#I may complain about the outliers but | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

howtofightwrite · 2 months

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Have you read GRRM books? He claims swords needed to be “especially designed for women’s hands” how true is this?

About as true as all of those, “girl guns.” Because, as you know, a woman cannot hold a Glock unless it's pink or sky blue. Which is to say, not even remotely true.

You might get a situation where a child would be unable to operate a weapon designed for adults because the grip is too cumbersome, but even this is going to be something of an outlier. Even years later the Nicholas Cage's line from Lord of War (2005) sticks with me, when describing the AK he narrates, “...so simple a child could use it, and they do.”

Just like basically any other common grip you encounter in your daily life, from screwdrivers to steering-wheels and cell phones, selling smaller, or more colorful ones, is strictly a marketing gimick.

Now, is a legitimate context, but it doesn't really have anything to do with the wielder's sex. If they had the money, the time, and the desire for a perfect grip, they might commission a smith to produce a grip specifically for their hand. Though, the only place I've ever come across this was in competitive fencing. I have seen cases where someone modifies their blade's grip with tape or other materials to better fit their hand, or the addition of a leather (usually shagreen) wrap over their grip, but even that is somewhat unusual. (Shagreen is leather from a shark or ray, and it grips the skin, making it easier to hold, especially when wet.)

Ironically, girl guns do illustrate the one case where have some weight: Weapons as fashion accessories.

I know I've complained about weapons (particularly handguns) as fashion accessories in previous posts, but the truth is that using weapons like this is not new behavior. In the early modern era, one of the ways the rising middle class liked to display their status was with a sidearm. (In this case, referring to a sidesword or, later, a rapier.) I've looked specifically into women carrying sidearms at that point in history, but it really would not surprise me in the least if they did, and if there were, that at least some of those swords were specifically designed to be more delicate and, “feminine,” per their owner's tastes. (Though, to be fair, a more delicate grip on a rapier would be fairly impressive, as the grips tend to be pretty thin.) This is a case where you might want to look into it further, if it really catches your interest, but I've never really run this down before.

If you're still dubious, feel free to wander into nearly any HEMA event, and you'll have a better than average chance of a woman being willing to prove this idea false with a Zweihander, that may in fact be taller than she is. (Historically, Zwiehanders could be over 2 meters long, and chances extremely good that you're shorter than 2 meters.)

I know I'm regurgitating previous posts here, but it really is worth remembering that swords are much lighter than people think. Zweihanders are some of the heaviest battlefield swords from history, and even the heaviest examples weigh less than 9lbs. Women in HEMA can, and do, use them effectively. Swords aren't about being big and heavy, they're about being a (in this case) seven foot long razor blade.

Since we're on the Zweihander specifically (and this may also apply for some of the other greatswords, such as the Scottish Claymore), this is a case where you might have a custom weapon forged for you. However, in this case, that's more about the right blade length, then worrying about the grip being too thick or too thin. Ideally, you want the blade length to match your height (roughly), this is because of the drills with the weapon itself, though you could adjust to a longer blade if that's what you had.

Now, to be clear, the idea of someone, particularly a noble, having a blade custom forged for them specifically isn't strange. That's something that did happen, both at the noble's request, and also as diplomatic gifts from other nations. Examples of the latter resulted in beautiful art pieces that you would never take into battle.

If you had a situation where you couldn't use a sword because the grip was too large (for, whatever reason), there are ways to fix that. In an ideal situation, you could simply pop off the pommel and grip, and then replace the grip with one that was a better fit to your hand. If the tang itself was the problem (this is the metal core of the grip, and is part of the blade, which the pommel attaches to), you might be able to shave (or file) down the tang, and then replace the grip with a new one, fitted to the now smaller tang. I'm not particularly wild about modifying the tang directly, simply because there is a (minor) risk of reducing the structural integrity of the sword in the process. Though, replacing the grip (especially on a sword with a threaded pommel) is very doable, and unless someone, somehow, screws up catastrophically, it should be a pretty trivial modification. (Again, replacing a sword's original grip with a new shagreen grip does make a lot of sense if the owner wants that improved grip.)

But, to the original question, it's not really a thing.

-Starke

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#writing reference #writing advice #writing tips #how to fight write #starke answers

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hemolock · 10 months

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Hey so I absolutely despise the attitude so many people have about this game, so here are some tips not to hate the game

1. Take breaks. You will get burnt out, everyone does. If you aren’t enjoying the game, don’t play it, even if it means missing out on something. The goal of the game is not to succeed or even to play it, it’s to have fun.

2. Watch actual destiny 2 content creators. Those videos of people complaining for ten minutes? Not content. I get that bungie is doing some dumb stuff, but if almost all of the person who you’re watching’s videos are talking about the latest funny bungo moment that will totally kill the game for real, stop watching them. They’re doing what the news does, making videos on only bad things to draw your attention more. Instead, watch people who actually like the game, who actually play it for fun.

3. Give your guardians personalities. This may seem like an outlier, but I genuinely believe that making your guardians into characters improves the longevity of your enjoyment. My main proof is that I did this and have spent so much time thinking about the funny blorbos so I think it works.

4. Leave negative spaces. Places like Reddit are a lost cause, they already hate the game so much that I don’t think they’ll ever come back. It’s best to divorce yourself from the side of the community that hates everything, since then their opinions on the game taint your own.

5. Ignore what other people think. When I first got the game, every time I got a new exotic I would be sad because even though I thought it was fun I would look up builds for it and there would only be videos saying it’s bad. It’s best to just get your own opinions on what is and isn’t fun, and then act accordingly. For example, I think that the manticore and wings of sacred dawn is a good combo. Is it? God no. But I had fun using it so I throw it on from time to time.

#destiny 2 #destiny #destiny the game #destiny2 #d2

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tribow · 1 year

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Why do I tell people to play indie games?

K' so you may have seen that post I made a little while ago asking people reblog and put into the tags an indie game that they did NOT like.

