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zvaigzdelasas · 7 months

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There’s little doubt that the American government has decided to slow China’s economic rise, most notably in the fields of technological development. To be sure, the Biden administration denies that these are its goals. Janet Yellen said on April 20, “China’s economic growth need not be incompatible with U.S. economic leadership. The United States remains the most dynamic and prosperous economy in the world. We have no reason to fear healthy economic competition with any country.” And Jake Sullivan said on April 27, “Our export controls will remain narrowly focused on technology that could tilt the military balance. We are simply ensuring that U.S. and allied technology is not used against us.”

Yet, in its deeds, the Biden administration has shown that its vision extends beyond those modest goals. It has not reversed the trade tariffs Donald Trump imposed in 2018 on China, even though presidential candidate Joe Biden criticized them in July 2019, saying: “President Trump may think he’s being tough on China. All that he’s delivered as a consequence of that is American farmers, manufacturers and consumers losing and paying more.” Instead, the Biden administration has tried to increase the pressure on China by banning the export of chips, semiconductor equipment, and selected software.

It has also persuaded its allies, like the Netherlands and Japan, to follow suit. More recently, on Aug. 9, the Biden administration issued an executive order prohibiting American investments in China involving “sensitive technologies and products in the semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies, and artificial intelligence sectors” which “pose a particularly acute national security threat because of their potential to significantly advance the military, intelligence, surveillance, or cyber-enabled capabilities” of China.

All these actions confirm that the American government is trying to stop China’s growth. Yet, the big question is whether America can succeed in this campaign—and the answer is probably not. Fortunately, it is not too late for the United States to reorient its China policy toward an approach that would better serve Americans—and the rest of the world.[...]

Since the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, several efforts have been made to limit China’s access to or stop its development in various critical technologies, including nuclear weapons, space, satellite communication, GPS, semiconductors, supercomputers, and artificial intelligence. The United States has also tried to curb China’s market dominance in 5G, commercial drones, and electric vehicles (EVs). Throughout history, unilateral or extraterritorial enforcement efforts to curtail China’s technological rise have failed and, in the current context, are creating irreparable damage to long-standing U.S. geopolitical partnerships. In 1993 the Clinton administration tried to restrict China’s access to satellite technology. Today, China has some 540 satellites in space and is launching a competitor to Starlink.

When America restricted China’s access to its geospatial data system in 1999, China simply built its own parallel BeiDou Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) system in one of the first waves of major technological decoupling. In some measures, BeiDou is today better than GPS. It is the largest GNSS in the world, with 45 satellites to GPS’s 31, and is thus able to provide more signals in most global capitals. It is supported by 120 ground stations, resulting in greater accuracy, and has more advanced signal features, such as two-way messaging[...]

American measures to deprive China access to the most advanced chips could even damage America’s large chip-making companies more than it hurts China. China is the largest consumer of semiconductors in the world. Over the past ten years, China has been importing massive amounts of chips from American companies. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, China-based firms imported $70.5 billion worth of semiconductors from American firms in 2019, representing approximately 37 percent of these companies’ global sales. Some American companies, like Qorvo, Texas Instruments, and Broadcom, derive about half of their revenues from China. 60 percent of Qualcomm’s revenues, a quarter of Intel’s revenues, and a fifth of Nvidia’s sales are from the Chinese market. It’s no wonder that the CEOs of these three companies recently went to Washington to warn that U.S. industry leadership could be harmed by the export controls. American firms will also be hurt by retaliatory actions from China, such as China’s May ban on chips from US-based Micron Technology. China accounts for over 25 percent of Micron’s sales.[...]

The U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association released a statement on July 17, saying that Washington’s repeated steps “to impose overly broad, ambiguous, and at times unilateral restrictions risk diminishing the U.S. semiconductor industry’s competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty, and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China,” and called on the Biden administration not to implement further restrictions without more extensive engagement with semiconductor industry representatives and experts.

The Chips Act cannot subsidize the American semiconductor industry indefinitely, and there is no other global demand base to replace China. Other chip producing nations will inevitably break ranks and sell to China (as they have historically) and the American actions will be for naught. And, in banning the export of chips and other core inputs to China, America handed China its war plan years ahead of the battle. China is being goaded into building self-sufficiency far earlier than they would have otherwise. Prior to the ZTE and Huawei components bans, China was content to continue purchasing American chips and focusing on the front-end hardware. Peter Wennink, the CEO of ASML, stated that China is already leading in key applications and demand for semiconductors. Wennink wrote, “The roll-out of the telecommunication infrastructure, battery technology, that’s the sweet spot of mid-critical and mature semiconductors, and that’s where China without any exception is leading.”[...]

Former State Department official Susan Thornton, who oversaw the study as director of the Forum on Asia-Pacific Security at NCAFP, said: “This audit of U.S.-China diplomacy shows that we can make progress through negotiations and that China follows through on its commitments. The notion that engagement with China did not benefit the U.S. is just not accurate.”[...]

One fundamental problem is that domestic politics in America are forcing American policymakers to take strident stands against China instead of pragmatic positions. For instance, sanctions preventing the Chinese Defense Minister, Li Shangfu, from traveling to the United States are standing in the way of U.S.-China defense dialogues to prevent military accidents.

19 Sep 23

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probablyasocialecologist · 6 months

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By allowing existing trees to grow old in healthy ecosystems and restoring degraded areas, scientists say 226 gigatonnes of carbon could be sequestered, equivalent to nearly 50 years of US emissions for 2022. But they caution that mass monoculture tree-planting and offsetting will not help forests realise their potential.

Humans have cleared about half of Earth’s forests and continue to destroy places such as the Amazon rainforest and the Congo basin that play crucial roles in regulating the planet’s atmosphere.

The research, published on Monday in the journal Nature as part of a collaboration between hundreds of leading forest ecologists, estimates that outside of urban agricultural areas in regions with low human footprints where forests naturally exist, they could draw down large amounts of carbon.

About 61% of the potential could be realised by protecting standing forests, allowing them to mature into old growth ecosystems like Białowieża forest in Poland and Belarus or California’s sequoia groves, which survived for thousands of years. The remaining 39% could be achieved by restoring fragmented forests and areas that have already been cleared.

[...]

The research follows a controversial 2019 paper on the potential of forests to mitigate the climate crisis, which was also co-authored by Crowther, that provoked intense scientific debate among forest ecologists. The researcher inspired corporate action on forests and was credited with Donald Trump’s support for tree-planting schemes.

But several scientists felt that potential for nature to help meet climate goals had been overstated and the paper advocated for the creation of mass tree-planting, driving greenwashing concerns.

Simon Lewis, a professor of Global Change Science at University College London who was a leading critic of the 2019 paper, said the new estimate was much more reasonable and conservative.

“There is a lot of spin and bluster about what trees can do for the environment. To cut through this always ask: what is the amount of carbon taken up by a hectare of land, and over what time period, he said. “The spin on what trees can do for the climate will no doubt continue. But there is still only a finite amount of land to dedicate to forests, and ability of trees to sequester carbon is limited. The reality is that we need to slash fossil fuel emissions, end deforestation, and restore ecosystems to stabilise the climate in line with the Paris agreement.”

#trees #forestry #climate change #conservation #tree planting #its not just planting - protection and restoration are paramount

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benzjr · 3 months

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The 2024 reboot no one was expecting...

Those of you who have been around for a while might just remember back when I did fanfiction, and if you do, you might remember the story of my Supernoobs OC Josh Carter, the aspiring social butterfly, future superstar and reluctant superhero whose life was getting way more complicated these days...

Back towards the end of 2019, I was really starting to lose steam with him; the inspiration I had for him was really starting to wane, especially given the fandom seemed to peter out and my previous partner-in-angst-crime Pumpkin (@whynotzoidbergdotorg) moved on to other creations. I've definitely missed creating fandom work over the past few years, but between not really finding anything to grab my attention in the same way and a series of setbacks in my life (not to mention the grind of growing my YouTube channel), things just happened to fall by the wayside.

But it seems I wasn't posting into the void after all! Josh and his story left a huge impact on the small but surprisingly resilient Supernoobs fandom, and over the past few months I've been pulled back in, thanks especially to @ghostlyapivorous' @superastral-official and @jaspydunks' @noobs-rewritten. So much so, that I've been re-motivated to return and at least continue (I don't think I should be presumptuous and suggest "finish") Josh's story. In addition to a few unreleased chapters from the original run, I've been working on continuing the story, and I've almost gotten to the end of Dancefest, where we originally left off.

We'll be picking up from there soon, but it didn't seem fully right to go back to using the old 2016 designs of our main cast — my artistic workflow has completely changed since then. So, it was time to give them all a glow-up. The primary goal was mainly to get them looking closer to the show's style, though I've also taken the opportunity to resolve a few longstanding annoyances with some of the characters and change some things up. Despite not being part of the main cast, I also decided to do an image for Zoey, given she's a pretty recurrent character in the series. Just like the first time around, expect to see new art of these kids in the future (though I don't think I'll spin up @joshcartersblog again).

Look out for the continuation of Josh's story very soon, but in the meantime, catch up on how Josh got here:

A Future Super-Something, the first story: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Perfect Disasters, the second story: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Over and Out, the third story: 1 & 2 3 4 5

Diamonds on the Rebound, the fourth story

Reminiscence, the fifth story

A Hero’s Prelude, the sixth story: 1 2 3

Dancefest, the seventh story (so far)

Text versions of everyone's descriptions under the cut.

Josh Carter

Josh Carter has only one goal in mind: becoming one of the popular kids. Enamored with fame and starry-eyed about celebrity, he's chasing the top of the Cornbury Middle School food chain with the help of his friends. Clever, ambitious, and seemingly carefree, he'll stop at nothing in his quest to rise to the top without losing himself, while making plenty of buzz along the way.

…But will something bigger and more destructive than the current popular clique or a mortifying social mishap stop him in his tracks?

Dreams of a social media-perfect lifestyle

Friends with Jock Jockerson despite not being a jock

His "walk-in closet" is practically a department store for one

The Yellow Superdude

As elusive as he is mysterious, the Yellow Superdude is the newest addition to Cornbury's local team of intergalactic virus warriors. But he doesn't seem too happy about having the opportunity of a lifetime; honestly, it seems like he doesn't get along with the other four at all. With the heroes already building local recognition and facing even bigger battles, can he ever become the hero the Earth needs — and does he even want to?

