#well maybe the author of the article googled too ^^

[builtyouahousefromabrokenhome]

The Standard exposing Louis as 5ft 7in tall😭

[lovecla]

IF YOU LOVE ME, LET ME KNOW | jack hughes.

chapter five:

<last chapter> <next chapter>

➴ warnings: fighting, misunderstanding, mentions of cheating

➴ word count: 3.2k

➴ author’s note: shit hit the fan yall… who the hell is going to fix this mess..

YOU woke up at ten to two after sleeping for seven hours straight. One thing about stressed you, is that you'd sleep for twenty-four hours if given the opportunity.

But you were thirsty and you needed to get your hands on a glass of water before you died from dehydration.

So, you got up, and made your way to the kitchen, only stopping when you saw your phone blowing up on the counter.

Frowning, you picked it up, confused with the hundreds of notifications on your lock screen.

You completely forgot about your need for water. With your heart on your mouth, you sat on one of your stools, unlocking your phone and texting Grace.

Usually, you didn't care about gossip. You'd always just joke about it on Twitter with your fans and move on.

People liked to invent things and you couldn't exactly stop them. So you just let it happen.

But apparently, Jack was involved in this too. Which left you confused because people didn't know about you two. Or at least, that's what your media team would say, whenever you had a meeting with them— a weekly occurrence, ever since the album was announced.

Typing your name on Google, you didn't have to dig too deep: an article published five hours ago was the first to show up. "Former Flames: NHL Star Jack Hughes Moves On with New Flame After Breakup with Pop Singer, Sophia Montenegro".

What the fuck?

Opening it, you could swear your heart would stop any moment. Hands shaking, you read every line, thinking of everything and nothing at the same time.

It seems love off the ice is just as fast-paced as the action on it for NHL star Jack Hughes. The hockey player, known for his fierce plays and competitive edge, is making headlines for his personal life as well. After a low-profile breakup with pop sensation Sophia Montenegro, Jack Hughes has already moved on-and he's not keeping it a secret.

According to our anonymous sources, the athlete and singer had started dating back in April, after they met at the New Jersey Devils [Jack Hughes' team] charity gala, and kept everything in the dark for six months straight: nothing more than a few Instagram comments and likes to prove anything.

However, despite the chemistry, the relationship ended after Jack was seen with one of his exes last night, Ava Mitchell. Jack Hughes is known for his short-term relationships so it wouldn't be anything new.

We hope Mrs. Montenegro is okay, after her second break-up in less than two years. Maybe our sweet girl, Sophia, has bad luck with relationships.

You didn't bother reading the rest, locking your phone and gently placing it on the counter again.

The rational part of your brain was telling you that none of that was true, and that this was just a gossip magazine doing what’s supposed to be doing, but you recognised the girl in the photo, it was the same girl on Jack’s lap yesterday. And that was obviously Jack, holding her hand like some kind of loving boyfriend.

You sighed, running your hands through your hair. You knew that something like this would happen. All of the good moments you had with Jack apparently were just that: good moments. And now, bad memories.

You knew what you had to do. Keep going, just like you did when Harris broke up with you over text after cheating on you the night before. Keep going, just like you did when your name got dragged into the mud because of that.

But doing that with Jack, for some crazy reason, was harder than you thought it’d be. Maybe because you had a lot of expectations and watching them getting crushed right in front of you sucked.

Your phone buzzed in front of you, Grace’s picture shining. You sighed, before picking it up. “Hi,” you whispered, remembering that you were still thirsty and this was the first word you said in seven hours.

“Hey, baby, how are you?” She sounded worried, and you understood her. This was the first somewhat scandal you’ve had in months. So yeah.

“I just read it…” you took a deep breath. “Gosh, what the hell. What happened after I left?”

You heard Grace move something around before she started speaking again. “Honey, I wish I could tell you something entirely different but… I did see Jack leaving with that girl. I am so sorry. Like, genuinely.”

Your entire body felt like it weighed three times more. Your heart shrank to the size of a pea and you could feel your hand tremble a little bit.

You had seen the picture, you knew that Jack had left the party with the girl but still. It hurt.

“Did you talk to him?” Grace asked, voice worried.

“No, I— Grace, I don’t know what to do,” you whispered, feeling something tickle your cheek. You wiped it with your hands, just to realize that it was tears. You were crying. “I like him so much. I had finally accepted it, I told you— I thought he felt the same.”

“I did too. I don’t know what happened. Maybe… God I hate to say this but maybe you should talk to him?”

You let out a wet laugh. “No way in hell I’m talking to him. I made that mistake with Harris. Every time he’d do something shitty, I’d go after him and talk to him, accept his excuses, his behavior. I’m not that Sophia anymore.”

“I know, I know… I just…” she sounded uncertain. “God. Why are men like this?”

You wiped your tears, smiling for the first time in hours.

“I don’t know.”

“Also, that song you sent me… is it about him?”

You were confused just for a second, before remembering the song you wrote last night— morning?

“Yeah,” you mumbled, feeling just the tiniest bit of embarrassment. “Couldn’t get it out of my head. What’d you think?”

“It’s perfect. Just like everything you write,” you could hear her smiling. You smiled too. “I love you so much, Soph.”

“I love you too, Grace. Don’t worry, I'll be fine,” you sounded like you were trying to convince yourself, and not her. “Let’s just focus on the album and the launching party, right? Fuck Jack Hughes.”

“Yes, you’re right. Fuck him and not in a good way!”

You laughed, feeling the pain inside your chest ease up a little bit.

It was going to be fine.

— ♡

JACK called you three times in the past three days.

You felt shitty not picking up any of his calls because you knew he was away for the entire week, but honestly, you weren’t ready to hear any of his excuses.

So drowning yourself in work was the answer for all of your problems. Day and night, you went to photoshoots and interviews, none of the questions being about you and Jack, thankfully. You knew it was all your team’s doing but still, it felt nice to talk about yourself and your work, and not about men who did nothing but make you hate yourself.

Grace thought you had to at least hear Jack out. But you knew that if you did that, the chances of you forgiving him were high. Higher than they should be. Because you’re still very much in love with him and want to be with him at all times.

“Good work today, guys,” Russel, your choreographer, shouted, everyone clapping together. You were all rehearsing for your launching party, a mini-concert with only a couple hundred people, something to introduce your album.

“Thank you, guys, love you.” You breathed, remembering how you should go back to the gym because singing and dancing at the same time required a lot of effort.

You headed back to your house, staring at the sunset through your car’s window, sighing loudly at the traffic in front of you. It was seven p.m. and you were tired and famished, thinking about all of the take-out options you could order when you got home.

“What the…” you muttered, when you tried entering your garage, but was unable to since there was a car there already. A car that you unfortunately knew very well. “The hell is he doing here?”

Jack was leaning against his car, a crazy thing to do during winter but whatever, wearing a beanie and a Devils hoodie, while looking at something in his phone.

He was supposed to be away. For a week.

Opening your door, you welcomed the cool breeze on your skin. The workout clothes felt too tight on your body and the bag on your hand felt too heavy but you held it tight. He still hadn’t noticed you so maybe you could walk past him without him noticing you?

“Hey, baby,” and yes, of course that didn’t work. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

You looked at him like he was out of his mind, but he just kissed your forehead and grabbed something from inside the car. A Five Guys takeout bag. Fuck him for knowing your favorite burger place.

“I got us food but I think the guy there messed with my order on purpose because he recognised me and he was wearing a Rangers pin which I thought was forbidden during work hours? But I never had a nine to five job so I can’t really tell.”

You continued to move, asking yourself why the hell Jack was so talkative today. Usually, he’d just answer your questions and leave it at that. But he must’ve spent too much time with Luke because damn, this man was a yapper now.

Opening the door, you let him in, not really sure why. Maybe Grace was right and you did need closure, but you expected to have this conversation with him through texts, and not face to face like right now.

He looked so dreamy. He’d shaved, so he looked eighteen years old all over again. His hair, hidden by the beanie, looked longer now and you desperately wanted to run your hands through it. He was standing there, cheeks and lips red, blue eyes looking directly at yours.

Why did he have to be so handsome? It’d all be much easier if he was ugly.

“You’re so quiet today, did something happen?” He asked, yanking you out of the train of thoughts about how handsome he was.

And suddenly, you were back in Harris’ living room, one year ago, watching as the man cried on your lap, apologizing over and over again, saying that he’d never lie to you and that he’d never let you down.

Your stomach was starting to hurt and you felt yourself breathing faster.

“I ran this conversation in my head a thousand times, but I never once imagined you’d just not talk about it and move on, y’know?” You mumbled, heart racing in your chest. “Was it worth it, Jack?”

His confused face made you hurt even more because, somehow, it looked genuine. “What are you talking about? Was what worth it?”

“So you’ll keep denying it?” You raise one eyebrow, feeling the sorrow being replaced by something uglier, something heavier. Something like anger.

“Denying what, Sophia?” He stepped closer, hands reaching to your body, which you dodged. If you’re going to do this, you’ll need every ounce of space in your house. “Sophia, what—”

“I know I have no right to be mad at you for this, because I know we were just fucking,” you smiled, but it didn’t reach your eyes. “Hell, I was the one who said I didn’t want a relationship first. So I understand why you didn’t reach out to me, why you’re not apologizing, why you’re playing dumb, but—”

“Sophia,” he cut you off, his voice one octave deeper. You shivered, watching as he frowned at you. “I don’t know why you’re saying all of this shit. What the hell happened?”

You looked at him, analyzing his face and, once again, seeing nothing but pure confusion in his expression. You found it hard to believe that he didn’t know about the article, didn’t know about how people were saying that no one stayed with you for a long time, didn’t know about his ex announcing to everyone on her Instagram page that they were together again.

But unfortunately, you also knew that Jack wasn’t a liar. He’d never been, and probably would never be.

“So you don’t know about the article?”

“Article?” He furrowed his eyebrows. “Are you talking about gossip pages on Instagram? Soph, you know the only thing I do in that fucking app is like your photos, watch the weird ass reels you send me, and send pictures of ugly animals to my brothers and say it looks like them,”

Pulling your phone from your pocket, you google the article that you had every word memorized by now with how much you’ve read it. Showing it to him, you saw his face go through all stages of emotions: confusion, anger and understanding.

“You didn’t know about this?”

“I don’t read the articles people write about me. I don’t give a fuck about people’s opinions,” he growled, handing your phone back to you and taking his beanie off so he could run his hands through his hair. “I don’t know who the hell sent that information about us.”

“Can’t you see that the problem here isn’t people knowing that we were fucking?” You snapped, almost crushing your phone with how hard you were gripping it. “The problem here, Jack, is you leaving that fucking party with your fucking ex, after she spent half of her night on your lap.”

“The hell is wrong with that, Sophia?” He snapped too, looking angry and annoyed at the same time. “You left with fucking Quinn and didn’t even say goodbye to me. Me leaving with Ava isn’t any fucking different.”

