#ok but honestly the improvement is vast

[tempestaurora]

THE FIVE ROYAL CHILDREN OF ATARIA | don’t repost

[subbyp]

another thing opla really does well is highlight what a stupid plan it was for Zeff to try to get the kid he adopted for, among other things, being too damn stubborn to die to discard his misplaced guilt and start his own life by….being a crappy boss

[quiirrel]

Compared to ao3 even porn sites are tame. I cannot name a single site that moderates its users LESS than ao3 and it IS a problem no matter what way you put it.

[rubykgrant]

so. Rooster teeth is gone now. Thoughts?

That's both kind of a shock, but also unfortunately not surprising. I haven't really been "in the loop" regarding Rooster Teeth as a whole thing like other people online (I literally never knew anything they did outside of RVB 10+ years ago, except for hearing people vaguely talk about RWBY and Gen:Lock, and even then, I only really saw RVB to begin with because a friend had borrowed the DVDs from their older bro, who had borrowed them from a friend of his). I only randomly remembered RVB was a thing a couple years ago, and then it took over my brain. THEN, one of the more recent incidents of how RT mistreats employees was brought up, and while a lot of people were (sadly) used to hearing about that, I was not aware of previous situations, and it honestly made me very upset. I wrote a whole thing about that, which nobody "important" really saw, because I'm not important myself, but this new situation makes me feel more of the same...

It is awful that so many problems went on for so long, a LOT of people got hurt through working there over the years. They all deserved to be treated better. Being in a bad situation like that can mess up your whole life. That kind of thing also hurts how people work, and surprise-surprise, that hurts WHERE they work. You can't mistreat employees over and over, then turn around and give the fans the equivalent of a slap in the face when it comes to letting them actually enjoy the content, and expect everything to just work out OK. I am genuinely sad that yet another thing is getting shut down; it happens so often, with different studios/creative teams, and it would be nice to actually see a group recognize what their problems have been, make an actual effort to IMPROVE, and continue to exist. I hope all the creative people involved who have been working hard don't just get thrown on the wayside, but it is so difficult to find any stability in the entire entertainment business world right now. There were a LOT of problems at RT regarding how employees were treated, and that includes so MANY people, but there is also a vast amount of problems at just about every creative workplace (and this has been going on for more than a decade). Almost nothing survives, except a handful of companies who basically just "eat" up smaller ones, and have the money to fail or lose money over and over again, and not worry. Who cares if they shut down 10 other studios and end 50 projects that were almost finished? They still have their money. It is also just honestly WEIRD how many different companies keep making the same mistakes with how they offer content to the fans (limiting availability, not even letting people buy the stuff they want to buy, etc. RT has gotten a lot of hate for recent stuff with their online videos, but availability is a whole problem with all kinds of media; Disney won't let you watch it's own movies, Nintendo won't let you play it's own games; it's STUPID), and then being surprised it isn't working. Stop shooting yourselves in the foot. Stop doubling-down on the same nonsense. It isn't WORKING.

Again, it would have been nice to see a negative situation actually be IMPROVED. Maybe that is naively hopeful of me, but I'm also not exactly surprised. I'm just sorry so many people worked on so many different projects, with all their passion, talent, and effort, got mistreated, and it is now all being thrown away. It is just plain sad that so much can go wrong for entirely too many years, and then it just ends without anything being fixed. "Well it sucked, but now it's dead"- it didn't HAVE to suck, and it didn't HAVE to die. I wish it had been better from the beginning, and I wish that things could have gone better throughout. I hope all the creative people are able to keep living their lives and find themselves in workplaces where they can be safe (for their own emotional/mental health, and in terms of making enough money to actually live).

[sattystars]

im currently learning spanish and french, but qsmp is also improving my understanding of english in general, im writing, reading and listening way more than i used to before. and i never really thought about how our accents also reflexes our personalities untill i spend more time watching brazilians like me speaking in english in so many different ways.

i won't speak ccs names because it feels weird to overanalyze real people, but i wanna talk about it bc if it helped me with my insecurities maybe it can help other people as well. and i will talk about everyone, not only the brazilians. :)

the majority of qsmp players speak way faster in their mother languages, for obvious reasons, but you can tell that fast speakers also tend to speak faster in english as well, and if someone tends to not worry about enunciation in their mother language it also overlaps to the languages that they learned later. it's not that they speak in a wrong way, they're just naturally speaking way faster than they're able to say the words and that's such a normal personality trait. there's also a lot of players that naturally speak calmly and slowly in their mother language and it also overlaps to the other languages that they know. you can see also people who curse in their mother language or have a vast vocabulary also using curse words or not-well-known words in other languages as well. it obviously have nuances and depends of how these people learned the language and in what situation they're speaking it, but overall it do works like this most the times.

i have a lot of friends that blame themselves when speaking "wrong" in english, but honestly if people can understand you it just doesn't matter. sometimes we think we're being bad at something, but honestly that is just the way we feel comfortable doing it or how our personalities show up in the little details. of course we will eventually improve ourselves and things will become more natural, but it's ok not to be perfect, to be perfect is sometimes to neglect our own individualities and that sucks. so don't worry for being a "slow speaker" or "bad pronunciation" and stuff like that. you're learning. you'll get better at this. and even now you're doing great just for trying.

[cyle]

for the followers i have who love the technical insides of tumblr...

i've been living on tumblr every day with the gifs-as-mp4 change for over a month now and honestly, i didn't even know that change had been made until i stumbled upon it in an internal changelog about it. it's really that good: we only serve GIFs as MP4 when it makes sense. we do, literally, have many thousands of samples of the conversion process to look at (probably a lot more now). even at tumblr's scale, that's tiny, but the experience feels pretty good with the tuning we've done so far.

more specific examples of where it goes wrong will make it even better, so please send them in.

the really hard part about working on something like tumblr is its scale. we serve millions (tens of millions? hundreds?) of GIFs every single day to the internet at large. think about that: how many things in the world get served tens of millions of times? maybe mcdonalds hamburgers?

the effort of making that thing more performant, smaller, faster, "better", is worth it, to a point. finding that balance point is the really, really hard part. because the money doesn't come from nowhere. we've been serving GIFs as WebP for many years now, with nobody noticing (ok, a few people noticed), to huge benefit. you're already not seeing "real" GIFs!!!!! you didn't even notice!!!!!!

the vast majority of GIFs on tumblr (based on our random sampling) are TV- and film-like stuff, like this:

.... which is almost totally imperceptibly different when served as an H264 MP4 versus a literal GIF. by the way, that example is already actually an WebP image, not a GIF. that change literally saves us a lot of money and CPU time and whatnot trying to serve that as an MP4 instead of a 1987 GIF. in fact, if we let you upload that as an h264 mp4 instead of a GIF, it'd probably look better, since Netflix serves that to you as an h264 mp4 originally.

know your formats! the GIFs you're seeing on tumblr probably started as h264 mp4 files!!!!!!

but there are still tons of tumblr artists who use GIFs to their maximum potential (i follow a few), and i haven't seen any change to how we serve their GIFs. usually they exceed our criteria of when we'd try to serve an mp4, so i see their GIF (or webp) instead. i have some hope that we'll create some kind of Tumblr setting to "prefer GIFs" or something, but still, that'll be for the tiny minority of picky tumblr consumers. audiophiles? more on that thought in a second.

it's interesting, though, how we (Tumblr) introduced "data saving" options, which were universally loved, but basically do this same thing: serve images and videos in formats that are better for your bandwidth and CPU, at the likely cost of quality. there's a very large (silent majority) of Tumblr users who actually want this as a default all the time. they prefer a fast, efficient tumblr, over a perfect fidelity tumblr. i would too if i was living in a place with slow internet, which is a lot of the world today.

i don't blame them; i used to spend a week every year at a house that only had 1mbps internet, and the "data saving" options we've added to tumblr really helped me. i literally could not have used tumblr without it. that's a lot of peoples' experience every day.

there's a debate here about creator versus consumer quality, which is wonderful, that's a lot like what audiophiles and film enthusiasts debate about (i'm an active participant in these debates), but ultimately this gets trumped by an argument about what level of quality is discernably acceptable to the consumer. there's a 0.001% bleeding edge of people who can really know quality, definitely. but can you make decisions for a whole platform based on that? maybe. probably not? how is Tidal doing?

anyway, these are the fun thought exercises of someone like me trying to wrap their heads around how Tumblr can improve for the literal millions of people using it every day.