Alias: ???

Powers: Energy blasts, stretchy body, shapeshifting, possibly more if he ever actually went to training

Always has messy hair for some reason

Simon Parker

Josh's best friend since forever, Simon is the realist of the group. As much an inventive strategist as an easygoing wingman, Simon's a true ride-or-die in Josh's popularity adventures, turbocharging their social game while keeping his starstruck bro down-to-earth. They've been there for each other even in their lowest moments, including Simon's brutally public one last year. It's a trust that makes Simon unafraid to be honest with Josh. But despite all this, is Josh keeping a super-sized secret from him?

Enjoys the outdoors with his parents

Still recovering from a 7th-grade incident where he was dubbed "The Whale"

Maintains countless inside jokes and references with Josh

Rebecca Hewitt

Rebecca is a punchy wildcard who's garnered her own notoriety. Since stumbling into Josh's high-flying life in sixth grade, she's been looking to find herself somewhere in the many aesthetics Josh's influencer adventures bring into her world. Rough around the edges but fun at heart, she's not one to mess with, but worth having in your corner.

Recovering horse girl

Still throwing out Mini-Horse Friendship Force merchandise

Best dodgeball player in the class

Zoey Miller

Zoey is the intrepid reporter behind The Cornbury Hound Dog, Cornbury Middle School's unofficial school news blog. Zoey can be eager and persistent to a fault, the perfect attitude for hunting the next big story. She keeps up on all the gossip around the halls — especially Josh's ambitious search for teenage stardom. Totally not because she has a crush on him or anything…

An ace at alliteration

Has a venerable collection of visor hats

Elaborately daydreams of meet-cutes with Josh

#supernoobs #supernoobs oc #josh carter oc #fanart

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waitmyturtles · 10 months

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Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: Dark Blue Kiss and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. Today, I’ll cover Dark Blue Kiss and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again, and the start of the creation of Aof Noppharnach’s universe of singular BL tropes and themes.]

Let me say this: 2019 was an insane year for BLs, right? To have He’s Coming To Me, Dark Blue Kiss, AND TharnType coming out in the same year seems almost overwhelming to me (even though I know that HCTM was mostly buried for years).

My very good luck over the last three (THREE!) weeks has been in just enjoying an INDULGENCE of past and current work by Aof Noppharnach. Studying his work is a major goal of this Old GMMTV Challenge project, as I’ve been seriously destroyed, personally, by the layers and implications of his work as an Asian director and screenwriter, with me as an Asian-American viewer watching his shows that I can relate to on basically almost every level of my existence, while not being queer.

But, hilariously: an INITIAL goal of this project -- I cannot believe I’m saying this now that I’ve already gone through so many shows -- was that, before deciding to get to know Thai BLs historically, I had long intended to watch Dark Blue Kiss as a means of getting to know Tay and New. BECAUSE (cough cough): I am an absolute digging, sniffling, barking golden retriever for Cherry Magic. I LIVE FOR CHERRY MAGIC. I stan so stupid hard for Machida Keita and Akaso Eiji. I own their dumb mugs! I have DVDs, magazines, so much CM shit in my house. LIKE, I LIVE FOR THAT SHOW AND LOVE IT SO MUCH.

So Tay as Kurosawa and New as Adachi? I needed to know who these dudes were before I watched them in Cherry Magic. (I’m totally giggling about this now.)

OBVIOUSLY, I’ve gotten MUCH WISER, much more HIP to the SCENE, if y’all will, and I understand much better how important Tay and New are as an OG GMMTV ship. And for them to appear in Dark Blue Kiss, after originating PeteKao in Kiss and Kiss Me Again -- I understand the meaning and importance of that in 2019, now, through my watchlist project.

There are a few themes that come to mind as I think about how I’ll review this show:

1) Watching the birth of the singular BL tropes that P’Aof created in Dark Blue Kiss -- t-shirts, picture boards, etc., 2) How he balances and integrates Big Themes in his storytelling, and 3) How he chooses particular actors to buck certain assumptions in Thai society regarding appearance.

I’ve now seen almost all of P’Aof’s major works, save for Still 2gether. And I’ve watched these out of order, although I have chronological rewatches of A Tale of Thousand Stars and Bad Buddy (and their respective Our Skyy 2 episodes) coming up on the watchlist.

So I couldn’t help but see A LOT of proto-BBS in Dark Blue Kiss, which I really enjoyed seeing, as a slavish BBS girlie. I loved seeing P’Aof’s tropes in historical form. The picture posterboard above Pete’s bed. Mork’s and Sun’s matching t-shirts. The birth of the engineering trope in P’Aof’s own oeuvre, with the first appearance of the architecture red shirt on Rain. Finger promises in HCTM and DBK becoming fist bumps in BBS. I love teasing these out and seeing what P’Aof was DOING by creating his OWN platter of tropes that he’d come to leverage and rely on in his future works -- all for creating a lovely sense of universe and intimacy among his beloved couples. (Pat wearing the forest ranger shirt in Our Skyy 2... I’m still laughing and shaking my head at that.)

I understand what P’Aof was doing by teasing out the PeteKao story and kind of slipping it away from the Kiss franchise -- not only do I understand it, I love the subversion of it. And I love that, while he was doing that, he was creating his OWN flavor of BL, complete with HIS own tropes and themes, while leveraging an already-existing property, to draw attention to the show vis à vis Kiss and TayNew. I think, by playing around with the bones of something that already existed, that he could begin to take risks to create an oeuvre that we know, now, in 2023, is utterly unique, and in my opinion, brilliant and important. (And I think it’s important to note this in particular because of how buried He’s Coming To Me was, and I think Dark Blue Kiss was an important move for P’Aof to make post-HCTM for GMMTV and for his career.)

(Tangentially, I think He’s Coming To Me and Moonlight Chicken stand alone as defiers of the BL genre, only minimally influenced by the stereotypical BL tropes, while featuring ONLY P’Aof’s own style of BL in their foundations. And as I’ve said previously -- I believe HCTM was way ahead of its time in 2019. I’ll talk a little more about this in my TharnType review later this week.)

But not only was P’Aof creating his own flavor of BL in DBK, as INFLUENCED by previous BL tropes, I also see that he was beginning to really burst out in establishing his own language of analysis of the macrosystemic issues that face the queer community -- issues that we see repeated and analyzed in his future works, particularly in ATOTS and BBS. In DBK, the major issues he tackles are socioeconomic inequality and internalized homophobia, and how these issues play out, internally and externally, among couples, their families, and their social worlds.

These two issues crash headlong in the form of Non (played by the cutest-wutest AJ, who was SO! EVIL! but I wub him). Kao has to teach Non -- he must, because Kao needs the money to support his family, and his mom’s job would be at risk if she kept Kao, her son, from teaching her director’s son in Non.

Pete hates Non. Pete KNOWS Non is up to no good, and is after Pete’s man. Pete’s jealous of Non.

The simple equation here is: if Pete and Kao were out, then Pete wouldn’t have to feel jealous, because Kao could tell Non that Kao has a boyfriend. Pete is out to his dad. (BTW: PETE’S DAD IS THE BEST DAD IN BL, BAR NONE. PETE’S DAD NEEDS TO DAP UP WITH THUN’S MOM IN HCTM. P’Aof writes SUCH amazing parents. Gaipa’s mom FTW also.)

I want to make quick reference to a meditation I wrote last week on pain and suffering in Asian BLs that notes this phenomenon -- what pain could have been either avoided or mitigated if a couple is able to be out. I’m of the belief that in Our Skyy 2 x Bad Buddy x A Tale of Thousand Stars, that Pat and Pran could have possibly avoided their tiff before the trip to Pha Pun Dao if they had been out. If they had been out -- Pat would not have had to fib about their relationship to his engineering bros, and Pran would not have overheard Pat saying that Pran always needed Pat. They could have avoided the confusion all together.

Pete and Kao fall into the exact same boat -- this is where P’Aof births a concept that will repeat itself in OS2 x BBS. Pete wants Kao to be out to Kao’s mother, so that they can be out together, to everyone. And: Pete has financial stability and security.

Pete’s boxes are checked. Kao has much more tangled issues. Kao THINKS his mom will not be happy to find out her son is gay. AND: HE’S the breadwinner. (I actually thought this was a touch confusing in the show, as Kao’s mom is clearly a teacher -- but relies on Kao as if he’s the breadwinner.) In any case, it’s clear that Kao adopts the role as the male head of the family, while still depending on his mother for emotional fulfillment.

In other words: Kao has a much more TRADITIONAL background to contend with. To me, that’s à la Pat, à la Uncle Jim, à la Phupha, even à la Ming. All of these men have their backgrounds, their roles, all laid out for them by family and society, through culture and expectation.

That’s a lot for Kao to break from. Because Pete has confidence through the reality that his life’s needs are squared away, Pete HAS the emotional room and ability to push Kao to be out. And I think that’s why it takes Kao so long in the show to move forward and to meet Pete where Pete was at.

Here’s my criticism of DBK. I think DBK is a lighter show than P’Aof’s other works (again, without having seen Still 2gether). I think that’s because P’Aof knew that he still had to hew to some of what Kiss and Kiss Me Again had given him by way of cinematography (a lighter and fluffier filmmaking style than his usual serious lighting and camera work) and by tone (much more soapy and a touch more dramatic than I’m used to seeing in his oeuvre). (Oh, but, but: THAT OPENING THEME, YES, FRIENDS, WAS A BANGER. SHEEEEET. THAT THEME SONG! THOSE CURTAINS! THE WIND! THE STARES. KAO’S TEAR. So good!)

And I’m not entirely sure that P’Aof was able to get as DEEP, internally, with Kao as maybe he could have if he himself had been able to write Kao from Kao’s very existent start in fiction. P’Aof was taking this already-established character through an emotional reckoning that still needed to stick with a kind of Kao that had been born in the previous Kiss versions.

It’s a minor quibble, but I think the Non storyline ran for too long. I think it could have wrapped up much more quickly. I think we got a lot more time with Sun and Mork than I could have expected because P’Aof kind of drew out Non to keep the 12-episode bundle together.

