#plus if my parents found out I had a Twitter account I would probably get crucified on the spot LMAO

[mossy-paws]

the absolute terror of wanting to attempt to try out using Twitter for a bit but also Twitter seems to be getting more and more horribly toxic by the day and I don’t know if my little emotional baby self could deal with it,,,,, euuugh I know it’s great for making connections n stuff + a lot of artists who aren’t on tumblr that I like are on it but EUUUUGH,,, the people on their are so mean and I don’t wanna get relentlessly bullied for some random thing,,,,

[nothingunrealistic]

naturally was going "hmm what kind of fins (fish) would young taylor in the bathtub wish for. how would we know what they think would be the best fish tail to have" & then was just thinking of Younger Taylor Hcs just in general. got any you'd wanna share, or like, any faves from what's been provided either as unofficial ideas or via those glimpses of info in the show's text. Fave can be in a "truly enjoy this" way & or simply more of a "truly Thinking About This An Extra Lot" sense lol. They

Boy Do I… first, a listing of everything we Know from canon about their childhood / early life / family:

taylor grew up in “a place like” connerty’s small apartment where “the heat pipes bang practically all night” in the winter [2x11]

taylor’s mom would deem the apartment they rented for her & douglas too expensive, and if she & douglas were shopping for furniture, they’d argue about how much things cost [4x07]

taylor never thought they’d be thinking about living a life where they book private jets [2x09]

the masons’ home is hundreds of miles from any body of water (as shown here) and douglas had to fly to nyc to see taylor [4x03]

douglas figures taylor’s mom won’t miss him getting in her way back home [4x03]

taylor has a sister; when she gets married, in michigan, taylor is part of the wedding party [2x09]

at a young age, taylor was always measuring information around them, and sweet / affectionate, especially toward douglas [4x03]

taylor’s favorite cereal as a kid was frosted flakes [4x09]

taylor was never really douglas’s “little girl” like he claims [4x03]

the first time douglas brought taylor to his lab, it meant a lot to them, and the next day they gave him designs to remake it [4x06]

douglas taught taylor: “don’t just have an idea, build the model that proves it” [4x07]

according to douglas, taylor gets the “unyielding compulsion to get it right” from him, and their relationship was best when they “kept things mathematical” [4x03]

douglas wishes he could have built real wealth / success and given it all to taylor [4x03]

wendy mentions to taylor that douglas has “exploited your need for his approval,” and taylor agrees that douglas only cares about his own advancement rather than being a father first [4x07]

douglas dislikes the military / the government [4x06]

taylor is surprised by douglas quoting a pop song [4x07]

when taylor was younger, the bathtub was the only place they could go to be alone and think, and they’d press their legs against the sides hard enough to make them go numb [3x11]

taylor started playing online poker at age 12 under the screen name ZackCody892 and played up to 16 tables at a time (and for thousands of hours) [2x03]

douglas was fired from his job at an aerospace firm when taylor was in 7th grade. this firing damaged their relationship with him and “affected the home life.” for years, taylor thought douglas had been fired so that the firm could steal his invention, and only found out the truth from his personnel file [2x11, 4x05, 4x06]

taylor has had 927 hours of therapy prior to their session with dr. gus, and that number hasn’t changed at their first session with wendy [2x03, 2x08]

douglas, in bringing taylor food and coffee, claims they rarely take the time to look after themself [4x04]

taylor used to lie to themself and others but is now past that, and knows “how hard it is to have things inside you that you can’t communicate” and “what it’s like to face public scrutiny over who you are” [2x08, 3x02, 4x04]

when taylor reminds douglas about their pronouns, he says “this talk again?”, implying it’s a discussion they’ve had before [4x03]

taylor once got into a bar fight with a high school classmate (it’s unclear whether they were still in high school at the time) after seeing y tu mamá también in a theater [5x07]

taylor was active in occupy wall street in college [2x10]

taylor played poker in college against classmates, grad students, & professors, but their opponents kicked them out for winning too much; additionally, the competitive aspect made them sick (described as “malaise” or “vertigo-like symptoms”) [2x03, 4x12]

taylor planned to go to chicago for grad school and study with eugene fama [2x02]

mafee picked taylor as his intern because they were the only applicant who wasn’t boring / didn’t care about the same bullshit that everyone from wharton or harvard did [5x04]

douglas initiated the visit to taylor, claiming it was because he’d missed them, after not being ready to see them even though taylor’s mother wanted to visit countless times [4x03, 4x07]

taylor is trying to be “everything to their father” in funding his company, and neither of them will be able to come back from taylor being forced to betray him [4x06, 4x07]

wow that’s a long list. and now, my own thoughts and extrapolations:

taylor grew up somewhere in the west / midwest with their parents and sister, who’s a few years older than them, in a house small enough that they had to share a bedroom with her. hence, needing to hide out in the bathtub to get any space & time alone.

from very early on, taylor was douglas’s favorite child and he was their favorite parent — douglas saw taylor’s intelligence & insight (and saw himself in them) and chose to put time & effort into teaching / guiding / molding them, hoping they’d one day follow in his footsteps / support his ambitions, and taylor liked that attention & recognition. (douglas’s attitude toward taylor’s sister is essentially “well she’s here too i guess.”)

douglas taught taylor enough about aerospace engineering & mathematics for them to understand the value of his lattice fin concept, and to generally have a better grasp of engineering concepts than your average (even very well-read) business major / financier. (remember how rebecca knew a robot’s “proprietary” power source was a combustion engine because her father was a mechanic? same deal here. see also: the “smash electronics apart to find the microchips inside and figure out who makes them” strategy; taylor comparing losing grigor’s money to building a turbo engine and having the nitrous tank blow up in their face.) this manifested in both directly teaching them in his lab and in playing games like the silverware-stacking game we see in 4x03, or like douglas throwing out math problems for taylor to solve on the spot, or the two of them solving math problems together.

douglas also imparted his taste in music (which does not include anything new / popular) to taylor, though their taste as an adult (or even as, like, a teenager) isn’t identical to his. this is how they discovered rush in the first place and why they have such strong opinions about The Best Rush Albums. (if douglas had such a ranking, it’d be closer to axe’s than to taylor’s.)

listening to rush helped make taylor a libertarian 😔 that’s just life when you’re a neil peart stan, which of course they are. they admire his lyrics + his drumming talent + his absolute poker face in performances.

douglas also taught taylor to play blackjack, which inspired them to go and learn poker on their own and start playing online. they tried to keep it a secret, but it's hard to be secretive about spending hours a day playing online poker on the family computer. (this is 2006 or so, after all.)

taylor figured out that they were Not A Girl (or at least had thoughts of “hm i don’t enjoy being addressed / perceived as A Girl”) fairly young but didn’t acquire a concrete vocabulary for / specific understanding of that for some time. (if douglas is calling they/them pronouns “that woke stuff” in 2019, he sure wasn’t saying anything clear or favorable about trans people in 2009 or 1999. ditto for online poker sites.)

douglas’s firing exacerbated every negative aspect of the mason family dynamic. he doubled down on pushing taylor toward his field, urging them to succeed where he’d failed, and warning them against letting anyone Steal Their Value. money got tighter, taylor’s parents argued more, and any activities taylor was in (like, say, swimming at the ymca) that required payment got cut; they may have figured out how to make money (illegally!) from online poker at this point. the combined stress of financial instability, being torn between pursuing their own ambitions and fulfilling douglas’s expectations for them, and increasing Gendered Expectations in general — plus the whole “playing online poker for hours a day” thing — probably put taylor in therapy within a few months, if they weren’t in therapy already. (how did their parents pay for it? i don’t know either.)

stealing this from that interview asia & brian & david did in 2017: if taylor had not already taught themself to think and speak directly & incisively and look people in the eye when they talk, et cetera, it started here, whether in therapy or on their own time.

taylor went to college in new york city. douglas did not want them to do this, for a number of reasons, and would have preferred they stick closer to home (and study something other than finance), but doing so would have made them miserable.

by the time they finished high school (circa 2012), taylor had properly heard of trans people and figured that they were somehow One Of Them, but not until college did they hear of people being nonbinary and go “ohhhh yeah that’s me.” (they’d also gotten a Short Haircut in high school, but didn’t go full buzzcut until college. unsurprisingly, they got some shit in high school for being Visibly gnc.)

for some period of time while figuring out their gender situation, taylor went by the name neil as a nod to neil peart. (it’s fun to imagine that they still have a faceless twitter / tumblr account where they go by neil. doubles as a way to prevent anyone connecting it to their real life.)

taylor came out to their family while in college. their mom and sister had fairly similar reactions of “well i don’t Get this exactly, but i love you and want to support you and i’m sure you know what you're talking about better than i do and you did clearly hate it every time i urged you to conform to Standards Of Womanhood so sure i can call you Them and my [child / sibling] :)” given some time to think about it. douglas… well. if he’s starting from a place of “i don’t get this,” he’ll end up at “so it must be wrong and stupid, because i’m always right,” especially if This = his favorite child being different in some significant way from who / what he thought they were. obviously he doesn’t react well or supportively, and the strain in his relationship with taylor tips over into full-blown estrangement. bad times for everyone.

if taylor’s bar fight happened when they were old enough to legally enter a bar, it happened after coming out to their family (also after the live poker fiasco), and before making plans for grad school / internships. most likely it was on a summer break they were spending back in their hometown. (another fun thought: taylor seeing the video of axe punching a guy, just weeks after they punched a guy, and going “well maybe i should work for him.”)

if douglas was at taylor’s sister’s wedding (and maybe he wasn’t!), it was awkward for everyone when he and taylor crossed paths again. barest of pleasantries, passive-aggressive comments, et cetera. naturally, it took a few more years — and douglas realizing that taylor, now being fairly wealthy and successful, could probably fund his dream project if they didn’t hate him — for him to decide to visit them.

[7team7]

Apron

In which cherry blossoms are familiar and Uchiha history can be found woven into all the fabrics of their household.

A/N: Hi everyone :) sorry for my own lack of posts, but I’m so excited to finally share this! My dear friend and the talented artist ALISS @alisstairs​ and I have been working on this project for a long time and we’re posting this part as a Valentine’s Day treat!! Our twitters are plumbIossoms and a_lisstairs. Please enjoy and look out for the rest of the project when it’s ready to be posted! Please do not repost any of this anywhere.

Sakura walked through the front door and was immediately greeted by a delicious scent and soft sounds coming from the kitchen — which meant her husband was cooking. The fact that Sasuke was both home early from a mission and cooking dinner was enough to put her in a good mood, so when she saw him standing over the stove, she couldn’t help but break into a big smile. 

“Why’d you get an apron?” Sakura asked when she came up right behind him to peek at what he had set to boil. Sasuke jerked his chin towards his lone arm, “It can get a little messy with just this. I actually bought this for you while I was getting groceries, but I needed it myself for today.”

When Sakura walked in, Sasuke’s back was to her, so she only noticed the strings knotted around his waist that showed he was wearing an apron. Only when he turned around to kiss her in greeting did she realize the apron was pale pink in color and covered in a cherry blossom print. How cute.

“And when were you planning on telling me about this gift?” she asked with the same big smile she wore when she walked in.

“Never. It’s fine if you don’t use it and we just eat out all the time.” Sasuke honestly enjoyed his wife’s cooking, but it was always fun to tease her when everyone else claimed she was the worst. Sai’s pale skin turned a shade of sickly green anytime someone mentioned Sakura’s soldier pills.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Fine, he could just make his own bento next time! 

“Sarada is still with my parents?” she queried instead. “Yes, I figured your mom would refuse to give her up if I attempted picking her up early. We can get her tomorrow morning?” “That sounds good. I only dropped her off this afternoon, so she’ll be fine for a little longer, but I’ll definitely be glad to have her back here. Sasuke-kun, aren’t you tired from your mission? Why didn’t you want to just get take-out or something?” Sasuke’s face fell almost imperceptibly, “You weren’t home when I got back. I wasn’t injured so I couldn’t bother you at the hospital. The house was too quiet without Sarada and I didn’t really have anything else to do.” He said it plainly, but the explanation made Sakura’s heart hurt a little. Coming home to an empty house was a certain kind of lonely feeling. The only downside of Sasuke returning early was that she hadn’t been there to greet him right away. 

“Okay,” she smiled gently up at him, hoping to draw him away from any dark thoughts, “I’m glad you’re making something, I’m starving.” Sasuke nodded, but when his eyes narrowed soon after, Sakura already knew what he was thinking. “Yes, I ate lunch at the hospital. I brought the last of some leftovers.” He nodded again, satisfied.

Sakura moved away from his side to give him some space and started setting the table. “You know, this feels a little like before we had Sarada. Just me and you.” 

“Except we’re not roasting fish over a fire in the middle of nowhere,” Sasuke deadpanned. 

“Hey! You can’t deny that we had some good meals on the road. Well, I think cooking them was usually more fun than eating them because we never knew how they would turn out,” Sakura reminisced.  And she was constantly impressed by Sasuke’s mastery of fire style; every single time he produced the perfect flame for their food. On her birthday, he even humored her and produced a baby flame for a candle they picked up in a random village.

They were able to find some familiar foods during their travels, but there were plenty of new flavors too. Naturally, some were hits, some were misses. The open air markets from the various nations always had something new to offer. 

But having access to a kitchen inside a home was definitely a perk of returning to the village. For Sasuke, Konoha was a place where his home happened to be, and for Sakura, Konoha was always going to be home. Even if they couldn’t control the chaos outside the village walls, they at least had a warm kitchen to always return to. 

.

A few days later, Sasuke returned home from the market with another apron, this one specifically for him: it was larger and free of (a specific pink) decoration. He hadn’t noticed how messy they could get while cooking and feeding Sarada until he did laundry recently. He always managed to get sauce splattered on his pants while cooking. Sarada was normally a good eater, but smashed peas often ended up on his shirt after dinner. Even on the darker fabrics he preferred, some stains just wouldn’t come out. 

“Oh, but it’s so plain. At least let me sew the clan symbol on it?” Sakura rubbed the thick material of the apron between her fingers. It was so much longer than hers, Sasuke is so tall! Should she make a pocket? How big should the fan be? Should she sew his name on it too? 

“Sakura the food is burning!” Sasuke was taking off his shoes and playing with Sarada by the door while Sakura examined the apron, so neither of them noticed the rising smoke until it was too late. Sakura rushed back to the stove to turn down the heat, but the damage had been done. Their meal was torched. Toasted. Singed. Seared. Charred. Fire style jutsu-ed. “That’s what I get for trying to speed up the process by using high heat,” Sakura sighed. Work had been long and taxing, she really didn’t want to spend more time chopping vegetables, but dinner wasn’t going to cook itself. 

But thankfully, Sasuke was there to save the day (as he so often did). She felt his large, warm hand come to rest on the small of her back and at first she thought he was just trying to comfort her. But then his fingers fiddled around behind her and undid her apron’s knot. “It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have distracted you,” he said mirthfully. “I’ll fix it or just make something else. Go sit.” 

Sakura meekly shuffled away, grabbing Sarada to play on the couch. She wondered how she got so lucky. 

After stealing several peeks at Sasuke’s broad back in the kitchen, Sakura carried Sarada over to him. “She wants to know if she can help,” Sakura held Sarada up and covered her own face. Sarada squirmed and babbled in her hands, making Sasuke smile. She would be talking, as in actually able to articulate her own sentences, soon enough.

“She can be our official taste tester.” He wasn’t going to let Sakura worry about dinner, but he also could never deny her attempts at having a little fun. He took a small spoonful of broth and blew on it until it had cooled considerably. He brought the spoon to Sarada’s mouth and guided it in.

She spit half of it up onto her white bib, but giggled loudly afterwards. “I think that means she likes it?”

.

“Mom, can I borrow your apron? I wanted to make ChoCho something for her birthday, it’s tomorrow,” Sarada called out from the kitchen where she was poking around and gathering ingredients for a cake. She had only ever made one with the help of her mother, but it couldn’t be that hard, right?

Sakura came in from the living room, “Oh, sure! It might be a little big on you though. We should just get you your own, even your dad has one.”

The thought of her father wearing an apron covered in tomatoes made Sarada freeze. Papa? Has his own apron? 

“Well, he used to use mine, but then we weren’t able to cook at the same time. His would definitely be too big for you.” Sakura opened up a cabinet and pulled out her well-loved cherry blossom apron, plus a larger, blue apron with the Uchiha symbol in the center. It would definitely be too big on Sarada.

