#i Just go on some fishy website instead

[qqueenofhades]

It depends on the jurisdiction you're in, but generally contracts can't be 'undone' unless by a specified clause in the contract itself and they are, instead, 'breaking' the contract which should have specified penalties in the contract itself. Some places do have 'cooling off' periods though, for certain types of contracts (not rental, generally afaik), so you'd need to check the local laws on that? Are there local groups that support renters? They may have better information and resources.

Update: talked to the leasing office. They claim it is because they have a new website and the lease renewal was only executed on the old one and not on the new one. Theoretically, I only have to sign an exact copy of the lease I already signed, but I will be reading it VERY carefully and emailing the building manager if there are any discrepancies. Frankly, this is still fishy, and it is par for the course that they don't communicate shit (my lease was supposed to renew on the 14th, I paid through the 14th at the start of the month, and then on the 7th they tried to be cute and stick a "30 Day Notice For Payment Or Possession" on my door in the dead of night. After I spent much of the summer without air conditioning and have had going on a month with very little hot water because of how fucking slow they are with maintenance. But because of how much of a hassle it would be to move and because I can't find anything cheaper in this overpriced city hellscape, SO.)

ANYWAY. I feel bad for the very nice front desk lady, who has been very sympathetic and tried to help me, but obviously cannot do anything about higher-up corporate bullshit. Story of everyone's life.

Basically, I will be reading the lease carefully and making sure it is COMPLETELY identical; if not, I will email the property manager and/or see if any pro bono help or employee resources can be solicited from the university's law school. We also had to last-minute push back our meeting with the department chairs tomorrow by another hour since they want to have a budget meeting with the deans first, whereupon I suspect the underlying message will be "there's no money for raises, so just keep working/running the whole college for your same shit wage" and I am. Preemptively Not A Fan. I would love to be wrong. But.

Thanks for this, though, and for letting me vent a little. Adulting, man. What a ripoff.

[snowydragon10]

‼️‼️‼️

I think we're approaching this... "Chapter" of the Showgrounds Saga from the wrong direction

Theory Time!!

(It's a bit of a long one, so take your time)

Ok, so we've all been thinking - most of us at least - that this would be SMG3's Focus Arc and his turn to get character development and/or Trauma via a big movie event, but it's not what we expected. When I asked myself why, I came to some questions and theories

So, we've seen the pattern so far, SMG4's Perfection, Meggy's Idolization, and then WotFI happened, which I think was SMG3's Chapter.

I think what happened was that WotFI was his main event. Instead of building up to the tension, they swapped it and had the big event first with the development after, henceforth all of the focus episodes after WotFI regarding his shop, his selfworth and his place with the Crew.

So, "If SMG3 already had his fair share of Puzzle/Adware interference, then who's the focus for this chapter?" You may be asking, and I have the theory:

It's actually Us the Audience

Think about it! There's always some kind of connection between each Movie/Chapter moving towards the next one! In IGBP, while rescuing SMG4, how did Meggy fight off SMG3? Her splatfest skills (Former Splatfest Champion Wren)!! In Western Spaghetti, what did SMG3 have that added to his character from that point onwards? His bombs (Coffe n' Bombs Cafe)!!

So now, what's one connection with WotFI and this one? We the *Audience* are allowed to add our input based on the situation! (The Heist Plan Votes and the Video Reviews!!)

Not only that, BUT when WotFI finished and we got that post credit scene, Mr. Puzzles didn't address just anyone. No, he wasn't talking to SMG4, he wasn't talking to Luke, Marty, or SMG3; he was talking DIRECTLY to us the *Audience* at the 4th wall!

Adware KNOWS that we're finally picking up the hints and pieces!! He finally acknowledged that we're ready for our turn!!

When the first movie came out and he appeared as that keyboard malware virus (when we dubbed him Adware), we didn't think much of it. We thought it was a one-off, a fluke, something to further the story via typical SMG4 Weirdness.

It wasn't until the Western Spaghetti movie hype was building up that everyone realized that there's a pattern happening. That was when fans started pointing out, "Hey! There's something Fishy going on (Ha), and here's the hidden clues to prove it!!". We became suspicious of that damn symbol, and became more vigilant... and then WotFI happened!!

(Addition: I feel like Adware was beginning to test how ready we were when we got that one Steam Link with Tari in an empty room and the TV at the front of the train. Yeah, it was to hype up the movie, but it was also almost like a... puzzle, you could say)

Which could explain why this time it isn't a movie event that lasts for one week, but instead nearly over an entire month! I theorize that Winston wants to test us for some reason, and for that, he needs to collect information. Information like maybe a certain interactive website with reviews. You can't get the audience involved with just a single movie, just saying. Plus, the fact that he said endless entertainment all Saturdays forever? Who's the most involved in that specific detail, hmm?

Also! The theme! Granted, I don't have much proof for this one, but the theme I've noticed is Nostalgia. Blue's Clues isn't something very important to any of the characters that got kidnapped (minus 4 hating content farms) but it can be something that a lot of us have a fond attachment to! Which Adware could use to his Advantage! What better way to get good reviews than to target what the audiences like?

(4th wall sidenote, after that TV song jingle, Winston glances over to the screen directly at Us)

Also, notice how weird it is that the Crew Members that got kidnapped are popular among the fandom? You know, characters that we've gotten attached to? (Don't tell me Bob doesn't have a fanbase of his own). Every time a "Victim" is targeted, their close friends end up getting dragged into the mess.

SMG4 (3, Megs and Mar)

Meggy (Tari, Mario, Axol, DESTI)

SMG3 (Eggdog got a Cameo, 4, Bob??)

Us (Our favorite characters)

....

So, all of this to say, we need to stay on our toes, especially for this chapter. Be wary and all of that. I may be overthrowing it, but hey, theorizing is fun!! What do you guys think?

[feeshies]

y'know, i've always had a beef with those classic lit study guides that try too hard to relate to high school students (often because sometimes they do so at the cost of undercutting the value of the work), and i thought i would have fun with this 20k leagues one

but it really seems to have it in for aronnax? it accuses him of being too obsessed with national pride. it cites his reaction to one of nemo's crewmen calling out for help in french as an example, but imo being able to hear someone speak your native dialect after being away from home for half a year...only for them to be killed violently...idk i think his horrified reaction makes sense. and then it says that aronnax was disappointed that ned was french-canadian instead of "real french", and maybe i need to do a closer reread but i thought aronnax was excited that ned was french-canadian because he could speak his native language with someone since his english is shaky.

i get that he is rather naive and ignorant when it comes to certain matters of the world (especially compared to nemo), but goddamn this study guide is written like an attack campaign. this post was just supposed to be me sharing my favorite excerpts from the character analysis, but now i feel the need to defend this man.

he has adhd leave him alone!!

god forbid that a marine biologist spends his days examining the sea life now that he has the opportunity to see it in a way previously thought impossible. and god forbid that he would want academic credit for his work jfc. yeah, i get ned's frustration with him being reluctant to leave, but this study website needs to calm down! he has adhd and anxiety and he's a nerd!

btw it isn't contained to aronnax's profile either. this from conseil's.

does aronnax "whining like a little baby" mean "telling conseil to leave him behind in the middle of the ocean because he doesn't want to slow him down"?

then there's this

nemo's nationa....he speaks french, english, german, latin, greek, his own conlang, and those are just the languages that are confirmed! the ocean is the world's biggest "melting pot" and that's where nemo claims as his home! also he's literally not from a nation??? (in how he presents himself in this book)

anyway, i thought i was going to have fun reading an analysis of a fun book i like, but then i was struck with this anti-aronnax propaganda. this isn't even the only study guide i've seen that has it out for him.

maybe just watch some pretty fishies and calm down

[wp100]

Okay, I'm passionate about lost media so I'm gonna talk about game shows and quiz shows for a bit...

I absolutely hate how game shows and quiz shows aren't archived. Like, at all. Like sure I can watch recent episodes on demand or whatever but like, I wanna see old episodes? Or old game show shows? But I can't because it's irrelevant or whatever?

I wish ppl cared about archiving game show/quiz show episodes. Idk why I'm very passionate about this, but I am. Okay maybe it's partly because on the chase aussie a few of the chasers have been on other quiz shows and I can't find any clips of them anywhere, and if you can, they're in the worst quality because it was recorded over 15 years ago.

Argh. Game show/quiz show lost media is a bit frustrating. Kinda like that wicked witch sesame street episode (which was actually found recently!!!) Guh what if I wanna watch some obscure game show that aired in Australia for a few years and never made any episodes again?

I think preservation is so important, even if it comes to something as miniscule as game shows and quiz shows because I like seeing different people and knowledge and trivia and all that. I'm rambling at this point lol sorry if my grammar sucks, fatigued and tired while recovering from COVID atm. And very bored, so I will post my brain rot here.

edit #1: I know a lot of game show stuff technically isn't lost because there ARE official channels on youtube, but I just want to watch full episodes. Not little bits. Blegh.

Old episodes (I'm talking like, 80s/90s/2000s) should be uploaded period. They shouldn't be lost to time. I just think it's unfair.

[on-stardust-wings]

Now that we art all here, let us recount the deeds of the day.

*puts on Crowley sunglasses*

So, I'm not living in one of the privileged countries that get to legally buy and listen to the new Good Omens Full Cast Audiobook. I have tried buying it the normal way, but it won't show up, or it disappears as soon as I log in or try paying something. I decided to give the Audible part of @fuckyeahgoodomens guide a try first, before coming up with own (and potentially worse) ideas.

I am also a gremlin child of the late 2000s internet, I live almost entirely on open source software, I avoid the likes of Microsoft, Google, Apple and Amazon as much as I can in my digital life, and I grew up enjoying TV shows and comics that did not sell in my country. I do not actually pirate things unless it can't be avoided, I'm happy for the creators to have my money, but I also hacked my Blu-Ray player into forgetting that region locking exists a week after getting it and I have tricked Amazon and Audible into selling me things that aren't for my backwater country before.

On a tangent, region locking is such stupid capitalist bullshit they do for digital content. If I want a hard copy of something in another language or from another country, I can usually buy one online. I can go to a website and buy a copy of a book from Australia or a CD from Brazil. I'll have to pay extra shipping probably, and possibly import tax, but that's the extent of the problem. I can also, technically, just travel somewhere and buy something that's only selling in this country. I don't have to give back a copy of a book I bought in the states when I cross European borders. That's not a thing.

In the same vein is the issue of DRM/copy protection. I understand it's purpose in preventing black market sales; I do not understand that I'm not legally allowed to have copies for my own personal perusal. If I bought a hardcover book, I own it and I can do whatever with it. I can draw in it. I can cut out pages I don't like. I can legally take that book and if I own a printer/copier, I can copy it page by page and have one real book in my living room and a stack of self-made paper copies on my nightstand. Short of selling the copies, all's fine. It's mine because I bought it. Same with CDs or suchlike. Turn the tracks on the CD into MP3s to put on my mobile player or in the car or whatever? Cut a track in half and listen to only the first half because I don't like the second part? Fine. It's mine. I bought it. I am not allowed to sell any copies, but for my own use, I can do with it whatever I like.

So, with this overall background and mindset, I logged into Audible.com instead of my local version, looking to pick a small fight with a multibillion dollar company and their idea of media rights and property.

And what does the multibillion dollar company do? It goes "Oh hey, you haven't been here for a while, do you want a free trial? Here, you can choose one free title, whatever you like."

I don't often listen to audiobooks, in fact, I only listen to audiobooks of favourite books I reread all the time anyway, so whenever I buy one, I immediately cancel my membership after buying the book I want, because there's no point in paying a monthly fee if I buy, like, one book per year. And instead of being mad at me for this, half the time I get offered gifts.

So, I log on, full of spite and looking for trouble, and am offered a gift instead.

Joke's on you, Amazon.

