#score of 4.5

[cowwatcher]

watched dune2 and I rate it 9/10 I liked it

[consulaaris]

the score for my LSAT retake comes out tomorrow and i’m not having a funky fresh time lol :o)

[devotedlystrangewizard]

local teenager who used to get praised for having a high processing speed studies for test; is shocked to get a good grade

[adhdheather]

trying to get used to the canadian grading scale is getting to me rn. i havent had an appropriate reaction to my numerical grades at All this past year

[publicdomainbooksdevotee]

It is done.

[shiveringsoldier]

re-watched Memento tonight. that movie kicks ass

[outrosword]

today had a meeting at work for performance evaluation c:

it went very well and i got a raise C:

[the-s1lly-corner]

craving some more fluff serotonin in life, can we please have some promts of kissing/first kiss with the TADC cast? (caine will be....something lmao)

Kissing hcs w/ TADC cast

gonna format this kind of like the hugging hcs post! also reminder that requests are still closed, i am answering requests that were sent before this morning! any requests sent after are going to be deleted due to me trying to clear my inbox; please hold onto your requests until i announce requests are open again! if in doubt refer to my bio!/nm/not targeted

CAINE:

this man would not be shy about giving you affection, he would kiss you as soon as he felt it was right and you were giving him the cues and all that. he understands that teeth arent ideal for kissing so similar to kinger (who i wrote first for this post) he gently presses himself into your mouth. weird feeling but hes careful not to bite you or get too harsh, i give him a 6/10

POMNI:

very short you might have to kneel or pick her up so she can reach you if you're taller than her.. very timid and awkward, quick peck on the lips. pomni does not know what she is doing!! who let her cook! 7/10 though, pomni as a whole is soft, its kind of like kissing a marshmallow... actually she kind of tastes like one too, weird... give her some time and she'll be more confident!

RAGATHA:

soft but not as soft as pomni, instead of kissing a marshmallow its like kissing one of your dolls... i think it depends on what kind of material ragatha would be made out of... assuming the digital world gives her textures and give and all that.. hmm...her mouth is odd, i personally hc that its just. 2D. like pomni has a proper mouth, you can see the depth of it. but ragathas mouth is like, stop motion... 7/10 simply because she probably holds you close and her hugs are amazing so it just adds to the experience

JAX:

similar to caine, i think! we never see jax actually.. open his mouth, its just teeth. personally i think thats just how his mouth is, he cant open his teeth. so... teeth kisses... though caine can actually open his mouth, jax just has. the wall of teeth... odd... kiss the teeth wall i promise he brushes his teeth/j i give him a 6/10, i think its something you have to get used to

KINGER:

i said it a few times but kinger would need to hype himself up before kissing you for the first time. or alternatively, if a tense moment just happened where say.. one of you guys almost got hurt (or as hurt as you can get in the digital world,) he would probably kiss you me thinks... no mouth how will he give kiss kiss :(? gently presses where his mouth would be to yours. hard and cold, 5/10 but he still tries to be gentle so its not like hes clacking himself against your teeth

ZOOBLE:

similar to kinger but also not because of how zoobles head is shaped... maybe you guys can assume the space between their eyes is where their mouth would hypothetically be. its like putting your mouth against those plastic foods.. cold, their head feels hollow like some of the plastic food toys.. not noticeable unless you press hard against them.. 4.5/10

GANGLE:

you see this one i can work with since i have already written characters with masks getting kisses! just kiss where her mouth is and you're golden! sure the mask is also her face and shes like ragatha in regard to the 2d mouth thing... but hey its better than zooble, i think! similar scoring, i think, 7/10 also i think she would put her hands on your cheeks while you two kiss

[a-book-of-creatures]

What notable books (or author) on folklore and/or mythology would you consider to have reliable info, and which ones definitely don't? It's a broad ask, but what are the first names that come to mind?

Very good ask! I'll try to see if I can put my thoughts in words, but if you need any further examples or evaluations let me know.

Here's a general rule: primary sources are Good. Books that directly reference primary sources are Good. The more distance between a book and the primary source, the less reliable it gets. Always ask yourself, where is this book getting its information from? How does it present this information? If you're not dealing with primary sources, always check to see how information is presented and where possible errors could creep in.

For example...

