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My toxic trait is using question marks at the end of my search engine queries. I know it probably doesn’t do anything, and it’s probably redundant, but a part of me worries that if I don’t, the engine won’t understand that I’m asking it a question.

#rambles #search engine #grammar #english #question mark #duckduckgo #google

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The Tennessee Governor, who is most well know for pumping public tax dollars into private charter schools and owning a family-owned steel production corporation, where the workers aren’t unionized, has come out of his hovel to say that the Volkswagen EV plant in Chattanooga joining UAW is “a great loss for Tennessee workers” despite the “yes” votes exceeding a supermajority (2/3), something his party has thoroughly made impossible to achieve in the United States government. Who’s surprised? Not me. 😒

#tambles #rant #tennessee #politics #american politics

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They got Biden on the dementia meds that make 96-year-olds break dance to make the great grandkids laugh, but they got Trump on the dementia meds that make boomers think the definition of oppression is when your wife doesn’t bring you a third piece of dessert at 11pm because she went to bed.

#shitpost #shit post #politics #american politics #vagueposting

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You know those people who are really stupid, but they care so much about the way other people perceive them that they’re constantly rattling off non-facts and “crazy” info that you’ve never heard before because they’re desperate to convince everyone that they’re, actually, really smart, in control of their life, and aren’t insecure at all?

That’s the vibe Mazda the company, Mazda cars, and Mazda customers give me.

#shitpost #shit post #rambles #call out post #that’s my opinion #mazda #car #cars

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My one and only goal in life is just to entertain people and make them laugh. My blood truly yearns to be a court jester.

#shitpost #shit post #court jester

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My favorite type of social concept is when younger people take an old saying, turn it into something ironic to say for laughs, and then slowly start saying it unironically, and then it gets reincorporated into modern language.

#rambles #language #linguistics #irony

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Tumblr’s “Biden buries dogs” meme hit way too close to home now that info is coming out about that GOP lady shooting her 14-month-old puppy in a gravel pit, execution-style, because it made her mad. Even if it’s not exactly what was being joked about, it still evokes Apollo and his dodge ball, for me.

#rambles #dog #dogs #inside joke #meme #memes #apollo #politics #american politics

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I know I’m probably in a very unpopular boat, but I hate personalized ads not because of the privacy implications, but because they freak me the fuck out. Nothing makes me run away from a product faster than casually viewing it on one platform, and then having it chase me down on another platform. It literally freaks me tf out. And if it’s not an ad, and it’s an algorithmic recommendation for a video or something, I couldn’t possibly tap “Not Interested” and leave the site faster than when that shit happens. Freaks me tf out. My interests are isolated to specific platforms for a reason. Don’t try to mix them up on my behalf.

#rambles #ad #ads #personalized ads #privacy #safety #online privacy #online safety

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My conspiracy for why Nintendo is currently going batshit with it’s DMCA takedown requests is because they’re about to pull a Wii U again, with the Switch 2, and they’re preemptively trying to penny pinch because they know sales are gonna either flop or fall off a cliff very quickly after launch.

After seeing what Microsoft and Sony are doing, the Steam Deck and other portable gaming machines come to market, they realized that their plans for the “Switch 2” weren’t gonna cut it, and now they’re panicking. They’re trying to do whatever it takes to keep their name relevant and penny pinch enough so they can hopefully cruise through the Switch 2 era without collapsing and get whatever the next-next console is gonna be, out, before too much damage occurs.

#rambles #nintendo #copyright #dmca #fuck copyright #fuck nintendo #switch #nintendo switch #switch 2 #nintendo switch 2 #wii #wii u #nintendo wii #nintendo wii u

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Holy shit! Her Interactive actually did a little confirmation video about Mystery of the Seven Key’s Dual Navigation System. Not only does the point-and-click look SO much better than Midnight in Salem, but we also got to see the new inventory bar which has so much more personality. I honestly don’t know which mode I wanna play the game in first, but I know for a fact that I want to play both at some point (if my computers can handle it 😅). Either way, that video actually raises more questions than answers. Specifically, what is the rendering situation? I have two theories:

Realistic: Both modes are live-rendered. The point-and-click mode is just jumping the camera around from hotspot to hotspot within the world. Performance between the two modes will be identical.

Idealistic: Free-roam Mode is live-rendered, but point-and-click mode is pre-rendered, using screenshots and GIF-like files to create the old point-and-click feel with the environment that was made for the free-roam mode. Performance on this mode will be MUCH better because it’s essentially a slideshow with extra click points, much like older games. This will enable players with old or cheaper machines to play the game without compromising on the graphics.

