just isn't much reason to go home anymore. It just felt like time wasted to sit idly at home by himself, really. After losing his wife, he lost most of his hobbies and interests as well, anyways.

His gender identity and sexuality are not any further labelled than "man" and declarations of how dearly he loves his wife but, on other occasions, weird offhanded mentions of both female and male lovers in his distant past that he fails to elaborate on. He's the type of guy to mention something really out of pocket about it and move on like he never said anything. He genuinely doesn't think anything of it.

If he was an animal he'd be a basset hound. To me

[guidetorp]

I’m actually new to the Tumblr RP community and it’s sort of confusing to take in at first so I’d love some advice, thank you so much in advance for anything!

I’m not really sure where to start or how to search for roleplays, appropriately make or tag them, or terms like “muses”? I’ve seen it around, but I’m never sure what it means.

My only experience in getting involved in the roleplay community on other platforms would be through things like “communities” or basically a big user ground labeled “something RP”, but there’s nothing like that here. How would I reach out / extend my reach?

Oh!! Well first and foremost, welcome to the RP side of Tumblr! It's been a few years since I've been active in the roleplay community myself, so I encourage you to take my advice with a grain of salt as I'm sure things have changed!

That being said, starting into the rp community can be a daunting task for sure. Navigating tagging, links, etc is an acquired skill, but certainly not impossible! Just remember to be patient with yourself and allow a few dink-ups along the way.

Now, let me preface this by saying that the tagging system here is dogshit! Completely terrible! But using appropriate tags for your roleplay is still extremely important, as it helps other individuals either find you or avoid you! Lengthy roleplays can be a bit of an eyesore on the dash if you aren't involved in the community so using #rp or #roleplay each time will help the filters out.

I strongly recommend checking out this blog for more relevant roleplay etiquette, which also has some pretty great information on the tagging system! The individual running it has stepped down though, so it's just for perusing and not an active help blog!

Now, muses! Muses are simply a source of inspiration. In the sense of roleplay, they are the chosen character the roleplayer is using in the RP. Fictional or nonfictional, original or established, anything can be your source of inspiration. A similar term thrown around is a face claim. A picture of the muse to display, very simply, what the character looks like. That can get messy if you aren't careful, as you want to make sure you're crediting the artist or not claiming pictures of someone else's original work under the guise of 'inspiration'. Some use photos of celebrities or stock images, not as official 'this is what my character looks like' but more as a 'this is the ballpark of vibes I'm going for'.

Remember, if you want to have a specific picture for your muse, commission someone to make it for you, or make it yourself! The RP community can be fantastic for exploring other hobbies, depending on what kind of flavor you want to implement! I've seen people make comics, paper crafts, or customized photography for whatever their scene requires! I've even been a part of an immersive horror rp that went on for months as a real-time mystery.

To get yourself out there, I HIGHLY recommend fandom first. It might be a bit controversial, but having a fandom oc or character will start you in an established universe and provide the basics of familiarizing yourself with roleplay. From there, you can expand universes and begin interacting with other non-fandom characters!

And how would you interact with them? Roleplay memes/ask games are a great source, those huge lists of prompts with numbers next to them? Yeah those are fantastic for getting started. Just choose a few of them at a time and start writing! Just don't over exert yourself! If you aren't getting any replies or interaction, that doesn't reflect on your ability by any means. Just have patience and write for your OWN enjoyment.

You can also send prompts to other RP blogs! People usually love reblogging those big lists so if you have a few folks in mind that you'd like to start roleplaying with, shoot them an ask!

Anyways, I hope you can glean what you need from this response! If there are any specifics you'd like to know about, I'll always be here. I wish you best of luck with establishing yourself within our roleplay community, and once again, welcome!!

[digitalabhisha]

Tips for On-Page, Off-Page, and Technical SEO

Consider the technical, on-page, and off-page search engine optimization (SEO) of your website as your preferred method of communicating with Google. Delivering relevant and authentic material to users is the goal of search engines. You effectively make it simpler for Google and other search engines to classify your website by checking the SEO boxes (those are under your control).

Knowing what the algorithms are looking for also helps you make improvements to your website and plan out future marketing campaigns more effectively.

But first, let’s look about all the three types of SEO:

On-Page SEO:- As the name implies, it includes all the beneficial SEO techniques you may apply on the pages of your actual website, such as using relevant keywords, creating original content, and carefully saving and labelling images.

Off-Page SEO:- This you can do outside your website by getting the links from more reliable and authoritative website. For e.g. you could write a blog post and in return you can ask for backlink.

Technical SEO:-  Your website must adhere to all the technical requirements that Google has approved, including security, stability, mobile responsiveness, etc.

Top 3 On-Page SEO tips:

Produce high-quality, audience-relevant content: Make sure all of the materials you use on your website (text, photographs, videos, vlogs, infographics, etc.) are original, fascinating, and educational.

Write meaningful title tags and meta descriptions: The brief sentence that appears alongside your meta title tag in search results is known as the meta description. Here, emphasise the most important details and pertinent keyword(s).

Utilize pertinent keywords: Do some research to find the words or phrases that best represent the content of each page, then use them in the headers and alt text of your photos.

Top 3 Off-Page SEO tips:

Produce informative, interesting, and shareable content: For various platforms, produce excellent podcasts, videos, blogs, infographics, guest blogs, ebooks, surveys, and white papers.

Obtain reviews, be active on social media, send newsletters to your subscribers, host and/or attend events, join forums, find an influencer, etc. to manage your reputation.

Create a Google My Business account and take full advantage of this free tool to improve local SEO. Add pictures, respond to inquiries, and invite your clients to leave feedback there. Additionally, a regional domain name, such as .newyork, .london, .newdelhi can help with this.

Top 3 Technical SEO tips:

Put money toward a secure connection: Any browser that visits your website will have their communication with it encrypted using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Additionally, it will increase confidence because your URL will be displayed as "secure" with a padlock or as "https."

Verify the responsiveness of your website: What kind of mobile UI does your website have? Did you know that Google prioritizes mobile devices when indexing search results? Make sure your website doesn't receive a penalty by involving your web developer.

Verify your page loading times; a website with a high bounce rate may take more than two seconds to load. Search engines and users both dislike a slow website. Invest in the best local web hosting and ensure that your image files are scaled for the web to increase loading times.

SEO could become quite complex at a time. So it’s a great idea to get an expert once your business can afford it.

[sagau-my-beloved]

venti is fr the kind of partner who finds out about like. the matching s/o shirts and goes insane— doesn’t matter how stupid and cheesy they are, even if they’re the ones with arrows like ‘that’s my bf/gf/partner’ I feel like any opportunity to show that he’s with the reader he would love lol. he’s probably got a ‘world’s best bf’ mug or something too

Ok so you're absolutely right, he would 100℅ want to show you off in every available capacity, and that doesn't matter if you're both in the real world or in his world, because he's going to find a way to do it. One of those just requires him to get pretty good at learning how to make shirts.