Books like these are the gold standard for reliability. If I was handing out ratings, they would score a perfect 5 out of 5. Everything is extensively cited (the second book is practically all citations). You can't go wrong with these.

In general the more specialized a book is, the more reliable it is. So the excellent Meeting With Monsters gets a very respectable 4.5 out of 5. Very detailed info just about Icelandic monsters. Why not 5? The authors engage in some speculative creature building where they treat the monsters as real animals and invent features for them (the hrosshvalur has dorsal spines teeming with bacteria that infect the wounds it causes, for instance). But these are restricted to marginal notes and do not interfere with the actual information.

More general books generally get less reliable. Again, ask, where are those sources? What are they?

This one is often held up as the encyclopedia of mythical creatures currently in print. It's a decent starting point to start looking for things. It has sources and each entry is linked to its sources. The entries are written in a dry, concise encyclopedic style. But it relies far too much on second and third (and fourth, etc) hand sources. Scratch a little past the surface and you start finding weird mistakes, errors, inaccuracies. Snowballing misinformation. I would consider this to be of average reliability at best. A 2.5 out of 5 or so. Best used as a suggestion to dig into deeper, better things.

This one is a broad introduction to dragons, but instead of an encyclopedia, each "entry" (chapter?) is presented as a retelling of that story. And with that comes very low reliability and heavy use of secondary sources. The retellings make stuff up that isn't anywhere in the originals and miss a lot of the point of the stories - and spread misinformation that continues to propagate online. Also there's plenty of cryptozoology in there so eeehhhh.

This one is obviously aimed at a younger audience, but I'm mentioning it because of one amusing detail. It seems to be a good introduction for children to dragon mythology. Except it presents with a straight face the marsupial dragon as a dragon from Australia. The marsupial dragon, you know, which was written into Dragonology as a joke? And Dragonology wouldn't even have made my primary-source-reliability anyway! Some due-diligence was not duly diligenced, if I may say so.

Then there are books that are just... confusing.

Like anything by Pierre Dubois. On the surface they seem well-researched. But the references and cross-references are more opaque than... uh... a very opaque thing. He clearly has a lot of them, but it's anyone's guess where the information he got came from (no cross-referencing, you see). Combine that with him just making stuff up to pad page numbers and it's never clear what is "true" and what he wrote (and some of it is distasteful, not going to lie). Sometimes he even misses the interesting part of legends just to write his own stories. The most charitable take is that this is literary fantasy, and maybe what he's said can be traced to actual reliable folkloric sources, but after having used him as a source of information I cannot recommend him. You could also argue that Dubois never does claim that this is a scholarly reference, but it sure is presented as one.

I have so far restricted myself to books that claim (or seem to claim) to be references on myth, legend, and folklore. Books that engage in speculative "creature building" (e.g. Dragonology, The Flight of Dragons, etc) would not be reliable as references, but they're still great books. You just wouldn't use them as sources of information.

... or would you? Sometimes non-reference books get treated as such, and then the information they made up gets reified by being parroted uncritically by later books. Like Woodruff's book above. A fake "long-lost expedition journal" by Pliny the Elder, it's an excuse for (gorgeous) art and Latin practice. Except that some of the made-up stuff in there found its way out of the book and - uncited - ended up in supposedly serious works. Like the Pyrallis being a dragon, or the two-headed Hyperborean frogs. Confusing. It even got a minor news mention because people were taking it seriously!

Anyway, how about you? Any books you find reliable or unreliable?

[mylifeincinema]

My Week(s) in Reviews: June 9, 2024

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller, 2024)

Disappointing. It's impossible to not compare this movie to Fury Road. The sad thing is, when you do compare this to Fury Road, every single aspect of it pales in comparison. Anya is really good, here, but just never feels like Furiosa. And Chris Hemsworth is a blast, but he goes full-ham in the most distracting way imaginable. Then there's Miller's direction, which is tedious compared to his work on Fury Road. The structure of the film is awkward, and the pacing is damn-near unbearable, draining the action set-pieces of almost all of the balls-to-the-wall adrenaline in which every single moment of Fury Road was drowning. And the cinematography is a complete bore compared to the eye-melting shots by which Fury Road was almost exclusively composed. All that being said, on its own, Furiosa is not a bad movie. Unfortunately, however, it's impossible to experience it on its own in a world where the infinitely superior Fury Road exists. - 6/10