I’m not getting my hopes up on the latter, but having that dual rendering scheme would make KEY a very unique and standout game, not just in the ND Franchise, but for gaming in general. I mean, how many game studios do you see build what is essentially an entirely separate game just so they can bring their best graphics to their fans with lower hardware specs, even if it means compromising on gameplay just a little bit. You don’t. So if HeR Interactive does it first, I feel like it could really make them standout. Again, I’m not getting my hopes up, but in the meantime I’m gonna dream.

#rambles #nancy drew #her interactive #nancy drew mystery of the seven keys #nd #nd key #key #rendering #game #games #video game #video games #gaming #point and click #development #game development #mystery of the seven keys

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I think I audibly screamed when the release date for Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys was unveiled. I’m so used to companies releasing teasers and trailers for products that’re at least months, if not over a year, away. I usually end up forgetting about them, so lately I’ve basically just reacted to that type of thing like “well, that’d be nice if it was coming out soon, but I’ll probably forget about it by then, so I don’t really care.”

And for Nancy Drew, specifically, we got to the end of the trailer, and I was like “oh well, I guess we’re not getting a release date. Guess I kinda expected to be strung along by HeR Interactive, so I’m not really surpri-”

And then the “releasing” appeared, and I literally just froze like “👁️ 👄 👁️ …no”

And then for it to be weeks, not months. W E E K S away. I screamed. I got up and left the room. I didn’t know how to take it. Yes the graphics are chopped, but I have a feeling this game is going to be what Midnight in Salem was intended to be, and the rumored dual gameplay systems is just, ugh; Chefs kiss. I’m so excited to, at the very least, give it a try.

#rambles #nancy drew #nd #nancy drew games #emoji #emojis #nancy drew mystery of the seven keys #mystery of the seven keys #mystery games #her interactive #release date #new game #point and click

[netscapenavigator-official]

Thinking about mechanical batteries and that pilot project somewhere up north where, to combat the risk of over-generating electricity, a state built a big ass lake on top of a mountain. When electricity production exceeds demand, they turn on water pumps that pump water to the top of the hill using said excess electricity. Once demand falls back down, the pumps stop. If the area ever falls into a significant electricity deficit, where the demand exceeds production, they then release the water on the hill, letting gravity push it through turbines, converting the stored potential energy back into electrical energy to meet the temporary spike in demand. Mechanical batteries my beloved, you fascinate me.

#rambles #electricity #energy #battery #batteries #physics

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I know I’ve been silent for quite some time, mainly because I don’t like it here anymore, but the Nancy Drew fandom is much stronger here than it is elsewhere, and I just need everyone to know that Apple is now allowing emulators on the App Store, which means you can now play the first six Nancy Drew games on your iPhone or iPad via the app called ScummVM. It’s a bit finicky to get working, since iOS’s file management sucks, and you have to disable the “UseDirectSound” setting in Game #1 and #2’s “game.ini” files, but still! I’m literally playing Stay Tuned for Danger ON MY FUCKING PHONE. IM SO EXCITED!!

Also, the iPad version of the app has full iPadOS cursor support, so if you have a Smart Connector trackpad or Bluetooth mouse, you can literally play the games, as they were designed, ON AN IPAD!

#rambles #nancy drew #nd #nancy drew stay tuned for danger #stay tuned for danger #retro gaming #point and click #ios #apple #emulation #iphone #ipad

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A police officer shoots his ex boyfriend and partner with his police issued gun and the grieving queer community BEGS for them not to march in pride because we literally just lost two of our own, and there's absolutely no sympathy from the cops? I'm not surprised, but I'm disgusted and appalled. ACAB includes queer cops too.

[netscapenavigator-official]

I'm quite torn on the staff post because yeah, it IS trans people saying "hey, Matt fucked up big time and we are taking a risk here to call him out on it", but on the other yeah okay, it wasn't just Matt, you guys have had the shittiest possible moderation since forever, everybody knew you were discriminating against trans women for years, someone mentioned one staff member being a HP blog once and and got erased from existence, and all of this wasn't Matt's actions. The problem has been systemic and I doubt that Matt was overseeing every single time transphobia was nurtured on this website. If he really was over everyone's shoulder at all time when another case of mass report of a trans woman happened and he told you to let it happen, then yeah I get it, but otherwise everything leading up to this wasn't just a one man job. Good on you for taking risks now that everything is blowing up, you still didn't do anything before beside letting things get worse. Matt has been the climax of a constant rise in that transphobia, not a sudden unexplained event you are reacting to. Even if things do get better (which I personally doubt will actually happen even if I wished it did), a lot of harm has been done, and I hope it'll be acknowledged and fixed as much as possible, not just for predstrogen, but for every trans woman, every trans worker, every black person banned for "being a Russian bot", every Palestinian. The Predstrogen harassment was the culmination, not the problem itself. And it doesn't feel like it'll be actually worked on. If Matt was removed right now, it would be an improvement, not a solution.