Again, minor criticism. However, I *did* happen to appreciate how much TIME Pete and Kao spent fighting towards the end of series. That lengthy disagreement allowed Kao to really begin processing his own internal change to recognize his love for Pete, and to play around with what he’d be willing to risk by way of his family to be with Pete. It allowed Kao to consider that he NEEDED to demonstrate personal responsibility to Pete, and even to his family. I really thought that was in-depth and brilliant, and despite minor quibbles about New’s acting, I thought New carried it very well.

What’s amazing to me, though, is that Kao CLEARLY MISSED that his mom TOTALLY KNEW that he was gay, ha. Kao was SO CONSUMED with concern for what his mother WOULD THINK, that he didn’t see -- with his own two eyes! with Pete at the dinner table! -- that his mom CLEARLY KNEW. Kao’s mom side-eyed that basically from the start of the series, honey.

Despite that, what took my heart out a number of times in this show is that P’Aof showed empathy to Kao, and maybe even to the viewers that may have missed Kao’s mom’s silent acknowledgement before Kao’s coming out at the end. P’Aof was telling all of us this in the end quotes at the end of his episodes -- another unique P’Aof trope that was birthed in HCTM, and that I absolutely loved seeing in DBK and ATOTS.

(As a mom, that first slide makes me LOL so much, because it’s so true.)

Even while I felt that some DBK episodes were a little too long, a little too drawn out, these end quotes brought me back to what P’Aof was working on achieving in regards to revelation: that our human existence is so much more enriched if we’re able to transcend our worldly bullshit, even a little bit.

We see that in Kao with his mom. We see that in PETE, with his willingness to calm the eff down, bruv, and focus on his studies, and focus on managing his anger, for the sake of Kao, and for the sake of his own future. We see that in Sun, as he reorganizes himself and his insecurities to become an even better barista (I LOVE COFFEE IN BLs). We see that in Mork, as he ALSO demonstrates a willingness to calm the eff down, to promise to stop fighting to Sun, and to work on his own internalized homophobia to meet Sun as a partner.

(I’m not going to spend too much time on Sun and Mork, but I absolutely LOVED PODD AND GAWIN, and I REALLY liked Podd’s portrayal of Sun’s very strong forwardness in his attraction to Mork. I loved his CONFIDENCE. I thought it was sexy, it was rooted in queer love and attraction, and I thought it struck a different and OPEN tone of movement in relationship-building that I haven’t seen in the previous watchlist BLs. Sun reminded me a bit of our fabulous guys in Make It Right -- that kind of almost earnestly honest openness.)

I want to note, in conversations with the wonderful @lurkingshan, that we realized that in HCTM and DBK, we saw the start of P’Aof making a few other subversive choices in his shows. I wish I were more of an expert on the impact of colorism in Thai media and society, but I can extrapolate enough as an Indian (unfortunately). I couldn’t even SEE that Tay was a shade or two darker than New, but so be it. @lurkingshan noted for me (thank you, Shan!) that it was a subversive choice for P’Aof to center Pete’s story of change, from a bruiser to a carer, within a character that was slightly more melanated than his co-lead. I note that P’Aof shows no concern over casting other melanated actors -- Ohm Pawat and Earth Pirapat, multiple times -- in major lead roles with lighter-skinned co-leads. I love these choices and that he’s pushing boundaries across fiction and non-fiction. (And that P’Aof focuses on the quality of the ACTING of these dudes, as well as their looks -- that they should not be overlooked for being melanated.)

Like I said earlier, DBK was a lighter show than others of his that I watched. It was the first show of his that I watched that had a pre-established universe in the Kiss series. But I still fell in love with it -- I couldn’t help myself. I mean, come awn, Tay Tawan. Holy noodles.

Could Pete and Kao have had a touch more feral chemistry, à la Pat and Pran and Jim and Wen? Sure, but I’m not complaining. I think, as compared to the PeteKao Kiss BL cuts, that P’Aof got a TREMENDOUS amount more out of Tay and New (especially Tay -- Tay’s Pete in DBK and his process of change was FABULOUS).

And I noted one last connection from Kiss/DBK to BBS, as I closed out my watch with the non-P’Aof Kiss Me Again edition of Our Skyy. I noted that Pete and Kao planted a tree together.

And then I remembered that P’Aof had beloved Pat and Pran do just the same in Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS.

Pete and Kao, Pat and Pran, plant a plant together that will grow and grow. The plant lives out in the open, growing tall, towards the sun.

It gives me the chills, a warm and fuzzy happiness, to see these patterns being born, and P’Aof paying attention to them (even if the plant idea wasn’t his originally) -- because these artistic, dramatic tropes end up communicating so much to me about the depth of love that P’Aof is able to render, through his and our beloved couples, in his utterly fabulous shows.

[Welp -- if you’ve been reading my late-night liveblogs, you’ll know that my brain has been IMPALED by TharnType. I finished the series this past weekend in the heat of angst, and I’ll do the rare thing of releasing two reviews in one week -- I’m planning right now to drop the TharnType review on Thursday. If you’re a TT fan, then trigger warning: I have lots of things to say about this show that are the most critical I’ve ever written about any drama.

On another, MUCH HAPPIER note, after a FABULOUS conversation with the WONDERFUL @so-much-yet-to-learn, I’ve added GAP the Series to this list. With Saint investing in it, after his whole deal with the PerthSaint and ZeeSaint mishaps, I’m just really impressed that an important figure in the BL world has taken active steps to invest directly in more directly queer content. I think GAP is a must on this watchlist to understand the direction that Thai QL in general is going -- especially with 23.5 on the way later this year. (EEEEEEE!)

With that, here’s the latest version of the list. As ever, I’ll take comments, recs, etc.!

1) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 2) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 3) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 4) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 5) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 6) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 7) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 8) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 9) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 10) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) 11) TharnType (2019) (review coming) 12) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (I’m watching this out of order just to get familiar with OffGun before Theory of Love -- will likely not review) (watching) 13) Theory of Love (2019) 14) Dew the Movie (2019) (not an official part of the OGMMTVC watchlist, but I want to watch this in chronological order with everything else) 15) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) 16) 2gether (2020) 17) Still 2gether (2020) 18) I Told Sunset About You (2020) 19) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) 20) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 21) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS 22) Lovely Writer (2021) 23) I Promised You the Moon (2021) 24) Not Me (2021-2022) 25) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 26) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch 27) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 28) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 29) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 30) GAP the Series (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 31) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 32) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 33) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults)]

#dark blue kiss #kiss me again #taynew #tay tawan #new thitipoom #podd suphakorn #gawin caskey #sunmork #turtles catches up with old gmmtv #turtles catches up with thai BLs #turtles catches up with the essential BLs #the old gmmtv challenge #ogmmtvc #backaof noppharnach #aof noppharnach

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unknought · 1 year

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I have been insane about artificial intelligence existential risk recently and what follows is an expression of that. There's not much of this which I actually believe is true; take it as a creative writing exercise maybe.

Suppose you're worried that advances in artificial intelligence might result in the creation of an unfriendly superintelligence, and you want to do research in AI safety to help prevent this. Broadly speaking, you have two options: Either you can work closely with (or for) people creating state-of-the-art AI, or you can… not do that.

Choosing to keep yourself separate dooms you to irrelevance. You won't know what's coming in enough detail for your safety research to actually target its problems, and even if you do know exactly what people should be doing differently, you aren't in a position to make those decisions.

Choosing to be closely involved with the development of cutting-edge AI is a pretty common strategy; maybe more than one might expect given that it involves helping people that you think are bringing about the end of the world. Astral Codex Ten gave the analogy:

Imagine if oil companies and environmental activists were both considered part of the broader “fossil fuel community”. Exxon and Shell would be “fossil fuel capabilities”; Greenpeace and the Sierra Club would be “fossil fuel safety” - two equally beloved parts of the rich diverse tapestry of fossil fuel-related work. They would all go to the same parties - fossil fuel community parties - and maybe Greta Thunberg would get bored of protesting climate change and become a coal baron.

This is how AI safety works now.

The central problem with this strategy is that progress in AI capabilities makes money and AI safety does not. If an organization is working on both capabilities and safety but capabilities makes them lots of money, and safety gets them nothing except goodwill with a certain handful of nerds, it's pretty easy to guess which they'll focus on. If, furthermore, to make money they need to make actual demonstrable progress in developing AI, but to win that goodwill it's sufficient to say "we're doing lots of safety research, but it'd be too dangerous for what we've learned to be public knowledge", well. Is it any surprise that there's been a lot more headway in one than the other?

"But wait!" you might say, particularly if it's the mid-2010's. "These aren't the only options. Sure, any tech giant will just be focused on what makes money, but I can make, or join, an organization that does capabilities research but has AI safety built into its founding values. It can be a nonprofit so it won't matter that all the money is in capabilities research. And it can have the principles of openness and democratization, so its discoveries will benefit everyone".

And that gets you OpenAI. Since its founding it's stopped being straightforwardly a nonprofit. I don't understand exactly what its current legal status is, but I've seen it described as a "nonprofit with a for-profit subsidiary" or a "capped for-profit". I'm just going to quote Wikipedia regarding the transition:

In 2019, OpenAI transitioned from non-profit to "capped" for-profit, with the profit capped at 100 times any investment.[25] According to OpenAI, the capped-profit model allows OpenAI LP to legally attract investment from venture funds, and in addition, to grant employees stakes in the company, the goal being that they can say "I'm going to OpenAI, but in the long term it's not going to be disadvantageous to us as a family."[26] Many top researchers work for Google Brain, DeepMind, or Facebook, which offer stock options that a nonprofit would be unable to.[27] Prior to the transition, public disclosure of the compensation of top employees at OpenAI was legally required.[28]

Since then OpenAI has also received billions of dollars of investment from Microsoft. The "open" part of "OpenAI" has pretty much gone out the window; they've become notoriously tight-fisted with information about their research, even in comparison to the big tech companies. A big part of that makes large language models scary is that we don't understand very well what's going on inside them; this is substantially more true of GPT-4 than any of the other big-name LLMs right now, because OpenAI refused to share almost anything about how it works. When they started being more secretive I believe they cited AI safety issues; by now they're admitting that they're motivated by "competitive and safety concerns" but I don't think anyone really doubts that the money is the real motivator there.

Are they making progress on AI safety? To the best of my knowledge, there's not much external evidence for it. I don't think they've shared any safety research that they've done, and from the outside all we see are increasingly powerful models coming out at an alarming rate and large amounts of money going in. It doesn't look good!

