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[magma-iron]

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[carrdtemplates]

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[sivasaikrishna]

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Red Lobster was killed by private equity, not Endless Shrimp

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel THE LOST CAUSE (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

A decade ago, a hedge fund had an improbable viral comedy hit: a 294-page slide deck explaining why Olive Garden was going out of business, blaming the failure on too many breadsticks and insufficiently salted pasta-water:

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/940944/000092189514002031/ex991dfan14a06297125_091114.pdf

Everyone loved this story. As David Dayen wrote for Salon, it let readers "mock that silly chain restaurant they remember from their childhoods in the suburbs" and laugh at "the silly hedge fund that took the time to write the world’s worst review":

https://www.salon.com/2014/09/17/the_real_olive_garden_scandal_why_greedy_hedge_funders_suddenly_care_so_much_about_breadsticks/

But – as Dayen wrote at the time, the hedge fund that produced that slide deck, Starboard Value, was not motivated by dissatisfaction with bread-sticks. They were "activist investors" (finspeak for "rapacious assholes") with a giant stake in Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden's parent company. They wanted Darden to liquidate all of Olive Garden's real-estate holdings and declare a one-off dividend that would net investors a billion dollars, while literally yanking the floor out from beneath Olive Garden, converting it from owner to tenant, subject to rent-shocks and other nasty surprises.

They wanted to asset-strip the company, in other words ("asset strip" is what they call it in hedge-fund land; the mafia calls it a "bust-out," famous to anyone who watched the twenty-third episode of The Sopranos):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bust_Out

Starboard didn't have enough money to force the sale, but they had recently engineered the CEO's ouster. The giant slide-deck making fun of Olive Garden's food was just a PR campaign to help it sell the bust-out by creating a narrative that they were being activists* to save this badly managed disaster of a restaurant chain.

*assholes

Starboard was bent on eviscerating Darden like a couple of entrail-maddened dogs in an elk carcass:

https://web.archive.org/web/20051220005944/http://alumni.media.mit.edu/~solan/dogsinelk/

They had forced Darden to sell off another of its holdings, Red Lobster, to a hedge-fund called Golden Gate Capital. Golden Gate flogged all of Red Lobster's real estate holdings for $2.1 billion the same day, then pissed it all away on dividends to its shareholders, including Starboard. The new landlords, a Real Estate Investment Trust, proceeded to charge so much for rent on those buildings Red Lobster just flogged that the company's net earnings immediately dropped by half.

Dayen ends his piece with these prophetic words:

Olive Garden and Red Lobster may not be destinations for hipster Internet journalists, and they have seen revenue declines amid stagnant middle-class wages and increased competition. But they are still profitable businesses. Thousands of Americans work there. Why should they be bled dry by predatory investors in the name of “shareholder value”? What of the value of worker productivity instead of the financial engineers?

Flash forward a decade. Today, Dayen is editor-in-chief of The American Prospect, one of the best sources of news about private equity looting in the world. Writing for the Prospect, Luke Goldstein picks up Dayen's story, ten years on:

https://prospect.org/economy/2024-05-22-raiding-red-lobster/

It's not pretty. Ten years of being bled out on rents and flipped from one hedge fund to another has killed Red Lobster. It just shuttered 50 restaurants and declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Ten years hasn't changed much; the same kind of snark that was deployed at the news of Olive Garden's imminent demise is now being hurled at Red Lobster.

Instead of dunking on free bread-sticks, Red Lobster's grave-dancers are jeering at "Endless Shrimp," a promotional deal that works exactly how it sounds like it would work. Endless Shrimp cost the chain $11m.

Which raises a question: why did Red Lobster make this money-losing offer? Are they just good-hearted slobs? Can't they do math?

Or, you know, was it another hedge-fund, bust-out scam?

Here's a hint. The supplier who provided Red Lobster with all that shrimp is Thai Union. Thai Union also owns Red Lobster. They bought the chain from Golden Gate Capital, last seen in 2014, holding a flash-sale on all of Red Lobster's buildings, pocketing billions, and cutting Red Lobster's earnings in half.

Red Lobster rose to success – 700 restaurants nationwide at its peak – by combining no-frills dining with powerful buying power, which it used to force discounts from seafood suppliers. In response, the seafood industry consolidated through a wave of mergers, turning into a cozy cartel that could resist the buyer power of Red Lobster and other major customers.

This was facilitated by conservation efforts that limited the total volume of biomass that fishers were allowed to extract, and allocated quotas to existing companies and individual fishermen. The costs of complying with this "catch management" system were high, punishingly so for small independents, bearably so for large conglomerates.

Competition from overseas fisheries drove consolidation further, as countries in the global south were blocked from implementing their own conservation efforts. US fisheries merged further, seeking economies of scale that would let them compete, largely by shafting fishermen and other suppliers. Today's Alaskan crab fishery is dominated by a four-company cartel; in the Pacific Northwest, most fish goes through a single intermediary, Pacific Seafood.

These dominant actors entered into illegal collusive arrangements with one another to rig their markets and further immiserate their suppliers, who filed antitrust suits accusing the companies of operating a monopsony (a market with a powerful buyer, akin to a monopoly, which is a market with a powerful seller):

https://www.classaction.org/news/pacific-seafood-under-fire-for-allegedly-fixing-prices-paid-to-dungeness-crabbers-in-pacific-northwest

Golden Gate bought Red Lobster in the midst of these fish wars, promising to right its ship. As Goldstein points out, that's the same promise they made when they bought Payless shoes, just before they destroyed the company and flogged it off to Alden Capital, the hedge fund that bought and destroyed dozens of America's most beloved newspapers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/16/sociopathic-monsters/#all-the-news-thats-fit-to-print

Under Golden Gate's management, Red Lobster saw its staffing levels slashed, so diners endured longer wait times to be seated and served. Then, in 2020, they sold the company to Thai Union, the company's largest supplier (a transaction Goldstein likens to a Walmart buyout of Procter and Gamble).

