#semipro

[troutsimulator]

we have GOTTTTTT TO HAVE (more) SENIOR LEVEL WOMENS HOCKEY OR THERE IS NO HOPE FOR US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[moodr1ng]

rly thinking of buying a cheap digital camera so ill have a reason to go outside and take pics of random stuff.. i sometimes do it w my phone (typically pics of like, flowers on the street or interesting lighting or whatever) but it never looks good w a phone camera. and the cheaper digicams would prob have a quality reminiscent of the shitty little digicam i had as a kid and young teen which i used to take pictures around the neighborhood and whatnot, which is what im looking for more than Serious Photography

[angelfrommontgomery]

Guys idk if this whole “expecting my soulmate to come out of nowhere like lightning” is working. Hmmmmmmmmm better give it another year

[abr]

Tomaso Montanari se potesse toglierebbe, retroattivamente, il ministero della Pubblica istruzione a Benedetto Croce: non era laureato, avrà rubato il posto a qualcuno che come me ha fatto il dottorato alla Normale! Strapperebbe il Nobel a Montale e pure alla Deledda e a Quasimodo: tre non laureati, impossibile che abbiano scritto loro tante belle poesie, si saranno fatti aiutare da qualche professore...

Nel suo ultimo articolo contro Giuli, il rinfaccio della nomina ministeriale senza laurea non c’entra nulla ma non è riuscito a trattenersi, un balanzonesco orgoglio gli premeva dentro irresistibile: lei non sa chi sono io! Sono il dottor Montanari! 

L’esaltazione del pezzo di carta da parte di chi il pezzo di carta lo produce (Montanari è rettore universitario) suona più ridicolo dell’oste che garantisce buono il vino, ma Tomaso non lo sa.

Non sa nemmeno che sono passati i tempi del “Chiudiamo le scuole!” di Papini, oggi la stroncatura delle università spesso viene (...) da pensatori certamente non meloniani quali Agamben che le considera già morte: “Giunte a tal punto di corruzione e di ignoranza specialistica che non è possibile rimpiangerle”.

Per me vale la Lettera ai Romani: “Mentre si dichiaravano sapienti, sono diventati stolti”. Ma forse a Montanari non va bene nemmeno San Paolo: non ha fatto la Normale.

via https://www.ilfoglio.it/preghiera/2025/05/14/news/montanari-toglierebbe-il-nobel-a-montale-deledda-e-quasimodo-7721433/

Camillo Langone va giù nemmen troppo severo con il burobarone Montanari Tomaso, compagno classista benpensante, rettor di stipendificio di provincia livello semipro "corrotto e ignorante" (cit. Agamben).

Se il povero Montanari sapesse! Papa Leone ha tre lauree, prese alla Villanova U., forte non solo per essere una basket powerhouse. Se l'ignorante non ignorasse, ci aspetteremmo un suo Mattarella scansete. Minimo.

[irisbleufic]

CONGRATS ON YOUR SHINY NEW HUGO AWARD FOR BEST SEMIPRO ZINE POETRY EDITOR MOTHERFUCKER (ALSO AFFECTIONATE) 🪐🪐🪐🔥✨🍾

What

What

OMG???!

[flagellant]

that one actually isn't a joke that's just an actual pokemon game

Digging a hole in the backyard all endings

[hooked-on-elvis]

EP Playing Touch Football

This ripped shirt reminded me of something Jerry wrote in his book. I wonder if this shirt ended up ripping accidentally, with a random, non-directed pull (maybe E even ripped the shirt himself, somehow), or if the guys still gave El a harder time than they did the other players every time he played with them (I didn't notice any other guys with the torn clothes).

JERRY SCHILLING'S MEMORIES OF PLAYING FOOTBALL WITH ELVIS:

At one of our bigger games in the spring of 1955, we’d been playing for a while when a couple of very large men showed up and asked if they could get in the game. They explained that they were semipro players, had heard about the Elvis games, and wanted to be a part of it. The rest of us were not so eager to play with these big guys, but as far as Elvis was concerned, these players were stepping onto his turf and he wasn’t going to stand down. He wanted them in.

We worked out the teams again to include them and got set to play. On one of the first offensive drives, Elvis was taking a break from quarterbacking duties and was on the line blocking. When the ball was snapped, this 200-pound-plus semipro hit Elvis hard and ran right over him. Elvis took his time getting up — he was obviously a little shaken.

Now, we played tough at these games, with all-out effort, and we regularly knocked the hell out of each other. But the point was that everybody got knocked around — nobody ever specifically targeted Elvis. You wouldn’t think twice about hitting him if that’s the way the play went, but nobody was ever going out of their way to try to hurt him. From the look of that semipro player’s first hit, it seemed that maybe these guys weren’t so interested in playing ball for fun they were going to teach “Pretty Boy” Presley a lesson.