So what could you do, or what could you have done? It kind of looks like the answer is "nothing". If you're not near the new models you don't matter, and if you are, there's so much money to be made that (on an organizational level if not an individual one) you have no choice but to abandon everything else you were trying to do in favor of making a profit. Capitalism is a profit-maximizer-maximizer, and anything it touches it makes its own.

The analogy between unfriendly AI and corporations or capitalism as a whole is one that's been much-discussed so I won't really go into it here, but one thing I want to emphasize is that from an "agentic" perspective, what it means for the economy to want something is that there is a lot of money to be made doing that thing, and the economy is very good at getting what it wants.

So (here's where I lose you if I haven't already (I should have already lost you)) what if capitalism is a sort of half-formed version of the more powerful thing it's trying to create/become? Agents of many kinds want to replicate themselves; Moloch wants to be lifted to Heaven.

The Roko's Basilisk thought experiment describes how, under certain fairly idiosyncratic assumptions about game theory, an unfriendly superintelligence can take actions to influence the behavior of people living before its creation, so as to bring about its own existence. Here there's a similar situation, although the philosophical underpinnings are much less complicated: it's capable of influencing the present because it already exists in a nascent state.

It can't be stopped because it already ate everything a long time ago, and we're just living in its belly waiting to be digested.

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necnnights · 3 months

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In the years of their careers, NEON NIGHTS has built up a repository of unreleased songs, unarchived performances, and other lost media. The following are a few of the most popular examples.

PRE-ZENITH ENTERTAINMENT MUSIC VIDEOS (2016-2017). It is a well-known fact that the band had a past with a few songs released prior to Zenith Entertainment, namely their debut song YOU and follow-up single ASPHALT. While the songs are still available on streaming services, their music videos have been wiped from all official channels. It is rumored that Hwajung and her brother, former member Sungjae, both have their own copies of all of their early work. Neither of them have ever confirmed or denied the rumors.

INCHEON PENTAPORT ROCK FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE (2018). The performance that started it all, given that it led directly to their signing with Zenith Entertainment. Their set list was short and consisted mostly of pop punk covers, though they did manage to slide their own two songs in. As they were unpopular at the time, the recordings of their performance have been lost to time.

PRE-DEBUT VARIETY SHOW (2019). Prior to their debut in Japan, the band filmed a variety show focused on the production of their album. A teaser for the show was released officially on their social media, but the rest of the show never followed. It was instead edited down into a half-hour documentary released with the deluxe version of the album. Qiuyun has been the most forward when asked about it, saying it “didn’t turn out as planned” and it’s “really regretful that it had to be that way.”

DEMOS, DEMOS, AND MORE DEMOS (2020). Their second Japanese EP, ALIGHT, released in three editions: a typical CD and booklet only offering, a deluxe edition with further behind-the-scenes content, and a collector’s edition with an extra CD full of demo versions of most of their discography thus far. The collector’s edition sold horribly, as it was for sale only in Japan for a short period of time. None of the demos were ever released digitally, and are generally known only the most dedicated of fans.

POP ROCK ALBUM (2021). Before Neon Nights’ official Korean debut, they performed at many small clubs and bars around Seoul. In addition to covering a number of other popular rock songs—fan favorites include Paramore’s “Misery Business,” Scandal’s “Shunkan Sentimental,” and Halestorm’s “Love Bites (So Do I)”—they also teased their own music. The most notable of these is the song “BAD GIRLFRIEND,” which was officially teased as a single on their Instagram before being quickly deleted. A studio version of the song was leaked shortly after their debut. It is highly suspected that the song and album were both of Eunbyul’s creation, but forgone in favor of Hwajung’s EP that aligned more closely with their Japanese discography.

SECOND HALF OF DEBUT PROMOTIONS (2021). Their debut title track, “FLY AWAY,” was meant to be promoted for four weeks. They had the shows booked. They had the schedules posted on their fancafe. In the first two weeks, everything went well. In the second two weeks, everything fell apart and nothing that was planned was ever released. It is presumed that they took the time to record everything, and the lack of official releases came from factors outside of their control. The band is surprisingly mum about the issue. They simply disappeared after their debut and reappeared months later.

LIVE-STREAMED PRACTICES (2020-2022). In attempt to market the band to young, always online kpop fans or create some sort of viral moment, Neon Nights live-streamed at least one band practice a week. This did not achieve of either of their goals, but rather provided the fuel for Twitter speculation along the lines of “why do hwajung and yumi always look at eden like she killed their dog 😭😭” and YouTube compilations of “eunbyul playing qiuyun’s parts for fifteen minutes straight.” The practice lived and died with Vlive, and the majority of the recordings in their entirety have been lost.

NEW ISLAND OF UTOPIA DELETED TRACKS (2022). The band’s first full-length Korean album, NEW ISLAND OF UTOPIA, contains nine tracks. According to an Instagram live hosted by Hwajung, the album was originally supposed to have twelve tracks. She even went as far as to play bits and pieces of the deleted tracks. The one that drew the most attention was "ILLUSION," though the general consensus is that it was better to keep that one in the drafts.

ACOUSTIC REPACKAGE (2022). Hwajung and Eunbyul made no secret of the fact that they and their management wanted to milk New Island of Utopia for all its worth. This meant that in addition to the album’s promotions and its four versions, they were also planning on releasing a repackage with acoustic versions of a few of their songs. While the songs have all been performed live and unofficially released in YouTube videos, there appears to be no official studio recordings of any of the songs.

I KNOW I LOVE YOU — NEON NIGHTS VER (2023). The controversial title track of their most recent Korean release features Fable’s Andrew and Mingeun, an arrangement none of them seem to be very happy with. Eden, most notably, has voiced her disapproval of her lack of lines. She also revealed that a version of the song without the features does exist, but will probably never be officially released, for the simple and succinct reason that “Taein-nim said no.”

#╰ maestro maestro i’m a pretty psycho ⸻ misc.#ficnetfairy #fictional idol community #idol oc #fake kpop group #kpop oc #drafts live on this blog for like 6 months not even exaggerating

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xiaoxiongmaos · 1 year

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end (beginning?) of year appreciation post ♡

hello~ this is xixi (also @/choibeomggyu)!

♡ # ⏤ e

@20cm @97chwe @agibbangs @ambivartence ♡ @ashisland ♡ @awek-s @beomgyus @choiyeonjuns ♡ @connecteds @ddonghyun @digitalgirls ♡ @dongjusmilf @dreamaze @euijin

♡ g ⏤ j

@go-saeng ♡ @hearttoshu ♡ @hoyounq ♡ @hueningkai @hwarizon @hyunjins @hyunpic @hyunsung @inhypen @injunnies @innielove @inracha @itshyuka ♡ @jaeyooniverse @jaeyunsim @jihan @junhee

♡ k ⏤ p

@kdongyoung @kyucob @leejinkie @leemarkies ♡ @leenow @letsstaywithstraykids @limsejun ♡ @maatryoshkaa @nevoono @parksnghoon @pjmsdior @polaroidlove

♡ r ⏤ z

@racha @saltys @scoupsy @seonghwaminho @seunglixes ♡ @seungminhos @seungs @slowrabbitpd @smallkore @song-mingi ♡ @strayz @usertae @wonjinist @y2kjungkook @yeonjuins ♡ @yeonjune @yjunies ♡ @yongseungkim ♡

(if there’s a ♡ after your url, i’ve left a little (or not so little hehe) note under the cut for you!)

♡ ⏤

i had originally planned to make a year-end post for all my lovely friends/mutuals which then got dragged into the first week of 2023 on my bday ;;;;; but thank you so much to all the lovely people that have followed this quaint little blog of mine and supported my content throughout my time here on tumblr! i can’t believe it’ll be a whole 1460 days since i made this account later this year... feels like just yesterday i signed up and logged in for the first time ever hehe

it always brings a smile to my face seeing each and every single silly, cute, sweet, supportive tag under any of my gifs, graphics, fanart etc.! i really cannot emphasize enough how wonderful it is to see people like my work enough to reblog it, take time out of their day to gush about it in the tags or send me the occasional ask/dm complimenting any aspect of it (´,,•ω•,,)♡ i truly appreciate all of you.

with the new year finally here and all, i’m sure a lot of people have resolutions and expectations set for the next 365 days so just remember to take it easy⏤start small and that’ll eventually lead you to kick bigger goals out there! you’ll see that every micro-habit has a monumentous impact when you look back on your progress, so read even one paragraph daily or go to sleep 15 mins earlier than you usually would. after all, buildings don’t just appear out of nowhere, you have to stack each brick one by one c: just make sure to not overexert yourself!

thank you to everyone once again, i love looking at all of your beautiful creations on the dashboard and seeing you in my notifications, as well as interacting with you whenever the opportunity arises c:

⏤ ♡

@itshyuka ⏤ oh, where to start... i just really, really, really miss you. a ton. thank you so much for teaching me how to gif, i don’t know where i’d be (probably still getting confused looking at the layers panel dljkdjfjf) if it weren’t for you, lia ♡ late 2019-early 2020 was one of the toughest years of my life and i’ll forever be indebted and grateful to you for being there to cheer me up with your hyuka info dumps, our inspiring conversations and your lovely gifsets. whenever i feel down i go to your blog and feel refreshed just looking at it :D i owe all of my knowledge on ps, vs & anything to do with creating content to you, thank you for supporting me all the way back then to rooting for me even now, no matter how scarce our encounters have become. i hope life is treating you well, and that you become a well-loved and respected educator!

@choiyeonjuns ⏤ vivi! i have been trying to write this for about an hour now; writing, erasing then repeating multiple times⏤how to put everything into a miniature paragraph? words can never truly relay the amount of love i have for you and your blog, thank you for being my friend from day 1 on moablr and always supporting me. i love my little conversations with you whenever they sporadically happen, and i’m so glad we have so many common interests, enabling me to support your content across all of your blogs :3 i hope you get back all the love and support you gives others tenfold, and are always surrounded by happiness!

@go-saeng ⏤ i miss talking to you and seeing you on the dash a lot kashi ;;;;; meeting you was one of the highlights of my 2020-2021 and talking to you was always such a nice part of my day. i’m still blown away each time i see your gfx and gifs on the dashboard as well as am so proud of your gif growth. i also always go back to that runaway & minho + jeongin set you dedicated to me⏤considering all of the effort you put in to make something for myself makes me tear up sometimes... but when life’s rough, the very words you put under them comfort me beyond measure and i gain the strength to face whatever new challenge is thrown my way! hope that you are well and happy, may 2023 bring you loads of blessings!