Thai Union continued to bleed Red Lobster, imposing more cuts and loading it up with more debts financed by yet another private equity giant, Fortress Investment Group. That brings us to today, with Thai Union having moved a gigantic amount of its own product through a failing, debt-loaded subsidiary, even as it lobbies for deregulation of American fisheries, which would let it and its lobbying partners drain American waters of the last of its depleted fish stocks.

Dayen's 2020 must-read book Monopolized describes the way that monopolies proliferate, using the US health care industry as a case-study:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/29/fractal-bullshit/#dayenu

After deregulation allowed the pharma sector to consolidate, it acquired pricing power of hospitals, who found themselves gouged to the edge of bankruptcy on drug prices. Hospitals then merged into regional monopolies, which allowed them to resist pharma pricing power – and gouge health insurance companies, who saw the price of routine care explode. So the insurance companies gobbled each other up, too, leaving most of us with two or fewer choices for health insurance – even as insurance prices skyrocketed, and our benefits shrank.

Today, Americans pay more for worse healthcare, which is delivered by health workers who get paid less and work under worse conditions. That's because, lacking a regulator to consolidate patients' interests, and strong unions to consolidate workers' interests, patients and workers are easy pickings for those consolidated links in the health supply-chain.

That's a pretty good model for understanding what's happened to Red Lobster: monopoly power and monopsony power begat more monopolies and monoposonies in the supply chain. Everything that hasn't consolidated is defenseless: diners, restaurant workers, fishermen, and the environment. We're all fucked.

Decent, no-frills family restaurant are good. Great, even. I'm not the world's greatest fan of chain restaurants, but I'm also comfortably middle-class and not struggling to afford to give my family a nice night out at a place with good food, friendly staff and reasonable prices. These places are easy pickings for looters because the people who patronize them have little power in our society – and because those of us with more power are easily tricked into sneering at these places' failures as a kind of comeuppance that's all that's due to tacky joints that serve the working class.

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/2024/05/23/spineless/#invertebrates

[fribly]

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[walks-the-ages]

OP deactivated, and some of the links were broken/marked unsafe by Firefox, so here's a new compilation post of Leslie Feinburg's (She/her, ze/hir) novels and essays on being transgender:

Stone Butch Blues official free source directly from Author's website:

Stone Butch Blues, backup on the webarchive:

Transgender Liberation: A movement whose time has come, on the web archive:

Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman, on the web archive:

Lavender and Red, PDF essay collection:

Drag King Dreams, on the web archive:

(Also, if anyone ever tells you that the protagonist of Stone Butch Blues ""ends up with a man""........ they're transmisogynistic jackass TERFs who are straight up lying)

Please also check out your local public libraries for these books and see if they carry them, to help support public libraries! If you have a library card already you can checkout Libby and Overdrive to see if your public library carries it as an ebook that you can checkout :)

EDIT: another not included on the orignal masterpost-- Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or blue !

annnnnd in light of the web archive losing it's court case, here's a backup of both PDFs and generated epubs a friend made:

5/26/2023: hello! I am adding on yet another book of queer history, this time the autobiography of Karl Baer, a Jewish, intersex trans man who was born in 1884! Please signal boost this version, and remember to check the notes whenever this crosses your dash for any new updates :)

6/24/2023:

Two links to share!

Someone made an Epub version of Memoirs of a Man's Maiden Years, which you can find Here , as a more accessible version than a pdf of a scanned book if you're like me and need larger text size for reading--

And from another post I reblogged earlier today, I discovered the existence of "TransSisters: the Journal of Transsexual Feminism", which has 10 issues from 1993-1995, and includes multiple interviews with Leslie Feinburg and other queer feminists / activists of the 90s!

Here's a link to all 10 issues of TransSisters, plus a 1996 "look back at" by one of the writers after the journal ended, you can find all 10 issues on the Internet Archive Here !

------

8/28/2023:

"Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out", can be found on the web archive Here, for the 25th Anniversary Edition from 2015,

and also Here, for the original 1991 version.

Each of the above can be borrowed for one hour at a time as long as a copy is available :D

This is a living post that receives sporadic updates on the original, if you are seeing this on your dash, click Here to see the latest version of the post to make sure you're reblogging the most up to date one :)

------------

October, 25th 2023:

