#There are so many other naming customs

[hazelcephalopod]

Considering Fjord’s just barely “I guess my last name is Stone. That’s the shit name they gave me at my shit orphanage” attitude. I propose that when they marry we break with tradition and just let him be Admiral/Captain-Mr Fjord Lavorre.

#critical role #Plz understand even in our own world naming customs are so much more diverse than #women takes mens last name or maybe their husband adds her. Which each got form their father #There are so many other naming customs #It’s honestly weird to be exandrian doesn’t have more of them #Go look up Spanish names rn #Or places where they don’t have last names at all #Or are still using the “child of (ok usually father but you could use mother or parent) #On the one hand I get they worldbuilding based on what they know #On the other… the world is way more complicated than that #Marriage customs are different between cultures and time periods! #Not everyone uses rings! #Its fine but… also I have a lot of opinions #(Idk why this turned into a rant but it did) #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers

[zhongguochic]

Chinese desserts

Tánghúlu (糖葫蘆)

Liángnòng dà gāo (梁弄大糕)

Qīngtuán (青糰)

Xiāncǎo guǒ (仙草粿)

#chinese food #chinese desserts #grass jelly has MANY different regional names so i chose the one that was the least ambiguous #the other names like 燒仙草/涼粉/仙草/草粿 are not as precise #the 梁弄大糕 is the most obscure thing on this list - it is only sold in a specific town of a specific city in zhejiang province #i looovee hyper-regionalistic chinese customs lol #(inb4 someone tries to tell me tanghulu is korean)

[voidimp]

look at my neopets, boy*

*substitute gender of choice

#some of them need work customizing is haaaard #i finally. FINALLY got the background i wanted for luwuv #so now everyone has a nice fancy bg (except for specemin bc theyre my lab rat rn) #nje needs a better background especially that one doesnt rly fit them well #also NK0 #forever mad that that outfit doesnt cover the ears but w/e #i wish moving nc items between accts was easier i have many more pets to customize #like i have the items. but i dont want to send them & then decide to move the pet to a different acct #& then not have any boxes to move the wearables over too #peiwa/navyz/keyesi kind of tell a story. btw. look at it #i wish i had a better wig for keyesi but he looked weird bald #CAN U TELL I LIKE AISHAS #i have another acct full of them too #i do have some permies that arent aishas. but not many #i do have other Ideas but i dont have names for them yet

[crescentmp3]

went outside today! was quite fun ^^

#we went to the place we've been going to for... about six(?) years now #its either five or six. #they recognize me by now! #my dad had gone there while going back from work and was waiting for us #while me and my mom were going she went into her little yarn store (shes in love with crocheting/knitting) so i went ahead of her. #when i went in they were like ''is your mother not coming?'' which was very flattering account of hehe im recognizable #i had chicken wings! which means i ate like a feral cat that hadn't eaten in two days #the only times i shimmy with joy when eating food is when i eat chicken wings. by god they're so good #only if its made like my favorite little places do it. i've gone to burger king once (1) and i absolutely refuse to try anything chicken #theres many of the mainstream english-speaking-country places in super markets but i will never go there. never #they could never do it like this tiny little place we've been going to for years that have an average of zero customers at any given time. #by god i love that place. hope i get to go there for my entire time in high school #we want to move to yenibosna after im done with high school... #we were actually living there when i was an infant! we had to move due to Landlord apparently. #which happened for most of my life. #honest to god i moved every year when in elementary #which means i got to experience four (4) different elementary schools! quite an experience. #the first one i went to elementary in was all the way over in acıbadem (near other side of istanbul on a metrobus) #ahh reminds me of my best friend in first grade. her name was sümeyye i miss her but at the same time i could not care less #it was fun! it was fun. we sneaked out of the elementary during break time to go to the adjacent primary school we used to go to #reminds me fourth grade! there was a primary school next to that one too #is it called a primary school? its not a kindergarden... #oh! sorry. preschool #what was i saying? #well only god knows i cant read my tags. goodbye forever #♚ — rambling ! #oh i should talk about my day! #today in english class the teacher did a .. shoobadoowhatsit. can i stop forgetting words #is it called a verbal quiz? verbal exam? verbal something. you understand #hi i ran out of tags. i'll continue in a reblog