[daydreamgoddess14]

Life After Richmond pt. 1

MASTERLIST

A Jason Sudeikis multi-chapter RPF w/ a reader insert/OFC. No use of y/n l/n.

A meeting with an author leads to the next project after Ted Lasso.

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 1

"You should read this, it's fucking life changing." Brett dropped the book into Jason's lap on his way to the writers room. Pre-production for season 3 was well underway and they were making the most of some time writing together. Jason picked up the book and thumbed through it, the front inside cover had been signed by the author: 

'You're a twat. Love Callie' 

"I hope you’re good friends. She's not wrong though, why's it so good?" he questioned.

"It's just... bloody brilliant. Honestly, give it a go. She's going to be writing the new wave of romcoms before we know it. I might try and get her to give some TV writing a go once we’ve finished here."

"Sure, sure, I have all the time in the world to sit and read, Goldstein." Jason rolled his eyes and stuffed the book into his backpack before following Brett into the room. Reading was definitely the kind of recreational activity he didn't have time for at the moment. With shooting planned for right around the corner, downtime was hard to come by. It didn’t take long for the writing to draw him in though and a month or two later, Brett saw the book being launched at his head in the makeup trailer.

"Great book, thanks man. I think I've sent a copy to everyone I know." Jason chuckled. 

"I can get you a copy of your own if you're interested. Signed. Callie texted me, she'll be in London in a few weeks. She’s coming over to visit her mum and sister - want me to set up a meeting?"

"Absolutely yes, if she's OK with that? Get it in my diary, I’ll tell Lisa. We can move stuff around to fit it in so work around whenever works for her." Brett nodded, pulling out his phone. 

"She's having a bit of a shitty time, she's just split with her dickhead boyfriend. They were together for about 5 years I think. He's an absolute weapon, she's well shot of him."

"That sucks. She's from the UK? Maybe being at home will help."

“Doubt it, she left when she was like, 17 to get away from her mum.” Brett said with a laugh. “She’s probably coming to see Beth really but if her mum finds out she’s in the country and doesn’t visit, she’ll go mad.”

“How’d you meet?”

“I’ll let her tell you - she loves to tell that one. Mostly cos it makes me look like a loser.”

“Poor baby Brett.”

“Oh fuck off. I tell you what I’m dreading having you two in the same room. I’m gonna be the punching bag.”

“We love you really, bud. I bet she only calls her true best friends a twat.”

“That’s true actually, she does.”

Callie brought her knees up and rested her mug in the V between her torso and legs, reaching around to type. Her sister had offered her spare room and empty-during-the-day restaurant as a quiet workspace. She’d had more than enough of her mum and so far was loving being back in London and with her sister. She felt like hell after the break up and hadn’t been looking after herself at all. It had caused tension with her mum who’d accused Callie of moping around and had told her to sort herself out. With Beth’s help, she was finally starting to do just that. She had half an eye on the front windows of the large dining space looking out for Brett, when a little tap on the front door shifted her gaze. With a big smile, she rose to unlock the door. 

"Alright, gorgeous? God it’s been a long time." She reached up to hug him. 

"Not bad, how have you been? Stupid question - you look like shit - you've lost weight." He chided, pulling at the baggy hoodie.

"Mate, I'll have you know that this is a vast improvement. My hair is clean, I've bathed, I'm actually wearing clothes - and they're clean ones. I haven't had a glass of wine in... three days, and I considered eating breakfast this morning. That’s enough dragging me in front of your boss though, where's the introduction?" Brett sighed heavily. 

"Fine, Cal, this is Jason. Jason, this is Callie Draper. She didn't always look a mess.” He said pointedly.

"This mess is lightyears from a few weeks ago." Callie gestured to her yoga leggings and oversized hoodie. “I’m practically glowing.” The dark circles under her eyes and drawn complexion clearly said otherwise.

"She's right. You should have seen what I picked up from Birmingham airport. It doesn’t look like it should be, but it’s an upgrade." A voice drifted through the swinging kitchen doors. 

"Well, isn't this lovely and supportive. Thanks, sis." Callie called through the door. She turned to Jason and explained, "I got home from the North American leg of my book tour to find my boyfriend fucking our upstairs neighbour on my kitchen counter. I spent a few weeks surviving on wine and chocolate biscuits so I'm now in recovery mode, my skin hasn't forgiven me yet - being dumped in your 30s is a lot harder than it is in your 20s." She said briefly. 

"I'm so sorry, that's fucking awful. If it’s any consolation, it’s fucking horrible in your 40s." Jason offered kindly. Callie smiled and shrugged, the smile not quite reaching her eyes. 

"Jeez, I think I’ll stay single then. Thanks. Shall we sit?" she gestured to her table. "I'll make some coffee - as long as Americano is OK? I can't do a Latte on that thing." She pointed at the barista coffee machine and set about making the three drinks. 

"Sorry sweetheart, I didn't mean to upset you. I'm just worried." Brett dropped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. 

"I'm OK. Getting there." She leaned into him before she started to fiddle with the coffee press, twisting it into place. 

"When are you going back to Chicago?"

"End of next week. I'm staying at Sara's at the moment, but I'm thinking of moving anyway."

“Where’s next on the list?” Brett asked curiously.

“Probably New York. I think Brookyn, my agent Laura lives just across the river and her office is in lower Manhattan so it seems like a pretty good spot.”

“Brooklyn is great, I’ve got a place there.”

“Excellent, you can give me take out recs.”

"Happy to. So how'd you two meet?" Jason asked, gesturing between Brett and Callie.

"I was at one of his gigs in San Francisco when he performed to 4 people and a dog. I was the only person who couldn't actually leave cos I was the barmaid. He was terrible!" Jason laughed and nudged Brett's shoulder, thanking Callie for the coffee she placed in front of him. 

"I couldn't understand why I was being heckled by a Brummie!" Brett shook his head. 

"Former Brummie. I'd been in the States for about 15 years by then." Callie countered, sitting back in her original seat. 

"When did you move?" Jason looked across at Callie, trying to connect the timeline.

"I was 17. I didn't want to go to uni, my mum was doing my head in, so I decided to do Camp America for a summer. I fell in love, wanted to stay so we got married when I was 18," Callie paused for effect, Jason's eyebrows somewhere near his hairline and Brett nearly doubled over laughing. "Then I was divorced at 22, and I've spent the last 15 years moving wherever I've wanted and doing any old jobs I can while I write. I just up and move when I’ve had enough. I’ve been in Chicago for the last 6 years though so it’s time for a change"

"Holy shit, maybe you should write that."

"Maybe I should." She laughed. It had been a while since she'd had to give her potted history, and it still made her laugh. 

"What happened with your ex husband? Tell him, Cal." Brett had tears in his eyes waiting for the final kicker in the story.. 

"He's happily remarried, we're still friends and I'm godmother to his and Andrew’s two little girls." She finished with a smirk.

"Are you serious? " Jason looked incredulous. 

"Yep, it was a bit of a wild time. My mum still hasn’t forgiven me, she adored him and she was devastated when she found out he was gay."

