#it’s actually quite interesting. I wonder what all these ppl were doing

[natalieironside]

hello ms. comrade Ironside, longtime reader, first time caller.

as a fellow writer of queer erotica, I was wondering if you had any thoughts/spoons to share those thoughts on wordpress being swept into the AI debacle under automattic? (I think that’s what you use to host your cool website, forgive me if I am mistaken.) I’m trying to figure out where to set up an author website of my own so I don’t have to host my stuff on tumblr anymore, but I’m a bit gun-shy in the current moment. I know AI trawling is inevitable in today’s internet, but as someone who’s been doing the indie author thing for some time (and admirably!), is there something you would recommend, best practices or otherwise, to someone just trying to get their metaphorical kite off the ground? or anything you wish you knew when you set up your own author-type socials? any thought at all would be genuinely appreciated.

thanks for your time, and I hope you and yours are as well as can be expected 🖤

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but afaik nothing approaching best practices has been figured out yet; it's all already happening and there's precious little as can be done to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Of course I uncheck all the little boxes in settings and deny them my consent or whatever, but I don't think a gaggle of unimaginative piss-bellied technocrats who decided it was a sensible use of vast amounts of water and power to teach a computer how to write very badly are what I'd call trustworthy. I'm still gonna move all my website shit off of Wordpress because they won't let me get rid of the stupid AI assistant thing, but that's more a case of their UI being ugly and dumb than me thinking it'll actually do any good.

Best I can tell you on that front is to try to find yourself a niche and develop yourself as an artist from there; "Write the kinds of books you wish other people were writing" is good general advice, and a human operator is always going to be capable of things a predictive network just isn't. Other ppl are gonna disagree with that, but they're wrong. Their understanding of resource allocation and scarcity is just childishly naive and you shouldn't waste your time listening to people who think we're gonna solve climate change with apps or whatever.

Far as social media goes, this is still the best one for hocking books as far as I can tell. I'm hearing a lot of good things about Cohost and Pillowfort, but their user bases are still quite small, and I haven't found the indie author community on Bluesky yet. If Tumblr goes belly up I'll probably end up migrating to one of those first two primarily b/c I think longform blogging is the secret stuff for ppl like me who are just too crabby and agoraphobic to be Twitter influencers; I may not be any good at videos or regular quick posts or documenting the writing process (which is too bad, b/c a lot of my friends who do that stuff seem to be having fun with it), but I sure can Lay Out Some Thoughts in A Few Paragraphs and I like to think that's something ppl expect from a novelist.

Also, never get in a public argument, don't go posting Your Thoughts On The Issues unless someone asked or you feel like you've got something interesting to say, and be very selective with how much and what personal information you give out to the hoi polloi. Those are my 3 rules for how to do social media good.

[fanofbirdsflying]

ONLY FRIENDS and a judgemental fandom?

going into this show we knew that this was not going to be a romance. it was made very clear in both trailers that there was going to be lying, cheating and manipulating. this being in store for us was the main reason why i was looking forward to this show which is why i am having a difficult time seeing fandom be so judgemental and annoying about the characters and their actions. (i think the communication between characters sucks or is wishy washy or the things that are communicated are ignored, so ppl come of ass assholes.)

i really liked @bengiyo post about the show as a whole rn.

audience memebers slutshaming?

something i can't quite shake is how straight forward both boston and top are about their casualness when it comes to sex and audience's responses to that. as soon as we saw their casualness, i felt as though many ppl started judging them. now, boston has lied/manipulated which is an actual issue, but their choices in regards to their casualness about sex isn't. nick knew who boston was, and everything mew knew about top from his friends pointed towards a guy who doesn't fit his understanding of dream guy (at first glance). top that first night in the apartment even said he wanted sex from mew and instead of taking that for what it is, mew actually started to consider dating him (had mew been my friend i would have stopped him).

boston is intentionally messing with ray and top (and that's not cool) but people disregarding boston's privacy and his right to it when nick went through his phone and put his own nudes on there, as well as wiring boston's car to spy on him, doesn't sit right with me. it doesn't matter how casual boston is about sex, nick disrespecting his boundaries is not ok. the phone situation boston didn't really take issue with (they started hooking up afterwards) but a lot of other people would have. the wiring of the car is a whole other thing. some ppl are ignoring this though because nick is "naive" and fell for a guy who only wants sex.

something similar is happening with the boston-top situation. in my opinion top didn't look fully comfortable when things started/were happening in the shower as well as in the car (you can see the switch happening and at what point top decides to have sex with boston). and now the elevator

great post about top with good additions. written by @respectthepetty and @wen-kexing-apologist

while i am not sure if top has anxiety, i do think there is something about him and his relationship to sex that is more than just, he likes to have sex (which is totally fine). this post says sth similar.

i just feel like, many people in the audience don't really recognize or want to acknowledge how boston and top's boundaries are pushed just because they are "sluts" and i don't like that.

mew as THE VIRGIN in the story is immeadiately seen as angel who can't do wrong.

but to me there were a few moments that felt judgemental tbh. mew seems judgemental sometimes, maybe like the audience?. people have discussed things that sound interesting and i hope the show explores them, such as his deal with control as well as the question what it is that he actually wants from top. so many of the things he knew about top before they started properly talking, were all things that go against what he seems to consider ideal partner material. what is he gaining from making top change into what mew considers "good boyfriend"? why did he give top a chance? why is he continueing?

i wonder if there will be commentary on society pressuring people into losing their virginities by a certain age? it's possible that mew is fixated on it in his own way. looking back, he did invite top back to his place knowing top wanted sex and started making out with him and seemed interested, but stopped before they did it. now he uses forms of sex to control top and his actions (ep4, "no penetration").there is sth to unpack here.

top gains a new experience by being with mew. he says he's not interested in what he was doing before, so mew is a change.

comparing mew's and top's reactions to someone pushing for sth physical that they themselves don't want is interesting. mew straight up pushes the other person away and asks them what are you doing, while top hesitates even though he doesn't want it. mew knows or shows his boundaries better than top does.

people see top for his looks, money and status. sleeping with him is kinda seen as win/victory/success (ep1). it makes me wonder if part of him also sees himself only good for sex. not entirely, because there seems to be some confidence in himself and his status etc. but partially? we also know about his substance abuse which he claims he's into just to have fun with friends, yet the first time we see him use is without friends.....

if u want to be untagged please tell me. i just wanted to give credit.

