#but this isn't a rant...

[affixjoy]

My darlings, my loves, my fellow weirdos, I am begging you all to REST after you have covid.

I know it is very hard, and our society asks you to get back up and running at full speed as soon as possible, before you’re even done testing positive even.

But please my friends, please rest.

If you push too hard too fast you might be sicker for longer, you might be doing long lasting damage to yourself.

So please my beautiful nerds, take care of yourselves and REST.

[aashiqeddiediaz]

you know what boils my blood.

over the last 2 weeks, i've seen countless patients walk into my urgent care center, symptomatic for so many things, refusing to get tested for covid and flu, citing that they don't want to knowingly bring it to their holiday tables. i had a patient tell me, verbatim, "i don't want to test for covid, because i don't want to be the asshole who brings it on a plane."

i understand that - i understand that holidays are times where people look forward to meeting loved ones that they might only see once a year, or where they get a break from the hectic back and forth of their lives.

but here's the thing - whether they get tested or not, they will bring whatever they have to their holiday tables. it's pure recklessness to know that you're sick, and walk into someone else's house spreading the disease.

today, january 2, i saw 91 patients, many of them who have tested positive for covid and flu. many of these patients are the same ones who didn't want testing 3 days ago, until their events were over, and now, they will have to reach out to everyone they know to let them know that they were positive because they were showing symptoms well before their event.

the next week or two? we're going to see many, many more, all people with symptoms that started around christmas. these are the only two viruses we test for rapidly in our office, but they are potent and can be fatal in many people.

so here's why i wrote this post, and maybe it's a little late, but - if you care about your loved ones, please get tested if you know you're sick. it doesn't have to be at a clinic if you don't want it to, because the over-the-counter tests work just fine too (if you test within 5-7 days of symptom onset). just...please don't try to run from the knowledge that you might have covid, because immunocompromised people, elderly people, people with co-morbidities like asthma, pregnancy, diabetes, etc...many of them may not recover. and they may not be sitting at your holiday table in the future because of it.

[shivunin]

Because I have just seen this specific thing for the second time, I would like to say:

If I reblog your art, I do not expect you to reblog (or share!) my fic in return

If I comment on your fic, I do not expect you to comment on (or read!) mine in return

My enjoyment of anyone's work does not come with strings or expectations

My friendship is not a bill that you will have to pay later

That's it!

[kvietka]

I swear to god, if all you people who complained about Biden being on the Dem ticket now don't vote in November, I'm going to wanna strangle all of you.

[rasangan-raspberry]

I don't think i posted this? lol

tbh after thinking about hancock a bit, i feel like she would become attached to anyone that treated her like how luffy treated her (as an equal and a friend, and not practically deifying her)

[milkamel]

Has been seeing a lot of Smilk hate cause of the polls and I felt bad so I quickly doodled him 💔

They could never make me hate you Shadow Milk Cookie

[linkcharacter]

Oh I have so many thoughts on aroace Curly, I think it brings so much on the table when analyzing the game's story.

Amanormativity ties in with the reoccurring mentions of the nuclear family, from Wrong Organ making 1950s mock advert posters, to Swansea talking about how getting a wife and kids didn't bring him any fulfillment in life.

In the cake cutting nightmare sequence, where Jimmy talks with Dream Curly about the mediocre cake, Dream Curly begins to talk about how sometimes you can only get the subpar stuff in live. Sometimes he'll get promoted, buy a house, fall in love. But other times he'll just have some awful fucking cake with his friend.

I think there is that subtle implication that Jimmy does buy into Amanormativity, with him projecting his beliefs on Dream Curly that a platonic relationship is lesser then a romantic one. But we never see Curly suggesting that he wants such a thing in the pre-crash.

With Jimmy thinking that Curly has everything in life, except for the desire (although I think Jimmy would view it as Curly not having the skills for it) to get a romantic partner, he would heavily lean into getting the one thing that Curly couldn't get in life to one up him.

THATS EXACTLY WHAT IM THINKING!!! AMATONORMATIVITY BE DAMNED!!!!

Looking at Mouthwashing through an aroace lens is interesting

"Jimmy thinking that Curly has everything in life, except for the desire", well said, well said! And references to the nuclear family fit in very cleanly thematically for Mouthwashing.

Jimmy leaning into amatonormativity is a smart observation. Jim internalizes all the social norms and standards on what you have to do to have a normal and desirable life, who sees everything Curly has and what Jimmy wishes he had, and is offended that Curly isn't satisfied, that he has the "audacity" to be unhappy. Curly meanwhile only wishes for his life to be something he doesn't have to run from, because by all means, he has already reached a point where he should feel accomplished, but isn't. Curly doesn't want to be a freighter captain his whole life, he doesn't want to settle with his sustainable position, he just wants to be happy. Like Swansea who has reached the "ideal" outcome of his life, having a wife, kids and a good career, it will never feel as good as embracing all what society deems undesirable yet right for you.

