#coming to amazon 2024-2025

[wayfaringauthorofficial]

WIP EXCERPT

I run my hands over my face, try to keep tears from soaking cheeks. With a gulp I train my gaze on the floor. “Dalton… is this really bad,” I whisper. “I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this.”

My brother takes deep breaths, drumming his fingers on rock hard abs as he compiles his thoughts. I know he only wants to be honest, but what truth is he going to tell me today? He has so many options, it’s hard to know which one will grace my ears when he speaks.

It looks like he’s trying to keep himself together before his lips finally part. “The truth? Yes, this is very, very bad. I don’t know what they’re going to find, but I know you. They don’t. I’ll help you talk to the lawyers. I know they claimed to have evidence of you in the building right before the explosion, but I haven’t seen the security footage. I’m not sure they would allow me to view it. Dad hasn’t seen it yet, as far as I know. Your lawyer is trying to talk to them, to see if we can see at least some of it, to know what we’re dealing with for the trial. When we get it… I’m not sure I want Dad to be there. I want it to be just us… because if it’s as bad as they said… I know he’ll give you hell for it. He’ll destroy you.”

So he doesn’t know what to do, either. That’s just great. We’re navigating an unknown task, all by ourselves. What if we could somehow get my dad to come around? I know how he’s been since my release, so it’s a slim chance… but he’s my dad. I have to at least try. I know that somewhere, deep down, he still sees me as his little girl, his pride and joy. But what am I going to have to do to convince him that she’s still here? What strings will I have to pull for him to even stand to look at me again?

My mug is empty now. I fill it with water and set it in the sink, closing my eyes as the caffeine hits. Then, something hits me like a ton of bricks to my chest. I slam my hands over my ears, closing my eyes in a futile attempt to block the pressure, the pain that only grows.

My cup falls into the trashcan, the sweetness of the vanilla and caramel still fresh on my tongue. I cherish the sweetness as I wave goodbye to the baristas, heading for the door. Then, I blink once, twice. And everything around me is different.

Red and blue lights. Commotion. People are running. Screaming. I don’t know what’s going on, but they do. What happened? How did I get to the museum? I don’t remember leaving the coffee shop at all. In fact… I’m not even sure I went anywhere after I stepped out that door. Heart racing, I scamper away from the sink, then turn on my heel and sprint out to the balcony, desperate to have fresh air touch my skin. A few coughs and sobs escape from my throat, and I don’t even try to stifle them. I don’t care about that. All I want to do is figure this out, if my peers will help, and whatever enemies I’ve made will let me.  

[reasonsforhope]

Here's the top 2 stories from each of Fix The News's six categories:

1. A game-changing HIV drug was the biggest story of 2024

In what Science called the 'breakthrough of the year', researchers revealed in June that a twice-yearly drug called lenacapavir reduced HIV infections in a trial in Africa to zero—an astonishing 100% efficacy, and the closest thing to a vaccine in four decades of research. Things moved quick; by October, the maker of the drug, Gilead, had agreed to produce an affordable version for 120 resource-limited countries, and by December trials were underway for a version that could prevent infection with just a single shot per year. 'I got cold shivers. After all our years of sadness, particularly over vaccines, this truly is surreal.'

2. Another incredible year for disease elimination

Jordan became the first country to eliminate leprosy, Chad eliminated sleeping sickness, Guinea eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus, Belize, Jamaica, and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, India achieved the WHO target for eliminating black fever, India, Viet Nam and Pakistan eliminated trachoma, the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness, and Brazil and Timor Leste eliminated elephantiasis.

15. The EU passed a landmark nature restoration law

When countries pass environmental legislation, it’s big news; when an entire continent mandates the protection of nature, it signals a profound shift. Under the new law, which passed on a knife-edge vote in June 2024, all 27 member states are legally required to restore at least 20% of land and sea by 2030, and degraded ecosystems by 2050. This is one of the world’s most ambitious pieces of legislation and it didn’t come easy; but the payoff will be huge - from tackling biodiversity loss and climate change to enhancing food security.

16. Deforestation in the Amazon halved in two years

Brazil’s space agency, INPE, confirmed a second consecutive year of declining deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. That means deforestation rates have roughly halved under Lula, and are now approaching all time lows. In Colombia, deforestation dropped by 36%, hitting a 23-year low. Bolivia created four new protected areas, a huge new new state park was created in Pará to protect some of the oldest and tallest tree species in the tropical Americas and a new study revealed that more of the Amazon is protected than we originally thought, with 62.4% of the rainforest now under some form of conservation management.

39. Millions more children got an education

Staggering statistics incoming: between 2000 and 2023, the number of children and adolescents not attending school fell by nearly 40%, and Eastern and Southern Africa, achieved gender parity in primary education, with 25 million more girls are enrolled in primary school today than in the early 2000s. Since 2015, an additional 110 million children have entered school worldwide, and 40 million more young people are completing secondary school.

40. We fed around a quarter of the world's kids at school

Around 480 million students are now getting fed at school, up from 319 million before the pandemic, and 104 countries have joined a global coalition to promote school meals, School feeding policies are now in place in 48 countries in Africa, and this year Nigeria announced plans to expand school meals to 20 million children by 2025, Kenya committed to expanding its program from two million to ten million children by the end of the decade, and Indonesia pledged to provide lunches to all 78 million of its students, in what will be the world's largest free school meals program.

50. Solar installations shattered all records

Global solar installations look set to reach an unprecedented 660GW in 2024, up 50% from 2023's previous record. The pace of deployment has become almost unfathomable - in 2010, it took a month to install a gigawatt, by 2016, a week, and in 2024, just 12 hours. Solar has become not just the cheapest form of new electricity in history, but the fastest-growing energy technology ever deployed, and the International Energy Agency said that the pace of deployment is now ahead of the trajectory required for net zero by 2050.  

51. Battery storage transformed the economics of renewables

Global battery storage capacity surged 76% in 2024, making investments in solar and wind energy much more attractive, and vice-versa. As with solar, the pace of change stunned even the most cynical observers. Price wars between the big Chinese manufacturers pushed battery costs to record lows, and global battery manufacturing capacity increased by 42%, setting the stage for future growth in both grid storage and electric vehicles - crucial for the clean flexibility required by a renewables-dominated electricity system. The world's first large-scale grid battery installation only went online seven years ago; by next year, global battery storage capacity will exceed that of pumped hydro.

65. Democracy proved remarkably resilient in a record year of elections

More than two billion people went to the polls this year, and democracy fared far better than most people expected, with solid voter turnout, limited election manipulation, and evidence of incumbent governments being tamed. It wasn't all good news, but Indonesia saw the world's biggest one day election, Indian voters rejected authoritarianism, South Korea's democratic institutions did the same, Bangladesh promised free and fair elections following a 'people's victory', Senegal, Sri Lanka and Botswana saw peaceful transfers of power to new leaders after decades of single party rule, and Syria saw the end of one of the world's most horrific authoritarian regimes.

66. Global leaders committed to ending violence against children

In early November, while the eyes of the world were on the US election, an event took place that may prove to be a far more consequential for humanity. Five countries pledged to end corporal punishment in all settings, two more pledged to end it in schools, and another 12, including Bangladesh and Nigeria, accepted recommendations earlier in the year to end corporal punishment of children in all settings. In total, in 2024 more than 100 countries made some kind of commitment to ending violence against children. Together, these countries are home to hundreds of millions of children, with the WHO calling the move a 'fundamental shift.'

73. Space exploration hit new milestones

NASA’s Europa Clipper began a 2.9 billion kilometre voyage to Jupiter to investigate a moon that may have conditions for life; astronomers identified an ice world with a possible atmosphere in the habitable zone; and the James Webb Telescope found the farthest known galaxy. Closer to Earth, China landed on the far side of the moon, the Polaris Dawn crew made a historic trip to orbit, and Starship moved closer to operational use – and maybe one day, to travel to Mars. 

74. Next-generation materials advanced

A mind-boggling year for material science. Artificial intelligence helped identify a solid-state electrolyte that could slash lithium use in batteries by 70%, and an Apple supplier announced a battery material that can deliver around 100 times better energy density. Researchers created an insulating synthetic sapphire material 1.25 nanometers thick, plus the world’s thinnest lens, just three atoms across. The world’s first functioning graphene-based semiconductor was unveiled (the long-awaited ‘wonder material’ may finally be coming of age!) and a team at Berkeley invented a fluffy yellow powder that could be a game changer for removing carbon from the atmosphere.