As we got back into a huddle, it was clear that Red West was furious. “I’ll take that son of a bitch out,” he said.

“No, Red,” said Elvis sharply. “Damn it, no. Just play the game.”

We ran a few more plays, and it was the same thing each time —Elvis got a tremendous hit from this charging rhino. But Elvis made a point of hopping up a little faster each time and just shaking it off. It got to a point where the day just didn’t feel like fun anymore. All the regular players were furious, and we were all telling Elvis that the game couldn’t go on like this, but he wouldn’t hear it. He wanted to play through. I found myself lined up next to Elvis, with the same big guy ready to charge at him again.

“Hit me from the left side,” said Elvis. “What?” asked the rhino. “Hit me from the left side.” “Why?” “I got a few bones over there that ain’t broke yet,” said Elvis.

The big guy started laughing, and by the time the ball was snapped he was laughing hard enough that he didn’t have the strength to steam-roll Elvis. After the play, we took a break and the guy went over to his fellow rhino. In a few minutes they walked back toward Elvis. Now the big guys were all smiles.

“Excuse me, Elvis,” said the one who’d been knocking him down.

“We sure did enjoy the game. Hope there aren’t any hard feelings.”

Red was still ready to lunge at them, but Elvis just shrugged.

“No hard feelings,” said Elvis. “Just bruises. Good luck with your season.”

Their big faces lit up like they’d just been blessed by the Pope. They started to walk away, when the guy who’d been knocking Elvis down turned around and came back.

“Uh, just one more thing, Elvis? Our wives are over there—can we bring them over to meet you?”

“Sure,” says Elvis. “Bring ’em over.”

As Elvis signed autographs for their wives, it all came together for me; if he had let Red and the rest of us go after these guys, then he would have ended up with some more enemies. Instead, he took a little punishment and ended up with four new fans.

There were a lot of people in Memphis that wanted to knock Elvis down, figuratively and literally, but what I saw happen on that field with the semipro guys was something I’d witness over and over again: A lot of people thought they had something against Elvis, but I never saw anybody who spent any time with him walk away not liking him.

Excerpt "Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley" by Jerry Schilling (2006)

December 27, 1956. Elvis played touch football at the Dave Wells Community Center in Memphis with some friends.

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Earlene Dennis Brown

Earlene Dennis Brown, a three-time Olympian, was the first African American woman to win a medal in the shot put. Throughout her life Brown excelled in a variety of sports, gaining attention, recognition, and honors. She is the only shot-putter to compete in three consecutive Olympics (1956, 1960, 1964). Brown won Olympic bronze for Women’s shot put in 1960; was Amateur Athletic Union Champion in shot put (1956-62, 1964); won Amateur Athletic Union Championship, discus (1958-59, 1961); won gold medal in shot put, silver medal in discus, USA-USSR dual meet (1958); was shot put and discus champion, Pan-American Games (1959); and placed 12th in shot put, Tokyo Olympics (1964).

Earlene Dennis, born July 11, 1935, in Latexo, Texas to Espenola Tillis Dennis, a domestic servant, and Willie Dennis, a semipro baseball player with the Negro League in Texas. When her parents separated in 1938, Dennis remained with her mother and they moved to Los Angeles in 1945. Dennis’s mother married Julius Walker in 1946. Dennis attended Jordan High School in South Central Los Angeles, where she excelled in track and field. Her athletic ability was noticed by many, including Adeline Valdez, Dennis’s high school gym teacher, Josephine Spearman, and Coach Clarence Mackey, who tried to get her to compete in the Helsinki Olympics (in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland). Valdez is credited with putting the first discus in Dennis’ hands while her history teacher taught her to shot put. Before competing in shot put and discus, Dennis anchored the relay team.

In 1956, Brown finished in the top ten in the shot put and the discus. In 1958 Brown received the #1 world ranking and became the first American to break the 50-foot barrier. Brown won gold medals in the shot put as well as discus events at the Pan American Games in 1959. At the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 Brown placed 12th in the shot put.

Brown retired from the shot put competition in 1965. The same year she took up another sport, roller derby. Brown’s career in skating began as a blocker for the New York Bombers.

In 1975, Brown retired from all athletic ventures and worked as a beautician to provide for herself and family. On May 1, 1983, Earlene Dennis Brown passed away in Compton, California at the age of 47. On December 1, 2005, Earlene Brown was posthumously inducted in the National Track and Field Hall of Fame by the USA Track and Field (USATF) Association during the Jesse Owens Awards and the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Jacksonville, Florida.