"You think? She was dreaming of babies on a ranch or some rubbish like that." Brett added with a laugh. "Anyway, enough of your crazy life. Have you got a book on you for Jason? And can you re-sign mine please: you called me a twat." Callie pulled a new book from her bag.

"I did that? Consider yourself honoured. I’m sure I only refer to my best friends as a twat. Got a pen?" she held out her hand, Jason supplied a red pen. "Ooh red, I like to edit in green. It feels less 'grrrr'." She tapped the pen to her lip, thinking, before lifting the cover so he couldn't see, and scribbled her message. Jason took it gratefully and put it straight in his bag without looking. Then she took Brett's dog-eared book and turned to where she'd last signed it. She sniggered at her previous message, and then signed just underneath it before passing the book back. Brett opened it. 

"Callie!" He held it out for Jason to see the new inscription:

'You're still a twat. Still love you though, Callie xo'

"I hope mine is nicer. Either that or I’m already in best friend territory." Jason teased.

"You won't know if you don't read it."

"The book? Oh I read it, I loved it. I sent it to everyone I know." Callie narrowed her eyes at him. 

"When you say everyone you know... do you happen to know Reese Witherspoon?"

"Not personally, but my friend Alexi does. And I sent her a copy, why?"

"My Insta went mental a few weeks ago, Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore... fucking Jennifer Aniston! All tagging me with pictures of the book. It was insane. I’ve had to add more dates to the book tour when I get back, and I’m going on a couple of daytime TV shows as well."

"Jen? Oh that was me, I'm definitely taking credit for that one. And the others by association." Callie's eyes were like saucers. 

"Holy shit." She whispered. "Holy shit. I told Laura something weird had happened, she didn’t believe me. She said it was just word of mouth."

"You're like... Nora Ephron reincarnated. If your books are anything to go by, then I can't wait to read your screenplays. Post-its, shopping lists. You name it, I'll read it." Callie blushed into her coffee.

11am turned quickly to lunchtime, with Callie's sister bringing out food for them all. Callie told them that she'd spent the previous week at her mums binge watching Ted Lasso. Her time living in America had meant that she'd already been familiar with Jason from his SNL days. Conversation came easily between the three of them and lunch soon fell away to mid afternoon, and by 4pm they were being pushed by Callie’s sister into clearing away water glasses, coffee cups and cake plates to make way for the restaurant opening. Brett excused himself to go to the bathroom and Jason turned to Callie,

"You've probably heard this from everyone already, but it does get easier. You'll... find yourself again." She nodded. 

"Thanks. I'll keep trying, it feels good to be out of the pity party so I just need to keep going. I'm struggling to write though," she shrugged, "I can't get in the right headspace, I just keep getting into my own head and seeing, well, what I walked in on. And then it’s all I see. I've tried poetry, lyrics, plays, prose... I just can't get my words out." Her chin dropped to her chest and she brushed across her eyes quickly to get rid of any potential tears. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offload. It all just feels a bit bleak and dark foresty right now."

"I'm glad you did, your words will come back. Give yourself time." Jason offered a hug, and she rose slightly onto her toes to accept. 

"Thank you. Really, thank you." She muttered against the neckline of his hoodie. 

"My turn." Brett interrupted and Callie reluctantly stepped away from Jason. She ruffled Brett's hair and he planted a kiss on her forehead. "When's your flight?"

"Next week, I'm back at mum's at the weekend for my last few days though. Got to go back for one more round of fucks disguised as a pep talk." Brett nodded, 

"She’s only doing it because she loves you. Don't be a stranger, and please look after yourself." She nodded. 

"Will do, it was really good to see you. A patented Goldstein hug makes everything ok. And so good to meet you Jason. Jesus, what a fucking understatement! Good luck with the show."

"Thank you, it was great to meet you too."

"Thanks babe, it wouldn't be half as good without this genius." Brett nudged Jason gently and the two left Callie to lock the door behind them. 

"Jennifer fucking Aniston." She whispered, shaking her head. "As if!"

A few days later, Callie's phone pinged with a Twitter DM. A screenshot. Of a tweet she'd sent from her sister's sofa,

"Meeting actual pop culture geniuses is all well and good until they turn out to be extremely hot and very, very distracting 🥵"

She frowned at the screenshot at first, before seeing the message it came with. 

'Just checking whether you've met any other pop culture geniuses over the last few days?' Callie's jaw dropped. He did not have Twitter. She was almost certain. Almost. "Shit," she whispered furiously, "shit, shit, shit. Bethhhhhh?" she wailed, calling her sister. 

"What's up?" Beth replied, coming in from her room, DVD in hand. 

"I might have tweeted about meeting Jason the other day. Might have called him hot. He's found the tweet." Beth looked blankly, 

"Did you seriously think he didn't have Twitter?"

"There's an account, but it's not active!" 

"Ohh.. Oh Callie, you plum!"

"Shit! I'm so mortified!"

"Ahh so own it, he's seen it now. You might as well just laugh it off. Speaking off, I knew I had one of his films somewhere - fancy watching it?" She held up 'Sleeping with Other People' Callie was too nose deep in her phone to say no. 

"How's this sound - 'Only Brett and I’m not sure he qualifies as a genius.'?"

"Cute, funny. Breezy, go for it. I'm getting popcorn, shall I open some wine?"

"Fuck yes, please do. I might as well continue to drink myself to death at this rate. I'm a walking mess, Beth."

"You're fine. You're getting over dickhead at your own pace, we got you through the heartbreak and booze diet, I know you’re in the forest but we're getting you out." Callie hummed, hitting send on the message and shoving her phone out of sight to watch the film. By the time it ended, the empty wine bottle sat on the coffee table while Callie and Beth lay head to toe on the sofa. 

"So… The film didn't help." Callie pointed out, gently kicking her sister’s head. 

"You're not wrong," Beth sniggered, "He really is hot!"

"Aghh, shut up. I'm in my heartbreak era. I'm allowed to lust over unattainable men. Thank god I’ll never have to meet him again. He is ridiculously gorgeous in person, I couldn’t cope with that again."

"Did he reply to you?"

"Dunno, I'm sitting on my phone. Probably not." Callie dug under the cushions to retrieve it, "Oh shit, he has replied - it just says 'good to know.' Oh, he's sent a link to a song, he said it reminds him of the book." Callie clicked the link and turned up the volume. She looked across at Beth. 

"Didn’t you play this on repeat for about 8 months while you wrote?" Callie nodded slowly. "Bit mad that he's gone for the same song." Callie nodded again, incredulous.

"I'm sending him the full playlist." She decided, getting the link and adding it to the message stream with the caption 'here's my full playlist for the book, crazy coincidence that you went for that track.' He replied with a purple heart, and Callie resisted the urge to keep the conversation going.

Callie landed in Chicago a week later, stopping briefly at her old apartment to get more of her stuff before continuing to her best friend's home. After some calls to her agent, Laura, she had managed to sign a lease on an apartment in New York within the month, and packed up the rest of her belongings. Messages from Jason dropped into her Twitter DMs once or twice a week, recommending the best place in Brooklyn for tacos,  they’d exchanged book recommendations. It felt strange after so long to be living alone. Laura had found her a tiny apartment close enough that they could regularly meet. Since traveling the country together on her book tour, and the break up, she and Laura had become close friends. Callie was grateful to not be starting over totally alone in a new city. She settled down to write, but found again that the words wouldn't come to her, it felt like an age since she’d managed to successfully put pen to paper. Without really thinking, she picked up her phone and sent a message via Twitter: 'What do you listen to when you write?' The response came through almost immediately with a link to Run The Jewels - a duo she'd never heard of. She hit play without replying to the message and emerged 4 hours and 10,000 words later to a new message. Not on Twitter, on WhatsApp, from a number she didn't have saved already. 

'I talked Brett into giving me your number, I hope you don't mind. Hope the music suggestion worked.'