But Sarada always missed her father, so she asked shyly, “Can I wear dad’s? I’ll probably get really messy, so I need it to cover all of my clothes.” Sakura smiled at her and helped her put it on. Even though she tied the strings extra tight, Sarada was still swimming in the blue fabric. It didn’t feel wrong, though. 

As she went along with baking the cake, she always made sure to avoid wiping her hands on the clan symbol. After learning about her family’s history, she had a certain reverence for the Uchiha. The fan represented her ancestors, her family past and present, and as silly as it was, she didn’t want to dirty it. When she pulled the finished cake out of the oven, she noticed the intense heat didn’t bother her as much now that she had become more proficient in fire style. 

After frosting the cake with a simple birthday message, Sarada finally cleaned up, satisfied with her work. She was reluctant to take the apron off and part with another piece of her father. She wondered what kind of food he made when he wore this apron. Were there any Uchiha family recipes he could share? Maybe next time he was home, Sarada could make him something too

.

A/N: Like I said, this is just one part to a larger project, we will post the full thing soon enough but we’ve been working hard on it for a while. And again do not repost! Show Aliss some love on her accounts pwease she is the best <3 and happy Valentine’s Day!!

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Three Frat Houses AU, Chapter XX: The City College Without Light

Some of the gang have a discussion encompassing homicide, homicide attempts, plastic surgery, who is allowed to be called a resident of Faerghus, bad custody agreements and other forbidden Blaiddyd-von Hresvelg family lore, more homicide, sacrificing friends, and above all and most importantly: Garreg Mach University’s apparent new rival school.

(other Three Frat Houses lore)

----

It is 5:27 pm in the Garreg Mach University library, four hours and 39 minutes after the occurrence of an on-campus stabbing; however, exams and projects and essays remain due within the week, which Hilda, personally, thinks is bullshit. Someone got stabbed! Sure, it was the Chief of Campus Security, and it’s probably like - it’s his job to get stabbed, if anyone has to get stabbed - and Byleth texted everyone from the hospital saying that Jeralt would be fine, but still. There was an actual violent crime on campus today! As opposed to all of the nonviolent crimes that are committed every other day.

Hilda doesn’t actually have anything due this week, but most everyone else in her social circle does, so they’re here in the library, so she’s here in the library with them, spread out over their four usual tables on the second floor. And everyone’s being mostly too quiet and boring when suddenly Lysithea slams her laptop shut and says, “I knew I had heard of Shambhala College before!”

Shambhala College is an hour or two away from Hilda’s home, which is weird to think about, because that’s not really close to GMU, but some lunatic e-girl named Kronya drove all the way from Shambhala College to GMU to try and fight a girl named Monica who apparently is in Caspar and Dorothea’s Early Modern Literature class. And then Jeralt had gotten in the middle of it because that’s his job, and then he got stabbed, and Miss Kronya Whatshername, Hilda doesn’t know because that’s not on Kronya’s twitter account which Hilda found three hours ago, got arrested. And then Jeralt went to the hospital and Byleth went with him, and now the rest of them are here, just hanging out in the library like nothing happened even though something big happened. 

“When did you hear about it?” Sylvain asks. 

“One of my cousins got murdered by someone who went there,” Lysithea says.

“Oh,” Sylvain says.

“So is it a requirement to be homicidal to attend Shambhala?” asks Linhardt, who has no tact in the best of times and this is not a good time.

“Two people is a very small sample size,” Lysithea reminds him. “We can’t actually know until we have more data.”

“Well,” says Tomas, the very old librarian who has been here since some of their parents attended GMU, and who often finds them all having very very strange conversations like this when he passes by to check on them and probably make sure that no one is doing any nonviolent crimes. “My twin brother works at Shambhala College, and one oculd very generously call him ‘homicidal’.”

“What’s the non-generous thing to call him, then?” Ferdinand asks.

“Then that’s three for three,” Linhardt says.

“Hey, El,” Dimitri says, hooking his arm over the back of his chair and twisting around to catch Edelgard’s eye. “Doesn’t Cornelia work at Shambhala College?”

“You aren’t saying that to refute Linhardt’s hypothesis, are you?” Edelgard asks. “Cornelia is absolutely homicidal.”

“What?” Dimitri asks. “No, she isn’t. Why would you say that she is?”

“You’ve met her,” Edelgard says. “How can you think she isn’t homicidal? Or at least inclined towards homicidal tendencies.”

“I don’t know,” Sylvain says loudly, “maybe we grew up in a country where every generation older than ours was made neurotic by living through a plague, and Cornelia helped put an end to the plague, so we’re more inclined to be charitable toward her than you might be.”

“You say that like I have not also lived in Fhirdiad and lived among your neurotic neighbors,” Edelgard says.

“I thought people from Faerghus are neurotic because you only get three hours of sunlight for half of the year,” Linhardt says. 

“No, that is why people from Faerghus are all depressed,” Dedue says. “The neuroses are different.”

“Don’t you need to sit underneath sun lamps, like you’re plants or something, to not get seasonal depression in the winter?” Hilda asks.

“Yes,” Dimitri says, “and that leaves us with only the year-round major depression instead.”

“Plus,” Sylvain adds, “Cornelia’s still hot, too, so that’s another point in her favor.”

Dimitri places his face in his textbook. 

“She’s not—” Edelgard rubs her eyes. “Her breasts defy gravity! They’re probably made out of metal at that point to hold them that far up! That’s weird, not attractive!”

“Edie,” Dorothea says, “just because someone’s had a lot of work done, doesn’t mean they’re homicidal.”

“I wasn’t saying that,” Edelgard protests. “It’s not - I’m not saying it’s a one-to-one. What I’m saying is that there are a lot of very odd things about Cornelia, including the fact that she’s probably homicidal, and one of those odd things is that she’s had enough work done that her breasts look like torpedoes.” 

“Torpedoes?” Sylvain repeats. “Definitely more like grapefruit.”

“The textural consistency of a torpedo, I would imagine,” Edelgard says. 

“Explosive?” Sylvain asks. 

“Please stop this,” Dimitri says, voice muffled as his face remains in his textbook. 

“Have you met her, by chance?” Edelgard asks Sylvain, ignoring her stepbrother’s distress. “You must know the kind of clothing she wears. Absolutely no support, but they don’t move, at all. That is not - that is not how that works. The physics.”

“Are we still going to come back to the argument about homicidal tendencies,” Linhardt asks, “or are we firmly in some other territory now?”

“Sylvain,” Ingrid says warningly, surprising Hilda, who thought that Ingrid was not listening because as soon as Sylvain speaks, Ingrid becomes very good at not listening. “If you say anything about the word ‘firm’, someone is going to find you dead on the sidewalk tomorrow morning.”

“I didn’t even think of it!” Sylvain protests. Hilda thinks this is probably a lie. The expressions of most everyone around say that they think it is a lie. “But hey, you did think of it, good for you!”

“I thought of it because I’ve spent too much time around you trying to preempt what stupid shit you’re going to say, motherfucker!”

Dorothea giggles and Hilda snickers and even Dedue presses his lips tightly together like he’s trying to hold back a smile. 

“I guess we’re undecided on Cornelia’s homicidal tendencies,” Lysithea says. She draws a three-column chart on the next page in her notebook. “That’s three for ‘yes, homicidal urges’, one unknown, and zero ‘no’. Does anyone else know anyone who attends or works at Shambhala College?”

“I think we could find out about Cornelia,” Sylvain says, “if she has homicidal tendencies, by having Edelgard go ask her if her tits are made of metal and see how she responds.” Edelgard flings a pen in his direction but it just hits Dimitri’s back and falls to the floor. “Actually I’m gonna ask the Lions group chat for opinions.”

Hilda pushes herself up off the chair to try and see what Sylvain is typing, but Dedue nudges her arm and shows her his phone, open to a Blue Lions House text chat, where a message has just popped up:

hey help settle an argument w the beagles, is cornelia a murderer or would murder someone and are her boobs made of metal

“Why not just poll everyone?” Edelgard asks. “Why just your frat?”

“People who’ve lived in Faerghus should have the most input on this,” Sylvain says.

“I’ve lived in Faerghus,” Edelgard retorts. “I went to your high school!”

“Yeah, but only for two years.”

“How many years are Faerghus high schools, again?” Dorothea asks. “Three or four?”

“Four,” Edelgard says.

“And she was only there for alternating years, so that’s only two years of—”

“Of high school! And several years of middle school, as well! And Cornelia herself was originally from Adrestia!”

Dedue’s phone buzzes and he shows Hilda the screen again. 

Felix: -yes and  -what the fuck kind of argument are u having

“Alternating your years of schooling at one school and then some other seems like a wildly disruptive way to get an education,” Linhardt says.

“Shockingly,” Edelgard says, sounding the least shocked a person could ever sound, “it was. But that was the custody agreement, because my parents are consummate politicians, and apparently going back and forth between Fhirdiad and Enbarr for weekends was too far to travel all the time.”

“It is very far,” Linhardt says.

“Except the alternative was going to high school with Sylvain for a year,” Dimitri says.

“Wow, okay,” Sylvain says. “Also Felix says yeah, Cornelia is probably homicidal.”

“Said a bit more than that,” Hilda mutters, and Dedue snorts.

“Why would he agree?” Ingrid demands.

“Why are we talking about this, again?” Dorothea asks.

“Shambhala,” Lysithea says.

“Right,” Dorothea says, still sounding a bit confused, but this is the point where everybody starts getting confused. It’s a good thing Hilda doesn’t actually have any work to get done; she would be having a lot of trouble trying to concentrate through this. Like Ferdinand, who is going on an intense face journey. And Ingrid, who has closed her laptop and has her head in her hands.

Annette: -uhhh no???? probably not?????? -like my dad says she’s okay i think?? -i mean he’s not said anything BAD about her

Mercedes: -yes to both

Annette: -what do you know that i don’t????? -tell me ur secrets mercie??

“Annette says ‘no’ as well,” Sylvain says. “To - to just I think the homicidal question? And Mercedes - woah, okay, Mercedes says yes to both?”

Ashe: -guys what the fuck

“So that’s three ‘yes’ votes from Felix, Edelgard, and Mercedes,” Sylvain says, “about the homicide thing. And then ‘no’ from myself, Dimitri, Annette - Ingrid, what are your thoughts?”

“Of course she isn’t, and also you should just shut the fuck up.”

“Four ‘no’ votes,” Sylvain says, smoothly moving past the rest of Ingrid’s statement, “and a ‘no comment’ from Ashe. Dedue, what’s your opinion?”

“No comment,” Dedue says.

“Okay, thought so,” Sylvain says. “Lysithea, you can put Cornelia in the ‘no’ column.”

“This is an intensely unscientific process for determining her tendencies,” Linhardt says. “Lysithea, please leave her name as an ‘unknown’ entity.”

“It was always going to be wildly unscientific,” Lysithea says. “We only have Tomas’ word to go on, as well, for the people on this list who haven’t been arrested for violent crimes.” She leaves Cornelia’s name written in the central column. “Which is now half of the people on this list, though the entire list is also only four people.”

The list, as it is, reads:

-guy who murdered my cousin -girl who stabbed Jeralt -Tomas’ twin brother -Cornelia

“We still need a bigger sample size,” Linhardt says. “We could trawl some arrest records, or the Shamala College newspaper, but all of that sounds like far too much effort for this exercise. Does anyone else know anyone from Shambhala College, or do we just call it here?”

Dimitri, attempting to drink from his water bottle, suddenly starts choking. Ingrid hits him hard on the back, and sounding like he’s dying, Dimitri gasps out, “El, doesn’t—”

“Oh,” Edelgard says, blanching. “Oh no, you’re right. You don’t think he’s—”

Dimitri makes a wheezing sound that sounds like the way a flat-faced bulldog forced to run a marathon would sound, and then he says, “He is, without question.”

“Ugh,” Edelgard says. “I hate that you’re right.”

“Could either of you please elaborate with at least one complete thought for the rest of us?” Linhardt asks.

“Our uncle,” Edelgard says. “Uncle Arundel. He works at - or is on the board of trustees or something? - at Shambhala. Board of directors? Something like that.”

“There is a very large different between actually working,” Dorothea says, “and holding a position like that.”

“Semantics of useless rich people padding their pockets from our tuition aside,” Linhardt says, “am I to conclude from your - I can’t quite call it a conversation - your communication, with Dimitri, that your uncle has homicidal tendencies?”

Dimitri and Edelgard open their mouths to respond at the same time, but neither of them get past the inhale before they, and any other muted chatter in their vicinity, are silenced by a long, low chuckle. All eyes turn to Hubert, who Hilda was sure wasn’t paying any of them any attention, but she also should have expected, because Hubert is always paying attention.

“I take it you have an opinion, then?” Ferdinand asks, reaching for the paper cup of tea he got at the library cafe an hour ago. He picks it up, takes a sip, and then his expression contorts into a mixture of disgust and horror. “That was not my tea,” he says, setting it back down, speaking in a way that sounds like he’s trying to remain calm while also trying to avoid having his tongue touch any other part of his mouth. “That was your coffee. Okay.” He stands and makes a hasty retreat to the water fountain along the wall.

“To say that Arundel has homicidal tendencies is woefully behind the times.” Hubert picks up his coffee and drinks it with an unchanging expression as though Ferdinand did not just flee in horror at the slightest taste of it. “Arundel has legitimately murdered at least two people, and that, I fear, may also be woefully out-of-date as well, given it is information I acquired over a decade ago.”

“I’m sorry, are you joking?” Edelgard asks.

“I never joke,” Hubert says. Hilda agrees with that statement; the only joke Hubert has ever made is the unfunny joke of requiring some poor underpaid baristas to put together the crimes against the goddess that Hubert calls his coffee orders. Which, actually, if Hilda recalls correctly, Leonie is on shift at the library cafe right now. Poor Leonie. She says that at least Hubert tips well, but that’s probably only because it’s his father’s money and he spends it like he’s trying to bankrupt the man because he probably is actually trying to bankrupt the man.

“So,” Ferdinand says, returning to his seat, and glaring daggers at Hubert’s coffee cup, “please do explain why you have been investigating Edelgard’s uncle for murder since you were a child. And why, if you found evidence of such murders, have you not yet done something about it?”

“I have been investigating,” Hubert says, with the patient tone of someone explaining something to a person they think is an idiot, which is how Hubert explains everything to everyone, “but I have no evidence, and I am only aware of his crimes because he told me.”

“Why would he tell you?” Dimitri demands. “I have little love for the man, either, but that is absurd to say!”

“I believe, if he was not lying,” Hubert says, “which if I would expect anyone to lie and say they have committed murder when they have not, he would be high on my list - if he was not lying, then I expect he told me because he was well aware of my hatred of him, and expected that were I to ever find any evidence that he had not carefully hid, then no one would believe me, due to my aforementioned predisposition against him.”

“Yeah, but a decade ago you were like, ten,” Sylvain says. “Why was Edelgard’s uncle beefing with a ten-year-old?”

“He was a very devious ten-year-old, mind,” Ferdinand says. 

“Yeah, but he was ten,” Sylvain says. “Who does that? I mean, I guess I’ve been there.” He pauses. “Been the ten-year-old who an actual adult has beef with, I mean. I have not been beefing with any actual children, because I’m not a mature adult but I at least deal with my problems in a more mature way than some people and I just bottle them up until I die, instead.” 

There is a very long silence, and then Sylvain adds, “Yeah, Dimitri, you’re right about the sun lamps, they only help with the winter. Anyway, Hubert, sorry for interrupting, please continue, I’m interested to hear this.”

After a pause of several seconds, presumably during which he is evaluating Sylvain’s outburst and extracting any useful information from it, Hubert says, “I presume the initial source of his ire was that I called him a bitch.”

(Hilda is pretty sure she has all the useful information she needs about Sylvain, from that one time she and Marianne were over at the Lions and Sylvain walked into the room, staring at his phone, and without bothering to look up and see if they had guests, said, “Hey guys my dumb fucking brother got arrested for assault and larceny again.”)

“Hubert,” Edelgard sighs.

“Why did you do that?” Dimitri asks. “I’m not disputing that he is, but nonetheless…”

“In truth, I do not recall what prompted me to say such,” Hubert says.