Jimmy does imply to seeing himself as lesser as a friend, "fall in love" being a goal and a "cake with a friend" being something he "has to settle for", it's all in the subtleties with underlying themes of "what you're "supposed to want" by society's expectations" against "what feels right for you". Jimmy is frustrated that Curly is going to "leave the dirt behind him", when in actuality, letting the crew and him go is the last thing Curly wants. Curly wants to be with his friends, he deeply cares about his crew, and about his close friend.

Mouthwashing as a whole reads to me as platonic through and through. Swansea and Daisuke having such a meaningful familial bond, Curly and Anya being sweet, playful and caring without romance, Anya and Daisuke having something of a siblings dynamic are dear to me. Also it's really rare to get to see representations of "toxic friendship" in media. Its always toxic romance this, toxic yaoi that, toxic family there, however in reality, friendships aren't excluded from being as rotten and abusive as the others, yet they're often overlooked. Jim and Curly are especially unique in this way. It's very impressive how they managed to showcase Jimmy's mistreatment of Curly in such a platonic way (at least that how I read it). Jim too, like Curly, in general avoids hints at romance and attraction explicitly related to him during his gameplay, not with Curly, nor with Anya (dear god thanks for that at least). It's all spite, annoyance and parasitizing off of these two. (That man's dry and lowkey hates everyone and everything) No attraction attached, no desires except hoping it hurts.

Curly to me is very much aroace, or at least on the spectrum. Like, the trivia fact that one of Curly's fondest memories is that of his friends putting in effort to make a shitty awful cake, tells us all we need to know on how dear his friends are to him. Platonic relationships mean so much to Curly, even when it's Jimmy fucking Mouthwashing, the worst friend ever imaginable.

[yepiamthesmileyface]

drives me absolutely batshit how no one seems to understand what internalized bigotry is anymore. internalized bigotry is internal, it is directed at you by yourself because you have bigoted thought patterns around a trait that you have. these thought patterns were instilled by society, and you are enforcing them on yourself.

but! crucially! as soon as you externalize it, as soon as you are enforcing the bigoted pattern on other people, it ceases to be internalized bigotry! it just becomes bigotry! a woman who, for example, adds pink to a tattoo because she doesn't believe the tattoo she's giving a client is feminine enough has definitely internalized societal misogyny, but by enforcing it on others, she is exhibiting misogynistic behaviour!

[problemnyatic]

Yeah yeah linux having problems is a big joke but honestly have you considered that linux wouldn't run like shit if it didn't have to reverse engineer byzantine proprietary drivers and hardware architecture and deliberately hostile BIOS firmware and one thousand other things that exist solely to force everything that isn't a corporate OS to suffer miserably on every computer ever

[bixels]

I think 90% of my gripes with how modern anime looks comes down to flat color design/palettes.

Non-cohesive, washed-out color palettes can destroy lineart quality. I see this all the time when comparing an anime's lineart/layout to its colored/post-processed final product and it's heartbreaking. Compare this pre-color vs. final frame from Dungeon Meshi's OP.

So much sharpness and detail and weight gets washed out and flattened by 'meh' color design. I LOVE the flow and thickness and shadows in the fabrics on the left. The white against pastel really brings it out. Check out all the detail in their hair, the highlights in Rin's, the different hues to denote hair color, the blue tint in the clothes' shadows, and how all of that just gets... lost. It works, but it's not particularly good and does a disservice to the line-artist.

I'm using Dungeon Meshi as an example not because it's bad, I'm just especially disappointed because this is Studio Trigger we're talking about. The character animation is fantastic, but the color design is usually much more exciting. We're not seeing Trigger at their full potential, so I'm focusing on them.

Here's a very quick and messy color correct. Not meant to be taken seriously, just to provide comparison to see why colors can feel "washed out." Top is edit, bottom is original.

You can really see how desaturated and "white fluorescent lighting" the original color palettes are.

[Remember: the easiest way to make your colors more lively is to choose a warm or cool tint. From there, you can play around with bringing out complementary colors for a cohesive palette (I warmed Marcille's skintone and hair but made sure to bring out her deep blue clothes). Avoid using too many blend mode layers; hand-picking colors will really help you build your innate color sense and find a color style. Try using saturated colors in unexpected places! If you're coloring a night scene, try using deep blues or greens or magentas. You see these deep colors used all the time in older anime because they couldn't rely on a lightness scale to make colors darker, they had to use darker paints with specific hues. Don't overthink it, simpler is better!]