[baekuras]

shoutout to todays customer who returned his sunglasses because they gave him headaches and when i asked if he wanted me to check to find the cause of it he refused ONLY to 5minutes after the return ask why they could cause him to have headaches when his daily clear ones don’t

fun fact 1: he was supposed to come in at 4pm because he wanted his money back in cash and we didn’t have that much in the morning, but he came during noon and i had to scrape some together fun fact 2: he asked my male coworker why they would cause issues when i was the one who took on his request for...some....reason....could it be....sexism.....no it can’t be (:

another shoutout to the woman insisting we give her mother who has diabetis, sees double AND can’t speak german and eye exam and tell them why she can’t see well even after me explaining to her that we can’t measure her prescription as well (or at all) like an actual doctor can due to both machinery AND lack of medical knowledge....surprise: it didn’t work out and the result were wonky and she may need prisms but maybe not who knows not fucking me because we skipped like 2dpt between slides at some points and none of the prescriptions i offered and adjusted cleared her seeing double (: yes hi hello i can actually do my job and know what is possible and what isn’t (:

#txts #on the lower end of rant news we had one customer who was angry his lenses were thick #....like....sir you chose the most basic ones which aren't even really sold anymore afaik with +3dpt #ofc gucci frames the size of half the head to over ex....aterate oh god i forgot the word....anyway #so they get extra big #i am just amazed he didnt insist on mineral ones tbh but hey a small win #but hey....surprise: if out of the at LEAST 4 options you pick the general very basic ones when you need big lenses....shits gonna get thicc #'it looks bad!!!' yeah no shit but you didnt want to spend money on the lenses i GUESS #idk i wasnt there #and i am not paid enough to discuss with customers what lenses best fit to avoid this case beyond a recommendation #you can always choose other ones but if you ever get mad and tell someone I either forced them on you or didnt offer anything else #i will maul you #and also no one will believe you because my coworkers know my sale rhythm and i know theirs....so....fuck you we all hate you and talk shit #about you #sometimes even while you're still there and sometimes w/ other customers as well #another favourite is people asking why we cant insert new lenses into certain frames #i swear i WISH i knew why they were made like this #i really.really wish i knew #but we are as lost as you #(actual favourite tho that wasnt sarcasm i just like to shittalk brand-name frames because so many are shit lol) #like the ones who actually specialize or focus on frames are usually got #-ray ban because they decided to fuck themselves hard #apparently they were rly good once? havent found a new one showing that yet rly but k i'll trust y'all #but some are just....literal plastic #for frames??? like the whole thing???? #bitch this will break if i sneeze on it wtf are you doing #insta modeling?? tf are they for??? #+another favourite is some of them going #'oh they have 100uv protection' #yeah so does every plastic lens+100uv isn't uv400 at least in germany fuck off

[poptartmochi]

hmm can I ask my manager of 2 months to be a reference for me... is that a normal thing to do 🕴️

#see i could put my uncle because he is my Boss more than he is my uncle. and i have worked for him forever #however he is my uncle 🕴️ however we do not have the same last name. however i do work for his family business which i previously #explained to many of our school customers was a family business. however that was 2 years ago and a pandemic has started since then #However i feel like there will be a pavlovian connection in the hiring people's minds if they see our store's name 🕴️🕴️🕴️ #the small business worker's dilemma 😭 #i think it would be fine.. i mentioned i wanted to get into substitute teaching as a way to get familiar w being on the other side of the #classroom + she's been supportive of that so i think it's fine? 🤔 #sriracha.txt

[coffeeflavored-tears]

i just fucking miss good thrift stores. like god damn fuck indiana all we got is fucking goodwills

