#create qr code for video

[curiousmind-world]

Introduction

In our fast-paced world, time is a precious commodity. Whether you’re a student, professional, or entrepreneur, finding ways to streamline your daily tasks can significantly boost productivity. Enter ChatGPT, an AI language model that can assist you in automating various aspects of your work. In this article, we’ll explore nine ChatGPT prompts that can revolutionize the way you tackle your busy schedule.

1. Calendar Management

ChatGPT prompts: “Schedule a meeting for next Tuesday at 2 PM.”

ChatGPT can interact with your calendar application, whether it’s Google Calendar, Outlook, or any other platform. By providing clear instructions, you can effortlessly set up appointments, reminders, and events. Imagine the time saved when ChatGPT handles your scheduling!

2. Email Drafting

ChatGPT prompts: “Compose an email to my team about the upcoming project deadline.”

ChatGPT can draft professional emails, complete with subject lines, body text, and even attachments. Simply describe the purpose of the email, and let ChatGPT do the rest. It’s like having a virtual assistant dedicated to your inbox.

3. Code Generation

ChatGPT prompts: “Write a Python function that calculates Fibonacci numbers.”

Whether you’re a programmer or a student, ChatGPT can generate code snippets for various programming languages. From simple functions to complex algorithms, ChatGPT can save you hours of coding time.

4. Content Summarisation

ChatGPT prompts: “Summarise this 10-page research paper on climate change.”

Reading lengthy documents can be daunting. ChatGPT can analyse and condense large texts into concise summaries, allowing you to grasp essential information quickly.

5. Social Media Posts

ChatGPT prompts: “Create a tweet announcing our new product launch.”

Crafting engaging social media content is essential for businesses. ChatGPT can generate catchy posts for platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, ensuring your message reaches your audience effectively.

6. Language Translation

ChatGPT prompts: “Translate this paragraph from English to Spanish.”

Whether you’re communicating with international clients or learning a new language, ChatGPT can provide accurate translations. Say goodbye to language barriers!

7. Data Analysis

ChatGPT prompts: “Analyse this sales dataset and identify trends.”

ChatGPT can process data, create visualisations, and extract insights. Whether it’s sales figures, customer behavior, or market trends, ChatGPT can help you make informed decisions.

8. Creative Writing

ChatGPT prompts: “Write a short story about time travel.”

Beyond practical tasks, ChatGPT can unleash creativity. From poems to fictional narratives, ChatGPT can be your muse when inspiration strikes.

9. Personalised Recommendations

ChatGPT prompts: “Suggest a book based on my interests in science fiction.”

ChatGPT can recommend books, movies, restaurants, or travel destinations tailored to your preferences. It’s like having a knowledgeable friend who knows your tastes.

Conclusion: 

These nine ChatGPT prompts demonstrate its versatility. By integrating ChatGPT into your workflow, you can automate repetitive tasks, enhance communication, and free up valuable time. So, next time you’re swamped with work, turn to ChatGPT—it’s like having a digital assistant that works tirelessly to simplify your life.

In addition to ChatGPT, there are several other powerful AI tools designed to automate various tasks. Let’s explore some of them:

ACCELQ: A codeless AI-powered tool that seamlessly tests software across multiple channels (mobile, desktop, etc.). It offers continuous test automation and minimizes maintenance efforts1. You can find more information on their website.

Katalon: An AI tool for test automation that provides a complete solution for testing mobile applications and websites. It features a robust object repository, multi-language support, and efficient test results1. Check out Katalon’s website for details.

Selenium: An open-source AI tool for automating web and application testing. It’s commonly used for regression testing, functional testing, and performance testing1. You can explore more about Selenium on their official website.

Appium: Specifically designed for mobile app automation, Appium supports both Android and iOS platforms. It’s an excellent choice for mobile testing1.

Cypress: Known for its fast execution and real-time reloading, Cypress is an end-to-end testing framework for web applications. It provides a great developer experience1.

Parasoft: Offers comprehensive testing solutions, including static analysis, unit testing, and API testing. It’s widely used in the industry1.

Cucumber: A behavior-driven development (BDD) tool that allows collaboration between developers, testers, and non-technical stakeholders. It uses plain text specifications for test cases1.

TestNG: A testing framework inspired by JUnit and NUnit, TestNG supports parallel execution, data-driven testing, and test configuration flexibility1.

LambdaTest: A cloud-based cross-browser testing platform that allows you to test your web applications across various browsers and operating systems1.

Robot Framework: An open-source test automation framework that uses a keyword-driven approach. It’s highly extensible and supports both web and mobile testing1.

TestCraft: A codeless automation platform that integrates with popular tools like Selenium and Appium. It’s suitable for both manual and automated testing1.

Watir: A Ruby library for automating web browsers, Watir provides a simple and expressive syntax for testing web applications1.

Remember that each tool has its strengths and weaknesses, so choose the one that best fits your specific needs. Whether it’s testing, content creation, or workflow automation, these AI tools can significantly enhance your productivity and efficiency.

[buffetlicious]

As part of its Christmas festive menu, KFC Singapore brought back the Parmesan Truffle Chicken for a limited time from 27 Nov 2024 to 1 Jan 2025. On the menu is a new Parmesan Truffle Burger and Salted Caramel Mochi Ring to celebrate the holiday season. A specially arranged Christmas jingle is also available to enhance your Parmesan Truffle Chicken experience. Created by consumer neuroscientist Professor Gemma Calvet from Nanyang Technological University, the jingle is designed to amplify the natural savoury flavours of the chicken. You can scan the QR code below for the jingle.

I didn’t go for the fried chicken as I had prior warning from a colleague who had eaten it. Instead, I went for the Parmesan Truffle Burger Box (S$12.80) consisting of a burger, a piece of fried chicken, regular cheesy whipped potato, regular fries and a drink. When I bit into the burger there was no truffle aroma nor parmesan cheese taste. All I got was the good old Zinger Burger! Lucky for me, my camera had “eaten” first so now I have got proof to go complain to KFC.

The very next day after work, I approached one of the staff at the counter and showed her the pictures. I told her I had bought the Parmesan Truffle Burger Box armed with the receipt but it came with Zinger Burger inside. She looked at the pictures and told me Zinger is correct. I got a little annoyed at her reply, I know it’s a Zinger Burger except mine had no truffle or parmesan cheese in it. Luckily, another staff member stepped forward and let her know I had been given the wrong order. She took a freshly made burger off the shelf and passed it to me. Case closed.

The Parmesan Truffle Burger is basically a Zinger Burger drizzled with truffle-infused cheese sauce and sprinkled with grated parmesan. Although I enjoyed the juicy fried chicken patty and the earthy flavour of the truffle, the powdered parmesan is overwhelmingly salty! But eaten with the buns and shredded lettuce, kind of balanced out the brininess a little bit, however, it is still salty. Now you know why I didn’t go for the fried chicken version as according to my colleague, she had to peel away the chicken skin just to make it edible. And here I was wondering if KFC even do quality testing before they released these products.

Selected image and video courtesy of KFC Singapore.

[wittyworm]

The linktree is live! @lovingthyneighbor was put together by me and my sister

We are going to be spreading stickers of these all over my town. a lot of people don't know what is happening in the world aside from what they see on the news. so i created a concise list of resources including videos and ways to help out, i want to help give people a better understanding of how it effects them and their neighbors.