I made that post because I wanted to hear about what indie games people had bad experiences with. There was another post I made saying "Tell me you don't play indie games without telling me you don't play indie games" in response to a ton of youtube videos saying modern video games are no longer fun. A lot of tags would say, "Well indie games can suck too!" This response was extremely silly to me and I wanted to know what games they could be talking about.

I didn't ask for it, but so many people starting explaining why they didn't like a certain game. So I decided to make a little pie chart with the reason people would give in the tags

There are some outliers not here. There were 5 tags saying a game offended them and some responses that were too specific to really count. Half of the posts also gave no explanations so I'm not going to act like this is representative of every response on that post.

Okay so what's the point? Why did I do this?

There's this one 30 minute video by Josh Strife Hayes that does a super good job showcasing all of the bad practices that happen with modern gaming. He talks about each issue thoroughly, but I'll list them here:

Microtransactions, Limited Progression, Invite Boosts, Premium Currency, Loyalty Programs, Selling Power, Battlepasses, and Selling Progression

He doesn't even mention other issues like games releasing in clearly unfinished states, games that are clearly chasing trends, and game developers being restricted by their publishers.

Why is this significant? Well answer me this: Was there a single tag response in my post that complains about an indie game doing these things?

Say what you want about indie games, but I bet you didn't pay $60 and got psychologically manipulated to spend more on that game. I bet you weren't getting manipulated by some free to play model to spend more money than you would on a normal game. I bet the game actually released in a finished state and even if it did, the game clearly communicated it wasn't done.

Sure, you could give me examples of indie games that do have those bad practices, but I guarantee you that you cannot prove that most indie games do this.

So yeah, play indie games. Don't support corporate bullshit unless you know the game was made with the player's best interest in mind.

#indie games #video games #aaa games #gaming #and yeah pay attention to middleware games too #long-ish post #think of it another way #which game is worse? The game you hate that you spent $60 on or the game you hate that you spent $25 on #Battlefield 2042 would NEVER happen with an indie game #remember how awesome gaming was “back in the day?”#yeah you can experience that right now by playing indie games and middleware titles #who knows maybe if everyone stopped supporting these god awful AAA games with their money they'll wise up and actually make some good games #also shoutouts to another post that could very easily flop due to my small blog lol #I like get my thoughts and reasonings out of my head though #dont want my thoughts festering in my brain I need more space my obsessions #would like to see this post reach those who responded to the other posts though #will probably reblog it later tomorrow

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witheredsnow · 26 days

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I'm unsure how to tag this. But oh well. I can't say this is strictly of an aroace thing. It could be for anyone, really. Hence the vague way of writing. I wonder if you guys think this is too vague tho. Well, all of my works are written vague because interpretation is welcome in any of them.

Anyway, I write these themes (being aroace, friendships, and growing up with things changing) because fiction make it seem like it would hurt less. So I write for myself and share. Tho I think this will be my last work in regards to being aro ace. In a while, maybe. Thanks to whoever was curious to read this. And thanks @random-potato-mil, you may be a random stranger but I appreciate your words. I appreciate everyone's words of my writing even when it's like this. -Rei

Being alone, a short story

I won't be alone. And even if I was, I won't be lonely

That's what I would say whenever someone tells me otherwise.

Because... Why would I be lonely?

Do I not have them?

Will I not have you?

...

.......

Maybe I will not. But I will deny it for as long as I can.

....

Did I ever tell you all that my time with you guys felt so precious? They were moments amongst many others that filled my cache of memories that I would place near my heart. Then with it, I go to sleep awaiting the next day to fill it again some more.

I know... I'm being sappy again. Getting more often these days.

Mmm... Hm? Odd? Me, being sappy?

Maybe, maybe...

I feel my mouth trying to uphold that easygoing smile on my face. It's getting harder these days, I won't lie. And I hate I know why.

No. I shook my head when asked what's wrong. I'm afraid if I said out loud, it'll come true.

...

Time really is moving too fast. I know I used to complain back at school that time couldn't be even slower than it was.

I wonder when did the pace of time change. I wonder when did I start minding it so much. I wonder when did the passage of time felt like a dreadful thing to think about.

... Oh, right. Yeah, sorry. It's not everyday I get to be with you all. Or... Even one of you. Not in recent days, atleast—No! That's enough of that.

This moment, them being here, us, all of us right here and now.

I will ignore the twinge of an ache of the past and the distressing uncertainty of the future.

Yeah... The here and now. With you guys.

I grin back when I'm asked why I'm quiet once more. Well, new era, new me?

You all laughed at that. Time must be bringing in change if I'm turning... quieter-ish.

..... I could not join in with the laughs without thinking that... Time really is bringing change—That's enough ruminating.

...

......

"Won't you be alone?"

"Aren't you worried that you'll be lonely?"

"You'll just be by yourself in the future if you keep this up."

Oh yeah? Well, mind your own business.

Why do these unrelated people have to keep telling me that? To remind me of this 'fate' of mine?

Even... My own friends.

No, no. I won't be. I will not be. I still have you all. I'm not socially deprived, not a hermit in the middle of society. Right?

...

I am not alone.

....

I'm not.

....

The streets are teeming with people. Varied lives walking past me. The only intersection of my life with theirs is an occasional brush of the shoulder or the awareness of someone in your way that makes your body either stay in trajectory or skirt around.

I'm just one of many.

Hm? Right. Some of these people are in groups of atleast two. How nice.

Me? By myself these days, as obvious as it could get.

Am I alone?

Yes. Right now.

...

......

I've also been alone for a while.

I know. I admit it's lonely.

.....

Life sucks.

.....

......

........

Beep!

....

Sometimes you can't help but feel like a mismatched—or perhaps, not-matched soul in this world.

Sometimes you can't help but feel like a step-down of a someone.

Sometimes... You can't help but be the outlier.

....

Beep!

....

But sometimes life doesn't suck so bad because despite it all, there are times when you don't have to feel that way.

So yeah, I can feel lonely... But I'm starting to be okay even when alone.