I still have to go through the 'set your credit card to US' thing described in the guide, but since I don't actually buy anything with this card, because I've been given a free book of my choice yay, I don't have to contest with any of the weird and scary messages some people get about their credit card info being fishy. I am now powered by spite as well as glee.

I manage to buy the book for my free credit. I get an email about my purchase.

That was easier than I thought.

I go to open the Audible app on my phone. The Audible app on my phone currently contains two books. None of them were bought in my own country (I think they're from the UK? But it's been a while so not sure). Its purchase history says this account never bought anything, because the account is registered to where I live, and I have indeed never bought a book there. (Look, I like books in other languages.)

The new Good Omens book does not show up. Not even after clearing the cache on the phone and refreshing everything.

The link in the email I got takes me to my country's audible website. The book cannot be found anywhere. I spent quite some time searching, too.

By now I'm back to being more spiteful than gleeful. I log back onto the Audible.com website, and whee, there it is in my previous purchases. I can listen to it in the browser (nice, but very impractical), and I can download it. Yay, download. (I also do not really like streaming things. Parts of that is the shitty internet connection in my parts, the rest of it is that sense of "I want to have a copy of it on my own hard drive".)

The downloaded file is .aax, Audible's own audio format, which is basically an MPEG-4 audio file encrypted with a 4-byte key that's unique to your account. 4-byte is super cheap in terms of encryption, so it's not very hard to get around. This is relevant information to this story because that's the next thing I did.

Could I have tried to somehow get my downloaded file into an official Audible app on my phone or computer to get it to play? Probably. Maybe. But here I was with the full file on my own hardware while also being just about done with All Things Amazon. If I want to burn this on CD or put on my MP3 player or my phone to listen to with a music player app of my choice, you can't stop me, Amazon.

Did you know that you can open your browser of choice, go to https://audible-converter.ml/ and drag and drop your .aax file into it, it'll spit out your activation bytes (that's the key to decrypt it with)? You can do that. You can then run it through a command line tool to decrypt it on your computer, or you can tell it to do so in the browser window (slower, but works on all platforms, just pick an output format of your choice and there ya go).

So, I now happen to have an unlocked MP3 of mildly dubious legality (I think it's illegal to strip the DRM, but as long as I'm not selling it *shrug*), for free.

I have that file because region locking exists and I was not able to easily purchase the thing I wanted in my own country. I would have given you money, Amazon. I would have been happy to. It was your own choice to make it a gift, and your own choice to refuse playing it on the regular players. But it was a pleasure doing business with you. Sincerely, fuck you.

PS: I'm off now to donate the money I didn't spend on the book to Alzheimer's Research. GNU Terry Pratchett.

Ciao. *takes off Crowley sunglasses*

[wkemeup]

I see that ur talking bout the Vax, but I'm curious.

Ik that there are some that have been studied for years, ands those ones are what are mandatory for children (which I agree with)

But since this Vax has taken less than a year to be sent out, it just seems fishy to me. I don't know if I want to take it yet since vaccines take years to be the safest they can get.

I seen websites of people who don't get good results due to Vax (death), and I just want to have ur opinion if the Vax should go under more studies to have less of serious side effects.

No hostility, I'm just curious. Either way, I hope you have a good day 😊💛

This article from John Hopkins is a great resource on the safety of the Covid vaccines. From my understanding, given that the present variation of Covid is not the first (see: SARS 2002 if you’re old enough like me to remember it haha), there was actually a solid chunk of the research already done. It was then updated and applied to what we’re facing today. Trials were also administered in a parallel-ish fashion instead of one after the other so that helped to speed up the process without jeopardizing safety or efficacy.

When it comes to side effects, you’re right. We don’t know the potential long term side effects. But we know the alternative. That if you get Covid, you’re risking your own life, heart problems, lung problems, sense of taste/smell, and the health of those around you. I know several otherwise healthy people in their twenties who are still dealing with side effects from having Covid months and even a year ago. One friend never recovered her ability to taste. Another still has trouble with her lungs.

I think for me, I have trust in the medical system and in medical research. I believe that the very real threat of not taking the vaccine is worse than any possible side effects it may or may not have. Especially to protect those who can not have the vaccine for whatever reason (age, medical reasons, pregnancy) and those who are particularly susceptible to it.

I appreciate your questions and openness to learning more ❤️ Please check out the link above because I’m not a medical doctor and I’m reciting this all on memory. I’d strongly encourage you to find the answers to your questions so you can make your decision. And I hope you decide to protect yourself and those around you by getting vaccinated.

Much love 💛

[mahhchedire]

"Gossip/anonymous radfem blogs" are the stupidest, most anti-feminist thing ever existed on this godforsaken website.

Feminist theory has been clear about a socially conditioned "impulse" (could be said better, but I'm at a loss for words rn) in women to put other women down and instead of healing yourself from this side effect of the patriarchy you're just going to fuel it? You're seriously going to make the radblr equivalent of Mean Girls' "burn book"? Do you think you're Regina George and your mutuals/followers are Cady, Gretchen and Karen?

(In that case, I would like to claim my spot as a Gretchen-fem because she's a fave of mine, thank you very much.)

No, I'm genuinely curious.

Radical feminist spaces are made for discussion and, aside from some basic beliefs that are necessary to claim you believe in a certain ideology, some issues don't have a clear cut radical feminist answer ; there are a lot of different opinions about women's relationship to mental health, mental illness diagnosis and therapy, for example.

Instead of sending a catty anon to some blog who leeches off "drama" and what mysoginists would call "catfights", why don't you try to have a productive conversation over differing points of view?

Agreeing to disagreeing is a thing and you're not forced to be all buddy buddy with everyone on radblr, but making a conscious choice to ignore someone you dislike sounds way healthier than what some of you are doing.

I cited the therapy example because I'm doing my research on Borderline Personality Disorder and developing my own opinion about it, which - surprise surprise - might be different from some other radfem's.

And does that bother me? No, because it's not enough to claim all women aren't a hivemind, you also have to practice what you preach.

There are radfems claiming it's not a real diagnosis and it's solely based in mysoginy, but I'm free to think otherwise: I agree that often the diagnosis process is mysoginistic, it's the "just go on birth control" of mental health, but I also think there are women who are genuinely described by the diagnosis criteria and sometimes there are no other conditions that describe their struggles as well as bdp does (or maybe there are, such as other conditions in co-morbidity, but a bpd diagnosis would still be a great help because it still identifies the core symptoms and patterns of someone's mental health struggle).

Something that comes off as fishy is the fact that there is no equivalent of a male bpd -- wait, actually, there is.

But the page that explains it is so laughable that is basically describes basic male behaviour, seriously take a look because I was laughing my ass off just reading it:

But aside from that, I don't think it's impossible for a female specific mental illness to have developed, despite the fact that it's not linked to women's biology (such as post-partum depression, which is certainly female specific, but more believable since it relies on a woman's biological functions).

Women have unique lived experiences and traumas ; it's not hard for me to believe in a female-specific ramification of ptsd.

See? I expressed an unsollicited, maybe controversial opinion ; I did it politely and I'm open to different points of view, it's called basic maturity.

Fuck's sake.

[all-that-jazz-93]

American Dragon Timeline

I’ve been trying for a while now to figure out the timeline of this show, because it makes no sense in the order that Disney Channel originally aired the episodes. It also makes no sense in the episode list on Jeff Goode’s website, which he claims to be the proper chronology of events.

I had to come up with a few convoluted headcanons to make this work, but I think I’ve finally pieced together a coherent timeline (note that for a lot of the filler episodes, it doesn’t actually matter that much when they take place, I was just trying to stick as close to Jeff Goode’s chronology as possible.)

September 2004

Old School Training

It’s implied in this episode that Jake got his dragon powers very recently. They don’t say how recently, but given how new the whole thing is to him, I’d say it’s probably only been about a week or two.

Here’s where we come up against our first issue with canon. In The Legend of Dragon Tooth, Jake says he got his dragon powers when he turned 13, and in Shapeshifter, he says he’s a Pisces, which means his birthday would be in late February, or March. There’s no way the timeline makes sense if that’s the case, so my headcanon is that Jake is just like…really bad at astrology, and he somehow confused Pisces with another star sign.

We also have the issue of how far behind he seems to be in school (he’s 14 in early season 2, but still in 7th grade). So, two more headcanons to explain that. Number one, Jake’s birthday is actually sometime in early September, so he missed the cutoff to go to kindergarten when he was 5, and had to wait until he was 6, placing him a year behind (some places don’t allow kids to start kindergarten if they turn 5 after September 1st. I knew a boy in my old youth group who was almost a year older than everyone else in our grade, because he had an October birthday). Number two, at some point in elementary school, Jake was held back a grade. So the first episode takes place shortly after Jake’s 13th birthday, at the beginning of his sixth grade year.

Since Trixie and Spud are supposed to be the same age as him, that would mean they must’ve both been held back at some point as well (that especially makes sense for Spud—anyone who’s purposely failed as many tests as he has would almost definitely have to repeat a grade).

This would also make Rose younger than them. She’s very bright, and she seems like a good student, so it’s unlikely she was ever held back. But we don’t want her to be too much younger than them, so I’ll headcanon that she also has a birthday in early September, making her a year younger than Jake. If that’s the case, she’d be 12 in season one, and 13/14 in season 2.

Adventures in Trollsitting/Fu Dog Takes a Walk

The dogcatcher says that it’s September.

 September/October 2004

Shapeshifter Dragon Breath The Legend of Dragon Tooth The Talented Mr. Long Professor Rotwood’s Thesis Act 4, Scene 15 The Long Weekend Body Guard Duty Dragon Summit

This episode has to take place after Shapeshifter, Dragon Breath, and Professor Rotwood’s Thesis, since the Dragon Council makes references back to Jake’s actions in all of those episodes. It also has to take place before The Halloween Bash, which places it sometime in September or October.

 October 2004

The Halloween Bash

Jeff Goode’s website lists this episode as taking place between Ski Trip and The Hunted, but there’s no way that’s possible, because Ski Trip takes place close to Valentine’s Day, and The Hunted takes place during the Equinox (they don’t specify which Equinox, but it would have to be the one in September; it’s the only way the timeline makes any sense, even with the generous liberties I’m taking with these headcanons). So The Halloween Bash has to take place before Ski Trip. No one in this episode makes any reference to knowing Rose’s identity, so it works out just fine.

 February 2005

The Ski Trip

Valentine’s Day was actually on a Monday in 2005, so presumably this episode takes place the weekend of February 11-13.

 March 2005

The Egg/The Heist

Easter was on March 27 in 2005. This is how I know The Hunted takes place during the Autumnal Equinox; Rose was still in the city during Easter weekend, a week after the Vernal Equinox.

Eye of the Beholder Ring Around the Dragon Jake Takes the Cake

 May 2005

Fu and Tell/Flight of the Unicorn

Flight of the Unicorn takes place on Memorial Day, which was May 30th that year

 May/June (or September) 2005

Keeping Shop

Hong Kong Nights

I know Jeff Goode’s website says this is the last episode of season one, but I absolutely cannot accept any episode besides The Hunted as the season finale, so I’m just gonna recognize that the council has made a decision, but elect to ignore it.

 September 2005

The Hunted

The Autumnal Equinox in 2005 was on September 22

 Late November/Early December 2005

Half Baked

Jake says it’s been three months since Rose left. It couldn’t be exactly three months, because that would place this episode in late December, and school would be out for the holidays. So presumably it’s late November or early December, and Jake is rounding up when he says three months.

The Academy

This one would pretty much have to take place very soon after Half Baked, like within a week or two.

 Late December 2005

Breakout

This episode establishes that 88 and 89 are in the city working as apprentices to the Huntsman, so it has to take place before the Christmas episode, which they also appear in.

