#so clearly i am correct on this one

[vashti-lives]

Things currently on the first page of the "hot right now" section of knitting patterns search page on ravelry:

Several basic raglan sweaters

Mesh/fishnet sweater covered in sequins.

A dissected rat; complete with internal organs

Cute vest with stylized flowers

Two different sweaters (one pullover, one cardigan) with the same unicorn tapestry design by the same designer. Each pattern is $13 and there isn't a discount for buying both and neither pattern description mentions the other pattern. Designers can and should charge what they want for their work but this feels like a wild choice to me TBH.

Thong/Speedo "bulge" version-- ie designed for people with a penis. This pattern is no longer available??? Why is it on the hot right now page?????

Cute Christmas fair isle sweater.

Coin purse in shape of ten week old fetus.

Ranunculus sweater. Obviously.

Bookmark in shape of squished rat; complete with blood puddle.

Headband with extremely impressive goat horns and little ears. It's free and went in my library immediately.

5 different PetiteKnit patterns that still somehow look exactly the same.

Purse in the shape of grotesque head. For some reason the featured example includes a real cat tooth????

Hood with lamb ears being modeled by depressed young man.

That sweater with all the eyes which calls for yarn that is $58 per skein??

Hat that looks like a dead fish, but in a cute way.

Latest Stephen West shawl.

I don't know whats happening but the trending page pattern page has never been so chaotic. I am obsessed. Let's have more dead rat patterns and fewer tastefully boring PetitKnit patterns.

[padfootastic]

can’t help but think of how, if we choose to go by sirius’ characterisation as a private, arrogant teen who only lets a select few into his circle, sirius’ post-azkaban life just have been such an utterly humiliating experience for him.

especially OoTP. when he has all these near strangers in his childhood house, that he hated and loved and ran away from and couldn’t ever escape. if he spent his entire pre-azkaban existence building a cold and aloof persona, not letting people know what his home life had been like, then to have all of these people get a front row seat to it because of kreacher and portrait walburga’s shenanigans must have been near unbearable. to have the entire order, including snape whom he disliked and mistrusted, hear the kinds of names he’s being called.

not only does he have to deal with the retraumatisation of his childhood, but also the fact that he’s flayed open for everyone to see. it’s not only his freedom, innocence, dignity that has been snatched from him but his privacy also. it’s such a cruel thing to experience, on top of everything else.

to have literal children, his godson who he has been kept away from all this while, whom he presumably wants to be able to look up to him, to have him see into the deepest parts of his soul. to have to be so weak in front of him. not only is he subjected to such vileness but he also cannot do anything about it.

sirius has not had a moment of peace in all the time we knew him. it is indignity upon indignity that is heaped onto him. every other character has gotten a moment of respite but him. it fully breaks my heart.

[loopyarts]

Shouma Ginzaki, I have so many thoughts on this little guy. That I wish to ramble about him for a bit. Mostly about things that I find interesting such as his character design but also my thoughts on him so far.

For context I am going off from just the demo alone, so I don’t have the full picture of what he will be like in the full game.

First off, the red marking on the characters foreheads seem to have some inspiration in both a red dot called a bindi and traditional Japanese kabuki theatre make up. A bindi has ties to Buddhism and is linked to the Ajna Chakra which is also known as the "third eye" or "inner wisdom". And if you’re an anime fan you might have seen at very least one character with a red dot in their character design. So there might be some pop culture aspects to the inspiration as well. Which is why some of the characters have such dot markings in their battle ready designs.

Another thing worth noting is that the colour red in Japanese culture is a pretty prominent and versatile colour with multiple layers of symbolism. Such as being associated with protection, joy, and strength, but also with passion, power, and even danger etc.

Finally, with Shouma and Mako they both have two dots markings above their forehead. It kinda look similar to geisha dot eyebrows or Hikimayu (引眉). It’s probably just a coincidence but I thought it was worth noting.