'It did! I finally got something going. Nothing like a looming deadline to hurry me along. I was on a couple of talk shows last week - it was completely bizarre. I don’t know how you do it. Weird as fuck.’

‘You get used to it. Send me the link, I wanna watch.’

Callie dropped the youtube link into their message chain and got back to work. The messages became more and more regular back and forth - discussing new episodes of TV shows they’d recommended to each other, swapping playlists and books. Callie even sent over recipes she’d made, with photographic evidence of how they’d turned out.

Over brunch, Laura put a coffee cup down for Callie and caught sight of a selfie of Jason and Brett on her phone.

“Well this is unexpectedly wonderful Callie Draper. Does Brett know he’s got a new role as matchmaker?”

“Don’t be silly, we’re just friends. We really got along when we met and he’s just really easy to talk to.” Laura hummed, looking at her own phone. She froze reading an email and Callie looked up at the notable silence. She’d expected the Spanish inquisition but it was nowhere to be found. “What’s up babe?”

“Fuuuck. Callie, fucking hell.”

“Laura! What is it? What’s going on?” Laura slid her phone across the table and Callie read the open email;

‘We’d like to invite Ms Draper to the offices to discuss a potential collaboration in getting her book adapted as a series. I’ll send the details across shortly. I'm away in LA for two weeks so we’ll get something booked in early next month. Netflix would love to have something like this in our wheelhouse so I’m really excited to meet you both.’

“Netflix?” Callie whispered in awe, more to the phone than to Laura.

“NETFLIX baby! Netflix!”

“Fucking hell. Fuck me, what do I do?”

“We meet with them, obviously!” Laura took the phone back and frantically drafted a response. Across the table, Callie picked her phone up and wrote a message of her own.

‘Holy fuck, Netflix want to meet me next month to discuss adapting the book. Fuck me, what do I do?!’

‘That’s amazing news - congrats! Meet with them of course, there’s no harm in hearing what they’re thinking of. Meeting with them doesn’t mean you’re committing to them. You’ll crush it.”

‘I know fuck all about TV. Hope you’re ready for a Padewan?’

In London, Jason laughed at his phone before sending a Yoda gif in response. Callie beamed at the reply before concentrating on Laura who was practically combusting. A few days later, a huge bouquet of beautiful sunflowers arrived on her doorstep with a note from Jason and Brett.

Do it you must, young Padawan 💜

She’d cried and sent them both a picture, thanking them.

‘Anytime, anything you need. You’ll do great, I can’t wait to hear all about it.’ Jason had replied.

The Netflix meeting soon rolled around and Callie listened intently. It had sounded great, she knew very little about TV but she’d heard enough to be a little wary of their business model of cancelling both popular and underperforming shows. She wondered if she was ruthless enough for them but found herself hiding those fears from Jason and Brett. She asked Laura to keep Netflix at arms length for a while, playing on her other deadline commitments, while she tried to work the scenarios in her own mind. They were walking through the park when the call from Apple TV reached Laura. She excused herself away from Callie slightly to take the call, before returning with a huge smile.

“Apple wants to meet you now. It happens sometimes, they’ll have heard through the grapevine about the things Netflix are looking into. Sometimes they’re bothered and want to see for themselves, sometimes they leave each other to it. Could be good for you though to hear out another option? They’ve booked us in to meet next month.” Callie was speechless. They parted ways and Laura went back to the office while Callie went home to write. On the way, she sent Jason a message.

‘Now Apple wants to meet me. This is insane. Insane! I’m really wary of Netflix. I’m not sure they’re the right fit. How did you know when you went with Apple?’

‘Amazing news! We were lucky with Apple, we knew right away and they’ve been really supportive. Couldn’t wish for a greater bunch of folks to work with. At least you’ll have something to compare Netflix to.’

Callie smiled, she knew he was right. They’d batted enough ideas back and forth over the last 5 months to know when each other was on the right track. She settled back at her desk and picked a playlist to write to. Time to focus on the day job - not the possibilities of what might happen.

[lobotomizedlady]

Not a single trans woman will say she can carry children but neovaginas are virtually indistinguishable from cis vag when it comes to their sexual function, which is what we are talking about here, not baby making. Ask any man who has sex with both post op trans women and cis women. If anything neovag is tighter and more pleasurable for him. Sorry to break it to you but we improved on nature if anything. Cry about it I guess, fart.

jesus christ lol

ok id assume this is a troll but ive seen plenty of trans ppl on reddit say this w/total confidence so uh off the top of my head here's some ways an inverted penis fails to compare to an actual vagina in the specific context of sexuality: the vagina is a muscle, it stretches to allow comfortable penetration and contracts when she orgasms in a way that feels good for her partner too, something a surgical hole will not do bc it is literally just that: a hole. the vagina is self cleansing, not constantly getting infected by fecal bacteria as "neo vaginas" (hate that term honestly) are so prone to. the vagina is an organ, not an open wound with the need for dilation to keep it from closing up. it self lubricates to make sex easier and more comfortable. it doesn't grow hair inside of it or turn to necrotic rotting tissue. it has a part (the clitoris) that solely functions as a pleasure center, "neo vaginas" are often totally numb or just painful.

im not even specifically blaming trans ppl for believing this stuff, SRS doctors are evil for telling dysphoric patients that they're going to magically build them a functioning manmade replica of an incredibly complex organ. natures perfection just can't be imitated sometimes, sorry. srs surgical wounds are not sex organs. they are not what straight men want, definitely not what lesbian women want, not what the vast majority of bisexuals want, and probably not what you want either.

[royal-they]

hi so i kinda happened to fall in love with your art.....and i wanted to ask a few things!!! (if its ok!)

uhmm first of all how long did it take you to get that art style and perfection it etc etc?

also do you have any tips for anatomy? not big complex full body anatomy, just like...idrk honestly, some tips related to anatomy or hands or just the body that helped/help you?

and uh yeah if you just have any general tips on whatever to improve my art/art style i'll take litterally anything 😭

again, i love your art, i love what you make! keep doing what you do, you're awesome!!!! sending love and support <3

ah!! tysm <333!! thats so cool to hear!!!!!!!!!/gen

ive been drawing forever honestly. i've always been really into it. im fifteen so thatd be like 12 years. and obviously i wasnt always studying it super seriously or anything. idk. my art isnt perfect by any means. i just dont really post the shitty pieces lmao. i struggle with sm stuff and will be continuing to study probably till the day i cant hold a pencil anymore lol. (i draw too much, my hand hurts ;w;) its a never ending process and honestly thats why i love it sm.

as for anatomy i think the main thing to keep in mind is that anatomy and just drawing people in general is really hard. i heard this in this old video about how pixar used to do 3d animation is that the reason they didnt do animations of humans for so long is because we ourselves have very specefic ideas of what a human looks like. i think this also applies to art. which is a really long way of saying, trust the process.

i use photos personally! you can find a lot on pinterest but there are a couple things id keep in mind when it comes to photos people edit their bodies sometimes so their proportions so be careful, it will defeat the purpose of the study if the bodies inaccurate.

idk here are some that might be good for starting off. dancers and people like that are super helpful. remember to not to focus too much on the lines but more copying down the shapes,

for hands i would just look at your own hands and try to capture them quickly. i say quickly mainly bc i shake a lot lmao, maybe youre different. or you could just be smart and take a picture of your hand but im very lazy and dont like getting up to grab my phone.

for art style id just save stuff that inspire you. could be animations, comics, album covers, cool photos, just stuff that gives you like vibes. literally ANYTHING.

like, omg this is making me think of a cool idea rn!! save it! even if you cant execute it now you can always execute it in the future when your skills are more developed :)

style studies are also helpful! try copying art you like, seeing different peoples techniques however some things to keep in mind with this are

you might accidently copy down an artists mistakes or bad habits without realizing it so try to have some variety in your artists

dont post the art. some people are okay with tracing but the vast majority of artists dont like it and it makes them uncomfortable. so id just like keep it in your sketchbook or whatever :) better safe than sorry.

anyway ah this is so longgggg! sry im so bad at being concise lol. theres probably a lot of youtube videos that could help you with this stuff if you want more explanation. the channel ive been watching a lot in since this summer is sketches of shay. she makes a variety of stuff but her art studies and resources are also very helpful :)

Sketches of Shay - YouTube

[itshornokplease]

Did not realize all of Sanditon series 3 was available to watch on PBS Passport! There went my day.