[kendrixtermina]

Boom

Ok, this one FUCKS right out of the gate.

Seems like we’ll be talking about the evils of the Military Industrial Complex, currently all over the news. Im here for it.

There’s a lot of worldbuilding packed in the opening sequence conveyed through the characters’ interactions.

I like how they take a moment to have Ruby be stunned at the sky even after she’s been travelling with the Doctor for a while. (*war flashback of Yaz & Ryan just going ‚alien planet man‘ & moving on.*) That’s how you make phantastic things land, you show ppl reacting.

& the Doctor needs a while to realize that it would be stunning to her cause he’s pretty used to this but then rattles off facts about the planet. Like… this is what characters who aren’t plank of woods is like.

Wow, Ruby is a very for realsies ride or die real one, isn’t she?

Like, you see why the song she picked in the last episode was the one she wrote for supporting her friend.

That’s quite the knife twist to have the little girl show up at this point, though i wonder how she left the camp undedected.

Very like the doctor to think of asking how the mine works when cornered

Ah, that’s a neat callback, remember back in series 1 how in ‚Dalek‘ it was said that time travellers carry around atron energy?

Or, another anglican Marine episode, big soace time event can plug the time crack?

Only in this case it’s a downside.

Turns out the mine explodes harder for time travellers and the guy who happened to step on it has probably travelled in time more than anyone else in that universe.

Ruby continues to be a quick thinker with the distractions.

OH FRICK

...well. Took no more notes until the end of the episode, which speaks for it, even though I found the whole romantic subplot between the two soldiers a bit flat, unsubtle & cheesy, as is the thing with using the father’s AI duplicate to stop the machines, even if I get the message that was intended.

But I like the twist that they were fighting air &it was all due to the AI activating that the company had rigged in its favor, and the emphasis on puzzling things out.

& the recurring motif of the Doctor talking to the companion to ‚think out loud‘.

It’s interesting to have reached a point in history where rather than getting, like, skynet or something speculative, the evil AI here is is based on the way that it’s actually used by greedy companies IRL in reckless ways.

(This is how you actually do the aesop of ‚its not technology that‘s evil but how ppl use it’, rather than whatever kerblam was supposed to be.)

You gotta commend them for how relatively small stakes the episode is and how much of it is just juicy character drama (the moment with ruby telling the computer to tell her about her "next of kin" in desperation was quite emotional), how it’s almost all in one location, & like… since the Doctor’s thing is talking his way out of situations, it’s an interesting experiment to have an episode where he’s stuck in one place & has to try & solve the plot by talking.

[kaphzzz]

hi, https://www.tumblr.com/kaphzzz/718898842212433920 on the fifth photo you have arthur/charles in this position, just wondering how did you do that? what mod did you use? I’ve been trying to find an animation/scenario mod where you can put in two npcs (like dancing, brawling etc) for photos, and you’re the only person I’ve come across so far who seems like they have something like that :”) sorry if I’ve got it wrong!

hi!!! ur good!! you mean this one?

i use rampage trainer! it has thousands of scenarios and tens of thousands of animations! altho when i first got rampage it was missing a lot of its animation dictionaries for some reason so i had to write a parser to get the anims from a datamined anim file from the rdr3_discoveries github repo. if thats also the case for you heres the link to the full list i parsed that you can replace /RampageFiles/Lists/PedAnimList.txt with:

(on kind of a side note i think it takes away a bit of the 'magic', if u will, from ppl who dont play with mods looking at these kind of staged/posed pics without knowing exactly how they were forced into these positions (lol) if the process is laid out but nonetheless im happy to explain as best i can :3)

so in general since its pretty much impossible to know all 40000+ animations you just kind of try to find one that has at least one frame of animation that suits the pose you have in mind and just sort of play with it until you get a shot thats just right. for me i knew i wanted a pose for leaning back against the table and one for leaning forward with hands placed on the table, so for chorles i think i used (this was a while ago i cant remember exactly sorry!) one of the scenarios you get with key word "lean" and it was probably the lean back wall scenario, and for orther it was read train plans or bank teller lean on counter... but yeah in general you kind of just have to browse through thw scenarios and animations and keep track of interesting ones you might want to use later, and try to match the anims (if they move around a lot) to get a good snap of when they are in a position you like!

idk how others do it but thats how i do it. probably not the most efficient workflow but i have yet to browse thru all the anims so i can only work with the anims im familiar with.

if you want dancing, try searching for related keywords. rampage allows you to search for keywords for both scenarios and animations! once ur familiar with how they name their animations you should be able to find just about anything. for dancing just searching for "dance" should prompt quite a few results.

as for brawling i think actually making ur characters fight would be the best way to take action pics. in rampage u can also change ur model and spawn npcs and force them to fight u. u can also get the battle creator mod to spawn fights as well.

btw if ur looking for anything similar to this specific pic, i actually think @foundynnel might know more about intimate/suggestive animations and scenarios given some very cute sadie/arthur pics they've made, hiiii @foundynnel sorry to bother u but if u see this would u like to throw in ur two cents? 🥺🌹 i could learn a thing or two as well! 💕

[bioethicists]

Your post about how the clinical process surrounding mental illness and addiction was really interesting!