Take it a step further and get him a label maker, in watch in complete awe as everything he owns suddenly has labels pertaining to you in some way.

"Belongs to the creator's favorite", "World's most beloved acolyte", "Property of the property of the most divine God".

If he's feeling super out going, he'll probably start messing with some of your stuff too, "Anemo Archon's beloved", "Soul mate of the world's best Bard", you get the picture.

I keep imagining this scenario where like Zhongli or Ei is ranting about how much the creator loves them and favors them and then Venti's is just standing there listening in complete silence, and he slowly brings a mug that says "Creator's favourite Archon" up to his lips and takes a very long annoying sip without breaking eye contact.

And then you have to stop him from getting murdered, reassuring everyone that you don't actually have a favorite Archon.

Anyway, yeah, he would get himself custom things that say the most out of pocket shit on them relating to how much you like him or how you're happily together.

Also he'll get really sad if you don't wear them.

Like if you flat out refuse he's going to whine about how annoying it is that no one thinks you are together when you're out in public, and how this is a way to stop creepy people from flirting with you right in front of him (and totally not because he likes the comfort of wearing something that says you both are bound to each other)

[deleteddewewted]

Incel!Shinsou x F!Reader fanfic idea (Part 2)

So here we are, Incel!Shinsou is back and this time with a bit of growth that he needs to make independently (While thinking about the reader of course. Thank you so much to @blossominglark for sending in such a lovely message! Also here you can find a small explanation as to why i even started the Incel!Shinsou series.)

"I think I want you. I think you're bad. I think you're good, it's like the love I never had. I think I need you. Oh God, it's true. I think I'm falling and there's nothing I can do" - Beetlejuice Chill by Life After Youth

Part 1: Incel! Shinsou x F!Reader

Part 3: Incel!Shinsou x F!Reader (1/2)

How difficult could it be? To forget that you ever existed... thats what's haunting Shinsou ever since the conversation you two had a few days ago. He cant seem to focus anymore, everything just reeks of you. (His own bedroom where you two would sit on the floor and work on your project together. You would laugh at something that came on the television, every time resulting in his face heating up and heart beating harder at the sound, the beautiful sound, of your laughter. It doesn't feel the same anymore. He cant sit or sleep there anymore.) Shinsou starts speaking with Aizawa more, to be honest its not like Aizawa gave him that much of a choice. He needed to understand what was happening with his son and you in order to help or bring some constructive input.

Shinsou goes on and on about how he mocked you to his "friends". When questioned on his "friends" he said that they were all telling him that you needed to be taught how to be a "proper woman" the "perfect girl for them".

("Hitoshi what-...why would you...?"

"I don't know! It made sense when i was young and- i... i dont understand how or why and...please just- help me i dont understand!"

"It's ok, it's ok, come here." Aizawa hugs Shinsou tightly. He starts running his hand over Shinsou's hair comforting him.

"What did you show them? What did you tell them about...her, exactly?") A mess of tears and regrets, thats what Shinsou is. A puddle which he somehow drowned you in out of a bitter rage that had nothing to do with you.

Aizawa finally holding a grasp as to how Shinsou's mind worked, he couldn't help but feel defeated. He neglected his son so much he became bitter and resentful towards the wrong people, the wrong person. (Aizawa only ever told Shinsou that his mother moved away from them because it was "too much for her". Young Shinsou couldn't grasp why his mom would leave him, but again he never really asked questions since he saw how upset it made his dad. "Dont worry Hitoshi, ill be here for you no matter what. Got it, problem child?") An intervention needs to be made now. To prevent even more damage, to keep his son safe and his sons ex-friend safe.

"Hitoshi? The posts and things you put online, you need to delete everything now." Urgency was a must, damage control needed to happen now. Who knows if Shinsou wrote about where he lived, where you lived and studied at, if he showed those "friends" of his your face. Who knows how much information he put out there to a bunch of strangers about you. "Ok, ok. Let me delete everything...yeah...thats-yeah...makes sense." He's slipping, Shinsou is slipping into a pit of shock and disgust, he needs to fix things and that only starts by wiping away years of miss informed opinions disguised as truths.

Everything is gone. No more accounts. No more pictures. No more you. He didn't make any announcements or even address why he was wiping everything. He didn't answer the piles of questions flooding his inbox about why he was doing all of this, he just didn't care anymore. He couldn't find you either. No account on any platform with any signs of you. (He should have asked for your socials, but knowing where you two started off at he thinks its better that you two didn't. It saved you from his incessant torment he saw himself being capable of.)

Week one came and went. You didn't show up for classes and people started to take notice.

"Does anyone know why y/n isn't at school anymore? Is she sick?" Midoriya asked one day. Everyone kind of just looked at each other hoping that someone might have an answer. Be it that no one other then Shinsou was in the same class as you, everyone in his friend group knew about you since you where always nice despite the way you presented clothing wise. (The clothing didn't matter nor did the labels, you were still so welcoming to everyone. Hell, you even welcomed Monoma and that guy is considered psycho by everyone.) Shinsou couldn't do anything but listen to his friends (Midoriya, Shoto, Denki, Mina, Iida, and Ururaka) go on about how nice you were. How they miss you. He misses you . He ruined this, he ruined your school experience and pushed you to lose the friends you had because of his own ignorance. He forced you to choice between showing up to school and dealing with him or not coming in at all and losing the friends you had because of him.

The Sports Festival was coming up soon, here all the students would compete against each other to show off their skills. The Festival acts more as an opportunity for the different Courses to fight each other since its focus centers on the physical strength and wellbeing of the students instead of their study of focus. It also helps with publicity by letting UA show off their students to the general public. (Shinsou didn't understand why the school would have a Sports Festival. UA was better known for being STEM and Art focused which meant that many of the students only had to take 1 year of P.E. instead of the 3 years other schools required.

"So again, what's the purpose of this?"

"Its just a chance for the different Courses to bully each other, and for the General Course to get mocked." responded Togeike. Be it that she never spent time with Shinsou, they both had a mutual attitude and just stayed away from each other out of disinterest. It wasn't after Shinsou's personality changed did she feel more comfortable being around him and started speaking to him casually throughout the day.

"So what does the Business Course do during-"

"Hey, didn't you and y/n work on that project together?" This caught Shinsou of guard. For the past week its all been about you and how you hadn't been coming to class. (You haunt him even outside of school, the guilts too much for him at times.)

"Yeah...what about it." he snarls. Just because he's changed in appearance and largely in attitude, that doesn't mean he's over the way he treats people. Cant she get to the point already-

"Geez man, i just wanted to ask if you needed her number." That...was off. Why would she assume that he needed your number?