-via Fix The News, December 19, 2024

[contemplatingoutlander]

It has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president

Isn’t this what a newspaper is supposed to do?

I love that The Washington Post satirist Alexandra Petri took it upon herself to endorse Harris for her paper after Bezos pulled the plug on the editorial board doing so. This is a gift🎁link, so feel free to read the entire article. Below are some excerpts:

The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.) We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those “roots,” I’m told! Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king! [...] But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them. Let me tell you something. I am having a baby (It’s a boy!), and he is expected on Jan. 6, 2025 (It’s a … Proud Boy?). This is either slightly funny or not at all funny.  [...] Well, that world [the baby will be born into] will look very different, depending on the outcome of November’s election, and I care which world my kid gets born into. I also live here myself. And I happen to care about the people who are already here, in this world. Come to think of it, I have a lot of reasons for caring how the election goes. I think it should be obvious that this is not an election for sitting out. The case for Donald Trump is “I erroneously think the economy used to be better? I know that he has made many ominous-sounding threats about mass deportations, going after his political enemies, shutting down the speech of those who disagree with him (especially media outlets), and that he wants to make things worse for almost every category of person — people with wombs, immigrants, transgender people, journalists, protesters, people of color — but … maybe he’ll forget.” “But maybe he’ll forget” is not enough to hang a country on! [...] I’m just a humor columnist. I only know what’s happening because our actual journalists are out there reporting, knowing that their editors have their backs, that there’s no one too powerful to report on, that we would never pull a punch out of fear. That’s what our readers deserve and expect: that we are saying what we really think, reporting what we really see; that if we think Trump should not return to the White House and Harris would make a fine president, we’re going to be able to say so. That’s why I, the humor columnist, am endorsing Kamala Harris by myself! [color/ emphasis added]

How far The Washington Post has fallen into the "darkness" it used to work so hard to ward off to help keep our democracy alive.

[edited]

[olive-treeeee]

Doctor Who Characters as my Letterboxd Reivews (and the films they were for)

3rd Doctor: "'I was Hiding in my velvet Boudoir' said Bio Brando, a heterosexual man." (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom blood, 2012)

Sarah-Jane Smith: "I love Lesbians, I wish they were real :(" (Thelma and Louise, 1991)

4th Doctor: "What I wouldn't give to be in a 2010s Tim Burton Film." (Alice in Wonderland, 2010)

6th Doctor: "If you squint, He really does look like John Travolta" (Bolt, 2008)

Rose Tyler: "The emotional Whiplash this film gives you, should be studied." (Corpse Bride, 2005)

10th Doctor: "All this has taught me is that all twinks, do in fact, come from the depth of hell. x" (Berserk, 1997)

9th Doctor: "I Love Men with Lesbian Haircuts." (High School Musical 3, 2008)

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart: "I'm so gay." (Coyote Ugly, 2000)

Osgood: "I just watched two hours of cats in heat, someone take my amazon prime away from me 😭" (Cats, 1998)

12th Doctor: "If a man doesn't unleash a plague over half of Germany for me, then I don't want him." (Nosferat, 2024)

13th Doctor: "Autism is a spectrum and every single character is ON IT." (Pride and Prejudice, 2016)

Yaz Kahn: "Oh to be Punched in the face by Jodie Whittaker in a red Adidas." (Toxic Town 2025)

Ryan Sinclair: "When Shilo Wallace said: 'Tell me why are my genetics such a bitch?' I really felt that" (Repo! The Genetic Opera, 2008)

15th Doctor: "Mimi's idea of flirting is, breaking and entering?" (Rent, 2005)

Rogue: "I love gay people, I wish they were real :(" (The adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, 1994)

The Master: "Men will do anything, but the right thing." (Companion, 2025)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Who Broke the Internet? Part II

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in PITTSBURGH on in THURSDAY (May 15) at WHITE WHALE BOOKS, and in PDX on Jun 20 at BARNES AND NOBLE with BUNNIE HUANG. More tour dates (London, Manchester) here.

"Understood: Who Broke the Internet?" is my new podcast for CBC about the enshittogenic policy decisions that gave rise to enshittification. Episode two just dropped: "ctrl-ctrl-ctrl":

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353-the-naked-emperor/episode/16145640-ctrl-ctrl-ctrl

The thesis of the show is straightforward: the internet wasn't killed by ideological failings like "greed," nor by economic concepts like "network effects," nor by some cyclic force of history that drives towards "re-intermediation." Rather, all of these things were able to conquer the open, wild, creative internet because of policies that meant that companies that yielded to greed were able to harness network effects in order to re-intermediate the internet.

My enshittification work starts with the symptoms of enshittification, the procession of pathological changes we can observe as platform users and sellers. Stage one: platforms are good to their end users while locking them in. Stage two: platforms worsen things for those captive users in order to tempt in business customers – who they also lock in. Stage three: platforms squeeze those locked-in business customers (publishers, advertisers, performers, workers, drivers, etc), and leave behind only the smallest atoms of value that are needed to keep users and customers stuck to the system. All the value except for this mingy residue is funneled to shareholders and executives, and the system becomes a pile of shit.

This pattern is immediately recognizable as the one we've all experienced and continue to experience, from eBay taking away your right to sue when you're ripped off:

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-user-agreement-may-2025-arbitration/

Or Duolingo replacing human language instructors with AI, even though by definition language learners are not capable of identifying and correcting errors in AI-generated language instruction (if you knew more about a language than the AI, you wouldn't need Duolingo):

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-ai-jobs-crisis-is-here-now

I could cite examples all day long, from companies as central as Amazon:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

To smarthome niche products like Sonos:

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/sonos-ceo-patrick-spence-steps-down-after-app-update-debacle-2025-01-13/

To professional tools like Photoshop:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/28/fade-to-black/#trust-the-process

To medical implants like artificial eyes:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/12/unsafe-at-any-speed/#this-is-literally-your-brain-on-capitalism

To the entire nursing profession:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/18/loose-flapping-ends/#luigi-has-a-point

To the cars on our streets:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

And the gig workers who drive them:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

There is clearly an epidemic – a pandemic – of enshittification, and cataloging the symptoms is important to tracking the spread of the disease. But if we're going to do something to stem the tide, we need to identify the contagion. What caused enshittification to take root, what allows it to spread, and who was patient zero?

That's where "Understood: Who Broke the Internet?" comes in:

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353-the-naked-emperor

At root, "enshittification" is a story about constraints – not the bad things that platforms are doing now, but rather, the forces that stopped them from doing those things before. There are four of those constraints:

I. Competition: When we stopped enforcing antitrust law, we let companies buy their competitors ("It is better to buy than to compete" -M. Zuckerberg). That insulated companies from market-based punishments for enshittification, because a handful of large companies can enshittify in lockstep, matching each other antifeature for antifeature. You can't shop your way out of a monopoly.

II. Regulation: The collapse of tech into "five giant websites, each filled with screenshots of the other four" (-T. Eastman) allowed the Big Tech cartel to collude to capture its regulators. Tech companies don't have to worry about governments stepping in to punish them for enshittificatory tactics, because the government is on Big Tech's side.

III. Labor: When tech workers were scarce and companies competed fiercely for their labor, they were able to resist demands to enshittify the products they created and cared about. But "I fight for the user," only works if you have power over your boss, and scarcity-derived power is brittle, crumbling as soon as labor supply catches up with demand (this is why tech bosses are so excited to repeat the story that AI can replace programmers – whether or not it's true, it is an effective way to gut scarcity-driven tech worker power). Without unions, tech worker power vanished.

IV. Interoperability: The same digital flexibility that lets tech companies pull the enshittifying bait-and-switch whereby prices, recommendations, and costs are constantly changing cuts both ways. Digital toolsmiths have always thwarted enshittification with ad- and tracker-blockers, alternative clients, scrapers, etc. In a world of infinitely flexible computers, every 10' high pile of shit summons a hacker with an 11' ladder.