Shouma number is nine but interestingly enough it is written in upper capital Chinese Hanzi instead of Japanese Kanji. which is probably on purpose because in Japan the number nine is considered an unlucky number because the pronunciation (苦) (ku) is similar to (苦) (suffering). The association with hardship, pain and ties to bad luck/misfortune overall contributes to the negative reputation behind this number. Similar to how the number 4 similarly avoided in Japanese culture.

While in Chinese the number nine has the opposite reputation with it being associated with good luck/good fortune and can also mean long lasting and represents the maximum level of martial happiness and longevity. I just think that is a nice subtle detail in his uniform and weapon design overall with his number being nine and all. 

This probably means nothing but nine or more correctly eight phases of the moon can spiritually is often associated with cycles of growth, release, and renewal. Also the number Nine is symbolically represented by change and having a very empathic and compassionate soul. In numerology the number nine is usually linked to things such as completion, idealism, and a strong desire to help others. Which mostly fits Shouma personality in terms of his ideals and morals.

Also his star/zodiac sign Pisces is often associated with compassion, empathy, creativity, imagination and strong intuition but also a deep connection to the sub conscious. But also the weaknesses of the sign is being indecisive, sensitive, prone to escapism and their own inner turmoil. And melancholy behaviours feelings of sorrow and poignance; where they would rather go through and meditate on deep emotions such as despair/sadness rather than have no feelings at all.

Overall, the zodiac sign Pisces is very emotional driven sign and I don’t think it is a coincidence that Shouma as a character is written to be very driven by his strong emotional feelings and thoughts.

Anyway, this line of dialogue stuck out to me while playing the game demo. There seems to be a bit of a moon theme going on here? Or at the very least I think that the moon might be an important plot beat for this game story.

Which also lead to me noticing Shouma’s mecha also has some moon imagery on its design via the shoulders pads. Another interesting thing is that the chest of the mecha is designed with a Shiba Inu face notable a black one.

Shouma’s dog is probably not a literal black shiba ha ha. Although, his weapon having the chest be of the head of a black dog reminded me a bit of the Chinese mythology of the black dog called Tiangou/the heavenly dog. Which in the myth Tiangou either eats the moon or sun causing an eclipse but the moon is more notable one. Which could have inspired some design aspects to Shouma weapon perhaps.

Real quick, I will say that I haven’t looked too deeply or check to see if other characters have a subtle moon theme to their designs. Also, if you look closely on images of the other characters weapons they also have an although I will say a more subtle animal theme going on in their weapon designs as well.

Now onto his character design. First off, his backpack resembles a Kame/turtle shell get it because he’s hiding in his shell and need to slowly come out of it. Man, you gotta love the creativity Rui Komatsuzaki puts into his character designs overall.

Shouma’s boots also have a bit of a turtle-like pattern and with them being green, it looks like he has little turtle feet. His boots also partly resemble wellies, which are commonly associated with children at least in fiction giving him a childlike feel to his design. Plus they’re also outdoor boots and are usually quite popular with dog walkers as well.

Finally, his cap in terms of shape resembles either a frog, bear or hamster which adds even more to the animal theme to his overall character design.

I’m honestly curious with how Shouma’s dog, which is most likely a Shiba Inu and Sirei are connected somehow and it’s also interesting how he’s the only one that didn’t technically fight. Like there has to be a reason for it right? I also think Shouma is more important than he gives himself credit for, although I may wrong who knows. 

I don’t know if others have noticed this but Shouma to me seems to be a very peacemaker type of character. He doesn’t like conflict and always puts others comfort and needs first before himself a far good amount of the time. Plus, the way he talks about his dog in optional dialogue. Makes him appear to have a selfless and kind hearted soul underneath all the self esteem/self deprecation issues of course. 

I also think Shouma appears to be pretty good at reading the room and how others might be feeling. On the rare occasion he chimes in, he has some pretty possible ideas and theories on what might be happening in the current situation. But given how many times he’s gets shot down or told he’s stupid for thinking or saying anything at all.