"Why would you give me her number? Don't you think that as former project partners i would already have her-"

"You're clearly upset about her not being here, so shut up. Either take it or leave it, jackass." she bit back. How did she know? Shinsou has always had a resting bitch face which made it hard to read his emotions. How did she manage to figure it out? (God he was an asshole!)

"Yeah, please....i'm sorry. I could-"

"Please shut the fuck up, i don't want an apology from you. Take it and fix this shit. I hate seeing people mope and you're pretty much dying in a pit here." Togeike really gives no fucks and she was tired of the purple haired boy looking like a kicked puppy. She assumed it had something to do with you. When you started skipping class, Shinsou also started to look upset and wouldn't speak that often. It wasn't like Shinsou was shy, he just didn't see the need to speak all the time. So to see him become even more silent was concerning.)

He left school that day with a skip to his step. He has your number! He has a way of contacting you! Yet, he still knew that having your number wouldn't fix anything. You left him alone and it wouldn't be fair for him to barge back into your life without proving he's improving, that he's actually deserving of you're friendship at least....

The Sports Festival.....

He can prove himself to you there....

Everyone will see it, every student at UA has to be there for credit....you'll have to be there. You'll also have to participate for the start of it, so you'll have to interact with someone.

(This was it)

This was so much fun to write! Lets give this a slow build up to give him proper character development and redemption. The next part will be the Sports Festival and what he plans on doing to get you back. Let's set up that his intention is too for one, make an impression on the school for when he decides to transfer to the Art Course but also to make an impression on you and get you to notice him in a positive light. Our poor incel is trying his best ok....

[fuckterfs-deactivated20221212]

Open letter to @youtube

Hi youtube people!

I like to watch youtube videos in 720p, on all my devices, and with any network speed.

Sadly I can't just select it and have it be my default anymore, because the geniuses at your offices have come up with a "way better" system that I can only imagine was pitched like this:

"Hey boss, I have an Idea for you: You know that handy list of available resolutions we have for each video where people can select a resolution and have it more or less be their default whenever possible?"

"Of course I do Dennis, it's a very useful and simple tool that causes no problems and is easy to use."

"Exactly! We can't just let our users have nice things, can we? How about we give them four options instead:

-"Auto (recommended)", which is enabled by default, where they have no control whatsoever and we can randomly change the resolution whenever the internet speed changes by half a percent,

-"Higher picture quality", which is like Auto but instead we will always automatically select the highest quality available even on screens that have way less pixels than the selected quality requires,

-"Data saver", which is like Auto but instead it randomly switches between 360p,240p and 144p,

-or "Advanced", which are exactly what we had before but instead it takes one more click to select your desired quality!

Also, and here's the best part, while you CAN choose to set a default quality in your settings, you can only choose between the first three options, thus making this feature incredibly useless!"

"Dennis, you're a genius! This is what humanity needs!"

Okay. Humorous jest aside, this is basically my main issue (if not the only one) with youtube right now. I don't care about the lost dislikes, I don't even care that much about the fact that comment sections tend to be more or less unmoderated.

Honestly, even the four option system would be great and awesome. WOULD BE. If it was optional.

Many people know the rule "A feature that you can't turn off is a bug." All that I'd need, all that I ask for is this:

Let us set a specific quality as a default. Let me be able to automatically watch every video in 720p. Let us set a default quality by giving us the Advanced Settings as an option there too.

Or, maybe even better, let us customize our own Auto function (maybe even named "Custom", idk).

Let me be able to say "I'd like the highest possible quality in the range 720p-240p".

Let people say "I want a quality that adapts to the network strength, but nothing below 360p" (except in cases where the original video was already 240p or 144p obviously).

It would not be witchcraft, just a sliding scale with two slidable knobs for upper and lower limit, a drop-down-menu (or maybe an icon that rotates between the possible options here) to choose between "highest possible, within selected range" (your Higher picture quality basically), "saving data, within selected range" (your data saver, basically) or "best quality that would keep the playback fluid with the current network speed, within selected range" (your Auto (recommended), basically).

Actually, even better, keep everything as it is but add the upper and lower limit, that would be enough. Just two opt-in sliding scales, one labelled "Upper limit" and one labelled "lower limit", above or below the list of quality options.

Simple and OPTIONAL. It's offering the user an easy way to control something they can control anyways, while being optional and letting people who don't understand what those numbers mean (are those the reason for the change in the first place? I can't think of any other good reason that doesn't ultimately amount to "We can't just let our users have nice things, can we?") keep their three simple options.

It's probably not hard to code either. You're one of the world's biggest software companies, you probably have some capable people who could implement this. Heck, even I could probably code it, just give me a laptop, the current code responsible for the quality selection, access to stackexchange and two weeks, I could do it for free.

I'm sure I'm not the only one annoyed by that change that happened almost a year ago, and I tried to adjust but it still annoys me, and the fact that it's relatively simple to fix this bug in many different ways is disappointing me.

To quote everyone's parents ever (though I do genuinely mean it): "I'm not mad, just disappointed"

You can ignore me, and you most likely will, but still I write this open letter to you in the hopes that you will consider it.

Sincerely,

Me

[trutimeline]

idislikecispeople, The Most Infamous Dyscourse Blogger: Part 1.0, Rumors

idislikecispeople, also known as many names throughout her time on Tumblr (such as Adele, Kat, Mami, Samantha and Sayaka), was a former Tumblr blogger who became infamous for coining the term "tucute", among many other controversial things she has posted on her blogs. This was supposed to be one, very long masterpost about her, but Tumblr's post editor is a bitch and won't let me do that.

In this post, I'll be debunking or confirming rumors commonly spread about idislikecispeople. The rest of my posts about her will each be dedicated to a specific controversial belief she held or situations she got into. For simplicity's sake, I'll be referring to idislikecispeople as Kat for the rest of this post and future ones.

Rumors

Kat Coined the Terms "Truscum" and "Tucute"

Verdict: Partially True

Kat coined the term tucute, but she did not coin the terms truscum or transmedicalist.

Here's a screenshot of Kat's original definition of a tucute:

Transcript:

What is Tucute?

What does tucute mean?

Tucute is basically just the opposite of truscum, it’s a term and community for trans, nonbinary, and/or non-cis individuals created to separate anti-truscum from truscum and to serve as a safe place from truscum and from cis people, where they believe that being trans requires dysphoria, we do not,where they think that being trans is a medical condition, we do not,and where they deny numerous gender identities on the basis that it “discredits the trans community” we do not.

What are the prerequisites to be a part of the tucute community?

You have to be trans, nonbinary, and/or non-cis in general

You have to accept all pronouns and gender identities

You haveto believe that dysphoria is not necessary to be trans

You have to dislike truscum

You cannot side with truscum or believe in their ideology

You cannot misgender anyone no matter how mad they make you

You cannot be an ableist whatsoever

Did you invent the tucute community? Why?