Hairy Christmas

January/February 2006

(Most of these don’t actually have to take place in January or February, aside from Dreamscape and Fool’s Gold. The rest could be pretty much any time during Jake’s 7th grade year. I’m just trying to stick to Jeff Goode’s chronology, and keep at least some of the episodes in the order he listed.)

Hero of the Hourglass Bring It On Family Business Something Fishy This Way Comes The Doppelganger Gang Dreamscape Fool's Gold

 February 2006

The Love Cruise

They never explicitly say it’s Valentine’s Day, but the whole concept of the Love Cruise seems like something a school would do for Valentine’s Day. Also adds an extra layer of heartbreak, because it means Jake and Rose’s breakup happened on the one-year anniversary of Jake finding out Rose was Huntsgirl. Ouch. February has not been kind to Jake.

On the other hand, I’d prefer to headcanon that Jake and Rose got to spend the whole summer together before their breakup, going on dream dates every night and not having to set their alarms for school in the morning (can we just let them be happy for a little while? PLEASE?!?!?!?), so maybe the Love Cruise wasn’t on Valentine’s Day, and instead was just some random school event at the beginning of their 8th grade year.

 May 2006

Feeding Frenzy

They spend three days visiting Jake’s family, so it’s either Memorial Day weekend, spring break, or summertime. Most likely Memorial Day or spring break, since Jake says in this episode that he’s been the American Dragon for a year and a half.

 May/June 2006

A Befuddled Mind The Rotwood Files Haley Gone Wild Switcheroo

This one takes place after The Love Cruise, because Jake and Rose’s recent breakup is a minor plot point, so it only takes place at this point if we headcanon Love Cruise taking place in February.

Young At Heart

I know this is supposed to be a later episode, but going by this timeline, Jake would be 15 for most of his 8th grade year, and in this episode Jake, Trixie, and Spud talk about being 14, so it has to take place during 7th grade

 Summer between 7th and 8th grade

A Ghost Story

 Late September/Early October 2006

Homecoming

I never went to public school (I was unfortunately homeschooled), but it’s my understanding that middle schools don’t do Homecoming. So my headcanon is that it was actually just a junior high prom or something, but a few students on the planning committee approached Sun Park and begged her to let them model it after the Homecoming dances at their older siblings’ high schools. Sun was delighted by their enthusiasm, so of course she agreed.

 Any time during their 8th grade year

Supernatural Tuesday Siren Says Shaggy Frog Nobody's Fu Game On Bite Father, Bite Son Magic Enemy #1

 February 2007

Year of the Jake

Chinese New Year was on February 18th in 2007

 March 2007

Furious Jealousy

Trixie and Spud put together a Daylight Savings themed school event, so this episode takes place either in October of 06 or March of 07. We’ll go with March because it’s closer to the end of the series.

 June 2007

Being Human

Haley and Gramps both say in this episode that Jake is 14, but he would actually be 15 by this point (even if my whole timeline is wrong and he actually is a Pisces, he still would’ve had his 15th birthday already). Presumably the writers just weren’t paying close enough attention to their established timeline, but the in-universe explanation is…sometimes family members forget your age; my best friend keeps saying her youngest sister is 15, when in fact her sister is turning 17 this year. Sometimes you lose track.

 Summer after 8th grade

The Hong Kong Longs

Presumably this episode takes place around July or August, which means Jake and his friends would be almost 16 by this point (and Rose would be almost 15, assuming my headcanon about her being a year younger than them is accurate).

[rairii]

dumbassrights replied to your post “After the election fraud that happened in Bolivia was uncovered and...”

hey! are you bolivian? can you explain bolivians situation right now? everything i see is outsiders opinions and i know that i can't really trust that. if you can't, thats fine, thank you!

Hello! Yes I am Bolivian, though I currently live in a different South American country, but I’ve been keeping in touch with my family with WhatsApp and I try to keep up with the basic news from back home, so I think I can explain the basics.

The basic start is with Evo Morales, a cocalero (coca leaf grower) who became a politician and came to power as president in 2006. He’s the first indigenous president of Bolivia (he is Aymara), and when he came to power was widely seen as a game changer, destroying the oligarchical, upper white class hold on Bolivian politics. He was received with much fanfare, including from white leftists, who were keen on a president who would enact social reform and change and concentrate on helping reduce poverty and racism. I was too young to vote back then, but the majority of my family voted for Evo. He was... he was hope. It’s hard to explain. We thought it was the turning point. Finally, an indigenous president, someone who knew discrimination first hand and would be able to listen to the many indigenous peoples of our country. Someone who would fight imperialism, and the scars of colonialism.

He managed to do some good things. If I remember correctly, education spending and welfare spending increased, he increased the taxes on many companies, such as hydrocarbons, allowing the state to invest more and have less of a deficit. Bolivia also received an economic boom unrelated to his actions and policies (it had more to do with the price of minerals, since Bolivia is a mining country, and so on and so forth), so for a while poverty did reduce and the middle class grew. He also increased the number of indigenous and campesino (farmer/rural lands) representatives and their influence in politics.

However, as time went on, Evo’s party began to systematically remove any opposition they could, with many political leaders jailed for charges of tax evasion and the like. There is a lot of shady stuff going around that topic, and it’s too much to get into in a short explanation. It turned out that the party sought to remove any rising leadership, even within their party, that could threaten Evo’s dominance. His party also began to stack the legislative branch and pushing new judges through, setting up people who’d be grateful to him and thus legislate in his favor. While this was happening, MAS, the party’s social base, expanded their power and influence in other ways.

Now, the actual constitutional fuckery that angered a lot of leftists. He had the constitution rewritten in 2008 and it was approved in 2009, which had really mixed opinions from people, though I personally liked that he changed the name of “Republic of Bolivia” to “Plurinational State of Bolivia” to recognize the indigenous nations of Bolivia. The constitution maintained its two term limit for the presidency, but the thing was, he claimed that since there was a new constitution, his first mandate/government no longer counted, and he got it approved legally that he could run two more times again, which he did. Which like. What the fuck?

In the process, we began seeing cracks in his pro-indigenous, pro-environmental discourse. For example, he ignored and overulled the indigenous peoples of TIPNIS, a national park and indigenous territory, when they legally stated that they did not want a highway built through their lands, because it would bring in deforestation and cocaleros who are known for deforestation. He basically steamrollered over this, despite indigenous peoples of the TIPNIS walking all the way to the city of La Paz to make protests. He began to approve infrastructure projects that would destroy natural spaces, including hydroelectric dams that can and will flood Madidi, one of the most important national parks and biodeverse areas of Bolivia. And so on and so forth, he began to act in such a way that was at odds with the platform he ran, betraying indigenous peoples and Pachamama (mother earth) at every turn. He also never took any reasonable criticism in stride, blaming it all on American Imperialism.

However, because of MAS’ stronghold and no unity among the opposition, Evo ran two more terms after his first (including the third which really shouldn’t have been legally recognized), and he stated that after his third he wouldn’t stay in power.

If you guessed that he changed his mind or was lying, you’re right.

He called for a national referendum in 2016 for whether he should be allowed to run for a fourth term, but he lost the referendum, which voted “No”, though it was a narrow margin. And instead of respecting the will of the Bolivian people, he ignored it and pushed himself forward as a candidate for the next (these) elections, to the point that he pushed so that the Supreme Tribunal of Justice would rule that the constitution was inconstitutional (wtf) because it did not respect his right to reelection (wtf) and decided that no public office would have a term limit. I hope I don’t have to explain why that is just. A horrible decision for democracy. Term limits exist for a reason. It’s so no one person can get a stranglehold on power. After this it became clear to us that he had become enamoured with power, and was mainly seeking to establish himself in power indefinitely, which well, it pissed a lot of us off. It was heartbreaking too. To see someone we’d pinned our hopes on becoming... a dictator.

This finally brings us to three weeks ago, when the general elections were held. Now, in Bolivia, we have it so that any winner of the presidential elections has to have at least 10% points more than the guy in second place, or we go into a second round of elections between the higher scoring candidates. And as the official electoral authority reported throughout most of the counting process as results came in, Evo didn’t have the 10% lead needed to avoid a second round, and statistically even if the remaining votes were majority Evo, he wouldn’t be able to get the 10% needed. Also, the remaining votes were City votes, and the cities are in general, not Evo supporters anymore. Until at around 80% of all votes counted, the website and reporting of the electoral authority just. Stopped. It cut off. It cut off for 24 hours, during which the government first claimed that oh, it’d had some technical difficulties, and then (this part I actually don’t understand, so I’m paraphrasing what I maybe undersood) claimed that because some voting places had finished counting already, so they wouldn’t have two places reporting results, they stopped the main authority. Which like.

That’s really fucking fishy.

So people were really suspicious, and when the authority began reporting again those 24 hours later, reporting that oh, actually, Evo had won with the required 10%, a lot of people didn’t believe it. This smelled like electoral fraud. So people began gathering to protest because Evo shouldn’t have been running in the first place and now he wanted us to take this lie and swallow it.

Evidence came out over the next few days about electoral fraud: non-Evo vote ballots were found in trash bins, and the official databases of the electoral authority were found to have “irregularities” that all favoured Evo. People got pissed even as Evo claimed that it was imperialist forces and that the counts were all valid and legit and transparent. But the damage was done. Bolivians took to the streets in big numbers to protest and froze the cities, stopping transport and literally putting the cities in a standstill, only letting emergency services and food trucks coming to the supermarkets through so people could live. The protesters in the cities began to get threats, because Evo began trying to sell these protests as “the racist cities trying to stamp the rural vote”, from Evo supporters, that they’d shut the water supplies to the city off. Counter protesters began massing too. Clashes happened. Evo supporters were pushed out of the city of Cochabamba, but they set fire to the grasses around a city landmark and place of pride because they wanted to give a last fuck you. MAS supporters attacked hospitals that had protesters and even the doctors and nurses who weren’t supporting MAS. Photo and video evidence, and people coming forward, showed that the government was paying people to counter protest. The protesters were mostly non-violent, but there were clashes when the police wasn’t able to keep people separated. One mayor near Cochabamba was found to have paid two thugs to beat up protesters, to the point that one young man of 18ish was thought to be dead, and her hair was cut off and she was sprayed red - supposedly by protesters, but now there are cliams of people from her town that it was her own people that did it to make the protesters look bad. (My opinion? It could be either at this point, I don’t know). The protesters wore the Bolivian flag and called for democracy to be respected. The Evo supporters primarily wore the party flag, and got their hands on dynamite that they set off on streets to intimidate protesters. Protesters have died at the hands of Evo supporters - I haven’t heard of one case of dead Evo supporters. The police started to get unhappy, because they didn’t want to throw tear gas at the people protesting. To try and sweeten them, the goverment paid a bonus... but it turned out the bonus money was taken from the police officer’s pension. Police departments began to ... not sure if mutiny is the right word, but to defy the government, in several cities.

At first, people were pushing for a second round of elections, but when we realized that actually, legally, when there is fraud of a significant impact the elections have to be annuled and new ones held, and the people who did the fraud jailed, the movements began to call for new elections completely, with a new electoral authority that could be trusted.

In the meantime, the military was quiet and not sent out to repress anything even after the police began to rebel, with military subordinates presenting letters that they would not repress the people, while it was known that military high command is pro Evo.

While this was going on, the OEA, The Organization of American States, had issued from the start of the 24 hour blackout from the electoral authority that they had concerns about the election process. Evo ended up accepting an audit from OEA representatives, and said that he’d stand by their resolution. When they finally came out with a report saying there were serious irregularities in the election that cast it into doubt, he called it politically motivated, but did call for new elections...

Then the high commander of the military said Evo should resign so that the country can be peaceful again. And a few hours ago Evo presented his resignation to the presidency.

It’s not over by a long shot - we need to establish a transparent, trustworthy electoral process in record time and hold new elections, and people are afraid that Evo will take back his resignation, and Evo incited his supporters in his resignation speech - but we’ve managed to get this far after three weeks of non spot protests.