[frowerssx2]

(Edit: This reply accidentally became really long but I wanted to explain my thoughts in detail. So um, long post warning (Word Count: 1,436)

This isn't Magnifico "admitting" that he keeps the wishes for himself. This is Magnifico reminding Asha and us of his main priorities which are to keep both his people and wishes safe. I won't talk about the former but I will talk about the latter. Which is Magnifico's promise to keep the wishes safe mentioned here:

Granting them is only an extra bonus Magnifico does and has spent YEARS mastering and perfecting. So, it makes sense why he is the one to make the rules of his own wish system. Rules people agreed to so they knew that their wish COULD not WILL be granted. But, I won't go into detail about that but I will answer your question:

"Why Magnifico couldn't give Sabino's wish back?"

I personally have my own reasons as to why, and I will try and explain them all the best I can:

1. As I said, Magnifico promised to protect their wishes. And protecting wishes to me doesn't mean giving them back because if Magnifico did that Sabino may never grant the wish himself (I know he does in the end but that's not the point) which may have caused Sabino to feel the same heartbreak and grief Magnifico did when his wishes were destroyed. So to protect Sabino and others from ever feeling that pain, Magnifico keeps his promise of protecting their wishes and makes them forget about it so they won't be haunted by having a bit of themselves missing (I will cover this in more detail later)

2. this scene:

Here Magnifico explains how vague Sabino's wish is. As the wish doesn't specifically say what type of inspiration Sabino wants to spread. So Magnifico was totally right to say that this inspiration could be dangerous. I agree that while, we as the audience, and Asha as his granddaughter know that Sabino doesn't intend anything evil, Magnifico doesn't. Magnifico doesn't know him like Asha or we do, so to protect others from this possible danger he doesn't grant the wish or give it back. Because if Magnifico gave it back and Sabino granted his wish himself just for it to turn out to be actually dangerous then Magnifico would get the blame. Because, as Magnifico says: it is his responsibility as king to keep everyone safe. So, if things went bad everyone would probably be like "Why didn't you protect us from this bad wish, Your Majesty?!" "Yeah! Why did you give it back?!". So it is understandable that he wanted to avoid that, with not only Sabino's wish but with other "innocent" vague wishes.

3. "People come here because they know they can't make their own wishes come true. The journey is too hard, it is too unfair"

This quote and this scene proves that people had the option to grant their own wishes before coming to Rosas and giving them to Magnifico. But, they either couldn't do it or didn't want to do it due to how difficult it is. And so, they gave Magnifico the wish to possibly grant (<- I say "possibly grant" too often I know but let's not forget it is only a possibility not a guarantee that a wish is granted (I say that too many times to 😅)

Magnifico keeps both promises. He keeps the wishes safe and decides which ones to grant. Because as I said before, granting wishes is a miracle and a gift only Magnifico learnt to do and it makes sense he makes the rules.

4. Wishes aren't as important as the film tries to make them seem. In fact, two people say that wishes can be changed:

Now I've seen this point be made by someone else and I can't help but agree with it. Because, if a wish can be changed doesn't that mean it is a new wish? So why would Magnifico give the one given to him when there is a new one? Go grant that new wish yourself instead of asking Magnifico to take it. Not only that but if Magnifico gave a wish he isn't going to grant back then it might be replaced by another, and another, which will take its toll on him both physically and magically. Because let's face it, getting someone's heart's desire won't be an easy thing to do. Plus, do you see how giddy the woman is? She seems excited about giving a new/changed wish. This leads nicely to my final reason which is:

5. Giving a wish to Magnifico doesn't have any negative effects. Now, I can see that you could say, "But Frowerssx, what about Simon and that couple who gave their wish?" Or "But Frowerssx, people lost all aspiration to achieve better for themselves when they gave a wish." Those are some valid questions/points that will make this part of the post incredibly long, but I will answer each of them.