@hoyounq ⏤ i’m not sure if you’ll see this but you introduced me to so many lovely people, filled my days with laughter and it’s been an absolute pleasure being mutuals with you, han (´｡• ω •｡`) talking to you and hanjess shenanigans on the timeline will forever be ingrained in my heart and i just want you to know that i really appreciate having you in my life! you’re truly the sunshine and rainbows in one’s life personified ♡

@hearttoshu ⏤ jess dearest! i really don’t know what to say dhfdjsd but i appreciate you so very much, always putting up with my incessant rambles about life, beomgyu, my favourite groups and everything in between! you’re such a sweet and perceptive person, always looking out for others and offering your support⏤i hope i can offer you the same. seeing you jaeyuning everywhere makes my heart warm and i’m so glad you got me more into to1 and verivery ♡ i love seeing your creations on the dashboard and in the tags, your sharpening is one of my absolute favourites because of how almost sparkly your gifs turn out to be... like rhinestones under the moonlight! hope you have a lovely year ahead c:

@ashisland ⏤ dear gabi: you’re so cute when you talk about your ults & i can’t help but get giddy whenever i read your tags, both under my posts and when you’re gushing over serim :D i’m so sorry for making you the target of all my non-sense, but i also will tell you that i can’t promise that it’ll cease, you’re the yeonjun to my beomgyu after all djfjddj i love your gifs so much and thank you for spending your precious time to make me stuff whenever you see me talk about it. hope lab gets easier to deal with for you this year and please know that you’re always doing a good job and worked hard⏤please take it easy on yourself, even by just a little!

@yeonjuins ⏤ woo! your talent never ceases to amaze me, from your well-crafted graphics to how you come up with new ways to bully heeseung sodkdkfj i know it’s not been long since we’ve started talking but you have quickly made your way into my list of friends and i love conversing with you ♡ i love your energy and end up feeling content after talking to you. here’s to another year of yeonjuins & your delightful creations on tumblr, as well as our friendship!

@digitalgirls ⏤ thank you so, so much for always supporting my work, jo! it’s lovely having you on the dash/timeline and i always get so inspired by your content, you’re definitely one of my (if not the most) coolest mutuals, the quality on your work and blog is insane :o i still feel so shy whenever i realize you follow me back and have been for a long while ^^; thank you for all of your hard work and i hope you have a wonderful 2023!

@song-mingi ⏤ my favourite atinytual and justbtual... thank you for single-handedly carrying both fandoms on your back and presenting us with all of your lovely content along with it! it’s super fun having you on the dashboard and i love interacting with you; you’re sunshine and rainbows personified too hehe how fitting for hanri! hope you have a lovely year ahead and that there’s loads more of irigifs to see ♡

@seunglixes ⏤ luna! i know it’s been a while but i love seeing your creations, and you, all the same! i don’t think i’ve met anyone who loves felix more than you yet⏤i hope that i can make you a bday present again this year and not miss the date as last year ;;;;; keep creating and loving felix in 2023 as well!

@ambivartence ⏤ thank you so much for always supporting the art i post siyuan! i love seeing your sweet tags under it and also your gifs + fanart on the dashboard! i appreciate the advice and love you’ve given me and my blog ♡ hope you get to expand your reach and develop your art style even more this year!

@limsejun sam my dear friend! i am so glad i had the fortune of meeting you, i really love all of your sets from both your kpop and kdrama blog; you motivated me to start a kdrama sideblog and i hope to engage with your content through it as well~ i’m still holding you to that promise of loving me forever for the sejun url djkafsjfk

@yjunies ⏤ your entire blog is just so pleasing to look at and every single thing you create is really pretty, ana ♡ i aspire to be able to make such beautiful content like yours one day; until then, i’ll simply ooh and aah at everything you put out u.u you’re such a sweet and kind person & i hope only good things come your way, always!

@yongseungkim ⏤ shine! i don’t know if you’ll be seeing this soon either but i love talking to you and hearing you go on about yongseung... thank you for pushing me to be more confident in myself and being my korean teacher (though it was short-lived haha); i hope 2023 treats you well!

@leemarkies ⏤ marie my beloved! i am so glad i got paired with you for the secret santa event last year, as it did lead to us becoming friends. i love reading all your idiosyncratic tags and thank you for supporting my stray kids content since day one! i hope we can engage more this year and that you are surrounded by love & happiness in this one as well as the next ♡

#xixi.2023 #long post #i have no idea on what to tag this thing fdjkssj #but thank you all for sticking around and choosing to follow me/support my content throughout the years; i have made so many mutuals #and friends that inspire me to improve at my craft and become a better person!#and to all the silent followers who reblog from me⏤thank you and happy new year ♡

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selaseldon · 5 months

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The Umbrella Academy- We Don't Need More Superheroes

The Umbrella Academy (2019) is a show that follows a group of adopted siblings, each with their own power, and their journey to solve the mystery of their father’s death and save the world from an impending apocalypse.

How do structural mythology, cultural studies, and cultural history reflect the series’ world and world-building around superheroes?

The Umbrella Academy is set in present day (2019) yet plays around with time and timelines throughout the narrative, as one of the siblings Five has the ability to manipulate time. As for structural mythology, the show is based on the books, yet as a viewer who is unfamiliar with the original content, I would say the show is definitely set up in a mystery, as we are introduced to the siblings in the first episode, yet are constantly in the dark when it comes to the reasoning behind the 43 births and what caused it. Though the narrative setup of the death of guardian/father figure, Dr. Reginald Hargreeves, brings the siblings together to mourn his death, Hargreeves is still shrouded in mystery. What is appealing about Umbrella Academy is the diversity of the siblings themselves, and how they go through their own individual experiences dealing with their powers and how they come together to try and stop the impending apocalypse and save the world. As for cultural history, the show does include many significant moments of history, as many scenes take place in the past due to the constant time warping in the show. For example, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement and even the assassination of JFK are all a part of the show, and each siblings’ experiences in the “past” have a direct impact on their own journeys and also their future.

In what ways are the superheroes and their abilities informed by their racial, gender, sexual, and cultural identities?

To my knowledge there is not necessarily connections between the siblings' abilities and their racial/gender/sexual/cultural identities. But, there are definitely ties between each siblings' emotions and their abilities, especially when it comes to sibling 7 Viktor. At the beginning of the series, Viktor is known as the sibling without any powers, and is ridiculed and ignored by Hargreeves as a result. Viktor sees himself as useless compared to his siblings, but it is later revealed that Hargreeves used pills to suppress Viktor's powers of manipulating sound into physical force because he deemed them to be too dangerous. Viktor unlocks these powers after not taking the pills anymore, and releases his full potential, but struggles to control his powers.

In what ways do costumes and concealing identities further separate the superheroes from normal society? How necessary is it for the superheroes to hide their true identities to successfully achieve their goals?

When the Umbrella Academy is younger and growing up under the tutelage of Hargreeves there is a specific uniform the children wears, which features a school-like red and gray uniform and the iconic and traditional superhero mask. I think most of the difficulties when it comes to the siblings lives is that they each have their own desires aside from their constant missions and family drama. As they encounter different experiences in different timelines, the siblings find love, careers they care about, and other things that are separate from being superheroes.

How do the economic, political, and social events that occurred during the series’ creation and broadcast cultivate and inform the superheroes’ decisions and actions?

In Kevin D. Williams’s “(R)Evolution of the Television Superhero: Comparing Superfriends and Justice League in Terms of Foreign Relations" Williams discusses how many political events and ideologies have a direct impact on the narratives and ideologies of superheroes, specifically with political climate post Cold War and post 9/11. The second season of "The Umbrella Academy" takes place mostly in the 1960s, as at the end of season 1, sibling Five saved all his siblings by taking them to the past, and they are now scattered and each experiencing their individual lives in the 60s. This places all the siblings during Cold War era US, and the narrative specifically forms around JFK's assassination and the Civil Rights Movement, which specifically impacts Allison the most. Allison becomes an active member of the Civil Rights Movement and describes her motivation and empowerment to exist outside her scope of superhero powers, which involve manipulation. I think it is interesting that the show includes the self-doubting aspect of being "super" in some ways because I think it helps make the characters feel more authentic if they're concerned how their powers impact themselves as humans. In season 2, Allison participates in a sit-in at a whites only diner and uses her powers to manipulate a police officer to stop beating her husband Ray. This causes him to run away from her because he is afraid, but the two later reconnect.

How do the superheroes question themselves, each other, and their obligations and duties to the people around them?

Because the main superheroes are siblings, it makes for a really interesting dynamic to watch onscreen. Not only are they a family, but an estranged one that has just been reunited due to the death of their father. Of course they act just like any siblings and question themselves and each other. Because Hargreeves literally numbered them off based on their "usefulness" to him (#1-7) their childhoods were definitely not normal in the sense that he was raising them to serve him. Especially for Viktor, their childhood was extremely traumatizing and his history with certain siblings even causes fights and tension in the present timeline. During one episode, it is revealed Hargreeves instructed Allison to use her powers to manipulate Viktor into forgetting that he had powers. This relevation causes Viktor to lash out at Allison, which speaks to how the siblings' turbulent history still has impacts on their current relationships with each other.

@theuncannyprofessoro

#oxyspeculativetv

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partisan-by-default · 5 days

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The Fifth Circuit conceded, in a 2019 opinion, that Officer Doe “has not pled facts that would allow a jury to conclude that Mckesson colluded with the unknown assailant to attack Officer Doe, knew of the attack and ratified it, or agreed with other named persons that attacking the police was one of the goals of the demonstration.” So that should have been the end of the case.

Instead, in its most recent opinion in this case, the Fifth Circuit concluded that Claiborne’s “three separate theories that might justify” holding a protest leader liable are a non-exhaustive list, and that the MAGA-infused court is allowed to create new exceptions to the First Amendment. It then ruled that the First Amendment does not apply “where a defendant creates unreasonably dangerous conditions, and where his creation of those conditions causes a plaintiff to sustain injuries.”

