#they were a good price which is either great or horrible

[cheerfullycatholic]

Newest discovery with my medical problems is that sunlight makes it worse, so I ordered prescription sunglasses, and I'm a lil upsetti about it because I hate sunglasses 🙃 but I'm more upsetti about screwing up my eyesight more than it already is so I'll deal. The frames should be black and red with dark gray lenses but I've never ordered from this company before so we'll see I guess

[a-small-writer-in-a-big-world]

what about headcanosn of the 141 with a reader who hates being touched due to some... incidentes in their past?

pls keep up your work, it's great

Thank you! I can try, I kept it vague for interpretation

The 141 with a reader who doesn't like to be touched

Price

He doesn't normally go around touching people unless it's a quick pat on the shoulder or upper back

One time he did it to you and your reaction made him pause and he almost got a little nervous thinking he ruined the relationships you both had

After you told him you don't like being touched, he understood and apologized immediately

If you told him why, he'd most likely tell you don't have to but he'll be glad you trusted him enough still to tell him

He hasn't touched you since and will only do so if you ask

Instead of praising you for a good job done by patting you on the shoulder, he usually gives you a smile or a thumbs up which honestly feels a lot better than a pat does

Ghost

He gets it

He's not too overly fond of people touching him either and he's not exactly someone who's going to touch another person unless said person gives him the okay

He most likely figured it out by watching you react to others trying to touch you

Usually he's the one who tells people to back off in your stead and he's even stepped in between you and people who were trying to touch you

You don't have to tell him about it and honestly if you did, he'd feel blessed that you trust him that much

Soap

This guy is all about physical touch

He loves giving fist bumps, high fives, pats, the whole sha-bang and with that he forgets to actually ask people if it's okay

The moment he does any of those things to you and sees that you're not okay, he'll apologize

He felt horrible for putting you in that situation after you explained you don't like to be touched

He felt even worse when you explained why

In the end, you ended up getting a very apologetic Soap and some dinner out of it because he offered to make it up to you

Since then he doesn't touch you and just verbally praises you.

He also threatens to beat anyone up if they don't listen to you

Gaz

He's a very middle ground person

It depends on the situation but he may or may not spare a pat on the back

He generally asks people if its okay but sometimes in the moment he just leaves those small touches without thinking

So when he gave you a pat on the shoulder and you didn't like it, he apologized and gave you space

He made sure to tell you that you don't have to explain yourself but you did anyway and he's grateful that you trust him like that

He makes an effort to keep your personal space free of anyone but usually Ghost beats him to it

Like the rest of them, he usually gives you a thumbs up or a verbal praise

[tavina-writes]

LXC would've gotten disbarred

After I kind of drifted away from the cnovel translation forum I used to be a part of, like, a decade ago, I thought to myself: my translator days are over! I will not translate stuff again! The post about if NMJ has hobbies (found here if you want to see it) was merely a blip on the radar of “not translating anything.” 

Alas, I appear to have descended into a new pit, and that is seeing things in the other translations of mdzs and going back to the Chinese to look at things, discussing with @autumnslantern and just, translating snippets of this book and then deciding to share the results. 

In this case, it’s a passage from Chapter 73, which is doing the rounds again, but I’ve most commonly seen as evidence for “LXC really wanted to say something about the treatment of the Wens but got steamrolled by NMJ’s objections” and I kind of just want to wave at the title of this post because if Chinese Novel!Xichen had been my defense lawyer, I would fire him. I would want him disbarred lol. I love him but this was not a shiny moment of Xichen getting steamrolled. 

Again, this appears like it will get long, so meta under the cut: 

The passage in question in this one, which is early on in Chapter 73: 

The fantranslation I have access to says this: 

Lan XiChen responded a moment later, “I have heard of Wen Qing’s name a few times. I do not remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaign’s crimes.”

Nie MingJue, “But she’s never stopped them either.”

Lan XiChen, “Wen Qing was one of Wen RuoHan’s most trusted people. How could she have stopped them?”

Nie MingJue spoke coldly, “If she responded with only silence and not opposition when the Wen Sect was causing mayhem, it’s the same as indifference. She shouldn’t have been so disillusioned as to hope that she could be treated with respect when the Wen Sect was doing evil and be unwilling to suffer the consequences and pay the price when the Wen Sect was wiped out.”

Lan XiChen knew that because of what happened to his father, Nie MingJue abhorred Wen-dogs more than anything, especially with how intolerable he was toward evil. Lan XiChen didn’t say anything else.

One of the sect leaders spoke up, “What Sect Leader Nie said is quite right. Besides, Wen Qing is one of Wen RuoHan’s most trusted people. You’re telling me she never participated? Well I don’t buy it. Is there any Wen-dog without a single drop of blood on their hands? Maybe it’s just that we haven’t found out about it yet!”

The Chinese text that these passages correspond to is this: 

蓝曦臣沉吟道：“这位温情的大名我知晓几分，似乎没听说她参与过射日之征中任何一场凶案的。”

聂明玦道：“可她也没有阻拦过。”

蓝曦臣道：“温情是温若寒的亲信之一，如何能阻拦？”

聂明玦冷冷地道：“既然在温氏作恶时只是沉默而不反对，那就等同于袖手旁观。总不能妄想只在温氏兴风作浪时享受优待，温氏覆灭了就不肯承担苦果付出代价。”

蓝曦臣知道，因家仇之故，对温狗聂明玦是最为痛恨，他又是完全容不得沙子的性情，便不再言语。一名家主道：“聂宗主此言正是。况且温情既然是温若寒的亲信，说她没参与过？我是不信的。温狗哪个手上不沾几条人命？也许只是没被我们发现而已！”

Which I got from this source on the internet. At some point I should invest in buying an actual physical copy of this text, but I spent my discretionary Chinese book money on a great copy of Yanxi Palace so I’ll have to wait on my physical MDZS copy. 

Anyway, what follows are a bunch of screenshots of the translation process of this section and then some cleanup and a basic summary. 

Idk about you all, but I do not call someone a pejorative equivalent of WRH’s toady/crony/trusted ally, while saying “why would she stop his horrible crimes!” and then think that my good friend would have to “turn a blind eye” if we were to let her off when I’m trying very hard to defend her against the masses but am getting steamrolled into agreeing that she probably deserved it. 

Indeed, the two things that LXC says in this scene are: “I have heard briefly of Wen Qing’s reputation, it does not appear that she personally murdered anyone…” and “she’s a crony of WRH, how would she have stopped his atrocities?” 

Now, I actually like him more after realizing this fact, because he was being mildly bitchy about this! And honestly, given that the Wen burned down his house and killed his dad and killed a bunch of Lan cultivators and broke Wangji’s leg and kidnapped Wangji and nearly killed Xichen himself and he had to flee with a bunch of their sacred texts…I’d say he’s earned the right to be bitchy about them. 

But also if I were Wen Qing depending on Zewu-jun for his excellent defense lawyering skills at my criminal trial I would want him disbarred. And also fired. 

[yamatossideboob]

One Piece 1116 spoilers!

My spottings this week:

Yamato's taking his time getting ready for his field trip but whatever as long as he's on page. ily Yamtoe!!!!! hi Otsuru!!!

Struggling to remember here, were the Ancient Weapons known at all to the greater public? even as myths or historical fact? either way they are now lmfao

There's something so unsettling about seeing Imu looking up at that portrait, and I can't articulate why... it's weirdly human coming from someone/thing who's previously been so removed from humanity.

aww Ingram, Karoo, its okay lads, shes on board a sky ship fleeing political retaliation with an albatross man and Monsieur Mangetot

i do hope we get a moment with Vivi seeing her own missing persons poster. or! or! her own wanted poster??

okay I'm really glad we now know this stolen Mother Flame business, AND finally get confirmation that the weapon used to destroy Lulusia IS an Ancient Weapon, and Uranus to boot! This is immense!!! Aside from the confirmations, this also potentially puts a cap on any AW use since their fuel source is clearly limited, which stops them from like. breaking the OP endgame bc why else wouldn't the WG just spam it constantly lol. Althoughhhhhh since York is still likely to make it off Egghead, and she surely knows how to recreate it, I could well be wrong...

also wow York is even worse than we thought

One Punch King????? howrya mate!

srsly though, the knowledge of what really happened to Lulusia reaching the public is gonna be the fucking cherry on the Fuck The WG sundae coming very soon

This is such a packed chapter and yet *this* is the moment I've been waiting for.