I myself am Afro Boricua , and I live in a mostly Latino populated area aside from heavy tourism. It is important that we learn from our history. people think it cant happen to them, but it already has.

if you think this will be helpful to you and your neighbors, feel free to use the link and the QR code and the art yourself! no credit needed. lets get educated !

#Landback

[kimerawrt]

Dannymay 2025, meowing in ghost

1990s (AO3)

“Ugh!” Danny flopped face first into his bed while grumbling like a pissed off cat.

“Oh, come on dude! It's not that bad” Tucker tried to cheer up his friend.

“Give up Tucker, Danny is just like that because Lancer didn't let him write about the Hubble telescope” Sam droned in a very boring tone while claiming Danny’s chair as her own.

The three friends had decided to hang out in Danny’s room after school. They would have started to play video games but a last warning from Mr. Lancer about the date to hand over their essays, that was next class,made them remember the homework they didn't do because of being busy ghost hunting.

“But what will I write about?” Danny grumbled against his blankets, “what else was interesting in the 90s?”

“The Soviet Union fell” Sam was clear in what she would write. Already, she was looking for information on her phone.

“What do you mean what's interesting?! The boom of the internet dude! The best invention ever!” Tucker seemed very excited about that topic.

“Ugh…” Danny grumbled even louder. Mr. Lancer had not let him write about the space telescope because the half ghost had already done an essay in it before and he would only copy and paste his own work.

“Come one Danny, just look in the wonderful place that its the internet and find another thing that happened in the 90s” Tucker tried to make his friend move from his bed by poking his side.

“But the Hubble…” Danny whined. He was really disappointed at not being able to work on that topic and ramble about space.

“Find another thing” Sam deadpanned without mercy.

“Nooo…” Danny was not having a good time.

Not wanting to hear what his friends’ opinions on the paper were anymore, the half ghost transformed into his ghost form. Hoping that the randomness of his cat forms would bring him some kind of inspiration.

When the light receded, in the bed there was a white cat with a strange pattern of black squares in his back. Otherwise, it looked like a normal non-ghostly cat.

“I don’t think black and white things were an issue back there” Tucker said. His mind focused on when color television was invented.

“Wait, is that a QR code?” Sam asked after staring at the cat’s back for a minute.

“Danny, QRs did not exist in the 90s” Tucker said.

“Hisss” Danny was not happy with either his friends nor his form.

“Don't be a baby and stay still” Sam used her phone to see if there was anything useful in this random form.

Danny grumbled but stayed still. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing to have a QR code in his back. Maybe it would give him an idea for his essay. Maybe it would be something about space that he had overlooked. Unlikely, but stranger things had happened before.

“Huh… interesting” Sam mumbled while looking at her phone.

“Nya?” Danny turned around to see his friend. Hope filling his eyes.

“What is it?” Tucker was curious as well.

“It's a Russian blog about seafood” Sam said. She noticed that it was created the 1st of January of 1990, but didn’t comment on it.

Danny licked his lips. Now that he was thinking about it, he was hungry. He could eat a fish or two.

“That's interesting. Are you hungry dude? We could go get some fish sticks at the Nasty Burger and drown them in the Nasty Sauce. Maybe that way you will get an idea” Tucker proposed, not a solution, but a way to get one.

“Better than nothing” Sam shrugged and got up from the chair. She could go for a salad right now.

“Meow!” Danny nodded and jumped to Tucker’s shoulder.

“But you gotta be a human dude. I won't feed you fish like last time” Tucker warned his friend. He was not going to be called ‘cat weirdo' for a week again.

Danny just rolled his eyes while continuing to use the techno-geek as a transport method. He will change later. Maybe.

[rebirthgarments]

Mohammed Hammad increased his goal for evacuation to $25k so that he can bring his 6 younger siblings with him!

I was informed by my comrade Brenda that the first goal was originally $10k to evacuate Mohammed Hammad and his mother because since he is under 18, he can only evacuate with a parent or legal guardian. But in this case, his 6 younger siblings would have to be left behind on their own, so @fedup4palestine raised the goal to $25k so that Mohammed’s whole immediate family can all evacuate together. Since you all have been so amazing and we have raised $9k in just 24 hours, I think we can do it!

[Image description: an amazing colored pencil drawing by my 12 year old student Mos @NicoCavalu made of Mohammed Hammad laying down with his leg propped up with the metal fixator on his knee. Hand drawn block text in red, black, white and green reads “Disabled 17yo Mohammed needs medical Evacuation immediately”. Red typed text in red reads “Goal increased to $25k so that his 6 younger siblings are not left behind alone in Rafah

givebutter.com/mogaza

There is a QR code that goes to the Give Butter Link.]

Caption continues:

I’ve had some questions from people asking about my vetting process and about @fedup4palestine and if @moh.2090727 is able to access the money for sure, so here are some short answers:

I or a trusted comrade have personally vetted all of the fuhnd-raizers that are under the heading labeled “Pal-eh-stienian Fundraisers Sky of Rebirth Garments is helping with” in my AllMyLinks. Half of them we vetted through video chat, and the other half were already friends of my friends from before the “escalation”. Mohammed Hammad’s campaign was already vetted through @fedup4palestine , and over the course of the last 36 hours I have messaged with him extensively. I talk to every one of the people that I have been working on helping every day (unless they lose access to the internet).

Pretty much all of the families I am working for are more than down to be connected with anyone and answer questions, so don’t be shy, if you are not supporting fuhn-raisers because you are not fully sure about them, just DM me and I can get you directly connected with a family so you can see how real they are!

Note: I am currently not able to add on any more fuhnd-raisers for me to personally work on (until more of them have been totally met)

@fedup4palestine is a very new nonprofit, they have been too swamped with making the fuhnd-raizer pages to finish and launch their website yet. They have their nonprofit status, and they use it to create the GiveButter campaign pages. I just went through the process with my other fuhnd-raizer with Seraj to make a GiveButter, and you have to be a nonprofit in order to make any campaigns there (I ended up using my fiscal sponsor Allied Media Projects’ GiveButter in order to make the auction for Seraj, which will go live in the next couple days!). GiveButter is now the recommended alternative to GFM, since GFM keeps shutting down Pal-eh-stinian fuhnd-raizers. This does not mean you shouldn’t give to GFM’s that you know are vetted, but it means that you should also work to help folks get GiveButter campaigns as well!

Mohammed Hammad has a bank account with Bank of Pal-eh-stein , and I have confirmed with both him and @fedup4palestine that he has access to withdraw the money from his fundraising money anytime he needs. He is currently waiting to withdraw until he now has the full amount for him + his siblings’ evacuation because he doees not want to leave them behind.

[whomstwedointheshadows]

I am howling at the sky for the look tonight that Harvey Guillén staked to death, spat on, and made it beg on the red carpet. Instead of just ranting to my queer fashion/fandom retail friends again, I took our collective slobber and tears to outline my plea to the fashion gods.

Why doesn’t this man have a ‘mens’wear line in every American mall? There is a gap in the market for adventurous, queer friendly suiting available through a retailer like Macys/J C Penney. Yes, retail is dying and wedding industry more so, but that’s particular to what’s available for consumers as well. Suiting is turned from off the rack into iconic by proper tailoring, but let me tell you from working all sides of the bridal salon, even up-scale clothing lines are getting rude as hell about quality and assembly to prevent tailoring and longevity.