Spoilers ahead!

(I did get “spoiled” about the ending because I decided to get on tumblr after I watched the first episode and then immediately left to finish the rest of the series.)

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Best things:

- Samuel colbourne. I’ve only seen him as Alfred in the Pillars of the Earth and I hated him in that but I liked him a lot here even though he had a pretty predictable role.

- I know he’s scummy but I did not expect to see Lockhart again, and just a few minutes of Alexander Vlahos on my screen made me happy. Even though Lockhart sucks.

- Lady Lydia! I wish she’d gotten more screen time and we knew who her secret suitor was.

- Edward’s astonishment that his aunt was preparing him for a job in the clergy. I LOL’ed.

- Charlotte and Colbourne getting their happy ending.

The rest of it was honestly OK. I enjoyed season 2 a lot, probably because I couldn’t watch it all in one go and I had something to look forward to each week (and read others’ thoughts here on each ep). Speeding through the entire season made all the suspense disappear. I didn’t really care for many of the storylines, but I did find Georgiana’s probably the most interesting.

Augusta and Edward made little sense. Was he really trying to ruin her? Was he testing himself? What was any of it? I also feel like she’s not that stupid, is she?

Poor Ralph. He honestly was completely unnecessary.

Also, why weren’t any of Charlotte’s family at her wedding? Not even her dad? Alison? I’m sure no one would even have noticed if they just put some other actor as her dad if the original one was unavailable.

Anyway, I still think no Sidney was a vast improvement but last season was more interesting, even with the captain being a cartoon villain. It all just was very predictable and I am glad that everyone is happy, but it felt so anticlimactic. I guess that’s the point as it’s the last series but even the chemistry felt very lacking. I think maybe Arthur and Harry had some decent moments and Samuel and Lady Susan were couple of the series.

Now I’m off to read others’ thoughts and look at gif sets!

Editing to add (after reading it on someone else’s post): the moment where colbourne and charlotte’s hands touch during the concert was 👌🏾🔥

[notable-phlyarologist]

ok so me and a gf have been watching through my hero academia and like, wow, i thought it was forgettable when i watched it while doped up on pain meds in the hospital but now i hate it

heeeere's rambles

but theres one thing thats honestly really minor that keeps bothering me. every character follows anime level logic where if youre a character designated 'strong' you're arbitrarily quick, strong, and durable to suit whatever flashy bs youre doing in a fight. very typical anime stuff

but see, in most shonen settings, they either explicitly or implicitly say that their midichlorians also give a boost to them even outside of flashy techniques. Naruto has chakra, hxh has nen and is the best, bleach has reiki, dbz has ki, one piece has haki, and so on.

but in mha there is this continual emphasis that your Quirk is everything, that it is the thing from which all your anime powers derive, and in the typical vein of superpowers you only have that one Thing that you can do and you just need to stretch it around.

but we get shit like eraserhead clowning on those goons and remaining conscious through fifteen concussions, bakugou keeping up with midoriya in close combat when midoriya's whole thing is a big all-around boost, we get people with powers that have no justification for making them able to dodge gunfire or whatever. it rankles

its not even as though this is, like, necessarily a sin-- i mean, hollywood action flicks dont go out of their way to say that john wick has a whole lot of Cinema Juice in his blood or whatever.

the problem is the tone, because mha constantly tries to look like everything that's going on is through creative applications of powers, clever interactions with real-world physics like air pressure or whatever, and it does all this in a world very similar to our own. biological quirk drawbacks similarly signal that this show is trying to be neat and clever like if you woke up with superpowers tomorrow you could do this stuff too and it would work the same as it does here. yet it still has these egregious moments where Eraserhead is doing TAS combat gymnastics or bakugou is able to keep up with midoriya even though explosive propulsion really only gets you so far or random villains with shooty Quirks can take absurd beatings or keep up with bakugou and co themselves.

and this show loooves exposition, voiceovers, and flashbacks. we get them constantly and they ruin any emotional moment by not allowing you to sit with it and actually feel what's happening. instead youre just told everything thats going on. but that also means that this problem of anime action heroing would be the absolute easiest thing to fix in the whole entire world.

just fucking say that when you train your Quirk a lot you also start getting an all-around boost. then extend that into the reason why Quirkless people never show up to super fights-- they literally can't keep up when even Eyestalk Man can move twice as fast and hit twice as hard.

and in turn play this into the whole Quirkless discrimination thing we hear about but never see-- the narrative is that Quirkless people are vestigial! they're primitive, weak, stupid, barely even people, not like *us*. Look at how much crime they do, even when none of them take the leap into calling themselves villains! se have scientific studies that say definitively quirkless people are worse at everything!

those studies are of course grossly misrepresented-- any 'Quirk Boost' only really starts to kick in around the Pro Hero level of training and dedication. a Quirkless mma fighter could still absolutely whoop the ass of a quirked rando on the street. the difference in the lives of the vast majority of the population between Quirked and Quirkless is negligible. Like, this one little thing can improve three whole huge glaring bald spots in the canon! it's so simple! it makes everything better! how did you not do this!

[davidjduran]

IM Tulsa 2022 Race Report

Preface

Better late than never. Post IM I checked out and shifted gears to summer fun with the kids. Kept running streak going until day 288 on July 4th. From fitness pov I've been slacking off over the summer but plan to get back into it more socially with school back in session and fall around the corner.

Venue

Honestly I picked this race for the time of year over the location, but Tulsa ended up being pretty cool. It was a bit of a hike from the east coast but doable. TUL airport very convenient to town, although it required a connection from NJ. Lots of good restaurants, bars, arts, and entertainment options. A great bike shop. Lots of coffee shops. Too many pot dispensaries. And a diverse mix of old run down sections, newly developed ones, and beautiful historic buildings from the early 1900's.

Stayed: Hotel Indigo Downtown. Pricey for Ironman/PGA weekend but convenient to everything.

Ate & Drank: - Lo Wood: Higher end meal our first night. Excellent. - Jinya: Good Ramen noodle bar. - Vampire: Sandwiches. - Dilly's Diner: Amazing breakfast options. So good we went back again. - Cherry St Kitchen: Ok breakfast. - McNellie's Pub: Good bar food and vast beer list. - Arthur G's BBQ: When in Rome. - Sweets: HURT Donuts, Rose Rock Microcreamery - Coffee: Black Wall Street, Soda, Gypsey

Bike Shop: Phat Tire. Can't say enough good things about these guys. Got me tuned up lickety split, and repacked the bike for return so we had more time to enjoy Tulsa.

Lead Up

We left at stupid o'clock Thursday morning from EWR but everything went smoothly and arrived on time around noon in Tulsa. Despite a brief scare where my bike ended up not loading on our EWR->ORD connecting flight, somehow AA got it to us via DFW just 15' after we landed in TUL. Pro tip, throw an AirTag in your case so you can see where your bike is in near real time.

There was a lot to do those first 48 hours. Thur: Reassembled bike, dropped at shop for tune up, athlete check in, last taper run. Nice meal out at Lo Wood. Fri: Recon swim at Keystone lake (out of town), drove complete bike course. Short bike on run course. Organized race day bags. Raman at Jinya. Sat: Big breakfast at Dilly's Diner. Checked in bike and bags. Watched Bond. Early to bed (~8pm).