....

Beep!

I smile to myself as another beep sounded. They're being impatient again for me to reply.

Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking to myself again. I'm typing, aight? Give me a sec.

A bit later, a fond chuckle made its way out of my mouth.

It's been a while, huh?

....

......

....

"See ya later!"

"Take care. Bye for now."

"Come by again."

"Next time, yeah?"

Of course, even if it's not always.

#aroace #aro #aromantic #rei's random stuff #written #writers on tumblr #friendship #feeling alone #mental health #Well probably is mental health

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juni-ravenhall · 21 days

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i saw some post about gender bathroom stuff and its so hilarious as a swedish person to read those. i may have said this before already but 99% of bathrooms here are unisex and theyre just actual small bathrooms, not stalls. that makes them generally comfortable and safe, combined with not being something you have to walk into a hidden hallway for... youre not any more vulnerable in there than anywhere else at the place really, bc its not out of the way.

the only places off the top of my head that have gendered stall bathrooms is the airport, ikea, and one of the cinemas. they do exist but its just rarer. all the schools ive been to except 1 had unisex bathrooms without stalls. (outlier was junior high... all bathrooms were trashed and in a bad state regardless of gender afaik, it wasnt a great school. but there were also unisex bathrooms here and there that u could use instead.)

ive never heard anyone complain about these unisex bathroom in my life besides general "that particular location has dirty/broken bathrooms" type thing, which is obvs an issue any sort of bathrooms can have no matter if unisex or gendered.

i feel like ppl who havent experienced normal Actual Room unisex bathrooms dont get that what u need to be mad about is the fact that companies / institutions / government / etc are REFUSING TO SPEND MONEY on building proper Actual Room bathrooms and cutting costs on building shitty stall bathrooms (both on the cost of building separate rooms, the space it requires, and on cleaning and maintaining it etc).

its not that theres anything wrong with this type of unisex bathroom at all. people with money just love to not spend money on useful things for humans if they can instead save that money and be nasty selfish assholes. it should be a given to design safe and comfortable unisex bathrooms that are real rooms in every public building that its possible, even if it costs more than building and maintaining shitty stall bathrooms. i dont respect any dumb fucking rich ppl cutting costs on good things ever.

also, as a person with IBS and stomach issues in general, and who was bullied throughout my life, i feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe when i have to poop or fart in the stall types of bathroom bc its just so open and audible to everyone. which can make me avoid doing that which in turn can create further health problems or stress and anxiety. there are so many reasons why i would hate seeing those stall bathrooms everywhere and as a queer fat person ive never felt comfortable in any gendered bathroom or locker room ever so its always insane seeing ppl say they think those are somehow okay. theyre not okay.

only actual, unisex, single person privacy is acceptable, everything else is a violation of your privacy in order for someone to save money.

#unrebloggable bc i dont want it to randomly spread i just want to vent about how ppl ignore the actual issue being rich ppl cutting costs #nonhorsgaem

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skaruresonic · 6 months

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Not trying to choose sides but blocking isn't a bad thing and nothing really anyone should lose sleep over, I block idw sonic fans and I block nsfw Sonic artist, sorry, makes me uncomfortable. I also block Prime sonic fans because those fans get triggered as soon as you point out how bad it is too. XD

I'm in the fandom on my free time, I don't want to deal with negativity or annoyance and I don't want to argue hours on hours about why I like or don't like this one Sonic thing. It's a waste of all of our time. Gotte focus on the games we love right?

I'm lucky so far I have not once been bothered by Satam fans whenever I call the show a pos. :P

Again, I don't mind blocking for curation's sake. I mind when people make a big moral issue out of it, especially when A.) blocking anyone even tangentially associated with us suggests someone out there may be keeping tabs on us, and B.) they still complain that we owe them a "conversation" even after being blocked. I know they're not being good faith, they just want an excuse to lecture and stonewall you forever.

No offense, as I know you didn't mean this, but even chronic discoursers have hobbies and concerns other than discourse; just because all you see is what a person posts online doesn't mean that's the only thing they do.

Personally, I've been straying more into VN work. Spent all day yesterday creating a few ambient sounds with SoundTrap.

---

I'm lucky so far I have not once been bothered by Satam fans whenever I call the show a pos. :P

Yeah idk what it is, but some SatAM fans (note I'm not saying all of them) are the most insecure fans I've ever seen. The show's been off the air for decades, and yet if you speak about it in an even mildly negative manner, someone will roll up to your post like "SatAM gave us GREAT TELEVISION and they did their best with the crumbs the games gave them." It's weird too because Omens devs the occasional outlier notwithstanding, you don't see Sonic X fans behaving as though X was still relevant to the series. Not only is "poor SatAM creators had nothing to work with" laughably untrue given the evidence we have at this point, (evidence which includes Ben Hurst's own words btw, but somehow they're just as allergic to his words as they are toward Ian's whenever he says something that doesn't fit their narrative), I like their assumption that the game purists ought to appreciate, or at least overlook, the implication that the games are less deep and fleshed-out than the TV show.

And then they pull surprised Pikachu faces when you're like "hey could you not shittalk the core series in order to elevate your dead, obsolete, and largely niche continuity? pls and thank"

#asks

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belle-keys · 5 months

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I disagree with the last part. Well written fanfictions do exist. Just because collective consensus is to not expect anything special doesn't mean they don't exist. I know maybe weird concept but there is Ukrainian fanfiction of Silmarillion which is academic analysed because it's so good. I know people like Anna Todd made many people believe fanfiction should never be treated seriously deposited somewhere in corners of internet but putting every shitty fic in the same box with great ones is idiotic. There may be more bad apples not to be taken seriously but tons of stories on ao3 are great but go under radar because they aren't popular as shitty ones. It is amusing that writers of purely self indulgent fics have the nerve to complain their readers aren't committed enough to engage in discussion but those who write great fics are less popular but have very supportive fans. There is trash but also gems.