#this is an attack on indiana mostly #like goddamn bitch gimme some good thrift stores #back in california there were like 5 within a twenty minute drive from my home #and now all we got is a shitty chain thrift store that i work at #and they don’t even have any like cool clothes and there’s assholes of customers and i have to work on the weekends cuz i can’t work during #school cuz i have tech theatre which is fine and all but jesus i hate my fucking work #and everyone argues all the time !!! like holy shit !!! stop fucking arguing #and complaining about your other coworkers to me #like bitch shut up i am trying to get paid and make friends with as many people as possible #trying to befriend the nice old lady who made fun of jehovah’s witnesses with me is hard when she moved to the back and i’m only a cashier #trying to befriend a 14 year old volleyball player is hard when she can only work sundays and doesn’t go to my school #trying to befriend the older non-binary kid is hard when they’re so oblivious and just bad at the job and everyone complains about them al- #-l the time #and then both people that i actually liked working with have stopped working there!!! #i mean one does tech theatre so that’s nice #but the other moved to a different location and i miss her #she was a like 40 year old lady who smoked and was just fun to be around #she only worked there for like 2 weeks but we started on the same day and we bonded #for personal reasons i will not share the name of the store but i’m sure you could guess if you’re from america #work hate account #that’s gonna be my tag for hating on my work #indiana hate acclunt #that’s gonna be my indiana hate posts #i wrote this post like 20 minutes ago and have been ranting in the tags ever since

[tsubasaclones]

when me and my sister were kids we both liked monster high (although i still liked it after she stopped lol) and for some reason there was this unspoken rule that if one of us had a doll of a character then the other one wouldnt get any of that character

#she had dolls of uh #lagoona spectra robecca i think ghoulia and also that jade dragon girl or whatever #ok i just looked it up her name was jinafire. i was thinking jade because she has green in her design #for me i got dolls of draculaura abbie clawdeen howleen frankie twyla venus and a bunch of others i dont remember rn lmao #i dont remember how many my sister had in the end but i have 31 or something i believe and she had less than that. so #i had a couple of those custom monster high doll packs too #i always really wanted a clawd doll for all my draculauras but i never ended up getting one f #em.txt #i think my doll thats in the best condition is probably honey swamp because she was one of the last ones i got. i think shes missing a belt #but other than that shes good. #despite draculaura being my favorite my first mh doll was actually an abby. some sleep wear doll or something #also she didnt really get multiples of the same character and i had like 7 draculauras and 2-4 each of some others.

[ktempestbradford]

I have been on a Willy Wonkified journey today and I need y'all to come with me

It started so innocently. Scrolling Google News I come across this article on Ars Technica:

At first glance I thought what happened was parents saw AI-generated images of an event their kids were at and became concerned, then realized it was fake. The reality? Oh so much better.

On Saturday, event organizers shut down a Glasgow-based "Willy's Chocolate Experience" after customers complained that the unofficial Wonka-inspired event, which took place in a sparsely decorated venue, did not match the lush AI-generated images listed on its official website.... According to Sky News, police were called to the event, and "advice was given."

Thing is, the people who paid to go were obviously not expecting exactly this:

But I can see how they'd be a bit pissed upon arriving to this:

It gets worse.

"Tempest, how could it possibly--"

source of this video that also includes this charming description:

Made up a villain called The Unknown — 'an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls'

There is already a meme.

Oh yes, the Wish.com Oompa Loompa:

Who has already done an interview!

As bad (and hilarious) as this all is, I got curious about the company that put on this event. Did they somehow overreach? Did the actors they hired back out at the last minute? (Or after they saw the script...) Oddly enough, it doesn't seem so!

Given what I found when poking around I'm legit surprised there was an event at all. Cuz this outfit seems to be 100% a scam.

The website for this specific event is here and it has many AI generated images on it, as stated. I don't think anyone who bought tickets looked very closely at these images, otherwise they might have been concerned about how much Catgacating their children would be exposed to.

Yes, Catgacating. You know, CATgacating!

I personally don't think anyone should serve exarserdray flavored lollipops in public spaces given how many people are allergic to it. And the sweet teats might not have been age appropriate.