Let's start with Simon:

We are told that Simon is sleepy and possibly depressed because he has given his wish. However, we aren't told how long ago he did this. I saw a headcannon that said that Simon is like this due to a side effect of recently giving his wish. This makes sense, as he willingly gave up a piece of himself, but as my point 4 explains, this piece can be changed or replaced. So this side effect could be temporary. Sadly though, we aren't shown as this:

Is the only time I think we see this couple (If I'm wrong please tell me) but even then when they give their wishes they aren't like crumbling on the floor in devastated tears because as Asha sings:

Not only that, but, during the song "Welcome to Rosas" we see all the citizens of Rosas are happy. We also see some of them tending stalls which when you look at it can be counted as making life better for themselves by earning honest and good money. Also if ALL the aspirations were lost to a person when they give up their wish I doubt they would even want to run a stall, dance, sing, and just exist. I mean, at first glance, there is literally no difference between this:

and this:

because just like Asha sings:

Everyone was/is happy during both scenes, so why fix something that is not broken? Why give wishes back when their absence is clearly not missed? The ONLY time it is shown that people get hurt and are filled with so much grief that they become shells of themselves is this scene:

And this is after wishes are destroyed not taken with consent. Those three people were perfectly fine when their wishes were up in Magnifico's wish chamber. Even when they questioned Magnifico none of them asked for their wishes back. I'd also like to add that these people aren't like this for long as they are totally fine during this scene:

Which is like what?? A day or a few hours after their wishes were destroyed? Like if they are SO devastated about it then how can they find the strength and courage to stand tall and fight? I see a lot of people saying that people lose their free will, sense of self, and even obedient or slave-like towards Magnifico but erm, no, no their not. Not even after he consumed all their wishes. This shows that healing from giving a wish with consent and getting it destroyed is a pain that doesn't last long and can heal quickly.

I will end this by saying that Asha was right about how Magnifico shouldn't be holding the wishes up in his tower. That he should have done what she does at the end of the film, which is to leave the wishes within the hearts of his people and go around helping them achieve them. However, I think because of Magnifico having trauma and having the desire of wanting to protect everyone from the pain he felt (and because of all the reasons I mentioned above) he didn't. He got too overprotective and made the mistake of thinking that keeping them was for the best. This is one of the reasons I think that Magnifico should have been redeemed. He should have learned from Asha and realized that he can't protect everyone from pain and grief because that is not how life works. Life is cruel and unkind sometimes and he shouldn't try and protect people or their wishes from that because it doesn't allow them to grow or learn. (but yet again, who to says this method won't make people become greedy or lazy?)

@frowerssx2 I made a quick edit x//

So here’s Magnifico confirming Asha’s very straightforward sentence; she also explicitly says “most” and he doesn’t remotely correct her. Most wishes (even innocent ones based on the only one we get to see judged) are not getting granted, Magnifico had that figured long before Wish events.

Which, before someone points it out, makes perfect sense for him given his background. He’s trying to protect his people, alright. Why couldn’t he just give back Sabino’s wish again?

[aesethewitch]

Folks, do not buy "spell services" from strangers on the internet, especially when:

You will receive no physical evidence of the service (a photo of some candles doesn't count, in my opinion, as these can be stolen or otherwise falsified)

The seller's entire online presence appears to be dedicated to the sale of said services and absolutely nothing else

Their listings have AI-generated images or summaries attached to them

The listings are written specifically to cater to people who are desperate, hurting, and/or otherwise unlikely to vet the service ahead of time

Bonus bullshit points if the listing uses ableist language or demonizes particular mental illnesses/disabilities

The listings don't say how the spell is cast, just that it'll "be done" or that you'll receive a nebulous "guide" with no details about the process or what exactly you're getting

Bonus bullshit points if the listing doesn't say how you will know when it's done, how they'll notify you about completion, or how you can check on it

The listings are primarily boasting about how great the seller is, how impressive their lineage/practice is, and how powerful the spell will be; minimal actual information, maximum self-fellatio

Bonus bullshit points if they refuse refunds outright

By god, what nonsense. Eugh.

[flowersforthemachines]

Useless Veilguard fact of the day: Day 99

An addition to spider lilies, flowers you can see in the Memorial Gardens include:

Shroud's Kiss

2. Blue Roses

3. Violets

4. Thistle

5. Foxtail Lily

Check out the tag for more useless facts: #useless davg fact of the day!

[temperamentalaquarius]

no way I just saw a post saying that Tim was Clark's favorite Robin. y'all are just straight up not reading comics at this point 🤣 why tf do you think that Dick's superhero name is kryptonian??? Clark basically co-parented Dick with Bruce. it's why Dick is Like That. if you don't like Dick fine that's cool he doesn't have to be your cup of tea but I'm begging you to stop taking away Dick's canon relationships, traits, and abilities and applying them to other robins. No wonder y'all think he's boring you're literally taking away all of the parts of him that make him interesting. Also not super related but Tim is NOT the CEO of Wayne enterprises, he was technically ceo for a whole 45 minutes and 26 seconds PLS stop subjecting me to this

[flamingtoads]

Seen this and I think it should be a plot of a future 911 episode!!

[amanitacurses]