This kid’s Disney charm would be perfect for introducing a plus size, inclusive line of fashion-forward pieces which include, say a QR code video about taking your own measurements, how adjustments work, with pieces designed to be sleek, with enough allowance for tailoring, and minding the lines in the garment to make the adjustments for plus size bodies easier. It’s no more adjustments than are made on straight size bodies, it’s just straight size bodies have more options to find a line which works with their natural shape.

But in my experience, it’s gender non-conforming folks and plus sized folks who get pushed out of finding pieces they can actually use for celebrations or work, much less pieces with actual personality that spark joy. This man has been killing it for years, really getting some clutch looks for events and invites in the fashion world. He’s showing proof of concept every time he steps in front of a camera.

Watching Harvey’s fashion evolution, I trust his fashion team and judgement to create a mid/high line for workwear to events suiting embracing a gender nonconforming audience. I can’t think of anyone better situated to become the ambassador of a brand with *the* formal wear for queer events and special occasions. I was tickled to see he sells his own merch and hope this experience convinces him of the joy working with artists and connecting their visions to a wanting public, dipping toes into the new ethical, sustainable trends in fashion. His looks alone shows he’s done his homework over the years about timelessness and early adopting trends.

For the years I worked selling/tailoring wedding dresses, there was the prophetic ‘someday… along will come the man who revives men’s fashion for events again’ to save the David’s bridal/men’s wear house lines who keep dropping plus sizes like mine and dying off. As the pet butch in the bridal salon I pleaded to the sky for better suiting options. Add that to my butch lezzy ways and trans masc circle of friends I legit spent this past Friday night drunk in a bar with a seam ripper adjusting jackets and darting pants in an unplanned sewing circle for a bachelorette until it was my round of karaoke. This isn’t the first time I’ve spontaneously started tailoring for the queers, I can’t keep up with the demand! Y’all we are in our twenties to mid thirties there should be better options than this that don’t require a vacation to LA/NY!!

I have ethical, sustainable fashion preferences about slipping in a retailer versus an online brand. But for the vision of accessible clothing to the masses pushing the envelope of the kind of quality only vintage pieces are affording the general public, this is the only celebrity really posed with the image, high energy, and bona fides to be the face of it. His connections in the fashion game are only growing as WWDITS wraps up.

If this man opened a pop-up suiting/fashion shop I’d take my limited time and resources to really dig in to the designers he promoted. I’d be howling in the streets for my celebrants to go get a Gullién. There’s no shortage online pattern makers, but there is a shortage of queer friendly shops to really get pieces that pop and it feels safe to enjoy in a retail environment. For average people wanting to engage with fashion that affirms their identity on their special day, there’s too much fucking compromise. Honestly it’s nice that I have a side hustle sewing to pattern, but I’d give it up in a fucking heartbeat for there to be actually sustainable and approachable options. I wish there was an in between of being ‘affordable’ gnc suiting in an American mall but add plus size availability and it gets sad for your most thrifty, creative friends. Someone needs the step in the gap, and why not someone at the top of the game?

Even if it was just a pop up line every few years, I’d fucking salivate over every image in that catalogue two thousand miles away for what it can teach home sewists just by virtue of curating those artisans with the express goal of queer, fat friendly designs playing together. Just the existence of vintage shops like Proud Mary creates a boom across the inter-webs of new sewists per post. Could anyone really imagine if there were actually accessible stores in key cities/supported by an online catalog with a personable, rising star as the brand face?

Please feed us more fashion, Harvey. Keep those stylists and designer friends close. Please. I cannot stress how many mascs/nb-bebes keep dropping your name every fitting consultation across this nation and it’s for good reason.

[isaysboo]

Americorps NCCC has just been disbanded. This is not the end and we cannot cave in to apathy. What now?

I've listed actionable steps below.

Step by step:

Sign petition and leave a response of why you signed and your personal experience.

Use templates provided bel (or write your own) to contact who you can. Calling is more effective than emailing, but either will do. Add your own personal experiences to the templates if you'd like.

Make sure your immediate circle is aware, especially people who are alumni of any program, partners, close friends and family. Send the link and make sure they know the steps.

Share what is happening on social media. Make a video, text post, post it on a story. Include the link and a bit about why it's important to you. Encourage others to share the link and post.

Talk to people in real life. Coworkers, classmates, people you attend religious services with and folks you volunteer with. If you're a more social person, even seeing if you can do this in a public place is awesome. Save the QR code so it's easily accessible.

Below are links and templates:

Link to petition: https://chng.it/VybhKkxyKJ

QR Code for Petition:

Call Script for elected officials if needed:

Hello, my name is [Your Name], and I’m a constituent from [Your City, State].

I’m calling to express my concern about the defunding and shutdown of AmeriCorps NCCC. This program has provided service to communities across the country for decades — from disaster relief and environmental conservation to education and public health.

NCCC gives young adults a chance to serve their country while gaining valuable experience and leadership skills. It’s a program that builds stronger communities and future leaders. It's a loss that will affect so many people and communities Nationwide.

I urge [Senator/Representative Name] to support the continued funding and future of AmeriCorps NCCC. We need programs like this now more than ever.

Thank you for your time.

E-mail/Written message:

Subject: Please Support AmeriCorps NCCC

Dear [Senator/Representative Name],

My name is [Your Name], and I am a resident of [Your City, State]. I’m writing to express my deep concern over the recent defunding and effective shutdown of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC).

NCCC has been a vital service program for decades, mobilizing young adults to respond to community needs — from disaster recovery and infrastructure improvement to environmental conservation and education. It has not only benefited countless communities across the U.S., but it has also shaped the lives of thousands of young people who served through it.

This program embodies the values of community engagement, national service, and resilience. Losing it would be a significant step backward at a time when service and unity are more important than ever.

I respectfully urge you to support the restoration of funding for AmeriCorps NCCC and advocate for its continued operation.

Thank you for your time and your service.

Sincerely,

[Your Full Name]

[Your City, State]

[Optional: Phone Number / Email]

Mesaged previous sponsors/ Community members you may be in contact with:

Hello,

As you may have heard, AmeriCorps NCCC has recently been defunded and effectively shut down. Many of you know the positive impact NCCC teams have made across communities throughout the country — perhaps you’ve even worked with a team before.

You can help by spreading the word among staff, colleagues, and community members. If you or your organization believe in the value of NCCC, we encourage you to reach out to your state and federal representatives to express your support.

We've also created a petition (linked below) to ensure our voices are heard. After all the work NCCC members have done in service to communities nationwide, it’s critical that we speak up now.

Thank you so much for your support,

[Your name]

Petition link: https://chng.it/VybhKkxyKJ

[wondrouswendy]

Why Fictional CaseyWake Is Interesting

Back by popular demand (one person asking me to continue my essay), I will continue promoting my Fictional CaseyWake agenda. The Fictional CaseyWake tiger has escaped its cage (and is doing just fine, if a little tortured).

DISCLAIMER: While some of this post involves media analysis, I am not an expert by any means. I am just a fan interpreting things. Don't take what I say as gospel. Also, I am only working with canon presented to us through the video games.

Further, this post is not to discredit or attack FBI Casey/Alan Wake. This is just my way of explaining why this other version of CaseyWake is interesting to me. Don't come at me with a pitchfork.

