#also had a young boomers opinion | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gilbirda · 3 months

Text

My (subjective) thoughts on how to survive corporate hell while being younger than 30

I'm 27 and I've been working in corporate office job since I was 23 and I have some advice for any youngster out there feeling unsure if they can even make it in office corporate jobs while being younger than 40.

Don't reveal info about yourself. Craft a superficial version of yourself you can share with peers. Pick a hobby or two and repeat the same speech about what you do for fun. Points if you do something people would remember - everyone says sports and/or traveling. Say something original, but safe.

Your company is not your family. You don't owe them a minute more or less than what says in your contract. You are not less if you refuse to work unpaid extra hours. If they demand that of you, get that in writing and take that shit straight to HR.

Know your rights. If you have paid time off, you are entitled to those days off. I'm european so I have a lot of them, and my company is ALWAYS asking me if "I'm sure I can leave my team down for so long". Bitch I can take the days off whenever I want, is my right. The fact that I'm not taking them in the busiest times is a courtesy.

Be careful with what you say. Everyone will be nice, but not everyone is your friend. Some people would sell you for a potato chip, and finding out who would is vital for your survival. (Hint: if someone spills tea about other people to you, they will spill YOUR tea to other people).

Offices are just like high school. Rumors can and will spread like wildfire.

Another "high school" office cliché: cliques. Yes. Same dynamics will form and identifying them will make things easier. My favorite clique to observe is the people that are shooting for the stars and are always around the Biggest Boss licking their shoes. They will also be the first to speak about how a company project improves their personal life because their personal life and work life is one and the same and they ADORE the company.

Being young can play to your advantage. You are fresh and new, and most of the corporate toxic behaviors won't apply to you by default - but Watch Out, they will also underestimate you and dismiss your opinions. Is a constant battle and a delicate dance.

You Will Be Adopted. That's fact. Be quick to learn who exactly is trying to put you under their wing, and if you are comfortable with that dynamic. It mostly depends on what kind of career you want to make in the company - want to climb higher? Stick with the boot lickers (they will introduce you to Important People); want to be up to date with all the gossip? Attach yourself to the Nice Lady Everyone Tell Their Secrets To. Etc.

I cannot stress this enough: Don't say names. On top of everything else in this list, don't say a single name unless you are absolutely sure you are in a safe space. Names have power, and if you complain about someone and say their name, that will have consequences. Maybe that person will learn you are talking shit, or maybe you will unknowingly make a political stance depending on who you are complaining about, maybe you are implying someone is bad at their job.

Don't assume that young people are your friend. This is a tough one I had to learn, but at the end of the day we are all surviving. Other young people will understand you and stick with you, but if an opportunity opens they will take it without saying goodbye. Or they have other priorities and career expectations and just... not be your friend after all. Not because you are also younger than 30 it means you are besties.

You will be bombarded with boomers and gen Xers talking about "the old days" and "how before things were better". That if you "just worked hard enough the company repays you" and such. Ignore them. Corporate job is not what it was, this isn't the old days anymore. Getting in is not as easy and it used to be, the salary doesn't last as much as it used to be and the productivity demanded is higher than ever. Ignore them. Most of them have been pushing buttons for 30 years and wouldn't understand the hellscape the world is becoming in the last 20 years.

You have to accept the reality that none of your 45+ years old coworkers are as qualified as you. The requirements for regular entry level corporate jobs now are insane, and "back in the day" you just had to show up and have a nice smile. Yes, it sucks. Yes, higher ups are the least qualified. Crazy.

Learn how to talk corporate. Learn how to say no, how to set down boundaries, how to politely ask for help. Normal people talk will instantly work against you because you are young. Talk like them and they'll listen.

This got away from me but eh.

Disclaimer this is just based on my experience and my culture - I live in Spain, Europe. I tried to keep this general, but I understand there's a bunch of social dances and understandings that are unique to my culture and may not apply to other people.

I am also autistic and I understand that it affects how I experience social contracts and behaviors.

This is just the bunch of rules I live by and I'm doing my best at surviving. I'm not a corporate rat and if I didn't need money to exist I would definitely quit, but I can't deny I have learned a lot.

If someone has more advice to add please do!

#gil talks #corporate advice #????#i guess #im rambling #i hope this is useful for anyone out there wondering if they can even survive corporate life #i got away with a bunch of silly stuff #like i had anime face mask during the pandemic and my boss thought they were cute #also i recognize im lucky #my current boss is a very down to earth man who understands that mental health is important and the company is not your family #and he can and will fight for me #so thats cool

65 notes · View notes

beardedmrbean · 6 months

Text

Who’s to blame for climate change? Ask the more militant members of Generation Z – i.e., those born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s – and you’ll be left in little doubt.

It’s the old.

That’s right: those selfish, entitled, ignorant, gas-guzzling Baby Boomers. It’s all their fault. Or so Gen Z has long believed. In January 2020, for example, Greta Thunberg and a group of other leading “youth climate activists” co-wrote a scathing public statement in which they declared that, when it comes to the climate, “Young people are being let down by older generations and those in power.” (“Those in power”, of course, are almost invariably members of “older generations” themselves. So in effect the old were being blamed twice over.)

Greta and friends were far from alone in this view. Around the same time, Billie Eilish, one of the world’s most successful young pop stars, told the NME that “old people” must “start listening to us so that we don’t all die”. The old, she fumed, “don’t really care if we die, but we don’t wanna die yet”.

Of course, both Greta and Billie were mere teenagers when they made these comments. Now that they’re older and wiser – Greta is 20, Billie 21 – perhaps they’ll be mature enough to admit that they got it wrong. Because, according to a fascinating new poll by YouGov, the old actually seem to be doing more to tackle climate change than the young.

In the poll, those aged 18-24 claimed to be the most worried about climate change. When it came to doing something other than moan, however, it was a different story. Almost 90 per cent of the over-65s said they recycled “as much as possible”, compared with only half of the young. The old were also more likely to save water, turn down the heating, wash their clothes at low temperatures, buy locally produced food, avoid excessive packaging, buy energy-efficient appliances, switch off the lights when leaving a room, and repair things rather than throw them away. On top of that, more of them had cut down on the number of flights they took.

Greta’s generation were more likely to have given up meat. But otherwise, it seemed to be the old doing most of the work.

What are we to make of this mysterious discrepancy? Perhaps Greta’s generation is in such deep despair about the future of the planet that some of them have simply given up trying to save it. There is, however, an alternative possibility – which is that they care more about being seen to have the “right” opinion on climate change than they do about tackling it. A type of behaviour that older people like to call “virtue-signalling”.

Which could it be? We can only speculate. Either way, the results of the poll shouldn’t come as a surprise. Anyone who has been held up by a Just Stop Oil protest will have noted that an extraordinary number of the protesters are pensioners.

This, I suspect, is the real reason why the Government is so anxious to get older people back into work. It’s got nothing to do with boosting the economy. It’s purely to stop them glueing their bottoms to roads.

#nunyas news

22 notes · View notes

bedtimestoriesforbrokengirls · 4 months

Note

I tried to get my mother to watch the first half of TRW Homecoming, the funniest part is this woman used to watch marathons of TRW with me when I was in middle and high school (I'm in my late 20s) and apparently missed all of the points, and didn't go well...she didn't even last a full minute into it when that convo.....super fun.

I also just finished the last few episodes a couple of hours ago and Norm and the LGBT+ issues they bring up too, especially bi-erasure which are super personal for me....I ended up sobbing....I didn't really keep up with it after 2013 but TRW (not road rules or challenges, actual RW) was one of the only good things left on mtv in the 00s and it was the ONLY good thing they had left after TRL was cancelled and MUSICtv -officially- died and it was always just so impactful and raw and it's as necessary now as it ever has been and yeah...sorry to just gush about it but no one IRL for me understands why I keep suggesting the homecoming or how it could be anything other than "tYpiCaL mTv dRAmAAaAaaA" so it was cool to see someone reflect on it...okay, sorry again for my novel, hope you have a wonderful mornin/afternoon/evenin/day...

