#whis podcast

[auremanaresearchcorps]

Oh My God, What Happened in Skinner!

I just binged this podcast and I'm so invested now! It's a true crime style fiction podcast that gets into secretive cult-y religion, charming villains, big important philosophical debates, disappearances and murders, maybe mermaids, and the ethics of sharing things about your friends on the internet. It's on the Rusty Quill Network (where The Magnus Archives comes from). Highly recommend! It looks like season two is coming soon!

[canyourlawnmowerdothis]

you've been waiting for the light to shine -- wake up

zelda doodles while recovering from my daily Played Totk For Far Too Many Hours Striaght Headache And General Malaise

[artsyeoll]

minha conta do pinterest foi desativada haha 😁😁

[timeisacephalopod]

(Content warning for eating disorder mention)

The most fucked up thing I've learned about recently, when I really sat down to think of it, is how fat people with eating disorders are treated. When a person is very thin and has the behaviors we associate with anorexia we would know that telling them they're too fat for treatment is just. Fucking evil, it's an evil thing to do to someone, but that's exactly what people with "atypical" anorexia face if they seek treatment and the atypical part in my understanding is just being larger than the BMI "regular" anorexia has to qualify for having the disorder.

Like instead of using the same fucking term we decided fat people with eating disorders were built wrong somehow and thus need a Special Term™️ rather than defining eating disorders around the behaviors associated with them, not the body type of those who suffer from them. Just thinking about the way even thinner people who aren't thin enough trying to get treatment and being told they're too healthy or too fat for it makes my blood boil with rage when we would never treat someone who's eating disorder shows up strongly on their frame this way because we'd immediately recognize how disgusting that is.

[asproduct]

Del-Ray Phoenix

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-7tm4c-1255e96 CharRon sat down with Book author,  Poet, activist,  and Radio DJ: Del Ray Phoenix.

[pilesofnonsense]

RQBB 2024 Writer Sign-Ups Open!

Writer Sign-Ups are now open for the Rusty Quill Big Bang 2024!

Please read through the information carefully to understand what will be expected of you as a participant.

The sign-up link is at the end of the post under the spoiler cut!

You do not need to have decided what you will be writing at this stage, but please consider whether the fic requirements are compatible with what you have in mind, and be sure that you can commit to contacting us on the below deadlines to share your progress (or withdraw your participation if necessary).

Schedule for 2024 (all deadlines at 23:00 BST / 5pm CDT):

Writer Sign-ups: May 20th - 26th

Full First Draft & Summary Due: August 18th

Artist Sign-ups: August 26th - September 1st

Art Draft Deadline: September 29th

Final Fic & Art Due: October 13th

Posting: October 16th- 27th

Confirmation e-mails for sign-ups will be sent out after sign-ups close; if you have not received a confirmation by May 30, please contact us at pilesofnonsense@gmail.com. We ask that you check your email (including the spam folder!) and reply so we can confirm that your registered email address is correct and you still intend to participate.

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You must choose whether to join the Big Bang as an artist or writer. You may not do both.

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Fics of any rating and with any warnings are permitted, as long as they meet the minimum word count (20,000), are centered around at least one Rusty Quill original podcast (The Magnus Archives, The Magnus Protocol, Rusty Quill Gaming, Stellar Firma, Inexplicables, Chapter & Multiverse, Trice Forgotten, Cry Havoc!, Neon Inkwell), and are tagged appropriately.

We encourage authors to take this opportunity to challenge themselves to take on a project that they might not otherwise—though please consider what is realistic in terms of the deadlines as well!

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By signing up for this event, you agree to do your best to meet the deadlines. If you might need a little more time, please email the mods to explain your situation before the deadline passes. Those who miss deadlines without contacting the mods beforehand may be dropped from the event without further contact.

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[sidewalkchemistry]

2023 is the Year to Become a Mindful Consumer

With the level of consumerism today, it is good to practice to view everything as an advertisement. This is not to stress you out, but for the benefit of understanding where it's worthwhile to put your time, money, and energy -- all of which affect beyond just you and this current generation. It's an amazing lens to wear to encourage you to consider where your need for purchasing an item, adopting a certain lifestyle, or even following certain social media accounts is coming from. We are all transmitting and receiving messages amongst one another constantly. The question is, "Which messages do I find value in supporting? Are the intentions here pure? Will contributing to this allow me and my community flourish?"

According to Merriam-Webster, an advertisement is "a public notice especially : a paid notice that is published or broadcast (as to attract customers or to provide information of public interest)" Advertisement comes from the French word avertir meaning "to turn, direct, make aware"

So, understand this: Influencers, celebrities, and politicians are advertisements. Billboards and commercials are advertisements. Labels are advertisements. News broadcasts are advertisements. Newspaper/article headlines are advertisements. BUT ALSO...The clothing one wears is an advertisement (even if it is devoid of branding). One's behavior is an advertisement. A facial expression is an advertisement (informing others of one's feelings). Artworks are advertisements. Institutions of education are advertisements. Songs are advertisements. Blogs are advertisements. Photos uploaded to social media are advertisements. Speeches, sermons, and talks are advertisements.