“So in summary, he confessed to murder, to you, because he hates you, because you hate him and once called him a bitch, for reasons that you cannot even remember,” Ferdinand says. “That is so unbelievable as to be completely believable.”

“Ferdie, that doesn’t make any sense,” Dorothea says.

“It would if you knew our uncle,” Edelgard says.

In the first column of her chart, Lysithea writes Edelgard & Dimitri’s uncle. Hilda is very impressed with how well she can freehand an ampersand. 

“Shambhala really is starting to seem more and more like a haven for…” Linhardt pauses. “People who could consider homicide. Or people who have actually done homicide, or would do homicide. Homicidal people. Homicide-rs? What is the word—?”

“Murderers,” Hubert says. “Is the word you are looking for not simply ‘murderers’?”

“That doesn’t encompass people who would absolutely commit a murder but just haven’t had the right opportunity yet,” Linhardt says.

“How many people, were they given the implements of doing so and an assurance that they would be able to get away with it, do not have at least one person they would not hesitate to kill?” Hubert asks.

“I would at least hesitate,” Dimitri says.

“Hubert, when you say things like that, it makes me worry that you have a hit list,” Ferdinand says.

“So, like,” Hilda says, “totally off-topic, but you know that ‘if your roommate dies, you get all As for the semester’ thing? Is that actually true? Is that a legit thing?”

“I don’t think that’s off-topic at all, actually,” Hubert says.

“I am rather glad that we no longer live in the same apartment,” Dedue says.

“And even if that was true, how would that work for a frat house?” Sylvain asks. “You have a bunch of roommates in a frat house.”

“We would kill you if it came to it,” Ingrid says to him.

“Yeah, we discussed it once among the Deer,” Hilda says. “That’s why I asked.”

“I’m rather curious, unfortunately,” Edelgard says. “Who would be your sacrifice?”

“We decided we’d lock Claude and Lorenz in the basement without food or water,” Lysithea explains, “and tell them that one of them could only come out if the other was dead. And then we would wait.”

“That’s... a rather detailed scenario,” Edelgard says.

“Brutal,” Hubert agrees. “I like it. Though you do know that Claude would without a doubt win, do you not?”

“You do know that if we were to do that, it would be you and Ferdie who we put in the deathmatch,” Dorothea says.

“And it is awfully bold of you to assume that, were we betrayed in such a manner, we would not strike up an alliance to enact vengeance back on the rest of you.”

“Wait, hang on,” Ferdinand says. 

“Lysithea, please make a new chart,” Linhardt says. “As it turns out we, not Shambhala College, were the real haven for would-be murderers all along.”

“Make your own chart,” Lysithea says. “I have a test tomorrow.”

“Why did you indulge us with the first chart, then, if you should be studying?” Linhardt asks.

“I didn’t think it would lead to this much of a mess,” Lysithea says.

“Well, that was foolish,” Linhardt says. “When does it not?”

[funnynewsheadlines]

Daughter Replaces Family Photos With Crayon Drawings One By One, Parents Don’t Notice For 11 Days

Almost everyone is bored out of their minds during this quarantine. Well, Kristen Vogler found a way to keep herself busy. She decided to mess with her parents with an innocent prank by replacing their family photos with pictures drawn with crayons.

“So I love doing harmless pranks in general and was talking to my younger sister about a prank someone pulled that involved replacing family photos with Nicolas Cage. But I don’t have a color printer, so knew that wouldn’t work. I happened to have a box of crayons and it all sort of clicked from there. That was several months ago, however. It wasn’t until COVID-19 that I found myself with more time on my hands and I actually could start it,” Kristen told Bored Panda.

More info: Facebook

The beginning: just a normal photo wall of memories

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

In her Facebook posts, she explained the whole process:

“In case anyone needs a laugh or some good news, I’ve been working on a project for the last 12 days, without telling my parents, waiting for them to notice. I started poorly recreating the framed photos on our wall with top-notch art supplies, aka—a box of crayons. Every day I replaced a new photo with a new, and terrible, crayon drawing. Sneaking these masterpieces up was not easy, I had to hide in the bathroom clutching the frames multiple times.”

It took her parents 11 days to see that the pictures had been replaced!

“I had a lot of fun messing with my parents during the downtime between Kristen Vogler Design projects. I hope you enjoy it, and if you know someone needing a mediocre crayon drawing, you know where to find me.”

Day 1

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“The first crayon drawing is placed, bets were made on how many photos and how long it would take them to notice.”

Day 2

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“After FaceTiming with my grandparents (the subjects of my first crayon replica) for an hour near this wall, I decided to add another piece while my parents took a walk.”

Day 3

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“Up to three crayon artworks now and still not even a glance. That door on the left? It’s used multiple times a day.”

Day 4

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“Thought I would get caught today. I had been posting on Twitter about my progress and my mom chose today to try to start a Twitter account to talk to John Krasinski about Some Good News but luckily her account was locked.”

Day 5

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“At this point, it was getting harder to pick photos I thought weren’t noticeable plus I felt like I smelled like crayons constantly.”

Day 6

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“After getting a ton of rain for days I was needing to get sneakier to be able to add these to the wall. I think today I convinced my mom to go for a run before it rained haha.”

Day 7

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“Today was a twofer with these classic Christmas photos. At this point, I was starting to think I should have guessed based on weeks and not days for how long it would take them to notice.”

Day 8

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“I legit did not think I would get this far, but here we are.”

Day 9

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“Only three left to go before my work is complete. I should probably take a moment to apologize to my art teachers. You tried really hard to teach me to draw people, and this is what I’ve done.”

Day 10

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“Happy Easter. My mom was nice enough to hide Easter eggs for me, in return, I did this to the photo of her firstborn.”

Day 11

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“I almost got caught hanging this one up. They had to hide in the bathroom but they still didn’t notice.”

Day 12

Image credits: Kristen Vogler

“I needed closure, Kerri wanted to be included.”

Here is the video with Kristen’s family’s reaction



Image credits: Kristen Vogler

from Funny – Bored Panda https://ift.tt/2xZv4uS via IFTTT from Blogger https://ift.tt/35hSXd7

[creativetrashcans]

Simmer - Get To Know

By @cupcakegnome

Tagged: @ talemagne

CHIWAWA

Your name: Lonely Chiwawa (she/her)

Languages you speak: Catalan, Spanish and kinda English 

Are you a mermaid: No not really... can barely swim tbh

Your play style: mmmh i like most things, creating sims, builidng is so much fun too, also challenges mmh stories no tho i cant write em LOL rip 

Your Selfsim picture: 

Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: Challenges, builds and some other things coming heh

Your favorite age state: Teen or young adult

Your favorite season: Winter!!! i feel it has a lot to do and the snow is soooo pretty 

Your favorite holiday: Only played harvest fest so far... in sims BUT irl i like Christmas 

How was your day: It was chill and nice, even went outside wew

Your favorite career: Painter...........................maybe?

Your favorite aspiration: Soulmate

Your favorite EP, SP or GP: Seasons 

How old is your simblr: Less than a year i think 

Have you woohooed: Yes, many times

Your favorite skill: Cooking, parenting and painting

The size of your Mods folder: 37,7 GB

Your 3 favorite mods: uhhhh hahaha impossible to choose

Your interests (other than sims): Drawing, make up and nails, mmh minecraft old anime and series too 

Your favorite sim (picture if possible): Maybe not my favourite Sim of all time because we got so many! But this is our version of Franky form One Piece. Before starting any project just for fun we made him and I always felt so proud of how he turned out. Not only he looks very attractive, i also feel its a good representation of how a human him would look like.

Which Sims games you have played (including mobile games): Sims 2, 3 and 4 

Propose a crazy scheme: People being nice always and world being in peace and not dying in gud old climate change

Best part of simblr: seeing how other people enjoy the sims and how they play also them aesthetic 

Worst part of simblr: mmhhhhhhhh lack of comunication between players i don’t feel much sense of community here at least now... i actually suck at comunicating so..... dunno

What other games you play: Minecarft recently but not much into games actually

Other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..):  

Twitter --> https://twitter.com/creativetrashc1

Intagram --> https://www.instagram.com/creativetrashcans/

Personal Instagram --> https://www.instagram.com/elia_clco/

My side tumblr --> https://generationtrashcan.tumblr.com/

Are you single: Nuuuupe

WORM

Your name: Lively Worm (she/her)

Languages you speak: Catalan, Spanish and some English.

Are you a mermaid: Nope, I’m a worm.

Your play style: I love building houses and decorating them, dressing sims and doing their makeup.

Your Selfsim picture:

Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: I do gameplays, challenges and buildings.

Your favorite age state: I think it’s young adult because I can explore more.

Your favorite season: Autumn, because of the beautiful colors.

Your favorite holiday: I don’t know yet, I haven’t explored all of them.

How was your day: It’s 15:40h and I’m hungry, I want to eat soon.

Your favorite career: Musician.

Your favorite aspiration: Musical genius, unsurprisingly.

Your favorite EP, SP or GP: Pets and vampires.

How old is your simblr: Less than a year.

Have you woohooed: ¬_¬

Your favorite skill: I don’t know, maybe the singing skill?

The size of your Mods folder: 29,9 GB.

Your 3 favorite mods: I can’t choose. There are so many so good!

Your interests (other than sims): Singing, drawing, anime, manga and kpop.

Your favorite sim (picture if possible): Why?? I can’t choooooseeee, I love most of them! Okey, after a lot of thought I’ve chosen Una, Usopp’s daughter from our 100 Baby Challenge, because the three of us love her and I love drawing her!! She’s really charming and she’s grown up really well. I relate to her because she also loves drawing and vampires.

We posted some drawings of her on twitter and insta!

Which Sims games you have played (including mobile games): Sims 2, 3 and 4. And some PS game I don’t remember.

Propose a crazy scheme: Making people learn expectatives are bad and judging others hurts everyone involved.

Best part of simblr: I can share our art and tell many stories with interesting sims.

Worst part of simblr: The lack of comunication.

What other games you play: Kingdom Hearts, Hollow Knight, The Last of Us... mostly play station games.

Other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..): 

Common Twitter: https://twitter.com/creativetrashc1

Common Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativetrashcans/

Personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makaru_walker/

Are you single: No, I’m Turtle’s.

TURTLE

Your name: Lazy Turtle (she/her)

Languages you speak: Catalan, Spanish, English and some basic French.

Are you a mermaid: Pretty sure I’m not.

Your play style: Starting projects and never getting past the building process is a playstyle? I usually like to have some objective though, instead of just playing aimlessly.

Your Selfsim picture:

Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: I find stories pretty awkward to portray on Sims, and fashion and decoration were never my strong point. So I stick to challenges, both found and created.

Your favorite age state: Depends on what for. Young adults are the easiest to manage and have more options, but toddlers are the most challenging on a Baby Challenge.

Your favorite season: Autumn, always. Its colors are just beautiful.

Your favorite holiday: Haven’t played them all yet, so I can’t say.

How was your day: (Tumblr erased all my hard work on this thing, but the day I first wrote it I had my blood taken so not great). Today, I discovered the extent of human stupidity in mass hysteria situations. Never seen a supermarket so empty of food before.

Your favorite career: Hypotetically, writer. But I haven’t played as one yet so I can’t confirm.

Your favorite aspiration: Big Happy Family’s been pretty fun for our matriarch, but I still have many more to explore. (I can say it’s not the kid’s mobility one. Stupid mecanography.)

Your favorite EP, SP or GP: Probably Seasons so far.

How old is your simblr: Less than a year.

Have you woohooed: Uh.

Your favorite skill: Uhhh... No idea.

The size of your Mods folder:  29,9 GB. Worm and I share a game and a mods folder, but Chiwawa dumps her messily organized mods on us from time to time.

Your 3 favorite mods: Wow nope.

Your interests (other than sims): Mostly writing and reading (I’m the main writer of this tumblr, btw), but also videogames, anime and k-pop.

Your favorite sim (picture if possible): I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite sim of all time, I have far too many sims I love for different reasons, but this one was specially hard to get right so we feel particularly proud.

His name is Carles Serra, and he’s a parental figure for two of the MCs of the story we’re working on. He’s a math and ethics teacher on a very exclusive highschool, and he needed to have both a very refined and snobbish air and this inevitable awkwardness all math teachers seem to have. Plus, he has to deal with teenage drama all through the story, so I feel like he needs a lot of love. And maybe some vacation.

Which Sims games you have played (including mobile games): Sims 2, 3 and 4. And I think I once tried to make a sim on a terrible PS2 version or something.

Propose a crazy scheme: Mandatory therapy for teens so everyone learns empathy and management of one’s emotions would be pretty neat.

Best part of simblr: Sharing our common passion with others in a free and creative way, probably.

Worst part of simblr: The lack of interaction, I guess. I had only ever been in a very small fandom here on tumblr before, and compared to the closeness of that comunity, I feel like simblr is... very scattered.

What other games you play: Play Station ones, mostly. Whatever gives me a compelling story.

Other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..):

Common Twitter: https://twitter.com/creativetrashc1

Common Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativetrashcans/

Personal Twitter: https://twitter.com/ALazyTurtle1

Are you single: I’ve been dating Worm for years now.

We will tag: @hellobreadsims

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS & STUDIES, late April 2019

Welcome to my latest summary of recent news & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & ecommerce! This covers articles I came across from April 9th to May 2, although some may be older than that. 

I am really interested in hearing what you think of this new format - please leave a comment below, or convo, Tweet or email me through my website. Let’s make this as useful as possible! 

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

US Amazon sellers were told via email that they will have to pay taxes on some Amazon fees, as Etsy has been doing with sellers in the EU and in Quebec. 

The Instagram look may be dropping out of favour; apparently, reality is in. “Instagram museums and walls were built to allow normal people to take influencer-quality photographs—but they worked so well, those types of photos became common enough that they don’t resonate like they used to. “#unfiltered 

In case you missed it, my review of Etsy’s Spring & Summer Trends Guide, including all of the keyword data (which you do need to check out, as they reveal some interesting search info). 

ETSY NEWS

Etsy published a new census/survey of sellers in its 6 core countries, and also did a summary (if you don’t want to read the whole thing). “More than nine out of ten Etsy sellers (91%) are the sole owner of their businesses.”... “The majority (82%) of Etsy sellers would like to grow their business, but more than three out of five would not want to grow so big that they would have to hire more help.”

The bugs & errors with financial statements and records continue; Etsy botched the VAT statements yet again, even overwriting them all the way back to 2016. No word on whether any sellers have notified EU authorities on this yet. 

New seller handbook article covers advertising; not much new or gripping, but it does discuss general ad approaches, not just Etsy’s. 

There is also a new free shipping tool, in case you didn’t realize that Etsy wants more sellers to offer free shipping more often. “When we talk to shoppers during research, many say things like “I want to feel like I’m getting a deal!” and “I would love to see free shipping across the board, even if it meant increased prices.” Offering free shipping can be a great way to give customers like these the shopping experience they are looking for.”

CEO Josh Silverman participated in The Wall Street Journal’s “In the Elevator” interview series [video link]. Every 90 seconds, an engagement ring or wedding ring sells on Etsy. He also talks about free & fast shipping not always being a reasonable expectation when shopping on Etsy, unlike Amazon. 

Speaking of free shipping, a limited number of US customers will be getting it from Etsy, with Etsy reimbursing sellers for the costs. Non-US sellers and buyers get nothing. 

Etsy’s 2019 1st quarter results will be available May 8.

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Rand Fishkin released Part 5 of his Learn SEO in 1 Hour series: technical SEO [video & written transcript]. This is the one most of you can skip or just skim over, as it does talk a lot about coding.Some tips are important to everyone, however, like page linking/site structure (for websites), and having https set up. 

Part 6 covers link building, in 10 minutes. Remember, if you are going to put effort into getting links, do it for your website & not your Etsy shop or other marketplace page. If you are creating traffic, make sure you own it. 

Don’t forget looking beyond Google for your search engine traffic; this podcast [with written transcript] breaks down an approach to several of the biggest ones beyond Google. Spoiler: they only recommend worrying about the biggest, Bing, if you have around 1000 unique search visitors to your website per day. 

How to get keyword ideas from the Google search results: there’s a lot more available now, beyond the search bar suggestions. 

Google is asking local businesses if they would pay for their Google My Business listings. This possibility raises concerns about the impact on organic rankings. 