As a reminder, this post was made with fun in mind.

With that said, this will be a much longer post than those I usually make, so buckle up buckaroos.

I. What's the Deal With Fictional Casey?

The Casey we meet in the Dark Place in Alan Wake 2 is not the same as FBI Agent Alex Casey. There are certainly parallels between the two men, they of course share the same name, the same face, the same voice, a handful of the exact same dialogue lines, but their perspectives on life, Alan Wake, and everything in between is extremely different.

In Abhi Jha's interview with Sam Lake, Lake describes how he decided to revive his love of hardboiled fiction through the Casey we see in the Dark Place. Alan has received visions he doesn't understand of the real Alex Casey which he has then interpreted and curated into becoming his own character named Alex Casey. At the time of this creation, Alan believes Casey came from his imagination. We later learn in Vision 02 that Alan was receiving visions of the real Alex Casey as his inspiration. In Lake's words, this is "an echo of Casey he has molded... turning the knobs more, going more into that hardboiled inspirations." He is a "fictional character coming to life" who is different than the "actual FBI Agent in Washington with Saga who does have similarities and potential of being pushed in that direction but not quite. More three dimensional. With real worries and all of that."

From this, we can extrapolate that Fictional Casey is an exaggerated version of the real Alex Casey and not necessarily a one for one copy of him. Fictional Casey's worries are therefore extremely different than his source material's worries. They live in two entirely different contexts and have vastly different people around them. FBI Agent Alex Casey had an ex-wife and currently has a partner he has a close relationship with. Fictional Casey essentially only has Alan.

Also, Fictional Alex Casey has a little hair floof whereas FBI Casey does not. Their wardrobes are completely different. FBI Casey prefers coffee as his poison of choice; Fictional Casey prefers whiskey.

II. Tropes of Interest

A. Hatemance/Enemies to Lovers

If you’re looking for a hatemance, the pairing has you covered given the whole “Alan killed Casey off for shock value” situation. There’s sex appeal in that alone, but I also think there’s this tender bond between Alan and his character which I will continue to go through later. Alan calls on Casey for help in the Dark Place later on. Maybe it’s on a subconscious level, but it’s certainly there.

In the QR code videos released by Remedy and added into the remastered version of the game, Alan brings up the importance of his character, Alex Casey several times.

In Vision 01, he describes how the Dark Place tapped into his "unconscious mind." Taking things and twisting them to ultimately create a mystery for him to unravel. He specifically writes, "I needed a detective to guide me. Echoes of Casey haunted me."

From Vision 02, he writes, "I saw visions carried by the ebb and flow of different dream states, they seeped in from the reality beyond, things I had a connection to but also things I couldn't possibly know. I used them in my writing to make it real so the parts that weren't would become so. And there were visions that I knew were not real. Ideas I had lost. Often of Casey. I had written about him for years. I use them as well."

In Initiation 2: Casey from Alan Wake 2, Fictional Casey introduces himself with no aggression. To me, in this scene, he is almost acting like a questgiver, an NPC you'd meet in a game whose purpose is to be the guide for the protagonist. There's no immediate malice. In fact, he sacrifices himself to the monster that threatens them.

Casey, who's supposed to be the hero in the narrative, is killed by the Dark Presence. Alan doesn't protect him. You could argue that Casey's final lines of dialogue in this chapter are a moment in which he's breaking through the narrative, implying that he's tired of being used as cannon fodder to protect Alan and to further him on his quest to escape the Dark Place.

B. The History Between Alan Wake and Fictional Casey

For six books, Alan exclusively wrote Alex Casey's story. I would argue that most authors do not stick with a character as long as this. Authors tend to write trilogies if they stick with one character. Often, authors tend to write a story with a character for the course of one novel and then in their next novel, they may shift that character to the background to let another character take the spotlight (this happens all the time in romance novels, for example).

For Alan to write six books worth of Alex Casey, he must have enjoyed it in some way. Something must have appealed to him. His character, the universe, the mysteries. However, something changed with Alan to cause him to not only kill off his star character, but to then proverbially shit-talk him during an interview with Harry Garrett (though the argument could be made that because this interview is shown in a dream sequence that it isn't necessarily something we can reliably trust happened in the real world; if this has been confirmed to be real canonically, please feel free to tell me).

You could argue that Alan killing off Casey in The Sudden Stop threw his marriage and his life out of control. Alan experiences writer's block because Casey's gone. Now this could simply be because the well of inspiration with real life Casey ran dry, because FBI Agent Casey's life had become warped because of Alan's novels.

Alan spends an undefined time with his character Alex Casey. Six novels worth and then thirteen years in the Dark Place. That's a lot of time together.

C. Hurt/Comfort, Angst, and Whump

Alan hurt Casey, personally. He killed him off. Not once, not twice. Several times. He sacrifices Casey over and over.

Casey's echoes in Alan Wake 2 are familiar to Alan. They guide him along to create suitable plots for his escape attempts.

Even though Alan has hurt Casey so much, Casey can't help but assist him with escaping the Dark Place. Even when Casey begins to question his existence, even when Casey starts breaking the fourth wall, he doesn't stop helping Alan.

This lends itself to juicy Hurt/Comfort, Angst, and Whump potential.

D. Alan Wake: Dude in Distress

The bodyguard trope. Casey arguably functions as a bodyguard to Alan in the Dark Place. Casey is always there for Alan.

I hear what you're saying. Is it because he has no choice in the narrative? I would argue no. He has a choice. We see moments where Casey questions his state of being, he breaks the fourth wall. He acknowledges his status as a fictional character as Alan leaves Zane's theater. He knows there will always be another case for Casey. he walks off into the night's loving arms and cheekily says, "Roll credits."

In my interpretation, there's a part of Casey that enjoys this life, fucked up as it may be sometimes.

E. Forbidden and Star-Crossed Romance

There is potential for forbidden romance between these two. After all, you aren't supposed to fall in love with your creation. It isn't real in the physical sense.

If Fictional Casey isn't important to Alan, if he isn't a threat, then why does the Dark Presence continue to kill off Casey? Why does it continue to separate them, as it does in Initiation 5 when Scratch takes over Alan's body to shoot Casey? It knows that Casey is Alan's guardian angel in the Dark Place. It knows that Casey has been useful in creating plot points to help Alan figure it out.

Further, there is the potential for no happy endings with these two. Of course, that could be a turn off for some and a delicious morsel for others.

F. Sexual Tension

In culmination, these elements of their relationship create sexual tension between Alan and Casey. There's so much potential in their history for romance. Charged moments in the Dark Place.

One could argue there's a will they/won't they moment in Initiation 5 - Room 665 when Casey is pinning Alan to the alley wall. Freud did say, after all, that gun's have phallic imagery. Take that as you will.

On a more superficial level, Alan can shape his fictional character to be his vision of the ideal man, the ideal partner. Or, conversely, his ideal fling. His ideal hot mess. Maybe Alan's version of the manic pixie dream girl is a hardboiled detective.

III. The Act of Creation as a Form of Love of the Self, the Creative Process, and the Creation Itself

Prepare yourself for a bumpy ride through my philosophizing. Sorry in advance. I'm sure others could dive deeper into these particular subtopics better than I could, but I want to just throw this spaghetti at the wall and pray something sticks.

A. Love of the Self

Loving yourself is hard. It's a platitude to say it, but it's true.