"I began to dawdle over breakfast during shift changes, asking both waitresses questions. After weeks of inquiries, they invited me to a demonstration, outside Kleinhan's Music Hall, protesting the Israeli war against Egypt and Syria. I was particularly interested in that protest. The state of Israel had been declared shortly before my birth. In Hebrew school I was taught "Palestine was a land without peo-ple, for a people without a land." That phrase haunted me as a child. I pictured ears with no one in them, and movies projected on screens in empty theaters. When I checked a map of that region of the Middle East in my school geography textbook, it was labeled Palestine, not Israel. Yet when I asked my grandmother who the Palestinians were, she told me there were no such people. The puzzle had been solved for me in my adolescence. I developed a strong friendship with a Lebanese teenager, who explained to me that the Palestinian people had been driven off their land by Zionist settlers, like the Native peoples in the United States. I studied and thought a great deal about all she told me. From that point on I staunchly opposed Zionist ideology and the occupation of Palestine. So I wanted to go to the protest. However, I feared the demonstration, no matter how justified, would be tainted by anti-Semitism. But I was so angered by the actions of the Israeli government and military, that I went to the event to check it out for myself. That evening, I arrived at Kleinhan's before the protest began. Cops in uniforms and plainclothes surrounded the music hall. I waited impatiently for the protesters to arrive. Suddenly, all the media swarmed down the street. I ran after them. Coming over the hill was a long column of people moving toward Kleinhan's. The woman who led the march and spoke to reporters proudly told them she was Jewish! Others held signs and banners aloft that read: "Arab Land for Arab People!" and "Smash Anti-Semitism!" Now those were two slogans I could get behind! I wanted to know who these people were and where they had been all my life! Hours later I followed the group back to their headquarters. Orange banners tacked up on the walls expressed solidarity with the Attica prisoners and the Vietnamese. One banner particularly haunted me. It read: Stop the War Against Black America, which made me realize that it wasn't just distant wars that needed opposing. Yet although I worked with two members of this organization, I felt nervous that night. These people were communists, Marxists! Yet I found it easy to get into discussions with them. I met waitresses, factory workers, secretaries, and truck drivers. And I decided they were some of the most principled people I had ever met..." Transgender Warriors (1996) Leslie Feinberg

[justin20gill]

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[coolkaius]

Furby Resources!

Last updated 2/15/2024 with How To Dye Furby Fur

I added a lot of things since originally posting, so you may want to delete your last reblog and replace it!

Incredible Google Drive folder with a huge variety of Furby content and history

Guide to Furby Fandom Tags

Tips For Buying Furbies

Adult Furby Price Guide | Furby Value Guide For Dummies

Furby Discord Server | Furby Wiki’s Discord Server (direct invite)

Archived Furby content on archive.org

Colorful Google Doc to track Furby projects and collections

Furby Certificate Of Adoption | Furby Adoption Certificate

Images ripped from flash games

Official Furby Tiled Backgrounds

Furby Carrier Pattern | If that doesn’t work patterns are sold on Etsy

All Official Furbys

Eye colors on official models | Common 2005 Furby Eye Colors

Differences between Curly Furby Babies and Sheep Furby Babies

High Quality Transparent Furby Masks

Furbtober Prompts

Pixel Furby Page Dividers

Furby Sticker Scans

THE FURBY ORGAN, A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT MADE FROM FURBIES

Lore

Furby Paradise Manga - 1 chapter scanned and translated

Desktop Furby - 2005 Burger King Freeware

A Deep Dive Into The Furby Fandom

Furby Island Movie Free On YouTube

Printable furbish-english dictionary | Official PDF Dictionary | All Known Furbish Words

Official Furby trainer's guide

Furby Songs YouTube Playlist

Dancing Furby Gameplay & Interacting with Furby - Game Boy Color Japan

Unofficial Guide To Furby Species And Biology

Furby Lore Zine

Every printable from Big Fun In Furbyland (contains lore, Furbish words, phrases, coloring pages and photos)

Make A (non-plush) Furby

Furby Bases Collection on deviantART | Extra Furby Base | Furby Bases on Toyhou.se

Design A Furby Shockwave Game (pictured above , also has a few old Furby mini games) | Can be played through Flashpoint which archives old web games

Official Coloring Pages

AdoptAFurby.com Coloring Pages | List Of Official Coloring Books

Color A Furby Online (pictured above)

Furby's Design-o-Matic (pictured above) | Works with Ruffle’s browser extension

Make A Furb Game (pictured above) | Preview Video

Furby Creator Games on Picrew

Origami Furby Tutorial

Big Fun In Furby Land CD-ROM has a very limited Furby maker pictured in a gif above (works with Windows 10, just right click, click “Mount”, then open Furby.exe it’s an application file)

Furby Patterns on Etsy

Real Life Furby Mods

FURBY TUTORIAL MASTERPOST

3D Printable Face Plates and Furbys

1998 Furby Pattern

Long Furby Pattern

How to Long Furb |  Longifying Your Furby

How To Skin A 1998 Furby

Eye Chip Tutorial

How To Make Accurate 1998 Eye Chips

Furby Buddy Pattern

replacing a 1998 furby’s speaker

~ furby beret - crochet pattern ~

Curing Me Sleep Again (when you’re Furby won’t stay awake)

How To Skin A Shelby

How To Dye Furby Fur

Real Life Furby Care

How To Find Your Furby’s Birthday

Furby Name Generator | Another Furby Name Generator

How To Brush Your Furby In Depth Guide

How To Clean A Tilt Sensor

Sync Screw Adjustment

Please suggest additions!!

[gghostwriter]

Poison Me, I’m Fine

Spencer Reid x Songwriter!Fem!Reader

Summary: Your choice of poison was Spencer Reid. Who knew he would kill you and set you free in the process

Warning: angst with no happy ending

A/n: I feel insane for writing this in one sitting and not editing it. There's no part 2 for this, I just wanted to purge myself of this angst plot that took over me. This is probably the closest I could write to a singer-songwriter reader x spencer, granted she just writes for other pop stars (maybe I'll write some popstar!reader next time idk yet.) Also, 'Free Now by Gracie Abrams' and 'The Black Dog by Taylor Swift' was on repeat when I wrote this so you can spot some inspiration from both here. Hope you like it!