More SEO tips for Amazon, including discussion of the various factors involved.

If pages on your website aren’t indexed by Google, there are some steps you can take to fix them. (For websites only, not Etsy shops)

Advanced/semi-advanced content: Great tips on using bookmarklets in Chrome to get SEO things done quickly. (A lot of these involve tools that work best in the paid version, so I suspect most of us will not have much use for this, yet.)

Possible Google algorithm update last week. (I am seeing changes)

CONTENT MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails) 

Looking for new hashtags for your social media accounts? Try: https://www.tagshitter.com  (apologies for the name; that’s what they call it. It’s good, too! Just like its regular keyword research partner, http://keywordshitter.com/ ) 

Email subject lines [infographic] are crucial to top interaction with your newsletter etc. Includes Dos & Don’ts, plus the shockingly low open rates in most industries. 

Selling through social media directly is a great way to avoid people losing interest as they keep clicking. Note that this seems to work best with items under $50, though, which they suggest solutions to in the next part of the article.  

Despite all the scandals and negative media coverage, US social media use hasn’t really changed in the past few years. “A 2018 Center survey found that some Facebook users had recently taken steps to moderate their use of the site – such as deleting the Facebook app from their phone or taking a break from the platform for some time. But despite these findings and amid some high profile controversies, Facebook users as a whole are just as active on the site today as they were a year ago.”

Facebook scandal watch:  FB’s “stock price jumped after it said it expects to incur a fine of up to $5 billion from the Federal Trade Commission. And that’s all you really need to know about whether the historically large penalty matters to the company.”

Also:

they admitted to asking for your email password then importing all of your contacts. “...Facebook disclosed to Business Insider that 1.5 million people's contacts were collected this way and fed into Facebook's systems, where they were used to improve Facebook's ad targeting, build Facebook's web of social connections, and recommend friends to add.”

The Canadian Privacy Commissioner is taking FB to court over breaches of Canadian privacy law. 

But hey, it’s all fine, because they beat earnings expectations in the first quarter. 

70% of YouTube videos watched are recommended by its algorithm. “ The recommendations are fueled by the artificial-intelligence arm, Google Brain, of YouTube’s parent company. The machine-learning models help identify videos that aren’t exactly what you just watched, but similar enough that you might like them.“

Does directing people to the link in your Instagram bio really work? Testing says that it probably doesn’t work for most accounts, and more importantly, that Instagram may be limiting the algorithm visibility of posts that direct visitors to the link in your bio. 

Twitter has now limited the number of accounts you can follow in 1 day, to 400 down from 1000; this is intended to cut back on spammers. 

US Twitter users are better educated & better off than the average American.(Good article for target market considerations)

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS) 

Amazon is reducing/removing the ads for its own products, possibly due to increased complaints of unfair competition. “Amazon is now the third-largest digital advertising platform, behind Google and Facebook”, and could grow 50% this year alone, based on projections. 

Facebook retargeting tips. And everything you need to know about the Facebook pixel for tracking your ad performance. 

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING 

Some Google Analytics tips for websites - almost beginner level! 

The Google Search Console delays are nearly all fixed. 

Stats programs all give you different numbers, and that isn’t likely to improve. (This piece is semi-advanced; don’t bother with it if you aren’t a stats geek.)

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS 

eBay’s Spring Marketplace Updates include several back end changes and a fee increase for sellers who run afoul of eBay’s seller performance standards. 

Amazon sellers can buy so-called “black hat” services to beat its algorithms. These include tips from Amazon employees who are making money by reporting on Amazon’s inner workings. Amazon “also said it takes action against sellers who pay for internal information; penalties include terminating their selling accounts, deleting reviews, withholding funds, and taking legal action.” No doubt the company already has closed some of the loopholes discussed in the article.

Amazon also fires warehouse workers by algorithm, based on productivity. 

GoDaddy launches an ecommerce sharing tool that lets you list across multiple websites including your standalone. Current marketplace options include Etsy, Amazon, eBay, Jet & Walmart. They bought Sellbrite as part of this move. Quite a few different entities are releasing this type of service, so shop around if it is something you are interested in. 

eBay released their 1st quarter 2019 results on April 23. Total sales were down 4% from 2018 (they were close to even when currency fluctuations were accounted for), but eBay’s own income from seller fees was up. “eBay reduced their marketing by a significant amount where their cash was being used to effectively subsidise the sales of high value items. Put simply, eBay have been buying sales and now they’ve stopped and this has seen a reduction in high ticket items being sold in comparison to sales of lower value items.” Easter being later this year may have slowed ecommerce growth overall in the quarter. 

...but Amazon reported record revenue, up 16.9% over 2018. Despite that, analysts note that growth is slowing, & that Amazon’s own projections for the second quarter are lower than many predicted. “Amazon’s CFO Brian Olsavsky said during the call with analysts that part of the lower guidance is due to an $800 million investment in making free one-day delivery shipping the default for Prime members.” - if you thought buyers wanted stuff yesterday already, wait til this becomes the norm ... I mean, Walmart & Target stocks fell after the announcement. Walmart is already hinting at offering the same. 

You can return your Amazon purchases at Kohl’s in the US, starting everywhere in July. Ease of returns is going to be a bigger battleground in the next few years, as retailers continue to increase free & speedy shipping options. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE

Generation Z will be making 40% of US retail purchases by next year; they are going to change a lot about selling. “ Fair trade products, ethical business practices, and a strong mission statement have never been more essential. Vend reports, “Research has shown that this particular generation cares about various environmental issues (76% are concerned about humanity’s impact on the planet) as well as social causes such as racial, gender, and income inequality.” [Gen Z come after millennials, and are currently more numerous than millennials or boomers.] 

Millennials & Gen Z are big gift card buyers in the US - over 1/3 buy a card every 3 months. 

Brick & mortar stores & malls are using your phone location data (location analytics) to make marketing and product decisions. “Every company interviewed for this story said it chooses not to use information that could identify individuals. But for the most part they’re on an honor system because rules governing data remain relatively lax.” This surprised me: “To glean details, including an individual’s age, income, ethnicity, education level, number of children and more, firms connect the phone’s evening location with U.S. Census data”

MISCELLANEOUS 

US copyright law: the USSC rules that your copyright registration must be finished/approved before you can sue an infringer in federal court.  

If you hate Gmail’s current layout, you will love this Chrome extension. 

And if you use Google Sheets fairly often, you will likely learn something useful from these tips. 

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, missed industry revenue expectations in the first quarter of 2019. 

[fresh-outta-jams]

Go for the Gold

Go for the Gold

Namjoon x Reader

Author: Admin Mo

Sequel to Kiss and Cry (Link in Masterlist)

Word Count: 2k

Genre: Soulmate Fluff

You and Namjoon had spent a while after you took off your bracelets and looked at your Soul Marks just sort of sitting there, crying, kissing, and holding each other until all of the heavy emotions that had been swirling around your hearts for so long had run their course. And then, like the nerds you were, you started talking about Harry Potter.

“I’m a Ravenclaw for sure.” You took a sip of homemade Shamrock Shake and watched the grin on Joonie’s face grow.

“So am I.”

“Wow, it’s like we were made for eachother.” You laughed.

He set his drink on the table and let his thumb rub your cheek a few times, admiring your features. You couldn’t help but flush red when he did it, warmth flooding your veins, spilling from your soul.

“How about that…” When he smiled, his dimples came out of hiding and sent your heart flying. And just as you were leaning in to press yet another kiss to his soft lips, your phone rang, leaving you both hanging.

“Hello?” You picked up. It was one of the other skaters.

“How’s your thing going?”

“It’s going better than expected. Which is to say amazingly.”

“So…”

“He’s my soulmate.” You could hear a group cheering on the other end of the line. When you looked up at Namjoon, he was grinning proudly, but when you caught his eyes, he covered his face, suddenly shy. You grinned and reached out for one of his large hands. “I know, it’s amazing. He’s amazing, I just...ugh...He’s so freaking perfect.”

Joonie’s face reddened adorably and he took the phone from you. “I think she’s pretty freaking perfect too, just to put that out there.” He listened to the group of your friends on the other end of the call for a few seconds, nodding and chuckling. “Yeah, I think that’d be a good idea too. We can definitely be there in a few minutes. I can call the boys. Yeah, alright. See you soon, then.” And with that, he hung up.

“So what’s the plan?”

“We’re going out for dinner to celebrate meeting the loves of our lives.” He brought your hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to each of your fingertips. Then, he stood up and pulled you to your feet. Being a skater, you were pretty short, but especially standing in front of him like this, forced to tilt your entire head up to make eye contact with him. He kind of loved it. A lot.

“What?” You chuckled at the look on his face.

Namjoon leaned forward and kissed your forehead, smiling against your skin. “You’re so cute.”

“Hushhhhh…” You blushed, turning away in an attempt to hide your burning cheeks.

He laughed and took your hand, and soon enough, you were sitting at a large table in a steakhouse in the Olympic village surrounded by the US skating team and BTS. It was insane. Only a week ago, you had been home skating at your local rink and now you here, in the center of the world’s focus with your friends, and now, your soulmate.

Namjoon made sure you tried everything at the table and helped you figure out what you did and didn’t like. He gushed about your skating and how you were definitely going to do amazing in you competitions the next few days. You tried very very hard not to fangirl about him and his music and his rapping, but you couldn’t hold it in for long, and long story short, you both ended up flustered and grinning like idiots. It just about gave the others cavities from how sweet you were.

After dinner, you went for a long walk with Namjoon, looking up at the stars and watching your breath puff up in clouds in front of you. His hand was tight around yours, and he couldn’t stop looking at you. You couldn’t stop looking at him either. He was just so freaking handsome. You couldn’t believe he was all yours. God, how had you gotten so lucky?

Namjoon, ever the gentleman, insisted on walking you back to your room for the night. Surprisingly, when you opened the door, the room was still empty, your roommate nowhere to be seen.

“Oh yeah, my roommate probably won’t be back until tomorrow morning. She’s uh...been having some fun with the Canadian athletes...So I pretty much have the place to myself unless she needs anything from in here.”

“Are you okay alone?” He asked quietly. “I could uh…” Namjoon rubbed the back of his neck, looking down at you.

“Would you?” You asked quietly. You really didn’t want to say goodbye to him just yet. Yes, he was coming to all of your matches over the next week. Yes, you were sure you would see him tomorrow. Yes, he was your forever. But you almost couldn’t handle the thought of parting ways yet. You just needed a little more time. “Please?”

“Of course.”

Minutes later, you were both sitting awkwardly on your bed, Joonie in his boxers and t-shirt and you in sweatpants and a tank top. You were sitting with your journal in your lap, scribbling out everything that had happened that day. Namjoon pretended to be scrolling through Twitter, but really, he was reading over your shoulder as your pen glided across the lined paper.

“Don’t forget the part about me.” He smirked.

“How could I forget the most important part?” You leaned your head against his shoulder, shattering the touch wall that had gone up the moment you had both gotten beneath the covers. He rested his head on top of yours, smiling softly.

Namjoon watched your pink pen write out your account of how you met. “...and so I took a big breath and tapped him on the arm. I was so nervous. Like, my hands were shaking, my voice was shaking, I seriously thought I was gonna pass out. Plus, his face was covered, so it was really just an educated guess if it was even him or not but it was and...long story short, there were lots of tears (good ones!) involved. He’s so tall and handsome and sweet and I know he’s reading this over my shoulder right now, but I don’t even care.”

He started chuckling and kissed your cheek a few times, quick little pecks that caused you to giggle.

“Much Love and goodnight, (Y/N) (L/N) <3.” You closed your journal and set it along with your pen on the nightstand.

As soon as your hands were free, Namjoon wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you into his lap. You rested your head back against his shoulder, exhaling a long sigh. God, your parents hadn’t been kidding about soulmates. They were definitely worth the wait. He pressed a long kiss to your neck, his arms holding you tight.

“I didn’t think it was possible to love someone this much.” Namjoon’s deep voice murmured against your skin.

Your heart raced and you closed your eyes, completely swallowed up in bliss. “It’s like I’ve known you my whole life.” You whispered, your voice quiet in the large room. Somewhere in the distance, you could make out the music of what was no doubt a party. But you were much more content here, in the arms of the man you were going to spend the rest of your life with.

***

The next morning, Joonie woke up a few minutes before you did. You had fallen asleep curled into his chest, your hair a tangled mess, (h/c) strands strewn across the pillow. Your breaths came out long and even, and as he watched you sleep peacefully he found himself falling deeper and deeper in love with this perfect little skater who had Lutz’ed her way into his heart.

Eventually, you blinked a few times and looked up at him. He brushed the hair out of your face so he could look into those beautiful eyes of yours.

“Today’s the big day.” He grinned when he saw you were finally awake.

You grinned at how his voice sounded in the morning, even deeper than it usually did and just a bit raspy. “Yesterday was the big day. Today is just the icing on the cake.”

The two of you got dressed and went to breakfast together. Namjoon’s hand barely left yours, and before you knew it, you were headed over to the rink for the big event. Today, you were skating the Short Program, and tomorrow, you had your Free Skate. You met up with your coach and headed to the warm-up area to stretch, get into costume, and so on and so forth. Namjoon had found the other boys in their spot in the crowd. They had a big sign with your name on it and they were decked out in Team USA stuff. The Shib Sibs had given the boys knitted hats with their names on them, so they were rocking them at the moment.

Once your hair and make-up was finished and you were in costume, you re-emerged, wearing your skates with covers over the blades. As soon as they let you, you were out on the ice with the other skaters, running through bits of your routine. Every time you passed the boys, they screamed. You made out Hoseok’s high-pitched wailing above the others, and it made you laugh a little.

When you were done and waiting for your turn, you sat on the bench jittery as all hell. Your hands were shaking, and every time you looked out at all of the people sitting there watching, let alone all of the people watching from home, your heart did a backflip. You grabbed your coach’s attention and asked quietly if someone could go get Namjoon. Although you weren’t exactly sure how, you knew that having him with you would help with your anxiety.

And you were right. As soon as he emerged, a concerned look on his face, something inside you clicked and you felt somewhat at ease.

“Are you okay, baby?” He asked, wrapping his arms around you and cradling your head.

“Better now...” You exhaled a shaky sigh and wrapped your arms around him.

“You’re going to do great. I know it.” He kissed the crown of your head.

“I’m sorry, I just needed you.” You whispered.

Namjoon held you a little tighter. “Don’t be sorry for that. I’ll always be here when you need me. I promise.”

***

“So, I thought today we’d do things a little differently.” Namjoon had started a VLive a few minutes before, but he had been waiting for stragglers who had just gotten the notification. “I want to introduce you to someone. We’re here in PyeongChang for the Olympics and I ran into someone I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of lately.”

You caught Namjoon’s eyes from off-camera and laughed. “Is that my cue?”

“Come here.” He held his arms open and you walked into the line of the camera and into his grasp. “ARMY, this is (Y/N). (Y/N), ARMY.”

“Hello.” You waved nervously. “I’m um...I’m Joonie’s soulmate. So yeah. Nice to meet you.”

“Show them your shiny new medal, baby.” He grinned, so ready to brag about his amazing soulmate and her amazing accomplishment.

“Joonieeeeee~” you whined, your face reddening.

He cupped a hand around his mouth and leaned towards the camera like he was telling the ARMYs a secret. “She won the gold.”

You laughed and gave him a playful shove. “Well, the only gold that matters to me is the name etched onto my wrist.” You flashed the now-gold symbols of Namjoon’s name and he beamed that beautiful dimple-kissed smile of his and pulled you onto his thigh, resting his chin on your shoulder.

“She IS perfect, isn’t she?” Namjoon read over the comments that were steadily flowing in. “I keep trying to tell her that, but she just won’t listen.”

“Okay, but when the most perfect human being on the planet tells you you’re perfect...I just...You’re so perfect, Joonie.”

He smiled softly and looked at you with a galaxy glistening in his brown eyes. “I think we’re perfect for eachother.”

[wp-yahoo-style-1042-yahoopa-blog]

'Being fat is not beautiful. It's an excuse': Revolve accused of fat-shaming with sweatshirt meant to shine light on horrors of trolling

Revolve is being dragged through the mud for releasing a fat-shaming sweatshirt. (Photo: Revolve)

What started out as a well-meaning sweatshirt has led to an uproar on social media over mixed messages about fat shaming and body positivity.