Though the Twilight Tunnel looks pretty cool:

I'm not sure that Dim Tight Twdrding is safe. I've also been warned that Vivue Sounds are in that weird frequency range that makes you poop your pants upon hearing them.

Yes, Virginia, these folks used an AI image generator for everything on the website and used Chat GPT for some of the text! From the FAQ:

Q: I cannot go on the available days. Will you have more dates in the future? A: Should there be capacity when you arrive, then you will be able to enter without any problems. In the event that this is not the case, we may ask you to wait a bit.

Fear not, for this question is asked again a few lines down and the answer makes more sense.

Curious about the events company behind this disaster, I took myself over to the homepage of House of Illuminati and I was not disappointed.

I would 100% trust these people to plan my wedding.

This abomination of a website is a badly edited WordPress blog filled with AI art and just enough blog posts to make the casual viewer think that it's a legit business for about 0.0004 seconds.

Their attention to detail is stunning, from how they left up the default first post every WP blog gets to how they didn't bother changing the name on several images, thus revealing where they came from. Like this one:

With the lovely and compact filename "DALL·E-2024-01-30-09.50.54-Imagine-a-scene-where-fantasy-and-reality-merge-seamlessly.-In-the-foreground-a-grand-interactive-gala-is-taking-place-filled-with-elegant-guests-i.png"

"Concept.png" came from the same AI generator that gets text almost, but not quiiiiiite right:

There are a suspicious number of .webp images in the uploads, which makes me think they either stole them from other sites where AI "art" was uploaded or they didn't want to pay for the hi-res versions of some and just grabbed the preview image.

The real fun came when I noticed this filename: Before-and-After-Eventologists-Transformation-Edgbaston-Cricket-Ground-1024x1024-1.jpg and decided to do a Google image search. Friends, you will be shocked to hear that the image in question, found on this post touting how they can transform a boring warehouse into a fun event space, was stolen from this actual event planner.

Even better, this weirdly grainy image?

From a post that claims to be about the preparations for a "Willy Wonka" experience (we'll get to this in a minute), is not only NOT an actual image of anyone preparing anything for Illuminati's event, it is stolen from a YouTube thumbnail that's been chopped to remove the name of the company that actually made this. Here's the video.

If you actually read the blog posts they're all copypasta or some AI generated crap. To the point where this seems like not a real business at all. There's very specific business information at the bottom, but nothing else seems real.

As I said, I'm kinda surprised they put on an event at all. This has, "And then they ran off with all our money!" written all over it. I'm perplexed.

And also wondering when the copyright lawyers are gonna start calling, because...

This post explicitly says they're putting together a "Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory Experience" complete with golden tickets.

Somewhere along the line someone must have wised up, because the actual event was called "Willys Chocolate Experience" (note the lack of apostrophe) and the script they handed to the actors about 10 minutes before they were supposed to "perform" was about a "Willy McDuff" and his chocolate factory.

As I was going through this madness with friends in a chat, one pointed out that it took very little prompting to get the free Chat GPT to spit out an event description and such very similar to all this while avoiding copyrighted phrases. But he couldn't figure out where the McDuff came from since it wasn't the type of thing GPT would usually spit out...

Until he altered the prompt to include it would be happening in Glasgow, Scotland.

You cannot make this stuff up.

But truly, honestly, I do not even understand why they didn't take the money and run. Clearly this was all set up to be a scam. A lazy, AI generated scam.

Everything from the website to the event images to the copy to the "script" to the names of things was either stolen or AI generated (aka stolen). Hell, I'd be looking for some poor Japanese visitor wandering the streets of Glasgow, confused, after being jacked for his mascot costume.

HE LIVES IN THE WALLS, Y'ALL.

#long post #Willy Wonka #Wonka #Willy Wonka Experience #Willy Wonka Experience disaster #Willy's Chocolate Experience #Willys Chocolate Experience #THE UNKNOWN #Wish.com Oompa Loompa #House of Illuminati #AI #ai generated

[reddpenn]

Here is a potentially silly question: how do you feel about birthstones? Do you think they fit the months (by season or astrological sign)? Do you have other stones you'd rather see as birthstones?