I've said before on here how I wished the link between Vegapunk and the extermination of Lulusia was emphasised more. The parallels between Vegapunk's innovations and real life scientists having their work used for evil purposes is too great, and while OP isn't quite the series to explore a subject like that as it deserves, I'd been holding out hope that this manga would at least lampshade it, if not have Vegapunk address this. I can be satisfied with this. I am glad Vegapunk understands what his work lead to, even if he never meant for it to. Such is the price of capital and the state dictating scientific development babes.

also damn I hope that little panel of Momo and Kinemon means they won't be completely caught unawares by the Blackbeard gang showing up to pilfer Pluton a.a ;;;

ah yes hi Mr Oral Fixation, good to see you as always sexy

aaaaaaaaaand hi Shirohoshi. I forget if you know *you're* an Ancient Weapon too lmao

actually yeah Joyboy why DID you preserve the Ancient Weapons whats that about hmmm

Sengoku trying to off himself by onigiri choking to avoid questions about wtf he knows about the Elders and Void Century

Akainu maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad

FUCKING YES CROCUS!!!!

I still hate how cute you are York. stop being horrible.

Man I can't wait to see how the hell Stella pulled this off lmao

Also YES THE GIANT ROBO HAD A PURPOSE THE WHOLE TIME LMFAOOOOOO

(I'd heard the theory wrt the transponder and the robo but I didn't believe it fsr 💀)

So this will take the heat off the giants and Strawhats long enough for them to gtfo, I guess the Ancient Robo will meet its end here by Elder claws? I hope at least we find out what its connection to Joyboy is before it gets scrapped

Rayleigh soused as a student during Rag Week, I hope he shows up again in a more long-term way sooooooooooooooon

AND another chapter next week!! this absurd ridiculous gargantuan lore drop keeps on chugging!!! What will we learn next? What cameos shall we have? Will the Ancient Robo actually do something beyond one (1) panel?

Tune in next time nakama! Til next time! 💪✖️

[faery-the-diamond]

"Come back once you learn something better."

Well damn, I'll try. >:)

"Dear God",

How many times have you heard goodness of these words? Spoken by the ones who loved and needed you, the ones who gave their soul and life to you, the ones who eternally trusted you with everything they were. The ones you drowned in agony and despair.

So many times you were at a crossroads, and so many times you could stop the apocalypse by simply taking control of yourself. All the power you were given, all the force of your experience, and all the strength you obtained through the centuries were not enough. Yet none of those times you were capable of making the right decision.

The one chosen to bear a great duty, the right to judge and punish, you only used it for lynching without thinking any of your actions through. You are the one who brought discord to the faith, hopelessness to the people, and mourning to the world. Because you never saw goodness in what you had.

You burned down the way this life was in a blind hope to revive a better world from the ashes. You thought goodness, but sorrowfully, you didn't realize that the promised land was burned down either.

All because of your nature, so well revealed in your monstrous eldritch form. It is not to give life, but to destroy it. To carefully watch its flame go out, painfully not understanding until it is too late, that there will be no more light and no more cure for the burns you left on your skin.

A temporary-sane lord of death, possessed by a horrible combination of recklessness and might. How could this dark side of the moon possibly reveal itself? The greatest of their mistakes was not to choose you, yet to love you. But they paid a wiseless price to stop thoughtless brandishing of your scythe. They lost their mind so you could lose your freedom. The sacrifice, which has been able to breathe life into barely warm hope but couldn't save it. Because you didn't step down.

You never spoke goodness, only spread heresy and poisoned the faith just for the sake of your disastrous wishes. And now you find yourself here. Within one other trap you were caught by the ones. Of course, you will find a way out. Just like you always do. After all, the original sin of yours was to do evil.

But for the sake of redemption, mark my words: unless you extinguish the lunacy of yours, one day that flame will finally fade away, and then nothing, not even the red light won't be able to illuminate a way out.

Amen

...phew, that was a try. :3

Nar, rate this from "heard much worse" to "make your peace now, 'cause you'll never have it in the afterlife."

(Btw, I don't blame Nari like almost at all, so what I wrote is just a try to say "something better". Actually it's not too easy to find arguments for what you don't really have in mind, so... Hope I did well. :'))

Narinder: Nice try, but you do not understand the situation to speak about it like that. Either way, I advise you to keep in check what comes out of your mouth next time, mortal.

[omegaremix]

Captured Tracks, 2022.

What makes Omega WUSB great is how we create tributes as part of what we play on air. They allow us to get to know our favorite labels better and gives our listeners a nicer surprise from our usual spinning-wheel craziness. Most of them we previously featured are from New York City such as Sacred Bones, Hospital Productions, Wharf Cat, and Mexican Summer. Just recently, Captured Tracks joined that list of labels that deserved it. Do a little due diligence (say that three times fast) and you’ll see that Mike Sniper has had his hands in plenty of things. He owns the umbrella Omnian Group, does illustration for other artists, made music as Blank Dogs, and was part of other bands, too. And he’s owned a couple of record stores, too. Sideman Records was up for a couple of years until the y recently closed down, but his other store named after his Captured Tracks label, is still up. That’s good because I’ve been meaning to visit.

After Amityville’s High Fidelity wiped me out like no other (two visits cost me $893.00 in total), I had one more stop I was planning to visit and call it quits. That was Innersleeve Records until I took a better look at their sticker prices posted on social media. Right then and there I declared my island-wide record store victory tour finally over and any city-wide visit to other stores were treated as “bonus rounds”, which two visits to Academy’s Brooklyn and Manhattan locations already counted. Captured Tracks just posted some nice pics- of their stock and I’ve been meaning to go, so let’s give a proper end to a great expensive run.

I arrived at the Central Islip station, sweltering in the low 80’s and as bright as bright can be. The train took off westbound to Penn Station for a 75-minute ride. I told myself it was going to be a great day. When I did, I noticed something somewhat disappointing. Nothing said there was going to be pending thunderstorms for the next few days, but here they come as I looked to my right. Surely enough daylight went dark and it came down hard from Jamaica all the way to Penn Station. I didn’t come above and out to 34th Street to experience it because I went under to catch the ‘E’ line. Everyone waiting for the alphabet lines were baking and drenched in sweat from all the unbearable post-rain humidity filling the platforms beneath. Thank the Lord for air-conditioned transit. I got off at 23rd and Court Square to the ‘G’ and finally came up at the Greenpoint Ave. stop. It was all clear, as if the horrible weather never happened. You wouldn’t even noticed, either.

Down Manhattan Ave., I turn left on Calyer St. and look for #195. Where the hell is it? I look up and there was the wooden Captured Tracks sign nailed above the window. I wouldn’t have realized that I walked past it as it was perfectly blended in the residential buildings. How cute. I walk up the stairs only to be confronted by a closed door and push-button lock. It can’t fucking be. I look below and there was a flight of concrete steps leading to the basement entrance. Immediately I felt an amazing spell, as if I just discovered a well-hidden secret that almost no one knew. I never entered a music-store this way. That’s what made it magical.

I walk through the front door to find not that many people lurking for new finds. There were only three staffers: one behind the counter checking their Discogs store online, another restocking the vinyl bins, and the last sitting behind the desk in the back corner observing Lord knows what. None of them were Mike Sniper. I walk around the narrow space which was mostly nice and neatly organized; a cellar space adorned with chipped paint on the walls, pipes and valves that would make Super Mario and Luigi gladly pay their 100 coins a month each to live in. I reminded myself why I was here in the first place: to see if their selection matches that of what their label offered.

Captured Tracks were the kings of organization. Everything organized by genre, label, and artist name. Sure, they had the standard classic rock, psych-, and metal LPs. But walk around and they had a full selection of jazz, soul, and R&B to start. They carried several bins of classic disco and dance classified right down to the label. Salsoul, Motown, Casablanca - they weren’t handwritten but instead their tabs and dividers were logo’ed. Want classic motion picture soundtracks from the Eighties-on backward? Pre-war jazz and vocals? Reggae and Bollywood? Greek, Israeli, Brazilian, French, Italian, and Latin artists? They specialize what the other stores don’t. Almost nothing where it shouldn’t be.

First order of business was the cassette section nailed right next to the entrance. They had way less on the shelves than they posted and nothing got to me. In the middle of the store were…eight-tracks? Fifteen of them were posted on a board in the middle of the store. That’s all they had. If I had a player, then no doubt I would be even consider spending $30.00 for either Lonnie Liston Smith’s Expansions and Roy Ayers’ Red Black And Green for $35.00. Adjacent to them were a small pot of CDs, maybe no more that a hundred. So what did I say about how hard it was finding Suicide albums? For $7.00 I was able to get Alan Vega’s Mutator. What tasteless muppet who knows nothing about art and culture sold his copy back to the store? Which other labelmate of his was also in the pot? Marissa Nadler, of course. Her latest full-length The Path Of The Clouds cost $12.00, the highest-priced purchase of the day.