I’m not saying well-written fanfictions don’t, as a rule, exist. I’m saying the entire purpose of modern internet fanfiction is not for quality-related purposes. Therefore, fanfiction should not be purposefully evaluated as being critically “good” or “not-good” – at least not to the authors’ or readers’ faces. Of course, there are outliers which can be critically analyzed as being good, as being valuable to the internet literary canon, as being significant in terms of pop culture trajectory. But that is because those fics inherently represent something intrinsic about contemporary pop culture at large. On an individual basis, fanfiction is not meant to be critically evaluated by regular literary or academic metrics. And treating fics like that in the comment section of a work is very much stupid as hell and missing the entire point of fan engagement.

#fanfiction #fanfic #fanfic writing #fanfic writers #fandom #fandom culture

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dduane · 2 years

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In the digital art dep’t: Smiling a bit at this...

Down in the comments on the post where Harry Callahan first appears:

Re Anson Mount: I’m assuming that’s off Harry’s hairstyle. (cheerful shrug) I can live with that. There are worse things on Earth (or other planets) than looking like Chris Pike.

Meanwhile, as for breasting boobily at things: Let’s deconstruct the problem a little. We’ll pull Mr. C. out of that background and take a closer look.

First of all: this is a Daz figure called “Dain 8”, who (after a significant amount of shopping around...) I chose to stand in for Nita’s dad.

Anyway, as usual, I made adjustments in the basic figure to match his description in the text: a bit husky, as befits his work as a florist and (because he does this kind of work too) groundskeeper: muscular guy, strongly built, skin tone of someone who spends a fair amount of time outdoors. Let’s dump the jacket for a moment.

One thing that kind of jumps out of the general physique: the pecs. They’re what’s giving that jacket so much trouble.

...Honestly, pecs seem to be a bit of a thing with a lot of Daz’s builders of male characters. There seems to be sort of a consensus: “If we can’t give them big, uh, private parts, we’ll give them big pecs.”

...Let me pull the shirts off the local major players for comparison’s sake.

Left to right: Harry, Carl Romeo, Tom Swale, Herewiss and Freelorn. ...Anyway, you see the problem. Most of these guys are moderately well pec’d up, and no matter how they stick out or don’t, every single set of those pecs has interfered with their clothes at one point or another.* At one level, this is a problem with Daz’s software.

Without getting too technical: clothing sufficiently advanced can be caused (using Daz’s dForce animation system) to drape over body contours, with greater or lesser levels of success depending on how well the clothing is constructed. As below, where Harry’s jacket has gone through the process:

But depending on clothing textures and the way the light is falling... things can get unavoidably booby. You wind up having to balance the needs of the rest of the scene—in terms of lighting and the way shadow falls—against how the clothes look. Sometimes the clothes don’t come out perfectly due to (among other things) the positioning of a character’s limbs. (I.e. the way Harry’s arms had to be positioned to be holding the pumpkin in front of him.) But trying to make them do so can cost you hours of labor which may or may not advance the project as a whole. (shrug) In a case like this, you pays your money and you takes your chances.

Meanwhile, I’m going to turn in before I start complaining about the generally crap state of men’s three-piece suits (for Carl!) on this platform... :/

ETA: per @man-and-atom‘s comment on ubiquitous definition: Well, Tom and Carl are (and gods rest them, in reality were) gym rats... as wizards in their positions have a responsibility to keep themselves better-than-usually physically fit. And Dusty and Lorn—as princes expected as a matter of course to go into battle, to satisfy their ruling families’ and realms’ political obligations—are both trained warriors from childhood; and due to being rigorously schooled in weapons- and armor-handling, are going to pick up some def no matter what they do. So... (shrug) We’ve got an image full of outliers here. Can’t be helped.

*Noting to myself that I really need to get some work done on Herewiss’s and Freelorn’s skin colors, as neither of them should look anything like as pale as they do. The problem is that it’s the figure designers who determine skin colors... and attempting to tinker with them can cause endless problems with display. (sigh) One more thing to think about...

#digital art #Daz Studio #Young Wizards #Middle Kingdoms #pecs

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thatsgoodweather · 4 months

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"[University of California, San Francisco] is trying to isolate and marginalize me. Medicine residents are complaining that leadership will not allow me to speak in antiracism forums because they characterize me as “controversial.” But I am not some outlier of medicine. I am a part of its history of correction. Judging by the sheer numbers of medical students who reach out to me from around the country to ask for mentorship, to work alongside me, and who come to UCSF specifically because of my work, I am part of a movement bringing forward ideas that are a postcard from the future, that were gifted to me by the loving relationships of the communities who teach me and who I serve. These are ideas that call for radical inquiry into why medicine doesn’t serve all, despite 20 years of investment into so-called “health equity.” These are ideas that look unflinchingly into the violence of our past and the present to map a better world without violence in the future, so that all may be healthy. These are ideas that bring analysis of critical pedagogies into medicine, insisting upon an understanding of how history and power are shaping the health outcomes we see. This is not comfortable work. But it is necessary if we want to see all people thrive and live the lives they truly deserve. My understanding of health equity and justice comes from decades of being a part of and serving communities in the struggle for our collective liberation. I realize there are not too many physicians in the academy who spend as much time as I have in frontline struggles — listening to families who have lost their loved ones to racist police violence, which continues to grow in the U.S., and standing together with Indigenous people who are resisting a pipeline through their water, or a real estate development going up on their sacred site. Today, experts with institutional roles in health equity are notably silent about the genocide in Gaza, which speaks volumes about their allegiance to power rather than their commitment to end inequities. I do not learn about health equity from reading books, attending conferences or holding journal clubs. I learn about health equity through building solidarity and living in lockstep with the communities I serve and to whom I belong, through the practice of Deep Medicine. My understanding of health is shaped by the survivors of genocide working to get their land back in Ohlone territory where I was born and where I work. It is sharpened by La Via Campesina’s peasant farming movement, the legacy of the Black Panther Party, the Waorani’s struggle to hold oil companies responsible for the pollution of the Amazon, the families of Oscar Grant, Mario Woods and Alex Nieto, all killed by Bay Area police, the family at Poor Magazine, disability justice movements and survivors of medical violence, and the Indigenous-led pipeline resistance, which has been the most effective tactic to lower greenhouse gas emissions in North America. My work is shaped by many people who work in service of ending apartheid in Palestine and bringing a future with equal rights for all."