All that influences you to make certain choices in your day is an advertisement. Some things are advertising positive messages. Some are advertising horrible messages. And others are offering mixed messages.

We don't realize the depth of advertisements in our lives, for one, because we are told to be advertisements ourselves. It feels important to our survival: to attain enough money, admiration, and acceptance. We are encouraged to look a certain way on paper (resumes, CVs, cover letters, report cards, exam scores, etc), in media (photographs, interviews, podcasts, videos), and in face-to-face interactions (accents, fashion style, body shape, makeup, etc).

We don't want to lose authenticity amongst friends and family. We want to talk to real human beings on emotional, logical, and spiritual levels, right? Becoming a mindful consumer is coupled in with helping you realize what you stand for, remain an active thinker, and hold secure with your empathy. When you step up in this aspect, it will encourage others to do the same. It's important that we stay connected with being truthful & kind individuals with depth, I would think.

HOW TO (remember what I defined as an advertisement):

Notice what is being advertised. Is there a literal product (you may need to look for product placement, scripted review, restrictions on sharing honest opinion, etc)? An ideal? A societal standard? A new concept?

What was your honest emotional response to the advertisement? Did it seem alluring? Revolting? Boring? Intriguing? Disturbing? Confusing? Frustrating? (Notice as well what your gut feelings are saying).

Notice what sensory aspects of the advertisement affected your emotions. Was it the color palette, music, filter, word choice, lettering, vocal inflection, etc? What is the general vibe of the advertisement? Is it cheery? Fearful? Hopeful? Inspiring? Angry? Degrading? Does the emotional vibe make sense with the message?

Notice the intentions behind the advertisement. Is the predominant intention here to gain money? Make positive change for those struggling? Deceive or confuse people? Spread gossip or hate? Encourage? (Know about the characters of the individuals, the pasts of the companies, the institutional influences, the historical comparisons which can be drawn, if individuals are being taken advantage of, how true are the claims, if there is funding going on). Does the advertiser show indication of integrity? Do they make use of "experts," popular individuals, and buzz words to distract from the natural inclination to find proof or reason to approve of the advertisement's messaging?

If you are left at all unsure if you agree with what is being advertised, do research (be sure you know how to find reliable sources, but sometimes it's worth seeing what the opposition/competitors/opposing perspectives say too). It's always good to be informed. You can even send questions directly to the person or company advertising. Evaluate with logic & intuition, to avoid letting pure, knee-jerk emotionality to do the decision-making.

Remain flexible to change your mind about your initial evaluations. Sometimes, we aren't always accurate the first time because we didn't have a full enough picture.

Generally, it's good to realize that labels/appearances/glimpses are not going to fully or accurately represent the truth of what is being advertised. It's up to us to notice how true they are. Look at the fine print.

PRACTICE: look at the ads on television, social media pages, magazines, newspapers, and websites. Move into considering songs, television shows, movies, social media videos, and documentaries. And keep on evaluating as you expand what you consider to be an advertisement.

‼It helps to gain knowledge of what the most influential people, titles (eg. doctor, specialist, best-seller, award-winner, etc), and institutions are. They usually are not widely scrutinized and so their messages are taken on as near fact. They also will be able to influence entire markets/spheres/communities with ease.

GOOD DEMONSTRATIONS: a b

[lover-girl-estxx]

Don't Worry About It

*not my gif

Same TW

Part 2

------------------------------

| Same Night |

Ethan was yelling again about the house not being clean or the food not being right something I don't really listen anymore "what?!" he said grabbing both my forearms to the wall "stop your hurting me," he held tighter "Stop!" Axel came from his room ans push his dad as hurt as he could "she said to stop" "who do you think you are huh?" he punched Axe making him fall "Stop! he's bleeding!" I got down and helped him up. Ethan stopped and went back to the living room, he never made Axel bleed never leaving marks on his face "come on" I whispered and pulled him into the bathroom having him sit on the toilet lid while I grabbed a cotton pad to clean his face. "sorry I kept you up" I said "you didn't don't say sorry" I gave a slight smile "you don't have to stand up for me, you shouldn't have to okay?" "I can't just listen".

I got in bed next to Abel wrapping my arms around him Axel on the bed above us "thank you Axe....I love you goodnight" "of course Love you too mom".

| Next Morning |

"people are gonna know I have makeup on" he said as I put it over the purple spot "no they won't" he sighed "i'll do it again before you go to gym" he nodded "mom?" I looked down at Abel "yeah?" "can we go?" I smiled "go wait by the door" Abel smiled and did so "how's he normal?" " your normal to Axel" he didn't say anything.

I dropped Axel off at school did some things around town, when we got back home I pulled my phone and look up the guy from the day before Sean Strickland. 'Current UFC Middleweight Champion of the world' I scroll down more 'Sean Strickland opens up about past trauma on Theo Von Podcast' I hit the clip then I watch his fight Abel in my lap.