There’s a lot more going on, a lot of context I’ve skipped, on Evo, on the political opposition - including Camacho, a religious right wing religionalism whose gotten a worrying amount of support with the protests in reaction to Evo’s excesses - but so far, I am proud of Bolivia. We’ve not let a wanna-be dictator establish himself. Now we just need a good left wing leader to help build us up to the promise that Evo gave us, and to stand strong against right wing pendulum reactionaries.

I leave you with the protest chants that spread in Bolivia these past three weeks

Quien se cansa? Who gets tired? NADIES SE CANSA! NOBODY GETS TIRED! Quien se rinde? Who gives up? NADIES SE RINDE! NOBODY GIVES UP! Evo de nuevo? Evo again? HUEVO CARAJO! [Pun involving the word egg, which sounds like Evo, and a swear word that doesn’t have a translation]

[ddpej]

I didn’t want to flood the CrossingsCon post with cross-stitch facts, but the fishy taijitu pictured below my carp myth poem has some interesting things happening so I will talk about those here!  It may get long, because I ramble, so: variegations, beads, and thread alchemy with Kreinik under the cut (with pictures!).

The pattern I used here is “Fish in a Whirl”, by Rania Khan, whose website is sadly no longer functional.  It was written as all one color, just black on white; I added color mostly because I was given some translucent beads and I wanted to play with them.  I genuinely didn’t realize until I was halfway through stitching the water that I had essentially turned it into a taijitu!

My original idea for this piece was to do the whole thing in bead fills, but I decided after about ten blue beads that I didn’t like that look for the water.  Instead, I stitched the blue parts in all one variegated ‘color’, which I am pretty sure was DMC’s 121.  The ‘normal’ DMC variegations have long, slow color transitions, so I did put a little effort into following the general curl of the swirls and making sure that there were no abrupt color changes inside a swirl when starting a new thread.  Otherwise, though, this part was the simplest.

After the water, I started in on the fish, and again got about ten beads into a front fin before deciding I hated the visual texture of it for fins and taking the beads back out.  At this point I did finally find a braincell and use it; I took some time to do a few mockups and thinking about where beads might actually fit nicely, and what I might do instead do for the parts where it didn’t.  Having only the one braincell, I came away with half a plan rather than a whole one -- but that was more than I’d had prior!

I started with the fins because a) I knew I was going to just do them plain, and b) I only had one skein of the variegation I wanted to use, which I figured I could fake in the beading if I ran out but would not be able to fake well alone!  I believe that orangey variegation was DMC’s Color Variations 4120.  The CVs are a much tighter, faster color shift than the regular variegations, and I liked having that visual interest and contrast with the more languid water one.

After the fins, finally, I did beads for real!  I needed to do a diagonal bead attachment just so the beads would fit; I think they’re size 11/0, which really only works on 14ct fabric and even then they’re a little big for the squares.  For single scattered beads, that doesn’t matter, and for single-width lines of beads it only matters a little, but for full fills it matters a lot!  So diagonal it was, which means that I was threading the beads on the first leg and then splitting the second leg over the beads to secure them.  Because the beads are just slightly too large, even in a diagonal arrangement they make each scale ever-so-slightly concave, which is a cool extra little bit of texture!  I did end up rotating my fabric 90 degrees for the beadwork, to stitch the ‘wrong’ way compared to the unbeaded parts, because I wanted the bead direction to match the angle of the fish.  (Never let the ‘rules’ of cross-stitch prevent you from doing what works for your project!)

It doesn’t look like it in the finished project, but the beads I used are a very true yellow.  With translucent beads, the color of the thread can make quite a difference!  The variation in the CV 4120 didn’t really show through overtly, since the variation is more color-to-color than light-to-dark.  That worked in my favor though, because I did indeed run out of the CV 4120 about 2/3s through the beading.  When I got down to my last yard or so, I started interspersing strands of the closest-matching bits from DMC 51, so that I had a gradual transition between the two.

Once the body of the fish was all beaded, I had to finally figure out my plan for the head -- which I’d been putting off, because I just wasn’t sure what to do.  I wanted the general look of the beads, but not the texture that came with them!  In a fit of honestly inexplicable inspiration, I managed to perform thread alchemy: I turned DMC 3852 + 742 plus Kreinik 001J (which I haven’t touched in years) into exactly what I wanted, on the very first try.  I still have no idea how.  I honestly can’t even remember picking the colors!

The end result does definitely have less shine/gleam/brightness compared to the beads, which is no surprise since the beads have an opalescent coating.  That tends to make the head look slightly darker in full photos, but in person the color is very true and the sparkle from the Kreinik is more evident, so that from a distance it very much looks like the same thing but flat.  I finished it off with a dark blue eye to complete the taijitu effect, and that was that!

At 100 stitches per side on 14ct fabric, this piece ended up being 7.25in square -- on the large side, for me!  I don’t really know what I’ll end up doing with it; I don’t have framing supplies and would need to pay to get it framed by someone, but if I ever do so I could enter it into that year’s state fair I suppose?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[queerbutstillhere]

Addressing the Batman Conspiracy theories, on the Wayne Family true crime podcast.

(this is based off of my post. I just had fun with this, and yes it's very chaotic. I hope it makes sense!)

"Welcome, listeners, to this months episode of the Wayne Family Circus-"

"That is NOT what it is called and you know it!"

"Okay okay! Shut up Tim!"

There was a hard cut in the audio. You, the listener, smile and put your car into reverse, backing out of your parking spot, you had a long drive to get home, and hopefully this new podcast will entertain you.

"As I was saying! Welcome to episode seven of Crime In Our Midst - I still hate that name - today we are discussing our most requested case. The Mysterious Batman. We will be discussing where he came from, and conspiracy theories involving him," the voice said, ending with a hum. "Today, I am your host, and for anyone who doesn't know, I'm Dick Grayson, the eldest Wayne child. To my left is our illustrious father, and number one theory for today, Bruce Wayne."

"Dick, I told you I didn't want-" a new, deeper male voice started.

"Next to him is Jason, the second eldest and the wildcard of the family."

"Sup bi*****," was the voice response.

"Master Jason," an older accented voice inputted.

"Sorry Alfie."

"Then we have Cassandra Cain-Wayne."

"Hello!" A chipper female voice said.

"They can't see you wave, Cass."

"Oh, sorry."

"Tim Drake is also present, as always. Tim have you ever missed an episode?"

"No," a softer male voice said with a hum.

"Even Damian has missed."

"Tt, that is because I have a life, unlike Drake."

"I am literally a CEO-"

"And just then you heard Damian Wayne, our youngest and saltiest member. Say Hi, Damian."

"Salutations," a younger sounding, yet still accented voice said.

"So formal," the host, Dick, said with a laugh. "And always, we are moderated by our Butler and Grandfather, Alfred Pennyworth!"

"Hello, listeners."

"And this week, we are joined by special guest, Barbara Gordon, daughter of Ex-Commissioner, Jim Gordon. He's not here in person, because he said, and I quote, 'This is bs and there's no amount of money you could pay me to be on your weird podcast'. To which I would like to counter, Jim, we most likely could pay that amount of money-"

"Grayson, you're rambling again," Damian said, sounding annoyed.

"Why did Dick get to host this episode?" Jason asked.

"Because it's Bruce didn't want to, so it was my turn next, shut up Jason."

"Come at me!"

There was another hard cut and a few seconds of pause. You chuckled, already enjoying this pointless bickering.

"So. We're going to start at the beginning. Batman, the masked vigilante who guards Gotham and battles crime, appeared way back when in the 2000's. He was considered a criminal for a long time, mostly due to his method of fear and violence, despite that he never killed, and solved countless cold cases - much like we do, if I might add -" Dick started explaining, paper could be heard rustling.

"Yeah but we don't dress up in spandex and go out every night and punch people, Dick."

"Okay, obviously, Jason."

There was muffled sniggering and then a grunt as someone got hit.

"Boys, calm down and let your brother finish explaining."

"Thank you, Bruce!" Dick exclaimed, there was the beginning of a yell and then another audio cut.

"Batman eventually became a founding member of the Justice League of America, alongside heroes such as Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern and the Flash. It was around this time his protege, Robin, joined his side for the first time. Batman would eventually become the hero of our city, stopping criminals such as the Joker, Bane, Harley Quinn, the Riddler, and Poison Ivy, whom we all Stan," Dick's smooth voice continued.

"Dick," Bruce warned.

"Continuing! It is believed that Batman has had five or six different Robin's over the years, including two female ones, though neither were Robin for very long. The Batman has become a international, and even interstellar hero, working with the Green Lantern Corp on many occasions. I don't think I need to go into further detail, as almost everyone knows who the Batman is. Now let's get into theories!"

"Oh, finally," Tim said, followed by a muffled yawn.

"Shush, Drake. Let Grayson finish talking."

"Now most the theories are about Batman's secret identity or where he came from, right? And obviously the number one theory is that Bruce Wayne, our dear daddy here, is Batman."

"Do not ever say those words again," Jason groaned out.

"I most likely will."

"Can we all just agree this theory is absolute bulls***?"

"Damian!"

"I am speaking the truth father. I live with you, I can confidentially say you do not spend your nights running around Gotham unless it is in a sports car with some annoying woman-"

"Master Damian."

"My apologies Alfred."

"Can I give the evidence?!" Dick exclaimed.

There was mocking noises, and yet ANOTHER hard audio cut.

"So the main source of evidence is that Bruce Wayne and Batman have never been seen together. Which isn't true, because I have seen, and there is photographic evidence of such, which of course, you can find on our website!"

"The second evidence is something about them having the same a**, which I would rather not go into because of obvious reasons. Third, is all of us kids, somebody on Reddit mapped out all of our arrivals with in a years time of the Robin's arrival, and they think that we are the Robin's."

"Implausible. Have you seen Drake? He couldn't be a Robin, he'd snap right in half. And the second Robin died in an explosions, wouldn't that be Jason?" Damian countered.

"There actually was a kid Bruce fostered for a bit named Jason that actually died in an accident," Dick explained. "People think that Jason is the Robin."

"So we're not going to discuss the fact that you had another kid named Jason?"

"Jason, we've already discussed this a million times, I did not bring you into the family because of your name-"

"Can I continue?!"

"Please," A female voice piped in, Cass.

"Okay, the rest of the evidence is just kinda, fishy, I guess? Someone reports having heard Bruce actively state he was Batman as an excuse to not be on a jury duty, but let's be honest, who hasn't? Lastly is that Bruce Wayne disappears a lot around the time big things are happening, which is quote 'awfully coincidentally.' but circumstantial. An example of this is about five years back, Batman and Bruce Wayne both disappeared for a week, and then when Batman came back, he was reportedly 'different, more cheerful, and more charming. Less threatening', while Bruce Wayne remainder missing. Nearly a year later, Bruce Wayne returned, and Batman once again became gruff and intimidating. Shall we discuss this theory?"

"I don't see what we need to discuss," Damian grumbled.

"It's really not good evidence, but it is a good theory," Tim chipped in.

Jason spoke next. "I haven't been here for long, so it seems plausible to me."

"Jason!"

"What?!"

More bickering. Audio cut. This is getting a little weird with all the audio cuts.

"I think we can all agree that Bruce is not Batman," Cass said finally.

"Dad thinks the Bruce Wayne theory is dumb, and he's been working with Batman since year two. They're nothing alike. He suspected Bruce for a few years, but started seeing them in the same room and area and finally had to drop the theory," another female voice spoke, sounding bored.

"See? So, not plausible, moving on," Damian said dismissively.

The next theory was about some random middle aged man, the whole team thought this one wasn't terribly plausible either.

The third theory was that Batman was some type of alien, and this caused a lot of loud bickering and arguing.

The final theory was that Batman was a vampire, and all the kids seemed to like this theory, while Bruce was less then amused.