No record-store excursion would be complete without getting a crack at some jazz and fusion. Same to be said about what Roy Ayers records they had. Still no A Tear To A Smile, but instead Let’s Do It sitting in which I already had. But, going across I did find plenty familiar artists with albums I never seen before in the wild from Ron Carter, Ramsay Lewis, Jeff Lorber Fusion, Herbie Mann, and Hank Crawford. I had a chance to pick up two Kool & The Gang records: Wild And Peaceful and The Force. I held off because off of Wild And Peaceful there was “Hollywood Swingin’” and “Jungle Boogie”, and I wouldn’t have been happy if the entire record went in that direction. The Force reminded me that I wasn’t familiar with -The Gang aside from those two, “Summer Madness”, and Love And Understanding. Going a little bit to the right to Hubert Laws’ divider and I find found it: How To Beat The High Cost Of Living with Earl Klugh. That was a huge personal win for me. That motion-picture soundtrack was part of last year’s impeccable, memorable, golden Spring.

Captured Tracks had a small section for hip-hop / rap LPs and 12” singles. Nothing piqued my interest as I wouldn’t spent more than a few dollars on a piece of wax with one or two songs. Their selection of those artists jumped around ranging from Eighties mainstays to Nineties unknowns. The only thing I took with me from those bins was Kool Moe Dee’s Knowledge Is King and that was it.

I figured to give the soul bins a shot and I win another Blackbyrds record, a tattered copy of Bootsy Collins Rubber Band, and The Olympic Runners’ Don’t Let Up - one which would sound so familiar if you’re a Planet Asia & Talib Kweli fan.

Across from the front desk were two stations with four bins each of new arrivals with lots of rare, unknown, and obscure jazz, rock, soul, and soundtracks. Of the fifteen minutes it took me to thumb through it all, the only thing I saw of interest was Blank Stare’s self-titled. It may have been their only hardcore / punk title in the entire store Captured Tracks had as they weren’t known to carry much of it. During that time of lurking through their new arrivals did the staff bring up how much of a psychotic asshole Drew Carey was in real life, and speculated if his Hollywood personality was the reason why his then-wife took her own life. Their words, not mine.

But do give them lots of points as possible for having a straight, organized, and in-reach section of 45’s and 7” records (take that, High Fidelity!). I counted at least 50 categorized white boxes labeled with jukebox hits, punk, new-wave, jazz, country, rock, decades, and more. They had more than enough of reggae and soul with new arrivals of 45’s up for grabs as well with dedicated boxes of legendary artists (Elvis) and others divided and categorized. Good thing I’m still thirsty for Eighties’ hits from my Atari childhood and I bought plenty of them. Simple Minds, Janet Jackson, Kim Carnes, Thomspon Twins. No shame here, and neither should anyone feel it when they practice self-care.

Displayed were many top-dollar records on the wall and over the bins. Those carried the heaviest prices. A copy of Fear’s debut clocked in for $30.00 and The Dictators Go Girl Crazy goes for $40.00. Buzzcocks’ In A Different Kitchen and Sex Pistols’ Never Mind The Bullocks were stickered for $45.00. The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead went for $50.00 and their self-titled for $55.00. The 7” records on the wall were just a criminal. $25.00 got you Merzbow & Gore Beyond Necropsy’s Rectal Grinder on blue vinyl. Another blue (transparent) 7” was posted which was KRS-One’s “Sound Of The Police” remix which went for $50.00 ($70.00 on Discogs at the time of posting). Two Pharcyde singles were also pinned to the wall: “Otha Fish” sold for $25.00 while “Passin’ Me By” was asking for $60.00. For a piece of wax? That’s insanity, but Brooklyn’s residents need to pony up that rent money, don’t they?

On the floor were many crates of $3.00 records which never occurred to me to burrow through, and they had tons of shelves of LPs under the bins but were marked ‘not for sale’. Might be for the better. It would’ve eaten up another hour-and-a-half of my time and maybe more of my wallet. On the other side was the usual classic rock every store needs to sell in order to stay in business. The most amusing? All the Eric Clapton records were under the ‘Craptonia’ section. (Either they hate his anti-masking stance or have a thing with loved ones falling to their deaths.) I looked through all I could and something didn’t add up: where were all those indie and post-punk / d.i.y. I was looking forward to find? I didn’t see any. I assumed Captured Tracks would carry that kind of stuff because they have Mac Demarco, Beach Fossils, DIIV, Molly Burch, and Wild Nothing on their label. And they’re from Brooklyn. How could they not have stuff like Yard Act’s debut release, Special Interest, Gong Gong Gong, Guerilla Toss, or anything from Wharf Cat? Which was why I had a field day at Rough Trade (before moving out of Williamsburg) and both of Academy’s locations. But at least they had a Thee Oh Sees record somewhere. That qualifies, right?

I’m about five minutes away from declaring an end to this year’s record-store victory tour. I took my pile of finds to the front counter to be added up. I asked the guy with the blonde hair and glasses if those records marked ‘not for sale’ were really off-limits. He explained that they were Discogs stock for the store and need to keep tabs on their stock, which was fine by me. Pain alleviated. He gave me a couple of titles for free and everything came out to $118.00 including New York State (vampire) tax. Good thing I brought two totes with me because I wasn’t taking any chances having my purchase melt in this 90* July heat. Not happening now, not happening ever. I thanked him for everything, walked upstairs and out on Calyer St. with my stash to a bright, clear, glorious Greenpoint sky.

**********

It’s over. It’s finally over. With me leaving Captured Tracks, the record-store victory tour has come to an official close. I did all that I wanted to do and then more. Almost two months of intensive free-spending without worry and practicing self-care and individualism to the fullest. I was the sun which everything else revolved around - the ventures to Queens and Brooklyn, Easter with my Italian Coney Island family, Roman connections, an ambitious Summer broadcasting season at WUSB, the spirit of Sacred Bones’ 15th Anniversary showcase permanently swirling around me, visits to the retro video arcade down the road from me, seeing friends from the Brentwood era, dinner in Calverton, and a small but all-essential conversation with my #1 favorite ginger. I’ve been spinning up some good spaces on the wheel with no signs of losing.

While walking up to Manhattan Ave. to catch the ‘G’ line, I noticed that a curious point of interest had its doors open. That place was Sunshine Laundromat, a locale I’ve read all about but been meaning to visit for the longest time. It’s an actual laundromat with a concealed backdoor that opens up to reveal a backroom pinball arcade. I never noticed it being there until now but finally I found it! It was only 5:45PM and I had all the time in the world to spare. So why not go in? I have nothing to lose.

I enter the laundromat and I slowly look around. It’s a very narrow space to maneuver around with only two or three pinball tables present and a wall of built-in washing machines and dryers. I notice a lady in the back sorting out a mound of clothes. Behind her is that door that leads to (multiball) paradise. I peer right behind her as she looks up and notices me.

“Hi! How can I help you?” she greets me with a smile. I told her that with genuine interest that I read about the laundromat and asked her if the backroom is open. She told me that they’re under renovations but also are awaiting to have their permit approved by the city. She also said that most likely if all goes to plan, then the arcade will re-open for business in a few weeks. It was alleviating news that made me feel good on the inside and made me walk out a more hopeful being.

It was a mood experiencing two crowded subway cars sharing cramped space with everyone imaginable. It wasn’t an eternal wait for the Central Islip line to arrive which the big ride out east was symbolic in itself. Not many people boarded the car I was riding. I sat facing away in the opposite direction. The 7PM sun in its intense beaming yellow glory was all alone in the sky with no clouds or miserable humidity to share it with. Both The Offset: Spectacles followed by Daniel Johnston’s “In A Lifetime” play along with the air conditioner’s cold snap on the way home as I think about what August and September will have in store for me.

The wheel landed on ‘DOUBLE YOUR MONEY’. I told myself it was going to be a great day. And I was right.

Jon Lucien: Premonition LP

Ron Carter: Peg Leg LP

Ramsey Lewis: Love Notes LP

Hubert Laws & Earl Klugh: How To Beat The High Cost Of Living LP

Weather Report: Tale Spinnin’ LP

Olympic Runners: Don’t Let Up LP

Bootsy’s Rubber Band: Stretchin’ It Out In… LP

Jeff Lorber Fusion, The: self-titled LP

Blackbyrds: Unfinished Business LP

Herbie Mann: Sunbelt LP

Hank Crawford: Cajun Sunrise LP

Kool Moe Dee: Knowledge Is King LP

Blank Stare: self-titled LP

Police, The: “Every Breath You Take” 7”

Simple Minds: “Don’t You Forget About Me” 7”

Bangles, The: “In Your Room” 7”

Thompson Twins: “Hold Me Now” 7”

Janet Jackson: “Let’s Wait A While” 7”

Kim Carnes: “Bette Davis Eyes” b/w “Miss You Tonight” 7”

Alan Vega: Mutator CD

Marissa Nadler: The Path Of The Clouds CD

[fourseasonsfigs]

Fierce Husbands

Yesterday's sad Rainy Night Wen was having a tough time of it. But today we're jumping ahead to Episode 16, where we have our two favorites reuniting (again).

