#i don't know how to do statistics

[ley-med]

I put together such a nice little presentation for next week's anesthesia conference, if I may say so, but there's one tiny thing left

How in the goddamn name of everything that's holy do I do the statistics part properly???

I have literally zero idea of what I'm doing

[unsurebazookacore]

hot take, mike and el arent in love, because they are fourteen

well i guess mike is fifteen but still like as someone who has been fourteen/fifteen

GUESS WHO I WAS NOT DATING:

A. THE LOVE OF MY LIFE

B. MY FUTURE SIGNIFICANT OTHER

C. ANYONE WHO I WOULD BE ABLE TO SAY "I LOVE YOU" TO AND ACTUALLY FUCKING MEAN IT

D. ALL OF THE ABOVE (the answer is D by the way)

LIKE Y'ALL THEY ARE FOURTEEN

THEY MET WHEN THEY WERE TWELVE

"I knew right then and there in that moment that I loved you" MY ASS

[rolandkaros]

grabbing fistfuls of my own hair rocking back and forth repeating to myself like some kind of fucked up wizardly enchantment you should care about womens sports because its literally the same fucking sport why do i have to bend over backwards to convince you to care about womens sports like at an abstract level it is the exact same fucking thing and yet you cannot bear to possibly watch it unless you think the women are hot or there is some sort of social gain why is it so hard for you to care about womens sports when they are literally doing all of it better than the men

[gender-euphowrya]

spell of explode all transphobes Activate

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Lately I'm seeing more and more of those "what race do you ID as" polls and i dunno but i can't help but feel kinda weird about them cause like, disregarding the fact that the options are usually ridiculously US-centered in terms of the concept of race (like someone in the notes of one of these polls pointed out - "native/indigenous" to WHERE? I could call myself a native/indigenous czech and it would be de facto correct lol, also some people would not consider slavs white even today), or seem to ignore the existence of massive groups of people (never seen a poll include arab or desi people for example), but mainly it's like

I dunno, maybe I've read too much about Nazi Germany but any phrase similar to "state your racial identity" creeps me the fuck out

[gamebunny-advance]

Baseless NSR Theory #82: Gigi & Mystery Man

Y'all should know better than to get me hyped up about my own theories, but let's run with this since I haven't done one in a while.

---------

After thinking about it some more, I feel pretty confident that Gigi is NOT Mystery Man (MM). The stained-glass portraits are a little abstract from the characters they represent, but the broad strokes are always there. No character is depicted with a completely different skin hue, and Gigi's face and features are a little round for the angular MM.

Granted, given the mysterious nature of MM, I can't completely rule out that his portrait is an outlier. Let's consider that the only (human) characters depicted with gray skin are also the nameless NPCs: the ones that are almost literally supposed to be a part of the background. If MM's nature is truly about secrecy and blending in, then having a giant accurate portrait of him in your main office would probably work against that.

Still, in other "official" pieces of art depicting MM, he's always shown with sharp, angular features that Gigi just doesn't have, so I'm going to go forward with the assumption that Gigi and MM are not the same person.

(Art by Ddaddystar, a concept artist for No Straight Roads, Source: 1 | 2 | 3)

However, they could still be related in someway. It's possible that MM has underlings that help him with whatever he does. Even though we never see them, we know that DJSS has at least one other person working under him related to his work as a rocket scientist, so it's very possible that all or most of the other Megastars also have staff directly under them for their non-music roles in NSR.

If MM's role in NSR is related to secrecy, perhaps spying, given his stereotypical spy outfit, it's possible that MM has set several spies around the city to aid in that work.

(duckduckGo image search of "cartoon spy")

And since this is a setting that works on "cartoon logic" where the spies might have a uniform, it's possible that MM's underlings have calling cards connecting them to him. Perhaps, something like a hat and glasses and a toothy smile.

Oh, would you look at that.

Of the evidence that Gigi is working for NSR under MM, there isn't a lot to directly connect him to them. However, he has a few of the same, "he knows more than he should" moments that also implicated Kliff as untrustworthy in the opening parts of the game, so I do believe that the player is supposed to have some doubts about him even if it's only to be a red herring.

For starters, he's one of the few NPCs that force-triggers an interaction to continue the story. The same thing happens when Zam stops you to join the revolution. This implies that in both instances, it's the NPC stopping you to talk instead of vice versa. Given how casually they all talk to each other, the implication at this point is that he was friends with B2J before the events of the game, but as will be revealed later, this isn't actually the case.

Mayday and Zuke later mention that neither of them are actually familiar with Gigi and just assumed he was a friend of the other. This never gets commented on further, but it does confirm that Gigi is just so naturally charming that he infiltrated their friend circle without either of them really noticing until much later.

Mayday isn't even certain about his name while Zuke doesn't know it at all, implying that he may have never directly told them, or didn't tell them unless asked. This would be natural behavior if he assumed that they already knew his name, but then is this a case of Gigi also thinking that Mayday and Zuke are supposed to know him, like they've met in the past and B2J just forgot him, or is he purposefully concealing his identity?