[steampunkforever]

Running a dating service for semipro FPS players who drive manuals called Geared Matchmaking

[f1rewalk3r]

i dont talk about being NPD pretty much ever because why would i lol but i wanted to bring it up specifically in this context:

Jimmy is my favorite character from Mouthwashing.

I don’t want or intend to excuse his actions- his assault of Anya is the literal catalyst for the story- but I don’t believe he’s a “bad person” because I don’t believe in the ontological distinction between “good” and “bad” people. Pulling a page from BoJack Horseman- there are only good and bad actions. And Jimmy makes a lot of really awful decisions! But fuck, I think he is so well written when he makes these bad choices. Again, not attempting to excuse or downplay him raping Anya- I myself have been the victim of some pretty shitty stuff. But I’ve also perpetuated some pretty shitty stuff. So here’s a narcissist’s perspective of a narcissist:

I think it’s possible to recognize and atone for shitty choices. However, it can be difficult, especially for a narcissist, to recognize the consequences of their actions in the immediate context of making them. He crashes the ship because he is faced with the fact that his post as co-pilot will mean nothing after the layoff. Meanwhile, the heroic leader of a crew stranded in space? That’s something. Something that almost certainly will overshadow the inevitability of Anya immediately reporting him the second the cargo run is over, and, better a hero or a castaway then an unemployed rapist, right? He didn’t mean to horrifically maim curly, but hey; he’s captain now! What good luck! And with Curly unable to speak, the entire Responsibility can be placed on him for the crash.

There’s something to be said also for the conversation he and Curly have just before the crash. He tells Curly that he was supposed to be responsible for everything. He was supposed to take care of it. Here’s the thing about narcissists- we’re really good at avoiding responsibility. So his rape of Anya isn’t his fault, not *really*- Curly was supposed to be responsible! But now Jimmy has all the responsibility. So he starts making choices- and they aren’t good ones.

I don’t think he wanted or expected Daisuke to be horribly maimed by the vent- in fact, I would expect a totally delusional mindset that he would totally be fine crawling through the vent to be very in character for Jimmy or any other narcissist. But obviously he won’t do it himself. He doesn’t want to put himself in danger- but very likely, he believes that Daisuke is simply the better choice due to his training.

I don’t think many of Jimmy’s bad actions (that we see over the course of the game) are conscious ones. He’s simply acting in line with his worldview. You see, here’s the thing about narcissism- having low or no empathy kind of sucks, actually! That’s not just me playing the victim (admittedly something narcissists are wont to do) - when you have low empathy, it’s incredibly difficult to believe that other people do. So when he tells Daisuke that Swansea is saving the last pod for himself- that’s not him consciously manipulating Daisuke. It is a very obvious manipulation, but Jimmy genuinely believes that Swansea intends to use the pod for himself- because it’s exactly what he would do if he was in Swansea’s position, and that in of itself is enough for him to vilify Swansea.

Similarly, I don’t think he intended to cause Daisuke suffering by disinfecting him with the mouthwash- we, as the player, remember Anya saying it’s useless as disinfectant- but that’s because it’s been mere hours for us, while for Jimmy, it’s been months. He genuinely believes it will help Daisuke.

We get to see a lot of his own rationalization with his donneresque dinner party and his conversation with Curly- as long as someone survives, he can be a hero, he can gain public recognition and respect- what more could a narcissist want? I mean, I’m a semipro musician- I would fucking know.

When his sanity starts to slip, and he’s attacked by horrific monstrosities - that’s a subconscious manifestation of his guilt. Until the end, he is unable to reflect at all- but that doesn’t stop the subconscious from seeing through the artifice of ego.

To the last moment, his directive is to “take responsibility,” and in his own twisted way, he does! He does in the most selfish way. When he finally recognizes the last step he can take to fix everything, it is the most selfish one of all. It is his last resort- not one he chooses earlier, although he perhaps could have and spared the crew plenty of suffering. I think it’s powerful that his last words are that he can fix everything- because he really could have, if he had just gotten off the Bad Choice road.

This post is far too personal and far too meandering at this point- so I’ll leave it at this. Jimmy is a man who does some truly monstrous, unforgivable things, and I love him. He’s my favorite.

[dee-the-red-witch]

New month, new pinned. Right? Right.

Hiya. I'm Dee.

Weirdass trans woman artist. Master leatherworker and maskmaker. Writer. Reviewer. Self-tattooist. Amateur drawer. Semipro digital artist and designer. Mom of two. Mid 40's. Queer poly lesbian. Atheist occultist. Gothy nerd and dork. Avid horror fan. And ABSOLUTELY NOT YOUR RESPONSIBLE ADULT. Follow at your own risk.