“‘Isn’t any fucking different?’ Fuck you, Jack. Fuck,” you touched his chest with your index finger. “You.”

“Sophia, what is going on? You’re mad at me because I left with Ava? She was fucking out of her mind, drunk as hell, and I just took her home!” He raised his arms, like that was enough of an explanation. “It’s not my fault someone took a picture of us leaving and wrote a fucking article about that.”

“I’m not mad at you, Jack,” you whispered, staring into his eyes, losing yourself all over again, just like you did six months ago. “I’m mad at myself for falling in love with you.”

You were both taken aback by your statement. You had zero intentions of telling Jack how you felt about him because that would just be too much humiliation to handle but now the shit hit the fan and he knew.

“It’s…” he stared, biting his lips and averting your gaze. “It’s not like I cheated on you, Sophia. We aren’t dating.”

Oh.

Right.

You knew something like this would happen and still. Your heart hurts all the same. It isn’t that serious, your brain was yelling at you, get a fucking grip.

“I know,” you whispered, trying to count your breathings. “I know that, Jack. You don’t need to tell me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He stepped closer. “About how you feel?”

“Was it going to change anything?” Your voice quivered with sadness and you hated yourself for it. The plan was to tell him to fuck off and leave him but now you were almost crying and losing your shit in front of him.

“Yes, Sophia, fuck,” he put his hands on your arms, squeezing you slightly. “Of course it was!”

“Jack, no,” you freed yourself from his touch, walking around your living room, with your hands on your head. “I didn’t tell you that just to watch you pity me, I was trying to make a point. Don’t start lying now just for the sake of it.”

“Lying? I’m not fucking lying, Sophia,” he sounded angry now. “If you had told me this before, I would’ve—”

“‘Would’ve’ what?” You raised your voice too, tears now streaming down your face freely. “Would’ve said you’re in love with me too? Would’ve abandoned your whore days just to be with me? Fuck off, Hughes, we both know that isn’t true.”

“Just because you like to paint me as the man whore of the Devils it doesn’t mean that that is true,” he snapped, again. “I’ve been with you for six months now, and I never, not even once, touched another woman, or even thought about doing it. Because I just wanted you, Sophia, can’t you fucking see it?”

You sat on the couch, covering your face with your hands, trying to hide the fact that those words affected you more than you would ever admit.

“I get it that your fuckhead ex-boyfriend fucked you up and I am sorry for it, baby, I really am, but I’m not like him—”

“Jack, no,” you stopped him and removed your hands from your face, not caring if you looked ugly or destroyed. “Just leave. It’s better this way.”

“Leave? Are you insane?” He raised his voice. “No, I’m not leaving. I’m telling you that I am in lo—”

“Don’t you fucking dare, Hughes,” you got up, walking until you were toe to toe with him, looking up until your eyes met his. “I don’t want to hear it. Leave, please.”

“What the hell, man, you’re— you’re not even hearing me out!” He sounded desperate.

“I don’t want— I don’t need any more of your lies or pity. Sorry if you lost a good fuck, but I’m sure you’ll find someone else to get your dick wet.” It hurt you saying this but you needed to hurt him in order to make him leave, even if only God knew how much you wanted him to stay.

But the people you loved, the men you loved, never stayed.

Eventually, if you both started dating, he’d get tired of the routine and he’d find someone else. He’d start lying and cheating and apologizing just to do it all again, stepping on your heart like he did to the ice.

So you needed him to leave.

“So you think that you were just that to me?” He scoffed. “A good fuck? I took you to my parents’ house. I introduced you to them. I talked to my friends about you and I made time for something else besides Hockey. I wanted you in my life and now you’re telling me that it was all just sex to me?”

His eyes have never looked bluer. Your entire body felt cold, and you knew it wasn’t because of the weather. It was because you could feel Jack distancing himself from you, and it hurt.

“Leave, Hughes.”

He stared at you for a full minute, the room quiet. Then, he nodded once and twice, before stepping back and making his way to your door.

Opening it, he turned back and looked at you again. “I hope you know that you can’t keep your heart locked away forever, Soph.”

Wanting nothing but to be in his arms, you stared at him until he softly closed the door. You don’t know how much time you spent looking at the wooden entrance, feeling like you just watched your forever walk away.

[infiniteglitterfall]

OMG, COULD EVERYONE PLEASE STOP IMMEDIATELY BELIEVING AND REPEATING DISINFORMATION?!

Sorry, I just. Was just on Twitter, and I snapped.

I literally haven't seen one true statement about Israel on social media in MONTHS.

It's gotten to the point that I'm seriously considering starting a sideblog fact-checking all of it.

PLEASE STOP BEING GARFIELD I AM BEGGING ALL OF YOU

BE NERMAL FOR FUCK'S SAKE.

I've written at least one really long post about fact-checking things before. I have another saved as a draft somewhere.

But all you really have to do at this point is GO LOOK AT AN ACTUAL NEWS SOURCE.

What do I mean by an Actual News Source?

An actual news source will tell you where it's getting its information.

Basically: Wikipedia rules apply at all times. Citation. Fucking. Needed.

Except with news articles, I don't mean a detailed footnote.

I mean, if they say, "Rosco Flubberish reported seeing a pig fly across Whatever Place. 'It was a flying pig,' he said," they're fine.

If they say, "Sources close to the President reported that the Department of Farmland Creatures launched a pig into the air this afternoon," they're fine.

If they say, "There have also been reports that pigs flew," they are purely making shit up.

Just check CNN or something. CNN checks their shit, and they're very quick on the draw.

NBC has been very reliable too, in my experience. So have ABC, Newsweek, the Jerusalem Post, the Guardian, the New York Times, the AP, PBS, the Washington Post, and Reuters.

You can break through most paywalls by putting archive.is or 12ft.io before the https:// of the URL. Or just go to either of those sites and paste the URL in the box.

Nobody is perfect. I've seen some articles from all of the above that were accurate, but left things out that I personally thought were important.

Journalists are humans, humans fuck up.

(Also, NONE OF THIS APPLIES TO OPINION PIECES ON ANY TOPIC. Opinion pieces are exactly that: opinions. They don't seem to be fact-checked anywhere, as far as I can tell. They range from super-accurate and informative to complete nonsense.)

(Surprisingly unreliable sources in my experience: Democracy Now, Jacobin, Workers World Party. The latter two act like news sites but are basically running nothing but opinion pieces; Democracy Now can do important deep dives, but I've also seen news coverage from it that was wildly misinformed in that same way.

On the flip side, Slate and the Atlantic are largely opinion -- the Atlantic more than Slate, maybe -- but they often have really well-researched analysis of political situations. Ditto Teen Vogue, and sometimes Vox.)

You don't have to read CNN or the NYT or whateverfor fun. You don't have to make it one of your news sources.

Just. Do a quick check on Google News before you assume anything is true, and then run it through a bullshit filter as described above.

You are being actively lied to, all the time. So am I. We all are.

And people will believe and repeat literally anything that sounds about right.

That's just human nature.

That is WHY none of us are immune to propaganda.

if you want my personal shortlist of Bad Sources, as in Sources That Consistently Publish Absolute Falsehoods:

Any and all state-owned or state-controlled media. For example:

Al Jazeera is owned by the Qatari government, and so are a bunch of other news sites.

Mehr News, the Tehran Times, Al-Quds TV, and Al-Alam are owned by the dictatorship of Iran.

Oops. Looks like every form of broadcast Iranian news media is owned by the dictatorship of Iran, which has a monopoly.

Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation, Palestinian News and Info Agency, and Al-Hayat Al-Jadida are owned by the government of Palestine (the Palestinian Authority)

Al-Aqsa TV and Felesteen are owned by Hamas.

TASS / Russia News Agency, Russia Today, and a fuckton of others are owned by the Russian government.

State Media Monitor seems to do a pretty great job of tracking and listing these things. Check out your own country there!

I specifically listed those ones because some of them (especially Al Jazeera, Mehr News, and TASS) are sites I've seen come up frequently on Tumblr, or in my attempts to fact-check what people are saying here and on Twitter. The rest are just more examples from the same governments.

Al Jazeera deserves special notice because it's become a very popular leftist news source. Believe me, I used to read it all the time too.

It can be reliable and accurate sometimes. But:

It consistently tweets things that are unsourced, never appear anywhere else, and that would be big news you'd expect it to follow up on if they were true. It seems to be following a strategy of "tweet every rumor you hear in case it's true, so you can get the scoop."

It also does this with its liveblogs of the war. And ALL its coverage of the war at this point is liveblogs. So things that are verifiably true will run right next to things that are complete hearsay, but are too long to just tweet.

This is especially dangerous because as far as I can tell, Al Jazeera doesn't delete anything that turns out to be false.

I've also seen regular news articles in Al Jazeera, on multiple topics, that veer from Absolutely True Statements to Wildly Exaggerated Numbers and Speculation. Stuff you wouldn't expect a source on, like statistics or descriptions. And there's no way to tell the difference unless you already know a topic really well, or are fact-checking them while you read.

One especially terrible example, from Gazan activist Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib:

Al Jazeera has never posted or published a correction.

Alkhatib has also blamed it for destabilizing the region, although he's exaggerating about it being Hamas's official propaganda outlet:

TL;DR: If you see a Tumblr post making any kind of factual news statement without a link, at this point you need to assume it is absolutely not true. And either scroll on past, or go check Google News.

If there IS a link, you need to click through to see what it's from and what it actually says.

(Honestly, you need to do that with Wikipedia too. I've repeatedly clicked through on citations that absolutely did not say what the article implied they did.)

And pro tip: on mobile, you can just smack a button to sort Google's news results by most recent, and it helps A LOT. There's gotta be a way to do the same on desktop, but if there is, it's not immediately visible, which sucks.

[allwormdiet]

Insinuation 2.2

Time for another day of learning and adventure at Winslow High

That does have to be weird, though, right? Like "I fought a big badass villain last night and survived, my whole world has been changed by this encounter, I stared death in the face, what do you mean I still have to go to class and act like nothing changed?" Massive whiplash, I'd imagine.

Mrs. Knott gives the impression of being... better, at least, than Gladly. She's putting the effort in if nothing else, even if she has to leave the better-performing students alone in order to handle the rest of them, but that feels more like a matter of understaffing than any personal failure on her part.

God it's still messed up that Taylor has such little respite from bullying. This poor girl.

...I think this is the first time I've ever seen anything about Taylor knowing basic computer programming. Wonder if that ever comes back around.

And yeah Taylor, of course you have a geeky reputation, you're a fucking geek. Even setting aside the stuff with the bullying, like c'mon.

I saw a shitpost about how the single reason that Earth Bet is a dystopia is that Reddit is the number one news source in the world and there's something really funny about that idea.