Social issues advocate and artist Florence Given found the sweatshirts on Revolve’s website on Wednesday, with the featured image showing a straight-size model in a pullover that read, “Being fat is not beautiful. It’s an excuse.” Disgusted by the message the sweatshirt sent, Given shared photos of it on Instagram. She also showed another sweatshirt the brand had on its website, emblazoned with the phrase, “Too boney to be boned.”

In tiny print below the quotes, the sweatshirts say, “as said to” beside an Instagram handle, giving the impression that these were comments pulled from someone’s Instagram account. The accounts attributed on the sweatshirts belong to models like Cara Delevingne and Paloma Elsesser.

According to Fashionista, the quotes were comments reportedly said to famous women — but the campaign backfired when the apparel was released early without any context. Since the $168 sweatshirt went up on Revolve’s website on Wednesday, Twitter has been awash with comments bashing the brand for the offensive message.

why is no one talking about revolve selling a “being fat is not beautiful it’s an excuse” sweatshirt, that’s so messed up

— m (@valentisilk) September 12, 2018

Hi @REVOLVE let's talk about why this is so misguided and stupid: https://t.co/YrLAe8yBNP

— Tyler McCall (@eiffeltyler) September 12, 2018

What is there to say about @revolve's decision to include this sweatshirt in their inventory? That they think it's okay and will resonate with their customer base speaks volumes. pic.twitter.com/9x1xXXyBGR

— Lisa Braun Dubbels (@lisadubbels) September 12, 2018

honestly i sometimes wish i covered body positivity all day everyday because i'd love to go IN on this https://t.co/USC2C7SWnU

— Izabella Zaydenberg (@belkabelka) September 12, 2018

Also like may I say that the attribution text is so small as to render my first few reads of the sweatshirt as CHAMPIONING this awful line? You could read the quote a city block away but would have to be in conversational distance to catch the "as said to".

— Jenna Kass is sleepy (@JennaKassArt) September 12, 2018

The sweatshirt got the attention of outspoken actress Jameela Jamil, who posited a rhetorical question for the brand.

Jesus Christ @REVOLVE what are you doing?! pic.twitter.com/Jtv0fHQEpI

— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) September 12, 2018

Tess Holliday, a plus-size model who recently faced backlash from haters over her history-making Cosmo UK cover, also called out Revolve for being “a mess.”

LOLLLLL @REVOLVE y’all are a mess. pic.twitter.com/CrzOkd5oE4

— Tess Holliday 🥀 (@Tess_Holliday) September 12, 2018

“They have a huge following that’s mostly young women and they are perpetuating the toxic idea that our worth is tied into our size,” Holliday said in a statement to Mic. “They must have never seen me, because I’m fat and beautiful.”

Instagrammers were just as angry. “I am actually disgusted and bewildered….. who in the design meeting thought – “hey – I know a good idea” … and what idiotic team agreed with them!!??????” someone commented on Given’s post. “This can’t be real,” another pleaded. “BEING DISRESPECTFUL ISNT BEAUTIFUL ITS DISGUSTING.”

Revolve already has a reputation for its lack of diversity (remember #RevolveSoWhite?) and this sweatshirt is just fanning the flames. According to Fashionista, the largest size available in the sweatshirt was an XL. And that’s a stretch for Revolve, since the brand usually doesn’t sell anything beyond a size L. Just look at its size guide.

The fact that the sweatshirt is modeled on a slender woman is just a slap in the face to curvy girls everywhere.

So…. @REVOLVE thinks its okay to market this sweatshirt — which only comes up to an XL, by the way — by putting it on a thin model? Considering Revolve doesn't even have diverse influencers this is….A Choice. https://t.co/40R1iWTHkp pic.twitter.com/JhdonQbF3Y

— Tyler McCall (@eiffeltyler) September 12, 2018

“Can’t believe this is real? Why wouldn’t they just hire Paloma or another model who has been a victim of this kind of thinking. Do better @revolve @lpa,” someone suggested on Instagram.

As for plus-size representation? If you Google “Revolve plus size” you’ll find it. You won’t find anything in it though; there are “0 items” in the section. Not even the sweatshirt in question.

Revolve’s plus-size section is empty. (Credit: Revolve)

If this was Revolve’s foray into size inclusivity, it appears the brand missed the mark.

Given got a hold of LPA founder Pia Arrobio on Instagram, who explained the idea behind these sweatshirts, which was a collaboration with five women to “shine the light on how horrible trolling is.” The plan was to launch the sweatshirts on Thursday, but they “went up early on Revolve for some reason,” Arrobio tells Given on Instagram, before the context of the quotes was made clear.

View this post on Instagram

UPDATE: heard back from @palomija and she told me she is MORTIFIED about how this quote has been used, and is asking for her quote to be pulled • The brand @lpa responded and they have got @revolve to take down the shots – this is our convo. Problematic marketing = a problem with diversity in the work place. This is still incredibly problematic and an awful attempt at ‘claiming back’ toxic narratives because (in my opinion) it just gives them power by putting them back into the world and at a £162 price tag. The designs went up to XL, so the women who this tee is supposed to ‘empower’ probably wouldn’t even fit into one. But at least we got the pics taken down…Ugh.

A post shared by FLOSS (@florencegiven) on Sep 12, 2018 at 8:23am PDT

One of those women, actress Lena Dunham, distanced herself from the project Wednesday afternoon in a statement, citing Revolve’s presentation of only “thin white women.”

“As a result, I cannot support this collaboration or lend my name to it in any way,” Dunham wrote in part. “This doesn’t take away from my love or respect for what Pia has done with LPA, but I am deeply disappointed in @revolve’s handling of a sensitive topic and a collaboration rooted in reclaiming the words of internet trolls to celebrate the beauty in diversity and bodies and experiences that aren’t the industry norm.”

View this post on Instagram

  For months I’ve been working on a collaboration with my friend Pia’s company LPA through parent company @revolve – sweatshirts that highlight quotes from prominent women who have experienced internet trolling & abuse. This is a cause very close to my heart and the proceeds were meant to benefit charities that help young women by empowering them to express themselves through writing and art. Without consulting me or any of the women involved, @revolve presented the sweatshirts on thin white women, never thinking about the fact that difference and individuality is what gets you punished on the Internet, or that lack of diversity in representation is a huge part of the problem (in fact, the problem itself.) As a result, I cannot support this collaboration or lend my name to it in any way. This doesn’t take away from my love or respect for what Pia has done with LPA, but I am deeply disappointed in @revolve’s handling of a sensitive topic and a collaboration rooted in reclaiming the words of internet trolls to celebrate the beauty in diversity and bodies and experiences that aren’t the industry norm. *** I’d like to especially extend my love and support to @palomija, whose quote was the first to be promoted and mangled. She’s a hero of mine. Like me, she gave her quote in good faith and shared her vulnerability in order to support arts education and to spread her message of empowerment, and she wasn’t consulted in the marketing. Not an ounce of negativity should be sent her way. *** My only goal on this planet is to empower women through art and dialogue. I’m grateful to every woman who shared a quote and so disappointed that our words were not honored. As a result, I will be making a donation to the charity of every woman’s choice who was wronged with me and I hope that @revolve will join me with a contribution of their own. *** P.S. This Rubens painting makes me happy because it’s about women joining in love, but he didn’t recognize diversity at all- he just loved curvy butts. Problematic fave.

A post shared by Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) on Sep 12, 2018 at 11:47am PDT

Social media users were unhappy with more than just the way the top was modeled.  “[O]kay but why would they sell a shirt like that???” someone commented on Instagram. “Even with the explanation, those shirts are an awful and poorly executed idea.”

When the answer is “The merchandise went up early? Also, fundraising! And bullying is wrong!” to the question “Why are you selling a sweatshirt conflating fatness with laziness?” perhaps a rethink is in order? https://t.co/bJzdtovmHj

— The Immortal Iron Feminist (@lschmeiser) September 12, 2018

This sweatshirt from @revolve is part of a series of things said to different women BUT the truth is you’ve put this on a sample size model .. sizes only go up to a 10, it’s kinda hard to… https://t.co/GBd4avU4vJ

— Curves Become Her (@AartiOlivia) September 12, 2018

“This morning, images of a forth coming LPA collection were prematurely released on Revolve.com,” Revolve told Yahoo Lifestyle. “The capsule collection – originally conceived by LPA alongside Lena Dunham, Emily Ratajkowski, Cara Delevingne, Suki Waterhouse and Paloma Elsesser – was set to debut tomorrow as a direct commentary on the modern day ‘normality’ of cyber-bullying and the shared desire to create a community for those most affected by the epidemic.” Proceeds were set to benefit “Girls Write Now,” a charity focused on mentoring underserved young women and helping them find their voices and tell their stories through writing.

“We at Revolve sincerely apologize to all those involved – particularly Lena, Emily, Cara, Suki and Paloma – our loyal customers, and the community as a whole for this error,” they added. “The collection has been pulled. We are proud to donate $20,000 to ‘Girls Write Now’ in the hopes that those who need it can still benefit from what was to be a meaningful, insightful and impactful collaboration by LPA.”

While the brand admitted the promo shots were poorly executed, they would not comment on how those photos came to be.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Magazine editor gets called out for fat-shaming: ‘Why are you using 3 fat and out of shape women for your models?’

Woman fat-shamed by bakery customers gets revenge by buying all the cupcakes

Woman says she was fat-shamed at Universal theme park — and she’s filing a discrimination complaint

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.

[welldresseddadblog]

Welcome to the 13th instalment of the “Garmsman Dozen” question and answer session. The response so far has been tremendous. Did you miss earlier ones? There are links at the end of the page.

This week we welcome to the Garmsman Dozen Christopher Laverty from Great Britain!

Who are you, where do you live and what interests you?

Christopher Laverty. York, UK. 40 years old.

Author of book Fashion in Film, broadcaster, creator of website Clothes on Film and costume consultant.

Twitter: @clothesonfilm, Instagram: @lordlaverty, @christopherlaverty, Facebook: @clothesonfilm.

I enjoy movies, decent TV, clothes, clothes in movies, clothes in decent TV, bourbon, pipe smoking, cigars (preferably Cuban), cocktail making, cycling, running and twirling my moustache.

Thinking back to your childhood, what were your most memorable or favourite clothes?

Honestly, I don’t remember much of my childhood. Controversially I don’t many of us really do, we just piece together memories from what we’re told and photographs. With that in mind, I’ll go to my late teenage years when I first remember becoming interested in clothes. It was the mid-late 1990s so a lot of pale, shapeless denim jeans worn way too long with thick, oversized shirts and suede Kickers. This is probably why I gravitated toward the vintage scene which at this time was big on 1970s retro revival. My favourite buy was a tan leather trench coat, probably from the late 1970s, made in Egypt with a Selfridges label. It was immaculate. I purchased for £25 from Covent Garden market and still have it today. I don’t wear the coat much as it’s a little on the nose these days and verging on dress up, but at least it still fits! I do come from a family interested in clothes, particularly my dad. I was born to older parents (they are in their late eighties now) and with an older brother (now 60) and sister (53). I was spoilt rotten. Apparently, I even had a tailored coat, which to a working-class family is quite a fancy thing. My appreciation of clothes comes from understanding how they are made, their design, influences and appropriateness to the era. This is all born in me I think.

How would you describe your style today, and what are your influences?

It’s one of two things depending on my mood, time of year, facial hair and hairstyle: 1) denim and workwear, Edwardian influenced to 1930s OR 2) 1970s lounge with flared three-piece suits. I like to change things up because I get bored easily. It does have to be a specific look though – I have to feel that it ticks certain boxes, although saying that I do loathe the idea of sticking rigidly to eras or historical accuracy. My main influence for the 70’s is television programmes such as The Persuaders! and The Professionals and films such as Fear is the Key and Carlito’s Way. For workwear, it’s more print-based influences, like old photographs of miners and ranchers, but also films like The First Great Train Robbery and There Will Be Blood. I pull from wherever I like, really. Again, it’s not rigid; I’m not a re-enactor, I’m just someone who enjoys a period-specific feel to their dress.

How do you think others would describe your style and garments, do you get any reaction from friends and random strangers?

Totally, though a lot of that comes from random moustache admirers/hecklers. I don’t mind, so long as it’s polite. People will always point out what is different and, if I’m honest, I get a kick out of it. I think my friends just list random people they consider could be associated with my look – I’ve had everything from Shaft to a Spitfire pilot. It’s all good fun unless you choose to be offended (which I don’t because life is far too short to be cross and moaning all the time).

When looking for clothes, what factors play into your selections?

Need, mainly. I don’t really seek out any clothing unless I’m specifically short on something, like a henley t-shirt or new pair of boots. Most clothes come to me, in that I might stumble across a charity shop find or somebody acquires a shirt or whatever they think I’d like. I don’t really pay full price for anything. For example, I bought some suede chukka boots by Alfred Sargent last year, but only because they were offered to me by a friend who’d found them (in immaculate condition I might add) in a charity shop. I certainly didn’t need the boots but I’ll not turn my nose up at a bargain. I love clothes, though my wardrobe is actually quite capsule. I think there’s nothing worse than just buying willy-nilly and ending up with so much gear you can hardly store it all. This actually diminishes sartorial creativity in my view.

When putting together an outfit combination, do you spend a lot of time considering it?

Not really. I think I know what works and just go with that. I’ll plan more if it’s an occasion outfit but for every day I just grab what I like depending on the weather. Putting together an ensemble can be fun, but I do think if you take too long it becomes fussy and convoluted. If in doubt, take it out.

Most garmsmen will have a few “grail items” in their collection. Not to out you, but if your house is burning, which garments do you grab?

Probably my RM Williams boots. They are Craftsman Yearling, the finest boot RM Williams make in my opinion and they work with almost any outfit. I purchased on eBay nearly a decade ago for about £100. The leather is cracking a tad now but I couldn’t be without them. That said, I wouldn’t burn alive for them either so this better be a fairly mild fire we’re talking about here.

Photo by Ben Bentley

Are you budget-conscious or spendthrift? Are you a single-shot shopper, or go large and buy bulk? Where are you on slow-fashion and buying less?

I’m not spendthrift, even less so if I’m buying for others. If something fits and looks great and I can afford it and need it, I’ll buy it. I do like things that are in a sale or reduced though – it just feels more fun to make that purchase. In this respect, I wish I could support more artisan brands but they are just too rich for my blood. The sad thing is I know that the guys running these places and making these clothes and footwear are just getting by as is. If I was rich I’d probably shop with an eye toward supporting homegrown brands, but as things stand whoever can give me what I want for the best possible price is going to get my money.

Having a large collection of clothes can lead to changing outfit on a daily basis, but if you were going to wear a single outfit the next two weeks, what would it be?

My go to is probably a green ribbed cotton henley (from H&M), Marlboro leather and canvas braces (charity shop), Levi LVC 1878 jeans (eBay) and my RM Williams boots. This outfit suits just about every occasion, unless you want me attending your wedding or something. It’s comfortable to travel, work, socialise and chill in. Simple but effective in my opinion.

What would you never wear?

That’s a tough one. Basically, anything that looks awful on me, so very baggy trousers or jeans (I’m a short-ass), super-tight muscle tees (they are hilarious even if you have the body) and chunky hi-top trainers (love them on other people but I look like a failed hip-hop artist). Oh and baseball caps. Every time I put one on I look like I’m dying of some disease.

Photo by David Wade

What are your best tips for buying?

If you’re talking specifically about buying for my look, either workwear or 70’s inspired, then I’d say eBay, charity shops and vintage fairs. Got to be patient though and realise that, in the main, if you’ve found a bargain, someone else has too. People know their stuff a lot more these days so everyone has their eye out. For basics, I find H&M hard to beat. It’s not the highest quality and sometimes their stores are saturated with desperately on-trend crap, but in general, for easy tees and shirts, they are a goldmine (plus have lots of year-round sales).

Do you have a dream garment you’d love to own?

A few years ago I would have said a Savile Row suit but I think I desired one for the wrong reasons. It was a case of wanting to say I’ve had a suit cut on Savile Row rather than wanting the garment itself. I must admit I have always hankered after a beautifully tailored flared leg suit from the 1970s. I have a couple of off-the-peg examples but I’d love one bespoke. Suits of this era with that distinctive cut, the high waist, flared leg, high double vents and pagoda shoulder are not impossibly hard to find, though ones made from high-quality wool suiting are. Also, I’m a sucker for LVC Levi. I’d buy most of it just to hang on my wall and salivate over.