This week's episode of "Who Broke the Internet?" focuses on those IP laws, specifically, the legislative history of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a 1998 law whose Section 1201 bans any kind of disenshittifying mods and hacks.

We open the episode with Dmitry Skylarov being arrested at Def Con in 2001, after he gave a presentation explaining how he defeated the DRM on Adobe ebooks, so that ebook owners could move their books between devices and open them with different readers. Skylarov was a young father of two, a computer scientist, who found himself in the FBI's clutches, facing a lengthy prison sentence for telling an American audience that Adobe's product was defective, and explaining how to exploit its defects to let them read their own books.

Skylarov was the first person charged with a felony under DMCA 1201, and while the fact of his arrest shocked technically minded people at the time, it was hardly a surprise to anyone familiar with DMCA 1201. This was a law acting exactly as intended.

DMCA 1201 has its origins in the mid-1990s, when Al Gore was put in charge of the National Information Infrastructure program to demilitarize the internet and open it for civilian use (AKA the "Information Superhighway"). Gore came into conflict with Bruce Lehman, Bill Clinton's IP Czar, who proposed a long list of far-ranging, highly restrictive rules for the new internet, including an "anticircumvention" rule that would ban tampering with digital locks.

This was a pretty obscure and technical debate, but some people immediately grasped its significance. Pam Samuelson, the eminent Berkeley copyright scholar, raised the alarm, rallying a diverse coalition against Lehman's proposal. They won – Gore rejected Lehman's ideas and sent him packing. But Lehman didn't give up easily – he flew straight to Geneva, where he arm-twisted the UN's World Property Organization into passing two "internet treaties" that were virtually identical to the proposals that Gore had rejected. Then, Lehman went back to the USA and insisted that Congress had to overrule Gore and live up to its international obligations by adopting his law. As Lehman said – on some archival tape we were lucky to recover – he did "an end-run around Congress."

Lehman had been warned, in eye-watering detail, about the way that his rule protecting digital locks would turn into a system of private laws. Once a device was computerized, all a manufacturer needed to do was wrap it in a digital lock, and in that instant, it would become a literal felony of use that digital device in ways the manufacturer didn't like. It didn't matter if you were legally entitled to do something, like taking your car to an independent mechanic, refilling your ink cartridge, blocking tracking on Instagram, or reading your Kindle books on a Kobo device. The fact that tampering with digital locks was a crime, combined with the fact that you had to get around a digital lock to do these things, made these things illegal.

Lehman knew that this would happen. The fact that his law led – in just a few short years – to a computer scientist being locked up by the FBI for disclosing defects in a widely used consumer product, was absolutely foreseeable at the time Lehman was doing his Geneva two-step and "doing an end-run around Congress."

The point is that there were always greedy bosses, and since the turn of the century, they'd had the ability to use digital tools to enshittify their services. What changed wasn't the greed – it was the law. When Bruce Lehman disarmed every computer user, he rendered us helpless against the predatory instincts of anyone with a digital product or service, at a moment when everything was being digitized.

This week's episode recovers some of the lost history, an act I find very liberating. It's easy to feel like you're a prisoner of destiny, whose life is being shaped by vast, impersonal forces. But the enshittificatory torments of the modern digital age are the result of specific choices, made by named people, in living memory. Knowing who did this to us, and what they did, is the first step to undoing it.

In next week's episode, we'll tell you about the economic theories that created the "five giant websites filled with screenshots of the other four." We'll tell you who foisted those policies on us, and show you the bright line from them to the dominance of companies like Amazon. And we'll set up the conclusion, where we'll tell you how we'll wipe out the legacies of these monsters of history and kill the enshitternet.

Get "Understood: Who Broke the Internet?" in whatever enshittified app you get your podcasts on (or on Antennapod, which is pretty great). Here's the RSS:

https://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/includes/nakedemperor.xml

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/13/ctrl-ctrl-ctrl/#free-dmitry

[tamapalace]

Bandai Namco US Showcases New Products at 2025 Toy Fair New York

It’s toy fair season and Bandai Namco US did not disappoint! Bandai Namco US had an impressive Tamagotchi booth at the 2025 Toy Fair New York at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center. This event gives merchandisers and retailers the ability to preview upcoming products in hopes to expand their reach to customers. Be sure to check them out through March 4th, 2025 at booth #403!

Julie, tolovelfromvine was in attendance and took some great pictures! The booth itself featured beautiful graphic from the latest Tamagotchi devices, including Tamagotchi Original Angel, and Tamagotchi Uni.

There was a photo spot of a Tamagotchi Original Dreamy (an iconic shell) that actually has lights around it so the edges are glowing!

Of course they also had the Mametchi and Kuchipatchi statues, oh did we mention there is an all-new Tamagotchi mascot costume? The costume is noticeably taller, and featuring brighter colors, love that!

There were shelves showcasing upcoming products, and thats where we started to drool. First there is a cute Tamagotchi display which consists of Tamagotchi devices attached to a wall display in the shape of a Tamagotchi, which features a television screen inside of it.

So what new products were showcased? It looks like Bandai Namco US is bringing the Tamagotchi Collectibles Poop Time to North America! We couldn’t be more excited to get our hands on these, and to keep our Tamagotchi Original produced in these cases. They’ll be $5.99 at Barnes & Noble, Hot Topic, and Box Lunch stores.

Already announced, and available for preorder on Amazon US, the new Darth Vader Tamagotchi Nano was also being showcased along with the silicone set for those Star Wars fans! Along with the latest Spring 2025 Tamagotchi Original shells, including Stained Spring Glass!

Next, bath bombs! These have been a huge hit in Japan, and look like they’re coming to North America! Bandai Lifestyle Tamagotchi first volume bath bombs (grape scent), and Hair Tie Bath Bombs come in four styles, in an orange scented bath bomb.

Then you’ve some beauty, Tamagotchi Face & Eye Color! Already announced by Bandai Namco US, listed for preorder on Amazon, but now we can see the store display, along with the packaging, which will be identical to the Japanese packaging.

Remember those adorable Tamagotchi PuriNuri Petit plushies we saw that the “Fun With Tamagotchi” panel at the 2024 New York Comic-Con? They’re coming!

Next up are Tamagotchi Mini ChibiNui Mascot Plushies which are adorable and come in Kuchipatchi, Mametchi, Memetchi, Sebiretchi, Milktchi, Weeptchi, and Ichigotchi!

Bandai Namco US also showed off the Tamagotchi Play Charm Phone Mametchi Plushie that attaches to your phone case.

There is also a new type of plushie coming, one that actually houses your plushies. It almost looks like a jacket that will cover your plushie and come with a lanyard to wrap around your neck. Two were previewed, a Kuchipatchi and Mametchi style.

The newly announced IN Tamagotchi plushies were also on display, and they look even better in person!

Lastly is a Tamagotchi backpack! Tamagotchi Adventure Companion Backpack which will allow fans to take their digital pets on a real-life adventure. The backpacks are Tamagotchi shaped, and feature Tamagotchi Original designs, inside the clear cutout for the screen is an included Tamagotchi 3-in-1 plushie which will transform your plushie through three unique life stages and characters. Available in July for $34.99 on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Hot Topic, and other specialty retailers.

[barbwritesstuff]

The Best Books I Read in 2024

I don't think I'm going to get much reading done for the rest of the year so...

In no particular order, here's some of my top books of 2024. These books didn't necessarily come out this year, but I read them this year.

You will notice a lot of horror and sci-fi. The older I get the more I'm embracing my spooky/spacy self and I think that's beautiful.

And finally (selfishly) I need to put my own book Of Monsters and Mainframes on this list. I edited it this year and part of that process meant rereading it enough that I went from loving it, to hating it, back to loving it. It's coming out in June 2025 and I could not be more terrified.

Here's the cover:

And here's a couple of places you can preorder it: Bookshop Amazon

[aquamine-amarine]

Why is it that Western fans are so fucking miserable and feel the need to lie and spread misinformation without providing any evidence to back up their claims? This is such a bullshit claim not based on reality. Because this is NOT what I've seen when it comes to how the series is viewed in Japan. It's actually really popular. Their ratings are just fine, they're not crying for help at all. Why do people feel the need to lie when it's so easy to prove them wrong?