I absolutely love this scene. It's incredible.

I remember watching this for the first time and being utterly blown away by how Lao Wen just swoops down and it's like the previous scenes never happened, he's so intent on ensuring A-Xu is alright. And the look on Zhou Zishu's face. That breath Zhang Zhehan takes in is just incredible. They're both so badass and the scene is just tender and gorgeously romantic at the same time.

So of course these two figs are a must have.

That being said, they were definitely not something I could have, at least when they were first produced. The fig maker restricted the sales of this set and two other sets in the same series with some pretty onerous restrictions. In order to purchase these, you had to show proof of endorsement purchases / charitable donations for both actors, provide screenshots of your social media accounts to prove you were a CP fan, and had to have bought at least 6 previous figures from their shop before. I could have done the first two, but the last I had not. At the time these were launched, I had not had the opportunity at that point to buy directly from their shop for more than just a few figs.

So, I resigned myself to tracking these down on the secondary resale market once they were produced and shipped. I figured they'd cost a pretty premium when marked up for their rarity and popularity, but I searched and searched (and searched some more), and luckily didn't end up paying all that much more over original price.

These two arrived in their protective polystyrene cases, but somewhere in the travels home to me, they met with misfortune.

Ahh! Horrible. The stuff of figthusiast nightmares. I yelped when his little head rolled right out of the box.

Luckily, the break was pretty clean. Sometimes, like in this case, the break is the least of all possible problems. What's much worse is chipped paint and / or collateral damage that is caused when the broken pieces bang and scrape against each other. Some super gentle buffing with a Magic Eraser can sometimes help with discolorations. Chipped paint, though, is a whole other story. Speaking of which...

Lao Wen did not escape unscathed either. His poor hairpin! If you read yesterday's post, you saw where the fig maker sent his hairpin separately. It's to prevent exactly this. Now I've had lots of figs with pre-attached hairpins make it to me OK, but certainly not all of them.

If you look closely, you can see where the paint has broken off. There's no mending this one perfectly with this much damage, unfortunately.

Here's Baiyi, and you can see his hand where he can hold the hilt. Thankfully, the sword fit perfectly into his hand. You can also see here that A-Xu's beautiful neck is as good as new, more or less.

You can see here how well A-Xu holds his sword - really nice modeling on the hand. It's snug enough of a fit it won't fall out, but not too tight that I worry about damaging his little fingers.

What a cute angle for these two! I love the flowy motion of their robes as they both head towards each other.

Ah the epic image. I know A-Xu looks a bit taller here, but his high ponytail and weimao are adding some extra volume to his head!

Sadly, this is a good angle to see the damage in the mended hairpin. After the success I had with painting over the damage to Lao Wen's xiao in yesterday's fig, I'm going to mix up some paint and try to do the same for this hairpin.

Oof, this is an even better angle to see the damage in the poor hairpin. I had a hard time getting it to even stick together, as you can see. In happier news, their robes look fantastic here, and Baiyi also looks great. It's well sized for the fig and adds interest while not distracting from the overall scene.

I really love the movement in their robes and their hair.

The modeling on these figs is very true to the show, I've been watching my little clip on a loop and I'm impressed with the fig maker's level of detail.

The little one-sided wrinkle by Lao Wen's left eye just delights me!

And we're back around. Look at how each of them has a foot stepping out front as they walk to each other. I just love them.

Despite the dynamic poses, these figs stand quite well. Normally robe layers like this help to balance the figs, but these figs are a little unusual in that so much of their robes are flowing off the ground.

This show made me fall in love with the weimao. It's such a great look.

I'll come back and post a pic of the painted hairpin when I attempt it. Hopefully this weekend!

These figs came in a plain white box, so no box art, but the box card art is lovely!

The other two sets are just getting stocked in at my warehouse, so it'll probably be a month before they arrive at home. They'll skip to the front of the posting line when they do, though!

Material: Resin

Fig Count: 389

Scene Count: 26

Rating: Fierce and loyal!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[mylifeasaserver]

Fastest shift in the west

I was scheduled for a weird 4 hour shift today from noon until around 4. It was a bit out of my availability, but getting out that early on a Saturday is pretty nice.

I show up and the hostess tells me it’s been a dumpster fire all day. Given that it’s a dumpster fire every day I don’t think much of it. 

Turns out they had 3 servers call off for day shift. Out of 10. They were fine.

The methhead server got fired yesterday. Not because he was on meth at work all the time or the fact he got nothing done when he was there, and not even because his attendance was bad.

No, he was fired for theft. He was sneaking steaks and such out of the walk-in. He’d been getting away with it for quite a while but he was caught when a cook happened into the freezer while he was stuffing things down his pants. When he was pulled into the office he admitted he’d been doing it for pretty much as long as he’d worked there.

Incredible.

So stupidly I showed up and went to get a section when Manager Lite damn near teleported over to me to let me know I was now on a closing shift.

No. I’m scheduled until 4ish. Meaning I’m cut when it’s dead and I leave.

“Well if you don’t close I have to and I have plans. You can either close or go home.”

So I left.

Stopped at the liquor store for some beer (which turned out to be horrible,) exhausted the dogs, and for the rest of the night I’ll sit in my living room warm, happy, and entertained.

I made a great decision.

I learned more about haircut prices than I ever thought possible the other night. Now that I know I can’t purge it from my brain. -J

EDIT: I probably should have specified that the methhead server was scheduled to be the closer tonight, but as he’s not working here anymore they needed somebody to cover that shift. Oops. Not being a good writer has consequences I suppose. -J

[idsb]

I mean you got tickets in Australia? And both of their pre sales went exponentially better than the US one

I did get tickets in Australia (not to the city I even tried for), but I'm posting about the fact that the majority of my mutuals did not - and those that did either got them from physically standing in line, or got them because some people were able to get through the queue multiple times and got tickets for them, meanwhile others - most I know, tbh - never got through at all.

Their ticket sales also absolutely did NOT go better than the US one, it was about 300x worse, and I think it's really important that everyone understands this! In the US, while we all know the fan presale was a fucking DISASTER, in the end, TN made it so that everyone who was deserving of fan presale on paper (although obviously, this is not the end-all be-all of who deserves to go) got ONE ticket. Think what you want about that sale, but they really did rally and do their absolute best, and I cannot name one person I know here in the US who is an active part of the fandom, had the financial means to attend a show in the first place, and did not go to a single one. While the situation sucked, due to how bad it sucked, the cancelling of the general sale was a great thing in the end, because it let them manually set fans up with tickets. Which is a huge win! The Australian sale was a disaster due to how the ticketing site is set up - if you didn't know, the way it worked was that there was no queue. The page refreshed every 10 seconds, and the first however many people to have the page refresh got to select tickets. Meaning if you signed on at 12:30 for a 12pm presale, you could get through literally 10 times (this happened. a lot.) while someone who had been waiting since 11:45 and had a slower internet connection could not get them once. That plus the fact that there was no actual fan pre-sale at all, made this experience completely unfair and god-awful, but the thing that makes it so fucking horrible is it went perfectly "according to plan" and there's not a ticket left in the stadium. So no one is stepping in to help - there will be no TN facilitating sales to real fans, there will be no verified sales happening the week of, there will be no last-minute drops. The only chance anyone in Aus has to get to a show is getting lucky and refreshing the resale page when one goes up in a few months, but imo resales will be pretty few and far between and will be snatched up INSTANTLY due to demand and how you can't mark up the ticket prices there (which is good, they'll all be face value, but they'll be gobbled up within 4 seconds of being made available meaning money can't EVEN buy your way in; it's once again just luck and insanely fast internet, which, spoiler alert, the people who couldn't get tix don't have and that's why they don't have them).

[a-clarice-dream]

A thoughts on a tale of trying to see F1 live in the next year: a very upset fan rant.

My home GP, tickets having recently gone on sale. Great! I think. It’s the weekend of my birthday, I’ll treat myself. And it’s a big treat myself, because I’d be having to travel to go.

The grandstand tickets: last year it was surge priced and not at all what was initially disclosed, which is borderline illegal (and I suspect will remain the same). All good ones this year tied up in $6000+ experience packages. I have a chronic illness that makes GA not an option, unless I want to hang around for as long as I can tolerate it and accept that I may have to leave mid race, which considering that I have to travel to attend is not a good option.

The hospitality tickets: all even remotely reasonable ones gone in two seconds. Everything else is over $3000, and I’m not game to buy certain ones because the weather is very unpredictable. Except if you’re a business - mysteriously, there are still openings for businesses to host parties in places that are “allocation exhausted” for us plebeians regular fans.