I indeed did coin the tucute term and community and anyone who says otherwise are creeps who are trying to steal it from me and redefine it for their own nefarious doings. I started this community so anti-truscum could separate themselves from truscum and cis people who are a part of the truscum community, it serves as a safe space from both truscum and cis people.

I’m cis, can I be tucute if I believe in your movement and want to help?

No, you can’t be tucute if you’re cis, you can only be a tucute ally, and you need to be sure to never speak for or over a trans person.

I see a lot of tucuties being just as harmful as truscum, what will you do about it?

There isn’t much I can do to them other than ask them to stop aligning with the tucute community, and of course, that doesn’t mean they will. Also be noted that truscum and cis people will pretend to be tucute just to tarnish the name of the tucute community, so tread lightly, you might be talking to a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Spread the word, use the tag #tucute and join the army today!

[A digital drawing of Sayaka Miki from Puella Magi Madoka Magica in her magical girl form, with a banner underneath her reading "Tucute 4 U!"]

(source) (source)

Kat Was a Cisgender Woman Who Lied About Being a Transgender Woman

Verdict: False

This rumor primarily comes from a post on Kat's oldest known Tumblr blog, chromaghost, where she claims that she wasn't MTF and only tagged a selfie as such because she thought that transgender people were "cool".

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: are you a mtf? i seen it tagged on one of your photos.

No lol. I wanted to post it to the tag because transgender people are cool :3

(source) (source) (source)

However, Kat addressed this post and made it clear she very much was a transgender woman multiple times on her later blogs. This claim can also be confirmed with nude photos Kat posted online, which I don't feel comfortable spreading, so you'll just have to trust me on that one. I also don't feel comfortable directly encouraging you to go and dig up those nudes, as most of her nude photos were either taken when she was a minor, spread without her consent and/or were uploaded because people pressured her into posting nudes to "prove" she was a transgender woman.

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: you bound with ace bandage in one of your selfies. i don't know what to think about you anymore. according to some people you're a 27 year old cis woman scamming us, but you say you're a 22 year old trans woman. i want to trust you but i don't know if i can. i'm sorry.

Rest assured I’m not 27 years old lol. What you’re referring to is a less than graceful ~art piece~ we did (”Playing a Boy” or something) on deviantART when we were 16/17 (?) and really ill-informed. I ask you to not take that as how I stand currently – as I have learned so much more since, and I have a penis and I was designated male at birth because of it (feel free to purchase a passcode to our nsfw blog to see for yourself). At the time we were developing breast tissue but still had to appear as a ‘boy.’ Don’t bind with Ace bandages, kids, it can damage your rib cage, something we didn’t know at the time.

(source) (source)

Transcript:

[A picture of two prescriptions, estradiol and spironolactone, both prescribed to Adele Sheffield.]

grandtran still gonna think I photoshopped it or what

(source)

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: In other words, you aren't gonna cough up the pics because you know you can't fake that shit because you're actually cis. Cool. BTW why do you keep changing your story about the blog, and if the blog was run by you when you were in denial about being trans because of self hate, why were the pics tagged mtf and you were constantly saying trans people were cool?

Yeah I’m not gonna do something for y’all and get nothing in return except more doubt from you, you see how one sided that kind of request is? Also its technically considered sexual harassment, just because its on the internet, you’re a coward (whats your username btw?), and you think I’m cis and you want me to prove time and time again to you that I’m dmab doesn’t justify sexually soliciting someone when they’re not comfortable in being solicited – for free no less.

At first I genuinely had no memory of that blog, it was only active for all of 2 months and for some reason I moved onto a new email and new tumblr, and I haven’t the foggiest why. As for the whole “me claiming to not be ~mtf~” I don’t have any memories from that time, I can only assume it was a lot of dysphoria fueled self-hatred and wanting to be seen/pass as a cis girl lesbian.

If you’re really gonna solicit nudes from a trans woman (a second time) as they do sex work to try and stay on their feet without offering anything in return just so your transmisogynistic ass can get off to trying to tell me my dick is fake isn’t classy at all. I perish the thought of what you’re parents would think of this behavior from you. But yeah, feel free to send some money to my paypal so I can get the gender markers on my records changed because that’s gonna cost a lot apparently, and I’ll definitely send you the dick pics you want. :)

(source) (source) (source)

Transcript:

[A picture of a a hospital bracelet on Kat's wrist. The patient's name is Adele Sheffield and her sex is labeled as "M".]

(source)

Kat Lied About Having Diabetes To Get Money From Tumblr Users

Verdict: False

This doesn't need much commentary from me, just view the screenshots below.

Transcript:

To the people who keep harping on me buying a $15 video game for my mental health 7 MONTHS ago “with my donation money,” well, here you go, some proof, links and screenshots provided

So for everyone spreading misinformation about me spending $15 on a video game for my mental health, here’s a full list of reasons why there is no way, shape, or form I spent my paypal money on it:

Yes, I spent $15 of my own money after selling one of my possessions, not denying it:

[A screenshot of a Tumblr post by Kat where she shows off a copy of Fall Out: New Vegas, marked with a price of $14.99. The date of the post is marked as July 21, 2014 at 06:28.39 PM.]

Be sure to look at the date, July 21st, 2014 6:28 PM. Now lets look at my first donation post asking for help:

[A screenshot of a Tumblr post by Kat where she asks for donations to be able to afford insulin because she has no insurance. The date of the post is marked as July 20, 2014 at 08:14.00 PM.]

Hmm, one day before the purchase of said game, July 20th 2014 at 8:14 PM. Now, I’ve never heard of a video game store — much less a non-chain video game store accepting payment for video games in the form of virtual Amazon gift cards, have you? Oh, but you’re gonna say, “well you bought the game with your paypal donations anyway!” Well, here’s exhibit C:

[Another screenshot of a separate post made by Kat where she is also asking for donations to be able to afford insulin. The date of the post is marked as July 23, 2014 at 12:27.46 PM.]

Again, looking at the date of this posting which is the original donations post, you can see it was posted on July 23rd, 2014 at 12:27 PM, a full 2 days after I had bought the game. Now, if there’s no way for me to use Amazon gift cards for a real life video game store, then how can I go back in time a minimum of 2 full days to give past me $15 to buy said game, hm? This isn’t even accounting for the fact that I didn’t even have my own bank account associated with it until over a week later, and it surely doesn’t account for the fact that it takes up to 5 days to transfer from paypal to your bank account. All the dates are linked to the original unedited posts so you can see for yourself, and for added measure my first deposit was on August 14th, 2014:

[A screenshot of a deposit made by Kat. The date is marked as 08/14/14.]

Oh but yeah, anti-sjs, truscum, and the like took damniwishidthoughtofabettername’s postthey used to gaslight us with misinformation and you all bought it. Tell me how I could misuse donations that I could not use outside of Amazon and money I didn’t even start receiving until a full two days later, let alone the fact that there’s no way I could have transferred said money and used it two days prior as of the date of the paypal donations post.