I have been posting Peach-Pit news for 10+ years and I saw first hand the reactions from Japanese fans when the reprints were first announced back in 2021. The first two volumes were released on March 1st, 2021. They sold out so fast they had to reprint them. And then they had to reprint them AGAIN in April 2021.

I recently bought another set of the reprints, let's look at the reprint information on the last page:

Volume 1 was reprinted 6 times, most recently on November 21st, 2024.

Volume 2 was reprinted 5 times, most recently on July 17th, 2024.

Volume 3 was reprinted 5 times, most recently on November 21st, 2024.

Volume 4 was reprinted 5 times, most recently on November 21st, 2024.

Volume 5 was reprinted 5 times, most recently on November 21st, 2024.

Volume 6 was reprinted 4 times, most recently on July 17th, 2024.

...according to the copies I have. My volume 2 and 6 do have the obis around the cover advertising the sequel, so it makes sense that those came from the July 2024 reprints. Those volumes were also most likely reprinted in November 2024 with the others, Animate just sent me a mix and I didn't get the newest version of those.

As for the first volume of Jewel Joker, the regular and special editions were released on February 13th, 2025. They announced a reprint of both editions 4 days later on February 17th, 2025. That is the OPPOSITE of a cry for help. That means the series is doing really well, because they have to keep reprinting the volumes. And it's highly likely it's going to keep getting special treatment just like the original series did, with the rest of the volumes getting a regular AND special edition.

The September 2024 Issue of Nakayoshi, which included the first chapter of Jewel Joker, sold out really fast. Animate cancelled my order for the issue because they ran out, even though I had pre-ordered it. Third party sellers on Amazon Japan were selling the issues for a much higher price because everyone wanted the issue and furoku. Nakayoshi had to offer the September 2024 Issue for free digitally for a limited time so people could actually read it.

Since the first chapter, it has been featured on the cover of Nakayoshi 5 times, and has had 4 color title pages. Each title page has the words 大人気 (very popular) on it. There are only 8 chapters so far and it's already so popular. Every month when a new issue comes out and Nakayoshi's X account makes a post for every manga that is in the issue that particular month, Shugo Chara!'s posts always have the highest likes and views.

There has been a constant, nonstop stream of merchandise, goods, popup shops, and collaboration cafes since the reprints came out in 2021. The Animate cafe collaboration back in March was huge. The X post announcing it has 3 millions views and 26k likes. When mail order for the goods was made available, some of the goods were sold out within 2 hours! Amu's acrylic stand sold out first, by the way. Ikuto's acrylic stand sold out the next day.

That is NOT a series struggling with ratings. With or without Ikuto, the series was doing just fine. It's probably the most popular series in Nakayoshi right now. Because Japanese fans actually like the series for the plot too, not just the pretty boys. There are a lot of Japanese fans that are huge fans of the female characters as well.

It was inevitable that Ikuto was going to come back sooner or later because he's one of the main characters and also Amu's love interest. They're the main canon couple. You wouldn't have Sailor Moon without Mamoru or Cardcaptor Sakura without Syaoran. The love interest HAS to be there. Even though romance is not the main point in these manga (the actual plot is) these boys are still there. They HAVE to be there.

The merchandise and other goods have made it very obvious that Amuto is absolutely canon at this point. There are Cocollabo and Animate goods where it's just the two of them, and Palcy has been advertising their relationship as "fated to be attracted to each other". This is an official Kodansha app. I've also seen things on Peach-Pit's pixiv Fanbox that just make it more obvious too, I just can't share them because they're behind a paywall and they said not to talk about pixiv Fanbox contents outside of pixiv. They're only okay with sharing articles that are listed as "All Users". Which means you can view the articles without paying for a plan and without having a pixiv account.

Honestly, the only people who are salty about Ikuto's return are probably Tadamu fans that are still in denial about Amuto being canon. That's the simplest answer. It has absolutely nothing to do with ratings. They don't like Ikuto so they're annoyed he's back, and they're just pretending it's some other reason because they're dishonest. I'd respect them more if they just told the truth.

The Asian fandoms (I mainly lurk among Japanese, Korean, and Chinese fans) are all in a euphoric haze that they've been in since the Nakayoshi cover was first revealed, and when chapter 8 came out on Thursday they were freaking out all day. One fan described it as a "lethal dose of Amuto". lol The Japanese fandom is overjoyed with chapter 8, and thankfully their opinion is the only one that matters because they're the ones actually buying the issues and volumes as well as going to popup shops and collaboration cafes. It doesn't matter what Western fans think, because apart from a few people like myself and some others, most of them aren't supporting the series in any way. I buy direct from the source using Buyee and Tenso.

There's a reason Amu and Ikuto are ALWAYS featured in every new set of illustrations Peach-Pit releases. They're always there, and the rest of the characters chosen are usually a mix of Tadase, Utau, and/or Nadeshiko/Nagihiko. I think Peach-Pit is just really happy that they can finally go all in on Amuto and they wanted to advertise it as much as they could. That's why the cover was released a week early, why they've been so giddy talking about the chapter. As I said before, they've said things on their pixiv Fanbox that have confirmed some of my suspicions. Also the notes in the artbooks:

万里: グランドフィナーレですね. 白い服の2人とブーケ…, というのは最初から決まってました. 12巻でバージョンちがいを描きましたよ. Banri: It’s the grand finale. Two people wearing white clothes and a bouquet​… that was decided from the beginning. The Volume 12 version is drawn differently.

This was canon since day 1. It's what they've always wanted to do, and they're so happy that they can finally do it.

Also, X is NOT a "hellspace", it is an extremely effective social media platform. Another ignorant opinion not based on reality. I know I'm dealing with literal children when you people feel the need to insert politics into a hobby discussion where it is not needed, wanted, or in any way relevant to the conversation. A smart entrepreneur will use every social media platform they can to advertise themselves. It's common sense. And today X is THE best place to do it.

When the series was first serialized in Nakayoshi, social media - especially X - was not as widespread as it is today. If you wanted to see comments by the manga artists, you were limited to comments they made in the issues, comments in the published volumes, or you tracked down their personal website and hoped it had a blog section (Peach-Pit's old website did). They occasionally had autograph sessions, and Peach-Pit also replies to fan letters and they send postcards out during summer and winter. Advertising each series was also limited, probably to just each magazine's websites, the manga artist's blog, and bookstores like Animate.

Now the publishing companies and magazines all have an X account, and the manga artists being published in the magazine have one as well. Peach-Pit only created their X in 2011, and Nakayoshi created theirs in 2014. That was after SC! ended in 2010. Some also have a pixiv Fanbox.

Social media makes it much easier to advertise each series, and you'd be stupid not to. You couldn't do this before and now you can, so you should absolutely use this to your advantage. Their goal is to get more readers and to make money, and I don't fault them for that. They need money in order to live. I thought this stupid website supported artists? Of course SC! has an easier time since it already has an established fanbase (the same could also be said of CCS Clear Card when it was running in Nakayoshi).

Speaking of CCS, I don't think it was a coincidence that the issue announcing SC!'s sequel (the November 2023 Issue) came two issues before CCS Clear Card ended (the January 2024 Issue). I believe they did this on purpose. Their cash cow was ending and they needed to make sure people stuck around for the next cash cow, so they wanted CCS readers to see the news about SC!'s sequel. Because if anyone is desperate for ratings, it isn't Peach-Pit - it's Nakayoshi.

Recent issues of Nakayoshi are very thin, nothing like the thick phone book-like issues I have from 2006 during SC!'s first serialization. I think the magazine is struggling, which is why they keep giving sequels to their most popular classic manga to bring back old readers. In a list of Japanese manga magazines by circulation as of June 2023, Ciao is #10, Ribon is #12, and Nakayoshi is #23. CCS Clear Card would later end in the January 2024 Issue which was released on December 1st, 2023. I'm really interested to see the current numbers and how SC!'s sequel might have effected the amount of copies they printed. Clearly they didn't print enough copies of the September 2024 Issue which had the first chapter of Jewel Joker in it. Did they fix this by making sure to print more copies? Doesn't look like it, because the May 2025 Issue appears to be sold out in some stores already. Animate's online store says they only have a few left.