By Rupa Marya, MD

#free palestine

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mbrainspaz · 10 months

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I'm at my wits end. The boss has hired two rich high school boys to stop me from working overtime. I haven't trained the second one yet but it sounds like I'm going to end up doing it because he's worked two days and the 'manager' hasn't bothered to show him how to lead a horse yet. High school boy no.1 is killing me. Every day I give him a task list and he just doesn't do it. I get back from my mandated break and ask him if he did anything and he's just like :) "No." The audacity of a straight cis white boy! First I told the 'manager' and he said 'yeah, I've had the same problem.' He did nothing about it as far as I can tell. He has zero backbone when it comes to confronting anybody so that wasn't surprising. I had a Talk with the boy and he seemed remorseful but continued to do a shitty job. So I told the corporate boss. She said she'd handle it ("And you still absolutely may NOT work ANY overtime! PEASANT!""I'm sure high school boy will give the horses water and food on time despite habitually failing to do that!"). You know what she did? She showed up an hour late, told the kid to drink water, and left again. e_o AAaaah?!

So I'm like—'this is why I need to work overtime, because shit isn't getting done.' And she's like, 'No :)' 'he's just a kid.'

NO SHIT?! YOU HIRED HIM THOUGH. He's not doing the job we need done.

And NOBODY CARES!

the audacity.

Can you imagine if I'd tried that as a 19 year old 'girl' at my first big barn job? Hell, I made maybe one mistake in the whole summer and that manager grilled me within an inch of my life. I gave one horse not enough hay, one time. He treated me like shit for the rest of the summer. This kid—rich boy—we stopped asking him to do hay for the horses because he was so intentionally incompetent We were like 'please give them more hay'

and he was like 'no :)'

f*ck

I asked him to clean all of 6 paddocks today and gave him 2 hours to do it. This time last year I was cleaning all 20 a day by myself in 2 hours. I think he cleaned maybe 2. GUESS WHO GETS TO CLEAN THE OTHER 18 ALONE IN 115 DEGREE HEAT TOMORROW?! Because nobody else is going to f*cking do it apparently.

Honestly I should just not. I should just stop working too. What the hell are they gonna do about it? Fire me for being the only person who's shown up for my shift on time and gotten chores done reliably all summer? Fire the only person who communicates with every part of the team and the clients? The only one who actually cares if the business is doing ok? You know they would! It's so stupid and universally ironic you KNOW it would happen to me.

They've already disciplined me repeatedly for trying too hard and caring too much.

And like yeah no sh*t the kid doesn't want to do actual work. The truck his parents bought him is worth more than the cumulative earnings I've made in this industry in the last 5 years. He's just doing this job because his mommy made him. After high school they'll get him a white collar job where he gets to 'manage money' for 100+K and he'll gleefully brag about what a hard worker he is because he had a job shoveling shit once and 'actually those jobs aren't so bad and poor people complain too much because really they deserve to suffer if they can't hack the system' like he did.

ugh. My whole life I'm going to live at the whims of utterly incompetent people who are richer, dumber, and meaner than me. I called my rich uncle for advice the other day and he said "you know really workers are only really productive for 40-60% of the workday." I LAUGHED MANIACALLY while actively doing the work of at least 2 people.

"average business person works 40-60% of the day" factoid actualy just statistical error. average business person works 0 hours per day. Texan Peasant, who lives at work & works for 200% of every day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

#life of a texan peasant #ffs #worker's rights #bad management #rant #poverty wages #corporate american hellscape #incompetence #business business business #i hate everything

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catscoollike · 9 months

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Catti and Monster kid walk sprites ^_^ + snowy

Hey look at these!!! I decided to throw my metaphorical hat into the metaphorical ring and try to give some of these dorks walk sprites. They're kinda rough around the edges but I think they turned out pretty good for only being around an afternoon's amount of work. I gotta say though each of these feels like they have their own story of how they were all uniquely a pain in the ass to make.

SNOWY

Starting with everyone's favorite deltarune character, Snowy! Holy hell! How I hope to never make a sprite for this dork ever again! In a game full of relatively simple character designs this dude just stands out as a beacon of complexity. He's just so weird man.

Now actually I completely forgot that he already had a sprite for him facing to the left in the game. (It's only used twice in the whole game). And I really didn't expect him to be that uh, flat?

Yeah, I don't know I guess he got hit in the face with a frying pan or something.

MONSTER KID

This little charmer was easier to sprite by several orders of magnitude. One of the reasons why is that 30% of their directional movement sprites were already done. And the reason I say only 30% of its done is because the one used in game is uh...

... Just the sprite that's used when they're sitting at their desk in class. Seriously! Thats their walking sprite! When MK and Snowy run away from Susie at the bunker, they just slide out of there!

Now to be fair they're gone in like half a second so it's pretty hard to notice if you aren't looking for it and its also probably why the spriters didn't feel the need to give them walking animations yet. but whenever I see this scene used in a theory video about the bunker I always chuckle.

But still, it was very helpful to have a sort of jumping off point for making their sprites. Since I wasn't just going to reinvent the wheel and draw them a whole new face. But I did need to give them a new body though, since I doubt monster kids body is a perfect cone from every angle.

CATTI

Now the thing is that there many very talented pixel artists that work on deltarune... Toby fox is not one of them.

Now I only mention this because with the fucking 2 sprites, that catti has in the game there is a pretty clear difference in artistic ability between them.

One sprite of her in her work uniform with shading. And one sprite of her sitting at her desk that uses flat default MS paint colors. Thats all I have to work with.