Let's also consider the meaning of his name. "Gigi" in Malay translates to "teeth/tooth," an obvious reference to how his teeth are always showing. While it's possible that this is his real name, it's more likely that it's a nickname or an alias. So the matter is if he told Mayday that that's his name, or if she and others just started calling him that when they realized they didn't know his real name. Something like people originally calling him, "That guy who's always showing his teeth." then morphed into just calling him "teeth." Either way, he's concealing his true identity, which would be necessary for a spy.

I do assume that most of the time the characters are actually speaking Malay, but is shown in English for the benefit of the player. When Mayday encounters DK West, she doesn't ask why he speaks a different language, she asks why he speaks with a different accent, possibly implying that all the characters are actually speaking Malay, DK West just has a different dialect.

Both times Gigi stops you, it's to talk about how he's seen what B2J have been up to (first their audition and later their battle with Sayu) and to offer them a drink. He seems really insistent on giving them those drinks he offered, since after he was turned down the first time since B2J were busy, the next time he prepared for another rejection by having the drinks with him and just inviting himself to the underground hideout, which is supposed to be secret.

Granted, (I lost the source, but I swear this is at least *80% true), the reason why Kliff found out about the hideout without being directly told is that Mayday apparently posted that info online, so it's not impossible that Gigi found out about it the same way. B2J didn't react to him knowing about it the same way they did Kliff, but it's possible that by this point they realized that their hideout just wasn't as secret as they originally thought.

*I can't remember if it was just that she posted her phone number online so that's why Kliff was able to text her, or if she posted all their info. Either way, she's unintentionally created a paper trail that could lead people to her.

However, after he enters the hideout, Gigi is effectively written out of the game as he has no other interactions with B2J besides seeing them off when they leave.

This seems odd as the other two guys who join the hideout but do nothing (Robot and Yiruk) still appear above ground to talk, whereas the two guys that actually do something (Zam and Kliff) only appear underground after they're recruited. If Gigi also wasn't doing anything important in the sewers, then you'd think he'd also stay above ground to talk like the former group.

Unless he is doing something.

It's possible that Gigi is collecting intel in the hideout. Since Kliff is apparently already monitoring how the fights are going, Gigi could theoretically just get the info he needs from Kliff instead of directly watching himself as he appeared to do earlier. That would also give Gigi the time to focus on other areas of interest. Perhaps something like leaking B2J's main source of outside communication: Zam FM.

When Tatiana calls into the radio show, she admits that she's been spying on them the entire time, though by what means aren't elaborated on. At the time, the implication seems to be that she was just listening to the show, which theoretically could be listened to by anyone who knows their signal and wouldn't necessarily need additional spying to achieve, but that doesn't exempt that she could have had other spying methods.

Let's consider that Tatiana didn't consider B2J a threat until after DJSS's defeat, but doesn't get actually angry about them until Sayu's defeat. Gigi's first attempt to get info from B2J was directly after DJSS, but he failed to stop them from meeting with Kliff who gave B2J the tools to defeat Sayu. After Sayu, he finally just forces his way in, possibly as a response to Tatiana's rising stress over the situation.

However, I must concede that if Gigi truly is a spy for NSR/MM, then why wouldn't he report about Kliff's involvement? Even if he didn't know the personal history between him and Tatiana, I think it would be pretty important to report that they have a significant ally that they should keep tabs on and then naturally Kliff's involvement would make it to Tatiana.

But also keep in mind that in this theoretical, Gigi is still reporting to MM first. So if MM disregarded anything he deemed irrelevant and then sent that revised report to Tatiana, then Kliff's involvement could have been lost even if Gigi made note of him. The message could have been diluted from, "Kliff is an ally of B2J." to, "An information specialist is an ally of B2J."

It's not like NSR was trying to destroy B2J from the inside. NSR's main goal was to have B2J defeated by a megastar to strengthen NSR's political support/make an example of B2J, as to maintain order. To do this, they needed to prove EDM's superiority over rock by its own power. Using any sort of foul play to defeat B2J would conflict with those ideals and likely lead to chaos irrupting in the city had they won or even significantly hindered them in this way.

For example, an easy way to discombobulate B2J could have been to shut down Zam FM, which they actually tried to do before he got in contact with them. However, after he was able to get set up, there wasn't much they could do without rousing suspicion. Gigi theoretically could have taken down the show while he was there, but if something had suddenly happened to cut off B2J's communication with their fans, then the fans might suspect NSR of foul play and start revolting on their own or at least spread the word that this happened, which could weaken NSR's support.

With that in mind, Gigi's orders might have been to report on B2J's activities and plans, but not to directly interfere, thus explaining why B2J didn't have many major set-backs and why NSR didn't have any meaningful advantages over them even if they had someone on the inside.

In conclusion, I think there's a strong case that Gigi is actually an NSR spy, and a weaker but still compelling case that he's also connected to Mystery Man, who might be the director of NSR's spies.