In 2019, Nakayoshi published an artbook to celebrate their 65th anniversary. The manga artists were listed in order of publication - with Peach-Pit being listed last. An indirect admission by Nakayoshi that SC! was one of the last good manga to run in the magazine and there hadn't been any new hits between SC! ending in 2010 and 2019 when the artbook was published. Not even Ema Tooyama was featured in the artbook, and she's had numerous Nakayoshi manga throughout the years.

It's Nakayoshi's 70th anniversary this year and they've barely celebrated it. They released a card set furoku in the January 2025 Issue featuring art from popular manga, but that's about it. No word about any special campaigns or exhibitions. Will they release another artbook just like that one, to include popular manga from 2019 to 2025? I wish they would do something.

Alright, this is long enough. Leave it to the miserable Western fandom to ruin the good mood I've been in since chapter 8 came out. I'm going back to Japanese X, they're not fucking miserable.

[juiceboxscans]

Date drops!

Manga is still on hiatus but Volume 9 is listed as coming out February 2025. Keep an eye on Amazon or your local bookseller for more news.

New anime trailer was released today: Premiere date is Monday October 7, 2024.

Follow the official anime Twitter and anime website. Anime will be streaming on Crunchyroll and Prime Video (check in your location for availability).

OP is UNDER and OVER by Oral Cigarettes:

EP is Nani Warotonneen by Yoshino

Rounding out our cast of characters

Kirishima Miyama: Akira Ishida Yoshino Somei: Hitomi Ueda

Shouma Toriashi: Koji Yusa Azami Suo: Hiroshi Kamiya

Renji Somei: Youji Ueda Gaku Miyama: Kazuya Nakai

Tachibana-san: Ryota Takeuchi Inamori-san: Hiroshi Shimosaki

Hotei-san: Katsuyuki Konishi Tsubaki: Rina Ueda

Please make sure to support the mangaka.

We've gotten busy with life but have been checking back and the mangaka has not posted any updates so we're not aware of them coming off hiatus any time soon.

In the meantime, SUPPORT THE MANGAKA: Buy the tankobons if you can afford them, watch the anime when it airs and hype it on social media, and if you can't find the content legally in your area reach out to manga publishers in your region and book stores and ask them to stock your fave. Let them know that you want access to content. Bookstores take note when fans get excited about stuff.

Whatever you do: Please do not pay fees on scanlation sites that promise ad-free browsing.

Happy (almost fall)! 。.:☆*:･'(*⌒―⌒*)))

[cindylouwho-2]

The European Union's General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR): A Huge Mess For Some Small & Micro Businesses

Above is an email Amazon sent to sellers many months ago that covers the basics. Not all marketplaces were as forthcoming - or early - with info.

UPDATED: February 25, 2025

As many of you know, new laws coming into effect Friday December 13, 2024 affect businesses' ability to sell products into the European Union and Northern Ireland (EU and NI). The General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR) impose various requirements on most goods being sold to the EU and NI, and some of those new rules will be very onerous for some small businesses. Furthermore, there are still some unanswered questions that the relevant government bodies hadn't covered until the European Commission did release some more details and an FAQ page very recently [pdf for download at the end of the first section on that page], and until public Q & A sessions were held.

This post contains a brief summary of the GPSR and of the key questions for common small business types, with the best answers I can find at this time. There is a section discussing problems on Etsy (which hasn't yet adapted their platform to the new regulations). I also compiled a list of helpful links including government and marketplace information pages, and places to obtain an "EU Responsible Person" to represent your business.

If anything gets clarified in the near future, this post will be updated.

What Does GPSR Require?

The Amazon summary in the screenshot at the top of this post is one of the easiest to understand, but a shorter overview may work better for some, so here is what eBay has to say:

To comply with the GPSR and related regulations, all business sellers listing items for sale in the EU and NI must include the following information: 1. The product manufacturer's name and contact information 2. If the manufacturer isn’t located in the EU or NI, you’ll have to indicate an EU-based Responsible Person or entity, along with their name and contact details 3. Any relevant product information like model number, pictures, and type 4. Product safety and compliance information like warnings and safety information (which can be included in labels and product manuals) in the local language 5. The CE marking when required by the related regulations applicable to your product

And yes, all of this applies to merchants of all stripes, including small and microbusinesses. Per the EU, “...the GPSR obligations apply to businesses of all sizes. Consumers are entitled to only safe products and therefore exceptions cannot be made based on the size of a business.”

Clearly there are significant hurdles for small and micro businesses: the cost of hiring a responsible person, and the cost of producing the required safety and use instructions and of translating them into local languages. Some may choose to stop sales to the EU and NI instead of complying.

Are There Any Exceptions?

Yes, several types of products are excluded, but most of those already subject to equally strict or even stricter regulations, e.g., medicine, foods, animals etc.

The two main known exceptions of interest to most of my readership are:

Antiques, which seem to be limited to items that are old (but no age is given, as far as I can tell) and generally to art or other collectible items.

Items already available for sale before December 13 of this year.

That second point is good news for many businesses, but please note it only seems to apply to stock made before December 13, not just listings made before that date. Once you run out and need to order or make more products, they then become subject to the GPSR.

Does The GPSR Apply To Digital Products?

It now appears that the new regulations cover items such as digital downloads. The FAQ pdf put out by the European Union very recently states "[t]he GPSR applies to all types of products (physical or digital products too, including software) that are placed or made available on the EU Single Market". At least some analysts agree this can include pretty much everything digital:

I can understand why some folks think that a knitting pattern or a simple art downloadable file should not be covered, and in the future once there is more discussion of and action taken under the GPSR, those products might be excluded. But note that the pdf of FAQs also states "[t]he GPSR is about avoiding and preventing “risks to both physical health and mental health”. Including image files and similar downloads therefore makes some sense.

How Do I Find A "Responsible Person" To Represent My Digital Download Business In The EU?

That's a good question, because I haven't found any verified sources saying they will cover digital items, or any digital sellers mentioning they have found coverage. Many have been denied by the companies they have contacted. [UPDATE: A company called EAS has agreed to represent at least one digital seller.]

If you are aware of any other firms or individuals offering "Responsible Person" services for digital products, please let me know!

(Remember, If you are in the EU/NI, you are the Responsible Person. If your products are manufactured in the EU/NI, the manufacturer is the Responsible Person.)

Does the GPSR Apply To Free Products?

Yes. From the FAQ pdf: "an item provided free of charge falls within the scope of the GPSR.”

In addition to complimentary physical items ("free gifts") sent out with orders, this would seem to include free downloads provided on blogs and social media, on a Patreon site, in YouTube descriptions etc. I’ve not seen much discussion on this aspect of the law for some reason.

Items Offered For Sale Before December 13 Are Exempt, But How Would The Government Know When I First Offered The Product Or When It Was Made?

If you had 100 widgets in stock before December 13 and had them listed on a marketplace or website, by law you can continue to sell those widgets to the EU and NI until all 100 are gone. And if you created a digital file and offered it online before December 13, it should be exempt forever, as long as you do not edit the file after December 13.

But proving you had 100 widgets already made, or that you listed a specific product before the law took effect could be difficult, especially for anyone handmaking their own items. If you are going to continue to sell to the EU and NI after December 13, keep careful records of which stock needs labelling, safety information and translations of use instructions.

Online marketplaces could also create problems if they don't display the date an item was first offered for sale, as happens on Etsy, for example. Every time an item renews, the visible date is reset, and it can be difficult to go through spreadsheets looking for the original listing date, and csv files may not be adequate proof under this law (since they can easily be changed after downloading).

Unfortunately, we won't truly know what evidence will be accepted in these circumstances until the authorities start enforcing these regulations, but this will only be a concern for anyone continuing to sell "old stock" into the EU and NI after December 13, so it is far from the largest concern.

The Case of Etsy - Failure To Comply With The GPSR

Unlike some other marketplaces, Etsy was fairly late in warning its sellers that the GPSR affected them, and how Etsy will approach the law. The blog post included the line "[s]hould Etsy receive a notification from an authority that your product is non-compliant, we will take appropriate action, which may include removing your listing and/or suspending your account." So, the stakes are high here - you could lose your Etsy shop if accused of not complying with the GPSR.

There are currently 2 problems for sellers who decide they can't/won't comply with the GPSR and therefore do not want to offer their items to the EU and NI any more:

Shipping to the UK on Etsy includes Northern Ireland, and sellers anywhere within the UK cannot remove the UK from their shipping profiles. That means they are forced to offer their goods to NI even if they don't want to.