I think to myself, damn, I can’t really afford this. Let’s see what’s on in my city that weekend:

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Everything is in the other city where the race is. Not even a watch party that I can find. And I don’t have irl friends who are into formula 1, so I’m not even able to host a watch party or something like that for a race falling over my own damn birthday weekend.

I think and dream and hope that I can go to the GP in person, knowing that the tickets are insane, even just for Sunday, and speak to my family. They’re even willing to chip in and make it my birthday present. I do the math, and to fly to the city, stay there and see the race is over $6000. That is the price of a nice international round trip flight. That is nothing to sneeze at.

So I research. I read everything I can about the place I was trying to get a ticket for, and find out that most of the hospitality tickets for this race are consistently bought out by corporate and business shmoozers whose employees get to go for free and try and sell each other shit while having not a single fuck to give about the race. Reviewers and online comments consistently convey that these people are not there for the race, and they don’t care for any part of the technical side of the sport: you will not be among fans. Moreover, it’s implied that the free booze et al. is what many of them are actually there for. It’s kind of hateful as a fan to know this is what is playing out; and that genuine fans of a sport are being priced out of the best seats by businesses and corporate TM who do not give a fuck about racing. Knowing I’d be attending alone, a horrible thought races in the back of my mind about the incident a few years back with the woman supporting Mercedes who was assaulted by drunken men Redbull supporters in the grandstands. Throw in the fact that I know cell signal at these events is often appalling, I’m not feeling overly confident or comfortable for my personal safety. Being alone and in this situation that could potentially turn shoddy very quickly is suddenly sounding highly unappealing despite the fact that I love this sport and this is supposed to be my birthday present.

The nail in the coffin is that the accomodation is almost as much as the hospitality ticket. It’s not particularly nice accomodation either, but everything is booked out only days after the first tickets were released and the hotels are very aware of how much they can scalp on this weekend.

Ultimately and heartbreakingly, I decided that I absolutely cannot justify the cost. Especially as a woman travelling alone, it’s not worth it, and I’m not a woman who shies away from doing things alone. And I love this sport so damn much and I want to see it live, but it genuinely feels like the fans are being priced out. A part of me wonders whether the recession the government is currently pretending isn’t happening would make the tickets cheaper closer to the time; but the consensus online is generally that there aren’t any tickets available closer to the time for this race; and knowing what’s already gone down with the accommodation, that will get even worse closer to the time of the race. I actually think it will all get worse, as the state hosting the race is in dire economic straits and is really looking to squeeze cash out of anything that moves gather money by any means possible and the formula racing just happens to look like a huge paycheck.

I hate it. I hate it all. I just wanted to enjoy my favourite sport and the racing that happened to fall on the weekend of my birthday, live.

[sfujioka1]

2024.06.28

高度なWeb3トークノミクス設計-パート1:収益の流れ(Advanced Web3 Tokenomics Design — Part 1: Revenue Streams) 

テーマ：英語のお勉強日記

カテゴリ：トークノミクス

----Blo-katsu AD----

----Blo-katsu AD----

​Advanced Web3 Tokenomics Design  Part 1: Revenue Streams 高度なWeb3トークノミクス設計

パート1:収益の流れ ​

4 types of revenue streams 4種類の収益の流れ

Crypto Rookies クリプトルーキーズ

Mar 12, 2023 2023年3月12日

Nearly all the crypto-assets currently launched by web3 companies suffer horrible tokenomics design. In this blog post, I will discuss the importance of revenue streams in tokenomics design as part 1 of a complete series. This work is a follow∹up to a previous blog post “How to Design Web3 Tokenomics”. Web3 founders are the main target, but crypto investors, in general, might find the content interesting to help them make investment decisions. 現在、Web3企業が立ち上げている暗号資産のほぼすべては、ひどいトークノミクス設計に悩まされています。このブログ記事では、トークノミクスデザインにおける収益の流れの重要性について、シリーズ全体の第1部として説明します。この作業は、以前のブログ記事「Web3トークノミクスの設計方法」のフォローアップです。Web3の創業者が主なターゲットですが、一般的な仮想通貨投資家は、投資判断に役立つコンテンツに興味を持つかもしれません。

US Currency 米国通貨

Let’s first compare US currency to crypto-currencies. Almost all crypto-currencies’ value is based on some sort of either scarcity or utility mechanism. Meanwhile, US currency is entirely based on its utility as a mode of exchange and a store of value. However, the US currency suffers devaluation every year which implies that while it can be good for short-term value preservation, it is not really that great for long-term value preservation. In simple terms, if you keep $100,000 in the bank, your purchasing power decreases over time as the price of goods and services keeps increasing due to inflation. まず、米国の通貨と暗号通貨を比較してみましょう。ほとんどすべての暗号通貨の価値は、ある種の希少性または有用性のメカニズムに基づいています。一方、米国の通貨は、交換モードとして、また価値の貯蔵庫としての有用性に完全に基づいています。しかし、米国の通貨は毎年切り下げられており、短期的な価値維持には適しているものの、長期的な価値維持にはそれほど適していないことを意味します。簡単に言えば、銀行に100,000ドルを預けておくと、インフレにより商品やサービスの価格が上昇し続けるため、購買力は時間の経過とともに低下します。

In the crypto-industry, many currencies get labeled as shitcoins for their lack of utility and devoid of perceived long-term value, and one could wonder why US currency doesn’t get perceived as a shitcoin as well. The truth is US currency is built on the backbone of a large number of businesses operating in the US and abroad that rely on US currency for settlement with their customers, suppliers, and treasury, creating a powerful sustainable baseline demand for the currency. As well, US currency is so widely accepted that it has circular economy status, meaning that most participants do not need to convert US currency into other forms of currency, preventing large selling volume. 暗号資産業界では、多くの通貨が実用性に欠け、長期的な価値が認識されていないため、シットコインのレッテルを貼られていますが、なぜ米国の通貨もシットコインとして認識されないのか不思議に思う人もいるかもしれません。真実は、米国通貨は、顧客、サプライヤー、および資金で決済を米国通貨に依存している米国および海外で事業を展開している多数の企業のバックボーンの上に構築されており、通貨に対する強力で持続可能なベースライン需要を生み出しています。また、米国通貨は循環型経済の地位を持つほど広く受け入れられており、ほとんどの参加者は米国通貨を他の通貨に両替する必要がなく、（為替での？）大量の販売を防いでいます。

As well, the US government has the power to “force” participants within its border to continue operating in this currency, at least for the foreseeable future. Other governments such as El Salvador were not so fortunate in enforcing the use of their currency, which led many individuals and businesses to rely on US currency as well, and more recently Bitcoin for common day transactions. Overall, the value of US currency, or that of crypto-currency mainly exists because people and businesses believe in its long term preservation of wealth, but let’s make no mistake, there is no perfect mechanism of preserving wealth, and a certain amount of risk exists for all currencies, assets, or commodities. 同様に、米国政府は、少なくとも予見可能な将来において、国境内の参加者にこの通貨で活動し続けるよう「強制」する権限を持っています。エルサルバドルなどの他の政府は、通貨の使用を強制することにそれほど幸運ではなかったため、多くの個人や企業も米国通貨に依存し、最近ではビットコインで一般的な日常取引を行うようになりました。全体として、米国の通貨、または暗号通貨の価値は、主に人々や企業が富の長期的な保存を信じているために存在しますが、間違いなく、富を維持する完璧なメカニズムはなく、すべての通貨、資産、または商品に一定量のリスクが存在します。

When it comes to crypto-assets, scarcity alone is a very unreliable method of preserving wealth given that it relies on either growing user adoption, or at least maintaining it across time. Most of the participants are not there to be collectors, and if a large number of users decide they trust another mode of wealth preservation more, a collapse could occur at any time. Collapses can occur to both government∹backed currencies (Venezuela Bolivar, Egypt, Lebanon, etc.) and cryptocurrencies alike (too many of them lost more than 99% of their value in 2022 for example). For cryptocurrencies to become more stable, they will eventually need to reach a circular economy status where most participants accept to receive them in exchange for services and goods. More importantly, any cryptocurrencies need to identify a use case where they become the ideal mode of exchange or store of value to increase their level of utility and eventual long term demand. 暗号資産に関して言えば、希少性だけでは、ユーザーの採用拡大、または少なくとも長期にわたって維持することに依存していることを考えると、富を維持するための非常に信頼性の低い方法です。参加者のほとんどはコレクターになるためにそこにいるわけではなく、多くのユーザーが別の富の保存方法をより信頼すると判断した場合、いつでも崩壊が発生する可能性があります。政府が支援する通貨(ベネズエラボリバル、エジプト、レバノンなど)と暗号通貨の両方に暴落が発生する可能性があります(たとえば、あまりに多くの通貨が2022年に価値の99%以上を失いました)。暗号通貨がより安定するためには、最終的には、ほとんどの参加者がサービスや商品と引き換えに暗号通貨を受け取ることを受け入れる循環型経済の状態に到達する必要があります。さらに重要なことは、暗号通貨は、その効用と最終的長期的需要のレベルを高めるために、理想的な交換モードまたは価値の保存モードになるユースケースを特定する必要があるということです。

―――――――――――――――――続く――――――――――――――――――

下記URLから続きを読むことができます。また、図付きの元のレイアウトで読める原文ファイルも入手可能。今月1か月分のファイルは100円で取り寄せられますが、次の月からは600円に値上げします。

​​https://note.com/tongansunmi/n/n60382475c72e?sub_rt=share_pb​ ​​

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[icarusthelunarguard]

This Week’s Horrible-Scopes

It’s time for this week’s Horrible-Scopes! So for those of you that know your Astrological Signs, cool! If not, just pick one, roll a D12, or just make it up as you go along. It really doesn’t matter. Better yet! Check out “Heart of the Game, Fredonia” and see if they can sell you those D12’s with the symbols on them. Tell them “Shujin Tribble” sentcha. And “Hail, Hail, Fredonia!” Home of the Blue Devil!