Okay, so, birthstones make absolutely no sense.

I mean, look at this mess. We’re doing beryl and corundum twice! I get that they get Special Different Names for their Special Different Colors, but it's just lazy. And why are we giving some months cheap, common gemstones like garnet and amethyst while the poor June birthdays have to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for FREAKING ALEXANDRITE? That’s incredibly unfair! We should be picking birthstones that are all roughly the same price. And why do some months get multiple gemstones? I’ll tell you why: because nobody can agree on an official list and every attempt to standardize this thing has just added MORE birthstones to every month.

So obviously the answer is to standardize it again, by throwing out everything and starting over. Here are our goals:

Fair pricing. You should be paying roughly the same amount regardless of what month you were born in. We’re getting rid of those ridiculous outliers like diamond and alexandrite.

More customization potential! Nobody should be stuck with a stone they hate. We’re picking gemstones that come in multiple colors or varieties, so that everyone can choose a variant they like.

Wearability. Some birthstones are too fragile to be worn as jewelry. We need to replace them with stronger stuff.

No more duplicate gemstones. Every month gets a stone or family of stones with a unique chemical composition.

Now without further ado, I present to you:

The New And Improved List Of Birthstones With No Problems Or Flaws That Everyone Will Definitely Agree On And We Can Start Using Right Now Immediately

JANUARY: GARNET

I've got no problem with garnet. It's a fine, classic birthstone, so January can keep it. But I would like to see a little more garnet diversity. January birthdays shouldn’t be confined to just red. The garnet family of minerals contains a rainbow of different colors, like orange hessonite, green uvarovite, pink rhodolite, yellow grandite, and many more. They’re all garnet, so we should be wearing them all!

FEBRUARY: QUARTZ

The original birthstone of February was amethyst, which is… kinda boring. Super cheap and common and you only get one color? No, we can do better. February gets ALL the quartzes now. Keep wearing amethyst if you want, but also feel free to branch out into clear quartz, citrine, rose quartz, smoky quartz, rutilated quartz, tiger eye… actually, take all the agates too. If it’s quartz, it’s yours!

MARCH: SPODUMENE

March was originally aquamarine, but I’ll be giving all the beryls to May, so we need a different stone here. Let’s stick with that theme of pale pastels and go with spodumene. For an April birthday, bedeck yourself in green hiddenite, pink kunzite, or yellow triphane. Despite its subtle colors, your birthstone has some amazing fluorescence, with really cool pinks and oranges under a UV light.

APRIL: FELDSPAR

Diamond is too pricy for this list, so we’re replacing it with something less expensive and way more interesting. April will now be represented by the feldspar family. We’re talking labradorite, moonstone, amazonite, aventurine, and sunstone. While you don’t have much variety in color, your stones are full of shimmery schiller which glitters and shifts as it catches the light.

MAY: BERYL

May’s original birthstone was emerald, which is great and can stay, but we’re also adding its siblings! May is now represented by all beryls: Emerald, Aquamarine, Morganite, Bixbite, Heliodor, Goshenite, and whatever other varieties I’m forgetting to list. A bright and saturated rainbow of colors is represented here, so everyone born in May is sure to find something they like.

JUNE: ORGANIC GEMSTONES AND FOSSILS

It’s time to address the alexandrite in the room, and obviously we’re getting rid of alexandrite. A stone worth $15,000 to $70,000 a carat does not belong on the same list as friggin amethyst. Instead we’ll look at the other traditional June birthstone, pearl. The problem with pearl is that it’s a clear outlier in this list. An organic gemstone, by some definitions not even a mineral. Should we replace it? NO. We are OWNING it. All organic gemstones now belong to June. Pearl is joined here by jet, amber, coral, ivory, ammolite, petrified wood… in fact, June can have every fossil ever.