So, assuming that god is good and that the sprite that doesn't look like pixel barf is the one that more accurately represents her design. I used that to reference the color of her earrings and eyes. Along with her head sprite, since again, don't need to reinvent the wheel. Especially since I don't imagine her face shape completely changing once she changes her clothes. But I did add some shading since I though it looked nice.

After I had the head done, I decided to sprite... well, the rest of her. I sorta skimped out on the front facing body. And just made it a heavily altered version of Catty's. I only did that because every other member of the family pretty much just has the same body. And since shes related to them I thought it made sense to not make her some weird outlier to the rest of her family. Contrary to what Catti may tell you in game.

Making the directional sprites felt like pulling teeth. Once I had the down sprite done the up sprite was a piece of cake but oh man. The horizontal sprites. yeah uh, that's... probably not what that sprite is going to look like in deltarune.

Her head shape was tough, I didn't know if she had a prominent snout, or if her head is just completely round like it is when looking at it from the front. But after messing around with it while listening to the entirety of RV pine's fanmade chapter 3 soundtrack. I finally got something passable.

But that's about it, I guess. I know I just got done complaining about how these were super-duper hard to make and stuff. But it was pretty fun to make these.

#deltarune #catti #monster kid #snowy deltarune #pixel art #pixel animation #catscoollike

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years

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Antitrust is - and always has been - about fairness

It’s easy to take the Supreme Court’s flurry of judicial atrocities as a contemporary phenomenon, but all the way back in 1993, SCOTUS engaged in a historical fantasy that has taken a terrible toll on the American people and American political legitimacy. Long before Citizens United, there was Brooke Group Ltd. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp:

https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/509/209/

It was an antitrust case, and in 1993, decades of antitrust precedent that sought to prevent the accumulation of power into a few companies’ hands was being upended by a radical, far-right doctrine called “consumer welfare” — a doctrine that spread to “liberal” justices as well, as 40% of the federal bench took part in the Manne Seminars, lavishly funded “education” junkets:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/03/powell-memo/

In Brooke Group the Supremes moved an outlier — 1962’s Brown Shoe Inc — into the center of antitrust law, with Kennedy quoting Brown Shoe for the majority: “It is axiomatic that the antitrust laws were passed for ‘the protection of competition, not competitors.’”

What Kennedy meant was that antitrust laws don’t exist to protect small businesses per se — rather, they exist to promote “efficiency,” which is best understood as “prices going down.” So long as prices are going down, antitrust is working as intended — irrespective of the ruined lives and places that are sacrificed to low prices and the corruption begat by concentrated power.

The question of what antitrust should do is certainly up for fair debate. I understand the “efficiency” argument, even though I thoroughly disagree with it. What isn’t (or shouldn’t be) up for debate is what purpose antitrust was created to serve. That is a historical fact, easily verified by looking at contemporaneous primary source documents from the recent past.

But for 40 years, we’ve accepted an alternate history of antitrust law, an unhinged conspiratorial account that pretended that the lawmakers who drafted and fought for antitrust law and who told us over and over why they did so were speaking in code — that we can’t rely on their plain language and must instead fall back on gnostic interpretations where every word can mean its opposite.

Finally, that age of mystic nonsense is coming to a close. The new antitrust enforcers not only reject the ahistorical gibberish that pretends to explain antitrust’s origins, they embrace the intent of antitrust’s framers: to prevent the accumulation of commercial — and thus political — power into the hands of “autocrats of trade,” be they Rockefellers and Carnegies, or Kochs and Seids.

In the US, three powerful Biden appointees are leading the charge: Tim Wu in the White House, Jonathan Kanter in the DoJ Antitrust Division, and FTC chair Lina Khan. But while these three may be the face of US trustbusting, they are by no means alone — rather, they are supported by stalwart lieutenants and an army of supporters.

One of these lieutenants is FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya. Last month, Bedoya gave a barn-burning speech to the Midwest Forum on Fair Markets, explaining the once and future history of antitrust; the transcript of his speech was just published in The American Prospect:

https://prospect.org/economy/returning-to-fairness-rural-america-open-markets/

Bedoya starts with the unequivocal history of antitrust. In 1888, when Congress was debating the Sherman Act, its first antitrust law, it “did not talk about efficiency.” Instead witnesses complained about the meatpacking cartel, which was cheating ranchers out of a fair price for their cattle.

This theme — cartels and monopolies abusing small producers — is the recurring motif of all antitrust law debates thereafter. In 1936, Congress debated protection for small-town grocers “being driven out of business by powerful chain stores who got secret payoffs from their suppliers.”

In those debates, Congress made clear its purpose: “What we are trying to take away from them is secret discounts, secret rebates, and secret advertising allowances. We are trying to take away from them those practices that are unfair.” Antitrust is, and always has been, about fairness, not efficiency.

When Sen John Sherman took his landmark antitrust bill to the Senate floor in 1890, he thundered: “If we will not endure a King as a political power we should not endure a King over…the necessaries of life. If we would not submit to an emperor we should not submit to an autocrat of trade with power to prevent competition and to fix the price of any commodity.”

https://marker.medium.com/we-should-not-endure-a-king-dfef34628153

Congress passed five more antitrust bills over the next 60 years, each of them designed to protect small firms from large ones. There is no reasonable world in which the judges enforcing these laws could say that it was “axiomatic” that they didn’t exist to protect the small from the large:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254130964_The_Robinson-Patman_Act_and_competition_Unfinished_business

Today, small firms — and the communities they serve — face existential threats from large, consolidated ones. Bedoya describes the annihilation of independent pharmacies in West Virginia, where, 20 years ago, the sector was composed of 39 companies — pharmacies, benefit managers and insurers. Today, those 39 companies have merged into three monoliths:

https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/ARAG/2022/05/11/file_attachments/2156162/2022-05-11-%20Insulin%20Complaint%20FINAL%20DRAFT.pdf#page=77