Main masterlist

You don’t know why you settled for less. Why you opted to walk on a blurry tight rope, why you chose a crumbling place to land on, and why you chose to enter a situationship that will end in heartbreak. Actually, scratch that, you do know why. Spencer Reid, that was enough reason for you to put yourself on the line. Or it was until your treacherous, greedy heart wanted more. 

Does she follow like an echo? Like your shadow, you can try, but you can't run

It started with hushed whispers. Your mind slowly poisoning itself with what ifs and scenarios where he was fully yours, just like how he unknowingly owned you—mind, body, and soul. Whispers of—wouldn’t it be nice to visit this museum again with Spencer or he’d love this newly opened vintage bookstore around the block or it’d be nice to see the stars with him right now. You tried to cleanse those thoughts away but that’s the thing, poison that has entered your bloodstream is hard to remove. 

It's a pain that I caught you at a bad time It's a shame that I memorized your outline

It morphed to vivid imagery next—hallucinations so life-like that you found yourself believing it half of the time. Portraits of him and you holding hands as you both walked down the streets, phantom outlines of you together swaying close to muted music, and shadows of you and him twisting in bedsheets. All untrue, except for the latter. You attempt to blink them all away with no success. Your heart reluctant to part with the delusion than face the truth—that he had only offered you his body and nothing else.

Every page that I wrote, you were on it Feel you deep in my bones, you're the current

It seeped out of you next—to your writings, to your works as if your body was doing its best to reject the poison away. To save itself from the nearing death that seemed inevitable in the end. Your poetry, your lyrics, and your art all contain entangled webs of metaphors and colors that lead back to him. Purple streaks on your canvas to represent his favorite, his beloved authors mentioned in your verses, and symbolisms of his career scattered all over—cuffs, guns, shot and everything in between. You tried to pour it all out of you, the dark and sticky emotion of despair and longing covering you and all extensions of you. Everyone noticed the change. The dimming of lights in your eyes and the shadows that threaten to swallow you whole. Everyone noticed—your family, friends, colleagues, and even the pop stars that buy your singles. Everyone except for the one that could save you, Spencer. 

It turned into screams next. It was as if your body gathered all its remaining strength to shout for help or to howl in pain, you’re not sure really. All you’re sure of was that the end was near. The end was coming to free you from everything—from him. The trigger was overhearing him discuss you with his friend and male co-worker during a run-in in his apartment where he had no choice but to introduce you. Six months of pseudo dating him and no one knew you existed.

You excused yourself to the bathroom, wanting to escape the tension emitting from the situation and when you came back, that’s when you heard it. The lethal blow to your already dying heart.

“She seems nice,” his friend, Morgan, commented.

Spencer shrugged. “She’s no Maeve—not as deep but she’s—she’s safe.”

You bit your lip, trying to stop it from quivering lest you whimper out loud the pain his words has caused you.

Donning on a fake smile on your face, you watched as Morgan left with a wave goodbye to you and a casual ‘see you again.’ Not like that would ever come true.

Within seconds, you felt your mask cracking as tears slowly trickled down your face.

“I love you.”

They say the truth sets us free but not this truth. All it did was crash, burn, and pulverize your already precarious stacks of sticks that represent you and him. 

Silence.

“You know, when we first started this—whatever this is—I promised to myself that I wouldn’t fall for you. That this was purely physical, sex,” you sardonically laughed. “But you know what I realized, that you were easy to fall in love with. So easy that I found myself ruined even before I could comprehend where and when it happened.”

“We agreed, didn’t we? That we would tell the truth and stop when feelings are starting to get involved. Why didn’t you tell me?” 

You roughly swiped away the tears. “I didn’t know when it happened, Spencer! I thought if I stuck it out long enough, you’d feel something for me too! But that was foolish of me to believe. I see it now.” 

“See what?” 

You walked towards him, invading his personal space. The same way he did with yours. “That you’re not ready. Honestly I’d prefer if my opponent was standing in front of me. At least I could gauge if I had the chance to win. But with her, she’s gone, Spencer—” you jabbed your pointy finger on his chest, where his heart was. “I’m fighting with a ghost who I can’t even land a hit on. A ghost who haunts your every waking and dreaming moment. Tell me, Spencer, how do I compete with that—when I feel there’s little to no space for me. I exist only in between and in your limbo when you’re craving for a physical companion. How do I win, Spencer? Tell me or should I just throw in the towel?” 

“Y/N—”

His eyes contained the answer and although it wasn’t what you were wishing for, it was what you subconsciously knew you needed to free you. 

You nodded your head. “I guess—I guess this is it, huh. End of the line for us.” 

“I guess so.” 

You gathered your coat, haphazardly strewn on the floor—just like the pieces of your shattered heart and as you stepped out of his threshold, you gave yourself one last chance to memorize his outlines.

“Goodbye, Spencer.” 

And finally, the poison had killed you and had set you free. 

If you feel like fallin', catch me on the way down Never been less empty, all I feel is free now

[ramlightly]

Hey! If this is presumptuous that's totally fine and you can ignore it, but I saw you mentioning building a website and I wanted to offer any help if you might want it.

I used to work as web developer, left (read: economy sucks and everyone got laid off) to start working on comics with my partner, but we needed a website for that and lo and behold, industry skills came in handy. So I'm more than happy to field questions or help you get started if you don't have another resource!

We use neocities for our comic site & my wife's portfolio site. It's free, literally costs nothing, they've been around for a while which is also reassuring in this era. You can pay $5/mo if you want to get a little more storage space and use your own custom domain, but if you're just using it as an art site/portfolio, then the storage space they offer should be completely fine.