I wonder what your thoughts are about Housing First models and Common Grounds models? Because I feel like they speak directly to your points and provide the needs but also a structure that can be relied on if one wishes to change oneself.

my job as a research assistant is actually doing an evaluation of the benefits of a massive housing first project in boston! i am a fan of housing first particularly because i think everyone should be housed + the possibilities for life shrink dramatically the second somebody is unhoused, regardless of their substance use status. unhoused ppl are treated as less than human (sometimes less than animal tbh) in many spaces. i also have a personal investment because my brother overdosed in part because of the fact that he had been kicked out of his living situation for using + was forced to use with a depressed tolerance in a remote location. if he had been in a housing situation which was not contingent on sobriety, where others may have been present to narcan him or he would not have had the immense stress + trigger of dogshit menial labor jobs needed to pay the ridiculous, price gouging rents at sober living- i mean, i can't speculate, but it's something i do think about.

i think my hesitation with how it can be implemented is, again, the assumption that the end goal for everyone is recovery. my position is not "well some people can't recover" or "well some people can't recover until xyz is met" but "nobody is obligated to recover, ever, and recovery is a subjective concept which can be put to extremely reactionary uses. i want to reduce people's suffering and increase their possibilities for life."

i do think, based on my work, that it's really important for people who are using substances to have access to resources which facilitate their safety and happiness + a lot of them would probably choose either sobriety, MAT, or safer drug use habits if that was something which was easy for them to do. they often express genuinely felt desires to "get better" (in whatever way that means to them or whatever way they hope it means to me) but similar, competing desires to continue experiencing the benefits of their drug use, as well as avoiding the negatives of sobriety. while i chafe at the idea that all people's "true selves" want to recover (in the specific way that recovery is constructed by substance use treatment providers), i do think that most people want to suffer less. things like methadone/suboxone (or safe, legal, surveillance free supply!!!), medications provided on site, easily accessible, non judgemental medical treatment, etc can save lives.

it's important for ppl to be very skeptical of who is allocating/managing the resources for these interventions + their motivations. to be frank, i get scared about the future of the (admittedly imperfect) housing projects i work with because they are funded by the state of MA with the primary goal being to get ppl off the street, because housed members of the community were complaining about the encampments. the state very clearly wants to see that these projects 1) reduce the prevalence of visible homelessness and 2) reduce the rate of drug use among participants. my job is very explicitly to collect and produce data that indicates this + the questions i ask when i collect data are quite explicitly centered around figuring out if being housed makes ppl use less drugs. the point here is that the state absolutely can + will revoke the massive amounts of money it has allocated towards these programs if they don't see them as making people Stop Doing Drugs or Stop Wandering the Streets. this is why i think harm reduction responses should be grassroots responses originating within + for communities, as described in some of the chapters of Saving Our Own Lives. unfortunately, these communities rarely have the infrastructure or the resources to implement these projects, so they must rely on the state + all of its messy biopolitical motives

[rebornologist]

Good day, hope you’re doing good and well. Can you please write headcanons for Dino from KHR thank you 💕

Hello! I am doing quite okay ahaha, I fell ill right at the beginning of the year and that actually explains my return to writing just a bit bc I had 0 energy for anything else. I just sat and wondered about the nation's husband here for a bit, so apologies if some of these are kind of a stretch!

♡ Misc. Dino Cavallone Headcanons ✧

He went from having a fear of horses to becoming a horse girl. I like to imagine that his parents may have had an interest in riding (or that the Cavallone family literally fixes horse races for shady $$), so there would be these huuge beautiful top of the line horses at their personal stable.. however, he was absolutely terrified of them and was too afraid to look them in the eye, much less ride one, until Reborn forced him to face his fear; He's fallen on his ass and been kicked in the face more times than he can count, but as he slowly learned that horses were just big skittish animals that needed to be treated with love and respect, he began to love riding and working with horses and down the line earned the nickname "Bucking Horse/Bronco".

Dino loved the Barbie movie, he is extremely Alancoded. And his all-out cowboy barbie outfit (lowkey Reborn made him do it) drew too much attention at the theatre, to the point that some kids were calling him Ken and asking for photos. He ✨served💅 the public that day.

I refuse to believe that Dino was an only child and he turned out so well?!? He's extremely older-brother coded, I would bet my life that he has at least one younger sister or half-sister (though arguably Tsuna is his non-blood brother) that he just doted on until idk she prob kaboomed and wasn't used as a plot device

He's a tall man, has type O blood, he should be donating it because he's such a good person, right? He did once! He passed out and is a little nervous about going back again.. to think that he has a whole tattoo sleeve..

Some of his tattoos are actually coverups!? He never planned to get a full sleeve, but needed to cover up some shitty flash he got in his younger days. He decided to get something bolder and flashier to cover it, but then the rest of his arm being bare just bothered him.. so he added elements until uh oh, it's a full sleeve that goes all the way to the back of his hand. Despite being a pretty boy his entire life, he seems like the type to have had some img issues and regrets with his initial tattoos (he got them just bc he thought it would make him cool and tough), covered them up and felt like he looked too shady.. and then learned to love them and embrace them as art. He likes the asymmetry of how heavily inked one side of him is, and is considering a big ankle/calf/thigh and maybe a hip piece on the opposite side leg to balance it out, but he's a bit nervous about the pain (I giggle). Omg what if the skull and flame neck tatt is matching with some of his men (theirs are in different spots) after a particularly drinks-heavy party night*.

Sometime between the "present time" of the KHR timeline and TYL, he adopted a shorter haircut and learned how to style it from Reborn! They got more time to reconnect as Reborn became less busy with shaping Tsuna into the "perfect mafia boss" or whatever and began to lengthen the kite string gradually.

Dino is a total softie at heart, and has moments where he cut people slack that other mafioso, especially older bosses, would not have. His men love him because he is strong and they know his heart is right, but whatever softness he had in his early 20's he had to shake off real hard as time went on.