[netscapenavigator-official]

A message from a few of the trans staff at Tumblr & Automattic:

We want trans people, and LGBTQ+ people broadly, to feel welcome on Tumblr, in part because we as trans people at Tumblr and Automattic want it to be a space where we ourselves feel included. We want to feel like this is a platform that supports us and fights for our safety. Tumblr is made brighter and more vibrant by your presence, and the LGBTQ+ folks who help run it are fighting all the time for this, for you, internally. 

A few days ago, Matt Mullenweg (the CEO of Automattic, Tumblr’s parent company) responded to a user’s ask about an account suspension in a way that negatively affected Tumblr’s LGBTQ+ community. We believe that Matt's response to this ask and his continued commentary has been unwarranted and harmful. Tumblr staff do not comment on moderation decisions as a matter of policy for a variety of reasons—including the privacy of those involved, and the practicalities of moderating thousands of reports a day. The downside of this policy is that it is very easy for rumors and incorrect information about actions taken by our Trust & Safety team to spread unchecked. Given this, we want to clarify a few different pieces of this situation:

The reality of predstrogen's suspension was not accurately conveyed, and made it seem like we were reaching for opportunities to ban trans feminine people on the platform. This is not the case. The example comment shared in the post linked above does not meet our definition of a realistic threat of violence, and was not the deciding factor in the account suspension.

Matt thereafter failed to recognize the harm to the community as a result of this suspension. Matt does not speak on behalf of the LGBTQ+ people who help run Tumblr or Automattic, and we were not consulted in the construction of a response to these events.

Last year, the "mature" and "sexual themes" community labels were erroneously applied to some users' posts. An outside team of contractors tasked with applying community labels to posts were responsible for this larger trend of mislabeling trans-related content. When our Trust & Safety team discovered this issue (thanks largely to reports from the community), we removed the contracted team’s ability to apply community labels and added more oversight to ensure it does not happen again. In the Staff post about this, LGBTQ+ staff pushed to be more transparent but were overruled by leadership. The termination of a contractor mentioned in the original ask response was for an unrelated incident which was incorrectly attributed to this case. We regret that the mislabeling ever happened, and the negative impact it has had on the trans community on Tumblr. 

Transition timelines are not against our community guidelines, and weren’t a factor considered by the moderation team when discussing suspensions and subsequent appeals. We do not take action against content that is related to transitioning or trans bodies unless it includes violations of the Community Guidelines.

When it comes to the experience of trans folks on Tumblr encountering transphobic content, and interacting with bigoted users, we understand and share your frustrations. Tumblr’s policies, and Automattic’s policies, are written to ensure freedom of speech and expression. We prohibit harassment as defined in our Community Guidelines, but we know that this policy falls short of protecting users from the wider scope of harmful speech often used against LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people.

Going forward, Tumblr is taking the following actions:

Prioritizing anti-harassment features that will empower users to more effectively protect themselves from harassment.

Building more internal tooling for us as Staff to proactively identify and mitigate instances of harassment.

Reviewing which of the tags frequently used by the trans community are blocked, and working to make them available next week.

We’re sorry for how this all transpired, and we’re actively fighting to make our voices heard more and prevent something like this from happening again in the future. We know firsthand that having to deal with situations like this as a Tumblr user is difficult, particularly as a member of an already frequently targeted and harassed community. We know it will take time to regain your trust, and we’re going to put in the work to rebuild it.

We appreciate the space we have been given to express our concerns and dissent, and we are thankful that Matt’s (and Automattic’s) strong commitment to freedom of expression has facilitated it.

We will continue to fight to make Tumblr safe for us all.

— This statement was authored by multiple trans employees of Tumblr and Automattic.

[netscapenavigator-official]

Matt Mullenweg is now sexually harassing Avery on Twitter for posting a selfie and the caption “too hot for tumblr”

what the actual fuck is he doing. where those were sw accounts this is not just completely inappropriate harassment but potentially outing. so fucking far beyond what he was already doing to follow her there.

also noting that he's changed his focus since nobody thought the screenshot of the threat was valid (and i have had multiple ex-staff confirm that it's not against tos, btw). this kind of info should never be dug up and put out there by a ceo having a tantrum, christ alive