(This reply is, like, a few years late. It's been sitting in my drafts. At this point, even TRW Homecoming: New Orleans is a distant memory. Sheesh.)

Your mom disappoints me. How she raised someone sweet and thoughtful, I have no idea.

Honestly, I should have seen this shit coming. The Boomers did the same fucking thing... they were progressive as hell in their youth, and then did a hard 180 back into the I-got-mine-motherfuckerism that birthed them. My generation, meanwhile, was never particularly awake politically —we were too busy playing video games and disrupting things that bored us— but I never figured so many of us would suddenly shrug and join our parents in their pseudo-religious, authoritarian circle-jerk. I sincerely thought better of us.

Here —as in many things— I point to Bill Clinton, and my generation’s stupid contemporaneous defense of him. We all —self included— excused the fact that he’s a weak, sleazy, brilliant, charismatic piece of shit, and in so doing, inadvertently lowered the bar for the dignity of the Oval Office. He lied and smirked and left a young woman to drown in public, and we all felt like we were in on a clever “fuck you” to the petty moralists of the world. Why wouldn’t a generation like mine look at a lizard-brained, orange troll and say, ‘I wonder what would happen if we gave him a rhetorical flamethrower?” I sincerely thought we were liberating humanity by connecting everything together, but we were really just building a massively complicated framework for screaming “FUCK YOU” into the void.

Anyway, back to Becky...

I doubt it would work, but I’d like to sit her down and try to explain how simple all of this could be for her. It’s like, Rebecca, I know it seems like there are lots of scary new things you’re being asked to learn, and that you’re uncomfortable with a future where you’re expected to acknowledge the flaws people find in the things you love, but you know what would really help? Shutting the fuck up. You can pretend to listen while some half-baked, shitty song floats through your head, and just nod appreciatively when appropriate. You're old and white and comfortable, so you can just fucking coast the rest of the way. No one needs your opinions, and if you don't voice them, we won't assume you're a jackass. Everyone wins! And how do I know this? Because I watched a movie about psychics, and now I can see the future. (You insufferable asshole.)

#Anonymous #asks #broken girl broadcasting

4 notes · View notes

the8thsphynx · 1 year

Note

Hiiii would you do Ginjo for the ask meme???

*vibrates*

favorite thing about them:

Fucking Look At Him.

Idk, I love how he’s the best of both worlds. We saw him as the alcoholic depressed dad friend and also as the unashamed bastard man. Get You a Man Who Can Do Both.

I’m also very in love with his Shikai/Secondary form with the skeleton armor. Jesus. *chef’s kiss*

he probably fs nasty lessgo

least favorite thing about them:

The wasted potential. Oh my fucking god. Fullbring Arc was so rushed and unfinished that we had to wait for Ryogo Narita (blessed be his name) to swoop in with CFYOW and give us SOME type of substance and motivation for Ginjo.

...Also livid over his bankai form. What the hell is this?? Why does he have fur pants?? Give him the skeleton garter and thigh highs back if you aren’t gonna act right, wtf.

favorite line:

The bar scene, where Ginjo is drunk as hell and trying to convince Giriko to let him keep going and then telling Riruka that she needs to go home because it’s late.

The english dub with Travis Willingham was superb in this scene, just goin’ full loser dad mode.

brOTP:

Oh, Grimmjow, 100%. The two of them would vibe hard, I think. Plus it’s not like anyone else wants to be friends with them lmao

There’s absolutely gotta be this deeper story between Ginjo and Giriko, hence why Giriko is so loyal to him throughout everything. We saw some teases of them being buds in the BBS birthday scenes (which I guess they don’t do anymore because this game is god awful) and I just think it’d be cool to see more.

OTP:

...Also Grimmjow. Both because I can’t see Ginjo being romantic or vulnerable with anyone to have a proper relationship and it’s basically the same with Grimmjow.

Aside from how they would get along great outside of that dynamic, I think they would click well having this Unnamed Thing together. FWB who also fight and drink heavily together.

...Also a lot of the OC x Canon ships I see with Ginjo are awesome. Special shoutout to Sef and Muwitch, y’all are the MVPs.

nOTP:

Geeeehhhhhhhkkkkk you really don’t see many canon x canon Ginjo ships since he isn’t that popular of a character, but my block-on-site is GinTsuki. I’ve said it before in previous questions for this ask meme, but I put hard-stop on Adoptive Parent/Adoptee or Older Mentor/Child Student ships; GinTsuki is especially in that for me since it’s canon that Ginjo took in and raised Tsukishima since he was a young child. So it’s very much not for me and it squicks me out badly.

random headcanon:

This man is a boomer and enjoys the cringy edgelord boomer memes. You know like these ones:

unpopular opinion:

The unpopular opinion is that I like him in the first place. Welcome to the post.

song i associate with them:

Nine Inch Nails - ‘The Hand That Feeds’

favorite picture of them:

I can’t pic a favorite, so here’s just a massive fucking chunk of my Ginjo folder below the cut:

The anime didn’t have to feed us like this, but they did.

GOD he’s so lame I wanna ride his face

NO BECAUSE-- *grabs you* look how fucking remorseful he is here. Look at this motherfucker.

*rattling the bars of my cell* MAN...

#Ask of the Sphynx #ask meme #kugo ginjo #long post

7 notes · View notes

otacringe · 9 months

Note

you always seem to get into stuff i was into a really long time ago ^_^. character thingy for five umbrella academy. he was my favorite little guy too hehe

yayyy moony five otacringe gets to talk about their namesake again :DDD

favorite thing about them: god there are so many things but I think his neurodivergent coding is very high up there. i think about the fact that he’s covered his walls with math equations even before he disappeared and klaus’s rant to him about how he spends all of his time thinking about how the world’s going to end and that he feels out of place in his body and is infantilized because of it a lot. he’s just soooo good at representing how weird and scary the nd experience can be.

least favorite thing about them: god awful team player. like look dude i fully understand you have trust issues and also the antisocial aspect of being on the spectrum is very real but you need to figure out how to cooperate better.

favorite line: “no twine, no birth mom.” that whole episode is free serotonin to me honestly the high five best friends dynamic is so fun.

brOTP: I call them high five like 99% of the time but I should probably clear up who they are so five and klaus. their weird silly antics captivate me, and i also feel like they probably have the most in common out of any of the siblings w/ the shared sudden war trauma and partners they can’t return to. they can do both silly and sweet and it’s great.

OTP: five/delores my beloved!!! i really wish he got more time with her because when he’s with her it’s cute as hell and also they have so much weird unconventional aroace old married couple swag. mannequins are super cool too so he has god taste.

nOTP: any hargreevescest ship but especially five/viktor or five/klaus bc they very explicitly do have established sibling bonds. five’s just hard to ship with anyone but delores.

random headcanon: living with klaus post-s3 since he legally needs an adult guardian (the government does not acknowledge time travel as real apparently.) klaus nagged him to listen to the magnus archives, and he’s now a big fan. his favorite entities are the stranger and the extinction obviously.

unpopular opinion: the “five is a boomer” jokes piss me off to no end because my guy was literally in the future for decades!!! he had full access to all modern media and technology up to 2019! also his job would basically need him to be good with advanced tech so he knows how to like, use a phone.

song i associate with them: YOUNG CAESAR 2000 BY THE MOUNTAIN GOATS!!!!!!! literally written about him idc what anyone else says

favorite picture of them:

i know the fives are like the least different between mediums but both show five and comic five get photos here

#moony speaks #dumbrellas #tjank you for this I’m so insane about him

5 notes · View notes

fiction-is-passion · 2 years

Text

Y'all wanna hear a story time? It's a long read so grab a red bull and doritos cuz I got some shit to say

So, let's time travel WAY back to 2014. During my senior year of high school, I was what you'd call an orchestra kid. Cringe doesn't defy how weird we were back then. Y'all orchestra kids got it easy now and not be ostracized by the other students.