Because of all the mental and physical work it takes for him to do his job, sometimes he wants nothing more than to be babygirled for once, and literally nobody knows but just maybe Romario has an inkling.. the sense that it may be the case.

fin.✧

*smart ppl don't get inked under the influence, don't even drink before or after you get tatted ok lolol stay safe out there

[armand1481]

You are so fucking fake. I used to follow you because I rembered you from ArtistoftheMillenia and I thought you were talented but I unfollowed after all this dumb shit drama started bcus I realized how fucking obnoxious you are as a person. First of all, “UWU pwease don’t call me Amadeo it twiggers my twauma :(“ what a load of bullshit. Trauma my fucking ass, the internet has rotted your brain like all the other fake asf chronically online ass people and made you believe you have tRaUmA, No. You got an opportunity any young artist would kill for being featured on a big YouTubers channel and all u can think to do is whine and be ungrateful bcus UWU my trauma WAAAAH. Makes my fucking blood boil. I don’t see what was so fucking traumatizing for you, getting to learn from one of the most talented artists of our age? What the fuck kind of trauma is that? And putting aside that bullshit, the way you talk and write is INFURIATING. It’s SO clearly fake that it makes me want to throw up from embarrassment. You talk like some pseudo gothic cringy emo kid who wants to come off as deep and smart and uses words like “purge” on fucking tumblr and talks in a forced monotone voice so ppl think ur more interesting then u actually r. CUT THAT SHIT OUT, everyone can tell it’s an act and it’s so embarrassing. And yes I’m choosing not to be anonymous for this bcus now you can’t shame me for being a coward and sending anon hate. I don’t give a fuck if u know who I am and your fans harass me, I don’t give a fuck. That’s how much you piss me off

The world would be improved if you just fucking killed yourself now and did us all a favor by PURGING society of the useless waste of space and air that you are, you anti intellectual dog shit, you pollute culture and you pollute art. You are nothing. Your inability to analyze anything beyond the most baseline surface level shit that is right in front of you is dispicable, you fucking idiot. Your idiocy shocks me.

Marius did give me wonderful opportunities but he also GROOMED ME, and I mean so very literally, he sexually exploited me and abused me. You are an idiot to believe that you understand the whole situation just by the glimpse you saw of us on the internet. Also, I’d like you to know that I’m fucking autistic, and the reason I seem “fake” to you (are you twelve years old? I wouldn’t be surprised) is because my autism makes me speak and behave in ways people find unnatural or forced. I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you. I wish I could kill you myself but unfortunately you live quite far away from me and I’m too busy to book a flight. However, someone else could always do it for me.

Palais Garnier, 8 Rue Scribe, 75009 Paris, France

Lock your doors you stupid cunt.

[eshtaresht]

guys how are we feeling? in pain, devastated, or screaming crying throwing up, what's the consensus here? spoilers for ep 11 under the cut (and minor spoiler for manga)

first things first, my theory from the last week is proven wrong. still don't know what the red plants were for (safekeeping? protecting from the last run?), but nai ain't gonna exploit them to "fix" vash. instead he EXPLOITS HIM AND SUBJECTS TO MENTAL TURTURE AND WIPES HIS MEMORIES CLEAN TO ACCES A HIGHER DIMENSION and create more independent babies ig

(yep the plant mpreg moment is sure a thing... for the next week, get ready for mass abortion)

finally, a gate that's an actual GATE. I think the plants lore was pretty self explanatory, but I'm so happy we're getting it and it's much more comprehensive that the manga, even(and 98' anime basically didn't explain anything and I had to spoil myself through fandom wiki to understand who vash and knives were). like, it's changed A LOT but it's in the same lane

this knives is so capable, holy shit!! everyone was already joking that he would put kniveses of the past to shame, and it's so true... he knows what he wants and how he wants it done and when he just goes ahead and does it. what a giga chad, honestly

I'm a bit disappointed they didn't keep the manga version of knives pre-tessla (that was softer than vash and wanted humans to like him), but it's definetely better than the old anime. like, he's colder due to him being the stronger twin, but he's still playful and doesn't hate ppl. he kinda distrusts rem, but they fucked around out of curiosity rather than malice. also, and I can't be the only one who noticed, his file name said "kni"? mmm ok interesting I'll have to think about it

that probably was the sequence code knives was talking about in ep 8, he used it again for the great fall. I wonder what it said, had to be something important to rem that vash could guess. geranium? their birthday?

the tessla sequence was quite short, but DAMN. status: alive. after all they've done to her. they put her on ice in this condition so they can keep studying her later. and the twins made her come alive. I'm gonna be sick it's so much worse..... no comas or suicide attempts this time, but these kids were still traumatized as hell (vash looks worse, like he haven't slept or probably eaten in a couple of days)

it was a serious moment but when nai revealed he was reading THE BIBLE I can't ahajakahajajahah... like, NO WONDER HE STARTED A RELIGION omg... pls put that book down you've got the message wrong

and or birthday boy vash... oh babygirl I'm so sorry. when I said I wanted to see him going through this I didn't mean a literal mental torture gaslight dimension!!! like, it's SO crucial to his character to REMEMBER all the good and terrible things he went through.... to have it taken away while he can't do anything, even when he clings to the memories as hard as he can, knives still takes EVERYTHING away from him, until he's the only thing tying vash to this world.

again, any other knives could never! and even before tearing apart all those memories, he gaslights vash even further, saying that he did the fall for him (which is true) and so it's basically his fault (which is very much not true)... and this BREAKS him quite literally... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

on a brighter note, loved that goofy meryl & nico interaction, remember, when we could still laugh? now it seems like meryl is gonna manage to reach vash in his infinite soup of despair, and that breaks his gate?? I'm so thrilled for the finale it's not at all like I imagined already said this in my previous post, but the flowers are a consistent theme for stampede instead of angels and, like... it's just makes sense for a plant to be a plant, yk. also it's pretty. july is already being destroyed by the roots, I wonder if that's gonna be it or there'll be a big kaboom (in this case it would be hard for meryl to survive, but potentially vash could make a root cacoon to protect her)

also this ep gets bonus points for showing what's going on in the city with the police guys and civilians, 'cause usually stampede isn't great at background and side characters

now making theories about the (potential) second season. amnesia aspect is getting established rlly hard rn! the only question is whether vash gets to remember key moments (like rem, meryl, wolfwood) or if he only retains the vibes of "someone important who said I shoud protect ppl". because it's gonna be interesting if he forgets everyone completely and when nico and meryl (and milly, fingers crossed) eventially find him, he''s like "hi, have we met?"

oh, the POTENTIAL! I think he's gonna get his 98' characterization as super goofy, borderline annoying, because he just doesn't remember all the pain! at least, he doesn't remember the details and fills the blanks with astonishing amounts of cope. and when he's finally able to remember, oh boy, he's gonna crumble.......