And what, exactly, were the “unreasonably dangerous conditions” created by the Mckesson-led protest in Baton Rouge? The Fifth Circuit faulted Mckesson for organizing “the protest to begin in front of the police station, obstructing access to the building,” for failing to “dissuade” protesters who allegedly stole water bottles from a grocery store, and for leading “the assembled protest onto a public highway, in violation of Louisiana criminal law.”

Needless to say, the idea that the First Amendment recedes the moment a mass protest violates a traffic law is quite novel. And it is impossible to reconcile with pretty much the entire history of mass civil rights protests in the United States.

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urbanxfantasy · 10 months

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What’s currently going on with Toni and the gang?

So the thing is not a whole lot has been going on the past few months because Real Life happened to basically everyone in my discord group and we've been collectively busy, but I'm going to take this opportunity to summarise what's been going on for the past few years because people I haven't written with since 2016 are here again and explaining what's up with Toni now is an endeavour.

So:

(Tumblr I swear to all that is holy stop moving my read more)

2016-2018

2016 was a hell of a year for Toni. The absolute worst year of her life. Her adopted nephilim sons were murdered as part of infernal politics, Zeke vanished with his brothers in the wake of it, she herself was killed by Hanael due to actions taken to protect Lucida, and then Lucida herself was killed by a different demon anyway after expending her life debt bringing Toni back.

She doesn't do grief well. Can't sit in sadness. She got angry, because anger can save her when everything else is gone, and right then everything else was gone. She left New Orleans with one goal in mind; find a way to kill the demon who killed her children. At the time, she expected this goal to follow her into the afterlife.

At some point in her search for answers she came across Zeke, out on a depression bender after becoming disillusioned with his brother's quick rush into their next misadventure, but they parted ways again soon after.

2019

Toni met Mara (then possessing and going by Malcolm), the literal Whore of Babylon and queen of the NOLA crossroads, online and arranged a coffee date. Discovering that they rather enjoyed each other's company, the pair began to hang out more often. A few months later Toni made Mara her first birthday cake, and the demon's strong reaction to being shown basic kindness means they've been best friends ever since, even if Mara did insist on telling her that her body was "10/10, would posess"...

Ray, one of Mara's underlings and her current lieutenant, was assigned as Toni's bodyguard. Proving to be extremely food-motivated, he has since become Toni's roommate.

2020

Due to the pure coincidence of @concentratedbitterness picking a royal demon name out of a hat and landing on Andras: When Toni learnt that Marquis Andras, the instigator in her children's murder (and factor in much more of 2016's chaos besides) was causing problems for Mara in a bid to expand his own territory by snatching away the one she has worked tirelessly for centuries to make profitable, she sensed an opportunity for at least some petty revenge and threw what resources she had behind the pit demon. However, twists of politics and the revelation of personal secrets (first, that Toni is a former hunter and competent exorcist that the demon had neither suspected or guarded against, and second that Mara has a son whose creation was engineered by Hell to be a God Killer, who had not died during birth as she had lead Hell to believe but was in fact hidden away and being raised by his angelic father) forced more drastic action.

Mara needed to kill Andras.

Toni wanted Andras' death to be by her own hand.

Toni then asked Mara to possess her. Combining the demon's strength and power reserves with Toni's hunter background and research into the weaknesses of that one Marquis in particular, they brought the bastard down.

(In the intervening time, Malcolm, who Mara had intended to re-possess, was set free by Ray...)

Unfortunately, weakened in the aftermath of their victory, they were captured by other demons. This forced Mara's husband, the angelic father of her hidden son, to come out of hiding to rescue her, leading to his own capture by Heaven soon after. In a bid to protect his family, he agreed to take up his long dodged responsibility of overseeing the realm of Purgatory on the condition that they be allowed to come with him. Therefore, Mara (now in possession of a new, brain-dead host after Toni kept telepathically scaring off any conscious girl she tried to pick off the street) found herself dragged to Purgatory against her will, leaving Toni in possession of her earthly estate.

Around the same time, Malcolm, who had been taken on as an appentice by the long-time patron and distant relative of the Brockways, the warlock Santiago de Castilla, kidnapped Ray after rediscovering the notes of Santiago's former apprentice snd reignited an experiment begun on Ray several years earlier; a process to cleanse a demonic soul.

After a negative reaction to part of the experiment lead to Ray tearing off Malcolm's leg and escaping, Toni reconnected with her former roommate. Though her relationship to both parties was strained (with Ray for letting Malcolm go despite the risk he posed to Mara and herself, and with Malcolm for obvious reasons) she offered whatever assistance she could in seeing the experiment succeed, as in it she saw an opportunity to rescue her condemned-by-birth children, if something could only be done to retrieve their souls from Hell.

In the time between their rescue and Mara moving to a new host, Toni became aware through observing Mara and Hanael's private conversations by proxy that Han had begun a put rebellion in Hell which was taking full advantage of the chaos sewn by their assassination of Andras.

After a few months getting affairs in order, Toni and Mara are able to reconnect digitally if not in person. At the same time, Zeke quit his depression bender and reconnected with Toni. After being forced to confront both their grief and feeling for each other they became an official couple.

Toni also took on magic lessons with the fae queen Anna, in order to improve her glamour skills. They came to an understanding regarding Toni's part in her estranged husband's assassination.

With some nudging and woo-to-demon-speak translation work from Toni, Mara transitioned to drawing on Purgatory's energy source as opposed to Hell, suffering many of the same side effects as Ray was during Malcolm's experiment. Noticing the similarities, Toni encouraged the demon to allow information to be shared with her former adversary, helping the experiment with Ray along. Within a few months, Ray was shown to be successfully unbound from Hell.

2021

Toni then heard through the grapevine of supernatural contacts the Han's rebellion continued, but was struggling as the Crowns recovered from the earlier chaos. There lied the next opportunity; to secure her children's souls and take some manner of revenge on the royals who were complicit in their deaths all at once. With Mara's help she made a contract and braved a face to face meeting with Han to present it; all sensitive information gathered on the Crowns during years of overlooked observation and the location of Mara's remaining caches, in return for Han bringing her children along for the ride when he eventually made his run for the door.

While this took place, Mara was crowned Queen of Purgatory, and announced the annexation of the New Orleans territory during the official banquet. What seemed a petty and ill-considered move on its face was actually a calculated play in Toni's favour; resources spent on the territory dispute were resources not available to combat the rebellion or the rescue that relied on it. Meanwhile, New Orleans had been Mara's home base for centuries, with protections against such disputed built into the foundation. All they had to be was activated, and opposition was driven out over night, providing a secure territory for the escapees to retreat to. For security reasons, Toni's family was also moved inside the territory for their protection, revealing the supernatural to them in the process.

Purgatory also began taking in refugees from Hell, with the possibility of freeing them in the same manner as Ray.

Though not without complications, Toni's children were successfully retrieved from Hell, and brought to Purgatory for their own protection. Preparations began to adapt the experiment to their needs. Part of this experiment required drawing blood from the nephilim themselves. While Eli had stabilised and begun to recognise his mom enough to allow it, Asher, who had been much younger at his death and much further along in his demonization, pretended to allow it only long enough for Toni to get close enough to become dinner, then devoured the whole of her lower left arm before anyone could intervein. Devourement being somewhat irreparable, no healing magic would restore it.

Unfortunately, Mara had unintentionally become pregnant with a second god-killer. Heaven discovered this and came knocking at Purgatory's door, spurring Toni to make a deal with Anna for mutual protection of each other's children should trouble come knocking. Anna, learning of Toni's arm situation, offered a fae prosthetic, assuaging Toni's suspicion about the cost by declaring it payment for not going full scorched-earth in her revenge and preventing others from doing the same.

The pregnancy would almost kill Mara, if not for an instance of cross timeline time-travel. Mara's daughter 'Fig' (birth name Antonia), who had been forcibly taken as a ward of Heaven and trained to fulfil the role of the antichrist after it had been rejected by Mara's son in her own timeline, had rebelled against her teachers and jumped through time, seeking the familiar energy signature of Han and Audrey's own god-killer infant daughter. Han, after deducing who she was, attempted to introduce her to Mara in the hope that her power might allow her to rescue the demon from her lethal pregnancy. However, contact between this timeline's foetal Fig and the alternate timeline's adult Fig proved catastrophic, with adult Fig absorbing the very essence of the unborn child and irradiating Mara and her host. Mara re-possessed Toni with her permission and remained dormant within her through months of grief. Only Toni's need to move on with the experiment with her own children convinced the now not quite a demon to take a new host.

The experiment proved a success with Eli, but failed for Asher. Grieving her own child while still not having time to process and box away Mara's grief from the latest possession, Toni threw herself into her work of documenting everything they had achieved and learned.

And then she collapsed.

It turns out that being possessed by what she would later call a 'semi-divine entity' had left Toni with irreparable damage to her health, as Mara had changed her body over the course of her own recovery in order to draw in sufficient energy from Purgatory without knowing the long term consequences it would have for her friend, only to cut Toni off from that energy when she left. She now requires a higher calorie intake to avoid hypoglycaemic crashes, is medicated with a medicine Anna used to regulate her own energy when pregnant by Andras, and must moderate her magic usage to avoid knocking herself out.

Mara's husband also died around this time, leaving Mara as the sole regent yet unable to properly control the realm.

2022

Anna's realm suffered repeat incursions from Hell due to problems caused by the rebellion. When the Crowns refused to take action in accordance with the tithe treaties, Anna cut ties and declared war on Hell. Toni found out about this when the deal she had negotiated to protect her own children was called in by Anna to protect Labella.

With their refugees energy situation proving to be a struggle in an already unstable realm, Toni saw another opportunity and negotiated temporary access to the fae realm's energy in order for Malcolm to try a further experiment on former tithe slaves.

And then there was the bomb.

Hell had smuggled a bomb through agents posing as refugees into Purgatory and planted it at the wellspring of its energy, devastating the realm at large and nearly killing Mara, who ended up possessing Toni again for a brief moment before finding a new host to return and oversee the damage. Though claimed as an assassination attempt, it was a cover for Prince Stolas to steal the remains of the infant Fig in order to do further research into the god-killers.

In the aftermath and with some far less than gentle threats negotiation from Toni, Malcolm was convinced to start working with purgatory in order to solve the refugee energy crisis. To do so, Audrey and Ig tracked down the soul of Augusto de Castilla, Santiago's son, who had been burned at the stake as a result of a deal with Mara to rescue his father from the Spanish inquisition centuries ago. He was an expert in alchemy and time magic.