Okay real quick the screenshot would be too small for me to add alt text, but “This article is a stub. Be a hero and help us expand it.” is an objectively hilarious line

And here we get the most information on any given Undersider, and it's immediately clear that Rachel has had a hard fucking life, like hell. Living on the streets as a teenage parahuman must be rough as hell, it's like living on the streets as a normal teenager except people want to recruit or imprison you while wearing stupid costumes instead of just police uniforms

(I would follow a Bitch fansite though, for real)

That's not how gangs work but whatever

So the ABB has a dragon man with dragon tattoos who uses the Chinese word for dragon as his cape name while being from Japan, a suicide bomber who dresses like a ninja, and a bomb Tinker. I don't know enough about Bakuda to really say but Lung and Oni Lee's gimmicks feel... mm. Lazy isn't the right word. Let's just stick with "racist" and move on so it stops bugging me

This is cute actually. She did a good job and she wants to like, celebrate that... and the only problem is that there's nobody she can celebrate with. I just made myself sad thinking about that.

And now she's basically Googling herself, which is also somehow cute.

There's something really funny about the idea that like. Taylor gets in touch with the Undersiders through a fucking Missed Connections post on a superhero message board. Like it's almost certainly the safest and most reliable way to get that message out, but that doesn't make it less comical.

And it looks like that's where we're leaving things.

Current Thoughts

Hit some highs and lows with this chapter honestly. Learning a little bit more about Taylor (swear to god I've never heard the programming thing come up before) and getting more of a breakdown on the Undersiders is all well and good, plus developments from the events of the night before, but again the whole Deal of the ABB grates pretty harshly. Like you don't need goddamn Edward Said to tell you that's all crap, it's just crap, and I don't think it reflects well on the author for putting that crap out there instead of thinking about it for maybe another thirty minutes first.

I gotta run some errands, 2.3 after that, God willing I don't have to read about the ABB for a while longer

[chansaw]

ok. here it is. the longpost i've been too lazy to actually make until just now.

so, here's what happened. the google algorithm sometimes pushes links to articles it thinks you'll like on the mobile homepage. unfortunately, google knew enough about me to put this hellish article onto my screen:

read that headline. then read it again. really, really stare at it. stare into the abyss. eventually, it will stare back. it'll whisper in your ear: "the heathers reboot was good, actually."

i read the article, incredulous. but, to my surprise... the author had somewhat of a point? it's been five years since paramount unceremoniously aired the show in october of 2018 after its premiere was delayed at least twice due to mass shootings. then after another mass shooting occurred before the final two episodes of the ten-episode long season were supposed to air, paramount hastily aired a heavily edited ninth episode and scrapped the tenth entirely. as far as i can tell, the show is not available to be streamed freely on any streaming site (not even paramount's own paramount+), though you can rent or buy it from amazon prime. maybe the author was right. maybe it was time for a rewatch and reconsideration. i wouldn't even have to spend any money; i archived all ten episodes of the show onto one of my external hard drives back in 2018, so i plugged 'er in, drank a bit of fireball, and clicked play.

after episode five, i gave up. i couldn't stand it any longer. i slammed my laptop shut and went to bed.

needless to say, i have thoughts.

right off the bat, here's the biggest thing. i wish to god that someone other than the miserable pile of sweaty skin that calls himself jason micallef had been in charge of this show. it might not have saved it from its fate, but maybe it would have been at least watchable? a modicum more entertaining? when the show was originally announced, leslye headland (who would later go on to create russian doll) was attached as showrunner. later, it was announced that micallef would be showrunner instead, although headland directed the pilot and executive produced the series.

in my honest opinion, if leslye headland had remained in creative control, this would have been a much different - and, in my opinion, better - show.

i can't help but wonder how heathers (2018) would have turned out if she had stayed at the helm. would it have marred her career so badly that netflix would have never agreed to produce russian doll? would she still be notable enough to be given charge of the newest disney plus star wars show? perhaps her decision was for the best. perhaps she knew there was no saving this project, try as she might.

and people tried!!!! during my rewatch, i was enamored by the production design and slick lighting and cinematography. some of the costume design hasn't aged well, but when it hits, it hits. i have to give credit where it's due: it is a beautifully shot and designed piece of television.

if only its actors had given half as much of a shit.

grace victoria cox (veronica) and james scully (j.d.) both attempt to replicate their predecessors' cool sense of disillusion and disenchantment in their roles, but both just come off as totally and completely bored in every scene. j.d. is supposed to be darkly charismatic, but scully has the charm of a plank of rotting wood. they lack the spark of chemistry to get the audience to feel invested in their relationship. without convincing leads to anchor it, the show has to depend upon its titular heathers.

i am, of course, in no way biased at all, in any shape or form. just saying. but one thing the article gets right is that melanie field’s performance as one miss heather chandler shines. field is fucking brilliant and her screen presence is formidable. she makes the most of every line she's given, and is at turns, ruthless, hilarious, and even (gasp) sympathetic. i am so glad she’s been booked left and right in tv shows (such as amazon's a league of their own, a spin-off with much more respect for its source material) that showcase her immense talent since whatever the fuck happened here. but i'm not biased!!!

juan barquin, the author of this article argues that viewers and critics alike both misunderstood heathers (2018). micallef's brilliant satirical messaging flew right over our heads. it had a message, goddamnit, and the misinformed masses closed their eyes and ears because they didn't want to hear it. it almost reminds me of the starships troopers discourse that is currently enveloping the app formerly known as twitter. starship troopers was nearly universally panned upon its release but is now recognized as a prescient satirical romp that targets jingoism, nationalism, and the culture of forever wars. we didn't get it back in 1997, but we do now. unfortunately, this is not the case with paramount's heathers.

the main cause of all the brouhaha around heathers (2018)'s release, barquin says, is because of its "shameless criticism of American culture, the prioritization of guns as a faulty means of defense, and the educational system’s blatant ignorance around the actual needs of students." which, sort of? it is true that a rash of killings (such as parkland and the pittsburgh synagogue shootings) spurred paramount's decision to nuke the show from existence. the show does, in fact, directly address and involve such matters. unlike the movie, the show concludes with westerburg high blown to pieces and its students all dancing in a prom in heaven. which.... yeah. you can see why that wouldn't have played out well.

(it's worth noting that daniel waters, the screenwriter behind the REAL heathers, originally planned for the movie to end this way as well. but the suits at new world studios said that audiences wouldn't like it. reluctantly, he complied.)

and i do have to admit, there are moments of brilliance. westerburg's school shooting drills involve the drama teacher storming through the halls shooting students with silly string. if you "die", you get to go to "heaven" (a brightly lit room stocked with snacks). the survivors are ushered into the dark, cramped gymnasium and complain about how all the cool kids are in heaven now. teachers' desks are stocked with firearms, because as we all know, of course, the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a teacher with a gun. it's so absurd that it works.

but for the most part, the writing is sorely lacking. it seems like the folks in the writers' room spent hours sitting around the table trying to one-up each other with quippable quips, meme-able dialogue, and banter that matched the panache and dry wit of waters' screenplay. but what we got instead was "HAHHAHAHAH, QUEEF!" it's bad. it's so, so bad. the author's claim that “[t]he show rather impressively matches the film’s comic sensibilities with consistently funny episodes that are as pleasantly cruel as they are scathingly satirical” falls flat because, for the most part, the shows satire isn’t at all scathing or sharp.

there were so many moments of the show where i felt my whole body just light up with rage. it made me just so ANGRY because i could see shells and fragments of a better version of this show peeking through. instead, what we got is a show that made alt-right chuds say this:

i think the most offensive part of the whole article, though, is barquin's attempt to liken the show to bottoms. if anything, i'd argue that bottoms works better as a spiritual successor to heathers than the rebooted heathers itself! bottoms succeeds in every way that heathers (2018) fails: punchy and quotable dialogue, characters who manage to be both archetypal and multidimensional, all set in an exaggerated and heightened sense of reality that still feels lived in and real. most importantly, all of bottoms’ actors are firing on all cylinders; in heathers (2018), most of the leads are just there to get paid. i could go on, but that's a whole other post.

frankly, it's kind of incredible that paramount launched this show as the flagship of their new tv network alongside yellowstone (which is in its final season now with spinoffs on the way). they were really, really banking on this thing to have legs. but we live in a blessed timeline where this show is condemned to an eternity of oblivion. it's a bit of a pity, though, because... the writers envisioned some sort of american horror story-esque anthology setup and teased a “french revolution” second season at the end of the last episode. i kind of want to know where they were planning to go with that.

it could've been so very.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

The kookery of Meghans cookery show: a pictorial essay by u/Mickleborough

The kookery of Meghan’s cookery show: a pictorial essay Being really excited (just kidding) about Meghan’s mooted cooking program with Netflix (maybe she’ll feature some fabulous Southern food, like chicken legs and grift, I mean grits!), I try to find out more about it.https://ift.tt/lXqSbmn on the Vaseline, Meghan! ‘I’d like to make her look a little more attractive, how far can you pull back?’ ‘How do you feel about Cleveland?’After some lackadaisical googling, I come across a gushy article in Elle, which answers what questions it can (not much). Note the date: 11 April 2024 - a little over 2 months ago.https://preview.redd.it/lohrcc1dcl6d1.png?width=1515&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3469e9a46759fc2e53c832c3404e2f9162bf00cThere’s no much info (I may make fun of the piece in another post), but there was something for the nerdy: the people behind it:https://ift.tt/GMzgj5C too much time on my hands (not true: need to do the dishes), I google some more and discover:The Intellectual Property Corporation, which is producing it, DOES NOT MENTION the show: The IP Corp websiteLeah Hariton, supposed showrunner’s upcoming and last projects on IMDB, DOES NOT MENTION the show:https://ift.tt/0PBRqkN Holzman, supposed executive producer, upcoming and 2024 projects, IMDB, DOES NOT - you get the grift, I mean drift:https://ift.tt/f1hKJYp Saidman, supposed executive producer, upcoming and 2024 projects, IMDB (looks the same as Holzman’s as I think both are at The Intellectual Property Corporation), ditto:https://preview.redd.it/ezjew8ggel6d1.png?width=1640&format=png&auto=webp&s=2af5f35005c621a3c0cc0b55a7ce7c90452c1ddcThere’s no reference to anything that might remotely pass for Meghan’s cookery-poo. (NB It’s not Power of the Dream, as that dream has no power.)Perhaps someone better-versed in TV production can shed some light, eg a project would be listed only if it were in the process of being made. But we were told in April 2024 that filming was under way, at someone else’s home: Daily Mail archived / unarchivedDoes that mean that this audition video’s been all a waste? (It’s part-time vegan Meghan showing us how to barbecue burgers, as well as eating it sexily. It’s very instructive - even shows you how to display fleisch whilst grilling same.) post link: https://ift.tt/BxDEy3k author: Mickleborough submitted: June 14, 2024 at 10:14PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[weirdkpopgirl]

Serendipitous Encounter | Chenle Imagine #5

Title: Serendipitous Encounter

Genre: Fluff, slight angst if you squint

Warnings: none

Word Count: 964

Author's Note: I swear the first few paragraphs of this story were all that existed for the longest time, and the words just stared at me blankly on the Google doc. Thankfully, I finally found the motivation to finish it. I don't write many stories about first meetings, so I thought I should give it a try. Also, I just love getting the chance to write for Chenle (he has a special place in my heart). It's been a while since I started this, but I think my inspiration for this story was an article about this person playing basketball with Chenle and mistaking him for Taeyong?