Perhaps that’s efficient? Not hardly. When a WV family goes to their local pharmacy to fill a prescription for their child who has cancer, they are turned away, told instead that they must fill this order with their Pharmacy Benefit Manager’s proprietary mail-order pharmacy, and their child must wait two weeks for their medicine:

https://www.wvinsurance.gov/Portals/0/pdf/pressrelease/Drug%20Complaint%20Press%20Release%20Draft%208.8.2021-FINAL%20(1).pdf

A tsunami of mergers — waved through by Bedoya’s predecessors at the FTC — produced nationwide pharmacy and insurance consolidation, to the detriment of patients. It was also an extinction-level event for rural pharmacies: “In Minnesota, from 2003 to 2018, 30 rural zip codes lost their only pharmacy.” It’s a nationwide epidemic:

https://rupri.public-health.uiowa.edu/publications/policybriefs/2018/2018%20Pharmacy%20Closures.pdf

Agribusiness is extraordinarily concentrated. At a listening session in Des Moines, Bedoya heard from cattlemen and corn growers, who were all in crisis. No wonder: 40% of your grocery store dollar once went to the farmer who grew your food. Today, it’s 16%:

https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/food-dollar-series/documentation

Once, dozens of firms provided agricultural inputs and services (“fertilizer, seeds, grain buying, meatpacking”). Today, all of these functions are undertaken by just four companies, but they don’t compete with each other — rather, they have divided up the nation so that farmers have only one supplier for key inputs:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/blog/2021/09/08/addressing-concentration-in-the-meat-processing-industry-to-lower-food-prices-for-american-families/

This isn’t just unfair — it’s also inefficient. When one company owns all the meatpacking facilities and shuts down — as some did during the covid lockdown — there’s no alternative. Bedoya: “One of the cattlemen described through tears how he had to gas a warehouse full of cattle when the one processing plant accessible to him was shut down because of COVID.”

Monopoly isn’t just unfair to humans, it’s also unfair to livestock: “Another described animal abuse on the lot that he said was unheard of in competitive markets. A cow that he raised was bolted in the head, killed, dragged out of a trailer with a log chain, and dumped in the garbage because she had slipped in the trailer on the drive to the processing plant.”

The unfairness goes deeper than we know or can know. Bedoya says that the people who came to his meeting were terrified to speak, frightened of retaliation by the monopolists. I encountered this myself: when Rebecca Giblin and I were working on Chokepoint Capitalism, our book about monopolies and creative labor markets, everyone we spoke to about the Ticketmaster/Livenation monopoly requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

The unfairness goes all the way up the supply chain, from producers to retailers. Rural communities and low-income neighborhoods rely on independent grocers, and independent grocers are also facing looming extinction. That’s because the large grocers and large manufacturers have secret arrangements that make it possible for grocery monopolists to sell at prices that independents can’t match.

Take RF Buche, who owns 21 independent grocers in South Dakota Indian Country, a business that his family has been in for 117 years; Buche’s stores are “the only place where locals can easily get fresh milk and produce.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACQp7q0refA&t=2220s

Many times, manufacturers literally won’t sell Buche the same packages that they market to the big-box stores. When those goods are on offer, they’re sold at much higher prices than the big box stores enjoy, even when Buche offers to buy in the same quantity.

During the lockdown, Buche was not able to buy items like baby formula, as the supply was preferentially diverted to big box stores (this was long before the nationwide shortage). To get these items for his customers, he had to drive 1,000 miles/week to move items from his low-volume stores to his busier ones. His competitors, the big box stores, all had overflowing shelves.

Bedoya asks how it is that judges expect him to protect “efficiency” when the laws themselves — to say nothing of human decency — demand that he protects “fairness”? “Fairness,” Bedoya says, isn’t squishy and “impressonistic.” Rather, “Congress and the courts have told us, directly and repeatedly, how to implement protections against unfairness.”

Bedoya pledges his support for Chair Khan’s promise to enforce the antitrust laws as they are written, not as the “autocrats of trade” who control our economy and thus our political system wish they were written.

This is one of the most important changes to American politics in a generation. The FTC is blocking mergers, the White House is undertaking 72 specific antitrust actions, the DoJ is chasing anticompetitive conduct. That may sound commonsense — and it is — but it’s the first time it’s been a part of American politics in ten presidential administrations:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/09/rest-in-piss-robert-bork/#harmful-dominance

[Image ID: A collage. In the top right corner is a sadistic, bewigged judge pointing an accusatory finger towards the opposite corner. In that corner is a cutout of the classic Rockwell WPA portrait of a farmer speaking up at a town meeting. Between them in a thought-bubble, two figures do battle. Nearest the judge is a drawing of a dancing 'Rich Uncle Pennybags' from Monopoly; he has removed his face to reveal a grinning skull. Nearest the farmer is a trustbuster editorial cartoon of Roosevelt swinging his 'big stick'; his face has been replaced with that of FTC chair Lina M Khan, a monocle over her left eye. Behind them, a faded image of industrial symbols (e.g. railroads, oil wells, etc) surmounted by a gilded dollar sign.]

#pluralistic

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homenecromancer · 1 month

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posting about my many issues again

even with a vertical mouse, my hand function is not… excellent, and i also get elbow pain if i have my arms bent, or in any position but straight, for too long. which has caused me to come to associate playing video games with pain; this grieves me greatly because from ages approximately 17 to 28 i played a fuckton of video games, and for the past few years i have been able to play less and less. (phone games just don’t fucking cut it ;_;) i really, really miss it, and no other hobby really comes close.

is Fallout 4 a good game? i have never finished the main quest, but the DLC is fun, and there are a lot of cool areas to explore. the writing… the writing may not be great, but i played about 1000 hours of Borderlands 2 with the sound off because of the writing in that game. i have a very high tolerance for writing that’s kind of lame. it’s harder to just click through a conversation in Fallout 4 compared to New Vegas, but whatever, i get to go hunt Deathclaws with Nick Valentine.