Goals

I started training for this from pov of "What would it take to KQ?" and working backwords from my prior PR of 11:38 at IMWI in 2015. Idea was to systematically reverse engineer the fitness and know how to KQ, or at least to get close and then build on that down the road.

After some soul searching and lots of EN Team feedback, I shifted my mindset for race day from specific output based time/place goals to one of inputs and process. In other words, don't chase a time. Inputs >> Outputs. Prioritize process throughout the day and results will follow.

All that said, I definitely wanted to improve time and execution vs. my prior 11:38.

Race Day

Morning

Followed my plan. 1st breakfast around 2am, then back up at 4am, walked up to shuttle. Jen and I both managed to squeeze on and ride together which was nice. Got to T1 around 5:30am. Tires, fluids, Garmin & batteries on, bike check, etc.

A storm had rolled through the day before so it ended up thankfully being much colder than expected (low 50's). I debated the day before on what to wear and ultimately stuck with EN Tri top + arm warmers and gloves which proved very helpful!

Swim

Went ok but plenty of room for improvement. This is by far my weakest discipline and I still haven't unlocked some fundamental form issues. Liked the format change to rolling start and last minute decision to modify from 1 to 2 laps as water was very choppy further out. Somehow this increased the total distance to ~4750yds (+500yds) and caused extra confusion when they moved the T3 buoy between lap 1 and 2! I didn't wear a watch but check out these other tracks.

For future - think I really need to dedicate a season to swim form including a week+ camp w/ coaching to fix some fundamental issues.

Actual time 1:31 ~= 1:55/100yd on the longer course, and almost identical pace to IMWI although AG 29th of 88 starters was a definite improvement.

T1

4:27 w/ minimal fooling. Passed 55 men in T1, 6 in AG. Wetsuit stripper was fab -- snap and right off. Grabbed bag. Helmet and shoes on. Arm warmers and gloves on at the bike added the most time but helped keep me warm enough on the ride.

Cumulative AG: 23rd (up 6)

For future - only way I see to improve this is to have shoes on bike and do a rolling start. And ditch gloves and arm warmers if temps permit.

Bike

Plan called for 2 GE bottles/hr until peed twice, then 1.5 bottles/hr thereafter. Priority on hydration vs. solid calories. Intensity as 130-135bpm and 215-220w NP (314w ftp). Steady, do no harm, setup the run, "Wait for it".

Right off the bat I was feeling very full and stomach grumbly. Think my Saturday breakfast/dinner + Sun morning breakfast was a bit too much. Took some time to settle in sipping fluids, probably not getting down quite as much as I had planned, but fortunately with the cooler temps it wasn't an issue. Now some months later I don't remember exact consumption but it would have been a couple bottles short of plan (~8 vs 10), finishing with H2O + salt instead of GE to help clear stomach before run.

After the first 20 miles or so I was surprised to be regularly passing super fit guys on super fancy bikes and found myself triple checking RPE, HR, and NP to ensure I wasn't overcooking anything. All checked out.

Effort per hour splits: HR (Plan 130-135bpm): 138, 133, 134, 133, 135, 138 NP (Plan 215-220w): 214, 221, 215, 210, 211, 218

Stayed safe, aero (it was fairly windy), draft legal, careful on some of the rougher roads and descents. Wait for it.

Biggest challenge was the GI and then, once again, peeing like a champ, probably 5-6x which cost me a few minutes. Some room for optimizing here, especially on cooler days.

Overall ride: 5:38 (8th in AG), 215w NP, 265TSS Cumulative AG: 14th (up 9)

For future - mostly refining the nutrition/hydration plan. Few extra watts and more flexible/aero position wouldn't hurt.

T2

2:46 again no fooling. Right in. Helmet off. Socks and shoes on. Ziplock go bag w/ watch, number, hat, and race saver bag. And on the road! Saw Jen coming out of T2 which was a nice mental boost! Total T1+T2 time 7:14 was 3rd in AG!

Cumulative AG: 12th (up 2)

Great EN highlight here @ 6:30 mark.

For future - Do it again! Possibly leave shoes on bike.

Run

Always great to come off the bike unscathed! Run plan was to 1) settle HR early on, 2) confirm hydration status and no GI issues, 3) remain disciplined and gradually ramp RPE/HR across the course.

Loosely planned effort by HR as: ~135bpm first 6 miles, then drifting up to mid 140's ~halfway, then capping at 150bpm until final 5km. Planned to sip a GE bottle from T2 1st 6 miles, then start augmenting w/ Bloks every 2.5-3mi and fluids from the course.

As with the bike, actual consumption is a little fuzzy. In my T2 haste I forgot the go bottle. Started sipping GE/H20 at each aid station with just a few steps walking to get it down.

HR out of the gate was a bit high (low 140's). Tried to bring it down but after a few miles just accepted that it wasn't rising and would cap it in low 140's until about 1/2 way.

Kept cadence up. Smooth. Not chasing. Settled in. Stayed in my box. Thanked the volunteers and smiled a lot.

Somewhere along the 1st lap out started overhearing people chatting about the swim course being all messed up and longer than expected. It seemed to be extra baggage they were carrying throughout the day and glad I hadn't even registered it at the time.

Had hoped to start passing more people in the 2nd lap but with the rolling start and no AG marks it was really difficult to tell who was who and overall standings. Perhaps for the best as I just ran my race and tried to maintain a pace which definitely got harder towards the end.

Didn't really stick to a specific nutrition plan in back half. Just made sure to drink something at each aid station. Alternating between cola and ice water in the back half. Took an advil somewhere in there and just kept trucking.

Key metrics (Mile 1-6, 7-12, 13-18, 19-23, Final 5km) Pace: 7:45/mi, 8:10, 8:13, 8:29, 8:51 (uphill back to town) AvgHR: 143bpm, 144, 146, 145, 144

Overall run: 3:36 (10th in AG) Cumulative AG: 12th (no change)

For future - I think the durability plan and run streak really helped here. Ideally would steal another 5' or so through faster TRP and perhaps some mental toughness to push RPE up when it gets tough.

Finish

Total time: 10:52 (PB by 46 minutes) 12th AG, 39th Male, 44th Overall

Always amazing to come across the finish and especially after a steady well executed day. Didn't realize it would be Mike's last year so that's a cool bonus. The Mrs was right there at the finish and we got a great hug and photo right in the chute. The volunteers helped me get situated, stood to block the sun while I collected myself, and were just generally great. Thought I was ready for some real food. Tried a burger. NOPE. Tried a hot dog. NOPE. Eventually nibbled on some chips or something and caught my breath.

One of my unofficial goals was to have a cocktail on the rooftop bar of our hotel, with the Mrs, before sunset after the race. We got up there in plenty of time but were told the bar had closed early on a slow Sunday night! After a brief standoff with the bartender and explaining what I'd just done, he ended up letting us in, and I got that cocktail!

KQ

I'll admit after seeing some crazy roll down action earlier in the year I started to get my hopes up and went to the awards ceremony the next morning. I had never gone before and it was pretty cool to see the level of fitness, excitement, and commitment within that group. Unfortunately the 4 spots got scooped up by first 4 places, with the 4th place time 30' faster than me. Can I find another 30' in there somewhere? I think so! 15' in the swim alone! If and when I go for it again remains to be seen.

Shout Outs

Of course all this would not have been possible without a lot of support along the way.

Thanks to my Mrs and IronMate for always encouraging me to keep going, enabling longer ride days, getting the kids, and often having Italian subs ready when I got home. Also for joining me on our Tulsa "vacation" which included a lot of running around here and there and a 60 mile scenic drive of rural Tulsa. Spectating is just as tough a sport I'm convinced!