In the Land of Saints and Sinners (Robert Lorenz, 2024)

I really like this brand of slow-burn, quietly human, small-town action-thrillers. Add in this stellar cast and that pitch-perfect climax, and this is the best of its kind I've come across in at least the past few years. - 9/10

The Beekeeper (David Ayer, 2024)

Far from good, but just action-packed enough to keep it from being a complete waste of time. - 4.5/10

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Wes Ball, 2024)

The absence of Andy Serkis felt significant. But other than that, this wasn't bad. Overlong? Definitely. But far from bad. I don't have much to say, really. The mo-cap work was fantastic, and there were some really interesting/exciting set-pieces. The cast were pretty solid straight through, with the highlights definitely being Freya Allan and Kevin Durand, who steals every second of screen-time he has. - 8/10 For Reference... My Updated Scores for the New Planet of the Apes Films: Rise: 7.5/10 Dawn: 9/10 War: 9.5/10 Kingdom: 8/10

I also revisited Peter Jackson's The Frighteners and Christopher Landon's Happy Death Day & Happy Death Day 2U. The Frighteners is every bit as amazing as it was the last time I watched it, except for how poorly the effects have aged. And the Happy Death Day movies were just as fun as they were in cinemas. I really wish we'd get more of that concept and delivery, and more of Jessica Rothe as a scream queen.

Enjoy!

-Timothy Patrick Boyer.

[dabblingreturns]

Based on this post by @derinthescarletpescatarian I have compiled a 1 to 10 score of how anoying I think the bad kids could be in school.

Adaine Abernant: pros: Quiet, hardworking, keeps her messy personal life mostly off school grounds. Has a very cute orb based farmiliar that she will.let others hold when having panic attacks. Neutral: has a posh accent. Older sister is bitch. Relitive disinterest in social scene. Cons: wore another school's uniform on the first day of school. Also came with a 2 ft diameter focus. Killed the lunch lady with a laddle on the first day of school so is probably violent. Family was rich. Not clear if she is rich....but if you hate rich people she seams like fair game. If you get in her face and anoy her she will tell you exactly what she thinks which can be mean. Also she's the elven oracle. But that seams to be anoying her more than anyone else. Since most of her anoying traits seamnto be anoying her rather more than anyone else ingive her a 4/10 +/- 2 for anoying.

Kristen applebees. Pros: no longer trying to convert people to her God. A boon for people watchers everywhere. Easy to avoide. Fun to watch. Not intentionally crule. Cons: messy personal life. Messy liturgical life. Awkward. Makes inappropriate jokes. 5/10+/- .5

Fig Faeth pros: Easy to avoid. (Just go to bard class) pretty cool about being famous. Seams Generally nice. Con: turns into other people to probe for information. So you think your talking to your best friend but its actually fig. Smells like clove cigarettes so bad for people with sensitive noses. Loud music may also disterb other students with sensitive ears. Generally seams to be fucking around at school while still multiple teachers favorite. 5/10 +/-4.5 if she's directly harmed you you probably hate her....but otherwise she's great.

Riz Gukgak. Pros: quiet, hardworking, relitivly reserved. Cons: awkward, high-strung, questionable fashion choices. Tried to eat the corpse of vice principal Goldenhorde. Moms a cop. 3/10 +/-1

Fabian Aramais Seacaster. Pros: generous and welcoming host. Opened his home up as a study/hang out space for everyone even freshmen. Fun to watch. Cons: rich trustfund baby who's dad's pirating may have lead o the financial ruin of your loved ones. Swings wildly between toxic masculinity as a highschool jock and the most flamboyant dude you ever met. Once shit himself in class. Drive a presumably loud motorcycle.If you have issues with money, privilege, and showboating this dude will push all your buttons. 7/10 +/-3

Gorgug Thistlespring. Pros. Soft-spoken, sweet, donated all his money to a forest reclamation project. Had a long term girlfriend and cause no drama when they broke up. Cons: awkward. Spent freshman year asking everyone if they were his dad. Keeps butting heads with barbarian teacher which is painfully to watch. Also plays really loud music on headphones. And once turned the artifice class into a jam session so loud that other teachers had to get involved. Also has a shitty bird construct name cloaca. Really unclear weather this kid us a genius, and idiot, or both. Going though his mean girl phase.....but still pretty nice. Also his parents may have sold your parents a sex lawn mower. 4/10 +/-2

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

On the left, a 6 ft (1.8 m) demon who came back wrong when reviving in the Abyss. I'm not entirely sure it can touch things, given its claws deal exclusively psychic damage and they have the lowest possible strength score. But I accidentally hit a command to roll health when looking them up, and it rolled 69 HP. So it does have that.