Anyway, hope you guys like this story. Thank you for reading ^ ^

➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶

The light evening of the wind from the Han River swept through Chenle’s bangs. His agile legs propelled him forward as he skillfully dribbled an orange ball in his hands. Within moments, he made a graceful leap before soaring through the air. A satisfied smile immediately formed as he watched the ball effortlessly swish through the basket.

After retrieving the basketball, he attempted to make another shot. However this time, his previous results did not repeat. Rather a girl standing beside one of the trees happened to be the ball’s target as it bonked her on the head. A yelp followed as she was thrown off balance and fell against the sidewalk. Chenle’s face twisted in a grimace as he rushed over to check the girl hadn’t sustained any serious injuries.

“I’m so sorry!” He exhaled, voice laced with concern. “Are you okay?”

Chenle extended his hand, offering assistance in helping her stand up. His expression shifted when she glanced up to meet his eyes. He didn’t expect her to look so…captivating. Her long, dark hair was slightly tousled from the ball. A shade of pink appeared across her cheeks, as she seemed a bit flustered from the unexpected situation.

“I—I’m fine,” She muttered, “I can get up on my own.”

Following her words, she hastily scrambled up on her feet and dusted off pants. Once she stood up, she finally got a proper look at the boy in a black hoodie and gray sweatpants. Although he was dressed casually, he certainly didn’t look like your average guy. She’s never seen such charisma in one’s eyes, and his smooth complexion only enhanced his attractiveness. Aside from his striking visuals, she felt like she’s seen this boy somewhere. He looked to be around the same age as her or older.

“Do I know you?” She heard herself asking hesitantly, hoping not to come off as too forward.

The boy scratched his head and smiled sheepishly. “Maybe? I’m Chenle, from NCT.”

Chenle could barely contain the sense of pride when her eyes widened with recognition. Well, no wonder he looked familiar. He definitely gave off K-pop idol vibes.

���Ah, my friend is a fan of your group!” She clapped her hands.

“Oh really?” She nodded quietly, noticing the genuine curiosity in his eyes as his head tilted with interest.

“What’s your name, if you don’t mind me asking?” 

"Oh I’m (Y/n),” She replied quietly. Your gaze remained fixated on the basketball cradled in his arms. A flicker of remembrance crossed your mind. “I think I remember my friend saying you were a basketball lover.”

A nonchalant smile played on Chenle's lips as he glanced back at the court before returning his attention to you. "Yeah, I try to play whenever I get the chance,” he shared. 

Driven by a sense of intrigue, he couldn't help but ask what brought her to the park. In response, she shared her motive for seeking extra credit for a photography class she was taking at her university.

“I was walking home from the library, and it’s such a nice evening,” She explained. “So I thought I might as well take a few pictures and submit one of them.”

"Oh, that's cool," Chenle remarked, his curiosity piqued. "Can I see some of them?"

Blushing once more, she reached for her phone, eager to share the scenic shots she had captured. 

"They're not the best," She admitted modestly, offering him a glimpse of her amateur photography skills. To her surprise, Chenle’s eyes widened with genuine interest as he peered over her shoulder to see.

“Well you take better pictures than I do,” He reckoned. A subtle tone of admiration was evident in his words. In other words, he was indirectly letting her know he was impressed.

She smiled shyly in response to his compliment. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

Chenle found himself smiling as well, appreciating her gentle and soft-spoken nature. He was more used to being around his loud and chaotic members. Although their encounter was mere coincidence, she didn't feel like a mere stranger to him. There was a subtle longing within him that yearned for more than just a fleeting interaction.

"By the way, is your head okay? I’m sorry, again.” A hint of concern returned to his voice.

Absently, his right hand reached out to gently smooth your hair, his focus consumed by genuine worry. Unaware of the subtle blush that tinted her cheeks, he remained fully invested in ensuring her well-being.

“It’s alright. I should’ve been paying more attention to my surroundings,” She mumbled.

His eyes sparkled with determination as he interjected, "Still, I'd like to make it up to you. How about I treat you to a cup of coffee or something? It's the least I can do for the accident."

His unexpected offer caught her completely by surprise. Did a member of one of Korea's most popular boy groups just ask her out? Though she tended to be incredibly shy around guys, the thought of rejecting him felt unimaginable. Besides, he was kind of her type. His smile was cute and exuded a confidence that made her heart flutter.

Taking a deep breath, she made up her mind not to let this opportunity slip away.

"I—I think I’d like that,” She eventually nodded.

The grin on Chenle's face widened, his excitement evident as he swiftly took out his phone to exchange contact information with her. Something more was born in this unintentional meeting that brought them together—a promise of a deeper connection. With the anticipation of a future coffee date, the two parted ways with rose-tinted cheeks and giddy smiles. Even though they just met and he barely knew her, Chenle had a feeling that he just met the one for him.

➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶

[irritablepoe]

How do I approach reading poetry?

hiii, omg, i'm glad you're asking hehe :3

first of all, there's no "correct way" of reading poetry ofc, and i'm also no literature student, so i don't have the correct words for everything, so just keep that in mind :)

at first you have to figure out what poems you want or have to read, depending what you're reading it for (like for fun or education yk). i personally think that to feel the poem you have to read it to yourself multiple times and assigning your own meaning to it (if you find it in the poem ofc, some poems are just not for everyone and that's okay :3). to understand the poem you might want to add some historical and periodic context, and maybe also some basic personal context of the poet themselves (though, this is probably only relevant when they are classic poets). my tip is to find out the leitmotif of a specific period which probably makes the poem make a lot more sense.

just for an example: romanticism was mainly a movement as a reaction to the rationalization of nature (meaning science and the industrial revolution) in which emotions were being conveyed through the metaphor of nature and the desire to experience it (kind of like a rebellion against rationalism? there's a lot more to it with patriotism/nationalism and stuff but that's like the main thing). so in the literature in this period, nature and wanderlust were a big leitmotif here. i mostly know german poets so the best example of this would probably be eichendorff and brentano here, though idk how good the translations are but it's just an example anyways here.

i'll link a website here (all poems) and here (all poets), it's the poetry foundation and you can find and explore a lot there, there are also articles and stuff, it's really cool!

i don't read as much poetry as i'd like to but i'm just gonna try and explain how i personally do it:

i read it a first time, which gives me a general idea of what it's about and i'm probably going to get a few ideas on which period it is from (only specific ones though, as i said, i'm not an expert by any means). also i really really focus on it. i think poems can't really be read like a book, it's more like you taking a bite out of it and savour it with each verse yk? i know it sounds a little pretentious but you gotta go along with it a little bit, it's poetry after all...

i reread it and maybe take note of verses that i really connect with. although i'm fascinated by how history can influence texts, i'm a big fan of making my own interpretation as well. if i really like and connect to a poem i google the poet and look at their life (if i haven't done it before that is). oftentimes similar poets or poets of that time appear on the wiki page and i've realized that you're kind of "jumping" from one author to the next and check them out (not only with poetry but with all sorts of things). example would also be that if you look at goethe's life you're bound to cross schiller as well and then you're probably going to check his works out as well, you know what i mean?

the last thing i do is look at the structure, yes yes, i know, my german teacher would kill me for this and yes yes the poem can carry a lot of meaning behind what is said however, if i don't notice it the first few times i read it, it doesn't seem as meaningful to me, i'm just saying...

sometimes i like listening to poems too, i highly recommend rachel oates on youtube, she has some great poetry herself and i want to buy her book so badly! she reads some of her favorite poems in some of her videos and the way she reads them is just *chefs kiss*

yeah, uhm, that's pretty long and idk if that helped. i googled the question too just now and it focuses more on the structure and the reading aloud of the poem itself so idk if that helps more

thank you again for the ask! this was quite fun :D

[rk-ish]

Nathalie Chapter 1 - Extended Author's Notes

This one will understandably be a bit different from the other extended authors notes I will do so lets just get into it!

[link to fic]

So the first question (if you didn't read the wiki page) is 'who is Nathalie?' or 'Is that an OC?' and those are all fair questions-

About a year ago I stumbled upon the wiki page of a scrapped protagonist for DBH and I remember finding it interesting and also thinking that I could find her and North cute together, though I don't remember the exact reason for thinking that anymore-

Regardless, when i then a few months later started to think about this AU i immidiately decided to bring the fourth protagonist back. Not only did I think that there was an interesting potential in her, but I also prefer stories that have something like a 50/50 split between male and female characters.

(later into the story you'll find that Nathalie isn't the only character I found on the wiki that I decided to bring back)

I did many versions of this first chapter, and it was the first one that i showed my friends and my sister because I really really wanted feedback on it.

First, my version of Nathalie was supposed to be as similar to Maddison Page from Heavy Rain as possible, since having played both HR and DBH and having seen the similarities in characters, it did make sense to think that would've been what Nathalie would've been in DBH. And I was initially really interested in speculating and trying to make her as close to what she would've been in DBH. I replayed HR to look at Maddisons chapters again.

Then, the last person who I showed one of the earlier drafts of the chapter to asked 'will we ever find out why she chose the name Nathalie?'

My initial plan was to google 'famous Nathalies', maybe find a journalist and mention that person offhandedly as some sort of inspiration.

This was however how I found myself scrolling trough a list of Nathalies/Natalies and noticed a pretty portrait of a blonde woman, and the text underneath it indicated that she was married to an another woman. I was ofc immidiately interested in this person and started doing further research.

That person was none other than Natalie Clifford Barney. Born in the 1800's, she was a lesbian who published the poetry book mentioned in the chapter in 1900. I wish that I could say more about it but I don't know any french.

I became a bit obsessed with Natalie Barney and ended up reading non fiction books about her for fun over the summer-

So the end product ended up being heavily influenced by Barney and the salons she hosted.

Though there is still some influence from Maddison, like the surname she chooses for herself, that one is probably borrowed from a famous journalist-

Also, Echo and Ripple and the Eden Club chapter was a big inspiration for this chapter ofc, even if they have been replaced by North and Nathalie in this

Anyway, I hope some people will enjoy this character or at least don't mind her too much, I was a bit nervous about this since well..people are a particular way about female characters in fandoms..but I do try to not write for an imaginary audience that is judging me and this story, even if I do hope that someone does ends up reading this series

The absolute best thing that could come out of this is that someone else takes an interest in the scrapped fourth protagonist and does something with the character! I think that if we as a fandom can come upp with literally everything about nines, we can start doing similar things for other minor (or straight up not in the game) characters!