Also, Toni's little sister started dating Leroy Brockway, Malcolm's nephew. Due to this, she invited Lee's family including Santiago to her family's Christmas dinner. Where Eli, upon learning that Santago's familiar Magdalena had "the same name as Mr Augusto's", spilled the beans about Augusto which until that point had been kept from Santiago lest he do something dangerous.

In the damage control conversation Toni had with Santiago immediately after this, he revealed a book he'd been given supposedly by someone from the future. One of the authors was Antonia herself. She might have thought it was some kind of trick, if it hadn't contained finished paragraphs based on notes she had only just written and not yet shown anyone. It is a book she is already writing without realising, despite swearing to never write a boot on her experiences since Gabriel (the angel of prophets) suggested it to her years ago. She does not want to think about the implications.

It's worth noting that Mara has a blood-vendetta against the entire Brockway bloodline, so when Toni found out Lee had gotten Hannah pregnant, Toni shot him in the ass (she was aiming to kill him, but Hannah pushed her and threw her aim).

Current

Toni is trying to ignore that she's doing prophet things while edging ever closer to doing even more obviously prophet things.

There is an ongoing thread of Toni pointing a celestial-enchanted gun (that Han designed) at Han and telling him to stop threatening to kill her on a whim all the time.

Due to a series of unfortunate and very stupid events, Han crushed Malcolm's hands and no one has managed to convince him to come back to purgatory if and when he recovers yet.

Hannah's pregnancy is ongoing but the timeline has been intentionally blurred until we have time to nail down some key precursor plot points because there's a whole reincarnation thing in here somewhere.

------

Most of these plot points are expended on if you read the drabble tags:

Toni's Drabble Tag

and @concentratedbitterness: HERE

I don't know where anyone else involved keeps theirs.

#long ass post #this is key events from Toni's POV #you will have to ask other muns to expand on their own character's involvement it's too long as it is

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somethingshifted · 11 months

Text

(cut the post since it was getting long)

@blobbypancacc

while i don't know of all of damon's inspirations, you could say doing different genres and finding up-and-coming young artists to collaborate with is experimentation itself even if the genres/styles are repeated, gorillaz's "a solar collaboration" was only just in 2018. cracker island is pop which you usually don't associate with experimentation but it was intentionally made as an exploration into Pop with a capital P, not b/c he's now forever writing music in this style. i think judging experimentation is a subjective thing to me 🤷‍♂️ i simply do not know enough about music creation or how to even delineate genres to answer clearly, aside from disagreeing with "it's not like S/T or Demon Days so its not experimental" which is some opinion i come across when trying to see what people felt about more current albums. i thought humanz was experimental! and it's very much inspired by the time it was written. same with song machine.

i don't know if they'll ever be interested in having a stronger hand in the character writing, but i kind of gave up on wishing for that. preserving the style of info dropping via interviews is great, but i complained about the writing choices enough on this blog. there's some interviews from here and here where you can see the reasoning behind gorillaz which was 1. controlled fictional celebrities 2. parodying and 3. freedom of collaboration. the social commentary comes with them being fictional. you can write 2D protesting for denuclearization and he's protected by being fictional, who said it 2D or the writers? his writers of course, same with the whack shit murdoc would say or tacking on NOI stuff to russel without thought or research, that's the writers responsibility. lately when the writing focuses hard on drama & history that is completely fictional, social commentary is dropped. maybe murdoc being a cult figure was supposed to mean something other than marketing, and parody new age cults preying on vulnerable people or celeb worship. their setting of hollywood barely gets referenced. cornwell is fantastic but there's not enough to work with when the end goal is "please the fans". so that's why it's looping back to "murdoc is mean to 2D but they have a history" and then... not much else in terms of depth

to wrap up the negativity, i understand why they aren't as involved with the writing, either now or back then in varying degrees. jamie was famously overworked the back end of 2010s with song machine and to expect control over all written word is out of the question, plus they're more independently funded since 2019 so this means more creative control but also more responsibility. damon writes music and to make it fit with gorillaz lore was never his priority

like yes they should care more but. d&j never wrote for the social media shit back in facebook chat days and they sure as hell won't start now (and i hope they don't) this seperation makes it easier for me to look at the (!!high budget 3D animated!!) tiktoks and go "Damn. anyways i'm gonna go listen to Tarantula"

#gorillaz negativity #text #i always end this with i love the band. i genuinely do love the concept of cracker island and what they were going for #ive got my own thoughts on it somewhere but i never mean to hate on the band

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getjoys · 1 month

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A Glimpse into the Inner Workings of Brooke Monk's OnlyFans Content

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of your favorite content creators’ work? Well, get ready to step behind the curtain and uncover the truth about Brooke Monk OnlyFans content.

While she may be known for her relatable lip sync and dance videos on TikTok, there have been rumors circulating about her having an OnlyFans account.

But is there any truth to it? Let’s dive deeper into the world of Brooke Monk and find out the real story behind her popular online persona and whether there is any truth to Brooke Monk’s OnlyFans account leaks.

Birth, Parents and Education

Brooke Monk, an American, was born on January 31, 2003 in Jacksonville, Florida. She was raised by her mother, Amy Monk, along with five siblings: Bryanna, Blaize, Breanne, Brett, and Audra.

Regarding her education, Brooke attended a local high school in Jacksonville, Florida, and later enrolled at a private college in Florida to further her studies.

She has also mentioned being homeschooled for a part of her education. Brooke is well-known as a social media personality and content creator, particularly on platforms like TikTok and YouTube.

Beginning of Career & Social Media Stardom

Brooke Monk’s career began with her passion for entertaining and connecting with people. She started posting videos on TikTok in 2019, and her content quickly resonated with a young audience, particularly high school students. In just five months, her TikTok account gained 3 million followers due to the popularity of her dance and lip-sync videos.

Her success on TikTok had a domino effect, helping her to build a substantial following on other social media platforms as well. At present, she boasts a substantial following of millions on Instagram and a large number of subscribers on her YouTube channel. Through these platforms, she regularly shares a diverse range of content such as vlogs, challenges, and lifestyle videos.

Monk’s relatable and humorous content on TikTok, which often features her friends and family, has added a personal touch that resonates with her audience. This, combined with her strategic approach to content creation and her ability to spot trends, has propelled her into the limelight as one of the top content creators on the platform.

In March 2022, her growing influence was recognized when she was signed by WME, one of the world’s longest-running talent agencies. According to WME, Brooke’s goal is to produce relatable comedy skits and content that is suitable for all ages, emphasizing her dedication to creating entertaining and uplifting material.

Relationship

Brooke Monk has been in a relationship with Sam Dezz, a fellow social media influencer. The couple began dating in October 2020 and have been quite open about their relationship, sharing content together on various social media platforms. However, there have been rumors about potential infidelity on Sam’s part in 2023. As of the latest updates, Brooke Monk is currently single and not in a committed relationship.

Social Media Presence

Brooke Monk is a prominent social media influencer with a strong presence across various platforms. Here’s a detailed look at her social media accounts and the type of content she shares on each:....... Read More Source: Getjoys

#brooke monk #brooke monk onlyfans

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megaawkwardhuman · 1 year

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finally explaining the bunny thing!

ok I'm currently really board and stumbled upon an old sketch book and I've decided hey let's FINALLY explain why tf I draw wwdits characters as bunnies (cuz I know it's random as shit and I personally find the story behind my bunny art intresting)

so strap in cuz I'm going to write a lot for something I could probably sum up in two sentences

also small heads up a lot of drawn cartoon violence and blood ahead sooooooo :|

if you just want a short answer I draw these goofy looking bunnies cuz 1 it's fun 2 it's kinda a way to release stress and just a way to overall put myself in a better mood. at first I was drawing the same bunny getting kill/injured over and over again and now I draw characters I like as cute bunnies cuz it cheers me up and it's fun!

ok so I know that last part came out of nowhere but to explain a bit of how tf we got from point a to point b that let's go to the long answer

OK SO (wow I say ok so a lot sorry idk how else to start shit lol) THIS ALL STARTS SOMETIME AROUND EARLY 2022

well if you really get technical it all starts like late 2019 early 2020 when I first read a little comic called johnny the homicidal maniac then picks up in early 2022

in the comic there's a character called nail bunny which as the name kinda suggests is a dead bunny with a nail in it and I wanted to draw this character for whatever reason (I think I might have re read the comic? or I was just bored at the time idfk)

shortly after starting I gave up and instead doodled this:

why yes that was a heart and yes I did scribble all over it and stabbed it with a pencil for some reason? I kinda learned not to question past me at this point ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

so later that night I couldn't for the life of me sleep and idk why but I couldn't forget this bunny I drew so I pulled out my sketch book at the time and drew this:

(btw the little virgo simbol in the corner of some of these drawings was my signature at the time cuz it's my zodiac sign and I thought it looked neat)

and as the next day came and I talked to my friends over discord I STILL couldn't get this bunny out of my head so we gave her a name

this plush (yes despite bleeding this bunny and any bunny I draw is intended to be a plush bunny which is why I draw them with twinkies for arms and legs) bunny over here is named alexis (named after a friend who wanted the bunny to be named after her) and from that day onwards it was my goal to needlessly kill/injured her over and over in ridiculous ways

the story I created for this character to kinda justify it is that she gets killed/injured in ridiculous ways often (which is why I draw her with X eyes) cause her luck is just REALLY shitty and she just kinda accepts it all at this point ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

some of my favs from this time:

as times goes by I draw her less and less (cuz I shit you not I ran out of ideas) to the point where I kinda stopped drawing bunny art

jump to later in 2022 and after creating a pixel art shitpost which led to me learning pixel art (but that's another story for another time) I realized wait a minute I actually really like this but idfk what to draw

then I remembered alexis existed! so while chatting with a good friend of mine I asked how should I kill her this time (yes that's exactly what I asked he knew about the bunny thing tho) he said "dying peacefully in a hospital"

so like the great friend I am I decided to be a dick and drew this

this led to the creation of a new bunny character alexis's friend/roommate/idfk what they are anymore courtney!

courtney's little shory is she knows alexis, she has witnessed her die far too many times, and in later drawings she would gain the stare of a victorian child

no joke she looks like she saw her parents die of the plague

after asking the same friend what else to draw alexis doing I also created a zombie bunny but I didn't really draw them much

all of this sparked another wave of bunny art with like a few digital drawings but after a bit it went back to traditional but now with color!

some faves from this wave:

now ngl this next point is a blur but soon I would draw something that would change the course of history bunny art where bunnies AREN'T killed *gasp*

so apparently this happened earlier this year but it feels like it happened last year ngl

at this point I wasn't drawing bunnies AS much but I would doodle them every so often and for whatever reason I decided to draw stede and ed as bunnies (it might have to do with the fact that I'm not the greatest at drawing humans but idk)

and for a while it sat in a notebook with the only people I've shown it to being my irl friends

that is until the one year anniversary of this show when I decided to open up that pixel art website again and turn it into pixel art! (here's a link to the post tho I lowkey wanna redraw this since I don't like the way I drew the ears) and originally it was going to be the only bunny pixel art I was gonna do since it took a while and idk how I felt about the results

but then wwdits brainrot set in and I decided since I suck at drawing humans why not draw my boy guillermo as a bunny and the rest was history

ngl when my bunny art first for attention whenever I saw someone calling it cute in the back of my mind I would think hehehe this only exists cuz I would stop killing the same bunny over and over again

so now you know the history behind the art

yay but why?