Now you know my past. Time for the nit and griddy of this post. You see, I was a very cringy fan girl. I shipped whatever I wanted, and loved villains with it now being problematic in fandoms to not love anyone problematic. I yandere laughed to spook people at lunch.

I was into Sherlock, Doctor Who, Hetalia the works! All those Tumblr shit in 2013-15. I was neck deep into those fandoms. Also mind you i didn't get a Tumblr until '15 but I degress.

The point is, online during 13-15 was the glory days of fandoms. Ship wars were ironic with no malicious implications, you can make posts of your favorite celebrity and enjoy their works. Slash fics were called lemons. Anime was becoming more mainstream. The hottest men in Hollywood who were the kindest men alive happened!

I remember those days...less on finding dirt on celebrities and getting them canceled. The weeb community had no infighting on what's the best anime. How we consumed media is now changed to, better observe it like an essay and not for entertainment.

Hell back during this time period. The idea of being LGBTQ+ was a huge monumental thing in the US. Lady Gaga showed every young person in this era to love themselves and to cherish it. Gay marriage was becoming legal in all 50 states. We were proud of being who we are because everyone of the people who were superficial started to see us be happy with our bodies and our lives.

So what happened? In my honest opinion. Not paying attention to the other side. The gross Republicans. Yes. Them. Hear me out, once 2016 hit and we were getting orange man as president, it didn't get worse......and it did.

It got much MUCH worse! Now we have actual neo nazis and TERFS infiltrating groups to radicalize the boomers and gen x'ers into taking on a more violent approach. Racism has never been higher. Women are no longer safe. The government literally hates the poor. Towns actively use religion for hatred towards LGBTQ people. Healthcare is impossible. I can go on.

All because we were having a good time online and enjoying our time, oblivious to the world around us. If we were woke back then, we might of had Hilary as president but we didn't. We had anit sjw channels at its peak that influenced how we spoke. Trump literally used memes to get into the white house.

Now aways the new generation of us dont realize how much danger we are in. This is the "cringe crowd". The outcasts. The neruodivergant community to influence fandoms. We have anti shippers that go online and fantasize killing pro shippers...why are they not on an FBI watch list? Incels should be on the FBI watch list but whatever.

AND WERE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE ICEBERG!

And it'll get worse over time because young people under the age of 22 don't know how to communicate with millennials over the age of 25 who are also neruodivergant. We were online playing video games while we ignored boomers who talked shit about us and it worked. Now they have to put up with politicians in office who want to remove our rights.

All I'm saying here is sure we're generation fucked, yelling online about how a character is problematic and it affects real life. Their anger is directed at another person on the other side of the screen thinking it's activism.

Being woke is not activism.

It just means you see the bigger picture.

It's ok to argue online with strangers. Idgaf. Its the internet. What I do give a fuck is when your actions caused a person to be admitted into the hospital. Because of fiction.

It always circles back to fiction!

We're humans, were a bored af species. We wanna complain, we wanna cause havoc. It's what we are! We watch the same shows because no other shows peck our interests. Play the same game because it brings you joy after a stressful day at work. We read fan fiction to escape our horrible reality.

Fiction IS our reality. It's human nature to be affected by fiction and influence us. It's been that way for centuries hell even before mankind knew how to fucking read. Why do we use entertainment? It's to escape the harsh real world.

So to the people who have the notp, or proship dni in your carrd or bio. You're not making a statement. You're not being inclusive. You're alienating people who wanna be your friend online. There's so much to being proship and pro fiction! Not just. Pr0sHiPrs pèedos ewww.

Most of us are normal average people who ship and don't harass people over it. Hell some of us dont ship anything problematic!

Your anti shipping is also the same as TERF redoric. Think about it. Why do you get these gender critical blogs following you? Because you sound and act like them! You're a hypocrite!

Half the time, real actual predators get away with harassment because you sent death threats to an artist or writer when you can block the tag or not search it!

Hell your precious little cult even got a predator in it! Yet you did nothing. You didn't understand your actions you partake in sending gore to a user ans sent them to a hospital and activity celebrate an innocent person getting hurt! Endangering their life!

What in the ever loving fuck is wrong with you?

Yes, this is the internet. It's not a safe space. It's no excuse to be this low to actual neckbeards who actually harm women and lgbtq folks.

Death threats and harassment does not equal activism or being progressive.

It's called being a dick.

And don't be a dick to people online for no reason. It really gives fandom the toxic trait because of it.

To anyone else who's reading this, we're on the same team. We're being proactive of our society and trying to change it and be good people. Stop it with the unwanted harassment, stop activily putting people on a pedestal because they don't know you, quit blaming fiction and mental health for your bad behavior.

I can add some resources for anyone who is in a situation that you can't get out of. I know what you're going through. We're generation fucked. We stick together and consume our favorite movies, comics, TV shows, games and books to escape from the world.

So quit being rude online, quit your shit, quit your gaslighting, quit bitching about ships that don't affect you, quit acting like its the end of the world if porn exists! Let people do whatever the fuck they want with fiction. You don't own the property or the rights soooo....

Guess that's really it!

Drink water, get 8 hours of sleep, start your journey to self discovery and begin again. It's never too late.

#long rant #pro fiction #proship #proship friendly #anti anti #harassment mention #problematic content

7 notes · View notes

altairattorney · 1 year

Text

I think the ugly truth about people with ghoulish opinions, especially elderly, is that ignorance is rarely one's fault. It is the norm of man and friend to the illicitly powerful. Education is not just a privilege in the sense that it's logistically difficult to access, it is also a dangerous thing for the status quo people to share with the masses they exploit. So you take the already significant struggles with dispensing education - time, money, logistics, the quality of the school system, the learners' own brain structures and dispositions - and put them in the hands of the ruling class, which, historically, has wanted knowledge to be their exclusive property? It's bound to be nothing short of a miracle when it happens.

I see that often Americans here don't consider that when they talk about their bigoted families. Dude, these people live in a different dimension, and they've been played all their lives by propaganda made by the wealthy (in your case, patriotism, capitalism good and all that). The Internet was the way out for most of us, and even that is being limited in their case: propaganda bots lock them in echo-chambers full of simple memes that target very basic emotions, which is what ignorant people do all their thinking with. Some countries just straight up censor the Internet itself.

Not to mention, ignorant people are not at fault, but others act like it and shame them for it. Boomers in my country, who rarely needed and got university degrees, promptly began feeling left behind as the education levels of the younger population rose, and started using the expression that they had "graduated the university of life" to take pride in the wisdom and experience they thought to have gained with age - things that are "not replaceable" by an education. In a twist of bitter irony, this saying they coined so they wouldn't feel ashamed and lesser as uneducated people backfired, and it's now used mostly by young people to mockingly refer to them as uneducated butts who believe conspiracy theories and any similar American-imported kinds of bullshit.

In Western society, the truth is ignorant people are the majority who have lost the lottery of life, and (like the poor) are constantly made to feel lesser for it - which is a shame easily weaponized by extremist conservative propaganda. In a world where circumstance puts you down, being told you're always right and other people are lesser than you instead is extremely attractive.

4 notes · View notes

fiftytwotwentytwo · 2 years

Text

Midnight Sun

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Fantasy / Young Adult

Page Count: 658

How did I come across this book?:

Entering a Challenge to read one book a week - I opened myself up to a lot of book recommendations from everyone and everything.

Some Good - Some Bad.

Recommendations from the internet, Instagram, Tik Tok, coworkers - I even took/considered book recommendations from conversations I overheard in public spaces (aka eavesdropping in Barnes and Noble).