I hope some of y’all could reblog this and get the word out, I’m sick and tired of people buying into that misinformation that person did solely to gaslight me as a means to try and disrupt my donations drive.

(source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source)

Transcript:

[A selfie of Kat holding up a vial of Novolin to the camera.]

Hey anon, I don’t feel comfy giving you my receipts (because doxxing is a thing) but here you go, a selfie with my most recent insulin purchase. 👽

(source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source) (source)

Transcript:

Anonymous asked: Getting desperate for money again I see. How is your fake diabetes lately. I bet your blood sugar is like 800 this time and you're still able to be alive somehow.

You got me, I’m ~totally faking~

[A selfie of Kat. In the background several items used by diabetics are seen such as insulin syringes, glucose tablets, a blood sugar tester and test strips.]

[A picture that gives us a closer look at the background of the previous selfie.]

[A selfie of Kat holding up two vials, one of Lantus and the other of Humalog.]

Gee, must be one dedicated faker, right? To have hundreds of dollars of insulin equipment and insulin itself. Hmmm… Insulin syringes, glucose tablets, a blood sugar tester and test strips.. oh and insulin, hmmmm….

Oh and because you didn’t learn from last time you don’t die instantly when your blood sugar goes over 600 lol, something anyone who studies endocrinology can tell you, and I would know, being a diabetic, having to be hospitalized numerous times for ketoacidosis where the blood sugar has been too high for too long. Things you clearly do not know and you’re just jumping on the disableist bandwagon. I have an idea of who you are anyway, just doing this for future reference.

(source)

[phoukanamedpookie]

I don't feel like I'm familiar enough with the source material to make a particularly detailed analysis regarding how Azula is handled as a character within the arching plot of the story, but I am familiar enough to at least be able to pick out some possible reasonings for the questions you've asked with regards to audience interpretation.

Race, full stop, absolutely has a large part to play in why people easily accept Azula - war criminal, and take incredible convincing to even float the idea of Azula - child soldier. I would not and could not argue against that.

But I think, unfortunately, there's a crossing not only of racial implications within the writing and character design bleeding into audience viewpoint and assumption, but also of heavily Christian-influenced morality jumping out almost definitely from a large portion of the audience and quite possibly from the creative team as well.

The legacy of Puritanical thought in Christianity is insidious, and has crept a lot farther than people assume or care to acknowledge. Azula functions well as a war criminal because so much of Puritanical Christian thought - in practice if not in theory - reveals itself in a pure vs unpure ideology. Even if a person doesn't hold the idea of the inherent sinfulness of humanity to apply to the world we live in, it's very easy to see how a lot of people justify their own failures and shortcomings by holding other people to standards they themselves can't meet or by throwing them under the bus.

What I mean by that is, for example, most people can see a character like Zuko, who is given a sympathetic light in the story of the show and developed into a likable person by audience standards, and see part of themselves in him. But Zuko was not a "good" character to begin with. By the standards of Puritanical Christian thinking, he would need to be 'redeemed' of his wrongdoing before it would be acceptable to call him a good person. And that redemption would most likely need to take the form of what Azula is put through - bound, broken, stripped of her power and dignity as punishment for the weakness of character that let the 'sin' of wrongdoing enter her heart. But we like Zuko, or at least we're supposed to. We're supposed to sympathize with him. So how do you have a character redeem themselves in order to justify their transition from "bad" to "good" without breaking them. Well, you have them focus on the larger sin, aka Azula. If Zuko was "bad", but we don't want to have to break him down in order to justify his being "good", we point to a "bigger" "bad" and say that he can redeem himself by redeeming an even worse instance of 'sin'.

Azula, in this scenario, must be Azula - war criminal, otherwise the logic falls apart. "Good guys" are good because they're pure - either they do no wrong, or the wrong they do can be justified within the picture of working for a pure world. "Bad guys" are bad because they're unpure - they do wrong things and those wrong things can't be justified as working towards a pure world. But if you introduce any kind of middle ground, any kind of moral neutrality, where we try to give context its proper weight, that split immediately falls apart. And worse than that, it suddenly paints not only Zuko - a well-liked and accepted character - in a "bad" light, it paints nearly every other "good" character in a "bad" light as well.

Azula - child soldier requires a very stark reframing of the idea of who gets the label "good" and who gets the label "bad". It requires, if a person's viewpoint is influenced by Puritanical Christian thinking, to acknowledge that influence and actively set any notions and assumptions of 'deserving' vs 'non-deserving' and acceptance via 'redemption' aside.

I suppose the tl;dr of it all is a lot of modern morality is Puritanical Christian thought repackaged for the 21st century, and absolutely requires a scapegoat to justify the 'redemption' of any other ambiguously "good" character. If there isn't a 'worse' character to point to in order to excuse the previous actions of other characters, then the audience would be required to rethink how we draw the lines of morality. If your big bad isn't big and isn't bad, and we suddenly can't compare and contrast our morality with them, then how will we know we're still the good guys.

And I say all this speaking of Azula in general terms. There is absolutely a deeper level of criticism and insidiousness within this Puritanical Christian viewpoint that directly comes from her non-whiteness, but I can only speak on it as a white person who was raised Christian, and I don't think I would do that topic justice and be able to give it the nuance it deserves, so I will leave it at that.

I can see that working in a lot of reactions to her, yeah.

[meyhew]

okay tell me if i'm way off because i really don't know much about all the contract stuff the boys have. but as someone who's worked in event management (uni level that's all), i know that at the end of the day it's all about making money. i also know that most of this fandom believes in larry. i've legit been around for 10 years and i've seen so many people in it. Like i'll even go as far as saying 80% of the fandom believes in larry.

now so we also know that the management is just out there to make money. any means possible. they'll bring in ridiculous storylines even. but when i, a measly fan, can know that most of the fanbase believes in larry, wouldn't the big heads also know it, right? so what i was thinking was (and i know it's absolutely awful but it's just how it works) if all the management wants was money, then they should simply let larry be out because that would make them SO much more money than they already do? it's bloody 2021 and i can guarantee you they can make tenfold of the money they're making now.

so i guess what doesn't make sense to me is that if they're still stuck in like 2011 or what? where they still believe that their fanbase consists of straight teenagers??? and like even i know that 1D's fanbase consists of so many LGBTQ fans who literally think of their concerts as safe spaces. so i'm just sat here thinking how much of an impact they could've made if they'd let H and L be their true selves while simultaneously being greedy fucks and make as much money as they want.

right ok so. you’re right. it’s 2021 and rainbow capitalism is very much a thing that thrives if done correctly. harry & louis dont even have to come out. im 100% certain that if they even started publicly interacting as just friends again, their engagement would skyrocket. people that have distanced themselves from larry bc of nonsense would come back if things were normal. im with you there. 