Originally I had planned to make a map of the Star Park with GIS but I didn't have time, so maybe I'll include it sometime later!

Lastly, I wanted to include a link to this article that sums upp what I've learned about Natalie Clifford Barney pretty well [link]

[show-us-kaidenshenandoah]

a loved one of mine sent me this post back in June, but i was immediately afraid of being a party-pooper so i didnt post my reply publicly but, now, ive had more than enough emotional distance from the knee-jerk anxiety of "oh no what if i correct people and everyone sends me hate and doxxes me" that im like "oh yeah i should post that" lmao (if i already did this: sorry, chronic memory loss stinks. i dont remember having done this before lmao)

if you dont like reading a long thing of text to get information btw, totally get it, here is a video link to Jessica Vill's video about the topic which will walk you through identical information if that is your preferred way to process/learn

also: you can easily google and wiki my sources, these arent hard things to verify once you know to look them up to begin with. but i did include screenshots below as my various sources; as well as evidence of "yeah, it would be super easy to fact-check me about this if you feel so inclined" [transcripts of images will be my reblog of this post under a read more, bc tumblr kept throwing a fit otherwise if i did it here] nonetheless, never blame people for not knowing what they didnt know. the misconception is absolutely the fault of PBS (for not fact-checking the author of that article pre-publication if nothing else) for publishing an article preying on the Black community's pre-existing attachment to Betty Boop for clicks. i wont be going into that article itself that had so terribly misreported, esp since PBS already apologized, im just reporting the information i know

i will add the following corrections to what i said in that DM:

i do not "blame" anyone above for the misinformation. if i "blame" anyone, it is PBS for claiming Fleischer consciously based Betty Boop's personality and design on Esther Jones, which you can see in the screenshot above; where BlackHistory.com cites and quotes that said misreported article. thats who i was groaning about in my DM, the PBS article; i was not nor was i ever attributing misinformation to come from @rikareena or @lveshae, but especially not @rikareena who fact-checked and was lied to by (a) said misinformation and (b) there not being an editorial within the snippet SAYING "oh btw sorry, our source we mentioned was bad actually. PBS apologized for the misinformation and not fact-checking it and we should too for spreading it without fact-checking our source ourselves". you should always google your facts and that is exactly what @rikareena did. it was not anybody in this post's fault that these sources were based on misinformation. do NOT blame or send negative attention to any tumblr-user/individual person within this post or outside of this post, istg, demand better of these website-sources instead (esp to have fact-checking teams themselves) and not individual people omfg

we do have few photos of Little Esther (you can see all of them in Jessica Vill's video), not just one. but they all are of her as a child. we have NO confirmed photos of her as an adult. also, to clarify, Little Esther was who i was talking about in regards to lost media, we have VERY little records of her performances (to which im glad people HAVE been looking into her and finding more about her that we can confirm is definitely her through this misreport. i love that she is re-gaining fans and her story is being shared, very big silver lining of this whole thing. if you're into uncovering lost media, please do look into her and help find more about her) also, she goes by "Baby Esther" and "Little Esther" as well as her name of Esther Jones/Esther Lee Jones

the photo i said was maybe her as an adult was incorrect. you'll see it below, it's the "Do Tell by James Van Der Zee, circa 1930" portrait that has oft been misattributed to Esther Jones. we do not know who this woman modeling for him had been

the cosplayer in question i mentioned was specifically Olya Gussy. she dressed up as Betty Boop and was photographed in 2008 by Retro Atelier. she is often misattributed as being an adult Esther Jones, which she is not

part of why i can never remember Betty Boop's primary "original" voice-actress is because Betty Boop has had SO MANY, even in just "classic Betty years". but i was specifically thinking of Mae Questel. the main three classic 1930s Betty Boop voices were Mae Questel, Mary Hines, and Bonnie Poe, but there were also several others in the 30s alone. but, yeah, when i was trying to talk about Betty Boop's voice-actress, it was Questel specifically who was in my head

i got my information wrong about the Betty Boop musical "Boop!". i got confused; i blame my chronic memory loss, but still my bad. anyway. it has so far ONLY been OFF-Broadway and is DUE to be ON Broadway in 2025 (get hyped!!! im so excited!!). off of Broadway, it has so far only been in Chicago according to the Wikipedia. and though it only had a had a short run in Chicago overall, the entire time it WAS in Chicago, Betty Boop was played by a Black musical actress: Jasmine Amy Rogers. love her, go support her!!

here are various screenshots with more information. feel free to look into them and/or the court-case on your own time. this is just "yep, shallow 2+2=4 levels of using google/wiki to fact-fact" on myself (which, to reiterate: is NOT a diss on anyone who didnt know what they didnt know, outside of this post or within it, idgaf, i do not tolerate trolls and dickheads being mean and utalizing me/my posts as a weapon to do that with) and show my sources in a more visual way

so yeah!! Betty Boop absolutely should be claimed by Black people since she has so many connections to Black American art within her performance, and Betty should 100% be drawn as a Black woman by any and everybody who wants to depict her that way

but also dont give Fleischer Studios credit for things they didnt do. they did not utalize Ether Jones in their initial conception of Betty in any purposeful or concious way; they did not design a Black animated female character in the 1930s. do not give them that credit that they have not earned. Fleischer Studios only utalized Esther Jones to get out of a court-case they had with Helen Kane. them accidentally creating a character whose performance is heavily in connection with Black American artists, like Esther Jones, is VERY DIFFERENT than them basing a character off of Esther Jones or being inspired by her in of by itself. do not give them flowers for making a Black female character star in her own shorts (and then rescind said flowers-that-they-didnt-earn for how she then "became white-washed" like that PBS article misreported) when they just?? didnt do any of that?

(also this is mostly unrelated but bc it is tangentially related to "dont give Fleischer Studios credit for things they didnt do" thing: if you know me, youll see me specifically crack jokes about Betty Boop being wlw and/or about her "he/him butch girlfriend, Freddie". im talking about her canon boyfriend, Fred or Fearless Fred, who is a human (unlike her also once-canon boyfriend of Bimbo, the anthropomorphic dog). do not take me making jokes about headcanons and how "Fred's design is too sapphic to be a cis man" as legitimate fact. youll see the internet jokes of a similar vein sometimes, im definitely not the originator of that joke)

Betty Boop is for everybody in the same way as youve likely seen that Hatsune Miku trend where everyone is making a cultural Miku re-design to their specific ethnicity or way of life; we've seen Betty Boop be flexibly "for everyone" tons of times, even outside of her being a nostalgic tribute to the flapper girl era (a cultural niche in which women of ALL backgrounds took part). in classic Betty Boop cartoons alone, we've seen:

Betty Boop as white/white-passing (especially any time they copied Helen Kane which Fleischer Studios did OFTEN and didn't even HIDE until it became a legal issue; but also Helen Kane wasn't even being that original. baby voices like Betty Boop's was a common gimmick of actresses then and Helen Kane's catch-phrase wasn't even her own. i still personally think Fleischer was copying Kane, but also it makes 100% sense why she lost that lawsuit),

we have had Betty Boop be Jewish (the most obvious being parents in some shorts speaking with thick Yiddish accents, implying she is the daughter of immigrant parents, most famously in the "Minnie the Moocher" short as part of the set-up before any music even began to play),

we've had her be rotoscoped dancing using Indigenous Hawaiian dancers, in their regalia, and given a tan (multiple times but my favorite is "Bamboo Isle" for sure),

we've had her collab with Cab Calloway (a famous Black jazz musician for anyone who doesn' recognize the name) along with others and had Betty Boop's catchphrase ultimately come from Baby Esther's scatting, along with other instances of Betty Boop's performances having connection to Black American performance-art

and, hell, you could even make arguments about Betty Boop as a cowgirl in her "Nan McGrew" parodies. cowgirls and cowboys were a largely queer and/or POC group, paid very little but allowed a lot of freedom of expression and welcomed isolation, until America cinema and the like white-washed cowboys to hell and back. you could see Betty Boop as anyone of any identity, really, but especially as being of the marginalized in that vein

Fleischer Studios did definitely (accidentally popularize infantalization in animated women woah who said that, who brought up my special-interest) only announce that they used an alagamation of flapper women in their design to better shoot down Helen Kane, but that doesn't mean it wasn't true. Betty Boop IS the 1930s tribute to the flapper era of the 20s and all the women from there, of all skin-colors and ways of life. anybody can cosplay or draw Betty Boop. but Black people especially do have a special connection to Betty Boop that cannot be denied and is v beautiful

(i could talk for a few hours about Betty Boop, and i will be the first to admit this isn't even her first "well, originally..." debate concerning her as a character, much less the breadth of her impact OR all aspects of her history. there's all the ways she did steal/borrow from Helen Kane, at least in my opinion; her impact of infantalization in animated women's designs; her hyper-sexualization and how theater at the time functioned (in a sexual way*) and her specific "gags in the margins"(*×2) animators would make; her almost movie about her and her father that a lot of Betty Boop fans have dug up and shared the conceptual work of around; and even the debate of her age as that is constantly in flux depending on where you look and at what time of history (*×3). all of which i mention in an "if you liked learning about Betty, there is a lot more to look into learning about her" way rather than an "ask me, ask me, ask me" way)

(said * clarifactions will be with the aforementioned reblog to not make this post even LONGER than it already is lmao)

anyway. again: A++ art though, absolutely love it ♡

boop-boop-a-doop

[ameliasoulturner]

Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore What ChatGPT Is Up To

More Than 50 Percent of Online Text Now Comes From AI

Ever scroll through your favorite blog or news site and get that odd feeling something’s a little off? Maybe the tone is just a bit too generic, the phrasing a touch repetitive, or the structure almost suspiciously perfect. That’s not your imagination. Right now, over half of the text you see on the internet is being written—or at least heavily edited—by AI models like ChatGPT. And even if you don’t feel the need to dive into the technical deep end, it’s worth knowing why this matters to you, your business, and how you consume content every single day.

Back in the early days of blogging, you could spot a mass-produced article a mile away. The grammar was wonky, sentences rambled without focus, and keywords were force‑jammed so badly it felt like a reading experiment gone wrong. Fast forward to today, and AI–generated content has leveled up. These systems have been trained on vast libraries of writing, learned how to mimic tone, style, and even humor, and now crank out text that’s polished, coherent, and optimized for search engines. In many cases, it’s tough to tell if a human sat down with a coffee and typed each word, or if a neural network did the heavy lifting.