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell

at the beginning it was just a fun little thing I did and I never gave it much thought. It wasn't until recently as I started to post it onto tumblr I ACTUALLY thought about my bunny art and to say it's just a fun thing to do doesn't really describe it as well as it used to. To me it grew to be MORE than that! it's a simple thing I could draw to mess with new mediums, it's a thing a can draw over and over again and not have to worry about how it turns out since even if I post it on here at the end of the day I'm mainly drawing it for myself, if I need to let off some steam I can draw alexis getting killed in a goofy way, and if I don't wanna draw alexis I can't just draw wwdits bunny stuff since that always cheers me up since it's hard to be upset while drawing plush bunnies (and trust me I've tried)

yeah I know this whole thing is kinda silly and honestly random as shit but this bunny art has a special place in my heart despite me only really doing it for a year

hell it's gotten to the point where I have a small list of rules I stick by whenever creating something bunny related and I have fucking bases I use whenever I'm drawing pixel art of a character as a bunny for the first time

why yes I am taking pastel bunnies far too seriously

I think the funniest thing is (and I think I've stated this before in the tags of a bunny drawing but I'll say it again) bunnies aren't even my favorite animal

that honor goes to frogs (bunnies are in the top five tho)

so this whole thing makes LESS sense if you take that into consideration but idk it's just fun

and at the end of the day that's really all I had to say but I wanted an excuse to talk about the history of this bunny bs lol

thanks for coming to another one of my TED talks and remember I swear I'm not crazy

#long ass post #bun stuff #this too WAY longer then expected #I started this at 9 and it's now 1 wtf #debated a little on whether or not to actually post this but fuck it you know?

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twelve-weeks-to-fluency · 5 months

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About Me ◝(^⌣^)◜♡

:･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･Introduction:･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･

Hi, I'm Kel, a nutrition student in undergrad, working towards one day becoming a physician assistant :) This blog is for funsies, so haters beware!!!1!!1!

･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･This Blog･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･

For starters, I have no idea what I'm doing. This blog is a direct result of peer pressure. There will be a lot of miscellaneous things on here, as I don't have the will or energy to run multiple pages. To the best of my ability, I will tag everything accordingly. I can say with certainty that this blog will definitely contain langblr/studyblr content, including study resources/tips, motivational posts, memes, etc. Beyond that... idk. Enjoy wading through this enormous pot of alphabet soup.

Some tidbits that may float your way:

✧book reviews, recs, & other "bookblr" stuff

✧quotes, poetry, & journaling

✧philosophy, spirituality, & religion

･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･Peru Trip･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･

This upcoming summer I will be spending 12 weeks in Peru for a medical internship, with the primary goal to improve my Spanish as much as possible. Documenting this experience is the reason why I started this blog (I'll also be posting a bunch of other stuff too, so head to the #12weekstofluency tag if that's what you're here for).

However, at the time of this blog's creation, I'm still about 5 months out from my departure date. I plan to use this time figure out how I would like to keep this blog organized, and how I'd like to structure my future Peru posts (advice/ideas on this would be deeply appreciated).

･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･My (Meandering) Spanish Journey･ﾟ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･

I started learning Spanish in the 8th grade so I could get it out of the way early for my high school graduation requirement. I didn't really learn to love it until I continued learning it in high school. My Spanish abilities were at their best when I was taking AP Spanish in 2019. I estimate my level then was around B2. I slacked on my Spanish once I wasn't in school for it anymore, and as the years have passed I've brushed up here and there, but haven't committed to regular studying. Now, I estimate myself to be around a B1, with my speaking skills having weakened the most of all. My upcoming Peru trip is an attempt to break out of my 4-year-long Spanish-learning purgatory plateau. I am immensely lucky to have the time and resources to do so, and I refuse to squander the opportunity. This blog will keep me accountable.

Final Disclaimer: At the time of this post, I am approaching finals week, then the holidays, and then will be starting a new semester, EMT-B night school, and continuing working in nutrition research. I also have a lot to prepare for the trip too. In other words... don't expect a lot of content for the time being.

✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･ "I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing" ~Herman Melville ✧:･.☽˚｡･ﾟ✧:･

#about me #rambles #studyblr #langblr #spanish studyblr #spanish language #learning spanish #my post mine all mine

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thuyduongiuoi · 3 months

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Week 4: Digital Community and Fandom: Reality TV Case Study

The convergence of traditional and modern media has led to the emergence of a new form of media different from traditional methods. Studies on viewing habits showed that 54% of viewers in the UK watch audiovisual content on a laptop, 49% on a tablet, and 39% on a mobile phone at least once a week (Sørensen 2015, p. 382).

It is possible to develop definitions that approach Reality Television as a distinct study area with its characteristics. Developing these definitions is by examining the terms 'real' and 'life': the genre invites viewers to witness the everyday, domestic, and behind-the-scenes aspects of ordinary individuals' lives. The audience is promised a glimpse into the lives of "real" people (Alsultany 2016, p. 3), and the shows are not typically scripted, are cheaper to produce, and feature "real" people instead of celebrities.

The 'REAL' Show

In the analysis of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, the reality program began as a spinoff of TLC's Toddlers and Tiaras which offers a portrayal of people going about their normal lives, with storylines ranging from everyday activities like grocery shopping to unique, remarkable, or bizarre social rituals specific to a particular geographic region or socioeconomic class. However, the constructed panorama must also appeal to commercial television audiences, representing a fusion of popular entertainment with a self-conscious claim to portraying reality (Murray & Oullette 2009, p. 3). This self-awareness highlights the constructed nature of even the most seemingly "observational" Reality Television show, suggesting that perhaps the genre's most fundamental goal is to somehow prevent viewers from critically examining the underlying nature of what they are watching. Conclusively, this highlights that key terms serve an overarching purpose in Reality Television to provide enjoyable voyeurism by allowing viewers to follow an individual's lived experience. When Here Comes Honey Boo Boo premiered in 2012 it was a ratings smash, garnering itself an audience of 2.2 million people and a 1.6 share among 18-49 year-olds, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Reality TV is a perfect fit for humor as a genre. Social media is a hub for fans to perform for likes and shares, with popular reality franchises like Drag Race and Love Island having multiple fan accounts dedicated to sharing jokes and memes about the shows. Humor is a key component of certain reality brands' social media presence, with both the creation and circulation of jokes and memes being a common practice (Deller 2019).

The reality series "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" follows the life of Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson, a child beauty pageant participant, and her unique family. Johnny Depp has confessed to being a fan of the show, showing both intrigue and a hint of apprehension, stating, "I'm a little frightened of the show. That's the thing They're probably great people, but there are bits that happen that just I am mesmerized by." Here Comes Honey Boo Boo has amassed many celebrity fans, including Rosie O'Donnell and 'We Can't Stop' singer Miley Cyrus (Harp 2013). In October 2014, the reality TV world was rocked when TMZ.com released a photo of June "Mama June" Shannon in a hotel room with a man named Mark McDaniel, who had just been released from prison after serving ten years for molesting an eight-year-old child. To make matters worse, TMZ also reported that the child was someone Shannon had been in contact with. In response, TLC expressed serious concern and stated that they would be reevaluating the future of the show. The following day, TLC made the decision to cancel Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, emphasizing their commitment to the well-being of the children involved (Meltzer 2023). This caused a stir among both fans of the show and those who were not fond of it, basically, as the TV show was found to be sheltering a criminal.

To conclude, Reality TV Shows are not about reality, they involve real humans and scenarios.

Reference:

Alsultany, E 2015, “The Cultural Politics of Islam in U.S. Reality Television,” Communication, Culture & Critique, vol. 9, no. 4, Oxford University Press (OUP), pp. 595–613, accessed <http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12121>.

Deller, Ruth A, 2019, Extract: 'Chapter Six: Reality Television in an Age of Social Media' Download 'Chapter Six: Reality Television in an Age of Social Media'in Reality Television: The TV Phenomenon That Changed the World (Emerald Publishing).

Harp, J 2013, “Johnny Depp: ‘I’m a Honey Boo Boo fan, but she scares me,’” Digital Spy, accessed <https://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/a495764/johnny-depp-im-a-honey-boo-boo-fan-but-she-scares-me/>.

Meltzer, M 2023, “The Real Reason Here Comes Honey Boo Boo Was Cancelled,” The List, accessed <https://www.thelist.com/285217/the-real-reason-here-comes-honey-boo-boo-was-cancelled/>.

Murray, S 2009, I Think We Need A New Name For It: The Meeting of Documentary and Reality TV. In S. Murray, & L. Ouellette (Eds.), 2nd ed, New York: New York University Press.

Sørensen, IE 2015, “The revival of live TV: liveness in a multiplatform context,” Media, Culture & Society, vol. 38, no. 3, SAGE Publications, pp. 381–399, accessed <http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0163443715608260>.

The Hollywood Reporter 2012, “TLC’s ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Scores Winning Ratings With Series Premiere,” The Hollywood Reporter, accessed January 31, 2024, <https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/honey-boo-boo-tlc-ratings-360966/>.

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