"Okay, Bruce, who do you think the Batman is?" Jason asked the second Dick closed out his presentation.

"I think he's a hero who protects the city and the planet, and had saved my life, and the lives of those closest too me, many times. If he wishes to keep his identity secret, then we should respect that the same way we respect Superman and Wonder Woman."

"Boooooo!" Jason and Tim yelled.

"Come on, Bruce. Really, give us an answer."

"Okay, I can't because I do actually know who it is," Bruce admitted.

"WHAT?" Tim screeched.

"You know who the Batman is and never told us?!" Dick exclaimed.

"Did you really miss his speech just now?" Damian asked with a huff. "He obviously wants to protect The Batman."

"You won't tell us?" Cass asked.

"Nope."

More bickering over this for a moment.

"Okay, how many agree with Vampire theory?" Dick asked.

There was a pause in the audio.

"Okay that's four. Any takers on alien theory? . . . No hands. Smith theory? And that's one. Jason and Damian, do you want to elaborate?"

"I still vote for Bruce Wayne theory," Jason said with a sigh.

"OH MY GOD-"

"OW! BRUCE HE PUNCHED ME!"

"BOYS!"

There was muffled speaking and sounds of hitting.

"Damian?"

"I don't like any of the theories."

"Do you have your own then?"

"Not particularly, but I suppose if I would have to give one. . . I believe the Batman is just some random guy with some behavioral and mental issues, and decided that the best way to combat crime, instead of becoming a police detective, was to put on spandex and Kevlar and a bat mask and theme everything after bats."

Dick chuckled. "Well there you have it folks. We finally tackled the Batman conspiracy, now could you please stop flooding our social medias with requests for it? Take that as you may, but obviously, as Bruce said, even if some of our members may know the identity of the Batman, we will not disclose that information, because it's not ours to give away. It's his choice and his privacy, so do not ask us who he is. We will not tell. Guys, anything to say?"

"I'm tired-"

"Tim you're always tired!"

"Ookaaaay! Anyway, next month is Bruce's turn, since we switched, and as always, we'll be putting up a poll on Twitter to see what case you want us to discuss! Until next time, this is the Wayne family signing off!"

"Goodbye."

"Peace out."

"Farwell."

"Death is inevitable."

"Time is a social construct."

"Children- Thank you for listening!"

"Please free me from this hell-"

"And in all the other ways to say it, Goodbye, and Goodnight!"

And you, dear listener, were left to listen to dead silence for a few minutes until you reached your destination, thoroughly confused, and mildly unsettled.

[missguomeiyun]

Homecookings [Apr. ed]

Hi friends~

Due to the home-cation during the 1st little bit of April, I actually had time to do more ‘extensive’ cooking/posts so the content in this post will be quite limited...

But here we go!

Good ol’ spaghetti + PC brand flatbread (the chicken one that I didn’t enjoy......)

This was an interesting snack. Have you tried shrimp crackers by Nongshim brand? This had similar vibes to that but thinner chips & a diff ‘taste’ bcos it’s fish-flavoured haha I got a bag for myself, & also gave a bag to the nieces so try. They did not like this! I thought it was okay; not my favourite but I finished it all anyway. It was my Penthouse snack :P

I don’t know why I thought this package of zucchinis was cute. ..

I have deonjang (Korean soy bean paste) soup with the zucchini, tofu, imitation lobster meat, & underneath that, there was also some napa cabbage. To add some extra flavour, I added gochu powder & some salted shrimp sauce.

Another zucchini in soup lunch.. . no, I’m not on a diet haha I actually had more of this soup in my pot; I just scooped out this much for the photo. For this soup, I had zucchini, tofu, imitation lobster meat as well as fish cake. I personally liked this one better than the previous. Some ppl may not like it bcos of the added fish cakes, making the soup “fishy” but I am a huge fan of the fish cakes! Paired it with some radish & injeolmi!

[where my injeolmi came from] This was from the small bakery section at the U of A location of Hmart. I haven’t had injeolmi for such a longgggg time.

Breakfast after a long stretch >.< I needed to reward myself haha

Jjajang-ddeokbokki. Instead of the traditional spicy version of ddeokbokki, I’ve been making this more often nowadays (aka the black bean sauce version). This has become one of my regular lunches bcos I’ve figured out a way to cook this so that when I microwave it the next day, the rice cakes are still chewy (not soaked/soggy). I have tried bringing the regular spicy ddeokbokki for lunch before & for some reason, it just. .. never worked out the way I wanted it to be. I’ve tried diff brands of rice cakes etc... I’ve experimented with it a handful of times. However, it seems to work with the black bean sauce o_O I’m not sure why. This is the day-off lunch version but basically if I’m making some for work lunch the next day, I actually undercook the rice cakes & save the extra sauce in a separate container. Before I head out to work, I pour the sauce into my rice cake-containing container (to prevent overnight soaking). & while I’m at work, I heat it up like.. . hardcore! For like 3mins... (bcos some microwaves at work are old & not very ‘strong’). The rice cakes are bouncy & while it’s being microwaved, they actually take up some of the liquid/sauce! SUCCESS!!!

Another drama snack~ This was my snack while I was watching the Kdrama “Cheat On Me, If You Can.” Not as good as Penthouse but I was also really into it & finished it in a few days. This snack was interesting- while the flavour was meh, I was actually in love with the shape/texture. It was rotini-shaped, & the texture was puffy!

Beef seasoning~

Yes, more zucchini. .. I legit ate all 3 by myself over the span of 4-5 days haha oh no, my mom used about half in a stir-fry one evening so I guess I ate 2.5 zucchinis. Anyway, I used the above beef seasoning for this soup that consisted of zucchini, napa cabbage, regular green cabbage, minute amount of onion. Yes, it was vegetarian.

Laksa vermicelli noodles. YES MORE ZUCCHINI! I swear this is the last one lol but I needed to use it up bcos prior to cracking open the saran wrap/packaging, it was actually sitting in the fridge for almost a week already so I needed to use it all up like fast! Anywho, I threw away the package of laksa soup base that I used here but it was by the Asian Home Gourmet brand. I used the entire package, diluted with half:half chicken broth & water for my soup. It was delicious! For toppings, I had my zucchini, napa cabbage, baby clams & a variety of fish balls.

This was interesting. I will likely make this again NOT bcos it was particularly “tasty”, but iuno. .. the combo of textures was just great! I had buttered toast, a single layer of yellow radish, mashed up imitation lobster meat (did not add anything to it), & then furikake. It was like crunchy & soft, & just, overall, a burst of diff flavours in one bite!

Korean fried chicken by MEEEEEEE~ I have gotten rid of the double-frying practice bcos it takes too long & too much effort. Now I do the wet-dry batter method, & the outcome is equally as crispy! ^^

If we buy these frozen lasagnas, it’s always the PC brand, but we have this Western Family brand this time.

Looks like this... o_O wasn’t impressed.. . Why is there so much ice!?

I don’t have a finished photo bcos it was so sad... why?

I used microwave method, & . .. it turned out to be such a big mess =(  it become so liquid-y & everything was just. .. melted down. I think it was bcos of the water content, plus the extra ice that dripped onto the pasta. Anyway, flavour was good but nothing crazy! Will be sticking to the PC brand :P

My version of mapo-tofu. I have satay sauce + bulgogi sauce, diced green cabbage, eggplant & tofu! Topped with a gochu powder~ YUM!

& now I wanna talk about my vaccine with you all~ if you’re not interested, check out my Etsy shop here instead! https://www.etsy.com/shop/OneOfAKo

Okay, so my vaccine story.. .

1st of all, a little bit of background in regards to my province’s C*vid situation .. . long story short, it’s NOT good. To be fair, I’m in-and-out of tuning in to the daily updates; I look once every few days &. .. yeah, it’s just NOT good! We are hitting record numbers; surpassing the worst numbers in the 2nd wave.. . I don’t get it >.< I’m not sure why the numbers are so high despite ppl are getting vaccinated *shrugs* but I think everyone should go get vaccinated if you are eligible to!

Right now, in this province, there are 2 routes of getting vaccinated: select pharmacies & via provincial health services.

When I was eligible to book (I’m in health care but not front line so I just got the eligibility this month!), I went thru the pharmacy options that were closest to me. Why? Bcos it was convenient by location. I read into it a little more, & realized that I’ll be placed on a general waiting list. I ended up signing myself up for 1 pharmacy, where the location was TBD until they actually confirm my appointment, which they say, could be weeks to months down the line! O_O In any case, I just left it as is bcos there was no way to cancel being on the wait list.

In the meantime, immediately after I did the pharmacy registration, I went on the AHS website. Did the questionnaire & got the ‘final page’, where they gave a date/time option with a 10minute timer running so you have 10 minutes to finalize your booking. Except when I hit “confirm”, the next page said, “this time has been taken”. So I had to go thru the whole process again. And again. I clicked the “confirm” 3 times, & finally got a date/time for my vaccination! YAY!

Went to my vaccination appointment ~10mins before my scheduled time. There was a "greeting” table, where I was required to change into a new (provided) medical mask. Then I was instructed to line up for the sign-in table, where the staff at the desk asked for my 2 pieces of ID. I was also given the vaccination record form. After that, I went into another line to actually enter the vaccination room. At my location, it was a small-ish room with about 10 vaccine administrators. There was a girl who was monitoring the “ppl flow” from the line to the vaccination station. A little more info was given by my administrator, & a final “do you want to get the vaccine today?”. The shot itself was short, & to me, painless. Then everyone had to move to a waiting room, where we had to wait around for 15mins to make sure we don’t get an allergic reaction. This room was the PROBLEM! It was SO small & spaces between chairs was only about a meter! It was stuffy in the mask AND in the room. I could FEEL it. It was very bad! & worse of all, the number of ppl who got their vaccines exceeded the number of ppl exiting the room, so when I was there in a chair, there were ppl standing along the wall & the room got even more crowded. This part was the worse part of the experience =/ 15mins done, & I was able to leave!

So yeah, glad to have the privilege to be vaccinated (about time!), but I don’t know why our numbers keep climbing >.< Cooperate, ppl!!!

[cherry3point14]

Stranger Than Fanfiction: Ch 3

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Dean x Reader Warnings: Meta baby. Pure meta. Word count: 2,100. Chapter Summary: Your google search turns up something unexpected. A/N: No author in this one for... reasons. Also this one is kind of short and lame. A means to an end if you will, but trust me, Ch 4 is a doozy. P.S it’s nearly 3am so Chapter 4 will be up when I wake up, ya dig.

Ao3 if you prefer

It’s almost funny how dramatic the voice in your head wants to be about those suited criminals and yet it doesn’t care to elaborate on anything important. Like, say, your imminent death. The mention of it was so casual, calm, but a couple of weirdos want to pretend to be insurance adjusters and suddenly it’s all pretty prose and run-on sentences. Flowery language about broad-shouldered men in roaring muscle cars that are going to change your life. She’d kept going while you’d interviewed Maggie Hall. She’d harped on and on about how you couldn’t stop thinking about them.

Of course, you couldn’t stop thinking about them, she wouldn’t shut up about them.

After an entire monologue about the way the paper felt in your hands and could never be replaced by computers—purists are the worst—you finally get to leave. That's when you get some respite. You’re walking out into the late afternoon sun and thanking Maggie for her time and it's bliss. Maggie's story sounds a little off, after years doing this you have this gut instinct for when you should investigate further. Funnily enough, you have drama in your life that you’ll submit a valid claim anyway. Just so you can get this cursed case out of your hair. You might even hurry it through the system before the thing has the chance to kill you.

You’re still not sure how a case could kill you. You’re a pencil pusher at best and the interview with Maggie is an excellent example of the majority of your fieldwork, obviously excluding the criminals at the start. Unless your demise is death by papercut.