Note: it is *not* a website builder, to use neocities you need to code your own web page using html, which truly isn't as scary as it sounds! w3schools.com is a great resource for learning or referencing html & how to make it look pretty, I used it to teach myself how to do this and managed to eventually land a couple actual tech jobs, so I'm a big fan of it for newcomers.

Anyway, whichever you choose, I think a website is a great idea as an archive, and way more reliable than... well. All of these social media platforms that feel.... impermanent, to say the least ( ´-｀)

Oh, and one more thing!! Part of why we chose neocities instead of like... bluehost or other hosting sites (which we had been using before): neocities allows NSFW :)

Ah yes I've been looking at neocities! It seems great, I'm just not very... code minded... It would be something I would need to sit down and learn and I just haven't had the time for that lately. One day soon, perhaps, as certain projects are winding down.

Thank you, I appreciate the thought!

[elismor]

I see a lot of posts going by about comments and kudos and hits and...well... I've been thinking about the three quite a lot lately--as both a fic author and someone who spends a lot of my professional life looking at web metrics and determining which are actually important/accurate measures of user engagement.

Mileage varies, of course. And this is all just MY opinion, so do feel free to ignore it wholesale.

What I think when I see someone say that sorting by a hits to to kudos ratio is a good way to find "good" fic:

Hits are a measure of quantity (how many times your story or art has been viewed), but without knowing how AO3 defines a hit, it's actually kind of a meaningless number.  We know that our own views of our work do not count toward hits, but...if my BFF looks at my story 7 times in one day because she keeps trying to read it but getting interrupted...is that one hit, or seven? And if it's seven, then the numbers are artificially inflated because it's really just Bestie trying to get her Codex fix. And...if Bestie looks at it three times today and four tomorrow...is that 7 hits total, or two? 

Some transparency on the part of AO3 could clear this up handily, but until we get that...shrug. All it is is a number that may or may not be an accurate reflection of how many actual people looked at the page your fic is on.  Did they READ it? Or did they nope out?  No way to know.

Kudos are intended to be slightly more qualitative, but there is no way of knowing why the reader gave them. (Similar to likes here on tumblr.) It might be that they loved the piece. It might be a simple acknowledgement that the reader was there. It might even be a pity kudo. We have no way of knowing. It's, again, just a number.

Obviously, everyone is free to interpret both hits and kudos as positive reaction/interaction. I might do that myself if I didn't spend my workdays explaining to people that 50,000 "hits" to the website could be 50K people who came to learn about us or...simply the result of the computer labs on campus having the university homepage set to default.

Bigger numbers are just that....bigger numbers.

Comments are the only objective way to judge how someone is reacting to your fic or art.

So, what then? Sort by number of comments?

You can do that, sure. (I think. I confess I have never once gotten the AO3 search to work as well as people rave about.) But do keep in mind that many authors answer their comments. So, something with, say, 20 comments may be 20 people telling the author they loved it. Or it might be ten people and ten author-replies. OR, it might be three people having a conversation in the comments. You have to look and see.  

Bigger numbers are just bigger numbers.

Okay, fine Elis. What am I supposed to do then?

Look, I'm not your mother or your therapist and you are free to assign whatever meanings you like to these things. I, personally, find "good" fic through a combination of things including: recs, the fandom grapevine, dumb luck, events, and just...reading some of it and not feeling guilty if I nope out for some reason.

This all sounds a little depressing when laid out like this, huh? Especially when you take into account the downward trends in interacting and the rise of folks treating fic and art as content to be consumed. 

Here's what I have learned from writing fic for 30 years (well, 28 and counting):

As an author (and an artist, I would presume), you have absolutely no way of predicting which of your work will land and take hold and which will not. It's alchemy and luck and the weird (and not actual) algorithm of fandom. Sometimes, the piece you whipped out in 30 minutes and posted on the fly will land in the right person's inbox and they will share it and their friends will share it and it will get big.  Sometimes, the piece you slaved over for weeks and weeks will do that...sometimes it won't.  Sometimes your genius manifests and resonates, sometimes it does not.

My personal favorite fic of my own--the one I think is probably the best thing I have done in SW fandom-- has like 8 kudos and 4 comments (2 of which are my responses). Is it disappointing? Yes. Is it an indication that the fic is objectively "bad"? No.

The mercenary in me suggests that if you want to get lots of comments and kudos, you should pick the pairing that is THE pairing in the fandom and write for that--because that's where the eyeballs are, because that's where the connections are.  But that is not why I write, so it's just that--a very mercenary way of looking at things. Not that there is anything WRONG with doing it that way. Supply and demand run the world. If the people want Codywan and you want the people....give them Codywan. No shame in that.

And there is no shame in wanting or seeking validation for your work, either.

But it breaks my heart to see authors (and artists) give up on themselves when they do not receive piles of kudos and comments. It's not you. It's...the luck of the draw. It's...fandom. It's...an artificial and murky set of measurements that have almost no basis in anything meaningful.

Keep writing. Keep drawing. Keep sharing. You are what you make, not how people respond to it.

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[shygirl4991]

Azure Potion Chapter 2 Let me In

Summary: When SMG3 accidentally drinks a truth potion he ends up confessing his crush on SMG4 to Mario and Meggy. Sworn to secrecy the pair come up with a plan to find out Fours feelings and get the boys together. 

Fic inspired by Indigo Secret by @lizaluvsthis Later Chapter Next Chapter Tags: fluff, humor, truth potion, love confessions, secret crush, first kiss, coffee and bombs!