One particular friend highly recommended Twilight. I initially did not give it much thought - I saw the movies and I thougt I saw all I could read.

But - enter Midnight Sun - a Companion Novel to Twilight from Edward Cullen's perspective.

I found this be intriguing - Bypassing the Original Twilight Saga to read a Spin-Off that does not necessarily require any past knowledge from the series. A new jumping off point.

An Experiment.

So against, my very good friend's advisement - I cut straight to Midnight Sun.

Review:

First Off - I know this is highly beloved series. I also know the series is very divisive. What I am about to say is nothing new to the conversation but quite simply my opinion and observations.

So...

Immediate Thoughts - First Pages/Chapter - I thought the book was comical. Edward, our main protagonist, is running crisis control in his head in the middle of 3rd Period Biology. This perspective was absolutely hilarious to me.

But... Upon further reading... I am NOT Team Edward - Hell No - everything went downhill fast.

The Dude is a Predator, a Groomer, a Possessive Old Man in a Teenagers body.

Midnight Sun should not be any one's introduction the franchise.

Stephenie Meyer traps you in Edwards mind as he pines, broods, and spies on people's inner thoughts. I can easily understand how an individual could draw inspiration for the infamous Christian Grey.

I honestly felt trapped reading this book. 40 page chapters devoted to a creeper lusting in a teenage girls bedroom while she sleeps. It is draining and exhausting following Edward around.

My only glimmer of hope was the thought of an impending battle between feral vampires - but at the climax of the action there was no battle - the "fight to the death" might as well been a footnote.

This is not a cute lovely romance - maybe Twilight provides a softer approach from Bella's perspective, but this book is about as fun as 104 year old Boomer mansplaining how a Teenage Girl should live.

One thing I will say that surprised me - I had no issues with the descriptions/characterizations of vampires. Even the whole "prism effect" in sun - not too bad.

As I said - this was not a great read - in my opinion, a better companion/spin off book would have been story about Carlisle or Alice from the freshman years of being newly turned vampires. A rehashing of the beginning did not seem necessary.

Personal Rating: 3/10

Yearly Book Total: 40

Total Page Count: 14,493 pages

#52 in 22 #book club #books #reading #page count #book review #novel #fiction #Twilight #Midnight Sun #stephenie meyer #edward cullen #bella swan #young adult #YA #Fantasy

4 notes · View notes

magicalgirlagency · 2 years

Note

I haven't properly watched all of amphibia as of now so I'm probably not one to talk but I don't understand what you mean about the emotionally dramatic stuff not having a point. I mean as far as I know marcy ultimately breaks free of the core's control and manages to make amends with her friends, and I don't really see what the issue is if the character develops in a way that they ultimately recover from what they've been through. (also I don't mind if you have to give spoilers in order to explain, I just need a clearer opinion on what you think this show did wrong)

Not to worry, I'll resume it for you: What was the point of resorting to actual on-screen child murder to traumatize these children, if everything was going to end up okay? Don't you think that killing Marcy off for a while seemed rather excessive and radical?

Prior to the finale, I was basically expecting the worst to happen; like I was so sure that there wouldn't be a happy ending, that Anne and Sasha would be forced to put Marcy out of her misery (hence the final episode's title being The Hardest Part; it kinda implied to me that a huge sacrifice would be made)... basically, I was expecting MOTHER3's final confrontation against the Masked Man.

But that doesn't happen.

And I was sitting to myself in silence, wondering what the fuck was the reason behind all of this turmoil.

I know I am supposed to be happy because it's a happy ending, but at what cost?!

What was the reason of impaling Marcy on-screen? What was the reason of putting her on a tube like some freaky experiment? What was the reason of stripping her humanity away? What was the reason of torturing her psychologically? What was the reason of transforming her into a super-soldier-CPU-puppet-abomination-thing?

What was the reason for ALL OF THIS, if things were going to end alright?! Tell me, was to make everyone anxious? Paranoid? Scared? Stressed out beyond belief?

And I'm not saying that Anne and Sasha aren't important on their own; but Marcy stood out to me the most because I could relate to her.

A bright young girl who loves video games and anything fantasy-related. She's super smart, but is very accident prone when she gets too focused on something. She indulges in her fantasies and uses what she knows to her favor.

Like, that's me. That's me, for real. Marcy Wu was specifically designed for daydreamers like ME.

So, imagine my disappointment after True Colors debuted. And what's even worse: Disney allowed this. They have allowed a child being murdered on screen, but they draw the line at gay characters (The Owl House says hello). That's some fucked up shit.

Like, really; if I got a nickel for every time I grow attached to a kind-hearted green-coded neurodivergent asian teenaged protagonist, only for them to be shamelessly tortured by the narrative and get the most harsh reality check ever and have their designs go under radically perversed transformations to showcase their pain, and have my expectations complete and utterly betrayed right in front of my very hopeful eyes, I'd have two nickels...

...which it isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, huh?

Even if there was a happy ending, I am still upset that we had to go witness all of this. Was it even necessary on the first place? Did the the staff had fun doing this? Did they manage to get everything out of their system? Did they got what they wanted?

Long Story Short: I feel like I was relentlessly bullied, only for in the end someone come and say "It's just a prank, bruh!" after I become visibly upset and distressed.

Well, I ain't laughing, pal. That wasn't funny. Fuck you.

And call me a boomer if you want, but I am tired of seeing child/teenaged MCs being put in traumatic situations. It's 2022 already; how about a fantasy/sci-fi story with an ADULT instead?

2 notes · View notes

vertical-elevation · 8 months

Text

The Millennial Challenge

I recently spoke with an Insurtech Founder who asked my opinion about millennials and how to best hire, manage and retain them. It is a complicated subject and really depends on what you’re attempting to accomplish in your startup or established company.

At some point in the next 5-10 years Millennials, also known as Gen Y (1981-1996), will make up 75% of the workforce. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicted that by 2015, this hyper-connected and tech-savvy demographic would come close to overtaking the majority representation of the workplace. In fact, the millennial workforce grew to 38 percent in 2017 from just under 25 percent in 2011. That outpaces Generation X workers (1965-1980), who have dropped to about 35 percent from about 40 percent, and baby boomers (1946-1964), who have dropped to 25 percent of the workforce in 2017 from 35 percent in 2011.

This should not come as a surprise as it’s been on the horizon for years, but are we prepared for the rise of Millennials?

This new wave of Digital Natives coming through your office doors are not just tech-literate; they are accustomed to being connected at any place and at any time. They can’t recall life before the Internet, they’ve always had a cell phone with Caller ID, and they communicate via text and social media more frequently than phone and in-person. Thanks to the rise of mobile, cloud and social media, Millennials are used to flexibility, openness and instantly connecting with people regardless of their location.

Recruiting Millennials About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor’s degree-holders under the age of 25 were jobless or underemployed in 2010, the highest share in at least 11 years. The figures are based on an analysis of 2011 Current Population Survey data by Northeastern University researchers relying on Labor Department assessments to calculate the shares of young adults with bachelor’s degrees who were “underemployed.”

This creates a generation acutely aware of the importance of job security and financial responsibility, yet that balances an innate need to do meaningful work and make an impact. They are idealistic, diverse, social and perhaps most importantly, ambitious. They are digitally enabled, question the status quo, and work on their own terms. You may think that eventually, this group will grow up and things will change. You may be right, but in the meantime, it is necessary to readjust the way Millennials are recruited, managed, and inspired.

To attract this generation, you must have more than an appealing job posting or creative job description. Take note of how you describe your corporate culture on your organization’s website and social media pages. How compelling is the “Join Us” section on your website? Consider sharing testimonials from recent hires who can attest to the significant benefits of working for your firm. Share Newsletters or Quarterly Updates with photos from events and cultural initiatives. Contact your city’s Business Journal and investigate “Best Place to Work” awards or accolades to which you could apply. A video with clips from around the office, community, and spotlighting superstars can be an effective way to share “why your firm” to prospects considering applying to your organization.