For now, you’ve given up trying to fathom out the voice you’re hearing, especially since she's chosen to once again go radio silent. If she won’t say anything useful, like say how not to die, then you were going to have to figure out how to skip ahead on your own. Since she kept talking about the imposters you’d met that day, they seemed to be an excellent place to start.

CNK 80Q3. Ohio plates. That's as much as you know without google.

That evening you set yourself up in the same way you would to work from home. There's a desk in the corner of your dining room with a chair that offers enough lumbar support for the longest of research sessions. Although it’s your personal laptop and there’s not normally a large glass of wine sitting next to you when work.

After it powers on you’re assaulted by the usual pop-ups; windows you forgot to close last time and your emails. Procrastinating is not a new routine, and you’re on a mission, so they all get minimized instead of closed completely. Then you open a new browser window and a stark google homepage stares back at you. A hopeful new beginning.

CNK 80Q3. You’re genuinely surprised that she hasn’t started talking again to describe the change in the air as you type in the plate number. Or some drivel about the way your fingers emphasize each letter and number. It’s all there happening anyway, making the moment foreboding, but your narrator doesn’t seem care.

The first row of results are images. Weirdly its images of the license plate itself. That doesn't strike you as odd at first glance and then you think about it a little more. Why are there so many pictures of this particular license plate? Who is running around taking these pictures? You're pretty sure if you typed in your own plate number there would be no pictures of it. And then you see some shopping results where you can actually buy the plate. While the online shops might explain the images, it only really poses more questions. Why are so many people buying that license plate? What’s so special about it?

You take a sip of your wine before you scroll further, savoring the taste as well as the way it relaxes your shoulders. You don't own any 'fun' novelty coasters that say it but you're inclined to agree with the statement you've heard before. Wine really does make everything better.

You’re not yet into the murky depths of page 2 but you’re far enough down the page now to make it past the sponsored results. These links come thick and fast from websites that all seem to have one word in common. Supernatural.

Then you see your salvation. A page called Supernaturalwiki—the link is simply titled: Impala—and you stop scrolling, a grateful sound slipping past your lips as you do. Wiki, you know that word. Like Wikipedia. Wikipedia has references and moderators', clear and concise explanations. This was the easy way out you were looking for.

That’s what you hope as you click on the link anyway. Your naivety lasts all of twenty seconds before the page loads. With its stock image of a 1967 Chevrolet Impala, and a quote about it being the most important object in the universe.

Or it's the most important object in some books at least.

Further clicking and longer sips of wine reveal it’s a series of books called Supernatural—with the title of the wiki you should have seen that coming. These were story after story of ghosts and demons and angels? There are pages that describe monsters, urban legends, and two men. Sam and Dean Winchester. They each have dedicated pages with their whole lives mapped out.

Sam and Dean are fictional brothers and apparently the heroes. Each of their respective profiles begins with an illustrated image from book covers, and then a series of quotes that contradict those pictures. Then their lives are intricately detailed, or should you say they are chronologically recorded according to each book. You would read their histories in full if it wasn't for how tiny the scroll bar is, indicating that these profile pages are ridiculously long.

You sit back in your chair and take a deep breath in the hopes of it being soothing. Or answering all your questions. It does neither. You have no answers and more stress.

This went beyond two men pretending to do your job now. Those guys were driving around in a car with fictional license plates. What was this? Some weirdly immersive cosplay? Was that something Sam and Dean did in the books?

Even so, those two guys weren’t roleplaying at comic con, they were actually in that woman's home. If you hadn't arrived they could have done anything. They could be doing anything now.

There's a ding from the kitchen which means the frozen meal you’d thrown in the oven is ready. Not that you stop thinking about this while you go and grab it because the more you think the less sense everything makes. Like why is a narrator who, until now, was obsessed with those guys, so very silent all of a sudden?

Back at your desk with hot food, you head back to google to see if you can buy these books anywhere because knowledge is power. Unfortunately, not even Amazon has copies. It’s only when you add the term “ebook” to your search do you find a Tumblr blog with links to download all the files, split into two categories. Published and unpublished. There are a lot of Supernatural books and from the looks of it there’s an equal amount of drama over how the unpublished ones got out.

You start downloading them without consciously making a decision to read them. Downloading kind of happens because your macaroni cheese is too hot for your mouth to handle yet, and your hands still need something to do. Besides you didn’t necessarily need to read all of them, if they were truly terrible you’d delete the files. No harm, no foul. But if this was the only way to get answers then you and your kindle were going to be pretty busy this weekend.

“Morning Laura.” Nobody likes Mondays, yet you have a little bounce in your step having made your usual green tea, got dressed, and driven to work in complete and utter silence. In fact, you’d heard nothing all weekend. The caveat was that, yes, you’d spent all weekend reading those books.

You liked reading and without discrimination. Trashy romance novels at the airport? You betcha. Fantasy books thicker than your mattress? Sure thing, order a pizza. But a mystery? Well, those were your favorite. Of course, the detective needed some sort of sketchy backstory and there had to be a fishy amount of red herrings. Most importantly there had to be something to solve. It was an elevation of your day to day life and you always get sucked in. In your job, you try to solve the most benign mysteries; people faking insurance claims. More often than not there isn’t even a mystery to solve, someone really did slip and break something. So, a mystery that grabs you out of nowhere is like a promotion for you, a challenge.

That had been how those Supernatural books had dragged you in. Ghosts and ghouls you could take or leave, you might have stopped reading if that’s all there was. Then this Carver Edlund went and put in that damn side plot about their missing father. It was too enticing, addicting. From the cryptic disappearance to the indecipherable journal of clues. John Winchester would be the death of you.

Or case 24-01 would be. The jury was still out on that.

And now it’s Monday. You’ve heard nothing more from the voice in your head—it may have been a low-level case of carbon monoxide poisoning—and the boys are so close to figuring everything out you can taste it. Technically they know John is alive by now, you finished Shadow some point yesterday afternoon and felt yourself choke up at the emotional goodbye with a father they just got back. But they still have no clue what he's up to, which is a hideous funhouse mirror reflection of your own life. Hopefully, by the time they figure out John’s game plan, you'll have your life figured out too. And fingers crossed figuring everything out will involve staying alive as well.

“You look like you’re feeling better this morning.” Laura is her perky self, always a little too happy for this side of 9am.

Oh right, you went home sick on Friday. You should remember things like that. “I think it was a bug or something I ate maybe.”

“Sure, sure. One of those convenient Friday bugs.” She winks at you.

If she accused you of that say, last week, you’d have laughed it off given that's a thing everyone has in common; trying to skip out on work. So, that's what you try to do this side of the weekend. You push out something that hopefully resembles a regular person's laugh like you’re in on the joke. You have to fake it because you’re still thinking about Providence. The book you’d finished that morning instead of watching the news. You’re still wondering if Sam is starting to move on after Jessica. 

Needless to say, you understand now. The many fan blogs and the artwork you’d glanced at before you started reading. All those things that you’d disregarded as an unhealthy fascination for a bunch of books. Now you’re one of them, obsessed. Walking into the office with your kindle tucked in your bag and Salvation just begging to be read.

This goes beyond finding John. That plot got its hooks in you but you’ve known John was alive since Home and you’re still reading. You could also blame this on your general love of reading except it goes beyond that too. Honestly, it’s hard to pick one thing. They’re really great books. Sam and Dean have such turbulent lives but they still have each other. They’re snarky, lost, angry, and caring. They’re both so different but the sibling relationship is so real. And the stories go beyond a new monster every book, there are these huge interesting story arcs that you couldn't stop reading if you tried. John Winchester had been the first example of these addictive plot points, but not the only one.

“Y/N?”

You snap your head up, “sorry, sorry.”

“I was only saying you’re going to be here all day then, lunch?”

Even though Laura must see the decision on your face she still pretends to hope until you start speaking. “Actually I have a lot to catch up on so I’ll probably be working through. Tomorrow?”

She smiles brightly and nods, “sure thing.”

As bad as you feel about lying to Laura she has presented you an opportunity. Everyone thinks you were sick on Friday. They even think you're behind on your work and they don’t know you’ve already conducted the initial interview. Which makes your decision to sit at your desk and prop your kindle up next to your screen even easier. Nobody would notice the difference between you concentrating or reading. If you skip lunch you might be able to get to Bloodlust out of the way too.

Continue to Chapter 4.

5eva tags: @divadinag @darthdeziewok @fluentinfiction @witch-of-letters @supernatural-teamfreewillpage @magnitude101999 @alexwinchester23  Dean babes: @thewinchesterchronicles @akshi8278​ @bloodydaydreamer StrangerThanFiction tags: @jaylarkson

[stahl-tier]

My horrible Odyssey to install Git LFS on my Synology NAS

So this is a bit different content from what I usually post. But I NEEDED an outlet for this incredible buildup of frustration that I had to deal with for the past WEEK. The objective seemed easy when I decided to start this terrible journey:

Install Git LFS on a Synology NAS disk station.

The Status Quo

My friend and I wanted to work on a Unity project together, so "normal" Git, I was told, would not suffice. It had to be LFS. We looked into other options before, but I thought "Hey, why not use the readily available NAS I have? Why use external, even paid services if we can just use a homebrew solution?" And that's where the descent into madness started.

I have a DS418j, not the most advanced or expensive model. It is important to note that I went into this as a completely clueless person.

I never used Git via console commands. My knowledge of Git was generally very limited. Even at the end of all this, I still BARELY know how to set up a repository and interact with it.

I had no idea what LFS even really does.

I only had very rudimentary knowledge of how to operate my NAS via its user interface.

I never interacted with a Linux console before. It turned out that I would be doing that a lot.

A Walk in the Park?

At first, everything seemed pretty straightforward, to be honest. I googled the simple task of setting up Git on a Synology NAS. The first result was already pretty helpful.

It seemed like all I had to do was set up a new user on my NAS ("gituser"), also install the available "Git Server" from the NAS's user interface. And "WebDAV", another package that could be installed via the interface.

WebDAV, as I found out, was a key component in my journey. It was a bit of a struggle to set up, but it appeared to be important in the process of connecting to my NAS via HTTPS. And probably other things that I still have no idea about. I didn't even know why I'm installing WebDAV in the first place, because I intended to use Git via SSH. Which another setting in my NAS would provide - the Terminal setting in the system settings. That's where I enabled SSH via port 22.

Well, my friend then told me that we cannot use LFS via SSH. Okay, I thought, that's what WebDAV is for, after all.

The Git Server had very few options, which seemed fishy to me. It literally only has one window where you set permissions for users. I gave gituser the permission to access it. That was that.

Of course I also needed a shared folder for our repositories ("git"). Creating that was not hard either. Here I noticed that gituser needs to be part of the "administrators" group for Git Server to work properly. But I could not remove it from the "users" group, so things got a bit fucky with permissions. I ended up giving both the administrators and users group a lot more permissions than I was comfortable with. But I trust my friend to not wreak havoc on my NAS for the time being.

So, everything was set up. Or so I thought.

Hitting the first Bump in the Road

I was able to connect to my NAS via SSH only, but didn't think anything of it yet. Doing that, I used Sourcetree to create the first test repo. Went to the NAS interface, checked, it was there and looked good. I could push and pull files. Created a second repo, ran "git lfs install"... and it didn't work.

The lfs command was not known.

I quickly found out that... of course it could not be known. Other than github for example, my NAS did not have LFS pre-setup. So, I concluded, I had to go install LFS on my NAS.

...Easier said than done.

While it does support a console with most regular Linux commands... a package manager is not included. At least none that is easily accessible, or supports any common packages.

At this point I figured "Why deal with this myself?" and contacted Synology support. I asked them "how can I set up Git LFS on my NAS?"

And Synology Support said:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They told me they do not offer support for the console. They said I should go ask the community. Okay.

I did not ask the community, but I did a lot of googling and found out: I could not "just install" LFS. I had to get creative.

We heard you like package managers?