The moment SMG3 landed on the showgrounds he bolted to his cafe, locking it and making sure it was sealed before dashing to his room. Meggy sighs watching him “I should have the extra pages on me still, maybe one of them has a cure.” she starts looking at the pages, Mario sighs not understanding why Three doesn't just confess already. Meggy was so focused on reading the pages that she doesn't notice SMG4 was stepping out of the castle, Mario turns, sees Four and panics, shaking Meggy “Mario im trying to read!” She turns to glare at the plumber only to notice a nervous expression.  “SMG4 hello!!” he waves exaggeratedly to keep the man's eyes on him while Meggy shoves the pages into her pockets.  

SMG4 smiles at them “Hey, how was the dark web you guys got everything?” He looks around trying to find his partner.  Meggy lets out a nervous chuckle “It went amazing right Red?” Mario started to sweat as he gave a thumbs up “Pingas!” Meggy sighs as she turns to face SMG4.  Feeling something was off he looked Meggy and Mario up and down “You guys sure nothing went wrong? Usually when SMG3 gets things for a  bomb he would kidnap me to show me how they work, how the castle is still standing is a miracle.” 

Meggy nods “He said something about Eggdog needing a bath!” Hearing this SMG4 relaxed, pleased to know his friends were okay he waved goodbye and returned to his castle to finish editing his videos. Mario cheered that the pair managed to avoid getting caught in their lie, Meggy on the other hand turned looking at three’s coffee n bomb concerned.

SMG3 sits on his bed frustrated, he knows the dark web like the back of his hand and yet here he is cursed with a truth potion for a whole week. Eggdog snuggles up to his father sensing how upset he is, Three looks down giving his son a small smile “Thanks Eggdog, today just isn't my day now those two idiots know about..UGH!” he throws himself on the bed blushing. They know he is in love with his long time rival, what is he supposed to do for a whole week. Keeping closed would lose him money, he can't open because if one right question is asked the truth will be free.  He hears his phone ding, taking it out he sees its a text from SMG4.

His heart flutters as he unlocks the phone and see the message “Hey talked to M&M happy to know things went smooth, can't wait to see those bombs your making”

He chuckles softly at the text picturing the other man's face while reading it, and it seems the idiots manage to keep SMG4 from suspecting anything. He starts typing away “Just you wait this bomb is going to blow your mind with its power!” After hitting send he gets up and sighs. He just needs to stay away for a whole week. How hard could that be? 

A knock on the door caught his attention, peeking he saw Meggy waving at him “Three i have a few pages maybe one can help!” hearing this he ran and opened the door for her and Mario. Once they were in he blocks and seals the door again, Meggy takes everything out of her pocket.  SMG3 walks to the counter for Meggy to go over the pages, Mario on the other hand gets distracted seeing the glowing blue flower. SMG3 frowns looking at the other pages “Love potion, red string potion, ew a frog potion geez what a fairy tale. Squid none of these sound like they will help with the whole I CAN ONLY SPEAK THE TRUTH!”

Mario shrugs “Mario doesnt get why you don't just tell SMG4, you both are super gay for each other!”

SMG3 lets out a bitter chuckle “Right, hey SMG4 I know we just became friends but turns out i have a crush on you. That's how you ruin friendships idiot plus we all know he is married to his youtube channel, nothing can or will happen.” Meggy nods thinking to herself, how did SMG4 feel about Three. The pair were always together these days, naturally they would hold hands without there being any danger. She swears that Four spends more time at the cafe than anyone else in the crew, she remembers in the past how SMG4 would tell her how he hated coffee. That's when SMG3 joined the crew and offered for the first time a cup, Four drinked it with a smile and suddenly he became a coffee drinker.

Maybe there was something there, she looks at the pages and decides to ask something risky “What if we ask SMG4 for help?” Three’s eyes go wide from that “WHAT NO! That idiot finds out he will have all the ammo on me!” Meggy crosses her arms staring at the man “You really think SMG4 is that kind of person?” SMG3 stays silent looking down, suddenly he opens the door kicking Meggy and Mario out “I’ll figure this out on my own!” He slams the door and goes to the back room. He sighs sliding down the wall, now sitting on the floor he thinks of Meggy's words. It was risky, if SMG4 is still that person from before, how can he be so sure his secret won't leak cause Four will say something stupid. 

Meggy glares at the cafe before picking up the papers, she looks around noticing the flower she had was missing. Deciding it wasn't important at the moment she put the papers in her pocket, she turns to the castle and walks to it “Come on Red we need to tell Four that Three is in trouble!” SMG4 sat there staring at the pair as they explained everything to him, silently he gets up and dashes out of the castle surprising the pair. Four was worried he knows how important privacy is for the man, being an open book is asking for trouble. He takes out his copy of the cafe keys and goes in,  knowing that Three wouldn't want to see his face he would be hiding in the back room. He walks over to the wall and  sits on the other side saying “Hey Three…are you okay i felt something off.” 

SMG3 hugs himself, feeling the truth bubble its way out little by little. “No, today has been a shit show and I don't want you here.” SMG4 hums thinking of a way to get him to talk which was tricky knowing about the potion. He wanted to ask something that SMG3 would tell him out of free will, he smiled to himself as he stretched his hand so it could be seen by Three “I get your upset..but don't freeze me out…please let me in.” Three looks at the man’s hand and looks away “I’m sorry…it's best if you leave me alone this week, get it? I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE!”  SMG4 gets up and places his hand on the wall “SMG3 please, i hate feeling you in pain..i wont judge or hurt you arent we partners?” Three slowly turns to the wall placing his own hand on it, he slightly smiles as he feels the meme energy from the other side.