JULY: SPINEL

July was originally represented by ruby, which is a fine stone and won’t be kicked off the birthstone list - we’re just shuffling it down to September. Replacing ruby for July is spinel. (See, it’s funny because historically spinel has often been mistakenly identified as ruby! That's a little gemology humor for you.) Available in any hue you could possibly desire, spinel offers some nice color options to a month that previously only featured red. Of course if you want to keep wearing red, red spinel mimics ruby so well that you’ll barely notice the difference.

AUGUST: PERIDOT

Nope, we’re not changing this one. Peridot is the ideal gemstone and you ungrateful August whiners can die mad about it. HOW ABOUT YOU LEARN TO APPRECIATE PERFECTION

SEPTEMBER: CORUNDUM

Sapphire is a wonderful, classic stone and it deserves its spot on this list. But the corundum family has been separated for far too long, and we’re finally going to reunite them. Joining sapphire in September is its sister ruby. Between the pinks and reds of ruby and the many, many colors of sapphire, these two stones give September a nice variety of colors.

OCTOBER: TOURMALINE

Look, as gorgeous as opal is and as much as I love it, it is both way too pricy for our list and also TERRIBLE in jewelry. This stone is just too brittle to wear around from day to day and can be ruined just by getting it wet, which makes wearing your birthstone a huge hassle. We’ll kick opal out and hang on to October’s other traditional birthstone, tourmaline. Pink tourmaline may be classic, but this stone comes in plenty of other colors. Whether it’s brown dravite, watermelon elbaite, or the rare and beautiful blue indicolite, you can wear them all!

NOVEMBER: TOPAZ

November can keep topaz, but we’re not confining it to the color yellow. This stone comes in a huge variety of colors, and now they can ALL represent November. No further notes; it’s a nice, classic stone.

DECEMBER: ZIRCON

I dunno, I’ve had to come up with 12 of these, I’m burnt out. Sure, zircon, whatever.

“BUT WAIT,” you say. “Now instead of having a single color assigned to each month, almost every month is represented by almost every color, making it impossible to tell anyone’s birthstones apart and removing what made them special and recognizable as symbols!”

Well CLEARLY you didn’t read the title of this list.

#birthstones #talkin' bout rocks

[pezpenser205]

you see this guy???

this guy is named peter sqloint and he killed god with the help of his magical girl boyfriend and a giant robot with emotional issues.

this mans parents are tailors. this guy became god and used all the power in the world to create an immortal lizard so his robot friend wouldnt get lonely. this guy worked at the rock factory for most of his young adult life (before The Possession). this man mooned someone to win a fight. this man cries a lot. this man threw rocks at god and won. this man got dragged into the woods and fucked. this man instinctively knows when youre looking at him. this man is autistic and has avpd. this guy does not think and he does not ever want to start thinking. this guy painted rocks for a friend that killed him. this man has died before becoming god. this man is the coolest guy ever.

his magical girl boyfriend became his magical girl WIFE btw. and they are in t4t love living in a cottage in the middle of the woods with so many lizards . btw. if you even care

[og post said:]

[controversial opinion but top surgery and other trans healthcare shouldnt be trans exclusive. so what if an autistic woman wants top surgery because boobs are a sensory nightmare?? good on her. she isnt "mutilating" herself any more than anyone else who gets cosmetic surgery for anything. ]

[it doesnt have to be exclusively "trans healthcare." maybe a cis guy just wants boobs or a cis girl wants a dick. who cares. your bodys yours. customize that bitch. the more normalized it is to just do whatever with your body for any reason the easier itll be for the people who need to do it to actually go through with it because they wont be socially pressured as hard or harassed afterwards.]