First, I figured out that I need to be able to use the "curl" command. All the binary files on LFS's package cloud were binaries that were apparently downloadable with curl. I did not know what curl was... but I knew I needed to get it working.

I found out that for curl to work, I needed to install PHP on my NAS. Luckily, that was possible via Synology's included package manager. But for PHP to DO anything, I also had to install the "Web Station" and configure my PHP version there. I figured... might as well!

After enabling a couple PHP commands, I felt ready to download LFS. But the question was... which version? What even was my OS?

As it turns out, Synology uses a custom Linux version for their diskstations. Of course, LFS does not "officially" provide a package for that version. I tried the nodeJS version, because I noticed I also have nodeJS installed on my NAS. I ran into the version issue as well, unfortunately, when I tried to install the package through nodeJS. Not even changing my nodeJS version helped. Many hours later, I tried the .deb and .rpm files randomly instead of the nodeJS ones. Those also didn't want to work, despite me eventually figuring out how to lie to them about which OS I'm using.

I was almost ready to give up at that point. I was at least 3 full days into my odyssey already.

But then I spotted something else... A thing called "GoLang". Apparently, it would be possible to download LFS via GoLang. However, to do that, I of course needed to get Go first.

An initial search got me on track to "ipkg", which promised to enable me to install Go. But after reading up on it a bit, it looked woefully outdated. I had it already downloaded and was about to install, but ran into errors and trouble again.

That was when I found "Entware". It's similar to ipkg, but uses "opkg", a similar package manager. I was able to install Entware on my NAS without much trouble, and it contained the Go package that I needed so direly.

While I was at it, I also installed the available "git" and "git-http" packages from opkg, just to make sure. Who knew if they'd come in handy. I don't know if they did, but they also didn't seem to cause any harm.

Now, with Go installed (which went surprisingly smoothly), I was able to access just about anything on the internet and install it on my NAS! Hallelujah!

But if you thought it was over... just look at the scrollbar.

The end of my odyssey was finally in sight. I thought that nothing could go wrong anymore, now! With the help of Go, I was able to install the LFS binary. I was able to run it in my console, too. I was finally able to run "git lfs install".

...and it didn't help.

I got a bunch of errors, again. Instead of getting closer to the solution, it seemed like I just managed to find more obscure errors. Here the important thing about the SSH came in, as well. LFS does not like SSH, from what I found out. But SSH was the only way for me to connect to my NAS from my PC!

In a fury of looking up stuff again, I found the "DDNS" option on my NAS. That would allow me to get a hostname and use it like a normal website address! I kinda rushed through the setup because I had no idea what I was doing.

Well, whatever I did, it seemed to be sufficient. My friend could now connect to my NAS over her Sourcetree client. But when she tried to upload LFS objects, it just didn't work. She got a "404" error.

It wasn't hard to figure out that 404 meant no access in this case - my NAS was simply refusing to show any directory to someone who doesn't have access to it. Cue a long journey into my NAS's interface to make sure the gituser had the right permissions. I also changed the password because I read something about WebDAV being particular about some passwords. I also made a new user to see if maybe I just messed up setting up gituser.

To test if I was making any progress, my friend and I tried to access my NAS via our web browsers. But no matter what we tried, no matter what I tried, we couldn't access. 403 Forbidden or 404 Not Found. Those were the results. I couldn't even access if I used my admin account.

I tried to hack my way into pushing anyway, and only ended up corrupting our repo's history with "missing" and "broken" files because they were never properly uploaded, but LFS thought they were.

It should be noted that I had just accepted that HTTPS won't let me connect on my PC. So I had set up a hotspot for my mobile internet via my phone and used my laptop to do these things. I was in denial about eventually having to fix this, because I'm on a tight data plan on mobile and uploading and downloading Unity projects of several GB size wasn't going to happen that way.

Synology Support to the Rescue! ...Or?

It seemed like we had finally narrowed down the issue with our LFS upload attempts when I also checked the WebDAV console and it reported that it denied our login attempts through browser and Sourcetree as an "authorization failure". So something was wrong with WebDAV.

I contacted Synology support a second time. I asked them, "Why can't my friend and I connect to my NAS via the internet when I have WebDAV enabled and everything port forwarded?"

And Synology Support said:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They told me WebDAV and web browsers don't use the same HTTP and HTTPS methods. They are simply not compatible. They told me I should download their WebDAV client or connect locally.

So it was known from the start that what I was attempting could never work... but it was also not mentioned anywhere on the web or Synology's help pages that this was the case.

We have a saying in Austria: "jemanden deppert sterben lassen". It translates to "to let someone die stupid". Essentially, it means that you have information and you watch someone else without this information struggle without ever telling them about it voluntarily. I felt this saying was very appropriate for my situation.

Time to give up, I guess... Except I didn't.

I was almost a week into my odyssey by now. Maybe it's a sunk-cost-fallacy, but I couldn't abandon all my work now. I refused.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

I went back to open another browser tab (my average was 20 open tabs during this... normally it's 2 to 3). And I searched for a solution that works with WebDAV. And truly... there was ONE repo online that offered it.

A special thanks goes out to this fellow: https://github.com/mpotthoff/git-lfs-webdav

They straight up saved our project from collapsing into a pile of tears and rage. I installed this package on my NAS, which... sort of worked. It turned out I needed to install it locally (as well?). So I did. But I needed to install Git, LFS, and Go on my local PC as well for that.

So with the help of Go, I built an exe file for my laptop, which then gave me a 401 when trying to push to LFS. Luckily I expected that. And I was overjoyed, because FINALLY a different error.

I tried to run the steps in the git-lfs-webdav repo to fix it... but got a strange error in the console.

It cried, when trying to enter my username, that the "handle" for the password was wrong. But I hadn't even entered the password yet! Searching some more on the internet gave me no conclusive answer. Randomly, I tried a different console - my Sourcetree console apparently runs "MINGW32" while my Git console runs "MINGW64". Switching to the Git console fixed this problem for me, and switching to the Windows shell fixed it for my friend.

And then, it finally worked for my friend.

She could upload a test image via LFS, and I could receive it via LFS on my laptop.

The rest was me calling my internet provider about my PC being unable to connect. The internet provider said ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Luckily I did not attempt to mess with my DNS or Subnet Mask or anything of the sort, or buy a VPN/Proxy. All I had to do was create a self-signed SSL certificate on my NAS, download it, and feed it into my PC's trusted authorities files. My friend had to download and feed it too.

In Summary...

This was a horrible, terrible, awful journey. I would not recommend attempting this at home to anyone.

Even now, what we've got going on only sort-of works with our Unity project, because Unity is... Unity. We're still figuring out the details, for example why scene content is going missing and so on.

But I believe that the worst and most difficult part is over. Will I be able to recreate this in a year or two, maybe for a different repo, on a different PC?

Probably not.

[batbabycollectorninjafan]

Dr Disrespect Resumes Streaming To Over 400,000 Viewers And Plenty Of Questions

Image: YouTube / Dr Disrespect

In June, Twitch permanently banned one of its biggest stars, Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm, with no public indication as to why. Today, Beahm streamed for the first time since getting the big, purple boot from Twitch—now on YouTube. He was met by hundreds of thousands of concurrent viewers. And questions.

Beahm announced his return yesterday, leaving his YouTube channel on a “live” splash screen for nearly 24 hours and allowing fans to spend money to join his “Champion’s Club,” which is what he used to call his Twitch subscribers. Many did. As soon as Beahm began streaming for real this afternoon, over 400,000 concurrent viewers showed up to gawk at his much-hyped return. Less than half an hour in, that number hit just over 500,000 before slumping into a slow decline. Numerous viewers gave Beahm money. Around 30 minutes into the stream, he said the Champion’s Club already had “over 15 million” members. When in character, Beahm has a habit of substituting “thousand” with “million,” so it’s likely that over 15,000 people have already signed up for a $5 per month subscription. Unsurprisingly, big streaming returns remain a lucrative business.

Beahm began the stream by saying that he had no big plans and was taking an unscripted approach. However, he did address the elephant that’s going to follow him into any room he walks into for the foreseeable future. In response to questions about his Twitch ban, he reiterated what he claimed during an obviously orchestrated publicity tour of various press outlets last month.

“In regards to the ban, there’s a lot of people who want to know what happened,” he said during the stream. “Guess what: I want you to look me in my fucking eyes when I say this; I really want you to look me in my eyes when I say this. We still have no idea. We have no idea. ‘Yeah, right dude, I’m not buying that one.’ Bunch of phonies. We have no idea. And I’m gonna tell you this right now: As far as I’m concerned, we didn’t do anything to warrant a ban, let alone how they ended up banning us. No communication before. No reaching out. Boom. Done.”

He went on to acknowledge that people are “anxious” for an answer, but also attributed that anxiety to a “small percentage” instead of, you know, the entire internet. “You know what they want: something bad to happen out of it,” he said. “Let’s not beat around the bush.”

G/O Media may get a commission

As he said this, many viewers in chat typed messages like “WE WANT ANSWERS,” while others called them haters, said they didn’t care, and welcomed Beahm back.

Twitch clearly does not want this information in the hands of the public and has, so far, prevented that from happening, despite sustained efforts on the part of Kotaku and other journalists, as well as a veritable stampede of rabidly curious internet denizens.

Beahm noted, however, that there’s still quite a bit going on in the background: “Last thing I’m gonna say about it: And I have to be intelligent about all of this, because you’re talking about a heavy contract, lots of money,” he said, referencing his previous deal with Twitch. “So let the legal professionals do what they need to do. That’s it. Period.”

He went on to describe the ban as “a speed bump,” but “now we’re back on the road.”

Beahm’s big comeback does not mean he’s in the clear. While some have taken his Twitch ban to be part of a publicity stunt, the fact remains that an enormous streaming platform doesn’t just tear up a multimillion dollar contract with one of its biggest earners for no reason. When he first got banned, sources told Kotaku and others that Twitch abruptly ended its relationship with Beahm over something very “serious.” In the time since, Kotaku has spoken to numerous sources in and around Twitch and has learned that even most Twitch employees do not know why Beahm got exiled from the Amazon-owned streaming platform. Several have described the company’s approach to this information as a “lockdown” limited to a handful of top people. Even Twitch’s partnerships team, which is often involved in these sorts of matters, got bypassed, sources told Kotaku. Twitch clearly does not want this information in the hands of the public and has, so far, prevented that from happening, despite sustained efforts on the part of Kotaku and other journalists, as well as a veritable stampede of rabidly curious internet denizens.

In the absence of further information and thanks to Beahm’s savvy manipulation of that vacuum, fans have rallied to his side, assuming that Twitch acted maliciously and their favorite streamer is innocent of wrongdoing. It’s an easy judgement to make; Twitch is notoriously inconsistent, prone to a lack of transparency, and bad at communicating. Sponsors like Mountain Dew Game Fuel continue to work with Beahm, which further paints Twitch as an outlier. This is an expected outcome when corporate secrets collide with the modern, personality-driven internet. Even if something smells extremely fishy, fans and companies aren’t gonna drop a beloved, lucrative star until circumstance leaves them with absolutely no other choice.

At this point, Beahm is operating on YouTube independently. He is not signed to any sort of partnership deal or contract a la the one he had with Twitch. The Verge says he intends to stream on Facebook and his own website, as well.

At one point during today’s stream, Beahm semi-joked about how expensive the houses and cars that he owns are. “For a second there, I thought I was in trouble,” he said, referencing questions about his career following his Twitch ban. For the time being, however, he’s trying to treat this as business as usual. During today’s stream, he got caught up on recent gaming events: Rogue Company, Fall Guys, and Halo Infinite, among others. Then he played Call of Duty: Warzone. He also claimed that he’s starting a production company. He talked trash. He boasted and bragged. He flexed. He yelled. It was standard Dr Disrespect, the sort of thing he could have easily done on Twitch if he hadn’t been kicked to the curb a couple months ago.