[grungiiuvu]

Hi! Previous anon here! I just rechecked ur blog and i saw u replied to me and ajsjdnkdkdn im so honored u wanna know more abt my culture😭😭😭 but before i start rambling i just wanna say im apart of two chinese clans? Cultures? Idk how to say it but i googled it and its called a province so province it is! My mom is fu jian and my dad is fu jian AND ke jia, but since my grandma's(ke jia) influence is so strong and most of my grandpa's(fu jian) relatives are 💀 i actually have an equal share of both cultures. By that i mean like, two different languages, which are thankfully just spoken, not written, and also lots of different food and pronunciations! For example, instead of hongbao, i say angbao.

Okay, so! I think one of the most prominent things i've grown up with is like, nicknames. And one thing i see is so common in tgcf fanfictions is the "A". Like: A-lian, A-qing, A-xin. Which okay, its actually used but its actually very uncommon(at least where i've grown up). Only person that uses it is my family is like, my grandpa and its to ny grandma. My grandma calls him BY NAME its actually crazy. We tend to use more double names? Idk how to say it but for example Mu Qing would be Qing Qing, Shi Qingxuan would be Xuan Xuan yk? My parents only call me by that, but the purpose of the nick names would be to mostly shorten the names becus most ppl have 3 character names. So unfortunately someone like Xie Lian(who has a 2 character name) would be refered to mostly as Xie Lian and not A-Lian or lian lian😭 And! The "A" prefix isn't only used from the last character! Sqx can also be refered to as A-qing as well as A-xuan, as well as A-qingxuan(its complicated)

For family stuff, younger siblings usually never refer to older ones by name. Like sqx would call swd ge ge, wu du ge, du gege but never outright Wudu.

And i also found out u wrote cheap villain??? I owe everything to you its so WELL WRITTEN?? AND THE PLOT?? ITS SO GOOD KIKE KSJDJD BUTTtttt one thing i've actually wondered is like accents. Like in english, ppl who speak mandarin tend to have accents! And ppl in BeiJing have a very prominent one. First time i tried talking to someone in BeiJing i had trouble understanding cus even tho we were speaking the same language it sounded so different! The tcgf donghua actually sounds a lot more similar to tawainese than like native mandarin cus it sounds so clean cut, if ykwim??? Like the pronunciation in the donghua is GOODDD and so SHARP(i may be jealous). BeiJing mandarin tends to sound more round and so I would've liked to see like, mu qing waking up in a whole new reality, starts speaking, and xie lian is like: "huh? What? Mu qing, SLOW DOWN WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!?" I think it would've been funny, in my opinion😭😭 (do i sound fussy again i hope this comes off as light hearted😭)

I MIGHT add more cus theres actually sm more i wanna say but im gonna leave it at here i hope it isn't TOO long😭 ur welcome ti ask me anything u want to know cus I LOVE talking abt my culture!!! Hopefully this isn't too boring for u😭

This wasnt boring at all!!! I love learning about different societies, it really fascinates me!! I'm from England and South Africa, so both my cultures are very modern western (living in the UK doesn't help) so I'm utterly at a loss with Chinese culture aside from deep-diving on the internet and doing my own research lol :')

The nickname thing is very interesting and i didn't know that!! tysm for telling me :D I know I've used it quite a bit in Cheap Villain but i feel I'm too far in to switch it up now TTvTT I don't want to seem like I'm abruptly changing things, and making the story inconsistent!

The stuff about the shi siblings is very helpful!! I shall be sure to remember that 🫡🫡

I've only recently started hearing about the accents thing, I'm afraid :')) If i had known when i first started writing Cheap Villain, I definitely would've done something about it lol! it was such a good joke opportunity missed o(TヘTo) Hopefully, I'll find somewhere to put it in, because that'd be very fun :D

I absolutely loved hearing all this!! feel free to send as many as you'd like :D I am aware I really don't know much about other cultures and I'm always happy to learn more anytime :))

Im so glad you enjoy Cheap Villain!! I've been trying my best haha

tysm anon!! :D

[saintmeghanmarkle]