Thanks to my folks for coming out and watching the kids while we were gone. And to the kids for also putting up with me coming and going and often sweaty at school pickup after a ride or run.

Thanks to everyone that commented on the socials during the race. It's always motivating to know people are watching and fun to relive the day.

Lastly, to the EN Team and Coaches for lots of good advice and support over the last 9 months. This is not something I do regularly so borrowing with pride and standing on the shoulders of giants has been a big help to make the most use of my time and to stay foucsed on the the areas that matter.

--

Data Crunch https://www.endurance-data.com/en/result/659/381-david-duran/

[dreamlegend]

Okay, listen. I struggled months to finish this particular picture. I redrew the entire lineart, had like 20 layers for the colors only and grew a new-found hatred for obnoxious 80′s patterns. Just to show this fucking nerd. the cheesiest character ever like what are these elements that I put together

I am confused at my life choices but I worked hard for this so damn yeah I’m gonna post it. at least SOME art on this god-forsaken blog

[gayahithwen]

Man, I know capitalists want there to be some inherent order to the world that makes things make sense, but the truth is that history has shown us time and time again that the only order in this world is the one we collectively create and enforce.

When you allow vital necessities to be capitalized upon, you're formally sanctioning a form of highway robbery - it is literally "your money or your life", which of course most people will give up their money, because the vast majority of people don't actually care that much about money, we just want to be able to live close to friends and family, do something useful with our time, like building or researching or making things or teaching others or even just devoting time to ethical questions and intellectual debate or creating stories and art pieces and music and monuments to tell future generations who we were.

The vast majority of us aren't lazy. The vast majority of us want to contribute in some way. And you know what? We actually have all the technology and infrastructure necessary to get going, right now. All we need is for rich people to contribute their fair share by actually paying taxes that we then collectively steer into actually useful fields, like medicine and education and infrastructure.

From my viewpoint, it looks like the people who are actually lazy are the capitalist-sympathizers. They're the ones who just want to sit back and whine about how everyone else is so lazy (projecting much?), while doing absolutely nothing to improve anything. Meanwhile, socialists are literally begging for rich people to just give up a tiny percentage of their stolen money (because you know no one deserves to make $13 million/hour like Bezos does), but rich people have gotten so fucking entitled that they think their wants are more important than everyone else's needs, and just.... fuck that.

Also, they complain about how communism would force people to live here or there, or to do a job mandated by the state, blah blah blah... meanwhile ignoring the fact that capitalism forces people to live places they don't want to live, and capitalism forces people to do jobs they don't want to do - and capitalism does it by threatening you with death (you need money to pay for food and shelter and medicine, or you die), while socialism would at worst do it by cutting you off from some extra privileges if you didn't comply (like being able to go on vacations).

Capitalism is fascist individualism, and I'm honestly just not OK with that.

I want engaged democratic socialism. I want us to guarantee housing and food and clothes and utilities and infrastructure and education and medicine for everyone. The things we all actually need. None of those things should be compromised on. We should all have a basic standard of living (and ideally, all politicians would need to live solely on the most basic standard of living provided by the state, to make certain that they have the interests of the majority truly at heart) that's actually truly decent.

We have the resources to guarantee it for everyone. And once nobody is forced to be in a constant scramble to survive, all we need to do is to stay educated, engaged and compassionate as new issues come along, and I truly believe that collectively we can make it work, as long as we maintain high levels of personal integrity and political transparency, and maybe invest in some massive educational campaigns on media literacy and how to tell fact from fiction and how to tell which studies are actually good science and which ones are fraudulent bullshit paid for by some asshole who doesn't care if the world will still even exist in 50 years.

But some people would rather just wallow in misery forever than try to do anything about it, I guess. Fuck that shit. Let's change the world for better.

[plasticnightmaredoll]

So, the "Justice League" finally got its own movie, eh? Oh, that thing from 2017 was just trash. It's gone. We don't need to look at it anymore.

But in all seriousness, it's great people called out for the Zack Snyder cut of the movie and actually got it! And, yes, it is a vast improvement over the Joss Whedon cut.

Now, my feelings about the DCEU have been pretty divided:

I actually did enjoy "Man of Steel" and found Superman to be relatable and likable for once (I'm not a Superman fan and don't come for me)

"Wonder Woman" was very entertaining and easily the best entry for me in the movie series so far.

"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" was a hot mess. Lots of good ideas but it was executed poorly. It felt kind of cheesy at times, especially that whole "Save Martha" thing. Jesse Eisenburg is not a convincing Lex Luthor. Ben Affleck is not a good actor and is a terrible Batman/Bruce Wayne. He's not as bad as George Clooney, but he's not much better either.

"Wonder Woman 1984" was a massive glow-down. Poor quality writing, Maxwell Lord was a weak villain, Cheetah was laughable, and the ending was so goddamn corny! Not to mention, it took ages for anything interesting to happen, and what was the deal with Steve Trevor possessing another dude's body? I mean...what?

Haven't seen "Suicide Squad" in its entirety but I do know and have seen enough to decide that it's a huge misstep. Haven't seen "Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" either but I have some interest in it so perhaps someday.

Haven't watched "Aquaman" but probably will eventually but I'm just not very motivated to see it. I like Jason Mamoa as Aquaman/Arthur Curry, but...I don't know. The trailers didn't really grab my attention.

The 2017 Joss Whedon version of "Justice League" was terrible -- worse than "Batman v Superman," worse than "Wonder Woman 1984." I thought the movie moved too quickly, lacked proper character development, and had some bad CGI (I mean, Mustache Gate, am I right?)

Onto the Synder Cut for "Justice League!" Spoilers ahead, of course:

These are really a collection of thoughts, opinions, and observations I had while watching the movie. I have only seen the 2017 film once and honestly don't want to watch it ever again, not even to "refresh my memory" of some details.

Steppenwolf

Steppenwolf was such a pitiful villain in the Whedon Cut. The CGI for him was terrible, and he looked like some weird dude in armor. His personality and motives were paper thin as well. He was a throw-away, token villain, and the only things memorable about him was his name and voice.

In the Snyder Cut, not only was Steppenwolf's CGI much more refined, his character design was imposing. His armor seemed to be alive, too, always shifting slightly, this way and that, which was an impressive sight. His motives, while nothing too deep or extraordinary, gave him a little more depth: he pissed off Darkseid and had to make up for it, and was clearly afraid of what could happen to him if he failed.

The name and voice obviously were still memorable but combined with the other improvements to his character, they were icing on the cake.

That being said, I don't think Steppenwolf is as intriguing or even remotely sympathetic as Loki and Thanos in the MCU.

Darkseid

Was Darkseid even mentioned in the Whedon cut? I can't remember and I don't want to watch that shitty movie again just to find out. However, I don't recall Darkseid making an appearance or even being spoken of in the 2017 version. Now, I haven't read DC (or Marvel) comics, so I don't know a lot about the guy, but he is supposedly one of the more iconic villains.

His motives are pretty simple, though: command and conquer. There isn't a lot of depth so far in the movies but he does pose a much larger threat than Steppenwolf did. You could tell Steppenwolf was intimidated by Darkseid, who was about as cold and menacing as they come. He's a complete villain in that regard, having no emotions and only seeking power for himself.

He looked great in the Snyder Cut. He was actually really fucking scary-looking. He made the beefcake Steppenwolf look like a puppy.

I'm glad that Darkseid made an appearance, even if he didn't fight the Justice League. It alludes to a much broader story, as well as foreshadows an epic boss fight down the line -- assuming the Snyder Cut is popular enough to convince the studios to make a direct sequel and not just abandon things in favor of some sort of soft reboot.

Superman/Clark Kent/Henry Cavill/Mustache Gate

Let's get this out of the way: Henry Cavill is hot af.