But he was. And hardly anybody knows why. No matter how hard he tries to swerve, pivot, and reboot his career, that will continue to hang over his head—at least, for the time being.

Correction: A previous version of this story stated that Beahm’s stream topped out at just under 500,000 concurrent viewers when it actually managed just over 500,000.

[fiddletwix]

A Guide for Navigating a World of Rumors for the #SaveDaredevil Campaign

Hey #FandomWithoutFear! It’s been almost a year now since the #SaveDaredevil campaign started, and I thought I’d do a brief PSA to help save your sanity as we enter the second half of our campaign. I’m talking about rumors.

Over the past year, we’ve heard piles and piles of rumors, some causing chaos, others causing despair, some even being really strange and confusing. In fact, our campaign was basically born into a world of rumors as we’ve been combating the ‘The shows are going to Disney+’ rumor since the instant it was canceled. Only recently have we been mostly freed by that one thanks to D23 releasing their starting lineup, but we’re still seeing it.

Giving into rumors can be a trying experience, especially considering our current situation of Marvel being unable to tell us almost anything about the NMCU properties until the two year clause is up and them being tight-lipped by default. However, there are ways of avoiding rumor rabbit holes and the emotional turmoil they put us through.

Before I start, I’d like to point everyone out to #SaveDaredevil’s official website and FAQ. It is loaded with everything we can say for certain about the status and future of Daredevil given the information that has been confirmed by official sources so far. We even have screenshots and citations.

#1 – Encountering the Rumor

So you’re out in the wilds of the Internet and come across ‘news’ about Daredevil. As mentioned previously, simply the fact that there is ‘news’ is enough to raise a red flag. Since everything is on the hush-hush, there’s an 80% chance the ‘news’ isn’t valid right off the bat.

But let’s say there seems like there could be some validity in the claim. Worth investigating further.

#2 – Beware of Clickbait

Websites love dem clicks, and they know the Daredevil fanbase is filled with people who are yearning for news. Many websites will either make up or perpetuate rumors to fill a video or article and then slap a misleading title on it to go fishing for cursors and their precious left-clicks.

While some clickbait is painfully obvious from the getgo, some is harder to discern. The rule of thumb here is that, if it seems too good to be true or if it feels like something that could be molded out of existing knowledge, it’s probably best to avoid it.

Also be on the lookout for words and phrases like ‘Could be’ and ‘Might’ as they are almost always indicative of opinion pieces/rumor mills than actual news.

Reputable articles will commonly headline with a source of a quote, such as ‘said (name) (some important position) at (Marvel or Disney)’ but even those can be misleading, so beware.

#3 – Check the Website Before Clicking

You really, really want to click the link no matter what the title says. Understandable. But before you turn that blue link purple, let’s see where it came from.

Another way you can discern what is likely a rumor from what could possibly be legitimate is by checking the source of the link. Sites like Cosmic Book News (That’s not a typo, that’s the name of the website) and wegotthiscovered are some of the better known rumor mills, but if you’re unsure about the reputation of a site, ask around. However, sometimes the only way to know if a website or news source is reputable is by investigating the content of the link.

Which leads us to….

#4 – You’ve Clicked the Link. Now What?

A few things you should be on the lookout for while investigating the page before even reading the content are the author of the article or creator of the video (if one isn’t listed, that’s a red flag in itself), how professionally made the website looks, the date of the article/video posting (the more current, the better) and how well-written the article is overall. Poor grammar, punctuation and formatting can all be red flags to misinformed or false content.

Sensational graphics, such as pictures with red arrows, circles or obnoxious text – this applies to the video if there is one – can also be an indicator of less than legit sources. Overly produced videos and graphics have become quite common as they are attention grabbers, but they don’t exactly give off the professional air that more legitimate websites and content creators strive for.

Fair warning, while a good chunk of rumor articles are fairly short, many rumor videos can be insanely long because longer videos can have more advertisements crammed on it, which means more money.

Longer videos don’t instantly mean legitimate information. In fact, outside of opinion pieces, many ‘news’ videos will regurgitate information we already know about and go into length about that to extend the video’s run time. Even if you’re only in it for opinions, a significant portion of the video could be padding.

You don’t necessarily have to watch the entirety of the video (or even read the entire article) to tell if it’s spouting nonsense or not. It’s a good idea to do so, but in many circumstances the writing is on the wall within the first paragraph or first few minutes of the video.

They jump to conclusions based on something that is entirely unrelated. They add the could be’s and might’s to the content, instead of the headline. Or they accidentally show their rumor hand by saying the dreaded words ‘I/We heard...’ or even ‘rumor has it.’

Some writers are also tricky about their wording to get you to stay the entire way through by ending the article or video with ‘but this is all speculation. We won’t really know until (blank)’

If the author seems intent on getting you to believe this is all fact and the red flags aren’t quite visible to you, there are still options to explore.

#5 – Read/Listen Carefully

Some writers are particularly good at twisting words around to suit their needs. Even direct quotes can be manipulated in their favor. Read the article or listen to the video host very carefully. Take note of context. Be wary of anything that doesn’t mesh with existing knowledge. You may also find that the content contradicts itself sometimes. If things seem fishy to you, your instincts are likely right.

#6 – Who Else is Saying This?

Daredevil news would be huge, and anything even slightly confirmed by official sources would be plastered on a plethora of news sites so quickly you’d think they were announcing their first born child. When you’re first out the gate, you tend to get the most clicks. However, reputable news sites, as you can guess, want to stay reputable, and jumping on rumors isn’t going to be helping them maintain that status.

Do a quick Google search for the main news item in the headline. Using quotation marks on specific phrases used in either the title or body of the source can help narrow things down.

If there are no very recent news articles from several other websites (Let’s say five or more) containing similar news, it’s probably false. If the initial posting is particularly recent, wait a few hours and do another search. By then, the reputable news sites would certainly have something out if it’s true.

#6 – Cited Sources: They’re Not Just for College Papers

Some rumors do get out of control, however. False information can spread like wildfire, and sometimes reputable news sites make mistakes. One thing can still save you from falling into the rumor rabbit hole – cited sources.

They don’t have to be as meticulously formatted as they have to be for college papers (though that does help!) but having quotes from officials within Marvel or Disney (with context and notes about when and where this quote was said) and links to information sources mean the world when determining if ‘news’ is actually, well, news.

Like before, even if the article does cite sources, that doesn’t mean much if the source itself isn’t reputable. IE, you may want to use Wikipedia in your term paper, but your teacher won’t let that fly. Check out the links and double check the quotes to be as certain as possible.

Also, if something simply says ‘sources claim’ without giving actual….ya know...sources, they probably don’t have any. Or, if they do, they’re not reputable.

#7 – This Random Youtuber I Like Said This, That and The Other Thing

This is cropping up more frequently, so I thought I’d include it. Just because you like a Youtuber doesn’t mean they’re always right. It’s not even a matter of calling them a liar – many times these people are just misinformed or fell down a rumor rabbit hole themselves.

Dealing with people who are saying this to you is difficult because they’re frequently too blinded by their liking of the Youtuber to listen to reason. All you can really do is explain to them what I’ve explained above and direct them to the #SaveDaredevil FAQ.

#8 – Dealing with The F Word

Another problem that has been frequently popping up over the past several months is the F Word: Feige.

A rumor that has been unavoidable since practically the instant Daredevil and the other NMCU shows were canceled was that the properties would inevitably fall into the hands of Marvel Studios president, Kevin Feige, and DD and The Defenders would be in the MCU after the two years is up.

Feige has never spoken a word, post-cancellation, about Daredevil or The Defenders futures, and for all we know he has no role in their futures considering they were originally with Marvel Television. However, so many people seemingly believe bringing up Feige is enough to confirm or deny all things speculation about DD. Some won’t even humor the idea of DD going anywhere else but Feigeville.

Like with the Youtuber fans, it’s hard to reason with people who seem to hardcore support Feige in everything involving Marvel, and dealing with them is about the same. The main cannon you have in this situation outside of the norm is that, as stated before, Feige has said nothing about this, so they don’t really have sources to cite here, leaving everything up to speculation.

Let me clarify that, if you’re of the opinion that Daredevil should be in the movies, that’s perfectly fine. Everyone has their own opinions on what they want for Daredevil’s future, even if the #SaveDaredevil movement has made their own hopes and views very apparent. However, the story of Daredevil’s does not begin and end with Feige and it shouldn’t be treated as such.

#9 – Scooping the Inside from the Outside

There have been a couple of people, won’t be naming names, in the past year claiming they have the inside scoop on this matter because they either are on the inside (IE an employee at one of the companies involved, such as Netflix, Marvel or Disney) or they know someone who is.

These people may very well have inside information that they’re willing to share with us, but the problem is which information is valid and which isn’t.

The ‘insiders’ I’ve seen seem to work on a system very similar to an old fortune-teller.

Fortune-tellers have a habit of predicting something that they know will come true because of something else they knew ahead of time or just getting lucky on an educated guess. If they’re right enough times on little things, that gives them all the validity they seemingly need to prove they’re right about anything else they claim. They will likely be wrong on numerous occasions, but it’s when they’re right that gives them power. They’ll also likely contradict themselves and double-back on things they’ve said in the past to make it look like they weren’t wrong when they were.

Problem is, you don’t know who these people really are, what role they have in whatever company they work for, if they do, or what relationship they have to whatever insider might exist.

They might act like they have the insider knowledge of a high-level executive, but, in reality, they may actually have the bare bones knowledge of a lower ranking employee or just hear stuff around a water cooler and build off of that information. It’s impossible to tell because they don’t say out of fear of being fired or otherwise getting in trouble with one of the aforementioned companies.

That’s also where the difficulty in discerning fact and fiction/opinion with them comes from. We’re all outsiders and any actual known insiders can’t give us really any information. Debunking them or confirming what they say is incredibly problematic given the limited information we have.

That’s not to say there aren’t people out there who pay a lot of attention to what these people say over time and analyze their statements heavily to see if they hold water, especially if it contradicts something they’ve said in the past. I said it was really difficult to discern fact and fiction with them, but it’s not impossible. When you’ve exhausted every other option with these ‘insiders’ the only thing you can do is wait and see if they’re right or wrong.

It’s been my experience (and this is my personal opinion right now) that it’s best to just ignore these people altogether. They never seem like they have good intentions with their info sharing, no matter if their information is accurate or not. They always seem like they want to make people in the fandom angry or sad with their ‘inside scoops’ then eat up all the special attention they get as a rare person ‘on the inside’ that will actually talk with the masses about the subject. Nothing good tends to come out of hanging on the words of these ‘insiders.’

#10 – Avoid Confirmation Bias

For every ‘news’ source that claims something negative about Daredevil’s situation, there’s another that claims something positive. We, as fans of the show, want to believe the more positive stories that are released while also wanting to combat against the more negatively slanted pieces.

While this is entirely understandable, it’s also very biased. It’s great to have hope and not let the negativity get to you, but allowing yourself to more easily fall prey to positive rumors may set you up for a fall. It’s difficult, but you have to take the blinders off.

Staying objective is important in both ensuring that you get the most valid facts and keeping your emotional roller coaster from going off the rails. Even among less than positive news alerts, we have had many nuggets of actual validated hope spring up consistently, and there’s a good chance we’ll get more down the road, so don’t get discouraged if you find some positive rumors turn out to be just that – rumors.

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As a final note, remember that the community is always here for you to both discuss any ‘news’ that comes up, dig out the real facts, and help get you through any struggles you might be having with campaigning. We’ve taken our share of hits, but like Daredevil, we keep getting back up. #SaveDaredevil has already made it nearly halfway through the two year wait with tons of support, positivity and legitimate good news. Together, we can take on the second half even stronger than before.

We can #SaveDaredevil. We’re #NotGivingUp.