Which probably breaks his confidence to where he feels he shouldn’t have said anything at all. Which is why he’s just accepts it and doesn’t push against it. Because he truly believes he can never be right on something but also insists on being a peacemaker making him unable to truly take on conflict.

Overall, from what I’ve seen so far, Shouma seems to be a very gentle soul. Who is way too harsh on himself but I do have faith that he will develop as a person as the story progresses. It probably won’t be perfect and I don’t expect his self esteem problems to just magically go away, that takes time. Honestly, Shouma so far is very relatable to me as someone who has gone through similar hardships as a teen.

Shouma has so much potential to be such a lovely and compelling written character overall and I look forward to see what the writers have in store for him in the full game. (He’s so autistic coded to me but that could just be me projecting a little onto him ha ha…)

Lastly, gameplay wise Shouma has the potential to be pretty op as a unit depending on how his abilities and moveset functions in the gameplay mechanics. 

He is a counter defender and his ability shut-in gives 1+ attack with every emery that hits him. Which could have potential to be stacked if his ability can get even stronger. Reflecting back attacks is his key, so Shouma ideally will probably excel being throw at enemies head first and focus on crowd control. 

Shouma will probably work best with the more frail units. Leading the enemies onto him while doing chip damage and letting heavy hitting units dish out the big hits. He’s also will probably have good synergy with the healer/support units as well but overall. I think he will probably be one of the better units in the game due to his ability to do crowd control in a game, where crowd control is key. Also depending upon on how his ability works he could also be quite a decent boss slayer as well. 

Anyway, that concludes my little slightly mentally ill ramble on him. OvO’)

[agnesandhilda]

obsessed with the biological implications of species interbreeding in beastars because like. hybrids between different species exist in the real world. but they're usually between species that are already extremely similar and even then they have myriad health problems and in beastars none of that seems to matter. a gazelle and a leopard can have viable offspring. a komodo dragon and a gray wolf can not only have viable offspring but they can have offspring that isn't sterile and whose descendents can pass as one of their grandparents' species. that is bananas. are all the furries part of some macrospecies that shows an extremely wide range of visual/external genetic variation while still being reproductively compatible. are only carnivores and herbivores actually different species from each other. how does this fit into itaparu suddenly deciding that carnivores and herbivores have separate prehistories. where the fuck does the society of sentient marine creatures fall into this

[aristoteliancomplacency]

Tunisian Ocean Stitch instructions from:

Actual published stitch dictionary: multiples of 4 + 2.

A website/blog stitch-dictionary: multiples of 10+2.

A forum post from someone who got frustrated trying to find instructions and sat down and watched a video and ignored half of the given instructions in said video: multiples of of 3+1.

Can you guess which of these three sources is actually correct?

[starbuck]

the worst possible fandom experience is seeing someone passionately and lovingly going on an extended rant about your favorite characters with a premise that is objectively factually incorrect.

[pricinghamtruther]

pricingham. to me .,

[teh-nos]

but unlike AO3's tagging system i do kind of consider TVA!Loki and Movies!Loki to be separate characters, similar to how Alligator!Loki and Sylvie are, to the point where i at first actually assumed everyone in the fandom (both the series-specific one and the mcu) would think the same on this topic especially since that series was about alternate universes and their associated different versions of characters.

so in my innocent imagined world there were - for instance - no long posts about how the main Loki in the series was "OOC" because well it's a different guy of course he's not the exactly same as that other guy. though there would i am sure be equally long posts comparing and contrasting and declaring one superior to the other, and doubtless people would argue about whether an alternate version was what the existing fanbase had wanted from the series and whether it was a good idea generally. so in my little bizarro-world the discourse is a bit different (as befits an alternate universe).

so like i still think of them as separate characters, but i am at least aware now that this is apparently an odd view of the situation somehow.