Ok, now that we got that out of the way, hooray for Snyder for getting rid of those nasty reshoot scenes involving Henry's CGI'd mouth! Can't say I missed them, you know? I mean, in the 2017 Whedon Cut, you could always spot reshoot scenes based on whether or not Henry's mouth looked normal and totally strange.

I think the 2017 movie had Superman grab Batman by the neck and ask, "Tell me: Do you bleed?" I'm relieved that was removed from the Synder Cut because it added too much of an evil tone to Superman, and we could clearly tell he was most upset with Batman upon being revived.

One massive problem with the 2017 movie was that it made every member of the Justice League look like bumbling idiots without Superman's help. It was downright embarrassing and unrealistic. I mean, you're telling me that Wonder Woman, a goddess, can't take on Steppenwolf? Or Victor Stone, a cyborg with incredible abilities? Making Superman key to winning isn't the problem, it's how it was done in the 2017 movie. He's already OP but that shouldn't mean his comrades have to be useless in comparison.

Superman was allowed to be OP in the Snyder Cut without making his team look incompetent. Like in the Avengers movies, everyone in the Justice League had a purpose and all of them worked together to defeat Steppenwolf. Superman obviously was key to winning, but, again, it wasn't like he was the only capable one during the battle.

I did like the black suit. It's kind of ominous but also very cool at the same time. But is it also foreshadowing something? I don't know...I haven't read the comics so I really don't have any idea lol.

Batman/Bruce Wayne/Batfleck

One glaring issue I still have is Ben Affleck is a mediocre actor at best and he's a terrible Bruce Wayne/Batman. I mean, they couldn't have found anyone else? Someone with, like, good acting abilities?

Martian Manhunter

This whole time -- THIS WHOLE GOTDAMM TIME -- Martian Manhunter was hiding in plain sight! General Swanwick, who I remember from "Man of Steel," IS Martian Manhunter. I didn't see that coming. I mean, I knew Martian Manhunter would appear in the Snyder Cut but I didn't know he'd have an alternate identity, let alone that of an existing character in the DCEU.

As much as I did like seeing him, I am glad he didn't play a big part because the movie already has plenty of characters as is, and introducing yet another one could have slowed things down and taken away from developing the plot.

The Runtime/Pacing

I mentioned already that the Whedon Cut felt rushed and needed much more time to develop its characters and plot. While I had doubts about whether or not making "Justice League" four hours long would be a good idea, it turns out that it was just what the story needed.

Character development was actually existent, and Cyborg/Victor Stone received a detailed backstory, and Flash/Barry Allen got some extra tidbits added to his character's story/background as well.

I actually thought Victor was a fascinating (if a bit tragic) character in the Whedon cut and was disappointed that he just sort of, like, popped up and fought alongside the other Justice League members with the tiniest amount of depth.

Despite an epic 4-hour runtime, it didn't feel slow, nor did it feel like any scenes were "filler." Every scene had a purpose and kept the story moving at a steady, comprehensible pace. It felt more like a 2.5-3 hour movie, honestly, which is a feat since pacing can often be one of a film's biggest issues ("Avengers: Endgame" also accomplished this feat with its 3-hour runtime feeling more like 2-2.5 hours but with no negative side effects of that). Breaking the movie into chapters, including an epilogue was a tad strange because it's not a very common thing, but I think it helped break up the epic 4 hours into separate, manageable but still cohesive pieces. Also, they helped easily transition from one portion to the next smoothly without any awkward cuts.

The Flash/Barry Allen/Ezra Miller

Barry still amused me in the Whedon Cut. He brought some good-natured humor and charm to the movie, preventing it from being too brooding and intense.

I think Ezra is a talented actor and does well in the Barry Allen role but he is, unfortunately, a problematic person. I mean, if he gets recast, he gets recast but hopefully, they pick someone else who has some acting abilities worth noting (i.e. Not a Ben Affleck type of actor)

The Final Battle

It was a huge improvement over the 2017 cut, as everyone was key to winning the final battle, not just Superman. It is meant to be a team of costumed heroes defeating a villain, not just one OP member of the team outdoing everyone else.

That being said, I felt that the final battle was a little bit anti-climatic. I don't know what it was but I just thought that it would be longer? I expected more to happen? More fighting? Not sure how to describe it, but I do feel like it wasn't as impressive as it could have been.

The Epilogue

A dystopian future involving an evil Superman and Joker somehow working WITH Batman was just...crazy. I mean, evil Superman, I can believe, but Joker and Batman working together (even reluctantly) is quite a sight.

Based on what I've been reading, this nightmare Bruce has could be setting up not one but two sequels for "Justice League." I would like to see how things will play out even if things get kind of dark. I'm getting the impression that Darkseid will kill Lois Lane, thus breaking Superman emotionally and making him compliant. That is unless Bruce intervenes in this timeline and prevents that from happening...but at the expense of his own life. Oh dear...

I definitely enjoyed the Zack Snyder version of "Justice League," and would definitely watch it again and again and again. I already have forgotten the majority of the Whedon Cut, and after seeing Synder's version, I think the 2017 movie will be rendered null and void. I hope it is just expelled from the DCEU canon entirely. That, and we get the "Justice League" sequels, preferably from Zack Snyder (Say what you want but I think he is a pretty good director for the most part and seems to really care about this work).

I honestly want to see a fight between the Justice League and Darkseid because I think that's what we're trying to build up to, and seeing as how Darkseid is one of the legendary villains in the DC comics, I would be extremely disappointed if this doesn't come to pass.

Also, as much as I like Batman/Bruce Wayne, seeing him sacrifice himself to save the team, including Lois and thus Superman's sanity, would be something else. It would bring everyone even closer together, for one, and I think that the negativity shared between Batman and Superman in the past would be completely forgiven. I'm not saying there isn't forgiveness now, but dying to save Superman's wife would change everything....if that makes sense? Does it make sense? I'm terrible at explaining my thoughts sometimes.

[groovesnjams]

GROOVES n jamsS.O.T.Y. 2021 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 9 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

“Sister Ray” by Foxes

DV:

The most important thing to understand about “Sister Ray” (2021 Foxes song) is that it has nothing to do with “Sister Ray” (1968 Velvet Underground song) except that Foxes sees the fun night out she’s describing as comparable to the debauched excess that Lou Reed sang about half a century ago. This is a connection that only makes sense as an inner monologue when you’ve kinda lost track of the world around you. But it winds up working for “Sister Ray” (Foxes song) because of this: it’s so incongruous, such a non sequitur, that it becomes an inside joke with the listener. Foxes is inviting you to join her, to embrace the “sister ray” of a night out dancing, probably at a club where the drinks cost too much and the lasers cut too low across the dance floor. But this is a world Foxes knows and invites us along to and you know what? In this context “one of those sister ray kinda nights” sounds incredible, like everything I’ve ever wanted, like after a year of spoiled dreams that I’d get to be in a club again maybe it is all I need after all.

MG:

“Sister Ray” (The Velvet Underground, 1968) is but one of an honestly endless, inexhaustible, supply of bizarre references and contextless placements that informs the Babylon of “Sister Ray” (Foxes, 2021). There’s the idea of “moving like a knife,” which presents its own set of increasingly hard to answer questions. How is this knife moving? Knives don’t move of their own accord, all their movements are dictated by the grip and its desires. Foxes -- does she slice? Stab? And then there’s the Gemini touch. Sister Ray and the knife mostly confuse me but I like to think I have a little, special connection to Geminis so, if I might, I think Foxes is talking about being touched in one place but feeling like you’re being touched in two places. Ok, fine, most of these words did nothing more than fit the meter and this is why I always advocate for not listening to the lyrics and remembering that every song is a love song. “Sister Ray” is a love song to EDM, to sound and fury signifying nothing, to the vastness of experience and specificity of desire. “Sister Ray” is a love song that is not at all improved by these attempts at explanation.