but let’s say harry & louis do come out (together or on their own). they’d have to end and explain babygate, and that’s just one of many things that would require an explanation. if they come out and say they’ve been together this whole time, why did louis pretend to have a kid for years? why did they both stay silent for years? why did they allow their fans to be ostracized in their own space by other fans and by higher ups? management, in the case of 1d, was modest! but management (modest!)  ≠ label (sony). jeff is harry’s current manager and he isn’t sony. we have no idea how those executives think. 

suppose harry & louis come out and they end babygate and say it was never louis’ kid. so did he just now find out or had he always known? if they say he just found it isn’t his kid, then that tarnishes his and harry’s relationship. if they say he’d always known it wasn’t his kid and it was all a setup, then that tarnishes sony even more. they already have a shoddy reputation. bad press is still press and all that, sure, but i think it’s more complicated than just... making money. none of us know for sure what’s happening behind the scenes ever and what their plans and intentions are. 1d’s target audience is primarily in their late teens and 20s, largely queer, but we’re still treated like we’re 15 year old straight teenagers who swoon every time we see a picture of harry styles. i know the boys realize that’s not the true, i know they’ve known this for a long time because they know their fans grew up with them, but the label and the marketing teams still treat fans like kids. idk if any of that is what u were looking for (im still having breakfast and am barely coherent) but hope it makes somewhat sense 

[samuelryanlilly]

The ìpega Controller for N-Switch

Have you ever wanted your Switch to be more like a Wii U gamepad? Probably not, but the idea of having a similar FEEL might be appealing. After my initial, new, used-for-less-than-a-month joycons developed drift after hardly even touching them, I was definitely on the lookout for an alternate solution. I got an official Nintendo Switch Pro Controller already, but what if I wanted more controllers? Well, I tried out the Hori D-Pad Left Joycon but the stick did not seem significantly different... which is good for matching them with standard joycons but bad for my peace of mind. I got a FaceOff wired pro controller by PDP (I may go into more depth on that in another post if you'd like) that functioned surprisingly well for a cheap, simple, slightly gimmicky controller. And then there was this.

Behold! A peculiar piece of plastic with their own control sticks! There's also a d-pad, no batteries required, no crazy settings needed, just plug it in and go, baby! It was relatively inexpensive (if not a tad more than I normally would risk) and though I had never heard of the brand ìpega before, I couldn't resist the temptation to try it and a least, if nothing else, have something to say about this strange product.

Of course, the pictures and wording definitely made me even more curious as they tickled me. The blurred imaged of Fortnite and Splatoon 2 along with calling it a controller for N-Switch definitely made me feel like they didn't want to get into legal trouble while advertising this.

Now this controller does have some nice features to it, don't get me wrong. The Switch fits into it nicely with rubber on the insides to grip it so firmly that you can shake it (lightly to moderately) when it's upside down and it won't fall out! I'm impressed. The design also uses that bottom bar and supporting back extensions of the plastic to help support the system weight more evenly without putting stresses on the side connections. The sticks feel nice with concave tops to keep your thumbs from slipping out. You get a D-pad. The handles are shaped to give you something substantial to grip onto unlike the flat joycons. And it uses no batteries of its own. It just runs on the system's battery at a very small drain since it has no fancy features to power.

Then again, not having fancy features isn't exactly the highest praise. To get this working you need to turn on wired pro controller communication. You have to hit buttons on the console to wake and unlock it before connecting it to the controller or else it won't do anything. There's no gyro, rumble, NFC reading... nothing. To make matters worse, it doesn't have the best feel. The curved mold of the plastic makes the D-pad directions and buttons closer to the inside shallower than those closer to the outside. The +, -, home, and screenshot buttons are far at the bottom and tiny. The sticks are a bit tall to be this high up on the controller. And of course, as is pictured above (very blurrily... sorry) they didn't even get the right labels on the triggers! Was it to avoid legal action? Did they jut have these parts laying around from cheap Sony controller projects? Or did the actually not know Nintendo uses ZL and ZR? Whatever the case, if you don't push those triggers inward squarely then they while stick and often not even register.

Ultimately, this controller replacement falls on its face for a few key reasons. It's not its lack of fancy features or crappy button feel. It's more than that. One major reason is because, well, let's face it, this DOES make it feel like you're playing a Wii U in off-TV play mode. But unlike the Wii U gamepad, there's no way to charge this while playing. There's no passthrough on the bottom so you have to take it out and stop using it if the battery is low. The second major flaw is that it's not at all potable despite only being usable in handheld mode. It's bulky, unprotected, and doesn't fold up in any way to save space in a bag, much less an optimistic pocket. And lastly, ironically, the left stick on this broke on me. For some reason it will now only move diagonally up and to the left or diagonally down and to the right. I guess I could just play D-pad only games but I might as well use something more convenient or with a better D-pad for that. In the end, this cheap piece of crap turned out to be... as expected... a cheap piece of crap.

[ghost-chance]

Excerpt from "The Demon King and the Half-Breed Hermit"

Gotta log off for a while after this but first, I wanted to share this (unedited and incomplete) scene. It's for an upcoming (in-the-works) chapter of my Piccolo/OC-centric ▶Dragon Ball post-GT◀ fic, found on my FFnet account. Why am I sharing it? Firstly, it's proof I'm still writing (...trying...) and despite the long wait for new chapters, DK&HBH has NOT been abandoned. (NOTHING has been abandoned!) Secondly, THIS is what happens when I tell myself "I need to start writing characters who can effectively communicate and deal with their emotions like functional adults!" 😑 Yes...AUBERGINE happens.

Hopefully the "Queen of Issues" can make someone smile.

🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳🌲

Life as a single mother was generally a struggle; as a single mother of two half-Saiyan boys, life was a never-ending catastrophe. Fortunately for Son Chi-Chi, both her boys were grown men capable of running their own lives; unfortunately, that left her to manage her household alone. Oh, sure, Gohan and Videl regularly offered to move her into their home and take care of her, but she wasn't quite ready to accept that offer. She was quite capable of taking care of herself…at least, that is, when she wasn't weighed down with groceries and being chased down by a saber-toothed wildcat.

Winded, she stumbled and landed hard on her knees, her bags falling and the contents scattering. One moment she could practically feel the beast's rancid breath on her neck; the next a warning shout split the air, quickly followed by a pained yelp. Chi-Chi scrambled onto her back and stilled at the familiar silhouette cast by the afternoon sun through the trees. Black hair as ragged as ever and eyes dark as pitch, Aubergine held the struggling wildcat by the throat, leaching away its strength. She drained it a little longer before letting it slink away in shame, then looked to her fallen sister-in-law over her shoulder. "Are you hurt?"

"No," Chi-Chi answered as she gathered the spilled goods, then belatedly added "thank you." Aubrey shrugged and hoisted the bags onto her shoulder as the black faded from her eyes.