"did you shower after school" Sean asked Axel looked at me "no I didn't" "you have a locker, with clothes and stuff go shower come out when your done " "okay thank you" Axel walked to the locker room "you can stay or pick him up in a bit" I nodded "thanks".

| Sean's POV |

The kid came out with a big bruise on his face not as his moms from the day before "what happened to you?" I asked "I fell at school" "did you?" "yeah man I did" I nodded. "go on the Treadmill" I told him getting on one myself next to him, he started when I asked "why are you here?" he looked at me "I've been watching for a whi-" his phone started to ring he didn't say anything but quickly picked it up "hey dad....um i'm just at the after school thing....I don't know I haven't talked to mom today...okay bye" "your dad not know your here" "can you stop asking me shit?" "okay come on" I turned it off and hopped off "what?" "go get you gloves and wraps".

"how much do you weigh?" I asked quickly wrapping his hands "like 125" "K MARK?" the other kid came over "your gonna spar him" mark nodded "I don't know how to fight, hes huge" Axel said "hes 150" "how old is he?" "that doesn't matter".

"what the hell happened?!" his mom said grabbing his chin "I got to spar! it was awesome!" "are you okay though?" "i'm great!" "okay" his mom said unsure "i'll see you tomorrow" I told him he nodded "thanks!".

| Week Later |

"whats up?" I asked Axel who couldn't even keep his eyes open hitting the bag "nothing" "you barely awake" "I was just up late last night is all" "come on" "what?" "take your gloves off take a nap in the office" "no it's fine" "kid...it's fine go take a nap i'll bring you a pillow and blanket" he nodded.

I brought him bedding "you know you can..um you can talk to me about stuff" he shrugged "okay" "you have my number even when your at home" he nodded.

"Hey!" Y/n said holding her younger sons hands with a smile on her face I could barely see under her glasses "Hey!" I gave a smile back "wheres axe?" "hes napping in the office" she nodded "he was pretty tired" I nodded "you can wake him up I got this one" she smiled "okay thanks". I went to step forward to talk to him and he stepped back from me I got down to his level "i'm Sean whats your name?" "..Abel.." "Abel?" he nodded "that's such a cool name" he smiled "really?" I nodded "very cool" he smiled wider "thanks Sean" Y/n said a smile Axel behind her I nodded "see you tomorrow!" Axel said I smiled

| Next week |

It was around 1 when my phone lit up

702-###-####:

It's Axel you want to go grab lunch?

S: Sure. You need a ride?

A: yeah if you don't mind

S: send me where

"what happened to your eye?" I asked It was swollen shut "its nothing drive please" I put my truck in drive. "you came to the gym because you know who I am right?" I asked sitting across from him "yeah" "so you've seen my interviews and all the shit I talk about" "yes I have" he grabbed his drink "so I know whats going on" he nodded "I know you do" he whispered "to your mom and your brother?" "my mom" "you have my number you need to call me next time" "to do what make it worse?! we have no where to go" "I can figure that out" he sighed and shook his head "i'm being honest with you Axel"

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Well, this is the best bit of gossip to ever appear on the Elis James and John Robins radio show:

This, of course, goes along with the story that Nish Kumar told on The Bugle of the same football game:

A game that took place when John Oliver was back in Britain briefly at the end of 2017, during which time he appeared on The Russell Howard Hour and apparently played football, but did not stop to do any Bugle episodes, which is fine, I mean it's absolutely fine, we can't all be Hollywood.

Hollywood. Despite the fact that I once made an image listing some coincidental superficial similarities,

I find it quite difficult to picture John Robins and John Oliver existing in the same place. They're wildly different. But if you asked me what I thought would happen if they ever were in the same place, I'd probably guess it would involve a lot of John Robins repeatedly calling him Hollywood.

I can't post that audio clip of Nish Kumar discussing that game on The Bugle without also posting the compilation I made of the evolution of Nish Kumar becoming the British John Oliver, because it's quite adorable:

Anyway, going back to that original clip from the radio show, I also enjoyed Producer Vin hearing comedian football mentioned and immediately asking about Andy Zaltzman. There wasn't any context from before or explanation from after that clip to explain why he'd asked, it sounds like Vin just likes Andy was impressed that they play football with him sometimes. Which is pretty cool. I think Vin's mentioned before that he's a cricket fan, and I am aware that Andy Zaltzman is weirdly, legitimately big among cricket fans, since he does so much cricket commentary and collation of stats. I'm hoping I'm right in remembering that I've heard Vin mention being into cricket, as otherwise that's just an assumption I'm making based on his race. But I think he's mentioned it.

I quite like Producer Vin at this point. Earlier in the radio show, I was a bit disappointed by how their back-and-forth with the producers seemed a lot less fun than what I'm used to, on The Bugle where Producer Chris (and Tom before him) is a beloved figure on the show. At some point I worked out that it's a bit of a different relationship, an independent podcast vs a live radio show. The radio producers are actually accountable to the station to make sure the comedians are saying things that will be good for listenership, so there were more interruptions that were genuine rebukes for going too far off on rants that would be inaccessible to a casual listener, whereas on a show that's a podcast first, you know that everyone has tuned in because they like Andy Zaltzman's inaccessible rants. I've never heard Chris Skinner try to curtail any of Andy's pun runs, for any reason besides to preserve his own psychological stability.