“I cant…it will ruin everything, so get out of here…baka,” with that he walks into the elevator hoping that Four wouldn't follow him. Four stands there thinking how he could gain Three’s trust, he walks out of the cafe and notices Mario smirking at him. The look sent a chill down his spine “uh Mario why are you looking at me like that?”

Mario hands him a bottle with a strange blue liquid “Is that the…potion?” he looks up to see a mischievous grin grow on his face. Mario’s plan was simple: if both men were under the truth potion then they have no choice but to finally admit how gay they are for each other. Slowly four reach and take the bottle “How..did you get this?” Mario takes out the recipe with a flower missing petals “Mario is very good at cooking!” The choice was now in SMG4 hand, if they both are under the potion  he could understand Three and help him last the week or come up with a plan for them to hunt for a cure. Then again Mario made this, can he really trust this wouldn't kill him or do something worse. As he stares at the potion he remembers the pain he felt from SMG3, closing his eyes he chugs the drink. 

[izicodes]

Hello! Do you have any advice on getting into freelance coding or remote jobs in the field? I'm having trouble with my current endeavors of applications and my current customer service job isn't doing me well enough to want to stay, so I'm hoping for progress sooner rather than later. Anything helps, thank you!!

Hiya 🖤

Thanks for reaching out with your question about getting into freelance coding or remote jobs. Making a transition can be challenging, but with dedication and strategic steps, you can definitely progress in your career.

Firstly, consider specializing in a specific field of computer science rather than trying to learn everything. This will help you become an expert in a niche, making you more attractive to potential clients or employers.

The big thing to look at is (1) what specific job do you want? Don't know yet? That's the first thing you need to find out. (2) Found the job you want? Go to this website "roadmap.sh" and click the job title you want and look at the roadmap to become it. (3) Have an idea of what you need to learn? Now study :)

Here are some extra key pieces of advice:

Public Code Repositories

Showcase your coding skills by contributing to public repositories on platforms like GitHub, GitLab, or others. This allows potential employers to see your projects and assess your coding abilities.

Online Certifications

Earn certifications from reputable online courses like Freecodecamp, Codecademy, or SheCodes (if you're a woman). Displaying these certifications on your LinkedIn profile adds credibility for remote work or even freelance work because then clients will trust your skills more if it's back up with evidence (projects and/or certificates).

Links: "Massive List of Thousands of Free Certificates" / "The Udemy courses I use" / "FreeCodeCamp" / "Codecedemy" / "SheCodes" / "Udacity" / "Coursera" / "Google"

LinkedIn Profile

Revamp your LinkedIn profile to reflect your job title. Use a title that aligns with your dream job, and highlight your skills, certifications, and projects. You don't even need work experience OR do what a lot of my developer mates do have no work experience and set your "job" as a self-employed freelance developer... little cheat there~!

Links: "LinkedIn Career Explorer" / "Tips for speaking to/reaching out to Recruiter" / "Tips for Landing Your First Entry-Level Developer Job" / "Career Services for Web Development" / "The Talent Cloud Community: Careers Workshop"

Volunteering

Help someone out with a project for their business or whatever. For example, I helped a guy I met in a programming discord server build his portfolio page for free, but I care more about the experience. Search online for volunteer jobs with your dream job title e.g. Volunteer App Develope, but in your country would be better. The experience you can you can add to your LinkedIn. the project you work on you can add to your resume/experience.

Link: "SkilledUp Life"

Networking

Connect with professionals in your field on LinkedIn, even if you don't know them personally. Growing your network can open up opportunities and expose you to valuable insights. Events in person or online, servers (I found volunteer opportunities here), forums, Twitter (I found some mates on there), Instagram (another place I found developer friends). Networking can even help with building group projects~!

Link: "Tips for speaking to/reaching out to Recruiter"

Project Building

Work on both small and big projects to demonstrate your capabilities. Highlight these projects on your resume and portfolio.

Links: "Building projects after learning a new concept advice" / "Tips from learning using multiple resources" / "Tips on learning programming with ChatGPT" / "Harvard University Free IT Courses" / "The Udemy courses I use" / "Free Programming Books" / "Coding Advice for beginners" / "800 free Computer Science classes"

Online Presence

Share your learning progress and projects on various platforms like Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Employers often appreciate candidates who actively showcase their work and commitment to learning. I made a post for Tumblr coding blogs:

Link: "Codeblr Blog Advice: 8 Blog Coding Post Ideas"

Good luck!!

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

Protective bachelors headcanonssssss?

Yeeesssss!

Usually when people ask for "bachelors", I think about like "they are not yet 'Farmer's partner" because they are a 'singles', but I'm always not sure if I'm getting it right. Therefore, I try to find an alternative and write in a way that candidates would behave in both cases. I hope this makes sense.

By the way, I took the word "protective" in different ways. I mean, you can protect them from bullies, from natural disasters, from danger, from themselves if such a case ever occurs. I was interested in experiencing with this writing. Feel free to write criticism and suggest if such a headcanon deviates from the essence of the issue, I'm interested to know your opinion.

Anyway, thank for your ask, anon))))

_________________________________________

Alex:

Alex has been volunteering as a beach lifeguard for years. Given his physical qualities, ability to swim well and basic knowledge of first aid, this role suits him perfectly, so he agreed to volunteer and keep the beach safe every summer.