Alan and his character Casey do share some qualities. Depression, alcohol abuse. Often as writers, we do draw inspiration from ourselves to add dimension to our characters. Alan doesn't need to be a hardboiled detective himself to share similarities to his fictional character. Alan is destructive, angry, confused, self-loathing, and dysfunctional all throughout Alan Wake 1 and 2. Much of Alan's worst qualities are in Fictional Alex Casey.

In Initiation 5, as Casey lays dying from Alan/Scratch shooting him, he says,

"I was dead tired. I just wanted it to be over. It was all my fault."

Circling back to Alan's writer's block, arguably Alan being in the Dark Place is Casey's fault to an extent. Something happened to cause Alan to want to quit telling Casey's story. Perhaps if Casey had continued to be a source of inspiration, Alan would have continued writing his books?

Going back further, if Alan had never created Casey, his life could have taken an infinite amount of turns. But because Casey came to life through Alan's writing, because of their history, Casey feels some degree of responsibility for how events in the Dark Place have shaped up.

Continuing, he says,

"...I'd had this dark place in my head for so long. Sometimes I'd forget the pain was there. Like it was the way you were supposed to feel. I was not in a dark place. I was the dark place, the source of it all, the vessel. Me and the writer, we were the same."

Casey's final monologue in this chapter echoes sentiments Alan is experiencing. The overall metaphor of the Dark Place as not necessarily a physical or supernatural realm, but a state of mind. Some days are better than others. Some days, you're used to your pain that it feels natural.

This then relates to Fictional Casey's potential guilt. What broke down between Alan and his character to cause Alan to want to kill him off? Did writing Casey's story leave Alan feeling too depressed? Too gloomy as he tells Harry Garrett? Was it early signs of writer's block? A lack of direction?

Relating back to Alan, Alan and the Dark Place are largely one. He finds out Scratch is him. Scratch is Alan + the Dark Presence. Alan/Scratch has been the one haunting Alice, tormenting her. He is the source of it all.

Thus, there is a recursive relationship where Alan's self-loathing feeds Casey and vice versa.

However, there are positive elements of Alan's character in Fictional Casey and vice versa. Casey solves mysteries, he protects others, even at risk to himself. Alan has goodness inside him, but it is cloaked by his own self-doubt and self-loathing.

Alan so badly wants to be the hero all throughout Alan Wake 1 and 2 to save Alice (from the Dark Place and later Scratch), but he's struggling against his own narrative and the meta narrative at large. Fictional Casey is arguably the idealized hero-fantasy he has for himself, which is later realized when he sacrifices himself. He willingly goes back to the Dark Place to save Saga, her daughter, and FBI Casey from the Dark Place and its jailor, the Dark Presence.

B. Love (and Hatred) of the Creative Process

To quote a great tumblr post for the 100th time, the act of creation is like sticking your hand in a cylinder of irradiated water full of piranhas. At the bottom is a button, that when pressed, will give you the best orgasm of your life. However, the irradiated water is obviously toxic and the piranhas are constantly biting. In short, the act of creating something is a struggle. But when you manage to hit that button...

Ask any writer (and any creative person at large), there's nothing more enjoyable than being inspired and filled with energy. Writing a new story is exciting. It's often why people tend to have a backlog of WIPs, because sometimes creatives are always chasing after the next new rush of endorphins. Sometimes we fall in love with a universe, sometimes it's a character, an idea of ours.

On the other side of the coin, hating the creative process, I'll quote a tweet from one of my favorite Youtube video essayists, "I hate literally every step in the filmmaking process. The only thing I hate more than making a film is not making a film." Similarly, most authors state that the worst thing about the writing process is not writing.

Alan can't write because he has writer's block, and he has writer's block because he killed off his character, and he hates that he isn't creating. See the vicious cycle? He can't psych himself up for whatever new book he was supposedly going to write prior to the events of the first game.

C. Love of the Creation Itself

Even in Alan's nightmares, he has copies of The Sudden Stop stuffed into his car's trunk like that meme about the person who trips and has pictures of their senpai shoved up their sleeves.

Art is subjective. It's tailored to our personal experiences and vision. Alan (and on a meta level, Sam Lake) enjoy hardboiled detective fiction. Alex Casey is the realization of that love come to life.

Understandably, there are elements of this style of relationship which are not equal in power. We see these elements repeatedly with how Alan uses, yes even abuses Fictional Casey to further his own goals.

Yes, you could say that loving your own creation (no matter the medium) is masturbatory. It's self-aggrandizing. But loving something you put time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears just feels good. We as creators have a right to feel proud of our works.

IV. Interesting Parallels

I'm sorry to all my English major friends for the fumbling I'm about to commit with literary analysis.

A. Biblical

It wouldn't be a deep dive analysis if we didn't bring up the Bible. Of course I'm talking about God and Adam. Anyone creating their own original universe with their own original characters is playing God. Alan creates Alex Casey through the divine act of turning his imagination into tangible writing.

Will someone PLEASE draw Alan Wake and Fictional Casey in the vein of Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam already???

B. Literary

John Milton's famous lines from his work Paradise Lost:

Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay To mould Me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me?

Of course, Paradise Lost is an epic poem about the story of Genesis, but this stanza in particular, spoken by Adam to God can easily be applied to Fictional Casey towards Alan. Casey didn't ask for any of this. He didn't ask to be created, he didn't ask to become Alan's guide in the Dark Place.

I’m a sucker for Frankenstein by Mary Shelley so I regret to inform everyone we're bringing it up.

I think there’s some Frankenstein/His Monster vibes with this flavor of CaseyWake. I think there were moments where Casey resented coming to life, certainly much later on as he lives and dies over and over.

From his dying moments in Initiation 2:

"I remembered dying in this alley in a dream I had. He was just gonna keep killing me here, loop by loop. You're not gonna get what you want. You think you know. You know shit. You don't really wanna know. You're gonna get what's coming to you."

And then from Frankenstein:

"Remember that I am thy creature; I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed. Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good – misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous."

Unlike his real counterpart, Fictional Casey has no one other than Alan. He has no friends, no found family. Arguably, even FBI Casey wants nothing to do with his fictional self. He is completely reliant upon Alan. I suppose you could say we the audience are his only true friend, as we function as voyeurs into his fictional life, much like Alan (but we seem to want to take better care of him than Alan does).

C. Mythological

Pygmalion and Galatea.

The Greek sculptor Pygmalion fell in love with his sculpture of a woman. He asked the goddess Aphrodite if his sculpture could become real, and somehow the goddess of love was like "yeah sure bud." The sculpture, Galatea, comes to life, and they live happily ever after.

(This is the part where I'll make a brief Weird Science shoutout since it's a somewhat similar premise).

V. Conclusion

If you have somehow made it this far, thanks for reading.

There are likely things I've forgotten that I wanted to talk about at some point. Maybe I'll have to make a part two if I end up remembering them.

Hopefully my essay will help inspire others to create fanworks featuring this particular version of CaseyWake. I would love to hear what others think, so please don't hesitate to share your thoughts!!

And finally,

[pleasants-mii-code-palace]

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! Due to @mii-gallery being inactive, I decided to share my Miis! I create miis for the 3DS and WII U. If you are a switch user, there's plenty of Switch Creation Videos for Miis, and you should seek them out.

What is QR Codes?