"Well, someone's got to shield the squishies," she replied instead. The familiar retort used to irritate Chi-Chi, but now she recognized it for what it was: you're welcome. I don't mind. Aubergine's long silences, half-answers, and silence took a while to adjust to but by now it was like a second language to her sister in-law. 

The remainder of the journey to Chi-Chi's home passed in a silence midway between comfortable and awkward, and before she knew it, the matron was stowing away her groceries. Aubergine sat at the table, brooding and fiddling with a small shaker jar from the revolving rack in the middle. Recognizing the speckled contents, she pried the lid open, sniffed at the contents, and sneezed; her eyes and sinuses burned in protest as she jammed it closed and shoved it back on the rack. Yes, she identified it correctly. "So how's Piccolo settling in?" At the resulting silence, she turned to find Aubergine scowling like someone who just chewed five lemons in a row without stopping to sweeten them. "That well, huh?" Chi-Chi teased. I

Aubergine shot her a deadpan glower then exchanged the speckled powder for a jar full of tiny seeds. As if it explained everything, she grunted, "he's not dead yet." These seeds didn't burn her nose but they had a rather unpleasant smell somewhat like rank body odor. Nose scrunching at the stink, Aubrey exchanged the jar for a tall shaker full of tiny white crystals with a much sweeter scent. Over by the table, Chi-Chi gave a knowing smile as the half-breed examined her spices. "I don't understand how one person can require so many of these things," Aubergine muttered surveying the multitude of tiny jars and shakers on the Lazy-Susan. "What's the point of all this crap?" 

"Spices?" Chi-Chi asked, and upon receiving a blank look added, "they make food taste good. As for the number, different dishes require different spices—you can't cook everything with the same ingredients." Aubrey stilled, eyes wide and locked on the three jars she investigated before. "What brought you here anyway?" If Chi-Chi didn't know any better, she'd say the half-breed was embarrassed.

"He quit complaining," Aubrey mumbled. "He used to whine that I was poisoning him; now he doesn't say anything…but…he doesn't have to. I thought…" She fell silent, cleared her throat, then collected the other two bottles and shoved the lot toward Chi-Chi. "Fish. It was worse than usual."

Chi-Chi was used to getting only half the picture from her half-Saiyan sister-in-law but this was even less information than usual. Those three spices were never used in the same dish; then again, this was Aubergine, and Aubergine was quite possibly the worst cook in the realms. "Correct me if I'm wrong," Chi-Chi asked, "but are you saying you cooked fish…with black pepper, cumin, and sugar…?" The half-breed glanced at the jars, read the fading labels, and gave a wary nod; Chi-Chi felt her breakfast threaten reappearance. "No wonder, then," she sighed. "Cumin and pepper can be used on fish but generally not together, and you don't use sugar on seafood."

"This is so stupid." …and so began Aubrey's usual response to statements regarding food as anything beyond life-preserving sustenance. After so many years of hearing the same thing over and over again, Chi-Chi easily tuned out the increasingly loud rant and gathered a few more appropriate seasonings for fish. "Food doesn't have to taste good!" Aubergine spat without regard. "Its only purpose is to keep you from dying of hunger, anything beyond that is friv—" Finally, she went silent. Of course, taking Chi-Chi's frying pan to the skull would shut anyone up.

"There's more to life than just existing," Chi-Chi scolded as Aubergine rubbed the already swelling lump on her skull and growled under her breath. "There's more to life than just survival. We were put on this Earth to thrive, not just not die."

"We were put on this Earth because my dumbass brother didn't have the balls to kill that midget Pilaf from the start." This time she ducked the frying pan. 

"You're missing the point as always," Chi-Chi huffed. "I swear, you're so much like my Goku. Aubergine, when your life's over, you'll have an eternity to look back on what you did. If all you have to look back on is not dying, then what's the point?" Aubergine went silent, glaring at the wall beside her as if blaming it for everything that ever went wrong in her life. It didn't escape Chi-Chi that said wall stood between her kitchen and the home Goku and Aubergine grew up in. Not for the first time, she wondered what the half-breed's life was like in those early years, and what molded her into the distant, bristly woman she was now.

"Life was always enough before." The admission was quiet—half-muffled in Aubrey's mostly flat chest and aimed into the polished tabletop—but to the human matron it had the same impact as a battle cry. "Stay out of danger," the half-saiyan muttered as though reciting some sort of task list. "Find and maintain shelter, locate reliable sustenance, protect your brother…" ..wait for me to come find you. I promise, I'll come find you! Bardock may have been a visionary, but an honest Saiyan, he was not. He never came for them… "That used to be enough…" …until said brother ran off with a blue-haired teenager in search of adventure and left Aubergine behind. Sure, she caught up after a while and tagged along for a few misadventures—living alone in the wilds got boring, after all—but at the end of the day, she couldn't even accomplish the most important of these tasks. She couldn't protect Goku. One hand strayed up to brush her bangs out of her dead eye. She couldn't even protect herself. "Why isn't that enough anymore?"

"Perhaps it never really was enough." Chi-Chi's smile held no judgment and her voice no censure. "Perhaps you're only just realizing it now." Perhaps…Aubergine turned to the window, eyes trained on the distant misty peak of Mt. Paozu. After so many years of feeling stuck in place, maybe it was time to change. "I've offered before and the offer stands—I'll teach you to cook if you'll let me." For the first time, the offer was answered with a long silence instead of some bitter retort or evasive remark, proof in Chi-Chi's mind that the other was finally considering it.

"A year ago none of this would've…" Aubergine fell silent; again, she was driven to brush her bangs away from her blind eye though they weren't impairing her sight. That nervous tic would be the death of her someday… She cleared her throat and tried again. "Nothing mattered a year ago. It still shouldn't matter." Chi-Chi faltered. She recognized where this topic was leading as easily as she knew how Aubergine must have reacted to Piccolo's resurrection. She smoothed the skirt of her long dress and seated herself at the table. The rest of the groceries could wait a bit longer.

"The first time I lost Goku…" I lost Goku. Even after so many times of saying those words, her throat still caught around them; even after how many times Goku died, the very mention still triggered an echo of the day Krillin brought her the news. Her son, missing – her husband, dead – worst of all, the threat wasn't even over. "Well, I was a mess," Chi-Chi finished mildly. The past was in the past—let it lie there in peace. "Every time I lost him, I felt sure it was my fault for not being strong enough to keep him. Every time he came back, I tried harder than before to make him stay…and every time, I lost him again anyway…the last time, for good. He refused to be revived." Even now, the words made her eyes burn and her throat clench, so it was a comfort when Aubergine broke the tense silence.

"He was an idiot like that." The dry remark earned a weak chuckle.

"Indeed. Even now, were he to walk through that door, I'd still take him back. He left us all behind when he refused resurrection, but I'd still welcome him home with open arms." She hummed softly, leaning on her elbows and looking out the nearest window. Already the blue of the sky was deepening and the days, shortening—harvest time might come early this year. "For all his faults, and there were many, Goku was always so much stronger than I ever could be. I could never leave behind those I love, even to keep them safe…he did so without a second thought."