Digital products on Etsy are sold to the whole world by default; there is no way to exclude any countries that Etsy allows sales to. That means every digital listing on Etsy is currently offered in the GPSR jurisdictions, regardless of the seller's wishes or compliance.

The GPSR was published on May 10, 2023. That gave everyone 19 months to get their ducks in a row. However, Etsy has so far done nothing to allow UK and digital sellers to remove their listings from being available in the EU and NI. Nothing.

Support has told some sellers that the corporation is working on it, and that UK sellers could just cancel any sales to NI:

However, it is not good enough to refuse to complete orders to the EU and NI. Any item offered for sale in the EU and NI is automatically subject to the GPSR; just allowing someone to check out is a violation, if the listing and product does not meet the law's requirements.

As of December 13, there is still no way to stop selling to Northern Ireland on Etsy if you are a seller in the United Kingdom, and there is no way for a digital product to be excluded from offer in either the EU or NI. Sadly, this means the only way shops can follow the law is to close for the time being, and some are planning on doing that.

Etsy has failed its sellers, and there is no excuse.

UPDATE (February 25, 2025): Etsy has finally Etsy has updated settings for excluding GPSR countries from those you sell to. Change it here under "Choose how you sell to GPSR states".

More changes to come here under the February updates, including fields for safety information and your responsible person.

And probably the biggest news: Etsy is working on vetting companies that will act as a "responsible person" for its sellers - you know, like eBay already did months ago. Still no word on why Etsy was caught unprepared by legislation that was released almost 2 years ago.

UPDATE (April 15, 2025): Etsy has added fields for safety compliance and an EU responsible person, and now warns shops that "If a product is subject to the GPSR but does not meet the requirements, it may be classified as a “dangerous product” by EEA or NI authorities. This may result in enforcement actions, including fines, product bans, or the removal of your products from the marketplace.

Should Etsy receive notification from an authority that your product is non-compliant, we’ll take appropriate action, which may include removing your listing and/or suspending your account."

Resources and Responsible Person Offerings

I've compiled a separate post on my Patreon, listing some of the official legal and government resources on GPSR, as well as rules and Help pages from some major marketplaces and Print on Demand companies, and a short list of places you can hire a "Responsible Person" for your products:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/sources-and-for-117871846

Please let me know if you find any broken links there, or have other resources to add!

This post will be updated as required.

UPDATED: April 15, 2025

[see-arcane]

Welp. Been a minute. Overdue for an update.

So.

The Depressing Bit

Going to go ahead and rip off the band-aids quick.

First off, I passed my one-year laidoffiversary a couple weeks back. Still no new job despite applying every day of the week for the past year. A lot of dead-end interviews. Three times as many scams and I don’t dare guess how many entirely false job openings posted by companies who were never hiring in the first place, but wanted the positions out in the open to scare their actual employees with the threat of being easily replaced and to look good to investors with the illusion of growth. So there’s that.

Then, while doing my taxes, I came to a fun little revelation.

You know my novella The Vampyres, ala eBook and paperback? Had its birthday last year, March 15th. As I plugged in my earnings from that book from Draft 2 Digital’s doc, I discovered I'd made a grand total of $278 from it over the course of 2024. Cool.

I paid $275 to purchase the ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers) for the eBook and paperback respectively, and a barcode. Which would mean that I made approximately $3 in profit from The Vampyres after a year.

Except I also spent $25 on a ‘change token’ with Draft 2 Digital because I had to make an alteration to the book's interior.

Meaning I spent $300 total on self-publishing this book. And have so far made back $275 of it.

…

Still glad I did it. Still glad a few folks might someday come across it and enjoy the read. But it’s…yeah. Kind of a glum revelation with March 2025 coming up.

Still job hunting. Still writing. Still hoping and going.

Anyway.

New Stuff

Ko-Fi

Added a couple new options in with the doodles and fancier art bits if you want to take a gander.

Substack (For Now)

While I’ve been posting my chapter updates on my Substack for a bit, and my stuff is still going up there for the foreseeable future, I’m going to start shopping around for an alternative platform. Not a big fan of how Substack is apparently buddying up to Elongated Muskrat and his specific idea of ‘freedom of speech.’ The main things I’m looking for is a lack of price tag and easy usability. I’ll let everyone know if/when I make the switch to something better.

StoryGraph

The Vampyres is on StoryGraph (and so am I). I’d appreciate you leaving any reviews on there rather than Goodreads, the latter being one of Amazon’s Bezos Babies. Really, nice reviews anyplace where books are picked up will help, but do consider a hop to StoryGraph in particular.

Merchandise

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is finally setting up shop with a little merch. I want to make stationery and possibly some novelty mugs* as things to start with. I’m browsing around for a good manufacturer and shipping combo option while trying to 100% avoid Shopify or affiliated sites. Not real keen on them being fine with selling Nazi and MAGA merch. (Frankly not keen on how dodging Nazi infiltration has become a rote part of trying to ~Sell Myself~, but here we are.)

I’ll post prospective product pics once I have something solid. Cross your fingers for me.

*The mugs are mostly for me as I have a devastating addiction to charming drinkware. But I guess you guys can have some too.

???

I don’t really have anything salient to put here. I’m mostly just grateful to all my friends out there in the Internet abyss for sticking around and making all this feel a little less lonely. Thank you.

[bestofsimoneashley]

Simone Ashley’s upcoming movies, a thread (will be updated regularly)

“Picture this”

Genre: Comedy/Rom-Com

Release Date: 2025

Plot: Pia (Simone Ashley) is single and runs a failing photography studio with her best friend Jay (Luke Featherston). As her sister (Anoushka Chada) prepares to wed, Pia's mother (Sindhu Vee) is desperate for her to also find love. Then a spiritual guru at her sister's engagement party tells her she is destined to find love on the next five dates she goes on.

Director: Prarthana Mohan

Cast: Simone Ashley, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Elliot Bird, Nikes Patel, Luke Featherston, Anoushka Chada, Phil Dunster, Eben Figueiredo, Sindhu Vee, Adil Ray

Character: “Pia”

Watch it on: Amazon Prime

-—————-

"This Tempting Madness"

Genre: psychological thriller

Release Date: 2024

Plot: A young woman awakens from a coma grievously injured, memory fractured, her husband arrested. But as she puts together the pieces of her past, she starts to question her own actions — and her perception of reality.

Director: Jennifer E. Montgomery

Cast: Simone Ashley, Mojean Aria, Austin Stowell, Suraj Sharma, Zenobia Shroff

Character: "Mia"

Watch it on: TBA

—————-

“The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland”

Genre: animated movie

Release Date: 2024

Plot: The Queen of Hearts hates Christmas – she's banned tinsel, mince pies and even good cheer – because when she was a little princess, the White Rabbit was late delivering her letter to Father Christmas and she didn't receive a present. But one snowy Christmas Eve, Santa finally receives her letter and races to deliver her gift! Will Santa and his reindeer be able to put the Merry back into Christmas in Wonderland?

Director: Peter Baynton

Cast: Simone Ashley, Emilia Clarke, Gerald Butler

Character: "Alice"

Watch it on: TBA

—————

“F1”

Genre: Action, Drama

Release Date: June 25, 2025

Plot: Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a Formula One driver who raced in the 1990s, has a horrible crash, forcing him to retire from Formula One and start racing in other disciplines. A Formula One team owner and friend (Javier Bardem) contacts Hayes and asks him to come out of retirement to mentor rookie prodigy Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris) for the Expensify Apex Grand Prix team (APXGP).

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Cast: Simone Ashley, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies, Javier Bardem, Sarah Niles, Brad Pitt

Character: TBA

Watch it on: Apple and in cinemas

[ofmdrecaps]

12/17-18/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Happy birthday Jes Tom!; Galaxy Con Columbus OFMD Panel; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Con O'Neill; Nathan Foad; Vico Ortiz; Samba Schutte; Ruibo Qian; Alex Sherman; Anapela Polata'ivao; Adam Stein; Articles; Fan Spotlight: OFMD Buys Boats; OFMD Advent Calendar; Love Notes;

== Happy Belated Birthday Jes Tom! ==

One of our wonderful writers, Jes Tom, had a birthday on 12/18/2024! Happy belated birthday dear!!