No Intro. No Nonsense. Nobody bought our book last week, so we’re not putting in any extra effort for you. You get what you paid for this week.. Meaning you get what we give you. You’re welcome! 

Aries 

Since you’ll be stuck home with a bad cold this week, we should remind you of all the things you can still do now that you’re an adult. First, spend the day in your fluffiest bathrobe, curled up on the couch under a blanky. Second, TV is your best friend for a change. It’s missed you. And finally - Ginger Ale, The Price is Right, tomato soup, and grilled cheese for lunch. Just because you feel horrible doesn’t mean you can’t minimize that feeling. So This Week… Just stay home long enough to get over this bug. It’ll pass quickly enough. OH, and Bob Barker died last year. You’re welcome.

Taurus 

You don’t keep re-watching “The Empire Strikes Back” because it has a happy ending. You watch it BECAUSE it doesn’t. It’s one of these rare movies where The Villain actually kinda wins. Just like Thanos beat The Avengers, Darth Vader got his chance at Young Skywalker. Even if he didn’t get Luke to join him, Vader did better, he got under Luke’s skill and training. So This Week… you want a movie that’ll get under your skin? How about 1982’s “The Thing”? Or maybe “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”. Just don’t watch either one at night. 

Gemini  

This week, you’ll accomplish something pretty spectacular! Better yet, someone who noticed it is in a position to congratulate you in style. There are ways to take advantage of the offer of having lunch bought for you. Have them order Two Large, 1- Topping Pizzas, Unicorn Churros, a Goody Bag with toys and activities, an Activity Sheet & 250 E-Tickets to use on your next visit. This Week… Order From Chuck E. Cheese for pickup! 

Cancer Moon-Child 

We’re gunna make this one simple and right to the point. So This Week… BACON. (*PAUSE*) That Is All. (*PAUSE*) Ok, fine! Bacon Wrapped, Pork Loin Stuffed, slow roasted Pineapple. (*PAUSE…..*) That. Is. All. 

Leo 

There’s GOOD News and BAD News. The GOOD news is, your music collection is basically available via one of three YouTube Playlists. The BAD news is… You’re out of Over-the-Air Data for the month and it’ll cost you another $15 per Gig of use. So This Week… Just use the Public WIFI for music and stop being paranoid!

Virgo 

Your reflexes are getting pretty bad. You’ll almost hit a bunny on your way home from work this week! It’s really a simple thing to fix. Take the advice from The Rebel Alliance’s Red Leader and Pick Up Your Visual Scanning. So This Week… Or, you know, you could just stop procrastinating and get your eyes checked. It’s only been HOW long?    

Libra

Baseball Season again, and we have something fun for you to learn about. Until recently there was no rule against a pitcher or a batter switching which handed-side they wanted to use. And one day a switch-hitter faced off against a Switch-Pitcher.. And they kept switching which hand they were going to use over and over again, delaying the game because neither would commit. So This Week… practice using your non-dominant hand for mediocre tasks. It’ll screw up people around you. Plus you get to say the great line, “I am not Left-Handed either!”

Scorpio 

Your head’s shoved SO FAR up your own…. Ok, look. We’re trying really, REALLY hard to stay contained in all this and you’re not making it easy. We’re telling you this for your own good. This Week… When it’s raining, PUT YOUR SHOPPING CART BACK INTO THE CORRAL! 

Sagittarius 

We warned you to not buy those Laser-Guided Fabric Scissors and we’re PROUD of you! You didn’t buy them! –you bought the TACTICAL Laser-Guided Fabric Scissors instead for triple the price! (*PAUSE*) What are we gunna do with you, Sagittarius? We keep giving you sound advice and you keep ignoring us. So if THAT’S gunna be the way it’ll work, FINE! This Week… It’s OPPOSITE WEEK! Don’t send us any money. Don’t forward this Horrible-Scope to twenty of your close friends. And don’t drive into that flock of Canada Geese in the parking lot. (And if you DO, we’re not saving you.)

Capricorn 

TECHNICALLY…. there is no such thing as Too Much Water to drink. Unless you consider that it’s possible to get… uhm… “Drunk” on too much water. We’re not sure how much is Too Much, but we CAN tell you that if you could drink about 10 litres, you’ll be eliminating it as quickly as you can swallow. NO! Don’t go looking that information up. Just know that we did the research so you don’t have to. So This Week… Ask your Doctor Cousin how real that information is and watch them turn green.

Aquarius 

It’s time to seriously consider getting an All-House Uninterruptible Power Supply. It’s like the one you have for your computer, only bigger. A LOT bigger! Why? Simple - because of all the Smart Devices you added to your house, even when everyone told you not to. Your thermostat, your entertainment system, your TV…  Hell, your Front Door’s NFC-Enabled Lock! If you lose power, all that stuff stops working, so you need this. So This Week… This isn’t a D.I.Y. Project you can do yourself. Put away those YouTube Home Power Playlists. You’re gunna kill yourself.

Pisces  

It’s time to decorate your surroundings - and since you’re an adult you can do literally anything! Make your hallways look like starship interiors. Setup the garage to look like a horse stable. And the entertainment room? Paint the walls to look like you’re in Playdium from Dartmouth. The paint aisle is your proverbial Oyster! So This Week… do NOT be a monster and use Black-and-White Checkerboard Wallpaper to cover the Bathroom. This is NOT supposed to be an Alice in Wonderland Acid Trip while defecating! 

And THOSE are your Horrible-Scopes for this week! Remember if you liked what you got, we’re obviously not working hard enough at these. BUT! If you want a better or nastier one for your own sign or someone else’s, all you need to do to bribe me is just Let Me Know - or check out the Ko-Fi page ( https://ko-fi.com/icarusthelunarguard )! These will be posted online at the end of each week via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Discord, and BLUESKY.

[celticbarb]

Book: Highlander Fated

Author: Jayne Castel

Series: Rebellious Highland Hearts, Book #4

Publisher: Winter Mist Press

Print Length: 297 Pages

Overall Rating: 5 Stars

Blog Rating: 5 Saltire Flags

Dun Ugadale, Kintyre Peninsula, Scotland 1454

Greer Forbes and Bonnie MacKay had formed a bond a year prior at Castle Varrich. She had been invited to Dun Ugadale and was thrilled to get away from her own family at Druminnor for the summer. Greer and Bonnie had formed a rare closeness and become the best of friends. Bonnie was the sister Greer never had, having two selfish elder brothers. Her father forced her to make a deal after this summer to pick a husband. She being a chieftains daughter it had to be a good alliance. Another loveless marriage like her parents and two elderly brothers. None of them were love matches and none of their marriages had grown into love matches either sadly. Greer saw what strained relationships all three of them had with their spouses and it broke her heart.

Now at Dun Ugadale Greer is immediately drawn to the castle blacksmith; the chemistry and attraction happens immediately between both Brodie MacKay and Greer. Although Brodie can hide his attraction better, always being the family sourpuss and for good reason. He had not an easy life and had been born illegitimate but Greer did not care! After all none of that was Brodie’s fault it wasn’t like he asked to be born. In many ways he was her opposite being sour and grumpy and he wouldn’t even live with his brother although he did love them and knew they loved him.

Greer had this great outlook on life looking at everything sunny and bright. However Brodie looked at everything with sourness never being accepted by his stepmother and being treated horribly. He wouldn’t sleep under the same roof as his brothers but learned to be a magnificent blacksmith. So he was surprised when Greer asked to make a dagger. His price was steep but it would be worth it.