"But when the danger's gone, how does staying dead solve anything?" Aubergine cut in—an unusually long sentence from an unusually brief speaker. "The people he left behind—they still needed him—they depended on him, and he turned his back on them!" Chi-Chi hazarded a glance at her company; Aubergine was off in another world, her vision trained somewhere far beyond the woodgrain of the tabletop. "Didn't he know? Didn't it matter?" Chi-Chi's wrinkle-framed lips tilted into a sly smile.

"He knew there were such people, I'm sure," she answered. "I have a feeling he didn't quite understand what it would put you through." Aubergine gave a faint nod, eyes distant, then startled as she realized the subject change. Both women knew they were no longer talking about Goku; neither was ready to admit it, either. The half-Saiyan's cheeks darkened in embarrassment, but the effect was lessened by the venomous glare aimed out the window. "You never told him, did you?" Chi-Chi pressed.

"Why bother?" Aubergine muttered. "He knew what he was doing. He had to know I'd—" She fell short, remembering vividly the searing pain in her chest from the day the earth was destroyed—the fracturing of a heart timed to the shattering of a planet. From the first wince to the last breath, she felt Piccolo die, and it was a feeling she'd never forget…or forgive. "...I never should have marked the bastard."

Once again, Chi-Chi was given only bits and pieces, but this time she was content with it. If the scars on Aubergine's throat were any indication, the whole picture wasn't one she cared to see.

[digitalabhisha]

Tips for On-Page, Off-Page, and Technical SEO

Consider the technical, on-page, and off-page search engine optimization (SEO) of your website as your preferred method of communicating with Google. Delivering relevant and authentic material to users is the goal of search engines. You effectively make it simpler for Google and other search engines to classify your website by checking the SEO boxes (those are under your control).

Knowing what the algorithms are looking for also helps you make improvements to your website and plan out future marketing campaigns more effectively.

But first, let’s look about all the three types of SEO:

On-Page SEO:- As the name implies, it includes all the beneficial SEO techniques you may apply on the pages of your actual website, such as using relevant keywords, creating original content, and carefully saving and labelling images.

Off-Page SEO:- This you can do outside your website by getting the links from more reliable and authoritative website. For e.g. you could write a blog post and in return you can ask for backlink.

Technical SEO:-  Your website must adhere to all the technical requirements that Google has approved, including security, stability, mobile responsiveness, etc.

Top 3 On-Page SEO tips:

Produce high-quality, audience-relevant content: Make sure all of the materials you use on your website (text, photographs, videos, vlogs, infographics, etc.) are original, fascinating, and educational.

Write meaningful title tags and meta descriptions: The brief sentence that appears alongside your meta title tag in search results is known as the meta description. Here, emphasise the most important details and pertinent keyword(s).

Utilize pertinent keywords: Do some research to find the words or phrases that best represent the content of each page, then use them in the headers and alt text of your photos.

Top 3 Off-Page SEO tips:

Produce informative, interesting, and shareable content: For various platforms, produce excellent podcasts, videos, blogs, infographics, guest blogs, ebooks, surveys, and white papers.

Obtain reviews, be active on social media, send newsletters to your subscribers, host and/or attend events, join forums, find an influencer, etc. to manage your reputation.

Create a Google My Business account and take full advantage of this free tool to improve local SEO. Add pictures, respond to inquiries, and invite your clients to leave feedback there. Additionally, a regional domain name, such as .newyork, .london, .newdelhi can help with this.

Top 3 Technical SEO tips:

Put money toward a secure connection: Any browser that visits your website will have their communication with it encrypted using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Additionally, it will increase confidence because your URL will be displayed as "secure" with a padlock or as "https."

Verify the responsiveness of your website: What kind of mobile UI does your website have? Did you know that Google prioritizes mobile devices when indexing search results? Make sure your website doesn't receive a penalty by involving your web developer.

Verify your page loading times; a website with a high bounce rate may take more than two seconds to load. Search engines and users both dislike a slow website. Invest in the best local web hosting and ensure that your image files are scaled for the web to increase loading times.

SEO could become quite complex at a time. So it’s a great idea to get an expert once your business can afford it.

Consider the technical, on-page, and off-page search engine optimization (SEO) of your website as your preferred method of communicating with Google. Delivering relevant and authentic material to users is the goal of search engines. You effectively make it simpler for Google and other search engines to classify your website by checking the SEO boxes (those are under your control).

Knowing what the algorithms are looking for also helps you make improvements to your website and plan out future marketing campaigns more effectively.

But first, let’s look about all the three types of SEO:

On-Page SEO:- As the name implies, it includes all the beneficial SEO techniques you may apply on the pages of your actual website, such as using relevant keywords, creating original content, and carefully saving and labelling images.

Off-Page SEO:- This you can do outside your website by getting the links from more reliable and authoritative website. For e.g. you could write a blog post and in return you can ask for backlink.

Technical SEO:-  Your website must adhere to all the technical requirements that Google has approved, including security, stability, mobile responsiveness, etc.

Top 3 On-Page SEO tips:

Produce high-quality, audience-relevant content: Make sure all of the materials you use on your website (text, photographs, videos, vlogs, infographics, etc.) are original, fascinating, and educational.

Write meaningful title tags and meta descriptions: The brief sentence that appears alongside your meta title tag in search results is known as the meta description. Here, emphasise the most important details and pertinent keyword(s).

Utilize pertinent keywords: Do some research to find the words or phrases that best represent the content of each page, then use them in the headers and alt text of your photos.

Top 3 Off-Page SEO tips:

Produce informative, interesting, and shareable content: For various platforms, produce excellent podcasts, videos, blogs, infographics, guest blogs, ebooks, surveys, and white papers.

Obtain reviews, be active on social media, send newsletters to your subscribers, host and/or attend events, join forums, find an influencer, etc. to manage your reputation.

Create a Google My Business account and take full advantage of this free tool to improve local SEO. Add pictures, respond to inquiries, and invite your clients to leave feedback there. Additionally, a regional domain name, such as .newyork, .london, .newdelhi can help with this.

Top 3 Technical SEO tips:

Put money toward a secure connection: Any browser that visits your website will have their communication with it encrypted using a Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Additionally, it will increase confidence because your URL will be displayed as "secure" with a padlock or as "https."

Verify the responsiveness of your website: What kind of mobile UI does your website have? Did you know that Google prioritizes mobile devices when indexing search results? Make sure your website doesn't receive a penalty by involving your web developer.

Verify your page loading times; a website with a high bounce rate may take more than two seconds to load. Search engines and users both dislike a slow website. Invest in the best local web hosting and ensure that your image files are scaled for the web to increase loading times.

SEO could become quite complex at a time. So it’s a great idea to get an expert once your business can afford it.