Anyone that buys clothes will have made mistakes, what is your most memorable bad buy?

Loads! When I used to buy more and think later I grabbed many a mistake. Possibly my worst was a pair of loose Abercrombie & Fitch jeans, from eBay if I remember correctly. Not sure what look I was going for. LA surfer, possibly? Or maybe just asshole. Either way, unsurprisingly, they didn’t work.

Do you have any style icons, historic or current?

Most of the looks I covet are from films so were put together by costume designers rather than the stars in question. Then again, stars and icons had stylists back in the day and they have stylists now. Cary Grant always nailed it. James Coburn could rock the Ivy. Nowadays Sebastian Stan constantly looks interesting without going too bananas (he has a brilliant stylist and an easy to dress bod too, mind). My elderly dad has a wonderfully open love of bright colour, which I admire and is daring for a former market trader from the East End of London. ‘Be more like him’ I often think.

Who are your favourite Instagram profiles?

What you mean apart from @Welldresseddad??? 😉 I like all the sartorial based accounts I follow. Two, in particular, indulge my passion for high-end workwear denim that I can’t afford: @kingchung501 and @vorstenbos. Anyone who doesn’t take it all too seriously, basically.

How do you think trends such as denim and heritage style will evolve and survive? What will be the next big thing?

I think more and more people will get into making their own clothes. We are not there yet, and I certainly don’t presently have the skills, but big picture I feel this will get easier and easier to do in our own home. Sustainability is a big trend and not going anywhere – and really it can’t afford to. Denim especially will go down this route. Like I said we are a way off, but with current textile innovations and online communities, it is coming.

Thank you!

Thank you for your Garmsman Chris!

Photo by David Wade

Did you miss the first Garmsman Dozens?

Jon from Great Britain

Shaun from Scotland

Klaus from Germany

Roland from Italy

Daniel from Sweden

Enoch from the USA

Even from Norway

Kris from Belgium

Michael from Great Britain

Liam from Great Britain

Lee from Great Britain

Iain from Great Britain

Michael from Italy

PS: If you have suggestions for participants, let me know. Or have your mother suggest you, if you’re a bit keen to suggest yourself. My email is WellDressedDad (@) gmail.com

  The Garmsman Dozen #14: Chris from Great Britain Welcome to the 13th instalment of the "Garmsman Dozen" question and answer session. The response so far has been tremendous.

[alphacrone]

food truck au 1/??

(inspired by my earlier post)

Anyone who knew Jack Zimmermann would laugh at the idea of him even being able to remember the login for his Twitter account.

No one, not even his parents, would ever suspect that he checked his feed every single morning.

Jack didn’t care much for social media; he was too private a person to ever want the world to know where he was or what he was eating at any given moment. In fact, he only followed three accounts: his mother’s, the official Falconers’, and that of Li’l Dicky’s Southern Comforts. The latter was the only one he actually cared about.

See, Jack Zimmermann had a deep, dark secret -- he was in love with the mini apple pies that were sold daily at Li’l Dicky’s. It was the only dessert he ever indulged in on a regular basis, and said indulgences were a secret he would take to his grave.

Every morning, Li’l Dicky’s posted their location for the day. Jack knew the general schedule by heart at this point, but some days the truck switched things up, due to weather or construction or event catering, and Twitter was the only way for Jack to know if he would be able to get his apple pie fix.

It didn’t hurt that Eric Bittle, the owner of Li’l Dicky’s, smiled at Jack like the sun shined out of his ass every time he came by. But really, it was the pies Jack couldn’t enough of. Mostly. Probably.

  “Morning, Bittle,” Jack said as he approached the truck window.

“It’s noon, Jack,” Bittle chirped, wiping his hands on his apron. “The usual?”

“Please,” Jack said. “Not too busy today, eh?”

“Mm, no, the lunch crowd around this area doesn’t pick up until 12:30 usually,” Bittle said. “One or two pies today?”

“Just one,” Jack said. “But the biggest one you have.”

“One day I’ll get you to try something else on the menu, Mr. Zimmermann,” Bittle said with a playful smile. “I’ve been told my chicken fried steaklets are to die for.”

Jack shrugged. “Do you have chicken fried chicken?”

“No,” Bittle said with a sigh. “Fry Guy is one of my biggest competitors, and they specialize in fried chicken. It’s just not cost effective to offer it daily, even though my moomaw’s recipe is far superior to that bland, Yankee nonsense.”

“Chicken tenders are my favorite food,” Jack said. “I’m...kind of picky.”

Bittle shrugged. “I can’t say I understand; I’ll eat literally anything at least once. But you’re a man who knows what he likes. Just promise me you’ll never eat at Fry Guy’s truck. I couldn’t handle that level of betrayal.” He clasped his hand to his heart dramatically, and Jack laughed.

“I promise,” he said, glancing over the large chalkboard menu on the side of the truck. Chicken Fried Steaklets, Deviled Egg Trio, and Chicken n’ Dumpling Cup seemed the only substantial items. Everything else was loaded with carbs and cheese and so much sugar it made Jack’s teeth and stomach ache. “You need more protein.”

“What?” Bittle tilted his head in confusion.

“Your menu. It needs more protein options.”

Bittle snorted. “Most of my customers aren’t professional athletes, mister. They come here for delicious treats, not tofu-quinoa-whatever.”

“I like tofu,” Jack said, almost defensively.

Bittle’s smirk turned soft. “So do I. But it doesn’t scream bonafide southern cookin’, now does it?”

“True,” Jack said. “I bet you’d be able to do something with it, though.”

“Charmer,” Bittle said, looking a little smug. “Oh, there’s a line behind you. Here, let me grab your pie.”

Bittle all but shoved the paper to-go bag into Jack’s hand, smiling widely. “See you tomorrow, Jack.”

“Bye, Bittle,” Jack said, moving away from the truck.

“Y’all come back now, y’hear?” Bittle called after him, laughter in his voice. Jack chuckled and started his jog home, bag clutched tightly in his hand.

  When Jack woke up the next morning, he pulled up Twitter like always. His mother had retweeted several political articles, plus random pictures of dogs, and the Falconers were promoting some upcoming event. He scrolled down a bit further and found Li’l Dicky’s typical morning tweet.

We’re at Hope St Farmers Mrkt today! Come try the daily special: CHICKEN TENDERS + MASHED TATERS

Jack’s heart skipped a beat. This had to be because of their conversation yesterday. There was no way Bittle would risk competing with Fry Guy’s unless he was doing this for Jack. Jack shook his head and frowned; Bittle was only doing this because he’d been inspired by their conversation. It was vain to assume a near-stranger had created a special just for Jack.

Either way, Jack knew how he’d be spending his day off.

Jack loved going to farmers markets. Everything about them was soothing: the smells of fresh produce and cooking food, the shoppers milling around in the cool, morning air, the handmade signs and brightly colored booths. It was one of the few public settings that didn’t totally set his teeth on edge. The abundance of dogs roaming around with their owners certainly didn’t hurt, either.

Li’l Dicky’s was parked between Coat and Thai and Sue’s Snow Cones. There was a short line, so Jack stood behind a harried-looking mother of three small children, watching with amusement as they all sang Disney songs off-key. Eventually, the woman was able to buy her mac n’ cheese cups and herd the miniature a capella group off to the picnic tables set up nearby. Jack stepped up to the window, and delighted in the way Bittle’s face lit up when he looked up from his money box.

“Saw my bat signal, didja?” He asked with a wink. “You ready to branch out, Mr. Zimmermann?”

Jack grinned and nodded. “I mean, I sort of have to, don’t I?”

“That’s the spirit,” Bittle deadpanned, wandering off to the other end of the truck to throw food into one of his signature metal buckets. “These have been selling like hotcakes all morning. I think I’ll have to bring them back again soon.”

With a dramatic flourish, Bittle presented the bucket of chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, and cream gravy to Jack. Jack took it with a grin, then fished in his pocket for his wallet.

“Oh, no, no, sir,” Bittle said crossly. “These are on the house.”

“Bittle, I can’t let you do that-” Jack started, but Bittle cut him off with a wave of his hand.

“My truck, my rules,” he said cheerfully. “Tell you what. You like ‘em, I get to name ‘em the Jack Zimmermann special. Deal?”

Jack huffed a laugh. “Okay, fine, deal. But I expect first dibs whenever you serve them.”

“Sure, I’ll text you,” Bittle said easily. “Here, let me just-”

Biting his lip in a way that made Jack feel a little dizzy, Bittle grabbed a sheet of the checkered paper he used to line his food buckets and scribbled on it with a Sharpie. He presented the paper to Jack with flushed cheeks, and as Jack took it he saw it was a phone number.

“Thanks, Bittle,” he said softly. “I’ll, uh, go try these and let you get back to your customers.”

For once, Jack couldn’t even berate himself for being so awkward, not when his chest felt so light. He had Bittle’s phone number. Bittle had made chicken tenders for him. HE HAD ERIC BITTLE’S PHONE NUMBER.

Jack barely tasted the chicken tenders, he was so distracted by the paper in his hand. They were delicious, of course they were, and the mashed potatoes were fluffy and delightful. But Jack couldn’t appreciate that right now. He scarfed the food down, as hot as is was, and hurried to bring back the bucket to the truck window.

Bittle seemed surprised to see him again. “Oh, Jack, you’re already done?”

“Yeah, they were really good,” Jack said, handing over the bucket. “You can use my name. We could, euh...we could take a selfie for the Twitter, if you want.”

A broad grin spread across Bittle’s face. “A selfie huh?”

Jack shrugged, cheeks burning. “If you want.”

“Let me just grab my phone,” Bittle said. Jack watched as he plucked the Square from the phone jack, tossing it to the side, and leaned as far out of the window as possible. He tugged Jack close and held up the phone to frame both of them in a shot. “Smile,” Bittle sang, snapping a couple photos.

“The Jack Zimmermann Special,” Bittle said as his thumbs danced across his phone screen. “Brings all the boys to the yard.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “I’m only seeing one boy in your yard right now, Bittle.”

“Oh, chirp, chirp, chirp,” Bittle huffed. “Do you even get the reference?”

Jack grinned. “Don’t need to to chirp you.”

“Hush,” Bittle said, fighting a smile. “I have customers to attend to, Mr. Zimmermann. But, um, text me. If you want to get chicken tender updates.”

“Right,” Jack said. “And if I wanted to text you for non-chicken purposes?”

“Well,” Bittle said, playing with the ties of his apron, cheeks pink. “That would certainly be alright by me.”

“Great,” Jack said. “I want updates on the apple pies, too.”

Bittle laughed, loud and clear, and swatted at Jack’s shoulder. “Get outta here, mister. Go enjoy the market. I’ve got a special to sell.”

“See you around, Bittle,” Jack said. “I hope you put Fry Guy out of business.”

“The dream,” Bittle said with a sigh. “Bye, sweetheart.”

Jack felt his face burn as he left, and his cheeks ached from smiling so widely. He stopped about ten feet away from the truck and pulled out his phone, tapping out Bittle’s number and a quick text.

I hope I’m the only one getting a special named after him.

The reply came ten minutes later, when Jack was examining a booth of homemade soaps and essential oils. Of course, Jack. There’s only one boy I want to bring to my yard.

Jack huffed a laugh and pocketed his phone. Despite how full he was from lunch, Jack was suddenly craving a mini apple pie...

(PART TWO HERE)

[thesydneyfeminists]

“Queer Eye” Breaks Down Toxic Masculinity Culture

Since its release in February 2018, the Netflix reboot of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” has been all over the media. Like any pop culture fad, the show has received both raving reviews and ruthless criticisms. On its surface, “Queer Eye” is a fun, feel-good show with just the perfect amount of “edge” for its target audience. There’s a heavy focus on personal transformation, teachable moments, community building and self-love/ care. The cast is comprised of five gay men who each handle one aspect of these transformations: fashion, food, home, culture, and personal grooming. Personally, the show strikes an emotional cord for me. I’m a sucker for the exact kind of sappy, optimistic messages the show portrays. Plus, I’ve enjoyed watching the show and its main cast grow and adapt over three, short seasons. “Queer Eye” is easily bingeable, takes my mind off the doom and gloom of the world and fans a small flicker of hope that whispers, “we can change the world by helping one another.” Still, in researching this article, I found plenty of articles illuminating flaws in the show I never would have seen otherwise. These faults range broadly but include the capitalistic and materialistic basis of the show, the mistreatment of cast members, and the general “unqueerness” of a show with the word “queer” in its very name. All these points are valid, and I will link some sources at the end of my piece that flesh out these criticisms in more depth and nuance. Today, though, I want to apply a feminist lens to one particular aspect of “Queer Eye,” and that’s toxic masculinity.  

Image Description: Photo of the Fab Five against a plain, white backdrop. Tan is on the far left, wearing a black, long sleeve, collared shirt with large white polka dots and dark blue jeans. His arms are crossed in front of his chest and he is looking into the camera with a very slight smile. Bobby is standing to the right of Tan, wearing a black tshirt, black pants, and a light grey blazer. His body is angled towards Tan and his right hand is in his pocket. He is also looking directly at the camera with a neutral expression. Jonathan is in the center, wearing a white tshirt, dark blue pants and a blue jean jacket. His back is to Bobby and his hands are wrapped around Antoni’s arm. He is looking into the camera with a neutral expression. Antoni is to the right of Jonathan, wearing a grey tshirt, white jeans and a dark brown leather jacket. His left arm is wrapped around Karamo’s shoulder. He is looking at the camera with a neutral expression. Karamo is on the far right. He is wearing a dark blue tshirt and dark blue, velvet blazer with dark wash jeans. His right hand is in his pocket and he is also looking at the camera with a neutral expression. Image Source:  https://variety.com/2018/tv/features/queer-eye-emmys-reality-conversation-contenders-1202843269/

“Queer Eye” takes place in the deep south of the United States, a place with a reputation for racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism. The show and its cast attempt to grapple with many of these topics. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail. Some of the failures are teachable moments. Others aren’t. One of the structural issues “Queer Eye” confronts fairly well and directly is toxic masculinity. Unlike the original show, not every episode the reboot features a cishet man. I very much appreciate how the Fab Five branch out to include more diverse people in the second and third seasons. For example, “Black Girl Magic” is probably one of the most memorable and well done of the episodes on the show. Another personal favorite is when the Fab Five help a young man “come out of the closet” for the first time. However, in many of the episodes, “Queer Eye uses gay men to unleash traditionally feminine qualities in masculine blokes to redefine what all of those things even mean” (https://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/blogs/a531752/laura-jane-williams-queer-eye-feminist/). In doing so, the Fab Five actively deconstruct toxic masculinity and embody feminist activism. They show up, communicate with their fellow men and make them question what it means to “be a man.” And, for the most part, the men listen. Partially because it’s a TV show, of course, and they have to listen. But also, partially because the Fab Five have access to and constructively use their male privilege. They show how all prospective allies should use their various privileges: to call out toxic behaviors and help people who are willing to unlearn them.

Image Description: Photo of someone holding a sign up in front of some city buildings and trees. The sign reads “You can be masculine without being Toxic bro. #truthtopower.” It is written in mostly black letters on a white background. The words “you can” are outlined in bright pink. The word “masculine” is underlined in red. The word toxic is written in green, outlined in bright orange and underlined in red. “#truthtopower” is written in red. You can’t see much of the person holding the sign, except the top of their head and their hand/ forearm. They are wearing a grey baseball cap and a camouflage shirt. Image Source: https://theconversation.com/the-real-problem-with-toxic-masculinity-is-that-it-assumes-there-is-only-one-way-of-being-a-man-110305

Over the course of a week, the Fab Five teach the cishet men on their show fairly basic life lessons – how to properly groom themselves, cook a meal, decorate their house, etc. They very clearly don’t believe in the “one size fits all” model and thoughtfully tailor their lessons to the individual. The underlying moral of these interactions is the value of vulnerability. For example, in one episode, Antoni teaches a widower how to prepare a proper meal for his two young sons. Since the death of his wife, Rob Elrod struggled to prepare healthy meals for himself and his family. So, Antoni’s cooking lesson is a learning moment about food, but also about how to be the best possible parental figure to young boys. Throughout this episode, viewers see a tender, loving, yet flawed father. By the end of the episode, we are left hoping his continued relationship with his sons will be better because of the Fab Five. As another blogger suggests, “That’s the thing about toxic masculinity — it’s not just the unconscious belief that having your own style and enjoying refined pleasures of the senses makes you less masculine, it’s the belief that vulnerability in any form makes you less masculine and, therefore, less of a valuable human being” (https://medium.com/s/pop-feminism/queer-eye-for-the-male-victims-of-toxic-masculinity-cdcdad02730d). And if I had to choose one word to describe the very heart of “Queer Eye,” it would be “vulnerability.” Not only do the Fab Five cultivate this vulnerability with the men they makeover, but they show it themselves as well. And, in doing so, they invite the audience to share in these moments of opening up.