But it's fall now, too cold for the beach season, so no one needs his skills for now. So Alex thought until the Farmer, fishing on the river bank near Alex's house, fell for some reason directly into the rushing waters. The athlete acted faster than he thought: a jump into the water - and he is already dragging the Farmer to land. Alex carefully examined the Farmer to understand their condition, and when he was convinced that everything was alright with them, he took them home, where Evelyn brought a blanket and a cup of hot tea for the Farmer after a cold bath.

Whether or not the Farmer knew how to swim at the time, Alex now always watches over them when they fish near his house and moves them away from the river to prevent this from happening again.

Elliott:

There was one case when one of the tipsy tourists began to pester the Farmer with an offer to go on a date together. And when the Farmer politely refused the offer, they received threats and promises from the interlocutor to spoil the image of their farm. No one knows how long this clowning would have continued if an enraged Elliott had not approached them.

I can't get the fact out of my head that Elliott will challenge this asshole to a duel like the old fashioned way. It doesn't matter if the Farmer is just a good friend or his partner, the writer is determined to uphold their honor. Of course, here it will do without pistols, but still there is a theatrical note.

But that doesn't mean that Elliott is deliberately turning it into a theatre, oh no. He is fully prepared to fight this ill-mannered interlocutor on the battlefield, whether it be a verbal skirmish or a fist fight. Even if physical superiority is not on Elliott's side, he was able to successfully teach the offender a lesson, although now his nose is covered in blood. The Farmer, treating Elliott's wounds, must admit that they obviously did not expect this from him and were grateful for the support.

Sebastian:

Sebastian was surprised that the Farmer knew so little about social media. Like, they and Sebby are the same age, but if Sebastian himself makes magic with his programming skills, then the Farmer is more like an elder who was given a new phone by grandchildren and don't know how to use this device.

Therefore, Sebastian suggested that they create their own page on the Internet, where they will post their photos and posts on their favorite topics, for example, about farming, or life hacks on growing different crops. To which the Farmer happily agreed, rejoicing at the opportunity to put up tips that will help people. But, unfortunately, in addition to good people there will always be fools, trolls and bots in the vastness of the World Wide Web, which can not only spoil a person’s mood, but also put them into a depressive state.

Sebastian may still feel awkward talking to people face-to-face, but with a snap of his fingers, he will permanently ban nasty people from the Farmer's page while they don't see. Fair criticism is one thing, but just being toxic is another. Sebby won't just watch his friends get bullied by some idiots on the other side of the monitor, right?

Shane:

Shane doesn't get paid enough for this shit. Stupid boss, stupid Joja products, stupid co-workers (not counting Sam and that cashier). This was not enough for him, so now he saw through the window of the store how one of the Joja loaders clings to the Farmer. He can't make out what started the skirmish, but Shane heard loud and clear the phrases about the Farmer "our goods are better than yours", "bastard" and "bitch".

And at that moment, Shane's patience snapped. This pissed him off so much that he went to yell at that freak, not afraid of losing his miserable job.

Do you think Shane can't intimidate a bully enough? Have you ever seen his face when he's angry? This is the face of a man who will fight with God for the sake of people dear to him. For his aunt, goddaughter, chicken Charlie and the Farmer (friend or partner), he will tear off the offender's hands. Even though Morris issued a fine to both Joja employees for "spoiling the image of the company", Shane does not care. No one dares to offend them and think that the asshole will get away with it.

Harvey:

Merciful Yoba, give Harvey great patience. Because if he does not have enough patience, then brute force will come into play. What kind of stubborn fool do you have to be to get out of bed immediately after you had an emergency operation!?

The wounded Farmer after another adventure in the mines became an all-too-frequent sight in Harvey's clinic, but this time the case was quite dangerous. Harvey, as a professional in his field, quickly treated the Farmer's wounds, brought food and ordered them to rest for at least a couple of days. But they declared that the farm would wither without them and were preparing to get out of the hospital bed.

Because of this, Harvey's angelic patience finally snapped and he barked that he would tie the young troublemaker to the bed if they tried to get up again. This cooled the Farmer's ardor, and they obediently lay down again. Harvey, regretting his words, quickly apologized to the Farmer, explaining that he was very worried about their health no longer as a doctor, but as a friend (or more than a friend?). Every time he worries about their health, because they have become a close person to him. To which the ashamed Farmer also asked for forgiveness and thanked Harvey for his care and patience.

Sam:

After Sam's first concert ended successfully, he invited his band members and the Farmer to stay a little longer in Zuzu City for a bite to eat before the road. The Farmer offered to buy everyone burgers and sodas in the cafe while Sam, Sebby, and Abby took a table outside. It's been 30 minutes, and the Farmer still hasn't left the burger place, so Sam decided to check what took them so long. And the delay was because of another visitor to that cafe, who, in a drunken stupor, tried to prove to everyone that the Farmer had stolen their wallet. Neither the seller nor the Farmer themselves were able to calm down the raging visitor.

Sam approached the Farmer at the moment when the problem was solved by itself: no one stole the guy's wallet, he just put them in another pocket of his jacket. But instead of apologizing, the drunkard said that the Farmer could have stolen anyway.

To which Sam, with all his positive and ability to find a common language with everyone, barked at an unpleasant person, saying that the loser should get lost. His tirade somehow worked, and the man left. Sam doesn't like watching his friends get hurt, so he apologized if he scared the Farmer with his swearing. To which the Farmer themselves thank for the help and note that they have never heard such cursing from Sam. Well, yeah Sam is no longer a child! ... But anyway, don't tell his mother that he expressed himself like that, okay? For silence - delicious burgers, at his expense 😉