Back in the days of the 3DS and Wii U, the way people were able to generate these Mii Codes were by the built in Mii Maker App on their respective consoles, with the power of just a button, people were able to export Mii Codes and publish them for all to see.

How did you do that when Online Services don't work?

Pretendo, but I don't have Pretendo. I hacked my 3DS in order to use the FTP App that Homebrew has, so I can connect to my PC and that exactly. It's not authorized or well good when you have an SD Card but when you're desperate like me then you need to find other ways of satiating that itch.

What can QR Codes be used for?

Mii Maker

Tomodachi Life

There's a lot of others, but those are my only things I can think of.

Why is [Mii] lowercase?

I made these Miis awhile back on another system pre-transfer and they cannot be edited. Unless you hacked your 3DS then you can rename the Miis itself, the names of the Owner of the Miis are just "Me" because usually I intended for those Miis to be used only by me.

Can I request Miis?

Yes! It's opened! Feel free to send in ASKS ONLY FOR MIIS any other related ask will be removed. Exceptions are made if you are inquiring about a Mii that's been created.

How many Miis can I request per Asks?

Depending on how complex or intriguing the Miis are, you can request around 5 IF they are from the same franchise/source, any mix and matches are not going to happen.

How many Miis have you created?

Alot, I have TONS of Miis from DBZ (Some are OCs), Willy Wonka from the 2005 reboot, Steven Universe, Some Miis that were children on my Tomodachi Life... This blog is just a way to store them all.

How can I support you?

I have a Kofi, so if you want priority you can always donate 3$ to get priority Miis up the Queue.

My Kofi: X

Priority Queue: 0

Requests Queue: 9

Personal Commissions: 0

Miis Created: 151

MII MASTERLIST

Check this link here: x

[ch3rr13zk1n]

Why Preston/Clone Riggy is the hottest shorts wars character

Incase you probably don't know, Shorts wars is a arg made by a bunch of dudes that make shorts and was created because of the clone accounts ( get it?? ) that steal their content. Basically when it started there were different bunch of QR codes that popped up on their shorts and when our scanned them they took you to a video where a guy named The Boss in a unpleasant gradient says that if they don't quit making shorts and rotting people's brains then they will get replaced. While a few listened, The rest didn't. And the other stuff happened blah blah blah. Anyways i also gotta say one of the creators was a guy named Danno and uh he makes shorts (obviously i mean this is fucking shorts wars what do you expect??) and he has a mascot character named Riggy who is a blue rabbit with red shorts, green eyes and a very interesting kill count.

Also Preston/Clone Riggy didn't get the name Preston until he decided to get a new name on Phaleur's stream where he went through Phaleur's bag and eventually found his driver's license where Clone Riggy stole the name Preston and went with it calling himself " THE GREAT AND MIGHTY PRESTON!! "

Also sorry i have to highlight Preston/Clone Riggy's name in purple. There's no option to make the text dark blue ;-;

Anyways now with that explanation out of the way I'm here to explain why Preston/Clone Riggy is breedable and sexy.

He can breed. In a Danno short about if you can be invisible, Riggy was about to pull his pants down to demonstrate that you might have to be naked to be invisible. Luckily (or unluckily) Danno told him to NOT do that, Which basically says that Riggy might have a... Yknow. And then after that Riggy says " What? There was already Riggy rule 34! " ( i would've called this fanservice but i changed my mind ) so since Preston/Clone Riggy is a clone of Riggy then there's chance he has one. Since Danno confirmed Preston/Clone Riggy is canonically not anything other than a male so uhh that's something. But hey atleast he can insert something in me-

2. He's a fucking Tumblr sexyman.

"A male fictional character (often conventionally unattractive or non-human) with a particularly devoted fanbase on Tumblr." - Wikitonary.

He's unattractive and nonhuman. DUDE THATS HIM!!!

Idk about the fanbase part but yeah its him

Not to mention the other sexyman traits like being an antagonist, a perpetual smiler, glitches, dominating, a tsundere, has a theme song, powerful, HES A TUMBLR SEXYMAN. And that proves he's hot

Idk what else to say so ill just end this post with uhh

Ok guys end of the post you an scroll now!! :3

[polar-bears-making-pancakes]

the qr code at the end of this video and the overall vibes made me wonder if maybe they are creating some sort of arg? with Phil mister interactive adventure guy this would actually fit so well for them imo

[dapg-otmebytheballs]

Call for Submissions for Phanatic Phanzine

Opening up submissions for the Phanatic Phanzine! 🥳Calling upon phandom members, new and old, to share their love for Dan and Phil!

We survived the Dan and Phil hiatus, and all we're making is this zine 🌈

The Phanatic Phanzine is a fanzine project created by myself and @aaaaaaaaa-no to celebrate the Dan and Phil content and fandom revival we are seeing. This will be a digital zine including artwork, fanvid tributes, poetry, and personal stories of the space DnP hold in our lives!

The plan is to compile these fan efforts into a digital zine by Christmas '23 and present it to DnP as a gift. 🎀

Since we intend to share it with dnp we will not be taking fanfic or NSFW submissions but we intend to do another zine in the future for the fans celebrating the fandom itself so look out for that one!

Submit at phanaticphanzine@gmail.com

Deadline: 24th December 2023 GMT

Guidelines under the cut

General guidelines

The submissions will be screened for anything NSFW, and no fanfiction is being accepted. Likewise, please be mindful of the language used in written pieces. All submissions will be entertained in good faith.

📌We are also accepting written submissions and links through asks and DMs

We are accepting submissions in the form of artworks, fanvids, written personal accounts, and poetry. You may submit any of the media above but please keep in mind that we will only be accepting five artworks, two fanvids, one written personal account and three poems per person.

Submissions are to be sent to the email id provided above. Please add the name you wish to be credited with + any social media links to add, or specify if you would like your submission to be anonymous

Al generated content will not be a part of this zine

Any doubts or questions can be cleared via asks or messages on Tumblr, to either me or @aaaaaaaaa-no feel free to ask!

Specific guidelines:

For artwork:

Artwork can be digital, traditional, or mixed media

Submissions must be in the email attachment in jpg or png format

Old fanworks that have already been posted are allowed. For new works, please try to not post the full piece (wips okay) till the zine is released!

No more than 5 works per person

For poetry and personal accounts:

Word limit of 1000 words at most. Short notes with lower word count are more than welcome

All written submissions must be in a word or Google document, or written in the body of an email.

Anything posted elsewhere is allowed

No more than 1 personal account and 3 poems per person

For fanvids:

The video must be uploaded as an unlisted video on YouTube or similar video-sharing platforms. Videos that are already posted are allowed as well

Video links and a thumbnail in png or jpg format are to be submitted. The links will be converted to QR codes to present on the digital zine alongside the thumbnail You will be notified via email a few days before the zine is released so the videos can be made public in case they are currently unlisted

Shipping videos are not allowed for this zine, please be mindful of the same

No more than 2 fanvids per person

Adherence to the guidelines will make sorting much easier for the compilers so please try to do so!

To reiterate: even if you send in content that we cannot use we will engage with you in good faith 🌸

Please don’t be disheartened if your piece doesn’t make it! We plan to start work on a fanzine exclusively for the fandom (by and for the fans) soon which will allow content disallowed for this zine, so look out for that!😁

Help us spread this to others who may be interested!