I do a LOT OF STUFF. Most of it can get found here at http://tormentedartifacts.com

Like these:

If you came here from a weirdly intense prose post that gave you feels and questions, you're encouraged to message or ask about them.

Unrelatedly, I also wrote a book and did a tarot deck. They're available here:

I also do weekly readings from the deck for subscribers on patreon in addition to media revuews and other bits. Here's that link: http://patreon.com/tormentedartifacts

I still don't know what a Jerma is. Do not tell me.

I've also done a lot of queer/trans/gothy/cyberpunky merch stuff available through BigCartel here: https://tormentedartifacts.bigcartel.com/

And currently, in addition to dealing with a ton of backorders, I'm also working on learning more tattoowork, and building up a whole collection if art to tattoo on folks once I'm ready for it:

So, yeah, I do a lot of stuff. Questions? The ask box is somehow still open.

Hells, I even have a wishlist, right here.

Is there a discord? Yes. But you have to ask to join.

[quiltofstars]

A chunk of the Small Magellanic Cloud // SemiPro

[ryanlowrie]

My audience dare to share, it is the price of admission unto the Paper Stage pencil portrait page of semipro sketch worker Ryan Lowrie. Jessica is a caterer, of sorts, to very fussy appetites. She makes 300/hr but offered to flat rate a whole evening of whim worship for an even 1500. I guffaw at the thought of having a whole night to spare while I still have a dozen more art journal pages to prepare. Stay curious; dinosaur dynasty, they all fall down

[yvesdot]

I'm writing to ask some advice on the pros and cons of social media for writers. Specifically, do you think it's worth it to make a bluesky account as a writer right now, and why or why not? I am a writer with a several semipro pub credits currently in the process of querying my first novel with agents. My only active social media is my main tumblr, a less active side tumblr where I post about writing, and accounts on instagram, fb and xitter that I haven't touched in years. I am very averse to marketing myself and I dislike the twitter/bluesky format, but I'm aware that there are probably opportunities I'm missing out on by not being on there (i.e. another writer I know irl mentioned an upcoming manuscript pitch event on bsky). In your opinion, is it worth it to hold my nose and do the little marketing dance in the hopes it will improve my chances, or are the benefits negligible? Any thoughts you have on the subject are greatly appreciated

The best advice I've received on the social media game is to pick the thing you can stick with and do that. So, if you think you'll use bluesky, worth being there. If you're only ever forcing yourself to post, it likely wouldn't be of much use to curate a regular presence. You can always take note of the general timing of various events and/or follow them through your friends and other spaces like Discord or, well, Tumblr! (Also a good reminder to post about various opportunities you see in your communities—I am especially bad at this.)

To actually answer your specific question... I admit to liking Bluesky despite disliking the Twitter format, which I maintain is awful. The main reason I enjoy Bluesky is its improved moeration and its teeny-tinyness right now, which may fade, but for the moment gives an increased intimacy to your interactions with individual artists that I very much like. People actually see your replies, which is encouraging.

I haven't yet used it for any sort of writerly things, in part because it's just so exhausting keeping up with anything. I am on the Authors Against Book Bans giant starter pack, so I get a lot of followers from that, but so far little to no 'engagement' with what I'm posting (if you're averse to marketing lingo look the other way!), which I suspect is simply what happens when people follow you as part of a massive group of people who are going to post more and chat more and general out-social-media-you. So I only post what I feel like putting into the void ^__^

I do think Bluesky is very clearly where all the writerfolk fed up with Twitter are moving. I initially made an account because my publisher (tRaum Books) was there, and I've since seen quite a few celebrated trans authorfolk post and even like my replies to their posts, which is, as I say, heartening. I would imagine "writing professional who is fed up with Twitter" is a good sort of person/page to surround oneself with.

But people have gotten agents before Bluesky and they will again. If you have writing credits, you most certainly have an advantage. You don't need to play the games if you don't want to (though, as you've noted, it can help). I'm not playing any games right now! And I have never signed with an agent for a novel. Shop this one around, and make your own pros and cons list, and see how you feel. Congrats on the publications!

[goldeyesblackheart]

anyway, here's a terrible quality phone photo of the horribly beat up little thing with the rebranded Ricoh Rikenon lens that's on it. For being a total (including the price of charger, lens adapter, card and card reader) it was about 60$, which is dirt cheap for a semipro DSLR...

Even if it is 20 years old.

[pastel-kaleesh]

Am I a amateur semipro or professional artist?

You're an amateur but don't worry! We all started that way and I've seen you get better! Do everything!!! Experiment!!! Mess around with your art!!! That way you'll get better at it!! That's how I learned!