Managing and Engaging Millennials Emily Matchar wrote in the Washington Post, “The current corporate culture simply doesn’t make sense to much of middle-class Gen Y. Since the cradle, these privileged kids have been offered autonomy, control, and choices… They’ve been encouraged to show their creativity… Raised by parents who wanted to be friends with their kids, they’re used to seeing their elders as peers rather than authority figures. When they want something, they’re not afraid to say so.”

What Millennials are not used to are constraints of any kind. They need to be creative through their work and their ability to solve problems. They need to be able to work remotely and have technology that allows them to access information quickly and at all hours of the night. They use social media as a form of communication – not just socially. Restraining social media access would be suffocating their ability to communicate.

Develop small milestones and incremental titles in order to serve the need for constant career advancement. More than their Baby Boomer parents or Gen X older siblings, Millennials are especially eager to progress in their careers and less willing to wait three to five years for a promotion. This can also provide incremental training that will aid them later with larger career advancement opportunities.

Creating a Millennial-Friendly Culture In numerous studies, Millennials said they would prefer feedback in real-time rather than through traditional performance reviews. Millennials are used to speed, multi-tasking, and working on their own schedule; all are ingredients for success if your organization values end results over the process. Make sure Millennials understand the organization’s corporate vision; they are more likely to look for meaning and impact in their work and helping them understand their role in a larger plan gives them a clearer sense of purpose. If a Millennial recommends a new tool that they think would improve working practices, increase productivity and make office life a little easier, strongly consider that tool. Millennials live and breathe technology and they may be able to teach their managers a new thing or two!

The Opportunity to Make a Difference Creating a multi-generational workforce has always been essential, and it is a tall task when attitudes toward work and careers differ from generation to generation. We are driven by the opportunity to make a difference for all our clients. If you wish to learn more about how we can create a thriving multi-generational workforce within your organization, please reach out.

#leadership #business #career #mindset #growth #recruitment #organization

0 notes

anythingstephenking · 2 years

Text

You See Dead People

Let’s have some fun with kids that see dead people! A skill that isn’t exclusive to Haley Joel Osment, ok? Mentioned somewhat defended-ly a few times throughout Later, yes this is like the Sixth Sense. No it is not the same. Deal with it.

I’m a fan of King’s Hard Case Crime books. I do think Joyland was my fav, but The Colorado Kid was great too. Sometimes you want to dig into 1,200 pages of conflict; sometimes you just want a fun story with teenagers and some spooky shit. Get a man that can do both ladies, and Mr. King sure can.

Not to make this all about me, but I often do. The wild thing about Later to me was the casual first-person storytelling that was more stream of conscious than coherent. Lots of pauses halfway through sentences (with notes made in parens). It is the exact same way I write this blog. “Blah blah blah (side note: 80’s reference, lol).” Since Later is in the perspective of a boy aged 6 thru 15, I really should be embarrassed. But because I am an insane person, I thought “hey look, Steve’s writing like me! I write like Stephen King. I am awesome!” Suck on that Baby Boomers, you gave us all the trophies and now we think we’re the bees knees.

It’s different than “standard King”, but more than 70 novels deep, dude can write in any narrative style that he chooses.

In Later we follow Jamie, a snazzy young man who lives in the big apple with his mom and sometimes sees people after they’ve died. He can converse with them, and turns out dead people can’t lie? They also know they’re dead, so no Bruce Willis types here. See, I told you it was different from the Sixth Sense.

I got through this is just 2 nights time; I was truly loving the story. Jamie and his mom Tia were fleshed out enough characters that you were rooting for; there was a baddie who was up to no good. The deadlights showed up, and there is a Ritual of Chud! Jamie fights the evil in 2013, which just happens to be in the ballpark of when Pennwise would have returned after the giant spider nonsense. Maybe we just got IT Part Duex.

THEN literally in the last 5 pages this story just goes BONKERS. Like WTF off-the-rails (my opinions are mine alone). Spoilers, but Jamie learns (by asking questions to unable-to-lie dead folks) that his UNCLE is his FATHER. His mother’s brother is his dad. Like. Huh.

There’s this whole passage about how incest really isn’t that big a deal for birth defects - I literally never want that to be a part of my Google history so I’ll take it at face value. But like. What. His dad could have been Danny Torrence. His dad could have been fucking Pennywise for all I care, why the uncle? There’s literally no hint to this ever being a possibility. Brick dropped. Then the book is over? Ok.

Are we left to believe Jamie’s powers are due to his familiar relationship (gross), an unrelated gene mutation, a kiss from god himself? Who knows. Jamie’s just like “that’s how I found out my uncle is my dad. It’s ok, I had webbed fingers as a baby but other that that I am fine. The End.” Don’t ever let that kid sign up for Ancestry.com, his family tree will look like the fucking Targaryen’s.

Me: “What? Why? How? Huh? No.”

Truly the craziest out-of-left-field ending I have experienced in a long time. Remember when King told us to stop reading when Roland got to the tower? Stop reading this guy at Chapter 67 and skip the incest.

7/10

First Line: I was coming home from school with my mother.

Last Line: Later.

0 notes

beardedmrbean · 1 day

Note

Hey I been talking about the handling of black characters a lot

A huge issues modern writers including black ones have mentality of middle schoolers

You know those who have extreme tribalism and lack of empathy?

Seriously the older I get the more I’m astounded by the how significantly older black people who are activists act like immature children

Also this when it comes to black characters https://x.com/badlicksink/status/1768356135877169448?s=46

Oh let me use Forspoken as example

“So we are going to make a brand new ip where the mc is a young black woman!”

“Okay”

“And it going to use Final Fantasy 15 engine”

“That good, so who the Mc?”

“Her name is Freya Holland”

“Oh she must be biracial-“

“Nope she actually the daughter of another world powerful magical user call a Titania[which is painfully obvious] and a guy from New York!”

“Okay i understand that Harry Potter though more Paris of Troy if we are being honest. Popularize the idea of a heir to an another land being raised somewhere else for multiple reasons. “

“Now there was this plague that affected freya mother and the other Titanias. But before that she travelled to nyc and fell in love with an earth human and got impregnated. She left her daughter in New York in order to protect her!”

“Well she must have been given to her father as it would explain why this non white character have such a Nordic name-“

“Nope she was left on that place named holland nyc!”

“Her mother couldn’t give her to her father…wait…was she a foster care child?”

“Yes and she have a rap sheet of stealing but she did that to survive!”

“So we have a bastard heir of a powerful warrior with a deadbeat dad, that grow up in foster care and stole a lot. Are you sure a confused boomer didn’t write this?”

“Nope we had consultants from black gamer girlz group to help us out!”

HOW IN THE NINE FUCKING HELLS DID ASSASSIN CREED DURING THE FINAL YEARS OF 360/PS3 MADE MORE COMPELLING BLACK CHARACTERS THAN A PS5 EXCLUSIVE GAME THAT IS USING FF15 ENGINE?!

Side note, black people been in the Jrpg side for years. But I’m late as I did have a Xbox and due to hardships I could play a lot of Jrpgs until I can afford them as a adult

Actually I had black teen dad Jrpg idea I made snippets of it so you can get a feel to what I’m going with.

Also this large but activists…you invested and favoring black fictional characters doesn’t mean you have real life empathy toward black peoples

See how the left said how racist HP bank goblins were vs their opinion on Israelis

Hey I been talking about the handling of black characters a lot A huge issues modern writers including black ones have mentality of middle schoolers You know those who have extreme tribalism and lack of empathy?

Professional activist be like that, they need a fight and in the absence of one they'll find the most flimsy excuse possible to do that, looking deep into a issue or even worse at actual workable solutions for whatever it is is secondary.

Same with the people that would rather just be seen to be doing the right thing.