Image Description: Screenshot of a tweet by user andi zeisler (@andizeisler). Tweet  reads “general periodic reminder: the term ‘toxic masculinity’ does not mean ‘all men are toxic.’ It refers to cultural norms that equate masculinity with control, aggression, and violence and that label emotion, compassion, and empathy ‘unmanly.’” The tweet has been liked 20,166 times and retweeted 7,792 times. It was published on the 15th of February, 2018. Image Source: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1348005-toxic-masculinity via @andizeisler’s twitter account. 

I wish “Queer Eye” could be mandated viewing for all cishet men. But that’s one of the main problems with the show. The audience it attracts is not the audience that truly needs to watch it. There isn’t much hard data to support my hypothesis. But, if you tune into internet conversations about “Queer Eye”, it’s clear the majority of viewers are not cishet men. The show seems to attract a large LGBTQIA+ fandom, probably because wholesome representation of any kind is so difficult to come by for us. Otherwise, the target audience appears to be young(ish), upper middle class, white people. It definitely does not include the very demographic of men that so desperately needs to hear the lessons “Queer Eye” teaches. The result is a warm and fuzzy TV show catered very specifically to people who already know the dangers of toxic masculinity. For the length of an episode, we get to sit back and be proud of ourselves for simply understanding that deconstructing toxic masculinity is critical work. Furthermore, “Queer Eye” so often puts the burden of transformation on those with marginalized identities. As one writer quotes, “Queer Eye suggests we can all get along, if only half of us would just be super-duper nice and patient with the other half” (https://slate.com/culture/2018/02/netflixs-queer-eye-reviewed.html). The Fab Five are thus both a beacon of hope and a reminder that the darkness is still ever so present. Still, if nothing else, “Queer Eye” reinforces the importance of representation and suggests the possibility of a world without toxic masculinity. The Fab Five very clearly care about people, and their palpable labors of love alone make the show worth watching.  

By: Brittany L.

Sources

https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/02/why-queer-eyes-common-ground-message-fails-in-2018.html

https://slate.com/culture/2018/02/netflixs-queer-eye-reviewed.html

https://theestablishment.co/the-not-so-secret-materialism-of-queer-eye/

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/03/queer-eye-netflix-not-queer-1201932107/

https://www.them.us/story/skyler-jay-reveals-his-true-feelings-on-queer-eyes-trans-makeover-episode

https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/queer-eye-cutting-room-floor

https://www.bustle.com/p/queer-eye-season-2-exposes-the-fab-fives-flaws-but-thats-the-point-9394381

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/06/queer-eye-season-2-review/562883/

https://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/blogs/a531752/laura-jane-williams-queer-eye-feminist/

https://medium.com/s/pop-feminism/queer-eye-for-the-male-victims-of-toxic-masculinity-cdcdad02730d

[paleconda]

blog- 9th february.

i- as an american doing pretty damn well job of pulling off as british- do not like to do american-like things. such having having wet and cringe humour, being unnecessarily loud, being blatantly ignorant on world culture/affairs (no offence), and especially opening myself up. one thing i’ve noticed is that brits always keep to themselves and rarely discuss thier deep feelings and thoughts with other people. they’re not very open to tel you their life story, and i’m the same way.not to say that i’m not down to earth, bc i very much am. i just stay quaint when it comes to public situations. that being said, my journey and story on my sexuality is very personal, deep and complicated, and unfortunately, i feel like i have to go into massive detail on what’s all happened and how it’s impacted me. it’ll make me vulnerable, but easier to understand and empathise with. this is going to be a particularly long read tho.

the date is 07/07/2010. it was the summer before the 7th grade and i had just realised my sexuality only a few months earlier. the worst night of my life. the night my parents found out about my sexuality. i was only 12. but the way the found out was rather quite stupid and embarrassing (no i wasn’t wanking and it wasn’t porn). at the time, i didn't have a phone. and my favourite show would come on at 1 am. but i didn't feel like staying up late, so what i did was borrow my grandmas phone and set an alarm. well in the alarm it had an option for a message. well my dumbass self put “get the hell up you bisexual fucker”. yeah. well, when my grandma went to puerto rico for a funeral, she left her phone bc she wouldn’t have any service over there. and i had forgotten to take off that alarm. so my mom is just going thru the phone (idk why) and she happens to come across it. she calls me downstairs and confronts me about it. after about 10 minutes what seems like an interrogation ( and me not talking, i felt as tho i had no choice but to admit it). they started crying and told me how its never okay even if the world says it is, and they brought up sodom and gomorrah and told me i needed to have a long prayer. my relationship with them hasn't never really been the same since then. so after that, i kinda ignored thinking about my sexuality. i would just go thru my day, occasionally look at gay pictures at night, then go to sleep. then, toward the end of 7th grade, i ended up taking nudes and sending them on http://showyourdick.com (terrible, i know) and they. ended. up. seeing. the. pics. it made things a shit tonne worse. i was still closeted at school, i had been accused of being gay as early as 4th grade, before i even knew i was gay (im actually bi/pan, but lets just use the word gay for now). fast foward to the beginning of 9th grade (late 2012). i had already been stanning nicki for almost a year, but i was still closeted. i also had a tumblr account(not this one). not only did i still kinda feel bad about being gay, but i was terribly insecure as well. i ended up starting to cut myself around late September. but for a while it was only on my thighs bc i didnt want anyone to see. later, in january 2013, i was feeling really depressed one night, and i kinda went on a cutting tirade. (trigger warning) i even cut my arm. i remember feeling the warm blood running down my leg and feeling dizzy, with my ears fogging up and nearly passing out in the bathroom. this next part may sound wierd. maybe its just me, maybe it was the fogging in my ears, idk. but i remember hearing nickis voice, almost aloud, and she said Stop. crazy init.  the next morning, i got really scared, bc my sleeve wouldn't completely cover up the scars. well, one of my teachers saw (i still dont know who) and reported it to the office, and one of the guidance counselors called my parents and told them. another really bad day. the next day, my guidance counselor called me down, even the principle came in the room. they told me they were sending me to a place where i would have therapy. i agreed to it, but i wasnt aware that i would be forced to spend 3 nights there. its called being Baker Acted.  the deputy at my school called my mom and told her where they were taking me but they didn't tell her i was required by law to spend 72 consecutive hours there. so when she came to pick me up that night, thats when she found out. needless to say she was crying. alot. and as if it wasn't bad enough, it just so happened to be her wedding anniversary.  i end up relapsing 2 more times after that whole ordeal. the last time was march 9th, 2013. so things temporarily improve for the summer. i ended up (finally) coming out to my closest friends. but i never made a big deal out of it. like i never made a big post on facebook or IG or anything. I kinda just let people figure it out and have their own assumptions. so september rolls around and i end up getting depressed again (september is always a bad month for me) but i promised myself i wouldnt cut myself again. so i end up overdosing. alot. 7 pills at a time. (it was just vyvanse tho, its not like it was percs or oxycodone.) so my parents went thru my texts and they found out about what i was doing and thats when the trust begins to deterioate again. they would always take away my phone at night. they said its bc of some report they saw on the news where having your phone in your room while your sleeping is unhealthy (which.. they were right. but it’s ovbious that wasn’t the real reason they took it.) it was bloody annoying. but back then, they would only take it on school nights, and sometimes i would sneak it back, and although they got mad, they wouldn't really do anything about it. also, as you could’ve probably guessed, i had downloaded a couple of gay apps because i was curious. the first time i downloaded grindr, i was in the 8th grade. and it wasn't the only app i would download. there was also hornet and jack’d. well, theres this one guy who i ended up talking to. and i end up sending nudes to him on kik. and my parents end up going through my kik. this was in december 2013. my horny self was just tryna hookup. welp. they see the messages. things go downfuckinghill fast. they barge into my room, one second they're yelling at me shoving the screen in my face and then the next thing I know my dad is shoves me down and kicks me multiple times, and my mom ends up calling the police and filing a report. to say it was traumatising is an understatement. but because it's kik, theres not much they can do. this renders me phoneless all the way until june of 2015. and at this point i wanna take a little bit of a detour. bc i almost feel as though my life as a normal teenager has been robbed.

some of you may ask why i didn’t move in with relatives or just file a report to social services.

they wouldn't let me. and bc they're broke and aren't good at finances, that's what they (we’re) doing anyway. my family is living with my grandparents for like the 4th time since i was born. so they change the password in my phone and im only allowed to use it when they say (this is february 2014, roughly) and i have to be in the same room as them. and then in march, something goes wrong with my phone and it wont read the SIM card. so now i can't even call or text.  things just didn’t get better that year. its summer 2014, and now they suddenly change the password to my laptop. (they still won't tell me the password). i started crying and begged them to change it back. so they did. but just a month later, on July 11th, they change it. and its stayed that way. so now its june of 2015. they buy me a new phone, but they said there are "rules for having the phone" and they take it away every night. well, in november, i had downloaded grindr. theres this feature on my phone where i can hide an app, but one day, back in november, i forgot to hide the app. so they saw it. and they didn't even open the app (it was password locked) and i refused to give them the password. so now im phoneless.... again. and this time they wouldn't even let me use it... at all. so i went back to having to use my grandmas phone and computer to log onto Twitter. for the longest time, i could only be on twitter from 4-8pm on weekdays bc thats whenever i had access. fast foward to april 2016 and im taking a college class across town. all of a sudden, my mom hands me my phone, and im shocked. she says im only having it on a "limited basis". so for about a month, im only allowed to use it outside the house, but they eventually let up. every once in a while, we still get into an argument about it.  may 2016: its time for me to choose what college to go to. my mom had made me apply to a christian university about 30 miles away. i didnt wanna go, but the other college i had been looking at had ran into financial trouble, the big public university in my city didn't accept me, and i didn't wanna go to a community college. plus, the christian university (southeastern University) offered me a bunch of money in scholarships. and i honestly felt forced to go. by august of 2016, things start to drastically change. most of it is in a good way, but there are still some things that are... iffy, for lack of a better term. i’m beginning to lose weight and my grades are actually good for once, but my phone is still taken way at night all the way to december, when they finally stop. then in january 2017, i am finally able to buy an iphone. at this point, everything sort of catches up to the previous post. there’s still loads for me to explain but this is enough for now.

on a side note, it’s amazing how different things are for me now after looking back at all that. i still can’t believe that we are in 2019 and that i graduated high school nearly 3 years ago. i’m gobsmacked at how much i have changed since then. it’s a lot to ponder on. and i’m glad to say that i’m currently at the happiest place i’ve been in for years. maybe ever.

end.

[snarktheater]

Stranger Than Fanfiction — An addendum

So, I have a Twitter account. I know I hardly ever mention it, and the link to it is easy to miss in the blog's theme, but it exists. I almost forget about it myself, because I am the kind of human being who does that. Ahem.

All this to say, it feels like a semi-miracle that someone actually replied to one of my tweets on the Snark Theater account (specifically, the one about my Stranger Than Fanfiction review, and like another semi-miracle that I noticed it within just a few hours and not…like, months later. And I guess that adds up to a full miracle, because my miracle math is flawless like that.

Let's have a look (Disclaimer: I do not endorse people reading this blog post going after this Twitter user, so please don't do that, guys.)

Transcript:

The book is a NY Times best seller so a lot of people disagree with you. "It ain't Shakespeare." I bet he laughs all the way to the bank!

Hoo boy. Well, on the plus side, thank you, Twitter user gobbledguck, for reminding me about a crucial point I completely missed in my original review. Let's discuss. And I'm warning you in advance, this is probably going to be a little rambling. More than usual, I mean.

Now, I'm not talking about the tweet in general. "But if popular, how can it be bad?" is a question to which I've had a definitive answer for five years now: Fifty Shades of Grey. We live in a post-Fifty Shades world and popularity has been thoroughly debunked as a measure of quality.

So I'm not going to argue with the fact that the book is a best-seller, especially in the case of this specific book, which, in case you forgot, is written by a person who has millions of pre-established fans for something that has nothing to to with writing and who would buy anything he puts out there. Including, reluctantly so, this guy right here typing this blog post. I did not mention having a celebrity crush on Chris Colfer as a joke. It is well documented.

With the ritual self-depantsing out of the way, let's talk about the actually interesting thing in this tweet, and the one that actually ties back into the book. The (incorrect, but let's ignore that detail) quote. Let's put it back in context, which is from page 2 of Stranger Than Fanfiction.

Naturally, when it first premiered the critics treated the show [Wiz Kids, the fictional show protagonist Cash Carter stars in] like a piñata. […] However, with each fatal blow Wiz Kids only received more attention. People tuned in to see the "absurdity" for themselves, but they were not repulsed as promised. Audiences found the show's campiness to be rather charming, its unique underdog spirit resonated with them, and a global phenomenon was born. No, it wasn't Shakespeare, but on the bright side, it wasn't Shakespeare.

The low-hanging fruit response to this tweet is pretty simple. They are, after all, referencing the fact that the show is terrible, in the book's own text. It is beloved, but even the book's protagonists admit in hindsight that they don't like the show for itself as much as they like it for the community it gave them. (Which is pretty comparable to Chris Colfer's own Glee).

But let's not reach for the low-hanging fruit, because I think choosing Shakespeare of all points of comparison to be incredibly interesting. You could rephrase that last sentence of the quote as "it wasn't high art, but on the bright side, it was accessible." Which is funny to use Shakespeare for that, who…you know, made low-brow entertainment. Yeah, Shakespeare's popularity didn't stem from him writing stuffy, obscure stuff that only a tiny amount of elites could understand. It came from him writing (mostly) good stuff.

There's this weird trend these days to present critical acclaim and commercial success as antithetical, and I don't really get it. Or actually, I do, but the anti-intellectualism it derives from is kind of scary to me and I'm already planning an essay of sorts about anti-intellectualism, so I'm not sure I want to examine it in detail right about now.

The point is: anyone who criticizes something is immediately dismissed as wrong, a buzzkill, or in this specific case, fighting in vain against an overwhelming tide. It's become common to glorify being panned by critics, and it makes me wonder: what exactly are the ambitions of the people doing that?

I mean, look at Chris Colfer. What's his motive for writing this book? Is it to make money, as is implied by our Twitter user above saying he'll be "laughing all the way to the bank" at my little review? I have some serious doubts, considering he's already pretty successful. Is it because he had a story to tell, and wanted to tell it? If so…why would he consider critics to be the enemy? Wouldn't it be preferable to listen to them and strive for the best version of that story you can tell? Is it because he wanted to send a message about LGBT kids (Sam and Joey, sort of Topher), kids from toxic family environments (Mo and Joey), kids raised by single parents (all but Joey)? Then, once again, why not listen to people telling you your message might not really convey as well as you thought it would?

Of course, this is all hypothetical, and reviews aren't really meant for the author anyway. I don't expect Chris Colfer to read my review of his book, nor do I really want to, because I'm writing for potential readers, not for him. I'm talking about the attitude to dismiss critics and present a dichotomy of quality entertainment (here symbolized as "Shakespeare") versus enjoyable entertainment (i.e. Wiz Kids or the book itself). Not just because it doesn't apply to me personally (to paraphrase Lindsay Ellis on her Top Ten Guilty Pleasures video—which is apparently off Youtube at the moment—"no, I don't want to turn off my brain, I'm using it"), but also because it doesn't really seem to apply…in general.