For businesses, that’s a double‑edged sword. On one hand, AI can save thousands of dollars and hours by producing first drafts, generating email campaigns, writing social media posts, and even crafting product descriptions. You get almost instant output that’s SEO‑friendly and tailored to your audience. On the other hand, reliance on AI can lead to a sea of sameness. Imagine hundreds of sites all with AI‑generated finance or health articles that read almost identically. The race to the top of Google becomes less about unique insights and more about who can feed the AI engine the right prompts.

So why should you, as an everyday reader or small‑business owner, care about what ChatGPT is quietly up to in the background? First, authenticity still wins hearts. Consumers crave genuine voices, real stories, and that human spark you can only get when someone is writing from experience, not training data. If your brand feels like every other brand because you lean too heavily on AI, you lose that emotional connection. Second, search engines are catching on. Google’s latest updates reward content that demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. That means thin, generic copy—even if AI‑generated—risks falling flat in rankings.

Here’s the thing: AI isn’t inherently bad. It’s a powerful tool that, when used well, can supercharge productivity and creativity. Content creators who treat models like ChatGPT as co‑pilots—using them to brainstorm ideas, outline posts, or draft sections—are seeing their work evolve faster and more efficiently. Then they add personal anecdotes, specialized knowledge, and a unique point of view to bring the AI base up to human quality. That combination of speed and soul is the sweet spot everyone’s chasing.

On the flip side, those who lean too hard on AI prompts without human oversight end up with content that lacks depth. You might notice catch‑all advice that sounds helpful but never drills into specifics. Or you might see the same examples cropping up across multiple sites. Savvy readers sniff that out fast, and savvy competitors pounce, offering richer, more tailored content that actually solves problems.

If you’re a reader, keep an eye out for subtle giveaways: oddly generic phrases, the same metaphor over and over, or vague statistics without proper sourcing. When you land on content that feels hollow, look for author bios or links to real‑world case studies. Those are usually signs someone put genuine effort behind the words. For businesses and creators, the takeaway is this: embrace AI to lighten your load, but stay in the driver’s seat. Use it to handle the grunt work, then invest time crafting the story, adding examples, and weaving in your brand’s personality.

Looking ahead, the AI‑content wave isn’t slowing down. As models get better at understanding nuance and style, you’ll see more media outlets experimenting with AI‑assisted interviews, AI‑drafted investigative pieces, and publishers using it to translate content instantly into multiple languages. That means your inbox could be brimming with newsletters and alerts tailored perfectly to your interests—and occasionally written entirely by AI. The winners in this new era will be those who blend the precision of algorithms with the warmth of human insight.

In the end, caring about what ChatGPT is doing behind the scenes isn’t about fearing the machines. It’s about recognizing the new rules of the game and adapting so you can stand out. Because when half the internet is being written by AI, the true value lies in the things that only humans can bring: authenticity, passion, and that little spark of creativity that no model—no matter how advanced—can fully replicate.

[miyamorana]

July Fic Recs

Here are the fics that I’ve really liked this past month. All of these are complete. Enjoy!

Fandoms: Avatar: The Last Airbender (3), Baldur's Gate 3 (1), Boku no Hero Academia (8), Harry Potter (2), Merlin (1), Percy Jackson & Related Fandoms (1)

Find June's Recs here or browse my fanfic recs tag.

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Title: Amateur Theatrics Author: Haicrescendo Pairing: None Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 2,540 Summary: [“Draw a portrait, Sparky,” she says, “It’ll last longer.”

Zuko does not draw a portrait. Zuko gets up and disappears to wherever he’s been sleeping (alone and far away, like he’s hiding, even though sound carries too well in this temple for him to keep his screaming nightmares to himself), and Toph thinks for a moment that she’s run him off. She hasn’t run him off.

Zuko returns in a matter of minutes, holding what’s clearly a book in his hands.

“Hasn’t…” he begins, anxious without fail every time he brings attention to himself, “Hasn’t anyone ever read to you?”]

Or,

Toph thinks books are stupid. Zuko disagrees.

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Title: Make No Apology Author: Haicrescendo Pairing: None Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 6,909 Summary: [Aang’s the one who brings it to him. It’s tea, obviously, but it doesn’t smell like any tea that Zuko’s ever had. Spicy but also kind of...sour?

Zuko stares down at his cup with a sort of vague concern. He doesn’t want to drink this.

Aang’s staring up at him so earnestly, though, and Zuko’s never been able to say no to cute, googly eyes. It’s not right. He doesn’t want anything to do with Aang’s weird, spicy tea.]

Or,

In which Zuko isn’t poisoned, but in fact finds himself at the tender mercies of a truth serum. In retrospect, maybe being poisoned would have been more pleasant.

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Title: Foundations of Good Diplomacy  Author: Haicrescendo Pairing: Hakoda/Zuko Rating: Explicit Word Count: 15,571 Summary: [Zuko doesn’t know how he got here.

Actually, that’s a total lie—he knows perfectly well how he got here. Fire Lord Zuko hasn’t slept in anything longer than a quick catnap in three days— the first two because of a somewhat routine, but excessively bloody, botched assassination attempt and the third because of the envoy from the South Pole. Relations between the other nations have warmed drastically since the end of the war, but Zuko will be apologizing for his country until the day he dies, and matters still need to be handled delicately.

And if said matters involve his best friend’s father, well.

There are some secrets that should be kept to oneself.]

Or,

Sokka’s dad’s got Zuko down bad.

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3 Title: Perceived Impressions Author: Acinonyx1 Pairing: Astarion/Haslin Rating: Explicit Word Count: 45,260 Summary: When Astarion awakens in the aftermath of the Nautiloid crash, it is not to a friendly face but the press of goblin steel against his cheek.

Now a captive of the Absolute, he is left starving and huddled in the corner, waiting for the beast that shares his cell to finally strike.

Bears, after all, are not known to be the most gracious killers.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia Title: Q. A. B. Author: jihnari Pairing: Kaminari Denki/Toga Himiko (mostly background) Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 21,050 Series: Part 1 of how to (accidentally) start a cult (Words: 149,807 - Works: 4) Summary:

One month after @hawks_unofficial's initial viral post, the blog titled "Quirk Analysis Blog for the Future", otherwise known as "Q. A. B.", has gone from an average of 10 views per post to an average of 20,000 views per post. Midoriya Izuku does not know how to view the impressions analysis for his suddenly popular blog, and only notices that sometimes, people actually comment on his posts now. He does not google himself or his moniker and thus does not see the rise in online articles and speculation. He is unaware that the "kyuu-ei-bee" he begins to hear about in passing refers to his own blog. He does not have a Twitter account. At the time, Midoriya Izuku is 15 years old.

Izuku (accidentally) starts a cult.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia Title: the shadows on my wall don't sleep Authors: achievingelysium and the_crownless_queen Pairing: None Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 2,589 Summary: “Sensei! Please don’t move!”

Shinsou’s voice snapped him back to attention, and Shouta forced his eyes open despite the pain.

“What happened?” he croaked out.

Shinsou’s face came into blurry focus. “The building came down on us,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m beginning to think your class is cursed, sensei.”

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia Title: class pets  Author: beeclaws Pairing: None Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 1,362 Summary: “Right now there are three cats to a ratio of four people,” Todoroki says. “Any more, and we all get less time per cat.”

“That’s not a very heroic attitude, Todoroki,” Tsuyu points out.

Todoroki continues scritching his favourite kitten’s chin: the black one with white feet, mentally dubbed ‘boots cat.’ (There had been a sub-meeting about naming the kittens, which determined it would be too heartbreaking to do this until they were reasonably sure they weren’t going to be made to give them away tomorrow). “It’s just math,” he adds softly.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia Title: testing, testing Author: beeclaws Pairing: None Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 10,646 Summary: Izuku swallows. “My plans would have…gotten civilians killed?”

Aizawa stares at him for another long moment, then breaks off and rubs at his eyes. “Your plans had an excellent chance of preserving civilian lives.”

Izuku waits, uncomprehending.

“However,” Aizawa continues, “I’d say on average, there was about a 30% chance your suggested course of action would have gotten you killed.”

Izuku fails a test and Aizawa issues an ultimatum.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia Title: to work, to rest Author: beeclaws Pairing: None Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 2,797 Summary: Three times Eri falls asleep on Aizawa.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia Title: Memezawa  Author: RayShippouUchiha Pairing: Aizawa Shouta/Yamada Hizashi Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 2,177 Summary: Shōta slumps his way out of bed, the top sheet draped over his head and clutched together underneath his chin, and drags himself to the kitchen.

“Stop,” Shōta mutters as he does his best to avoid Bastard and Trash as they wind around his ankles, “I coulda dropped my croissant.”

Shōta pauses for a split second, something about that sentence not sitting right with him, before he shrugs and continues to ooze his way towards the fresh cup of coffee he knows Hizashi will have waiting for him.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia Title: belonging  Author: beeclaws Pairing: None Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 3,596 Summary: Izuku is hit by a quirk that temporarily erases more than two years of his memories. Aizawa helps him fill in some missing pieces.

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia Title: The Future Forged in Our Palms  Author: nolov (louscr) Pairing: None Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 14,725 Series: Part 1 of our trust shot full of holes (Words: 27,879 - Works: 4) Summary: The deep breath Izuku takes is steadying, a comfort. Hope newly fostered in his heart is too difficult to stifle.

mightdoriya [4:27] want to play again tomorrow?

There is so much fear in asking, shredding and heavy at his lungs, and it only grows as minutes pass. Izuku has been alone for so long and wariness, in all the forms he knows it, has been etched into his very bones and soul.

Fandom: Harry Potter Title: passageways to windows that don't close Author: basketofnovas (slashmarks) Pairing: None Rating: Mature Word Count: 11,567 Series: Part 1 of what's holding up her face (Words: 19,290 - Works: 2) Summary: After Tonks is kidnapped by Walburga as a child, certain relatives are determined not to let history repeat itself. But the aftermath doesn't end with the kidnappers' deaths. A thank you gift for a beta.

Fandom: Harry Potter Title: i won't just survive (no you will see me thrive)  Author: EclipseWing Pairing: None Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 77,395 Summary: In which James Potter isn't as dead as everyone thought and Harry has a strong mistrust of all adults. Reconnecting with his son isn't going to be easy, not just because Harry's in Slytherin.

Fandom: Merlin Title: Empty My Heart  Author: athena_crikey Pairing: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 10,401 Summary: The dragon stares down, gaze heavy. “Understand this, Arthur. To find the strength to save you, Merlin has shaken the foundations of this world. He has drawn from nature that which does not belong to him, has filled himself to bursting with the magic of this land. That can only be put right by returning it.”

Fandom: Percy Jackson Series, The Kane Chronicles Title: Summer Heat and Gentler Love  Author: ShadeCrawler  Pairing: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson/Carter Kane Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 37,50 Summary: The time has come for Carter Kane to take on the crown of Egypt. With that and his GED looming in the background, Carter has no time for any distractions. Enter Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson; the world's best distractions.