The winter wolf on the right speaks 3 languages and has the same intelligence as your average orc or harpy. A good 5 out of 6 on the ol' furry scale, but still perfectly viable. Anyway, it's 4.5 ft (1.4 m) at the shoulder and 8 ft (2.4 m) long. Also has cold breath, so no worries about getting too hot!

[gigifluidcat]

A Comparison of the Official and Bootleg Wally plushies!

(Note: Not an official review)

1. Cake Test

Official: 0

Bootleg: 1

2. Standing Test

Official: 1

Bootleg: 1

3. Sitting Test

Official: 1.5

Bootleg: 2

4. Hair Test

Official: 2.5

Bootleg: 2

5. Fit Test

Official: 3.5

Bootleg: 2

6. And lastly... The facial test!

Official: 4.5

Bootleg: 2

- Overall Score!

Official: 4.5 points! 🎊🎉👑

Bootleg: 2 points.

Big shoutouts to the people at Makeship! The 3 months was worth it! And thank you Clown for the plushie!

(Please continue to support Welcome Home regardless if you missed buying the Wally Plush!)

[dreamerwitches]

I saw someone ranking Madoka plushies so I thought I'd rank Charlotte/Bebe ones for funsies! I'm not including pouches, bags or head plushes here

First up is the Charlotte transforming plush. Cute and pretty accurate. Also has the bonus of having a use and featuring both Charlottes. Her hair looks too light in the promotional pic but it's better irl from what I've seen. Sadly has the early Charlotte mistake of missing the dark right side of her jacket top. Sadly seems very rare and expensive nowadays. 4.5/5

The Wormlotte Ichiban Kuji prize plush. Wins points for looking dumb but in a cute, scrungly way. Works best from the front, it's a little bit of a shame she's so flat from the side so looks a bit odd. 3/5

Ichiban Kuji plush from the same set as Wormlotte. This one has already felt a little not great to me. The hair is too bright and you can see it goes under her chin which clearly isn't right. Her trousers are too red as well and she's missing the lining of her cloak. Makes sense she's less detailed because she's a prize plush but you could at least get the colours right. Also loses points cause I always see this one going for so much online and... she's not that great AND she's tiny... 2/5

The SCARF! She's great, so silly and such a good idea. Hair is too light and eyes are too teal but otherwise she's great and scrungly. 4/5

Another Banpresto prize plush. The colours are slightly better than the previous, especially the hair. 3/5

The HUUUGEE wormlotte. Who wouldn't love her?! She's amazing but very expensive, originally at around £150 and I'm sure she'd be lots more now. 4.5/5

Another Banpresto prize and another that's barely changed. It kinda feels like a step back... Green eyes??!! 2/5

The first Bebe plush, another Banpresto gig. She's very cute and silly but her hair looks wonky?? And it doesn't just seem to be the prototype. She's never shown with wonky hair so it just feels like they misunderstood the art... Her cape is missing the black inside too... Otherwise she's decent. 3/5

Banpresto prize but smaller. It has the same issues as before... 3/5

Same as the last but the unique pose and expression is very cute. You get bonus points. 4/5

An Ichiban Kuji Premium plush so she's a bit better looking now. Fixed the symmetry but I don't think she has the cape lining (it's hard to see in pictures). I like the velvet look but I know some people don't like that texture. Her fringe looks too triangular honestly, moreso than the last few. 3.5/5

WHY IS HER HAIR STILL WONKY?? Her hair ISNT wonky in official/concept art her head is just tilted, how are the designers so stupid??