When did reality finally hit Harry? by u/sofiaks05

When did reality finally hit Harry? One of the most fascinating things about H&M saga for me is to imagine the drizzle affect of reality clashing with both their inflated sense of self.ILBW probably know she isnt shyte and was, therefore, aware that ppl might discover she's a fraud.Harry, however, was brought up in an environment which fed his narcissism quite heavily, and he HAD reasons to feed his delusions of being special. In fact, for a while, he actually was. The most popular member of the RF, after the late Queen Elizabeth.Everyone fussed where wherever he went, doors were opened, people lined up, bowed, kept quiet when he spoke, laughed at his jokes, and were ever so delicate to say something when he was wrong.So... one of the most delicious things to imagine is the many, many moments when Harry got hit in the face with the reality of being nobody in the US. No one opened doors. No one waited for him to enter, or gave him an undivided attention when he spoke. There is no "preparation" for his visit, no line ups, no special treatment anywhere. There is no one to do the background work for his visit, wherever he goes. In the US he is 'just Harry', something like a shiny weird parrot that people look, briefly smile, and turn the attention away to something or someone more interesting. And over time, whenever mist of royalty he had, whatever history of being a soldier, a hero... all that came crushing down, but a bit at a time, everytime he or ILBW opened their mouths. They were lambasted over the documentary, and with his book he absolutely fell off the cliff, reputation-wise.He became a joke, a "fuc**** grifter", an idiot who has stupid ideas like interviewing Putin. He is the todger guy, the broken necklace in the dog bowl whiner. He is a joke.There were many small and big moments where the reality hit Harry, where he was confronted with the fact that ... he is NOT special. No one thinks he is -- that he was found out for the moron he is.I absolutely love to think of that. It warms my heart, especially thinking of all the nastiness they directed at the late Queen, and the family.But I do wonder... was there a KEY moment? An undeniable moment for Harry to finally get it?If so, what was that? Something the press said? A feedback from someone he worked with? Or was it at a restaurant? Maybe someone who did not return his call, or asked the assistant to contact him instead? Something to do with IG maybe? What are your thoughts??​​​​​​​​​ post link: https://ift.tt/3kfN0hi author: sofiaks05 submitted: January 05, 2024 at 12:12AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[enhaheeseung]

So basically ppl were trying to sexualize riki, and someone found this message: https://www.tumblr.com/jwonsite/738013651737444352/for-the-riki-smut-writers

then if u look through the comments ppl were saying that it applies to all the members but idk much, just checking to see Ur opinion on it.

Hmm interesting I mean idk I guess to each his own I personally would never write anything for niki or even feel comfortable thinking of him like that but that’s just me plus I’m only attracted to heeseung so there’s that even the older members I’d never write smut for

As far as smut writing goes for the rest of the members I can say there is an extent that I’m willing to go and I know this is gonna sound hypercritical as a smut writer myself but I’ve seen things that just aren’t my cup of tea and I feel certain things could just be left unsaid especially assumptions about how the members are in real life it’s one thing to write fiction but to actually come up and state that (whatever’s being talked about at the time) is real that’s when I draw the line

Also this may sound dumb but I feel like most smut is just tasteless like there’s just no actual substance to what’s happening it’s just boom bang bam smut end and i feel those writers probably shouldn’t write it but this is all personal and I’m not claiming im a better writer in any way

Anyways to answer your question tho I’m 50/50 I do get why people don’t want the members being sexualized (even I feel that way sometimes when it’s just tacky) and I get that others just realize it’s fiction and entertainment that being said I do feel like there’s an over sexualization sometimes and that’s the 50 that I don’t like again I know that sounds hypocritical cause I write smut but there’s just a type of smut/hard thoughts that just disgust me at times (I hope someone else feels like this and I don’t just sound crazy lol)

So basically I like smut when it’s more vanilla and tame not just some wild fantasy that would 99% never happen (not kink shaming tho this is just my preference)

Oh one more thing it’s hard for me to talk about the whole niki situation cause even tho he’s young the people sexualizing him might also be young too it doesn’t make it any better but the fact is unfortunately this is an app that underage people can access as well as other apps with adult content it does suck cause these people are young and probably don’t really see the immediate problem with it but there is indeed things that need to be implemented to protect minors being exposed to this shit and that’s a whole other problem that doesn’t involve niki or kpop but fact is we live in a fucked up world with fucked up things going on and I guess what I’m trying to say is that atp there really shouldn’t be any surprise should we try to stop it? Yes will it happen? Probably not but unfortunately thats just the way it is same shit happened with other idols too I do appreciate the people who call out underage blogs tho it helps keep things a little safer for the younger folk here so yeah even I have thought about deactivating my blog cause I know I have an influence on my readers and minors might be accessing my blog so sometimes it just makes me wonder if it’d be better to stop writing cause if I could protect just one underage person from being exposed to content like this I’d delete this app in a heart beat it’s fun writing but it’s not fun exposing people to stuff they shouldn’t be seeing and I know the whole talk about it’s the parents responsibility to keep kids off sites like this and writers shouldn’t have to quit because parents aren’t doing their jobs and blah blah blah but if you have that understanding that these kids aren’t being taught properly now is where you step in and take that role to be better than the people who raise kids up like that

Honestly I could write a whole essay but I’m sure I have bored everyone else by now

Again I was asked my opinion and this is all just my opinion so do not @ me

[georgiapeach30513]

They were definitely setting PH up to be an awards contender, in my humble opinion. I think the way the film was shot and the cast they chose, they were hoping for this type of receive. Initially anyway.

The problem like you and everyone else who commented, the film wasn’t bad at all but it wasn’t amazing. The story didn’t go places that other stories similar hadn’t already gone. I think it really goes to show how important a good script is to making a good film. This script was middle of the road and the direction was also middle of the road. A shame - I like David Yates and what he did for Harry Potter and I give him credit for completely stepping out of his past decade plus fantasy zone to do something like this. It didn’t quite work but I think we can see he pulled some really strong performances - at least out of Chris E.

I see more and more ppl are pleasantly surprised by his performance and also how the film is actually doing on streaming. A movie like this that had no press tour due to the strike and virtually no real SM promotion and less than stellar critic reviews but still raising general interest - as of yesterday it was the most searched drama on streaming overall.

It means ppl will still click when they see a film like this and likely when they see the lead actors in the film. People will watch for themselves if they wish and make their own decisions. Don’t be sheep.

It’s a sad thing to see so many “former/fans” on here now just focusing all their attention on discussing the pointless movements of one very irrelevant troll. I think you have a great attitude and space to share with ppl actually want to talk about the film and performances.

Thank you for sticking to what’s important!

I agree. I think the initial thought was for this to be an award contender.

I love what David Yates has done in the past. He’s an incredible director. But maybe this style of movie wasn’t for him. And with a mediocre script 🤷🏻‍♀️ I think everyone did what they could for what was given to them. And I do agree, he got some good acting out of Chris. Chris seems to flourish with the right direction. And even the garage/crying scene, I felt that. That’s a weakness for Chris.