Or: Five times Carter Kane was asked on a date and one time he asked his partners on one.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN KIND

We had to spend thousands on a server somewhere, maintained by the kind of people who weren't car experts wanted to have them as well. Now there's a new generation of sites, but they invest other people's money, and much larger amounts of it. Maybe we'll just have to give some of the best ones were made as a way to choose a good language. There was no protection against breakage except the fear of looking like an idiot to one's peers, and that women will all be trained in the martial arts. The most dangerous way to lose time is not to write a cool piece of software. Falling victim to this trick could really hurt you. Maybe it will have wireless Internet access. Perhaps they need to spend a lot of money.1 Now that you know has no outlet.

You think you can always write that book, or climb that mountain, or whatever, and then thinking of the answer in the shower in the morning.2 Have you ever noticed that when you sit down to write something, half the ideas that end up going public didn't seem likely to at first.3 The things that matter, and savor the time you have. Now it's a couple of hackers to figure out what's actually wrong with him, but it was wonderful for us, like a proof, is a nice, durable medium for finished ideas, but a DH2 or lower response is always unconvincing. Twenty years ago, writers wrote and readers read. By the time the acquirer gets them, they're finishing one another's sentences. And starting with a crude version 1, then f iterating rapidly. Why the pattern? They distributed your work, and they were absolutely honest.

Complaining that VCs were jerks used to seem as naive to me as if the founders have any money. You're most likely to get better terms from them. But that, if not beyond the bounds of possibility, is beyond the scope of this article. I've heard the founders didn't just give in and take whoever the VCs wanted. Anyone who's been here any amount of math would probably represent numbers in binary, but this is not very good either; some languages Perl, for example. But they are much hungrier for deals. The most dramatic change, I predict, is that my m. When you approach the problem from the other end. The one universal rule is that the founders of the next Google stay in grad school instead of starting a company, but they never interrupt it.4 In fact, the more of your software by a certain date?5

Even VCs do it. It's not just a synonym for annoying. Find an open slot in your schedule, why not your calendar? The same single-mindedness that has brought them this far will now be working against them. So the rate of evolution in programming languages is likely to be filled by freeware. What the company should have done is address the fundamental problem: that the product is only moderately appealing, growth is ok but not great. There are more shocking prospects even than that. Many founders do. If you're a hacker who has thought of one day starting a startup also to cut the average return.

If applications run on remote servers, no one ever called us on it. Which leaves two options, firing good people and making more money. Or rather, IPO then bust, or just bust. His style is deceptively casual, but there is more in his books than in a library of art monographs. The fund managers, who are called general partners, get about 2% of the fund annually as a management fee, plus about 20% of the fund's gains. They'll happen within server farms. When you're hosting software, someone has to be some point down the slope of consulting at which you can survive.

For example, lower-tier firms are much more likely to make it here is that great things happen to them too. If you get a call from a VC firm, go to their web site and send them an email. That was a good time to start companies after you graduate, to learn how to program. Someone with ordinary tastes would find it hard to blow through more than a way to answer this question, I stopped wondering about it.6 Saying that an author lacks the authority to write about a topic is a variant of ad hominem than actual refutation. He said VCs told him this almost never happened. There are borderline cases is-5 two elements or one? Over in the arts. A board consisted of two founders, two VCs, and one that other big technology companies will no doubt try to duplicate.

You see paintings and drawings in museums and imagine they were made for you to look at. It was like watching a car you're chasing turn down a street that you know about the value of being flexible with data structures. Once you start a site for college students and you decide to move to the Valley for the summer to work on juicy kinds of work, and they view things with a colder eye. Some VCs now require that in any language anyone would design, they would get all kinds of publicity. Is there's a lot more discerning than any employer. A rounds is that they feel they don't have sufficient flexibility to adapt to them. Knowing that founders will keep control of the board through a series A is unheard-of.

In software, my rule is: always have working code. Another easy test is the number of axioms in the core language, prior to any additional notations about implementation, be defined this way. A lot of the people there are rich, or you've failed. If we're all going to be disagreeing more, we can see clearly what a bottleneck Sarbanes-Oxley has become.7 You'll pay more for Internet services than you do for the next release, I would be very interested to see them. It explains why VCs tend to interfere in the companies they invest in. Counterintuitive as it feels, it's better most of the time, just like they do to startups everywhere. Being able to release software: the last thing you changed. It's just unbearably inefficient. For example, Web-based startup is food and rent. But most startups that succeed do it by getting bought.

Notes

The Valley use the phrase frequently, you better be sure you do it mostly on your board, consisting of two things: what bad taste you had small children pointed out an interesting sort of mastery to which the top schools are the most successful startups. Only a fraction of VCs even have positive returns.

But people like Jessica is not a coincidence you haven't heard of investors are also several you can't mess with the same superior education but had instead evolved from different, simpler organisms over unimaginably long periods of time and became the Internet. Some who read this to realize that in the chaos anyway. This is the most general truths. If you're not even be symbiotic, because such users are not just the local builders built everything in it, by doing another round that values the company is presumably worth more, the first 40 employees, or pigs, to take care of one's markets is ultimately just another way in which multiple independent buildings are traditionally seen as temporary; there is money.

And if you sort investors by benevolence you've also sorted them by the Corporate Library, the more important. Another advantage of startups small this first summer, we're going to have suffered from having been corporate software for so long to launch.

Even though we made comparatively little from it, because unions will exert political pressure against Airbnb than hotel companies. In reality, wealth is measured by what you've built is not work too hard to spread them.

Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M. It tipped from being contaminated by how you spent your summers. That's because the broader your holdings, the main reason is that we're not professional negotiators, and in b.

The Wouldbegoods.

More precisely, the angel round from good angels over a series A from a past era, than anybody else, you have no connections, you'll be well on your product, and that the money. In practice formal logic is not a problem so far done a pretty mediocre job of suppressing the natural human inclination to say now. If the response doesn't come back with my co-founder before making any commitments.

Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Sam Altman, and Jessica Livingston for reading a previous draft.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

A little info and PSA about ChatGPT and the other AIs (and how it relates to MM) by u/Larushka

A little info and PSA about ChatGPT and the other AIs (and how it relates to MM) Hi fellow sinners. Since TRGs very excellent video on how Meghan seems to be gaming the system with the Nigerian fiasco, I noticed some confusion in the threads and thought I’d give those who would like it a little guidance as to how current AI works.I’m an IT tech and educator (started with Apple in ‘80) and have been working extensively with AI and specifically ChatGPT for the past year. So, this is a simplified-ish explanation….All these new artificial intelligence programs that have surfaced in the last year - ChatGPT/Gemini/Bard/Claude/CoPilot et al - are what we call LLMs = large language models. The way they ‘learn’ is by being fed pretty much everything that is legally, and maybe not so legally, available to them online. This is literally millions of articles, threads, blogs, social media etc. Billions of words. Interestingly, as of very recently, this now includes Reddit. So everything we write here will be sucked up too!! They assimilate all this data and ‘learn’ from it, which sort of means that they learn patterns and anticipate what comes next. And while they are mostly getting remarkably good at it, sometimes they don’t know the correct answer and make stuff up, which we call hallucinating. Always check what it tells you. ALWAYS. Especially if it’s important or you’re going to be repeating it.When you ask a question, known as a prompt, what the LLM is actually doing is rapidly searching this vast database in its memory, and using the patterns its learned, pulls out the most relevant words that it thinks will answer your question. Up until last year, the data wasn’t current. More recently, the LLMs have the ability to search the web in real time. And the LLMs can now also access youtube video transcripts, and interpret photos. This is where the problem happens. You can actually skew search results with something called SEO - search engine optimization. This is something you can pay for and has been around forever. . It’s what pushes certain links to the top when you do, e.g. a google search. Again, simplistically, you can post articles, or submit them to mainstream media (MSM) linking ideas/people etc. So for example, Meghan and her paid PR can flood MSM with “Meghan Markle at Beyoncé concert”. Now although we all know that she was just there in the audience, but if the article gets repeated enough times by other media outlets, when you Google “Meghan Markle”, she will now be associated with Beyoncé. ChatGPT takes that further by creating its response using what it finds most of. So if its search discovers a gazillion articles on how wonderful Meghan is, then that’s what it’s going to tell you back. It’s technically not a bias of the program, or its programmers, but a reflection of the data its found in abundance. You cannot pay to change this apparent bias. The AI programmers don’t decide what information gets included in your answer. However, they do program safeguards into the AI (this is what the huge deal is right now about AI - safety - but thats another issue).So in summary:G=Generative=it’s generating output, based on P=Pretrained=its been fed data to learn with, and T=Transformer=it takes that data and transforms it according to your request.Hope that helps. post link: https://ift.tt/0dsnjLT author: Larushka submitted: June 04, 2024 at 08:44AM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[webchargers6]

E-commerce Digital Marketing Agency Tips You Need to Know

Over the last 10 years, one of the most competitive business areas has been the eCommerce sector. However, the majority of businesses still rely heavily on digital marketing to generate strong sales. Regretfully, as competition increases, it will only get more difficult for eCommerce businesses that haven't jumped on the digital marketing bandwagon. To get the most out of your e-commerce usage, we'll discuss a few key E-commerce Digital Marketing Agency tools in this piece.

Essential Digital Marketing Tips

Leverage AI

eCommerce sales for a company can be significantly impacted by artificial intelligence (AI). Based on prior interactions or shifts in consumer behaviour, it can collect data and utilise it to forecast a client's reaction.

Measurable metrics such as conversion rates, bounce rates, and engagement rates may provide you with a wealth of information on the performance and usage of your website.

The information you need to optimise your website, increase conversions, and foster consumer loyalty is gathered through data collection. A happy consumer increases the likelihood that they will return, suggest your items, and leave great reviews. Algorithms make it easier for repeat consumers to shop on your website by predicting the things they would want to buy. The merchandise is readily apparent.

Develop a Personalized Landing Page

This is going to take time because each landing page has to contain 100% unique content. Your eCommerce marketing plan will be more successful if you customise your content for each segment of your target market, though, since this will result in a sales funnel that feels distinct.

Collect Email Addresses

A customer who has already utilised your services or has made the decision to learn more about what you have to offer is the ideal target market for your marketing efforts. Because they are receptive to your e-commerce digital marketing agency messaging and already familiar with your brand, these people make great prospective customers.

Record the e-mail addresses of all clients who buy from your website and encourage site users to sign up for a newsletter. You may use your database to give out unique coupons and offers through email campaigns as part of your marketing strategy for your e-commerce business.

Share Your Expertise

Are you an authority in your field? Why not share that information via expert quotations, interviews, or articles with well-known blogs and media outlets? While some websites don't accept blogs or guest authors, others need excellent material. Although writing articles takes time, and you may not want to give away your expertise, having your work published on other people's websites may be a great way to promote your company with an e-commerce digital marketing agency. If the website is prepared to link to your eCommerce website, it may even have a direct impact on sales.