#op #peter sqloint #unsorted

[bill-gates-hate-blog]

the sims 4 has so many systems because theres so many fucking expansion packs and NONE of them mesh well or interlock in ways that are satisfying or deep. Half the time they straight up contradict each other, the other time they end up completely redundant. Modders do their best but they can't fix whats broken underneath. ARGH

#i want to analyze this because the sims 2 had so many systems that interlocked in satisfying ways #why is the sims 4 failing to do that? #Managing multiple systems is the name of the game #so when these expansion packs stack new ones on top of each other and they're this poorly thought out #like what sims 2 needs is more tightly written code and better customization stuff #(better fat meshes more hair colors etc) #Sims 4 needs a total UI redesign and gameplay overhaul #its just so restrictive when it comes to gameplay #ahhhhhhh i hate this game #it would be so good if it was good

[voidimp]

trying to find any information on anything is so fucking impossible these days

#i just want. web hosting that also has file hosting where i dont have to like have the files Displayed On The Site #i dont even know like. what thats called #but nothing ever seems to specify one way or the other?? #like i feel like thered be some sort of phrasing that id see & be like oh maybe thats what im looking for #but no. it just doesnt seem to be mentioned #& so many sites are like. oh were designed to work with wordpress!! like cool but i dont CARE about that #i want to build my site from scratch actually. #i want to be able to host images that i can use elsewhere on the internet without necessarily having them on an Actual Page of my website #ik godaddy does this. bc i used to use them waaaaay back in like 2007 or so lmfao #but ive heard some Not So Great things abt them so ive been trying to look into other options #(but honestly i might just use them bc id probably hear Not So Great things about Everyone) #(it seems to just be standard business practice at this point) #idk. theres a site called dreamhost i might try but idk if they have the features i want #ig if anyone has any input on any of this lmk #either abt godaddy or dreamhost or if u know of any good alternatives #i dont even need anything super complex just like. custom domain name. file hosting. security that doesnt suck #this is probably all standard i just hate how hard it is to actually find the info #& i dont want to sign up for 10579348 free trials to find out #this is all in the tags bc. the post applies to so much more than just this lmao #this is just my Current Issue

[quecksilvereyes]

oh my god do not click links in emails that tell you to verify your data or your bank account gets locked or click links in messages telling you your safety protocol is ending, like, tomorrow, you will get SCAMMED SO BAD AND YOU WILL LOSE A LOT OF FUCKING MONEY never ever let anyone pressure you into giving away login information especially to your online banking by creating a sense of urgency oh my GOD

some things to look out for

1. spelling mistakes. do you know how many rounds of marketing and sales experts these things go through? if theres a spelling mistake dont click it

2. not using your name. if an email adresses you with "dear customer" or, even worse, a generic "ladies and gentlemen", it is most likely not actually targeted to you

3. verifying or login links. even IF your bank was stupid enough to send these to customers, dont EVER click those. look at me. they can legally argue that youve given your data away and thus they dont have to pay you anything back DONT CLICK THAT FUCKING LINK

4. creating a sense of urgency. do this or we lock your account next week. do this or your ebanking stops working tomorrow. give us all your money in cash or your beloved granddaughter will get HANGED FOR MURDERING BABIES. no serious organisation would ever do something like that over email or sms. ever. hands off.

5. ALWAYS CHECK WHO SENT YOU THE EMAIL. the display name and the email adress can vary a LOT. anyone can check the display name. look at the email adress. does it look weird? call the fucking place it says its from. you will likely hear a very weary sigh.

6. if its in a phonecall, scammers love preventing you from hanging up or talking to other people to have a little bit of a think about whats happening. there should always be a possibility to go hey i wanna think about this ill call back the official number thanks.

7. do not, i repeat, do NOT a) call a phone number flashing on your screen promising to rid your computer of viruses after clicking a dodgy link and b) let them install shit on your computer like. uh. idk. teamviewer.

7.i. TEAM VIEWER LETS PEOPLE USE YOUR COMPUTER HOWEVER THEY WANT AS LONG AS THEYRE CONNECTED. IF YOU DONT KNOW FOR FUCKING SURE YOURE TALKING TO ACTUAL TECH SUPPORT DONT GIVE ANYONE ACCESS TO YOUR COMPUTER.

fun little addendum: did you know a link can just automatically download shit? like. a virus? an app you can't uninstall unless you reset your entire device? dont click links unless youre extremely sure you know where they lead. hover your mouse over it and check the url.

thanks.