Source: Jes Tom's Bsky

= Cast & Crew Birthdays =

I've been trying to collect cast and crew birthdays that I could find - Birthday Calendar and there's a few more coming up soon!

Dec 28th - David Fane

Dec 30th - Nathan Foad

Jan 1 - Ruibo Qian!

If you happen to know more that aren't on the calendar yet, please feel free to reach out to me! I've been trying to add them as I find them but I'm sure I'm missing many! <3 (I'm happy to credit you of course too!)

== Galaxy Con Columbus ==

Good news! The OFMD panel is now available on Youtube!

Source: Galaxy Con Youtube

= Rhys Darby =

A new Bad Jelly Trailer is out!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Badjelly (@badjellytv)

Source: BadJellyTV

A little quote from Rhys about Bad Jelly!

Source: SphereAnimation

There was an article about Rhys in BMA Magazine with this lovely spread!

Source: BMA Magazine

= Taika Waititi =

Hey! Wonderful news! Taika is going to be Honored with the Norman Lear Achievement at the 2025 Producers Guild Awards. "The Norman Lear Award recognizes a producer or producing team for their extraordinary body of work in television. It has been awarded to individuals whose leadership and creativity have made profound contributions to the television industry" - Producer'sGuild.org Article here

Source: Producers Guild Instagram

= Con O'Neill =

There's a new SAS Rogue Heros Trailer!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Theo Barklem-Biggs (@barklembiggs)

Source: Instagram

= Nathan Foad =

Nathan is sending some love to one of our crew members-- apparently they made this lovely scarf for Nathan's Mom! Who was this!? Let me know! I'd love to credit you!

Source: Nathan Foad's Instagram Stories

= Vico Ortiz =

Vico is working on a new project! Today in Gay is going to be available Monday Through Friday with a daily dose of queer news -- and good queer news! It'll be hosted by several queer icons, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Nay Bever, Vico Ortiz and Bex Taylor-Klaus. "Lauren Klein joined as Executive Producer, Editor, and Composer. Hannah Nobrega is our behind-the-scenes Researcher and Jax Ko, our Co-Producer and Creative Director, has done all of our visual design. Kalie Chebib is our Social Media Manager and our Supervising Producer is Maritza Navarro. Linh Nguyen keeps us all running as our Executive Assistant! We are all proud members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and we’re all here to make your day a little more gay. "

Today In Gay Is Your New Go-To Daily News Podcast Article!

Today in Gay Substack

Source: Vico's Bsky

= Samba Schutte =

Samba received some lovely gifts from our dear crewmate @amuseoffyre! He sent lots of love their way on his Instagram Stories!

More work by Samba -- Parallel Episode 3 is out on Amazon and there's a new Trailer!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Seasick Studios (@seasickstudios_)

Source: Samba's Instagram

= Ruibo Qian =

Just a quick shot of our Pirate Queen <3

Source: Ruibo's Instagram stories

= Alex Sherman =

Alex Sherman is still raising funds for the Experience Camp he has volunteered for in the past! It helps kids who have lost family members get a fun week away to help to process their feelings, and have a great time. Check out the donation page here if you're interested / able to help out!

Source: Alex Shermans Instagram

= Anapela Polata'ivao =

Our Auntie, Anapela Polata'ivao was selected for Story Camp Aotearoa 2025! "Story Camp is a residential feature film development lab that fosters craft, voice and vision with a programme designed to meet the development needs of each writer and project. Over the week, the participating writers and their collaborators workshop their feature film projects with exceptional local and international advisors. Congratulations to the filmmakers whose feature film projects will be developed through Story Camp Aotearoa 2025 ✍ The Factory Anapela Polataivao and Vela Manusaute - Co-Writers"

Source: Script to Screen

= Adam Stein =

Our producer and actor, Adam Stein, was spotlighted by Management LA this past week!

"Adam is currently a Consulting Producer on Apple TV+’s THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME. Previous to that, he was an Executive Producer on Max’s TOKYO VICE and OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH. Other recent shows include SEE (Apple TV+, Co-Executive Producer), DESIGNATED SURVIVOR (Netflix, Consulting Producer), THE EXORCIST (Fox, Co-Executive Producer) and UNDER THE DOME (CBS, Supervising Producer). He got his start in television on FX’s DAMAGES, and began his career as a writer doing features for GQ magazine. He has written pilots for Amazon, ABC, AMC Studios, FX and others. Currently, he’s playing Lucky in a production of Waiting for Godot at the @geffenplayhouse through December 21!"

Source: Adam Stein's Instagram

== Articles ==

Many thanks to our friends over at @adoptourcrew for keeping us up to date with every article under the sun featuring our show!

Source: Adopt Our Crew Instagram

== Fan Spotlight ==

= OFMD Buys Boats =

The Tiny Crew Big Raffle team is posting the final numbers for donations to the various non-profits by cast member over the next several days!

Lindsey Cantrell - Inner City Arts - US $865.80, £312.88, €15, CAD$12.45

Megan Vertelle - Sheldrick Wildlife Trust - US $901.95, £105, €215, CAD$20

Such wonderful work crew! Well done!

Source: OFMD Buys Boats Instagram

= OFMD Advent Calendar =

ANNNNND OFMD Advent Calendar is still going strong! Thank you so much to @tillychmo (as well as the fun door images!) for hosting this wonderful even! You can follow along on bluesky on @ofmdadventcalendar.bsky.social!

The 12th door features some very sweet artwork by the fab @intheblanketfort! aka @intheblanketfort.bsky.social!

The 13th Door features beautiful work by @kuuttamo.bsky.social!

The 14th Door features an ADORABLE lego surprise by @politestmenace.bsky.social!

The 15th Door features a super cool OFMD Holiday RPG by @alimasin! aka @alimasin.bsky.social!

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies! Well getting two out in one day didn't work out, so I will try to make sure I'm catching up with 2 days at time as much as I can over the next few days! I have a very important question to ask you-- and that is, have you laughed today? Did you know laughter can reduce anxiety, and stress, stimulate your lungs, heart and muscles? It's actually pretty damn awesome how much a good old fashioned guffaw can make us feel better. Is there something you know for a fact will make you laugh? (For me it's silly cat videos, or Stede boarding the tiny fisherman's boat in the pilot of the hit series OFMD). Maybe it's stand up comedy-- or puns, or dark humor. Whatever it is that tickles your funny bone, I would request that today you go and just partake in some giggles. They can be small, or big, but do something that makes you laugh <3 Below are some things that have given me some giggles in the past. I hope if nothing else they give you a smile. Sending so many hugs lovelies. I'm thinking of you <3

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[justinspoliticalcorner]

Robert Reich:

Friends, If you are experiencing rage and despair about what is happening in America and the world right now because of the Trump-Vance-Musk regime, you are hardly alone. A groundswell of opposition is growing — not as loud and boisterous as the resistance to Trump 1.0, but just as, if not more, committed to ending the scourge. Here’s a partial summary — 10 reasons for modest optimism.

1. Boycotts are taking hold.

Americans are changing shopping habits in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with Trump. Millions are pledging to halt discretionary spending for 24 hours on February 28 in protest against major retailers — chiefly Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy — for scaling back diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in response to Trump. Four out of 10 Americans have already shifted their spending over the last few months to be more consistent with their moral views, according to the Harris poll. (Far more Democrats — 50 percent — are changing their spending habits compared with Republicans — 41 percent.) Calls to boycott Tesla apparently are having an effect. After a disappointing 2024, Tesla sales declined further in January. In California, a key market for Tesla, nearly 12 percent fewer Teslas were registered in January 2025 than in January 2024. An analysis by Electrek points to even more trouble for Tesla in Europe, where Tesla sales have dropped in every market. X users are shifting over to Bluesky at a rapid rate, even as Musk adds more advertisers to his ongoing lawsuit against those that have justifiably boycotted X after he turned it into a cesspool of lies and hate (this week, he added Lego, Nestle, Tyson Foods, and Shell).