Having said that, after the first 100 episodes or so they settle into a rhythm, interactions with producers got a lot more natural and more fun. I'm at episode 200 now and Producer Vin has only recently started speaking up at times during the chat to hold them to account, not for boring radio standards but for contradicting stuff they've said before, which can be pretty funny at times. I like him. I think he's more naturally funny than the previous producer. Knowing he apparently approves of Andy Zaltzman, for whatever reason, makes me like him more.

Oh, and I also recently heard an episode in which Harry Potter came up, and John Robins said he's a Gryffindor, and I have not identified anyone's Hogwarts House for about fifteen years, but the years I spent doing so instantly came back to me and I looked at my phone and said "absolutely the fuck not, 100% Ravenclaw, few cases are this clear cut." And then a few weeks later they were on with Producer Vin and John referenced the recent episode in which he'd called himself a Gryffindor, and Vin immediately said that was one of the episodes when he was absent, which he knows because if he'd been there he would never have let him get away with that claim, he'd have interrupted to say no, 100% Ravenclaw. And I looked at my phone and said thank you. I like this guy.

This post has covered a fair bit of ground. The original point was supposed to be that I would pay good money to see Old John Oliver and New John Oliver tackle each other over a football. Sorry that I got onto Harry Potter. Fuck JK Rowling but I like Producer Vin.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 11/1/22

watched a good movie made a good soup

listening

Witch for a Night by Sugar Pie DeSanto. i think any song that starts with the lines

I'm gonna be a party-poppin, show-stoppin, wig-floppin witch for a night!

will never disappoint you.

_

reading

The Markup did a huge crunchy report about how they figured out poorer, less white neighborhoods got slower, more expensive internet than their wealthy white neighbors, and a more accessible writeup.

they do absolutely exquisite data visualization.

good data viz really makes a fuckin difference. this is damning!!! look at this shit!!!

and none of the ISPs had anything productive to say about their methodology!!! not literally bulletproof but pretty damn fuckin close, since it's pulling price and address info directly from ISP sites.

_

watching

Saloum (2021, dir. Herbulot). this is a West African terror film with a good dollop of acid western stylization to create the world's tensest dinner parties as a curse does what curses do. i really really loved this bc if we take a "western" as any movie with a group of mercenaries in an arid colonized land, it is a fun take on what a modern spaghetti western can be with all the visual flair and pathos i love about this subgenre when it's good.

this is the kind of film tarantino loves to rip off. Herbulot cites two video games as direct influence and they are rdr2 and metal gear solid v.

i do want to underscore that the director is very clear about his "terror" categorization:

But the cursed king that they're talking about, it's a real story. It's real mythology. That is from the Saloum. And so this story is real. This myth is real. This curse is real. Now beyond that, what's the curse and how does it work? I don't know yet. I don't want to know (laughs). But that was our starting point. It was essential for me that, if we were going to shoot the Saloum region, we wanted to be as respectful as we could be, especially for [collaborator] Pamela, because that's her birth region.

this is a really fucking tight eighty minutes. apparently this was originally closer to three hours long, with a lot of backstory about the Hyenas (a gang of mercenaries extracting a drug lord and a briefcase full of gold) and Awa (the girl they meet in a tourist camp when their plane comes down in the desert after sabotage).

this is a film, like all my favorite spaghetti westerns, that is very concerned with revenge and what makes a hero. it frames most of this during the world's tensest series of dinner parties at this camp as they try to get fuel and resin to fix their plane. and then, of course, things go sideways.

this is a very beautiful and well-made movie (and not just Good For A Budget Movie, just straight up a good lookin movie) with a lot of care put into framing and setting up shots. the director used to be a comic book artist and used to shoot music videos, so the framing and shot setup is really thoughtful. this movie is simply fun to watch. it is very good at holding and building tension, everything unravels in slow motion until it doesn't and then it's a level of your favorite first-person shooter. it does suffer from the "the monster isn't actually as scary as the anticipation of seeing the monster" but this group of mercs looks so fuckin sick all the time it more than makes up for it imo. yes he is wearing white dishwashing gloves paired with a machete. also versace pants and shoes.

this podcast episode was very helpful bc their guest is from the Gambia and had a ton of important and useful context to give. this is fundamentally a "recap the movie and do some bits about it" podcast so your tolerance may vary.

i would strongly recommend signing up for a free week of Shudder with a burner email and watching this movie legally, bc it will almost certainly never see wide release :(

how'd i find this: like many other things, this is indirectly @morrak 's fault. last year he said "hey have you listened to this podcast episode dunking on the hyperloop" to which i said "no i have not" and then fell into the alice caldwell-kelly podcast cinematic universe. her podcast Kill James Bond is not my favorite, bc it is mostly a podcast recapping spy films and doing bits about them, which i have a limited tolerance for, but it is very good at going WOW THERE'S A LOT OF RAPE IN THIS BOND FILM and reminding me i should not rewatch literally any of the older movies, as much as i love daniel craig's outings.