That'll get you accused of using a trope, though oddly the other won't because reasons.

“Her name is Freya Holland” “Oh she must be biracial-“ “Nope she actually the daughter of another world powerful magical user call a Titania[which is painfully obvious] and a guy from New York!”

That's a whole lot of european names, lol

HOW IN THE NINE FUCKING HELLS DID ASSASSIN CREED DURING THE FINAL YEARS OF 360/PS3 MADE MORE COMPELLING BLACK CHARACTERS THAN A PS5 EXCLUSIVE GAME THAT IS USING FF15 ENGINE?!

There was less concern of people losing their shit over any perceived slight.

Early South Park Christmas episode hit on why all of the efforts to make sure your product was entirely non offensive are stupid and will just be boring in the end, oddly long before all of this crap started.

Side note, black people been in the Jrpg side for years. But I’m late as I did have a Xbox and due to hardships I could play a lot of Jrpgs until I can afford them as a adult

I really wonder how closely the companies look at their sales demographics, probably get the bulk of their data from twitter and such.

I'd never seen that as something that surprised people though, DBZ and ATLA as well as several others are things that cross all demographics in fandom, figured they'd think the same about jrpg's.

Also this large but activists…you invested and favoring black fictional characters doesn’t mean you have real life empathy toward black peoples See how the left said how racist HP bank goblins were vs their opinion on Israelis

That's fairly common when you ask people to put their money where their mouth is, that and they didn't actually care about Antisemitism then even, just a cudgel to beat JK Rowling over the head with, because I'm sure she was deeply involved in the overall design and production of that game.

Not like the gaming company can just purchase the licensing rights and make a game without any real involvement from the author or anything like that.

Slacktivism doesn't actually require you to care about the alleged victims, just have to hate someone involved in the whatever it is you're protesting.

Number of times I saw the term "blood libel" misused was obscene.

#zoomer huey anon

3 notes · View notes

bitcofun · 2 years

Text

This is a viewpoint editorial by Mark Maraia, a business owner, author of "Rainmaking Made Simple" and co-author of the Declaration of Monetary Independence, and Casey Carrillo, associate editor at Bitcoin Magazine. One of the numerous things that makes bitcoin such a fantastic property is our capability to acquire our personal secrets. This capability is so brand-new and groundbreaking that the Law Commission of England and Wales has actually composed a 500- page report proposing to take a brand-new kind of residential or commercial property right for digital properties. As I assessed the length of time it took me to seize my personal secrets I understood it may be rather explanatory for others. Given that I'm a boomer and not the least bit tech smart or likely it took me months prior to I felt comfy adequate to seize my personal secrets. My believed procedure-- which I presume resembles lots of others'-- was that I relied on a third-party exchange-- which is absolutely nothing more than an IOU for bitcoin-- more than I trusted myself. My journey started when I purchased a little quantity of 4 kinds of digital properties-- one of them bitcoin-- in March2020 I purchased that bitcoin on a central exchange and didn't understand enough at that time to understand about personal secrets. As COVID-19 endured and reserve bank cash printing continued at outrageous levels throughout 2020, I started to question and stress over the acquiring power of the dollars in my U.S. checking account. I chose to purchase more bitcoin in November2020 It was just at that point, where I decreased the proverbial bunny hole and started to learn more about bitcoin specifically, that I found out the significance of acquiring your personal secrets. I discovered the entire thing puzzling and frightening so I took it gradually due to the fact that there were a lot of options and a lot of methods to screw up. There was then, as there is now, an excessive range of hardware wallets and software application wallets to pick from; everybody had their own viewpoint about which is finest. In addition, supporting the wallet or bring back the wallet needed me to learn about derivation courses and seed words. None of it recognized and I may also have actually read Greek. I had actually concluded I will not hurry the transfer to holding personal secrets till I felt comfy. I held the bitcoin I had actually acquired on 2 various exchanges till2021 It took me till March of 2021 to arrive. Even then I had aid from a young intern, Kevin, who dealt with me for 3 months and who was likewise thinking about bitcoin-- he was in fact composing his master's thesis on the threat elements of putting bitcoin on a business's balance sheet. I bought a hardware wallet straight from among the leading service providers instead of through an intermediary. And after that buddy assisted me make the transfer of a few of my bitcoin in March. He revealed me and among my adult kids how it works. What nobody goes over in granular information (for opsec factors) is the very best method to support the gadget. That is a completely different short article. Okay, up until now, so great. I never ever felt all that comfy with having custody of all my bitcoin in one gadget given that it represented a single point of failure so I continued to do my research study on multisig. Additional research study and reading led me to discover 2 bitcoin-only business that offer multisig or vault services. Casa and Unchained Capital. It wasn't up until September of 2021 when I lastly felt prepared to shoot and chosen among them to hold the rest of my bitcoin in a multisig setup. That was 18 months after purchasing my very first bitcoin. What I believe a few of the more tech savvy and tech-inclined individuals in this area forget is simply how frightening it can be to attain that level of ownership. Lots of veteran bitcoiners consider given how high the knowing curve is for seizing their secrets. The more tech

smart individuals see it as a little hill; those who have less time or desire for informing themselves see it as Mt. Everest. Plus, it needs taking duty for your own financial resources unlike anything in history. And some will never ever be all set for this level of obligation. My journey in seizing my personal secrets resulted in an intriguing discussion with Casey Carrillo about this subject and he has his own journey to share. As a tech-inclined young adult, Bitcoin being a natively digital construct was totally regular to me. I believe my custody story isn't incredibly special-- similar to Mark Maraia, I had a buddy hand-hold my entryway into Bitcoin however unlike Maraia, he existed from the very minute I was "orange-pilled," therefore right away made certain I acquired my personal secrets. This obviously was, at the time, in the kind of a hot wallet on my phone. I do remember believing that the method my wealth would be kept-- basically in 24 words-- was dangerous. My good friend discussed that I would destroy the security of the seed expression if I were to tape-record it on a digital gadget, as I (ignorant at the time to the appropriate security of any password, not to mention my seed expression) was utilized to doing with essential info. Understanding that this would just exist in the physical world, and for that reason be subject to all the physical risks of the world like an absent-minded mind or fire, left me feeling anxious. At the time, I was completely immersed in the " wallet" metaphor, so it was fairly simple for me to understand the distinction in between a custodial exchange and acquiring my personal secrets, comparing it to obtaining money and after that keeping it in my physical wallet. As I comprehended it at the time, I was sending my bitcoin to a various location, one that could not be touched by the entity from which I had actually acquired the bitcoin. I now comprehend the subtleties of my hot wallet not always being a "location" even a signer, however at the time the metaphor served its function. I still think that the wallet metaphor works in explaining who has access to money in your wallet instead of cash in your savings account: it's a difficult thing to explain that distinction as efficiently as the example does, even if it misrepresents the real nature of what we presently describe as bitcoin wallets. That aside, it took another a number of months prior to I moved from a hot wallet onto a freezer wallet. Over that duration I had actually discovered the distinctions in between the 2 and why it would be essential to have the seed-generation procedure take place off an internet-connected gadget. All these awareness just included increased understanding of the Bitcoin procedure in basic. Custody is a parallel journey to comprehending Bitcoin. I wish to think that, conserve for high-net-worth people who usually carry out increased research study on their wealth storage anyways, the quantity of funds invested (and for that reason losable if a seed expression is forgotten and so on,) associates extremely with understanding of Bitcoin. Anecdotally, I've discovered little connection: some individuals take excellent steps to secure weak quantities of bitcoin, and some individuals have millions of dollars' worth on a single exchange. Probably, this is simply an item of early adoption and will alter as the worth of bitcoin is comprehended by more individuals. Overall I believe lots of would connect to having some type of assistance when initially discovering the different kinds of bitcoin custody. In my viewpoint, this exposes how crucial it is for Bitcoiners who do comprehend this to inform others and to continue to attempt and find methods to much better interact why self-custody is essential. Closing idea: We hope you discovered our journeys explanatory and welcome you to send your own pitch for posts about your specific journey on attaining monetary sovereignty and seizing your personal secrets to Austin@btcmedia.

org. The length of time did it take you? Please share your story with us and we'll look for to deal with submissions that our editors feel are the most instructional and explanatory, and please our editorial requirements. This is a visitor post by Mark Maraia and Casey Carrillo. Viewpoints revealed are totally their own and do not always show those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine Read More

0 notes

chill-star · 3 years

Text

They said that with this song they would never reach any goal. "Zitti e buoni" won Sanremo, the most important Italian festival, unleashing the hate of many spectators of this show. Why? Because for the first time in 71 years someone had brought a rock song: for years now this show has been considered "for boomers" because the opinion of the people prevents the participants from bringing something new, fresh, that can also please the young people. But they didn't give a damn, and this song is about revolution, about being yourself without thinking about the opinion of others. And it was precisely this that prompted us young people to vote for the Maneskin to make them win Sanremo and go to Eurovision.