2. International resistance is rising.

Canada has helped lead the way: A grassroots boycott of American products and tourism is underway there. Prime Minister Trudeau has in effect become a “wartime prime minister” as he stands up to Trump’s bullying. Jean Chrétien, who served as prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003, is urging Canada to join with leaders in Denmark, Panama, and Mexico, as well as with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to fight back against Trump’s threats. Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum is standing up to Trump. She has defended not just Mexico but also the sovereignty of Latin American countries Trump has threatened and insulted. In the wake of JD Vance’s offensive speech at the Munich security conference last week, European democracies are standing together — condemning his speech and making it clear they will support Ukraine and never capitulate to Putin, as Trump has done.

3. Independent and alternative media are growing.

Trump and Musk’s “shock and awe” strategy was premised on their control of all major information outlets — not just Fox News and its right-wing imitators but the mainstream corporate media as well. It hasn’t worked. The New York Times has done sharp and accurate reporting on what’s happening. Even the non-editorial side of The Wall Street Journal has shown some gumption. The biggest news, though, is the increasing role now being played by independent and alternative media. Subscriptions have surged at Democracy Now, The American Prospect, Americans for Tax Fairness, Economic Policy Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Guardian, ProPublica, Labor Notes, The Lever, Popular Information, Heather Cox Richardson, and, of course, this and other Substacks. As a result, although Trump and Musk continue to flood the zone with lies, Americans aren’t as readily falling for their scams.

4. Musk’s popularity is plunging.

Elon Musk is underwater in public opinion, according to polls published Wednesday. Surveys by Quinnipiac University and Pew Research Center — coming just after Trump and Musk were interviewed together by Fox News’ Sean Hannity, with Trump calling Musk a “great guy” who “really cares for the country” — show a growing majority of Americans holding an unfavorable view of Musk. In Pew’s findings, 54 percent report disliking Musk compared to 42 percent with a positive view; 36 percent report a very unfavorable view of Musk. Quinnipiac’s results show 55 percent believe Musk has too big a role in the government.

5. Musk’s Doge is losing credibility.

On Monday, DOGE listed government contracts it has canceled, claiming that they amount to some $16 billion in savings — itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website. Almost half were attributed to a single $8 billion contract for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — but that contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. A larger total savings number published on the site, $55 billion, lacked specific documentation. In addition, Musk and Trump say tens of millions of “dead people” may be receiving fraudulent Social Security payments from the government. The table Musk shared on social media over the weekend showed about 20 million people in the Social Security Administration’s database over the age of 100 and with no known death. But as the agency’s inspector general found in 2023, “almost none” of them were receiving payments; most had died before the advent of electronic records. These kinds of rudimentary errors are destroying DOGE’s credibility and causing even more to question allowing Musk’s muskrats unfettered access to personal data on Americans.

6. The federal courts are hitting back.

So far, at least 74 lawsuits have been filed by state attorneys general, nonprofits, and unions against the Trump regime. And at least 17 judges — including several appointed by Republicans — already have issued orders blocking or temporarily halting actions by the Trump regime. The blocking orders include Trump initiatives to restrict birthright citizenship, suspend or cut off domestic and foreign U.S. spending, shrink the federal workforce, oust independent agency heads, and roll back legal protections and medical care for transgender adults and youths. In other cases, the Trump regime has agreed to a pause to give judges time to rule, another way that legal fights are forcing a slowdown.

[...] 9. Trump is overreaching — pretending to be “king” and abandoning Ukraine for Putin. Trump’s threats of annexation, conquest, and “unleashing hell” have been exposed as farcical bluffs — and his displays this week of being “king” and siding with Putin have unleashed a new level of public ridicule. [...] 10. The Trump-Vance-Musk “shock and awe” plan is faltering. In all these ways and for all of these reasons, the regime’s efforts to overwhelm us are failing. Make no mistake: Trump, Vance, and Musk continue to be an indiscriminate wrecking ball that has already caused major destruction and will continue to weaken and isolate America. But their takeover has been slowed. Their plan was based on doing so much, so fast that the rest of us would give in to negativity and despair. They want a dictatorship built on hopelessness and fear.

Robert Reich wrote a solid Substack piece on the 10 reasons anti-Trump Americans should feel some optimism in.

[jerzwriter]

This is always such a challenge - and I don't even attempt to limit it to five. lol

In alpha order - because asking me to rank them would be asking entirely too much! lol

Ashes Open Heart - Ethan Ramsey x Casey MacTavish (F!MC)

I love angst, and the Amazon period from Open Heart always delivers. In my TxC world, Casey dated Ethan but broke up with him when he left without saying goodbye. This was their first encounter upon his return.

A Different Fate (AU): The Final Chapter Open Heart - Ethan Ramsey x Kaycee MacClennan (F!MC)

Second-chance romances are like crack for me! lol I started A Different Fate in 2023, but I wrote/posted the final chapter in 2024. This series was very special to me, so I had to include this on my Best of 2024 list.

The Journey (AU) Open Heart - Ethan Ramsey x Kaycee MacClennan

Again, I love angst, I love drama, and I love a good second-chance romance. In this AU, a divorced Ethan x Kaycee are dropping their daughter off for her first semester at college. But what happens when memories come flooding back?

Money, Money | A Little Jealous | To Love & Overprotect Open Heart - Tobias Carrick x Casey MacTavish

While my babies were awfully happy when they finally got together, that doesn't mean that they didn't have things to work through. In this trilogy, I explored a few of the bigger issues.

Mostly Pleasant Surprises: Part 4 - And that's what happened... Open Heart - Tobias Carrick x Casey MacTavish

The long-delayed story about how these two finally got together - it lived in my head for years, but I finally wrote it in 2024 - and that made me so happy! I also had this commissioned from @/artbyainna to commemorate it!

New Discoveries Open Heart ("MOC World") - Tobias Carrick, Ethan Ramsey, Bryce Lahela

Part of "MOC World" (Merida, Olivia, Casey), where the friendships are every bit as delicious as the romances! Here, a boy's trip goes amock, and there were plenty of laughs to be had. This was so much fun to write! **

One Day Crimes of Passion - Trystan Thorne x Carolina Rose (F!MC)

Nothing like a "there's just one bed" trope, but when it's one bed and two characters from different worlds who are in denial about their feelings for each other - well, then it's bound to be as funny as it is sweet. I really enjoyed this little story.

Something New Wake the Dead - Eli Sipes x Zoe Rivera (F!MC)

I didn't write much for WTD this year, but the story and its characters will always be precious to me. Here, residents of the newly formed Olympus have to decide on how they'll be handling some traditions - and Eli x Zoe need to make some choices, too.

Honorable mentions:

A Change in Plans (AU) - OH - Tobias Carrick x Casey MacTavish

Monopoly Series (AU) - OH - Tobias Carrick x Casey MacTavish (F!MC) - this would technically be in my top 10, but since it's a series about polyamory - and I have not gotten to that part yet - I felt inauthentic including it. So it's here until 2025 :)

Pietro y Azul - OH - Tobias Carrick, Jackie Varma

A Shot of Reality - OH - Tobias Carrick, Merida (F!MC) **

Traditions (Part 1) - WTD - Eli Sipes x Zoe Rivera

Whodunit? - OH - Tobias x Casey Carrick

With Warning: Part Two - Ethan Ramsey - OH - Tobias Carrick x Casey MacTavish, Ethan Ramsey

** Thank you to @lilyoffandoms and @storyofmychoices for letting me "borrow" their babies, Merida and Olivia! The stories that combine our worlds are always among my favorites each year!

@choicesficwriterscreations

[tamapalace]

Chibi Nui Plushies Volume 2 Coming to MINISO & Amazon US Spring 2025

More plushies are coming to the United States! At the Tamagotchi Booth featured at the 2024 New York Comic-Con Bandai showed off some awesome new non-device merchandise, some of which were not allowed to be photographed!

What was really exciting is that the Chibi Niu plushies volume 2, that were originally introduced back in September, 2024, featuring Young Mametchi, Memetchi, Pochitchi, Maskutchi, and Gozarutchi are headed to both MINISO and Amazon US soon! We actually first saw these back in August at the 2024 Anime NYC convention. They should retail for their MSRP of $9.99.

You should see them at these stores starting Spring 2025, as announced by Tara Badie, Senior Brand Director at the 2024 New York Comic-Con "Fun With Tamagotchi" panel.