Again Brodie is secretly attracted to Greer but he knew he was way below her in status. He has always felt like an outsider and feels she is out of his league being a Chieftain’s daughter. Brodie was born illegitimate when his father fell in love with the castle cook. Now both of them are deceased however his step-mother has always mistreated him since he was a wee lad. The problem is he can’t stop thinking about Greer as no other woman compares. Now Greer has asked him to teach her to defend herself and in such closeness one thing leads to another. Even though they both know they have no future, these star-crossed lovers can’t resist each other.

It is even worse when Greer’s father comes to get her and changes her plans that just breaks her heart! He wants her to marry a chieftain’s son, one that is an enemy of the MacKay clan. On top of that this man says she can never go visit the MacKay clan at Dun Ugadale and must sever her friendship with her best friend Bonnie! Except Greer does something very wreckless with the man she loves except things do not unfold when they both admit they love each other. Plus both are betrayed by the people they thought they could trust.

Will Greer be forced to marry a man she does not love? Will this man abuse her and use brute strength against her petite fraiI body? Is she disowned by her own family? Will she be forced to take the veil? Will her sunny disposition become broken and filled with sorrow and melancholy, including a great misery and unhappiness that can never be mended? Read and have your tissues ready for this emotional roller coaster!

This is the fourth book and series finale for the Rebellious Highland Hearts series which I absolutely loved. It was a slow burn but definitely worth the wait. As Jayne Castel is one of my go to authors. I was waiting for Brodie’s book being the family outcast. Another book I absolutely loved which can be read as a stand alone book or in series order. I highly recommend all four books which I absolutely have loved! This was a beautiful series finale that readers don't want to miss!

Thank you for this advance readers copy and I agreed to do an honest, fair review and blog review. All thoughts, ideas and words are my own.

[cyarskj1899]

Top 10 Worst Number One Hits of the Oldies Era

By Robert Fontenot

The Billboard chart rankings, at least in rock's first golden age, were well-known for their accuracy. Which means somebody must have loved these songs... but time has not been kind to these smash hits, all of which were the most popular songs in the US for at least one week of glory. (Click on "compare prices" to hear a clip of the song in question and, maybe, buy it anyway. Got a suggestion for another horrible Number One hit of the Fifties, Sixties, or Seventies? Feel free to e-mail me!)

1. Pat Boone, "Love Letters In The Sand"

(four weeks, June 8 - July 6, 1957) Yes, you can hate Pat for watering down rock and roll from the very beginning, or by using the segregation of radio to steal the thunder (and sales) from the original black versions of songs like "Tutti Frutti," or for hypocritically railing against rock ever since. But let's face it: this 1931 vintage ballad is surpassingly lame all by itself, and Boone's vocals don't help -- compared to this, "Moody River" is a blues song. A triumph of reactionary thinking, and also mediocrity.

2. Brian Hyland, "Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"

(one week, August 13, 1960) Novelty songs are easy to bash -- no one likes hearing the same joke over and over again. But this (Number) one's pretty awful, even if Hyland himself wasn't really to blame. (He went on to do a great, distinctive cover of the Impressions' "Gypsy Woman.") The bikinied girl wearing something too small to be seen in public is actually a toddler, or at least that's how it was written. Ew. Billy Wilder's 1961 film One, Two, Three uses this song to torture one of its characters... literally!

3. Steve Lawrence, "Go Away Little Girl"

(two weeks, January 12 - 19, 1963 This one was actually penned by famed songwriting duo Gerry Goffin and Carole King, but that doesn't make this syrupy, loping ballad any less goofy -- like any Brill Building vets, they turned out lots of duds, due simply to the assembly-line nature of their job. We could blame Steve Lawrence, except that Donny Osmond came back with the very same song and a similar arrangement and owned the top spot all over again for three weeks in September 1971. Bleh.

4. Herman's Hermits, "I'm Henry the VIII, I Am"

(one week, August 7, 1965) The Hermits were only as good as their material, and this WWI music-hall singalong seemed to be yet another attempt by their handlers to make them the most British of the British Invasion acts (which is pretty ironic, since the Brits had invaded in the first place by sounding American). Also used as a torture device, this time in the film Ghost. And -- get this -- never released in England. But in the US, it was the fastest-selling single of all time.

5. Barry McGuire, "Eve Of Destruction"

(one week, September 25, 1965) Hard to believe this was written by P.F. Sloan, who also gave the world "Secret Agent Man" and the Turtles' "You Baby." But it's true: he's the one responsible for rhyming "Red China" with "Selma, Alabama" and declaring "My blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin'." It doesn't help that former New Christy Minstrel singer McGuire hits the "social outrage" button with a sledgehammer, either. The most dated and terrifying of the era's many, many Dylan knockoffs.

6. Bobby Goldsboro, "Honey"

(five weeks, April 13 - May 11, 1968) Even for a death song, this one's really soapy... the narrator's young wife cries a lot, likes puppies and trees, and then gets carried off by the angels one day, for some unknown reason. (Although, since Bobby finds her crying in the middle of the day and she passes the following spring, I'm going to guess cancer.) Features the immortal verse: "She wrecked the car and she was sad / And so afraid that I'd be mad / But what the heck." Indeed.

7. Zager & Evans, "In The Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus)"

(five weeks, July 12 - August 9, 1969) Scaaaaary. Five hundred years from now (and then some), we'll all take pills to think, have no use for our arms, and pick our children from a long glass tube. Okay, maybe that last part is accurate. But what you're hearing here is a society shocked and frightened by its own technology -- this was Number One when man landed on the moon. So why can't this tuneless, retrofuturistic wonder work itself up to a better climax than "man has cried a billion tears"?

8. Minnie Riperton, "Lovin' You"

(one week, April 5, 1975) Riperton was a fine vocalist, and this is, at heart, a pleasant little song. But it suffers from a very early-Seventies belief that love should be uncomfortably touchy-feely, like your creepster uncle. ("And every time that we... oooooh!") This in itself might not have made "Lovin' You" so embarrassing, and Minnie's jaws-of-life, I-hear-the-voice-of-spring vocal crescendos might not have hurt quite so bad. But God! The birds! The constant twittering of birds! Why the birds?!

9. Rick Dees & his Cast of Idiots, "Disco Duck (pt.1)"

(one week, October 16, 1976) Dees was, at one point, the most popular DJ in America (behind Dick Clark, if you count him, and definitely Casey Kasem). But it's not thanks to this horrid excuse for a novelty, in which Dees goes to a disco and somehow, for some reason, morphs into Donald Duck. It's just an excuse to do voiceover work anyway, which is also why, at the end, there's an impersonation of Elvis (still alive at the time). This isn't a song, it's a bad morning zoo.

10. Rupert Holmes, "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)"

(three weeks, December 22 - 29, 1979, January 12, 1980) Rupert was the pen behind the Buoys' bizarre hit "Timothy," an ode to cannibalism. So he knows how to get your attention. But this oily story song comes on like a hairy polyester lounge lizard who won't stop rubbing your arm. Rupert decides to leave his girl, places an ad in the paper, shows up for a one-night stand and finds... his girl, who was also looking for some strange. And no one's angry about it. Yet. (I wouldn't sleep too hard around her, if you know what I'm saying.)

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[azeler]

idk if you have any ocs but. free space if you do tell us about them go

Okay so I have a lot of OCs mainly because one of my prime hobbies is making D&D character sheets for characters I'm never gonna play + I used to (sometimes still do but not as often) imagine stories in my head to get myself to sleep. But I'm gonna stay on the most recent characters and universes so I can stay coherent. Anyway :

First D&D characters :

Hawthorn - Half-elf, Light Cleric 11/Revenge Paladin 3, he's a vampire hunter who's been cursed by a vampire who bit his tongue when he was young, which made it black and sickly. For this reason, a nickname he got is 'Black Tongue'. He's absolutely, brutally angry towards any vampire he crosses, and will try to kill them at any cost. Terrifyingly powerful, he can do like, 130 damage per turn in optimal conditions (without using spell slots every turn).

His personal arc would be to go against a Dark Lord vampire, Strahd-style, only to be revealed that the lord is a Scourge, a lich type from Pointy Hat that resurrects into the body of their most hated enemy whenever they die. After killing it once, it'd come back to life by using their mentor/friend/etc., and would have to try to kill the vampire once and for all, knowing he's the next on the list if he fails.