_

playing

i did nick valentine's final companion quest in fo4 and cried my fucking eyes out, again. why won't they let me romance the robot and why is he trapped in this incredibly mediocre game :(((

_

making

red lentil soup with lemon bc i realized if i buy a bunch of soup-serving-size-i-like plastic off brand tupperware, i can have microwaveable soup lunch for much cheaper than just buying a lot of canned soup. and it does not require any more prep than setting an alarm to take a unit of soup out of the freezer and into the fridge the night before, which is good bc my brain is fuckin fried by 1 PM.

the leek and potato soup i made last month did Not freeze well. it's like edible but the texture is...not ideal. the internet said lentil soups freeze well, and even though this recipe is from the nyt it looked reasonable enough with some modifications.

recipe here. shit i changed:

not quite tripled, bc i wanted to use up an entire bag of lentils at once.

did not add red pepper flakes to the soup itself as it cooked bc i'm bad at estimating how spicy i like things.

added cumin until my heart said to stop, deffo far more than a teaspoon. probably two tablespoons? the fun thing i previously knew about lentils is that they absorb a lot like A Lot of flavor so just like. keep fuckin going with ur lil shakers.

the lemon is really crucial here, it's perfectly fine on its own with just salt/pepper/cumin, but the lemon does a lot of work

added in the entire 6oz can of tomato paste, bc i never remember to use half-cans up and then they mold in the back of my fridge and i get cranky about it. also like. one tablespoon??? really??? get the fuck out of here.

added in many carrots bc i like a stew-like consistency and also had a lot of really sad carrots in my crisper

threw in like five stalks of celery bc i bought a clump or whatever a unit of celery is called for something else and wanted to use it up

most of a bag of small-medium onions and like 4oz of minced garlic bc that was what my heart said on sunday night when i made this

still nursing along some green onions on my countertop, bought nice bread specifically for dinner. i buy the spreadable carton of brie bc i hate peeling cheese and i like brie, and i think brie goes well with this soup.

[reygunsandreynbows]

GODDAMIT WHY ARE PODCAST WRITERS SO GOOD.

I JUST WANT A CHARACTER THAT I CAN SHIT FOR BEING AN INDEIABLY SHITTY PERSON WHIS ACTIONS OUTWEIGH ANY WEAK SEMBLANCE OF MORALITY THAT FORMS A THINLY VEILED EXCUSE WITHIN THEIR MOTIVATIONS

instead I have a collection of beautifully written and inherently human flawed characters who yes they do shitty things but I cannot truly say that I could never do that, never been them, never fall down their path and into their actions.

The artistry is so stunning like I can't hate these characters, I can't justly call them irredeemable monsters. I sit here wanting then to make a good choice, begging for them to prove that there is still hope because I see crates of broken fragments of myself and my hope, my dreams, my fears and who I may be or am scared to be within each and every one of them.

equally there is no clear line of where the protagnoists end and antagonists begin. every character exhibits justification for the sympathy and equally they each show a reason to hate them. they all have some factor about them that individually is often treated within society as justification for hatred, as enough to write them off. and yet these characters are the ones we're rooting for, the ones we've decided are worth supporting but other than the narrative perspective there's no defining feature that differentiates them.

fuck you writers. FUCK. YOU.

[auremanaresearchcorps]

Meme made by Ejvind in the What Happened in Skinner discord

[the-comfort-den]

can you talk about your lustswap interpretation,,, it interests me a lot -pumpkin anon

Long story short lol, it’s a swap version of underlust! The underlust stuff is still true but they're swaped like in underswap!

There are ofc more differences lol, like Spark is a slight bit of a yandere(he's possessive and protective, he wouldn’t hurt any of his lovers and his pan/poly so he's good wish sharing! But if you make his lover/s uncomfortable he'll fuck you up) while Blue and Charm arent, Charm would still fight someone if they upset his lover though

Salt is also protective but more in the wraps an arm around his lovers shoulder to show that they're his, and isnt afraid of getting someone thrown out of Muffet's(or who I call Sugar cookie, but she isnt on the list since I don’t really wanna write x reader stuff for her lol) stripe club lmao

They're still lusts and typically just sleep around-

Ofc Toriel is the queen/main ruler of the underground while Asgore is in the ruins, he's demisexual,

Like the other lust aus they're basically constantly in heat/rut( and can trigger other's heats/ruts(if they can have them), but since they're in the underground and everyone's dealing with it they don’t really notice!

Though after they get out of the underground they normally take suppressants so they don’t bother everyone else/every other non human that doesn’t have the constant heats/ruts,

The kids even if they are affected basically just have a fever without the horny, till they're 'of age' at least(which is already almost an adult if not already an adult, so like 17 - 22 is about when it starts)

Note that I see all non humans as getting heat/rut(heat and rut only being different in how you feel(whether you wanna fuck something(rut) or wanna be fucked(heat)), but its only once a year for 1-4 weeks(so a week to a month),

There isnt a time of the year everyone gets their heat(heats and ruts can also 'change', like a bottom will always have heats and a top will always have ruts and anyone in between flip between them) and they vary, there are the suppressants but they're only taken when the heat/rut gets in the way of life or just makes you that uncomfortable(like if you're a sex repulsed ace!)(also legally places have to give you off for when you're in heat so you don’t trigger everyones heat that comes in/other workers there, when not in the underground ofc- since everyone has heat in the underground so it didn’t matter lmao)