I think the viewers are a definitely a better gauge on this than the critics. Kinda makes you wonder why they went at the movie so hard, especially Chris. And like you said, considering the lack of promotion done, it’s done great. I hate that SpiderVerse is about to take over it’s spot (at least this is what I think will happen). But if it stays in the top 10, more people will see it and click.

I want this space to be about the fanfics and Chris’ characters and work. It’s what I’ve always wanted. I’ll give a bit of attention if something new happens, but I’m bored and have better things to do than to worry about someone insignificant to me. And this space will continue to be about the stories, his characters, his work, thirsting, being goofy, and having fun.

[destinyc1020]

Confessions:

I think Kaias team is doing the same thing JEs team did when they allegedy put his name out for Superman. Ive seen Kaias name thrown in for The White Lotus and The new Knives out movie when shes nt in either (pretty sure they r done with announcing casting now). Mayb she auditioned for both and just didnt get either or her team r just putting her name out their for more exposure, bt rumor or nt i dnt think most ppl r exicted for her to b in acting projects anyway😂

Careful Anon, you're going to have Kaia's shooters all in up my inbox after me again lol. 😂 (as if we HAVE to like this girl)

Tbh?? I don't really care if an actor's team puts his/her name out there for roles... 🤷🏾‍♀️Sometimes I wonder if it's really the studio that does it as well, in order to see what level of interest the GP has in this actor being in this particular film, or playing a certain particular role. They're the ones who have the most to lose if nobody likes that actor for the role after all lol. I think it's all a Hollywood thing tbh lol. I'm sure it happens quite a bit? Kaia might actually be cast in "White Lotus" and "KO3" for all I know lol.

I don't have any problems with Kaia "playing the game" and doing whatever she needs to do in order to get her name out there as an actress (since this is def the direction in which she wants to go). I just wish that all of the obvious PR "hustling" were also backed up with actual genuine WORK on her part on her acting/craft instead of just doing the PR thing all the time. 🥴

To me, Kaia seems to treat acting like some "cool new hobby" that she wants to do because "all the 'cool kids' are doing it" and she wants in on that life and lifestyle and "prestige". It doesn't really seem like something that is her true passion to me. If it were, she would have been working HARD at improving and learning new acting skills, instead of just dating actors and basically getting info from them and repeating whatever they say lol.

It's been years, and yet....here we are...no improvement whatsoever. 🥴😔

[mrs-monaghan]

Thanks for sharing and confirming that my instincts were right. I always tend to trust my gut feelings about people but sometimes I wonder if I should. Well, once again, it seems that I, indeed, should. Now I have to be honest, I never gave much credit to wsj, I ended up unfollowing cause I wasn’t interested in her posts anymore at some point, I really don’t trust people claiming they know stuff about celebrities and posting it on the internet, everybody can pretend to be xyz, unless there’s some solid proof I chose to remain skeptical (I did see a few stuff, tough nothing groundbreaking, from the k-side that I trust though, so maybe she was right). That being said, it’s Tumblr, it’s more private that Twitter, we’re a smaller community, so I don’t see any harm in people sharing what they want to share on their own blog. Just move on and ignore if you don’t like. The campaign against her and other bloggers was disgusting. Let ppl speak on their own tiny corner ffs, if don’t agree you can expose your arguments, have a discussion or unfollow and block. As long as they don’t cross a line I don’t see the problem. I’m seriously done with the holier than thou woke bs attitude. It’s all about virtue signaling these days, showing how you’re so much better and morally pure, and you know everything better than the rest of the plague… give me a break. Also the discussion around jealousy and constant dismissing of k-army and korean dating culture was quite something… because as someone who comes from a country where the dating culture differs a lot with the American/western perspective, where a drop of jealousy and possessivity is considered as a normal display of affection - I’m not talking about excessive and toxic behavior obviously!! - the blatant ignorance and constant undermining of korean dating culture that is quite similar to mine in that regard really annoyed. me. so. freaking. much. It’s deemed as a big no-no in your culture, okay, I get it, but you’re not better than us who thinks that in many cases it’s not that big of deal and, in Jikook case, was quite revealing in the past. Sorry I’m going all over the place, I’ll shut up now!

Ha ha haaa... no, dont even worry about it. Its fine. Thing is though, the Jeonlous/Jimlous thing IS indeed quite exergerrated. Most of the compilations are rubbish. And I can see why most people hate it. Including Regina George. I get that. But it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Especially in the case of other people who are not members. My mind immediately goes to the Sean Mendez interaction. 🤭🤭🤭

(TT is accurate has not been manipulated in any way)

JK almost bulldozed RM and downright ignored him in his rush to get to Jimin. It's actually hilarious 😂😂 Now this can be classified as jealousy. But when it comes to members I don't think that's what that is at all. Annoyance, Irritation, maybe? because he can't do to Jimin what others can. But definitely not jealousy. Either way whatever it is, it happens and denying it is stupid.

As for WSJ I don't see why the notion that an Army personally knows BTS is so hard to believe. Normal people know celebrities all the time. That being said, my issue with everyone who went after her was the hypocrisy. WSJ was very careful not to tell us anything incriminating. And everything else she ever said were things we already knew.

-Jikook is real

-Jikook live together

-Vminkook have issues

Etcetera, Etcetera. These are things we already know. She was just confirming. And she wasn't even worse than us Jikookers. And i said as much to Stormie when she made that shady post. We are the ones talking about Jikook 18+ moments and posting about them. So anyone thinking they have a leg to stand on are being hypocrites. 🖕🏽

[magnetothemagnificent]

Heya. I hope you’re not too overwhelmed with asks atm.