#inspired by a customer who had 10 THOUSAND euros stolen bc they clicked a dodgy link and then entered their info #'oh i was so stressed in the moment' thats what theyre counting on PLEASE dont do this you will lose so much money #sometimes money you dont even have #do you know how much overdraft your bank account comes with? #sometimes the answer is 15k fucking euros

[stjohnstarling]

Alright, so: I want to explain a little more about this connection between the Twilight fandom, Fifty Shades of Grey, and seemingly, the self-publishing industry as a whole. It's a lot, so I'm going to have to chip away at it a bit at a time, and I think the best place to start is by describing the scene in late 2000s Twilight fandom.

In 2009, Twilight was one of the biggest fandoms in the world, although it was nearly invisible to outsiders because it

Was about a straight couple, while most other fandoms were predominantly gay, and

Was conducted almost entirely on fanfiction.net among a group of people who had little other background in fandom. (x)

That meant for many Twilight fans, Twilight was fandom. It was all they knew, and many had no path out. That also made it a corked champagne bottle with the pressure building.

Because of these community dynamics and the declining quality of the Twilight books themselves, Twilight fanfiction evolved to be mostly AUs so alternate they were more-or-less original romance novels that used Bella and Edward as broad character templates. (x)

Seriously, Twilight fandom got really crazy big for a few years there. It was not totally uncommon to get multi-million clicks on a semi-popular story. It's weird looking back on it and calling it "Twilight fandom" because it was really more like "Romance Novel fandom". For real, for a period there, calling a Twilight fanfic author a 'Twilight fan' would be the ultimate insult. But they never stopped writing about Edward and Bella! It's so weird. (x)

If you were in 2000s era fandom, you're probably aware of the phenomenon of Big Name Fans and the various social-climbing dynamics that happened around them. The Twilight fandom took this social power game another level:

This wasn't even just an author thing. There were Big Name Authors (BNAs) but there were also Big Name Readers. These were basically like... full-time rabid fans of a BNA. They devoted so much of their time to helping out the BNAs, reviewing their chapters, making them fanart, promoting their fics, kissing their asses with cringe-worthy intensity, you name it. Which is why you saw what looked like BNAs having 'employees', such as Moi, tby789's Director of Marketing. (x)

It became apparent that these power games weren't just for fandom clout. The fandom was proving that that social power could be translated into real-world dollars. You see, the Twilight fandom used to organize charity auctions where big name authors would auction off custom fanfiction, and the money generated was substantial:

Mostly authors would auction off stories. So if you donated in my name, I'd write you 10,000 words of porn in my Tattward universe, or something new, etc. That's how it worked. The 2009 auction raised $80,000. The 2010 auction raised $140,000. The 2011 auction raised $20,00. [NOTE: this is likely a typo] (x)

A lot of these dynamics were not unique to the Twilight fandom, but it was the combination that created a perfect storm of opportunism. This would end up changing not just fandom dynamics but the publishing industry as a whole.

#original post #fifty shades liveblog #Working on the rest of this #Part one of not sure how many

[thatonebjp]

Decided to turn some more characters into legendaries before I continue with the commons, and they happened to fit neatly into a cycle when combined with Evan and Hugh

#I like how this kinda implies that all these characters are equally important #when Hugh and Evan are main characters #and Eleanor appears in one scene and her name is never mentioned #at least all the characters actually do appear at least once this time #that isn't always guaranteed #I do actually want to write Eleanor her own short story #but I already have so many things I'm working on or planning that I don't want to add yet another one #especially with how slow I tend to be at writing #custom cards #from what I could find Cameron's Crew would be the second creature card with four creature types #the other being Seton's Scout #a Centaur Druid Scout Archer #figure of Destiny can become a Kithkin Spirit Warrior Avatar #but that hardly counts #for Cameron's Crew its warraned though #since it's three different characters #custom cards 1