Phull - Half-orc/Hexblood, Archfey Warlock 3. He's an orc who was kidnapped by a hag in his early childhood, and raised to become a hag, but he escaped eventually and found his way to the Court of Summer, where a kind fey found him and kept him under their wing, and where he lived for most of his teenage years. He then entered a contract with Titania, archfey of the Court of Summer, in exchange for service (and also top surgery). He then went on to travel the world. He's not really accepted by either orcs or hags, because he's visibly too much hag or not enough, and people don't like either of those too much in general, so even if he tries to be nice and agreeable, he often gets the blame if something goes badly. He tries to stay optimistic, though. (Huge trans vibes, yeah)

Raphael d'Argazzo - Human, Swashbuckler Rogue 3. Your stereotypical prettyboy mercenary/duelist, he comes from a relatively minor noble family, so he's a baronet, but that's one of those titles you can just buy if you're well-off, like his grandparents were. He's one of many siblings and cousins, and while things are going well with his family, it's clear he's not the one they brag about or stuff, just... a good kid, who spreads their name sometimes when does cool stuff, but nothing more.

His arc would involve him in the underworld to find a too-soon dead lover of his (and he had many, so that's saying something). To gain access and stay in the underworld, however, he'd need to pay a price, a price made of his memories. He'd be given a deck of cards, and each card would be a part of his memories (friends, lovers, family, glories, losses, etc.). A twist would be that he already had given up the memory of his love's death, but that also removed all his memories of her. The whole theme would be "you have to remember your mistakes. It will hurt, it won't be worth it, it will feel horrible, for the rest of your life, but that's the only way you'll be able to go forward".

Next is Kasneon the Great (Kas for short), statistically Brass Dragonborn, Draconic sorcerer 5, but in reality, he's a very young (120) Brass dragon (he kinda looks like tiny Rak from Tower of God, if you got the ref). He's very full of himself, as most dragons are, but it's very funny cause his physique does not match that heightened view at all. He also curses a lot (except when his mom's listening), so when someone finds him cute, he answers "I'm 120, motherfucker!"

Achleïs, human, Shadow Sorcerer 3. One of, if not the most wet cat sad backstory characters I've made. He comes from a bloodline cursed by an evil goddess who has to give up their firstborn to her, and it happened to be him :D Since he was like 7, he was forced out of his home and left to fend for himself, under the ever watchful eye of the goddess. He's extremely frail and weak, with dark eyebags, because of constant malnourishment and sleeping in the cold (literally 8 in both Strength and Constitution). He's a very good spellcaster, however, and can scare the shit out of most normal people (a good example would be using shadow sorcerer Darkness (which he can see through), Deafness then Inflict Wounds from a distance with Distant spell).

I also have something that is more a persistent idea than finished OCs, but I have a cast of characters that are all black activist figures :

It would consist of a Bard of Eloquence (for the obvious MLK parallel), an Oath of Justice (custom subclass) paladin (for the people in frontlines in protest and direct action), an Celestial Warlock grandma, who uses her faith to conjure miracles (because I fucking love gospel music and a singing grandma conjuring an angel is fucking dope), and finally, the only one that has a name and an arc is Aaron, a Rogue-or-Fighter/Sorcerer, with fire magic, who beats up cops and brings his friends out of jail, and over the course of the story learns to be more 'heroic' (he helps out, protect people he doesn't know, and learn that beating up cops is cool but also community building and communal action is necessary).

That's all my recent D&D characters, the next characters are from a comic I wanna make called Harpy Story, a fantasy coming-of-age story at the edge between a magical forest and a village. I want the supernatural elements in there to be a bit about queerness but mainly about disability-

Evne, the protagonist, is a half-harpy, cast off from his people at a young age and left to die in the forest. He's rescued and adopted by a hag (the hag mother), and he lives under her wing all of his childhood. He has big wings (like, they go down to his feet) that he uses to fly- He's very nimble, energetic and gets attached quickly, but also prone to be judgemental or hold grudges.

Isaac, a human in the village nearby, is his love interest, and is the son of a priest that deals with the forest's supernatural inhabitants. Most people think that means chasing or banishing, but he simply talks with them and makes deals to keep his village safe. When Isaac gets older however, something happens (that I don't wanna get into detail because maybe some time I'll pull myself together and draw this).

I also have a custom D&D setting and a realistic world that I'm worldbuilding currently, but they're still pretty new and disparate, so I won't post them in there (maybe in another post, who knows).

[frabjousdei]

Fuck you, Oral-B

I needed a new toothbrush. My gums are a bit screwed up and my wife’s cousin (who is a dentist) recommended I get one of the new Oral B “iO” models, because it would be good for the specific problem I have. But they’re expensive and so was the old Oral B I already had, so I couldn’t justify it until my existing one broke. Which it did quite suddenly, so yay! And I started researching.

The only two features I wanted were the vibration action intrinsic to the “iO” line and a travel case that charged via USB. A battery that lasted longer than about three days (as the old one did) would be good, but if I could charge via USB I already take an elaborate USB charging setup with me when I travel, so who cares.

There are seven current models in the line, the iO 3 through 10, ranging in price from about €40 to over €300 (!!!) for essentially the same device with extra features layered on at each price point. But the thing is, almost all of those features are useless. More “brushing modes”, colour screen, Bluetooth connectivity—all pointless for 95% of people, but they deliberately segment the market so if you want an actually useful feature like a travel case, or a travel charging case (different price points!), you have to spend a whole lot of money on “pretend value” you don’t want or need to get the one feature you do. And once you put an nRF52 (or whatever) microcontroller in these things it’s just a matter of software anyway and the marginal hardware BOM cost for most of these extra “features” is approximately €0.

The Oral B marketing websites deliberately obfuscate all of this, of course. None of them explain in real English words what the differences between the models are and on top of that it’s one of those horrible product categories that’s SEO’d out the wazoo so nobody else will explain it to you either. I found exactly one third-party website which went into any useful detail what the actual differences between the models were. And only from that one was I finally convinced I’d have to shell out €200 to get the one feature over the base model that I wanted, a USB travel charging case.

So with great reluctance, because I detest being scammed like this (especially when I can see the exact nature of the scam), I bit the bullet and paid €200 for an Oral B iO 9 “Special Edition”, which came with a travel charging case and a little bag that goes in which somehow made it “special”.

It arrived, I opened the box and found… what I assumed to be a USB-C travel case had a proprietary connector and cable with a hard-wired wall-wart. I was fucking livid. I had made the assumption that the only reasonable way this could possibly be designed would be for the case to have a USB-C socket—but no, because the product development team at Oral B are maliciously insane, they had implemented a proprietary connector hard wired to a two-pin Europlug wall-wart. This entirely defeats the fucking purpose. Have none of these people ever gone anywhere? Instead of a small USB cable which literally everyone in 2023 takes a charger for with them every time they travel, they expect me to take a separate cable, with its own wall-wart, plus a power socket pin-adapter for whatever country I was going to. Utterly user-hostile product design.

I contacted the retailer wanting to return this €200 piece of useless garbage under the statutory European 14 day purchase cooling-off period. But then I was told there was an exception for “hygiene articles” like toothbrushes and since I had broken the “safety seal” (the only way to collapse the marketing bullshit wave function and determine the deficient reality of the product) it didn’t apply, and I was stuck with it.

Then I got really fucking mad.

I looked closer at the wall-wart. In 3-point regulation-mandated flyspeck, it detailed an input voltage of 110-220V AC and an output of 12V DC at 0.4A. Hm. USB-C trigger cables are a thing… but on closer inspection, 12V isn’t actually an official part of the USB-C PD spec, so it might not work on all USB-C charging ports. But you can buy USB-A cables with 12V boost converters built in and 12V @ 0.4A is 4.8W which is within the USB-A spec. Two days and nine whole Euros later (for two!) I had the offending part in my hand. I snipped the proprietary Oral B connector off and, carefully having tested the polarity with a multimeter, wired it to the USB-A 12V boost cable (“solderless” butt connectors are cool.) Then I plugged it in to the charging case.

Fuck me, it worked first time. Perfectly.

So now I have an obviously useful thing Oral-B refused to sell me because they’d prefer to soak me for useless features rather than doing the pitifully simple engineering—I didn’t even need to use a god damned soldering iron—to build something actually useful that met their customers’ obvious needs.

(As a side-note, the rest of the product design is fucking awful too. There’s an accelerometer in there which makes it wait until you set it on its end before it plays a 20 second animation before showing you the current charge level. Pointless and annoying. And that end is really small on such a top-heavy device, so you have to make sure you balance it well on its normal charger to stop it toppling over onto the tiled floor literally everyone has in their bathroom. I hope you don’t have kids who think that colour screen is cool and knock your €200 device onto that tiled floor as they go to grab it! And hey, I’ve got a good idea, let’s take an item that you use when your hands are wet and make it out of smooth plastic so it’s really slippery. That’s a fucking brilliant product design decision that’s totally not a regression from the rubberised handle of the previous version. The smooth featureless membrane buttons you can’t find just by feel, that’s an improvement too! You morons.)

Fuck you, Oral B. And fuck your marketing-over-customer-needs focussed attitude and the horse it rode in on.