It doesn’t matter if someone is ace/aro they still have heats, even asexuals,

Salt is bi/poly with a preference for men and is dating Napstablook! Who has a podcast/does audio of ready spicy novels, Napstablook(whi I call Cast) is demi(sexual and romantic),

Mettaton(or who I call Bookwarm) owns a library, its also where Cast's recording studio is, I also wanna note that I  give any ghosts(so the Napstas and swap Mettas) human looking forms,

Toriel takes suppressants even in the underground as she adopts a lot of kids and would rather have an easier time caring for them, though she'd never do anything to them ofc it just also helps with the bit of fever heats/ruts give them

-

I can ramble more if you want but this is already kinda all over the place and I rambled more than just about the au

-

also a note lmao, in the chaos incarnate au i prefer writing for, everything exists in the same universe! hence the 'chaos incarnate' lmao, so all of the undertale aus are in different undergrounds! non of them are related say for the fact they're all monsters and ofc they all have their own issues! i can ramble about my and my boyfriends Chaos incarnate au foreverrrr

[realbigpodcastslut]

I haven't been super in the podcast loop for a time, does anyone have a list of aro ace characters from audio dramas? I'd love to prove my friend wrong whi was going on about how "none exist, especially happy ones".

All I can think of is Robert from Inkwyrm, The Witch Queen from Old Gods Appalachia, and Jet from The Penumbra Podcast

[naturalrights-retard]

Robert Kennedy, Jr. is running for president. I could not possibly be more excited. So, I’m going to give Bobby some unsolicited advice, which, if he knows what’s good for him, he will not take.

I feel OK about doing this because, even if Bobby, in the wee hours of the night, when the mind is vulnerable to dangerous ideas, were to seriously consider taking my advice, I am sure he has people — i.e., PR people, campaign strategists, pollsters, and so on — that would not hesitate to take him aside and disabuse him of any inclination to do that.

OK, before I give Bobby this terrible advice, I have to do the “full disclosure” thing. I’m a pretty big fan of RFK, Jr. I don’t generally get involved in electoral politics, but, if I were a Democrat, I would definitely vote for him. Also, he was kind enough to blurb my book (which isn’t going to make his PR people happy) and invite me onto his podcast, RFK, Jr. The Defender, to talk about “New Normal” totalitarianism. So, I am fairly biased in favor of Bobby Kennedy. I think he is an admirable, honorable human being. I would love to see him in the Oval Office.

That isn’t going to happen, of course. The global-capitalist ruling classes are never going to let him near the Oval Office. They learned their lesson back in 2016. There are not going to be any more unauthorized presidents. The folks at GloboCap are done playing grab-ass, and they want us to know that they are done playing grab-ass. That’s what the last six years have been about.

As I put it in a column in January, 2021 …

Does that sound like the behavior of an unaccountable, supranational power apparatus that is prepared to stand by and let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., or Donald Trump, or any other unauthorized person, become the next president of the United States?

So, here’s my bad advice for Bobby.

Fuck them. They’re not going to let you win, anyway. They are going to smear you, slime you, demonize you, distort every other thing you say, and just generally lie about who you are and what you believe in and what you stand for. They are going to paint you as a bull-goose-loony, formerly smack-addled, conspiracy-theorizing, anti-vax fanatic no matter what you do. If you tone down your act and try to “heal the divide” and “end the division,” they are going to have you for lunch, and then sit around picking their teeth with your bones. You know, and I know, and the American people know, that the things you say you want to do as president — which I know you sincerely want to do as president and are crazy enough to actually try to do, i.e., “to end the corrupt merger of state and corporate power that is threatening now to impose a new kind of corporate feudalism in our country” — are things ... well, as Michael Corleone once put it, that they would "use all their power to keep from happening."

So, fuck it, and fuck them. Tell the truth.

Not the ready-for-prime-time truth. Not the toned-down-for-mainstream-consumption truth. The truth. The ugly, unvarnished truth. The scary, crazy-sounding truth. The angry, divisive, uncensored truth.

Yes, there is a “divide.” A great divide. A chasm. A schism. A gulf. An abyss. A gaping, yawning, unbridgeable fissure. A Grand Canyon-sized fault in the foundation of society. A rupture in the very fabric of reality.

Upgrade to paid

As I noted in another 2021 column, the global-capitalist ruling classes have decommissioned one “reality” and are replacing it with another “reality” … corporate feudalism, pathologized totalitarianism, global corporatism, or whatever anybody wants to call it. Whatever we call it, everyone feels it. OK, I’m going to be obnoxious and quote myself again …

The folks at GloboCap are right on the verge of permanently implementing their new “reality.” In that “reality,” an apocalyptic virus (with a survival rate of roughly 99.7%) nearly wiped out the entire planet, and would have, if not for the Emergency Health Measures (i.e., mass house arrest, forced conformity rituals, cancellation of constitutional rights, censorship of dissent, official propaganda on a scale that even Goebbels could never have dreamed of, fomenting of mass hysteria and hatred, segregation and persecution of a designated scapegoat underclass) imposed on society by our admittedly imperfect but well-intentioned government and global health authorities. In that “reality,” the “vaccines” they forced on billions of people (who did not need them) are “safe and effective” (despite the fact, which even they now acknowledge, that they have seriously injured or killed millions of people). In that “reality,” a few hundred unarmed Trump supporters horsing around in the Capitol Building was an “insurrection,” or “attempted coup,” or … well, you get the picture. There are no neo-Nazis in the Ukraine. The Russians blew up their own pipelines. And so on.