[sweet-rabbit]

it's late, but i got this GW anthology doujin yesterday and i've been overworked and underpaid and unable to draw or relax for the past two weeks until tonight and i have been REVIVED as i'm 90% sure this a two page comic of trowa thinking he's drinking quatre's used bath water only to find out it's duo's and proceeding to vomit

i am a simple thing with simple needs that have been thoroughly met

[halsaph]

They should've just let Jason be a part of the rogues gallery

[aranarumei]

head in hands. guys. you have to know that stephenie meyer was not inspired by mcr to write twilight. there ARE mcr songs she connects with characters. on her official website she’s got little playlists for each book she’s published and mcr does happen to be on some of those playlists.

However. also on her website is the literal spiel she has about how she dreamed of the meadow sparkling scene and that’s how she wrote twilight. that’s the inspiration!!! she just had a dream once!!! literally just find the post on her blog where she talks abt the behind story abt writing twilight!

[hopeinthebox]

tagged by the tastemaker @cordiallyfuturedwight for the july list 💕 Category 5 Breakdown in the tags as per usual but tagging some favs if you fancy a go @aprylynn @thvinyl @monismochi @banghwa @pauls-mccharmly @avizou mwah

[starfall-calamity]

Making this on my alt to say im 100% convinced that a CJPH is so going to happen I can feel it & I'm not crazy & I'm so sane about this

[byanyan]

🔎 - Their last 3 search terms

data leakㅤㅤ∘ ˚ ( accepting )

"nighttime selfie tips" "can i make my hair grow faster" "can vampires smoke weed" "can irl vampires smoke weed"

[adhd-fandom-and-gay]

This is giving me too many ideas for headcanons

air fryer

[earlgreytea68]

Okay. It's time for an AI rant.

My nephew is 13 years old. Whenever he writes a paper for school, I check it over and fix all of his mistakes for him. He said to me, "Maybe I'll proofread your paper for you in exchange," meaning one of the scholarly articles I write for work. I said, "Cool," and gave him the file. And he said, "Well, this is full of errors! See, you always say you have a lot to correct on my stuff, and look at all the stuff you got wrong!" And I said, surprised, "What? Where?" Because I'm sure there are typos in the draft I sent him, but not, like, that many.

And then he pointed to the screen and said, "Look at all the blue and red lines you have."

And I said, "Yeah, but those are wrong. Like, those are blue and red lines I'm ignoring because the computer is wrong." And then I paused and added, "You know you can't proofread a paper by just looking at the red and blue lines, right?" And he gave me the blankest look, because that clearly is EXACTLY what he thinks. And it became even clearer suddenly why, whenever I correct something on his paper, his immediate reaction is, "It didn't have a blue or red line."

There's a very good reason for that: THAT'S BECAUSE THE COMPUTER ISN'T SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT IT WAS WRONG.

I am so tired of being sold the idea that computers are better than humans and so we should just outsource everything to them, which is clearly the lesson my nephew is absorbing in U.S. middle school. COMPUTERS ARE NOT BETTER THAN HUMANS. Like, maybe they are better at humans at crawling through rubble to find people trapped inside. They are also better at preserving things in a searchable format. Things like that. Very limited circumstances.

I don't want to sound alarmist but everything I hear about people using generative AI freaks me out. It's not just that I'm freaked out by people being like, "I use it to write novels!" (Although I don't see how they do, I have tried to have it write fiction for me and the output was truly terrible.) But I recognize my bias around creative writing and so no one needs to credit my views on artificial writing. But! Other things are alarming, too! "I use it to brainstorm x, y, or z." But...why? Why not just...use your own brain...to...brain...storm? The computer doesn't even have a brain to brainstorm with! And you might be like, "But it comes up with things that my brain would never think of!" So would other people! You could also brainstorm with other people! Or even through Google to see what other people have thought before you (not AI). Please don't belittle the wonder of thinking.

I just feel like the marketing around generative AI boils down to "Wouldn't it be easier not to use your own brain to think about things?" Everyone. No. It would not be. Please just trust me on this. I'm not just an old person who is out of touch with technology or something. I promise. USE YOUR BRAINS. IT WILL BE OKAY.