We look forward to all your submissions💫

[halloflull]

3 + - Why's there a QR code in the sky - Bacon caring about how Spawn looks but it's Zam doing something about it?? *checks vod date* - HE GAVE THE PAOFA DIAMOND TO ASH. way to no longer be responsible for your crimes ohok - "I think it would be funny if you made a documentary about how you tried to make spawn better and everyone tried to kill you." "That would be really funny, but i feel like most people would be helping me." Oh Zam. - "I remember the last time you tried to fix spawn and make it something of your own." - "Maybe if i don't put a big flag at spawn" o h g i r l not doing that sure isn't enough - "This is what happens when you let Spoke run spawn" actually it's beautiful. I fall in love with every Spoke build - they're playign tag :D - "thats a princezam bit, never giving up." "everyone else has to give up" - the poafa diamond was pangis??? - theres nothing more joyful than hearing friends mess around and laugh - Zam checking the hoopers in the well?? *cough* kenadian core *cough* - hated is the 'normal way to feel in a pz stream' taking notes taking notes.. - I can not read red names in chat - " 'is this live' No." - "I'm batman" - "All of parrrot's best videos end with him losing" "Well that's just because Parrot never wins." is that why he created unstable? so he could write himself winning? - sols ??? the ?? is it the same sol i know of???

second vod done :+1:

[henrikvanderhussy]

Clue Crew Zine Done Cheap

The current trend in fandom zines (fandoms in general, not Clue Crew in specific) are these very fancy, professionally-printed collections of fanfic and art. Typically it's competitive to be selected as a contributor, and expensive to purchase. I'm sure they satisfy a project management itch or an "owning a nice thing" desire, but they don't satisfy my personal feelings about fandom. I want to make something for the sake of making and sharing, and the joy of creating without the pressure to make it perfect. I want to touch it with my hands and feel like I'm connecting.

I was feeling a little sad that the zines I want aren't really a thing in fandom anymore. Then I remembered that I'm the bizarre Millennial Who Owns A Printer and also I accidentally just bought way, way too many stamps* 

So fuck it. Let's make a zine.

I'll print them at home and mail them out for free to anyone who wants one. If they're too large for a regular sized envelope, I'll still mail them out for free but also ask people to chip in a little money for postage if they can.

We need two things to make a Nancy Drew games zine: 1. People who want to make things for it, and 2. People who want it mailed to them.

1. Fill out this form if you want to make something for the zine. This is not a binding commitment, this is just a way for me to get in contact with you. I'll also poke people in a couple months to see if they're still interested in contributing. 

2. Fill out this form if you want to be notified when it's time for me to collect mailing addresses. To be clear, this isn't an 'interest check' or whatever. As long as one person wants it, I'm going to make it. I'll also put up another tumblr post when I'm ready for addresses, but if you fill out the form, you'll get a message and won't have to worry about watching for that post. 

"What can I make for the zine?" Honestly anything, as long as it centers around the Nancy Drew games and hasn't been posted publicly yet. Fanfic, meta, speculation about KEY, a puzzle, comparisons of Bess Marvin's character across different Nancy Drew media. Limit it to maybe…2500 words? I'm trying to keep this in a range that won't kill my printer.

Art doesn't really work, because again, home printer. BUT an option would be to put in a link or a QR code that goes to an art piece. And hell, if we're going to make this multimedia, it can be anything: a music composition, a podfic, a video acting out your favorite game scene with puppets. (I can help with image or audio hosting for anyone who needs it)

This is open to everyone to contribute, no restrictions or auditions. I'm setting a tentative submission deadline of February 29th (it's a leap year!), but that can be pushed back if needed.

I know it's uncomfortable to give your address to some stranger on the internet, especially since I'm newer to the Clue Crew! I've had my main blog (@theshmaylor) for ages though, and I have some mutuals there who I've met in person at various conventions who can vouch for me. I'll also make sure to collect addresses in a way that doesn't connect to your username or internet presence.

I really want to make this zine happen, so please share around Clue Crew tumblr, and let me know if you have any feedback or ideas!

*I thought I was buying 4 sheets of 6 stamps, but it turns out the sheet was folded and actually they're sets of 18 stamps, and sure I should have asked more questions about why it was so expensive but there was a big line behind me, so what was I supposed to do? Hold up the line at the post office? Of course not

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

I posted this yesterday, then of course immediately made a number of changes. Added a bunch of shows. Moved one show around to accommodate another, but luckily it was one of the non-ticketed shows, so it wasn't a problem that I'd already bought my tickets. And I think this new version of the schedule is what I'll stick with unless/until new announcements are made. Not saying this is definitely the schedule I'll actually have in Edinburgh, but it's all I'm planning to see from what's been announced so far.

I bought all those tickets this weekend. Got most of them at once yesterday, which is nice as it's all on one QR code. And then have a few separate QR codes for the shows I added today, filling in the gaps.

Obviously the biggest thing that would change this schedule would be someone I want to see doing a late announcement of a run, and then I'd have to drop someone else to fit them in. But I'd have to really want to see them, since I'd be losing the money I've already spent on a ticket to someone else in their timeslot. I'm basically talking about Kitson, he's one of the very few people who might announce a run, whom I want to see enough to be willing to throw away an already-paid-for ticket to someone else for it, and who hasn't announced a run yet. Obviously the ideal situation would be for him to announce a run of shows at 10 AM, which wouldn't conflict with anything else I'm seeing, and I'd end up going multiple times.

Kitson's not the only one for whom I'd mess up this schedule. Zaltzman technically could decide to bring the Zaltgeist to Edinburgh. It's very unlikely because he hasn't by now, but technically possible. And there a few others.

The other thing that could mess with the schedule is when NextUp announces their streaming schedule from Edinburgh - if any of the shows I'm seeing end up getting streamed, then the smartest move would be for me to skip them and use their timeslot for a show that I won't be able to see on video. Obviously lots of these will get filmed eventually and I still think they're worth seeing live, but it's different if they'll get filmed in the form of a livestream from Edinburgh 2025 - that does sort of make it redundant to also see them live in Edinburgh 2025. What I'm really hoping is that NextUp streams a few of the people who finish their run before I arrive but I really really want to see them, like Olga Koch, Milo Edwards (both billed as WIPs so those two not likely), Grace Petrie, ABK. Or some of the people I wanted to see but couldn't fit into my schedule (who can be seen at the bottom of that main Excel sheet, as I created that by starting with that full list of shows, and turning the rows red once I'd put them on the schedule).

I arrive around 9:30 PM on August 15, and I figured out that while I'm going in from the train station to see Larry Dean that night, I may as well stay and watch the ping-pong. I was disappointed that the Comedian Beer Mat Flipping Championships are only on one night and it's before I arrive, but the ping-pong show is running on two nights, and one is the 15, and I'll be there by late on the 15. And I like Ray Badran. Not as much as I like Stuart Laws (who runs the beer mat thing), and not enough to be interested in seeing Badran's solo show. But he's a good compere and I bet he'd be fun at an event like this. And I have to see some comedians engage in some kind of pointless unscripted competition. I'm over ten years too late to catch Mark Watson's Edinburgholympics, but this will do.

I also managed to squeeze Chloe Petts onto the schedule today, which I'm very pleased about. Her and Huge Davies were probably the people I was most disappointed to fail to get on my schedule last year, so I'm glad I've got them both this year. And I got Grace Jarvis on there, entirely because Laura Davis directed her show and then recommended it, and I'm pretty sure Laura Davis would never lie to me.