What I am trying to get at, Bobby, is that those of us who have refused to convert to the new “reality” — which I am guessing is approximately 25-30% of the global population — are not looking for a leader who can “heal the divide.” We are in a fight. We are fighting for reality. We’re fighting for what’s left of reality.

And, at the moment, we are getting our asses kicked.

So, fuck it. What have you got to lose? Throw out the playbook. Fire your PR people. Go for broke. Tell the truth. Tell folks what we’re up against. That it isn’t something an election is going to fix. That it isn’t something a new president can fix. That it isn’t fixable. That it is a fucking fight. And not one according to the Queensberry Rules. A ball-kicking, eye-gouging, chair-swinging, bar fight. And that sometimes, like now, when there is nowhere to run to … well, you have to stand and fight, even if you know you’re going to lose.

That’s it. That’s my bad advice for Bobby. Hopefully, one of his staff will spot it and delete it before he reads his email. Otherwise, I’m afraid he might be tempted to take it. He’s already leaning in that direction. And … well, you know how those Irish love a good fight.

[mariacallous]

In a speech in Warsaw on Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden praised his Polish hosts for their foresight on the threat posed by Russia and their contributions to defending Ukraine. “Thank you, thank you, thank you for what you’re doing,” Biden said. But post-communist Poland hasn’t only been a success on matters of diplomacy and security. It has also been the most successful economy in Europe, in relative terms, since 1989—more dynamic not only than other Eastern European countries but also Europe’s big heavyweights France and Germany. That economic story is a central part of Poland’s growing influence on the continent and in the world more broadly.

How has Polish history shaped its economic identity? What factors have fueled its economic rise? And to what degree has its economic success been helped, or hindered, by its populist governments? Those are a few of the questions that came up in my recent conversation with FP economics columnist Adam Tooze on the podcast we co-host, Ones and Tooze. What follows is an excerpt, edited for length and clarity.

For the full conversation, look for Ones and Tooze wherever you get your podcasts.

Cameron Abadi: Poland has a remarkable history. It was wiped off the map in the 18th century and invaded from both directions, by Germany and Russia, in the 20th century. How has that longer-term history shaped its present-day political and economic identity?

Adam Tooze: Yeah, it’s a truly staggering history. If you look at an early modern map—a map of Europe in, say, 1600—then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was in fact the dominant power of Central and Eastern Europe. But the 18th century is a disaster. Poland ends up being divided between an ambitious Prussia, the Habsburgs, and the Russians. So, for a new Poland to emerge, which is the story of the 20th century, it basically needs a hegemonic patronage of one of those three powers, or it needs all three of them to be defeated, a kind of miracle.

And that’s precisely the miracle that transpires at the end of World War I. All three of them are defeated in sequence. First the Russians, then the Hapsburgs and the Prussians within days of each other. And by the end of 1918, Poland is established as a national unit. But it was, as you were saying, overtaken again by the aggression of its neighbors, smashed and divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939. And then you have a new phase of economic and social development under communism, which—well, of course, what we know about communism in the long run is that it’s an economic failure, but it wasn’t from the start. And for better and for worse, one thing that Soviet-era dominance and the common rule of the Soviet Communist Party did, it industrialized Poland, it urbanized Poland, and it set a much higher bar for Polish education. The percentage of Poles in university increased tenfold between the interwar period and the 1970s. It laid the grounds for the modern Polish success story that we’re focusing on, this incredible period of growth with a Poland inserted into, on the one hand, the European Union and, on the other hand, NATO.

But the scars of this history do linger. And that then creates this space not just for coming to terms with real lived trauma but also the politics of Polish nationalism, which, especially since the election of the Law and Justice party in 2015, now dominates the Polish political scene. This nationalism has opened up a variety of historical legacies simultaneously: the reparations issue with Germany, where Poland is demanding over 1 trillion euros in reparations for the damage done to Poland during the German occupation, but also now, of course, the confrontation with Russia over its attack on Ukraine. One interesting effect of all of that is that long-standing, historic legacies of tension between Poland and Ukraine—which fought wars with each other at the end of World War I, in the phase in which both of them were struggling for independence—have been papered over and buried so that Ukraine and Poland are now closely allied in the struggle against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

CA: When you get into the details of Poland’s development, it seems to have relied a lot on foreign direct investment—foreign firms setting up manufacturing hubs across the country. How much does this success have to do with specific policy choices that Poland has made versus simply the good luck of being geographically adjacent to the EU economic heavyweight that is Germany?