Again, take Shakespeare. Am I supposed to just agree that it's adapted so much because people hate it? Every teenager in love sees themselves as Romeo and Juliet because that play is just so inaccessible and stuffy and high-brow? Yeah, right. (And that's without getting into a debate on whether Romeo and Juliet is a romance, a cautionary tale, or a mix of the two; it's still a pretty well-made play regardless of how you read it)

In fact, it's pretty easy to find things that are good and extremely popular, because it tends to be what survives the test of time (like, you know, Shakespeare). It's not universal, and it doesn't mean you personally have to like any of it. I hate Emile Zola's books and most of the music made before I was born, and for all I've defended him, I'm not a super fan of Shakespeare. But it doesn't mean I can't see the quality in all those things, or the fact that they had some pretty wide appeal, both then and now.

So that dichotomy is bullshit. What about the idea that critics themselves are wrong? You know, the idea that critics are a tool of the status quo rather than a measure of quality. Recently, you see that a lot whenever people criticize anything enjoyed by teenage girls (and not unreasonably so). Except…then you have to consider your definition of a critic. After all, to quote an overused phrase, everyone's a critic. All it takes is having thoughts about a thing. And in the Internet age, once can share those thoughts pretty easily, regardless of how much institutional power they hold. There's a reason this is a blog, is what I'm saying.

Point is: saying any criticism is automatically wrong by virtue of being criticism (so long as you have mass appeal) is a pretty weak counter-argument. And it feeds into a culture where critical thinking itself isn't encouraged, because you don't want to be one of those critics who just can't have fun and enjoy things, do you?

Look, I'm not mad at Twitter user gobbledguck for their reply. I'm not going to say I don't care since…you know…this post exists…but I'm not mad about it. It's symptomatic of a larger, self-perpetuating problem. Which this book is part of, by virtue of this quote, and, in a larger sense, all of Cash Carter's "how dare people criticize what I, a highly public figure with a huge influence on impressionable minds, do while in the public eye" speeches. Which Chris Colfer is a part of too, by virtue of writing this book as a highly public figure with a huge influence on impressionable mind, and publishing it for consumption.

So no, I'm not mad at that Twitter user, but I am mad at this book for participating into a culture that makes that tweet a possibility, and allows this user to go on without questioning their own biases.

I feel like there's probably a better rant about anti-intellectualism and the rejection of all critics in me. Hell, I feel like there's a better rant about it in relationship with this book. But, well, this is a hot take on a tweet. Maybe I'll even regret it in a few days. I've had a streak of regretting some of my recent posts and all.

But what I'm pretty sure I won't regret is the main point, the tl;dr as we are used to saying here on the Internet: "No, it wasn't Shakespeare, but on the bright side, it wasn't Shakespeare" is more or less equivalent to admitting you have no interest in writing (or reading) a good story, and honestly, I feel kind of sad for you and your admitted creative bankruptcy.

Now I'll get off my high horse before someone points out to me that that Twitter account has all of four tweets, and the other three are dedicated to shipping Chris Colfer with his co-star, and I'm probably being played by a troll and/or falling on deaf ears with this one. Reviews aren't meant for the author anyway, and I suppose this is no exception.

Okay, that should be enough self-deprecating humor that this post doesn't come across as too insufferable. Now I'll go back to bitching about a popular TV show or something.

[otp-is-at-it-again]

11 Questions

Rules: 1. Always post the rules 2. Answer the questions given to you by the person who tagged you 3. Write 11 questions of your own 4. Tag 11 people I was tagged by @crookedlovestory ! Thanks so much for tagging me! I love answering questions aha ♪( ´▽｀) Emily's Questions: 1. what tv show are you currently bingeing? who are your favorite characters? Um I'm not watching anything currently cause I'm on vacation, but the last show I binge watched was the Flash. I'd have to say my fav characters are between Barry, Iris, and Cisco. Barry cause he's cute and dorky at times, Iris because of her determination and friendly nature, and Cisco because of the puns :^) and overall that he can play both the clown and show everyone up with a scientific explanation for happenings 2. what is your guilty pleasure? Russel Stouffer eggs hhhh. I only get them if they go on sale, around the holidays, and even then it's not always easy so get my favorite flavors (because they sell out quick when cheap enough). My favorites are red velvet, truffle, and coconut cream. 3. what’s your biggest character flaw? (just being me in general) Um I'd have to say my depression is probably the biggest flaw I have currently. It comes up when people (my parents) yell at me, because I'm trying my best but even that never seems to be good enough. And when I get into that state I shut down physically, and mentally loop on the negatives on how useless I am as a person. It usually also comes up when I'm in a stressful situation, for ex when I'm overloaded with school and social and home problems at the same time. Though recently I've noticed I get it at random times now too, so idk. I just go along with it at this point. 4. did you have an imaginary friend as a kid? what were they like? what was their name? Ha.. Yeah I had an imaginary friend, when I was a little on the older side of childhood (middle school), though there's kind of a backstory to him. I was ahead of the curve with relationships amongst my friends, starting as early as 5th grade (compared to most who started in 7th or 8th). But the ones I had at the time sucked because the guy got bored or stopped caring or was too far away for anything to happen. I tried to move onto other guys, but when I tried to ask them out (yes I was /that/ kind of person) I always got rejected. Of course to my friends I played it off as no big deal, but each time I got rejected, each time after I asked a guy out he would ignore me like I wasn't even there despite us having classes together, it got to me and wore me down. So to compensate I guess my overactive imagination came up with the "perfect guy" so I wouldn't have to worry about being rejected any more, because he would always be there for me.. His name was Marcus. He's Japanese/White mix, about 6 feet tall with a slight muscular build. I used to have trouble sleeping at night because of the insecurities that built up after the rejections, after seeing my other friends have successful relationships so easily despite how much effort I put into starting my own and being shot down.. But in those times- again my overactive imagination came into play- I felt a presence on me that I manifested into Marcus, so that I could imagine someone being there with me, someone who could comfort me and make me feel like everything would be okay. For a while that helped, but it got out of control pretty quickly. Into high school I stopped imagining things like that, or having dreams about him and I, where I could experience a healthy relationship. At that point I gave up on trying to have a relationship, and figured it would be easier just to fill in that spot on Facebook so people would stop bugging me about finding someone. So I made a Facebook account under his name, Marcus Takahashi (I deleted the actual account, but I made a fictional character page that a lot of people have begun to like recently ?) and made it look like we were in a relationship. What I didn't expect was my mother-like friends to come on and start asking a bunch of questions like 'how did you two meet?' and 'where are you from?' and other informational stuff that I didn't want to answer so suddenly.. so I just knocked it off and told people it was just a joke. After that I ditched the idea of Marcus as my imaginary friend and adopted him more an an original character. So he's still around, it's just the context of his character is different now. 5. if you could tell your past self anything, what would it be? Don't fret so much over relationships. That is by far the most destructive thing you can do so early in life (at least speaking from my past experiences). If you express interest in someone and they don't put as much effort as you do into maintaining the relationship, drop them right then and there. It isn't worth the emotional and mental stress of blaming yourself for things you're not even at fault at. Just focus on the friendships you have and things will work out fine in the end. 6. what’s your favorite flower? why? ohh hmm. I think the plumeria would be one of my favorites. My grandma used to have a yellow plant in her backyard, near her pool, and I always thought it was the prettiest thing.. And as I got older and my family and I took walks around the neighborhood, I noticed a lot of people had them in their yards in a bunch of different colors. I think nowadays my favorite one of that species is the pink plumeria because it looks and smells really nice. 7. recommend one of your favorite books. what is it about? why do you recommend it? Boy oh boy. I have a lot of favorite books, but recently my favorite has been Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. The pov from the main character is nerdy and dorky, but relatable a lot of the time. Plus it has a bunch of old, obscure video game references which is pretty cool. I grew up with the games mentioned in the book, so it's kinda nostalgic reading about them. Totally would suggest others to read it. 8. what is a quote that has resonated with you? why is it important to you? Okay this is going to sound kinda stupid compared to all those inspirational quotes out there, but I really like this quote I found in a fan fiction, where the character says, "my sexual desires can be equated to the thirst of a camel". It was a pretty bad fanfiction (not really bad, just too cheesy even for my taste) but I thought that quote was absolutely perfect. Even after I dropped reading it, I kept a screenshot from that for the last three years because it's pretty accurate for me. I joke about it a lot with my boyfriend (which makes him cry a bit but it's still pretty funny). 9. what’s your favorite emoji? Hm. I think 👌🏼 or ✌🏼 would be my favorite ones because I use it a lot in my twitter posts. Like I'll update with something and be like 'this cool thing happened to me dudes 👌🏼👌🏼' or whatever. And I use the peace sign a lot irl so they're pretty useful. 10. what’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had? *inhales* boi I have a bunch of weird dreams haha.. Um I think one of the weirder ones was from when I was younger.. It was the tail end of elementary school and I had a crush on these three boys that were best friends. I had a dream where I found them at Soak City, but it was super distorted (because almost all my dream places are). So we stood at the top of the colored slides and instead of being their normal height, they were probably 3-4 times that, and on rickety stilts instead. Of course one of the guys told me is was okay to slide down the red slide, so I made a jump for it (scary af). We went on another ride after that (I forget which) and then I followed the guys to the log ride. The guys went in, but I got sidetracked because I saw a cat in the planters next to the entrance. I went over to pet the cat and next thing I know there's a bunch of them surrounding me and meowing. I thought that was awesome at first cause I love cats, but next thing I know they're all scratching me and I kept flinging them off me because I was freaking out. I ended up backing into this room which turned into a distorted version of Chuck E. Cheese. The cats were gone, and I was at the entrance standing in front of an attendant. She said I was a special customer so I got a bunch of free tokens and some food, but at one point I got sidetracked again when exploring. I guess I found the entrance to the employee lounge, which was a maze, and went in because I wanted to see if I could find the end. Turns out an employee found me and asked what I was doing, so I fibbed and said I was looking for the bathroom. They escorted me out, and I ended up in this place that looked like a gift shop with stuffed animals and random toys on shelves. And I think the dream ended there. Pretty weird lol 11. which planet is your favorite and why? Hmm I think Jupiter is pretty cool because it's gaseous and has a bunch of different swirling colors on its surface, plus since it's so large it has a bunch of moons in its gravitational pull (and I think moons are neat). Though speaking in terms of connection to Roman mythology, I also like Neptune because of its relation to the god of the sea heh. I'm not going to do the questions because I already did them on my other blog ʅ（◞‿◟）ʃ My main blog is @turqouiseorange if my other followers here want to check that out. Thank you again Emily for the tag <3 Even though I already did this and tagged you from my main, I answered your questions here because I thought they were really interesting and fun! Nice way to end the day heh ╰(*´︶`*)╯

[maylocnuocplasma]

Handicapped Mate

Children right from large tourists, because that they receive little or no parental interest, have unmet needs. Nevertheless his publication deftly applied McLuhan, and right in synch with Media Ecology. I have to laugh at some with the things I read.

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My spouse and i never understood a family bigger than my In laws, nevertheless do know of smaller types, with might be 4 or 5 kids, where the parents really would have more than love to deliver, they recognized they preferred a large spouse and children, planned that, and had the means to buy them what they needed, as a long way mainly because food, clothing, education, sociable lives, and so forth

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What you can do, instead, is mourn the dropped relationship for quite a while. It is the only approach to carry on with all your life and forget about the destroyed relationship. That way you would be able to forget your past and find someone new through handicapped dating.

Neil Postman, who wisely created Media Ecology in so much of McLuhan’s impression, was the 1 most accountable for our focus on media, technology, process, and structure, instead of content. Which resulted in different structuralists, acted and precise, ranging from Whorf to Levi-Strauss to Chomsky, being generated within the curriculum. But McLuhan was the direction post. And having been a direction post that directed, Janus-like, at the past and the long term at the same time.

Different Social Networking Sites

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Over the years we now have invented various technical devices, mobile technology, television and computer technology being the most important and effective to the lifestyle. These individual technical devices are evolving into one another. Just like mobile technology now presents new options and possesses merged with television and computer technology. We have gone by just contacting people to communicate to sending text messages, messaging such as Facebook and twitter, Imessage and Blackberry Messenger and the more recently Whatsapp, which lets you Imessage and Blackberry Concept people. Creating an online business, watching television on your phone and news applications, nowadays rather than picking up a newspaper or waiting for good news on the tv or r / c, you can look at that straight away with your phone by simply entering a credit card applicatoin such as the BASSE CONSOMMATION News application on my phone. Games, mailing, photography, video-recording and they have now even evolved in 3D technology.

These new environments have us hooked to the cell phones, iPods to the magnitude that they have end up being the extensions of your selves in an interconnected internet babble and new ways of human interpersonal interconnected memes; where viruses, according to media traditions enthusiast “Bill Myself Tuesday”: malware can act like a logic analyzer. Seeing that the strain goes through the operating system, this stops at certain checkpoints, doing it is rounds in a given timeframe. This checkpoint will record back what the situation is.

Terminology makes all of us human. We use this language as a buggy in our interrogating and getting together with life and within life. We use language to talk, sing, speech our opinions, disagreement, thoughts, purpose communicate, produce, and so forth, within our day to day lives. It is a complex effect you mediated by each person’s psychological makeup, social status, age, and just how the individual uses the information.

Contemporary Public environments will be projected and carried extensively by the press, as in the case of Fergusson and New york city in the wake of the killers of Africa American males and males. This is a very toxic environment that did not only start out with these two murders talked about previously mentioned. This is also an instance of the Cop being over the law, which is a spin-off and carry-over of many years of oppression, reductions, division and Apartheid which was the software program of lifestyle in the United States. The fragmented followers, societies and several types of environs in the states came to a head the moment these two murders happened in sequence of one an alternative.

Disabled Sole Woman Expecting to Date

Going out with websites intended for the incapable have been an excellent service for those living with disability or constraining medical conditions. For the duration of his loss of life, McLuhan’s status was in all probability at its least expensive ebb. The media homework centre he founded by Toronto University had been closed down down. The period of his popular celebrity – if he had made an appearance on TV, offered numerous open public lectures, and made a cameo appearance (as himself) in Hard woody Allen’s film Annie Hall — all this was at the past. Within the academic globe there was wide-spread doubt regarding his hypotheses. Today, however , interest is definitely reviving. His 1964 publication Understanding Mass media has been reprinted by Routledge Classics each year since 2001 (three intervals in 2008). People are examining McLuhan, and it is not too difficult to know why.

Specifically! If you can afford them and love and care for these people go for it nevertheless most people with large households these days wrap up living about welfare as they aren’t afford all the children they may have bought in the world plus the children are the ones that suffer, the ones that aren’t making money off t. sixth is v. shows.

My very own doctoral dissertation—Human Replay: A Theory of the Evolution of Media (1979)—in a sense required McLuhan’s observation that electronic media call to mind oral habits of interaction and changed it to a theory that media become more natural, a reduced amount of artificial, even more human, because they evolve. Different theorists—ranging right from Darwin to Popper—played key roles within my work, although McLuhan was your key aid. His traditional connections popped up throughout the dissertation, because they continue to do it whenever I just write about landline calls.

Fractalnoia – making impression of our universe entirely in today’s tense, by drawing internet connections between elements – sometimes inappropriately. The conspiracy hypotheses of the web, the use of Big Data to predict the direction of entire masse, and the frenzied effort of presidency to function without having grand narrative. ” Nonetheless also the emerging skill of design recognition” and the campaigns of people to map the earth as a group of relationships known as TheBrain — a grandchild of McLuhan’s global village”.

Through its continual barrage and consistent repeating the modern news flash allows a virus to multiply into our greatly self-referential advertising space, and has an ability to comment on the media itself. Rushkoff says that: “The viral covering permits the memes to spread just before they have a likelihood to be marginalized. Viruses lounger themselves in irony and appeal to the objective sensibilities of the viewers. Viral shells may be understood seeing that framing gadgets that induce us to distance ourselves from the problems within these people. This objectification of the problems allows us to understand the symbols in our media because symbols and necessarily reality. As well, we are made mindful of the complexities beneath evidently simple illustrations of our universe. ” In cases like this, a contemporary society no longer simply uses technology as a support but instead is shaped by it.

It is quite difficult pertaining to disabled women to meet males unlike just for other ladies that are typical. From the period when online dating websites and companies have signed up with hand in hand to eliminate this problem, their work have been paid off since it contains turned to end up being achievable intended for disabled females to have a time. Dating a disabled woman is not different from going out with a woman who does not have any physical problem.

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