This victory hasn't stopped the hatred of those in our country who don't accept that there are things outside their own schemes, but that's okay, haters can hate ✌🇮🇹

#eurovision #eurovision 2021 #maneskin #eurovison song contest #italy #zitti e buoni #Spotify #italian music

92 notes · View notes

rpmemesbyarat · 3 years

Text

Hello Tumblr people. I’m 31 years old and I’ve been on Tumblr since 2014. That’s not really old, and that’s not really a long time, but I know it’s older and longer than a lot of other folks. Tumblr is a space mainly populated by teens and twenties, and I know when I was in that age group, I thought 31 was a Real Adult (TM) Which, shit, it’s not, it’s really not, especially not for me, but nonetheless, I have learned some things in my time that I wish I could impart to my younger self, and instead will impart to y’all. Take what you like and what works for you and leave the rest, I’m no expert or guru or authority on anything, I’m just trying to be helpful. Being nice costs nothing. I once was standoffish to someone who came and chatted to me in IMs. That guy later died. True story. I feel terrible about it to this day. I was wary and kind of snotty in those days and I regret that. It’s one thing to be careful about strangers approaching but that wasn’t what I did here. It costs nothing to be nice. It costs nothing to be friendly. To do stuff like show interest in others, care about what they have to say, comment when they share things about their day. These are tiny things that cost nothing but give so much. Don’t pass the opportunity by. And definitely don’t snub someone for no reason. If you don’t want to interact, you don’t have to, but don’t be cold about it unless it’s legitimately because you’re uncomfy with this person and want them to go away. Your safety and comfort do come before any obligation to be nice, but I hope it’s clear that’s not what I’m talking about here. Be a candle that lights other candles. You know what else costs nothing? Encouragement. There’s nothing stopping you from telling others what you like about their content, what they post, what they create, what thoughts they have, the things they say, or just how passionate they are about something. There’s nothing stopping you from saying you hope the best for someone going through a rough time, or how cute their pets are, or how you’re glad they got themselves a treat today. You don’t need to be someone’s therapist ---I know I sure don’t have the emotional energy for that--or have solutions for them, you don’t need to force yourself to say anything insincere or that you don’t have the spoons for, but when you can, say something positive to others. First impressions can be wrong but gut feelings are often right. Like I said, being nice should NEVER trump your own comfort or safety. If you get weird vibes from someone, book it. Sure, you could be wrong. I’ve been wrong about a lot of people. I’ve also been right about others, and should have left when I had the chance before they could prove to me how right I was. Technically, there was nothing stopping me. It was online, after all. I could have just vanished and they’d probably never have tracked me down or made contact again. But I was lonely, and socially awkward, and like many people, most of my human contact was online, and I thought that this was worth it. It’s not. Whatever kind of friendship or therapeutic RP or free art or support or compliments or advice you’re getting from someone online. . . it’s not worth it if they’re mean or creepy too. Whatever you are getting, you can find it somewhere else, in someone else, who won’t make you have to put up with that kind of crap for it. If something feels wrong, don’t wait around for it to get worse. Yes, you may be incorrectly judging a situation and running from nothing, but it’s better you run from nothing than NOT run from SOMETHING. And I know that things like anxiety disorders, trauma, and just different communication styles can make it hard to judge these things (I’ve thought people didn’t like me before just because they were far less effusive in their typing style than I am, and I was wrong) but if you really feel uncomfortable, like this person has said mean or sexual things to you, it’s not just the brain weasels telling you lies. If you’re truly in doubt, get another person’s opinion, but also don’t let them convince you “it’s nothing” if it feels like something. Trust yourself. Creeps, like children, will test your boundaries. Kids will do shit just to see what they can get away and how far they can push you before you put your foot down. Creeps are the same. They’ll start with stuff that you can easily ignore, brush off, and put up with without feeling it’s worth ditching the whole friendship over. But they’ll rarely let it stay there. They’ll typically escalate it if they’re not rebuked. Rebuke them. It can be scary. It can be hard. I know this. I know it firsthand. But feel no sympathy. Feel no fear. Tell them off and pack your bags. They want to know how much you’ll put up with? Show them----nothing at all, that’s what. Don’t be afraid to change your views but don’t feel the need to broadcast it. I’m never getting a personal Tumblr. Because I’m glad they weren’t around when I was a teen. I would have posted things I don’t believe now. Same for when I’m in my 20s. And I bet that will the be the case in my 40s, 50s, and 60s too. Our lives are journeys of changing, learning, and unlearning. And that’s great. But if you post every step of your journey for the world to see, there are those who will use it against you, even if it was stuff from years ago that you should be applauded for growing from, not derided for having ever believed in. Not to mention that what’s the most up-to-date woke terminology and politics changes very rapidly, and what was acceptable when I was a teen is not the preferred lingo now, and it’s likely going to keep changing, and there will be people who find your posts and don’t care about that either. I realize Tumblr gives us a format to metaphorically scream our present beliefs and show how right what you believe is, and the urge to reblog when you see something you agree with wholeheartedly is strong. And if you’ve got a blog that doesn’t easily connect back with you, or you don’t plan to have for the next five years, or whatever, go ahead. But if your blog can be easily connected to you, and therefore could be connected to you again in the future, it wouldn’t hurt to be a bit judicious. I’m not saying “don’t take a stand on anything ever because you might change your mind and/or someone might drag you”, I am saying that in the age of cancel culture and people deep digging for ancient receipts, young people are no longer getting to have their journeys, with all their rooms for fuckups and re-thinkings, that I and those before me got to have, and I think that sucks. By all means, take a stand on what you believe in now, fight for it with all your heart, just also don’t make it too easy for other people to use it against you should you ever change your mind---and don’t be afraid to change your mind either, even when it’s against the grain of what’s presently popular opinion. Find things out for yourself when possible You know how when they taught you things in school about history and America and whatnot and now you’ve found out that there’s so much they DIDN’T tell you, and at least half of what they did is a very edited sack of hooey? Well, the same is true of Tumblr, Facebook, and other online spaces as well as real life. We all laugh at our Boomer parents and grandparents who share clearly false stories on Facebook because they can’t tell that it was clearly crafted to incite their anger or endorsement based on how it’s tailored to validate their beliefs, but I see the same thing happen here. Loads of tale gets touted as “true” on Tumblr because they have been made to appeal to us emotionally by validating our beliefs. But just because our beliefs may be good or progressive or what have you, does not mean that everything that appeals to them is going to be true. When you see a post circulating that claims something really cool about history or such is true, I suggest fact-checking it. This will help halt the spread of misinformation---even if it’s harmless---and help you build your critical thinking and research skills. This does not mean “you must change your views” it means “be skeptical even when something validates your views” People on our own side can lie, and that’s not harmless even if it seems so---contributing to a culture of misinformation is NOT harmless, and we’re less likely to be skeptical of claims that validate what we already believe. Don’t fall for this. That’s all. I hope something in here was valuable to you. If not, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!