I recently got given a JPS tanakh (the Hebrew-English version) and I’ve been looking up how to read it properly and stuff and I thought I understood so I started trying to read it but I’m just not getting it. It’s almost just like washing over me and I’m not really getting anything out of it? I know there’s different ways to engage with it but I don’t really understand how to actually put them into practice.

I was reading Genesis and I didn’t really have any thoughts or anything. I do wonder how much of it is simply that I don’t understand Hebrew so I can’t really comment much on the word choices and connotations coz the English isn’t the original and may not always accurately pick up on the nuances? But I don’t even know what I’m meant to be getting out of it atm lol

And I saw ppl recommending to read commentaries so I started trying to read some of the commentary on it but I didn’t quite understand how the two were meant to slot together, if that makes sense? It feels like I’m missing a piece of the puzzle here and idk how to help that.

Sorry this is a bit of a long one. I hope it doesn’t come across as disrespectful or anything. I’m trying to learn more about this coz I think it’s interesting. Thank you muchly for any advice in advance :)

First, there's no "right" way to learn Torah. Everyone learns and interprets Torah in different and unique ways.

However, the nature of Torah and the nature of Judaism is that it works best with a community. Torah is meant to be learned with other people: The concept of a Chavruta, partners in Torah learning, goes back thousands of years. Every week we read a different Parsha (Torah Portion) in synagogue, and share Divrei Torah (words of Torah) about it with our community. Torah is meant to be learned communally.

Now, I understand that it's not possible for everyone, and everyone has different learning styles. However, I really think it would help you to try and find a Torah study group. Nowadays there are lots of virtual options, too.

If that doesn't work for you, here are a few tips:

Torah, and Tanakh in general, isn't meant to be read like a storybook. Bereishit (Genesis) isn't the beginning and Dvarim (Numbers) isn't the end. You'll notice that the Torah, and all of Tanakh, often makes chronological jumps and that time doesn't seem to make sense sometimes. It's a tradition even to start teaching children from VaYikra (Leviticus) first before teaching the other four sections. And Torah is meant to be cyclical. That's why we have Simchat Torah every year, a holiday celebrating the completion of reading all Parshiyot in the Torah in synagogue and the re-start of the Torah from Bereishit again.

Torah is also meant to be read critically. There's classical commentaries like Rashi, and more recent and contemporary commentators, too. There's countless Divrei Torah written about everything in Tanakh. The text isn't meant to be read "raw". If reading it straight from your book doesn't work, try learning about different concepts in Torah through easier-to-digest Divrei Torah and articles. If one story or law in Tanakh fascinates or confuses you, look up things written about it by Rabbis and scholars from hundreds of years ago to today.

And my biggest tip: Use Sefaria. Sefaria is a free (although they always accept donations) website with an archive of so so many Jewish texts, from Tanakh, to Talmud, to Apocrypha, to Midrash, to contemporary discussions and texts. And most of it is translated to English, too. You can also click on a piece text and it will show you if there's any commentary or discussion about it, and show it to you. It's incredible and I use Sefaria all the time.

Other websites I recommend:

MyJewishLearning

Torah.org

AlephBeta

ReformJudaism

ParshaOfTheWeek

Best of luck!!!

[timelessbibliophile]

From a storytelling perspective, I think that Tim tried to tell the story he wanted, but after he saw the critics about s2, he changed the story. I think there is a truth in what he said about r*na and the car scene: he started to think about them, but as a backup plan. S2 shows that he tried to make ppl ship Portwell and stop shipping r*na, without actually killing r*na (like he did with ejxnini). This didn't work, so he went with the backup plan. I think that he was smart enough to not close the door for r*na, but saying that they were the plan (the main plan) is def a lie... if that was really the plan, the s2 story would have been different. The discrepance between the end of s2 and the start of s3 says it all. At the end of s2 Gina shows no interest in Ricky and EJ doesn't see him as a threat, meanwhile in 3x1 EJ suddenly sees him as a threat and Gina is shown to still have feelings for him. To make sense, they should have shown these things at the end of s2, but they didn't... So, what I think is that Tim had a lot of faith in Portwell and when he saw that it didn't have the impact he wanted, he went with the backup plan.

I am the kind of person who likes a good slow burn (which isn't the case for r*na). For example (idk if you watched Girl Meets World), Riarkle (Riley and Farkle) was that ship that was def planned from the beginning and was done really well. They were the kind of ship of show and don't tell (not like r*na cough cough). For example, they were shown to have much deeper conversations than the rival ship, Rucas (Riley and Lucas), while the characters kept saying that Rucas was so good at communicating. And this is just one example. Unfortunately, they didn't end up together bc the show was cancelled, but I am 100% sure that they were endgame.

Coming back to hsmtmts, I always tend to pay more attention to ppl's actions than to their words. That's why I, personally, don't believe Tim's words.

honestly anon, you make such a wonderful thesis on why i (and other fans) don't believe Tim when he says rina was the main plan all along.

I love how you bring up Farkle and Riley because we can use them as an example of how a slow burn SHOULD play out. The couple at the time (Riley and Lucas) liked each other, but in fandom spaces no one (or almost no one) liked them together. That's because the show made you feel discomfort with them, like something was missing, like it wasn't quite right. You knew, even when they were at their best, that their relationship wouldn't last forever, it was a means to an end. I think, if Rina was supposed to be endgame all along, this is what they should've done with Rini and Portwell.

In fact, S2's Portwell arc shouldn't have existed all together. They could've easily made them besties and nothing more, while Ricky got out of his terrible relationship with Nini. But they didn't do that. They didn't push you in the direction of shipping rina, in fact they were pushing hard for portwell. Because that was the plan. And then it didn't work out and Tim dusted Rina's relationship and made it a thing again in S3. And they were pushing for rina now, hard.

A good slow burn can have one of the people be in a relationship, Joey and Rachel for example. But the writers don't make the couple more than fun and games, or on the other side of the spectrum, they make them not fit well. In hsmtmts, in my opinion, this wasn't the case at all.