AT: I think the geographical factor is no doubt highly significant because it can’t be ignored that practically all of the former communist Eastern European states, all of which are more-or-less close to Germany and to the EU, have all done quite well. So Poland is the standout case with a growth rate since 1989 of 179 percent. But take Lithuania or Latvia or Slovakia, and they’ve all achieved 125-130 percent growth. Romania achieved a doubling of output. Slovakia, Chechnya, Hungary—which were much better off than Poland in 1990—grew by 70 percent. So everyone in that zone has achieved a relatively successful transition by comparison with, for instance, Belarus or Ukraine or indeed even Russia. And they were all, in that sense, relatively well placed. I think that’s important. I think it’s important also to be clear that Germany is a big part of this. Germany accounts for 26 percent of Polish exports, which is five times more than the next-placed country, which would be the Czech Republic and then the United Kingdom at 5 to 6 percent each.

So Germany is a key part of the Polish success story—but only in the context of Europe as a whole. So you spoke about foreign direct investment. There’s about 40 billion euros’ worth of German foreign direct investment in Poland, and that’s by comparison with the 140 billion euros that have been pumped into Poland since 2004 by the EU as a whole. So the EU matters more here.

If you ask in what ways did the Polish policies themselves inflect this, Poland is bitterly divided over what you might think would be an economic success story. And the current incumbent nationalist party is a party of ideological warfare. They campaigned on the slogan, believe it or not, “Poland in Ruins.” So what is at stake here? Well, the advocates of the Polish success story say that what Poland imposed after communism was shock therapy—they liberalized prices, they let the market rip, they allowed a wholesale destruction of communist-era economic security, a huge surge in unemployment, the bankruptcy of a whole bunch of Polish businesses—but what they crucially didn’t do was privatize early on. So they avoided the formation of the baneful system of oligarchs that we saw in Russia and many of the post-Soviet states: Ukraine, Belarus, and so on.

This is the story as the boosters of the Polish success story tell it. But what can’t be discounted is that there is a counternarrative that sees the ’80s and the ’90s—for all of the apparent success of the transition to capitalism, to Europe, and to democracy—as in fact a corrupt sellout, not on the scale of Russian chaos in the 1990s but nevertheless a subversion of the new Polish order by the corrupt holdovers of the communist period. And without reckoning with this difference of narratives about what, on the basis of the macroeconomic data, looks like a spectacular success story, you can’t understand how savage Polish politics has been in the last 15 years. The Law and Justice party has that name because it believes that those are the things that are at stake. I mean, in the West, we regard it as an unjust party that subverts the rule of law. But in their own terms, they understand themselves as bringing a new order and an end to the corrupt long-term legacies of the botched transition.

CA: The Law and Justice party has been in power for several years, and it has also presided over continued economic growth. To what extent is its economic success traced to its populist status exactly? Are there specific populist platforms or ideas that have proved economically successful?

AT: It’s really an interesting question, and I think it sort of raises the question of how we link short-run economic measures, welfare measures, and economic growth. I mean, the populists in Poland have been lucky in that they’ve inherited a growth engine, and that’s continued to work with considerable dynamism and has powered the Polish economy over the long run. And so, to that extent, I think we should probably separate that logic of economic growth from the comings and goings of governments and the policies they adopt.

It’s also true that they have, however, adopted significant welfare policies. So they came into power promising to rescue their country, widely regarded as an economic success story, from the ruins that had been created by the decades of unequal pro-Western growth since the 1990s. And they promised to do this by lowering the retirement age, rolling it back from 67 for both men and women to 65 for men and 60 for women. Expanding family benefits, they created this 500 zloty—which is about a 110 euros a month—payment for families with more than with two kids and upwards. And then they also set about building new apartments on state-owned land, a kind of program of investment, a redistribution. And it’s not inconceivable that welfare spending could in various ways enhance the growth potential of a country. It could help build human capital. In the health sector, it could be the driver of technological change. But this sort of spending really doesn’t fall into that category. It’s hard to see how any of these measures could really increase Poland’s long-run growth rate.

So I think really what we’re talking about now in Poland is a sort of subtle balance of a growth machine shaped in the 1990s that at least has some distance to run still—there’s that story. And then there’s a story essentially that is driven by the toxic politics of the aftermath of communism in Poland on the one hand and on the other hand the story of regional and social inequality. And if you dig down, if you really dig into the data, it’s pretty obvious that the drama here is that Polish society since the 1990s has experienced truly dramatically diverging fortunes. If you look at the top 1 percent of Polish society, their incomes have more than quadrupled—they probably increased by 450-odd percent. So what we’re really talking about is a society not unlike others in the world since the 1990s but a particularly extreme case of a society that was once relatively solidaristic under communism and has now been divided in really quite fundamental ways by economic growth.

And what the populist politics quite precisely identifies are those gaps, those spaces in between, and sets about remedying them in a rather direct way. One of the extraordinary things about Polish politics recently is people are just not afraid to buy votes. They wave a benefit and get votes for it, which is in some ways a degeneration of democracy. But it speaks to a very specific need. But it seems quite unrelated to the underlying growth dynamic that feeds it.