Test various web page features

You may think that increasing website traffic is the only goal of eCommerce marketing. But sometimes, the way your website looks could turn off visitors.

Maybe there's not a simple way to go to your online shopping basket, or pop-ups appear too often. You must test several elements of your eCommerce website before you can determine the solution.

You may find out where customers click on your website, which pages get the most traffic, and why visitors abandon their shopping baskets by using Google Analytics and tools like HotJar.

Offer Live Chat

Email is not the only really powerful tool for interacting with clients and website visitors. For example, you may use live chat to interact with website visitors.

After a set period of time or even after they arrive via an email newsletter, you may target your visitors on specific pages using many live chat services.

Furthermore, live chat gives you the ability to speak with consumers face-to-face and address any questions they may have when considering a purchase. Live chat leads to an increase in customer happiness and loyalty.

Run Content Marketing Campaigns

Regular blogging is a great way for eCommerce businesses to engage with consumers and improve their search engine results. Consider marketing the information you currently write for your blog on your online store if you have already written it. Remember that content marketing isn't only about blogging:

Make a podcast to advance your expertise or strengthen the bonds within your community.

Guest blogging on other websites and blogs helps SEO by gaining exposure and backlinks.

Write in-depth guides and articles to assist clients in getting the most out of your merchandise.

Offer Flexible Delivery

Restricting delivery options with an e-commerce digital marketing agency is a wonderful way to boost cart abandonment. When they discover that the shipping options do not meet their demands, one in two online shoppers takes the things out of their carts.

Consumers want to order products and know that they will be delivered as quickly as is practical. It would also be interesting to customers to know that, should they decide not to require their purchase immediately away, they can opt to pay less for delivery.

This doesn't imply you have to join the drone delivery frenzy; it just means you should think about how you may prioritise speed and efficiency while keeping expenses under consideration.

Accept Digital Signage

Display technologies utilised in digital marketing, such as LCD, LED, projection, and other electronic images, are included in digital signage. The attention that digital signage gets is enormous, but it's sometimes undervalued. Studies show that traditional signage, such as banners and posters, is not as attention-grabbing as digital displays. Digital signage has several benefits that may provide e-commerce businesses an advantage over rivals with e-commerce digital marketing agencies. For this marketing technique to work successfully, place the digital signage in a well-trafficked area, such as near an escalator, busy road, or other crowded locations.

Leverage Google Ads

Google Shopping ads are a wise investment for any eCommerce business. You may use a shopping campaign to prominently advertise your products at the top of Google's search results when customers are actively looking for the sort of products you sell. Your advertising can incorporate product images, user reviews, offers, and other pertinent information to facilitate customers' "add to cart" process.

Once you've uploaded a product data feed to Google Merchant Centre and connected your Merchant Centre account to your Google Adverts account, Google will generate adverts for your items whenever a user conducts a relevant search.

Integrate Social Media

Many professionals have long held the opinion that search marketing drives sales, but social media marketing raises brand recognition. This strict barrier between the two channels is eroding year after year, despite the fact that social media is a great method to reach new audiences and search marketing (particularly Google Shopping) is definitely a helpful approach to convert low-funnel prospects. For optimum brand visibility, use these websites within your eCommerce online marketing plan.

Instagram: Any post on your page can now have an Instagram gallery attached to it. Consumers may buy it by clicking the image, which will take them to your online store.

Facebook: Facebook is a powerful marketing tool, with 2 billion monthly active users. Facebook ads offer demographic and location-based highly focused segmentation for information delivery with a greater return on investment.

YouTube: Nearly as many people use YouTube as there are on Facebook, with 1.5 billion users. Companies may provide content such as product reviews, educational videos, cross-promotions, and new product releases on this platform for free.

Optimize Your Email Marketing Campaigns

Email marketing is one of the most important parts of your sales funnel and e-commerce digital marketing agency strategy. With all the email marketing advice available in digital marketing, it may seem overwhelming. These are some fundamental optimisations that can help you increase conversions and revenue but are often overlooked. Email welcomes: A welcome email strengthens the bond between your company and its customers.

Email discounts: Offer coupons and discounts; a good deal is enjoyed by everybody.

Ask for comments: Email surveys are a great way to learn more about your business and clientele. Use proper procedures prior to making an input request, and don't take this lightly. Information about customer feedback is valuable.

Build Trust With Customer Reviews

Sales from your product listings will rise if you incorporate customer comments. A favourable review from someone who has bought one or more of your items is one of the most comforting things there is.

Buyers who have little extra income to spend are reluctant to invest it. Adding testimonials and reviews to your product pages is a tried-and-true, low-tech way to boost the percentage of site visitors who convert to sales.

Offer Personalization to Enhance Customer Experience

One of the main ways to differentiate a brand is by personalisation. eCommerce has transformed into a battle between brands over customisation as companies fight for customers' attention and dollars. Customers of today prefer retailers that provide personalised service because they demand it. Because they have access to so much personal shopping data, online retailers have a clear edge over their physical counterparts.

Retailers greet customers by name, and offer upsells, similar goods, and coupons while they are perusing their online store. Following a sale, businesses may remain in contact with their clients by wishing them a happy birthday, giving them updates, and promoting new goods to keep them engaged all year long.

Conclusion

E-commerce digital marketing agency is not a simple or flawless procedure. Applications specific to each method must be used for data curation and management.

Reaching clients at the appropriate moment and making them the appropriate offer is the aim. Digital marketing tactics for eCommerce enable firms to reach a wider audience online. If you own an eCommerce website, you should brand your company, improve sales, and attract visitors to it using a combination of digital marketing techniques with Webchargers.

[ophelianated]

have i ever talked about how much i looooove working in customer service (contact centre agent, to be exact)

to all the entitled bitches out there who treat us like servants at best and dirt on their shoe at worst on a daily basis, please for the LOVE OF GOD:

take five minutes, just five minutes out of your life to do some research by yourself before bothering us. we're not fucking google, and being treated as such gets real tiring real fast. we should be your last resort

we're not therapists either. i repeat, We. Are. Not. Therapists. we understand that you're frustrated, but our job description doesn't include emotional labour. we're here to help you, not listen to you vent. if you need a minute, hour, day to get yourself together enough to shift your focus back on problem solving, you can just contact again later. don't take your anger and desperation out on us. all telling us how you'll have to tell your children now that they can't see their favourite team play because you can't afford to pay a fee will accomplish is make us upset too because we're not allowed to make exceptions - "gesture of goodwill" is not a concept all companies support. all yelling and cursing at us will do is earn you an abusive customer badge and make us feel like shit. one would think that this would be a no brainer, yet here we are. here we FUCKING ARE

nor are we complaint forms. take your spiel where it belongs so it can arrive in the hands of someone in the correct department specialized to deal with more complex issues, like ones that require an official investigation for instance. believe it or not, we have a complaint form for a reason. describe your problem as concisely as you can and don't waste our time, especially because some of us are micromanaged down to how much time we spend with each customer, and we WILL get in trouble if we go over a certain limit

exercise some patience and understand that Rome wasn't built in a day. some processes take time, and no, in most cases we have no way of expediting them, especially if we're escalating something to another department. adding "urgent" at the end only serves to piss people off

if we say we can't do/don't know something because we physically don't have the method or authority to execute what you want us to/access the information you seek, believe us. unless you're being particularly rude, i promise we're not trying to pass you off, we genuinely have no way of helping you

on that note: if we say that our company policy forbids us from doing shit, believe us. and ask yourself if YOU would risk YOUR job for a random stranger before demanding that we do it anyway and getting mad when we say no

if we say that our supervisors can't do anything about your problem either, BELIEVE US. so many of you mfs think that supervisors are above company policy for some reason. i'm telling you, they have waaaaaaay less authority than you think, and if they actually gave us the go ahead to kiss your asses to high heaven and do whatever you ask, them and us would be fired at the exact same speed

if we tell you where you can find the information you seek and more, don't be a lazy piece of shit and actually check it out. if we spell an entire process out for you so it's clear what you have to do and how, don't ask if we can do it instead. you're adults. exercise some goddamn self-reliance. i've had customers asking me to cherry pick and send them via chat only the relevant contents of the page i literally had just sent them the link to a few seconds prior because they didn't want to click on said link and spend TWO MINUTES skimming the page to find what info they needed and within what article. why don't i chew your fucking food for you as well while i'm at it. tie your shoelaces. wipe your ass maybe. this also gets old real fucking fast

if we're communicating via email or chat, read what we send you. yes, even if it's a wall of text. so many conversations could take half the time if you people just fucking read shit*

don't waste your breath. threatening to sue the company will not intimidate us into doing what you want. we get threats like that every day and (unfortunately) they never go anywhere

understand. process it on a cognitive level. make it a part of you carnally if necessary. but i'm begging you please find a way to get it through that thiccc skull: we don't know every single one of our fellow employees personally. neither do we have access to the complete list of people working for the company. i have no fucking clue who the blond guy who was rude to your mother yesterday three countries away is, nor do i have the power to get him fired (refer back to the point about complaints on how to proceed in this situation)

if YOU are the one who fucked up royally and the situation is beyond saving, THAT'S ON YOU. entirely on YOU. don't blame us for not having a solution to any and all mistakes you bitches make. we clean up your messes more than enough as is, because some of you apparently can't even spell your honest to god child's name right. given of course that you don't just forget about them entirely (both true stories)

read the terms and conditions. i don't care if it's long and dry and tedious. it's also sneaky and elusive and contains a shitton of info companies don't shove in your face, which is why you should study that shit like it's holy scripture before you do anything

no, you can't get a refund for everything. life doesn't work that way. deal or die

understand that we don't make the policies of the company we work for. yes, we're aware that some (or even most) of them suck, but we gotta eat somehow. we're not the company, and we're not the enemy. i repeat, we are not the company, and we are not the enemy

on the same vein: make peace with the fact that most of us are not malicious. we don't sit around rubbing our hands, coming up with different ways to fuck up your day and steal your money. we're trying to make the best of what we're working with. if you don't like the answer we give you, chances are we don't either, but there's nothing we can do and we feel horrible about it. i know it's easy to feel like we don't help you because we don't want to when you're being told no over and over, but resist the temptation to make us the big bad in your head. i promise most of us would love to help you, and it feels incredibly shitty if we can't, especially since helping people out is the whole purpose of our job

our training can't prepare us for each and every scenario we face on the job. it's just not possible. be reasonable and patient if yours happens to be an extremely tricky case that even our most experienced colleagues haven't encountered. we are people, and we are doing our best

*actual conversation i had with a customer (kept vague for security purposes):

me: We can't do x because the other people with you don't have the necessary thing y. We in the contact centre will have to give them y by [insert explanation about the process].

customer: But they don't have y.

me: Yes, that's the problem. They will need it before we can proceed.

customer. Oh. How can I get them y?