I couldn't get Ayoade Bamgboye onto my schedule in the draft yesterday, but today I looked at it with fresh eyes and saw exactly where she could go. I'm looking forward to that; I've not seen her stuff before but I hear it's good.

And I filled another gap with one more Free Fringe show, which looked interesting, and it's by someone I'd not heard of before, and that's the Right Way To Do The Fringe, right?

Oh. And this is by far my least good reason for putting someone on my schedule, but I was reading the blurb for Luke McQueen's show. I'm not particularly into Luke McQueen; I've heard him do a couple of short sets and found nothing memorable about him at all. But the blurb for his 2025 show was so confusing that it left me wanting to figure out what it is, and then I realized that his times actually fit perfectly into a gap I had, so I put him in there. Congratulations to Luke McQueen for managing to sell a ticket based on the blurb alone.

Those are the new additions, and I'm not getting any more than that onto this list (at least, not until Kitson announces five minutes before the festival starts that he's performing at the most inconvenient possible time, at the top of Arthur's Seat or somewhere equally inaccessible). This is a much more ambitious schedule than the one I had last year, when I only went for five days. Last year, I'd never been to Edinburgh before. I worried about the problems that a tight turnaround would cause. How often would shows fail to start and/or end on time? What if getting from one venue to another took far longer than Google Maps claimed? Just how big was the Pleasance Courtyard, how long would it take to go from one room in it to another?

Because I didn't know the answers to those questions, I was relatively conservative with my scheduling. Made sure I always had at least half an hour between shows, and that the venues were fairly near each other. As such, I ended up getting first choice of seats at pretty much every show I attended, because I always showed up way too early and was first in line. I frequently showed up before they started the lineup, which meant I had to awkwardly hang around near the room where the show was while I waited, and I didn't really know what I was meant to do with my hands or my face or the rest of me because everyone else seemed to be hanging out with friends but I didn't know anyone and I had some mildly awkward middle school flashbacks even though in my regular life I never feel self-conscious about going out places alone, so the point is that I don't feel like giving myself that extra waiting time was necessary. I'd rather have slightly good seats to a few shows because I didn't get there 40 minutes early, but I get to see more shows, and spend more of my time in the actual shows, rather than standing around in between them. (Obviously the times when I actually explored Edinburgh were wonderful because the city's incredible, and I'm glad to have the mornings free this year too so I can do more of that, but in the gaps between shows, I can't really do exploring because I have to go stand around the place where they're going to start the line for my next show, and I don't need more of that this year.)

So on this year's schedule, there are multiple times when I have only 15 or 20 minutes between shows. For most of those, though, I've gone on Google Earth and made sure the two venues are a short walk from each other. There are a couple of cases where they're a bit further apart than I'd like - I'll have to run between Pleasance Courtyard and Monkey Barrel a few times. But I can do that. There's one instance in which I only gave myself ten minutes between shows, but those shows are both in the Plesance Courtyard, and I know from that last year that that thing isn't that big, I'll just make sure I know where both rooms are before they start.

The upshot is three days where I'm seeing eight shows, three with six, and two with seven. Plus two the night I get there. 58 shows in total. Of course, that's how many shows are on my schedule - doesn't mean it's the number I actually see. I will consider it extremely impressive if I manage to actually attend every single one of those shows as scheduled. Though I'm kind of excited about the challenge now, and the competitive side of me now wants to focus on that just for the sake of achieving that, in addition to actually wanting to see the shows. I was a competitive athlete for years, this is nothing by comparison. I'll pack granola bars in my bag so I don't have to stop for meals (obviously I have to get more kebabs from Mosque Kitchen on some days during that trip - but I am looking at a few afternoon/evenings without much of a gap for meal breaks). I'll keep my spare phone battery charged. I'll sleep when I get home. I can do it.

I'm so excited. This trip's feeling very real now. Also, now that I've bought my Edinburgh show tickets, that's pretty much my major expenses paid - for my whole month-long trip. I'm staying with a friend in London for about five days, before traveling around Wales and Ireland for a few days, then going to Edinburgh for nine nights. All my Air B&Bs are booked. All my flights. The ferry from Holyhead to Dublin. My 8-day Britrail pass. All paid for. I do need to reserve my train tickets soon, as we're about three months out. But they're paid for via the rail pass. And I still have some money left! Not as much as I'd like to own. But enough so that it's all right, which means I think I have successfully afforded this trip.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jess Piper at The View from Rural Missouri Substack:

When I scanned the code, it took me straight to a Google drive. I was hesitant immediately. The first folder in the drive is titled, “Arkansas Abortion Amendment Myth vs. Fact” and that was pretty much a dead giveaway; the lady stopping folks headed to an event intent on signing the abortion petition was going to hit them with disinformation first.

Another folder in the Google drive was something called “Decline to Sign.” This graphic included bulleted points. Among them: *No licensing for healthcare professionals at abortion medical facilities. *No ultrasound required before an abortion to determine fetal age and location. *Would make it harder to combat sex trafficking and child abuse. *No health and safety standards imposed on abortion clinics. Wow. That was a lot of weird and incorrect information. I would think a doctor would know the location of a fetus, and forcing a person who has been sex trafficked into delivering a pregnancy is just about the most disgusting and cruel act I can imagine. The rest of the points are at least stretching the truth if not flat out lies. Was the woman standing in that parking lot just some solitary extremist trying to dissuade voters from signing a petition? Some woman who got a crazy idea, created a Google drive, printed up cardstock with a QR code, and decided to lie to folks on their way to sign a petition in a small town in Arkansas?

No. “Decline to Sign” is a coordinated movement and we saw it in Missouri as well. It is well-funded and not at all grassroots. They have signs, sites, and lawmakers who are bought and paid for to do their dirty work. I noticed “Decline to Sign” popping up on social media from Missouri GOP State Senators and Representatives. The messaging was exactly the same. Some Reps even started tweeting out videos of themselves, sitting on the same couch in front of the same bookcase, reading a script about “out of state” folks coming to Missouri to gather signatures and steal identities or allow abortions up to birth. It was creepy because it was so scripted and the deliveries were so automated. The politicians also had those dead eyes you need to straight up lie to someone. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you it is Orwellian. Nearly the exact same words were seeping from the dry mouths of several extremist Missouri lawmakers.

There were nearly a dozen who were recruited for the videos, but here are just three examples: Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman, Representative Doug Richey and Representative Justin Sparks. Each one took their time to stare into the camera and lie about the abortion petition. The videos gave me chills and let me know we are up against a machine that wants to take away bodily autonomy from everyone, and keep us from fighting back with ballot measures to return bodily autonomy. The good news? Missourians had just over 90 days to gather 180,000 signatures to put abortion on the ballot. Friends, we collected 380,000 signatures! Read that again…we gathered over 200k more signatures than we needed to put the measure on the ballot in November. We still have obstacles to returning bodily autonomy to Missourians, though. The GOP is planning to take away one person, one vote and strip us of the ability to pass Constitutional amendments. They are planning to take away a simple majority vote to pass amendments. That will be a disaster for Missourians and I’ll write more on it in another post.

Jess Piper writes on her Substack the deceptive "decline to sign" movement touted by anti-abortion extremists.