124 notes · View notes

mrslackles · 3 years

Note

what do you think are gg's biggest flaws?

Ooh, Anon! It’s like you’re in my head.

I’m busy making a video (that will probably never see the light of day) about this -- my distance from the show has really helped with some super objective clarity -- so I’ll use my notes from that to help me answer.

I’ll preface this by saying what I was most shocked by after putting down all the points was that Rio isn’t even mentioned until really far down??

Anyway, let's get into it.

These are Good Girls' greatest flaws in my opinion (and relative to season 1 -- while I think it had its flaws too, the list is far smaller and I think that's a separate post)

1. It didn't stick to its guns

What set this show apart from others in the 'Everyday person does crime (poorly)' genre was its comedic lightness, strong friendship element, relatability and emphasis on girl power.

a) By season 2, the lightness was already slowly disappearing to make way for season 3's darkness. (Quite literally; this show said sunlight scenes for WHO.) It also stopped being as fun. Remember how it genuinely used to be fun? I mean let's not forget The Best Scene Ever where Ruby shoots Big Mike by accident and we all laughed our asses off. (Compare and contrast to a similar-in-tone-and-context scene -- or even the whole episode -- like Boomer popping up behind them as Rio's package in season 3.) I think season 3 had some great lines and laughs, but in general, the fun element was completely missing for me.

b) As was the friendship. We already know Annie and Ruby basically became Beth's backup dancers in season 2, but at least then they still seemed to have some type of agency. In season 3, they rarely question Beth's (truly questionable) decisions, don't talk to her about shit like why she's still with her horrible husband and have very few true friendship moments as they did in season 1.

c) Which made it less relatable, but what also contributed was the major plot holes (it's less easy to relate when you're constantly having to remind yourself to suspend your disbelief). And, to be honest, their stupid actions. Just the most common-sense things weren't followed, like not taking your children to a crack den or not putting a hit out on a gang leader. It's frustrating watching a TV show -- where characters are supposed to learn things, have arcs and improve over time -- and feeling like you have more logical sense than all the main characters in every scene. (WHO would think a hitman was going to use a sniper rifle on people in broad daylight on the side of the road???)

d) You don't have to look any further than the title or the stans who shout "THE SHOW IS ABOUT THE GIRLS" -- or, hell, the first 10 seconds of the show where Sara is literally talking about the glass ceiling -- to know that the main characters being women is very important to the show. If not formally feminist, it was at least supposed to be empowering or feel like "girl power" (a term I hate, but we won't get into that now).

And I think it did it pretty well in season 1 -- it actually played on my favourite theme of the show, which is the world's perception of these women being what ultimately allows them to get away with so much. (Rife with opportunities for commentary about white privilege, but also a genius way to upend patriarchal beliefs.) But more and more it seemed like the show was asking you to accept empowerment as simply "these things are being done by women, yay".

And, well.

2. Its marketing

I'll keep this one short because I think we all know how messed up this situation is. Basically they're selling a show (every week!) that they're not making while ignoring all feedback on every social media platform. Which brings us to...

3. The marriage of Death

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times -- Beth's character development starts with getting rid of Dean. Her growth is stunted by him on multiple fronts and it's frustrating to viewers since she's constantly put forth as the main character. Not to mention how the audience, separately from Beth, was originally conditioned to see Dean as the scum of the earth (think of scenes like him crashing his car because he was perving on a woman jogging) so keeping them together is really... a choice. To actively root for this marriage (which seems like what the show wants, at least for the protracted moment) means either thinking Dean is a great person (which, as I said, we've only seen the opposite of) or believing he's all Beth deserves. Which leads me to...

4. Beth's (socio)path(y)

Is sociopath a 'good' word? Probably not. Have I seen dozens upon dozens of posts talking about whether Beth is one? Yes. And I see it from a huge variety of people -- from viewers who just binged the show last weekend to those who've been watching for years, the question keeps coming up. And I entirely blame the writing of the show that, by the way, I don't believe is deliberately creating Beth to get this reaction. I think she's written (and, to an extent, acted) in a way that is much too aloof and I'm not convinced it's meant to come off as cold and unfeeling as it does. Everything else leads me to believe that the audience is supposed to root for Beth, but it's just so difficult.

Beth does a lot of messed up shit that requires dialogue to sympathise with her and the inner workings of her mind, but in the later seasons Beth rarely gets to express herself verbally. And every time she does get to speak about her emotions, the dialogue is a pick-your-own-adventure between "She's in so much denial", "This person feels no emotions" and "I'll go find an analysis/fic later to explain this" (scenes like "Nothing" or "I was just bored"). Compare and contrast with some of the great scenes in season 1 where she emotes, like her paralysing shock after they first rob the store or admitting she enjoys crime, or (one of my favourites!) the one in the park where she's mimicking the other mothers beside her.

5. Brio

I said in the beginning that I was shocked Rio doesn't get mentioned until this point and that's because I've always felt like he was an integral part of the show. When people say the show is about the girls, they're truncating -- the show is about the girls getting into crime. That crime is represented by Rio over and over again -- they never bring in another criminal at his level (which is another one of its flaws, but that's also a different post); Rio is it.

And though I stand by Rio's importance, the truth is that Brio isn't as essential to the show, by which I mean that if all of the above were done well, it wouldn't be as sorely missed. In lieu of riveting plot, a fun friendship, character development and empowerment, most viewers have glommed onto Brio like a lifeboat (or ship, heh).

Unfortunately it's also what the show has most stubbornly refused to develop significantly.

It's honestly a toss-up for why I feel Brio is a flaw: is the flaw that they got together? That they never got together well enough? That the writing keeps bringing in these 'chemistry-filled' scenes that are ultimately filled with air?

I don't know. Maybe all of them; maybe just one, depending on the day.

6. Its criticism falls flat without intersectionality

This is a big one because Good Girls is *trying* to do something very clever. As mentioned previously, my favourite theme of the show is how the women's apparent innocence/vulnerability in the eyes of society is their biggest strength. The show plays with this and other interesting themes with varying levels of success, but ultimately they all fall a little flat when they don't feel intersectional.

When Ruby gets sidelined. When Turner, who sees and all but calls out by name Beth's privilege, is portrayed as the villain. When Rio is told he's gonna "pop a cap" in his young child's "ass". When the racist grandma becomes a sympathetic character whom we must later grieve. (And she really didn't have to be racist, now that I think about it? It was just that one line for laughs and that was it.) When, despite the real-world implications, Dean can loudly announce in a store that he's buying a gun to kill someone with and the show just glides past it. When Ruby has to grovel for forgiveness from Beth for trying to protect her husband and family from the system, with no acknowledgement from Beth about how their realities are different. When Rhea gets booted off the show as soon as she's done serving Beth's plot. When Rio gets treated like a prostitute for absolutely no reason. (Oh, and is accused of raping Beth and is literally spoken of as an animal and starts only existing in zero dim lighting as a one-dimensional stereotype... the list goes on.)

7. PR/The actors

I'll risk my life here to sprinkle this in because I do think it's a massive problem. The Manny/Christina of it all is just the tip of the iceberg (although wtf Good Girls? There's nothing you could do to get these two into an interview together??). The main actors do the bare minimum to promote the show and it's weird. I also think it's the height of unprofessionalism to keep characters on the show against the wishes of the majority of the audience just because you enjoy their actors (Boomer confirmed; Dean highly suspected). While, on the flip side of the coin, limiting a character's screentime because you aren't best buddies with them. Having less and less Rio when he's such a fan favourite is dumb; as is not including him in any series marketing material. It feels personal and that isn't how a TV show should be run.

8. The entire hair and wardrobe department needs a stern talking-to

85 notes · View notes