See how it's tilted on the right BECAUSE her head is tilted but from her back view her hair is completely straight. Sigh. It's similar to the first few Bebe plushes. 3/5

Another Banpresto prize plush. Hair is back to being fixed, thank fuck. I really like how the lace around her collar looks like actual lace. Makes me notice the last few are mostly missing the lace... hmm... I don't like the way the fabric is cut off around the black bits of her sleeves. Makes it look bad. Also I think with the button eyes you're either gonna really like it or really not. I was scarred by Coraline when I was younger so it irks me, I wouldn't get her myself. Improved some bits but fell on others so the score hasn't improved... 3/5

Wormlotte's button version. Bonus points for making a plush of Bebe-Wormlotte cause I kinda love how unique she is. But.... this one's a bit shit... it has such a handmade quality and not in a good way. I don't get why the spots look like they're badly painted on. It's too flat as well and the circular shapes of the body are so badly defined. I like the face details but that's it. Perhaps shouldn't have relied so hard on the artwork. 1/5

Mochi Kororin Wormlotte. This is the kind of plush that I just feel I've seen far too much of... I'm so bored of it. But... she does look silly and I kinda like that. The blue wing is too teal (though it seems it took more from the art than the anime) and her left eye is red instead of pink (which is another art mistake) so it kinda throws off the colours when there's too much red in her face. 3/5

A Movic plush, this certainly feels more obscure. I love her stupid face and the unique pose. The eyes are the wrong colours in numerous places which is a shame but I'm glad the nose is 3D. (actually looking at a non-sample photo they got the eyes right! Must've just been the prototype) I like how the wings are drooped like she's bashful, it's very cute. No complaints! 5/5

I'm so surprised to see this one on My Figure Collection because she looks SO bootleg and this is what the popular bootlegs are based on. The fact they misspelled height really doesn't make me trust it. But at least I can shit on it! Eyes and cheeks are wrong (taking from the incorrect first anime screening), black hood is a weird flower shape, spots are too small, top is too light yellow, buttons are far too far across and cape goes around the front. If I could get her for like, less than £5 I would but otherwise I wouldn't bother. 1/5

How come the first Charlotte was the best and the rest were just kinda downhill? It seems like Wormlotte is harder to screw up. At least they're both pretty simple so you can always make her yourself. I was surprised my top pick was a Wormlotte since I overall just prefer Charlotte but like I said, she wasn't doing too well, even with the Bebes... a shame... let's hope they release better plushies in the future.

[glass--beach]

going to place my bets here.

fantano - minimum decent 7, especially if he doesnt fuck with the heavier stuff, but most likely light to decent 8, if the stars align and he really fucks with it then strong 8 to light 9. least favorite track either guitar song or whalefall. his review will probably be generally in line with how i feel but he’ll say one thing that yt commenters will give him shit for. will probably reference dismemberment plan (will reference radiohead too but this is so obvious there’s no fun in predicting it)

pitchfork - 7.5 - 7.8 no best new music. very positive review copy if ian cohen writes it, to the point where people will be confused by the number rating, if a different critic writes it then positive but somewhat at a distance

rym - ~3.5 average from some 4.5 & 5 star reviews being pulled down by some 3 star reviews. at least one joke .5 star review from someone who feels like everyone else has gone crazy. anyone who hates it will have some truly odd hangups

aoty - 80 lots of one sentence extremely positive reviews, a few extremely long winded positive reviews, a few 1-3 paragraph long middling reviews

at least one publication that is not a big player in online music reviews will give it a perfect score

if rolling stone or any similar older music mags acknowledge it they will like it but not love it. something about prog rock coming back. will probably reference ok computer and the mars volta

if that professor skye guy acknowledges it his review will permanently make me a less insecure person

full ready to eat my hat if any of these predictions end up way off base

[imasallstars]

SSR/SSR+ 【Midsummer☆Heart Meets Heart】Shin Sato

“I don't mind if you avert your eyes but... it'll make me so much more happier if you looked at me instead. okay?“

FOCUS STAT 　　　7176 DANCE TOTAL APPEAL 　　　 15 691 Skill:「Seductive Hourglass Figure♪」 　　　 (Alternate) For every 6 seconds, there is a 35~52.5% chance that COMBO BONUS will be decreased by 20% and a SCORE BONUS, based off the team’s strongest Score Bonus adding on a 70% boost, will occur for 3~4.5 seconds. Center Skill:「Passion Princess」 　　　When only PASSION-type idols are in your unit, all cards gain a 50% boost in their appeal.

※ this card is available through scouting from the Inviting Summer Romance gacha available until August 16th 14:59 JST. This card may return, in the case of a rerun of the Inviting Summer Romance gacha.