[thehealingsystem]

now im......not jewish, and not well educated on this subject so im not sure about how to talk about it myself, but this has been picking at my mind so......can anyone tell me if this is antisemitic or not?

oh and let me just say, the original anon this person is responding to didn't mention america or living in america AT ALL. the conversation was suddenly changed to be about the us, which is the center of the world obviously (/sar), with this additional comment

im not informed enough to combat this, though this post did NOT give me a good feeling while reading it

[justalonelyslytherin]

Sometime in November of 2022, I started a spreadsheet to document all the awesome fics I was reading on Tumblr, and while I didn't talk about it, I continued doing this in 2023 too.

And I just got around to thinking it might be a good idea to see how many fics/posts I read last year in total. drum roll...

228 individual posts! That includes oneshots as well as chapters of series and the odd masterpost

I knew I read a lot in some months but it still is a lot. At the same time, it's not nearly enough because I know there are so many more amazing fics out, that I want to read and comment on and get a chance to reblog and more keep getting posted!

[sadistic-softie]

Ok, please don't fucking laugh at me but I only just now found out that a lot more people actually genuinely care what's "in" and what's "out" than I initially thought.

I'm gonna fucking combust...like...i thought only children, Disney characters, and confused advertisers cared, but no...it's actually way more than that. There are people of ALL ages desperately following trends like they *need* the...I fucking thought "trend" was just how people described what new generations are collectively talking about or exploring or behaving like...seriously...I thought it was just for pointing out behavioral trends in youth and media and such.

I never followed trends and "in" stuff in general just to "get with the times" growing up (I do fall into some things "naturally" unconsciously here and there but I don't seek it) because I saw no point in it and don't care, for one, but also because most people growing up around me in school and such didn't care either and if they did they were seen as "weird" and "annoying" because those kids had a reputation for being either boring or confusing because all they did was just flaunt their "in"ness (???lmao) all the time instead of talking or having fun so maybe that's why??

Idk how to explain it. I see (saw?) "trend" as a statistic of most common behavior and shared information that you may or may not "participate" in depending on personal taste and random chance that it was something up your alley or was fitting to you. This rather than like...a "goal" but...I did not realize just how much a lot of people really do hold themselves to these things and take them very very seriously.

Maybe seriously isn't the word because it's not a deadpan expression life or death type topic but they feel bound to it...like...to the point of getting actually genuinely *embarrassed* by the idea of themselves or someone else not following trends...like as if they didn't follow them, everyone would suddenly hate them and they would be carrying a great shame or something??? Idk. I'm just confused. Can anyone else relate to this??? I'm so weirded out by this rn I don't know what to think of it. It's common knowledge, I guess, but it kind of blew my mind today.

[graysongraysoff]

Going to a concert with a friend this week because I am STUPID (jk it's not bc I'm stupid....... it's bc it's my main Concert Buddy and it's a show they really wanted to go to and they asked me...... and I didn't pay enough attention to the fact that it was on a fucking Tuesday and it's not at the venue that's 0.1 miles from my apartment...........) and maybe it's irrational of me to be annoyed about this but they just asked if I could leave work early for this and like. No bc not all of us work from home full time, even though it seems like all my friends fucking do. Like this entire endeavor is already such a fucking bummer for me and I'm already dreading it because it's a band I don't care about (that I have already seen once!) and Tuesday and Wednesday are the only days of the week I have to go into the office, so like. No, I cannot leave work early so we can get there when doors open. You can leave early if you want because you work from home and this concert isn't going to fuck up your whole week. I will get there when I get there lmao.

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Thoughts on David & Race academic rivalry?

See in my head Race is firmly a STEM guy, like mechanical engineering major with a focus on aerospace and Davey is a history/literature dude so like. If they met in high school they would absolutely be friendly rivals where it's like

"Ha I beat you on the calc test."

"Yeah yeah, just wait until lit papers get graded"

But if they were part of a college friend group they would be in basically none of the same classes so it's kinda like. They do homework together in the same general vicinity and Davey's doing preliminary research for a 15-page history report (I dunno what english and history majors do for classes) that's due in three months and Race is doing multi-page-long physics problems that were assigned three hours ago but due in two days. Both of them are baffled by each other's entire existence. They both make the Provost's/Dean's List. They have no idea who actually has the highest grades because all of their professors weight grades differently and sometimes grade on a curve for no reason.

[jarchivussy]

brb currently going insane over this art tutorial i found while rummaging thru pinterest for art refs that somehow implies fucking blackface is ok but stylization is not

[id: an image that shows different ways of drawing lips, with a check mark of a cross above them, to indicate right and wrong ways of drawing them. among the correct examples are lips drawn as a line, circled around with another solid line and filled in with a darker colour, very similar to how lips are drawn in blackface. among the incorrect examples are lips drawn simply and asymmetrically, with jagged lines and shapes. end id.]

[betweenheroesandvillains]

.

[girlscience]

Last paper I was going to read has been read... it was the most interesting to me. It was about low-head dam removal and it's effects on the community make up of the fish populations in those streams. It was not a study performed by the guy I am talking to tomorrow, it was actually a grad thesis by a student that worked with him in the aquatic sciences center. Now I just have to figure out the answers to a couple questions I was recommended to have answers to because they seem likely to be asked.

[halfdeadwallfly]

how are people out here just forming genuine relationships with other people