so, from this context — i really miss Fallout but the fact that it causes me pain makes it not worth it to fight through the hassle of getting the game to boot — … yes, okay, i watched the Fallout TV show. i went into it expecting “this will feel like a very high-budget adaptation of someone’s fanfiction”, and on that level, yeah, pretty much. it kind of alternates between that and “this feels like i am watching someone else play Fallout 4”. the visuals are nice, i thought they were well-crafted. i got to be back in the world of Fallout without being in pain the entire time / waiting for something to start hurting. there’s a non-binary character who survives the entire season, i liked that. i have seen a lot of people complain that this show has a lot of “prestige television” flaws, but i watch approximately one television show per year, so i don’t know what those flaws are and am happy not to know. you will not find any surprises in this show; whatever you’re expecting from it, yeah, it’s that.

i will also note, while i’m here, that the one time i modded a Fallout game, it was an ill-fated attempt to get Fallout 3 to fucking work (it did not, that game is cursed on PC, also this was nearly a decade ago tbf). apparently everyone else on the internet plays with mods, so, uh, you’re getting the opinion of the one weirdo who doesn’t. i’m an outlier, whatever

#personal

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macaronnya · 2 years

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I've seen some people be disappointed with The Ssum for various reasons. Some I can understand but others I think people are too hasty. So here are some thoughts (not sorted through).

Regarding the many things you can pay for, I get that. It is kinda very in your face (literal game ads, that are kinda cute tho and only 5 sec) and pricey. I myself am very tempted but will see after the first round of 200 days. Pretty sure I'll know if it's worth it, after that. Cheritz is a small company after all and they've been working on this for quite a while. But for now I don't think it's necessary to buy anything to enjoy the game.

He might type slowly but you can just do smth else while waiting and somehow work with that. Now, the Aurora Batteries, those are already more iffy. Per chat, there are 1 to 3 options, where you can use them. Some even give you a call? I really hate this kind of limitation. It's so direct in telling "you may have missed juicy content~", which makes it a lot worse than the hourglasses in Mysme (not that they were bad in the first place). You have a lot of free opportunities to get them there (❤->⏳, through chats, invited guests) and even then, it's completely fine to go without. (Some calls were really 😙🤌 though, but it's very much optional) Here, I'm not sure you can get any without paying or unlocking achievments. But we'll see how it is since it's only the first week after all. Dunno about the other things yet but I'll just wait to see if it's too much, that I'm missing out on.

Regarding Teo, I don't really get how some people are already writing him off as boring and comparing him to Mysme characters. Like, ofc they'd be different. Not only is Teo the only person you're gonna talk to, you have 200 days for that. You'll have plenty of time to discover hidden mysteries and flags or whatever. Apparently, he's even gonna mold his personality based on our conversations. So it makes sense, that he'd be more blank in the beginning, especially during the first 2 days. Now look at Mysme, where you have 11 days for each of the 5, later 7, characters. You have to know which ones you wanna go first and everyone is interacting with one another. And there's a whole very forefront plot that needs to be told. While in The Ssum, for now at least, the plot is just getting to know about a guy in roughly 6 months and fall in love(?). The situations are too different to compare them. Besides that, he's actually just like a normal guy you first meet somewhere randomly. Is everyone able to figure out a stranger's personality and background after a few conversations on the first day or am I just the outlier here? I'm sure you've met at least one person whose personality on the outside differs greatly from the truth after getting to know them more.

I'm not saying you can't say what you think for first impressions; if he seems boring rn then that's just how it is for you. But it's stupid to complain already when the game is barely out, yet.

Anyways, that's all I have to rant about for now. Maybe I am too optimistic from the perspective of smn in the future reading this but I truly think you can't tell anything yet by Day 2. Hopefully, this will age well....

#the ssum #Why is my rambling always so long?#teo is a nice guy for now #like actually nice to talk to

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libulanns · 9 months

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If I may be critical of women for a moment... and as a disclaimer, I live in a highly neoliberal/liberal feminist city, and I am an older gen Z and am talking about women my age 21-27, but I am getting really tired of women who keep doubling down on horrible views and actions rather than to admit that they supported something that was wrong. It's something literally everyone, males and females do, but before moving to this area, I've never seen women do it to what feels like the same degree as men. Like women will literally start prostituting themselves than to admit that it was wrong of them to help normalize Onlyfans as a career option to middle and high school girls. They never admit it was wrong of them to help normalize hookup culture/"having a ho phase," they'll tell stories about how horrible it made them feel when they did it and imparted lasting psychological damage and issues with intimacy onto them, but they still won't call it a mistake and insist that they gained something valuable out of it and refuse to discourage others from going through the same, either out of an unwillingness to admit they were wrong, out of a fear of offending others, or both. Like can you please just admit you were wrong and the suffering that stemmed from it was actually just needless? Can we just be okay with saying, "hey, I made this decision and it was a horrible mistake, I really advise you don't do the same." to other women and especially girls? Why does everything have to come with a disclaimer of "I did this and I PERSONALLY as an INDIVIDUAL who is an OUTLIER did n ot have a good experience with this, but if that works for you/makes you happy, then go for it!" Individualism really rots the brain.

And I am not fully blaming women who do this here, because obviously these norms are prevailing in the culture right now, and because of the way we're socalized, a lot of us probably really do believe we're outliers and that this kind of thing really can and does work for others. But some are indeed capable of realizing that this isn't true, and still choose to keep it to themselves. We're all young adults here, and I'm moreso talking to the mid 20s crowd with this point, but, at some point we need to accountability for stuff, too.

I guess I'm complaining about several different but interconnecting things here. I'm just a little tired of it, it gets hard to work with women who have this mentality/take this approach to social issues. I just feel like this mentality is at the root of what will prevent us from truly gaining class consciousness. It is a brick wall I keep running into. I feel like we're so close, because even in a city like this, I still make connections with women from different backgrounds, who are still libfems, every day in the real world. We're almost there so it feels especially frustrating.

#long rant sorry

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